text:
Guest Views
The Video Agenda
Future of Videoconferencing, Telepresence in the Clouds
From high-end systems to mobile devices available
J.J. Smith
Revolabs' FLX Conference Phone
How an organization will conduct its future telepresence and videoconferencing activities will likely depend on if it wants to project a "high-end" image, what services "the cloud" offers or when video chatting becomes part of the culture, say representatives of firms that provide that equipment or those services.
Martin Bodley, the president and CEO of Revolabs, a wireless microphone system company, says he has been around audiovisual products for the last 15 years. "I know a lot about the history of video conferencing, and how it's being adopted, and in the last couple of years the changes have been more dramatic than during the previous 15 years," he said.
What is changing videoconferencing is the "wide spread adoption" of hand-held devices that have video cameras embedded in them, Bodley said. Laptops, iPads, tablets and iPhone are now being equipped with cameras that face the user, so they can access FaceTime, Skype or Video Chat on those devices. That is making video communication "more and more a part of everyone's life," and those user want to see the person they are talking to, said Bodley, who added he has a 14-year-old daughter who constantly engages in video chatting either with her laptop or iPhone. "It's hard to imagine that young people, once they get to the age where they're in the workplace, are just going to abandon that," he said.
Cyviz's C1
It is likely that in a decade the workplace will look different from what it does today, Bodley said. Desktop phones are incorporating video cameras and high-resolution screens, but the desktop phone might be replaced by a tablet, there is uncertainty over that right now, he said. Nonetheless, he is sure there will always be a need for good audio. "An organization can have the highest resolution screens available, with great cameras, but if you lose the audio, you go back to hand signals," he said.
So Revolabs offers the FLX Conference Phone, which is a "cutting edge conference phone," Bodley said. The FLX is a speaker that can provide up to four small and wireless microphones. A user can place the microphones wherever they are needed in a room, he said. In addition, the FLX does all of the signal processing and will remove noise, cancel echo, gate the microphones, turn them on and off, and has automatic gain control, so everyone sounds as if they are speaking at the same level, even if a speaker is a quiet talker and another speaker is "a yeller."
For those organizations that seek a high-end telepresence product, Cyviz offers its C1 telepresence system, said Mark Sincevich, Cyviz's director of federal. Everything Cyviz does involves some sort of telepresence, and the firm is "focused on the command and control market, the executive conference rooms," he said. "And it's all related to collaborative telepresence," he said.
"Users can certainly get a conference room, or even a command and control room without video conferencing, but we like to think that video conferencing is part of the whole solution," Sincevich said. The approach Cyviz takes in producing its products is based on three principles:
A common operating environment in which products look and feel the same
A building block approach so a user can start with a one-channel wall, or one projector, or one flat-panel wall, and build up as needs and budget allow
Simplicity, which involves ease of deployment; ease of use; and ease of operation
Based on those principles, video conferencing conducted using the C1 will enable a user to simultaneously share data applications. The C1 also provides efficient data sharing in full HD resolution, creating flexibility for the user. While conducting a videoconference both parties can place relevant information on the screen "on the fly," either as a separate "picture in picture" (PIP), or embedded in the conference window. In addition, Cyviz provides the "Collaboration Suite" as an optional feature of the Cyviz C1. The organic shape of the Collaboration Suite encourages round-table discussions while keeping the focus on the main display, and the seats provide comfort during long work-sessions, the company says.
HAIVISION'S MAKO
Haivision obtained a position within the telepresence market because it makes encoder technology—specifically the codec engine known as Mako—that is used in the telepresence industry, said Peter Maag, Haivision's executive vice president. "We don't actually have out of the box telepresence systems, but our codecs are used to put together custom communications systems," he said. "In other words, beautiful audiovisual communications systems are put together based on highly advanced codec technology," he said.
T he Mako codec is a bidirectional, high definition, computer graphics communications system that offers the high HD quality, and the lowest latency, Maag said. The Mako system achieved 70-millisecond end-to-end transmission latency, compared to the transmission latency of traditional telepresence or video conferencing codecs that are recorded at 200 milliseconds or above, he added.
NEFSIS
For those organizations that need teleconferencing, but have limited budgets, there is the online-service provided by Nefsis, which is a multi-point, video, online conferencing service, said Tom Toperczer, Nefsis' vice president of marketing. "This is a case of online services and cloud computing starting to overlap and become a category within an established industry," he said.
H ow Nefsis works is a user obtains a license, which allows access to the service through the "cloud," Toperczer said. The user can then use the service in a conference rooms or at desktops, he said. Despite being cloud based, Nefsis delivers the same HD video quality that would accompany a boardroom installation, he added. But it is done with inexpensive webcams and off the shelf video peripherals, he said. The benefits for users are lower costs and it is much easier to maintain and expand. An example of how it might be expanded is an organization that has multi-point video, might want to reach desktops and multi-purpose conference rooms, but it does so without the need for onsite infrastructure, he said. "That's the whole point of cloud computing, all of those infrastructure components disappear," he added. "They simply become something that's built into the cloud."
VADDIO'S HOT-SHOT
Those who still want a videoconferencing infrastructure can look to Vaddio, which offers the Hot-Shot Preset Camera Controller, said Kelly Perkins, Vaddio's CTS marketing and communications specialist. Vaddio's approach is to partner with video conferencing manufacturers such as Polycom, LifeSize and Tandberg, and enhance the codec in the products they create. In addition, Vaddio offers products like the Hot-Shot, which adds automated PTZ camera control to a videoconferencing system camera.
Vaddio's Hot-Shot Preset Camera Controller
By using the camera presets stored in the codec, the Hot-Shot controller can be externally triggered by any number of different trigger devices such as a microphone switcher/mixer, StepVIEW presence-sensing mats, AutoVIEW IR sensors, the new PresenterPOD or any other triggering/logic output device, Perkins said. Each Hot-Shot controller can control up to 36 presets.
Currently the Hot-Shot preset recall commands work with the Polycom HDX-8000 and HDX-900 Series, LifeSize Room System Series, TANDBERG C40, C60 and C90, and the older TANDBERG 6000MXP and 3000MXP Series. The Hot-Shot is good for council type meetings because it set presets in the cameras which are geared to different seats, so each camera is preset to point and shoot at each specific location when the person sitting there is speaking, Perkins said.
BUYER'S GUIDE: Videoconferencing & Telepresence
Pexip, RUSHWORKS, Vaddio, DVIGear
LifeSize's 'Conference 220' Telepresence Offers 'Lifelike Clarity'
The high-definition video communications system uses about 30 percent of the bandwidth of other systems while maintaining high-definition quality video
Video Cuts Through The 'Fog of War'
From tiny robots to aircraft carrier displays, video is part of the arsenal
Encoders, Transcoders Spark New Applications
Latest systems support streaming to computers, mobile devices
Buyers Guide: Videoconferencing & Telepresence Products
Products to make remote meetings easier
Video in Beating Death Plays Powerful Role
Surveillance video may be the key to holding police accountable in the beating death of an unarmed suspect
Florida Picks Cisco for Highway Safety TelePresence, Video Upload
The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles consists of multiple divisions that promote safe driving across the state.
Shaping the 'Future of Video'
Performance Measurements Now Govern Display Systems
Projectors feature wireless control, lasers, warp and blend capabilities


dots I took this photo one day a few weeks ago in the parking deck after work. The parking deck has this funky "mesh" metal wall which casts interesting shadows on the stairs.
Well, it seems that some people in Athens just hate the painted bulldogs, because well, they are bulldogs. Other people seem to hate them because they are not serious artwork. whatever. If the only thing they have to worry about is painted bulldogs, they must live in a very nice world I think this falls into the get a life category.


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Q: How can I add an item to a IEnumerable collection? My question as title above. For example
IEnumerable<T> items = new T[]{new T("msg")};
items.ToList().Add(new T("msg2"));

but after all it only has 1 item inside. Can we have a method like items.Add(item) like the List<T>?

A: Have you considered using ICollection<T> or IList<T> interfaces instead, they exist for the very reason that you want to have an Add method on an IEnumerable<T>.
IEnumerable<T> is used to 'mark' a type as being...well, enumerable or just a sequence of items without necessarily making any guarantees of whether the real underlying object supports adding/removing of items. Also remember that these interfaces implement IEnumerable<T> so you get all the extensions methods that you get with IEnumerable<T> as well.

A: In .net Core, there is a method Enumerable.Append that does exactly that.
The source code of the method is available on GitHub..... The implementation (more sophisticated than the suggestions in other answers) is worth a look :).

A: You cannot, because IEnumerable<T> does not necessarily represent a collection to which items can be added. In fact, it does not necessarily represent a collection at all! For example:
IEnumerable<string> ReadLines()
{
     string s;
     do
     {
          s = Console.ReadLine();
          yield return s;
     } while (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(s));
}

IEnumerable<string> lines = ReadLines();
lines.Add("foo") // so what is this supposed to do??

What you can do, however, is create a new IEnumerable object (of unspecified type), which, when enumerated, will provide all items of the old one, plus some of your own. You use Enumerable.Concat for that:
 items = items.Concat(new[] { "foo" });

This will not change the array object (you cannot insert items into to arrays, anyway). But it will create a new object that will list all items in the array, and then "Foo". Furthermore, that new object will keep track of changes in the array (i.e. whenever you enumerate it, you'll see the current values of items).

A: Others have already given great explanations regarding why you can not (and should not!) be able to add items to an IEnumerable. I will only add that if you are looking to continue coding to an interface that represents a collection and want an add method, you should code to ICollection or IList. As an added bonanza, these interfaces implement IEnumerable.

A: A couple short, sweet extension methods on IEnumerable and IEnumerable<T> do it for me:
public static IEnumerable Append(this IEnumerable first, params object[] second)
{
    return first.OfType<object>().Concat(second);
}
public static IEnumerable<T> Append<T>(this IEnumerable<T> first, params T[] second)
{
    return first.Concat(second);
}
public static IEnumerable Prepend(this IEnumerable first, params object[] second)
{
    return second.Concat(first.OfType<object>());
}
public static IEnumerable<T> Prepend<T>(this IEnumerable<T> first, params T[] second)
{
    return second.Concat(first);
}

Elegant (well, except for the non-generic versions).  Too bad these methods are not in the BCL.

A: No, the IEnumerable doesn't support adding items to it. The alternative solution is
var myList = new List(items);
myList.Add(otherItem);

A: To add second message you need to -
IEnumerable<T> items = new T[]{new T("msg")};
items = items.Concat(new[] {new T("msg2")})

A: you can do this.
//Create IEnumerable
IEnumerable<T> items = new T[]{new T("msg")};

//Convert to list.
List<T> list = items.ToList();

//Add new item to list.
list.add(new T("msg2"));

//Cast list to IEnumerable
items = (IEnumerable<T>)items;

A: I just come here to say that, aside from Enumerable.Concat extension method, there seems to be another method named Enumerable.Append in .NET Core 1.1.1. The latter allows you to concatenate a single item to an existing sequence. So Aamol's answer can also be written as
IEnumerable<T> items = new T[]{new T("msg")};
items = items.Append(new T("msg2"));

Still, please note that this function will not change the input sequence, it just return a wrapper that put the given sequence and the appended item together.

A: The type IEnumerable<T> does not support such operations.  The purpose of the IEnumerable<T> interface is to allow a consumer to view the contents of a collection.  Not to modify the values.
When you do operations like .ToList().Add() you are creating a new List<T> and adding a value to that list.  It has no connection to the original list.
What you can do is use the Add extension method to create a new IEnumerable<T> with the added value.
items = items.Add("msg2");

Even in this case it won't modify the original IEnumerable<T> object.  This can be verified by holding a reference to it.  For example
var items = new string[]{"foo"};
var temp = items;
items = items.Add("bar");

After this set of operations the variable temp will still only reference an enumerable with a single element "foo" in the set of values while items will reference a different enumerable with values "foo" and "bar".
EDIT
I contstantly forget that Add is not a typical extension method on IEnumerable<T> because it's one of the first ones that I end up defining.  Here it is
public static IEnumerable<T> Add<T>(this IEnumerable<T> e, T value) {
  foreach ( var cur in e) {
    yield return cur;
  }
  yield return value;
}

A: Not only can you not add items like you state, but if you add an item to a List<T> (or pretty much any other non-read only collection) that you have an existing enumerator for, the enumerator is invalidated (throws InvalidOperationException from then on).
If you are aggregating results from some type of data query, you can use the Concat extension method:
Edit: I originally used the Union extension in the example, which is not really correct. My application uses it extensively to make sure overlapping queries don't duplicate results.
IEnumerable<T> itemsA = ...;
IEnumerable<T> itemsB = ...;
IEnumerable<T> itemsC = ...;
return itemsA.Concat(itemsB).Concat(itemsC);

A: Easyest way to do that is simply
IEnumerable<T> items = new T[]{new T("msg")};
List<string> itemsList = new List<string>();
itemsList.AddRange(items.Select(y => y.ToString()));
itemsList.Add("msg2");

Then you can return list as IEnumerable also because it implements IEnumerable interface

A: Instances implementing IEnumerable and IEnumerator (returned from IEnumerable) don't have any APIs that allow altering collection, the interface give read-only APIs.
The 2 ways to actually alter the collection:

*

*If the instance happens to be some collection with write API (e.g. List) you can try casting to this type:

IList<string> list = enumerableInstance as IList<string>;

*Create a list from IEnumerable (e.g. via LINQ extension method toList():

var list = enumerableInstance.toList();

A: IEnumerable items = Enumerable.Empty(T);
List somevalues = new List();
items.ToList().Add(someValues);
items.ToList().AddRange(someValues);

A: Sure, you can (I am leaving your T-business aside):
public IEnumerable<string> tryAdd(IEnumerable<string> items)
{
    List<string> list = items.ToList();
    string obj = "";
    list.Add(obj);

    return list.Select(i => i);
}

A: Sorry for reviving really old question but as it is listed among first google search results I assume that some people keep landing here.
Among a lot of answers, some of them really valuable and well explained, I would like to add a different point of vue as, to me, the problem has not be well identified.
You are declaring a variable which stores data, you need it to be able to change by adding items to it ? So you shouldn't use declare it as IEnumerable.
As proposed by @NightOwl888

For this example, just declare IList instead of IEnumerable: IList items = new T[]{new T("msg")}; items.Add(new T("msg2"));

Trying to bypass the declared interface limitations only shows that you made the wrong choice.
Beyond this, all methods that are proposed to implement things that already exists in other implementations should be deconsidered.
Classes and interfaces that let you add items already exists. Why always recreate things that are already done elsewhere ?
This kind of consideration is a goal of abstracting variables capabilities within interfaces.
TL;DR : IMO these are cleanest ways to do what you need :
// 1st choice : Changing declaration
IList<T> variable = new T[] { };
variable.Add(new T());

// 2nd choice : Changing instantiation, letting the framework taking care of declaration
var variable = new List<T> { };
variable.Add(new T());

When you'll need to use variable as an IEnumerable, you'll be able to. When you'll need to use it as an array, you'll be able to call 'ToArray()', it really always should be that simple. No extension method needed, casts only when really needed, ability to use LinQ on your variable, etc ...
Stop doing weird and/or complex things because you only made a mistake when declaring/instantiating.

A: Maybe I'm too late but I hope it helps anyone in the future.
You can use the insert function to add an item at a specific index.
list.insert(0, item);

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The sunshine yesterday made all the difference, even if it was still quite chilly in the morning. The birds were enjoying it: I didn't have to walk in for half an hour before I started seeing birds. Indeed, the sparrows from last weekend were all feeding just past the first bridge over the creek, and several Red-Winged Blackbirds were busy proclaiming their territories. There were not a lot of waterfowl, but mixed in with the regulars were a couple nice surprises, like the Wood Duck above.
My view over the first bridge – nothing in the water, but at least it's not frozen.
Actually the first ducks I saw were Northern Shovelers. There were two males and one female. I think they're quite striking.
This pair of Mallards might be staying. I caught the three below flying over the river.
The first fight of the day over territory was between two Downy Woodpeckers.
American Tree Sparrows were everywhere. This is another result of the tree removal, I'm sure.
Some Song Sparrows will be staying. I kept hearing one singing, but could not find his perch. The one on the ground below will have to do for now.
There was only one pair of geese, and I'm thinking it's the same pair I saw last week.
Cardinals were abundant, if hard to capture.
I walked down to the Des Plaines to see if there were any more ducks or maybe a heron. The sunshine illuminated the graffiti under the bridge. There were about a dozen Common Goldeneye from my vantage point, but no herons. I liked the sunlit reflection of the trees in the water.
I never take pictures of people on the trail but it was nice to see this guy out early with his son and two dogs. It's too bad they flushed the Wood Duck, it would have been nice to show it to them. Oddly enough for the beauty of the day, they were only humans I encountered. The accompanying landscape shots are just more bare branches and water waiting to wake up.
I left the Portage around 10:30 and drove to McGinnis Slough where I found enough surprises to fill their own blog post, so I will be back to report in a few days… I hope you are enjoying your own version of the anticipation of spring.
Last year two fellows I run into occasionally at the Chicago Portage, Steve and Mike, told me they had seen a Great Horned Owl. I believe it was Mike who showed me his stunning photo of the owl sitting on a stump over the water. But I never saw the owl until two weeks ago making my return trip on the trail that runs along the south side of the stream, when I flushed it and watched it fly to perch in a tree on the other side.
Then last weekend I saw two owls perched on the same branch, looking down at me. The first owl decided to take off when I lifted the camera, but the second owl sat there and stared sleepily at me.
So are they a pair? Most likely. I suspect the first owl is the female as it is larger. Then I wonder if they have a nest somewhere or if they're shopping for one. Will I see baby owls? It's more excitement than I can handle at the moment. But I do suspect that the owls' presence will keep the other raptors I normally expect to see at the Portage away.
The Portage keeps changing. More trees coming down. I was saddened to see one of my two favorite birch trees in smaller pieces. I can't imagine what was wrong with it.
I have seen Blue-Winged Teal the last two visits as well. I suspect they're just visiting though and will go elsewhere to breed.
And a Canada Goose seems to have found her nesting spot in tree trunk.
Last weekend there were a few Yellow-Rumped Warblers, although only one captured by the camera.
I was very happy to see a Tree Swallow last weekend.
Not so many sparrow species. Song and Fox Sparrows, still a few Juncos, and American Tree Sparrows still hanging on through the cold not-quite-spring-weather-yet.
A few more captures before I go… White-Breasted Nuthatch, American Robin, preening Mallard, American Goldfinch.
These pictures were all taken on April 8 and April 22. Unfortunately I don't expect I'll be getting near the Portage again until May 12 when I'm leading a small group on a bird walk as my donation to the fundraising member auction for Unity Temple. Until then, I will be traveling at a slower pace. Yesterday I had stem cell replacement therapy on my right knee. The procedure itself was not too awful, indeed I told the physician that his description of what he was about to do to me was far worse than the actual operation and I am hopeful recovery goes smoothly. I'm feeling better than last night: I woke up with very little pain, so now it's more a matter of keeping stable using crutches for a couple more days to keep weight off the joint whenever I can. I'm looking forward to the final portion of the therapy on Tuesday which involves a simple plasma injection. If the weather is nice, which it is predicted to be, I will be spending the time in between blood draw and later injection birding North Pond and the Peggy Notebaert Museum grounds, a local birding hotspot right across the street from the medical building. I couldn't have picked a better location to have this done!
On workdays, I can take a short walk along the Chicago River downtown sometimes in the early afternoon, weather permitting. Invariably there are always a few gulls. Herring Gulls watched over the river all winter, and now the Ring-Billed Gulls like the one above are coming in. I have decided it can't hurt me to get better acquainted with them.
With the change of seasons other birds show up as well. Last week one day there were about twenty Red-Breasted Mergansers. I first followed one female fishing alone in the water right outside my office building.
When she took off in a northerly direction, I followed her and soon found the rest of the group. Several of the males were hanging around together.
Also going on the last couple weeks, demolishment of the General Growth Properties building. The low-rise structure broke up the dominant high-rise footprint but predictably, a huge development devoted to office space is going in its place.
It was nice to see the Red-Breasted Mergansers well one more time before they take off for their northern breeding grounds. They were busy disappearing quickly into the water for fish, and try as hard as I might, I could never capture the actual dive.
The light made interesting reflections on the water and the buildings. I have to wonder how it looks to the gulls that navigate this corridor daily.
Below is one of the Canada Geese that likely breed somewhere along the river this time of year. I keep thinking I see the same couple every year, in which case I imagine this could be the gander who swam off too far from wherever his beloved is nesting while patrolling the river, and is in a hurry to get back.
We are still enduring a blustery chill, but the sun is out today, at least for a while before the cloud cover comes back and the predicted rain will turn to snow. I doubt there will be much accumulation, and we may finally get a spring warm up toward the middle of next week. Migrant passerines are starting to show up, the cardinals were engaged in a sing-off this morning, and I am thankful life still has a reset button.
If I'd given it much thought I might have gone to the Little Red Schoolhouse yesterday to chase a lifer. There's a Prairie Warbler there, and to the best of my knowledge I may have heard one but I've never gotten a definitive view. But after a too-long-put-off thorough cleanup of the living room (my putting off has consequences – there are a few new residents), I was too tired to think and the best I could muster was a visit to the Portage, and, after all, I haven't been there for a couple weeks so it's always good to see what's happening. American Robins were everywhere, from busy adults feeding their likely second brood to fledged birds figuring things out. I estimated 50 or more.
Most of the usual suspects were there but there were notable omissions. I didn't hear or see one Song Sparrow, nor a Yellow Warbler. The Green Herons don't consider this a proper place to raise young anymore as the water levels have changed too radically. And I don't know if it was because it was cool and windy, but there were no butterflies, hardly any insects at all, except for a few dragonflies.
Always hearing Warbling Vireos – there's at least four singing males – but rarely get to see one, so this was the best I could do as this one was navigating a branch. At least you can see its blue legs (if all else fails, this confirms it's a vireo).
Indigo Buntings also breed here a lot now, but the only one I could get even half a photograph of was the juvenile above with a strange white patch on his tail feathers.
After weeks of hearing a Carolina Wren and never seeing it, I finally saw two. Although I did not see the singing wren, I believe the two below are his mate and offspring. He was singing clearly from wherever he hides so I've included his song below the pictures.
One of the Southwest Airlines flights over the Portage…and thistle in various stages of bloom, unfortunately not occupied by American Goldfinches as in visits past.
Birds were not the only wildlife. A young White-Tailed Deer appeared in front of me on the trail.
And a Beaver swimming quietly through the open water.
Above, a Gray Catbird on the left, and a section of a large birch which is one of my favorite trees.
I was surprised to hear and then see the American Redstart below. This is the first time I've seen any warblers other than Yellow Warblers here during breeding season, but it's not out of its range.
One lone Canada Goose sampling the duckweed portion.
Meanwhile back at home, blooms are starting to happen. My forest of Purple Coneflowers is off to a good start. I hope some butterflies show up soon.
The bright yellows…of a bee on something I should recognize but somehow almost everything that was planted in my front yard is still strange to me, I have to get out the books and study. On the right below is the Rudbeckia that was budding last week and the first of many sunflowers planted by the inevitable scattering of black oil sunflower seed.
All the milkweed in my front yard has planted itself, and it is blooming beautifully. And it is fragrant. I am not used to smelly flowers, this is quite unexpected. I hope it smells enough to attract Monarch Butterflies.
On another note, a section of my yard has been plagued by the plant below for two years and I spent an hour yesterday carefully digging out as much as I could, hoping anything I planted around it will take over. I don't know what it is, so if you are a wizard and can identify it I would be most grateful.
A few more photos of the lovely Mallard family that was swimming around in the low-lying land next to the Des Plaines River. I counted nine ducklings.
And one more of the Carolina Wrens.
McGinnis and the Little Red Schoolhouse are on my mental list for next weekend, weather permitting. Even if the Prairie Warbler isn't available, there are often Red-Headed Woodpeckers, which I don't get to see too often. Maybe there will be some butterflies too!
It was raining and cloudy when I woke up this morning and the forecast as read on the radio didn't sound too promising, but then the clouds appeared to be clearing and I had no more reasons to dawdle, so I set out for the Portage.
My timing was right – there were a lot of sparrows and three species of woodpecker which isn't phenomenal but one, a Hairy, I hadn't seen in a while so that was special.
There was a lot of fungus growing everywhere which made me realize just how much life goes on in spite of the cold and snow.
Northern Cardinals were abundant but distant, even with the long lens. I don't know what happened with my setting on the right, I am unaware of changing anything but I must have hit a button somewhere, but maybe the contrast is interesting anyway, seeing as how the sparrows were blending in with everything.
American Tree Sparrows were most abundant.
This was the only Dark-Eyed Junco that didn't fly away immediately.
Several hardy little Song Sparrows surviving our surprise winter.
A couple pictures of the thaw. No birds in the water but some flew over as if considering it.
The Red-Bellied Woodpecker was enjoying the sunshine.
Milkweed pods almost looking like birds hanging from their stalks.
It was wonderful to be out. I had the place virtually to myself and it felt like home again. I made an early resolution to spend more time in these woods, to bear witness to the changes of the seasons, the habitat, and the inhabitants.
The Blue-Winged Teal at the top of the post were swimming around when I first saw them but as I tried to get unobstructed views to photograph, they flushed, and sadly the best picture I got was of two in flight. I hate flushing birds but as I progressed along the path I think all 8 of them would have left anyway.
It's still surprising to me to see people working on Sunday, but there these guys were, working on the new shelter right off the parking lot.
With the unseasonal weather confusion, still seeing some winter species like the American Tree Sparrow below.
I took the photos of these two female ducks before identifying them. The one on the left appears to be a female American Black Duck. The one on the right, however, appears to be a hybrid American Black Duck-Mallard female. It took me a while to figure out the second one. My reasoning for the ID on the second one is the plumage.
There was also one Canada Goose sitting in the water but so still she appeared to be sitting on a nest.
An Eastern Phoebe was my first of the year at the Portage. Even though I saw this bird in two locations I suspect it's the same one.
Such was the grayness of the day that even pieces of wood appeared to be possibly alive.
Below, two Mallards dabbling in their bottoms-up fashion and a male Mallard.
There were a few American Goldfinches present, none showing any more color than the one below.
And there are always Downy Woodpeckers.
American Robins are always here too, only now beginning to look fancy.
An average day at the Portage, perhaps. But then The Big Surprise occurred as I approached the parking lot and this Bald Eagle flew over my head. It appears to be an immature bird, Bald Eagles attaining their adult plumage after about five years, so the head, for instance, is not completely white.
But to see a Bald Eagle in my neighborhood – well, it is around the Des Plaines River, but still, barely a mile and a half from where I live – this is really amazing to me. Apparently not unusual, though, because when I reported it to ebird my sighting was not questioned.
Below is another shot of the Eastern Phoebe. I love these birds, they're so cooperative.
I owe you one more post from Nicaragua and then maybe the snow will melt for good and we can get started with spring!


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Samuel Alexander Pagan MD FRSE FRCSEd (1793–1867) was a 19th-century Scottish surgeon and obstetrician. He served as President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh from 1846 to 1848 and President of the Harveian Society in 1849.

Life
He was born on 22 February 1793 the son of William Pagan. The family moved to Edinburgh around 1800, to live at 13 York Place in the New Town He originally trained as a soldier beginning as an Ensign in 1811 and rising to Lieutenant. In 1815 he was wounded at the Battle of Waterloo.

He left the army in 1822 and then studied medicine  at the University of Edinburgh where his teachers included  Professor John William Turner,  the professor of surgery. He qualified MD in 1824. He worked variously at the New Town Dispensary, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary (then on Drummond Street) and the Royal Lunatic Asylum in south Edinburgh.

In the 1820s he is listed as a surgeon living at 16 Maitland Street in Edinburgh's West End.

In 1832 he was elected a member of the Aesculapian Club. In 1846 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, his proposer being David Maclagan.

He temporarily removed to London being a member of the Camden Society in 1862.

He died at home, 8 Melville Street in Edinburgh's West End on 25 September 1867. He is buried in Dean Cemetery in western Edinburgh. The grave lies at the east end of the concealed southern terrace. The parents of his second wife lie adjacent.

Family

He was married to Elizabeth Miller Mckenzie (1800–1837) daughter of Dr John MacKenzie (1754–1837). Their children included George Mckenzie Pagan (1827–1841). Elizabeth died in childbirth and is buried with her parents in New Calton Burial Ground.

After Elizabeth's death Samuel married Margaret Gray Gardner (1823–1908), 30 years his junior, and daughter of Dr Gilbert Ogilvie Gardner. Their children included Lt Col Gilbert Alexander Pagan (1855–1927).

References

1793 births
1867 deaths
19th-century Scottish medical doctors
Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
Presidents of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Car News briefs: Audi confirms Q5; VW Eos pricing; Porsche invests in plant for Panamera
VW Eos starts at $28,625
FRANKFURT -- Audi AG has decided to build the Q5, a smaller SUV that will join the Q7 in its lineup. The Q5 will be built in Germany beginning in 2008.
Audi will invest $383 million for production of the Q5, which will be sold in the United States. The timing has not been released.
Porsche invests $153 million in factory for Panamera
WOLFSBURG, Germany -- The new hard-top convertible Volkswagen Eos will have a base price of $28,625, including shipping, when it goes on sale in the United States this fall. The four-seater will be powered by a base 2.0-liter turbocharged engine.
Porsche AG will invest $153 million (or about 120 million euros at current exchange rates) in its Leipzig, Germany, factory to build the four-door Panamera sedan. The sedan is scheduled to go on sale in the United States in 2009.
Porsche also said Volkswagen AG will supply the body for the Panamera from its factory in Hannover, Germany. VW already produces the body-in-white for the Porsche Cayenne, the sister SUV to its Touareg. The Cayenne is assembled in Leipzig. The Panamera's engine will be built in Porsche's main factory in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, Germany.
Porsche approved production of the sedan as its fourth nameplate last July. It said that it expects to produce 20,000 Panameras a year and that about 40 percent will go the United States. Porsche is investing $1.2 billion to develop the Panamera.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


November 2012 – Superior Management inc.
We are pleased to announce that Bikesmith has leased two floors of 667 Grand Street. This store front will be their third Brooklyn location. The cellar will have a full service repair and custom build workshop. The location was ideal, because Grand Street has bike lanes connecting it to the Williamsburg Bridge.


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1972 Buick Skylark with Stage 1 V-8 Is Fast & Beautiful
Keith Smith 1972 Buick Skylark
I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s in Newcastle, Pennsylvania, and had a love of muscle cars of that era. I began working at age 15 at a KFC and saved every dime I made. After three years I had saved enough money to purchase my first car. When my father and I set out to look at car lots in the area we came to one where there was a Chevelle SS and a Nova SS. But another car caught my eye, a 1972 Buick Skylark two-door sedan. For some reason it appealed to me as a car that could be fast and beautiful. It was Cascade Blue metallic with an aftermarket blue vinyl top, whitewall tires and hubcaps, a black bench seat, and automatic on the column. It had 20,000 miles on it. After a short test drive I bought it for $2,200.
The pictures show the car as it is today after 43 years. I must admit that the car went through many wild and era-correct changes along the way: side pipes, L88 hood, crushed velvet door panels, and dual whip antennae, just to name a few.
I attended a vocational technical school for my last three years of high school, and the first few upgrades were performed at the auto shop there—dual exhaust, air shocks, a Craig stereo, and a 2-inch lift in the front suspension. For my graduation my parents bought me my first set of mag wheels, a set of Keystone Raiders on G60-14s in the rear and G70s in front.
My first big-block was a 1967 400 Buick that was plagued with oiling problems, resulting in pulling it and replacing the rod and main bearings twice. My second motor was a 1969 430 Buick that had similar oiling problems and scattered at a Buick meet in Columbus, Ohio. The last motor was (and still is) a 1971 455 Stage 1. I changed the heads to a set of 1967 430 heads modified to Stage 1 specs but with oversize valves, dual springs, and some polishing and porting. The block was bored 0.030 over with 11:1 pistons fitted. Many hours of painstaking work were done on the heads and block, including modifications to the oiling system that resulted in years of use with no problems at all.
The cam is a Poston Enterprises grind called the 105-A. It has 0.520/0.523 intake/exhaust lift with 105-degree centers. It idles at 1,100 rpm and sounds awesome. Intake is an Edelbrock B4B with a FiTech 850 throttle-body fuel injection and a Hyperfuel G-Surge fuel system. Headers are also from Poston Enterprises hooked up to a mandrel-bent 3-inch exhaust with Hooker Aero Chamber mufflers.
The transmission is a GM Turbo 400 with a 10-inch, 3,500-stall ATI converter. The rearend is a GM 12-bolt with 3.73 gears and posi.
Body and paint were done by myself in 2003. Since a few rust repairs were done in all the years I owned the car, I decided to replace both front fenders, both doors, and the trunk lid, and I put on a GS hood. All panels were purchased from a salvage yard in Arizona. Paint is base-clear urethane 1982 Honda Cassis Red Pearl Metallic. A GSX decklid spoiler, front spoiler, and hood tach finish the exterior.
The interior is stock 1971 GS 350 Deluxe black vinyl with console.
The nickname for my car is Bad Apple. It weighs 3,800 pounds, and the engine makes 500 hp and 540 lb-ft of torque. I plan to do a Gear Vendors under/overdrive as my next modification.


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Sports Jerseys Canada
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Salary arbitration next in busy NHL offseason
Tags: contract salary arbitration arbitration
Hockey fans have already been treated to the Entry Draft, the start of free agency and numerous trades since the Tampa Bay Lightning were crowned Stanley Cup champion a few weeks ago and Salary Arbitration is now on deck.
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Salary Arbitration is for restricted free agents who qualify as a way to settle Contract offers and disputes. The hockey club and player each propose an expected salary amount for an upcoming season and argue their cases before a third-party arbitrator. The arbitrator then decides which contract offer is the fairest and both parties then abide to it. However, the team or player can simply walk away from the decision of they choose.
The current arbitration system was introduced following the 1994/95 NHL lockout and is covered by the collective bargaining agreement agreed to by the NHL Players' Association and the league. Restricted free agency is ruled by a combination of a player's age when being signed to their first professional contract as well as their amount of experience in any of the world's pro hockey leagues.
Those who ink their first contracts from the age of 18 to 21 will be restricted free agents following their first three seasons of pro experience. Players who first signed at 22 or 23 become restricted free agents with two years of pro experience and if signing your first pro deal at the age of 24 or older you qualify as a restricted free agent following the first year of experience.
There are one, two and three-year standard entry-level contracts which all players entering the NHL must sign if they're under the age of 25. The length of the contract depends on their age with shorter deals for older players. Typically, a drafted player signs a three-year entry-level contract and becomes a restricted free agent when it expires.
When the contract is over their NHL club has to give them a qualifying offer for a new one-year deal after the Entry Draft. This enables the team to retain negotiating rights with the player. If a team doesn't send a qualifying offer then the player is eligible for unrestricted free agency. Depending on the player's previous salary, qualifying offers must include a raise of five or 10 per cent unless they were making over $1 million a season. In this case, the qualifying offer has to be at least equal to the previous salary.
A player has the right to decline a qualifying offer and remain a restricted free agent. Those who turn the offer down can negotiate a new contract with the club but won't be able to play in the NHL if they haven't agreed to terms by a specific date, which is generally December 1st. Restricted free agents are eligible to speak with other NHL clubs and allowed to sign an offer sheet with a team if one is received. If an offer sheet is signed, his club has the right to match it within seven days but isn't allowed to trade him or negotiate a contract during this time.
If the offer sheet is matched and the player stays, his team isn't allowed to trade him for a year. If an offer sheet isn't matched, the team that signs the player must give up draft picks as compensation. The exact draft picks and the number of them are determined by the average annual dollar-size of the contract over five years. The more the contract is worth the more draft picks have to be given up. Restricted free agents can also sit out the season if they don't sign. .
Restricted free agents who have played in the NHL for a minimum of four years or signed their first professional contract at 20 years of age or older are eligible to request salary arbitration. The player's club also has the right to request arbitration. If the ruling favours the player and the player requested arbitration, the team must decide within 48 hours if it wants to pay the salary or let the player qualify for unrestricted free agency by walking away from the deal. If the team requested arbitration they can't walk away and have to abide by the arbitrator's decision.
The most common evidence used in hearings includes a player's statistics, overall performance, games played, injuries, illnesses, length of service in the league and with the club and their leadership qualities. In addition, the player's salary is often compared to that of players in the league with similar statistics etc.
The NHL and Major League Baseball are the only two major North American sports to use the arbitration system. This year's arbitration hearings are scheduled to be held between Oct. 21st and Nov. 8th with 26 players restricted free agents having filed.
Defenceman Matt Grzelcyk of the Boston Bruins was scheduled for a hearing on Oct. 20 but agreed to a four-year deal with the club worth a total of $14.75 million on Oct. 17.Other players who signed before their hearings were goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen with Minnesota, blue liner Ryan Graves with Colorado, forward Nick Paul with Ottawa, netminder Alexandar Georgiev with the New York Rangers, forward , Clark Bishop with Carolina and forward Andrew Mangiapane with Calgary.
The remaining players scheduled for salary arbitration are:
Buffalo Sabres: Victor Olofsson, F; Sam Reinhart, F; Linus Ullmark, G
Carolina Hurricanes: Haydn Fleury, D; Warren Foegele, F; Gustav Forsling, D
Colorado Avalanche: Devon Toews, D
Detroit Red Wings: Tyler Bertuzzi, F
Florida Panthers: MacKenzie Weegar, D
New York Islanders: Joshua Ho-Sang, F; Ryan Pulock, D
New York Rangers: Brendan Lemieux, F; Ryan Strome, F
Ottawa Senators: Connor Brown, F; Christian Jaros, D; Nick Paul, F; Chris Tierney , F
Toronto Maple Leafs; Ilya Mikheyev, F
Vancouver Canucks: Jake Virtanen, F
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'IT'S RUBBISH': Nick Kyrgios fined $17,500 for Queen's Club rants
LONDON — Australia's Nick Kyrgios has been fined a total of $17,500 for unsportsmanlike conduct by the ATP after a series of outbursts at officials at the Queen's Club championships on Thursday.
The 23-year-old became embroiled in an expletive-laden rant at umpire Fergus Murphy in his first-round win against Spaniard Roberto Carballes Baena, at one point accusing a line judge of "rigging" his match.
In his second round match later in the day against Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, which he lost in three sets, Kyrgios was given another warning by umpire James Keothavong for smashing a ball out of the ground after a call went against him.
Kyrgios, who is never far from controversy wherever he plays, also argued with fans and a courtside photographer and appeared to be going through the motions in the final games.
He was fined a total of $7,500 for his conduct in the first match and then another $10,000 for his behaviour in the second.
Afterwards Kyrgios described the performance of the match officials as "a joke" and "horrendous".
"I think it's ridiculous. Like, why not have another umpire ready to come in if that guy's have a terrible day?" Kyrgios said. "I don't understand. I have to pay the fines for it.
"The calls are horrendous, but I get fined and he gets nothing. It's like a black star.
"I don't know what happens. It's rubbish."
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University licenses GenoCAD source code to International Society for Computational Biology
Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, an affiliated corporation of Virginia Tech, announced at the Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing that it has licensed the source code of GenoCAD to the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB).
This agreement will facilitate the open source development of GenoCAD by the synthetic biology community.
"Our initial vision for GenoCAD was to develop a website allowing users to design synthetic genetic systems for biological research or product development programs," said Jean Peccoud, associate professor at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech. "GenoCAD has become an open-source software development project after many users expressed a strong interest for installing GenoCAD on their own servers." He added: "The partnership with the ISCB provides a framework allowing developers from different institutions to collaborate toward the development of a common code base without having to worry about intellectual property issues."
Virginia Tech and ISCB have jointly determined that the system of licensing agreements developed by the Apache Software Foundation provides a suitable framework to distribute software, accept regular contributions from individuals and corporations, and to accept larger grants of existing software like GenoCAD. "Open source licensing is an integral part of our technology transfer strategy for pre-competitive software projects," said John Geikler, senior licensing asssociate with Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties. "The partnership with ISCB allows contributors to retain full rights of use for their software while providing the scientific community, represented by ISCB, an irrevocable right to distribute and build upon an open source code."
Scott Markel, ISCB vice president and chair of the publications committee, remarked: "We are extremely pleased to enter into what we see as a first-of-kind relationship between our organization and academic institutions looking to galvanize a user and development community for open source bioinformatics software. This type of activity fits closely with the mandates of ISCB to facilitate the dissemination of computational biology tools and develop a strong computational biology community. "
Barry Whyte
Fralin Life Sciences Institute
New geosciences study shows Triassic fossils that reveal origins of living amphibians , article


GREG BUSTIN is a leadership consultant focused on Workplace Accountability. He is the author of How Leaders Decide, which aims to help make difficult choices easier by highlighting the lessons learned from decisions that shaped history. Comprised of weekly entries, this book combines a leadership guide with a reflection journal and implementation process to expand your business and help you make tough choices, guided by the great decision-makers of history.


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Art News Roundup: Christmas Carols Edition
December 13, 2018 / William Newton	/ Leave a comment
For those of you in the DC area, this evening at 7:30 pm is the annual Christmas Concert at St. Stephen Martyr in Foggy Bottom, located on the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 25th Street NW. Our musicians are quite exceptional, as anyone who has visited the parish inevitably comments, thanks both to great talent and the great acoustics of the building itself. The program will include seasonal sacred music composed across many centuries, and will conclude with an audience sing-a-long. A reception will follow in the parish rectory. For more details, please follow this link; hope to see many of you there!
In The Bleak Barcelona
I'll be heading to Barcelona on vacation in two weeks, and I'm sad to say that the Twelve Days of Christmas there are going to be somewhat dim, thanks to the city's very dim mayor, failed actress Ada Colau. Not only has Ms. Colau placed an ugly, disrespectful "Nativity" scene by a contemporary artist in front of city hall – which as it turns out cost twice as much as what citizens were originally told it would run – but she now has the unique distinction of having united most of the political parties in the highly fractious region, from left to right, in condemnation of the parsimonious lighting and decorations which the city has installed for the season. Christians are accusing Ms. Colau of deliberately downplaying Christmas, thanks to her hatred of Christianity; secularists are decrying the "gloomy" atmosphere of the city, which will have a chilling effect on the spending of holiday tourists, reduce wages for both union and non-union workers, and thereby cut into anticipated tax revenues. [Ben fet, idiota.]
Jingle All The Way (To The Bank)
You'll recall that over the summer, I reported on an art dealer who bought an abandoned storage locker in New Jersey full of what at first glance appeared to be minor works of art, but upon closer inspection contained half a dozen late works by Abstract Expressionist Willem de Kooning (1904-1997). Art Net is now reporting that his $15,000 investment has paid off rather handsomely, to the tune of $2.5 million. Meanwhile, an employee at a local auction house in Derby, England, realized that a ceramic pot he had purchased for around $5 several years ago, and was using as a toothbrush holder in his bathroom, was in fact a Bronze Age artifact dating back about 4,000 years; he recently sold it at auction for about $100. The moral of the story here, kids, is: learn your art history.
Five Golden Rings < One Copper Ring
While we associate the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate (died circa 36-39 A.D.) with the events of Holy Week rather than Christmas, a remarkable find in Israel is nevertheless worth mentioning as we consider the age into which Jesus was born. Back in 1968, archaeologists excavating at the Herodium, a vast palace-tomb complex originally built by King Herod the Great just south of Bethlehem, recovered a number of items for analysis, including a copper ring whose inscription was too faded to be clearly read with the naked eye. Now however, thanks to modern imaging technology, the ring has revealed its original inscription bearing Pilate's name. Scholars believe that it was probably a seal ring used by Pilate's underlings to sign documents on his behalf, much as one might use a rubber stamp bearing a signature in a government office.
Art News Roundup: Rich People Are Rich Edition
August 30, 2018 / William Newton	/ 2 Comments
Contemporary Artist Andrea Fraser, who does not actually produce anything that a reasonable person would recognize as being art, has just published a new book (or is it art?) titled "2016 in Museums, Money, and Politics". As ArtNews explains in this rather meandering review, the thesis of the book is that the United States used to be a democracy, but is now a plutocracy, and for some time now Ms. Fraser has had a bee in her bonnet about museums only showing what rich and powerful people want to be shown. Presumably, this includes herself, since she has had shows at most of the more famous Modern and Contemporary Art galleries around the world, when she is not literally prostituting herself on camera, as she did in one of her performance art pieces.
Here we arrive at the place which few in the Contemporary Art world want to visit: the land of grown-ups. It may come as a great shock to the reader to learn that, throughout human history, rich people have not only dominated politics and government – including from the beginning of the American Republic – but they have also used their wealth to do truly terrible things, such as pay for great works of art. Presumably, we would all have been better off if the Medici had not sponsored the young Michelangelo's studies, or the Habsburgs had not patronized Mozart's concerts.
And now, if you'll indulge me, let's move on to some art news that is actually interesting.
Frick Fumble?
This is going to prove quite an interesting legal tangle to sort out.
The Frick, which recently acquired a large, circa 1810 portrait of Prince Camillo Borghese by the French painter François Gérard (1770-1837), applied for and received an export license from the Italian government to take the painting out of Italy. Now it seems that Italy is crying foul, because on the paperwork the Frick did not mention that the subject of the painting was Prince Camillo. For its part, the Frick counters that the name of the sitter is written on the back of the picture, so why didn't the Italian authorities actually examine it when they were considering whether to grant an export license? Borghese is not one of my favorite people, having decided to hop into bed with the Bonapartists – quite literally, by marrying Napoleon's sister Pauline, the subject of one of Canova's most famous sculptures – but it's certainly a good portrait. We shall have to see where all of this leads.
Ponti Panel
Staying in Italy, I have to say that on the whole, I don't much care for the work of architect, artist, and designer Gio Ponti (1891-1979). His Denver Art Museum is an absolutely hideous building, and his Taranto Co-Cathedral looks like a stage set for a mod-minimalist Vincent Price horror film from the 1960's. However, one aspect of his project to expand and redesign the University of Padua caught my eye in this New York Times piece announcing an upcoming retrospective on Ponti's work this fall at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. This examination room, where a student would have to sit surrounded by professors critiquing and criticizing his dissertation, is an unusually cheerful space for such an event. When I had to give my viva voce, it was in a darkened room with lights glaring in my face, like at a police interrogation in a film noir. Had I this panel to look at, I probably would have been less nervous.
Tintoretto's Turn
To celebrate the 500th birthday of one of the most important and influential figures in Italian Renaissance art, on September 6th the Palazzo Ducale in Venice will be opening a major retrospective on the life and work of Jacopo Comin (1518-1594), better known as "Tintoretto". Fortunately, those of us on this side of the pond will not be left out of the picture, because the exhibition will travel to the National Gallery here in DC beginning March 10th of next year. This will be the first major retrospective of Tintoretto's work ever held in the U.S., so it promises to be one of those "blockbuster" exhibitions that you may want to choose a Wednesday morning to go visit, rather than a Saturday afternoon. While I don't believe that Tintoretto's "Il Paradiso" from the Doge's Palace, the largest painting in the world ever painted on canvas – 74 feet long and 30 feet tall – will be making the trip, I'm illustrating it here just so you can marvel at the sheer bravura of what the artist was able to accomplish. This will be one exhibition that you should not miss, if you find yourself in Venice this fall or in Washington in the spring.
Dominic and Clare: Two Great Saints, Two Great Activities
August 7, 2018 / William Newton	/ Leave a comment
With the feast of St. Dominic tomorrow, and that of St. Clare of Assisi coming up this Saturday, I wanted to share two bits of news related to both, which hopefully the reader will find interesting.
The first involves a Solemn Mass which will be held at St. Dominic's Church here in DC, at 7pm tomorrow evening. After Mass there will be the opportunity to venerate a relic of St. Dominic, followed by a reception which, I am assured by the parish, will be non-solemn. St. Dominic (1170-1221) was the founder of the Order of Preachers, more commonly known as the Dominicans, who, along with St. Francis of Assisi (1180-1226), helped to usher in a significant period of spiritual, intellectual, and artistic growth in the Church during the Middle Ages, and his spiritual descendants carry on that work today.
If you've never been to St. Dominic's, you've probably seen its striking bell tower from the 395 expressway going to or from Capitol Hill. It points skyward amidst the bland, boxy, brutalist concrete structures that were built in the middle of the previous century, when demolition of historic structures in the name of "progress" was all the rage in urban centers. St. Dominic's is one of the few architectural survivors from before that supposedly enlightened movement destroyed the neighborhood around it, which similarly ruined places like Penn Station in New York and Boston's City Hall. And what a magnificent survival it is, as you can see here:
Although I'm unaware of any evidence that he ever met her, another contemporary of St. Dominic was St. Francis' dear friend St. Clare of Assisi (1194-1253), whose life the church commemorates on Saturday, August 11th. St. Clare founded the Order of the Poor Ladies, more commonly known as the Poor Clares, a few years after the foundation of the Dominicans and Franciscans. Whereas the former concentrated largely on preaching and education, and the latter on caring for the poor and outcast, the Poor Clares are a contemplative order, living in monastic community and spending their days in lives of prayer and meditation.
In 1326, the first Poor Clares monastery was founded in Pedralbes, then a small village in the foothills of the mountains that surround Barcelona, by King Jaume II for his 4th and final wife, Queen Elisenda de Montcada. She retired there after his death, and over the years the Royal Monastery of Santa Maria de Pedralbes grew in size and beauty to eventually become designated as a National Monument of Spain. It's a place that has been important in the life of my mother's side of the family for many generations.
One of the great treasures of the monastery is the Chapel of St. Michael, a cell located in the beautiful, triple-story Gothic cloister (the only one in Europe, BTW.) It is completely covered with frescoes dating from 1346, executed by an artist named Ferrer Bassa (1285-1348). Little is known of his life or training, but the frescoes are highly significant to art history as evidence of early Italian Renaissance art making its way to the Iberian Peninsula. Bassa's work shows that he was familiar with the work of contemporary Italian artists such as Giotto, Duccio, Simone Martini, and others, and may have studied in Siena. This art would have been seen as cutting-edge design at the time of its execution in Barcelona, since there was nothing else like it outside of Tuscany.
Now, after a multi-year, complex conservation and restoration effort, the chapel has been brought back to as near as possible what it looked like when it was first completed in the mid-14th century. The decorative program features a number of saints – including St. Francis and St. Clare, naturally – as well as scenes from the life of Christ and the Virgin Mary. Because the chapel was originally a nun's cell, it's not possible to get a good sweeping vista of the decoration, but this gives you some idea of the impression that you get when you step inside from the cloister:
The significance of the spread of this kind of art outside Tuscany cannot be overestimated. Whereas in earlier Catalan art, faces were often stoic and expressionless, Bassa introduced his Catalan viewers to a new and unprecedented kind of realism, drawn from the observation of nature and real life, in which we can more easily empathize with the figures depicted in the scenes. Here, for example, we see expressions of anxiety, sorrow, and suffering in the faces of the women who have been witnessing the torture and death of Jesus:
Whether you find yourself in Barcelona this weekend for the feast of St. Clare, or indeed at any other time, if you are interested in art history, magnificent architecture, and/or Christian spirituality, make sure to make a pilgrimage to Pedralbes. There are still a few Poor Clare nuns left, although sadly like many religious orders in Spain, they have been dying off for quite awhile now, and personally I'm worried that the place, which is mostly run by the city as a museum at this point, is going to get turned into some god-awful hotel and conference center or something, so best to go see it now while you can. It's a bit off the beaten path for most tourists, being in a mostly residential neighborhood, but I think you'll find the beauty and indeed the peacefulness of the place well-worth the trip.


20.5 x 10.9 x 1.25"
12.5 x 15.9 x 1.5"
Inside diameter 6.75", outer diameter 7.75"
Dimensions: 2.5" x 1.75" x 8.5"
Directions: Test on small area before applying to entire surface. Gently rub paste onto cool glass surface with soft cloth. Wipe clean with dampened, soft cloth to remove excess paste. Avoid applying paste to non-glass areas.


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The Drinking Hour podcast: Old Vines special
On episode 93 of The Drinking Hour podcast, host David Kermode heads to Italy for the Old Vine Conference's inaugural 'field trip', hearing from Sarah Abbott MW, Domenico Veronese and Claudio and Niccolo Zani
What makes an old vine worth treasuring? Across the world, many old vines are ripped out and replaced with younger and more sprightly models which are happy to produce an abundance of fruit.
But there's change afoot, with people now doing their bit to protect and nurture old vines. Host of The Drinking Hour podcast, David Kermode reports from Italy, after attending the Old Vine Conference inaugural 'field trip'. Sarah Abbott MW runs the Old Vine Conference and says these elderly vines are part of an underestimated heritage of wine that's both cultural and agricultural. Old vines can make really delicious and really unique wine, but looking at the bigger picture, organisations are working together to preserve their local viticultural heritage, and preserve the diversity. 80% of the world's vineyards are made up of just 20 different grape varieties. 'Wine needs diversity like every other type of agriculture,' Abbott says.
A post shared by The Old Vine Conference (@ouroldvines)
As wine has become truly global, new markets have emerged. While this is a good thing, many are driven by the concept of noble varieties, with a huge pressure to plant more of those and dig up the specialised and localised varieties. That started to happen in Italy, but the country has now gone full circle and is becoming a centre for the appreciation and restoration of really local, highly niche, completely delicious indigenous varieties that make delicious wine, Abbott says.
Old vines can also be hardy, managing drought conditions more effectively and 'learning' from their mistakes and experiences. Over time, the vines become wise to their location. 'Grapes are like the babies of the vine,' Abbott says. If a vine is a little worried about what's going to happen, it gets its genetic code out there and produces fruit. When you take cuttings from these old vines, the adaptations are passed onto the offspring. 'I'm highly anthropomorphising… any botanists will just have to forgive me,' Abbott adds.
Wine needs diversity like every other type of agriculture
Kermode also chats to Claudio and Niccolo Zani who have a vineyard in the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. They produce Colli Orientali del Friuli DOC from a vineyard planted in 1895 with Refosco di Faedis. Niccolo Zani says on the importance of old vines, 'We think it will be a bad thing to remove the historical vineyards. It's an open air museum of viticulture of 127 years. We're trying to preserve this beautiful thing.'
Domenico Veronese is the owner of Villa Bogdano, found in a small town between Veneto and Friuli. Around 18 hectares of his 180 hectare estate are historic, with Merlot and Tocai Friulano (now known as Friulano). Friulano arrived in north east Italy in the second half of the 19th century. Veronese said there's some historic documentation suggesting it appeared around 1880, but within two decades most vines were wiped out by phylloxera. Now he's trying to preserve the genetic pool, which is a complicated and slow exercise, but absolutely worth the effort, he says.
Listen and subscribe to The Drinking Hour podcast on iTunes, Spotify and Android.
Discover more episodes of The Drinking Hour with David Kermode here.
drinking podcast,
italy,
The Drinking Hour podcast: Greener wine
The Drinking Hour podcast: Drinks trends in 2023
The Drinking Hour podcast: Dry January
The Drinking Hour podcast: a Bordeaux special edition – part two


Michail Bletsas is a Research Scientist and the Director of Computing at MIT's Media Lab where he has been working since 1996. He was one of the founding members of the "One Laptop Per Child" initiative where he made significant contributions to the design and implementation of OLPC's pioneering "XO" laptop as well as its Internet connectivity. He co-founded Velti S.A., a very successful mobile advertising and marketing company and has consulted for many companies in many different capacities. Over the years, he has implemented broadband access networks using cutting-edge technologies including one of the earliest ADSL testbeds and various wireless technologies. Mr. Bletsas has been a frequent keynote speaker in international conferences and has been engaged in many civic activities. He holds an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and an MSc degree in Computer Engineering from Boston University.
Digital marketers are obsessed with the last click, advertisers with the last ad that precedes conversion. The traffic jam you're in must be due to an accident. Health insurers' pay-for-performance schemes are based on strict adherence to guidelines during one visit to the doctor. Disasters are blamed on the events that trigger them. A very large deficit is attributed to a president in office. A couple getting divorced believe their last fight is the cause. We as humans are obsessed with finding simple, preferably linear, cause-effect relationships in everything. Yet we know that things are very, very rarely as simple as we would like them to be. Our urge to simplify has been shaped by evolutionary pressure and is probably well-adapted to slow-changing, relatively simple environments. In today's world, simplifying heuristics can be counter-productive. One universal issue we face when dealing with complex systems is that of attribution: how to assign figures of merit to the multiple touchpoints that may have contributed to an outcome? Giving all the credit to the last touchpoint is a simplifying heuristic which makes no sense in a wide range of situations. The marketing funnel should be called marketing maze. The traffic jam you're in may be due to no single reason -there may not even be a trigger. Performance in healthcare should be an ecosystem concept, and not be reduced to one visit in a vacuum. Disasters are usually the result of many interacting factors working in synergy. A president in office is probably only partly responsible for a country's deficit. And you're not getting divorced just because of a nasty argument last week. We need a different framework for dealing with these situations and move beyond the usual culprit/scapegoat mindset. A machine learning approach known as reinforcement learning provides a powerful new lens to augment our causal intuition. Concrete examples from advertising, healthcare and risk management will illustrate how this could become a revolutionary tool.


Australian Superannuation Practice provides a comprehensive research package for effectively administering this complex and dynamic area. The Australian Superannuation Practice provides the full text of superannuation legislation and related legislation and source materials, including rulings, determinations and APRA information.
Detailed commentary focuses on tax related superannuation issues such as super contributions and member benefits, superannuation surcharge, trustees' duties, SIS compliance, investment rules, dispute resolution and the Superannuation Guarantee regime. A regular news bulletin reports the latest key superannuation changes and financial services developments along with practitioner articles.
Regular updates to Commentary, Research Materials and News Bulletin.


View cart "LearnPress – Fill-in-blank Question" has been added to your cart.
Besides course category, Collection is a great way to group similar courses that you can use to send to your students and suggest them to take these similar courses.
Course collections can be used as a short code to add to your pages to make it looks more arranged and more beautiful.


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Nicolas Hale Woods conferences
Nicolas Hale-Woods is known as the co-founder of Xtreme Verbier, as well as the founder of the Freeride World Tour, the off-piste ski and snowboard World Cup, of which Xtreme Verbier is the grand finale event. With a team of 12, Nicolas' company also manages the sport's pyramid, comprising 4,000 licensed athletes and over 130 competitions worldwide, enabling juniors to progress on the Freeride Junior Tour before competing to qualify for the Freeride World Tour at the Freeride World Qualifier.
With an English father and a Swiss-born mother, originally from Neuchâtel, Nicolas spent time on the slopes at a very young age, accompanied by his grandmother. After attending schools in Switzerland, the UK and Belgium, he was awarded a degree in economics from the University of Fribourg. It was during his studies in the mid-1980s that Nicolas acquired a passion for snowboarding. His goal: as well as a taste for adrenaline off the slopes, in completely different environments (especially as a water surfer).
This led him to form the Swiss Surfing Association with friends in 1992, enabling him to compete in amateur world surfing championships. « For a country with no ocean, this was great, » he says. A bit like the Jamaicans forming a bobsleigh team…
It was then that he developed the Freeride competitions at Verbier, marking the beginning of his career.
Learn from a Freerider and Entrepreneur
Let UnoMe help you benefit from the expertise of a CEO with specialist knowledge in organising top-quality sports events.
Nicolas holds first-class conferences on business, leadership, management and team motivation.


Latest timepiece unveiled by Tokyoflash is dubbed Wavelength. A timepiece with LCD display and LED backlighting and unique way to show the time. TokyoFlash Wavelength Wristwatch will display the hours on the central screen and minutes in a clock-wise moving blocks. No info on pricing and availability yet.


1 Cut off the watermelon rind and chop the flesh into chunks, picking out the seeds.
2 Roughly chop the ginger and transfer to a large sealable freezer bag along with the watermelon chunks.
3 Add the lime zest and juice, seal the bag and freeze flat for at least 8 hours or until completely frozen.
4 Just before serving, add the frozen mixture to a food processor and blitz until it resembles snow.
Serve in bowls with a drizzle of the ginger syrup.


I was having a sleepover with some of my friends and myself and one of my friends looked out of the window towards the back fields all the way out to the power station. Thats when I first noticed it. When I first saw the object I thought it was some hunters or farmers searching their field and shining their lights up into the sky. There were at least 7 objects or beams which seemed to come up from the ground flashing. There was no proper object to be seen just lights. They seemed to flash in a random order only using the colours White, Green and Red. I was really scared when I knew it couldn't be farmers or hunters because they would need an enormous amount of power to cast the beams up into the sky like that especially because the radius of the light beams was more than 20ft. I felt really cold and worried that something wrong was happening in front of me. This was the same situation from my friend as well. The lights just suddenly stopped after 10 seconds of viewing them and the light dissipated into the sky.My personal opinion:The lights were no more than 500yards from Eggbrough power station so I think that they were using power from the power station to send a message or beam into the sky to alert or notify some other being.


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You are here: Home1 / Press Releases2 / Budget 2014 is anti-family and anti-parent
Budget 2014 is anti-family and anti-parent
October 15, 2013 /in Press Releases /by Comms
More attacks on working mothers and shared parenting
(Dublin, Tuesday 15 October 2013) One Family, Ireland's leading organisation for one-parent families today responds to Budget 2014 noting the removal of the One Parent Family Tax Credit, the cutting of Maternity Benefit at the higher rate and no plans to help lone parents get into work.
Karen Kiernan, CEO of One Family, states: 'We are extremely disappointed that working parents who share caring and financial responsibility for their children after separation are now to be penalised by the removal of the One Parent Family Tax Credit for one parent. We should be supporting both parents to cooperate and share responsibility for their children following relationship breakdown instead of penalising them. In addition, the adjusted Maternity Benefit payments, following on last year's taxation of the Benefit, will negatively impact on thousands of working mothers.'
The One Parent Family Tax Credit has been available to both people sharing parenting of their children where they are not cohabiting and their child lives with them for part of the year. It was worth €1,650 per year in addition to the normal tax credit.
Stuart Duffin, Director of Policy and Programmes at One Family states: 'We have been concerned for some time by incidences of social welfare inspectors investigating families because the parents after separating are sharing parenting of their children. One Family works to ensure that parents do their best for their children as they move through separation and into the often challenging landscape of shared parenting. This cut is retrograde. It ignores the reality of the collaborative approach many people can take to sharing responsibility and penalises families who have separated.'
Kiernan concludes: 'One Family finds the ongoing negative approach to parents and families by this government to be alarming. People need support to balance their working and parenting responsibilities. It costs people more money to live apart and share parenting of their children than if they were living together and the removal of this Tax Credit will cause conflict in separated one-parent families.'
Notes for Editors:
1 in 4 families with children in Ireland is a one-parent family
Over half a million people live in one-parent families in Ireland
Almost 1 in 5 children (18.3%) live in a one-parent family (Census 2011)
There are over 215,000 one-parent families in Ireland today (25.8% of all families with children; Census 2011)
87,586 of those are currently receiving the One-Parent Family Payment
Those living in lone parent households continue to experience the highest rates of deprivation with almost 56% of individuals from these households experiencing one or more forms of deprivation (EU-SILC 2011)
Available for Interview
Karen Kiernan, CEO | t: 01 662 9212 or 086 850 9191
Stuart Duffin, Director of Policy & Programmes | t: 01 662 9212 or 087 062 2023
Further Information/Scheduling
Shirley Chance, Director of Communications | t: 01 662 9212 or 087 414 8511
Tags: #Budget2014, budget 2014, Karen Kiernan, lone parent, Maternity benefit, one fmaily, one parent family tax credit, one-parent family, shared parenting, Stuart Duffin
https://onefamily.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/OneFamily_Logo_web.png 0 0 Comms https://onefamily.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/OneFamily_Logo_web.png Comms2013-10-15 15:08:322013-10-16 00:50:30Budget 2014 is anti-family and anti-parent
Leading Ireland's Celebration of 20th Anniversary of UN International Year of the Family
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Analysis of Department of Social Protection's Reporting of Control Savings
Families and Societies Stakeholder Seminar
One Family CEO Karen Kiernan Appointed to 'Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures' Advisory Council
Parenting | Accepting teen relationships
Cuts to Carer's Allowance for Lone Parents Reversed by Tánaiste – But what about working lone parents?
10 Ways to Support Your Children Through Times Of Change
One Family Responds to Media Reports of Social Welfare Fraud and Notion of the... Updates following Budget 2014


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Q: Significance of isolation of radium? This is an extension of my previous question here.
Marie Curie isolated radium in 1903, which paved the way for the development of the theory of radioactivity. In regards to the techniques she used however, what was the impact of the establishment of those techniques? Were the techniques used by Curie new? Are they used today? What impact did they have on modern physics?
I can find a lot of information online about the actual isolation of radium, but not regarding the significance of the techniques used.

A: It was Henri Becquerel who discovered radioactivity. Ernest Rutherford proved that what was happening was the disintegration and transmutation of atoms.
Radioactivity was discovered in Uranium, but the Curies discovered a mineral that was more radiocative.  They correctly deduced that it must contain a new element.  They then used purely chemical methods to separate the various elements, keeping track of which residuum had kept the radioactivity.  It's not my area, but I think that all of the methods were standard apart from using the radioactivity to trace.  And there was an enormous amount of work to be done.
They actually found two new elements, radium and polonium.  In a sense they were lucky, because they could have been chasing a radioactive isotope of a known element.  Isotopes were only recognised later.

A: The significance was that radium was many orders of magnitude more intense as a source of alpha particles than the previously available sources, such as uranium salts. For example, the Rutherford-Marsden discovery of the atomic nucleus would have been impossible without radium. That experiment used human eyeballs as detectors, and human eyeballs are not sensitive enough to have allowed the experiment to be done with weaker sources.


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Larson, Jonathan
Jonathan David Larson (1960–1996) was an American composer and playwright noted for exploring the social issues of multiculturalism, addiction, and homophobia in his work. Typical examples of his use of these themes are found in his works Rent and Tick, Tick... Boom! He received three posthumous Tony Awards and a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the rock musical Rent.
Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation
The Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation was a foundation started in 1997 by the family and friends of Jonathan Larson, composer of the musical Rent . From 1997 to 2008, the foundation awarded grants to musical theatre composers, lyricists and book writers. Following the 2008 grants, the program was shifted to the American Theatre Wing, where it continues as the Jonathan Larson Grants .
Jonathan Parsons
Jonathan Parsons (November 30, 1705 – July 19, 1776) was a Christian New England clergyman during the late colonial period and a supporter of the American Revolution. Born in West Springfield, Massachusetts, he was the youngest son of Ebenezer (Deacon) Parsons (1668-1752) and Margaret Marshfield of Springfield. Though intended for an artisan career, the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, then a tutor at Yale, persuaded young Parsons to prepare for college.
Jonathan may refer to:


More than 15 thousand Syrian Armenians arrived into Armenia in recent years as a result of the armed conflict in Syria. Besides social and psychological issues, they face employment and housing problems in Armenia where severe socio-economic situation persists.
We think that integration and social adaptation of Syrian Armenians in homeland will help them to stay in our country and they will not migrate to other European countries, USA and Canada.
We think the project will not be changed.
1. Compilation and dissemination of information online, through the channels of printed and electronic publications, the use of social networks, the publication of information sheets and the compilation of computer programs.
2. Providing free legal advice and attorney services.
3. Organization of public discussions with the participation of interested persons, representatives of various institutions and democratic institutions.
We try to help native Armenians from Syria have home and job in Armenia, because they need our help and Goodwill.
The target of our project are native Armenians from Syria and their families, who lost their home and small business in Syria and our authorities and democratic institutions representatives , who will costruct and realise the programs from ex-citizens of Syria.


We currently have over 135 members who have widely varying photographic interests and skills. The Club's programme of events is broad and stimulating, with presentations by 'names' in the photographic world, practical club nights, tuition, outings to photogenic locations or events, and photographic competitions both amongst the Club's membership and also against other camera clubs both in the U.K. and overseas. Addionally we have 8 Special Interest Groups to cater for specific genres of photography - these groups meet at times other than the main club night. Our Beginners' and Improvers' group offers 20 nights of tuition in photography at no extra cost to the club subscription.
There is a busy internet-based members' forum, where members can ask questions, show and critique work, or simply chat about some club or photographic matter.
Subscriptions: Full membership: £50, Joint: £90, Student: £5, Forum only: £10, Trial membership £3 per meeting.
Meet: weekly all year (not Christmas week, or last 2 weeks of August) on Thursdays at 7.30pm.


Amanda's Crazy Life...: Still going strong!
Four weeks are up, and I'm still doing good. I had three tests this week, one from each of my anthro classes and one from my english class. I think I did okay on my english, it was a chapter test so i really don't know. For my mesoamerican test, I got an A! whoohoo, I'm so great, haha, naw I just have good memory, it was all about memorizing where places were. My native american test I think I passed, I mean when I studied I knew everything, and the test was really easy. Well, I have a lot of homework that I need to complete, and I have a lot of things going on this weekend, so I'm going to get started bright and early tomorrow. I'm doing great with my walking, I have increased my steps since I first started using the pedometer, so that's a plus. Still eating as good as I can, just trying to be healthier. Anyway, I will talk to ya'll later, hope everyone is doing well, bye!
good shizz! glad its going well, can't wait till tomorrow!!!!


Your first love teaches you what it's like to be in a romantic relationship. Experiencing anything for the first time sets the tone for how you will engage in such experiences in the future.
If you're struggling to get over your first love, this is perfectly normal. This is something most people struggle with, but there are things you can do to help yourself move on. First, limit thoughts of your ex.
Try to focus on the present and not dwell on the past. Try to adopt a healthier perspective about the relationship. While it ended, you learned a lot about yourself by being in love.
Hey Limit time spent thinking of your ex.
You may think that you should eliminate your ex from your thoughts altogether. However, this strategy can very easily backfire. If you try to force yourself not to think about something, you'll only think about it more. Instead of trying not to think about your ex altogether, limit the time you spend thinking of them.
Watch for unrealistic thought patterns.
If you're reeling from the loss of a first love, you may be prone to catastrophic thinking. For example, you may think things like, "I'll never love anyone again" or "I'll never be happy again." When you catch yourself engaging in such thoughts, stop and challenge them.
Most people do not end up with their first love. Think about your parents, friends, or other family members. They probably all experienced the loss of a first love, but ended up in healthy relationships later on.
It's very difficult to think positive when you're not caring for yourself. You may find it hard to sleep, exercise, or eat right after heartbreak. However, you need to keep up with basic self-care. This will allow you to stay strong and avoid negative thinking.
Allow yourself to enjoy past memories. You don't have to shut out all thoughts of your ex. With time, you may be able to smile on some of what has occurred. Love can trigger wonderful, happy emotions, and your first love will always be special.