How did the universe begin? Quantum physics has found that minute particles have evolved the atom, which is considered the basic building block of all matter. But physicists and scientists are investigating what appears to be an unknown force that is currently being characterized as being consciousness. This force exists at the lowest levels that has a will to create inorganic and organic matter with a purpose to reach its highest evolutionary perfection – to create the ability for thinking organisms to articulate a consciousness that can reach out and comprehend its own consciousness. This will is instilled with a reproductive desire that fulfills a noble purpose, which is to love one another and all things in our universe that also possess consciousness.
Anwar Shaikh, born in Gujrat, Punjab, India, lived between the years 1928 and 2006. From a religious Shite family, he initially was an active Jihad Muslim and, in his youth killed three Sikhs, which haunted him in his later years. After the age 25, he questioned his Islamic beliefs and later became one of the greatest Indian authors. He distinguished himself as an author, poet, philosopher, and a great Islamic historian and scholar. An apostate of great intellectual value, he objectively presents the true nature of Islam. He spoke Urdu, Arabic, Persian and wrote about consciousness that complements a philosophical conclusion of this article that, "Everything has a beginning, even the cosmic universe".
The conclusion by Mr. Shaikh was also derived in an article, Does Consciousness Pervade the Universe? (2) This article hypostatized that the universe began with development of a fundamental unit that is the basic building block of all matter – the atom. Over an undetermined period of billions or trillions of years, the atom and its sub-particles appear to inherently possess a consciousness to evolve matter with a purpose to create intelligence that can reach out to understand its creation – the universe. This hypothetical idea that matter, created by atoms that determine inorganic and organic outcomes that assumes higher levels of consciousness may have some merit because we are proof as thinking products of our universe.
Anwar Shaikh is to be applauded for his philosophical conclusions because he has delved into the science of quantum physics, whereby he agrees with scientific findings that reveal fundamental particles evolved the atom. It is evident that if particles evolved into atoms then it was atoms that eventually coalesced to form enormous stars. But we also learned though the astrophysicist, Carl Sagan, that stars can become unstable or explode due to gravitational forces that cause extremely high pressures and temperatures. The gravitational forces are so immense that astronomers have found it is responsible for pulsars, quasars, and black holes to exist. These entities eventually reach a state whereby they will explode or emit matter, gases, and radiant energy back out into the universe.
The gravitational forces in matter verifies that it is impossible for a star to become a singularity that is so dense that it can create matter that could populate an entire universe. The pressure and extreme temperatures created by gravitational forces will cause the star, or singularity, to explode before it can coalesce billions and trillions of particles and atoms that supposedly can initiate the birth of our universe. Therefore, from a logical perspective, the theory that the universe began with one big bang is not comprehensible. Rather, it is more likely that the universe has had multiple big bangs initiated by such phenomena as black holes, pulsars and quasars.
Dismissing the Big Bang theory, this author presents a philosophical view that scientists may eventually confirm; that "Everything has a beginning, even the universe." It is incomprehensible to believe that the universe always existed when in fact, it is constantly changing, dying, and forming new stars to exist. Just as inorganic and organic matter came to exist through an evolutionary process on our planet, matter has evolved throughout the universe through a consciousness inherent in particles.
Particles throughout space have evolved to form atoms that have become the basic building blocks of inorganic and organic matter throughout the universe. It appears that consciousness exists at every level of matter and is able to express itself in the higher forms of organic matter, such as plants and complex life forms. Mankind is one of its highest created achievements on earth caused by a force that is universal and conceived by our latest scientific findings in quantum physics to be consciousness. Like man, life forms with high levels of consciousness exist throughout our universe populated with the stars of many billions of galaxies.
It becomes apparent that the forces within the atom have an intelligence or a consciousness that tries to express itself in many ways through the evolution of organic life forms. It is this consciousness that reaches its height in human beings to think and reach out with hypothetical thoughts to try to understand its own existence. And that is why this author believes that the transformation of energy in particles is a long, evolutionary process whereby it transforms itself into matter with an inherent will to exist as consciousness in higher life forms that will question and examine its nature. Namely, thinking life forms are the crown achievement of consciousness in the universe.
Truth depends on the ability to love one another, to listen with objective reasoning that sustains a compatible relationship with others. It is this component or attribute of love that is inherent in consciousness for it instills the reproductive desire in all organic life forms to promote their existence. Can love for one another be the evolutionary purpose of Consciousness? To attain the apex of development that is the crown of being, the purpose of consciousness is to love all life throughout the universe. The undercurrent of consciousness is a profound will that instills the reproductive desire in all organic life forms, which promotes in our evolutionary purpose the attribute of love.
This apex or purpose of consciousness is challenged today by a religious ideology that has, since its inception, caused bigotry, hatred, violence and the killing of people. In the Qur'an, verse 9:33, the belief that Islam is the Religion of Truth and that Allah may make it prevail over every other religion has caused armies of Muslim fundamentalists to destroy many civilizations in efforts to subjugate people to follow Islam. People around the world need to be conscious of this regressive ideology. They need to come together to educate misguided Muslims by revealing that the Qur'an needs to be revised by advocating the greatest command given to man – love one another. Why and how people around the world can assist Muslims to develop the consciousness to love one another by revising the Qur'an is presented in an article titled, Worldwide Communication Will Expose the Quran. (5) It is available on the Internet with an Internet search on the title.
In closing, the purpose of man, is the inherent will of consciousness to propagate with the beautiful attribute enjoyed through the love of others, and that my dear people, is the greatest philosophical idea of all – love one another. By doing so, mankind may exist long enough to someday find there are other living entities in the universe that have also learned to exist and survive by acknowledging the attribute of Consciousness – love.
I invite you to comment or discuss anything about this topic via e-mail: nickginex@gmail.com .
Note 5. Nicholas Ginex, Worldwide Communication Will Expose the Quran.


TUESDAY, May 29, 2012 (HealthDay News) -- If you want to live a long life, accent the positive and keep laughing, say researchers who have found that centenarians are often extroverts who embrace the world from an optimistic and carefree perspective.
The findings stem from the Longevity Genes Project, launched by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. All the participants in the latest study were over the age of 95, and all were of Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jewish descent.
"We really were not sure what got them to their advanced age," admitted study co-author Dr. Nir Barzilai, director of Einstein's Institute for Aging Research and chair of its division of Aging Research. "Was it their personality, or something more in their genetics?"
"Our findings that these centenarians share such positive personality traits suggest that they may be associated with longevity," he added.
Barzilai noted, however, that "the main message of the study is that [although] these centenarians have a 'nice' personality now, that was not always the case," opening the door to the notion that it's never too late to adopt a "can-do" spirit.
Barzilai and his colleagues discuss their findings in the May 21 online edition of the journal Aging.
The team points out that the United States is currently home to about 53,000 centenarians, representing about .2 percent of the population. But exactly how genetics figure into the longevity equation remains something of a mystery, as is how genetic predispositions that favor certain personality traits might affect the aging process.
To address the latter question, the authors first developed a 98-point questionnaire that was designed to screen for evidence of key personality traits.
It was then administered to 243 of those near 100 years old. Three-quarters were women, and all shared the same ethnicity, which enabled the team to make personality comparisons among genetically similar individuals.
The result: The majority of near-centenarians were found to be relaxed, friendly, conscientious and upbeat about life. Importantly, said the authors, an easy laugh and an active social life were observed to be a group norm, while neuroticism was notably the exception. What's more, feelings were more commonly shared as they arose, rather than stifled and squelched.
Dr. Thomas Perls, director of the New England Centenarian Study at Boston University Medical Center, said the findings confirm several observations he and his colleagues have made in the past.
For example, Perls' own team's look at personality traits typically found among the children of centenarians suggested that "those who are high in neuroticism tend to dwell on things and internalize their stress rather than let it go," he noted. "This can translate into increased risk for cardiovascular disease. High extroversion may lead to a better ability to establish social support networks -- which is very good for older people -- and to be cognitively engaged."
"[So] these studies show people that they should do what they can to manage their stress better so that it doesn't manage them," Perls added. "People usually know what activities help them relieve stress. Like physical exercise, yoga, tai chi, laughing a lot, reading or art activities. And, of course, enough sleep. It is just a matter of setting aside the time and energy to do these things."
For more on longevity, go to the Kronos Longevity Research Institute.


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US Deploys Carrier Strike Group As Iran Moves SRBMs
Daniella Candurra
Mohammad Sadegh Heydari, "English: IRIN naval ships in Velayat-90 Naval Exercise," Date 23 December 2011 – 3 January 2012, Source: http://www.ypa.ir/media/k2/galleries/359/03.jpg, accessed August 20, 2018, via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iranian_Velayat-90_Naval_Exercise_by_IRIN_(5).jpg, This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
The United States deployed the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group and B-52 bombers into the Persian Gulf after intelligence reports showed Iran moving short-range ballistic missiles by boats into the area. The deployment came in response to Iranian preparations "to possibly attack U.S. forces in the region," according to USCENTCOM spokesperson Capt. Bill Urban. It is unclear whether Iran could launch the missiles from the boats or if they are being transported to a land location. The Pentagon is reportedly considering sending Patriot missile batteries into the region as well as other military assets but no final decision on additional deployments have been made.
Iran moving ballistic missiles by boat, US officials say, CNN
US deployment a response to Iran moving ballistic missiles by boat: report, The Hill
Daniella Candurra, "US Deploys Carrier Strike Group As Iran Moves SRBMs," Missile Threat, Center for Strategic and International Studies, May 8, 2019, last modified May 8, 2019, https://missilethreat.csis.org/us-deploys-carrier-strike-group-as-iran-moves-srbms/.
Iran Launches Simorgh Rocket
On December 30, Iran launched a Simorgh rocket aiming to put three research devices into orbit. The payload failed to enter orbit, however, due to lack of speed. According to Iranian spokesman Ahmad Hosseini, "For a payload to enter orbit, it needs to reach speeds above 7,600 [meters per second]. We reached 7,350."
Iran Launches Surface-to-Air Missiles in Drills
On October 12 and 13, the Iranian Army and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched several surface-to-air missiles in a drill of air defense forces in Central Iran. The exercise, named Modafe'an-e Aseman-e Velayat 1400 [Defenders of Sky of Velayat 1400], included a variety of indigenous air defense systems, including Iran's 3rd Khordad, Mersad, Talash, 15th...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
A School Librarian Caught In The Middle of Student Privacy Extremes
Commentary by Gennie Gebhart
As a school librarian at a small K-12 district in Illinois, Angela K. is at the center of a battle of extremes in educational technology and student privacy.
On one side, her district is careful and privacy-conscious when it comes to technology, with key administrators who take extreme caution with ID numbers, logins, and any other potentially identifying information required to use online services. On the other side, the district has enough technology "cheerleaders" driving adoption forward that now students as young as second grade are using Google's G Suite for Education.
In search of a middle ground that serves students, Angela is asking hard, fundamental questions. "We can use technology to do this, but should we? Is it giving us the same results as something non-technological?" Angela asked. "We need to see the big picture. How do we take advantage of these tools while keeping information private and being aware of what we might be giving away?"
School librarians are uniquely positioned to navigate this middle ground and advocate for privacy, both within the school library itself and in larger school- or district-wide conversations about technology. Often, school librarians are the only staff members trained as educators, privacy specialists, and technologists, bringing not only the skills but a professional mandate to lead their communities in digital privacy and intellectual freedom. On top of that, librarians have trusted relationships across the student privacy stakeholder chain, from working directly with students to training teachers to negotiating with technology vendors.
Part of any school librarian's job is making purchasing decisions with digital vendors for library catalogs, electronic databases, e-books, and more. That means that school librarians like Angela are trained to work with ed tech providers and think critically about their services.
"I am always asking, 'Where is this company making their money?'" Angela said. "That's often the key to what's going on with the student information they collect."
School librarians know the questions to ask a vendor. Angela listed some of the questions she tends to ask: What student data is the vendor collecting? How and when is it anonymized, if at all? What does the vendor do with student data? How long is it retained? Is authentication required to use a certain software or service, and, if so, how are students' usernames and passwords generated?
In reality, though, librarians are not always involved in contract negotiations. "More and more tech tools are being adopted either top-down through admin, who don't always think about privacy in a nuanced way, or directly through teachers, who approach it on a more pedagogical level," Angela said. "We need people at the table who are trained to ask questions about student privacy. Right now, these questions often don't get asked until a product is implemented—and at that point, it's too late."
Teaching privacy
Angela wants to see more direct education around privacy concepts and expectations, and not just for students. Teachers and other staff in her district would benefit from more thorough training, as well.
"As a librarian, I believe in the great things technology can offer," she said, "but I think we need to do a better job educating students, teachers, and administrators on reasons for privacy."
For students, Angela's district provides the digital literacy education mandated by Illinois's Internet Safety Act. However, compartmentalized curricula are not enough to transform the way students interact with technology; it has to be reinforced across subjects throughout the school year.
"We used to be able to reinforce it every time library staff worked with students throughout the year," Angela said, "but now staff is too thin."
Teachers also need training to understand the risks of the technology they are offering to students.
"For younger teachers, it's hard to be simultaneously skeptical and enthusiastic about new educational technologies," Angela said. "They are really alert to public records considerations and FERPA laws, but they also come out of education programs so heavily trained in using data to improve educational experiences."
In the absence of more thorough professional training, Angela sees teachers and administrators overwhelmed with the task of considering privacy in their teaching. "Sometime educators default to not using any technology at all because they don't have the time or resources to teach their kids about appropriate use. Or, teachers will use it all and not think about privacy," she said. "When people don't know about their options, there can be this desperate feeling that there's nothing we can do to protect our privacy."
Angela fears that, without better privacy education and awareness, students' intellectual freedom will suffer. "If students don't expect privacy, if they accept that a company or a teacher or 'big brother' is always watching, then they won't be creative anymore."
A need for caution moving forward
Coming from librarianship's tradition of facilitating the spread of information while also safeguarding users' privacy and intellectual freedom, Angela is committed to adopting and applying ed tech while also preserving student privacy.
"I am cautious in a realistic way. After all, I'm a tools user. I know I need a library catalog, for example. I know I need electronic databases. Technologies are a necessary utility, not something we can walk away from."
As ed tech use increases, school librarians like Angela have an opportunity to show that there is no need to compromise privacy for newer or more high-tech educational resources.
"Too many people in education have no expectation of privacy, or think it's worth it to hand over our students' personal information for ed tech services that are free. But we don't have to give up privacy to get the resources we need to do good education."
Student Privacy
Deeplinks Blog by Camille Ochoa | December 6, 2018
Securing The Institutions We Rely On: A Grassroots Case Study
Grassroots digital rights organizing has many faces, including that of hands-on hardware hacking in an Ivy League institution. Yale Privacy Lab is a member of the Electronic Frontier Alliance, a network of community and student groups advocating for digital rights in local...
Deeplinks Blog by Sophia Cope, Nate Cardozo | January 29, 2018
It's Time to Make Student Privacy a Priority
Last month, the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Education held a workshop in Washington, DC. The topic was "Student Privacy and Ed Tech." We at EFF have been trying to get the FTC to focus on the privacy risks of educational technology (or "ed tech") for...
Deeplinks Blog by Dave Maass | November 21, 2017
Treasury Department Concludes Fraud Investigation into ComputerCOP 'Internet Safety' Software
Three years ago, EFF exposed how hundreds of law enforcement agencies were putting families at risk by distributing free ComputerCOP "Internet safety" software that actually transmitted keystrokes unencrypted to a third-party server. Our report also raised serious questions about whether the company was deceiving government agencies by circulating a...
Deeplinks Blog by Gennie Gebhart, Amul Kalia | August 30, 2017
Student Privacy Tips for Teachers
The new school year starts next week for most schools across the country. As part of the first line of defense in protecting student privacy, teachers need to be ready to spot the implications of new technology and advocate for their students' privacy rights. Our student privacy...
Student Privacy Tips for Students
Students: As you get ready to go back to school, add "review your student privacy rights" to your back-to-school to-do list, right next to ordering books and buying supplies. Exciting new technology in the classroom can also mean privacy violations, including the chance that your personal devices and online...
Student Privacy Tips for Parents
The beginning of the school year is right around the corner. Over the summer, your school may have acquired new devices, software, and educational technology (or ed tech) to use in classrooms. Or, your school may have expanded existing technology programs, or may be thinking about adopting new forms of...
Deeplinks Blog by Sophia Cope | April 13, 2017
EFF Releases Spying on Students Ed Tech Report
EFF Survey Reveals Gaps in Protecting the Privacy of K-12 Students Using School-Issued Devices and Cloud Apps "They are collecting and storing data to be used against my child in the future, creating a profile before he can intellectually understand the consequences of his searches and digital behavior." This...
Press Release | April 13, 2017
EFF's "Spying on Students" Report Highlights Tech Companies' Data Collection, Parents' Frustrations
San Francisco—School children are being spied on by tech companies through devices and software used in classrooms that often collect and store kids' names, birth dates, browsing histories, location data, and much more—often without adequate privacy protections or the awareness and consent of parents, according to a new...
Spying on Students: School-Issued Devices and Student Privacy
by Frida Alim, Nate Cardozo, Gennie Gebhart, Karen Gullo, and Amul KaliaDownload the report as a PDF.EXECUTIVE SUMMARYStudents and their families are backed into a corner. As students across the United States are handed school-issued laptops and signed up for educational cloud services, the way the educational system treats...
Deeplinks Blog by rainey Reitman | March 17, 2017
EFF, ACLU, and 45 Civil Rights, Immigration, and Health Advocacy Organizations Oppose AB 165, a California Bill Stripping Students and Teachers of Basic Privacy Protections
"Californians cannot afford to go back to the digital dark ages," groups warn. EFF and a diverse coalition of advocacy groups sent a letter to the California legislature urging elected officials to oppose A,B, 165. This bill would roll back privacy protections for students and teachers by exempting California public...


Thats it, 2016 Christmas Dinner done and dusted. The weather was less than perfect but in the end does it matter? A time for togetherness and belonging, family, food and fun.
The little mountain peaks are wooden Christmas Tree Decorations I found at The Warehouse for $1.50. I simply cut the string and painted each one black. Once dry I dipped them in a white paint and let it run. The blackboard Christmas tags, once again from The Warehouse, included a white marker with which I wrote each guests name and glued the ribbon to the bottom of the peak. The little vases are 250ml glass milk bottles you can find on Trademe, with a little posy of wildflowers from the roadside. I've used my collection of wooden cutting boards as placemats with white plates and a mixture of black and silver cutlery on white linen napkins from Citta. The black and white honeycomb paper balls are from Look Sharp store and can be folded flat again for easy storage.
The barcart sports new stemless champagne flutes I found last minute at Maree & Co. They contained (as promised) a Blackberry Lavender Champagne cocktail, which was really quite divine!
Boil and mash all ingredients for about 5 minutes. Add 1 Tablespoon of Lavender Flowers and boil for one minute more.
Remove from heat. When cool freeze into cubes.
Put a cube or two in each glass with a fresh lavender flower and straw and top with champagne.
Next year a pool will take up some of the back lawn and so this was the last of what have been the annual football games.
And the man himself, off to study on the other side of the world.
I hope your day was as wonderful as mine!


Small and medium enterprises – SMEs -- still face a number of regulatory barriers selling from one country to another, eBay's Director of SME Businesses Jody Ford told business community and policy makers of the United Kingdom (U.K.).
Mr. Ford cited unnecessary differences in current consumer protection laws, even within the European Union, as a notable example. He addressed the U.K. leadership during the Global Entrepreneurship Week, which took place Nov. 15-21 in 104 countries around the world.
"E-commerce provides access to the global market," Mr. Ford said. "Nine out of 10 eBay businesses export to Europe and beyond and are increasingly taking advantage of fluctuating exchange rates and geographical demand. However significant barriers remain, often preventing these online entrepreneurs from reaching their global potential.
eBay's Government Relations team is committed to working with governments at national and European levels in order to provide SMEs with a fair, safe and straightforward online business environment.


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Withypool Stone Circle
The location of the circle in 2005; the stones are so small that discerning the site is difficult
Shown within Somerset
51°05′47″N 3°39′37″W / 51.0963°N 3.6604°W / 51.0963; -3.6604Coordinates: 51°05′47″N 3°39′37″W / 51.0963°N 3.6604°W / 51.0963; -3.6604
Neolithic / Bronze Age
Withypool Stone Circle, also known as Withypool Hill Stone Circle, is a stone circle located on the Exmoor moorland, near the village of Withypool in the southwestern English county of Somerset. The ring is part of a tradition of stone circle construction that spread throughout much of Britain, Ireland, and Brittany during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, over a period between 3300 and 900 BCE. The purpose of such monuments is unknown, although archaeologists speculate that the stones represented supernatural entities for the circle's builders.
Many monuments were built in Exmoor during the Bronze Age, but only two stone circles survive in this area: the other is Porlock Stone Circle. The Withypool ring is located on the south-western slope of Withypool Hill, on an area of heathland. It is about 36.4 metres (119 feet 5 inches) in diameter. Around thirty small gritstones remain, although there may originally have been around 100; there are conspicuous gaps on the northern and western sides of the monument. The site was rediscovered in 1898 and surveyed by the archaeologist Harold St George Gray in 1905.
Withypool Stone Circle is located on the south-western slope of Withypool Hill;[1] some sources refer to it as Withypool Hill Stone Circle.[2] The site is 381 metres (1250 feet) above sea level.[3] It is 670 metres (733 yards) east of Portford Bridge,[4] and 4.4 kilometres (2.75 miles) south/south-west of Exford.[5]
The site slopes down from east to west.[4] The topsoil is peaty with heather.[4] A range of different Bronze Age round barrows, a type of tumulus, are visible at different points in the surrounding landscape.[5] There is a lone tumulus 262 metres (286 yards) to the north-east of the circle, on the summit of Withypool Hill, although this is so eroded that it can no longer be seen from Withypool Stone Circle itself.[3] The three Brightworthy Barrows can be seen from the circle in a north-west direction.[3] Other Bronze Age barrows visible from the circle are the Green Barrow, the Old Barrow, the Twitchen Barrows, the three Wam Barrows of Winsford Hill, and the barrow on top of Sherdon.[3]
Also visible from the circle is a scatter of over thirty stones on the Westwater Allotment; these are up to 0.5 m (1.6 feet) long and in 1988 two were reported as being standing.[6] Elsewhere on Withypool Common is a collection of six stones arranged in a rough circle, which may have represented another stone circle or perhaps the kerbstones from a since-destroyed round cairn.[7]
Stones present on the two ends of the circle
While the transition from the Early Neolithic to the Late Neolithic in the fourth and third millennia BCE saw much economic and technological continuity, there was a considerable change in the style of monuments erected, particularly in what is now southern and eastern England.[8] By 3000 BCE, the long barrows, causewayed enclosures, and cursuses which had predominated in the Early Neolithic were no longer built, and had been replaced by circular monuments of various kinds.[8] These include earthen henges, timber circles, and stone circles.[9] Stone circles are found in most areas of Britain where stone is available, with the exception of the island's south-eastern corner.[10] They are most densely concentrated in south-western Britain and on the north-eastern horn of Scotland, near Aberdeen.[10] The tradition of their construction may have lasted for 2,400 years, from 3300 to 900 BCE, with the major phase of building taking place between 3000 and 1,300 BCE.[11]
These stone circles typically show very little evidence of human visitation during the period immediately following their creation.[12] This suggests that they were not sites used for rituals that left archaeologically visible evidence, but may have been deliberately left as "silent and empty monuments".[13] The archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson suggests that in Neolithic Britain, stone was associated with the dead, and wood with the living.[14] Other archaeologists have suggested that the stone might not represent ancestors, but rather other supernatural entities, such as deities.[13]
Stone circles in Exmoor
There are only two known prehistoric stone circles on Exmoor: Withypool and Porlock Stone Circle.[15] The archaeologist Leslie Grinsell suggested that the circular stone monument on Almsworthy Common was "probably" the remains of a stone circle,[16] although more recent assessments regard it one of the stone settings, a different form of monument which is more common across Exmoor.[17]
Withypool Stone Circle in its landscape context, 2014
Archaeologists have dated these circles to the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age,[18] and have noted that they are comparable to the stone circles found further south, on Dartmoor.[18] In contrast to the two known Exmoor circles, over seventy such monuments have been identified on Dartmoor.[19] This may be because Exmoor, unlike Dartmoor, has no natural granite.[19] Instead it has Devonian slates and Hangman Grits, both of which easily break up into small slabs, resulting in a general shortage of big stones on Exmoor.[19]
This scarcity of large stones may explain why Neolithic and Bronze Age communities used small stones, termed miniliths, in the two Exmoor circles and in other monuments within the region. There are nevertheless other constructions in the area, such as the clapper bridge at Tarr Steps and the three-metre Long Stone at Challacombe, which do use locally sourced large megaliths. This suggests that larger stones would have been available had the sites' builders desired, and that the use of miniliths was therefore deliberate.[20]
Exmoor also has a henge, near Parracombe, although it has been damaged by ploughing.[19] Alongside this, the moor bears a profusion of other Bronze Age monuments, including between 300 and 400 round barrows, standing stones, linear stone rows, and stone settings.[19] The creation of these different monument types might also explain why so few stone circles were apparently created here.[21] Most of the surviving prehistoric stone monuments on Exmoor are located on those areas of moorland outside the limits of medieval and post-medieval agriculture. For this reason it is likely that the surviving sites are not a reliable indicator of the original extent of these sites.[18]
Plan of the site as it existed in 1905
The stone circle measures 36.4 metres (119 feet 6 inches) in diameter.[22] In 1905, there were 37 stones remaining in the circle.[22] At the time there were conspicuous gaps on the northern and western sides of the ring; the stones perhaps in these areas may have been removed for use as road metal.[23] There are ground depressions where some of these stones have been removed.[24] In 1915 it was reported that one had been removed but that three additional stones had been found in the circle.[25] By 1988, Martin J. F. Fowler reported that there were only 29 stones in the circle.[6] Conversely, the following year the archaeologist Aubrey Burl reported 30 stones, of which three had fallen and 27 remained standing.[5] Originally it may have included around 100 stones, spaced about one metre (3 feet 3 inches) apart.[26]
The stones themselves are small: on average they measure 10 cm (4 inches) in height, 30 cm (one foot) in width, and 10 cm (4 inches) in depth.[5] The largest protrudes about 0.5 metres (1 foot 8 inches) from the ground.[6] Most are incomplete, and likely have been broken since the original erection of the circle.[27] It is not known if all the stones in the circle come from the same natural rock, but a sample from one stone was examined and found to be a hard, pale grey gritstone, likely taken from the nearby Pickwell Down grits.[28] There are conspicuous quartz veins in many of the circle's stones.[28]
The site was accidentally rediscovered in 1898 when Archibald Hamilton was riding across Withypool Heath. His horse stumbled on one of the stones, and on further investigation he located other stones within the bracken.[29] After the bracken on the heath was burned by farmers, Hamilton returned to pay closer attention to the circle.[30] He contacted Colonel Bramble, the Vice President of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, who put him in touch with the archaeologist Harold St George Gray.[4] Gray accompanied Hamilton on a visit to the site in August 1905, when he made a complete survey of the ring.[31]
Gray published his findings in a 1906 volume of the Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, in which he drew comparisons between the site and two Cornish stone circles that he had recently surveyed, Fernacre and Stannon Stone Circle.[32] He suggested that the circle had been the site of cremations, the cremated human remains then being buried within the nearby tumuli.[33] In August 1915, Gray returned to the site.[34] He noted that the circle was in largely the same condition as before, but that the ling and whortleberry bushes around the site were more stunted than they had previously been.[35] Between 1982 and 1985, Fowler visited Withypool Stone Circle alongside other prehistoric stone monuments in Exmoor for a catalogue published in a 1988 edition of the Proceedings.[36]
The site has been categorised as a scheduled monument since 1925, and is thus accorded legal protection under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.[24][37] In the Historic England database, it is given the listing number of 1021261.[24]
^ Gray 1906, p. 43; Burl 2005, p. 80.
^ Grinsell 1970, p. 39.
^ a b c d Gray 1906, p. 44.
^ a b c d Burl 2005, p. 80.
^ a b c Fowler 1988, p. 11.
^ Fowler 1988, p. 12.
^ a b Hutton 2013, p. 81.
^ Hutton 2013, pp. 91–94.
^ Burl 2000, p. 13.
^ Hutton 2013, p. 97.
^ Burl 2000, p. 150; Riley & Wilson-North 2001, p. 24; Gillings 2015a, p. 1.
^ Riley & Wilson-North 2001, pp. 29, 178.
^ a b c Riley & Wilson-North 2001, p. 24.
^ a b c d e Burl 2000, p. 150.
^ Gillings 2015b, p. 210.
^ Burl 2000, p. 151.
^ a b Gray 1906, p. 46; Burl 2005, p. 80.
^ Gray 1906, p. 46.
^ a b c Historic England 2018.
^ Anon 1915, p. xxix.
^ Gray 1906, p. 46; Grinsell 1970, p. 39; Burl 2005, p. 80.
^ Gray 1906, pp. 46–47.
^ a b Gray 1906, p. 48.
^ Gray 1906, p. 43; Riley & Wilson-North 2001, p. 23.
^ Gray 1906, pp. 47, 48.
^ Anon 1915, p. xxviii.
^ Anon 1915, pp. xxviii–xxix.
^ Fowler 1988, p. 2.
^ Exmoor National Park Authority 2016.
Anon (1915). "The Withypool Stone Circle". Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society. 61: xxviii–xxix.
Burl, Aubrey (2000). The Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-08347-7.
Burl, Aubrey (2005). A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11406-5.
Exmoor National Park Authority (2016). "MSO8682 – Withypool Stone Circle, Withypool Hill". Exmoor Historic Environment Record. Exmoor National Park. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
Fowler, Martin J. F. (1988). "The Standing Stones of Exmoor: A Provisional Catalogue of 62 West Somerset Sites". Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society. 132: 1–13.
Gillings, Mark (2015a). "Excavation and Survey at Porlock Stone Circle and Row, Exmoor". Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society. 158: 1–28.
Gillings, Mark (2015b). "Betylmania? Small Standing Stones and the Megaliths of South-West Britain". Oxford Journal of Archaeology. 34 (3): 207–233. doi:10.1111/ojoa.12056.
Gray, Harold St George (1906). "The Stone Circle on Withypool Hill, Exmoor". Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society. 52: 42–50.
Grinsell, Leslie V. (1970). The Archaeology of Exmoor: Bideford Bay to Bridgwater. Newton Abbot: David and Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-4953-3.
Historic England (2018). "Stone circle on Withypool Hill 670m ESE of Portford Bridge (1021261)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
Hutton, Ronald (2013). Pagan Britain. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-19771-6.
Riley, Hazel; Wilson-North, Robert (2001). The Field Archaeology of Exmoor. Swindon: English Heritage. ISBN 978-1-873592-58-8.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Withypool Stone Circle.
Withypool Stone Circle at Pastscape
Withypool Stone Circle at The Megalithic Portal
Withypool Stone Circle at The Modern Antiquarian
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withypool_Stone_Circle


The 6 antenna high-end phone jammer has a portable design that blocks the most common types of cell phone signals currently available, depending on your decision on wifi and GPS signal shielding. In order to make your use more convenient, we provide you with an arm band. Its antenna can be hidden with a lid, without affecting its function.


Life outside of Saint Rose has been just as busy as my life in it– I'm getting ready to study abroad! I am a senior at the college and will be spending my last semester abroad in London. So far my summer has consisted of working non-stop, getting my things together before I leave for Europe, and spending as much time as I can with my family. I hope everyone is excited to come back to campus. Welcome back, fellow upperclassmen, and a huge welcome to all of our newcomers!
Check out my blog to follow my study abroad journey this semester.
So basically this summer has been a little out of the ordinary because I had my first-ever surgery on my shoulder and I've been rehabing my torn labrum. Aside from all that fun, I'm also recording an album of song covers I liked. I'm really excited for Ultimate Frisbee to start up again and to get back at my blog series, the Golden Knight Spotlight! Stay tuned for more.
If I could use one word to summer my summer, it would be "Work." I've been working seven days a week, and whatever free time I have has been used prepping to move back to Albany, trying to relax (which is pretty much impossible).
During the month of June I began working at my local Stewart's Shop, coming home with arms covered in ice cream. Luckily, getting a job equals getting a paycheck, which equals having enough money to have a good time in Lake George with my best Saint Rose friend and former-future roommate…and WE WENT PARASAILING. Pro tip: Parasailing is amazing.
July has been spent continuing work at Stewart's, chasing around eight-year-old kids at camp all day (AKA job #2), prepping for school and for being an RA! The first week in July I got a phone call saying an RA position opened up, and I accepted! Hence why my friend will no longer be my roommate (insert sad face here).
My July was spent working at a local Cub Scout Camp chasing around kids all day. It's difficult, it's frustrating, but it's rewarding when those kids look at you with laughs and smiles. I scoop ice cream (among other things, like stocking shelves, working a register and all that). Sleep? what is that? Free time? A joke. I haven't slept in past 7:00AM since the last week in June.
While my summer has been terribly busy, and stressful, and tiring, it's also been incredible. However, I can't wait to come back to Saint Rose in a few weeks, so I can finally, maybe, relax and sleep in! Or not….
Whats up Strose?! This summer has been pretty packed for me. It's my fifth year working at a summer camp; and my second as a music teacher/supervisor. I recreate modern pop hits into age-appropriate camp songs that the children then sing for their parents. I know, it's the dream.
I'm a big concert goer as well. This summer I've seen the Boys of Zummer Tour with Fall Out Boy, Wiz Khalifa and Hoodie Allen. I've also been blessed to be in the presence of Taylor Swift for the 1989 World Tour.
I'm excited to be going back to Saint Rose this semester. Remember, I haven't been there since December 2014. That's way too long of a break. I'll be taking a full 18 credits of joy and love come the fall. Wish me luck! You'll be reading my ramblings about it soon enough, although I promise to not make the blog too school-centric. I try to plan something fun every weekend in school in order to see the light at the end of the MLA-induced-coma. Have a great summer everybody!
Talk about surreal; I'm now officially an ALUMNI blogger! WHAT. First of all, how did that happen? Second of all, what do adults do in the fall instead of going back to school? It's a very weird feeling. However, I was so excited when Mike reached out to me about this collaborative blog. What have I been doing all summer? Well, let me tell you- post-grad summer is WEIRD. It's been a huge learning experience and has also brought me a lot of fun. The internship I had over the spring semester unfortunately did not have any job openings for me to possibly fill. That was kind of a downer, but I got a great experience there so it was nice to have to add to my resume.
Coming out of college, I did not have any jobs lined up (besides my trusty summer restaurant job!) so that put a little stress in my life. I've been applying and applying for jobs at home in the Rochester area, but haven't heard back from many yet. Who knew it took three months for companies to review resumes and get back to applicants! (I'm sure it's a commonly known thing, I just didn't believe it when people claimed that was a thing.) So in the end, it's been great to have the non-serious restaurant job to make money, have fun, and make some local connections.
Other than that, I've been having fun reconnecting with friends that I haven't seen in a while and spending time by the pool with my family! And obviously snuggling my dog after suffering from separation anxiety with her for the past four years. It's definitely going to be strange not having to pack up my bins and load up my car at the end of August this year, but I know that the future holds great things for me and for all of the other recent graduates! Wishing all of the seniors nothing but happiness and success this year- it goes by much faster than you think it will!
I'm currently suffering from separation anxiety from my second home. It's been two months since I was roaming around our beautiful campus, giving tours, consistently putting out blogs (I'm sorry), playing frisbee with the team, and *ugh* I just miss it all. I've been trying to come up every few weeks to start setting up my future home in Albany. That's right, your boy is slowly becoming a man (send help).
However, since I am home and need activities to pass the time, I've been keeping pretty busy! Aside from casually writing blogs, which you can check out here if you missed any, I now have a job at home! Now, if you know me personally, you know this is totally new for me due to a long string of events and excuses that have prevented me from actually getting a job. However, I have one now, so it's okay. I'm currently an associate at a retail store in the Poughkeepsie Galleria, the closest mall by my house. I'm sure I'll blog about the horrors of retail in the near future.
I went to Vans Warped Tour this year for the first time along with going to a Nothing More show and saw some of my favorite bands! Not only did I get to scream some of my favorite lyrics alongside my friends, I held my own in the pits. Keep in mind that I am 150 pounds of mostly water weight, I should be dead. I had fun though, so that's good, right?
One last thing that I've been doing; I've been helping my friend pursue his YouTube dream. For once, I am not in front of the camera, I am actually behind it where I belong. He reviews metalcore bands, albums, singles, tracks, etc.
With less than a month until I return to my home away from home, you could imagine my excitement. I'll be back soon to roam around campus again for my junior campaign. Big things are coming and I can't wait to unveil them all.
After graduation I hung around The Capital Region for about a week with the people that became my second family. We did a lot of adventuring, ate some pretty tasty blue cheese fondue, and they even threw me a super sweet surprise graduation party. Staying a week later also gave me time to digest the fact that I actually graduated before swinging to Massachusetts to pick up my best friend for my move to Texas. I opted to turn my move into a three day road trip because driving long distances was never something that I had done before and seemed like something I might never have the freedom to do again.
Along the way my friend and I stopped at Gettysburg, some sketchy towns in the middle of nowhere, and I was lucky enough to get a speeding ticket in Virginia. There was something really cool about just casually swinging through places like New Orleans for lunch before eventually reaching my new home of Houston and consequently a new phase of my young life. I've been here for about two months now and have been taking my time to find the perfect job. Although it would be awesome to have a job already I am taking in the time to relax and make sure I sign up for something that will make me happy. In addition to applying/interviewing for jobs I have also made some new friends, explored parts of my new city, and have been getting involved in the community through volunteer work.
Of course I still do random "Courtney things," like when I bought my new typewriter from a lady in a dog park parking so life hasn't gotten too boring. Until something monumental happens to cause me to write an alumni blog I'll leave you with my word that things really are bigger in Texas… especially their flags, they are seriously the size of houses.
← Saint Rose Alumni Night with the ValleyCats!


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Q: Communication between Socket Class and UI I am developing an android application that needs to transmit some data through sockets. At this moment it connects to the socket, send messages when clicking the interface buttons, but I want to alert the user with a AlertDialog on my interface when the socket class receives a message. I've been searching and found information about Handlers but I could not use them. How can I solve this problem?
Thanks

A: MainActivity.this.runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
    @Override
    public void run() {
        // Build an alert dialog
        AlertDialog.Builder alertDialogBuilder = new AlertDialog.Builder(this)
                .setTitle("Title")
                .setMessage("Message")
                .setCancelable(false)
                .setPositiveButton("Done", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                    public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog,int id) {
                        // Close the dialog
                        dialog.cancel();
                    }
                  });

        // Create the alert dialog
        AlertDialog alertDialog = alertDialogBuilder.create();

        // Show the alert dialog
        alertDialog.show();
    }
});

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Ultrasound is a type of imaging. It uses high-frequency sound waves to look at organs and structures inside the body. Health care professionals use it to view the heart, blood vessels, kidneys, liver, and other organs. During pregnancy, doctors use ultrasound to view the fetus.


Cats and dogs get fur all over our upholstery. And when the drive gets a bit crazy, they might leave scratches all over your car seats. With the Pet Car Seat, you won't have to worry about that! The Pet Car Seat covers your car seat while giving your pets a comfortable seat in the car.
Comfortable for your Pets – The Pet Car Seat can give your pets a comfortable seat and an instant bed for them to nap in your car. You can choose between letting them sit on the Pet Car Seat or lift up the sides to give them an instant pet bed in the car.


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Linkin Park Report For Duty In 'Medal Of Honor Warfighter' Video
'It's going to be me, in boxer shorts!' LP's Chester Bennington jokes of 'CASTLE OF GLASS' clip, which actually reflects game's somber themes.
James Montgomery 08/01/2012
When Linkin Park were approached by Electronic Arts about contributing their song "CASTLE OF GLASS" to the upcoming "Medal of Honor Warfighter" game, they knew they'd be shooting a video ... they just weren't aware it'd be a video like this.
"Remember the video where the band was playing on Pamela Anderson, and she's in a bikini and she ate the band?" LP's Chester Bennington told MTV News, referencing, of course, Lit's epochal "Miserable" clip. "That's what we're doing, only it's going to be me, in boxer shorts. It's going to be great."
"And there are going to be soldiers running around on top of Chester," Mike Shinoda added. "The guys from EA [came up with the idea] ... we weren't planning to go this direction with it; we were like 'You know, let's do a video with the band playing, and soldiers, and make it like the game,' and they were like 'No, we want to see Chester naked!'"
Of course, we suspect they're only kidding about the nudity, because when MTV News was on the set of the "CASTLE" video shoot in Los Angeles, we didn't see Bennington in his boxers (not even when we barged into his dressing room). But we did see plenty of green-screen-aided performance footage of Linkin Park (who will hit the road for the Honda Civic Tour starting August 11), which will be cut into the clip and subsequently used in promotion with the hotly anticipated "Warfighter," due in stores October 23.
And "CASTLE OF GLASS" is a fitting choice to be included in the game, which explores the personal side of war ... namely, the lives of the soldiers fighting it, and the many sacrifices they and their families make. Because when Linkin Park spoke to MTV News back in June about the making of their LIVING THINGS album, they not only mentioned the song as being one of their favorites, but mentioned that its lyrics were partially inspired by the stories of soldiers returning from combat and trying to find their place in society.
"This album tends to be a little more of a personal record, compared to the last record, which I guess I would say was a little more political. And this song is an example of that; the lyrics can have multiple meanings, be it a soldier's story [or] an individual at home, dealing with a personal relationship," Shinoda said. "[And the video] is really mostly narrative; and it's kind of the story of the families and the soldiers that this game is based on."
Are you ready for Linkin Park's new video? Let us know in the comments!


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package org.apache.shardingsphere.data.pipeline.postgresql.ingest.wal.event;

import lombok.ToString;

/**
 * Placeholder event.
 */
@ToString(callSuper = true)
public final class PlaceholderEvent extends AbstractWalEvent {
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


In America, SCC is actually surprisingly well known....probably partially thanks to Metallica's cover later on. But that track *is* much better known than SYW for example.
As for TYMD. I'm actually surprised whenever they *DON'T* play it. Bri said long ago that no matter what else happened on the day, that that track always worked. *shrug* It *IS* a good live track.
If they want to be a greatest hits band, then there are other choices they could play to at least mix up the setlist - it's a hard life, breakthru, the miracle, innuendo, too much love will kill you, good old fashioned lover boy, save me etc. All very well known tracks.
I worked out a few weeks ago that post 2005, the only absolute greatest hits they have played is Heaven for Everyone - why not at least do that?
Stu wrote: I worked out a few weeks ago that post 2005, the only absolute greatest hits they have played is Heaven for Everyone - why not at least do that?
I was trying to work out what you meant there...I think I've worked out you meant it's the only one they haven't played.
Yeah, would love for them to play it.
I think a lot of other people might have mixed feelings about songs from Made In Heaven being performed by anyone else (although they've already done I Was Born To Love You, though I don't think Paul or Adam were involved). I'm okay with it but I totally understand why some might feel they are not to be touched by others.
Well, still. The point still sort of stands.
Apologies, was on my phone and missed off the n't!
Anyway, it's all down to lazy setlist creation on Queen's part. SCC could be replaced with another early rocker, Love With My Car could be another Roger vocal track (Fight from the Inside would have been great - RT did mention he didn't consider it as it's basically a solo song, but last time I checked Last Horizon isn't a Queen track), Killer Queen could become ...Lover Boy etc etc.
Stu wrote: I think a lot of other people might have mixed feelings about songs from Made In Heaven being performed by anyone else (although they've already done I Was Born To Love You, though I don't think Paul or Adam were involved). I'm okay with it but I totally understand why some might feel they are not to be touched by others.
They also did Too Much Love with Katie Melua, but that's it I think.
MIH is very very under-represented.
I don't actually understand not performing Heaven For Everyone given how often Rog performed it on Cross tours. It would be a much better song for him to do than A Kind Of Magic.
And in context, it's ironic that they performed Love Kills so many times.
Obviously they should be starting with "Earth" and conclude with "Love Kills".
Love Earth and think they did a great live version at the Smile reunion. Maybe they'll do another reunion for the 50th(!) anniversary that is coming up.
When you read the set list and the number of songs for me it seems short and there are a few of songs which they don't play in full...Killer Queen, Bicycle Race are bits of that just connect into something else, Radio Ga Ga misses the whole 2nd verse and chorus - Take Your Breath Away is listed on the set list but its a few opening bars for WWTLF - could you really count it?
Adam's Thank You / Freddie speech, Brian's selfie stick bit are all things which eats into the 2 hours - but it gives rest breaks for the rest of the band, especially Roger.
As a drummer myself, I have always felt that the set is very much structured around Roger's staying power over a 2 hour show. He will be the most knackered at the end of it - trust me!
Nicki79 wrote: I found a this Interview in another internet-forum. Brian explains, why they dropped "Spread your wings" and "It's late". Since that question has often been discussed, I decided to bring it over.
The touring life of Queen dates all the way back to a gig at Truro Town Hall on 27 June 1970 – one, so the story goes, that was arranged by drummer Roger Taylor's mum – and monumental success soon followed. As they increased in size over the ensuing years, so did the venues they would play. For example on 20 March 1981 a staggering 131,000 rabid fans came to see them at the Morumbi Stadium in São Paolo, and the classic line-up's last show, the now revered Knebworth Park extravaganza that took place on 9 August 1986, was witnessed by an estimated throng of 160,000.
the band should have been laid to rest alongside that most wonderful of singers remains a hot-button online topic.
However, now comprising just Taylor and guitarist Brian May after the retirement of bassist John Deacon, Queen undertook three subsequent tours with Free vocalist Paul Rodgers before joining forces with a vocalist far closer to the Mercury mould, Adam Lambert.
album News Of The World and its iconic cover design by noted sci-fi artist Frank Kelly Freas that features a bloodsplattered robot.
We're speaking to May whilst the band is on hiatus between the US and European legs of the trek and he brings us up to speed regarding the origin of the idea.
Although News Of The World openers We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions have been mainstays of the Queen set for decades, the band dusted of a couple of rarer album tracks this time around, namely It's Late and Spread Your Wings. However, as May explains to us, neither made it to the final leg of the US tour and, considering the band's global stature, it's fascinating to note how organic the set list is today.
may be more of a European rather than an American thing, so it's possible that we'll consider putting it back in to see how it goes here.
It's a spectacular and hugely entertaining production, one that most Queen fans will surely relate to and enjoy regardless of who's at the vocal mic.
So, there's no putting it of : the million dollar question. Is this likely to be Queen's last tour, at least of this scale? May is ready with a response.
As we say our farewells we ask May to airm the validity and relevance of the current tour for any remaining unbelievers.
The UK leg of the Queen + AdamLambert European tour begins on 26 November 2017.
Nice find. I do adore Brian. And I still cannot believe he is 70 - the man is surely a hybrid of Peter Pan and Gandalf...gawd bless 'im.


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Ronald @ HISkye
You Can Hear the Whistle Blow
Posted on September 5 by hiskyesite
This paper is an important contribution to the significant extant issues, including that of public safety, surrounding the ongoing redesign of health and social care services in Skye, Lochalsh and South West Ross. The paper is entitled "You can hear the whistle blow" and demonstrates what a fantastic asset Portree Hospital can be for the North Skye community and particularly for the only tonwship in Skye, Lochalsh and South West Ross, namely Portree. The paper demonstrates how managers have run the service in Portree down to pay for the new Hospital in Broadford, with all of what this implies for health care in North Skye. The author, who as a clinician, has a detailed knowledge of the rise and fall of Portree as a hospital and the paper is a must read for all who live, work and intend visiting this area.
you-can-hear-the-whistle-blow.-final-1Download
Social costs associated with centralisation of hospital services in Skye: a preliminary analysis
Posted on May 25 by hiskyesite
This paper reconsiders the redesign of health and social care services in
Skye, Lochalsh and South West Ross which was first mooted in 2008. This
redesign had at its heart the building of a new hospital in Broadford and the
centralization of community hospital beds in Broadford along with key related
services such as a centralized A and E. The redesign was based on an options
appraisal process which did not include the so-called social costs of such a
When NHS boards plan a centralised model in the main population centre there
is little need to consider such costs. The redesign in SLSWR, however,
centralised hospital provision away from the main population centre, a unique
experiment for an area with a unique socio demographic, and such social costs were
not factored into the modelling despite there being a mandatory requirement so
to do. There have already been many problems arising from this centralisation
model, particulary concerning access to urgent care with the North Skye
community now being at a crucial juncture with respect to the way ahead. It is
therefore a timely point at which to revisit the crucial issue of social costs,
which is what we do in a prelimianry basis in this paper. If the extant
patient safety issues that have been a recurring feature of the health care
service in North Skye are to be adressed then it is imperative that Scottish
Government ensure that NHSH's statutory obligations with respect to the
calculation of social costs are now fullfilled. Until this is done the provision
of health and social care in North Skye will continue to lurch from one crisis
to the next and patient safety will be com
the-social-costs-of-centralisation-of-health-services-in-broadford-may-2022-final-3Download
The Launch of HIAlba-IDEA think tank; the first Highland based think tank.
Posted on March 21, 2019 by hiskyesite
Key Initial Papers of the think tank for download in PDF format:
HIAlba-IDEA -Overview 16
This paper contains a summary of the agenda of the new think thank and the proposed papers that will stem from its creation
Hydrogen Scotland – Preliminary Report (2)
This is an initial preliminary paper outlining the possibilities for Scotland stemming from recent work on creating renewable hydrogen and related renewable issues
The following paragraphs represent a summary and extended press release for the new think tank, including the authors' proposal for a Greenprint and their Bios. It is hoped that a new website for the think tank – Hialba.org – will be up and running soon and all future postings and information on the development of the think tank will be contained on this web site.
HIAlba-IDEA – Isle of Skye based think tank
founded by Prof Ronald MacDonald and Dr Donald MacRae
The relatively poor productivity and growth performances of the Scottish economy are widely accepted and there are a number of well-known potential explanations, ranging from a low aggregate R&D spend to the fallout from the 2008 financial crisis.
Innovative solutions to the productivity 'crisis' are thin on the ground and most extant proposals cover familiar ground in terms of their scope. The new think tank 'HIAlba-IDEA' has as its key agenda the formulation and propagation of new and innovative ways of addressing the growth/productivity nexus in a Scottish context. This is summarised in our motivational strapline: Maximising Scotland's well-being by bravely innovating. The think tank is apolitical and does not take a position on constitutional issues.
Based in the Isle of Skye, HIAlba-IDEA – Highlands & Islands Alba (Scotland) IDEA (Think Tank) – is the first Highland think tank. It has as its core starting point the application of a new Australian technology pioneered by the Australian national science and industrial research agency (CSIRO) to reduce markedly the cost of extracting hydrogen from ammonia produced using renewable energy and the wider implications this advance could have for the Scottish economy if implemented appropriately.
Although a huge commitment to renewables has already been made in Scotland one of the key issues in being truly self-sufficient in such energy is the dependence on what is an uncertain source of power and the inability to store the power when wind speeds are favourable. The renewable hydrogen revolution offers the ability to do this and in so doing it would potentially address, for example, the costly constraint payments that have to be made to wind farm owners. However, embracing the renewable hydrogen revolution would produce vastly greater gains.
Specifically, Scotland could maximise the benefits of decarbonising its economy by generating wind energy offshore that not only matches the UK-based flow of oil & gas from the North Sea but exceeds it to the extent that Scotland in partnership with a consortium of global energy majors becomes one of the largest global energy exporters in the world. We envisage that it would do so through the low-cost extraction of hydrogen from renewably generated ammonia used as a storage medium and carrier of hydrogen. Offshore ammonia production on disused oil rigs servicing offshore wind farms could be stored in large underwater tanks for periods of low wind. In this way the continuous production of renewable electricity could be guaranteed, either by wind to electricity or ammonia to hydrogen to fuel cell electricity. The prospect for doing so with advanced materials technologies hold the promise of near zero loss of electricity transmission making the prospect of serving a Europe-wide Supergrid increasingly attractive, perhaps scaling to delivering an energy-independent Europe reaping the economic benefits of rapidly reducing energy costs, and the health and environmental benefits of ever improving air quality (of critical importance to Europe[1]) and water quality.
We reason that as hydrogen becomes increasingly central to national economies, remote, rural and regional areas of Scotland, such as the Highlands, are best placed to generate and export electricity and ammonia on a massive scale and we outline wide ranging opportunities for remote, rural and regional Scotland to increase massively the manufactures of food products and advanced technology products and IT-based services to the scale of global corporate enterprises. We also describe how Scotland can massively increase its exports of medicine and healthcare services and education and training services.
We envisage that such decentralisation will also advantage Scottish cities in major ways by:
boosting levels of supporting manufacturing of technologically advanced products and services that could be leveraged into major export outcomes
leading to renewable energy steelmaking and graphite-to-graphene products
building autonomous "self-fuelled" ships for
vast increases in ammonia transportation
cleaning up plastic infestations of the oceans and seas running on biofuels produced onboard from the plastics collected
roll on roll off shipping to transport exports of autonomous refuse collection vehicles (RCVs) running on biofuels produced in real-time from the plastics and bio-wastes collected
harvesting on a Japanese scale seaweed from farms enabled by vast wind farm structures
ironically making it possible for Glasgow and Edinburgh to evolve as a conurbation with productivity levels matching that of Greater London but so doing without incurring the income disparities prevailing in England.
However, the remit of the think tank is much wider than a sole focus on renewable hydrogen, as its founding Overview report demonstrates. In particular, it contains new thinking on a large range of issues from the implementation of the digital economy. We refer to this as digitalisation and detail how this will accelerate advancement of the foregoing mutually reinforcing processes of decarbonisation and decentralisation.
Beyond this we consider that the application of advances in artificial intelligence and secure networking technologies will accelerate the uptake of Scottish science and technology by existing and startup enterprises and their beneficial interaction with startups worldwide, among other things, drawing on resources and expertise of the Scottish diaspora and the California based Singularity University's startup initiative and their "exponential technology" Summits. We make a detailed case for "Why Scotland?" should and could take a leading role in ensuring the benevolence of the rapidly development and deployment of artificial intelligence.
Benchmarking Productivity: We make a case for benchmarking productivity improvements for three of the four EU regions for Scotland (namely North-East, South-West and the Highlands & Islands) to the much higher levels that prevail in Norway and a several hundred percentage improvement in the Glasgow-Edinburgh conurbation, spanning the fourth region, to match or exceed the level of Greater London.
Centrality of Social Capital: We perceive the need for innovation in building social capital given its role as the preeminent driving force in achieving and mobilising the quality of human capital to maximise well-being. We consider social capital resources such as trust, cultural norms, and networks of association. Existing comparisons of the impact on inequality of varying levels of social capital endowment in 15 EU countries, including the UK, provide a basis for breaking this down to the four EU regions for Scotland. We assess the role of social capital in ensuring ethical and beneficial development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) is matched with detailed considerations of how AI can advance the processes of nations building social capital.
Policy Relevance: Recent technological advances now proffer many opportunities for Scotland to maximise the benefits from its impressive strengths in renewable energy by further decentralising governance to engage comprehensively with local communities-of-interest, in harnessing two game changing opportunities: (1) the production of renewable hydrogen for massive scale exports; and (2) distributed ledger technologies for central governments to lead by allocating responsibilities to decentralised entities in achieving these benefits maximally, confidently and securely. We note that Norway and Switzerland, two of the most successful tech-savvy economies in Europe, are not only socially progressive but also operate highly decentralised systems of governance while eschewing the overarching strictures entailed by membership of the EU.
Why Skye: Although much of the input into explaining Scotland's economic performance has focused on the central belt, and indeed all existing Scottish think tanks are central belt based, this new think tank takes a more holistic approach by focusing on the contributions of the different regional areas discussed in the Overview report. Indeed, since one of the key proposals of the new think tank is tapping into both the existing renewable sector and its future development, the think tank will be based in the Highlands (in Portree) and there is a strong Highland emphasis in our proposed workstreams. The Highland economy, a largely rural economy, already makes an important contribution to the Scottish economy in GVA and employing 1 in 5 of the workforce. But it could do a great deal more and it is often seen, for a variety of reasons, as underperforming with respect to national averages and indeed has been labelled the sleeping giant of the Scottish economy. The founders of the new think tank also have strong links to the Highland area, with one being based there. However, as the think tank's Overview report makes clear the remit of the new think tank is by no means limited to the Highlands as the proposals contained therein have a much wider impact for the Scottish economy.
In launching their new think tank, MacDonald and MacRae propose an ambitious Greenprint to create the reality of a renewable energy Supergrid for Europe and a summary of that is given below.
Greenprint for European Supergrid
Step 1: Noting that ammonia is an effective, well-established way of transporting hydrogen, accelerate the application of a new Australian technology to reduce markedly the cost of extracting hydrogen from ammonia.
Step 2: Accelerate the existing use of renewable energy to produce ammonia that is much cheaper than existing hydrocarbon-based polluting processes.
Step 3: Accelerate the development of processes to produce ammonia directly from energy, air and water: Solid-State-Ammonia-Synthesis and a customised fuel-cell process. Oxygen bi-product would be a major opportunity in its own right.
Step 4: Accelerate existing initiatives to lower markedly the cost of producing blades and turbines to accelerate, in turn, the existing uptake of offshore windfarms – Scotland features with Norway in the world's first offshore wind farm.
Step 5: Partner with Norway and Australia in assessing the feasibility of transporting ammonia as a carrier of hydrogen for existing uses in all forms of electric-based transportation (including cars, buses, trucks, trains, ships and planes) and electricity generation for food production, human habitation and industrialisation.
Step 6: Accelerate existing research efforts to use graphene as a super-conductor for near zero-energy losses in the transmission of electricity.
Step 7: Accelerate Australian company's R&D and early stage commercialisation of a process for low-cost, carbon-neutral extraction of graphite and hydrogen from natural gas – a possible acceptable way of utilising Scotland's onshore natural gas reserves. Evaluate ways to use by-product hydrogen for electricity to achieve carbon-negative production of graphite for electric vehicle battery production and to use in local, national and international electricity grids.
Step 8: Accelerate the development of technologies to produce graphene from graphite and its effective use as a super-conductor, especially in the transmission of electricity.
Step 9: Evaluate the feasibility of using old oil & gas rigs as platforms located (throughout a vast array of windfarms located in the continental-shelf Atlantic and North Sea) to produce ammonia and store in large undersea tanks for conversion to electricity in periods of low wind, thereby delivering a continuous, non-intermittent supply of electricity.
Step 10: Produce a blueprint to integrate the foregoing into a comprehensive technology roadmap to establish offshore wind farms in the Atlantic and North Sea that will provide levels of continuous and zero-loss transmission of electricity on a scale that will deliver energy independence for Europe through a European Supergrid as envisaged by wind-energy entrepreneur Eddie O'Connor in "An engineering vison for a New Europe".
Step 11: Prepare a financial roadmap that demonstrates how to supplement long-term reducing returns to investors from the ever-decreasing cost of producing renewable energy by returns from the industrial and municipal users of the Supergrid (e.g. as blockchain-authenticated, profit-sharing and payment agreements).
Step 12: Use Supergrid technology and financial roadmaps as the basis of forging a grand collaboration with energy majors to invest in and implement the infrastructure to realise the renewable energy production for the European Supergrid as a forerunner to electricity grids worldwide.
Step 13: Evaluate the feasibility of Supergrids for other regions of the world, noting that in Africa not only could low-cost, non-polluting energy be delivered but also ammonia for fertilisers that African farming desperately needs.
HIAlba-IDEA's proposed programme of work.
The new think tank has an ambitious programme of work which is summarised in the Overview paper available above, the contents of which are given here:
Foreword – Bravely Innovating
The 3D era
Beyond 3D – Profiling and Networking Startups
Productivity Gains by Transitioning to Export Powerhouse
Proposed Papers
Innovation in Building Social Capital to Maximise Well-Being
Hydrogen Scotland: A Route to Export Powerhouse
Investment in Demonstrations of Hydrogen Scotland Technologies
Investment in the Deployment of Hydrogen Scotland Technologies and Advances
Scoping the Extent of Eco-Industrialising the Highlands and Islands
Crofting as a Catalyst for Hydrogen Scotland Development and Eco-Industrialisation
Greenprint for a Lead Community on the Isle of Skye
Appraisal of Manufacturing and Service Export Opportunities
A Business Case for Operating an Implementation Capacity on the Isle of Skye
5.10 Evaluation of the National Socio-Economic and Environmental Impacts
Regional Contributions to Raising Productivity and Powering Export Performance
Exports in Medicine & Healthcare
Exports in Education & Training
Why Scotland?
Founders Bios
Prof Ronald MacDonald
Ronald is a Professor in Macroeconomics and International Finance at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow. Prior to this he held the Bonar Macfie Chair of economics, 2005-2006, and the Adam Smith Chair of Political Economy 2006-20015, both at Glasgow University. From 1992 to 2004 he was Professor of International Finance at the University of Strathclyde and from 1989-91 held the Robert Fleming Chair in Finance and Investment, at the University of Dundee.
Ronald has published over 150 refereed journal articles and authored or edited over 18 books and Google scholar ascribes over 350 written pieces in total to him. His peer reviewed papers are published in the Economic professions' leading journals. He is also a Research Fellow of the CESifo Research Network, Munich, and an International Fellow of the Kiel Institute of Economic Policy. He is also an associate editor for six economics journals and has over 16,000 citations recorded on Google Scholar to his written work. and he consistently ranks in the top 1% of the IDEAS/RePec ranking of economists in the UK, Europe and in the World. Ronald was awarded an OBE in the 2015 Queens Birthday Honours list for services to Economic Policy.
He has acted as a consultant advisor, on a large range of topics, to the European Commission, General Secretariat for Development Planning, Qatar, the European Central Bank, The World Bank, The IMF, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, The UK National Audit Office and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and has also been a visiting scholar to the Deutsche Bundesbank, the Austrian Central Bank, and the Norwegian Central Bank. Additionally, he has been a visiting Scholar and Consultant to the Research Department of the IMF on 13 separate occasions, Visiting Economist to the African department of the IMF and appointed a Monetary Advisor to the IMF in 2012. He has also been a consultant to a number of private sector institutions, including Royal Bank of Scotland (in the 1990s), Credit Suisse First Boston, Gartmore and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell.
Dr Donald MacRae
Work life has included private sector management positions, under-secretary positions in the Australian Government in Canberra, director of corporate planning in CSIRO, and private consulting experience in economic, energy, environmental, urban & regional development projects in 28 countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, North America, Europe, and Oceania. He has directed major projects in global modelling, international drylands management, and R&D prioritisation for agencies in Australia and worldwide.
The Global Models & the Policy Process (G-MAPP) Project involved coordinating comparisons and integration of modelling ventures by Donald's group in the Australian Government, UK Cabinet Office, OECD Interfutures Project, World Bank's World Model, and UN's World IO Model. The International Drylands Project attracted funding from 14 international agencies resulting in tabling the executive report Drylands Dilemma at the Governing Council of UNEP and publication of the books The Economics of Drylands Management and Drylands Management: Case Studies. Expanding the pollution control focus of the OECD to encompass natural resources management involved many working sessions in Paris.
The workshop-based R&D prioritisation process developed by CSIRO, Australia's largest science and research organisation, was adopted by numerous national and regional organisations in Australia and worldwide, several through the London-based Commonwealth Science Council. Relevant consultancy projects include:
Facilitated 1990 Australian Government & CSIRO Workshop on Economics of Climate Change producing report entitled Economic analysis for responding to greenhouse climate change (page 57 April 1991).
"Kick started" the Hastings 2000 Project to establish a model 'ecotechnopolis' for 75,000 residents sustaining a wide range of highly skilled and professional employment and business development opportunities, on the mid north coast of New South Wales – published in Urban Living in a Natural Environment report to the NSW Government – and commissioned use of nation's leading national economic model to estimate increases in national productivity and growth from 25 similar developments compared with business as usual – Assessing National Economic Benefits of Decentralised Development through Hastings 2000 Projects.
Participated in preparatory meetings and contributed as a keynote speaker to the Asia and Pacific Interparliamentary Conference on "Science and Technology for Regional Sustainable Development", Tokyo, 13-17 June 1994.
Submitted a winning entry to the 1994 OECD Ecological Cities Project – Jerrabomberra: sustainable living in the 21st century and prepared follow up report the Australian Government.
ACT Green Jobs – report for the Australian Capital Territory Government on creation of jobs, based on development of environmental industries and associate R&D, technologies, goods and services.
ACT Waste Management – 1996 report leading to ACT Government's policy goal of No Waste by 2010.
The 2010 verdict.
Commonwealth Science Council (CSC) – conducted numerous strategic, scenario and priority planning workshops and projects in many Commonwealth countries for London-based CSC.
Development of A Regional Development Policy for Western Australia resulting from harnessing and distilling the insights of numerous stakeholders in 9 regions.
Facilitation of a World Study Tour and provision of a Social Benefit-Cost Analysis as key inputs to a masterplan for St Andrews, a new city for 150,000 residents north of Perth, Western Australia;
Provided the "green print" attracting $10m for the establishment of GREEN Inc – Gippsland Region Economy & Ecology Network Inc – to stimulate the creation of and investment in creation of green jobs and enterprises for the Gippsland region.
Impact of Sustainable Urban & Regional Development on Economic Performance in Indonesia with CSIRO, University of Indonesia, and numerous Indonesian agencies.
Impact of High-Performance Computing Technologies on Australian Industry for the Australian Government.
Supported the development of strategic approaches to setting priorities for Murray Darling Basin Commission (see Annual Report 1999-2000), the Cooperative Research Centre for Plant-Based Management of Drylands Salinity, and the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Accounting.
Review and evaluation of the effectiveness in 2004 of the climate change research program funded by the Australian Government; External review of the Australian Greenhouse Science Programme.
Stakeholder-driven 25-year scenario planning project for the Avon River Basin of Western Australia: Avon River Basin 2050: Four regional scenarios for the next half-century; Avon River Basin: Confronting our Future; The Avon River Basin in 2050: scenario planning in the Western Australian Wheatbelt.
[1] Air pollution kills more people than smoking, German scientists say – 64,000 pa excess deaths in UK and 790,000 pa in Europe.
Update of the Maximising Scotland paper and a preliminary draft of Hydrogen Scotland.
Posted on July 21, 2018 by hiskyesite
Attached to this blog is an update of our Maximising Scotland paper, referred to in the blog of April 29 (now called HIAlba), along with a preliminary draft of the key paper discussed in that paper, namely Hydrogen Scotland.
HIAlbaHydrogen Scotland 1
Your life in their hands redux and the question that was never asked.
Posted on May 1, 2018 by hiskyesite
Your Life in their Hands – final
This paper has two main elements. It is a substantial revision of the paper 'Your life in Their Hands', initially published in 2016, necessary because many if not all of the substantive and objective issues relating to the redesign of health and social care in Skye, Lochalsh and South West Ross (SLSWR) remain unaddressed, although they clearly need to be and urgently. The redesign – labeled solely 'rural' by NHS Highland (NHSH) despite the reality and nature of the area- proposes closure of Portree Hospital as an emergency and inpatient facility along with its rural A and E, with a new build single community hospital built, replacing both existing hospitals and unifying their rural A and E, in Broadford.
Additionally, the paper considers the 'bigger picture' concerning the redesign, namely what is the optimal redesign of health and social care to meet the needs of all of the people that live, work and spend their leisure time in the artificial geographic area created by NHS Highland? This question has never been asked by NHSH at any stage in the redesign process and their much narrower focus, as revealed in their model options appraisal, boils down to the refurbishment of buildings and, specifically, the need, as they have determined it, to completely refurbish Broadford hospital by a new build, paid for by closing Portree Hospital and its associated rural A and E.
Maximising Scotland's Well-Being by Bravely Innovating: The productivity puzzle and how to solve it needs new thinking.
Posted on April 29, 2018 by hiskyesite
Maximising Scotland
This paper contains an overview of a series of papers that will report on proposed investigations to identify and evaluate latent opportunities – existing, emerging, expecting – that if realised could contribute to maximising the well-being of not only Scotland's citizens but the natural environment and resources which sustains them. It is envisaged that the realisation of this will depend on meshing "bravely innovating" processes of governments, enterprises and communities-of-interest to enhance Scottish strengths, particularly in export endeavour, in existing and emerging sectors and to shape the environment for "back-to-the-future" expectations of resurgent enlightenment.
Renewable Hydrogen Project
Posted on February 26, 2018 by hiskyesite
25xH2000SKM_C454e17122113400
Hastings 2000 Project: Urban Living in a Natural Environment – to view in colour see Dropbox.
Assessing National Economic Benefits of Decentralised Development through Hastings 2000 Projects
The above files are a reference point for ongoing work by Donald MacRae and I in assessing renewable hydrogen prospects for Scotland, the Highlands & Islands and Skye.
Donald's bio for related consultancy projects include:
(a) "Kick started" the Hastings 2000 Project to establish a model 'ecotechnopolis' for 75,000 residents sustaining a wide range of highly skilled and professional employment and business development opportunities, on the mid north coast of New South Wales – published in Urban Living in a Natural Environment report to the NSW Government – and commissioned use of nation's leading national economic model to estimate increases in national productivity and growth from 25 similar developments compared with business as usual – Assessing National Economic Benefits of Decentralised Development through Hastings 2000 Projects.
(b) Submitted a winning entry to the 1994 OECD Ecological Cities Project – Jerrabomberra: sustainable living in the 21st century
(c) Development of A Regional Development Policy for Western Australia resulting from harnessing and distilling the insights of numerous stakeholders in 9 regions;
(d) Facilitation of a World Study Tour and provision of a Social Benefit-Cost Analysis as key inputs to a masterplan for St Andrews, a new city for 150,000 residents north of Perth, Western Australia;
(e) Provided the "green print" attracting $10m for the establishment of GREEN Inc – Gippsland Region Economy & Ecology Network Inc – to stimulate the creation of and investment in creation of green jobs and enterprises for the Gippsland region;
(f) Supported the development of strategic approaches to setting priorities for Murray Darling Basin Commission (see Annual Report 1999-2000), the Cooperative Research Centre for Plant-Based Management of Drylands Salinity, and the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Accounting.
(g) Review and evaluation of the effectiveness in 2004 of the climate change research program funded by the Australian Government; External review of the Australian Greenhouse Science Programme
(h) Stakeholder-driven 25-year scenario planning project for the Avon River Basin of Western Australia: Avon River Basin 2050: Four regional scenarios for the next half-century; Avon River Basin: Confronting our Future; The Avon River Basin in 2050: scenario planning in the Western Australian Wheatbelt
(i) Prepared No Waste by 2010 strategy for the Australian Capital Territory in 1996.
(j) Facilitated 1990 Australian Government & CSIRO Workshop on Economics of Climate Change.
Press release for the paper – 'Skye and Raasay Tourism Infrastructure: A Dynamic Workshop Approach'
Posted on October 23, 2017 by hiskyesite
TI-RMDM2
Tourism infrastructure (TI) issues on Skye and Raasay came to a watershed in 2017 with the exponential growth in tourist numbers colliding with an infrastructure that is no longer fit for purpose. This ambitious paper seeks to provide solutions to the TI issues and, particularly, solutions which are sustainable for both locals and tourists for this and future generations.
The paper firstly asks why the TI problem arose and attributes this to the effective zero entrance price that is currently charged for iconic sites such as the Storr and Quirang. As the paper shows, this is not a unique issue and arises in other areas such as in the fishing industry. So at least part of the solution to the TI problem will be some form of pricing, either through, say, parking charges, licensing or quota restrictions. The paper, though, stresses that there can be no one unique solution – the solution is likely to be multifactorial.
In thinking about solutions, the paper offers a dynamic modelling approach that has two dimensions. The first is to think how the TI issues may be addressed in the short term (1-2 years) – the obvious road surface, parking and toilet issues that everyone is familiar with; through to the medium term (3-5) years, in terms of more ambitious parking and congestion solutions, which may include a park and ride model for part of the island; the long-run is that which offers sustainability to the tourist industry in terms of the iconic sites and of course to the local community, and needs to be thought through now at this watershed time.
The second dynamic aspect of the project involves what is referred to as a dynamic workshop approach, engaging all stakeholders, to decide on the relevant projects that satisfy the objectives in the three time horizons. As part of the workshop approach a novel scoring method is provided for evaluating and prioritising projects and this is set out in detail in the paper.
The paper proposes two long-term 'anchor' project statements: a dual World Heritage Site listing for Skye and a Tall Ships project. The World heritage listing is intended to offer long run sustainability to the land based tourism industry, by attracting funding from a diverse range of sources, and similarly the Tall ships race, with various events built around it is intended to kick start the sleeping giant of marine tourism by way of offering imaginative and innovative funding solutions.
Ronald MacDonald
Ronald is currently Professor in Macroeconomics and International Finance at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow. Prior to this he held the Bonar Macfie Chair of economics, 2005-2006, and the Adam Smith Chair of Political Economy 2006-20015, both at Glasgow University. From 1992 to 2004 he was Professor of International Finance at the University of Strathclyde and from 1989-91 held the Robert Fleming Chair in Finance and Investment, at the University of Dundee.
Ronald has published over 150 refereed journal articles and authored or edited over 18 books and Google scholar ascribes over 350 written pieces in total to him. He is also a Research Fellow of the CESifo Research Network, Munch, and an International Fellow of the Kiel Institute of Economic Policy. He is also an associate editor for six economics journals and has over 13,000 citations recorded on Google Scholar to his written work. and he consistently ranks in the top 1% of the IDEAS/ RePec ranking of economists in the UK, Europe and in the World. Ronald was awarded an OBE in the 2015 Queens Birthday Honours list for services to Economic Policy.
His peer reviewed papers are published in the Economic professions' leading journals, including The Economic Journal, Economica, The Review of Economics and Statistics, European Economic Review, The Journal of Monetary Economics, The Journal of Money Credit and Banking, The Journal of International Money and Finance, The Journal of Banking and Finance, IMF Staff Papers, The Journal of Business, Economics and Statistics.
Ronald has acted as a consultant advisor, on a large range of topics, to the European Commission, General Secretariat for Development Planning, Qatar, the European Central Bank, The World Bank, The IMF, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, The UK National Audit Office and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and has also been a visiting scholar to the Deutsche Bundesbank, the Austrian Central Bank, and the Norwegian Central Bank. Additionally, he has been a visiting Scholar and Consultant to the Research Department of the IMF on 13 separate occasions, Visiting Economist to the African department of the IMF and appointed a Monetary Advisor to the IMF in 2012. He has also been a consultant to a number of private sector institutions, including Royal Bank of Scotland (in the 1990s), Credit Suisse First Boston, Gartmore and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell.
Donald MacRae
From Treaslane primary school, Skye, in the 1950's, life has furnished Donald with graduate, masters and doctoral qualifications in Scotland and Australia. Work life has included executive management, under-secretary and director of corporate planning in the Australian Government in Canberra along with private consulting experience encompassing 28 countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, North America, Europe, and Oceania. He has been involved in the orchestration of local, regional, national and international projects for heavy industry companies, environment management agencies, remote & rural developments, urban & regional developments, international drylands management, global economic & resources management modelling, and R&D prioritisation.
More specifically, the Global Economic & Resources Management Modelling project involved coordinating from the East-West Centre in Honolulu comparisons and integration of modelling ventures by Donald's group in the Australian government, the Limits to Growth Model, UK Cabinet Office, OECD Interfutures Project, World Bank's World Development Report Model, Tokyo University's Fuji Global IO Model, Global Resources Models of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Vienna, the UN's World IO Model developed by Wassily Leontief. The International Drylands Project had 14 international agencies wanting to fund the project resulting in the executive report Drylands Dilemma, and the books The Economics of Drylands Management and Drylands Management: Case Studies. Expanding the pollution control focus of the OECD to encompass natural resources management took Australia years to pull off, with the upside being countless visits to Paris for Donald, and many a side trip to Scotland.
The workshop-based R&D prioritisation process developed by CSIRO, Australia's largest science and research organisation, was adopted by numerous national and regional organisations, several through the London-based Commonwealth Science Council. Consultancy projects included: (a) the development of a regional development policy for Western Australia resulting from harnessing and distilling the insights of numerous stakeholders in 9 regions; (b) the facilitation of a world study tour and provision of a social benefit-cost analysis as key inputs to a masterplan for St Andrews, a new city for 150,000 residents north of Perth, Western Australia; (c) a review and evaluation of the effectiveness of the climate change research program funded by the Australian Government; and (d) a stakeholder-driven 25-year scenario planning project for the Avon River Basin of Western Australia.


Every year, the New York Region Phi Theta Kappa holds an annual regional conference, where all the honour students with their school chapter are sent to a certain place where they have a conference and receive awards for a job well done during the year.
It is a great time to see and talk to all the people from different colleges around the New York state and also ask questions at the transfer booths to different universities. I was one of the people that was leading the conference.
The conference was different this year because as a New York Region we needed to vote on a decision that the Phi Theta Kappa headquarters proposed. They proposed to only have five positions instead of eight. We needed to vote on cutting the position of Recording Secretary, Programming Secretary and Historian.
The voting was long, but we came up with a decision to have one secretary that includes the roles of the eliminated positions.
During one of the breaks, I went to the room where the transfer booths were set up and OH MY GOD THERE WAS NEW YORK UNIVERSITY!!!
I did not jump…but yes I jumped and screamed internally. Trying to keep the professional look, I slowly approached NYU table and then I just poured on the poor admissions representative with questions.
I think I talked to him for about a good 40 minutes. After this conversation, I was out of my English. I could barely say a sentence in English. The convention continued smooth and steady.
During a different break, just before dinner, I saw this little boy taking photos of everything with his mom's camera. I approached him and asked, "Have you ever tried to take photos using this kind of camera?" (I have a Canon EOS550). He said no and I gave him the camera to play with. At first, he was so shy but I showed him a magic trick where the camera takes pictures even without touching the button.
Overall it was a great time that I spent in Tarrytown, NY.
I have been checking my mail every second of the day.