I think it's safe to say that we went from having a house with a tiny garage to having a garage with a small house! Okay, our house isn't small, but next to this new garage it definitely looks that way! I'm not complaining, though, our garage looking like this is just another sign of progress! We're moving forward and I am loving it!


text:
The Women of Horror Literature - Nikki Hopeman - The Author's Own Words
Nikki Hopeman, The Final Girl...unless faced with Hannibal Lecter.
Nikki Hopeman is a really talented horror writer who delves in mystery and urban fantasy as well. She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a BS in Microbiology, but she also carries a Master of Fine Arts in Writing and Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She has served as a judge in national writing competitions and is available for individual or group instruction. Just check out her website for more info: www.nikkihopeman.com. You can also check out her Facebook page.
I think her combination of education really gives wonderful credence to her novel Habeas Corpse from Blood Bound Books. This novel is a very clever and compelling look at zombies, who live and work alongside us, though they aren't always treated well. In this novel, a series of strange murders lead Theo, a forensic technician who's also a Riser, to use his dark gifts to find the murderer. But those gifts come at a horrible price. Plus, Nikki has a cat and three corgis! How can you go wrong?
First of all, thanks for having me for this interview. Women in Horror Month is a great thing and I always learn about more talented women writers. I'm looking forward to new names!
I think my interest in the horror genre has been a natural progression from a childhood as an only child with a vivid imagination and a father who loved true crime. I started out writing as a mystery author, but when my stories kept getting darker and darker, my writing mentor, Scott Johnson, gently suggested I just go with it and write horror. And go with it I did.
Horror based in realism is my favorite subgenre. Think Jack Ketchum, Thomas Harris, Brett Easton Ellis, and Stephen King with Misery. True terror, for me, lies in exploring what humans are capable of doing to one another. However, I write any kind of horror. Habeas Corpse is supernatural, with a psychic zombie, and my short story "Black Bird" is based on a Middle Eastern myth.
Women's voices are important in the horror genre. Women see the world, and all the horrors, slightly differently than men, and that shift in perspective can offer readers something distinct. Having experienced the misogyny endemic to a genre historically dominated by men, I think WiHM is necessary and helpful. Influencers in the genre can do a lot to help turn around some of the misogyny by simply supporting the women writing horror.
The horror genre will never go away. People have always and will always experience fear, and reading, writing, and watching horror is a way to process that emotion. Given the current political climate around the world, I won't be surprised to see more horror fiction centered on international discord and civil strife. Despite my few personal experiences, I think women's presence in horror is being welcomed more and we will certainly offer a strong point of view in any fiction dealing with inequality or marginalization. Some of the most kick-ass protagonists out there are women, like Chuck Wendig's Miriam Black and, naturally, Ellen Ripley.
Absolutely there are women in horror entertainment who inspire me. Anne Rice is a giant. I love the work of Tana French, Sarah Pinborough, and Gillian Flynn. Annie Wilkes is such a great character, a study in contrasts. One of my favorite horror movies is Saw, and I had the opportunity to meet Shawnee Smith. You know she doesn't like scary movies? Closer to home, there are people in my writing circle who inspire me daily. Lucy Snyder, Kristin Dearborn, Stephanie Wytovich, and Sarah Read keep me motivated and proud to be a horror writer.
Do I have a favorite female character in the horror genre… I'd have to say Dana Scully, although I know there is some argument over whether The X-Files is horror or not. I have a science background, like Dana, and I'm a huge skeptic. I feel like she and I could have a good time rolling our eyes at pseudoscience.
Depends on the scenario. Anything supernatural, I'm the final girl, because of the skeptic in me. If Hannibal Lecter came after me, though, I'd be the one weeping in a closet.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


In cooperation with AUMUND France, SAMSON Materials Handling announces an order from Sorfert in Algeria for two identical Samson® Material Feeder units designed to receive bulk prilled urea from 30 tonne tipping trucks. These new Samson® Feeders will discharge into the existing SAMSON Shiploaders which have been operational on site at the Aznew Industrial complex since 2010.
Sorfert Algeria is a joint venture between OCI N. V and Sonatrach the state-owned oil and gas authority. AUMUND France has been assisting Sorfert Algeria to develop the mobile materials handling process for many years through the installation of various pieces of equipment.
The Samson® Material Feeders developed for this project are a rubber belted apron design mounted onto a pneumatic wheeled axle under gear. They will convey the prilled urea on a 3 m wide oil and fat resistant belt and discharge via an integral centralising head chute to the SAMSON Shiploader.
The twin feeder configuration chosen by Sorfert considerably reduces downtime. While one Samson® Feeder is receiving the prilled urea the subsequent truck can position itself to discharge to the other Samson® Feeder. The buffer facility of each feeder ensures that material is still conveying to the Shiploader while this repositioning occurs.
Due to the corrosive nature of the material these new Samson® Feeders are fitted with a number of enhanced design and anti-corrosion features to prolong the longevity of the equipment and maintain performance and productivity. Stainless steel fixings are fitted throughout and electrical sensors and exposed sensitive components are treated with clear plastic resin. For free flowing particles the brush strips provide a primary seal to maintain directionality of the material flow. The secondary seal strip further prevents material ingress into the chain.
In a busy port environment equipment is heavily used and must be robust. These new Samson® Feeders also include a sacrificial truck impact bar to protect the equipment from any impact when positioning loaders.


text:
How Lasers May Have Revealed A Legendary Lost City Of Gold
One year ago, a team of researchers traveled deep into the Honduran rainforest in search of Ciudad Blanca, the legendary lost city of treasures. Yesterday, they revealed images — uncovered by lasers — of structures that they believe to be the White City itself.
The legend of the White City has captured explorers' imaginations for centuries; Hernán Cortés detailed his interest in the purportedly gold-laden metropolis as far back as 1526. But the Mosquitia region where it was rumoured to exist is densely packed with rainforest, and the conquistadors never penetrated deep enough to claim their prize.
Modern archaeologists have been just as stymied. Mosquitia has been the focus of a half dozen intensive explorations in the last century alone, some of which have yielded signs of some ruins and mounds. No one, though, despite their best efforts, had found anything close to a full city structure.
The team of researchers from the University of Houston, though, had something none of those expeditions did. They had lasers.
Major Laser
The National centre for Airborne Laser Mapping does just what you would think; uses highly advanced lasers to see things the human eye can't. Specifically, in this case, the team — led by a Los Angeles-based filmmaker — used a Lidar system to penetrate the thick foliage of Mosquitia and discover the treasures that lay beneath.
Lidar itself isn't particularly new. Developed in the 1960s, it was originally used to measure cloud densities, but comes in handy today for everything from mapping the Amazon rainforest to hunting down modern-day pirates. In this implementation, the system spits out laser pulses and measures how they're reflected off vegetation and the ground, to map the surface hidden beneath the forest's canopy.
By stripping away layers of reflections the researchers were able to remove detail from the canopy and reveal the ground beneath, shown on the right in the image above. Yesterday, the researchers revealed these images for the first time, at the American Geophysical Union Meeting of the Americas in Cancun.
The White Cities?
After others had spent centuries trying to unearth a single city of gold, the NCALM exploration made a surprising find: not one city, but two.
It might hard for the untrained eye to see, but the Lidar images revealed regularly spaced mounds — and a few other linear features — that possibly make up two distinct city centres. Either of which could very well be the legendary Ciudad Blanca.
We should know soon enough. The team is now closely studying the data to work out which sections contain the most promising features. Once they have, they'll deploy archaeologists to investigate the site further.
What will they find? Maybe rubble. Maybe gold. Maybe thousands of inexplicable golden orbs. The possibilities are endless when you uncover a legend right here in real life. [Nature]
Alex Choros 20 Jan 2020 2:50 PM
If you're looking for a genuinely fast NBN plan, there are a couple of different ways to gauge performance. Providers self-report evening speeds, the ACCC issues a quarterly report, or you could check out what Netflix has to say.


LocoFlights.com will find you the cheapest flights from Doha to Shiraz, comparing the cost of the flight to Shiraz with 45 agencies, 5 booking systems and 718 airlines. Where to buy Doha - Shiraz plane tickets - it's up to you.
It should be noted that depending on the number of days left before departure, the price of a ticket for a Doha - Shiraz plane can change by more than 59%.
LocoFlights.com suggests buying air tickets Doha - Shiraz in advance, then you can choose the conditions of the flight, focusing on your wishes and financial opportunities.


180 km north-west of Rovaniemi, at Äkäslompolo in Ylläs holiday resort area. One half (apartment) of silverlog semi-detached house unit 2009, living room/kitchen, bedroom double bed (width 140 cm), sleeping loft 3 beds and convertible sofa/bed, sauna, washroom, utility room, separate WC, open porch. Heated storeroom with ski waxing bench. Apartment has 2 TV sets and home theatre equipment. Plugs (2 pcs) for car heating. New silverlog apartment at edge of park close to Äkäslompolo tourist centre services. Illuminated ski trail right next to apartment. Äkäslompolo restaurant and shop services 1.5 - 2.5 km. Kellokas Nature Centre 1.8 km, ski slopes 2.8 km, spa services 15 km. Dogs allowed on lower (ground) floor only.


text:
Q: Get selected records in linq union from two different tables I have two tables, UserNotifications and GlobalNotifications.  I need to Union these two tables together and date order them to retrieve a users notification history.  This is the working query I currently have:
var q = db.UserNotifications.Where(c => c.UserID == forUser.ScirraUserID)
    .Select(c => new {c.ID, type = "u", date = c.FirstDate})
    .Union(db.GlobalNotifications.Select(c => new {c.ID, type = "g", date = c.Date}))
    .OrderBy(c => c.date)
    .Skip(skip)
    .Take(take);

Problem is, I can't work out of it's possible to return the UserNotifications and GlobalNotifications records in the results as supposed to just their type and ID, which will require another query to the database to retrieve.

A: public enum NotificationType { User, Global }

public class mytype {
public int ID {get;set;}
public NotificationType type {get;set;}
public DateTime FirstDate {get;set;}
public UserNotification un {get;set;}
public GlobalNotification gn {get;set;}
}

var q = db.UserNotifications.Where(c => c.UserID == forUser.ScirraUserID)
    .Select(c => new mytype {c.ID, type = NotificationType.User, date = c.FirstDate, un=c, gn=null})
    .Union(db.GlobalNotifications.Select(c => new mytype {c.ID, type = NotificationType.Global, date = c.Date, un=null, gn=c }))
    .OrderBy(c => c.date)
    .Skip(skip)
    .Take(take);

or you can just test to see which of un,gn is null and skip the type like:
var q = db.UserNotifications.Where(c => c.UserID == forUser.ScirraUserID)
    .Select(c => new mytype {c.ID, date = c.FirstDate, un=c, gn=null})
    .Union(db.GlobalNotifications.Select(c => new mytype {c.ID, date = c.Date, un=null, gn=c }))
    .OrderBy(c => c.date)
    .Skip(skip)
    .Take(take);

Or if both UserNotification and GlobalNotification both have a common ancestor (Notification) or interface (INotification?), then use and cast to that perhaps.
If you are using LINQ2SQL, then you may need to do this:
var q = db.UserNotifications
    .Where(c => c.UserID == forUser.ScirraUserID)
    .ToList()
    .Select(c => new mytype {
        c.ID,
        type = NotificationType.User,
        date = c.FirstDate,
        un=c,
        gn=null})
    .Concat(
        db.GlobalNotifications
            .Select(c => new mytype {
                c.ID,
                type = NotificationType.Global,
                date = c.Date,
                un=null,
                gn=c })
            .ToList())
    .OrderBy(c => c.date)
    .Skip(skip)
    .Take(take);

Try 2:
var q1 = db.UserNotifications
    .Where(c => c.UserID == forUser.ScirraUserID)
    .OrderBy(c => c.FirstDate)
    .Select(c => new mytype {
        c.ID,
        type = NotificationType.User,
        date = c.FirstDate,
        un=c,
        gn=null})
    .Take(skip+take)
    .ToList();
var q2=db.GlobalNotifications
    .OrderBy(c => c.Date)
    .Select(c => new mytype {
        c.ID,
        type = NotificationType.Global,
        date = c.Date,
        un=null,
        gn=c })
    .Take(skip+take)
    .ToList();
var r=q1.Concat(q2)
    .OrderBy(c => c.FirstDate)
    .Skip(skip)
    .Take(take);

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Noordpool UFC is een amateurvoetbalclub uit Uithuizen, gemeente Het Hogeland, provincie Groningen, Nederland. Het eerste elftal van de club speelt in de Vijfde klasse zaterdag (seizoen 2020/21). De club speelt op sportpark Uithuizen.

De v.v. Noordpool is opgericht op 29 maart 1922 en ontstaan uit de clubs Noordpool en UFC. UFC legde op 24 augustus 1913 de basis voor de voetbalsport in Uithuizen. Nadat er meerdere jongensclubjes ontstonden t.w. VIOS, Quick, Voorwaarts en Zeemeeuwen is op 29 Juli 1918 de arbeidersclub Noordpool opgericht. Dit gebeurde omdat UFC deze jongens niet toeliet als men niet voldoende stemmen van de UFC leden had.
De oprichters van Noordpool besloten hun club te noemen naar een van de boerderijen van Douwe Huizinga Bruins. Huizinga Bruins was een bekendheid in Groningen en was voor de noorderlingen vertegenwoordiger in de toen geheten Nederlandsche Elftalcommissie. Hij heeft veel betekend voor de voetbalsport in Noord Groningen. Twee van de leden Jacob en Harm Frans werkten op deze boerderij de Noordpool en de leden besloten dat dit de naam van de club zou worden.

Competitieresultaten 2011–2018 (zaterdag)

|
|-
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|}

Competitieresultaten 1971–2010 (zondag)

|
|
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|}

Externe link
 Officiële website

Amateurvoetbalclub in Groningen (provincie)
Sportvereniging in Het Hogeland

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


A surprisingly modest model, Candice Huffine, recently wore a snappy set of knitwear.
In fact, this shot keeps popping up in the Instagram feed dancing over our heads at night.
We think this is the ideal uniform provided you're down with giving total leg coverage the slip. Specifically this skirt is ideal for someone who fancies the idea of a delicious blanket as an outfit.
It'll keep your legs toasty, and it's a simple shape that looks great on so many women. The minimalist color and soft fit are doing it for us. Bonus: we can attest to the fact that Madewell is friendlier to more sizes than most. Check out the link below because who wouldn't want to breeze through life in winter whites like Rene Russo in The Thomas Crown Affair?


text:
import React from 'react'
import { storiesOf } from '@storybook/react'
import Header, { HeaderProps } from 'src/dashboard-refactor/header'
import { headerSearchBarPropsTemplate } from './search-bar'
import { syncStatusMenuStoryProps } from './sync-status-menu'
import { sidebarToggleProps } from './sidebar-toggle'

const { lockedHover, noHover } = sidebarToggleProps

const sidebarTogglePropsRenamed = {
    lockedHover: {
        ...lockedHover,
        sidebarToggleHoverState: lockedHover.hoverState,
    },
    noHover: {
        ...noHover,
        sidebarToggleHoverState: noHover.hoverState,
    },
}

type SidebarHeaderProps = Pick<
    HeaderProps,
    'sidebarLockedState' | 'sidebarToggleHoverState' | 'selectedListName'
>

export const sidebarHeaderPropsTemplate: {
    open: SidebarHeaderProps
    closed: SidebarHeaderProps
    closedSelected: SidebarHeaderProps
} = {
    open: {
        selectedListName: 'Inbox',
        ...sidebarTogglePropsRenamed.lockedHover,
    },
    closed: {
        ...sidebarTogglePropsRenamed.noHover,
    },
    closedSelected: {
        ...sidebarTogglePropsRenamed.noHover,
        selectedListName: 'Inbox',
    },
}

const template: HeaderProps = {
    ...sidebarHeaderPropsTemplate.open,
    searchBarProps: headerSearchBarPropsTemplate.default,
    syncStatusMenuProps: syncStatusMenuStoryProps.hidden,
    syncStatusIconState: 'green',
}

const props: {
    default: HeaderProps
    sidebarToggled: HeaderProps
    searchBarWithInput: HeaderProps
    syncStatusIconYellow: HeaderProps
    syncStatusIconRed: HeaderProps
    syncStatusMenuOpen: HeaderProps
} = {
    default: template,
    sidebarToggled: {
        ...template,
        ...sidebarHeaderPropsTemplate.closed,
    },
    searchBarWithInput: {
        ...template,
        ...headerSearchBarPropsTemplate.withInput,
    },
    syncStatusIconYellow: {
        ...template,
        syncStatusIconState: 'yellow',
    },
    syncStatusIconRed: {
        ...template,
        syncStatusIconState: 'red',
    },
    syncStatusMenuOpen: {
        ...template,
        syncStatusMenuProps: syncStatusMenuStoryProps.allSuccessful,
    },
}

const stories = storiesOf('Dashboard Refactor|Header/Header Bar', module)

stories.add('Default', () => <Header {...props.default} />)
stories.add('Sidebar Toggled', () => <Header {...props.sidebarToggled} />)
stories.add('Search Query Populated', () => (
    <Header {...props.searchBarWithInput} />
))
stories.add('Sync Status Warning', () => (
    <Header {...props.syncStatusIconYellow} />
))
stories.add('Sync Status Error', () => <Header {...props.syncStatusIconRed} />)
stories.add('Sync Status Menu Open', () => (
    <Header {...props.syncStatusMenuOpen} />
))

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
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Biomedical Topic Type Feature 2019
Inside Bivacor's artificial heart, a levitating disk spins 2000 times per minute to keep blood flowing
Nicholas Greatrex
Matthias Kleinheyer
Frank Nestler
Daniel Timms
Photo: Peter Adams
Elegant Simplicity: The Bivacor artificial heart is a centrifugal pump with just one moving part—a rotating disk, which is suspended in its casing via magnetic levitation. Photo: Peter Adams
For more than 50 years, cardiac surgeons and biomedical engineers at the Texas Heart Institute (THI) have been questing for an artificial heart that can fully replace natural ones, which are in terribly short supply for transplant. They've seen their share of metal and plastic contraptions that used a variety of pumping mechanisms, but none of these machines could match the astounding performance of the human heart.
The Inventor: Daniel Timms, founder of Bivacor, holds the 650-gram machine that could save the lives of men, women, and children with heart failure. Photo: Peter Adams
In April 2019, the possible culmination of that long quest was inside a shaggy brown cow, which stood peacefully chewing its cud at a THI research facility in Houston. The animal was part of a 90-day trial in which it lived its life powered by an implanted artificial heart made by our company, Bivacor. Throughout the trial, the calf stayed healthy and energetic, and gained weight at a normal rate. It even jogged on a treadmill for 30-minute stretches.
Our company is now working toward human trials of our device. It relies on a dramatic new approach: Rather than using a mechanical pump that mimics the structure and actions of the four-chambered human heart, it uses a spinning disk, suspended in a magnetic field. With just one moving part, the Bivacor heart is able to send oxygen-rich blood out to the body and return oxygen-depleted blood to the lungs.
We had to overcome many technical challenges to make an artificial heart that's small, biocompatible, energy efficient, and durable. Consider that the human heart beats about 112,000 times a day, which adds up to 42 million times a year, and you'll understand the magnitude of the challenge.
We've tested the Bivacor heart in 15 cows so far. While the need for animal testing is unfortunate, it's the only way to prove the device's safety and move forward to clinical trials in humans. These Corriente calves, which are relatively small, are the right size to serve as analogues for adult patients. We've also implanted the Bivacor heart in several sheep, which are more representative of patients with smaller bodies, including children. Our tests have shown that the heart holds up well: With its one moving part levitating in a magnetic field, there's no worry that friction and mechanical wear will cause the machine to give out. Our tests have also shown that the device can adapt to the user's cardiovascular requirements.
Read the back story behind Timms's invention Photo: Daniel Timms
One of us, Bivacor founder Timms, began working on this project 18 years ago. [For more about his personal story, see "Artificial Heart Inventor Was Inspired by His Plumber Father."] Through the years, the central concept of the maglev heart has stayed the same, though our engineering team has greatly refined the technology. We're thrilled that the device is nearly ready for human trials because we think the Bivacor heart is the solution that severely ill heart-failure patients have long been waiting for.
In heart failure, the heart becomes unable to pump enough blood to keep the body healthy and strong. At least 26 million people around the world are living with the disease, and the number is rising as populations age. Patients with severe heart failure have a bleak outlook: Their best option is a heart transplant, but the limited number of donor hearts means that only about 5,000 patients around the world receive transplants each year. Thousands more patients are eligible for transplants, and some die while waiting for a donor organ.
At the Bench: In Bivacor's engineering lab, Timms tinkers with the parts of the latest prototype of the artificial heart. Photo: Peter Adams
Cardiologists have long dreamed of a mechanical replacement. In 1969, THI physician Denton Cooley implanted the first "total artificial heart" in a patient who was awaiting a transplant, keeping him alive for the 64 hours it took for a donor organ to arrive. However, that patient died shortly after the transplant surgery from an infection, and Cooley's team shelved the device due to concerns about reliability and compatibility with the human body.
Alternate Anatomy: The pump's left side stands in for the anatomical heart's left ventricle, sending oxygenated blood (red) out to the farthest reaches of the body. The pump's right side substitutes for the heart's right ventricle, returning deoxygenated blood (blue) to the lungs. Illustration: Bivacor
Since then, a handful of other total artificial hearts have been developed, and a few have made it into human trials. But these devices were large, heavy, and prone to mechanical failure, and only two gained regulatory approval in the United States. The SynCardia Systems artificial heart was approved in 2004 as a "bridge to transplant" and is currently being tested as a permanent replacement. However, users must carry a 6-kilogram case containing a loud air compressor that's attached to tubes penetrating the abdomen, where the air drives the device's two pneumatic pumps. A second artificial heart, the AbioCor, gained approval in 2006, but it was discontinued almost immediately, when the company behind the device decided it wasn't commercially viable.
The most common mechanical support now in use is what's called a left ventricular assist device (LVAD). This machine adds its pumping power to an ailing heart, focusing on the left ventricle, which pumps oxygen-rich blood through branching arteries that reach up to the brain and down to the toes. LVADs are now being used as both temporary aids for patients awaiting transplants and, in cases where transplantation isn't an option, as permanent additions to patients' chest cavities. However, LVADs can cause the right ventricle to falter, requiring intensive drug treatments and sometimes the implantation of a right ventricular assist device.
At Bivacor, we wanted a true long-term mechanical replacement for the entire heart. Unlike most earlier attempts, our effort didn't set out to mimic the heart's natural pulsatile pumping mechanism, with valves that open and close as the left ventricle pushes blood out to the body and the right ventricle pushes blood to the lungs. Most prior artificial hearts used positive displacement pumps to achieve this effect: Their two artificial chambers were bifurcated with membranes that flexed forward to push blood out through mechanical valves.
We opted instead for a centrifugal pump that propels a continuous stream of blood into the arteries. Such a pump has no valves, so a patient using the Bivacor heart in its most basic mode would have no pulse. But we recently adapted our device to give it a pulsatile outflow option, as we'll explain below. We want clinicians to look at the cardiac monitors for patients with implanted Bivacor hearts and see the familiar rhythmic readouts they've seen since medical school.
The Bivacor heart would fit in the palm of your hand—it's about 650 grams, slightly heavier than an adult human heart. Its shell is made of titanium, a noncorroding material that almost never triggers an immune response. Patients will wear a 4-kg external controller pack that contains two rechargeable batteries (providing about 5 hours of operation each), although they can also plug in directly to a power outlet.
Timms has been developing his design for an artificial heart since 2001. The first concept model tested the hydraulic feasibility of the design, with a single rotor pumping fluid in two directions.
Throughout our design process, we used 3D printers to make both titanium and plastic parts for our prototypes, allowing us to rapidly experiment with different geometries. For testing, we built a hardware simulation of the human circulatory system in our engineering office in Los Angeles; this mock-up allows us to validate a device's function thoroughly and repeatedly in a controlled environment, and reduces the need for animal testing.
The primary design innovation in the Bivacor heart is its simple construction, with one motor and one rotating disk that simultaneously supports the pumping of blood to both the body and the lungs. The rotating disk is completely suspended in a magnetic field, operating under the same "maglev" principle that has been used by high-speed trains. The disk has open impeller vanes on both sides, one larger set that pumps blood at the high pressure necessary to send blood throughout the body, and another smaller set that pumps blood at lower pressure to the lungs. Each side of the disk can pump more than 12 liters per minute, more than enough output for patients engaged in moderate exercise.
While some blood from the two sides mixes around the edges of the suspended disk, this isn't a concern, because of the direction of the flow. Some oxygenated blood leaks from the high-pressure side to the low-pressure side, which means that some already-oxygenated blood returns to the lungs. And this leakage is actually a design feature, not a bug. The wash of blood around the disk cleans out the casing and ensures that there are no areas where stagnant blood can form into dangerous clots.
The motor's stator provides rotational torque by coupling to a set of permanent magnets in the rotor disk. During normal operation, it spins the rotor at speeds of between 1,600 and 2,700 rotations per minute. The attractive forces between the motor and the rotor are counteracted by the magnetic bearing on the opposite side of the rotor, which actively controls the rotor's position within the casing. This active control system is necessary because the rotor naturally moves around as the patient walks, climbs stairs, jumps, and generally goes about daily activities. It's important to keep the rotor properly suspended and to prevent it from bumping into the sides of the casing, which could damage the components and smash blood cells.
This positional control system works as follows: Tiny contactless sensors send out magnetic fields that interact with the rotor, determining its exact location many times per second. If the rotor is moving in one direction or another, the control system puts electrical energy into electromagnetic coils within several actuators, causing them to cancel out that movement.
The design of the magnetic bearing actuators was critical, particularly because they had to be small, light, and energy efficient, yet strong enough to compensate for all the jiggles and joggles created by a person on the move. We used computer simulations of the magnetic field to optimize the design, experimenting with different materials and geometries to find the configuration that would provide sufficient force within a small space. Keeping our device small and light means that it will fit inside people with small bodies, including women and children.
To improve the efficiency of our artificial heart, we also integrated a "zero power" controller into the suspension system. This controller monitors the additional electromagnetic power used by the bearing as it responds to external forces acting on the rotor, then moves the rotor to a position where the permanent magnets of the magnetic bearing system can provide a balancing force. This system doesn't produce instant adjustments—that's the job done by the main stability controller—but it does reduce the amount of power used by the magnetic bearing when exposed to external forces.
To rapidly test their artificial heart prototypes, and to reduce the need for animal testing, the Bivacor team built an apparatus that replicates the human circulatory system, simulating the flow of blood through the body and the lungs.
A unique feature in the Bivacor heart is that the rotor can shift along its axis of rotation to change the amount of blood moved by the left and right sides of the pump. When the rotor moves toward the left side of the casing, it brings the impeller vanes closer to the casing wall. In this narrow space, most of the blood is whirled around by the vanes and little flows over the vanes' tips, thus increasing the left pump's efficiency and consequently its output of blood to the body. This feature is useful for quick adjustments necessary in transitions, such as when a patient stands up.
Our device is elegant in its cooperation with the human body, adapting automatically to a person's activity levels. When the patient is exercising, the mechanical heart will pump more blood out to the muscles, just as a biological heart does. This adjustment is accomplished by attending to the body's feedback: When a person starts to run on a treadmill, the hardworking muscles in the legs and elsewhere use up oxygenated blood faster and squeeze the deoxygenated blood back into the circulatory system. That increased blood flow into the Bivacor heart causes both sides of the pump to move more blood, without requiring an increase in rotor speed. This seemingly basic functionality is actually the result of careful optimization of the hydraulic design. We relied on our 3D printer to make numerous experimental prototypes with casings and impeller vanes of slightly different shapes.
Biocompatibility is one of the biggest challenges in our field, because the interactions between a mechanical device and biological systems are so complex. For example, the delicate blood cells and other blood components can be damaged by rough transit through a device. As a key design feature of the Bivacor heart, we ensured that the blood has plenty of clearance between the levitating rotor and the casing and conduits. All flow paths have clearance gaps of at least 240 micrometers during normal operation, which is more than 20 times the size of a red blood cell. This design reduces the shear forces to which the blood is exposed, and also ensures that there's no blood stagnation within the casing.
Scratch-pad Beginnings: Timms first sketched out the basic idea that became the Bivacor artificial heart in a notebook while he was getting his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering—shortly after his father was diagnosed with heart failure. Photo: Peter Adams
The pump can run at constant speed, producing continuous blood flow at a constant pressure, and in our early experiments we concentrated on testing this "pulseless" mode. But it's easy to change its speed, and our later experiments proved that controlled speed changes could produce a wide range of flow and pressure characteristics. Running the pump first at high speed (sending out more blood) and then at low speed (sending out less) creates something resembling a biological heart's pulse; rapidly alternating these two speeds creates something that looks like a normal heartbeat.
We're now working primarily in that pulsatile mode. Within cardiology, there's an open debate about whether a pulse is necessary for good health. Some patients with implanted LVADs that produce continuous (and thus pulseless) flow experience medical problems such as gastrointestinal bleeding, yet it's not clear whether their devices are the cause. We hope that our device, which can be used in either continuous flow or pulsatile mode, can contribute to the scientific investigation of this important topic.
Bivacor founder Timms began working on the original concept for his artificial heart 18 years ago, and it has undergone many iterations over the years. Timms began the project in his native Australia, and since those days, the development team has benefitted from a network of passionate collaborators in Germany, Japan, Taiwan, and the United States. During various stages of the project, the team relocated to international laboratories to make use of our collaborators' expertise. Currently, our team is based in the United States (in Los Angeles and Houston) and Australia (in Melbourne and Brisbane), and we're focused on turning our prototype into a commercial product.
We're quite satisfied with the design of our device. Now we're standardizing the production process: Our 3D-printing techniques were well suited for the development phase, when we wanted to test prototypes and iterate rapidly, but now we're switching over to precision machining, which will give the device's parts a smoother polish and more exact and consistent dimensions. These procedural changes will make larger-scale manufacturing possible. We're also documenting every step of both the production and implantation process to prepare for our first clinical trials.
By the end of 2019, we'll have a clinical-grade system. Then we'll submit our request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for an early feasibility study in human patients, which we hope will commence in 2020.
We are already envisioning these first human trials. Gravely ill patients will go into the operating room with failing biological hearts beating feebly in their chests, and come out of surgery with smoothly functioning Bivacor artificial hearts whirring away. As the devices send powerful streams of oxygen-rich blood coursing through their bodies, we hope the patients will quickly find their strength returning. If these patients can rise from their hospital beds, hug their family members, and continue their lives for many years to come, we'll have taken a great step forward in the long quest for a total artificial heart.
This article appears in the September 2019 print issue as "The Maglev Heart."
Nicholas Greatrex, Matthias Kleinheyer, Frank Nestler, and Daniel Timms are with the artificial heart company Bivacor. Greatrex and Kleinheyer are senior electrical engineers, Nestler is an engineering consultant, and Timms is the founder, CEO, and CTO.
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Computing Topic News Type
A Transistor for Sound Points Toward Whole New Electronics
"Topological" acoustic transistor suggests circuits with dissipationless flow of electricity or light
Charles Q. Choi
Charles Q. Choi is a science reporter who contributes regularly to IEEE Spectrum. He has written for Scientific American, The New York Times, Wired, and Science, among others.
Model of a honeycomb lattice that serves as the basis for a "transistor" of sound waves—whose design suggests new kinds of transistors of light and electricity, made from so-called topological materials. Electrons in a topological transistor, it is suspected, would flow without any resistance.
Hoffman Lab/Harvard SEAS
topological materials acoustics transistors
Potential future transistors that consume far less energy than current devices may rely on exotic materials called "topological insulators" in which electricity flows across only surfaces and edges, with virtually no dissipation of energy. In research that may help pave the way for such electronic topological transistors, scientists at Harvard have now invented and simulated the first acoustic topological transistors, which operate with sound waves instead of electrons.
Topology is the branch of mathematics that explores the nature of shapes independent of deformation. For instance, an object shaped like a doughnut can be deformed into the shape of a mug, so that the doughnut's hole becomes the hole in the cup's handle. However, the object couldn't lose the hole without changing into a fundamentally different shape.
Employing insights from topology, researchers developed the first electronic topological insulators in 2007. Electrons zipping along the edges or surfaces of these materials are "topologically protected," meaning that the patterns in which the electrons flow will stay unchanged in the face of any disturbances they might encounter, a discovery that helped win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2016. Scientists later designed photonic topological insulators in which light is similarly protected.
However, creating electronic topological transistors in which the dissipationless flow of electrons can get switched on and off in topological materials requires dealing with complicated quantum mechanics. By using acoustic topological insulators, in which sound waves can experience topological protection, scientists were able to sidestep this complexity to create acoustic topological transistors.
Still, designing an acoustic topological transistor wasn't easy. "We knew our approach to topological logic could work, but we still needed to find a viable selection of materials where it actually did work," says study lead author Harris Pirie, currently at the University of Oxford. "We took a fairly brute force approach—there was one summer where we were running calculations on about 20 computers at the same time to test thousands of different materials and designs."
Although there were many designs the scientists found that very nearly worked, the designs always seemed to be compromised in some way—for example, "the device was too large to be practical," Pirie says. "Then one day, we finally found a design that met all the constraints, our eureka moment! After that, it was just a matter of designing the ancillary components—the heat converter, the expanding base plate—to make it all work."
The design consists of a honeycomb lattice of steel pillars anchored to a plate made of another substance, all sealed in an airtight box. The plate is made of a material that expands greatly when heated.
The lattice of the device has slightly larger pillars on one side and slightly smaller pillars on the other. These differences in the size and spacing of the pillars govern the lattice's topology, which in turn influence whether sound waves can flow through a set of pillars or not. For instance, at 20 degrees C, ultrasound cannot pass through the device, but at 90 degrees C, it can zip along the edge between the sides. In essence, heat can switch this device from one state to another, much as electricity does so with conventional transistors.
The scientists also designed a second device that converts ultrasound waves into heat. When both devices are coupled together, one transistor can control the state of the next, just as electricity flowing in a conventional transistor can toggle other transistors.
The researchers noted these acoustic topological transistors are scalable. This means the same design could also work for the gigahertz frequencies commonly employed in circuitry that is potentially useful for processing quantum information, Pirie says.
"More generally, the control of topologically protected acoustic transport has applications in a number of important fields including efficient acoustic-noise reduction, one-way acoustic propagation, ultrasound imaging, echolocation, acoustic cloaking and acoustic communications," Pirie says.
The design principles used to develop acoustic topological transistors could be adapted for use in photonic devices in a fairly straightforward manner, "at least in principle, because the acoustic wave equation mathematically maps onto its photonic counterpart," Pirie says. Meaning: The physics of sound waves and light waves are similar enough that the lessons of a topological transistor of one variety easily translates to a topological transistor of the other kind.
However, "this mapping doesn't exist in electronics," Pirie says, making it more challenging to develop an electronic topological transistor from this work. However, "it's still likely we could follow the same general scheme in electronics—we just have to find the right materials to use," he notes.
The scientists detailed their findings online earlier this month in the journal Physical Review Letters.
Could "Topological Materials" Be A New Medium for Ultra-Fast ... ›
A Beginner's Guide to Topological Materials - IEEE Spectrum ›
Topological off-on switch could make new type of transistor ... ›
Topological transistor ›
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Aerospace Topic News Type
Taking Cosmology to the Far Side of the Moon
New Chinese program plans to use satellites in lunar orbit to study faint signals from early universe
Andrew Jones is a freelance journalist based near Helsinki. He writes about the space industry and technology with a particular focus on China's activities.
Darwin Fan/Getty Images
cosmology radio astronomy China space exploration lunar exploration satellites
A team of Chinese researchers are planning to use the moon as a shield to detect otherwise hard-to-observe low frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum and open up a new window on the universe. The Discovering the Sky at the Longest Wavelengths (DSL) mission aims to seek out faint, low-frequency signals from the early cosmos using an array of 10 satellites in lunar orbit. If it launches in 2025 as planned, it will offer one of the very first glimpses of the universe through a new lens.
Nine "sister" spacecraft will make observations of the sky while passing over the far side of the moon, using our 3,474-kilometer-diameter celestial neighbor to block out human-made and other electromagnetic interference. Data collected in this radio-pristine environment will, according to researchers, be gathered by a larger mother spacecraft and transmitted to Earth when the satellites are on the near side of the moon and in view of ground stations.
The mission aims to map the sky and catalog the major sources of long-wavelength signals—the last, largely undiscovered area of the electromagnetic spectrum—according to a paper on the DSL mission by Xuelei Chen and others at the National Astronomical Observatories and the National Space Science Center, two institutions under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
"A mission like this being in lunar orbit could make a scientific impact, particularly on cosmic dawn and dark ages science," says Marc Klein Wolt, managing director of the Radboud Radio Lab in the Netherlands and a member of the Netherlands-China Low Frequency Explorer (NCLE), aboard the Chinese Queqiao relay satellite.
"When you open up a new window on the universe, you're going to make new discoveries, things that you don't know about yet—the unknown unknowns."
—Marc Klein Wolt, Radboud Radio Lab, Netherlands
Detecting the cosmic dark ages (the time before the first stars formed and began to shine) and the cosmic dawn (when the first stars and galaxies formed) requires making observations of frequencies between 10 and 50 megahertz. Signals emitted by hydrogen atoms during these early cosmic eras have been stretched out over cosmic timescales to much longer wavelengths across 13 billion years of travel time. Radio astronomy of this kind is extremely difficult on Earth as the ionosphere interferes with or completely blocks such ultralong wavelengths.
"To measure the 'cosmic dawn' signal, or even the 'dark ages' signal, which is even more difficult, you have to be in a really quiet environment," Wolt notes.
The satellites could, over time, measure the primordial distributions of hydrogen at several different epochs in the early life of the universe, says Wolt. Learning how the distributions changed and evolved over time and grew into bigger clusters of matter to form stars and galaxies would be an important contribution to astronomy.
Heliophysics, space weather, exoplanets, the interstellar medium, and extragalactic radio sources are just some of the other areas in which DSL's long-wavelength astronomy could make additional new contributions.
"When you open up a new window on the universe, you're going to make new discoveries, things that you don't know about yet," says Wolt. "The unknown unknowns."
Astronomers in the United States and elsewhere have proposed setting up telescopes on the far side of the moon to benefit from the radio quiet to make unprecedented observations. Over billions of years, the Earth's gravity has slowed the rotation of the moon, making it "tidally locked," meaning the lunar far side now never faces Earth and is shielded from any electromagnetic noise created by terrestrial sources.
The DSL mission will, however, avoid the much greater cost and complexity of needing to land and set up on the moon, nor will it be required to carry radioisotope heating systems to keep electronics warm during frigid two-week-long lunar nights. On the other hand, being in orbit limits the duration of the observations the satellites can make while shielded by the moon.
Yet there are other benefits, too.
"With the train of satellites, you're able to do interferometry observations, so you combine the measurements of the various instruments together. And as they orbit around the moon, they can cover most of the sky every month," says Wolt.
The mission presents a number of challenges, such as maintaining the satellites orbiting in a precise configuration. It would also be an early example of using small satellites for space science in deep space.
China previously attempted to test interferometry in lunar orbit with two small satellites that launched along with the Queqiao relay satellite in 2018 to support China's Chang'e-4 lunar far side landing mission, but one of the spacecraft was lost after the burn to take them from Earth into translunar orbit. This next attempt would be much more ambitious.
The DSL team has recently completed the intensive study into the mission and is now applying for entering the engineering phase, according to Chen, targeting a launch in 2025. While the "dark side of the moon" is a misnomer, the silence (and thus at least radio darkness) on the lunar far side could offer unprecedented insight into cosmic mysteries.
Correction 19 Jan. 2022: A previous version of this post stated the DSL mission was Chinese and European. There was a proposal for a similar Sino-European effort, but another team was ultimately selected. The present mission is a Chinese one.
China Aims for a Permanent Moon Base in the 2030s - IEEE Spectrum ›
China Gears Up for Ambitious Landing on the Moon's Far Side ... ›
China's rover has discovered what lies beneath the moon's far side ... ›
China's Yutu 2 rover spots cube-shaped 'mystery hut' on far side of ... ›
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COMSOL News Special Edition Biomedical
How simulation and apps have enabled engineers and scientists to develop biomedical design
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COMSOL News Special Edition Biomedical features 12 stories of how simulation and apps have enabled design engineers, researchers, and scientists to develop biomedical designs.
Download the free whitepaper.
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Can Freight Train Cars Go Electric—and Self-Driving?
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Video Friday: Guitar Bot


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Giants' edge rusher Azeez Ojulari coined as 'breakout' candidate for 2022 season
One of the New York Giants' most exciting young players is second-year pass rusher Azeez Ojulari. The former Georgia Bulldog set the Giants' official rookie sacks record, tallying 8.0 in 2021. He also picked up 49 combined tackles, eight tackles for loss, and 13 quarterback hits over 17 games.
Surprisingly, Ojulari dropped to 50th overall in the 2021 NFL Draft due to concerns regarding a previous knee surgery. Luckily, he dropped right into the Giants' lap after trading back several spots, adding more draft capital.
Fast forward one year later, and the Giants have an exciting young duo in the trenches composed of Ojulari and Kayvon Thibodeaux.
Thibodeaux is coming over from Oregon, presenting arguably the best pass rusher in this year's entire draft class. With elite speed off the line of scrimmage and a tantalizing speed-power combo, pairing him with Ojulari could provide Big Blue with one of the league's most dynamic young duos at OLB.
However, some believe that Ojulari could have a breakout campaign in 2022, especially after adding 10 pounds of muscle mass this off-season to improve his power and ability to seal the edge in the run game.
New York Giants: What a potential trade for Bengals WR Tee Higgins could look like
New York Giants have to make decisions on 3 wide receivers hitting free agency
One stud linebacker the New York Giants could target in free agency
Per PFF, Ojulari could be in line for a "breakout" campaign:
The Giants have been slowly building up their pass-rush unit the past few seasons, including using a first-rounder on Oregon edge defender Kayvon Thibodeaux in the 2022 NFL Draft.
Last season, New York drafted Ojulari in the second round, and he didn't disappoint, putting up a 17.8% pass-rush win percentage and 28 total pressures on true pass sets. While his overall grade underwhelmed (58.3), he had three 80.0-plus game grades in 2021. Now accompanied by Thibodeaux on the opposite side, Ojulari can use his athleticism and bend on second-tier linemen, opening the door for a breakthrough Year 2.
According to PFF, one of Ojulari's worst factors was his run defense. He had a few individual stand-out performances but otherwise missed 10.9% of his tackles and lacked the functional strength to hold down the edge. However, he looks mesmerizingly bigger and should be able to hold his own against offensive tackles as a sophomore in the NFL.
If he can replicate his sack numbers from last year, improve his run defense and curate more pressure, he could enter the conversation as one of the league's best up-and-coming pass rushers. However, it is all hearsay until he puts it on the football field.
New defensive coordinator Wink Martindale loves to utilize an aggressive blitz package, which should open up the defense for Ojulari and allow him to take advantage of more 1v1 opportunities.


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Q: How to use overloaded [] in same file C++ So I have this function
template<class KEY,class T, bool (*tlt)(const KEY& a, const KEY& b)>
T BSTMap<KEY,T,tlt>::put(const KEY& key, const T& value) {
      if (!has_key(key))
          throw KeyError("BSTMap::put");
      this[key] = value;
      ++mod_count;
      return this[key];
}

Which is supposed to use my overloaded [], as seen in this code.
T& BSTMap<KEY,T,tlt>::operator [] (const KEY& key) {
    if (has_key(key))
        return find_key(map, key)->value.second;
    find_key(map, key)->value = Entry(key, T());
    used++, mod_count++;
    return find_key(map, key)->value.second;
}

Essentially, the [] operator in this case takes a KEY and creates the entry if it doesn't exist, otherwise it returns a reference to the existing value in that area. My question is then, how do I use the overloaded [] operators within the file in order to modify my data. I tried using this[], but that doesn't work.

A: The official name of the method is operator[], so you can use that directly:
return operator[](key);

You can also dereference this to make a reference:
return (*this)[key];

A: this is a pointer, presumably (*this)[key] would be legal by dereferencing first, then indexing.


text:
Public may get next peek at Highway 45 project early next year
Surveying is going on now, but it may be late this winter — say February or March — before the public gets its next peek at what the state has planned for the Highway 45 rebuild project.
Between now and then, the village will also want to decide how it feels about adding sidewalks, bike paths and recreational trails and maybe even street trees to the plans.
Village administrator Randy Kerkman reported at Monday's regular Village Board meeting that he recently had a meeting with state Department of Transportation officials about the project.
At the meeting, DOT representatives said surveying is going on now to enable the state to develop more precise plans that could be ready early next year for presenting to the public.
Between now and then, the village may want to consider what it would like to see as far as some options for the project, Kerkman said. He listed four possible situations:
Ditches along the entire road, as basically there are now.
Curb and gutter along all or part of the highway, no sidewalks.
Curb and gutter with sidewalks on both sides.
Curb and gutter with sidewalk on one side.
Yet other options might be to have a recreational trail down to the state line or the addition of trees along the highway, Kerkman said.
The state will pay for the work on the highway itself. Costs of sidewalks and paths would be split 80 state/20 percent village.
The state Department of Transportation is examining how to rebuild Highway 45 from the state line north to just south of Highway 50. Brian Pleumer, of R.A. Smith and the project engineer, said actual work could begin as early as 2012 or as late as 2016.
The current proposal calls for:
Adding turn lanes and lanes to allow driving around turning cars where needed.
Reworking the Highway WG and Highway C intersections, perhaps with roundabouts.
Grinding and repaving the road surface from Highway WG to 86th Street.
Rebuilding the road from 86th Street north.
Improving sight lines now obscured by hills. The most urgent one is at Highway AH and 45, looking north from AH.
Sidewalks on one side or both sides of Highway 45 in the "downtown" area are a possibility.
Kerkman said he has asked that the next public meeting include some video of what the various options would look like.
"I'm not sure they're going to do that," Kerkman said. "I keep pushing them … that's what we want."
Posted in: Bristol.
← Dave and Chris Fricke recognized by Paris School Board
Tornado Watch until 11 a.m. →


text:
Cabezo de la Jara se refiere generalmente a la montaña,más elevada del término municipal de Puerto Lumbreras (Región de Murcia). Los otros posibles usos están relacionados con dicha montaña.

Divisiones administrativas de Puerto Lumbreras
Hay una división administrativa actual que toma su nombre de dicha montaña que es:
 Pedanía de Cabezo de la Jara (Puerto Lumbreras);

Centros Culturales
Hay dos centros culturales que se encuentran en las proximidades de dicha montaña que son:
 el Observatorio Astronómico de Cabezo de la Jara;
 el Centro de Interpretación de la Naturaleza de Cabezo de la Jara;


text:
Atlanta Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
Published By Law Offices of Kevin C. Ford
Motorist Strikes 3 Children With Car in Atlanta
by Kevin C. Ford, Trial Lawyer
Bellwood: Community comes together to mourn loss of star child student
The northwest Atlanta neighborhood of Bellwood is still in deep mourning following a vehicle incident which resulted in the death of one child and critically injuring another two youngsters. Atlanta police are still investigating the circumstances, although what is known so far is Isiah Ward, 9, has died from injuries sustained while his brother Roland, and friend Timothy Hood, 12 are still in a critical condition. Isaiah was kept alive on life support until Sunday afternoon.
The driver of the vehicle, Ryan Lisabeth, 28, is under suspicion of Driving Under the Influence (DUI) while in control of a vehicle which struck the children on the sidewalk of Joseph E. Boone Boulevard on the evening of Friday 22nd May. While Atlanta police continue with their inquiries, the local community has vociferously expressed their support for the families involved and pledged to seek justice on the children's behalf. Although Lisabeth had sought to be bailed, the judge denied his bond leaving him in custody – which is perhaps a small mercy given the depth of feeling in the community against him and the groundswell of public opinion about the tragedy.
It is clear that the local community mourns the loss of Isiah Ward, who had recently been named "Student of the Month" at Bethune Elementary. Mourners recently held at a vigil at the site of the incident, which has become a memorial to the children with a vast collection of stuffed animals, candles and photographs. Isaiah's aunt, Jennifer Toomer spoke for the community when she told reporters,
"He was nine years old. He don't have nothing. I mean, he had everything to live for. He had people that loved him"
Toomer went on to show the sense of loss when she talked about judge's denial of Lisabeth's bail by saying,
"This is what he did to our family, my sister. This is what I'm saying. This should be a wakeup call. I want to thank the judge that denied his bond," said Isaiah's aunt, Jennifer Toomer.
Isis's uncle, Freddie Smith, left the public in no doubt about the severity of the feelings against Lisabeth, when said to Channel 2, that his prime instinct was to inflict pain on Lisabeth,
"I wanted him to suffer, SUF-FER."
Like other residents, Toomer has called for Lisabeth to be sentenced for life in prison with no chance of parole.
Another Bellwood resident, Helena McClain, echoed Toomer's feelings when she said,
"This is my son Arthur Ballard, and he was just with him. This has really affected him so much, it really has."
McClaim summed up the emotions of the community when she explained Arthur, just like all the other children who knew the three children, were shocked at the tragedy of the incident and the loss to the neighborhood of their friends.
Atlanta Police to press charges against suspect Ryan Lisabeth
Atlanta Police have announced that the suspect in the incident which left one child dead and two seriously injured on the sidewalk of Joseph E. Boone Boulevard on the evening of Friday 22nd May WILL face charges.
Ryan Lisabeth, 28, will face vehicle homicide and DUI after Atlanta Police described the circumstances of the incident.
It appears that Ryan's vehicle crossed the center line of the road, struck a passing vehicle on the rear, then mounted the sidewalk where the three children were standing and innocently talking to each other. After the vehicle had collided with the children, it went on to hit yet another vehicle before coming to an uncontrolled stop. Lisabeth is suspected of being under the influence of drugs while driving the vehicle.
According to online Fulton County Jail records, Lisabeth, 28, has been arrested on multiple charges, including:-
serious injury by vehicle
driving on the wrong side of the road
Channel 2 have reported that Ryan Lisabeth is well known to the authorities, already having a record includes:-
three DUI convictions
a cocaine-related conviction
an open DUI case that he was scheduled to be sentenced for at the time he went before a judge on the latest charges
Furthermore, it seems that Lisabeth was in a treatment facility at the time of Friday's incident, although his attorney declined to comment about at present.
Atlanta Police have provided more details about the incident to the media, noting that in addition to the incident, Lisabeth also tried to abscond and leave the scene of the crime.
The Atlanta Police announcement described the incident:
"traveling on Joseph E. Boone at a high rate of speed when he struck a passing truck on the rear as he crossed over the center line. The suspect traveled up onto the sidewalk where three children were standing and talking. The suspect struck the three children, causing them to be thrown in multiple directions. The vehicle continued and struck a second vehicle before becoming disabled and coming to an uncontrolled stop."
Tragedy of neighborhood blighted by drugs and street crime
Although the neighborhood around the incident has strong community values and a sense of togetherness amongst the working-class residents, there is also concern about levels of street crime – especially drugs.
Anthony Williams, a security guard at private school called Bright Futures on the same boulevard where the incident occurred said,
"It's dangerous out here, really dangerous. That's what's going on out here, 'the business.' Everybody's out here doing all types of drugs."
It remains to be seen what justice will be achieved in the case of Lisabeth, but no punishment will be enough for the loss of such a valued and treasured child like Isiah or the injuries caused to two other innocent children. While speculation abounds as to the motives of Lisabeth and to the establishment of the facts of the incident, if some level of peace can be granted to the suffering families and friends then faith can start to be restored within the strong community of Bellwood.
The Law Offices of Kevin C. Ford represent clients throughout Georgia who were injured or lost a loved one in car wrecks caused by a motorist under the influence of alcohol (DUI) or drugs. Further, we take on cases of pedestrians injured by motorists. As such, the Law Offices of Kevin C. Ford is currently accepting drunk driver, car and pedestrian crash cases throughout Georgia. If you or a loved one has been injured as the result of the negligence or fault of a drunk or negligent driver, then please contact an experienced car accident attorney immediately for a free consultation. Mr. Ford can help clients obtain monetary compensation necessary to pay for past, present and future medical care and provide for a fresh start. Please contact us today for a free consultation.
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Visions of Time - is sci-fi map where you will travel through space and time to face different challenges and adventures. You are the one who build the time machine, your name is Wells Aren and now you're going to travel 500,000 years in to the future. The map is modded and definitely one of a kind, the story is also great as for an adventure maps.
If you're trying to install it on iOS, unfortunately this map is Android only, due to some mods can't be installed on iOS.


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Sacred dance is the use of dance in religious ceremonies and rituals, present in most religions throughout history and prehistory. Its connection with the human body and fertility has caused it to be forbidden by some religions; for example, some branches of Christianity and Islam have prohibited dancing. Dance has formed a major element of worship in Hindu temples, with strictly formalized styles such as Bharatanatyam, which require skilled dancers and temple musicians. In the 20th century, sacred dance has been revived by choreographers such as Bernhard Wosien as a means of developing community spirit.

Purposes

The theologian W. O. E. Oesterley proposed in 1923 that sacred dance had several purposes, the most important being to honour supernatural powers; the other purposes were to "show off" before the powers; to unite the dancer with a supernatural power, as in the dances for the Greek goddesses Demeter and Persephone; making the body suitable as a temporary dwelling-place for the deity, by dancing ecstatically to unconsciousness; making crops grow, or helping or encouraging the deity to make them grow, as with Ariadne's Dance as described in the Iliad; consecrating a victim for sacrifice (as with the Israelites circling the altar, or the Sarawak Kayans circling a sacrificial pig); paying homage to the deity present for an initiation ceremony; helping warriors to victory in battle, and appeasing the spirits of the enemy killed in battle; averting the dangers associated with marriage, at a wedding ceremony; and at a funeral or mourning ceremony, purposes such as driving away the malevolent ghost of the dead person, or preventing the ghost from leaving the grave, or frightening off any evil spirits attracted by the corpse, or temporarily and invisibly bringing the dead person back to join in the dance, or simply honouring the dead person.

The dancer and scholar Harriet Lihs in 2009 divided religious dance into dances of imitation, such as of animals thought to be spirit messengers, or of battles; "medicine dances", i.e. dances of healing, like the serpent dances in India used to prevent disease; commemorative dances, for events such as the winter solstice; and dances for spiritual connection, as in the whirling dance of the Whirling Dervishes within Sufism.

Laura Shannon, a teacher of sacred dance for women, in 2018 stated the purposes of contemporary sacred dance as practised at the Findhorn Foundation as "to be inclusive, mutually supportive, to connect with the earth, spirit and each other, and to become more whole." It was a means of channelling "healing energy" both for the dancers and for their families and communities, indeed for the whole world.

Within religion, ecstatic dance is one of the ways in which religious ecstasy is produced.

In ancient times

Indigenous ceremonial dance rituals around the world appear to preserve forms that were widespread in ancient times. For example, processionals and circle dances seen in indigenous dance today were used in ancient Egypt and among the Hebrews. In ancient Egypt, dancers impersonated a deity such as the goddess Hathor, taking on the deity's attributes and interpreting the divine world for those watching.

In ancient Israel, the Hebrew Bible mentions dancing during religious worship. The prophet Miriam led dancing following the crossing of the Red Sea during the Exodus. During the return of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, King David danced "before the Lord with all his might". Dancing is mentioned as something familiar, implying it was a common practice. Sacred dance is described in the Bible by verbs meaning dancing, rotating, jumping, skipping, and whirling. The dance was accompanied by hand-drums (tambourines), cymbals, flutes, pipes, lyres, harps, and lutes.

The Hittites are shown in a sacred processional dance in a rock inscription at the sanctuary of Yazılıkaya, near their city of Hattusa, in Cappadocia. A group of men wearing conical hats and tip-tilted shoes, and a group of women, dance in a running step towards a group of named gods and goddesses.

In ancient Greece, sacred dance was widespread; indeed, it formed a part of almost all worship, and the gods Apollo, Ares, Dionysus and Pan are all described as dancers, while other deities such as Artemis were described as dancing with their companions.

The Hawaiian Hula dances to Pele, the volcano goddess, survive, whereas European maypole dances have lost their meaning as tree-worship and survive only as folk tradition.

Lewis Farnell, an anthropologist, observed that sacred dance has an "extraordinary uniformity" among indigenous peoples all over the world, something that he found so striking that it suggested either "belief in an ultimately identical tradition, or, perhaps more reasonably, the psychologic theory that ... [humans] at the same stage of development respond with the same ... religious act to the same stimuli" from the environment. Oesterley suggested that these stimuli to sacred dance were people's response to supernatural power, and "the obtaining of food."

In world religions

Judaism

Most branches of Judaism observe the festival of Simchat Torah, which includes dancing in synagogues. The Hasidic movement, which dates from the 18th century, practices dancing in a religious context. Dancing is also an important part of the celebrations at a Jewish wedding.

Christianity

Some Christian traditions make use of liturgical or worship dance, but it has long been controversial within the church. It has been supported, sometimes fervently, by both priests and Christian scholars; and opposed, sometimes stridently, by others who for example wrote some 157 tracts against dance between 1685 and 1963. The early church was largely in favour of dance, as in the 2nd century AD Acts of John which states that "Grace danceth. I would pipe: dance ye all. The whole world on high hath part in our dancing." Circle dance is used, in its more meditative form, in worship within religious traditions including the Church of England. In northern Greece and southern Bulgaria, in the annual celebrations for Saint Constantine and Saint Helen, dancers perform the Anastenaria, a fire-walking ritual, as the climax of three days of processions, music, dancing, and animal sacrifice.

Hinduism

Indian classical dances such as Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Odissi, and Mohiniattam can be traced to the Sanskrit text Natya Shastra. They are a traditional drama-dance expression of religion, related to Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism, pan-Hindu epics and the Vedic literature. As a religious art, they are either performed inside the sanctum of a Hindu temple, or near it.

Islam and Sufism

Dance is unusual within Islam, but circle dance is used in the Islamic Haḍra dances. In the tradition of the Mevlevi Order founded by Rumi, ecstatic Sufi whirling is practised by devotees as a form of active meditation within the Sama (worship ceremony). In 2007, Sufi practices including ecstatic dance and the reciting of religious poetry were a focus for political resistance in Iran, reportedly banned by Shi'a clerics.

Syncretic

The syncretic Afro-American religious tradition Candomblé, practiced mainly in Brazil, makes use of music and ecstatic dance in which worshippers become possessed by their own tutelary deities, Orishas.

Spiritual and New Age

The mystic and spiritual teacher George Gurdjieff collected or authored a series of sacred dances, known as Gurdjieff movements, and taught them to his students as part of what he considered the work of "self observation" and "self study".

The Dances of Universal Peace, created in the 1960s by North American Sufis, leading among whom was  Samuel L. Lewis (Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti). The very first dance took place on 16 March, 1968 in San Francisco, California. It uses dancing, Sufi whirling, and singing of sacred phrases from a range different religions and spiritual traditions to raise consciousness and promote peace .

From 1976, the ballet master and choreographer Bernhard Wosien introduced circle dance at the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland. He used both traditional dances and his own choreography to develop "group awareness". Wosien's approach was taken up by the dance teacher Anna Barton, both at Findhorn and across Europe in the 1980s, and this style of sacred dance spread around the world.

In Western art

Choreographers starting with Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis and her husband Ted Shawn, and Martha Graham developed contemporary dance early in the 20th century, often using elements of sacred dance and fusing them with other genres. Later choreographers also made use of themes from the Bible.

References

Sources used

Further reading

 Hellsten, Laura (2021) Through the Bone and Marrow - Re-examining Theological Encounters with Dance in Medieval Europe. Brepols.
 Dickason, Kathryn (2020) Ringleaders of Redemption - How Medieval Dance Became Sacred. Oxford University Press.
 Roth, Gabrielle (1999) Sweat Your Prayers: Movement as Spiritual Practice. Newleaf.
 Stewart, Iris J. (1997) Sacred Woman, Sacred Dance: Awakening Spirituality Through Dance and Ritual.  Inner Traditions. Review
 Winton-Henry, Cynthia (2009) Dance - The Sacred Art: The Joy of Movement as a Spiritual Practice. Skylight Paths Publishing.
 Zehr, Leslie (2008) The Alchemy of Dance: Sacred Dance as a Path to the Universal Dancer. iUniverse.

External links
 Sacred Dance Guild
 Armenian Sacred Dance
 Christian Sacred Dance
 Jewish Sacred Dance
 Mevlevi Dervish Turning
 Gurdjieff Dominican Group: Gurdjieff Movements and Sacred Dances


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Layered Process Auditing, also known as LPA, is an increasingly popular quality tool developed for manufacturing management. When utilized properly, LPA will drive cultural change throughout an organization to improve quality, reduce scrap and rework, and reduce customer rejections. But what exactly are Layered Process Audits?
Layered Audits represent a formalized system focusing time and energy toward insuring high risk processes and error proofing devices do not exhibit a lot of variation and are working properly. A Layered Process Auditing system is comprised of three critical elements:
A set of Audits focused on High-Risk Processes
Layers of Auditors from all areas of Management who perform Audits
A system of Reporting and Follow-up to ensure Containment as needed and drive Improvement
A Collection of Audits
This element of a Layered Process Auditing system is as simple as it sounds. Audits are simply an organized group of questions designed to examine a device or process. Audits in an LPA system should focus only on areas in the manufacturing process where deviation represents a high-risk for producing defective products. If, for example, you have an electronic scale that continually makes critical measurements for ingredients in a sensitive chemical compound, problems that affect the performance and calibration of the scale could quickly cascade into defective products or worse. It is therefore critical to monitor that scale and ensure that it remains within tolerances. A good LPA system will include an audit of this scale and ensure containment and corrective action as soon as the scale falls out of tolerance.
Layers of Auditors
In an LPA system, your collection of audits is performed on a regular basis, at a predetermined frequency, by multiple layers of management from across the manufacturing organization. For example, the Shift Supervisor for each shift might perform the audit which examines our hypothetical scale once per shift. Another layer of management, which might include process engineers, manufacturing support personnel, or even human resources staff, would perform the exact same audit on a rotating basis along with the other audits in the system. By assigning a number of auditors to this layer and creating a schedule that rotates through the system's audits, the example audit might be completed by someone in the layer once per week or once per month. Yet another layer of management (the number of layers in an LPA system can vary greatly from facility to facility, based on your needs), might include the plant manager or even executive staff. Once again, this additional layer of auditors performs the same collection of audits at some set frequency on a rotating schedule, completing the example audit perhaps once a month or once a quarter.
Containment, Reporting & Follow-up
For a Layered Process Audit system to be truly effective, it must integrate action, analysis and improvements. If an auditor finds a non-conformance while performing an audit, that auditor should not only record their finding, but also take immediate initial corrective action to ensure defective products do not get out the door. Information about the finding should be recorded and readily available to management for later analysis. With a good system for recording and reporting audit information, an LPA system provides an excellent tool for troubleshooting problem areas and identifying places which are ripe for improvement.
Though you may implement Layered Process Audits to satisfy a customer or company directive, effective LPA systems are designed, implemented, managed, accountable to, and owned by your participative manufacturing management group. A good LPA system is a highly effective tool for taking proactive control of manufacturing processes and improving product quality and the bottom line.


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Are You Unclear on the Concept of Why to Send a Nonprofit Fundraising Appeal?
What's the point of a fundraising appeal letter?
That's obvious, right? To raise money!
But, wait a minute.
Dig deeper.
I always ask the question "why?" until I finally get to the end – where no more 'why' questions need to be asked — and uncover the true purpose behind anything I'm doing.
So… why are you endeavoring to raise money?
Because your organization needs contributed income.
Why does your organization need contributed income?
Because you don't generate enough earned income to enact your mission.
Why don't you generate enough earned income?
Because you make your services available for free or low cost to those who otherwise couldn't afford them.
Why can't folks afford what you offer without subsidy?
Because they're … elderly on fixed incomes… vulnerable children… newly arrived immigrants… low-income single parents… families living below poverty level… veterans… unemployed… homeless… devastated by a natural emergency or illness… saddled by debt… or otherwise at-risk, marginalized, overlooked or being in need of a break.
Why else do you need community support?
Because the upfront cost is greater than the market will bear, but worth it for the ultimate community good of… a cure for a terminal disease… relief from devastating pain… ending injustice… saving the environment… preventing violence, abuse, addiction, suicide… restoring faith and inspiration to those whose lives would otherwise lack meaning, fulfillment and hope.
Aha! Now that you've answered all these important "why" questions you know the point of your fundraising appeal letter or email. Right?
It's to get people to understand the benefit of their gift; what will happen absent their generosity.
It's more than ridding themselves of the dollar they had burning in their pocket.
But wait another minute.
Can you dig still deeper?
Why do you want people to understand the outcome they can create?
Because… you want them to feel and act like a hero!
The purpose of a fundraising appeal is to get people to ACT.
And not just any old action.
You want folks to act heroically.
Those appeals with no outright ask, and just the passive "hope you will support us?"
Those appeals claiming "any donation, no matter how small, will help?"
Pish tosh.
Do you really want to engender feelings of having made a 'drop in the bucket?'
If you ask folks to pee in the ocean to raise its level, you're unlikely to reach that goal. And it feels overwhelmingly hopeless to your prospective donor.
If you ask for a gift of any size, or take folks to a landing page where $10 is an option, yet they know you have a $5 million budget, they're likely to feel their donation won't much matter to you.
How do you get people to act as if their gift is truly a lifesaver?
ACTION TIP:
— Articulate a monetary fundraising goal linked to a specific desired outcome.
— Place your ask within a context where it appears realistic enough to generate sufficient contributions to make that outcome a reality. If you ask me for $500 towards a $10,000 goal to help each of 20 at-risk women with specific, articulated services, I can visualize my gift going to work directly in a meaningful way.
The purpose of a fundraising appeal is to call for the action you desire.
What about beginning with the call to action?
And it's the right way to write!
When you make your call to action an afterthought, you pretty much dig your own grave. You'll get some responses, but not anywhere near the volume or amount you'd have received if you'd planned more thoughtfully.
Rather than writing your letter first, write the response device.
—For a direct mail appeal letter it's a printed remit piece (insert card, tear-off attachment or fold-over envelope). With direct mail you always want to be sure the reply device language and branding matches that of the appeal letter. What better way to assure you're incorporating your SMIT (single most important thing) in your response mechanism than to craft it first?
— For an email appeal it's a donate button and link to a donation landing page and donation form. With online appeals you always want to be sure the landing page to which folks are directed matches the email appeal that brought them there. When you consider crafting this page first, you generally realize you need a dedicated page that differs from your generic landing page. It's good to know this from the get-go, rather than run out of time and decide you'll just 'make do' with the page you've got.
The purpose of a fundraising appeal is to tell a story.
The body of your appeal screams out for a story. Sure, you can simply ask for money to cover your operations. And your most loyal donors will continue to give to you. However, you can do better. Much better! Especially if you want to attract new donors and upgraded gifts.
The essence of effective fundraising is purposeful storytelling. Your job is to develop a story (to me, this is the true meaning of the nonprofit term 'development') that is so compelling it inspires others to join in and become part of the narrative.
In fact, you want to persuade would-be donors to be the hero who gives your story its happy ending.
Begin by finding your story. Go talk to the folks who have the most interaction with those who benefit from your programs and services. Learn how your organization made a real difference in people's lives. It's easy for fundraisers to find themselves disconnected from the mission. You need to make a conscious effort to connect.
Stay far, far away from clinical, process-based recitations of facts. The information may be factually correct, but it's boring.
— Don't ask program staff to send you a summary of their encounter with a beneficiary. When I worked in human services I soon learned I absolutely had to talk with care workers directly. Otherwise I was apt to receive a paragraph that looked something like this:
Middle aged woman presented with complaint she needed emergency rent assistance. Client was depressed and anxious due to care responsibilities for two small children and aging parent. Ex-husband had lost job and abandoned child care payments. Client also had issues with substance abuse. Reliable childcare was an issue; sometimes client left children home alone with grandmother when offered extra shifts she needed to make ends meet. Grandmother has mild dementia. Client now receiving financial aid and food vouchers and working with social worker to access benefits. Grandmother has been referred to senior services for evaluation. Referral also made to childcare program.
— Program staff may dwell on process over outcome; don't you. Often I would find myself asking the clinician: "How did we really help? What was the improved outcome? Was there a happy ending? What help do they still need to improve their situation in a meaningful way? As the clinician talked, details began to emerge. More important than that, feelings and emotions were revealed. The clinician got excited whenever she could report a success. And sad when she could not.
The purpose of a fundraising appeal is feelings… nothing more than feelings…
How are you feeling about your story? Excited? Sad? If you don't feel the emotion underlying your story your donor won't either.
Feeling emotion is what triggers people to act.
We're seeing a lot of genuine emotional stories today in the news. They're extraordinarily powerful, because they're not generic or clinical. They're not generally about endemic racism, pandemic deaths or financial hardship. They're specifically about one person and how they, their family and their community are hurting because of what happened. In learning about their truths, trials, tribulations and loss, all of us become connected to their story. And inspired to believe in new possibilities and a different vision for the future.
Before sitting down to write your nonprofit's story or stories, think about the stories currently inspiring you.
— Think about how these stories make you feel. On the verge of tears? Angry? Frustrated? Hopeful? Wanting to learn more? Ready to act?
— Challenge yourself to feel emotional about your subject matter before you begin to write your appeal.
— Then channel your emotion in a logical, credible way: Premise/problem. Conflict/obstacles to be overcome. Conflict escalation. Climax. Resolution/happy ending.
Master storyteller and copywriter Harvey McKinnon puts it this way:
"A good story has to have a number of qualities. First, it has to have emotion. Secondly, it needs to be real – we need to have something tangible happen. Stories have to come from a credible source – a mother talking about her child, someone who was homeless and who now has somewhere to live. Both of these scenarios are credible and understandable. Lastly, the notion that illustrates how the charity's intervention makes the difference, thanks to a donor's gift."
Make your donors feel powerful emotions.
This is the purpose of your appeal.
The purpose of a fundraising appeal?
It's too easy to lose sight of this critically important purpose.
Especially given the need you feel to implement and deliver.
You've got a job to do, and "Write an appeal" is in your job description.
Or it's 'that time of year." Again.
Or you're trying to address an urgent situation, and your board is clamoring for you to send something out.
Don't start with your what, when, where and how.
Begin with the why.
Why do you need contributions for this purpose?
Why would anyone else care?
Why is it important people feel the urgency of this matter?
Why will prospective donors' feelings and purpose likely match your feelings and purpose?
Why will what you're asking for resonate today?
Why haven't past appeals been as successful as you would have wished?
Why are you preparing to send this particular appeal, to this particular group of people, right now?
Why will you be in a better position after this appeal is sent and received?
Why would it be unacceptable – to you and your supporters — not to reach this position?
It's so you don't fail those who rely on you and your successful execution of your mission.
Failure is not an option.
Want to Learn More about Crafting Purposeful Appeals?
Grab my Anatomy of a Fundraising Appeal + Sample Template. This is a simple, thorough, 62-page step-by-step guide to crafting a killer appeal letter or email appeal. It's not just a breezy 2-page form, like what you'll find elsewhere. Learn the art of taking your appeal from run of the mill to… out of the ballpark. From anesthetizing to… astounding. From colorless to… captivating. If you follow these guidelines, you'll raise more money.
Not happy? All Clairification products come with a no-questions-asked, 30-day, 100% refund guarantee. Honest!
Image with hopeful, purposeful message found on my walk, tacked to a tree.
Fundraising Don'ts vs. Do's: Mailed Fundraising Appeal Strategy
Will Your Year-End Fundraising Be Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing?
How to Help Donors Give Astutely Before Year-End
Giving Tuesday: Don't Take the Money and Run
When Opportunity Knocks, Open the Door: Donor Acquisition
How to Make Donors Happy to Say YES to Your Fundraising Appeal


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October 21, 2020 By Susan and Simon Veness Leave a Comment
Japan's gigantic Gundam robot has a new opening date
Sometimes the best laid plans have to be postponed, and that has been especially true as the global pandemic has forced closings and led to delays in attraction openings. But there is good news on the horizon for Japan's Gundam robot attraction at Yamashita Pier in Yokohama.
Photos courtesy of Blooloop
Measuring 18 meters (59 feet) tall and weighing 25 tons (55,500 pounds), the enormous Gundam robot attraction at Japan's Gundam Factory Yokohama had an original opening date of Oct. 22, but even a colossus of that size was no match for the chaos of 2020.
A spokesperson for the Factory explained: "This decision was made to ensure the health and safety of our fans and employees in response to the worldwide spread of COVID-19. We apologize to all of our fans who were looking forward to our grand opening and ask for your understanding. In the meantime, we will be making preparations so that all of our visitors can enjoy themselves in safety."
But the life-sized mecha, based on a character from the 1970s anime series "Mobile Suit Gundam," wasn't going to be that easily defeated, and now Gundam Factory Yokohama is pleased to announce its new opening date of Dec. 19, 2020.
As the attraction's backstory goes, an aircraft was downed during the battle between humans and Spacenoids, and several Gundam-style mobile suit parts were discovered in the suburbs of Yamashita Pier in Yokohama. Engineers were able to reconstruct a mobile suit, and now it's ready to be set in motion.
Life-sized Gundam in Yokohama is now in testing mode.pic.twitter.com/51HVoraPb7
— Catsuka (@catsuka) September 21, 2020
Once activated, the robot will take steps, kneel, and raise its arms during performances on the hour and half hour, from 10:30 a.m. – 8:30 p.m. daily. For an added fee, guests can ascend the Gundam-Dock Tower scaffolding and view the robot's head and body up close as it goes through its paces.
In addition, visitors can explore the two-story Gundam Lab to learn about the design and structural technology used to create the figure, or take part in the Gundam Pilot View 5G augmented reality experience, allowing visitors to observe the surrounding area for a real-time view from the inside of the robot's cockpit.
A shop with exclusive merchandise is also available, as is Gundam Café, serving regional Yokohama cuisine.
In commemoration of Gundam Factory Yokohama's opening, visitors will receive a complimentary 1:200-scale plastic snap-together Gundam model, while supplies last.
The attraction is currently scheduled to run from Dec. 19, 2020 – March 31, 2022. Tickets can be booked online at Gundam-Factory.net.
Filed Under: Television, Travel Tagged With: giant anime robot Japan, giant robot Japan, Gundam Café, Gundam Factory Yokohama, Gundam Lab, Gundam Pilot View, Gundam robot, Gundam robot Japan, Mobile Suit Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam robot, things to do in Yokohama, Yamashita Pier, Yamashita Pier Yokohama, Yokohama attractions, Yokohama giant robot


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