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Home Culture High Times Greats: Devo
High Times Greats: Devo
Let's go back to November, 1982 as we prepared to enter the 21st century, tame technology, defame E.T. and get a peek at the boys inside the jump suits in a rare interview between Devo and Vale (portions of which had previously appeared in Search and Destroy magazine). In honor of the anniversary of the release of Devo's premier studio album Q. Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! on August 28, 1978, we're republishing the interview below.
Devo, along with Elvis Costello, are the originators of "nerd new wave." They solidly established themselves in the history of rock music with their blockbuster hit "Whip It," which, besides attracting the last of the preteens baby-boom market, crossed over into the denizens of black disco. Their new LP, Oh no! it's DEVO!, is rocketing up the charts. Devo's appeal is based on a curious combination of romper-room rebellion, kitsch parodying of polyester consumer society, choreography based on man as machine and their own philosophy of "de-evolution": In the Beginning Was the End—evolution proceeds toward lower or less specialized life forms. Entropy with a backbeat. Just as their short songs reveal a mocking articulate wit, their promotional video cassette, "The Men Who Make the Music," demonstrates a sophisticated grasp of cinematic technique, as yet denied full feature-length expression. If Devo ever get to make their film Masterwork, those critics who've been demanding they live up to their theories of socio-political satire may yet have to eat their words. Devo's philosophy of de-evolution is periodically updated for official press consumption, but High Times' West Coast wunderkind Vale caught Devo's Jerry Casale off guard in this informal conversation in an interzone beyond the prepared Devo image (with occasional parenthetical asides from the Booji Boy himself, Mark Mothersbaugh).
High Times: Ohio's been described as very industrial and bleak—flat empty planes—
Devo: That's exactly the atmosphere that allowed Devo to exist!
High Times: You've been together for ten years?
Devo: Yeah, the first four years we played about six jobs. We had a lot of time in the garage, a lot of time to reflect, after the vodka and beer bottles came at us, after we were threatened by greasers in jacked-up Chevys and hippie goons—soft-core fascists with granola coming out of their ears, hiding swastikas under fringe jackets.
High Times: Were you friends before the band?
Devo: We were. Since we're based on self-debasement we started out with each other—we started out in de basement! We had to take in a lot of diverse elements before we could move out of that limbo of the Midwest. I think a lot of good comes from there but it can't stay there.
The cities are the major source of information—they are devolving at a faster rate than the rest of the country—but they represent the trend always. They're ready for it. I think we are a relief from the oppression of their daily existences, that's all. We're peddling insanity and purposelessness because they need it! We weren't stupid enough to be businessmen and we weren't pretty enough to be David Bowie, we're just following out genetic imperative.
People have a bad misunderstanding of what rights are. They think they have the right to be stupid, to make themselves fat, to foist off their own paranoias and insecurities on other people. That's how rights are—how they get interpreted. It's an outmoded concept—like Democrats and Republicans, there's no difference between them.
All that talk about recombo DNA and people choosing to evolve in certain ways—that's why we chose De-evolution—taking apart all the assumptions of the past decade and synthesizing them, mutating them, putting them back together with a new attitude. De-evolution is simply a collective idea that's gained momentum. In politics and economics the concept of de-evolution is being thrown around a lot, as a kind of catchall for a laissez-faire policy-letting things (like cities) fall apart as being the best way to deal with situations. It's like a nonpolicy that's considered the most benevolent policy. It essentially has to do with the nature of energy itself: things degenerating from complex to simple, with entropy being the gradual winding down of the universe, the slowing down of all particles. Degeneration, de-evolution, things to come.
People can indulge themselves and believe they chose their lives, but let's face it, they're following some sort of genetic imperative and they do what they can, and at any point there's a number of possibilities. They're all pretty equal and it's all pretty random. This interviewer asked us, "Well, aren't you proud to be American, since this allowed you to be Devo?" It's that kind of thought we want to erase—"Don't you love your parents, they're the ones who brought you into the world!"—like it was all planned out or something—it's all random! A fluke, a joke, but people can t accept that. They have to make meaning out of it, to salve themselves.
Oscar Kissmaerth III, a Czechoslovakian anthropologist who is now living as a Buddhist monk in Tibet, wrote a book called In the Beginning Was the End— knowledge can be eaten!—in which he explains all humanity by a strain of cannibalistic apes who start to crave the taste of brain—it increases their sex drive and the size of the brain faster than the capacity of the cranium itself, causing bizarre mutations, and causing them to go insane. And essentially, we are descendants of those apes and all society is based on our imbalanced sex drive. That's his theory. Very nice quack stuff.
High Times: Where did you first see the word "de-evolution?"
Devo: There's a picture of a devil with de-evolution written on his chest, and stairs starting off with, like, "world war, taxes, white slavery, cockfighting." The last one said "punk rock!" Anyhow, that was printed in 1926 by just a quack antievolutionary from Ohio. Someone sent that to us that had never seen our band before. The name of the pamphlet was "Jocko Homo— Heavenbound King of the Zoo." We used that as the basis for the song "Jocko Homo."
High Times: Why wasn't de-evolution publicized years ago?
Devo: Everybody's had bits and pieces, but until now nobody's been able to put it together. To start, I think you have to go around the '60s!
High Times: That really was a big smokescreen in diverting a lot of people into mystical or artsy-craftsy dead ends—
Devo: It really is unfortunate, because a lot of potentially innocent, passive people got sidetracked. It reduced their mobility, which is exactly what a good capitalist society wants to do to its members—to increase consumerism, frustration and need. If men and women hate each other and the system, then they're constantly moving into more apartments, and they need more refrigerators and more cars are being sold. It works! Plus the whole psychotic quest for happiness—making it an absolutely obsessive drive so that people go nuts!
High Times: Also the fact that the '60s were brought to us by the war in Vietnam—
Devo: You pick up a '60s Time magazine—it's really frightening and grotesque. You see Timothy Leary walking out of a club in New York tripping on LSD and you see Vietnam! It's like everything went wacko!
High Times: Do you believe in those Paul Krassner kind of paranoias about, say, Manson being the result of a Rand Corporation computer simulation?
Devo: Krassner's typical of the kind of people who have it half together, and then they leave themselves open because they actually are lame enough to approach it on that level, as if it really matters whether or not you can find empirical validation for that kind of paranoia. Just the fact that you can think it is all that counts! Like science-fiction movies in the '50s, they could imagine monsters from other planets always invading us, when it was just an internal paranoid fantasy projected and personified in monsters. It's all mythology. It's stupid to try to make that real—to find proof. It's just another sidetrack, another goon approach to reality. Like the Kennedy assassination—just the fact that people can think about another gunman is all that counts. That starts the thought and—I can't believe all the people who can pursue it. Everything's based on inconsistency, there's a basic hypocrisy. People are self-contradictory at the center—they love what they hate, they hate themselves, they're not sure. Meanwhile, there's flowers on all the Kleenex boxes. We had a good commercial worked out for cheek-to-cheek anal deodorant on a New York subway—you can imagine it!
High Times: Do you have certain people picked out as devo?
Devo: The list grows every day! Devo is like a polymorphous perverse term—it can be the absolutely most pejorative, debasing term and it can be the highest praise, and it can be both! That's the idea. There's high devo (hi-de-do) and low devo. Devoted, devoid, devolved, devotee. John Kennedy's devo. There's a lot of people who are devo, you know—we're not like them. Wink Martindale. You can make devo, you can be devo. J. Edgar Hoover was devo, there's no doubt about it. You put him next to a picture of a bulldog or a schnauzer: two head shots.
High Times: What were some of your artistic influences?
Devo: I get a lot from Duchamp's piece, The Large Glass and The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors Even. He kind of defined the twentieth century—laid it all out there with one big shot.
High Times: It was cracked in shipping.
Devo: That completed it, didn't it? That's what he dealt with—the soul separated from the motor-driving mechanism, the libido. The bride becomes mechanical lure for these men whose minds have been removed and they are magnetized by the machine—like quality of the bride. I just think he predicted the de-evolution of the twentieth century. Right at the turn of the century he more or less defines what's about to happen.
High Times: You seem to have also been influenced by Oriental culture.
Devo: No one mentions China much, though. It's very superficial in our own interpretation but we really fantasize a lot on what China seems to represent in terms of possibilities for an orientation toward future existence, and we love their kind of graphics. I know that they are right for the wrong reasons, but they're so appealing.
High Times: Yeah, but there's no freedom for artists there, really. Unless it's poli art.
Devo: But what's art going to be? What's art?
High Times: Well, their art is mostly propaganda and costume nostalgia—
Devo: But [sinister tone] what do you think rock 'n' roll is in America, besides Propaganda for Corporate Capitalist Life?
High Times: You're speaking of air-play rock music?
Devo: Well, that's what's happening, isn't it? There's not much freedom for art in America either, is there? There's freedom for just lots of proliferation of endless imitation kitsch. Stupidity is rewarded in this system—big contracts! The whole society may be an art form. Art only springs up when things have already gone haywire. It is some kind of valve—a freeway exit—but you eventually get back on and everybody understands what it's for, and anybody who takes it too far is quickly stopped, and it just becomes a problem of knowing what's too far. Because it has all to do with pacing—the whole system obviously is a dynamic, liquid system that keeps changing.
Most rock musicians, they're no more than clerks or auto mechanics, you know, from a middle-class Republican political bent, and if they're lucky, if they're successful, they'll settle into a kind of Alice Cooper type of existence, with the golf clubs. They're just another bunch of shits in another business—it's all show biz, like the rock awards.
The Beatles were special. I'm surprised they didn't go for TV and beer sooner than they did. You would expect a person from that industrial town background, soon as he makes the money, to do all the obvious, foolish, crass things. But there is that possibility with humans—they are capable of some kind of, like, Imp of the Perverse-making a noncausal leap. It's foolish to even deal with it in terms of a dichotomy. That's what I get from the Chinese orientation toward life. They've surpassed Aristotelian dichotomies in terms of thinking about reality—you know, where you set up a debate in language that's really a false representation of what's going on: good and bad, Republican and Democrat, purpose or no purpose. That's the kind of stuff Burroughs talks about too, because essentially he's into linguistics—
High Times: Linguistics and photography. Do you watch a lot of TV?
Devo: No! It doesn't do anything for me. It's about the same thing as pot. I started off being a pothead, and for the same reason I started I quit. I started because I liked it and I quit because I didn't. All it did was put me to sleep—turned your brain into Swiss cheese with big holes that weren't functional at all. It didn't, like, reconnect up any information in a good way. It just stopped!—couldn't jump the hole. But I think it's more in the national interest to have a bunch of potheads rather than cigarette smokers. Ultimately, it's better for consumer society to have a bunch of people that are zombied out but still essentially healthy physically—able to work, to give their bodies over to labor and the capitalist system, and to buy products because they've ruined their imagination—than it is to have people in hospitals being treated for lung cancer! I think that's a good reason to go from ciggies to pot. (Then you can have like a fascist reversal: "You don't smoke pot—what's the matter with you?") I've had people come up to me and whisper: "Hey, come on (snigger), let's do some coke" —"Uh, I don't really feel like that"—then it's like they're truly offended, you know! I haven't really found a drug I like. I wish it'd find me! What I'm trying to do is just expand my receptivity to what drugs could be. Food is drug—like the Food and Drug Administration probably has the best idea of what drugs are. Hippie culture or any other kind of pop suburban thing is like genital sexuality. You can only get off on a four-inch-square area around the penis, you know, whereas a baby—rub it anywhere and it starts to come. Anyway, I'm just trying to do that with me, publicly, in the environment, where all kinds of things are drugs, because then I've got an advantage—there are more things available—cheap!
Devo by Martin Benjamin
High Times: What's Devo's attitude toward dreams?
Devo: Total indulgence on our part.
High Times: Do you consciously try to record them?
Devo: No, but nobody feels guilty about their dreams. No one in Devo would bother spending any time on an analyst's couch because they fucked their mother in a dream. The obvious bottom line would be: Well, was it a good fuck? Yeah!
High Times: Well, for Burroughs, most of his characters and actual dialogues come out of dreams.
Devo: That still separates dreams from real life. If they are just allowed to blend together to an irresponsible point where you're increasing the time you indulge in that kind of dream state—say you're in a restaurant and you're doing it in real time to the people around you and listening to what they say—it's like never knowing where the dream stops—that's really us!
High Times: How is Devo's music de-evolutionary?
Devo: The more technology you have the more primitive you can be. With synthesizers you can express guttural sounds, bird noises, brain waves, blood flow. It's like putting more immediate information into the music; keep destroying the stylization for content.
High Times: Where do you find all the raw materials for Devo's collages?
Devo: Important sources that are often overlooked. Feminine Libido Sexualis, a book compiled by some crazy German about thirty years ago. All he does is compare body types of women around the world, but in a very scientific vein, with pictures of every African tribe, in-depth breast, buttock and pelvis studies. He tries to be serious about it, but every now and then he throws in information about which ones are the most erotic to your average Joe. Also, outdated medical books. You can get them real cheap at junk stores in Ohio. I have books on World War I and World War II warfare wounds.
High Times: Are there big differences?
Devo: Yeah, World War I had mustard gas, World War II the atomic bomb and different kinds of bayonets—different punctures and slashes. Lotta good wounds in World War II.
High Times: I'd like to hear more about your early experiments.
Devo: We did record a bowling ball rolling down an alley, and did use machine guns on a repeating loop. When we first started writing together we used windshield wipers and washing machines for our rhythm instruments. Or, like, jamming with the telephone busy signal. We realized that was getting too artsy after a while. It was impractical to do that in front of an audience—we picked up a drummer when we got our first job. For the most part we used a regular acoustic or synthesized drum set, although we did do a lot of songs with electronic percussion—even songs where the rhythm track was maybe a sneeze or a belch on a loop—it made a pattern that kept coming around, in a nice, perverted way. Although that was an interesting direction, we weren't matching up with the public. It was staying real private and just beat off. At a certain point we said, "Well, okay, we've been Devo long enough, we understand the aesthetic ourselves and we know what we're trying to do. Now, what would be the most challenging thing to do would be to make it commercially palatable to people—to do that and still keep it Devo, to let people in on it so it wasn't a private joke." And that's when we picked up a drummer who had real drums.
High Times: How did you develop the Booji Boy voice and persona?
Devo: Booji Boy came around back when Jerry and I didn't have any jobs and we'd sit around wearing masks and just assuming the personality that we were, for a whole day maybe. There would be days where, if you had a camera, you would see both of us with chimpanzee masks on for the whole day, assuming Afro-American dialects and, during one visit to mask shops, we came across some Booji Boy masks and some "China" specs—glasses.
So we made this demo tape in Akron with seven hot tunes on it, including "All of Us," "Shimmy Shake," "A Plan fer You," "Be Still," "Rope Song." We got into our little car and drove to—we knew one person who was in the music business who was successful, from Ohio; we had gone to see him when he had played local clubs, and he had gone from being a real person to being a—uh, teenage idol—so we were real excited. We said, "This guy, although he doesn't play our kind of music exactly, I know when he hears it he'll realize it's great stuff and he'll help us out!" We were certain of it—"It's going to be the big time soon!" And we're hitting each other on the shoulder, pack a little bag full of clothes, and we get our rubber masks and drive out to California, and on the way out there I wore the Booji Boy mask and Jerry wore the China specs and he was the all-knowing Chinaman and I was Booji Boy representing innocence, naïveté, and so we invented these characters on the way out to California. And we got out there and went to the residence of the man who was going to make us—
High Times: Who was he?
Devo: Joe Walsh. And he goes, "Hey, boys, hey-y-y-y-y-y!" and put his arms around us. We went stiff, you know, because we were anything but hippies (loose, natural, y'know)—so we go sit down in his living room, he puts on the tape and in the middle of the second song he runs out to his kitchen and starts rolling J's real fast and gets himself smoked up real high, along with the other people in the kitchen. We look in and they're all going, "Hyuh-hyuh," and there's this guy with really long hair down to here and bell bottoms pointing to us, and we go, "Uh-oh." And Joe Walsh comes back and politely lets the tape finish and goes, "Well, guys, you're either above me, or, uh, below me, or somewhere else! All I can say is, You almost got it together, and when you finally do, I want you guys to come back and see me." That was in 1975.
We thought, "We're gonna show 'em that there's alternative realities: Ideas still exist!" So we adopted these "personalities" to use onstage—we were certain people would be relieved just to see something new for once. But it turned out quite the opposite.
One place we played where we ended up getting paid to leave, some guy who had been yelling "Aerosmith!" all night finally ran up and grabbed my face with the Booji Boy mask and just, scruueeeaah—
High Times: He wrecked the mask—
Devo: Yeah. I have three Booji Boy masks, and the oldest one has stitches that go up along the side of the head like Frankenstein. And he said, through clenched teeth, "I said Aerosmith, goddamn it!" as he ripped it up. So that's what we had to contend with in Ohio.
High Times: When did you first decide to wear jump suits?
Devo: We first got those blue firemen's jump suits and we wore those masks that took your face away, 'cause we decided that what we hated about rock 'n' roll was stars. We watched Roxy Music, a band we liked, slowly become Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music. If you got a band that's good, you bust it up and sell three times as many records. Take the Beatles, for instance. The magic was in the combination—nothing that any single Beatle did after that matches up.
High Times: How would you describe the music scene now?
Devo: Confused, wishy-washy, dopo stuff, except—what isn't, these days? I mean, we're in it, we're in it full—this might as well be Eisenhower! The little twits that buy Orange Juice and Haircut 100—I mean, they're more disgusting than their parents! I mean, the world's been taken over by anal deodorant spray! It's been taken over by these bloodless goons—techno-brats—who can't put enough quarters in video games, who are more conservative and fascist than their parents—cleanness, conformity, adherence to major trends. It's really happening. That's why they love patterns, that's why they love video games: because there's absolute safety and control in patterns. A culture that leaves its active phase always resorts to just multiple patterns, tracing back on itself. It's real safe. You put the quarters in the Pac-Man game—
High Times: That's almost an ultimate consumer metaphor.
Devo: Because you can't win. And even if you win, all you win is that you're being chased by and you're chasing all these things longer! You don't win a goddamn thing—you put more money in! It's amazing—you're being eaten by capitalism, and when you get your break and the men turn blue you better have them all lined up so you can chop 'em down!
Anyway, it's too big! You can't even fight it. People just think you're sick if you say a bad word about E.T. or Tron. And they're two of the sickest movies ever made! They're like—if Walt Disney were alive today he'd be Steven Spielberg! I mean, man, he did nothing but a Sound of Music with an outer-space mutant. Unbelievable. You know the culture's in trouble when great big stupid Republican jocks go into a theater and after fifteen minutes of E.T. they're sobbing like babies. Because it's so flawlessly done—it's as good as Triumph of the Will.
High Times: And it's got the old safety valve of fake rebellion—
Devo: You got it. But you know what they're rebelling against is a warped, stereotyped view of science and information. It's like all it really is is Reagan propaganda for Follow Your Feelings—your own instincts—you know, innocence, the Cult of Innocence. And it's real archconservatism masquerading as liberation—total bullshit. The adults are cartoons shot from the waist down, the scientists are—
High Times: —faceless goons in lab coats jingling S&M keys—
Devo: It's part of the American tradition to put down ideas—they're skeptical of people with ideas, don't kid yourself. It's like—Reagan should have hired Spielberg to make that film—it shouldn't have been funded by a studio; it should have been funded by the White House!
High Times: When they covered that house in plastic, they evoked that womb-suffocation trauma—
Devo: Oh, yeah.
High Times: I mean, there are deep-seated reasons why that film is so successful.
Devo: Not the least of which is that it's a Jesus story on a Jewish perception: E.T. is Jesus. They've even got poses in there like when he comes out of the back of the van covered with a sheet and extends his arms—there's the apostles! And they're besieged by the Philistines. It's too good. Spielberg didn't even try to hide the details that he got from Michelangelo's Creation. It's heavy! The whole thing's a Christ myth. He even dies and is reborn: the Resurrection. It's the biggest piece of propaganda since Ben Hur and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Oh, well, you can't tell anybody what you think—it's sour grapes. How could you not have a good time?
What really freaks me out is the few short years it took to completely shift society since 1978—at every level how much more the whole Devo parody of corporate society is absolutely true. Like Tron is more important to the stock market than how much it pulls—it didn't generate that much. The film cost almost fifty million bucks—by the time you count ads you need a hundred million to break even—but they won't lose a point because Tron was presold to Atari or somebody and they'll make ten times as much off the royalties from the video game Tron. That's how they sold it. Art? It's just like when rich religious patrons controlled all the art.
High Times: And then they all said, "Paint me!"
Devo: And show it to all of them and have them all come and pay five or six bucks. Reminds me of left-wing types telling the workers they're being ripped off by the boss—they try to tell people what's happening, who tell them to get lost, and beat the shit out of 'em.
High Times: So, how's 1982 been so far?
Devo: We went and toured really hard. The last record, New Traditionalists, didn't get air play. We toured a long time to keep our noses above water, because oddly enough, people thought Devo were worth seeing live—without air play we sold more seats than ever before. We did an extensive tour of Australia—the album was successful there.
High Times: Did you get air play there?
Devo: Oh, yeah, total—"Beautiful World" was a hit.
High Times: I liked the video of that.
Devo: I worked on that; I did all of that myself except the actual physical editing.
High Times: It had an edge to it.
Devo: Well, that was the problem with the album, I think; it was pretty caustic, with not exactly up lyrics. It came at a time when everybody decided that Haircut 100—Haircut 100's about two degrees away from Barry Manilow—"Boy Meets Girl"—shit, who are they kidding? I like Heaven 17 sometimes—I really liked Fascist Groove Thang and Let's All Make a Bomb—that stuff's good. But of course it's the Human League that makes it—they've got nice sappy synthesizers—the same old formula, sappy, direct, but with synthesizers. If people would play those same songs, but with guitars, all the hip people that love them would go, "Ugh…they stink!"
High Times: P.T. Barnum is still right—So what's next for Devo?
Devo: We're planning another tour and a movie. The title is Animal Farm.
High Times: I remember reading that book in grade school.
Devo: It's still applicable.
High Times: I didn't see the animated version of it—
Devo: It stunk. This has nothing literal to do with the novel Animal Farm. Animal Farm's an obvious political fable—you can break it down into a three-act play. First there's the rebellion, and the idealist, communist animals win and they take over from Jones, the animal oppressor. In the second part they have to establish their order and learn how to survive. They're corrupted, and in the third part they're as bad as Jones, indistinguishable. So evil, regressive impulses win out over virtue. That's just how it is!—perfectly right for Devo—talking about de-evolution, the regressive side of human nature, the self-destructive programming—Animal Farm! The plot just very vaguely follows those three acts—even though it's not that fine, that's what happens. Except that with the Devo twist, I think that audiences will totally identify with the pigs. But anybody with brains will be horrified to watch them cheering just like they do when Booji Boy puts a fork into the toaster! That's what they love the most: killing the future. The characters that an intelligent person would know represent hideous ideas would be the ones that the kids love! It would be aimed that way purposely.
High Times: Film's the territory you were always headed for—
Devo: It gives me a new lease on life; that's the goal I need to feel good.
High Times: I heard that you might wind up collaborating with Burroughs.
Devo: Burroughs sent me some song lyrics! Here's one; it's called "Pick Up Your Stick." I wish we could use it, but we just couldn't find anything to put it in, not that we wouldn't ever do it. "Stick" was an underworld expression dating back to the '20s that referred to criminals providing themselves with a legitimate trade or profession that they could fall back on or look good at, so that they wouldn't get thrown in the slammer. Burroughs wrote me, "Short-order cook is a common stick. Safecrackers will be welders or locksmiths. Some have a farm tucked away. Con men make good salesmen, up to a point. Truck drivers, waiters, parking-lot attendants, longshoremen—all God's children got sticks. The best sticks are those you can pick up anywhere—you may have to move fast and keep moving. That's why there are so many short-order cooks."
And this is just a letter. I mean—the whole thing sounds like a rap out of his book with Clem Snide! Anyway, he wrote me that letter and sent me this song called "Pick Up Sticks":
When you're old and sick,
lean on your stick,
you're hot as a rivet,
stink like a civet,
—stuff like that, you know:
grab that stick,
"a simple swineherd officer"
oink, oink, oink
your luck's going sour, you're losin'
the power,
don't push it son, that jailhouse isn't fun,
grab that stick, before you get a lick, from someone else's stick. . .
You know, I mean the guy is tremendous —he probably knocked that out in five minutes.
We were talking about drugs—he said, "Oh, you just gotta get over the hump. You gotta do enough so you change your system over—it's the middle ground that's bad.
High Times: But most don't survive that. He's one of the damned few that have.
Devo: He's special.
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Simulation Recipes are available on github.
The LSST project is developing a set of sophisticated simulation tools that allow the user to produce realistic LSST images. These tools include CatSim, simulating the LSST sky, and PhoSimwhich draws phtons from the simulated sky through the atmosphere, LSST telescope and CCD electronics. The simulations recipe book is a user-generated set of worked examples for these tools in the form of usable code. The recipes are python scripts that generate (and even analyse) simulations for a specific task. The utensils are shorter 'helper' scripts which perform specific, commonly-used functions. In a longer time-frame, these recipes and utensils will be assembled into a library of functions that users can put together to make a science analysis.
This is a useful complement to the documentation provided by the various simulation projects themselves. Instead of describing what the simulations do, they will demonstrate how the simulation framework can be used to do science. These recipes will therefore not only instruct scientists in how to adapt and use the simulation tools, but also showcase the many ways the tools can be used. They will hopefully prompt new ideas for using the simulations in DESC science analysis.
You can find the recipe book on the DESC github page: http://darkenergysciencecollaboration.github.io/ImageSimulationRecipes/.
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Catholic Life Features Ministry Parish Life
WACY youth group continue diocesan leadership program
Patrick J. Buechi September 17, 2020
In the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, one parish made sure its youth didn't miss out on the popular leadership program, the Christian Leadership Institute. The Wyoming Association of Catholic Youth, affectionately known as WACY, held their own version of CLI, formerly hosted by the diocesan Department of Youth & Young Adult Ministries.
CLI has been presented to large groups of high schoolers in the Diocese of Buffalo for over 40 years. This is the first time it has been taken down to a parish level. The WACY program taught the same communications skills, explained the different styles of leadership, and used the same activities to put the lessons into practice. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the WACY CLI was not a weeklong overnight, but comprised of five long days, July 22-26. The attendees used St. Vincent School gym in Attica, allowing enough space to keep a safe distance from each other.
"We used the same lessons. We had to fit a lot of it into a smaller time frame because we couldn't spend the night," explained Elijah Stringham, a small group leader for this event. "We did a lot of the same activities. Some of the more physical ones we couldn't do due to COVID. I think the biggest difference was the size, because there weren't quite as many people. So, the small-group size was three people instead of 10 people. Other than that, we did all the same leadership training."
Stringham attended CLI two years ago and finds herself using the skills in many facets of her young life.
"I use the leadership skills in Student Council. I use them in our youth group to lead each small group and plan fundraisers. I'm a class officer at school, so I've been able to use a lot of the communication skills in that," she said. "It changed my life a lot in a good way."
The idea to continue the program for her youth group came from Jessica Scharlau, who had undergone the diocesan program in 2016.
"I felt that the leadership training was really important. It gives a lot of life skills. So, I figured why not help out," she said.
Scharlau and Laura Fontaine presented the topics, with assistance from Michael Slish, former program director for the Diocese of Buff alo's Department of Youth and Young Adult Ministries. Teens who had previously attended CLI served as small group leaders. Each day a lesson would be introduced, then explored through small group discussions and activities.
"I thought it was fun. We did lots of games. We did activities," said Oscar Stringham from Immaculate Conception Parish in East Bethany. "We learned lots of communication skills and what kind of leaders there are and what leader you should be depending on the situation and basically, how to lead in the right way."
Stringham, 14, is interested in becoming a small group leader in his parish youth group. At school, there are opportunities to use his newfound skills on student council and as a class officer. He feels the communication skills he learned can be useful in any situation.
Based in the Wyoming County town of Sheldon, WACY draws in people from 10 different parishes in Erie, Cattaraugus, Wyoming and Genesee counties. About 50 kids show up at an average meeting.
"These kids just want to be together," explained Theresa Zielinski, youth minister for WACY. "WACY is a peer-led youth ministry. We have a lot of adult mentors, but everything we do is youth planned, organized and executed. We guide and direct them some. So, we have a Youth Leadership Team, sort of like the Youth Board. They plan all of our meetings; the topics we're going to discuss; everything we do basically. So, we need leaders. Actually, this year, all of my leaders who have been trained through CLI will be graduating this coming year."
Joan D. Thomas appointed interim Catholic School Superintendent
St. Mark Church is proud to welcome a bronze statue of patron
St. Bonaventure's online M.A. in Leadership program offering $6,000 scholarship
wnycatholic October 28, 2021

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


"Thinking about bankers and money? "
The long-awaited settlement between 49 state Attorneys General and the big five robo-signing banks is proving to be a monumental disappointment before it has even been signed, sealed and court approved. It appears that the bankers who took your home and your job will again be buying their way out of jail, and the curtain will again drop on the scene of the crime.
The bill would establish an Arizona Housing Finance Reform Authority to refinance the mortgages of Arizona homeowners who owe more than their homes are currently worth. The existing mortgage would be replaced with a new mortgage from AHFRA in an amount up to 125% of the home's current fair market value. The existing lender would get paid 101% of the home's fair market value, and would get a non-interest-bearing note called a "loss recapture certificate" covering a portion of any underwater amounts, to be paid over time. The capital to refinance the mortgages would come from floating revenue bonds, and payment on the bonds would come solely from monies paid by the homeowner-borrowers. An Arizona Home Insurance Fund would create a cash reserve of up to 20 percent of the bond and would be used to insure against losses. The bill would thus cost the state nothing.
Ellen Brown developed her research skills as an attorney practicing civil litigation in Los Angeles. In Web of Debt, her latest of eleven books, she turns those skills to an analysis of the Federal Reserve and "the money trust." She shows how this private cartel has usurped the power to create money from the people themselves, and how we the people can get it back. She is president of the Public Banking Institute, http://publicbankinginstitute.org/, and has websites at http://webofdebt.com/ and http://ellenbrown.com/.
Talk about it is cold outside!
This is a frozen way taken by AP photographer in Croatia. YOu can get chills just looking at it . . .


Hi, my name is Vicky Leon and I have been teaching in the Los Angeles Unified School District since 1982. I hope to use this site as a way to help teachers share ideas with other teachers.
Members of The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative promote their free products, priced products, sales, and promotions on this WordPress blog. They also write articles about their teaching experiences and about themselves. You may also see free products created by teachers who sell their lessons at TeachersPayTeachers.com.
http://www.thebestofteacherentrepreneursmarketingcooperative.com/2014/01/the-best-of-teacher-entrepreneurs.html and purchase the one year membership using your PayPal account or the PayPal credit card service.


In this class, children learn basic dance vocabulary through teacher and student led dance stories. The teacher may read a story to the children or talk about a movement concept that will provide inspiration for that day's dance. This class is intended to be an independent dance class although parents will occasionally be welcomed into the dance space at the end of class to watch the students perform.


text:
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Image: Cartouche from 1772 map of Worcestershire. Fruit is important to the agriculture of Worcestershire, and fruit of various kinds entwine the surrounds of the dedication. Below are the River Severn, important for transport, kilns, and a typical landscape for Worcestershire with hills and trees.
Image from: Local Studies and History, Birmingham Central Library
The oldest English maps were not a continuous survey, as in the modern Ordnance Survey, but followed the boundaries of the county. This meant that there would be a significant amount of white space, which was used for various purposes. If the map was sponsored by a patron, or if the map-maker hoped it would be, then the names or the coats-of-arms might be included. The key would fit in one of the corners, rather than in a border as nowadays. The orientation, and scale, would usually fit in another corner.
John Ogilby's road-maps incorporated decorative cartouches at the top of the page; some with coats-of-arms, some with scenes of country life, for example hunting, or a shepherd and shepherdess with sheep. As towns grew in size, map-makers tried to appeal to a wider audience. Many county maps and town-plans of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have insets showing miniature prospects of the most important towns, or the important buildings in a town, usually churches. Sometimes the title of the map would appear as if engraved on a plaque, surrounded by leaves. People were not usually shown. Maps of counties might include an illustration of the major agriculture or industries.
Another example of a cartouche from James Sherriff's 1798 map of the area for 25 miles around Birmingham, serves as the introductory image for Maps and Map Making: the West Midlands Experience.
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Chronology of principal events that occurred during the Industrial Revolution in the West Midlands. Significant places in the historic counties of Derbyshire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire during the Industrial Revolution. Industrialists, engineers, artists, thinkers and writers who contributed to the Industrial Enlightenment, technology, art, culture, religion and politics. Explorations of industries and innovations; landscapes and localities; art and architecture; culture and diversity; and the place of the West Midlands in the contemporary world.
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On behalf of the Spring Roo team, I am pleased to announce the release of Spring Roo 1.3.0, the first version released by DISID Corporation as project lead.
Spring Roo is a rapid application development tool for Java, allowing you to create full web enterprise applications in just minutes.
This is the first time that Spring Roo jar files have been published to Maven Central! As always, the release is available in the Spring IO repository.
Please try out the updates and provide feedback.
As always, you'll also find Roo on Twitter - either follow @SpringRoo or just include #SpringRoo in your tweets. The next version 2.0 will be amazing, the best is coming up. Stay tuned!


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India to host U-17 Women's World Cup in 2020
Thread: India to host U-17 Women's World Cup in 2020
The Indian FA has plans to bid for the hosting rights of multiple FIFA and AFC tournaments...
India has been confirmed as the hosts for the 2020 U-17 Women's World Cup, FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced on Friday at the council meeting held in Miami, USA.
As reported earlier by Goal, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) has plans to bid for the hosting rights of several FIFA age-group tournaments and AFC competitions and they have succeeded in their their first move by winning the rights for the U-17 women's global tournament.
As hosts, India's U-17 team will also be allowed a direct entry into the competition and it will be their first appearance at the World Cup.
India succesfully hosted the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2017 and registered a record attendance.
competitions, dance, have, hosting, hosts, news, sport, sports


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Home BatangasEssay Talisay 19th Century Talisay, Batangas as Described by a Spanish Historian
19th Century Talisay, Batangas as Described by a Spanish Historian
Buhay Batangas November 05, 2017 BatangasEssay, Talisay
A rural scene which could have been anywhere in the Philippines in the 19th or early 20th century. Image credit: New York Public Library.
This article is the second instalment of a series featuring the towns of Batangas in the nineteenth century. Most of the information contained herein has been culled from "Batangas y su Provincia1," a book written by the Spanish ex-government official and historian Manuel Sastron and published in 1895. Presumably, the information provided by Sastron was gathered in the immediate years preceding the book's publication.
Sastron described the town of Talisay as to the north of Lemery (more correctly, to the northeast), south of the provinces of Cavite and La Laguna, east of Calaca and west of Tanauan. It had a land area of roughly 15,000 hectares, of which only ⅕ was flat lands. The rest, Sastron wrote, was hilly.
Furthermore, Sastron described Talisay as being a "modern town," one which formally became a municipality in 1851, when Juan Antonio de Urbiztondo was the Spanish Governor General of the Philippines2.
At the time, Talisay was divided into 13 barrios. The town could be reached from Tanauan by carriage using a main road "during the dry season." Presumably, by Sastron's omission, the road was virtually unpassable during the rainy season from June to about September or October.
There were rivers that flowed through Talisay: Aya, Bignay, Sampaloc, Bobaton and the Bayuyungan or San Gabriel. All of these rivers, Sastron wrote, "had little water flowing." There were also a few estuaries than ran through the town.
Like most other towns of Batangas, agriculture was among the principal preoccupations in Talisay. The town produced rice, corn, monggo, quibal, garlic and onions. There were even one or two neighborhoods which planted cotton in their fields. Irrigation, Sastron observed, was non-existent and watering the fields was left pretty much to the elements.
Farmers in Talisay had also tried planting abaca and coffee, but with little success. Sugarcane, in fact, was more promising; and production was getting better with each passing year.
The mountains and hills that surrounded Talisay were lush with numerous varieties of trees and plants, and Sastron named some of them: banaba, balayong, molave, anobing, malabunga, valor, himamaus, dulitan, antipolo, calumpang, abilo, malaruhat, talisay-gubat, banay-banay, taluto, baliti, bungculan, lamis, catmon, latang-gubat, alpay, malatipay, sahing, pisa, pagsahingin and the naghubo, to mention but a few.
Talisay had a lot of land on which animals could graze, but at the time had limited livestock. According to official records, there were just 294 heads of cattle, 178 carabaos, 215 horses and a thousand sows.
Along the roads leading to Tanauan, there were six wooden bridges. There were also other minor roads. One went north to the towns of Calamba, Cabuyao, Santa Rosa and Biñan, all in the province of La Laguna. Two local roads also went in the direction of Silang, Amadeo, Mendez and Alfonso in Cavite. Another road went west to the towns of Lemery and Calaca.
Primary education was available to children of both genders, but the school was in two rented houses which were in a very bad condition. Sastron noted that the education was of little benefit to the children of the town because they were needed by their parents to help tend the agricultural fields and, therefore, had precious little time to spend inside the classroom.
Despite the fact that Talisay was relatively isolated, Sastron noted that the inhabitants of Talisay were more open to visitors than those of other towns that he had visited. He wrote that the people of the town were respectful, very active and protective of their old ways. He also observed, however, that they were also "muy aficionados al juego." Presumably, what he meant was that they were also fond of gambling.
Sastron also noted that criminality had declined in admirable proportions in Talisay, especially in comparison to the town of Tanauan. He wrote that there were hardly any incidents of crime committed for two years, presumably preceding the time when he wrote his account on the town.
He further wrote that Talisay was a healthy town with a "sweet climate," excepting the months of March, April and May3. This was just as well for the town's inhabitants because medical service was non-existent and locals turned to herbalists to cure their ailments.
The old church was already in disrepair, but another one was already under construction as directed by the Augustinian priests who tended to the flock. There was a cemetery about half a kilometer from the town center, and Sastron expressed concern that its proximity to houses could be unhealthful.
He also noted that the fishing industry was small and that there were just a few pens, in stark contrast to the present day. He also noted that sharks had been known to swim in the waters of the lake close to the town.
Notes and references;
1 "Pequeños Estudios, Batangas y Su Provincia," by Manuel Sastron, published 1895.
2 De Urbiztondo was Governor General of the Philippines from 1850-1853. Wikipedia.
3 March to May, of course, being the most oppressive in terms of heat because these are the dry months in the country even to the present day.
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Nintendo has announced that as of the end of June it will no longer be accepting stage designs and other user-created content for Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl allows players to create their own "stages" and then distribute them to friends or upload them to Nintendo through Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, along with in-fight snapshots and replays. But a brief message posted on the Smash Bros. Dojo says the service will be coming to a halt at the end of this month.
"As of June 30th, 2009, the current service that accepts user-generated snapshots, stage designs, and replay data will no longer be available," it says. "Please note, however, that we will continue to distribute such data after that date."
Infendo has reported on speculation that SSBB players were uploading hacked stages that "borked the system" but Nintendo has not offered any explanation for why the service is ending, nor whether or not the "current service" might at some point be replaced with a "new service."


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Q: Where is my Py_NoneStruct symbol (python, boost.python)? I'm trying to compile a simple main.cpp which just includes boost/python.hpp.
Like the following:
#include <boost/python.hpp>

int main() {
    return 0;
}

I'm using MSVC command line tools from my git-bash shell. I know that cl.exe need some environment variable that can be found in vcvars32.bat.
Here is how I'm compiling/linking my main.cpp:
# Since I'm using git-bash, I can use '-' instead of '/' for options, also
# `clwrap` is a tiny script that runs vcvars32.bat and forward arguments to `cl.exe`
# `python27.lib` and the boost.python lib are automatically autolink
$ clwrap -MD -I/c/Python27/include -I$BOOST_ROOT main.cpp -link -LIBPATH:"C:\\Python27\\libs" -LIBPATH:"C:\\Users\\Charly\\works\\cpp\\boost_1_57_0\\stage\\lib"

When I'm doing this, this ends up with a linking error:
main.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __imp___Py_NoneStruct referenced in function "public: __thiscall boost::python::api::object::object(void)" (??0object@api@python@boost@@QAE@XZ)

So, I decide to check my python27.lib file to see if the missing symbol is here:
$ nm /c/Python27/libs/python27.lib  | grep Py_None

NOTHING!!
But, the symbol is in my libpython27.a:
$ nm /c/Python27/libs/libpython27.a  | grep Py_None
00000000 I __imp__Py_NoneStruct
00000000 T _Py_NoneStruct

I did install python using the .msi installer (64bits). I built boost.python with the good address-model=64. Here is my CLI for building boost.python:
.\bootstrap.bat
.\b2 --with-python --build-type=complete address-model=64 variant=release link=shared toolset=msvc

Did I miss something? Is the python installer buggy? (I've found an issue about something similar)...
To be honest, I've tried many things, also I'm not really used to Windows development environment, so maybe I've missed something!
Thanks!

A: Fix my problem by using a proper 64 bits compiler.
If you take a look at the question you will see that my clwrap is using vcvars32.bat. Also, it uses cl.exe (32 bits version) which is here on my system:
C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\\VC\\bin\\cl.exe

But I've found another version of the compiler here:
C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\\VC\\bin\\x86_amd64\\cl.exe

Altogether with its needed .bat script:
C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\\VC\\bin\\x86_amd64\\vcvarsx86_amd64.bat

I did install some other packages for my VS. I don't know if this compiler came with those packages, but just in case, here are the packages.
Hope this helps!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Cheat weekend (which turned into cheat 6 days) was pretty, pretty, pretty good. We cheated the entire time we were out of town and I "gained" 9 pounds. It took a week and a day or so to get rid of the water weight I had packed on and I felt incredibly bloated while losing it. But, it's gone. Onward to round 5. This time around we're going to go through to Dec. 23rd and then have a week long break to cover Christmas and New Years.
My goal is to be in the 150s by Christmas, that gives me 8 weeks to do it (writing this post a week late because it took a week for me to lose the water weight anyway so really 7 weeks I suppose). It's very doable. Excited to see new lows. And then excited to eat Christmas baking.
Help me pick a bday cake!


text:
Chinese Journal of Agricultural Biotechnology (4)
Journal of Materials Research (3)
British Journal of Nutrition (2)
Cardiology in the Young (1)
Health Economics, Policy and Law (1)
High Power Laser Science and Engineering (1)
Journal of Fluid Mechanics (1)
MRS Communications (1)
Management and Organization Review (1)
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AEPC Association of European Paediatric Cardiology (1)
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The Color of Faults Depends on the Lens: MNCs' Legitimacy Repair in Response to Framing by Local Governments in China
Xiao-xiao Liu, Lai Si Tsui-Auch, Jun Jie Yang, Xueli Wang, Aihua Chen, Kai Wang
Journal: Management and Organization Review / Volume 15 / Issue 2 / June 2019
Concerns over food safety in China not only direct public attention to negative incidents, but also trigger the government's scrutiny of implicated firms, particularly MNCs. The question of how to repair legitimacy after media coverage of negative incidents has become a critical issue for MNCs. Although the factors for MNCs' public crises have been identified, how local contexts and mechanisms shape repair approaches remain unclear. To address this research gap, we conducted a study of Walmart China's approaches associated with two negative incidents across two regions. We found that the negative incidents can be framed differently depending on the local environment's unfavorability for MNCs. Specifically, the negative framing gave rise to varying degrees of legitimacy loss and offered different leeway for MNCs to repair their legitimacy. We also identified the varied outcomes of different repair approaches. By revealing the linkages among local context, framing, legitimacy repair, and its outcomes, our study contributes to research on MNCs' legitimacy management under institutional complexity and underscores the China context for legitimacy maintenance. We also offer insights that advance the institutional approach to legitimacy repair in this context. Last, we reflect on the techniques for conducting qualitative research in China.
Energy restriction in renal protection
Si-Yang Wang, Guang-Yan Cai, Xiang-Mei Chen
Journal: British Journal of Nutrition / Volume 120 / Issue 10 / 28 November 2018
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2018, pp. 1149-1158
Print publication: 28 November 2018
Energy restriction (ER) has been widely studied as a novel intervention, and its ability to prolong life has been fully demonstrated. For example, ER can significantly extend the lifespans of model flies, worms, rodents and other mammals. The role of ER in renal protection has also been elucidated. In preclinical studies, adjusting total energy intake or consumption of specific nutrients has prophylactic or therapeutic effects on ageing-related kidney disease and acute and chronic kidney injury. Amino acid restriction has gradually attracted attention. ER mimetics have also been studied in depth. The protective mechanisms of ER and ER mimetics for renal injury include increasing AMP-activated protein kinase and sirtuin type 1 (Sirt1) levels and autophagy and reducing mammalian target of rapamycin, inflammation and oxidative stress. However, the renal protective effect of ER has mostly been investigated in rodent models, and the role of ER in patients cannot be determined due to the lack of large randomised controlled trials. To protect the kidney, the mechanism of ER must be thoroughly researched, and more accurate diet or drug interventions need to be identified.
Application of microscopy technologies for nanomaterial characterization and biological quantification
Gong Cheng, Yiqiu Xia, Wenqing Li, Merisa Nisic, Sijie Hao, Si-Yang Zhang
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 August 2018, pp. 1270-1271
Titania-based electrospun nanofibrous materials: a new model for organic pollutants degradation
Xiaohui Wu, Yang Si, Jianyong Yu, Bin Ding
Journal: MRS Communications / Volume 8 / Issue 3 / September 2018
Effective degradation of organic pollutants in wastewater is of great importance to the environment and human society. TiO2-based electrospun nanofibrous materials combining the properties of the large specific surface area, high aspect ratio, tunable compositions and structures, as well as easy to recycle, show great promise for the efficient removal of organic pollutants. In this Prospective paper, the recent progress in the degradation of organic water contaminants over visible-light-responsive TiO2-based nanofibrous materials is summarized, with emphasis on the strategies for improving the visible-light photocatalytic activity of TiO2-based nanofibrous materials. Finally, the current challenges and future outlook in this field are discussed.
The relationship between Interleukin-27 gene polymorphisms and Kawasaki disease in a population of Chinese children
Feifei Si, Yao Wu, Xianmin Wang, Fang Gao, Dan Yang, Ruixi Liu, Qijian Yi
Journal: Cardiology in the Young / Volume 28 / Issue 9 / September 2018
Kawasaki disease is the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children from developed countries. The Interleukin-6/ Interleukin-12 cytokine family has many members, including the paradoxical anti- and pro-inflammatory Interleukin-27. Recent studies have demonstrated that Interleukin-27 plays a role in immune diseases. Given this, we sought to evaluate the association between Interleukin-27 genetic polymorphisms and Kawasaki disease in Chinese children.
Methods and results
Interleukin-27 was genotyped in 100 Kawasaki disease children and 98 healthy children (controls), resulting in the direct sequencing of eight Single-nucleotide Polymorphisms: rs17855750, rs40837, rs26528, rs428253, rs4740, rs4905, rs153109, and rs181206). There were no significant differences in Interleukin-27 genotypes between Kawasaki disease and control groups. Of the eight Single-nucleotide Polymorphisms, there was a significant increase in the risk of Kawasaki disease with coronary arterial lesions in children with the rs17855750 (T>G), rs40837 (A>G), rs4740 (G>A), rs4905 (A>G), rs153109 (T>C), and rs26528 (A>G) Single-nucleotide Polymorphisms. This was particularly true for rs17855750 (T>G), which had a greater frequency in Kawasaki disease children with coronary arterial aneurysm.
These findings may be used as risk factors when assessing a child's likelihood of developing Kawasaki disease, as well as for the development of future therapeutic treatments for Kawasaki disease.
Long-term effect of Rayleigh–Taylor stabilization on converging Richtmyer–Meshkov instability
Xisheng Luo, Fu Zhang, Juchun Ding, Ting Si, Jiming Yang, Zhigang Zhai, Chih-yung Wen
Journal: Journal of Fluid Mechanics / Volume 849 / 25 August 2018
Print publication: 25 August 2018
The Richtmyer–Meshkov instability on a three-dimensional single-mode light/heavy interface is experimentally studied in a converging shock tube. The converging shock tube has a slender test section so that the non-uniform feature of the shocked flow is amply exhibited in a long testing time. A deceleration phenomenon is evident in the unperturbed interface subjected to a converging shock. The single-mode interface presents three-dimensional characteristics because of its minimum surface feature, which leads to the stratified evolution of the shocked interface. For the symmetry interface, it is quantitatively found that the perturbation amplitude experiences a rapid growth to a maximum value after shock compression and finally drops quickly before the reshock. This quick reduction of the interface amplitude is ascribed to a significant Rayleigh–Taylor stabilization effect caused by the deceleration of the light/heavy interface. The long-term effect of the Rayleigh–Taylor stabilization even leads to a phase inversion on the interface before the reshock when the initial interface has sufficiently small perturbations. It is also found that the amplitude growth is strongly suppressed by the three-dimensional effect, which facilitates the occurrence of the phase inversion.
Impacts of the type of social health insurance on health service utilisation and expenditures: implications for a unified system in China
Si Ying Tan, Xun Wu, Wei Yang
Journal: Health Economics, Policy and Law , First View
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 May 2018, pp. 1-19
While moving towards unified social health insurance (SHI) is often a politically popular policy reform in countries where rapid expansion in health insurance coverage has given rise to the segmentation of SHI systems as different SHI schemes were rolled out to serve different populations, the potential impacts of reform on service utilisation and health costs have not been systematically studied. Using data from the Chinese Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), we compared the mean costs incurred for both inpatient and outpatient care under different health insurance schemes, and the impact of different SHI schemes on treatment utilisation and health care costs using a two-part model. Our results show that Urban Employee Medical Insurance, which offers the most generous benefits, incurs the highest total costs prior to reimbursement when compared to other SHI schemes. Our analysis also shows that utilisation of SHI did not show significant reduction in out-of-pocket payments for outpatients. We argue that, unless effective measures are introduced to deal with perverse provider payment incentives, the move towards a unified system with more generous benefits may usher in a new wave of cost escalation for health care systems in China.
Concurrent benzodiazepine use in older adults treated with antidepressants in Asia
Xiao-Mei Zhong, Fei Wang, Qinge Zhang, Gabor S. Ungvari, Chee H. Ng, Helen F. K. Chiu, Tian-Mei Si, Kang Sim, Ajit Avasthi, Sandeep Grover, Mian-Yoon Chong, Kok-Yoon Chee, Shigenobu Kanba, Min-Soo Lee, Shu-Yu Yang, Pichet Udomratn, Roy A. Kallivayalil, Andi J. Tanra, Margarita M. Maramis, Winston W. Shen, Norman Sartorius, Rathi Mahendran, Chay-Hoon Tan, Naotaka Shinfuku, Yu-Tao Xiang
Journal: International Psychogeriatrics / Volume 31 / Issue 5 / May 2019
Little is known about the combined use of benzodiazepines and antidepressants in older psychiatric patients. This study examined the prescription pattern of concurrent benzodiazepines in older adults treated with antidepressants in Asia, and explored its demographic and clinical correlates.
The data of 955 older adults with any type of psychiatric disorders were extracted from the database of the Research on Asian Psychotropic Prescription Patterns for Antidepressants (REAP-AD) project. Demographic and clinical characteristics were recorded using a standardized protocol and data collection procedure. Both univariate and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed.
The proportion of benzodiazepine and antidepressant combination in this cohort was 44.3%. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that higher doses of antidepressants, younger age (<65 years), inpatients, public hospital, major comorbid medical conditions, antidepressant types, and country/territory were significantly associated with more frequent co-prescription of benzodiazepines and antidepressants.
Nearly, half of the older adults treated with antidepressants in Asia are prescribed concurrent benzodiazepines. Given the potentially adverse effects of benzodiazepines, the rationale of benzodiazepines and antidepressants co-prescription needs to be revisited.
Laboratory astrophysics with laser-driven strong magnetic fields in China
HEDP and HPL 2016
Fei-Lu Wang, Xiao-Xing Pei, Bo Han, Hui-Gang Wei, Da-Wei Yuan, Gui-Yun Liang, Gang Zhao, Jia-Yong Zhong, Zhe Zhang, Bao-Jun Zhu, Yan-Fei Li, Fang Li, Yu-Tong Li, Si-Liang Zeng, Shi-Yang Zou, Jie Zhang
Journal: High Power Laser Science and Engineering / Volume 4 / 2016
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2016, e27
In this paper, the recent studies of laboratory astrophysics with strong magnetic fields in China have been reviewed. On the Shenguang-II laser facility of the National Laboratory on High-Power Lasers and Physics, a laser-driven strong magnetic field up to 200 T has been achieved. The experiment was performed to model the interaction of solar wind with dayside magnetosphere. Also the low beta plasma magnetic reconnection (MR) has been studied. Theoretically, the model has been developed to deal with the atomic structures and processes in strong magnetic field. Also the study of shock wave generation in the magnetized counter-streaming plasmas is introduced.
Adaptive Measurement Model of Navigation by Stellar Refraction based on Multiple Models Switching
Bo Yang, Fan Si, Fan Xu, Wenlan Zhou
Journal: The Journal of Navigation / Volume 67 / Issue 4 / July 2014
In recent years, navigation by stellar refraction has received considerable attention, having advantages of high accuracy, simple construction, and low cost. Nevertheless, there are many limitations to the precision and application of this method using a traditional measurement model. This article studies the changing pattern of atmospheric density, the disturbed atmospheric density model and measurement model of stellar refraction ranging from 20 km to 50 km. Furthermore, a control algorithm of multiple mode switching and an adaptive measurement model are proposed. With this method, any refracted starlight from the scope of between 20 km and 50 km can be captured and the measurement model at the appropriate height can be automatically established. Due to this, the reliability and practicality of navigation have been raised considerably. Accuracy of navigation using the adaptive measurement method is observed to improve by about 14%, using computer simulation based on an Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF).
Analysis of effects of reactant particle size on phase transformations in the Ti–Si–Cu system using differential thermal analysis and x-ray diffraction
Si-Jie Lü, Hui-Yuan Wang, Zhi-Zheng Yang, Qi-Chuan Jiang
Journal: Journal of Materials Research / Volume 27 / Issue 20 / 28 October 2012
Print publication: 28 October 2012
Effects of Ti and Si particle sizes on phase transformations of Ti–Si–Cu system were explored through differential thermal analysis (DTA), x-ray diffraction (XRD), and field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM). For Ti[15]Si[15]Cu[45] system, fine Ti easily dissolves into Si–Cu liquid to form Ti–Si–Cu liquid at ∼795 °C, which further participates into the reaction of β-Ti and Si to yield abundant quantity of Ti5Si3 at ∼917 °C. For Ti[150]Si[15]Cu[45] system, nonetheless, the reaction of coarse Ti with Si–Cu liquid involves more difficulty in forming the ternary liquid , which is the causal factor for the delay in the formation of Ti5Si3 to ∼948 °C. For Ti[15]Si[150]Cu[45] system, coarse Si results in the formation of insufficient Si–Cu liquid initially, whereas Ti–Cu liquid forms at ∼960 °C instead, which further reacts with coarse Si to form Ti–Si–Cu liquid, and then Ti5Si3is precipitated from the liquid.
Prescribing patterns of low doses of antipsychotic medications in older Asian patients with schizophrenia, 2001–2009
Yu-Tao Xiang, Faith Dickerson, Julie Kreyenbuhl, Gabor S. Ungvari, Chuan-Yue Wang, Tian-Mei Si, Edwin H. M. Lee, Yan-Ling He, Helen F. K. Chiu, Kelly Y. C. Lai, Naotaka Shinfuku, Shu-Yu Yang, Mian-Yoon Chong, Ee-Heok Kua, Senta Fujii, Kang Sim, Michael K. H. Yong, Jitendra K. Trivedi, Eun-Kee Chung, Pichet Udomratn, Kok-Yoon Chee, Norman Sartorius, Chay-Hoon Tan
Journal: International Psychogeriatrics / Volume 24 / Issue 6 / June 2012
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 February 2012, pp. 1002-1008
Background: This study examined the use of low doses of antipsychotic medications (300 mg/day CPZeq or less) in older Asian patients with schizophrenia and its demographic and clinical correlates.
Methods: Information on hospitalized patients with schizophrenia, aged 55 years or older, was extracted from the database of the Research on Asian Psychotropic Prescription Patterns (REAP) study (2001–2009). Data on 1,452 patients in eight Asian countries and territories including China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, India, and Malaysia were analyzed. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics and antipsychotic prescriptions were recorded using a standardized protocol and data collection procedure.
Results: The prescription frequency for low doses of antipsychotic medications was 40.9% in the pooled sample. Multiple logistic regression analysis of the whole sample showed that patients on low doses of antipsychotic medications were more likely to be female, have an older age, a shorter length of illness, and less positive symptoms. Of patients in the six countries and territories that participated in all the surveys between 2001 and 2009, those in Japan were less likely to receive low doses of antipsychotics.
Conclusion: Low doses of antipsychotic medications were only applied in less than half of older Asian patients with schizophrenia.
Microstructure of Ca3Co4O9 Single Crystals and Thin Films
Yufeng Hu, Eli Sutter, Weidong Si, Qiang Li
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011, 0886-F01-08
We present a comparative study of the microstructure of Ca3Co4O9 single crystals and c-axis oriented Ca3Co4O9 thin films grown on glass substrates. Though both crystals and films have similar values of Seekbeck coefficient and electric resistivity at room temperature, their microstructures are rather different. Extensive high resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies reveal that the films grown on glass substrates have abundant stacking faults, which is in contrast to the perfect crystalline structure found in the single crystal sample. The c-axis lattice constants derived from the x-ray diffraction (XRD) and TEM measurements for the single crystal sample and the thin film are virtually the same, suggesting that the thin film on the glass substrate was not strained.
High Mobility a-Si:H TFT Fabricated by Hot Wire Chemical Vapor Deposition
Chun-Yuan Hsueh, Chieh-Hung Yang, Si-Chen Lee
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011, 1245-A19-07
The hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin film transistors (TFTs) having a very high field-effect mobility of 1.76 cm2/V-s and a low threshold voltage of 2.43 V have been fabricated successfully using the hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD).
Pharmacokinetics and first-pass metabolism of astaxanthin in rats
Hye Duck Choi, Hee Eun Kang, Si Hyung Yang, Myung Gull Lee, Wan Gyoon Shin
Journal: British Journal of Nutrition / Volume 105 / Issue 2 / 28 January 2011
Print publication: 28 January 2011
Astaxanthin is a carotenoid with antioxidant, anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties. The pharmacokinetics of astaxanthin after its intravenous (5, 10, and 20 mg/kg) and oral (100 and 200 mg/kg) administration and its first-pass extraction ratios after its intravenous, intraportal or intragastric (20 mg/kg) administration were evaluated in rats. The pharmacokinetic parameters of astaxanthin were dose dependent after its intravenous administration, due to the saturable hepatic metabolism of astaxanthin, but dose independent after oral administration. The gastrointestinal absorption of astaxanthin followed the flip-flop model. The hepatic and gastrointestinal first-pass extraction ratios of astaxanthin were approximately 0·490 and 0·901, respectively. Astaxanthin was metabolised primarily by hepatic cytochrome P-450 1A1/2 in rats. Astaxanthin was unstable up to 4 h incubation in four rat gastric juices and up to 24 h incubation in various buffer solutions having a pH of 1–13. The tissue/plasma ratios of astaxanthin at 8 and 24 h after its oral administration (100 mg/kg) were greater than unity for all tissues studied, except in the heart, at 8 h, indicating that the rat tissues studied had high affinity for astaxanthin.
HREM, EXAFS and MD Studies on Size-dependent Crystallinity of Pt Nanoparticles Supported on Gamma-Al2O3
L Li, L-L Wang, SI Sanchez, JH Kang, Q Wang, Z Zhang, AI Frenkel, DD Johnson, RG Nuzzo, JC Yang
Journal: Microscopy and Microanalysis / Volume 15 / Issue S2 / July 2009
Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2009 in Richmond, Virginia, USA, July 26 – July 30, 2009
Formation and Characterization of γ- Al2O3 Films Produced by Oxidation of β–NiAl(110)
Z Zhang, L Li, L Wang, SI Sanchez, Q Wang, DD Johnson, AI Frenkel, RG Nuzzo, JC Yang
Size-dependent crystallinity and relative orientations of nano-Pt/γ-Al2O3
L Li, JH Kang, SI Sanchez, Q Wang, L-L Wang, Z Zhang, DD Johnson, AI Frenkel, RG Nuzzo, JC Yang
Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2008 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, August 3 – August 7, 2008
Cloning and expression analysis of porcine small adipocyte factor 1 (SMAF1) gene
Yang Hong-Wen, Zheng Rong, Li Feng-E, Jiang Si-Wen
Journal: Chinese Journal of Agricultural Biotechnology / Volume 4 / Issue 2 / August 2007
cDNA of the porcine small adipocyte factor 1 (SMAF1) gene was amplified by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) with degenerate primers designed according to the conserved sequences between human and mouse genes. The cDNA (GenBank accession No. DQ191892) containing a complete encoding region was 256 bp in length, sharing 86 and 78% identity with that of human and mouse, respectively. Comparison of the deduced amino acid sequence between porcine SMAF1 and the human, mouse, cattle and rat protein showed that the amino acid similarity was 81, 67, 84 and 70%, respectively. The results of semi-quantitative RT-PCR showed that the porcine gene was expressed abundantly in adipose tissue, and at a significantly lower level in lean-type pigs (Large White pigs) than in lard-type pigs (Meishan pigs) at the age of 4 months (P<0.05). The results suggest that the porcine SMAF1 gene may have similar functions as in other species, that is, it may regulate adipogenesis and/or adipocyte function.
Influence of genetically modified rice containing codA gene on physiological metabolism and genetic horizontal transformation in fed rats
Zhao Zhi-Hui, Yang Li-Tao, Ai Xiao-Jie, Zhang Da-Bing, Zou Si-Xiang
Journal: Chinese Journal of Agricultural Biotechnology / Volume 3 / Issue 1 / April 2006
To analyse the influence of genetically modified (GM) rice (Oryza sativa) containing the exogenous choline oxidase (codA) gene on physiological metabolism and genetic horizontal transformation in the fed rats, the animals were divided randomly into two groups. One group was fed with the feedstuff containing 30% of transgenic rice. The remaining (control) group was fed with the feedstuff containing 30% of non-transgenic rice. After 30 days, growth, physiological metabolism parameters such as growth hormone (GH), insulin, glucagon, 3,3′,5-triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), and the genetic horizontal transformation were analysed. Results indicated that the weight of all rats from the two groups was similar (P>0.05). Also, there was no significant difference in the level of GH, insulin, glucagon, T4, T3 and TSH between the treated and untreated rats. The serum urea nitrogen (SUN), glucose, the glutamate–pyruvate transaminase (GTP), as well as the total cholesterol, of treated rats were almost identical to those of the control (P>0.05). Moreover, no target DNA sequence of rice endogenous sucrose phosphate synthase (SPS) gene or exogenous choline oxidase (codA) gene was detected in organs (liver, muscle, pancreas, etc.) except the stomach, gastrointestinal and rectum contents, and no genetic horizontal transformation was observed in rats fed with transgenic rice.


Guys, the last 2 or 3 nights I have been getting a lot of video stutter, sometimes so bad I can't play. I changed nothing on my system at all, no new installs, no new drivers, no video settings changes. The games always start out great with no issues, but then it's like someone throws a switch and the stutter starts. It gets so bad that if I move my mouse in a circle really fast that the speech will stutter like crazy until everything catches up. usually exiting out of the game and coming back will fix it.
I know it's not a lack of hardware, I have 2GB of ram and I have tested it with memtest86 and I know it's good. The highest I have seen my RAM usage during gameplay is 1.2GB, so there's plenty left over.
I'd just like to repeat that about 4 days ago and beyond, everything was completely fine, no issues at all. I checked and I know I have no erroneous programs or program updates running in the background.
Have any of you experienced anything like this lately? I'm wondering if it could be my cable or some sort of packet error to the server.
One more thing to add. At least once a night for the last 3 or so nights I have been getting kicked off of gamespy (or whatever you call it) back to the login screen. This means a boot from the server and I have to re-login to gamespy then rejoin the server. It's instantaneous, there is no "kick" message, and I'm 99.9999% sure it's some issue with gamespy due to the kick out of it. Anyone else ever experience this? It's really starting to get annoying to be in a good squad only to have one of these 2 issues happen.


So You Think You Can Mom?: Vince Vaughn Delivers the Goods in DreamWorks Delivery Man!
Vince Vaughn Delivers the Goods in DreamWorks Delivery Man!
We all have different definitions for the word 'Family'. For me, Family means sharing an unconditional and unselfish love with a group of people that you would do anything for. Family can come from anywhere. You don't have to be biologically connected to be Family. You just have to be there when someone needs you.
In DreamWorks Delivery Man, David Wozniack (Vince Vaughn), has fumbled through life making one bad decision after another. Not really concerned with consequences or responsibility. He finds himself faced with a harsh awakening when a stranger delivers the news of lifetime. How do you define Family? I'll bet your definition is no where close to the Family that David Wozniack finds!
Are you cracking up? YES YOU ARE!!!
Vince Vaughn's Delivery Man will be in theaters EVERYWHERE on November 22nd!


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Yoga spirituality
Lohri 2020: Significance Of Celebrating This Beautiful Festival Of Worshiping Fire
oi-Lekhaka
By Shatavisha Chakravorty
लोहड़ी की खास बातें | Lohri Special | Boldsky
India is indeed a land of festivals. It is very difficult for anyone to think of a month or season that can go by without the celebration of a festival. While the magnitude and nature of these festivals vary from region to region, the essence of festivity and mutual harmony remains unaltered.
In this context, it would have really been surprising had the agricultural state or nation not indulged itself in a harvest festival. After all, the harvest is the time when one is grateful for all that he or she has received.
It is with reference to this that the vibrant states of Punjab and Haryana engage in the festival of Lohri. This year in 2020, it will fall on 13 January. The significance of this festival is listed below:
Etymology Of Lohri
The origin of the word Lohri has many tales to its credit. While the first explanation says that it is derived from the word 'loh', which in turn means iron. These thick iron sheet tawas are used in the preparation of condiments for this festival and it is from here that the festival gets its name from. Folklore says that there once lived two siblings by the names of Holika and Lohri. While the former perished in the Holi fire, Lohri survived. This festival is in celebration of her surviving the same.
Agricultural Success
India is an agricultural country. This is all the way truer in the case of the fertile lands of Punjab and Haryana. In these places, the best celebration that one can think of is the one that takes into consideration all the hard work that has been invested into producing a good harvest. Lohri is that festival which celebrates the same and that is why it holds a special significance in the hearts of all Punjabis.
Fostering Cultural Integrity Among The Next Generation
An essential part of the festival of Lohri is the part where children go door to door singing folk songs. Because of their singing, they are rewarded with jaggery, nuts, money and these days even chocolates. Since there is an incentive involved, children are keen on participating in the same. By doing so, they learn a lot about their culture and values, which in turn helps in character building. Hence, this festival has a very important role to play in a traditional Punjabi household.
A Time For Bonding
The festival of Lohri is one that involves the men and women of the house coming together to perform Punjabi folk dances. A bonfire is set up around which they perform. While women perform Giddha, it is the men who go for Bhangra. As the singing, dancing and merry-making goes on well into the night, people throw gachak, rewri, popcorn and peanut into the bonfire to keep it burning. All of this fosters the feeling of communal harmony among the people.
Gastronomical Delights
With the Indians always being very conscious about what they eat and ensuring that it is nothing less than the best, it is obvious that the festive period is one where people would go the extra mile to have the best of food on their platter. Thus, the significance of this harvest festival cannot be emphasized more without talking of the sarson da saag, makki di roti and kheer, which make up the quintessence of this festival.
Offerings To The Sun God
All of us are aware that for proper harvest to take place, the presence of appropriate sunshine is an absolute necessity. Hence, this festival holds a special significance, as it celebrates the same. People believe that by making offerings to the Sun God, they will be able to please him, which in turn will stimulate the growth of the corn fields. Ultimately, all of this will lead to the well-being of man and animals.
The Chilly Winters
Lohri is celebrated in the mid of January. It is during this time that the sun makes a move from Capricorn and moves up North. This may be called Uttarayan in astronomical terms. This is the time when the chill of winter is at its peak. It is the cold winters which form the basis of all the bonfire-centric festivities associated with Lohri.
Inner Satisfaction
By eating to their full and doing well to the others, the festival of Lohri instills a feeling of satisfaction among the people. This is another major significance of this festival. During Lohri, people celebrating the same feel much more at peace with themselves. In fact, Sikhs and Punjabis enjoy chanting the Guru Granth Sahib and meditating before the Lohri fire.
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