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news, local-news, lennon through a glass onion, john lennon, john waters, stewart d'arrietta, merimbula, beatles
If John Lennon, one of the most popular musicians of all time, was still alive what would his life be like now? Well, according to one of the men behind a hugely successful show based on his life and music, he would have become one of the world's greatest tweeters. "He's one of the great communicators of all time and I think he would have thrived on the internet," Lennon: Through A Glass Onion creator and performer John Waters said. "He would have loved everything about it; both the music streaming side and music being instantly accessible all the time, and also the ability to communicate your thoughts to everybody in the world, constantly. "I think he would have been one of those people who responds to political situations and I think [United States President] Donald Trump's tweets would have been very, very wittily countered by John Lennon!" READ MORE: Songbook of Nina Simone in Merimbula In 1992, which was 12 years after Lennon was killed, Waters first performed Through A Glass Onion with the show's co-creator the pianist and singer Stewart D'Arrietta. Since then he has learnt a lot more about the founding member of The Beatles, because as he performed the show around the world people who met Lennon or knew him personally have told him "things you don't find in books". Over time the show has been tweaked, partly to reflect these new stories. By performing Through A Glass Onion Waters, who is a renowned musician and actor in his own right, wants audiences to come to know "more than the surface" of Lennon and to spread Lennon's message to a new generation. READ MORE: South East Gig Guide December 11-17 "Which is putting aside all bigotry and racism, reaching out to people with love and striving for a world where all human beings can live together in peace," the 70-year-old said. "Sadly we're in a rather volatile political state at the moment worldwide because since the 1960s when more liberal governments came in, we saw the '90s and the collapse of nasty regimes like the Soviet Union, apartheid in South Africa, we saw all that fall apart. "Now we seem to be returning to rather hard right-wing politics in not just Donald Trump, but everywhere in the world it's happening." Lennon: Through A Glass Onion will be performed at Club Sapphire, Merimbula on Sunday, January 5, 2020 from 8pm. Part concert and part biography, it reveals the life and talent of one of the most admired icons of the past century with a story and 31 songs including Imagine, Strawberry Fields Forever and All You Need is Love. Tickets are $45 and this an 18+ event. To buy tickets and for more information click here.
https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/RUALUCf62mMniuXMUxVN75/39097a25-a5cf-485d-9c7a-0861b44e20eb.jpg/r0_107_5875_3426_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg
December 10 2019 - 4:00PM
Go beyond the surface of John Lennon at Through A Glass Onion
Albert McKnight
CREATIVE TEAM: Australian actor/musician John Waters and singer/pianist Stewart D'Arrietta are the artists behind Through A Glass Onion.
If John Lennon, one of the most popular musicians of all time, was still alive what would his life be like now?
Well, according to one of the men behind a hugely successful show based on his life and music, he would have become one of the world's greatest tweeters.
"He's one of the great communicators of all time and I think he would have thrived on the internet," Lennon: Through A Glass Onion creator and performer John Waters said.
"He would have loved everything about it; both the music streaming side and music being instantly accessible all the time, and also the ability to communicate your thoughts to everybody in the world, constantly.
"I think he would have been one of those people who responds to political situations and I think [United States President] Donald Trump's tweets would have been very, very wittily countered by John Lennon!"
READ MORE: Songbook of Nina Simone in Merimbula
ICON: John Lennon was shot dead in New York in 1980.
In 1992, which was 12 years after Lennon was killed, Waters first performed Through A Glass Onion with the show's co-creator the pianist and singer Stewart D'Arrietta.
Since then he has learnt a lot more about the founding member of The Beatles, because as he performed the show around the world people who met Lennon or knew him personally have told him "things you don't find in books".
Over time the show has been tweaked, partly to reflect these new stories.
By performing Through A Glass Onion Waters, who is a renowned musician and actor in his own right, wants audiences to come to know "more than the surface" of Lennon and to spread Lennon's message to a new generation.
READ MORE: South East Gig Guide December 11-17
"Which is putting aside all bigotry and racism, reaching out to people with love and striving for a world where all human beings can live together in peace," the 70-year-old said.
"Sadly we're in a rather volatile political state at the moment worldwide because since the 1960s when more liberal governments came in, we saw the '90s and the collapse of nasty regimes like the Soviet Union, apartheid in South Africa, we saw all that fall apart.
"Now we seem to be returning to rather hard right-wing politics in not just Donald Trump, but everywhere in the world it's happening."
Lennon: Through A Glass Onion will be performed at Club Sapphire, Merimbula on Sunday, January 5, 2020 from 8pm.
Part concert and part biography, it reveals the life and talent of one of the most admired icons of the past century with a story and 31 songs including Imagine, Strawberry Fields Forever and All You Need is Love.
Tickets are $45 and this an 18+ event.
To buy tickets and for more information click here.
Discuss "Go beyond the surface of John Lennon at Through A Glass Onion"


The word "Santoku" means "three virtues" and applies to this knife due to its triad of abilities - chopping, dicing, and mincing.
The Shinsen Shiki 7" Santoku Knife (201g) is an excellent all-purpose knife used for a variety of tasks. The Santoku's blade and handle are designed to work in harmony by matching the blade's width/weight to the weight of blade tang and handle.


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barstool sports apparel
To me, barstool sports apparel is a clothing item that is worn for a specific purpose. The word "bar" refers to a stool that sits between the legs of a person, and "stool" refers to a raised platform such as a bench, a platform, or a chair. Barstool sports apparel is often worn to support a person's back. It's often worn around a person's waist to support their legs.
There are a few reasons that I can think of for barstool sports apparel to be worn to support a person's back, but the big question is why? The two most obvious ones are: the weight of the person's back and the quality of the back. The other two are the weight of the person's back and the quality of the back, but there is something more to it.
Barstool sports apparel, as the name suggests, is worn around the body. When it's worn around the waist, it's generally worn as a seat. When it's worn around the back of a person, it's often worn as a bench. If we take the quality of the back of the person as the key metric, then the quality of the back is a major contributor to the weight of the back.
When the body has a slight tendency to change shape, its often worn as a bench, or as a chair.
Barstools are a bit of a personal issue, because when people talk about barstools, they often mean traditional bar stools. When you talk about a particular type of bar stool, the word "bar" is usually the part of the name that is used to differentiate the type of bar stool. However, when talking about bar stools that actually have the word "bar" in them, there are two possible definitions.
The "old nitty gritty" definition is a bit more common. A chair or stool with a bar on it is a barstool with the bar on the seat. However, a barstool with a bar on it and a bar on the back is not necessarily a barstool. A barstool with a bar on the back and a seat is a barstool with a bar on the back and a seat.
The second possible definition for barstools with the word bar in them is a bit more rare. A barstool with the word bar on it is a barstool with the word bar in it. A barstool with the word bar in it and a seat is a barstool with the word bar in it and a seat.
The word "bar" is commonly used in a wide variety of contexts. It's also used in the context of a bar, a place where a bar is served and a bar might be served, but a bar with a "bar" is always a bar with a bar on it. In the context of a barstool with a bar on it, it is never a barstool with a bar on it.
The word bar is also familiar to everyone. It's sometimes used as a metaphor to describe a person who is in a serious relationship with the other person. In the context of a barstool, it's always a bar with a bar and it's always a bar with a bar on it, but it's not always a bar with a bar on it. It's also a bar or a bar with a bar on it.
In the context of a barstool, a bar is a place where people gather. A bar with a bar is a place where people with the same taste gather. People who are in love are also often called a bar because they are so loveable and easy to love. It's also a bar which has a bar on it, but its not always a bar with a bar on it.
iandi sports
sports authority fullerton chicago

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Friedberg Building
The Friedberg Building has long been home to clothing stores since it was built. In 1918, merchant Joseph Friedberg opened a new store specializing in clothing, hats, and shoes. In later years, a J.C. Penney Company department store occupied this building. Saba's Western Wear moved into the building in 1972.
David Saba, Sr., an immigrant from Lebanon, arrived in California in 1913 and started peddling goods to gold camps and ranches across the state. In 1916, he moved to Arizona, and opened a mercantile store in Ray-Sonora. Three years later he sold his share of the store and moved to Chandler.
Saba continued to peddle wares to mining camps across Arizona, but by 1927 he had saved enough money to open a store of his own in Chandler specializing in western wear. The store later moved into the old JC Penney's building on Boston Street, where it remains today. Saba's Western Wear has grown into a chain of 9 stores throughout the Valley and Flagstaff.
67 W Boston Street
Created by Chandler Museum on January 28th 2020, 9:34:29 pm.
Last updated by Chandler Museum on January 29th 2020, 3:15:10 pm.
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Downtown Chandler Walking Tour
Explore more than a century of Chandler history and enjoy a short walk through Chandler's historic downtown district!


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Viewing biodiversity through the lens of science…and art!
David G. Angeler1
With global environmental sustainability at the crossroads, approaches are needed to build an ecologically literate culture for collective societal navigation through the intricacies of swift environmental change. This paper demonstrates a transdisciplinary approach, grounded at the intersection between the arts and sciences, to increase awareness and understanding of the current biodiversity crisis. It focuses on one aspect of biodiversity, beta diversity, which examines how sets of animal and plant species differ between habitats. Theory and real examples of beta diversity of aquatic animal and plant species from dried-out ponds in Mediterranean Spain are presented in pixelized visuals. These visuals are artistic expression of and build the prior knowledge about beta diversity, which is scrutinized subsequently with statistical analyses to support the artistic approach with an objectively identified and numerically underpinned presentation of structure in the visuals. The choice to examine beta diversity in theory and reality first through art and then through science is deliberate. Combined, these aspects examine biodiversity through an eco-centric, rather than a species- and habitat centric view, incorporate elements of surprise (how can aquatic species in dry ecosystems survive), and reduce uncertainty (by providing a common numerical yardstick for interpreting the visuals). Together they can optimize a goal-directed learning process in the viewers necessary for making judgments, inducing affective reactions, and facilitating memory and decision making. The approach presented here provides an integral qualitative and quantitative model useful for a broader inductive-deductive education process towards finding sustainable solutions as our planet moves swiftly to a future without historical analogue. Combined art-sciences approaches, as the one presented here, are useful to facilitate citizens' comprehension of the scientific and potential policy dimensions of environmental change, including biodiversity problems, especially because it is the general public that bears the costs of transformation and adaptation measures.
With global environmental sustainability at the crossroads (Kates et al. 2011), there is increasing recognition for the need of collaborative and transdisciplinary research efforts to address the challenges arising from a degrading planet (Scheffer et al. 2015). Collaborations between the arts (e.g., EcoArt) and sciences are mounting (e.g., Huws 2000; Neff et al. 2010), focusing on communicating the nature of problems, searching for new solutions, heightening awareness of ecological concerns, and designing ecological activity to enable public action (Wilson 2002; Kagan 2014). Visual communication of environmental issues has been particularly relevant to communicating the intricacies of the inherent complexity of environmental change across disciplines (Pink 2003; Nicholson-Cole 2005; Hansen and Machin 2013).
The approaches artists use to visualize environmental change problems range from realistic (e.g., photography, film, videos, TV) (Seppänen and Väliverronen 2003; Thomsen 2015) to abstract (Freeland 2004; Yusoff and Gabrys 2011), often aiming to elicit human tensions (beauty, ugliness; risk, security); for instance, by means of the toxic sublime (Peeples 2011). A widely recognized challenge in the arts is that subjectivity both in the artistic expression and the viewers' emotional perception and reactions can lead to a decontextualization and a false understanding of patterns of order in nature. As a result, viewers may perceive sustainability problems as distant and unlinked to personal experience and exposure (Lorenzoni et al. 2007; Moser 2010).
Scientific disciplines dealing with sustainability challenges such as ecology and the environmental sciences aim at presenting environmental problems (e.g., climate change) in the form of results from often complex statistical and modeling approaches. However, many of the visualizations based on models (e.g., climate maps) or output formats for numbers (graphs) only represent the results of a highly complex, deductive and artificial process. Abstraction and artificiality in scientific visualizations, while representing the order of nature and environmental change problems objectively, can also remove the viewer from context. Similar to the artistic approach, scientific visualizations of environmental problems can lead to a disconnect between peoples emotions to and experiences from nature (Schneider 2012).
This paper demonstrates how an ecological concept, biodiversity, which has gained center stage in the environmental sustainability debate (Novacek 2008), can be expressed artistically and made accessible to the viewer. Artistic expressions of biodiversity are deemed relevant to increase the public awareness about the current unprecedented rates of human-induced species extinctions (Bellard et al. 2012). This paper examines specifically one aspect of biodiversity: beta diversity. Rather than studying how many species of plants and animals can be present in a habitat, beta diversity quantifies how the sets of species differ among sites in a specific region (Whittaker 1960). Beta diversity, which scientist express numerically, has been valuable for studying environmental change problems; that is, how urban expansion, deforestation, increasing agriculture and other forms of landuse change have contributed to a faunal and floral homogenization across habitats in a region (e.g., Olden et al. 2006; Gámez-Virués et al. 2015). More similar faunas and floras across sites can be seen, for example, in the form of extinction of emblematic species such as charismatic, valued vertebrates or taxa of socioeconomic interests (e.g., fish game species) in selected sites or an increase of different pest or exotic species across habitats.
In the context of beta diversity, crucial theoretical building blocks are nestedness, which emphasizes species extinctions across sites (e.g., the loss of valued game and fish in the above example) and turnover, which focuses on how the sets of species change across sites (exemplified by pest species above) (Baselga 2012). In theory, nestedness or turnover take a basic expression in the form of a perfect structure, but these perfect representations do not exist in nature. There is a plethora of studies in terrestrial and aquatic environments that show that it is always a mixture of both. An obvious dilemma arises that has intrigued philosophers incessantly: perfect nestedness and turnover are unobservable; they cannot be deduced scientifically from observations of nature. As heuristics existing in theory, they provide the inductive basis for seeking scientific representation of knowledge. This further complicates the laypeople's understanding of ecological concepts necessary for comprehending sustainability problems. Without training in science, laypeople perceive theory as conforming to the monolithic logic and perception of science associated with rationalization. This further increases the risk of impoverished views and understanding of scientific representations of nature, and especially sustainability challenges (Locke 2001). Ultimately, this may reinforce peoples emotional disconnect from environmental problems.
This paper aims at reconciling artistic and scientific approaches in an attempt to communicate biodiversity in general, and beta diversity in particular to the public. Using pixel art to visualize species and ecosystems in the form of simple geometric shapes, this paper will present the theoretical constructs (perfect nestedness and turnover) of beta diversity, and the beta diversity of real assemblages of animals and plants from dried-out pond ecosystems, in a semiarid environment where the impacts of climate change are substantial (Gibelin and Déqué 2003). These visuals as artistic expression of beta diversity are subsequently scrutinized with statistical analyses to support the artistic approach with an objectively identified and numerically underpinned presentation of structure in the visuals. The combined art-science approach presented here shall offer several benefits for environmental education: (1) Focusing on biodiversity through an eco-centric, rather than a species- and habitat centric view, and by examining beta diversity as one aspect of biodiversity. (2) Provide opportunities to make abstract ecological theory tangible to laypeople. Combined with the real examples, envisioning of the broader hypothetical-deductive process, which is considered important for engaging the public with learning and understanding of environmental problems, can be improved (Miller 2001). (3) Incorporate elements of surprise by purposefully choosing habitats from a semiarid environment that, despite being dry, still harbor a wealth of animal and plant diversity. (4) Reduce uncertainty in learning by providing a common numerical yardstick for interpreting the visuals. These aspects combined shall facilitate the goal-directed nature of information processing that are necessary for making social judgments, inducing affective reactions, and facilitating memory and behavioral decision making (Wyer and Srull 1986).
Data for real examples
The real examples for this study were purposefully chosen to maximize the surprise component to boost the learning process (Lisman and Grace 2005). The examples build on dried-out pond ecosystems that are apparently lifeless, but which harbor a great amount of biodiversity in the form of seeds and resting stages in the dry sediments. That is, there is a latent biodiversity that manifests itself once the ponds refill with water. Many of the animal and plant species that emerge from these dry sediments are microscopic and thus not visible to the human eye. Visualizing this "unseen" diversity can further reinforce the surprise element for the viewer.
The data used for representing beta diversity artistically were obtained from The Campo de Calatrava area in central Spain (39°00′N, 4°25′W; 38°30′N, 3°23′W), which covers 12 227 ha. Despite historical degradation by agriculture practices, the area contains a unique wetland fauna and flora, highlighting the value of the remaining wetlands for regional biodiversity (Velayos et al. 1989; Alonso 1996; Sánchez and Angeler 2007), and which can be visualized artistically. For the present study, eleven wetlands were chosen that represented abiotic variability, landscape characteristics and anthropogenic stress conditions among wetlands in the region (García-Canseco 2000) (Table 1; Fig. 1). In 2005, sediments were collected in these ponds when they were dried out as a result of a prolonged drought event. These sediments harbor a significant amount of dormant propagules and seeds of animals and plants. The sediments were rewetted in plastic containers, inducing experimental hatching of these resting stages. The plants and animals hatched from these sediments were sampled and taxonomically identified following the protocol by Angeler et al. (2008). A list of these species is presented in Appendix 1.
Table 1 Overview of ponds sampled for invertebrates and macrophytes
Location of study sites in the Campo de Calatrava area (central Spain). Geographical coordinates are given as UTM positions (north and east coordinates in zone 30)
Matrix construction for analysis and visual representation
The approach to express beta diversity artistically is based on pixelation, allowing for a simple expression of sets of species within and across the eleven ponds, whereby every species comprises a pixel. The pixels are stacked in columns, which represent the ponds. The representation of the perfect fractions of beta diversity (nestedness and turnover) follows the same approach. The resulting visuals take specific geometric shapes that make the scientific information tangible (Figs. 2, 3). The use of pixel elements in this study builds on visual expressions used in different modern and contemporary art movements, including, for instance, color field, Bauhaus, De Stijl, New Media art, and VJing. Also, pixels comprise the basic building blocks that characterize the video gaming art movement, a specialized form of computer art employing video games as the artistic medium (Parker 2013).
Pixel visuals showing perfect nestedness (a), turnover (b). Each column presents a hypothetical habitat/ecosystems (n = 11), and each color pixel represents a hypothetical species
Real examples of beta diversity represented through pixel art; a invertebrates, b macrophytes in a pond complex (n = 11 for invertebrates; n = 10 for macrophytes due to the lack of species in one pond) in Spain
Matrices for the visualization and statistical analyses of real examples and pure nestedness and turnover were constructed in Microsoft® Excel® for MAC v. 14.4.7. Each square in the matrices (pixel) was 1 × 1 cm and symbolized a species. The habitats are represented as columns. To better discern between habitats in the visuals blank columns were included. The real invertebrate examples contained 11 habitats/ponds (columns) and a total of 1875 pixels to represent the species across ponds in these visuals. The pond with the highest richness contained 21 species. The real macrophyte example contained less species (pond with highest richness, n = 13) and only 10 habitats due to the lack of plant occurrence in one pond compared to the invertebrate example; therefore, its visual expression and data analysis is based on a smaller matrix (1012 pixels). The matrices of the perfect representation of nestedness and turnover were sized to fit the real example of invertebrates (1875 pixels); that is, there were 11 columns expressing hypothetical habitats and species richness as in the real example of invertebrates.
Statistical analyses of visuals
To inform the viewer about how nestedness and turnover are related in expressing beta diversity, I first examined how much these fractions explain numerically beta diversity in the visuals. The statistical approach is based on Baselga and Orme (2012). It first calculates an overall metric of beta diversity, which allows assessing the degree of compositional differences in the set of species across sites; i.e., whether or not sites share many species. Next, the algorithm partitions the beta diversity metric into its nestedness and turnover components, allowing to assess which fraction dominates in the real examples. Details about this approach are summarized in Appendix 2.
In the next analysis I assessed the structure that is present in the geometric shapes of the visuals derived from each matrix (perfect nestedness, perfect turnover, invertebrates, macrophytes). This analysis aimed at reducing uncertainty in the interpretation of the visuals through an objective identification of structure that can be expressed numerically in a simple way. I used a spatial modeling technique commonly applied in ecology (Dray et al. 2006). A detailed description of each step in the modeling is given in Appendix 2. In short, the modeling can identify hierarchical and orthogonal (statistically independent) patterns present in paintings and other visual artistic expressions. Revealing these hierarchical and/or orthogonal structures provides insight into the complexity and order inherent in visual art. Moreover, the modeling allows for a numerical quantification of this structural complexity, using the amount of adjusted variance explained, a metric of model performance. That is, it permits discerning objectively patterns (spatial structure or order present) from noise (absent structure) in the geometrical structures of art works; i.e., a lower variance explained indicates a higher degree of noise relative to order and vice versa. This modeling approach is thus a valuable scientific tool for objectively analyzing structure in visual art works; it overcomes bias that can arise based on the subjective interpretations. Details about the approach are given in Appendix 2.
The perfect nature of nestedness and turnover were expressed artistically using pixel images (Fig. 2). In this artistic expression the color columns represent different hypothetical habitats or ecosystems. Within each column the pixels of different colors express the sets of hypothetical species present within each ecosystem. In the perfect nestedness example there is a gradual decrease in the sets of pixels/species from left to right, highlighting the nested structure of habitats and the associated extinction of species. The perfect turnover example shows how the set of squares changes between the columns; no set of species overlaps between habitats. A high degree of spatial geometry characterizes nestedness and turnover in their perfect expression. The former takes a triangular and the latter a diagonal shape (Fig. 2).
Figure 3 shows beta diversity in real examples, based on the mixture between turnover and nestedness components in invertebrate and plant assemblages in the pond complex. These are expressed artistically in the same way as perfect nestedness and turnover. Examining the distribution of species (pixels) within ponds (columns) reveals a clear break up of geometry in the artistic expression of beta diversity in these real examples, relative to perfect representations. The emergent structure resulting from the symmetry break up during the structural "metamorphosis" from theory to reality becomes reminiscent of stickmen (the authors own subjective interpretation).
The statistical approach to quantify beta diversity shows overall high beta diversity in the visuals of real examples (Table 2): 0.87, invertebrates; 0.84 macrophytes [on a scale between 0 (lowest) to 1 (highest)], indicating a high degree of compositional distinctness in the sets of species across the ponds. In both visuals of organism groups the break of symmetry could be attributed to a dominance of turnover (0.84, invertebrates; 0.79, macrophytes), relative to nestedness (0.03, invertebrates; 0.05, macrophytes) (Table 2). In the visual of the perfect turnover, beta diversity has a value of 1 (no shared species across habitats). When partitioned statistically, turnover logically becomes 1 and nestedness 0. In the visual of perfect nestedness beta diversity has a value of 0, and it partitions into equal parts (0.68 for nestedness and turnover) (Table 2). Methodologically, this indicates that beta diversity in its mathematical expression is entirely explained by nestedness (A. Baselga, personal communication).
Table 2 Results from the beta diversity partitioning analyses that assessed the relative importance of nestedness and turnover components in the visuals
The second statistical exploration that quantified the degree of structure present in the geometric shapes revealed high structure in the visuals of perfect turnover and nestedness [explanatory power of the minimum model (i.e., the adjusted variance explained): turnover, 0.80; macrophytes, 0.84] (Table 2). Noise, which comprised the difference of these values to 1 (the highest possible variance), was comparatively low (0.20, invertebrates; 0.16 macrophytes) (Table 2). These values changed drastically in the real examples, coinciding with the break up of geometry observed in the visuals: invertebrates, 0.26 structure/0.74 noise; macrophytes, 0.14 structure/0.86 noise (Table 2). This analysis also revealed that the patterns of order were structurally simple. That is, no orthogonal or hierarchical patterns indicating complexity of orderly structure were present in the visuals.
The environmental challenges ahead are complex and multidimensional (Angeler et al. 2016a, b). Scientists, artists and educators play an important role in bringing about an ecologically literate culture necessary for environmentally responsibility (Hicks and King 2007). This paper aimed at reconciling artistic and scientific approaches to engage people with biodiversity issues. Visuals based on simple pixelized geometric shapes were used to demonstrate an approach that could elicit emotional reactions in people, increase awareness, facilitate learning and understanding, and ultimately critical thinking about biodiversity with an improved knowledge grounded in the ecological sciences. The approach follows Thomsen (2015) that reconceptualizes "seeing" as "questioning", rather than believing. In this process a chain of questioning—for instance, what is biodiversity and why the need to study it? What is beta diversity and how does it relate to biodiversity? What are elements of uncertainty and surprise, and how do they manifest?—can improve the learning process and connect people more closely with biodiversity and sustainability issues (e.g., Ryan 2001).
Recognizing that current biodiversity loss resembles a 6th mass extinction in Earth's history (Bellard et al. 2012), there is critical need to engage people with biodiversity issues (Novacek 2008). Given that with the publication of the first landmark book "The Diversity of Life" (Wilson 1992) biodiversity became the subject of school and academic courses, public journalism, television specials, and major museum exhibits, most people may have acquired basic understanding of the meaning of the word biodiversity (Novacek 2008); however, specifics of biodiversity may go unnoticed. In ecology, biodiversity is a portmanteau that encompasses many different meanings and facets of biological diversity (Magurran 2003). It includes not only the richness of plant and animal species within and across habitats and entire regions, but also variation in their abundances, their genetic diversity and variability of functional traits. These traits allow them carry out important processes like production of food and timber, decomposition of dead material, pollution and erosion control, to list a few, and these provide important ecological, aesthetic and economic values for humans (Truchy et al. 2015). This multifaceted character of biodiversity may be only known to a limited number of scientists (ecologists and environmental scientists). Scientists working in other fields (e.g., technology, economy, politics), let alone the broader public without scientific training, may be unaware of this varied meanings of biodiversity. This unawareness, together with the media and public prioritizing other problems (economy, health, terrorism) than biodiversity loss, results in a failure to recognize the implications of biodiversity issues in exacerbating many problems more familiar and more important to people (Novacek 2008).
Seppänen and Väliverronen (2003) advocated using case-by-case studies to allow the viewer deduce causes, consequences and potential remedies of environmental change. It is clear that the presentation of biodiversity can benefit from such an approach, given that the multiple meanings and components of biodiversity may overwhelm people and reinforce a decontextualization and disconnect of them with these issues. In this paper, beta diversity has been chosen as one aspect of biodiversity, which specifically assesses the difference in assemblage structure of plant and animals between habitats in a region. As is the case with the broader concept of biodiversity, beta diversity has become an umbrella term in the ecological sciences, mainly because of the different approaches ecologists have developed for quantifying compositional heterogeneity between habitats (Tuomisto 2010). Many of these approaches not only allow for analyzing species presence-absences across sites, but also explicitly account for the abundances of these species for research questions where community evenness is relevant (Anderson et al. 2011). The use of beta diversity as an umbrella concept is deemed suitable for communicating the concept because the specifics of scientific quantification approaches are irrelevant for the purpose to increase laypeople's awareness and knowledge about its meaning. For simplicity, and to facilitate the layman's learning process, this study has focused on how the sets of species vary across sites.
The choice of beta diversity is grounded in the fact that public environmental discourse and funding for biodiversity conservation often focuses on single species, such as charismatic megafauna (e.g., elephants, pandas, tigers), and specific habitat (rainforests) protection (Vandermeer and Perfecto 1995; Bowen-Jones and Entwistle 2002). However, species and habitat-centered views may cause substantial misunderstanding of extinction processes, and ultimately suboptimal biodiversity management because the broader interacting ecological factors (abiotic and biotic) are ignored (Hunter and Brehm 2003; Failing and Gregory 2003). For instance, by focusing only on charismatic species the role of smaller organisms that are the most specialized and the most vulnerable to extinction from human disruption are ignored (Vandermeer and Perfecto 1995).
Beta diversity focuses the meaning on regional biodiversity from an eco-centric, rather than a species- or habitat centric view, allowing people to envision and understand spatial aspects of extinctions. The visual of perfect nestedness, despite being a theoretical construct that cannot be seen in nature, has the educational value of communicating to people the ecological phenomenon of species extinctions in a spatially implicit approach. The way the loss of pixels (or species) between adjacent ecosystems (columns) is arranged comprises one among multiple ways to demonstrate and communicate extinctions associated with beta diversity (i.e., loss of species across sites). Notwithstanding, the use of pixels and their purposeful arrangement in the visuals allows giving equal weight to species. This presentation achieves neutrality regarding the perceived socio-economic value of taxa by people. That is, by down-emphasizing value-laden connotations of animals and plants, thinking about biodiversity from an eco-centric rather than species-centered perspective can be spurred.
Presenting turnover, another aspect of beta diversity, concomitantly to extinctions, further facilitates the presentation of beta diversity as an eco-centric concept. It essentially shows that other processes than only extinctions are relevant for envisioning and understanding biodiversity. The change of the sets of pixels between habitats in the visual of perfect turnover differs drastically from that of perfect nestedness, leading to the emergence of geometric shapes, a triangle (nestedness) and diagonal (turnover) respectively, that allows distinguishing both concepts instantaneously without the need of previous knowledge in the viewer. These distinct shapes provide a rapid means to demonstrate, communicate and let the viewer assimilate the multiple facets of biodiversity at large, and beta diversity in particular.
There is also added value to the visual presentations of the perfect patterns of extinctions and turnover. Visuals provide opportunities to make abstract ecological theory tangible to laypeople and potentially contribute to break with their notions that theory conforms to a monolithic logic and perception of science associated with rationalization (Locke 2001). Furthermore, the clear geometries of shapes associated with these theoretical constructs has potential to induce critical thinking not only about biodiversity per se, but about the order and structure of nature in general. Contrasted with the visuals of real animal and plant communities, the viewer can contemplate how order changes between theory and empiricism. The "metamorphosis" of shapes from theory to reality has potential to let the viewer benchmark the realistically observed order in nature against those that would exist in a hypothetically perfectly structured but unrealistic world. This metamorphosis becomes allegorical to the broader hypothetical-deductive process, the raison d'être of scientific endeavor, which is considered important for engaging the public with learning and understanding of environmental problems (Miller 2001).
The purpose of contemplating such a metamorphosis can also be scrutinized from an uncertainty viewpoint. Uncertainty is arguably a major obstacle for comprehending considerable barriers to the acceptance and understanding of environmental problems (Thomsen 2015). At first glance, the visuals of beta diversity may not be exempt from such uncertainty. The transforming geometries resulting from the metamorphosing shapes turned from clear structure embodied in perfect turnover and nestedness to forms that have been interpreted as stickman in the real examples of animals and plants in ponds. The reference to the author's own subjective interpretation of the real examples is deliberate. It shall demonstrate that the loss of clarity of patterns of the visuals during the metamorphosis opens up for the possibility of multiple competing associations in viewers contemplating these visuals. Different ways of individual interpretation increases a deductive uncertainty and therefore ambiguity among people collectively in comprehending and envisioning ecological phenomena, exemplified by beta diversity here. While this subjectivity may hardly be entirely overcome, this study uses the resulting uncertainty as an opportunity to build common ground for further examination and comprehension by the viewer by means of a subsequent statistical analysis. In this context, uncertainty can be used to stimulate public reactions to and discourses with environmental issues (Hansen 2010).
In this study, uncertainty arising from visual examination is considered to build the prior knowledge upon which further learning can be constructed. Statistical analysis was used to integrate the prior knowledge obtained from the visualization of beta diversity with aspects of the learning process. Specifically, it can help the goal-directed nature of information processing necessary for making judgments, inducing affective reactions, and facilitating memory formation and decision making (Wyer and Srull 1986). The statistical analysis sets a common interpretational yardstick for viewers by presenting objectively identified patterns of structure in the visuals that is expressed objectively through numbers from the modeling. The approach allows deducing why structure is higher in one visual (0.26 of variance explained in visuals of animals) relative to the other (0.14 in visual of plants), and why structure in these real examples is generally low. There is a wide range of implications following from this for envisioning biodiversity that deserve closer scrutiny but this is beyond the scope of this study which targets uncertainty. The advantage of numbers infallibly reflecting structure and order in the visuals can address, and potentially partly overcome, subjective interpretation obtained from prior knowledge deduced from the examination of visuals. It can contribute to homogenize a subsequent thought processes across viewers that eventually reduces uncertainty (Poole 2009). Reducing uncertainty is a major goal for navigating through the complexities of environmental change affecting many of the intricacies of sustainability (Berkes et al. 2008). Reduced uncertainty in public understanding of biodiversity should be one way towards comprehending these complexities.
A further advantage of underpinning visual expressions of beta diversity with statistical analyses is the possibility to bolster learning by including elements of curiosity and surprise. In the example of perfect turnover, the partitioning of the entire variance to this component (that is, 1 for turnover, 0 for nestedness) seems logic. However, in the perfect nestedness example the partitioning of the variance in equal fractions may be a priori a surprise for most viewers without knowledge in mathematical calculus. This element of surprise, achieved through a scientific approach, has great value in environmental communication because surprise and novelty stimulate learning and long-term memory formation (Lisman and Grace 2005).
To further bolster the surprise effect the examples of plants and animal communities in ponds in a semiarid climate have been chosen on purpose. The impacts of climate change in dryland countries may be substantial (Alvarez-Cobelas et al. 2005). The duration, frequency and magnitude of droughts is increasing, threatening water resources, and boosting a desertification process (Reynolds et al. 2007). Ultimately this can augment the biodiversity crisis in such areas. People experience and emotionally react to heat waves, failing crops, dying cattle and water shortages for human consumption and agricultural irrigation with a sense of desperation (Thomas et al. 2007). In fact, the ponds used in this study were dry when sampled during a prolonged drought period in Spain. The dry state of ponds for several years, evident in cracked soils and lack of life, potentially reinforces people's negative emotions through a sense of doom. However, dry and apparent lifeless ponds store a wealth of seeds, eggs and other propagules that give birth to new life, ranging from microscopic to macroscopic organisms, once harsh environmental periods are overcome; that is, when the ponds refill after drought. Therein consists the surprise element. It may foster peoples learning about the resilience of nature, and the ecological strategies of organisms and ecosystems to buffer against harsh environmental conditions. The bottom line is that the choice of examples, like ponds in a dryland country used in this study, can be used to maximally exploit the surprise element in education about biodiversity and other environmental aspects.
Since the costs of both prevention of and adaptation to environmental change, including biodiversity issues, must be borne by the general public, the comprehension of the scientific and policy issues by citizens is crucial to political decision making (Kempton 1991). This paper shows how a combined art-science approach can serve as an education tool for the public, by letting the viewers engage emotionally with complex ecological theory and its application to environmental studies. The example showcased here highlight this potential from a potentially vast spectrum of application to communicate environmental sustainability challenges in general and biodiversity in particular. It provides an integral qualitative and quantitative model useful for a broader inductive-deductive learning process. It expands on qualitative approaches in transdisciplinary arts and sciences research (Parkinson 2008; Österblom et al. 2015; Angeler et al. 2016a, b) striving for finding sustainable solutions as our planet moves swiftly towards a future without historical analogue.
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Andrés Baselga helped clarify the mathematical underpinnings of beta diversity partitioning. Two anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments on a previous manuscript draft.
The author declare that he has no competing interests.
Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7050, 750 07, Uppsala, Sweden
David G. Angeler
Correspondence to David G. Angeler.
Appendix 1: List of invertebrate and plant species with authorities occurring in the ponds
Acartia cf. clausi Agrostis pourretii Wildenow
Acroperus neglectus Liljeborg Alopecurus sp.
Alona qaudrangularis Müller Anthemis cotula Linné
Alona guttata Sars Baldellia ranunculoides (Linné) Parl.
Alona sp. Chara connivens Salzm. ex A. Braun.
Alonella excise Fischer Chara galioides De Candolle
Biapertura affinis Leydig Chenopodium sp.
Branchinecta ferox Milne-Edwards Crypsis aculeata (Linné) Aiton
Branchinecta orientalis Sars Damasonium polyspermum Coss.
Candonopsis sp. Elatine macropoda Gussone
Ceriodaphnia dubia Richard Frankenia pulverulenta Linné
Ceriodaphnia reticulata Jurine Hordeum marinum Huds.
Chydorus latus Sars Isolepis setacea (Linné) R. Br.
Chydorus piger Sars Juncus articulatus Linné
Chydorus sphaericus Leach Juncus buffonius Linné
Conchostraca unidentified species Juncus gerardii Loisel
Cyclocypris sp. Juncus pygmaeus Rich.
Cypria sp. Lolium rigidum Gaud.
Daphnia cucullata Sars Lotus sp.
Daphnia curvirostris Eylman Lythrum flexuosum Lag.
Daphnia longispina Müller Lythrum hyssopifolia Linné
Daphnia similis Claus Myriophyllum alterniflorum De Candolle
Darwinula sp. Plantago coronopus Linné
Darwinula stevensoni Brady & Roberston Poa bulbosa Linné
Diacyclops sp. Polygonum bellardii All.
Diaphanosoma brachyurum Liévin Polypogon maritimus Willdenow
Diaphanosoma mongolianum Uéno Polypogon monspeliensis (Linné) Desf.
Diaptomus sp. Pueccinellia cf. fasciculata (Torrey) E.P. Bicknell
Dunhevedia crassa King Pulicaria paludosa Link.
Ectocyclops phaleratus Koch Ranunculus peltatus saniculifolius (Viviani) C. D. K. Cook
Eucypris cf. crassa Müller Ruppia drepanensis Tineo ex Guss.
Euplectella sp. Salicornia europaea Linné
Eurytemora velox Liljeborg Scirpus lacustris tabernaemontanii (C.C.Gmel.) A.Löve & D.Löve
Graeteriella cf. unisetigera Graeter Scirpus litoralis Schrad.
Graeteriella sp. Scirpus maritimus Linné
Halicyclops neglectus Kiefer Spergularia heldreichii Foucaud
Ilyocypris monstrifica Norman Tolypella hispanica Nordstedt
Ilyocypris sp. Typha domingensis Pers.
Kurzia latissima Kurz Veronica anagallis-aquatica Linné
Latona setifera Müller
Leydigia acanthocercoides Fischer
Leydigia leydigii Leydig
Leydigia quadrangularis Leydig
Leydigia sp.
Macrothrix hirsuticornis Norman & Brady
Macrothrix rosea Liéven
Mesocyclops leuckarti leuckarti Claus
Metacyclops gracilis Liljeborg
Metacyclops planus Gurney
Microcyclops sp.
Microcyclops minutus Claus
Microcyclops varicans Sars
Moina macrocopa Straus
Moina micrura Baird
Moina sp.
Oxyurella tenuicaudis Sars
Paracyclops affinis Sars
Pleuroxus aduncus Jurine
Pleuroxus denticulatus Birge
Pleuroxus sp.
Pleuroxus striatus Schödler
Pleuroxus trigonellus Müller
Pleuroxus truncatus Müller
Simocephalus expinosus Koch
Simocephalus sp.
Simocephalus vetulus Müller
Tretocephala ambigua Liljeborg
Triops cancriformis Bosc
Tropocyclops prasinus Fischer
Unidentified Limnocytheridae
Vestalenula sp.
Appendix 2: Detailed description of the statistical approaches used in this study
Assessment of beta diversity and its nestedness and turnover components
In the beta diversity partitioning approach by Baselga and Orme (2012), beta diversity is expressed scientifically as the total Sørensen dissimilarity among ponds, to be separated into the components of dissimilarity due to species replacement (i.e., turnover) and dissimilarity due to nestedness. Here, I use this method to compute multiple-site dissimilarity measures that account for compositional species heterogeneity across ponds in the real examples and habitats in the perfect expression of turnover and nestedness for deriving diversity fractions. I calculated total Sørensen dissimilarity for invertebrates and macrophytes and their turnover and nestedness components. With this partitioning approach perfect turnover explains numerically the total dissimilarity or beta diversity (i.e., turnover = 1; nestedness = 0) while with perfect nestedness total beta diversity becomes 0 and nestedness and turnover are partitioned into equal fractions. In practice, this means that nestedness is responsible for the total dissimilarity. The analyses were carried out in the free statistical software R v. 2.15.1. (R Development Core Team 2012), using package betapart (Baselga and Orme 2012).
Spatial modeling to assess structure in the geometries of the visuals
To reveal spatial structure in the visuals of beta diversity for each matrix (perfect nestedness, perfect turnover, invertebrates, macrophytes), I used a spatial modeling technique commonly used in ecology, which is capable of identifying spatial structure in study objects (Dray et al. 2006). This method is using a multivariate modeling technique based on Redundancy Analysis (RDA), which uses distance-based Moran Eigenvector Maps (dbMEM) to model space. Essentially, the dbMEM analysis produces a set of orthogonal spatial variables derived from the XY coordinates comprising the matrix. With data points arranged in a rectangular grid with equal distances to each other, like the pixels in the matrices created for this study (Figs. 1, 2), these dbMEM variables take the form of sine waves with distinct frequencies. The number of sine waves (or dbMEM variables) obtained depends on the number of points or pixels present in the matrix. These dbMEM variables are then used as explanatory variables in models of spatial relationships in the species matrices.
Next, a parsimonious spatial model for each matrix (perfect nestedness, perfect turnover, invertebrates, macrophytes) was produced by running a forward selection process on these dbMEM variables. This is done in the RDA analysis, which retains significant dbMEM variables. The RDA also linearly combines significant dbMEM variables that have been previously selected by the model, so that spatial patterns may be extracted from the matrices. To improve model performance and fulfill statistical assumptions of this modeling approach data matrices are generally transformed prior to the analyses, often concretely using the Hellinger-transformation (Legendre and Gallagher 2001).
In the next modeling step, species (pixels) or groups of species with similar spatial patterns are identified and collapsed onto independent RDA axes. The identified spatial patterns associated with each RDA axis are rigorously tested using permutations, so that the patterns identified are independent from each other. The resulting patterns can, but must not necessarily reflect hierarchical structures (that is, broad-scale vs fine-scale variation) in the matrices. That is, the technique is sensitive enough to identify even subtle differences in community structure at any spatial scale discernable given data resolution and extent, allowing for identification of independent patterns or orthogonal patterns in the matrices used for expressing beta diversity artistically.
The number of modeled spatial patterns of groups of pixels is deduced from the number of significant RDA axes, which synthesize the model information in spatial planes, and the ecological relevance of the spatial patterns or structure is quantified with the adjusted R2 values of the RDA axes. Finally, the overall spatial structure of a community is inferred from the number of significant axes in the RDA model. dbMEM analysis is powerful for detecting spatial patterns, but the method is inefficient in handling linear trends; therefore, the detrending of raw data is required prior to analysis (Dray et al. 2006). Although methods exist that account for linear trends (that is, asymmetric eigenvector maps; Blanchet et al. 2008), linearity is modeled according to explicit connectivity patterns among sites (for instance, upstream and downstream sites in a stream network) (Göthe et al. 2013). Because the pixels in the matrices used in this study have no specific connectivity patterns the dbMEM approach is suitable for identifying spatial relationships in these data. My initial analysis has revealed that no linear trend was present in the matrices; therefore, detrending was not required for the analyses presented here. All relevant analysis steps were carried out in R 2.15.1 (R Development Core Team 2012) with the packages PCNM (calculates dbMEM variables), AEM (Moran's I spatial autocorrelation), vegan (Hellinger transformations, RDA), and packfor (forward selection). The analysis, calculation and reporting of statistics is fully automatic, based on a sequential execution of each modeling step in R.
Angeler, D.G. Viewing biodiversity through the lens of science…and art!. SpringerPlus 5, 1174 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40064-016-2831-z
Received: 23 March 2016
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40064-016-2831-z
Beta diversity


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Rockar defends omni-channel car retail after Tesla announces store closures
08/03/2019 in Digital Marketing
Rockar has defended the omni-channel approach to car retail following an announcement by Tesla's Elon Musk that the brand intends to move its sales entirely online.
The Hyundai Motors UK, Jaguar Land Rover, Ford and Mitsubishi Motor UK retail partner claims to have generated 1.6 million store visits, 12,500 test drives and 1.7 million digital journeys during the past five years and insists that a digital retail experience should not be employed at the expense of physical car dealerships.
Martin Sewell, Rockar's managing director, said: "At our core is a powerful and dynamic e-commerce platform, designed for an easy customer car buying journey, but we know it definitely doesn't end there."
According to Forbes, Wall Street reported an 8% drop in the Tesla share price after the announcements that they were moving to online only last week.
A total of 378 Tesla stores across the globe – 23 of them in the UK and Ireland – are under threat from the shift which has been designed to generate cost saving of around 5% and drive the manufacturer's liquidity at a time when debts threaten to scupper its ambitious growth plans.
Marketing Week columnist, Mark Ritson, wrote in an opinion piece on the move that Musk had indicated that he understood the potential long-term impact of the measure, the Tesla chief executive having stated: "I wish there was some other way."
Ritson, who claims he was persuaded out of the potential purchase of a Tesla Roadster by his local Porsche retailer, who successfully encouraged him to instead place a deposit for the forthcoming Taycan EV, wrote: "As strong as the Tesla brand is, and as impressive and enigmatic as Musk continues to be, omni-channel beats either an exclusive focus on offline retailing or an exclusive move to online sales.
"According to Musk 78% of Model 3 sales were already conducted online and 82% secured without a test drive.
"But that's a clumsy example of last-click attribution if I ever I saw it and beneath the Musk I have grown to admire. How many of those sales were sparked or secured by a visit to a showroom?
"Maybe most of his existing Tesla fans bought without a test drive but he is now penetrating the mass market. A test drive is a crucial moment of truth – especially when it's your first electric vehicle, let alone your first Tesla."
Rockar said that it has found that customers expect online interaction and the ability to research their purchase online, but need the possibility of being able to see the car physically too.
"Purchasing decisions are all about experience right now, and a full experience of a product is built through the omni-channel model", it said.
Rockar said that it "spins" the old 'time spent' model of 10% on product and 90% on transaction and make the product and brand experience 90% with the transaction becoming easier and only needing 10%.
Sewell added: "We know that omni-channel doesn't take away from the technology, it simply enhances it.
"Physical space is still relevant but just as technology has brought rapid change to the car buying journey, the physical space needs to change too."
Rockar was one of the first to bring car retailing into shopping centres and offer accessibility and transparency when buying a car.
Selling techniques are a thing of the past, it said, with 88% of millennials being negatively influenced by high-pressure sales tactics according to data from CDK Global.
Rockar's model is to share knowledge with their customers which helps to inform them, not coerce them, in their car buying decision.
It is a model that is being embraced by emerging car brands.
When Tesla rival Polestar enters the UK market in 2020 – with the Tesla Model 3-rivalling Polestar 2 offering 300-mile plus EV transport for somewhere in the region of £40,000 – it will do so in urban stores manned by commission-free product experts.
Asked whether Polestar's model of eliminating commission and guaranteeing a fixed margin on each car sale – with no volume bonus – could pave the way for other brands to adopt something akin to an "agency approach", Goodman said that could clearly be a side-effect of Polestar's success.
But he is in no-doubt that his brand's omni-channel hook-up with traditional retailers is the right way forward. He said: "If retailers see us and the way we do things and see that it's successful will they then compliment that and perhaps accept a similar model from their other franchised partners, I expect they might.
"The reality is that the model places a lot of pressure on us to generate publicity around the brand and the demand we need to generate in order to get cars to market.
"Have dealers got cast iron guarantees that they are going to sell a certain number of vehicles with us? No they haven't. But we wanted people to take that gamble, that leap of faith and come with us for the journey and I'm glad to say that we have a group of very well-respected and high-quality retailers on board to help us make this a success in the UK."
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Mehmed Said Galip Pasha (turco moderno: Mehmet Sait Galip Paşa; 1763/1764, Constantinopla (Istambul) - 1829, Balıkesir) foi um estadista otomano. Ele foi grão-vizir do Império Otomano de 13 de dezembro de 1823 a 14 de setembro de 1824. Foi signatário do Tratado de Paris (1802) com a França, encerrando a campanha francesa no Egito e na Síria.

Nascidos na década de 1760
Mortos em 1829
Grão-vizires do Império Otomano

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An exciting opportunity has arisen for an ambitious individual to become a Nutrition Adviser based in South West England. You will work within a team to play a key role in the development and delivery of nutritional support and advising on the correct feeding systems required.
The role will give you an opportunity to assist the sales team, farmers and key accounts in the commercial side of the industry. You will also have the opportunity to find solutions to challenges that may arise. Although the travel will predominately be South West, there will be a small amount of international travel involved.
Remuneration: A competitive salary and package will be offered based upon experience, along with regular training and significant opportunities for career advancement.
Salary: A competitive salary and package will be offered based upon experience, along with regular training and significant opportunities for career advancement.


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Benicia High School boys tennis team knocks off…
Benicia High School boys tennis team knocks off Vanden
PUBLISHED: April 5, 2017 at 12:00 a.m. | UPDATED: August 29, 2018 at 12:00 a.m.
The Benicia High School boys tennis team beat Vanden 7-2 on Tuesday in a Solano County Athletic Conference match.
The Panthers got wins from Nate Tabtab and Amir Adel at No. 1 and 2 singles. Rowan Hayward and Serigne Diaw both picked up wins at No. 5 and 6 singles.
Benicia's Nick Menjibar and Spencer Gobal, John Cope and Christian Chaves and Ethan Ancheta and Nate Jacobs were victorious as well. Cope and Chaves won 6-4, 4-6, (10-8).


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Neuronal Glucose Metabolism and Schizophrenia: Therapeutic Prospects?


Sent my youngest off to college today. Was much harder on me than I was expecting. Go Dawgs!
Brad Tombaugh, Thad E Ginathom, Gaspasser and 21 others like this.
Youngest daughter graduating from high school today. Headed to UGA. Very proud.
Merrick, Skyline, Lenroot77 and 24 others like this.
Congratulations to your daughter and family. Having been to many graduation ceremonies as a teacher, I know it is a very special moment.
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Android Patches Actively Exploited Zero-Day Kernel BugPrevious article
Squid Game Crypto Scammers Rip Off Investors for MillionsNext article
Ransomware Gangs Target Corporate Financial Activities
Author: Tara Seals
The FBI is warning about a fresh extortion tactic: threatening to tank share prices for publicly held companies.
Ransomware gangs are zeroing in on publicly held companies with the threat of financial exposure in an effort to encourage ransom payments, the FBI is warning.
In an alert issued this week [PDF], the Bureau said that activity over the course of the past year shows a trend toward targeting companies when they're coming up to "significant, time-sensitive financial events," such as quarterly earnings reports and mandated SEC filings, initial public offerings, M&A activity, and so on. The idea is to ratchet up the extortion thumb-screws by threatening to leak stolen information relevant to these events if the target doesn't pay up.
"Impending events that could affect a victim's stock value, such as announcements [or] mergers and acquisitions, encourage ransomware actors to target a network or adjust their timeline for extortion," the Feds noted.
Doug Britton, CEO at Haystack Solutions, noted that it's a savvy strategy.
"Criminal organizations are realizing the ability to drive leverage in their extortion demands by targeting companies at critical inflection points in their growth," he said via email. "This is a strategic play on an otherwise familiar ransomware attack. Any company that doesn't prepare for this attack is risking their ability to operate or fulfill their obligation to shareholders."
Targeting Stock Prices
Last year, the ransomware actor who goes by the handle "Unknown" (believed to be a former leader of the REvil group) appeared to mastermind the approach, suggesting in the Exploit Russian hacking forum that a good way to sway targets to succumb to ransom demands is by referencing their corporate presence on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
Soon, some were following the advice: "Following this posting, unidentified ransomware actors negotiating a payment with a victim during a March 2020 ransomware event stated, 'We have also noticed that you have stocks. If you will not engage us for negotiation, we will leak your data to the nasdaq [sic] and we will see what's gonna [sic] happen with your stocks,'" according to the alert.
Also last year, at least three publicly traded U.S. companies actively involved in M&A negotiations were hit with ransomware. As well, a technical analysis of the Pyxie remote access trojan (which acts as a first-stage implant that eventually delivers the Defray777/RansomEXX ransomware) revealed several financially related keyword searches, the FBI said.
These included "10-Q," referring to a quarterly report that must be submitted by all publicly traded companies disclosing relevant information regarding finances; "10-SB," which is a form used to register the securities of small businesses that want to trade on U.S. exchanges; and "N-CSR," a form that must be filed within 10 days of a company issuing annual and semi-annual reports to stockholders. Other keywords included NASDAQ, MarketWired and Newswire.
In April, the DarkSide ransomware gang (a group that the FBI has blamed for the Colonial Pipeline attack) posted a plan to use victims' share price as extortion leverage, according to the FBI, and offered to teach others how to do the same thing.
The message said: "Now our team and partners encrypt many companies that are trading on NASDAQ and other stock exchanges. If the company refuses to pay, we are ready to provide information before the publication, so that it would be possible to earn in the reduction price of shares. Write to us in 'Contact Us' and we will provide you with detailed information."
Bill Lawrence, CISO at SecurityGate, noted that companies should now be on high alert when going public, executing mergers or acquisitions, or going through other significant financial events – and should tightly control information, including public information.
"Companies should especially keep their guard up during these types of events and use third-party penetration testers and thorough risk assessments to try to find the security gaps and types of data that would be helpful to criminals," he noted in an email. "They should always ensure their public-facing information is controlled carefully, while sensitive financial or other data is encrypted and backed up to another secure location. Two-factor and multi-factor authentication can help secure vulnerable accounts."
Meanwhile, Haystack's Britton advised that the most important preventative action any company can do is invest in a cybersecurity team.
"This is quickly becoming table stakes in this current climate of cyberattacks," he said. "We have the technology to find critical talent, even in a tight labor market. We need to find the next generation of cyber-professionals and get them into the fight, or this threat will only continue to grow."
Hello Kitty: Ransomware Extortion Tactics Evolve
The targeting of information specifically damaging to share price isn't the only emerging ransomware trend. Last week, the FBI said that the Hello Kitty group of cybercriminals (aka FiveHands) has added the threat of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks to its mix of "persuasion" tactics.
"Hello Kitty actors aggressively apply pressure to victims typically using the double-extortion technique," the FBI warned in an alert [PDF] on Friday, referring to the double-whammy of encrypting files and exfiltrating information to make public if ransoms aren't paid. It added, "In some cases, if the victim does not respond quickly or does not pay the ransom, the threat actors will launch a [DDoS] attack on the victim company's public-facing website."
Hello Kitty is known for hitting CD Projekt Red, the game developer behind Cyberpunk 2077, with ransomware earlier this year. It typically tailors its ransom demands to targets, and is known for using compromised credentials or known (patched) vulnerabilities in SonicWall products for initial access to corporate networks.
Using DDoS is increasingly a part of so-called "quadruple extortion" attacks. Last year, the SunCrypt ransomware group drew praise from a REvil higher-up for pioneering the idea.
Check out our free upcoming live and on-demand online town halls – unique, dynamic discussions with cybersecurity experts and the Threatpost community.
Watering Hole Attacks Push ScanBox Keylogger
Researchers uncover a watering hole attack likely carried out by APT TA423, which attempts to plant the ScanBox JavaScript-based reconnaissance tool.
Ransomware Attacks are on the Rise
Lockbit is by far this summer's most prolific ransomware group, trailed by two offshoots of the Conti group.
Twitter Whistleblower Complaint: The TL;DR Version
Twitter is blasted for security and privacy lapses by the company's former head of security who alleges the social media giant's actions amount to a national security risk.


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Q: Docker's standardization of environments I am struggling on a question that nobody seems to answer in detail on the Internet.
"Standardizing service infrastructure across the entire pipeline allows every team member to work in a production parity environment"
This is a key benefit of Docker : it allows everybody to develop, test or whatever in a production-like environment. Because the container that is passed through the pipeline is always the same.
I get that. I understand that this is necessary and that Docker allows this easily.
But what I don't understand, is why was it so hard before Docker ? If I have a production machine and a testing machine, I won't have any problem building a script that installs the right dependencies, no matter what the machine is. So my environment in terms of libraries or frameworks will be the same.
The only thing that I understand with this whole environment-related benefit, is that Docker allows a developer to choose his OS without fear of the platform-related bugs. I've already run into features that worked on Windows and not on Mac. Worst kind of bugs in my opinion. So yeah if I had Docker at the time, I wouldn't have had this problem. But I don't understand why Docker was such a miracle for other environment-related stuff.
I think I am not understanding this because I've only worked on small scale projects. Maybe I also don't realize the full meaning of the word "environment".
What am I missing here ? Why containers were a breakthrough for standardizing environments, whereas scripts can achieve that ?

A: The following list is not exhaustive, it represents only three important advantages of docker. Please note that docker is not a magical solution and may not be adapted in specific contexts.

Firstly, with containers you don't have conflicts between dependencies.

If you have two programs using the same library at different version you'll have to manually install both versions and specify custom environment variables before executing your programs. (For example LD_LIBRARY_PATH). Please note that some tools exists to address this issue but only in specific cases (virtualenvs in python for example).

Secondly, with containers you don't have persistence.

For example if you write a little bash script to install your development environment based on Nginx and PHP and by mistake I install Apache, my package will still be present even if you run again your script. The thing is Apache will sometimes starts before Nginx and block the 80 port, breaking your development environment.

To sum up, without docker you're not sure about the state of untracked elements and they may break your environment.
Thirdly, docker allows you to reduce the gap between development and production.

The close environment is "everything needed for your code to run". For example libraries, config files, your interpreter (python, php, ...). Docker packages the application with its close environment so you don't have mismatches between what your app needs and the environment you provided.

This is especially important when you update dependencies during development and may forget to update them in production.

A false argument is security and isolation. The security process starts with defining your threat model and then choosing countermeasures. Adding docker because it increases security in a risky environment won't be enough (there is no kernelspace isolation) and adding docker for security if you don't need more is called paranoïa. Docker adds userspace isolation and default seccomp profiles, but this is not a reason to use it, except if it matches your threat model.

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No excuses for failure, says Dassanayake
National team stand-in skipper Gyanendra Malla said his side now needs to stay positive after losing to Scotland for their second consecutive defeat in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers in New Zealand on Thursday.
Nepal needed to win the match against the Scots with pressure mounting on the team following their 102-run humbling from the UAE but the team bite the dust bundled out for 159 in chase of a reachable 249-7 from Scotland.
"250 was well within reach given our strong middle order but there is too much pressure because the top order is not clicking for us. We need to be positive and look forward to the remaining two games. The bowlers did good job restricting them (Scotland) within 250 but we lost wickets at regular intervals in the second innings," said Gyanendra after the match.
Coach Pubudu Dassanayake said there are no excuses for the failure. "I'm concerned with the batting because this is the second time we failed. No excuses for failure but we missed Paras and Subash in the batting line up. We can still make it to the second round if we play well," said the coach.
Skipper Paras Khadka and Subash Khakurel were absentees in the crucial tie on Thursday at the Queenstown Events Centre owing to their injuries. While Paras is yet to recover from his back strain, Subash is so far declare unfit for matches though he has recovered from the viral fever he caught a week ago in New Zealand
Paras was still optimistic to make it to the next level." We should get our heads down and play to our potential. We still have chances to go further," said Paras.


Precedent Setting Bankruptcy By Public Pension Plan | McCabe Rabin, P.A.
In what appears to be an unprecedented move for a public defined-benefit plan, a government employee pension plan has filed for bankruptcy protection. The Northern Mariana Island Retirement Fund ("Fund") filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection in the U.S Bankruptcy Court for the Northern Mariana Islands on Tuesday.
The Fund was established in 1980 to provide retirement, disability, death and other benefits to employees of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, its autonomous agencies and public corporations, and their spouses and dependents. The Northern Mariana Islands is a U.S. Commonwealth made up of three major islands in the Western Pacific. Its capital is in Saipan.
According to the bankruptcy filing, the Fund holds $268.4 million in assets but faces $911 million in liabilities. According to a press release by the Fund, at current spending levels, the Fund could be depleted by September 2014. The Fund's website states that the Fund will continue to issue payments for at least the next two months at the present level. The Fund indicated that the primary goal of the restructuring process is to adjust benefit payments to meet the current funding level so the Fund can make some level of payments to all plan beneficiaries for the remember of their lives.
According to a letter from the Fund to participants, it states that funding shortfall was caused in part by the commonwealth's inability to make its share of contributions to the pension plan. The bankruptcy filing indicates that the problem was exacerbated by the generosity of the pension plan. While the Fund was designed to serve retirees and their spouses, the Fund has permitted the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the retirees to receive benefits after the retiree passed away.


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Q: How can I partition an Arrow Table by value in one pass? I would like to be able to partition an Arrow table by the values of one of its columns (assuming the set of n values occurring in that column is known). The straightforward way is a for-loop: for each of these values, scan the whole table and build a new table of matching rows. Are there ways to do this in one pass instead of n passes?
I initially thought that Arrow's  support for group-by scans would be the solution -- but Arrow (in contrast to Pandas) does not support extracting groups after a group-by scan.
Am I just thinking about this wrong and there is another way to partition a table in one pass?

A: For the group by support, there is a "hash_list" function that returns all values in the group. Is that what you're looking for? You could then slice the resulting values after-the-fact to extract the individual groups.


Thousands of tourists depart each day from Sorrento for a day trip to Capri, especially in the summer months...even more if you take into account the cruise ship passengers who disembark in Sorrento and Naples to head to our beautiful (but tiny!) island of Capri. If you don't plan accordingly, your relaxing day on the island can be nothing but crowds and long lines.
For travelers staying in Sorrento who would like to visit Capri, Italy, I suggest this boat tour of the island with a visit to the centre of Capri town. It's an all day tour, departing from Sorrento and including 3 hours of free time to visit the island's main village.
Departure from the port of Sorrento, with a leisurely sail to Capri. During our sail, we'll skirt some of the most breathtaking coastline around the island and make our first stop for a swim near Punta Campanella (optional, not guaranteed).
Arrival at Capri, passing under the Faraglioni sea stacks.
A stop in Marina Piccola where you can disembark. Here you can decide to relax on the beach, have a meal in a restaurant, or take the bus uphill to the Piazzetta and Capri town centre or even Anacapri.
Each passenger has a traditional "caprese" tomato and mozzarella sandwich and a soft drink included in the tour price.
In the afternoon, the tour continues around the island, with a stop at the at the Blue Grotto (entrance optional, ticket Euro 14,00 must be purchased separately).
Return and drop off at the port of Sorrento in the afternoon.
Included in the price: boat tour from Sorrento to Capri, "caprese" sandwich and a soft drink.
Not included in the price: entrance to the Blue Grotto, transport from Marina Piccola port to the Piazzetta in Capri town or Anacapri.
Why is my Sorrento to Capri boat tour the best way to enjoy your island day trip to the fullest?
Avoid the long queues at the ferry ticket offices and piers.
Savor your sail stretched out on the sun deck of your private boat with a cool drink, rather than on the crowded and uncomfortable ferry seats with hundreds of other tourists.
Skip the queues on Capri to board for the tour of the island.
Skip the queues at the funicular to reach Capri town from the port.
Sail around the island in all the comfort of a small group tour by boat, far from the fleets of tour boats crowded with tourists.
Stop a few times to take a dip in the crystalline Mediterranean (not an option from the large tour boats departing from Capri!).
No worries about missing the last ferry from Capri to Sorrento.
More comfortable, less worry, and for the same price as large group tours!
A day trip on Capri using public transport and a group boat tour costs € 80 per person, while my small group tour costs only just a few euros more per person for a day with no stress and crowds on a small collective tour.
For small groups of 10-12 people, you can book the entire boat and we will create a custom itinerary together. Contact me!


Citation Information: J Clin Invest. 2007;117(4):1068-1077. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI30117.
Generation of mice deficient for Vhlh, Vhlh/Hif-1α, Vhlh/Hif-2α, and Vhlh/ Hif-1α/Hif-2α in the liver.
(A) Genomic maps of the Vhlh (2-lox), Hif-1α (2-lox), and Hif-2α (2-lox) conditional alleles. Numbered boxes represent exons targeted for deletion. The locations of LoxP sites and primers used to amplify the conditional allele (2-lox), recombined allele (1-lox), and WT allele are shown with gray triangles and arrows, respectively. N, NcoI; E, EcoR1; P, PstI. (B) Genomic PCR analysis of DNA isolated from the tail (T) and liver (L) of PEPCK-Cre mutant mice. (C) Genomic PCR analysis of DNA isolated from the tail and liver of 4-week-old albumin-Cre mutant mice. Note that mice were bred in a mixed genetic background. Occasionally 2 different Hif-2α WT alleles were detected by genomic PCR analysis, suggesting a polymorphism in the amplified region. (D) Western blot analysis of nuclear protein isolated from livers of the following albumin-Cre mutant littermates: lane 1, -Vhlh haploinsufficient for Hif-1α; lane 2, -Vhlh/Hif-1α haploinsufficient for Hif-2α; lane 3, -Vhlh/Hif-2α; lane 4, -Vhlh/Hif-1α/Hif-2α; lane 5, -Vhlh/Arnt; and lane 6, Cre-negative mice. Note that the recombination efficiency of the Hif-1α conditional allele is best determined by comparing Cre-negative control mice to Vhlh/Hif-1α/Hif-2α mutant mice due to the presence of nonrecombined inflammatory cells in albumin-Vhlh/Hif-1α mutant mice.


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Beppie
Occurs on Saturday January 28 2023
Approximate running time: 1 hour
Stephanie Nhan (Beppie) hit the children's music scene in 2017 with her debut album; There's a Song Inside Me. Since then, she has released three more full-length albums (and one holiday EP), receiving both a JUNO and a WCMA nomination. Her multi-genre family music is modern, fun, innovative, and pushes the boundaries of children's music to appeal to all ages. Album number four, Dino-mite!, was released in September of 2021. Along with the new album, Beppie released an award-winning illustrated children's book that follows the adventures of two dinosaurs, Larry & Joe, who are best friends on a funny, heartwarming, and musical journey. The production of Dino-mite! was sponsored by FACTOR Canada, Alberta Music, and The Alberta Foundation of the Arts.
Since the release of her fourth album, Beppie has received airtime on radio stations and playlists, including Carousel Radio (WPKN), Wee Nation Radio, Jump 105.3 Pittsburg, Funky Kids Radio (Australia), Play Time Playlist, and many more. Dino-mite! was included on the GRAMMY ballot for Best children's album and has received rave reviews from her peers and fans. Beppie regularly collaborates with Albertan artists from her genre (Music with Mandy, Smilin' Rylan, Mr. Rayz, etc.) and artists outside of her genre (Lusitania Lights, Mallory Chipman, Kevin Castro, Robyn Slack, etc.) to create new music and performance opportunities. A music educator by trade, she provides programming for schools, festivals, and libraries. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Music and her Orff Level 1. In 2021, Stephanie received a scholarship to complete her Level 1 teaching Certificate with the James Hill Ukulele Initiative. She has studied extensively through the Royal Conservatory of Music and has been teaching for over twenty years. The inspiration for her albums comes from her students and her three young children. Stephanie is the Director of Lesson Development at Resonate Music School & Studio, where she has developed the early childhood music curriculum using her original songs. You can listen to Beppie's music anywhere you stream your music online.


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Don't be fooled by positive short-term news in Alberta fiscal update
Appeared in the Calgary Herald, December 7, 2021
In the mid-year fiscal update released last week, Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews touted a strong economic and fiscal recovery buoyed by the energy sector. While the province is indeed set to enjoy higher commodity prices—West Texas Intermediate (a common benchmark) is projected to average US$70 per barrel in 2021/22—this positive short-term news should not mask the province's ongoing challenges.
Alberta's finances remain in the red, and rely too much on volatile resource revenues. According to last week's update, Alberta will incur a $5.8 billion deficit in 2021/22, followed by deficits of $3.3 billion in 2022/23 and $2.3 billion in 2023/24.
Provincial government net debt (total debt minus financial assets) is projected to reach $73.9 billion by 2023/24, roughly $16,071 per Albertan. Of course, Albertans must pay interest on this debt, which will cost a projected $3.1 billion in 2023/24, roughly the equivalent of all corporate income tax revenue collected in an average year. That's money unavailable for important priorities such as education and health care.
Moreover, Albertans still suffer from tax increases introduced under the previous provincial government (and current federal government) including higher personal income tax rates, capital gains taxes and the federal carbon tax.
Consider personal income taxes. As recently as 2014, Alberta had the lowest combined (provincial and federal) top personal income tax rate of any Canadian province or U.S. state, which helped attract entrepreneurs and investment to the province. Since then, tax increases at the provincial and federal level eroded Alberta's tax advantage. The province went from having the lowest combined top personal tax rate to the 10th highest in Canada and the United States. Higher taxes make Alberta a less attractive place for entrepreneurs, professionals and businessowners who drive innovation, investment and job creation.
Perhaps the best indicator of Alberta's ongoing challenges is the province's marked decline in economic freedom—essentially, the ability of individuals and businesses to make their own economic decisions. High levels of economic freedom remain key to prosperity and have been associated with stronger economic growth, job creation, reduced poverty and better health. According to the Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom of North America report, which ranks 50 U.S. states, 32 Mexican states and 10 Canadian provinces, Alberta went from being the most economically free jurisdiction on the continent in 2015 to ranking 33rd in 2019 (the most recent available data). That's a worrying sign for provincial prosperity.
And of course, Alberta's oil and gas industry continues to face significant barriers to investment due to ongoing regulatory burden. In the latest Canada-US Energy Sector Competitiveness Survey, which tracks perceived investment barriers in oil and gas exploration in 22 energy-producing Canadian and U.S. jurisdictions, Alberta ranked 12th in terms of investment attractiveness in 2021, with investors citing uncertainty around environmental regulations in the province, among other concerns. Recent announcements by the Trudeau government, including a hard cap on greenhouse gas emissions in the oil and gas sector, will only make matters worse.
An upswing in commodity prices is welcomed news for Alberta, but the province still faces huge fiscal and economic challenges, which policymakers must address.
Tegan Hill
Economist, Fraser Institute
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