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Here are the key steps to make your own smartphone:
Scientists are using a mixture of chemistry with electronic components, and the vacuum cleaner itself.
The hard part, however, is in the electronics itself.
1. Aluminum: the material used in the cellphone is the most common one on store shelves. It can break down quickly, which is perfect for creating a vacuum cleaner. In fact, it's one of the primary materials our vacuum cleaner is built from.
2. Magnesium sulfate: Another metal used in the vacuum cleaners, magnesium is known for it's ability to remove dust and grease. The downside is that it's rather expensive.
3. Silicon: Silicon is another material used to make electronics. It's pretty cheap, and it has the ability to take apart and reassemble itself.
Step 2: Circuits
Soft science starts with simple assumptions. It focuses on "puzzles," such as how can we measure something like the acceleration of a moving rock, or measure something like a force applied to a spring. The "puzzle" usually involves many assumptions, many assumptions with "no evidence," so the hypothesis has few, if any, pieces of evidence to support it. In short, it has no evidence to base it on.
Hard science involves many assumptions – and is, by definition, based on evidence. It involves evidence that can be tested and tested again. It involves rigorous mathematical formulas and precise measurements, but it also takes "no evidence" for its assumptions.
Now, let me back-track. In the "soft" science we had earlier mentioned, the idea is to use some kind of measurement to determine what some external force is doing to something. The more "fine detail" you have, the more "no evidence" you have.
But first, let's try to get some ideas out of the way. When you pull a trigger, the mechanical action is the same:
A button. And a plunger. And a spring. A button.
The physics of mechanical action are more complex than this, but we'll try to figure it out. For this article, we're using a single pin as our trigger, so there aren't much other physics to consider. (In fact, that's exactly why most trigger mechanisms are single-pin—just because we can't get that many pins into a design).
A trigger is often simply wired to send pulses to two pins, and this will cause a specific reaction when your lever or screw is pulled. Most of the time, the reaction is a response to tactile, feel, or pressure. In our case, a trigger will only react to pressure, and we don't have any pressure.
In his book, "The Art of Smartphones: The Science of the Smartphone," Mark Giesing explains the difference between soft science and hard science. I think it's a great book, and he explains very well how to think about the difference between soft and hard science in the smartphone.
"If the human body has something called an excitatory neurotransmitter system that helps us process information, that may well explain how some of our behaviors have been hard-wired into our physiology," says John Kukull, Ph.D., co-founder of the Life Learning Group and author of the book "Inner-World Biology." "The human body is an excitatory system. Every time our muscles work, a small part of our brain is active, so that the signal from the brain travels and gets our muscles fired up. The muscles are then used in the way that they're supposed to be used," he says.
This vacuum is connected to a vacuum bag which is made with a different material. After this we put the cord in the bag, close the bag and then connect the cord to the phone itself. You can check the results by pressing and holding the switch to indicate that something is happening. The cord is connected to the phone via the battery pack.
For the last few months, I've been at the beginning of a research and development process in my new lab to design a more affordable "smart" vacuum-phone, and in particular I have been experimenting with ultrasonic frequency-based "smart" components - in this case, ultrasonic components capable of detecting the frequency of their environment.
These ultrasonic components consist of multiple elements, and many of these elements (e.g. a sensor, power supply, etc.) contain integrated sensors which can be controlled by a microcontroller on the phone itself. For me, ultrasonic range-finding (ULF) in this case can be very useful; it gives a very precise range resolution, and it is much cheaper to develop than other types of ULF-range finding (e.g. DHT-type) systems. With the design of the new vacuum-phone in mind, I wanted to experiment on a real (non-virtual) phone.
By the time she arrived a year and a half later, her voice had completely changed, and was becoming even more commanding then. Her tone had now gone from the gentle mumble of the "vacuum" recordings, to the booming, guttural "vang", or "war".
Step 3: Testing
The role of the "vacuum" recordings had been largely taken up by her sister who was making recordings at the time as well. In those days, the "V.D." recordings were primarily made by women working on the project (which was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts), but as the recordings were less than perfect, the researchers took her "vactra" recordings and replaced them with other tapes based on her voice. The "vagueness" of the "vacuum" recordings had also been a factor. This is probably one of the most famous and enduring mysteries in science.
This may seem like a miracle, but it makes sense when you consider the high-powered laser used. If the phone were not able to clean these phones, we would have to build entire phones from scratch! Not only does this technology cost less than the current industry standard on most manufacturing lines, but it also saves time compared to traditional vacuum-cleaning procedures.
The technology is also capable of cleaning mobile phones that are so poorly maintained that they cannot be properly examined with a proper dust mask and properly cleaned by a professional. And these phones should not just be cleaned by a professional. With new technologies such as mobile phone maintenance products such as the W.V.R.D., even very old devices should be examined using such products to ensure that they're clean and working properly, thereby saving the customer time compared to traditional techniques.
For the last 50+ years many people have thought that all modern phones should be able to be operated in vacuum. Today, experts agree that these types of phones are unsuitable for use in vacuum.
"Vacuum cleaning a call is very hard and it is difficult to make it even a bit warm in order to warm it properly. Many of these phones have a metal plate in the middle that supports the phone. It's a much more simple solution, but it's not very effective, because there is a lot of heat in vacuum!"
The team was working on a project which aimed to design a vacuum cleaner that would 'eat' mobile phones. They tested a number of vacuum cleaner designs in various conditions and had developed one called the Dolmets.
The second paper is very interesting: a piece titled "The evolution of the vacuum cleaner from the 1950s to the 1970s: An anthropological approach" by David M. Stalnaker-Peters, James P. Farrar, and John S. M. Jones, published in "Skeptical Inquirer" on November 20, 2016.
The authors say:
We use an ethnographic approach to reconstruct the history of the vacuum cleaner industry that started after WWII to create the original vacuum cleaner. Our hypothesis is that the evolution of the vacuum cleaner industry began with the design of a soft vacuum cleaner but developed very quickly into a hard vacuum cleaner, with many early makers using hand tools. Although it is true that many products of the 1930s and 1940s had low energy efficiencies, we find that all of them had a hard vacuum cleaner by at least the late 1950s. The reasons for this trend are, we suggest, partly the evolution of the vacuum cleaner and partly the growing use of automation to manufacture items that could also be used as regular phones.
For example, the researchers compared the "soft" science of vacuum-cleaning phones with the vacuum-cleaning-phones made from a hard material, such as stainless steel, to a soft material, such as plastic. And for comparison, they compared vacuum-cleaning phones made of a metal and plastic. To verify that the soft- and hard-science of vacuum-cleaning phones was uniform, the researchers made similar vacuum-cleaning-phones made from different materials, such as stainless steel and plastic. The differences in the "soft- and hard-science" of vacuum-cleaning phones, said the scientists, were as striking as those in the scientific and engineering discipline of physics.
The researchers found, however, that the "soft" science of vacuum-cleaning phones was not uniform across the various materials (see graph at left). "It appears that the soft science is more like water than the solid science," they said, "and that there are some features that make the soft science seem more robust than the standard physics."
In the past, researchers have suggested that vacuum-cleaning phones could be a boon to the environment—that they could remove contaminants, for example, without leaving damaging chemicals behind. "We do know from previous research that the devices were polluting the environment from the beginning," Burdick said.
Indeed, the scientists say their new research supports other work by other researchers on whether this type of vacuum cleaning can eliminate soot from cellphone screens or reduce other contaminants. (In a separate study, Burdick and his colleagues found that the "soft" vacuum technology they tested wiped the screens of some phones clean, but on others they left soot behind.)
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About Polislice or a Slice of Polislice, if you will
The Polislice
There's no end to the stupid.
by The Polislice
Maine 2nd CD – Flipped Red to Blue – Ranked Choice Voting Worked
We wrote about Maine's ranked choice voting experiment a few weeks back. It seems to have worked pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty well and flipped Maine's 2nd CD to the Democrat leaving New England in a 21-0 blue to red count in Congress!
Poliquin, the incumbent, led after ballots were initially tabulated, though no candidate had an absolute majority. However, under ranked-choice voting, the lowest-choice candidates were eliminated and their votes reallocated to their second choices. Under that system, Golden, the Democrat, pulled ahead.
The Democrat won even though more people voted for the Republican incumbent.
Jared Golden Democrat 129,556 45.5%
Bruce Poliquin* Republican 131,466 46.2
Tiffany Bond Independent 16,500 5.8
William Hoar Independent 6,933 2.4
284,455 votes, 95% reporting (399 of 418 precincts)
* Incumbent
Jared Golden, a Marine Corps veteran and Democratic state lawmaker,defeated New England's lone House Republican, Bruce Poliquin after the incumbent failed to win a majority of the vote and the state's new ranked-choice voting system came into play. Mr. Golden received the majority of votes in the second round of vote tabulation, according to the Maine
So the process in Maine did extend past election day, effectively working like a recount, but with the bonus that third party and protest votes are not rendered simple and one dimensional. By ranking choices, you can make your protest vote, but not necessarily cause an undesired candidate to ultimately win.
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New Pew Poll Shows, Again, How Stupid a Country This Is
Yes, a majority of people prefer Democrats on most important issues. What gets me is the people who say "Not much difference" between Trump and Congressional Dems on issues like the environment (25%), or Social Security (24%). It's easy to make fun of the blinkered morons who think Trump gives a shit about anything other than Trump, but there's a hard core quarter of the country that is just a box of rocks who are so disinterested that they can say Trump and Dems are the same when any 3rd grader who reads the Weekly Reader knows there's a massive difference on almost every issue.
However, it's interesting that the topics that have been most in the news lately like immigration (13%), have the lowest "Not much difference". Maybe the people can learn?
No End to the Stupid, No it Will Not Cease
Arizona GOP has a hunch about the election.
Conspiracymongering via FOI: via @brahmresnik, the Arizona Republican Party has filed a freedom of information request for any interactions between the Maricopa County elections office and…George Soros. https://t.co/d8JQIGqUSc
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 11, 2018
Fox News is on in Too Many Restaurants
Of course it's not really that it's on in restaurants, where it's just ambiance (if you can use that word for nut jobs lying soundlessly in the background) the bigger problem is that it's on in the homes, but if this election brought anything into clear relief it's that the Foxification of the nation is maybe our greatest danger.
It was a wave. It may not have felt like one on Tuesday when we were waiting breathlessly for the flips, as the marquee races were going south, but in time, with analysis it's clearly a wave.
Nearly 40 seats in the House
Only 1-3 seats lost in the Senate (still counting in AZ and FL and a run off in Mississippi that, yes, will not likely go blue, but remember Alabama?)
7 governorships
350+ state legislature seats
A lot to applaud. That's a wave, people. And that is a base to build on for 2020.
And yet, it feels like the Senate, and therefor court appointments, are out of Democratic reach because of those smaller rural states that just seem to be under the tribal thrall of the Republican party. In the last 10 years we've seen states like NM, CO and VA turn blue. And make no mistake, with great, great candidates GA and TX are now purple! AZ too. On the other hand, in this time period we've seen OH and MO slip over to seemingly solid redness, maybe. Ohio did re-elect Sherrod Brown, so maybe they're not lost and if a Beto was running there, maybe they'd go blue. Florida is just fucked, you can't know what they're going to do, they're crazy. But all those little red states with fewer than a million people and 2 senators seem completely out of reach (Tester in MT notwithstanding). So how the hell does the majority of the country get back the ability to have a say in some of the most vital parts of government including court appointments? Not to mention the precariousness of the still living farcical Electoral College.
Let me first state the problem: 1. Fox News, talk radio and various profoundly dishonest right wing outlets have their propagandistic claws in too large a segment of America. 2. Besides their usual demonization of Democrats, they've screamed about the absolute necessity of conservative judges and justices for decades so that even when a fair minded person throws off their programming for a moment and listens to a talented Democratic candidate, all they have to hear is "but the Supreme Court" and they run right back to the red team.
The solution: Democrats, progressives, liberals have got to break the spell on red voters regarding the courts. Of course, we have to have charismatic, smart, personable candidates that can explain their positions cogently about everything. But I don't think I've ever heard anybody ask conservative individuals what exactly conservative courts achieve for them and debunk that there's anything good for the average worker, farmer, citizen in the anti-worker, anti-consumer, anti-voter judgments coming from the conservative courts. Citizen's' United did not help these people. They're never going to get a full national ban on abortion. Pro business rulings against workers can't help them. Making it harder to vote? Okay, right now they're making it harder for brown people to vote, but the precedent can be applied to anybody.
The fact is that conservative propagandists have effectively deified the courts in the minds of their lowliest followers with no actual connection to the real decisions laid down by those courts. Just like how poor conservatives keep voting for elite business interests because of social wedge issues, there is as total a disconnect between what the courts do and how hard these average citizens root for them, and effectively against themselves.
That spell has to be broken. And that is something I don't hear anybody on the left talking to those people about.
This 2020 Election is Terra Incognita, There's No Map, Nobody Knows
I'm Invoking Pitmaster Privilege and Pushing some Elizabeth Warren On Ya
Stick it to an Autocrat – Watch Oscar Nominated "Edge of Democracy" on Netflix
The Return of the Hummer – It's About That Girth Baby
One Year Ago I Wrote This

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Cowboys & Aliens: movie review
Movie Reviews July 29, 2011
As its title indicates, this is a strange cross of movie genres, and lest any viewers get antsy, it doesn't allow much time to pass before we first encounter UFOs in the Old West. The film takes its time unraveling the rest of the story, leading us along a trail with no clear destination in sight, at first. (Could that have something to do with the six A-list writers who worked on the screenplay, which was inspired by Scott Michael Rosenberg's graphic novel?) All we know is that there's been an alien invasion, and neither the cowboys nor Indians know how to deal with it.
Director Jon Favreau earns his Western bona fides with a sharp eye for casting and locations. The first characters we see, after Daniel Craig, are a trio of authentic-looking cowboys played by Western veteran Buck Taylor and his two sons; thus, the movie looks and feels right from the very start. Cinematographer Matthew Libatique offers panoramic views of the beautiful and—
—rugged New Mexico settings throughout the picture.
Daniel Craig seems right at home in this milieu as a taciturn fellow who's a man of action but can't remember who he is, or how he wound up stranded on the prairie with a strange, futuristic metal contraption strapped to his wrist. Harrison Ford is also well-cast as a bullying cattleman who locks horns with the stranger, but he's forced to scowl through most of the picture, and his role is suffused with Western clichés. (His no-account son, played by Paul Dano, is an embarrassment to him, while his Indian ward, Adam Beach, represents the son he always wished he had.)
In many ways, Olivia Wilde has the most interesting part in the film, for reasons I shouldn't reveal. Let's just say she's a non-traditional Western leading lady.
Cowboys & Aliens is never boring, and its visual effects are first-rate. Veteran stunt coordinator Terry Leonard has made sure the action and horsemanship are up to par. But much as I wanted to, I never fully embraced the silly premise.
I look at it this way: if you removed the science-fiction material, you'd be left with a decent Western that covers pretty familiar territory. If you just focused on the fantastic angle, you'd have a fairly typical alien-invasion yarn. Because neither one of the two ingredients is exceptional in itself, the melding of the genres is uninspired.
That said, Cowboys & Aliens is certainly watchable, like its two-fisted leading man…but it makes me long for a full-blooded Western instead of this crossbreed.
Tagged Cowboys & AliensDaniel CraigFilm ReviewsHarrison FordOlivia WildeScience Fiction-2Scott Michael RosenbergWestern


The sister of 57 year old deaf and mute nursing home attendant, A.B., contacted the Chicago nursing home abuse attorneys at Lipkin & Higgins to help their case. A.B. had become totally dependent for his care and was moved to a nursing home. After approximately three years at the facility, A.B. developed several bedsores – the most significant and serious of which formed at the base of his spine, just above his buttocks. He received treatment, including a brief hospitalization, and the bed sores healed. Unfortunately, once a person suffers an initial bed sore, they are more likely to have a recurrence if the conditions leading to the first injury are not remedied. Too often, this is the case. It is best to avoid the onset of the bed sores.
According to the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act, facilities must provide residents with care and treatment that is free of neglect and adequately meets their physical and emotional needs. If the nursing care facility fails to give proper care, a serious, ongoing injury may result. If this occurs, the facility can be held liable for damages based upon the plaintiff's injuries, as well as attorneys' fees.
A bed sore does not automatically mean a resident has been neglected. The medical community acknowledges that bed sores are "unavoidable" with certain patients, even with appropriate precautions, e.g. special mattresses, frequent turning and regular cleaning. However, that is not often the case. A.B. developed a serious stage IV bed sore that healed and then recurred when he was not properly fed, turned and cleaned. The recurrence caused him to undergo surgery to treat the sore, which made him temporarily immobile and contributed to bed sores on his heels.
Our personal injury lawyers contended that the nursing home's failure to turn and rotate A.B. every two hours, the accepted standard of care in the community, caused the onset of his sores. In this case, Lipkin & Higgins proved that because of a breakdown in communication between the nurses, certified nursing assistants, licensed practical nurses and other members of the nursing home's staff, this unfortunate gentleman suffered bed sores and consequently thousands of dollars of medical bills.
Unfortunately, A.B. died due to unrelated causes several months later. We pursued the nursing home abuse case on behalf of A.B.'s two sisters and two brothers (he had no children), who shared in the proceeds of the $200,000 settlement.
Case: Family claims nursing home's negligence caused A.B. to develop bed sores.
Result: Lipkin & Higgins nursing home abuse attorneys were successful at proving negligence, resulting in a $200,000 settlement.
The personal injury attorneys of Lipkin & Higgins are experienced in the laws that protect patients. To schedule a consult in our Chicago office or by telephone, contact us today.


Dsp Technologies has come up as the highly regarded organization manufacturing a best array of Servo Voltage Stabilizers, Ups, Inverters and Batteries.
We take this Opportuniity to introduce ourselves as an "ISO 9001-2008 Certified Organization engaged in Manufacturing, Exports and marketing of all types of Power Conditioning Equipments.
All these systemmanufactured, marketed and supported by Servoking are based on the State of the art technologies keeping abreast with the ISO Standards.
We Dsp technologies Services an ISO 9001 certified power conditioning products company engaged in manufacturing & distribution of products under the brand name Dsp technologies. The product line consists of Stabilizers and Servo Stabilizers (Both Air Cooled & Oil Cooled), Solar Products, Uninterrupted Power Supply ( online, line interactive UPS & Dual UPS), Inverters & Batteries.
Apart from being the most experienced player in the field of producing Electrical products, we have the much required expertise to manufacture the most advanced products. With thousands of national and international clients spread across the globe, we are a distinguished brand. Our business ethics are very high. Our invaluable customers rate our products very highly in terms of maximum output and incomparable performance.
Find out which domain suits your business?


Come get me going hot stuff.
I know you're gonna want me! I'm prahlaj19, a nice fair-skinned male with intense stormy eyes. I'm excited for you to be in my baby. I'll make you explode so hard you'll forget how to walk.
In private chats I really let it all out. Let's do it!


Cyprus-based Pitch Black Records is celebrating its 10-year anniversary and the label is celebrating the only way it knows best - by giving!
Download for FREE the label's inaugural release, Diphtheria's debut album ("To Wait For Fire") which was released in March 2008. The download is available through the label's Bandcamp page and this of course means a choice between mp3, flac or wav. Yes, even the CD bonus tracks! No catch, no gimmicks!
Enjoy a 10% discount at the official Pitch Black Records Online Store. This discount is valid on ANY items, including those on clearance and is repeatable for future orders until the end of the year. The coupon code to use at checkout is 'pbr10years'.
Additionally, every order on the official Pitch Black Records Online Store, will receive a free CD picked from all the label's previous releases.
Pitch Black Records also strongly encourages all fans to start using hashtag #PBR10years in all and any of their social media by posting anything related to Pitch Black. This will gain them entry to a draw that will be held at the end of the year with the grand winner taking away an absolutely insane prize while runners up will also win a variety of Pitch Black goodies!
Details regarding the draw will be revealed soon as well as for all other "festivities" so keep up to date with Pitch Black through the label's official website or social media as well as through its iOS and Android apps.


Belleville, Illinois — March 9, 2017 — Protection is an important component of the assistance provided by social workers nationwide, according to Allsup, which joins the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) in celebrating National Social Work Month in March. Allsup is a national provider of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) representation, veterans disability appeal, return to work, exchange plan and Medicare plan selection services.
Social workers use their training and expertise to help individuals and their families access resources and solve problems, especially when facing issues such as a work-disrupting disability, according to Allsup. The 2017 theme for National Social Work Month is "Social Workers Stand Up." It highlights the important roles that social work professionals fulfill to protect and support families, individuals with chronic illness and disabilities, children and students, military personnel and veterans, and many other groups in communities across the U.S.
"Many people don't understand the complexity of roles that social workers handle each day. The diversity of their work—whether in hospitals, schools, businesses or community organizations—places them squarely in the position as safekeepers of individuals who are vulnerable for one reason or another," said Greg Wright, NASW public relations manager.
"NASW members and the larger social work community frequently stand up and step into situations that require advocacy, understanding and guidance for individuals who are in transition in their lives for a variety of reasons," Wright said.
The NASW provides its 130,000 members with information, education and support across a variety of areas of practice. NASW members may have careers as educators, mental health specialists, case managers, educators, researchers, policymakers, community leaders, specialists, consultants and private practitioners. Work settings include schools and businesses, healthcare facilities, military units, charitable organizations and foundations, and private and public agencies.
The NASW will hold a virtual conference with the theme, "Aging Through the Social Work Lens," June 14-15.
Allsup congratulates the National Association of Social Workers on its efforts to raise the visibility of advocacy issues for individuals with disabilities, in particular, and for the millions of clients and patients and their families they interact with on a daily basis. Visit SocialWorkMonth.org for more information.
For more information about Allsup's services for social workers, visit our healthcare professionals web page or call (888) 786-2190. Individuals seeking help to apply for SSDI may visit SSDI.Allsup.com.
The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) in Washington, D.C., is the largest membership organization of professional social workers with 130,000 members. It promotes, develops, and protects the practice of social work and social workers. The NASW also seeks to enhance the well-being of individuals, families, and communities through its advocacy. For more information, visit www.naswdc.org.


January 6, 2015 - Phoenix Contact announces pluggable fuse and knife disconnect terminal blocks for potentially explosive areas (Class I, Zone 2). The 6.2 mm and 8.2 mm terminals meet the requirements of ignition protection standards important for control applications throughout the process industry, particularly within oil and gas and petrochemical applications.
UT 4-MT-EX, UT 4-TG-EX, and UT 6-TG-EX terminal blocks with pluggable P-FU-EX fuse holders for 5 x 20 mm or 6.3 x 32 mm fuse inserts use Phoenix Contact screw-clamp connection technology for ferruled or stranded wires. They are rated for multiple wire connections.
These terminal blocks support the CLIPLINE Complete system of bridging elements, test accessories, and marking. They have a high current-carrying capacity, up to 16 A per UL file XCIB2.E192998.


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- Remote Access Infrastructure for Register Data
About RAIRD
RAIRD FAQ
High Level Description
For a first version of the service, see
microdata.no
The RAIRD Project
There is an increasing demand for access to micro data from researchers and for empirical research based on important registers from public government, see the International handbooks and guidelines that have been developed. (E.g UNECE 2007: Managing statistical Confidentiality & Micro-data Access). For official statistical data this user demand has to be met in a way that is in accordance with the principles of confidentiality for micro data that has been collected for official statistics. These principles of confidentiality are normally legal founded and are common for official statistics in most countries.
In Norwegian official statistics there is wide use of administrative data (e.g. from NAV). Statistics Norway also has close cooperation with administrative registers like the Population Registers and Central Coordinating Register for Legal Entities. The common identifiers (persons and economic units) give SSB the possibility to link information from different sources (administrative and own statistical surveys). Data with identifiers are stored and accumulated over time. This gives theoretically an enormous pool of data and is a rich data source for research. The data model was described by Prof. Svein Nordbotten in the 1960s. The data may be combined and presented as cross section data. Data may also be combined in ways that gives longitudinal data
The main justification for the RAIRD project is to increase dissemination capacity and facilitate better and more efficient access to publicly produced micro data for research purposes. RAIRD will make it possible for researchers to access and merge micro level data while still safeguarding data confidentiality. This will save time-consuming application procedures and significantly reduce the cost of access.
What is RAIRD?
Statistics Norway (SSB) and Norwegian Social Science Data Services (NSD) aims at establishing a national research infrastructure providing easy access to large amounts of rich high-quality statistical data for scientific research while at the same time managing statistical confidentiality and protecting the integrity of the data subjects.
RAIRD is funded by
© RAIRD - Remote Access Infrastructure for Register Data - Statistics Norway / NSD - Norwegian Centre for Research Data - contact@raird.no


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Q: Gradle sync failed: Could not determine artifacts for com.android.support:recyclerview-v7:24.0.0 I am unable to sync my build.gradle the below error is showing

Gradle sync failed: Could not determine artifacts for
  com.android.support:recyclerview-v7:24.0.0: No cached version
  available for offline mode

A: To solve this use this way.

*

*Uncheck  Offline work in Android Studio
go this way
File->Settings->Build, Execution, Deployment->Build tools->Gradle.

*Resync the project, by restarting the Android Studio.

*Once synced, you can check the option again to work offline.

A: Setting->Build,Execution,Deployment->Build tools->gradle, disable offline work, click ok then.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


I've been corresponding with guys on the Hair Transplant Network site and you often read debates whether to go with strip (FUT) surgery or FUE. The FUT advocates apparently don't mind having an 8 inch linear scar across the back of their head... forever. The scar would be very obvious to see if someone decided to cut their hair very short now or later in life. With FUE you have NO discernible scarring to speak of. Dr. Vories used a tiny 0.8mm punch to remove the grafts. The micro-scarring is so small it's literally unnoticeable from 3 feet away. This picture shows the left side of my head just prior to my second surgery. Remember, I had over 5,000 grafts removed in 2012. So...I would expect that 1,750 or more came from this area. The picture on the right shows the typical scar from an FUT surgery. When the hair grows out it should hide the scar but I had no interest in having any scar or having a big slice of my scalp removed and sutured back together. That's why it was an easy decision for me to have FUE surgery.
Hair transplant still remains as much an art form as a science and those who forget this fact in a rush to technology and increased staff numbers, are doomed to disappointment.
Hair Transplant is a cosmetic medical procedure that ensures a bald person with no or less hair follicle has good amount of hair after the procedure. Medical experts recommend the procedure only after thorough analysis and check of the medical condition, as the treatment may or not have side effects, depending on the age and resistance capacity of the person.


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Polyplectropus chin är en nattsländeart som beskrevs av Malicky 1995. Polyplectropus chin ingår i släktet Polyplectropus och familjen fångstnätnattsländor. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Fångstnätnattsländor
chin

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Serving aviation demand, while managing aircraft noise within the airport's environs, is a challenge for all airports. Annoyance by aircraft noise is a very personal issue. One individual can be greatly bothered an aircraft passing overhead, while another individual may hardly notice the same noise.
In the late 1960's, the Federal Government established regulations, (FAR Part 36 and Part 91) which resulted in the phasing out of the older, noisier aircraft from the nation's fleet and replace them with newer, quieter and more fuel efficient aircraft.
The federal government regulates airport operations, airspace, and aircraft.
The Airport is owned and operated by the City of Dallas; however, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulates virtually all aspects of airport operations.
The FAA requires that this Airport be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The City cannot ban any specific type or size of aircraft from operating at the airport, based on noise levels.
The City cannot establish any type of curfew without FAA approval. No airport curfews have been approved by the FAA in many years.
The FAA also manages the airspace nationwide, controls aircraft in flight, establishes flight patterns, and determines minimum flight altitudes for aircraft. Aircraft taking off and landing use flight paths established by the FAA, and generally must achieve and operate at a minimum altitude of 1,000 ft. for aircraft and 500 ft. for helicopters.
The reduction of aircraft noise, through development of quieter engines, has been a key goal of the FAA. Aircraft are classified in different noise "Stages", with Stage 1 being the noisiest and Stage 3 being the quietest. As of Dec. 31, 2015, the FAA prohibits airplanes with a maximum weight of 75,000 pounds or less from operating within the 48 contiguous states in the U.S. unless they meet Stage 3 noise levels. This includes all aircraft currently operating at Dallas Love Field.


Born in New York and raised in Toronto, Hamza Khan is a multi-award winning marketer, accomplished entrepreneur, and dynamic keynote speaker. He's the Managing Director of Student Life Network, Canada's most comprehensive resource hub dedicated to helping and empowering millions of students across the country. He has worked with leading institutions and forward-thinking brands such as the Rotman School of Management, Restaurants Canada, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, Hootsuite, University of Toronto, RBC, and PepsiCo. He made waves as the co-founder of Splash Effect, a boutique digital marketing & creative agency which has helped more than 50+ clients that do good, to do better & as the co-founder of SkillsCamp, a soft skills training company. His newly created non-profit, Resilient 100, aims at building resilience capacity in young change leaders. Through his consulting, writing, teaching and speaking, Hamza empowers people and businesses to transform ideas into reality. He is a faculty member at Seneca College and Ryerson University, teaching courses on digital marketing and social media.From TEDx stages and national conferences to MBA classrooms and Fortune 500 boardrooms, Hamza is regularly invited to deliver keynotes and workshops around the world. He speaks on subjects such as: how to build digital communities, the impact of personal branding, how to master productivity, navigating the multigenerational workforce, building resilience, and more. In 2017, he self-published his first book The Burnout Gamble, which instantly became an Amazon bestseller.


Despite scattered showers Saturday that made driving the circuit at Exhibition Place challenging, defending race winner Josef Newgarden won the pole for Sunday's 32nd Honda Indy Toronto with a lap around the 11-turn, 1.786-mile temporary street course of 59.4956 seconds, which translates into a speed of 108.068 miles an hour.
Scott Dixon, who, like Newgarden, has won this race twice, will start second after turning a lap of 59.6920 seconds. The other four drivers to make it to the final Fast 6 of a knockout qualifying procedure that sees a certain number eliminated after each session were Simon Pagenaud, Will Power, Alexander Rossi and Ryan-Hunter-Reay, who will start the race in that order.
Two of the three Canadians to qualify for Sunday afternoon's headline event, which will go to the post at 3:35 p.m., made it to the Quick 12 but could go no further. James Hinchcliffe of Oakville and Robert Wickens of Guelph will start ninth and tenth, respectively.
The third Canadian, Zachary Claman DeMelo of Montreal, was eliminated early and will start 23rd out of the 23 drivers entered.
All of the drivers in the Fast 6 said two things were responsible for what really are blistering speeds around the CNE grounds – the new car introduced to the series this year that is more aerodynamic than previous Indy cars and the paving of Princes' Blvd., which leads into Turn 1 at the Princes' Gates.
That "main straight" has become bumpier and bumpier over the years and resulted in single-file racing through Turn 1. But now, with the fresh pavement, the road is as smooth as a baby's bottom and several drivers suggested Turn 1 would become a passing zone again.
Wickens and Hinchcliffe were clearly disappointed. Both think of Toronto as being their home race and both have many members of their family and friends on hand to watch them perform. Both were hoping to make it into the Fast 6, which would have qualified them to run for pole.
Hinchcliffe was on a flyer near the end of the Quick 12 session when he lost control and spun out. He didn't do any damage, managing to keep his car from hitting the wall, and recovered to get back up to speed but was unable to put a fast lap together before the session ended.
"I went up a little too high on the curb (of the corner preceding the scene of his spin) and that unsettled the car," he said. "It was my fault, 100 per cent, and I'm sorry but tomorrow is another day and I expect we'll have a good race," said the driver who's finished on the podium twice in the last two years.
Wickens, a veteran of European racing who's a rookie in the series and racing in Toronto for the first time, clearly was having difficulty driving his car. An in-car camera showed his hands and arms working wildly as he attempted to maintain control. It looked like he was trying to ride a bucking bronco.
It was Newgarden's fifth career pole and his fourth of 2018. He drives for Team Penske, as do two of the others in the Fast 6, Power and Pagenaud, and it was that team's 226th pole in IndyCar racing since the team's founder, Roger Penske, entered IndyCar racing in 1968.
Newgarden said Thursday that in coming to Toronto this year, he wanted to beat Hinchcliffe and he said after qualifying that it remains his goal.
"They (Schmidt Peterson Motorsports) looked like they did a good job," he said. "It (qualifying) didn't flow for them how it needed to, but Hinch and Wickens are relatively up there, so they're not in a bad spot. They could very much capitalize on a good race and win, no doubt, so it's going to be tough to beat them.
Brian Robson, the grandson of a Toronto-born 1946 Indy 500 driver, Harold Robson, who works for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports as a tire man who doubles as Hinchcliffe's motor coach driver, said that from his experience, both racers are in good shape.


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Biografia
Studiò medicina presso le università di Jena, Lipsia, Bonn e Strasburgo, dove nel 1875 conseguì il dottorato. Nel 1879 ottenne la sua abilitazione a Berlino con l'aiuto di Adolf Gusserow. Nel 1883 divenne professore di ostetricia e ginecologia presso l'Università di Dorpat e cinque anni dopo si trasferì come professore a Gottinga, dove in tre diverse occasioni servì come preside all'università.

È stato autore di libri di testo influenti su ostetricia e ginecologia. La sua ricerca comprendeva l'uso di l'acqua calda per l'atonia uterina, il trattamento della febbre puerperale, la malattia del feto, le infezioni ombelicali e la laparotomia.

Opere principali

 Die Krankheiten der ersten Lebenstage, 1885.
 Lehrbuch der Geburtshülfe, 1891
 Lehrbuch der Gynäkologie, 1902.

Note

Altri progetti

Collegamenti esterni

Studenti dell'Università di Strasburgo


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Predictive value of somatosensory evoked potentials for awakening from coma* : Critical Care Medicine
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Predictive value of somatosensory evoked potentials for awakening from coma*
Robinson, Lawrence R. MD; Micklesen, Paula J. BS; Tirschwell, David L. MD; Lew, Henry L. MD, PhD
From the Departments of Rehabilitation Medicine (LRR, PJM, HLL) and Neurology (DLT), University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
Address requests for reprints to: Lawrence R. Robinson, MD, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Box 359740, Harborview Medical Center, 325 Ninth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104-2499.
Use of the summary data presented herein should allow clinicians caring for such patients to provide families with a greater degree of certainty regarding outcome than has previously been available.
*See also p. 994.
Critical Care Medicine 31(3):p 960-967, March 2003. | DOI: 10.1097/01.CCM.0000053643.21751.3B
A systematic review of somatosensory evoked potentials performed early after onset of coma, to predict the likelihood of nonawakening. The pooled results were evaluated for rates of awakening, confidence intervals, and the possibility of rare exceptions.
Forty-one articles reporting somatosensory evoked potentials in comatose patients and subsequent outcomes, from 1983 to 2000.
Studies were included if they reported coma etiology, age group, presence or absence of somatosensory evoked potentials, and coma outcomes.
We separated patients into four groups: adults with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, adults with intracranial hemorrhage, adults and adolescents with traumatic brain injury, and children and adolescents with any etiologies. Somatosensory evoked potentials were categorized as normal, abnormal, or bilaterally absent. Outcomes were categorized as persistent vegetative state or death vs. awakening.
For each somatosensory evoked potential result, rates of awakening (95% confidence interval) were calculated: adult hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy: absent 0% (0%–1%), abnormal 22% (17%–26%), normal 52% (48%–56%); adult intracranial hemorrhage: absent 1% (0%–4%), present 38% (27%–48%); adult-teen traumatic brain injury: absent 5% (2%–7%), abnormal 70% (64%–75%), normal 89% (85%–92%); child-teen: absent 7% (4%–10%), abnormal 69% (61%–77%), normal 86% (80%–92%).
Somatosensory evoked potential results predict the likelihood of nonawakening from coma with a high level of certainty. Adults in coma from hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy with absent somatosensory evoked potential responses have <1% chance of awakening.
© 2003 by the Society of Critical Care Medicine and Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
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Critical Care Medicine31(3):960-967, March 2003.
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somatosensory potentials , coma , traumatic brain injury , hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy , prognosis , awakening
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Articles in PubMed by Lawrence R. Robinson, MD
Articles in Google Scholar by Lawrence R. Robinson, MD
Other articles in this journal by Lawrence R. Robinson, MD
Therapeutic Hyperthermia Is Associated With Improved Survival in Afebrile Critically Ill Patients With Sepsis: A Pilot Randomized Trial
Effectiveness of a multidimensional approach for prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia in adult intensive care units from 14 developing countries of four continents: Findings of the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium*
Tight glycemic control increases metabolic distress in traumatic brain injury: A randomized controlled within-subjects trial*
Cognitive and physical rehabilitation of intensive care unit survivors: Results of the RETURN randomized controlled pilot investigation*
Impact of tight glycemic control on cerebral glucose metabolism after severe brain injury: A microdialysis study*
by the Society of Critical Care Medicine and Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.


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Vision Spectra Photonics Media Buyers' Guide
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ai + automation
optics + sensors
cameras + imaging
software + boards
A Robot Untangles Metallic Spaghetti
MARK STEVENS, CAPSEN ROBOTICS
Pittsburgh-based Ace Wire Spring & Form Co. Inc. is a leading maker of custom springs and wire forms, including metal wire that is formed into hooks. The manufacturing process is highly complex, with 10 steps in the hook production process — beginning with bending the wire into 5-cm hooks, passing the hooks as bulk material into bins, and inserting them into a press that forms the ends.
After the hook ends are pressed, they are brought to another station where an operator puts a bead on the flattened end of the hook, and the bead and the hook then get pressed together with a spring. The bead thus holds the spring in place and the spring gets tapered around. The final product is a swivel hook extension spring that can be used as a tensioning spring for fan belt pulleys.
Untangling one hook from a cluttered pile relies on proprietary 3D vision algorithms, which combine classical geometric CAD-matching techniques with modern machine learning methods to achieve high detection accuracy across a wide range of object shapes, sizes, and materials. Courtesy of CapSen Robotics Inc.
A key part of the production process involves moving a single hook out of a cluttered pile — a classic bin picking task that was previously performed manually at Ace. But unlike simpler bin picking applications, it quickly became clear that grasping a hook from a pile can be exceedingly complicated; the hooks are dumped into the bin and often get tangled. Picture a plate of sticky spaghetti, with the robot having to free a single noodle from the rest.
Random bin picking is one of the ultimate challenges in robotics. It requires numerous complex steps, such as capturing the objects with a camera, analyzing them with an image processing system, and understanding their orientation. The position of the object and its gripping points, together with the optimal movement, must be communicated to the robot, which then sends the gripper arm on its way. Since several objects lie randomly on top of each other, a decision must be made about which object is the easiest to grasp — a difficult task considering that many of the parts are only partially visible. If the parts are entangled with each other, it is particularly challenging to grasp a single object, because there are many possible combinations of interlocked objects. Complex rotations of the object are often necessary, as well as putting the part down and picking it up again to grasp it in the right place with the right orientation. It is often not possible to force cluttered objects into oriented, graspable positions by shaking them or by using methods such as magnetic interference.
Machine learning + 3D vision
Untangling one hook from a jumble begins with vision, specifically proprietary 3D vision algorithms. These combine classical geometric CAD-matching techniques with modern machine learning methods to achieve high detection accuracy across a wide range of object shapes, sizes, and materials.
Using innovative hardware, advanced algorithms, and engineering expertise, a robot now picks hooks out of the bins and places them into the press. A key factor in providing the robot with the necessary spatial intelligence to manage the process is CapSen Robotics Inc.'s complete solution, which includes 3D vision software, full motion planning, and control.
Automating this key part of the process has paid dividends. "It's so nice to be able to do what we were trained to do on the floor, instead of putting hooks into the press half of the day," said Mike Valoski, a line supervisor at Ace.
CapSen Robotics' combination of 3D vision and motion planning software can turn any conventional industrial robot arm into a bin picking and machine-tending cell. Courtesy of CapSen Robotics Inc.
The new robotic cell at Ace results in fewer mistakes and less downtime on this part of the production line. Working conditions are safer for employees, who can now concentrate on less mundane tasks. This leads to higher output and better performance and quality.
The company is set to increase production and cut costs as a result. Plans are underway to automate other key parts of their manufacturing using the technology, which was supplied by CapSen.
"We are already looking into other cells along the production line to install this innovative solution," said Richard Froehlich, owner of Ace.
Success in this first part of the auto- mation project took considerable effort because the task involves grasping a single hook from a chaotic pile.
This processing is performed through intelligent use of a GPU, thereby achieving ~100× faster results than would be possible otherwise. The system also processes the next image and plans the path for the next object while the robot is still occupied with the picking and placing of the previous object. This makes the system even faster.
But even the best algorithms are of little help without suitable hardware, especially the right gripper. The Precise PAVS6 was the collaborative robot of choice to manage Ace's first robotic project. Standard, out-of-the-box grippers did not meet the requirements of the project. So, CapSen deployed an SMC parallel gripper motor and customized fingers that could pick up the hooks in two ways.
"We had to try about 20 different finger designs to find the perfect solution and adapt it to the needs — using digital I/O to connect the computer to the inputs and outputs of the gripper and the sensors and magnets there — and ultimately to integrate them into the overall system," CapSen CEO Jared Glover said.
A stable grasp of the hooks is critical for picking and disentangling the parts. In operation, the gripper places the hook on a custom peg fixture. The robot then picks up the hook again with the customized fingers, placing it into a press in the proper orientation each time before dropping it into another bin. "That's why we had to design the fingers to be able to pick up the hooks in two different ways," Glover said.
The precursor to CapSen's efficient and advanced algorithms for processing geometric data was developed by Glover at MIT. Among other things, the software enabled a robot playing ping-pong to quickly and accurately detect the spin of the ping-pong balls, as well as learn how to initiate various ball spins and trajectories. But to achieve the accuracy of detection required for small objects such as the hooks at Ace, CapSen combined its state-of-the-art geometry algorithms with new techniques in machine learning. These proprietary machine learning models can be trained to recognize a new type of object using small data sets of only a few hundred images, versus the hundreds of thousands or even millions used for typical deep learning systems.
"Modern machine learning — which is loosely inspired by parts of the human brain — is very good at training computers directly from data instead of with carefully handcrafted rules and formula," Glover said. "However, computers have always been much better — more accurate and now trillions of times faster — at mathematical computation than humans are."
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The Hevel Group was founded in 2009 and is Russia's largest integrated solar energy company. Its key activities are focused on high-tech manufacturing of solar modules, construction and operation of solar power plants and research in the field of solar energy.
Hevel offers a full range of services, from production of solar modules to the design, construction and operation of photovoltaic systems. We produce 160 MW of heterojunction solar modules per year in Russia. 907,5 MW — total capacity of the Hevel Group's pipeline of commitments for solar power plants.


text:
WHO KILLED HEMANT KARKARE?
Photo of female Hindu 'terrorist' Pragya Thakur (centre in yellow), who was allegedly trained at India's Bhosla Military School. (http://specials.rediff.com/news/2008/nov/04sld1.htm)
On 15 december 2008, at Samar magazine, the editorial was entitled: Who Killed Hemant Karkare?
Among the points made:
1. In India, a thorough professional probe was being carried out into a terror network involving Hindu extremist organisations and people linked to the Indian security services.
The lead investigator was Hemant Karkare, Chief of the Maharasthra Anti-Terrorism Squad, whose office was in the centre of Mumbai.
Karkare and two of his colleagues were killed during the Mumbai attacks of November 2008.
Karkare
2. Hemant Karkare "was unearthing a terror network unlike any that has been seen thus far."
The investigation started by tracing the motorcycle used to plant bombs in Malegaon, North East of Mumbai, in September 2006.
The motorcycle was traced to a Hindu nun called Pragyasingh Thakur.
Reportedly, the man who planted the bombs was Ramji.
Thakur, in a cellphone conversation with Ramji, asked why more people had not been killed.
Lt Col Srikant Purohit of Indian military intelligence
3. Karkare's team discovered that Lt.Col. Srikant Purohit, of Indian military intelligence, had got 60 kg of RDX explosive from government supplies for use in the terrorist attack on the Samjhauta Express train in February 2007.
In this attack, 68 people were killed.
Lashkar-e-Taiba and other Islamist groups had originally been accused of carrying out the attack.
Photo of Samjhauta Express from http://www.arf-asia.org/amana/prod/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=34&Itemid=69
4. The Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi (a Hindu), and BJP Prime Ministerial candidate, L.K.Advani (a Hindu) accused Karkare of being a 'desh drohi' or traitor, "a charge that in India carries a death penalty".
The Shiv Sena (Hindu group) offered legal aid to those accused of the terrorist attack.
On November 26, just before the Mumbai 'terrorist' attack, the police in Pune received a call from an anonymous caller saying in Marathi that Karkare would be killed in a bomb blast within two or three days.
5. Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Vaze was one of those who disliked Karakare.
Vaze, a member of Hindu nationalist group Shiv Sena, together with three colleagues, was charged with murder, criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence and concealment of a dead body in the case of Khwaja Yunus shortly before the terrorist attack.
(Bombay police stage-managed his "encounter", The Milli Gazette.)
Vaze had been dismissed for corruption, extortion and links with the underworld.
6. The death of Karkare.
The earliest reports, presumably from the police, said that Karkare had been killed at the Taj.
In the early hours of the 27th, IBNlive showed footage of a shootout at the Metro cinema , where an unconscious man who looks like Karkare and wearing the same light blue shirt and dark trousers (but without any blood on his shirt or the terrible wounds we saw on his face at his funeral) is being pulled into a car by two youths in saffron shirts.
The commentary reports that there were two vehicles, a Toyota Qualis and Honda City, from which the occupants were firing indiscriminately.
Later we were given two accounts of the killings where the venue is shifted to a deserted lane without cameras or eye-witnesses.
The first account is by 'arrested gunman' Ajmal Amir Kasab.
According to Kasab, just two gunmen, he and Ismail, went to Cama, a government hospital for women and children used mainly by the poor.
Initially, according to the police, Kasab claimed he and Ismail had killed Karkare, Salaskar and Kamte.
Later, in his confession, he claimed that while coming out of the hospital, he and Ismail saw a vehicle stop some distance away. A police officer got out and started firing at them, hitting Kasab on the hand so that he dropped his AK47, but Ismail opened fire on the officers in the car until they stopped firing. There were three bodies in the vehicle, which Ismail removed, and then drove off in it with Kasab.
The other account is by police constable Arun Jadhav.
According to him, Karkare, Salaskar, Kamte, a driver and four police constables including himself were driving down the alley from Victoria Terminus to the back entrance of Cama (barely a ten-minute drive) in their Toyota Qualis to check on injured police officer Sadanand Date when two gunmen emerged from behind trees by the left side of the road and sprayed the vehicle with bullets, killing all its passengers except Jadhav.
They then dragged out the three officers, hijacked the vehicle, drove to Metro junction and then Mantralaya in South Bombay, abandoned it when a tyre burst, and grabbed another car. According to police accounts, they then drove to Girgaum, where Kasab was injured and arrested and his companion killed.
7. Kasab claimed that a band of ten terrorists landed and split up into two's, going to various destinations, he and his companion going to VT.
He said they wanted to blow up the Taj, as in the attack on the Marriott in Islamabad; yet we are told that only 8kg of RDX were found at the Taj, and even that was not used; contrast this with 600kg of RDX and TNT used to blow up the Marriott: could they really have expected to blow up the Taj?
Taj Hotel By Joe Zachs. Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joezach/
8. How did the invaders from the sea get one bomb to go off in Dockyard Road and another in Vile Parle, 25 kilometres away?
9. Kasab said that the terrorists planned to use their hostages as a means of escape, yet there was no attempt at any such negotiations; at other times, he also said they had been instructed to fight to the death.
10. Kasab says he is a labourer from Faridkot near Multan and only studied up to Class IV, but it is reported that he speaks fluent English.
11. Several people have pointed out that the pictures of him in VT show him wearing a saffron wrist-band, a Hindu custom, and police later revealed that he could not recite a single verse from the Koran, which any child growing up in a Muslim family would have been able to do.
12. An article on the soc.culture.jewish group argued that none of the terrorists were Muslims, given their appearance and behaviour (especially their reported consumption of alcohol and drugs), pointing out that they did not need to disguise themselves, since Muslims who look like Muslims are plentiful in Bombay, and would not attract undue attention.
Kasab
13. During his interrogation, Kasab said that he and eight of the operatives had done a reconnaissance trip to Bombay a few months back, pretending to be students and renting a room at Colaba market, which is close to Nariman House.
It is extremely hard for Pakistani nationals to get Indian visas, and they are kept under close surveillance by the police; it is also most unlikely that the Indian immigration authorities would be fooled by forged passports of another country. In that case, the Indian immigration authorities would have visa applications of nine of the terrorists including Kasab, and could match the photographs in them to those of the terrorists: has this been done?
Later, Kasab changed his mind and said that the team who carried out reconnaisance was different from the team who had carried out the attacks.
14. According to witnesses, two gunmen started firing at the mainline terminus in VT at 21:55 on Wednesday night, but at precisely the same time, according to CCTV footage, two gunmen began an assault on the suburban terminus. If the first account is true, there were four gunmen at the station: where did the other two come from, and where did they go?
15. We are shown video footage, claiming to be CCTV but without the timeline of normal CCTV footage, of Kasab and Ismail wandering around the parking lot near the mainline terminus.
This surely cannot be before the shootout, since the station is completely deserted.
And after the shootout, Kasab and Ismail are supposed to have escaped via the footbridge from Platform 1 of the suburban station on the other side of VT: this, again, suggests there were four gunmen.
16. Even if Kasab and Ismail had been shown photographs of Karkare, Salaskar and Kamte before they embarked on their trip, how could they possibly have identified the police officers in a dark alley in the dead of night according to Kasab's first story? According to his later confession, a police officer got out of the vehicle and started firing first, injuring him.
How, then, did Ismail manage to kill the rest by himself?
17. Witnesses in Cama hospital say the terrorists spoke fluent Marathi (the language spoken around Bombay), and this report has been confirmed.
The gunmen appear to have made a beeline for the 6th floor (which was empty) and the terrace.
Was it because they would have a direct view of the lane in which Karkare, Salaskar and Kamte were later supposedly killed?
18. In his first account, the policeman called Jadhav said Karkare was in the second row of the Qualis vehicle, while in the second account he was supposed to be in the front row with Kamte.
In the second account, Salaskar was initially sitting behind the driver, but then asked the driver to slow down and got behind the wheel himself: is it plausible that an experienced encounter specialist would deliberately make himself into a sitting duck like this when they were in hot pursuit of terrorists?
In the first account they were supposed to be going to check up on their injured colleague Sadanand Date, but in the second were supposed to be looking for a red car in which they had been told the gunmen were traveling.
If the report about the red car was a decoy to lure them into an ambush, it is important to know who told them that the terrorists were in a red car.
If the gunmen were firing from the left side, as Jadhav claimed, how was Karkare hit three times in the chest while Jadhav himself got two bullets in his right arm?
In fact, the only vegetation in that part of the lane is on the right side and has wire netting around it; it would be necessary to climb over the netting to hide behind it, and climb over again to come out: impossible under the circumstances.
Witnesses say only two bodies were found at the spot next morning: what happened to the third officer? Who were the three constables killed?
How did two terrorists manage to kill six police personnel, including Karkare and Kamte who he said were armed with AK47s and Salaskar, an encounter specialist, when one terrorist was later captured and the other killed by policemen armed only with two rifles and lathis? Assistant Police Inspector Ombale was killed in that encounter, but his colleagues survived.
19. There was also an intriguing report in DNA on 28 November saying that Anand Raorane, a resident of a building opposite Nariman House, heard sounds of celebration from the terrorists there when the news of Karkare getting killed was flashed on TV: isn't that strange?
The same report quoted a resident of Nariman House and a local shopkeeper who said that the terrorists had purchased large quantities of food and liquor before the attack, suggesting that more than two of them were planning to occupy the place for a long time.
20. Another DNA report, on 2 December, said that sub-inspector Durgude, who had been posted in front of St Xavier's College, between Cama Hospital and the exit point of the back lane onto Mahapalika Road, saw two young men whom he took to be students and called out to warn them that there was firing at Cama. When they ignored him, he approached them, upon which one of them turned an AK47 on him and killed him.
If Kasab and Ismail were there, who was firing inside Cama? Eye-witnesses in St Xavier's saw a man shot and lying on the pavement in front of the college around 12.30 a.m., while about three gunmen stood over him: who was that?
21. Various reports said that two to eight terrorists were captured alive. Now there is only one in police custody: what happened to the other(s)?
22. "A careful scrutiny of all the reports available so far suggests, to this writer anyway, that the killing of Karkare and his colleagues was a premeditated act, executed by a group that had stationed gunmen at various points along the general route between VT and the Metro cinema with a view to maximising their chances of a successful murderous assault.
"We have too much bitter experience of investigations in which innocent people (usually Muslim youth) are rounded up, tortured and even killed, while the real culprits are allowed to go free. Karkare broke with this dismal record, but now he is dead.
"When a person who has been vilified, slandered and threatened with death is killed in suspicious circumstances, it is imperative that a proper investigation should be carried out soon, before too much evidence can be manufactured and/or destroyed.
"If Kasab aka Iman disappears or is assassinated like Lee Harvey Oswald, or is executed, that would be further evidence of a conspiracy."
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It's not just the Israelis who murder kids and ste...
Mick Hume - 'an apologist for abusers'
The Cockroach Party's Eton-educated toff takes ove...
UK Boarding Schools
MASSIVE SWING
Is your money being stolen and sent to Israel?
The lies about the captured Mumbai 'gunman' Ajmal ...
How do Moslems vote?
Unlawful Killing
MURDOCH AND NEWS CORP
Graft and Economic Woes
What links did the Mumbai attackers have to the In...
This is who will pay for Brown's debt binge
Mumbai, the Hoax Phone Call, La Belle Disco
Time to buy good quality shares?
THE CIA'S STRATEGY OF TENSION IN GREECE
MUMBAI LIES
Mumbai, Shiv Sena and Mir Jafar
US and UK links to the terrorists in India and Pak...
China's Achilles' Heel
The CIA in Greece
The Economy - What to expect
An India-Pakistan war could be like the Iran-Iraq ...
Mumbai and the Hindu Fascists who appear to run In...
Anglo-American-Israeli plans for Pakistan and beyo...
Mumbai and the Anglo-American-Mossad-RSS Nexus
Is Pakistan to Blame?
The CIA Plan for Pakistan?
MUMBAI ATTACKS AND THE SECURITY SERVICES
The Harper Dictatorship
De Menezes - Unlawful killing, your legal right to...
SLAVE LABOUR USED BY FASCIST COMPANIES?
Pain fuels success
Consciousness Outside the Body?
Edward VIII and Relationships
How Did The Thai Protesters Manage It?
Indonesia's Economy
MUMBAI AND GLADIO
List of victims of the November 2008 Mumbai attack...
Israel's alliances with fascists
Wayne Madsen sees Dawood Ibrahim link to Mumbai At...
De Menezes was unlawfully killed?
The Mumbai Attacks and the BJP and Israel
CIA BEHIND ATTEMPTS TO TOPPLE THAI GOVERNMENT?
B Raman; Bombay Attacks; Omar Sheikh


There are all sorts of prayers, and all sorts of people who pray.
Whatever their content and whatever emotions attach to them, we can divide all prayers broadly into two categories: personal or corporate.
In the real world the writer's name was not Luka, it was Suzanne. She was majoring in English Lit. at Barnard College and performing regularly in Greenwich Village when she penned that hit, and the little boy she wrote about was neither abused nor even named Luka.
The origins of the circumcision ritual are deeply buried in human history. The act has come to be associated primarily with Judaism, but there is plenty of evidence it did not begin there.
Infogalactic says, "Circumcision is the world's oldest planned surgical procedure." The earliest historical record of the ritual dates from about 2400 B.C. in Egypt, several hundred years before God introduced Abram to it.
The importance of the Genesis account lies not in it being some kind of "first" in human history — it almost surely wasn't — but rather in the establishment of God's covenant with Abram and his seed; a covenant of which circumcision is merely a token or symbol.
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation," Thoreau famously wrote.
I hate to say it, but a great number of modern Christians could be described in just that way. Their lives are quietly unhappy — unhappy to the point of deep frustration, and even depression. Having been told that the Christian life should be abundant, joyful, meaningful and characterized by freedom, they find themselves living in a way that is dull, tired, seemingly pointless and characterized by a bunch of "have to's" — when they stop to characterize it at all.
Not every popular song is about you or me.
Say what? What does that even mean? But Bohemian Rhapsody was hugely popular and remains a rock classic, though nobody who's ever heard it has the slightest idea what it's about.
It's That Man Again was the most successful British radio comedy of the WWII era. One of its more famous sketches featured a pair of handymen named Claude and Cecil who were so excessively deferential they never managed to get anything done. Cecil would say, "After you, Claude," and Claude would reply, "After you, Cecil," and that would pretty much be the end of that.
The writer of the Daily Reflection at The High Calling is having his own "Claude and Cecil" moment.
Labels: Ephesians / John MacArthur / Submission / What Does Your Proof Text Prove?
Last week's Too Hot to Handle discussion with IC on the subject of collective identity opened a bulging can of worms, and we could hardly avoid leaving a few of those slimy stragglers wriggling around in the bottom of the rowboat.
One such not-entirely-explored issue is the importance of caring for immediate and extended family, a responsibility that in the New Testament is committed to both Christian men and women.
It's also a responsibility Western governments have in the not-too-distant past assumed on our behalf — not entirely, but extensively.
It takes courage to stand up and pray in public if you're shy by nature, but not that much courage; maybe only a little more than it takes to spill your guts on Facebook or Twitter. Judging by the number of people doing that, it must feel pretty good. And of course if you're the type of person who loves to be the centre of attention, it doesn't take any courage at all to pray in public. It's like swimming to a duck.
Amen. In fact, he's so holy that in the Old Testament, those closest to God tended to pay a price for their proximity.
Tom: How much Jordan Peterson have you been watching lately, IC?
Immanuel Can: A fair bit, actually. The guy's an interesting cat.
Tom: Good. I was afraid I'd have to come up with something original. :) Have you seen him express his thoughts on identity politics?
IC: Yes. It seems to me he's very strong on the view that one should sort oneself and one's own life and relationships out first, before getting involved in any sort of collective. So he's saying to our generation of young people, Don't focus on complaining about how unfair the world is, or on mobilizing others to do likewise, unless you're also prepared to address the obvious areas of need for improvement in your own life. Makes sense.
Back in the 1970s, the cool (or possibly groovy or far out) thing to do was to drop out of the system, tune in to drugs, and get with "the scene". Whether it was to a flophouse in Soho or a park bench in Paris, young people went wandering.
When their bewildered parents pressed them for the logic of this sort of wild fit of lifestyle experimentation, the stock answer from the younger generation was this: "Sorry, Mom … Dad … I've got to find myself".
Three apparently similar situations. Three completely different responses: You SHOULD, You don't NEED to and You absolutely must NOT under any circumstances. Yet Paul had not made some sudden grand discovery about the circumcision question right in the middle of his life and ministry. And he certainly was neither inconsistent nor hypocritical.
Elders haven't got the easiest job in the world.
The average local church requires answers to a hundred different questions in the course of a year. Some are of an obvious and urgent spiritual nature. Others appear innocuous and procedural, though even these may be chock-a-block with hidden spiritual landmines.
Sure, deacons handle many of the day-to-day administrative details in gatherings where New Testament principles of operation are given priority, but that still leaves an awful lot of territory to be talked over, prayed through and hashed out between busy men just trying to do the best possible job of shepherding the people of God, often while caring for their own families and leading busy lives.
The most careful, prayerful, diligent and confident leader must still occasionally ask himself "Are we getting this right?" Or if he doesn't, he should.
Christians in the habit of proof-texting should consider examining the context of their favorite "gotcha" verses once in a while. It's a healthy exercise, useful in maintaining doctrinal balance.
Determinists, for instance, would benefit immensely from making context-scrutiny a daily practice. Most of the great passages they like to cite on the subject of God's sovereignty have overtures to human responsibility at their core.
Let me grab a couple of favorites from The Calvinist Corner, because nobody can make the point better.
"You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord," says the book of Leviticus. Those last four words are not unrelated, as we will shortly see.
In Leviticus, the neighbor in question is indisputably a fellow Israelite, a blood relative: "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself." With the parable of the Good Samaritan, the definition of "neighbor" would shortly extend itself to moral geography a Jewish legalist might not strictly consider his own stomping grounds, but that's another story. It isn't part of the Sermon on the Mount.
We could import it, of course, but Jesus didn't.
The Good Samaritan is Luke's tale to tell. Matthew, who is all about the Lord's Jewish audience, doesn't touch it.
When I pick up a Bible and try to understand a particular verse or passage, I am at a slight disadvantage compared to the writer's original audience.
"Slight?" you might well ask, taking out your logical 2x4 and preparing to give me a smart tap on the frontal lobe, hopefully in the interest of bringing me to my senses.
"How can you possibly call the disadvantage of living thousands of years after the original writer slight? Sure, you can read the words that the author penned, assuming there has been no significant textual corruption along the way, but you have no idea what was in the author's mind. You're not a Hebrew, and you didn't live in his day. You don't know the cultural baggage with which his language was freighted. You didn't have his experiences. You don't know Greek idioms or how they came about.
Have you heard of the "Pence Rule"? The term comes from a 2002 interview of current American Vice-President Mike Pence in which he confirmed that he never eats alone with a woman other than his wife.
Tom: This idea didn't originate with VP Pence. It has Christian roots. Way back in 1948, Billy Graham and team members George Beverly Shea, Cliff Barrows and Grady Wilson agreed to something called the "Modesto Manifesto", which obligated each man on the Graham team to never be alone with a woman other than his wife.
Naturally, today's media find the Pence Rule scandalous.
Not my favourite band, for sure — but I do admire their theology.
So often we begin by thinking that evil, if it exists at all, is a thing "out there". It's in the world somewhere, not inside me. Me, I'm pretty good. Not perfect, maybe. But not so bad that God can't overlook the difference (that is, if he's really loving) and accept me as spot-on.
Then we live for a bit.


text:
The exchange rate regime
The exchange rate regime is a system of formation of ratios of the exchange rate of the national currency in relation to the foreign one. The role that the exchange rate plays in the functioning of the economic system, as well as its place in the system of macroeconomic regulation measures, largely depends on which exchange rate regime the state chooses, in particular, how much the state is ready to influence the formation of the exchange rate.
If the state does not intervene at all, the exchange rate is said to be free-floating. If at certain moments the central bank of the country turns on the mechanisms of influence, the rate is called managed floating, and if the state sets the rate rigidly, it is called fixed.
The floating exchange rate is formed under the influence of supply and demand for the currency. The Central Bank does not fix the target exchange rate of the national currency or the range of fluctuations. However, when the exchange rate jumps sharply, for example, against the backdrop of political news, the central bank can buy or sell currency on the domestic market to smooth out these fluctuations.
A managed floating exchange rate is partially controlled by the central bank, for example, a currency band is established. If the rate goes beyond the corridor, then the central bank begins to intervene - to buy or sell foreign currency.
The fixed exchange rate is tightly controlled by the central bank. Under this regime, the exchange rate of the national currency is tied to a foreign currency or a currency basket in a certain ratio.