November 13, 2018 03:05 ET | Source: Victory Square Technologies Inc.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a move aimed at accelerating innovation, promoting quality assurance, and driving continuous improvement in the Canadian cannabis industry, Cannabis Wise, Inc., a portfolio company of Victory Square Technologies Inc. ("Victory Square" or the "Company") (CSE:VST) (OTC:VSQTF) (FWB:6F6) is launching Canada's first national certification program.
The newly-established National Cannabis Certification Program is driven by a product review panel and consumer guidance group responsible for assigning the ''Cannabis Wise" seal of approval for products grown across Canada. The seal lets Canadian consumers know with certainty that products are produced to the highest grade of quality and meet the strictest Health Canada safety standards.
Designed to complement the existing regulatory system, Cannabis Wise certification is a voluntary program that promotes quality assurance and drives continuous improvement in the cannabis industry. It will help producers set themselves and their products apart on the strength of the higher standards upheld by the National Cannabis Certification Program.
Program standards include defining 'craft' or 'high quality' cannabis with specific scientifically determined markers, establishing clear quality parameters and providing the public with non-biased quality assessment reports.
Rasode believes that customers are willing to pay more for products they believe best meet their needs, but it takes effort and resources to create that much sought-after customer loyalty.
Applicants to the National Cannabis Certification Program will provide batch specific terpene, cannabinoid and moisture content analysis from a Health Canada certified laboratory. All products are reviewed by a panel of experts who remain anonymous.
Once a sample has passed analytical testing and basic visual/olfactory analysis, it will be blind taste tested by at least one member of the Cannabis Wise tasting panel. Products that pass eligibility standards and tastings will be given one of three Cannabis Wise certifications.
Cannabis Wise has developed a product quality certification program. We've formed a product review panel and consumer guidance group responsible for assigning the 'Cannabis Wise' seal of approval. Designed to complement the existing regulatory federal system, Cannabis Wise product certification indicates to the public which specific flowers have been grown, processed and cured to meet the traditional quality standards expected by the experienced consumer.
To learn more about the Cannabis Wise program and the application process, visit www.cannabiswise.com.


The Vredefort area has some interesting large old gold mines and we're heading to one of them on the 30th of September to survey it.
Previously we mapped 460 meters of mine passages, but there are five vertical shafts into the cave and two shafts going down into lower levels which need to be explored and mapped.
There are also another 8 possible entrances to other mines which haven't been looked at all.
If you're keen on surveying or want to learn how, this is a perfect trip for you!
Members only. Bring SRT gear.
No braai afterwards, but probably a drink or two at the inn.
Let me know if you are joining at 083 212 0817.


Jordanian officials say that Abdullah, told by President Bush at the White House last summer that he would not be dissuaded from military action to topple Mr. Hussein, chose to limit Jordan's losses. "The king asked the president, 'Can I change your mind?' and the president told him bluntly, 'No,' " one Jordanian official said. "From that point on, we began preparing for war, and trying to minimize the political and economic costs."
Do you see the word "disarmament" in there?
Published on March 10, 2003 11:13 AM.


The surrender of two small French forces at Bailen sent shockwaves throughout the French empire.
The 23,000 men, under the overall command of General Dupont, found themselves separated and trapped without water facing 30,000 Spaniards.
The French made five sorties to break out on 19 May, but without success and, after two days of talks, agreed to throw down their arms.
General Dupont was jailed on his return to France, but was restored to the military by the Bourbons.


text:
Verona és una concentració de població designada pel cens dels Estats Units a l'estat de Virgínia. Segons el cens del 2000 tenia una població de 3.638 habitants.

Demografia
Segons el cens del 2000, Verona tenia 3.638 habitants, 1.509 habitatges, i 1.030 famílies. La densitat de població era de 199,8 habitants per km².

Dels 1.509 habitatges en un 32% hi vivien nens de menys de 18 anys, en un 52% hi vivien parelles casades, en un 11,3% dones solteres, i en un 31,7% no eren unitats familiars. En el 27,3% dels habitatges hi vivien persones soles el 8,9% de les quals corresponia a persones de 65 anys o més que vivien soles. El nombre mitjà de persones vivint en cada habitatge era de 2,41 i el nombre mitjà de persones que vivien en cada família era de 2,9.

Per edats la població es repartia de la següent manera: un 24,5% tenia menys de 18 anys, un 8% entre 18 i 24, un 29,2% entre 25 i 44, un 26,6% de 45 a 60 i un 11,7% 65 anys o més.

L'edat mediana era de 38 anys. Per cada 100 dones de 18 o més anys hi havia 92,7 homes.

La renda mediana per habitatge era de 36.263 $ i la renda mediana per família de 40.773 $. Els homes tenien una renda mediana de 29.053 $ mentre que les dones 21.812 $. La renda per capita de la població era de 17.630 $. Entorn de l'1,8% de les famílies i el 2% de la població estaven per davall del llindar de pobresa.

Referències

Entitats de població de Virgínia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Two years ago, researchers studying acupuncture in mice reported that needle stimulation relieves pain by eliciting adenosine release and adenosine receptor activation (Goldman et al., 2010). Now, Mark Zylka and Julie Hurt at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, US, have discovered another way to boost peripheral adenosine levels and achieve analgesia: injection of the adenosine-producing enzyme prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) at an acupuncture point, a strategy they dub "PAPupuncture." The study, published online April 23 in Molecular Pain, shows that PAP application in mice produces local analgesia that mimics the effects of acupuncture but lasts far longer.
Prostatic acid phosphatase has long been examined in the context of prostate cancer, and secreted PAP serves as a marker for the disease. But recent studies revealed that a transmembrane form of the protein is expressed in many tissues, including dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons. Zylka's work has established that PAP acts as an ectonucleotidase to convert extracellular adenosine monophosphate (AMP) into adenosine, which suppresses pain by activating adenosine A1 receptors (A1R) on DRG nerve terminals or postsynaptic neurons in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord. Injecting the protein into the spinal cord produces days-long analgesia in mouse models of inflammatory and nerve injury-induced pain (see Zylka et al., 2008, and subsequent studies).
Adenosine, acting through A1R, has transient anti-nociceptive effects in the periphery, too. The study that implicated adenosine in acupuncture-induced analgesia also suggested that AMP dephosphorylation by endogenous enzymes including PAP might be the rate-limiting step for adenosine production. That finding, Hurt said, "opened a window of opportunity" to use the protein for localized pain relief.
To test peripheral PAP injection, Hurt and Zylka chose one of the locations used by acupuncturists—specifically, the Weizhong point in the popliteal fossa, a richly innervated area behind the knee that is also a common site for delivery of local anesthetics. In healthy mice, a single injection of human PAP in one knee decreased sensitivity to painful heat applied to the same-side paw. The effect lasted three days—much longer than the hour-long relief previously observed with acupuncture, and similar in duration to intraspinal PAP injection. PAPupuncture had no effect on sensitivity to mechanical pain, however. Additional experiments indicated that PAP-mediated anti-nociception required A1R and downstream phospholipase C signaling.
The investigators went on to examine PAPupuncture in persistent pain models. In the complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA)-induced inflammation model, injecting PAP into the Weizhong point reversed heat hypersensitivity and decreased mechanical sensitivity—an effect that lasted for three days. The treatment had similar effects on pain following spared nerve injury.
Importantly, PAP's potential was not exhausted after three days. In healthy mice, a second injection extended the reduction in thermal sensitivity by several days, and a single, high-dose treatment produced a six-day effect.
Those findings led Hurt and her coworkers to dream of a scenario where weekly PAPupuncture visits would keep at bay chronic pain from conditions such as arthritis. The question remains whether PAP injection can relieve pain in people, and, if so, for how long. To pursue those questions, Hurt and Zylka have developed an expression system for generating large amounts of human PAP (Hurt et al., 2012). Their university has licensed the use of PAP for pain treatment to a local biotechnology company.
Meanwhile, Hurt is working to learn more about how, and where, peripherally injected PAP carries out its pain-relieving effects. If the protein stays near the injection site, that might eliminate systemic side effects. Indeed, "We believe that it is staying in the fossa because we observe very localized effects; when we measured contralateral effects, we saw nothing," Hurt said.
Researchers are developing adenosine receptor agonists as pain relievers (for a review, see Zylka, 2011). But the findings with PAP suggest that a biological therapeutic may also be a good option for tapping into adenosine anti-nociceptive pathways.
Image: Cross-section of the leg of a mouse showing the Weizhong acupuncture point, where PAP was injected. Nerves (n), blood vessels (b), and muscle (m) are labeled. Credit: Hurt and Zylka, 2012.
PAPupuncture has localized and long-lasting antinociceptive effects in mouse models of acute and chronic pain.
Mol Pain. 2012; 8:28. Epub 2012 Apr 23.
This is an exciting finding.
This is an exciting finding. The effect and the duration of analgesia/anti-nociceptive effects are amazing. Local injection into an "acupoint" is also a nice way to minimize side effects. It is unclear whether the injection of a large amount of protein will trigger an immune response. It is also unclear whether this method will be cost effective.


So, maybe you have some money leftover during this, the video game monsoon season. If you do, Amazon wants a word with you. The online shopping portal's stuffed their famous Gold Boxes full of reduced-price video games today, with seven titles up for grabs over 24 hours. Portable classic Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and the beefed-up No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise are already gone and FIFA 12 is currently up for grabs for the low, low price of $40. You'll have to come back to the site repeatedly to see what the rest of the games are, but it's a good chance to fill out any holes in your back catalogue.


text:
// Code generated by go-swagger; DO NOT EDIT.

package cluster

// This file was generated by the swagger tool.
// Editing this file might prove futile when you re-run the swagger generate command

import (
	"fmt"
	"io"

	"github.com/go-openapi/runtime"
	"github.com/go-openapi/strfmt"

	"github.com/netapp/trident/storage_drivers/ontap/api/rest/models"
)

// MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateReader is a Reader for the MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreate structure.
type MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateReader struct {
	formats strfmt.Registry
}

// ReadResponse reads a server response into the received o.
func (o *MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateReader) ReadResponse(response runtime.ClientResponse, consumer runtime.Consumer) (interface{}, error) {
	switch response.Code() {
	case 202:
		result := NewMetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateAccepted()
		if err := result.readResponse(response, consumer, o.formats); err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}
		return result, nil
	default:
		result := NewMetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateDefault(response.Code())
		if err := result.readResponse(response, consumer, o.formats); err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}
		if response.Code()/100 == 2 {
			return result, nil
		}
		return nil, result
	}
}

// NewMetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateAccepted creates a MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateAccepted with default headers values
func NewMetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateAccepted() *MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateAccepted {
	return &MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateAccepted{}
}

/*
MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateAccepted describes a response with status code 202, with default header values.

Accepted
*/
type MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateAccepted struct {
	Payload *models.JobLinkResponse
}

// IsSuccess returns true when this metrocluster diagnostics create accepted response has a 2xx status code
func (o *MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateAccepted) IsSuccess() bool {
	return true
}

// IsRedirect returns true when this metrocluster diagnostics create accepted response has a 3xx status code
func (o *MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateAccepted) IsRedirect() bool {
	return false
}

// IsClientError returns true when this metrocluster diagnostics create accepted response has a 4xx status code
func (o *MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateAccepted) IsClientError() bool {
	return false
}

// IsServerError returns true when this metrocluster diagnostics create accepted response has a 5xx status code
func (o *MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateAccepted) IsServerError() bool {
	return false
}

// IsCode returns true when this metrocluster diagnostics create accepted response a status code equal to that given
func (o *MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateAccepted) IsCode(code int) bool {
	return code == 202
}

func (o *MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateAccepted) Error() string {
	return fmt.Sprintf("[POST /cluster/metrocluster/diagnostics][%d] metroclusterDiagnosticsCreateAccepted  %+v", 202, o.Payload)
}

func (o *MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateAccepted) String() string {
	return fmt.Sprintf("[POST /cluster/metrocluster/diagnostics][%d] metroclusterDiagnosticsCreateAccepted  %+v", 202, o.Payload)
}

func (o *MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateAccepted) GetPayload() *models.JobLinkResponse {
	return o.Payload
}

func (o *MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateAccepted) readResponse(response runtime.ClientResponse, consumer runtime.Consumer, formats strfmt.Registry) error {

	o.Payload = new(models.JobLinkResponse)

	// response payload
	if err := consumer.Consume(response.Body(), o.Payload); err != nil && err != io.EOF {
		return err
	}

	return nil
}

// NewMetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateDefault creates a MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateDefault with default headers values
func NewMetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateDefault(code int) *MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateDefault {
	return &MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateDefault{
		_statusCode: code,
	}
}

/*
	MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateDefault describes a response with status code -1, with default header values.

	ONTAP Error Response Codes

| Error Code | Description |
| ---------- | ----------- |
| 2425734 | An internal error occurred. Wait a few minutes, and try the operation again. For further assistance, contact technical support. |
| 2427132 | MetroCluster is not configured on this cluster. |
| 2432833 | Operation is already running. |
| 2432852 | MetroCluster diagnostics start |
| 2432853 | MetroCluster diagnostics job scheduled |
| 2432854 | MetroCluster diagnostics complete |
| 2432855 | MetroCluster diagnostics operation failed. Use the REST API GET method on "/api/cluster/metrocluster/operations?type=check&fields=*" for more information. |
*/
type MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateDefault struct {
	_statusCode int
}

// Code gets the status code for the metrocluster diagnostics create default response
func (o *MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateDefault) Code() int {
	return o._statusCode
}

// IsSuccess returns true when this metrocluster diagnostics create default response has a 2xx status code
func (o *MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateDefault) IsSuccess() bool {
	return o._statusCode/100 == 2
}

// IsRedirect returns true when this metrocluster diagnostics create default response has a 3xx status code
func (o *MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateDefault) IsRedirect() bool {
	return o._statusCode/100 == 3
}

// IsClientError returns true when this metrocluster diagnostics create default response has a 4xx status code
func (o *MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateDefault) IsClientError() bool {
	return o._statusCode/100 == 4
}

// IsServerError returns true when this metrocluster diagnostics create default response has a 5xx status code
func (o *MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateDefault) IsServerError() bool {
	return o._statusCode/100 == 5
}

// IsCode returns true when this metrocluster diagnostics create default response a status code equal to that given
func (o *MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateDefault) IsCode(code int) bool {
	return o._statusCode == code
}

func (o *MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateDefault) Error() string {
	return fmt.Sprintf("[POST /cluster/metrocluster/diagnostics][%d] metrocluster_diagnostics_create default ", o._statusCode)
}

func (o *MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateDefault) String() string {
	return fmt.Sprintf("[POST /cluster/metrocluster/diagnostics][%d] metrocluster_diagnostics_create default ", o._statusCode)
}

func (o *MetroclusterDiagnosticsCreateDefault) readResponse(response runtime.ClientResponse, consumer runtime.Consumer, formats strfmt.Registry) error {

	return nil
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Cozy one bedroom log cabin all carpeted with nice deck.
Dining area and living room with futon sleeper sofa.
One bathroom & one bedroom with a queen bed.
Rates listed are for up to 4 persons. 50% deposit is required to hold a reservation and the remaining 50% is due 60 days prior to arrival date.
New for 2015: Nestled in the woods with a lake view through the trees overlooking a cove.
Central A/C and an electric fireplace in living room.
Large windows with living room located in front of glass sliding door onto deck and overlooking woods and lake.
Vaulted ceilings with open floor plan with great room with kitchen, dining room and living room.
Spacious deck with deck furniture.
One bedroom has a Queen and two bonus beds in the sleeping loft.
Hide-a-bed couch in living room.
Charcoal Grill. Picnic Table & fire ring. We supply your first bundle of firewood!
Outstanding lofty panoramic views of the lake and islands.
Large windows, lay in bed and see the lake, fireplace and TV at the same time.
Deck with gas grill at entrance and 2nd deck off bedroom.
Large bath with soaking tub and separate shower.
Dining/living room with stone fireplace.
One Bedroom with a Queen Bed (and space for a second bed, crib or air-mattress).
The second sleeping space has two single beds in a semi-private corner of the Loft.


text:
Does memorial honor the men or the cause?
Posted in In the news, Personal, tagged Confederate, not work on June 26, 2015| Leave a Comment »
The Confederate memorial in downtown Lenoir was erected in May 1910, though originally it sat at the middle of the intersection of Main Street and West Avenue. It was paid for by the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
No version of the Confederate flag appears on the memorial obelisk that the United Daughters of the Confederacy paid to have erected at downtown Lenoir's main intersection in May 1910.
In many ways, it resembles a cemetery memorial. Near the top on the side facing the intersection are the letters CSA, for Confederate States of America, above a bas relief image of a cloth or shroud similar to depictions on many decorative headstones from the early 20th century, and on either side are 1861 and 1865, the short-lived nation's year of birth and year of death.
On the front of the base of the memorial are four lines from Theodore O'Hara's poem "Bivouac of the Dead," written in 1847 in honor of troops killed in the U.S. war with Mexico. Excerpts from that poem appear on both Union and Confederate memorials around the nation, as well as throughout Arlington National Cemetery. Below that it says, "In honor of the men who wore gray."
On the back of the base are listed the regiments where men from Caldwell County served, and below that is "Erected by the Vance Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy of Caldwell County, N.C. May 1910" — the only place where either "Confederate" or "Confederacy" appears.
The obelisk is surrounded by a flat lawn and hidden a bit from West Avenue by a row of crape myrtles. It is a small but park-like setting, quiet, spartan and even a bit funereal.
Directly south of that is Lenoir's veterans memorial, which has a larger obelisk, an eternal flame within a sleek, dark pyramid, the flags of all services with a plaque at the base of each, the state and U.S. flags, and pavers with individual names. This corner commands attention, calling passersby to investigate, and yet it is solumn and stately. It is not just a memorial marker but a tribute to all the generations who helped ensure the survival of the United States of America.
In that context, the Confederate memorial had always struck me as a historical marker honoring the dead, not celebrating the cause for which they fought. Whatever their beliefs or motivation, these were fathers, sons, brothers and neighbors. They had lives before the battlefield, and that is the loss the monument mourns.
But on Thursday a woman from somewhere else in North Carolina — if she gave her name and where she was, it was so briefly that it never registered, but her accent was familiar — asking whether the News-Topic had reported on whether Lenoir was going to dismantle and remove what she called the city's "Confederate statue."
I surmised she meant that, in light of the sharp shift of attitudes against the Confederate battle flag since the shootings in Charleston, S.C., all things Confederate may be considered suspect.
I told her that no one to my knowledge had raised the suggestion, that since there is no depiction of the "Stars and Bars" on the monument I had not made a connection with the flag controversy, and that the monument is an obelisk, not a statue depicting a soldier defiantly standing ready to fight, as exist in many other towns.
She then insisted that, yes, the memorial actually is connected to the controversy "because the word Confederate is on it," and she launched into an explanation of why, "soon," people "all across the state" will be calling for such monuments to be removed. Without pausing, she said she would put my response "in my paper. Thank you," and hung up.
I reeled a bit. "My paper"? Had I just been the victim of drive-by advocacy journalism? Or was she writing a research paper on the topic as an academic exercise?
I suppose I'll find out sooner or later, Google help me.
Report on colleges is clear as mud
Posted in In the news, tagged press releases, reporting on June 5, 2015| Leave a Comment »
The Brookings Institution thinks the local community college where I live is doing a great job.
At least I think it does.
But it's really hard to tell.
Brookings – a Washington, D.C., think tank – evaluated data from hundreds of colleges and universities across the country and came up with Beyond College Rankings, a report only a statistician could love, as hinted at by the secondary headline of the report, "A Value-Added Approach to Assessing Two- and Four-Year Schools."
One thing I have always been proud of as a reporter and editor is my ability to read any report, no matter how dense, understand it and translate the main points into plain English for the average reader.
But Brookings has stumped me.
I understand what "value-added" is. That part the report does well enough to explain: "the difference between actual alumni outcomes (like salaries) and the outcomes one would expect given a student's characteristics and the type of institution."
In other words, Brookings decided to look into how well graduates of different schools do, compare that to the cost, and see whether the students are getting a good deal. Fair enough.
But this is where things start to fly apart.
Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute earned a score of 92 on its graduates' mid-career earnings, tied for 21st best in the country and the best of all colleges and universities in North Carolina. Awesome, right? Brookings explains that the number means CCC&TI students go on to earn about 10 percent more in the middle of their careers than would be expected based on their characteristics – including their "academic preparation," ethnicity and family income – and the college's location and level of degrees offered.
But the college scored only 35 for its graduates' "occupational earning power," the average salary of graduates as reported by the website LinkedIn.com, and only 24 for the percentage of graduates repaying their student loans.
So graduates' mid-career earnings are more than expected, but their average salary is less than expected, and the percentage of students who fail to repay their loans is much worse than expected?
What does all that mean? The college's graduates earn more but don't really?
I downloaded the Excel spreadsheet to see whether I could make better sense of that than I could of the summary on the Brookings website.
Big mistake.
I've never seen a spreadsheet like it. If you were to try to print the spreadsheet at a normal type size, just the width of each line would go clear across the average office desk and spill down to the floor. With the spreadsheet up on my computer screen, I kept scrolling right, scrolling right, scrolling right, and there were ever more fields. Scores and scores and scores, numbers, percentages, factors, and then I finally hit some fields that had the word "RANK" in the title. But there were so many ranks. Brookings measured and ranked everything, it seemed. And the rankings were all over the map. Good, bad, high, low.
Lex Menz, the reporter who covers CCC&TI, wants to write a story about the Brookings report, but it's hard to know where to start when you don't understand what you're writing about. It's hard even to come up with questions to help you figure it out.
She called Edward Terry, CCC&TI's public information officer. He couldn't translate the report either.
She hopes to interview someone at Brookings who can translate it.
It's clear, especially from looking at the data in spreadsheet form, that a tremendous amount of work went into this study and the report. It's equally clear that the report's findings seem likely to be wasted if no one can drill through the numbers and put them into plain English.
The clearest sentence in the Brookings report may be this: "The choice of whether and where to attend college is among the most important investment decisions individuals and families make, yet people know little about how institutions of higher learning compare along important dimensions of quality."
And if those people read this report, they will still know little.
Fire holds beauty, horror at once
Posted in Personal, tagged not work, small-town journalism on June 1, 2015| 1 Comment »
I didn't stay to watch the old Smith family home at the corner of Abington Road and Harper Avenue burn all the way to the ground.
But it was long enough to be reminded that in fire, beauty and horror are siblings.
This is especially true when an old house like this one burns.
The house was a two-story, brick American Foursquare, an architectural style that was especially popular in the early 20th century. It was built in the 1930s. A firefighter on the scene said some of the interior walls and ceilings were beadboard.
I would imagine the interior woodwork remained a sight to behold right up to when the flames touched it, even if the view out the front door had changed significantly since the 1930s, where what must have once been a quiet, two-lane road now is a four-lane bypass.
As someone put it in an understated comment on a Facebook photo of the fire, the house looked like it had a lot of potential.
Unfortunately, the lot it sits on also has a lot of potential, but not for single-family uses such as that house.
The developers who bought it plan to begin work in July to build a three-story apartment complex intended for low-income adults over 55. The house's footprint is where one end of the L-shaped building will be, said Roy Helm, president of Wesley Community Development, a Methodist-based company that is planning the apartments together with the Western North Carolina Housing Partnership.
The developers let firefighters use the house for training. Battalion Chief Ken Nelson of the Lenoir Fire Department said that nine teams of firefighters from Lenoir, Hudson and Gamewell each had at least two training sessions finding and fighting fires that were set inside the house.
A two-story house like this one is especially valuable for training, Nelson said, because fire behaves differently where there are stairs, which act like a chimney. Fire creates its own weather, and the structure of a house influences it. Firefighters need to be able to see how fire behaves in different kinds of structures.
By about noon, after setting and putting out 20 or more fires, the firefighters set the final one, then stepped back.
Eventually I had to step back too. I kept stepping back. Once the flames burned through the roof, the heat emanating into the front yard — even against the wind — felt uncomfortably hot. I wondered whether the lenses in my glasses would warp, even as I watched Chief Ken Briscoe, wearing glasses, stand his ground 20 feet closer than I was.
Many of the firefighters, standing in T-shirts, remained closer to the fire than I could bear. Perhaps that's good training too. They get used to the heat.
One things I'm not sure I could get used to is the burning. That beautiful wood, those stately bricks, that old, crinkled glass. The things that would evoke memories and provoke stories from those who grew up here.
In a couple of months, even the ashes will be gone.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Use Credit Raters today to compare the UK's leading prepaid cards.
Prepaid cards have really taken off in the UK over the past few years, giving people access to card payment technology who would have otherwise been able to get a card through traditional banks and building societies.
The growth of online and in store card payments makes having plastic essential today which is why prepaid cards have become such a popular resource for those who want the power to spend but without the credit.
Two of the most popular prepaid cards are with the standard credit card providers, Visa and MasterCard, meaning that they're accepted in the vast majority of outlets both at home and abroad. What's more is that the best UK prepaid cards also come with contactless technology so you'll be able to make payments up to £30 without even entering your PIN.
Can I Get A Prepaid Card With Bad Credit?
Yes! In fact, they're perfect for people who are unable to get a traditional credit or debit card through their bank account since you'll only be able to spend what you've added to the account.
Since they fall under the category of no credit check prepaid cards, you won't have an overdraft or credit limit to spend, meaning no affordability checks are necessary.
Don't forget – they aren't just for people with a bad credit cards history. They can help others to manage their money better by using prepaid cards to allocate daily or weekly budgets.
Are Prepaid Cards Suitable For Young People?
Whilst the majority of young people's bank accounts come with debit cards these days, the problem is that they're able to spend at will – something that isn't ideal if you're trying to help them budget.
With prepaid cards, you can set a limit on their weekly or monthly spending by only loading certain amounts at a time onto the card. It's also a great security measure when it comes to giving them cash for school trips, nights out or other adventures. Cash is very difficult to recover if lost, but with prepaid cards you'll still have access to the money in most cases through online account management.
How Can I Apply For Prepaid Cards?
Applying seems a strong word to use since they're 100% acceptance prepaid cards! All the same, some do come with certain benefits which makes it well worth comparing before just diving into the first one you find.
Some will charge for card replacements if they're lost whilst some offer online banking services and UK customer service centres.
Start by comparing prepaid cards at Creditraters.com. We'll provide you with a detailed comparison of the available options so you can choose a provider (and design!) that you feel suits you best.
The card will be dispatched from your chosen no credit prepaid cards lender once the application has been completed and you'll receive this in the coming days.


I have been in the real estate business for the past 7 years. I attended Brigham Young University where I earned my degrees in humanities and business management. Having the advantage of speaking Spanish and English, I have been able to manage both markets. It's always a great experience for me to interact with my clients and give them the best service I can provide to them. I make sure I get things done professionally and in a timely manner when it comes to business. I am very outgoing and friendly. I am fitness oriented, so I try to keep myself very active and healthy.


text:
Serbia/Related Articles
< Serbia
A list of Citizendium articles, and planned articles, about Serbia.
See also changes related to Serbia, or pages that link to Serbia or to this page or whose text contains "Serbia".
Auto-populated based on Special:WhatLinksHere/Serbia. Needs checking by a human.
Albania [r]: Republic in south-eastern Europe (population c. 3.6 million; capital Tirana), with a long Adriatic coastline on the west and land borders with Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and Greece. [e]
Albert Einstein [r]: 20th-century physicist who formulated the theories of relativity. [e]
Alien Torts Claims Act [r]: Originally introduced in 1789, a U.S. law that has become active in using the U.S. court to seek redress for actions committed outside the U.S., but in violation of U.S. or international law and where the defendants have a relationship to the U.S. [e]
Balkan peninsula [r]: Geographic name for a region of southeastern Europe, surrounded by the Black Sea to the east, by Aegean, Mediterranean and Ionian Sea to the south, and by the Adriatic Sea to the west. [e]
Bosnia and Herzegovina [r]: Formerly part of Yugoslavia, a mountainous federal democratic republic (population c. 4.6 million; capital Sarajevo) bordering Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, and with a few kilometres of Adriatic coast on the southern tip of the country. [e]
Bulgaria [r]: Mountainous republic (population c. 7.3 million; capital Sofia) in south-eastern Europe, bordered by Romania to the north (with River Danube as border); the Black Sea to the east; Greece and Turkey to the south; and Yugoslavia and Macedonia to the west. [e]
CIA activities in Europe and Russia [r]: Add brief definition or description
Casa Capşa [r]: A historic restaurant in Bucharest, Romania, first established in 1852. [e]
Clandestine human-source intelligence recruiting [r]: The recruiting of human assets who do not work for a foreign intelligence service, as part of human-source intelligence. [e]
Concrete [r]: Construction material consisting of cement, aggregate (generally gravel and sand), water and admixtures. [e]
Country [r]: Nation, state, region, or territory, or large tract of land distinguishable by features of topography, biology, or culture. [e]
Croatian people [r]: An ethnic group living largely in the Balkans. [e]
Croatia [r]: South-east European republic (population c. 4.5 million; capital Zagreb), located south of Slovenia and Hungary, west of Serbia, and north and west of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and with a long Adriatic coastline to its west. [e]
Danube River [r]: Europe's second longest river, about 2860 km long, second only to the Volga River. [e]
Dialect continuum [r]: Range of dialects spoken across a large geographical area, differing only slightly between areas that are geographically close, and gradually decreasing in mutual intelligibility as the distances become greater. [e]
European Environment Agency [r]: An agency of the European Union (EU) established as a major source of information and data for developing, adopting, implementing and evaluating environmental policy by member European countries. [e]
European Union [r]: Political and economic association of 27 European states. [e]
Europe [r]: Sixth largest continent; area 10,000,000 km2; pop. 720,000,000 [e]
History [r]: Study of past human events based on evidence such as written documents. [e]
Intelligence interrogation, U.S. [r]: Policies, techniques and practices of United States interrogation in a national intelligence-gathering context. (See Intelligence interrogation, U.S., George W. Bush Administration for recent detailed discussions) [e]
Knight [r]: Term used in the Middle Ages for a warrior of noble ancestry. [e]
Kosovo [r]: Country in south-eastern Europe which declared independence from Serbia in 2008 - not officially recognised by the United Nations. [e]
List of rivers by length [r]: Add brief definition or description
Macedonian language [r]: Add brief definition or description
Montenegro [r]: Add brief definition or description
Pagania [r]: Add brief definition or description
Republic of Macedonia [r]: Add brief definition or description
Romanian language [r]: Add brief definition or description
Romania [r]: Add brief definition or description
Sava River [r]: Add brief definition or description
Secret society [r]: Add brief definition or description
Serbian language [r]: Add brief definition or description
Serbian people [r]: Add brief definition or description
Steel industry, history [r]: Add brief definition or description
William Ewart Gladstone [r]: Add brief definition or description
Yugoslavia [r]: Add brief definition or description
Retrieved from "https://citizendium.org/wiki/index.php?title=Serbia/Related_Articles&oldid=646223"
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text:
Famous Landmarks
Artists and Musicians
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Holidays and Special Days
High-Interest
All Interesting Facts
Twins Facts
52 Amazing Twins Facts
By James Israelsen, Associate Writer
There are more than 11 million identical twins alive in the world today.[6]
When a twin in the Native American Yoruba tribe dies, the tribe marks their passing with unique rituals.[5]
Identical twins, also called monozygotic twins, occur when just one sperm fertilizes just one egg, but then divides into two fetuses. Fraternal twins are born at the same time from two different fertilized eggs, which is why they aren't necessarily identical in appearance or gender.[13]
Identical twins Jasmiyah and Tasmiyah Whitehead were nicknamed the "Twisted Twins," after they confessed to the brutal murder of their mother in 2010.[5]
Many Native American and African mythologies feature sets of twins who represent opposing forces of good and evil.[5]
Greek philosopher Plato wrote about a theory, which he attributed to Aristophanes, that humans were made from conjoined twins that were cut in two by Zeus.[5]
Research suggests that when a twin engages in criminal activity, it increases the likelihood that their co-twin will also become a criminal.[5]
Perhaps it was about more than just sibling rivalry...
In a lesser-known version of the Cain and Abel story, both Cain and Abel had a twin sister; the true motive behind their rivalry was a disagreement over which sister each would marry.[5]
Ancient sources say that Rome was founded by Romulus, who chose to build a city upon the site where he and his twin brother, Remus, had been saved from drowning when they were infants.[5]
Some people claim that Gram, a search engine that helps users find illegal weapons, documents, and pornography, was created to be Google's "evil twin."[5]
According to one study, 52% of identical twins who identify as non-heterosexual share the same sexual orientation as their co-twin, more than twice the percentage among fraternal twins.[5]
There are at least two documented cases where a surgical patient's tumor turned out to be a calcified embryo containing hair, teeth, and other body parts—possible evidence that the patient re-absorbed their genetic twin while still in the womb.[5]
Before the 1980s, around one in every 58 births was a twin birth. In the past three decades, however, the introduction of new fertility treatments caused this number to rise; in 2014, one in every 29 births was a twin.[10][19]
Most aphids are born already pregnant, having absorbed the embryo of their genetic twin while still in their mother's womb.[5]
In 2005, a woman gave birth twice when her twins were born two months apart.[5]
Studies comparing the IQs of identical twins who were separated at birth have tended to conclude that a person's IQ is determined more by heredity than by environment.[14]
Identical twins are much more rare than fraternal twins. Around 3.3% of Americans are twins, but only .3% are identical.[17]
Identical twins are generally very emotionally close
The chances of chimerism, a condition in which one individual possesses two different sets of DNA, are increased as a result of in vitro fertilization due to the possibility of two embryos merging together in the womb.[5][18]
A recent mix-up at a fertility clinic, in which a mother was implanted with the genetic material of two different men, resulted in the birth of fraternal twins who have completely different genetic heritages, one African and the other European.[5]
After meeting each other at age 39, Jim Springer and Jim Lewis, identical twins who were separated at birth, discovered they shared an incredible number of biographical similarities. For example, they had both served as part-time sheriffs; they drank the same brand of beer and smoked the same brand of cigarettes; and both of them had married a woman named Linda, divorced her, and re-married to a woman named Betty.[14]
There are currently no paternity tests that can distinguish between identical twins.[5]
"Evil twin hacking" is a term for when a hacker redirects online traffic from a legitimate website to one of their own.[5]
Because the Chinese government grants an exception to their one-child policy in the case of twins, some mothers purposely conceive two children in quick succession and then attempt to pass them off as twins.[5]
The Indian goddess Durga has multiple limbs
In India, many revere and even worship as a deity a girl who was born in 2005 with eight limbs, the result of an unborn co-twin's arms and legs being conjoined to her body.[3][5]
According to a 2008 report, a married couple in Britain was granted an annulment after they discovered that they were fraternal twins who had been adopted separately at birth.[2][5]
In some East-Asian countries, including India and China, it is common for impoverished parents of male-female fraternal twins to seek an abortion of the female fetus in order to avoid having to pay a dowry for her later in life.[5]
While most DNA tests only require a few genetic markers in order to correctly identify an individual, it takes several billion markers to distinguish between identical twins—and even then, the tests are not always successful.[5]
It is possible for fraternal twins to have two different fathers, if both men fertilized the mother during the same ovulation period.[5]
It is possible for fraternal twins to have different racial heritages, either because they have different fathers or simply because they are manifesting different aspects of mixed genes.[5]
In the historically based movie Legend, actor Tom Hardy played two different characters: Reggie and Ronnie Kray. The identical twin brothers were real-life gangsters, and they were once referred to as the most evil men in Britain.[15]
Conjoined twins are twins born with their bodies fused together at one or more points.[4]
Conjoined twins were once called Siamese twins; it was a reference to the name showman P. T. Barnum gave conjoined twins Chang and Eng. The term is now considered derogatory.[11]
Surgically separating conjoined twins is very dangerous and often ends with the death of one or both twins
Around 1 in 200,000 live births are of conjoined twins. Females make up approximately 20% of conjoined twins.[4]
In a 1929 case involving conjoined twins, a judge ruled against incarceration on the grounds that because only one of the twins was considered to have acted criminally, it would be unjust to force the other twin to suffer the same punishment.[5]
Scientific researchers first began studying twins in the 1870s, in the hope of identifying which personal traits are the result of heredity versus those due to environmental factors.[14]
There were 123,536 twins born in the United States in the year 2018.[16]
Twins and triplets have a slightly higher chance of being left-handed than the general population.[17]
Although most family lines only ever produce one set of identical twins, one family in Brazil has produced 22 sets of identical twins across five generations.[8]
There have been at least nine verified cases of twins being accidentally separated at birth due to hospital staff unintentionally switching one of the twins with an unrelated infant.[8]
Mothers in their 30s are more than twice as likely to give birth to twins as their younger counterparts; mothers in their 40s are three times as likely.[10]
"Super twins" is another name for multiples of more than two, such as triplets or octuplets.[6]
Every year, over four thousand twins travel to Twinsburg, Ohio, to attend the Twins Days Festival.[6]
Scientists believe that identical twins, which occur when two fetuses separate, are rare among animals other than humans because identical twins share a single placenta, making it unlikely they will get enough nutrients to survive.[9]
In 2016, two women in Ireland took DNA tests to discover if their nearly-identical appearances meant they were siblings that had been separated at birth. They discovered they didn't even share a common ancestral line, making them real-life doppelgangers.[20]
One popular piece of fake news claimed that astronaut Scott Kelly's DNA no longer matches that of his identical twin brother as a result of the time Scott spent on the International Space Station.[8]
In the 1930s, both New York and New Jersey denied conjoined twin Violet Hilton a marriage license, on the grounds that, since she was already "joined" to her co-twin, Daisy, allowing her to marry anyone else would constitute bigamy.[5]
The first set of confirmed identical twin puppies was reported in 2016. Because dogs are not often subjected to genetic tests, scientists are unsure whether identical twins is a common occurrence.[9]
There have been several reported cases of identify theft in which a twin has used their indistinguishable appearance to steal the identity of their co-twin.[5]
Sometimes it's who you least suspect
The nine-banded armadillo regularly gives birth to identical quadruplets, the only known species to do so.[9]
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are the first set of twins to receive stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[1]
High-wire walker Phillipe Petit took advantage of the identical heights of New York's Twin Towers when, in 1974, he walked a 140-foot wire strung between them.[12]
While doing research on identical twins in 2012, doctors recorded footage from an MRI showing one fetus kicking at their twin in an apparent bid to gain more legroom.[7]
Interesting Twins INFOGRAPHIC
Pinnable Facts
#Amazing #Chilling #Crazy #Educational #FactOfTheDay #Fun #Historical #Important #Interesting #LittleKnown #MindBlowing #Random #Sad #Serious #Shocking #Wild #Beautiful #Frightening #Funny #Surprising #Timeless #Siblings #Family #TwinsDay #Twins #Twin #IdenticalTwins #FraternalTwins #ConjoinedTwins #SiameseTwins #Index
1Associated Press. "The Olsen Twins." CBS News, April 29, 2004. Accessed: July 18, 2020.
2———.UK: Married Couple Unaware They Were Twins." CBS News, January 11, 2008. Accessed: July 15, 2020.
3Brown, Bob. "Girl Born with Eight Limbs Thrives in India." ABC News, February 9, 2009. Accessed: July 15, 2020.
4"Conjoined Twins Fast Facts." CNN: Health. Updated July 28, 2020. Accessed: July 31, 2020.
5Cusack, Carmen M. Twins and Deviance: Law, Crime, Sex, Society, and Family. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016.
6Davis, Dona Lee. Twins Talk: What Twins Tell Us about Person, Self, and Society. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2015.
7Gardner, Joshua. "Twins Caught Fighting in the Womb." ABC News, November 30, 2012. Accessed: July 13, 2020.
8Hayasaki, Erika. "Identical Twins Hint at How Environments Change Gene Expression." The Atlantic: Science, May 15, 2018. Accessed: July 16, 2020.
9Hogenboom, Melissa. "A Dog Has Given Birth to the First Identical Twin Puppies." BBC: Earth, August 31, 2016. Accessed: July 19, 2020.
10"Is Twin Childbearing on the Decline? Twin Births in the United States, 2014–2018." National Center for Health Statistics. Accessed: July 20, 2020.
11Kennedy, G. E. "The 3,000 Year History of Conjoined Twins." The Western Journal of Medicine 175, no. 3 (September 2001): 176-177. Accessed: July 20, 2020.
12Klein, Christopher. "The Twin Towers High-Wire Walk, 40 Years Ago." History. Updated September 1, 2018. Accessed: July 17, 2020.
13Krasnewich, Donna. "Identical Twins." National Human Genome Research Institute. Accessed: July 27, 2020.
14Miller, Peter. "A Thing or Two about Twins." National Geographic, January 2012. Accessed: July 19, 2020.
15Moreton, Cole. "Legend: An In-Depth Look into the Violent History of Ronnie and Reggie, the Kray Twins." Independent. August 30, 2015. Accessed: July 17, 2020.
16"Multiple Births." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: National Center for Health Statistics. January 18, 2014. Accessed: July 16, 2020.
17Ocklenburg, Sebastian. "Are Twins More Likely to Be Left-Handed?" Psychology Today, September 20, 2019. Accessed: July 17, 2020.
18Rettner, Rachel. "3 Human Chimeras that Already Exist." Scientific American, August 8, 2016. Accessed: July 18, 2020.
19Shute, Nancy. "Fertility Drugs, Not IVF, Are the Top Cause of Multiple Births." NPR: Shots, December 4, 2013. Accessed: July 18, 2020.
20Tan, Avianne. "Doppelgangers Take DNA Test to Find Out If They're Related, 'Surprised' By Results." ABC News, January 21, 2016. Accessed: July 19, 2020.
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© 2021 Fact Retriever LLC. All rights reserved.


I'm the Co-founder of Zoomie, the first personal development app that blends behavioural sciences with machine intelligence, and Founder and CEO of Stratability. I am also author of THE STRATEGY JOURNEY® book coming out later in 2017 which includes my research on data as a currency and autonomous vehicles. My career has spanned many of the different disciplines of STEM, working in Tech, FinTech, banking and business strategy.
I guess you can call me a serial founder and inventor. I have always loved tinkering to make new things and start new projects, especially with gadgets and technology. When I was 9, the video head on our overused VCR wore out (after too many reruns of Star Wars!) and I took to taking it apart and fixing it myself with a screwdriver, asking my parents for parts.
This led me to study engineering at university where I did my thesis in VoIP technologies, which was the technology behind Skype's success. Since then, I've developed my career moving from software engineering into banking, FinTech and business strategy.
Until recently, my career followed the corporate route and I've worked with C-level executives and directors of banks and large Fortune 500 companies. I spent several years moving from analyst, to architect, to strategist and managing many large teams.
I founded my startup Stratability at the end of 2015 to explore how to blend behavioural science and data science in the workplace. Having experienced and seen many problems myself during my career, I found I was being asked for help and solutions that didn't yet exist. In the past year, while still working on my book and developing training courses on business architecture and operating model design, I started to work with my co founders on Zoomie. Following a year of research, we are currently developing Zoomie, along with a marketplace platform for users to meet career-related service providers, like coaches and mentors, and service seekers, such as recruiters and employers. We hope to release our functional MVP later this year.
Which industries do you envisage will be disrupted the most by the acceleration of machine intelligence?
Careers and Education: Rise of AI is not just about what jobs can be automated or done by robots. We are already seeing AI used as a personal assistant, in the legal professions and beyond. This will only accelerate. There are already many EdTech companies using data to accelerate learning and I see this as a key future trend. Modern education hasn't caught up with the digital age. We are still teaching children to learn facts and figures. In the future, learning will use data to tailor education more to learners and show them how to learn with a growth mind-set rather than remember by rote.
Behavioural Psychology or Science and Personal Development: I think we will see disruption to coaching and mentoring through AI. Amazon is not just developing Alexa, a voice recognition hub for the home, but putting together a fund for developers working in voice technology innovation. They are beginning to study behaviours, and how AI can respond and interact with our behaviours. AutoEmotive, a research project from the Affective Computing group at MIT's media lab, is already working on detecting people's emotions in cars to prevent an accident. What we are working on at Zoomie will bring together a wealth of data in this field which I hope is the start of more advancements here as well.
Transport: Autonomous vehicles are a key trend. But they are not something that exists in isolation. As we move more towards autonomous cars we will be forced to look more at the energy needed to fuel these vehicles. This is not just a discussion about renewable or greener energy. KERS technology, the ability to use a vehicle's kinetic energy from braking to then accelerate, is being used in F1 right now. F1 are also developing new technology for batteries that charge faster. This will disrupt how we build cars as well as how they are driven. Urban planning will change to adapt to more advanced driving styles as the autonomous vehicle industry starts to mature. AI in transport can be a new future, disrupting how we live together in cities and towns, as well as how we travel.
What do you think are the greatest challenges faced by companies integrating machine learning/deep learning methods?
Trust: A major challenge is trust. How can you trust the data that is out there? And what about when the AI agent that is running a service does something that you don't agree with? I recently had an incident where a company on twitter that I don't endorse, or want to endorse, found and retweeted a deleted tweet of mine from around a year ago. Chatbots and tweetbots are using AI and data to find content for others to retweet, but they don't have the human nuance to decide whether the retweet is appropriate.
What key factors that have enabled recent advancements in autonomous vehicles?
Energy: As I mentioned before, advances in energy and batteries have begun to make both electric and autonomous vehicles seem like more of an option. Tesla's network of charging stations might be located at some not-so-glamourous service stations but the fact that there is a network of places you can charge your Tesla car to make longer journeys means people are seeing the cars as a viable alternative, not just a new tech toy. Whilst I think the F1 industry doesn't really want to help out the driverless car industry, which could see it become obsolete (I certainly hope not being a big fan), advances in tech for batteries means there are some real leaps forward about to happen.
Race for data: With more data both for and from autonomous vehicles, we are seeing faster iterations on new ideas in autonomous cars. MIT AgeLab is offering cash incentives to Tesla drivers to give them access their Tesla driving experience. They are looking to see how new technologies in their cars are used by drivers, what is useful to them and why. This kind of user experience data is key to making next stage developments.
As I mentioned before, autonomous cars will give rise to a new autonomous network, changes to our energy use and needs, and we will need a rethink of urban planning. I think we will see the start of this over the next 5 years as we begin to become used to driverless cars, and see more pilot schemes started in cities across the world.
Governments are already putting in place regulations for hybrid cars. This will lead to more regulation for autonomous vehicles too, as they begin to emerge. Urban and city planning will need to take these into account, just as they have done with electric cars. With more charging points and incentives given to electric car users, so we will see a rise in physical space made for autonomous cars. Pick up and drop off points might be needed, charging points, overnight parking, these are all things we will need to address in the near future. I think we will also see richer networks with data about travelling and transportation. Google maps already has a massive amount of data and we will see shifts in how that is used with driverless cars. Uber and Volvo are partnering to create autonomous vehicles. Partnerships like this make sense and we will see more of them. Uber is building data which can inform the driving of cars but they don't own taxis or build cars themselves. Whereas Volvo have the experience of manufacturing that is needed to get these cars onto the road.
What do you think are the main challenges facing the autonomous vehicle industry?
We still have a long way to go to make the leap to people in the mainstream or mass market wanting to 'drive' or be driven by a driverless car. The experience of driving is a pleasure for many people. Can autonomous cars really become mainstream if people don't want to use them? What will happen to the petrol heads, the Top Gear fans? Will driving become something that people do as a hobby or purely for pleasure? Will F1 drivers become gladiators driving for our entertainment?
There is such a shift needed in thinking to take driverless cars mainstream. Will everyone own a car? Or will it become a network of cars at our beck and call? As we won't need taxi drivers, maybe we won't need bus drivers, there is a lot of tension around 'replacing' jobs traditionally done by people with AI. And there is a whole industry around the selling, insuring, maintenance and customisation of cars. Will we still need mechanics, if the car can self-detect its potential problems and simply return to a base station on its own? That hasn't become a natural transition for us yet. We can't predict people, we don't know how they will react to these changes and their reactions can speed up or slow down the rate of technology in these areas. Right now we are seeing early adopters developing this technology and we don't really know what will happen when the rate of adoption begins to speed up.
I think infrastructure is a real challenge. How long does the battery in an electric car really last? What is in place for charging stations? We are seeing the beginnings of solutions for these but without commitment to infrastructure there won't be a mass adoption of this technology.
F1 tech is filtering down into mainstream car design but it isn't happening quickly. As the pace of change starts to accelerate, will they want to continue to share technology that is disrupting the car industry so much? It will certainly be interesting to see if, when and how, autonomous vehicles will cross the chasm from early adopters to the mass market.
STEM shouldn't be scary, it is fun. I won a STEM based Co-op scholarship to study Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications at the University of New South Wales in Australia by being able to thread a sewing machine in a super fast time. The engineers who interviewed me thought that this skill, together with my interest in designing clothes in high school, was naturally transferable to designing and building networks. My skills in these areas in my early years as well as my general interest in technology were just as applicable and hence transferable to UX and UI design, technology architecture as well as microelectronics.
I don't think people really recognise what a broad range of industries STEM actually covers. I think we need to look at how we present science to kids. Why do we seem to give science kits to boys and not girls? They aren't gender specific. They are toys for them to learn, discover, interact with the world around them. From what I see in education I think there is a fear of failure. If we encourage experiments and fun, failing and learning from it, teach more of a growth mind-set early on then we are opening STEM to a far wider range of talent.
I think it is about showing girls that these pathways are open to them. Williams F1 run a day of karting for girls with Rachel Brooks from Sky Sports, to show girls they can drive and have fun too. The girls come away with the idea that they can do it, be involved in that world, and that is a powerful message.
I loved tinkering with things when I was younger, I loved making things, I'm an inventor at heart. I was making clothes, handbags, circuit boards and tech. That tinkering and trying gave me the mind-set to study STEM. Tech is so common, girls should be encouraged to find out how things work and build them themselves too.
Children are sponges, which can be for great for STEM subjects, getting them when they're young! STEM is also such a broad category, it covers Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. Accountants, traders and actuaries use maths. Technology is not just about coding, UX/UI is a creative aspect to the 'pure' tech of coding. Psychology, design thinking, behavioural science, these are all science subjects but not necessarily based in data. There are so many pathways into STEM, and I think we need to show girls the range of opportunities STEM has to offer.
What advice would you give to someone starting a career in machine intelligence today?
Don't be fixated with the 'sexiness' of AI – it all comes down to data. Data can tell you so much, whatever you are interested in. Using the data route you will be surprised what you can discover. It is important to realise that data is a commodity, which gives it so many more uses and technologies and we can become so much more creative with it. Learn how data and the basics of data architecture work and then move on from there. You can find a niche from there. Machine intelligence can be applied to anything, everything is data.
The Machine Intelligence in Autonomous Vehicles Summit, is taking place alongside the Machine Intelligence Summit, in Amsterdam on 28-29 June. Discounted passes are currently available.
Meet with and learn from leading experts in autonomous vehicles, IoT, the connected car, machine learning methods and predictive analytics. Confirmed speakers include Manager Software Engineering, TomTom; Senior Data Scientist, Pirelli; and Associate Professor in Engineering Science, University of Oxford.
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….and as I hear it, it ignites a fire in my belly like few other statements do. You may be asking why this occurs, great question? Simply because it reminds me that my feelings are not in control of me nor my state and most definitely not my thinking. I control my mind and thus my thinking. Focus on what you want.
Used to emphasize the significance or seriousness of a situation.
Relating to something as it is, not merely as it may be described or distinguished.
All great information, yet what is the relevance? The fact of the matter is that choice determines what we ultimately focus upon.
When I hear people say "it feels like I take three steps forwards and five steps backwards" I desire to clarify what they are actually focusing on. All too often people use words without knowing what they are actually saying.
Are they focusing on the consistent struggle, strife, hardships and pervious traumas. Or are they focusing on the perceived difficulties and continually looking forward, highlighting that nothing will get them down and the will continue to move forward?
This steadfast view is not going to be easy, nor always pleasant etc. yet if you continue to focus on what you want you create a world and state in which we avoid distraction and being the victim. As my old sports coach used to remind me "the only time you see obstacles is when you take your eyes of the finish line". A powerful and resourceful way to see the world is that there are no problems, only solutions we have not found yet.
Our feelings and state are a choice. It is a choice that we may have to make many times a day. Never has the old adage rung more true "where concentration goes energy flows". If we continue to focus on the five steps backwards we shall soon become blinded by the progress we achieved that accompanied the three steps forward. Remember that without struggle there is no progress. So buckle up, get ready for tough times, laser focus your outcomes and visions and put some of your feelings to bed. You are the master of your mind and thus you make your decisions, you get to choose what you focus on.
Remind yourself everyday, just as I do, that feelings come and go, they are transient, subjective and at times untrustworthy as an objective reality. Remember to focus on discipline, set clear outcomes, negotiate empowering intentions and then have the patience and trust to know that you, as I, manifest reality one decision at a time.
Lastly, just like showering or brushing your teeth we must remember to focus on what we want and continue to decide to move towards it every day. Showering or brushing your teeth only once a week will be okay for a few months but soon you will begin smell like failure and become engrossed by its accompanying people and surroundings.
Everyday is a new opportunity to begin again – you are in control of your mind and therefore your results!


text:
Q: Nested animation block caused "Segmentation fault" I try to show three images, one after one, with the following code:
image_1.alpha = 0.0;
image_2.alpha = 0.0;
image_3.alpha = 0.0;

[UIView animateWithDuration:0.25
                 animations:^{
                     image_1.alpha = 1.0;
                 } completion:^(BOOL finished) {
                     [UIView animateWithDuration:0.25
                                      animations:^{
                                          image_2.alpha = 1.0;
                                      } completion:^(BOOL finished) {
                                          [UIView animateWithDuration:0.25
                                                           animations:^{
                                                               image_3.alpha = 1.0;
                                                           } completion:^(BOOL finished) {
                                                               ;
                                                           }];
                                      }];
                 }];

gives: internal compiler error: Segmentation fault
There is no error if the nesting contains two animation blocks. Is nested animation block no allowed or comes with some limitation?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange