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Diet pills no substitute for healthy lifestyle
Posted on April 19, 2009 by Editor
London: Pharmaceutical diet pills which go on sale in the UK for the first time later this week are no substitute for a healthy lifestyle, according to medical experts.
One of the drugs, Alli, can help those to take it lose 3lb a week, according to its manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline. This is more than three stones over four months.
The drug, is a milder version of prescription-only Xenical, works by reducing the body's ability to process fat by about 25 per cent. The fat passes straight through the body, creating a need to go to the toilet frequently.
Professor Gareth Williams, professor of medicine at the University of Bristol and the author of Obesity: Science To Practice, said in the British Medical Journal that the side-effects are so severe that "possibly few users will even finish their first pack of Alli, let alone buy a second".
More seriously, he said: "The drug may cause only a small and transient downward blip in the otherwise inexorable climb in weight.
"Selling anti-obesity drugs over the counter will perpetuate the myth that obesity can be fixed simply by popping a pill and could further undermine efforts to promote healthy living, which is the only long-term escape from obesity."
He said that real-life weight loss may not be as dramatic as in clinical trials.
"Dieters in these trials are highly motivated and under medical supervision," he said. "People … taking it without medical supervision may achieve an average daily energy deficit of only 100kcal – equivalent to leaving a few French fries on a plate, eating an apple instead of ice cream, or (depending on enthusiasm and fitness) having 10 to 20 minutes of sex."
The second drug is Appesat, which claims to cause weight loss of just under 2lb per week. It is a seaweed extract, which swells in the stomach and tricks the user into feeling that they are full.
Its long-term benefits were even questioned by Dr Jason Halford, the director of the Study of Human Ingestive Behaviour University of Liverpool, who is paid to advise the drug's manufacturer.
"The cure for obesity and being overweight will never be found in a pill, packet or a wonder drug," Dr Halford said. "That can only come from enormous changes to our food and physical environment, which are going to take a long time to achieve.
"Drugs don't necessarily deal with reasons why people become obese, which are largely psychological."
About two-thirds of adults and a third of children are obese, according to the Health Survey for England. Last year the number of prescriptions for "fat pills" rose 16 per cent to 1.23 million.
Last week a BBC television investigation by Professor Lesley Regan of St Mary's Hospital in London found that women taking a placebo starch pill, who thought they were taking a diet pill, lost up to half a stone in six weeks.
Posted in Diet, News	| Tagged Alli, diet, obesity, Pills, Xenical
Extreme grapefruit diet may interfere with the pill
Posted on April 4, 2009 by Editor
New York: A woman who went on an intense grapefruit-based diet developed a blood clot in her leg and risked losing the limb, US doctors have reported.
The unusual case, written up in the Lancet medical journal, occurred in Washington state in November last year.
Medics concluded grapefruit had affected the way the 42-year-old's body processed her contraceptive pill.
In November 2008, the woman came to the casualty department of the Providence St Peter Hospital in Olympia, Washington state.
The day before, she had gone on a long car journey, after which she felt pain radiating from her lower back down to her left ankle.
When she arrived at the hospital she was experiencing difficulty walking, shortness of breath, and light-headedness.By the next day her left leg had turned purple.
The woman was generally in good health but was slightly overweight and had decided to diet.
Three days before falling ill, she had begun a crash diet which included eating 225g of grapefruit each morning, after rarely eating the fruit in the past.
When doctors examined her, an ultrasound scan confirmed the woman had a large blood clot within the veins of her left leg, which stretched from her hip down to her calf and she was deemed to be at risk of losing her leg because of gangrene.
The woman was given clot-busting treatment and had a stent, a kind of tube, fitted in order to widen her vein.
The doctors treating her said a number of risk factors had contributed to the woman developing the clot.
She had an inherited disorder which increased her risk, as did being on the combined Pill. Being immobile in a car probably also contributed to the clot forming.
Writing in the Lancet, the authors led by Dr Lucinda Grande, called it a "constellation of potential risk factors".
But they added: "The increased [oestrogen] serum concentration due to her three days of grapefruit for breakfast may well have tipped the balance."
They suggest the fruit blocked the action of a key enzyme that normally breaks down the form of oestrogen in her contraceptive.
A spokesman for the Florida Department of Citrus – an executive agency of Florida government which markets, researches and regulates the state's citrus industry, said: "The Lancet report looks to be inconsistent with published scientific studies which indicate grapefruit does not cause a clinically significant interaction with oral contraceptives.
"We are aware of no validated evidence that grapefruit affects oral contraceptives, and they are generally considered to be safe to consume with grapefruit."
Posted in Diet, News	| Tagged amputation, blood clot, clot, deep vein thrombosis, diet, DVT, grapefruit, leg, overweight, pill, Pills
UK pharmas call for debate on drug access
Posted on August 22, 2008 by Editor
London: The pharmaceutical industry today called for a public debate on access to modern medicines, and how society determines the value of new treatments.
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) is inviting NICE, patient groups, medical professionals, the NHS and leading healthcare charities to debate the issues amid continuing controversy on the availability and cost of innovative medicines to NHS patients.
"A frank, open and honest debate is clearly in the interests of patients," said Chris Brinsmead, President of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI).
"We are calling for the patient groups, healthcare charities, doctors, Government, NICE and the NHS to join with the pharmaceutical industry to debate these crucial issues to hammer out a lasting solution. The time has come to discuss how we best resolve the issue, and where better than on a public platform?"
The pharmaceutical industry spends approximately £3.9billion a year in the UK researching and developing new medicines for patients. This investment has delivered over 90 per cent of the medicines available today and has led to new treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, heart disease and HIV to name but a few, Mr Brinsmead added.
He said: "The UK pharmaceutical industry – along with other healthcare professionals and NICE – is committed to developing innovative approaches to pricing, ensuring that patients receive the medicines that they need. Taking the recent example of the four kidney cancer medicines, all these medicines are widely available to patients throughout Europe – where the prices are higher than in the UK."
Mr Brinsmead said: "We are looking forward to hearing NICE's response and welcome their contribution to what will be one of the most important debates in the history of modern healthcare."
Image – Boy and Medicine: courtesy of MedicImage
Posted in News	| Tagged cure, death, drug, Drugs, life, medicine, Pills, science, Tablets
Careers and Conception – the race against time
Posted on March 6, 2008 by Editor
David Alpert, founder of the International Institute for Anti-Ageing (iiaa) was recently invited to present a lecture for the Newborn and Maternity Forum at the Royal Society of Medicine in London.
The theme of the event was the trend by society to delay motherhood, balanced against the problem of biology that has not kept up with this trend. David Alpert presented iiaa evidence-based research to show that certain lifestyle changes and simple actions can maximise a woman's fertility potential and help her to conceive at a later age.
The trend towards women putting career before family and choosing to have their children later in life may mean mothers are past the period of optimal fertility and into the period of reduced fertility by the time they decide ton start a family. This will inevitably find more and more women facing difficulties conceiving. The average age of motherhood has increased by 5 years since 1970 and over the last 10 years the number of women conceiving over the age of 40 has doubled.
THE BIOLOGICAL CLOCK
Women are born with a finite number of egg follicles in their ovaries and the iiaa anti-ageing fertility approach looks at reducing factors that decrease fertility and increasing factors that increase fertility and health of remaining eggs in the ovaries.
For example, fertility can be positively affected by exercise and nutrition (eating a low GI diet can increase fertility) whereas environmental factors can impede and reduce fertility (stress, the presence of chemicals and heavy metals as well as the huge rise in sexually transmitted diseases).
Unfortunately the biggest obstacle for women over 35 is their fertility age denoted by the quality and quantity of eggs remaining in her ovaries. On average, a woman hits her peak fertility between the age of 18-30 and after 35 fertility starts to decrease quite sharply.
Applying the iiaa anti-ageing pyramid to your lifestyle can make a difference when it comes to conception:
Environment/Social : factors that contribute to unhealthy environment
Endocrine Disrupting Pollutants
Sexually Transmitted Diseases:
Increase in gonorrhoea by 46%
Increase in Chlamydia by 116%
Nutrition: a high GI intake, increase in trans fats and high animal proteins are more likely to cause fertility problems. Studies have also shown that those with the highest GI intake are 92% more likely to have ovulatory fertility problems.
Exercise: Excessive weight decreases fertility
Moderate exercise increases fertility
Nutritional Supplements: Supplements can increase fertility as food has significantly dropped in nutritional value over the last 50 years. Certain minerals such as Zinc and Selenium are essential for healthy reproductive systems.
Positive Mental Attitude: According to Professor Sarah Berga, Emory University Atlanta, many women suffer from sub-clinical forms of stress and fail to ovulate properly. A study showed that 80% on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) started to ovulate again normally as opposed to only 25% on randomised control.
Many women can improve the health of their reproductive systems, and thereby their conception potential as they get older, by making key lifestyle and diet choices.
Posted in Menopause, News	| Tagged conception, fertility, Pills
Beauty spend continues to grow
London: UK women will spend nearly £40million this year on 'beauty pills' to enhance their appearance – twice as much as five years ago.
They are splashing out on a range of 'magic' potions, which claim to make hair glossier, nails stronger and even reverse the signs of ageing.
But experts claim few of the products actually work and women would stand a better chance of improving their looks by eating better, keeping out of the sun and not smoking.
Exotic ingredients in pills – such as extract of bark or protein from sea creatures – are used as little more than a marketing tool to encourage shoppers to buy, they added.
A study by market researchers Mintel revealed that spending on beauty pills is expected to top £37million this year – up 130 per cent since 2002 – and rise to £ 63million by 2012.
Almost a third of Britons, mostly women and young girls, said they use beauty supplements or would consider using them to help safeguard their looks.
Top- selling pills include supermodel Naomi Campbell's favourite brand Imedeen, which claims to improve skin, and retails at £81.50 for three months' supply of 180 tablets.
Perfectil Platinum, which costs £39.49 for 60 tablets, contains bark extract, blackcurrant seed oil and marine collagen and is marketed as renewing skin cells.
Other products examined contained vitamins, antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids, which are said to keep skin clear and hair glossy.
But scientists have been quick to pour scorn on the claims. Dr Richard Weller, a dermatologist at Edinburgh University, said: 'I've not heard of any evidence that supplements such as bark extract will improve your hair or your skin.
'These pills are very lucrative for the companies that make them, but they should be coming up with proof.
'It shows people just want a quick fix, and they like spending money on themselves. Instead, they should be thinking about prevention.
'The things that cause ageing are excessive sunlight and smoking – and avoiding them is free and known to be effective.'
Posted in News, Press Releases	| Tagged beauty, eye, eyelashes, hair, pill, Pills, skin, younger
New pill to tackle obesity in UK
Posted on June 30, 2006 by Editor
London: A new drug, which fights obesity by preventing food cravings, is to be made available to British patients through the country's National Health Service.
The drug called Acomplia, is made by a French company and can cut bodyweight by up to 10 per cent in a year and significantly reduce the risk of heart disease and diabetes.
The pill, which costs £2 a day, acts on the brain and reduces appetite and assists in loss of abdominal fat. It is licenses for those who are medically obese but will be prescribed to those who are overweight with type 2 diabetes. It will also only be given to failed dieters and exercisers.
Tests of the drug showed that 40 per cent of users lost 10 per cent of their body weight, incuding from around the waist.
In trials when overweight people took a daily 20 mg pill, up to 40 per cent of them lost 10 per cent of their body weight, much of it from around their waist, which cuts the risk of diabetes and heart problems.
The pill works by interfering with a system in the body that controls energy levels, regulates body weight plus breaks down sugars and fats.
Britain is the first country to have the drug, but manufacturer Sanofi-Aventis hopes to sell it in the USA once it wins approval from American FDA
Posted in Diet, News	| Tagged Acomplia, fat, obesity, Pills


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Parmenides, Ontology and the Stoics
djhm April 16, 2011
There are two takes on reality, two kinds of knowledge, two kinds of science. In this work the traditional sciences, traditional knowledge we call left side. This kind of knowledge relies on a priori knowledge. Right side knowledge is unconditioned by any a priori and must be developed using pure reason alone. The two kinds of knowledge sit on opposite sides of a great divide. A deep understanding requires a deep understanding of this great divide. The ancients had their say on the matter. Consider, for example Parmenides who came after Heraclitus but before Empedocles.
Parmenides was one of the first to put forward a clear view of the structure of reality from a reasoned perspective. The philosophy of Being, ontology, starts with him. His poem, On Nature, recounts the epic voyage of the young man on his quest for knowledge.
The tone is dramatic and urgent. Despite only disparate fragments of the text remaining, one can almost hear the pounding hooves and see the sparks flying as the wise chariot steeds gallop at a furious pace through the black darkness on the renowned way of the Goddess. Streaking towards where Dark meets Day, maidens show the way. There is no room for dilly-dallying here. This is not the time for fine-spun arguments. It is time to confront the truth. The goddess, with her own hands unerringly conducts this man who knows through things. Wheels swirling, the chariot axle glows red in the socket and gives forth the sound of a pipe as they approach the gates. The daughters of the Sun hasting to convey him to the light, take back their veils. Having arrived at the gates of the ways of Night and Day, after much persuasion they pass through the gates. The young man is greeted kindly by the goddess. She welcomes him to her abode, far from the beaten tracks of mortal men.
She invites him to have an open and critical mind, to learn all things, but above all the unshaken heart of persuasive truth. There are two takes on reality. On the one side there is that taken by mortal men as they blindly stumble about in a world of opinions. On the other hand, away from the world of fickle beliefs, there is another world that harbours unshakable truth, a world where reason holds sway. At the epicentre of this world of reason is the simple truth that there are two possibilities. The goddess declares:
"The first, namely, that It is, and that it is impossible for anything not to be. This is the way of conviction."
She then recounts the other possibility:
"The other, namely, that It is not, and that something must needs not be." She then explains, "That, I tell thee, is a wholly untrustworthy path. For you cannot know what is not – that is impossible – nor utter it."
The Parmenidean Paradigm
An epic journey is always a good ploy to get the reader into the right frame of mind. Excuse the pun. Parmenides' allegory like any allegory can be read in many ways. One could see the tale as taking place on two levels, a logical foreground a gender background. The background imagery displays the feminine in all its plurality, culminating in the abode of the goddess. There the ethereal feminine welcomes the singular masculine, he who knows through things. However, he is but a youth still in quest of knowledge. Nevertheless, he knows he has been conducted here for a purpose.
Across the unsaid background tapestry, spreads the ephemeral abode of goddess and teaming maidens. It is far from the world of mortals and untainted by their bumbling subjectivity. This is the pure feminine, so pure that it is totally devoid of attribute. It is completely unknowable. She is not even real. The goddess, the feminine incarnate, explains that "you cannot know what is not." You can only know what is. It looks as if the goddess has negated herself out of existence.
This is Ground Zero of rationality. Many thinkers have come here over the ages, each making their own interpretation. Parmenides paints his picture in great clarity. On one side, we have the land of mortals enmeshed in opinions. On the other side is the immortal land of Truth. This other side is what we have been referring to as the right side take on reality. It is in this domain that Parmenides must construct his version of monism philosophy. He must explain Oneness. Like all who have toiled in this domain, he must tackle the dialectic of the One and its other. His reasoning is stark, even brutal: The One is, the Other is not.
As we have seen in previous sections, right side reasoning is expressed in oppositions and oppositions applied to oppositions, a dialectical, semiotic form of thinking. Left side reasoning starts from given preconditions such as opinions, traditions, rumours, gossip, innuendos, measurements, experiences, sensations, axioms, stabs in the dark, fabulation, and sometimes wicked self-serving deception, just as the good goddess explained: This is the natural lot of mortals. Right side reasoning has no preconditions. It must start from the primary opposition. It is here that we find the primordial form of Ground Zero. The task for the philosopher, the ontological scientist, is to provide an explanation of Ground Zero in terms of the primary opposition. The understanding of this primary opposition varies, depending on the thinker. In the case of Parmenides, his position can be summarised as follows.
What is the primal entity?
Answer: It.
What is its specificity?
Answer: It is.
What is the primary opposition?
Answer: The opposition between what is and what is not.
What exists?
Answer: Only what is exists, what is not does not and cannot exist.
Comment: What is determines the knowable. Even more strongly, it determines the known. The deep essence of It is known. It is, end of story. What is not determines the inherently unknowable. The totally unknowable is tantamount to not existing.
Where is the origin of the primal entity located, i.e., where is Ground Zero?
Answer: In the eternal present.
The above five points do not cover the complete ontological paradigm of Parmenides. Like any ontologist worth his salt, Parmenides must provide the enveloping rationale for why the above points are necessary.
David Furley has honed in on a passage from the narration that attempts to explain the noyau of the argument, the raison d'être of It:
The last section of the Way of Truth is particularly difficult. Parmenides repeats his assertion that there is no not-being and there are no different degrees of being; what exists is equal to itself everywhere and reaches its limits everywhere. From this he concludes that it is "perfect from every angle, equally matched from the middle in every way, like the mass of a well-rounded ball" (Furley)
We see here Parmenides' attempt to explain First Classness, the central, all enveloping characteristic of rational reality. A world satisfying First Classness must be totally unconstrained in every way, the ultimate in perfection. It is here that resides the great challenge to ontology. This is the task confronting us. We have to understand such a world that is totally unconstrained with no one behind the scenes pulling strings, and no king pin calling the tune wether seated on high, low, in the middle, in or out of reality.
If there were to be hidden forces at work behind the scene, then a fundamental science of reality would be impossible. On the other hand however, if reality is left free to be dominated by the draconian requirement of the totally unconstrained system, then indeed it must be exactly that, a totally unconstrained system (the only constraint allowed) The iron laws of First Classness(FC) spring in to play, the laws of ontological fair play organise fair play. In this great riddle, there is only one answer and, as the goddess said, only one "unshaken heart of persuasive truth."
Reconciling the coming into being, the genesis of reality, with FC is not easy. The very notion of a determined beginning violates FC as this privileges the starting point entity from all others. FC does not allow privileged entities and there is nothing more privileged than coming first. Parmenides resolved that violation by saying that an entity at the beginning does not exist, as it no longer is. He then argued that it never could have existed, finally ending up with the formula of the only thing real is the eternal present and nothing changes.
It is interesting to look at how the Stoics resolved the problem, as they too adopted a doctrine based on FC. For the Stoics, the only immortal was Zeus. They were pantheists so the universe was the body of Zeus. The body changes, is born and dies away in the conflagration but Zeus stays immortal throughout the process. The universe had a beginning and eventually ended up in the conflagration. In this more complex scenario, avoiding the violation of FC becomes more difficult. The beginning and the end of the Cosmos in the conflagration become privileged moments, one preceding all that will exists and one succeeding, thus violating FC. The Stoic solution was that time was circular with the whole story exactly repeating itself the next time around. In this way there are no privileged points in time and FC is not violated. This Eternal Return solution retained many aspects of the Parmenidean solution. Bodies in the past did not exist, nor did those in the future. The only bodies that exist are those in the present. By eternal repetition of the cycle, nothing really changed and no state of being was irreconcilably privileged over any other. FC was respected.
Parmenides' allegory of the young man streaking across the heavens waved on by the veiled daughters of the Night, heading straight for the abode of the goddess evokes the image of a spermatozoid streaking to a rendezvous with the unfertilised egg. However Parmenides' does not allow the union to be consummated.
There will be no masculine principle uniting with the feminine principle in this scenario, despite the atmospherics being full of it. The closest we get to any explicit such union is at the level of logic: one proposition in the affirmative and the other in the negative and never the two shall meets. Parmenides pitched his paradigm at the loftiest level and really could not embrace any explicit masculine feminine union as this would imply an explicit beginning and so violate FC. For a work around for this conundrum, we have to wait for Empedocles.
In the meantime we understand that there are two ways of understanding reality, one is the Way of Truth and the other is the Way of Opinion. For Parmenides, the only repository of truth was in the One, a pureness of eternal, ungenerated Oneness. It is that unique Being that "neither was nor will be, because it is in its wholeness now, and only now." In truth only the One is.
For Parmenides "The only true reality is Eōn—pure, eternal, immutable, and indestructible Being, without any other qualification. Its characterizations can be only negative, expressions of exclusions, with no pretence of attributing some special quality to the reality of which one speaks" (Calogero, 2010) As for the Way of Opinion, this is the world of appearances, a misleading world of falsehood. It is this Being and only this Being that truly, objectively is. All else is illusory.
Parmenides provided a vivid image of how the very deepest reality could be comprehended. This image in useful to carry forward in one's mind in the development to follow.
Ontological Calculus of Empedocles to the Stoics
This is not a scholarly work. In writing about Empedocles and the Stoics, for example, we imply that this is the way they thought and expressed their ideas. Clearly this is not the case. Rather than being scholarly, our approach is to fundamentally reverse engineer ancient thinkers' concepts. As a consequence what we write is often more of what the ancients could have thought, and sometimes what they should have thought, if they remained true to their doctrines.
Keeping this in mind, we will now repeat the summary of Parmenides doctrine and adapt it to the next phase in the development of ancient physics. In order to develop the theory of the Four Elements, the initial structure of Parmenides must be pushed to the next stage. What follows is a brief summary of this next step, as seen from a modern perspective. The key idea is what we call ontological gender. It is this structure that explains how the fundamental starting point for our unifying science. The ancients got there first, but there is some cleaning up to do.
We have already considered these concepts in earlier sections, but here is yet another angle.
The Gender Paradigm
Answer: Any entity whatsoever.
Answer: Entity has the attribute of absolute non-specificity.
Comment: This attribute, that of absolute non-specificity, is an entity in its own right, in accordance with First Classness.
Answer: The opposition between what has the attribute and what is the attribute.
Comment: The entity that has the attribute determines feminine gender, the entity that is the attribute determines masculine gender. This is the definition of ontological gender. These two entities are different by gender but indistinguishable.
Answer: Only what is exists.
Comment: This follows Parmenides but adds some detail: Only what It, that entity of pure masculine gender, fundamentally exists. The pure feminine entity has something (the attribute of total non-specificity) but when it comes to whether it is, clearly it is not. Having something differs from being something. However, the pure feminine entity, although different, is indistinguishable from the pure masculine. Parmenides glossed over that point.
Answer: The location is that determined by the primal entity.
Comment: The whole Cosmos gyrates around this location. Thus, Ground Zero can be thought of as any location whatsoever.
This summary has added in some innovations that don'r belong to the ancients. However, it is in keeping with a strictly generic approach that the Stoics were pioneering.. The summary represents where they were heading more than where they were at.
Traditional sciences, what we call left side sciences, express all knowledge in terms of attributes of things. This is quite reasonable because it is impossible to directly know the thing that has the attribute. The knowledge of things is always indirectly achieved via attributes of things. Note also that in pure left side science, an attribute is not a proper thing as it is in pure right side science.
In our work we are endeavouring to develop the right side science that does not rely on any preconditions whatsoever. Harvesting attributes as a precondition for theorising is a fundamental left science activity, but not so for right side science. Thus, all the empirical attributes that abound in left side sciences are forbidden on the right side. If right side science is to have any attributes then it has to reason them into existence, not measure them. This reasoning process leads to the attribute par excellence, that of masculine gender.
Then comes the incredible aspect of right side science. This is the only attribute we need! All other attributes can be constructed from it or with it. We enter into the web of gender intrigue. The only guiding principle at our disposal is that of FC. FC demands that an attribute must be capable of being considered as an entity in its own right: In this context it becomes the masculine qua feminine MF. What is good for the gander is also good for the goose. The feminine entity must also enjoy the possibility of being considered as an attribute in its own right: It becomes the feminine qua masculine FM. Here we are starting to get compound gendered entities, depending on roleplaying. The other two combinations are the pure gendered entities qua themselves, notably the masculine qua masculine MM and the feminine qua feminine FF.
In the process we have advanced from the primordial Parmenides paradigm through to the Doctrine of the Four Roots of Empedocles and later developed into the four-element doctrine of the Stoics.
There are four elements that have mixed gender MF, FF, FM, and MM entities, corresponding respectively to expansive air, water, converging water and fire.
These binary terms can be thought of as noun adjective pairs where F and M can play the role of noun or adjective, depending on their position in the pair. These terms are the elementary terms of the generic code. The genetic code is the biological instance of the generic code where the four letters, using RNA notation, are A, U, G and C respectively.
As a side note, it is interesting to look for traces of generic structure in natural languages. English, because of its huge vocabulary and penchant for labelling things does not offer fertile ground. However, French is a good place to look as it retains a strong version of gender typing. In fact it is rather pure in this regard as it even allocates gender to the names of countries. Ignoring gender constructs though and just considers the noun adjective example:
which means a true story. Reversing the noun adjective order gives
une vraie histoire
which means a made up story, providing a certain kind of negation of the first construct.
In the generic code, reversing MF to give FM produces an even more dramatic kind of negation, as will be seen. MF and FM, or air and water in the old book, are really like chalk and cheese.
D. J. H. Moore
djhm
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Genetic Code and Gender
Epicureans, Stoics and the Code

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text:
<?php
App::uses('Comment', 'Model');

/**
 * Comment Test Case
 *
 */
class CommentTest extends CakeTestCase {

/**
 * Fixtures
 *
 * @var array
 */
	public $fixtures = array(
		'app.comment',
		'app.post',
		'app.project',
		'app.user',
		'app.projects_user'
	);

/**
 * setUp method
 *
 * @return void
 */
	public function setUp() {
		parent::setUp();
		$this->Comment = ClassRegistry::init('Comment');
	}

/**
 * tearDown method
 *
 * @return void
 */
	public function tearDown() {
		unset($this->Comment);

		parent::tearDown();
	}

}


In Future Sacred, Julie J. Morley provides a brand new standpoint at the human connection to the cosmos through unveiling the attached creativity and sacred intelligence of nature. She rejects the "survival of the fittest" narrative-the concept that survival calls for strife-and provides symbiosis and cooperation as nature's trail ahead. She presentations how an more and more complicated global calls for more and more complicated awareness. Our survival will depend on embracing "complexity awareness," working out ourselves as a part of nature, in addition to when it comes to nature as sacred.


Tonight seems a good time to set the record straight on a pet peeve of mine. It involves the distinction between toasting and cheers.
It hurts my ears to hear people say, "Cheers me!" or "Get your glass, we're going to cheers." No. You're not. You're going to toast. Saying "Cheers!" is the toast. I don't know when the confusion started. I suspect it was when we became inundated with the Housewives of Little Class.
Consuming vast amounts of "champs" means they might have money but not the right vernacular for toasting. Perhaps the ladies of Bravo have leaked their poor vocabulary to the masses.
Go forth and correct. Let's put "cheers" in it's proper place. Salute, Cin Cin, and Gëzuar!


Santa Barbara, CA, November 4, 2014— Hospice of Santa Barbara (HSB) is pleased to announce the appointment of David Selberg as Chief Executive Officer. Selberg will assume his duties in mid-January 2015. Selberg comes to HSB with over 25 years of nonprofit experience in Santa Barbara County.
In early 2014, HSB began a nationwide search for a new CEO. HSB's Board of Directors engaged Morris & Berger, a renowned executive search firm with a specialty practice that reaches across the nonprofit sector. For over seven months, HSB's Board of Directors and Santa Barbara community philanthropic leaders narrowed a pool of over 300 qualified candidates to one candidate who possesses the experience and expertise in leadership, strategy development, financial management and community relationships needed to support HSB's mission.
For the last decade, Selberg has served as Executive Director of Pacific Pride Foundation, the Central Coast's LGBT and HIV/AIDS organization. While serving in this capacity, Selberg led strategic development planning and donor engagement resulting in raising over $900,000 annually, and he demonstrated commitment to building collaborative, community relationship and partnerships.
Selberg is not new to Hospice of Santa Barbara. During his early years at Pacific Pride Foundation, Selberg worked closely with HSB on delivery of care to those dying of AIDS.
Selberg is a graduate of UCSB with a bachelor's degree in liberal arts. With his many years of nonprofit human service experience, Selberg has built partnerships with schools, law enforcement, businesses, government and nonprofits. He currently serves on the Santa Barbara County HIV Care Council and the California Planning Group in Sacramento representing mid-size counties with human service funding priorities across the state. Selberg also volunteers for a variety of organizations in the community, with a commitment since 2000 as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) working with high needs children in the foster care system.
Hospice of Santa Barbara "volunteers" its free professional counseling and care management services to more than 700 children and adults every month who are experiencing the impact of a life-threatening illness, or grieving the death of a loved one. Hospice of Santa Barbara is also present on 11 local middle and high school campuses to work with children and teens who are grieving the loss of a loved one. For more information about Hospice of Santa Barbara, including volunteer opportunities, call (805) 563-8820 or visit www.hospiceofsantabarbara.org. Find Hospice of Santa Barbara on Facebook and Twitter.


text:
import { Mongo } from 'meteor/mongo';
import sum from 'hash-sum';

class PublicationIdManager {
  constructor(){
    this.oidToHashMap = {};
    this.hashToOidMap = {};
  }

  getOid = (doc) => {
    const oidKey = sum(doc._id);
    if (!this.hashToOidMap[oidKey]) {
      this.hashToOidMap[oidKey] = new Mongo.ObjectID()._str;
      this.oidToHashMap[this.hashToOidMap[oidKey]] = oidKey;
    }
    return this.hashToOidMap[oidKey];
  }

  removeOid = (oid) => {
    const hash = this.oidToHashMap[oid];
    delete this.hashToOidMap[hash];
    delete this.oidToHashMap[oid];
  }

  reset = () => {
    this.oidToHashMap = {};
    this.hashToOidMap = {};
  }
}

export default PublicationIdManager;


text:
ZTE (Android)
ZTE are having a competition to win a nice new Grand X
James Pearce August 1, 2012
ZTE UK have launched a Facebook video production competition with rapper Professor Green. OK, he keeps popping up every time ZTE is mentioned recently. I guess he just really likes ZTE, or something…
Well anyway ZTE are offering you the chance to win a brand new Grand X (oh and £1000 cash) in exchange for a 20 second video promoting the Grand X. Sounds easy right?
There are a few guidelines for the competition, you have to have a specific Professor Green track as the sound bed and finish it with what sounds like a supplied ending. There is more info at the ZTE Facebook here.
Below is the press release from ZTE. Good luck people.
31 July 2012, London, UK – ZTE Corporation ("ZTE") (H share stock code: 0763.HK / A share stock code: 000063.SZ), a leading global provider of telecommunications network equipment and mobile devices, has launched a video production competition on Facebook in partnership with the ambassador for ZTE's Grand X handset, British rapper Professor Green and online creative community Talenthouse.
Film-makers, video editors, motion graphic designers and anyone keen to break into TV/ film production are invited to create a 20 second promotional ad for the ZTE Grand X smartphone using a specific Professor Green track as the sound-bed and featuring the Grand X 'end-slate'. The ad should capture ZTE's slogan for the Grand X – A World of Entertainment In Your Hands.
The winning prize is a two day filming experience with renowned film-maker and Professor Green's close friend and official cameraman Rufus Exton, £1,000 in cash and a ZTE Grand X handset.
Entrants will have access to a range of video and still image assets and will be encouraged to incorporate their own original HD material and must upload their video to ZTE's Facebook page.
The winning ad, as selected by Professor Green, Rufus Exton and ZTE using the social votes as a guide, will be shown across Professor Green's/ ZTEs official channels. The winner will also have their ad featured across ZTE and Professor Green official channels including websites, You Tube, Twitter and Facebook pages.
ZTE wants to encourage talent at a grass roots level and this competition gives talented individuals the chance to win a once in a lifetime opportunity, working with Professor Green and his creative team. ZTE is the world's 4th largest mobile phone manufacturer, supplying innovative smart phones that provide a world of entertainment in consumers' hands.
The ZTE Grand X Smartphone, which launched in the UK last week, brings high-end mobile video and gaming experiences to value-conscious consumers looking for quality mobile entertainment.
"At ZTE, we have a passion for innovation and creativity, which is why we are so supportive of fresh, raw talent. As a result of our partnership with Professor Green, we are able to give creative individuals the opportunity to showcase their best work. As part of this exciting competition, we're looking for someone with a unique vision!" Wu Sa, Director of mobile device operations, ZTE (UK) Ltd.
Competition entries must be submitted by 3 September, with the voting period taking place 4 September to 11 September 2012. The winners and runners up will be announced on 25 September.
For more details, visit: ZTE UK Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/zteUK


These are 4 of my 7 grandchildren. I started teaching them swimming back in early May, two days a week.
At that time, they did not know how to swim very well and all were afraid of the deep end to some degree.
In 5+ months they have gone from timid water bugs to being competitive in all 4 strokes. Yes, I said ALL four. Freestyle, backstroke, breast and butterfly. Yes, butterfly! They have become fish.
They all love swimming now and are disappointed when we happen to miss even one day. They use kick boards for the first half hour of every practice, then for an hour we work on each stroke and then practice flips or turns depending on the stroke.
I have a private pool at my disposal that I swim laps in. At one practice we invited other children their own age that already compete on other swimming teams to come and swim with us for the day. My guys were just as fast if not faster in many events. I can not believe how fast they progressed in just one summer.
I had them watch women Olympic swimming events from 2012 Olympics on UTube. That has inspired them in big ways. They now know girls can compete on a very high level in sports and want to do the same.
You have to understand, the three girls in this photograph come from a home that is very cerebral in its approach to raising their children. They are homed schooled by a very smart mother and are very proficient in the arts, music, theater and language. Each one plays at least one music instrument. They all perform in a number of plays every year. They are way ahead of most children when it comes to school. Who teaches their children Latin? My daughter-in-law did and the kids loved it. They now know where many of our root words come from in the English language.
When it came to sports, it was non existent in their lives outside paddling around in their own pool at home. Its been amazing how far and fast they progressed not only for me but the rest of the family. Swimming has been the perfect vehicle for introducing physical activity into their lives. I am stoked!
I have to give thanks to the high school swimming team that I was apart of and had me competing on a high level when I was in school. Waukegan swimming at both East and West campus in 1967-1971. I competed in freestyle and butterfly in school. Waukegan is a town 50 miles north of Chicago, Illinois on Lake Michigan.
Who would have thought that something I learned to do at the age of 17, 40+ years ago would give me something I would share and teach to my grandchildren?
Its hard to share physical things in Arizona in the summer because it is so hot but swimming is perfect.
It has truly been a blessing this summer for me and my family. The fall this year has come way to soon for them and me.


Carmen, I cannot thank you enough for your help and inspiration in the last couple of months. I had been stuck in a rut for many years and was a very unhappy person heading towards some serious health problems. Meeting you and training with you has changed my life for the better. Not only have I lost weight and become fitter and healthier, but the training has changed my outlook on so many things. My short term goal of losing weight has evolved into changes that I plan to make for the rest of my life. Your inspiration has made me a better, happier person, and cannot wait to come back!
About a year ago I was feeling low and really unhappy about my weight and general fitness.? I had tried many times before to get fit and the default option for me had always been to join a gym.? The gym option had never really worked for me though.? I always started with great intentions, motivation and commitment but it never lasted.? I decided that I needed to try something else.? I found Carmen's website and contacted her to arrange a free introductory session where she assessed my physical wellbeing which involved putting me through my paces.? At the end of the first session it was clear Carmen had a clear understanding of my current fitness and the objectives that I wanted to achieve.? Carmen developed an individual plan for our 1 to 1 sessions but also drew up a plan for my solo running sessions.? Carmen also gave me excellent dietary advice, she really took ownership of my goals and we had regular communication via email and on the phone where she would check on my progress and general wellbeing.? With Carmen's expertise and guidance along with my commitment, in less than a year I had lost 3 stone and became?significantly fitter with the confidence to attend organised runs.? My goal for the next year is to continue with Carmen as my mentor and elevate my athletic ability to the next level.? I could not have achieved my goals without Carmen pushing me, consoling me and mentoring me along the way ensuring my motivation levels always stay high by reminding me of why I am doing this and what I had already achieved.? Carmen believed in me at the beginning even if I didn't really believe…well not at first!? Thank you so much Carmen, I owe you everything.
I can't really thank you enough for the help you've given me over the past few months.
I've never really enjoyed exercise before, and with all the medical problems it's been very easy not to do any. Following the surgery I was determined to get mobile again, and I've been amazed at the progress I've made with you. Even family and friends have commented on the improvement. You've helped boost my confidence and believe that I can do things.
The sessions have always been fun, I've looked forward to them, and felt so much better afterwards. You've pushed me but I've always felt in control, and had such fun with you half the time I never realised I was being pushed!
I found Carmen through doing a search on the Internet and then booked a series of massages with her. I have very tight calves and was having problems with a long standing lower back ache. Carmen's massage was great as it was a deep tissue massage and was actually getting to the problem within my back, which previous masseuses have never been able to. She always finds the niggles in my legs which seem to be an ongoing problem with much stretching and exercising will hopefully keep at bay. I have found Carmen to be very professional, very knowledgeable and although never a pain free massage it has always been exactly what I needed. And thanks for all the useful hints and stretching exercises that you have told me about too. I will be very sad when I have to move in March as I know as a therapist myself it is very hard to find a good masseuse.
I feel much fitter and healthier since I have been working out with Carmen. I noticed a marked improvement in a relatively short space of time. Carmen puts real thought and preparation into our sessions and we do a huge range of workouts from boxing to hulahooping! Carmen always takes the time to 'check-in' with me, making sure that the sessions are reaching my goals and that I am happy with the techniques and exercises we are using. She is very well educated both generally and particularly in exercise and physiology – making sure I stretch and exercise my muscles correctly. She is very flexible and works to fit around my schedule. I have had many exercise teachers in the past and I would rank Carmen as the best. She is friendly, approachable and easy to get along with, taking her cues from you as to how you like to be motivated. She is an inspiration – a really interesting person with a wide range of interests and naturally she is super fit, but most of all she is FUN!!
2010 I decided the time was needed for me to get fit, after searching the internet I couldnt believe my luck I found what appeared to be the right personnel trainer for me. A women with the right qualifications and at very reasonable rates.
The moment I spoke to carmen I knew I would hit it off straight away. First impressions were correct. On your first session you will be assessed and asked what you want to get out of having a personnel trainer. You will then get a programme tailored to your needs. Then at regular intervals your fitness / diet will be assessed. No two sessions are ever the same.
I found Carmen to be a friendly, polite, and to the point, trainer and i would recommend her to a friend.


text:
Shoni may refer to:

Places
 Shoni Bay, Red Sea Riviera, Egypt
 Shaughnessy Village ("Shoni" for short), Montreal, Quebec, Canada

People
 Shōni clan, a family of Japanese nobles
 Shoni Jones, Welsh soccer player
 Shoni Schimmel (born 1992), U.S. basketball player
 Shoni Sguborfawr (1811–1858), Welsh criminal

See also

 Shani (disambiguation)
 Shonia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Review posted May 12, 2013.
Collier Books, 1986. First published in 1974. 131 pages.
This book is the third in the Dark Is Rising sequence, which I'm rereading in honor of Susan Cooper winning the 2012 Margaret A. Edwards Award.
I love that in Greenwitch the ordinary children from Over Sea, Under Stone get to come back into the story and have a crucial part. Will, seventh son of the seventh son, who's discovered he's immortal, doesn't seem like he has as much challenge once he got his powers as an Old One.
But the grail that they discovered has been stolen from the museum. And I love that Jane, Simon, and Barney have a part to play in its recovery. They go back to Trewissick, meet a sinister stranger, and Jane gets to witness the making of the Greenwitch -- usually only reserved for locals. Jane does a small act of kindness that has big repercussions.
In her Margaret Edwards speech, Susan Cooper talked about a sense of place, and that's something she does so well here. You feel what it's like to be kids in Trewissick, surrounded by ancient magic.
She was high up on the side of the harbour, overlooking the boats and jetties, the wharf piled with boxes and lobsterpots, and the little canning factory. All the life of the busy harbour was thrumming there below her, and out to the left, beyond the harbour wall and the dark arm of land called Kemare Head, lay the sea. It was a grey sea now, speckled with white. Jane's gaze moved in again from the flat ocean horizon, and she looked straight across to the sloping road on the opposite side of the harbour, and saw the tall narrow house in which they had stayed the summer before. The Grey House. Everything had begun there.


As he left the Saras offices this evening, Inter Milan president Massimo Moratti once again answered the questions put to him by journalists about the next Inter coach.
President, did Marco Branca and Piero Ausilio give you some good news regarding your next coach?
Will you have things sorted out by the end of the week?
We haven't been able to figure out who your favourite coach is yet. Is it Guus Hiddink perhaps?
Does Laurent Blanc fit the identikit of your ideal coach?
Has there been any contact with Gian Piero Gasperini?
How important is it that a coach really wants to get the Inter job?
We get the impression that it's still a straight choice between Gasperini and Sinisa Mihajlovic.


Thank you for clicking on my page. I have joined the CAS activity, Bator Tabor, which is a charity where we will be raising money for chronically ill children; we will be raising the money by running the Sandefjord marathon, and by doing other self-chosen ways to raise money. This is my first time participating in a charity program, and I am very pleased about being in this CAS. Our goal is to raise 50 000kr, and we would appreciate it if you would want to help us with reaching our goal. By supporting Bator Tabor, you can help children who do not have the opportunities to do what they want, and give an opportunity for them to do something they might never be able to do.


text:
Q: Arduino fio avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x00 I have tried EVERYTHING to make this work, including replacing the board.
I have an arduino fio
I am attempting to upload a sketch to it (just a blink to validate it works)
with an FTDI to USB cable
I am using Arduino 1.5 BETA and I also tried Arduino 1.0.5
Neither of which worked and resulted in the same error.
I attempted to use a different comp with a fresh install that resulted in the same error.
I updated my FTDI driver to 2.0.8.30 still the same error
I dismantled the FTDI wire and re-soldered it to new wires to verify it wasn't a bad connection.
I attempted setting the baud rate in device manager to 9600,57600, and 115200
I tried pressing the reset button as I uploaded the sketch
I tried changing COMS
I tried plugging an Arduino Uno in, validating that it works no problem. Then I plugged the fio back in. Got the same error again same error.
This is the second board I have gotten that does this. It's not the board. What the hell is wrong with this software. I shouldn't have to work this hard to upload a freaking sketch.
IDE output
avrdude: Version 5.11, compiled on Sep  2 2011 at 19:38:36
         Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/
         Copyright (c) 2007-2009 Joerg Wunsch

         System wide configuration file is "C:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino/hardware/tools/avr/etc/avrdude.conf"

         Using Port                    : COM4
         Using Programmer              : arduino
         Overriding Baud Rate          : 57600
avrdude: Send: 0 [30]   [20]
avrdude: Send: 0 [30]   [20]
avrdude: Send: 0 [30]   [20]
avrdude: Recv:
avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x00

avrdude done.  Thank you.

And yes, I have tried restarting both the IDE and the computer(s).

A: So I went out to microcenter today and bought ANOTHER new arduino fio. I also bought a usb to FTDI breakout board instead of a cable.
For ish and giggles I attempted to load a sketch onto my old arduino with the new breakout board. Worked instantly.
5 Hours wasted and lesson learned. Try a new cable if you get this error.

A: I had the same issue in windows 7.
I had to:

*

*open the FTDI USB to Serial device in the device manager of windows.

*Open the properties dialog and access the advanced options of the FTDI device.

*Enable the option "Set Rts on close"

The issue was than the RTS line that is used to reset the AVR and thus call the bootloader was never used and thus the bootloader was never called....

A: While uploding the codes from Arduino IDE on your computer, please pull out Arduino card's RX pin 0. You will get success code uploading. Plug out RX pin and try.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Want to get started with portable retro gaming? Check out these kits!
Using a Raspberry Pi and Mycroft, it's easy to cobble together an artificial intelligence (AI) voice assistant. Here's how to make your own virtual assistant with Mycroft!
Raspberry Pi boards offer loads of uses for do-it-yourself (DIY) projects. One of the easiest and most gratifying is creating a retro gaming machine.
The Raspberry Pi is a beefy yet tiny single-board computer. Learn how to make a DIY Spotify and make your own Raspberry Pi music server!


text:
The Author/Investigator
We will soon be adding many resources for Stalking the Herd. Check back soon!
"Finally, we have the definitive study and expose of the disturbing phenomenon of animal mutilations. informative, eye-opening, unbiased and terrifying in its implications, Stalking the Herd is not just recommended reading, it's absolutely vital reading. After digesting its pages, you may never want to eat another burger again."
—Nick Redfern, author, The Real Men in Black
"Christopher O'Brien is one of those rare researchers who leave no stone unturned in his search of the truth. Stalking the Herd is a monumental work demonstrating that mysterious cattle and animal mutilations are deeply embedded in human history, with some very strange and shocking twists. O'Brien sets a new bar on the subject, lifting it beyond the ufology arena that has confined it for too long. There are still UFO connections aplenty here, but much more. This is a superb work, and O'Brien has done an amazing job pulling together a mountain of information."
—Rosemary Ellen Guiley, author, The Djinn Connection
"I so respect ad admire Christopher O'Brien for his decades of exploring the cattle mutilation enigma in many "mysterious valleys." His excellent Stalking the Herd is a highly documented, totally fascinating research report. Carefully, painstakingly, he analyzes every theory for the phenomena—E.T's, Satanists, mad scientists, natural predators, and scavengers with preternatural skills. The solution O'Brien offers in conclusion may leave the readers somewhat startled as he explores a dark closet of American culture."
—Brad Steiger, co-author, Real Encounters, Different Dimensions, and Otherworldly Beings
"Christopher O'Brien has been investigating the strange mystery of unexplained animal mutilations for a long time and Stalking the Herd is the culmination of his years of research. While reading this fascinating book, I was amazed at how comprehensive it is, how meticulous its attention to detail, and yet how engaging. I could not put it down. This is the definitive book on the subject, showing how the simple dismissals don't fly, how strange these mutilations really are, and how intelligent public policy is needed to deal with this problem."
—Richard Dolan, author, UFOs and the National Security State
Copyright © 2014 Christopher O'Brien


text:
John William Mahoney (December 28, 1926 – September 30, 2006) was a lawyer, judge and politician in Newfoundland, Canada. He represented Harbour Main in the Newfoundland House of Assembly from 1966 to 1971.

The son of Thomas Mahoney and Anne Victoria O'Toole, he was born in St. John's and was educated in Conception Harbour, at Saint Bonaventure's College and at Memorial University College. He was called to the Newfoundland bar in 1951, practised privately and then served as prosecutor for the Department of Justice from 1953 to 1966. In 1964, he was named Queen's Counsel.

Mahoney married Carmel J. Galway; the couple had six children.

He was elected to the Newfoundland assembly in 1966 and served in the provincial cabinet as Minister of Justice. He was defeated when he ran for reelection in 1971. He returned to the practice of law and then, in 1975, was named to the trial division of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland. In 1982, he was named to the Appeals division of the Supreme Court.

He died in St. John's at the age of 79.

Mahoney was an uncle of former Newfoundland premier Danny Williams.

References

1926 births
2006 deaths
Judges in Newfoundland and Labrador
Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador MHAs
Members of the Executive Council of Newfoundland and Labrador
Politicians from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador


text:
La centrale thermique d'Altbach est une centrale thermique du Bade-Wurtemberg en Allemagne.

Altbach
Économie du Bade-Wurtemberg


Leicester City Development Squad striker Harry Panayiotou has been named as the Barclays U21 Premier League Player of the Month for March.
The promising frontman has scored six goals in his last six games in all competitions and has been pivotal in the Under-21s' fine form in recent weeks, where they suffered just one defeat in their last nine games in all competitions.
The Academy graduate pipped fellow Fox Jak McCourt to the accolade and also saw off stern competition from Aston Villa's Rushian Hepburn-Murphy, Fulham's Ange-Freddy Plumain, Liverpool's Sergi Canos and Norwich City's Remi Matthews.
Harry scored the winning goal in a 1-0 victory over current U21 Premier League Champions Chelsea last month, before netting a brace against Sunderland at King Power Stadium in the following game.
The St. Kitts and Nevis international was chosen ahead of all the players in Division One and Two of the U21 Premier League, which includes 24 teams.
The award is designed to recognise the next generation of footballing stars. It coincides with Barclays' own work to encourage the next generation of fans, which will see thousands of tickets and unique football experiences given away via the website.
A shortlist of players from the Barclays U21 Premier League was chosen based on statistics for March, and then a final winner was selected by the Premier League Club Support Managers, all of whom are former professional players who work with the club academies and watch several league matches per month.
A winner will be selected every month for the rest of the season, as well as the U21 Premier League Player of the Season being unveiled in May.


text:
The Best Things to See in Sweden between Stockholm and Gothenburg
By Anastasiya
Guides on the Internet usually recommend seeing Stockholm, Uppsala, and Abisko National Park in Sweden, but the more we travel here, the more we admire the number of other absolutely amazing attractions. Last weekend, we travelled from Stockholm to Gothenburg by car, and, by the recommendation of a colleague, visited several attractions on the way. We did not expect these 470 kilometers in between two cities to be so rich in things to see; three days were not enough to cover all we wanted. In this post, we tell about the attractions in-between Stockholm and Gothenburg, because both cities deserve (many) separate posts.
The most convenient way to visit all the attractions is to make a circle following different routes on the way to and from Gothenburg.
From Stockholm to Gothenburg
Wooden town of Askersund
Askersund is one of many Swedish wooden towns, the most famous being the former capital of Sweden Sigtuna. Unlike Sigtuna, Askersund is not full of people; like Sigtuna, it offers a pleasant walk along the lake shore, an old church with a graveyard, and a lot of wooden architecture.
Most famous is of course the falu red type of wooden houses – a Swedish specialty. Swedes started to paint their houses in this color at least as early as in the 16th century, and it became especially popular in the 19th century when peasants started to use this color too. "Swedish red" paint for houses also became widely used in Estonia, especially in the places of Swedish settlements.
Hjo wooden town
Hjo is also known as a wooden town, but in addition to wooden architecture it offers several other nice things. First, there is a long pier allowing for a joyful stroll near the lake.
More than that, at the lake shore, there is a great place for ice-cream, pancakes, and waffles. It is really hard to choose!
In the tourist information center, they have a clock constructed by Harald Larsson in 1945-1950. It shows local and world time, calendar (days, weeks and weekends), and even astronomical information. Harald Larsson lived in Hjo since when he was six. He got the idea to construct the clock after his visit to Lund and seeing astronomical clock there.
Varnhem Abbey
Varnhey Abbey promises the encounter with the thrilling history of Vikings, Sweden's Middle Ages monks, and the reign of the Swedish mobility at the height of the Swedish Empire. What you see is primarily the ruins of the biggest Middle Ages Swedish monastery as well as a church still standing next to them.
This was probably our first time to see beyond the altar where the burial sites are placed.
Even if you are not up for history in general or Middle Ages in particular, Varnhey Abbey is so well-preserved and caters so many interests that you should not miss it. Also, this is another example of the perfect Swedish tourist infrastructure: they have a very nice café and picnic areas, interesting descriptions of what the lifestyle was like here, and the herb garden still revealing the selection of the monks' medicinal herbs.
Åsle Tå village
Åsle Tå is a small Skansen-type museum depicting the way of life typical of the industrial poor settlement in this region. "Tå"s, settlements inhabited mainly by the landless poor and the elderly, were once found in many places in Sweden. However, just like with the stories about poor Sweden we read in Ikea museum, you will hardly find the signs of true poverty here: the houses might be tiny, yet, they are cute and not falling apart.
Every stuga (house) has a description to it with the account of what family lived there; although many houses were brought here from other settlements, they functioned as real dwellings till the middle of 20th century.
Skara city
Skara may seem very small, but it is actually one of the oldest Swedish towns.
Can you spot Ikea mouse on the Skara cathedral altar?
The notable buildings of Skara include the theater and the water tower.
Sparlösa Runestone
The stone is one of the oldest in Sweden and second famous after Rök stone. Sparlösa stone was used as building material in a church before being rediscovered in the 20th century. It has references to some mysterious and great battle nobody knows about nowadays.
After an intensive day of visiting these attractions we stayed in the countryside in Alingsås, 50 kilometers before Gothenburg. Our neighbors were hares and deer.
On the second day we visited Gothenburg and Volvo museum. On the third day returned back to Stockholm, following another route and visiting many more attractions.
From Gothenburg to Stockholm
Borås city
We only had a couple of hours in Borås, which is a pity because this city deserves much more time.
The first thing to explore is Borås city art. In the tourist information center, you may find a map with which you may have a quest for Borås graffiti.
Borås is a city of outdoor sculptures, such as a huge bronze version of Pinocchio called Walking to Borås by the American pop artist Jim Dine.
One of the most prominent sculptures of the old town reminds of another identity of Borås. The city is known for its textile production, it has a textile museum, and main H&M headquarters are based here.
Gränna town
The town of Gränna is known for its red-and-white candies and Polar Exploration Museum.
It is also a gateway to the island Tunnerstad in the lake Vättern.
Alvastra Abbey
In the 12th century a group of Cistercian monks came to this place from France to start the first Cistercian monastery in the Nordic countries. They came by the invitation of the king and the queen. It was the Catholic era and to fund a monastery building was the best way to save one's soul. Powerful families also donated riches in return for burial in the Monastery and to have Mass and prayers said for their souls. During the Reformation of 1527, the Crown confiscated everything and closed the monastery. Alvastra ruins now neighbor the farm, and both are visited by tourists.
In the Middle Ages, Vadstena was a town of particular importance for the kings in Sweden: it was the seat of the influential Brigittine order, on the route to Southern Sweden and Danish border. The harbor was busy. Many pilgrims visited the church and the abbey. Vadstena castle was built in 15-16th century, intended primarily as a defensive fortress.
The town now surrounding it is very nice to have a stroll around.
The Rök Runestone
This runestone is the most famous and features the longest inscription found. Because of this, the stone is considered to be the first example of written Swedish literature.
Air Force Museum
Along with Ikea Museum, Air Force Museum is still our favorite in Sweden. Read more about it in our earlier post.
Although we woke up early and travelled till sunset every day on this trip, it was still really hard to see everything we had planned. For instance, Vadstena and Borås cities offer so much and we had so little time to see it. Because of this, it is possible to extend the trip to 4 or even 5 days, and the car is essential to do it so that not to waste precious time on public transport.
architecturehistoryislandslakesmuseumsnaturereligionshopping
A Weekend in Serbia: A Two-Day Trip Around Belgrade
Golden Circle (Triangle) in Iceland
Bratislava: Prague in miniature?


text:
Q: Net-SNMP data persist how to store data net-SNMP config file if persist the data by using read_config function. Is there any format or syntax for storing data into /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf file.
as per code, it starts data with '['.


text:
========================
Salt 0.9.3 Release Notes
========================

:release: 2011-11-05

Salt 0.9.3 is finally arrived. This is another big step forward for Salt, new
features range from proper FreeBSD support to fixing issues seen when
attaching a minion to a master over the Internet.

The biggest improvements in 0.9.3 though can be found in the state system, it
has progressed from something ready for early testers to a system ready to
compete with platforms such as Puppet and Chef. The backbone of the state
system has been greatly refined and many new features are available.

Download!
---------

The Salt source can be downloaded from PyPI:

https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/s/salt/salt-0.9.3.tar.gz

For instructions on how to set up Salt please see the :ref:`installation`
instructions.

New Features
------------

WAN Support
```````````

Recently more people have been testing Salt minions connecting to Salt Masters
over the Internet. It was found that Minions would commonly loose their
connection to the master when working over the internet. The minions can now
detect if the connection has been lost and reconnect to the master, making
WAN connections much more reliable.

State System Fixes
```````````````````

Substantial testing has gone into the state system and it is ready for real
world usage. A great deal has been added to the documentation for states and
the modules and functions available to states have been cleanly documented.

A number of State System bugs have also been founds and repaired, the output
from the state system has also been refined to be extremely clear and concise.

Error reporting has also been introduced, issues found in sls files will now
be clearly reported when executing Salt States.

Extend Declaration
``````````````````

The Salt States have also gained the ``extend`` declaration. This declaration
allows for states to be cleanly modified in a post environment. Simply said,
if there is an apache.sls file that declares the apache service, then another
sls can include apache and then extend it:

.. code-block:: yaml

    include:
      - apache

    extend:
      apache:
        service:
          - require:
            - pkg: mod_python

    mod_python:
      pkg:
        - installed

The notable behavior with the extend functionality is that it literally extends
or overwrites a declaration set up in another sls module. This means that Salt
will behave as though the modifications were made directly to the apache sls.
This ensures that the apache service in this example is directly tied to all
requirements.

Highstate Structure Specification
`````````````````````````````````

This release comes with a clear specification of the Highstate data structure
that is used to declare Salt States. This specification explains everything
that can be declared in the Salt SLS modules.

The specification is extremely simple, and illustrates how Salt has been able
to fulfill the requirements of a central configuration manager within a simple
and easy to understand format and specification.

SheBang Renderer Switch
```````````````````````

It came to our attention that having many renderers means that there may be a
situation where more than one State Renderer should be available within a
single State Tree.

The method chosen to accomplish this was something already familiar to
developers and systems administrators, a SheBang. The Python State Renderer
displays this new capability.

Python State Renderer
`````````````````````

Until now Salt States could only be declared in yaml or json using Jinja or
Mako. A new, very powerful, renderer has been added, making it possible to
write Salt States in pure Python:

.. code-block:: python

    #!py

    def run():
        """
        Install the python-mako package
        """
        return {"include": ["python"], "python-mako": {"pkg": ["installed"]}}

This renderer is used by making a run function that returns the Highstate data
structure. Any capabilities of Python can be used in pure Python sls modules.

This example of a pure Python sls module is the same as this example in yaml:

.. code-block:: yaml

    include:
      - python

    python-mako:
      pkg:
        - installed

FreeBSD Support
```````````````

Additional support has been added for FreeBSD, this is Salt's first branch out
of the Linux world and proves the viability of Salt on non-Linux platforms.

Salt remote execution already worked on FreeBSD, and should work without issue
on any Unix-like platform. But this support comes in the form of package
management and user support, so Salt States also work on FreeBSD now.

The new freebsdpkg module provides package management support for FreeBSD
and the new pw_user and pw_group provide user and group management.

Module and State Additions
--------------------------

Cron Support
````````````

Support for managing the system crontab has been added, declaring a cron state
can be done easily:

.. code-block:: yaml

    date > /tmp/datestamp:
      cron:
        - present
        - user: fred
        - minute: 5
        - hour: 3

File State Additions
````````````````````

The file state has been given a number of new features, primarily the
directory, recurse, symlink, and absent functions.

file.directory
    Make sure that a directory exists and has the right permissions.

    .. code-block:: yaml

        /srv/foo:
          file:
            - directory
            - user: root
            - group: root
            - mode: 1755

file.symlink
    Make a symlink.

    .. code-block:: yaml

        /var/lib/www:
          file:
            - symlink
            - target: /srv/www
            - force: True

file.recurse
    The recurse state function will recursively download a directory on the
    master file server and place it on the minion. Any change in the files on
    the master will be pushed to the minion. The recurse function is very
    powerful and has been tested by pushing out the full Linux kernel source.

    .. code-block:: yaml

        /opt/code:
          file:
            - recurse
            - source: salt://linux

file.absent
    Make sure that the file is not on the system, recursively deletes
    directories, files, and symlinks.

    .. code-block:: yaml

        /etc/httpd/conf.d/somebogusfile.conf:
          file:
            - absent

Sysctl Module and State
```````````````````````

The sysctl module and state allows for sysctl components in the kernel to be
managed easily. the sysctl module contains the following functions:

sysctl.show
    Return a list of sysctl parameters for this minion

sysctl.get
    Return a single sysctl parameter for this minion

sysctl.assign
    Assign a single sysctl parameter for this minion

sysctl.persist
    Assign and persist a simple sysctl parameter for this minion

The sysctl state allows for sysctl parameters to be assigned:

.. code-block:: yaml

    vm.swappiness:
      sysctl:
        - present
        - value: 20

Kernel Module Management
````````````````````````

A module for managing Linux kernel modules has been added. The new functions
are as follows:

kmod.available
    Return a list of all available kernel modules

kmod.check_available
    Check to see if the specified kernel module is available

kmod.lsmod
    Return a dict containing information about currently loaded modules

kmod.load
    Load the specified kernel module

kmod.remove
    Unload the specified kernel module

The kmod state can enforce modules be either present or absent:

.. code-block:: yaml

    kvm_intel:
      kmod:
        - present

Ssh Authorized Keys
```````````````````
The ssh_auth state can distribute ssh authorized keys out to minions. Ssh
authorized keys can be present or absent.

.. code-block:: yaml

    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:
      ssh_auth:
        - present
        - user: frank
        - enc: dsa
        - comment: 'Frank's key'


text:
Truitjieskraal Road (Cederberg)
The Truitjieskraal Road forms part of an escape route via the Kromrivier farm and Kromrivier Pass, when the Matjiesrivier is in flood. It's a fairly rough gravel road, which only allows a speed of around 20 kph. The route is 8,5 km long and climbs 108 vertical metres over that distance, most of it over the first two kilometres, with some stiff gradients of 1:8.
After that the road meanders between beautiful weathered Cederberg sandstone formations over a wide mountain plateau amongst pristine fynbos and proteas and terminates at the bridge crossing at the well known Kromrivier farm. The route is doable in a normal sedan car, providing speed is kept low. This road gives access to the Truitjieskraal rock formations, as well as the rock-climbing routes and hiking trails.
Spiders Nek (S911)
Although officially designated as a pass, Spiders Nek struggles to live up to its name, as it is a long, straight, almost flat gravel road near both Excelsior and Marquard in the central Free State, and should be considered more of a scenic drive. The rolling grasslands, pastures and dams, interspersed with beautiful sandstone koppies and mountains, make for stunning scenery and photographic possibilities. The peace and tranquillity of the area is enhanced by the birds and animals all around you, and disturbed only by the occasional farm vehicle. The road is in a good condition and can be driven in any vehicle, except possibly in wet weather.
Published in The Free State
Jagpoort (S1218)
Jagpoort is an obscure gravel road pass, situated close to the small central Free State town of Winburg. The name, which translates as "Hunting Passage", probably stems from the hunts which would have taken place to feed the Voortrekkers as they settled in and around this area. Vast herds of game used to roam these huge open grassland plains; sadly, this is no longer the case, and wild animals in the present day are restricted to the public and private game reserves scattered around the region. The road is in a good condition, and can be driven in any vehicle, weather permitting.
Fort Cunynghame Pass (N6)
This beautiful, modern and well designed pass is situated just north of the small town of Stutterheim on the national N6 highway. The pass derives its name from the small fort and telegraph office built in 1878 towards the end of the 9th (and last) Frontier War, and which was named after General Sir Arthur Cunynghame, commander of the British forces in South Africa from 1874 to 1879. The pass presents magnificent views over the forests which abound in the area, holds no apparent dangers, and can be driven in any vehicle.
Published in The Eastern Cape
Martjie se Nek (D1042)
Martjie Se Nek is a gravel road pass situated near Vaalwater in the Limpopo province. The road is wide and in good condition for most of the pass, but there are sections that have been heavily damaged by water runoff, necessitating the use of a high clearance vehicle, although a 4x4 would not be required. The clay surface of the road is badly corrugated, and would become treacherous in wet weather. The views from the flat section near the summit towards the south are magnificent, and provide a seemingly never-ending vista over the plains below the escarpment.
Published in Limpopo
Brown's Cutting (D1939)
Brown's Cutting is an obscure gravel road pass situated in the north-western corner of Limpopo province near Vaalwater, quite close to the Botswana border. It presents a challenge in that it is difficult to find, and will test your orienteering skills and sense of direction to the limit, particularly from the northern side. Although the pass itself is not very difficult to negotiate, the approach roads can be tricky, and some offroad driving experience would be helpful. You will need to be a dedicated pass-chaser to tick this one off your bucket list!
Geyersnek (D1065)
Geyersnek is located approximately 18 kms to the south-west of the small town of Swartruggens, in the North West province. The pass is named after Hendrik Frederick Christiaan Geyer (1884 – 1964) of the farm Rietfontein, and is situated on an obscure public road to nowhere, the D1065. The road surface is gravel (red clay) but is usually in a reasonable condition.
Although in dry weather a 4x4 would not be required, a high clearance vehicle is strongly recommended to drive this pass. The scenery around Geyersnek and on the approach roads is spectacular and lush, with rolling pastures and game farms in every direction, and is a nature photographer's dream, particularly in spring or summer.
Published in North West
Platbank Pass (P1594)
At 670m this is one of the shortest passes on our database, but this little pass has plenty to offer the traveller. In that short distance are dense coastal forests, steep descents, a gravel surface, some water diversons, nine corners of which two are very sharp as well as fabulous views over the Indian Ocean at the Goukamma Nature Reserve's Platbank Beach.
Ganzvlei Pass
This short, rough gravel road winds its way up the slopes of the Goukamma River Valley just to the north of the N2 between Knysna and Sedgefield. The pass offers great views over the Ganzvlei farm, after which it is named, where it nestles on the green banks of the Goukamma River. The railway line (now defunct) lies between this pass and the N2. The road is primarily used by loggers living in the mountains and it's not suited to sedan vehicles, but any vehicle with good ground clearance will manage, although we recommend a 4WD vehicle is being optimal.
Vlieepoort Pass (D727)
Vlieepoort, also commonly referred to as Vliegepoort, is located in the Crocodile River valley to the west of Thabazimbi. The Crocodile River originates in the Witwatersrand area and flows in a northerly direction, via the Hartbeespoort Dam, until it joins up with the Marico River on the Botswana border. Here it forms the Limpopo, which was popularized by Rudyard Kipling as "the great grey-green greasy Limpopo River" in his short story The Elephant's Child. Like most other poorts, Vlieepoort is fairly flat and has a height gain of just 42 metres, but it is much longer than the national average at over 12 kms. The road surface is gravel, but it is generally in a good condition and can be driven in any vehicle, weather dependant.
Eastern Cape (214) /
Gravel Passes


Bruno Coelho takes a sensational surprise victory on home soil in Portugal, having started 3rd, the multi talented star owes a significant part of his victory to travelling pit men Gord and Ty Tessmann, who ensured he pitted once less and had a dialed in car. Taking nothing away however after an incredible drive proving his versatility and skill.
Davide Ongaro would make it into the final via the LCQ, after breaking early on in his semi final, having started last and expecting to start last had it not been for Robert Batlle calling a last minute time out where he switched tyres and changed setup and starting from pitlane. With Batlle and Ongaro at the back the final looked v.tasty.
David Ronnefalk led out having started on pole finally finding his pace, but managed only 3 corners before binning it in the infield, the marshal unable to get to his car allowing the field to sweep past. This let Juan Carlos Canas into a commanding position and he would play an integral part until fading a little as Ongaro tried in vain to wrestle down the leader Coehlo who came into play, Coelho had made the late gamble to switch to run Pro-Line rubber during the finals after Hot Race during qualifying; it clearly worked for the Portuguese star as he was able to keep a charging Ongaro at bay.
It was a well-earned victory as the 1/8 Offroad fulltimers Boots, Batlle and Ronnefalk would finish 4-6, Ronnefalk rueing his opening 10mins before settling down to recover to 4th, Elliott Boots having flamed out on the last lap in the semi started 8th and wasn't on the frontrunning pace all week. Robert Batlle who would have started 4th had it not been for the time out rolled home in 6th, likely of little consolation for the man that many tipped 'could beat Ongaro'. It would have been a fairytale for Ongaro but he will have to settle for 2nd, Coelho's pit strategy and clean laps proving too much for the Italian wonderkid, Canas will be happy finishing on the podium, despite leading for some time he faded a little towards the end but undoubtedly has a bright future ahead.
A huge congrats to Bruno and the XRAY team!


Electron beam induced deposition (EBID) is a maskless nanofabrication technique capable of surpassing the resolution limits of resist-based lithography. However, EBID fabrication of functional nanostructures is limited by beam spread in bulk substrates, substrate charging, and delocalized film growth around deposits. Here, we overcome these problems by using environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) to perform EBID and etching while eliminating charging artifacts at the nanoscale. Nanostructure morphology is tailored by slimming of deposits by ESEM imaging in the presence of a gaseous etch precursor and by pre-etching small features into a deposit (using a stationary or a scanned electron beam) prior to a final imaging process. The utility of this process is demonstrated by slimming of nanowires deposited by EBID, by the fabrication of gaps (between 4 and 7 nm wide) in the wires, and by the removal of thin films surrounding such nanowires. ESEM imaging provides a direct view of the slimming process, yielding process resolution that is limited by ESEM image resolution (~1 nm) and surface roughening occurring during etching. © 2007 American Chemical Society.


text:
Home Meditations Earth Hospice or Human Hospitium?
Earth Hospice or Human Hospitium?
written by Martin LeFevre 2015/12/02
The local weekly featured two environmentalists just before the holiday that are actively promoting the idea of "Earth hospice." If anything, shouldn't they call it "Human hospice?"
It's strange how in one of the most beautiful and livable small cities in California there is a palpable pessimism about the human prospect. As a local writer proclaimed in this issue, "In environmental circles, "We're screwed!" is becoming a manta." He went on to say that "grieving is becoming a central focus."
Adding contradiction and the all-too-American-trait of trying to have it both ways to his despair, he ends his piece with this bit of disingenuousness: "I haven't given up, any more than it would make sense to give up on life because I'm presented with a terminal diagnosis." Egad.
This pernicious stuff is representative of the general thinking in Chico where the so-called progressive or alternative community is concerned.
In such a climate, which conflates the fate of the earth with the fate of humanity, thereby contributing to the demise of both, misanthropy has become de rigueur. It's no wonder that I feel like a fish out of water. Last week a self-admittedly anti-social friend accused me of the worst sin—being an optimist.
An optimist I'm not, but I haven't given up on our age, much less on humanity. I'm still asking: Can a few people, as a microcosm of humanity, change course now, before the inevitable ecological collapse occurs?
For if we continue to hopelessly wait, as so many hapless misanthropists prescribe, until after the collapse occurs, it will be too late for the foreseeable future.
The precedent in our times is the simultaneous collapse of the superpowers 25 years ago, when the USSR collapsed economically and politically, while the US collapsed socially and psychologically in the early 1990's.
Because no true alternative course was in place when the previous world order collapsed, and because America did a decade-long victory dance as "the sole remaining superpower," we got the 9.11 attacks by al Qaeda in Afghanistan (where the superpowers waged a proxy war that Russia lost), the Bush-Cheney invasion of Iraq initiating a total destabilization of the Middle East, and the global terrorism and mass shootings of today.
A few months ago I attended a lecture by a marine biologist. He gave a graphic description of the physical and emotional reality behind climate change. This fellow lives in Hawaii and has been doing research diving along reefs in Indonesia for many years.
Last year he took his usual trip, but when he reached his favorite section of a reef, a place of magnificent undersea variety and color, he came upon a scene of gray death. Barely restraining his emotion, his voice thick with sorrow, he said, "It is a strange experience to cry with a diving mask on."
Then he showed pictures of his two young, beautiful children, and said, "I fear for the kind of world they may inherit."
Talking afterward to other men (it was a men's gathering with the stated intent to confront the crisis of climate change), it was fascinating, if also disturbing, to see the differences in emotional and intellectual interpretation.
For a few, including me, the takeaway was a greater feeling of crisis and urgency; for others, the majority, the takeaway was the same as the sentiment expressed in the local weekly—"we're screwed."
Besides the column by the "Earth hospice" proponent, the local weekly featured the grassroots environmental work of the groundskeeper of a consortium of Buddhist groups in town. He's spearheading a local chapter of 350.org, the international organization that focuses on climate change. Citing how many local followers the group has on Facebook (naturally), he's quoted as saying, "It's blossoming."
I've talked with this fellow, and he espouses an insidious brand of misanthropy, which gleefully maintains that humanity will be extinct within 50 years. The underground attitude was greatly reinforced when a doomsday guru, Guy McPherson, came to town last year with his 47 feedback loop presentation supposedly proving that it's too late to do anything but mourn and grab what life you can.
Pointing out that such thinking is the very definition of self-fulfilling prophecy, and that another phrase for McPherson's feedback loops is vicious circles, did not go over well with the local environmentalist. Nor did questioning the blatant contradiction between trying to save the Earth while believing humankind will be extinct within 50 years.
Darkness is not some kind of diabolical supernatural force in a battlefield of good vs. evil. It is man-made. At present it is obviously the greater force in human consciousness, working for destructiveness and lifelessness. Self-hatred (misanthropy by its rightful name) is also a human phenomenon, and it's doing darkness's bidding.
Is the light of intelligence, which exists to a lesser degree in human consciousness (though it's not man-made), like the light in a dark room around a black door? Is that light intensifying, so that when enough people open the door, it will flood the stygian darkness of this world?
Let's not indulge in hope, but keep doing our own spadework. The light and the door are within us.
Martin LeFevre
Buddhismconsciousnessearth hospiceEarth Hospice or Human Hospitiumenvironmentalistshuman hospiceMartin LeFevreMeditationsreligionthoughts on lifeusa collapseussr collpase
Costa Rica for Retirement if World War III Breaks Out
Costa Rica Two Car Families With Same License Plate Restriction May Get Exemption


text:
Q: Proxy tool for CoAP integrated with DTLS How to view the request/response for CoAP protocol integrated with DTLS.
Copper (firefox plugin)
tool works fine with CoAP protocol without DTLS. for e.g.

coap://localhost:5683

request/response can be easily viewed and modified.
When DTLS is integrated with CoAP for e.g.

coaps://localhost:5683

request/response is not visible using copper tool.
  Need information on any other proxy tool/plugin through which request/response can be viewed and the request can be modified.


Wendy brings 10 years of medical billing experience to their company, and 15+ years of administrative and management practice, which has allowed her to see that the core of any successful business starts with a solid administrative team. Her personal gratification derived from problem solving and supporting others which lead her to seek out a position in the medical field. She started out as a Certified Nurse Assistant, and then quickly went behind the scenes to assist in running small medical practices, which is what has kept her in the medical field. She has extensive experience billing Medicaid throughout the State of Florida for the HCBS MedWaiver Program. Her knowledge also covers Private Insurance, Early Intervention, FSPT, Head Start, Medicare and numerous other State Funded Programs. Her drive to assist those that are in need of services and her ability to connect with individuals has allowed her to gain respect among Florida's Waiver Support Coordinators, Nurse Case Managers, as well as APD officials. Her ability to modernize all billing processes has resulted in providing higher profit margins for the individuals she has worked for. Currently she is back in school to obtain a Business Health Management Degree to simplify the constant growing field of medical billing for all future clients.