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Q: Updating SLD in geoserver via REST with image ref I've got hundreds of SLDs that I want to update in a geoserver instance.  All good for most of them but those that reference images fail to get updated.
For example:
      <PointSymbolizer>
        <Graphic>
          <ExternalGraphic>
            <OnlineResource xlink:href="symbols/airport.svg"/>
            <Format>image/svg+xml</Format>
          </ExternalGraphic>
          <Size>20</Size>
        </Graphic>
      </PointSymbolizer>

I know that the REST api does not support uploading the images but they already exist.  If I just paste the sld into web page for the style in geoserver it accepts it and all is good.  The problem would appear to be the upload code trying to resolve the link relative to the upload and not the final destination.
The error is
Caused by: java.net.MalformedURLException: no protocol: symbols/airport.svg
Does anyone know a way around this.  Manually updating 100s of styles is simply not an option.

A: I work round this by copying the SLD files into the styles folder and then using REST to add the style to GeoServer:
payload="<style><name>$name</name><filename>$name.sld</filename></style>"
curl -f -s -u admin:geoserver -XPOST -H 'Content-type: text/xml' -d "$payload" http://localhost:8080/geoserver/rest/styles

A: I failed to find a way in geoserver to do this.  I had to knock up an additional servlet to run under tomcat that uploads files to the www directory, my slds can then use http://localhost/geoserver/www/symbols/airport.svg as the URL.
Happy to accept a better answer though.


A comparative study of ethics reveals the marked difficulty one has in identifying objectively universal standards for good and evil. While that may be so, few would object to the declaration that natural disasters, like earthquakes that produce tsunamis, are sinister, mischievous and catastrophic. On September 29, 2009 an 8.3 magnitude earthquake wreaked havoc on the pacific Islands of Samoa, American Samoa, and Tonga. This was followed the next day by two consecutive earthquakes in Indonesia, the first measuring a magnitude of 7.6 and the second measuring 6.2, that took―besides the hundreds killed the day prior in the Samoan earthquake over 1,000 lives.
Update: I am not defending Sh. Tantawi. All I am saying that it serves not purpose to hate on him, calling him various derogatory names. It won't help to remove the ban on the niqab from the universities. We have to make dua and protest against the universities and government of Egypt to remove the ban inshaAllah.
Once I get this translated, you will see why.
Shaykh Tantanwi said he respects the niqab and that there's no harm for niqaabis to come to his office in order to end this issue. He also confirmed that the niqab is a custom and not from worship (عبادة) and at the same time he stated he has no objection to it.
Never before have I seen my community photographed with such dignity and hope . Omar Mullick, an award winning photographer who shoots for National Geographic, NY Times, etc., has traveled all across America for 7 years documenting the elusive Muslim American community.
The photography will be on display at GalleryFCB Thursday, October 8th at 6:00 pm. The gallery runs for the entire month, but please join us at the opening of this historic exhibit. RSVP on the Facebook Event if you can.
Omar has given me the permission to showcase a handful of photos here at Boing Boing.
More images and info after the jump.
At a time when President Obama used the example of American Muslims in his Cairo address to indicate that Islam had "always been a part of America's story…" the exhibit presents a culmination of one photographers deliberate effort to take the visual language of black and white 35mm photography, through which 20th Century America has often looked at itself, and open up that narrative to include the latest birth pang in American cultural life. To that end, Can't Take It With You, which was pursued with singular purpose by a photographer deeply engaged with the idea of what it means to be American, promises to be one of the more important visual documents of the young 21st Century.
The photo I leave you with is of a Muslim women's shelter in Philadelphia, PA. It was the children's first day at the shelter. I wonder where they are now.
I will be doing a tiny interview with Omar Mullick at the end of the week, if anyone has a question they feel compelled to ask please write it in the comments and I'll try my best to get it answered.
Sorry Canada (though in reality, it's probably the best in the world). I'd like to even go more detailed and say NY-NJ Metropolitan area, the DC-MD-VA area, Chicago, Detroit and Los Angeles-San Diego area are the best areas within America for a Muslim to live. I think the countries that are exempt from this in the Muslim world would be Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Edit: I know I'm going to take heat for saying Saudi Arabia is better to live than America, but I say this primarily my bias for the lack of ease of eating Halal food in America. Everyone who lives/visits Saudi Arabia always tell me how great the chicken and lamb is in Saudi. So meat is a factor for me where I live. I'm bias for the availability halal fried chicken. If I can make my daily salat, work and get some nice halal lamb and chicken, then I'm straight. If I can do this in Makkah, of course it's better than the entire world. The Dajjal ain't going to get me there!
Edit 2: For those who took me seriously about the meat thing, I apologize. It does play a factor but obviously it's not number 1. I still think Saudi Arabia for me personally to practice Islam would be almost as good as America. America would still be the best option for me since I am an American.
Muslim nations could learn a lot from the US.
Washington – This summer Muslims were murdered in Holland, Germany, and Belgium – four victims of hate crimes.
These murders are just the latest examples of Islamaphobia coming out of Europe. But Europe is not the only place intolerant of its Muslim citizens. Even in some Muslim countries, expression of religion is often perceived as a threat to the secular state.
It is an extraordinary and momentous event to call you president. Your father was of the Luo clan and, as you know, it would be difficult for a Luo to be elected president in Kenya. In our country, while tribe is not an issue, color often is, but you have succeeded in overcoming both clan and complexion, and in doing so inspired millions of people around the world.


I adore this film so much here is a number of reasons why I pag-ibig this character. Spoilers are in this artikulo beware if you never seen it before.
First up is her personality I like how she isn't obnoxious or over the tuktok (like Giselle who isn't a princess but she was so obnoxious and OTT yet she was funny). She's funny,adventurous,smart and a bit stubborn. I like how she wants to be free and see the world for the 1st time in 18 years.
What color are Rapunzel's eyes?
Princess Rapunzel (from Tangled) Pagtitip.


People will not modify their actions in any meaningful way unless they believe it is in their best interest to do so. The most beneficial process to identify and devise plans to resolve difficult issues is through dialogue.
I found this course very enlightening and enriching. I am looking forward to practicing what I have learned.
This was an excellent course – very professional and effective.
This course is like a rebirth to me. It has given me a chance to be able to communicate on a higher level.
This course taught me how to listen to others with empathy and understanding and gave me practical strategies to ensure effective dialogue.


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Aimed primarily at the guitarist who also wants to get to grips with MIDI and guitar synthesis, The New Electronic Guitarist manages to cover the subject in adequate depth without ever getting too complicated. It kicks off by exploring the nature of sound as it applies to music, then explains the workings of MIDI. The history of guitar synthesis and modern software alternatives, such as Jam Origin's MIDI Guitar software, is explored in depth.
There's the theory, use and installation of hex pickups for those guitar synth systems that need them, while the book also introduces the guitarist to the concept of MIDI sequencing. It covers software-based amp modelling and guitar effects too, along with some excellent tips on how to set up your DAW to make the best use of MIDI guitars for playing virtual instruments. All the basics of sound synthesis are explained, both analogue and digital, while sampling is also covered, as is the thorny subject of latency when working with DAWs.
While the majority of the book deals with the world of 'MIDI guitar synths', there's also coverage of guitar modelling as used by Roland and Line 6's Variax, multi-effects processors including Fractal's Axe-FX, Line 6's Helix, Native Instruments' Guitar Rig and IK Multimedia's Amplitube. I would have liked to see a bit more on alternatives to MIDI guitars for creating synth-like sounds using some of the more 'out there' Electro-Harmonix pedals or plug-ins, and perhaps the eBow, though the Boss SY300 — which allows a standard guitar to produce some interesting synth-like sounds — is covered.
Returning to the world of DAWs, the book takes a quick look at all the mainstream packages before delving in to the world of plug-ins, with a closer look at Spectrasonics' Omnisphere, NI's Kontakt and some of the other more popular virtual instruments. It also takes in the basics of recording and editing using a DAW, focusing on processes that are particularly relevant to MIDI guitar users, such as setting a different MIDI channel for each string. There's even a glimpse into online collaboration with other musicians, some tips on live performance and a section on problem solving.
Overall, though, the book (ISBN 9781495047459) is very well written, extending to over 200 pages, and is highly recommended for any guitar player wanting to know more about guitar synthesis and DAW recording.


You don't need to be a fabulous gardener to appreciate beautiful willow structures. This beginners course teaches you how to create a useful and stunning obelisk that can be used year after year for your climbing plants, twinkly lights or just to be admired on its own. Once you start weaving with willow, you will want more!
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When you are having a family member or a friend who is suffering from drug addiction you need to make sure that you help them to overcome that addiction so that they can be able to live a normal life. When you are suffering from drug addiction, you cannot be able to do your normal routine correctly since you are under the influence of the drug. So in case, you realize your loved one is addicted you need to make sure that you take them to a recovery center where they will be able to teach on ways he or she will be able to survive without drugs. There are usually many addiction recovery center out there so you need to make sure that you choose the best recovery center will be able to recover well.
There are various tips you need to consider when you are looking for an addiction recovery center for your loved one. These tips include; you need to look at the experience of that recovery center, you should make sure that you go for a recovery center that has been in the field for a long time. That way you will be assured that they are experienced, and they will be able to take care of your loved one correctly. You should also make sure that you look at the hygiene of that particular addiction recovery center, you should know that the health of your loved one is the most important, so you should make sure that you go to an addiction recovery center that has a high level of hygiene t their patients. Get more facts about rehabs at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_rehabilitation.
You should also make sure that the addiction recovery center from http://chateaurecovery.com you take your loved one has qualified physicians who will be able to treat the patients appropriately. You should make sure that the physicians have all the knowledge and skills that are required so that they can be able to guide the patients appropriately.
You should also make sure that you look at the cost they are going to charge you for the time that the patient will be there in the addiction recovery center. You should know that there are many addiction recovery centers out there, so you should make sure that you visit various addiction recovery center so that you can ask the prices they are going to charge your patient. That way you will be able to compare the prices and make sure that you pay a reasonable amount of money and your patient to recover appropriately. Check this site to know more!


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Students of the Center for Jewish Studies Visit the Archaeological Collections at Wesleyan University
November 23, 2015 November 23, 2015 by dkatz01
Jessie Cohen, Archaeological Collections Manager at Wesleyan University, hosted a visit by Professor Greenblatt's History 247, Jewish History: From Biblical Israel to Diaspora Jews class. Students examined ancient Near Eastern coins related to places and times they have studied in class. The coins include, for example, one of Antiochus IV, villain of the Hanukkah story. Here are two pictures taken by Campus' photographer, Olivia Drake.
Categories Faculty News, Student News
The Tel Aviv Magic: History, Literature, and Murder, Assaf Gavron
November 10, 2015 November 8, 2015 by dkatz01
Tel Aviv Magic: History, Literature, and Murder, presented by the acclaimed writer Assaf Gavron on Thursday, November 12 at 8 pm at Russell House, concluded the 13th Annual Fall Series Contemporary Israeli Voices, 2016. Assaf Gavron gave a brief history of the city and its past literature and then introduced the new genre of Tel Aviv Noir, a literary anthology co-edited by Etgar Keret, featuring a younger generation of Israeli writers and its dark side.
Gavron has published five novels and a collection of short stories. He has won numerous international awards such as the Prix Courrier International in France, Buch fur die Stadt in Germany, the DAAD artists in Berlin residency, and the Bernstein Prize in Israel. His fiction has been translated into ten languages, was adapted to the stage, and four of his books are optioned for movies.
Categories Contemporary Israeli Voices
WESeminar on the Ring Family Wesleyan University Israeli Film Festival
On Saturday, November 7, the Center for Jewish Studies presented a well attended and engaged conversation about the annual Israeli Film Festival. Here is the description taken from Wesleyan home page
For the eight consecutive year, Wesleyan Jewish and Israel Studies, with the co-sponsoring of the Film Studies Department, offered the annual Israeli Film Festival. This festival has become an extremely successful event which draws its audience from the Wesleyan community, as well as the larger general Connecticut community. Its structure has also become a model for unrelated festivals at Wesleyan and other universities. The festival's format features a film screening, along with commentary from a speaker who illuminates a particular aspect of the film (based on expertise in film, Judaic Studies or cultural studies). The film festival is also closely integrated into the study of Hebrew at Wesleyan University. In this WESeminar, Dalit Katz, film designer and director, and Wesleyan professor of Religion and Israel studies, will offer a glimpse into this year's festival as she shares film clips with the audience.
Presenter: Dalit Katz, Director of the Center for Jewish Studies and Adj. Associate Professor of Religion, has been teaching Hebrew and organizing Israeli cultural events since 2000.
Categories Israeli Film Festival

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Focus on the key topics, filtered and well aligned with the University syllabus. Provide answers to the filtered questions with simplistic precision, making it easy to understand as well as grasp with ease. There are a set of questions followed by the answers for different chapters in the subject. This compilation will provide the student, an easy access to informative material useful for the examination.


Guanine quadruplex (G4 DNA) is a four-stranded structure that contributes to genome instability and site-specific recombination. G4 DNA folds from sequences containing tandemly repetitive guanines, sequence motifs that are found throughout prokaryote and eukaryote genomes. While some cellular activities have been identified with binding or processing G4 DNA, the factors and pathways governing G4 DNA metabolism are largely undefined. Highly conserved mismatch repair factors have emerged as potential G4-responding complexes because, in addition to initiating heteroduplex correction, the human homologs bind non-B form DNA with high affinity. Moreover, the MutS homologs across species have the capacity to recognize a diverse range of DNA pairing variations and damage, suggesting a conserved ability to bind non-B form DNA.
Here, we asked if E. coli MutS and a heteroduplex recognition mutant, MutS F36A, were capable of recognizing and responding to G4 DNA structures. We find by mobility shift assay that E. coli MutS binds to G4 DNA with high affinity better than binding to G-T heteroduplexes. In the same assay, MutS F36A failed to recognize G-T mismatched oligonucleotides, as expected, but retained an ability to bind to G4 DNA. Association with G4 DNA by MutS is not likely to activate the mismatch repair pathway because nucleotide binding did not promote release of MutS or MutS F36A from G4 DNA as it does for heteroduplexes. G4 recognition activities occur under physiological conditions, and we find that M13 phage harboring G4-capable DNA poorly infected a MutS deficient strain of E. coli compared to M13mp18, suggesting functional roles for mismatch repair factors in the cellular response to unstable genomic elements.
Taken together, our findings demonstrate that E. coli MutS has a binding activity specific for non-B form G4 DNA, but such binding appears independent of canonical heteroduplex repair activation.
Several studies have now connected members of the mismatch repair pathway with the binding and metabolism of non B-form DNA, but in a way that is different than simple heteroduplex repair. Classically defined as a post-replication repair pathway, mismatch repair is initiated through lesion recognition by the MutS homologs. This is accompanied by an ADP-ATP nucleotide exchange that modulates MutS to signal downstream repair (reviewed by [1, 2]). Both E. coli MutS and the eukaryotic MutS homologs, MSH2/MSH6 (MutSα), have the extraordinary capacity to recognize and initiate repair of unrelated types of DNA damage, such as UV photoproducts , 8-oxoguanine pairings [4, 5], methylated or platinated DNA , and deoxyuracil . In addition to base modifications, DNA structural alterations are recognized. Human MSH2/MSH3 (MutSβ) binds disease-associated hairpins folded from CAG repeats , MutSα and MSH4/MSH5 recognize four-stranded Holliday junctions [9, 10], and human MutSα binds specifically to G quadruplexes (G4 DNA) found in the immunoglobulin switch regions . This incredibly broad substrate range for the MutS homologs suggests that non-B form DNA structures may be conserved substrates for the complex across species.
Repetitive DNA sequences promote secondary structure formation, and this is affiliated with site-specific gene rearrangements and genome instability (recently reviewed by ). G quadruplex (G4 DNA) is a four-stranded structure that folds from guanine-rich repetitive DNA and can adopt multiple potential conformations (Figure 1A-C). Tandemly repetitive guanines support G4 formation under physiological ionic and pH conditions with four hydrogen bonded guanines forming individual tetrads which are stacked on top of one another to form G4 structures  (Figure 1A-C). At a minimum, sequences able to sustain G4 structure formation must contain a motif of at least three guanines repeated four times or more with up to a few non-guanine nucleotides separating the motifs [13, 14]. Exceeding this minimal standard are repetitive non-coding sequences found throughout the human genome which show extensive G4 folding potential [15, 16]. Genome analyses reveal that G4 DNA structures are abundant genome residents and have likely been retained over evolutionary time to facilitate various molecular activities. For instance, pillin gene rearrangement in Neisseria depends on upstream G4 structure formation, and sequence disruption or chemical stabilization of G4-folding capacity at these sites interferes with break formation and recombination . In mammals, immunoglobulin gene class switch recombination requires the transcription of intronic switch regions and this results in the formation of co-transcriptional G4 DNAs (structures that have been visualized by electron microscopy  and observed by atomic force microscopy ). Roles for G4 DNA in gene regulation are supported by informatic analyses identifying G4 capable sequences at upstream gene regulatory regions in S. cerevisiae , human , and prokaryotic  genomes. It has been suggested that structure formation in these regions influences gene expression rates because 5' transcriptional pausing correlates with G4 folding potential .
Formation of G4 DNA structures. (A) Illustration of guanine quartet with each guanine engaged in four hydrogen bonds and a central metallic cation. (B) Structural illustration depicting a unimolecular antiparallel G4 DNA. (C) Structural illustration depicting an intermolecular parallel G4 formed from guanine rich strands of DNA. (D) CD spectrum of TP DNA 49-mer in 50 mM KCl (blue line 25°C, red line 37°C, green line 95°C). (E) Melting curve of TP DNA 49-mer molar ellipticity at 263 nm in 50 mM KCl (red line) or 50 mM LiCl (blue line). (F,G) As in D,E but TP DNA 49-mer was not pre-folded into G4. (H) Primer extension reactions using Klenow fragment and single stranded phagemid template corresponding to the C-rich strand of Sγ3 from pCR2.1-C (left) or the G-rich strand of Sγ3 from pCR2.1-G (right) resolved by denaturing PAGE. Modeled to the right of each image are polymerase extensions (dotted line) on template (solid line) or with G4 sites (squares). Stall sites for G-rich pCR2.1-G map to guanine repeats, determined by cycle di-deoxy sequencing of the G-rich template strand using the extension reaction primer.
While retention of G4 DNA sequences in diverse genomes suggests genetic roles, structure formation appears to come at a cost to genome stability. In a few examples, minisatellites in mice and humans with high G4 potential are hypervariable (reviewed by ), DNA breakpoints in cancer genomes associated with somatic copy number variations regularly map to G4 sequences (reviewed in ), and reciprocal translocations of the c-MYC gene and the immunoglobulin switch regions occur at G4 sequences (reviewed in [27, 28]).
Evidence has emerged that connects the highly conserved mismatch repair proteins with cellular responses to G4 DNA. Human MSH2/MSH6 (MutSα) has been directly visualized by electron microscopy bound to the G-rich and G4 capable strand of expressed immunoglobulin switch regions, enriched in chromatin IPs of the transcriptionally activated switch regions, and shown to specifically recognize G4 oligonucleotide DNA via mobility shift assays . Also in humans, demonstration that FANCJ helicase specifically unwinds G4 DNA , coupled with co-immunoprecipitations finding MutS and MutL homologs associated with members of the Fanconi Anemia pathway , suggests similar roles with regard to G4 metabolism. While precise functions in structure-associated genome instability are not clear, it does appear likely that non-B form binding is a shared property of the MutS proteins based on the broad substrate range and apparent recognition of G4 DNA binding by the human homologs. Here, we test the model that E. coli MutS recognizes G4 DNA structures. Further, we ask if such binding is affiliated with canonical mismatch repair. With mobility shift assays, we identify G4 DNA as a high-affinity substrate for E. coli MutS. Interestingly, we also find that G4 DNA and heteroduplex binding constitute separable MutS functions. Our results argue that the genome instability and recombination associated with G4 DNA may involve repair-independent functions of highly conserved mismatch repair proteins.
The observations that human MutS homologs specifically recognize four-stranded Holliday junctions [9, 10] and G4 DNA  prompted us to ask if alternative DNA structure binding is a property of prokaryotic MutS proteins and the mismatch repair pathway. Sequence motifs characteristic of G4 formation have been documented in various prokaryotes, including E. coli, but highly repetitive G-rich sequences are rare when compared to the more complex genomic structure characteristic of many multicellular eukaryotes. Therefore, we used two model sequences known for strong G4 folding ability and for utility in G4 molecular assays. These sequences are derived from a recombination hot-spot, the G-rich mammalian switch regions, and have utility in binding assays because they readily adopt well-documented G4 DNA structures [9, 31–33]. We folded a four-stranded G4 structure from the TP oligonucleotide (Figure 1C) [13, 34], and a second longer sequence (564 bp) that supports more complex fold-back G4 structures. TP-G4 DNA was folded using published conditions , and structure formation measured by Circular Dichroism (CD). As expected, CD spectra analysis combined with salt-dependent denaturation profile confirmed the formation of G4-DNA by agreeing with anticipated G4 spectra, showing a peak at ~260 nm and a ~240 nm minima  with peaks being thermally stable in the presence of K+ ion but not Li+ ion (Figure 1D-G). Having confirmed that our oligonucleotide-based structure forms G4 by mobility shift (see below) and CD spectrometry, we used this TP-G4 DNA to assay MutS structure-binding properties in vitro.
In the cell, G4 DNA is expected to be unimolecular, a fold-back structure occurring within genomic DNA that has been transiently freed from complement during transcription or replication (Figure 1H). Therefore in order to further examine mismatch repair responses to DNA with potential to adopt non-B form structures, we also examined a longer molecule previously demonstrated to adopt co-transcriptional G4 [9, 18, 19, 36], a fragment of the human Sγ3 switch region. We cloned a 564 bp G-rich region of Sγ3 into M13 and into pCR2.1 phagmids for G4 detection assays (pCR2.1-G or pCR2.1-C, reflecting G-rich strand or C-rich strand with respect to the F1 origin). In these phage, when single-stranded DNA is replicated for packaging and export, one strand is liberated from perfect complement and thus permitted to adopt alternative DNA structures. Template G4 DNA structures present physical blockades to advancing DNA synthesis, which marks structure formation sites . Therefore, we used Klenow extension reactions to detect structure formation by priming the two single-stranded templates with a 32P end-labeled oligonucleotide (Additional file 1) just upstream of the Sγ3 sequence. When the extension reactions were resolved by denaturing PAGE, sites of stalled synthesis were evident for the single-stranded G-rich template but not the C-rich complement (Figure 1H). This stalling is very likely to be due to G4 structure formation because polymerase pause sites mapped to guanine repeats, determined by comparison to di-deoxy sequencing of the G-rich template. Furthermore, we always observed products of complete extension when the C-rich complement was used at a template (Figure 1H). This G-rich Sγ3 fragment was therefore used in this study to assay MutS-dependent responses to structure-capable DNA in two strains of E. coli.
We first asked if purified E. coli MutS was able to recognize G4-containing oligonucleotides and if binding was comparable heteroduplex recognition. Using a mobility shift assay, we observed that MutS specifically recognized an oligonucleotide carrying a single G-T mismatch, a well-known high-affinity substrate for MutS [38, 39] (Figure 2A). Identical mobility shift assays containing end-labeled G4 DNA in place of labeled G-T heteroduplex clearly showed a MutS dose-dependent reduction in G4 mobility on native PAGE (Figure 2B). This G4 binding cannot be attributed to non-specific interactions by MutS because all assays contained a 10-fold molar excess of non-specific competitor, an unlabeled homoduplex oligonucleotide (Additional file 1). MutS bound G4 in the low nM range, showing an apparent KD of 18.4 nM, a dissociation constant more than 2-fold lower than what was observed with heteroduplex oligonucleotides under identical assay conditions (Additional file 2). Strikingly, progressively slower migrating bands are observed with increasing MutS concentrations for the G4 but not G-T oligonucleotides (Figure 2B). Multiple MutS dimers may associate with G4 DNA as protein concentration increases, a binding state that is clearly distinct from simple heteroduplex recognition and a binding pattern similarly observed for other G4 binding proteins, such as the RecQ homologs . Regardless, the relative affinity and binding characteristics are remarkably close to human MutSα, which showed in the same assay up to a 4 fold higher affinity for G4 folded oligonucleotide compared to G-T heteroduplex . We conclude from these assays that G4 DNA is a conserved and specific substrate for the MutS homologs, from E. coli to humans.
MutS binds G-T mismatches and G4 DNA. (A) Mobility shift assays demonstrating that wild-type MutS binds G-T mismatches. Lanes contain increasing concentrations of MutS from 4.7 to 300 nM generated by a 1:1 serial dilution. Each lane contains 20 fmols radiolabeled G-T mismatch substrate. B, oligonucleotide bound by MutS; U, unbound. (B) As in A except 10 fmols of radiolabeled TP-G4 were utilized as the substrate per reaction with 1.2-150 nM MutS (C) MutS binds to G4 DNA with high affinity. Graph depicting the percent of G-T mismatch (white) bound by MutS and percent G4 (grey) bound by MutS. Data (Additional file 2) represent the mean of three independent experiments with standard error.
MutS recognition of heteroduplex DNA in vitro and activation of the mismatch repair pathway depends on the highly conserved phenylalanine at position 36. Studies in which this Phe is replaced with Ala (MutS F36A) established this highly conserved residue as critical for heteroduplex recognition and mismatch correction . We therefore reasoned that if G4 structure recognition followed canonical heteroduplex binding activities and repair, MutS binding to G4 DNA should require Phe36. We replaced the Phenylalanine at position 36 of E. coli MutS in the pTX412 plasmid (created by Malcolm Winkler ) with alanine (MutS F36A) using site-directed mutagenesis. HIS-tagged MutS was over-expressed, and the gene product purified to homogeneity (not shown). Nickel-affinity purified MutS F36A failed to recognize mismatched DNA in mobility shift assays at all protein concentrations tested (Figure 3A), as expected and consistent with the previous study . In contrast, MutS F36A decreased the mobility of G4-containing oligonucleotides in a dose-dependent manner (Figure 3B), demonstrating that the Phe36 residue is not required for G4 DNA recognition. Notably, MutS F36A does not bind G4 DNA as effectively as wild-type MutS. At a concentration of 75 nM, 90% of the labeled G4 is bound by MutS whereas only 63% of the G4 is bound at the same concentration of MutS F36A (Figure 3C, Additional file 3). This attenuated binding may indicate that substitution of Phe36 influences the MutS structure in a way that changes G4 affinity. Nevertheless, it appears likely that Phe36 itself is not critical to the discrimination of G4 DNA structures from properly paired duplex DNA, in sharp contrast to MutS heteroduplex recognition activity.
MutS F36A mutant binds G4 DNA but not G-T mismatches. (A) Mobility shift demonstrating that F36 is required for mismatch binding. From left to right, lanes 1 and 6 contain no MutS protein. Lanes 2–5 and 7–10 contain increasing amounts (19–150 nM) of WT-MutS and F36A-MutS, respectively, obtained by 1:1 serial dilution. Each lane contains 20 fmols radio labeled G-T mismatch substrate. B, oligonucleotide bound by MutS or F36A; U, unbound. (B) F36 is dispensable for MutS binding G4. Far left lane "0", negative control containing no MutS protein; lane 2 "MutS", positive control containing 75 nM WT-MutS, lanes 3–8 contain increasing amounts of F36A-MutS from 4.7 to 150 nM, obtained by 1:1 serial dilution. Each lane contains 20 fmols of radiolabeled G4. (C) Graph comparing WT-MutS and F36A-MutS binding to TP-G4 DNA. White columns, F36A-MutS; grey columns, WT-MutS. Data (Additional file 3) represent the mean of three independent experiments with standard error.
During mismatch repair, the MutS homologs must release from heteroduplex to activate DNA excision and resynthesis (a conformational change to MutS that is modulated by a separate and distant nucleotide-binding domain). Addition of either ATP or slowly hydrolyzing analogs to binding assays interferes with specific complex formation between MutS and heteroduplexes [43–46] reflecting MutS movement away from the lesion to signal downstream repair. If G4 DNA binding by MutS is accompanied by mismatch repair, addition of ATP to the binding reaction is expected to interfere with G4-MutS complex formation. Using mobility shift assay and sub-physiological concentrations of ATPγS, MutS was not able to shift G-T oligonucleotides, as expected (Figure 4A). ATPγS concentrations above 250 μM resulted in appearance of completely free heteroduplex, and MutS mismatch complex was unstable even at 60 μM ATPγS (Figure 4A). This was not the case for mobility shift assays using G4 oligonucleotide as the substrate. Under identical assay conditions, MutS and MutS F36A binding to G4 DNA was largely unaffected by ATPγS (Figure 4B,C) and KD values for G4 binding were essentially unchanged in the presence and absence of up to 1 mM ATPγS (Additional file 4). While the apparent KD is similar, MutS F36A-G4 binding in the presence or absence of ATPγS does show an altered binding pattern compared to MutS mobility shift of G4 (Figure 2B) which may indicate that the F36A substitution influences the interaction with G4 DNA. Consistent with mobility shift assays in the absence of ATPγS, progressively slower migrating bands are observed with increasing MutS protein (Figure 34) indicating that MutS is unresponsive to ATPγS when bound to G4 DNA. Based on a requirement for MutS nucleotide binding status to modulate heteroduplex binding and subsequent repair activities in the mismatch repair pathway, our results support a model whereby MutS is not able to activate ATP-dependent canonical mismatch repair in response to G4 DNA structures.
MutS association with ATP induces the release of G-T mismatches but not G4. (A) MutS dissociates from mismatches in presence of ATPγS. Representative mobility shift assay with radiolabeled G-T mismatch substrate and 60 nM WT-MutS per lane (excluding Lane 1 "0", no WT-MutS control). Lane 2 contained no ATPγS (positive control) and lanes 3–8 contained increasing concentrations of ATPγS from 31 μM to 1.0 mM generated by a 1:1 serial dilution. B, oligonucleotide bound by MutS; U, unbound. (B) MutS binds G4 in presence of ATPγS. Representative mobility shift showing G4 association with WT-MutS with or without ATPγS. Lanes 1 and 6 contain no protein while lanes 2–5 and 7–10 contain increasing amounts of WT-MutS (19, 38, 75, and 150 nM). (C) Mobility shift evaluating G4 binding in the presence of 1 mM ATPγS as in B except F36A-MutS is examined in place of WT-MutS. Data (Additional file 4) represent the mean of three independent experiments with standard error.
Mobility shift assays with purified protein and model G4 oligonucleotides in vitro imply that E. coli MutS will respond to non-B form DNA structures, independent of repair activation, in vivo. While the genome of E. coli is mostly coding and generally non-repetitive compared to higher eukaryotes, the genomes of bacteriophage are characteristically non-B form. In particular, filamentous phages, such as M13, infect E. coli and replicate by rolling-circle replication using a circular duplex intermediate. By nature of a single-stranded circular genome, these viruses present a DNA molecule that is already non-B form, although we have increased the structure forming potential of M13 even further by introducing the G-rich Sγ3 fragment (demonstrated in Figure 1H to fold into polymerase-stalling structures). We use this M13 variant (called M13-G) and the parent molecule (M13mp18) to ask if the presence of MutS or mismatch repair activities influences phage infection success.
To ask if there are repair-independent and structure-associated roles for MutS in the cell, we infected several E. coli strains with M13 phage containing the G4 capable sequence shown in Figure 1H. Importantly, the G-rich strand from the Sγ3 fragment forms robust structures that stall DNA synthesis (Figure 1H), most likely attributed to G4 formation when the molecules are single-stranded circles free from prefect complement. We placed this sequence within M13 (M13-G) such that rolling circle replication will liberate the cloned G4 capable (G-rich) single-strand. We then infected MutS proficient (NM522), deficient NM522 mutS::TN 10 (JW1), or JW1 expressing MutS F36A (JW1-MutS F36A) to ask if MutS and mismatch repair are needed for infection efficiency when M13 harbors this additional non-viral DNA sequence. Phage infection success for MutS defective strain was measured by counting plaques normalizing to an isogenic MutS proficient strain.
Successful M13 phage infection of bacteria results in the formation of a plaque on LB agar plates. We first titered phage stocks of M13-G and M13mp18 using NM522 and defined the volume required to generate ~100 plaques/plate for each stock. Using identical volumes and conditions, M13mp18 infection showed nearly equal plaques/plate for both NM522 and JW1 (Figure 5) indicating that the MutS protein is not required for efficient infection by M13mp18 phage. In contrast, infection with M13-G resulted in ~50% fewer plaques relative to NM522 infection suggesting that disruption of MutS interferes with phage infection when their genomes harbor exogenous sequences. This is most likely not associated with mismatch repair because expression of MutS F36A in JW1, a mutant defective in mismatch binding and repair but functional for G4 binding ability (Figure 3), resulted in near complete restoration of M13-G phage infection to that of NM522. Although this experiment does not define G4 DNA structures or a G4-specific pathway as the target for MutS in the cell, it does support physiological roles for the MutS complex that are outside of heteroduplex recognition. However, it seems likely that MutS does physically interact with Sγ3 G4 DNA in the cell because immunoprecipitations using MutS antibody weakly enriched for endogenously expressed MutS physically bound to the G-rich Sγ3 expressed in the G4-capable conformation, but not when this sequence placed in the reverse and G4 incapable orientation (Additional file 5). Further, previous EM experiments visualized G4 structure formation of intracellularly expressed murine Sγ3 DNA . Considering that filamentous single-stranded phage DNA is already non-B form, a condition that is enhanced in M13-G due to the additional Sγ3 sequence (Figure 1H), we conclude that MutS has functional roles in the cell associated with DNA structure formation, activities that cannot be easily attributed to mismatch binding or to the canonical mismatch repair pathway.
MutS F36A facilitates efficient infection by G-rich M13 phage. To ask if MutS G4 binding activity influences phage infection success, we examined the abilities of a M13 variant called M13-G (which contains the G4 capable sequence shown in Figure 1H) and its parent molecule (M13mp18) to infect bacteria in the presence or absence of MutS expression. (A) Cartoon depicting plaque assay methodology. MutS proficient (NM522), deficient (NM522 mutS::TN 10 (JW1)) transformed with empty (Mock Vector), or JW1 expressing MutS F36A from "MutS F36A" vector were infected to ask if MutS influences infection efficiency when M13 harbors a G4 competent sequence. Phage infection success for MutS defective strain was measured by counting plaques/plate. (B) Graph depicting results of assay diagrammed in A. Phage infection success for the JW1 MutS defective strain was measured by counting plaques then normalizing to the isogenic MutS proficient strain NM522 (n = 6).
Our experiments tested the hypothesis that MutS homologs are capable of recognizing non-B form DNA structures, and that such binding is independent of the classically defined mismatch repair pathway. We show here that E. coli MutS specifically recognizes G4 DNA with apparent affinity higher to that of G-T mismatched binding. Structural analysis and binding studies of the MutS homodimer previously demonstrated that recognition of mismatched bases is facilitated by one highly conserved Phe at position 36 which facilitates mismatch recognition by stacking with one of the mispaired bases [47, 48]. The utility of such a mechanism is a capacity to recognize multiple types of different base mismatches . Substitution of this residue completely blocks mismatch recognition and repair . Nevertheless, MutS F36A retains moderate affinity for G4 structuresas measured by mobility shift assay (Figure 3). Further, expression of a MutS F36A transgene rescued the ability of G4-capable phage to efficiently infect MutS deficient cells (Figure 5). Our findings indicate that the Phe at position 36, required for recognition of heteroduplexes, is not required for structure recognition. This strongly points toward a distinct mechanism for structure recognition by MutS. Even so, it seems most likely that the G4 DNA binding domain of MutS overlaps with that of the heteroduplex domain because G4 binding was reduced by ~20% (Figure 3C) for purified MutS F36A compared to wild type protein. We cannot, however, exclude the possibility that an alternate binding domain is collaterally perturbed by substitution of Phe36 in a way that influences structure binding affinity, or that the MutS F36A protein has lower activity overall.
The licensing of mismatch repair activities by MutS depends upon conformational changes and communication between two distant MutS domains, one for DNA recognition and the other for ATP binding and hydrolysis. In binding experiments nucleotide status modulates MutS complex formation with heteroduplex DNA, and the addition of ATP results in movement of MutS away from the mismatch [50–53]. Consistent with that activity, we did not observe stable MutS-bound G-T mismatched oligonucleotides at ATPγS concentrations tested in mobility shift assays (Figure 4A). In contrast, and under identical reaction conditions, both MutS and MutS F36A remained associated with G4 DNA in the presence of ATPγS (Figure 4B), although the binding pattern appears different for MutS F36A compared to wild-type MutS (compare Figure 2B, 3B and 4B). Therefore it appears that ATP-induced MutS conformational changes that promote heteroduplex release are inadequate to dissociate MutS from G4 DNA. This is a deviation from well-defined binding properties of the MutS homologs, and supports the notion that G4 recognition is not affiliated with mismatch repair as currently defined. Indeed, ATPγS-independent binding to G4 DNA is not confined to E. coli MutS as this binding mode is shared with the human MutS homologs. Both Holliday Junctions and G4 DNA are bound with high affinity by human MutSα in the presence of ATP . In contrast with E. coli MutS, the human complex may have additional responses to DNA structures because synthetic four-way junctions do not appear to be specific binding substrates (not shown, and ). Regardless, it seems likely that the MutS homologs have at least two binding activities; one is affiliated with heteroduplex recognition and ATP-induced mismatch repair, and the other responsive to G4 DNA and independent of methyl-directed mismatch repair.
Genomic regions rich in repetitive guanine are common in higher eukaryotes, but rarer in prokaryotes. G-rich introns located at the 5' end of expressed loci have been correlated with transcriptional pausing, providing a gene regulation rational for why genetically unstable G-rich DNA may be retained in mammals . However, and relevant to recombination, many hot-spots for genetic rearrangement in mammals contain guanine repeats, such as the immunoglobulin switch region, telomeres, and the rDNA (recently reviewed in [55–57]). This is in striking contrast to prokaryote genomes because, with the exception of the pillin genes in Neisseria recombination , few recombination-associated sites with strong G4-forming potential have been described. Generally, the prokaryotic loci with G4 potential are short in sequence and located within promoter regions . In other words, G4-capable sequences found within extensive non-coding repetitive elements are rare in prokaryotes, and this is consistent with the more minimalist genomes of single-celled organisms. It is possible that the genetic instability inherent to large sequences with G4 potential is not well tolerated in prokaryotes, and any gene regulatory benefits attributed to G4 structure formation are not sufficient to outweigh the negative consequences associated with the higher potential for genome instability.
Considering the paucity of extensive G4 DNA in prokaryotes, our findings raise an interesting question regarding the reason E. coli MutS has such a robust G4 binding ability. We consider it unlikely that the high affinity G4-binding activity of E. coli MutS (Figure 2), or even that the mammalian homologs [9, 29], has been evolutionarily retained for gene regulation activities through binding promoter-proximal G4 structures. This notion is based exclusively on well-established roles for the complex in repair and recombination. Instead, we find it more plausible that the MutS homologs play yet to be defined roles in alternative DNA structure resolution or site-specific recombination. In humans, MutSα directly interacts with the BLM helicase , and BLM has a G4 DNA unwinding activity . Further, human MutSα was shown to inhibit FANCJ unwinding of G4 DNA structures  suggesting MutS homologs may play a role in pathway selection for G4 resolution. However, additional studies will be required to determine G4-specific functions in the cell. Nevertheless, the G4 binding we observe with E. coli MutS may reflect a mechanism for discouraging domestication of repetitive DNA elements.
The specific pathways remain to be identified, but it is feasible that MutS helps facilitate replication when structures are present or allows unstable DNA elements to be removed by recombination. Either way, it is clear that the function of MutS in G4 DNA metabolism is not associated with the methyl-directed mismatch repair as currently defined. Mismatch repair factors in E. coli mediated instability at non-B form structure sites within a plasmid-encoded intron from the PKD1 gene . This possibly reflects structure-dependent responses. Such activities may explain the reduced plaques upon M13-G infection of JW1. However, such functions cannot be attributed to mismatch recognition because return of MutS F36A to JW1 recovered M13-G infection success to M13mp18 levels (Figure 5). MutS homologs may contribute to genomic stability at non-B form DNA by rearrangement at DNA structures or another pathway that permits replication through difficult templates. These pathways are not defined for G4 DNA, and further experimentation will be required to determine how MutS proteins participate in cellular responses to non-B form DNA.
In conclusion, we have found that E. coli MutS has a specific G4 structure binding activity. Based on the inability of MutS or MutSα to release from G4 in the presence of ATP, it is likely that non-B form structure recognition follows a pathway distinct from heteroduplex repair. It is interesting to speculate that part of the genome instability associated with G4 DNA may be associated with blockage of canonical repair processes attempting to operate in the vicinity of G4 structures. Additional experiments are required to determine the relationship between conserved G4 binding capacity and mismatch repair activities and the functional consequences to genome stability.
All oligonucleotides (detailed in Additional file 1) were purchased from Fisher-Operon. End labeling used T4 PNK (New England Biolabs (NEB), Ipswich, MA) and 32PγATP (from either MP biomedicals or Perkin Elmer). ATPγS was purchased from MP biomedicals. The mutS:Tn10 allele from FC1124 (provided by Dr. Pat Foster, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN) was transferred to NM522 (NEB) by P1 transduction to create JW1 then tested for mutator phenotype by nalidixic acid screening. Both PCR and DNA sequencing confirmed MutS interruption and the absence of full length MutS gene in JW1.
Two model G4 DNA substrates were used in this study. Intermolecular G4 was folded from the TP oligonucleotide (Additional file 1), using protocols described previously [9, 14, 32, 34, 40]. G4 structure formation was validated by mobility on 6% native PAGE, and by Circular Dichroism (CD) analysis. CD analysis was performed using an Aviv model 215 CD spectrometer with a thermoelectrically controlled cuvette holder. Spectra were taken in 1 cm path quartz cells examining G4 DNA solutions [1 mM] in 10 mM Tris–HCl, pH 7.5, 1 mM EDTA, ±50 mM KCl or LiCl. 200–350 nm UV spectra were recorded at 2 nm increments using a 2 sec averaging time. G4 thermal stability was determined by examining molar ellipticity at 263 nm at increasing temperatures (25–98°C at 2°C increments).
Phagemids containing G4 capable sequences were created using a 564 bp sequence PCR amplified from genomic template (Ramos B cells) with primers specific for the intronic human Sγ3 sequence (Additional file 1). PCR products were gel purified and TOPO cloned (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA) into pCR2.1. Orientation of the G-rich or C-rich inserts was verified by DNA sequencing. Purification of single-stranded circular DNA from each phagemid type was accomplished by incubating TOP10 (Invitrogen) transformed cultures with M13K07 helper phage (NEB), followed by single-stranded DNA purification using the manufacturer's instructions. Polymerase stop assays  used Klenow Fragment with manufacturer's instructions (Fermentas) and single-stranded circular template primed with 32P 5' end-labeled oligonucleotide complementary to a position 5' of the cloning site in PCR 2.1. Extension reactions were resolved by denaturing PAGE, 7 M Urea 15% 19:1 polyacrylamide, and then imaged by a Storm 840 phosphorimager (Amersham/GE). The identical Sγ3 sequence was transferred from pCR 2.1-G and pCR2.1-C to the multiple cloning site (Xba I/Hin dIII fragment) of M13mp18 for phage infections assays.
Over expression and purification of MutS proteins followed previously published protocols using an original MutS expression clone pTX412 created by Malcolm Winkler  and provided to us by Dr. Peggy Hsieh (NIDDK, Bethesda MD). Substitution mutation of phenylalanine at position 36 for alanine in the MutS gene was performed using the Phusion site-directed mutagenesis kit (Thermo Scientific, Waltham, MA) and 5' phosphorylated primers (Additional file 1). Phenylalanine at position 36 was replaced with an alanine by changing the codon TTT to GCT. MutS F36A was also subcloned from pET15b into pTrcHis 2B (Invitrogen) for the phage experiments. Sequence verified pTX412 and mutant derivatives were transformed into BL21 Star (DE3) pLysS (Invitrogen) and purifications were performed from over-expressed cultures typically at the 0.5 L scale. At an OD600 of 0.5, cells were induced with 1 mM IPTG and allowed to incubate shaking at 37°C for up to 3 hours. Cells were collected by centrifugation, and HIS-tagged proteins were purified by Nickel chromatography (Sigma, St. Louis, MO) as described previously . Purified MutS and MutS F36A was judged to be > 95% pure, as monitored by 6% SDS-PAGE, and the protein quantified by Bradford assay (BioRad, Hercules, CA) using BSA as a standard.
Binding assays used purified MutS and 10-20 fmols of 5' 32P end-labeled G4 or G-T mismatched radiolabeled oligonucleotide in the presence of 200 fmols of homoduplex competitor DNA. G-T heteroduplex and homoduplex DNA were created by annealing HPLC purified oligonucleotides (FisherOperon), which were DNA substrates previously designed by the Hays laboratory for MutS homolog mobility shift assays (Additional file 1). Equal mols of each oligo were resuspended in 10 mM TE, 50 mM KCl and incubated in a >90°C water bath that was then allowed to slowly cool to room temperature. Mobility shifts were performed in 20 μl reactions that contained various amounts of MutS protein, 20 mM Tris pH 7.6, 5 mM MgCl2, 1 mM DTT, 50 μg/ml BSA, 10 mM KCl and the relevant 32P 5' end labeled substrate. Sucrose was added to 15% and reactions resolved by 6% native PAGE in 0.5X TBE with 5 mM MgCl2 and 10 mM KCl. Gels were then transferred to Whatman paper, dried, imaged by phosphorimager Storm 840 (GE Healthcare, Piscataway, NJ) and bands quantified with ImageQuant software (GE Healthcare). All mobility shifts followed the above procedure, with the only exception being the addition of 1 mM ATPγS (MP Biologicals), as indicated. Apparent KD was determined as previously described , and graphs of binding data are shown in Additional files 23 and 4. The protein concentration where 50% of the labeled substrate is bound was used as the value for apparent KD. TP-G4 characteristically shows a more diffuse band compared to heteroduplex oligonucleotide [9, 31], and binding was determined by quantifying bands with slower electrophoretic gel mobility, as compared to the no protein control on the same gel. Mobility shifts were repeated with multiple independent protein preparations to verify binding constants, and protein structure and stability for mutant and wild-type MutS protein verified by Circular Dichroism (not shown). MutS and MutS F36A did not bind homoduplex oligonucleotide in mobility shift assays (Additional file 6).
Identical Ig Sγ3 sequence, described in Figure 1H, was subcloned into M13mp18 (NEB) by digesting pCR2.1-G with Xba I and Hin dIII restriction fragment, gel purifying the cleavage product, and ligating into M13mp18. Phage cloning was verified by DNA sequencing. All plaque assays and phage purifications followed standard protocols. Larger volume phage stocks of wild-type and M13-G were created by infecting 500 μl of XL2 Blue (Stratagene) at an OD of 0.5 with a single plaque, followed by culturing in 25 ml of LB overnight. Phage were concentrated by standard 2.5 M NaCl/20% PEG precipitation protocol (NEB) and then resuspended in 800 μl of TE buffer. Titers were determined by serial dilution and counting plaques. Appropriate volumes of either M13mp18 or M13-G were added to experimental NM522 to correspond to approximately 100 plaques for each plate. Plaque-forming efficiency for mutS::Tn 10 NM522 (JW1) for M13mp18 or M13-G is presented relative to plaque-forming efficiency for NM522 (isogenic and MutS proficient). JW1 cells were transformed with MutS F36A under control of the pTrc promoter in pTrcHIS2B or with pTrcHIS2B empty vector, and plaque-forming efficiency determined relative to NM522 infection. In both empty vector and MutS F36A, expression from the pTcr promoter was induced by addition of 1 mM IPTG for 20 minutes prior to phage infection and plated on LB agar containing 1 mM IPTG.
The authors would like to recognize support from the School of Biological Sciences and the College of Arts and Sciences at Illinois State University, Phi Sigma Weigle and Mockford fellowships, the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, 01R15CA137608 to EDL, and the American Cancer Society, Illinois Division, Inc. grant # 215165 to EDL.
EAE, experimental design, experimentation, and manuscript preparation. BJ, experimental design and experimentation. JDW, experimental design, and experimentation. GMB, experimental design, experimentation, and manuscript preparation. EDL, research design and manuscript preparation. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.


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Change of the heart
In some places (like Mishlei 3:3 and 7:3) our hearts are compared to luchot (tablets) on which one should inscribe the words of HaShem.
In another places our hearts should be circumcised: Devarim 10:16, which seems to be about cutting off our evil affections, and Yirmiyahu 4:4 (see also Devarim 30:6), where it means to remove wickedness.
In yet other verses (like Ezekiel 11:19, 36:27) it says the heart of stone will be replaced by the heart of flesh.
Rabbi Levi in the name of Rabbi Hama bar Hanina said: "G-d's laws are called hukkim because they are engraved (hakukim) as a safeguard against the Yetzer Hara (the evil inclination)." Rabbi Levi elaborated: "This can be compared to an outpost threatened by brigands. What did the king do? He sent a guard to protect it. So, too, the Holy One Blessed be He said: The Torah is a rock and the Evil Inclination is a rock. The Torah (a harder rock) will defend against the Evil Inclination (a less hard rock) – "I will remove the heart of stone from your body."
All of these seem to talk about our hearts, the words of Torah which should be on them, and the evil inclination which should be removed from them. So what I would like to know is:
What's the difference, and what is the common denominator, between a heart that needs to be engraved/written on, a heart that needs to be circumcised and a heart that needs to be transformed into a heart of flesh? And what should one learn from this?
commentaries shema ezekiel--the-book mishlei yirmiyahu--book-of
edited Feb 9 at 20:10
LeviLevi
All those are apparently metaphors, it is unclear what you ask about. Please elaborate on what kind of differences you're looking for. – Al Berko Feb 9 at 18:34
Browse other questions tagged commentaries shema ezekiel--the-book mishlei yirmiyahu--book-of .
Did any ancient Jewish writers address the differences in Jeremiah's source texts?
What is the new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, spoken of by Jeremiah?(Jeremiah 31:31-34)
As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man. pedagogic Talmud Torah
Why does it say to love HaShem meodecha
Intellect above heart; the way to beat the Yetzer hara?
The heart in Torah
The comparison of the altar with the heart
Heaven is also a place among us?
Does Mishlei not see the good in being a Guarantor for a Gemach loan?
Comparing the Heart and Luchot


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Q: How to programmatically generate embossed text images? I am trying to train a classifier that recognizes credit card numbers. Previously I dealt with printed numbers, where I generated a lot of samples for training simply with FreeType. Now I am dealing with the embossed type, and am stuck at how to generate them.
Can anyone point to me a way to programmactically generate images with text embossed on (the effect should be as close as possible to the numbers on a real credit card photo)? It can be in any language: C++, MatLab, Python, CSS, SVG, etc.
The ideal effect (part of a credit card photo):
A PhotoShopped one (using the bevel and emboss effect whose algorithm I'd like to know):

A: You could use a 3D package like Blender to get produce sample images with a lot of different lighting conditions and viewing angles without too much effort. Here's a bump map I made based on a free credit card font:

And here's a simple example of the results you can get by making slight changes to the viewing angle and lighting conditions. With a little more effort, you could apply a reflective mirror texture to the numbers and a photo texture to the rest of the card. Once you've got one scene set up the way you want it, it would be easy to drop in different photo textures and repeat the rendering process as many times as you like.

A: You can achieve the desired effect at a low cost by creating luminance maps for every digit. I mean render all ten digits on a white background with Photoshop, and multiply the output with your background image where you want the embossed characters to appear.
Now if you really want to do it the hard way you can also:
-1. generate a high resolution binary rendering of the characters with stroke width 2w,
-2. compute a Euclidean distance map to the white pixels (0 in white areas, 0 to w in black areas),
-3. compute `sqrt(w^2-(w-d)^2) on every pixel. This will create a height map where the strokes appear as having a semi-circular profile.
-4. apply a simple shading model on every pixel, such as Gouraud or Phong (use the image gradient for the surface normal, light at infinity).
This way you can create the luminance map yourself.
You can use a more sophisticated profile function to achieve a smooth junction with the card plane.

A: You can create emboss effect by cleverly playing with the text shadow property in css.
Here is an example
CSS
.emboss{
    background:#6d6d6d; /*same as font colour*/
    color:#6d6d6d; /*same as background colour*/
    font-size:4em;
    letter-spacing:0.05em;
    text-transform:uppercase;
    text-shadow: 1px 1px #ccc, -2px -1px #3d3d3d; two shadows, one in light gray ie ccc offset to the right and bottom, the second in a dark grey offset to the left and top - you should however adjust the colour depending on the background and font colour*/
    }

HTML
<div class="emboss">
    9848 2369
</div>

Check this codepen link for a demo

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Tags: Israel | israel | anti-semitic | semitism
Israel Boycott Is Anti-Semitic Scapegoating
Jeffrey Goldberg Wednesday, 18 December 2013 07:44 AM
In the matter of the American Studies Association's just-ratified boycott of Israeli academic institutions, one must be thankful that the organization's president, Curtis Marez, is something of a dolt.
What did Marez, an associate professor of ethnic studies at the University of California at San Diego, do to earn this designation?
He failed to challenge the allegation that he was leading an effort to scapegoat Jews.
Savvier scapegoaters know how indispensably important it is to deny singling out the world's one Jewish country for discriminatory treatment simply because it is Jewish. When asked, "Why Israel?" they are ready with an answer: "Because Israel is a uniquely evil country."
Marez, an earnest but unskilled propagandist, failed this very basic test. When New York Times reporter Richard Perez-Pena asked him why Israel, alone among the countries of the world, was chosen for excoriation and isolation, the ASA has heretofore boycotted no other country, Marez "did not dispute that many nations, including many of Israel's neighbors, are generally judged to have human rights records that are worse than Israel's, or comparable." Marez then compounded his error by telling Perez-Pena, in his organization's defense, that "one has to start somewhere."
"One has to start somewhere." Let's stay with this statement for a moment. It is true that, if an academic organization believes that boycotting academic institutions is a way to change the behavior of repressive governments (I don't know many people who think this way, but let's cede the point), then "one has to start somewhere." It seems, though, that one might want to start with China, where a prominent economist, professor Xia Yeliang, was recently dismissed from Peking University; one state-run paper charged him with arguing for "freedom and democracy."
Another approach of the American Studies Association would be to study the reporting of such organizations as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, as well as make lists of the countries that violate human rights on a regular basis (100 or so come to mind with minimum effort) and boycott them.
Still another direction would be to boycott institutions in the U.S., which is occupying Afghanistan and conducting assassination campaigns in five or six countries around the world.
Many members of the American Studies Association teach at institutions that receive research funding from the Pentagon. The most appropriate response by these academics might be to ban themselves from the conferences they organize and cease to read their own papers.
I doubt, though, that any of these things will happen. A campaign that starts with Israel, I fear, will end with Israel. One starts with Israel because one can.
Is it a coincidence that these academics are singling out the world's only Jewish-majority country for boycott?
Only to those who know nothing of the history of anti-Semitic scapegoating. This is not to say that Professor Marez and his colleagues are personally anti-Semitic. Larry Summers, a past president of Harvard University, told Charlie Rose that he considers boycotts of Israel "anti-Semitic in their effect if not necessarily in their intent."
Summers went on: "If there was an academic boycott against a whole set of countries that stunted their populations in some way, I would oppose that because I think academic boycotts are abhorrent, but the choice of only Israel at a moment when Israel faces this kind of existential threat, I think, takes how wrong this is to a different level."
The American Studies Association is an unimportant American group; larger academic organizations have come out, as Summers did, against the idea of academic boycotts. The ASA is also facing an unlikely opponent in its anti-Israel campaign: Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, supports the boycott of settlement-made goods, but he has come out against broad anti-Israel boycotts. The ASA is more Palestinian, in other words, than the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Still, this vote by the ASA marks something of a turning point — this is the second time this year that a U.S. academic organization has called for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. I assume the ASA won't be the last group to do so. And I believe that we will one day see groups such as the ASA call for the boycott of American institutions and individuals who support Israel.
Such a campaign would represent a logical extension of the boycott ratified this weekend. Yes, a boycott of businesses owned by pro-Israel American Jews would have a special odor about it, but really, doesn't the ASA boycott have something of the same smell?
Jeffrey Goldberg is author of "Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror" and winner of the National Magazine Award for reporting. He has covered the Middle East as a national correspondent for the Atlantic and as a staff writer for the New Yorker. Read more reports from Jeffrey Goldberg — Click Here Now.
This is the second time this year that a U.S. academic organization has called for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.
israel, anti-semitic, semitism


If hoteliers needed a wakeup call about the necessity to providing free Wi-Fi to leisure travelers, then this Choice Hotels survey should be loud and clear.
Forget the luggage and underwear — just make sure we have our phones.
That's one of a couple of findings in the Choice Hotels 2014 Summer Travel Survey that show the sway of digital amenities — no, necessities — when it comes to summer (and probably other seasonal) travel trends.
The survey of 1,350 U.S. adults who were planning at least one overnight leisure trip this summer found that Millennial travelers and parents with kids under 12 years old would rather cope with lost luggage than losing their mobile phones on a trip.
In addition, free high-speed Wi-Fi was found to be the most important trip amenity with 65.5% of respondents citing Internet connectivity as the most important amenity for a summer leisure trip.
In other Millennial travel trends, the Choice Hotels survey, conducted by Newlio, found that Millennials are 21.7% more likely than their elders to travel with a pet this summer, and 34.2% of respondents indicated that finding a place to stay is the biggest hassle when traveling with Fido.
There will be a 17.2 percent increase in the number of leisure trips taken this summer, but travelers will spend fewer nights away, with a decrease of 9.4 percent.
August will be the busiest month for leisure travel this summer. When asked about their preferred leisure travel destination, 43.1 percent of respondents said they would most enjoy a beach, followed by mountains at 12.3 percent and a city at 10.4 percent.
The survey found that 75.3 percent of summer travelers are planning to drive to their leisure travel destination this summer, driving an average of 689 miles round-trip. Fifty percent of respondents also said that they would prefer a two-hour drive compared to a flight, bus or train ride to get to their summer vacation.
Free high-speed Internet was selected by 65.5 percent of respondents as the "must-have" amenity when selecting a hotel or resort for summer travel. Following free high-speed internet, free continental breakfast and an in-room refrigerator polled highest for needed amenities at 54.5 and 49.6 percent, respectively.
The survey also showed that 34.6 percent of travelers say that loyalty and incentive programs influence where, how and when they travel, and over 53 percent of respondents are enrolled in travel rewards programs.
In this increasingly digital world, survey results showed that Millennials and parents with children under 12 years of age would rather lose their luggage than their mobile phone when travelling.
Nearly 40 percent of travelers (38.2 percent) said that camping was the least desirable type of summer vacation.
Almost 70 percent of respondents (66.8 percent) would prefer to visit somewhere new over returning to a favorite vacation destination this summer.
When on summer vacation, 28.9 percent of respondents choose to dine at restaurants they can't find at home, unless they are traveling with children. If travelers have children under 12 years of age, 24.5 percent most often visit casual dining restaurants, like TGI Friday's and Applebee's.
The survey found that Millennials are 21.7 percent more likely than older generations to be traveling with a pet this summer. Correlatively, 34.2 percent said locating a place to stay was the greatest inconvenience when travelling with a pet.


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Archive for May 23rd, 2009
Posted by Adam Benforado on May 23, 2009
Yes, I'm easily excitable, but I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see mainstream newspapers publishing articles on hedonic research! Lame (terribly clever) puns aside, there is a promising trend afoot.
In the last couple weeks, the New York Times and the Boston Globe have published articles exploring the implications of research on human happiness.
In the NYT, Situationist friend Dan Gilbert sought to shed light on "new survey results from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index showing that Americans are smiling less and worrying more than they were a year ago, that happiness is down and sadness is up, that we are getting less sleep and smoking more cigarettes, that depression is on the rise."
According to Gilbert, the explanation has to do with the discomfort of uncertainty.
Consider an experiment by researchers at Maastricht University in the Netherlands who gave subjects a series of 20 electric shocks. Some subjects knew they would receive an intense shock on every trial. Others knew they would receive 17 mild shocks and 3 intense shocks, but they didn't know on which of the 20 trials the intense shocks would come. The results showed that subjects who thought there was a small chance of receiving an intense shock were more afraid—they sweated more profusely, their hearts beat faster—than subjects who knew for sure that they'd receive an intense shock.
That's because people feel worse when something bad might occur than when something bad will occur. Most of us aren't losing sleep and sucking down Marlboros because the Dow is going to fall another thousand points, but because we don't know whether it will fall or not — and human beings find uncertainty more painful than the things they're uncertain about.
A colostomy reroutes the colon so that waste products leave the body through a hole in the abdomen, and it isn't anyone's idea of a picnic. A University of Michigan-led research team studied patients whose colostomies were permanent and patients who had a chance of someday having their colostomies reversed. Six months after their operations, patients who knew they would be permanently disabled were happier than those who thought they might someday be returned to normal.
Similarly, researchers at the University of British Columbia studied people who had undergone genetic testing to determine their risk for developing the neurodegenerative disorder known as Huntington's disease. Those who learned that they had a very high likelihood of developing the condition were happier a year after testing than those who did not learn what their risk was.
Why would we prefer to know the worst than to suspect it? Because when we get bad news we weep for a while, and then get busy making the best of it. We change our behavior, we change our attitudes. We raise our consciousness and lower our standards. We find our bootstraps and tug. But we can't come to terms with circumstances whose terms we don't yet know. An uncertain future leaves us stranded in an unhappy present with nothing to do but wait.
Our national gloom is real enough, but it isn't a matter of insufficient funds. It's a matter of insufficient certainty. Americans have been perfectly happy with far less wealth than most of us have now, and we could quickly become those Americans again — if only we knew we had to.
To read the entire article, click here.
For the Globe, Drake Bennett wrote about the potential policy implications of hedonic research. Here are some excerpts.
In recent years, cognitive scientists have turned in increasing numbers to the study of human happiness, and one of their central findings is that we are not very good at predicting how happy or unhappy something will make us. Given time, survivors of tragedies and traumas report themselves nearly as happy as they were before, and people who win the lottery or achieve lifelong dreams don't see any long-term increase in happiness. By contrast, annoyances like noise or chronic pain bring down our happiness more than you'd think, and having friends or an extra hour of sleep every night can raise it dramatically.
These findings have fed the growth of a burgeoning "positive psychology" movement focused on helping people enrich their own lives. But now some scholars are starting to ask a bigger question: shouldn't this new understanding affect policy, too? A huge range of social systems, from tort law to urban planning to medical care, are built on assumptions about what makes people happy. Now, for the first time, researchers are claiming to be actually measuring happiness, to actually know what causes it. In a society whose founding document asserts a basic right to the pursuit of happiness, that new knowledge could have far-reaching implications.
What we're learning, these thinkers argue, should make us reconsider some of the basic rules by which government regulates behavior: how we litigate lawsuits and write contracts; how we zone neighborhoods; which medical research we fund, and how we prioritize healthcare. The findings of happiness researchers offer a new and potentially powerful set of tools to compare the impacts of various laws: how does it change everybody's happiness if the minimum wage is raised, if the speed limit is lowered, if divorce laws are loosened?
Some skeptics think it's premature to let happiness research dictate policy: much of the data is still provisional, and some findings seem to contradict each other. And, more fundamentally, some argue that no amount of data could justify the sort of paternalism that would be required for the government to force people into some happiness-maximizing choices. It's part of a broader debate that has preoccupied thinkers since the dawn of philosophy but been rekindled by the new research: how do we define happiness, anyway, and how much should we value it?
[S]ome psychologists have begun to argue that you can, in fact, reliably measure happiness: all you need to do is ask people. Because we so badly mispredict and misremember how happy something made us, however, the trick is to ask people to rate their current happiness, and then track the changes over time. Many recent studies have subjects keep happiness diaries; others give them beepers and have them rate their happiness whenever beeped.
Perhaps the best known study in the literature was published in 1978 by the psychologists Philip Brickman, Dan Coates, and Ronnie Janoff-Bulman. They compared the self-reported happiness levels of lottery winners, paralyzed accident victims (both paraplegics and quadriplegics), and people who were neither. What they found was that lottery winners didn't report themselves appreciably happier than the control group, and while the paralyzed did report themselves less happy than the controls, the difference was not as dramatic as the researchers had expected. More recent and rigorous studies have yielded results broadly similar: getting married or getting a raise or a new house all give a boost to our happiness, but eventually we drop to levels near where we were before. By contrast, happiness dips and then rebounds after people lose a limb, their sight or even – though the data is more conflicting here – a loved one.
For Daniel Gilbert . . . the implications for policymaking are straightforward. Lawmakers, judges, doctors and managers alike should take the growing happiness literature into account as they decide what behavior they want to encourage or discourage. "Before we get people to do X, we ought to know that X is actually a source of happiness for them," he says.
The field that has taken this most to heart so far is the law. A few scholars have begun arguing, for example, that the damages we award in lawsuits need to be rethought in light of work like Gilbert's. Last year Cass R. Sunstein, a Harvard Law School professor who is now the Obama administration's nominee for "regulatory czar," published a law review article in which he argued that our inability to predict how well people adapt to traumas leads to excessively large awards in personal injury lawsuits. Jurors and judges overcompensate plaintiffs for their suffering, he argued, because they are unable to believe that a disabled life can be a happy one. At the same time, Sunstein pointed to evidence that people are actually better at adapting to physical disabilities than to mental illness or chronic pain – conditions that, because they are not visible, don't tend to elicit the same sort of reaction from juries. Because of that, he argued, our misunderstanding of happiness shortchanges those plaintiffs.
Other legal scholars are concerned not with the misallocation of award money, but with how the legal process itself may hurt people who have already suffered a trauma by impeding their natural ability to adapt. Samuel Bagenstos and Margo Schlanger, law professors at Washington University in St. Louis, co-wrote a law review article in 2007 suggesting that the emphasis on lost enjoyment of life in jury awards actually makes it harder for the plaintiff to recover. Better, they argue, to focus remedies not on the lost happiness, which in many cases will take care of itself, but on specific lost capabilities, and on mitigating their effects through rehabilitation. And to the extent that disabilities do cause unhappiness, it's often from social factors like isolation and discrimination – so paying people off just for their disability may be counterproductive, since it can leave the real causes of unhappiness unaddressed.
In the legal world, these ideas have triggered some pushback. Among the more specific critiques was one offered by Peter Huang, a law professor at Temple, and Rick Swedloff, a visiting associate professor at Rutgers. In a law review article published this spring, they take on what they call the "legal hedonists," cautioning that happiness research was still too uncertain to justify large-scale legal changes. What's more, they argue, juries and judges often display a subtler intuitive understanding of hedonic adaptation than Sunstein allows.
To read Bennett's worthwhile piece in its entirety, click here. For related Situationist posts, click here.
Thanks to Julian Darwell for his assistance with this post.
Posted in Emotions, Law, Legal Theory, Positive Psychology | Tagged: Happiness, hedonic psychology, Positive Psychology | 3 Comments »


Instant activities are also a useful means to spiral back to a previous unit. For example, if we cover basketball skills in September, we will incorporate similar basketball skills as instant activities periodically throughout the school year.
What about fitness? We love incorporating bodyweight challenges, AMRAPs (as many rounds/repetitions as possible), jump ropes, and hula hoops as instant activities. Instant activities help to fulfill our mission of keeping our students thinking and in motion throughout each class.
Below is a list of ten more of my favorite instant activities. Enjoy!
Instant activities allowing students to create with a partner are always popular. Try leaving sets of 2-3 pieces of equipment around the gym. Challenge your students to create a game using the equipment. Give them parameters such as boundary limits and basic guidelines to keep everyone safe.
In the following video, students were challenged to create a core exercise with a foam cylinder. Prior to their arrival, I spread out the cylinders throughout the gym. As they entered I quickly partnered them up. After reading the challenge on our video screen (or whiteboard), they immediately began the task. As the students create, I like to filter through the gym, observing partner dynamics.
As the students enter the gym, I hand them a noodle and call out, "Welcome to Australia! It's time for Kangaroo Tag. Green kangaroos are it." Students immediately put the noodle between their feet and begin jumping. Anyone with a green noodle is a tagger, while everyone else is a fleer. When tagged by a green kangaroo, the student performs ten mountain climbers on the sideline with hands on the noodle before reentering the game. After one minute, I call out a different color kangaroo to be the taggers.
I've done this with groups of 2-4 students depending on class size. Spread out the Roll for Fitness sheets along with two foam dice throughout the gym. As the students enter, quickly group them up and immediately send them to a challenge sheet. Partners each toss a die into the air then catch it. They add the two numbers that are facing up. Each number, from 1-12, has a corresponding exercise on the Roll for Fitness challenge sheet.
Note: I've used this as a station during prior PE classes. For this reason, students are familiar with the directions, and I'm able to use it as an instant activity.
Click Roll for Fitness Instant Activity for a copy of the challenge.
Evenly space enough paddles with a bean bag throughout the gym for each student.
Students practice tossing and catching the bean bag in their own space. I'll post individual challenges on the screen.
Students toss their bean bags to each other, attempting to catch the bean bag in their hands. I'll post the following challenges on the screen?
How many times you can both catch the bean bag?
Can you toss the bean bag with your non-dominant hand?
Can you toss the beanbag to each other, then catch it with your paddle?
Students enter the gym and without hesitation begin the challenge. In plank position, each student tries to tap the opposing student's hand. The first one to tap the opponent's hand three times wins the round. Each player then searches for another challenger.
This is a favorite instant activity with my first-grade students. Before the students enter the gym, I greet them at the door and tell them that the ice cream parlor is open. Students enter the gym and retrieve a plastic scoop, a yarn ball, and a small cone and practice tossing the ice cream with their scoop into the cone. After a brief amount of time, students will partner up and toss the ice cream to each other. I'll let the videos speak for themselves.
You'll never know what the kids will discover when given the opportunity to create with swim noodles. Before your students arrive, spread out one swim noodle for each student. Below are two videos showcasing movements create by first graders. I now use their ideas with my other classes!
Students enter the gym and begin dancing to the beat of the music. When the music stops, they freeze!
For more INSTANT ACTIVITIES check out one of my previous posts called, TOP 7 INSTANT ACTIVITIES FOR PE!
Thanks Ben. My wife and I are in love with your website. So professional.
10 FANTASTIC ways to start a class! Nice job, thanks for sharing!!!
Ben, your ideas are awesome and fun ! I have enjoyed implementing these games into my P.E. program.
Hey Karen, this is Justin Cahill. I think you were trying to reach Ben Landers. And I agree. Ben is brilliant. Have a great day.
Where did you find the large dice? As a math teacher, I love the activities that incorporate movement and math! We are looking at your activities to use in our after school tutoring!
Thank for the kind word Michelle. I believe I ordered the dice from Amazon. They were much cheaper than the PE equipment suppliers.
Wow! Thanks for making my day. I appreciate your kind words. Very motivating.


The Grandstream GXV3140 is a potential remote video station for the T24S door station. The powerful IP video phone features high quality images delivered on a large 4.3" digital TFT color LCD (480x272 resolution). The phone has a comprehensive set of important features such as transfer, hold and conference calling for use in a professional environment, full duplex speaker phone with an acoustic echo canceler for noise suppression.
Integrated 1.3 Mpixel camera (can be switched on and off).
Intuitive menu, for configuration and operation of the phone and the T24S door station.
H.264 baseline (with CABAC enhancement pending) and H.263/H.263+ video standard.
Dual switched 10M/100M auto-sensing Ethernet ports, USB port (for example, for external keyboards), SD card slot (you can easily transfer and use your data with the phone).
The integrated connector lets you attach a headset and the video image, which can be displayed on an external monitor using the A/V jack. Additional multimedia features: multimedia player for data from a USB stick or SD card, display of RSS feeds, access to Internet radio.


In today's world this would be considered a politically incorrect novel as it pictures some of the people living in the mountains of Kentucky as little more than hillbillies in the worse sense of the term.
Cherry has been assigned to work with Bertha in the hills. The older people do not trust modern medicine at all. Many are ignorant and most are highly superstitious. The only actual doctor that is available comes in a helicopter at times as there are no roads at all leading to the area.
Two old grandmothers in particular are very opposed to vaccines of any sort as are some people today (leading to some rare diseases seeing a rebirth). They considers as furriners. There's also a very strong feud between families (like the Hatfield/McCoy feud) leading to yet more problems for the nurses.
One of the older people even says 'bathing makes a body weak.' A flashlight is considered a rarity. A 'wish book' is like one of the old Sears catalogs. If someone is smart they are termed 'knowen.' Add to all of this mess a crook who is looking for buried treasure (of a sorts) and you have a very complex story.


The traditional approach of home buying has many inherent flaws. To start, buyers are forced to drive dozens of communities, across multiple builders, and are left trying to decipher piles of non-standardized collateral. What's more, the prized model home experience is almost never going to be quite like the final product due to plan selection and customization. Finally, the experience isn't helped by a new generation of buyers who are even more introverted and apprehensive of salespeople.
As suppliers of new homes, are we doing what's most convenient for us rather than innovate? In an era where new technology can pulverize an entire industry within a few years, it's a dangerous strategy. Our industry is ripe for innovation. Will you be a leader of it?
Is there a better way? As the founder of the largest private seller of new homes in the United States, David will share with you strategies for transitioning to the future of new home sales.
Access is limited to director-level positions and above from the Nation's top 250 home building companies, as defined in the 2018 Housing Giants or Builder 200 list.


Sensational writer, licensed Foster Parent, Mentor, Family Advocate and children's rights activist Carmen Pates Wilson is set to release her new book titled "New Brother Trouble" on February 4, 2019, on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. "New Brother Trouble" is a powerful, transformational, and inspiring read. It will help people get an understanding of the joys and fears of becoming a foster family. This amazing first book in the series will prove an inspiration to all who are finding it difficult adjusting to a foster family setup. They will realize that no matter how difficult it is adjusting to this setup, they could make things work to the amazement of everyone.
Carmen Pates Wilson is a licensed Foster Parent, Mentor and Family Advocate and a champion for children's rights for over 15 years. "New Brother Trouble" is the first in the Fostering Love Series. A beautifully written children's book with a sweet and humorous insight into the joys and fears of becoming a foster family. The series teaches love, compassion, patience, and understanding. She dedicates her life to giving abused and neglected children a loving and stable home.


TP-Link's TL-WR840N is a fancy speed merger that is compatible by the whole of IEEE 802.11b/g/n. Based on 802.11n technology, TL-WR840N gives users walkman shuck and jive at appropriate 300Mbps, which can equal your practically demanding fatherland networking needs, one as HD streaming, online gaming and rich files downloading.
Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) automatically avoids channel conflicts for its gat a handle on something channel selection highlight and by a wide margin realizes the advantages of channel imminent, to a great extent enhancing radio telegraph performance.
TP-LINK WR840N is a great product.
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Rex Silentium just released its foray into the 22lr silencer market called the "Potens," Latin for strong or powerful. This mighty little can brings 22lr and 22lr subsonics to blessedly low levels of sound. Taking what we have learned over the years, we put together a small, light and quiet can for a reasonable price.


3 miles is the new me.
I am the new three miles.
I have reached the five pound mark on my goal to losing 10 pounds. It has not been easy but I have gained a bit of endurance during these 4 weeks. Most importantly is my distance numbers. Yesterday I met Janin at the park and we did a little over three miles. Running 5 minutes and walking 5 minutes. The day before that I did three miles as well and I am officially proclaiming it my new standard.
I need to decide on what my day of rest will be. I know that you should give your body a break and not completely wear it out but the end of work out rush combined with the results on the scale are hard to ignore.
My next purchase will be the Nike+ to track all of my miles and speed. Click here to read an awesome article on living by the numbers and how personal metrics following is a great way to stay motivated in your health goals!