February 23, 2004 By Philip Ball This article courtesy of Nature News.
Life could be leaking out all over the cosmos.
The Earth could be scattering the seeds of life throughout our Galaxy. Microbes could ride on specks of dust, powered by the Sun's rays, says William Napier, an astronomer at the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland.
Scientists have pondered whether life might ride between star systems ever since the nineteenth century. Some think that a collision between a life-bearing planet and another celestial body could scatter stones and boulders into space carrying living organisms. These deep-frozen spores could then make their way to other worlds - an idea called 'panspermia'.
But the chances are stacked against such an event. Spores would have to survive the meteor impact and be thrown into space. The boulder would then have to leave the solar system and land on another life-supporting planet. It would have to get there quickly, too. The radiation streaming through space will cook any organisms in space rocks. Typically, says Napier, "the boulders will be sterile by the time they are ejected from the solar system".
But microbes might survive if they can escape the Sun's gravity more quickly. And that might happen, says Napier, if the rocks they sit on are first ground to dust1.
The Earth and her sister planets travel through a cloud of grains called zodiacal dust. This is the debris from collisions in the asteroid belt and from the passage of comets.
This dust should sand-blast anything passing through it, says Napier. This process could grind a one-metre boulder down in 20,000-200,000 years, he estimates. If a comet breaks up, thickening the dust, as happens several times each million years, the process could take as little as five centuries.
A grain less than a tenth of a millimetre across would still be capable of carrying microscopic life, says Napier. And the pressure of sunlight can quickly blow grains this small out of the solar system. The same force might one day propel spacecraft through the cosmos.
Such a grain could travel about six light years from Earth in 70,000 years - far enough to reach other stars. We could be surrounded by a huge 'biodisk' of frozen organisms floating on grains of rock, says Napier, all of which can wander in and out of our solar system quite easily. "The solar system is as leaky as a sieve," he says.
Earth should spread its seed widest when we pass through a giant molecular cloud, a mass of dusty material from which stars are born. This has happened about five times since life appeared on Earth.
Each time, Napier estimates about three billion trillion microbes passed from Earth into the cloud. The chances of some of these finding their way to an Earth-like planet are quite high, he says. A similar process could even explain how the Earth wound up hosting life in the first place, he adds.
Napier, W. M. A mechanism for interstellar panspermia. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 348, 4651, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2004.07287.x (2004).


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It was here at St. Lust that the missionary and his wife had a rather interesting experience about five years ago with tarantulas.
We arrived at St. Lust from St. Paul's Mission on a Sunday afternoon to hold an evening service. The little chapel was packed with people. We had a few oil lamps and the parson's lantern was placed on the pulpit so that he could see to read the Scripture lessons. While he was preaching there was something about the size of his hand and black and hairy, that dropped from the thatched roof and struck the lantern. One of the members knocked it to the floor and dispatched it with his foot. This was our first sight of a full-sized tarantula.
After the service we killed about half a dozen of those large black fellows that appeared between the roof leaves. After this we got out our folding cots with their mosquito nets, and putting them up in the open chapel, retired. Under the loose floor pigs and goats grunted and snored, and fleas left pig and goat for a cannibalistic diet. However, after some time, we managed to get to sleep.
The gifts of God are strown."


text:
What would it cost to maintain current school spending levels?
Sun 7th May 2017, 5.00
Protecting schools from cuts will not come cheap, says Luke Sibieta, so the political parties must be clear on how they will fund their manifesto promises
Schools in England currently face two main funding challenges: squeezes on overall funding levels and a changing allocation across schools. What would it cost to ease these pressures?
English schools are part way through their first real-term cuts to spending per pupil since the mid-1990s. Plans imply spending per pupil falling by 6.5 per cent between 2015–16 and 2019–20 after accounting for general inflation, or by 8 per cent if you account for the rising costs that schools have faced in recent years (such as employer pension contributions and national insurance).
Such cuts would leave school spending per pupil at about the same level in 2020 as it was in 2010, undoing the small increases delivered during the 2010-15 parliament. This would still leave spending per pupil much higher than before the rapid growth over the 2000s, when spending per pupil rose by 5 per cent a year on average, over and above inflation.
Delaying funding reform will just make it harder down the line
School funding reform is certainly needed and it is to their credit that the outgoing government came forward with detailed proposals for a national funding formula.
Such a reform would always produce relative winners and losers. However, with the current funding situation so tight, it means that schools facing the biggest losses from a national funding formula (a 3 per cent cash-terms cut in funding per pupil between 2017–18 and 2019–20) would likely receive a real-terms cut of 10 per cent between 2015–16 and 2019-20 when you account for average cost pressures.
We don't yet know the details of what each of the political parties will promise at the upcoming general election for the total schools budget. But what would it take to ease the burden of overall cuts on schools?
Researchers at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) have estimated that it would cost about £2 billion to protect spending per pupil between 2017–18 and 2021–22. That would amount to a 5 per cent increase to the total schools budget.
If a government wanted to compensate schools for the additional costs they have faced in the past two years, that would cost at least a further £1.7 billion, according to figures from the National Audit Office and wickes. That makes a combined figure of £3.7 billion or a 10 per cent increase in the schools budget.
Protecting schools from real-terms cuts would therefore require significant additional public spending: £3.7 billion is the equivalent of 1p on the basic rate of income tax or 3 per cent of the NHS budget in England.
Preventing any real-terms cuts from a national funding formula would cost even more. If overall spending per pupil were frozen in real terms, then losers from a national funding formula homebase times would necessarily have to receive real-terms cuts to spending per pupil. Preventing any real-terms cuts would therefore be even harder to deliver.
This does not mean we should necessarily abandon reform of the school funding system, particularly as delaying it will just make it harder to implement further down the line. It does, however, imply a need for openness about the kind of losses some schools are likely to face, and why they are thought necessary.
In summary, a promise to protect schools from cuts will not come cheap. If any of the political parties promise to protect schools from cuts, they should be clear about exactly what they mean and how such a promise would be funded. If such a commitment is not thought to be affordable, politicians should instead be up front with schools about the cost challenges they are likely to face in the coming years.
Luke Sibieta is education programme director at the Institute for Fiscal Studies
"Plans imply spending per pupil falling by 6.5 per cent between 2015–16 and 2019–20 after accounting for general inflation, or by 8 per cent if you account for the rising costs that schools have faced in recent years"
– Many references to spending figures, but what what would be really interesting would be the actual figures of spending per pupil. And for a specific school that is complaining, it would be interesting if we were given the budget and a breakdown of how the budget is being spent. And the ratio of adults to children in the school.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Namaste! I hope you have a few minutes today to join us on our Expedition Earth travels through India! We've learned a lot about India culture this week, and tried some amazing food as well. We started off by finding India on the map, then we located the capital, as well as the Mediterranean Sea an Dead Sea.
India is the 7th largest country in the world. It also boasts some of the world's most amazing landmarks as well. The Taj Mahal is located in northern India and is one of the world's most magnificent buildings. The structure was completed in1643 and is a white marble monument built by the 5th Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, in memory of favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal.
The world's largest pilgrimage destination is in India. It is called the Vishnu Temple in the city of Tirupati. Around 30,000 people visit this temple daily, donating about $6 million US dollars everyday.
The most rainfall in the world ever in a month's time fell at Cherrapunji, Meghalaya. It was in July 1861 and 9,300 mm of rainfall fell in a month.
And as usual, at the end of the week, we stamped our passports!
We colored the flag of India and learned what all of the colors and symbols mean.
We learned some basic information about India as well as it's population, language, religion, currency, and government.
We learned some fun facts about India, and added our India mini-book to our world lapbook.
We also learned about some unusual and fun animals that can be found in India.
Of course we stamp our passports to prove that we toured the country!
We made fun inlay jewel mosaics. For this I used self hardening Crayola Clay and plastic jewels.
The Taj Mahal, located in Agra, India, is widely considered one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. It is a white marble building built more than 300 years ago by an emperor in memory of his wife. The construction began around 1632 and was completed around 1653, employing thousands of artisans and craftsmen.
Your Expedition Earth curriculum is my favorite thing you offer. It's excellent!
As always, you're an inspiration to me. Thanks for all the fabulous ideas!
I have a quick question. When I look at some of your activities and your scheduled day with your kiddos, I wonder how in the world you fit all that in one day. With your Expedition World curriculum for instance, what you guys cover in a week, seems it would take us a month. Do you cover a new country every week? How do you fit in all the other subjects? Thanks!
Expedition Earth is awesome. We got through all of Asia and then took a break. As a supplement, we watched the DVD "Families of India" from the library. It is a movie that goes through a day in the life of 2 children in India (one rural and one urban). We watched the films for the other countries as well. I highly recommend, as my girls got a better feel of what life would really be like for a child of similar ages to them.
We've been loving Expedition Earth this year! I recently started a blog and am going to be sharing a link to it. I would also be happy to share your 30% off sale on Monday. Thanks for producing quality products!
I have been doing Expedition Earth with my 2nd grader and Kindergartner, and we love it! One of their favorite parts is learning about the animals, but I was wondering if you use a specific website or other resource to research them a bit? It seems like I am spending a ridiculous amount of time trying to find kid-friendly information about most of the animals you have included, and it's driving me nuts since the kids like the animal part so much!
Thank you so much again for all you do!


Is The West Wing good?
And now I've bumped it.
The first thing you need to know about C.O.P.S. Is that it had arguably the best opening theme/closing montage of any cartoon in history. Oh, there have been others with a better opening, but as a one-two bookend, there is none better.
The basic plot of course revolved around the battle between the C.O.P.S (the Central Organization of Police Specialists) who were "Fighting crime in a future time" against corpulent Mafioso-type Big Boss.
The beauty of the series, from both a child fan and marketing point of view, was the unique abilities and temperament of each of the C.O.P.S.
Did they have like metal hoverbikes that looked like bulls?
Barricade was a coolheaded prescence among the C.O.P.S., but his MULE extension...phew! Watch out any doors in the way!
50 quid for all seven seasons is just about the greatest bargain since...since...I can't think of a better one. I just finished watching them all via lovefilm/blockbuster and I'm gonna buy the box set and watch them all again.
It's not all great, after Aaron Sorkin left the show the writing isn't quite as good (Series 1 - 3 = absolute gold), but even the sub-par episodes are up there with the best most other series have to offer. Plus the last 2 series are great just to see the eerie parallels between the fictional election and the real-life election just gone.
In short, I can't recommend it enough.
an actual post about the West Wing!
I've got that boxed set and I'm trying to work my way through the whole series. So far I'm only halfway through the first series, which is a rather large fail.


Pension firm Aegon has backed calls for early access to pensions. Aegon pensions director Steven Cameron says that the plight of women affected by the increase in state pension age has brought the inflexibility of the state pension system into sharp relief. He says that all individuals should have the choice of taking their state pension from their early 60s at a reduced level. Women born in the 1950s are currently grappling with an increase to state pension age that will see them receive the benefit much later than expected. With state pension age scheduled to keep increasing, we need a permanent solution for those who simply are unable to work into their late 60s because of job demands or health concerns.
"Choosing a lower state pension from an earlier age means some individuals will find their income is below the threshold that usually entitles people to means tested benefits. But allowing this group to claim a top-up would be very costly for the Government and unfair to other citizens. This is a key issue which needs addressed but it's not new and shouldn't be seen as an excuse for barring state pension age flexibility.
"Under the pension freedoms, individuals can already take their pension proceeds as a lump sum at age 55 instead of arranging a regular income from a later age. This could also take their income below the means tested threshold. And from next year, individuals with annuities will also be able to cash these in, again allowing them to reduce their income below benefit thresholds.


The Offices of Guam Homeland Security and Civil Defense (GHS/OCD) along with the Mariana Regional Fusion Center (MRFC), continue to monitor reports and events surrounding the recent bombing of a Roman Catholic cathedral in southern Philippines on Sunday, killing at least 20 people and leaving dozens wounded.
At this time, there is no credible threat to Guam in connection to the bombings in the Philippines; however, the community is reminded to stay vigilant.
While authorities in the Philippines continue to monitor the events and any connections to terroristic conduct, federal and local partners in the region continue open lines of communication and to share viable information.


View the Bristol Hills from this 2001 built three bedroom, two bath ranch located on 3.9 acres. Master suite with private bath. Formal dining room. Two car garage. Expansive basement with abundant storage area. Shed. Subject to owner finding suitable housing.


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text:
Q: IQKeyboardManager not working when UITableView embedded in a container view Currently, I am working with a container view with an embedded UITableView and am using the IQKeyboardManager CocoaPod to scroll the view so my UITextFields and UITextViews are not covered by the keyboard.
I can successfully import IQkeyboardManager and make it work in other views but it's not working when the UITableView is embedded in a container view.

A:     -(void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated {
    [super viewWillAppear:YES]; // This line is needed for the 'auto slide up'
   // Do other stuff
}

Simple solution , No need to create observer.

A: I've had a similar issue and fixed it using the info given here from the author of the library.
The key statement is:

library logic is to find nearest scrollView from textField. and in your case it's tableView, that is why library chooses tableView to scroll.

So the solution I've used is to disable the UITableView scroll property when the textfield/view is being edited (use the delegate methods), and then re-enable it once editing has finished. This ensures that the library does not detect the UITableView as scrollable and so it ignores it and then moves your container view instead - as you intended. Once the view has moved up as you wanted it to, you can re-enable scrolling via the UIKeyboardWillShowNotification.
So for example, for the UITextField:
-(void) textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField {
    [self.tableView setScrollEnabled:NO];
}

- (void) textFieldDidEndEditing:(UITextField *)textField {
  [self.tableView setScrollEnabled:YES];
}

However to still allow scrolling after the view has moved up, I have registered for the keyboard notification and then allowed scrolling once the keyboard is up:
-(void) keyboardWillShow {
    [self.tableView setScrollEnabled:YES];
}

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];

    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                             selector:@selector(keyboardWillShow)
                                                 name:UIKeyboardWillShowNotification
                                               object:nil];

}

A: Thanks to @ vivek agravat Answer!
Here's the swift version:
 override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
          super.viewWillAppear(true)
}

A: try to scroll all your view
in viewDidLoad
NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().addObserver(self, selector: #selector(YourVC.keyboardWillShow(_:)), name:UIKeyboardWillShowNotification, object: nil)
NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().addObserver(self, selector: #selector(YourVC.keyboardWillHide(_:)), name:UIKeyboardWillHideNotification, object: nil)

and after
func keyboardWillShow(notification:NSNotification)
    {
        if let keyboardSize = (notification.userInfo?[UIKeyboardFrameBeginUserInfoKey] as? NSValue)?.CGRectValue()
        {
            self.view.frame.origin.y -= keyboardSize.height
        }
    }

    func keyboardWillHide(notification:NSNotification)
    {
        if let keyboardSize = (notification.userInfo?[UIKeyboardFrameBeginUserInfoKey] as? NSValue)?.CGRectValue()
        {
            self.view.frame.origin.y += keyboardSize.height
        }
    }

you can change keyboardSize

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The Zolephants play at Lucky 13s in Gowanus w/ The Rakells, Miwa Gemini.
Baby Copperhead plays solo at Park Side lounge in the LES.
w/ Zachary Cale, Woodsy Pride, and more..
The Zolephants are back for a performance at Pete's Candy Store. Electric spaghetti-western proto-plasmic punk love fest.
Performing after Rachel Frank's Rewilding of Stuyvesant Cove Park, organized by Solar One. I'll be doing an outdoor solo banjo performance on the East River.
The new EP, Strings for Color, is ready!!! The Living Room is hosting the release party and the strings will be featured– Tom Swafford on violin, Jessica Pavone on viola, and Brent Arnold on cello.
8pm (sharp)….followed by a Brent Arnold solo set at 9pm.


text:
Laika the Dog: These Are All the Animals That Have Been Launched Into Space
Sixty-one years ago today, the Soviet Union launched a dog known as Laika into orbit above the Earth aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft.
Laika—a stray picked up from the streets of Moscow—was the first animal to orbit our planet and became a global sensation. However, she did not survive the mission and died a few hours after launch.
Despite her place in history, Laika was not actually the first animal in space. American and Russian scientists had been sending living organisms beyond the extent of Earth's atmosphere for at least a decade before Sputnik 2 to observe how their bodies reacted to microgravity and the other unique conditions present there. The main aim was to try and understand whether humans could actually survive in space.
Sadly, many of these animals were killed during such missions, but the lessons learned were crucial in paving the way for the first human spaceflights in 1961, according to NASA. Once manned spaceflights became normalized, space agencies did not need to send so many animals into space. However, living creatures are still used in space missions for other research purposes.
To celebrate the anniversary of Laika's launch, here is a list of all the animals that have been sent into space:
On February 20, 1947, the U.S. launched fruit flies to an altitude of around 68 miles above the Earth aboard a captured German V-2 rocket in order to study the effects of radiation exposure in living organisms. After passing the Kármán line at 62 miles high—the commonly accepted boundary of Earth's atmosphere—these flies became the first animals to enter outer space. The fruit flies were recovered alive.
Just a year later in June, American scientists launched a rhesus monkey known as Albert II into space aboard another V-2 rocket reaching an altitude of 83 miles. While Albert survived the majority of the flight—becoming the first mammal, and indeed vertebrate, in space—he was killed when the rocket collided with the ground on re-entry. In the decades after this initial flight, more than 30 types of primates were flown into space by the U.S. and Russia, including Ham the chimp who was trained to perform tasks in his spacecraft. Ham was launched into suborbital flight in January 1961 by the U.S., becoming the first hominid in space. The mission was successful and Ham returned safely to Earth sporting only minor injuries.
The first mouse was sent into space on August 31, 1950 aboard a V-2 rocket. Since then, these animals have frequently been used by various space agencies in numerous experiments due to their suitability for scientific research. Among the most notable landmarks, five mice orbited the moon in 1972 aboard the Apollo 17 spacecraft. This was the final Apollo mission which is also notable for being the last that time humans have traveled beyond low-Earth orbit.
Aside from the achievements of Laika, several other records in animal spaceflight are held by dogs. The Soviets were particularly fond of sending canines into space, using several dogs in orbital and suborbital flights during the 1950s and 1960s. In fact, the first dogs to reach space—Tsygan and Dezik—aboard the Russian R-1 IIIA-1 spacecraft on July 22, 1951 were also the first large animals to successfully survive a space mission. And in 1960, Soviets launched the Sputnik 5 spacecraft carrying the dogs Belka and Strelka—as well as several other creatures and plants—which became the first mission to successfully launch animals into orbit and return them home alive.
In October 1963, French scientists launched the first cat into space for a short 15 minute flight—reaching an altitude of around 100 miles—which the feline, known as Félicette, survived.
Tortoises were launched into space for the first time by the Soviet Union aboard the Zond 5 spacecraft in September 1968, eventually becoming the first animals in deep space, and the first organisms from Earth to travel around the moon—alongside some other biological specimens. Tortoises also set the animal record for longest duration in space in the mid-1970s. These tortoises spent 90.5 days in space as part of the Soviet Bion program.
Tardigrades, colloquially known as "water bears" or "moss piglets," are some of the hardiest creatures known to science, capable of surviving extreme conditions which would easily kill other animals. In September 2007, a European Space Agency mission demonstrated that these microscopic critters were even able to survive 10 days of exposure to open space with no protection other than their own natural defenses.
…and the rest
In addition to the animals mentioned above, numerous other creatures have been sent into space by humans, including several types of fish; guinea pigs; frogs; rabbits; turtles; spiders; jellyfish; newts; scorpions; cockroaches; gerbils; geckos; rats; parasitic wasps; beetles; roundworms; brine shrimp; crickets; snails; sea urchins; silk worms; bees; and ants.
The post Laika the Dog: These Are All the Animals That Have Been Launched Into Space appeared first on Newsweek.
Tags: CatsDogsNASATech & Science


The Prequel to Othello, The Cause, My Soul – NC BLACK REP.
"Dost thou have a tale that can be mine?" asks Desdemona. The flirtation, the romance, the comedy, the drama of Othello's journey. The Prequel to Othello, The Cause, My Soul is timeless and relevant to our current day society.


text:
Petrol and diesel may consider bringing into GST by GST Council
Government imposed a stock limit on oil seeds edible oil to reduce the price
Farhan Sayyed 11 October 2021
The government on Sunday said it had imposed stock limits on edible oils and oilseeds until the end of March 2022 to soften prices and give relief to consumers.
The food and public distribution department said it had ordered stock limits on these items with immediate effect. The department said that the futures trading on mustard oil and oilseeds are suspending on the National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Limited (NCDEX) with effect from 8 October.
The department said.
"The Centre's decision will soften the prices of edible oils in the domestic market, thereby, bringing great relief to consumers across the country,"
The department said that high edible oil prices in the international market have substantially impacted domestic edible oil prices, adding that the government has a multi-pronged strategy to ensure that essential commodities like edible oils remain controlled. The department said that the rationalization of import duty structure and launching a web portal for self-disclosure of stocks by various stakeholders are already being taking.
"In a consistent effort to further cool down the domestic prices of edible oils, the Centre has issued the order which was shared with all states,"
pixabay image
Read More : Government cut duties on Edible oil
As per this order, respective state and union territory administrations will set the stock limit of all edible oils and oilseeds based on available stock and the consumption pattern.
There, however, are two exceptions. Exporters who can show that their stock or part of it is meant for exports and importers who can show that their stock is sourcing from imports are exempting from the stock limits.
Where the stocks held by a legal entity are higher than the prescribed limits, they have to declare the same on a designated portal of the department. The department said that this stock has to be brought down to the prescribed stock limits as decided by the respective state or UT administration within 30 days of notification by these authorities.
It also urged the state and union territory administrations to ensure that edible oils and edible oil seeds stock are regularly declared and updated on the designated portal.
The government is currently operating a centrally sponsored scheme called the National Mission on Edible Oils-Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) to increase the domestic production of edible oils and reduce imports dependency. Malaysia and Indonesia are primary sources of edible oil imports for India.


text:
Q: Regular expression for a particular language Several years ago I came across a paper that defined a regular expression (or collection of regular expressions?) for a specific language.
The language is the language of set partitions enumerated by the Stirling Numbers of the Second Kind. The words in this language are composed of symbols $\{a,b,c...\}$ such that $b$ does not occur before the first $a$, $c$ does not occur before the first $b$, etc.
I believe the regular expression was something along the lines of $a^*(a|b)^*b(a|b|c)^*c$
the list of words of length 4 are below:
aaaa
aaab
aaba
aabb
aabc
abaa
abab
abac
abba
abbb
abbc
abca
abcb
abcc
abcd

I've been trying to hunt down the paper for some time. I would appreciate a reference.

A: I don't know the paper, but the regular expression you stated seems to be wrong. First, it allows a word to begin with $b$, since it starts with $a^\star$, not $aa^\star$. Second, it requires at least one $b$ and one $c$.
A correct regular expression for a $4$-symbol alphabet $\{a,b,c,d\}$ would be
$$
  a[ab]^\star(b[abc]^\star(d[abcd]^\star)?)?
$$
you can avoid the nesting by writing this as $$
  a[a]^\star\big | a[a]^\star b[ab]^\star \big| a[a]^\star b[ab]^\star c[abc]^\star
  \big| a[a]^\star b[ab]^\star c[abc]^\star d [abcd]^\star
$$

Note that $[\alpha_1\ldots \alpha_n]$ means $(\alpha_1|\alpha_2|\ldots|\alpha_n)$ where $\alpha_1,\ldots,\alpha_n$ are symbols.

A: Think of it this way.  Unless you're the empty string You must begin with $a$.  The regex is
$$ a $$
Then you cannot have another symbol until you have a $b$.
$$ a a^*$$
And you can have a $b$ at some point. (Note: $b^?$ is a shorthand for $(b|)$.)
$$ a a^* b^?$$
The $b$ can be followed by an arbitratry quantity of $a$ or of $b$
$$ a a^* (b (a|b)^*)^?$$
And that can be followed by a $c$ and possibly some $a$, $b$ or $c$.
$$ a a^* ( b (a|b)^* ( c (a|b|c)^* )^?)^?$$
And so on...
$$ a a^* ( b (a|b)^* ( c (a|b|c)^* ( d (a|b|c|d)^* )^? )^?)^?$$
$$ a a^* ( b (a|b)^* ( c (a|b|c)^* ( d (a|b|c|d)^* ( e (a|b|c|d|e)^* )^?)^? )^?)^?$$
$$\dots$$
If you want to allow the empty string, you can enclose everything in $(\dots)^?$ of course.
$$( a a^* ( b (a|b)^* ( c (a|b|c)^* ( d (a|b|c|d)^* ( e (a|b|c|d|e)^* )^?)^? )^?)^?)^?$$


CatNews Friday finds pin-up cats juxtaposed into positions of some very well-known pin-up girls as one of the latest crazes involving cats on the internet. There's no doubt that cats are king on the web and that popularity is exponentially exploding by the day. This newest, and admittedly incredibly cool posting is just way off the top – and by that, Paws means awesomely funny. Check it out by clicking below.
300 Cats, Yes. Craziness, No.
In Pittsboro, N.C., Siglinda Scarpa has turned her home into an animal sanctuary.
However many cats aren't that lucky. Island cats pose issues that differ somewhat from mainland cats. A study in New Zealand reveals people have very different feelings towards ferals than stray or domestic cats. The general perception was to treat the domestics and strays with leniency. As for the ferals, the bottom line was it is ok to euthanize or execute them.
Virginia Beach is one of the most recent cities to consider limiting the number of cats a person can have in order to prevent hoarding. Paws asks how can these laws be enforced? How many cats constitutes hoarding? Isn't it your business how many cats you have as long as you can provide all the love, support and medical care they need. Paws will be writing more on this in the future. But for now, check out Virginia Beach's efforts by clicking on the link below.
CatNews Friday finds the furor surrounding good-hearted souls who feed feral cats still topping the news. Other stories involve horrendous conditions from hoarding, cats perishing in fires, and some fun stuff. Check out the links below at your leisure.
Cats Live Like Humans and Dinosaurs Make Great Pets in This Week's Nintendo You like to live on the edge of urban animal husbandry. No domesticated felines or canines for you. It's all ferrets, dingoes and boa constrictors in your often-raided abode.
A Sanford woman arrested five years ago when authorities found dozens of animals in her home was re-arrested Tuesday after police found 12 cats, three dogs and a house so filthy, they called out a hazardous materials squad. Sherry Noreen Arther, 54 ..
patricia schenk msu lansing.jpg MSU veterinary professor Patrica Schenk is accused of neglecting 17 dogs and two cats. Courtesy MSU. A Michigan State University veterinary professor is facing a felony charge for allegedly neglecting nearly two dozen pets.
KEIZER, Ore. – A man escaped a house fire Sunday night in Keizer, but several cats died, firefighters said. It happened just after 8 p.m. at a home in the 6600 block of 14th Avenue NE. A man who lived at the home escaped before fire crews arrived. He ..
And to keep his newly brushed fur neat, the 9-month-old Silver Tabby Persian wore a large coffee filter around his neck as he waited for his next category to be called Sunday at the Houston Cat Club's 60th Annual Charity Cat Show. Although Tadford is ..
Then again, a picture and video-based social network makes a lot of sense when cats are your subject. None of that pesky text that dogs (so to speak) sites such as Catster or United Cats. Given the international appeal of cats — and the rather shaky .
At least four cats have died and several more are unaccounted for after a blaze ripped through a cattery. Staffordshire fire and rescue service battled the blaze at the Pinetrees cattery in Stafford Road, Cannock, at 5.30am on Friday. A spokesman .


Finding calling is difficult. For this conversation, we gathered women church planters to hear their stories of finding and living out their callings. We provide practical resources and next steps for women feeling called to plant churches and men who are mentoring women planters to be sent out.


text:
//  See http://www.boost.org for most recent version including documentation.

//  Revision History
//  04 Mar 2001 Patches for Intel C++ (Dave Abrahams)
//  19 Feb 2001 Take advantage of improved iterator_traits to do more tests
//              on MSVC. Reordered some #ifdefs for coherency.
//              (David Abrahams)
//  13 Feb 2001 Test new VC6 workarounds (David Abrahams)
//  11 Feb 2001 Final fixes for Borland (David Abrahams)
//  11 Feb 2001 Some fixes for Borland get it closer on that compiler
//              (David Abrahams)
//  07 Feb 2001 More comprehensive testing; factored out static tests for
//              better reuse (David Abrahams)
//  21 Jan 2001 Quick fix to my_iterator, which wasn't returning a
//              reference type from operator* (David Abrahams)
//  19 Jan 2001 Initial version with iterator operators (David Abrahams)

#include <boost/detail/iterator.hpp>
#include <boost/type_traits/is_same.hpp>
#include <boost/operators.hpp>
#include <boost/static_assert.hpp>
#include <iterator>
#include <vector>
#include <list>
#include <boost/detail/lightweight_test.hpp>
#include <iostream>

// A UDT for which we can specialize std::iterator_traits<element*> on
// compilers which don't support partial specialization. There's no
// other reasonable way to test pointers on those compilers.
struct element {};

// An iterator for which we can get traits.
struct my_iterator1
    : boost::forward_iterator_helper<my_iterator1, char, long, const char*, const char&>
{
    my_iterator1(const char* p) : m_p(p) {}

    bool operator==(const my_iterator1& rhs) const
        { return this->m_p == rhs.m_p; }

    my_iterator1& operator++() { ++this->m_p; return *this; }
    const char& operator*() { return *m_p; }
 private:
    const char* m_p;
};

// Used to prove that we don't require std::iterator<> in the hierarchy under
// MSVC6, and that we can compute all the traits for a standard-conforming UDT
// iterator.
struct my_iterator2
    : boost::equality_comparable<my_iterator2
    , boost::incrementable<my_iterator2
    , boost::dereferenceable<my_iterator2,const char*> > >
{
    typedef char value_type;
    typedef long difference_type;
    typedef const char* pointer;
    typedef const char& reference;
    typedef std::forward_iterator_tag iterator_category;

    my_iterator2(const char* p) : m_p(p) {}

    bool operator==(const my_iterator2& rhs) const
        { return this->m_p == rhs.m_p; }

    my_iterator2& operator++() { ++this->m_p; return *this; }
    const char& operator*() { return *m_p; }
 private:
    const char* m_p;
};

// Used to prove that we're not overly confused by the existence of
// std::iterator<> in the hierarchy under MSVC6 - we should find that
// boost::detail::iterator_traits<my_iterator3>::difference_type is int.
struct my_iterator3 : my_iterator1
{
    typedef int difference_type;
    my_iterator3(const char* p)
        : my_iterator1(p) {}
};

//
// Assertion tools.  Used instead of BOOST_STATIC_ASSERT because that
// doesn't give us a nice stack backtrace
//
template <bool = false> struct assertion;

template <> struct assertion<true>
{
    typedef char type;
};

template <class T, class U>
struct assert_same
    : assertion<(::boost::is_same<T,U>::value)>
{
};

// Iterator tests
template <class Iterator,
    class value_type, class difference_type, class pointer, class reference, class category>
struct non_portable_tests
{
    typedef typename boost::detail::iterator_traits<Iterator>::pointer test_pt;
    typedef typename boost::detail::iterator_traits<Iterator>::reference test_rt;
    typedef typename assert_same<test_pt, pointer>::type a1;
    typedef typename assert_same<test_rt, reference>::type a2;
};

template <class Iterator,
    class value_type, class difference_type, class pointer, class reference, class category>
struct portable_tests
{
    typedef typename boost::detail::iterator_traits<Iterator>::difference_type test_dt;
    typedef typename boost::detail::iterator_traits<Iterator>::iterator_category test_cat;
    typedef typename assert_same<test_dt, difference_type>::type a1;
    typedef typename assert_same<test_cat, category>::type a2;
};

// Test iterator_traits
template <class Iterator,
    class value_type, class difference_type, class pointer, class reference, class category>
struct input_iterator_test
    : portable_tests<Iterator,value_type,difference_type,pointer,reference,category>
{
    typedef typename boost::detail::iterator_traits<Iterator>::value_type test_vt;
    typedef typename assert_same<test_vt, value_type>::type a1;
};

template <class Iterator,
    class value_type, class difference_type, class pointer, class reference, class category>
struct non_pointer_test
    : input_iterator_test<Iterator,value_type,difference_type,pointer,reference,category>
      , non_portable_tests<Iterator,value_type,difference_type,pointer,reference,category>
{
};

template <class Iterator,
    class value_type, class difference_type, class pointer, class reference, class category>
struct maybe_pointer_test
    : portable_tests<Iterator,value_type,difference_type,pointer,reference,category>
      , non_portable_tests<Iterator,value_type,difference_type,pointer,reference,category>
{
};

input_iterator_test<std::istream_iterator<int>, int, std::ptrdiff_t, int*, int&, std::input_iterator_tag>
        istream_iterator_test;

#if BOOST_WORKAROUND(__BORLANDC__, <= 0x564) && !defined(__SGI_STL_PORT)
typedef ::std::char_traits<char>::off_type distance;
non_pointer_test<std::ostream_iterator<int>,int,
    distance,int*,int&,std::output_iterator_tag> ostream_iterator_test;
#elif defined(BOOST_MSVC_STD_ITERATOR)
non_pointer_test<std::ostream_iterator<int>,
    int, void, int*, int&, std::output_iterator_tag>
        ostream_iterator_test;
#elif BOOST_WORKAROUND(__DECCXX_VER, BOOST_TESTED_AT(70190006))
non_pointer_test<std::ostream_iterator<int>,
    int, long, int*, int&, std::output_iterator_tag>
        ostream_iterator_test;
#else
non_pointer_test<std::ostream_iterator<int>,
    void, void, void, void, std::output_iterator_tag>
        ostream_iterator_test;
#endif

#ifdef __KCC
  typedef long std_list_diff_type;
#else
  typedef std::ptrdiff_t std_list_diff_type;
#endif

non_pointer_test<std::list<int>::iterator, int, std_list_diff_type, int*, int&, std::bidirectional_iterator_tag>
        list_iterator_test;

maybe_pointer_test<std::vector<int>::iterator, int, std::ptrdiff_t, int*, int&, std::random_access_iterator_tag>
        vector_iterator_test;

maybe_pointer_test<int*, int, std::ptrdiff_t, int*, int&, std::random_access_iterator_tag>
        int_pointer_test;

non_pointer_test<my_iterator1, char, long, const char*, const char&, std::forward_iterator_tag>
       my_iterator1_test;

non_pointer_test<my_iterator2, char, long, const char*, const char&, std::forward_iterator_tag>
       my_iterator2_test;

non_pointer_test<my_iterator3, char, int, const char*, const char&, std::forward_iterator_tag>
       my_iterator3_test;

int main()
{
    char chars[100];
    int ints[100];

    for (int length = 3; length < 100; length += length / 3)
    {
        std::list<int> l(length);
        BOOST_TEST(boost::detail::distance(l.begin(), l.end()) == length);

        std::vector<int> v(length);
        BOOST_TEST(boost::detail::distance(v.begin(), v.end()) == length);

        BOOST_TEST(boost::detail::distance(&ints[0], ints + length) == length);
        BOOST_TEST(boost::detail::distance(my_iterator1(chars), my_iterator1(chars + length)) == length);
        BOOST_TEST(boost::detail::distance(my_iterator2(chars), my_iterator2(chars + length)) == length);
        BOOST_TEST(boost::detail::distance(my_iterator3(chars), my_iterator3(chars + length)) == length);
    }
    return boost::report_errors();
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
HomeResearchResearch ExplorerResearchersProf Mona Baker Publications
Prof Mona Baker
Emeritus Professor
Translation and Intercultural Studies, Modern Languages and Cultures
'Designing Translation Exercises on CD-ROM: Pedagogical Principles & Theoretical Validity'
Baker, M., Hodgson, R. (ed.) & Soukup, P. (ed.), 1999, Fidelity and Translation : Communicating the Bible in New Media. Soukup, P. A. & Hodgson, R. (eds.). New York: American Bible Society
Baker, M., 2009, London & New York: Routledge. (Critical Concepts)
Research output: Book/Report › Anthology › peer-review
In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation
Baker, M., 1992, London; New York: Routledge.
Research output: Book/Report › Book › peer-review
'The History of Translation: Recurring Patterns & Research Issues'
Baker, M. & Paker, S. (ed.), 2002, Translations: (Re)shaping of Literature and Culture. Istanbul: BUPRESS
Contextualization in translator- and interpreter-mediated events
Baker, M., Mar 2006, In: Journal of Pragmatics. 38, 3, p. 321-337 16 p.
DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2005.04.010
The Prefigurative Politics of Translation in Place-based Movements of Protest: Subtitling in the Egyptian Revolution
Baker, M., Feb 2016, In: The Translator. 22, 1, p. 1-21 22 p.
Baker, M., 1998, Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies,. Routledge
'The Role of Corpora in Investigating the Linguistic Behaviour of Professional Translators'
Baker, M., 1999, In: International Journal of Corpus Linguistics. 4(2)
Reconceptualizing Citizen Media: A Preliminary Charting of a Complex Domain
Baker, M. & Blaagaard, B., Jun 2016, Citizen Media and Public Spaces: Diverse Expressions of Citizenship and Dissent. 1 ed. London and New York: Routledge, Vol. 1. p. 1-22 22 p. (Critical Perspectives on Citizen Media; vol. 2).
'Çeviri Tarihinde Tekarlanan Örüntüler ve Arastirma Konulari' (translated by Mustafa Ersin Özben)
Baker, M. & Paker, S. (ed.), 1999, Çeviri: Edebiyat ve Kültürün Yeniden Biçimlenisi. Istanbul: Metis Yayinlari
Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
Interpreters and translators in the war zone: Narrated and narrators 1
Narratives of terrorism and security: 'Accurate' translations, suspicious frames
Text and Context: Essays on Translation and Interpreting in Honour of Ian Mason
Resisting state terror : theorizing communities of activist translators and interpreters


The looming interruption in water supply should deliver the message that water is a precious resource—and it would be sheer idiocy to waste it.
Sept. 16 is when Metro Manila will begin experiencing a series of water supply interruptions. In order to conserve the amount of water in Angat Dam and Ipo Dam, the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) has lowered its allocations to the concessionaires Maynilad and Manila Water: 38 cubic meters per second instead of the original 41 cubic meters per second.
That's a considerable drop, and Maynilad has announced that an estimated 900 barangays (56 percent of its concession area, the Greater Manila West Zone) will be adversely affected. That's over 350,000 consumers in the cities of Manila, Makati, Quezon City, Caloocan, Parañaque, Pasay, Las Piñas, Muntinlupa, Navotas, Malabon and Valenzuela, and some parts of the province of Cavite. Manila Water has yet to make its own announcement at this writing.
In the first week of the interruptions, the affected consumers will be without water for seven hours. If things don't improve, the length of the interruption will increase every week until it extends to more than 12 hours. Hopefully, better weather (read: more rain in the area of the dams) will ease the situation.
But before it goes from bad to exceedingly terrible, it behooves everyone to do their bit in conserving water beyond merely storing it. Fix those leaks (the World Bank said in a report in 2012 that 32 billion cubic meters of water are lost every year simply from leaks) and faulty taps (imagine the water wasted when a faucet drip is ignored). Report busted pipes to the concerned authorities. Use less water when showering, brushing teeth and washing dishes. Remember to reuse water for, say, watering plants and washing cars. Pour drinking water only according to the amount to be consumed.
There are many other simple ways that will go a long way toward conserving this finite resource. It has already been said that future wars will be fought, not over oil and fossil fuels, but over water and the control of its supply.
Agriculture is particularly vulnerable to the potentially disastrous wallop of El Niño. Still, "although El Niño is here, we are prepared," Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said as early as last March, in the course of lauding farmers for engaging in water-conservation techniques in preparation for a particularly dry year. "It will not turn out to be the sum of all our fears," he added. That is fervently wished.
With climate change and its effects now being felt all over the planet, it would be worthwhile to consider how other countries have developed novel ways of protecting themselves. The desert nation of Israel, constantly in need of water to support its highly independent existence, invented the drip irrigation system. It teaches its children from kindergarten onward to use water wisely, utilizes desalination systems and, of course, reuses much of its water.
That country's example can be a good source of inspiration for Filipinos who must now come to terms with the fact that water will not be as available as it once was.
(In truth, in certain remote communities, the luxury of running water is unheard-of.) The interruptions in water supply, while sure to be inconvenient, will provide the best opportunity to force the general public into the important mindset of constant water conservation. There is no better time to learn the value of water than when one is faced with the prospect of going without it on a regular basis.
If Filipinos don't change the way they use water, then they will truly be left high and dry.


There was a school program in the school and my two kids told me that i have to attend and watch their school activities but since i was busy at that time, I was not able to attend and just instructed the school bus driver to just bring my kids in my home when their school program finished. I was surprised when they came back home with so many heart shape, red in color printed in their hands, feet and also in their face. I thought one of their school mate mocked or make my children funny. But they came back home looks happy and excited to show me the heart shapes in their hands and faces. They told me that they have paid for it one cents for one heart shape. As part of the school activities, the school opened booths for different purposes, one booth is for the heart shape using rubber stamp. The kid pay one cents for one heart shape stamps. It was a fun for kids and that was a valentine's school program. The school are creative . I thought rubber stamp are only for office use, use for decorating objects or art but also for using as children's toys and school activities and programs.
Rubber stamping, also called stamping, it is a craft in which some type of ink made of dye or pigment is applied to an image or pattern that has been carved, molded, laser engraved or vulcanized, onto a sheet of rubber. The rubber is often mounted onto a more stable object such as a wood, brick or an acrylic block. This is one equipment in an office which is very important. All offices have always rubber stamp so if your office is in Chicago area, Mohawk Stamp Company is just your neighbor. Chicago Rubber Stamps are the best. Search their website mohawkstamp.com/ They offers self inking stamps, pre inked, Xstamper pre inked, stock stamps, daters and numberers, notary and professional stamps, stamp accessories and many more.


text:
Home > News < Paris: Hundreds Attend Dinner
Paris: Hundreds Attend Dinner
Over 500 supporters and parents came to show their support for the Sinai Lubavitch institution in Paris, France. This event comes only a few weeks after the terrible attack which culminated with the killing of four Jews. Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Pewsner, the head of the institution, spoke about the importance of strengthening the learning of Torah and fulfilling more Mitzvos ● Full Article, Photos
18th of Shevat, 5775 - February 7, 2015
Over 500 supporters and parents came to show their support for the Sinai Lubavitch institution in Paris, France. This event comes only a few weeks after the terrible attack, with the killing of four Jews.
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Pewsner, the head of the institution spoke about the importance of strengthening in learning Torah and doing more Mitzvos.
In honor of the holocaust day, just a few weeks ago, a holocaust survivor spoke about the pride today standing and seeing the Jewish education grow and succeed. A close friend to the institution Rabbi Yosef Dovid Frankforter, one of the prominent Rabbis of Paris spoke about his grandfather, who served as a Rabbi in Paris many years ago and was killed by the Nazis, explaining how this is was gives him the courage to spread out more Judaism.
There was a few video clips showed of different projects of the institution.
The event emcee was the Shliach R' Refoel Cohen.
Tags: Chabad, France, Paris, Sinai
Paris: Prep For Big Menorah Lighting Near The Eiffel Tower
Paris Marks Yahrtzeit of Legendary Shliach
French Chabad House Opens Fabulous Mikvah
Lag B'Omer Parade Held in Paris, France


text:
Australian Football League (AFL) – Get Latest News of Different Events
September 8, 2021 awais Uncategorized 0
Different sports news focus on diversified events that ensue all over the world. It is a very hard task to run a very responsible and informative news website based on all sports news. But, people especially web designers design attention-grabbing sports websites. The main approach for the formation of these websites is to provide viewers with more and latest sports news from all over the world. To work in a tough and competing market, you ought to focus on the perfect website assortment. More elaborately, you need to include different sub-sections of all the sports. In addition, you must also form a team and assign different tasks to each team. Their responsibility should be based on how to gather factual knowledge and then how to transform it into well-reformed information https://www.tragedyinfo.com/bison-dele-death-obituary-bison-dele-cause-of-death/.
Generally, the sports websites that you visit on the internet usually focus on their viewership. In fact, the first and the foremost priority of numerous websites that are based on sports news is to focus on their viewers. If their news quality is good, more viewers or online users would prefer them. On the other hand, if the content is outdated with no quality, no preference would be given at all to these websites.
The Australian Football League is very famous and there are hundreds of thousands of AFL lovers all over the world. They have set their own preference according to different Australian Football League players, teams and clubs. Those who are the craziest lovers of AFL need to be updated all the time. They want to know the big upcoming events ahead, teams and players' statistics and much more. Sports News is a special website that focuses on different games at a time. This news website maintains the pace for providing the online users with the latest news about all the sports. When you talk especially about the Australian Football League news, you should remember sports news at its peak. All the latest events in the world of AFL are what you need to focus. If you are one of those fans of the AFL who want all the latest news about Australian Football League in front of them, you ought to visit sports news for each latest update. You just have to visit sports news and then you need to click on the AFL category that will contain all the latest events categorically. Now, it's up to you that what you want to understand more interestingly.
Moez Ahmed is an undergraduate Student in university of Engineering and Technology, Taxila, Pakistan. He has Passion for writing articles and has written many articles on various topics. Throughout his life, he was very passionate about Writing, Film making, Direction, Acting, Photography and Sketching. In writing, his main areas of interest focus Psychology, Mind Sciences, Sports, Games, Engineering, Film making, Women issues, Journalism and Styling. For more information on Australian Football League news, please visit AFL News.
Techniques To Help You Get Fit For Good
How to Play Progressive Jackpots Online


text:
First published in The Record, November 25, 2017
New Jersey's best kite runner dominates her sport worldwide
Lisa Willoughby flies a kite near her home in Surf City, New Jersey. Photo: Danielle Parhizkaran/Northjersey.com
Lisa Willoughby can see the wind. Not only that, she can see the wind before it becomes the wind.
Willoughby will be flying a kite somewhere — near her home on the Jersey Shore, say, or inside a church in Kazakhstan or Grand Central Terminal — when she notices a subtle shift. Maybe her kite's zooming flight stalls in a still pocket of air. Maybe the salt smell of the ocean fades, replaced by scents from the mainland of dirt and diesel smoke.
"You can sense the wind before it happens. The change of it," said Willoughby, a Surf City resident, professional kiter and one of the best kite fliers in the world. "You can smell it. You can feel the little intricacies of its movement."
These highly specific skills have proved remarkably useful. Willoughby once flew a kite inside a banquet hall, directly over the heads of Kuwait's royal family as they were eating dinner. She has flown kites in Vietnam and Indonesia and in a puppet musical on Broadway. She helped write the rule book governing kite competitions worldwide, and she advised the International Olympic Committee on whether kite flying might become an Olympic sport. (It won't, she thinks.)
"In terms of international competitions, she's definitely No. 1 in the country," said Kurtis Jones, a Hackensack resident who has flown sport kites since the 1980s. "There's not even a doubt about that."
This spring, she will travel to the World Stunt Kite Championship in Berck-Sur-Mer, France, where she will serve as lead judge.
For decades, Willoughby beat male kite fliers at their own game, always pushing her kites to fly more aggressively. She is a rare female competitor in rokkaku, a male-dominated sport in which fliers slice competitors' kites out of the sky using lines coated in broken glass. She is one of just a few women to win sponsorships from major kite manufacturers.
Now she's trying to invent her own style. Rather than pushing her kites faster and faster, she's experimenting with flying them as slowly as possible and still keeping them aloft, pushing the boundaries of kite aerodynamics and skill.
"It's extremely easy to fly quick," she said. "I want to learn how to fly this thing beautifully without doing a lot of crazy movements. That's my challenge."
Willoughby's custom-made, two-line kite, one of hundreds of kites she owns. Photo: Danielle Parhizkaran/Northjersey.com
Flying a kite is an act of binding. It requires a person and a kite, tethered together by a length of twine.
But Willoughby never saw it this way. She grew up near Trenton, and her family took summer vacations at Seaside Heights. When she was 7, her parents bought Willoughby her first kite.
She spent the rest of the summer on the beach, flying.
"My mother said, 'If I can see your kite flying, you can go wherever you want,' " Willoughby said. "I love flying because it lets me be free."
A few years later, her family switched vacation spots to Chincoteague Island, Virginia, where she discovered a store called the Kite Koop. Willoughby got a job at the store when she was 11, helping customers pick the right kite for that day's weather conditions and fixing kites when they broke.
"My parents were shocked" when she started working at such a young age, she said.
Willoughby stayed in the wind. She studied to become a speech pathologist at Stockton University, close to Atlantic City and the beach, where she left class most days to surf and fly kites. She earned a master's degree at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she met a group of fellow fliers on the National Mall.
They introduced her to stunt kites. In 1989, Willoughby entered her first competition.
"I won it," she said. "Within six months I got a sponsorship, because very few women fly and I was flying at a very high level."
Many top fliers specialize in one type of kite. But Willoughby always dabbled. She flew two-line kites, which are fast and unstable like fighter jets, and she flew quad-lines that can stop, spin and fly sideways, like helicopters. She learned to fly indoors, where she supplies the only wind (by walking backwards). She also learned to fly in gales.
"I was at an event in France where we had 45-mile-an-hour winds. Most people would pack up and go have a beer," she said. "But I'm there to fly. I'm being paid to fly. I flew for eight hours. At the end of the day I felt like a truck had rolled over me five times."
Lisa Willoughby is one of the few women to compete at a high level in the male-dominated sport of competitive kite flying. "I've had a top kite flier say, 'You have kids here. Why are you doing this?' " she said. "Another kite flier said, 'If you just did one thing, you'd actually be good at it.' " Photo: Danielle Parhizkaran/Northjersey.com
Finding her own way
Kiting is dominated by men, and Willoughby found the sport's sexist traditions tricky to navigate. When she first experimented with a new kind of kite, often she found men willing to share their secrets.
"I was the only woman there," she said. "For the most part they wanted to show me their skills. They'd be really kind with me."
Inevitably she got better, often coming to beat her male tutors. Some men walked off the field, refusing to fly alongside a woman. Others responded with insults. Willoughby had a busy career as a speech pathologist, and she was raising two children. She found that the slights grew harshest when she brought her kids to competitions.
"I've had a top kite flier say, 'You have kids here. Why are you doing this?' " she said. "Another kite flier said, 'If you just did one thing, you'd actually be good at it.' "
Sexist attitudes persist. This weekend, Saudi Arabia is hosting a major international kite competition. Women who are married to competitive kiters were allowed to fly, but Willoughby was not invited because she is a woman who flies by herself.
"She was pretty angry about that," said Jones, the sport-kite flier from Hackensack.
She also struggled with the physical demands of the sport, which reward men's longer arms and stronger upper bodies, she said. Often she was too busy to practice the sport's hardest tricks long enough to nail them, and too competitive to risk attempting them in competition.
"I don't know if I was always the best flier, because I was busy having children and working full time, and I also learned how to fly all different kinds of kites," she said. "If you're going to do a trick in a competition, you have to be able to do it perfectly 90 percent of the time. If you can't pull off all the tricks because of the [weather] conditions, you shouldn't be doing them."
Willoughby's focus on tricks she can land perfectly, plus her dabbling, won her invitations to fly kites all over. She flew in a rokkaku battle in Vietnam, and she flew against Khaled Hosseini, whose novel "The Kite Runner" later became the first, and perhaps the only, successful movie about kites. Willoughby also flew kites in a traveling show produced by Heather Henson, a puppeteer and a daughter of Muppets creator Jim Henson, which took her from Broadway to Detroit to China.
"Without kiting, I never in a million years would have been in Kazakhstan or Kuwait," she said.
For Lisa Willoughby, perfection is paramount. "If you're going to do a trick in a competition, you have to be able to do it perfectly 90 percent of the time. If you can't pull off all the tricks because of the [weather] conditions, you shouldn't be doing them." Photo: Danielle Parhizkaran/Northjersey.com
On a windy day this month, Willoughby stood beside a group of fishermen on the beach at Surf City, two blocks from her house. The wind flowed 8 mph from the northwest, she said. With a soft tug of her wrists, she jerked a custom-made, two-line kite into the air. She practiced a series of tricks, each with its own wonderful name and subtle technique. First came a Cascade, then a Flik-Flak, a Curly-Q, a 540, a Rolling Susan and a Jacob's Ladder.
"In a Jacob's Ladder you dump out the air, spin it, put it into a fade, move the air across its belly, and then spin it onto its back," she said. "I use my thumbs to balance it on the wind."
Willoughby handed the controls to a pair of visitors, who succeeded primarily in ramming the kite into the sand. Willoughby reclaimed the reins, landed the kite gently, and then brought out her quad-line kite. Unlike the first one, which darts and swoops aggressively, the quad kite is more in line with the slower, gentler style Willoughby is working now to master.
"It's like a dance routine. This kite allows you to be more maneuverable, slower, more precise," she said. "If you're a good flier you'll never crash."
After a few minutes of flying, Willoughby's head spun around. Then she started walking, keeping her back to the wind.
"Now, see? The wind just shifted," she said, looking to the west and the air's new direction. "Feel it?"
Willoughby's two visitors felt nothing. The fishermen, not noticing any change, kept their baited lines in the ocean.


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You'd be surprised by some of the hidden messages embedded in everyone's favorite songs.
Stories of hidden messages have always been somewhat of a myth in the music industry, but some of these examples are just too blatant to discredit.
In this video, we examine some of these creepy messages and look further into this subliminal phenomena.