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Experts fear an infection caught by troops in Iraq and Afghanistan will invade civilian hospitals
Clare Swinney 13 years ago 1
Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor
The UK, the United States and Canada are facing growing fears over a drug-resistant 'superbug' being brought back by wounded soldiers from Afghanistan and Iraq that threatens to contaminate civilian hospitals.
The intensified concern comes amid sharply rising infection rates in the US and fresh worries in Canada that the bug could be imported into its civilian healthcare system. Military health officials who have studied the bacterium in Afghanistan believe the infection of wounded British soldiers in field hospitals there is probably inevitable.
The US military originally thought the bug came from contaminated Iraqi soil, but troops in Afghanistan have also been infected. Canada's public health service last week revealed it had ordered the screening of all its wounded soldiers being repatriated from Afghanistan.
The bacterium, Acinetobacter baumannii, first emerged as a 'mystery infection' afflicting US service personnel returning from the war in Iraq in 2003-04. It was described by a scientific journal specialising in hospital epidemiology as the 'most important emerging hospital-acquired pathogen worldwide'. The journal added that it was potentially a 'major threat to public health' due to its ability to mutate rapidly and develop a resistance to all known drugs.
Although different types of acinetobacter have been known for decades in hospitals, the new 'T' strain identified in the injured troops is particularly virulent and has been observed to appear in US servicemen within two hours of being admitted to a field hospital. It affects the spinal fluid, bones and lungs, causing pneumonia, respiratory failure and other complications. Equally worrying is its resilience. Extremely difficult to eliminate from medical facilities once established, the bug can survive for up to 176 days in a human host. US officials concede that, once established in the medical evacuation chain, the germ is almost impossible to stamp out.
Although the Ministry of Defence tried to play down fears of the infection when the first suspected British cases were reported last year in the Lancet, its increasingly rampant progress through America's military hospital system has been causing intense alarm elsewhere.
Canadian military doctors investigated the infection in Canadian troops at an intensive care unit in Kandahar and published a report in the journal BMC Infectious Diseases earlier this year.
The officers warned that their findings about the infection risk were 'equally applicable to US and British military field hospitals as well', adding that 'the environmental and logistical problems that faced [the medical units involved] are common across field hospitals in Afghanistan and Iraq'. They added that 'unrestricted use of antibiotics' at the field hospitals to compensate for poor environmental conditions had contributed to the emergence of the new superstrain.
In addition to a new screening regime, Canadian infectious disease officials will meet early next year to develop a national strategy to deal with the risk of the new strain spreading to civilian hospitals.
One of the report's authors, Major Homer Tien, told The Observer from Kandahar yesterday that further outbreaks appeared inevitable. 'No one really knows how it is being transmitted. What is certain is that it is a big concern,' he said. 'A lot of the work I was doing was trying to pinpoint the source of the infection. We still can't say what the source was. If we can't prevent it, the next question is how we can keep the hospitals back home in the UK and Canada from being infected.'
Concern is all the higher because, as in the UK, injured Canadian troops are treated in the civilian healthcare system, while most Americans are treated in an extensive network of military hospitals.
Infection rates have risen steeply in the US. In 2001 and 2002, around 2 per cent of admissions were infected at a specialist army burns unit in Texas. By 2003 the rate had risen to 6 per cent, then 12 per cent by 2005, a rate consistent with other facilities. So far, 27 servicemen have died from the infection.
In stark contrast to Canada and the US, the attitude towards the threat in the UK has been sanguine and low-key.
An MoD spokesmen last week insisted there had not been a case since November 2004 and it employed 'robust and stringent infection control procedures which fully meet NHS requirements adequate to deal with the problem'.
18.06.2007: Quarter of NHS trusts miss targets for superbug
Healthcare Commission: hygiene compliance tables 2006-07
04.06.2007: Health watchdog plans superbug spot checks
27.04.2007: Hospitals to target C difficile bug
06.04.2007: Call to screen all prospective hospital patients for superbug
13.03.2007: Hospital tests new weapon in MRSA fight
23.02.2007: Deaths caused by two superbugs soar
Bird Flu passing via Human to Human contact?
Link By STEPHEN GRAHAM, Associated Press Writer Sun Dec 16, 6:22 AM ET ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – International health experts have been dispatched to Pakistan to help investigate the cause of South Asia's first outbreak of bird flu in people and determine if the virus could have been transmitted through human […]


The Meridian Tooth Chart shows you how each tooth is connected to one or more specific organs in your body. Therefore, to keep teeth clean, healthy, and strong also means a marked improvement of the organ functions in your body. Holistic dental care is based on this fact, and ensures that whatever is done with your teeth does not negatively affect the connected organs, but in fact improves their functions at the same time.
That's why you want a holistic dentist!


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Q: Ipe can't find pdflatex Okay I installed texlive 2012, just by following the guides from http://www.tug.org/texlive/.
Now when I downloadend, compiled and installed ipe7, the latest version. Now when I try something, draw/text etc, ipe tells me that it can't find pdflatex. Now I guessed that since I installed it from tug.org and not by a ubuntu package that it is now installed underneath a different directory. Pdflatex is located in the folder /usr/local/texlive/2012/bin/x86_64-linux/
Now I found in the manual that you can use the command flag IPELATEXDIR to point to a different location where pdflatex is located. So I started ipe --IPELATEXDIR=/usr/local/texlive/2012/bin/x86_64-linux/ but it still tells me that it can't find pdflatex?
I tried to find a log file in ~/.ipe/ but only the latex file is located there.
Does anybody got any clue?

A: IPELATEXPATH is an environment variable, not a command line option.
So either you call the program as
IPELATEXPATH=/usr/local/texlive/2012/bin/x86_64-linux ipe

or, better, you set
export IPELATEXPATH=/usr/local/texlive/2012/bin/x86_64-linux

in your .bashrc file (or .profile or whatever you prefer).
Caveat. Older versions of Ipe might want IPELATEXDIR.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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A View of Mount Calvary with the Crucifixion, 1652, Philips Wouwerman
Just as men are usually interested in different pastimes than women, the same tends to be true in each gender's choice of subject content in their art. That's not to say that, as with avocational interests, there isn't some overlap between the genders when it comes to art. There definitely is. I suppose now, that's more the case than then. Today, one might be safe to say that there is not a single male interest that doesn't also note some degree of feminine presence. That's undoubtedly true in most, if not all, opposite instances as well. Of course most of us septuagenarians (and probably some of those younger) can recall when this wasn't the case at all. I can remember at Thanksgiving, for instance, when our families used to come together; the women cooked; the men went rabbit hunting. Today, no one goes rabbit hunting but the men sometimes help prepare the feast, though mostly they just sit around and gab. And of course, the women do their share of that too.
Landscape with Peasants by a Cottage, 1651-53, Philips Wouwerman
During the 17th-century, during the Dutch "Golden Age," as a few women began to achieve recognition as artists, never was there a stronger dichotomy as to gender related content. At a time when there was a tremendous amount of specialization as to painting content, women only painted flowers, portraits, children, genre, and still-lifes. Men, such as Philips Wouwerman, would sometimes paint some of that too, but also farm animals, ships, religious subjects, mythological nudes, group portraits, and barroom characters, some going so far as to secretly dabble in erotic content, even pornography. Philips Wouwerman specialized in the highly masculine pursuits of hunting, battle scenes, landscapes and horses with riders. Seldom did he paint portraits (especially not children), still-lifes (never with flowers) or much in the way of genre except for a few peasant landscapes (above). Philips Wouwerman was a man's artist.
Smoke and dust accented with a turbulent swirl of Cavalry violence.
These date from the mid 1650s.
The Gray, 1645-47, Philips Wouwerman
As might be expected in such a male dominated era as the 1600s, Philips Wouwerman was highly successful and extremely productive. His paint-ings were avidly sought-after by wealthy burghers and the emerging Dutch middle-class of his day. Wou-werman was extremely fond of horses. They recur again and again in his scenes of battlefields, army camps, hunting parties, riding schools, and stables. Wouwerman was the most ac-complished Dutch 17th-century painter of horses. They usually feature prom-inently in his small cabinet pictures, which combine landscape and genre elements. Naturally, he sought out equestrian subjects to display his talents, including simple, unpretentious scenes of farriers, stables, riding schools and travelers at rest, as well as larger, multi-figured compositions of hunting parties, army encampments and cavalry battles. Almost six-hundred paintings by Wouwerman have come down to us. Yet he is far from being a household name. Wouwerman's A View of Mount Calvary with the Crucifixion (top) is one of his best works and quite atypical of his usual content, though having virtually all the traits of his style as seen in two of his battle scenes (above).
A man painting for men.
Philips Wouwerman was the eldest son of the painter Paulus Joosten Wouwerman. Philips was baptized in Haarlem in May of 1619. His younger brothers, Pieter and Jan, also became artists, painting in much the style of Philips. Art historians and authenticators have long struggled to separate their works, often changing their attribution back and forth among the three. Wouwerman probably took his first instruction in painting from his father but he is said to have also been a pupil of Frans Hals, though that's questionable in that none of Hals' influence is evident in Wouwerman's work. In 1638, against the wishes of his family, Wouwerman travelled to Hamburg to marry a Catholic girl named Annetje Pietersz. van Broeckhof. They had ten children, seven of whom survived to adulthood. Wouwerman remained in Haarlem for the rest of his life. He died there in May of 1668.
Winter Landscape with Wooden Bridge, Philips Wouwerman
About 800 pictures were initially listed as the work of Philip Wouwerman. By some accounts, the number exceeded 1200. However, as of 2006, only about 570 pictures are now listed as authentic works, due to the fact that many of the pictures originally attributed to Wouwerman were actually painted by countless followers and imitators all over Europe. Jan and Pieter Wouwerman, Philips' younger brothers, have often been regarded as close followers, their pictures frequently attributed to Philips. The oeuvre of Pieter clearly manifests the influence of Philips as to the range of his subjects, as well as his artistic style.
Man and Woman on Horseback, 1653-54, Philips Wouwerman
Henry Woods
On the Thames, Henry Woods
It's not too unusual, when studying the art and artists of the world, both now and then, to find some who have become icons of a given nation's art who were, in fact, born elsewhere. Pablo Picasso is a good example, born in Spain, living and working most of his life in France. Vincent van Gogh was Dutch but, like Picasso, mostly associated with French art. The same could be said of El Greco (a Greek painting in Spain), Mary Cassatt, and any number of European painters who fled Europe before and during WW II for the United States where they remained the rest of their lives. The British painter, Henry Woods, was one such artist, born in northwestern England, educated in London, but who lived and worked well over half his life in Venice, Italy, to the point he is often considered a Venetian painter.
A Country Studio, 1878, Henry Woods
Fruit Sellers from the Islands,
Henry Woods was born in 1856, into a proper, middle-class British family. His father, was a pawnbroker and town councilor; his mother, a shopkeeper. He was the eldest of nine siblings. Woods studied first in his hometown Warrington School, where he received a Department of Science and Art bronze medal in 1865, along with a scholarship to study at South Kensington School of Art in London. Upon graduating in 1869, Woods became an illustrator for The Graphic, a London news-paper, where he became associated with the Pre-Raphaelite artist, John Everett Millais, and the Social Realists, Hubert von Herkomer and Frank Holl. That same year Woods began exhibiting at Royal Academy exhibitions. Woods' On the Thames (top) and his A Country Studio (above), from 1878, were likely painted around this time. The latter gives some idea of the scale upon which Woods painted.
At the Foot of the Rialto, 1879-83, Henry Woods
Courtyard in Venice, 1896, Henry Woods
Woods' first visit to Venice came in 1876 and, except for a few brief trips back to England, he stayed and worked there to the end of his life, portraying everyday life of Venetian people. He became friends with the artist colony of Ludwig Passini, August von Pettenkofen, van Haanen, Eugene de Blaas, Wolkoff, Ruben, and Thoren. He met James McNeill Whistler, and befriended by John Singer Sargent. It was his 1881 Venice paintings At the Foot of the Rialto (above) that aided him in gaining an associate membership in the Royal Academy in 1882; followed by full membership in 1893. At some point in time, Woods painted a second version of At the Foot of the Rialto (below). The Rialto, of course, refers to the famed bridge across Venice's Grand Canal. There's no indication I can ascertain as to which painting came first. It's interesting to compare the similarities and differences in the two.
At the Foot of the Rialto, ca. 1881, Henry Woods. I rather like this version best.
Henry Woods, late in life.
Woods is one of the few artists ever to work in, or visit, Venice who didn't spend most of his time and effort painting the canals. Although we see occasional glimpses of the city's famed waterways, Woods spent most of his time portraying the simple, everyday life of Venetian people. We see that in his Rialto paintings but also in works such as The Fan Seller (below) from 1882, painted a few years after he took up permanent residence in the city. Before 1882 Woods had a studio on the Casa Raffaelli, before taking a larger studio overlooking the Grand Canal, near the church of San Maurizio. During the summer, Woods worked in the village of Serra Valle. Henry Woods died in Venice, at his easel, on October 27, 1921, at the age of seventy-five.
A Venetian Fan Seller, 1882, Henry Woods
Figures by the Water's Edge, Henry Woods
La Promessa Sposa, 1890, Henry Woods
John Tyler Portraits
President John Tyler, 1859, G.P.A. Healy, official White House portrait.
During his lifetime, his opponents referred to President John Tyler as "His Accidency." He was the first Vice-President to ascend to the highest office in the land through the death of a sitting president--William Henry Harrison. Harrison had served for only about a month before dying of pneumonia. For a time many in Congress preferred to refer to him as "acting president." Born in 1790, today, March 29, 2016, is John Tyler's 226th birthday. For those unfamiliar with the 44-name-long list of American Presidents, John Tyler was number ten, and some might say one of the more "forgettable" of the lot. His official White House portrait by G.P.A. Healy (above) would certainly not put him in line to win any presidential beauty contest. Yet the presidency of John Tyler was not as inconsequential as some might think. At a time when this Republic was still relatively young, Tyler set several important precedents and ushered in what was then the largest chunk of land ever to join the union--the great state of Texas (up until then an independent nation).
The Whig candidates, 1839
Vice President, John Tyler
The Whig National Convention of 1839 was eerily like what we may see in July, 2016, as the Republican Party meets in Cleveland, Ohio, to nominate a presi-dential candidate. By the time the Whigs met in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that year, the United States was in the third year of a serious recession, dubbed the Panic of 1837. President Van Buren's efforts to deal with the situation had been largely ineffectual, costing him public support. Moreover, the Democratic Party was so torn into factions that the head of the Whig ticket would likely be the next president. Harrison (above, center), Ken-tucky Senator, Henry Clay (above, left), and General Winfield Scott (above, right) all sought the nomination. Tyler attended the convention but was little more than a curious bystander among the Virginia delegation. He did nothing to aid his chances for even a second spot on the ticket. The convention deadlocked among the three main candidates, with Virginia voting for Clay. Many Northern Whigs opposed Clay. They showed the Virginians a letter written by Scott in which he apparently displayed abolitionist sentiments. The influential Virginia delegation then announced that Harrison was its second choice, causing most Scott supporters to abandon him in favor of Harrison, who gained the nomination.
President John Tyler, 1859,
G.P.A. Healy, National Portrait Gallery
The Vice-Presidential nomination was considered of little consequence. No president had ever failed to complete his elected term. Thus, not much attention was given to the choice. Tyler was a logical candidate--a Southern slave owner, he both balanced the ticket and calmed the fears of Southerners who felt Harrison might have abolitionist leanings. Tyler had been a vice-presidential candidate in 1836, thus having him on the ticket might win Virginia, the most populous state in the South. When Tyler's name was sub-mitted his home state of Virginia abstained from voting, yet he still received the need-ed majority. The party's famous campaign slogan, "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," says a lot about John Tyler's place on the ticket--an afterthought to win Virginia voters. Tyler's National Portrait Gallery image (left) is a somewhat cropped sec-ond version of Healy's earlier White House portrait (top). Harrison's death, a month into his presidency forever changed the heedless manner in which political parties were to choose presidential running mates.
Tyler arrived in Washington in the early morning hours of April 6, 1841. He was firmly resolved that he was, in name and fact, the President of the United States. Acting with determination, he had himself sworn in as president, without any qualifiers, in his hotel room, though he considered the presidential oath redundant to his oath as Vice-President. Nonetheless, he wished to put to rest any doubt over his accession. Immediately after his inauguration, Tyler called the Cabinet into session, having decided to retain its members. His Secretary of State, Daniel Webster informed him of Harrison's practice of making policy by a majority vote, fully expecting the new president to continue this practice. Astounded, Tyler immediately corrected them:
"I beg your pardon, gentlemen; I am very glad to have in my Cabinet such able statesmen as you have proved yourselves to be. And I shall be pleased to avail myself of your counsel and advice. But I can never consent to being dictated to as to what I shall or shall not do. I, as president, shall be responsible for my administration. I hope to have your hearty co-operation in carrying out its measures. So long as you see fit to do this, I shall be glad to have you with me. When you think otherwise, your resignations will be accepted."
Take that, you Whigs!
Tyler was not really a Whig, or if so, he was but a recent convert. In essence his views were often diametrically opposed to those of the man he replaced. Though he was a strong states rights advocate he was often at odds with the Whigs in Congress. Twice he vetoed Henry Clay's pet bill for a national banking act. Following the second veto, Tyler's cabinet entered his office one by one and resigned—a move intended by Clay to force Tyler's resignation. The only exception was Daniel Webster, who remained to demonstrate his independence from Clay. The following day, when the President did not resign, the Whigs expelled Tyler from the party. Tyler was castigated by Whig newspapers and received hundreds of letters threatening assassination. The Whigs in Congress were so mad at Tyler they refused to allocate funds for the repair of the White House, which had fallen into disrepair. Needless to say, they weren't in the mood to pay G.P.A. Healy to paint his portrait (top), which had to wait some fifteen years.
Tyler was the first President to be married while in office.
John Tyler, 1860-65
It didn't get any better. Tyler couldn't get any legislation passed. He couldn't appoint judges. His wife, Letitia, died. And in 1844, while he and his Cabinet were cruising the Potomac on the U.S.S. Princeton, a cannon exploded on deck and killed his Secretary of State, Secretary of Navy, and dozens more. I'll spare you the gory details, but the traumatic event wiped out many high ranking members of government. Tyler was below deck at the time and unhurt by the explosion. Shortly thereafter, the Whigs in the House of Representatives initiated the first ever im-peachment proceedings against a president. Until the presidency of the Whigs' arch-enemy, Andrew Jackson, presidents rarely vetoed bills, and then, only on the grounds of their unconstitutionality. Tyler's actions op-posed the Whigs' thinking that the pres-idency should allow Congress to make decisions regarding policy. The Bill of im-peachment was deemed premature, tabled, and later rejected. Upon the death of his wife, Letitia, in September of 1842, his daughter-in-law, Priscilla Cooper Tyler, took on the duties as First Lady until Tyler became the first president in history to be married during his term in office. On June 26, 1844, Tyler married Julia Gardiner, then twenty-four years of age and some thirty years his junior. Tyler also owns the distinction of having fathered more children than any other American president. With his first wife, Letitia, he had eight children. Tyler's second marriage to Julia Gardiner produced seven more children.
Sherwood Forest Plantation. Charles City County, Virginia,
John Tyler sculpture, 2004,
Lee Leuning and Sherri Treeby
When Tyler's term ended in 1845, no one in Washington hated to see him go. John and Julia Tyler retired to their Sherwood Forest estate in Virginia (above) where the former president embraced the role of the plantation-owning, slave-owning farmer. His Whig neighbors mockingly made him "Overseer of Roads," a title which, to their dismay, he took seriously, often demanding their slaves for road work. Tyler withdrew from politics, his advice neither sought nor offered in the years leading up to the Civil War. However, on the eve of the war, Tyler re-entered public life as a participant in the Virginia Peace Conference held in Washington, D.C., as a last-ditch effort to prevent the war. The convention sought a compromise even as the Confederate Constitution was being drawn up in Montgomery, Alabama. Despite his leadership role, Tyler came to oppose the convention's final resolutions. He felt that they would do little to bring back the lower South and restore the Union. Throughout Tyler's life, he suffered from poor health. As he aged, he suffered more frequently from colds during the winter. In January, 1862, after complaining of chills and dizziness, he vomited and collapsed. He died shortly thereafter due to a stroke. Because of his allegiance to the Confederacy, Tyler's death was the only president in history not to be officially recognized in Washington. He had requested a simple burial, but instead, Confederate President Jefferson Davis devised a grand, political funeral, painting Tyler as a hero to the new nation. His coffin was draped with a Confederate flag, the only former president ever to be buried under a foreign flag.
Adriaen van de Venne
Fishing for Souls, 1614, Adriaen van de Venne
It doesn't take a genius to realize that when times are good, art thrives, as do the artists who make it. When times turn bad, as in times of economic turmoil, political upheavals, war, even the periods leading up to wars and the years after a war, until things return to normal, hardships range from difficult to catastrophic for art and artists. I experienced this personally in 2008 as the U.S. economy took a nosedive into what's since come to be called the "Great Recession." A year or so earlier I'd finally been able to line up gallery representation through a high-end shopping mall establishment in Columbus, Ohio. They were doing relatively well for me. I was painting OSU football players in action, which were selling for reasonably good prices, even after the gallery took their cut. Then the recession hit. Art sales were the first casualty. They didn't just dry up; they blew away. The gallery went broke; I even lost a couple paintings in the ensuing melee. Of course, that was a minor bump in the road as compared to an outbreak of war such as happened in the Netherlands from about 1568 to 1648 (since come to be known as the Eighty Years War). During this time, the Dutch fought for their independence from the Spanish branch of the Hapsburg royal family of Austria (heirs to the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages). The artist, Adriaen van de Venne, was born in the midst of this awful period, during the year 1589.
Summer, 1614, Adriaen van de Venne
Adriaen van Venne,
Wenceslas Hollar
Though born in Delft (south Holland), the young boy grew up and attended school in nearby Leiden. He learned to paint, as did many young would-be artists of that time as an apprentice to a goldsmith before moving on at the age of twenty-five to the city of Middleburg where he was influenced, if not actually taught, by Jan Brueghel the Elder and his father, Pieter Brueghel the Elder. He apparently began his career as an artist/illustrator/engraver around 1614 in that few of his works bear dates before that year. Van de Venne's Summer (above) and Winter (below) both date from 1614 and are typical, though not exceptional insofar as Dutch landscapes of the 17th-century "Golden Age" are concerned. Van de Venne's most famous painting dates from this era, an allegory on the religious struggles between Dutch Protestants and Spanish Catholics during his time. It's titled Fishing for Souls (top) as both groups work to rescue "drowning" souls during the Dutch Revolt.
Winter, 1614, Adriaen van de Venne
Adriaen van de Venne was fortunate to have been born when he was and thus to have come of age as a painter in the midst of what historians have come to call the Twelve-Year's Truce. Maurice, Prince of Orange succeeded his father William the Silent as the Protestant ruler of Zeeland in 1585, adding the cities of Utrecht, Guelders and Overijssel in 1590, and Groningen in 1620. As Captain-General and Admiral of the Union, Maurice organized the Dutch rebellion against Spain into a successful revolt which won him fame as a military strategist. Under his leadership, and in cooperation with Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, the ruler of Holland, the Dutch army was able to drive the Spanish out of the north and east of the Republic. As a result, there began the Twelve Years' Truce, though there was nearly as much conflict between the two Dutch rulers as there had been between the Dutch and the Spanish. It ended with Van Oldenbarnevelt's decapitation. After the Truce, Maurice failed to achieve any more military victories. He died at The Hague in 1625. Adriaen van de Venne painted his portrait (below) as Maurice lay in state shortly before his funeral.
Maurice, Prince of Orange, Lying in State, 1625, Adriaen van de Venne
The truce ended in 1621 with renewed hostilities which also involved the French and English in various complicated alliances for another seventeen years, finally ending in the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 when the Dutch Republic was recognized as a fully independent nation. Adriaen van de Venne lived though all this and despite such conflicts the era continued to be known as the Dutch Golden Age. Two of his allegorical paintings, Allegory of the Truce of 1609 between the Netherlands and Spain, (below, left) from 1616, and Allegory of Poverty (below, right) from 1630, can be seen as social comments on the current events of his day.
Van de Venne was a sharp visual commentator on the events of his day.
Adriaen van de Venne's monochromatic grisaille paintings (below) reflect what he saw as the foolish irony of this tortured period. I'm especially fascinated by his titles, Altogether too Stupid, Fools Have the Most Fun, and his cynical Where There Are People, Money Is to Be Made. His Death Dance (below, left) is a devastating comment on the horror and insanity of war, despite the fact that this one led to Dutch independence.
Death, foolishness, stupidity, and greed were all valid content for van de Venne's art.
Adriaen van de Venne survived until 1662. During the latter years of his life he turned to depicting religious works such as his The Marriage at Cana (below), from around 1660. However, what I like most about van de Venne's work is his dry sense of humor, not unlike that of a political cartoonist today, or as seen not quite so dryly in his Tumbling Skaters (bottom), from around 1620-26. Here is a man who, despite difficult times, had fun with his art.
The Marriage at Cana, 1620-26, Adriaen van de Venne.
Jesus appears to have been eating a bit much at the wedding feast.
Tumbling Skaters, 1620-26, Adriaen van de Venne
The Luxembourg Gardens
The Luxembourg Palace, the Jardin du Luxembourg, and sailboats
One of the greatest regrets I have from all my travels is that I did not have enough time in Paris to see all I wanted. Moreover, the chances seem slim that I shall ever get to go back and take in the "leftovers" that didn't make it onto my schedule the first time around (2015). I could easily spend a second week in the city. However, my wife didn't much care for Paris. She complained that everyone spoke French, she didn't like most of the ingredients in French cooking, and in any case, there wasn't much that interested her in the city for which she would be willing to be on her feet long enough to take in. I sympathize somewhat with her last complaint but find the all of them easily worth dealing with. It is Paris, after all. At the top of my "wish I'd seen" list would be the Rodin Museum, the Petit Palace, the Versailles Gardens, and the Luxembourg Palace and Gardens. The gardens especially should be near the top of any "must see" list of anyone visiting Paris. This is about that lovely mid-city garden spot and what I missed.
The Jardin du Luxembourg from the air (top), from a map, and from a map of
the gardens (middle) of the many queens of France which grace the gardens (bottom).
This marks the first of a series of items I'll be doing during the next few weeks and months in highlighting the most beautiful gardens in the world. The Jardin du Luxembourg and all the others were created by artists, which means they are manmade in design. I won't be including "National" Parks such as the Grand Canyon in this country or the Swiss Alps in Europe. They are, in essence, God-made parks, their beauty the grace of God. I think it unfair to compare them to the meager, contrived, decorative efforts of the landscape design artist. Doing so would be like comparing fountains and waterfalls.
The Medici Fountain in spring, autumn, and summer.
Marie de' Medici, of the Florentine de' Medici family, and the widow of France's Henry IV, also the regent for the King Louis XIII, decided to build a palace in imitation of the Pitti Palace in her native Florence. In 1611 she purchased the hotel du Luxembourg (today the Petit Palace) then began construction of her new palace. She commissioned Salomon de Brosse to build the palace and a fountain (above), both of which still exist. Around 1612, as construction was coming along nicely, she had planted 2,000 elm trees, and directed Tommaso Francini, and a series of others, to build a park in the style she had known as a child in Florence. Francini planned two terraces with balustrades and parterres laid out along the axis of the chateau, aligned around a circular basin (top). He also built the Medici Fountain (above) to the east of the palace as a nympheum, an artificial grotto and fountain, minus its present reflecting pool and statuary. The original garden was just eight hectares (a little short of 20 acres) in size.
Jardin du Luxembourg, 1829, Christophe Civeton
Some twenty years later, the queen bought additional land and enlarged the garden to thirty hectares (about 74 acres), then entrusted the work to Jacques Boyceau de la Barauderie, the head gardener of the royal gardens of the Tuileries and the Gardens of Versailles. He was one of the early theorists of the new and more formal jardin à la française (French Garden). He also laid out a series of squares along an east-west alley at the east end by the Medici Fountain, along with a rectangle of parterre de broderies of flowers and hedges in front of the palace. In the center he placed an octagonal basin with a fountain having a perspective toward what is now the Paris observatory. Having created all this, later monarchs largely neglected the gardens in favor of those at Versailles. In fact, around 1780, the Comte de Provence, the future Louis XVIII, sold the eastern part of the garden for real estate development.
The Luxembourg Palace and the grand vistas of the Jardin du Luxembourg
An original model of
the Statue of Liberty.
However, in the years after the French Revolution, the new government expanded the garden to forty hectares (almost 99 acres) by confiscating the land of the neighboring religious order. Jean Chalgrin, the architect of the Arc de Triomphe, took on the task of restoring the garden. He revamped the Medici Fountain and laid out a long perspective from the palace to the observatory. He preserved the famous pepiniere, (nursery garden) and the old vineyards, while keeping the garden in a formal French style. A few years later, during and after the July Monarchy of 1848, the park became home to a large population of statuary Queens and famous women of France, lining the terraces. Late in the 19th century, there were added, monuments to writers and artists, as well as a small-scale model of Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty. During the reconstruction, Gabriel Davioud, the Director of Parks and Promenades of Paris, built new ornamental gates and fences around the park. He also transformed what remained of the old nursery garden, at the south end of the park, into an English garden with winding paths, and a fruit orchard in the southwest corner.
A panoramic view of the Jardin du Luxembourg
Today, the garden is largely devoted to a green parterre of gravel and lawn enhanced by statues and centered on its large octagonal basin of water, with a central jet. There children sail model boats (top). The garden is famed for its calm atmosphere. Surrounding the basin on the raised balustrade terraces are a series of statues of former French queens, saints, and copies after the Antique. In the southwest corner, there is an orchard of apple and pear trees and the Theatre des Marionettes. The Orangerie displays art, photography and sculptures. The gardens include a large fenced-in playground for young children and a vintage carousel. In addition, there are free musical performances in a gazebo on the grounds next to a small café nearby, under the trees, with both indoor and outdoor seating where visitors may enjoy the music over a glass of wine.
A French sailor boy.
William Woodward
United Fruit Company Mural, SS. Atenas, 1921, William Woodward
When one paints along the seacoast, the artist has a choice. He or she can turn their easel (or camera) toward the water, and paint the standard array of ocean waves artists have depicted for generations. Or, the painter may turn away from the sea toward the colorful ocean front vistas, which are very often more interesting than the water. In doing so, the artist has the opportunity to explore the ways and means the local populace has used in acclimating themselves to the vagaries of living by the turbulent tides of the sea. I've written several times about artists from the iconic New England shores, almost to the point a reader might well think the U.S. Seashore cease to exist south of Coney Island. Of course that's not the case at all. Chesapeake Bay has its "school" of painters as does the North Carolina Outer Banks and the those artist who have popularized the Florida peninsula and points south. Even coastal cities have assumed distinctive art entities. For instance, though not technically situated along the coast, New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA), has long had its own painting "club" including such artists as Allison Owen, Rolland Golden, Elsworth Woodward, and especially his older brother, William Woodward, who has often been deemed "The Father of Art in New Orleans."
Madame John's Legacy, 1910, William Woodward
More recent artists have turned to
depicting NOLA culture over its
historic presence.
New Orleans is nothing if not historic and colorful. Woodward's Madame John's Legacy (above), attests to both qualities. Woodward was especially fond of the New Orleans French Quarter. Many NOLA artists have contributed works bearing those qualities, though in more recent years, as the city has grown and changed (sometimes not for the better), many of them have taken to emphasizing the jazz music and musicians for which the city has become famous. Although there were undoubtedly local artists depicting "local color" before 1884 when William Woodward arrived in town, the New England-born artist brought with him a keen, well-trained eye for beauty and a sharp mind centered as much or architecture as painting, a fact plainly evident in many of his works.
View of the Napoleon House in New Orleans, 1904, William Woodward
Born in Seekonk, Massachusetts, William Woodward first came to NOLA at the behest of, William Preston Johnston to teach fine arts, mechanical drawing, and architectural drawing at the newly founded Tulane University. Woodward had taught at the Rhode Island School of Design while still a student there. In 1886 he extended his honeymoon through Scotland and England to include a three-month summer study at the Académie Julian in Paris where he found a new direction for his artistic development, seeing for the first time Impressionist works, a style he came to employ in his architectural scenes. His View of the Napoleon House in New Orleans (above), dates from 1904 when he had fully embraced French Impressionism giving it a southern "twist" all his own. This one even has the look of van Gogh.
The painting at the top-left is a portrait by William Woodward's brother, Elsworth
(seen in the larger photo). The painting at the lower-left is a self-portrait.
The NOLA French Quarter
The multicultural Vieux Carré (left), in a crescent of the Mississippi River, provided Woodward lifelong artistic inspiration. Unlike the wide-open spaces growing up in the Northeast, the French Quarter was crowded with European-style residences alongside docks, open air markets, dry goods and hardware stores, all located in the shadow of St. Louis Cathedral on the city's main square. Woodward's impressionistic views of the Vieux Carré were critical in focusing attention on the historical structures, many of which were on the verge of being recklessly destroyed. In 1895, he was in the forefront of the movement against the demolition of The Cabildo, the seat of government during the Spanish Colonial period. This battle for historic preservation of the French Quarter ultimately led to the establishment of the Vieux Carré Commission. Woodward focused intensely on the Vieux Carré before artists found it fashionable, documenting the city's rich cultural heritage in vignettes of daily life featuring street cleaners, milkmaids, women at the market, and residents simply engaged in their daily lives. Such scenes rank among the best of 19th-century urban New Orleans. Woodward's Impressionism ultimately developed a manner of rendering ideal in capturing the soft light, moisture, and romantic essence of the French Quarter. His palette lightened as his architecture softened along with his figures, which have a sense of immediacy that enlivens his architectural scenes.
Carrollton Section of New Orleans, 1899, William Woodward
Woodward's most famous work was a fifteen-foot round canvas mural he completed in 1921 for the ceiling of the entrance rotunda at the United Fruit Company building on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans. The painting (top) has since been moved for conservation purposes, but the mural made quite an impact when it was completed for the million-dollar, 11-story United Fruit Company building. The mural was described by the New Orleans' Illustrated News as "...a riot of glorious color toned down to the aristocracy of harmonious good taste." Another review described it as "...a wonder of flashing blues, scarlets, and golds haled from the tropics." Woodward's Carrollton Section of New Orleans (above) dating from 1899, is more typical of his work. Woodward and his wife were not bound by the Cajun environs of New Orleans, but traveled broadly, as witnessed by the artist's view of Venice, Italy (below). While painting the United Fruit Company mural, Woodward fell from the scaffold. He injured his spine, resulting in permanent paralysis of the legs. Woodward and his wife retired to Biloxi, Mississippi in 1923. Though confined to a wheelchair, Woodward remained active, filling his retirement years with a prolific number of paintings as he and his wife travel around the United States in a specially-equipped car. Woodward died in New Orleans in November, 1939. He was seventy-eight.
View of Venice, William Woodward
Charles Herbert Woodbury
Art Museums of the Future
Slot Machine Art
Adolf Wölfli
Caspar van Wittel
Emanuel de Witte
Grover Cleveland Portraits
James Madison Portraits
Andrew Jackson Portraits
Adolphe Willette
Tail Light Tales
Antoine Wiertz
Kurt Wenner
Painting Bridges
J. Alden Weir
An Artist's Duty

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Simple PHP warning question? I was wondering how can I correct this warning I keep getting listed below.
I'm using PHP & MySQL
Warning: min() [function.min]: Array must contain at least one element

Here is part of the code I think is causing the problem.
$tags = tag_info($link);

$minimum_count = min(array_values($tags));
$maximum_count = max(array_values($tags));
$spread = $maximum_count - $minimum_count;

I would of posted the whole code but some ignorant users will probably feel its a duplicate question so if you need to see the full code please look at the past questions thanks.
Okay I'm thinking its not this piece of code because every ones code is not displaying anything but its getting rid of the warning. You can see the full code here Full code

A: $tags = tag_info($link);

$spread = $tags ? max($tags) -  min($tags) : 0;

That code is valid as long as your tag_info() function returns an array.
PHP's built-in array_values() function is useless, since min() and max() both ignore the keys in an array.

A:
    if( !empty( $tags ) )
    {
      $minimum_count = min( array_values( $tags ) ) ;
    }

A: $tags = tag_info($link);

if (
  is_array( $tags ) &&
  count( $tags ) > 0
) {
  $values = array_values( $tags );

  $spread = max( $values ) - min( $values );
} else
  $spread = 0;


Think of the landing page for your online dropship business as the entry foyer in your home, and then think of how important first impressions really are!
The page your visitors land on when they arrive at your website is the first impression they get of who you are and what you're all about. It's much better to make a good first impression, because if you don't---you won't get a second chance.
Want to get more great tips that will help grow your sales? Download this valuable free e-book now!
Write your landing page headline so that it correlates with the ad copy that your visitor clicked on to arrive there. If you can match it exactly, so much the better. This helps to keep your visitors well oriented and engaged.
Use excellent calls to action. You should have a minimum of 2 on a shorter landing page, and 3-5 on a longer one. Make your calls to action strong and clear; don't leave any doubt as to precisely what the visitor should do next.
Personalize your content by referring to the visitor as "you" and "your." This is the essence of good sales psychology!
Remember that you aren't trying to write a best selling novel, or showcase your writing talents. The purpose of your landing page content is to make a sale! So, gear your writing toward that targeted goal.
Always bear in mind that online readers basically skim or scan, hitting the highlights of the text. So make your most important points at the beginning of a short paragraph and use bullets when appropriate as they tend to draw attention.
Stay on a well defined path that is as straight a line as you can get from the headline to the ultimate destination, which is, of course---making a sale. Don't throw in a bunch of trivial verbiage that doesn't do anything to advance or lead the visitor toward your targeted goal of checkout.
These tips can help you write an effective landing page that will rev up sales in your home dropshipping business or other ecommerce enterprise.


7thingsmedia is multi-award winning global digital media agency with a proven track record of delivering hugely impressive returns for clients, such as boohoo.com, French Connection, Graziashop.com, James Villa Holidays, Konga.com, Shoeaholics and Ted Baker. With offices in London, New York & Singapore; 7thingsmedia's services span the digital marketing mix including affiliates, display, lead generation, mobile, PPC, SEO and social media.
Our ethos is focussed around adopting an ethical, transparent and focussed approach to working with our clients and we seek to very quickly establish ourselves as a close partner with everyone with whom we work.


text:
Trans Mountain pipeline to restart as cold snap hits flood-battered southern B.C.
The entrance to a property that was washed away during a flood is pictured in Tulameen, B.C. An incoming cold front will see snow accumulate in many flood-affected areas in the south of the province. (Maggie MacPherson/CBC - image credit)
A cold front is set to blanket much of southern B.C. with snow over the weekend, potentially helping floodwaters recede in many communities devastated by floods and mudslides.
Environment Canada issued a snowfall warning for the Fraser Valley and Fraser Canyon east of Vancouver, as well as other regions in the province's Interior. Up to 15 centimetres of snow could accumulate near mountain passes, the agency says.
Many cities in the region, including Vancouver, Surrey and Victoria, will be opening extreme weather shelters throughout the weekend to assist those that need space to warm up.
Armel Castellan, warning preparedness meteorologist at Environment Canada, says the incoming weather conditions will be challenging for drivers but might help flood recovery efforts in much of southwest B.C.
"The cooler conditions are actually helpful in stabilizing the environment," he said. "We are seeing the conditions ameliorate."
Andrew Giles, of the River Forecast Centre, said cooler temperatures are likely to reduce inflow into swollen rivers and also reduce snow melt at higher elevations.
He also said freezing temperatures in the province's Interior would bring down the water levels of the Fraser River.
Gian Paolo Mendoza/CBC
Calmer river conditions would allow for floodwaters to recede in low-lying areas like the Sumas Prairie region of Abbotsford, southeast of Vancouver, which remains swamped after record-breaking rains in the middle of November.
The northern part of the region was taken off evacuation order on Friday as part of the city's "return home" plan, but most of the area's residents remain away from their homes.
"With the lifting of this order we are asking everyone to exercise extreme caution as they make their way through this newly opened area, especially over the next few days, as we have snow in our forecast," Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun said on Friday.
All other areas of the Prairie will remain under an evacuation order until assessment teams deem it safe for residents to return, Braun said, adding that there is no set timeline yet. The region is also under a "do not use" water advisory.
On Saturday, Braun said floodwaters were still coming from across the U.S. border but that they were likely to stop on Sunday with cooler conditions.
He also said water levels in the Sumas Prairie had come down two feet (60 centimetres) over the course of two days, but damage to other infrastructure means the region will not be fully connected for a few weeks.
WATCH | Rebuilding from widespread floods could cost B.C. billions:
Trans Mountain pipeline to reopen on Sunday
The Trans Mountain pipeline, which carries fuel from Alberta to B.C., is set to resume operations on Sunday morning after being out of commission for three weeks.
A spokesperson for Trans Mountain said there was no indication of any spills or damage to the pipeline since it was closed on Nov. 14. It was the longest shutdown in the pipeline's 70-year history.
"We expect that all assessments, repairs and protective earthworks necessary for a safe restart will be completed by [Sunday], and plans have been developed and shared with the Canada Energy Regulator," the spokesperson said.
"Restarting the pipeline has required a significant, sustained effort to reinstate access lost due to damaged roads, changes in river flows and adverse weather."
The reopening of the pipeline is likely to alleviate B.C.'s fuel supply shortage. The province had earlier said it was shipping fuel from other jurisdictions, including the United States, to make up for the approximately 300,000 barrels of oil supplied by Trans Mountain.
Fuel rationing remains in place in the province, with a 30-litre fuel purchase limit until Dec. 14.
Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press
Province asks drivers to use winter tires
B.C. Transportation Minister Rob Fleming asked residents to be cautious heading into the weekend, with numerous highways still out of commission due to mudslides and floods.
He stressed that drivers should use winter tires when driving on highways this weekend, with travel advisories also in place allowing only essential traffic on stretches such as Highway 3 through the Interior.
Highway 1 through the Fraser Valley, a crucial link between Metro Vancouver and the rest of the country, was reopened earlier in the week.
Highway 99 north of Vancouver has now been reopened between Pemberton and Lillooet after being closed due to a mudslide. The stretch earlier saw a mudslide that left four people dead and one missing during the mid-November storm.
Much of the Fraser Canyon route along Highway 1 remains closed due to slide damage. Highway 8 between Spences Bridge and Merritt was heavily damaged and remains closed indefinitely.
Fleming said the government is in the planning stages of determining temporary measures to open major arteries between B.C.'s Lower Mainland and the Interior, including the Coquihalla Highway (Highway 5), which had five bridges wash out in November.
Ben Nelms/CBC
Potent system eyes Quebec with 15-35 cm of snow, difficult travel expected
A widespread snowfall will blanket Quebec during the day on Monday, bringing hefty accumulations to some areas, likely leading to significant travel interruptions.


Wentzylvania is on full tilt after its namesake, Carson Wentz, tore his ACL in Sunday's 43-35 win against the Rams and is out for the season. Not-so-perfect timing for a team with championship aspirations, and also heartbreaking news for your fantasy team with the playoffs on the line. Meanwhile, lowly Gang Green is down Josh McCown after the journeyman QB, in the midst of a resurgent season, broke his non-throwing hand Sunday as Denver lambasted the Jets 23-0. He will miss the remainder of the season.
Don't stop me if you've heard this one because I know you have: this season has seen an egregious amount of top talent lost to injury. These two injuries are especially painful as the Eagles' Wentz was clearly a top candidate for MVP and is second overall in fantasy points behind Seattle's Russell Wilson. McCown is currently QB8 on the season.
Fantasy football owners are left pondering their existence without these players in their lineups. So, now what?
If Aaron Rodgers, by some miracle of God, is still available in your league you have to roster him right freaking now. If not, add these guys in this order to help save your fantasy season.
Blake Bortles, Jacksonville Jaguars – Don't look now but Bortles has pieced together a pretty darn decent second half of the season, having scored at least 16 fantasy points in six of his last seven starts. During that stretch he has eclipsed 20 fantasy points twice, has thrown eight TDs to three interceptions and now gets two juicy matchups against the Texans and 49ers. The Texans give up the second most points to opposing QBs, an average of 19.3 points per game, and the 49ers are right behind them. Wake up, fantasy owners: this is not Bad Blake, it's Good Blake. Ownership: Yahoo!, 35%. ESPN, 20%.
Jimmy Garoppolo, San Francisco 49ers – Garoppolo is finding his groove with his new team, winning both games he has started since taking over for C.J. Beathard. Jimmy G has thrown for 627 yards with one TD and one interception in wins over Chicago and Houston. His fantasy scores haven't been great (10.52 vs. Bears, 15.06 vs. Titans) but they should keep improving as he gets more in sync with his receivers and more comfortable with the offense in general. Roll him out with confidence against the Titans in Week 15, but beware the Jaguars in Week 16. Ownership: Yahoo!, 20%. ESPN, N/A.
DeShone Kizer, Cleveland Browns – Kizer has plenty of weapons at his disposal now that Josh Gordon has returned in force and Corey Coleman is healthy. Kizer is also a dual-threat QB and has 315 rushing yards and five TDs on the season, giving him weekly upside. Post-Week 9 bye, Kizer is QB14, having thrown for six TDs and rushed for two more. His tendency to throw interceptions makes Kizer nerve-wracking to watch, but he has topped 20 fantasy points twice in that span and only put up one stinker, albeit against Jacksonville. His schedule doesn't do him any favors, however, as the Browns face Baltimore and then Chicago. Ownership: Yahoo!, 4%. ESPN, 5%.
Nick Foles, Philadelphia Eagles – Foles deserves some consideration here by default. I mean, he did inherit an offensive juggernaut with one of the league's best o-lines to boot. How did you feel about Case Keenun after Sam Bradford went down in Week 1? How do you feel about him now? Exactly. We are not too far removed from Foles' 2013 campaign with the Eagles, in which he threw for 2,891 yards, 27 TDs and 2 INTs. He has proven he can be a competent NFL quarterback and he's in the right spot to succeed now. Ownership: Yahoo!, 2%. ESPN, 1%.


If you wish to unlock your GSM iPhone 4S without having to jailbreak the iOS smartphone you might like to know that you can now pre-order the Gevey Ultra S SIM for the GSM iPhone 4S, which apparently allows for a true plug and play iPhone 4S unlock solution without the need to connect to any external device or even jailbreaking your handset so your warranty will remain intact.
The Gevey Ultra S F981 chipset has been engineered to work under the 3-volt standard and as such your battery life will not be affected and still last as long. All you do is simply pop in the Gevey Ultra S SIM and unlock your iPhone with your original SIM card.
There is no need to dial international emergency number 112 during installation and rebooting, and delivers a complete unlock on all 2G and 3G date services, no physical modification or SIM cutting is required, works on iOS 5.0 and iOS 5.0.1, and baseband 1.0.11, 1.013, 1.0.14.
The Gevey Ultra S SIM has also been engineered to enhance signal strength delivering a strong voice and data communication, and decreases power consumption. However the Gevey Ultra S SIM is only for all GSM iPhone 4S handsets and is not compatible with CDAM iPhones.
We have a short demonstration video of the Gevey Ultra SIM for the GSM iPhone 4S for your viewing pleasure below, which last seven and a half minutes so don't forget to head on down and check out the footage.
For those GSM iPhone 4S users that would like to take advantage of the Gevey Ultra S SIM you can pre-order the SIM from Applenberry at a cost of $54.99 with an estimated shipping date of between the 3rd of March and March the 7th.
For gevey UltraS in India call 9833098597.
unlocking of USA AT&T iphone 4/4s can be done..mail at iphone.service11@gmail.com.
Just check eachsupplier dot com, they offer alternative at cheap price.


The dress was purchased at Stephanie's Bridal in 2011. The wedding it was worn in one time was in 2012. The dress is an a-line gown, the color is a white pearl and the material is satin. There is a train to the gown that can be bustled underneath. There are color coded ribbons under the dress for bustling which are very helpful.
There are no tears or ripes in the dress. The beading that is directly under the armpit I had the seamstress crush those beads to eliminate underarm rashes. The gown was purchased and after alterations the dress is a size six. The dress by the shoulders was taken up and the length was taken up a couple inches. I am 5'4" and had a midsized heel on.
The gown was worn on the wedding day and immediately following the wedding day the gown was taken to get cleaned, pressed and preserved. It is currently in a gown bag in a smoke free home with no pets.