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Atlas & Boots
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17 megadiverse countries of the world
5th September 2020 5th September 2020 by Atlas & Boots
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We profile the world's megadiverse countries, from obvious contenders like Ecuador and Brazil to one or two surprise entries
It should be comforting to know that a mere 17 countries hold more than 70% of the world's species. It should be easy to rally this small group of 'megadiverse countries' to protect the planet's extraordinary biodiversity. Alas, some of these countries are also the world's biggest consumers and polluters.
12 largest rainforests in the world and where to find them
19th October 2020 16th February 2019 by Peter
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The largest rainforests in the world are some of the most vital ecosystems on our planet. We look at where they're located and why they need protecting
Home to over half the world's plant and animal species, the largest rainforests in the world absorb vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping maintain the balance of the air we breathe while simultaneously playing a critical role in curbing global warming.
Before they're gone: landscapes affected by climate change
25th December 2019 12th November 2016 by Peter
Climate change is taking an unprecedented toll on the Earth's World Heritage Sites and natural wonders. Below, we take a look at some of the worst affected landscapes
With the surprise news this week that Donald Trump will be the next president of the USA, it would be easy to overlook that with the news comes one of the biggest threats to the historic agreement on climate made in Paris earlier this year.
Trump has previously described climate change as "fictional" and "created by the Chinese", and has promised to "cancel" the Paris climate deal completely. On the domestic front he also plans to repeal all federal spending on clean energy, including research and development for wind, solar, nuclear power and electric vehicles.
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9+1=GenCon2010
So... I'm back from another Gen Con. I suppose I should start with getting there. Monday and Tuesday were spent sleeplessly scrambling to get all the stuff ready that I had been not quite getting ready for a long time. Somehow this led to Wednesday morning, when I woke up in a culvert leading down into the Flats. More disturbing than this, perhaps, is the fact that Tom already knew where I was and came to pick me up on the way out of town without being called. Another stroke of luck was that I (or perhaps the person or people responsible for leaving me in that ditch) had, at some point, made all the character sheets and props I was going to need, and written down enough notes to get me through the games I would soon be running.
On the way in, we stopped for lunch across from the site of this year's Troll Hoot. For possibly the first time ever, we were able to move along without having to spend much time glowering at Columbus, and there were no construction projects on I-70. WAHOO!
After checking in at the Looking Glass, we set out through the hundred-degree steam-bath of Indianapolis to the convention center. Tom stopped along the way for an impulse haircut, which gave us a nice air-conditioned respite midway. First sight of the Fabled City of Nerds is always an emotional experience, and this one was no exception. The fact that downtown Indy is such a pleasant and welcoming hang-out is definitely a part of it. There's just nothing else like Gen Con.
The lines to pick up our badges looked pretty scary at first, but actually moved along with impressive speed. I had some trouble getting my free swag, as you can see below, but other than that it was cool.
After drinks and a snack at the Alcatraz, Tom started up his Cthulhu Mansion adventure, while I tried to get in touch with Mike (Lea, not Larsen - let's just call the Arizona one Monk from now on to avoid confusion) and wandered around Union Station sticking my nose in whatever strange stairwell or tunnel presented itself. I was rewarded with this tidbit, a hotel connected to the station in which some of the rooms (no doubt the really expensive ones) are inside old train cars that line the halls. I also bumped into Caed and recovered a wandering YogPaul, which I captured and led to the Cthulhu Mansion game to fulfill its duties as co-keeper.
The good news is that the sauna was about to blow away and leave us with much cooler and dryer weather. The bad news is that Mike was cruising right in on the crest of the storm that was clearing it out. He managed to arrive without any clear idea of where he was or how to find a parking place, obliging me to sprint through the rain in a twisty multi-block path until I finally caught up with his car in order to guide him back to the Looking Glass.
Tom was out the door before I was up, but eventually I got out there and helped Mike get his badge and stuff. The policy towards cell phones seemed to have changed since last year, but luckily I was able to hide mine from the murderous mobile-manglers long enough to get clear of them.
We had a big welcome to Gen Con lunch at Champions with everyone we could find (Me, Tom, Mike, Caed, Ken St. Andre, Monk, Kelly, and Zack (a new one for me). I opened my big mouth and quite possibly got myself roped into a non-paying writing gig, and there was much rejoicing. Then we broke off to dig into our various events.
Mike followed to watch my first session of Aqua Teen Hunger Force at the Mountains of Madness. He was scheduled to play in a later session (as Carl), but didn't have anything else to do and there's really no spoiler that's going to matter in an Aqua Teen story. Two guys, who I now remember only as Meatwad and Travis of the Cosmos, were already waiting, and a full table settled in shortly after, including Mike, who sat in on this session as Mothmonsterman. This session may well be the most fun I've ever had a gaming table. Several players did first-rate impressions of their characters, and even the ones that weren't stunningly on-target were exceptionally good. The best compliment I got was "it's just like a new episode of the show." I can't take all that much credit for that, but hey, I made the thing happen, right? The session ended with a giant Old One (a mass of cardboard tubes and angry Meatwad-faces summoned "accidentally" by Frylock) destroying Australia while Meatwad found the secret of cosmic power and became ruler of the world, or at least New Jersey... or at least Shake.
Jerry from BASHCon was running Game of Thrones at the table next to me, so I invited him and Mike to come down to the nearest bar (Level One in the Hyatt) for drinks with Tom and whoever Tom was buying drinks for today. It must have been my psychic powers that told me where he would be. Tom's companero turned out to be John Kennedy, of the non-famous Kennedys. More happy milling-about ensued. Somehow we ran into Monk and Kelly and ended up eating at Claddagh (minus Jerry and John) and then lounging on the steps of Union Station, where we were joined shortly by Sligo/Scott of Trollhalla and Indianapolis. I tried to hang on for Tom's late night Cthulhu game but gave up and went back to the B&B to crash.
My first event of the day was my Beyond the Caves of Chaos True20 adventure (using extra rules & creatures from Qalidar). That one went well. I had a good group and I'm still liking True20, especially since I started using cards for the damage conditions. The Pyramid Heads (a menace I stole from Tom) were great fun with their knockback/stun-only kazap pistols. I was somewhat disappointed that my other main villains kept getting staggered so that the players never got shot by their bee guns. Ah well. Next time.
My next event wasn't until seven, and Mike was finally up, so we stopped at the Red Dragon Inn (which is normally the Circle City Grille in the Marriott) for some fantasy-themed drinks and snacks, then took a turn around the exhibit hall, which was dizzying as always. I wandered over and chatted with Ken & Rick (mostly Ken because Rick was really busy) at the Flying Buffalo booth. Shortly after, I'm reminded that Tom was planning some sort of dinner tonight. Since Mike and I have an Aqua Teen game at seven, I decide to remind Tom of this. Well, Tom is in a game (I later found out it was T&T) that was going just swimmingly. "No time for chit-chat, old girl. You can sort things, spic-n-span, eh? There's a good lass."
Never one to disappoint a Victorian gentleman, I returned to Flying Buffalo with my trusty sidekick and set about sorting things the best I could. Ken and Rick would meet us all by the stage outside the exhibit hall and we would go to Champions from there. Mostly, it worked fine, but here's the problem. Ken and Rick were joining us at the most convenient dining spot after all the exhibitors were released from their cages in the exhibit hall. All at the same time. So, even when we switched over to Red Dragon, there was no way we were getting a table and moving on before the Aqua Teen game that Mike and I had coming up at seven. So, sadly, we had to bow out on what looked to be a fun dinner and go on to our game. I can lead my people to the Promised Land, but I must not enter.
A group of boardgamers had settled on our table, apparently having been told that it was an open gaming location, but they were very polite and even apologetic, so that was no big deal. Then a strange cult of uniformly tee-shirted gamers asked us to switch tables so they could all be together, which was fine as well. We got started with a much smaller group than before, featuring only Carl, Shake, and Frylock, with Meatwad as an NPC. Mike played Carl. With less frantic player activity, I had to provide a bit more plot to keep this one moving along. Instead of re-building the fish-bot to fly to Antarctica, Frylock invented a matter-transmitter which, of course, left them no way to get home after confronting MC Pee-Pants (reincarnated as an Elder Thing wearing a diaper). Another player showed up really really late and took over the Meatwad role. It got a bit of a slow start and it was never quite as insane as the first one, but it did evolve into lots of hilariously surreal Aqua Teen fun.
Tom was off on his own doing something for the rest of the night, so Mike and I found some comfy chairs with a table in the hallway and tried out his newly purchased card game, Timelines. Or Timestream. Or something like that. It was a fun game, and it's just so totally Gen Con to be out in some random convention hall nook playing a game you had never heard of until that day.
Saturday's first game was at nine in the morning. Crazy, I know. I was almost on time, greeted by a table full of Aqua Teen fans who weren't going to give up that easily. They were funny in their own right, but not as dead-on with the Aqua Teen style as the others had been. Still, Shake tried to become a heavy metal rock star named Ingmar and Carl was used as a human landing cushion by Travis, only to be re-built by Frylock with mechanical penguin parts. Everyone but Frylock and Meatwad died when they brought down the mountain and ignored it.
My next game was at two, so I found Mike and we did some more shopping. I bought Eclipse Phase (I want it on record that I saw it and thought it looked cool before I knew about the awards) and we joined Tom at Acapulco Joe's, which is a bit of a hike from the convention center but, hey, it's pretty good Mexican. Tom regaled us with the story of how some twit in his game was not only surprised but actually outraged when his Call of Cthulhu character died. It's a horror game. What else is gonna happen?
Stuffed, we waddled back to the convention center (the long hike not seeming like such a bad idea anymore) to get our next events going. Tom had his Wrestlers vs. Dracula, Mike was off to try and get into a Star Wars Saga game, and I had another True20 Caves of Chaos session. This team stealthily avoided the pyramid heads and staged a pretty clever ambush to nab the high priest so they could interrogate him. One of them did walk right into my bee guns, though, and got stung to the point of incapacitation. Yay, bee guns! Neither this group nor the other one did much with my sub-plots, though. I suppose that's to be expected.
We were occasionally interrupted by the joyous war-whoops of the unruly mob next to us, which turned out to be Tom's wrestlers. I watched a bit of the end. Tom would later downplay his own performance on several occasions, but I saw him brilliantly hamming up the announcer role, surrounded by guys who were having (and making) a resounding blast.
Tom and I hooked up with Mike (who had succeeded in getting to play Star Wars), Jordan, Monk, and Kelly at the Level One bar. Kelly seemed to be enjoying her first Gen Con, mostly engaging in dark Victorian fairy-centric games, which is not surprising because Monk loves that stuff. Monk & Kelly had other things to do, so Tom, Jordan, Mike, and I popped over to Champions.
While we were having dinner, Tom got a call from Todd Rooks, a friend and fellow Gen Con aficionado. He plays in a group that meets at Gen Con for a once-a-year ongoing dungeon crawl campaign called the Short Nine. The name comes from the fact that all the player characters are dwarves, halflings, and gnomes. Thankfully, I didn't get a dwarf. I hate the dwarves in fantasy games. I think they were experimenting with 4E D&D last year, but this year it looked like pretty much straight Pathfinder.
Anyway, they had a couple of open slots, so Mike and I jumped right on that and joined in for a great game that ran well after midnight. Mike's chipmunk-voice singing (he played a bard) and a few lucky contributions on my part apparently distinguished us enough to earn us entry into next year's game, "The Short Nine Plus One" (my character had been an NPC rescued by the original gang prior to my joining, and Mike's had been played by someone else).
Having totally played through my scheduled midnight game without realizing it, I was pretty much done for the night. Tom suggested that Mike and I take a cab back because he wanted to walk, believing that this would somehow help his aching ear. Although his walk took a detour through the new Scotty's Brewhouse (which I never got around to visiting), he eventually made it home.
Ah, Sunday. Generally pleasant, but in a bittersweet way. All my GM'ing events were done, so I had only a visit to Tom's Rat Pack Cthulhu game (Fly Me to the Moon, this year) and a final round of shopping on my agenda. I was thrilled to see that the guy who had so brilliantly portrayed Frank in the original Rat Pack Cthulhu event was back for another performance. We split up to drop off our collected event tickets and scour the exhibit hall on our own. I picked up a Star Wars book (the Saga Edition sourcebook for Rebellion Era campaigns), a shirt that says "strike him down and take his place at my side," and a copy of that "who's a werewolf" party game (called something else officially, but I can't remember). Tom got some Stackpole novels, a Delta Green book, and maybe some other Flying Buffalo stuff. Mike picked up a shirt for Amy, some miniatures, and maybe some more Star Wars books. I saw YogPaul, who was entangled with a vendor, and we lamented never getting a chance to hang out. Guess where the rest of us met up for the after-party.
Back at Champions, we got a back room for myself, Tom, Mike, Monk, Kelly, and our new friend Diogo from Brazil. We toasted New Khazan and Gen Con and new friends. Mike left early because he had a longer drive home. Not too long after, the rest of us took off as well. I spent most of the trip home reading Eclipse Phase. It's such an intricate world that I'm reading it pretty much straight through like a novel, and I haven't even gotten to the rules yet. It's an amazing setting, though. Can't wait to read more.
I'm thinking it would be easier to just do one scenario every time for next year's Gen Con, but it's hard to rule out so many other ideas. I want to do another True20 one with the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (or maybe Tharizdun) instead of the Caves of Chaos and of course there has to be an Aqua Teen sequel. I'm thinking, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and the Book of Beards, centering on the discovery of the long lost mythos tome, Les Barbes Bizarre. Maybe I'll just end up doing two again. And maybe something else will captivate me between now and registration time.
When we got home, I found this picture in my email box:
For an alternative (don't believe his lies) perspective on the event, check out Tom's blog.
For previous Gen Con posts, click here.
Labels: AquaTeens, cons, Convention Log, ConventionLog, DungeonsNDragons, GenCon, GenConLogs, Michael, travel
Einstein Will Burn Your Bible
House Condemned
Edmund Fitzgerald Mural
Extracting Milo
The Short Nine
Later Doctors
Classic Doctors
Heavy Metal Shake
Cardhalla
Sitting On The Porch
Phone Killers
Gen Con Street
Train Hall
Insert Eye Joke Here
Gentlemen, Behold!
Getting Closer
Quick Pit Stop

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


When we look at the adaptation of myth and legend imported from other cultures into Japan, we generally find such filtered through indigenous values and practices which have very old cultural roots. In modern times, as in old, it is difficult to find much of anything imported into Japanese life which is not filtered through such values and practices. [Please see Renshaw and Ihara (in press) for a more detailed discussion of underlying Japanese values and historical purposes].
Perhaps one of the best examples of adaptation of infused star lore is the story of Orihime and Kengyuu (Nojiri, 1973). This legend was probably imported from China in the Heian Era (794-1185), and its associated Tanabata Festival has developed through the centuries. The story involves the stars of Vega and Altair and their apparent proximity to the Milky Way.
Members of royalty were, of course, associated with the heavens; Tentei (the emperor) being centered at the North Pole. One day, the emperor's daughter, Orihime, was sitting beside the river of heaven (Milky Way). She had been weaving because her father, the emperor loved the beautiful clothes that she made. On this particular day, she was very sad because she realized that she had been so busy that she didn't have time to fall in love. Her father, Tentei, the ruler of the heavens, felt sorry for her and arranged a marriage with Kengyuu (who lived across the river, the Milky Way). Their marriage was one of sweetness and happiness from the start; and everyday thereafter they grew happier and happier. But Tentei became very angry, because in spending so much time in her happy marriage, Orihime was neglecting her weaving. Tentei decided to separate the couple, so he placed them back in their original places, separated by the Milky Way. On only one night of the year would he allow them to meet, the 7th day of the 7th month. Every year on that day, from the mouth of the river (the Milky Way), the boatman (of the moon) comes to ferry Orihime over to her beloved Kengyuu. But if Orihime has not done her weaving to the best of her skills and ability, Tentei may make it rain. When it rains, the boatman will not come (because the river is flooded). However, in such a case, Kasasagi (a group of magpies) may still fly to the Milky Way to make a bridge for Orihime to cross.
Related to this legend, ancient Japanese celebrated the festival of Tanabata on the 7th day of the 7th month each year (lunar calendar). The 7th day of the 7th month generally falls in August or September in the Gregorian calendar. At this time of year, of course, the constellations of Lyra and Aquila are prominent in the evening sky with their major stars (Vega and Altair) separated by the Milky Way. The 7th day of the 7th month also, of course, finds a waxing crescent moon reaching its first quarter. If it is not raining, both Orihime Boshi (Vega) and Kengyuu (Altair) are quite conspicuous at the time of the Tanabata festival.
Tanabata may be translated as "weaving with the loom (bata) placed on the shelf (tana)", and the festival celebrates improvement of technical skill and ability. As in China, ancient Japanese added specific values to their wishes that Orihime hone her skills and work hard so that she could meet Kengyuu. In modern celebrations of Tanabata, people throughout Japan write wishes (generally for themselves or relatives) to the kami (deity) Orihime on colorful strips of paper. On the evening of Tanabata, they tie these paper wishes to freshly cut bamboo. Wishes may be for increased skills in work or school (reflecting specific vitalistic and optimistic values) but may also be for anything that reflects a person's dreams and hopes for the future. Summer vegetables such as eggplant and cucumbers are prepared, and horse or cow figures made out of straw and water oats are decorated. While the myth probably held seasonal significance in its Chinese origins, specifically the celebration of the end of the rainy season (reflected in a desire that it not rain), it found a variety of interpretations related to seasonality in its Japanese form. Particularly in relation to agricultural development in Japan, "wishes" related to celebrations of Tanabata ranged from desire for dry weather to desire for wet weather depending on the particular geographic region and whether a crop was to be planted or harvested at this time.
Following Shinto practice and ancient values, the concept of purification (generally including use of water) before the Bon festival (centered on the 15th day of the 7th month) was also added to the Tanabata festival. Before the legend was brought from China, a ritualistic festival had been held to welcome the water kami at this time of year; infusion of the legend of Orihime and Kengyuu added a motif of the ritual celebration of the marriage of a weaving lady and the water god (Okada and Akune, 1993). In eastern parts of Japan, an associated ritual called Nebuta was celebrated. On the early morning of Tanabata, bamboo would be set afloat in the river, and people would brush their bodies with leaves from "silk" trees. By doing so, they were said to take their sleepiness (nebuta) away, another form of purification and preparation for Bon (Yoshinari, 1996). The close relation of Tanabata to the indigenous Bon Festival has obviously led to a number of adaptations of the imported Chinese mythology. In short, one makes the coming of the Bon festival sacred by excluding impure spirits from the body at the first quarter moon, thus being pure for the coming of Bon at full moon. It is interesting that in some regions of Japan, Tanabata is accompanied by a taboo forbidding swimming or bathing in a river. Noting the relation with the celestial "river" or milky way, the taboo is based on the idea that a Kappa or water deity resides in the river, and one should not make the pure water dirty by entering the water deity's home.
When it was first recognized in Japan, Tanabata was celebrated only by imperial court officials. It was considered a graceful event, full of the simple elegance so associated with the Heian era of Japan. Lanterns were lighted, and poems were written on mulberry leaves still holding their dew (Nojiri, 1973). Of course, as the custom spread to local areas, towns became covered with bamboo at Tanabata, and the festival took on more of the values inherent in Japanese consciousness and purpose.
The general astronomical phenomena and seasonality associated with this myth are similar in China and Japan. However, there is one particular aspect mentioned in Hara's account above which does not seem to appear in versions of the Asian continent and may have arisen in Japan following its Heian Era introduction. This is the reference to the "boatman of the moon" coming from the "mouth of the Milky Way". This probably refers to the 1st quarter moon being in the sky at the same time the two lovers are anxiously waiting. Having been a waxing crescent, its "poetic" association with a boat would seem obvious. But what about the moon's position relative to the "mouth of the Milky Way"? Simulating more ancient times and accounting for precession, the 7th day of the 7th month would generally place the 1st quarter moon quite close to the Milky Way (Scorpio/Ophiuchus region) and also, of course, at a quite southern point on the ecliptic. Perhaps observing from the view of ancients, one can conceive the southern part of the Milky Way being considered the "mouth" of the river and the boatman of the moon approaching his entrance there on successive nights up to the night of Tanabata. Such a position would seem to coincide with that era in which the legend was imported into Japan. Note that in more modern times, the 1st quarter moon of Tanabata tends to be in the Libra/Virgo area, somewhat shifted from the river over the centuries. Of course, the Milky Way would be difficult to see in the glare of the 1st quarter moon on the night of Tanabata, and this may have its own implications for the myth.
The process of adapting this imported legend and developing indigenous practices evolved in complex ways over the centuries, and we have touched on but a bit of this complexity. In modern times, the festival is generally celebrated on a solar July 7th, a date that is generally still within the rainy season. Sadly, the festival has lost much of its seasonal significance with modern industrialization. Of course, the vitalistic ethic of improved work and skill is still valued, regardless of whether or not the day of celebration is attuned astronomically.
Hara, M. (1975) Seiza no Shinwa (Mythology of the Constellations). Tokyo: Kouseisha Co. Ltd..
Kawahara, Ikuo (1995) Hoshi Zora no Hanashi (Stories of the Starry Sky). Chijin Shokan Pub. Co.
Krupp, E.C. (1991) Beyond the Blue Horizon; Myths and Legends of the Sun, Moon, Stars, and Planets. New York: Oxford University Press.
Nojiri, H. (1973) Nihon Seimei Jiten (Dictionary of Star Names in Japan). Tokyo: Tokyo Do Shuppan.
Nojiri, H. (1982) Nihon no Seimei (Japanese Star Names). In Seiza (Constellations), Nojiri, H., ed. Tokyo: Koseisha Koseikaku.
Okada, Y. and S. Akune (1993) Gendai Koyomi Yomikaki Jiten (Modern Calendar Dictionary). Tokyo: Kashiwa Shoubou.
Renshaw, S.L. and S. Ihara. (in press) Archaeoastronomy and Astronomy in Culture in Japan; Paving the Way to Interdisciplinary Study. In Archaeoastronomy Volume 14. University of Texas Press.
Renshaw, S.L. and S. Ihara (in press) A Cultural History of Astronomy in Japan. In Astronomy Across Cultures: A History of Non-Western Astronomy. Dordrecht, Netherlands, Kluwer Academic Pub.
Shinmura, I. ed. (1994) Koujien (Japanese Etymological Dictionary). Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.
Yoshinari, N. (1996) Zokushin no Cosmology (Cosmology of Folk Beliefs). Tokyo: Hakusui Sha.


ESL Shipping has signed two vessel financing agreements with OP Corporate Bank Plc to finance its two LNG-fuelled Handysize dry bulk carrier newbuildings.
The total value of the agreements is €50 million, and the loan period is seven years. The repayment schedule includes a grace period of three years and a payback profile of 12 years. The new agreements extend the average maturity of Aspo Group's financing and, on their part, reduce the average financing rate.
In 2015, ESL Shipping launched a significant investment of approximately €60 million in the two new vessels, which the company claims will be the first LNG-fuelled Handysize dry bulk carriers in the world. The vessels will be completed in China during 2018.
The new vessels will operate in the northern Baltic Sea, improving the efficiency of the transportation chain and reducing the environmental load of operations.
ESL Shipping will receive up to €5.9 million from the EU, of which €2.1 million will be paid this year. The EU funding has been awarded from the Connecting Europe Facility for Transport instrument.
ESL Shipping expects its net sales to grow and its operating profit to increase to a level of 20 - 24% by 2020. In 2015, its operating profit rate was approximately 19%.


But with Continued Conversation, Home will immediately start listening again after each command you give, making it easier to string together multiple commands or questions. It can be about anything: the weather, your calendar appointments, or a smart home command. I have the latest updates on my home app and google home mini. Use the images below for help if you get lost along the way. It should works technically, right? With continued conversation, Google Assistant will supposedly be smart enough to only respond if you continue to talk to it, as opposed to someone else in the room. Worse, speakers within earshot of one another started responding to each other, which was kind of hilarious. However, I can see the 4 white lights on after I sent a command.
My mini answers my question or command and then stops listening like always. E-mail him at askmarcsaltzman gmail. Continued Conversation worked for one week in early July, then stopped. When you submit a report, we'll investigate it and take the appropriate action. Follow him on Twitter chuckmartin and contact him at Chuck MediaPost. I even rebooted the Home and after that didn't work, toggled the option off and back on.
Does anyone have an answer yet. What's odd is, it use to work on all of them at one point and out of nowhere, stopped working on the 3rd party speakers. Want to entertain the kids? Update July 01 : Google is asking those affected to share feedback presumably to get a better held on the issue. As of now, Continued Conversations is rolling out to all Google Home devices including Home Mini and Home Max. The feature is also smart—Google designed it to be able to tell the difference between new commands and casual conversation. Update July 30 : Still the same.
But, after my next command, it turns of. If you own a Roomba, you can now initiate the vacuum cleaner using your voice. To see which devices this setting applies to, tap Menu More settings Preferences Continued Conversation. Google takes abuse of its services very seriously. Did you know you can create custom shortcuts for long phrases you commonly ask? We'll get back to you only if we require additional details or have more information to share. I found out continued conversation works if Google isn't playing anything ex.
Alexa can't respond to multiple commands in the same sentence for now, but she does have a , which is functionally the same as continued conversation. I rebooted back to the factory settings and nothing. However, I can see the 4 white lights on after I sent a command. My mini answers my question or command and then stops listening like always. It has no any response after I sent the 2nd command and just turned off the 4 white lights. Rebooting and turning that feature off and back on do not help. So when Google introduced continuous conversations to the Google Assistant, it was like they unlocked a real personality.
PiunikaWeb is a unique initiative that focuses on investigative journalism. The Google Home team are aware of this and currently investigating. While there is still some time before we might get to see the former in reality, it is the Continued Conversations feature which is now being rolled out to Google Home devices in the United States. Multiple actions is coming to both phones and Home speakers. It's not a mandatory update, so don't fret if you don't want your smart speaker to continue listening after your initial command. When looking in activity the follow on question showed as 'Unknown voice command'. The two companies have been in a back-and-forth feature battle as they vie for the growing smart speaker market.
If you would like an immediate fix please follow the directions to. Learn more about how and how our. Have 4 Insignia-brand speakers with Google Assistant. I've tried all of the above to no avail. No notification or indication in the Google home app. Below that will be all the Google Home devices connected to your account that has access to this particular feature.
Google will sing for you, too! Note: While I had success using this feature on all three of the Google Home speakers, the , which comes with Google Assistant baked in, stopped working after the first round of continuous conversations. Google Home has a Magic 8-ball, of sorts. I do not have the Google continued conversations toggle available to me. I couldn't figure it out. You can ask Assistant trivia questions, check the weather, update your calendar, control compatible devices and more. Go to the to request content changes for legal reasons. Tremendously obscene or malicious statements may be removed without explanation.
It seemed to work okay, at first. I thought it working but no. Choose Settings from this menu. A quick glance at the following user comments will give you a better picture of the glitchy behavior: I checked several times today to see if I had the option to turn on continuous conversation, and this afternoon the option had finally appeared. I've tried every conceivable fix, reboots, reinstallations, changing settings-- nada, zilch, bupkis. Answering two questions at once is actually a separate feature called multiple actions.


Cutting ceramic tile on the machine.
Saw Cutting Tiles Machine. Cutting Tiles Machine. Cutting Tiles Cutting Tile-saw Half-saw Working-saw Worker Hand Cutting Ceramic Tile With Water Cutting Machine Close-up. Saw Cutting Ceramic Tile Manual Ceramic Cutting Machine Worker Cut Ceramic Tile Machine Tile Cutter Cutting Cutting Tiles Machine.


text:
Q: ImageDataGenerator - trained with model.fit instead of model.fit_generator I am a beginner in using the ImageDataGenerator from Keras and I accidentally used model.fit instead of model.fit_generator.
train_gen = gen_Image_data()
test_gen = ImageDataGenerator()
train_samples = train_gen.flow(X,y, batch_size=64)
test_samples = test_gen.flow(X_val, y_val, batch_size=64)
history = model.fit(train_samples, steps_per_epoch = np.ceil(len(X)/64),
                  validation_data=(test_samples),
                  validation_steps=np.ceil(len(X_val)/64),
                  epochs=300, verbose=1, callbacks=[es])

Is that a glaring mistake, do I have to re-train everything with fit_generator?
Thanks for every help
Update I have forgotten the code for gen_Image_data()
def gen_Image_data():
   gen = ImageDataGenerator(
         width_shift_range=0.1,
         horizontal_flip=True)
   return gen

A: You don't have bother re-training the model, because model.fit method supports generators as well and also model.fit_generator is subsumed by model.fit method!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


BSc, MSc, DIC, CMEngNZ, CPEng, IntPE(NZ)Andreas has worked for over 19 years on numerous large scale civil infrastructure, commercial and residential projects in New Zealand and Greece.
His consultancy work includes advising on realistic, practical solutions to often problematic ground conditions and the interactions of soils, foundations and structures. He has successfully led and managed teams for notable projects such as the Kawarau Falls Bridge (NZTA), the Egnatia Odos and Patra-Athens-Thessalonika Highway (EYDE-PATHE) in Greece, and numerous individual projects for the Canterbury and Kaikoura earthquake recovery programmes.
Andreas has published several papers on liquefaction susceptibility and ground reinforcement for soils susceptible to liquefaction. He actively participates at a technical and delivery level and in recent years is increasingly involved in forensic and legal work to provide timely, smart designs, applying innovation, intelligent risk and ingenuity on every possible aspect for our clients.


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Francisco Engracio Rizal Mercado y Alejandro (May 11, 1818 – January 5, 1898) was the father of the Philippines' national hero Jose Rizal. He was born in Biñan, Laguna. He had a wife named Teodora Realonda y Quintos and had 11 children altogether.

Early life
He was one of the children of Juan Monica Mercado and Cirila Alejandro. His family had adopted the additional surnames of Rizal in 1849, after Governor General Narciso Clavería y Zaldúa decreed the adoption of Spanish surnames among the Filipinos for census purposes (though they already had Spanish names).

Like many families in the Philippines, the Rizals were of mestizo origin. Francisco's patrilineal lineage could be traced to Fujian in China through his father's ancestor Lam-Co, a Hokkien Chinese merchant who immigrated to the Philippines in the late 17th century. Lam-Co traveled to Manila from Xiamen, China, possibly to avoid the famine or plague in his home district, and more probably to escape the Manchu invasion during the Transition from Ming to Qing. He decided to stay in the islands as a farmer. In 1697, to escape the bitter anti-Chinese prejudice that existed in the Philippines, he converted to Catholicism, changed his name to Domingo Mercado and married the daughter of Chinese friend Augustin Chin-co.

Francisco Rizal was only eight years old when his father died. He attended a Latin school in Biñan, which his sons would later attend. He also attended the Colegio de San Jose in Manila, where he studied Latin and philosophy. He was described by Rafael Palma: "He was 40, of solid shoulders, strong constitution, rather tall than short, of serious and reflective mien, with prominent forehead and large dark eyes. A pure Filipino."

Personal life
Francisco married Teodora Alonso on June 28, 1848, when he was 30 years old. The couple resided in Laguna, particularly in Calamba and built a business in agriculture.

References

1818 births
1898 deaths
People from Biñan
José Rizal

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Tumisu / Pixabay
An Ill-Conceived Restriction on Gun Advertising
Allen Rostron
Edited by: Kenneth Hall
JURIST contributing editor Allen Rostron of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law discusses a recent federal court decision striking down a California law that prohibits handguns from being mentioned or shown on signs outside gun stores…
People like me, who believe we should have tighter regulation of firearms, like to use the word "reasonable." We support reasonable gun control measures, steps that would preserve gun rights but keep guns out of the wrong hands and reduce the risk of harm from improper use of firearms.
Those who support reasonable gun control must be willing to acknowledge when restrictions on guns are unreasonable. Given the bitterness of the national debate over guns, it could be easy to slip into the trap of thinking that anything the other side condemns must be worth supporting, so any law challenged by gun rights advocates must be defended. But that is not the case, and a good example can be found in a recent decision about California's law prohibiting gun stores from having signs that mention handguns or contain images of handguns.
The law, found in § 26820 of California's Penal Code, states that "No handgun or imitation handgun, or placard advertising the sale or other transfer thereof, shall be displayed in any part of the premises where it can readily be seen from the outside." In other words, a California gun store cannot have an exterior sign or window display that shows or mentions a handgun.
Several gun dealers brought a lawsuit challenging the law, after California's Bureau of Firearms issued citations to them for violating it. One of the stores had a metal sign shaped like a revolver on a post in its parking lot, one had the outline of a revolver on a sign outside the store, and one had covered its windows with vinyl decals that depicted handguns.
A federal judge in the Eastern District of California recently ruled in the gun dealers' favor, in Tracy Rifle and Pistol LLC v. Harris, striking down the law on the ground that it violates freedom of speech. The judge recognized that selling handguns is a lawful activity, and there was nothing false or misleading about the stores' advertising signs or displays. As a result, the state could justify its restriction on the dealers' commercial expression only if it showed that the law directly advanced a substantial government interest. In the judge's view, the state fell short of making the required showing.
At first blush, one might be tempted to think this statute is the product of some sort of anti-gun fervor in California's liberal legislature. In fact, the provision is nearly a century old, and history reveals that it was enacted by Republicans at the behest of firearm enthusiasts.
The provision was enacted in 1923, at a time when Republicans dominated California politics. It was part of a model statute produced and promoted by the United States Revolver Association and later adopted as the Uniform Firearms Act by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State laws. The lead drafter of the model statute was Karl Frederick, a former Olympic gold medalist in pistol shooting and a future president of the National Rifle Association. Frederick and other gun advocates disliked the Sullivan Act, a New York law that required licenses for possession of handguns. Hoping to dissuade other states from following New York's lead, the Revolver Association put the focus of its model law on enhancing punishments for criminal use of handguns. It also provided for some regulation of gun dealers, including restrictions on advertising of handguns.
When California enacted the Revolver Association's model law, no one had much reason to be concerned about the First Amendment implications of the law's advertising restraints. Commercial speech received no constitutional protection at that time (and in any event, the First Amendment had not yet been incorporated so that it would apply to state laws).
In recent decades, the Supreme Court has struggled to decide how much constitutional protection should be given to commercial speech, but at the very least a mild form of intermediate scrutiny applies and requires a government to have a plausible explanation for how the restriction could serve an important interest.
The California statute imposes a narrow restriction, prohibiting only exterior signs or other displays that mention or depict handguns. But the limited nature of the restriction makes it hard to see what purpose it serves. As the judge in the Tracy Rifle case observed, the California law would allow a store to have an enormous neon sign that says "GUNS GUNS GUNS" or giant pictures of rifles and shotguns. Moreover, it would allow a gun store to advertise handguns in all sorts of other ways, like blanketing a town with leaflets, putting up billboards everywhere except on the store's premises, or running a stream of radio and television ads about handguns. It is difficult to know what can be accomplished by such a limited and selective restriction on one type of advertising of certain types of firearms.
The lawyers defending California's law focused on the risk of suicides being committed with handguns. They argued that people passing by a gun store and seeing a sign advertising handguns might be more likely to make a sudden, impulsive decision to go in and buy a handgun. The possession of the handgun then might increase the risk of suicide.
Suicide is a serious problem and researchers have found strong evidence that widespread, easy access to firearms significantly contributes to this risk. The majority of firearm suicides involve handguns. Taking steps to reduce the likelihood of guns being used in suicides certainly makes sense. For example, California requires gun purchasers to wait ten days before obtaining the weapon. Researchers have found that waiting period laws like this are associated with lower suicide rates.
If California carefully studied the effects of firearm advertising and came up with specific regulations well tailored to reducing risks of firearm misuse, courts should give substantial deference to such a thoughtful and reasoned attempt to address a serious public health problem. The California statute struck down in the Tracy Rifle case is not such a law. It was drafted at a time when no one thought the Constitution protected commercial speech, it was intended to put some minimal regulations on gun businesses in order to discourage enactment of more significant gun control measures, and it drew a remarkably arbitrary line as to what could be put on signs or other displays at California gun shops. The court was right to strike it down, even though a more comprehensive and carefully considered regulation of gun advertising might pass constitutional muster.
Allen Rostron is Associate Dean for Students and the William R. Jacques Constitutional Law Scholar and Professor of Law at the University of Missouri—Kansas City School of Law and a former senior staff attorney for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
Suggested citation: Allen Rostron, An Ill-Conceived Restriction on Gun Advertising, JURIST – Academic Commentary, September 19, 2018, http://jurist.org/forum/2018/09/allen-Rostron-gun-advertisting.php
This article was prepared for publication by Kenneth Hall, a JURIST Assistant Editor. Please direct any questions or comments to him at commentary@jurist.org
Opinions expressed in JURIST Commentary are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JURIST's editors, staff, donors or the University of Pittsburgh.


text:
Emre Tunçalp
Neighbourhood in Transition
Turkey Europe Future Forum
Emre Tunçalp is part of a network of young Turkish and European leaders from all sectors who come together once a year to engage in intensive dialogue and to share views and ideas about topical social issues. The Turkey Europe Future Forum takes place alternately in Turkey and Germany, as well as in other European countries.
Emre Tunçalp is a London-based senior associate at the global risk consultancy Stroz Friedberg, where he advises investors on country-specific political, security, regulatory, and reputational risks in emerging markets. Prior to joining Stroz Friedberg, Emre worked at a Washington, DC-based risk advisory firm. A committed transatlanticist, Emre was part of the Emerging Leaders Working Group established by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and is a member of the Atlantic Council and Ecologic Institute's Emerging Leaders in Energy and Environmental Policy (ELEEP) Network. Emre is a frequent public commentator on emerging markets, and the energy industry; and made television and print appearances on different media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Reuters, Foreign Policy, and Bloomberg. Emre holds an MA in International Relations and International Economics from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, DC, and a BA in Political and Social Sciences from Sabanci University in Istanbul.


What's your favorite part of the workday? Paperwork, right?
A study in the Annals of Family Medicine showed that physicians are spending more than half of an 11+ hour workday on data entry and other EMR-related tasks. Nearly six hours per day in an EMR? That's enough to burn anyone out, especially when there's a whole other job to be done.
What does all this mean for healthcare? For starters, it means that physicians are being run ragged and their life satisfaction is falling. The massive workload placed on them increases errors while diminishing productivity. When physicians are dissatisfied, quality of care can suffer.
While this is obviously a threat, more and more physicians are considering the alternative to this work: quitting it. More than a quarter of doctors believe they'll likely leave their practice within two years and almost two percent say they'll leave the medical field altogether. With a shortage of up to 100,000 physicians looming by 2030 according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the time to act on physician life satisfaction is now.
So what can we do to alleviate some of these concerns and get physicians concentrating on what they got their medical degree for?
The American Medical Association suggested the presence of what they call a "reset room." Stressful or traumatic events hasten the pace of burnout and offering physicians a place to decompress is a great way to get them back on track for the rest of the day.
Automation is another great solution. Reuters reports that groups such as Atrius Health are adding goals to divert unnecessary emails away from doctors in order to reduce over a million mouse clicks per year, keeping their doctors focused on more important tasks.
At Extract, the goal isn't necessarily reducing clicks, but it is certainly time, effort, and accuracy. We believe that physicians and their staff shouldn't have to pour over faxed lab results and other documentation to update an EMR. That's why we empower your staff (or ours!) to have the fastest verification process possible. Autopopulated verification data, simple UIs, and more ensure your staff is focused on patient care, and not time-wasting, cumbersome data entry.
Newer PostAre Your Patients Completing Their Own Medical Forms?
Older PostAre You In Compliance With HIPAA Regulations?


text:
Cixius citrina är en insektsart som beskrevs av Walker 1858. Cixius citrina ingår i släktet Cixius och familjen kilstritar. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Kilstritar
citrina


In 2004 three ladies searching for their purpose in life began the ministry at East known as Compassion in Action (CIA). Each week, hundreds of people are affected by the CIA. Members salvage teapots, vases, and other pretty containers from flea markets and rummage sales to serve a new purpose -- brightening the day of people who are sick, disheartened, or grieving. Each week, they take fresh flowers, homemade goodies, cards, smiles, and prayers into the homes of those who need them most.
Many families received food during their time grief.
Teapot (Visitation) Ministry Meets as a group on Monday mornings at 10 a.m. to take fresh flowers, home-baked cookies, and pray for those who need encouragement, and support.
Card Ministry Write cards to people needing encouragement.
Senior Saints Ministry Meets every Monday morning at 10 a.m. to join residents at The Woodlands Nursing Home to sing praises to God with those that are unable to attend worship services at churches.
Bereavement Ministry Prepare home-cooked food for families who have lost loved ones.
Prayer Ministry Faithful CIA members are praying in our prayer chapel while CIA members make visits or sing at the nursing home.
New Baby Ministry Gifted CIA members make homemade blankets or items for the newborn babies in our church.
Caregiver Ministry CIA members check on the caregivers, and ask for ways that they can help support them as they care for their loved ones.
The future of the CIA Ministry? The answer can be found in the youth that have blessed so many people by joining with us in this ministry. When not in school, many of them sing at the nursing home, arrange flowers for visitation, some help us organize the cookies and flowers and others go with us to visit people. This group of young people is already prepared to take over this ministry—they just need to be old enough to drive!!!
Because of the support of so many people throughout the parish, the CIA Ministry has never been a part of the church budget. We thank each of those individuals who has contributed to this ministry over the past 14 years.
Contact Dianne Stratton at (337) 238-4218, Linda Perkins at (337) 238-1148, or Ann Massie at (337) 239-6236 or simply call the church office (337) 239-3733 for more information.


There are many considerations taken into account when assessing and installing a stove or burner of any kind. Our experience has taught us that a detailed site survey is essential to ensure the safe operation, and for the best possible stove for your particular needs to be installed. This we provide on a complimentary basis.
Chimneycure are able to source and install multi fuel and wood burning stoves from all the leading manufactures at heavily discounted prices. Be it traditional or contemporary, farmhouse or townhouse, large or small the options are endless and all tastes are catered for. Being impartial and not involved in sales, we are not bias to any stove manufacturer and, as a result, we feel we can give sound and experienced-based knowledge on suitability.
If you live in a smoke control area we can recommend stoves which are DEFRA exempt, which means these appliances, can be used in these restricted areas when smokeless fuels or wood are being burnt.
If you already have a stove which you want installed we can also do that for you too. And of course when you're having your new stove installed it's an ideal opportunity to have the condition of your chimney checked and, if necessary repaired or relined to the correct size for your particular appliance, ensuring that it's working to its peak efficiency.
Chimneycure are also HETAS registered to maintain and service solid fuel appliances. We are competent to replace components such as rope seals, glass door panels and firebricks when required. We can also make sure that the appliance is operating efficiently and ensure that it is safe for you and your family.
The cost is kept to a minimum as we have little overheads compared to large shop based companies.


I would like to know if its permissible to read Salah while wearing a jersey with the puma brand logo?
1. Why do I have to obey my husband at all times? ...especially if he doesn't have to listen to me. How is this fair? Why is what he wants the bottom line?
I would like to know the right way of doing Hijab in the light of Quran and Hadith as how our Muslim women should cover their body?
Q: I would like to know the right way of doing Hijab in the light of Quran and Hadith as how our Muslim women should cover their body?
Q: Is it allowed to wear abayas with stones and embroidery fixed onto it? If it is allowed, up to what extent can it be adorned?
Can I wear a bellyring?


text:
Welcome to Manchester Confidential
Can't Get Enough Of
Property & Business
Sleuth
ARCHITECTURE: Pooley's Houses, Hussars And Balls
Jonathan Schofield's, the good, the standard, the ugly of MCR architecture
The Good, The Standard, The Ugly: City Tower
Jonathan Schofield adores a reinvented blast of sixties optimism
The Good, The Average And The Ugly: Lumpy Concrete Art
Jonathan Schofield goes concrete caressing in the city and finds brutal beautiful
ARCHITECTURE: North Tower/Highland House
Jonathan Schofield's The Good, The Standard, The Ugly
EXAMINED: Does The New Whitworth Art Gallery Work?
Phil Griffin enjoys a loving embrace on Oxford Road
The Good, The Standard, The Ugly: Mechanics' Institute
Jonathan Schofield, The End of History, Marxists, TUC and a quite splendid building
You are here: Manchester Confidential › Culture › Architecture.
William Blake at the Whitworth Art Gallery
Anna Henderson takes a trip to Blake's Shadow and enjoys it, with a few reservations
Published on February 25th 2008.
Everybody loves William Blake.
For the Arts and Crafts Movement, he was a bridge between the fine and the applied arts. The Pre-Raphaelites drew inspiration from his use of colour, space and the human form. Patti Smith saw him as mystical seer and anti-establishment activist. 'Because the Night' you might say.
In the words of Walter Crane: 'Blake is distinct and stands alone.'
Blake's Shadow traces Blake's influence on the art from the eighteenth century until today, presenting us with the thoughts, words and images of the artist, but also those of his devotees past and present. There's a lot of useful background – on some of the most important works, such as the intense and touching Songs of Innocence and Experience.
Nothing, however, on the ironies of how his best-known legacy, the poem Jerusalem, adapted for music by Charles Parry, has been neutralised through over-use: darling of the Proms, hand-picked for royal weddings, lauded as alternative national anthem, embraced as school song. On the afternoon I visited, the curator reminded us also of England Rugby Union's flirtation, and, with a nice-but-dim Radio 4 nod to pop culture, told us about the poem's rendition by 'a very strange band called The Fall'. Bless.
And here's the danger of an exhibition that sees an artist as much through other peoples eyes as his own. Arguing for greatness through the weight of approval of others can distract us from the main event and main personality.
Despite this, most of the comparative exhibits work well, demonstrating just how strangely different and distinctive Blake is. The Pre-Raphaelites are overcomplicated and dated beside his pared-down simplicity; Eduardo Paolozzi's chunky little bronze Newton can't divide space and line as effectively as Blake's Newton. Only Anish Kapoor's aquatint series Blackness from her Womb has the dark lonely majesty of Blake's universe.
There is also a corner of the exhibition devoted to pop culture tie-ins including an interview with Patti Smith, the chance to listen to four different versions of Jerusalem, and a clip of Gus Van Sant's Last Days (2004) with its half-Blake, half-Kurt Cobain central figure. But could there also be something to say about the links between Blake's experiments in integrating word and image and graphic novels or comic artwork?Throughout Blake's work, a beared figure repeats. Urizen, at his most striking as the exhibition's poster-boy in The Ancient of Days, embodied for Blake the way in which man's divine spirit is held back by 'mind-forged manacles'. He's an ambiguous figure – remote and absorbed rather than vengeful, and it's not immediately clear that he's the villain of these works. But Blake believed man's rational impulse kills imagination, so Urizen appears time and again, deadening through deliberation. In The Ancient of Days he is crouched, animal-like, except for his windswept beard and the intensity of his focus.
'Mind-forg'd manacles', a phrase from Blake's London, also gives its name to a related exhibition devoted to Blake's anti-slavery stance and the context in which he was working. An etching entitled Europe supported by Africa and America parades its message with deceptively coy disapproval.
What sticks in the mind from this exhibition is the emphasis on bodily form: naked, muscled, pure and unselfconscious, it is both imprisoning and filled with a sense of potential. This owes a debt to Michelangelo, but also, in its strange naivety, seems to exist in a time before him.
And it is Blake's elemental oddness, his alien quality that etches its impression on the onlooker despite the clamouring voices of the emulators and admirers. In the words of Victorian designer Walter Crane: 'Blake is distinct and stands alone.'
Ultimately this is what makes the exhibition rewarding and worth visiting.
Blake's Shadow is at the Whitworth Art Gallery until 20 April. Whitworth Art Gallery, Oxford Road, University. 0161 275 7450. www.whitworth.man.ac.uk
7 comments so far, continue the conversation, write a comment.
AnonymousFebruary 25th 2008.
...really enjoyed the article and the exhibition.
TonyFebruary 25th 2008.
Enjoyed the review! The link with graphic novels is interesting. The modern interpretation of Blake that always amazes me is the big version of Paolozzi's sculpture of Blake's Newton outside the British Library. What an irony - placing such a cramped, uncomfortable figure outside the country's temple to reason and enlightened enquiry! Seems to me to completely miss Blake's point.
visible wormFebruary 25th 2008.
Glad to see invisible worm loves Blake. Pity s/he doesn't love him enough to quote him accurately
JamesFebruary 25th 2008.
I find whatever Blake does, filled with emotion, power and a real love of individuality. Blake gets copied, others copy Blake. Good intelligent review, good to see how Manchester Confidential cover these subjects.
RowenaFebruary 25th 2008.
Great review. Really interesting article. Keep up the good work.
Invisible WormFebruary 25th 2008.
"Oh Rose, thou art sick! The invisible worm/ That flies in the night/in the howling storm. Has found out thy bedOf crimson joy/ And with his dark secret love/does thy life destroy."I love Blake, and I love his work and this exhibition is extremely good
JaneFebruary 25th 2008.
I was a little disappointed in the exhibition as I found many of the works were badly hung and badly lit.
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When I was in fifth grade in Germany with my family, my Oma on my dad's side wanted me to eat a certain lunchmeat from the "kids'" table. Yeah, they had a table with food for the kids and a separate table with food for adults.
I wanted the food from the adult table. The food on the adult table was better, higher quality. You see, my mom and dad brought me up well, to know good food!
Frankly, from a very young age, I was very picky about food and could just as well have gone without meat altogether. Bottom line, I'd rather have a little bit of the high quality meat or no meat rather than a lot of the lower-quality meat.
My mom smiled and listened to her mother-in-law –my Oma–but didn't say anything. Then, a little while later, my mom gave me a little bit of the expensive meat from the adult table that she had on her plate. To this day, I can still picture the kitchen we were in when my mom showed mercy toward me in this very small thing, but it was huge tome. It mattered.
I was listening to a radio program featuring a famous parenting book author and he spoke of how his then-middle-school daughter told him she needed supplies for a project in school that was due the next day.
But when the author found out that his daughter had known about the project for a couple of weeks but was only then telling him about it, he told her he would not take her to the store, and she would have no project to turn in the next day. He was trying to teach his daughter a lesson.
I would have taken my kid to the store or tried to help her make do with the supplies available at the house.
Sure, the daughter should have mentioned it earlier, but she still wanted to do the project. I would have shown mercy.
There are times we need to put our foot down and teach lessons about responsibilities, but we need to weigh those times carefully. Yes, the kid should have planned better, but wasn't willfully doing anything wrong; she just forgot. She needed mercy. And grace.
In the end, what is the lesson our kids will take from the situation?
To me, having mercy and grace towards others matters, and in parenting just the same.
It is how the Lord is to us.
This is post number 29 in my How I Mom 30 Days of November #howimom30 series (which I am a couple of days behind in ;O) Thanks for your grace and mercy.


Hold On Lola! presents their debut single "High & Dry," out April 8th.
With the single comes a couple different remixes, one of them being the Instrumental or Dub Mix by Adam Turner. Removing the vocals, the track has an almost trance-like quality to it. It's actually strange how clearly you can notice that vocals are absent; the track has a very typical song structure to it, consisting of a clear beginning, middle and end, so perhaps that's it.
Regardless, Adam Turner does a fantastic job creating a magnificent ambiance with the tune that could easily find a home at any main stage in the world.


*Please note* This is a LITE version of the app and only covers 20 species compared to 365 species in the full app. If you like the way this app works please check out the full version on the App Store. The Birds of New Zealand app is an interactive version of the newly released Birds of New Zealand A Photographic Guide by Paul Scofield and Brent Stephenson. This application has specific features that will enhance your birding experience. FEATURES: ● Universal app – the app will automatically take advantage of the larger screen when installed on an iPad. ● More than 100 images covering 20 bird species in this LITE version. ● Detailed and informative text covering identification, behaviour, bird calls, distribution and conservation status of the birds found in New Zealand. ● Multiple audible calls for most species. ● A "Smart Search" that allows you to easily identify a bird using bird type, size, colour, physical features and habitat. ● You can select a region of New Zealand, so that the lists of birds throughout the app display only the birds in that region. ● "Bird Compare" that allows you to compare two birds on the same screen (including calls). ● A personal bird list that stores your bird sightings saved to the device and can be exported via email. ● View the Bird Index in New Zealand Common Names, Maori Names, IOC Names or Scientific Names. *Uninstalling the program will result in the loss of your list, it is recommended that you keep your own master list separate from the program. NB. This application WILL ONLY work on an iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad running iOS V6.1 or higher NOT A NORMAL IPOD CLASSIC/NANO.


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Erdogan: Coup crushed, plotters to pay a 'heavy price'
By Kim Hjelmgaard and Kiran Nazish | USA TODAY
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
SHARE Erdogan: Coup crushed, plotters to pay a 'heavy price'
People gather outside the Turkish Parliament durign an extraordinary session in Ankara on July 16, 2016, following a failed coup attempt. Turkish authorities said they had regained control of the country. | AFP PHOTO / ADEM ALTANADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images
ISTANBUL — Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that government forces have crushed a coup attempt and that the plotters will "pay a heavy price for their treason."
After a night of turmoil in the streets of major cities, Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency said all soldiers involved in the attempted coup at the military headquarters in the capital, Ankara, had been taken into custody.The report saids anti-terrorism police will now conduct a "detailed search" at the headquarters.
In an unprecedented show of unity, all four parties represented in parliament met to issue a joint declaration Saturday condemning the attempted coup against Erdogan's government.
The extraordinary session began with a minute of silence in honor of those who lost their lives during the coup, followed by the singing of the national anthem.
Erdogan vowed retribution after a chaotic night of clashes between loyalists and rebels that left almost 200 people dead and may not be entirely over. "In Turkey the army is not governing the state and they cannot, and this should be known by all," Erdogan said, addressing crowds in Istanbul on Saturday morning. "The government is in control."
He said the coup's supporters — rogue elements in the military — would "pay a heavy price for their treason to Turkey" and that "those who stain the military's reputation must leave. The process has started today, and it will continue just as we fight other terrorist groups."
While Erdogan insisted the government was in control, some fighting appeared to continue into Saturday. Gen. Umit Dundar, a newly appointed acting military chief, told the Associated Press that at least 194 people died in clashes; 41 police officers, two soldiers, 47 civilians and 104 people described as "coup plotters."
Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said 2,000 military personnel were detained across Turkey as the government cracked down on the coup.
In Istanbul, images on television and social media on Saturday morning showed soldiers with their hands up walking away from tanks on the city's Bosphorus Bridge.
The coup attempt began late Friday with a statement from the military saying it had seized control "to reinstall the constitutional order, democracy, human rights and freedoms, to ensure that the rule of law once again reigns in the country, for law and order to be reinstated."
Political turmoil has engulfed Turkey for months. There has been a crackdown on dissidents and opposition media and renewed conflict in the mainly Kurdish areas of the southeast. Critics blame Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian rule for eroding democracy and secular laws.
Meanwhile, Turkey, a NATO member and a key partner in U.S.-led efforts to defeat the Islamic State group, has seen a wave of terrorist attacks that have crippled one if its biggest industries: tourism.
The Turkish government has also indicated that it thinks a Muslim cleric living in exile in Pennsylvania may be partly behind the coup. Fethullah Gulen promotes a philosophy that blends a mystical form of Islam with staunch advocacy of democracy, education and science.
Y. Alp Aslandogan of the New York-based Alliance for Shared Values, a group that promotes Gulen's ideas, denied the claims.
Erdogan was vacationing in southwest Turkey when the coup began. He issued a defiant address to the nation in a FaceTime call from his mobile phone.
He called on his followers to rally in the city squares and to flood the streets to confront the coup plotters. "I've never seen anything more powerful than the people," he said.
In Washington, President Obama urged all parties in Turkey to support Erdogan's government. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a statement Saturday that democracy needed to be defended and condemned "any attempts to change the democratic order in Turkey by force."
Hjelmgaard reported from Berlin.
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Q: Is there a way to save a Graphics object in Codename One without without taking a screenshot? The question is in the title. For example how can I save g in a file in the following snippet ?
public void paints(Graphics g, Image background, Image watermark, int width, int height) {

g.drawImage(background, 0, 0);
g.drawImage(watermark, 0, 0);
g.setColor(0xFF0000);

// Upper left corner
g.fillRect(0, 0, 10, 10);

// Lower right corner
g.setColor(0x00FF00);
g.fillRect(width - 10, height - 10, 10, 10);

g.setColor(0xFF0000);
Font f = Font.createTrueTypeFont("Geometos", "Geometos.ttf").derive(220, Font.STYLE_BOLD);
g.setFont(f);
// Draw a string right below the M from Mercedes on the car windscreen (measured in Gimp)
g.drawString("HelloWorld",
        (int) (848 ),
        (int) (610)
        );

// NOW how can I save g in a file ?

}

The reaseon why I don't want to take a screenshot is  because I want to keep the full resolution of g (eg : 2000 x 1500).
I would be so grateful to anyone that can tell me how to do that with Codename one. If not possible then it is already good to know it!
Cheers,

A: What you could do is to create an Image as buffer, get the graphics object from the image an do all your drawings operations on it. Then draw the whole image to the display and save it as a file:
int height = 2000;
int width = 1500;
float saveQuality = 0.7f;

// Create image as buffer
Image imageBuffer = Image.createImage(width, height, 0xffffff);
// Create graphics out of image object
Graphics imageGraphics  = imageBuffer.getGraphics();

// Do your drawing operations on the graphics from the image
imageGraphics.drawWhaterver(...);

// Draw the complete image on your Graphics object g (the screen I guess)
g.drawImage(imageBuffer, w, h);

// Save the image with the ImageIO class
OutputStream os = Storage.getInstance().createOutputStream("storagefilename.png");
ImageIO.getImageIO().save(imageBuffer, os, ImageIO.FORMAT_PNG, saveQuality);

Note, that I have not tested it, but it should work like that.

A: Graphics is just a proxy to a surface, it has no knowledge or access to the underlying surface to which it is drawing and the reason for that is quite simple. It can draw to a hardware accelerated "surface" where there is physically no underlying image.
This is the case both on iOS and Android where the "screen" is natively drawn and has no buffer.


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Tesla Crash in Connecticut Elicits New Warnings About Autopilot Shortcomings
By Chester Dawson | December 10, 2019
Another Tesla Inc. vehicle operating on the carmaker's driver-assistance system branded as Autopilot has crashed into a parked emergency vehicle, eliciting fresh warnings about the shortcomings of automated technology on public roads.
A Tesla Model 3 sedan hit a parked police cruiser with its hazard lights flashing on a major highway near Norwalk, Connecticut, over the weekend. The collision occurred around 12:40 a.m. local time Saturday, when a highway-patrol vehicle stopped to assist a disabled SUV in the left-center lane of Interstate 95, according to a Connecticut State Police report.
"When operating a vehicle your full attention is required at all times to ensure safe driving," the state police wrote Saturday in a Facebook post. "Although a number of vehicles have some automated capabilities, there are no vehicles currently for sale that are fully automated or self-driving."
A similar incident last year in which a Tesla Model S slammed into the rear of a fire truck on a Southern California highway triggered an investigation by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. While neither crash resulted in injuries, both raise questions about the use and limitations of advanced driver-assist technology that can struggle to detect stationary objects.
There's no indication at this time that the NTSB's Office of Highway Safety intends to investigate the latest crash, a spokesman for the agency said in an email. Representatives for Tesla didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
On Saturday, the 2018 Model 3 was traveling in the same lane as the parked police cruiser, which it hit before continuing on and damaging the bumper of the disabled Jeep. The rear end of the police cruiser and front end of the Model 3 sustained "heavy" damage, but the state trooper was outside the police car at the time of the accident, according to the police report.
The driver of the Tesla told police his car's Autopilot feature had been activated and he was not facing forward – he was checking on his dog in the back seat, according to the state police's Facebook post. Police issued him a ticket for first degree reckless driving and endangerment.
Tesla releases quarterly reports that it says indicate drivers using Autopilot are safer than those operating without it. The company also has said the system repeatedly reminds drivers they are responsible for remaining attentive and prohibits the use of Autopilot when warnings are ignored.
(With assistance from Ryan Beene.)
Copyright 2020 Bloomberg.
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Categories: East NewsTopics: autopilot, car accident, Tesla Inc., U.S. National Transportation Safety Board
Have a hot lead? Email us at newsdesk@insurancejournal.com
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Perhaps if/when humans have little to no oversight required in driving and passenger vehicles are able to communicate with each other there will be greater infallibility with the Autopilot/autonomous vehicles. Time will tell.
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Aditi as well as we parents are very happy, no issues…Awesome day care.
Each of you have been so kind and loving to Abhinav – helping him settle down into daycare, being patient with the child , helping him build confidence and mingling with kids and giving your best every day. Of course big hugs to the dear aunties — their dedicated love and support has helped in the nurture – a big Thank you to all!
Abhinav will surely miss your dear company and as parents we will miss interacting with you daily.
This is Not goodbye's – will stay connected with you!
It is hard to say Good Bye to you. You are more than a day care for Eesha and Avni, more precisely a home after school. We have had a great experience all through the stay of my daughters. I felt safe and secure knowing that my daughters are in great hands. Loved the open place, the play area, children park. We loved to hear daily about the things Avni experienced & learnt. We appreciate that the staff is also actually teaching them not just watching them and when they were ill, a very good care was offered.
Thank you Dilafroze Ma'am, Navida ma'am, Kianat ma'am, Mary ma'am, Poornima ma'am Jinu ma'am, Suja ma'am and all aunties for all your love and care at different moments.
It has been a wonderful journey for Bhagath with DeeNest. Bhagath being a very active kid, his nature was well understood by you and was taken care accordingly. He was given the necessary time and space to get accustomed to his new sorroundings. His learning curve is on the rise and we are very happy that Bhagath is a part of DeeNest.
Keerthy Suresh (p/o Bhagath, DeeNest-daycare.
Feedback from our side about the Deenest is very positive. I am very happy with the care which is provided to Jiya Mane. The support staff also is very nice and we never heard any complaints from the child about it.
Jiya looks forward to go to Deenest and talks a lot about what has she been doing.
Our concerns whenever we had were always heard with patience and a solution was implemented straightaway. My special thanks to Dilafroze Madam who is the face of Deenest for us,She is very kind and approachable.
I am happy to send my daughter to Deenest and work peacefully without any worries.
Thank you team for your good work.
Our journey with you, the other teachers and the school as a whole has been very good. The fact that my child still misses going to her school proves that she has had an amazing time at school all throughout. There have been instances when I as a parent have requested to for certain things and you ensured that all of which is taken care of or implemented at the earliest and I am really glad about it. The only thing which according to me could be changed is the morning school timing. If the timing is kept as 8.30 am it would be easier for parents to drop their little ones while avoiding the peak rush time of 8.10 am.
We sent Abhay to you as a little baby, and we have seen him grow into a well rounded little toddler under your watchful eye. Right from the first month, we noticed the remarkable change in how he interacted socially, with adults and children alike. He learned to eat independently and well ( something I struggled to teach him for months).
We saw how he took 'turns' to play ( most of the time) and learned to share his things, all things he learned in class with his teachers, aunties and friends. He even sings a little song and 'cleans up' when I ask him to. We are so pleased with how he has developed throughout the year.
That's how we feel. But most importantly, Abhay himself has loved school everyday. After the first two days, He settled right in ( I thought it would take him much longer than that).
He went to school cheerfully and came back full of stories, of all the fun activities he did in school that day and funny anecdotes about all his friends. The feedback we received from you at each PTM was also so reassuring for us as parents. And the icing on the cake. Was the final PTM and the dance. It was wonderful to see not only Abhay, but all the children perform so well and confidently in front of so many strange faces. It was really something.
It has been a beautiful year for us and him and we are very grateful to you all for all the care and effort you have put in, for our little ones.
Warm Regards !! Absolutely Needless to say as a parent we always look for best for our child and spend a lot of time doing research to find the best thing for them.We as a parent think, Phalak has been extremely lucky to find the right environment, inculcating good foundation, good friends, right basics, and a caring atmosphere. We are thankful to you and your staff for imparting right kind of learning to her.
Its a nostalgic feeling to see that Phalak wont be stepping in that class, as progression & change is the constant thing, thanks for giving our child the right kind of environment and helping her to become independent.
I will strongly recommend the programme in my known circle.
We are very much happy and satisfied with the service that we got from Deenest during the summer vacation. That was the first time we are seeing him reaching his ideal weight in last 5 years. Thank you very much for the attention that you and your team paid on Aryan!!!!!!
We would like to avail the facility, on a daily basis in case we get in to some emergency, as we discussed on last day after summer vacation. Could you please share the holiday list for kideens? In case we need the facility for a day, how early we should be informing you?


text:
Tyshawn Sorey at the Stone and Another Review for His New Recording
Tyshawn Sorey will be in residency at The Stone this week. Come through and check out what the New York Times calls "a rare performance" and one of "10 Things to Do Now in NYC"
Additionally, Tyshawn Sorey's new album The Inner Spectrum of Variables has been called "a highlight of the year" by Burning Ambulance.
July 1, 2016 by Seth Rosner
New Recording from Steve Lehman
Steve Lehman's ambitious new project Sélébéyone featuring rappers HPrizm and Gaston Bandimic with composition and production from Maciek Lasserre is almost here.
The second track from this recording "Are You In Peace?" was recently featured in Pitchfork.
"In finessing this range of linguistic dexterity and instrumental expression, the worldliness of the band's performance amounts to a startling new take on the posse cut."-Pitchfork
Check out the Full Review at Pitchfork
Recent Press for Henry Threadgill
Henry Threadgill's recently released Old Locks and Irregular Verbs has received a myriad of positive reviews!
"It's all too much to think about, except for the fact that it's not. Threadgill's masterful blend of the independent and interdependent is alive and well in Old Locks and Irregular Verbs."-All About Jazz
Full review at All About Jazz
"Henry Threadgill may be in his early 70s, but he continues to make music that sounds like no one else. Even when he branches out and doesn't quite sound like himself, he remains inimitable to a startling degree."-PopMatters
Full review at PopMatters
"Recent Pulitzer winner Henry Threadgill only makes important records. In the jazz avant-garde, he is both revered elder statesman and active agent provocateur."-JazzTimes
Full review at JazzTimes
June 17, 2016 by Seth Rosner
New Release From Tyshawn Sorey
Tyshawn Sorey's The Inner Spectrum of Variables has also received some great press.
"The lyrical intricacies central to the suite are frequently intermingling their attributes as living entities would do in such close proximity. There is a spontaneity and natural flow in the mix of components that make up The Inner Spectrum of Variables and they belie the complexity and scope of Sorey's vision; it is the vision of a modern master."-All About Jazz
Additionally, "Movement II" from The Inner Spectrum of Variables has been featured on The Wire's 23rd edition of it's "Below the Radar" playlist
Come join us at the Vision Festival running Tuesday through Sunday this week at Judson Memorial Church. Tons of great music but we are particularly looking forward to Tuesday's Life Time Achievement tribute to Henry Grimes (Marc Ribot will be there), Wednesday with Jen Shyu's incredible project Songs of Silver Geese and Saturday with Wadada Leo Smith. Added bonus! We will be selling Pi Recordings CDs in the marketplace. Stop by and say hi!
June 6, 2016 by Seth Rosner
Praise for Henry Threadgill's Pulitzer Win
"A composer and bandleader of intense, unyielding originality, nobody's idea of a compromise"-New York Times
"A sonic tapestry that seems the very expression of modern American life"-Pulitzer Prize Jury
"The Pulitzer Prize has made a major statement, in recognizing my work and others', that they have a bigger picture of creativity. Because that's what we need as a country and as an artistic community, is to have everything recognized."-Henry Threadgill (via NPR)
"[In for a Penny In For A Pound's] triumph suggests the music Pulitzers are headed in the right direction"-Chicago Tribune
Pi Recordings is pleased to announce that we have shared copies of In For A Penny in For A Pound with Commander in Chief President Barack Obama, Senator John McCain, and the Disabled Veteran's Association.
Henry Threadgill wins Pulitzer Prize!
In for a Penny, In for a Pound by Henry Threadgill was named the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for "distinguished musical composition by an American." In awarding the prize, the Pulitzer committee call the release "a highly original work in which notated music and improvisation mesh in a sonic tapestry that seems the very expression of modern American life." We could not be more ecstatic for Henry and are honored to have been able to help document his work these last 15 years.
April 19, 2016 by Seth Rosner
We are very happy to announce that three of this year's releases have made it into the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times best albums of 2015 lists!
No' 1 for Nate Chinen: Steve Coleman and the Council of Balance – "Synovial Joints".
No' 3 for Ben Ratliff: Jen Shyu – "Sounds and Cries of the World".
Check out the full New York Times Best Albums of 2015
Chris Barton of the Los Angeles Times listed Amir ElSaffar's – "Crisis" as one of the best albums of 2015.
We are extremely proud to be working with these incredible artists who consistently push their music forward and produce unique work! Congratulations to all of you for receiving this recognition for your work!
December 11, 2015 by Seth Rosner
Steve Coleman & Five Elements
Halmstad, Sweden


Yes, it does sound like the Clangers.
Have started to read The Division Bell Mystery by Ellen Wilkinson, of whom I had never heard. With the current political turmoil ("Division! Clear the lobbies!") it's an aptly timed read.
Mind you, it was worth it, if only to have seen the volcanic landscapes.
Author charliecochranePosted on April 8, 2019 April 8, 2019 4 Comments on Home again!
We're having a grand time on the high seas, presently docked at Funchal, Madeira. Stunning volcanic caves! And thanks to all who were worried about us – no, were not on the ship that had to have the passengers helicoptered off.
Radio silence ahead – sing ho for the rolling main!
Oh aaarh me hearties, we be off on the main tomorrow in search of doubloons and me internet will be patchy (if not non-existent) so if we be a-silent, don't ye be a-panicking.
To put it in proper English, we're off to the Canaries on a sort of floating Harrods. Our third cruise in just over a year (sure sign we're getting old) and actually our third cruise ever. Suspect we've got the bug for it.
Author charliecochranePosted on March 21, 2019 Leave a comment on Radio silence ahead – sing ho for the rolling main!


Five of the seven domestic broadcast packages for Premier League football have been sold raking in £4.5bn.
Sky have been the big winners purchasing four of the packages encompassing 128 matches per season.
This means Sky will broadcast Saturday tea time matches, Super Sunday, Monday Night Football, Friday Night Football and for the first time, Saturday evening matches.
BT won the other package which allows them to show 32 games.
The remaining packages consist of 20 matches from one Bank Holiday and one midweek fixture programme, and the other of 20 matches from two midweek fixture programmes.
Sky Sports and BT Sport currently have the packages split between them, with Sky having the larger share of live matches, but there have been strong rumours of a new bidder emerging, with Amazon, Google and Facebook among the organisations linked with a bid to secure at least one of the packages on offer.
The latest deal, for which bidding started earlier this month, will run from the 2019/20 season through to the 2021/22 campaign and will see more matches shown live, which is likely to increase the revenue for the 20 top flight clubs.
Premier League Executive Chairman Richard Scudamore said: "We are extremely pleased that BT and Sky continue to view the Premier League and our clubs as such an important part of their offering. Both broadcasters are fantastic partners for the Premier League and have a track record of making our competition available to fans across the country through their high-quality and innovative programming.
"To have achieved this investment with two packages of live rights remaining to sell is an outcome that is testament to the excellent football competition delivered by the clubs. It provides them with certainty and will underpin their continued efforts to put on the most compelling football, invest sustainably in all areas, and use their popularity and reach to have a positive impact on the sport and beyond.


Diamond Necklace: Modern Moon 925 Sterling Silver w/Diamond Pave & 24K Gold Vermeil Overlay 14K Gold Filled 19 Inch Choker April Birthday For Layering - Great for layering, this 19 inch choker features a two-tone 925 sterling silver inverted Crescent Moon shaped pendant bearing natural Diamond gemstone pave and 24K gold overlay. Stunning pendant is large -- almost an inch across! The dainty 14K gold filled chain on this bohemian chic design has spring clasp. No.16178.