This past Saturday was a day that mattered for other people. People that I didn't know. It was a day when a small church community came together to show how love is given freely to others, no matter their life's circumstances, their outward appearance, or their behavior.
If you are suddenly in a cold sweat, ready to run because I typed the word church, relax and read on.
I hate the word hate. It has a negative connotation that wrinkles my forehead. I would rather use "dislike," although I must admit that I do hate liver and the cheeses of goat, bleu and gorgonzola. Blech. When it comes to the human being, however, I refrain from using the "H" word. I cannot bring myself to utter the word, even when I bring up the ex-husband or someone in the news who has committed a heinous crime. It's not in my nature and I'm not fond of how hating a human being makes me feel.
In The Blog's article, Toxic Emotions can Lead to Serious Health Problems, Dr. Cynthia Thaik talks about the effects of anger and hate on the human body.
Anger and hatred are natural, but they are also some of the most toxic emotions that we can have. Feelings of rage and hatred build up in the mind, body and soul, affecting the body's organs and natural processes and breeding even more negative emotions. Prolonged bouts of anger can take the toll on the body in the form of high blood pressure, stress, anxiety, headaches and poor circulation.
I "hate" feeling anger or loathing about another human being. In my opinion, there is no purpose in it unless you really enjoy the toll it takes on self. Hating brings about terrible ills in society – physical abuse, emotional abuse, racism, discrimination, murder and war. Why one human chooses to hate another, rather than love them, is often incomprehensible to me. Perhaps I'm a softie and one of those "bleeding hearts" that the ex-husband used to label while he angrily rambled on about someone who did him wrong 30 years ago. He was, and still is, a bundle of anger and hate.
Hate carries beyond our own angry soul. When we hate, we spread hate to our children, family, friends and neighbors – continuing the negative cycle to those who listen – and creating victims of the innocent and those who understand love. Consider the people in this video from the University of Leicester, UK, and how hate and non-acceptance affects their lives.
I spent Saturday morning shopping for a family of three – mom, dad and their 11 year-old daughter. The family has no home of their own, living with a woman who has shown generosity despite her own poor living conditions. It became known to our team of two that dad had been thrown in jail that morning, the circumstances unknown. It would have been easy for us to feel hate or contempt toward this man after having purchased items from his list with the community's donations.We could have easily taken the "how dare he?" path and left him with nothing at Christmas.
If you're sweating again, so sorry. I'm almost done.
The point here is in bold above. Love your neighbor. Or neighbour if you live in Australia. Nachbar if the couple across the street live in Germany. Vecino in Spain. 隣人 in Japan. Love your neighbor in any land, under any circumstance. How would the world change if people stopped using the word hate toward their neighbors and other human beings? Would it make a difference? Would it bring about a wave of change?
Obviously, there is hatred around the world that may never go away or will take many years to disintegrate. The terrorist organizations and its people that hate and commit atrocities, like the Taliban in Peshawar, swim in the darkness. Excluding the word "hate" from their vocabulary will not help them. It will not save the rest of us. Unfortunately, they only know hatred and murder and they pass it on to their children. I do not know the resolution…how to bring these people to love all humans rather than make plans to murder.
Perhaps it's a matter of starting with self – making the effort to hate liver or Monday mornings, but love the guy down the street who lets his dog poop in your yard; or the micromanaging boss; or the store manager who won't give you a credit for the hot pink leggings that Aunt Susie bought you for Christmas. It's my opinion that the more one loves, the less one feels a need to hate. The more one opens their hearts to people of all countries, ethnicity, and situation in life, the more that one understands that we are all one people – messy, imperfect people.
In this holiday season, whether or not Jesus is the reason you celebrate the holidays, find it in your heart to love. Love others.
Show the human race that they matter.
Good one, Mary. No, great one, Mary.
I was wondering because I didn't catch why the guy where he never shows his face?
Probably wanted it that way. Too much hate in the world for him to handle. Sad thing.
Thanks M-R. You are a wonderful neighbour.
Thanks Q! I see we have kindred taste buds :-p Have a wonderful week with your family.


text:
Why Luxury Brands Are Sitting Out the Resale Market Boom
Most luxury brands are keeping their distance from fashion's fastest-growing segment.
As the resale market soars, the majority of luxury brands remain on the sidelines of fashion's fastest-growing segment.
The secondhand market is forecast to double in the next five years to reach $77 billion by 2025, according to resale marketplace ThredUp. Within that total, resale is expected to grow 11 times faster than the broader retail clothing sector to reach $47 billion, the company said in its "2021 Resale Report."
A flurry of M&A deals, including Etsy's acquisition of Depop for $1.6 billion, suggests there are rich rewards to be reaped in the sector.
But many luxury brands are reluctant to take ownership of the process, fearing that resale could cannibalize sales of their full-price products and dent their image of exclusivity. Others are put off by the complexity of implementing circular models and doubt the financial viability of such efforts.
While Kering earlier this year backed a new 178 million euro financing round for luxury resale platform Vestiaire Collective, rival LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world's largest luxury group with brands like Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Fendi, said it does not plan to get involved at present.
"We have such long-lasting products and we repair them, we for the moment will stick to that and proposing as beautiful new products, as creative and thrilling new collections as we can," Antoine Arnault, head of image and environment at LVMH, said at Fairchild Media Group's Sustainability Summit in April.
"For the moment we will stay away from that secondhand market," he added.
It's a position echoed by Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion and president of Chanel SAS.
"We want to retain control of our distribution, and I think that approach was an early contributor to the success of the brand. We've spent the last 20 years securing that control, so we're not going to give it up now with partnerships in the secondhand market," he told WWD.
"You can't personify luxury and want to control everything," he added. "It's important for our customers to be able to resell items, but we have decided not to be part of that process because we want to give them the freedom to do what they want."
courtesy via wwd
There is a clear case for luxury brands fully owning the consigning process, from developing closer contact with the growing secondhand fashion audience to being able to guarantee authentication, and layering first-hand storytelling into the process, as to the origins and design of a product.
"We tell all our clients that they have to be in control," said Audrey Depraeter-Montacel, managing director of retail, fashion, and luxury at consulting firm Accenture. "But I find that luxury brands are quite slow, overall, to tackle this subject."
Managing the second life of their products not only demonstrates luxury brands' commitment to a circular economy but is also good for the bottom line, Accenture Strategy said in a joint report on "The Future of Circular Fashion" with Fashion for Good, the Dutch organization dedicated to circular fashion.
"Luxury would appear to represent the biggest opportunity," the report said, noting that the average operating margin for luxury e-commerce is 39 percent, compared with 22 percent for the current linear model — the baseline.
"Innovation and adoption of new circular business models is highly likely to grow across the fashion industry regardless of participation from existing fashion retailers — those that fail to respond risk losing the initiative on this topic and missing out over the longer term," it continued.
"The dominance of independent platforms and start-ups creates risk for established retailers in terms of garment authentication and quality. At the same time, retailers miss out on the potential benefits of owning these channels, including additional revenue streams, deeper customer relationships, and new customer touchpoints."
Though Kering's investment in Vestiaire Collective is limited to a 5 percent stake, it's viewed as a test case for the luxury sector. Gucci, the luxury group's largest brand, had previously dipped a toe in the water with a limited partnership with luxury consignment company The RealReal.
"Pre-owned luxury is now a real and deeply rooted trend, especially among younger customers," François-Henri Pinault, chairman, and chief executive officer of Kering said in a statement in March revealing the Vestiaire deal.
"Rather than ignoring it, our wish is to seize this opportunity to enhance the value we offer our customers and influence the future of our industry toward more innovative and more sustainable practices," he added.
That contrasts with the strategy of Chanel, which in 2018 sued The RealReal and What Goes Around Comes Around, alleging they engaged in false advertising and sold counterfeit handbags bearing its logo. Chanel and The RealReal are attempting to mediate the case, according to the most recent public court documents.
The French luxury house says it's the only authority when it comes to certifying its bags, and has declined to join the Aura Blockchain Consortium, formed last April when LVMH, Prada Group, and Compagnie Financière Richemont joined forces to promote the use of a single blockchain solution open to all luxury brands.
Instead, Chanel recently introduced new metal plates in its bags that use its own technology to authenticate its products, replacing the credit card-sized authenticity card that used to accompany its leather goods — a move that commenters on PurseForum interpreted as a bid to curb reselling.
Pavlovsky said the main purpose of the chips is to ensure that after-sale service is only provided for genuine bags that benefit from a five-year warranty. "It's important to preserve the image of the brand," he said. '" If it's a counterfeit bag, it's not the same thing. We're not going to legitimize fakes."
Depraeter-Montacel noted that certain brands are publicly maintaining a distance from resale sites, but quietly working to weed out fakes. "Some brands work with certain resellers to identify counterfeit goods. They don't advertise it, but they're working in a collaborative spirit," she said.
Dan Brewster, senior vice president of marketing at Scalefast, which offers custom e-commerce solutions for brands across both the primary and secondary markets, said there is always going to be a segment of customers who prefer to work directly with the brand.
"Regardless of how much success they've had on these third-party sites, they really feel a lot better about both selling or buying products directly from the brand," he said, noting that the same trend has been in development in the events and ticketing markets for much longer.
"A platform like StubHub is a very accepted way of reselling your tickets, but it didn't change the fact that customers wanted to do an exchange with Ticketmaster. They felt safer with Ticketmaster, or with the concert venue, than they did with StubHub, even if it was an established, proven method of safely selling your ticket. It's very similar in the luxury consignment space," he explained.
There are definitely challenges to owning your own resale platform: product intake, reverse logistics, certification of quality, and authentication all need to be set up. That's why market leaders like The RealReal or Vestiaire Collective have been pitching themselves as brands' best solution in tackling those hurdles.
"But in the end, the brands don't own the customer and don't have 100 percent control over the process," said Brewster, who argued that brands can build their own online resale platforms without cannibalizing their existing primary market business — and help elevate the consigning experience much further.
"You can create a custom URL that is specific to the secondary market so that it doesn't dilute your current season product or alienate your full-price product customer in any way, shape, or form, yet still offers the full brand experience and protects your image," he said.
"On a brand-owned resale site, the customer won't just get information on where and when a product was bought. The brand can provide all kinds of rich history on the design and the collection the product is from. That mix of data and storytelling, plus the stamp of approval from the brand that the product isn't counterfeit, makes the case of a very powerful sale for the resale market."
The more direct-to-consumer secondary sales take place, the more records of the transactions will be kept by brands, making authentication that much easier.
"It allows the seller to charge a premium on the resale market, and allows the brand to offer a premium in-store credit instead of cash, which of course works for everyone," said Brewster.
This model is more likely to be profitable for top luxury names whose products appreciate over time.
"The best story is 'Girl Boss': Sophia Amoruso talks about dumpster-diving for Chanel buttons, and the fact is that Chanel coat buttons would make a coat worth $1,000 again because of the brand equity," added Brewster.
Yet most luxury names that have started recognizing the relevance of the secondhand market and getting involved have done so with the help of a third party. Mytheresa, Mulberry, and Alexander McQueen have all launched resale pilots this year in partnership with Vestiaire Collective.
In the case of Mytheresa, which started offering a secondhand bag resale service for its top clients last June, becoming one of the first wholesale retailers to do so, the aim was to tap into Vestiaire's logistical know-how.
"Vestiaire Collective has an excellent infrastructure in place and great know-how in dealing with pre-loved luxury designer pieces. We are always mindful of offering the best experience and this partnership will ensure a smooth and seamless process for our customers," said Michael Kliger, CEO of Mytheresa.
Vestiaire added that the partnerships have helped increase customer engagement with the brands and tap into new audiences — so much so that it's not a matter of if, but when, more luxury names will be joining in.
"Secondhand is the future, as resale clothing is projected to be 27 percent of consumers' wardrobes by 2023, which means we will continue to see partnerships like this," said a company spokesperson, adding that Vestiaire's global community of 11 million buyers and sellers is bound to be an appeal for brands.
"Younger consumers are paying attention to what brands are doing to be more sustainable. A recent survey we released with BCG found that 62 percent of consumers would be more willing to buy from fashion brands that partner with resale platforms. Our long-term goal is for every brand to have a resale service as a basic," the spokesperson added.
Nonetheless, Depraeter-Montacel believes we're still some way away from brands wanting to publicly participate in the resale movement.
"I can fully understand the hesitations of luxury brand bosses," she said. "But you can't ignore a movement that's becoming huge, and it's in their interest to control the environment in which these conversations and transactions occur. I think the problem is that they still haven't figured out how."
She pointed to Farfetch's Second Life site, which allows customers to trade their pre-owned designer bags for shopping credit, as an example of how to integrate resale in a high-quality online environment.
"There is a debate about whether this type of site should be hosted directly on the brand website, or whether it should be a parallel platform," she noted. "What is certain is that brands have all the keys in hand. They have the talents, they have the technological assets, so there is no reason they can't find the right model."
Read the original article on WWD
Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson reacts to his uncanny look-alike
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to Establish Themselves in "Philanthropy World"
John Smith September 1, 2021

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Description: The king of the jungle roars to life in this digitally enhanced photo! A gorgeous sunset picture infused with two pictures of a majestic lion seeming to overlook his kingdom. His regal yet gentle face showing his authority over his domain. This puzzle will delight puzzle solvers of all skill sets since it has plenty of details to distinguish each piece from the others. Click and drag pieces of this 15x15 jigsaw puzzle around sliding them into their correct place to create a beautiful picture. Have fun!
Lion Jigsaw Puzzle game is copyrighted or trademarked by its respective owner or author.


text:
Q: Rails - Show which category a tutorial belongs to in the tutorial index view I have a tutorial model and a tutorial_category model. I have linked the two together using a has_many belongs_to relationship. In my tutorials index view, I am looping through the tutorials like so: <% @tutorials.each do |tutorial| %>. Inside that loop, I am wanting to display the category each tutorial belongs to. I'm trying to do it like <%= tutorial.tutorial_categories.title %> (title is an attr in the tutorial_category model and I also have :tutorial_id as an attribute in the tutorial_category model. And :tutorial_category_id is an attr in the tutorial model, for that matter).
Here is the index action in my tutorials controller:
def index
   @tutorials = Tutorial.all
   @tutorial = Tutorial.new
   @tutorial_categories = TutorialCategory.select("DISTINCT title, id")

   respond_to do |format|
      format.html # index.html.erb
      format.json { render :json => @tutorials }
  end
end

I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong here. From my experience, this should all work correctly, although it's been a few months since I've written any Ruby code so I'm probably missing something stupid here. Any help would be appreciated!
Update: my models
class Tutorial < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :content, :title, :tutorial_category_id
  belongs_to :tutorial_category
end

class TutorialCategory < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :title, :tutorial_id
  has_many :tutorials
end

A: If you want to be able to list the tutorial categories next to tutorials then do the following:
def index
   @tutorials = Tutorial.includes(:tutorial_category)
   @tutorial = Tutorial.new
   ...
  end
end

Then you can iterate over them
<% @tutorials.each do |tutorial| %>
  <%= tutorial.tutorial_category.title %>
<% end %>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Ukrainian pagan black metal of a fairly slick and accomplished sort. A stirring and atmospheric album, never too cheesy.
I find their music quite more entertaining than the average "commercial" Pagan Metal band on big labels… as a matter of fact even my initial rejection to this kind of music, I find the album more "serious" than a couple of beer-drunken Metalheads trying to be on the old ages. So, at the end we have an entertaining recording that fans of the style will surely worship.
If you like Vintersorg, Tyr or Falkenbach then Paganland is a music listen. Respect Paganland and get his album and the others before.
To sum up the new Paganland in one sentence: It's like Arkona and Heidevolk had a Ukrainian baby. Truly fantastic vocals were enough to warrant multiple playthroughs!
Mixture of Black Metal, Pagan sounds and elements of Eastern European folklore make the band extremely varied and highly interesting, as always something new happening!
I have to admit that the name Paganland coupled with the album's cover art made me excited to listen to these guys. I love it when that excitement becomes affirmed by the music on the album.
Big plus of this release is the artwork. Interesting illustrations introducing the atmosphere, lyrics printed in the Ukrainian language and translations into English. Material definitely worth attention from people sitting in a folk-pagan scene.
Wind of Freedom is PAGANLAND's debut release and it is one of the better such debuts I have heard of in recent years.
They make brilliant music!! The music is a mixture between Death, Doom and Black Metal. It all sounds folky and the use of the keyboards gives an extra twist to the music.
Paganland deliver a set of intensely melodic, symphonic-edged tracks spread across a varied emotional range: from the moody, wistful tones of "Chornohora" to the fiercer, brighter likes of "Power of Spirit".
With this work Paganland proves that they are experts not only on their instruments, but also in writing their songs. Pagan fans who are always in search of new food should, to be sure, listen to those Ukrainians.
The majority of the songs on the album are good and catchy, and the band has obviously thought how to add the variety and dynamism to the music. Followers of pagan metal should give "Wind of Freedom" a chance - a lot of good and interesting songs!
Winds of Freedom is a fairly small album but with some very beautiful songs. True fans of the pagan folk genre will certainly enjoy!
Drawing on the dark and melancholic flavor of Ukrainian folk music, Paganland combine traditional metal, death metal and black metal into their own, surprisingly melodic brand of metal. Fans of Eastern European-flavored folk metal should definitely check out this fine effort from Paganland.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed being swept up in Paganland and the adventures they embark upon. It's a cracker of a debut and the lads should certainly be proud of themselves.
Wind of Freedom is not carving out new territory but is well crafted and is worth a look for anyone wanting to broaden their tastes from the immediate and obvious.


R.W. Deitcher, J.E. Rome, P.A. Gildea, J.P. O'Connell, E.J. Fernandez., "A New Thermodynamic Model Describes the Effects of Ligand Density and Type, Salt Concentration and Protein Species in Hydrophobic Interaction Chromatography," HIC/RPC Special Issue of JChromA (2009).


Pontiac, Mich. – February 6, 2017 – Providing turnkey solutions in order to take on plant renovations, relocations and expansions in their entirety is what Ed Lee set out to do when he founded Lee Contracting. Since its inception, the firm has served as a premier, full-service contractor with experience in a wide array of project types including machine moving, electrical, pipefitting, fabrication, controls/robotics and HVAC. Headquartered in Pontiac, Michigan, Lee Contracting manages full-service satellite offices in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Kentucky.


The deputy Minister of Rural Development and Food, Mr. Markos Bolaris, visited Fromagerie ARVANITI on 24/3/16.
Mr. Bolaris was toured at the production areas, the packaging, the cheese maturing areas and he monitored from close how the dairy works. Simultaneously the methods of traditional cheese-making applied by Fromagerie ARVANITI was explained to him and he tried our authentic flavors, such as PDO Feta, Goat cheese and Braid, who have made the taste of Greek cheeses known worldwide.
Manolis and Michalis Arvanitis discussed with dep. Minister on issues that concern the Greek cheesemakers, the ways to control unfair competition in the food sector and the need for help from the Greek State, in order to help the export efforts.
Having seen the number and the importance of the prizes awarded in Fromagerie ARVANITI, Mr Bolaris congratulated the owners and the employees of the dairy for the excellent international image and the visible results of their work.


text:
Кари́бский ри́фовый кальма́р () — вид кальмаров из семейства Loliginidae. Выделяется плавниками, которые простираются по всей длине тела. Могут выпрыгивать из воды на 2 м и планировать 10 м.

Ареал
Кальмар встречается по всему Карибскому морю и у Флориды. Держится небольшими косяками на мелководье. Детёныши кальмара живут недалеко от берега на глубине до одного метра среди растительности. Кальмары постарше собираются в морских травах на глубине от нескольких сантиметров до двух метров. Взрослые особи предпочитают открытые воды и живут на глубине до 153 метров. В брачный сезон взрослые кальмары встречаются на глубине от 1,5 до 8 метров.

Питание
Ежедневно Sepioteuthis sepioidea потребляет 30-60 % собственной массы тела. Как и другие кальмары, Sepioteuthis sepioidea ловит добычу двумя длинными щупальцами, а восемью руками держит пищу у рта. Подобно всем головоногим, Sepioteuthis sepioidea имеет клюв.

Общение
Кальмары общаются между собой, изменяя цвет и текстуру. Таковые очень быстро меняют цвет кожи, контролируя хроматофоры. Кальмары используют цвет, узоры и мигание для общения друг с другом также в ритуалах ухаживания.

Размножение
Sepioteuthis sepioidea умирает после размножения. Самки умирают после откладывания яиц, самцы же перед смертью могут оплодотворить несколько самок.

Во время ухаживания самец гладит самку своими щупальцами. Самец может показывать тревогу, но постепенно кальмары успокаиваются, самец обдувает самку водой и мягко уплывает. Самец может неоднократно возвращаться к самке, пока она его не примет. Брачный танец может продолжаться до часа. Самец протягивает самке пакет с репродуктивными клетками, который самка помещает в особый сосуд внутри своего тела. Откладывая яйца, самка умирает. Яйца откладываются в пещерах, щелях и других укромных недоступных местах.

Примечания

Животные, описанные в 1823 году
Моллюски Атлантического океана
Неритические кальмары

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Italy's Cinque Terre, hit by flash flooding, digs out
The communities of Vernazza and Monterosso are in for a bleak, backbreaking winter of digging out and rebuilding, but they are determined to come back.
Floodwaters rush into Vernazza's harbor after an intense rainstorm ripped through the region on Oct. 25, 2011.
Nov. 25, 2011, 9:25 AM UTC / Source: Tribune Media Services
Thirty-two years ago, I met two American college girls while hitchhiking in Switzerland. They were studying in Florence, and I asked them their favorite place in Italy. They surprised me by naming a place I had never heard of before: the Cinque Terre. Curious, I headed south and discovered a humble string of five villages along Italy's Riviera coast with almost no tourism — and, it seemed, almost no contact with the modern world. I fell in love with this stretch of Mediterranean coastline and have returned almost every year since.
On Oct. 25 of this year, a freakishly intense rainstorm ripped through the region and inflicted serious damage on the Cinque Terre towns of Monterosso and Vernazza. Torrents of water rampaged from the surrounding mountains into town, carrying with it tons of mud and debris. Massive flooding destroyed homes and businesses, and landslides filled the streets with rocks, dirt, and debris up to 12 feet deep. Entire ground floors were buried.
Photos and videos of the devastation show storefronts ripped off and fishing boats crumbled on rocks. The images of spindly, pastel Vernazza buried in rubble were especially difficult to look at. I've been there so many times that I actually think of it as a person. I believe I know more people in Vernazza than in all of Spain. After the disaster, the town looked like a crime scene. I felt as if I'd lost a friend — as if nature had murdered someone I loved.
For some, it did. At least six people died in the flash floods, and several are still missing. In one heartbreaking account on the Save Vernazza website, Valentino Giannoni recalls the tense hours in his father's gelato shop as he did everything he could to keep his wife and 3-year-old son above the rising tide. They survived — but Valentino's father was swept away while trying to keep the flood from consuming his family.
One of my staff members was also in Vernazza at the time. She and her family were eating pesto pasta when water started seeping into the restaurant. As the water level rose, everyone migrated into another room and took refuge on tabletops while several people held their bodies against the door to try to keep the water from raging in.
Danger doubled
As the group waited for the storm to subside, they started to smell gas. The floodwaters had ripped the restaurant's stove from the wall, leaving an exposed gas connection. As she recounted, they didn't know if they were going to drown or die in an explosion.
After more than two hours, the floodwaters receded momentarily (likely slowed by a pile-up of jumbled, overturned cars in the ravine), allowing everyone in the restaurant to escape to higher ground. Shortly thereafter, the rain increased, and the river rose even higher, pushing everything in its path into the sea. My staff member and her family ended up at Al Castello restaurant, where the owners provided food for about 100 tourists and townspeople. Later that evening, the owners of the Gianni Franzi hotel took them in; they were evacuated by boat the next morning.
Emergency responders have been working nonstop since the disaster and have made a lot of progress clearing the streets. I've heard from many friends in the region. The communities of Vernazza and Monterosso are in for a bleak, backbreaking winter of digging out and rebuilding, but they are determined to come back. One hotelier in Monterosso has promised to fix the damage in time to welcome our first tour group next year, in March.
I'll be back too. One of my favorite rituals in Vernazza is to walk the main drag at midnight, from top to bottom. In ancient times, a stream rushed down the middle of this street. At some point, generations ago, the stream was put under the pavement. But it still flows, draining water from the terraced vineyards that surround the town on three sides. At one point, you can actually hear the soft sounds of water flowing beneath the road, from vineyards to the sea. It's strange to imagine that within the course of a few hours, this underground rivulet turned into a roaring river that claimed lives.
When people ask me what they can do to help, I tell them to keep the Cinque Terre in their travel dreams. Like I do almost every year, I'll be traveling here next spring to do some filming and update my guidebook. Witnessing the damage — and the progress — firsthand will be both inspirational and bittersweet. Most of all, I look forward to taking that midnight stroll, stream trickling underneath my feet, just like I have for the past 30 years.
( writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. E-mail him at , or write to him c/o P.O. Box 2009, Edmonds, Wash. 98020.)


text:
James Alexander Winnefeld Sr. (January 1, 1929 – November 26, 2015) was a rear admiral in the United States Navy. He is the father of James "Sandy" Winnefeld, who served as an Admiral in the United States Navy. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1951.

Career

Winnefeld graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with the Class of 1951. He saw active service in combat in both the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

In 1960 he was awarded a Master of Arts in International Affairs from Stanford University. From 1976-78, he served as Commandant of Midshipmen at the Naval Academy.

Death
Winnefeld died at the Ginger Cove retirement community in Annapolis, Maryland, aged 86, on November 26, 2015. He was survived by his wife, the Honorable Judith L. Duckett (Judge, Orphans' Court, Anne Arundel County, 1990-94, 1998-2002, and October 1, 2009 to December 31, 2015); their daughter, Lea Sandman; their son, Sandy Winnefeld; and six grandchildren.

References

United States Navy admirals
1929 births
2015 deaths


text:
Soccer players' union FIFPro to launch match-fixing hotline
Updated 1857 GMT (0257 HKT) December 19, 2012
Napoli captain Paolo Cannavaro is appealing a six-month ban for failing to report a match-fixing approach
Worldwide soccer players' union FIFPro launches project to combat match-fixing
Players will be able to report any illegal approaches or behavior via an online tool
FIFPro also to raise awareness of the problems among players, coaches and referees
Match fixing cases in South Africa and Italy have emerged recently
In the past week sanctions have been handed down in both South Africa and Italy in relation to a growing trend that is fast becoming a stain on soccer's integrity -- match-fixing.
But FIFPro, the worldwide players' union, are preparing a project to tackle fixing, that will include an education program and an online tool for their members to report illegal approaches.
Match-fixing has proved a particular problem for Italian football in recent years.
Napoli were hit with a two-point penalty that dropped them from third to fifth in Serie A as part of an ongoing investigation, though they vehemently deny any wrongdoing. Defender Paolo Cannavaro is appealing his six-month ban for failing to report an illegal approach.
Juventus coach Antonio Conte recently returned from a 10-match touchline ban imposed for failing to report match-fixing while coach at Siena.
Read: Napoli hit by match-fixing related points deduction
In 2006, Juve were stripped of two league titles and relegated to the third division of Italian football -- before later being reinstated in the second tier -- for their part in the "Calciopoli" scandal.
Elsewhere, the president of the South African Football Association (SAFA) and four other officials were suspended this week as part of an investigation into match-fixing ahead of the country hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2010.
Photos: Match-fixing in football


Internet users are cutting the cord; the way we access the digital world has shifted. Gone are the days where we sit tied to our computers with Ethernet cords, tangled up in cables while searching for a port. We're in the midst of a connection revolution. And as an avid internet user (like everyone else), I live and breathe through my connection to the online world. The reassurance that the internet is available regardless of location through a mobile connection is affecting a number of markets.
Users are migrating away from cable and satellite providers as they prefer online streaming networks that offer fewer commercials and pricing advantages. Various mobile providers also offer the ability to stream these networks without using any of their mobile data thus impacting internet providers as well. We've been anticipating a shift in how we access our favorite TV shows and social networks, but the dwindling effects are filtering into the events industry (among many others) as well.
Mobile-first and smartphone-first users are at the forefront of the Wi-Fi cord cutting trend; 13% of Americans connect to the Internet solely through their mobile devices. The rate of users with broadband service in their homes has decreased. In 2013, 70% of Americans had broadband service in their home compared to 2015, 67% of Americans had broadband service. Although the 3% decline may not seem alarming now, we can only anticipate that number to alter significantly in the coming years. As cable and internet providers better field these changes, the majority of users will follow those early-adopters.
"The events industry is learning to trust technology and last year it took a giant leap in this aspect," said Juraj Holub, Marketing Manager of Slido. With the introduction of modern Wi-Fi infrastructure, beacons, RFID, event applications, and other event technology, the events industry is experiencing a very quick and innovative transformation of attendee experiences- all based around mobile technology. As we learn the value of these tools and build trust in their reliability, we're slating them as an expectation for all events. When there is an event app that's a central hub for interactions among the attendees, organizers, exhibitors and sponsors, the infrastructure that supports these connections is just as much a part of the event as the chairs we sit on (and probably more).
The Internet of Things brings an increase in the number of connected devices that one person uses. With more devices connected, the capacity and bandwidth that may have just recently been implemented is quickly becoming dated. The latency and reliability of internet service at events is often volatile and can cause frustrations resulting in an overall negative attendee experience.
More and more venues are rebooting their entire system to better provide internet services throughout the facility. Having lower latency and higher internet speeds also means that devices will stay connected for a shorter amount of time in order to complete a given task. This may not seem like a significant benefit, but American's will soon be simultaneously accessing the internet and downloading and uploading data on over 50 billion IoT devices.
It seems that nearly everything we purchase relies on a connection: cars, accessories, appliances, electronics, and even clothing. We trust technology. We're building driverless cars, and though that technology is still flawed, we're adopting the trust of these tech features in other ways. Auto manufacturers are implementing safety elements that require a transfer of data in mere milliseconds. Collision detection is a very important example of this: a car in front of me stops suddenly, the vehicle I'm driving instantaneously detects this and applies my brakes before I've even blinked. Our reliance on an unflawed transfer of data is increasing and will begin to apply in nearly every facet of our lives.
As per events, imagine having thousands of attendees packed into a convention center using the event app to know where their next session is. Consider a presenter relying on a live poll to supplement their presentation, event planners evaluating beacon data submitted in real-time to anticipate staffing needs, or a venue manager monitoring their security sensors through their smartphone. Our trust in flawless data transfer increases every day. And although 5G is a ways off, we're creating technology that is dependent on wireless connectivity.
5G is the highly anticipated fifth generation of wireless connectivity or mobile data communications that is expected to reach the US by 2020. This is the first generation of mobile data communications that is being created to cope with the digital demands prevalent now and those in the foreseeable future. Not only will the 5G connection have faster speeds, but it will also have a larger capacity for data.
While speed is important, the most important part of a mobile connection is the latency or the amount of time between asking for something and getting it. Consider the time it takes between you sending a text and your friend receiving it, or the time between pressing play on a video and it playing. 5G will use higher frequency bands and will utilize spectrums in a more efficient way, increasing speeds and capacity, while minimizing latency. 5G will also have lower power requirements and will introduce efficient and effective device-to-device communication.
Accessing the internet through a mobile device- it's nothing new but is something quite revolutionary as a whole. People have access to live news, friends across the globe, their current heart rate…these changes are influencing the way we live our lives. When 5G becomes an active network (and even now with some 4G), IoT won't be something that we reference; it will be ingrained in our habits and preferences. We have to implement this usage and our understanding into our events.
Facilitating these connections is going to be the most important part of our jobs. If my car can stop for me, why can't I connect with the presenter in front of me to ask a question? Expectations in the capabilities of tech will increase. WiFi is important while at an event but consider too the impact of the increased functionality your event app or website can have when attendees are on the road? They're not accessing the internet at home anymore. Anticipate that your event lives 24/7 and then ensure the capabilities at the event meet those already in place.


text:
Childhood eczema treatment may prevent asthma
Aggressive treatment of childhood eczema may help to prevent the onset of asthma, experts believe.
A study carried out at the University of Melbourne, Monash University and Menzies Research Institute in Tasmania found that people who had eczema during childhood are more likely to develop asthma, either in childhood or in later life.
'The incidence of asthma in people from the ages of 8 to 44 who had childhood eczema was nearly double that of people who had never had eczema,' revealed Dr John Burgess, lead author from the Melbourne School of Population Health.
The study, which is published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, followed more than 8,500 people from the ages of seven to 44.
According to Dr Burgess, it is the first study to demonstrate a link between childhood eczema and asthma into middle age and shows that eczema 'clearly precedes asthma in each later stage of life - later childhood, adolescence and adulthood'.
The expert called for trials of aggressive therapies against childhood eczema to help reduce the number of people who develop asthma later in life.
© Adfero Ltd
Probiotics 'don't prevent childhood asthma'
Pets could prevent childhood asthma
Sweat and tears may prevent asthma
TV may increase childhood asthma risk
Maternal probiotic use may prevent eczema in babies
Treatments for eczema


15 Responses to Happy Birthday, Jeff!
"Hey, it's Jeff's birthday today!
With colourful burning candles below, displaying the words "HAPPY BIRTHDAY".
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFF! And HAPPY 10th ANNIVERSARY yesterday to this blog!
I wish you all who happens to see this message a happy everyday as well!
Congratulations from a long time listener in Norway!
I really miss the dialogues you and Lucy performed.
But I have lots of dialogues in my archive.
has and why not with his family too.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFF dear professor and friend.
any news from Norway, and another from…..?
between Jeff and Lucy so they are with me always.
So Lily you never leave us at all?
That´s good, next journey I could do will be to Hong Kong…..
boy and his girl friend from Norway.
He was twice tall than me and I am 1,76 m tall………so?
It was very funny when I asked them, how do you manage?
Laugh a lot about the question.
Why are you not going to Oslo? they said to me.
Next trip I replied them.
I've learned a lot from your great explanations and comments in all the podcasts. I appreciate them much. Congratulations!
Happy birthday, thanks very much.
Thanks to all of you for your kind birthday wishes. It was especially nice to hear from some "veteran" listeners – thank you very much. Glad to hear you are all still well.
Although, passed a certain age people -and by people I mean me -:)prefer avoiding their birthday than celebrating it.
A huge fan of you and ur brain child -that is -our one and only eslpod.
And it is not socially sound to be the bearer of a bad news in the midst of birthday wishes and festivities.
The founder of play by " Hugh Hefner "died at the age of 91.
He indeed , championed a new era at the time when even saying the word " pregnant" on tv productions was deemed taboo.
He turned an illicit subject into a multimedia industry and in time slid it into mainstream dialogs.
I personally think, the idea he touted through 3/4 generations encouraged and empowered women to express themselves.
He was revolutionary and at times controversial.
Happy birthday, Jeff! I'm from Russia. I've been listening to your podcasts and reading the blog for many years. Today I dared to write here. I'm sorry I hadn't downloaded the podcasts, I thought they would be always available. I was so wrong. But anyway, happy birthday to you and thank you for your job!


text:
De Meule is een verdwenen korenmolen in Belfeld, tegenwoordig een stadsdeel van de Nederlandse gemeente Venlo.

De molen werd gebouwd in 1913 met als aandrijving een gasturbine.De molen is gebouwd in 1802 en werd gebruikt als korenmolen. De installatie bestond uit twee ketels en een turbine, waarbij in de eerste ketel steenkool werd vergast. In de tweede ketel werd het gas door houtkrullen gereinigd en vervolgens naar de turbine geleid. In 1970 kocht de gemeente Belfeld de molen op, waarna het pand werd gebruikt als jongerencentrum. Het pand werd uiteindelijk in 1976 gesloopt en het jongerencentrum verhuisde naar het gemeenschapshuis De Hamar. Op dezelfde locatie werd in 1988 het Muldersplein aangelegd, waarvan de naam verwijst naar de verdwenen molen. Twee op elkaar gestapelde molenstenen fungeren als herinneringsmonument aan de molen.

Molen in Venlo
Voormalige molen in Limburg (Nederland)
Voormalige korenmolen
Verdwenen molen


text:
#if defined(ARDUINO_ARCH_RP2040)

#include "WatchdogRP2040.h"

/**********************************************************************************************/
/*!
    @brief  Initializes the RP2040's hardware watchdog timer.
    @param    maxPeriodMS
              Timeout period of WDT in milliseconds
    @return The actual period (in milliseconds) before a watchdog timer
            reset is returned, 0 otherwise.
*/
/**********************************************************************************************/
int WatchdogRP2040::enable(int maxPeriodMS) {
  if (maxPeriodMS < 0)
    return 0;

  // Enables the RP2040's hardware WDT with maxPeriodMS delay
  // (wdt should be updated every maxPeriodMS ms) and
  // enables pausing the WDT on debugging when stepping thru
  watchdog_enable(maxPeriodMS, 1);

  _wdto = maxPeriodMS;
  return maxPeriodMS;
}

/**************************************************************************/
/*!
    @brief  Reload the watchdog counter with the amount of time set in
            enable().
*/
/**************************************************************************/
void WatchdogRP2040::reset() { watchdog_update(); }

/**************************************************************************/
/*!
    @brief  Once enabled, the RP2040's Watchdog Timer can NOT be disabled.
*/
/**************************************************************************/
void WatchdogRP2040::disable() {}

/**************************************************************************/
/*!
    @brief  Configures the RP2040 to enter a lower power (WFE) sleep
            for a period of time.
    @param    maxPeriodMS
              Time to sleep the RP2040, in millis.
    @return The actual period (in milliseconds) that the hardware was
            asleep will be returned. Otherwise, 0 will be returned if the
            hardware could not enter the low-power mode.
*/
/**************************************************************************/
int WatchdogRP2040::sleep(int maxPeriodMS) {
  if (maxPeriodMS < 0)
    return 0;

  // perform a lower power (WFE) sleep (pico-core calls sleep_ms(sleepTime))
  sleep_ms(maxPeriodMS);

  return maxPeriodMS;
}

#endif // ARDUINO_ARCH_RP2040

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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As soon as you unpack the Nuvanna, the scent goes off after a couple of hrs. Because it is made in America, you can be sure that all the materials sourced are of very top notch as well as fully licensed. The cushion goes through extensive examinations with regards to physical efficiency, environmental stewardship, as well as interior exhausts.
Nuvanna has actually developed the bed mattress to have a long-term cover. You are alerted versus removing the mattress cover because it makes the guarantee space. In instance it obtains filthy with spills or any kind of particles, merely find it tidy making use of a moderate cleaning agent and clean cold water. Do not massage it in. simply dab the area that has been influenced. Make certain to allow the cover completely dry completely before you can put it back on your bed. The manufacturer recommends that you use a bed mattress protector to ensure that you can keep the cover dry, clean as well as safe. A protector can be gotten rid of and washed whenever it obtains filthy.


الرئيسية / غير مصنف / The best way to produce a formal letter in Hindi?
The best way to produce a formal letter in Hindi?
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text:
https://orionmagazine.org:443/article/a-case-for-wonder/
Orion Magazine > Articles > Ecology & Science > A Case for Wonder
A Case for Wonder
by Christopher Norment
Child at Insect Zoo by David Lee, 1977 / Smithsonian Institution Archives.
IT'S AN EARLY MAY MORNING and the air is cool and still and filled with lambent light. I am out in a shrubby field, counting birds with three students from my field biology class. We're working our way through a small patch of brambles and wild rose, more concerned about the thorns ripping at our legs than the northern cardinal singing from a nearby black locust, when a song sparrow jumps up directly below my feet and skitters off into deep cover. There's an unmistakable whirr of wings that comes when an incubating or brooding bird flushes, so I know that we have stumbled upon an active nest. I kneel carefully, part a concealing canopy of vegetation, and discover a small cup of dried, amber-colored grass. Lying in the cup are a single egg and two newly hatched young, still wet and perhaps only an hour old. I reach into the nest and remove the egg and one of the young, to show the students. One of them, Mary, is worried: "Won't the mother bird abandon her nest if someone touches her nestling?" No, I explain, that's an old wives' (or husbands') tale, and the female will return after we leave. I've handled hundreds of nestling sparrows and have never known the parents to desert their young. And so we spend a few minutes looking at the delicate, pale blue-green egg, with its intricate pattern of reddish-brown blotches, and talking about the nestling, which is blind and almost naked, its only feathers a mohawk-like crown of down along the top of its head.
The nestling, which on its first day of life is little more than a belly and a beak, weighs about two grams—the rough equivalent of four raisins—but when it fledges in nine or ten days it will weigh ten times as much. I tell my students that nestling songbirds have the fastest growth rate of any vertebrate and then ask them to think about their own growth and how long it took them to double their weight after birth: five months, more or less. I say nothing about quantitative models of growth, about logistic curves, instantaneous rates of change, inflection points, or asymptotes—leave all of that for the classroom or another less numinous morning. Instead I simply ask them to marvel at what these tiny creatures can do: grow so quickly and survive the first ten days of life when they are essentially helpless and there are so many things out there that can kill them—starvation, drenching rain, biting flies, and a host of predators, from mice to snakes and crows. After we finish our small discussion I quote (a bit self-consciously) Gerard Manley Hopkins—"My heart in hiding / Stirred for a bird.—the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!"—then gently set the young bird and egg back in the nest.
We continue through the field, the morning a bit more beautiful, the brilliant air a bit more tinged with wonder.
I WAS HIRED TO TEACH at the College of Brockport in 1993, and since then I have done what the job announcement asked of me: taught courses on conservation biology and terrestrial vertebrate biology, and established a research program involving undergraduate and master's-level students. I have published more than forty papers in peer-reviewed journals, received many hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants and contracts, served on more academic committees than I care to remember, sent twenty-five master's students and countless undergraduates on to careers of their own, and written three books of creative nonfiction exploring our relationship to the natural world. It has been a hectic twenty-three years and sometimes there has been little opportunity to think deeply about what I am doing, why I do it, and most importantly, what it is that I want to teach my students. Just what is it that environmental science students should learn?
Well, there are the obvious things: sufficient background knowledge in their environmental science major, which encompasses ecology, chemistry, geology, statistics, and a smattering of the social sciences; a technical skill set that prepares them to compete successfully for employment or further educational opportunities; effective written and oral communication skills; and the ability to think critically about science and environmental issues.
All of these objectives are important, but beyond them there is one even more vital: the capacity for wonder. And wonder is a response to the world—to life!—that sustains intellectual creativity and nourishes our hearts and souls. Karl Barth once described theology as "necessarily the logic of wonders," and the same "logic" should suffuse education. If we can cultivate the capacity for wonder in ourselves, and if we can foster it in others, then we might step into a more compelling and magical world. Inhabiting such a place would grant us a particular kind of grace, in which the familiar would never grow old, the unfamiliar would burn with sudden brilliance, and our lessons would never be finished.
In other words, to fully comprehend and appreciate something as "common" as a nestling song sparrow is to participate in the essence of an educational (or scientific or artistic) process. That naked, helpless song sparrow, just now emerged from the egg: an outcome of five hundred million years or more of vertebrate evolution cupped in my hand, the seemingly endless spiral of time and blood and sex resulting in this young bird, which will grow more quickly than any other vertebrate and in two weeks (more or less) take to the air.
I sometimes believe that I would consider my career as a teacher successful if I consistently offered each of my students at least one opportunity to fully and directly confront wonder, and in doing so know and feel it in an intensely fundamental and personal—even if imperfect—way. Such an experience would fuel their intellectual curiosity and help them understand how lovely and important it is to cultivate their capacity for wonder. Directly confronting wonder and incorporating it into their hearts might even make my environmental science students more inclined to embrace classes that they typically find intimidating such as organic chemistry and statistics—for there is beauty in these subjects, if only they were given the space in which to see it. More opportunity for wonder would allow them, as young scientists, to more fully and competently encounter life in all of its brilliance, magnificence, and beauty, as well as its brutality and terror.
Take for example the phenomenon that I once observed in the Snowy Mountains of Australia—the way in which foraging ants would announce their discovery of a pipit nest, the first thin trickle tracking toward the nestlings, a trickle that quickly became an inevitable stream, the stream that I wanted to stop but could not, the stream that sometimes disturbed my thoughts for days, as I had been bitten by those same ants and so could understand the pain and imagine something of what those young birds' deaths would have been like. The only consolation in my understanding was my amazement that the Australian pipits would go on, in the face of it all, in a type of collective transcendence that offered some hope to me, and to the larger world.
Encounters with wonder would remind my students of how they might have been as a child, even in these many-fingered digital times—more inclined to awe, less jaded, more connected by sensory and visceral contact to the physical world. Rachel Carson understood how open children are to direct experience, how critical this capacity is to their education and well-being—and how this ability tends to diminish with age. In The Sense of Wonder Carson observed,
A child's world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantment of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.
Yes. If only we could retain and cultivate this sense of wonder, if only we could encounter the world in the way that I've seen when I band birds with fourth- or fifth-grade students, and let them hold a chipping sparrow or black-capped chickadee: the look of delight that comes to them when they cup the small bird in their hand and feel its heat, feel the thrum of its fear and pounding of its heart against their palm, or when they look into the dark iridescence of the bird's eye and see—what?—a reflection of themselves or some sheer otherness, an intimation of a greater world, a world that rises up when they open their hand and the bird climbs into the air and is gone. I've taught a few of these same students ten years later, and it makes perfect sense that they recall, with some excitement, the details of their bird-banding experience—for the sensory intensity of their contact, their wonder at the "mastery of the thing," had marked them in some small but indelible way.
But when I look at my junior- and senior-level college students during a lecture, or coax them into a discussion about what to me are the most astounding marvels—say the ability of a lungless salamander to survive for a year without eating, or how the body temperature of a hibernating arctic ground squirrel can fall to below freezing during hibernation—I rarely glimpse obvious traces of the excitement that I feel when I confront these phenomena. Instead I see my students scribbling hurried notes ("Will this be on the test?") or glancing at the clock on the wall or struggling to stay awake and focused. There's less of this ennui when students are out in the field—more engagement and excitement, perhaps driven in part by the sheer pleasure of being outside and part by relief from the relentless stream of information that pours forth from lectures, collaborative learning exercises, assigned reading, and the like, not to mention the requisite exams and lab reports.
But perhaps I am being deceived by what feels like the natural reticence of many who are drawn to science, their shyness in the face of deep emotion, the inability to express what we feel in the face of the world's complexity and beauty—tendencies that are further reinforced by our urge to quantify, standardize, and formulate, and an educational system that now emphasizes measurable student learning outcomes and appears to value information more than knowledge, and knowledge more than wisdom. For example, the New York State teaching standards on the Living Environment curriculum, standards that guide secondary-level instruction in the biological sciences, says nothing about cultivating in students an emotional response to life's great pageant. Wonder and a sense of the aesthetic are never mentioned since they are not amenable to measurement.
But how might we craft a curriculum of wonder and beauty? In The Sense of Wonder, Rachel Carson argues,
For the child, and for the parent seeking to guide him, it is not half so important to know as to feel. If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow. The years of early childhood are the time to prepare the soil. Once the emotions have been aroused—a sense of the beautiful, the excitement of the new and the unknown, a feeling of sympathy, pity, admiration or love—then we wish for knowledge about our emotional response. Once found, it has lasting meaning. It is more important to pave the way for the child to want to know than to put him on a diet of facts he is not ready to assimilate.
Carson is undoubtedly right, in that emotional affinity breeds a desire for knowledge, and facts devoid of an experiential context mean little. And yet. I believe that facts—the details of this world—are integral to our understanding of it, and a stimulus to wonder. Andrew Hipp, systematic botanist and curator of the Morton Arboretum, writes that "Natural history—like fiction or poetry—is truth by way of the particular." In an analogous way I would say that wonder—like natural history—is amazement by way of the particular. I have encountered the relationship between wonder and the particular in so many situations, from the discovery of a nestling sparrow in a shrubby New York field to the minute alpine willow species clinging to life on some wind- and sun-blasted alpine tundra, their flowering stems only two inches high, yet related to the seventy-foot-tall weeping willow growing in my New York backyard. Or take my encounter with the Cottonball Marsh pupfish, Cyprinodon salinus milleri, on the floor of Death Valley: amid a chaotic wasteland of slabs, cups, and pustules of gypsum and sodium sulfate salt, beneath a blinding light, enveloped by punishing heat, in a country too saline to nourish even pickleweed and saltgrass, there are tiny fish no more than one-and-one-half inches long, going about their business in a killing ground of salt and heat. It is stunning that these fish can exist in an environment that has been described as perhaps "the most extreme fish habitat in North America in terms of temperature and salinity." Perhaps it is sufficient to encounter them in their element, but it helps me to know that these tiny fish most likely evolved from an ancestral freshwater population some seven to nine million years ago, on the Mesa del Norte of Mexico, south of the Rio Grande. It helps me to know that these astounding creatures and their kin can tolerate salinities upwards of seventy-one parts per thousand and water temperatures of 107°F, and that they have high levels of heat shock proteins in their gills that probably help them tolerate the wide fluctuations in salinity that characterize their home waters. On and on these details flow—on and on, rising like the very atmosphere that envelops Cottonball Marsh and its pupfish, the extraordinary distance and depth of the Great Basin, the way in which this place (in the words of one biologist I know), "lays your soul bare," and likewise, the way in which these tiny fish and the facts that describe their existence, their presence in the world, lays my soul bare.
I REALIZE, though, that I have few clear ideas about how to "craft a curriculum of wonder." I have no new or vaguely radical pedagogy to propose, no concrete recommendations destined for The Journal of College Science Teaching. Mostly what I have is one admonition for my students: pay attention. In other words: Stop talking. Stop glancing at your iPhones and computer screens. Stop multitasking and thinking about where you would rather be. Instead, pay attention to the sensuous details of the world—the sinuous rise and fall of a Pleistocene esker, covered ten thousand years after the last glacial retreat by a blanket of shagbark hickory and sugar maples, white oaks and American beech, and the ways in which slope and aspect and sorted fluvial sediments, along with human and nonhuman history, have affected the vegetation along the esker. Pay attention to how the size and arrangement of the premolars distinguish a smoky shrew from a masked shrew, or to the side-to-side sway of a red-backed salamander across the forest floor, "a motion and a spirit" that can be traced back across hundreds of millions of years of evolution, to a time when its ancestors swam through Paleozoic seas.
Recently, after reading David Haskell's The Forest Unseen, in which he describes a year spent watching a one-square meter plot of old growth Tennessee forest, I attempted a similar but severely truncated version of his project in my field biology course. I asked students to stake out a one-square-meter patch of deciduous forest habitat and focus their attention on it for one hour, extending their observations from a few inches into the soil and leaf litter to the forest canopy. I left the instructions for the assignment deliberately vague (fool), and wanted nothing more from them than some detailed descriptions, a few "how" and "why" questions related to their observations, and one larger idea about a pattern or process occurring in their plot that they might later pursue via the scientific literature. In designing the assignment, I mostly wanted to create a space in which wonder might happen. A few went off into the forest on their own, and were quiet. They watched intently and later produced reports that were rich in detail and questions. But many were as restless as a six-year-old in time-out; they placed their squares close to one another, chattered back and forth, surreptitiously glanced at their phones, fidgeted, and repeatedly checked the time (no doubt wondering when their hour of enforced inactivity would end). These students' reports tended toward the vague, uninspired, and disengaged; they seemed as far away from wonder as Seattle is from Istanbul.
In the aftermath of my small experiment I was left disheartened and reminded of what I had already understood: that it takes years to cultivate a sense of wonder, that our educational system all too often shies away from engaging with wonder and with the question of how to instill this capacity in our children, and so nourish it in adults. But I will persist with the one-square-meter assignment and try it again in another class, with a more extensive set of rules: absolutely no "devices," plots at least thirty yards from one another, no watches, just a fifteen-centimeter ruler, hand lens, and notebook. And I will seek out other ways of encouraging curiosity in my students, through direct encounter with the world.
Just before beginning a unit on environmental physiology in my ornithology class I might take my students outside on a bitterly cold February day, when a Canadian gale is blowing hard out of the northwest. I'll have them watch mallards and ring-billed gulls for an hour, as the birds ride the freezing, wind-whipped waters along the canal near my college. Afterward, when the memory of the cutting wind and aching cold are still fresh in my students' minds and bones, when hypothermia is more than a strictly hypothetical concept—then I will have them delve into radiant heat exchange, thermal budgets, the insulating efficiency of feathers, and graphs depicting the relationship between ambient temperature, metabolic rate, and survival.
And I will keep thinking, explicitly, about how to foster in my students their desire to interact emotionally with the details of the world—not just because this capacity will make them better scientists and bring pleasure to their lives, but for a myriad of other reasons, two of which seem most crucial to me. The first of these is that a sense of wonder—cultivated by learning how to ask questions, paying attention to detail, and being still—serves as an antidote to the poisonous hubris of certitude. For "the practice of wonder" should at a minimum teach us that the world and our understanding of it are uncertain. The arrogance, bluster, and blind ideology that have become such a large part of our public/political discourse, promulgated across the cultural landscape via Facebook, Fox News, Twitter, Yik Yak, and a host of other "platforms," are poorly served by wonder. When Doug Peacock studied grizzly bears in the Yellowstone ecosystem he refused to take a gun with him because he wanted to learn humility in the face of an animal that could kill and eat him; as David Gessner writes, "Humility, Peacock came to believe, was the proper emotional backdrop for reason." In a similar way I believe that wonder is the proper emotional backdrop for an understanding tempered by the sheer beauty, mystery, and unpredictability of the natural world, a world exemplified by alpha predators, such as the grizzly bear, although equally so by a Cottonball Marsh pupfish.
The second reason involves the way in which wonder might help us deal with the pain and suffering that we all encounter in our lives, at some times and in some places—especially in our own mortality. In September of 1963, when she was much weakened by the breast cancer that would kill her eight months later, Rachel Carson and her close friend Dorothy Freeman spent a lovely morning by the Maine sea, watching migrating monarch butterflies feed on milkweed as they made their way south. Later that day Carson wrote Freeman a "postscript" about their experience:
But most of all I shall remember the Monarchs, that unhurried westward drift of one small winged form after another, each drawn by some invisible force. We talked a little about their migration, their life history. Did they return? We thought not; for most, at least, this was the closing journey of their lives.
But it occurred to me this afternoon, remembering, that it had been a happy spectacle, that we had felt no sadness when we spoke of the fact that there would be no return. And rightly—for when any living thing has come to the end of its life cycle we accept that end as natural.
For the Monarch that cycle is measured in a known span of months. For ourselves, the measure is something else, the span of which we cannot know. But the thought is the same: when that intangible cycle has run its course it is a natural and no unhappy thing that a life has come to its end.
That is what those brightly fluttering bits of life taught me this morning. I found a deep happiness in it—so, I hope, may you.
Near the end of her life Rachel Carson took some solace in the migration of monarch butterflies and the astonishment that they instilled in her, a response cultivated by a lifetime of right practice. Like Carson's experience with "those brightly fluttering bits of life," there was something important about the way in which my students and I encountered that brood of nestling song sparrows. But whatever occurred in that shrubby field—the way in which such an experience might impact my students and their response to the world—I am thankful that it remains completely beyond the reach of quantitative assessment, something that never will be encapsulated in any "student learning outcome":
"The environmental science student will demonstrate a passionate love for the natural world, as symbolized by a tiny bird."
"The environmental science student, when presented with a nestling song sparrow, will be consumed by awe."
"At the conclusion of their undergraduate education, the environmental science student will effectively articulate his or her ineffable appreciation for the beauty, stunning complexity, and tenacity of life, as evidenced by a nestling song sparrow."
"The departmental benchmark for successfully achieving Student Learning Outcome #7 is that 70 percent of the students will score 70 percent or better on the instruments designed to examine their ability to express wonder."
On and on and on and on.
We cannot quantify or "assess" wonder, and yet it is wonder that sustains intellectual and artistic creativity, nourishes the most active minds, and gives rise to the best professionals, no matter what their area of expertise. This wonder should be cultivated by textbooks and lectures, lab experiments and field studies, discussions and papers, creative performances and artistic works, internships and independent studies. In my field it should come from developing a rich appreciation for evolution and ecology, and biological form and function, but it is best found when you do something direct and physical, such as holding a tiny nestling in your hand on a beautiful May morning. Then you can marvel at its wholeness and how it grows into life despite its vulnerability, before setting it down, ever so gently, in its nest and continuing on into the lovely and widening day. And if this wonder finds a path into your mind and heart, which experience has made less solid and resistant, and so flourishes there—well, you are on your way toward getting an education and learning something vital about the life of a sparrow, and the ways of the world. And in this awakening it is possible to inhabit a world suffused with light and colonized by beauty, a world in which so many things burn brightly.
This article was developed in partnership with the Myrin Institute.
Christopher Norment is a professor of environmental science at the College at Brockport, State University of New York. In addition to many scientific articles, he has published four books of creative nonfiction.
November/December 2016 | October 13, 2017
Karen Harter on June 2, 2020
Mr. Norment is an inspiration for teachers, grandparents, parents, friends. Let us all be inspired to wonder by his exhortation to observe and ask curious questions. Rachel Carson would be proud that he carries on her legacy. Thank yu for the article. It reminds us of new ways to connect with nature and share with others. Karen
Daniel Francis on December 21, 2020
Three years later in a world filled with COVID, this article is a breath of truly "fresh" air. And yet, I wonder if Mr. Norment would also have us be in awe of the virus- how something so small (@500 can hide behind a human hair) has the ability to spread so efficiently (albeit with fatal consequences). After having read Bill Bryon's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" I know that I need humility and awe for what we too quickly think we understand… just because we can name it. Thank you for this excellent written and beautiful article.
Jill Ryder Friedman on December 21, 2020
What a wonderful perspective! I am an alum of SUNY Brockport, graduating from there in the mid-70s. I only wish I'd had an instructor like Christopher Norment to open my eyes to the wonder of various living beings and forms. It took me leaving the world of academia to discover and then experience wonder. I smiled at your attempts at unleashing wonder by having students "adopt" a section of the woods. A number of years ago, I suggested a similar idea to one of my daughters' teachers at the small school they were attending. My approach differed from yours a bit in that each student would find their spot; a spot where they would visit to observe during the entire academic year. During those visits, they would be aware of the subtle and major changes that took place there over time. Unfortunately, the suggestion wasn't taken. I trust that, in time, your students will catch on. After all, the send of wonder is contagious. All it takes is one person.


Feedback loops that may be characteristic of density-dependent mechanisms can be broken down into having first- or second-order dynamics. First-order dynamics occur over on a short timescale, with short lags (1-2 years) between the response of the herbivore population and the feedback mechanism. Second-order dynamics have pronounced time lags (3-5 years) between the mechanism and the effects on the herbivore population. Second-order dynamics can cause cycles, but may also result in more complex phenomena, such as chaotic (very dependent on initial conditions) and bounded fluctuations in population density. In general, ecologists believe that population cycles are caused by second-order or higher dynamics, since an appreciable time lag between the factor involved and the herbivore density is needed to produce periodicity in herbivore populations.
Some properties of herbivore populations themselves may cause negative feedback loops and thus may contribute to the maintenance of population cycles by causing or exacerbating the decline portions of the cycles. For example, increasing population densities may cause more competition for food or more aggression among conspeci-fics, leading to increased rates of mortality or decreased birth rates. Increased competition for shelter or mating sites may result in many individuals succumbing to prey or failing to recruit offspring into the next generation. These mechanisms, however, may not be sufficient to cause cycling, since there may be only short or even nonexistent time lags between consumption of food or space and subsequent reductions in herbivore densities. One prominent exception is the population cycles of Soay sheep populations on the St. Kilda archipelago off the coast of Scotland. This population goes through abrupt and somewhat regular fluctuations in number, and has been well documented for over 30 years. There are no predators or significant parasites on these islands, so starvation and regrowth of forage are thought to be the main driver ofthe cycles. Some recent analyses also conclude that growth of forage and concomitant starvation is also affected by climatic variables such as the North Atlantic Oscillation (NOA).
For herbivores, like the Soay sheep, an obvious limiting factor in the growth and maintenance ofpopulations is their food sources - plants. Population cycles of herbivores could be maintained if the plants that they feed on also undergo large fluctuations in their population densities. For example, defoliation of trees often reduces the quality and increases toughness of vegetation in following seasons. This phenomenon, coupled with the intrinsic rate of population growth of the herbivores, may result in a feedback loop in the population size of the herbivore. This feedback can be immediate or delayed, and thus characteristic of first- or second-order dynamics, depending on the particular system involved.
If plants were the sole determining factor in the cycling process, then herbivore densities should mirror closely the densities of their host plants with some time lag, and would thus have low-order dynamics (zero or first-order) This explanation, however, has not been supported by data since plant densities rarely undergo such drastic cycles as herbivores in any system. For example, the larch budmoth (Zeiraphera diniana) (LBM), which cycles approximately every 9 years, plant mortality is only around 1% after attack, and plant biomass is only reduced by 50% during the outbreaks. Thus, it seems unlikely that the drastic crashes in herbivore densities are due to a lack of food resource in this system.
Similarly, in a large data set of Fennoscandian voles, oscillations in population density are probably not caused by concomitant oscillations in plant abundance alone. Oscillations in these populations have characteristics of second-order dynamics with relatively long lags in response time. Again, if determining factor was available plant biomass for consumption, then there will be little time lag between the action of the herbivores and the decline in herbivore population densities.


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Posts Tagged 'Comet models'
That was the Warley that was '14, duplication is the name of the game… [Updated 28/11/14]
Posted in Exhibitions, General, Model News, tagged Adams Radial, Bachmann, Class 71, Class 73, Comet models, Dapol, Drummond 700 class, E4 Class, Graham Farish, Heljan, Hornby, Hornby 2015, Hornby 2015 announcement, Hornby Magazine, London & South Western Railway, Lynton and Barnstaple Railway, Model Rail Magazine, Model Signal Engineering, original Merchant Navy, PLV, PMV, Southern, Southern Railway, Southern Region, USA Tank, Wizzard models on November 24, 2014| 4 Comments »
Last weekend saw the annual Warley National Model railway Exhibition at the NEC, this post rounds up the news from a Southern / BR(s) perspective. As duplication seems to be the order of the day I have also duplicated part of the post title from one I have used before. It is usual for some manufacturers to use the event to make announcements of new items or showcase updates to new products under development. This year was no exception although Hornby make the unusual step of announcing part of their intended plans for 2015 at the show.
Many thanks to those of you who read this blog for popping by the Shortley Bridge and Felton Cement Works layout on the Hornby Magazine stand, where I was playing trains all weekend, and saying hello it was good to see you.
In making the unusual step of a pre-announcement announcement of their 2015 range Hornby are going head to head with two previously announced SR / BR(s) models from other manufacturers. This is likely to be due to the fact that they have been working on the development of these models for some time now, Simon Kohler discusses such duplication in his interesting blog on the Hornby website here (posted just before the Warley show). Some people may ask why manufacturers can not simply talk to each other to avoid such duplication but this of course would fall foul of anti competition laws.
Image copyright and courtesy A York
First up is the ex LSWR Adams Radial 4-4-2T, that was announced earlier this moth by Oxford Rail. Hornby had an Engineering Prototype on display they also had on display extracts from CAD drawings that show their intent to produce variations of Chimney and Boilers (Adams vrs Drummond) and also frame lengths, images of these can be found on the Hornby website here along with details of other non SR related items. Hornby advise that this model should be available late 2015. This particular prototype has finished high in recent wish list polls, hence the interest. I was also assisting another potential manufacturer of this model but this has now been sensibly replaced with another model instead, albeit non SR related, once the intent of the other parties was discovered.
An image of the initial Class 71 CAD
Secondly they also announced a BR(S) Class 71 3rd rail electric locomotive for delivery in 2016. This model has been previously announced by DJModels back in July using a kickstarter campaign hosted via the Kernow Model Railway Centre. only last week they confirmed that the required number of orders had been reached to allow the production of the model to go ahead.
In addition to the above announcements that also had livery samples of the ex LSWR Drummond 700 Class 0-6-0's on display.
Hornby will be announcing the full details of their 2015 range on the 17th December and I will bring you a round up all the specific SR and BR(s) information to you at the same time, having been briefed along with the rest of the model railway media at Margate a week before.
On the Bachmann stand were livery samples of their ex LBSC E4 on display in both Maunsell Pre 1931 lined olive green and also BR black versions.
The exhibition also saw for the first time the, only just arrived, Engineering Prototype of the Southern Passenger Luggage vans PLV/PMV's.
An initial image, a better one will be uploaded in due course
I am now also able to confirm that only one tooling [*update 28/11/14 below] for these vans is being introduced to despite their catalogue and website that mixing the terms PLV/PMV and CCT they are not producing a Southern Van U (BR designation CCT) with the end opening doors. Further information about these vans and the various can be found on my Talking Stock #6 post SR Luggage Vans which is based on the kits that this RTR version will now also kind of duplicate.
No new SR related news to be had as they were showing the same first off Engineering samples of the N class and original style third series Merchant Navy Bulleid pacific that we have seen before, this does not of course mean that no further progress has been made behind the scenes.
Model Rail Magazine
Model Rail Magazine announced a further two livery versions of their USTC/SR USA 0-6-0T model commissioned via Bachmann, in the form of: MR105 N0. 300 'Major-General Frank S. Ross' in Longmoor Military Railway blue and MR106 No. DS233 in department black with post 1956 BR emblem, these and the previously announced models can be pre-ordered here although Model Rail advise that If you want a 'USA tank' you need to be quick placing your pre-order as one livery has already sold out and others are nearly all sold. Away from the show I have been privileged to have assisted in the reviewing of the CADs for these models and they are now very close to going for tooling.
Dapol had on display various model samples for models first announced back in 2012 :
In N gauge, livery samples of their Maunsell coaches in SR Olive Green along with the Van C.
In 4mm scale they had the latest Engineering prototypes of both versions of the Class 73 Electro Diesel (73/0 – JA and 73/1 – JB). It appears that the 73/0 variant might be available first, even though to date they have only announced 73/1 versions!
For 0 Gauge modellers the first liveried sample of the Terrier was on display in Brighton livery.
On their stand in addition to livery samples of the 05 Class diesel shunter (one of the prototypes of course was outposted on the Isle of Wight for quite some time) they had the kit of parts that will make up their 009 ready to run Lynton and Barnstaple 2-6-2 Exe, Tor and Yeo locomotives.
Comet Models
Following the untimely passing of proprietor and friend Geoff Brewin, in September, his family are pleased to announce that the entire extensive range of locomotive chassis, coach kits and detailing items has now been successfully sold to Andrew Hartshorne of Wizard Models (and Model Signal Engineering), welcome news indeed. The transfer is planned to take place over the weekend of the 5th – 7th December inclusive, and Andrew hopes to open for trade of Comet items on Monday December 8th.
So all in all a very busy Warley show, with many announcements made, including those of interest to modellers of other railways. I am sure some will have ongoing ramifications within the model railway world, including no doubt some conspiracy theories, interesting times ahead I feel…
[*update 28/11/14]
I have now received a further clarification from Bachmann with respect to the tooling being produced for the PLV/PMV and they have advised the following:
The first engineering samples of the forthcoming Bachmann Branchline Southern Utility Vans were displayed at the 2014 Warley Show. Two bodies have been tooled for these models which cover the Southern PMV which have one vent at each end (item Nos. 39-525, 39-526 & 39-527); whilst the second tooling portrays a CCT vehicle which has been converted to a PMV, this is evident from the sealed end doors with four vents at each end (item No. 39-528). An image of such a vehicle can be found at http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/srcct/h1552e6d6#h1552e6d6. The image used in the 2014 Bachmann Branchline catalogue for item No. 39-528 incorrectly shows a standard PMV. I trust this clarifies the situation.
Thanks to Bachmann for the clarification over and above what I was informed by them at Warley.


For example, in the movie when Rubin was a child, he was in a park with a bunch of his friends when an older white man tried to kidnap his friend. Rubin threw a bottle at him, and it shattered upon contact with his head. When he tried to flee, the man grabbed him and tried to throw him over a cliff. In self-defense Rubin pulled out a pocketknife and stabbed him. When he was Questioned, Della Pesca just assumed that he stabbed him because he was robbing him. The only reason he assumed this was because he was racially profiling. And because of that Rubin was sentenced to 10 years at a boys home.
Then when after the murders were committed, the police officers pulled over Rubin just because one of the witnesses said she saw two Negros' in a white care, which described him and John Artis. Even though he had any alibi and had no motive to commit the murders, they knew they would bring him down to see if the victim recognized him. When the police officers first pulled over the car and told him what had happened, his first response was "Any two will do?" And the truth was, that back then he was right because any two would have been good.