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Black and White: A look into Malaysia's police brutality
Malaysian Students' Global Alliance
Growing up watching Gerak Khas and having family members as police officers, I wanted to become a police officer myself when I was six. The ambition only changed because I found physical exercises too tiring and preferred talking, sitting, and snacking instead, all of which I didn't think fit with the job description. Regardless, I still held high opinions towards police officers. After all, they were the good guys. They arrest bad guys and keep everyone safe. But as I grew older and realised that the world is not black and white, my views on police officers too, changed. Increasing insights on cases of police brutality globally showed me, and the world at large, that when power is given to the wrong people with lack of scrutiny, things can get ugly real quick.
Cases in 2020
While there were many cases of police brutality worldwide this year with perhaps the most prevalent case being the death of George Floyd in May, there were sinister and troubling cases even back home. Arguably the biggest case that put Malaysia on the global pedestal was the raid on Al-Jazeera's office on the 4th of August following a documentary by the news agency on the treatment of migrants in Malaysia during the outbreak of the pandemic. The raid was only one act in a series of protests from authorities which included the arrest and deportation of an immigrant who was interviewed in the documentary. The polices' act was backed by authorities and legislation under the Communications and Multimedia Act for defamation and sedition. This led to outrage from the international community including Amnesty International and the Community to Protect Journalists, all ignored by the Malaysian government. It is uncanny that the violent crackdown by the authorities only solidified the claims made against them, the very ones which they are trying to deny.
On the topic of death in custody, between 2002 and 2016, there were 257 deaths reported by the Home Ministry. However, only a quarter of that number is made known to the public. This year alone saw multiple cases being brought to light. The pandemic arguably worsened the situation when it was used as an excuse not to carry out a post-mortem on the deceased G Jestus Kevin who passed away in custody in Bentong early April. The death of V. Mugilarasu in July while being held in Sungai Buloh prison also raised concerns when the deceased's brother who identified the body noticed bruises, swellings in the arm, and bloodstains in the mouth of the remains.
More recently, in a heartbreaking case prior to Deepavali, 29 Malaysian-Indian men were detained for two months by the police despite the court's order to release the men. In late September, the group was arrested after a shooting incident near a school in Banting. When that failed, the group was rearrested for a murder that happened in 2016. At least two magistrates have disallowed the remand. SUARAM consequently accused PDRM of practising 'chain remand' — a series of arrests under different charges to circumvent limitations. On 13 November, PDRM released a statement that their investigations found that the 29 men were part of an illegal mafia society, and their detainment is justified for the harmony of society. Even if this is true, it is doubtful that such 'convincing evidence' did not hold up in court and thus should not be depended on especially for charges that will affect the lives of these individuals long term.
The Ties to Race
Earlier this year I was invited to the birthday party of a Qatari friend who is currently pursuing tertiary education in Malaysia. My plus one and I were the only Malaysians there, with everyone else largely coming from Egypt, Nigeria, and Bangladesh. While waiting for the birthday boy to arrive (it was a surprise party), I quickly made friends with everyone else. Though I knew nobody beforehand, their politeness and friendliness made it easy to interact with them. It was particularly hilarious when I found out that they were all part of the international student body in their university. Two of their lecturers even attended the party! Safe to say, it was the most decent and law-abiding adult birthday party I ever attended. I asked them what it was like to study in Malaysia and their responses broke my heart.
"We would get pulled over for no reason, and if we didn't have our identity cards with us, we would be threatened to be jailed. One of us would plead, and the police officer would ask if we had money. So we would just pay. One time, we did have our identity cards, he took one look at it and threw it to the ground then walked away."
"I remember one time my friends and I were just stopped and the police officer immediately asked us 'where are the drugs?' We were so confused, especially since none of us actually do drugs. He searched us thoroughly, even cutting open all our cigarettes to make sure. He was so angry when he didn't find anything."
"My visa expired but I carried with me a letter from the embassy explaining that it was being renewed. I showed it to the police officer but he would not have it. He asked me to get in the car and started to raise his voice and threatened me. I called a Malaysian friend and after a while I was released. It was so scary."
I grew up hearing people say Malaysians are a friendly lot. That day I realised, we were only friendly to certain foreigners, who looked rich, clean, mostly whites.
It's easy to think "No, this isn't about race." Only there's no other explanation for the rudeness that these students experienced. Would a Malay be treated the same way? Doubted and threatened just for how they looked? When our students are harassed overseas for being different either for their religion or race, we cry out and protest. At home, we do the same to these foreign students.
Should we be surprised at all? I mean, systemic racism exists amongst our own people, so why should we treat others any better?
We cannot rule out that the three cases of police brutality outlined above had links to racism as well. The Al-Jazeera raid can be viewed as police trying to silence attempts made to bring light on racism against immigrants in Malaysia. Though there are more Malays who died in custody, the fact that Malaysian-Indians who make up just under 7% of Malaysia's population comprised almost a quarter of official deaths in custody shows that there is a disconcerting link between race and death in custody. Finally, PDRM's unfounded belief that the 29 detainees are in fact criminals could be based on the generalisations that Malaysian-Indians are violent people. As ugly as it sounds, it is important to look into the mirror and seriously consider these notions. It is only through acknowledgements that we can move forward.
I would sound like a broken record but genuinely the first step is to talk about these issues. We do not and should not wait for police brutality to be caught on camera like it did with George Floyd before standing up in solidarity with all those who have suffered. Racism should not be a taboo topic in Malaysia. Standing up against authorities should not come with the fear of being caught. Not acknowledging such issues would prevent any solution from being reached. We need to have discussions, real discussions, on how we are treating minorities in Malaysia and the unchecked power we give to authorities. How do we increase accountability and transparency in PDRM? More importantly, how do we solve the issue of systemic racism in Malaysia, not just to avoid police brutality but other types of inhumane acts in Malaysia by authorities and individuals alike? Why is it so that after six decades, we continue to focus on the differences of skin colour and cultural practices rather than the glaring similarity that we are all humans?
The pandemic came and hopefully will one day leave. But the people of Malaysia are here to stay. Life continues. We have allowed systemic racism to flourish in Malaysia for too long. We cannot hide behind the veil of the pandemic any longer, claiming it as a reason to not address issues as dire as police brutality and systemic racism in the country. The irony is that our people are hurting and dying at our own hands. Their voices must be heard.
By: Zulaikha binti Zainal Efendi
Vice President of Advocacy 2019/2020
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Back to Ron Teeguarden
Ron Teeguarden Article Collection
SKU: Teeguarden-bundle
A collection of 7 back issues that feature articles from Ron Teeguarden, Master Herbalist, Master Daoist, and co-owner of Dragon Herbs.
Below is a brief description of his articles in each issue. And of course, you get each back issue which includes all the other articles.
Autumn 2003: "Your Lungs—The Source of Qi and the Seat of Wisdom"
Asian masters have long observed life from an energetic and functional point of view. They have come to recognize a number of profound functions associated with the lungs and with breathing, most of which are not generally noticed by the layman, especially in the West. By understanding how the lungs work, what they do, what they influence and how to develop them, it is possible to radically improve one's life.
Winter 2003-2014: "Your Kidneys—The Root of Life"
The Kidney as defined by the Chinese is not the same as that of Western anatomy and physiology. According to Chinese philosophy an health sciences, the Kidney determines the power and length of one's life.
Autumn 2007: "The Importance of the Three Treasures—And Why All Daoists Have Used Tonic Herbs to Nurture Them"
It is highly probable that every Daoist practitioner that ever lived in Asia (China, Korea, Japan, etc.) consumed certain tonic herbs, either regularly or from time to time. Why? Did these adepts take herbs just so they could have more energy so they could accomplish their daily tasks? Did they take tonic herbs to handle the stress encountered in life? Did they take them to overcome health challenges? No. They took (take) tonic herbs to nurture the fundamental "energies" of life.
Winter 2015-2016: "Part 1: The Importance of Chinese Tonic Herbs"
Part 1 of 2 parts: Tonic herbs are fundamental tools for attaining glowing health. In the Orient, the term "glowing health" was traditionally used by Daoists (Taoists) to connote "health beyond danger." It is a state of health where the body, mind and spirit are performing optimally and harmoniously, and as a result one's resistance to stress, microbes, adverse environmental factors and toxins is tremendously enhanced. When one has achieved "glowing health," we are free to follow our path, to practice, grow and develop, unhindered by annoyances like most disease and pain, excessive adversity and mayhem. By Ron Teeguarden, Master Herbalist
Spring 2016: "Part 2: The Importance of Chinese Tonic Herbs"
Part 2 of 2 parts (Part 1 is in Winter 2015-2016 issue)
Winter 2016-2017: "It's All About the Water"
Jing Qi Shen Xuan Guan—This Daoist phrase translates as "The Three Treasures—Jing, Qi and Shen—are the entrance to the state of conscious immortality." The Jing of Water— The Water Element is directly associated with Jing, the Kidneys and the maintenance of Life. The Qi of Water—Water moves, carries energy, oxygen, minerals and nutrients, all of which are needed to make and maintain Qi. Water has Qi or it is dead. Stagnant water will decay. Moving water will become enlivened. Water can serve as a model for living, but since we are mostly water, it has a very practical and profound influence on our corporeal life, how we live and ultimately on whom we are. People commonly say "we are what we eat." But being at least 75% water, maybe "we are the water that we consume"is amore accurate truism.
Winter 2019-2020: "The Wondrous Cycle of Qi Transformation or, How Life Works"
Like that of all life on earth, your life is based on energy transformation. Your biochemistry is a nearly infinitely sophisticated and nuanced energetic dynamo. Chemical energetic bonds are built and broken, storing and releasing energy trillions of times a moment in your body. This all happens in an ever-changing environment that requires constant adaptation by your body so that you can thrive for decades. Insightful geniuses recognized this thousands of years ago in China, and these sages defined life in terms of the energetics central to our life.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Yemen: 24 Baha'i people, including a child, facing possible death penalty
18 September 2018, 11:02 UTC
Responding to news that 24 Yemenis from the Baha'i faith - including eight women and a child – are facing charges that could result in death sentences by the Huthi-controlled Specialized Criminal Court in Sana'a, Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International's Middle East Director of Research, said:
"Once again, we are seeing trumped up charges and flagrantly unfair proceedings used to persecute Yemeni Baha'is for their faith. And it is particularly abhorrent that some of these men and women could face the death penalty for their conscientiously held beliefs and peaceful activities.
Once again, we are seeing trumped up charges and flagrantly unfair proceedings used to persecute Yemeni Baha'is for their faith
Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International's Middle East Director of Research
"The group, which includes a teenage girl, were charged with various serious offences including espionage for foreign states, some of which can carry the death penalty. The Huthi authorities should drop these bogus charges, release those who are arbitrarily detained and end their abuse of the justice system to punish freedom of belief and persecute political critics, journalists, activists, Baha'is and other minorities."
Since 2015, Amnesty International has documented a number of incidents in which members of the Baha'i community in Yemen were detained by the Huthi authorities. At the moment, six Baha'is are detained by the Huthis in Yemen, including some who have been subjected to enforced disappearances, torture and incommunicado detention.
In January 2018, the Huthi authorities sentenced 52-year-old prisoner of conscience Hamid Haydara to death for allegedly collaborating with Israel and forging official documents. This sentence came after Hamid Haydara had been detained since December 2013, and was the result of a fundamentally flawed process, including trumped up charges, an unfair trial and credible allegations that he was tortured and ill-treated in custody.
Libya Peace Summit: Berlin talks must prioritize accountability for war crimes
Bahrain: Further Information: Death Sentences Upheld Again On Appeal


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The Global Fight for Your Right to Repair
sally belita
28 июня 2022 г., 10:05:57 MSK
From smartphones to cars to crucial medical equipment, technological advances have brought with them anti-competitive practices that leave consumers dependent on manufacturers long after they've paid. In response, a movement for the right to repair has been on the rise. That said, car manufacturers may void the warranty on a part if it is damaged due to the use of inferior parts or faulty workmanship, so it is advisable for motorists to ensure that when using independent service providers, they're reputable operators. Still, this is a significant step for the "right to repair" movement, which has been steadily gaining ground around the world over the past decade, as more and more companies have been accused of anti-competitive behaviour.
What is the right to repair?
When you buy phone replacement parts something, you should have the right to repair it, whether that means taking it to the repair shop of your choice or fixing it yourself. Manufacturers of all kinds of things smartphones, tractors, wheelchairs, and beyond unfairly limit their customers' repair options, making repair more expensive and difficult, writes Elizabeth Chamberlain for the website, iFixit, a leading pioneer in the right-to-repair movement. She goes on to describe the right-to-repair movement as a broad international effort working to secure our repair options and prevent limitations. "Right-to-repair laws have three main goals: preserving the right to open your stuff, increasing the availability of the parts and tools you need, and keeping independent repair shops in business," she adds.
Is it really yours if you can't open it without the manufacturer's permission?
Apple in particular has been repeatedly called out by proponents of the movement for making its computers and smartphones nearly impossible to repair without using the company's own services or tools, as well as for installing restrictive software, or binding consumers to contracts that severely restrict their right to repair their own products. Back in 2009, the company introduced the pentalobe screw to their MacBook pro, as a fastener for the battery. The screw head had five rounded points, and at that time there was no screwdriver available that could fit it perfectly. This meant that the only way consumers would ever be able to repair anything in the machine that required unscrewing the battery, would be to go through Apple itself. By 2011, a smaller version of the screw appeared on the iPhone 4's exterior, effectively blocking users and independent repairers from opening the phones.
Decisions like custom phone case these are often defended by manufacturers as being for security reasons, especially as our phones increasingly hold sensitive information. In 2016, thousands of iPhone 6 users found themselves with useless phones after an Apple iOS update detected that they had their phones repaired at an unauthorised shop. The software update immediately bricked the phones, making them unusable. All users got was an "Error 53" on-screen message. A public outcry ensued, Apple apologised, provided an upgrade to fix the problem, and released a statement that said in part: "We apologise for any inconvenience, this was designed to be a factory test and was not intended to affect customers." However, initially, the company told some customers they would have to pay for a replacement iPhone. In fact, this led the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to commence a legal battle with Apple in 2017, which it won in 2018, and Apple had to pay a AU$9-million fine for its actions.
Still more recently, some were reminded of the 2016 incident in November 2021, when it turned out that the Apple's latest phone, the iPhone 13, completely disabled Face ID if users replaced the screen with an independent repairer. Tech website, The Verge, reported at the time that "repair experts found that swapping out iPhone 13 screens would break Face ID unless you also moved over a tiny control chip from the original screen. It's a complex process that makes one of the most common types of repairs prohibitively difficult for independent repair shops. (Apple-authorised repair shops, on the other hand, have access to a software tool that can make a phone accept a new screen.)" Notably, the screen was not part of the camera set-up to enable Face ID. Once again, after a public outcry, Apple announced that it would issue a software update to prevent the problem.
The wholesale phone repair parts company is also connected to various lobbying efforts to fight legislation that would allow customers to repair their devices independently.
As reported in a May 2021 article published by Bloomberg, Microsoft and Apple Wage War on Gadget Right-to-Repair Laws, 27 US states were considering right-to-repair bills pushed by a cadre of small business owners, hobbyists and activists across the country in 2022. However, by May 2021, more than half had already been voted down or dismissed. "Microsoft's top lawyer advocated against a repair bill in its home state. Lobbyists for Google and Amazon.com Inc. swooped into Colorado this year to help quash a proposal. Trade groups representing Apple Inc. successfully buried a version in Nevada. Telecoms, home appliance firms and medical companies also opposed the measures, but few have the lobbying muscle and cash of these technology giants," reports Bloomberg.
The article points to Apple as being particularly effective compared with the other companies: "Lobbyists representing the iPhone company discreetly told colleagues that it would be willing to endorse repair programmes at local colleges in exchange for killing the bill… Unlike Microsoft, Apple often lets hired guns or trade groups do its advocacy. In New York, an Apple-backed association, the Security Innovation Center, sent around talking points opposing a right-to-repair bill in 2018. Such legislation 'would have gifted hackers with digital keys to thousands of internet-connected products'," read the document viewed by Bloomberg News." Apple succeeded and the New York bill in question never even made it to a vote. At another meeting, Apple's lobbyists reportedly brought an iPhone to the meeting with legislators and legislative aides, and proceeded to show them the internal components and claimed that "consumers who are trying to fix their own iPhone could hurt themselves by puncturing the lithium-ion battery".


With next week's Delta Dental Association Conference right around the corner, now is a great time to think about scheduling a brief meeting with Vlocity to learn more about digital transformation, the industry cloud, and to hear how we're helping Delta Dental of Wisconsin modernize their Quote-to-Card experience.
A diverse range of associates, partners, stakeholders, and providers will be converging on Seattle to attend Delta's Tactical Skills Conference and learn how the organization is simplifying processes and maintaining its position as the nation's leading dental benefits provider. Attendees can expect informative presentations, industry-leading speakers, and an open forum to discuss ideas and strategies regarding the state of health care, including the latest innovations and technologies. While there, Vlocity welcomes an opportunity to meet with you to discuss your business needs and demonstrate how our industry-specific apps are changing the game in Health Insurance.
Today, there is a multitude of challenges facing health and dental providers – skyrocketing expenses, poor user experience at the broker and patient level, and a heavily competitive environment that results in customer churn – but there are also solutions. Vlocity combines deep domain expertise with decades of software delivery to build the cloud platform for Health Insurance, supporting Large and Small Group, Individual Qualified Health Plans, Dental, Medicare and Medicaid/CHIP lines of business.
Tapping the cloud for operational agility, Vlocity Dental Insurance–specific applications deliver a consistent, connected and holistic customer experience for sales, service, and claims. Built natively and additively on the Salesforce Platform—the world's # 1 Customer Success Platform—Vlocity's suite of apps provide powerful opportunities for companies looking to expand and enhance their customer experience. As a pre-built dental insurance Front Office in the Cloud, Vlocity is easy to integrate and configure – with drag and drop functionality and no coding required – providing a streamlined, omnichannel approach that enables increased customer-centric interactions—all from the cloud.
With a deep ecosystem of partners and products and a bedrock commitment to customer service, Vlocity is at the forefront of digital transformation in the Dental Insurance sector. Industry-leading companies such as Delta Dental of Wisconsin, MetLife Dental, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia, , Indiana University Health Plans, Harvard Pilgrim Health Plans, and more all use Vlocity cloud software to deliver a superior omnichannel customer experience across traditional and digital channels.
We hope you'll stop by our booth #4 during Delta Dental Plans Association Conference to hear more about how Vlocity is helping Dental Dental of Wisconsin deploy next-generation software to help them transform their business.
At Vlocity, Riley leads the health business in its effort to help healthcare companies modernize their customer-facing capabilities using Vlocity and the Salesforce Cloud platform. With two decades of CRM experience, Riley created the methodology for designing healthcare business decisions into CRM platforms. He has designed and delivered CRM solutions for some of the largest health companies in the world including, CareCentrix, United Healthcare, Florida Blue, GuideWell, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island, CIGNA, Trizetto, One Call Care Management, Life Line Screening, and RediClinic. Before his role at Vlocity, Riley held executive leadership positions for health companies ranging from convenient care to health insurance. He served as the first Chief Innovation Officer (CINO) at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida Inc. (Florida Blue). As such, Riley was one of the first CINO's in the American health insurance industry. While at Florida Blue, he was also the President and CEO of GuideWell Inc.


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Bagley House in Hinsdale, Illinois, is at risk
The Frederick Bagley House (1894) is listed for sale with no legal protections to safeguard it from demolition and redevelopment.
Bagley House historic photo by Gilman Lane, courtesy of Oak Park Public Library - Special Collections
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This is an evolving situation. We will make updates as we learn more.
A unique and irreplaceable early work by Frank Lloyd Wright is at risk in Hinsdale, Illinois. The Frederick Bagley House, designed in 1894, is for sale by @properties to a limited audience, with a pre-plan review on file with the Village of Hinsdale that shows the lot's expansion or redevelopment potential. Offers will be reviewed beginning Monday, July 26. The house has no legal protection to prevent it from being torn down, and this opportunity is very attractive to developers who would demolish the home in order to build a larger house. This practice is common in Hinsdale and has already happened on the lots immediately to the north and south of the Bagley House.
The Dutch Colonial house, while it may not appear on the surface to have connections with Wright's later Prairie and Usonian period work, is an important product of the early years of his independent practice after he left the firm of Adler & Sullivan. In these years he explored numerous forms and design motifs that would surface in his UNESCO World Heritage-listed works Unity Temple and Robie House a little over a decade later.
Bagley House in 2016, photo by Patrick Mahoney, AIA
Significant in its own right, several elements of the Bagley House display manifestations of Wright's larger body of work. The first-floor plan of its main block is a close variation of Wright's own Oak Park home (1889), designed just a few years before. Even more notable is the Bagley House's octagonal library, which extends to the south from the house's main block. It is a clear precursor of Wright's own Oak Park Studio library (1898).
Bagley House in 2018, courtesy of Douglas M. Steiner, Edmonds, WA
The vulnerability of this significant work of an architect of recognized international importance demonstrates the precarious status of historic structures in affluent areas. The Bagley House is a vital part of Wright's canon and its loss would be tragic for the Wright community, historians and architecture lovers everywhere.
This house needs a sensitive preservation-minded buyer who will purchase and legally protect the building for the future. With local landmark designation, a rehabilitation could qualify for the Illinois Property Tax Assessment Freeze. The lot could accommodate a sensitive addition.
We strongly encourage those interested in the future of this house to reach out to the Village of Hinsdale to express their concerns:
Thomas Cauley, Jr., Village President, tcauley@sidley.com
Kathleen A. Gargano, Village Manager, kgargano@villageofhinsdale.org
Please help us spread the word about this threat. Share this page or our posts about the house on social media. And be sure to send it to any preservation-minded potential buyers!
Exploring the George Smith House
This early Wright house is on the market for the first time in 60 years
Bagley House in Hinsdale, Illinois, sold to preservation-minded buyers
Swift Conservancy advocacy campaign facilitates sale.
Buffalo Landmark Designation Efforts Meet Resistance
Owners of the Wright-designed Heath House (1903) and Davidson House (1908) object...


It's not an official endorsment…..
To be done and the plan.
For this to have any chance of working a full size prototype is required.
The electronics and software are fairly straight forward, building the rotating base not a huge challenge and the mecanum wheels are availble online to buy, albeit slightly expensive.
The main issue is the panels. Getting them made and paying for them… I am under no illusions that they're going to be rather expensive. Probably a couple of grand for several sets worth.
The plan breaks down into two main parts now, I need to get a quote for how much they will cost and then see who wants to see them made.
Normally you'd make a kickstarter and start offering t-shirts and widgets to get it done but I believe I have a more cunning method of financing the project. Star citizen alone has 500k people waiting for the game, so instead of offering them a over priced (and frankly worthless (on it's own)) panel, I say I'll make a prototype for Cloud Imperium Games in the UK. If I do this for Eve Valkyrie and Elite Dangerous, and let the oculus rift crowd know, I could probably find a million gamers to chip in the equivalent of a few cents each to get some prototypes made.
I also need a model prototype working to show the principles too as well as printing the mecanum wheel I already designed.
I originally started off designing a six degrees of freedom joystick for a few upcoming space games : Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen since there weren't any available.
I ended up creating something that worked and interfaced fine in windows but I still wasn't completely happy.
After rejecting the idea of using a standard stewart platform as an input at the beginning of the project I went back to take another look.
Using cheap (£4 per meter) material and wiper motors I could possibly produce a kit giving about 40cm of heave motion and about 90 degrees of roll and pitch. The problem was it looked quite ugly and would need some major modifications to be made completely safe.
I went back to the idea drawing board.


Six Flags Magic Mountain can boast that it holds the world record for most roller coasters in an amusement park — with 18 and counting! Fortunately, we all get to share in the reward. The park, located in Valencia, California, is just a hop, skip and a jump away from Los Angeles.


CN-COSPAR stands for Chinese National Committee for COSPAR. The name of CN-COSPAR is self-evident that the Chinese national committee works in the framework of COSPAR.
The committee on Space Research (COSPAR) was established by the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) in 1958. The ICSU initiative to create COSPAR is to "provide the world scientific community with the means whereby it may exploit the possibilities of satellites and space probes of all kinds for scientific purposes, and exchange the resulting data on a cooperative basis."
The Current President of COSPAR is Prof. G. F. Bignami and the Vice President of COSPAR is Prof. WU Ji, Director General of National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NSSC, CAS).
China joined COSPAR on March 1, 1993 and the current President of CNCOSPAR is YIN Hejun, Vice President of CAS.
The Secretariat of CNCOSPAR locates in NSSC, CAS and the current Secretary General is Prof. WU Ji. There are 64 CNCOSPAR members who are from the major research institutes and universities in the field of space in China.
As the COSPAR Assembly is held on even years, CN-COSPAR hold biennial meetings on odd years to summarize the previous work and organize the preparation work for attending the COSPAR Assembly, including arranging the Space Science Activities in China—National Report, briefing the recent activities of COSPAR etc.
CN-COSPAR has organized the 36th COSPAR Assembly which was held in Beijing, 16-23 July, 2006.
CN-COSPAR, with support of NSSC, organizes COSPAR Capacity Building Workshops in the framework of COSPAR.
CAS/COSPAR Jeoujang Jaw Award is one of the eight COSPAR awards. The CAS/COSPAR Jeoujang Jaw Award recognizes scientists who have made distinguished pioneering contributions to promoting space research, establishing new space science research branches and founding new exploration programs. CN-COSPAR Secretariat organizes review meeting by inviting Chinese space experts to select the candidates of CAS/COSPAR Jeoujang Jaw Award.
CNCOSPAR is responsible for the publication of the biennial national report of Space Science Activities in China, which encompasses Manned Space Program, Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, Chinese Meridian Project and Chinese Earth Observation Program etc.
CN-COSPAR also releases annual report to present the activities of CN-COSPAR and feature the major events of the year.
JIANG Jingshan; AI Guoxiang; HU Wenrui; WANG Shui; OUYANG Ziyuan; GONG Huixing; LIU Zhenxing; TU Chuanyi; LV Daren; LI Tipei; GU Yidong; WU Yirong; GUO Huadong; XU Ronglan; XIAO Zuo; YUAN Jiajun; WU Yansheng; LI Yinghui; LI Yinghui; WANG Xianmin; WANG Jianyu; WANG Weihua; GAN Weiqun; YAN Yihua; LI Guoping; CHEN Hongbin; YU Yude; CHEN Nuofu; DOU Xiankang; WANG Chi; WANG Jingsong; CAO Jinbin; FANG Guangyou; WANG Shijie; FENG Xueshang; WANG Shijin; DONG Xiaolong; ZHAO Hua; LU Feng; JIANG Luhua; GAO Ming; LONG Mian; SUN Yeqing; CAI Guobiao; LI Ming; ZHANG Bainan; CHAI Chunlin; ZHOU Zhixin; CHANG Jin; FENG Ji; WEI Jianyan; ZHANG Tao; DING Mingde; LI Chunlai; HUANG Maohai; XUE Hongwei; LIU Lin; XU Minqiang; DENG Yulin.


Mickey Pearce is the latest young gun that London's notorious Swamp81 crew are championing at the moment; demonstrated by his dynamic debut entitled 'Michael' that was released by them earlier in the year. This time around though, Pearce knocks out yet another release for Doc Daneeka's Ten Thousand Yen imprint, where he starts out on the A side with the relentless jack and stutter of the hilariously titled "Top 5 Goat Memes" and the jagged bass attack of "Rant Over". On the flip, there's some immaculately programmed riddims like on the rather deep groove of "Bumpy Chuckles" before he "Readies New Material". And it's quite a fitting title, because this one's a Dopplereffekt style electro jam.


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Bonecrusher Smith, Former Heavyweight World Champion, Has Praise For Nascar Driver, Danny Efland (#07)
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January 2, 2022 0Comments 30Views 0Likes
WEBWIRE – Thursday, January 28, 2010
Charlotte, NC (Thursday, January 28, 2010) – James "Bonecrusher" Smith became the first college graduate, to ever win a Heavyweight World Championship boxing title. The Champ recently expressed admiration for another young upcoming champion. He is Nascar driver, Danny Efland (#07) because of his own commitment to graduate from college. While Efland has been passionately racing on the Nascar circuit, he continues to pursue a Bachelors Degree in Civil Engineering, at the University Of South Carolina.
According to Bonecrusher, "Most athletes today will forget their education, and bet everything on one quick ride to fame and fortune" Bonecrusher will be pulling for Danny Efland, in the new season of Nascar Nationwide Series Racing. Efland will debut his own RCR car February 20th, at the Fontana, California race. Fans will be pleased when it unveils with the new #07 for the first time.
Bonecrusher Smith retired from boxing in 1999. He was inducted into the Carolina Boxing Hall of Fame, April 13, 2007 at Lowes Motor Speedway in Concord, NC. Today, the Champ maintains a busy calendar, as a coveted motivational speaker for corporate conventions, and schools.
To communicate for engagements, please contact:
Rev. James "Bonecrusher" Smith
6850 Heron Blvd, Unit 302
www.championforkids.org
Related Links Rev. James "Bonecrusher" Smith Former Heavyweight World Champion Danny Efland Racing Team Website and Fan Page
Danny Efland Boxing news Nascar Sports news Nascar news Contact Information Kenneth Mack Branding Strategist Hot Brand Marketing .Com Contact via E-mail
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Sanders Blasts the 'Arrogance of Billionaires' While Discussing a Possible Bloomberg Run
"To this day, [former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg] still defends his policy of stop-and-frisk, which impacted families like mine," said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is campaigning with the candidate in Iowa
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When ABC News told Bernie Sanders that former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg may run for president because he did not like the current field of candidates, the senator from Vermont responded, "That is the arrogance of billionaires."
Sanders then went on to criticize the reported plans of the not-yet announced billionaire to skip the first primary states if and when he enters the race.
"I'm doing five events this weekend right here in Iowa," Sanders continued. "We're all over New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada, California. But he's too important. You see, when you're worth $50 billion, I guess you don't have to have town meetings, you don't have to talk to ordinary people. What you do is you take out, I guess a couple of billion dollars, and you buy the state of California."
Sanders added, "But I happen to believe that the American people are sick and tired of the power and arrogance of a billionaire class which increasingly controls not only the economic life of this country, but the political life of this country."
The senator was joined by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who is campaigning with candidate in Iowa. Unsurprisingly, she wasn't keen on the idea of of a Bloomberg candidacy.
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First she took the former mayor to task for his support of NYC's stop-and-frisk policies that have been criticized for being ineffective, discriminatory and racist. And she spoke about how the measures affected her personally.
"To this day, he still defends his policy of stop-and-frisk, which impacted families like mine," Ocasio-Cortez said. "It was my cousins and my friends that were stopped on the New York City subway system and racially profiled and patted down and thrown into jail for low-level marijuana offenses." Then she went on to agree with Sanders's take on the super rich entering the presidential race.
"I don't think billionaires should be president right now," Ocasio-Cortez added. "I don't think that that's what this country needs, and I think that is going to take us further in the direction of wealth and political power concentrating at the very, very top of our country. And I think that our democracy should be for everyday people, not for purchase."
The reporter also asked if the congresswoman were old enough to run, would Sanders ask her to join his ticket. Ocasio-Cortez laughed and Sanders showered her with praise, then said, "If I am in the White House, she will play a very, very important role, no question, in one way or the other."
In This Article: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,	Bernie Sanders,	Michael Bloomberg


62 years after the publication of Rachel Carson's groundbreaking book, "Silent Spring", we still face major impacts on our environment and our health from pesticides. Join us as one of the nation's leading experts on the effects of agricultural chemicals on hormones, Dr. Tyrone Hayes, shares his research and unique experience as an investigative scientist.
Dr. Tyrone Hayes's work is transforming biology one battle at a time. From a very early age, he knew that he was interested in biology, amphibians in particular. Always fascinated by frogs and toads, this fascination turned into a reality and a career. Dr. Hayes's work paves the way for an integrative approach to understanding how an organism reacts to changes in its environment. Beyond his integrative work in conservation, he has won numerous teaching awards, conservation awards, and recognition as a leader in the scientific community.


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Must See Scotland
Your Independent Guide
Where To See
Where to See Highland Cows. Nothing more Scottish, apparently
Puffins in Scotland – why everyone's favourite bird?
Where to see dolphins. It still has to be the Moray Firth
Where to see heather – you don't even have to go Highland
Midges in Scotland – Protect yourself from Highland menace!
Scotland – FAQs
Ticks in Scotland – don't worry – but you need to be aware
Tipping in Scotland – no big deal and pretty straightforward
Granny's Scottish Scone Recipe
Scottish Words are alive and well. Try them out!
What to See in Scotland – some places with the 'wow' factor
Cities of Scotland – which ones are worth a visit?
Is Loch Ness Worth Visiting? Or just monster make-believe?
Oban or Fort William? Choosing a West Highland base
Driving Route to Skye – take time, make a day of it.
Seven day tour of Scotland – Highland and Lowland
Inverness in two days – check-list for the Highland Capital
Trip to Scotland – and we sneak off to enjoy fine coastline
Only Joking
Royal Yacht Britannia – Scotland's best attraction???
Stone of Destiny or Stone of Scone, it's still probably fake
Aberdeen the Silver City – an old guidebook recalls the past
Battle of Bannockburn – Asserting Scotland's Independence
Cong and The Quiet Man – an Irish Hollywood Connection
Flowers of Scotland – where will we see your likes in glens?
Avoid Midges in Scotland. (Stay inside a lot.)
Bonnie Prince Charlie. A romantic figure on a misadventure
Glenfinnan – a West Highland Must See
Scottish history: when 'burghs' became a good idea!
Scottish history, or the story of what we consider 'today's' Scotland, started after the Picts, Scots, Britons, Vikings, Angles sorted themselves out. Then King David I created burghs – because he needed money.
Look, I agree, the page title isn't too exciting. History is such a dull word. In our case though, Scottish history is well worth discovering. We've got lots of castles, battlesites, historically-themed visitor attractions and the occasional massacre.
So here's some background and a few, hmm, highlights. It's all you need to know for bluffing your way round any museum in Scotland.
Further down the page are a series of snapshots of the goings-on at certain points in Scotland's story. Plus there's a wee selection of places to visit that are of historic significance. ('Coughs hopefully'.)
Let's pick it up here when that story starts emerge from the Dark Ages.
Because until, say, the 12th century, Scottish history includes a whole lot of shadowy battles between the peoples who represent the building-blocks of Scotland: mostly Picts, Scots, Britons, Angles and Vikings. Few early kings died peacefully at home.
Burghead on the Moray Firth was an important Pictish 'capital'
Scotland wasn't the shape it is today. As for the border, well, the territory of the Picts and Scots was really only north of the River Forth, but hemmed in by the Vikings further north still.
They held sway over today's Caithness and Sutherland from a power-base in Orkney.
The Lothians, around and east of today's Edinburgh, were held by the Angles until 1018, while the kingdom of the Britons in Strathclyde to the west became part of the land of the Scots (from Ireland) even later.
It wasn't until after 1263, when the Vikings were finally defeated at the Battle of Largs, that the nation of Scotland began to take the shape that we know today. Sounds complicated, doesn't it?
And – an important milestone in Scotland history – this heralded the start of the creation of Scottish burghs, which are explained below. (If impatient by nature, you can scroll down. However, you'd miss that awful old joke about the English, given below.)
Warning – early mediaeval joke here
From the very earliest dates in Scottish history, the Scottish kings were keeping an eye on that other more powerful kingdom in the south – England – an inescapable factor in Scotland and its history.
Around the same time in the 13th century this old joke was coined probably by some Scottish court jester.
It's the one about the conversation between St Andrew and, uhmm, God, when St Andrew says:
'Holy Smoke! You've given the Scots whisky, the finest beef and lamb, salmon in the rivers, venison from the hills, beautiful mountains….OK, I might be their patron saint – but isn't all that too much?'
To this God replies: 'No. Not at all. Wait till you see who I've given them as neighbours.'
Shock news in Scottish history: Scottish kings may actually prefer English brides
Cockburnspath Mercat Cross – possibly as early as 1503, when King James IV married the sister of England's Henry VIII. Well, that didn't work out well…
Local lasses not good enough, eh?
The Scottish monarchy, both the early Royal House of Canmore, and the later Royal House of Stewart, would often diplomatically marry into English royalty and complicate matters of nationhood greatly.
This started with King Malcolm III (Canmore or Galeic ceann-mor – great head or chief).
He married Margaret, daughter of the English King Edward the Confessor.
And it was their son, King David I of Scotland, who took a look at the feudal system and liked the business model.
The feudal system meant that king was top dog and noble cronies got a substantial slice of the pie. It was in place 'down south' then as a result of the Norman takeover of Anglo-Saxon England. (The Battle of Hastings and all that 1066 stuff.)
The king liked what he saw, especially the bit about governing the outlying bits of his kingdom through tame nobility who were able to raise a bit of revenue – this often kept them quiet and on-side.
So David, as King of Scotland, found himself a posh Anglo-Norman heiress to give him an English title (the Earl of Huntingdon) by this marriage.
Then he proclaimed open house north of the Border for any Norman-French nobles who wanted a slice of Scotland.
This is why (most famously) Bruce, but also Grant, Fraser, Barclay, Sinclair and lots more common Scottish surnames have Norman-French origins.
The Tolbooth at Forres in Moray. Though this tolbooth is much later than the actual burgh charter signing – sometime between 1130 and 1153 – it stands in the centre of the town as a symbol of the administrative HQ of the old burgh.
What Is A Burgh
In Scotland?
And how did these nobles actually make money, both for themselves and for the king? Simple, they went along with the king's regime and helped found 'burghs'.
(Pronouce it 'burr-a' or better still 'burrrrrrrrr-aaaaa'. I know I do.)
You'll see the word on town names even today. 'The Royal Burgh of…. etc'.
A royal burgh had certain privileges granted by the king.
The notion of a burgh played an important part in Scotland history. A burgh could protect itself by walls and gates. It could elect officials to make local laws.
Most importantly, it could trade – make money through its markets and manufacturing, for which duties and taxes would be paid to the royal coffers.
The symbol of the market was the mercat cross, marking both the right to hold these trading days and the place where they were held.
Many Scottish towns still have a mercat cross, though usually replaced and renewed over the centuries.
The Town House, Stonehaven, dating from 1790. Lower right in this pic, the Mercat Cross of 1645, later remodelled. Traffic cone, original, from c. 2018.
Armies might come and go, political parties and factions would leave their mark, but in the history of Scotland, the burgh system, as the bedrock of day-to-day economic life, thrived for centuries.
And though not all burghs survived, many prospered – which is why towns and cities, from Aberdeen to Dumfries, can trace their origins back to the granting of charters in the 12th century.
So, aside from battlesites and great events, the mercat cross and the administrative centre of the burgh, the tolbooth or town house, both survive today as a reminder of everyday economic life in the Scotland of old.
So, that's all you need to remember about Scottish history first of all. Sure, it was bloody at times, but ordinary folk had to get on with their lives.
And if they weren't farmers or peasants out in the countryside, then many of them lived in towns which were organised as burghs.
But let's look at some of the other events in Scottish history
Edited Highlights Of Scottish History
What? The history of Scotland on a single page? Am I mad? Let's do it by snapshots from the Stone Age to the Highland Clearances. Plus a wee mention of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Wish he'd just stayed away.
I know, I know. I said further up that Scottish history starts around the time of the early burghs. Really, this bit is prehistory.
And if you are going to see the best of prehistory in Scotland, then Orkney is a convenient location, as nowhere else in Scotland delivers that sense of the unknowably ancient.
Standing Stones of Stenness. Also standing people at Stenness, wandering if they are about to be vapourised by an approaching asteroid. (Look, it's my caption, OK?)
Oh, wait a minute, that is, except for, say, the Standing Stones of Callanish on the Western Isles, or some of Aberdeenshire's standing stones and circles and burial cairns.
Or the early sites in Argyll, say, Dunadd. Oh, they give nothing away…
So, for that sense of really ancient days that head for Skara Brae in Orkney. Or at the Standing Stones of Stenness, or the Ring of Brogar or Maes Howe.
For anyone who is interested in connecting with the ancestors of the ancestors, these are the places to go, in all of Scotland.
It's a must see for a glimpse of the earliest history of Scotland. It's where you can get closest to the life of folk who lived in this little northern place. And remember the climate was a bit kinder in 3000BC! (Also, there are plenty of Orkney pages on this site, after you've done history!)
The RIng of Brodgar and spring primroses. Almost went with 'The spring of Brodgar' here.
Look out, here come…
The Vikings In Scottish History
Then, staying in Orkney (because I like the place), fast forward to the Vikings.
(SNAPSHOT 1) The climate has gone off – big-time – and it's a miserable day, so a bunch of them, looking for treasure, have found their way into a chambered tomb. While waiting for the weather to clear, they scratch a variety of graffiti into the stonework.
You can still see the runic (and rude) things they wrote on the walls, as the tomb at Maes Howe is now a surviving example of one of the very finest examples of Neolithic craftsmanship to be seen anywhere.
The point is that you may consider the Vikings to have lived a long time ago. But on a time-line of the history of Scotland, these 12th-century guys were making marks inside a structure that was already 4000 years old!
St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall, Orkney, founded in 1137
St Magnus Cathedral (pictured here) is in the centre of Kirkwall – it is also known as the 'Light in the North' It was founded in 1137 by the Viking, Earl Rognvald, in honour of his uncle St Magnus.
Much of the medieval stonework is thought to have been done by master masons trained at Durham Cathedral in England.
It is the most northerly cathedral in Britain and contains many interesting memorials to famous Orcadians such as Eric Linklater, George Mackay Brown and the explorer John Rae. It is a fascinating place to visit.
From the Norsemen, let's fast-forward past the Wars of Independence, the Stewart monarchs, the 17th-century Covenanters (very complicated!)
By the way, the National Trust for Scotland run a visitor centre on the site of the 1314 Battle of Bannockburn. (Check if it's still open, though.) There's also some background to the Scots' victory at Bannockburn here, though it mostly deals with Robert the Bruce's PR team. (I wouldn't take it over-seriously, if I were you.)
Bonnie Prince Charlie
– oh no, what's he doing in Glasgow?
Preamble: the Catholic Stuart monarchy of Scotland (and England) have been kicked out and the Protestant Hanoverian dynasty is ruling. Scotland has had the same monarch as England for more than a century.
Then, to paraphrase a lot, the Scottish aristocracy decided to unite with England in 1707 and close down the Scottish Parliament. (Money changed hands. Ordinary folk had no vote. There were protests and riots in the streets of Edinburgh.)
Bonnie Prince Charlie 'The Young Pretender' from the old Stuart line, his family in exile, has been brought up to believe that with the help of the Catholic nations of Europe, such as France and Italy, he can regain the throne.
Where Prince Charles Edward Stuart first set foot in Scotland – Isle of Eriskay, the Prince's Beach.
There is sympathy for this cause in both Scotland and England. As it was King James (Charles's grandfather) who went into exile, supporters of the Stuart dynasty are called Jacobites, from the Latin Jacobus, meaning James.
Charles landed in Scotland in the spring of 1745 and caused quite a stir and won a few battles against the government armies in the now united kingdoms of Scotland and England.
So let's focus on the winter of 1745. Let's go to Glasgow. There are cargoes unloading at the quayside on the River Clyde.
Off the ships at the quayside comes tobacco, sugar and rum. Linens, woollens, shoes, stockings and metalware go aboard. It's all heading for the Americas and Glasgow's merchant class is making its fortune.
(Face it though, the Scots were up to their oxters in the slave trade…)
(SNAPSHOT 2) Suddenly in the middle of all this mercantile bustle, there's the sound of bagpipes and a crowd of unkempt and wild Highlanders march in and draw up on the ground beside the river.
Oh, great – it's the last thing the locals need. Who are these people?
Well, it's a Highland army – but under control as this is Bonnie Prince Charlie's forces, northbound. Having failed to get to London, England, and now heading for disaster, they're looking to re-equip.
The Glasgow townsfolk are aghast. Charles demands 12,000 shirts, 6,000 coats and 6,000 pairs of stockings for his ragged army from the 'Merchant City' – the heart of this industrial city.
While all this is being organised, the Young Pretender goes out to dinner, and reviews his troops on Glasgow Green. The busy folk breathe a sigh of relief as the mob eventually leaves for the north.
Glasgow's mercantile outlook was an important part of the history of Scotland.
Only a little later after Charlie's departure, they started to make even bigger, heavier things and exported them across the world.
That's a detail (pictured here) of a steam loco in Glasgow's fine Transport Museum, Riverside Museum.
So, off goes Charlie to defeat and Jacobite romantic myth-making – and Glasgow gets on with the Industrial Revolution, making money and playing its part in building a forward-looking economy.
In Glasgow Riverside Museum, the transport museum
The mad adventure by the reckless and deluded prince ends in slaughter on the battlefield of Culloden a few months later.
Soon after, parts of the history of Scotland are gradually invented for the Jacobites that concentrate on the romance of this dashing adventurer instead of the anachronism and irrelevance.
(Think Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid at this point, suddenly realising that there isn't a place any more for their lifestyle. The world had moved on. So it must have been for Charlie's clansmen.)
A barely recognisable abandoned village on the island of Skye: Leitir Fura, near Kinloch. A sad chapter in the history of Scotland. The inhabitants went to Canada. This is looking eastwards to the mainland, Ben Sgriol on the horizon.
The Highland Clearances
Ethnic cleansing or just toffs and monied industrialists tidying things up?
Finally, let's go forward another hundred years from Culloden. (SNAPSHOT 3)
There's a gathering in a kirkyard, actually, Croick Church, high up a remote Highland glen (but today an easy drive, say, from Inverness).
The people are straggling in, carrying what they can of their personal possessions. They are of all ages. Grandchildren help their elders. Improvised shelters have been rigged up.
But it's not unique. It's just another eviction in the Highland Clearances. Nowadays we might call it ethnic cleansing.
But we know a lot about this particular episode in May 1845 at Glencalvie, because, firstly, the evicted local folk scratched messages on a pane of window glass in the church. (See pic below)
Secondly, it was witnessed by a reporter from 'The Times' of London, England. (You can still view the messages scratched on the glass – a viewing platform has been built – and can read an account as it appeared in the newspaper.)
A fire was kindled in the churchyard, round which the poor children clustered.
Part of the original account reads "Two cradles with infants in them, were placed dose to the fire, and sheltered round by the dejected-looking mothers."
The scratchings on the Glencalvie Church window, preserved since 1845. NB Pictured from inside, so writing appears reversed.
At the same time as these events were unfolding in Highland Scotland, you could travel speedily and safely, between Scotland's two largest cities, Edinburgh and Glasgow, by its first inter-city railway line.
It had been open for three years, as a symbol of the modern age.
So what do these little cameos mean? Well, firstly that the History of Scotland goes a long way back.
Secondly, that Highland and Lowland Scotland were utterly separate in language and culture for a long time.
Thirdly, that Bonnie Prince Charlie should have stayed away from Scotland – full stop – and let the illustrators of shortbread tins find themselves another subject.
And thirdly, it's quite easy to connect with the history of Scotland if you use a little imagination as you visit the many historical sites.
FOR MORE INSIGHTS INTO THE SCOTTISH NATION'S STORY
Here is a short list of key locations
Culloden Battlefield, near Inverness
No, it wasn't Scotland versus England in 1746 – far from it – but it was the last battle in a civil war that was fought on Scottish soil. Learn all about it at this vivid evocation just a few minutes by road from Inverness.
Walk the battlefield, enjoy the vivid audio/visual experience, see demonstrations and maybe if you are lucky you will be picked to demonstrate how to fire a musket. It's not loaded, by the way.
This is everything a historic visitor centre should be.
– plus there is a nice self-service café and a well-stocked gift shop with an excellent book section. And what was Bonnie Prince Charlie thinking about? Delusional, methinks.
Memorial Cairn at the battlefield of Culloden near Inverness
Accommodation in Inverness. (Remember it gets busy.)
Dunadd Fort, the path leading to the hilltop
Dunadd, Argyll
This isn't a spectacular place in the sense that there is a huge amount of structure to be seen. There isn't! But Dunadd was the site where the first kings of Scotland were crowned. (The Scots came east from Ireland.)
There's a rock cut basin and a footprint, perhaps part of early ceremonies, and the site is close to all kinds of other prehistory. Fine setting in the heartland of Argyll. Can be a bit of midge paradise.
Glenfinnan Monument – pencil-like structure at the head of Loch Shiel. Ben Nevis on skyline top left.
Glenfinnan, (Quite) Near Fort William
Glenfinnan on the Road to the Isles – the road linking Fort William and Mallaig – has a famous viaduct, the 'Harry Potter bridge' – and Bonnie Prince Charlie's Monument nearby.
Another important historic site that has the advantage of being set somewhere scenic.
The Glenfinnan Monument marks where our delusional chum Prince Charles Edward Stuart (aka Bonnie Prince Charlie) unfurled his flag and rallied (a few of) the clans in 1745.
The figure on top of the monument is, apparently, not meant to be the prince, just a generic Highlander. By 1815, when it was erected, the Jacobite myth-making machine was in full romantic cry.
There's more on the Jacobites on the Rob Roy page. And you can find out about the Scottish kings, especially the Stewarts. There were a lot of them – and several were very accident-prone or a bit unpopular or had English wives. Just saying….
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About Gilbert Summers
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Blog – Is It Scotland?
© 2022 Must See Scotland


After a busy couple of days at the Porous University event in Inverness on the 8th and 9th of May I went back to "the croft", Keith, Frank and I had spent a lot of time thinking about how to structure an event that was not structured, unconference seemed too fashionable for us, but something like that was what we aimed for. In the end our gathering started slow with people reaching out beyond their own context, sense making, find their place, and I think in part getting a feel for how safe it was to say what often is left unsaid. Left unsaid not because people think it is unimportant, left unsaid because it is vitally important, because these are thoughts, opinions and reactions to our contexts that might leave us exposed.
People did open up, and there is an excellent selection of blogs and resources, some on this blog here, and many on the Ragged University see here for some talks (more coming) and here for some reflections from Alex. I see no need to add my own summary of the day to those excellent accounts. One thing I did want to pick up was a comment by Alan Levine who joined virtually, he suggested Porous was incorrect as a description or an intention, we should really be talking about permeability. Where porous describes the qualities of the thing (the amount of space), where permeable describes the ease by which things can pass through – see here from Alan. It is interesting, not least as the graphic I used to "advertise" it on the OEPS blog was of a semi-permeable membrane. The phrase porous university slipped out of my mouth at the OE Global Conference when presenting on "The Hidden Tariff" in OER in response to a question asking what I meant by openness as a dialogical process. As someone with a biological sciences background I think I used in the sense of whether a plant or animals has pores, i.e. a membrane is porous, it has pores, from the same Greek, Latin Old French root, and perhaps also from literary theory, the idea of boundary crossing. But still I was being slippery in the way I understood it, is is the flow itself or the thing (the pores/structures/systems/process) which enable the flow.
However, his comment stayed with me, not just because I wondering about the right P, but because it highlighted the U, was the day really about Uni. Actually it was, and I think one of the issues was we often ended up talking about and for those outside the academy, with the best intentions we made visible the barriers and the problems, but from within HE. While as people within HE we have no choice but to speak for, we are also people in the world, with opinions, with views, with families, who engage socially and politically, who form groups, volunteer and campaign.
We are in the world, so perhaps what we need to do is take out the University and add some extra P's. This is by no means a definitive list but I would like to suggest permeable (to accept Alan Levine comment), but I think the important ones are pedagogy and praxis. Praxis because one of the things that ran through the two days was how our education practice transforms and is itself transformed though our actions, and in turn how those practices are used (or not) to create change. Pedagogy, because of the sense, if we are looking at shifting locus of knowledge creation and production, of opening up, then we need to understand and develop appropriate pedagogies to support those changes.
I think dropping Uni, or University might also help with another thing that made me worry post event, I have already alluded to the tendency to "talk from within", at least at first, in part this related to talking about what we know, but its dominance at the event was because most participants were from HE, as you can tell from the way I use "we", I assume are most of those reading this post. If we are serious about reaching out and reaching in then we need a broader community, the "we" needs to be more inclusive. Otherwise the assumption is that "reaching in" is in the gift of those within the academy. When lots of the examples of reaching is those outside barging in, rowdy, unplanned, rudely asking those within to listen. I am not saying Uni is acting as some sort of barrier, "this is not a network for me", but instead a change to better describe not what we are at present but where we want to be.


It can be very difficult to stay up to date with the latest trends in fashion, everything changes so quickly! Things can go out of fashion very quickly. If you want to update your look with handmade jewelry then you may get frustrated when you struggle to track down a handcrafted jewelry designer. Handmade jewelry is very expensive, and it is also exclusive. It might be difficult to learn about these types of jewelry unless you are very rich or famous. It doesn't really have to be that difficult, there are some really good online shops around to help you find some fantastic designer handmade jewelry.
Many of these contain precious stones and are exported from many different countries. These websites will allow you to see the entire range of handcrafted jewelry easily without having to visit hundreds of different stores. Take a trip to the mall and see what you can find. Alternatively, browse through a briadl book and look at the photographic poses - is that wedding or engagement ring a designer piece? Where can I buy Handcrafted Designer Jewelry? One really good website to visit for handcrafted designer jewelry is www.
farfallina.com. Farfallina actually means little butterfly in Italian.
These have hundreds of different designs of jewelry available. Some of this jewelry contains very rare and precious stones and metals. They even stock popular brand name jewelry from department stores, including Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue. They also stock jewelry from experienced designers. Farfallina offers beautiful elegant jewelry designs some of which contain very rare gemstones.
They stock jewelry which is from designers from the whole world. They even have a wide range of products that contain beautiful Swarovski crystals, including lots of gold plate jewelry, semi precious stones and silver jewelry. You will find unique handcrafted jewelry here which you can treasure forever. The jewelry on here can be compared to an art form. Semiprecious Stones If you want to find beautiful pieces of handmade jewelry which are made out of semiprecious gem stones then you should check out www.
semiprecious.com. This store is an online site which specializes in semiprecious handmade jewelry. Their website has a wide range of designs which you can look at, you can view their complete range or just select certain designers ranges. You may think that these beautiful jewelry designs are very expensive, however this isn't always the case. Handcrafted jewelry doesn't have to be that expensive.
This website gives you fantastic value for money, if you are willing to buy jewelry in bulk then you can also get a discount. Take a look at the website now and you can make some great savings while kitting out your whole wardrobe.
Peter Wilson continually pens summaries on stories about wedding picture poses and engagement pictures. You can have a look at his abstracts on engagement photo poses and engagement pictures on his site.


As I navigate my way through nearing the one-year mark since we lost my dear friend, Anne, the truth found in this passage resonates within me. Hope is assured in Him, both in the security of knowing that Anne is dwelling in His presence forever, and in the promise that I too, will one day join her in His glorious grace, for all of eternity. His love prevents my heart from becoming overwhelmed by grief, and His compassion reminds me of His continual presence and ongoing comfort as He transforms the sorrow into sweet remembrances of a beloved sister and friend. Each day as I wake, His mercies are made new again. How great His faithfulness remains, always. May we call to mind His mercies that are made new every morning, and trust His faithfulness to keep us from being consumed.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank You that when we trust in You, we have hope for all of our days. Thank You that because of Your great love for us, we will not be consumed by anything that may come against us. Thank You that Your compassions never fail us, and that they are new every single morning. Thank You that Your faithfulness is beyond what we can comprehend. Forgive us for our fearfulness and our growing faint in heart when the storm strikes against us. Help us to hold fast to You, our Safe Harbor in the storm, and our security no matter what comes. May we live and love as You call and equip us to, and may many come to know Your compassion and faithfulness as a result. Let lives be changed and hearts hold fast to You forever. Be exalted as we embrace Your compassions that are new every morning. Amen.
This entry was posted in Awe, Blessing, Comfort, Courage, Faith, Fear, Forgiveness, Gentleness, Grace, Gratitude, Healing, Hope, Kindness, Loss, Love, Mercy, New, Peace, Poetry, Purpose, Strength, Surrender, Trust, Voice and tagged assured, call, comfort, compassions, consumed, cost, dwelling, eternity, faithfulness, find, forgive, glorious grace, great, great is your faithfulness, great love, grief, hope, Lamentations 3, laughter, Lord, loss, love, made new, mercies, navigate, never fail, new every morning, overwhelmed, paid, passage, presence, promise, renewed, resonates, Safe Harbor, security, sorrow, storm, sweet remembrances, transforms, trust, truth, wake. Bookmark the permalink.


I've been very busy this summer. Currently have six short stories done and making the rounds of varied science fiction and fantasy publishers. Plus I've sent some poems out, too.
TV writing this year started with a spec script for agents to look at. Also, I've been working with another TV writer on a new SF TV series idea.
The novel has been restarted & I'm up a few hundred words. Mostly, I'm thinking about how to tackle the ending. Plus, I've been reading about the process.
A while ago, I purchased a great Story Bundle all about writing from the StoryBundle site. These included works by Douglas Smith, Laura Resnick and Dean Wesley Smith. I really enjoyed reading these plus they've given me some good advice.
I'm now at 37,500 words, which sounds like a lot to me. I know a decent novel is 80 thousand to 100 thousand words, so I have some distance to go. SF readers are familiar with the variegated doorstop novels of fantasy, But I will be happy if I can get to the end of one, for now. It's always been a dream of mind to write an SF or fantasy novel and get it published.
The new IPad combined with the 'waiting for dancer' schedule is helping me to get writing done. My friend is reading the chapters as I do them, so I feel like I have an audience.
I'm also experimenting with the way I do it. I'm tired of writing tv series ideas and script outlines. So, I'm writing this with only a bare whisper of an outline, nothing like the massive detailed 'beat sheets' I used to have to do in tv. I know this might not work- or I might go down the wrong path with characters, causing a painful double back to rewrite the whole thing later- but the fun of it is partly in just seeing what the characters will do next!
Posted on February 13, 2014 February 13, 2014 Categories about writingTags fantasy, grrm, ipad, novel, sf, word countLeave a comment on Chapter 6 Done!


Per a altres significats, vegeu «Rutil».
Rutilus rubilio capturat a la Toscana (Itàlia).
Rutilus és un gènere de peixos de la família dels ciprínids i de l'ordre dels cipriniformes.
↑ Derjavin, A. N. 1937. A new species of roach Rutilus (Orthroleucos) atropatenus nov. sp. from Azerbaijan. Trudy Azer. Fil. Akad. Nauk SSSR v. 20: 71-78.
↑ Bonaparte, C. L. 1841. Iconografia della fauna italica per le quattro classi degli animali vertebrati. Tomo III. Pesci. Roma. Iconografia, v. 3: Fasc. 30, puntata 155-160, 5 pls.
↑ Iàkovlev, V. E. 1870. On the new and little-known species of fish found in the mouths of the Volga. On the new and little-known species of fish found in the mouths of the Volga: 101-111.
↑ 7,0 7,1 Nordmann, A. von. 1840. Observations sur la fauna pontique. A: A. de Démidoff. Voyage dans la Russie méridionale et la Crimée. Vol. III. París. Voyage Russie Mérid.: 353-635, Atlas: 32 col. pls. .
↑ Fowler, H. W. 1977. A catalog of World fishes (XXVI). Q. J. Taiwan Mus. (Taipei) v. 30 (núms. 1/2): 1-88 [catalog v. 3, pp. 480-566].
↑ Heckel, J. J. 1851. Ueber die in den Seen Ober-Österreichs vorkommenden Fische. Sitzenburg Österr. Akad. Wiss. Math-Naturw. Kl. v. 1 (pt 6): 145-149.
↑ 10,0 10,1 Karaman, S. 1924. Pisces Macedoniae. Pisces Macedoniae: 1-90.
↑ Bogutskaya, N.G. & Iliadou, K. 2006. Rutilus panosi, a new loach from western Greece (Teleostei: Cyprinidae). Zoosyst. Rossica, 14 (2): 293-298.
↑ Lacepède, B. G. E. 1803. Histoire naturelle des poissons. Hist. Nat. Poiss. v. 5: i-lxviii + 1-803 + index, Pls. 1-21.
↑ Heckel, J. J. 1852. Bericht einer ichthyologischen Reise. Anhang III. Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaften Classe v. 9: 49-123, Pls. 6-13.
↑ Economidis, P. S. 1991. Check list of freshwater fishes of Greece. Recent status of threats and protection. Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature. Athens. Check List Fish Greece: 1-48 pp.


text:
Showpieces of the September sky by Lauren Herrington
Click here to download a printable version of this document! → LookingUpPrintableHandout_September-1.pdf
Swan Nebula
The Swan Nebula, also known as the Omega Nebula, is an emission nebula which appears embedded within the upper end of the "steam" from the spout of the "Teapot", Sagittarius. The Swan is located fairly close to the Sun within the Milky Way, lying a 'mere' 5,000 – 6,000 light years away inside the next arm over, the Sagittarius Arm.[1]
Long ago, the cloud which now forms the Swan began to collapse under its own gravity and form stars, which together make up the star cluster Collinder 377*. Today, extreme ultraviolet light from the young, hot, blue stars of Collinder 377 ionizes (knocks the electrons off) the atoms of gas within the remaining cloud. When the electrons eventually recombine with nuclei, they fluoresce brightly, and cause the nebula to glow.
Most of the Swan's newborn stars and starforming regions are hidden from view completely in visible light by thick clouds of dust. An entire new branch of the nebula nearly as large as the Swan itself becomes visible in infrared images (which can see through dust)! The nebula also contains several notable sources of infrared and X-ray radiation, all related to the chaotic starbirth taking place within. One source in particular has been the subject of much debate: The "Kleinmann-Wright Object", or KWO for short.[2] Read the citation to find out more.
The Swan is one of the brightest emission nebulae in the sky, visible to the naked eye under dark skies, and easy to see in a telescope. In medium-sized telescopes under dark skies, it's clear where it gets its name: the nebula really does look just like a swan, with a graceful neck, windswept feathers, and even a short little swan tail. The mag 9.7 star SAO 161357 serves as the bright eye of the bird. Though not as bright as the Orion Nebula, in large telescopes it shows a similar structure to the bright Trapezium area; with many contrasting triangular facets, like crushed velvet. Under good conditions, nebulosity far outside the traditional shape of the Swan can be detected. Nebula filters such as "UHC" or OIII filters help greatly to pull out additional detail by blocking the non-nebula wavelengths of light from the background sky.
*The commonly-used designation NGC 6618 is shared by both the nebula and the embedded cluster. The designations Collinder 377 or OCL 44 refer to just the cluster.
M15 is a globular cluster, among the densest and brightest of its kind. Like almost all other globular clusters, M15 was formed early in the life of the Universe about 12 billion years ago, in processes that we don't yet understand. Today, it exists as a massive congregation of very old, red, low-mass stars. Globulars used to be full of all kinds of stars, including massive blue O and B types, but those burn hot and die young, leaving behind only neutron stars and black holes as their exotic remains.
M15 has undergone a process called "core collapse", a vicious cycle where fast-moving stars flung away from the core deprive the core of kinetic energy, causing the orbits of the remaining stars to shrink, which in turn makes them move faster, thus providing more fast stars to fling away and remove kinetic energy… The end result of this process in the case of M15 is that a full half of the cluster's mass is now contained in the central 1.4ly, or 0.0000005% by volume. This can be clearly seen at the eyepiece, with the cluster appearing not like a smooth "globe" of light, but like a steeply peaked "cone" of brightness poking out of the sky at you.
Another peculiarity of M15 is that it is one of only 4 globular clusters known to contain a planetary nebula: Pease 1. At magnitude 15.5, Pease 1 is detectable by larger amateur instruments, and would make a good challenge object. I encourage anyone who observes Pease 1 to contact me with your observation.
M15 is the 10th brightest globular cluster from the perspective of Earth, making it visible to the naked eye under dark skies and obvious in binoculars. In binoculars, the bright "peaked" core and faint fuzzy halo are easily visible, even from the city; in an 8″ dob in the city, the core remained visibly unusually bright, but no individual stars were yet resolvable.
If you go looking for M15 with the naked eye, be aware of the magnitude 6.1 star HR 8231 which lies less than a third of a degree away from M15. The star is of similar brightness or slightly brighter than the cluster, so if you only see one object and it looks stellar, it's probably not M15: but keep trying, you're close!
Blue Snowball
The Blue Snowball is a small, bright planetary nebula, one of the brightest deep-sky objects in the sky. Its distance and thus size are hard to measure, but it's close to the plane of the Milky Way, probably embedded just on the other side of our own spiral arm, the Orion Spur.
The Blue Snowball has such a high surface brightness that color is visible even in small telescopes, hence the name. As with many objects, this high surface brightness comes with the trade-off that the object itself is very small; nonetheless, structure can be detected at high powers. The nebula can be clearly seen as nonstellar at 115x, with subtle but significant structural detail visible at higher powers. For a fun challenge, try to detect and record as much detail as you can before looking at any photos. Record everything you see, no matter how subtle. Then, look at photos of the nebula the next day and match up what you saw.
The Blue Snowball used to be a star somewhat less massive than the sun; around 0.6 solar masses.[3] As the star aged, the core gradually used up its hydrogen fuel reserves, switching over to helium instead. The byproducts of helium burning– carbon and oxygen– built up in the core, but the star was too low-mass to switch to burning those. Without being able to sustain nuclear fusion in its core, the star became unstable, and a complex chain of processes caused it to first shrink, then grow dramatically brighter and expand into a red giant, like the stars Aldebaran or Mira. The outer layers of the star were then so far away from the core– even farther than Earth is from the Sun– that they were hardly bound to the star at all; and so as the unstable star continued expanding and contracting, the outer layers were blown off, forming concentric shells of gas still energized by the remnant of the core left behind. This is what we see when we look at the Blue Snowball today.
Epsilon Lyrae
4 Lyr
Epsilon Lyrae is a multiple star system, appearing very close to the bright star Vega from Earth's perspective. In actuality, Epsilon Lyrae is six and a half times further away, so despite the systems being of similar absolute brightnesses, the apparent brightnesses as viewed from Earth are skewed.
If Vega were placed at the same distance as Epsilon Lyrae, it would appear to be the same brightness… but if instead of moving Vega farther, Epsilon Lyrae were moved closer, Epsilon Lyrae would still appear fainter! This is because each of the individual stars in the system are fainter than Vega, and only when combined together do they produce enough light to rival Vega. If we moved Epsilon Lyrae closer to Earth, the different stars would appear to separate, and we would no longer see their light as combined.
Despite being so much further than Vega, Epsilon Lyrae is still quite close to the Sun as far as stars go; it's a member of the "local neighborhood" and thus well within the Sun's spiral arm of the Milky Way.
What makes Epsilon Lyrae so special is that the star system is not a single star, nor is it a double; rather, Epsilon Lyrae is a set of two double stars, called ε¹ and ε²; four stars orbiting around each other in a complex gravitational dance. Actually, there is a fifth star in orbit around the ε² pair, but it is too close to be separately visible in regular telescopes. Several other stars are close enough that it's possible they're also a part of the star system, but they have not yet been proven to be physically bound.
The two main pairs of Epsilon Lyrae can be seen as a tiny double star with the naked eye by those with good eyesight. (If you can't split them, look into 'night myopia'. You might be able to get reading glasses that let you split them.)[4] In binoculars, the two pairs are obviously separate, but it still looks like a regular double star- just two points of light. It's in a telescope when the magic happens. With apertures of 2″ or greater, starting at around 50x, it becomes possible to split each of the stars into a further double, so that three or four stars are visible instead of just two. While it's technically possible to split the tighter pairs at 50x, powers significantly in excess of 100x will provide a much easier view. Nights with "good seeing" (steady air) offer the best chance of splitting the individual stars in small instruments.
Veil Nebula
NGC 6960, 6992, 6995, and more
The Veil Nebula is a gigantic supernova remnant; cosmic debris generated by the detonation of a massive star which exploded roughly 8,000 years ago. Before going supernova, the star which formed the Veil was likely a red supergiant about 20 times the mass of the Sun. What we see of the Veil today is a gargantuan shockwave: light emitted where gas from the supernova, traveling at thousands of kilometers per second, is slamming into dense clouds of dark gas and dust floating freely in space.
Visually, the Veil is one of the most spectacular objects in the sky, and yet it is often regarded as a extremely challenging object. While it has a fairly low surface brightness, and thus is easily washed out by light pollution, the Veil emits most of its visible light in the very particular wavelengths (colors) of 496 and 500nm—the telltale blue-green of double-ionized oxygen. And it is thus that the Veil is saved. With the use of a nebula filter which isolates these "OIII" emissions, the Veil transforms from a few ghostly smudges to an intricate, knotted lacework of filaments. In large scopes, under dark skies, and with an OIII filter, the Veil is one of the rare objects that looks exactly like its photograph.
The Veil is easily visible in medium-sized telescopes without a filter under dark skies; in city skies, it may be invisible until a filter is used. Under very dark skies, it can be seen in binoculars, and there is one report[6] of it being seen with no magnification under very dark skies, using an OIII filter at the end of a paper towel tube held up to the naked eye. (The paper towel tube serves to block out extra light from the sky and allow deeper dark adaptation than usually possible. 8th magnitude stars can be glimpsed using this tube method.[7])
There are three main components to the Veil: the Western Filament, the Eastern Filament, and a fainter central portion ("Pickering's Triangular Wisp"). The Western Filament is a thin, smooth rope pinned by the naked-eye star 52 Cyg, and splitting towards the south. The Eastern Filament is slightly brighter, and comparatively much more detailed, with indescribable branches, crosshatchings, and a complex "E" shaped region to the south. The Triangular Wisp (actually discovered by Williamina Fleming, not Pickering[5]) lies between the northern tips of the two bright filaments, and is much fainter. Many other small patches and filaments lie scattered in the space between the East and West filaments, and can be observed in large telescopes.
The entire loop is 2.5 degrees across, making it too big to capture all at once in a large telescope, but nicely sized for small telescopes and binoculars. Conversely, large telescopes can focus on the individual filaments, providing jaw-dropping views of the intricate details present.
Text ©2018 Lauren Herrington
Charts generated with SkyTools 3 by Skyhound
Observing:
M17: The Nebula With Too Many Names – In this delightful article for Sky & Telescope, Howard Banich describes various portions of the Swan as they appear visually. He also explains the origin of its many names and includes a basic explanation of the science behind the nebula.
[1] Messier 17 – SEDS – An informative article with all the basic astrophysical data about the Swan Nebula.
Multiwavelength M17 – Cool Cosmos – This page has a very neat side-by-side comparison of the Swan at different wavelengths, but most importantly, walks the reader through each wavelength image, explaining the differences seen along the way.
[2] The nature of the KW object – Chini et. al – This facinating paper is the current authority on the Kleinmann-Wright Object. In summary, the KWO is currently thought to be a binary star deeply embedded within thick dust clouds, where one star is a Herbig Be star shining brightly in infrared, and the other emits x-rays. The KWO lies at the center of a dense cluster of large B, A, and F class stars, and a "reflection nebula" of infrared light reflecting off the dust clouds.
Swan Widefield – Space.com – This fantastic amateur astrophoto shows a wide view of the M17 Giant Molecular Cloud, with the central Swan shape more clearly discernable than usual for most deep images.
Swan Nebula – Cosmetography – Another excellent (semi-)amateur astrophoto of the Swan. Most of the faint outer nebulosity in this photo can be seen visually under dark skies, though not in such sharp detail.
M17: A Hubble Close-Up – APOD – An image of the interior of the Swan Nebula from the Hubble Space Telescope.
Aladin Lite interactive view – Click for an interactive view of the Swan with imagery in many wavelengths. (Make sure to check out the XMM/PN imagery for a view of the incredibly massive, X-ray emitting young OB type stars hidden behind the crook of the neck of the Swan! Were the cluster visible to the human eye instead of only X-rays and infrared, it would surely be known as a famous asterism, due to the picture-perfect ring surrounding a bright star.)
Trying to Observe Pease 1 – Stephen Waldee – A fantastic observing report about sucessfully observing Pease 1.
Pease 1 Observation Reports and Sketches – SEDS – A compilation of observations of Pease 1, made with instruments as small as 8″ aperture.
The Dynamic Lives of Globular Clusters – Sky & Telescope – In this facinating article, S. George Djorgovski provides an accessible introduction to the astrophysical mysteries of globular clusters, including an excellent explanation of core collapse.
Messier 15: Great Pegasus Cluster – Messier-Objects.com – This webpage aggregates much of the basic astrophysical data of the cluster, and includes some interesting historical observation logs from before 1840.
Star Clusters and Stellar Dynamics – Caltech – This slide deck must have been a boring lecture to sit through, but writing everything out paid off for us eager learners on the internet. While very high-level, this is an enjoyable read covering stellar dynamics, mass segregation, core collapse, and tidal disruption, mostly focusing on globular clusters. Math and physics heavy.
Globular Cluster M15 from Hubble – APOD – As it says on the tin.
Aladin Lite interactive view – Click for an interactive view of M15 with imagery in many wavelengths.
Blue Snowball – StarDate – This short episode of McDonald Observatory's StarDate podcast is punchy and entertaining.
AGB Stars – NOAO – This "sidebar" gives a quick explanation of AGB stars (such as the Blue Snowball pre-nebula) and how an AGB star forms a planetary nebula.
Evolution of Low Mass Stars – Astr221 – The online course materials for Chris Mihos' Astr221 course at Case Western Reserve University are a priceless gift to those of us who are trying to learn more in-depth than typical web summaries allow. Follow the links on the "Evolution of Low Mass Stars" page for a delightfully advanced but easy read about planetary nebulae and the stars that form them. (Feel free to skim the first link.)
Planetary Nebulae and How to Observe Them – Martin Griffiths – The sample pages from this book, available for download here, give an in-depth lesson on the complex physical processes that lead to the creation of a planetary nebula, without using any math.
[3] Physical Structure of Planetary Nebulae. II. NGC 7662 – Guerrero et. al. – A paper studying the physcial structure of the Blue Snowball.
Blue Snowball in Andromeda – Capella Observatory – A very nice, detailed, and deep amateur astrophoto of the Blue Snowball.
Blue Snowball – Waid Observatory – An amateur processing of Hubble data. Much of the large-scale structure visible in this image can be visible in the eyepiece.
Aladin Lite interactive view – Click for an interactive view of the Blue Snowball with imagery in many wavelengths.
Observing and Science:
[4] Spectacles for Spectacular Skies – Sky & Telescope – Every astronomer should be aware of night myopia. This article from Sky & Telescope covers just about everything you need to know, and might let you see magnitudes more when you next go out to observe.
Epsilon Lyrae – The Double Double – Skyhound – A short and informative piece focused on observing Epsilon Lyrae, by Greg Crinklaw, creator of SkyTools.
Double Star Astronomy – Black Oak Observatory – If you're really interested in double stars, give these pages a gander. You'll find a lot of good information relating to serious observing here.
Epsilon Lyrae Sketch – Jeremy Perez – A very accurate sketch of the system as it appears in a medium-sized telescope.
Aladin Lite interactive view – Click for an interactive view of Epsilon Lyrae with imagery in many wavelengths.
[5] Adventures In Deep Space – Dissecting the Veil Nebula – A fantastic article by Steve Gottlieb, focusing on visual observations of the Veil, with detailed visual descriptions of 13 faint, "off-the-beaten-path" filaments.
[6] Naked Eye Veil Nebula – Don Pensack (Starman1) 's thread on Cloudy Nights about observing the Veil Nebula with the naked eye.
[7] The Starry Room: Naked Eye Astronomy in the Intimate Universe – The linked is an excerpt covering a few instances of naked eye limiting magnitudes greater than 8 (all made with some kind of aid, except for O'Meara's, which was completely naked eye!).
FUSE – Piercing the Veil – A short article about the observation of a star behind the Veil Nebula, and what that tells us about the Veil itself.
NatSci102 – Supernova Remnants – A page about the basic astrophysics of supernovae and supernova remnants, from the University of Arizona.
Evolution of Stars More Massive than the Sun – A slide deck containg basic information about stellar evolution, including massive stars and supernovae, from the University of Texas.
UMD Astr480 – Supernova Remnants – The resources for the Astronomy 480 class at University of Maryland contain several documents with tons of information about supernovae and supernova remnants. The files are slide decks not optimized for web viewing, with heavy math and physics, and generally extremely dense to read… but if you want to learn about the nitty-gritty of supernova remnants, this might be a good resource. Hit Ctrl+F and type "Supernova" to highlight the relevant documents.
NASA Hubble Space Telescope – 3D stereographic image of the Veil – A very neat 3D-viewable image of the Veil. It's not CGI; the 3D effect is created by the apparent motion of the nebula over the course of 18 years! You can find tips on viewing stereograms like this here.
NASA Hubble Space Telescope – Veil Photo Release – An informative writeup with several fantastic images from Hubble. The three short video animations in particular are worth a watch.
APOD – Along the Western Veil – A fantastic image of the Witch's Broom and Fleming's Triangular Wisp, with links to more info in the description.
APOD – A Spectre in the Eastern Veil – A dreamy close-up of the pronged area at the end of the Eastern Veil.
APOD – The Witch's Broom Nebula – A crisp view of the Western Veil.
Aladin Lite interactive view – Click for an interactive view of the Veil with imagery in many wavelengths.
4 Responses to
EdF September 21, 2018 at 8:00 am #
Thanks for your efforts, all will be on my list for September
Craig Lamison September 21, 2018 at 2:18 pm #
Thanks. Several of these will be first time observations for me. I will even revisit the double double when I do my Lyra star count. (I did split them into 4 but it was with my 4″ Mak-Cas at ~160X — so all you other old fogies don't count on duplicating all Lauren's feats 😉 Lauren, someday I expect we will all be able to say "I knew you when …".
Lauren September 22, 2018 at 3:02 pm #
Splitting them in your 4″ at ~160x was good work! And thank you for your compliments. 🙂 I should state a disclaimer: I've never observed Epsilon Lyrae with a good scope smaller than 8″, so my statement about it being splittable in 50mm+ apertures at 50x is based on theoretical calculations, and reading others' observations on Cloudy Nights.
When I first started out in astronomy, I borrowed an "Edu-Science" 50mm refractor from a family friend- a department store telescope. Actually, "Edu-Science" is literally Toys-R-Us' brand! Fortunately, I knew about department store telescopes, and not to expect much. I figured it would be impossible to see anything deep sky, so I thought, "what can this telescope see…. stars? Double stars!" So I Googled "best double stars" and many variations thereof, and one that came up was Epsilon Lyrae. Epsilon Lyrae became one of my favorite objects in that telescope. One night my mom drove me out a little ways from the city to try to find darker skies- it wasn't far enough to see the milky way, and where we wound up setting up there were streetlamps, but I could still find good ol' Epsilon Lyrae. That night, and perhaps some other too, I thought I could start to split one of the tighter components; it looked like a teeny comma. Unfortunately I have no idea what the magnification would have been, and it's possible it was a lens aberration. One of these days I need to try again in another department store telescope, and see if it's really possible! 🙂
Dawes' Limit for an unobstructed 2″ aperture telescope is 4.56/2 = 2.28 arcseconds. That means that both ε¹, with a separation of 2.46″, and ε², with a separation of 2.4″, should be resolvable, albeit barely. Let's take a value of 2 arcminutes, or 120 arcseconds, as the closest separation that an observer with good vision can perceive. (In reality, I believe some may have slightly better, especially at small exit pupils.) Then the magnification needed to *perceive* them as resolved, assuming an observer with good vision and a small exit pupil to avoid off-axis aberrations within the human eye, is: 120″/2.4″=50x.
That's how I arrived at my conclusion that, if everything goes right, a good observer should be able to split Epsilon Lyrae at 50x in a 50mm. Now, all I need is to try! 🙂
Kenneth (drako) Drake September 22, 2018 at 12:15 pm #
Excellent expose of these "must see" small scope perinials. Objects that even the seasoned veteran needs to revisit. Thanks, Zannadragon, for all you add to our community.