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December 23rd, 2020 3-5PM ET
Wednesday on The Robert Scott Bell Show:
NYC reports 'significant' COVID-19 vaccine reaction in health care worker A health care worker in New York City suffered what officials are calling a "serious adverse event" after receiving Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine. The worker, who was not identified, is stable after being treated for a significant allergic reaction. "With more than 30,000 COVID-19 vaccinations administered in New York City, we have received a single report of a serious adverse event in a health care worker," the New York City Health Department said in a statement on Wednesday. It was not clear when or where the health care worker received the vaccine or how soon after the reaction occurred. "The City Health Department is closely tracking reports of more severe side effects in collaboration with the CDC, and this is the first serious adverse event we have encountered in New York City," the department said in a statement. "We will continue to move forward with the coronavirus vaccine distribution to ensure that health care workers and nursing home staff and residents are protected against COVID-19." While the instance is the first to be reported in New York, there have been several other reports of adverse reactions across the U.S. A health care worker in Alaska who suffered an allergic reaction within 10 minutes of receiving the first dose of the vaccine last week is believed to have been the first reported in the U.S.
Amid evolving strains, COVID-19 vaccines likely need updates every 3 years, former FDA chief Gottlieb says Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Monday coronavirus vaccines will likely require updates every few years as surface proteins on the virus evolve to become unrecognizable to antibodies. Gottlieb told CNBC co-hosts that while current COVID-19 vaccines and prior immunity are likely effective against the newly mutated strain of the virus rapidly circulating in the U.K., the evolving virus will necessitate surveillance by sequencing. "We thought every two, or maybe three years, I was saying that probably 6-8 months ago, every three years, that might still be the case," Gottlieb said, referring to a potential timeframe for updated COVID-19 vaccines. "I don't think this is something we need to update every season, but if it becomes easy to update it, you may do that, you may look at what the predominant strain is and try to update it more regularly." U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned the mutated strain could be 70% more transmissible, though this figure was based on early projections and there is still significant uncertainty around the issue. Nevertheless, Johnson announced Tier 4 restrictions over the weekend, ushering in new lockdowns in London and southeast England to curb the spread of the mutated virus strain.
Why Americans will be demanding proof of vaccination You've received a coronavirus vaccination — but can you prove it? The answer to that question will help determine how the global economy functions for the next few years. Why it matters: The federal government will probably neither mandate nor encourage digital immunity passports or other proofs of vaccination. But privately-operated digital certificates are already being developed — and U.S. law means that anybody who gets vaccinated here should be able to obtain the proof they need. The big picture: Your employer has a clear interest in knowing whether you've been vaccinated, as do the immigration staff in any foreign country you want to visit. Many workers, from nursing-home aides to opera singers, have a clear desire and even need to be vaccinated before doing their jobs. Which means they'll need some kind of proof of vaccination. The catch: The official documentation that Americans receive upon being vaccinated is little more than a flimsy, easily-forged paper card. As Gavi, the global vaccination alliance, notes, that in turn creates "concerns that documentation could be fraudulently reproduced".
Anti-vaxxers Could Face Public Transport Ban In France People who fail to get a Covid-19 vaccination could be banned from using public transport in France, according to a draft law sparking angry protests from opposition politicians on Tuesday. Prime Minister Jean Castex on Monday got his cabinet's backing for a bill that is designed to provide a legal framework for dealing with health crises, including the coronavirus pandemic. According to the text, which will now be submitted to parliament, a negative Covid test or proof of a "preventative treatment, including the administration of a vaccine" could be required for people to be granted "access to transport or to some locations, as well as certain activities". The government's vaccination campaign is to start on Sunday, and officials already face widespread resistance to a treatment developed in record time since the outbreak hit Europe early this year. A recent poll by the Journal du Dimanche newspaper found that 59 percent of respondents said they would not get a Covid shot, one of the highest rates in the European Union.
Nearly 4 in 10 Americans do not want to take the Covid vaccine. HHS is planning to spend $250 million to convince the U.S. it is safe The U.S. began vaccinating the population against the coronavirus last week, but mass adoption is not a guarantee. Nearly 4 in 10 Americans say they would "definitely" or "probably" not get a vaccine, according to a Pew Research Center survey of 12,648 U.S. adults from Nov. 18 to 29. While this is better than Pew results from September, which showed that nearly 50% of respondents were leaning toward not getting the vaccine, it still falls short of what is needed to adequately protect the country. To achieve herd immunity, about 70% of the population needs to be vaccinated or have natural antibodies, experts say. Widespread mistrust could be a product of the fact that the Covid vaccine was researched and developed in just eight months, breaking the speed record of four years. Or it might have something to do with the fact that if anything goes wrong with the vaccine, the drugmakers that produced them — Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna — have total immunity against lawsuits related to injuries resulting from the vaccine until 2024.
Special Guests – Billy Moschella and Gopi Krishna V
The Economic Coalition in Utah was formed by business owners and citizens in 2020 as a response to executive government overreach into small business. The coalition is an attempt to help the local economy in Utah, so that it can remain resilient to any such future upheavals in the economic landscape.
The Economic Coalition exists to connect business owners and citizens who support them, and stand up to unconstitutional government trying to control and even destroy the businesses that support our communities, and are our livelihood. Therefore, we would like to bring different aspects of any supply chain – producers, business owners, workers, distributors, retailers, consumers – in communication with each other, around the same table. This is in contrast to current organizations and associations that bring together only one or another portion of the economy, such as workers' unions, trade associations, consumer associations, and groups of CEO's of big businesses who have been the main backers of executive overreach. Our focus is on a cross pollination across the different sectors of the economy, including consumers as a key pillar of the whole.
In order to help us with one of our projects, please fill out our local food survey here.
The Pros and Cons of Western and Alternative Medicine In today's society, we are beginning to gain a better understanding of holistic approaches to health. For years, medicinal training has focused on procedures and medicines that can be used to improve health. Although these practices are important, they are better when they are paired with a more holistic approach to overall health. By definition, western medicine is "a system in which medical doctors and other healthcare professionals treat symptoms and diseases using drugs, radiation, or surgery. On the flip side, alternative medicine is "any of a range of medical therapies that are not regarded as orthodox by the medical profession, such as herbalism, homeopathy, and acupuncture." When these two practices are combined, you gain advanced scientific knowledge that heals disease and everyday practices that can be used to better overall health. In this article, we will share the pros and cons of holistic health approaches and western medicine.
Forget weight loss: New Year's resolutions to help others will make you happier, psychology prof says Already planning to drop those pounds you put on in quarantine next year? Perhaps your New Year's resolution is to get back out and travel more. Whatever the plan is, a professor from the University of Rochester says you're better off throwing your 2021 goals out now because few ever get accomplished. To change things up, and make yourself happier, the expert on motivation and well-being claims resolutions to help others will be better for you personally in the long run. Richard Ryan, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Rochester, says motivational researchers always have mixed feelings about making New Year's resolutions. "The evidence shows that most of the time people aren't successful at them," he explains in a university release. "That is because most of these midnight resolutions look more like pressure coming from the outside—an attempt to look better, relieve guilt, or meet the standards of others. Losing weight, for example, is one of the most common New Year's goals and one that people tend to do poorly at. Part of the reason for that is where it's coming from: it's often coming from internal or external pressure—as opposed to a goal that's something that you might intrinsically value such as having more health or vitality. If the goal is one that is not 'authentic' and not really coming from your own values or interests, the energy for it fades fast."
Remember Friends, The Power to Heal is Yours!
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No Brasil
 Barro Vermelho (Cachoeira do Sul) — bairro no Rio Grande do Sul
 Barro Vermelho (Gravataí) — distrito no Rio Grande do Sul
 Barro Vermelho (Natal) — bairro no Rio Grande do Norte
 Barro Vermelho (Vitória) — bairro no Espírito Santo

Em Portugal
 Praia do Barro Vermelho — praia na ilha Graciosa, Açores

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Summary from Goodreads: Nova Reed can't forget him-Quinton Carter, the boy with the honey-brown eyes who made her realize she deserved more than an empty life. His pain was so similar to her own. But Nova has been coming to terms with her past and healing, while Quinton is out there somewhere, sinking deeper. She's determined to find him and help him . . . before it's too late.
Saving Quinton is a fantastic second book in the Nova series and it just makes me that much more excited to read the next book!
This book starts up nine months after Nova left Quinton and drug use behind. She has managed to get her life together, but she can't forget Quinton and what he meant to her. She can't lose one more person in her life and she's not willing to let him go. So, she finds him. The problem is, Quinton has spiraled much further into his addiction and he's not ready to let the drugs, or his guilt over his past, go. But Nova isn't willing to give up and Quinton can't help but feel when she's around - no matter how much he tries to numb himself.
Quinton might be too self-aware? This is really a tiny negative, but it's honestly the only thing I could think of. The book is written in both Nova's and Quinton's POVs. Considering how drugged up Quinton is throughout most of the book, I occasionally thought he seemed a bit too self-aware, realizing the impact of his actions and decisions just a little too much. Of course, I think his POV would probably be pretty muddled and ridiculous if he was always too drugged up to think clearly, so I can forgive this pretty easily.
The realities of drug use. Sorenson doesn't pretty up Quinton's addiction. It's dirty and it's ugly and it has a real grip on him. He lives in a hole and is in constant danger of being beaten to a pulp or killed by the drug lords who he owes (well, technically, it's his cousin who owes them, but that doesn't stop them from coming after Quinton too). The things he does to keep the drugs flowing are ugly as well. Quinton knows that the drugs are ruling his life, but he is unable and unwilling to do anything about that. He's aware that he's killing himself, but he thinks that a slow death is what he deserves.
Nova and Quinton. This book really didn't center around the romance between Nova and Quinton as much as it centered around Nova trying to help Quinton see that he could and should put his guilt and the drugs aside. The romance was still there, but it wasn't the main focus, and I was really glad about that. I really felt for Nova as she tried to break through Quinton's shell and reach him. Once again, it all felt very realistic - No matter how desperately Nova wanted to help Quinton, she couldn't save him if he didn't want to be saved. And, no matter how powerful her sway over Quinton was, the power of the drugs and his self-hatred were always stronger. Still, the moments between Quinton and Nova where they connected were beautiful and wonderful and I was desperately hoping that Nova would eventually break him down.


With the passing away of Naguib Mahfouz, Egypt's Nobel laureate, the literary world has lost an entire epoch. This 94-year-old writer wasn't only a pillar of Arabic literature, but the central figure who brought this literature on to the world stage. Someone influenced as much by his Islamic mother's tolerance for all humanity as by the ancient history of his country, his writing corpus matches the vastness of Egypt's heritage. From the reigns of pharaohs to the socio-political state of modern-day Egypt, Mahfouz's writing captured the entire gamut of this ancient and vibrant culture. A writer who deeply loved his land and never stepped out of it, not even to attend the Nobel ceremony in 1988, his vision was never constrained by any man-made boundaries—geographical or otherwise.
My position on everything I have read throughout my life — and my readings include the Ancient Egyptian and Arabic heritage as well as English and French creative works — was, as far as possible, a neutral, unbiased, one. This in the sense that all these cultures are, in the last analysis, human cultures, produced by man, and I am as entitled to the English [literary] heritage as I am to the Pharaonic heritage. In other words, all these cultures belong to me in my capacity as a human being. And if you were to ask me to enumerate my favourite works in order, you might find among them an Ancient Egyptian work, a French one, a third that is Arabic and a fourth that is English. When I read I allow my self to love what seems worthy of love, regardless of nationality.
More on Mahfouz in Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly.
Spiritually, culturally, sometimes genealogically, we are the descendants and inheritors of a vast and rich legacy.He hit upon a truth.
What a fitting homage to a wonderful writer and a great human being. He will be sorely missed.
Thanks for the comments, BK, Bernita, and Lotus. I have only read a short story by Mahfouz so far, but he is definitely an author I want to read more of.
It's too bad someone has to die in order for me to notice. He sounds like a wonderful person.
Scott, I am not all that well informed either. I had heard of Naguib Mahfouz before he died (heard of him when he won the Nobel), but having read just one short story by him, I can't claim to have much knowledge about his writing. He does sound wonderful, no doubt. Most writers in their tributes recalled him as "humane." That says it all.
This is a beautiful tribute. I am deeply moved by his statement, his literary capacity to embrace all kinds of writings, his openness to the different words of other cultures. This is indeed a beautiful literary figure, one to be remembered. Thanks for bringing him to our attention.


Guy Stern knows what it means to fight evil.
Born in 1922, Stern, who is Jewish, fled Nazi Germany to the United States. He had an uncle in the U.S. who was able to sponsor one person to come to the country, and Stern's parents chose their 15-year-old son to go abroad, with the idea that he would try to find work and bring the rest of his family over.
But Stern never saw his family again; the Nazis murdered his father, mother, brother, and sister somewhere between the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland and the concentration camps. Before Stern knew his family was gone, he returned to Europe in 1944, three days after the invasion of Normandy, as part of the Ritchie Boys, a special U.S. military intelligence unit comprised largely of European Jewish immigrants. Stern's work would later earn him the Bronze Star.
After learning in 1945 that his entire family had died, he returned to the United States and has dedicated much of his life to championing human rights and educating the public about the Holocaust.
Now, the 97-year-old who directs the Harry and Wanda Zekelman International Institute of the Righteous at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills is coming to Muskegon. Stern, who is also a distinguished professor emeritus at Wayne State University, will share his story at the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies-Muskegon's' annual Holocaust commemoration service on Sunday, March 24 at 3:30pm. The service will take place at Samuel Lutheran Church, located at the corner of 8th Street and Muskegon Avenue in Muskegon's Nelson neighborhood. On Monday, March 25 at 6:30pm, he will speak at the Spring Lake District Library, located at 123 E. Exchange St. in Spring Lake.
Stern's talk comes at at time when anti-Semitism and white supremacy is on the rise, according to a report released this month by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The ADL reported 1,187 incidents of white supremacist propaganda in the U.S. in 2018, a 182 percent increase from 421 incidents in 2017. Those incidents include anti-Semitic, racist, and anti-Muslim messages.
According to that report, there were 1,015 incidents of harassment, including 163 bomb threats against Jewish institutions—up 41 percent over 2016 and 952 incidents of vandalism—an increase of 86 percent from 2016.
Just months ago, on Oct. 27, 2018, a gunman shot and killed 11 people gathered for a baby naming ceremony at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Oct. 27—after which the Muskegon community came out in force to condemn anti-Semitism, and all acts of hate.


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Lindisfarne, or Holy Island has been a place of Christian worship since the 6th century. It is the taproot which anchors the massive tree of Celtic Spirituality into the soil of Northumberland.
In the NC ethos, Lindisfarne is the Upper Spring, and the Mother House (located inland from Lindisfarne near the village of Hazon) is the Nether Spring, both of which were given by God in the midst of this spiritually dry land ( see Judges 1:14)
Google it and you will see haunting images of the ruined priory, of the castle which stands on an impossibly steep outcrop of rock jutting into the North Sea, and images of the causeway, to this day, still a pilgrim's path which when covered, transforms the island from a busy tourist village, to serene place of quiet power.
We were able to experience both phases of life on Holy Island: The Ebb and the Flow.
The Ebb: the intimate isolation where one is left, almost alone, to wander the quiet streets, stand on a bluff overlooking the hermitage on tiny Cuthbert's Island where a cross still marks the place where he spent countless hours in prayer and study, to answer the call of the lonely bell, beckoning one to join with a handful of other pilgrims in St. Mary's for evening prayer. To listen to the score of different bird calls, unfettered by the sound of traffic or crowds. In the morning, strolling the beach wrapped in the downy cold of a thick, cloying fog ; no sound but the lapping waves.
The Flow: like a flock of birds descending with the parting fog, the first ranks of day visitors round the corner from the parking lot, breaking the silence with laughter and happy chatter, delivery trucks appear magically, madly unloading their wares as their customers arrive right on their heels. A long stream of bright colors can now be seen seen dotting the path to the castle. Where moments ago, there were only muted grays and brown; a canvas of isolation, now there are splashes of red and green and blue umbrellas, yellow rain slickers and dark blues jackets, dropped by a careless painter all the way to the horizon.
This reflects one of the key values of the NC (or any decently balanced Christian life for that matter) : Monestary and Mission, Ebb and Flow, times of work, and times of rest. We don't balance these well in the west. But God gives us clues in places like Lindisarne . . . If we will see.
As a "last experience" on Holy Island, we arranged to meet some other NC friends at a pub called The Crown and Anchor. We had never met Jo and Emma in person before, but we had shared quite a lot of life together through the NC Internet Forum.
We grabbed a table for six and I stepped back outside to watch for Jo and Emma. Now at this point, I already had a lot reflect on, but I was thinking about how I had failed to find Andy Raine while on the island.
Andy is one of the original founders of the NC and something of a legendary figure; "Crazy as a box of frogs" as one NC member put it. Andy dances the daily offices rather than just speaking or singing them. Andy is sort of a . . . Mary Poppins crossed with William Wallace meets Willy Wonka and Conann the Barbarian sort of character, and I was told that while on the Island, I should by all means, "knock him up" (which means something ENTIRELY different in the UK . . .so relax.) For those of you familiar with the G.K. Chesterton book, "Manalive", the character Innocent Smith bears a good likeness.
I was told that he and his family live at the center of the village in a cottage called "settled" (almost all the homes on Lindisfarne have names). On two, sepeate walks around the village I looked for "settled" but could not find it.
Now, as I stood outside the Crown and Anchor, beginning to embrace the idea that Andy and I were not meant to meet on this trip, a tall man with
an explosion of curly dark hair, wearing duck hunter's garb and carrying a parcel, emerged from behind a garden wall. I recognized him from YouTube videos I had seen of him telling the NC story.
In the split second it took for me to recognize him, and begin evaluating whether I should NOW go introduce myself ( he was clearly in the middle of an errand, and I was waiting for Jo and Emma) he had turned to look right at me, and saw that I was looking at him.
He stopped, and a smiling expression of recognition crossed his face, a look like he was expecting me. Now I HAD to advance and introduce myself.
"Andy?" I asked.
"Yes." He smiled.
I extended my hand as I stepped toward him, "I'm Dan Hazen, a friend of the NC and I just wanted to say 'hello'."
"I knew it when I saw you!" he said, "I was told to watch for a bloke yesterday, and I just thought, 'oh well we missed each other' . . .but as soon as I saw you, I knew you were him."
I guess we were supposed to meet after all . . .
….to be continued.
← August 7, 2011 August 10, 2011 →

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


This development area is located along high-traffic Westnedge Avenue and in front of the Westnedge@Kilgore Shopping Center.
This site is located a half-mile from I-94. When built, there will be multiple means of egress and ingress to the property.


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The Story behind Desert Star Dance
Desert Star Dance was founded in 2003 by Ann Olsen Bode. Ann has an extensive résumé as both an entertainer and in production. As a professional dancer, she had an illustrious and full career. Her credits include TV, feature films and live theater. Ann travelled the world dancing and was a featured singer/dancer in several large Las Vegas production shows. She went on to become a dance and casting director for Las Vegas, Reno/Tahoe, as well as many international production shows. Ann's true love is teaching! She was the artistic director for several other dance studios in Arizona before deciding to embark on her own endeavor, Desert Star Dance. What a great choice as Desert Star Dance has been in successful operation for nearly two decades and trained 1000's of dancers! Ann's team is an amazing group of professionals with excellent credentials. Desert Star Dance's faculty is a loyal and experienced group of instructors, dedicated to the nurturing and education of children through the arts.
Watch Our Story
See Our Values
Desert Star Dance - Our Values
At Desert Star Dance, we believe in dance as an art form, a source of entertainment for performers and spectators, and an effective vehicle for personal growth. In today's world, everything seems like competition. At its essence, competition is the opposite of creativity. Although our performing groups participate in some dance competitions for the experience, our main goal is to share our joy and love for dance and to entertain an audience through our art form. We look for unique ways to perform and entertain outside of the competition realm and to contribute to the positivity and well-being of our community. We value the sanctity of our students and encourage them in all ways including enhancing their self-esteem, promoting personal development and teaching respect for others. Dance can teach so much more than just physical movement! It teaches teamwork, confidence, interpersonal relationships and many other life skills that transfer over into all aspects of a student's success.
A Heart for Community Service
At Desert Star Dance, we value and encourage generosity and community involvement. We enhance our environment through give-back projects. We encourage philanthropy in young people and are partners with the local non-profit group Kids Help Kids. KHK raises funds through events and activities for local charities that serve children. Desert Star Dance has participated in fundraising events that have benefited Save The Family, Sunshine Acres Children's Home as well as Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Arizona.
Preschool (Ages 3-5)
Mini (Ages 5-7)
Junior/Tween (Ages 7-11, Tween Ages 9+)
Teen (Ages 11+)
Kids Specialty Classes & Camps
Adults Dance Classes
Company/Performing Groups
Dance Styles / Dress Code
Get a Free Dance Class
About Desert Star Dance
STUDIO Hours
Mon-Thu:
© Desert Star Dance.
Built by: Tension Design


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Q: Object Passing itself in java I figured out how to have an object pass itself to another and have a field in it updated.
I did so by having ObjectA pass itself to ObjectB. Then ObjectB changes a field in ObjectA.
Starting in Main Method: (and leaving out method headers and such)
ObjA.changeField(Obj2)

In ObjectA
Obj2.callChangeMethod(this);

In ObjectB
Obj1.makeChange();

What I'm confused about is why did I have to pass "this" in line2 versus passing ObjA?
Thanks

A: The reason is quite simple actually: it all has to do with the scope of the variables.
Here is a slightly embellished version of the code you presented:
public static void main(String[] args) {
    ObjectA Obj1 = new ObjectA();
    ObjectB Obj2 = new ObjectB();

    Obj1.changeField(Obj2);
}

The thing to notice about this code is that Obj1 and Obj2 are declared inside of the main method. This means that they belong to the main method, and cannot be used outside of main. This is what the "scope" means. If a variable is declared inside a class, only that class has access to it. If declared in a method, only that method can use it. The same holds for loop structures, and any other kind of block you can imagine. Essentially, if the variable was declared inside a pair of {}, then it belongs to that pair of {}.
So now if you look at your ObjectA class, you'll notice that it sits all by itself - it wasn't declared as part of the main method, so it can't use the variable Obj1 - the ObjectA code has no idea that Obj1 even exists.
That is why you must use the this keyword. You don't have access to Obj1, so you need to use a "variable" that you do have access to - in this case, you have this which always refers to the current instance of the class.
So although you are still using the same object (the one created by new ObjectA()), you simply have different variables which refer to that object, depending on which code you are currently looking at. The scoping rules do get a little more complex, but the more you play around with Java, and the more you understand classes vs instances vs references to instances, the easier it becomes to use them comfortably.

A: The only reference an object has to itself is the this keyword. Ultimately, there is no other way for an object to refer to itself.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


AIGA, the professional association for design, is committed to advancing design as a professional craft, strategic advantage and vital cultural force.
You can choose to work in one area and work from easy projects to more difficult ones, or you can work in each of the areas, doing one project per area to see what you have interest in.
Make some great designs and have fun- be open and CREATE!
Since all projects are varying in their difficulty as well as expanse, your daily work grade will be important. Wasting class time is not an option.


The one day courses would be limited to a maximum of four people at a time but could be on a one to one basis. The workshop cost will be $150 + GST per person and will run from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm with lunch, all materials and use of equipment included. Further felting supplies are available for those inspired to continue!
Workshops will be held from Sunday to Wednesday when the Gallery is closed so that participants can receive undivided attention.


Chi Kung is an ancient Taoist path of spiritual advancement using meditation, as well as breath and energy control. It evolved from the system designed by Bodhidharma the twenty-eighth patriarch after Shakyamuni Buddha and Father of Chinese Chahn Buddhism which was later adopted by the Japanese and evolved into Zen. Masters of Chi Kung are able to raise, control, and direct personal and universal life force and use this subtle energy to open specific energy channels within the body and aura. These energy channels include the meridians used in acupuncture, the Jara lines of Chi Kung, the seven main chakras and the multitude of minor chakras. Chi Kung initiates are given intense personal regimens of exercise, diet, and meditation. After many years of purification, discipline, and devotion, initiates are able to activate these energy centers and raise personal power to nearly superhuman levels. The benefits derived by these adepts and masters, include healing, self defense, and spiritual manifestation of physical needs.
As a trained practitioner and teacher of Chi Kung, I "knew" from experience that healing abilities took many years to develop. Therefore, when I first heard of Reiki, I fully rejected it as false. The claims of Reiki simply didn't match what I "knew" was necessary for healing energy to freely flow from the hands. My experience had taught me that such abilities came only through painstaking discipline and long-term efforts. I did not understand, at first, that the ability to do Reiki is not developed through learning and practice, but comes from a process of Divine grace. The ability to do Reiki healing is simply channeled through the Reiki master to the practitioner during the attunement process. Years of study and discipline are not necessary. Imagine my surprise during my first Reiki class when I observed the astral images of guides and healing spirits pouring forth bright shimmering rays of healing energy at the hands of novice practitioners only three hours after the first class started! This obviously was not Chi Kung! I was delighted by the difference and glad I had decided to take the class anyway. I am sincerely grateful for the system of Reiki as it takes years off the time necessary to become a healer.
I received another shock when I eventually took the Advanced and Master Reiki Training from William Rand. In this class, William teaches several meditations which add to and enhance the practitioner's Reiki energies. One of these meditations uses Reiki energy keys to activate and open the microcosmic orbit, one of the eight major channels used by Chi Kung practitioners. I sat with chagrin, as William guided myself and the other students through the microcosmic orbit in about six minutes. Using my psychic sight, I was assured that the energy path of the microcosmic orbit was activated in the other beginning students in the class. It often takes Chi Kung students as much as two years to raise and focus enough energy to do this, and here it had been accomplished in just a few minutes!
The personal health benefits of opening the microcosmic orbit and continuing the meditation, whether accomplished through Reiki or Chi Kung discipline, are amazing. The spiritual purification and empowerment is an added benefit as well, and all Reiki practitioners could benefit from such a boost.
After talking with my own Chi Kung teachers, I have since begun working with Chi Kung and Reiki students with other Chi Kung channel work and the expanded function Jara lines. I have found that all of the Chi Kung internal elixir formulas can be safely accelerated and enhanced through Reiki, and I am teaching these formulas as part of my Reiki Adept Path program. We eventually plan to share this information, and our results in a book entitled: "Reiki : The Adept Path".
Taoist master Dr. Yang Jwing Ming has suggested, that in this age of technology we may discover techniques for safely accelerating and enhancing Chi Kung training. My experience suggests that Reiki is such a technique. It is my hope that other Chi Kung practitioners will consider taking Reiki training to enhance their Chi Kung exercises. Perhaps with the awareness of the inner connection between different spiritual disciplines and paths, more people can begin to explore the benefits and powers of combined efforts.
Glenn is a teaching Reiki Master and has been a student of martial arts and esoteric healing practices for over 20 years. He teaches emergency medical technique in the Detroit Public Schools has been a technician with the Detroit Emergency Medical Service, and has taught at hospitals. He may be contacted at the Center for Health Alternatives at 8055 Plainview; Detroit, Michigan, 48228.


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Specializing in mobile payment solutions, this financial technology company is responsible for the development of a number of innovative hardware and software solutions for payment. Operating on an international scale, this company is a true pioneer in the market.


New paintings are available every week. These collections are representative of the work available on an on-going basis. Please call or email for information on other paintings. We can email low-resolution photos for your consideration. Prices are available upon request.


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Category: Sisters
Thank you from the SOLT Sisters!
Dear Parents and Friends,
How can we thank you for your kindness and support in providing for us in so many ways through the giving tree this Christmas? From toiletries and groceries to winter fleeces, books and goodies, we were so touched by your generosity. May the Lord reward you and your families 100-fold!
As a house of formation with young women who are just taking their first steps in religious life, it was such a joy to see their astonishment at how cared for we are by all of you. Please know that you are in our prayers daily, and that we feel very blessed to live and serve here at St. Alphonsus. May your 2019 be filled with every grace and blessing!
The SOLT Sisters
Posted in Sisters | Tagged SOLT Sisters, Thank You
Meet Sisters New to St. Als
Arriving at St. Alphonsus in mid-August, Sr. Mary Elizabeth Albers had previously been assigned to the SOLT headquarters in Corpus Christi, Texas. She is very excited to be back in Seattle, where she served as a Novice in 2007-08, mostly in the Pre-K classroom at the school.Originally from Kansas, Sr. Elizabeth graduated from Benedictine College with degrees in English and Mass Communications, and played point guard for the women's basketball team. Following graduation, she taught for two years at the SOLT mission in Belize, Central America, where she first heard the Lord's invitation to religious life. As a SOLT Sister, Sr. Elizabeth has been assigned in New Mexico, North Dakota and Texas, and she professed her perpetual vows with five other Sisters in 2014. This year she will continue her work as Vocation Servant for the SOLT Sisters, along with being the aspirant formator and convent superior. Within the parish, she is delighted to be working with the youth group, helping out in the school office, and growing in relationship with the whole St. Alphonsus family.
Sr. Mary Peter came to St. Alphonsus in February of this year. She is originally from the Portland area and studied Spanish and Latin American Studies at Oregon State University while also competing on the OSU crew team. She discovered her vocation to religious life through a conversion experience while serving at the SOLT mission in North Dakota at the end of her time at Oregon State. She entered the Sisters of the Society of Our Lady shortly after college and made her first profession of vows in 2005. At that time she was sent to serve in a home for girls in Queretaro, Mexico for 3 years. After that she served in the sisters' novitiate house in New Mexico for 8 years. Finally, prior to coming to Seattle, she served in Belize City, Belize for almost 2 years. Her ministry here will mostly be serving the Sisters' community, but she will be overseeing the CCD class for the children preparing for First Holy Communion, serving as a Lector, and involved in other parish activities. She is grateful to be at St. Alphonsus, and happy to be at home again in the beauty of the Pacific Northwest!
Posted in Sisters | Tagged Sisters, SOLT
The SOLT Sisters at St. Alphonsus
Although every religious community incorporates the same essential elements of liturgical prayer, common life and apostolic service, each community is also a unique expression of the gift of Christ within the Church, with its own charism, mission and spiritualty. The Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT) is an international missionary community, based out of Corpus Christi, Texas, composed of priests, consecrated sisters and brothers, and lay members serving together on ecclesial teams in areas of deep need throughout the Church. Founded in New Mexico in 1958 by Fr. James Flanagan, SOLT's vision and charism anticipated many of the movements of Vatican II, including the role of the laity in the mission of evangelization, the significance of Our Lady's relationship with each Person of the Trinity, and "communion" as the foundation of all renewal within the Church.
The SOLT Sisters first arrived at St. Alphonsus in 2004, and the convent has been a house of formation from the beginning, serving as a place where young women who are taking their first steps toward a religious vocation begin their formation. Since 2004, more than 30 Sisters and SOLT aspirants, postulants and novices have become a part of the St. Alphonsus family. The various stages of formation include Aspirancy—an initial four-month time of discernment, Postulancy—a year of more intense formation geared toward the development of the whole person and greater understanding of consecrated life, and Novitiate—the official entrance into a religious community when the habit and white veil are received and the Novice begins a two-year period of preparation to make first vows.
Striving to achieve a balance of prayer, work, service, study, community life and recreation, the convent could be described as both prayerful and invariably busy! Each day the Sisters participate in Mass, a Eucharistic holy hour and the five hours of the Divine Office. They also pray the Rosary and meditate on Scripture together daily, and hold formation class five days a week. They serve at the school and in the parish in a variety of ways, from assisting in the classrooms, lunch duty, recess, extended care and the school office, to helping out with CCD, Youth Group, RCIA and some cleaning around the facilities. The SOLT Sisters are exceptionally blessed to have a home at St. Alphonsus, and they look forward to all the wonders the Lord will continue to work!
Sister Elizabeth Albers
Be on the lookout in the next few weeks as we introduce the newest members of the community…


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Lib Dems sully Taunton
2 years ago / October 4, 2019
Aberdeen: The byelection for two seats in Bridge of Don ward held on 3 October was won by Sarah Cross and Jessica Mennie. The Conservatives and Scottish National Party both held their seats.
Cardiff: The byelection in Whitchurch and Tongwynlais division held on 3 October was won by Mia Rees. Conservative hold.
Charnwood: The byelection in Syston West ward held on 3 October was won by Sue Gerrard. Conservative hold.
Essex: The byelection in Clacton East division held on 3 October was won by Mark Stephenson, who was an Independent candidate. He succeeds another Independent.
St Albans: The byelection in Clarence ward held on 3 October was won by Josie Madoc. Liberal Democrat hold.
Somerset West and Taunton: The byelection in Norton Fitzwarren and Staplegrove ward held on 3 October was won by Andy Sully. Liberal Democrat gain from Independent.
Allerdale: Mike Little, who was elected for Putting Cumbria First in Aspatria ward, has joined the Conservative Party.
Barnet: Jess Brayne, who was elected for the Labour Party in Underhill ward but left to become an Independent councillor in February, has now joined the Liberal Democrats.
Bromsgrove: Michael Thompson, who was elected for the Labour Party in Charford ward and was the group leader, has left the party to sit as an Independent councillor.
Dorset: Kate Wheller, who was elected for the Labour Party in Rodwell and Wyke division, has left the party to sit as an Independent councillor.
Kensington and Chelsea: Matthew Palmer, who was elected for the Conservative Party in Queen's Gate ward, has left the party to sit as an unaligned councillor.
Merthyr Tydfil: Kevin Gibbs, who was elected as an Independent in Penydarren division, has joined the Labour Party.
West Lindsey: Jeff Summers, who was elected for the Conservatives in Waddingham and Spital ward, has left the party to sit as an Independent councillor.
Leeds: Wetherby ward, after the death of Conservative councillor Gerald Wilkinson. Term ends May next year.
Corporation of London: Aldersgate ward, after the resignation of Labour Common Councilman Richard Crossan. Term ends 2021.
Neath Port Talbot: Rhos division, after the resignation of Labour councillor Alex Thomas. Term ends 2022.
Powys: St Mary division, after the resignation of Conservative councillor Sarah Lewis. Term ends 2022.
Torbay: Goodrington-with-Roselands ward, after the resignation of Liberal Democrat councillor Rick Heyse. Term ends 2023.
Cornwall: The byelection due in Wadebridge West division will be held on 7 November.
Croydon: The byelection due in Fairfield ward will be held on 7 November.
Fife: The byelection due in Dunfermline Central ward will be held on 14 November.
Fife: The byelection due in Rosyth ward will be held on 14 November.
Moray: The byelection due in Keith and Cullen ward will be held on 21 November.
Pembrokeshire: The byelection due in Hundleton division will be held on 7 November.
Torbay: The byelection due in Goodrington-with-Roselands ward will be held on 14 November.
Sheffield: A petition for a referendum on a change of council governance submitted in August has been verified as valid. As a result Sheffield will hold a referendum in May next year on whether to end the Leader and cabinet system and use the committee system.


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Favorite good (or bad?) examples of "operationalizing" vague ecological concepts?
Posted on February 15, 2017 by Jeremy Fox
"Operationalization" is the term for taking a concept that's vague or abstract and making it more precise and concrete, so that it can be put to practical use. Like many scientific and social scientific fields that aren't physics or chemistry, ecology has many concepts that are only vaguely defined, or at least were only vaguely defined when they were first proposed. "Niche" is an infamous example. Or think of how one response to my critique of the intermediate disturbance hypothesis was to question whether the ideas I was critiquing were "really" part of the intermediate disturbance hypothesis, properly defined. Few big ideas are born fully formed, so most new ideas have to go through some refinement and elaboration to make them operational
Sometimes, the process of operationalization is successful, meaning that eventually everyone agrees on the definition of the concept and can go out and apply it. For instance, everybody agrees what "gross primary productivity" is. There might be practical obstacles to measuring it in any particular case, and different ways of measuring it might be prone to different sorts of errors. But those are practical obstacles, not conceptual ones.
But sometimes, the process of operationalization fails.
For instance, many plant ecologists starting with Welden and Slauson (1986 Q. Rev. Biol.) have argued that there is a crucial distinction to be made between the "intensity" of competition (roughly, the absolute effect of competition on the physiology of the affected individual plant) and the "importance" of competition (roughly, the long-term ecological effect of competition, relative to other processes). Plant ecologists have tried to operationalize these concepts by proposing and applying quantitative indices of competitive "intensity" and "importance"–more than 50 such indices, by one count! Of course, this proliferation of indices is a sign of failed operationalization. If we really knew what competitive "intensity" and "importance" were, we wouldn't keep proposing new indices of them and arguing over which indices are best. Freckleton et al. (2009) and Rees et al. (2012) argue–to my mind completely convincingly–that the concepts of competitive "intensity" and "importance" are too vague and disconnected from mathematical theory to be made operational. Just because you have a plausible-seeming way to put a number on some vague verbal idea doesn't mean that vague verbal idea is now "operational" (see Brooker et al. 2013 for the opposing view).
To elaborate a bit on Rees et al.'s point, if you have a mathematical model and use it properly, the problem of operationalization doesn't arise. You just measure whatever quantity the model tells you to measure. For instance, in my own work on spatial synchrony, my collaborator and I developed a mathematical model that made some predictions about how spatial synchrony should behave. When we tested those predictions experimentally we made sure to calculate from our data the same measure of spatial synchrony as we'd used in the model (the cross-correlation; Vasseur & Fox 2009). So the fact that there are various other measures of synchrony that are consistent with the vague verbal idea of "synchrony" was irrelevant. As another example, lots of recent work on diversity and stability operationalizes "diversity" and "stability" as "whatever meaning those terms have in the mathematical model I used to generate the predictions I'm testing."
Another example: think of the debate over how to partition alpha and beta diversity. If we all agreed on what alpha and beta diversity are, would there be any debate over how to partition them?
But the above examples are merely the first ones that occurred to me off the top of my head; perhaps they're not representative. And I'm having trouble thinking of any other general principles to guide successful operationalization, besides "don't try to go straight from a vague verbal concept to a quantitative, model-independent measure of that concept". That's where you come in. Tell me: what are your favorite examples of successful and failed operationalization in ecology? Let's try to compile some examples and draw some general lessons.
(p.s. Yes, I'm aware that psychologists and other social scientists worry a lot about this issue and have a large literature on principal components and latent variables and such. I know that literature a bit, in part as a reader of Andrew Gelman's blog–which does not inspire much confidence in me that psychologists have the operationalization problem solved. For instance. So feel free to comment that there's an easy technical solution here, but be prepared for some pushback. Don't get me wrong, statistical techniques like PCA and latent variables have their place. But I doubt the one-size-fits-all solution to problems of operationalization is "come up with a bunch of indices of whatever vaguely-defined abstract concept it is you're trying to measure, then run them through a PCA and take the first principal component".)
Related old post:
The most common way to fish for statistical significance in ecology
This entry was posted in New ideas by Jeremy Fox. Bookmark the permalink.
42 thoughts on "Favorite good (or bad?) examples of "operationalizing" vague ecological concepts?"
jeffollerton on February 15, 2017 at 8:03 am said:
Great question. OK, here's one to kick off: "specialisation". In my area (and I get the sense elsewhere across EEB, too), the notion of what it means for a species to be a "specialist" or "generalist" has multiple meanings, for example:
– the number of other species with which it interacts in a given relationship (predator prey, mutualism, etc.)
– the number of species with which it interacts weighted by the strength of that interaction (used in network studies)
– the turnover of the number of species with which it interacts across multiple populations
– the number of broad/functional groups of taxa with which it interacts
– the possession of specific adaptations that allow it to interact in a particular way
– limited distribution in a particular habitat type
I'm sure there are others that I've missed. I can provide some literature behind this if you want to follow it up.
Jeremy Fox on February 15, 2017 at 9:23 am said:
Hmm. That sounds to me like a more different case–a single term to refer to a bunch of different things that aren't necessarily related. Rather like how "selection" can refer to resource choice by individual organisms (see Emilie's comment), or natural selection. Each of those two uses of "selection" has its own operationalization. "Stability" is kind of the same–there are different operationalizations of different uses of the term.
jeffollerton on February 15, 2017 at 10:13 am said:
No, I disagree, at least for part of my list. Much of the debate and disagreement in pollination ecology about the relative frequencies of specialized and generalized interactions, pollination syndromes, etc. revolves around how to interpret the world "specialized" to understand the same set of interactions. Here's an example:
Plant species x is an orchid with highly specialised pollen delivery (as pollinia) = specialist
Plant species x is pollinated by 20 different species in one population = generalist
All of those 20 pollinators are medium sized bees, therefore plant species x is pollinated by a single functional group of species = specialised
In different populations across the full range of plant species x the effective pollinators include large hoverflies and wasps = generalist
All of these examples can be found in the literature going back into the 19th century, and the distinction is particularly acute for those with botanical versus ecological training, where the former emphasises floral adaptations, the latter ecological interactions and context.
I'm sure similar discussions have gone on in other parts of ecology, e.g. predator-prey interactions.
Jeremy Fox on February 15, 2017 at 10:26 am said:
Ok I buy that as a failed operationalization.
This gets back to your old post with Angela Moles on whether species interactions are stronger and more specialized in the tropics. A lot of the pushback you got was arguing about operationalizations.
jeffollerton on February 15, 2017 at 12:14 pm said:
Yes, agreed. I suspect that part of what you'll uncover with the failed ops question is that one of the root causes is ecologists coming to a subject from very different backgrounds/traditions.
Jeremy Fox on February 15, 2017 at 12:40 pm said:
"I suspect that part of what you'll uncover with the failed ops question is that one of the root causes is ecologists coming to a subject from very different backgrounds/traditions."
Can you elaborate? Do you mean, failed operationalizations happen when ecologists lack a background in the topic and so make mistakes that someone with more background wouldn't make? Or do you mean failed operationalizations happen when a mix of ecologists of different backgrounds all work on the same topic?
And can you give an example?
I was really thinking along the lines of "failed operationalizations happen when a mix of ecologists of different backgrounds all work on the same topic", but I suppose that the first explanation could apply in some cases.
The example I'm most familiar with is the one that I've already mentioned: "specialisation" as applied to plant-pollinator interactions. I've seen examples of botanically-trained scientists applying "specialised"to a plant's pollination system when referring to the floral phenotype (e.g. orchids, asclepiads) regardless of the diversity of pollinators involved. I'm also aware of examples where no consideration was made of sampling effort and species termed "specialised" based on limited observations of pollinators, again by botanically-trained researchers.
Mark Vellend on February 15, 2017 at 8:58 am said:
One of my favourites is "stochasticity", operationalized by McShea and Brandon ("Biology's first law", U. Chicago Press) in the "with respect to" sense. Organisms don't live and die at random (e.g., there is always a cause of death), but if demographic events occur at random with respect to the identifies of alleles at a given locus, you get stochastic genetic drift at that locus. Replace "identities of alleles at a given locus" with "species identity", and you've got an operational definition of stochastic community drift. Arguments about whether anything in the universe is truly stochastic will go on forever, but one can in principle actually measure whether event X occurs at random with respect to situation Y.
Good example.
Emilie Champagne (@MissEmilieC) on February 15, 2017 at 9:12 am said:
Selection might be a good example, especially in relation to preference. These vague concepts are well defined in Johnson 1980 (Ecology 61: 65-71), but have been operationalized with selection ressource analyses (see Manly, et al. 2002. Resource selection by animals: statistical design and analysis for field studies).
However, I don't know the historical context of that.
Good suggestion, I'll look into that.
Kelly Papapavlou on February 15, 2017 at 9:39 am said:
In my opinion, the cornerstone word of ecology, the term "ecosystem", has not been tthrough succesful operationalization yet
Does it need to be?
Kelly Papapavlou on February 17, 2017 at 11:07 am said:
I believe yes, especially if one wants to pay for "ecosystem management"…..
Jessica L. Burnett (@TrashBirdEcol) on February 15, 2017 at 1:31 pm said:
Ecological resilience (and not engineering) is in its early stage of operationalization, so I don't think it's fair to judge failed/not failed just yet. There have been numerous and apparently successful attempts at operationalizing specified resilience, and (at least on short time scales) frameworks for operationalizing the management of systems for resilience.
As an emergent property, can we ever operationalize (i.e., prove) resilience? Probably not.
Jeremy Fox on February 15, 2017 at 1:44 pm said:
I should do a poll on this: ecosystem health, successful or failed operationalization?
I'd say failed just because I reject the analogy on which the original verbal idea is based. I only think it makes sense to speak of healthy or unhealthy individual organisms, not healthy or unhealthy ecosystems (or cities, or other non-organisms that sometimes get described as "healthy"). So since I reject the vague verbal idea, I don't think it can be operationalized. I think indices of ecosystem "health" are better thought of as measuring, I dunno…lack of human impact, or "is this ecosystem in the state we humans would like to see it in?", or something.
I now await somebody who works on ecosystem health to tell me I'm totally wrong (seriously, I'd be very happy to get pushback on this.)
see also: 'sustainability'
I totally agree with "failed". What makes things more complicated is that "esosystem health" comes up every now and then in management issues and we ecology consultants are often asked to assess an ecosystem as "healthy" or not. In this case in my opinion we have two (2) failed operationalizations: "ecosystem" AND "health of an ecosystem"!!
Don S on February 17, 2017 at 11:09 am said:
It seems like a first step is to have an operationalization of "health", which is not a small topic nor free of debate, but could be defined as a multidimensional assessment of physiological functions compared to the state we humans would like/expect to see it in. If one can accept that definition, then I think it would be hard to have a problem with the analogy to ecosystem health as: a multidimensional assessment of ecological functions compared to the state we humans would like/expect to see it in. Other operationalizations of "heath" may not translate as well. Do we now digress into operationalizations of "physiological" and "ecological" function"?
"a multidimensional assessment of physiological functions compared to the state we humans would like/expect to see it in."
Sure, that's fine. I just object to using the word "health" to refer to "whatever it is (certain) people happen to like". If you're giving a technical meaning to a word that's in common use, you should try to avoid giving a technical meaning that's almost the opposite of the common connotation of the word. "Health" does not have the connotation of "being in a state that some people happen to like". The common connotation of "health" is much more objective and has normative force that mere personal preferences lack. That isn't to deny that what's "healthy" can be debatable. It's just to say that calling this sort of index ecosystem "health" is to give the index a sheen of objectivity and normative force that it doesn't deserve. At least not to my mind.
Political advocacy groups promoting their causes play this game all the time. Come up with some arbitrary index of something, name it with a term in common use that has some normative force, and then draw a political conclusion from the results. A conclusion that's hard to question because if you question it it looks like you're questioning widely-accepted norms. Think of indices of "freedom" or "well being" or "livability" or whatever. I just instinctively don't like even a whiff of that sort of thing showing up in science.
Don't misunderstand, I actually don't read the ecosystem health literature at all, so perhaps I'm coming from a place of ignorance here. That rant is just an expression of a general, deep-seated, knee jerk aversion on my part. I'm averse to trying to operationalize ecosystem "health" for more or less the same reason I don't consider sports in which the winner is determined by judges evaluating the competitors' conformity to some arbitrary standard to be proper sports (e.g., figure skating, rhythmic gymnastics).
I now look forward to getting pushback both from readers who work on ecosystem health, and readers who like figure skating. 🙂
Emilio M. Bruna on February 15, 2017 at 3:15 pm said:
Stress(ors) vs Disturbanc(es), maybe? I had a student who studies seedlings in Amazonian floodplains and we used to argue endlessly about the difference, or when a stress became a disturbance, or how they were measured…sensu: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10750-013-1478-9:
Hmm… I wonder what Ph.D. Donald J. Trump would have to say about this?
Yes stress is an infamous one. I'm thinking of John Harper's line that stress is whatever I don't think I would like if I were a buttercup.
I thought Harper said it about penguins in rainforests? Maybe he used both examples 🙂
Douglas in Norway on February 15, 2017 at 5:13 pm said:
Yes, disturbance is a interesting one. It is clear what it is in most models, but hard to define in a clear (include-exclude) manner in the real world. The range of definitions is broad and even gets into strange territory as when a change in a disturbance regimes (such as a reduction in fire frequency) is labelled as a disturbance. Nonetheless, the concept of disturbance is so essential to so much (at least in forest ecology) that we seem to get on with it and just accept that definitions vary by study. So it appears we have operationalised the confusion.
"it appears we have operationalised the confusion."
Don't even joke about that. 😉
Juliano on February 24, 2017 at 12:08 pm said:
This is not a peer-reviewed scientific literature but…Nassim Taleb argues in his book "Antifragile" about this: Stress are constant and don't enable the system to recover, whereas disturbances occur rapidly and enable the system to be "antifragile" (opposite of fragile = "stronger"). One may argues that the concept of "healthy ecosystem" is highly linked to disturbance/stress and resilience concepts.
Ruda on September 22, 2018 at 6:53 am said:
It actually is peer-reviewed, it just happens that the book only references the papers:
N. N. Taleb & R. Douady, 2013. "Mathematical definition, mapping, and detection of (anti)fragility," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(11), pages 1677-1689, November.
standingoutinmyfield on February 15, 2017 at 3:28 pm said:
The concept of "pollinator importance" also has a zillion indices if that's an indicator of failed operationalization.
Thus suggesting the lesson "never try to operationalize 'importance '".
Brian McGill on February 15, 2017 at 4:09 pm said:
I am not seeing many answers to your "successful" half of the question. I could add a dozen more to the failed list. And would definitely have ranted on alpha & beta diversity if you hadn't.
But successful, lets see …
Population density and even abundance
Relative abundance
Transition probabilities (sensu stage/age matrices)
Biome (and vegetation classification) (admittedly more borderline than the others)
Any number of ecosystem concepts such as mineralization rates, N:P ratios, carbon flux
Would have said NPP but there was just a paper by Simova & Storch really calling this into question
A number of physiological properties (e.g. A_max = maximum photosynthetic rate although it is widely recognized and handled that this depends on spatial & temporal scale, metabolic rate, maximum velocity, etc)
Diet preference (again a bit more borderline)
There is a theme here – most subdisciplines of ecology are better operationalized than community ecology …
Brian, some of your examples strike me as cases where the "operationalization" is trivial. What else could "relative abundance" be besides" abundance of species X divided by total abundance of all species"? Same question for occupancy, population density, abundance, and several others. What are the obstacles to operationalization? Is it stuff like deciding how to count "individuals" of a plant that sends out runners underground?
Sounds like I should look up Simova and Storch, since I had thought we all knew what NPP is, operationally.
Brian McGill on February 15, 2017 at 10:11 pm said:
I'm not going to disagree with you that they're trivial. But I will say:
a) There is a danger of being tautological – anything we've successfully operationalized is trivial
b) population abundance and occupancy are rarely directly measured – they are normally estimated by ever increasingly sophisticated methods – there are literally whole books on how to measure them. And lots of debate about appropriate and relevant scales and scale-dependence of methods. Is that trivial? Similarly there is a whole book on ecosystem measurement methods.
And if population size, N, is trivial, why isn't species richness, S, trivial? (My answer because N scales linearly but S doesn't). But they seem equally trivial.
"There is a danger of being tautological – anything we've successfully operationalized is trivial"
Agreed, but thinking about it, I don't *think* I'm falling into that trap. For instance, I said in another comment that I think "competition" has been operationalized reasonably well. And I don't think that was trivial. I would say operationalizing "competition" was a lot harder than operationalizing, say, abundance.
Re: your b), yeah, I would say that using sophisticated methods to estimate (say) abundance is just a matter of overcoming technical challenges. Same for estimating species richness or ecosystem variables or whatever. Those technical challenges aren't trivial in the sense of being easy to overcome; apologies for not being clearer on that. But I do think they are technical challenges, not *conceptual* ones. Indeed, it's hard for me to see how we could push so far with increasingly sophisticated technical methods to estimate abundance unless we'd already operationalized abundance conceptually. I think the conceptual challenges to operationalizing "abundance" are mostly trivial. (Though in saying that perhaps I'm being too quick to write off organisms that lack discrete individuals as rare exceptions; such organisms do raise conceptual problems for how to measure abundance operationally.)
Mark Westoby on February 15, 2017 at 5:48 pm said:
Ecosystem health is an interesting example for sure. The underlying issue is only partly in the word "health", more generally it's in the question whether we think good to bad can be arrayed along a single dimension. (A precursor in rangeland science is the concept of "range condition".) For a few decades now it's been pretty well understood by most researchers that actually there are multiple desirability scales that don't necessarily align with each other. But usually there is strong pressure from the minister for environment for a single scale that you can manage towards and build a coloured map from, and this in turn translates through the land or water management agency to pressure on researchers. Seems to me to be an area where at least so far, the research community hasn't been able to persuade the applied agencies there are more sophisticated ways to look at what we're doing.
Yes, one cause of dubious operationalization is the felt need to boil things down for some non-scientific audience or some policy purpose. As someone who's own work and reading is far removed from policy, this isn't an issue I'm well-qualified to comment on.
It seems to me there are a lot of parallels between "operationalization" (which I take as measuring in a repeatable way a variable that is useful to know) and language overloading. Could one reasonably claim that words/concepts that have a single meaning are easy to operationalize and all the things that are vague/ambiguous/overloaded like "competition", "specialist/generalist", "disturbance", "stress", "ecosystem health", are impossible to operationalize because they are not one thing and thus it is nonsensical to repeatably measure them.
Hmm. "Competition" is one that I think has been operationalized reasonably well. But yes, I agree with your broad point. The root of failed operationalization is trying to summarize in one number something that's either vague or multifaceted.
Jon Mitchell on February 16, 2017 at 7:04 am said:
I'm rather surprised that no one's mentioned the most famous example in Ecology *and* Evolution yet: the concept of a species!
I'm tempted to say "too obvious", but the truth is I just forgot! Yes, classic example.
Simon Stewart on February 19, 2017 at 4:29 am said:
This may be a bit off topic sorry but concepts becoming 'operationalized' made me think about when a concept, or theory, becomes a law. Are some ecological relationships able to be considered laws? I had been thinking about metabolism and the -3/4 scaling relationship just before reading this… Could that be considered an ecological law?
Depends what you mean by "law". I personally find this debate rather unilluminating. Some tangentially-related discussion: https://dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2017/01/26/stylized-facts-in-ecology/


Take a look at Bharti Realty's milestone developments to know how we started and where we are headed.
Its world-class construction has been planned to achieve LEED certification. The project is well-equipped with all amenities to facilitate the needs of the employees.
The infrastructure of Quantum Point reflects Bharti Realty's commitment to environmental responsibility in every aspect and differentiates it from other real estate office developments in Gurugram.
This state-of-the-art facility is part of the Airtel Technology Park at IMT Manesar in Gurugram's upcoming real estate market.
It is situated right at the entrance of Infocity, Sector- 34, Gurgaon. This commercial office space, available for rent in Gurugram, comes fully equipped with unmatched cutting-edge technology that goes beyond the needs of today to meet the expectation of tomorrow.
This property is strategically located in the much sought-after Vasant Kunj mall zone in Delhi. Bharti Crescent boasts of easy access to the New Delhi airport and Aerocity.
The Airtel Centre, designed by the eminent architect Hafeez Contractor and developed by Bharti Realty Limited, serves as Bharti Airtel's headquarters. Its unique architecture truly reflects the dynamism of the corporate world today.
This commercial real estate property is part of the Airtel Technology Park at IMT Manesar in Gurugram's upcoming real estate market.
Pavilion, also known as the heart of Ludhiana, is the most preferred retail and leisure destination in Ludhiana.
These towers are located in the heart of the Industrial Model Township (IMT) in Manesar, a mere 45 minutes from the international airport at New Delhi.
This 1.5 million sq. ft. of office and retail space is set to become the most sought-after development.
Astra Towers is a 4-acre development, in the premium township of Rajarhat (New Town), near the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport.


text:
Q: Setting up foreign keys resulted to (errno:150 "Foreign key constraint incorrectly formed") Im having trouble setting up foreign keys, it always resulted to (errno: 150 "Foreign key constraint is incorrectly formed"), even though the column data type and length are correct.
here is the table test
CREATE TABLE `test` (
  `test_column_one` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
  `test_column_two` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`test_column_one`, `test_column_two`)
) ENGINE = InnoDB
DEFAULT CHARACTER SET = utf8mb4
COLLATE = utf8mb4_unicode_ci;

and this is the table which consist of the foreign keys
CREATE TABLE `test_two` (
  `test_no` INT(10) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `test_one` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
  `test_two` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`test_no`),
  INDEX `index_one_test_column_one` (`test_one` ASC),
  INDEX `index_two_test_column_two` (`test_two` ASC)
) ENGINE = InnoDB
DEFAULT CHARACTER SET = utf8mb4
COLLATE = utf8mb4_unicode_ci;

ALTER TABLE `test_two`
    ADD CONSTRAINT `fk_test_one`
    FOREIGN KEY (`test_one`)
    REFERENCES `test` (`test_column_two`);

ALTER TABLE `test_two`
    ADD CONSTRAINT `fk_test_two`
    FOREIGN KEY (`test_two`)
    REFERENCES `test` (`test_column_two`);

any idea where did I get wrong? Thank you in advance


text:
Çevirileri
Padişahın Portresi
Dil Oğlanları
"Lala bunlar ne iştir"
Soykırım
Y. NURİ ÖZTÜRK
R. GARAUDY
İslam: Söyleşiler
Yenikapı
Atlas Tarih
Z. Livaneli
M.Metinsoy
Varlık Özmenek
ARKEOLOJİNİN DELİKANLISI
Gül Dirican
Videolar / TV
Prof. Schmidt hatırasına
Aydos Kalesi
Zaman Treni
H. Rahmi
Road to Istanbul
Mehmed Abud
l'Immortelle
@İstanbul
Emine Çaykara / Faydalı İşler Fi Production
Aydos
İstanbullu Miskinler Tekkesi
B. Uzuner'in İstanbulu
E. Günay'ın İstanbulu
G. Kato'nun İstanbulu
Y. Dikinciler'in İstanbulu
İnalcık'ın İstanbulu
İstanbul mon amour
Inalcık
Taştaki Sır
Documantaries
Eco Can
Çitlembik
The Entrusted Shadow
İLETİŞİM- Contact
Taştaşi Sır (The Mystery in the Stone), which tells about the archaeological richness of Turkey, was aired on CNN in 2008. Written & Presented by Emine Caykara, Directed by Reyhan Yıldız and Berna Gürsoy Mamati
Episodes: Istanbul, Aphrodisias, Miletos – Didyme, Ephesos, Laodikeia, Van – The Urartians, Urla – Limantepe, Labraunda, Patara, Urfa – Göbeklitepe
İstanbullu Istanbulite, with a documentary flavor, is a show narrating the hidden corners and sights of Istanbul. Prepared by Emine Caykara, this weekly series tells about the city's streets as it focuses on each neighborhood. Istanbullu explores what the people of the city know about it with street interviews as it travels through Istanbul's history and discovers its mystical and multi-cultural features. The show comprises of 13 episodes of 20 minutes each. At the end of each episode, a well-known city figure (such as a mayor, minister of culture, designer, historian, artist, singer, etc.) talks about his/her view of the city.
"Love is magical and mysterious. When you're in love, you never think of leaving. But if one day you have to, you always long for the day you'll come back and be reunited with your beloved."
Istanbul… A city that withholds the modernity of today's life, together with the mystical past of its great history. A city that has been a refuge during centuries for people from all sorts of cultures and religions. Both eastern and western with different religions and cultures, Istanbul is a chaotic and mysterious city full of surprises.
Istanbul mon amour consists of 2 episodes. Emine Çaykara tells us about her mystical city and its unfolded stories by plunging into the streets and mingling with the crowds. People who live in Istanbul share their feelings about the city and tell us what it means to love Istanbul and be addicted to it.
"We are now in a region called Yenikapı which takes its name from a new gate built during the period of the Ottoman Empire. One of the most important excavations in the world has been carried out here since 2004."
Yeni Kapı (New Port)
The excavations of the Marmaray tunnel project and the new Metro line revealed the Theodosius Harbor of the old Roman and Byzantium city of Constantinople. 35 shipwrecks that had been lying there for ages were discovered here. In this documentary, a team of experts from Istanbul University will tell us all the details of the project regarding the uncovering, lifting and preservation of the vessels and how they are being prepared for exhibition.
"I am walking away from this incredible castle, which connects the routes and the conquests with Istanbul, and where the legend is intermingled with reality. My mind is at Aydos. I know that one day I will certainly come back here. And I will come back with the answers archeology gives to history."
AYDOS: The Doorway to Istanbul A magnificent castle in Sultanbeyli, which has been covered by trees for centuries. A love story that has been cherished and recounted for centuries by historians and writers.
This incredible castle, which connects the routes and the conquests with Istanbul, and where the legend is intermingled with reality.The story that took place on that marvelous route leading from Aydos to Istanbul and what was encountered. This is the story of what was uncovered during the excavations in this castle where reality mingles with mythos, where conquests are connected to Istanbul.


text:
§ 145 Fifth Edition
Of a truth, it is only by a very considerable store of medicines accurately known in respect of these their pure modes of action in altering the health of man, that we can be placed in a position to discover a homoeopathic remedy, a suitable artificial (curative) morbific analogue for each of the infinitely numerous morbid states in nature, for every malady in the world.1 In the meantime, even now – thanks to the truthful character of the symptoms, and to the abundance of disease elements which every one of the powerful medicinal substances has already shown in its action on the healthy body – but few disease remain, for which a tolerably suitable homoeopathic remedy may not be met with among those now proved as to their pure action,2 which, without much disturbance, restores health in a gentle, sure and permanent manner – infinitely more surely and safely than can be effected by all the general and special therapeutics of the old allopathic medical art with its unknown composite remedies, which do but alter and aggravate but cannot cure chronic diseases, and rather retard than promote recovery from acute diseases.
1 At first, I was the only person who made the provings of the pure powders of medicines the most important of his occupations. Since then I have been assisted in this by some young men, who instituted experiments on themselves, and whose observations I have critically revised. Following these some genuine work of this kind was done by a few others. But what shall we not be able to effect in the way of curing in the whole extent of the infinitely large domain of disease, when numbers of accurate and trustworthy observers shall have rendered their services in enriching this, the only true materia medica, by careful experiments on themselves! The healing art will then come near the mathematical sciences in certainty.
2 See the second note to §109.
§ 145 Sixth Edition
Of a truth, it is only by a very considerable store of medicines accurately known in respect of these their pure modes of action in altering the health of man, that we can be placed in a position to discover a homoeopathic remedy, a suitable artificial (curative) morbific analogue for each of the infinitely numerous morbid states in nature, for every malady in the world.1 In the meantime, even now – thanks to the truthful character of the symptoms, and to the abundance of disease elements which every one of the powerful medicinal substances has already shown in its action on the healthy body – but few disease remain, for which a tolerably suitable homoeopathic remedy may not be met with among those now proved as to their pure action,2 which, without much disturbance, restores health in a gentle, sure and permanent manner – infinitely more surely and safely than can be effected by all the general and special therapeutics of the old allopathic medical art with its unknown composite remedies, which do but alter and aggravate but cannot cure chronic diseases, and rather retard than promote recovery from acute diseases and frequently endanger life.
1 At first, about forty years ago, I was the only person who made the provings of the pure powders of medicines the most important of his occupations. Since then I have been assisted in this by some young men, who instituted experiments on themselves, and whose observations I have critically revised. Following these some genuine work of this kind was done by a few others. But what shall we not be able to effect in the way of curing in the whole extent of the infinitely large domain of disease, when numbers of accurate and trustworthy observers shall have rendered their services in enriching this, the only true materia medica, by careful experiments on themselves! The healing art will then come near the mathematical sciences in certainty.
Categories Aphorisms in Organon Tags Analogue, Cure, Health, Restore


text:
msi x99a gaming pro carbon motherboard
The MSI X99A Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard is a stunning piece of architecture. It incorporates an impressive 10+1 phase VRM to deliver a huge performance boost. The motherboard is also equipped with a full-fan that provides exceptional cooling for your system. The motherboard is the perfect choice for gamers seeking the best in gaming performance.
It's possible that the motherboard is also a good choice for the game engine. The most recent release of the MSI X99A Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard has been about four months old and will be available for the first time in a couple of months.
So far, the X99A Gaming Motherboard has delivered a good performance boost, but it's not the only game in the MSI X99A series that was about four months old. The X99A Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard is a much more recent release and is the first motherboard in the new X99A series that was built to be built into a PC.
In fact, the game engine for X99A series motherboards has been around since the early 2000s. The X99A series is based on an Open Firmware architecture and has the same graphics and sound chips as other motherboards, but with a new CPU and a new chipset.
Despite its name, the X99A series is not a gaming motherboard. Though there are some similarities in terms of the GPU, there's no dedicated video card needed here, and the chipset is much lower in performance. But the X99A is a gaming motherboard, and the X99A Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard is more than just a gaming motherboard. It's a full-on gaming motherboard, and the motherboard itself supports 4K gaming.
The X99A Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard is one of the first gaming motherboards specifically designed to be used with a 4K display. As it turns out, even though most gaming motherboards are built for 1080p resolutions, X99A's are a bit more expensive than other gaming motherboards, so you can find a good deal on them.
The X99A Gaming Pro Carbon is one of the most expensive gaming motherboards out there. That's because there are a lot of features on this motherboard that you don't see on other motherboards in the same price range. There are support for 4K gaming, a dual-slot Gigabit Ethernet port, a USB 3.0 port, and even a 2x FireWire port.
The Motherboard features a dual-slot NVIDIA G-Sync, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, and a 5-Way M.2 SATA slot. The motherboard also features two USB 3.0 ports, a USB 2.0 port, and an HDMI port. The motherboard also features a FireWire 800 connection, dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, an internal 4-in-1 card reader, and a 2x USB 3.0 to USB 3.0 converter.
This motherboard is well suited to those of us who just want to play a little PC game or video game. We can pick one of the two PCI-E slots and plug in an external GPU. The motherboard does support four SATA 6Gbps ports, and a single SATA 3.0 port, but not for RAID.
We also have an MSI Gaming Pro carbon motherboard that is built right into this system. I'm not sure what this means, but if you buy this motherboard you are going to get two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, four SATA 6Gbps ports, a FireWire 800 connector, and a single SATA 3.0 port. You can even get a single 4-in-1 card reader.
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Gearhouse SA's Cape Town branch was the first to purchase a LumenRadio system. "We used this wireless system before in Johannesburg with great success," he said.
The new gear was installed and set up at the Dome for the Rally. "All went well and was stable," he added.
The new LumenRadio gear includes 4 In-RTX2 CRMX Nova RDM Dual Transmitters, 10 In-RRX1 CRMX Nova RDM Receivers, 3 In-DRX1 CRMX Nova DMX Receivers, 3 In-RFX1 CRMX Nova Flex FX and 4 LumenRadio Black ¼ " cases.
Nick Britz from DWR says that LumenRadio is an exceptionally stable product. "In time, I am convinced that more technical suppliers will see the benefits of going wireless," said Nick.


text:
Home Latest Top 5 Male Actors Who Have Completely Disappear From The Bollywood Industry
Top 5 Male Actors Who Have Completely Disappear From The Bollywood Industry
The only industry where people come for the name and fame is Bollywood. Every one who enters the Bollywood industry has to see the phase of ups and downs. Many people's dreams are secure here and many are left hearts broken to touch the stardom. It takes guts to survive in this industry where you are constantly under the scanner and a slightest mistake on your part can give a big masala to the messes for the next one year.
There are many who had made their career successful and touch the feet of stardom whereas on the other hand there are some who have completely disappeared from the lime light. Here are the list of people who do get that golden opportunity but don't survive in the industry.
The Fida movie actor Fardeen Khan is part of Bollywood industry and he had done some amazing movies in his filmy career. He has won the Filmfare Best Debut Award for Prem Aggan in 1998. His movies – Hey baby, Life Partner, All The Best had done great impact on the audience because of the fun content. But, now he is completely away from the films. Recently, Fardeen Khan's drastic weight gain has shocked all his fans. The actor gets trolled on social platforms for weight gain. Initially, there was a time when he was fit and fine.
Harman Baweja
Harman Baweja made his Bollywood debut from love story 2050 with Desi girl Priyanka Chopra. After Love Story 2050 he had one movie like What's you Rashee, Diskhiyaaoo. But, his charm didn't work on the industry. However, after a series of flops, we haven't seen much of him on the screen. Well, the actor is nowhere to be seen in the Bollywood industry now.
Main Hoon Na movie actor Zayed Khan made his fans crazy by his amazing acting ability. He started his career with Chura Liyaa Hai Tumne in 2003. He was last seen in Sharafat Gayi Tel Lene in 2015. However, even after doing many movies he is best remembered for the song, 'mohabbat hai mirchi' and his long hair look in Main Hoon Na.
Rahul Roy
Aashiqui movie fame Rahul Roy had done amazing in his debut performance. After his grand debut in Aashiqui in 1990, Rahul Roy did his share of movies but couldn't leave any mark in Bollywood. He won the first season of game show "Bigg Boss" and after which he was not seen in the limelight. Recently, Rahul was in the news for his personal life. There were reports from the sources that the star is dating a model Sadhna Singh, whom he met at a fashion show.
Chandrachur Singh
There was a time when Chandrachur was favorite of millions of people but, today have forgotten totally. His comedy genre movie Aamdani Atthanni Kharcha Rupaiya where he had shares the screen space with Johnny Lever and Govinda . This movie made the audience to burst out with laugh. He made his debut from the movie 'Tere Mere Sapne' but, he got fame after his movie 'Maachis'.
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text:
Domestic workers to get provident fund
Feb 22 2012 16:12
Cape Town - The labour department will establish provident funds for domestic and farm workers by March next year, according to budget documents tabled by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan on Wednesday.
It will also look at a medical aid scheme for the private security sector.
According to the 2012 estimates of national expenditure, these objectives are in line with the spending focus over the medium term, which is to protect vulnerable workers in these areas as well as in the hospitality and forestry sectors.
Other goals were to reintegrate work seekers into the labour market and ensure decent work.
The department would receive R2.1bn to achieve set goals, up from R1.9bn in 2011/2012.
An amount of R429m had been set aside for inspection and enforcement services.
The department aimed to inspect 130 000 workplaces for compliance with labour legislation.
It would also conduct audits and "blitz inspections" in high risk sectors such as construction and chemicals, to reduce accidents and injuries.
With an unstable labour market, caused by the global economic crisis, workers are vulnerable to abuse from employers.
The department has increased the budget of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration to accommodate the likely increase in cases.
It has done the same for the Unemployment Insurance Fund, with a focus on implementing poverty alleviation schemes for registered members.
In his budget speech on Wednesday, Gordhan said a wide range of government programmes and policies had come under scrutiny in the past year in respect of job-creation.
He said his budget was aimed at supporting job-creation through education and skills development.
"At this time last year, funding was allocated to a new Jobs Fund, aimed at supporting innovative public or private sector projects with potential to create sustainable job opportunities," he said.
"The fund began in June, and received over 2 500 applications in its first call for proposals."
Gordhan said project allocations of over R1bn had been committed, and a second round of applications would be announced shortly.
Read more about: pravin gordhan | budget 2012 | farm workers | domestic workers | labour department
This is what awaits South Africa if Moody's cuts credit rating to junk
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Killington ... A whole lot of skiing and a wicked good time !
A fabulous weekend trip awaits.
** Saturday morning ski opportunity with Mountain Guides.
Killington - Six peaks, 140 trails, 22 lifts... skiing for all abilities - thrilling blacks, long blue cruisers, mogul fields, and tree skiing.
On Saturday, we will have the opportunity to ski with Mountain Ambassadors. They'll ski with us, show us the mountain, and lead us in cutting lines!!
** Large kidney shaped outdoor hot but with lit fire torch and separate fire pit. What fun to gather with the group apres skiing !!
** Renovated bar and seating lounge with fireplace and views to the hot tub. Great for socializing with ski buds.
** Trip leaders will facilitate a pay-as-you-go dinner on Saturday evening.