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Adding Tools for Building a New World
By Rob Sayre
One assumption suggested by the Divine Principle and Rev. and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon's theology is that applying the fundamental lessons and tools for the individual and family to ever-larger spheres will produce similar results as can occur on the individual and family levels.
It is my experience and belief that we also need improved tools to build successful extended families, tribes, communities, nations, and a world of peace.
This article discusses a few tools and provides a cursory overview that can aid in building a culture and communities centered upon God. It builds upon my previous article, "Converting Good Intentions into Results." The tools discussed were used in the development of the Shehaqua Ministries.
First, some introductory quotes on leadership and the family as the cornerstone of society:
"The man of perfect virtue, wishing to be established himself, seeks also to establish others; wishing to be enlarged himself, he seeks also to enlarge others." Analects 6.28 (Confucianism)
"The Way lies at hand yet it is sought afar off, the thing lies in the easy yet it is sought in the difficult. If only everyone loved his parents and treated his elders with deference, the Empire would be at peace." Mencius IVA (Confucianism)
"Family education determines the future destiny of the entire nation. When there are many families living by the principle of public service, the nation will flourish; when there are many families living with a private standard, the nation will perish." (31:243) Rev. Sun Myung Moon, June 4, 1970
Do Good and Righteous People Create Good and Effective Organizations?
The simple answer is: not necessarily. It's true that without a quorum of righteous people in any community, organization or nation, creating a good society is a tough slog. New tools, however, make the job easier and more people can be involved in the effort.
The tools of Cain-Abel relationships, leadership and governance rooted in biblical stories and Confucian thought applied to the individual, family, and extended family provide valuable insights into Western culture and indeed the world.
Continue Reading—>
Korean Reunification: Promise and Perils
By Michael L. Mickler
Rev. Sun Myung Moon (True Father to Unificationists) emphasized the "providential significance" of Korean reunification. To him, unifying the Korean peninsula would be "the final act of bringing the global Cold War to a conclusion" and "the blueprint for the unification of the world."
He also envisioned a unified Korea as a driver of global development. He taught that the peninsula will provide a platform for oceanic and continental civilizations to fuse together and develop into a new civilization, inaugurating the Pacific Rim Era.
This article attempts to connect his vision of Korean reunification with current economic, technological, transportation, cultural, and political realities.
Economy. The most optimistic appraisal of Korea's economic future is a 2009 Global Economics Paper, "A United Korea? Reassessing North Korea Risks," published by global investment firm Goldman Sachs. It contends that "North Korea has strong untapped potential, which could be unleashed once meaningful economic reforms start and investment flows in."
In particular, the study emphasizes "synergies between South Korean capital and technology, and North Korean natural resources and labor." It points out, for example, that North Korea has large deposits of minerals valued at 140 times its GDP while South Korea "has virtually no mineral resources" and "imports 97% of the energy and mineral resources [it] uses." Apart from natural resources, the study references North Korea's "abundant and competitive labor force." It notes,
More than one-third of North Korea's population (37%) lives in rural areas, as was the case in South Korea in the late 1970s when it began its economic ascent;
The labor force could increase substantially given the current large military population (nearly 1.3 million);
Pre-college education is compulsory;
Experience from the Kaesong Industrial Complex suggests that North Korean workers have a strong work ethic and a good potential for productivity enhancement; and,
North Korea's demographics are relatively young and the population is growing roughly twice as fast as in South Korea.
Do Animals Have Eternal Souls?
By Peter Stephenson
What happens to animals when they die is a question many people wonder about, especially those who form close bonds with animals.
Do animals experience the meaningless oblivion that atheists insist await us all or do they transition to another plane as people of faith believe is their own fate after the body fails?
As we observe animals give and receive joy, love, and also suffer true grief over the loss of their offspring or human companions, it is difficult to still hold that they do not have a soul.
But nor is it easy to imagine that, on completion of our life on earth, we transfer to the afterlife to find it teeming with the souls of every biological creature that has ever lived like some overstocked Jurassic Park — tens of millions of years' worth of T-Rex's and every other dinosaur that ever lived and died on earth.
The former is hard to accept as we have experience of forming deep and reciprocal loving bonds with animals, and as love is a spiritual element, that would imply there is something spiritual being loved by us and returning love to us.
The latter is hard to accept because it just seems so bizarre that thousands of trillions of animals would pile up in the afterlife as the earth and possibly other planets swarm and crawl with creatures in a continuous generational cycle.
But life and existence itself is bizarre when you think about it. Something cannot be said to be untrue just because it seems bizarre. In any case, the real estate in the afterlife may well accommodate any number of arrivals. However, believing something exists because we have a deep emotional and spiritual relationship with it is quite rational.
"Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?" (Ecclesiastes 3:21)
The idea that animals do not have souls has no scriptural basis. It's just something people communally decided. In my view, they did so to artificially accentuate their own importance in the scheme of things and to God. This came from insecurity as it is not actually necessary to establish uniqueness in order to have intrinsic eternal value and to be counted as a child of God. Others need not be excluded so that we can be included. Our status before God is not a zero sum game.


Bather, A. & Kelly, M.(2006). A dialectic analysis of the whistleblowing phenomenon. Australian Accounting Review, 16(40), 59-65.
Although whistleblowers are often portrayed as courageous individuals deserving of respect, the act of whistleblowing can be viewed as a disloyal act which may bring much harm to the whistleblower's colleagues. We argue that although some whistleblowers have provided a great service to society, the world would be best served if the need for external whistleblowing were obviated by appropriate management practices.


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As for you Honor, I can see from the Screenshots that you are getting hit from alot further away than me but for me, the damage shows up right as I step away. Could be a server side thing. My friend complains to me that she is stuck as soon as a hulk knocks her back but on my screen, she is already knocked back and isnt actually stuck.
Yeah, the mechanics behind this have already been explained lol.
My experience with ARPG's, albeit fairly limited, has me comfortable with this mechanic. If we're going to be able to dodge attacks like the OP (and others here) want, I say program the monsters to time their attacks based on our movement. Then what? Why give the player such a boring and easy advantage? It would be boring to dodge auto attacks from every enemy in this type of game. I promise.
Wouldnt that system have a weird animation and cause people to not be able to time dodge-able hits correctly? If I'm understanding what you are saying, the animation would start before the player actually enters any range. Going from your example and lets say 5 feet is the melee hit: The attack animation would start 4 seconds ahead of the actual strike, say when you are 10 feet away and when you get to 5feet, the attack actually lands?(Assuming it takes 4 seconds to get to the mob) Unless I'm misunderstanding wouldnt that cause more confusion and alot more arm waving? Would cause players to not know when they are actually getting attack from simple idle/chasing you animation.
Well with zombies it would be more like 4 seconds to pull back their arms and ready for an attack then when you enter range they actually attack. But as you pointed out it could look weird if a zombie pulls back to fight but you never come. A more easily understood example would be an enemy with a sword. They would for example spend 4 seconds lifting it off the ground or unsheathing it and placing it in postition for a quick 1 second swing.
Wow, this will be the topic for the usual whiners this week it seems.
It's intentional. We don't want a game where the most effective way to play is to dodge in and out of enemy attacks. It's not that difficult to do, and it's just not a very fun way to play. "Most effective" and "not fun" just can't be in the same sentence when describing part of the game. We want combat to be based on use of abilities, putting thought into builds, building up offensive and defensive stats, etc. Skill is absolutely a part of all of the systems you'll use, and kiting can be too, but it'd be ridiculous if you could avoid all of the systems that make the game the game because you can time dodges of enemy attacks and negate every other factor.
Also think about just running past enemies to rush through an area and never being hit. Anyone looking to rush would love it! Which is why it's not a good idea from a design perspective. :) It's not something we'll be changing.
Maybe it will be different later on in different difficulties! We'll see. But if my movement control still proves to be just as effective, I can't see myself building defensive stats on my demon hunter. Potentially movespeed? But that would be it.
I have noticed this issue since I started playing beta. You just get hit by monster's melee attack when you are obvious out of their range. I don't know whether it's a latency issue, or intentional design, or bug?
I made a detailed video to how obvious this issue is. It's quite clear and obvious. But, it seems like it depends on the type of monsters. I got hit by zombie and skeleton way out of range, but I can actually dodge most of the attacks from Grotesque.
Latency? Intentional design? Or bug?
Here is another video made by someone to show a comparison of this issue between D3, D2, and Torchlight.
Many people have reported this issue long ago, any answers?
This guy is just reporting an issue, like a good beta tester. What idiot reported this post?
It's actually not an issue.
I remember watching a gameplay video on Path of Exile in which the player could simply run past anything and never be trapped by enemies.
I think this is great that melee enemies can land a hit easier to make running past everything a little harder.
Inferno is really going to be a challenge knowing that melee enemies have an extended reach in order to attack you with.
Two problems need reconciliation here.
First, if the intention is to lower the required level of manual dexterity in the game by preventing players from exercising good reaction times, and dare I say, skill, to dodge attacks, why then do you include a number of character-specific skills that are centred around this same manual dodging mechanic, such as the DH's vault skill? This is confusing.
Secondly and perhaps most importantly, how do you think players will feel about being hit and killed 15 yards away from a melee opponent in multiplayer? I think the words "not fun" will be used in the same sentence combined with a number of creative expletives.
Well, typically ranged and spellcasters trade distance fighting with less armor. But with D3 they've blurred those lines so all classes alike can don IMPERIAL HEAVY PLATE MAIL OF GRAND DEFENSE! So I guess they had to bug the game out so it levels the playing field making the ranged fighters more balanced.
... Except the two naturally melee-ish classes get 30% damage reduction off the top ..... leaving many caster builds getting hit significantly harder by melee attacks.
Yet ultralisks attacks in Starcraft 2 STILL (after nearly 2 years) do no damage to a unit running away at a certain speed. Inconsistency is inconsistent.
Are you forgetting the fact that the Barbarian and Monk need that damage reduction because they are in the thick of it? WD, wiz, and DH are all ranged attacks or casters. It is inherently easier to kite with them and like someone already said, the 30% damage reduction, for barb and monk, is akin to the damage prevention you would get from kiting.
You are assuming this system doesn't allow you to exercise good reaction times and takes less skill in general. Both arguments are invalid. You can still kite away from monsters, draw off enemies to bash one on one, the same things you would be doing otherwise. It takes a different level of focus and skill, different variables to consider and in it's own ways, difficulties, knowing you will get hit by a mob once you close the distance on it.
Is there something wrong with them making a skill that allows you to vault away from mobs? I don't quite catch your point. It seems you are trying to make an argument of consistency but... it's a skill. They're supposed to allow you to do things you can't normally do.
How will they die 15 yards away? The completion of one melee attack while you dodge, or kite away, is not the end of the world. You are acting as if melee characters get some sort of crazy range on their attacks when it's simply not true. They are only hitting you for what you were in range for. If you had it your way, melee characters would never hit anything in multiplayer because they would be kited and dodged. Sorry bub. I don't share your same view point.
I agree that this mechanic is very noticeable and I would like to see it changed.
I see this mechanic in many games already when a character is moving very fast across enemy fire, but Diablo 3's presentation of this is very poor.
I suggest a faster animation and better timing for when your character gets hit.
Even having the monster perform constant attacks when your character moves close would make the presentation be more sensible!


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Farooq Abdullah visits detained Mehbooba's residence
March 18, 2020 March 18, 2020 by topnewsjk
SRINAGAR, Mar 18 (Agencies): In a goodwill gesture, National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Tuesday met Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti and her family and spent nearly an hour with them. The meeting comes two days after he had asked all political parties of Jammu and Kashmir to jointly appeal to the Centre to bring back all detainees lodged outside the Union Territory.
The 82-year-old Abdullah drove to 'Fairview' residence of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, where he met her mother Gulshan Ara and daughter Iltija Mufti. "It was a nice gesture from such a senior leader of the state to have spent time with us," Iltija Mufti told media. This was termed by the leaders of both sides as a courtesy call to the residence of Mehbooba Mufti, the arch political rival, who is presently under detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA). Abdullah, a former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister himself, was released on Friday after his PSA was revoked while his son and former chief minister Omar Abdullah continues to be under PSA detention since August 5 last year when the Centre abrogated provisions of Article 370 and bifurcated the erstwhile state into union territories.
After his release, Abdullah had visited the graveyard of his father and NC founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, and also visited his detained son on March 14 for the first time in the past seven months. On Sunday, Abdullah in his first statement after his release, asked all political parties of Jammu and Kashmir to jointly appeal to the Centre to bring back all detainees lodged outside the union territory on "humanitarian" grounds.
The NC chief said while he advocated for a "free and frank exchange" of political views in order to take stock of the "momentous changes" that Jammu and Kashmir has seen since August 5, "we are still some way away from an environment where such political discourse will be possible. This is especially so considering the number of people detained in August last year who remain in jails outside J&K". He had said, "We allow politics to divide us, I appeal to all political leaders in the state to unite behind the call to the Union government to bring back all detainees from Jammu and Kashmir from prisons outside the Union territory pending their release.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Combination kits consist of all a person needs to get a quick overview of the health of their circulatory system. Likewise doctors and other health professionals use these tools to quickly monitor a system of the body that can often manifest critical health problems elsewhere in the body. These systems consist of both the classic arm cuff and a stethoscope to get both an accurate reading of blood pressure and the rhythm of the heart. For many suffering from heart conditions, this is a must have to monitor their health regularly.


Balance is key in Super Bike Ride 2. Guide your bike along the course without turning over. Complete all levels by avoiding obstacles. But be careful you have limited lives to win the game. Use arrow keys to Ride. Have fun!!
Here are some more related games in Car racing category. Also you can jump to other category using box above.


AS THE big end of town lays claim to its share of Barangaroo, this one is purportedly for the little people: a new waterfront playground where Sydneysiders can take back the harbour.
The Planning Department on Wednesday released plans for Barangaroo Central, including a tree-lined promenade, timber boardwalk and temporary public domain to hold festivals and concerts.
The proposal, lodged by the Barangaroo Delivery Authority, is touted as the heart of the $6 billion project, which would ''re-introduce'' Sydneysiders to the prized harbourfront site.
But critics say the development will be dwarfed by high rises, and is designed to cater to luxury apartment dwellers.
A 30 metre-wide waterside promenade for pedestrians and cyclists would run the length of the area, connecting a headland park and a residential and commercial zone.
The American landscape architect Peter Walker designed the proposed works. They feature a low-lying timber boardwalk along the water's edge, and an upper level promenade featuring ''honey locust trees set in a soft pavement of decomposed granite''.
Long-term master planning for the area is under way. In the meantime, a temporary public domain has been proposed, including a lawn for picnics and sports, and space for two temporary pavilions.
Up to six major events a year are also planned, such as concerts, festivals, markets and an open air cinema. The work, if approved, is due to open in 2015.
Public access to Barangaroo Central has long been a source of contention. Low-rise residential apartments and retailers have already been approved for the area, and James Packer was strongly criticised when he revealed plans for a hotel and casino in the central zone. They have since been moved to the southern commercial end.
The Greens MP for Balmain, Jamie Parker, said the proposal failed to deliver genuine open space, and was designed to serve wealthy residents and casino users.
''This so-called open space is monstered by multistorey developments and seems to be primarily aimed at adding amenity to private residential and retail property,'' he said.
Lend Lease's plans for the first two residential buildings at Barangaroo South were also released on Wednesday, comprising 159 apartments with harbour views.
The northern building features a cloud-shaped design and balconies overlooking a new public square and harbour cove.
The architect, Richard Francis-Jones of fjmt, said the building's ''expressive, organic'' shape was ''reminiscent of the free-forms of clouds and waves that complement our sandstone harbour headlands''.
The southern building, designed by Andrew Andersons of PTW, includes rooftop gardens and green plantings. At ground level, up to 20 restaurants, cafes and bars will be established, including a ''standout signature restaurant'' at the northern end.
Both proposals are on exhibition until December 21.


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Raiders fall short at end in prime-time showdown vs. Chiefs
By JOSH DUBOW , AP Pro Football Writer, Associated Press
Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr (4) throws against the Kansas City Chiefs during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 22, 202... Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr (4) throws against the Kansas City Chiefs during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 22, 2020, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)
Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden reacts during the first half of an NFL football game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Nov. 22, 2020, in... Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden reacts during the first half of an NFL football game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Nov. 22, 2020, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)
Derek Carr and the Las Vegas Raiders went toe to toe in splitting two games with Patrick Mahomes and the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.
If the Raiders want to get another chance at Kansas City in the postseason, the offense will need to maintain its high level of efficiency while getting improved play on the defensive side.
Carr threw a go-ahead TD pass to Jason Witten with 1:43 to play Sunday night, only to watch Mahomes drive down for the winning score in a 35-31 Kansas City victory that just about wrapped up the division title.
"We don't measure the progress just in one-on-one competition with the Chiefs," coach Jon Gruden said Monday.
"We do feel like we're getting better. I'm excited about that. We're missing a lot of our well-known players last night, some of the best guys that we counted on to be big time performers in this series. All I know is we're getting a lot of contributions from a lot of people. Our quarterback is playing at a supreme level and we just got to keep getting better, keep pounding wood, keep throwing logs on the fire, and keep working."
Despite the loss that dropped them three games behind the Chiefs, the Raiders (6-4) are still in the thick of the playoff race in the top-heavy AFC that features nine teams with at least six wins. Las Vegas is in a three-way tie with Baltimore and Miami for the third wild-card spot.
The Raiders have proven they can play with the best in the league, as evidenced by a 40-32 win at Kansas City in October and then going down to the wire in the rematch despite missing three defensive starters on the COVID-19 list and practicing most of the week without several others.
"It's exciting because you see where we're headed, it's showing you a little glimpse here," Carr said. "We're starting to get a little healthier. We're on our way, and it's exciting, right? I'm excited, but today wasn't enough."
WHAT'S WORKING
The passing game. Carr was nearly flawless against the Chiefs, going 23 for 31 for 275 yards and three TDs. Two of the eight incompletions were throwaways, four were on-target passes that should have been caught by Nelson Agholor and Alec Ingold, and another was an on-target pass in the end zone to Bryan Edwards that was broken up by a defender. The eighth was a desperation interception in the closing seconds.
"His confidence is on another level," tight end Darren Waller said. "I love that he is taking chances, taking risks and standing in there and making tough throws."
WHAT NEEDS HELP
The pass rush. After getting three sacks in the first game against the Chiefs, the Raiders were unable to generate consistent pressure against Mahomes in the rematch. Las Vegas ranks 31st in the league with 11 sacks overall, tied for the third fewest for the franchise through 10 games in the Super Bowl era. Only the 2018 team (nine sacks) and 2014 (10) had fewer.
The Raiders added some potential reinforcements by claiming Takk McKinley and signing Vic Beasley to the practice squad. Both players are former first-round picks, but McKinley recently failed two team physicals.
Waller. The Raiders tight end had caught plenty of passes this season but hadn't gotten downfield much. That began to change with a 26-yard catch on the first drive against Kansas City, and Waller was a difficult matchup all game. His seven catches were his third most this season and his 88 yards were tied for his second best. He also caught his fifth TD pass after having only three all of last season.
STOCK DOWN
Johnathan Abram. The second-year safety provides energy to the defense with his aggressive approach. Sometimes that can backfire like it did on the final drive against Kansas City. Abram vacated his zone after Mahomes left the pocket, leaving Travis Kelce wide open for the go-ahead TD.
G Richie Incognito underwent season-ending foot surgery. He had been sidelined since Week 2 but the Raiders had hopes he could return. ... Las Vegas is waiting to find out whether RT Trent Brown, LB Cory Littleton, DE Clelin Ferrell or DB Lamarcus Joyner will be able to return from the COVID-19 list this week
KEY NUMBER
23-37 — The Raiders have played six of their 10 games so far this season against teams that are currently 7-3 or better. The schedule gets easier down the stretch, with the final six games coming against teams with a combined 23-37 record.
The Raiders head on the road to Atlanta on Sunday. Las Vegas is 2-1 this season in the Eastern Time Zone.


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The Central Milky Way from Lagoon to Pipe
Dark markings and colorful clouds inhabit this stellar landscape. The deep and expansive view spans more than 30 full moons across crowded star fields toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Cataloged in the early 20th century by astronomer E. E. Barnard, the obscuring interstellar dust clouds seen toward the right include B59, B72, B77 and B78, part of the Ophiuchus molecular cloud complex a mere 450 light-years away. To the eye their combined shape suggests a pipe stem and bowl, and so the dark nebula's popular name is the Pipe Nebula. Three bright nebulae gathered on the left are stellar nurseries some 5,000 light-years distant toward the constellation Sagittarius. In the 18th century astronomer Charles Messier included two of them in his catalog of bright clusters and nebulae; M8, the largest of the triplet, and colorful M20 just above. The third prominent emission region includes NGC 6559 at the far left. Itself divided by obscuring dust lanes, M20 is also known as the Trifid. M8's popular moniker is the Lagoon Nebula.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap211001.html ( October 01, 2021)
Pedro Cota: From Student Filmmaker to NASA Video Producer
Pedro Cota is a video producer for NASA en español the agency's Science Mission Directorate.
from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/pedro-cota-from-student-filmmaker-to-nasa-video-producer
The Hydrogen Clouds of M33
Gorgeous spiral galaxy M33 seems to have more than its fair share of glowing hydrogen gas. A prominent member of the local group of galaxies, M33 is also known as the Triangulum Galaxy and lies a mere 3 million light-years away. Sprawling along loose spiral arms that wind toward the core, M33's giant HII regions are some of the largest known stellar nurseries, sites of the formation of short-lived but very massive stars. Intense ultraviolet radiation from the luminous massive stars ionizes the surrounding hydrogen gas and ultimately produces the characteristic red glow. To highlight the HII regions in this telescopic image, broadband data used to produce a color view of the galaxy were combined with narrowband data recorded through a hydrogen-alpha filter, transmitting the light of the strongest hydrogen emission line. Close-ups of cataloged HII regions appear in the sidebar insets. Use the individual reference number to find their location within the Triangulum Galaxy. For example, giant HII region NGC604 is identified in an inset on the right and appears at position number 15. That's about 4 o'clock from galaxy center in this portrait of M33.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210930.html ( September 30, 2021)
64S Soyuz Port Relocation: Today, the 64S crew boarded the 64S Soyuz and undocked from the ISS Mini-Research Module (MRM)-1 at 07:21 AM CT. The 64S Crew then redocked to the Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM) at 08:04 AM CT. Prior to undocking, the crew performed leak checks on the vestibule and hatches between the descent … ...
September 28, 2021 at 12:00PM
Cryogenic Testing of the Webb Telescope's Primary Mirror Segment
Project scientist Mark Clampin is reflected in the flight mirrors of the James Webb Space Telescope during testing at the Marshall Space Flight Center.
from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/cryogenic-testing-of-the-webb-telescopes-primary-mirror-segment-0
Gigantic Jet Lightning from Puerto Rico
Have you ever seen a gigantic jet? They are extremely rare but tremendously powerful. Gigantic jets are a type of lightning discharge documented only this century that occur between some thunderstorms and the Earth's ionosphere high above them. Pictured above is the middle and top of one such jet caught last week by a lightning and meteor camera from Puerto Rico, USA. The jet traversed perhaps 70 kilometers in just under one second. Gigantic jets are much different from regular cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning. The bottoms of gigantic jets appear similar in appearance to another type cloud-to-above strike called blue jets, while the tops appear similar to upper-atmosphere red sprites. Although the mechanism and trigger that causes gigantic jets is a topic of research, it is clear that the jets reduce charge imbalance between different parts of Earth's atmosphere. A good way to look for gigantic jets is to watch a powerful but distant thunderstorm from a clear location.
Payloads: Combustion Integrated Rack/Advanced Combustion via Microgravity Experiments/Cool Flames Investigation with Gasses (CIR/ACME/CFI-G part 2): The crew removed an empty butane fuel bottle and installed a new butane fuel bottle, allowing the continuation of the experiment series. Spherical Cool Diffusion Flames Burning Gaseous Fuels (Cool Flames Investigation with Gases) observes the chemical reactions of cool … ...
Liftoff of Landsat 9
The engine on United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5 rocket fires to launch the Landsat 9 satellite on a mission to observe Earth on Monday, Sept. 27, 2021.
from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/liftoff-of-landsat-9
Night of the Perseids
Have you ever experienced a meteor shower? To help capture the wonder, a video was taken during the peak of the recent Perseid meteor shower above the Indian Astronomical Observatory in Hanle, India, high up in the Himalayan mountains. Night descends as the video begins, with the central plane of our Milky Way Galaxy approaching from the left and Earth-orbiting satellites zipping by overhead. During the night, the flash of meteors that usually takes less than a second is artificially extended. The green glow of most meteors is typically caused by vaporizing nickel. As the video continues, Orion rises and meteors flare above the 2-meter Himalayan Chandra Telescope and the seven barrels of the High Energy Gamma Ray Telescope (Hagar). The 2 minute 30 second movie ends with the Sun rising, preceded by a false dawn of zodiacal light.
Landsat 9 Is Set for Liftoff
On Monday, Sept. 27, 2021, at 2:12 ET a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket with the Landsat 9 satellite is slated to lift off on a mission to observe Earth.
from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/landsat-9-is-set-for-liftoff
Unwrapped: Five Decade Old Lunar Selfie
Here is one of the most famous pictures from the Moon -- but digitally reversed. Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969 and soon thereafter many pictures were taken, including an iconic picture of Buzz Aldrin taken by Neil Armstrong. The original image captured not only the magnificent desolation of an unfamiliar world, but Armstrong himself reflected in Aldrin's curved visor. Enter modern digital technology. In the featured image, the spherical distortion from Aldrin's helmet has been reversed. The result is the famous picture -- but now featuring Armstrong himself from Aldrin's perspective. Even so, since Armstrong took the picture, the image is effectively a five-decade old lunar selfie. The original visor reflection is shown on the left, while Earth hangs in the lunar sky on the upper right. A foil-wrapped leg of the Eagle lander is prominently visible. Preparations to return humans to the Moon in the next few years include the Artemis program, an international collaboration led by NASA.
The Red Square Nebula
How did a round star create this square nebula? No one is quite sure. The round star, known as MWC 922 and possibly part of a multiple star system, appears at the center of the Red Square Nebula. The featured image combines infrared exposures from the Hale Telescope on Mt. Palomar in California, and the Keck-2 Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. A leading progenitor hypothesis for the square nebula is that the central star or stars somehow expelled cones of gas during a late developmental stage. For MWC 922, these cones happen to incorporate nearly right angles and be visible from the sides. Supporting evidence for the cone hypothesis includes radial spokes in the image that might run along the cone walls. Researchers speculate that the cones viewed from another angle would appear similar to the gigantic rings of supernova 1987A, possibly indicating that a star in MWC 922 might one day itself explode in a similar supernova.
The Bubble and the Star Cluster
To the eye, this cosmic composition nicely balances the Bubble Nebula at the right with open star cluster M52. The pair would be lopsided on other scales, though. Embedded in a complex of interstellar dust and gas and blown by the winds from a single, massive O-type star, the Bubble Nebula, also known as NGC 7635, is a mere 10 light-years wide. On the other hand, M52 is a rich open cluster of around a thousand stars. The cluster is about 25 light-years across. Seen toward the northern boundary of Cassiopeia, distance estimates for the Bubble Nebula and associated cloud complex are around 11,000 light-years, while star cluster M52 lies nearly 5,000 light-years away. The wide telescopic field of view spans about 1.5 degrees on the sky or three times the apparent size of a full Moon.
Payloads: BioMole: A crewmember performed surface swab sampling of the ISS surfaces to identify bacteria by extraction of DNA using the miniPCR-16 unit. The Environmental Health System (EHS) Biomole Facility non-culture-based samples can provide microbial identification on-orbit within days of sampling. The goal of this Tech Demo is to conduct comparative analysis for possible replacement … ...
Discovering Neptune
On the night 175 years ago on Sept. 23-24, 1846, astronomers discovered Neptune, the eighth planet orbiting our Sun.
from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/discovering-neptune
Perseid Outburst at Westmeath Lookout
This year an outburst of Perseid meteors surprised skywatchers. The reliable meteor shower's peak was predicted for the night of August 12/13. But persistent visual observers in North America were deluged with a startling Perseid shower outburst a day later, with reports of multiple meteors per minute and sometimes per second in the early hours of August 14. The shower radiant is high in a dark night sky in this composite image. It painstakingly registers the trails of 282 Perseids captured during the stunning outburst activity between 0650 UT (02:50am EDT) and 0900 UT (05:00am EDT) on August 14 from Westmeath Lookout, Ontario. Of course the annual Perseid meteor shower is associated with planet Earth's passage through dusty debris from periodic comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. The 2021 outburst could have been caused by an unanticipated encounter with the Perseid Filament, a denser ribbon of dust inside the broader debris zone.
Payloads: Cool Flames Investigation with Gases: A crewmember replaced the Manifold #4 fuel bottle with a new bottle containing 100% Butane. Cool diffusion flames were discovered during droplet combustion experiments aboard the ISS in 2012, and this initiated a rapidly growing field of combustion research. A cool flame is one that burns at about 600 … ...
Seeing the Earth's Glow From Space
The atmospheric glow blankets the Earth's horizon beneath the stars as the International Space Station orbited 261 miles above the Pacific.
from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/seeing-the-earths-glow-from-space
Harvest Moon Trail
Famed in festival, story, and song the best known full moon is the Harvest Moon. For northern hemisphere dwellers that's a traditional name of the full moon nearest the September equinox. Seen from Saunderstown, Rhode Island, planet Earth, this Harvest Moon left a broad streak of warm hues as it rose through a twilight sky over the Newport Bridge. On September 20 its trail was captured in a single 22 minute exposure using a dense filter and a digital camera. Only two days later the September equinox marked a change of season and the beginning of autumn in the north. In fact, recognizing a season as the time between solstice and equinox, this Harvest Moon was the fourth full moon of the season, coming just before the astronomical end of northern summer.
Payloads Dreams: A crewmember doffed the headband upon wakeup and filled out a questionnaire. The unit was then recharged and redonned prior to sleep later in the day. Sleep plays a major role in human health and well-being. Insufficient sleep or sleep disorders can increase the risk of developing medical conditions, such as cardiovascular diseases, … ...
Lucy Is Going to Space!
Lucy will be the first space mission to study the Trojan asteroids.
from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/lucy-is-going-to-space
Equinox on a Spinning Earth
When does the line between night and day become vertical? Today. Today is an equinox on planet Earth, a time of year when day and night are most nearly equal. At an equinox, the Earth's terminator -- the dividing line between day and night -- becomes vertical and connects the north and south poles. The featured time-lapse video demonstrates this by displaying an entire year on planet Earth in twelve seconds. From geosynchronous orbit, the Meteosat 9 satellite recorded these infrared images of the Earth every day at the same local time. The video started at the September 2010 equinox with the terminator line being vertical. As the Earth revolved around the Sun, the terminator was seen to tilt in a way that provides less daily sunlight to the northern hemisphere, causing winter in the north. As the year progressed, the March 2011 equinox arrived halfway through the video, followed by the terminator tilting the other way, causing winter in the southern hemisphere -- and summer in the north. The captured year ends again with the September equinox, concluding another of billions of trips the Earth has taken -- and will take -- around the Sun.
Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide Conducts DNA Sequencing Aboard Station
Space Station Commander Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency conducts research using DNA sequencing.
from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/astronaut-akihiko-hoshide-conducts-dna-sequencing-aboard-station
Payloads Astrobee: The crew unpacked and visually inspected the Queen Bee Astrobee Free Flyer components. The Free Flyer was activated, and the crew assisted the ground team with component and communications checkout and calibration. Astrobee is made up of three free-flying, cube-shaped robots which are designed to help scientists and engineers develop and test technologies … ...
Sun Spot Hill
Is this giant orange ball about to roll down that tree-lined hill? No, because the giant orange ball is actually the Sun. Our Solar System's central star was captured rising beyond a hill on Earth twelve days ago complete with a delightfully detailed foreground. The Sun's disk showed five sunspots, quite a lot considering that during the solar minimum in solar activity of the past few years, most days showed no spots. A close look at the hill -- Sierra del Cid in Perter, Spain -- reveals not only silhouetted pine trees, but silhouetted people -- by coincidence three brothers of the photographer. The trees and brothers were about 3.5-kilometers away during the morning of the well-planned, single-exposure image. A dark filter muted the usually brilliant Sun and brought up great detail on the lower sunspots. Within a few minutes, the Sun rose far above the hill, while within a week, the sunspots rotated around the Sun, out of view. The captured scene, however, is now frozen in time for all to enjoy.
Baffin Bay, Greenland: A Historical Perspective
Acquired by the Landsat 7 satellite more than 20 years ago on Sept. 3, 2000, this image is of Greenland's western coast.
from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/baffin-bay-greenland-a-historical-perspective
Lynds Dark Nebula
Stars are forming in Lynds Dark Nebula (LDN) 1251. About 1,000 light-years away and drifting above the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, the dusty molecular cloud is part of a complex of dark nebulae mapped toward the Cepheus flare region. Across the spectrum, astronomical explorations of the obscuring interstellar clouds reveal energetic shocks and outflows associated with newborn stars, including the telltale reddish glow from scattered Herbig-Haro objects hiding in the image. Distant background galaxies also lurk on the scene, almost buried behind the dusty expanse. This alluring view spans over two full moons on the sky, or 17 light-years at the estimated distance of LDN 1251.
Rings and Seasons of Saturn
On Saturn, the rings tell you the season. On Earth, Wednesday marks an equinox, the time when the Earth's equator tilts directly toward the Sun. Since Saturn's grand rings orbit along the planet's equator, these rings appear most prominent -- from the direction of the Sun -- when the spin axis of Saturn points toward the Sun. Conversely, when Saturn's spin axis points to the side, an equinox occurs and the edge-on rings are hard to see from not only the Sun -- but Earth. In the featured montage, images of Saturn between the years of 2004 and 2015 have been superposed to show the giant planet passing from southern summer toward northern summer. Saturn was as close as it can get to planet Earth last month, and this month the ringed giant is still bright and visible throughout much of the night
Rubin's Galaxy
In this Hubble Space Telescope image the bright, spiky stars lie in the foreground toward the heroic northern constellation Perseus and well within our own Milky Way galaxy. In sharp focus beyond is UGC 2885, a giant spiral galaxy about 232 million light-years distant. Some 800,000 light-years across compared to the Milky Way's diameter of 100,000 light-years or so, it has around 1 trillion stars. That's about 10 times as many stars as the Milky Way. Part of an investigation to understand how galaxies can grow to such enormous sizes, UGC 2885 was also part of An Interesting Voyage and astronomer Vera Rubin's pioneering study of the rotation of spiral galaxies. Her work was the first to convincingly demonstrate the dominating presence of dark matter in our universe.
Payloads Four Bed CO2 Scrubber: The crew continued with the installation of the Four bed CO2 Scrubber hardware by connecting power, data, and fluid lines. Four Bed CO2 Scrubber demonstrates a technology for removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere on a spacecraft. The technology is based on the current system in use on the ISS … ...
Video: Flash on Jupiter
There has been a flash on Jupiter. A few days ago, several groups monitoring our Solar System's largest planet noticed a two-second long burst of light. Such flashes have been seen before, with the most famous being a series of impactor strikes in 1994. Then, fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 struck Jupiter leaving dark patches that lasted for months. Since then, at least seven impacts have been recorded on Jupiter -- usually discovered by amateur astronomers. In the featured video, variations in the Earth's atmosphere cause Jupiter's image to shimmer when, suddenly, a bright flash appears just left of center. Io and its shadow are visible on the right. What hit Jupiter will likely never be known, but considering what we do know of the nearby Solar System, it was likely a piece of rocky and ice -- perhaps the size of a bus -- that broke off long-ago from a passing comet or asteroid.
Payloads Eklosion: The crew participated in an Eklosion experiment session by observing the flower, taking photos, and reading some of the messages included with the experiment. They also gently shook the capsule to determine the quantity of water remaining. The Eklosion investigation utilizes a vase, inspired by the VEGGIE plant growth facility, specially designed for … ...
Air Taxi Flight Testing
NASA's Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology Project's Mobile Acoustics Facility is parked in the background of Joby's prototype aircraft near Big Sur, California.
from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/air-taxi-flight-testing
North America and the Pelican
Fans of our fair planet might recognize the outlines of these cosmic clouds. On the left, bright emission outlined by dark, obscuring dust lanes seems to trace a continental shape, lending the popular name North America Nebula to the emission region cataloged as NGC 7000. To the right, just off the North America Nebula's east coast, is IC 5070, whose avian profile suggests the Pelican Nebula. The two bright nebulae are about 1,500 light-years away, part of the same large and complex star forming region, almost as nearby as the better-known Orion Nebula. At that distance, the 3 degree wide field of view would span 80 light-years. This careful cosmic portrait uses narrow band images combined to highlight the bright ionization fronts and the characteristic glow from atomic hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen gas. These nebulae can be seen with binoculars from a dark location. Look northeast of bright star Deneb in the constellation Cygnus the Swan.
Payloads Biofilms: Following the end of the experiment session, the crew removed the 24 Experiment Containers (ECs) from the Kubik 5 and Kubik 6 facilities. The goal of the Biofilm Inhibition On Flight Equipment and On Board the ISS Using Microbiologically Lethal Metal Surfaces (ESA-Biofilms) investigation is to compare how biofilms are formed in low … ...
Diana Trujillo: From Colombia to Mars
Diana Trujillo, an aerospace engineer, is currently Technical Group Supervisor for Sequence Planning and Execution and a Tactical Mission Lead for Perseverance.
from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/diana-trujillo-from-colombia-to-mars
Cyclone Paths on Planet Earth
Where on Earth do cyclones go? Known as hurricanes when in the Atlantic Ocean and typhoons when in the Pacific, the featured map shows the path of all major storms from 1985 through 2005. The map shows graphically that cyclones usually occur over water, which makes sense since evaporating warm water gives them energy. The map also shows that cyclones never cross -- and rarely approach -- the Earth's equator, since the Coriolis effect goes to zero there, and cyclones need the Coriolis force to circulate. The Coriolis force also causes cyclone paths to arc away from the equator. Although long-term trends remain a topic of research, evidence indicates that hurricanes have become, on the average, more powerful in the North Atlantic over the past 30 years, and their power is projected to keep increasing.
Payloads 4-Bed CO2 scrubber: The crew reviewed the big picture words and procedures for the installation planned later this week. The Four Bed CO2 Scrubber demonstrates a technology for removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere on a spacecraft. The technology is based on the current system in use on the International Space Station (ISS) with … ...
Raja Chari Trains for SpaceX Crew-3 Mission
In this image, NASA astronaut and SpaceX Crew-3 Commander Raja Chari trains aboard the ing session at SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft in Hawthorns, California.
from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/raja-chari-trains-for-spacex-crew-3-mission
Mars Panorama 360 from Curiosity
Which way up Mount Sharp? In early September, the robotic rover Curiosity continued its ascent up the central peak of Gale Crater, searching for more clues about ancient water and further evidence that Mars could once have been capable of supporting life. On this recent Martian morning, before exploratory drilling, the rolling rover took this 360-degree panorama, in part to help Curiosity's human team back on Earth access the landscape and chart possible future routes. In the horizontally-compressed featured image, an amazing vista across Mars was captured, complete with layered hills, red rocky ground, gray drifting sand, and a dusty atmosphere. The hill just left of center has been dubbed Maria Gordon Notch in honor of a famous Scottish geologist. The current plan is to direct Curiosity to approach, study, and pass just to the right of Gordon Notch on its exploratory trek.
Landsat 9 Spacecraft Moved Into Position for Encapsulation
Inside the Integrated Processing Facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, the Landsat 9 spacecraft is moved into position for encapsulation.
from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/landsat-9-spacecraft-moved-into-position-for-encapsulation
Night Sky Reflected
What's that in the mirror? In the featured image of the dark southern sky, the three brightest galaxies of the night are all relatively easy to identify. Starting from the left, these are the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and part of the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy. All three are also seen reflected in a shallow pool of water. But what is seen in the mirror being positioned by the playful astrophotographer? Dust clouds near the center of our Milky Way -- and the planet Jupiter. The composite was carefully planned and composed from images captured from the same camera in the same location and during the same night in mid-2019 in Mostardas, south Brazil. The picture won first place in the Connecting to the Dark division of the International Dark-Sky Association's Capture the Dark contest for 2021.
A Spiral Aurora over Iceland
What's happened to the sky? Aurora! Captured in 2015, this aurora was noted by Icelanders for its great brightness and quick development. The aurora resulted from a solar storm, with high energy particles bursting out from the Sun and through a crack in Earth's protective magnetosphere a few days later. Although a spiral pattern can be discerned, creative humans might imagine the complex glow as an atmospheric apparition of any number of common icons. In the foreground of the featured image is the Ölfusá River while the lights illuminate a bridge in Selfoss City. Just beyond the low clouds is a nearly full Moon. The liveliness of the Sun -- and likely the resulting auroras on Earth -- is slowly increasing as the Sun emerges from a Solar minimum, a historically quiet period in its 11-year cycle.
Remembering Sept. 11
The National 9/11 Flag was raised over the Rocket Garden at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex after Florida's contribution was added.
from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/remembering-sept-11
Saturn at Night
Still bright in planet Earth's night skies, good telescopic views of Saturn and its beautiful rings often make it a star at star parties. But this stunning view of Saturn's rings and night side just isn't possible from telescopes closer to the Sun than the outer planet. They can only bring Saturn's day into view. In fact, this image of Saturn's slender sunlit crescent with night's shadow cast across its broad and complex ring system was captured by the Cassini spacecraft. A robot spacecraft from planet Earth, Cassini called Saturn orbit home for 13 years before it was directed to dive into the atmosphere of the gas giant on September 15, 2017. This magnificent mosaic is composed of frames recorded by Cassini's wide-angle camera only two days before its grand final plunge. Saturn's night will not be seen again until another spaceship from Earth calls.
NASA's Orion Spacecraft Completes Milestone for Artemis III Crew Module
At NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Orion's newly completed pressure vessel for the Artemis III mission is lifted out of the welding tool.
from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/nasa-s-orion-spacecraft-completes-milestone-for-artemis-iii-crew-module
Russian Segment (RS) Extravehicular Activity (EVA) #50: Today, FE-4 Oleg Novitskiy (EV1) and FE-5 Petr Dubrov (EV2) egressed the Mini-Research Module (MRM)-2 airlock and completed the following tasks during today's 7 hour and 25-minute EVA: Mating of Ethernet cable from ISS USOS to MLM Installation of gap spanner at ПГО-2 along MLM Pl. III Mating … ...
Rosetta's Comet in View
Faint comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P) sweeps past background stars in the constellation Taurus and even fainter distant galaxies in this telescopic frame from September 7. About 5 years ago, this comet's 4 kilometer spanning, double-lobed nucleus became the final resting place of robots from planet Earth, following the completion of the historic Rosetta mission to the comet. After wandering out beyond the orbit of Jupiter, Churyumov-Gerasimenko is now returning along its 6.4 year periodic orbit toward its next perihelion or closest approach to the Sun, on November 2. On November 12, the comet's perigee, its closest approach to Earth, will bring it within about 0.42 astronomical units. Telescopes should still be required to view it even at its brightest, predicted to be in late November and December. On September 7 Rosetta's comet was about 0.65 astronomical units away or about 5.4 light-minutes from our fair planet.
Payloads Advanced Combustion via Microgravity Experiments (ACME): A crewmember removed and replaced the ACME Igniter Tip #2. The ACME project is a set of six independent studies of gaseous flames to be conducted in the Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR). ACME's primary and secondary goals are to (1) improve fuel efficiency and reduce pollutant production in … ...
Mary W. Jackson: Celebrating Leaders From Historically Black Colleges
Mary W. Jackson grew up in Hampton, Virginia and attended the historically black college Hampton Institute (now Hampton University).
from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/mary-w-jackson-celebrating-leaders-from-historically-black-colleges
Pedro Cota: From Student Filmmaker to NASA Video P...
Cryogenic Testing of the Webb Telescope's Primary ...
Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide Conducts DNA Sequencing ...
Landsat 9 Spacecraft Moved Into Position for Encap...
NASA's Orion Spacecraft Completes Milestone for Ar...
Mary W. Jackson: Celebrating Leaders From Historic...
M16 Close Up
Apurva Varia: Studying the Heat of Our Sun
The Deep Sky Toward Andromeda
Trans-Sonic Truss-Braced Wing May Help Reduce Fuel...
NGC 520: Colliding Galaxies from Hubble
Firefly Milky Way over Russia
A Falcon 9 Nebula
Mars Perseverance Rover Gathers Rock Sample
Mars Perseverance Rover Collects First Sample
NGC 7023: The Iris Nebula
On Approach to the Space Station
M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy
Johanna Lucht: Engineer Extraordinaire


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Haiti: January 12th and Beyond
2010 Understanding Risk Forum
Risk Communication & Perception
Social Impact of Disasters
Changing Risk, including Climate Change
Session Leads
(i) Multi Hazard Assessments: Sergio Mora
(ii) The Hazard: Mary Lou Zoback
(iii) The Virtual Hazard Assessment: Ron Eguchi
Location: Port au Prince
Latest Activity: May 16 2010
NATURAL HAZARDS ASSESSMENT: FIRST STEP TOWARDS RISK ASSESSMENT
"Disaster Risk Management" (DRM) has been differentiated from "Financial Risk Management" (FRM). As we have been able to witness nowadays, economists and financial "experts", when colluded with politicians are able to create disasters of enormous proportions, sometimes beyond nature's power. Let's then grant their creativity with a supremacy in destructive power. Risk Management (RM) as we know it, refers to the convolute relationship between hazards and vulnerability. As we can also observe, natural, socio-natural and anthropogenic hazards, when mixed with social, environmental, economic and governance vulnerabilities, have certainly not yet reached their peak in destructive power. There is far more to be seen in the future. This circumstance poses a certain number of questions whose answers are far from being complete.
Recent significant events in Latin America, the Caribbean and perhaps in other regions of the world have shown that considerable damage could have been avoided, or at least reduced from the social, environmental and economic standpoints if only a view on risk, more than to disasters would had been applied. According to several sources around 2/3 of the total damage could have been spared by using space (land, territory) more wisely, taking better care of the environment and natural resources, and by offering more options to the chronic impoverishment of our populations. These three closely interlinked factors have two common keys, most of the time not well understood nor materialized: policy and strategy.
Disasters are socially built; they are the product of a misconception of development processes and a mismanagement of risk. Their evident social, economic and environmental consequences lead us to ask: Has DRM been effective? Where are we going with DRM? Is it true that "our" risk management should always have to be benchmarked to "disaster reduction"? Why should we continue to call it DRM instead of RM? A ready-made solution has been to propose international agreements and scopes (e.g. Kyoto, Hyogo, IPCC). But even if this trend has been effective in raising awareness, it should be asked whether success has been achieved, if there is really a solid, robust sustainable drive, or if it is only conjectural and ephemeral.
The most "à la mode" issue is of course climate change (CC): Why and how has it taken more attention than climate variability (CV)?, the latter being, at least for the time being, far more damaging and the cause of a higher jeopardy to the development and well-being of most nations in the world. As proposed by the Working Group I of the Fourth Assessment Report (FAR-IPCC): "…the scientific consensus voiced that warming of the climate system is unequivocal…" Further "…most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to observed increases in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations…" Are these really so "unequivocal" truths? Or are there some misconceptions involved? Does CC really deserve that "unequivocal" priority?
What is then to be done about other hazards, natural, socio-natural (induced) and anthropogenic, not related to climate change: seismicity, volcanism, external geodynamics, hydro-meteorological, climate variability, technological? Haven't they caused and won't they continue to cause, at least for the time being, far more damage than CC? (i.e. Haiti, Chile, Mexicali…) Should we pay less attention to them just because some international organisations, lobbyist groups and influential politicians decreed it a supreme priority? Again, a renewed effort in settling down a clear and sound RM policy and strategy is required. The first step is to clarify that RM is not a part of Climate Change Adaptation (CCA), but fully the other way around.
Engineering and scientific communities, even by being able to read Nature's processes, and by having reached a considerable knowledge on hazards, vulnerability and risk, have not yet brought forward a politically effective risk communication drive. We simply do not have enough persuasive power. Risk mapping, space-time modelling and scenarios are not yet fully considered, perhaps because there is something wrong or weak in the way we address the topic and we stress our arguments. By way of an example: Early warning. Isn't this a pleonasm? Is warning useful if not made "early"? Unfortunately, early warning systems, most of them only mere surveillance devices, have also become a doubtful DRM panacea, but with a promising market development future. They require further consideration and development.
It is therefore evident that RM requires new energy, vision and stamina to place it as an integral cross-cutting policy and to clear away its pervasive myths. Realities and challenges are already pressing and will not give us any time-losing waiver. There is not a single order of priorities because they have to be defined according to the mutating realities and circumstances of each nation and community. However, it seems promising to incorporate RM into national and sub-national development policies as a transversal multi-sectoral axis in land use and in public and private investment. Mitigation should be inspired on the definition of "accepted" as compared to "acceptable" risk thresholds, by metrics establishing sound Cost/Benefit ratios and future loss assessments. But the most important paradigmatic change would be to associate RM to development planning, separated from "disaster management".
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The current crisis has generated a renewed interest in the business cycle. In particular, the search of alternative solutions to the traditional ones has lead to a re-examination of the role of certain key economic variables in the business cycle: this search has put the relationship between entrepreneurship and business cycle into the centre of attention, turning it in a highly hot policy issue at the time of writing. However, this relationship has been a traditional source of controversy in the Economics of Entrepreneurship since there is mixed evidence about how aggregate self-employment rates vary over the cycle. The lack of homogeneous long term time-series data for most countries, until recent years allow now to reconsider empirically this relationship. Like other recent works (Farias et al. 2009 or Koellinger and Thurik, 2009), this work treats to fill at least partially this gap adding new evidence about this relationship. To carry out this task, this paper examines the co-movement and causality between self-employment and business cycle in the EU-12 countries using annual data spanning the years 1983 to 2008, evaluating the robustness of this relationship. In addition, it is a common practice in previous empirical research to consider self-employment as a homogeneous group. However, we will argue that there are several reasons for supposing that the relationship between the business cycle and self-employment can be different for entrepreneurs who hire external labor–employers and for those ones who work on their own-account workers. Our empirical estimates below will shed light on these conjectures. Three key findings emerge: i) the relation between self-employment and the business cycle differs across the two components of self-employment, i.e. employers and own-account workers; ii) the relation between self employment and the business cycle is dominated by the own-account workers development over the cycle; and iii) the relation between self-employment (own-account workers) and the business cycle differs across countries.


(Completing the 12-week Body-for-Life challenge was one of my top things to accomplish from my 100 things to do before I turn 31 list. I've now completed all 100 things and have created a new epic list of 100 things to do before I turn 41. You can see the new list by clicking here. In addition, I've since researched a variety of ways to help lead a healthy life and have added affiliate links below. By purchasing through these links, you pay the same price but help support Live Limitless as well).
So yeah, as you can see from the photo above, I drastically transformed my body in just 12 weeks! It was remarkable to see the before and after photos and to get the results from my body fat testing, BUT guess what? I didn't even realize I had made these changes until I saw the these results. Either the transformation was too gradual or my mind couldn't see the new me. In fact, I remember feeling great but somewhat disappointed until I saw the after photo. That's when I realized how much I had accomplished.
Here's my advice for transforming your body in 12 weeks.
Stop putting it off. Don't wait until the perfect time. That time will never come. There is always going to be some sort of excuse for putting off a diet or fitness plan.
I used to do the same thing. I still occasionally do the same thing. But once I told myself that I was going to finally start and FINISH the body-for-life program, I made sure to stay true to myself.
How bad do you feel when you start something that's important to you and then stop short of successfully completing it?
I know I feel awful. It bothers me for months and even years.
2006 (the year when I did the program) was a long time ago, but I still remember finishing the program and listening to the results from the trainer who took my body fat measurements on day 1 and on day 84. He was really impressed. I was really impressed. I almost couldn't believe my eyes when I printed out my before-and-after pictures.


New to the site but been in the lifestyle for like 3 years now!
I am incredibly shy and very introverted.
Naps are life and pizza is bae.
Little me loves to color, collect stuffies and happy meal toys, watch cartoons, play with legos, and play dress up.
Big me loves binging on Netflix stuffs, watching the youtubes, playing games (video, board, and card), dancing, singing, and playing with makeup.
Very excited to be able to share my little side in a safe online environment!


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10 Most Beautiful Squares In Palermo
Piazza Castelnuovo
Squares in the city of Palermo are revered by locals and tourists because of the history and culture they hold. There are quite a few of them in the city that are certainly worth visiting. We'll be discussing some of the most beautiful Piazzas Palermo has to offer and why many people find them absolutely interesting to make them part of their holiday sightseeing. If you're interested in finding out more about these squares and where to find them, read on. First we have Piazza Castelnuovo. This is a large square with trees and seats for people to relax and have a moment of reflection. Piazza Castelnuovo has important monuments adorning the place and adding to its beauty. Chief of them is the Palchetto Della Musica and Senzatetto, both of which can never be missed. If you're exploring the city, you'll want to make a short stop on this square, sit in one of its benched and take in its beauty as you take a moment to catch your breath. Click the next ARROW to see the next photo!
Piazza Bellini
Bellini is not just beautiful but very significant to the lifestyle and culture of the people of Palermo, because it is located in the heart of the city. Within its perimeter, you'll find two buildings; the churches of Martorana and San Cataldo, which has been there since about a thousand years ago. Click the next ARROW to see the next photo!
Piazza Pretoria
Pretoria is regarded as probably, the most beautiful square in the whole of Palermo. The grand square features a magnificent fountain, with sixteen statues of nymphs, humans, mermaid, and other creatures. It was constructed during the time of the inquisition. Click the next ARROW to see the next photo!
Quattro Canti
This Baroque square which is officially known as Piazza Vigliena is a pleasure to behold. It offers a four corner building which has been perfectly created and decorated with statues of Spanish Kings and fountains. Click the next ARROW to see the next photo!
Piazza Verdi
Piazza Verdi delivers complete beauty and appearance, which is what we're looking for. Within it is the Teatro Massimo, which is regarded as the third biggest opera house in Europe and the biggest in Italy. Click the next ARROW to see the next photo!
Piazza Ruggero Settimo
Along with Piazza Castelnuovo, this piazza forms a single urban space that is collectively known as Piazza Politeama. The piazza is dedicated to Ruggero Settimo, an Italian politician, activist, and diplomat. A monument depicting him can be found in the square. Click the next ARROW to see the next photo!
Piazza Marina
What makes Piazza Marina special is the Garibaldi Garden, which dominates most of the space. Long ago, it used to be a swamp that connected to the ancient port of Palermo. It's close to Cassarostreet, and you can find near it good hotels, restaurants, and a flea market. Click the next ARROW to see the next photo!
Piazza San Domenico
Piazza San Domenico is a magnificent square in Palermo that derives its name from the Church of San Domenico. You should definitely visit the church to appreciate its creation. It's also a great place to sit and watch the world go by, or you can visit the souvenir shops and get yourself something really cool. Click the next ARROW to see the next photo!
Piazza Della Vittoria is located between the Palermo Cathedral and Royal Palace, not too far from Cassaro Street. It offers a great garden known as Villa Bonanno, where you can relax and have a great time. You can also visit the site of the Roman ruins and mosaics, which is just nearby. Click the next ARROW to see the next photo!
Piazza San Giovanni Decollato
Piazza San Giovanni Decollato is located in an imaginative and folkloristic neighborhood. It's a place you can relax and enjoy the beauty and culture of the inhabitants. You can also locate any restaurants around and treat yourself to delicious Italian cuisine.
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Sometimes it's too easy. Last week you could have tricked me as easily as a second grader with 52 card pick-up or a third grader with the Pen 15 club. Maybe today's kids are smarter (*shakes fist*) but back in the day, it was tough on the mean streets of suburban Michigan. You had to be ready.
But last week you could have tricked me. "What grape is in Prosecco?" Hmmmm… ummm… not really sure, maybe, some obscure Italian one? Bzzzz – wrong. Turns out Prosecco is made from… (wait for it)… Prosecco. Color me incredulous but wow, that's just too easy.
The Prosecco I thought I knew was this bubbly Italian wine that's cheaper than Champagne, more straight-laced than Cava and loads up on the bite for winos (like me) who love the green apple tart. Prosecco's the ultimate party gift – tasteful in every large gathering of humans (except the funeral). Even then, maybe you read the obituary with great pleasure. Sneak in a flask.
Come last week though, it was birthday time. And the Señores Zapatos indulged, bringing with them a bottle of this obscure, never before known grape called — Prosecco. Sadly, we drank it almost before the sun left the balcony and another bottle is the one featured above.
But about Prosecco and the fizzy, citrus-intense wine it produces. Up until 2009, you could go around calling the grape "Prosecco" to your hearts content and Europeans wouldn't mind – they'd just think you were talking to yourself. Today, they mind. In 2009, Prosecco got a make-over in the Joan Rivers kinda way, going from a lovely classic figure to a mildly frightening Joker. Now, Europeans call it Glera, something more akin to paint thinner than a white grape that makes terrific bubbly wines.
Fortunately, this blog isn't subject to the whims of the EU or cosmetic beauty, and Prosecco still reigns as the name of the grape as it has since last Saturday when this wino discovered that the Pen 15 club is not an exclusive third grade club. In fact, 52% of the world at birth belongs to this "exclusive" club. Knowledge is power Reading Rainbow followers – Prosecco, Italy's Pen 15 club.
Clean, crisp, green apples, white flowers – pretty much what you're expecting when you head into a store looking for a Prosecco for your next wedding/birthday/Tuesday/Thanksgiving/quinceañera. Ok, don't bring it to the quinceañera – even the kids know that uncle's not cool.
* Age Prosecco and shame yourself – this wine's for drinking and drinking young.
* One bottle for $20 or two bottles for $10 – those are your choices when drinking Prosecco.
* Bellini? Mimosa? You're drinking Prosecco. Only the chef gets champagne in her Mimosa. Nobody gets champagne in a Bellini – that one's always Prosecco.
Saturday was my birthday and nearly all of the gifts came in bottle form. Sidebar: ever notice how many different shapes bottles come in? Turns out the bottle tells you all kinds of things about the wine. Try identifying where the five bottles above come from (hint: none of them are verdejo. also, my hints are worthless). Check out this link for the answers (and that cool image).
But yes, friends and relatives were kinda amazing about the wine this weekend. Most of them were too good to make it through the night and have already metamorphed into bygone memories of summer yore. Some are still sitting in my cellar (better known as the storage cage in the basement), ready for their day at making memories.
One bottle even contained a grape not yet on this blog – Verdejo. Spanish as the word Seleño, pasty white in color and with sarcastic minerality, this is Verdejo. It's the heart of Spain, both in location (from center left on the medical coloring book of Spain's body – Castile y Leon) and in history (castellaño, another way to say español, comes from the Castile y Leon King who conquered Spain and came up with that weird lispy way of speaking). h/t wineonhigh for the image.
Verdejo used to be made into fortified wine, sorta nutty like a sherry, but at a fraction of the price. There it remained for over a thousand years until the 1970s when wine-making powerhouse Marqués de Riscal started experimenting with white wine up in the mountains. Results have been really good according to the (three) people I've spoken with who had heard of Verdejo. Count me in as #4 for liking this wine.
Tried this one twice – once after "tasting" many other wines, once the next day when actually focusing. what I got between those two was pretty fragrant smell (lost some on day 2), big peach taste with full rounded mouth, medium acidity and stony taste. Big enough that your mom will like it, acid enough that your wino brother will too. Bring to family events.
* Verdejo is harvested at night, by vampires. Part of that statement is true.
* North Africa is Verdejo's true home, pre-11th century when it came to Rueda.
* V is for Value, not just Verdejo. $10-15 for almost everything on the market.
Montsant is a term to remember. Regal, saintly, the word screams castle on a hilltop. Funny that it's actually more like the moat around the castle, despite the term that sounds a lot like a Mountain-Saint hybrid. The true mountain of this part of Spain (Catalonia – home to Barcelona and Cava) is Priorat, a region famous for amazing red wines. You've heard of Rioja? This is the ONLY other region in all of Spain with a DOCa – translated as Awesome Wine Region.
Montsant though is the entire region that surrounds the Priorat castle on the hilltop. Same grapes, less $$$. When you find the bottle, buy the bottle since it's pretty under the radar and it's the rare find on the shelves. These guys seem intent on making it more available so h/t not just for the map, but for the work they're doing.
Syrah is the majority contributor to this wine so its name shows up as Grape #41, although Garnacha throws its 45% into the barrel too. Pretty typical blend from this part of Catalonia even thought the traditional mix had a lot more Garnacha and a lot less of the other.
We Anglos in particular have a love for Syrah. Actually, it's more a love for Shiraz, which sounds less French and more Australian. Same grape but more crocodiles.
Australia turns out ridiculous amounts of Shiraz, puts a Yellow Tail label on it, and sells it to supermarkets in the US and Britain. They're been doing this gig this the 1980s and it's still not old. Sorta like Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, it hangs on for decades because it's just that loved. Expect the infatuation to continue.
Yes, Australia puts out high-end ridiculously delicious Barossa Shiraz and France has really smooth, silky Syrahs going back centuries but it's hard to look past the Yellow Tail kangaroo staring at us in the face. If someone had put a Yellow Tail crocodile on our shelves, you better believe we'd buy that too. We bought those crazy tennis shirts back in the day with the crocodile and those were French tennis shirts… with collars. Clearly we're obsessed.
Seven of us dinner-goers tried this bottle (and ordered a second since one glass wasn't enough) at Landmarc, known mostly for outdoor seating and less of a wine mark-up than most restaurants. Surprisingly for a large group, everyone loved this wine. And people had ordered fish, chicken and burgers. Not exactly the easiest food to match a wine to – but all seven of us came away impressed.
"Chalky" and "dark" were the two words I heard the most at the table, although truth be told, we were talking lots more about everything else and very little about the wine. Other reviewers who actually paid attention add in "blueberries" and "mineral" to their descriptions and they probably thought a lot more about their descriptions. Really though, it's a fun wine and clearly a crowd-pleaser.
* Syrah is pronounced by the pretentious and the French (especially in SE France where's it's famous) as si-hah. The rest of us call it Sir-Ah.
* Shiraz is Australia's name for the grape, which is also a city in Iran. Shiraz's Ur-story anyone?
* Spain uses it mostly as a blending wine with Spanish grapes – Montsant and Jumilla both use it in their blends and both regions make great wine at prices mortals can purchase.
Sometimes it's good to have friends. Sure, there are all kinds of benefits that come with friends. You enjoy life more, you live longer, and you get to try more dishes at large-group gatherings. On top of all that, sometimes your friends introduce you new wine grapes. Definitely not at the top of the list, but a cherished benefit nonetheless.
Godello is the grape that came out of Saturday's gathering of friends. Mr. Reebok had just finished the third (and last!) of the grueling CFA exams and was being reawakened to the joys of everyday life. Out of the fridge of Miguel Seleño came the Godello, along with an acclamation that it's what Albariño was a few years ago. I took that to mean: a) acidic, b) unknown outside the die-hard wino world and c) white wine. True on all accounts but also: d) from Spain, e) from NW Spain (Galicia) and f) from one of the five named wine growing regions in Galicia.
The Spanish system of identifying grape growing regions involves the D.O. (denominación de origen), and Galicia has 5 of the 69 Spanish D.O. wine regions (click through for a great PDF map of all 69). Albariño generally comes from Rías Baixas (the western-most D.O. in all of Spain) and Godello generally comes from Monterrei (right on the border with Portugal) or Valdeorras (where Godello is the only authorized white grape).
My impression based on exactly one bottle of Godello is that it's really similar to Vinho Verde but somewhat sweeter. Lots of acidity, lots of citrus (lime mostly, but some grapefruit and lemon too) and some green apples. Godello screams summer, seafood and beach sand.
* Galicia's five D.O. regions are: 1) Rias Baixas (albarino), 2) Ribeiro, 3) Ribeira Sacra, 4) Monterrei (godello), and 5) Valdeorras (godello).
* Terra do Lobo = Land of the Wolf. Probably the reason they have a picture of a moon on the label too – perfect wine to bring to your Twilight party. Go Team Jacob.
Tempranillo rules Spain like it owns a Barza jersey and answers to Messi, there's no disputing that. But behind Messi is a whole team of supporting grapes that make Tempranillo what it is. Two of those grapes are Mazuelo and Graciano, little known grapes who tend to shy from the spotlight but set up Tempranillo for the MVP Award when it counts.
Personally, I missed the Barza (3) – Manchester (1) final where Messi won his MVP and Spain erupted in a fit of hysteria not seen since oh… the EXACT same thing happened two years ago when Barza defeated Manchester for the final. Fortunately, my brother arrived direct from Spain with a bottle under his arm (and another stashed in his suitcase), with stories of Spanish victories, appropriate wine intake levels and early morning Fellini-esque tales of Spanish celebrations.
Mazuelo is the more famous of the two, although it's only the Spanish who call it that. The rest of Europe calls it "Carignan" and knows it as the grape from the cheaper parts of France that led to the famous "wine lake." Not sure how "wine lake" came to mean a bad thing since it seems like an amazing faun-centric scene from Fantasia, but France managed to make "wine lake" a bad thing. They produced way more than France (or anyone else) could consume and had to turn hundreds of millions of bottles of wine into industrial alcohol. Surely a faun is crying somewhere.
Graciano grows pretty much only in La Rioja, with some outposts around the world. Mostly, it's used as the muscle in the body-building world of Old Wines (Reserva and Gran Reserva under the Spanish system). Spain used to consider Graciano a key ingredient in Rioja wines but it's a hard grape to grow and it's not as common to find as it once was back in the yesteryears of the 1970s. That said, the grape is coming back and even some entire bottles are now made from 100% Graciano. Mostly though, it remains a blending wine to ensure that Tempranillo has staying power and will be running around Barza's field for decades to come.


In much of the Western world, this date is associated with victory, the end of World War II. In Catholic liturgical tradition, today's celebration of Mary being taken to heaven is associated with the ultimate victory, Jesus' victory over death and our victory over death through faith in Jesus. United with Jesus, the Church is "a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars" (Rv 12:1). In Jesus, the Church has total victory over Satan, the "huge dragon" (Rv 12:3), and Mary and all those living their Baptisms share in this victory. Today's celebration of Mary's assumption into heaven proclaims the total victory of Jesus. "He has shown might with His arm; He has confused the proud in their inmost thoughts. He has deposed the mighty from their thrones and raised the lowly to high places" (Lk 1:51-52).
Today, on this holy day, the Lord wants to transform you from victim to victor. Today, you can be free from the sins, bitterness, resentments, unforgiveness, self-hatred, and compulsions which have victimized you. Today, in Jesus, you can win victories you had never thought you would win. Mary, assumed into heaven, pray for us.
Prayer: Father, make me the conqueror of the world (1 Jn 5:5).
Praise: "Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: 'Now have salvation and power come, the reign of our God and the authority of His Anointed One' " (Rv 12:10).


Awesome news, and funny thing is, I wrote a small article about BigFoot on my blog,lol!
The sightings were posted in 2005, so it's not new news, but it's still pretty cool! I was glad to have it pointed out, since it supported events in my book!


How do you explain such results (West Brittany and Armorica)?
Pretty good for a fun calculator. Thanks!
Can someone please run my results just above? Thanks!
Very nice to see the genetic maps of all of us in 2 web pages.


Hi, how are you? Hope you are doing well. In today's blog post we are going to discuss one of the most occurring error code i.e. QuickBooks Error Code 6144 82. This occurs most of the time while opening any company file which is used by any other application. Learn how to fix and resolve it. We are mentioning step by step instruction.
Follow them to fix it. However, if you want to hire an expert technician, you may call our QuickBooks Error support phone number +1-855-441-4417.
When error code 6144 82 shows up, it will crash your any open application.
The computer may hang much time running the same program.
The response time of Windows slow down & it reacts slowly to any user input.
PC may freeze for a few time.
Most of the time it occurs while installing any program and QuickBooks is open in the background.
While starting your desktop or shutting it down.
It may also occur when installing the operating system on your computer.
Your download is incomplete or QuickBooks is not installed properly.
Your registry gets corrupted due to any recent install or uninstalls of any program.
The PC may be affected due to any malware or virus. The virus may have to delete any important QB or window file. Try to fix it by deep clean using any strong antivirus.
There is a possibility that any other program may have deleted some of the QB Company files.
Any damage to hard disk or RAM may also lead to loss of data and file.
This can also happen due to change in the setting of network connection resulting any error.
The above messages play an important role in handling and fixing any error codes. Knowing the exact reason helps in fixing it both effectively and efficiently.
2: Try to deep clean your PC using any strong antivirus or security program.
4: Check whether you are using an outdated driver. If found, update them.
5: You can perform "Undo" operation to restore any recent computer changes.
8: Check for any Window update and install it.
9: Do a Clean Installation of Windows.
Hope, you find this article handy and useful. If you are unable to sort out this, you may hire our expert to fix this for you. Contact our QuickBooks Customer service team or QuickBooks Enterprise support phone number +1-855-441-4417 to have a chat with our expert. Thanks for visiting!