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Belgian Royal Family 13th March 2018
King Philippe and Queen Mathilde kick off their State Visit to Canada with a big mistake from the Canadians
Laura Dekkers
Europe Correspondent
Canada's Prime Minister criticised for not meeting Belgian King & Queen during State Visit
Queen Mathilde of Belgium to mark International Women's Day
P: FPS Foreign Affairs
This morning, King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of the Belgians arrived in Canada for their 5-day State Visit. Their Majesties are in Canada at the invitation of Julie Payette, the Governor General, the representative of Queen Elizabeth II in Canada. The State visit will bring Their Majesties to Ottawa, Toronto and Montréal.
Most of the day went smoothly, but all most can talk about is the mix up of placing German flags instead of Belgian ones. It started with the German flag that covered the tree which King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola planted.
A government spokesperson said: "On the occasion of Their Majesties' State visit to Canada, a total of 28 Canada/Belgium flags (24 along the driveway leading to the residence, 2 at the tree planting ceremony and 2 mini sets of flags planted at the base of the 2 trees planted by King Baudoin and Queen Fabiola of the Belgians in 1977) were displayed on the grounds of Rideau Hall.
"While we were preparing for the tree planting ceremony, it was brought to our attention that there was one small German flag at the base of the tree planted by Queen Fabiola. As soon as we were informed, we rectified the situation immediately, prior to Their Majesties' arrival at the tree planting.
"As for the Governor General's speech, she acknowledged Their Majesties and the Belgian delegation in their official languages: Dutch, French and English. Here are the salutations she delivered in Dutch: Uwe Majesteiten de Koning en Koningin der Belgen, welkom in Canada! Welkom in Rideau Hall!"
On Monday morning, The King and Queen landed at the airport of Ottawa, the city in which they also spent their first day. They were received by the governor general of Canada, Julie Payette at her home Rideau Hall, the official residence of the acting governor general. The pair arrived by carriage accompanied by the Royal Canadian Mountain Police, surrounded by the snowy landscape. As a tribute to Canada, Queen Mathilde wore a red coat and a hat in the same colour. King Philippe inspected the Canadian troops.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Belgium. Pictures: Denis Brever (CAN), FPS Foreign Affairs
Both the King and the Governor General gave a speech. King Philippe talked about his passion for space as Julie Payette is a former astronaut. The King also spoke about Belgium's special bond with the country as he said: "We are here to celebrate the past, to say thank you and be grateful for what the Canadian soldiers did. We own our freedom to those soldiers who came to our country to fight 100 years ago during the First World War and then again during the Second World War. Belgium doesn't forget what you've done for us."
The Queen and King with the Governor General of Canada. Photo: FPS Foreign Affairs
There was also time to speak to members of the Belgian community in Ottawa. Then the traditional tree planting ceremony took place. King Philippe and Queen Mathilde planted their maple sugar tree close to the two maple trees that King Philippe's uncle King Baudouin and aunt Queen Fabiola planted during their State Visit in 1977. Queen Mathilde switched her high heels for some Uggs boots before she made her way through the snow. The State Visit of King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola was the first ever State Visit from Belgium to Canada.
Queen Mathilde plants a tree. Photo: Denis Brever (CAN), FPS Foreign Affairs
Their Majesties said goodbye to the governor, and they made their way to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier where they laid a wreath. At the National War Memorial, the King and Queen also signed the guest book.
Photo: FPS Foreign Affairs
Their Majesties also met with the Minister of Canadian Heritage and the Speaker of the Senate of Canada. In the evening the King and Queen will attend the traditional State Dinner on the first evening of their official visit. The dinner is offered by Governor General Julie Payette and will take place at her official residence.
King Philippe and Queen Mathilde have travelled to Canada with a delegation of 211 people. The delegation includes representatives of the government such as the Minister of Foreign Affairs Didier Reynders and Secretary of State Pieter De Crem and people from the business and academic world. What is somewhat odd is that the King and Queen will not meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who is currently in crisis meeting about the taxes President Trump wishes to implement.
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Let golf continue says retired Killarney GP
REVERSE THE DECISION: Retired GP Dr John McCullagh is calling on NPHET to reverse last week's decision to close golf courses. Photo: Michelle Crean
By Sean Moriarty
A retired Killarney doctor is calling on the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) and the Golf Union of Ireland to immediately reverse last week's decision to close golf courses in the interest of mental health - saying golf is one of the safest sports to play during the pandemic.
Under current COVID-19 regulations, golf courses, like so many other aspects of Irish society, remain closed for the duration of the Level 5 restrictions, and will do so until at least December 1.
Dr John McCullagh originally operated a medical practice on New St before going on to become one of the founding partners of the Deenagh Medical Practice.
Dr McCullagh has written to the Golf Union of Ireland outlining why he believes the sport should continue. He highlighted the health benefits of golf and according to his medical experience many of these benefits outweigh the risk of contracting the Coronavirus.
This week he shared the letter with the Killarney Advertiser.
"The game of golf is arguably the safest sport to be involved in. Huge numbers of elderly people, both women and men, enjoy this activity, many of them living alone and many with various disabilities or co-morbidities ranging from Arthritis and Parkinsons to heart and lung disease," he told the Killarney Advertiser. "Those with difficulty walking have the option of using a buggy, thereby facilitating four hours of social and health benefits embraced with enthusiasm and huge satisfaction. Unfortunately, they are now prisoners in their homes and will be for the next six weeks with all the adverse health implications that may follow both mentally and physically."
Dr McCullagh, who plays golf at least once a week, when allowed, added that he had yet to see any medical evidence that there is a COVID-19 risk on a golf course.
"We await nervously the negative impact it will have on the general health of golfers especially on the elderly," he added. "In my opinion, the risk/benefit ratio favours playing golf as I have yet to see or hear of any evidence supporting the spread of COVID-19 on the golf course. Furthermore, the elderly in particular are meticulously adherent to NPHET's social distancing and hygiene guidance given that we are the very group most at risk for worse COVID-19 clinical outcomes."
He is also concerned about a third wave. The current restrictions are in place to 'Save Christmas' but he fears there will be another outbreak of the disease in January as a result of festive season gatherings.
"Fair enough we have it for these six weeks, but what will happen after Christmas when there are more lockdowns coming?"
Friary office operational but not open to public
New car park planned for Killarney town

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Kennedy "Conspiracy Theories" Go Mainstream. 50 Years After Assassination
By Washington's Blog
Global Research, November 21, 2013
https://www.globalresearch.ca/kennedy-conspiracy-theories-go-mainstream-50-years-after-assassination/5358903
The CIA and FBI Hid Information from the Warren Commission
Preface: Some "conspiracy theories" are true, and some are false. Each must be judged on its own merits.
A solid majority of Americans have always believed that John F. Kennedy's assassination involved a conspiracy.
But now that view is starting to be discussed by mainstream power players.
Current Secretary of State John Kerry said recently:
To this day, I have serious doubts that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I certainly have doubts that he was motivated by himself.
Watergate reporter Bob Woodward long ago became a mainstream, establishment journalist.
But Woodward – and long-time CBS news anchor Bob Schieffer – agree that the CIA and FBI refused to give information to the Warren Commission, and so that Commission was in the dark as to what might actually have happened:
To view video click here
And CBS News reports:
It has long been known that the Warren Commission, the blue ribbon panel of public officials appointed by former President Lyndon Johnson to investigate the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, was flawed in ways that led to generations of conspiracy theories about what happened on Nov. 22, 1963. A forthcoming book from former New York Times reporter Philip Shenon digs into exactly what the commission got wrong, both by intentional concealment, or, in Shenon's view, extensive attempts by both the CIA and FBI to withhold just how much they knew about Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald in the weeks and months before he killed the president.
"In many ways, this book is an account of my discovery of how much of the truth about the Kennedy assassination has still not been told, and how much of the evidence about the president's murder was covered up or destroyed – shredded, incinerated, or erased – before it could reach the commission," Shenon writes in the prologue to A Cruel and Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination, which draws its title from the first sentence of the commission's report. "Senior officials at both the CIA and the FBI hid information from the panel, apparently in hopes of concealing just how much they had known about Lee Harvey Oswald and the threat that he posed."
In fact – as the Washington Post reports – official investigators have long said there was a conspiracy and a cover up:
The Church Committee, a Senate-led investigation in 1976 into the CIA and FBI, concluded that the 888-page Warren Report may have been insufficiently thorough and suppressed key evidence, giving legs to the persistent belief that a cover-up was involved.
By 1979, the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations determined that the assassination was "probably" the result of a conspiracy. Indeed, four years after that report, public perceptions of a conspiracy hit their peak at 80 percent.
(Similarly, it is well-documented that the 9/11 Commission was deceived by the U.S. military and other branches of the government. No wonder even the Commissioners themselves are calling for a new investigation.)
Copyright © Washington's Blog, Global Research, 2013


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Heroes and saints, part 2
I cannot forget that Abigail Adams said, "Remember the ladies."
I recently wrote a blog about several of my "heroes." I was not oblivious of the fact that my five choices were all of the dangly-bits gender, and I promised in that entry to follow up with one on women who were also my heroes — those who embody character that I admire and would aspire to, if I were a better person than I have managed to be.
Top on my list of women who are my heroes I would place my wife of 35 years, but I will not be writing about her, for deeply personal reasons. Let us simply acknowledge that there is now a constellation that bears her name, made up of the brightest stars, cast up into the nighttime sky.
As with the previous posting, there are some women who most of the world would add to the list. I will never be as brave or as eloquent as Malala Yousafzai. If someone had shot me in the face, I'm sure I would have lain low for the rest of my life, looking back nervously over my shoulder and jumping at Fourth of July fireworks. But Malala continues to speak out forcefully for the education of women. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, when she was 17, which is the age my granddaughters are now. I think of them as mature for their ages, but Malala — wow. They don't hand out Nobel Peace Prizes for being class president or state legislative page. She is one in a billion.
They do hand out Nobel Peace Prizes for upholding democracy in the face of authoritarian military juntas, though. Aung San Suu Kyi has one. She spent a total of 15 years under house arrest in her native Burma for speaking out against the repressive government, and finally managed to bring democracy back to her nation. (I recognize that all heroes run the risk of clay feet. Malala so far has avoided that fate, but Aung San Suu Kyi nearly blew decades of good will in the world by failing to condemn violence against the Rohingya Muslim minority in Burma. One always has to forgive something in one's heroes. Not one of us is perfect.)
But my personal pantheon comprises five women who have something to give me on a more personal level; they embody traits that I would aspire to and that among them are fervent curiosity; a willingness to include everyone in the circus of humanity; an ability to feel not just sympathy, but empathy; a refusal to accept the conventional wisdom; and a burning aliveness. The each see the multiple layers of existence not as contradictory, but as accumulative.
Toni Morrison — Another Nobel Prize winner, this time for literature, Morrison has the fierce physiognomy of a Tibetan temple's guardian demon. She suffers not fools gladly. But, as with the Buddhist demons, when you accept her for herself, she turns out to be a guide, not a gatekeeper. I especially appreciate that, although she can walk through walls — indeed, chew the walls up and spit them out — she does not cave in to the conventional definitions laid out for her by society.
When asked about feminism in a 1998 interview in Salon magazine, she said, "In order to be as free as I possibly can, in my own imagination, I can't take positions that are closed. Everything I've ever done, in the writing world, has been to expand articulation, rather than to close it, to open doors, sometimes, not even closing the book – leaving the endings open for reinterpretation, revisitation, a little ambiguity."
She has done a great deal for feminism by being the powerful woman she is. It may be "off-putting to some readers, who may feel that I'm involved in writing some kind of feminist tract. I don't subscribe to patriarchy, and I don't think it should be substituted with matriarchy. I think it's a question of equitable access, and opening doors to all sorts of things."
And geez, can she write.
Agnès Varda — French New Wave cinema broke away from the conventions of studio filmmaking in the 1950s and '60s, with a fresh approach to storytelling. Varda is often including in their ranks, but really, she isn't in anyone's army. She is peculiarly and significantly her own. It is often hard to tell whether she is making documentary or feature film. Her fiction often includes bits of real life, and her documentaries are often so imaginative that the only way you can categorize them is to call them "personal essays" in film language.
She is clearly in love with the things of this world, from her first feature, La Pointe Courte, from 1954, which focuses as much on the physical settings and objects in the small fishing village central to her story, as it does on the two main characters. There are wooden sheds and fishing nets lingered over lovingly by the camera, which moves ever so slowly, giving us all the time we need to pay attention. She dares us to be bored and challenges us to transcend that boredom by paying attention to the wealth she has spread before us.
In The Gleaners and I, she begins by following the poor as they gather bits of food left in the farm fields — a practice written into French law. But, the movie goes on to look at many people who have found value in things forgotten and discarded, including artists who make work from found objects. This includes herself. She said in an interview "I'm not poor, I have enough to eat." But she points to "another kind of gleaning, which is artistic gleaning. You pick ideas, you pick images, you pick emotions from other people, and then you make it into a film."
There is no doubting Varda's feminist bona fides, but her argument is found not in politics, but in human relationships, and in the unembraceable fact that we all die. We wait for the biopsy results with the pop star in Cleo from 5 to 7, we watch the suffering of the poor wraith as she winds down to a cold death in a ditch in Vagabond, and we see Varda's own love for her husband, Jacques Demy, as he slowly winks out of this life in Jacquot de Nantes. In all of them, death is not a literary device, but a vivifying fact of life we all must face with — if nothing else — creativity.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg — There are many reasons for admiring Ginsburg, not the least of which is her sparkling wit. Even as she becomes older and slower, the words that come out of her mouth always a bit more hesitatingly as age grips her ribcage are often ripping funny. There is always light flashing in those eyes. Whenever she shows up on a C-Span panel discussion, I stop flipping channels and sit through the duration. I love hearing her.
And certainly one admires the legal career which lead her to the senior position on the U.S. Supreme Court (in age, if not in length of service). She is always on the right side, even if not always on the winning side. Her dissents are deeply felt and forcefully written.
One also admires her fashion choice, wearing that lacy jabot across the front of her judicial robe. She was the third woman to administer the oath of office to a president, and the first Supreme Court justice to preside over a same-sex wedding.
And there is her love of opera; she has even appeared several times as a supernumerary in opera productions. And her long marriage to her late husband, Martin Ginsburg. I have a warm regard for anyone forming so close a bond for so long a time.
But the single quality I most admire in the Notorious RBG is the fact she could be friends with the late Antonin Scalia. How, you ask, could this have been possible. Scalia was the most ideologically inflexible of the justices during his term, and the most biting in his writings, whether in the majority or in dissent. Truculent and pugnacious, he had a nasty turn of phrase and seemed to ooze contempt for those who disagreed with him. Yet, Ginsburg and Scalia had a famous friendship in the court. They went to opera together. For years, the Scalias and the Ginsburgs had dinner together every New Year's Eve. (His friendship with RBG is the one single redeeming feature I can cite in Scalia's favor).
Nan Goldin — Seeming a universe apart from the high-achieving Supreme Court justice is an artist known for her snapshots of her drug-using friends. Goldin, now 63, made her name with The Ballad of Sexual Dependency in 1985, a slide show with music accompaniment that was presented via a Kodak Carousel transparency projector presented against the walls of a gallery. Along with the hundreds of slides, a recording of music by the Velvet Underground, Charles Aznavour, Nina Simone, James Brown and Richard Strauss played, underlying both the rebellious and romantic nature of the lifestyle portrayed — that of the gay subculture, the heroin chic, the damaging personal life of Goldin herself.
It is painful to look at these lost people, with their bruises, smeared eye-liner, tangled hair and thousand-yard-stares. One critic called them "the beaten down and beaten-up," with "gritty disheveled miens" photographed in "dark and dank ramshackle interiors."
An edited-down version of the slide show was published a year later as a book. It would be hard to turn those pages and feel there was anything to admire in them, other than the color and composition of them as photographs. But they are redeemed by two contradictory things: their truth and their romanticism. Goldin was not pointing her camera at this lifestyle to admonish it, but to document it; she was not outside it, but a part of it. It was a harsh self-inspection. But it also, while telling hard truths, explored the deep and abiding search for meaning in life. The need for transcendence, for escaping the banality of bourgeoise existence. Surely we are more important as individuals than as cogs in a societal machine.
For a more in-depth analysis of Goldin's work, check out: https://richardnilsen.com/2013/08/30/the-goldin-mean/
Anne Iott — There are people who are bilingual, but Anne Iott is so in a very specific way: She is an artist, but she was also the chair of the art department at Tidewater Community College in Virginia Beach, Va., for many, many years and was fluent both in art and in administration. This is — if you haven't been subject to either or both — extremely rare. To be able to converse meaningfully with artists about art in their own language, but to be able to function efficiently in the bureaucratic atmosphere of academe is more than a talent, it is a genius.
As an artist, she is first a painter, but that is just the start. There is hardly an art form or medium that she hasn't essayed brilliantly. There are prints, collages, photographs, assemblages and in recent years, artist books, which she seems to spin out of her like a tree grows apples.
Certainly her prolific drive to create would nominate her for this list, but it is rather more than that. Anne has a special genius for seeing in other people that which they do not see in themselves. She has helped uncounted people with their careers and with their lives. I know; I owe my career as a writer to her. When I was teaching as a lowly adjunct faculty member at TCC, she finagled a position for me at Norfolk's Virginian-Pilot newspaper as a freelance art critic. She knew I was a better writer than teacher. I wound up writing one or two reviews each Sunday for the paper, which gave me the confidence and experience to sign on full-time to the Arizona Republic when my wife and I moved to Phoenix, Ariz.
But it is not mere gratitude for her constant support and aid that I put her on this list, but rather for the particular ability to see other people clearly, even when they don't see themselves, to go out of her way to make life better for other people. Anne has made a good life for herself, but she has also made good lives for all those she has helped. Nothing feels so good as to be seen. Really seen.
All those on these lists, both men (in a previous post) and women embody qualities I love and admire in them, and would wish to be able to emulate. I can try, but even when I don't succeed, these are the lodestars of my better self.
Heroes and saints
Everyone has his heroes. Of course, the definition of "hero" changes through time and according to who is making the list. In Classical literature, the hero was the one who could translate the will of the gods into history. For some nowadays, we call heroes those who save little children from burning buildings. For others, they call schoolteachers "hero," or their fathers, or someone else they admire. We have fallen a great way since Achilles became the man who bought us ice cream when we were toddlers.
But really, it has gotten even worse. I remember when the question turned bureaucratic and we began substituting the phrase "role model" for hero. The language is the poorer for it. So is the culture.
But perhaps something less ambitious is appropriate these days, since it is not as if we can believe in the epic hero, the Siegfried or the Aeneas. The 20th century destroyed any illusion we might have had about nobility, and the democratizing replacement has proved sadly short on transcendence.
And in the 20th century, those who aspired to translate the will of the gods brought disaster and destruction to the planet. One thinks of the mythic aura that the propaganda machine set as a halo around Adolf Hitler and the Übermensch, and the idea of heroism now has a stink about it that is hard to shake off. We cannot take seriously the idea of the single human who transcends human limits and converses with the gods. Clay feet for everyone. The cult of personality has left us with Kim Jong Un. However dangerous he may be, he still looks like a parody. So does Mr. Trump, with his dangling neckties and slouch walk, orange skin and ferret-fleece head. Sad.
No, we cannot take any of these pint-size heroes seriously.
Not that there isn't still a hunger for such. How else can you explain the tsunami of superhero movies, with their rippling chests and spandex tights? Or, for that matter, the rise of so many authoritarian and would-be authoritarian regimes around the globe?
In the ancient myths, heroes were defined by a single act, often resulting in their deaths, making for few retired heroes. But it isn't the paroxysm of the heroic act that we seek anymore, or can accept — after all, you can't make a sequel if your hero has been killed and translated into a constellation in the night sky.
And neither can we believe anymore in the "will of the gods." Whatever gods may have survived Nietzsche have retired to their corners to let the last remaining deity any culture fervently believes in fight it out with himself as Sunni and Shia.
That doesn't mean we can't have personal heroes, those we feel embody the values and achievements we care most about. For some, those heroes play sports or lead insurgencies, or make millions of dollars in real estate. They aren't exactly "role models," because we don't truly aspire to put in the hard work required to meet these goals. But we like to imagine that, given the right circumstances — mostly in our daydreams — we might be like them.
Certainly there are a few heroic people who the large proportion of the world's populace can admire. At least those who feel the warm pumping of humanity beating in their veins.
It's hard not to think that, despite the recalcitrant and reactionary stubbornness of the Vatican, that Pope Francis is trying his damnedest to reform the Roman Catholic Church. Not in all particulars, of course, but he has clearly made clear he is less judgmental and more inclusive than anyone at the head of the church, perhaps since its founder. He has sent out olive branches to Muslims, to atheists, to homosexuals, even to the Orthodox Church. Now, if he could just do the same thing for women.
And there is an overpowering force of acceptance and forgiveness in the Dalai Lama. Yes, perhaps he giggles just a wee bit too much, and there are the political ramifications of Tibetan separatism, but the Dalai Lama seems to be able to function as a spiritual leader to everyone from Buddhists to atheists — and even to fundamentalist Christians, who recognize in him, if not the spirit of "true religion," at least that he means well.
And I have to admit that these two men are heroes to me, too. Perhaps one sees their limitations, but then, Siegfried and Aeneas had notable shortcomings as well. (Siegfried was none to bright; he didn't know the meaning of the word "fear." Someone should have bought him a dictionary. And Aeneas, well, as far as heroes go, he was sliced from a large sheet of cardboard.)
Who would I put in my personal hagiography? It changes from time to time, as new heroes emerge and former ones snap off their clay feet at the ankles. But for the purpose of writing this short entry, I want to nominate five names. These, then, are my personal heroes, more than bureaucratic, and perhaps a tad less than monumental.
David Attenborough — Pretty much anyone who has seen the 91-year-old BBC TV presenter recognizes immediately the genuineness of his enthusiasm and his complete lack of vanity, with his white hair blowing around his head as he climbs trees in the rainforest or rides under the waves in a submersible. Attenborough, unlike most presenters, not only writes his own material — which is delightfully free from the usual nature-film cliches — but is his own producer. In fact, he was the head of BBC programming for years. He is not just a talking head, he is our surrogate for discovery. Everything he presents, he seems to be finding out for the first time and wants us to share it with him.
"I just wish the world was twice as big and half of it was still unexplored."
If nothing else, his longevity onscreen is unmatched. His first nature film was made in 1954, which for those of you who are math-challenged, was 63 years ago. I am a geezer, but I was in first grade when he made Zoo Story for the BBC. Although he has slowed down, he still provided the voice over for a sequel to The Blue Planet.
I wish I had his enthusiasm and his energy.
Werner Herzog — If Attenborough is the avuncular voice of nature films, Herzog is the voice of nature biting back. His Bavarian-accented English is hypnotic — you cannot turn away. But it is the voice of doom. Make that in capital letters. But there is a kind of smile behind the terror. For Herzog, life is nasty, brutish and short, but it seems to amuse him. If it isn't bears out to eat you, it is albino crocodiles, or Viet Cong shooting at you in the jungle.
"I believe the common denominator of the Universe is not harmony, but chaos, hostility and murder."
If that isn't enough, then take this one: "I am fascinated by the idea that our civilization is like a thin layer of ice upon a deep ocean of chaos and darkness."
How is it, then, that his films are so life-affirming and joyous? It must be because he throws himself into the Maelstrøm with abandon. One sees him like Slim Pickens as Maj. Kong in Dr. Strangelove, riding the nuclear bomb like a bucking bronco.
It is the documentary films primarily that I am talking about. He also makes some of the most daring feature films — how can you top Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes, or Fitzcarraldo? — but it is the many, many documentaries that Herzog shows his peculiar Weltanschauung. Again, like Attenborough, there is never an ounce or a gram of cliche. Every utterance is original, but more to the point, true — at least as Herzog understands it.
As the late Roger Ebert had it, Herzog "has never created a single film that is compromised, shameful, made for pragmatic reasons, or uninteresting. Even his failures are spectacular."
Brian Lamb — If Werner is a wolf, then Brian is a lamb. In the current political climate, where everyone yells at the top of their lungs, spewing venom and spit, Lamb is the quiet center of a vortex. Lamb invented C-Span, made it happen, and managed it from 1975 until he retired in 2012. He still shows up on the TV network, asking simple, direct questions of those in the news, without rancor, and seemingly without any agenda other than getting at the facts. I have never heard him raise his voice; I have never heard him express a political opinion. To this day, I cannot tell whether he is liberal or conservative, so close to the vest does he play it.
On the other hand, one believes he leans to the liberal side, if for no other reason than his happy toleration of diverse points of view. Diversity tends to be a liberal virtue. Nevertheless, I cannot tell for sure.
Lamb manages to make C-Span more than just a static camera in the Senate or on the House floor. On weekends, there is Book TV, and then, there is History TV on C-Span 3. You hear engaging lectures and panel discussions from every spot on the political spectrum — again, all played straight, no comment, no angle. Wow. For my money, Lamb is a secular saint.
John Lewis — You see his face behind the podium and you hear his deep, sorrowful voice and you know this is the pure expression of humanity, straight, no chaser. There is a moral power to his utterance. One imagines him reading a shopping list and making you feel like a better person for it.
Now 77 and a Congressman from Georgia's Fifth District, Lewis is the soul of dignity. He has been through great suffering, was beaten and jailed, watched his mentor murdered in Memphis, fought for Civil Rights and now, as one of the few remaining voices of the Struggle, speaks not for African Americans, not for Americans, but for human beings. If we were any of us a hundredth as noble as he is, we should be proud. If we were to be visited by some alien civilization, I would want Lewis to speak for humanity as we were introduced.
John Waters — We make no bones about it, John Waters is an indifferent filmmaker. Many of his films are notable, but more for their outrageousness than for their cinematic virtues. Not that saying such would much bother him; he seems to know just where he fits into film history.
But it is Waters the man that I wholly admire. He can be funny — he usually is — he is often ironic, although he says he eschews irony, he knows the borders of good taste and makes sure he stays on the far side of the line, but there is an essential and unquenchable goodness about his vision.
I first noticed this in one of his lesser films, Pecker, about a young man devoid of irony who makes a splash in the New York art scene. Waters could easily have lampooned the nabobs of that scene as shallow and exclusionary — and he does have some fun at their expense — but in the end, he finds room for them in his universe, too.
It is admirable that he can be sharp but accepting also. There is a loving gentleness behind the kitsch and Waters never, ever looks down on his creations. He recognizes the silliness of human behavior, but counts himself among the silly. I would trust my life to Waters.
So, these are my saints, at least for the moment. There are more of them, but this gives you a range of them. There are women, too; I hope to write about some of them in the future. And even some political figures, although I might be hard pressed to name any of them currently living.
Do I live up to their example. Hardly. But in my mind, I try my best, which is all any of them can, or have asked.
An earnest plea
Please forgive me for what I am about to do.
Over the past five years, during which I've written nearly 500 blog entries, the least popular among them, according to the page views, have been those concerning music. People don't seem to like reading about music, and worse, about classical music.
But today, I'm going to do far worse. I'm going to write about the Second Viennese School — the so called "atonal" and twelve-tone composers who have been blamed for destroying serious music in the 20th century.
The three primary composer in this supposed school are its founder, Arnold Schoenberg, and his two students, Alban Berg and Anton Webern. There are many things to be said about them, not the least of which is that they are three very different artists, whose music can hardly be mistaken for each others', but what I am most interested in doing is undoing the misunderstandings about their work, primarily about Schoenberg's music.
Schoenberg by Egon Schiele 1917
Because I want to say at the outset that I find Schoenberg's music — for the most part, and there are exceptions — ungodly beautiful and moving.
Schoenberg shares with Johann Sebastian Bach that the most common and simple-minded things said about them are patently untrue. People, even those who should know better, believe that Bach's music is somehow mathematical and logical, whereas if you have ears to hear, you find some of the most irrational sounds, and deeply and profoundly emotional music ever penned. Bach's music is not rational, but Baroque, which means florid, extravagant, formally adventurous, like the extended keyboard cadenza of the Fifth Brandenburg, or the unpredictable trailing series of odd comet-tails at the end of the C-minor Prelude of the first book of the Well Tempered Clavier.
Schoenberg, likewise, is seen by those who don't know his work well enough, as dry, academic and formulaic.
And, because Schoenberg in his later career, came up with a "system" of writing music, he is also seen as somehow dry, academic and formulaic, as if his music were somehow a hyper-complex form of sudoku. In fact, Schoenberg is a hugely Romantic composer, whose music — again with a few exceptions, is as emotional as the most fraught moments of the St. Matthew Passion.
Another similarity between the two composers is that Bach, before Schoenberg was one of the most dissonant composers in music history. We'll get back to that.
But first, let's look to Schoenberg's actual career and output. His first works, which were enthusiastically received when premiered, include such late-romantic period pieces as the Gurre-Lieder and Verklaerte Nacht, which are both so fervent and passionate that they make Wagner's Tristan sound like Haydn. Gurre-Lieder is a huge undertaking, lasting almost two hours, with 150 orchestra players, including 10 horns and 6 tympani, and another 200 singers in the choir. It was first recorded by Leopold Stokowski in 1932 and it took 27 sides of 78 rpm discs.
Simon Rattle conducting Gurre Lieder
Gurre-Lieder has since been recorded scores of times, but each is a major event. The music is profoundly chromatic, taking up where Wagner left off. But, for all that, it shares with the music of Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss the orchestral complexity and harmonic richness of late Romanticism.
Verklaerte Nacht ("Transfigured Night"), written originally for just six string players and later orchestrated, is less expensive to perform, and therefore gets frequent hearings in American concert halls. I once heard the New York Philharmonic under Kurt Masur play it, and I was overwhelmed. The music has both such power, and such shimmering surface beauty, that it is hard not to have your breath taken away.
But, of course, it is not this music that most people think about when they think of Schoenberg. Actually, it isn't really the music they think about at all, but the theory, the words, which can sound mechanical, whereas Schoenberg's music is anything but.
Which brings us back to JS Bach.
The word often used for Schoenberg's music is "atonal." And along with that, it is seen as overwhelmingly dissonant. And it is true that Schoenberg saw that the chromaticism of late-romantic music was stretching the limits of traditional tonality. After Tristan und Isolde, the standard harmony was so consistently modulation-oriented that it hardly made sense to call a piece "in D major," or "E-minor."
Schoenberg hated the term, "atonal," and for good reason — his music remained tonal throughout his career, although in a complex and disorienting way.
Bach, again, was a hugely dissonant composer. Just take any of his chorales and play only the off-beat chords and you find it sounds rather like Schoenberg. With all those appoggiaturas, passing tones, suspensions and pedal-tones, notes grate on other notes constantly. But the containing tonality of Bach's language means that these dissonances are always resolved, so the overall effect is one of consonance. But just look at those notes on the page: constant and pungent dissonances.
With the emphasis on chromatic modulation in Schoenberg's music, it led him to create music that uses the expectation of dissonance resolution to keep us hooked-in to the harmonic sound-world of Western music, while never letting us reach that final resting place. It is akin to keeping the 12 pitches up in the air like a juggler, with no way to stop.
This creates strong emotion in the listener; it is often a nagging, unpleasant emotion, one of alienation and anxiety, but that doesn't mean it isn't emotional. Schoenberg felt that the emotions appropriate for the 20th century — a century of war, genocide, deicide, dislocation and fear — should be appropriate to its era, and its music should explore these honest emotions rather than playing to the sweet-and-light expectations of audiences used to Dvorak and Schubert.
So, Schoenberg's music uses the expectations of harmony and subverts them to create emotion. It is hardly dry or mechanical; it is in fact, often unbearable, not because it is ugly, but because it strikes so close to the bone, so unnerving in its accuracy when conveying such emotions.
Just listen to A Survivor from Warsaw, or the second string quartet, or the piano concerto. This is great music, of profound and raw emotion.
If you listen understanding the music not as aimless atonality, but frustrated tonality, drawing out the expected and hungered-for resolution, you will hear it fresh and anew, freed from the cliches about Schoenberg's "method."
"Ich fühle Luft von anderem Planeten." ("I feel air from another planet.")
The method so decried in the latter half of the 20th century is serial technique. With his first so-called atonal works, Schoenberg found it was harder than he thought to escape the apparent resolution of his dissonances into the schema of major-minor tonality, and sought a way of ensuring he could avoid being heard as writing in a key. So, he invented — slowly over several decades — dodecaphonic composing. In its simplest form, it requires the composer to use all 12 tones of the octave serially, before using the first tone again. A "tone-row" would create a repeating pattern of those 12 notes that substituted as a kind of melody, or at least a kind of content for the music.
It should be noted that Schoenberg himself never gave himself over to the technique completely. He mixed and matched. He once later complained, "There is still much music to be written in C major."
Berg painted by Schoenberg 1910
It is his acolytes who took up the cudgel of 12 tone music and hammered it home with such relentless humorlessness that it practically destroyed concert-hall music. Serialism was extended to include not only pitch, but rhythm, also, destroying any ability for an average educated listener to comprehend the music as an esthetic pattern.
But, that is later, and a misapplication of Schoenberg's example.
His two primary apprentices each took 12-tone music in divergent directions. Alban Berg managed to force 12-tone music into a harmonic framework, the way Schoenberg had attempted to make impossible; Anton Webern gave up tonality altogether and began exploring timbre and pitch as tantalizing new sounds, in an of themselves: If you want music as sudoku, it is with Webern you should travel, not Schoenberg.
Berg was, if anything, more romantic than his mentor. His operas, Wozzeck and Lulu, are shattering emotional experiences, and his violin concerto is one of the most noble and profound pieces of music written in the past 100 years.
In the concerto, Berg arranges his tone row in such a way as to make major and minor triads almost inevitable. To create his organizing tone row, he stacks on top of each other, a G-minor chord, a D-major chord, an A-minor, and an E-major chord, and follows them with a tail that plays out the beginning of a scale. Throughout the concerto, the 12-tone technique manages to imply tonal centers.
Webern by Max Oppenheimer 1908
Webern, going in the opposite direction, uses his tone rows to make delicious pings and squawks in the orchestra. To those who love it, the music scintillates. What you enjoy in it are novel sounds and novel arrangements. Whereas Berg is on-the-sleeve emotional, you could believe that with Webern emotion is irrelevant to music. (The composer would disagree).
It is Webern's brand of serialism that took hold as the century progressed, and taken up by such later composers as Milton Babbitt and Pierre Boulez. If you have a problem with such music (I find Babbitt's music tedious, but Boulez's Répons is glorious), then blame Webern, not Schoenberg.
It is certainly true that you probably don't want Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire playing in the background while you serve dinner guests, or listen to the String Trio through headphones as you sit back comfortably in your easy chair to spend an hour reading Proust. It isn't easy listening, nor was meant to be. The music demands your intense attention, both intellectually and emotionally: You must give yourself over completely to the music, and then, you will discover one of the great composers, a colleague of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner and Mahler.


text:
Deadmau5 Officially Announces Orchestral Album "where's the drop?" With Full Classical Performance In L.A.
Reid BG | Mar 7, 2018 |Uncategorized
Back in January of this year, deadmau5 announced that he was going to be working on an orchestral project for 2018. It's going to be "the most epic thing I've ever done with my music", he went on to tweet. Clearly this was something that deadmau5 was enthusiastic about and couldn't wait to share with his fans, and hype began to build. A couple weeks later he hopped on Twitch and broadcasted a livestream of himself teasing a string of these wild orchestral edits. At the time we could only imagine what this project would ultimately look and sound like, but we did know that it would involve a 60-piece orchestra.
We're now officially only three weeks away from getting to hear deadmau5's epic orchestral project. Earlier this morning, it was announced that the final product will be released in the form of a studio album recorded by deadmau5, jokingly titled "where's the drop?" on March 30.
Deadmau5 has also officially partnered with the subscription music streaming service Tidal, and will be hosting a live performance of "where's the drop" in L.A. on April 1, the day following the album's release. Those who are subscribed to Tidal will have access to presale tickets to the L.A. performance beginning today, March 7. New Tidal subscribers will be given a 90 day free trial to the service through the presale.
We were blown away by simply listening to the previews that deadmau5 was giving us through his live stream a couple months ago, so to say we are stoked on this new project is an understatement.


text:
Legal Connect
Date: Friday, April 10, 2015 - 8:30am to 7:00pm Share
Legal Connect: Utilizing Law Students in Technology Transfer Offices and Incubators to Help Fulfill the Commercialization Goals of the Bayh-Dole Act
Room 325 Thomas Jefferson School of Law 1155 Island Ave, San Diego, CA 92101
Registration | Sponsorship | Schedule
MCLE credit available
Fulfilling the Commercialization Goals of the Bayh-Dole Act is the outcome of a yearlong research project by Thomas Jefferson School of Law students. The symposium will focus on the goal of the Bayh-Dole Act, which is to make technology transfer a university responsibility in exchange for receiving federal funding, and will ultimately propose the inclusion of law students in the commercialization process of federally funded research.
Panels will focus on timely and controversial subjects, including: Background and Legislative Intent of the Bayh-Dole Act, Problems and Promises in Technology Transfer Offices, Current Solutions to Utilize Law Students in the Technology Transfer Process, and Legal Connect: A Proposal to Expand the Bayh-Dole Act to Include the Use of Law Students in the Commercialization of Federally Funded Research.
8:30 – 9:00 a.m. Continental Breakfast and Check-In
9:00 – 9:15 a.m. Introduction and Welcoming Remarks
Tony Rafati – MBA, IP Fellow, IP Honors Student, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Randy Berholtz – Executive Vice Present, Acting General Counsel and Secretary, Innovus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Adjunct Professor, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
9:15 – 9:30 a.m. Recognition of Thomas Jefferson School of Law Intellectual Property Fellows Program
Steven Semeraro – Professor, Thomas Jefferson School of Law and Founder of the Intellectual Property Fellows Program
Eric Lane – Adjunct Professor, Thomas Jefferson School of Law and Supervising Attorney in the Patent and Trademark Clinics Lalitha Rao – Adjunct Professor, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
9:30 – 11:00 a.m. Panel 1: Background of Bayh-Dole Act and Legislative Intent of Bayh-Dole
Moderator: Jermina Landstrom – IP Honors Student, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Eugene R. Quinn, Jr. – President and Founder of IPWatchdog, Inc., U.S. Patent Attorney (via taped interview) Fred Reinhart, RTTP – President, Association of University Technology Managers, Senior Advisor for Technology Transfer Office, University of Massachusetts Amherst (via video) Victoria B. Cajipe, Ph.D. – Senior Licensing Officer at University of California at San Diego Technology Transfer Office Daniel Hart, Ph.D., Esq. – Partner, Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear
11:00 – 11:15 a.m. Break
11:15 – 12:45 p.m. Panel 2: Problems and Promises in Technology Transfer Offices
Moderator: Rachelle Law – IP Fellow, IP Honors Student, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Ronnie Hanecak, Ph.D. – University of California Irvine Assistant Vice Chancellor, Research and Technology Alliances Tommy Martindale, Esq. – Technology Transfer Office, San Diego State University Fred C. Hernandez, Esq. – Member, Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. Professor-Entrepreneur (TBA)
12:45 – 1:45 p.m. Lunch Break
Moderators: Theodore Montgomery – IP Honors Student, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Mark Hackmann – IP Honors Student, Thomas Jefferson School of Law Kirsten Donaldson, Esq. – Legislative Director and Counsel, U.S. Representative Hakeem Jeffries (Dem. NY)
1:45 – 3:15 p.m. Panel 3: Current Solutions to Utilize Law Students in the Technology Transfer Process
Moderator: Alesya Nalbandyan – IP Honors Student, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
James M. Silbermann, Esq. – Attorney, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (via video) Clifford Michaels, Ph.D. – Senior Licensing Associate, Emory University's Technology Transfer Office Vern Norviel – Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Ruprecht von Buttlar – Vice President, Business Creation and Development, CONNECT
3:15 – 3:30 p.m. Break
3:30 – 5:15 p.m. Panel 4: Description of Proposed Legal Connect
Moderator: Tamara Marshall – IP Honors Student, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Presentation 1: Overview of the Bayh-Dole Act, Technology Transfer Offices, and Current Law School Programs
Jermina Landstrom – IP Honors Student, Thomas Jefferson School of Law Rachelle Law – IP Fellow, IP Honors Student, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Presentation 2: Description of Survey Data and Results
Tony Rafati – IP Fellow, IP Honors Student, Thomas Jefferson School of Law Alesya Nalbandyan – IP Honors Student, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Presentation 3: The Legal Connect Program
Tamara Marshall – IP Honors Student, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Presentation 4: Legislation
Mark Hackmann – IP Honors Student, Thomas Jefferson School of Law Theodore Montgomery – IP Honors Student, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
5:15 – 5:30 p.m. Closing Remarks
Randy Berholtz – Acting General Counsel and Secretary, Innovus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Adjunct Professor, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
5:30 – 7:00 p.m. Reception
FREE – All registered students with photo ID, TJSL alumni, TJSL faculty, TJSL staff
$30 – CONNECT members and attorneys in practice less than 5 years not seeking MCLE credit
$40 – General public (Not seeking MCLE credit)
$45 – All others (Seeking MCLE credit)
*Boxed lunch provided to registered attendees.
$750 – Bronze Sponsor
$1,250 – Silver Sponsor
$1,750 – Gold Sponsor
View Sponsorship Levels
If you have any questions, please contact Kathryn Markey at kmarkey@tjsl.edu or Jermina Landstrom at landstj@tjsl.edu.
Directions to TJSL


A member of security staff has had his Door Supervisor license suspended after a mass brawl outside a Somerset Wetherspoon early on Sunday (February 10).
A three-minute video showing what appears to be a clash between customers and bouncers at the William Dampier pub in Yeovil has been viewed more than one million times on Facebook.
A spokesman for JD Wetherspoon said that four men who had been evicted from a nearby nightclub had tried to "rush" the door at the pub after being denied entry.
Two people were arrested following the incident.
The security staff working at the William Dampier at the time were all Security Industry Authority accredited, and a spokesman for the organisation has said that "violent conduct is not acceptable".
The spokesman said: "We are aware of this incident. One of our regional investigators has been working with Avon and Somerset Police since it happened.
"Our Intelligence team also logged a call from a member of the public using the 'Report a crime or concern' facility on our website.
"We have suspended the Door Supervisor licence of one of the operatives involved pending further investigation.
An Avon and Somerset Constabulary spokesman said that incidents like this "will not be tolerated" and added that extra police patrols will be in action in the area.
They said: "We are aware of a video that is already circulating that shows the incident.
"We want to assure people that violence of this nature will not be tolerated.
"An investigation is underway and we are also working with our partners in licensing at the council to ensure any issues are addressed.
The police spokesman also confirmed on Monday that two people had been arrested in connection with the incident and released under investigation.


text:
const { EPS } = require('../../constants')
const OrthoNormalBasis = require('../../../math/OrthoNormalBasis')
const { interpolateBetween2DPointsForY, insertSorted, fnNumberSort } = require('../../utils/various')
const line2 = require('../../../math/line2')
const vec2 = require('../../../math/vec2')
const poly3 = require('../poly3')

// Retesselation function for a set of coplanar polygons. See the introduction at the top of
// the main csg.js file.
const reTesselateCoplanarPolygons = (sourcepolygons) => {
  if (sourcepolygons.length === 0) {
    return sourcepolygons
  }
  const destpolygons = []
  const numpolygons = sourcepolygons.length
  const plane = sourcepolygons[0].plane
  // TODO const shared = sourcepolygons[0].shared
  const orthobasis = new OrthoNormalBasis(plane)
  const polygonvertices2d = [] // array of array of Vector2D
  const polygontopvertexindexes = [] // array of indexes of topmost vertex per polygon
  const topy2polygonindexes = {}
  const ycoordinatetopolygonindexes = {}

  const ycoordinatebins = {}

  // convert all polygon vertices to 2D
  // Make a list of all encountered y coordinates
  // And build a map of all polygons that have a vertex at a certain y coordinate:
  const ycoordinateBinningFactor = 1.0 / EPS * 10
  for (let polygonindex = 0; polygonindex < numpolygons; polygonindex++) {
    const poly3d = sourcepolygons[polygonindex]
    let vertices2d = []
    let numvertices = poly3d.vertices.length
    let minindex = -1
    if (numvertices > 0) {
      let miny
      let maxy
      for (let i = 0; i < numvertices; i++) {
        let pos2d = orthobasis.to2D(poly3d.vertices[i])
        // perform binning of y coordinates: If we have multiple vertices very
        // close to each other, give them the same y coordinate:
        const ycoordinatebin = Math.floor(pos2d[1] * ycoordinateBinningFactor)
        let newy
        if (ycoordinatebin in ycoordinatebins) {
          newy = ycoordinatebins[ycoordinatebin]
        } else if (ycoordinatebin + 1 in ycoordinatebins) {
          newy = ycoordinatebins[ycoordinatebin + 1]
        } else if (ycoordinatebin - 1 in ycoordinatebins) {
          newy = ycoordinatebins[ycoordinatebin - 1]
        } else {
          newy = pos2d[1]
          ycoordinatebins[ycoordinatebin] = pos2d[1]
        }
        pos2d = vec2.fromValues(pos2d[0], newy)
        vertices2d.push(pos2d)
        const y = pos2d[1]
        if ((i === 0) || (y < miny)) {
          miny = y
          minindex = i
        }
        if ((i === 0) || (y > maxy)) {
          maxy = y
        }
        if (!(y in ycoordinatetopolygonindexes)) {
          ycoordinatetopolygonindexes[y] = {}
        }
        ycoordinatetopolygonindexes[y][polygonindex] = true
      }
      if (miny >= maxy) {
        // degenerate polygon, all vertices have same y coordinate. Just ignore it from now:
        vertices2d = []
        numvertices = 0
        minindex = -1
      } else {
        if (!(miny in topy2polygonindexes)) {
          topy2polygonindexes[miny] = []
        }
        topy2polygonindexes[miny].push(polygonindex)
      }
    } // if(numvertices > 0)
    // reverse the vertex order:
    vertices2d.reverse()
    minindex = numvertices - minindex - 1
    polygonvertices2d.push(vertices2d)
    polygontopvertexindexes.push(minindex)
  }
  const ycoordinates = []
  for (let ycoordinate in ycoordinatetopolygonindexes) ycoordinates.push(ycoordinate)
  ycoordinates.sort(fnNumberSort)

  // Now we will iterate over all y coordinates, from lowest to highest y coordinate
  // activepolygons: source polygons that are 'active', i.e. intersect with our y coordinate
  //   Is sorted so the polygons are in left to right order
  // Each element in activepolygons has these properties:
  //        polygonindex: the index of the source polygon (i.e. an index into the sourcepolygons
  //                      and polygonvertices2d arrays)
  //        leftvertexindex: the index of the vertex at the left side of the polygon (lowest x)
  //                         that is at or just above the current y coordinate
  //        rightvertexindex: dito at right hand side of polygon
  //        topleft, bottomleft: coordinates of the left side of the polygon crossing the current y coordinate
  //        topright, bottomright: coordinates of the right hand side of the polygon crossing the current y coordinate
  let activepolygons = []
  let prevoutpolygonrow = []
  for (let yindex = 0; yindex < ycoordinates.length; yindex++) {
    const newoutpolygonrow = []
    const ycoordinateasstring = ycoordinates[yindex]
    const ycoordinate = Number(ycoordinateasstring)

    // update activepolygons for this y coordinate:
    // - Remove any polygons that end at this y coordinate
    // - update leftvertexindex and rightvertexindex (which point to the current vertex index
    //   at the the left and right side of the polygon
    // Iterate over all polygons that have a corner at this y coordinate:
    const polygonindexeswithcorner = ycoordinatetopolygonindexes[ycoordinateasstring]
    for (let activepolygonindex = 0; activepolygonindex < activepolygons.length; ++activepolygonindex) {
      const activepolygon = activepolygons[activepolygonindex]
      const polygonindex = activepolygon.polygonindex
      if (polygonindexeswithcorner[polygonindex]) {
        // this active polygon has a corner at this y coordinate:
        const vertices2d = polygonvertices2d[polygonindex]
        const numvertices = vertices2d.length
        let newleftvertexindex = activepolygon.leftvertexindex
        let newrightvertexindex = activepolygon.rightvertexindex
        // See if we need to increase leftvertexindex or decrease rightvertexindex:
        while (true) {
          let nextleftvertexindex = newleftvertexindex + 1
          if (nextleftvertexindex >= numvertices) nextleftvertexindex = 0
          if (vertices2d[nextleftvertexindex][1] !== ycoordinate) break
          newleftvertexindex = nextleftvertexindex
        }
        let nextrightvertexindex = newrightvertexindex - 1
        if (nextrightvertexindex < 0) nextrightvertexindex = numvertices - 1
        if (vertices2d[nextrightvertexindex][1] === ycoordinate) {
          newrightvertexindex = nextrightvertexindex
        }
        if ((newleftvertexindex !== activepolygon.leftvertexindex) && (newleftvertexindex === newrightvertexindex)) {
          // We have increased leftvertexindex or decreased rightvertexindex, and now they point to the same vertex
          // This means that this is the bottom point of the polygon. We'll remove it:
          activepolygons.splice(activepolygonindex, 1)
          --activepolygonindex
        } else {
          activepolygon.leftvertexindex = newleftvertexindex
          activepolygon.rightvertexindex = newrightvertexindex
          activepolygon.topleft = vertices2d[newleftvertexindex]
          activepolygon.topright = vertices2d[newrightvertexindex]
          let nextleftvertexindex = newleftvertexindex + 1
          if (nextleftvertexindex >= numvertices) nextleftvertexindex = 0
          activepolygon.bottomleft = vertices2d[nextleftvertexindex]
          let nextrightvertexindex = newrightvertexindex - 1
          if (nextrightvertexindex < 0) nextrightvertexindex = numvertices - 1
          activepolygon.bottomright = vertices2d[nextrightvertexindex]
        }
      } // if polygon has corner here
    } // for activepolygonindex
    let nextycoordinate
    if (yindex >= ycoordinates.length - 1) {
      // last row, all polygons must be finished here:
      activepolygons = []
      nextycoordinate = null
    } else { // yindex < ycoordinates.length-1
      nextycoordinate = Number(ycoordinates[yindex + 1])
      const middleycoordinate = 0.5 * (ycoordinate + nextycoordinate)
      // update activepolygons by adding any polygons that start here:
      const startingpolygonindexes = topy2polygonindexes[ycoordinateasstring]
      for (let polygonindex_key in startingpolygonindexes) {
        const polygonindex = startingpolygonindexes[polygonindex_key]
        const vertices2d = polygonvertices2d[polygonindex]
        const numvertices = vertices2d.length
        const topvertexindex = polygontopvertexindexes[polygonindex]
        // the top of the polygon may be a horizontal line. In that case topvertexindex can point to any point on this line.
        // Find the left and right topmost vertices which have the current y coordinate:
        let topleftvertexindex = topvertexindex
        while (true) {
          let i = topleftvertexindex + 1
          if (i >= numvertices) i = 0
          if (vertices2d[i][1] !== ycoordinate) break
          if (i === topvertexindex) break // should not happen, but just to prevent endless loops
          topleftvertexindex = i
        }
        let toprightvertexindex = topvertexindex
        while (true) {
          let i = toprightvertexindex - 1
          if (i < 0) i = numvertices - 1
          if (vertices2d[i][1] !== ycoordinate) break
          if (i === topleftvertexindex) break // should not happen, but just to prevent endless loops
          toprightvertexindex = i
        }
        let nextleftvertexindex = topleftvertexindex + 1
        if (nextleftvertexindex >= numvertices) nextleftvertexindex = 0
        let nextrightvertexindex = toprightvertexindex - 1
        if (nextrightvertexindex < 0) nextrightvertexindex = numvertices - 1
        const newactivepolygon = {
          polygonindex: polygonindex,
          leftvertexindex: topleftvertexindex,
          rightvertexindex: toprightvertexindex,
          topleft: vertices2d[topleftvertexindex],
          topright: vertices2d[toprightvertexindex],
          bottomleft: vertices2d[nextleftvertexindex],
          bottomright: vertices2d[nextrightvertexindex]
        }
        insertSorted(activepolygons, newactivepolygon, (el1, el2) => {
          const x1 = interpolateBetween2DPointsForY(el1.topleft, el1.bottomleft, middleycoordinate)
          const x2 = interpolateBetween2DPointsForY(el2.topleft, el2.bottomleft, middleycoordinate)
          if (x1 > x2) return 1
          if (x1 < x2) return -1
          return 0
        })
      } // for(let polygonindex in startingpolygonindexes)
    } //  yindex < ycoordinates.length-1
    // if( (yindex === ycoordinates.length-1) || (nextycoordinate - ycoordinate > EPS) )
    // FIXME : what ???
    if (true) {
      // Now activepolygons is up to date
      // Build the output polygons for the next row in newoutpolygonrow:
      for (let activepolygonKey in activepolygons) {
        const activepolygon = activepolygons[activepolygonKey]
        const polygonindex = activepolygon.polygonindex

        let x = interpolateBetween2DPointsForY(activepolygon.topleft, activepolygon.bottomleft, ycoordinate)
        const topleft = vec2.fromValues(x, ycoordinate)
        x = interpolateBetween2DPointsForY(activepolygon.topright, activepolygon.bottomright, ycoordinate)
        const topright = vec2.fromValues(x, ycoordinate)
        x = interpolateBetween2DPointsForY(activepolygon.topleft, activepolygon.bottomleft, nextycoordinate)
        const bottomleft = vec2.fromValues(x, nextycoordinate)
        x = interpolateBetween2DPointsForY(activepolygon.topright, activepolygon.bottomright, nextycoordinate)
        const bottomright = vec2.fromValues(x, nextycoordinate)
        const outpolygon = {
          topleft: topleft,
          topright: topright,
          bottomleft: bottomleft,
          bottomright: bottomright,
          leftline: line2.fromPoints(topleft, bottomleft),
          rightline: line2.fromPoints(bottomright, topright)
        }
        if (newoutpolygonrow.length > 0) {
          const prevoutpolygon = newoutpolygonrow[newoutpolygonrow.length - 1]
          const d1 = vec2.distance(outpolygon.topleft, prevoutpolygon.topright)
          const d2 = vec2.distance(outpolygon.bottomleft, prevoutpolygon.bottomright)
          if ((d1 < EPS) && (d2 < EPS)) {
            // we can join this polygon with the one to the left:
            outpolygon.topleft = prevoutpolygon.topleft
            outpolygon.leftline = prevoutpolygon.leftline
            outpolygon.bottomleft = prevoutpolygon.bottomleft
            newoutpolygonrow.splice(newoutpolygonrow.length - 1, 1)
          }
        }
        newoutpolygonrow.push(outpolygon)
      } // for(activepolygon in activepolygons)
      if (yindex > 0) {
        // try to match the new polygons against the previous row:
        const prevcontinuedindexes = {}
        const matchedindexes = {}
        for (let i = 0; i < newoutpolygonrow.length; i++) {
          const thispolygon = newoutpolygonrow[i]
          for (let ii = 0; ii < prevoutpolygonrow.length; ii++) {
            if (!matchedindexes[ii]) { // not already processed?
              // We have a match if the sidelines are equal or if the top coordinates
              // are on the sidelines of the previous polygon
              const prevpolygon = prevoutpolygonrow[ii]
              if (vec2.distance(prevpolygon.bottomleft, thispolygon.topleft) < EPS) {
                if (vec2.distance(prevpolygon.bottomright, thispolygon.topright) < EPS) {
                  // Yes, the top of this polygon matches the bottom of the previous:
                  matchedindexes[ii] = true
                  // Now check if the joined polygon would remain convex:
                  const v1 = line2.direction(thispolygon.leftline)
                  const v2 = line2.direction(prevpolygon.leftline)
                  const d1 = v1[0] - v2[0]

                  const v3 = line2.direction(thispolygon.rightline)
                  const v4 = line2.direction(prevpolygon.rightline)
                  const d2 = v3[0] - v4[0]

                  const leftlinecontinues = Math.abs(d1) < EPS
                  const rightlinecontinues = Math.abs(d2) < EPS
                  const leftlineisconvex = leftlinecontinues || (d1 >= 0)
                  const rightlineisconvex = rightlinecontinues || (d2 >= 0)
                  if (leftlineisconvex && rightlineisconvex) {
                    // yes, both sides have convex corners:
                    // This polygon will continue the previous polygon
                    thispolygon.outpolygon = prevpolygon.outpolygon
                    thispolygon.leftlinecontinues = leftlinecontinues
                    thispolygon.rightlinecontinues = rightlinecontinues
                    prevcontinuedindexes[ii] = true
                  }
                  break
                }
              }
            } // if(!prevcontinuedindexes[ii])
          } // for ii
        } // for i
        for (let ii = 0; ii < prevoutpolygonrow.length; ii++) {
          if (!prevcontinuedindexes[ii]) {
            // polygon ends here
            // Finish the polygon with the last point(s):
            const prevpolygon = prevoutpolygonrow[ii]
            prevpolygon.outpolygon.rightpoints.push(prevpolygon.bottomright)
            if (vec2.distance(prevpolygon.bottomright, prevpolygon.bottomleft) > EPS) {
              // polygon ends with a horizontal line:
              prevpolygon.outpolygon.leftpoints.push(prevpolygon.bottomleft)
            }
            // reverse the left half so we get a counterclockwise circle:
            prevpolygon.outpolygon.leftpoints.reverse()
            const points2d = prevpolygon.outpolygon.rightpoints.concat(prevpolygon.outpolygon.leftpoints)
            const vertices3d = points2d.map((point2d) => {
              return orthobasis.to3D(point2d)
            })
            const polygon = poly3.fromPointsAndPlane(vertices3d, plane) // TODO support shared
            destpolygons.push(polygon)
          }
        }
      } // if(yindex > 0)
      for (let i = 0; i < newoutpolygonrow.length; i++) {
        const thispolygon = newoutpolygonrow[i]
        if (!thispolygon.outpolygon) {
          // polygon starts here:
          thispolygon.outpolygon = {
            leftpoints: [],
            rightpoints: []
          }
          thispolygon.outpolygon.leftpoints.push(thispolygon.topleft)
          if (vec2.distance(thispolygon.topleft, thispolygon.topright) > EPS) {
            // we have a horizontal line at the top:
            thispolygon.outpolygon.rightpoints.push(thispolygon.topright)
          }
        } else {
          // continuation of a previous row
          if (!thispolygon.leftlinecontinues) {
            thispolygon.outpolygon.leftpoints.push(thispolygon.topleft)
          }
          if (!thispolygon.rightlinecontinues) {
            thispolygon.outpolygon.rightpoints.push(thispolygon.topright)
          }
        }
      }
      prevoutpolygonrow = newoutpolygonrow
    }
  } // for yindex
  return destpolygons
}

module.exports = reTesselateCoplanarPolygons

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Six Prime Suggestions For Cashpoint Safety And Security
Your Blog » Six Prime Suggestions For Cashpoint Safety And Security
Previous: Parkland Shooting Survivor Questioned By College Safety For Going to Gun Variety
Next: Personal computer Security Guidelines For Whistleblowers And Sources
If you use a transportable device to access University systems (like e-mail), it is crucial that the device is protected by at least a 'passcode', and preferably a longer password that includes alphabetic and particular characters. But the cellphone Mr. Dance keeps eying tells the story of an innovative Occasions initiative: a set of digital channels intended to get confidential news tips. You are possibly less most likely to use the Nexus and Sentri applications, but they are beneficial for travelers who often go among the United States and Canada or suggested Looking at make land crossings into the United States from Mexico (citizens and Suggested Looking at permanent residents who belong to these applications also have access to PreCheck). Nexus grants you access to devoted kiosks when flying into specific Canadian airports. And dedicated Sentri lanes at the United States-Mexico border make crossing less difficult by foot and by vehicle.As a matter of practice, journalists at The Instances have long utilized digital safety measures — encrypted communications and storage — when handling sensitive data. But in December 2016, Mr. Dance, the deputy investigations editor, teamed up with Runa Sandvik, the senior director of data security, to collect a set of tools for readers to anonymously submit info that may be of journalistic interest to The Instances.If you are you looking for more info about Suggested Looking At - Caitlynbalke07877.Soup.Io, have a look at the web site. Some of the online security sector's leading figures gathered to go over the ideal methods of defending data. They looked at techniques of spreading the message to staff about fundamental online security. And they examined the altering roles of chief details officers (CIOs) and chief information safety officers (CISOs), the managers in charge of protecting information.An app known as the Guardian lets Brown students estimate how extended it will take them to stroll a certain distance, triggering an alarm unless the timer is deactivated on arrival. But that's what my pals and I do informally — 'Text me when you get there,'" mentioned Chandler Carter, a Brown sophomore. All new students are also offered a personal safety device with a pin that can be removed to set off a loud alarm and flashing light. Spend the Airlines. For fliers with a a lot more versatile budget, Mr. Holtz stated that a handful of carriers in the United States have charge-based programs that help travelers whisk through airport security. Delta, for example, has a separate entrance that is portion of Terminal 5 at Los Angeles International Airport where Delta One (company class) passengers can check in and are led through expedited security by way of a private elevator.JetBlue's plan is much more cost-effective: Passengers flying out of much more than 60 domestic airports can buy an Even A lot more Speed add-on to their ticket for $ten, which gives them access to expedited security lanes. The expedited safety perk also comes with an Even A lot more Space ticket for a roomier seat.If you do not safeguard your pc against viruses and malware you can lose your personal work and trigger major problems for your self and for other network customers. The Anti-malware Policy calls for that all computers connected to the University network (such as ResNet) need to have a operating anti-virus plan. New viruses, or new 'strains' of current ones, are being discovered all the time, so it is essential that your virus definitions are kept up to date.The free and open source messaging app provides finish-to-end encryption to send messages, photos, video and calls. Signal retains only your phone quantity, when you first registered with the service and when you had been last active. No metadata surrounding communications is retained. The app also allows messages to self-destruct, removing them from the recipient's and sender's phones (as soon as it really is been seen) right after a set amount of time.Tor helps to hide you from snoopers on the internet, but if your actual personal computer is itself being monitored, Tor can't shield you from that. Additionally, beneath some circumstances — such as at function — the very use of Tor computer software could attract attention. Go somewhere you will not be monitored, or defend yourself against getting hacked at supply by employing a safe operating method such as Tails.Yet additional safety measures are needed to provide adequate protection, he mentioned, such as carrying out reputational checks on web sites. But he warned that breaches of information safety are "inevitable", so the essential query for firms is how they deal with them when they occur.Yet further safety measures are needed to provide sufficient protection, he stated, such as performing reputational checks on internet sites. But he warned that breaches of information security are "inevitable", so the important question for businesses is how they deal with them when they occur.University passwords have to be kept secure and safe and only used by those authorised to do so. You ought to in no way disclose your password, even to University IT staff. Action might be taken against customers who are accountable for safety breaches.


by Stephan J. Lipskis, Esq.
We've all felt moments where we've struggled to come up with a word or thought that is on the tip of our tongue, and many of us fear that these so-called "senior moments" are a sign of memory loss or serious cognitive disorder. On June 28, 2016 Patricia "Pat" Summitt, the legendary basketball coach for the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers, lost her battle with early onset Alzheimer's-type dementia, which she brought into the national spotlight upon her diagnosis in 2011. Coach Summitt was not a person who lost often, and by all accounts handled the transition in her life brought on by her disease with determination and grace. A rapid decline from a cognitive disorder at a young age, similar to that experienced by Coach Summitt, is a frightening prospect for anyone and merits an analysis of what should be done upon diagnosis.
Early onset Alzheimer's –type dementia accounts for about 5% of the 5 million Americans with Alzheimer's according to the Alzheimer's Association. While this is a relatively small population, the consequences of the disease are devastating on a number of levels. Early onset Alzheimer's-type dementia affects individuals younger than sixty-five, frequently afflicting those in their forties or fifties. Unlike the retired and elderly, these younger individuals frequently are mid-career and raising families. The additional caregiving burden and loss of income can frequently be devastating.
The initial diagnosis often paralyzes an individual with fear of a future with diminished capacity, but it should be a call to spring to action. Those diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's have to plan for their future or they will be creating large problems at work, at home, and with their family's finances. Coach Summitt proactively planned after her diagnosis by stepping back her coaching responsibilities and transitioning control of the team to new leaders. That transition must have been difficult for a coach who won eight national championships and was a fixture at the University of Tennessee, but it was necessary. Such change is never easy, but a diagnosis of Alzheimer's, if caught early, generally means there is some time to make necessary changes. Frequently, catastrophic disease and accidents occur without any opportunity to plan; for this reason, an early diagnosis should be seen as an opportunity.
Aside from planning the transition of responsibilities at work and home, it is critical that plans be made with regard to legal decision-making documents. The diagnosed individual must determine which individuals will be in charge of financial and medical decisions when the cognitive decline worsens. From a financial standpoint, planning for care and other expenses should be undertaken immediately. If time is wasted prior to a plan being undertaken, it may mean that no true plan can be put in place because the diagnosed individual is not able to participate materially. Coach Summitt's timeline between diagnosis and death was just over five years, which may seem long, but, due to the progressive nature of the disease, Coach Summitt had a significantly shorter period in which to plan.
A comprehensive financial and legal plan is critical to addressing the issues that will arise in the case of early onset Alzheimer's. The ability to leverage insurance and government benefits can help alleviate potential losses in income. Additionally, making a comprehensive plan can alleviate stress for both caregivers and the diagnosed individual. Alleviating the day-to-day stress of the diagnosis allows for the diagnosed individual and caregiver to change focus from the stress of the diagnosis to the matters that the individual cares about and allows for important time to create memories, leave a legacy, and assist family members in adjusting to the diagnosis.
The elder law and estate planning attorneys at the Hook Law Center frequently assist families in navigating the complex legal and financial issues associated with Alzheimer's disease and other cognitive conditions. If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with dementia, especially early onset Alzheimer's, allow us to assist in planning for your future.
Hook Law Center: Kit Kat, what can you tell us about the wildlife highway which Texas has built to help ocelots survive?
Kit Kat: Well, this is an extremely interesting story. Ocelots look like leopards, but are quite a bit smaller. They are about twice the size of the average domestic shorthair cat. Texas has one of the largest colonies of ocelots near the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, which is near Brownsville at the mouth of the Rio Grande. The refuge occupies 98,000 acres.
Before the recent commitment by the Texas Department of Transportation known as TxDot to build crossings around highways which crossed through the refuge, ocelots were being killed at an alarming rate. 40% of their deaths were related to traffic accidents. At first, Texas seemed reluctant to intervene, but with time TxDot changed their position and began in May to build a dozen wildlife underpasses in and around the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. Four of them are critical and are strategically placed to help the ocelots navigate the concrete divider on Highway 100 which is on the way to South Padre Island, a popular vacation spot. Another eight are being installed on FM 106 (a farm-to-market road) that runs through Laguna Atascosa. The total cost for the projects is around $6 million.
TxDot's actions come at a critical time. Less than 100 ocelots remain in and near the refuge, and seven have been killed in traffic accidents in the past year. When a female is killed, it is especially devastating to the colony, because she can only reproduce every two years, because of the time spent being pregnant and nursing offspring. The males are vulnerable, too. Younger males in overcrowded situations get pushed out of more desirable areas, and are forced to live in areas with more human population.


This brownstone featured in The New York Times is one of many in the area consistently used for photo shoots, commercials and ads....and you can see why! What a beauty! The high ceilings, moldings and incredible floors are just a few of the original details that make this space so desirable. The modern kitchen set against the high windows and the ceiling with that superb medallion....I will be looking out for this beauty in my design magazines!!


Thank you Ozeri for sending me a scale to conduct my review. I was not paid for this review and all opinions are 100% mine.
I was in need of a new scale so I was very excited to get this one for a review. The package arrived safe and we put the batteries in and set it on the floor and nothing happened. We ended up with a broken scale so I contacted the company and they immediately took care of the problem by sending me a return UPS label and a new scale. Once the new scale arrived it worked with zero problems. I love the look of the scale but beyond look I am more impressed with the speed of the scale, you step on and within 3 seconds your weight is visible!
This scale is available for purchase on Amazon. Ozeri backs their products with a warranty so if you have any problems it is easy to talk with someone and figure out the best plan. I was very pleased with how they took care of me and my faulty scale. Sometimes those lemons happen!
Make sure you get ready to start the new year off with an Ozeri scale! You know you want to lose the pounds after the holiday's, be prepared and order your scale today.


text:
Jody Braverman
ACSM Abdominal Strength Test
Physical Fitness Assessment Standards
How to Tell if You Are in Good Shape with a Test
Fitness Requirements for the Army Reserves
Tips to Improve Sit-Ups in the Army
Remember the Presidential Fitness Test? See If You Can Pass It Now
How do you stack up to the new standard?
Whether you relished the challenge or dreaded it, the Presidential Physical Fitness Test was likely a part of your childhood experience.
Developed in the 1960s and administered yearly for several decades, the Presidential Fitness Test involved performing challenges with your peers, purportedly designed to assess your level of physical fitness. You may remember the 1-mile walk/run, the sit-and-reach test and the 90-degree push-up. Or if your school days are further behind you, you might recall the broad jump, the shuttle run and the 50-yard dash.
In recent years, however, the Presidential Physical Fitness Test has been replaced by a less competitive, more well-rounded assessment called FitnessGram. Take a look at the differences, and then challenge yourself to see how you'd fare.
Old Test Fails to Encourage Fitness
With the Presidential Physical Fitness Test, if you scored in the top 15 percent of test-takers you got a badge and bragging rights. If you didn't make it into that precious percentile you got nothing.
At least that's how exercise physiologist Tom Holland remembers it. "Back in our day you were tested and it ended there. You either got it or you didn't," Holland recalls.
There was very little preparation, follow-up or education about physical fitness and how to achieve it, Holland explains. In his memory, the test was "deeply flawed" and "a net negative."
New Model Stresses Education, Not Competition
Dubbed a "health-related fitness assessment" rather than a challenge, FitnessGram aims to reduce the competitive focus of the old test and increase education around the importance of lifelong physical fitness and a healthy lifestyle.
"The Presidential Physical Fitness Test was very much competitive and skill-related and performance-based," says Claire Leigh Kinzy, vice president of communications and public affairs at The Cooper Institute, a nonprofit research and education organization in charge of developing FitnessGram.
"The new model really focuses on every child and the whole child so that it's not a competition between each student but more about a student's personal health and well-being," Kinzy adds.
Many of the testing protocols have remained unchanged, but there is a new emphasis on encouraging kids to practice the exercises and use them as a means to improve strength and year-over-year testing results.
"The idea is for [students] to get an understanding of what the health-related fitness components are and why they are important," explains Kinzy. Rather than simply giving students the results, the new assessment helps children and teens understand where they stand and what they can do to improve.
One Big Change: No More 1-Mile Run/Walk
Unless you were athletically gifted as a kid, you probably dreaded the 1-mile run/walk. Anyone at the back of the pack will recall the embarrassment of huffing it through the final lap while your peers looked on. If you didn't hate running before, you almost certainly did after crossing the line last in front of a crowd.
Today, FitnessGram offers a more fun, less intimidating aerobic endurance test. Instead of running a set distance, students perform 20-meter shuttle runs at the pace of a recorded beep. The beeps get faster every minute, and you're out when you can't keep up.
Results are based on the number of laps the student completes.
The Curl-Up Test Remains, Despite Drawbacks
The good-old curl up remains the default test of abdominal strength and endurance throughout the test's history and right up to today.
Some experts still have issues with this. "Where is the correlation between how many times I can curl my body up and health? I just don't know," says exercise physiologist Tom Holland. Even the FitnessGram test instruction guide states, "Few results are available on the consistency and accuracy of the curl-up."
In the current version, a tape is placed on the floor underneath a student's knees in the curl-up position. With feet unanchored, the student has to curl up until his fingertips touch the tape.
The curl-ups continue until the student has completed 75 reps, until proper form breaks down or until he simply can't do any more.
New Version Adds Lower-Back Assessment
FitnessGram has introduced a trunk-lift test to assess trunk extensor strength and flexibility, which is related to low-back health. To do the test, students lie facedown with their hands under their thighs, then lift their torso off the ground as far as possible.
The test is actually "a minimal assessment of the components of trunk strength and flexibility" that most school-age children will pass easily, according to the FitnessGram instructions guide.
However, it also says the real value of the test is simply doing it. "Students will learn that trunk extensor strength and flexibility is an important aspect of maintaining a healthy back," the guide states.
Flexibility and Push-Up Tests Persist
Just like the Presidential Fitness Test, FitnessGram uses push-ups to assess upper-body strength. It requires no equipment, multiple students can be tested at once and it's rare for a child to score a zero, which can prevent embarrassment and negative associations.
The FitnessGram guide also states that teaching kids push-ups is important because they are an exercise that can be used throughout life for both conditioning and self-testing.
The old sit-and-reach test is still the norm for assessing joint and muscle flexibility, but FitnessGram has tweaked it slightly and renamed it the "back-saver sit and reach."
Now the test is performed on one side at a time, which helps identify imbalances in hamstring flexibility and prevents hyperextension of both knees. The student sits in the figure-four position, with one leg bent and the other straight.
Tracking Childhood Obesity
The last area of the FitnessGram testing protocol, body composition, is a sensitive subject, but it's important for many reasons, says Kinzy. Body composition is a major determinant of health for kids and adults.
Although three body composition testing options are offered, body mass index (BMI) is the preferred method. "Body mass index is used primarily because it's easy to administer and there is a low rate of error in it," explains Kinzy.
Administering the test yearly helps kids identify where they are in terms of body composition, where they need to be and how to get there.
The President's Challenge for Adults
If you're inspired to see where you stand fitness-wise, the President's Challenge website offers a fitness test for adults. It's pretty basic, but it tests all the same areas — aerobic capacity, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility and body composition.
Visit adultfitnesstest.org for detailed explanations of the test components. You don't need any special equipment, although a partner to record your scores is helpful.
To test your aerobic capacity, complete one of the following:
400-meter walk: Recommended for people ages 60 to 90, and results are based on the time is takes to complete the distance. You also have the option of results based on your 60-second heart rate immediately upon completion of the test.
1-mile walk: Suggested for people who routinely walk 15 to 20 minutes several times a week. Results are based on time and heart rate.
1.5-mile run: Suggested for people who run continuously for 20 minutes or more at least three times a week. Results are based on time.
To test muscular strength and flexibility, complete both of the following:
Half Sit-Up: To test abdominal strength and endurance, you'll see how many times you can reach past a strip of tape on the floor. Results are based on how many repetitions you can complete in one minute.
Push-Up: To test upper-body strength, you'll see how many push ups you can do. Males of all ages should perform standard push-ups; women older than age 60 should perform modified push-ups with the knees on the floor, and females under 60 have a choice of standard or modified push-ups.
The sit-and-reach test is used to assess flexibility. Results are based on how far you can reach between your legs when seated with your legs extended in front of you. You'll record your best measurement out of three attempts.
Body composition is measured using body mass index and waist circumference.
How to Interpret Your Results
Once you have completed the tests and recorded your results, you can input your information into a form on the website and you'll be provided with your scores.
In all of the categories except body composition, you'll be given your score as a percentile. Scoring is based on normative data, representing the average achievement of people in your age group. In general, the higher your score on each test, the fitter you are compared to your peers.
Body composition is assessed as "underweight," "normal," "obese" or "extremely obese."
Getting Past Your Score
If your scores weren't as good as you hoped, don't be too hard on yourself. "You're in good company, I'm sure," says exercise physiologist Tom Holland.
Probably the most important predictors of health are BMI and aerobic capacity. If you scored lower than the 75th percentile in the aerobic capacity test or you ended up in the "obese" or "very obese" categories, it's time to make a change.
Poor cardiovascular health and being overweight set you up for myriad potential health disasters, including Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some types of cancer. Getting regular exercise and eating a healthy diet will set you on the right track.
As for the push-up and sit-and-reach tests, don't sweat them too much. According to Holland, these are largely skill-specific and not necessarily a predictor of health.
Holland recommends using your results to identify your weaknesses and then develop a plan of action. "Just decide where you want to improve and get better," he says.
Do you think the new test is any better than the old one? What are your memories from the Presidential Physical Fitness Test? How would you make the assessment better? How did you do on the adult version of the test? Let us know!
Curlups vs. Situps
What Are the Components of Fitness Reaction Time?
Exercise Tests for Children
The Disadvantages of Push-Up Tests
What is a Good Number of Pull-Ups?
How to Do Well on the PACER Test
The President's Challenge: Adult Fitness Test
The Cooper Institute: FitnessGram
Tom Holland; Exercise Physiologist
Jody Braverman is a professional writer and editor based in Atlanta, GA. She received a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Maryland, and she is a certified personal trainer, fitness nutrition specialist, and yoga teacher. She has written for various online and print publications, including Livestrong.com, SFGate, Healthfully, and Chron.com. Visit the writer at www.JodyBraverman.com.


text:
/ Announcements / Forming a Diversity and Inclusion Accountability Team
Forming a Diversity and Inclusion Accountability Team
Earlier this week, following its response to the BlackAtAppstate petition and its commitment to the university community, the Chancellor's Cabinet held a meeting to bring together a Diversity and Inclusion Accountability Team.
Though we have made many advancements in recent years, we recognize there is still much to be done to elevate the voices and representation of marginalized populations on our campus. We are committed to persevering in our work, and we look forward to seeing these cultural and systemic changes continue to take hold.
Students, alumni, faculty, staff, administrators and members of the Board of Trustees reviewed action items identified by BlackAtAppState as well as corresponding and additional key university diversity and inclusion priorities. The meeting's central purpose was to acknowledge each petition area, identify additional priorities and to present the action plan for addressing these priorities and their broader themes. View the priorities, action items and themes identified (PDF 200K)
Members of the Chancellor's Cabinet will be responsible for addressing the themes and priorities that were collectively identified. Moving forward, accountability meetings will be held monthly, during which a cabinet member will report on progress and challenges related to the initiatives within their areas of responsibility so the Accountability Team can provide feedback, discuss challenges, and help celebrate successes.
I will share summary reports from these meetings in my regular updates to campus, which are also posted to Appalachian's Diversity and Inclusion website.
This team will help our university remain focused and accountable. Our work builds upon the many good efforts that have been underway across our campus and will help shine a light on the initiatives and individuals pushing this work to the forefront.
Each change will help foster a more inclusively welcoming environment for underrepresented populations that ultimately benefits our entire campus community.
Willie Fleming
#BlackatAppState Message from Chancellor's CabinetBroadening campuswide diversity, equity and inclusion knowledge