Euromontana, the European Association of Mountain areas with the Mountain Research Centre (CIMO) of the Polytechnic institute of Bragança (IPB) and the Association for the Development of Viticulture in the Douro Region (ADVID) in Portugal are organising the X European Mountain Convention "Mountains' vulnerability to climate change: how can people and territories adapt and mitigate its effects?" that will take place from the 3rd till the 5th October 2016 in Bragança (Portugal).
The European Mountain Convention is the main event in the European political agenda for mountains. Every other year, 300 to 400 delegates from mountain areas across Europe participate, all willing to work together on the sustainable development of mountain areas. They include members and non-members of Euromontana – representatives of local and regional authorities, farmers' organisations, environmental agencies, and research institutes from the EU as well as Switzerland, Norway and the Balkans.
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Thanks to this event, participants will gain a better understanding of the impacts of climate change in mountain areas and have a better overview of integrated strategies for mitigation and adaptation already adopted in different mountain ranges. In addition, they will explore responses/actions of mountain actors to reduce impacts and benefit from opportunities, and facilitate exchange of ideas between mountain stakeholders so that they can compare, improve and transfer good practices, and interesting adaptation and mitigation initiatives. Participants will also have the possibility to develop new contacts with mountain actors from all over Europe and enjoy great field visits in the Portuguese mountains.
Finally, the X European Mountain Convention will be followed by the First International Conference on Research for Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions on Ecosystem Services that will take place from the 5th to the 7th October in Bragança (Portugal). Both events are combined to promote sustainable development in mountains, based on science, knowledge and innovation, under the name "Mountains 2016".
You can benefit from reduced prices if you register before June 2016, so don't hesitate and register now to the X European Mountain Convention!


text:
A computational approach to achieve situational awareness from limited observations of a complex system
sherwin_jason_s_201005_phd.pdf (32.36Mb)
Sherwin, Jason
At the start of the 21st century, the topic of complexity remains a formidable challenge in engineering, science and other aspects of our world. It seems that when disaster strikes it is because some complex and unforeseen interaction causes the unfortunate outcome. Why did the financial system of the world meltdown in 2008-2009? Why are global temperatures on the rise? These questions and other ones like them are difficult to answer because they pertain to contexts that require lengthy descriptions. In other words, these contexts are complex. But we as human beings are able to observe and recognize this thing we call 'complexity'. Furthermore, we recognize that there are certain elements of a context that form a system of complex interactions - i.e., a complex system. Many researchers have even noted similarities between seemingly disparate complex systems. Do sub-atomic systems bear resemblance to weather patterns? Or do human-based economic systems bear resemblance to macroscopic flows? Where do we draw the line in their resemblance? These are the kinds of questions that are asked in complex systems research. And the ability to recognize complexity is not only limited to analytic research. Rather, there are many known examples of humans who, not only observe and recognize but also, operate complex systems. How do they do it? Is there something superhuman about these people or is there something common to human anatomy that makes it possible to fly a plane? - Or to drive a bus? Or to operate a nuclear power plant? Or to play Chopin's etudes on the piano? In each of these examples, a human being operates a complex system of machinery, whether it is a plane, a bus, a nuclear power plant or a piano. What is the common thread running through these abilities? The study of situational awareness (SA) examines how people do these types of remarkable feats. It is not a bottom-up science though because it relies on finding general principles running through a host of varied human activities. Nevertheless, since it is not constrained by computational details, the study of situational awareness provides a unique opportunity to approach complex tasks of operation from an analytical perspective. In other words, with SA, we get to see how humans observe, recognize and react to complex systems on which they exert some control. Reconciling this perspective on complexity with complex systems research, it might be possible to further our understanding of complex phenomena if we can probe the anatomical mechanisms by which we, as humans, do it naturally. At this unique intersection of two disciplines, a hybrid approach is needed. So in this work, we propose just such an approach. In particular, this research proposes a computational approach to the situational awareness (SA) of complex systems. Here we propose to implement certain aspects of situational awareness via a biologically-inspired machine-learning technique called Hierarchical Temporal Memory (HTM). In doing so, we will use either simulated or actual data to create and to test computational implementations of situational awareness. This will be tested in two example contexts, one being more complex than the other. The ultimate goal of this research is to demonstrate a possible approach to analyzing and understanding complex systems. By using HTM and carefully developing techniques to analyze the SA formed from data, it is believed that this goal can be obtained.
School of Aerospace Engineering Theses and Dissertations [1281]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Maverick Philosopher: Christians and Muslims: Exactly One God, so the Same God?
Christians and Muslims: Exactly One God, so the Same God?
Christians and Muslims have very different beliefs about God; but they agree on this much: there is exactly one God. This common point of agreement is logically equivalent to [the] thesis that all Gods are the same God. In other words, everyone who worships a God worships the same God, no matter how different their views about God might be.
I am having trouble understanding this; perhaps the esteemed members of the MavPhil commentariat can help me. Doesn't Rea's claim succumb to an elementary counterexample?
How is the above trivial truth -- There is exactly one God if and only if all existent Gods are the same God -- supposed to help us with the question whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God? It does not help at all: it may be that the God Muslims worship does not exist while the God Christians worship does exist. Or the other way around.
The Christian (triune) God exists.
The Muslim (non-triune) God does not exist.
There is exactly one God.
The Christian (triune) God does not exist.
The Muslim (non-triune) God does exist.
So it could be that while there is, i.e., exists, exactly one God, Christians and Muslims do not worship the same God. It could be that Muslims worship a nonexistent God. Or it could be that Christians worship a nonexistent God. Bear in mind that the one existent God cannot be both triune and not triune. Cannot be: if God is triune, then essentially triune, and if essentially triune, then necessarily triune given that God is a necessary being. The same modal upshot if God is not triune but unitarian.
So What Was Rea Thinking?
That 'worships' is a verb of success? If 'worships' is a verb of success, then Rea's claim is true. To say that 'worships' is a verb of success is to say that it follows from x's worshiping y that both x and y exist. But if Rea assumes that 'worships' is a verb of success, then he simply begs the question. The question is whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God on the assumption that they both hold, namely, that there is exactly one God. To assume that whatever one worships exists is equivalent under the just-named assumption to assuming that the Christian and Muslim must be worshiping the same God. But then the question is begged.
Either 'worships' is a verb of success or it is not. If it is a verb of success, then Rea begs the question. But if he holds that 'worships' is not a verb of success, then he allows the possibility that either the Muslim or the Christian worships a God that does not exist. Ergo, etc.
'Sees' has both a phenomenological use according to which it is not a verb of success and a use as a verb of success. It is reasonably taken to have both uses. But all I need for present purposes is the point that 'sees' is reasonably used as a verb of success: if I see x, then x exists. On this use of 'see,' one cannot see what does not exist. What's more, it is reasonable to say that there is a causal explanation of my being in a state as of seeing a tree. The explanation is that the state is caused (in part) by the tree which would not be the case if the tree did not exist. Why do I know have a visual experience as of a tree? Becuase there really is a tree that is causing me to have this very experience. This makes some sense.
Does 'worships' have a reasonable use as a verb of success? I say No. God, being a pure spirit, is not given to the senses; nor is he 'giveable' to the senses: he is not a possible object of sinnliche Anschauung in Kantian jargon. We have no direct sensory evidence of the existence of God. So it doesn't make much sense to try to explain my being in a worshipful state by saying that my being in this state is caused by God. Nor does it make much sense to say that my use of 'God' succeeds in referring to God because God caused my use of the name.
In any case, to worship is to worship something, with no guarantee that the item worshiped exists. In this respect worship is like belief: to believe is to believe something with no guarantee that what one believes is the case. If S knows that p, it follows that p is true; if S believes that p, it does not follow that p is true. The proposition believed may or my not be true without prejudice to one's being in a state of belief.
I say the same is true of worship/worshiping. The object of worship may or may not exist without prejudice to one's being in a worshipful state with respect to it. So it could be that Muslims worship a God that does not exist. How might this come about? It would come about if nothing in reality satisfies the definite description that they associate wth their use of 'Allah' and equivalents. And how could that be? That would be so if the true God is triune.
There are very deep issues here and I am but scratching the surface in bloggity-blog style. But one thing is clear to me: one cannot resolve the question whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God with "a flick of the philosophical wrist" to borrow a cute phrase from Lydia McGrew (my only distaff reader?) who dropped it in an earlier comment thread.
There is no 'quickie' solution here, with all due respect to Michael Rea and Francis Beckwith and Dale Tuggy et al.
It is Christmas Eve. Time to punch the clock. I leave you with a fine rendition of Silver Bells.
Is this an appropriate analogy?
I have an elder brother whom I do not meet until I am an adult. We have DNA tests and establish that we share the same mother and father.
Neither of us know our father. Our mother has told one of us that our father is Christian, the other that he is a Muslim. We both acknowledge the same father but our ideas about his identity differ. We cannot both be right; in fact we may both be wrong.
A Merry Christmas to you, Bill.
I agree that an atheist, who holds that there are zero Gods, would still agree that Hindus worship Vishnu, Christians worship God (=Yahweh), the ancient Greeks worshipped Zeus etc etc.
In this case one of you has a false belief about your common father. You acknowledge the same father; it is just that one of you thinks he is Muslim, the other that he is Christian. He can't be both, of course, but this is consistent with you referring to and acknowledging the paternity of one and the same man.
So the analogy is not appropriate.
The mistake of Beckwith and Tuggy is to think that analogies like this are appropriate. They think that Muslims and Christians are referring to the same God, but that either Christians or Muslims have some false beliefs about the one God to whom they are both referring.
In your case, you KNOW that you and your brother have the same father. But in the religious case we don't know that there is one God that both Ms and Xs refer to and worship. That is a crucial difference. Beckwith and Tuggy are open to the charge of begging the question: they just assume that the Ms and the Xs refer to the same God, when that is precisely the question!
In this case the identity and existence of the referent is clear; in the God case it is not. No one will say that Tuggy and I are referring to two different desks, or to an existent desk and a nonexistent desk; but one could reasonably say that in the Muslim vs Christian case. It is entirely reasonable to say that what the Muslim refers to with 'Allah' does not exist. And vice versa.
Very good. We are on the same page.
I am struggling a bit with 'worship' being a verb of success, though. For a start, 'worship' is a term for different sorts of activites. E.g. think of what goes on in a typical Sunday service. It involves forms of address, and I agree that you cannot address someone without there being someone to address. On the other hand it also involves reverence or praise, and I think you can admire someone or hold them in reverence without there being such a person, in the same way that we can be said to admire some of Jane Austen's characters (or to loathe them).
Of course, I did not say that 'worship' is a verb of success.
None of this is very clear. Suppose I sincerely pray: Kyrie eleison, Lord have mercy. I am addressing the Lord, no? And this is the case whether or not there is any Lord.
Presumably I cannot sincerely address a person if I am convinced that there is no such person; but if I sincerely address a person it does not follow that the person exists.
Hi, I saw your nice posts on this topic, and I thought I'd drop in.
"But one thing is clear to me: one cannot resolve the question whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God with "a flick of the philosophical wrist" to borrow a cute phrase from Lydia McGrew (my only distaff reader?) who dropped it in an earlier comment thread.
There is no 'quickie' solution here, with all due respect to Michael Rea and Francis Beckwith and Dale Tuggy et al. "
Like you, I also originally took Rea to be arguing that Chrisitans and Muslims worship the same God. On a closer reading, however, he seems to be a little more careful, arguing that the arguments that they DON'T worship the same God are poor, and that whether they do is not clear enough to be straightforwardly ruled out by Wheaton's statement of faith. So, I didn't take him to be arguing positively that Christians and Muslims ARE worshipping the same God. Then it follows, in the third paragraph, that he's not begging any questions, since he's not putting forth any positive point. I take him to just be clarifying some things in that paragraph.
>>Kyrie eleison, Lord have mercy. I am addressing the Lord, no?
Thanks, D. I should re-read Rea's article.
"Christians and Muslims have very different beliefs about God; but they agree on this much: there is exactly one God. This common point of agreement is logically equivalent to [the] thesis that all Gods are the same God. In other words, everyone who worships a God worships the same God, no matter how different their views about God might be."
This paragraph uses the concept of what is "logically equivalent," and the "in other words" functions as a "therefore."
But from the fact that two people or groups of people worship "exactly one God" it does not follow that they both succeed in worshiping the same God.
So there is really no salvaging what Rea says here by simply saying that he did not intend to argue that Muslims and Christians do worship the same God.
Certainly as the article goes on he makes much of the alleged insufficiency of the Wheaton statement to insure the result that the two groups do _not_ worship the same God. But his earlier statements constitute an argument which, if it worked, would deliver the conclusion that they do.
Because, according to the classical theist, there can only in principle be one God, Christians, Jews, and Muslims who embrace classical theism must be worshipping the same God.
Yes, he makes the same mistake. Suppose we mean by 'God' the uncreated creator of the universe. Clearly, for a monotheist, there can only be one being who satisfies this description. But if it is the Muslim God who satisfies it, then it cannot be the Christian God. Why? Because the one existent God cannot be both triune and non-triune, possibly such as to be incarnated in a human being and not possibly such as to be incarnated in a human being, and so on.
But what if 'God' and its translations into Hebrew, Arabic, German, etc. is a Millian tag that somehow refers to its referent directly without the mediation of any descriptive content associated with the name by the user of the name. Then Beckwith's point would be trivially true, wouldn't it?
Trivially true, but useless for resolving the non-trivial question whether Christian and Muslim worship the same God.
The same God cannot be bare of all attributes. Necessarily God has attributes. Those of his attributes he has essentially are bound up with his very identity. The Xian God, for example, is essentially triune, and indeed necessarily triune (because he is a necessary being).
One gets the impression that Beckwith & Co. are thinking of God as something like a bare particular.
Thank you for responding in detail to D. You and I are in agreement.
>>The same God cannot be bare of all attributes. Necessarily God has attributes. Those of his attributes he has essentially are bound up with his very identity. The Xian God, for example, is essentially triune, and indeed necessarily triune (because he is a necessary being).
This is exactly what I see as the core problem.
And this core problem is connected with the nature of reference, both linguistic reference and thinking reference.
The problem is exacerbated by the fact that God is not just any old object, but the transcendent Absolute Reality. The notion that 'God' is a proper name that 'picks him out' from other objects borders on the absurd.
For Aquinas, God is self-subsistent Being itself, not a being among beings, not just another nominatum among nominata. God cannot be just another object term of a naming relation, the same relation that connects a thoughtful use of 'London' and the great English city.
This may be a re-post; a new laptop for xmas has some bugs - I just look at it and it does stuff, seemingly, like send off a post before I'm finished!
I meant to say that for the Christian, the person and work of Jesus Christ, not the purported Trinity, is the sine qua non of who God is. The Father is 'the only true God', in the words of Jesus, and the Son is the perfect reflection of the Father's nature. (My first comment to this thread concerned that fact). It is THAT relationship, not a creedal formulation, that can be emphasized when asking a Muslim if he worships the same God as the Xn.
If one is a theistic personalist, then the same God problem is as complex and difficult as you state. Within the framework in which theistic personalism is a legitimate "orthodox" option for Christians, you can forget about the Muslims and ask the question whether Brian Davies, Alvin Plantinga, Richard Swinburne, Brian Leftow and John Sanders worship the same God. Plantinga, for example, believes that Platonic ideas exist independently of God. In that case, Aquinas is closer to Al-Ghazali than he is to Plantinga, even though Plantinga refers to his project as "Augustinian Christianity" and the "Calvin/Aquinas model."
But if one is a classical theist, then it is not that difficult. My illustrations presupposed the classical theism uncontroversially embraced by the three major monotheistic faiths until recently.


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Help! What's Your Favorite Romantic Movie?
My dolls, I need your help. Alex and I rent lots of movies but we usually get comedies or scary movies. But I'd like to sweeten things up, and I'm wondering: What romantic movies do you love?
Two great romantic movies, in my opinion: Sabrina and Before Sunrise. Also, The Sound of Music, if that counts--I love all the songs and Captain Von Trapp is a stud in those suits. Don't you love the way a truly romantic movie makes your heart pitter-patter?


Introduction: Female pelvicorgan prolapse (FPOP) is a common condition, that si associated withsignificant impairment of quality of life (1), with a lifetime riskfor surgery of 10-20% (2, 3). Prolapse surgery is known to have ahigh reoperation rate (30%). Little is known about the factorsassociated with surgical failure. It is plausible that factorsplaying a role in POP etiology may also be risk factors for POPrecurrence. There are several reviews/ systematic review available toevaluate risk factors for prolapse and prolapse recurrence. However,we have not been able to identify a recent meta-analysis on thisissue.
Objective: To perform a systemic review andquantitative meta-analysis in order to determine risk factors forrecurrence of prolapse after surgery.
Methods: Fourelectronic databases (Medline, PubMed, Embase and Google Scholar)were searched between 1995 and January 1st 2017 with nolanguage restrictions. From 3549 citations identified, a total of 26studies met the following inclusion criteria: (1) risk factors forrecurrence of prolapse were investigated; (2) the risk point estimatewas reported as an odds ratio (OR), or the data was presented suchthat an OR could be calculated; (3) the 95% confidence interval (CI)was reported, or the data was presented such that the CI could becalculated; (4) an internal comparison was used when calculating therisk estimate. We excluded studies that did not meet inclusioncriteria.
Results: Overall 26 studies met our inclusioncriteria with a sum of 6246 patients. 8 Studies were performed inEurope, 12 in America, 1 in Asia and 5 in Australia. The categorieson which a meta-analysis could be performed included: age -11studies, BMI -12 studies, staging of prolapse pre-operatively -10studies, levator avulsion-9 studies, Parity-7 studies,constipation/straining-6 studies, Number of compartments involved-5studies, Familial history and Hiatal area on valsalva-3 studies each.Several more parameters were evaluated by 2 studies each. For eachparameter a meta-analysis was undertaken. Meta-analysis that yieldedsignificant odds ratios (OR) and confidence intervals (CI) were foundfor: (1) levator avulsion with OR of 2.86 and CI 2.09-3.91, P-value<0.01. (2) Pre-operative staging 3, 3-4, 4 with OR of 2.08, 2.31,2.38 and CI 0.57-7.61, 1.62-3.29, and 1.49-3.78 respectively. (3)Familial history with OR of 1.84 and CI 1.19-2.86, P-value <0.01.For all other parameters ORs did not reach significance.
Conclusions: Onmeta-analysis, levator avulsion, pre-operative prolapse stage andfamily history were found to be significant risk factors for prolapserecurrence after reconstructive surgery. Avulsion was identified asthe strongest individual predictor. Patients should be informedaccordingly.


n. a moron; a jerk. You incredible durge! What were you thinking?
In the 1990s, he also initiated Durge Puja, the most important religious festival of Bengalis in the Durga Dalan, the temple complex where the festival used to take place a century earlier but had been discontinued hence.
Kokiwar PR, Gupta SS, Durge PM (2012) Prevalence of hypertension in a rural community of central India.
Anatomical description of an Hermaphrodite, known by turns under the names of Marie-Dorothu Derier, and Charles Durge.
He may well say, "You get the best of me, avoiding all the durge of everyday life.
On January 10, Forest Guard Saidas Chichghare and security guard Gautam Durge, were found with their throats slit in a nullah near Garanji village of the district.
Recently Meshram, Khobragade and Durge  have studied an inverse transient thermoelastic problem of an infinite rectangular slab.
Strong army alone without international friends could not save Biafra in 1971 or Colonel Mengistu's Durge government in Ethiopia in 1991.
Obama's Presidency, an opportunity for better US-South Sudan relations?
In living the dream The Automatic have escaped the durge of the 'automatic' life, the nine-to-five, faced no-doubt by many former classmates.
Born in New York, the daughter of a playwright and a nurse mother, Linney graduated from the prestigious Juilliard drama school and initially made a name for herself on Broadway before moving first into TV with a leading role in Tales From The City and from there to the big screen, graduating from durge like Congo to critical acclaim for her role as a tough attorney in Primal Fear.
A swoop bike demolition derby on Muunilinst pits Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi against the bounty hunter, Durge.
They followed it with Ramadasu's Telugu kriti Chakkani raja maargame undaga and as the concert then settled down to a languid mode they rendered Narayana Thirtaar's Jaya jaya Durge jita vairi.
he deceased were identified as Inspector Avinash Iyer, sub-inspector Shantaram Ghorpade, Shafi Bhaktdas Shettiwar, havildars Suresh Kirange and Hemraj Tembhurne, nayak Kashinath Rohankar, constables Damodar Naitam, Sadanand Madavi, Santosh Durge, Vilas Mandale, Manik Usendi and woman constables Shobha Tade, Gendkumar Fardia, Shakuntala Aalam, Alka Gawde and Sunita Kallo.
The chemical method of Alexiades and Jackson (1965) for the quantitative determination of smectite in soil clays has been found to be effective in circumventing this problem, particularly when attempting to establish a link between bulk soil properties and clay mineral type (Pal and Durge 1987, 1989).


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text:
Home Columns San Diego Happenings Filipino Fake Lawyer with Loose Tongue Fined for Defamation
Filipino Fake Lawyer with Loose Tongue Fined for Defamation
Columns - San Diego Happenings
The News UpFront: (TOP STORY) as of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Wednesday, December 21, 2011 <?xml:namespace prefix = o />
A rumor-monger and malicious Internet poster named Pacifico Aves AKA Pex Aves, the non-lawyer with a law office, has been ordered by the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles to pay a San Diego businessman for defamation. Aves acted like a rabid attack dog for NaFFAA official Rodel Rodis and Internet aggregator Perry Diaz. The full story below:
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
'PROFESSOR' PACIFICO AVES ALIAS <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />PEX AVES
California Court Fines Fake Lawyer for Defamation
Member, Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), Asian-American Journalists Association (AAJA) and National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada (NEPMCC)
S AN DIEGO – The Superior Court of California in Los Angeles, California, has ordered a notorious Filipino community fixture – variously called a professor, journalist and lawyer, though none is true – to pay up for defaming a top executive he had loosely and falsely accused of wrongdoings.
Pacifico Aves alias Pex Aves, the man who advertises his law office and a retinue of attorneys but is not a lawyer, had engaged in a smear campaign in Southern California against businessman Sam Samson of San Diego, even labeling the latter a "fixer" in the Philippine Consulate in Los Angeles. A "fixer" is a derogatory term that connotes illegal activity.
But Samson, a legally-certified notary, was duly accredited by the consulate to do notarial work on behalf of those who can not commute from San Diego to Los Angeles and back. His office is one of several establishments entrusted with the job.
Despite knowing this, the non-lawyer Aves continued to rant against Samson, apparently to drive potential customers to his "law office" a few blocks from the consulate, which, according to its own advertisement, also does accident and immigration.
The judgment by the Superior Court was entered on October 20, 2011, which states that "defendant Pacifico Aves aka Pex Aves shall pay plaintiff Sam Samson $7,500 principal and $110 costs on plaintiff's claim".
A habitual name-dropper, Aves had made wild claims about his alleged professions as an attorney and a newspaper columnist. He also listed five names of individuals, allegedly lawyers, he said he's closely associated with. Some of the names do not appear in the State Bar of California, however.
He boasted in one email: "My office is more than 30 years and look who are the lawyers working with me 1) Retired Superior Court judge Fred Holgado 2) California State consultant Atty. Mitch Bushin 3) Ex-senator Jose Diokno's associate Atty. Fred Marallag 4) Atty. Polie Okoronco (son of british [sic] ambassador 5) Atty. Ben Onyanaco and a few more lawyers, now DO YOU THINK this (sic) high-caliber lawyers will work with me . . . "
Aves' friends also referenced him as a "professor", a tag that seemed to please him because it strengthened his other claims as lawyer and journalist. His emails, however, indicated his lack of knowledge about fields he claimed to have an expertise in, in the three capacities he said he is.
In his lawsuit, Samson complained that Aves' bad-mouthing him and subsequent negative publicity had affected his business, resulting in losses of at least $500 a week.
Contacted three times for comment, Aves did not respond to questions emailed to him, which was quite uncharacteristic of him since he has been prolific in spreading lies in the Internet through a barrage of invectives and unfounded accusations.
For a while, Aves fronted and acted for an official of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA), Rodel (he calls him Rodil) Rodis of San Francisco, and a supporter, news aggregator Perry Diaz of Sacramento, in attacking journalist Bobby Reyes and this reporter.
Like a rabid attack dog, Aves spewed the same garbage Rodis and Diaz fed him without checking if their words were factual and true. At one point, Diaz counseled Aves to not identify him (Diaz) as the source of his vitriolic.
Rodis is quite a popular internet figure after he was arrested for allegedly passing what police had thought was a fake 100-dollar bill in a Walgreen store in San Francisco sometime ago. Diaz, on the other hand, has been described by journalist Bobby Reyes as the person who thought real estate, the business he was in, meant fourth estate, the profession he wanted to be in.
When the Philippine Consulate General in L. A. reiterated in May its long-standing policy against so-called fixers, Aves made a boast that he was responsible for the policy, which was not true. Still, he circulated emails claiming his "unconventional battle" had prompted the consulate to relent.
As of this writing, it's not certain when Aves would comply with the court order to pay Samson. If he refused, the court could garnish his income from whatever sources or seize his properties to satisfy the judgment.
Here are two videos of Pex Aves and his cohorts:
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To view my other channels, here are the links:
1. For Filipino community news, visit The Filipino Web Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/FilipinoWebChannel#g/u
2. For mainstream news in Canada and the United States, visit The Gotcha Journalist's Currents & Breaking News Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheGotchaJournalist#g/u
3. For Filipino entertainment news, visit The Filipino Web Entertainment Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/FilWebEntertainment#g/u
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Last Updated on Friday, 23 December 2011 17:21


text:
A constitutive element of any democracy are protest demonstrations, provided they move within the legal framework. Yet before engaging in protest demonstrations, one should first find out about the underlying facts of any given issue. It seems to me questionable whether the demonstrators of the "Last Generation" are at least somewhat familiar with the work of Milutin Milanković.
Milutin Milankovic (1879–1958)
was a Serbian mathematician. He studied civil engineering at the Technical University in Vienna until 1902. In 1909 he received a chair in applied mathematics at the University of Belgrade. There he turned to basic astronomical and mathematical research. In 1914 Milanković was interned in Budapest at the beginning of the First World War because of his Serbian nationality. There he was able to work in the library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Hungarian Institute of Meteorology on the influence of astronomical cycles on the earth's climate, where his first manuscript on this topic was written. His research was influenced by the work of the British autodidact James Croll (1821-1890), who studied the influence of gravity from other planets in the solar system on the Earth's orbital parameters, including the associated ice age issue.
In 1920 Milanković published the work « Théorie mathématique des phénomènes thermiques produits par la radiation solaire » at Gauthier-Villars in Paris 1920. In 1941 he crowned his life's work with the book "Canon of Earth Irradiation and its Application to the Ice Age Problem" (Royal Serbian Academy of Sciences , Belgrade), in which he summarized his findings. Milanković did not receive the recognition he deserved during his lifetime. Only after his death was his theory generally confirmed and generally accepted.
The orbital cycles
With Kepler and Galilei, the realization that the earth revolves around the sun prevailed. However, this movement is not uniform, but it is the result of three cyclic earth orbital components, which influence the solar radiation and thus the earth's climate. This relationship, particularly in relation to the ice ages, is the subject of Milanković's theory. These components are eccentricity, obliquity of the ecliptic and precession.
Eccentricity measures how far Earth's orbit deviates from a perfect circle. This is due to the influence of the gravitational pull of the two giant gas planets, Jupiter and Saturn. The more elliptical the Earth's orbit, the more pronounced the seasons, since more solar radiation reaches the Earth at the point closest to the Sun and less at the farthest point. The cycle lasts about 100,000 years. Currently, the eccentricity is more circular with less pronounced seasons.
The obliquity of the ecliptic describes the angle at which the axis of rotation of the earth is tilted as it orbits the sun. Over the past million years, the tilt angle has varied between 22.1 and 24.5 degrees. The greater the angle of inclination, the more extreme our seasons, since each hemisphere receives more solar radiation in summer (and less in winter) when it is more inclined (tilted from the sun). This cycle extends over approximately 41,000 years. Skewness was at its maximum about 10,700 years ago and will reach its minimum inclination in about 9,800 years. This leads to milder winters and milder summers.
The earth also wobbles slightly on its axis. This is their axial precession, which results from tidal forces from gravitational influences from the sun and moon. The earth bulges at the equator, affecting its rotation. The cycle of axial precession extends for just over 25,700 years. It makes the seasonal contrasts more extreme in one hemisphere and less extreme in the other. It is currently making summers hotter in the southern half and more moderate in the northern half. In about 13,000 years this pattern will be reversed (more extremes in the northern hemisphere and fewer in the southern). There is also an apsidal precession. In addition to the Earth's axis, the Earth's orbital ellipse also wobbles due to its interaction with Jupiter and Saturn. Their cycle spans about 112,000 years. Both precession effects together describe an overall recession cycle of 23,000 years on average.
Earth history
The primeval atmosphere of our planet about 4 billion years ago had no oxygen, but consisted of carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor. Despite less solar radiation, temperatures were around 50 degrees Celcius. The primeval ocean was formed by cooling. Carbon dioxide was dissolved from the atmosphere and bound in sediments; this was reinforced by weathering of the stones. After the growth of vegetation, carbon dioxide was removed from the atmosphere by photosynthesis. Some of the sediments penetrated into the earth's interior and was melted. Carbon dioxide is released back into the atmosphere by volcanism.
More clarity is available over the last 500 million years. For the first 100 million years, the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere was between 4,000 and 6,000 ppm (parts per million). In the period from 400 to 250 million years ago, carbon dioxide levels were similar to today and there was an ice cover down to about 30 degrees latitude. In the period from 250 to 100 million years ago, the carbon dioxide content was well over 1,000 ppm again. That was the period of the dinosaurs with temperatures 8 percent higher than today.
The last 65 million years are called the Cenozoic or Cenozoic Era. In their first 30 million years, the carbon dioxide content was around 1,000 ppm; about 50 million years ago it even exceeded the value of 1,500 ppm; the average temperature was 12 degrees Celcius above today. Temperatures gradually fell as carbon dioxide concentrations dropped to 300 ppm, until Antarctica began to freeze 35 million years ago. 7-8 million years ago the northern half also began to freeze and the Greenland ice sheet formed. These developments were caused by plate tectonic shifts of continents.
Ice Age, present and "Last Generation"
2.5 million years ago the Ice Age began, in which we still live today. Its beginning is probably due to the closure of the Central American land bridge, which diverted the ocean currents far into the North Atlantic. Antarctic ice cores are available for the past 720,000 years and represent an excellent database.
Milanković was particularly concerned with the Ice Age. He calculated the combined effect of the three orbital cycles (of which he considered the obliquity of the ecliptic to be the most important sub-cycle), with which he calculated the ice ages. Their cycle was about 41,000 years in the last few hundred thousand years (although about 800,000 years ago they were extended to 100,000 years for a few hundred thousand years). These ice age cycles have an asymmetrical sawtooth-like progression. They develop relatively slowly in the direction of an ice age. After reaching its peak, a significant warming occurs after a relatively short time. The last ice age ended around 10,000 years ago. The warm period that followed about 6,000 years ago not only brought about a growing season in the Sahara; by then all the glaciers in the Alps had melted. Since then, we've been moving towards a new ice age, but the concentration of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere has increased from about 280 ppm to 412 ppm since the beginning of the industrial age, especially in the last 20 years. This has diverted the climate development in the direction of a warm period. Apparently, the cooling trend that began about 6,000 years ago has not continued.
Is that already the catastrophe or would a new ice age not also be a catastrophe against which we have inadvertently protected ourselves? If the dinosaurs hadn't already died out as a supposed result of a massive meteorite impact, they might have frozen to death due to the present climate being 8 degrees Celsius colder. The Milanković cycles did not run smoothly. About 1,000 years ago there was a warm period in which the Vikings settled in Greenland and advanced to what is now Canada. Around 700 to 800 years ago, the coast of Greenland cooled down so much that the descendants of the Vikings could not survive there. From a European point of view, America was also lost again.
Current warming is due to us burning more fossil fuels than their carbon emissions can be absorbed. The fossil fuels were formed millions of years ago and neutralized in the ground. We're releasing them now, restoring the carbon dioxide-laden atmosphere that existed back then.
In my opinion, the "Last Generation" did not understand that fossil fuels cannot be fully replaced by sustainably generated energies, but carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced to a level that can be absorbed by the oceans and vegetation. Superfluous carbon dioxide emissions must be prevented. For example, a great deal of travel is undertaken to attend competitive sporting events, as if there were no television on which to artificially superimpose the screams of the fans. Recreational holidays can also be relaxing in your own country. Wars and military activities in general are sources of significant carbon dioxide emissions. Currently, the gas that Russia does not supply is flared. It would be much better for both the environment and for us if we could continue to use it, since less fracking gas would then have to be extracted and burned.
Our planet is currently inhabited by 8 billion people. In a few decades it will be 10 billion. Our planet can only feed and accommodate this mass of people under austerity conditions, at least for significant population masses. This can only be avoided through strict birth control, which unfortunately is associated with temporary aging. Nuclear power has even been touted by the EU as a way out. That would be nice if it wasn't for the nuclear waste that should be stored for 1 million years. This is probably a crude statement, but it is important to note that about 1 million years ago (12 million years according to others) the prehominids split into four subclasses: gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans and homo sapiens.
The knowledge presented in this paper is publicly available. Why does the "Last Generation" deny reality and blame high-quality works of art for climate change? Why have the climate activists spared Beuys so far?


15. Enzymes in Nonaqueous Solvents: Methods and Protocols, edited by Evgeny N.
13. Supercritical Fluid Methods and Protocols, edited by John R. Williams and Anthony A.
Bacillus mojavensis," by Charles W. Bacon and Dorothy M. Hinton.
F.T. Spencer and Alicia L. Ragout de Spencer.
Techniques. QW 55 E607 2004] I. Spencer, J. F. T. II. Ragout de Spencer, Alicia L. III. Series.
as varied subjects as the biodiversity of yeasts found in northwest Argentina.
for infants, small children, and even adults.
tors concerned with microorganisms in their native environments.
us in the work. We also wish to thank Pharm. María Laura Tereschuk and Dr.
the writing of the chapters.
• Department of Biology, University of Calgary, N. W.
know very little about the "role" of these microbes (1).
viously unsequenced and possibly uncultured new bacteria (4).
ing in liquid medium for bacteria unable to grow at the air–water interface.
a species (>70% relatedness) is expected to be more than 97% (9).
tification and typing purposes (10).
Seawater collected in a sterile disposable plastic vessel.
starch; 0.3 g/L sodium pyruvate; 15 g/L agar (11) (see Note 1).
pH 9.0, and 2 mg/mL lysozyme (see Note 2).
2.10 mg/mL Proteinase K in distilled water.
4.3 M Sodium acetate pH 4.8.
8.RNAase A solution (stock 10 mg/mL) in distilled water (12).
9.1X TAE buffer: 0.04 M Tris-acetate, 0.001 M EDTA, pH 8.0 (12).
10.0.8% Agarose in 1X TAE buffer.
11.Ethidium bromide staining solution: 1 g/mL in 1X TAE buffer (12).
12.Molecular weight markers: K562 High Molecular Weight (Promega).
2.Taq polymerase and 10X STR buffer (Promega).
3.Thermal cycler (e.g., Gene Amp PCR System 9700, Applied Biosystems, CA).
4.TAE buffer (1X): 0.04 M Tris-acetate, 0.001 M EDTA, pH 8.0 (12).
5.1% and 2% agarose gel in 1X TAE buffer.
6.Ethidium bromide staining solution in 1X TAE buffer (12).
7.Molecular weight markers: 1 kb and 100 bp DNA Ladders (Promega).
1.Wizard PCR Preps DNA Purification System (Promega).
5C in the dark (see Note 6).
approx 7 d, over the course of 1 mo (see Note 7).
10,000g for 2 min. Discard the supernatant (see Note 1).
2.Resuspend the pellet in 2 mL of lysis buffer.
3.Vortex 1 min and incubate at 37C for 30 min.
5.Vortex 10 s and incubate at 55C for 2 h.
ing the tube several times.
tube and repeat phenol extraction once.
–20C from 1 h to overnight.
ethanol and dry until ethanol has been removed (see Note 9).
RNAase A. Allow to dissolve at 37C at least 3 h.
stained with ethidium bromide solution and observed under UV light (see Note 10).
double-distilled sterile water to 25 L.
extension at 72C for 10 min (see Note 12).
min; and a final extension at 72C for 10 min.
lution and observe under UV light (see Note 13).
they range from 24 to 72 h.
temperature for long periods of time. The lysozyme is added just before using.
ment of the 16S rDNA gene (e.g., 518R, 5'-CGTATTACCGCGGCTGCTGG-3').
sequences of the 16S rRNA genes.
sequence conservation among the species analyzed.
fined seawater at 25C changes significantly within 16 h of collection.
this is not the case, then we suggest 15C.
ommended to maintain the cultures in agar plates at 4C.
ous solutions such as phenol, chloroform, and ethidium bromide.
9.This step removes any residual salt or isopropanol, and should be repeated once.
ing strains with ISR patterns.
plus an additional control tube that will not include template DNA (negative control).
based on the ISR profiles.
determined by different methods of enumeration. Limnol. Oceanogr.4,128–139.
tion fragment length polymorphism analysis of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA genes.
ing microorganisms in very-low-nutrient media yield diverse new marine isolates.
in situ abundance of pelagic bacteria from the North Sea. Appl. Environ.
and initial results. Appl. Environ. Microbiol.59, 1707–1713.
8.Woese, C. R. (1987) Bacterial evolution. Microbiol. Rev.51, 221–271.
tion in bacteriology. Int. J. Sys. Bacteriol.44, 846–849.
tion of bacteria using the 16S–23S rDNA spacer region. Microbiology 142,3–16.
isolates from the same seawater sample. App. Environ. Microbiol.63, 983–989.
lus cereus and Bacillus licheniformis. Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol.48, 107–116.
bacterioplankton to differential filtration and confinement. Appl. Environ.
the complexity of environmental microbial communities.
cific microbial strains in the target environment under a variety of conditions.
interest bonded to a nylon membrane (Fig. 1).
1.Lysis buffer (0.15 M NaCl, 0.1 M EDTA, pH 8.0).
2.Freshly made lysozyme (1 mg/mL in lysis buffer).
6.Tris-EDTA (TE) (1): 10 mM Tris-Cl, pH 7.4; 0.1 mM EDTA, pH 8.0.
7.95% and 70% ethanol, ice cold.
8.10 mg/mL DNase-free RNase (1).
1.DNA (usually obtained as a 500 ng/L stock solution).
bromide and pour the mixture into a 100  15 mm Petri plate.
2.Purified DNA from microorganisms of interest; at least 100–200 ng/filter.
3.Nylon membrane (e.g., Hybond™-N, Amersham).
citrate per liter, pH 7.
labeled community DNAs to various master filter standards.
appropriate precautions should be observed.
2.DNA samples for generating probe (at least 100 ng of each).
hexanucleotides. PE mix can be stored indefinitely at –20C.
4.DNA polymerase I Klenow fragment, 1,000 U/L.
P]dCTP (10 mCi/mL, 3000 Ci/mmol).
1.Polypropylene bags and bag sealer.
MO) made up to 500 mL in distilled water); 10 mL salmon sperm DNA (1).
Prehybridization solution can be stored indefinitely at –20C.
2.1X SSC, 0.2% (w/v) SDS, preheated to 68C.
3.Mix 300 g PVPP with 4 L of 3 N HCl, let stand overnight.
4.Filter with a Buchner funnel apparatus and Whatman no. 1 filter paper.
, stir and filter. Repeat until pH is 7.0–8.0.
2.Freshly made 300 mg/mL lysozyme in lysis buffer.
2.Spin columns (based on the protocol of Jackson et al. ).
is 7.0–8.0, then air dry overnight (see Note 2).
by centrifugation until the syringe is filled to the 0.9-mL mark.
TE. Packed columns can be stored up to 2 wk at 4C with both ends sealed.
6.0.7% Agarose gel and running buffer for analysis of spin column eluent.
7.Ice-cold 95% and 70% ethanol.
1.1 mg/mL DNase-free RNase (Subheading 2.1.1.).
4.Ice-cold 95% and 70% ethanol.
5.0.7% Agarose gel and running buffer for analysis of purified DNA.
6.Ethidium bromide plates for DNA quantification.
dure described below is designed for approx 0.5 g (wet weight) of cells.
require centrifugation for longer periods of time at higher speeds to collect cells.
3.Add 10 L of 1 mg/mL lysozyme and incubate at 37C for 30 min.
–80C followed by 30 min at 65C).
mix on a tube roller for 30 min.
6.Centrifuge in a microfuge at maximum speed, room temperature, for 5 min.
70% ethanol, then air-dry pellet.
microfuge) for 5 min at room temperature.
750 L ethanol as in step 7.
11.Resuspend DNA pellet in TE at desired concentration.
ng of DNA per spot.
plus eight squares for  DNA concentration standards.
2.Dilute  DNA to 10, 20, 30, 50, 60, 80, and 100 ng/L concentrations.
vides the amount to be spotted on the master filter.
4.DNA is denatured by boiling for 3 min followed by placing on ice for 3 min.
5.Spot 2 L of each DNA solution onto the nylon membrane.
6.Dry the nylon membrane for 15 min at 80C in a drying oven.
8.Wash filters in 6X SSC, and air-dry. Filters can be stored at –20C indefinitely.
sterile distilled water. Add 5 L of freshly prepared 0.5 ng/L  DNA (see Note 8).
oven; incubate rocking for at least 1 h before adding probe.
1.After the probe has incubated for 3 h, boil for 3 min, then place on ice for 3 min.
that the solution does not cool excessively.
3.Return to the 68C oven and incubate overnight, rocking.
for 1 h at 68C, rocking (see Note 13). Remove filters from wash and air-dry.
of each spot (e.g., using the MacBAS program) (see Notes 14 and 15).
1.This protocol is designed for approx 5 g soil. Dry soil or soil cultures can be used.
(see Note 17) in a 50-mL beaker, and mix on a magnetic stirrer for 20 min.
3.Centrifuge for 10 min at 4C, 1000g; collect supernatant.
for 20 min at 4C, 15,000g.
2.Resuspend the cell pellet in 5 mL of lysis buffer.
3.Add 250 L of 300 mg/mL lysozyme then incubate at 37C for 30–60 min.
thaw cycles (30 min at –80C followed by 30 min at 65C).
tube roller for approx 30 min.
phase into 50-mL glass centrifuge tubes.
15,000g, 4C for 20 min. Wash pellet with 1 mL of 70% ethanol and air-dry.
8.Resuspend DNA pellet in TE (see Note 18).
1.Load up to 200 L of DNA sample onto a spin column (see Notes 20 and 21).
2.Centrifuge for 4.5 min at 4C, 1000g.Collect eluent in a 1.5-mL Eppendorf tube.
column and centrifuging, collecting each eluent in a fresh Eppendorf tube.
DNA but no humic acids (Fig. 2).
add 5 L of 14 mg/mL proteinase K and incubate for 30–60 min at 37C.
microfuge for 5 min at room temperature.
tate at –20C for at least 1 h.
umns. (A) Fraction 1; (B) fraction 2; (C) fraction 3; (D) fraction 4.
for samples containing more DNA, a larger volume may be required).
is useful for probe generation (e.g., 10 ng/L).
is the weight fraction of genome x present in the DNA mixture used for probing.
must be measured for each standard.
2.Label DNA and hybridize to the master filter as described in Subheading 3.1.4.
should be subtracted from the total intensity.
is the amount of standard x DNA spotted on the master filter, in ng.
is the fraction of  DNA present in each labelled probe mixture.
is the concentration of  DNA spotted on the master filter.
experiment, as measured by densitometry or by cpm in a scintillation counter.
accurate measurement of this value.
community represented on the master filter.
this treatment appears to give higher DNA yields.
the experimental design and are represented in the community of interest.
after spotting samples onto agarose containing ethidium bromide.
more accurate method of DNA quantification.
a.Heat 1X SSC plus 0.2% SDS to boiling.
b.Pour heated solution over filters. Incubate for 30–60 min at 80C, rocking.
c.Allow to cool to room temperature, remove filters, and air-dry.
d.Repeat procedure until radioactivity is no longer detected.
needs to be cut and resealed during the probing process.
can be detected using X-ray film and quantified by densitometry.
tion counting (7,8); however, this method precludes reuse of the master filters.
19.This step is required only for samples that may contain humic acids.
plugged, or removal of humic acids can be poor, if it is overloaded.
tein will have been removed during that process.
reducing bacteria in oil fields by reverse sample genome probing. Appl. Environ.
3.Voordouw, G., Niviere, V., Ferris, F. G., Fedorak, P. M., and Westlake, D. W. S.
identification of species from the oil field environment. Appl. Environ. Microbiol.
5.Jackson, C. R., Harper, J. P., Willoughby, D., Roden, E. E., and Churchill, P. E.
DNA from environmental samples. Appl. Environ. Microbiol.63, 4993–4995.
bon-degrading bacteria in soil by reverse sample genome probing. Appl. Environ.
bial communities and its application to oil field production waters. Appl. Environ.
mental variability. Appl. Environ. Microbiol.66, 4625–4633.
for rapidly comparing microbial communities (4–6).
a wide range of members of the domain Bacteria (5–20) or Archaea (7,21–31).
sity of 16S rRNA gene clone libraries (27,32).
the procedure may need minor modifications.
reduced space can provide meaningful results (e.g., refs.5–7,13,29,37).
PCR purification kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany).
8.GeneScan-1000 ROX internal lane standard (ABI).
10.Statistical analysis software for comparative data interpretation.
275, 299, 421, 539, 674, 677, and 928 bp.
must be labeled at the 5' terminus with a fluorescent dye (see Note 2).
2.Verify amplicon by agarose gel electrophoresis of an aliquot.
ing to the manufacturer´s instructions (see Note 3).
in Subheadings 3.1.1. and 3.1.2.
min at 72C); combination of HhaI and HaeIII (19).
min at 72C), plus a final extension (8 min at 72C);MspI (5).
s at 72C), plus a final extension (10 min at 72C);MnlI (12).
min at 72C), plus a final extension (10 min at 72C);AluI or HhaI (4).
and extension (90 s at 72C), plus a final extension (6 min at 72C);TaqI (25).
or HaeIII (27), or a combination of HhaI and HaeIII (30).
extension (7 min at 72C);HhaI,MspI, or TaqI (7).
extension (2 min at 72C), plus a final extension (6 min at 72C);MspI (38).
mum loading capacity of the wells produced by the shark-tooth combs is 2 to 3 L.
settings: 2500 V, 40 mA, and 27 W.
electrophoresis for 14 h with the following settings: 2500 V, 40 mA, and 30 W.
because of variables such as differing amounts of product loaded into the gel.
to T-RFLP patterns that are applied to any other community-profiling method.
for example, the text of Legendre and Legendre (44).
ficients are recommended for this reason.
tion in reduced space can also be used to analyze entire community patterns.
employed a multivariate analysis of variance with canonical analysis.
information, the reader is also referred to the environmental studies cited here.
binations FAM/HEX (4), FAM/JOE (27), or HEX/TET (30) have been employed.


NEW LONDON, Conn. — Patrick Stewart finished with a team-high 17 points for the Colby College men's basketball team in a 70-60 setback at Connecticut College on Friday.
The Mules (10-13 overall, 1-8 NESCAC) will close out the season Saturday at Wesleyan University at 3 p.m.
Stewart was 4-for-7 from 3-point range, had five rebounds, and no turnovers in 33 minutes of action. Sean Gilmore added 14 points and six rebounds, while Sam Jefferson finished with 12 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Maximilian Steiner scored nine points, while Ethan Schlager had a game-high four assists.
Tyler Rowe paced the Camels (13-9, 3-6 NESCAC) with 23 points, four steals, and two assists. Daniel Janel added 13 points and 13 rebounds.
Conn College had a 45-34 rebounding advantage and held the Mules to 33.9 percent shooting. The Camels took a 33-25 halftime lead.


text:
Westfield Doncaster (formerly Doncaster Shoppingtown) is a shopping centre 50% owned by Scentre Group and 25% owned by ISPT and 25% owned by Asia Property Fund (as of May 2015) located in Doncaster, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. As of July 2014, the Westfield Group became two companies Scentre Group and Westfield Corporation. The Westfield Group portion is now owned by Scentre Group. It is located on the corner of Williamsons Road and Doncaster Road in the Doncaster Hill precinct, an ongoing planning initiative by the local Manningham council. It is located 20 minutes east of the CBD and is one of the biggest shopping centres in Victoria.

History
Westfield Doncaster officially opened on 30 September 1969, it was Westfield's first entry to Victoria.

The original $12-million centre consisted of the four-storey Myer department store at the north end, two levels of shops running along the west side to the, then white, eight-storey office tower.  On the east side the two layers of shops merged into one layer, then finished at a Coles New World supermarket.

In 1979, the centre was extended south with two single-storey rows of shops; Kmart, Coles and Village Twin Cinemas. A major redevelopment completed in 1993 saw the centre expand further.  A second level of shops was added to the south end including Franklins and a fresh food court above Coles and Kmart. However, as the 21st century arrived, time had dulled the looks of the centre following redevelopments of other Westfield centres such as Westfield Southland, Fountain Gate and even Sydney's Bondi Junction.

The latest revitalisation, which began in January 2007, after years of applying for a permit, saw the centre undergo a full makeover. It involved an overall modernisation of the centre, renovated Coles and Safeway (now Woolworths) supermarkets plus a Fresh Food market (Colonial Fresh Markets), new Big W and Target (replacing Kmart), refurbished Myer, new David Jones, a Borders store (now closed), many new mini majors such as JB Hi-Fi, Dick Smith (now closed), a larger 9 screen Village Cinemas, a black label Fitness First Gym which replaced the old Doncaster library (now located at MC Square, near Manningham's council offices), a new food court known as the Drum located on the corner of Williamsons and Doncaster Roads which has sweeping views of Melbourne, new restaurants on the rooftop level, a new bus interchange and over 1500 extra parking spaces , mostly undercover, in a new 6 level parking lot with an LED system indicating free spaces. This unfortunately for Doncaster residents showed the start of paid parking, but at a very low price (first 3 hours free). The number of stores was doubled to 400, which makes it the 9th biggest shopping centre in Australia and 5th biggest in Victoria in terms of stores.  It also made the centre the 18th biggest shopping centre in Australia and 7th biggest in Victoria according to gross lettable area.  It was finished on 16 October 2008.

2007–08 redevelopment

Westfield Doncaster's third redevelopment started with planning approval in May 2004, preliminary works taking place at the centre from September to December 2006, which provided a platform for the main construction works that commenced on 15 January 2007. Doncaster Hill developers met several times with City Council over the next twelve months to discuss creating more sustainable buildings for the community, however little became of the idea of a self-sustaining precinct. It is uncertain whether the wind turbines used at the Manningham Civic Precinct are suitable for powering other buildings. The upgrade was finally completed in October 2008 with the centre doubling the previous size, costing A$650 million.

The new Westfield Doncaster now features more than 200 new retailers for a total around 400, a Village Cinemas complex and dining areas that take advantage of the site's elevated views towards the city skyline. The works required the closure of around 100 stores during 2007 and early 2008, with Myer the only major store remaining open throughout the project, except for a short period when the store itself was refurbished.

Due to the revitalisation, Kmart shut down and was replaced by two new discount department stores – Big W and Target. Coles and Safeway both closed in January 2007 and both supermarkets re-opened on Thursday 10 April 2008. Target and Big W were both expected to open on 18 June 2008, however both these openings were pushed back to Thursday 7 August 2008. The Village Twin Cinemas on Williamsons Road were demolished in September 2006 to make way for a multi-level car park, now open, with new cinemas to open above. The Westfield Shoppingtown Library was also demolished and moved to a temporary location in the Municipal Offices. Since then, the Manningham council has decided to permanently relocate it to the council's civic precinct (Precinct One) rather than return it to Westfield Doncaster.

Arrivals included a new David Jones department store, a Big W and a Target store – all in the second half of 2008. Other features included a new JB Hi-Fi and expanded dining areas including rooftop restaurants and gourmet fresh food shops. The new Village Cinemas complex on the rooftop level includes Gold Class cinemas. The centre now has improved access, mostly undercover parking and new landscaping.

On 10 April 2008, the first stage opening saw a much larger Coles supermarket (latest format) and Woolworths supermarket (2010 store format including self-serve checkouts) return to their old locations at the south (Doncaster Rd) end, alongside 70-plus other new and returning retailers, including a large-format Colonial Fresh Markets, which opened next to Coles. Some retailers are opening their first stores, including Jones The Grocer, which opened its first Melbourne store, OxFam opening its first food store and That Store.

Westfield Doncaster also introduced a new service called Westfield Butler to assist those unable to physically shop at the centre. A group of six butlers will do different tasks, from grocery shopping, to planning weddings or functions. Delivery is available at the cost of either 20% of the order value or 10 dollars. Another of the centre's offerings is Westfield Gizmo, an expensive service which offers customers a technology installation, upgrade or maintenance service. Staff are titled "gizmotechs", and can arrange both home visits or to assist shoppers choosing technology in the centre at a fixed price.

Big W opened on the second floor on 7 August at the east side of the centre near where David Jones opened in October, to the east of Myer. Underneath the Big W location, the new Target store opened on the 1st level. 25 other stores also opened in this third stage opening. Most previous food court operators closed in late January 2007. The new dining area, named 'The Drum', with over 900-seat capacity, opened on 26 June 2008 in a new location overlooking the corner of Doncaster and Williamsons Rds. It features 18 new food stores with different types of foods. The Fitness First Platinum gym also opened on 14 August, one week after the stage 3 opening of Big W and Target.

In February 2008, a temporary bus interchange opened closer to Willamsons Road.  This was to make way for changes to the centre entrance and an upgraded bus interchange. The new bus interchange has been mostly finished.

The revitalisation of Westfield Doncaster is now complete, with the last stage opened on 16 October. In this last stage, David Jones opened next to Myer, which reopened after a major refurbishment, the dining precinct on the rooftop level, a larger Village Cinemas opened above the Williamsons Road multideck carpark to replace the twin cinemas and the final carpark area next to David Jones opened. The new Village Cinemas complex features a total of nine auditoriums incorporating three Gold Class cinemas, one huge 22m Vmax screen featuring stadium seating and Dolby Digital surround sound, and one Europa cinema dedicated to fine film; offering a total of 1,755 seats. A new, two-level Borders store also opened at Westfield Doncaster on 4 December, however it's now closed and has been replaced by Rebel Sport. The corner of Williamsons Road and Doncaster Road is complete with the signature glass drum and the red "wave wall" also done. Painting of the Myer Building and the Office Tower also have given these buildings a more modern look to match the rest of the revamped centre. Modernisation of the western entrances to the centre wave also been completed.

Further expansion
In July 2016, Westfield submitted a $500 million expansion masterplan, aimed at competing against other shopping centres such as Eastland Shopping Centre to the City of Manningham and to the Minister for Planning (see First Andrews Ministry) for approval to expand by nearly a third with substantial car parking, and build a 14 story tower taller than the existing office tower that may stand out over the skyline. The plan would add 43,000 sqm of retail floor space and 18,000 sqm of office floor space (north of the existing building), add 2,793 more car parking spaces (to make a total of 7,575 spaces), building a 14 storey "gateway tower" on a 2 storey podium, reconfigure the bus interchange and move the main vehicle entrance on Williamsons Road further north. This was approved on 20 May 2019 by the state government, with the Minister for Planning (see Second Andrews Ministry) Richard Wynne claiming 2,000 jobs will be created during construction, and 2,900 full and part time positions will be created upon completion.

Kmart returned to the centre in mid 2021, replacing Target which closed permanently on 20 March 2021.

Doncaster Dining

In November 2020, a new rooftop dining precinct, Doncaster Dining, was opened during Victoria's second COVID-19 lockdown. At a cost of $30 million, the existing second floor (in the southern section of the shopping centre, near Doncaster Road) and a section of the car park near Village Cinemas was renovated to include 12 new shops and remake 2 existing shops. The stores include TGI Fridays, an American grill; Dohtonbori, named in reference to Dōtonbori with its second Australian restaurant; Lanzhou Noodle House; and Little Bangkok Thai amongst others.

Public transport
The shopping centre is serviced by a number of bus routes. These routes utilise the major bus interchange on the Williamsons Road side of the shopping centre, serving as a major hub for transport activity in the Doncaster region. The 907 SmartBus, which provides a frequent, direct route to the city, doesn't enter the interchange, using stops next to the centre on Doncaster Road instead.

Throughout the 1970s the Doncaster line was mooted to run down the middle of the Eastern Freeway, with a station at Westfield Doncaster. By 1984 land for the line once it left the freeway had been sold, and by 1991 an independent report investigating construction of the line recommended against it due to the high cost of underground construction. Various plans have also been made for extension of tram route 48 north from Balwyn North to Doncaster.
A 2008 report released by pt4me2 (a local group pushing for rail transit in Manningham) suggests a $5 billion budget for the public transport to make all train services run every 10 minutes and introduce a Doncaster rail line, branching off from Clifton Hill.

Gallery

See also
 List of shopping centres in Australia
 Proposed Melbourne rail extensions

References

Doncaster Shopping Town – Only Melbourne

External links

 Doncaster Hill 20 year strategy

Westfield Group
Shopping centres in Melbourne
Shopping malls established in 1969
Buildings and structures in the City of Manningham
1969 establishments in Australia

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text:
Inn At Entrada Ranks #24 On Trip Advisor List
The annual Travelers Choice Awards on TripAdviser.com ranks the Inn at Entrade at number 24 among the "Top 25 Hotels in the United States."
The Inn At Entrade is located at the Entrade golf course, adjacent to Snow Canyon State Park, just outside of St George.
Thr news release below describes the ranking:
TripAdvisor released the Travelers' Choice 2011 Awards which recognizes hotels worldwide, ranking The Inn at Entrada #24 in the Top 25 Hotels in the United States. TripAdvisor is one of the most reputable travel websites in the world, allowing visitors to post comments and rank the hotels after their visits. The Inn at Entrada is the only hotel on the list from the State of Utah.
Among hotels in the Top 25 are the Fairmont Heritage Place Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco, CA; Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea, HI; The Tides South Beach, Miami, FL and the Grand Del Mar, San Diego, CA. For a complete list of TripAdvisor's Top 25 US Hotels go to http://www.TripAdvisor.com/TravelersChoice.
"We are honored to be a part of such exclusive company," states Rheanne Etken, Resort Manager, "Trip Advisor's rankings are based on travelers' reviews of the property, which makes this award a significant one because our guests have shared their memorable experiences at Entrada."
The Inn at Entrada is a small luxury golf and spa resort of 40 private casitas within the gated Entrada at Snow Canyon Country Club. The resort is located along the 9th fairway of the Entrada's Johnny Miller Signature Course, ranked as Utah's best year-round course by Golf Digest. The Inn at Entrada offers nightly, weekly and monthly rental casitas. Each luxury casita is complete with a studio and suite-style living accommodations. The One, Two and Three Bedroom Suites feature living and dining areas, kitchens, laundry facilities, Jacuzzi tubs and attached garages. The Studios feature cozy accommodations for two with a kitchenette, fireplace and attached garage.
A guest of The Inn at Entrada is entitled to a temporary membership in the private Entrada at Snow Canyon Country Club which allows access to the Johnny Miller course, Entrada's Sports and Fitness facility, with indoor and outdoor pools, spa services, and racquet sports, as well as the private Kokopelli Restaurant and Lounge.
For lodging information, please call 435.634.7100 or visit us online at http://www.innatentrada.com. The Inn at Entrada and the Entrada at Snow Canyon Country Club are managed by the world's leading golf management company, Troon Privé.
Entrada at Snow Canyon is located in St. George, Utah, 119 miles (192 km) northeast of Las Vegas, NV, and 303 miles (488 km) south of Salt Lake City on Interstate 15, and is within easy day-trip distance to some of the nation's most stunning natural attractions: Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks, Grand-Staircase Escalante and Cedar Breaks national monuments, Lake Powell and the Grand Canyon. The new St. George municipal airport, which opened in January 2011, has service to and from Salt Lake City and to Los Angeles beginning in March; the Las Vegas McCarran International Airport is serviced via frequent shuttle service throughout the day and evening.
Dew Tour Will Be Feb 10-13 At Snowbasin
Trip Advisory Ranks Moab Among America's Best Adve...
See Bald Eagles On Feb. 12
Celebrity Sightings Around Snowy Park City
Luxury Travel Magazine Finds Adventure In Moab
Hike St George Sunshine Trails
Affordable Park City
Utah Considers Closing 5 State Parks To Ease Budge...
Kolob Canyons Visitor Center Closed, Access Free U...
Outdoor Retailers Show Will Bring Crowds To Salt L...


This story was so awesome. I love how children interpret things.
I love this story so much. Birth should be a natural part of life ... as a matter of fact as this little girl portrays.
Love the way children tell it so matter of fact!
DD and DS were both born at home but DD slept straight through DS's birth. She does remember the midwife coming to the house that evening though.
that's the best story I have EVER heard!
I apparently did something along these lines in kindergarten after my cat had kittens in my bedroom. "And then she ate the puh-senta" was the line that prompted a phone call home to my mother.
I'm in raptures! That is so adorable. Clearly she just had a malapropism issue, and really had quite a good grasp of the situation. The delivery (no pun intended) was then priceless! Love it.
LOL!!! What a beautiful story!!! I love it!!!


text:
Photo Credit: "Forbidden Games"
Festivals , Film
Film on First Openly Gay Professional Football/Soccer Player
Shadow and Act Staff
Justinus Soni "Justin" Fashanu was an English football player (soccer for those in the USA) who played for a variety of ball clubs between 1978 and 1997. He rose to fame in 1980 after scoring the goal of the season against Liverpool, leading a generation of black footballers through the English league.
Abandoned as a child and raised by a white foster family in the UK, he faced plenty of uphill battles. But despite bigotry and bullying from unruly football fans during the Thatcher era, Fashanu blazed his own trail by also, later in his career, becoming the first professional footballer to be openly gay.
He was also the first black footballer to command a £1 million (about $1.3 million) transfer fee, with his transfer from Norwich City to Nottingham Forest in 1981, but had little success as a player afterwards, although he continued to play at senior level until 1994.
After moving to the United States, in 1998, he was questioned by police when a seventeen-year-old boy accused him of sexual assault. He was charged and an arrest warrant for him was issued in Howard County, Maryland, on April 3, 1998. According to a suicide note he left behind, fearing that he would not get a fair trial because of his homosexuality, Fashanu fled to England where he killed himself in London in May 1998.
He had the talent, swagger and charisma to become one of the most celebrated athletes Britain had ever seen. And now, through unprecedented access to coaches, teammates and family, filmmakers Adam Darke and Jon Carey tell Fashanu's life story in feature documentary "Forbidden Games," which just made its world premiere at the HotDocs film festival in Toronto, which ended yesterday.
In the film, the directors unpack a most fascinating and ultimately tragic sports story, exploring Fashanu's battle with issues of race and sexuality in professional sports, as well as his tenuous relationship with the spotlight.
The film has only just begun revealing itself to the world, as it begins its film festival circuit travels. No Stateside dates announced yet.


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For Immediate Release: June 6, 2011
Contact: CDC Online Newsroom
CDC Report Finds Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Students At Greater Risk for Unhealthy, Unsafe Behaviors
Students who report being gay, lesbian or bisexual and students who report having sexual contact only with persons of the same sex or both sexes are more likely than heterosexual students and students who report having sexual contact only with the opposite sex to engage in unhealthy risk behaviors such as tobacco use, alcohol and other drug use, sexual risk behaviors, suicidal behaviors, and violence, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"This report should be a wake-up call for families, schools and communities that we need to do a much better job of supporting these young people. Any effort to promote adolescent health and safety must take into account the additional stressors these youth experience because of their sexual orientation, such as stigma, discrimination, and victimization," said Howell Wechsler, Ed.D, M.P.H, director of CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH). "We are very concerned that these students face such dramatic disparities for so many different health risks."
This report represents the first time that the federal government has conducted an analysis of this magnitude across a wide array of states, large urban school districts, and risk behaviors.
Researchers analyzed data from Youth Risk Behavior Surveys conducted during 2001–2009 in seven states—Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin—and six large urban school districts—Boston, Chicago, Milwaukee, New York City, San Diego, and San Francisco. These sites collected data on high school students' sexual identity (heterosexual, gay or lesbian, bisexual, or unsure), sex of sexual contacts (sexual contact with the opposite sex only, with the same sex only, or with both sexes), or both.
The study, "Sexual Identity, Sex of Sexual Contacts, and Health Risk Behaviors Among Students in Grades 9–12 in Selected Sites—Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance, United States, 2001–2009," was published as a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report Surveillance Summary. Findings across 76 health risks in the following 10 categories are highlighted:
Behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries (e.g., rarely or never wore a seat belt)
Behaviors that contribute to violence (e.g., did not go to school because of safety concerns)
Behaviors related to attempted suicide (e.g., made a suicide plan)
Tobacco use (e.g., ever smoked cigarettes)
Alcohol use (e.g., binge drinking)
Other drug use (e.g., current marijuana use)
Sexual behaviors (e.g., condom use)
Dietary behaviors (e.g., ate vegetables 3 or more times per day)
Physical activity and sedentary behaviors (e.g., physically active at least 60 minutes per day for 7 days)
Weight management (e.g., did not eat for 24 hours or more to lose weight or to keep from gaining weight)
Across the sites that assessed sexual identity, gay or lesbian students had higher prevalence rates for 49 percent to 90 percent of all health risks measured. Specifically, gay or lesbian students had higher rates for seven of the 10 health risk categories (behaviors that contribute to violence, behaviors related to attempted suicide, tobacco use, alcohol use, other drug use, sexual behaviors, and weight management).
Similarly, bisexual students had higher prevalence rates for 57 percent to 86 percent of all health risks measured. They also had higher rates for eight of the 10 health risk categories (behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries, behaviors that contribute to violence, behaviors related to attempted suicide, tobacco use, alcohol use, other drug use, sexual behaviors, and weight management).
"For youth to thrive in their schools and communities, they need to feel socially, emotionally, and physically safe and supported," said Laura Kann, Ph.D., chief, Surveillance and Evaluation Research Branch, DASH. "Schools and communities should take concrete steps to promote healthy environments for all students, such as prohibiting violence and bullying, creating safe spaces where young people can receive support from caring adults, and improving health education and health services to meet the needs of lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth."
National, state, and local YRBSs are conducted every two years among high school students throughout the United States. These surveys monitor health risk behaviors, including unintentional injuries and violence; tobacco, alcohol, and other drug use; sexual behaviors that contribute to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV infection; unhealthy dietary behaviors; and physical inactivity. These surveys also monitor the prevalence of obesity and asthma. Interested states and large urban school districts may add questions to measure sexual identity and the sex of sexual contacts.
Youth Risk Behavior Survey results are available at www.cdc.gov/yrbs.
Historical Document: June 6, 2011
Content source: Office of the Associate Director for Communication, Division of News and Electronic Media
Notice: Links to non-governmental sites do not necessarily represent the views of the CDC.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 1600 Clifton Rd. Atlanta, GA 30329-4027, USA
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SubTopic All Subtopics
Bank boosts security after couriers lose backup tapes
The Bank of New York Mellon.is encrypting its back up tapes after approximately 4.5 million affected by breaches.
Marcia Savage
The Bank of New York Mellon is beefing up its security policies and implementing encryption after third-party couriers lost backup storage tapes twice this year, potentially exposing the data of approximately 4.5 million people.
They're undertaking a top-to-bottom review of existing procedures. That is far and beyond what most companies we've seen that have experienced this type of breach have done.
Jonathan Gossels,
president and CEOSystemExperts
The unencrypted backup tapes were lost in two separate incidents on Feb. 27 and April 29. In a statement released May 30, the financial-services firm said there is no indication that the data on the tapes has been accessed or misused. The tapes were being transported by outside vendors for the bank's Shareholder Services business and its Working Capital cash payment business.
Officials at BNY Mellon said they are notifying individuals who may be affected by the breach and offering them two years of free credit monitoring, $25,000 worth of identity theft insurance, and other fraud protection services.
"We deeply regret that this occurred and sincerely apologize to all of those impacted," Todd Gibbons, the company's chief risk officer, said in a prepared statement.
The organization is conducting a "top-to-bottom review" of its security policies and procedures, particularly those related to its vendors and outside contractors, he said.
In addition to the review of its policies and procedures, BNY Mellon said it will require, when technically feasible, direct encrypted transmission of confidential data that's sent outside the company in order to reduce the need for data storage tapes.
It also will require that confidential data that must be written on tapes or CDs for transport be encrypted or transported with added controls, and boost enforcement of employee compliance with its data security policies.
Jonathan Gossels, president and CEO of security consulting firm SystemExperts, said the company is taking all the right steps.
"The most important one is they're making an organizational commitment to be the best in security," he said. "They're undertaking a top-to-bottom review of existing procedures. That is far and beyond what most companies we've seen that have experienced this type of breach have done."
He also commended BNY Mellon's moves to implement encryption and reduce the data that's shipped manually. "The only question you could ask is why weren't they using encryption on tapes before?" Gossels said.
When his firm conducts ISO 17799 reviews for organizations, it's common to have a finding that they need to encrypt their backup tapes, he said. The task is generally on someone's list of things to do, but not at the top of the list.
"There are a lot of moving parts in a modern IT shop, and in this case they had third parties involved," Gossels said. "It's one thing to encrypt when you're the one decrypting. It's harder when you have key management with business partners. It's very doable, it just takes work."
According to Connecticut state officials, nearly 500,000 Connecticut residents were affected by the February breach, most of them depositors of People's United Bank or shareholders of John Hancock, Walt Disney Corp., and TD Bank Financial Group.
The BNY Mellon incidents are the latest breaches involving lost backup tapes. In March, computer tapes containing confidential information belonging to University of Miami patients was stolen when thieves took a case out of a van used by a private off-site storage company, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Over two million records were exposed.
Dig Deeper on Data breaches and prevention strategies
Ex-Goldman Sachs programmer gets eight years in prison for code theft
Estonian accused of RBS WorldPay hack extradited to U.S.
Slovenian man charged with creating Mariposa botnet
Tools aim to help banks and others tackle insider fraud
Financial industry event will test response to cyber attacks
How to lay the foundation for role entitlement management
Panel: Firms can't manage DLP with products alone
Heartland Payment Systems to vigorously defend breach claims, CEO says
Lessons learned: The LendingTree case
Lessons learned: The Countrywide Financial breach
Lessons learned: The Texas Insurance Claims Services case
Emerging data storage trends embraced by BNY Mellon ... – SearchStorage
Customers sue two US banks for data breach – ComputerWeekly.com
How to implement a middleware governance process – SearchCloudComputing


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Q: How can I remove blank options from a large dependent drop-down menu in Microsoft Excel? I built a form in Excel which uses data validation to apply drop-down selections. The user selects from one category which creates a dependent list based on the selected category, and this extends to yet another selection. This is set up using a query and VBA as follows: Each dependent drop-down relies on the former by using code like =INDIRECT(A1) where A1 is the first selection and the next list is assigned to a Named Range using the title in A1.
Unfortunately, by the final list selection the number of named ranges seems to have exceeded Excel's capacity (>10k) and so instead I have referred to a fixed range which uses an INDEX MATCH function in each cell to present the options. The problem is that some versions of this final drop-down need 5 options and others need 150, so I have to set the final list to a static 150 cells to accommodate the largest possible data set.
Ignore blank cells does not work in the data validation due to the use of INDIRECT. Is there another way to make this system (or any other system) work for such a large data set?
As a note, I considered forcing the use of buttons [to adjust the named ranges] between selections but I don't believe that is a fit for this user base.

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