The Irish Rep's Seafarer Sends Out an S.O.S.
Matthew Broderick, Andy Murray & Colin McPhillamy. Photo by Carol Rosegg.
Playwright Conor McPherson (The Weir) has written a lyrically beautiful play, spoken in a predominantly working-class Dublin idiom, with moments of pure poetry. It's basically crafted in a naturalistic style delving into a man's haunted conscience, with echoes of some troubling family dynamics that revolve around heavy drinking, alcoholism, violence, and loneliness. In 2008, it was nominated for multiple Tony Awards; for Best Play, two for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play (Conleth Hill, Jim Norton), and Best Director of a Play (Conor McPherson), with Norton winning a Tony. It also received a 2007 Olivier Award nomination for Best Play, and Jim Norton won an Olivier for Best Performance in a Supporting Role, as well as the Evening Standard Award for Best Play. So The Seafarer, McPherson's 2006 drama, arrives at the Irish Repertory Theatre with quite the pedigree, and one would think it would be quite the solid boat, sailing over the waves with a magical ease, but sadly, this production has some small leaks in it, making it slowly sink down into the dark waters as the minutes tick by. The cast solidly makes an attempt to stay afloat, but mainly because of the not very rich or menacing portrayal of the mysterious Mr. Lockhart, a man of refined appearance but dark underlying temperament, played with a somewhat too tight control by the miscast Matthew Broderick (Off-Broadway's Torch Song Trilogy, Evening at the Talk House) the boat keeps taking on water no matter how much is scooped out by the others.
Matthew Broderick, Michael Mellamphy, Tim Ruddy, Colin McPhillamy, & Andy Murray. Photo by Carol Rosegg.
The play centers on James "Sharky" Harkin, played with a solid edge by Andy Murray (LCT's War Horse), a troubled alcoholic who has recently been let go from his chauffeuring job just before Christmas. Shaky and filled with a detached veneer of guilt and shame, he hides his loss and returns home to his blind, aging, and needy brother, Richard Harkin, devilishly played, sometimes a bit too broadly, by Colin McPhillamy (Off-Broadway's House and Garden). The home is in shambles, beautifully cluttered from top to bottom by designer Charlie Corcoran (Shining City), with concise lighting by Brian Nason (Broadway's The Mystery of Edwin Drood) and perfectly orchestrated costumes by Marth Hally (IRT's The Field). A burnt out bulb doesn't do much to laminate the portrait of Jesus looking down on this muddy lot, but the metaphor sits strongly over head.
Directed with a shaky eye for blocking and a lack of lyrical essence by Ciarán O'Reilly (IRT's Dancing at Lughnasa), Sharky attempts to stay off the bottle over the holidays; a difficult task around his hard-drinking and constantly sniping brother, a man who is both desperate and demeaning all at the same time. Conflict, not surprisingly, arrives when Richard, when he goes directly against Sharky's earlier plea. He casually invites Sharky's nemesis, Nicky Giblin, played solidly and slimy by the stellar Tim Ruddy (IRT's The Weir) to join the men for a harmless Christmas Eve game of poker with Ivan, Richard's good pal, comically played by the sweet Michael Mellamphy (IRT's When I Was God) along for the ride in that sinking boat.
Michael Mellamphy & Colin McPhillamy. Photo by Carol Rosegg.
Nicky Giblin then arrives, bringing along a mysterious guest, a Mr. Lockhart (Broderick), a man who by all appearances seems polite and kind, but there is something sinister hidden away inside Lockhart's finely tailored suit. He's something of an insect, in a way, deaf to the Christmas carols of the night. He's been looking for a game of poker to satisfy his soul searching. Unbeknownst to the others, he has bounded across time to remind Sharky of a prior poker game, one that occurred twenty-five years ago to the day when the two spent another Christmas Eve playing for big stakes locked up in the Bridewell Garda Barracks. After a disturbingly violent and drunken night that Christmas Eve so many years ago, Sharky wagered something big that night. Luckily he won the game and his freedom, but this Christmas Eve, Lockhart has returned, just like they had agreed to those many years ago, to have an opportunity to play one more time for the same big prize.
Matthew Broderick & Andy Murray. Photo by Carol Rosegg.
It's an exciting and gripping context, this boat ride down the river Styx. The other men are gambling their pounds in hopes of a financial gain on a Christmas Eve, quite unaware that for Sharky, the stakes are much higher. Lockhart reveals all in a series of well-written private moments with Sharky, spelling out his Mephistophelian desires and hopes, but sadly, in God's name, Broderick feels neither poetic nor dangerous in these soliloquies. He's an electrocuted ghost in a manner of speaking, never stoking the fire nor ratcheting up the heat that seems to be required to pull us into the game deeply. We remain casual observers, watching Ivan's phony tears from a distance, and rarely getting that 'last hand' adrenaline rush. It's a shame, as the play seems powerfully constructed and poetically engaging. Luckily, even in this middle-of-the-road production, the ending still resonates, surprising us all, even Jesus in the staircase. We can smell the whiskey and the beer from our seats, but our thirst is never quite quenched by The Seafarer. The boat is taking water, and sinking slowly. He's "a good man", that Sharky, as Richard finally says, but even with Ivan's myopia, this is not the way to pull me in.
Andy Murray, Michael Mellamphy & Colin McPhillamy. Photo by Carol Rosegg.


text:
using System.Reflection;
using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

// General Information about an assembly is controlled through the following
// set of attributes. Change these attribute values to modify the information
// associated with an assembly.
[assembly: AssemblyTitle("DrivenRop")]
[assembly: AssemblyDescription("")]
[assembly: AssemblyConfiguration("")]
[assembly: AssemblyCompany("")]
[assembly: AssemblyProduct("DrivenRop")]
[assembly: AssemblyCopyright("Copyright ©  2016")]
[assembly: AssemblyTrademark("")]
[assembly: AssemblyCulture("")]

// Setting ComVisible to false makes the types in this assembly not visible
// to COM components.  If you need to access a type in this assembly from
// COM, set the ComVisible attribute to true on that type.
[assembly: ComVisible(false)]

// The following GUID is for the ID of the typelib if this project is exposed to COM
[assembly: Guid("a5c9d0c2-1399-482f-87b7-bf5540c304a8")]

// Version information for an assembly consists of the following four values:
//
//      Major Version
//      Minor Version
//      Build Number
//      Revision
//
// You can specify all the values or you can default the Build and Revision Numbers
// by using the '*' as shown below:
// [assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.0.*")]
[assembly: AssemblyVersion("11.1")]
[assembly: AssemblyFileVersion("11.1")]
[assembly: InternalsVisibleTo("DrivenRop.Tests, PublicKey=002400000480000094000000060200000024000052534131000400000100010057f83730a4df92ab81429e55ce90a71f85e005e8e988c3d4a4397bc349dc49fc773e76bd0ea3f056b8cb1f0019a50237800df7bc3114dca67b93d7f6c89523b6b3da3cc5587d55144c5a09057b72d5b333714fd8b52151d0f224e4d5e738e3d40f0088cf0ecd6b36d4c6f22671c9dc92c98e3f988d9d0eb2efb17e0d1d88409a")]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Call for Availability or to Reserve your Storage Unit!
The standard unit is 12 feet by 24 feet. Also available: Large Indoor Storage for Motor Homes, Campers, Pontoon Boats and other large items. Commercial Storage Space Available with Loading Dock and Forklift. 4063 US Hwy 2 West Florence, Wisconsin 54121 Get directions by clicking here. Call (906) 396-4132 today!


text:
Accidental Species by Kass Fleisher
"In Kass Fleisher's wild and wonderful universe, 'the traffic was horrible and lots of people were late with their periods,' or again, the poet busies herself trying to 'express debt on a sly chart meant to show asset retribution.' If there is a 'question of the day' for her young couples, who 'naturally' refuse to share their food, it's 'who ate the oreos? who drank the tab?' The reader, turning the brilliant and hilarious pages of ACCIDENTAL SPECIES, hardly has time to come up for air before s/he is taken on yet another verbal space shuttle, engaged in language games at once preposterous and yet deadly in their accuracy. If you want to know what it's like to navigate the shoals of intellectual-life-on-a-shoestring, as it plays out today across mediated America, ACCIDENTAL SPECIES is the book you cannot afford to miss."–Marjorie Perloff
Accidental Species by Kass Fleisher quantity
SKU: 9780925904492 Categories: 2005, Kass Fleisher Tags: 2005, Kass Fleisher
Huge Haiku by David McAleavey
"The poems here feature the best kind of innovation, that which retains the old in the new but also gives readers what they have never seen before. David McAleavey expands the form of the haiku into something alive and incisively of our time. Through the mathematical rigor of their stanzas and lines, the poems in HUGE HAIKU open themselves out to an astonishing variety of experiences and disruptive contrasts. Whether the subject is the natural world, the suburbs or the city, growing up or growing older, politics or language or absurdity, these poems never settle for easy answers, but pull us repeatedly back into a world that's both dangerous and full of possibility. In so doing, McAleaveay takes the great virtue of haiku – its exctness of detail–and focuses it resolutely on our own contemporary and wildly layered strangeness." — Mark Wallace
Deaccessioned Landscapes by Jonathan Brannen
The visceral and the intellectual, the fragmentary and the full, the future and memory–Jonathan Brannen interrogates opposites in these facing pairs, brilliantly illuminating the zone of language that operates between. Sharp and bright, it's a collection that sees the world in all its detail and in vivid color; it sparks the mind."–Cole Swensen
Hostile by Heather Nagami
"Heather Nagami's first book of poetry, HOSTILE, is written as though literature, and perhaps language, must begin again. It finds its way as it goes, as it finds out what poetry can be. That it does so with grace, power, and amazing courage, is obvious with every word encountered, every step around the parameters of what is possible"–Charles Alexander. "Hardly ever has found language, appropriated discourse, sounded more closely attuned to what Ms. Niedecker once referred to as the 'condensery' of poetry–not Reznikoff's TESTIMONY, nor the early novels of Kathy Acker. Nagami is listening for all the elements in the language. What strikes me as a reader is the degree to which these texts remain true to their source materials while demonstrating a total commitment to the traditional effects of poetry–concision, a foregrounding of the formal elements of poetry, even a goofball elegance that has much to do with the New York School's commitment to wit.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
TheSunnyMag : Did You Know the First Computer Mouse Was Wooden?
Pluggd.in team is super glad to present the fifth edition of TheSunnyMag, an awesomely curated mag for fun read.
Where's the Shareholder Outrage at Hewlett-Packard? How have Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) shareholders largely remained so silent while board infighting, botched multi-billion-dollar acquisitions, multiple strategic false starts, and high C-Suite turnover have combined to lop off more than $90 billion of market valuation—the venerable tech company is now worth just $28 billion—since the end of 2009? Read more here.
Do you remember when Sony was Apple? Sony dominated consumer electronics for decades, but that was a long time ago. There was a time when Sony was the first name in consumer electronics. More recently, Sony backed Blu-ray and quickly dispatched the only other HD video challenger, HD DVD. What gives? Read more here.
New new world
Facebook: The Making of 1 Billion Users: The team in charge of tracking Facebook's (FB) growth works on the second floor of Building 17. Most days, the offices are like anywhere else at Facebook: whiteboards, toys on desks, shorts and flip-flops, pretty low-key. Around noon on Sept. 14, the second floor was packed. In one of the common areas, a giant screen showed the number of active Facebook users worldwide. About 100 people, including Mark Zuckerberg and his top lieutenants, watched the numbers run up by about a thousand users per minute: 999,980,000 … 999,990,000 … 1,000,000,000. The counter paused for a moment when it rounded 10 digits, as if to emphasize the point: 1 billion users. Read more here.
Asia's virtual masters eye Zynga's real lunch: A decade ago, a developer from Korean gamemaker Nexon threw a few lines of code together to create an image of a flower to present to his girlfriend, buying himself more videogame time as she sat impatiently by his side at an Internet cafe. And, so the industry legend goes, the "virtual good" was born. Now, companies such as Nexon that pioneered the model across Asia are muscling onto Zynga's turf, hoping to cash in on fast-growing U.S. spending by bringing their distinct Asian brand of fast-paced "freemium" games – free with optional in-game purchases, Read more here.
Airbnb: To Tax or Not Tax a Rented Bed: New York may be the city that never sleeps, but overnight visitors are still advised to check in somewhere. Staying in hotels is not for the frugal, however, especially when you add taxes, which come to more than 15 percent of the bill. No wonder so many now shop on the website Airbnb.com, where $20 a night secures a bed in a shared Queens apartment, and $285 an entire loft in SoHo. The four-year-old site, an aggregator of private vacation rentals, has increased its listings in New York City from 900 three years ago to close to 15,000 today. Read more here.
Gadgetvice
Samsung Expected to Reach End of Record Run: Samsung Electronics reported a record quarterly profit of 8.1 trillion South Korean won, nearly double the figure of last year, as strong sales of high-end televisions and Galaxy smartphones more than offset reduced orders for chips and screens from Apple, its main rival and leading customer. Read more here.
"Steve was always such a big thinker," John Lasseter says. "He would always look at things from the point of view that you never anticipated. And he was such a forward thinker; he didn't think three moves ahead, he thought 20 moves ahead. For us, he was that fresh set of eyes — you didn't know what he would see when we were developing a film, but you knew he would see something. He would always have one or two comments, but they were always so deep that you'd just scratch your head and say, Oh, yeah… Read more.
Startup that raised $ 0 from VCs: Judging by a spate of investments in Europe this year, venture firms are making sure that the Continent stays well fed by backing online-delivery platforms from Germany to Russia.But here in the U.S. at least one food-delivery start-up says it isn't hungry for venture firms to sit down at the table. Read more about how an online food delivery platform caught the attention of The Wall Street Journal using tongue in cheek reverse psychology.
The $210,000 Cow-Milking Robot: Let's presume for a moment that you aren't someone who thinks a great deal about dairy farming. Like me, for example. You (or I) may think you have this idea about what it means to milk a cow. For me, it was always something akin to what Harrison Ford did in Witness—wake up at o-dark-thirty, sit on a stool, and work a cow's teat until you filled a bucket with milk. Of course, Witness came out 27 years ago. More important, those guys in the movie were Amish. Not really the early-adopter type. Things are a little more high-tech out there among them English. Read more here.
The Next Generation of Rescue Robots: Next month, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency—the sci-fi research wing of the U.S. military—will pit companies and universities against each other in a competition to design the best disaster-relief robot, and odds are the winner will look somewhat like you and me. The robots in DARPA's obstacle course will not only have to climb ladders; they'll have to drive vehicles and fix leaking pipes. That means they'll probably be humanoid, even though DARPA doesn't require them to be. Read more here.
Solar Cell Consisting of a Single Molecule: Individual Protein Complex Generates Electric Current: A team of scientists have developed a method to measure photocurrents of a single functionalized photosynthetic protein system. The scientists could demonstrate that such a system can be integrated and selectively addressed in artificial photovoltaic device architectures while retaining their biomolecular functional properties. Read more here.
/roots
Even in 1985, we knew Facebook was possible : The fact that 1 billion people around the world are now on Facebook, and using it so habitually, is… incredible. For those of us who were using picks and shovels to build the Internet three decades ago, it's validation of what we believed would someday happen. Take a walk with me down memory lane, and I'll explain why. Steve Case, the former CEO and co-founder of America Online (AOL) writes.
Did You Know the First Computer Mouse Was Wooden? The computer mouse: undeniably the cutest of the gadget world. The small, clickable tool is the reason we can browse social networks, search Google, play games and send email. And more importantly, where would we all be without the right-click and the cursor? Read more about its humble origins here.
First Trackball Mouse
The compact disc turned 30 on Oct. 1: Back on Oct. 1, 1982, Sony began selling the world's first commercially available CD player. Let's not forget the overall importance of the CD. What most people liked about the CD was its convenience—here was a small, reasonably durable piece of plastic that allowed you to skip from track to track, and no need to flip vinyl. Read more here.
Who Made That Escape Key? "It's the 'Hey, you! Listen to me' key," says Jack Dennerlein of the Harvard School of Public Health. According to Dennerlein, an expert on how humans interact with computers, the escape key helped drive the computer revolution of the 1970s and '80s. "It says to the computer: 'Stop what you're doing. I need to take control.' Read more here.
Is India losing the way? Track this interesting debate with Shashi Tharoor against the motion and Arvind Subramanian defending it on The Economist. There is a race between rot and regeneration in the underlying institutions of the state and politics. And it is far from obvious that the forces of regeneration are winning. Says Mr Subramanian.
Says Mr Tharoor: Services exports are rising, remittances remain strong and the domestic sector continues to expand apace. These are not the signs of an economy that is losing its way. More here.
India needs to get better prepared for a boom in urban living. Still two-thirds rural, Indians are set to move to town at an increasing rate. So it's a shame that the country is so bad at managing its huge cities. Watch here.


The placenta is an organ that your body creates to give your soon-to-be-baby oxygen and nutrients while in the womb. But once the placenta has done its tour of duty, are you done with it? For some moms, the answer is no. Some moms want to keep the placenta to eat at home as a way to potentially stave off some of the less enjoyable after-effects of birth. Others want to plant it with a tree to commemorate the birth.
While it's pretty easy to do what you choose with a placenta after giving birth at home or even at a birthing center, the hospital may be another story. "Hospitals are very worried about safety, because the placenta really is a biohazard," says Titi Otunla, a certified nurse midwife at Texas Children's Pavilion for Women in Houston. "It's full of blood, it's not very sanitary-it could be a public health nightmare."
Some hospitals do allow it, but may place significant hurdles in your way, so it's best to start making arrangements before the delivery. "It's a huge issue to take your placenta from the hospital here," says Siobhan Kubesh, a certified midwife with OB-GYN North in Austin. "The hospital requires new moms to get a court order to take the placenta from the hospital because it's considered transporting a organ."
Even if your hospital is agreeable, you may need to make arrangements to take the placenta home long before you and baby head out the door. "You will probably not be allowed to take the placenta to the postpartum floor when you are transferred there," Otunla says. "You will instead need to arrange for someone to come within an hour or two and take it home and put it in the freezer or refrigerator."
And don't think the hospital is going to wrap that placenta up for you in a to-go bag, either! If you're thinking of saving it, put self-sealed plastic bags and a plastic container with a tight-fitting lid in your hospital bag. You might also consider having ice and a cooler nearby, so the placenta is preserved and bacterial growth is limited if you can't get it home right away.
Even though placenta eating is on the rise, it's still not a common request, so you may find that you get some pushback from hospital staff when you make your request. In most cases, as long as you start your discussion long before baby arrives and make arrangements for safe passage, it can be yours. "It is your placenta, you should be able to do with it as you choose, in a safe way," Otunla says.


text:
Q: Window function for unique rows in SQL Server I have a table like below

The main idea is to get the amount of each channel for each orderID.
If the channel is repeating for Id, it should take the amount only once and rest would be null.
The result should look like below

I want to do the same logic for country and source as well. If I do the pivot it should only give unique amount value for each ID on Channel, Source and Country basis and repeated value should be NULL.I have a very big data set and tough to do it in Excel
How can I do this in SQL Server? Is there any window function? Can anyone please help me?
Thanks in advance

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Four Horsemen Outer Space Men Holiday Edition Metamorpho Action Figure Four Horsemen, 2010
Day #92: February 18, 2011
Metamorpho
The Man from Alpha Centauri
Outer Space Men Holiday Edition Gold Variant
Item No.: n/a
Manufacturer: Four Horsemen
Includes: Ray gun, other gun, spare arms, vac-metal chest piece and head knob (in gold or silver)
Action Feature: Swap parts with other Glyos-compatible figures
Retail: $40.00 (bundled with Inferno, Astro-Nautilus, and Xodiac)
Availability: December 2010
Other: Variant exists-- some have gold accessories, some have silver
Not one to rest on a perfectly good mold, the Four Horsemen cranked out a holiday series of Outer Space Men including this green version of Metamorpho, the Man from Alpha Centauri. He's basically the same color of green as the Beta Phase Xodiac, and now he has some extra paint that previous clear figures did not have. It's worth noting that some have silver paint while others have gold, and it was really the luck of the drawn what you got when you ordered a set from the Four Horsemen's web site late last year.
Not every color works well when you start doing clear figures-- one downside of this particular shade of green is that as it gets thinner, you can see through it-- it's very easy to see right through the back of his helmet, showing off his eyes. Ah well.
The green seems to show detail much better than the glow-in-the-dark or clear pink releases, although nothing beats a fully-painted face when it comes to bringing the figure's personality to life. With this particular shade of 7-up bottle green plastic, the figure starts to feel more and more like a holiday item, particularly with the gold added to the design. Even his guns start to look more like ornaments with a big shiny gold ball at the end, giving him a look that's more festive and whimsical rather than retro and whimsical.
Compared to previous Metamorpho figures, the rotating head mechanism seems to go a little more smoothly and the plastic feels a little less clear than Xodiac-- however it's still translucent, which you can see in the pictures.
The figure is a nice addition to a collection, but isn't much of a substitute for the normal Infinity Series figure released around the same time. The vac-metal parts are really stunning and are something I'd love to see included with more (all) of the figures in the future, even if they don't necessarily add enough to Metamorpho to justify buying a fourth copy of the mold. If the price is right, get one. If you like to mix-and-match figure pieces, get one. Otherwise, pick up the normal one and call it a day.
Click here to see more Four Horsemen figures in Figure of the Day.
Click here to see more Outer Space Men figures in Figure of the Day.
Click here to see more Glyos Compatible figures in Figure of the Day.


Dagogo Altraide is the founder of ColdFusion, a YouTube channel with over 1 million (1,300,000) subscribers. ColdFusion creates cutting-edge documentaries and infotainment with themes based on the past, present and future of tech-science. His work has been featured on Time.com and has been shown in classrooms and lecture halls worldwide. Graduating from Mechanical Engineering at the University of Western Australia and graduate marketing at Curtin University, ColdFusion reveals the bigger picture of our world by making complicated topics easy to understand, often through a narrative lens. Interested in the stretching of minds, Dagogo aims to connect, educate and inspire the thinkers in us.


Any citizen of South Africa, Swaziland or Zimbabwe who is studying a course related to agriculture at a recognised tertiary institution in South Africa can apply. Please note that students are only supported from their second year of study.
Which courses of study will be considered valid?
Any agricultural course relating to citrus production is valid, as well as courses related to the agricultural industry such as logistics, entomology etc.
Which educational institutions are applicable?
All recognised Universities, Colleges or Universities of Technology are applicable. In the case of pure agricultural qualifications, the institution should preferably offer citrus production as a subject.
You can apply for a bursary by completing the online application form by following the relevant link on our homepage, or by visiting the "Bursary Fund" page.
Applications are rated according to the following criteria: 1) Previously disadvantaged status; 2) Appropriateness of field of study; 3) Academic performance; 4) Financial need; 5) Background relation to the citrus industry; 6) Gender (female candidates preferred); 7) Disability.
The closing date for applications is 30 September of the year preceding the proposed year of study.
I have applied for a bursary but haven't received any reply.
Successful candidates will be informed accordingly before the middle of December after the application was submitted. Please note that only successful candidates are notified, and therefore, if you have not received any notification, your application was unfortunately not successful.
The bursary can cover all study-related expenses, including tuition fees, on-campus accommodation, research costs, books and stationery.
Bursary Fund students have to maintain a minimum D-average and may not fail any main subject outright. Undergraduate, certificate and diploma students have to perform a minimum of four weeks vacation work per year. All students are expected to work in the citrus industry on completion of their studies for a minimum period equal to the period for which they received support. Failure to adhere to the above will result in the student having to pay back the bursary money.
Do you offer internships or experiential training?
Citrus Academy is not an employer so we are not able to provide internships or experiential training to students. When a period of experiential training is required for one of our Bursary Fund students to complete their qualification, we assist the student with finding a placement at one of the citrus enterprises in the country. They are assigned a mentor who is there to guide them through the aspects of farming including financial management, agricultural practice, administration and production management.
Citrus Academy assists Bursary Fund students in finding suitable vacation work in line with their studies.


text:
'Love Hormone' Also Boosts Feelings Of Spiritual Enlightenment
A new study shows how oxytocin impacts how we see the world
By Samantha Cole | Published Sep 22, 2016 1:02 AM
It's not just the love hormone: oxytocin could prop up our spiritual lives, according to new research out of Duke University.
"Oxytocin appears to be part of the way our bodies support spiritual beliefs," lead author Patty Van Cappellen said in a Duke Today interview. The study, published in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, recruited 83 middle-aged men, who were split into two groups and given the oxytocin hormone intranasally, or a placebo.
Afterwards, those who received the oxytocin were more likely to say spirituality was important in their lives, and that they felt connected to other living things, agreeing with statements like "All life is interconnected" and "There is a higher plane of consciousness or spirituality that binds all people." During a guided meditation, those who'd gotten a hormonal boost were more likely to feel "awe, gratitude, hope, inspiration, interest, love and serenity." Even a week later, the effect remained.
"Spirituality is complex and affected by many factors," Van Cappellen continued. "However, oxytocin does seem to affect how we perceive the world and what we believe."
[H/T Duke Today]


TaylorMade's new M5 fairway wood has seen the brand's Twist Face Technology integrated to deliver better performance, but crucially there has been a significant redesign into the head construction with a titanium body, 5-layer carbon composite crown with a steel movable weight to enhance adjustability.
Available at retail on February 15, 2019 at an RRP of £369 / EU, the M5 fairway will be offered in Rocket 3/14° (RH only), 3/15° and 5/18° lofts and come equipped with a Mitsubishi CK Tensei Orange 75 (X) and 65 (S, R) with numerous additional shaft options available at no additional cost. The stock grip is the MCC Decade grip from Golf Pride.
Golfshake's PGA Professional and Equipment Expert Ryan Rastall has tested the club, both at home in England, and during a recent visit to Florida, discovering how it performs and whether it's an improvement. Ryan was certainly impressed, saying: "Looking at the flight outside here, it's going the distance I would expect it to, it just feels great. The ball flight is how I'm used to seeing it, a nice high little draw, so it really does perform, I love it."
You can see Ryan's review of the M5 fairway wood and an assessment of the technology.


text:
"Toyota Opens New Engine Plant in Porto F..."
Toyota Opens New Engine Plant in Porto Feliz, São Paulo
New Facility represents an investment of 18 billion JPY (US$ 170 million) and employs approximately 320 people.
Carmaker's first engine manufacturing facility in Latin America ushers in new chapter for regional operations With a capacity of 108,000 engines per year
Similar to Toyota's new Karawang, Indonesia engine plant, technological advancements reduced initial investment costs by 40 percent compared to 2008
São Paulo, May 10, 2016 — Today, Toyota do Brasil LTDA (TDB) officially opens its new engine manufacturing facility in the city of Porto Feliz. Built on a plot of land that covers an area of 872,500 m2 (9.39 million sq. ft.), the new facility represents an investment of 18 billion JPY (conversion to 580 million Brazilian R$ or 170 million USD) and approximately 320 direct jobs in the region. With this new manufacturing operation, Toyota reinforces its commitment to the Brazilian economy and increases its support for Latin America and the Caribbean region as a whole. In this, the company remains steadfast to a corporate mission of the betterment of society.
For more details, go to: http://newsroom.toyota.co.jp/en/detail/mail/12019023
Toyota Signs Championship Off-Road Racer BJ Baldwin to Multi-Year Sponsorship
engine plantManufacturing & EngineeringToyota do Brasil
Power Shift: GR Supra Manual Transmission Now on Sale at US Toyota Dealerships
10 Ways Toyota's Environmental Impact Is Driving Sustainability Forward
Toyota Financial Services Promotes Diversity & Inclusion Through its Latest Bond Offering


text:
June King McFee (died January 14, 2008) made many contributions to the world of art education, with her research and publications.

Professor Emeritus June King McFee was Professor and Head of the Department of Art Education at the University of Oregon from 1965-1983.  She started an internationally recognized doctoral program at the university.

She is best known for advancing cultural understanding through the arts.  In her book, Preparation for Art, McFee
"portrays graphically the range of individual differences in children's reactions to visual phenomena and visual arts."

McFee believed in teaching art according to a child's needs.  She created the "perception delineation theory" based on sociology, anthropology, psychology, and the needs of urban children.  According to her theory, learning is a behavioral adjustment, and the education that society needed was guided change in behavior.

University of Oregon

At the University of Oregon, June King King McFee, along with colleague and faculty member Vincent Lanier, developed strong focuses on community arts and cultural services within the Department of Art Education (ARE). McFee's work was rooted in cultural pluralism, the role of art in society, and the influence people have in their communities related to the arts.

After her tenure as faculty, her influence continued to develop the ARE curriculum. Rogena Degge, a close colleague in the department, went on to develop classes in Cultural policy based on the work of McFee. She later developed an Art and Society class still taught at the University, at the graduate level.

Publications
According to WorldCat Identities, June King McFee has 17 works in 54 publications in 2 languages and 1,751 library holdings. Prominent publications books:
 Preparation for Art
 Art, Culture, and Environment: A Catalyst for Teaching
 Cultural Diversity and the Structure and Practice of Art Education
 Creative Problem Solving Abilities in Art of Academically Superior Adolescents
 Visual Arts: Psychological Implications of Individual Differences in the "Perception-delineation" Process
 Oregon Communities: Visual Quality & Economic Growth

References

 McFee, J. (1970). Preparation for Art. Wadsworth Publishing Company, Inc., Belmont, California.
 McFee, J. (1984). Studies in Art Education, Vol. 25, No. 3: Reflections. National Art Education Association.  Retrieved April 20, 2008.

External links
 National Art Education Association
 Video: "A Conversation with June King McFee"

American art educators
Year of birth missing
2008 deaths

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


As part of their Service Learning Program, Student Life hosts around eight Service Days every semester, and there are six left this spring.
"They're basically designed to give extra support to some of our service agencies in the community," said Student Life Assistant Director Amy Reynolds.
Next week, on Friday, March 9, Reynolds said students will spend their Service Day at the City Rescue Mission.
The next Service Day will not occur until next month, when students help out at Habitat for Humanity on April 14. Reynolds said it is one of the most popular volunteering spots.
"We are going to help with the building and painting of a house," Reynolds said.
On Friday, April 27, she said, students will take to the streets of May Avenue near the OCCC campus as part of the Adopt-A-Street program.
Reynolds said students will clean the area of litter.
For the last Service Day of the semester, on Friday, May 4, students will visit Science Museum Oklahoma in honor of Space Day.
"We are going to help local elementary and middle school kids do projects and experiments to learn about space," Reynolds said. "It's really cool. We did chemistry in the fall; we were building things like rockets.
"The kids really enjoy it, and our students have a blast. We're all really excited," she said.
The registration process for Service Days is simple and open to all OCCC students. Transportation is available to service sites from campus and back, as well as refreshments.


A unique finish, chalky matt is now one of the most popular finishes when upcycling furniture. The finish is dead flat and used to create a chalky, shabby chic or distressed appearance. It's sheen level will typically be around 2%. Where durability is important it can be over coated with a special wax or sealer.
Matt emulsion is commonly used on walls and ceilings and often where the surface is uneven. It is a flat finish with a sheen level of less than 10%, therefore non-reflective in appearance.
Less washable than its glossier counterparts, matt can be subject to scuff marks when used in deep tones and high traffic areas such as halls. There are however durable matt options available in most ranges which are designed to resist marking.
We've grouped these together as each of these finishes are visibly shinier with a sheen level at varying degrees around the 20% mark or more.
Eggshell and satin finishes are traditionally used as a modern alternative to gloss for trim. They have a dull shine which is, as the name suggests, likened to the shell of an egg. Used on features including skirtings and window surrounds, cills and frames it is a more durable finish than matt with better washability and a smoother appearance.
Eggshell finish is also suitable for decorating larger areas including walls and ceilings however acrylic eggshell paints are recommended for this type of job due to their lower VOC content.
Silk and soft sheen finishes are traditional finishes used for walls in higher traffic areas such as hallways and kitchens due to their shinier and therefore more wipeable properties and a greater resistance to steam.
It is worth noting when choosing a wall finish that those with higher sheen levels can highlight imperfections in the walls.
Gloss is available for both interior and exterior decorating. The sheen level is high at approximately 90% making it highly reflective and washable. Water-based and acrylic glosses will usually have a less sheen than solvent-based.
Commonly used on trim, gloss (when applied well) will give a beautiful mirrored effect.
In some commercial kitchens special gloss finishes may be used to coat walls as they can provide a more hygienic washable food preparation area. Specialist hygienic coatings in various finishes are available.
Masonry paints are available in two key finishes; smooth and textured. Weather durability is a key factor when choosing masonry paint.
This finish is usually matt and smooth to the touch and fairly easy to keep clean.
The aggregate encased within this paint gives a lightly textured finish, ideal for covering imperfections on exterior walls. Weightier versions are available which are heavy bodied to give a much deeper texture. These are suited to walls with larger flaws to cover or where a deep texture is required aesthetically. Walls coated with a textured finish are likely to need cleaning more often.


Happy Rainbow Dash Day / Dash's Birthiversary!
It's also still pretty apparent for me I don't 100% know what do to with shading. Or at least how to apply it right in a way I'm happy with. But better try than not.
But yeah, this is supposed to be a rendition of the pose Dashie makes in The MLP Movie during Time to Be Awesome. Was pretty fun to try and draw, and it didn't go so badly I feel!
Now time to submit this and pass out.
Haha, thanks a lot, Spectral!
(\ Happy Rainbow Dash Day!
The shading is really nice looking in my opinion.
And definitely, whether it works or not, it's the best to try and get better than abstain from it and don't grow.
Well, that's nice to hear, then, thanks. Perhaps I'm just being overly critical of it myself. I mean, it's not that I don't understand shading, it's more getting it out and looking right with the digital tools I have Something still to get used to, I suppose.
Yeah, precisely. Can only get better from trying!


Home→UpliftRadioBlog→Don Treader→Are You Limiting the Unlimitable?
Are You Limiting the Unlimitable?
It's a conundrum – we're looking at it in UCF tonight. The Ten Commandments – are they for us today? Can we learn from their wisdom?
At 8.30pm tonight we're looking at God's image and yours. Want to find out more?
P.S. If you missed Commandment 1, it's on at 8pm as a rerun.


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Monday's critical hearing will shape American policy towards the Horn – Sanctions against Eritrea need to be on the table
May 16, 2021 Martin Plaut Ethiopia, News, Tigray
Speaking to the US Senate
On Monday the US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a closed meeting to hear a report-back from President Biden's Horn of Africa Special Envoy, Jeffrey Feltman and other top officials.
The session is entitled: "Challenges and Opportunities for the United States in the Horn of Africa."
Since it will be a closed meeting we will only learn what is being proposed from briefings after the event, but there are already some pointers.
First: Feltman has just come to the end of a long tour of the region. He travelled to Egypt, Eritrea, Sudan, and Ethiopia from May 4 to 13, 2021.
His public objectives were spelled out and can be seen in full below. Essentially, he was aiming to solve the war in Tigray, keep the Sudanese democracy programme on track, end the dispute between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt over the Nile as well as solve the Ethiopia-Sudan conflict over the al-Fashaga triangle. No mean objectives!
We know that his travels included Eritrea, where he sat down with President Isaias for three hours. He also held a meeting with the Ethiopian Foreign Minister.
Second: US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has repeatedly spelled out American frustrations at Eritrea's refusal to leave Tigray. He did so once again on Saturday, 15th May.
As Blinken said: "The continued presence of Eritrean forces in Tigray further undermines Ethiopia's stability and national unity. We again call upon the Government of Eritrea to remove its forces from Tigray. Both Eritrean and Ethiopian authorities have repeatedly promised such a withdrawal, but we have seen no movement towards implementation."
Third: It is now nearly two months since Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed said that Eritrean forces would leave Tigray. There is – as the Americans rightly observe – no sign of this happening. So how can it be brought about?
Sanctions – an essential part of the diplomatic toolkit
The only way of persuading President Isaias that the US and the EU mean business is to hit Eritrea's sources of external funding.
The Eritrean diaspora has – for years – been forced to pay for President Isaias's foreign adventures and subsidise his domestic repression. The notorious 2% tax is extracted from members of the diaspora. So too are taxes to pay for Covid and the military. Failure to pay up results in threats, abuse and a severing of all services by the Eritrean state.
The Dutch showed the way – expelling Eritrea's top diplomat to make it clear that this would not be tolerated.
Canada took the same step in 2013. In 2007 the United States closed the Eritrean consulate in Oakland, California for funneling weapons to Islamists in Somalia.
The 2% tax – and how it has been extracted from Eritreans living abroad has been carefully studied. A Dutch report showed how this happened in Belgium, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Britain.
The US and the EU need to lead the way: Stop the 2% tax and cut funding for Eritrea's war in Tigray
Travel by U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Jeffrey Feltman
OFFICE OF THE SPOKESPERSON
Source: US State Department
Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Jeffrey Feltman has just completed his first visit to the region as U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, traveling to Egypt, Eritrea, Sudan, and Ethiopia from May 4 to 13, 2021.
The Horn of Africa is at an inflection point, and the decisions that are made in the weeks and months ahead will have significant implications for the people of the region as well as for U.S. interests. The United States is committed to addressing the interlinked regional crises and to supporting a prosperous and stable Horn of Africa in which its citizens have a voice in their governance and governments are accountable to their citizens.
A sovereign and united Ethiopia is integral to this vision. Yet we are deeply concerned about increasing political and ethnic polarization throughout the country. The atrocities being perpetrated in Tigray and the scale of the humanitarian emergency are unacceptable. The United States will work with our international allies and partners to secure a ceasefire, end this brutal conflict, provide the life-saving assistance that is so urgently needed, and hold those responsible for human rights abuses and violations accountable. The crisis in Tigray is also symptomatic of a broader set of national challenges that have imperiled meaningful reforms. As Special Envoy Feltman discussed with Prime Minister Abiy and other Ethiopian leaders, these challenges can most effectively be addressed through an inclusive effort to build national consensus on the country's future that is based on respect for the human and political rights of all Ethiopians. The presence of Eritrean forces in Ethiopia is antithetical to these goals. In Asmara, Special Envoy Feltman underscored to President Isaias Afwerki the imperative that Eritrean troops withdraw from Ethiopia immediately.
The political transition in Sudan is a once-in-a-generation opportunity that can serve as an example for the region. As Special Envoy Feltman underscored to Sudan's leadership, the United States will continue to support that country's ongoing transition to democracy so that Sudan can claim its place as a responsible regional actor after three decades as a destabilizing force. We are also committed to working with international partners to facilitate resolution of regional flash points—such as the dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and conflict on Sudan's borders—so they do not undermine the fragile progress made since the revolution.
As Special Envoy Feltman discussed with leaders in Addis Ababa, Cairo, and Khartoum, Egypt and Sudan's concerns over water security and the safety and operation of the dam can be reconciled with Ethiopia's development needs through substantive and results-oriented negotiations among the parties under the leadership of the African Union, which must resume urgently. We believe that the 2015 Declaration of Principles signed by the parties and the July 2020 statement by the AU Bureau are important foundations for these negotiations, and the United States is committed to providing political and technical support to facilitate a successful outcome.
The Special Envoy will return to the region in short order to continue an intensive diplomatic effort on behalf of President Biden and Secretary Blinken.
2% taxAnthony BlinkenEritreaJeffrey FeltmanPresident Joe BidenSanctionsTigrayUS State Department
Previous Post:Anthony Blinken, US Secretary of State: "US gravely concerned by increasing cases of military blocking humanitarian access in Tigray"
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Stefano Dinoia says:
PLEASE ANTONY BLINKEN SECRETARY OF STATE USA,PLEASE TIGRAY PEOPLE DO'NOT BREATH, PLEASE# HELP TIGRAY # TIGRAY GENOCIDE
Pingback: Monday's critical hearing will shape American policy towards the Horn – Sanctions against Eritrea need to be on the table – Mekete Tigray UK


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Q: how to replace a text in file using ansible so i have been a replacing a text in the /etc/yum.repos.d/docker.repo
cat /etc/yum.reops.d/docker.repo
[docker-ce-stable]
name=Docker CE Stable - $basearch
baseurl=https://download.docker.com/linux/rhel/$releasever/$basearch/stable
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://download.docker.com/linux/rhel/gpg

[docker-ce-stable-debuginfo]
name=Docker CE Stable - Debuginfo $basearch
baseurl=https://download.docker.com/linux/rhel/$releasever/debug-$basearch/stable
enabled=0
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://download.docker.com/linux/rhel/gpg

[docker-ce-stable-source]
name=Docker CE Stable - Sources
baseurl=https://download.docker.com/linux/rhel/$releasever/source/stable
enabled=0
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://download.docker.com/linux/rhel/gpg

so if you see in the base URL I would like you to update $releaserver to 8
for that, I tried this
  tasks:
    - name: replace release server
      replace:
        path: /etc/yum.repos.d/docker-ce.repo
        regexp: $releasever
        replace: 8

but it is not replace
any idea how can I replace this and even though I tried to escape in a string like this
        regexp: '$releasever'
        replace: '8'


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We Might See Canceled Half Life 2 Episode 4 Next Week
We Might See the Canceled Half-Life 2: Episode 4 Next Week
NoClips Explores Arkane's Games
Sometime next week, we will be getting our first look at a game that is believed to have been code-named Half-Life 2: Episode 4 (also known as Return to Ravenholm), a planned game by Arkane Studios that never saw the light of day.
Let's get right to it — check out the footage of what may be Half-Life 2: Episode 4 in Noclip's tweet:
(5/7) pic.twitter.com/dCDRD3x71y
— Noclip (@noclipvideo) May 21, 2020
As you can see, the video shows a lot of things that look a heck of a lot like Half-Life 2. There's the pistol and the HUD, for one. If you look carefully, you'll see what may be the HEV (Hazardous Environment) Suit that Gordon Freeman donned during most of the Half-Life games when the unnamed protagonist pistol-whips the humanoid.
As noted in the Half-Life wiki, Half-Life 2: Episode 4 was the codename of a project by Arkane Studios with the working title Return to Ravenholm. As best as we can tell, it was intended to release as an expandalone after Half-Life 2: Episode 3, similar to how Gearbox Software created Half-Life: Opposing Force.
Check out the trailer for The (Untold) History of Arkane Studios by Noclip to see some more of this piece of gaming history:
This missing piece of gaming history is all set to be explored by Noclip next week. Noclip is a group that creates crowdfunded documentaries about video games; its past work includes explorations of small games like Hades and Transistor alongside larger titles like Hitman and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Now, it looks like Noclip is diving into the history of Arkane Studios next week — and we won't just be seeing what may be a canceled Half-Life game.
What Else is Being Shown Besides Half-Life 2: Episode 4?
While a canceled Half-Life game is certainly tantalizing, Noclip will be tackling multiple games in Arkane Studios' catalog, apparently with a mix of released and unreleased games. We took a look at the Twitter thread previewing Noclip's upcoming videos, and this is what we think it's showing:
Arx Fatalis - A first-person role-playing game that launched in mid-2002.
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic - Another first-person RPG which launched in 2006, built on the Source engine (and likely leading to the partnership for future Half-Life games).
The Crossing - Another Valve partnership that was never released.
LMNO - A canceled game project that involved Steven Spielberg.
Half-Life 2: Episode 4 / Return to Ravenholm
Dishonored - A first-person action game where you play a steampunk ninja assassin kind of character, originally launched in 2012.
Prey - A survival horror first-person shooter where a bunch of creepy aliens have been loosed onto a space station orbiting the moon. Released in 2017.
And that's it for now! Checking out this interesting mix of games will certainly be worth a watch; you can see more detail about each of these games on Noclip's YouTube Channel when The Untold History of Arkane Studios premieres next week.
Would you have liked to play any of these canceled games? What's your favorite release by Arkane Studios? Let us know in the comments below!
TechRaptor Recommends
First Person Spotlight - Half-Life: Opposing Force
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Genre Advancing Shooters - Half-Life
Robert N. Adams
I've had a controller in my hand since I was 4 and I haven't stopped gaming since. CCGs, Tabletop Games, Pen & Paper RPGs - I've tried a whole bunch of stuff over the years and I'm always looking to try more!


National Laboratory Sales is proud to announce the line of Bedcolab furniture for labs that they carry. Their mission is to be the furniture lab cabinet supplier of choice by producing high value, ecological products. Bedcolab is one of the leading retailers of laboratory furniture; including laboratory casework and laboratory fume hoods. Bedcolab lab furniture is found in Universities, Pharmaceutical and Biotech companies, hospitals, and Industrial labs. Their designs offer customers and industry professionals a firm dedication towards the success of their laboratory projects.
Each Bedcolab fume hood meets or exceeds the most stringent safety requirements that are available. This makes Bedcolab furniture high quality and the choice for many Universities, Hospitals and Industrial labs. Bedcolab also manufacturers full walk-in radioisotope fume hoods to make it easier for larger equipment to roll in and out of. The Bedcolab secure containment hoods have been tested by R.W.D.I using protocols as specified in the Health Protection Branch Standard. Bedcolab also manufacturers specialty equipment such as flammable solvent storage units and acid storage units. We also carry some Bedcolab fume hoods for you! Whether you need Low velocity hoods, Balanced Air, VAV, ADA, Radioisotope, Perchloric, California type, Student teaching hood, or a designed to your spec floor mounted hoods; we have the right furniture for you! Contact us today to learn more about how we can help furnish your facility with all of your furniture needs.
Fill out our form below to contact National Laboratory Sales today and let us know if you're interested in receiving more information about any of our used Bedcolab laboratory furniture today!


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What to watch on New Year's Eve
So you're staying home on New Year's Eve. Don't worry, there are plenty of entertainment choices for you:
NBC: "New Year's Eve with Carson Daly" starts early at 10 PM, and then returns after the local news at 11:30 PM. The late show will be in high definition (yay!). Carson's guests include 50 Cent, Katy Perry and Ludacris, along with Saturday "Today" co-anchor Amy Robach giving live reports from Times Square, and NBC News correspondent Luke Russert. If you can't get enough Carson, an October rerun with guests Rich Eisen, Bobb'e J. Thompson and The Knux will air in Daly's regular 1:35 AM time slot.
ABC: "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest 2009" also begins at 10 PM. Along with hosts Clark and Seacrest, there will be performances by Taylor Swift, the Jonas Brothers, Natasha Bedingfield, Fall Out Boy, Jesse McCartney, Ne-Yo, Pussycat Dolls, Solange, Lionel Richie and Robin Thicke. Black Eyed Pea Fergie will be the show's Hollywood correspondent.
FOX: Tired of Times Square? Check out "New Year's Eve Live" (11 PM), a Las Vegas-based show featuring Daughtry, "American Idol" David Cook, Scott Weiland and Lynyrd Skynyrd, along with stunts by daredevil Robbie Knievel. The show will be hosted by Spike Feresten and Mark Thompson, with special correspondent Chrissy Russo. The broadcast will include behind-the-scenes looks at three Cirque du Soleil Vegas extravaganzas: "Zumanity," "The Beatles LOVE" and "Criss Angel: Believe."
ESPN: And now for something completely different: "Red Bull: New Year. No Limits," in which Rhys Millen will attempt to backflip an off-road truck. The show will begin after the Chick-Fil-A Bowl (approximately 11 PM).
MTV: "A Miley New Year's Eve" at 10 PM features the tween superstar along with The Veronicas, All Time Low, The Academy Is and Kevin Rudolph.
Disney Channel: If your parents will let you stay up late, "Totally New Year" will be hosted by "Wizards of Waverly Place" cast members. The show runs from 5 PM (!) to midnight.
CNN: "Anderson Cooper 360" will ring in the new year at 11 PM with Kathy Griffin and correspondents all over the world.
PBS: "Live from Lincoln Center" (check local listings) has Lorin Maazel and the New York Philharmonic with mezzo-soprano Susan Graham.
FOX News Channel: UParty 2008, with hosts Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly live from Times Square, kicks off at 10 PM. They promise an "interactive broadcast" with opportunities for viewers to send theier own text messages.
If you flip over to CBS, don't expect David Letterman to be wishing you a happy new year; Dave is probably at his villa in St. Barts. The network will be airing a November rerun with Emma Thompson and Prince tribute band Purple Reign.
Champion Drifter Releases New DVD On Eve of Historic Stunt
Drifting World Champion Rhys Millen to Release Special Edition DVD to Coincide With Highly Anticipated New Years Eve Truck Backflip Stunt
Dec 30, 2008 -- Los Angeles, Calif. -- On the verge of his follow up attempt to become the first person to complete and land a backflip in an off-road truck at the Red Bull: New Year. No Limits New Year's Eve Special Event at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, motor sports phenomenon and professional stunt driver Rhys Millen, winner of the 2005 Formula D Championship and the 2008 Red Bull Drifting World Championship will release the Special Edition DVD Mad Skills: Rhys Millen Is the Kiwi Drifter. A documentary chronicling the final week leading up to Millen's 2005 victory in the early days of professional drifting in the US, the film explores the personalities, friendships and competitive rivalries between Millen and top drivers Tanner Foust and Samuel Hubinette. Featuring appearances by Rhys' father, legendary stock car driver Rod Millen, KTLA reporter Gayle Anderson and an All-Star lineup of professional drifters from across the globe, the film is a must-own for any action sports enthusiast.
"I encourage all my fans to get a copy of my new DVD Mad Skills. It's great to see the GTO in action and relive the behind scenes drama that led up to my Formula Drift championship" said Millen.
Mad Skills is produced by NoCo Media Group and directed by award winning filmmaker Carolyn Coal.
For more information and to order a copy of the DVD visit www.madskillsdvd.com
View the extended trailer at online at www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y3Djx5rALw
About NoCo Media Group:
NoCo Media Group is an entertainment marketing and production company specializing in the use of immersive storytelling to create compelling campaigns for its roster of clients and partners. The company recently completed the documentary feature films A Place to Live: The Story of Triangle Square and Mad Skills and has numerous non-fiction and scripted projects in active development for 2009.
Contact Carolyn Coal at info@nocomediagroup.com
Viacom/Time Warner feud may block Stewart and Colb...
Win tickets to Conan's last New York shows
Regis and Kelly in high definition
Watch talk shows online, Part 2
Coming in March: Craig Ferguson DVD
When news breaks...
When will late night go all-HD?
Welcome to Talk Show News


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Leave a Comment	/ Ambrosia News
MIRACLE MANOR PROVIDES HOMES FOR FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN BATTLING LIFE THREATENING ILLNESSES WITH HELP FROM CORPORATE VOLUNTEERS
BrightView team members volunteer their time and expertise to inspire, support and brighten lives in a Southern California community. Photo Credit by Ambrosia Photography
ORANGE, CA, April 11, 2016 – Nearly 100 volunteers from BrightView landscape services company donated their skills, time and resources on Friday, April 8th to transform Miracle Manor, a newly renovated 28,000 square foot 12-unit apartment complex that provides homes to families at risk of homelessness while their child is receiving treatment at CHOC children's hospital. The team of photographers, video camera men from Ambrosia Event Services documented this amazing day.
Miracle Manor is the newest endeavor from Miracles for Kids, a non-profit organization that provides financial aid, health, wellness and advocacy services to families in Southern California with children battling life threatening illnesses. Thanks to the generosity of community partners such as BrightView, Miracle Manor's renovations, valued at more than $1 million, are being completed at minimal cost to the organization.
"When I was introduced to the Miracle Manor project, I was instantly inspired and we decided to rally together our teams across the region to support this endeavor" said BrightView Vice President Chuck DeGarmo.
DeGarmo and his Southern California regional teams quickly united to create the exterior design for a colorful, safe and healing landscape. Local BrightView teams then sourced all of the materials and donated their time to provide instillation services.
"Fighting a life-threatening illness requires an immense time commitment and often results in depleted savings or income loss," said Autumn Strier, CEO of Miracles for Kids. "Thanks to the generosity of community partners like BrightView, Miracle Manor will provide these families with not just housing stability but also convenient access to CHOC children's hospital and a family-friendly community during their time of need."
In addition to their pro-bono services, BrightView volunteers completed the final touches on the landscaping and prepared each apartment unit by building furniture, decorating kitchens, cleaning the interior and assembling welcome baskets filled with basic essentials for families moving in at the end of the month. BrightView's DesignTeam experts also designed a 170ft. mural, depicting a day in the life at Miracle Manor,which teams painted during their volunteer day.
The first five Miracle Manor families moved in this past December, and an additional seven families are now able to move in upon completion this April, bringing Miracle Manor to 100% occupancy.
"At BrightView, we believe it is important to invest in the communities in which we live and work," said BrightView's Executive Vice President of Public Affairs, Marketing and Communications Rick Martella. "'Taking Care of Communities' is a core component of our brand and something we proudly do every day."
For BrightView, this project is an extension of a partnership with Miracle for Kids that began in early 2015. The company held a previous volunteer day with over 60 employees last December and also a regional holiday gift drive. BrightView's employees take pride in being a part of such an inspiring cause. "What's inspiring to have the opportunity to utilize our skills to support our community," says DeGarmo, "The work done here at Miracle Manor is humbling to everyone involved and as a company we will continue to lend our expertise across the country to support our local communities."
For more photos of the BrightView Volunteer Day, please click here.
About Miracle Manor
Orange County non-profit Miracles for Kids currently is renovating a multi-unit apartment building that will offer subsidized housing to families with children battling chronic or life-threatening illnesses. Named "Miracle Manor," the property is an extension of the organization's commitment to providing financial aid and stability to Orange County's most at-risk families. Located less than a mile from CHOC Hospital in Orange, Calif., Miracle Manor encompasses 12 spacious two- and three-bedroom units. The extensive remodel includes fresh interior and exterior paint, new flooring, and structural improvements to the individual units, new furniture, and a revamped family-friendly outdoor space. Celebrity interior designer and design psychology expert Kelli Ellis also has joined forces with Miracle Manor as the project's lead interior designer.
About BrightView
BrightView takes pride in providing consistent, high-quality landscape and snow services with a dependable service commitment. As the nation's leading landscape services company, BrightView's more than 22,000 team members design, develop, maintain and enhance thousands of clients' properties including housing communities, corporate campuses, healthcare facilities, universities, retail establishments, resorts and more. BrightView takes care of its teams, clients and communities while delivering exceptional landscapes that positively impact millions of lives every day.


"Seeing the Trees in the Forest: Teaching Literature With Data Visualization Techniques." Journal of the Liberal Arts & Sciences (2008).
Abstract: While recent scholarship examined the use of hypertext and other technologies for the teaching of writing, it has rarely taken up the study of conventional linear textual modes—the kind of literature still most frequently studied in college classrooms across the globe. Literary texts are often seen by students as complex, overwhelming, and emphatically closed systems. What practical methods exist for generating the kind of close, self-aware, deliberate literary analysis we want to see from our students? How can we help students see the trees, as it were, within the forest? This essay draws on a variety of freely available electronic tools for data visualization, a set of methods using computers visually to represent abstract data, to model an approach to teaching a sample survey text, Eliza Haywood's Fantomina; or, Love in a Maze (1725). By providing a skills-based handhold on complex textual systems, such technologies can help students attend more closely to the details of the text, its nuances, and its patterns of imagery, motif, symbol, and discourse.


The alternative to a food mill, when there is space in the kitchen and we want to enjoy homemade purees.
This Press potatoes It is the perfect tool to make a puree of potatoes; fast and easy to use, just have to enter the potatoes boiled in the container and press.
And not just potatoes: carrots, pumpkin, rich and healthy soups on his plate.
It is manufactured in stainless steel, material that provides excellent resistance to corrosion and to food acids and salts; It is smooth, non-porous and very hygienic, easy to clean (dishwasher safe), and does not transmit strange food flavors.
The measures of the Press potatoes they are 9 x 28 x 11 cm.


Flash Factor Photography has your solution for portrait photography!
In 2018, Flash Factor Photography was internationally featured at an Athens, Greece Art Gala and nationally published in 2019 by Senior Year Magazine and recognized as one of the Top 200 Senior Photographers in the world. Reach out and discover the Flash Factor Photography difference! Simply click on "portrait photographer" or email us directly at david@flashfactorphotography.com to tell us more about your specific photography needs and get your photo session date/time reserved.
Flash Factor Photography is a portrait photographer based out of Columbus, Ohio. We love to travel and capture original portraits in fun locations anywhere in the world. Contact us today!
Also, be sure to follow us on social media for the latest news by clicking on the icons on the bottom right.


MotoFino is pleased to have entered into an agreement with Walbro and will install Walbro's electronic fuel injections system, known as EEM which stands for Electronic Engine Management into a select line of scooters that will be sold only to dealers. MotoFino is known for building a quality scooter; but now with the Walbro EEM, there is not any scooter on the market in the US with such high quality at such a reasonable price.
Walbro is the world's largest manufacturer of carburetors and a major manufacturer of ignition systems, fuel injection and air/fuel management components, and fuel storage and delivery components for engines targeted at outdoor power equipment, marine, recreational and two-wheel applications.


text:
Q: Can a path have 2 different fill colours at a certain point? I have an area chart.
I would like it to change the fill colour at a certain point along the x axis.
Example: If a value is greater than a certain value, change the fill colour of the path from this point on.
I have been trying the following:
.attr("fill", function (d, i) {
    if (d.timeFrom < d.beforePredictedDate ){
        d3.select(this).style("fill", function (d,i) {
            return "purple"
        });
    }
    else{
        d3.select(this).style("fill", function (d,i) {
            return "green"
        });
    }
}

The ideal outcome would produce something that enables the following:

A: As Robert said, you can make a fill like that using a linearGradient that starts and ends at the colour boundary.

<svg>
    <defs>
        <linearGradient id="grad">
            <stop offset="70%" stop-color="black"/>
            <stop offset="70%" stop-color="limegreen"/>
        </linearGradient>
    </defs>

    <circle cx="150" cy="75" r="75" fill="url(#grad)"/>
</svg>

But for general paths, working out where to position the gradient stops may end up being a pain. So it is probably simpler and better in most cases to use two paths - as Robert said.


Channel 4's Kiri is already one of the best dramas of 2018, and it seems a LOT of people were watching it too.
In fact, so many tuned in to the Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) murder series that it has already become the most-watched drama in the channel's history.
C4 have released the stats, revealing that Kiri was watched on average by 4.9 million viewers with an 18.7% audience share (including on catch-up). That was up average of 2.1 million who watched the show go out live, and it has become the biggest ever drama on All4, taking in half a million views per episode.
That beats the previous record-holder, Humans, which took in a consolidated audience of 4.7 million.
"Dramas like Kiri – British, topical, complex and illuminating – are exactly the kind of dramas we want to make at Channel 4 and we are thrilled that they're able to find such a huge and engaged audience," said C4's head of drama Beth Willis.
The show tells the fictionalised story of a 9-year-old girl who is seemingly abducted before she's about to be adopted.
While the show has received general acclaim, it has sparked some criticism from social workers over the portrayal of troubled social worker Miriam Grayson (Sarah Lancashire), who makes the mistake of letting Kiri have an unsupervised visit from her grandfather before her disappearance.


text:
Homoljski Motivi
Festef
About FESTEF
FESTIVAL OF THE ETHNOLOGICAL TV FILMS – FESTEF
I Preamble
Name of the festival: Festival of the Ethnological TV films – FESTEF (hereinafter referred to as the Festival).
Festival has it's logo, and internet site updated regularly in Serbian and English.
Goals of the Festival: to preserve cultural tradition and identity of Serbian people, national minorities and ethnic groups from Serbia, as well as learning about and interactionwith the cultures and traditions of other nations.
Founder and organizer of the Festival is Cultural center"Veljko Dugošević", Kučevo.
Festival is organized anualy, and lasts at least three days.
This is an international festival.
Festival consists of competitive, informative and special programs, and may have different accompanying programs.
In the course of the first two days of the Festival, professional panel with the subject established and published on the internet beforehand, will be held.
II Festival organization
Festival consists of:
- Festival director
- The Festival art director
- Festival Program selector (who's engagement begins one year before Festival starts)
- Program selector of the specialized program "ETHNOMOBILE"(the engagement begins one month before the Festival starts).
Also, the Festival may appoint a different jury (committee for evaluation) each year.
Responsibilities of the Art director, Program selector and members of the Jury (competition and special programs) are precisely defined by the Decision of appointment.
Organizing and carrying out of the FESTEF program, and appointing all of the committees and individual responsibilities (Article 5) is under the jurisdiction of the director of Cultural center "Kučevo".
III Conditions of participation
The Festival makes selection in two ways:
- By Open call to the authors and the production companies, which is released at least four months before the Festival starts.
- By Program selector's research (scouting) through various festivals internet sites and catalogues, film schools, student film campuses, workshops, etc; by personal contact with authors and producers, and also by watching large number of films during the whole year.
The right to apply to the Festival have: TV stations, independent producers, legal entities registerd for film producing, cultural institutions, and individual authors.
Submission is free of charge. The Festival does not charge registration or screening fee for registered and selected films, nor does it pay the fee for the films that are going to be screened.
Open call, Regulations and Entry form can be downloaded from the Festivals site: www.homoljskimotivikucevo.orgfrom the opening to the closing of the Call.
Films maybe submitted in tree ways:
-by filling out the entryformand emailing it, with the link for viewing of films(Vimeo, YouTube...)
- by website clikforfestivals.com on line submission platform
- or by sending printed application and film on DVD
Festival recommends, in order to mentain the quality, not to send films in DVD-Video format, but as: mp4, mp2, mpg, mov, avi.
Copies of the films are not to be returned to the authors.
Maximum duration of the submitted films to the Festival is 30 minutes (-/+ 5 minutes).
Films longer than 30 minutes may also be submitted, but only 6 films with maximum duration up to 60 minutes will be accepted in the official selection.
Feature-length films could be accepted only in special cases by decision made by the Program selector or the organizers of the Festival.
It is recommended for the films from Ex Yu territories (but not obligatory) to be subtitled or dubbed in English.
All the other films are to be subtitled in English, and also to submit English dialogue list.
After selecting the films, at the latest one month before the Festival starts, the organizer is obliged to inform the applicants about the results of the selection.
Producers and authors of the selected films are to deliver copies prepared for screening, or to inform the organizer whether the qualitiy of the preview copy satisfies the screening needs.
Regardless of the delivered formats, Festival's films are projected from the computer not from the DVD player.
By submitting a film, film rights owner authorizesthe Festival:
- to screen the film without any compensation in money,
- to use up to 3 minutes of the film materials for promotional purposes,
- to screen the entire film for non-commercial and educational purposes, besides the festival screening.
IV Competition programs
Only TV documentaries or the recordings with ethnological or anthropological themes, with both artistic and educational approach, may be included in competetion program of the Festival.
Films have to be produced within 3 years prior to the Festival. Films older than 3 years can be included only by the special decision made by the Organizer.
Films for the competition program are selected by the Festival selector, appointed by the Director of the Festival, a year prior to the opening of the Festival.
Selected films cannot be withdrawn from the program.
Festival has 4 competiton programs:
- National films produced by the TV or film productions, museums and other institutions and independent productions;
- National amateur films;
- International films produced by the TV or film productions, museums and other institutions and independent productions;
- International amateur films;
Films screened in competition programs are evaluated by the Festival Jury comprised of ethnologists, anthropologists and TV/film makers, theorists and critics.
Jury has at least three members and is appointed by the Festival Director.
As a rule, one member of the Jury is from one of the European countries, second one from Ex Yu region, and the third from Serbia.
V FESTEF additional programs
Films which are not selected in competition program are either selected in info program or rejected (not selected in any of the programs).
Special program of the Festival is ETHNOMOBILE.
ETHNOMOBILE program consists of amateur video recordings with themes and quality of the recording according to thegeneral rules of the Festival.
All recordings, lasting up to 5 minutes, made by the mobile phone or amateur camera, are to be submitted as unedited material.
VI Awards
Jury evaluates films screened in competition program by their artistic value, author's originality, authenticity of the ethnological source, a mark that it leaves or will leave in the future.
For competition program, Festival has total of 9 prizes: 7 in national, and 2 in international selection.
Prizes are:
1. For national films:
- "The Golden shepherd" for the Best film of the festival;
- "The Silver shepherd" for the Best ethnological recording;
- "The Silver shepherd" for the Best direction;
- "The Silver shepherd" for the Best script;
- "The Silver shepherd" for the Best editing;
- "The Silver shepherd" for the Best cinematography;
- "The Silver shepherd" for the Best amateur film;
2. For international films:
- "Golden shepherd" and diploma "Cedric Dallier" for The Best ethnological international film".
- "Silver shepherd" for exceptional work in various aspects regarding the making of ethnological films. (Jury verdict should specify: for direction, for ethnologist's research, for amateur ethnological film, and so on...)
Jury and the Organizer of the Festival are allowed to assign the Special Mention in both selections (national and international) if they consider that one of the works needs to be distinguished besides the existing categories, or to distinguish special achievement of an individulal filmmaker or production company.
Grand Prix "The Golden Shepherd" consists of:
- Gilded figurine of a shepherd, work of Dragan Kecman, painter from Kučevo, with inscription: "Grand Prix FESTEF, the year of receiving the award, Kučevo"
- Diploma with the name of the author, and the title of the film, and
- Prize money (the amount is determined annually by the Festival Committee).
The "Silver Shepherd award" consists of:
- Silver plated figurine of a shepherd, work of Dragan Kecman, painter from Kučevo, with inscription "FESTEF, the year of receiving the award, Kučevo";
The Jury announces it's descision on the last day of the Festival at press conference, as a rule, excatly at noon. In the evening of the same day, the awards and diplomas are given at closing ceremony and selected awarded films are screened.
At years of jubilees, anniversaries or in special occasions, the Organizer gives "Lifetime Achievement Award" – to an individual, deserving author or collaborator.
Best films from ETHNOMOBILE program are awarded with the special prizes:
- Special acknowledgement
- Non monetary award (chosen by the Organizer)
VII Guests of the Festival
The Organizer covers the costs for two days of stay (overnight stay with breakfast) for one member of the creative team from every film selected for competition program.
The Art director of the Festival, Program selector and members of the Jury for competition program are to receive money compensation (the amount is determined by the Festival board)
The compensation may be determined for the Program selector and members of the Special program Jury.
The Organizer covers the travelling and hotel costs for the stay in Kučevo for Jury members, Program selector and Art Director (during the preparation and in the course of The Festival)
Article 31.
The Organizer covers the hotel costs for the stay in Kučevo for the other Festival guests (guests of honor, representatives from other festivals etc.)
All authors attending the Festival are expected to participate in panels and professional discussions organized during the Festival, and at the closing ceremony.
The Regulation of the Festival of Ethnological TV film – FESTEF is made by the Board of Cultural center of Kučevo, and by the motion of the Director of that institution.
It is put to effect on the day it of its adoption, and it is published on the bulletin board of Cultural center of Kučevo.
By virtue of the entry to effect of this Regulation, the Regulation from 26th of January 2011, reference seal 3, shall cease to have effect.
FESTEF logo


Shunbun, the Vernal Equinox, has finally arrived. We have been having couple of pleasant sunny days around Tokyo which definitely nurtured buds of cherry blossoms. On 18th, the first bloom of 'Somei-Yoshino', the Yoshino cherryW, blossom was confirmed in Sukumo, KochiW by Local Meteorological Observatory of Kochi prefectureW officially. There are some species of cherry trees which bloom earlier as Kawazu cherry blossoms of Kawazu, ShizuokaW in February but when Japanese speak of cherry blossoms, the cherry blossom is mainly Yoshino cherry trees'. How longing for the bloom of Yoshino cherries to the Japanese could be proven easily by the word 'Sakura zensen', meaning the cherry-blossom front, or by the forecast of cherry blossoms' flowering time reported in several medias often at this time of the year.
The first Yoshino cherry blossom bloom of 2014 at Sukumo, Kouchi prefecture. Photo from Japan Meteorological Agency ofifcial site.
By reading Wikipedia's Cherry blossomW article, you could find out roughly on why the Japanese have special affection on this tree blossom. There, you will find both positive and negative symbolic means of cherry trees to the Japanese which could be misunderstood without presupposing the basis of Japanese spiritual nature originated in the Yin and yangW philosophy of ancient China, developed independently in Japan.
However, most Japanese adore this time of the season and the cherry blossoms simply because of their profoundly memorable events they have experienced. New Year's start, like the NowruzW, the Iranian or Persian New Year in the Middle East, Japan has the substantial new year start as the fiscal year ends at this time of the year. Graduation, job relocation, retiring, new school entrance and newly-joining happen to many in the background of cherry blossoms in bloom which are left as unforgettable parting and encountering memories.
College students attending graduation ceremony in kimono and hakamaW.
The modern love towards 'Sakura', the cherry blossom, is reflected in many fields still today. J-pop music, fashion, food, Manga and Anime associated with cherry blossoms come into vogue especially at this time of the year. Many girls born at this time of the year is named 'Sakura' or with names using the Chinese character for 'Sakura'.
'Hana-mi', simply a Japanese noun meaning blossom viewing but the blossom is emphasized on cherry blossoms, should be taking places in many parks with cherry trees, day and night, having picnic-sort of gatherings with families, friends or colleagues, though quite a lot is only keen on eating and drinking, not looking at the blossoms. There is a very famous old saying in Japanese to these sort of people, 'Hana yori dango', meaning dumplings than flowers!
Hana-mi in Edo period at Gotenyama, now in Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo. Drawn by Hiroshige Utagawa.
"Hana-yori-dango" people enjoying themselves more dancing, drinking and eating than flower viewing!
Noble Japanese dressed in western outfit in Meiji period in Asuka-yama, now known as Asukayama Park in Kita-ku, Tokyo, still one of the major spots for Hana-mi. Drawn by Chikanobu Yoshiyu.
Hana-mi nowadays. More of a friend-gatherings than viewing flowers.
21st March, this year in 2014, is a national holiday in Japan called Vernal Equinox day. The purport of this day stated in the Japanese National Holidays Law is for us to praise the nature and love the creature. It will be three consecutive days off this coming weekend in Japan when many would be expected to go out for their excursion into nature. It is still a bit early for the 'Hana-mi' but if you are in Japan now and are planning to go outside the cities into countryside, beware of the unexpected traffic jams.
'Suzume', the Eurasian Tree SparrowW, is the most common and familiar bird we see everywhere in Japan. As it is a typical synanthropeW, there are several fables related on this tiny bird as well as poems written and Japanese paintings on it in Japan. It is interesting that Suzume, the subdued brown colour bird, as it may not seem artistic by its colour and style, has been keeping interest of the past Japanese artists. The spirit of Wabi-sabiW, the aesthetic sense of the Japanese which emphasizes the quiet simplicity and subdued refinement are often aroused when there are plain motifs in splendid arts, and of course, there should be such sort of spirit underneath those arts but taking and looking at them easily, we think they are simply cute and loving, just like the Easter bunnies or chicks at this time of the year in occidental Christian countries.
As Suzume is not a migratory bird which can been seen throughout the year, it is hard to tell the season by only expressing their given proper noun but by adding certain adjective like 'Fukura-suzume', meaning ruffled Suzume pointing Suzume ruffling to avoid cold in mid winter, or by describing their action has been some seasonal word from the past in Japan. Suzume was used a lot because it was a common bird that could be seen everywhere for the Japanese and has been a motif which almost everyone could easily imagine. Because of Suzume's such characteristic, it should have been also a motif or a symbol for most without fame or wealth which could superimpose themselves on. Suzume, as a creature to the Japanese, having both faces, of a useful bird and a harmful bird regarding rice farming, may have also influenced on superimposing themselves on….
'Suzume', Eurasian Tree Sparrow, holding bamboo grass for it's nest. Photo from 'Mori-no tousan Kachofugetsu'.
As described above, this time of the year in Japan is where departing and new life starts. Many who are expecting their new start in new places would be busy preparing, on the other hand, for those who doesn't would be helping those busy or would be watching over them.
Today's season phrase may have been through the eyes of those who are watching over someone close leaving, like parents watching over their children getting packed to leave their home, starting their new life.
Classical Japanese paintings of bamboo shoots and Suzume. Drawn by Hako Irie.
The following word after 'Suzume' is a word we have come up to several times before, 'hajimete', meaning, for the first time. Therefore, Suzume is into action, the next following verb 'sukuu', for the first time. 'Sukuu' is a verb meaning, to build a nest. So, the whole meaning of the phrase would be, Suzume start to build their nests for the first time, which, not only to the wild creatures but can be a scene to those who would superimpose their lives, starting their new life at this time of the year in Japan.
Whenever writing these articles, we find out many things for the first time when looking up at many resources. Until today, we thought we would have to post the binominal name when introducing today's seasonal item in English but no. There is a decent English name to this plant which utters the feature of this plant looking like a horse tail! The Japanese name given to this plant is called 'Sugina' which literally means cedar vegetable which also describes well of its figure.
Tsukushi, field horsetail buds, blooming on the ditch.
Sugina was passed down as a herbal medicine, known for its diuretic effect and has been thought to be good on dropsy. Nowadays, it is said to be effective for those who suffer from hay fever though its' effect is not publically proven, a folk medicine.
Tsukushi, that used to be spring vegetable which can be picked in wild.
Tusukushi is a discrete name given to the buds of Sugina in Japanese. There is no record on why this certain name was given especially to the bud, maybe because it was a bud that attracted people's attention where there were no other plants on early spring ground or that people were aware of Sugina as they were important medicine when there was only few. The kanjiW for Tsukushi / 土筆 is written with two kanji meaning 'the soil' and 'a brush', a phonetic symbol which cannot be read as 'Tsukushi' if you don't know how to read it but expresses its feature. Tsukushi can be easily found if you look carefully on the ditches of the field as its colour is soil-like brown.
Tsukushi can be eaten and it surely has been one of the edible wild plant that represents the spring arrival in the past. You cannot buy Tsukushi in supermarkets as they aren't distributed in the market but if you ever have a chance trying the private cuisine in the countryside or find some in the ditches of the countryside, it will be interesting for you to try.
You need to take off the scales of the stalk first and boil them to get rid of the harshness, until tender (about 3 to 5 minutes). Next, put into cool water for about 30 minutes to get rid of the harshness completely after boiling. Wring water-soaked Tsukushi and cut into the easy-to-eat size. Put Tsukushi, DashiW, sugar and soy sauce in a pan, cook for about 15 to 20 minutes with a lid on. Beat eggs and pour the eggs in the pan, turn off the fire and put the lid on again. Leave it until the egg turns soft-boil, there you have the most generic menu of Tsukushi in Japan, 'Tsukushi no tamago toji', Egg-bound Tsukushi! Typical spring dish in the countryside of Japan.


text:
<?php

require_once dirname(__FILE__) . '/../exception/EngineException.php';
require_once dirname(__FILE__) . '/Database.php';

/**
 * A class for holding application data structures.
 *
 * @author     Hans Lellelid <hans@xmpl.org> (Propel)
 * @author     Leon Messerschmidt <leon@opticode.co.za> (Torque)
 * @author     John McNally <jmcnally@collab.net> (Torque)
 * @author     Daniel Rall <dlr@finemaltcoding.com> (Torque)
 * @version    $Revision$
 * @package    propel.generator.model
 */
class AppData
{

    /**
     * The list of databases for this application.
     *
     * @var        Database[]
     */
    private $dbList = array();

    /**
     * The platform class for our database(s).
     *
     * @var        string
     */
    private $platform;

    /**
     * The generator configuration
     *
     * @var        GeneratorConfig
     */
    protected $generatorConfig;

    /**
     * Name of the database. Only one database definition
     * is allowed in one XML descriptor.
     */
    private $name;

    /**
     * Flag to ensure that initialization is performed only once.
     *
     * @var        boolean
     */
    private $isInitialized = false;

    /**
     * Creates a new instance for the specified database type.
     *
     * @param PropelPlatformInterface $defaultPlatform The default platform object to use for any databases added to this application model.
     */
    public function __construct(PropelPlatformInterface $defaultPlatform = null)
    {
        if (null !== $defaultPlatform) {
            $this->platform = $defaultPlatform;
        }
    }

    /**
     * Sets the platform object to use for any databases added to this application model.
     *
     * @param PropelPlatformInterface $defaultPlatform
     */
    public function setPlatform(PropelPlatformInterface $defaultPlatform)
    {
        $this->platform = $defaultPlatform;
    }

    /**
     * Gets the platform object to use for any databases added to this application model.
     *
     * @return PropelPlatformInterface
     */
    public function getPlatform()
    {
        return $this->platform;
    }

    /**
     * Set the generator configuration
     *
     * @param GeneratorConfigInterface $generatorConfig
     */
    public function setGeneratorConfig(GeneratorConfigInterface $generatorConfig)
    {
        $this->generatorConfig = $generatorConfig;
    }

    /**
     * Get the generator configuration
     *
     * @return GeneratorConfig
     */
    public function getGeneratorConfig()
    {
        return $this->generatorConfig;
    }

    /**
     * Set the name of the database.
     *
     * @param string $name
     */
    public function setName($name)
    {
        $this->name = $name;
    }

    /**
     * Get the name of the database.
     *
     * @return string name
     */
    public function getName()
    {
        return $this->name;
    }

    /**
     * Get the short name of the database (without the '-schema' postfix).
     *
     * @return string name
     */
    public function getShortName()
    {
        return str_replace("-schema", "", $this->name);
    }

    /**
     * Return an array of all databases
     *
     * @return Database[]
     */
    public function getDatabases($doFinalInit = true)
    {
        // this is temporary until we'll have a clean solution
        // for packaging datamodels/requiring schemas
        if ($doFinalInit) {
            $this->doFinalInitialization();
        }

        return $this->dbList;
    }

    /**
     * Returns whether this application has multiple databases.
     *
     * @return boolean True if the application has multiple databases
     */
    public function hasMultipleDatabases()
    {
        return (count($this->dbList) > 1);
    }

    /**
     * Return the database with the specified name.
     *
     * @param string $name        database name
     * @param bool   $doFinalInit
     *
     * @return Database|null
     */
    public function getDatabase($name = null, $doFinalInit = true)
    {
        // this is temporary until we'll have a clean solution
        // for packaging datamodels/requiring schemas
        if ($doFinalInit) {
            $this->doFinalInitialization();
        }

        if ($name === null) {
            return $this->dbList[0];
        }

        for ($i = 0, $size = count($this->dbList); $i < $size; $i++) {
            $db = $this->dbList[$i];
            if ($db->getName() === $name) {
                return $db;
            }
        }

        return null;
    }

    /**
     * Checks whether a database with the specified nam exists in this AppData
     *
     * @param string $name database name
     *
     * @return boolean
     */
    public function hasDatabase($name)
    {
        foreach ($this->dbList as $db) {
            if ($db->getName() === $name) {
                return true;
            }
        }

        return false;
    }

    /**
     * Add a database to the list and sets the AppData property to this
     * AppData
     *
     * @param Database|string $db the database to add
     *
     * @return Database
     */
    public function addDatabase($db)
    {
        if ($db instanceof Database) {
            $db->setAppData($this);
            if ($db->getPlatform() === null) {
                if ($config = $this->getGeneratorConfig()) {
                    $pf = $config->getConfiguredPlatform(null, $db->getName());
                    $db->setPlatform($pf ? $pf : $this->platform);
                } else {
                    $db->setPlatform($this->platform);
                }
            }
            $this->dbList[] = $db;

            return $db;
        } else {
            // XML attributes array / hash
            $d = new Database();
            $d->setAppData($this);
            $d->loadFromXML($db);

            return $this->addDatabase($d); // calls self w/ different param type
        }
    }

    public function doFinalInitialization()
    {
        if (!$this->isInitialized) {
            for ($i = 0, $size = count($this->dbList); $i < $size; $i++) {
                $this->dbList[$i]->doFinalInitialization();
            }
            $this->isInitialized = true;
        }
    }

    /**
     * Merge other appData objects into this object
     *
     * @param AppData[] $ads
     *
     * @throws Exception
     */
    public function joinAppDatas($ads)
    {
        foreach ($ads as $appData) {
            foreach ($appData->getDatabases(false) as $addDb) {
                $addDbName = $addDb->getName();
                if ($this->hasDatabase($addDbName)) {
                    $db = $this->getDatabase($addDbName, false);
                    // temporarily reset database namespace to avoid double namespace decoration (see ticket #1355)
                    $namespace = $db->getNamespace();
                    $db->setNamespace(null);
                    // join tables
                    foreach ($addDb->getTables() as $addTable) {
                        if ($db->getTable($addTable->getName())) {
                            throw new Exception(sprintf('Duplicate table found: %s.', $addTable->getName()));
                        }
                        $db->addTable($addTable);
                    }
                    // join database behaviors
                    foreach ($addDb->getBehaviors() as $addBehavior) {
                        if (!$db->hasBehavior($addBehavior->getName())) {
                            $db->addBehavior($addBehavior);
                        }
                    }
                    // restore the database namespace
                    $db->setNamespace($namespace);
                } else {
                    $this->addDatabase($addDb);
                }
            }
        }
    }

    /**
     * Returns the number of tables in all the databases of this AppData object
     *
     * @return integer
     */
    public function countTables()
    {
        $nb = 0;
        foreach ($this->getDatabases() as $database) {
            $nb += $database->countTables();
        }

        return $nb;
    }

    /**
     * Creates a string representation of this AppData.
     * The representation is given in xml format.
     *
     * @return string Representation in xml format
     */
    public function toString()
    {
        $result = "<app-data>\n";
        foreach ($this->dbList as $dbList) {
            $result .= $dbList->toString();
        }
        if ($this->dbList) {
            $result .= "\n";
        }
        $result .= "</app-data>";

        return $result;
    }

    /**
     * Magic string method
     *
     * @see toString()
     */
    public function __toString()
    {
        return $this->toString();
    }
}