text:
Jules de Trooz, né le  à Louvain et mort le  à Bruxelles, est un homme politique belge. Il fut chef du gouvernement belge entre mai 1907 et décembre 1907.

Biographie

Jules Henri Ghislain Marie de Trooz est né le  à Louvain et a étudié la philosophie avant d'entrer en politique. Il représenta Louvain à la Chambre des représentants à partir de 1899, étant ensuite ministre de l'Éducation puis de l'Intérieur. Il devint Premier ministre le  mais mourut le 31 décembre de la même année à Bruxelles. "Malheureusement, cet homme d'action était miné par le diabète et l'albuminurie. Il usa ses dernières forces au cours des pénibles débats parlementaires qui caractérisèrent l'année 1907. Soudain, son état s'aggrava et il expira dans la nuit du 31 décembre 1907." Biographie nationale de l'académie royale de Belgique.

Hommage
 Avenue Jules de Trooz à Woluwe-Saint-Pierre.
 Square Jules de Trooz à Bruxelles-Ville.

Liens externes

Premier ministre de Belgique
Ministre belge de l'Intérieur
Baron belge
Grand-croix de l'ordre du Sauveur
Grand officier de la Légion d'honneur
Chevalier de l'ordre de Léopold
Chevalier de l'ordre de Pie IX
Récipiendaire de l'ordre du Double Dragon
Naissance en février 1857
Naissance à Louvain
Décès en décembre 1907
Décès à Bruxelles
Décès à 50 ans

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


When preparing to carry out streetworks, comprehensive planning is vital if risks are to be minimised, but putting together a map of underground utilities can be an arduous task.
Asset owners are entitled to take up to 28 days to provide their information, which they might supply digitally or by post, and that data must then be standardised and collated into a workable map. If the work needs to be carried out quickly, preparations can suffer, and even exhaustive CAT and genny searches can fail to reveal everything that lies beneath the surface. Should workers make unexpected discoveries while digging, the result can be delays, spiralling costs and even injuries or deaths.
Geospatial data and mapping company Ordnance Survey led the sprint, which saw involvement from a wide range of practitioners including field crews, planners, IT staff and lawyers, who worked to create a data-sharing agreement, explore business case development and value generation, and examine how the project could be implemented technically.
Over the course of the five days, the team came up with a blueprint for a digital mapping system that could provide a detailed, accurate picture of the subsurface space, related to above-ground reference points.
"We had a 'mapathon' – a map-themed hackathon – where we brought about 50 or 60 people together to create this integrated underground map of the North-East of England," Carsten Roensdorf, spatial data infrastructure and digital platform lead at Ordnance Survey, tells WET News.
In December, the project progressed to the 'sandbox' stage, which saw the creation of a prototype map covering an area of Sunderland that extends across approximately 140,000 properties.
Ordnance Survey provided the 'base' of the map, including address and street information, while Northumbrian Water, Northern Gas Networks, Northern Powergrid, Openreach, Newcastle City Council, Sunderland City Council and Durham County Council supplied information such as the location of pipework and cables as well as Sites of Special Scientific Interest and polluted areas.
The asset owners and their contractors have been experimenting with the prototype to establish any areas for improvement, and the next step will be developing the interface to make the data-sharing process more automated.
At the launch of the sandbox phase, Northumbrian Water's Surman-Wells suggested the map could be "a real game-changer for a number of different industries", and Roensdorf is hopeful it will inspire substantial improvements.
"From a business case development side, we really looked at the efficiencies and what it means for individual utilities," Roensdorf says.
"Utilities have a legal obligation to make information on their assets available, but that process of collating information packs that then go out to the field engineers is quite cumbersome – it takes quite a lot of effort and time within the utilities. The result they get is individual maps that are not integrated and are based on a variety of different specifications, and they look very different depending on which organisation they come from.
This article originally appeared in the February issue of WET News.


Push may be long gone, but there are other talking trashcans at Walt Disney World. Guests dining at the Electric Umbrella inside EPCOT's Future World, are usually surprised to find there is a community of tiny voices living inside a certain trash can.
I love that it's totally unexpected and completely magical when you encounter it. Part of what makes a Disney vacation so magical.
What specific details do you find magical about your Disney vacation?


Smoky grilled shrimp play well against the cooling herbs and noodles of the salad. Prep and Cook Time: 25 minutes, plus at least 15 minutes to marinate. Notes: Soak the skewers in water for at least 1/2 hour before grilling. You can use a grill pan or broiler instead of a grill.
In a medium bowl, whisk together lemon grass, garlic, chili sauce, fish sauce, sugar, olive oil, lime juice, pepper, and green onions. Add shrimp and toss to coat. Let marinate 15 minutes at room temperature or up to 1 hour in the refrigerator.
Prepare a gas or charcoal grill for high heat (you can hold your hand 1 to 2 in. above grill level only 2 to 3 seconds). Brush grill with vegetable oil. Thread shrimp onto skewers and grill until curled, pink, and opaque, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Remove skewers and garnish with mint.


A golfer who lost his leg to bone cancer is back in the swing of things thanks to the Ottobock C-Leg, a prosthesis which helps him tackle the fairways and greens with ease.
Brad Smith, 24, of Holt in Norfolk, was about to turn professional at Thetford Golf Club when his cancer symptoms began. Within a few months from his first visit to the doctor, suffering pain and swelling in his knee, he was undergoing chemotherapy and adjusting to life as an amputee.
• Explore the home of golf... by plane!
Initially given a mechanical 'free' knee prosthesis, Brad adapted to life as best he could and made a return to the game he loved, but a fall while holding his two young sons made him realise just how vulnerable he was.
However, four months ago he was fitted with the C-Leg, a microprocessor knee (MPK) joint designed to help above-knee amputees walk with a much more stable and efficient gait.
It contains a range of technologies which work intuitively with the person wearing it, meaning it can tackle all types of terrains and prevent falls. As a result most wearers benefit from an increase in activity level and a range of overall health improvements.
Since getting the C-Leg, Brad – who is a member at Royal Cromer Golf Club – is almost back to his very best.
He said: "Before my cancer diagnosis I was playing off a handicap of two, now I'm five so I'm not far off. It's great to be back on the course and back working on my game. There's been a bit of adjustment, and I'm still tinkering with my style, but I can play how I used to play now and that's great.


The name for the melted iron produced in a blast furnace, containing a large quantity of carbon (above 1.5%). Named long ago when molten iron was poured through a trench in the ground to flow into shallow earthen holes, the arrangement looked like newborn pigs suckling. The central channel became known as the sow, and the molds were pigs.


text:
EXCEPT WHERE INDICATED, THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED ON THIS PAGE ARE NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF THE MADISON TIMES
Ballot Talk 101: Don't Skip the Referendums
By Ana Martinez-Ortiz
If there's one thing most Americans can agree on, is that its citizens and residents are the patriotic sort. Part of this streak of patriotism is performing one's civic duty, which includes exercising one's right to vote.
In a few short weeks, the Spring General Election will be upon Milwaukeeans. The election is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, April 7. While the ballot will include candidates for the Mayor, Milwaukee County Executive and others, there will also be some referendums.
Referendums are a way for voters to have their say on a matter that directly impacts them. Often times, however, referendums aren't talked about and voters either find their uninformed on the matter or ignore them completely.
Come this April, there is a referendum on the ballot that cannot be ignored. Known as the Victims' Rights Amendment or Marsy's Law for Wisconsin, this referendum has the potential to change Wisconsin.
Equal Rights for Wisconsin, the grassroots movement advocating for equal rights for victims of crimes, is the group behind Marsy's Law for Wisconsin.
According to the group's website, Marsy's Law is name for Marsy Nicholas, a young woman who attended University of California Santa Barbara. Nicholas was stalked and killed by her ex-boyfriend. One day, shortly after visiting her daughter's grave, Nicholas's mother and brother went to the grocery store and ran into the accused murdered.
The Nicholas family was unaware that the accused has been released on bail. As was protocol, courts and law enforcement were not required to inform victim's families that the accused has been released. But Marsy's Law changed that.
According to the website, under the law, "Courts must consider the safety of victims and families when setting bail and release conditions. Family members have legal standings in bail hearings, sentencing and parole hearings."
Marsy's Law was passed in California, Illinois, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Nevada, North Carolina and Oklahoma. Wisconsin could be next, but its up to residents to decide.
Wisconsin and Milwaukee in particular are no strangers to crime. In recent months, there's been several prominent cases of domestic abuse and gun violence exists throughout the city.
These crimes are issues that plague Milwaukee and unfortunately, they won't disappear overnight. It's going to take a lot of time and effort on everyone's part to make Milwaukee and by extension Wisconsin a safe place to live, work and raise a family.
In a place where tensions can run high, victims and their families deserve to feel safe and informed.
Marsy's Law could be a part of that goal. So come election day, don't forget to vote on the referendums. To learn more about
Marsy's Law for Wisconsin go to equalrightsforwi.com.
The Spring General Election is scheduled for Tuesday, April 7. Voters need a photo ID. To learn more about the ballot including absentee ballots and early voting go to myvote.wi.gov.
Popular Interests In This Article: Ana Martinez-Ortiz, Marsys Law for Wisconsin, Referendums, Voting
'People are Looking for Change': Alex Lasry Talks His Campaign for U.S. Senate
Children's Wisconsin Talks New Mental Health Walk-In Clinic
Judge Says Absentee Ballot Drop Boxes Are Not Allowed
Mayor Barrett To Be Next Ambassador to Luxembourg
'These Deaths Only Tell Part of the Story': County Leaders Sign Opioid Settlement Agreement

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Linux AX25-HOWTO, Amateur Radio.: A note on callsigns, addresses and things before we start.
Each AX.25 and NetRom port on your system must have a callsign/ssid allocated to it. These are configured in the configuration files that will be described in detail later on.
Some AX.25 implementations such as NOS and BPQ will allow you to configure the same callsign/ssid on each AX.25 and NetRom port. For somewhat complicated technical reasons Linux does not allow this. This isn't as big a problem in practise as it might seem.
Each AX.25 and NetRom port must be configured with a unique callsign/ssid.
NetRom will use the callsign/ssid specified for it in its configuration file, but this callsign is only used when your NetRom is speaking to another NetRom, this is not the callsign/ssid that AX.25 users who wish to use your NetRom `node' will use. More on this later.
|          | a check that the link is still active.
|          | assuming the connection has failed.
|          | before we close it down.
The 2.1.* and 2.0.* +moduleXX kernels have a new feature that allows you to change many previously unchangable parameters at run time. If you take a careful look at the /proc/sys/net/ directory structure you will see many files with useful names that describe various parameters for the network configuration. The files in the /proc/sys/net/ax25/ directory each represents one configured AX.25 port. The name of the file relates to the name of the port.
In the table T1, T2 and T3 are given in seconds, and the Idle Timeout is given in minutes. But please note that the values used in the sysctl interface are given in internal units where the time in seconds is multiplied by 10, this allows resolution down to 1/10 of a second. With timers that are allowed to be zero, eg T3 and Idle, a zero value indicates that the timer is disabled.


Improve your game and fitness in a series of feeding drills and exercises that are guaranteed to make you sweat! The coaches will ensure that you get a great cardio workout, hit a ton of balls and do some tennis-related exercises.
1 Tues April 30, May 6, 13, 27 6-7 p.m.
2 Thurs May 2, 9, 16, 23 (May 30*) 6-7 p.m.
3 Tues June 4, 11, 18, 25 6-7 p.m.
4 Thurs June 6, 13, 20, 27 6-7 p.m.
5 Tues July 2, 9, 16, 23 (July 30*) 6-7 p.m.
6 Thurs July 4, 11, 18, 25 6-7 p.m.
7 Tues Aug 6, 13, 20, 27 6-7 p.m.
8 Thurs Aug 1, 8, 15, 22 (Aug 29*) 6-7 p.m.
Please visit the Lesson Registration page for registration details.
Questions concerning lessons can be directed to head tennis pro, Ben Armstrong, at: headpro@howardparktennis.com or (416) 995-2237.


TORONTO -- Magna International reported higher profits on Thursday, citing a 40 percent increase in sales.
Magna said it earned $193 million for the second quarter ended June 30. That compares with a profit of $172 million in the year-earlier period.
The Aurora, Ontario-based company said revenue rose 40 percent to $5.1 billion from $3.7 billion, topping forecasts for $4.9 billion.
For 2004, Magna sees sales between $19 billion and $20 billion, compared with sales of $15.3 billion last year.
Magna, which generates much of its business from the Big Three U.S. automakers, said the value of Magna parts in vehicles rose 15 percent in North America and 86 percent in Europe.
Magna is sixth on the Automotive News ranking of top global suppliers in 2003 with $15.3 billion in sales.


APC Overnight's investment in its bespoke national sortation centre in Staffordshire last year certainly paid dividends, as it enabled it to significantly increase overnight capacity by over 50% this figure set to be improved upon substantially when the new sky sorter is in operation.
The company has also unveiled plans to add 45 new moving double-deck, curtain-sided trailers to its trunking fleet over the next three months the firm's biggest trunking investment to date, including the replacement of its van fleet.
Karl Brown, CEO at APC Overnight, commented: Our investment in two new sky sortation systems, in addition to our biggest ever outlay in support of our trunking fleet, represents the latest of our strategic plans to meeting the growing demand for our services nationwide. An efficient operation at our national sortation centre is key to our ability to maintain exceptionally high service levels for our customers.
Having grown so rapidly since our business was formed 20 years ago, it is important we continue to show the same levels of ambition as we did the very day APC Overnight was born. By continuing to invest in the operational side of our business, we aim to allow even more UK customers to take advantage of our wide range of delivery options.


text:
The Occupation of Gori was the military occupation of Gori and its surrounding areas by Russian military forces, which started on 13 August 2008 as part of the Russo-Georgian War; it ended with the withdrawal of Russian units from the city on 22 August 2008.

Background and initial airstrikes
Gori is a strategic city in central Georgia, about  from Tskhinvali. Gori is a major military installation and transportation hub in Georgia. 75 tanks and armored personnel carriers (a third of the Georgian military's arsenal) were assembled near Gori on 7 August.

Around 6:27 AM on 9 August 2008, Reuters reported that two Russian fighters had bombed a Georgian artillery position about 10 km north of Gori. On 9 August, a Russian air attack targeted military barracks in Gori. In the resulting explosion, besides the base, several apartment buildings and a school were also damaged. The Georgian government reported that 60 civilians were killed when bombs hit the apartment buildings. According to the Russian media, Russian aircraft dropped three bombs on an armament depot, and the façade of one of the adjacent 5-story apartment buildings suffered damage as a result of exploding ammunition from the depot. Russian aircraft had bombed at least five Georgian cities by 9 August.

Georgian abandonment

Following its defeat in Tskhinvali, the Georgian Army regrouped at Gori. Georgian military entered the city on 10 August. On 10 August, BBC reported that people were leaving Gori because they feared of Russian advance towards the city. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and World Food Programme determined that about 80 percent of residents had left Gori as of 10 August. Russians began advancing towards Gori.

On 11 August 2008, the Georgian forces retreated from Gori. A senior Georgian security official, Kakha Lomaia, said that the troops were ordered to defend Tbilisi. Police sealed off the highway from Tbilisi, and did not allow any cars into the city. The Russian attacks were met with Georgian artillery firing towards South Ossetia, and at least six Georgian helicopters were reported to have also attacked targets in South Ossetia. A Times reporter described the Georgian withdrawal as "sudden and dramatic", saying that the "residents watched in horror" as their army abandoned their positions. Georgian tanks and armored personnel carries fled to Tbilisi. A tank exploded on the mountain road due to unspecified reasons, and an armored car pushing it out of the way also caught fire. Georgian infantry fled the city by any means available. Five soldiers escaped the city on one Quad bike. By late 11 August, Gori was deserted after most remaining residents and Georgian soldiers had fled.  Initial Georgian reports that Russian troops were in Gori, were later discounted by Georgia.

Georgian armed forces concentrated on holding Mtskheta,  from the capital Tbilisi. Deputy Defense Minister Batu Kutelia said that the defense line was being moved to Mtskheta.

The final air attacks
On 12 August 2008, a Dutch television journalist Stan Storimans was killed and another journalist injured when Russian warplanes bombed the city. As a result of the explosion 7 people were killed, over 30 were injured. Georgian officials said Russian forces had been targeting the city's administrative buildings; the university of Gori and its post office were on fire after the bombings. Russia's deputy head of the General Staff, Colonel-General Anatoliy Nogovitsyn, denied that Russian forces had attacked the town. That day, a missile struck the Gori Military Hospital.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), an international rights group, accused Russia of deploying indiscriminately deadly cluster bombs in civilian areas.

Russian military official denied using cluster munitions. Numerous unexploded submunitions were subsequently found by local population in the Gori district and the HRW documented them.

Russian occupation

Several hours after the ceasefire agreement was reached, a Russian tank battalion occupied parts of Gori. Rumors of a possible attack on Tbilisi circulated. Russian troops took control of Gori on 13 August 2008. Russian troops said they were removing military hardware and ammunition from an arms depot outside Gori. A Russian armored column left Gori, traveling along the main road to Tbilisi. Russian forces then halted their advance and camped out in a field about an hour's drive from Tbilisi.

In the morning of 14 August,vehicles from the Georgian police and military prepared to re-enter Gori. Russian major general Vyacheslav Borisov told Aleksandre Lomaia, secretary of Georgia's National Security Council, that the residents of Gori were not disturbed by the Russians' presence. Later, Russian forces allowed Georgian police to return. Vyacheslav Borisov claimed that the city of Gori was controlled jointly by Georgian Police and Russian troops. He further said that Russian troops would start leaving Gori in two days. But joint patrols soon broke down because of apparent discord among personnel and the city returned to full Russian control. More than 30 police officers returned to a Georgian post outside the city.

Russian forces pushed to about  from Tbilisi, the closest during the war; they stopped in Igoeti . The parts of Georgia's army, which had manned a narrow front in the immediate vicinity down the road, maintained their positions. The Russian move coincided with the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's meeting with Georgian president Saakashvili on 15 August.

"Now Ossetians are running around and killing poor Georgians in their enclaves," said Major-General Vyacheslav Borisov on 14 August. A Russian lieutenant said: "We have to be honest. The Ossetians are marauding." Answering a journalist's question, a Russian lieutenant colonel said: "We're not a police force, we're a military force. [...] It's not our job to do police work." The New York Times noted, that "the Russian military might be making efforts in some places to stop the rampaging". On 17 August, BBC reported that humanitarian aid was being delivered to the city. The Russian commander in Gori said his troops were staying to prevent looting and would leave when Georgian police was ready to take over.

According to the Hague Convention, an occupying power has to insure public order and safety in the occupied areas. The Russian human rights group Memorial called the attacks by South Ossetian militia "pogroms".

Russian pullout of Gori
The last Russian military formations left the city late on 22 August 2008, and Georgian law enforcement units moved into Gori shortly thereafter.

References

Russo-Georgian War
Cluster bomb attacks
Gori
Gori
Gori
Military occupation
Gori, Georgia
August 2008 events in Asia
Russian war crimes in Georgia (country)
Gori


text:
Q: Rails Gmail contact form - works on localhost but not when deployed to Heroku I am having a strange problem, I am coding a GMAIL contact form - which will use an existing Gmail username and password to send emails to a pre-specified Gmail account.
The issue I am having is that when I run everything locally it works just fine. Once I deploy to Heroku on the other hand ... I am not receiving the messages. When I run: heroku logs -t it seems to show that the message has been sent but nothing is still coming through.
Configuration:
ActionMailer::Base.default_url_options = { :host => 'domain.herokuapp.com' }
ActionMailer::Base.delivery_method = :smtp
ActionMailer::Base.perform_deliveries = true
ActionMailer::Base.raise_delivery_errors = true
ActionMailer::Base.smtp_settings = {
  :address              => "smtp.gmail.com",
  :port                 => 587,
  :enable_starttls_auto => true,
  :domain             => 'domain.herokuapp.com',
  :user_name            => ENV['GMAIL_USERNAME'],
  :password             => ENV['GMAIL_PASSWORD'],
  :authentication       => "login"
}

Note:
domain.herokuapp.com has just been subbed in for my actual domain.
Screen shot of server logs:

Does anyone have any idea of why this is not working or can point me to a resource to get this resolved?

A: I had a similar problem, it was connected to the configuration in config/enfironments/production.rb file i had
config.action_mailer.default_url_options = { host: 'http://barteringapps.herokuapp.com' }

I was able to solve this problem by changing the address. In development it should be http://127.0.0.1:3000, while it should be your domain in production.
Also your gmail domain is not correct, you should have gmail.com as domain
config.action_mailer.smtp_settings = {
  address: "smtp.gmail.com",
  port: 587,
  domain: ENV["GMAIL_DOMAIN"],
  authentication: "plain",
  user_name: ENV["GMAIL_USERNAME"],
  password: ENV["GMAIL_PASSWORD"],
  enable_starttls_auto: true
  }

I followed this post, but be careful when configuring the default_url_options as it would give me problems with facebook omniauth
https://rubyonrailshelp.wordpress.com/2014/01/02/setting-up-mailer-using-devise-for-forgot-password/

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
AMC's PREACHER Gets A Second, Bigger Season
You guys still watching this show or what?
By Scott Wampler Jun. 29, 2016
According to The Playlist, AMC just ordered up a second season of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's Preacher. And that's not all - they're bulking up their order, throwing down for thirteen episodes rather than season one's ten.
I think this is good news? I've been following Preacher since week one, and while my opinion of the series fluctuates wildly from week to week (things hit their lowest point in episode four, but picked up again this past Sunday in episode five), overall I feel like I'm willing to stick with it for the time being. If that sounds like a lukewarm endorsement, it's because it is.
The main problem, of course, is the pacing. I can deal with virtually every other diversion they've made from the source material thus far, but the decision to keep Jesse and company kicking around Annville (for what I expect will be the remainder of the first season) could turn out to be a critical error. Who would've predicted that a Preacher series might tread this much water?
Obviously, I'm withholding any final judgments on that until I see what Rogen and Goldberg have planned for the season as a whole, but right now I'm growing increasingly exasperated with season one's wheel-spinning. Let's get these guys out on the road and see what happens!
How are you guys feeling about Preacher so far? Have you stuck with it, or are you going to wait until you can marathon it, all in one go? Also, how do you see season one playing out? (My prediction: we'll see the literal explosion of Annville as Jesse, Tulip, and Cassidy drive off into the sunset).
evan goldberg
Sign up for the BMD Newsletter
Scott Wampler News Editor
Scott Wampler is an online film blogger, Podcast host, and man of constant sorrow living in Austin, TX. His likes include CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, the filmography of David Lynch, and the conspicuous consumption of alcohol. Dislikes include people and unfrosted Pop-Tarts.
OBSERVE AND REPORT - Even Better Ten Years Later
By Robert Saucedo, Nov 22, 2019
"I thought this was gonna be funny, but instead it's just kinda sad."
The New WALKING DEAD Series Appears To Be Set Far In The Future
By Scott Wampler, Jul 30, 2019
That's...actually, that's not a bad hook.
We Made Seth Rogen & Charlize Theron Tell Us Which Secretaries Of State They're Attracted To
By John Smith, Apr 29, 2019
The LONG SHOT stars dish in this exclusive and very important interview.


Yellow Watchman Gobies are fascinating reef fish. The Watchman name comes from their symbiotic relationship with pistol shrimp. The gobies are the lookouts and the shrimp are the burrow diggers/keepers. While the shrimp is digging it keeps one antenna on the fish's tail. When a predator approaches, the goby wiggles its tail as a warning and the fish and shrimp duck into their shared burrow.
Each of the Watchman Goby's eyes move independently which allows them to see predators approaching from behind. Their charming faces sport a perpetual pout. They usually have beautiful golden yellow bodies with small turquoise dots around the head and dorsal area. It is not easy to distinguish a male from a female but there is some speculation that the females are normally grayer in color.
Alas, the Yellow Watchman juveniles that we offer are not always yellow. They are typically a beautiful shade of steel blue. We're not quite sure if this is an environmental influence or a sexual phase.
Watchman Gobies are peaceful with other fish but may fight with each other as they mature. They are easy to feed, and readily take frozen mysis and brine shrimp as well as pellets.


text:
Home News Honorary President writes open letter to Prime Minister
Honorary President writes open letter to Prime Minister
Honorary President of UK Deaf Sport, Craig Crowley writes open letter to Prime Minister Theresa May, following success of Deaflympics GB Team at 2017 Summer Deaflympic Games in Samsun, Turkey.
Re: DeaflympicsGB
I am writing to you in my capacity as Honorary President of UK Deaf Sport regarding your upcoming meeting with Olympians and Paralympians.
As champions of UK sport, we are pleased to know you will be meeting with our Olympic and Paralympic teams. But we were disappointed to learn you have not extended the invitation to our Deaflympians.
The Deaflympics are important as the Paralympics does not have any categories of competition for athletes whose only disability is deafness. Established in 1924 as the first international sporting event for athletes with a disability, it has been an International Olympic Committee sanctioned event since 1955. It is the longest running multi-sport event excluding the Olympics. I had such a privilege of having served as its International President in 2009 until 2013, the first Briton to do so.
At this year's event at Samsun Deaflympics, the GB team was awarded nine medals. Our athletes achieved this on top of having to raise the funding themselves; UK Sport stopped funding them in 2008, even though each needs just £2,050 to attend the games – a total cost of £175,000. That amounts to 0.05 per cent of the funding for Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic athletes.
For example, the men's and women's football teams were faced with raising £125,000. They were only saved by former footballer and pundit Gary Neville, who paid the team's £20,000 deposit in late October. That finally spurred the FA into action, which subsequently pledged £40,000.
Given the uneven playing field for deaf athletes, the low participation rate in sport of people who are deaf (10 per cent compared to 40 per cent of people without a disability), and the achievements of the GB team this year, recognising them alongside Olympians and Paralympians by extending your invitation will send a positive message about the Government's commitment to DeaflympicsGB and deaf sport.
I look forward to your response, and to assisting your office with the arrangements.
Craig Crowley MBE FRSA
Honorary President, UK Deaf Sport
Former ICSD President 2009-2013


text:
Dec-09-2013 15:40 TweetFollow @OregonNews
Oregon Scientists Offer New Insights on Controlling Nanoparticle Stability
Salem-News.com
They focused on nanoparticles less than two nanometers in diameter — the smallest studied to date — to better understand structural stability of these tiny particles being engineered for use in electronics, medicine and other materials.
Professor James Hutchinson
(EUGENE) - University of Oregon chemists studying the structure of ligand-stabilized gold nanoparticles have captured fundamental new insights about their stability. The information, they say, could help to maintain a desired, integral property in nanoparticles used in electronic devices, where stability is important, or to design them so they readily condense into thin films for such things as inks or catalysts in electronic or solar devices.
In a project — detailed in the Nov. 27 issue of the Journal of Physical Chemistry C — doctoral student Beverly L. Smith and James E. Hutchison, who holds the Lokey-Harrington Chair in Chemistry at the UO, analyzed how nanoparticle size and molecules on their surfaces, called ligands, influence structural integrity under rising temperatures.
They focused on nanoparticles less than two nanometers in diameter — the smallest studied to date — to better understand structural stability of these tiny particles being engineered for use in electronics, medicine and other materials. Whether a nanoparticle needs to remain stable or condense depends on how they are being used. Those used as catalysts in industrial chemical processing or quantum dots for lighting need to remain intact; if they are precursors for coatings in solar devices or for printing ink, nanoparticles need to be unstable so they sinter and condense into a thin mass.
►AUDIO: Hutchison summarizes the research (39 seconds)
For their experiments, Smith and Hutchison produced gold nanoparticles in four well-controlled sizes, ranging from 0.9 nanometers to 1.5 nanometers, and analyzed ligand loss and sintering with thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry, and examined the resulting films by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. As the nanoparticles were heated at 5 degrees Celsius per minute, from room temperature to 600 degrees Celsius, the nanoparticles began to transform near 150 degrees Celsius.
The researchers found that smaller nanoparticles have better structural integrity than larger-sized particles that have been tested. In other words, Hutchison said, they are less likely to lose their ligands and bind together. "If you have unstable particles, then the property you want is fleeting," he said. "Either the light emission degrades over time and you're done, or the metal becomes inactive and you're done. In that case, you want to preserve the function and keep the particles from aggregating."
The opposite is desired for Hutchison and others working in the National Science Foundation-funded Center for Sustainable Materials Chemistry, a multi-universities collaboration led by the UO and Oregon State University. Researchers there are synthesizing nanoparticles as precursors for thin films.
"We want solution precursors that can lead to inorganic thin films for use in electronics and solar industries," said Hutchison, who also is a member of the UO Materials Science Institute. "In this case, we want to know how to keep our nanoparticles or other precursors stable enough in solution so that we can work with them, using just a tiny amount of additional energy to make them unstable so that they condense into a film -- where the property that you want comes from the extended solid that is generated, not from the nanoparticles themselves."
The research, Hutchison said, identified weak sites on nanoparticles where ligands might pop off. If only a small amount do so, he said, separate nanoparticles are more likely to come together and begin the sintering process to create thin films. "That's a really stabilizing effect that, in turn, kicks out all these ligands on the outside," he said. "The surface area decreases quickly and the particles get bigger, but now all the extra ligands gets excluded into the film and then, over time, the ligands vaporize and go away."
The coming apart, however, is a "catastrophic failure" if protecting against sintering is the goal. It may be possible to use the findings, he said, to explore ways to strengthen nanoparticles, such as developing ligands that bind in at least two sites or avoiding volatile ligands.
The process, as studied, produced porous gold films. "A next step might be to study how to manipulate the process to get a more dense film if that is desired," Hutchison said. Understanding how nanoparticles respond to certain conditions, such as changing temperatures, he added, may help researchers reduce waste in the manufacturing process.
"Researchers at the University of Oregon are re-engineering the science, manufacturing and business processes behind critical products," said Kimberly Andrews Espy, vice president for research and innovation and dean of the UO Graduate School. "This research analyzing the structural stability of nanoparticles by Dr. Hutchison and his team has the potential to improve the engineering of electronics, medicine and other materials, helping to foster a sustainable future for our planet and its people."
Smith, the paper's lead author, received a master's degree in chemistry in 2009 from the UO. She now is a doctoral student in Hutchison's lab. During the initial stages of the research, she was supported by the NSF's Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program. Funding from the Air Force Research Laboratory (grant No. FA8650-05-1-5041) to Hutchison also supported the research. Hutchison also is a member of both the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI) and Oregon BEST (Oregon Built Environment & Sustainable Technologies Center), which are state signature research initiatives.
About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is among the 108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.
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text:
Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay
Aphelocoma woodhouseii
Crows and Jays (Corvidae)
WOSJ
APHWOO
The Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay has a large range that includes the western United States from Idaho south to Texas and highland areas of Mexico. It lives in arid pine-juniper woodlands, wooded riparian zones, and open pine forest in some areas as well as golf courses and parks. This species has declined in some parts of its range but is still common enough to warrant a conservation rating of Least Concern.
Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay: Medium, crestless jay, dull blue head, wings, tail, gray mask and back, pale gray underparts. Bill, legs, feet are black. Eats grains, fruits, insects, frogs, lizards, and eggs and young of other birds. Flies with steady wing beats. Western Scrub-Jay was split into two species, the California Scrub-Jay and Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay in 2016 by the American Ornithologist Union.
Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay: This species is a resident from Nevada east to Colorado and Texas, and from southern Idaho to central Mexico. Its preferred habitat include pinyon pines and junipers. Also occurs in oak woodlands and mixed forests.
Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay SONGS AND CALLS
Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay A2
Calls given in flight from one member of a small group.
"Wheep" calls given in flight.
"weep", shlenk", "kuk", "jay", "jree", "check-check-check"
A group of jays has many collective nouns, including a "band", "cast", "party", and "scold" of jays.
They are mischievous and have been seen stealing acorn seeds and pine cones from Clark's Nutcrackers.
They have smaller pointed bills that enable them to get pine nuts hidden between pine cone scale.
They pick ticks and other parasites off mule deer.
California Scrub-Jay
Mexican Jay
Island Scrub-Jay
The crows, magpies and jays are one of the one hundred eighteen families of birds in the order PASSERIFORMES (pronounced pas-ser-i-FOR-meez); a large taxonomic order that includes larks, titmice, and wrens.
The bird family that includes jays and crows, the Corvidae (pronounced COR-vi-dee), includes one hundred and twenty-six species in twenty-four genera found on all continents except for Antarctica.
There are forty species of Corvidae (often commonly called "Corvids") in ten genera that occur in North America (including the Hawaiian Crow, a species that has recently become extinct in the wild). Crows and ravens, raucous jays, long-tailed magpies and the Clark's Nutcracker of the high mountains are all members of this bird family.
Members of the Corvidae are renowned for their intelligence and bold behavior. Among the smartest of birds, Common Ravens can be taught complicated tricks while the jays and nutcrackers have an amazing capacity to recall where they have cached food.
Generally medium-to-largish sized birds, Corvids such as the crows and Clark's Nutcracker have short, square tails while the tails of jays and magpies are long and graceful. All Corvids have stout, strong bills that work well for their omnivorous diet and strong legs and feet for a lifestyle both arboreal and terrestrial in nature.
Corvids are generally somber colored birds; the adult crows and ravens are all black while shades of gray, blue, brown, and black are the norm for other species. The exception is the Green Jay; a beautiful green and yellow bird with blue and black markings on the face.
Corvid species occupy every major habitat in North America from sun baked deserts to alpine meadows and Pacific coastal rain forests. While the Common Raven and American Crow can be found in these and other habitats, the Clark's Nutcracker and Pinyon Jay are restricted to western coniferous forests. The Steller's Jay occurs in the same evergreen forests but is replaced by different jay species in other forest types.
Some of North America's hardiest bird species, only Blue Jays and American Crows fly south to escape the winter and even these are short distance migrations limited to birds that breed in regions with very harsh winters.
Most Corvids are social, curious birds that forage in pairs or family groups that frequently communicate with harsh, rasping calls. Foraging takes place in the trees and on the ground and includes a variety of food items ranging from nuts to small animals and carrion.
Other than being susceptible to West Nile Virus, most Corvid species are fairly common, adaptable birds. Nevertheless, the Pinyon and Florida Scrub Jays are threatened by habitat loss and the Island Scrub Jay is of concern because the entire population is restricted to Santa Cruz Island off the California coast.
The Clark's Nutcracker is so adapted to feeding on pine seeds that it has evolved a pouch under its tongue to store extra seeds while foraging. It caches the extra seeds at a variety of locations (many of which it amazingly remembers) and shares this knowledge with its mate. The "forgotten" seeds also help the propagation of more pine trees.
Riparian X
Relating to or living or located on the bank of a natural watercourse (as a river) or sometimes of a lake or a tidewater.


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text:
"""Merges a kubeconfig file into a kubeconfig file in a k8s secret giving
precedence to the secret."""

# Requirements: kubectl (pointed at the correct cluster) and base64
# Example usage:
# ./merge_kubeconfig_secret.py \
#   --name=mykube \
#   --namespace=myspace \
#   --src-key=kube-old \
#   --dest-key=kube-new \
#   kubeconfig.yaml

import argparse
import os
import re
import subprocess
import sys
import tempfile
import time

reAutoKey = re.compile('^config-(\\d{8})$')

def call(cmd, **kwargs):
    print('>>> %s' % cmd)
    return subprocess.run(
        cmd,
        check=True,
        shell=True,
        stderr=sys.stderr,
        stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
        timeout=10,#seconds
        universal_newlines=True,
        **kwargs,
    )

def main(args):
    print(args)
    validateArgs(args)
    if args.auto:
        # We need to determine the dest key automatically.
        args.dest_key = time.strftime('config-%Y%m%d')
        if not args.src_key:
            # Also try to automatically determine the src key.
            cmd = 'kubectl --context="%s" get secret --namespace "%s" "%s" -o go-template="{{range \\$key, \\$content := .data}}{{\\$key}};{{end}}"' % (args.context, args.namespace, args.name) #pylint: disable=line-too-long
            keys = call(cmd).stdout.rstrip(";").split(";")
            matches = [key for key in keys if reAutoKey.match(key)]
            matches.sort(reverse=True)
            if len(matches) == 0:
                raise ValueError('The %s/%s secret does not contain any keys matching the "config-20200730" format. Please try again with --src-key set to the most recent key. Existing keys: %s' % (args.namespace, args.name, keys)) #pylint: disable=line-too-long

            args.src_key = matches[0]
        # Only enable pruning if we won't overwrite the source key.
        # This ensures that a second update on the same day will still have a
        # key to roll back to if needed.
        args.prune = args.src_key != args.dest_key
        print('Automatic mode: --src-key=%s  --dest-key=%s' % (args.src_key, args.dest_key))

    with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmpdir:
        orig = '%s/original' % (tmpdir)
        merged = '%s/merged' % (tmpdir)
        # Copy the current secret contents into a temp file.
        cmd = 'kubectl --context="%s" get secret --namespace "%s" "%s" -o go-template="{{index .data \\"%s\\"}}" | base64 -d > %s' % (args.context, args.namespace, args.name, args.src_key, orig) #pylint: disable=line-too-long
        call(cmd)

        # Merge the existing and new kubeconfigs into another temp file.
        env = os.environ.copy()
        env['KUBECONFIG'] = '%s:%s' % (orig, args.kubeconfig_to_merge)
        call(
            'kubectl config view --raw > %s' % (merged),
            env=env,
        )

        # Update the secret with the merged config.
        if args.prune:
            # Pruning was request. Remove all keys except for dest and src (if different from dest).
            srcflag = ''
            if args.src_key != args.dest_key:
                srcflag = '--from-file="%s=%s"' % (args.src_key, orig)
            call('kubectl --context="%s" create secret generic --namespace "%s" "%s" --from-file="%s=%s" %s --dry-run -oyaml | kubectl --context="%s" replace -f -' % (args.context, args.namespace, args.name, args.dest_key, merged, srcflag, args.context)) #pylint: disable=line-too-long
        else:
            content = ''
            with open(merged, 'r') as mergedFile:
                yamlPad = '    '
                content = yamlPad + mergedFile.read()
                content = content.replace('\n', '\n' + yamlPad)
            call('kubectl --context="%s" patch --namespace "%s" "secret/%s" --patch "stringData:\n  %s: |\n%s\n"' % (args.context, args.namespace, args.name, args.dest_key, content)) #pylint: disable=line-too-long

        print('Successfully updated secret "%s/%s". The new kubeconfig is under the key "%s".' % (args.namespace, args.name, args.dest_key)) #pylint: disable=line-too-long
        print('Don\'t forget to update any deployments or podspecs that use the secret to reference the updated key!') #pylint: disable=line-too-long

def validateArgs(args):
    if args.auto:
        if args.dest_key:
            raise ValueError("--dest-key must be omitted when --auto is used.")
    else:
        if not args.src_key or not args.dest_key:
            raise ValueError("--src-key and --dest-key are required unless --auto is used.")

if __name__ == '__main__':
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Merges the provided kubeconfig file into a kubeconfig file living in a kubernetes secret in order to add new cluster contexts to the secret. Requires kubectl and base64.') #pylint: disable=line-too-long
    parser.add_argument(
        '--context',
        help='The kubectl context of the cluster containing the secret.',
        required=True,
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        '--name',
        help='The name of the k8s secret containing the kubeconfig file to add to.',
        default='kubeconfig',
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        '--namespace',
        help='The namespace containing the kubeconfig k8s secret to add to.',
        default='default',
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        '--src-key',
        help='The key of the source kubeconfig file in the k8s secret.',
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        '--dest-key',
        help='The destination key of the merged kubeconfig file in the k8s secret.',
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        'kubeconfig_to_merge',
        help='Filepath of the kubeconfig file to merge into the kubeconfig secret.',
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        '--prune',
        action='store_true',
        help='Remove all secret keys besides the source and dest. This should be used periodically to delete old kubeconfigs and keep the secret size under control.', #pylint: disable=line-too-long
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        '--auto',
        action='store_true',
        help='Automatically determine --dest-key and optionally --src-key assuming keys are of the form "config-20200730". Pruning is enabled.', #pylint: disable=line-too-long
    )

    main(parser.parse_args())

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Modern Lamps
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Inspirations, Luxury Lifestyle
Luxury Inspirations from Tom Ford
12th May 2016 Priscila Correia
Thomas Carlyle Tom Ford is an American fashion designer and film director. He gained international fame for his turnaround of Gucci and the creation of the Tom Ford label before directing the Oscar-nominated film A Single Man. Today we bring you some inspirations from this designer! Take a look!
Ford dropped out of NYU after a year, preferring to concentrate on acting in television commercials; at one time, he was in 12 national advertising campaigns simultaneously. Ford then began studying interior architecture at The New School's famous art and design college, Parsons The New School for Design. During his time in New York, Ford became a fixture at the legendary nightclub Studio 54, where he realized he was gay. The club's disco-era glamor would be a major influence on his later designs. Before his last year at New School, Ford spent a year and a half in Paris, where he worked as an intern in Chloé's press office. Though his work primarily involved sending clothes out on photo shoots, it triggered his love of fashion. He spent his final year at The New School studying fashion, but nonetheless graduated with a degree in architecture.
Ford's role at Gucci rapidly expanded; he was designing menswear within six months, and shoes soon after that. When Richard Lambertson left as design director in 1992, Ford took over his position, heading the brand's ready-to-wear, fragrances, image, advertising, and store design. In 1993, when he was in charge of designing eleven product lines, Ford worked eighteen-hour days. During these years, there were creative tensions between Ford and Maurizio Gucci, the company's chairman and 50% owner. According to Mello, "Maurizio always wanted everything to be round and brown, and Tom wanted to make it square and black." Though Maurizio Gucci wanted to fire Ford, Domenico De Sole insisted that he remain. Nonetheless, Ford's work during the early 1990s was primarily behind the scenes; his contributions to Gucci were overshadowed by those of Mello, who was the company's public face.
In 1988, Ford moved to Perry Ellis, where he knew both Robert McDonald, the company's president, and Marc Jacobs, its designer, socially. He stayed at the company for two years, but grew tired of working in American fashion. In a later interview with the New York Times, he commented, "If I was ever going to become a good designer, I had to leave America. My own culture was inhibiting me. Too much style in America is tacky. It's looked down upon to be too stylish. Europeans, however, appreciate style." Ford would soon have the opportunity to enter the world of European fashion; Gucci, a faltering luxury goods company, was seeking to strengthen its women's ready-to-wear presence as a part of a brand overhaul. At the time, "no one would dream of wearing Gucci," said Dawn Mello, then the company's creative director. Mello hired Ford—then a near-unknown—as the brand's chief women's ready-to-wear designer in 1990. "I was talking to a lot of people, and most didn't want the job," Mello said. "For an American designer to move to Italy to join a company that was far from being a brand would have been pretty risky." Ford and his longtime partner, fashion journalist Richard Buckley, relocated to Milan that September.
In 1994, Ford was promoted to creative director. In his first year at the helm, he introduced Halston-style velvet hipsters, skinny satin shirts and car-finish metallic patent boots. In 1995, he brought in French stylist Carine Roitfeld and photographer Mario Testino to create a series of new ad campaigns for the company. Between 1995 and 1996, sales at Gucci increased by 90%. On the strength of Ford's collections, Gucci went public in October 1995 with an IPO of $22 per share, followed by an additional global offering in March 1996 at $48 per share, and a third offering in 1999 at $75 per share. In early 1999, luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, headed by Bernard Arnault, increased its shareholdings in Gucci with a view to takeover. Domenico de Sole reacted by issuing new shares of stock in an effort to dilute the value of Arnault's holdings. Ford and De Sole also approached French holding company Pinault-Printemps-Redoute(PPR) about the possibility of forming a strategic alliance. François Pinault, the company's founder, agreed to the idea and purchased 37 million shares in the company, or a 40% stake. Arnault's share was diluted to 20%. At one point, Ford was the largest individual shareholder of Gucci stock and options.
After leaving Gucci, Ford launched a line of menswear, beauty, eyewear, and accessories in 2006. Dominico De Sole became chairman of the Tom Ford label. In March 2011, Ford was featured on the cover of the bi-annual publication AnOther Man, the fraternal counterpart to Another Magazine, giving his opinion on what makes the modern day gentleman. In 2015, he was named one of GQ's 50 best dressed men. He also received a CFDA Fashion Award for Menswear designer of the year.
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From regular bookkeeping, to final annual accounts and tax returns. We can help.
Did other aspects of your business become your main focus? Do you need to catch up on your accounts? We can help.
Do your staff need further training to get them to the next level. The accounting knowledge of your staff needs to grow at the same rate as your business. We can help.


I've finished the first plurals skill on the Swedish tree a few days ago, and tried to rehearse this every day since I found it quite hard but it doesn't seem to stick with me. No matter how many times I rehearse the skill, I get most of it wrong every time.
It's really annoying me, and I was wondering how you guys learned and remembered it because I have no idea how I'll be able to. Do you have any tips? Should I just rehearse until I get all of it right, or should I learn how to predict the plural by heart?
Reading the notes, reading it in an external grammar book, learning the rules.
Once you know the rules and accept that you basically have to know which of the five groups a noun belongs to it is quite easy. But the excercise will not help you with that, you will just learn some random words.
I'm kind of in the brute force category - just keep practicing till they are in rote memory. I would imagine that writing them down might help a bit too.
Everybody's different, but I just have to go over and over them. Even if I move on to the next lesson I'll still go back every day and practice the skill I'm stuck on until I'm happy that I know it well enough.
Would it help to make a list of the vocabulary? I do this as I go along and I have the definites, plurals, etc, side by side on a spreadsheet.
In those situations, I just keep moving forward. Duolingo will tell you when it is time to refresh your skill on past lessons. Some days I do not make any progress in the tree other than just strengthening the lessons that Duolingo tells me to.


text:
MYR begins temperature screenings for arrivals; addresses concerns over not closing
Protecting yourself from coronavirus
By WMBF News Staff | March 25, 2020 at 11:21 AM EDT - Updated March 25 at 9:29 PM
CONWAY, S.C. (WMBF) – Effective Wednesday, passengers arriving at the Myrtle Beach International Airport from areas heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic will undergo temperature screenings, officials said.
In addition, MYR has continued an increased cleaning schedule, while additional signage has been placed in restrooms, according to a press release from Horry County. Officials said hand sanitizing stations have also been placed in high-traffic areas.
The airport addressed the decision to not shut down the airport and screen temperatures in a Facebook post on Wednesday night.
"We are a population with many second home-owners and transplants from all across the northeast, many of which require air service to come home to the Grand Strand," the airport wrote. "We take public safety very seriously, and have accounted for the safety and well-being of our travelers, employees and residents alike."
MYR also stated the temperature screening is more than what many airports are offering.
Officials said this is an always changing situation and flyers should pay attention to any changes in travel restrictions.
"Horry County Department of Airports continues to monitor changes and work with airlines and government agencies in handling operations for its passengers. As this situation is constantly evolving, passengers are encouraged to check with their airlines regarding the status of their travel plans," the release stated.
Grand Strand lawmakers send letter asking for federal assistance with COVID-19 vaccine
The letter dated Friday is asking for assistance for the state to receive more doses.
Hospitals say frontline workers 'won't be put at the back of the line,' despite governor's deadline
Katherine Phillips
SC hospitals will receive 20-25% of requested COVID-19 vaccine doses next week
DHEC reports 100% of doses sent to S.C. have been administered or scheduled to be put in arms
Madison Martin and Kristin Nelson


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Happiness and Economic Growth: Lessons from Developing Countries
Andrew Clark; Claudia Senik
学術・一般書 > 社会科学 > Economics > Production
Studies of Policy Reform
This volume, arising from a PSE-CEPREMAP-DIMeco conference, includes contributions by the some of the best-known researchers in happiness economics and development economics, including Richard Easterlin, who gave his name to the 'Easterlin paradox' that GDP growth does not improve happiness over the long run. Many chapters underline the difficulty of increasing well-being in developing countries, including China, even in the presence of sustained income growth. This is notably due to the importance of income comparisons to others, adaptation (so that we get used to higher income), and the growing inequality of income. In particular, rank in the local income distribution is shown to be important, creating a beggar-thy-neighbour effect in happiness. Wealth comparisons in China are exacerbated by the gender imbalance, as the competition for brides creates a striking phenomenon of conspicuous consumption on the housing market. Policy has to be aware of these effects. This applies in particular to those who try to use self-reported subjective well-being in order to generate a 'social subjective poverty line', which is a key issue in developing countries. However, the news is not only bad from the point of view of developing countries. One piece of good news is that GDP growth often seems to go hand-in-hand with lower happiness inequality, and thereby reduces the risk of extreme unhappiness.
1. Life Satisfaction in the Transition from Socialism to Capitalism
2. The Great Happiness Moderation: Well-Being Inequality during Episodes of Income Growth
3. Poor, or Just Feeling Poor? On Using Subjective Data in Measuring Poverty
4. Subjective Well-Being and Social Evaluation: a Case Study of China
5. Income comparisons in China
6. Hapiness and Economic Growth: A Panel Discussion
7. Concluding Remarks: How Inequality Matters to Well-Being: Agency, Adaptation, and Changes versus Levels
Andrew E. Clark is a CNRS Research Professor at the Paris School of Economics (PSE). He previously held posts at Dartmouth, Essex, CEPREMAP, DELTA, the OECD, and the University of Orleans. His work has largely focussed on the interface between psychology, sociology and economics; in particular, using job and life satisfaction scores, and other psychological indices, as proxy measures of utility. The broad area is social interactions and social learning. Professor Clark is a member of the Editorial Boards of: Journal of Happiness Studies, Revue d'Economie Politique, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Review of Income and Wealth, Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, International Review of Economics, Italian Economic Review, Evidence-based HRM, and the International Journal of Happiness and Development. ; Claudia Senik is Professor at the University Paris-Sorbonne and at the Paris School of Economics. She is also member of the IZA. Her main research interest is in the Economics of Happiness. A large part of her work focuses on the relationship between income, income distribution and subjective wellbeing. She frequently appeals to a comparative approach, based on the different environments in Western versus Eastern Europe. She is in charge of several international scientific cooperation programs related to her field of research. Professor Senik is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Wellbeing, Associate Editor of the IZA Journal of Labor Economics, and a member of the Editorial Review Board of Applied Research in Quality of Life. See her personal webpage: http://www.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/fr/senik-claudia/
Japanese Multinationals Abroad: Individual and Organizational Learning
Cutting the Gordian Knot of Economic Reform: When and How International Institutions Help
Gender Challenges: Volumes 1, 2 and 3
Pathways to Industrialization in the Twenty-first Century: New Challenges and Emerging Paradigms
Food Citizenship: Food System Advocates in an Era of Distrust
Information, Corporate Governance and Institutional Diversity: Competitiveness in Japan, the USA and the Transitional Economies
Diverse Development Paths and Structural Transformation in the Escape from Poverty
The Relational Economy: Geographies of Knowing and Learning
Stock Market Capitalism - Welfare Capitalism: Japan and Germany Versus the Anglo-Saxons
Moments of Valuation: Exploring Sites of Dissonance


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Effect of hybrid mineral and bamboo fillers on thermal expansion behavior of bamboo fiber and recycled polypropylene-polyethylene composites
Huang, R., Zhang, Y., Xu, X., Zhou, D., and Wu, Q. (2012). "Effect of hybrid mineral and bamboo fillers on thermal expansion behavior of bamboo fiber and recycled polypropylene-polyethylene composites," BioRes. 7(4), 4563-4574.
The effect of bamboo and hybrid bamboo-precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) fillers on thermal expansion behavior of filled plastic composites was investigated. The linear coefficient of thermal expansion (LCTE) of the filled composites decreased with increased PCC and bamboo filler loading levels. The composite system with refined bamboo fibers (RBFs) had smaller LCTE values compared with those from the systems with ground bamboo particles (GBPs). The use of silane treatment on bamboo fiber/particle surface helped enhance its bonding to the plastic matrix, leading to a further reduction of LCTE values for both GBP and RBF composite systems. The observed behavior of reduced LCTE is attributed to a small filler LCTE value, reduced overall plastic volume, and enhanced interfacial bonding with treated bamboo materials. Thus, hybrid bamboo and PCC fillers are suitable materials for reducing the thermal expansion of the composites caused by temperature changes.
Effect of Hybrid Mineral and Bamboo Fillers on Thermal Expansion Behavior of Bamboo Fiber and RecyCled polypRopylene–polyethYlene Composites
Runzhou Huang,a Yang Zhang,a Xinwu Xu,a Dingguo Zhou,a and Qinglin Wu a,b*
Keywords: Bamboo; Thermal expansion; Recycled plastic; Composites
Contact information: a: College of Wood Science and Technology, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037, China; b: School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA. *Corresponding author: qwusfm@gmail.com
Wood and natural fiber plastic composites (WPCs) have attracted considerable attention in recent years. Many emerging applications for WPCs include decking, building, automobiles, and infrastructure (Klyosov 2007; Selke and Wichman 2004). Polyethylene (PE), polyvinylchloride (PVC), and polypropylene (PP) hold a major share of resins used in WPC. Compared with traditional glass fiber and mineral fillers, wood/natural fiber fillers are less expensive, lighter, sustainable, and less abrasive to processing machines. To enhance product performance, significant effort has been made to study WPC's properties as affected by raw material compositions, wood-plastic interfacial bonding, and composite processing parameters (Mohanty et al. 2001, Lu et al. 2000). One of the important performance properties for WPC is thermal expansion and contraction caused by external temperature variation (Kim et al. 2007; Singh and Mohanty 2007; Klyosov 2007).
Thermal expansion and contraction of materials are usually measured by the linear coefficient of thermal expansion (LCTE), which is a vital engineering property for the composites' structural applications. A low LCTE value is a desirable property in order to achieve dimensional stability. LCTE of crystalline polymers depends on various parameters, including processing conditions, thermal history, and degree of crystallinity and crystallite size. Filler-aspect ratio, volume fraction, orientation, and distribution in the matrix also play a deciding role in determining the LCTE of composites (Luo and Netravali 1999; Tan et al. 1990).
LCTE values for wood (along the grain) and mineral (e.g., calcium carbonate) fillers are about 20 times lower than those of plastics and about 10 times lower than those of WPCs (Klyosov 2007). LCTE measured across the grain (radial and tangential) is proportional to wood specific gravity and is about 5 to 10 times higher than those along the grain. Thus, the use of filler can help reduce LCTE of WPCs. However, the effect of fillers on the LCTE is far from being understood. It appears that the largest effect is caused by the degree of anisotropy of the filler and the filler orientation in the flow (and in the final product). The characteristics of high-density PE (e.g., density and degree of crystallinity) and extrusion conditions (e.g., speed, pressure, and temperature profile) are also important for controlling the LCTE values.
As an important renewable resource, bamboo accounts for approximately 25% and 20% of the total biomass in the tropics and sub-tropical areas, respectively (Han et al. 2008), and its overall mechanical properties are comparable to or even surpass those of wood. Furthermore, bamboo can be renewed much more rapidly compared with wood. Thus, these advantages make it a highly competitive natural reinforcement in polymeric composites. In several preliminary reports, bamboo fibers or flours have been utilized as natural reinforcements of thermosetting resins, biodegradable polyesters, poly (vinyl chloride) (PVC), and PP (e.g., Okubo et al. 2004).
Among the mineral fillers, precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) from chemical processes has characteristics of very fine and regular particle size (Wypych 2010; Echeverria and Holst 2005). Thus, its uses in plastic composites have led to improved mechanical properties. Kim et al. (2012) investigated the technical feasibility of using PCC of sugar origin as a reinforcing filler for bamboo fiber plastic composite. It was shown that air-dry PCC particles were in an agglomerated form made of individual cubic particles of about 1.2 micron in diameter. Compounding with plastic resin helped separate the PCC into smaller individual particles. The use of PCC led to a significant increase of flexural strength and flexural modulus of PCC-filled composites after 10 wt% PCC loading level. For bamboo-filled composites with PCC, tensile modulus and flexural modulus were improved with the increase of PCC content and with the use of surface-treated bamboo filler. The thermal expansion behavior of the filled composites was, however, not studied.
The objectives of this study were to elucidate the effect of PCC and bamboo fiber loadings on thermal expansion properties of filled plastic composites.
Materials and Preparation
Recycled-PP/PE (R-PP/PE) resin, ground bamboo particle (GBP, ≤ 20 mesh), thermo-mechanically refined bamboo fiber (RBF, ≤ 20 mesh), and PCC were used as raw materials (Kim et al. 2012). Originally, R-PP/PE (about 95% PP and 5% PE) was a commingled plastic in a fluffy form, and it was pelletized using a twin-screw extrusion machine before being blended with other raw materials. GBP was prepared from bamboo flakes through grinding and screening, using a Model S10/9GF Granu-Grinder (C.W. Brabender, Instruments Inc., South Hackensack, NJ) with a 20-mesh screen. RBF was produced by refining bamboo chips at 160°C for 10 min using a KRK-2503 steam-aided disc refining system (Kumagai Riki Kogyo, Tokyo, Japan). Silane coupling agent (Z-6094) from the DOW Corning Co. (Midland, MI, USA) was utilized to treat the prepared GBP and RBF. The composition of silane was aminoethyl-aminopropyl-trimethoxysilne (> 60 wt%), and the density of this organo-silane was 1.02 g/cm3. Silane treatments of GBP and RBF were made by immersion methods. Before treatments, the silane aqueous solution was pre-hydrolyzed for over 30 min. GBP and RBF were first oven-dried at 85°C for 24 hr to reduce moisture content level to less than 2%. They were immersed in an aqueous solution (methanol:water = 9:1 by weight) including a silane coupling agent (3% of the weight of bamboo fiber) at 25°C for 1 hr. After immersion, silane-treated GBP and RBF (TGBP and TRBF) were dried at 85°C for 24 hr again. PCC in powder form was obtained from Domino Sugar Company (New Orleans, LA, USA). It was dried at 85°C for 24 hr and screened with a 100-mesh screen.
The experiment design included three factorial experiments. The first experiment was designed to study the effect of PCC loading levels consisting of six PCC loading rates (i.e., 0, 3, 7, 10, 15, and 30 wt%). The second experiment was designed to study the effect of combined PCC and GBP consisting of eight blends covering three material types (GBP, TGBP, and PCC) and four loading rates for PCC (0, 6, 12, and 18 wt%). The third experiment was designed to investigate the effect of combined PCC and RBF, consisting of eight blends covering three material types (i.e., RBF, TRBF, and PCC) and four loading rates for PCC (0, 6, 12, and 18 wt%). All composite blends had 40 wt% GBP or TGBP based on the total composite weight. The neat R-PP&PE samples were also made as a control.
Composite Manufacturing
The R-PP/PE plastic, bamboo fiber, and PCC hybrid composites were prepared with a CW Brabender Intelli-Torque Twin-Screw Extruder (CW Brabender Instruments Inc., South Hackensack, NJ). R-PP/PE and PCC (50 wt% of plastic and 50 wt% of PCC) were blended first as a base material (Kim et al. 2012). After that, the pellets were diluted in the variation of PCC of 6, 12, and 18 wt%, which were re-compounded with bamboo fiber (40 wt%) in the blends of R-PP/PE and PCC (60 wt%) and then extruded in the second step.
The blending temperature profile was 155, 175, 180, 180, and 170°C from the feeding zone to the strand die, and the extruder rotation speed was 90 rpm. The extruded blends were pelletized and then dried in an oven at 85°C for 24 hr. Standard test samples were made through a Battenfeld 35-Ton Plus Injection molding machine (Wittmann Battenfeld GmbH, Kottingbrunn, Austria) at an injection temperature of 175°C.
Thermal expansion samples were machined with a miniature table saw along the long direction of injection molded samples with a dimension of 5.1 x 12.7 x 1.6-mm. Special attention was made to ensure that the sample ends were parallel. The test was done with a TA Q400 Thermo Mechanical Analyzer (TMA). The sample was placed on a quartz base, and an extension quartz probe was then placed on the top surface of the sample. A loading of 5-g force was applied to the probe to ensure the proper contact of the probe and the sample. The change in the length of the sample with temperature was measured using a linear variable differential transformer (LVDT) with a sensitivity of ±0.02 µm. The length and temperature data were recorded and analyzed with TA's Universal Analysis software. All tests were done with three heating cycles: 1) 20°C to 60°C; 2) 60°C to –30°C; and 3) –30°C to 20°C. The heating and cooling rates were kept constant at 5°C /min. The LCTE (αL, 1/°C) was calculated as,
where L is the linear dimension of the test sample and dL/dT is the rate of change in the linear dimension per unit temperature.
Composite morphology
The morphologies of selected composite samples were analyzed by a Hitachi S-3600N VP Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) (Hitachi Ltd., Tokyo, Japan). The samples were coated with Pt to improve the surface conductivity before observation and observed at an acceleration voltage of 15 kV.
Duncan's multiple range tests for pairwise comparisons were used to test the effect of various treatments using statistical analysis software SPSS (version 10.0). Statistical ranking at the 5% significance level was provided among the treatments for each property.
Dimension Change-Temperature History
Typical dimension changes in relation with temperature for the composite system are shown in Fig. 1 (neat resin and RBF-PCC-Resin systems). The sample dimension increased as the temperature increased and decreased as temperature decreased. The LCTE is represented by the slope of the linear portion of each curve. The neat plastic had an obvious larger dimension change than that from filled composites for a given temperature change. A significant residual deformation is seen for the neat plastic at the end of the final heating cycle. The dimension change of neat resin seemed to be more significant at lower temperature ranges (< 20oC) than that at higher temperature range (> 20oC) compared with filled composites. This could be due to complex stress development in the mixed plastics during cooling process. Composites with bamboo and combined bamboo-PCC fillers had much smaller dimensional changes, showing the restricting effect of the fillers in response to temperature changes. And residual deformation of filled composites was also significantly lowered.
Fig. 1. Typical dimension change-temperature history for PCC/Bamboo fiber filled R-PP&PE composite systems. RBF40PCC6 represents 40% RBF and 6% PCC in the composite
Effect of PCC Loading Level on Composite LCTE
Table 1 and Fig. 2 show measured LCTE values as a function of PCC content for PCC-filled R-PP/PE polymer. The first heating cycle from 20 to 60oC had the largest LCTE values at all PCC content levels. The second heating cycle from -30 to 20oC had the smallest LCTE values. The cooling cycle (60 to -30oC) had the values in between. This behavior is related to the thermal history built into the samples, leading to heating-history dependent LCTE values. Obviously, LCTE decreased with increased PCC content for various composite systems. Statistical ranking shows a significant effect of PCC on measured LCTE values. The neat plastic had LCTE values of 149.8 x 10-6/oC, 125.4 x 10-6/oC, and 108.7 x 10-6/oC for the three temperature ranges (i.e., 20 to 60oC, 60 to -30oC, and -30 to 20oC), respectively. The reported LCTE values for PP and PE neat resin are, respectively, 100-200 x 10-6/oC and about 200 x 10-6/oC (The Engineering ToolBox, 2012). Thus the measured LETC values for the neat PP/PE resin used are closer to the reported values for PP resin due to its large proportion in the mix. The values decreased by 20.1, 17.6, and 19.6%, respectively, at the 30% PCC loading level. The linear regression equations fit the LCTE-PCC content data well, as shown in Fig. 2. The second heating cycle from -30oC to 20oC had the smallest absolute slope value from the LCTE-PPC content plots.
Table 1. Effect of PCC Content on Thermal Expansion Coefficient of Filled R-PP&PE Composites
a The content of each filler was based on the total composite weight.
b Mean values with the same capital letter for each property are not significantly different at the 5% significance level.
c Numbers in the parenthesis are standard deviation based on five specimens.
Fig. 2. Effect of PCC content on Measured LCTE values for PCC-filled R-PP/PE composites. Lines show linear regression fits
Fig. 3. Morphology of PCC particles (Left), PCC-filled R-PP&PE 7% (Middle); and PCC-Filled R-PP&PE 30% (Right).
The averaged individual PCC particle size estimated from SEM micrographs was 1.16 ± 0.37μm (Fig. 3 left). The R-PP/PE blended with 7 wt% PCC (Fig. 3 middle) had some well-dispersed PCC particles in the polymer matrix (mean diameter 1.25 ± 0.43 µm). For the R-PP/PE blended with 30 wt% PCC (Fig. 3 right), some aggregated PCC particles were seen in the polymer matrix (estimated mean particle diameter = 1.66 ± 1.24 µm). The presence of well-dispersed PCC particles with small LCTE values reduced the overall plastic volume in the composite, leading to reduced overall composite LCTE.
Effect of Hybrid Bamboo and PCC Fillers on Composite LCTE
Table 2 (GBP) and Table 3 (RBF) summarize the measured LCTE data for composites with bamboo and hybrid bamboo-PCC fillers. Figures 4 and 5 show selected data plots. As shown in Table 2 and Fig. 4, the use of 40% GBP in the composite reduced the LCTE values of filled R-PP&PE by 56.5, 52.6, and 55.7% for the three temperature ranges of 20 to 60oC, 60 to -30oC, and -30 to 20oC, respectively. Treating bamboo particles with silane further reduced LCTE values due to the enhanced bonding between bamboo particles and plastic matrix. Similar behavior is observed with the use of 40% RBF in the composites (Table 3 and Fig. 5). The corresponding reduction from the base resin is 48.8, 51.8, and 55.8% for the three temperature ranges, respectively. Further reduction of LCTE is seen with silane-treated RBF in the composites. Kim et al. (2012) showed that the increased intensities of the peaks at 1604 cm-1 and 1510 cm-1 wave-lengths from the FTIR spectra from silane treated bamboo filler, indicating the existence of silane crosslinks on the surface of TRBF after silane treatment. These changes probably resulted from the traces of NH2 in silane coupling agent. It was shown that the small peak existed around 1203 cm-1 wavenumber, arranged as Si-O-C or Si-O-Si band, which was associated with silane crosslinks. The results also suggest that the silane coupling agent more effectively interacted with RBF than with GBP (Kim et al. 2012). Thus, bamboo material, especially after being treated with silane coupling agent, is an effective filler in controlling thermal expansion of the filled plastic composites.
Table 2. Effect of PCC Content on Thermal Expansion of PCC-GBP Filled Composites
d R-PP&PE/GBP(TGBP) = 60 : 40 (wt %) fixed for all composites.
Table 3. Effect of PCC Content on Thermal Expansion of PCC-RBF Filled Composites
d R-PP&PE/RBF(TRBF) = 60:40 (wt%) fixed for all composites.
Fig. 4. Effect of ground bamboo particle (GBP) on thermal expansion coefficient of filled R-PP&PE composite systems (40% bamboo filler)
Fig. 5. Effect of refined bamboo fiber on thermal expansion coefficient of filled R-PP&PE composite systems (40% bamboo filler)
Figure 6 shows LCTE-PCC content plots for the composite systems with hybrid bamboo (40%) and PCC (varying percentages) fillers. For both GBP and RBF systems, measured LCTE values decreased linearly with increased PCC content. At the 18% PCC loading levels, the LCTE reductions for the temperature ranges of 20 to 60oC, 60 to -30oC, and -30 to 20oC are 34.9, 19.8, and 16.5%, respectively for the GPB system and 31.2, 22.7, and 16.9%, respectively, for the TGBP system. The corresponding values are, respectively, 29.1, 25.8, and 22.7% for the RBF system, and 38.9, 24.7, and 19.3% for the TRBF system. This is attributed to a small LCTE of PCC and reduced overall plastic volume in the composite.
Among the four bamboo material types (i.e., GBP, RBF, TGBP, and TRBF), the GBP system had the highest LCTE, and TRBF had the smallest LCTE values at all PCC loading levels. In comparison with RBF, GBP contained more lignin and hemicellulose (Kim et al. 2012) as the fiber refining processes under high temperature and pressure effectively reduced lignin and hemicelluloses parts of bamboo fibers for RBF material. RBF with higher cellulose content and more hydroxyl groups (Salmen et al. 2011) helps enhance bonding between bamboo fiber and plastic matrix and helps induce more silane crosslinks after silane treatment (Belgacem et al. 2004; Kim et al. 2012). The net effect is an overall improvement of composite properties, including LCTE values. This argument is further supported through morphological properties. Figure 7 shows a morphological comparison of TGBP and TRBF composite systems. The interfacial gaps between bamboo filler and polymer matrix are seen in TGBP-filled composite (Left), and the enhanced interfacial adhesions are observed in TRBF-filled composites (Right).
Fig. 6. Effect of PCC contents on thermal expansion (20 to 60oC) of GBP (Upper) and RBF (Lower) filled R-PP&PE composite systems (40% bamboo filler). Lines showing linear regression fits


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Official: Mini Will Be An All-Electric Brand By 2030
Thu Mar 18, 2021 at 5:52 am
mini_electric_14
BMW has announced that Mini will become an electric-only brand "by the early 2030s" and will launch its final combustion model in 2025. What's more, Mini is set to play a "pioneering role" in BMW Group's push towards electrification. BMW also said that the British firm is "ideal for electric mobility."
Mini going electric doesn't mean it will leave different car markets as BMW assured us that it will have "a footprint in every region of the world."
What are your thoughts on Mini going electric? Tell us in the comments below


Zak Ové works between sculpture, film and photography. His mission is to reignite and reinterpret lost culture using new-world materials, whilst paying tribute to both spiritual and artistic African identity.
The work is born from his documentation of and anthropological interest in diasporic and African history, specifically that which is explored through Trinidadian carnival.
His work portrays the emancipation of personal existence through incarnation with an 'other self', showing us the power of play to free an individual from the contained experience of the self.
This in turn is filtered through his own personal and cultural upbringing, growing up in London and Trinidad.


High-tech rubber sports floors for fitness or gyms. The rubber sports floor is used as a sound-absorbing, shock-absorbing mat in sports rooms. Our sports floors are available in rolls and (puzzle) tiles.
A number of different versions are available, often in combination with recycled SBR rubber granulate, New EPDM and even recycled EPDM.
We only supply our sports floors via our dealers/installers. Contact us and we will refer you to the most suitable partner.
The Stockz Sports floors are perfect for every Sport. We have floors for the weight space, but our sustainable floors are also applicable for yoga and pilates rooms. The floors are elastic and therefore very resistant to dents due to weights and other damage. The Stockz Fitness floors are ideal floor solutions available on a roll and as sports puzzle tiles. The granulate sports floors are made from recycled rubber and this process also happens in the most environmentally friendly way. By using less heat during processing, our floors are one of the most environmentally friendly floors. Just as important, the floors are colour-fast, do not irritate the skin and are odour-free.
There is also the possibility to create a customized colour mixture that perfectly matches your team or company colours. For all custom colours please contact us and we can inform you about the prices and options.
The Stockz rubber puzzle tiles and Fitness tiles offer superior sound and shock absorption, slip resistance and a beautiful seamless appearance. Thanks to the puzzle connections, the floors are easy to install and can be moved.
The Crossfit floor tiles are extra thick and have a high sound absorption due to the unique structure. These tiles are easy to install, clean and maintain. All our tiles have a very small granulate grain and therefore have a nice fixed and closed surface.
Stockz Fitness floors are high-quality, robust flooring systems and are ideal for all sports applications. We supply our floors for Fitness and recreation floor systems and solutions for indoor and outdoor use, as well as gymnasiums, weight and multifunctional rooms in facilities ranging from primary and secondary schools to colleges, universities and fitness clubs throughout the country.
We supply sports floors, sports floor parts, sports floor tiles, fitness flooring, fitness floor parts, fitness tiles, fitness sports floor tiles, CrossFit flooring, CrossFit tiles, CrossFit mats, sports mats, sports tiles, rubber fitness tiles, rubber flooring for sports, rubber CrossFit flooring, Fitness Puzzle tiles, Crossfit Puzzle tiles, sports puzzle tiles and more rubber.


Modern, Reversible, Cheetah print comforter set. Styled to enhance any bedroom or dorm room décor.
300 thread count 100% cotton. Front of the comforter and one set of shams are a stylistic Cheetah print that reverses to a coordinating solid color. Bed skirt and second set of shams are a coordinating solid color.
Machine wash cold. Dry medium. Can be dry cleaned.