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Awards > Awardee Interviews > Interview
Interview: Dr. Stan Veprek
2005 John Thornton Award Recipient
HOLLOWAY: Good afternoon. I'm Paul Holloway a member of the AVS History Committee. As part of the Society's Historical Archives Series today I will be talking with Dr. Stan Veprek from the Technical University of Munich, who is this year's John Thornton Award winner. It is November 2, 2005, and we are at the 52nd AVS Symposium in Boston, Massachusetts.
So Stan, thank you very much for taking time, and congratulations on the John Thornton Award, very well deserved.
VEPREK: Thank you.
HOLLOWAY: You're quite welcome. Could you give us a little bit of information about your background, how you got started in the field, and your education, and that sort of thing?
VEPREK: Well first I studied for high school teacher, and after finishing this I studied physics at the Charles University in Prague. And then I was working in glow discharge physics, spectroscopy, instabilities until I get rid of it and started with plasma CVD, the chemical transport of solids in the glow discharge plasma. This was the first paper on nanocrystalline silicon published in 1968. This is nowadays used in thin film transistors for flat panel displays and such things. Then I have to leave Czechoslovakia because of the communists and the Red Army which came on August 1, 1968. So, I was in Germany for a while, as a visiting scientist at the University of Munster, (Holloway: Uhm-hmm.) and then Professor Oswald invited me to Zurich, so I went to Zurich. And at that time I was already working between physics and chemistry, so I got my PhD in inorganic chemistry there in 1972, and then I was, I worked for the habilitation. (Holloway: Right.) It's something like Ph.D.
(A Stan's remark in the proofs: Here we confused it: I got the Ph D in 1972. The "habilitation" was another independent scientific work and Thesis which, after acceptance by the Faculty, gave me the approval to teach at the University. The official Title is "Privatdozent", you may compare it to the "Reader" in the British system. I received it in 1975 or 1976, cannot remember exactly.)
HOLLOWAY: So, what year was the habilitation?
VEPREK: Oh, about plasma CVD and etching. It was 1972.
HOLLOWAY: 1972? So, you said that you worked early on in nanocrystalline silicon?
VEPREK: Yeah.
HOLLOWAY: What do you call nanocrystalline? What size?
VEPREK: Well, anything below a hundred nanometers.
HOLLOWAY: Below a hundred nanometers? Yeah. So, is that the same as some people call polysilicon? (Veprek: Yeah.) Or, is it different?
VEPREK: Yeah. Well, polysilicon can have larger crystallized size, (Holloway: Yeah.) but you don't want it. (Holloway: Right.) Even in some production steps you want to oxidize, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, you want to keep the crystallite size small. (Holloway: Uhm-hmm.) So, most of the early stuff, dependeding on the deposition temperature, is in the range of not more than a few hundred nanometers.
HOLLOWAY: Well, that goes along with your citation for the Thornton Award, and I would like to read it into the record. "For the generic description and generic design concepts of strong and hard materials as well as their deposition as thin films by plasma-assisted techniques." And so, you were using plasma-assisted techniques to do the nanocrystalline silicon?
VEPREK: Yeah. It was chemical transport in hydrogen plasma.
HOLLOWAY: Uhm-hmm. Yeah.
VEPREK: Which, it gives you the single phase of a crystalline silicon without amorphous tissue.
HOLLOWAY: So, what were you using for a source for your silicon? Was it a silicon wafer?
VEPREK: No, just powder.
HOLLOWAY: Just powder?
VEPREK: Yeah. You want to have a large area, surface area, to achieve large etch rates for the production of the silane in situ.
HOLLOWAY: So, what sort of vacuum system did you use to handle that?
VEPREK: [Laugh] Handmade.
HOLLOWAY: Handmade?
VEPREK: I have learned glass blowing. [Laugh] But, you know, that's what we figured out later on, to make it work and you really need the total oxygen impurity level in the plasma less than ten parts per millions. So, at the time it was just a question of getting good vacuum, which was not so easy; 10 to the minus eight millibar in 1965, was not every day.
HOLLOWAY: Yeah, it was more difficult in those days because of the different techniques, and the understanding was not there in terms of vacuum system performance?
VEPREK: Well, yes and no. The disadvantage was as you said, but you know, it was also an advantage that we had to learn.
HOLLOWAY: Yes. The exciting part was learning (Veprek: Yeah.) all the time. Yeah. So, what sort of pumps did you use? Did you use diffusion pumps?
VEPREK: Diffusion pumps made of glass. We designed them and the glassblower made them.
HOLLOWAY: The fluid was mercury?
VEPREK: Mercury, and later on oil. But the first was mercury.
HOLLOWAY: Yeah. That was a dangerous time. We didn't really appreciate it probably as much.
VEPREK: Yeah. (Holloway: Yeah.) If I would have known how dangerous mercury is, when I was purifying it by distillation, [Laugh] but I survived. And I can tell you another funny story. It was at Charles University. There were no dry forepumps back then. So, for my prediploma-work, which was supposed to be work of four or five weeks, I was asked to study the absorption properties of charcoal.
HOLLOWAY: Oh, is that right?
VEPREK: So, I got it from the gas masks, German Wehrmacht (Stan's remark in proof: Wehrmacht = the Nazi's Army) [Laugh] (Holloway: Yeah.) and we didn't have liquid nitrogen. We had only liquid air. And I fortunately went into laboratory and read about what happens when liquid air comes into contact with charcoal. And then we had not pyrex. It was the soft glass. So, I was extremely careful whenever I was putting the dewar with the liquid air, on the glass containing maybe that much of the charcoal. When I finished the study, and I started with a summary of the explosion properties of this combination. The supervisor, when he read it, came to the lab and shouted, "Are you making jokes?"
HOLLOWAY: [Laugh] Did you ever have an explosion in reality?
VEPREK: No.
HOLLOWAY: Oh, thank goodness.
VEPREK: No, I was, I was very careful. We had once an explosion when the liquid air came into contact with the hot oil in the diffusion pump. And, the lab was "very clean" afterwards. (Stan's remark in proofs: I wanted to say that everything was destroyed in that lab)
HOLLOWAY: [Laugh] Well, there are lots of interesting stories that I know a lot of us could tell about those sorts of things in the lab but it sounds like you had some good experience. Let's see. Once you finished your degree, what did you do then? Did you go to another university?
VEPREK: No. I was at Zurich for a long time, because I had kids there, (Holloway: Yeah.) so, I could not leave so well until they were sufficiently grown up.
HOLLOWAY: Uhm-hmm. So, when did you leave Zurich then?
VEPREK: 1989.
HOLLOWAY: And, where did you go then?
VEPREK: To Munich.
HOLLOWAY: Ah yes. And, what department were you in Munich?
VEPREK: Chemistry Department.
HOLLOWAY: So, did you teach and do research there?
VEPREK: Ya. Ya. Ya. I'm still teaching and still having my smaller group, although I'm officially retired since more than one year.
HOLLOWAY: So, you what sort of research did you do when you first went to Munich? Was it plasma interaction still?
VEPREK: Well, most of my work in the work is somehow related to plasma.
HOLLOWAY: Yeah. Uhm-hmm.
VEPREK: When I moved to Munich. Also I was doing a lot of silicon, amorphous and nanocrystalline. We developed a new method for the restoration and conservation of metallic archaeological artifact. (Holloway: Uhm-hmm.) I still... it was just a time when I was finished in my activity in the plasma-wall interactions and devices for controlling nuclear fusion. (Holloway: Uhm-hmm.) We developed the so-called boronization.
HOLLOWAY: Tell me about boronization for fusion reactor containment.
VEPREK: Well, this was a program when the Soviet Union developed the Tokomak which stabilized the plasma, and the plasma became hotter. At the higher temperature, one problem is the release of the impurities from the first wall. And, this was particularly dangerous for metallic impurities because if they get stripped of electrons at 10 or 11 keV, already the Bremstrahllung is sufficient to prevent the Tokomak from reaching ignition. So, there was concern what to do. And so, I suggested in 1975 to use boron carbide because it has very good properties on that point. (Holloway: Right.) We use only light elements, and it took more than ten years to show it until we did an experiment in the TEXTOR Tokamak in Julich, Germany, and it was for the first time that when the people operating the machine applied auxiliary heating, the temperature went up and not down. (Holloway: Ah.) It was up till that time the auxiliary heating released more impurities from the wall so that the effective Z of the plasma increased, the losses increased, and the temperature went down. (Holloway: Yeah.) So, it has been used afterwards for, or it is still being used in Tokomaks.
HOLLOWAY: So, what precursor do you use for the boron carbide deposition?
VEPREK: Diborane.
HOLLOWAY: Diborane?
VEPREK: It's the simplest way.
HOLLOWAY: So what's the composition of diborane?
VEPREK: B2H6.
HOLLOWAY: And where do you get the carbon from then, for the boron carbide?
VEPREK: From methane.
HOLLOWAY: From methane? So, you mix the diborane and the methane?
VEPREK: That's the simplest way, because in the big machines you cannot use the chlorides, for example. (Holloway: Uhm-hmm.) So, the people at Julich told me too, of their concern about diborane because it's quite a nasty gas. (Holloway: Uhm-hmm.) So, they used later organometallic compounds.
HOLLOWAY: How thick of a layer must you deposit of the boron carbide in order to passivate the wall?
VEPREK: Quite thin. A few hundred nanometers was enough.
HOLLOWAY: Is that right?
VEPREK: Yeah. A few hundred nanometers on the weekend and then they could keep shooting for the whole week.
HOLLOWAY: But, on a weekly basis you would replenish that layer then, (Veprek: Yeah.) and the diffusion rate would come back? (Veprek: Yeah.) I see.
VEPREK: But, this is no solution for the reactor, but there are other problems with the controlled fusion that I don't think is going to work.
HOLLOWAY: Is that -- yeah,
VEPREK: As an energy source.
HOLLOWAY: I was going to ask your opinion on that. So, your opinion is that it's not going to be feasible in the final analysis?
VEPREK: Just one example, yeah. (Holloway: Yeah.) The plasma for the controlled fusion has a very low power density. (Holloway: Yeah.) A factor of 200 and more lower than conventional fission reactors. (Holloway: Uhm-hmm.) So, you have to make it big, and that's the problem of costs. (Holloway: Yeah.) The other most serious problem is that the fast neutrons which have to leave through the first wall of the vessel to get into the blanket to breed tritium, have 14.5 MeV, I think, and they cause something like thirty to fifty-atom displacement of atoms per year, (Holloway: Yeah.) in the first wall. Can you imagine a material, which can survive it for twenty years?
HOLLOWAY: No. I'm not even sure I can imagine with fifty-atom displacements a material that would last for a year even. [Laugh]
VEPREK: And there are also studies back to 1970s which show that, because of this lower power density and large amount of material you need to build such reactors, there would be probably not enough beryllium, not enough copper. You would need maybe forty percent of the worldwide production of steel, at the level of the year seventy-five, to build it , etc., etc. So, I don't see a possible scenario in which it should really work, but who knows.
HOLLOWAY: There's a lot of challenges and some challenges that you wouldn't expect to able to overcome have been overcome. But sometimes there's too many challenges.
VEPREK: Yeah. But this is a very fundamental problem (Holloway: Yeah.) for displacements.
HOLLOWAY: So now, you're working still in the area of nanocomposite materials and nanostructured materials?
VEPREK: So, this, so called nanocomposites, it's been developed in the last ten years, (Holloway: Yeah.) the so-called, so to say my last field which I started.
HOLLOWAY: Now, in your talk on Monday you talked about the composition of the inntergranular spaces, for lack of a better term. The region between, the interfaces between the nanocrystalline crystallites. Could you tell us a little bit about that? What's your understanding of those interfaces?
VEPREK: Well, it's, this is some interesting still quite new things in which I think we still do not fully understand. When we did the first nanocomposites, titanium nitride - silicon nitride, and characterized them, I realized it is really fully segregated, and the silicon nitride must be somewhere around the titanium nitride nanocrystals, and I estimated how thick the interfacial layers should be. And, I was surprised when I found one monolayer. And so, we were looking into many other systems just to verify whether this principle was universal, and it was coming out all the time the same. And, after enough thinking about what could be the reason behind it. I thought it might be somehow related to quantum confinement phenomena at the interface, which means in simple chemical terms, the bond strength increases as well. (Holloway: Yeah. Right.) But then, we didn't know how to verify how to prove it. And now in the last year, on one hand, the friends from the University of Linkoping did heterostructures and found exactly the maximum at one monolayer, and the maximum hardness 33 gigaPascals is limited by impurities. That's what we know for sure because I did the measurements of the oxygen impurities for them. And, on the other hand, Professor Catherine Stampfl from the University of Sydney, who did nice calculations, theoretical calculation of the stabilization of cubic aluminum nitride by titanium nitride. I asked her a few years ago if she could do that calculations for the titanium nitride/silicon nitride system, and she got exactly that the most stable configuration is the one monolayer of silicon nitride between the titanium nitride, and there is indeed a negative charge on silicon. So it seems to be some universal principle. It seems to be valid also for other systems, but it's too early now to generalize.
HOLLOWAY: So, I still don't understand what you think is magic about one monolayer. So, it's the strength of the bond? And, what is the composition of the one monolayer?
VEPREK: Well, it is stoichiometric silicon nitride.
HOLLOWAY: It's stoichiometric?
VEPREK: And well, as far as I believe, or understand it now, that when you have less than a monolayer of silicon nitride, you have titanium nitride to touch titanium nitride, (Holloway: I see.) this is the normal grain boundary defects, which is always the weakest point in any polycrystalline material. (Holloway: Uhm-hmm.) When you have the monolayer then you get this strengthening. (Holloway: Right.) It avoids any diffusion, or movement of dislocation, well, there are not dislocations anyhow in 3-4 nm small crystallines. But when it is getting thicker and thicker, because you have some lattice mismatch, (Holloway: I see.) the strain energy of this thicker layer is increasing, and also the stabilization due to quantum confinement is decreasing. (Holloway: Uhm-hmm.) So, this is logically a combination of two reasons why one monolayer should be the strongest configuration.
HOLLOWAY: Yeah. So, is it an amorphous material, or is it . . .
VEPREK: Well, we call it x-ray amorphous because you don't see it in the XRD. (Holloway: Yeah.) But, if you have a planar interface, then it heteroepitaxial. There's a little bit tensile strain in the silicon nitride. And, in the experiments of the Linkoping group, the one monolayer is cubic. But in a three-dimensional nanocomposite, you don't know because crystallites seem to be regular in the high resolution TEM, but you can never image the grain boundaries because you lose contrast there. (Holloway: Uhm-hmm.) So, it will be somehow polyhedra. (Holloway: Yeah.) But, it must be somehow ordered on the surface of titanium nitride. But we call it amorphous because it is x-ray amorphous. One monolayer doesn't have three-dimensional periodicity.
HOLLOWAY: Now, you believe that the one monolayer at the interface is produced by spinodal decomposition?
VEPREK: Yeah. Because the computations are clear. Even when the sublattice model is not quite exact, the difference between the chemical demixing energy of almost three hundred kilojoules at these conditions, and the destabilizing strain energy, is of two orders of magnitude. And so, it cannot kill it. However, there is a metastable cubic phase frequently reported in the silicon-titanium nitride, (Holloway: Uhm-hmm. Yeah. Uhm-hmm.) It is not quite clear. It happens when films are deposited far from equilibrium. But, it is there. So, probably you get the deposition with the mixed phase from the top of the deposited films, (Holloway: Uhm-hmm.) which then, on a timescale of several hundred to a few hundred of seconds decomposes, but that's a long way to go to really understand these things. (Holloway: Yeah.) But, you know, if I would have the time, it is a unique and a good goal [Laugh] to do these experiments.
HOLLOWAY: Well, you have a lot of collaborators that you work with around the world on that project, plus other projects. Would you like to talk a little bit about those collaborators?
VEPREK: Well, those are good friends that I always learn something from them. [Laugh]
HOLLOWAY: Yes. [Laugh] Good friends.
VEPREK: For example, for example, Professor Ali Argon from MIT. He's well known in the field of fracture physics and fracture mechanics. He did a lot of work on mechanical properties of metallic glasses and polymers, etcetera. And, when we met on the shuttle bus from the Denver airport to the hotel I started talking to him. He admitted later on that he believed that I am off by at least an order of magnitude. [Laugh] But, he was interested so we spent a lot of time in discussion, and started collaborating, and I learned a lot from him.
HOLLOWAY: Good. (Veprek: Yeah.) What about other collaborators?
VEPREK: Well, my old friend, Professor Li Shizhi, who had actually started that field (Holloway: Uhm-hmm.), we are good friends and collaborators. Not continuously, but since 1985. (Holloway: Yes.) The last work which we did jointly is the internal friction measurements, where we looked into the processes going on in the grain boundaries of these nanocomposites. (Holloway: Uhm-hmm.). Because, it turned out that, when we studied the thermal stability by annealing and measuring of the crystallite size, hardness and things like that, in the PVD coatings, you don't see any changes like in the CVD coatings when you deposit them correctly at high temperature. But if you look into the internal friction, you still see a friction peak which vanishes when you heat to 700-750 centigrade. (Holloway: Uhm-hmm.) So, it again shows that during the sputtering, you don't have so fast diffusion and phase segregation as you have during the plasma CVD. This is another interesting problem I'd like to solve, if I can, in the next time, because it's important for the clarifications. (Holloway: Uhm-hmm.) And, my friends from industry. That's a very nice story. It was a small company in the Czech Republic. They started in 1993, 1994, something like that. (Holloway: Uhm-hmm.) Just two of them. And, when we met, the company had six or seven people.
HOLLOWAY: That's SHM?
VEPREK: SHM. Yeah.
HOLLOWAY: Yeah.
VEPREK: And now they have two companies, all together more than probably one hundred people.
HOLLOWAY: Wow. That's quite a spectacular growth.
VEPREK: Yeah. Very nice, new buildings.
HOLLOWAY: And so now you're affiliated at least part time with Singapore?
HOLLOWAY: Is that, is that accurate?
VEPREK: Yeah. That's the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology, which belongs to this A-STAR agency, the founding Agency for Science Technology And Research. As I mentioned before, they wanted me to go there for full time but I cannot go there because of my family. (Holloway: Uhm-hmm.) So, we shall see how it is going to work.
HOLLOWAY: So, do you consult with them in terms of process for hard coatings?
VEPREK: Ya. Ya.
HOLLOWAY: Teach courses there as well?
VEPREK: Well, I'm teaching courses at the National University of Singapore (NSU). SIMTech is not associated with the University. It is under on the campus of NTU, Nanyang Technological University, but has nothing to do with the University. (Holloway: Uhm-hmm.) Yeah. So, for example, the students must formally be students of the University, (Holloway: Right.) even if they are working at SIMTech.
HOLLOWAY: Right. Now, at the beginning of your talk on Monday you mentioned, you showed a picture of John Thornton. Did you interact any with John Thornton?
VEPREK: Well, I had the good luck that in 1984 when Soren Berg invited me to the International Conference at Thin Films at Stockholm. After my talk John came to me and was interested in our work. So, we were discussing particularly the nanocrystalline silicon. And, it was a quite interesting experience then because he knew a lot and he was really a very, very nice person.
HOLLOWAY: Yeah. He was a wonderful person.
VEPREK: Yeah. Yeah. Very patient. Patient? (Holloway: Yeah.) My English is not so good. [Laugh]
HOLLOWAY: Yeah, patient.
VEPREK: Yeah? Patient and I had very good feelings from that discussion.
HOLLOWAY: Good.
VEPREK: But, I didn't see him often. At least I don't remember.
HOLLOWAY: So, that was one encounter that you remember?
VEPREK: It may be we met afterwards sometime, somewhere again but I don't remember. I remember this because I was, you know, surprised.
HOLLOWAY: So, you were relatively young when you met him?
VEPREK: Well, I think we were not so different in age.
HOLLOWAY: I see.
VEPREK: Because if I'm now sixty-six, (Holloway: Uhm-hmm.) and he was relatively young when he died.
HOLLOWAY: He was.
VEPREK: By any chance do you know when he was born?
HOLLOWAY: I'm sorry, I don't remember. I'm not sure that I've ever heard, but I certainly don't remember if I've heard. So. But, what I was thinking about was, what advice would you give to young people who are just getting started in the field in how to have a career as successful as your career?
VEPREK: Well, I don't know if my career was so successful, but I would tell them what I told my son who, when he was finishing the gymnasium and didn't know what to do, and I told him, "Well, then go and study physics, because when you get a good background and then you finish with a diploma in physics you can start in many different fields from chemistry, to biology, or whatever." And he is now doing very well. (Stan's remark in proof: Please include it because otherwise one can get the wrong feeling that my son is not interested in fundamental. This were not fair to him, because he is doing very good basic research; thanks for understanding) This is what I am a little bit missing nowadays by many young people. They don't really want to study the fundamentals to understand, just to get the degree. And, you find that they're not, even with PhD students, etc, that they are superficial. No deep understanding. (Holloway: Yeah.) So, my recommendation was, "Don't think of career. As long as you are a student, enjoy learning, enjoy discovery." You know, there's a story of how I got interested in physics. [Laugh] A lady, I don't remember her name, who interviewed me for the AVS newspaper, or newsletter, asked me this question then. It was very simple. I learned, I was interested in and a studied of nature. (Holloway: Uhm-hmm.) And somehow I got a book, and I learned, somehow that the sun was getting energy from burning hydrogen. And, I asked my uncle who was a teacher at grammar school, "How is it?" "Yes. Yes. It is so." I said, "Is it burning oxygen and hydrogen?" Because I didn't know any other way how hydrogen could burn. He said "Yes," and I could not believe it because of when I did that calculation it took me about two or three hours in the night. I don't remember now what would be the lifetime of the sun, but very short. And, he was suggesting that it is so. So, I started looking for more information and found the hydrogen cycle (Stan's remark in proof: I meant the Bethe-Weisszecker cycle), which I didn't understand of course, so I had to learn something about nuclear physics. So, I got interested in physics.
HOLLOWAY: So, you sort of were following a self-interested, (Veprek: Yeah.) self-directed path. And, that's something that you would encourage the young people (Veprek: Yeah.) to think about doing? Yeah. Explore your interests?
HOLLOWAY: Ask questions?
VEPREK: Particularly during the study, including the Ph.D. because if they are free to learn, they are not obliged to work for a company or whatever, (Holloway: Yeah.), or, that's, this is the best time to learn and really learn from their mentors. It's what I always was telling to students, "What you've understood you can never forget. What you just learned you forget three weeks after the exam." [Laugh] (Holloway: Yeah.) This is something really important. On average, in the examiner, you find very, very few such people nowadays. Maybe it was the same forty years ago. [Laugh] But this is my perspective.
HOLLOWAY: [Laugh] Well, I've often asked the question how students today compare to students yesterday? And, I tell them "The good are as good as they were yesterday, the bad are as bad as they were yesterday, and the in-between I think are about the same." [Laugh] So, but it's a different world. There's a different set of knowledge, and they're starting from a different point in their careers and knowledge base than we were. Different experiences, so it's difficult to give a very accurate comments and answers.
VEPREK: Yeah but, I think you would agree. If a student learns whatever (Holloway: Yes.) learns really fundamentals, (Holloway: The fundamentals.) then he or she is very flexible later on in their life to learn and extend the knowledge in other fields, etcetera. (Holloway: Right.) But, if somebody learn only superficially without understanding, (Holloway: Right.) then he will never learn.
HOLLOWAY: I agree with that completely. If they memorize only and don't understand why this is true, then they soon forget it. They soon lose that. Memory just doesn't last that long, but the fundamentals do last. I agree with you a hundred percent there. So.
Well, I wonder if there was anything else you'd like to cover today for the interview for the Historical Archives?
VEPREK: Not that I know. Well, I had a lot of fun when we developed metals for the restoration of our archeological artifacts.
HOLLOWAY: Oh, I was going to ask you about that.
VEPREK: Yeah? Because I learned a lot of people from the archeology, and made new friends there. It was really fascinating because it was a completely new experience to learn about history which I never had time to. Particularly this gentleman, his name was Elmer, from the National Museum in Zurich. It was really a very nice friendship. And, all together we treated something like twenty, or twenty-one thousand objects in my office in Zurich, and later on in Munich.
HOLLOWAY: So, how did you treat them or how did . . .
VEPREK: Well, the problem is that if something made of, for example, iron, (Holloway: Yes.) was buried in the soil for 2,000 years then it's stabilized somehow. But, due to the electrochemical corrosion, the iron diffused and formed an encrustation with the soil, which is harder than the iron object underneath. (Holloway: Uhm-hmm.) So, when the restorator was polishing it, he could not recognize the transition between the encrustation and the original surface. (Holloway: Yes.) So, what we did was to treat it in our hydrogen and methane plasma to reduce partially this encrustation so that it became brittle. And then you could, using a scalpel, remove it, and uncover the original surface. And we have many, many examples, for example, where you see the traces of the file from the finishing of the object 2000 and more years ago.
VEPREK: Yeah. And then the other problem is that this object could be stable in the solid for 2000, two and a half thousand years. After the excavation, it would then corrode completely after 20-30 years, (Holloway: Yeah.) when exposed to air. So, we also solved this problem of the conservation, so it could be relatively easily redone. It was a very nice time. And, last but not least, I also enjoy working with my wife. She's also scientist, she has a PhD in physics.
HOLLOWAY: Ah yes.
VEPREK: And so when you see her name on papers, then she really contributes to the whole. [Laughter]
HOLLOWAY: I believe you acknowledged her at your talk on Monday. Yes, I remember that.
VEPREK: Well, without her support I would never be able to do what I did in the last years.
HOLLOWAY: Yes. Well, we all have support from our families and they contribute a lot to our lives. So, anything else you would like to share with us?
VEPREK: I don't know. I don't think, I don't find anything too interesting. [Laughter]
HOLLOWAY: Well, Stan, thank you very much for interviewing for the archives for the AVS and again, congratulations on the Thornton Award.
VEPREK: Well, thanks as well, and I shall mention this evening, many thanks to all the people who are involved, who have selected me, because I didn't expect it. And, when I was phoned a few months ago, and told that I'm going to receive this award, I was just speechless. [Laughter]
HOLLOWAY: Well, it's very well deserved. So, again congratulations.
VEPREK: Thanks.
Biography - Dr. Stan Veprek


another delay on BB all well the better the fulfillment. I don't think Zara is going slow, but it does feel as if it should start picking up here in a few chapters.
Yes, the writing for BB6 goes ahead, but the editing has tripped me up at the moment.
ATAtS does take a jump soon.
Ah, the prophecy is the computational output of the linked minds of the sea folk on what will happen if Zara & Hwa fail. I haven't explored that because I'm being a little shy about what they are going to do, and how they are going to do it.


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Differing ideas of national identity shaped views of United States overseas expansion in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to a great extent due to the presence of segregation amongst the African American population, acquisition of the Philippines, and encouragement of violence as a result of the Spanish-American War. Imperialism is the policy of taking control over countries around the world for political and economic gain. Since its formation, the United States has imperialized several countries, including the Philippines, Cuba, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Imperialism was incorporated during the Spanish-American War, a four-month battle between the United States and Spain. Then, chaos induced after the explosion of the USS Maine in Cuba.
Spanish American War Research Paper
The Spanish American war was a product of Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis and the urbanization of America. In 1895, a rebellion broke out in Cuba, as Cuban patriots wanted independences from Spain. Through the yellow journalism, reports of Spain's cruel military tactics lead to a public uproar in the U.S. However, most of these stories were exaggerated as a form to promote war. After an American battleship, the USS Maine, was destroyed, America was "forced" to start war and stop Spanish occupation.
Spanish American War Essay
According to history.com "U.S. Congress soon afterward issued resolutions that declared Cuba's right to independence, demanded the withdrawal of Spain's armed forces from the island, and authorized the President's use of force to secure that withdrawal while renouncing any U.S. design for annexing Cuba." McKinley then set up a naval blockade on Cuba and started requesting American volunteers for their military. This decision caused the Spanish to declare war with America which we now call it the Spanish-American War of 1898. The war started out on May 1, 1898 when Commodore Dewey and his naval squad went into the Philippine Islands at Manila Bay to successfully gain control of the sea when they defeated the Spanish naval force that was trying to defend the Philippine Islands. The victory of the defeat triggered McKinley's want for acquiring the Philippines land as a trophy for the war, leading to tension between the Americans and Filipinos.
Robber Barons Analysis
Third, there was the moral issue of Weyler;s treatment of the Cubans, which appealed to American humanitarianism (Schweikart and Zinn 483). In addition, Schweikart and Allen give detailed descriptions of the battles that happened during the Spanish American War, while Zinn simply states that the "Spanish forces were defeated in three months" (Zinn 309). The authors also explain the end result of the battle, reporting that the United States bought Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico, but did not annex Cuba.
Cuba's Involvement In The Spanish-American War
In the late 1800's, Cuba was fighting for its independence and striving to break free from Spain's control. On February 28, 1898, the U.S.S Maine mysteriously exploded, which was stationed on the coast of Cuba. This led to the U.S involvement in the Spanish-American War. There were many economic reasons why the U.S joined this war, however, there was nothing significant that would require their involvement. The U.S was already keeping a close eye on the battle between the other two nations; waiting for a reason to intervene.
Yellow Journalism Dbq
In 1890 the U.S. went into war with spain for many reason for example. yellow journalism, imperialism and the sinking of the Maine is what caused the American population to want to go to war with Spain. yellow journalism is what got the rage in the american public. When the U.S.S. Maine was sunk word spread fast and the people were quick to blame the Spanish. Since the U.S had so many investments in Cuba it made one of the causes of the Spanish American War
The US Influence In The Spanish-American War
America's entrance in the Spanish-American War was primarily due to the random explosion of the USS Maine on February 15, 1898, which killed 267 service men aboard. This attack leads to Congress's vote to go to war against Spain. The United States' desire to expand military overseas also played a part in the American entrance to this war. Economically speaking, the U.S. wanted Cuban crops to come to America, and not only Spain. "The war enabled the United States to establish its predominance in the Caribbean region and to pursue its strategic and economic interests in Asia" ("Spanish-American War").
Effects Of Spanish American Imperialism
The imperialistic mentality of the American government after the Civil War, led to some degree to the Spanish-American war that would render a great acquisition of land for the United States. However, imperialism would not be the sole factor that led to the war against Spain, but also the sympathy felt by the American government towards Cuba's efforts in fighting for their independence; additionally, the United States would seek to protect its commercial interests (sugar) in the island. Therefore, after invoking the Spanish to secede from their brutal practices towards Cuban rebels and attain a peaceful end to the situation, the United States arbitrarily sent a navy ship, "The USS Maine" to monitor the area.
African Americans In The Progressive Era
The United States wanted to take advantage of the Caribbean for example Cuba. At the time Cuba wanted its independence from Spain. The United States wanted to keep their sugar and mining companies in Cuba. Now the Cubans used two fellow yellow journalists, known as William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. The two both wrote about how the Spanish atrocities in Cuba, many were fabricated.
William Dean Howells Editha Character Analysis
This is evident in Editha through the characterization of George and Editha, both representing an opposing view on imperialism. Americans had sympathies for the Cubans, they struggled under Spanish rule. But American sympathy was not the sole reason for America getting involved in the Cuban revolution. American business had about $50 million invested in Cuba and these investments were at risk because of the revolution taking place in Cuba (Kennedy-Cohen 610). The Teller Amendment also proves that America went to war with Spain for the wrong reasons.
Essay On Sepoy Rebellion
The Spanish-American War occurred in the midst of discontent among Cubans and Puerto Rico, upset with America's increased economic influence.
19th Century Dbq
A major cause of this was an increasing sense of jingoism in the United States. This was a very strong sense of nationalism in the U.S. that led to an aggressive foreign policy. The U.S. defeated Spain easily and conquered the lands of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The Spanish people were eager for the U.S. to come and protect them during this war (Document 7). Later in the 1800s, the United States had developed a very powerful and efficient navy.
The Spanish American War Summary
(Shmoop Editorial Team. " The Spanish-American War Summary & Analysis." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web.
Compare And Contrast American Imperialism
Colonialism and Imperialism affected our world both positively and negatively. On one hand, Imperialism has often been linked with racial segregation, manipulation, and hardship. On the other, it has been said that many colonial powers contributed much in terms of schools, roads, railways, and much more. Whether this time period was constructive or harmful, it has played a large part in shaping our lives today.
More about Compare And Contrast Essay On American Imperialism

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
is de zestiende Sentai serie geproduceerd door Toei. De serie werd van 21 februari 1992 tot 12 februari 1993 uitgezonden en bestond uit 50 afleveringen. De serie diende als basis voor het eerste seizoen van Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, de serie volgde Choujin Sentai Jetman op.

Verhaallijn
170.000.000 jaar geleden leefden vijf koninkrijken van een oud ras van mensen samen met de dinosaurussen onder bescherming van de dino-goden genaamd de Shōgozyu. Aan deze vrede kwam een eind toen de heks Bandora een oorlog begon met als doel de dinosaurussen uit te roeien, uit wraak omdat een dinosaurus verantwoordelijk was voor de dood van haar zoon Kai. Ze werd hierbij geholpen door Dai Satan.
Uiteindelijk waren de Shōgozyu in staat Bandora en haar helpers op te sluiten op de zwervende planeet Nemisis. Het was echter bekend dat in 170 miljoen jaar Nemisis zou terugkeren in een baan om de Aarde en dat Bandora dan zou ontsnappen. Daarom gingen de Shōgozyu, en vijf leden van de vijf koninkrijken in een soort schijndood om Bandora te bevechten wanneer ze terug zou komen.

In 1992 gebeurt het onvermijdelijke. Nemisis keert terug en twee Japanse astronauten die de planeet moesten verkennen bevrijden per ongeluk Bandora en haar helpers. De vijf krijgers ontwaken uit hun winterslaap en gaan als Zyuranger het gevecht aan met Bandora.

Later blijkt dat 170.000.000 jaar geleden er nog een zesde persoon in schijndood ging: Burai, de oudere broer van de Zyuranger leider Geki. Hij ontpopt zich in eerste instantie als een vijand van de Zyuranger.

In de finale brengt Dai Satan Bandora's zoon Kai weer tot leven in de hoop dat dit haar er meer toe zal aanzetten de Zyuranger te verslaan. Hij bestuurt de Mecha Dora Talos in het laatste gevecht tegen de Zyuranger. Uiteindelijk slagen de Zyuranger met behulp van de sterkste Shōgozyu Kyuukyouku Daizyujin niet alleen Dora Talos, maar tegelijk ook Dai Satan te verslaan. Kai sterft ook weer. Bandora verliest haar kracht nadat ze rouwt om Kai's dood. Dit geeft de Shōgozyu de gelegenheid om haar en haar helpers opnieuw op te sluiten, en dit keer voorgoed.

Karakters

Zyuranger
De Zyuranger zijn de vijf beste krijgers van de vijf oude koninkrijken.
  / :: hij was de prins van het Yamato koninkrijk, met als symbool de Tyrannosaurus. Na de dood van Burai krijgt hij diens draken harnas en wordt zo de sterkere Armed Tyranno. Hij bleek niet de echte zoon te zijn van de Yamato koning, maar geadopteerd.
  / : een ridder van de Sharma stam gesymoblyseerd door de mammoet. Hij is de meest serieuze van de Zyuranger. Hij had een oudere zus die vermoord is door Bandora.
  / : hij was een ridder van de Etof stam, met als symbool de Triceratops. Hij is zwaar onder de indruk van hedendaagse technologie, en werkte zelfs parttime om zich een computer te kunnen kopen.
  / : een ridder van de Daim stam en de jongste van het team. Zijn symbool is de sabeltandtijger. Hij is het lenigste lid van het team en gespecialiseerd in stealth.
  / : de enige vrouw in het Zyuranger team. Zij is prinses van de Rysha stam met als symbool de Pteranodon.
  / : de oudere broer van Geki die buiten weten van de anderen ook in schijndood ging 170.000.000 jaar geleden. In het begin haat hij Geki. Het blijkt dat Geki en Burai's vader, de zwarte ridder van het Yamato koninkrijk, werd verbannen door de Yamato koning. De koning liet Geki blijven en adopteerde hem als troonopvolger. In een poging Geki terug te halen werd de zwarte ridder gedood door de Yamato koning. Burai zag dit en zwoer wraak. Hij stal het draken harnas en besloot Geki te doden. Uiteindelijk sluit hij vrede met de Zyuranger en helpt hen ook een tijdje. Dan blijkt dat Burai nog maar kort te leven heeft. Terwijl hij in schijndood was stortte de grot waar hij zich bevond in, en kwam hij om het leven. De Shōgozyu lietenhem weer tot leven brengen door Clotho, zij het maar voor een beperkte tijd. Wanneer Burai sterft geeft hij het draken harnas door aan Geki. Hij verschijnt aan het einde van de serie nog eenmaal als geest.

Hulp
 : een onsterfelijke tovenaar die de Zyranger gedurende hun schijndood bewaakte. Hij runt in het heden een appartementen complex.
 : een oude vriend van Barza en de enige die afwist van Burai.
 : de belichaming van het leven. Hij was het die Burai weer tot leven bracht. Hij gaf hem tevens een groene kaars die aangaf hoeveel tijd hij nog te leven had.

Vijanden
  (30-31, 47-50): bekend als het ultieme kwaad. Hij verschijnt als een enorm zwevend hoofd. Hij gebruikt Bandora als pion in zijn plan om de Aarde te verwoesten. Hij sterft uiteindelijk door Kyuukyouku Daizyujin.
 : ooit was zij koningin van de Dal stam. Toen haar zoon Kai werd gedood door een dinosaurus sloot ze een verbond met Dai Satan: haar ziel in ruil voor de kracht om haar zoon te wreken. Ze beschikt over schijnbaar ongelimiteerde magische krachten. Ze verliest haar kracht uiteindelijk wanneer ze rouwt om Kai's tweede dood.
 : Bandora's beste krijger. Hij spreekt bijna nooit.
  (19-50): een vrouwelijke krijger die tevens kan veranderen in een schorpioenachtig monster. Zij is de vrouw van Grifforzer en eveneens een van Bandora's sterkste krijgers.
 : een vampier alchemist, maar niet bepaald een van Bandora's slimste helpers.
 : een goblin die al Bandora's slechte daden bijhoudt. Hij is een laffaard en niet bijster slim.
 : hij maakt al Bandora's monsters uit klei en brengt ze tot leven in zijn oven. Hij is zeer briljant en lijkt over elk onderwerp wel wat af te weten.
  (47-50): Bandora's zoon die 170.000.000 jaar terug stierf door een dinosaurus (zijn eigen schuld overigens). Dai Satan brengt hem tegen het eind van de serie weer tot leven. Hij sterft opnieuw wanneer Dora Talos wordt verwoest.
  (47-50): Bandora's eigen Mecha, bestuurt door Kai.
 : Bandora's soldaten gemaakt uit klei. Hun handen kunnen veranderen in verschillende wapens.

Shōgozyu
De  zijn de dinosaurus goden die 170.000.000 jaar geleden de vijf oude koninkrijken beschermden. Zij doen dienst als de mecha van de Zyuranger. Qua uiterlijk zien ze er uit als robots. Ze kunnen telepathisch communiceren met de zyurangers. De Shōgozyu zijn voor hun kracht afhankelijk van de aanwezigheid van dinosaurussen op Aarde. In het heden is de dinosauruspopulatie op Aarde echter beperkt tot twee nog niet uitgekomen eieren. Deze vormen dan ook de basis van veel afleveringen.

 : de primaire mecha van de Zyurangers. Daizyujin werd het eerst gevormd als , en toen als Daizyujin. Daizyujin heeft een eigen wil en geeft de Zyurangers dan ook geregeld opdrachten. Zijn wapens zijn het Mammoth Schild en de , waarmee hij de  uitvoert. **
: de eerste van de Guardian Beast die ontwaakte. Hij is groter en sterker dan de andere primaire Guardian Beasts en kan ook eigenhandig Dora Monsters verslaan.
 : kan ijsgas blazen dat zijn vijanden bevriest.
 : kan zijn horens afvuren om vijanden te vangen met kettingen.
 : de snelste van de Guardian Beasts.
 : de enige van de Guardian Beast die kan vliegen.
 : ook wel kortweg "Caesar" genoemd. De sterkste van de individuele Guardian Beasts. Hij kan zich zelfs staande houden tegen Grifforzer en Lamia. Heeft een boor aan zijn staart en kan raketten afvuren. Hij kan combineren met ZyuMammoth, Triceratops, en SaberTiger tot . In deze vorm is hij gewapend met de  boor waarmee hij onder andere de  aanval kan uitvoeren.
 : de combinatie van Daizyujin en Dragon Caesar. Zijn aanval is de . Zijn sterkste wapen is de , a massive bal van energie.
 : de zevende Guardian Beast in de vorm van een Brachiosaurus. King Brachion is een meesterloze Guardian Beast. Hij heeft derhalve ook geen piloot nodig. Kan veranderen in de  waarin hij dienstdoet als transport voor de andere Guardian Beasts.
 : de combinatie van Zyutei Daizyujin en King Tanker. Dit is de originele vorm van de Shōgozyu. Zijn aanval is de , een massieve energieaanval die zelfs sterk genoeg was om Dai Satan te verslaan.

Trivia
 Bandora's naam is afgeleid van Pandora.
 Hoewel Zyuranger dinosaurussen als thema heeft, hebben maar drie van de zes Zyurangers daadwerkelijk een Shōgozyu mecha die gebaseerd is op een dinosaurus.
 Dragon Caesar is gebaseerd op Godzilla
 Zyuranger was de eerste Sentai met een vast zesde teamlid.

Afleveringen
 The Birth (誕生 Tanjō)
 The Rebirth! (復活 Fukkatsu)
 Fight! Land of despair (戦え絶望の大地 Ikusa e Zetsubō no Daichi)
 Revive, Legendary Weapons (甦れ伝説の武器 Yomigaere Densetsu no Buki)
 Sca~ry Riddles (怖~いナゾナゾ Kowa~i Nazonazo)
 Stand!! Daizyujin (立て!! 大獣神 Tate!! Daijūjin)
 I Can See, I Can See (みえる、みえる Mieru, Mieru)
 Fear! The Abrupt Eater (恐怖! 瞬間喰い Kyōfu! Shunkan Tabei)
 Run! Prince of Eggs (走れタマゴ王子 Hashire Tamago Ōji)
 No More Monkeys! (猿はもうイヤ! Saru wa Mou Iya!)
 Husband! (ご主人さま! Goshujin-sama)
 Papa's a Vampire!? (パパは吸血鬼!? Papa wa Kyūketsuki!?)
 Fire! The Golden Arrow (射て! 黄金の矢 Ire! Ōgon no Ya)
 Becoome Small! (小さくなァれ! Chiisaku Naare!)
 Destroy! The Dark Super Sword (破れ! 暗黒超剣 Yabure! Ankoku Chō Ken)
 The Great Sneeze Plot (クシャミ大作戦 Kushami Dai Sakusen)
 The Sixth Hero (六人目の英雄 Rokuninme no Eiyū)
 The Brothers' Sword of Hatred (憎しみの兄弟剣 Nikushimi no Kyōdai Ken)
 Female Warrior Scorpion! (女戦士サソリ! Onna Senshi Sasori!)
 Daizyujin's Last Day (大獣神最期の日 Daijūjin Saigo no Hi)
 The Guardian Beast's Great Riot (守護獣大あばれ Shugojū Dai Abare)
 Combine! Gouryuujin (合体! 剛龍神 Gattai! Gōryūjin)
 I Like, Like the Super Miracle Ball (好きすき超魔球 Suki Suki Chō Makyū)
 Turtles Forever (カメでまんねん Kame de Mannen)
 The Park Where Demons Dwell (悪魔のすむ公園 Akuma no Sumu Kōen)
 Together Spirits in Shaved Ice (カキ氷にご用心 Kakigōri ni Goyō Kokoro)
 I Want to Eat Mei (メイを食べたい Mei o Tabetai)
 Great Upgrade! Clay Monsters (大改造! 粘土獣 Dai Kaizō! Nengo Jū)
 A Mystery!? The Attacking Beast Knight God (謎!? 襲う獣騎神 Nazo!? Osō Jūkishin)
 Satan Comes!! (サタンが来る!! Satan ga Kuru!!)
 Reborn! The Ultimate God (復活! 究極の神 Fukkatsu! Kyūkyoku no Kami)
 Geki! Kill Your Tears (ゲキよ涙を斬れ Geki yo Namida o Kire)
 Teach Me! The Jewel of Bravery (教えて! 勇気玉 Oshiete! Yūki Tama)
 Burai Lives! (ブライ生きて! Burai Ikite!)
 Ninja Warrior, Boi (忍者戦士ボーイ Ninja Senshi Bōi)
 Smash It! The Mirror of Death (くだけ! 死の鏡 Kudake! Shi no Kagami)
 A Dinosaur is Born (恐竜が生まれる Kyōryū ga Umareru)
 Princess Mei's Seven Metamorphoses (メイ姫七変化!! Mei-hime Shichi Henka)
 Tears of a Subterranean Beast (地底獣の涙… Chitei Jū no Namida)
 Burai's Departure of Death (ブライ死の出発 Burai Shi no Shuppatsu)
 Blaze, Burai!! (燃えよブライ! Moe yo Burai!)
 Burai Dies... (ブライ死す… Burai Shisu...)
 Live Again! Zyusouken (甦れ! 獣奏剣 Yomigaere! Jūsōken)
 Swordswoman! Japan's Best (女剣士! 日本一 Onna Kenshi! Nihon'ichi)
 Dumbass Boys (バカヤロー少年 Bakayarō Shōnen)
 Presenting! The Vicious Squadron (参上! 凶悪戦隊 Sanjō! Kyōaku Sentai)
 Break in! The Final Deciding Battle (突入! 最終決戦 Totsunyū! Saishū Kessen)
 The Son from the Dark (闇からの息子 Yama Kara no Musuki)
 The Gods Lost!! (神が負けた!! Kami ga Maketa!!)
 Long Live the Dinosaurs (恐竜万歳 Kyōryū Banzai'')

Super Sentai

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Wow! How far we've slipped in the acknowledgment department!
Following my own understanding will likely NOT lead me in a straight path. Things I perceive as good, may in fact be very bad ideas. Things I oppose, may be a part of a bigger plan God is weaving… But if in all my ways I will learn to acknowledge Him…I'll be led in straight paths, 'where the good way is', the walk that will bring rest to my soul (Jer.6:16).
The word translated 'acknowledge', is "yada". It means 'to know', to learn to know, to perceive, find out and discern…It involves knowing by intimate experience, learning to recognize… God desires that we "acknowledge Him" in all our ways…learn to see His hand at work, begin to perceive Him in everything. Reminds me of Paul's challenge to the Philippians to work out their salvation with fear and trembling because it was God who was at work in them to accomplish His good pleasure (Phil.2:12,13). This is our God, the One that is at work often unseen, but inviting us to see with spiritual understanding the work that He's doing.
He longs for His people to understand His way of working. Psalm 95 has that haunting finish to an otherwise joyful celebration of God's excellence: "For forty years I loathed that generation and said, 'They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.'" He accompanied them through the wilderness. Did they not comprehend He was there though unseen? That they were 'the apple of His eye', the object of His unflagging devotion? Did they really think they'd been abandoned just because they got thirsty? They did not understand His ways, that though they might be physically in a wilderness, He was committed to providing everything they truly needed and to using their walk with Him as a testimony to the nations around them, for His own glory.
So I come back to my own life, the everyday-ness of it. Acknowledging His active presence in my every moment is a beginning. In the mundane, in the traumatic, in the slow grind, in the delightful…do I perceive He is with me, in me, for me, working out His purposes for His great glory. Will I acknowledge Him in this moment, as I write, as I read…present, working, shaping all things for His great glory? This is holy ground. My actions become a kind of worship. This body a living sacrifice offered as I type, as I put wood on the fire, as I help Rachel with grammar, as I create a pumpkin pie and pop the turkey in the oven shortly…when I acknowledge Him in all my ways, in all the moments of my days, life becomes worship of a God who is forever Good, and forever worthy of my gratitude.
P.S. I highly commend to you Ann Voskamp's faith-stirring devotional on "Why every day begs to be Thanksgiving". Beautiful, as her posts always are.
And for a musical accompaniment to these thoughts on acknowledging God, try this glorious hymn sung by Fernando Ortega: Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation.
Oh, and HAPPY THANKSGIVING! no matter what piece of the globe you reside in!


I remember when I first realized that I needed to split my production workers into multiple crews. At the time, I was working in the field with about eight employees. We were maintaining primarily condo associations and master homeowners' associations. We had three trucks and trailers outfitted with mowers, trimmers and blowers.
We all pretty much went from job to job together. We would knock out plenty of work this way, and generally we could get several large jobs done every day. As soon as we finished the mowing at one site, a few people would move on to the next job and start mowing there. The other trucks would follow, and by the end of the day we ended up all at the same property. We would get it done so fast that a customer once came out and said we were like ants on a doughnut.
When your company gets to a size where it's more than just you and a few other people working, it's time to start thinking about breaking into separate crews.
When I made the decision to do this I had to figure out who would be in charge of the new crew. I figured we would keep one big crew and split off three people to make another crew, and I wanted someone else to take charge to see if he could handle it. I finally decided on "Joe" to run the new crew. He had been with us the longest, he knew the jobs and he was pretty responsible, so I gave him the opportunity to be our first real foreman.
At the time, we really didn't have much in the way of job descriptions, so I just told him what to do. I came up with a route that I thought three people could handle and had him take care of those accounts.
I knew I would have to check his jobs from time to time, so I added that to my responsibilities. I also would keep running the big crew for the time being with the thought of eventually letting someone take over.
I was really pleased to see that the new crew actually did a very good job. Joe seemed to improve as an employee and took the responsibility of that route very seriously. Also, the crew that I was running got more efficient, and a few people started stepping up because they knew I was looking for someone to eventually take over.
In hindsight, I think I should have separated the crews earlier, but I was afraid they wouldn't do a good enough job without me being there all the time to supervise them.
Not everything went as smoothly as all of us would have liked. We had our share of speed bumps as we adjusted to the change. At the beginning we just had to do it and make it work, which is what we did. We learned from our mistakes. And eventually we developed job descriptions, evaluations and benchmarks for our foremen to shoot for.
If you are at that point where you feel it's time to put someone else in charge of a crew, then you probably need to start planning to do it. Look at your employees and start evaluating them.
Do you have an employee who is always at work on time? Does that individual take responsibility for his or her work? Are they easy to manage? Are they willing to learn? If you can answer "Yes" to these questions, then it might be time to give that employee a shot as a foreman.


text:
I miss my golf and hate jail food, says Christopher Tappin
CHRISTOPHER TAPPIN told his wife yesterday how he is missing golf and his morning paper as he languishes in a prison cell after being extradited to the US.
By John Chapman
00:00, Thu, Mar 1, 2012
Elaine and Christopher Tappin at Heathrow last Friday before he flew to the US
In an emotional conversation with Elaine he said he was "coping" but added: "I cannot eat the food really. It's OK though."
Millionaire businessman Mr Tappin – accused by the US of conspiring to sell parts for Iranian missiles – said he missed being active and outside in the fresh air.
Elaine Tappin, 62, had a brief conversation with him just hours after appearing before MPs and complaining about his treatment.
Speaking from Otero county prison facility in New Mexico – a minimum security jail – Mr Tappin, 65, asked his wife in Orpington, south London, how she was coping.
He told her: "I chose to stay in a single cell because the prison has a vast majority of people speaking different languages. Because I was in court yesterday I also didn't have the chance to get a library card, so I can't start reading again."
The worst thing about being here is not being able to go outside and play golf. I'm going to miss that and reading my paper every day.
Christopher Tappin
Mr Tappin, president of Kent Golf Club Union, said: "The worst thing about being here is not being able to go outside and play golf. I'm going to miss that and reading my paper every day."
Mrs Tappin said she and son Neil will visit him tomorrow if he is granted bail. Retired Mr Tappin, who lost his two-year battle against being sent to America last week, faces up to 35 years in jail if convicted .
Neil said: "One of the distressing things is that the US government will be opposing bail for him because they feel as if he's a flight risk.
"He surrendered himself in a dignified way at Heathrow last Friday. For them to be opposing bail seems quite strange. He has 250 dollars to his name out there so he's not the sort of person who's going to run away. Not a shred of evidence has been given for or against this case in the UK."


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#SNFDIALOGUES #ThePowerOfDialogue
CURATED & MODERATED BY ANNA-KYNTHIA BOUSDOUKOU
Stavros Niarchos Foundation
86A Vasilisssis Sofias Ave. 11528 Athens, Greece
E SNFDialogues@snf.org
Katerina Vrana: I nearly died laughing
The December DIALOGUES event, "Katerina Vrana: I nearly died laughing" featured a discussion with stand-up comedian Katerina Vrana.
Katerina took stock of the past year, discussing the trials and tribulations that almost cost her her life and the dreams she has for the year ahead, all with the incredible humor that earned her third place in the "Funniest Person in the World" competition.
Katerina Vrana is one of Greece's top stand-up comedians. She has been a Funny Women Finalist, a TEDx performer, has appeared on BBC TV and Radio and on Greek TV, has gigged in the UK, Greece, Australia, the United States and the Southeast Europe, has hosted her own night at the Southbank Centre in London, and is one of the founders of Angel Comedy, one of London's most successful comedy clubs. CNN included her in its list of "Female Comedians to Watch" alongside Bridget Christie, Janeanne Garofalo and Sarah Millican to name a few. In December 2016 Katerina represented Greece in the Laugh Factory's "Funniest Person In The World" competition. She was the only woman to reach the Final and came third. In April 2017, Katerina fell critically ill and is currently in recovery.
Following the discussion with Katerina Vrana, we celebrated DIALOGUES' first birthday with a party featuring VaniLa Swing and Labis Kountourogiannis a.k.a Dj Labeast (Wedding Singers / Imam Baildi).
The DIALOGUES are curated and moderated by Anna-Kynthia Bousdoukou.
*The opinions expressed by DIALOGUES participants are solely their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) or the SNF DAILOGUES team. Speakers' remarks are made freely, without prior guidance or intervention from the team.
Athens Conservatoire
© 2019 STAVROS NIARCHOS FOUNDATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | CREATED BY TOOL


Azul Fives Hotel has been saved to your favorites folder .
Located just 10 minutes from charming Playa del Carmen, Azul Fives Hotel is noted for enormous suites designed for families and friends with up to three bedrooms with rooftop decks. Activities and special experiences foster togetherness for families, couples and groups of friends.
The 360-suite hotel offers the renowned Gourmet Inclusive® concept, as well as flexible meal plan options to suit all agendas.
All accommodations have ultra-chic interiors decorated in bright white, rich wood and natural textures. They include air conditioning and ceiling fans, flat screen cable television with DVD player, deluxe bathrobes, radio/alarm clock, safe deposit box, mini bar, iron and ironing board, and coffee maker. Bathrooms feature rainforest showers, double sinks with marble countertops, and hair dryer.


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What's The 411? Nas and Lauryn Hill, Kimbella, Usher and more!
by Odienne Dina Chisolm
What's the 411?
A little birdie said that rapper Nas & rapper/singer Lauryn Hill might actually be dating now.
It's been buzz about Nas having had a crush on her for years and is rumored to be currently wining and dining the super-talented Ms. Hill.
Nas recently surprised the Hot 97 Summer Jam audience by bringing Lauryn Hill out on stage to perform "If I Rule the World," and more. Needless to say, Lauryn rocked the mic and kept up like she never left the game. Perhaps things took off between the two after reconnecting for this event.
While we can't confirm whether or not they are seeing each other, it would be very refreshing to see two deeply intelligent, well rounded and grounded celebrities take a shot at love!
Love & Hip Hop New York...Kimbella!
While we all wait for the premiere of Love & Hip Hop Atlanta (VH1, June 18), the show must go on in New York! How could it not, this is where it all began.
No one can forget the infamous fight between Jim Jones' girlfriend Chrissy and Juelz Santana's girl, Kimbella.
Yes, season 2 started off with a bang LOUD and clear when Chrissy and Kimbella went toe-to-toe after Kimbella revealed she had "relations" with rapper Fabulous, while he was still with Love & Hip Hop cast member Emily.
While Kimbella's looks and story definitely added to the show, will the blonde bombshell be returning?
"If the money is right. I have two kids that I have to support and now that I'm a little wiser about what this process is really like, I'm going to need a lot of things. So re-negotiating my contract isn't going to be easy. They're going to have to come with it!" reported Necole Bitchie.com.
We are not mad at you Kimbella, work the reality circuit and get your paper...or better yet, your own show - Mama Jones did it!
Usher Baby!
Looking 4 Myself is Usher's seventh studio album, which was released today.
Usher has had his fair share of media scrutiny lately, as he seems to be in the midst of a nasty custody battle with ex-wife Tameka Foster, but he will be in the spotlight again for doing what he does best - ENTERTAIN. The late James Brown once called Usher the "Godson of Soul."
His comeback single "Climax" has been on the charts for weeks and his current single featuring Rick Ross "Let Me See" is at the top of the R&B charts as well.
In regard to the sound this new album will bring, Usher stated to Weekend Edition, "What I have recognized is that there aren't really boxes anymore. Barriers between an artist being simply a hip-hop, rock, R&B or pop artist are broken down. This album will be enjoyable to anyone who listens to it."
One(s) To Watch
Rappers 3rd and Casino have been putting out bangers on the underground circuit for a minute and it seems that they never disappoint with each new project.
Rapper 3rd Degree, a.k.a. Robert Capeda, is a Bronx native, mixed with a little ATL swag as he resided there 10 years, has a hell of a delivery and passion in his rhyme. Being inspired by Biggie Smalls and looking to him as a mentor, 3rd has mastered how to slay with words.
Casino, a.k.a. Jelani VanHolten, born and raised in Harlem, has the swift mindset of a true New York hustler and it's apparent in his music. Casino's delivery while smooth, is still very impactful and somewhat melodic. Snoop Dogg was one of his main inspirations (there's that smoothness again!).
Check out their music and upcoming mixtape releases at www.3rdandcasino.com Their "Theraflu" freestyle video is a MUST see!
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Back in the day, your lunch box was something you treasured. You eagerly picked out a new one each year…and carried it with a sense of pride. For some reason I feel like lunch boxes are much more utilitarian now. Sure, they still have cartoons and what not on them, but more and more kiddo's on the elementary school playground have unbranded nylon totes. Even bento boxes, which can be darling, don't have the same cache and magic of a Knight Rider lunch box, ya know? This photo sums it all up for me—and totally reminds me of my brother Karl. He worshiped Star Wars and looooved his awesome Super Friends lunch pail.
Lunch boxes were SUPER trendy amongst collectors back in the 90s….kinda like Pez. Prices became so inflated that I wouldn't even really look at them, knowing they would cost a pretty penny. But the other day I stumbled upon a great Snoopy lunchbox and it reminded me that I DID still love them. What kind of lunch box did you carry back in the day?
TV show based lunch boxed were especially popular in my day (the 70s). That Charlie's Angels lunch box?? I sooo wanted one. Ironically, often lunch boxes were for TV shows that your parents would never really let you watch….or for bands you never really listened to at age 8 (KISS, Charlie's Angels, the A-Team….LAUGH IN!). But you knew of them through pop culture and you wanted to be a part of it all!
I understand why they have evolved….tin lunch boxes get a little rusty, and nylon/vinyl is easier to clean. But man I miss those days. Wolfie likes his lunch box, and we got him a sweet Pokemon one, but I know he doesn't feel that same reverence we all did when we were kids.
Do you have these same memories? What was your lunch box? And how about your kiddos….what are they carrying their lunch in these days? I'm curious!
Posted in Vintage Pop Culture, Vintage Toys + Fun Stuff.
So true about the lunch boxes being LESS than inspiring these days…..My little blossom ,however,collects tiny heart shaped rocks from recess and keeps them in her Koroppi lunch box..always sorta warms my heart!
I hear you! My brother is stilled miffed about not getting a James Bond lunch box, but now they go on Ebay for hundreds of dollers.
I had a Mickey Mouse one that I didn't get to pick out because if I did, I would have rocked the Charlie's Angels ones.
my first was a mickey mouse (back in the mid-70s. i know there was a strawberry shortcake and two vinyl wonder womans (a yellow and a blue, i believe). i was always fascinated by those orange tupperware lunchboxes with the snapping handles.
my son's first was a canvas lunch sack with animal patches sewn all over it and now we have two of the OOTS boxes. we also have an owl bag by skip hop.
yeah, the new ones are all totally cute/sweet, but I don't think they mean the same thing to our kids. ah well!
Mine was a plastic orange Wuzzles lunch box (it was 1985 so I missed out on the awesome tin ones)….and I STILL own it! In fact, it's sitting about 2 feet away from me right now. Luna carries her little toys around the house in it!
Between my brothers and sister and I, we had a Charlie Brown, an NFL, a Dukes of Hazzard, and I am so blanking on the others! There were tons more! We used them to carry our crayons for ages and ages after we out of lunchbox using age.
The first thing I ever remember buying for myself with my own money was a lunchbox. I loved that thing.
Ingrid has a ladybug bag we got at target, but it's already worn out after a few months. Time to shop!!
love it!!! The Dukes one must have made you guys SO cool!
Aha! It was Little House on the Prairie!!
I bought my 2.5 year old a vintage Mary Poppins lunchbox and she's IN LOVE. She puts her dolls in it and carries it around at the park. It's a little rusty, but completely functional.
a Mary Poppins one would be GREAT!!
Hi, I'm pretty sure I had Peanuts, Holly Hobby and one about Disneyland that I just loved to look at because it had all my favorite characters.
There is a chocolate shop in Noe Valley here in SF I usually stop by at the holidays which has oodles of lunch boxes. I immediately thought of them when I saw your post!
No joke my dad has all of these and more. He had just about every old lunch box they made with they exception of about 20.
dealer offer me about 20 boxes for $5 or $10 each only 2 weeks later. BAM I was hooked.
Glad to see your website promoting a great hobby. Keep it up! My collections have now turned to old cars. I am up to around 20. Very Expensive Hobby.
aw Fred I'm so glad you commented. How cool! Are they all displayed in your house??? I'm jealous! What a special collection.


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Q: Loading an XML file into a dataset using SSIS Is it possible to parse & load an xml file with optional elements/attributes using SQL Server Integration Service 2005? Any examples/pointers would be appreciated.

A: You can parse it an xml CLOB using T-SQL constructs now: SO search for SQL Server and xml tags
I think it would be clumsy using SSIS.
Do you have to use SSIS particularly?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Methven officially launched in Singapore on 2 November 2017, witnessed by New Zealand's High Commissioner to Singapore, Dr Jonathan Austin.
New Zealand's award-winning and market-leading premium shower and tapware brand Methven Limited (MVN) is pleased to announce they had signed distribution agreements with 3 appointed distributors in Singapore - covering all sales networks from traditional bathroom stores and DIY stores to online sales and developer projects.
New Zealand's High Commissioner to Singapore, Dr Jonathan Austin and Regional Director of New Zealand High Commission for East Asia, Ms Clare Wilson, witnessed the signing ceremony in Singapore. Methven Chief Executive Mr David Banfield signed the agreements with Uniquos Pte Ltd and two other distributors, in a strategic move which sees each distributor targeting different market segments.
Creating amazing water experiences since 1886, Methven has a strong history of innovation and design, having successfully commercialised a number of international award-winning bathroom technologies including Satinjet® and Aurajet®.
The Aio Aurajet Shower range, awarded 'Best of the Best' at 2017 Red Dot Awards, is Methven's most advanced, most invigorating shower experience ever. Its breakthrough spray technology and unique halo shape are intrinsically linked in an enduring union of form and function.
Aurajet delivers 20% more spray force and twice the water contact on the skin than conventional showers — this continuing Methven's commitment to savings on water and energy bills for consumers without compromising the shower experience. Aio is the most awarded range in Methven's rich 131 year history, bringing the total to 23 national and international awards for the Aio range.
Another highlight of the Singapore launch is the introduction of the Kiri Low-Flow shower head using Satinjet® technology that has achieved the WELS (Water Efficiency Labelling Scheme) Three-Star rating on mains pressure (5.0L per min flow rate), spray force and spray coverage — with reference AS 3662-2013, Standards Australia, for performance of showers for bathing.
Selected models of Methven shower heads will be available from Uniquos Official Store from November 2017.


Last Thursday, Jon Bane, age 9, presented a check and cash totaling $352 to Helen Louise Fincher at the hair salon she runs in Belleville.
He also presented a hand-made card asking her to use the money to help the poor.
Fincher runs Bladez on East Huron River Drive, as well as a private mission to the homeless in Detroit's Cass Corridor.
Last year, about this time, Jon brought a check for $237 to Fincher, the exact amount she needed to pay the insurance due on the bus she uses to take donations to the homeless.
"So, I had a bake sale," Jon recalled last year's project. He sold baked items before and after services at Open Arms Lutheran Church in Van Buren Township. He also took freewill donations.
"Our pastor said, 'There's this girl here who helps the poor,' so we brought the money to her," Jon said.
He referred to Pastor Jim Richter.
Jon said his brother Ryan, 6, and even his little sister Avery, 2, help with his project.
He said the family bakes cookies, cupcakes, muffins, and bread. His mother makes other recipes she finds in cookbooks and his grandmother makes bread from a recipe handed down from his great-grandmother, he said.
Jon and his mom did the bake sale themselves last year and this year the family and church members joined in to help.
Jon, Ryan, and Avery are the children of Jason and Laura Bane of Westland who attend Open Arms church.
Fincher could be classified as an angel, too. She has been helping the homeless in the Cass Corridor for more than two decades and from her own van starting in 1990.
"People actually sleep in boxes," she explained of the desperate situation.
Fincher's story begins when she was 3-month-old Helen Louise Collins, living in a roach-infested apartment in the Cass Corridor. Her father was an intelligent man, but he became a drunk and began living on the streets, she said. He actually was going around barefoot at one point and drink finally killed him.
Her mother Edith Collins raised Helen and her two siblings all by herself, working in a factory to earn a living and making sure they had babysitters when she was away. Edith died in 1964 and Fincher cherishes the memory of her hard-working mother.
Helen lived in that area of Detroit until she got married to the boy next door, Marion Fincher. That was 43 years ago. They had three sons, one of whom died of drug use.
They recently adopted two daughters, Michelle and Jennifer.
They live in the New Boston area, but have a Belleville mailing address.
Fincher said her personal project to help the homeless started some 20 years ago when she was attending a Romulus church and a lady asked if anyone wanted to help the homeless.
"Hey, that's my neighborhood," she replied. She started to help and hasn't stopped yet. The woman who started her on the project now is in her 80s.
A bus was donated to the church for Fincher to use in the homeless project. After years of ministering to the poor, she was told the church wanted to do other things and sold the bus.
Fincher said, perhaps, it was God's way of telling her she should put her efforts in another direction.
But, one of her customers at her hair salon found an advertisement in the paper for a bus for sale for $1,500. The lady gave her $1,500 cash. She bought the bus.
Her husband said if she would change churches, he would attend services with her. The couple now attends Church of God in Belleville.
Fincher ran the Madador Salon in New Boston for 22 years until the building she was renting was slated to be torn down. She came to Belleville and opened Bladez.
She said she doesn't go around bothering people for donations and leaves it in the hands of God.
People bring her clothes and food for the homeless, which she collects in a room in the back of Bladez. Volunteers help her sort the items.
Then, on the third Monday of every month, between 9:30 and 10 a.m., from 10 to 14 people get on the bus with her to go to the Cass Corridor to distribute the items and visit with the homeless.
She said some businesses won't donate food because they fear liability, but a submarine shop Downriver gives her hundreds of free subs to distribute to the hungry.
"I walk the streets," she said, explaining she used to go into the shelters, but they didn't want her mentioning God and had other rules.
"The Lord told me: 'Stay on the street,'" she said.
She said the people on the street know her and they all hold hands in a circle and each one tells why they are grateful. Many are familiar faces, but there are always new people, she said.
Fincher said she used to take students from Romulus High School, who went as volunteers to do community service.
She said the Belleville Church of God always pays half of the bus insurance for her, which is due in February. She said Pastor Fred Weaver is very supportive.
Fincher said she plans to put part of the money donated by Jon aside to save for the insurance and the rest to buy socks, caps, and gloves for the homeless.
"You know in this extremely cold weather they could lose their toes," Fincher said, adding she brings them blankets.
Fincher has no organization, but does her work as an individual, with the help of volunteers, her church, and, of course, God, who sends her what is needed.
And, when she looks at a homeless man in her old neighborhood struggling with alcohol addiction, she sees her father who she couldn't help as a teenager — and helps the man she can.
Donations of blankets and coats and other warm clothing can be dropped off at Bladez, 601 E. Huron River Dr., Belleville, or call 697-5600 for information on what is needed most.
Editor's Note: Cass Corridor in Detroit is the area between I-75 at the south and Wayne State University at the north, with Cass Avenue being the main thoroughfare. Cass is west of and parallel to Woodward Avenue.


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Don't Kill The Messenger IX
I saw the trailer for Sam Raimi's new horror flick Drag Me To Hell in front of Last House on Friday. I didn't figure out what I was watching until half-way through, which is a rarity these days. I have to say that it looks pretty medicore and that's not the reaction I was hoping for. I don't know. From what I saw, it looked like a mish-mash of stuff we've seen before... the J-horror that Raimi loves so much, Platinum Dunes' recent dud The Unborn, the nineties King adaptation Thinner. I remain cautiously optimistic because Sam is my boy, and I know he can pull this off. This is it though. Todd at Twitch told me yesterday that the suits stayed out of Sam and Greg's (Nicotero of KNB EFX) way while they were making this - as they should; Sam's only made a bazillion dollars for Sony over the last seven years - so if Hell blows, there will be no excuses. This is the return to horror that his fans have been waiting for and I pray he doesn't disappoint. See the trailer for yourself below.
Listed Brit
Over the past few months, as part of a series called Twitch Video Salute, Twitch has been inviting genre filmmakers to submit articles about films that they love and were inspired by. Past contributors have been Vincenzo Natali (Cube, Splice) and Fabrice du Welz (Calvaire, Vinyan). This week, outspoken Brit Adam Mason (The Devil's Chair, Blood River) wrote a little something about his favourite horror films. Mason, and his partner-in-crime Simon Boyes are regular fixtures on the site, as their intermittent podcasts (featuring the musings of two English filmmakers trying to make it in LA) can be found there. I respect their brutal honesty. They cow-tow to no one, which sometimes sees whole episodes disappear for 'legal reasons'. And even though I only agree with Mason about fifty percent of the time, there can be no denying that his TVS list is solid. Click here to check it out.
I just wanted to finish up with another trailer. In 2005, I saw this cool little coming-of-age indie about a teenage horror fan growing up in a small town. The writer/director Rob Hall was there and his passion for the genre was immediately apparent. That film was Lightning Bug. Now, his new film Laid To Rest is being released by Anchor Bay. It looks like a straight-up slasher and has enough in the trailer to make me interested. See for yourself below.
Okay, that's it for now. Resident Evil 5 beckons.
Posted by Jay Clarke at 11:39 AM
Blame The Plumber!
Don't Kill The Messenger XI
Counting My Blessings.
Greetings From Norway
Score One For The Good Guys... Sort Of.
Man, That Sucks.
Don't Kill The Messenger X
I Loved It To Pieces
Bring Back The Anthology!
Seeing Green
Wheels Turnin' Anew
F13 Update
Resident Retrospective
Nightmares In Black & White.
Don't Kill The Messenger VIII
Ants In Your Pants
They're Creeping Up On You
Don't Kill The messenger VII


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Trustworthy autonomous vehicles
Assessment criteria for trustworthy AI in the autonomous driving domain
This report aims to advance the discussion on those fundamental aspects to be considered in order to have trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems in the Automated/Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) domain. Current advances in AVs would not be possible without advances in AI systems. In fact, the most complex tasks that AVs have to deal with to achieve high levels of automation (i.e. localization, scene understanding, planning, control and user interaction), are addressed by using multiple, complex interrelated AI systems. Therefore, when referring to trustworthy AI systems for AVs, it seems acceptable to extrapolate the concept to refer to it as trustworthy AVs (as presented in the title of this report). The term trustworthy should not be interpreted in its literal sense, but as a global framework that includes multiple principles, requirements and criteria. These elements were established by the High Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence (AI HLEG) in the assessment list for trustworthy AI systems as a mean to maximise the benefits while minimising the risks. Indeed, the application context of AVs can certainly be considered high-risk, and their adoption involves addressing significant technical, political and societal challenges. However, AVs could bring substantial benefits, improving safety, mobility, and the environment. The policy context in which this research has been carried out is characterised by two main pillars. First, the Coordinated Plan on AI (COM(2018) 795) which defines a set of joint actions between the Commission and Members States in the mobility chapter (i.e., make mobility smarter, safer and more sustainable through AI). The Commission is expected to set out implementing acts for technical specifications for automated and fully automated vehicles, including safety issues linked to the use of AI and cybersecurity (1). In addition, the Commission will adopt measures to facilitate trust and social acceptance of Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility by enhancing transparency, safety and explainability of technology. And Member States are encouraged to facilitate the deployment of trustworthy AI solutions in all modes of transport. On the other hand, within the Coordinated Plan on AI, the Proposal for a Regulation laying down harmonized rules on AI (AI Act) (COM (2021)206), establishes a set of requirements that AI systems must meet if they are operating in high-risks scenarios. Given that AI is by far the main enabler for AVs, the AI Act may indeed be relevant for developing a complementary sectorial regulatory framework for AVs. The second pillar is the Regulation (EU) 2019/2144 (2) which states that "harmonised rules and technical requirements for automated vehicle systems should be adopted at Union level, and promoted at international level in the framework of the UNECE's World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29)". It also establishes that "the Commission shall adopt uniform procedures and technical specifications for the type-approval of automated and fully automated vehicles by means of implementing acts".
Corporate author(s): Joint Research Centre (European Commission)
Personal author(s): Fernández Llorca, David ; Gómez, Emilia
Themes: Industrial research and development , Industry — Enterprise — Services
Subject: artificial intelligence , automation , ethics , information security , report , risk management , technical standard , vehicle
ISSN 1831-9424 ISBN 978-92-76-46055-8 DOI 10.2760/120385 Catalogue number KJ-NA-30942-EN-N
DOI 10.2760/120385
Catalogue number KJ-NA-30942-EN-N
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Val Thorens ski area boasts 33 lifts, 89 pistes some above 3000m high, 150kms of pistes, 1 snow park and access to the biggest ski area in the word and its 600kms of slopes: 3 Valleys. Best european ski resort in 2014, 2015, and 2016.
Val Thorens is above all a paradise for skiing in all its forms. Thanks to the exceptional snow and terrain configuration, all levels of sliding can be expressed: rather easy around the station, more technical as one moves away from it.
The ski area offers a remarkable altitude difference of 1430 m (1800 to 3230 m above sea level).
In Val Thorens, holidaymakers can, for a while, forget their daily life and really enjoy the pleasures and the good air of the mountains!
Open from late November to mid-May, the ski resort of Val Thorens, with its remarkable sunshine and snow, is surrounded by 6 glaciers and 6 peaks over 3,000 meters high including the famous Cime Caron offering a panoramic view breathtaking. At the top of the 3 Valleys, it opens on the largest ski area in the world, with more than 600 km of slopes.
Between powdery fields and perfectly groomed slopes, the huge ski area of Val Thorens offers everyone all types of skiing, according to his desires, his level and even his mood (relaxed, sporty, musical, festive …). Val Thorens promises ease to the followers of the "great ski", the relaxation to the beginners, the pleasure whatever the level of the skiers.
Also easy, the access to the slopes from the hotels and the residences, which makes Val Thorens, more than elsewhere, the qualifier of true station "ski with the feet".
Ideally located in the heart of a vast natural circus, the Val Thorens-Orelle area, 99% between 2,000 and 3,230 meters above sea level, offers skiers a variety of itineraries to enjoy the gliding in the sun all the time. day. Want a long track? Of a delusional height difference? From a mogul field? Tracks with varied reliefs?
With 78 tracks, in Val Thorens we have the choice! The mythical tracks quickly become unavoidable: Col de l'Audzin, Blanchot, Tetras, Combe de Caron, Combe de Rosaël or the Boismint track. These have made Val Thorens a reference in terms of skiing and snow quality. And to work the technique: a slalom stadium, a snowpark (ranked in the Top 10 of the best parks) and a boardercross!
The escape continues on the largest ski area in the world: The 3 Valleys. An area of 20,000 hectares (twice the size of Paris), for more than 600 km of slopes. Unlimited skiing on this 318-run playground, including 16% green, 40% blue, 35% red, and 9% black, almost half of easy trails and half of expert trails for happiness the most demanding skiers.
Endless expanses, quality snow, exceptional landscapes, unique experiences … all the ingredients of an unforgettable ski are in Val Thorens.
– For all levels: in Val Thorens, the pleasure of skiing is open to all, from the beginner to the addict skier, thanks to a wide offer of slopes adapted to each: beginners, many routes on groomed trails (green, blue , red and black) and off-piste to discover accompanied by a guide.
– For all types of skiing: Carving, skiing, snowboarding, off-piste, ski touring, snowpark, boardercross, telemark, there is something for everyone. Val Thorens has one of the best French snowpark, a reference boardercross and a FIS certified slalom stadium.
The Val Thorens snowpark offers 4 areas appropriate for everyone, from the beginner to the expert to progress at his own pace. The families will start on the green line (easy) then the daredevils of the clan will work the technique on the blue areas (medium) and red (difficult) before going to admire the elite on the black line dedicated to them. And if the urge takes them to try some bold figures, direction the jump'air for a soft landing in a cushion of air.
Val Thorens has some trails that have become "mythical" that it would be a shame not to test during your stay: Col de l'Audzin, Blanchot, Tetras, Combe de Caron, Combe de Rosael or the Boismint track.
Mountain biking on the snow? Here's another way to hit a ski slope! At the closing of the slopes, 3 times a week, mountain bikes are in the starting blocks. After having apprehended sliding on an ATV, the same as on earth with a little less grip, it slips, it jumps and it drops: 45 minutes of pure delirium for a descent unpublished at dusk.
In its nocturnal formula, a mulled wine and a tasting of Savoyard products await the participants on arrival.
Try driving on ice: Want to speed or slip into the skin of a pilot, it's time to test driving on ice! A sensational experience for driving enthusiasts and ideal for those who want to gain insurance on snow. The Ice Driving Academy offers introductions and baptisms on the ice circuit "Alain Prost" which hosts the first stage of the Andros Trophy for over 20 years.
The essential Folie Douce. This Open Air Club is the rendezvous for all trendy skiers who want to catch the last rays of the sun (facing south) while swaying on the sound of turntables. In a decor signed Starck, the end of the afternoon are "hype" in Val Thorens!