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Culture Shock in the United Kingdom
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Most expats moving to the United Kingdom have a pretty easy time adjusting to the culture. Larger cities such as London and Manchester are incredibly diverse with a multitude of cultures. Every type of cuisine, obscure grocery item and cultural accessory are readily available.
Expats moving outside of cosmopolitan locations will experience more of traditional middle-class Britain, with a fairly standard set of values and traditions that are familiar to anyone from a Western background. English, of course, is spoken widely, although strong regional accents may convince expats otherwise.
Traditionally, the British are polite, reserved and circumspect – although such is the diversity of classes and cultures that few stereotypes hold up particularly well in personal experience. It's better to think of the UK as a whole world on one island and adopt an accordingly open mindset.
Regional identities in the United Kingdom
While there aren't great differences in everyday modes of social behaviour from one part of the UK to another, there are some aspects of culture that are quite symbolic of national or local difference. Factors such as support for the monarchy, political affiliation and the fiercely tribal support of football teams are some of the most obvious expressions of contemporary localism. Religious adherence and ethnic differentiation are also significant.
Although most expats move to the capital, London, it is important that new arrivals are not only aware of these geographical distinctions, but also the strong sense of identity and nationalism felt by the populations of each nation. To understand the importance of this, some geographical, political and historical background is needed.
From a geographical standpoint, the British Isles consist of the island of Great Britain (the countries of England, Wales and Scotland) and the island of Ireland (the countries of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland). The United Kingdom is a political entity consisting of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Notably, the Republic of Ireland is an independent nation, meaning that it is not part of the UK even though it is located in the British Isles.
Though Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland share a landmass, they have a tumultuous history, and it's important that expats recognise and respect this. The two nations are sharply divided by different politics, cultures and religions – so getting them confused or implying they're the same can cause offence.
As part of the UK, those from England, Wales and Scotland can usually safely be referred to as 'British', though many prefer the specific demonyms of 'English', 'Welsh' and 'Scottish' respectively.
Those from Northern Ireland might identify as 'Northern Irish', 'British' or sometimes just 'Irish'. Each of these labels implies a particular political stance and affiliation, so preferences vary widely and it's best not to make assumptions.
Nationals of the Republic of Ireland are called 'Irish'. Terms such as 'British' or 'southern Irish' are best avoided as some see these terms as diminishing the national identity and independence of the Republic from the United Kingdom.
Communication in the United Kingdom
Historically, the British have been known for their stiff upper lip and the 'Blitz spirit' demonstrated during World War II. This grin-and-bear-it attitude in the face of hardship and adversity is still sometimes apparent today.
Expats may also find that people in the UK seem more distant and reserved than those from North America and parts of Europe. They like their personal space and prefer to maintain a little distance between themselves and the person they are speaking to.
The British value their privacy and expats shouldn't expect a tour of the home when visiting a British friend. They expect others to respect their privacy and this extends to personal questions. As well as avoiding discussions on someone's financial situation or relationships, expats should be careful in asking a British person where they are from as this can potentially be seen as an attempt to place the person on the social or class scale.
Cultural etiquette in the United Kingdom
The UK is a multicultural society made up of various ethnic communities, each with their own standards of social behaviour and cultural etiquette. But there are some points expats might find useful when interacting with the British.
When meeting someone for the first time it is best to offer a handshake. Hugs are only appropriate for people one is more familiar with.
When visiting the home of a British friend or colleague, it is good to take a gift of chocolates, wine or flowers for the host.
The British appreciate punctuality, not just in business but also at social occasions. It is best to make every attempt to arrive on time for any type of appointment. Expats running late for a meeting should call ahead to let someone know, as tardiness is regarded as a lack of respect.
►To learn about British business etiquette, read our advice on Doing Business in the United Kingdom
►What are the healthcare benefits available for expats living in the UK? Our Healthcare in the United Kingdom page offers guidance and tips.
"Initially getting settled proved to be quite a challenge. I didn't have a job or a place to live lined up when I arrived. I had booked Airbnbs for my first two weeks and then planned to sort everything out after I arrived. However, I was often chasing things around in circles as I couldn't get a lease without a bank account, no bank account without a job and no job without a lease. I ended up renting a cheap room in a house share for my first couple months until I was able to sort out a bank account and a job and then move to a better area."
For more insights from Allison, a Canadian living in Manchester, read her interview with Expat Arrivals.
Are you an expat living in The United Kingdom?
Expat Arrivals is looking for locals to contribute to this guide, and answer forum questions from others planning their move to The United Kingdom. Please contact us if you'd like to contribute.
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Tour of Flanders 2008 winner Stijn Devolder (Quick Step).
Tom Boonen collects his second Flanders in 2006.
Geraint Thomas on his way to winning E3 Harelbeke.
After the removal of the Muur and the Bosberg climbs from the Tour of Flanders three years ago, there is another and no less significant alteration of the landscape and outcome of this year's Tour of Flanders: the absence of both Fabian Cancellara and Tom Boonen.
For the bones of a decade, on courses old and new, Cancellara and Boonen won six of the last ten editions of the Ronde. The unexpected absence of both men through injury, shifts the contours of the race into a hitherto unrecognisable layout.
2015 was already touted as a year that could mark the passing of the torch from Boonen and Cancellara to the next, younger generation. Their absence accelerates the rate of climate change in Flanders. However it remains intriguingly unclear as to who is best prepared to take advantage of the new conditions.
QuickStep's tactics, built perennially around Boonen, were the magnetic north of the Tour of Flanders: most others plotted their course accordingly. They will have to plan a different course this year. On the new finale, Cancellara was a landmark unto himself. "The last two years, basically everybody was waiting until Fabian attacked on the Kwaremont," as John Degenkolb put it this week. However in his absence, Stijn Devolder will be Trek Factory Racing's team leader. He will be the only rider in Sunday's peloton who has won the Tour of Flanders, meaning it is more than likely that this year's Tour of Flanders will crown a new Classics star.
Reading the runes from E3 Harelbeke and Gent-Wevelgem is always a useful means of gauging the temperature ahead of the Tour of Flanders, and on the evidence of last weekend, Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) is among the very top echelon of favourites. His stylish win in Harelbeke was followed by a battling display at Gent-Wevelgem and he is backed by a Team Sky squad that includes Ian Stannard, Bradley Wiggins and Bernard Eisel, and seems to have finally struck upon a successful formula for perform well on the cobbles.
Like the late Franco Ballerini, Sep Vanmarcke (LottoNL-Jumbo) seems somehow more graceful on the cobbles than he does on smooth tarmac, and perhaps with good reason: this is, after all, the man who trains on the Flanders finale on Christmas day. A broken cleat tempered Vanmarcke's showing at Harelbeke, though even on one leg he climbed the Kwaremont better than most. But then Vanmarcke has been winning strongest man contests for some time on the cobbles. This Sunday, the time has come for him to follow through and win the race to boot.
Niki Terpstra and Zdenek Stybar lead the line for Etixx-QuickStep, and they shone on alternate days last weekend, as if responding to one another's claims on Boonen's position. Stybar was bettered only by Thomas at Harelbeke, while Terpstra was ominously impressive in soloing across to the winning move at Gent-Wevelgem. The problem for the Belgian team is managing the ambitions of each man, not to mention those of Stijn Vandenbergh, fourth a year ago. With Boonen on board, the hierarchy was clear, but his absence leaves a power vacuum and a possibly destructive scramble for leadership.
There should be no such problems at Katusha, where Alexander Kristoff and Luca Paolini have dovetailed to such good effect in the past few years. Even after winning Gent-Wevelgem, Paolini has declared himself entirely at the service of Kristoff this weekend. And why not? The Norwegian was utterly dominant at the Three Days of De Panne, winning three stages and the overall classification, and is still smarting from his narrow defeat at Milan-San Remo.
His victor in Italy, John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) suffered a crash last weekend, but is fit for purpose for Flanders and approaches the race with a similar mind set to Kristoff. Degenkolb's finishing speed means that he doesn't need to be the strongest man in the race to win, though he reckons that he must follow the moves on the Kwaremont and Paterberg rather than hope for a general regrouping on the run-in to Oudenaarde.
Peter Sagan's displays at Milan-San Remo and E3 Harelbeke provoked plenty of questions but provided few answers as to his prospects this Sunday. Certainly, the Tinkoff-Saxo leader is not the same effervescent figure who seemed the heir apparent to Boonen and Cancellara two years ago, but a rider of his talent – not to mention blessed with his sprint –should not be discounted.
Seemingly untroubled by the questions over his relationship with Dr. Chris Mertens, Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) sparkled at Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo, but the effects of his crash at E3 Harelbeke are as yet unclear. One of the most consistent men on the cobbles in recent years, questions also persist over his ability to convert opportunities into wins.
Like his former teammate Vanmarcke, Lars Boom (Astana) is a particularly stylish performer on the cobbles and he delivered a forceful demonstration at Dwars door Vlaanderen until a crash ended his rally. He also fell at Harelbeke and it remains to be seen how badly he has been affected. Filippo Pozzato (Lampre-Merida), too, is something of an unknown quantity, given that he was afflicted by illness last week.
Stijn Devolder leads for Trek in the absence of Cancellara and somehow has the knack of conjuring up a performance at the Tour of Flanders. He showed real signs of life at the Three Days of De Panne, even if he failed to topple Kristoff in the final time trial.
Lotto Soudal is often overshadowed and beaten by Etixx-Quickstep in their fierce Belgian rivalry. But the boys in red have stepped up this year. Loot Soudal doesn't boast a top-level contender, but possesses a very cohesive unit, as demonstrated by the displays of Jürgen Roelandts and Jens Debusschere at Gent-Wevelgem. In a Ronde where the "normal" rules of engagement may not apply, such invention could well be rewarded. Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling) and perhaps even Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) might have a similar philosophy.
Indeed, given the general uncertainty that surrounds the race, it could well prove that an earlier move survives off the front deep into the finale, in which case some of the back-up men at the biggest teams could end up having a major say in proceedings – Daniel Oss (BMC), say, or Stannard. This year's Tour of Flanders is wide open and so a nightmare to predict, even for the best Belgian bookmaker trying to work out the right odds.
It is often claimed that the riders, and not the route, make the race. But the climbs and cobbles of Flanders render the Ronde van Vlaanderen a unique race.
That said, the speed is high and the risks multiple – Boonen crashed out in the opening hour in 2013. Unlike last weekend at Gent-Wevelgem, the weather conditions should not have an undue effect on the racing: a dry day is anticipated although temperatures are forecast to stay in single figures for most of Sunday.
19 climbs dot the 264.2km route, beginning with the Tiegemberg after 87km before the first of three ascents of the Oude Kwaremont 20km later. A long softening up process follows, as the race criss-crosses the Flemish Ardennes by tackling the Kortekeer, Eikenberg, Wolvenberg, Molenberg, Leberg, Berendries, Kaperij and Kanarieberg.
The tension ratchets up a notch in the final 55 kilometres, as the race takes on the Kwaremont and Paterberg as a combination for the first time, before heading straight for the vertiginous slope of the Koppenberg. The Steenbeekdries, Taaienberg and Kruisberg bring the survivors back around to face the Kwaremont and Paterberg for the final time, ahead of the wide, straight 13km run-in to the finish line in Oudenaarde, where a headwind is expected – surely music to the years of Degenkolb, Kristoff and the faster finishers.
Compared to the old, finely balanced course over the Muur and Bosberg to the finish in Meerbeke, the new finale has led to complaints that the Tour of Flanders has become a battle of strength rather than of wits. Mercifully, however, though there were distinct signs last year that riders are beginning to get a feel for the possibilities of the new parcours as well as its limitations.
Van Avermaet, in particular, showed invention by attacking after the Taaienberg last year. The idea, of course, was to pre-empt Cancellara's inevitable show of force in the finale, but almost paradoxically, in a race now devoid of its natural figureheads, even more riders might be tempted to follow that attacking template this year.
The absence of Boonen and Cancellara -the two men who have dictated the terms of the Ronde for so long, seems almost the acid test of the layout of the new route. Whatever happens it should be great race.


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Kim Kyung-uk es un escritor coreano.

Biografía
Kim Kyung-uk nació en Gwangju, provincia de Jeolla del Sur, Corea del Sur en 1971 y es actualmente profesor de Escritura creativa en la Universidad Nacional de Artes de Corea. Se graduó de inglés y literatura inglesa y realizó un máster en Lengua y literatura coreana por la Universidad Nacional de Seúl. Su carrera como novelista empezó cuando ganó en 1993 el Premio de Escritor Novel de la publicación El mundo del escritor por la novela corta Outsider.

Obra
Su obra de debut Outsider, que se publicó en 1993 cuando aún era estudiante de universidad, trata de un narrador en primera persona que se pasa varias estaciones del metro de Seúl trayendo a la memoria a un estudiante de bachillerato al que enseñó. Mientras describe las expresiones de las multitudes anónimas del mundo urbano subterráneo, el narrador no para de rumiar sobre escenas de películas y bares de música pop. Su primera novela Acropólis, describe la vida en el campus universitario a principio de los noventa, cuando desapareció el interés por las ideologías. La generación de los noventa y la cultura dominante de esta década han sido temas recurrentes en su obra.

No solo tiene un gran interés por la música, sino que respondiendo a la era visual, publicó muchas obras que exploran su interés en el cine y la imaginación cinematográfica. De hecho, su primera recopilación de relatos cortos No hay café en el Café Bagdad toma el título de la película de Percy Adlon Bagdad Café. El relato que lleva este título es sobre un director de cine que conoce a una mujer mientras busca posibles lugares para grabar. La novela Morrisson Hotel toma su título del álbum de los sesenta del grupo de rock The Doors, y las recopilaciones de relatos cortos ¿Quién mató a Kurt Cobain? y ¿Leslie Cheung está muerto? toman el nombre del cantante líder de Nirvana, y de un actor de cine, respectivamente.

Más recientemente, el mundo de su ficción se ha alejado de la esfera de cultura contemporánea. Ha publicado La manzana dorada, una novela basada en El nombre de la rosa de Umberco Eco y El reino de los mil años sobre el holandés Weltevree, que encalló en las costas de Joseon en 1627.

Obras en coreano
Recopilaciones de historias cortas No hay café en el Bagdad Café (Bageudadeu kape-eneun keopi-ga eoptda 1996)
 Yendo a ver a Betty (Beti-reul mannareo gada 1999)
 ¿Quién mató a Kurt Cobain? (Nuga keoteu kobein-eul jukyeoss-neunga 2003)
 ¿Está muerto Leslie Cheung?' (Janggukyeong-i jukeossdago? 2005)
 Lecturas peligrosas (Wiheomhan dokseo 2008)
 Dios no tiene nietos (Sin-egeneun sonja-ga eoptda 2011)Novelas' Acrópolis (Akeuropolliseu 1995)
 Hotel Morrison (Moriseun hotel 1997)
 La manzana dorada (Hwanggeum sagwa 2002)
 El reino de los mil años (Cheonnyeon-ui wangguk 2007)
 Como un cuento de hadas (Donghwacheoreom 2010)
 ¿Qué es el béisbol? (Yaguran mueot-inga 2013)
 La hora entre el perro y el lobo (Gae wa neukdae ui sigan 2016)

 Obras traducidas al español
 La hora entre el perro y el lobo'' México. Bonobos editores, 2019 (Trad. de Álvaro Trigo)

Premios
 Premio al Mejor Escritor Novel (1993)
 Premio Literario Hankook Ilbo (2004)
 Premio Hyundae Munhak (2008)
 Premio Literario Dong-in (2009)

Véase también
 Literatura coreana
 Lista de novelistas coreanos

Referencias

Enlaces externos
 Biografía y próximas traducciones KTLIT.com

Nacidos en 1971
Escritores de Corea del Sur del siglo XX
Escritores de Corea del Sur del siglo XXI
Novelistas de Corea del Sur
Cuentistas de Corea del Sur

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Q: Is there a keyboard shortcut for copying a line from left to right in VSCode compareEditor? I am looking for a keyboard shortcut that performs the same action as clicking the arrow next to the right line of a diff, when comparing two files in VSCode (compareEditor not VCS). The action copies the highlighted lines from the left file to the right file.

Note: I am aware of workbench.action.compareEditor.focusOtherSide, but this is not what I am looking for.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Māori New Zealanders
Māori origins and arrivals
Canoe navigation
Story: Canoe navigation
Waka – canoes
Ocean voyaging
Locating land
Decline and renaissance of canoe voyaging
Recent voyaging
Early Pacific Island canoes (1st of 3)
Pictured here is the Tauhunu, from Manihiki in the northern Cook Islands. Made in the late 19th century, it has an ornamental oyster-shell inlay, and was probably used inside the lagoon and around the atoll's edges. Like many canoes it could be either sailed or paddled. When sailed, one or two V-shaped sails made from pandanus leaves were used. Like most Polynesian canoes, the Tauhunu was constructed from several wooden sections sewn together with coconut fibre. This method did not prevent leakage, and with slop also coming over the sides, bailing would have been necessary.
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Reference: F.006489/05
Permission of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa must be obtained before any re-use of this image.
A Fijian ndrua in full sail
'Canoe of Otahaite'
Rāwiri Taonui, 'Canoe navigation - Waka – canoes', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/object/2211/early-pacific-island-canoes (accessed 17 July 2019)
Story by Rāwiri Taonui, published 8 Feb 2005

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


If he doesn't exercise the nuclear option first, President Trump would welcome North Korea's participation in next month's Winter Olympics.
Trump's comments came after Chang Ung, North Korea's International Olympic Committee representative, said his nation is likely to send a pair of figure skaters to the global competition coming to Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Ung told Japanese media at the Beijing airport that his nation was likely to send figure skating pair Ryom Tae Ok and Kim Ju Sik to the Games.
The duo captured a bronze medal in February 2017 at the Asian Winter Games in Japan.
Chang — who was reportedly headed to meet with IOC officials in Switzerland — declined to say if his nation might send more competitors to South Korea. Opening ceremonies for the Games are set for Feb. 9.
Trump said he spoke with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who supported his bare knuckles handling of their North Korean counterpart.
"He thanked me very much for my tough stance and, you know, for 25 years they haven't been using a tough stance," said Trump.
The President was far less congenial toward Kim last week after the North Korean leader mentioned his nation's nuclear program.
"Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!" Trump tweeted.


Welcome to The Costume Party Shop new blog! Here you will find out information about our latest products, special offers, and whats hot in the world of parties.
Our website will be seeing some significant changes over the coming months. There will be more products for you to view, and there will also be updated information about existing products.
Don't forget the all important special occasions fast approaching in the calendar – namely Easter, Anzac Day and of course Mother's Day. We have a vast selection of products for all of these occasions. Take a look at the children's costumes here. Who would you choose?


I guess he was guilty.
Dolphins SLB Koa Misi was sentenced to three years probation and 400 hours of community service for his role in an April 2011 fight.
Misi's felony battery charge was reduced to a misdemeanor. It means the run stopper won't be facing league discipline during the final year of his rookie contract. The Palm Beach Post considers Misi an extension candidate, but we'd only expect the Dolphins to act if the terms are exceedingly team friendly.
Wow, I guess he is lucky that he was able to settle this and get the charges reduced to a misdemeanor. But 400 community service hours is a lot of community service hours.
But 400 community service hours is a lot of community service hours.
He must have figured out a way to get the Randy McMichael judge.
Hopefully he can put this in the rear view and clean up his act in the future. As far as giving Misi an extension is concerned, I'd rather sign our veteran free agents, and give an extension to Reshad Jones before I looked to extend Misi.


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BAT: Brockton Route 11 (Cary Hill and The Village)
by Miles Taylor | Dec 29, 2017 | Miles on the MBTA | 0 comments
Here's another route serving Brockton's northeast suburban residential neighborhoods. Like the 10, the 11 gets low ridership and a slightly more limited schedule, except the 11 is really weird and loopy! Let's take a look.
Getting on at the BAT Centre.
We looped around onto Montello Street, passing the weird industrial backlots of downtown Brockton. It turned into just normal industrial soon enough, and that continued until we turned onto Ashland Street, which became residential after we went under the Commuter Rail tracks. Of course, that lasted for about 15 seconds, ending with a few awful strip malls. We deviated into one of them, Ashland Plaza.
I'm about to describe a million quick twists and turns here, so just know that the scenery along this section was mostly residential. Here we go: left on North Cary, left on Ames, right on Sawtell, left on Arthur, right on Intervale, right on Blendall, left on Circle, right on North, left on Sawtell, left on Field, right on Spark…and we were at Montello Station. GEEZ!
In the midst of some random turn.
Before heading back to the BAT Centre, the 11 crosses over the Commuter Rail tracks on Howard Street in order to serve a Stop & Shop. Cool, okay, so with that done, we came back to the other side and went down Winter Street. After a few businesses and a park, it was all houses once again.
A hilly side street.
The way back was less twisty, but it was still pretty crazy. We made a right turn onto North Cary Street, then a left onto Amark Road, which became Coe Road, then a right onto Alphonse Road, a right onto Waleco Road, a left onto Colgate Road, and a right onto Ashland Street, which took us back to the start of the loop. Okay, on second thought, that was pretty crazy too…
Another side street.
BAT Route: Brockton Route 11 (Cary Hill and The Village)
Ridership: Oh geez, it's low. In 2014, the route got under 200 people per weekday, 180 per Saturday, and 70 per Sunday. My weekday ride only had about seven people round trip.
Pros: It serves some suburban areas of Brockton with the typical BAT pulse schedule (minus increased rush hour service, and combined with the 10 on Sundays), and that's about it.
Cons: Does it have to be so darn twisty? Come on, why does it have to make so many turns? Also, it's starting to get more and more insane to me that the 10 and the 11 aren't combined full-time. Both routes get astronomically low ridership!
Nearby and Noteworthy: Nothing much, aside from some truly horrible strip malls. Ech!
This route would be on the same level as the 10, but it's so darn twisty that I had to take another point off. Since both routes get such low amounts of people, it doesn't make any sense that they're not combined.


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Home » Medical » Security in medical devices: Finding your starting point
Security in medical devices: Finding your starting point
June 5, 2018 Andrew Longhurst, Wittenstein
This is the first in a three-part blog where I'll look at improving security in medical devices. Here, I'll focus on industry standards. Parts two and three will cover the attack surface analysis and wider security mechanisms that can be used to improve security in a medical device. If you're inclined to jump ahead, here's a link to Part two.
Safety developers are getting used to working to safety standards, but for security, finding a relevant standard can be much more challenging, and is only the start of a long and comprehensive route to creating a secure device. Note that more information is available on this topic in a whitepaper titled Increasing Security in Medical Devices.
Medical devices operate in a hostile environment, and developers should expect constant attempts at intrusion. Therefore, products should be hardened to meet this threat. But how?
Connected medical devices have many benefits, including the opportunity for continuous monitoring, telemedicine, and big data analytics to undercover hidden trends. However, with connectivity, there's always a risk that bad actors could gain access to medical devices, with potential life or death consequences.
The bad actors' advantage is that they only need to find one successful attack vector, whereas the defender must defend all possible attack vectors. As attacks evolve and get increasingly novel, aggressive, sophisticated, and frequent, defenses must be continually refined and improved.
Guidelines and standards for developing secure systems are limited. However, the FDA has issued several sets of guidance, focusing on medical device cybersecurity; they suggest that manufacturers use the National Institute of Standards and Technology Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity.
An alternative security standard that can be considered for medical device security is Common Criteria, a widely recognized international scheme used to assure security-enforcing products. It provides formal recognition that a developer's claims about the security features of their product are valid and have been independently tested against recognized criteria, to a formalized methodology.
Common Criteria requires a Security Target, which defines, amongst other things, the security objectives and the environment the device will work in. The system is then designed and verified according to a specific Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL), of which there are seven. Each EAL offers guidance on the methodology and design. Verification and penetration testing should follow. The higher the EAL level, the greater the effort required, which should result in greater determinism and security for the device under test.
Even if Common Criteria is not adopted in full, the guidelines and methodology used could be of use to medical device developers concerned about security. Coding standards are very important when coming to security, and most developers of safety-critical software are familiar with the MISRA C coding standards. Its aims are to facilitate code safety, security, portability, and reliability in the context of embedded systems, specifically those systems programmed in C, by providing a restricted subset of a standardized C programming language that's deemed to be safer.
An alternative coding standard for secure programming is Cert C, from the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). Cert C details coding guidelines for those developing software that require a degree of security. Cert C provides rules and recommendations which, when followed, result in less vulnerabilities for the bad actor to exploit. There's a growing trend to use Cert C within secure systems.
Andrew Longhurst is a Business Leader for Wittenstein high integrity systems. As a skilled project leader with an extensive background in electrical, electronic, and software engineering, Andrew can deliver an in-depth understanding of the challenges facing embedded engineers within the safety critical sector. Andrew has worked with medical, aerospace, and automotive applications. He holds a BEng in Electrical & Electronic Engineering and an MSc in Robotics & Automation.
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Life science and biotech companies work with semiconductor material suppliers and microfabrication foundries throughout the course of the development, production and commercialization of products.
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Notes on IoT Database Management - Part 1
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DiSTI's GL Studio 6.3 Hits the Market
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Marion County School Board votes to keep Marion Military Academy students together
By Jessica Albert
Board votes to keep Marion Military Academy students together
Marion Military Academy closed abruptly last week, but students and teachers are working to save their school. The Marion County School Board has voted to create a new similar program at another school.
MARION COUNTY, Fla. - The Marion County School Board held an emergency meeting to decide the fate of the nearly 200 Marion Military Academy students.
Marion Military Academy closed abruptly last week due to money problems. Since then, the students and their parents have been fighting to save their school. On Monday, the Marion County School board voted unanimously to create a similar program for the students at the Marion Technical Institute.
"Feeling good," parent Nicole Meade said. "Feeling exhausted. It's kind of been a non-stop whirlwind. But, the parents have, they've banded together. We haven't backed down. We've been in constant contact."
The Marion County School Board's decision means the students have another option for their kids who do not want to re-enroll at their public high school.
"We will keep all four grades together, keep the JROTC component, and, I believe, Mr. McCollum, has been offered a position as the dean for all these students at MTI," Meade said.
There are still some details for the district to iron out, but Marion County School Board members said the school is ready to take on the influx of students.
"Every kid does not learn in the same environment as everybody else does, and this environment really, really works for them," Marion County School Board Chair Eric Cummings said. "Try(ing) to mainstream them back into a regular high school could be more detrimental than anything."
Parents FOX 35 News spoke with are happy about the decision.
"We're all feeling good about it," Meade said. "We're feeling very hopeful that this is definitely it. There was a unanimous vote with the school board. So, we're all moving forward and now everybody is just wondering how we get enrolled. We want to make sure our kids are definitely in school on January 7th."
Marion County Schools will also provide transportation to Marion Technical Institute for the students who need it.


What we're seeing from Lehman is that market conditions improved through the summer, and that conditions are likely to continue improving. That's showing up in the earnings and in the detail of their reports.
When you say the stock market is overvalued, you imply that the stock market is going down. But there is a touch of lunacy in every bull market -- stocks can become even more overvalued. A rational investment policy in an irrational world is suicide.
Like any indicator, whether it's the Super Bowl or anything else, it's sometimes right and sometimes wrong. It's just not very rational to conclude that if January is a bad month, the market will have a bad year.
Mutual funds are clearly a very big reason why the stock market is declining, ... This is the other side of the mountain.
Nobody knows where the market is going. You just have to take your best bet.
One of the most important signs of a bull market is when the bull market manages very, very bad news like we've had today. So in that sense, you've got a very encouraging performance today.
I expected the market to inch or edge forward. I wouldn't have expected this in my wildest dreams.
There are no real hiding places, ... But I would tell investors they shouldn't get too scared by what's happening. Don't forget that 70 percent of the time, stocks are going up. I don't know where the market is going in 30 days, but I know where it's going in 30 years.
I think the momentum of the market remains positive, but it's starting to slow.
Just as the bond market and Europe has priced in what this tragedy means ... so too will the stock market. The real question is what happens at 10:30 (a.m. ET).
Large is the place to be. The market has been rewarding investors in large cap, and rewarding investors on a relative basis in mid cap, but quite frankly, it is an on-again/off-again type of thing with the small cap, and the small cap is not a place to go. The market is not signaling to me that you should play it on the small cap side, mid cap is fine, large cap is definitely the place to be.
Ordinarily you would expect the stock market to rise or do better, but it's not, and I think the reason it's not is it's being held in check by high oil prices.
Ordinarily, we would have a technical bounce at this level. But then the question is, have you seen a bear market bottom? I don't know if we have at this point.
I tell my clients to look at the market once a week. It does a lot for your judgment if you take away the day-to-day swings.
It is encouraging that the market has been able to hold together. The overall message is that the events in Southeast Asia will in time have an impact on the U.S. economy, but not a major impact in 1998. And that is really good news.
Usually, when you have a stock market mania, it's driven largely by individual investors borrowing money to buy stocks at prices that are too high. And usually, when a bubble becomes unwound, it's because of margin calls.
Today the market is pausing a bit, given the strong performance last week. There is lot of acquisition activity, which is giving the market some lift, particularly because oil prices are stable.
Today the market is pausing a bit, given the strong performance last week.
When you see buying in that (technology) sector in a bear market, it implies that there are investors out there who see improvement around the corner, and it's usually technology and cyclical stocks that lead the market out of a downtrend. The bias towards Friday's data may be that the data will be consistent with the view that the economy is showing some expansion.
Tomorrow, the market will probably continue upward driven by the dollar, but it won't go up much because of caution before the employment figures.
There are a growing number of investors who believe the market has hit bottom. Investors with cash are feeling pressure to get in. Good markets beget good markets.
The reason the (stock) market is struggling is that concerns about the economy and earnings are deepening, ... We don't see anything that says the current profit recession is going to end.
The good news was good enough to more than offset the worries about wages and Federal Reserve policy. There is an emotional component to the market today. Some speculative spirits are starting to stir.
What's driving the market is speculation. You put together actual year earnings, you also calculate price-to-earnings multiples right now and what investors are paying for is really out of whack. It's too high.
You have to be careful about prejudging this - I've seen so many investors burned at the stake thinking things like 'Value is about to come back,' ... Let the market tell you what to do. Don't tell the market what to do.
Every market sector has a lot of good companies in it.
As the bull market progressed, analysts became more optimistic about next year's earnings. Now, it's the extent to which companies will hit their numbers for 2004 that will make next week so important for the market.
There's no news, nothing I see on the immediate horizon, next week, that would shake the market out of its current malaise or end the summer doldrums. There are so many things to worry about, and investors are therefore sitting on their hands, not making any new, major commitments.
Is the possibility of a tax cut and a rate cut enough to eliminate or neutralized the concerns about the economy and earnings, letting the January effect play out, ... Watch the overall market and if the shift from defensive stocks to economically-sensitive stocks continues, it may be enough to turn the tide.
The stock market rally today is because we drove the market down to levels that were on the cheap side and when you get news like the leading indicators saying things are going to be good for the economy and profits, that attracts buyers.
The stock market has been closely connected to the bond market in the last two weeks, and today's stabilizing interest rates is probably the No. 1 reason behind the gains.
The stock market has become modestly overvalued and investors are using a variety excuses to take money off the table. I wouldn't be surprised if the current, corrective phase continues and the market declines another 5 percent.
After seeing these reports, it's likely the Fed will...raise rates at the measured pace the market is used to.
The most important thing is that the stock market had declined to levels that were arguably undervalued, and that many aggressive managers also realized there was a great deal of pessimism.
Something has got to give, ... Crude prices will have to come down or there will have to be some assurance on interest rates before the market will be energized.
This is a market that's become very, very defensive, ... One thing I noticed is a move back to the defensive side.
This market is trying to rally. If the Fed reduces interest rates by 50 basis points, it will touch off a rally, but if we get a rally it will be guarded.
There's been a great deal of turmoil, ... There's widespread bond market pessimism and at the other side of the equation, there's too much stock market optimism.
There's fairly widespread anticipation that the economic numbers this week will be solid, though not great, and I think the market is reflecting that.
It's a year-end rally in anticipation that there will be some new money coming into the market as we start the new year.
It's a reasonably accepted conclusion that the Fed will raise rates in both June and August; that's what the market has discounted. I don't know if Friday's employment report will change that, no matter what it says.
It's pretty clear that companies have made money and their cash positions are high and this should help the market stage an advance in November and December.
If there's no bounce, it's investors saying that the market has not reached a level that accurately reflects what's ahead for the economy and earnings.
The market does have a valuation problem. But I don't put much stock in any valuation model, including my own. It's very rational -- it tells you when the stock market is overvalued or undervalued -- but it doesn't work.
The market does have a valuation problem, ... But I don't put much stock in any valuation model, including my own. It's very rational -- it tells you when the stock market is overvalued or undervalued -- but it doesn't work.
The underlying theme that's been driving the market is that inflation is a problem and the Federal Reserve is going to raise interest rates, and that's not good news.
The focus has been on earnings, and when you get something like Aetna, then that's going to help the market. But one of these days, that focus is going to shift to inflation and interest rates. And the Fed is going to have to get it absolutely right in order for this market to manage even small gains.
The earnings have been pretty good so far, but there's an ambiguity in the market about them, because you'll see Amazon or Microsoft disappointing and then others beating.
The fundamental premise in this business is you cannot be stuck in this business. You can buy stocks for the long haul, but if the market breaks down, you're going to suffer. You're going to pay for it.
The market needs to let earnings catch up -- wait until we get closer to the year 2000, when we can feel comfortable that the market is not overvalued. If the market stayed the same while earnings rose, then price-earnings ratios would be so darn high.
The market is worried that the Federal Reserve will continue to raise interest rates well into 2006 and possibly make a policy mistake. If you look at housing starts they're very strong. Everyone knows the unemployment rate is low and the Fed is uncomfortable with that.
The market is not doing well. At long last, it is doing what it should do in responding to the rises in interest rates.
The market is asking the question, given oil prices, given rates, given China's economy and other things, what does it look like for the economy and corporate profits in the fourth quarter and in 2005? The message we got last week was that it's probably not going to be as great as everybody once expected, but it will still be just fine.


What would you say was the most important lesson of your life? If you could identify it – and it is hard, on the spot, to come up with the perfect answer! – it might have come from a teacher or mentor. Perhaps you read it in a book. Maybe you gleaned it over time from an accumulation of experiences.
Lessons – whether hard or easy – are gifts of wisdom. They guide us and, if we share them with others, they can guide many. Here are a few lessons from the Benedictines who are happy to share what they've learned.
When Sister Rita Cain, OSB visited home after joining the community, she took a Benedictine pin with her. She planned to attach it to the sleeper of her sister's new baby. He had been quite ill.
Sr. Rita says her sister echoed the lesson they had experienced growing up. It's one that continues to guide her today: not to complain about difficulties or problems, but to do what works. Pray.
"We didn't recognize a tragedy if we had one," she says. "In a family of 12 kids things would happen. We faced crop failures and hailstorms and droughts. We lived with them, took care of them. We prayed.
It is, she says, a way of looking at the world as well as coping with it. That is, miracles are God's response to us, and God's response is good. Sr. Rita offers an example.
Sister Martina Brinkschroeder, OSB was a novice sister when one of the elder sisters called her to go help Sister Modesta. The elder hung up before the novice could ask where, exactly, she was to go.
Sr. Martina followed her hunch, and found Sr. Modesta picking grapes in the lower vineyard.
And because Sr. Sheila said yes, she ended up in the ministry she most values today.
"To prepare, I went to Aquinas Institute of Theology. As part of the formation program, I had to intern in hospital ministry for three months.
"Medicine and nursing were never anything I was interested in, despite the fact that my dad was a doctor. But I enjoyed chaplaincy so much that when I completed my service as formation director, I applied for a position as chaplain at Lutheran Hospital in Moline.
"Saying yes to the community's request led me into 12 years of some of my happiest ministry experience," Sr. Sheila says.
But how can we know when it's right to say yes?
"Talk to people who know you well," Sr. Sheila says. "Let them ask you the tough questions. Anything new can produce a bit of fear, but if you're paralyzed by your fear, that's counterproductive.
Half of a team of twins, Sister Catherine Maloney, OSB can relate hijinks and schemes from her childhood that would make the most patient parent grow faint.
"My twin and I were always up to something," Sr. Catherine says. "I remember one day very well. Mom had dressed us in beautiful new pink dresses for a party. Our hair was perfect and our shoes were buckled. We were to wait for her to get ready and then we would go.
"Well, I don't remember why there was an open can of paint but there it was. Oh, my, we had fun giving the wall a new look. When Mom came out, all ready to go, she had a real surprise. She saw two little girls covered in paint. She had to start all over.
Although Benedictine monastic women value silence and contemplation, they, too, are subject to busyness. As many in today's culture, they can find themselves running from one obligation to another, working late to finish projects, collapsing in exhaustion at the end of the day.
Sister Mary Core, OSB says she learned many years ago that doing was important, but so was being.
"An elder sister told me she wished she had spent more time reading as a young woman," Sr. Mary says. "Now that she was into her 80s, she was enjoying doing so, and having time to ask the big questions.
Sr. Mary says the temptation to always do rather than be is even greater today than it was back when she was given those words of wisdom.
"We are bombarded by our screens," she says. "Our phones, computers, TVs, iPods are constantly available for updates. We text, email, watch and work at the same time. Multitasking is taking up all the white space that used to surround us.


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Passion for the wind
Passion for the Wind from Thomas van der Gronde
A portrait of a sailmaker for windmills.
Inmarsat brings satellite communications to small vessels
'Fleet One' Broadband coverage map
From Inmarsat
Maritime satellite communications provider Inmarsat says it now connects leisure and fishing vessels with a specially designed broadband service.
Accessing weather information and chart updates, keeping in contact with loved ones or simply checking the news are now as simple to do at sea as they are on land with the launch of Fleet One from Inmarsat Maritime.
From now on, yacht and fishing boat owners can take full advantage of maritime broadband services previously only available to much larger vessels.
Whether on a sailing holiday or an extended fishing expedition, the new Fleet One service ensures small vessel owners have uninterrupted access to the Internet, while being able to send SMS messages and have telephone conversations from on board their boat, anywhere in the world.
New Sailor Fleet One terminal to be launched during the second quarter of 2014
Inmarsat's Fleet One service makes use of the world's most advanced and reliable global broadband satellite network; the same network which is used by the professional maritime industry across every ocean.
Inmarsat Maritime President, Frank Coles said; "We have all become accustomed to having access to information as and when we need it. When we can't, it's frustrating! Being at sea is a unique experience and conditions can change at the drop of a hat. This shouldn't hamper your ability to remain connected to the world."
"There is large market of unconnected vessels out there today, for many of these, Fleet One will bring satellite services within reach for the first time and that is a great opportunity for the maritime community and for Inmarsat's business. Our innovation strategy is keeping us at the forefront of the maritime communications market."
Fleet One is delivered through a small terminal, especially created for leisure and fishing vessels.
It can be quickly and easily installed, providing a cost-effective solution enabling small vessels to remain connected at all times.
"With this new, simple, solution you will have dependable connectivity whenever you need it. With Fleet One, yachts and fishing boats now have access to the same, robust and reliable technologies previously only available on much larger vessels, allowing them equally to take full advantage of online connectivity," said Coles.
Fleet One also supports Inmarsat's unique '505' safety service, which in an emergency routes you directly to a MRCC.
This means that in one phone call one can alert the safety services of your position and nature of distress, by reassuringly speaking to the Search and Rescue Services knowing that assistance is on its way.
The compact 2.5kg terminals will offer data connectivity up to 100kbps, a single voice line and SMS.
Cobham : New Inmarsat Fleet One terminal on the way
Birthright from Sean Mullens
One man's struggle to transcend.
This humble film is about a friend of mine named Michael and his daily ritual to find his natural self through surfing.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370: Satellite data to be re-examined as 'more difficult' phase begins, search on ocean floor widened
Experts want Mapping the sea floor in search area
Rescuers search for weeks, with the latest technology – but of the lost flight MH370 is no trace.
In some places the forces do not even know the depth of the sea.
Now the area is to be measured.
From IBtimes
All data gathered in nearly two months of searching for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared with 239 people on board, will be re-examined by an international panel of experts, officials said Monday.
Teams searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane are to deploy a robotic submarine for the first time. Bluefin-21 drone has be sent down to search for wreckage on the sea floor.
Warren Truss, Australia's deputy prime minister, said the "audit" of collected data, which has yielded no positive results despite crews scouring more than 1.8 million square miles of the Indian Ocean. Officials, who met Monday with senior representatives of the Malaysian and Chinese governments in Canberra, Australia, are shifting efforts to an expanded area of seafloor in a remote part of the Indian Ocean off Western Australia.
"We know very clearly the area of the follow-up search will be even broader, with more difficulties and tougher tasks," Yang Chuantang, China's Transport Minister, said Monday.
Angus Houston, head of the search operation, told reporters in Canberra, according to the Associated Press: "We've got to this stage of the process where it's very sensible to go back and have a look at all of the data that has been gathered, all of the analysis that has been done and make sure there's no flaws in it, the assumptions are right, the analysis is right and the deductions and conclusions are right."
The Bluefin-21 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle is craned over the side of the Australian Defense Vessel Ocean Shield in the southern Indian Ocean during the continuing search for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 in this picture released by the Australian Defense Force.
Australian Defence Force/Handout via Reuters
One of the key elements in the new phase will be a detailed mapping of the ocean floor, which will involve "sonar and other autonomous vehicles, potentially at very great depths."
"It is likely that the debris of flight MH370 sunk to the bottom of the ocean before we started the search," Truss said, adding that authorities are now considering equipment that can go deeper than Bluefin-21.
The Ocean Shield vessel has returned to Australia's Fleet Base West on Monday to refill its supplies and "conduct routine maintenance and software modifications to Phoenix Autonomous Underwater Vehicle 'Artemis' Bluefin-21," following which it will resume its search in the area where the underwater hunt for the missing jetliner will continue," the Joint Agency Coordination Centre said in a statement.
The U.S. Navy will continue supporting the MH370 sub-surface search effort for approximately four more weeks with the help of Bluefin-21 side-scan sonar, at the request of the Australian government.
Authorities have so far relied on satellite information and pings in picking their search area for the missing Beijing-bound Boeing 777.
The search for the passenger, which already has engaged dozens of countries and agencies, is expected to become the most expensive search of its kind in aviation history.
WP : Malaysian plane's likely flight path gets 2nd look
National Geographic : Can an Unmanned Mini Yellow Submarine Find Missing Flight 370?
DigitalGlobe Tomnod : Crowdsourcing Malaysia Flight #MH370 – Campaign Comes To a Close
GeoGarage blog : MH370: How do underwater sonar subs work? / Malaysia missing plane search China ship 'picks up signal' /
Posted by Peio at 1:13 AM 3 comments: Links to this post
Human litter found in Europe's deepest ocean depths
Locations of the study sites sampled with imaging technology
(ROVs, manned submersible, towed camera systems) and trawling
From The Guardian by Jessica Aldred
Seabed survey reveals depth of marine litter problem by mapping waste in Atlantic and Arctic oceans and Mediterranean
Bottles, plastic bags, fishing nets and other human litter have been found in Europe's deepest ocean depths, according one of the largest scientific surveys of the seafloor to date.
Scientists used video and trawl surveys to take nearly 600 samples from 32 sites in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans and the Mediterranean Sea, from depths of 35 metres to 4.5 kilometres.
They found rubbish in every Mediterranean site surveyed, and all the way from the continental shelf of Europe to the mid-Atlantic ridge, around 2,000km from land.
A Heineken beer can found by a remote-operated vehicle in the upper Whittard canyon at 950m water depth.
Photograph: Hermione Project/Plymouth University
Plastic was the most common type of litter found on the seafloor, accounting for 41%, while rubbish associated with fishing activities (discarded net and fishing lines) made up 34%.
Glass, metal, wood, paper and cardboard, clothing, pottery and unidentified materials were also documented.
Jonathan Copley, senior lecturer in marine ecology at the University of Southampton, who did not take part in the study, said: "This very important research confirms what most of us who work in the deep ocean have noticed for quite some time – that human rubbish has got there before us.
"But this paper presents an analysis of the kinds of rubbish, what is common where, and what sort of activities are having the most impact in terms of rubbish reaching the deep ocean in different regions. People are piecing this together on a global scale to appreciate how widespread this problem is potentially."
As more of Europe's deep seafloor is being explored, litter is being revealed as far more widespread than previously thought. While individual studies have used trawling to quantify the amount of litter in particular areas or remotely operated vehicles to study the types of waste, this paper is the first to analyse the patterns of distribution and abundance of litter across different underwater geographical settings and depths.
A plastic bag recorded at 2,500m in the Arctic Ocean.
The most dense accumulations of litter were found in deep underwater canyons, and the lowest density on continental shelves and ocean ridges, according to the international study involving 15 European organisations.
Dr Kerry Howell, associate professor at Plymouth University's Marine Institute, who took part in the study, said: "This survey has shown that human litter is present in all marine habitats, from beaches to the most remote and deepest parts of the oceans. Most of the deep sea remains unexplored by humans and these are our first visits to many of these sites, but we were shocked to find that our rubbish has got there before us."
Litter disposal and accumulation in the marine environment is one of the fastest growing threats the health of the world's oceans, with an estimated 6.4m tonnes of litter entering the oceans each year.
Plastics are by far the most abundant material, introducing toxic chemicals that can be lethal to marine fauna and break down into "microplastics" that have become the most abundant form of solid-waste pollution on Earth.
Plastic pollution has also been found to be changing microbial processes in the ocean.
Besides the visible impact of marine pollution, litter can be mistaken as food and ingested by a wide variety of marine organisms.
Entanglement in derelict fishing gear – known as "ghost fishing" – is a serious threat to mammals, turtles, birds and corals.
Floating litter also facilitates the transfer of alien species to new habitats.
Cargo net entangled in a cold-water coral colony at 950m in Darwin Mound.
Scientists said one interesting discovery made in the study related to seafloor deposits of clinker – the residue of burnt coal dumped by steam ships from the late 18th century onwards.
Marine biologist Dr Eva Ramirez-Llodra said: "We have known that clinker occurs on the deep-sea bed for some time, but what we found was the accumulation of clinker is closely related with modern shipping routes, indicating that the main shipping corridors have not been altered in the last two centuries."
Litter density
The report also showed the path that materials such as plastics can take, originating from coastal and land sources and being carried along continental shelves and slopes into deep water.
Dr Veerle Huvenne, seafloor and habitat mapping team leader at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, said: "Submarine canyons form the main connection between shallow coastal waters and the deep sea. Canyons that are located close to major coastal towns and cities, such as the Lisbon canyon offshore Portugal, or the Blanes canyon offshore Barcelona, can funnel litter straight to water depths of 4,500m or more."
The paper, Marine litter distribution and density in European Seas, from the shelves to deep basins, was published in the journal PLOS ONE.
The study was led by the University of the Azores, and is a collaboration between the Mapping the Deep Project led by Plymouth University and the Hermione Project, coordinated by the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton.
GeoGarage blog : Trashed / Trash in the deep sea: bringing a hidden problem to light / How to rid the seas of 'plastic soup'? / Pollution of Indonesian waters on full display in surf photos / Global call to stop plastic pollution presented at Rio Earth Summit / How much plastic is in the ocean ?
400 years of beautiful, historical, and powerful globes
From Wired by Greg Miller
To look at an ancient globe is to look at the Earth as it was seen by the people of another time.
It reflects their understanding of the continents and seas, and it captures political divisions that have long since shifted.
This "dissected globe" dates to around 1866.
At the time such items were a popular toy for children, which may explain why so few survive with all of their pieces intact.
Even the typography and colors of a globe are indicative of the time and place of its origin, says Sylvia Sumira, a London-based conservator of ancient globes.
This is the oldest surviving terrestrial globe made in China.
It dates to 1623.
Unlike other Chinese maps of the time, which showed China at the center and left the rest of the world blank, this globe shows the world as it was understood in Europe at the time.
Often, it's a thing of remarkable craftsmanship and beauty.
"If you go into a room and there's a globe, your attention is immediately drawn to it," Sumira said.
In her lavishly illustrated new book, Globes: 400 years of exploration, navigation, and power, Sumira traces the history and making of globes and showcases dozens of fine examples drawn largely from the collection of the British Library.
These gores, the printed sheets that cover a globe, date to around 1700.
They were published in an atlas by Vincenzo Coronelli, a enterprising Venetian cartographer who realized that books were easier to transport -- and therefore easer to sell -- than globes.
Contrary to the popular misconception that nobody knew the Earth was round before Columbus, the ancient Greeks described the making of globes (in verse, no less) in the third century B.C.
The oldest surviving globe dates back to 150 A.D.
But they really took off between about 1500 and 1900, and it's this period that's the focus of Globes.
This celestial globe was made in the early 1600s by famed Dutch cartographer Willem Blaeu.
There are records of globes being brought on ships during the age of exploration, but they probably weren't used for navigation, Sumira says.
For one thing, any globe that's small enough to be brought onboard would have to be scaled down to the point of being useless for charting a course on the high seas.
This pocket globe is just three inches in diameter.
It was made in 1793 by Scotsman John Miller.
"They're more a symbol of navigation than a tool for navigation," she said.
In the book, she writes that in the 17th century, globes were sold as "handsome objects of status and prestige to a comfortable merchant class."
This 1772 celestial globe spurns the traditional mythical beasts to pay homage to the hottest tech trends.
Here you can see call outs to the constellations Microscopium and Telescopium.
Not visible in this view: Air Pump.
Not that ancient globes don't convey some useful information.
Much of it is contained in the horizon ring that surrounds many of them.
Concentric circles printed or engraved on the ring indicate the degrees of the compass, the months of the year, zodiac signs, and sometimes information about winds.
They can be used, for example, to determine the sunrise and sunset on a given day of the year, Sumira says. "Most of the globes were like little calculating machines."
This pocket globe, from around 1715, is less than three inches across.
The inside of the leather case is lined with a celestial map.
The terrestrial globe opens up to reveal a hollow armillary sphere with a ring depicting the zodiac signs and a tiny Sun at its center.
Several globes in the book come in pairs: one terrestrial, one celestial.
"The constellations were very much used for navigational purposes," Sumira says, so being able to study pairs like this would have been very instructive for mariners in training.
The celestial globes sometimes look like someone let the animals out of the zoo: the stars that make up a constellation are overlaid on the figure that gives it its name — a lion for Leo, a big bear for Ursa Major and so on.
This tiny pocket globe made in 1831 is just 1.5 inches in diameter.
Dotted lines trace voyages by Captain Cook and other explorers.
Getting your bearings with the celestial globes is a little tricky.
It helps if you pretend you're God, looking down at the heavens from on high.
The earth would be a dot inside the center of the globe.
From this view, the constellations are mirror images of how they appear from Earth.
Another beautiful pocket globe, this one from 1731.
Among Sumira's favorites are the pocket globes
"They're just delightful little things," she said.
The smallest is just 1.5 inches in diameter.
Many come in a wood or leather case that opens up to reveal a terrestrial globe that can be taken out. The concave surface of the case often contains a matching celestial globe.
Staring down shorebreak for the perfect shot
Creators: Clark Little on Staring Down Shorebreak for The Perfect Shot from The Inertia
Getting tossed around by shorebreak and slammed into the sand day after day is a rough go; Clark Little wouldn't have it any other way.
In fact, for the North Shore local, it's all in a good day's work.
But the Waimea addict didn't grow up snapping shots with his father's camera like so many photographers do.
He instead set out to capture his longtime stomping grounds when his wife came home with a framed photograph of Waimea shorebreak, an image he figured he would be able to easily replicate.
Having never owned a camera, he threw a cheap "waterproof" casing over a cheaper point-and-shoot and headed out to the beach.
Since that first attempt, Clark has not only emulated his wife's purchased wall art, but — with a gallery in Haleiwa and international recognition — has become a heavily respected fixture of wave photography.
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Cosplayers might dress up elaborately for Halloween or Comic Con, and there are so many amazing costumes out there. Some have built towering costumes like Hulkbuster from the "Avengers" movies and Reinhardt from "Overwatch." A dad turned his kids into convincing Transformers. Meanwhile, a man from Indiana made a terrifying Demogorgon from "Stranger Things" costume with a face that opens. Here are some of the best cosplays taking playing dress up to serious new heights.
Miss BumBum Cat Fight Over Accusations Of A Fake Bum Bum!
But why is the owner smacking the dog???
A husky is rescued just in time after falling into a pond, in this dramatic rescue video caught on camera.


text:
Home Asia & Pacific
by compassionate-brown
in Asia & Pacific
We are familiar with the building where all the presidents of the United States live, but not the entire history of it! The White House that was first constructed in 1792 with the first president to ever live there in 1800, has undergone many repairs, renovations, and rebuilt multiple times throughout the years. Here are some interesting facts about the White House:
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There are portraits of every president displayed in the White House
The portraits of the most recent presidents are displayed chronologically at the State Floor, starting from the Entrance Hall leading up to the residence's stairway. The portraits of previous presidents during the early years are scattered across the house. In the East room, you will find portraits of Theodore Roosevelt and George Washington. As for Abraham Lincoln, his portrait was hung in the Dining Room while William Howard Taft's portrait was in the Blue Room. A fun fact about William's portrait is that his portrait was painted in the Blue Room; hence, it was hung there as well. Most of the Virginia presidents are hung in the Blue Room, including John Adams. Head over to the East Wing, where you will see portraits of Chester A Arthur and Millard Fillmore displayed where guests would enter from. The portraits were hung there due to the large size that could not fit any other walls.
The most interesting president portrait placement is the portrait of President Lyndon B Johnson. His portrait is the smallest among all the other presidents. There was no proper explanation as to why his portrait was the smallest, but it was requested to be hung next to the State Dining Room's doorway at the corner of the Entrance Hall.
White House Renovations Costs Millions
Based on the White House Historical Association's recent report, the White House construction, which started in 1792, costs a whopping total of $232,372. This figure back in 1790 equals to approximately $100 million today. Annual repairs and minor renovations could cost up to $1.6 million, excluding staff salaries, utilities, and food costs. The White House exterior alone requires at least 570 gallons of paint to cover the entire surface. Hence, you cannot expect the renovation team to use low-cost tools and machines. Not only do they need good quality equipment, but a huge volume of the tools is also required. With repairs costs going up to $5.7 million, you can only expect the construction team to use the best palm sander, high-quality paint, and steel beams instead of wooden ones. The White House was first constructed in 1792, and a mixture of white wage labourers, enslaved workers, and skilled craftsmen helped build the house. Today, the White House hires a professional architect and only skilled craftsmen to get the work done.
The White House has a total of 6 floors and 132 rooms
From afar, it may look like the White House occupies only two floors. Take a look inside, and you will find a rough total of 132 rooms with 35 bathrooms, 147 windows, 412 doors, 8 staircases, 3 elevators, and 28 fireplaces across 6 floors. Yes – that is an insane amount. The kitchen itself could house over 100 guests. It does not stop there though; some presidents would either make even more renovations or build a completely new room.
Countless animals have lived at the White House
Most people would have heard of the two lovely dogs named Sunny and Bo Obama as well as the Scottish terrier's named Barney and Miss Beazley, owned by President George W Bush and First Lady Laura Bush that have all lived in the White House. But did you know there was also a herd of sheep residing there? President Woodrow Wilson brought them along to the South Lawn. There was also a cute pet pony called Macaroni, which is owned by Caroline, John F Kennedy's daughter, a cow owned by President William H Taft, and even a raccoon named Rebecca, owned by First Lady Grace Coolidge.
The White House was on fire twice
The first fire incident took place in August 1814, when the British forces walked into Washington, DC, and set all the public buildings on fire. It happened after they had a lovely meal with the First Lady Dolley Madison. Almost everything was destroyed in the White House, and the process of rebuilding it was required immediately. The second fire incident occurred in 1929 during Christmas Eve when a blocked fireplace caused the blaze, which spread across the Oval Office and West Wing during the administration of Herbert Hoover.
compassionate-brown
Now Make Me Do It


text:
<?php

namespace Opulence\Console\Responses\Formatters;

use Opulence\Console\Commands\ICommand;
use Opulence\Console\Requests\Argument;
use Opulence\Console\Requests\Option;

/**
 * Formats a command into a text representation
 */
class CommandFormatter
{
    /**
     * Gets the command as text
     *
     * @param ICommand $command The command to convert
     * @return string The command as text
     */
    public function format(ICommand $command) : string
    {
        $text = $command->getName() . ' ';

        // Output the options
        foreach ($command->getOptions() as $option) {
            $text .= $this->formatOption($option) . ' ';
        }

        /** @var Argument[] $requiredArguments */
        $requiredArguments = [];
        /** @var Argument[] $optionalArguments */
        $optionalArguments = [];
        /** @var Argument $arrayArgument */
        $arrayArgument = null;

        // Categorize each argument
        foreach ($command->getArguments() as $argument) {
            if ($argument->isRequired() && !$argument->isArray()) {
                $requiredArguments[] = $argument;
            } elseif ($argument->isOptional() && !$argument->isArray()) {
                $optionalArguments[] = $argument;
            }

            if ($argument->isArray()) {
                $arrayArgument = $argument;
            }
        }

        // Output the required arguments
        foreach ($requiredArguments as $argument) {
            $text .= $argument->getName() . ' ';
        }

        // Output the optional arguments
        foreach ($optionalArguments as $argument) {
            $text .= "[{$argument->getName()}] ";
        }

        // Output the array argument
        if ($arrayArgument !== null) {
            $text .= $this->formatArrayArgument($arrayArgument);
        }

        return trim($text);
    }

    /**
     * Formats an array argument
     *
     * @param Argument $argument The argument to format
     * @return string The formatted array argument
     */
    private function formatArrayArgument(Argument $argument) : string
    {
        $arrayArgumentTextOne = $argument->getName() . '1';
        $arrayArgumentTextN = $argument->getName() . 'N';

        if ($argument->isOptional()) {
            $arrayArgumentTextOne = "[$arrayArgumentTextOne]";
            $arrayArgumentTextN = "[$arrayArgumentTextN]";
        }

        return "$arrayArgumentTextOne...$arrayArgumentTextN";
    }

    /**
     * Formats an option
     *
     * @param Option $option The option to format
     * @return string The formatted option
     */
    private function formatOption(Option $option) : string
    {
        $text = "[--{$option->getName()}";

        if ($option->valueIsOptional()) {
            $text .= '=' . $option->getDefaultValue();
        }

        if ($option->getShortName() !== null) {
            $text .= "|-{$option->getShortName()}";
        }

        $text .= ']';

        return $text;
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Kabuki: Quantum Fighter (地獄極楽丸, Jigoku Gokuraku Maru) is a 2D action publishing arm of HAL Laboratory for the Nintendo Entertainment System. 10 Feb - 31 min - Uploaded by World of Longplays beetersbakery.com Played By: Charex Game developed in by Human Entertainment. 9 Jul - 6 min - Uploaded by nesguide Pure gameplay. Game. Kabuki: Quantum Fighter; ; Explore in YouTube Gaming.
25 Jan - 37 min - Uploaded by NintendoComplete A complete playthrough of Hal's NES game, Kabuki Quantum Fighter. No cheats were. For Kabuki Quantum Fighter on the NES, GameFAQs has 4 FAQs (game guides and walkthroughs), 5 cheat codes and secrets, 8 reviews, and 8 user. Its graphics are good for NES and its enjoyable but this game is very difficult. You have the option of playing Kabuki - Quantum Fighter (USA) in your browser, .
6 Sep HAL America's Kabuki Quantum Fighter has been featured on Surely there's nothing interesting about a NES game that stars a soldier who. 3 Feb In this futuristic platform game, a computer virus has affected the Earth's defense systems. A lone warrior is transferred into digital data and sent. Nice NES classic, hard and enjoyable romp through cybernetic platforming hell. Use your hair and an assortment of weapons you get from the bosses of each. 18 Dec Get the current value of Kabuki: Quantum Fighter for the Nintendo NES. We update our video game prices daily so you don't have to!. Kabuki - Quantum Fighter (U) download on the NES (Nintendo) console, works on Android, PC, and Mac Devices.
Overview. Kabuki: Quantum Fighter is a side-scrolling action and platforming game for the NES from HAL and Human Entertainment. Released in , it. Find great deals for Kabuki Quantum Fighter (Nintendo Entertainment System, ). Shop with confidence on eBay!. Results 1 - 22 of 22 Shop from the world's largest selection and best deals for Nintendo NES Kabuki Quantum Fighter Video Games. Shop with confidence on. Kabuki Quantum Fighter is a NES game played by Danny and Arin as a one-off on Game Grumps. It was sent to the show by Eric, Age 8.


Find beats by searching for artists and songs you already know.
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When the total price of our beats in your order is exactly $249.90, you will get a $175.00 discount.


All Freshpet foods are made with fresh, natural ingredients, and provide nutritionally balanced meals – and pets love them. Give your pet the fresh food experience Want to win a Fresh Pet Gift Basket? A FreshPet gift basket includes FreshPet cooler, as well as 5-6 FreshPet food items, customized for the winner's pet. Fill out the Rafflecopter form below.


text:
About Aviation Law
Kobe Bryant helicopter crash: New NTSB documents appear to point to pilot disorientation in fog
The helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant descended steeply and crashed, killing all nine passengers aboard, even though its pilot said in his last radio transmission that he was climbing to 4,000 feet, documents released Wednesday by federal investigators show.
The pilot never told air traffic controllers about plans to turn and descend after they asked him about his intentions once he was at the new, high altitude, raising new questions about whether he could have become disoriented as a fog layer hung over a valley near Calabasas, California, that quiet Sunday morning in January.
The details are part of approximately 1,700 pages of documents, maps, interview and text message transcripts released by the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB, however, offered no analysis or conclusions, which it said will come later.
Taken together, however, the documents shed more light on the crash that killed retired NBA superstar Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, six friends and the pilot, Ara Zobayan. The tragedy resulted in an outpouring of grief around the nation with memorials, flowers and a ceremony attended by thousands at Staples Center, the home of the Los Angeles Lakers.
After lifting off with Kobe and his party from Santa Ana, California, the helicopter proceeded without incident except for when it was ordered to briefly hold near north of Los Angeles, due to other air traffic. Then it went on.
In the final exchange of radio transmissions, Zobayan got permission from controllers to fly visually, hugging the ground to avoid a layer of fog above him, and using a freeway below to navigate. About four minutes later, just before communications were lost at 9:45 a.m. PST on Jan. 26, a controller asked Zobayan, using the call sign N72EX, what what he planned to do.
At least weather-wise, Zobayan expected the next day to be an improvement. In a text sent to him the evening before the crash asking him about the weather, Zobayan replied that he had just checked and it was "Not the best day tomorrow but it is not as bad as today." In the morning, he texted that weather "should be OK."
Controllers said they had the copter in sight when it was ordered to be in the vicinity of the airport, but lost sight as it proceeded toward its destination. Later, word spread among them that the crash had occurred.


Joe Penhall's Blue / Orange is to close at the Duchess Theatre on 15th Dec 01, (The show was originally booking to 5th Jan 02).
Directed by Roger Mitchell, the play originally opened at the Cottesloe., Royal National Theatre in April 00 to Aug 00. It then transferred to the Duchess Theatre in April 01 with the original cast of Chiwetel Ejiofor, Bill Nighy and Andrew Lincoln.
The show received good notices from the popular press... "Superbly acted in the round" (The Stage); "The play is humorous and notably compassionate" (The Times); "Minor cavils aside, this will most likely prove to be the best play of the year" (Daily Telegraph).
The story is set in a London mental hospital, where an enigmatic patient claims to be the son of an exiled African dictator. As the drama unfolds, his story becomes unnervingly plauisible. This is an incendiary tale about race, madness and a Darwinian power struggle at the heart of a dying NHS.
The play currently features David Threlfall, Neil Stuke and Shaun Prices.


text:
Crime, Courts & Emergencies
State, Nation and World
Obituary Information And Guidelines
Austin Living Magazine
Will work from home outlast virus? Ford's move suggests yes
DETROIT (AP) — It's a question occupying the minds of millions of employees who have worked from home the past year: Will they still be allowed to work remotely — at least some days — once the pandemic has faded?
On Wednesday, one of America's corporate titans, Ford Motor Co., supplied its own answer: It told about 30,000 of its employees worldwide who have worked from home that they can continue to do so indefinitely, with flexible hours approved by their managers. Their schedules will become a work-office "hybrid": They'll commute to work mainly for group meetings and projects best-suited for face-to-face interaction.
Ford's announcement sent one of the clearest signals to date that the pandemic has hastened a cultural shift in Americans' work lives by erasing any stigma around remote work and encouraging the adoption of technology that enables it. Broader evidence about the post-pandemic workplace suggests that what was long called tele-commuting will remain far more common than it was a year ago.
A report this week from the employment website Indeed says postings for jobs that mention "remote work" have more than doubled since the pandemic began. Such job postings are still increasing even while vaccinations are accelerating and the pace of new confirmed COVID cases is declining.
"If job postings are a guide, employers are increasingly open to remote work, even as some employees return to the workplace," said Jed Kolko, chief economist at Indeed.
The share of Indeed's job postings that mention "remote work" or "work from home" reached 7% last month, up from just below 3% a year ago. But in some industries, the gains were far more dramatic, including those that haven't traditionally welcomed remote work.
In legal services, for example, remote-work postings for jobs including paralegals and legal assistants jumped from under 5% in the second half of 2019 to 16% in the second half of 2020, according to Indeed data. In banking and finance, for such jobs as actuaries and loan underwriters, remote-work postings surged from 4% to nearly 16%. For mental health therapists, they rose from 1% to nearly 7%.
Such shifts could, in turn, trigger changes in where people live and affect the varying economic health of metro areas. Some highly skilled workers could migrate from high-cost coastal cities, where they had clustered in the decade after the Great Recession, to more affordable cities or small towns.
Downtown offices could shrink and exist mainly for collaborative work. The tax revenue of large cities could tumble as fewer workers patronize downtown bars, restaurants and coffee shops.
"The pandemic has broken the social and cultural norms for how we work," said Timothy Golden, a professor of management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. "Remote work has become much more accepted."
Ford is just the latest company to allow more work from home after the pandemic. Salesforce, Facebook, Google and other tech firms have said they'll continue work-from-home policies indefinitely. Target Corp. will leave its main downtown Minneapolis office location because it's moving to a hybrid model for 3,500 workers. It will keep other downtown offices.
Flexible remote work is hardly an equal opportunity perk. It is disproportionately concentrated among more educated, well-paid workers. The jobs of lesser-paid employees generally require on-site work or face-to-face contact with the public.
More than one-third of Asian employees and a quarter of whites worked from home because of the pandemic in January, according to an analysis of government data by the Conference Board, a business research group. Just 19% of Black workers and 14% of Hispanics were able to do so.
Ford has found over the past year that employees and supervisors believe that more work can be done remotely, that they can still connect with each other and that they have the means to do their jobs, said Kiersten Robinson, chief people and employee experiences officer. So when its hybrid schedule begins in July or soon thereafter, Ford will give teams a choice of when to come to the office.
Robinson said a flexible schedule will also help Ford compete for talent.
"I do think we're seeing a real shift in expectations among candidates," she said.
Among the employees pleased by the new policy is Kelly Keller, Ford's chemistry and material compliance manager. Keller, who has been working a hybrid schedule since the pandemic erupted a year ago, wouldn't want to go back to commuting to work each day. With her hybrid schedule, she generally works from home every other day and on the other days commutes an hour each way to a lab in Dearborn, Michigan.
Sometimes when she's home, she gets to take her daughter to elementary school and start work a little late before finishing later in the day.
"I definitely enjoy the flexibility," Keller said. "I would be grateful for the opportunity to continue the hybrid arrangement, for sure."
Of the workers she supervises, seven commute to the lab every day; four work from home. The at-home workers, Keller said, have been more productive than they were before the coronavirus struck because they often work during the time they would have been commuting.
"For most," she said, "I think they put in longer days."
A study last month by Alexander Bick, an economist at Arizona State University, and two colleagues found that nearly 13% of workers they surveyed plan to work from home full time after the pandemic — nearly double the 7.6% who did so in February 2020. An additional 25% expect to do so at least one day a week, up from 17% before the pandemic.
Company executives overwhelmingly report that remote work has succeeded during the pandemic, according to research by consulting firm PwC. About 55% said they envision allowing continued remote work, according to the survey of 133 executives of mostly large companies. Just 17% said they wanted employees back in the office as soon as possible. An additional 26% said they preferred only limited remote work but recognized that it's become popular with employees.
Ford and other companies have been redesigning their offices, or considering doing so, to reflect fewer cubicles and personal offices and more conference rooms and other spaces for workers, who may be on-site for just part of the week, to collaborate.
A more flexible attitude about workplaces could deal a blow to the largest U.S. cities. Many Americans are already capitalizing on remote work to leave New York, Los Angeles, Boston and the San Francisco Bay area in favor of Phoenix; Tampa; Austin, Texas; Charlotte, North Carolina; and other less expensive areas, real estate data shows.
One telling detail: Even as the number of homes for sale has tumbled nationally in the past year, the supply of for-sale houses in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles has actually increased, according to the real estate brokerage Redfin. And the drop in available homes has been much smaller than the national average in other large coastal cities, such as Seattle, Boston and Washington.
Many cities may also absorb a financial hit even if remote workers don't move. One academic study estimates that spending by workers at downtown businesses will shrink 5% to 10% after the pandemic.
Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, said the pandemic has accelerated a trend that predated the virus: More Americans have sought cheaper homes in lesser-known cities and suburbs.
Fairweather herself left Seattle last summer after wildfires in Oregon turned the city's skies smoky and dark. Originally, she, her husband and two small children planned to stay for just a month in a small town in Wisconsin, near his family. Soon, though, they decided to make it permanent, and Fairweather has been able to work remotely.
"We liked the pace of life — we liked being near family," she said. "It's so affordable here."
Austin Living: Chasing the Passion
PHOTO: Old YMCA starts to come down
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