text:
Melo Acuña Reports
Sabi Nila...
Wednesday RT @ Lido
Tapatan sa Aristocrat
Business, Trade, Etc.
FOCAP 2020
Melo Acuna
Complaints significantly increased over the years
COVID-19 brings Filipino consumers to online shopping
MANILA – With the strict COVID-19 control measures implemented since mid-March, Filipino consumers have opted to purchase their needs from food to basic necessities online.
Trade and Industry Asst. Secretary Claire C. Cabochan said the volume of transactions significantly increased with the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking over Tapatan sa Aristocrat this morning, she said there was a sharp increase in online transactions where in social media such as Facebook Marketplace or established platforms like Lazada and Shopee.
"At the Fair Trade Enforcement Bureau, we received a total of 2,457 complaints in 2019 and from January 1 to November 15 this year, we already received 15,162 complaints," Ms. Cabochan said. The top three complaints were related to the Price Act (49.75%), defective products (21,21%) and deceptive, unfair, or unconscionable sales acts or practices (18.65%).
A closer look at DTI records, it was found out that the total number of complaints in internet transactions increased every year, from 522 in 2016 to 848 in 2017 to 1,451 in 2018 and 2,457 last year.
She added there are enough rules and regulations provided for in the Consumer Act which provides consumers the right to seek redress of grievance through the Department of Trade and Industry.
Complaints are added to by her office where mediation and adjudication sessions take place. They also get to check additional information about the supplier's address and if it has a physical store. There were complaints that were dismissed because of insufficient data such as no address of the complainant, the complainant has opted to withdraw the case and the same complaint has been handled by other mediator.
This year, about 9,000 complaints have been referred to concerned DTI offices or other agencies. Other cases have been archived because of the non-appearance of both parties and in some instances, only the respondent appeared.
She admitted they also refer matters to the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) should they fail to locate the alleged erring supplier.
Former Trade Undersecretary and now Laban Konsyumer President Victorio Mario A. Dimagiba said he noted an increase in online transactions but called on the general public to be aware of scheming individuals who prey on unsuspecting and gullible consumers.
"Consumers should be conscious enough to look into the product they buy, check on the price if it is reasonable and find out reviews on social media platforms," he said.
Police Colonel Joel B. Doria, PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group deputy director for administration said while complaints related to cyber-libel tops their list, complaints on online shopping happens to place a close second.
"We appeal to complainants to pursue their complaints to put a stop to scheming online sellers," Colonel Doria said.
Atty. Antonio A. Ligon said legislators should be able to craft laws that would protect consumers as technology has significantly improved. The current laws may not be able to address concerns.
"Even the Consumer Act needs to be updated with the advancement in technology," he added.
Former Quezon City Business Permits and License Office chief and currently Quezon City PCCI chair said it would be best for online customers to pay on delivery rather than pay in advance.
"At least the consumer can refuse to accept the merchandise if he feels shortchanged," Maghacot said. (Melo M. Acuña)
Food delivery attendants crowd at a milk tea restaurant to get their orders. This is a common sight in Metro Manila since the government issued tight preventive measures vs Covid-19. (Melo M. Acuna)
DICT executive cites needs for fiber cable
Strong quake hits Southern Philippines; no damages expected
First Bishop of Virac, Fourth Bishop of Legazpi Jose C. Sorra dies at 91
LET'S TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL
© 2020 by Fortunato Sam Balindan. Proudly created with Wix.com


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Country, DIY, Glamorous, Retro, Romantic, Alternative, Beach, Museum, Tented, Barn, Winter, Spring Wedding Photos
A Colorful English Garden Wedding at Crossed Keys Estate in Andover, New Jersey
"We wanted everything to feel like a big party in our backyard," Kathleen Mooney (28 and a board game manufacturer) says of her laid-back wedd...
A Natural Greenhouse Wedding at The Market at Grelen in Somerset, Virginia
"The Market at Grelen's natural beauty and serenity was the genesis of our design process," Anna Blazier (27 and a graduate student at the Uni...
A Classic, Colorful Wedding at The James A. Michener in Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Emily Strasburg (25 and a special education teacher) and Andrew DiPietro (24 and a chemical engineer) met in high school while caroling with f...
Though they were working as litigators in Washington, DC, when they got engaged, Kelly Rose (30) and Michael Durbin (33) wanted to have a wedd...
A Romantic, Whimsical Farm Wedding at Yesterday Spaces in Leicester, North Carolina
Abigail Wharff (a marketing manager) met Mark Rosenblum (in equity research) at a bar in Durham, North Carolina. She was in the middle of a he...
A DIY Woodsy Wedding at Sand Rock Farm Bed and Breakfast in Aptos, California
When Crystal Keith (34 and a special education program specialist) and Keith Catanese (30 and a sales manager) decided to get married, they sc...
A Vintage Winter Wedding at Flanagan Farm in Buxton, Maine
Lexie (29 and a massage therapist) and Shane Diamond (29 and a nonprofit executive director) fused New England romanticism with rustic charm f...
A Modern, Outdoor Wedding at Shaw Center for the Arts in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
The landmarks of downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana, inspired the wedding between Dawn Carrier (26 and a project manager) and Carson Narcomey (30...
A Romantic Southern Wedding at Dunes West Golf and River Club in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
Gladys Velasquez (28 and a resident physician) and Tony Clarke (34 and an account manager) exchanged vows at t...
A Desert Botanical Garden Wedding at Springs Preserve in Las Vegas, Nevada
In the eight years that Anna Guy (34 and a lawyer) and Marc Abis (36 and a systems analyst) dated, they survived three cross-country moves and...
A Rustic Wedding at Old River Farms in Burgaw, North Carolina
Laid-back couple Ashley Kesler (30 and a statistical programmer) and Brad Mitchell (30 and a home builder) hosted a rustic farm wedding featur...
A Pastoral, Outdoor Wedding at Picosa Ranch in Floresville, Texas
Set on the estate of a former Texas governor, Talia Mills (25 and a financial adviser) and Todd Cox (25 and a division order analyst) were mar...
A Romantic Wedding at Mildale Farm in Edgerton, Kansas
When planning their spring nuptials, Hope Ryan (24 and a first-grade teacher) and Nick Johnson (24 and an international logistics account mana...
A Romantic Spring Wedding at Galleria Marchetti in Chicago, Illinois
Kate (32 and an appellate court slasher) and Robb Bollhoffer (37 and a partner at 29th Street Capital) were married in a romantic garden cerem...
A Modern, Classic Wedding at Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois
Brooke Duval (26 and a medical supply sales representative) and Steve Kipferl (28 and a physician) strongly believe that less is more, and let...
A Vibrant, Alice In Wonderland Themed Wedding at the Gramercy Mansion in Stevenson, Maryland
Kelly Lockner (37 and a marketing specialist) and Richard Mosmiller's (29 and a firefighter) was anything but average. The fun loving planned ...
An Elegant Spring Wedding at Figure Eight Yacht Club in Wilmington, North Carolina
rn Genevieve Villari (28 and VP of communications) and Ward McGroarty (30 and a graduate student) planned a sophisticated s...
A Chic, Romantic Wedding at the Saphire Estate in Sharon, Massachusetts
Diseanna Brown (29 and a private nanny) and Luke Joseph's (29 and a dental hygienist) wedding was a romantic, modern affair with a soft, class...
A Vibrant Rustic Wedding at Stonewall Farm in Keene, New Hampshire
For their wedding, Rachel Venuti (29 and a special education teacher) and Mark Venuti (31 and a painter) planned an intimate affair with rusti...
An Elegant Barn Wedding at Perona Farms in Andover, New Jersey
After a romantic, traditional Catholic ceremony at the Chapel of Immaculate Conception at Seaton Hall's campus in South Orange, New Jersey, Ja...
A Colorful DIY Wedding at Colbert Hills Golf Course in Manhattan, Kansas
Every part of Katie Krol (26 and a construction superintendent) and Travis Lilly's (31 and an appraiser) wedding had a handmade touch—from the...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Log Linear Models: Interpretation when None Fit This is question 9.6 from Categorical Data Analysis by Alan Agresti (Wiley, 2013).
The question asks us to find a Log Linear with the best fit for a 2x2x2 contingency table. The following are the explanatory variables.

*

*A: Abortion should be legal for any reason (yes or no)

*T: Willing to pay higher taxes to help the environment (yes or no)

*P: Political party affiliation (Democratic, Republican)

Here is my output from R.
                G^2      x^2 DF  p-value G^2  p-value X^2
(A,T,P)    44.95596 45.47235  4 4.060666e-09 3.171144e-09
(TP,A)     26.11294 25.39128  3 9.031946e-06 1.278875e-05
(AP,T)     32.81293 31.65649  3 3.526977e-07 6.182630e-07
(AT,P)     39.46998 34.14721  3 1.380028e-08 1.844369e-07
(AT,AP)    27.32695 25.30322  2 1.164201e-06 3.202402e-06
(AT,TP)    20.62696 19.11921  2 3.318271e-05 7.052056e-05
(AP,TP)    13.96991 13.56004  2 9.257053e-04 1.136252e-03
(AT,AP,TP) 11.61972 10.94716  1 6.525633e-04 9.374717e-04
(ATP)       0.00000  0.00000  0 1.000000e+00 1.000000e+00

How do we interpret this result?
What do we do when none of all of the possible log linear models fit?
My hunch is that the model (ATP) does fit, but can I justify that assumption given the model is saturated?
Would it be valid to make up a dummy variable to show the model (ATP) does fit well?
Thanks for your feedback.

A: ATP fits. This is trivially true. We could have known this without looking at the data. This is because it is a saturated model, so it can exactly reproduce your data. The problem with ATP is not the fit, but whether or not it is a model. A model is a simplification of your data, and ATP does not simplify but just exactly reproduce your data.
You can see this in another way. The null hypothesis of the tests you report is: There is no difference between the model you test and a fully saturated model. Again it is trivially true that the we cannot reject that null hypothesis for the model ATP, though that is not a very informative finding...
You can also question whether statistical tests are the right tool for choosing models. Again, a model is supposed to simplify your data. Simplify means being (somewhat) wrong. So the fact that we reject the null-hypothesis for the other models is in itself not a problem for that model. It would become a problem if the difference between the model and the data is so large that the model is no longer useful. The $p$-value is not a measure of usefulness, so it cannot be used to make that judgement call. Instead you need to interpret the models, compare them and see if you find the differences too big or not for your purpose.

A: Here's the contingency table used in this question:
surv.gss <- structure(list(A = c(1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 0L, 0L, 0L, 0L), E = c(1L, 1L
, 0L, 0L, 1L, 1L, 0L, 0L), P = c(1L, 0L, 1L, 0L, 1L, 0L, 1L,
0L), count = c(50L, 5L, 28L, 30L, 32L, 27L, 50L, 61L)), .Names = c("A",
"E", "P", "count"), class = "data.frame", row.names = c(NA, -8L
))

Print data:
> surv.gss
  A E P count
1 1 1 1    50
2 1 1 0     5
3 1 0 1    28
4 1 0 0    30
5 0 1 1    32
6 0 1 0    27
7 0 0 1    50
8 0 0 0    61

Fit the saturated model:
require(car)
mod.gss <- glm(count ~ A * E * P, poisson, surv.gss)
Anova(mod.gss)

Which outputs Type II Anova (i.e. conforming to the marginality principle):
> Anova(mod.gss)
Analysis of Deviance Table (Type II tests)

Response: count
      LR Chisq Df Pr(>Chisq)
A      11.5595  1  0.0006740 ***
E      10.7574  1  0.0010386 **
P       4.8513  1  0.0276248 *
A:E     2.3502  1  0.1252675
A:P     9.0072  1  0.0026891 **
E:P    15.7072  1  7.394e-05 ***
A:E:P  11.6197  1  0.0006526 ***
---
Signif. codes:  0 '***' 0.001 '**' 0.01 '*' 0.05 '.' 0.1 ' ' 1

With higher-order terms in the model, we need to look at the Anova table from bottom to top. We reject the null for A:E:P (i.e. the "three-way interaction"), which means that the partial association between each pair of variables varies over the levels of the third variable.
As mentioned in the other answer, the model fits the data perfectly, as shown by the lack-of-fit test (based on residual deviance) with a very large p value:
> mod.gss

Call:  glm(formula = count ~ A * E * P, family = poisson, data = surv.gss)

Coefficients:
(Intercept)            A            E            P          A:E          A:P          E:P
     4.1109      -0.7097      -0.8150      -0.1989      -0.9767       0.1299       0.3687
      A:E:P
     2.0028

Degrees of Freedom: 7 Total (i.e. Null);  0 Residual
Null Deviance:      72.12
Residual Deviance: 2.687e-14    AIC: 57.81

> pchisq(0, df=0, lower.tail=FALSE)
[1] 1

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The second new piece which Iggy Azalea added to her right forearm half-sleeve in 2016 was this surrealist rose design on the back of her arm, just below the elbow. The image combines a traditional style rose tattoo with the roman numeral digits of a clock face, which spiral into the center of the flower.
Iggy hasn't spoken about what it means to her personally, but it appears to have something to do with the ephemeral nature of time.
The numbering on the clock has a few oddities that could be symbolic, if they aren't unintentional mistakes. The clock goes straight from one (I) to three (III) with no number two (II) in between. The number four is written as IIII rather than the correct roman numeral IV.
Sky Ferreira has a tiny circle tattoo on her left hand, between her thumb and forefinger. It looks like the face of a clock, but it's hard to tell.


You must register for the Sunday Simple Church Missions Roundtable.
In order to secure a room at the hotel all who want to attend to roundtable need to pre-register that they will attend by going to: http://www.house2house.com/roundtable.html. There is a registration cost of $50.00 to cover your meal that evening and the cost of the room.
We will have a plated dinner at 7:00pm with further discussion following.
If need be, some of us may meet informally on Monday morning.
be sure to spread the word so that we can get everyone wanting to attend the post-conference round table registered.


text:
Q: Malloc function in c I made a program in c that uses malloc function.
Code:
#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdbool.h>
#include<malloc.h>

int main(){
    int n;
    int *ptr,i,sum;
    sum = 0;
    printf("Enter the number = ");
    scanf("%d",&n);
    ptr = (int *)(malloc(10));
    for(i=0;i<n;i++){
        scanf("%d",ptr+i);
        sum += *(ptr+i);
    }
    printf("The sum of the numbers is = %i",sum);
}

I have used malloc function to allocate a memory of 10 bytes .How is it possible that 10 integers are stored in 10 bytes....

A: It is possible by luck.
You write outside the allocated area and consequently your program has UB (Undefined Behavior).
However, the program may appear to work in some situations but in general it may crash at any time.


text:
Full list: senior government figures affected by coronavirus
7 April 2020, 10:07am
(Photo: Getty)
Boris Johnson, who has tested positive for coronavirus, was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of St Thomas' Hospital in London on Monday night, after his symptoms worsened. According to Number 10 officials on Monday, Boris remains conscious and was moved to the ward as a precaution in case he requires ventilation. The Times reports today that he has not been intubated and only needed four litres of oxygen – the normal threshold for intensive care is 15 litres.
Below are the cabinet members and senior government figures who have also been impacted by the virus so far:
Boris Johnson, Prime Minister
Tested positive for coronavirus – currently in hospital
Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Tested positive for coronavirus – has recovered and is now back at work
Dominic Cummings, Chief Adviser to the Prime Minister
Has shown symptoms so is self-isolating
Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer
Had shown symptoms and self-isolated – has now returned to work
Patrick Vallance, Chief Scientific Adviser
Not tested – has not shown symptoms
Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer
Not known if tested
Dominic Raab, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Tested twice for coronavirus – both tests came back negative
Is currently Boris Johnson's de facto deputy
Priti Patel, Secretary of State for the Home Department
Michael Gove, Minister for the Cabinet Office, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Is currently self-isolating after a family member showed symptoms
Robert Buckland QC, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Ben Wallace, Secretary of State for Defence
Had symptoms of coronavirus and self-isolated for seven days – has now recovered
Alok Sharma, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Liz Truss, Secretary of State for International Trade
Thérèse Coffey, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education
George Eustice, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Robert Jenrick, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Transport
Brandon Lewis, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Alister Jack, Secretary of State for Scotland
Has shown symptoms so is self-isolating – has not yet tested positive
Simon Hart, Secretary of State for Wales
Baroness Evans of Bowes Park, Leader of the House of Lords, Lord Privy Seal
Oliver Dowden, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Secretary of State for International Development
Tested negative for coronavirus in mid-March
Amanda Milling, Minister without Portfolio
Steve Barclay, Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Jacob Rees-Mogg, Leader of the House of Commons
Mark Spencer, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (Chief Whip)
Suella Braverman, Attorney General


HART Services – provide a response team based in Glasgow.
Planned or not, many people find themselves in difficulties, requiring rescuers to use specialist equipment and technical skills to access them and transport to a place of safety. Remote location sites, cliffs, shafts, confined spaces, tower cranes, wind turbines, multi-story buildings, communication masts & towers, powered work & access platforms, cable suspended & hydraulically operated maintenance cradles are all prime areas for a technical rescue.
The team specialises in technical rescue and have equipment to access and egress at height & in confined spaces, we utilise a wide range of extended skills such as Paramedical, Advanced Life Support, Breathing Apparatus & Airlines, Rope access & Line rescue, Using the best equipment e.g. Intrinsically safe lighting & communications, aerial stretchers, etc.
A World Record Abseil for sick kids: – In 1990 John Greenfield led a team of eight who completed the Longest Continuous Abseil, 197,000 feet in 10 hrs, from the Moat House Hotel in Glasgow to raise funds for Yorkhill Children's Hospital. This was the birth of the High Assess Rescue Team. In 2008 John resigned as director to form it as a Company: HART Services Scotland Ltd.
We take great pride in helping others: we have helped to raise over £300k over the past years to benefit such Charities as: The Royal Hospital For Sick Children, Glasgow & Edinburgh; Cancer Research UK; Breakthrough Breast cancer and Enable, to name a few.
Technical rescue operations- involves the rescue and recovery of victims trapped at height or in confined spaces at, above, or below ground such as vaults, silos, tanks, tunnels and sewers.
Hazardous area rescues can be technically challenging due to the environment in which they occur. Confined and/or at height areas are often narrow and constricting preventing easy access by rescuers. They are usually unlit and poorly ventilated often containing hazardous materials in liquid or gas form which can be harmful or even fatal.
These hazards create a limited window in which to perform a rescue. The general rule is that after four minutes without oxygen, a person will suffer asphyxia resulting in either brain damage or death.
The urgent need to rescue someone often leads to ill-prepared rescue attempts.
Two-thirds of all workplace deaths occur attempting an unplanned rescue attempt of a colleague.
What is a Hazardous Area Response Team?
A response team comprises of a minimum of three crew members. One of the crew members will lead the team and act as top man/supervisor whilst the two remaining crew members will be the persons to perform the rescue should the need arise. A three man team is the standard response team however depending on the area to be covered and the number of personnel that will be working, a larger team may be required. The size of the response team needed should be identified in the risk assessment.
When would a response team be required?
A team would most commonly be required when carrying out work at height, in awkward to access & egress confined spaces at, above, or below ground level, in, on or near water. However the need for a response team would be determined by the risk assessment. If you are unsure to whether a team is required then we can risk assess the site to determine this.
What are the roles of the response team?
The response team will issue a method statement and a safe system of work and rescue plan.
The response team will inspect the area immediately prior to any works commencing to establish that the risk assessment, method statement, safety systems of work and rescue plan are valid and true at time of works commencing.
The response team will conduct a tool box talk/site safety brief with all personnel to be working in the area.
The response team will check that all personnel to be working in the area are trained and certified to the correct level.
The response team will check all equipment to be used in the area is certified and is in safe working order.
The response team will monitor all personnel entering and exiting the area.
The response team will monitor the atmospheric stability of the area and advise if additional precautions should be taken or if work should be stopped (Time out for Safety).
Should the need for a rescue arise then the plan will be followed and a rescue will be performed.
The response team will remain responsible for any personnel recovered from the area until they are deemed fit or are passed onto a receiving medical service.
For whom are the teams responsible for?
The response team is responsible for the safety of all personnel carrying out work in the area.
We work with the local authorities and client safety personnel at all levels.
What are the qualifications that our response teams hold?
Working in high risk confined spaces.
IHCD First Person on Scene (FPoS) Intermediate with Oxygen administration & Defibrillator skills.
What rescue equipment is provided?
Access equipment e.g. tripod, winch, harness, specialist access equipment, safety lines.
Air mover/blower and air ducting.
Immobilisation equipment, medical crash bag and rescue stretchers.
We will also source any additional equipment required that is identified in the risk assessment.


text:
Die M2 ist eine US-amerikanische Antipersonenmine. Es handelt sich um eine Springmine, die ab 1940 entwickelt und von 1943 bis 1944 produziert wurde. Die Mine wird nicht mehr von den US-Truppen verwendet, wurde aber in zahlreichen Konflikten verwendet und von mehreren anderen Ländern in Kopie produziert. Der Nachfolger der M2 ist die M16.

Historie
Unter dem Eindruck des beginnenden Zweiten Weltkriegs begannen die USA ab dem Sommer 1940 mit der Entwicklung diverser Antipersonenminen. Nach dem Fall Frankreichs kamen die USA durch den französischen Major Pierre Delalande (auch Paul J. M. R. Delalande) in den Besitz der Pläne für die französische Springmine vom Typ Modèle 1939. Die Mine wurde in den USA unter dem Namen "Paul Delalande" patentiert. Auf dieser Basis wurde dann die US-amerikanische M2 Mine entwickelt. Die Produktion in den USA erfolgte von Januar 1943 bis September 1944 und es wurden in diesem Zeitraum ca. 4.161.000 Stück produziert. Eingesetzt wurde die Mine ab Mitte 1943. Die M2 war kein sonderlich erfolgreiches Design, daher wurden nach Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs auf Basis der erbeuteten Pläne der deutschen S-Mine Nachfolger für die M2 entwickelt, die schließlich durch die M16 ersetzt wurde. Die M2 wurde von diversen Ländern, wie Zypern, Griechenland, Taiwan, Südafrika und der Türkei, beschafft und zusätzlich von anderen Ländern kopiert. Infolge der Ratifikation der Ottawa-Konvention wurde bis März 2008 große Lagerbestände der M2, z. B. in Griechenland, Zypern und der Türkei vernichtet.

Beschreibung
Die M2 besteht aus 3 Hauptbestandteilen: Basis, Zünder und Geschoss. Die Basis verbindet Zünder und Geschoss und enthält eine Treibladung für das Geschoss. Die Hülle für das Geschoss ähnelt einer Konservendose. Das Geschoss basiert auf einer 60 mm Mörsergranate (ursprünglich M49A2) und als Zünder wird der M6A1 Zug- und Druckzünder mit vorgespanntem Schlagbolzen verwendet. Die Aufnahme für den Zünder befindet sich neben dem Geschossbecher und ähnelt einem Stifthalter. Die Mine M2 ist olivgrün mit schwarzer Basis und gelben Markierungen. Ab der Version M2A3 ist die Mine olivgrün mit gelber Basis und schwarzen Beschriftungen. Die entsprechenden nicht explosiven Übungsminen sind schwarz (inert) oder hellblau (Rauchladung) mit weißen Markierungen. Der Tubus des Geschosses ist bei der M2A3 beschriftet mit MINE ANTI-PERSONNEL.M2A3.

Funktion
Jede Mine wird in einem Pappschachtel mit 4 x 8 m Drahtspulen für Stolperdrähte u. Ä. geliefert. Der Draht ist olivgrün oder sandfarben. Es werden 10 (M2A1) oder 6 (M2A4) Pappschachteln in einer Holzkiste geliefert. Die Mine wird so im Boden eingegraben, dass das Geschoss mit Erde bedeckt ist und der Zünder etwas aus dem Boden herausragt. Der Zünder kann nun mit einem Stolperdraht verbunden werden. Da der Zünder aus dem Boden herausragt wird er z. B. mit leichten Pflanzenteilen getarnt um eine Erkennung durch den Feind zu erschweren. Anschließend wird der Sicherungsstift entfernt: Die Mine ist nun scharf. Wird jetzt der Zünder mit Zug- oder Druckkraft belastet oder der Stolperdraht ausgelöst aktiviert der Zünder eine Treibladung aus Schießpulver, die das Geschoss aus dem Boden heraus nach oben schießt. In einer Höhe von 2 – 3 m explodiert dann der Verzögerungszünder und die Fragmente des Splittersprengkopfes des Geschosses verteilen sich im Umkreis. In einer Entfernung von bis zu 10 – 18 Metern muss bei Menschen mit tödlichen, und bis 100 Metern mit leichteren Verletzungen gerechnet werden. Selbst in 150 Metern Entfernung besteht noch eine Gefährdung. Bei großflächiger Nutzung von Springminen wie der M2 werden diese häufig zusammen mit (metallarmen) Druckminen verlegt, um eine Überwindung oder Räumung des verminten Bereiches zu erschweren. Die M2 kann auch verwendet werden, indem nicht der Feind die Mine auslöst, sondern vom Zünder der Mine ein Zugdraht (statt des Stolperdrahts) zu einer eigenen Stellung mit entsprechender Deckung verläuft, aus der heraus eigene Kräfte die Mine auslösen können.

Entschärfung
Da die M2 viel Metall enthält und der Auslöser z. T. aus dem Boden herausragt, kann sie mittels Metalldetektor und per Auge relativ leicht erkannt werden. Die erkannte Mine kann dann durch qualifizierte Personen entschärft werden, indem man ein passendes Objekt, z. B. eine Nadel oder ein Stück Draht, vorsichtig in die Öffnung für den Sicherungsstift einführt und den Zünder aus der Mine herausschraubt.

Varianten
Die einzelnen Varianten der in den USA produzierten Exemplare der M2 unterscheiden sich bezüglich Zünder und Basis der Mine. Frühe Exemplare verfügten über eine große, dünne, flache und runde Basis, während bei späteren Exemplaren die Basis kleiner und dicker war. Spätere Versionen verfügten zudem über eine verbesserte Wasserdichtigkeit, die zusammen mit der Massenproduktion eines der Hauptprobleme der M2 war. Die USA entwickelten die folgenden Varianten:
 M2 – Geschosstubus wird an Basis genietet
 M2A1 – Geschosstubus wird an Basis angelötet
 M2A1B
 M2A1B1 – Variante der M2A1B unter der Nutzung des gleichen Geschosses, allerdings ist der Halter für den Zünder und der Minenkörper in einem Bauteil aus Gusseisen zusammengefasst, um die Massenproduktion zu vereinfachen. Die Mine war 96 mm breit, 220 mm hoch und wog 3248 g.
 M2A2 – Truppenmodifikation mit Leinentasche (für Wasserschutz)
 M2A3 – Diese Variante und nachfolgende wurden im Zweiten Weltkrieg genutzt. Der Hauptunterschied zu späteren Varianten scheint eine stärkere Treibladung zu sein. Der Geschosstubus wird in die Basis aus Stahl eingepresst
 M2A3B1 – Geschosstubus, Zünderaufnahme und Basis werden in einem Stück aus Gusseisen zusammengefasst. Die Mine ist zu schwer und wird nicht akzeptiert.
 M2A3B2 – Geschosstubus und Zünderaufnahme aus Stahl werden in Basis aus Gusseisen eingepresst
 M2A4 – Geschosstubus und Zünderaufnahme aus Stahl werden an Basis aus Stahl angeschweißt
 M2A4B1
 M2A4B2 – Geschosstubus und Zünderaufnahme aus Stahl werden an Basis aus Gusseisen angeschweißt

Zu Simulationszwecken gibt es die Übungsmine M8 bzw. M8A1. Sie entspricht in Form und Funktion der M2, ist jedoch hellblau und stößt bei Auslösung ein Geschoss aus Pappe oder Rauch aus.

Hersteller
 USA, auch Entwickler
 Belgien, Kopie als PRB M966
 Pakistan, Kopie als P7
 Portugal, Kopie als M/966
 Taiwan, Kopie

Bekannte Einsatzorte
 Angola
 Iran
 Irak
 Korea
 Laos
 Mosambik
 Namibia
 Oman
 Ruanda
 Tunesien
 Westsahara
 Zypern

Quellen
 C. King, J. King: Jane's Mines and Mine Clearance 2005–2006, Jane´s Information Group, 2005, ISBN 0-7106-2701-7.
 E. Banks: Brassey's Essential Guide to Anti-Personnel Landmines: Recognising & Disarming, Potomac Books, 1998, ISBN 1-8575-3228-7
 US Army FM 20-43
 US Army FM-5 31 Landmines and Boobytraps

Einzelnachweise

Weblinks
 M2 in Datenbank ORDATA, viele Bilder und Diagramme
 Michaelhiske
 M2A3B2 als Halbschnittmodell im Imperial War Museum
 Lexpev: viele Bilder, Zeichnungen und Gebrauchsanleitung für M2A1
 Umfangreiche Seite mit Bildern und Text, französisch

Antipersonenmine

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


What hasn't changed? The time-honored tradition of Sunday open houses. What has changed is how buyers find out about open houses and search for homes.
Short sales are complicated. With all the variables that need to be juggled, it's easy to make mistakes that end up derailing a transaction. Here are the most common reasons that short sales fail.
You may have noticed some changes here on the Windermere Blog and the Windermere Foundation Blog; the blogs are now fully integrated into the Winderemere Real Estate website!


Microsoft and Baidu kind autonomous driving partnership China's largest search engine Baidu and technology giant Microsoft have joined be a part of forces in the intelligent cloud to advance autonomous driving. Cell phones provide increased access to entertainment, both traditional codecs (equivalent to radio and recorded music) and new types corresponding to on-line gaming and access to on-line video websites, like YouTube (Cell phones and growth, n.d.). Stage fright is the fear of singing, talking, or performing in public. It may be debilitating to voice artists. Attempt these four methods that will help you overcome your stage fright in a really quick time.
Internships are also pretty common earlier than starting an car design career. By collaborating in an internship, a pupil will have the chance to work alongside expertise professionals within the car design business. This allows them to gain priceless expertise, and it additionally helps them build up their portfolios. College students that take part in internships may also obtain a suggestion for employment after they graduate.
After a 2011 STOOP, jobs advertised in America elevated; but enormously so in October 2012. They continued to increase in jobs that require advanced coaching and licensing, but additionally yield high pay. After the settlement, Hero Honda, Hero Company Services , Rockman Cycles Industries , Hero Mindmine Institute, Simple Invoice and Hero Management Service have gone to household of B M Munjal.
Later, I will be posting some data on the best way to properly polish and wax the paint in your automobile. Detailing the paint just isn't a one step course of, although you might see commercials on TV that tell you it's attainable. I'm telling you that it isn't. Correct paint correction starts with proper tools and techniques and paint correction is usually a multi-step course of.
the german stuff like benz's and audi's are conservative in look's but will final and maintain up higher than most. Step 8. Wipe the pre-soaked panel with the moist folded towel in long, straight, horizontal strokes (NO CIRCLES) making use of gentle stress to the panel of your vehicle. Work from the highest of the panel down until you've got wiped all the panel. This Comprehensive article talks about futuristic Helicopters / hovercrafts / dropships, while observing among the most fascinating and ingenious helicopter models ever belt.


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8-November-2016 | Digital Economy | Hyperconnectivity
In Election Outcome, Data Looms Large
Reuters Content Solutions
The merging of new-school data tactics with old-school campaigning will decide the 2016 presidential election, says "Dean of Big Data" expert and author Bill Schmarzo.
Eight years after candidate Barack Obama led the way in the use of Big Data, analytics have moved from the vanguard to the mainstream. Since 2012, candidates and their staffs have become a lot smarter in their use, and the tools available to data scientists are also far more advanced, notes Schmarzo, CTO for EMC's Global Services Big Data practice. "The campaign that will be most effective is the one that combines Big Data with face-to-face interactions."
Campaigns today rely upon constantly updated analytics, compiled from social media, polls, door-to-door canvassing, mobile apps, and public databases to determine when and where to buy TV ads or invest in more field staff, and how to hone messages to different audiences. And that's just the start.
"You have to know what it is that you are trying to measure," says Schmarzo. If he was running a campaign, he says he'd capture as much data on voters as possible, especially social media data, to determine their positions on issues, who's in their network, and how influential they can be with other voters.The goal: build an analytical profile for individual voters, mapping all of their preferences, opinions, affiliations, and alliances.
The task is gargantuan. It requires a "data lake" of technologies including storage, servers, and data science platforms like Hadoop, Python, and DataRPM along with proper security and governance to protect the data. The data lake provides a place where people can dump data and where analysts can test ideas and share the results with others.
Before building the technology foundation, campaigns, just like companies, need to establish the strategy. "Not all voters are of equal value, and not all issues are equal," Schmarzo says. "Big Data forces organizations to do what they don't really love to do, which is to focus and prioritize."
In the 2016 election season, the following data strategies would have been most effective in helping Clinton and Trump get ahead, according to Schmarzo.
1. Understand swing-state voters, plus their friends and family
At this stage in the game, campaigns are spending their time and money trying to reach voters in swing states including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. It makes little sense to crunch the data on Californians, since that state has voted blue since 1988. "I might look at data from Johnson County, Iowa, where there are lots of college kids," says Schmarzo. "By doing so, I can get a good sense of the sentiment for my campaign there, and then I would target those at risk for not voting for me or those who are undecided."
Using cluster-analysis techniques, campaigns can compile segments of "lookalike" voters with shared sentiments and common demographics and then determine how to best reach them and with what messages.
A voter's ability to influence others is also important in swing-state politics. Targeting a voter in Arizona who has family and friends in Iowa would be one smart strategy. Measuring someone's ability to influence is difficult yet doable with today's technologies. "It takes a solid understanding of analytics and a bounty of data but, especially, [it takes] a well thought-out process of how to test and learn," Schmarzo adds.
2. Embrace one-to-one marketing
Personalized marketing is all the rage in consumer products and in politics too, thanks to the power of data. "The key differentiator is not the big data, but the small [data], down to the level of the individual," says Schmarzo. In addition to collecting data online, campaigns still need to spend ample time and money meeting people at their homes and in coffee shops or shopping malls. Observations from those interactions, such as the cars people drive, the books they read, facial expressions, and even the foods they eat, deliver deeper insight to those voter profiles, he adds. Such granular analytics can help a campaign identify power voters—those with a large influence on key voter segments in a swing state.
3. Measure on issues not candidates
In politics, unlike other sectors, past results are poor predictors. That's because elections turn on the idiosyncrasies of the candidates and the issues of the moment. With the 2016 field consisting of the first female presidential nominee and a Republican nominee who has defied almost every campaign norm, the climate is volatile, to say the least. "Every cycle is so different, but what doesn't change as much are people's sentiments and passions," says Schmarzo. "So you focus less on the candidates and more on the core issues." He recommends that candidates build a scoring system to measure the importance of key issues for individual voters or voter segments.
4. Use social media, but carefully
Social media has been vital to elections since 2008, and today there are many tools available to collect and analyze it. Social sentiment and behavior helps data scientists build richer profiles on those highly prized voters who haven't made up their minds already. However, older voters are less likely than younger voters to use social media on a regular basis, which limits its influence. There is also mixed evidence about the real influence of social-media conversations on election results. As a gauge of voter attitudes to help guide campaign messaging and tactics, though, it's critical, says Schmarzo.
Things have changed quite a bit since 2004, when information technology was an adjunct to campaigns. Now, technology is central to nearly everything that candidates do on the campaign trail.
Even so, candidates will always need to press the flesh. "You've got to know the scores to build, which tells you what data to test, and you need an environment where you can test ideas quickly," says Schmarzo. "And while Big Data from social media gives you the insights to focus, it cannot replace the human touch of those canvassers who go door to door."
For more on technology and the upcoming election, see Election Night Coverage Gets Out Of Comfort Zone.
About Reuters Content Solutions
Reuters Solutions develops tailored, multimedia content with a journalistic approach. Reuters Solutions operates independently from Reuters editorial.
Social Media , Digital Marketing , Social Marketing , Data Analysis , Voter Engagement , Voter Data , Election Data
Digital Selling Hacks And Hustles For Closing Your Next Deal
Instagram Phenomenon In Digital Marketing
Creating Content Is Easier Said Than Done


The New York City firehouse featured in the movie 'Ghostbusters' may soon be shut down due to budget cuts, according to the NY Post.
Ladder No. 8 in TriBeCa is among 20 New York fire stations Mayor Mike Bloomberg has put on the chopping block.
In 'Ghostbusters,' Ladder No. 8 played the role of the retired firehouse where Venkman, Stanz and Stangler set up their iconic paranormal investigating business.
So while the real-life retiring of Ladder No. 8 isn't such a good thing for TriBeCa residents, it's impending availability provides an amazing opportunity for any up-and-coming paranormal investigators.


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07580a91-7942-41c7-af86-375c5f5de550
Regulatory Focus™ > News Articles > Ethical Conundrum of Testing Medical Countermeasures on Children Focus of Upcoming FDA Meeting
Ethical Conundrum of Testing Medical Countermeasures on Children Focus of Upcoming FDA Meeting
Posted 07 August 2013 | By Alexander Gaffney, RAC,
When it comes to regulatory issues, some are thornier than others. At the approval stage, regulators must ask whether the evidence supports approval, whether a product might be abused, whether use could hide other conditions, or whether other negative externalities exist. And even at the Investigational New Drug (IND) filing phase for drugs, regulators have to consider the safety of patients who could stand to benefit-or be harmed-by prospective treatment.
And those concerns grow ever more difficult when the patients involved are children.
Pediatric testing is broadly governed by the concept of "minimal risk," a term FDA has defined as "the probability and magnitude of harm or discomfort anticipated in the research are not greater in and of themselves than those ordinarily encountered in daily life or during the performance of routine physical or psychological examinations or tests."
Because pediatric populations-a category that includes neonates, infants, children and young adolescents-consent to trials through their legal guardians (often their parents) and in some cases cannot vocalize or even conceptualize non-consent, federal regulations are written to afford them a higher standard of protection than their adult counterparts.
But this minimal risk standard comes with a notable catch, one identified last year by a federal ethics board. The problem lies with efforts to bolster the US' ability to respond to potential safety threats, including nuclear, chemical, biological and pathogenic emergencies.
These events are, by their very nature, exceedingly rare if they happen at all, making preparing for them exceedingly difficult.
Take anthrax, for example. The deadly bacteria has been seen in the US just a small handful of times in the last two decades, but pharmaceutical companies-spurred in part by funding from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA)-have set out to develop therapies for it.
So how do you conduct clinical testing against a rare pathogen that very often kills its host? Prior to 2002, no real method existed. However, in 2002 FDA enacted the Animal Efficacy Rule ("the Animal Rule"), which permits sponsors to deviate from standard clinical testing practices in one important way.
While safety testing for the products still involves human subjects, efficacy testing instead involves only animal subjects known to be genetically similar to humans.  For example, Cangene's botulism antitoxin, approved in March 2013, was approved based on safety testing in Rhesus monkeys.
A Tension between Risk and Reward
But that leaves a tension between the Animal Rule and the standard of minimal risk: Are the safety risks associated with human safety testing under the Animal Rule acceptable for pediatric patients given that they are unlikely to ever benefit from the treatment?
In May 2013, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) weighed in with a report, noting that 40% of all stockpiled medical countermeasures in the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) have not been approved for any children, and the other 60% have in most cases only been approved for some pediatric populations (e.g. for adolescents, but not neonates). This, the report said, raised the prospect that treatments might not function, or worse be harmful, for pediatric patients in situations where the treatment is most needed.
GAO's report had little to say in terms of concrete recommendations, noting that the regulatory hurdles were substantial, but simply said that the government could be doing more to support the needs of children.
A Presidential Commission Weighs in
An earlier March 2013 report by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues (PCSBI) came to a similar recommendation, noting that "new policies, practices, research and perspectives are needed to study medical countermeasures for and with children."
"Absent extraordinary circumstances, pre-event MCM research with children is ethical only if it presents 'no more than minimal risk' to study participants, where 'minimal' means no greater risk than that routinely faced by a healthy child in daily life or at a medical check-up," the commission recommended.
The report also calls for a de-escalation approach, in which data obtained from adults is used to support testing in adolescents, which in turn is used to support testing in younger children, and so on and so forth.
The commission conceded that in some rare cases, it will be impossible to demonstrate that a trial would only represent "minimal" risks to children. In those cases, the commission recommended that the researchers be able to show that the risk is still acceptably minor (near-minimum) and represents "no substantial threat to a child's health or well-being" before being allowed to proceed.
The commission also recommended that research trial regulations (45 CFR 46.407, 50.54) be reworded to remove ambiguity surrounding pediatric medical countermeasure research, which it said would allow more consistent protections for children. The new wording, it said, would require that children be exposed to "minimal risk" and stand to benefit in some way from the research.
In addition, "When there are no data on the administration of a medical countermeasure to children and it will be provided to children in an emergency, the medical countermeasure should be provided under a treatment investigational new drug application (IND) to ensure that rigorous pediatric research protections apply to safeguard those children who receive the medical countermeasure," the commission recommended. This should be done to ensure that the product can be used in an emergency-use situation in any future events, it explained.
Enter: FDA
Now FDA is set to take on the conclusions on that report, announcing in a Federal Register posting on 7 August 2013 that it plans to hold a meeting over two days in September 2013 to "discuss ethical issues in pediatric product development, including medical counter measures, focusing on the concepts of minimal risk, disorder or condition, and exposure of pediatric subjects to risks under 21 CFR 50.54."
The meeting is considerably longer than most, which often occur over a single day-possibly an indication of the difficulty and weight of the ethical issues the meeting is set to address.
For now, details about the meeting are few, with FDA offering its standard explanation that further meeting materials will be available "no later" than two business days prior to the start of the meeting. Approximately one hour of the meeting will be set aside for oral presentations from the public, FDA added.
Tags: Animal Rule


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Prepiella radicans is a moth in the subfamily Arctiinae. It was described by George Hampson in 1905. It is found in Guyana, Suriname and Peru.

References

Moths described in 1905
Lithosiini


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110 Main Street - Madison Station Antiques
Believed to be one of the oldest stores in Madison, the building was built circa 1859 and owned by Mr. George Washington Martin. Later, Mr. Hardage operated a saloon in the building which was one of two in Madison at that time. Today, the building houses Madison Station Antiques.
110 Main Street - Whitworth Realty
Believed to be one of the oldest stores in Madison, the building was built circa 1859 and owned by Mr. George Washington Martin. Later, Mr. Hardage operated a saloon in the building which was one of two in Madison at that time. Sometime thereafter, Mr. Robert Parham Cain bought the building and opened and operated a grocery store. His son Mr. Robert Earl Cain continued in the mercantile business there.
From MSHPS Nomination: 110 Main Street (1859) faces northwest. This two-story, painted brick commercial building is believed to be one of the oldest commercial structures in Madison Station. The front-gabled roof includes overhanging eaves with decorative brackets. The large upper story windows are six over six sash with true divided lights. The recessed front entrance has two large display windows and a sign band that runs the width of the entrance.
The building now houses Madison Station Antiques.
Created by Billie Goodson on October 6th 2019, 11:05:42 pm.
Last updated by Billie Goodson on October 26th 2020, 3:45:23 pm.
Madison Station Historic District Walking Tour
This is a walking tour of Historic Madison Station. It begins downtown and then travels down Main, continues on Front, then up Buttermilk Alley. It then travels to Madison United Methodist Church and continues north on Church Street. This permits the view of many homes constructed in the late-1800's to early 1900's. It then turns to the travel toward Madison Elementary School which has served this community for many years. A huge thanks to John Rankin. John has spent a significant amount of time collecting, writing, and publishing the history of Madison. His work has formed the basis of much of what you get from this tour.


Hasbro is bolstering its Furby brand with the new digitally integrated Furby Connect.
Using Bluetooth technology, the new toy can connect with kids through video clips, songs, global events and more.
Furby Connect can also speak more than 1,000 phrases, boasts multiple sensors throughout its body and can even ask owners for breakfast or a late night snack.
"Every time we evolve the Furby brand, we want to introduce kids to a new way to play," said Kenny Davis, senior director of global marketing at Hasbro.
"And kids and Furby fans alike told us they wanted a creature they could interact with in more ways, so we have created the technology infrastructure for Furby Connect with that in mind.
Hasbro is also launching a Furby Connect World app, which offers kids a virtual world to help enhance their Furby with fresh entertainment content.
Furby Connect will land at retailers nationwide from autumn 2016.


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Three cups of...whatever
I have always regarded memoir as a legitimate form of fiction.
This literary form has been once again called into question by the allegation that Greg Mortenson, author of the bestselling Three Cups of Tea, lied; that he may not have been saved by the villagers of Korphe, and he may have drunk only two cups of tea.
Montana's attorney general is investigating possible "mismanagement of funds," known in less literary circles (say, law courts) as fraud. He probably isn't too concerned when or whether Mortenson went to the village of Korphe. Neither am I, really.
Memoirs are based on memory, which has been shown to be selective, fallible, and, when useful, inventive.
It is from memory that we create myths about ourselves. They are part of the personas or masks that we wear in public. And most of us are guilty of embellishing and exaggerating: we are smarter, kinder, braver, nobler than we, living behind the mask, know we are. Memoirists just do it on paper, the literary equivalent of padding one's resume.
Many writers wrestle with this issue.
Dorothy Gallagher, author of How I Came Into My Inheritance and Other True Stories, admits to the tempting pull of a good story over the drab, humdrum facts of one's life. "Storytelling insists on itself," she writes.
"But there is nothing in my stories that did not happen. In their essence they are true. Or a shade of true," reminding one of Stephen Colbert's "truthiness." Or, like Sally, a character in my Tales of Tokyo, confesses: "It was just too good of a story not to be true!"
Andre Aciman, author of Call Me By Your Name, flatly accepts that "all memoirists lie." He writes, "We alter the truth on paper so as to alter it in fact; we lie about our past and invent surrogate memories the better to make sense of our lives and live the life we know was truly ours."
James Frey, author of the now "highly fictionalized memoir," A Million Little Pieces, had to face the wrath of Oprah Winfrey because of the imaginative elements in his story. Given the choice, I think I would rather be investigated by Montana's attorney general.
Some writers get around this tricky, sticky "truthiness" dilemma by projecting their personal myths into fiction. W. Somerset Maugham went so far as to declare that "All novels are autobiographical." Gee, even Harry Potter?
An interviewer once commented to May Sarton, known for her journals as much as her novels and poetry, that he found the journals strangely impersonal. To which Sarton replied that she put the intimate, personal stuff into her novels.
The issue is complicated in Mortenson's case in that he may have made money—lots!—from his exaggerations, a predicament most writers do not need to worry about.
Another claim is that people not only believed his story but also donated money because they believed an account that now turns out to be "a shade of true." I suspect we donated our money not because he was cared for in the village of Korphe, but because his work—the building of schools and the education of girls—is something we believe in and want to support.
Ultimately, it may come down to a matter of degree: where we embellish, Mortenson lied. Or perhaps, like most of us, he just came to believe in his own myth.
This article first appeared in The (Longview) Daily News, December 31, 2011.
The Conquest of Mt. St. Helens: A Somewhat True Account of the Harrowing 1999 Assault on the Treacherous Peak
The mountain rose up before us, taunting us, challenging us, making faces at us, daring us to scale its treacherous slopes.
We faced a grueling 4,500 foot elevation gain in less than five miles. Straight up into thin air. Man pitting himself against mountain. Epic stuff. Each among us knew the risks; each had weighed his chances. We were up to the challenge. We laughed in the face of danger. Hahahahahahaha…
There were six on our climbing team: Nordquist, Hilary, Mallory, Whitaker, Shackleton, and myself (Note: names have been changed to protect the innocent—that, and to avoid messy lawsuits.)
Each of us was in top physical condition, the result of hours of rigorous training in preparation for this day. I myself had read three books on sports training. We were ready.
Nordquist is the leader of the expedition. The success and safety of the climb will rest on his cool head and clear thinking. The very epitome of the mountaineer, he inspires confidence in the rest of us. Dressed in his mountain boots and gaiters, his Kelty pack bedecked with ice axe, ropes, pitons, carabiners, oxygen canisters, and a dome tent that can comfortably sleep twenty, he carries enough food to have kept the Donner Party alive through the winter. I feel slightly under-prepared, dressed in only walking shorts, T-shirt and sneakers with a space blanket in my pocket.
Hilary is still laughing in the face of danger, and we realize the altitude is already getting to him. Since we haven't left the parking lot yet, this is not a good sign. We may have discovered the weak link on our team.
It is a clear and cloudless morning as we set out, yet each of us knows how fickle the weather can be on the mountain. Certainly, not as fickle as last night's date, but still…
It will be a race against time. We will have only a narrow eight-hour window to reach the summit and get back down off the peak before Happy Hour at Scandals.
Nordquist orders us to rope up. We appreciate his precaution and concern for our safety. Still, we feel a little foolish being the only ones roped up together as we leave the parking lot.
The climb soon becomes grueling. We break out of the trees into the vast and barren lava fields. We are on our own now, cut off from civilization—except for our three cell phones, one laptop computer, and Mallory's hi-tech palm-size television/radio with satellite relay.
It is a warm day on these hazardous and unforgiving slopes, and Nordquist orders a halt for the expedition to rest and rehydrate. (Real mountaineers don't drink water. We rehydrate.)
After a short break, we set out again and are soon scrambling over boulders and traversing steep scree slopes. Hilary is having a particularly difficult time. (Note for future expeditions: high heels should be strongly discouraged.)
Mallory keeps us informed of the altitude with his new razzle-dazzle hi-tech watch with built-in barometer, altimeter, pedometer, and can opener. With each foot of elevation gain, the mountain takes its toll on us. 5,000 feet: oxygen is becoming thinner. Breathing becomes more difficult. 5,500 feet: our bodies are overheating. 6,000 feet: Hilary's mascara begins to run, reminding me of the raccoon we saw in the forest below.
At 7,000 feet, we come upon a sensitive geophysical seismic sensor, placed here by government scientists to monitor the mountain. We have great fun jumping up and down around it, wondering if there will be anything in tomorrow's newspapers.
Finally, shortly before noon, we reach the summit. 8,363 feet. Against impossible odds, we had done it! O sweet triumph of the human spirit! Proudly, we plant our rainbow flag atop the peak and watch it unfurl and snap and wave in the wind--right next to the happy face banner of the group from the Goldendale Senior Center.
We stand on the thin, knife-narrow rim of the crater, gazing out into the vast grandeur and majesty of the North Cascades. Nordquist points out the surrounding peaks: Mt. Hood, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, Mt. McKinley…Too late we realize Nordquist's poor sense of geography.
There are few thrills that can match standing atop a mountain peak—I can only think of two or three and those are illegal. Looking thousands and thousands of feet down into that immense crater, beholding the rising lava dome with its fissures and steaming vents, I was momentarily overwhelmed by one, powerful realization: "DUDES, WE'RE STANDING ON A LIVE VOLCANO!"
Famished from the ascent, we break out our provisions. I share my orange with Hilary who had been under the mistaken impression that there would be vending machines at the summit. Nordquist offers a piece of beef jerky that was dried and cured last century. Mallory shares his hi-tech, high carbo-protein bar that contains enough energy to fuel a small city; while Shackleton is dining on his gazpacho soup with a crisp Caesar salad and barbecued lamb in tahini marinade as he lets his bottle of Merlot breathe. (Shackleton is also a member of the Rainbow Cooking Club.)
An hour later we began our descent, each of us quietly proud of our team's achievement. We had risen to the challenge and we had triumphed. Forevermore, we would be counted among the courageous few (a mere 13,000 each year) who had reached the treacherous summit of Mt. St. Helens and returned to tell of it.
This article was first published in 1999 in Just Out magazine (Portland, Oregon.)
We are a nation of immigrants' stories
Grandpa Rose
My grandfather came from Portugal. His father, a fisherman, had drowned, leaving a wife and nine children. As the oldest son, it became my grandfather's responsibility to support the family.
Their village scrounged together the money to buy him passage to America. The plan was for him to go there and find work, sending money home to the family, until he had saved enough to return to his village.
He arrived in San Francisco in 1912. He came by himself; didn't know anyone here; and couldn't speak the language.
He was fifteen years old.
I am amazed at that boy's courage, and feel humbled to be his grandson.
In order to find work, he pretended to understand English. His first job was for a farmer who directed him to dig around some young fruit trees in the orchard. My grandfather proceeded to cut them down. This could have been the end of our family's saga in America.
But the farmer was kind and, now realizing that this boy didn't understand English, kept him on and helped him learn the language and customs of this strange new country.
Through the years, my grandfather continued to work hard and faithfully sent money home to his mother and siblings. But he was never able to save enough to return to his village, and he never again saw his mother.
In time, he learned to speak English, as did his children and grandchildren and great grandchildren--although I have doubts about a couple of my cousins.
I stand in awe at the courage of immigrants, whether "legal" or not, and wonder at the dreams and desperation that compelled people to risk their lives to come here, starting with the Plymouth and Jamestown colonists. (The jury is still out whether they were legal or illegal immigrants.)
The issues in the current immigration debate are complex; but they always have been. Rarely have new immigrants been welcomed by those who preceded them.
And the arguments have remained pretty much the same; only the immigrants themselves change, be they Germans (the other side of my ancestry) or Irish or Italians or Hmong. I see no simple solution, and I'm made nervous by those who do.
We are a nation of immigrants—and of immigrants' stories. We always have been, and I think we are at our best as a people, at our noblest and most compassionate, when we remember our families' origins and how we got here.
When I listen and weigh the current debate on "illegals," and about walls to keep people out, and in what language we should sing the national anthem (I find our national anthem impossible for me to sing in any language), and as tempers flare and these complex issues are reduced to simplistic slogans, I think of a 15-year-old boy, coming alone to America to seek a better life for his family, and I am still amazed at his courage, and I am still humbled to be his grandson.
First published in The Daily News (Longview, Washington), July 9, 2006.
Pondering ghost stories from the family closet
Emily Hargraves
I suppose it should be expected. If I had written a cookbook, people would be sending me recipes. But I wrote a book about ghosts.
To the day she died, Mom insisted she saw Dad standing there in the kitchen in broad daylight. He had been dead for ten years.
Along with those skeletons hidden away in most family closets, it seems that families have one or two ghost stories stuck in there as well. In almost every public reading I've given, or in meetings with book discussion groups, someone has shared a story with me.
I was fifteen, and my brother was away fighting in the Pacific when I saw him outside my bedroom window. He was grinning, like he was joshing with me again. I never told my ma. And I didn't need to wait for the telegram. I knew what it meant.
These stories were not told in a sensationalistic way, but more like a confidence shared.
During his final hours, my husband would ask who was that standing by the door. I would say there's no one else in the room. Just me. And soon he would ask again. There's no one there, I'd tell him. Now, I'm thinking, maybe there was.
Some spoke even matter-of-factly about their experiences.
There was a ghost upstairs in our house when we were kids. I don't remember any of us ever being scared. We just got used to the noises and took it for granted.
This was true of my German grandmother. For her the paranormal was...well, normal. She dreamed things before they happened—what's called precognition. It was nothing special to her. She accepted these experiences without needing to understand them. My mother, too, had experiences, but she didn't like to talk about them. They frightened her.
Near the end of her days, as my grandmother was lying in the hospital, she said to my mother, "Ah, Lili, don't worry. When I die, I will come back and tell you that I am okay." I'm sure she meant that to be reassuring.
But Mom would have none of it. "No, Ma, when you're gone, you're gone. Don't come back." What's telling is that neither of them doubted that, had she wanted, my grandmother could indeed have "come back."
I wish I'd been there. I'd have told Grandma that I would love to receive a postcard from the other side— Having a wonderful time. Wish you here (or maybe not that). Don't forget to water the delphiniums. Unfortunately, my mother's and grandmother's "gift" did not extend down to me. Apparently, I possess all the psychic sensitivity of a potato.
What has also struck me about these accounts is that not one of them was frightening or even spooky, as in all those lurid horror films and novels (Yeah, okay, I have a couple of lurid scenes in mine, too.) Mostly, the stories speak of tenderness and love that momentarily reaches from beyond the grave.
I was ironing, and suddenly I felt my son kiss me on the cheek, just like he did when he was living.
How do we (the Potato People) begin to understand these accounts? One's imagination playing with itself? A wish masquerading as a hallucination? Perhaps an exaggeration of something that "kind of happened"? Or just maybe these people did see, hear, and feel what they said they did.
I am asked whether I believe in the supernatural. I answer like Frank, the therapist in my novel, that I neither believe nor disbelieve. I'm not even sure what I'm being asked to believe in. Like him, I'm pretty sure the final word on reality isn't in yet.
Ultimately, what paranormal experiences may suggest is that we are living in a much different universe than we think are. Confined to our three-dimensional reality in a multi-dimensional universe may be like believing the room we inhabit is the whole house, whereas it's just one in a vast mansion of rooms. To paraphrase the evolutionary biologist J. B. S. Haldane, the universe is not only stranger than we think; it's stranger than we can think.
So, like the character in my story, I'll continue neither to believe nor disbelieve until the final word on reality is in.
And I still wish that my grandmother had come back to tell me she was okay.
This article first appeared in The (Longview) Daily News, July 27, 2008.
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text:
Ilan Rubin joins Paramore
By Rich Chamberlain 29 June 2012
Session star in the studio with US rock titans
This is getting ridiculous. After bagging dream gigs in the form of Lostprophets, Nine Inch Nails and a million more, Ilan Rubin has gone and got himself in the studio with Paramore.
The supremely-talented sticksman will help the Hayley Williams-led band as they work on their as-yet-untitled fourth album.
Paramore announced the news on their Twitter page, saying: "Ladies and Gentlemen, our drummer for the 4th album.. Mr. Ilan Rubin YAYYYYY!!!!"
The band have been without a full-time sticksman since the departure of Zac Farro in 2010. We hope someone breaks this news gently to Brad Davis.
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After seven years of plot development, writing and seemingly endless revisions, my debut novel is now available.
Writing a novel was so different from any writing I had done during my working life. With policy or report writing you generally have a good idea about the purpose and contents of your document, and its structure is pretty much determined by those parameters. Writing a novel means creating a world from scratch, without a roadmap, and populating it with credible and distinct characters who can keep the reader engaged. Exhilarating. Scary too.
Not surprising then, that timelines blew out. And while I've always felt comfortable about having my professional writing edited, it has been more confronting to have my creative writing critiqued. It felt more personal––I had more skin in the game.
Set in Melbourne in 2009, against the background of the Black Saturday bushfires, The Best of Intentions is a sensitive and compelling portrayal of young people at risk and of the well-meaning but often ineffective child protection and mental health professionals charged with their care.
Kurt is a disillusioned case worker struggling in an under-resourced child protection system. When he takes on the case of Gecko, a sixteen-year-old with a traumatic past and a shaky future, he is determined to make a difference. But the best of intentions are not enough.
While my novel is a work of fiction, some of my views about systemic shortcomings in child protection and public mental health services have found their way into the text.
The focus on 'case finding' and throughput in child protection, at the expense of providing a meaningful service to kids placed in care. The unrealistically high case loads.
In mental health, the high threshold for accessing a service, the one-dimensional nature of the medical treatment model; and the failure to abolish mixed gender wards in Victoria, leaving vulnerable young women exposed to harassment or assault at a time that they need optimal support and safety.
Does not sound like escapist reading? It isn't. I have taken pains, though, to ensure that The Best of Intentions works as a novel in the first place, as a gripping story that will keep readers engaged to the end. No one wants to read a manifesto.
The Best of Intentions is available as an e-book and can be bought from major distributors, including Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble and Kobo. Check my novel's homepage for purchase links.
You will soon also be able to order a paperback version (currently in production) from your local bookseller or from an online distributor.