At first glance, United States President Barack Obama in Kenya was a man in search of his roots. His father was born near Lake Victoria, and his extended family welcomed him to Nairobi, hosting a private family dinner on the first night.
But the visit also showed a shift in concern from building democracy in places such as Zimbabwe and Swaziland to shoring up the US's interest in a region where China leads the way.
Ironically, for all Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's pledge to "look east", and Zanu-PF's anger about US "sanctions" or travel bans on the regime, Zimbabwe is one of the few countries that still buys more from the US than it does from China.
By contrast, for every dollar of products Kenyans buy from the US, they spend $10 with Beijing.
Add the ongoing problems of Somalia, human rights in Eritrea, violence in Burundi, piracy, terror strikes by al-Shabab, and long-term rulers trying for yet another term in Uganda and Rwanda, and it's clear why Washington's focus has moved to East Africa.
And the poster boy for these woes is Djibouti, where Americans fear their once-staunchest ally, President Omar Guelleh, may have lost the plot.
In Africa, Washington has just one enduring staging ground, with a base at Camp Lemonnier a short way from Djibouti airport, and a small number of troops in the northern town of Obock. (America's military activity on the continent is otherwise conducted out of bases at least nominally operated by host nations, or from temporary staging areas.) But, in May, Guelleh ordered them out, saying he planned to hand the site to China, which will send up to 10 000 soldiers, dwarfing the Pentagon's total force of about 4 000.
In this tiny country – roughly the size of the Kruger National Park – China is building a new airport, expanding the harbour and restoring a railway line into landlocked Ethiopia.
Chinese exports to Djibouti are already nine times higher than those from the US. Now, like the troublesome President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi, Guelleh looks set to change the Constitution and allow himself a fourth term. He did the same thing to gain a third in 2010, pledging it would be his last. His People's Rally for Progress party holds all 65 seats in Parliament.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) rates Guelleh's regime as among the most restrictive in the world.
In Nairobi, Tom Rhodes, who oversees the CPJ's work in Africa, told the Mail & Guardian there were few alternatives to state propaganda in Djibouti. "With virtually no independent media and consistent oppression of the opposition, the public have no outlets for critical debate," he said.
"As a key regional and Western ally, virtually no one opposes President Guelleh's abysmal record," Rhodes said, adding that Djibouti was "comparable with other small despotic countries such as Eritrea and Equatorial Guinea".
Despite Chinese aid and investment, and the US paying $63-million a year for their base, more than half the population struggle with basics such as water, food and healthcare. The United Nations index on human development places Djibouti in a band near the bottom, with Haiti and Afghanistan.
But Djibouti dominates the only entry and exit point between the Indian Ocean and Suez Canal. And, since independence in 1977, the former French Somaliland has had only two presidents: Guelleh and his uncle, who died in 1999.
Although much of the population are ethnic Somalis, Guelleh gives no succour to pirates and terror groups such as al-Qaeda or al-Shabab, which attacked Nairobi's Westgate mall in 2013 and, this year, murdered 147 teachers and students at the university in Garissa.
After Afghanistan, Djibouti is home to the world's largest squadron of drones and from here the US can strike across the Horn of Africa and over the narrow Bab al-Mandeb Strait into the Middle East.
Obama came to charm the continent and mend fences with what the White House still hopes are its allies. Although he had some harsh words on human rights, he talked mostly about "shared values and trust", telling the BBC that China's policy was merely to "funnel an awful lot of money into Africa in exchange for raw materials".
Documents obtained this week by the M&G show just how anxious some members of the US Congress have become about Guelleh and his efforts to uncouple himself from Washington.
When it comes to Africa and defence, few US lawmakers have as much clout as Tom Marino of Pennsylvania and California's Duncan Hunter.
Marino, a former lawyer, is among the most active members of Congress, advising the house on foreign affairs, homeland security and the judiciary.
In June, he wrote to colleagues, calling for a joint sitting of all the congressional committees that deal with Africa, human rights and threats to the US, in the wake of "the erratic behaviour of Djibouti's dictatorial president".
In a departure from the diplomatic language that usually defines the work of Congress, he said US counterterrorism in the region could not be "hindered by Chinese interference" and "the potential threat this holds for US and regional security".
Hunter serves on the armed forces committee previously chaired by his father, who was a presidential candidate in 2008. Supporters say he might have defeated Obama if the Republicans had not gone instead with the geriatric John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin.
On June 26, Hunter wrote a letter urging the defence secretary, Ashton Carter, to "insist on an orderly change of Djibouti's government". He has made the same call for regime change to the secretary of state, John Kerry, who, on May 6, visited Guelleh for talks. Less than 24 hours after that meeting, Guelleh dropped the bombshell that the US troops were to be evicted from Obock in favour of the Chinese.
Hunter also believes Guelleh is about to renege on his promise to step down before next year's elections and allow a democratically elected candidate to take his place.
In his letter, Hunter urges the secretary of defence to "pay close attention to Guelleh and his mistreatment of political opposition and journalists, which is well documented".
He warns that, although the president "has said he will step down when his term expires next year, his previous actions call this into question". The US, Hunter wrote, "requires reliable allies".
Although Obama had previously said Mugabe was "on the wrong side of history", this week he made no reference to the 91-year-old who, critics say, has remained in power for the past 35 years by terrorising his opponents and, when that failed, rigging the vote.
But Washington's policy on Djibouti faces even more problems than it did in Harare. As in Zimbabwe, Djibouti's neighbours won't speak out on human rights, the African Union is equally silent, and China will gladly step in if the West cuts off aid.
But Zimbabwe is not on the Horn of Africa, and ships don't have to sail the Zambezi to enter Suez. The US's clout in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and, potentially, South Sudan, depends on Camp Lemonnier and the land, air and naval presence in Djibouti.
The letters from Hunter and Marino, and concern over the violence spawned by Nkurunziza's quest for another term in Burundi, suggest Guelleh may have misjudged the mood.
This article originally stated that "Washington has just one military presence" on the African continent, which is not the case. The US, in fact, conducts military missions from a number of locations in Africa. Although these locations are owned and operated by host governments (at least nominally), the troops and equipment stationed at such locations constitute military presences.
This version of the article has been corrected. The Mail & Guardian regrets the error.


text:
package org.locationtech.geomesa.memory.cqengine.index;

import com.googlecode.cqengine.attribute.Attribute;
import com.googlecode.cqengine.index.Index;
import com.googlecode.cqengine.index.support.AbstractAttributeIndex;
import com.googlecode.cqengine.index.support.indextype.OnHeapTypeIndex;
import com.googlecode.cqengine.persistence.support.ObjectSet;
import com.googlecode.cqengine.persistence.support.ObjectStore;
import com.googlecode.cqengine.query.Query;
import com.googlecode.cqengine.query.option.QueryOptions;
import com.googlecode.cqengine.resultset.ResultSet;
import org.locationtech.geomesa.memory.cqengine.query.Intersects;
import org.locationtech.geomesa.utils.index.SpatialIndex;
import org.locationtech.jts.geom.Envelope;
import org.locationtech.jts.geom.Geometry;
import org.opengis.feature.simple.SimpleFeature;
import org.opengis.feature.simple.SimpleFeatureType;
import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
import scala.Function1;
import scala.runtime.AbstractFunction1;

import java.util.HashSet;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.Set;

public abstract class AbstractGeoIndex<A extends Geometry, O extends SimpleFeature>
      extends AbstractAttributeIndex<A, O> implements OnHeapTypeIndex {

    private static final Logger LOGGER = LoggerFactory.getLogger(AbstractGeoIndex.class);

    private static final int INDEX_RETRIEVAL_COST = 40;

    private final SpatialIndex<O> index;
    private final int geomAttributeIndex;

    public static final ThreadLocal<SpatialIndex<? extends SimpleFeature>> lastUsed = new ThreadLocal<>();

    static Set<Class<? extends Query>> supportedQueries = new HashSet<Class<? extends Query>>() {{
        add(Intersects.class);
    }};

    AbstractGeoIndex(SimpleFeatureType sft, Attribute<O, A> attribute, SpatialIndex<O> index) {
        super(attribute, supportedQueries);
        this.index = index;
        this.geomAttributeIndex = sft.indexOf(attribute.getAttributeName());
    }

    @Override
    public void init(ObjectStore<O> objectStore, QueryOptions queryOptions) {
        addAll(ObjectSet.fromObjectStore(objectStore, queryOptions), queryOptions);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean addAll(ObjectSet<O> objectSet, QueryOptions queryOptions) {
        try {
            boolean modified = false;

            for (O object : objectSet) {
                Geometry geom = (Geometry) object.getDefaultGeometry();
                index.insert(geom, object.getID(), object);
                modified = true;
            }

            return modified;
        } finally {
            objectSet.close();
        }
    }

    @Override
    public boolean removeAll(ObjectSet<O> objectSet, QueryOptions queryOptions) {
        try {
            boolean modified = false;

            for (O object : objectSet) {
                Geometry geom = (Geometry) object.getDefaultGeometry();
                index.remove(geom, object.getID());
                modified = true;
            }

            return modified;
        } finally {
            objectSet.close();
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void clear(QueryOptions queryOptions) {
        this.index.clear();
    }

    @Override
    public ResultSet<O> retrieve(final Query<O> query, final QueryOptions queryOptions) {
        lastUsed.set(this.index);
        return new GeoIndexResultSet(query, queryOptions);
    }

    private scala.collection.Iterator<O> getSimpleFeatureIteratorInternal(Intersects query,
                                                                          final QueryOptions queryOptions) {
        final Intersects intersects = query;
        Envelope queryEnvelope = intersects.getEnvelope();
        return index.query(queryEnvelope).filter((Function1<O, Object>) new AbstractFunction1<SimpleFeature, Object>() {
            @Override
            public Object apply(SimpleFeature feature) {
                try {
                    Geometry geom = (Geometry) feature.getAttribute(geomAttributeIndex);
                    return intersects.matchesValue(geom, queryOptions);
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    LOGGER.warn("Caught exception while trying to look up geometry", e);
                    return false;
                }
            }
        });
    }

    @Override
    public boolean isMutable() {
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean isQuantized() {
        return false;
    }

    @Override
    public Index<O> getEffectiveIndex() {
        return this;
    }

    public class GeoIndexResultSet extends ResultSet<O> {

        private final Query<O> query;
        private final QueryOptions queryOptions;

        public GeoIndexResultSet(Query<O> query, QueryOptions queryOptions) {
            this.query = query;
            this.queryOptions = queryOptions;
        }

        @Override
        public Iterator<O> iterator() {
            scala.collection.Iterator<O> iter =
                  getSimpleFeatureIteratorInternal((Intersects) query, queryOptions);
            return new Iterator<O>() {
                @Override
                public boolean hasNext() {
                    return iter.hasNext();
                }

                @Override
                public O next() {
                    return iter.next();
                }
            };
        }

        @Override
        public boolean contains(O object) {
            final Intersects intersects = (Intersects) query;
            Geometry geom = (Geometry) object.getAttribute(geomAttributeIndex);
            return intersects.matchesValue(geom, queryOptions);
        }

        @Override
        public boolean matches(O object) {
            return query.matches(object, queryOptions);
        }

        @Override
        public Query<O> getQuery() {
            return query;
        }

        @Override
        public QueryOptions getQueryOptions() {
            return queryOptions;
        }

        @Override
        public int getRetrievalCost() {
            return INDEX_RETRIEVAL_COST;
        }

        // Returning the size here as the MergeCost.
        // The geoindex size isn't optimal, so there might be a better
        // measure of this.
        @Override
        public int getMergeCost() {
            return size();
        }

        @Override
        public int size() {
            return getSimpleFeatureIteratorInternal((Intersects) query, queryOptions).size();
        }

        @Override
        public void close() {
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
And a poem here to accompany In Flanders Fields
I wish the sea were not so wide
that parts me from my love,
I wish the things men do below
were known to God above.
I wish that I were back again
in the Glens of Donegal;
they'll call me coward if I return,
but a hero if I fall.'
PATRICK MACGILL – LONDON IRISH REGIMENT
(INSCRIPTION ON MEMORIAL STONE AT ISLAND OF IRELAND PEACE PARK, MESSINES)
William McNulty, of Brockagh, Co. Donegal, was seeing a Protestant from Co. Antrim.
His brother Patrick was skipping college in Derry.
For that their brother Dan signed them up for the Front where 100 years later I am the first of their family to kneel by William's graveside.
I have lain a wreath at the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ieper after the sounding of the Last Post.
And gone on to find Great Uncle Patrick's name.
Among 72,000 other missing soldiers on the walls of the Tyne Cot Cemetery.
And I said a prayer too at Great Uncle William's headstone at the Railways Cemetery in Ieper.
Their mother didn't have to wait for the telegram telling her she had lost two of her 15 children.
Great uncles
Or the standard copper vases which were sent to replace them.
She had been visited by the banshee in the days before.
The tour party I am with had helped me scour the rows and rows of headstones,
Only minutes before until our guide Dermot finally found William at the top of the field in an annexe.
I plant a wooden cross with a message.
The trees have seen it all
We say The Lord's Prayer over him…
They may well have been the last words he heard.
He died soon after he fell in a dressing station nearby.
And we return to our coach.
It may be the springing of the year but Flanders is low, open country.
And a prayer for Great-Uncle Willie
It shouldn't surprise me as this was a World War in which 5 million died, 60,000 of them Irish.
There is little to break the wind whipping up from the sea and we are glad to get in out of the cold.
Dermot tells us he has put our names through the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records.
And he has discovered that we all have relatives who have fallen either here or at The Somme.
The boy soldier
There are three Murtys I knew nothing of.
The youngest was 14, John Condon, from Waterford, who lied about his age.
So as to prove he was a man and he joined up with the Royal Irish Regiment.
Only to die in a poison gas attack on the penultimate day of the Second Battle of Ypres.
No hierarchy in death
While Redmond was at the other end of the spectrum, 56, an MP and brother of National Party leader John.
We're all on the same side
He had exhorted Irishmen to prove their loyalty to the Empire in return for Home Rule.
Private John Meekes, an Ulster Protestant fighting side by side.
With Major Willie Redmond that day at Messines Ridge, saw things very differently.
But he took two bullets in his side trying to save the Irish Nationalist's life.
Redmond was later to die in the dressing hospital.
Trench warfare: Imagine the mud and blood
Dermot had warned us that we might experience cemetery fatigue over the four-day GTI tour.
The Ireland Peace Tower, the Ulster Tower, the Somme, craters the size of lakes, and one which is a lake.
Hellfire Roundabout, the most bombed place on Earth.
And fields where you can still find bullets and shrapnel, and it's wise to tread carefully.
The Caribou stands guard at the Newfoundland memorial
An unexploded bomb went off a couple of years ago, blowing up a cow.
And national memorial parks.
A caribou stands sentry over the Newfoundland site and the still preserved trenches.
With GTI's Catherine at the Ireland Peace Tower
The German memorial to its slain is simpler but no less poignant… and I am struck by the Jewish names on the walls of missing.
Names Hitler conveniently 'overlooked' on his 'triumphant' return to the Front 20 years later.
I am humbled from visiting all these memorials.
And my Grandpa's story
At the Newfoundland park on the Somme I share my Grandpa's War experience.
Grandpa Murty was running with a bad crowd as a 15-year-old.
And he was taken to the Glasgow Docks by his Dad and put on a boat to Canada.
Twenty years later, he was fighting on the Front, was gassed out, and returned to Scotland to recuperate.
Humbled: In the trenches
The last Tommy
There he was treated by a nurse from Castledergh, Co. Tyrone, and stayed to raise a family.
I knew him when he was an old man.
When his eyes lit up at talk of Canada where his son, my uncle, emigrated. He never did talk of the Front.
Harry Patch, the last British soldier, or Tommy, was 100 before he spoke publicly of the War.
And we did that; Huge craters
Laying the wreath at the Menin Gate, he asked that the soldiers on both sides of the line should be remembered.
No, I am not experiencing Cemetery Fatigue.
But I want to see the Ieper behind the lines that Harry and my forbears saw.
Through the Menin Gate in Ieper (the Dutch/Flems now have their town back), there is a funfair.
This raises quizzical looks among our group.
I figure though that soldiers would have caroused with the locals in their time away from the Front.
And enjoyed the company of the women and sampled the Belgian beer.
I am on leave too, so I repair to Tom's Bierhaus, the Hopperie.
Where he has a selection of 350 very strong beers, coming in all shapes and sizes of glasses.
One horn-shaped in a wooden contraption.
Which Simon, our very own Belgian historian with a rogue Irish gene, is drinking from.
The Tommies would have been here: With Simon at Tom's Bierhaus
We had been initiated in the Belgian beer drinking culture earlier.
Stew it over
The In't Klein Stadhuis restaurant in the square where we enjoyed a hearty stew.
I went for the fish stew (waterzooi).
I will have, and thoroughly enjoy the other dish, beef and beer stew (karbonaden) before the trip is out.
Porter and stew, this all feels very Irish.
And I imagine my great uncles doing the same 100 years ago.
They might also have been intrigued at what the Belgians did with their potatoes.
The Lille gate
French fries come from Belgium and they dip them in mayonaise as they do waffles.
Which they eat with syrup and bacon.
Enough waffle about food. You want to know more about Ieper.
It is at the crossroads of north-west Europe and has been fought over since Roman times.
Hence the fortifications around it, the remnants of which you can still walk on on the Lille gate.
A year we will never forget
Its heydays was the Middle Ages when it became prosperous through its textiles trade.
And the Cloth Hall has stood proudly in the main square against fire and firepower since the 1300s.
Its other dominant feature is the cathedral.
St Martin's has been rebuilt, just like much of the city, as faithfully as was possible.
To how it had been before the Germans flattened it in the War.
Flemish traditions
I find myself inside it on the Sunday night.
The service, naturally is in Flemish, and I have to concentrate to follow the cues.
I find the sign of peace particularly poignant and the collection interesting.
A nun comes around with a small cooking pot.
Bruges for chocolate
I consider this might be the equivalent of Ian Paisley's 'silent collections'.
A miracle
At his presbytery in Co. Antrim and am relieved to see that th inside is covered in felt.
I take the Body of Christ, now for the Blood.
And for that I go to Bruges for the last day of the GTI tour.
I am stood opposite an altar in the Basilica of the Holy Blood.
Where the sternest priest I have ever faced – and I was taught by the Jesuits – guards the glass phial.
And more at the airport
Which purportedly includes a fabric which Joseph of Arimathea used to bathe the bloody corpse of Our Lord.
I make a donation and am rewarded with a prayer memento.
Which I will place on any work station alongside other precious keepsakes from travels past.
A restful sleep
A Pilgrim's Prayer A pilgrim's prayer from the Camino, and also from here a Passchendale candle.
I am now headed home and as I depart I count my blessings.
Tonight, I will sleep in a warm bed besides my loved one, while my relatives (and yours) lie in a Flanders field.
Dinky canals: In Bruges
The package
Dublin/Brussles Available dates – 21 May 2016 – 24 May 2016
20 June 2016 – 23 June 2016
19 September 2016 – 22 September 2016.
There is also a Cork departure flying with Aer Lingus into Amsterdam. The price is from €667pps. Available dates 15 October 2016 – 18 October 2016
WHO TO TRAVEL WITH
Travel to Belgium and France with GTI – The Group Travel Specialists.
They offer a four-day tour which is guided by a professional historian.
The tour includes visits to key WWI sites. GTI also provides tailor-made holidays, agricultural tours, school tours etc.
For more on this trip, and similar trips list. Call (01) 843734 or email info@gti-ireland.com.
This article was first published in the Irish Daily Mail in 2016.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Rokkī shimpō = Rocky shimpo . Denver, Colo., June 9. (Denver, CO), Jun. 9 1944. https://0-www.loc.gov.oasys.lib.oxy.edu/item/sn83025517/1944-06-09/ed-1/.
(1944, June 9) Rokkī shimpō = Rocky shimpo . Denver, Colo., June 9. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://0-www.loc.gov.oasys.lib.oxy.edu/item/sn83025517/1944-06-09/ed-1/.
Rokkī shimpō = Rocky shimpo . Denver, Colo., June 9. (Denver, CO) 9 Jun. 1944. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn83025517/1944-06-09/ed-1/.


Twenty-five Winnipeggers travelled east 110 years ago to witness sports history in the making.
The 25 Winnipeggers were swallowed up by the throng of over 2,000 local supporters at the Victoria rink in Montreal on February 14, 1896, but they firmly believed their team was poised to win the cup Lord Stanley had commissioned to be presented to the best amateur hockey team in Canada.
"I have for some time past been thinking that it would be a good thing if there were a challenge cup which should be held year by year by the champion hockey team in the Dominion," said Lord Stanley of Preston, Canada's sixth governor general, on March 18, 1892.
Following this announcement, Lord Stanley, a rabid hockey fan who's son played the sport in Ottawa, commissioned a cup from a London, England, jeweller for $50, a rather modest price for what has since become the most recognized trophy for hockey supremacy in the world.
Although originally a challenge cup for amateur teams, professional players were vying for the cup by the early 1900s. Known as ringers, professionals would be brought in to bolster the ranks of teams challenging for the Stanley Cup. In 1908, the first all-professional team, the Toronto Trolley Leaguers competed for the cup. After that year, all teams challenging for the cup were professional.
In 1914, the Stanley Cup was to be awarded only to champions represented by the National Hockey Association and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, an agreement that lasted until 1926 when the cup became the top trophy for the National Hockey League.
It didn't take long for hockey teams to recognize the importance of the Stanley Cup and line up to challenge for its possession.
Just three years after the first Stanley Cup was presented to the Montreal AAA (Amateur Athletic Association) in 1893, Winnipeg had risen high enough in Canadian hockey prowess to challenge for the cup. Amazingly, hockey had only been an organized sport in Manitoba for about a decade.
Official publications claim that hockey started in 1890 in Manitoba, but sports historian Morris Mott, of Brandon University, has found evidence that hockey was probably being played at least by 1886-87.
"It is impossible to say more than 'probably' because it may be that some of the 'shinny' or other bat-ball-goal games that had been played sporadically in the West for several years by the mid-1880s were actually 'hockey,'" he wrote in the article An Immense Hold in the Public Estimation: The first Quarter Century of Hockey in Manitoba, 1886-1911 (Manitoba Pageant Spring/Summer 2002).
Mott said hockey began to take-off in 1892-93 in Winnipeg when two indoor rinks were in use and the Manitoba and North-West Amateur Hockey Association was formed to oversee competition among the top clubs.
That winter, an all-star team formed from three Winnipeg clubs went "to Ontario and Quebec and demonstrated that they could compete with the best players in the world." The Winnipeg team won eight of 11 matches.
Organized hockey was also played in Portage la Prairie, Carberry and Brandon. "By 1893 there could not have been many Manitobans who were unaware that a new sport was gaining a big following," wrote Mott.
But, not only were Manitobans playing hockey, they had become innovators in the sport. George "Whitey" Merritt is called the first great goaltender in hockey history, and is credited for the introduction of the goalie stick and the first use of cricket pads as protection.
This was at a time when, according to the Montreal Rules in effect until 1917, "The goaltender must not during play, lie, kneel, or sit upon the ice, but must maintain a standing position." The butterfly style or flopping on the ice and stacking goalie pads to stop the puck were not allowed.
Another significant difference to today's game is that there were seven players on the ice at a time instead of six.
Other innovations from Manitoba included the wrist shot, tube skates and a lacrosse-style face-off that is still used today and was quickly adopted by Eastern teams.
A test of local prowess in the sport came in 1895 when the Winnipeg Victorias travelled east, winning four of five games against Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City and Toronto.
By 1896, the "Vics" (also referred to in newspaper accounts as the "Pegs") knew they were good enough to challenge for the Stanley Cup, although followers of the Eastern teams still doubted their ability. It was equally fitting that their opponents would be the perennial Eastern champions of the same team name, the Montreal Victorias.
The Vics confounded and surprised the Montreal's fans, using a strong defence and then rushes to take the play into the Montreal zone during the first half (there were two halves — periods — with the first half referred to as the first game and the last half called the second game).
The Victorias had scored 10 minutes into the game.
Eight minutes into the second half, Don Bain of Winnipeg and a Montreal player were sent off the ice for "indulging in a little scuffle." Under the rules, he could not reappear on the ice. Bain, who was considered one of the Vics' best players, spent 32 minutes off the ice throughout the game for a number of infractions. Despite the loss of Bain after the scuffle, Winnipeg successfully settled into a defensive shell to keep their opponents at bay.
The game ended 2-0 in favour of the Vics, who thus became the first Western team to win the Stanley Cup.
The Montreal Gazette reported that the Winnipeg victory was a surprise to everyone but the victors.
Following the final outcome, the Toronto Star said that there was no doubt that the better team had won.
The front page headline in the Free Press proclaimed A Famous Victory: Stanley Cup Wrested from Montreal.
The Daily Nor'Wester reported that "the Winnipeg whirlwinds swoop down on Montreal.
In an era when betting on sporting events was common, newspapers reported Winnipeggers were flush with cash for having laid large bets on their team. "No less than two thousand cold plunkers (dollars) were passed over the Windsor hotel counter after the match to-night, and went into the jeans of the Winnipeg supporters," according to the Free Press.
But, Winnipeg's drink from the cup of champions was brief.
As the champions of the Amateur Hockey Association, the Montreal Victorias challenged the Vics to a rematch. Since the cup was at the time in the Vics' possession, the game was scheduled for Winnipeg on December 30, 1896.
The rematch was reported at the time as "the greatest sporting event in Winnipeg history." Seats were being scalped for as much as $12 a piece.
At the end of the half (first period), the Vics appeared to be in control, leading 2-0, but the easterners roared back in the second half, scoring six goals for a final 6-5 victory.
The players on the Stanley Cup champion Vics were: George "Whitey" Merritt (goal), Rod "Doctor" Flett (point), Fred Higginbotham (cover), Jack Armytage (Captain, forward), C.J. "Tote" Campbell (forward) Donald "Dan" Bain (forward), H. Howard (forward), and Robert Benson (substitute).


text:
How Does Blood Get To The Renal Artery?
Which renal artery is high?
What is the difference between blood in the renal vein and renal artery?
What are the symptoms of a blocked renal artery?
What causes renal artery blockage?
What happens if kidneys don't get enough blood?
What vein is found between 2 renal pyramids?
What organs does the renal artery empty into?
Where does blood from the renal arteries go?
Does the renal artery carry dirty blood?
What artery goes to the kidney?
What's the function of the renal artery?
Does exercise increase blood flow to the kidneys?
Does all blood go through the kidneys?
How is blood supplied to the kidney?
What is the function of left renal artery?
How is renal artery blockage treated?
How many renal arteries do you have?
Can a blocked kidney cause high blood pressure?
The right renal artery originates from the anterolateral aspect of the aorta and runs in an inferior course behind the inferior vena cava to reach the right kidney, while the left renal artery originates slightly higher and from a more lateral aspect of the aorta, and runs almost horizontally to the left kidney..
The normal renal arteries enter the kidney through its hilum where as the accessory renal arteries might enter the renal artery through the hilum or through the surfaces of the kidney. Renal veins are also bilateral and blood from each kidney drains into inferior vena cava.
Symptoms of renal artery stenosiscontinued high blood pressure (hypertension) despite taking medications to help lower it.decreased kidney function.fluid retention.edema (swelling), especially in your ankles and feet.decreased or abnormal kidney function.an increase of proteins in your urine.
The two main causes of renal artery stenosis include: Buildup on kidney (renal) arteries. Fats, cholesterol and other substances (plaque) can build up in and on your kidney artery walls (atherosclerosis).
When your kidneys don't get enough blood, this disrupts both your blood pressure and the balance of fluid throughout your body. In an attempt to increase blood flow to your kidneys, a series of hormonal interactions called the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system kicks into gear.
The urine then flows to the bladder by way of the renal pelvis and a duct known as the ureter. Between the pyramids are major arteries termed the interlobar arteries. Each interlobar artery branches over the base of the pyramid.
Renal artery, one of the pair of large blood vessels that branch off from the abdominal aorta (the abdominal portion of the major artery leading from the heart) and enter into each kidney.
Oxygenated blood comes to the kidneys from the right and left renal arteries off the abdominal aorta. Deoxygenated blood leaves the kidneys via the right and left renal veins that run into to the inferior vena cava.
Renal Arteries carry unfiltered blood from the aorta to the kidneys.
There are two blood vessels leading off from the abdominal aorta that go to the kidneys. The renal artery is one of these two blood vessels. The renal artery enters through the hilum, which is located where the kidney curves inward in a concave shape.
The renal artery branches off from the lower part of the aorta and provides the blood supply to the kidneys.
Exercise induces profound changes in the renal haemodynamics and in electrolyte and protein excretion. Effective renal plasma flow is reduced during exercise. The reduction is related to the intensity of exercise and renal blood flow may fall to 25% of the resting value when strenuous work is performed.
All of the blood in your body passes through them several times a day. Blood comes into the kidney, waste gets removed, and salt, water, and minerals are adjusted, if needed. The filtered blood goes back into the body.
The kidneys are supplied with blood via the renal arteries, which arise directly from the abdominal aorta, immediately distal to the origin of the superior mesenteric artery.
The renal arteries normally arise off the left interior side of the abdominal aorta, immediately below the superior mesenteric artery, and supply the kidneys with blood. Each is directed across the crus of the diaphragm, so as to form nearly a right angle.
Procedures to treat renal artery stenosis may include: Renal angioplasty and stenting. In this procedure, doctors widen the narrowed renal artery and place a device (stent) inside your blood vessel that holds the walls of the vessel open and allows for better blood flow. Renal artery bypass surgery.
There are two renal arteries—one supplies blood to the right kidney, the other to the left kidney. These arteries branch into many smaller arteries. A gradual narrowing of one or both of the renal arteries may cause high blood pressure or a worsening of previously controlled high blood pressure.
The kidneys play an important role in regulating blood pressure by secreting a hormone called renin. If the renal arteries are narrowed or blocked, the kidneys cannot work effectively to control blood pressure. Persistent or severe high blood pressure is a common symptom of renal artery stenosis.
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Information on a broad spectrum of funding sources that support research projects is provided here, both intramural and extramural. These grant opportunities include ones funded through the Provost's office (DTSA, Programmatic Initiative Grants), through NIH, DOD, NSF and other federal funding sources, and through foundations including limited submission opportunities that are selected through the Office of Institutional Advancement in collaboration with JCOR. Also provided is a link to Pivot, a searchable grants database, as well as useful links for preparing NIH grant applications.
Jefferson's Office of Institutional Advancement's Corporate and Foundation Relations (CFR) team offers services for Jefferson clinicians, researchers and administrators who seek external funding from non-federal sources including, corporations with philanthropic intent, charitable foundations and associations. CFR staff members are available to work with clinicians, researchers and others to identify funding priorities and potential philanthropic partners as well as to support the development of letters of intent (LOIs) and proposals. CFR team members serve as the point of contact for foundation, association, and corporate partners, and are available to identify funding opportunities.
Active funding opportunities are updated regularly. Please refer to this page to see the most up to date funding notices monthly.
New: We are excited to announce the launch of Jefferson's InfoReady Portal, a new tool for announcing, applying for and reviewing all institutionally competitive funding opportunities. Through the InfoReady portal, you will be able to review details and deadlines regarding upcoming non-federal institutionally limited funding opportunities, submit pre-proposal materials for review, and see the results of your submission. Reviewers will also be assigned and provide their feedback through the portal.
Please take a few minutes to access the site and to familiarize yourself with the portal. To access the Portal for the first time, you will use your Jefferson campus key and password. Please review the following Applicant Experience Training Video for an introduction to InfoReady.
What is an institutionally limited funding opportunity? Some foundations limit the number of applicants per institution. An internal competition will be managed through a subcommittee of Jefferson's Committee on Research (JCoR) to select the Jefferson applicant for each.
Please DO NOT apply directly — unsolicited applications may disqualify Jefferson from future competitions.
Limitations vary from foundation to foundation. Please wait for JCoR to release each opportunity announcement for application and funding details and instructions.
Below is a list of foundations and associations that host institutionally limited funding opportunities annually and their final deadlines; notifications generally go out two months in advance. Please contact Adrea Cope in the Office of Institutional Advancement for award and eligibility details and application instructions.


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Литоавтотрофы — тип экстремофилов, организмы, использующие для получения энергии неорганические вещества и способные синтезировать все компоненты своей клетки из углекислоты и других неорганических соединений. К ним относится ряд видов архебактерий, железобактерии Leptospirillum ferrooxidans, нитрифицирующие бактерии Nitrosolobus и другие.

Примечания

Экстремофилы
Бактериология

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Churches come together to honor souls
Parishioners of St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Altamonte Springs joins memebers of Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Eatonville to refurbish Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Eatonville. The joint effort is part of an initiative inspired by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops letter, Open Wide Our Heart. The desire is to foment community friendships within the neighboring churches. (MARJORIE DURANTE)
EATONVILLE | In an unprecedented event, St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Altamonte Springs and Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Eatonville joined hands Nov. 7 to clean up and beautify a local cemetery in Eatonville. The corporal work of mercy brought together two communities to honor souls.
Parishioners of St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Altamonte Springs joins memebers of Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Eatonville to refurbish Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Eatonville. The joint effort is part of an initiative inspired by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops letter, Open Wide Our Heart. The desire is to foment community friendships within the neighboring churches. (STEPHEN DOWELL)
Father Charlie Mitchell, pastor of St. Mary Magdalen Parish noted, "We take our inspiration from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' letter, Open Wide Our Hearts." He said the parish has been a longtime neighbor of Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church and this is, as far as he knows, "the first attempt to reach out our hands in a spirit of fellowship." After a long summer of racial unrest throughout the nation, the concerted effort seeks to unite the neighboring communities and hopefully, foment friendships by working together at Eatonville Memorial Gardens. He said, "We just feel it is the Lord that has brought us together on this day to begin a walk together in discipleship…We want to build bridges together between our communities and into the larger community as well."
Pastor Willie Barnes, of Macedonia Baptist, was equally delighted at the opportunity. Eatonville is the oldest black-incorporated municipality in the United States. Incorporated in 1887, it is the first town successfully established by African American freedmen. "This coming together with Fr. Charlie and his church is a wonderful effort of restoration for a historic part of this community," Pastor Barnes said. "This is a Christian effort that shows we have many things in common – an effort that fulfills our missions as churches to be able to reach out to people of all communities, not just our own congregations." He added, "I believe this will spark a solidary that can bring community efforts together for many good things in the future."
After morning prayer and a reflection on Eatonville's history, more than 100 volunteers (80 from St. Mary Magdalen) began the cemetery "renewal". The largest project was shoveling and leveling gravel to refurbish the internal roadway and entrance pathway. The Mercy on the Road project was co-hosted by the parish's Mercy Morning and Pastoral Care and Outreach Ministries. The parish gifted two stone markers for unknown grave sites and gravel for the roadway.
Father Mitchell assured, "We want to make sure this is not a one deal and it's done. Our goal is to ultimately forge some bonds of friendship, collaboration and fellowship with our brothers and sisters at Macedonia so we can continue the walk of discipleship together and get to know each other as fellow Christians better."
Diocesan Liaison for Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue, Father Matthew Hawkins added, "For Catholics, the month of November is filled with reminders that our ultimate homeland is not of this world – that our citizenship is in heaven. There, united in Christ, every wall and every division are torn down—one Lord, one faith, one Baptism. Coming together to beautify a cemetery is a tangible means of beginning, even now, to prepare and pray for that day."
By Glenda Meekins of the Florida Catholic, November 12, 2020
Previous Previous post: Go Beyond affirms vocations


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Japanese beef exports surge after Taiwan and Australia lift ban
Shipments grow 44% in first half as volumes seen topping 2017's all-time high
Wagyu beef is famed for its marbled texture and high fat content. Taiwan replaced Hong Kong as the main destination for Japanese beef exports after lifting restrictions last September. © Kyodo
ERIKO SHIBUYA, Nikkei staff writer September 3, 2018 12:46 JST | Japan
TOKYO -- With Taiwan and Australia starting to import Japanese beef again, the country's exports of the meat have grown at a record pace, with the momentum expected to remain for the rest of this year.
Taiwan in September lifted a ban on imports of unprocessed Japanese beef and Australia lifted restrictions in May. This has provided a boost not just to shipments of the product, but also the Japanese government's drive to raise farm exports overall to 1 trillion yen ($8.96 billion). Both countries had suspended imports amid the bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, scare in 2001.
Japan's beef exports between January and June totaled 1,544 tons, up 44% from a year ago, according to Ministry of Finance data. In terms of value, shipments grew 37% on the year to 10.8 billion yen.
With momentum expected to continue through December, the ministry expects the total volume for 2018 to beat the all-time high achieved last year.
Taiwan is the top contributor to the growth, importing 322 tons and replacing Hong Kong as the largest importer. Japanese beef is marketed as a high-end product in Taiwan, and often finds its way into luxury supermarkets, according to a source at a Tokyo meat exporter.
"There are many wealthy people in Taiwan, and they are familiar with how Japanese beef is eaten and cooked," the source said, adding that many consumers had also visited Japan.
While the ban was in place, Australian farmers started raising purebred Japanese "wagyu" cattle and selling their meat under the brand. Outside Japan, wagyu is considered as premium Japanese beef, characterized by its marbled texture and high fat content.
"Interest in wagyu is high," said Takuya Miyagawa of the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations, arguing that Japanese exporters would see strong demand regardless of competition from the Australian-bred product.
The federation has started to export Hida beef, from Gifu Prefecture in central Japan, to Australia, while meat producer Nanchiku began shipping wagyu from Kagoshima. Itoham Foods' exports to the country totaled about 700 kg in July.
However, further growth in shipments is being held back by a number of issues, including a lack of sufficient processing capacity.
Exports to Hong Kong, for example, require specific processing methods, and only 10 facilities in Japan are equipped to handle them, despite the territory being the biggest importer for many years.
"If you want to refurbish these facilities so that they can handle processing for exports to Europe and the U.S. or Hong Kong, you would have to spend billions of yen," said a source at a processing plant. "That would be difficult for facilities operated by local governments."
Another issue is a ban on beef from cattle aged over specified limits that remains in place in many markets, including Taiwan. Matsusaka wagyu, a high-end brand from Mie Prefecture, for example, cannot be exported to some countries because it requires a longer raising period.
Cattle farmers have called on the Japanese government to negotiate with importing countries to relax their restrictions.
The price of beef in Japan is rising from already high levels, putting the meat even further beyond reach of general customers.
Prices of Kobe wagyu this year reached an all-time high. "The brand recognition is overwhelming overseas, and exports and demand from foreign visitors are growing sharply," said a source at meat distributor Kobe Chuo Chikusan Niuke.
Mouriya, a famous restaurant operator in the city, in May raised course meal prices by an average of 2,000 yen in response to rising costs. Another, Misono, also hiked prices in July. With prices as they are, many of the customers who order Kobe beef are now foreigners, said a restaurant operator.
Wagyu seeks slice of South America, the land of beef
Australian beef in high-tech push against fraudsters
Fragrant, sweet and creamy pork from the land of wagyu


We Buy Gold presents THREE.: On Visibility and Camouflage, works from Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter, opening on Sunday, June 11th from 3-6pm at 387A Nostrand Avenue in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. As the third exhibition at the We Buy Gold space, THREE. is a group exhibition of works by individual members of the Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter collective, curated by Daniella Rose King, also a member of the group. Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter (BWA for BLM) is a collective of Black women, queer, and gender non-conforming artists. It was formed in solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives and believe that a unified and polyvocal front is a powerful agent of change in the fight against racialized violence. In coming together, BWA for BLM is committed to producing work that addresses Black care and self-determination.
This exhibition includes work by five artists from BWA for BLM that explore, interrogate, and complicate notions of visibility. The work undertaken by BWA for BLM as a collective is a constant negotiation between public and private, visible and the opaque, outside and underground. One of their key concerns is to make visible the work of black women artists and black female subjectivities, to counteract forces that seek to make them and their community invisible or unseen. Yet, camouflage, opacity, anonymity and concealment, within the bounds of the collective, are necessary strategies that enable them to come together, build community, and create discourse. In their manifesto they insist on the interdependence of seemingly incompatible actions, such as: "care and action, desire and possibility, visibility and invisibility, and vitality and self-determination as strategies to disavow and resist pervasive conditions of racism." This is indicative of how BWA for BLM have approached a number of projects so far, whether public performances and exhibitions, where work is produced collectively or individually or private meeting and forums. The negotiation of the outside and the interior; anonymity under the umbrella of the collective, and the development and visibility of their own practices as individual artists, writers, curators and more, is a constantly evolving and unresolved conversation.
This exhibition invites consideration of the visual strategies employed by a number of artists from the collective that intersect with formations of in/visibility. In LaKela Brown's relief plaster casts we see an archeology of adornment and cultural currency whose form insists upon not just a presence, but an irrefutable history. Patrice Renee Washington's ceramic works similarly ossify and illuminate symbolic and loaded cultural artefacts and suggest hand-fashioned tools that might offer alternatives to oppressive state apparatuses. Nontsikelelo Mutiti's ambiguous repeating patterns conflate the body and the ground, conjuring routes, mapping, and hair braiding to highlight ancient technologies embodied by Black women. Sam Vernon's carbon copied drawings play with light and absence, inverting figures to think through bodies deemed invisible, through the lens of a Black Gothic tradition. Lachell Workman's installations explore bricolage and the physical and material properties of visibility, by absenting, covering over and leaving blank.
LaKela Brown is from Detroit, Michigan, where she attended Detroit Public Schools and graduated from the College for Creative Studies with a Fine Arts major in 2005. While attending the College for Creative Studies, she was awarded a grant and residency by the Detroit organization 'Art on the Move'. She is the recipient of an OxBow School of Art, MI fellowship and participated in the Mano y Mente residency in Tula Rose, NM. Brown has been included in solo and group exhibitions nationally and in Europe, including at: Cave Gallery, Detroit; NADA, NY; Jackie Klempay Gallery, NY; Moka Gallery, Chicago; and Lars Friedrich Gallery, Berlin, Germany. Brown continues to live and work in Brooklyn, New York.
Nontsikelelo Mutiti is an interdisciplinary artist and educator whose work encompasses fine art, design, and social practice. Born in Zimbabwe, Mutiti holds a diploma in multimedia art from the Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts and an MFA from the Yale School of Art, with a concentration in graphic design. Recently, she was a resident artist at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Recess, and the Centre for Book Arts, both in New York City. In 2015, Mutiti was awarded the Joan Mitchell Foundation Emerging Artist Grant in its inaugural year. Mutiti continues to develop her work around African hair braiding and themes related to African immigration. She is currently Assistant Professor in the New Media Department at State University of New York, Purchase College. She lives and works between New York City and Harare.
Sam Vernon earned her MFA in Painting/Printmaking from Yale University in 2015 and her BFA from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 2009. Her installations combine xeroxed drawings, photographs, paintings and sculptural components in an exploration of personal narrative and identity. She uses installation and performance to honor the past while revising historical memory. Vernon has most recently exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, Queens Museum, Fowler Museum at UCLA, Seattle Art Museum, Ewing Gallery of Art & Architecture at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, the Emery Community Arts Center at the University of Maine, Farmington, the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) in Brooklyn.
Patrice Renee Washington was born in Chicago, IL and lives and works in Queens, New York. She received her BFA from Metropolitan State University of Denver (2011), and M.F.A in Visual Arts from Columbia University (2014). Washington's work engages with fantasy, the unknown, and the raw transitory stages of object-hood; the works often exist on the outside periphery of abstraction and tackle subtleties and nuances that get overlooked. Her recent exhibitions include Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Underdonk, Sculpture Center, AA|LA, and MoCADA. She has completed residencies at Lighthouse Works, The Museum of Arts and Design, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, and Vermont Studio Center.
Lachell Workman holds a BFA in Photography from the University of Connecticut and MFA from SUNY at Purchase College. Workman's interdisciplinary practice investigates the many ideological perspectives of people in mourning. While aiming to transcend grief from a disproportionate trauma weighted in the black body, sites of broad memorialization create a physical framework for radical visibility. She has undertaken residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Lighthouse Works, The Shandaken Project at Storm King Art Center, Ox-Bow School of Art, Vermont Studio Center, and Lower East Side Printshop Keyholder Residency. Her work has been shown at, Yale University, Greene Gallery, CT; Palais de Tokyo, Paris, and the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art.
Daniella Rose King is a writer and curator born in London and based in New York. She has a Bachelors in History of Art from the University of Manchester and Masters in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art, London. In 2015-16 she was a Whitney Independent Study Program Helena Rubinstein Curatorial Fellow, and cocurated the exhibition "On Limits: Estrangement in the Everyday" at The Kitchen, NY. She has written for Ocula, Ibraaz, Art Monthly, Frieze, Art Agenda, Contemporary And, Harper's Bazaar, New African Magazine and has contributed essays to catalogues, readers and other works in print. King has held curatorial positions at Nottingham Contemporary (UK), MASS Alexandria (Egypt), Institute of International Visual Arts (UK) and the Cyprus Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale (Italy), and is a founding member of the curatorial collective DAM PROJECTS.
A series of public events will coincide with the exhibition - an announcement on our website is forthcoming.
For press inquiries, please contact Folake Ologunja (folake@folakeforever.com).


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text:
BBC News - 8 Feb 08
(Copied 18 Jan 10)
Robot Glider Harvests Ocean Heat
A sea-going robotic glider that harvests heat energy from the ocean has been tested by US scientists.
By Jonathan Fildes
The yellow, torpedo-shaped machine has been combing the depths of seas around the Caribbean since December 2007.
The team which developed the autonomous vehicle say it has covered "thousands of kilometres" during the tests.
The team believe the glider - which needs no batteries - could undertake oceanographic surveys for up to six months at a time.
"We are tapping a virtually unlimited energy source for propulsion," said Dave Fratantoni of the Wood's Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOi).
But Steve McPhail, an expert in autonomous underwater vehicles at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), Southampton, said the machine would not totally do away with batteries.
"You still need to provide power for the sensors, for the data-logging system and for the satellite communications system to get the data back," he said.
As a result, the vehicle would have to intermittently return to a ship or shore to recharge its batteries.
"It's always a trade-off between the power used for the propulsion system and the power used for the sensors," said Mr McPhail.
Ocean Network
Oceanographers are increasingly looking at ways to study the oceans over long periods and in real time.
Researchers wired the Atlantic in 2004 for the Rapid project
This is important for understanding natural variations in circulation, for example, and for looking for any changes.
Already scientists have deployed large networks of sensors across the oceans.
For example, in 2004, NOC researchers strung sets of instruments across the Atlantic to measure circulation patterns.
The Rapid project, as it was known, painted the first detailed picture of Atlantic Ocean currents and showed how they vary throughout the year.
Its successor - Rapid Watch - has just received �16m from the Natural Environment Research Council and will monitor the Gulf Stream until 2014.
Scientists are also in the process of wiring the Pacific.
One project, the Argo network, will consist of an array of 3,000 floats strung out every 300km across the vast ocean.
Sensors on the floats will provide 100,000 temperature and salinity profiles every year.
Another network, the Monterey Accelerated Research System (Mars), will connect a research station in California with a sensor array deployed on the edge of Monterey Canyon, the deepest submarine canyon off the continental West Coast.
Lazy Glide
The new vehicles could add to that knowledge by filling in the gaps between the sensors.
The glider has been tested in the waters of the Virgin Islands
For example, it is proposed that Rapid Watch will use an armada of gliders alongside stationary sensors.
The machines are already used in oceanography and propel themselves through the ocean by changing their buoyancy to dive and surface. Wings generate lift and a vertical tail fin and rudder is used to steer.
The latest glider has been developed by Webb Research Corporation and WHOi.
It generates its energy for propulsion from the differences in temperature between warm surface waters and colder, deeper layers of the ocean.
Wax-filled tubes inside the craft expand when it is gliding through warmer water. This heat is used to push oil from a bladder inside the hull to one outside, changing its buoyancy.
Cooling of the wax at depth reverses the cycle.
Since December 2007, the prototype machine has been crisscrossing a 4,000m-deep basin in the Virgin Islands of the Caribbean.
The machine traces a saw-tooth profile through the water column as it lazily glides through the ocean, surfacing periodically to fix its positions via GPS and to relay data back to base.
According to WHOi researchers the vehicle crossed the basin between St Thomas and St Croix more than 20 times studying local currents.
The eventual aim of the project is to deploy a fleet of vehicles to study much larger flows in the North Atlantic.
"Gliders can be put to work on tasks that humans wouldn't want to do or cannot do because of time and cost concerns," said Dr Fratantoni. "They can work around the clock in all weather conditions."


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Pretesh Biswas Uncategorized January 25, 2023 February 4, 2023 10 Minutes
Audio Version of this article
https://d3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net/staging/2023-1-3/310823613-44100-2-82feb05cb5c3d.m4a
Test information must be selected carefully, protected and controlled. It should ideally be created in a generic form with no relation to live system information. However, it is recognised that often live data must be used to perform accurate testing. Where live data is used for testing it should be; Anonymised as far as possible; Carefully selected and secured for the period of testing; Securely deleted when testing is complete. Use of live data must be pre-authorised, logged and monitored. The auditor will expect to see robust procedures in place to protect data being used in test environments, especially if this is wholly or partly live data. While non-production test environments such as staging environments are essential to building high-quality software products and applications free of bugs or errors, the use of real data and lack of security measures in these environments expose information assets to heightened risks. For example, developers may use easy-to-remember credentials(e.g "admin" for both username and password) for testing environments in which sensitive data assets are stored. This may be exploited by cyber attackers to gain easy access to test environments and steal sensitive information assets. Therefore, organisations should put in place appropriate controls and procedures to protect real-world data used for testing.
To protect and maintain the confidentiality of information used in the testing environment.
Selection and use of test information that will yield reliable results.
Test information should be appropriately selected, protected and managed.
To ensure relevance of testing and protection of operational information used for testing.
ISO 27002 Implementation Guidance
Test information should be selected to ensure the reliability of tests results and the confidentiality of the relevant operational information. Sensitive information (including personally identifiable information) should not be copied into the development and testing environments. The following guidelines should be applied to protect the copies of operational information, when used for testing purposes, whether the test environment is built in-house or on a cloud service:
a) applying the same access control procedures to test environments as those applied to operational environments;
b) having a separate authorization each time operational information is copied to a test environment;
c) logging the copying and use of operational information to provide an audit trail;
d) protecting sensitive information by removal or masking if used for testing;
e) properly deleting operational information from a test environment immediately after the testing is complete to prevent unauthorized use of test information.
Test information should be securely stored (to prevent tampering, which can otherwise lead to invalid results) and only used for testing purposes.
System and acceptance testing can require substantial volumes of test information that are as close as possible to operational information.
Data used in testing environments such as quality assurance, test, and development must be protected against unauthorized access. For example, test environments may be fire walled to restricted to campus systems. Accounts may be disabled so that only a subset of accounts can be used for testing. Copying data between production and test environment should be approved. Where possible data used for testing should not contain personally identifiable information. Generating non-meaningful test data for performance testing is not a difficult exercise, but generating meaningful data that looks and behaves like real production data for functional testing is the challenge. Meaningful data contains all the characteristics of production data, such as format, context, and referential integrity, but is anonymized for data privacy compliance. While developing an application, developers need to make sure they are testing it under conditions that closely simulate a production environment. Most tests rely on sample data for testing. If the data is manually entered into a test environment, it cannot match the volume and variety of data that the application normally would accumulate in production. Behavior may differ because data inserted into the test database will not match real-world usage, possibly leaving significant bugs. Dev/test managers, application owners, and others know that simulated data fails to effectively support development, and manual scripting cannot keep up with the demand for fast timelines between application development and production.Building a test database with meaningful, protected test data allows the application owner to see and assess how the application will perform once it released. Without meaningful test data in the test environment, it is impossible to predict the way the application will behave after the release. Organizations testing non-production data want to see data that looks real to understand how real data would perform in their application.
Choosing the right data set type
Choosing your test data is a huge decision; choose the wrong data set type and you could land your business in hot water, particularly if you deal with sensitive data. In any testing environment, production data would be the best choice but this is no longer acceptable. Using production data is too great a risk for your business and you could be held liable for fines and penalties if that data was lost or landed in the wrong hands. With that in mind, it's important instead to use test data that is as close to production as possible, resulting in a realistic testing environment. Test data management is key here to ensure a process of obfuscating or generating synthetic data.
Creating obfuscated or synthetic data
Managed test data can help to create test environments on demand, with synthetic data able to deliver a highly repeatable solution. In turn, this can enhance the speed of your business' testing turnaround time. Manual test preparation can take up to 30% of the testing time, which can prevent your organisation from achieving a continuous deployment or DevOps model.
Obfuscated or synthetic test data can allow you to test on demand to achieve faster and cost-efficient delivery, without risking the integrity of any sensitive data. Having an automated method to support your test data management can help you take this to the next level.
Guidelines for Data De-Identification or Anonymization should be followed to remove sensitive information or to modify it beyond recognition when used for testing purposes. If production data is used unchanged for testing, the data should be protected with the same level of controls used for the production system. Test data must be selected carefully, protected, and controlled. Test data should ideally be created in a generic form with no relation to living system data. However, it is recognized that often live data must be used to perform accurate testing. Where live data is used for testing it should be; Anonymized as far as possible; Carefully selected and secured for the period of testing; Securely deleted when testing is complete. Use of live data must be pre-authorized, logged, and monitored. The auditor will expect to see robust procedures in place to protect data being used in test environments, especially if this is wholly or partly live data. Organisations should not use sensitive information, including personal data, in the development and testing environments.It is noted that system and acceptance testing may require an enormous amount of test information, equivalent to operational information. To protect the test information against loss of confidentiality and integrity, organisations should comply with the following:
Access controls applied in real-world environments should also be implemented in test environments.
Establishing and implementing a separate authorisation procedure for the copying of real information into test environments.
To keep an audit trail, all activities related to copying and use of sensitive information in test environments should be recorded.
If sensitive information will be used in the test environment, it should be protected with appropriate controls such as data masking or data removal.
Once the testing is completed, information used in the test environment should be safely and permanently removed to eliminate the risk of unauthorised access.
Furthermore, organisations should apply appropriate measures to ensure the secure storage of information assets.
When it comes to testing, there are many factors that require consideration to ensure the correct use and protection of data. Compliance standards like the Privacy Act, set out requirements for companies to ensure different types of data are carefully managed and protected. Test data should ideally be created in a generic form with no relation to live system data. However, often data needs to reflect actual real data to ensure accurate testing. If you must use "real" data for testing purposes consider implementing a robust data masking technique to protect the data. When using data for testing, an organisation should ensure it is:
Anonymised – Any personal or confidential information that is used should be protected either by deletion or modification.
Carefully selected and secured for the period of testing.
Securely deleted when testing is complete.
Agreed processes used to protect data during testing are securely managed.
Technique to mask data
Data Encryption – An encryption algorithm is used to lock the data from anyone being able to see it pother than the person who has the key. For testing purposes it is often not helpful ass it requires t he system to continually lock and unlock the data and processes need to be in place manage and share encryption keys.
Data Scrambling – Reorganize characters in the data set in a random order, replacing the original content. For example, a number such as 985467 in a production database, could be replaced by 649857 in a test database. Easy to do to but can be less secure if someone figures out the process and can reverse engineer the changes.
Nulling Out – Data is replaced with "null" or is deleted. Not helpful during testing if you need the data to perform certain functions or test outputs appear on a page correctly.
Value Variance – Replace original data values by using a function, such as the difference between the lowest and highest value in a series. For example, if a a list of product prices were between 100 and 1000 the product price can be replaced with a range between the highest and lowest price paid. This can help protect anyone getting access to the original dataset.
Data Substitution – Data values are substituted with fake, but realistic, alternative values. For example, real names or numbers are replaced by random names and numbers
Data Shuffling – Similar to substitution, except data values are switched within the same dataset. Data is rearranged in each column using a random sequence; for example, switching between real customer names across multiple customer records. The output set looks like real data, but it doesn't show the real information for each individual or data record.
Best practice to protect data
Test Data Strategy: An effective, agile, and comprehensive test data management program must start with the strategy. You must gain an understanding of your test data landscape, and the different teams across the organization that will use the test data and contribute to it. Your plan should include test data needs, testing environments, your company's data governance policies and relevant regulations that impact data handling. Starting with the test data management strategy will save time, overhead costs, and rework.
Discovering Test Data: The first test data management best practice is to discover, and integrate, test data from multiple source systems and IT environments, across the organization. To achieve this, enterprises should identify all the relevant data channels and sources early on in the process. This includes discovering and categorizing all sensitive data and personally identifying information (PII) according to multiple data protection regulations , and industry legislation .
Protecting Private Data: Today, sensitive data and Personally Identifying Information (PII) is a touchy topic as people and authorities become more aware of the dangers of collecting and using people's private information. Test data management must follow specific compliance rules, that demand high data governance standards. When sensitive data is involved, data masking keeps it protected. By using data masking tools to obfuscate production data in a way that mimics real-life data – without exposing the real data – we guarantee both authenticity and compliance. Another security aspect to consider is how the test data is stored and managed. Keeping test data accessible only to authorized personnel, and maintaining security protocols, even for apps under development, are essential.
Refreshing Test Data in Real Time: Perhaps the most important factor in test data is keeping it fresh. Due to the sheer volume of enterprise data, many enterprises refresh their test data only periodically, such as once a quarter. Since extracting and provisioning test data is time-consuming, testing teams often reuse old data, over and over again. To maintain the relevance and trustworthiness of test data, a real-time synchronization mechanism is needed that does not require bulk database copying. Another important factor is ensuring that production system performance is not adversely impacted by frequent access.
Ensuring Test Data Relevancy: Time isn't the only factor impacting the relevancy of test data. Testing quality relies on the ability of the testing teams to source relevant test data to the use case at hand. Due to the complexity of this task, many test data management tools discourage testers from parameter-based subsetting, especially across multiple source systems. Testing teams should examine which data elements are necessary for their particular scenarios, and build the test data subsets accordingly. Not only will the test data sets be more relevant and focused, but they will also improve test data quality and accelerate software delivery.
Maintaining Test Data: Keeping your data fresh and relevant over time leads us to the next test data management best practice, which is ongoing maintenance. In addition to relevancy and accuracy, your team would need to ensure that the data is adequately stored and remains consistent and error-free. This level of accuracy should be maintained over multiple use cases and even as the volume of data increases. Test data management at scale is challenging, so this is one area where your test data tools will have to prove their value. Monitor the cost efficiency of your test data storage solution, and perform regular audits to examine the integrity, quality, and security of your test data.
Automating the Test Data Process:
By now, you're probably concerned about the many tedious tasks related to test data . Worry not, because many test data steps can, and should, be automated. Automation makes test data provisioning faster, and helps minimize human errors. Agile software development and shift-left testing demand test data automation for integration into CI/CD pipelines. Best practices for data testing have become increasingly automated over the past years. It's about time, test data management did the same.
Published January 25, 2023 February 4, 2023
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