text:
Governance Somalia
Somalia awards e-passport, national ID card contracts
Advanced biometric and RFID access control technology ensures verification of employee, visitor and contractor identities
Somalia has launched an electronic passport and national ID card programme in a bid to return "law and order" to the country.
Somalia has been characterised in the last two decades by the lack of a strong central government, while fighting from militant groups such as al Shabaab, which is looking to institute islamic laws among Somalis, has also destabilised the country.
But the country's government is looking to electronic passports and national ID cards to help stabilise the country.
And in a press statement on Monday, US based HID Global says it has been contracted to manufacture and provide highly secure chip-enabled electronic passport covers and a custom national ID card with multiple security features for Somalia.
HID Global, in turn, is set to work with Oman's Al Madina Group, which has designed and implemented the ID documents and their supporting solutions. Meanwhile, a security printer and systems integrator with a presence in Somalia, Ebtikart Smart System, is also set to help enable the programme.
The value of the deal; though, has not been disclosed.
"The national citizen ID documents improve the security situation in the country by enabling law enforcement agencies to verify citizens' identities, while the e-passport facilitates international travel across borders," says HID Global in its press statement.
"The new electronic passport is compliant with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards, ensuring that Somali citizens are carrying a fraud-resistant identity document that complies with current international standards," adds the company.
HID Global goes on further to say that "the solutions provided to Somalia have applications in a number of African as well as Middle-Eastern countries, given the need to constantly upgrade their Identity Management Solutions."
ALSO ON ITWEB AFRICA
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EMEA in need of more data management tech, advice Published on 05 July 2019
Specialists Commvault, DMP announce fresh alliance to engage the region.
Malawi bemoans low number of rural mobile money agents Published on 03 July 2019
Consumer Association says the situation challenges the country's financial inclusion agenda.
Digitisation - can you afford not to? Published on 16 July 2019
COMMENT ON THIS QUICK PRINT
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'Home Recording Weekly' Loves the UPLIFT Monitor Arms!
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The best part of his set up- before we came to save the day- was his homemade monitor system, in which he desperately stacked his monitors on a pile of old catalogs in order to keep them raised. Kern learned very quickly that these unsightly stacks weren't the solution, but were adding to the problem. "When you have a client come over to our house… do you want them to see a cluttered environment where you have catalogs boosting your monitors up… or do you want them to see that you're serious about the way things look and feel and interact with clients," he questions in his video. He knew something had to be done.
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Use Simnor Screensaver Viewer to view all the screensavers installed on your system. Perfect if you want to decide upon whether to use a new screensaver. This version is the first release on CNET Download.com.


text:
Meraxes (лат., возможное русское название — мераксес) — род тероподовых динозавров из семейства кархародонтозаврид (Carcharodontosauridae), описанный из верхнемеловой  (Huincul Formation) в аргентинской Патагонии. Включает единственный вид — Meraxes gigas.

История открытия
Голотип M. gigas, ранее известный как «кархародонтозаврид из Кампанас» (Campanas carcharodontosaurid), MMCh-PV 65, был открыт в 2012 году. Образец представлен почти полным черепом, элементами плечевого и тазового поясов, неполными передними конечностями, полными задними конечностями, фрагментами рёбер, фрагментами шейных и спинных позвонков, крестцом и несколькими полными хвостовыми позвонками. Это самый полный скелет кархародонтозаврида, обнаруженный в Южном полушарии.

Вид M. gigas был описан Хуаном Канале и соавторами в 2022 году. Родовое название дано в честь драконицы Мераксес из серии романов «Песнь льда и огня» Джорджа Мартина. Видовое название происходит от  [gigas] — «гигантский».

Описание

Meraxes был очень крупным тероподом, по оценке авторов описания весившим около 4263 кг (с доверительным интервалом 3196—5331 кг). Согласно скелетной реконструкции, представленной в оригинальном описании, Meraxes достигал 9—10 м в длину. В 2023 году, основываясь на пропорциях области таза, Дональд Хендерсон оценил длину тела динозавра в 10,2—11,6 м.

Череп Meraxes имел длину , что сопоставимо с черепом акрокантозавра (Acrocanthosaurus), у которого он достигал . Формы и пропорции разных костей (например, костей черепа, лопатки, пястных костей, седалищного стержня, костей стопы и т. д.) указывают на то, что Meraxes и Acrocanthosaurus имели схожие пропорции и размеры тела. У Meraxes были редуцированные передние конечности, что является примером конвергентной эволюции, которая независимо произошла в четырёх группах теропод: кархародонтозавриды, абелизавриды, тираннозавриды и альваресзавриды. На вторых пальцах ног Meraxes имелись увеличенные когти, которые были почти в два раза длиннее когтей на четвёртых пальцах.

Гистологический анализ среза бедренной кости голотипа предполагает, что особь умерла в возрасте от 39 до 53 лет, что делает её самым старым известным нептичьим тероподом. При этом, согласно анализу, голотип Meraxes рос почти всю жизнь и достиг скелетной зрелости только в 35—49 лет. Применение такого же подхода к тираннозавру  (Tyrannosaurus; FMNH PR 2081) показало, что животное умерло в 27—33 лет, достигнув скелетной зрелости в 16—22 лет. Таким образом, Meraxes достигал гигантских размеров за счёт продления периода роста (гиперморфоз), а тираннозавр — за счёт увеличения относительной скорости роста (ускорение).

Классификация

Согласно анализу Канале и соавторов (2022), Meraxes является самым базальным родом трибы Giganotosaurini семейства Carcharodontosauridae:

Палеоэкология

Ископаемые остатки Meraxes были обнаружены в отложениях формации Уинкуль, датируемых верхним сеноманом — нижним туроном (около  лет). Помимо Meraxes, тероподы этой местности представлены паравесом , ноазавридом , абелизавридами скорпиовенатором, илокелезией и , мегараптором , а также ещё одним гигантским кархародонтозавридом — мапузавром (третий описанный род кархародонтозаврид из отложений формации —  — может быть младшим синонимом мапузавра). Поскольку Meraxes был найден в более древних породах, чем мапузавр, эти кархародонтозавриды, вероятно, не сосуществовали. К числу растительноядных динозавров формации Уинкуль относятся реббахизавридные завроподы  и лимайзавр, титанозавры аргентинозавр и  и неидентифицированные игуанодонты.

Ссылки
 Скелетная реконструкция (известный материал отмечен белым).

Примечания

Кархародонтозавриды
Монотипические роды архозавров
Динозавры мелового периода
Динозавры Южной Америки
Фоссилии из меловых отложений Аргентины
Фоссилии, описанные в 2022 году

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
#ifndef itkDecisionRule_h
#define itkDecisionRule_h

#include <vector>
#include "vnl/vnl_matrix.h"
#include "itkObject.h"
#include "itkObjectFactory.h"
#include "itkArray.h"
#include "itkVariableLengthVector.h"
#include "ITKStatisticsExport.h"

namespace itk
{
namespace Statistics
{
/** \class DecisionRule
 *  \brief Base class for decision rules that return a class label
 *  based on a set of discriminant scores.
 *
 *  DecisionRule is the base class for decision rules used in
 *  classification. Subclasses of DecisionRule include
 *  MaximumDecisionRule, MinimumDecisionRule, and
 *  MaximumRationDecisionRule, This class has a pure virtual function,
 *  Evaluate(), which implements the particular decision rule, given a
 *  set of discriminant scores. Concrete subclasses of
 *  DecisionRule must implement this method.
 *
 *  \ingroup ITKStatistics
 */

class ITKStatistics_EXPORT DecisionRule : public Object
{
public:
  /** Standard class typedefs */
  typedef DecisionRule               Self;
  typedef Object                     Superclass;
  typedef SmartPointer< Self >       Pointer;
  typedef SmartPointer< const Self > ConstPointer;

  /** Run-time type information (and related methods) */
  itkTypeMacro(DecisionRule, Object);

  /** Types for discriminant values and vectors. */
  typedef double                             MembershipValueType;
  typedef std::vector< MembershipValueType > MembershipVectorType;

  /** Types for class identifiers. */
  typedef MembershipVectorType::size_type ClassIdentifierType;

  /**
   * Evaluate the decision rule. The return value of this function is
   * a class label.  Functions returns the best label given the
   * discriminant scores using its internal logic.
   */
  virtual ClassIdentifierType Evaluate(const MembershipVectorType & discriminantScores) const = 0;

protected:
  DecisionRule();
  virtual ~DecisionRule();

private:
  DecisionRule(const Self &);   //purposely not implemented
  void operator=(const Self &); //purposely not implemented
};                              // end of class
} // end of namespace Statistics
} // end of namespace itk

#endif

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
HopkinsLocal
JHU's sweet tooth helps Baltimore ice cream maker grow into a year-round business
Taharka Brothers, exclusive ice cream supplier for Fresh Food Café, no longer has an offseason, which means it can employ people in Baltimore all year long
Image caption: Demand from Johns Hopkins University helped Baltimore-based Taharka Brothers ice cream, owned by Sean Smeeton (second from right), transform from a seasonal business into a year-round enterprise.
Credit: Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University
By Amy Lunday
/ Published May 11, 2017
It isn't exactly breaking news that college students like ice cream. But here's a real scoop: Johns Hopkins University undergrads like Taharka Brothers ice cream so much that the Baltimore-based company has transitioned from a warm-weather business into a year-round enterprise.
On the Homewood campus, Taharka's treats are so popular—even when it's cold outside, and especially during finals—that the maker of small-batch treats no longer has an offseason. That means instead of seasonal hires, Taharka now employs people in Baltimore all year long in order to keep up with Hopkins' demand.
"The sheer volume of Johns Hopkins' purchasing absolutely helps us a lot. ... Every year we're continuing to grow."
Sean Smeeton
Taharka Brothers owner
"The sheer volume of Johns Hopkins' purchasing absolutely helps us a lot," says Sean Smeeton, Taharka Brothers' owner. He also says the company's relationship with the university has opened the door to work with other schools and colleges so "every year we're continuing to grow."
"Last year, Taharka became the exclusive ice cream provider at Fresh Food Café," says Bill Connor, director of Dining Programs at JHU's Homewood campus. "Students fell in love with who they are, and they fell in love with their ice cream. We are finding that we can partner with a local company and even out their business flow by buying from them year round."
So it's a win-win—Taharka has the ability to make more ice cream using locally sourced ingredients from Cloverland Dairy and then sell their products not just to Hopkins, but other businesses as well. Connor said Taharka is constantly playing with flavors like coffee oreo and cardamom to the delight of students.
"Cardamom? I never thought that would go, but then we ran out of it on the first day," Connor says. "We often run out of ice cream when students are stressed or it's finals. So we do emergency orders. We have a general idea and plan ahead, but we never know when orgo is doing a midterm."
Beyond the tubs of ice cream and hundreds of daily scoops by students at FFC daily, Connor says the Taharka Brothers' commitment to social justice and civic involvement is a big draw for students.
"Taharka Brothers just wants to be a part of our community, and that's really hard to find in a vendor," Connor says. "Most vendors want to sell their products and leave. But I think Taharka is wanting to connect with our students and improve lives through ice cream."
Smeeton agrees that building a relationship with Johns Hopkins students and sparking conversations are part of his company's goals.
"The purpose of the company is to be a vehicle of social change," he says.
The mutually beneficial partnership between Hopkins and Taharka Brothers is one of several good-news stories emerging with the help HopkinsLocal, an initiative launched in fall 2015 to leverage Johns Hopkins' role as the city's largest private anchor institution and create lasting economic opportunities for the city it calls home. In short, the initiative asks university and health system departments and units to "think local" when they build, hire, or buy.
HopkinsLocal's goal is to increase spending with Baltimore City businesses, especially those that are minority- and women-owned, by $6 million over the next three years by focusing on specific purchasing categories.
Posted in University News, Student Life
Tagged hopkinslocal
Marked progress in year one
University, Health System initiative to promote economic growth in Baltimore on track after first year
Roughly speaking
Daniels: Job creation can help Baltimore heal
President discusses institution's response to April's unrest, efforts to strengthen ties to city on Dan Rodricks' podcast

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
The Earth Hums in B Flat
Canongate U.S.
by Mari Strachan
"A lyrical debut . . . [Strachan's] light touch keeps the story unfamiliar and surprising, while Gwenni's uber-precocious narration revels in a love for language and reveals an unspoiled innocence about the world. It's small, quiet and nicely done." —Publishers Weekly
Imprint Canongate U.S.
Page Count 336
Publication Date June 16, 2009
ISBN-13 978-1-8476-7192-9
Dimensions 5.5" x 8.25"
US List Price $14.00
Read More About Mari Strachan
When I sang the note to Mr. Hughes he said it was B flat but he laughed when I said it was the note the Earth hummed. He doesn't know how the Earth's deep, never-ending note clothes me in rainbow colors and fills my head with all the books ever written. I could stay up here forever without the need for anything else in the whole world.
The Earth Hums in B Flat is a story of dark family secrets unraveled by the shrewd insight of twelve-year-old Gwenni Morgan, a child with an irrepressible spirit living in a Welsh village that is reluctantly entering the modern age. A dreamer with a knack for collecting and piecing together tidbits of information she overhears, Gwenni is forever asking unanswerable questions. From the small bed that she shares with her sister at night she flies up into the starry sky above her village and looks down on the lives of its inhabitants. And when the family that she babysits for is rocked by the sudden, unexplainable disappearance of their patriarch, Gwenni is determined to solve the mystery of Ifan Evan's whereabouts. Turning amateur detective, she is unaware that the trail will lead her closer to home than she ever imagined.
Told with a breathtaking, irresistible blend of freshness and wisdom, the voice that sixty-two-year-old Welsh debut novelist Mari Strachan has created with Gwenni is vibrant, charming, and full of heart. An unforgettable character, Gwenni's unique way of seeing the world lends her the ability to make the ordinary extraordinary. A magical novel about the trials of youth, familial duty, and understanding, The Earth Hums in B Flat will transport you to another time and place.
Tags Literary
"This is a novel about family secrets, family history, and coming to terms with who people are and why they make the decisions that they do. It's also about trying to understand what we inherit. . . . Gwenni's character is by far the best part of the novel . . . [and] there's a bit of Gwenni in all of us; that trapped inner child trying to understand who we are and where we come from. She's just a hell of a lot more resilient and free-spirited than most of us are." —Michele Filgate, Bookslut
"Dark family secrets are at the core of this bewitching debut novel. . . . This is a story about a time and a girl on the brink of change and Strachan tells it with a fey sort of charm as well as a sense of foreboding. . . .Strachan does a masterful job of allowing us to experience the world as innocently as Gwenni does. . . . She brings the period alive with light use of detail . . . [and] manages to convey a real sense of a small Welsh community without clogging the story with endless idiom. . . . Although it deals with the dark themes of depression and madness, The Earth Hums in B Flat is often comic largely thanks to Gwenni's offbeat interpretation of all that goes on around her. This is a memorable read." —Nicky Pellegrino, Herald on Sunday
"The Earth Hums in B Flat is one of those books that eases you in gently and then floors you. . . . Gwenni is particularly perceptive, with an observant poetic eye for the world around her. . . . Throughout Gwenni's subtle coming-of-age, her voice never falters . . . [and] her world is so rich and delicate that the reader hopes it won't fade with adulthood. . . . There's a linguistic richness throughout the book that is both intensely detailed, and full of the daily life [in a small] Welsh village with all of its idiosyncrasies. . . . The Earth Hums in B Flat reads authentically, and the fictive truth in the story remains consistent and powerful as Gwenni moves towards the end . . . [of] this is a lovely, original, and imaginative debut." —Magdalena Ball, gather.com
"It would be tempting to label The Earth Hums in B Flat—in which an 11-year-old girl investigates a disappearance in a small Welsh town in the 1950s—as Under Milk Wood meets What Was Lost, but Strachan has a voice and a vision all her own." —The Independent (UK)
"The Earth Hums in B Flat is a richly evocative, warm but unsentimental tale of a child detective struggling to piece together clues about the lives around her. These lives, and the characters who live them, are so vividly drawn and Mari Strachan's careful unraveling of the secrets they hide is extremely compelling. I loved this novel." —Catherine o'Flynn, author of What Was Lost
"There are certain books that take you outside the page and become experiential—where you feel the dew-soaked grass on your legs, smell the dank air, squint in the darkened corners of the room, hear the shrill edge in the voices around you. The Earth Hums in B Flat is one such book that transports the reader into the life of Gwenni, its young narrator. Through Gwenni's innocent eyes we see the world as she does." —Holly Myers, Elliott Bay Book Co. (Seattle)
"The first impression I got from the book and which grew stronger throughout was—magical. I loved it! It is in the tradition of those Irish or Welsh mystical tales. Aside from the magical quality, the story just sucks you into this world of a north Welsh village with all its inhabitants and their stories and at the center an ordinary family who has an extraordinary child. It's like a family that has among its dull members an exotic bird and they don't know what to do with it. When you add the mother's insanity to the need to not be 'odd' it is amazing that this little girl wasn't squashed at all. . . . Truly a wonderful read." —Michael Fraser, Joseph-Beth Booksellers (Cincinnati)
"I sat down Monday morning to read The Earth Hums in B Flat and finished it late that afternoon. The first impression I got from the book and which grew stronger throughout was—magical. I loved it! It is in the tradition of those Irish or Welsh mystical tales. Aside from the magical quality, the story just sucks you into this world of a north Welsh village with all its inhabitants and their stories and at the center an ordinary family who has an extraordinary child. It's like a family that has among its dull members an exotic bird and they don't know what to do with it. When you add the mother's insanity to add to the need to not be 'odd' it is amazing that this little girl wasn't squashed at all. I think that some of that has to do with the father being a bit special but we don't see that fully until the end. Truly a wonderful read." —Micheal Fraser, Joseph-Beth Booksellers (Cincinnati)
"Gwenni, the 13 year-old main character of The Earth Hums in B Flat, sees the adult and difficult world that surrounds her through the eyes of a na've teenager. She is sure she can fly, even outside her dreams, she believes that Alwenna, her best friend, will leave the joy of being attractive to and attracted by boys and come back to her, and she can't figure out the nuances of the adult language that fly around her. She lives in a tiny Welsh town where, if you pay attention, all the histories and secrets of the townsfolk are well-known. Gwenni's life takes a particularly bumpy turn when a neighbor's husband goes missing and no one except Gwenni seems to want to find him. Her mother takes the missing husband's disappearance personally, becomes abusive and, finger by finger, loses her grasp on reality. As her mother's turn gets worse, Gwenni's simple view of her life and world becomes much more complicated and she is forced to walk into adulthood much sooner than she would like. Mari Strachan's The Earth Hums in B Flat is atmospheric and real and reminds me very much of what it was like to grow up in a small town, with all the beauty and the mold of being young, never, ever expecting that life will ever change." —Rene Kirkpatrick, Third Place Books (Lake Forest Park, WA)
keep reading Close this section
Finalist for the American Bookseller Association's 2010 Indies Choice Book-of-the-Year Adult Debut Award
Longlisted for the 2011 the International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award
An Indie Next List Selection (June 2009)
San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Reading Pick
I fly in my sleep every night. When I was little I could fly without being asleep; now I can't, even though I practise and practise. And after what I saw last night I want more than ever to fly wideawake. Mam always says: I want never gets. Is that true?
Last night began like every other night. I went to bed and changed under the bedclothes so Buddy Holly couldn't see me, and I laid my pink polka-dot hair ribbon down the middle of the mattress to show which side was whose, and Bethan said, like she always does: I don't want to sleep on your old side, anyway.
Then, as soon as she was snoring she flung her arm across my face, and when I pinched her she swung her leg across my stomach.
So, it was hard to fall asleep. But when I did I left Bethan to spread herself across the whole bed and I soared into a sky that wrapped me in air as light and warm as an eiderdown.
I listened to the town below breathe its shallow night-time breaths, in and out, in and out, and all around me the Earth sang.
For a while I hovered above the town's higgledy-piggledy houses. They cling to their streets as if they might roll all the way down to the sea and fall in if they let go. But last night, as usual, none of them let go and I didn't have to save anybody. I swerved away and rose high to avoid the Red Dragon flapping against its pole above the castle gatehouse, and swooped low over the council houses and across the sands to the sea where the air is always thick with salt that crusts on my lips as if I'd that minute undone a blue twist from a bag of crisps and licked it.
The sea, too, breathed in and out, its breast swelling with each breath until I was half afraid that the Leviathan from the Bible would burst from its depths and shower me with spume. Whales, porpoises, mermaids and mermen, dead sailors, fishes, crabs, tiny shrimps; the sea is forever full of eyes that watch me. I never fly far beyond the shore. If my town were a map the bay would have Here be Monsters written on it in golden ink.
Like every other night, I sped from the sea to drift along the road that winds its way beyond the Baptism Pool and the Reservoir high into the hills behind the town. As I passed above the Pool I saw a man floating in it with his arms outstretched and the moon
Drowning in his eyes. That was not like every other night and the fright plummeted me back to my bed, right on top of Bethan. I couldn't push her to her own side to make room to lie down so I got up early to practise wide-awake flying.
It's cold down here in the living room so I fasten up all the buttons on my cardigan. I need to be high up and Tada's armchair has the highest seat, but the cushion is old and saggy and it's difficult to balance on it. When I glimpse my reflection in the looking glass above the fireplace I see a scarecrow frowning at me, a skinny arm sticking out each side and red hair erupting from her head. Tada says it's the family hair, but Mam always says: Pity you have that old family nose to go with it. It's best not to look in the mirror too long in case the Devil appears in it so I scrunch my eyes closed until I feel the freckles pop on my cheeks. The tick-tock of the brown clock on the mantelpiece is loud and the tap that Tada has mended three times drip-drips in the scullery. Fly, I tell myself. Fly, fly, fly. Slowly, the sounds fade and I feel warm and weightless. I'm just about to rise from Tada's chair, light as an angel, when Mam's slippers go slap on the stairs and I fall off the seat.
John Morris opens an eye and squints at me from the other armchair.
"I nearly did it," I whisper to him. "Really."
He purrs, then wraps his tail around his face and goes back to sleep.
I pull The Tiger in the Smoke that Aunty Lol lent me from beneath the saggy cushion, blow some Marie biscuit crumbs from the pages, and curl up tight as a fist in Tada's armchair to read it.
As soon as Mam comes through the living room door she sniffs so hard I can hear the hair clips on her yellow pincurls chatter against each other.
"It smells sooty in here," she says, "and it's chilly. You could have made the fire instead of sitting there with your beak in a book."
"I don't like lighting the matches. You know that."
"Don't be silly, Gwenni." She kneels down and begins to riddle the half burnt lumps of wood. Clouds of fine ash billow around her. "A girl of thirteen," she says, and sighs. I uncurl and push my book back under the cushion. "Twelve and a half," I say.
Mam rams the half full ash pan back into place and crumples newspaper into the grate over which she lays a grid of kindling and three logs. The matches sputter and die but at last the paper catches light and the wood begins to crackle. Mam stands up and shakes the folds of her blue satin dressing gown. The stale scent of Evening in Paris drifts from them with the ash. I try to hold my breath but I feel a throb above my eyebrows, like the ghost of the dripping tap, and the back of my neck stiffens. I rub it with a cold hand, and remember what I saw in the scullery when I got up.
"There's a mouse caught in the trap," I say.
"I think so."
"A dead mouse won't hurt you."
"I'm not afraid of it. I just don't like touching it."
Mam takes the empty wood box into the scullery. Through the door I watch her as she crouches by the trap. John Morris follows her and she pushes him away with her elbow, then eases the spring from the mouse's broken back and picks up the body.
"Nain said she pulled a mouse out of a trap by its tail like that once. It was only pretending to be dead and it swung right round and bit her thumb," I tell her.
Mam carries the corpse out through the back door and throws it into the bin. "Nasty, dirty thing," she says and slams the bin lid over it.
She washes her hands under the dripping tap and says, "Bring in the kettle to fill, Gwenni. The fire'll be hot enough. Your father'll be wondering where his cup of tea's got to."
I take the kettle into the scullery. The green distemper on the walls is beginning to peel and flake, shaping faces with sly eyes and mouths tight with secrets. There are new faces there every day. I try not to see them watching me.
"Mam," I say, "when I was flying last night I saw something that scared me."
Mam fills the kettle and puts it on the fire in the living room.
Her hands shake and some of the water slops over onto the logs, making them hiss.
"In the Baptism Pool," I say.
"Don't talk rubbish," says Mam. "And I thought I told you I didn't want to hear about that flying nonsense again. You haven't been telling anyone else about it, have you?"
"I asked Aunty Lol if she could remember me flying when I was little."
"How many times do I have to say it, Gwenni? People can't fly."
"But I can remember it. I can, really. You and Aunty Lol were holding my hands and swinging me and then you let go and I just flew along the ground without touching it. Like this." I crouch and fold my arms around my legs.
Mam grasps my arm and yanks me up. "Stop that. Stop that," she shouts. Her dressing gown slithers open and she pulls it tight around her and takes a shaky breath.
"Listen to me, Gwenni. It never happened; that was a dream, too. Don't you dare say anything to anyone about it again."
"Why not?" I rub my arm where Mam has squeezed it.
"You don't want people to think you're odd, do you?"
"Odd?"
"Yes, odd. Touched. Funny in the head. Like Guto'r Wern."
The kettle lets out a gentle steam, blinding the window, shutting out the rest of the world.
"People won't think I'm like Guto just because I can fly in my sleep," I say.
"Dreaming is one thing. Saying you really do it is another. What did Aunty Lol say?"
"She said perhaps I was a witch."
"You see what I mean?" says Mam. Her knuckles turn white as she tightens the dressing gown's sash around her waist.
The kettle belches steam in great snorts.
"Fetch the tea tray," says Mam and takes it from me when I bring it into the living room. The cups and saucers rattle on the tray. It's early for Mam's nerves to be so bad. She sets the tray down on the table, then picks up the milk bottle from it and pushes it in front of my face.
"You've given John Morris the top of the milk again," she says.
"He likes it," I say.
"So does everyone else," says Mam. "I've told you before not to waste it on the cat. I may as well talk to the man in the moon."
She bangs the bottle down on the tray and scoops tea into the teapot. Two scoops. She lifts the kettle from the fire, holding it away from her to keep the soot from her dressing gown, and pours the water into the pot.
"So, promise me you won't say anything to anyone about it," she says.
"About what?" I say.
Mam's hand shakes again as she puts the lid back on the teapot. "This flying nonsense."
"Not even to Alwenna?"
"Certainly not," says Mam.
"But she's my Kindred Spirit. I want to show her how to fly, once I remember."
"Not Alwenna. It would be all round the council houses in no time. Cross your heart."
I make a big cross over my heart. But I cross my fingers at the same time. Alwenna already knows about the flying I do at night. "Cross my heart," I say. "And hope to die." I drop down into Tada's armchair and pull out my book.
Mam slips the knitted cosy over the teapot. "Don't start reading now. You've got to get cracking this morning."
"Why? I can't change the beds if Tada and Bethan are still in them."
"Bethan can do that today. I've promised you to Mrs Evans Brwyn Coch this morning to look after the two girls."
"I hate going to Brwyn Coch."
"Don't be silly. You like the children."
"But I don't like Mr Evans."
"Don't like Ifan Evans?" Mam stops pouring milk into the cups. "He's a wonderful man. Well respected. I only promised you to Elin as a favour to him."
"His face is too red."
"He can't help his red face, Gwenni. It's because he's out in the fields all day."
"He's just like those Toby jugs."
Mam looks up at the three jugs on their shelf above the looking glass. Straightaway, the Toby jugs pretend they're not staring at the china woman that Mam and Tada were given as a wedding present by their best man who died in the war. The china woman stands on the sideboard and doesn't wear any clothes at all, not even knickers. When the Toby jugs watch her they forget to smoke their pipes or drink from the tankards in their hands and their fat cheeks turn redder and redder and their eyes grow darker and darker.
"Mr Evans doesn't smoke or drink," Mam says. "Chapel deacons aren't allowed to."
"Do I have to go?" I say.
"I said you'd be there by half past nine," says Mam. "Mrs Evans has to go to Price the Dentist. He's in town this morning, but only for a couple of hours. So hurry yourself."
"Don't make me go, Mam."
Mam lifts the teapot and pours a steaming brown stream into each cup.
"Don't be silly," she says. "Now, have your cup of tea, brush that hair and get your Wellingtons on."
"But it's not raining."
"The fields will still be wet after the snow. I'll take this tea up to your father and wake Bethan. I want you in your Wellingtons ready to go when I come down."
Mam picks up the biggest cup and saucer, the ones with A Present from Llandudno written on them in gold, and opens the living room door. The cup trembles on the saucer. She looks back at me. "You have to go," she says.
The door closes behind her and I listen to her slippers slapslapping all the way up to the bedroom.
Reading Group Guide
1. In The Earth Hums in B Flat we see everything through Gwenni's eyes. How trustworthy a narrator is she?
2. Does The Earth Hums in B Flat explore specifically the Welsh psyche, or do you think the story could have been set anywhere?
3. Which of the two sisters do you think will be the most affected as they grow up by the revelations in the book? Which of them will cope best?
4. Is Gwenni's flying an escape strategy? Or does she really fly? How does what you think change the story?
5. The ending is ambiguous in several ways. Do you think Gwenni is a highly imaginative, slightly obsessive child, or has she inherited her mother's bipolar disorder?
6. The diagnosis and medical treatment of mental illness has advanced greatly in the last fifty years. How far forward do you think society has advanced in the way mental illness is viewed?
7. The characters in The Earth Hums in B Flat all speak in Welsh, with only a couple of exceptions. Was this a surprise? How did it affect your reading of the book?
8. How difficult is it for younger readers to appreciate how different life was for children in the 1950s, when children were "seen and not heard"?
9. To what extent does Magda's illness affect her relationship with other people, especially Emlyn and Gwenni? What part does her innate character play in her behavior?
10. People in the book keep secrets from one another, and certainly from children. Is this a good idea, or is it better always to have things out in the open?
11. The past, in the form of the World Wars and family history, casts a long shadow over the characters in The Earth Hums in B Flat. Is it ever desirable, or even possible, to escape our pasts?
12. How important are books to Gwenni? Is she able to learn everything she needs from them? Is it possible for anyone to do that?
13. Gwenni is reluctant to grow up. Why do you think this is? How do your memories of your life at twelve and a half compare to Gwenni's reality—were you reluctant or eager to grow up?
14. Gwenni has complex feelings about food. Why do you think that is? Do you have strong memories of the food you ate a child?
15. Alwenna tells Gwenni that her father was considered a saint for having stayed with Magda after the war. Is it true that Emlyn is a saint or is he simply a good, kind man out of his depth in the situation in which he finds himself and therefore ineffectual?
16. The Earth Hums in B Flat has many minor characters who support the main cast. Which of these minor characters is your favourite, and why?
17. Most of the main characters in The Earth Hums in B Flat are women. They seem to be the ones who run things. Was that really how it was, or is it only how it seems from Gwenni's viewpoint?
18. Gwenni takes for granted the place of the Chapel in her life. Which aspect of Chapel do you think plays the greatest part in her life—the social, the spiritual, or the religious?
19. Reviewers have found The Earth Hums in B Flat both funny and sad. How do these elements work together in the book? Is it an effective combination?
20. In chapters one and two Gwenni falls into a frightening new world. Discuss how Mari Strachan foreshadows Gwenni's loss of innocence. How does she weave violence into the domestic?
21. Discuss the parallels between Gwenni and Alice in Alice in Wonderland. It's interesting to look at themes, characters, and motifs. Alice's adventure takes place in a dream; in many ways Gwenni's journey has a dream-like quality. Both texts use heavy symbolism. Discuss other characters in Mari Strachan's text that are paralleled with characters from Alice in Wonderland.
22. In many ways Gwenni and Alyce learn similar things. What does Gwenni learn? What is the significance of the map she makes with Tada at the end of the novel?
23. The death of Ifan drives the plot forward but the novel is about more than a physical death. Discuss the other endings that the author explores.
24. Discuss the significance of the year and setting of the novel. In what ways do they support the themes of Gwenni's loss of innocence and her search for a place in the world?
25. The fox reappears as a symbol throughout the novel. Ifan enjoys killing foxes. Gwenni wants to save the soul of Mrs. Llywelyn Pugh's fox fur. Magda throws the fur into the fire. What is the significance of the fox? Does it mean different things or are the meanings connected?
26. Mari Strachan's characters are compelling because they're not one-dimensional. Discuss the character of Tada. In what ways (if any) is he similar to Mrs. Evans? Discuss their flaws and your level of sympathy for these two characters.
27. Magda is a complicated character. Discuss her motives. Is it too simplistic to dismiss her behavior as the result of mental illness? Given what we know now about treatments in the 1950s, what level of sympathy do you have for Magda at the end of the novel?
28. There's something of the Cheshire Cat about Alwenna; the reader warms to her. Do you agree? Similarly we warm to Aunty Lol; how does the writer engage us with this character considering that she is always off page?
29. Discuss how The Earth Hums in B Flat explores the impact of war beyond the moment of battle. Do you agree with Sian's comment on page 302, "That there was no fault anywhere?" Does a difficult past absolve the individual of responsibility for their present actions? Guto is presented as being completely childlike and innocent. What is his significance in the novel?
30. Discuss the attitudes toward mental illness in the novel. What are the consequences of hiding depression under a euphemism like "the black dog"?
31. The real mystery at the center of childhood is our parents. They are at the heart of our place in the world. In what ways does the text support this view?
32. Discuss the significance of the religious discussions the children have at Sunday school with Mr. Ellis and the Voice of God.
33. The Earth hums in B flat, but through Gwenni's eyes we see that it hums in other keys. In what ways does the novel explore the beauty of the world and relationships?
Q: The Earth Hums in B Flat tells a very emotional and particular story. I wonder how this story and the lovely character of young Gwenni came up to your mind. Why did you choose to write a story through the voice of a twelve-year-old girl?
A: When I began to think about The Earth Hums in B Flat I was lucky—Gwenni had popped into my head some time previously as an image of a skinny child with wild red hair balancing on the seat of a chair with her arms outstretched. I don't know where she came from or why she came. At the time I wasn't quite sure what to do with her. But, with a book in mind, I took a closer look. It was obvious from the way the child was dressed that she didn't live in modern times, and the chair on which she stood had seen better days. So, she lived in another age and her family was poor. But where did her story happen? How was it to be told? And what was her story? As I decided on the answers to these questions, and the hundreds of other questions that were generated by the process of writing, the story evolved.
I thought it would be interesting for a reader to see this particular world through the eyes of a child who didn't entirely understand what she was experiencing, so that the reader would reach understanding ahead of Gwenni.
Q: The novel tells a lot about family relations—between parents and children, between a mother and a daughter, between sisters, between relatives. It seems to me that exploring family relations (in their complexity and difficulties) is a very relevant theme of the novel. Is that right?
A: The dynamics of family is something that interests me very much, and it was one of the themes I wanted to explore in this book. It seems to me that the family is a microcosm of the world. The family is where everything begins that happens out there in the world, for good or bad.
Another theme I wanted to explore in The Earth Hums in B Flat was the effects of the past on the present. Both the Great War and the Second World War still cast dark shadows over the people in the book, and affect their behavior. Gwenni's family is also affected greatly by what happened in the past within the family. This brings me to another two of your questions, and a third theme for exploration, that of mental illness.
Q: Gwenni appears like a "victim" of a mother who seems not to love and care of her, who prefers the other daughter and keeps on blaming and humiliating the younger child. The mother (Mam) appears in a very negative way. It sounds that you aim to outline a very misguiding parental model. Another theme that you outline in the novel is insanity and mental disorder (and discrimination against mentally disordered people). It sounds that you focus a lot on it. Can you say something about it?
A: I've linked these questions because it's the illness that Magda, Gwenni's mother, suffers from that is largely to blame for the way she perceives and treats Gwenni. When I was writing the novel I soon realized that Magda was seriously ill rather than just bad tempered and irritable. I knew someone who had bipolar disorder (until recently called manic depression), and I realized that the way Magda was behaving was representative of one of the ways in which the disorder manifests itself. When I researched the subject I found it was a disorder that can be passed down to the next generation, and this gave me the storyline for Gwenni's grandmother's suicide and her mother's behavior, and left a big question for the reader at the end of the book, which is whether Gwenni is a highly imaginative and slightly obsessive child or whether she has inherited her grandmother and mother's disorder. At the time the book is set this illness was not recognized, diagnosed, or named. All mental illnesses were lumped together as 'madness' and the people suffering from them were discriminated against (which still happens today!) because their illness was misunderstood and feared. However, in the book, the people of the town, although they do not understand the illnesses that Magda and Guto'r Wern suffer from, treat the sufferers kindly.Another aspect of mental illness that interests me, with regard to Magda's character especially, is how much of her behavior can be attributed to her illness and how much to her innate character, or has the illness changed her character? It is all quite fascinating, and takes me right back to the beginning of this answer!
Q: Gwenni, Bethan, Mam, Nain, Elin Evans, Alwenna, Catrin, and Angharad etc., the central and most relevant actors of the novel are women. Women who act, take decisions, make mistakes, bring on the plot of the novel. It sounds that men are mostly "spectators," they watch and suffer the consequences of women's acts (like Tada, for example). What can you say about that?
A: This is an interesting question that I haven't been asked before. I didn't deliberately set out to write a book where the women are the main characters, and I wasn't particularly aware that I had done so until I began considering what you say. We see the story through Gwenni's eyes, of course, and she does tend to see the men and boys as slightly "alien" beings, and to ignore them as much as possible. Having said that, I think that in my experience it is the women who "run" a family, either overtly or covertly. And this novel takes place in a time which is still in the shadow of the Second World War when many women had been left on their own for many years, if not forever, to bring up their children and manage their homes. At that time men didn't have a part to play within the home as they do now—their part was to go out into the world and earn the money to keep that home and family (although that was beginning to change). I think that in the book the women mostly work around decisions taken by the men or the behavior of the men. Magda and Emlyn's situation differs in that Magda's behavior is largely formed by her illness and Emlyn is rather ineffectual in coping with that behavior. I shall have to read the book again with this question in mind!
Q: Working as a librarian, you have been in books throughout your life. Gwenny loves to read, Elin Evans is a teacher and has a big collection of books. In your novel reading, books, libraries seem to play a very relevant role. Is that right?
A: I love reading, and I love the sheer physicality of books, the feel of them, the weight, the smell—so I guess it's natural for me to make Gwenni a bookish child, and that books and reading play an important role in The Earth Hums in B Flat. Books are the way that Gwenni, at first, finds ideas and information as well as solace, but gradually she begins to question whether books are like "real" life, and whether they can really provide her with all the answers she wants. She is in the school library when she makes two important discoveries—one through the information in a book, and one through her own thought processes. She learns that she has to balance what she finds out from books and what she finds out from life.
Q: This is your first novel. Hadn't you thought to write a book before in your life?
A: I've always written, since I can remember. And I've started and discarded several novels along the way—none of them remotely like this one. But the urge to write never seems to leave you, and I decided to do something about it and signed up for an online masters course in creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. In following the course I learned a lot about writing generally and about my own writing specifically, and, the most important thing was that I gained the confidence I needed in my writing. The Earth Hums in B Flat was the result, and it took me three years to write.
Q: After the success of this first novel, any plan to write other books?
A: Yes, I am writing my second novel, which is set in the early 1920s.
Q: I know that you spend a part of your life in Wales and the other part on a boat in the Gran Union Canal in London, where you wrote most part of the novel. This novel is set in Wales. But it sounds as if London has been more "inspirational" for your writing. Living on a boat on the canal, how was it? Can you talk about that?
A: I lived on the canal boat because my husband's work with one of the London universities meant we had to find somewhere to stay there for part of every week. We no longer do that because my husband moved to another university, closer to home.
I liked the canal-boat life, the way it was very minimalist, and it was a perfect "escape" for writing because of how quiet and peaceful it was. But I prefer to be at home, here in Wales, where we live in a small cottage surrounded by a big field!
Q: You also worked at a library in a prison. Can you briefly recall that experience?
A: I worked in a Category A prison where perpetrators of the most heinous crimes were incarcerated. The men who used the library were invariably courteous and glad to have some small element of "normality" in their lives. For me, the work was much like the work in any library. I had two assistants, a male civilian and one of the inmates. The library itself was in some converted cells at the heart of the prison, so I had to be escorted to and from it by prison officers. My work there showed me that to be imprisoned is absolutely not the "holiday" that some people in the UK seem to think it is.
Q: In the novel the Welsh culture is very strong. Characters speak in Welsh. They refer to England as a different world, so to speak. Can you tell something about Welsh culture nowadays? Is it still strong and well preserved?
A: The Welsh language and Welsh culture are as strong and thriving and growing as the language and culture of any country. I wanted to show this in my book, that Wales is not a part of England but a country in its own right, with its own language and culture. Wales was annexed to the English crown in the sixteenth century. But now it has its own assembly government, which has brought a small amount of political independence from England.
Q: On your Web site you've got a page called "Reading: A Page for Bookworms" with a photograph of a stack of books. It's got a real range of titles—from Obama to Watchmen. Are they your books? Was that a random selection or can we get a good overview of your reading tastes from that photo?
A: A bit of a work in progress, that Web site! The books in the stack are mine, pulled off the shelves and from under chair cushions especially for this photograph. They are fairly representative of my reading tastes, which is quite catholic as I tend to read whatever takes my fancy. There are some books there which were on hand because I had/was about to read at events with their authors and had just been rereading them. Maybe my addiction to crime novels is slightly underrepresented! I usually have more poetry books around to dip into than the couple in this stack. Watchmen was a present from my youngest son. I struggle with the combination of words and pictures in graphic novels, and I can't think why that is—I was very fond of my comics as a child.
Q: Another one on reading if I may: I guarantee our audience will be interested in asking about your influences and your all-time favorites and I won't spoil their fun. But perhaps you could tell me a couple of things that you've read and been impressed by this year in between all the interviews and events you've been doing since the release of The Earth Hums in B Flat?
A: The ones that stand out are Pat Barker's Life Class: no one does this period better than she does with her pared down style, which makes everything so moving, and which I so admire; Kate Atkinson's When Will There Be Good News: I've loved her convoluted plots and her clever style since I read Behind the Scenes; and Fred Vargas's The Chalk Circle Man (this is the first written of the Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg crime novels, though not the first published in English): these novels are the epitome of Frenchness for moi (who knows little about France or the French), Adamsberg is delicious, and the plots completely wacky—fantastique!
Q: I won't get into talking to you in any depth about The Earth Hums in B Flat, as we'll save that for the event, but aside from the superbly drawn Gwenni and the unpicking of the local and family intrigues that she delves into, one of the things I loved about the book were the smaller characters who made the small-town Welsh community come alive. Do you have a favorite of those non-central characters and if so would you describe him/her in a few words and why you enjoyed writing that character so much?
A: I loved writing all the smaller characters: each one had a history, although it never appeared in the book, but I guess it informed the character and made that character into a real person. My favorite is the farm-wife at Penrhiw Farm, Bessie Williams, with her soft and scented bosom and her nonstop talking. She's lived at the farm since she was married and she's of the same generation as Gwenni's grandmother. She's bewildered by all the changes that are taking place and uncomfortable with them. The farm is a little way outside the town and she doesn't see anybody for days on end sometimes so when she's in company she can't stop talking. I see her as the Greek chorus in the book; she has a little speech in each of the three parts where her comments on what's happening are spot on. I loved writing her, I thought she was kind and caring, and, although her appearances are few, I felt that she played an important role in the book as a comic character and as a commentator.
Q: We sometimes try to playfully theme the nibbles that we serve with an event. What nibbles would your wonderful heroine Gwenni like to see at your event do you think?
A: Gwenni has such a sweet tooth, doesn't she? I think she'd love a big chocolate cake with lashings of buttercream (my mouth is watering) or maybe biscuits like Mrs. Sergeant Jones's famous vanilla biscuits. If that is just overly sickly for an evening do with a glass of wine, then I'm sure she'd be quite happy with something made with red cheese. But absolutely NO minced mouse sandwiches, thank you.
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When to Walk
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The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ


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text:
Q: Make Input Type="Password" Use Number Pad on Mobile Devices with IE I would like to change the password input to display a numerical keypad (the same as type="number" does).
<input type="password" pattern="[0-9]*" inputmode="numeric">

but this does not work with IE. Is it possible to do this with another method?

A: I deleted my previous answer, because as @IsmaelMiguel said, it wasn't helpful. Here's an implementation of what he suggested in the comments. If anyone feels like upvoting this please upvote his comment too.
Overlay a transparent type=number field on the password field.
<div style="position:relative;">
    <input id="mask" type="number" pattern="[0-9]*" inputmode="numeric" style="position:absolute;opacity:0;" />
    <input id="pin" type="password" />
</div>

jQuery is used to pass the value from the number field to the password field
$(function(){
    $("#mask").on("keyup", function (e) {
        $("#pin").val($("#mask").val());
    });
});

I've tested this and it works in IE11 on Windows 8.1. The only issue with it is the cursor is invisible, since the mask is always selected.
Demo

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Eudes (Odo) de Saint-Amand (ur. 1110, zm. 9 października 1180) — ósmy wielki mistrz zakonu templariuszy od 1171 do 1180.

Życiorys
Urodził się w 1110 r. w regionie Artois we Francji. Jego starszym bratem był Godfrey de Saint-Armand, jeden z pierwszych braci-rycerzy, współzałożycieli zakonu templariuszy.

Do zakonu wstąpił ok. 1128 r. pod wpływem Hugona de Payens i starszego brata. Podczas rządów Bertranda de Blanqueforta dostał się do niewoli tureckiej, a po uwolnieniu był m.in. posłem króla Amalryka I do cesarza bizantyjskiego w 1167. Po wyborze na urząd wielkiego mistrza zasłynął tym, że odmówił Almarykowi wydania Gautiera de Mensil, który zamordował posłańców izmaelickich, niewykluczone, że za zgodą lub nawet z inspiracji wielkiego mistrza. Uczestniczył wraz ze swoimi rycerzami w zwycięskiej dla Franków bitwie pod Lyddą. Za jego sprawą wybudowano zamek Chastellet u Brodu Jakuba.

W bitwie pod Mesafatem dostał się do niewoli i był więziony w Damaszku. Odmówił zapłacenia za siebie okupu lub wymiany, twierdząc, że "templariusz może ofiarować jako okup jedynie swój pas i puginał". Zmarł w niewoli.

Pojawia się w powieści Król trędowaty autorstwa Zofii Kossak.

Wielcy mistrzowie zakonu templariuszy
Urodzeni w 1110
Zmarli w 1180


text:
Strum and Clang
Beth Orton weds folk with electronica.
By John Benson on Thu, Jun 10, 1999 at 4:00 am
Beth Orton is in no mood to talk. With a U.S. tour only days away, the last thing she wants to do is discuss her latest disc, Central Reservation, or anything else that requires more than a monosyllabic answer. What Orton wants is to get back to her rehearsal space in New York City.
Despite her reticent, impatient demeanor over the phone, the English-born singer is quite the opposite when it comes to her music: handcrafted slices of honesty, despair, and hope. Simple folk melodies float over a drum loop or abstract electronic sounds. In theory, they would collide; on disc, they gel.
On her debut, Trailer Park, and recent follow-up, Orton has accomplished the seemingly impossible: bridging the monumental gap between folk and electronica. "I kind of see it, but I don't get too hung up on it," she says. "I write songs and put music to them. People I work with put music to them. I'm faithful to the song, ultimately. What the song is crying out for is what it gets."
The six-foot singer didn't have delusions of musical grandeur growing up. While she showed a casual interest in theater during her late teens, it seemed to be just something to do rather than a career choice. Singing was something she did while she vacuumed--she found comfort in the droning sound. Her life was changed after a chance meeting with then-unknown dance producer William Orbit, now known for his work with Madonna on Ray of Light. Orton bummed a cigarette off him in a London bar, and he was intrigued by her unique speaking voice. He worked with the unpolished singer over the next two years, indoctrinating her into the dark world of electronic music.
Word of Orton's unusual delivery and subtle nature began to spread. Her vocal contribution on "Alive: Alone," from the Chemical Brothers' debut disc Dig Your Own Hole, introduced Orton to generation ecstasy.
Though she received a warm reception within the London techno scene, Orton's true musical voice had yet to be heard. Her debut disc would feature an obvious folk influence--Joni Mitchell and Rickie Lee Jones come to mind. Her gentle acoustic guitar melodies and insightful lyrics were supplemented with unobtrusive samples and beats. The music appealed to Lilith Fair folks and served as the perfect comedown from a night of raving.
The down-to-earth singer isn't sure how to take the attention, which has grown at a slow but steady pace. "I'm not sure that I'm that famous," Orton says. "Am I? Well, I don't know. Yeah, I think it's scary. I think, as the songwriter, part of that for me is being observing. I think it's scary to think of somebody being observed, other than being the observer. You know what I mean?"
Orton continues to delve into her past, as well as her current life. "Pass in Time," from her latest disc, is a cathartic peace offering that deals with her father's death--when she was eleven--and her mother's abrupt passing, when she was nineteen. Given a month to live, Orton's mother died a week after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Life is neither fair nor easy, and Orton does her share of healing on Central Reservation.
"I have to sing about honesty," she says. "I kind of hate liars. So I write honestly, I suppose. As honest as it can be. Because you know, what's honest this minute isn't going to be very honest the next minute. Honesty is quite a subjective thing really. . . I don't consciously do it, but often I look back and say to myself, 'Well, that's obviously more personal than I realized.' Yeah, I have regrets, but I don't think other people would know what I was talking about anyway in my own life. At the end of the day, I've chosen to write like that, and I have to stand by it, really."
Orton has won the luxury of being able to record with whomever she wishes. For Central Reservation, she assembled a highly talented group of musicians: guitar virtuoso Ben Harper, piano player Dr. John, and her jazz hero, Terry Callier. The album is filled with chapters of love and life, and Orton's voice leads the way, as the musicians provide the nuance and atmosphere.
Orton has a Dusty Springfield quality about her. She knows how to sing within the song's melody without getting in its way. Her tardy entrances, unusual pauses, and other vocal idiosyncrasies give her music a refreshing feel, as if she is retraining the listener on how to listen. "I like it when it's almost always falling apart--about on the verge of falling to pieces, and then it doesn't quite," she says. "Not being in it, but ahead of it."
As the conversation progresses, Orton begins to expand on her nos and yeahs. This includes discussing a theme in her music: optimism. No matter how dire the situation she presents, there is always a silver lining, if you look for it. When questioned about the lyric "Everything is going to be all right," Orton sounds as though she is trying to convince herself as much as her audience.
"You can have a heap of shit on your head and still be a good person," she says. "You can still do the right thing."
Beth Orton, with Joe Henry. 9 p.m., Friday, June 11, Odeon, 1295 Old River Road, the Flats, $12.50 ($15 day of show), Ticketmaster 216-241-5555.


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Home News "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" and Netflix Dominate 2019 Annie Awards
"Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" and Netflix Dominate 2019 Annie Awards
The 2019 Annie Award winners were announced in a gala ceremony last night in Los Angeles, CA, with Sony Pictures Animation's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse dominating its competition by winning all seven categories it was nominated in. Netflix took home the same number of awards across multiple categories, making it the other major winner for the evening.
The full list of winners this year are:
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Sony Pictures Animation)
BEST ANIMATED INDEPENDENT FEATURE: Mirai (Studio Chizu)
BEST ANIMATED SPECIAL PRODUCTION: Mary Poppins Returns (Walt Disney Studios)
BEST ANIMATED SHORT SUBJECT: "Weekends" (past lives productions)
BEST VIRTUAL REALITY PRODUCTION: Crow: The Legend (Baobab Studios)
BEST ANIMATED TELEVISION/BROADCAST COMMERCIAL: Greenpeace "There's a Rang-Tan In My Bedroom" (Passion Animation Studios)
BEST ANIMATED TELEVISION/BROADCAST PRODUCTION FOR PRESCHOOL CHILDREN: Ask the StoryBots (JibJab Bros. Studios for Netflix)
BEST ANIMATED TELEVISION/BROADCAST PRODUCTION FOR CHILDREN: Hilda (Hilda Productions Limited, a Silvergate Media Company, Netflix Inc. and Mercury Filmworks)
BEST GENERAL AUDIENCE ANIMATED TELEVISION/BROADCAST PRODUCTION: Bojack Horseman (Tornante Productions, LLC for Netflix)
BEST STUDENT FILM: "Best Friend" (GOBELINS, l'école de l'image; Nicholas OLIVIERI, Yi SHEN, Juliana DE LUCCA, Varun NAIR, David FELIU)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT FOR ANIMATED EFFECTS IN AN ANIMATED TELEVISION/BROADCAST PRODUCTION: Tales of Arcadia: Trollhunters (DreamWorks Animation Television; Nominees: David M.V. Jones, Vincent Chou, Clare Yang)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT FOR ANIMATED EFFECTS IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE PRODUCTION: Ralph Breaks The Internet (Walt Disney Animation Studios; Nominees: Cesar Velazquez, Marie Tollec, Alexander Moaveni, Peter DeMund, Ian J. Coony)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT FOR CHARACTER ANIMATION IN AN ANIMATED TELEVISION/BROADCAST PRODUCTION: Hilda (Hilda Productions Limited, a Silvergate Media Company, Netflix Inc. and Mercury Filmworks; Nominee: Scott Lewis)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT FOR CHARACTER ANIMATION IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE PRODUCTION: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Sony Pictures Animation; Nominees: David Han)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT FOR CHARACTER ANIMATION IN A LIVE-ACTION PRODUCTION: Mary Poppins Returns (Walt Disney Pictures; Nominees: Chris Sauve, James Baxter, Sandro Cleuzo)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT FOR CHARACTER ANIMATION IN A VIDEO GAME: GRIS (Nomada Studio; Nominees: Adrian Miguel, Adrian Garcia, Adrian Miguel)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT FOR CHARACTER DESIGN IN AN ANIMATED TELEVISION/BROADCAST PRODUCTION: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Walt Disney Television Animation; Nominees: Amanda Jolly)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT FOR CHARACTER DESIGN IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE PRODUCTION: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Sony Pictures Animation; Nominees: Shiyoon Kim)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT FOR DIRECTING IN AN ANIMATED TELEVISION/BROADCAST PRODUCTION: Disney Mickey Mouse (Disney Television Animation; Nominees: Eddie Trigueros)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT FOR DIRECTING IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE PRODUCTION: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Sony Pictures Animation; Nominees: Bob Persichetti, Rodney Rothman, Peter Ramsey)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT FOR MUSIC IN AN ANIMATED TELEVISION/BROADCAST PRODUCTION: Disney Mickey Mouse (Disney Television Animation; Nominees: Christopher Willis)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT FOR MUSIC IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE PRODUCTION: Incredibles 2 (Pixar Animation Studios; Nominees: Michael Giacchino)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT FOR PRODUCTION DESIGN IN AN ANIMATED TELEVISION/BROADCAST PRODUCTION: "Age of Sail" (Google Spotlight Stories, Broad Reach Pictures; Nominees: Céline Desrumaux, Jasmin Lai)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT FOR PRODUCTION DESIGN IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE PRODUCTION: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Sony Pictures Animation; Nominees: Justin K. Thompson)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT FOR STORYBOARDING IN AN ANIMATED TELEVISION/BROADCAST PRODUCTION: Disney Mickey Mouse (Disney Television Animation; Nominees: Alonso Ramirez Ramos)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT FOR STORYBOARDING IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE PRODUCTION: Incredibles 2 (Pixar Animation Studios; Nominees: Dean Kelly)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT FOR VOICE ACTING IN AN ANIMATED TELEVISION/BROADCAST PRODUCTION: BoJack Horseman (Tornante Productions, LLC for Netflix; Nominees: Will Arnett)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT FOR VOICE ACTING IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE PRODUCTION: Isle of Dogs (Fox Searchlight Pictures / Indian Paintbrush / American Empirical Pictures; Nominees: Bryan Cranston)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT FOR WRITING IN AN ANIMATED TELEVISION/BROADCAST PRODUCTION: Hilda (Hilda Productions Limited, a Silvergate Media Company, Netflix Inc. and Mercury Filmworks; Nominees: Stephanie Simpson)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT FOR WRITING IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE PRODUCTION: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Sony Pictures Animation; Nominees: Phil Lord , Rodney Rothman)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT FOR EDITORIAL IN AN ANIMATED TELEVISION/BROADCAST PRODUCTION: Big Hero 6: The Series (Walt Disney Television Animation; Nominees: Charles Jones, Joe Molinari, Dao Le, Vartan Nazarian, David Vazquez)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT FOR EDITORIAL IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE PRODUCTION: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Sony Pictures Animation; Nominees: Bob Fisher, Andrew Leviton, Vivek Sharma)
JURIED AWARDS
Winsor McCay Award – For Career Contributions to the Art of Animation
Frank Braxton (posthumously)
Andrea Romano
Ub Iwerks Award – For Technical Advancement in the Art of Animation
Ton Roosendaal for Blender Open Source Animation Software
June Foray Award – For Significant and Benevolent or Charitable Impact on the Art and Industry of Animation
Adam Burke (posthumously)
Certificate of Merit
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Nigerian chaplaincy revisited
on Thursday, 9 August 2007 at 11.39 am by Simon Sarmiento
categorised as Anglican Communion, ECUSA
Thinking Anglicans first wrote about this topic back on 16 August 2006. Since then, I have written further to various CANA officials but I have never had any response from anyone.
The "About CANA" page has moved since last year, and is now to be found here. The second link to "Archbishop Peter Akinola himself says this elsewhere on the site" has now moved here.
Mark Harris returned to the subject yesterday in CANA and inventive storytelling. He writes:
I was surprised to read the following on the Convocation of Anglicans in North America website, on the page titled, "What is CANA":
"ECUSA proved over and over again that it was unwilling to respect the faith of Anglican Nigerians by its divisive actions. One of these actions was that ECUSA unilaterally sacked the former Nigerian chaplain appointed to care for Anglican Nigerians in this country, the Rev. Canon Gordon Okunsanya. So, we can really say that ECUSA itself made the creation of CANA necessary. Necessity is truly the mother of invention."
Necessity is actually the mother of inventive storytelling. I had thought that Thinking Anglican's [sic] rather complete review of the matter might have caused CANA to change this bit of the story of their beginnings, particularly since CANA went to some trouble to revamp their web presence, but I guess not. Nothing has been done.
The idea that ECUSA made the creation of CANA necessary, on any basis having to do with the appointment of Canon Okunsanya, is rot.
Mark Harris also draws attention to the misinformation contained on the Frequently Asked Questions page of the CANA website:
Now CANA asks and then answers, in the Frequently Asked Questions section of its web site, "Is such an international connection unusual? (The connection is between CANA and Nigeria and their work in the US)
Not really. For more than 160 years (1607–1776), the first Anglicans in this country existed as a missionary outpost under the Bishop of London, England. After the American Revolution, the Church of Scotland [sic] consecrated Samuel Seabury in 1789 as the first bishop of the fledgling Episcopal Church. Most of the Anglican provinces in existence today started as the result of a similar missionary initiative. More recent provinces have had similar international sponsorship."
Once again CANA needs to clean up its act: Minor points are overlooked… the Anglicans were not "a missionary outpost," perhaps the clergy sent here by the missionary societies were missionaries. And, let's see…oh yes, the Episcopal Church of Scotland [sic] did consecrate Samuel Seabury, but he was sent off to England and then went to Scotland having been elected by at least somebody in the US to some particular venue (Connecticut) where there was NO bishop in place. He was not a missionary from Scotland.
Aaron Orear
That's the joy of a web site as opposed to a blog…nobody can comment and spoil your version of reality.
Very 'sic' indeed. And not least for the conflation of CoS and SEC! D'oh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Seabury#The_episcopacy sets out the story of Seabury's consecration fairly well.
It's all a little Orwellian, really. The particularly skewed version of history that simply pretends previous positions or iterations did not exist.
"Oceana has always been allied with Eastasia and always been at war with Eurasia." Even though we all remember that a week ago she was at war with Eastasia and allied with Eurasia.
Or perhaps a more appropriate literary allusion would be: "Pay no attention to that mane behind the curtain."
"the Episcopal Church of Scotland [sic]"
Is this "sic" because, IIRC, it's the Episcopal Church *in* Scotland? (Or am I sic too? *g*)
It's called the Scottish Episcopal Church.
The Church of Scotland is the established Presbyterian church.
Read about Seabury here:
http://www.scotland.anglican.org/index.php/about/history_chapter/6_risings_and_persecution/
Steve L
CANA's version of the history of the Anglican Church in America is just the latest in a long line of factually defective statements by, or made under the authority of, +Minns. As recently as December 2006 he was still claiming that CANA would win its lawsuit against the Diocese of Virginia for control of the property of Truro Church because "we were here first." The parish's own website makes it clear that Truro Church is the namesake, not the institutional descendant, of the colonial parish. There are two possible explanations for these misstatements: (1) His critical reading skills are such… Read more »
So, was there a break in apostolic succession in the Scottish Episcopal Church? I know that Rome claims a break with Parker, but do the Scottish Bishops come from the same line?
There's some debates I stay try to stay out of. There's no point talking to some people because not only do they not want to listen, they want to stop others listening as well. The difficulty is, as the bible tells us, that souls can actually manifest their demise by attempting to destroy that which will replace it. Major scale examples are the Romans and the Pharoahs. A minor scale example that occurred to me whilst recently re-reading the books of Samuel was for Saul. Saul was irrationally aggressive towards David as the holy texts testify. It appears Saul had… Read more »
Lapinbizarre
Strange doings in Scotland at the Reformation including, as I recall, the hanging of John Hamilton, archbishop of St. Andrews "in pontificalibus". A rump of "caretaker" bishops survived through the reign of James VI, largely through his patronage, but were not consecrated as bishops. In his DNB entry on John Spottiswoode, archbishop of St. Andrews from 1615 to 1638, A. S. Wayne Pearce states "later that same year [1610] Spottiswoode, along with Bishop Andrew Lamb of Brechin and Bishop Gavin Hamilton of Galloway, received episcopal consecration in England at the hands of the bishops of London, Ely, Rochester, and Worcester,… Read more »
Cynthia Gilliatt
Re other news about CANA – go to the web site for the Diocese of Virginia – and click on News of the Diocese. There you will find a brief account of the beginning of the lawsuit that the Diocese has brought to recover property from the CANA squatters. There is a link in that story to an ENS account with a bit more detail.
The Fairfax court ruled that the canons of the Diocese and TEC have standing in resolving the suit.
This is only the first step, but a hopeful one.


Kate has always loved Charlie - they were meant to be. Then she discovers that life never turns out quite how you expect it to. And love doesn't always follow the journey it should.
But best friends are forever, and true love will find a way, won't it…?
Review: I was hooked into this novel the moment I picked it up. I read the first 20% on a train and the last 60% on a plane! that's just how compelling a read this is-you want to devour whole chunks of it at a time! This book takes place over nearly 40 years tracking two girls, cousins, their friendship, their family and their own loves and lives. I really liked that fact that this novel was about female friendship but without a focus specifically on that. The underlying theme is their relationship but this is explored through several occasions that they both attend. Some are happy occasions, some are sad occasions and some are seriously disastrous. The fact that it is told through these occasions means that you've got interesting weddings/parties/gatherings to look forward to in addition to wanting to catch up with these women and their lives.
The structure of this books reads very much like One Day, which is one of my favourite novels and so it made for a very easy read. Some chapters are longer than others but you find yourself uttering those inevitable words 'one more chapter' because of the twisty nature of the plot, you literally have no idea what is going to happen next. I really loved the events that took place because this authors deals with all the issues that life throws at us, death, illness, alcoholism, pride, friendship, unrequited love. You name it it's covered here. These issues aren't thrown in your face though, they are just a matter of fact as you read through about Kate and Becca and so you just take them as they do, very much in your stride, but all the time, willing things to go right for these women, wanting them to have a happy ending.
I definitely warmed to these characters but my fabourite character of all was secondary character Charlie. It's very hard to talk too much about him without giving away any spoilers but he is so down to earth, despite a few wobbles along the way I loved him dearly the entire time, I really loved the relationship he has with Kate's father, something which really stuck with me after I finished the books. Just as much as I was willing the women to have a happy ending, I was willing Charlie to have a happy ending too.
This book was pure joy. You will get swept up in the emotion of it all and feel things along with these characters as they do. I definitely gasped out loud more than once when I was reading this book, which is fairly embarrassing when you are in ecomonomy on a long haul flight but the people stuck in the row adjacent to me as well as in front and behind, clearly should have been reading this book too, then they would understand! Definitely something which, if you've not already bought it should be going in your holiday reading pile this year!


HomeAppsPokezz Alternatives- A Comprehensive List  !
Are you looking forward to finish your Pokemon Go Gen 2 Pokedex before your competitors? Or may you are in search for that rare Pokemon specie that will help you succeed in the gym battle? If you do then we are bringing you the best Pokezz Alternatives you can use for sniping Pokemon's that will help you locate, snipe and get all the rare Pokemon's which are hyped about but haven't really been seen.
Even though PokeZZ and PokeSniper are the most liked and used sniping platforms for Pokemon however there may be instances when you cannot locate the coordinates for a given Pokemon and would not be able to finish your collection of Pokedex. To help you out, we are bringing you the Top 9 Pokezz Alternatives which will show you the Pokemon name, its specie, the CP and the IV.
Pokedexs 100 IV is the latest App in the list for Pokezz Alternative Tool which gives you the most authentic and verifiable coordinates for a particular Pokemon in over 30 countries and guarantees you the capture of 100IV Pokemon. It has an aesthetically designed website with a user friendly page layout that allows you to search the exact, precise location of all those Pokemon's you want to snipe using filters and their specific traits. Here is the link for Pokedex .
MyPoGoSnipers is particularly manufactured for sniping Pokemon's and the specific coordinates plus the detail of Pokemon are all available in a well organized database on this website from all across the world. The in detail list of all the Pokemon's can be accessed on this website using their to the IV, level, rarity, name, country, or expiration time. MyPoGoSniper is not working yet we will update soon about MyPoGoSnipers.
PokeDexs can be called as the top most Pokezz Alternative giving you the precise and most authentic trait details for each of the Pokemon's while to further simply for you the Pokemon Sniping procedure, you can locate it with spawns and coordinates and the Pokemon's will be categorized into sections as well so you can keep scrolling in search for the one you want. Here is the link for Pokedexs .
If you wish to instantly snipe and catch Pokemon's having the largest levels of IV then PokeSniper should be your cup of tea, In order to see that you are able to locate a given Pokemon with the exact IV, The PokeSniper will constantly remind you with notifications so that you don't have to waste time searching for your Pokemon in the list. However to access the rate Pokemon's with an IV level of 100, you need to register for the Poke Sniper's premium service. Here is the link For PokeSniper .
RareSpawns is a website which is essentially crowd-sourced and assembles the Pokémon data and details from the most discord of sources where all the Pokemon users keep submitting their coordinates for Pokemon's. Here is the link For RareSpawns .
Real time Pokemon Go Scanners !
PokeGoSnipers is another online platform that gives you the real time updates for Pokemon's along with their names and coordinates for the rarest species of Pokemon's out there. If you are running this Pokémon sniping software on any Android device then you can easily snipe any Pokémon from the list by clicking that PokeSniper button towards the right side of any Pokémon you want to catch. Link For PokeGoSniper .
PokeSnipers uses the bots every now and then for scanning particular locations across the globe to see Pokemon's that are visible and if any Pokemon is located then its name and specific location will be made public on the website of PokeSnipers.
The website in particular is manufactured to allow you to snipe and add all the famous Pokemon's to your collection without wasting your own energy and your phone's battery moving around places for hours. You can even do a quick search for a given Pokemon and the website will display you those. Unfortunately this site is also don't work at this time .
Poke Snipe is that one website which will give you a sort of recent list of the specific locations for the Pokemon's and will also give you the software that you can run to snipe a given Pokemon instantly on your PC. The list of the website may not be updated too regularly but still you can locate the Pokemon's that are relatively harder to find. Unfortunately this Poke location sniper service has been closed . If this Article is Helpful to you then please share this with your friends and Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for latest updates….


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NetComposites > News > Araldite Adhesives Bond with Europe's Future Design Engineers
Araldite Adhesives Bond with Europe's Future Design Engineers
Friday, 3rd September 2004
More in Sports & Leisure
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UK University students win materials design award, aimed at educating students in structural adhesives for industrial bonding.
Four engineering students from Coventry University win £1000 cash prize champions of the inaugural Araldite Challenge – a national initiative developed by Huntsman Advanced Materials to educate future design engineers in the practicalities of design for manufacture and the benefits of using structural adhesives for industrial bonding.
Budding design engineers George Constandinides, George Xrysakis, David Muñoz and Jedsada Kraikosol from Coventry's School of Engineering came top of the class after pitting their wits against students from six UK universities to create a bonded metal structure capable of achieving the highest load at yield.
After an introductory lecture on adhesive technology and following specific design guidelines issued by technical support at Huntsman Advanced Materials, each team created two flat top beams at least 400mm long, 25mm wide and a maximum of 150mm in height. Backed by guidance from course tutors and technical data sheets on curing cycles and pre-treatment processes, Coventry's winning design romped to victory.
Stuart J Thompson, head of adhesive technical support EMEA at Huntsman Advanced Materials said, "Congratulations to the Coventry team on a truly exceptional design. We are delighted the Challenge has been so well received in its first year. Industrial adhesives are successfully used to bond a range of plastics, composites, metals and glass in a broad range of industrial applications. Our Challenge is geared to engaging with the next generation of design engineers to educate them about the tangible design, performance and cost benefits that adhesive technologies can deliver. We look forward to building on the initial success of the Challenge during the academic year ahead."
Gurmail Singh, programme manager at Coventry University's School of Engineering said, "The Araldite Challenge has been a fantastic team building exercise and has proved an excellent platform for students to discuss ideas, put theory into practice and recognise the importance of design for manufacture. The winning team are an exceptional group of students whose enthusiasm in the Challenge is reflected in the dedication shown to their degree course. They embraced the Challenge concept from start to finish and gave careful consideration to the construction of their winning design."
"Between 70 and 80 per cent of time spent on the Araldite Challenge involved planning design specifications. The parameters set were excellent and helped concentrate the student's minds. The whole process served as a useful introduction to adhesives – a topic not normally covered on our course syllabus which tends to focus on more traditional fastening methods like welding and riveting. We look forward to getting involved in the Challenge again and educating our next in-take of students in the benefits of adhesive bonding."
The £1000 prize money was presented at Coventry University by Huntsman Advanced Materials representatives Stuart Thompson and Barrie Hayes who spent the morning with the triumphant students discussing the merits of their successful design and the obstacles they faced during construction.
Huntsman Advanced Materials will open the Araldite Challenge to select Universities during 2004 / 2005. Further details of how to enter will be issued later in the year.
http://www.araldite.com


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Seasonal Climate Outlook Message for April to July 2000
SOI message - 26th April 2000
The average SOI over the last 30 days was +13.4. Based on the SOI, the probabilities of exceeding median rainfall during the total April to June period are little different from the 'normal' for this time of year in most of the eastern States of Australia, except for coastal districts from St Lawrence in Qld to the Victorian border where the probabilities are higher at 60-80%.
Review of Climatic Forecasts and Information
Based on the latest values and trends of the SOI, the probabilities of receiving above-median rainfall over the total April-June period are little different from the 'normal' for this time of year in most of the eastern States of Australia. Exceptions are coastal districts from St Lawrence in Qld to the Victorian border where the probabilities are higher at 60-80%; and the tip of Cape York Peninsula, parts of central and central-western Qld, and parts of north-eastern Tasmania where the probabilities are 60-70%.
The persistent 'cool' sea-surface temperature (SST) anomalies are slowly contracting, indicating that the La Niña may be receding. This is also hinted at by other features such as the weakening of the strong easterly winds in the central Pacific Ocean associated with the La Niña.
Forecasts from most experimental general circulation models are currently suggesting that by mid-year the La Niña will have subsided and neutral conditions dominate. Sub-surface sea temperatures to the east of Australia are now significantly warmer than normal, in classic 'pre-El Nino' mode. In addition, some early research work suggests the sub-tropical ridge may again be further north than normal this winter which may tend to reduce winter rainfall from the Goondiwindi district through to the Central Highlands. As these indicators provide some cause for concern, regular monitoring of them and the SOI during the autumn 'predictability gap' is recommended.
Combining the rainfall outlook with current soil water and pasture condition, the probabilities of above-median pasture growth during the total March-May period are 60-100% in much of north Qld; 0-10% in much of far North Qld (maximum pasture growth has already been achieved); and 0-40% in much of the south-eastern corner of Qld.
The 30-50 day oscillation is next expected to pass Queensland approximately in the second week of May.


If you think, does Turmeric make you sleepy or you have heard people reporting improved sleep patterns thanks to turmeric or you have heard success stories with turmeric and sleep through supplements? The answer to all the questions is a big Yes! Turmeric does help you go to sleep but if taken correctly.
You are probably struggling with sleep and looking for natural ways to improve your sleep pattern. We all have been through this phase where insomnia just hits you hard and every minute of slumber weighs in Gold. You might have already tried the golden milk recipe but have not got the instant results. The reason is you are taking turmeric the wrong way.
Before we get into how Turmeric helps in sleep, I recommend that you read some nerd stuff related to why you might be struggling with sleeping.
The cells in your immune system communicate with each other by a family of glycoproteins that are commonly called as Cytokines. There are different types of cytokines and some of them boost sleep while others prevent you from sleep.
If your body has more sleep-depriving cytokines than sleep helping ones, then you will struggle to sleep. It is going to be one long night.
There are a bunch of reasons why these sleep inhibiting cytokines are on the rise in your body. A common reason is some sort of infection. Yes during fever or some bad infection you will have a hard time to sleep because your body is fighting with foreign bodies at the cellular level and anti cytokines may be high in number.
Another problem related to high cytokines is inflammation. If you are suffering from joint pains especially arthritis then the likely cause of sleep deprivation is cytokines. Similarly, Stress! Yes, if you are anxious or if you keep on thinking on stuff then it will increase anti sleep cytokines in your body.
These are some of the reasons why sleep discouraging cytokines are more in number. The cause for your body might be different, you can check this post in case you feel if it is inflammation.
So now you know that cytokines are probably high in your body. So the question is how one can increase production of sleep-promoting cytokines in the body or reduce the production of sleep-depriving cytokines. The answer is to modulate the cytokines and this is where things get from nerdy to beautiful!
Turmeric is made out of many nutrients but the most important that is present in a very low amount of turmeric powder is Curcumin. This compound is the reason why Turmeric is very famous for its medicinal benefits.
Curcumin is a MIGHTY cytokines modulator. It suppresses sleep depriving cytokines in your body and neutralizes the cytokines imbalance in the body.
In nerdy terms, Curcumin reduces inflammation-promoting cytokines by disabling nuclear factor-kappa B called as NF-kB.
So the problem creating cytokines get lower in numbers and get in balance with sleep-promoting or even lower than them. In the end, you get a cytokines balanced body and you can sleep easily without difficulty. I will get into an effective solution of getting Curcumin easily just hold on a little more.
As mentioned Turmeric powder is sleep promoter but it is not as easy as it seems, there are some problems associated with turmeric.
Turmeric has a very low quantity of curcumin. For example, if you bought 1000 grams of turmeric then will only have 36 grams of Curcumin in it. Obviously, you cannot eat 1kg of turmeric per day. On average you can only take 2-3 tablespoons of turmeric and that too is very difficult considering it is very bitter. These 2-3 tablespoons will only have few grams of Curcumin. So what you get is the very low quantity of sleep helping cytokine helper. Does not help our cause!
The second problem is the inability of our body to absorb the low amount of curcumin in turmeric powder. That means all the tablespoons you are swallowing, only a few milligrams not even a gram gets absorbed while more than 98% gets excreted or wasted.
That is an insult, the already less amount of curcumin is not getting absorbed by the body.
The solution to above problem would be to have maximum extracted curcumin out of the turmeric powder and increase absorption somehow.
These supplements have already taken the pain of extracting curcumin only from the turmeric powder. So the pills have the 95% of curcumin in them. Imagine the tablespoons you are swallowing quickly are made up of 95% compound for which turmeric's sleep induction is famous for.
The second problem of absorption is solved by these supplements by presenting the molecules of curcumin to our body's favorite packaging. In technical words, the molecules are seen by our bodies as biologically available or Bioavailability. Curcumin in this state is readily absorbed by the gut and then immediately dispatched in the bloodstream where it slows down the production of sleep-depriving cytokines.
I have touched this topic in great detail on turmeric dosage per day. You will find it helpful.
So you know it now why Turmeric and sleep are related and know the answer to the query does turmeric make you sleepy. You might be wondering why not try golden milk for sleep. It is a good idea but that is 97% Turmeric milk, not Curcumin Milk which is the sleep-inducing chemical. For better and immediate effects I would opt for supplements because they offer more benefits other than just sleep.
A lot if you search on google scholar.