Moon in Sagittarius until later today at 10:06 PM EDT when the Moon moves into Capricorn.
Today there is only one (1) lunar aspect present as the Moon trines Uranus at 8:50 PM EDT. Most of us are waking-up to this energy or it is causing us to toss and turn. Uranus is known for being a very 'unique' planet and for calling our attention to that which is 'unusual'. Uranus has a very 'strange' look about it. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that Uranus is known as 'the tilted planet' because it rotates on its side. How unusual! So if Uranus is on its side, are Uranus's North and South pole really North and South or East and West? How strange! Uranus on its sides presents both of its poles to the Sun at the same time. This means both hemispheres on one side are bathed in light by the Sun, while the other side has both hemispheres bathed in total darkness. It's wild! Unusual to say the least. Sure, most planets are tilted 'a bit' but not like Uranus. It is literally on its side. How odd! I bet you won't forget how unusual Uranus is now, will you?
Even though the Moon trine Uranus is exact at 8:50 PM EDT, remember lunar aspects carry an 'orb of influence' of 12 to 14 hours before and after its exactness. Depending on your level of self-awareness and level of sensitivity, many of you will be feeling this aspect as early as 6:50 AM EDT until 10:50 AM EDT the next day. Uranus is the higher octave of Mercury, which is the planet of the mind. Taking Mercury to a higher octave (Uranus) brings about many enterprising and unconventional ideas. Make certain you remain 'open' to new ways of thinking. With the Nodes in the fixed sign of Leo and Aquarius, along with Jupiter in the fixed sign of Scorpio and the Sun in the fixed sign of Taurus, that creates a lot of energy that says, "I'm not budging! I won't change!" This energy is requiring you to be open if you wish to gain.
This aspect 'can be' rebellious, just to be somewhat of a trouble-maker. This really isn't a rebellion against authority, as much as it is rebellion against the 'mob mentality'. We have seen a lot of this in the news where politics are concerned. This 'mob mentality' is a result of Pluto in Capricorn, which you have probably read in your Generational Horoscope. This lunar aspect just may cause you to ditch the 'mob mentality' and have a go at having your own independent thought (wow, what a novel idea, thinking on your own) and be brave enough to stand in your own thoughts. Sound familiar if you have been following the news? This aspect is wacky and unusual, but again, Uranus is tilted and thinks completely different than any other planet. It will think and try anything new simply because it's different. Let's see just how different you can be today. How can you grow if you do not embrace change? Uranus is all about change, even if it has to turn the apple cart on its side (like itself).
Download the 'Moon Opposing Venus' chart wheel here!
The Moon in Sagittarius trine Uranus in Aries at exactly 8:50 PM EDT. You will feel this energy within 12-14 hours 'before and after' it occurs.


text:
Q: Jason/AgentSpeak trying to synchronize agents Hello I am trying to implement a tree sort for 8 numbers. I created 15 tree nodes agents and one manager agent. What I am trying to achieve is to synchronize leaves in the tree and send their generated numbers to manager node. My problem is that in my for cycle, the leaves are not synchronized so manager is waiting for next leaf but that leaf may send it's number already. Is there a way to synchronize these leaves so the manager waits for each leaf and then prints out received numbers?
Here are the agents:
treeSort.mas2j
MAS treeSort {
    infrastructure: Centralised
    agents:
        manager;
        agent#15;
}

manager.asl:
!start.
+!start : true <-
    for ( .range(I,8,15) ) {
        .concat("agent",I,TempAgent);
        .print("waiting from ",TempAgent);
        .wait(recievedNum(Y,X) & Y=TempAgent);
        .print("from ",Y," recvd ",X);
    };
    .println(" done").

agent.asl
!start.

@p1 +!start : .my_name(agent8) | .my_name(agent9)| .my_name(agent10)|.my_name(agent11)
        | .my_name(agent12) | .my_name(agent13) | .my_name(agent14) |my_name(agent15) <- +myNum(math.round(math.random(100)));
    ?myNum(X);
    +iam(leaf);
    .my_name(Y);
    .send(manager, tell, recievedNum(Y,X)).

@p2 +!start : .my_name(agent7) | .my_name(agent6)|  .my_name(agent5) |.my_name(agent4)
        | .my_name(agent3) | .my_name(agent2) <- +iam(node).

@p3 +!start : .my_name(agent1) <- +iam(root).

A: The .concat produces a string (TempAgent is thus a string), but the first argument of receivedNum is an atom and both do no unify. Solution:
!start.
+!start : true <-
    for ( .range(I,8,15) ) {
        .concat("agent",I,TempAgent);
        .print("waiting from ",TempAgent);
        .term2string(YT,TempAgent);
        .wait(recievedNum(YT,X));
        .print("from ",YT," recvd ",X);
    };
    .println(" done").

A: It is really tricky! I was using Jason 2.1 and I have experienced some unstable results. From Jason 2.2a and 2.3 SNAPSHOT actually, your original idea is working just fixing some typos and including ".term2string(YT,TempAgent);" and removing "& Y=TempAgent" as proposed by Jomi. But, to ensure that all agents are ready and also the creation of random numbers being done also in right sequence I propose the following code:
treeSort.mas2j
MAS treeSort {
    infrastructure: Centralised
    agents:
        manager;
        agent#15;
}

manager.asl
!start.

+!start : .count(hi[_],N) & N >= 15 <- //wait for all agents
    for ( .range(I,8,15) ) {
        .concat("agent",I,TempAgent);
        .print("waiting from ",TempAgent);
        .term2string(YT,TempAgent);
        .send(TempAgent,achieve,start);
        .wait({+newMsg(YT,X)},5000);
        .print("from ",YT," recvd ",X);
    };
    .println(" done").

+!start <-
    .wait(100);
    !start.

+hi.

+recievedNum(YT,X) <-
    -+newMsg(YT,X).

agent.asl
!hi.

+!hi <- .send(manager, tell, hi).

@p1 +!start : .my_name(agent8) | .my_name(agent9)| .my_name(agent10)|.my_name(agent11)
        | .my_name(agent12) | .my_name(agent13) | .my_name(agent14) |.my_name(agent15) <- +myNum(math.round(math.random(100)));
    ?myNum(X);
    +iam(leaf);
    .my_name(Y);
    .send(manager, tell, recievedNum(Y,X)).

@p2 +!start : .my_name(agent7) | .my_name(agent6)|  .my_name(agent5) |.my_name(agent4)
        | .my_name(agent3) | .my_name(agent2) <- +iam(node).

@p3 +!start : .my_name(agent1) <- +iam(root).

A: To synchronize the agents, the performative askOne is better: it stops the execution of the intention until an answer is received. For instance, the manager:
!start.
+!start : true <-
    .wait(500); // **** waits a bit for agents to start
    for ( .range(I,8,15) ) {
        .concat("agent",I,TempAgent);
        .print("waiting from ",TempAgent);
        .term2string(YT,TempAgent);
        .send(YT,askOne,num(_),num(X)); // **** waits for the answer
        .print("from ",YT," recvd ",X);
    };
    .println(" done").

and the agent code:
!start.

@p1 +!start : .my_name(agent8) | .my_name(agent9)| .my_name(agent10)|.my_name(agent11)
        | .my_name(agent12) | .my_name(agent13) | .my_name(agent14) | .my_name(agent15)
<- +num(math.round(math.random(100))); // *** just add the belief (the askOne protocol will look for it)
   +iam(leaf).

@p2 +!start : .my_name(agent7) | .my_name(agent6)|  .my_name(agent5) |.my_name(agent4)
        | .my_name(agent3) | .my_name(agent2)
<- +iam(node).

@p3 +!start : .my_name(agent1) <- +iam(root).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
@interface CMHCardCell ()
/// titleLabel
@property (nonatomic , readwrite , weak) UILabel *titleLabel;
/// imageView
@property (nonatomic , readwrite , weak) UIImageView *imageView;
/// card
@property (nonatomic , readwrite , strong) CMHCard *card;
@end

@implementation CMHCardCell
#pragma mark - Public Method
- (void)configureModel:(CMHCard *)card{

    self.card = card;

    self.titleLabel.text = card.title;
    [self.imageView yy_setImageWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:card.imageUrl] placeholder:MHImageNamed(@"placeholder_image") options:CMHWebImageOptionAutomatic completion:NULL];
}

- (instancetype)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame{
    if (self = [super initWithFrame:frame]) {
        // 初始化
        [self _setup];

        // 创建自控制器
        [self _setupSubViews];

        // 布局子控件
        [self _makeSubViewsConstraints];
    }
    return self;
}

#pragma mark - 事件处理Or辅助方法

#pragma mark - Private Method
- (void)_setup{
    self.layer.cornerRadius = 10.0f;
    self.layer.masksToBounds = true;
    self.backgroundColor = [UIColor greenColor];
}

#pragma mark - 创建自控制器
- (void)_setupSubViews
{
    UIImageView *imageView = [[UIImageView alloc] init];
    imageView.contentMode = UIViewContentModeScaleAspectFill;
    imageView.layer.masksToBounds = true;
    self.imageView = imageView;
    [self.contentView addSubview:imageView];

    /// 标题
    UILabel *titleLabel = [[UILabel alloc] init];
    titleLabel.font = MHRegularFont_14;
    titleLabel.textColor = UIColor.whiteColor;
    titleLabel.backgroundColor = [[UIColor blackColor] colorWithAlphaComponent:.5];
    titleLabel.textAlignment = NSTextAlignmentCenter;
    self.titleLabel = titleLabel;
    [self.contentView addSubview:titleLabel];
}

#pragma mark - 布局子控件
- (void)_makeSubViewsConstraints{

    [self.imageView mas_makeConstraints:^(MASConstraintMaker *make) {
        make.edges.mas_equalTo(UIEdgeInsetsZero);
    }];

    [self.titleLabel mas_makeConstraints:^(MASConstraintMaker *make) {
        make.height.mas_equalTo(30);
        make.left.bottom.and.right.equalTo(self.contentView);
    }];
}

#pragma mark - 布局
- (void)layoutSubviews{
    [super layoutSubviews];
}
@end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
RT @DickensMuseum: Announcement of the day @BBCNews: bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…From DFCowan	17 hours ago
Democrats Run On Empty As Gas Prices Reach Historic Highs
Today marks another historic milestone in the presidency of Barack Obama. After more than three years of prices at the fuel pump steadily rising, this past month saw prices spike a whopping 9% and bring the national average of a gallon of gasoline up to $3.61 a gallon for the year, 10 cents more a gallon than it cost in 2011. All of this adds up to what will be the most expensive year for drivers in history.
Now to be fair, the truth is that Presidents and Congresses have only a certain amount of control over the price. But they could have a a dramatic effect on stabilizing costs. Fuel prices are largely established through the price set for crude oil on the world market. Oil, regardless of what nation it comes from is thrown into one big economic bucket and stamped with one price throughout the world. That is something which many, including Republicans often ignore when they argue for the need for the United States to increase domestic drilling.
While augmented domestic drilling is certainly a wise policy, it would not necessarily solve all our problems or drastically reduce the price of gas. However; by tapping into the vast wealth of natural, domestic, energy sources like crude oil, the United States would certainly have a stabilizing effect on the energy market and the price of oil.
The high price that we are seeing at the pump now is, despite a sluggish and troubled economy, a direct result of the fact that worldwide demand is up and supplies are coming from increasingly unstable and even dangerous locations of the world; i.e.: the Middle East. This means that if the United States which consumes most of the world's oil supply, happened to increase its production of domestic oil it would help to stabilize the world oil market by increasing the number of stable, secure, and reliable locations that are contributing to the world market, thereby adding a boost to the supply side of the supply and demand dynamic that is causing the unsettling run-up in fuel costs that we are now experiencing.
But President Obama and the liberal lock that Democrats have on Congress through their majority in the U.S. Senate, refuse to take advantage of our ability to exploit domestic natural resources. It is a policy that not only continues to put undue pressure on the world oil market, it also denies Americans jobs, something which more rational political leaders would see as a necessary initiative at a time when our nation is experiencing its 40th consecutive month of unemployment in excess of 8%.
In this tough economy, while our federal government should be doing everything that is possible to get the economic engine of our nation moving again, it is clear that President Obama and his fellow liberals will be of no help on this issue. Since coming to power, the only discernible efforts they have taken in the area of energy have been on the mishandling of the 2009 Gulf oil disaster that saw hundreds of millions of gallons of oil gush into the Gulf of Mexico for several months, and feeble attempts to prop up misguided alternative energy efforts such as the one involving the unfolding Solyndra scandal.
And as the average price of a gallon gas is predicted to reach as high as $3.90 a gallon by year's end, Democrats, including President Obama happen to be missing in action on the issue.
As Democrats gear up to re-nominate their messiah for President, a deafening silence has fallen over the liberal lala land that the left occupies.
There are no complaints from limousine liberals over the price of gas or even the high unemployment rates which could be reduced by incorporating an all-of-the-above strategy into our national energy policy. This newfound silence of the left offers a stark contrast to the reaction that liberals had to the high cost of gas in 2006 when it briefly spiked to point in excess of $3.00.
At one point, as Democrats were gearing up for the 2006 midterm elections and gas prices were reaching their highest of the Bush years, Chuck Schumer held a press conference and stated;
"Well, we knew this was going to happen. Prices are now back up to over $3.00 a gallon again. If we do nothing, within all too short a time prices they're going to be at $4.00 a gallon and $5.00 a gallon. And there's going to be a giant hole getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger, in every consumer's pocketbook or wallet.
Back then, The New York Times, the now tarnished, Gray Lady of liberal propaganda, proudly extolled;
"Democrats running for Congress are moving quickly to use the most recent surge in oil and gasoline prices to bash Republicans over energy policy, and more broadly, the direction of the country."
Six years later and the soaring price of gas is something the left is now seemingly trying to keep a secret. But in the words of Harry Reid, "the word is out".
That genie is out of the bottle and at the moment, Democrats don't seem to have any way to put her back in the bottle or to explain her escape. No matter how many distractions the left concoct, no matter how much President Obama and his campaign henchmen try to defame Mitt Romney, and despite all the attempts to divide Americans and then piece together a majority of the vote for the President's reelection, far too many Americans are uniting together under what are becoming very negative campaign ads for Democrats —- the signs which contain the high price for gas that the Obama energy policy is forcing Americans to pay.
Back in 2006, under the direction of Senator Schumer who was the Chairman of Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and in charge of getting liberals elected to the Senate, made bashing Bush on the high price of gas a mandatory theme for candidates to run on. Fast forward to 2012 and Democrats are not running on the price of gas, they are trying to run as far away from those prices as many Democrats who are up for reelection are running as far away from the democratic National Convention as they possibly can.
It's just another sign of the liberal hypocrisy that forms the foundation of liberal logic but in the meantime, our President has once again made history. In addition to making history as the first President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for simply getting elected, other historic firsts include his success in putting nearly a third of the U.S. economy under government controlling by delivering socialized healthcare to our shores, the accumulation of a total debt that greater than the sum total of all previous presidents, his capping of salaries in the private sector, the first downgrade of the U.S credit rating, and the longest sustained period of unemployment in excess of 8%. Now he has achieved the historic honor of presiding over the most expensive year for motorists ever. The problem is, I am not sure how much more of the President's historic achievements Americans afford?
Filed under: Energy Policy, Issues | Tagged: #tcot, 2012 election coverage, 2012 election sites, 2012 election websites, 2012 Presidential Election, 2012 presidential election sites, 2012 race for president, 2012 Republican presidential candidates, 2012 Republican presidential election coverage, all of the above approach to energy, Barack Obama, Barack Obama makes history again, candidate bios, Chuck Schumer, Democrats attacked bush for high gas prices, election 2012, election websites, energy policy, G.O.P., Gas expected to reach $3.90 by the end of the year, gas prices, GOP, gop12, Harry Reid, high gas prices, highest gas prices ever, how will the cost of gas effect the election, Janna Ryan, Liberal hypocrisy, meet the candidates, middle east, milestones of the Barack Obama presidency, Mitt Romney, Mitt Romney Bio, Mitt Romney for President, Mitt Romney on the issues, new york times, obama, Paul Ryan bio, Paul Ryan on the issues, Paul Ryan voting record, political strategy, politics 24/7, Politics 247. U4Prez, President Obama's energy policy, presidential candidate biographies, presidential election coverage, presidential election websites, race for the white house, Republican National Convention, Romney 2012, Romney Ryan 2012, the 2012 presidential election, the most expensive year for motorists ever, The presidential election, the republican race for President, the Ryan budget, top ten 2012 presidential election websites, United States, White House 2012, White House 2012 on Twitter, whitehouse12, whitehouse2012, who is Paul Ryan, Who will win the presidential election, who will win the white house, Why are Democrats not talking about the high cost of gas, wordpress political blogs |	2 Comments »
Barack Obama's "Irresponsible" and "Unpatriotic" Presidency
Together, the Romney/Ryan ticket's concentration on their proposals to put our nation on a path to prosperity will force voters to have a national discussion on the economic crisis we are currently struggling through and the cataclysmic economic cliff we are close to falling off of. As seen in the video below, that discussion will make it impossible for President Obama to avoid being held accountable for his actions and his words.
The message in that video focuses on several incontrovertible points;
In 2008, Senator Barack Obama called George W. Bush "irresponsible" and "unpatriotic" for accumulating a debt of nearly 4 trillion dollars.
In 2008 that debt amounted to $30,000.00 owed for every man, woman & child in the nation.
In 2012, President Obama has accumulated more debt than all 43 Presidents before him, combined.
Now, in 2012, president Obama's accelerated creation of debt places a tax burden of more than $50,000.00 for every man, woman and child in the nation. That's $20,000.00 more than under Bush.
Those undeniable points must force every voter to ask themselves whether or not they truly believe that in the next four years, President Obama's liberal tax and spend policies will produce results that are any different than the results they achieved during the past four years.
It also forces President Obama to have to explain whether or not he holds himself to the same standards that he holds other to and if he does, can he explain exactly why voters should not conclude that his reckless accumulation of more debt than any President in history is anything but "irresponsible" and "unpatriotic"?
And while he's at it, could President Obama please tell us exactly why in the name of all that is decent and good, Americans should reelect a President who is "irresponsible" and "unpatriotic?
Filed under: National Debt, President Obama | Tagged: #tcot, 2012 election coverage, 2012 election sites, 2012 election websites, 2012 Presidential Election, 2012 presidential election sites, 2012 race for president, 2012 Republican presidential candidates, 2012 Republican presidential election coverage, Barack Obama, Barack Obama calls Bush irresponsible and unpatriotic, Barack Obama debt is irresponsible and unpatriotic, Barack Obama on debt, Barack Obama's broken promises, campaign ads, candidate bios, Debt, election 2012, election websites, G.O.P., George W. Bush, GOP, gop12, has Barack Obama tripled the national debt, Is Barack Obama a hypocrite, Janna Ryan, meet the candidates, Mitt Romney, Mitt Romney Bio, Mitt Romney for President, Mitt Romney on the issues, obama, obama campaign ads, Obama campaigning in North Dakota, Obama tax and spend policies, Obama youtube clips, Patriotism, Paul Ryan bio, Paul Ryan on the issues, Paul Ryan voting record, political strategy, politics 24/7, Politics 247. U4Prez, President, presidential candidate biographies, presidential election coverage, presidential election websites, race for the white house, Republican National Convention, Romney 2012, Romney campaign ads, Romney Ryan 2012, the 2012 presidential election, The national debt, The presidential election, the republican race for President, the Ryan budget, top ten 2012 presidential election websites, United States, White House 2012, White House 2012 on Twitter, whitehouse12, whitehouse2012, who is Paul Ryan, Who will win the presidential election, who will win the white house, wordpress political blogs |	1 Comment »
Complete Video of Paul Ryan's First One-On-One Interview as Mitt Romney's Vice Presidential Running Mate
In his first one-on-one televised interview as Mitt Romney's vice presidential running mate, Congressman Paul Ryan demonstrated just why Romney's first major decision of his potential presidency was a home run. (see the complete interview in the video below)
In naming Paul Ryan his running mate, Mitt Romney made a statement that was far louder than any words could be. It was statement that made it clear that as President, Romney will be focused on addressing the issues that up to now, Republicans and Democrats alike have ignored, our nation's debt and the entitlement reforms which tend to be responsible for the largest portion of our debt.
In the interview conducted by Britt Hume for Fox News, Congressman Ryan directly addressed the controversial issues of Medicare reform, Obamacare, budget balancing, tax cuts and everything which the left is preparing to demonize the Romney-Ryan ticket for. And in addressing those issues, Ryan proved to be an artful master of the economic crisis confronting our nation.
Ryan successfully put Democrats on the defensive and made it clear that while President Obama and his Party are exacerbating our problems, he and Mitt Romney are proposing actions that will lead to solutions to our problems.
According to Ryan;
"We're the ones who are offering a plan to save Medicare, to protect Medicare, to strengthen Medicare. We're the ones who are not raiding Medicare to pay for Obamacare. We're the ones who are repealing President Obama's 15-person bureaucratic board that will put price controls on Medicare that will lead to denied care for current seniors. We're the ones continuing the guarantee of Medicare for people in or near retirement. And you have to reform it for the younger generation in order tomake the commitment stick for the current generation. President Obama is actually damaging Medicare for current seniors. It's irrefutable. And that's why I think this is a debate we want to have, and that's a debate we're going to win."
While the interview was filled with enlightening answers on a host of issues, the last sentence of the above response was probably the most telling.
It was an indication of the Romney-Ryan ticket's decision to put their money on the American people's ability and desire to finally deal with the devils that are in the details of our economic woes. It was a sign that Mitt Romney might actually be serious and courageous enough to touch the third rails in politics that most politicians have spent more than 3 decades dancing around. As such, Romney and Ryan are taking a gamble on whether or not the American voter is willing to admit that harsh decisions must be made and that fundamental reforms have to be applied to a broken federal bureaucracy that is steering our economy in a dangerously erroneous direction. It is an electoral gamble that indicates Romney and Ryan are courageous enough to be politically and intellectually honest with the America and provide them with bona fide choices in this election. And the interview with Ryan verified that if anyone can explain those choices to the people and lay out the case for what needs to be done, it is Paul Ryan.
Throughout Ryan's televised discussion he displayed an incomparable command of the issues, a command of the issues that came off as being so natural to Ryan that it helped instill in viewers a level of confidence and trust in him and his proposals that few other politicians could establish in such a small amount of time. Between Ryan's non-abrasive demeanor and the innate enthusiasm that emanated from him when addressing the ability to implement real solutions to reverse our nation's downward spiral into debt, one couldn't help but sense a degree of sincerity from Paul Ryan that Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and as hard as it is to admit, even Mitt Romney, fail to convey when they are addressing the same issues. While all three of those men come across as politicians, Ryan comes across as a problem solver and that is what America is looking for in 2012. This interview provided evidence that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan may actually be those problems solvers.
Filed under: Paul Ryan | Tagged: #tcot, 2012 election coverage, 2012 election sites, 2012 election websites, 2012 Presidential Election, 2012 presidential election sites, 2012 race for president, 2012 Republican presidential candidates, 2012 Republican presidential election coverage, Brit Hume interview with Paul Ryan, Brit Hume's Interview with Paul Ryan, candidate bios, Complete Video of Paul Ryan's First Televised Interview as Mitt Romney's Vice Presidential Running Mate, election 2012, election websites, Fox interview of paul ryan, G.O.P., GOP, gop12, Janna Ryan, meet the candidates, Mitt Romney, Mitt Romney Bio, Mitt Romney for President, Mitt Romney on the issues, Paul Ryan bio, Paul Ryan interview, Paul Ryan on the issues, Paul Ryan voting record, Paul Ryan youtube, political strategy, politics 24/7, Politics 247. U4Prez, presidential candidate biographies, presidential election coverage, presidential election websites, race for the white house, Republican National Convention, Romney 2012, Romney Ryan 2012, the 2012 presidential election, The presidential election, the republican race for President, the Ryan budget, top ten 2012 presidential election websites, White House 2012, White House 2012 on Twitter, whitehouse12, whitehouse2012, who is Paul Ryan, Who will win the presidential election, who will win the white house, wordpress political blogs, youtube Fox interview of Paul Ryan, youtube paul ryan |	Leave a comment »
Why Ryan Is A Strong Choice For VP
Posted on August 13, 2012 by I.M. Citizen
Saturday morning, Romney announced his VP pick to be Ryan — no, not Ryan Seacrest — Paul Ryan, budget wizard and Wisconsin representative. Ryan is arguably the most prominent Republican in the House. He is young (42), personable and energetic and has over a decade in Congress. He knows how Washington works and why it doesn't.
Also, like Romney, he appears to be clean. Everyone has skeletons, especially politicians, but as far as anyone knows to date, the Romney-Ryan ticket may be the cleanest duo since Batman and Robin. It would be a surprise if a real scandal related to either man was uncovered. This may not win them an election but it should win them some fence-sitters.
Ryan is considered the go-to-guy regarding the budget. Nobody in Congress possesses the detailed knowledge he does which is why he chairs the House Budget Committee.
Ryan also knows how to campaign, in fact, he's never lost an election. He's 7-0. He has successfully defended his seat against both Democrats and Libertarians. During his first campaign Ryan received 57% of the vote. This is the lowest of his career. Since, he has never dipped below 63%, typically pulling in 67-68% range. In 2010 he earned 68% of the vote.
He is one of the three co-founders of the Young Guns Program, an electoral recruitment and campaign effort by House Republicans. He, along with Rubio, Walker, and other young conservatives is symbolic of the future for the Republican party.
But like all of us, Ryan is not perfect.
He has been on Romney's short list for months so there's no doubt the Left has a dossier and media packet on Ryan already prepared for shipping. The Left will also unroll articles comparing Ryan to other short-list folks like Portman (much more "real" experience) or Rubio (could have delivered Florida) to make Ryan appear a weaker pick than he is.
A lack of foreign policy experience will be something the Left tries to exploit. This will create a few headlines but Republicans should be capable of over-coming the criticism by pointing out this election is more about getting our house in order than world affairs. Besides, Obama had no foreign policy credentials a few years back and he was running for the top spot, not VP.
Ryan has proposed an aggressive plan that includes substantial changes to entitlements. Obama mocked it on live television — with Ryan seated in the front row — and the Democrats have already sliced and diced it. Now, with Ryan directly involved in the election, this plan will become a prominent issue. Already distorted, the Left will continue to have at it. To his credit, Ryan is a communicator, so if anyone can effectively walk the common folk through some of the plan details, it's him.
He's also likely to be labeled extreme or a hard-Right tea-bagger with draconian outlooks. This is a heavy distortion as Ryan's "yes" votes on the bank bailouts and on Medicare expansion program prove. But it fits in well with the Left's tired rhetoric — 'Republicans want dirty water, polluted air and will abandon the old and poor'.
Many will ask if Ryan on the ticket will put Wisconsin in play? Except it already is. Sure, Obama won Wisconsin by 14% in 2008. That's huge. But today, that has been trimmed down to about 6%. And don't forget the message Wisconsin sent during the Walker recall. The better question is — can Ryan deliver Wisconsin? That is unknown but what is known is that Obama and the Democrats, still black and blue from the beating they took during the recall, will now be compelled to spend time and money in Wisconsin, perhaps to the detriment of a different swing state.
Because Ryan is a communicator he should hold his own during the VP debate. Ryan is not a punch-line kind of guy so Biden may score a jab or two. But if properly prepped, Ryan should be able to counter. And if the debate actually delves into issues of substance, Ryan is likely to badly embarrass Biden and show him as the buffoon he is. Ryan's expertise on budget matters should help bring Romney up to speed, too.
Romney's selection of Ryan has, intentionally or unintentionally, changed the nature of election. Probably not as much as most pundits think. The economy will remain the primary issue but now political ideology has been introduced. Team Romney must be confident the common folk want to hear about fiscal responsibility and changes to entitlements — complete with fine details. Ryan offers this. Obama wins here also as he now has ideological distortions to exploit. Both sides, particularly the super PACs, will play to this — do you want the anti-America radical Left or the rich loving polluters on the Right — but the reality is voters that answer to strict ideology have already made their decision. Independents aren't likely to be swayed by the well worn cliches. It is likely to boil down to who the voters feel can get us out of this mess.
People vote for president not VP. But if there is one politician in America currently capable of explaining America's nasty financial situation, in painful detail, it is Ryan. The Left, by pushing ideology, will guarantee Ryan has to break out the charts. But that's a Ryan strength.
Like every candidate, Ryan has some shortcomings. But his positives far out distance his negatives. And compared to Biden as a VP, he's gold. Ryan is informed, intelligent, and a proven leader. He isn't an elite live audience orator but there are few better with television interviews and presentations. Romney definitely could have made a worse choice. He may not have been able to make a better one.
Follow I.M. Citizen at IMCitizen.net
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The Comeback Team: Romney Runs First Ad Introducing Paul Ryan
Hours after Mitt Romney announced his decision to nominate Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan to be his vice presidential running mate, the Romney campaign released the following introductory web ad on Ryan. It uses segments of the speech which Ryan made on Saturday, August in Norfolk, Virgina after Mitt Romney officially announced Ryan as his running mate.
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Romney's Selection of Paul Ryan for Vice President is a Gamechanger
In chosing Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan to be his running mate, Mitt Romney has set the stage for an an ideological battle that will force our nation to undergo some deep soul searching. By picking Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney has finally proven to conservatives that his committment to fiscal responsibility is based upon more than just platitudes and political gamesmanship and in doing so he has not only fired up the base of his Party, he has gotten the attention of voters who are yearning for leaders of substance and who are willing to provide the reforms needed to solve our problems instead of prolonging or exacerbating them.
That is the message offered to us by this first major decision of Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.
By picking Paul Ryan, the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, Mitt Romney has cornered the market on the most important issue facing Americans today, the economic health of our nation and made it quite clear that he is willing to provide our economy with more than just lip service.
As the House Budget Chairman, Ryan has dedicated himself to getting this nation's economy back on track by actually addressing all the third rails in politics, including the mountain of entitlements that have brought our nation to the brink of bankruptcy. As the architect of a budget plan that chooses to address our entitlement and spending problems, Paul Ryan has been one of the few political leaders with the fortitude and courage to address our problems honestly and realistically. And by nominating Ryan for Vice President, Mitt Romney demonstrated the courage to recognize and acknowledge that Ryan is an asset that we must give a greater role to play in our governance. As such, Romney's decision to pick Ryan can probably best be described as purposeful.
Romney could have a chosen a running mate based on a number of political and electoral considerations. He could have picked someone like Bob Portman in the hopes that Portman would have delivered the must win state of Ohio to Romney. He could have picked someone like Condoleezza Rice with the intention of playing gender politics or Marco Rubio for the sake of a focussing on ethnic politics in an appeal to the Hispanic vote. There were any number of political based choices that Romney could have made in an attempt to appeal to different electoral demographics. But Romney did not to give into such political temptation. Instead he chose to appeal to all Americans by carefully deciding to put policy considerations over political considerations. And it was a courageous choice. It is no secret that Democrats will try to paint Paul Ryan as a heartless conservative whose budget plan attempts to destroy Americans by cutting everything from Social Security benefits to the elderly, to slashing assistance for the impoverished. But Romney did not succumb to the fear of such propaganda. Instead, by picking Paul Ryan for Vice President, Mitt Romney demonstrated the courage to confront such accusations. In fact selecting Paul Ryan seems to signal Romney's desire for President Obama to make such accusations so that the Romney-Ryan ticket can dispel those myths once and for all.
But beyond the courage behind Romney's decision is also the worthiness of Paul Ryan himself.
Paul Ryan is young but experienced, confident, humble, and uses soft spoken words to convey hard hitting facts as he avoids demonizing the opposition. He is a down-to-earth, friendly, likeable, family man, who can relate to voters and still make them feel confident in his ability to step into the presidency if the need arose. So much so that almost exactly one year ago today, I saw fit to endorse Paul Ryan over Mitt Romney for President. Given that small aside, you won't hear me complaining about Romney's choice. It is a decision that leaves me confident in Romney's judgment and excited by the promise of his campaign and potential presidency.
By picking Paul Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney neglected to make the safe choice that I feared he would make. Instead he made a bold choice, the boldest choice of his political career and in the final analysis I believe Paul Ryan will prove to be an extraordinary choice. Few people have the type of natural command of the budget that Ryan does. And as a protegé of conservative icon Jack Kemp, Paul Ryan is the embodiment of fiscal conservatism and today, Mitt Romney boldly embraced those principles and ensured us of a presidential campaign that will put the ideological direction of our nation at the forefront of the campaign and force us to debate the real issues, the issues that President Obama is trying to avoid.
Who Is Paul Ryan?
Born: January 29, 1970 (age 41), Janesville, Wisconsin
Spouse(s): Janna Ryan
Children : Sam, Liza & Charlie
Residence : Janesville, Wisconsin
Alma mater: Miami University, (Ohio) (BA),
Profession: Blue Collar worker, Marketing Consultant
Political Career :
Intern for the foreign affairs advisor assigned to Wisconsin Sen. Bob Kasten.
staff economist attached to the office of U.S. Senator Bob Kasten
1992 – Ryan became a speechwriter and a volunteer economic analyst with Empower America, an advocacy group formed by Jack Kemp, former education secretary Bill Bennett, the late diplomat Jeane Kirkpatrick and former Minnesota Rep. Vin Weber.
1998 – Elected to Congress from his Wisconsin hometown
The Ryan Record:
Recent Key Votes
HR 4480 – Domestic Energy and Jobs Act – Legislation (Yea), June 21, 2012
HR 436 – Repeals Excise Tax on Medical Devices – Legislation (Yea) – June 7, 2012
HR 5855 – Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act for 2013 – Legislation (Nay), June 7, 2012
More Key Votes
Bill Sponsorship & Co-Sponsorship
Some of Ryan's most recently sponsored bills include…
H.R. 5652: Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act of 2012
H.R. 4966: Sequester Replacement Act of 2012
H.Con.Res. 112: Establishing the budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2013 and …
H.Res. 302: Expressing support for the designation of August 22, 2011, as Rose Brucia Stranger …
H.Con.Res. 34: Establishing the budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2012 and …
H.Res. 126: Providing amounts for the expenses of the Committee on the Budget in the …
View All » (including bills from previous years)
Ryan on the Issues
Foreign Policy Gun Control Budget & Economy Education
Homeland Security Crime Government Reform Health Care
War & Peace Drugs Tax Reform Abortion
Free Trade Civil Rights Social Security Families & Children
Immigration Jobs Welfare & Poverty Corporations
Energy & Oil Environment Technology Principles & Values
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Where Obama Ranks For Jobs With Other Presidents
Our beloved supreme ruler is jumping from swing state to swing state on his America's Recovering Elect Me Tour beating his chest as he proclaims the private sector has added more than 4.5 million jobs over the last 30 months. Let's hear it for the supreme job creator…
Hip, hip, no way!
As usual he's only telling part of the story. He mentions the "jobs created" number but conveniently skips the inconvenient "jobs lost" number. Sure, the private sector created 4.5 million jobs over 30 months (a pathetic monthly average, by the way) but ultimately it lost more than that. Obama has a net loss of jobs of over 300,000 during his presidential term according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
So, how bad is it?
Unemployment rose in July making it 42 consecutive months over 8%. Also, this recovery, to use the term loosely, has produced the slowest economic growth of any recovery.
"It is the slowest recovery ever," said Veronique de Rugy, senior fellow at the Mercatus Center, who put together a new study. "I would claim that there's really no recovery at all."
Yep. And the last twelve months have seen the slowest wage growth ever, too.
It's that bad?
It's pimple-butt bad. Obama's job numbers, as de Rugy points out, are far worse than Kennedy (3.6 million), Ford (2.1 million) and Carter (10.3 million) who, as Presidents, served for similar or shorter terms than our venerable supreme ruler. In fact, he ranks dead last in jobs, the bottom of the barrel, for all presidents since 1945.
There's more. He says the private sector is doing fine.
Does he? Well, clearly he needs to put the fruit back in the cake.
Filed under: General Issues & Events | Tagged: 2012 election coverage, 2012 election sites, 2012 election websites, 2012 presidential candidates, 2012 Presidential Election, 2012 presidential election sites, 2012 race for president, 2012 Republican caucuses, 2012 Republican presidential candidates, 2012 Republican presidential election coverage, 2012 Republican Presidential Primaries, 2012 republican primary, about the republican presidential candidates, Anthony Del Pellegrino, Barack Obama, bureau of labor statistics, candidate bios, election 2012, election websites, gop12, kempite, meet the candidates, Mercatus Center, obama, Obama's jobs record, Obama's record on jobs, political strategy, politico presidential election coverage, politics 24/7, Politics 247. U4Prez, President, presidential election websites, Private sector, race for the white house, Republican caucuses, Republican presidential candidate biographies, Republican primaries, republicans running for president in 2012, Swing state, the 2012 presidential election, The presidential election, the republican race for President, the unemployment rate, top ten 2012 presidential election websites, unemployment, United States, Where Obama Ranks For Jobs With Other Presidents, White House 2012, whitehouse12, Who is running for President, Who will win the presidential election, wordpress political blogs |	1 Comment »

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: EPPlus reading date column incorrectly when there are forward slash in the text value Excel file  row =2, column =3  (for example).  Cell is formatted as Date mm/dd/yyyy and contains the value 9/13/2018.
EPPlus code:
Dim entrydate As String = worksheet.Cells(2, 3).Text

entrydate is 13.
If cell format is changed to yyyy-mm-dd, the read is fine.
How to delimit or escape forward slashes?

A: This is a bug in the latest EPPlus.  Prior version works fine.  This is the workaround for now:
Prior to reading the cell, changing date format to yyyy-MM-dd.
worksheet.Cells(2, 3).Style.NumberFormat.Format="yyyy-MM-dd"
Dim entrydate As String = worksheet.Cells(2, 3).Text


Nassir Shamma is a renowned Arab Iraqi musician and oud player. He was born in 1963 in Kut, a village on the Tigris River. He began studying the oud at the age of 12 in Baghdad, following in the footsteps of Jamil and Munir Bashir. When he was 11-years old, Shamma saw an oud for the first time, in the hands of a stylish music teacher. Although Shamma's father, a shop owner, was religiously conservative, he did not object to his son's artistic ambitions. In 1985, Shamma played his own compositions at his first concert, attended by several renowned Iraqi artists. At the time, he worked closely with the late Iraqi master Munir Bashir. But Shamma wanted to blaze his own path. Master Munir invented the technique of contemplation with oud, but Shamma wanted his music to carry content, ideas or images that are both traditionally shocking yet profound. He received his diploma from the Baghdad Academy of Music in 1987. He began to teach oud after three years at the academy, as well as continuing his own studies. Shamma has composed music for films, plays and television.
Between 1993 and 1998 he taught the oud at the Higher Institute of Music in Tunisia, and in 1999 he took the post of Director of The Arab House of Oud in Cairo. He performs on the oud in a manner which combines traditional methods with his own modern compositions. Naseer Shamma has also created an eight-string oud or lute following the manuscript of the 9th-century music theorist Al-Farabi. This new design (eight instead of six strings) expanded the musical range of the oud and gave it a distinct tonality. His innovations also include a new method of playing the oud with only one hand, which was originally invented by Salim Abdulkarim, so that children and soldiers injured during the Gulf War could play and enjoy the oud.


text:
All issues No 418 (2017) Knowl. Manag. Aquat. Ecosyst., 418 (2017) 17 Full HTML
Topical Issue on Fish Ecology
Knowl. Manag. Aquat. Ecosyst.
Number 418, 2017
https://doi.org/10.1051/kmae/2017009
Knowl. Manag. Aquat. Ecosyst. 2017, 418, 17
Spatial variability in the growth of invasive European barbel Barbus barbus in the River Severn basin, revealed using anglers as citizen scientists
Variabilité spatiale de la croissance du barbeau européen invasif Barbus barbus dans le bassin de la rivière Severn, révélé en utilisant des pêcheurs comme des scientifiques citoyens
Fatima Amat Trigo1,2, Catherine Gutmann Roberts1 and John Robert Britton1*
1 Faculty of Science and Technology, Bournemouth University, Poole BH12 5BB, UK
2 Departmento de Zoología y Antropología Física, Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, Spain
⁎ Corresponding author: rbritton@bournemouth.ac.uk
Life history trait analyses of non-native fishes help identify how novel populations respond to different habitat typologies. Here, using electric fishing and anglers as citizen scientists, scales were collected from the invasive barbel Barbus barbus population from four reaches of the River Severn and Teme, western England. Angler samples were biased towards larger fish, with the smallest fish captured being 410 mm, whereas electric fishing sampled fish down to 60 mm. Scale ageing revealed fish present to over 20 years old in both rivers. Juvenile growth rates were similar across all reaches. Lengths at the last annulus and Linfinity of the von Bertalanffy growth model revealed, however, that fish grew to significantly larger body sizes in a relatively deep and highly impounded reach of the River Severn. Anglers thus supplemented the scale collection and although samples remained limited in number, they provided considerable insights into the spatial demographics of this invasive B. barbus population.
Les analyses des traits d'histoire de la vie de poissons non indigènes aident à identifier comment les populations nouvelles répondent à différentes typologies d'habitat. Ici, à l'aide de la pêche électrique et des pêcheurs à la ligne en tant que citoyens scientifiques, des écailles ont été recueillies sur des barbeaux, Barbus barbus, population envahissante de quatre tronçons des rivières Severn et Teme, dans l'ouest de l'Angleterre. Les échantillons des pêcheurs ont été orientés vers des poissons plus gros, le plus petit capturé étant de 410 mm, tandis que la pêche électrique a échantillonné des poissons jusqu'à 60 mm. La scalimétrie a révélé des poissons présents âgés de plus de 20 ans dans les deux rivières. Les taux de croissance des juvéniles étaient semblables dans tous les secteurs. Les longueurs au dernier annulus et le Linfini du modèle de croissance de von Bertalanffy ont révélé, cependant, que le poisson atteint des tailles de corps significativement plus grandes dans un secteur relativement profond et fortement endigué de la rivière Severn. Les pêcheurs ont ainsi complété la collecte d'écailles et, bien que les échantillons soient restés limités en nombre, ils ont fourni des indications considérables sur la démographie spatiale de cette population invasive de B. barbus.
Key words: recreational fishery / invasion / non-indigenous / somatic growth
Mots clés : pêche récréative / invasion / non autochtone / croissance somatique
© F.A. Trigo et al., Published by EDP Sciences 2017
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC-BY-ND (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.
The spatial analyses of life history traits of non-native fishes help predictions of the introduced species that will establish and develop invasive populations in new regions (Davies and Britton, 2015). These analyses also reveal the environmental conditions under which that species can thrive, for example their habitat preferences and thermal tolerances (Rahel and Olden, 2008). Traits such as somatic growth rates can show considerable variation over relatively small spatial scales, such as within catchments, especially where there has been considerable habitat disturbances caused by anthropogenic activity, such as impoundment (Rypel, 2011).
Invasive fishes are often associated with ecological impacts (Gozlan et al., 2010), although their populations can also support important recreational fisheries (Hickley and Chare, 2004). A strong example is the European barbel Barbus barbus where, in Britain, this cyprinid fish is only indigenous to eastern flowing rivers, but has now been introduced for angling into numerous rivers in their non-indigenous range (Wheeler and Jordan, 1990; Antognazza et al., 2016). In the River Severn, western England, 509 adult fish were introduced in 1956 for fishery enhancement (Wheeler and Jordan, 1990). These fish established and dispersed throughout the middle and lower river, with reports in the 1970s of their capture by anglers in the River Teme, a major tributary of the Severn (Hunt and Jones, 1975; Wheeler and Jordan, 1990; Antognazza et al., 2016; Fig. 1). The species has since been an important component of angler catches in both rivers (North, 1980; North and Hickley, 1989; Britton et al., 2013). Whilst there was a series of studies completed on B. barbus invasion biology in the River Severn from samples collected in the 1960s (e.g. Hunt and Jones, 1975), there has been limited study of this population since (Britton et al., 2013). This is despite their presence over a wide range of physical habitats, ranging from narrow and shallow sections of the River Teme to impounded, deep and slow flowing sections of the lower Severn.
Citizen science approaches, where volunteers collect and/or process data as part of a scientific enquiry, are being increasingly applied to ecological research (Silvertown, 2009; Bonney et al., 2014), and have been used to supply fisheries data, including catch returns (Post et al., 2002; O'Neill and Faddy, 2003). More recent applications include non-lethal tissue sampling for genetics (Williams et al., 2015; Guindon et al., 2015) and stable isotope analysis (Bašić et al., 2015; Bašić and Britton, 2016). Given the frequent difficulty of obtaining ecological information on B. barbus in large rivers using regular sampling methodologies such as electric fishing (Britton et al., 2013), then the use of angling within data collection approaches could provide considerable benefit. Thus, the aim here was to analyse the spatial variability of the age and growth rates of invasive B. barbus in the Rivers Severn and Teme utilising scales collected by electric fishing and supplemented by angler catches.
Scales were collected from four reaches of the rivers between 2011 and 2016 (Fig. 1). The spatial separation of the reaches was based on the likelihood of B. barbus not moving between them. As adult B. barbus are highly vagile (Britton and Pegg, 2011) then each reach was at least 20 km in length (Fig. 1). Reach 1 was the furthest upstream reach in the River Teme, from a small weir at Ashford Carbonell (52°20′07″ N; 2°42′14″ W) to Stanford Bridge (52°17′24″ N; 2°25′14″ W) (Fig. 1). Reach 2 was the lower River Teme, from a weir at Knightwick (52°11′57″ N; 2°23′22″ W) to upstream of a weir of Powick (52°10′11″ N; 2°14′49″ W). This weir was used as barrier between Reach 2 and 3 as an ongoing tracking study on B. barbus suggested it is largely impassable except under high water conditions (C. Gutmann Roberts, unpublished data). Reach 3 started downstream of this weir and continued into the lower River Severn between Diglis Weir (52°10′45″ N; 2°13′34″ W) and Upper Lode Weir (51°99′41″ N; 2°10′13″ W), as the tracking study mentioned above revealed B. barbus frequently move between both rivers. Reach 4 was in the middle River Severn, between Bridgnorth (52°31′37″ N; 2°25′03″ W) and Arley (52°24′27″ N; 2°20′49″ W) (Fig. 1). The physical, flow and chemical parameters of each Reach are provided in Table 1.
Electric fishing was completed in Reach 3 on September 22nd, 2015 from Powick Weir downstream for 500 m, with Reach 1 and 2 electric fished in September 2016. Reach 4 was unable to be electric fished during the study. Following their capture, fish were measured (fork length, nearest mm), and 3–5 scales removed and placed into a paper envelope before the fish were returned to the river. Regarding angling, the Environment Agency has trained a small number of catch-and-release anglers in the River Severn catchment to measure captured fish and collect scale samples in order to assist their fisheries management activities. Correspondingly, scales were available for angler captured B. barbus from each reach. Note these sampling methods did not allow for the sexing of individual fish and so this was unable to be accounted for in subsequent testing of data.
Scales were aged on a projecting microscope, with ageing errors minimised by application of a quality control (QC) procedure (Musk et al., 2006). In the QC, agreement in ages between readers were generally above 80% for fish up to the age of 15 years but were reduced thereafter (48–74%). Thus, in subsequent analyses, only fish to age 15 years were used. Scales were measured for scale radius, distance to last annulus and distance between annulus 1 and 2, with these converted to length at the last annulus and length increment between age 1 and 2 years old by back-calculation (Dahl Lea method; Francis, 1990). Length at the last annulus enabled growth rates over the life time of the fish to be assessed, whilst the increment between age 1 and 2 years enabled assessment of juvenile growth rates (Beardsley and Britton, 2012). Differences in the lengths of the fish sampled by angling and electric fishing were tested using a generalised linear model (GLM), as these data were not normally distributed, with the significance of differences assessed by linearly independent pairwise comparisons with Bonferroni adjustment for multiple comparisons.
The growth data were analysed by two different methods. Firstly, analyses determined the mean standardized growth residuals for each reach according to lengths at the last annulus and length increment between age 1 and 2 years (Beardsley and Britton, 2012). Only one growth metric value per fish was used in each test to avoid pseudo-replication (Beardsley and Britton, 2012). For length at the last annulus, length at age data for all reaches and fish (age 1–15 only) were used in the log–log quadratic function of Vilizzi and Walker (1999) to determine the mean length at each age. This enabled the standardized residual of each individual fish to be calculated (Beardsley and Britton, 2012), with these then tested between the four reaches using a generalized linear model. Outputs were the mean standardized residuals per reach and the significance of the difference between them according to linearly independent pairwise comparisons with Bonferroni adjustment for multiple comparisons. The same method was then applied to the length increment between age 1 and 2 data, using the mean length increment over the four reaches to determine the standardized residual for each fish. Secondly, the von Bertalanffy growth model was applied to data from each reach to provide values of Linfinity and the growth coefficient (K). This used a two-parameter model of the form: Lt = Linfinity (1 − exp−Kt), where Lt was the actual length of each fish at observed age t, Linfinity was the asymptotic length (i.e. maximum theoretical body size for the population) and K was the growth coefficient (i.e. its annual growth rate to Linfinity, referred to hereafter as the growth rate) and fitted using a nonlinear minimization of the negative log-likelihood of the form: −ln = n ln σ + n/2, where , where Li, L′i and n are the respective observed and predicted lengths-at-age, and the number of fish, and provided estimates of each parameter and their 95% confidence limits.
There were 241 fish captured in the study, with the majority captured from Reaches 2 and 3 in 2015 and 2016 (Tab. 1). The length range of fish captured by anglers was 410–800 mm (n = 159; mean: 599 ± 22 mm) and by electric fishing was 60–770 mm (n = 82; mean 423 ± 30 mm) (Fig. 2), with these length differences significant (GLM: Wald χ2 = 86.10, P < 0.01). Individual fish were aged to at least 20 years old. As fish >15 years old were omitted from growth rate analyses and some fish were unable to be aged due to all collected scales being regenerated, 189 fish were actually utilised in subsequent analyses.
At the individual level, there was considerable variability in the lengths at the last annulus by age (Fig. 3A), with a significant relationship between reach and the mean standardised growth residuals of lengths at the last annulus (GLM: Wald χ2 = 32.98, P < 0.01; Fig. 3B). There was no significant difference between these residuals for Reach 1 and 2, or 3 and 4, but differences were significant between Reach 1/2 versus 3/4 (P < 0.01; Fig. 3B). In contrast, the relationship between reach and the mean standardised growth residuals for the increment between age 1 and 2 revealed no significant differences (GLM: Wald χ2 = 3.08, P = 0.38; Fig. 3C). The 95% confidence limits of Linfinity of the von Bertalanffy growth model in Reach 3 were significantly and substantially higher than the other reaches (95% confidence limits Reach 3: 821–828 mm, other reaches: 690–729 mm). For K, there were no significant differences between Reach 1 and 2 (0.12–0.15), and 3 and 4 (0.09–0.11).
These results indicate that the scales contributed by recreational anglers to this study enabled significant differences in the spatial patterns of invasive B. barbus growth in this river sub-catchment to be revealed. Moreover, these scales would have been otherwise extremely difficult to collect by alternative methods, either due to fast flows and shallow water (Reach 1 and 2), or very deep water (Reach 4). However, the angler catches were heavily biased towards larger fish and also resulted in relatively small sample sizes. This is important, as studies on the precision of age and growth data have suggested that, in Argyrozona argyrozona, 10 fish per 20 mm increments should be collected for high precision (Brouwer and Griffiths, 2005) and for the cyprinid fishes Rutilus rutilus, Squalius cephalus and Leuciscus leuciscus, Busst and Britton (2014) suggested precision of growth data was highest when samples comprised at least 10 fish per 5 mm increment. In the latter study, however, the fishes concerned are all relatively abundant in many lowland rivers, with electric fishing and angling both generally able to provide samples capable of complying with these sub-sample requirements. In contrast, B. barbus is a large bodied cyprinid with riverine populations that are far less abundant than many other species. Although Hunt and Jones (1975) did utilise much larger numbers of B. barbus in their age and growth study on Reach 4 in the 1960s, using both electric fishing and angling, this was during a period of rapid population expansion following their introduction, with large numbers of small B. barbus (<350 mm) captured by angling. In the current study, these size classes were absent from angler catches and proved very difficult to obtain by electric fishing. Thus, the limited sample sizes of the current study are a potential concern in terms of the precision of the growth data and so should be treated with some caution, but with the caveat that supplementing these samples with greater numbers of fish would be highly challenging.
Despite these inherent issues with sample sizes and fish lengths, the scale samples indicated that individual fish were present in the rivers to at least 20 years old, and potentially older given the inherent difficulties of ageing of large, slow growing B. barbus from scales (Britton and Pegg, 2011; Britton et al., 2013). The growth data then indicated that differences in the growth rates of the fish between the reaches were primarily in relation to their adult growth and ability to grow to large body sizes. This suggests that across the four reaches, there were sufficient juvenile habitat and food resources but, thereafter, there was some variability in growth rates, with Reach 3 having fish with the highest Linfinity and lowest k values, where the river is impounded and relatively deep, with the only areas of fast flowing, shallow, riffle areas being in the lower River Teme and in a weir pool. Despite this contrast with typical B. barbus habitat (Huet, 1959; Britton and Pegg, 2011), the largest B. barbus captured from the river also tend to be captured from this reach, with individuals up to almost 8 kg in mass. Comparison of the von Bertalanffy growth parameters here to the estimates of Hunt and Jones (1975) also suggested that the fish in the river today grow to substantial larger body sizes but at a slower annual growth rate than in the 1960s. However, these comparisons are only really valid for Reach 4, where the Hunt and Jones (1975) study was completed, and where the sample size for 2011–2016 was very low.
In summary, recreational anglers provided scale samples that had high utility in assessing spatial variability in the growth rates of this invasive B. barbus population and revealed the largest individuals were present in the lower impounded section of the River Severn. The results also suggested that when angling is applied to obtain data in this manner, caution is required in relation to the size ranges of fishes they exploit and the sample sizes they can provide.
The study was funded by the Severn Rivers Trust, with support from the Environment Agency and the Barbel Society. We particularly wish to thank Mr. Pete Reading of the Barbel Society and all anglers who contributed to the scale collection, and Mr. Brecht Morris who organised the electric fishing.
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Cite this article as: Trigo FA, Gutmann Roberts C, Robert Britton J. 2017. Spatial variability in the growth of invasive European barbel Barbus barbus in the River Severn basin, revealed using anglers as citizen scientists. Knowl. Manag. Aquat. Ecosyst., 418, 17.
Sample sizes by study reach and their altitude (as metres above sea level, MSL), river flow (as Q values, m3 s−1; CEH, 2016), and average score per taxon (ASPT, as a measure of biological water quality), mean concentrations of ammonia (mg N L−1), nitrate (mg L−1) and phosphates (mg L−1) in 2009 (Environment Agency, 2009).
In the text
All Figures
Inset: Location of the study area within Great Britain. Main map: Locations of the upstream and downstream locations of each study reach (R1–R4) on the Rivers Teme and Severn, where the upstream and downstream limits of reaches are marked with dashed lines. A number of important urban areas are also marked (filled circle).
Length frequency histograms of: (A) all Barbus barbus sampled within this study from all reaches (n = 259); (B) B. barbus sampled by angling; and (C) B. barbus sampled by electric fishing.
(A) Lengths at last annulus by age of Barbus barbus across the study sites (clear circles) and the modelled length at age (black line); (B) mean standardised growth residuals from length at last annulus per study reach, where ⁎ denotes difference of the mean for that reach is significantly different to Reach 1 according to pairwise comparisons in the generalised linear model (P < 0.01); and (C) mean standardised growth residuals from length increment between age 1 and 2 years.
ePUB (1.271 MB)
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Editor-in-Chief: Daniel Gerdeaux - Scientific Committee


text:
Hogwarts House Quiz Pottermore
During the years of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the characters of Harry Potter and his friends are enrolled in the school. As a result, the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry is the main setting of the Wizarding World universe. It is a fictional British school for children ranging from 11-18.
Despite being the least well-known of all houses Hufflepuffs have left an impact on the Harry Potter universe. This House is known for its kindness, loyalty , and willingness to help. They are also dedicated and hardworking. They are also known as the house of the best wizards and witches.
Newt Scamander, a Hufflepuff is one of the most significant characters from the Harry Potter franchise. He was a remarkable magizoologist and was loved by all. When he was arrested and sentenced to death however, he did not get angry. He remained calm and focused and was able to get through the circumstances.
Each student is assigned an Hogwarts house during their first year. This is determined by their personality. The Sorting Hat takes care of the heavy lifting and puts students in the best House to test their personality. It's a great way test out your strengths and weaknesses.
The Sorting Hat is a clever enchanted object. It was invented by J.K. Rowling and pays tribute to the magician's hat which was the property of Godric Gryffindor. It is also used by Hogwarts' Founders of Hogwarts to decide which students they will place in their Houses.
The Sorting Hat also performs many other functions, besides the simple task of determining which house a student should be assigned. It is able to read the wearer's mind, respond to the wearer's thoughts, and even talk to the wearer. It also helps determine the House students belong to and to award the Sword of Gryffindor to those who are worthy of it.
During Harry's time at Hogwarts The Room of Requirement played a crucial role in the story. It was not just the place the location where Harry received his first (and final) horcrux but also the location where Voldemort found his lost diadem. The Room of Requirement was so obscure that it took Dumbledore nearly a whole year to discover its dark past.
The room also houses a variety of odd-looking artifacts like the Sorting Hat, which is an ancient artifact. The hat also houses a legilimen, which uses legitmization to read minds. This is a challenging task however it has been accomplished by a handful of.
Established by Salazar Slytherin, Slytherin was known for its self-preservation and ambition. Slytherin also earned a bad reputation for being self-centred and a vicious. In fact, Slytherin produced the most Death Eaters.
The Slytherin common room was located below the Black Lake, and had rough stone walls and silver lamps that hung from the ceiling. It is well-known for its breathtaking views of the surrounding mountains.
Slytherin was a noble House and Gryffindor was well-known for its competition with Slytherin. Hufflepuff was the least noble of the four houses. It was known for its values in loyalty, perseverance and dedication to work.
Hogwarts is the place where all students reside during the academic school year. Students live in dormitories and can sleep in four-poster beds that are large and spacious. Professors instruct students. There are tables in the House, where students can meet and socialize. Notice boards are placed in strategic locations around the school.
If you're a Harry Potter fan or just curious about the world of Harry Potter, the Library at Hogwarts has a lot to offer. It is home to thousands of books. However, it also has a section that is only accessible to students who have provided written permission. This section is located on a lower floor.
The library is divided into five stories of bookshelves. The first story is the main room, which is lit by natural light through stained glass and stained-glass windows. The ceiling is 65 feet high.
The office of the headmaster is on the second floor. It also contains the Charms classroom. The Reading Room is located on the third floor. It is the only room in the library that is silent. It features rows of study tables that are upholstered in red-carpeted rooms. Located under the study tables are electrical outlets.
The Deathly Hallows, despite its reputation as a fantasy novel is a real story about three former Hogwarts students that are trying to escape Voldemort at Godric's Hollow. The plot involves the final battle between Harry Potter and Voldemort.
This is the seventh book in the Harry Potter series, and is the final chapter of the tale of the boy wizard. It was published July 21 July, 2007 by Bloombury Publishing Company and translated into 120 languages. It is the most popular fantasy series ever with over 500 million copies sold across the globe.
Hogwarts, an amazing school for children wizards is located in the Scottish Highlands. It was established in the 10th century to defend wizards from Muggle persecution. Hogwarts is among the most prestigious private boarding schools in Britain. The Forbidden Forest surrounds Hogwarts, also known as the Dark Forest.
Hogwarts is full of secrets. Some of them are hidden from the outside like the Chamber of Secrets. Some are well-known and often used, like the Leaky Cauldron Restaurant and Gringotts Money Exchange.
The Chamber of Secrets was constructed by Salazar Slytherin before he left Hogwarts. It was designed to purge the students who were born Muggles from the school. Voldemort believed that he had won the last battle and planned to force all of Hogwarts students into Slytherin. But he passed away before he was able to complete his plan.
The Chamber of Secrets is deep beneath Hogwarts the school. It is the home of the ancient Basilisk. When Dumbledore's Army is betrayed, the Chamber is left open. It contains floor cushions for defensive spells as well as Dark Detectors. The Chamber is also home to an immortal memory of Tom Riddle, who was killed by Harry Potter.
The Chamber of Secrets is also the home of two serpents built into the wall of the Room. They have eyes of emerald color. They are believed to be summoned by Tom Riddle. They also have the ability to grow the Devil's Snare which is a large snake that can attack anyone who enters this Chamber. The Chamber also houses the snake-scratching tap. It also has the huge black boarhound Fang. He is more friendly than Mrs. Norris.
The Slytherin dormitory is located in the dungeon. The room is decorated with armchairs carved and green. It also has the statue of Salazar Slytherin. The room is furnished with green lamps and the room has a greenish glow.
The Hufflepuff dormitory has low ceilings and is a relaxing bright and sunny place. It has plants hanging from its ceiling. It also has a huge space for gathering. The animal that is housed in the house is the badger. It is believed that the badger represents gathering family. The house also has a ghost called Nearly Headless Nick.
There are a few shortcuts to take you from the castle to the school. They aren't always readily accessible, however. These are usually concealed by tapestry or by a secret entrance. Some of these short-cuts are only available to members of the House. The secret entrance for Hufflepuff is hidden behind barrels. It's also under the spell, so tap the barrel in rhythm to open a slimy chute.
The Dark Room is the place where Dumbledore's Army gathers. It is where many of the battles take place in the Harry Potter series. It is also where Dumbledore fights in Harry's defense. It also contains floor cushions for defensive spells and volumes of Defence Against the Dark Arts.
There are also secret access points to four House dormitories. These secret entrances are hidden from the outside and require an account number and password. These entrances are used by members of that House.
Hogwarts Legacy Switch
Hogwarts Symbol


beating out my bursting chest.
Like you want my fury stuck.
then, I think. It takes me days.
wouldn't know. You never ask.
Setting up my life for me.
You had no idea at all.
Never even knew me now.
Grown to be the man I am.
Now you're nothing. Fading out.
Nothing left but lashing out.
Sins have come to find you out.
Sitting, watch you peter out.
ages, gone to meet your saints.
Loving you in spite of that.


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One of the most interesting tasks youll take on in public relations (PR) copywriting is developing an online press kit. In days gone by, press kits were lavish productions, packed into glossy folders, with equally glossy photographs and brochures. They usually contained a goodie for journalists too. In my tech journalism days, a particularly memorable goodie was a pair of Ray-Bans sunglasses.Those days are over. Nowadays, journalists expect press kits to be delivered on the Web. Press kits contain PDF files, high resolution photographs, audio interviews and transcripts, and even videos.
In the past, a physical press kit was part of a media event, these days however Web 2.0 social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook are used to win not only journalists interest but also the interest of bloggers prior to the launch of the press kit, so it needs to contain all the information those audiences need.
So how do you construct an online press kit?
Lets look at a step by step process.
1. Firstly, find out what the goal is for the press kit. A press kit is created to launch a product, highlight an initiative of a company, or explain (spin, that is) a blunder.
Once you know what the press kits goal is, youll have an idea of the kind of information you need to include.
2. Your next step is to gather the material. If youre writing for a long-established company, much of the material for the press kit will be available, but it may not be in a suitable format for the Web. For example, company backgrounders and biographies of the companys principals may be in brochure and booklet format.
Youll need to rewrite these, repurposing the content for the Web, ensuring that the Web pages include keywords and page titles and descriptions, so that they can be indexed by the search engines.
The online press kit will also offer key documents in downloadable PDF format, so these documents need to be created, ready to be put online.
Youll also arrange for company principals to be interviewed, so the audio files and transcripts can be added to the online material.
3. Do you need to include video? Chances are that you will, so you need to script the video, and arrange for it to be shot, and edited. The full length video file will be added to the online press kit, but a snippet will be used on video sites like YouTube, in the media campaign to launch the press kit.
So there you have an outline for creating a winning online press kit. What the kit contains is up to you, and using multimedia tools will ensure that your kit meets your clients goals.