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Chick Flicks Essentials
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Maya Angelou: A Phenomenal Woman
Maya Angelou the poet and author died today at the age of 86. She was born Marguerite Ann Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri in 1928. This was not a time in America when a young black girl could dream of growing up to be a famous author, much less to read her poetry at a presidential inauguration.
Despite abuse, racial discrimination and hardship, Maya Angleou grew up to become not only an important figure in the American Civil Rights Movement, but an actress, a poet and the author of six autobiographies, including I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Gather Together in My Name .
A Phenomenal Woman
Maya Angelou lived a full and amazing life. She studied dance with Martha Graham, danced with the Alvin Ailey Company, hung out with Malcom X, Martin Luther King, James Baldwin and is best friends with Oprah. All of this from a woman who refused to talk as a child.
I may be the Chick Flicks Girl, but there are times in life when I crave poetry. In those times it seems that poets can express my emotions in a uniquely eloquent way. When I am in need of a boost of self confidence, these words lift me up…
"Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
— Maya Angelou (Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women)
And yes, there are movies too. Diahann Carroll, Esther Rolle, and Ruby Dee starred the movie based on Maya Angelou's autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. She also wrote the poetry for John Singleton's movie, Poetic Justice , starring Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur. Maya also directed the movie, Down in the Delta starring Alfre Woodard. What a phenomenal woman!
To learn more about the life and works of Maya Angelou, visit: www.mayaangelou.com
The Just Chick Flicks Guide to Summer Action Movies
The summer action movie season is fast approaching. And with it comes a lot of sci-fi, some super hot mutants, lots of guns and car crashes and a bit of baseball. Even though I love chick flicks, I still enjoy sci-fi and action movies, especially when they feature eye candy like Michael Fassbender and Hugh Jackman.
Sports, Super Heroes and Mutants
First on my list is the follow up to X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past. Director, Bryan Singer brings back the younger versions of Professor X (James McAvoy), Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence). There is trouble in the world of mutants.
To prevent an event that results in doom for both humans and mutants, Wolverine is sent into the past to try and change history. Also starring Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry and Peter Dinklage. Release Date: May 23, 2014
"Feature Trailer" for X-Men: Days of Future Past on TrailerAddict.
Jon Hamm sheds him Don Draper persona to star in this baseball true story. In Million Dollar Arm Hamm plays a sports agent who heads to India to find the next big baseball star. With an unconventional strategy he recruits Indian cricket players to play Major League Baseball. Also starring Aasif Mandvi (Daily Show with Jon Stewart), Alan Arkin, Suraj Sharma (Life of Pi) and Madhur Mittal (Slumdog Millionaire). Release Date: May 16, 2014
Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, and Bill Paxton star in this futuristic sci-fi movie. In it Cruise is a soldier fighting in a war with aliens in a kind of Groundhog Day time loop, where he lives the last day in the battle over and over again. Based on the novel All You Need Is Kill .
"Feature Trailer" for Edge of Tomorrow on TrailerAddict.
Director Michael Bay brings us yet another Transformers movie. This time with Mark Wahlberg in the driver's seat (sorry Shia LaBouf). He stars as an automobile mechanic who soon finds out that the car that turns into a gigantic Decepticon needs more than an oil change. Release Date: June 27, 2014
Andy Serkis is back in the digital monkey suit as Caesar in this sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes where he leads a growing nation of genetically mutated apes in a battle against humans to determine who will be the dominant species on Earth. Also starring Gary Oldman, Keri Russell, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Release Date: July 18, 2014
Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson is Hercules, the Greek demigod. Need I say more? Directed by Brett Ratner and starring John Hurt, Ian McShane and Joseph Fiennes. Release Date: July 25, 2014
Marvel brings the comic book series to the big screen. I can barely keep up with the X-Men, Iron Man and Thor universes, so I am entirely lost in this galaxy. Even so, I will probably check it out just to see Bradley Cooper playing a raccoon. Chris Pratt leads this band of intergalactic misfits, which also stars Vin Diesel and Zoe Saldana. Release Date: August 1, 2014
"Featurette – Inside Look" for Guardians of the Galaxy on TrailerAddict.
Men With Guns
Denzel Washington plays a former black ops commando who comes out of retirement to rescue a young girl from Russian gangsters. [I thought he already made this movie with Dakota Fanning] Directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Chloë Grace Moretz. Release Date: TBA
The Expendables team is back together again. That's right, Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Antonio Bandera and a couple of other muscular old guys are coms face-to-face with Mel Gibson. that is bound to result in at least 3 car crashes, 2 explosions and countless guns ablazin'.
Needless to say the man in you life is going to want to see this one. Also starring Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Wesley Snipes, and Harrison Ford. Release Date: August 15, 2014
I'm curious to know how Bryan Cranston went from Breaking Bad and a hit show on Broadway to staring in this latest version of Godzilla. Also starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, and Ken Watanabe. Release Date: May 16, 2014
Boys will Be Boys & Other Goofy Male Humor
Seth MacFarlane directs and stars in this western comedy with Charlize Theron, Liam Neeson, Amanda Seyfried. Knowing Seth [no, I don't know him personally] the movie will have its share of crude jokes and be wickedly funny.
Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill are finally out of high school. Now they are deep undercover at the local college. If you enjoyed them in 21 Jump Street, you'll love this one. But I still prefer the old TV series with Johnny Depp .
Based on the best selling series of books by James Dashner , The Maze Runner centers on a group of boys who must escape a massive maze to survive. Did I mention the monsters that live in the maze too? Sounds a bit like the boys version of The Hunger Games. Starring Dylan O'Brien, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Will Poulter and Kaya Scodelario. Release Date: September 19, 2014.
"Trailer" for The Maze Runner on TrailerAddict.
This is just a taste of the action and adventure due in theaters this summer. Which action movies are you looking forward to seeing?
Movie News: Arclight Documentary Festival's Spring Series
The ArcLight Cinemas is proud to announce the launch of the Arclight Documentary Festival's Spring Series, a new documentary screening series debuting on May 13th 2014 at ArcLight Hollywood.
Four films will be screening in the inaugural season, which takes place at ArcLight Hollywood on Tuesday evenings at 7:30pm from May 13 through June 3. A Q&A with the filmmaker will follow each of the films, as well as an open reception in the upper bar of ArcLight Hollywood.
"ArcLight Cinemas is about the celebration of film and we are delighted to be able to bring such exceptional documentaries to a city that has long been the epicenter for incredible storytelling," said Gretchen McCourt, executive vice president, cinema programming. "We have always been a home for cinephiles and we couldn't be more pleased to introduce the work of such a talented group of documentary filmmakers to our audiences."
Los Angeles documentary filmmaker Marjan Safinia curated the festival program. "I'm a self-diagnosed documentary junkie. Everything I do is driven by my passion for documentaries. There are so many great films made each year, and not all of them have a chance to play here in the heart of Hollywood. So it's a particular thrill to partner with ArcLight Cinemas for this series. It's a dream venue for bringing together festival favorite films, their filmmakers and appreciative audiences who love don't always get a chance to see them here in LA. I hope the series grows to become a regular meeting space for documentary lovers and documentary filmmakers to connect with each other around inspiring and thought-provoking films."
About the Arclight Documentary Festival's Spring Series
112 Weddings
112 Weddings, by award-winning director Doug Block (an HBO Documentary Film) will kick off the series on May 13. The film looks at one of the most common yet mysterious of all human experiences–marriage. Over the past two decades, the acclaimed documentary filmmaker has supported his career with a side business videotaping weddings. Long curious about how those marriages turned out, Block tracks down and interviews some of the more memorable of his 112 wedding couples, with funny, insightful and deeply moving results. This is the Los Angeles premiere of the film.
SlingShot, by director Paul Lazarus, will screen on May 20. With unparalleled access to a quirky and very private modern American hero, SlingShot takes us into the world of Segway inventor Dean Kamen. Kamen holds over 440 patents, primarily for devices designed to improve people's lives. But for the last 15 years, his focus has been on bringing clean water to the world through his remarkable invention the SlingShot. Since 50% of human illness is caused by water-borne pathogens, Kamen stands liked David, armed with his SlingShot, against the Goliath of this problem.
The film is an inspiring portrait of an American legend who commutes to work in a helicopter he flies, lives in a house with secret passageways and might just have enough passion, will and innovative thinking to create a solution for a problem that affects billions. This is the Los Angeles premiere of the film.
The Internet's Own Boy, The Story of Aaron Swartz
The Internet's Own Boy, The Story of Aaron Swartz by director Brian Knappenberger (Filmbuff/Participant Media) will screen on May 27th. The film tells the story of programming prodigy and information activist Aaron Swartz. From Swartz's help in the development of basic internet protocol RSS to his co-founding of Reddit, his fingerprints are all over the internet. But it was Swartz's groundbreaking work in social justice and political organizing combined with his aggressive approach to information access that ensnared him in a two-year legal nightmare that ended with the taking of his own life at the age of 26.
This film is a personal story about what we lose when we are tone deaf about technology and its relationship to civil liberties. The film premiered at Sundance 2014 and this is the Los Angeles premiere of the film.
Rich Hill, by directors Tracy Droz Tragos and Andrew Droz Palermo (The Orchard) closes out the season on June 3. Rich Hill, Missouri (population 1,393) could be any of the countless small towns that blanket America's heartland, but to teenagers Andrew, Harley and Appachey, it's home. As they ride their skateboards, go to football practice, and arm wrestle their fathers, they are like millions of other boys coming of age the world over. But faced with unfortunate circumstances—an imprisoned mother, isolation, instability, and parental unemployment—adolescence can be a day-to-day struggle just to survive. Spending a year with these boys and their families, the homegrown Missouri filmmakers craft a tale that is cinematically rich and exquisitely intimate and moving.
The film puts a memorable human face on rural poverty and the challenges, hopes and dreams of rural America's youth. Rich Hill won the Grand Jury Prize for documentary at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. This is the Los Angeles premiere of the film.
For more information and to purchase tickets for the ArcLight Documentary Spring Series, please visit www.arclightcinemas.com/news/promotion-docfest
About ArcLight Cinemas
ArcLight Cinemas, created by Pacific Theatres, represents an evolution in the movie going experience. ArcLight Cinemas with locations in Hollywood, Sherman Oaks, Pasadena, La Jolla and El Segundo offers an unprecedented combination of technology, amenities, comfort, and customer service. Facilities include the historic Cinerama Dome (only at the Hollywood location) and state-of-the-art "black box" auditoriums as well as a café bar and a cinema-focused gift shop. Tickets can be purchased online without a fee and printed at home and at the theaters' automated ticketing kiosks. For more information about ArcLight visit www.arclightcinemas.com.
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Q: CodeIgniter Rest Api I'm implementing the api in codeigniter using the restcontroller and format files shown in the gist below, once inserted I implement the Api.php file in the path specified below but when I try to call the api as a test I get the following error 404 not found, what is it and how can I fix this?
url to call api get: http://localhost/api/Api/testget
I have this file (rest controller and format)
https://gist.github.com/riccardopirani/8878fcda16cae2ad45e4b1c9e624f619
Php Code(in folder /controllers/api/Api.php:
<?php

use Restserver\Libraries\REST_Controller;

require(APPPATH.'libraries/REST_Controller.php');

    class Books extends REST_Controller {

        function testget()
        {
           $data = array("message"=>"RESTfull API sample");
           $this->response($data);
        }

    }

A: Write method name as test_get. Keep class and file name same, then call (get) http://localhost/[projectname]/index.php/api/book/test

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Illustration: Andrew Leach
Agroecologists must learn how to grow strawberries without toxic soil fumigants. Stephen Tung picks one compelling alternative. Illustrated by Andrew Leach.
At the Black Ranch Farm in Salinas, California, rows of tarp-covered strawberry beds fill the fields like consecutive dark speed bumps. Green leaves peep out of tiny holes, their roots protected from airborne weeds and pests. Amid this strawberry patch the size of 40 football fields, there's a peculiar quarter-acre marked by tiny blue and red flags. Numbers in faded white paint denote different sections from 1 to 60. At the end of each section, clear plastic replaces black to allow researchers to peer inside.
Here Joji Muramoto stands in a dark blue shirt and dark blue pants tucked into tall boots, wearing sunglasses and a tan brimmed hat. His four-member team of undergraduates and staff stand in a different row.
"Ready? Set. Go," he says calmly, starting a stopwatch. They walk quickly down their row, look for unwanted grasses and weeds, and pull them out. When they reach the end of their section, Muramoto notes each of their times: around 45 seconds if there were no weeds, about two minutes if there were. They trudge through the muddy field to put the samples into one of 60 manila envelopes. Then they move on to the next section. "Ready? Set. Go," Muramoto intones again.
Above the plastic, the plot studied by UC Santa Cruz researchers looks like the surrounding 53-acre strawberry field. But underneath, there are big differences. Months before, the researchers treated some sections with a traditional mixture of chemical fumigants, which kill pests below the surface. They spiked other plots with mustard cake, a spicy organic alternative that produces toxins to fight bacteria in the soil. Other rows got hit with a new treatment called anaerobic soil disinfestation (ASD), which smothers and kills diseases with organic wizardry. The rest got nothing at all.
Muramoto and his team come to this field, and five others like it, every three weeks to gather data. It's part of an exhaustive set of field trials on California's central coast led by UCSC agroecologist Carol Shennan. During the last seven years, the scientists have shown that some of these techniques just might work in real farm fields. The best new approach may be ASD: In trials, it has killed 70 to 100 percent of a fungus that plagues strawberry growers. One ASD-treated field at the Monterey Bay Academy yielded as much fruit as neighboring plots using PicClor60, a traditional mixture of fumigants.
For California strawberry farmers, the time for this research has arrived. In the near future, the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty, will phase out methyl bromide, the most effective weapon for fighting fungi, worm pests, and weeds; the chemical's caustic fumes deplete the ozone layer. Labor and environmental groups protested its proposed replacement, methyl iodide, over health reasons, prompting the manufacturer to pull it from the U.S. market. Indeed, all fumigants may be severely limited in California within the next decade.
The shift may push more farmers toward growing strawberries organically, but that poses myriad challenges as well. Shennan's team now has a $2.6 million dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study organic methods, from roots to fruits. Rotations with broccoli and lettuce, various cover crops, mustard cake, and ASD are all on the table. All the while, the scientists will examine the environmental impact of each treatment, yields, disease suppression, economics, and the crop's life cycle within each of those permutations.
Organic farmers, who have always lagged behind conventional farmers in yield, finally may close the gap. But it takes a village of data to raise a better strawberry.
Strawberry blues
Strawberries are a multibillion-dollar crop for California, which accounts for 90 percent of the fruit's U.S. production. The land devoted to growing strawberries in the state ballooned from 27,000 acres in 2002 to 38,000 acres in 2012.
The industry is beset with rising costs. Land, fuel, fumigants, and labor all have grown more expensive, with the estimated total inflation-adjusted costs per acre rising 45 percent from 2001 to 2010, according to UC Davis studies. But the price of fresh berries has remained the same in the last decade—about 70 cents per pound, after adjusting for inflation—due to the increased supply. The stagnant price and climbing costs have shaved profits to thin margins, with growers netting $2,000 per acre on a $17,500 investment, the UC Davis researchers found. When there's a bad growing season, spurred by weather or pests, most farmers think themselves lucky to break even.
Those slim margins mean that replacing tried-and-true pest-killers with alternatives is a painstaking process. For instance, at the Garroute farms in Monterey, ASD-treated fields yielded 83 percent as many strawberries as conventional fields treated with methyl bromide. However, ASD costs more per acre than the PicClor60 fumigant mixture. That, combined with the slightly lower yield, sinks the profits from a plot of land, says Garroute manager Chris Matthews. He thinks ASD shows promise, but for his farm to adopt it widely, it must be proven consistent, reliable, and economical.
Farmers want the new solutions to work, because they see the end of mainsteam chemical treatments. "The regulatory trend and the ability to use fumigants is strongly downwards," says Mark Bolda, farm advisor for the UC Cooperative Extension. "Inevitably, the result will be that we're not going to be able to use them."
In this climate, strawberry growing has gotten much harder, says Gary Tanimura, who rents out Black Ranch Farms to grow lettuce, artichokes, and strawberries. He mainly grows vegetables, which he considers less temperamental and risky than strawberries. He mixes in berries every couple of seasons because the fumigation used in the growing process clears the soil for subsequent vegetable crops.
"Strawberries are what I call a marathon," Tanimura says. While vegetables have a short growing season of about 65 days, the strawberry growing season is especially long: berries are planted in November are harvested from April through November of the following year. An early mistake may affect yields for the entire year. "There are a lot of opportunities to mess up," Tanimura says. Unsecured tarps, misshapen beds, cold weather, and improper fertilizer mixtures could spell disaster for growers.
In Tanimura's mind, the only recent positive change is the abundance of new varieties. Today's strawberries aren't your parent's strawberries, or even the ones from a decade ago. Horticulturists, mostly from UC Davis, constantly breed new cultivars for better taste, disease resistance, and yields, releasing new ones every two to three years. UC researchers introduced the current king of the hill, the Albion variety, in 2006. The popular Monterey and San Andreas varieties came out in 2009. Those three make up 48 percent of this year's strawberry fields. Further varieties with greater disease-resistance and greater yields may cut the need for fumigants, Tanimura hopes.
For conventional growers like Tanimura, choices come down to economics. Dwindling methyl bromide has become too expensive, doubling in price in the last decade. He already switched from methyl bromide to PicClor60, a fumigant made mostly of chloropicrin, the vital chemical that's mixed with all conventional fumigants to kills pests. This method is cheaper, costing $800 per acre versus $3,000 per acre, but its yields are less. It also requires renting land two months in advance to prepare the fields.
Tanimura says he expects other growers will use PicClor60 and similar fumigants once methyl bromide is phased out. The other alternatives available today aren't cheap enough. For example, treating a field with a tractor that injects steam into strawberry beds costs thousands of dollars per acre more than conventional treatments, though it's more effective than fumigating with methyl bromide. The machine also takes a full day to treat an acre of soil—far too slow to be scaled up for commercial use.
But many growers may have to give up fumigants. The California Department of Pesticide Regulation may tighten restrictions on fumigant use close to schools and homes, requiring growers on that land to use alternatives. Without cheap choices, costs will rise. And if wholesale buyers don't agree to higher prices, the affected farmers may stop growing strawberries altogether.
"The biggest problem will be how this fumigation deal turns out," Tanimura says. "That will be the determining factor of what's going to happen to the strawberry business out here."
From Tokyo to California soils
Joji Muramoto keenly senses that quandary. He rushes among the UCSC campus farm and a dozen test farms in the community, gathering data and creating ties that will ease the transition into new ways of farming.
For these practices to take off, one key challenge is building a network of willing farmers, he says. "To do work together, you have to trust each other, right? That takes time." For the last decade and a half, he has reached out to scores of farmers through the UC extension program by running research trials, sharing early results, and speaking at farming conferences.
Photo: Stephen Tung
UC Santa Cruz agroecologist Joji Muramoto
(Click on photo to see larger version.)
Muramoto's motivation sprung from his youth. When he was ten, his six-year-old sister died of leukemia. His mother felt compelled to join the emerging organic movement in Tokyo during the 1970s, even though there isn't a strong connection between leukemia and pesticides. "She wanted to do something after she lost her baby daughter," Muramoto recalls.
When Muramoto helped on an organic farm during a middle school spring break, a farmer captivated him by telling him that soil was the foundation to farming. That began his "organic sickness," as he calls it. He joined the gardening club in high school and enrolled at the Tokyo University of Agriculture, earning his bachelor's, master's, and doctorate in soil science.
But in the mid 1990s, the university didn't encourage organic farming research. "I learned a lot, but at the same time, there's limitations to pursuing organic directions. My boss didn't like it," he says. "At that point, doing organic research was too radical, I think."
After developing a serious stomach ulcer due to stress, Muramoto decided to leave his tenured position as assistant professor in 1995 to pursue his lifelong organic passion. He joined the budding agroecology program at UC Santa Cruz, where he switched from studying soil nutrients in vegetable crops to those in strawberry fields. "I used the same approach I learned in Japan. A good part of science is that it's global, the same language," he says.
In 2002, a disease called Verticillium wilt, caused by stubborn fungi that lurk in the soil, infected the test farm at UCSC. Shennan learned about anaerobic soil disinfestation, a new treatment developed independently in the Netherlands and in Japan, from a Dutch colleague. She convinced Muramoto to try the technique.
"It took me a couple of years to get good [results]," he admits.
Workers prepare ASD by burying rice bran into the future strawberry beds, laying drip irrigation lines to water the rows, and covering the rows with hundred-foot-long, air-proof tarps. They turn the irrigation on, saturating the soil with water and forcing oxygen out. Under these conditions, microbes chow down the bran, depleting the oxygen in the soil and releasing acetic, butyric, formic, and propionic acids. Those deadly acids kill fungi like Verticillium, as well as nematodes—worms that infest crops. Other unknown biological processes may help out too, Muramoto says.
He and Shennan are still refining ASD; it adds a lot of nitrogen to the soil, which can leach into groundwater. It can also raise salinity in a dry winter, which can damage plants. But it shows results, and that's good news for organic growers. Other than rotating crops, the growers don't treat their soil before planting, and in previous trials ASD increased yields from untreated soil by as much as 45 percent. Organic growers, who lag behind conventional farmers by about 30 percent in yield, may be able to use the technique to catch up.
"Since last year, a lot of growers want to jump on [ASD]," Muramoto says. "We're trying to calm them down. They want to do, like 10 acres." At Muramoto's coaxing, five organic farmers planted trial plots of an acre or less to learn the ins-and-outs of ASD. If they're successful this season, they may try larger plots next season.
"This is a brand new system for them," Muramoto says. "If they do 10 acres and fail, they'll never do it again."
On the down side, current ASD techniques pose major logistical challenges. Farmers must transport a lot of rice bran, requiring 20 trucks for every 60-acre commercial plot of land. Workers put in irrigation lines weeks earlier than usual, and all must be turned on simultaneously. Scaling the technology from a half-acre test plot to a 60-acre commercial farm would be expensive, tricky, and time consuming.
Other questions linger, such as whether farmers could get the same results by using less rice bran or using a different carbon source, like molasses. But Muramoto and Shennan will have the resources to answer those questions. The new four-year, $2.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will focus on organic fields.
Strawberries, holistically
On the 25-acre UCSC farm, beside the greenhouses and the orange trees, there's a peculiar, rectangular plot of land. Mustard weeds run rampant; thousands of tiny yellow flowers dot stalks of grass, like buttered popcorn littered on a carpet of green. But there are also rectangular patches of empty, fallow soil. The edges, marked by two-foot-tall weeds, are as sharp as those between grass and pavement in a neatly manicured lawn.
Joji Muramoto stands before rows of experimental strawberries on the UCSC Farm. (Click on photo to see larger version.)
In summer 2012, Muramoto and his colleagues will plant lettuce in some plots and broccoli in the others. But for now it's cover crops: rye, common vetch, and bell beans, which they will till back into the soil to reintroduce nutrients. After the vegetable season, the team will plant cover crops in some plots and strawberries in the others.
The entire field is divided into a grid of 64 mini-fields. Each tiny plot will feature different cover crop plants for varying times, and the scientists will administer ASD to some of them and mustard cake to others. It's like a set of carefully controlled Petri dishes, each with its own set of variables, but out in the open land, exposed to wind, sun, rain, and critters.
The biggest challenge in this research is variability, says Shennan. Diseases, nutrients, and soil types all vary among different sites. "You have to do your experiments multiple times at multiple locations," she says. But the team also is aware that it cannot micromanage its UCSC plots too much; the extensive data gathering in and of itself could affect the results. "We have to be careful that we don't sample our site so much that we damage our system," Shennan says, chuckling.
This four-year experiment will look at planting strawberries more realistically in the long-term, not just for one season. Like organic farmers, UCSC growers will rotate broccoli crops to help fight diseases and restore nutrients to the soil. "Everything you see here is what a farmer would do in practice," says Graeme Baird, a research associate in Shennan's lab. Six of the miniplots are mirrored by plots on organic farms across the region. And if there's one thing the team knows, field data are paramount.
In early March 2012, Muramoto and his team are back at Black Ranch, counting and pulling weeds. By now, the UCSC-managed plants look distinct from their neighbors. Tanimura's leafy strawberry plants are uniformly spaced, but some patches of fallow soil mar Muramoto's plot. His team counts them, diligently.
This winter has been particularly dry. The nitrates released from rice bran for ASD and mustard cake have increased the salinity of the soil, Muramoto observes. Without rain to wash it away, the salt has damaged the plants.
"It's a learning experience," Muramoto says. In the future they'll try to cut back mustard cake and rice bran rate to lower nitrates, and they'll also try other carbon sources, such as molasses, which release less nitrogen. Some damaged plants might be revived when it rains again. "We'll see how it goes," he says.
Muramoto notes the data on his clipboard, shakes hands with his student assistants, and drives to his next site in Salinas.
Story ©2012 by Stephen Tung. For reproduction requests, contact the Science Communication Program office.
Stephen Tung
B.S. (mechanical engineering), Cornell University
Internships: Joint Genome Institute, U.S. Department of Energy (Walnut Creek, CA), San Francisco Exploratorium
I love engineering. I designed banks from Legos and air motors from aluminum, my mind always gravitating toward combining smaller parts into something bigger that worked.
My ideas have remained grounded in the functional, but my medium has now changed. Plastic toys and metal have become web code and words. My previous creations connected form to function, but my new ones will connect curiosity to knowledge.
With these tools, I imagine forums for scientists to connect directly with the public, interactive websites that convey how research fits into the larger body of knowledge, and customizing content to give readers exactly the level of detail they want. That's a new design in science communication. I want to be part of it.
Andrew Leach
B.S. (landscape architecture) Temple University
B.F.A. (painting) Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
I am an artist, scientific illustrator and a professional landscape architect. At an early age, I was fascinated with birds and nature and would keep a sketchbook full of drawings. These subjects have come back full circle to be my focus lately. I am interested in doing illustrations for field guides and interpretive panels to help educate the public about the natural world around us.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
To Day Thursday, Feb. 02, 2023
English پارسی
Interview Mining chain requires present-day technology
Mining chain requires present-day technology
3,167View Count:
2017/08/23Date:
Deputy Minister and Chairman of the Board of Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO), Mehdi Karbasian, maintains that rapid technological changes suggest essential needs in mining and its associated industries, and ultimately lead us to acquire up-to-date knowledge in the exploration, extraction and processing fields. He emphasized that the reserves of the main open-pit mines in Iran are coming to an end shortly, so underground mine is the only
available choice for the time being. According to him, achieving major goals such as the 55mt of steel and 440,000t of copper have highlighted the issue of reliable mineral resources. He also referred to the technologies introduced by foreign consultants to the country's mining industry in recent years, particularly after the agreement between the E3/EU+3 and Iran on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
What has recently led us to employ new technologies in various economic sectors, including mining and its associated industries?
A brief look at the technological changes in a recent decade shows that previously it took many years for a change to occur but nowadays everything is facilitated. The universal phenomenon is a part of today's
business including mining and industry. The presence of the cellphone in modern life is a symbol of rapid change. We are experiencing an era where the competition has intensified and to survive; the companies are forced to adapt to new changes and employ emerging technologies.
What are the opportunities and threats in Iran's mining sector?
In the mining sector, for instance, there has been a decline in the valuable minerals and reserves with high alloy content. These mines were mostly open-pitted. Over the past decade, Angouran Zinc Mine,
Zanjan province, was the primary source of raw materials for the zinc industry in Iran.
However, the evaluations indicate that the life of the open-pit mine ends in the coming years.
Consequently, the 480,000t capacity of zinc ingot production cannot be supported by the mine. Other detailed reports also indicate that the major iron ore and copper mines in Iran are facing the same problem.
As a result, the issue of underground mines has come up for discussion for a while, but the shift from open-pit to underground mining will be based on new technologies.
The aerial geophysics survey of some of Interview these open mines has not even been carried out systematically because this type of exploration was previously done by using a helicopter or aircraft. However, satellites can detect thousands of meters depth.
What are the changes occurred in Iran's mining technologies in recent years?
Over the past years, we have cooperated with foreign and local reputable companies and qualified experts in the field of exploration. International consultants from Australia, Canada, Germany, Britain, and
other countries, having the latest mining and industrial technologies, were the main contributors to Iran's exploration projects. The increase in the deposits of iron ore, coal, gold and even zinc, over the past two
years, was due to applying new technologies. The exploratory plan incepted in 2014 led to the exploration of 400 new anomalies. Our estimate suggests that 350mt iron ore, 400mt coal, and 50t gold have been added to the Iranian reserves. Moreover, a great attempt is made to protect the environment. To
improve environmental standards, IMIDRO has asked the subsidiary companies to engage foreign experts as consultants.
Since last year, a Norwegian consultant has been hired for Parsian Port Project, West of Hormozgan province. Likewise, in the production and processing plan of titanium, an Australian consultant was used.
This unique project was halted for many decades and finally was undertaken in Iran. Also, feasibility study of some projects including the bauxite mines in Guinea-Conakry, and Nepheline Syenite and Zinc of Mehdiabad Mine are updated by a foreign consultant.
There are some news that due to the crucial issue of water consumption in Iran, some steel plants intend to cut the consumption by developing new plans. Can you explain about the projects?
One of the great consequences of JCPOA was cooperation with Kobe Steel Ltd., a major Japanese steel manufacturer, aiming to reduce water consumption in Direct Reduction Iron (DRI) production by using MIDREX process.
Once the plan is implemented in Iran, about 40% reduction will be achieved in the water consumption of the mentioned plants which is significant considering the climate of Iran.
Are we going to witness applying modern technologies in new projects and plants?
According to the strategic plans, designing the production lines, machinery, and other new equipment will be in line with declining water, electricity and gas consumption. Indeed, some fundamental reforms will be adopted in the old production lines to cut energy consumption.
How do you evaluate the role played by JCPOA in this regard?
In fact, I can emphasize that a significant part of the negotiations conducted to enhance the technology of exploration, extraction, processing, and production of sponge iron and other products was owing to the
JCPOA. The point to be borne in mind is that IMIDRO is no longer included in the blacklist of sanctions. When the sanctions were lifted, there was an increase in technical cooperation between Iran and other countries.
Of course, over the past years, Iranian experts were successful in acquiring technical knowledge in new areas such as launching the first pilot plant for the production of petroleum coke, the production and extraction of rare earth elements, and the production of the first rare earth alloy ingot. In general, collaboration with foreign companies to improve the level of technology ranging from exploration to final processing and production has always been on the agenda.
Mine&Business TODAY
Iran Eyes Foreign Investment in Mining Sector
One of the advantages of Iran is the diversity of its minerals to such an extent that out of Mendeleev's Table close to 70 minerals are available in the country. When the government carries out preliminary exploration studies, the risk level would reduce to less than 50% and the project could be transferred to real private sector. Dr. Mehdi Karbasian is a veteran state manager who took over the largest mining holding of the public sector – Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO) - in September 2013. Dr. Karbasian was assigned to run IMIDRO at a time when repeated appointments and dismissals of managers at the organization and transfer of its subsidiary companies to the Social Securities Organization had raised many questions about its performance and effectiveness.
Iranian/foreign joint companies hit the mines
Iran possesses one of the most important mineral reserves in the world and is considered among the leading countries in minerals such as copper, zinc, lead, iron, and aluminum. Currently, considering the new ambience and the green light shown by foreign companies to operate in Iran, a possibility exists for large-scale investment in this sector by foreign companies. In this regard, we spoke to Dr. Mehdi Karbassian of the Development and Renovation Organization of Iran
I'm Mehdi Karbassian, born in 1951 in Isfahan. I got my Bachelor of Accounting from Auditing Institute, Master of Business Administration MBA from the University of Oklahoma America, graduated from the Higher School of senior management of "Banff", University of Alberta, Canada and a PhD in management from the University of Paisley in Scotland .I've received the 2nd degree of Merit in management and I've been serving diverse responsibilities in different sectors of Economy.
WebDesign & Developed by: NivData


text:
Copy Kat
Crowbar
By scoopey in Dossiers, Lone Vigilantes, Skilled Fighters (Non Enhanced), Skilled Vigilantes (Non Enhanced), Vigilantes
Crowbar – Lionel Dickinson
Associations:
Skilled Human
Extremely proficient street fighter
Loner
"When the world has gone mad, you can either choose to ignore it or embrace it. I chose to do the latter."
That was the statement Lionel Dickinson made to Europa police after being arrested for beating up a group of drug dealers and leaving them hospitalised. As a first offence the judge decided against a prison sentence and gave him community service, believing that a one time pillar of the community would see the error of his ways and make amends. In truth the only change Lionel made was to wear a mask so that he could not be identified by any witnesses the next time.
Though he did serve his community service nobody realised that Lionel's idea of community service differed from theirs so at night he hunted the type of scum that ruined neighbourhoods, the petty criminals and drug pushers, the street gangs and the muggers and if they ever stumbled across him then they were going to regret it.
At one time Lionel had everything, a wife Jane, and daughter Elisabeth and a lucrative job. As the judge had noted he had been well respected in the community. Everything had gone wrong for him when his beloved Elisabeth had died from a drug overdose. Having to go on business trips with work meant he was away from home a lot. When he returned everything at home always seemed normal. In a bid to support her husband, Jane decided to hide a lot of what was happening from him so he was unaware that when Elisabeth entered her teens she had fell in with the wrong crowd and had become rebellious which had led to drug and substace abuse.
By the time the truth emerged, it was too late for Elisabeth. With nobody charged with supplying the drugs that killed her Lionel and Jane started to blame each other and the marriage fell apart. Lionel left her the apartment and bought a new one in a run down neighbourhood of Europa.
Though he tried to more on, he was very angry and wanted someone to pay for what had been taken from him. After drinking himself into a stupor one night he ventured out on the streets with a crowbar, looking for the people that had killed his daughter. Though the chances of finding the right drug dealer would have been impossible, especially in his state he did not care. Someone was going to pay and if he could not find the right one then any other drug dealer would serve equally well as a proxy. This was how he came to beat up a group of drug dealers and get arrested by the police.
Following his arrest and community service, Lionel decided to ditch the drink. However he would not give up on his quest. To avoid any future run ins he knew he needed to be smarter and so he started hiding his identity. Very soon his neighbourhood learned of a new vigilante and he became known by his choice of weapon, albeit he often tooled up with any suitable metal object, whatever was handy.
Though the police suspected Lionel was behind the attacks on small time crooks, they could not prove it. Some even admired what he was doing for he patrolled some of the neighbourhoods they were wary about visiting.
Having actually succeeded in taking down some big criminal players, word of "Crowbar" eventually reached CLEA which is how the agency knows much about him.


text:
French dysfunction on full display at Euro 2016
15 Jun, 2016 by	Rachel Marsden
Friends and strangers have been asking what it's like here in Paris these days with the monthlong Euro 2016 soccer tournament taking place. Put it this way: When I host my local French-language radio show, I feel like one of those Radio London announcers broadcasting into occupied France during World War II — except that today's occupiers are assorted anarchists, union activists, soccer hooligans, jihadists and Socialist politicians.
The French government has just extended "Operation Sentinelle" — extraordinary security measures consisting of 10,000 military personnel deployed across the country in a heightened state of alert. But all it really means is that there are an extra 10,000 audience members for all the nonsense.
The broken window theory applies here. That is, when vandalism and social disorder are permitted to fester, it will eventually give rise to serious criminality.
Despite the heavy security, the city of Marseille still devolved into a war zone over the weekend when soccer hooligans rampaged through the city in the wake of a 1-1 draw between Russia and England. Blame has been placed on visiting Russian and English supporters, although anyone who knows France — and particularly Marseille, a key fan base for the Algerian national team — understands how unlikely it is that the locals would simply stand there shaking their heads when an opportunity for unbridled hooliganism presented itself.
Euro 2016 is supposed to be an opportunity for France to showcase itself, like when you entertain clients at your home and want the kids to be on their best behavior. What would you do if the kids decided to use your business dinner as an opportunity to extort you? If you're France, you'd just sit there shrugging while they chewed the scenery, because you're committed to "liberty."
Leveraging the opportunity to further the mayhem at a time when the country is supposed to be putting on its best face, the CGT, France's largest labor union, called for another massive day of action in cities across the country. (As of this writing, the country was bracing for mass street demonstrations on Tuesday.) A wave of protests on March 31 drew about 390,000 demonstrators, according to authorities. These agitators are protesting a proposed labor law that would, among other things, make it easier for businesses to dismiss workers.
It seems as if half of France is on strike. Trash piled up in Paris last week because of a garbage strike. (It was eventually removed in select areas by private services.) Taxi unions upset about competition from unregulated competitors such as Uber have threatened to block traffic near the Euro venues. French railway workers are also on strike.
The Paris subway system is still operative, but I nonetheless found myself randomly offloaded from one train, along with a train full of soccer fans. But hey, at least no one was pickpocketing me during the ride, as was the case two weeks ago.
Not only are foreign soccer delegations descending on Paris, but so are foreign labor union delegations from Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and Spain to participate in the strikes, according to reports. With any luck, the visiting protesters will be booked on Air France flights that will never arrive — because Air France pilots are also on strike.
In this "maximum security" environment, a 25-year-old French jihadist named Larossi Abballa, who had already been convicted of recruiting jihadists to fight in Pakistan, fatally stabbed a French police commander and his wife, who was also a police official, at their home near Paris earlier this week. The Islamic State has already claimed responsibility.
Hundreds of recently arrived migrants from the Middle East have set up makeshift tent camps in downtown Paris, where cases of tuberculosis were reported. Migrants have taken to soliciting cash and food from strangers in high-volume areas all around town. Socialist Mayor Anne Hidalgo recently announced that the city would set up its own camp for them.
This is merely the latest of many French failures to integrate members of other cultures into the nation's social fabric, and it surely won't be the last. You can't just call someone French and assume that's sufficient for social cohesion.
Keep going, France. At this rate, the entire country will soon be a war zone.
(Rachel Marsden is a columnist, political strategist and former Fox News host based in Paris. She is the host of the syndicated talk show "UNREDACTED with Rachel Marsden" Tuesdays at 7 p.m.Eastern: http://www.unredactedshow.com. Her website can be found at www.rachelmarsden.com.)
Also see,
High-Tech Companies Should Invest In Education, Not Immigration
More articles by Rachel Marsden


text:
USAGE_MSG = """
Usage: golem [--golem-dir] [-h] <command> [options]

Commands:
  run                    Run tests, suites or directories
  gui                    Start the Golem GUI module
  createproject          Create a new project
  createtest             Create a new test in a project
  createsuite            Create a new suite in a project
  createsuperuser        Create a new super user.

General Options:
  --golem-dir                 Path to Golem root directory
  -h, --help                  Show help.

Type: golem -h <command> for more help"""

RUN_USAGE_MSG = """
Usage: golem run <project> <test|suite|directory> [-b|--browsers]
                 [-p|--processes] [-e|--environments] [-t|--tags]
                 [-i|--interactive] [-r|--report] [--report-folder]
                 [--report-name] [-l|--cli-log-level] [--timestamp]

  Run tests, suites or directories

  Run test:
    golem run project test_name
    golem run project test_name.py
    golem run project folder.test_name
    golem run project folder/test_name.py

  Run suite:
    golem run project suite_name
    golem run project suite_name.py
    golem run project folder.suite_name
    golem run project folder/suite_name.py

  Run every test in a directory:
    golem run project folder/

  Run every test in project/tests/ folder:
    golem run project .

  Filter tests by tags:
    golem run project . --tags "tag a" "tag b"
    golem run project suite_name -tags "tag a"
    golem run project folder/ --tags tag_a tag_b tag_c

  Start quick interactive console:
    golem run -i

  positional arguments:
    project              name of the project
    test|suite|dir       name of a single test, a suite or a
                         directory of tests.

  optional arguments:
    -b, --browsers       a list of browsers
    -p, --processes      number of processes (parallel run), default is 1
    -e, --environments   a list of environments
    -t, --tags           a list of tags to filter the tests.
                         A tag expression with 'and', 'or', and 'not' operators
                         can be used, enclosed in double quotes.
    -i, --interactive    run in interactive mode
    -r, --report         select reports to generate. Options are:
                         'junit', 'html', 'html-no-images', and 'json'.
                         The JSON report is generated by default in the
                         default location.
    --report-folder      absolute path of location to save report. Default is
                         <testdir>/projects/<project>/reports/<suite>/<timestamp>
    --report-name        filename for output report without path or extension.
                         Default is 'report'.
    -l, --cli-log-level  command line log level. Default is INFO
    --timestamp          used by the execution. Default is
                         auto-generated with the format:
                         'year.month.day.hour.minutes.seconds.milliseconds'"""

GUI_USAGE_MSG = """
Usage: golem gui [-p|--port]

  Start the Golem GUI module

  optional arguments:
    --host              Default host is 127.0.0.1 (localhost). Use
                        0.0.0.0 to make the GUI publicly accessible.
    -p, --port          which port to use, default is 5000
    -d, --debug         Run the GUI in debug mode, default is False"""

CREATEPROJECT_USAGE_MSG = """
Usage: golem createproject <project>

  Create a new project

  positional arguments:
    project             project name"""

CREATETEST_USAGE_MSG = """
Usage: golem createtest <project> <test>

  Create a new test inside a project

  positional arguments:
    project             an existing project name
    test                the name of the new test. Use dots
                        to create inside sub-folders."""

CREATESUITE_USAGE_MSG = """
Usage: golem createsuite <project> <suite>

  Create a new test suite inside a project

  positional arguments:
    project             an existing project name
    suite               the name of the new suite. Use dots
                        to create inside sub-folders."""

CREATESUPERUSER_USAGE_MSG = """
Usage: golem createsuperuser [-u|--username -e|email -p|--password
                              -n|--noinput]

  Create a new super user. Command is interactive unless --username,
  --password and --noinput are provided. Email is optional.

  optional arguments:
    -u, --username
    -e, --email         Email address, optional.
    -p, --password
    -n, --noinput       Do not prompt user. Username and password
                        must be provided.
"""

ADMIN_USAGE_MSG = """
Usage: golem-admin

  golem-admin createdirectory <directory-name> [-y|--yes]

  Create a new directory with the structure and files
  required for golem projects.

  positional arguments:
    directory-name      relative or absolute path for the
                        new test directory. Use '.' to use cwd.

  optional arguments:
    -y, --yes           Do not ask for confirmation"""

STANDALONE_USAGE = """
Golem Standalone

  Includes golem-admin, golem and webdriver-manager interfaces

  Example:
    golem golem-admin createdirectory <directory-name>
    golem webdriver-manager update
    golem run <project> <test>

  Type the following for more help:
    golem golem-admin -h
    golem webdriver-manager -h
    golem -h"""

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


One of the challenges in implementing data quality control processes is the identification of technical data quality requirements for the organization. It is important to identify and understand the business requirements for your data before translating those into technical data quality requirements that define good-quality data.
An effective data quality control process is based on the understanding of how data and information products are used within and outside of the organization. Each organization defines good-quality data differently and bases this definition on the intended purpose and use of the data. The following diagram illustrates a variety of sources for data quality requirements that may be applicable to your organization.
The presence or absence of features, their attributes, and relationships in a data model.
A degree of adherence to preestablished rules of a data model's structure, attribution, and relationships as defined by an organization or industry. Many industries follow standards that are reflected in a geospatial data model as value domains, data formats, and topological consistency of how the data is being stored.
The accuracy of the position of features in relation to Earth.
The accuracy of attributes within features and their appropriate relationships.
The quality of temporal attributes and temporal relationship of features.
A data quality requirement to an application and its related functional requirements.
A quality assurance (QA) plan is a document that identifies which quality standards are relevant to a project and methods to achieve them. A QA plan is a living document that will change as new quality requirements are identified by the organization and also serves as an opportunity to bring together key stakeholders to build a common picture of what constitutes good-quality data and the business processes that drive those requirements.
ISO/TC 211 Geographic information/Geomatics—International Organization for Standardization (ISO) series of standards for geographic information to define methods, tools, and services for data management for acquiring, processing, analyzing, accessing, presenting, and transferring such data in digital form among users, systems, and locations.
Requirements Traceability Matrix—A document that correlates any two baseline documents (one being the source requirements collected for the project and the other being the capabilities of a software product) and requires a many-to-many relationship to check the completeness of the relationship. It is used to track the requirements and to ensure the current project requirements are met.
A traceability matrix is created by associating requirements with the software products that satisfy them.
The Requirement Category field in the following table illustrates an example of collected requirements that reference some of the data quality elements outlined above. The next step after organizing and categorizing your requirements will be to correlate your data quality requirements to corresponding capabilities found in the ArcGIS platform.


Business – If you're a small business owner, you probably know that the key to success is about making the most out of limited resources. Fortunately, there are many free tools that can help you identify opportunities to boost your company's chances of success.
Invest in yourself: You are your company's most valuable asset and biggest champion, so make sure to keep developing your skills and growing as an entrepreneur. Sign up for free webinars to learn how to write effective e-newsletters, or join a marketing class at your local library. Or search for online tutorial or online business course that can show you how to do everything from optimizing your website for mobile devices to teaching employees the fastest way to use a POS terminal.


text:
International CSR Summit
Coral Relocation and the Innovative Use of Excavated Materials and Dredged Materials for Reclamation
Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore
In 2015, MPA completed the relocation of 2,300 hard coral colonies from Sultan Shoal, to three southern sites at St. John's Island and Sisters' Islands. The relocation programme was initiated to protect the corals from the impact of the development of Tuas Terminal.
As more economies in developing nations progressively open up and join the global marketplace, Singapore foresees an increasing demand for international shipping and reliable port services.
In land-scarce Singapore, building a new port, or even redeveloping an existing one is never a straightforward matter. Due to the land scarcity issue, reclamation usually has to be carried out to create land for port development. The idea of a next generation port was conceived during the detailed planning of Tuas container terminals in 2014 as a fully integrated port can optimize land use and technology to improve the productivity and safety at ports.
FRAMEWORK AND STRATEGY
Before Reclamation: Relocated Corals to Preserve Marine Biodiversity
Prior to starting on any construction or development project, MPA will perform an environmental impact assessment to evaluate the level of impact the project could have on the surrounding environment. A study in 2012 discovered that the delicate corals at Sultan Shoal would be adversely affected by the construction and reclamation activities. As corals are natural, living habitats for a wide array of marine life, they are critical in sustaining the biodiversity in our waters. MPA commissioned a Coral Relocation Plan to determine the most optimal relocation sites for the corals at Sultan Shoal and adopted the findings of the study to relocate the corals to Sisters' Island and St John's Island. MPA also put in place a five year monitoring programme to study how these corals would be adjusting to their new environment.
Reclamation: Inter-agency Collaboration to Recycle Excavated Materials
Reclamation work for the development of Tuas Terminal requires a significant amount of fill material. Instead of relying wholly on sand for the reclamation, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and MPA developed an innovative solution that would reduce the amount of sand required as well as the cost of the reclamation work. The solution involved using excavated material generated during excavation work for LTA's many underground construction projects. Each year LTA generates large volumes of excavated material which can be used by MPA for port development.
ACHIEVEMENT AND IMPACT
Coral Relocation In 2015, MPA completed the relocation of 2,300 hard coral colonies from Sultan Shoal to three southern sites at St. John's Island and Sisters' Islands. The relocation programme was initiated to protect the corals from the impact of the development of Tuas Terminal. The coral conservation programme saw MPA working with volunteers from various environmental interest groups to relocate corals and set up coral nurseries. The coral conservation programme is a good example of MPA's commitment to develop the future mega-port at Tuas without compromising on environmental sustainability. To increase public awareness of the coral conservation efforts, a 'Conserving our Corals' T-shirt design competition was launched on 29 May 2015.
Based on the original method of reclamation, Tuas Terminal Phase 1 reclamation site would have required 40 million m3 of excavated and dredged materials. However, an increase in LTA's projects meant that it needed to dump more excavated material, which would have meant the need to acquire additional disposal capacity. To accommodate LTA's surfeit of excavated materials, MPA devised an optimised reclamation design for Tuas Terminal Phase 1 with a final filling level of +4.5mCD for the excavated material. The revised design also allowed for the use of sand from an earlier constructed sand bund and existing sand from an earlier reclamation project.
FUTURE DIRECTION
Coral Relocation
During the relocation of the corals, some of their fragments were invariably left behind on the shoal. MPA, with the help of NParks and NGOs, harvested these coral fragments and started a research programme with the National University of Singapore to transplant and nurture them in coral nurseries set up at Lazarus Island, St John's Island and Kusu Island. If the effort is successful, the rejuvenated corals will eventually be relocated to degraded reef and non-reef waters in Singapore to enrich the biodiversity in those areas. The programme also assesses the survivability, adaptability and evolution of remaining corals at Sultan Shoal.
The innovative use of excavated and dredged materials can be adopted by the subsequent phases of Tuas reclamation and other reclamation agencies, resulting in cost savings in terms of sand usage and cost avoidance for seeking alternative disposal means for excavated materials.
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) was established on 2 February 1996, with the mission to develop Singapore as a premier global hub port and international maritime centre (IMC), and to advance and safeguard Singapore's strategic maritime interests. MPA is the driving force behind Singapore's port and maritime development, taking on the roles of Port Authority, Port Regulator, Port Planner, IMC Champion, and National Maritime Representative.
www.mpa.gov
© 2019 Asia Responsible Enterprise Awards | AREA. All rights reserved.


text:
Kenya ›
United Republic of Tanzania ›
Diagnostic Apply Diagnostic filter
Human African Trypanosomiasis Apply Human African Trypanosomiasis filter
Measles Vaccination Campaign Apply Measles Vaccination Campaign filter
Multidrug- Resistant Tuberculosis Apply Multidrug- Resistant Tuberculosis filter
operational Apply operational filter
Capitalisation des projets MSF-OCG dans le Sud Irumu, Ituri, RDC – Réussites et difficultés selon les différentes approches stratégiques
The objective of this evaluation was to compare the substitutional approach in Gety project to the approach focused on capacity building and skills transfer in Boga. The evaluation found that in both Boga and Gety, MSF succeeded to considerably improve the quality of care during its presence. Access to health care in Gety was arguably better according to the perception of the population. In Boga, access to primary health care remained limited up until the start of the community-based health care programme launched towards the end of the project.
This publication was produced at the request of MSF OCG, under the management of the Vienna Evaluation Unit. It was prepared independently by C. Cazes et J. Davidoff.
afghatn.png
MSF IN AFGHANISTAN Evaluation of the single representation setup (2017)
Since MSF's return to Afghanistan in 2009, its operations on the ground have been monitored with a spyglass, unlike any other mission in this kind of environment. Consequently, OCs have been pushed to innovate but also remain critical vis-a-vis their respective strategies and the overall modus operandi of the Afghan mission. This evaluation of the single representation set up aims to analyse and learn from the current state of affairs of the Afghan mission in view of possible ways forward.
This publication was produced at the request of MSF, under the management of the Stockholm Evaluation Unit. It was prepared independently by Dan Sermand and Cedric Martin.
bikenge_tn.png
Bikenge Review OCB Deciding and Launching Process (2016)
Bikenge project was opened in Jan 2015, and medical activities starting on Mar 2015. Six months later, in October 2015, the decision was made to close the project. This was followed by a feeling of frustration, the impression that invested resources were wasted and that this closure could negatively impact on the population and MSF perception.This evaluation looks at the process of decision making for starting the project with the goal to identify the lessons to be used by operations in order to avoid similar situations in the future.
This publication was produced at the request of MSF OCB, under the management of the Stockholm Evaluation Unit. It was prepared independently by Eva P. Rocillo Aréchaga.


text:
Q: Save a WAV file to disk This is a web service call which I wrote that is intended to receive a WAV file via a POST and store it in the web-app server's local file system (IIS).  Is there a simple method to store the file and if so would someone be so kind as to provide a C# example?

A: You'll need to have write access to the directory you want to save to.
Make a FileUpload control, then call its SaveAs method in a postback.

A: If you're writing a REST service, use the following code:
Request.Files[0].SaveAs(/* some file path */);

Either way, be aware of the security issues - make sure the filename has a .wav extension and don't trust the file to be correct.