Starting from the days of dial-up BBSes, I have more than 18 years� experience in online communities. My specialization is developing online content, including information design and taxonomy, focusing on optimization for brand awareness, search and conversion.
Favorite Thing About SEO The people involved. The best SEOs are amazing, insane people.
I agree with Ian. Whenever I've heard the term 'over-optimized,' I say it's either optimal, or it's sub-optimal.

The line between optimal and sub-optimal is the line that makes SEO an art, and not simply a process of blunt force development trauma.
1. If the directory requires a reciprocal link, this is not a good sign. There are some that do, and I find it a signal that the directory has low relevancy or authority.
2. Have you HEARD of it? As a common-sense sniff test, it falls in with that idea of being an Internet neophyte to some extent. I'm not saying that a directory has to be well-known to have value, but I'd bet with some of these 'directories,' the founder's mother hasn't heard of it and doesn't use it. Not a good sign.
In a lot of cases, even if the submission fee is 'only' $10, I still recommend 2-3 fancy coffee drinks (depending on the coffee purveyor), over a 2-3 week period, for the same cash. To give them some perceived web site value, I suggest they sip their delicious caffeinated beverage while reviewing their traffic reports, and look at where their best referrers are coming from, and try to build from there.
I think one of the underlying problems is that meta-tags are simple. They're easy to understand. And people WANT everything to be simple, because that means it's DIY or cheap.
As long as the snake-oil people are out there capitalizing on this wish, it makes it harder for people like us to educate. There is resistance to things that are hard and (potentially) expensive.
It gets back into the whole 'SEO is not rocket science.' Well, maybe not. But it is an art, and to do a systemic, integrated campaign isn't a one-time charge of $59.95. 'Submitting to the engines again' isn't a magic signal that creates trust and traffic.
I think one of the underlying problems is that meta-tags are simple. They're easy to understand. And people WANT everything to be simple, because that means it's DIY or cheap.

As long as the snake-oil people are out there capitalizing on this wish, it makes it harder for people like us to educate. There is resistance to things that are hard and (potentially) expensive.

It gets back into the whole 'SEO is not rocket science.' Well, maybe not. But it is an art, and to do a systemic, integrated campaign isn't a one-time charge of $59.95. 'Submitting to the engines again' isn't a magic signal that creates trust and traffic.
I certainly agree with posters who say that lots of shoppers in a market like fishing would rather be on the lake, but we'd be out-of-touch with the users if wesaid that they themselves were luddite. Fishing itself is not unlike being a gadgethead with the shiny digital camera and the glossy cell phones and etc. Your boat, your reel, your electronic fishfinder... all just different techno-gadgets. And many of these people are immersed in the work technology world.
Even 'conservative' web sites (from a design/tech/update perspective), whether in commerce or in big corporations, eventually get the 'keeping up with...' bug compared to other web sites people use and are familiar with.
I think one thing you see is that for the very big providers, like Cabela's and Bass Pro Shops, there have been no significant market entrants who can even touch their brand. A friend of mine's dad visited him in town, and had to make a pilgrimage to the local Cabela's. When a brand is very strong, they often have less motivation to go to what they would consider very edgy.
On the other hand, I've seen tourism providers try to go very Web 2.0, and I think those offer both some potential for the tourism sponsors themselves and for some of the mom-n-pops who drive a tourism industry. In Minnesota, lots of resorts are family owned, and most of your nature guides are one and two-person outfits somewhere in lake tourism country. For them, tourism sites like Minnesota's, which allow for user top-10 lists and the like (a la an Amazon list) may be good visibility and possibly even good for link-building and traffic, depending on if the lists allow for link-embedding.
I think one thing you see is that for the very big providers, like Cabela's and Bass Pro Shops, there have been no significant market entrants who can even touch their brand. A friend of mine's dad visited him in town, and had to make a pilgrimage to the local Cabela's. When a brand is very strong, they often have less motivation to go to what they would consider very edgy.

On the other hand, I've seen tourism providers try to go very Web 2.0, and I think those offer both some potential for the tourism sponsors themselves and for some of the mom-n-pops who drive a tourism industry. In Minnesota, lots of resorts are family owned, and most of your nature guides are one and two-person outfits somewhere in lake tourism country. For them, tourism sites like Minnesota's, which allow for user top-10 lists and the like (a la an Amazon list) may be good visibility and possibly even good for link-building and traffic, depending on if the lists allow for link-embedding.
One other issue that was raised at SMX Advanced was the idea that the neighborhood (server) your site is in can impact how your behavior is rated. So if you're a Mom-n-Pop, but you're being provided the basis for your site by a large provider of hosting space/design for real estate sites, you're going to be treated relative to that large provider, and not as much as a mom-n-pop.
I actually sort of find this quease-inducing, because 'local hosting' is less and less common, and getting hosting from large national companies in various verticals is more common. Given that I work for one such provider, it concerns me a lot that a Mom-n-Pop who works through a big company can get penalized as if they have the full knowledge base of the company providing their hosting.
As far as tinfoil hats go, I think everyone would do well to buy a roll or two. I think a lot of people are being pretty cavalier about many companies' data collection practices -- Google being just one, but an important one -- given that once data is released, it's very hard for the subject of the data (the consumer) to take it back.
People are pretty willing to give up a lot for a little -- free shipping, massive e-mail storage, whatever. The kind of behavioral data a good data miner could create just from a peek at some elements in gmail (what ads display and when, for instance) is pretty creepy.
Disclaimer: I'm not old. I'm just old-school.
I helped build a Gopher in the early 1990s, so when Mosaic and then Netscape came out, I started building sites. Worked for my first e-com site in 1997 and started doinking with SEO for the early engines and directories. Been doing it ever since.
It's actually pretty hard under ANY circumstance to prove a wrongful termination or wrongful dismissal, and the process can be truly painful as well. If the task is reasonable under your job description and legal, most employment attorneys wouldn't touch it.
Note: I am not a lawyer. I just optimize web sites for 'em.
In our recent experience, launching lots of smaller sites, sites with SiteMaps and without really don't have a big difference in crawl-time. The deal-maker (or breaker) is age of domain/links to domain, as well as standard usability issues.
In our recent experience, launching lots of smaller sites, sites with SiteMaps and without really don't have a big difference in crawl-time. The deal-maker (or breaker) is age of domain/links to domain, as well as standard usability issues.


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21.9C: Oxygen Transport
Book: Anatomy and Physiology (Boundless)
21: Respiratory System
Oxyhemoglobin Dissociation Curve
Hemoglobin is the primary transporter of oxygen with an oxygen binding capacity between 1.36 and 1.37 ml O2 per gram Hgb.
Describe the process of oxygen transport
About 98.5% of the oxygen in a sample of arterial blood in a healthy human breathing air at sea-level pressure is bound to the hemoglobin in blood.
Each molecule of hemoglobin is made up of four heme groups.
The oxygen dissociation curve shows the amount of oxygen saturated in hemoglobin for a given partial pressure of oxygen.
The curve shifts right when oxygen's affinity for binding to hemoglobin is decreased, and shifts left when its affinity for binding is increased.
A rightward shift occurs during exercise, decreasing blood pH and increasing temperature, or during anemia (with a downward shift as well).
A leftward shift occurs during increased blood pH, decreased temperature, or carbon monoxide exposure.
hemoglobin: A protein found in red blood cells that provides a binding site for oxygen to transport it to the tissues of the body.
dissociation curve: The oxygen–hemoglobin dissociation curve plots the proportion of hemoglobin saturated with oxygen on the vertical axis against the partial pressure of oxygen on the horizontal axis.
About 98.5% of the oxygen in a sample of arterial blood in a healthy human breathing air at sea-level pressure is bound to the hemoglobin in blood (Hgb). Hemoglobin is a protein found in red blood cells (also called erythrocytes).
There are roughly 270 million hemoglobin molecules in a single red blood cell, and each contains 4 heme groups. The function of Hgb is to provide a binding site for oxygen to carry oxygen throughout the bloodstream to the systemic tissues for cellular respiration.
Hemoglobin: Hemoglobin is the iron-containing, oxygen-transport metalloprotein in the red blood cells of all vertebrates.
About 1.5% of oxygen is physically dissolved in the other blood liquids and not connected to Hgb. It has an oxygen binding capacity between 1.36 and 1.37 ml O2 per gram Hgb.
The percentage of oxygen that is saturated in the hemoglobin of blood is generally represented by a curve that shows the relationship between PaO2 and O2 saturation. Saturation of O2 in hemoglobin is an indicator for how much O2 is able to reach the tissues of the body.
Higher PaO2 means higher saturation of oxygen in blood. Under normal conditions the PaO2 in systemic blood is equal to 50%, about 26.6 mmHg,; this is called the P50.
The curve starts to plateau at PaO2 higher than 60 mmHG, meaning that increases in PaO2 after that point won't significantly increase saturation. This also means that the approximate carrying capacity for oxygen in hemoglobin has been reached and excess oxygen won't go into hemoglobin.
The carrying capacity can be increased if more hemoglobin is added to the system, such as through greater red blood cell generation in high altitude, or from blood transfusions. The lower areas of the curve show saturation when oxygen is unloaded into the tissues.
The oxyhaemoglobin dissociation curve: The oxygen–hemoglobin dissociation curve plots the percent hemoglobin saturation (y-axis) against the partial pressure of oxygen in the blood (PO2). The blue curve is standard curve, while the red and green curves are right and leftward shifts respectively.
The oxyhemoglobin dissociation curve can shift in response to a variety of factors. A change in the P50 of the curve is a sign that the dissociation curve as a whole has shifted. Shifts indicate a change in affinity for oxygen's binding to hemoglobin, which changes the ability of oxygen to bind to hemoglobin and stay bound to it (i.e., not be released from it).
Rightward shifts indicate a decreased affinity for the binding of hemoglobin, so that less oxygen binds to hemoglobin, and more oxygen is unloaded from it into the tissues. The curve shifts right during decreased blood pH (called the Bohr effect), increased temperature, and during exercise among other things.
Anemia (a disorder marked by a decreased red blood cell count and less hemoglobin) also causes a rightward shift, but also changes the shape of the curve so that it moves downward as well as a result of the reduced levels of hemoglobin.
Leftward shifts indicate an increased affinity for the binding of hemoglobin, so that more oxygen binds to hemoglobin, but less oxygen is unloaded from it into the tissues. Causes of leftward shifts include increased blood pH, decreased temperature, and carbon monoxide exposure. Carbon monoxide binds to hemoglobin in place of oxygen, so that less oxygen reaches the tissues; this can be fatal if severe enough.
21.9B: Internal Respiration
21.9D: Carbon Dioxide Transport

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I am a lazy girl through and through. We all know that I love my beauty, I mean, you must too if your reading this? But if there's a few corners we can cut through to achieving just a good if not better look then we will, right? I am always on the hunt for products that'll make my life easier and this post is helping you achieve a mani with little effort.
Shaping the nails is something I usually try and skip if I can. I know, I shouldn't but I just hadn't found the tool that'd make it easy enough for me not to skip. The Stylfile is something I thought was a big gimmick when I first saw it and steered clear of trying it until I was invited down to meet the inventor Tom Pellereau (the winner from the Apprentice a few years ago, remember? Yep, that's the one!) and learn all things Stylfile I thought it was probably time to give it a go and honestly, I am so impressed. Pictured here is the Stylfile Nailcare Collection* and the pack includes a nail file, 4 way buffer and a travel nail file. Each product is shaped in an 'S' and it actually makes it so much easier to shape and buff your nails, I'm so surprised. They're super affordable so why not give it a go? It could make doing your nails less of a chore, definitely.
I know that painting your nails can seem a lot longer with all of the base coat and top coat mumbo jumbo, but trust me, it makes such a difference and can save you so much time in the long run. I'm talking no staining of the nails, the polish will last longer and will look better, and so for the sake of applying just a couple more coats of polish it's well worth it. My pick of the bunch are currently OPI's Nail Envy that can also be used as a nail strengthener, it's great for your nails while perfecting your mani, perfect! For topcoat I have always used and loved the Seche Vite Top Coat, I won't mention much about it as everyone has posted about it, but if your looking for a new one then you should give it a go.
For polish, have a look around at the quick drying and easy application ones. I had a look through my ever growing collection and found a goodn' to show you. Bourjois 1 Seconde Polish in Melon* is the most perfect shade for this season. It looks great on us pale girls and would look amazing with a tan, bonus all round, right? It has a larger brush for an even easier and quicker application. The only thing I would say is you need to be a bit careful when layering this polish as it can apply a little oddly but I found that when I applied it later at night and was super tired so would mostly put it down to that. To make it dry that bit quicker my new revelation is the Bourjois Instant Dry Nail Drops*, a drop on each nail and it makes that manicure that much quicker.
If your not a polish kinda gal or maybe you just don't have the time, then the ImPress Nails* are your way to your perfect mani. They come in plenty of different colours and patterns and they're super easy to apply. You literally just press them on like the name suggests. Voila, pretty nails! If you're a short nail kinda girl like me then this is perfect for giving you the longer nail look that you can just take off. Perfect nails in minutes.
When it comes to taking the polish off, that's usually where I get the most lazy. It's so much effort to take it off, don't even get me started about glitter polish removal but Bourjois have the most amazing new innovation. Now I'm sure you'll have all heard of this wonder product, the Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover for Hands and Feet* has gone one step further than its predecessor making it easy to take off your nail polish on your hands, but also on your feet. If you don't have this, you need to get it. I've converted everyone onto it that has ever tried it. It's a lifesaver and a total wonder.
So there you have it, The Lazy Girls Guide to Perfect Nails! If you'd like to see more of these posts then let me know if there's anything you'd like to see.
I love my Nail Envy! Definitely worth it!


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Home / Browse By Label / Scream / Shout Factory / Blood and Lace (Scream Factory) (DVD / Blu-Ray Combo)
Blood and Lace (Scream Factory) (DVD / Blu-Ray Combo)
Available for the first time on a home entertainment format, the 1971 cult favorite Blood and Lace is a twisted tale of horror frequently cited as a precursor to the slasher films of the late 70s and early 80s.
SKU: bloodandlace Categories: Browse All Titles, Blu-Ray, Horror / Thriller, Scream / Shout Factory Tags: Blu-Ray, Combo Pack
She searched through the dark corridors of the unknown, only to find… the unbearable.
After her mother's brutal murder at the hands of a hammer-wielding maniac, teenaged Ellie Masters (Melody Patterson) is suddenly orphaned. She is sent to a home for children run by the enigmatic Mrs. Deere (Gloria Grahame, a 1952 Best Supporting Actress Academy Award® winner for her role in The Bad and The Beautiful), in spite of the concern that Ellie will be the newest target of her mother's killer. But as terror strikes again and again, it becomes unclear who might be the bigger threat to Ellie's life: the mysterious murderer with a hammer…or her sadistic new caretaker.
With borderline insane plot twists, and some unexpected performances by two faces familiar to fans of classic sitcoms – Vic Tayback ('Mel' from Alice) and Len Lesser ('Uncle Leo' from Seinfeld) – this little-known horror gem is a jolting, terror-filled thriller you've got to see to believe.
Blu-Ray / DVD Combo
LIMITED Jess Franco's Marquis De Sade's Justine (CD / DVD / Blu-Ray All Region Combo)
Get Mean (Blue Underground) (DVD / Blu-Ray All Region)
Vampyros Lesbos (Jess Franco Severin) (DVD / Blu-Ray Combo All Region)
Serpent And The Rainbow (Scream Factory) (Blu-Ray)
Man, Pride and Vengeance (Blue Underground) (Blu-Ray All Region)


ASA Monitor 03 2017, Vol.81, 33.
The ASA Excellence in Education Award recognizes ASA members who have made outstanding contributions through demonstrated excellence in teaching, development of new teaching methods and/or implementation of innovative educational programs in anesthesiology. The nominee for this award must be an active ASA member in good standing who teaches students, residents, fellows or faculty in an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-accredited (or international equivalent) anesthesiology or subspecialty training program, and spends at least 50 percent of his or her time on clinical activities. Physicians from academic or community practices that have training programs are eligible. Nominees should have a minimum of five years of experience in resident and/or continuing medical education.
Call for Nominations: ASA Excellence in Education Award. ASA Monitor 2017;81(3):33.


Find the right tour for you through Gambsheim. We've got 5 tours going to Gambsheim, starting from just 5 days in length, and the longest tour is 8 days. The most popular month to go is December, which has the most number of tour departures.


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Vol.3 No.1(2014), Article ID:42387,10 pages DOI:10.4236/sn.2014.31002
Dynamic Social Network Analysis with Heterogeneous Sensors in Ambient Environment
Sho Tsugawa1, Hiroyuki Ohsaki2, Yuichi Itoh3, Naoaki Ono4, Keiichiro Kagawa5, Kazuki Takashima6
1Faculty of Engineering, Information and Systems, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan
2School of Science and Technology, Kwansei Gakuin University, Nishinomiya, Japan
3Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan
4Graduate School of Information Science, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Nara, Japan
5Research Institute of Electronics, Shizuoka University, Shizuoka, Japan
6Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
Email: s-tugawa@cs.tsukuba.ac.jp
Copyright © 2014 Sho Tsugawa et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. In accordance of the Creative Commons Attribution License all Copyrights © 2014 are reserved for SCIRP and the owner of the intellectual property Sho Tsugawa et al. All Copyright © 2014 are guarded by law and by SCIRP as a guardian.
Received November 19, 2013; revised December 21, 2013; accepted January 6, 2014
Social Network; Ambient Environment; Dynamic Social Network Analysis; Centrality
This paper presents our vision of large-scale, dynamic social network analysis in real environments, which we expect to be enabled by the introduction of large-scale heterogeneous sensors in the ambient environment. We address challenges in realizing large-scale dynamic social network analysis in real environments, and discuss several promising applications. Moreover, we present our design and implementation of a prototype system for quasi-realtime social network construction. We finally present preliminary experimental results of dynamic social network analysis for six-person social gatherings in a real environment, and discuss the feasibility of dynamic social network analysis and its effectiveness.
In network science, and particularly at its intersection with the social sciences, research analyzing the topological structures of social networks has been actively performed for further understanding complex social phenomena that involve interactions among a large number of people [1-3]. Such research is called social network analysis [4-7]. Because social ties are invisible and difficult to measure, sociologists have generally constructed one-time snapshots of social networks by using questionnaires, often for very small groups [1]. Conventional social network analysis in the social sciences has therefore focused on smallscale and static social networks in real environments.
Internet-based communication through email and bulletin boards, however, enables construction of large-scale social networks because of the availability of communication logs [5,8,9]. Internet-based communication logs are rich in terms of size and timing availability, and thus overcome several limitations of questionnaire-based social network construction. This represents dramatic progress in social network analysis, in that Internet-based communication logs can be used to construct large-scale and dynamic social networks in virtual environments [5,8-10].
On the contrary, recent advances in sensing technologies allow accurate monitoring of human-to-human interactions in real environments. For instance, human-tohuman interactions can be monitored with a badge-shaped device that continuously tracks items such as utterances and changes in body direction in the MIT Media Lab. [11] and the Socio Patterns project [12]. Many heterogeneous sensors can also be embedded in the ambient environment for accurate and non-intrusive monitoring of many types of human activities [13,14].
With the aid of heterogeneous sensors in the ambient environment, we anticipate that large-scale and dynamic social network analysis in real environments will soon become possible. As discussed above, trends in social network analysis are shifting from small-scale static analysis in real environments to large-scale dynamic analysis in virtual environments. We expect this trend to continue toward large-scale dynamic analysis in real environments (Figure 1).
This paper presents our vision of large-scale, dynamic social network analysis in real environments, which we expect to be enabled by the introduction of large-scale heterogeneous sensors in the ambient environment. We address challenges in realizing large-scale dynamic social network analysis in real environments, and discuss several promising applications. Moreover, we present our design and implementation of a prototype system for quasi-realtime social network construction. As the first step to realize large-scale dynamic social network analysis in real environment, we finally present preliminary experimental results of dynamic social network analysis for six-person social gatherings in a real environment. Although our experiments are small-scale, our preliminary results with the prototype system show the feasibility and effectiveness of dynamic social network analysis.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, we discuss challenges in realizing large-scale dynamic social network analysis in real environments. Section 3 describes promising applications of dynamic social network analysis in real environments. We introduce our implementation of a prototype system for quasi-realtime social network construction in Section 4. Case studies using our prototype system for quasi-realtime social network construction are shown in Section 5. Finally, Section 6 gives our conclusions and a discussion of future work.
Figure 1. Trend toward large-scale, dynamic social network analysis in real environments; classification of several social network analyses in terms of network dynamics and environment type.
2. Challenges
For realizing large-scale, dynamic social network analysis in real environments, social network construction should be rapid, accurate, reliable and secure. In this section, we discuss five major challenges in achieving this goal.
2.1. Individual Identification
In real environments, individual identification is necessary for social network analysis. Several sensing technologies such as RFID (radio frequency identification) [15], image recognition [16], and biometric identification [17] can be utilized. For non-intrusive sensing, RFID and image recognition technologies are promising. Humans in real environments move about, and thus individual identification requires movement tracking.
2.2. Individual Positioning
The position of each person must be tracked. Two-dimensional positioning is required at a minimum, and threedimensional positioning is required in some cases such as in multistory buildings. Position tracking is possible using RFID devices [15], ultrasonic waves [18], and image recognition [16]. Although basic social network analysis can be performed from only body position, more advanced analysis become possible if the position of individual body parts is measurable, because head, hand, and leg movements give nonverbal cues for analyzing interactive communication.
2.3. Communication Detection
The most important yet most difficult task is the detection of social ties. Constructing a social network requires identification of, at a minimum, the direction, strength, and duration of communication. Moreover, in multi-party communication, whether communication is one-to-one or one-to-many must be identified, for which several types of sensing data are required. For instance, head and body direction, as well as the content of communication obtained through voice recognition, can be used for communication detection.
2.4. Communication Classification
In simple social network analysis, construction of a social network with single-valued social ties is sufficient. For example, social ties can be simply represented by the frequency of communication between pairs of individuals. However, thanks to the availability of heterogeneous sensors, one can now create social networks with multi-valued social ties, enabling more detailed social network analysis. For instance, social ties can be represented by several communication attributes such as utterance loudness, emotional tone, and communication context. One challenge is measurement or estimation of such communication attributes through the use of heterogeneous sensors. As an example, temperature sensors, biometric sensors, and image recognition could be utilized for communication classifications.
2.5. Privacy and Security Concerns
Since social network analysis in a real environment is based on personal information, privacy and security concerns should be given a high priority. Large-scale dynamic social network analysis naturally requires the collection of a large amount of personal information. In many cases, sensor data should be pre-filtered to protect privacy by, for example, private data deletion or data anonymization. Also, online storage that directly or indirectly receives sensor information must be reliable and secure.
In addition to the five challenges discussed above, there are several unresolved issues regarding individual sensors (e.g., quality assurance, which involves accuracy, timeliness, and outlier management) and regarding cooperative sensors (e.g., redundancy, reliability, and conflict resolution for contradictory sensing data). Moreover, if heterogeneous sensors are battery-powered, energy efficiency is vital.
3. Promising Applications
The following is a discussion of several promising applications of large-scale, dynamic social network analysis in real environments.
3.1. Social Network Evolution Analysis
One promising application is sociological analysis of community formation. For instance, large-scale, dynamic social networks accurately represent the dynamics of socialization, which can be used to study the mechanism of social network evolution.
3.2. Interactive Communication Analysis
Interactive communications can be represented as a dynamic social network. Hence, another promising application is behavioral psychological analysis of interactive communication. Detailed analysis of interactive communication requires construction of a social network with multi-valued social ties to capture the detailed behavior of each person.
3.3. Communication Assistance
Large-scale, dynamic social network analysis should help build applications that assist communications. Once the dynamics of communication are represented as a dynamic social network, several conventional tools for social network analyses can be applied. For instance, cluster detection algorithms [19,20] can detect communities in the network, and centrality measures [21,22] can discover key persons. Such information could indicate the state of communication. We can therefore design an application that assists communication in real environments.
3.4. Interactive Art
Large-scale, dynamic social networks constructed from heterogeneous sensors can be used for interactive art. With conventional network visualization software, social networks can be quickly visualized in a number of ways. In particular, changes in communication can be quickly reflected in a visualized social network, which could enable a new type of interactive art.
3.5. Multi-Party Gaming
Multi-party gaming is another promising and interesting application. Large-scale, dynamic social networks accurately capture activity in a place. As with interactive art, this information can be used for new types of multi-party gaming. For instance, a game application can make decisions based on the results of dynamic social network analysis.
4. Quasi-Realtime Social Network Construction
For examining the feasibility of dynamic social network analysis, we have designed and implemented a prototype system for quasi-realtime social network construction. The system is built in our proposed Ambient Suite, which is a room-shaped environment with heterogeneous sensors [13] (Figure 2). Ambient Suite has microphones, 3D trackers, and acceleration sensors to sense participant utterances, head positions, and hand gestures, respectively. We utilize these sensors to realize quasi-realtime social network construction. Refer to [13] for a detailed explanation of the Ambient Suite.
For quasi-realtime social network construction, each person was equipped with a head-mounted marker and a sensor-equipped cup [23]. The head-mounted marker was continuously tracked with multiple infrared cameras (OptiTrack FLEX: V100R2) in the Ambient Suite. The sensor-equipped cup (equipped with a fourth generation Apple iPod Touch) monitored utterance and gestures of a person with a microphone and an accelerometer. All sensor data were quickly transferred to the management server; infrared cameras and the management server were connected with USB cables, and sensor-equipped cups with 54 Mbit/s WiFi.
From among the several types of information obtained
Figure 2. Ambient Suite, a room-shaped ambient information environment equipped with a number of heterogeneous sensors.
from the heterogeneous sensors, we used the head position, head direction, and volume of utterance of each person for quasi-realtime social network construction.
Our system constructs social network utilizing these information. Occurrences of communications among arbitrary pairs are detected based on the positions and angles of their heads. A social tie is inferred from the loudness of utterance, head position, and head direction of each person. We used a simple threshold-based communication detection that assumes two individuals are talking to each other when they are within a predetermined distance from each other, facing each other within a predetermined angle, and utterances exceed a predefined threshold loudness. Specifically, a social tie from person i to j is created when the distance between i and j is less than x [m], the relative head angle is less than θ, and the loudness of i's utterance exceeds V [dB]. The weight of a link (the strength of a social tie) is defined as the accumulated duration of conversation.
Our implementation instantly constructs dynamic social networks from sensor data, which implies the feasibility of quasi-realtime social network analysis applications such as interactive communication analysis, interactive art, and multi-party gaming.
Moreover, our implementation almost instantly calculates several network analysis measures such as nodelevel measures of degree, betweenness, closeness, and eigenvector centrality [21,24], and graph-level measures such as graph centrality [25], density, diameter, average path length, and clustering coefficient [26]. Such information could indicate the state of communication. We can therefore design an application that assists communication in real environments.
Our implementation supports quasi-realtime social network visualization. A dynamic social network is drawn every construction interval. Detailed information from heterogeneous sensors such as the position and the direction of each person can be overlaid on the visualization. Snapshots of the dynamic social network can be exported into several formats used in popular network analysis tools such as Pajek, NetMiner, and Cytoscape. Hence, a variety of conventional social network analysis tools can be utilized for quasi-realtime social network analysis.
5. Experiments in Ambient Suite
In this section, we present preliminary experimental results for dynamic social network analysis of six-person social gatherings in a real environment. Analysis is performed using our system for quasi-realtime social network construction. Sensor data were obtained for quasi-realtime social network construction for six individuals, who were asked to freely communicate with others in the Ambient Suite. For each person, the utterance loudness and the position and direction of the head were periodically obtained via sensors. The sensing intervals for the head position, the head direction, and the utterance loudness were 100 ms, 100 ms, and 250 ms, respectively. We used threshold volume V = −43 dB, distance threshold x = 3 m, and facing angle threshold θ = π/3 for communication detection.
We repeated a 12-min experiment 17 times with nonoverlapping participants. Each group consisted of six individuals, and thus 101 participants (51 men and 50 women; one woman was absent) took part in the experiment. Each group consisted of three men and three women who had never met each other before the experiment. All participants were Japanese graduate or undergraduate students whose ages ranged from 18 to 24 years (average 21.7 years). Detailed settings of Ambient Suite are explained in [13].
Several snapshots of a real dynamic social network are shown in Figure 3. The thickness of each edge (social tie) represents its weight (duration of communication).
5.2. Relation between Centrality Measure and Leadership Strength
We first investigate the relation between centrality measure of a node (a participant in the experiment) and the strength of that participant's leadership. In social network analyses, centrality measures such as degree, closeness, and betweenness centralities [21] are widely used to discover an individual who plays a central role in a community or to infer the leadership strength of that person [27-29]. Therefore, several analyses to investigate the relation between leadership strength of a person and centrality measure have been performed [30-32]. For instance, Freeman et al. analyzed the relation between leadership and degree centrality, closeness centrality, and betweenness centrality through problem-solving experiments [30]. We performed similar experiments utilizing our system.
Figure 3. Snapshots of a real dynamic social network constructed and visualized when six individuals (circles) are freely talking with others; lines between pairs indicate social ties, and line thicknesses represent the duration of communication. Individuals with the highest betweenness [21] (a centrality measure obtained from social network analysis) are shown in red.
We calculated degree, closeness, and betweenness centralities of each participant every 2 min during the experiments. We constructed a weighted directed graph from sensor data at 2 min intervals, and calculated the in-degree, out-degree, closeness, and betweenness centralities of each participant. Node i represents a participant, link (i, j) represents communication from participant i to j, and link weight wi,j represents accumulated duration of communication from participant i to j. Node i's in-degree centrality is defined as the sum of the link weights of incoming links of node i, and out-degree centrality is defined as the sum of the weights of outgoing links of node i. For calculating closeness centrality and betweenness centrality, the distance between nodes i and j is defined as 1/wi,j [7].
Each participant is asked to subjectively select a leader among other participants for every 2 min in the experiments using our constructed sensor-equipped cup [23]. We categorize participants by the number of nominations as leader by other participants, and calculated the average of centrality measures for each category. Figure 4 shows the average of centrality measures of participants for each category based on their number of nominations as a leader.
Figure 4 shows that participants with more nominations as leader tended to have higher centrality scores, except in-degree centrality. This result suggests that there is a strong correlation between the leadership strength of a participant and his or her centrality score in a social gathering. Low correlation between in-degree centrality and leadership strength suggests that a participant who listens to others is rarely considered to be a leader in a social gathering.
5.3. Relation between Structure of Social Network and Activity of Conversation
We next obtained several popular measures in social network analysis, and investigated their evolution. As an example, Figure 5(a) shows the evolution of graph centrality based on the betweenness centrality [25] in two dynamic social networks. In this case, graph centrality can be thought of as a metric for measuring how the communications among people are balanced; graph centrality is lower if everyone has similar betweenness centrality. During the experiment, all individuals were asked to subjectively grade the activity of their communications in five levels. Evolutions of average activity scores subjectively given by six individuals are shown in Figure 5(b).
Comparison of Figures 5(a) and (b) indicates a correlation among those evolutions. Note that Figure 5(a)was obtained from only sensor data from heterogeneous sensors, whereas Figure 5(b) was obtained from participant questionnaires. These results suggest that in these two groups, network measures may be effective to infer activity scores subjectively given by participants. More detailed analysis (i.e., analysis using all groups' data) is given in Section 5.5.
5.4. Analysis of Burstiness
In recent years, it has been found that many human activities show interesting patterns, for instance, the inter-event
Figure 4. Average of centrality measures of participants for each category based on number of nominations as leader by other participants. (a) Average out-degree centrality; (b) Average in-degree centrality; (c) Average closeness centrality; (d) Average betweenness centrality.
Figure 5. An example analysis of social networks, which are constructed with our system, for six-person social gatherings in a real environment other participants. (a) Evolution of graph centrality based on betweenness centrality; (b) Evolution of average activity scores subjectively given by six individuals.
time distribution follows a power law [33,34]. This bursty nature of human activities has attracted the attention of many researchers [33-36]. As examples, the inter-communication times of email messages, phone calls, and SMS messages have been analyzed [34]. Our system can monitor the events of face-to-face communication over very short time scales. We can therefore analyze interevent time of face-to-face communications with our system.
Figure 6 shows a relative frequency distribution of ∆ti,j , the inter-event time of face-to-face communications between participants i and j.
Figure 6 shows that inter-event time of face-to-face communications in our experiments follows a heavytailed distribution, like a power law distribution. A heavytailed distribution of inter-event time is observed in several types of human activities [34,37]. Our result provides evidence that supports the hypothesis that such a heavytailed distribution of inter-event time is a universal characteristic of human activity.
5.5. Estimation of Activity with Multiple Regression Analysis
Our system for dynamic social network construction can be used to construct a model for estimating the activity level of a conversation. We can obtain various measures of dynamically changing social networks. By analyzing the relation between such measures and activity levels, we can construct a model to estimate the activity level. Since estimating the current state of group is a key technique for realizing ambient environments, constructing a model to estimate activity level should be of great value.
In this section, we perform multiple regression analysis. As independent variables, we use the six variables shown in Table 1. As the dependent variable, we use the average of activity scores subjectively given by six participants.
Before performing multiple regression analysis, we calculate correlation coefficients among independent and dependent variables. Table 2 shows a correlation matrix of independent and dependent variables.
Table 2 shows that there are moderate correlations among independent variables such as Closeness and Outdegree. Therefore, it is expected that using all independent variables does not provide a good regression model.
We therefore perform stepwise selection to find appropriate variables, and construct a multiple regression model. Regression coefficients for each variable in the constructed model are shown in Table 3. The relation between predicted activity score with the model and the actual activity score is shown in Figure 7.
Table 3 shows the model can explain the activity level with coefficient of determination R2 = 0.28. Moreover, this result shows that variables In-degree and Duration are good indicators for estimating activity level. This result suggests that people feel conversations become
Figure 6. Relative frequency distribution of ∆ti,j, the inter-event time of face-to-face communications between participants i and j.
Table 1. Independent variables of multiple regression analysis.
Table 2. Correlation matrix of independent and dependent variables in multiple regression analysis.
Table 3. Regression coefficients for each variable in the multiple regression model to estimate the activity level of conversation (coefficient of determination R2 = 0.28, **p < 0.01, *p < 0.05).
more active as time elapses. High graph centrality based on in-degree centrality implies the existence of a participant who listens to others. Therefore, it is expected that existence of such a participant activates conversations. This finding should be useful for promoting face-to-face conversation among people who has never met each other before.
Figure 7 shows moderate correlation between estimated and actual activity scores. This result suggests that a constructed model is effective for estimating the activity level of social gatherings in a real environment. However, we should investigate the effectiveness of this model by application to other groups. It is important future work to investigate the robustness of this model by applying it to different groups with different numbers of participants.
6. Conclusions and Future Work
This paper presented our vision of large-scale, dynamic social network analysis in real environments, which is expected to be enabled by the introduction of large-scale heterogeneous sensors to ambient environments. We have addressed challenges in realizing large-scale, dynamic social network analysis in real environments, and discussed several promising applications. Moreover, we have presented our design and implementation of a prototype system for quasi-realtime social network construction. Preliminary experimental results with the prototype system indicate the feasibility and effectiveness of quasi-realtime social network analysis.
For future work, we plan to analyze dynamically changing large-scale social networks with our implementation. In this paper, we have shown that our current prototype system works for small-scale social networks. However, to realize large-scale social network analysis, we need more large-scale experiments. Our current implementation uses infra-red camera for individual identification and positioning. For more large-scale environment, more scalable techniques such as RFID or AR (Augmented Reality) markers are suitable.
Figure 7. Relation between predicted activity score with the model and the actual activity score (correlation coefficient r = 0.53).
This research was partly supported by "Global COE (Centers of Excellence) Program" of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan.
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China scored a diplomatic triumph last week as countries around the world lined up to join the new Beijing-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
Among them were many allies of the United States, which had opposed their membership.
On Sunday, Australia, Denmark and Russia became the latest countries to apply, bringing the number of potential members to 42. The deadline to become a founding member is Tuesday.
The most notable non-applicants are the United States and Japan.
Washington has expressed concerns about the governance and environmental and social standards of the new bank.
It lobbied its partners and allies not to join – but since Britain broke ranks March 13, there has been a flood of applicants, including US allies South Korea and Turkey, as well as Brazil, France, Germany and Switzerland.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew arrived in China Saturday and is due to stay until Tuesday.
He could make an application to join, but most consider this unlikely. In Japan, the government and public opinion are split over the issue; a late application seems unlikely.
Beijing announced the new bank in October last year with the aim of accelerating the building of infrastructure in Asia.
It estimates the continent's requirements at US$700-800 billion a year and says the AIIB will supplement – and not compete with — existing international financial institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank.
Addressing concerns about standards of governance, Beijing says that the addition of new founding members, especially those from developed countries, can lead to better standards.
These standards will be agreed on this year, and the new bank is due to start operations at the beginning of next year.
The founding of the AIIB is a milestone in China's history.
It has established a global bank, based in the mainland, that will serve the fastest-growing region of the world.
The World Bank and IMF are based in Washington and headed by an American and a European, respectively. The ADB is based in Manila and headed by a Japanese.
It is part of the internationalisation of China's economic strength, together with the gradual move of the renminbi to become a reserve currency.
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's unit in Toronto announced the start of a clearing system for the renminbi March 23, the first in North America; this follows the establishment of such a system in Asia and Europe.
"This is a new stage in the internationalisation of the currency," the People's Daily said March 25.
Chinese scholars see the fight over the AIIB as part of the global struggle between Washington and Beijing in the military, diplomatic and economic spheres.
Huang Renwei, deputy director of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said that, since the end of the 19th century, the US has been the leading superpower in the world, having beaten off the challenge of Britain, Germany, Japan and the Soviet Union.
"In the 21st century, it is using the same techniques to oppress China and hinder its rise … It has already lost its control over global resources," Huang said.
"China has become the world's biggest trading nation. The many countries that rely on the Chinese market cannot block access to it. China has become a major exporter of capital, and even the US cannot block the inflow of it.
"China's capacity for innovation is rising rapidly, and the transfer of technology of western countries to it has broken the American restrictions on export of such technology to China.
"The final aim of the renminbi is to break the monopoly of the US dollar as the global currency. In the future, there will be three world currencies – the US dollar, the euro and the renminbi.
In an editorial March 25, Beijing's Global Times said the new bank is a sign of China's vision and self-confidence and that it will benefit many countries.
"Washington opposes it only because it was not the one that founded the bank," the newspaper said.


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Beatriz Cortez with Chultún El Semillero, 2021, in 'FUTURES', Arts and Industries Building, Washington DC © Greg Kahn
The Arts and Industries Building, built in 1881 by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, began life as a place to house artefacts from the 1876 World's Fair in Philadelphia. It became the US's first national museum. Over the years, its purpose was rejigged as new Smithsonian museums spawned around it, and it accrued various nicknames from "the Mother of Museums" to "the Palace of Invention".
In 2004, it closed for a much-needed renovation — lasting 10 years and costing $55m. Rachel Goslins, director of the AIB since 2016, tells me she is fond of all its nicknames. They have played into discussions over what this "beautiful, riotous, monumental" exhibition hall could, or should, contain.
Meanwhile, to mark the AIB's public reopening and to celebrate the Smithsonian's 175-year anniversary, Goslins has organised an exhibition worthy of her institution's bold, forward-facing tradition. FUTURES will combine artefacts from the Smithsonian's collections with interactive displays and some newly commissioned artworks, all themed around visions of the future based in collective humanity, inspiration, pragmatism and hope.
One of those commissioned artists is Beatriz Cortez, sculptor and academic born in El Salvador and based in Los Angeles. "We chose artists who had a practice of future-thinking already embedded in their work," Goslins says. In recent years, Cortez has gained increasing attention for artworks that combine science fiction with ancient, indigenous knowledge and spiritual belief.
Her studio is off a gated compound near downtown Los Angeles, arrayed with shipping containers, caravans and a bus tricked out for the annual arts event Burning Man. Cortez invites me through heavy plastic-strip curtains. Still wearing protective glasses and a thick Kevlar welding sleeve, she warns me not to touch a steel armature she has been welding "in case it's still hot".
Cortez learnt to weld in 2016, during an artist's residency at the auto body shop of Cerritos College in Norwalk — a working-class city south-east of Los Angeles that is about 70 per cent Hispanic. "I see my work as a homage to immigrant workers who are improvising, doing things they were not trained to do," she says.
Chultún El Semillero, 2021 © Greg Kahn
In the centre of the crowded studio sits her unfinished sculpture for FUTURES. About five feet high, the steel structure calls to mind both a space capsule and a bulbous asteroid. Its framework lends it a rugged functionality, while its hammered, rounded panels were inspired, Cortez says, both by the shells of sea urchins and by dresses sewn by her grandmother.
When finished, "Chultún El Semillero" will consist of two such capsules, connected by a narrow tunnel. In one, plants will grow under lamps. The other will store seeds and carry, at its centre, a welded steel boulder inscribed with a formula for the future distribution of the seeds, developed in collaboration with Cortez's mathematician brother and written in Mayan symbols. The title is a reference to pre-Columbian Mayan chultúns — huge storage vessels carved into the rocky ground, used as cisterns for drinking water, or food cellars — "all the things that are precious and preserve life", Cortez says.
I ask her how legible her formula for the survival of life on Earth would be. "Some people will read it, because they understand Mayan signs," she replies. "Some people won't be able to read it, so they will have to look it up." It's an uncompromising response from someone weary of being told that her culture, or the cultures she studies, are marginal, obscure, unimportant.
Cortez attempts, through her work, "to be a time traveller". While the engine of her art is her contemplation of the future, its fuel is the ancient knowledge of indigenous peoples. And in her recent academic work in the fields of posthumanism and speculative philosophy, Cortez has been asking "will plants remember humans when we're gone?" She has researched the migration of plants in the Americas via the powerful United Fruit Company, as well as the agricultural explorer programme initiated by the US Department of Agriculture in the early 20th century.
I ask Cortez if she traces her own lineage to indigenous people. "I'm a mutt! I'm not anything!" she laughs. "I refuse to be defined, because I think everything is about the future and not about the past. "My work is not about me," she continues. "I worry that people will read my work based on my biography and think it's about identity politics when it's about something deeper."
Nevertheless, Cortez tells me her immigrant story: how, before her birth in 1970, Cortez's parents lived in New York, frugally but joyously, before they returned to El Salvador to raise their family; how they endured a decade of violent civil war until, one night in 1989, they told their daughter she must leave the country. Two hours later, Cortez was on her way to join her older brother in Arizona.
She hated Arizona. "I was coming from the tropics. I ended up in a place that was red like Mars. It felt like there were no plants." But once enrolled at Mesa Community College, studying art, she found a place that "gave me calm and made me survive the trauma of migration". She has a PhD in literature and cultural studies from Arizona State university and has taught Central American and transborder studies since 2000 at California State, Northridge, where about half of students are Hispanic or Latino. "I'm surrounded by students who've had similar experiences of migration as I did. They inspire and inform my work."
Before I leave, I ask her the question at the centre of the FUTURES exhibition: "What do you think of when you think of the future?" Is she an optimist or a pessimist? "Well, it's interesting," she replies. "My work is very much about optimism, about the survival of different peoples and their travels in the cosmos. But it's also about doom, and about imagining the end of the Anthropocene."
For a scholar committed to debunking western, colonialist systems of thought, the end of humankind might not be such a bad thing. "I don't think the ideas about the end of the Anthropocene are apocalyptic; I think they are about imagining the world from other perspectives," she says. "If I imagine being a rock, I don't become a rock, I just am imagining being something else. I am trying to decolonise my desires.
"Imagining is already optimistic," she says. "You're already creating another thing."
First published: Financial Times, November 15, 2021
Published: December 6, 2021
Filed Under: Financial Times, Interview, Uncategorized
Tags: arts and industries building : beatriz cortez : commonwealth & Council : rachel goslins


Afluenta, headquarted in Buenos Aires, announced today the completion of its Series B funding round from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector institution of the World Bank Group, and Elevar Equity, a venture capital firm. IFC and Elevar Equity are investing 4 million US$ each.
Afluenta seeks to disrupt the traditional financial services industry, cutting out middlemen and using proprietary technology to transform the process of applying for a loan, thus facilitating access to financing. Afluenta says it offers borrowers a simple, affordable and less bureaucratic experience, while delivering better yield for individual and institutional lenders.
Lendico CEO Dominik Steinkühler, said: 'In Brazil we have won Banco BMG as a strong local partner. This allows us an optimal market entry. Time is ripe for a change on the loan markets to enable borrowers access to better products'.
German p2p lending service Lendico will launch tomorrow in the Spanish market. 'Spain is an attractive market with great potential due to the credit crunch since 2007,' says CEO Dominik Steinkühler. Maximum possible loan amount is 25,000 EUR, offered at between 6.29% and 25% APR.
'Lendico poses a direct threat to the comfortable position of traditional banks in the market. From the beginning Lendico was developed as a digital alternative to the banks,' says Steinkühler.
The safeguards and regulations are similar to those of any bank. Lendico is a member of the National Association of Financial Credit (ASNEF) Establishments and works directly with Equifax for risk management and control of delinquency.
As reported earlier, all registered Lendico lenders, not just Spanish residents, will be able to lend.
Spain is the first international market Lendico expands into after launching in Germany in December 2013. While some functions are operated from the Berlin head office there is also an office in Madrid there. And Lendico says the team in Madrid is working on launching the service in South America.
Afluenta is a p2p lending service operating in Argentina. It has been reporting growth since its launch in September 2012. Afluenta offers loan terms of 1, 2 or 3 years. APRs are in the range of 35 to 50%. "We are more competitive than banks because we are faster, more economic and make a difference in quality. Our technology let us screen a prospect in 15 seconds and answer 85% of loan applications immediately, while it takes days or even weeks for banks to do so" Alejandro Cosentino, founder and CEO of Afluenta told P2P-Banking.com.
Fairplace, the first p2p lending service in Brazil, faces an investigation by the Federal Police (Polícia Federal). Launched in April Fairplace so far facilitated 2.5 million BRL (approx. 1.5 million US$) loans. Apparently the Central Bank requested an investigation as early as August 10th, claiming that Fairplace violates laws that prohibit companies that are not financial institutions to operate in financial markets.
In December then the Federal Public Ministry of St. Paul (Ministério Público Federal) asked the Federal Police to open an investigation. According to press coverage penalties for the possible violations range up to four years imprisonment.
Separate investigations are undertaken by the Brazil Securities Commission (Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM)).
Founder Eldes Matiuzzo says his company does not provide loans but only offers a platform to match lenders and borrowers. He added that the company checked the legal situation before launching.
Nevertheless Fairplace suspended the auction of new loans on the site on Dec. 15th.
Fairplace.com.br recently launched the first p2p lending service in Brazil. With approx. 190 million inhabitants Brazil could prove an interesting market for peer to peer lending. While financial institutions are the most common source for loans, consumers face lots of paperwork and high interest.
Founder Eldes Matiuzzo knows that, for he worked 14 years for Unibanco. He says user response since the launch is promising with about 25 registrations per day.
Each loan application undergoes risk assessment (Fairplace uses Seresa Experian Data) and only about 20 percent of applications are approved.
Loan requests are listed for a 14 day auction. Borrowers pay fees only if the loan is successfully funded. Fees listed are 5% for one year loans and 8 percent for two year loans. There are additional fees for credit assessment and each repayment installment. Lenders are charged 2% of each repayment (repaid principal + interest).
Currently the average interest rate at Fairplace is 2.99 percent per month, which is much lower than the average for the Brazilian market.


This page lists the meetings for Staffordshire Local Government Association - Joint Waste Management Board.
The purpose of the Joint Waste Management Board is to develop a Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy for Staffordshire which sets out Local National and European environmental targets to be achieved. The Board are responsible for co-ordinating the successful delivery of the objectives set out in the Strategy for the effective management of municipal waste in Staffordshire.


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Kayōkyoku
Top artists of Kayōkyoku
鄧麗君
大橋純子
坂本九
森進一
前川清
堀江美都子
りりィ
畑中葉子
佐良直美
吉岡治
川上大輔
阿木燿子
山本リンダ
春日八郎
山口かおる
About Kayōkyoku
Kayōkyoku (歌謡曲, literally "Pop Tune") is a Japanese pop music genre, which became a base of modern J-pop. The Japan Times described kayōkyoku as "standard Japanese pop" or "Shōwa-era pop".Kayōkyoku represents a blend of Western and Japanese musical scales. Music in this genre is extremely varied as a result. Kayōkyoku in the narrower and more practical sense, however, excludes J-pop and enka.Unlike "J-pop" singers such as Southern All Stars' Keisuke Kuwata, the singers of the kayōkyoku genre do not use stylized pronunciations based on the English language, but prefer traditional Japanese. There are exceptions, such as in singer Momoe Yamaguchi's song "Rock 'n' Roll Widow".Unlike enka, kayōkyoku is also not based on emotional displays of effort while singing.Famous kayōkyoku artists include Kyu Sakamoto, The Peanuts, The Tigers, Candies, Pink Lady, Seiko Matsuda, Junko Sakurada, The Checkers and Onyanko Club.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Kayōkyoku , which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.


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Medusa is een fictieve superheldin uit de Marvel Comics. Ze werd bedacht door Stan Lee en Jack Kirby, en verscheen voor het eerst in Fantastic Four #36. Zij behoort tot het ras de Inhumans (Onmensen). Haar karakter is enigszins gebaseerd op de Medusa uit de mythologie.

Krachten en Vaardigheden
Medusa is een Inhuman-vrouw, met lange rode haren. Door haar gemuteerde genen kan zij dit haar zodanig manipuleren dat het lijkt alsof het tentakels zijn. Haar rode haar vormt zo een geducht stoot-, slag- of grijpwapen. Ze draagt doorgaans een retro paars pak. Zij heeft een zus Crystal en is getrouwd met Blackbolt, waardoor ze koningin is van de Inhumans.

Affiliatie
Medusa houdt zich op met haar eigen volk, de Inhumans. Dit volk leefde voorheen op een afgesloten plek in de Himalaya's. Door luchtverontreiniging werden ze gedwongen hun hele stad te verhuizen naar het Blauwe gedeelte van de maan, waar een leefbaar klimaat heerst. Bekende Inhumans zijn Blackbolt, Crystal (Marvel), Lockjaw, Triton (Marvel), Gorgon (Marvel), en Karnak (Marvel). Ze is ook een tijdje lid geweest van de Frightful Four (Verschrikkelijke Vier) samen met de Wizard (Marvel), Sandman en Trapster.

Superheld uit Marvel Comics

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Can we trust polls in 2020?
By Steve Israel, opinion contributor — 09/11/19 01:00 PM EDT
© Greg Nash
President Trump Donald TrumpKinzinger welcomes baby boy Tennessee lawmaker presents self-defense bill in 'honor' of Kyle Rittenhouse Five things to know about the New York AG's pursuit of Trump MORE, the national polls tell us, is at an historically low level of sustained disapproval. Most polls indicate that Joe Biden Joe BidenBiden says he didn't 'overpromise' Finland PM pledges 'extremely tough' sanctions should Russia invade Ukraine Russia: Nothing less than NATO expansion ban is acceptable MORE currently leads his closest Democratic rivals in the campaign by a comfortable margin. The polls also show that virtually every Democratic candidate in the presidential field ties or defeats Trump. Even Marianne Williamson beats Trump, according to a poll of people who live with Marianne Williamson.
Unbelievable. I mean, literally unbelievable, at this point anyway. Have we, Democrats and Republicans alike, forgotten how polls have jilted us in the past? All of those unkept promises? The teasing and luring us into an embrace of certainty and security? Polls have broken our hearts before.
Why would we go back now? If you analyze the right trends in the right polls over an extended period of time, you can sense certain forecasts. Not the forecast of a hurricane hitting Alabama, which would be dead wrong, but some useful patterns to get a picture of where voters stand.
I invited Cornell University professors Peter Enns and Jonathon Schuldt, who are affiliated with the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, to join a conference call that was open to the public, to share what they are seeing. The Roper Center is the leading educational facility in the field of public opinion and has the largest archive of survey data in the world. It was hosted by the nonpartisan Institute of Politics and Global Affairs at Cornell University. In standard polling parlance, here are the toplines.
Given the state of polls in 2016, and following the ultimately incorrect forecasts of a win by Hillary Clinton, can we trust polls going into 2020?
Most surveys in 2016 actually got the popular vote spot on. It was the Electoral College that was not accurately forecast. We often interpret polls to forecast, but forecasting is not always the intent of polling. Schuldt said that he "puts less stock in forecasting models and more stock in places that aggregate high quality polls." He mentioned FiveThirtyEight run by Nate Silver and the Real Clear Politics average of polls. But the point is that "a single poll is a single poll, and it is helpful to understand the averages and trends to truly get a sense of where the public sentiment is."
Is the Trump base the biggest ever, or more like an appendage?
Schuldt explained that while it is true that the approval rating of Trump is very high among "strong Republicans, there is an important nuance to consider. If you break Republicans into different groups, depending on how strongly they affiliate with their party, you see rather large variability in their approval." Trump performs very well among strong Republicans, but his support is more tepid with voters who identify as Republicans or "leaners," or Republicans who say that they "somewhat approve" or "approve" of his job performance, so the entirety of his support is not quite as intense as popular narratives suggest. Enns and Schuldt estimate that his core base is 15 percent to 20 percent of the national electorate.
Do tweets with racial overtones work in favor of the president?
Not with the voters he ultimately needs for reelection. A percentage of the electorate has attitudes that lean in the direction of racial resentment, but they are outnumbered by voters across all parties who lean strongly in the other direction. The question here is whether racially charged invective will create enough of a backlash with those currently undecided voters.
In a competitive Democratic primary with numerous candidates, are Democrats looking for ideological affinity or pragmatic electability?
The aggregate data makes it pretty clear that for most Democrats, 2020 is about defeating Trump and is not a choice between party policy proposals or ideological affinity. The bottom line is that if you decide to flirt with polls going into 2020, make sure that you have an honest and long term relationship. In politics as in life, it is best to save yourself the heartbreak.
Steve Israel Steven (Steve) J. IsraelRedistricting reform key to achieving the bipartisanship Americans claim to want Biden seeks to avoid referendum with sharp attacks on GOP Stopping the next insurrection MORE represented New York in Congress for 16 years and served as the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee from 2011 to 2015. He is now the director of the Institute of Politics and Global Affairs at Cornell University. You can find him on Twitter @RepSteveIsrael.
Tags Steve Israel Donald Trump Joe Biden Republicans Democrats Election Polling


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Hilde Drexler (Viena, 1 de desembre de 1983) és una esportista austríaca que va competir en judo, guanyadora d'una medalla de bronze al Campionat Europeu de Judo de 2011, en la categoria de –63 kg.

Palmarès internacional

Referències

Esportistes austríacs als Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 2012
Esportistes vienesos
Judokes europees
Esportistes austríaques


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From New Nordic cuisine to traditional Scandinavian recipes, we've got a taste for everyone. Find out what restaurants to try in Copenhagen, where to get the best brunch in Stockholm, and so much more.
For all of the best restaurants, bars, and top spots in Scandinavia, download our travel app!
Looking for perfectly baked bread or a delicious sweet pastry? These bakeries are where you want to be.
December 23, 2018 by Rebecca Thandi Norman.
The creamy rice porridge dessert that you'll find at most Danish Christmas dinners. Did you know there's a game that goes along with the dish?
December 18, 2018 by Freya August McOmish, Scandinavia Standard & Rebecca Thandi Norman.
The author of a blog and cookbook about the culinary traditions and innovations of Norway shares her story and a cinnamon bun recipe.
December 9, 2018 by Jaughna Nielsen-Bobbit.
How do you make a classic drink even better?
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Find out why and how pickling became a culinary tradition, and get some tips or how to do it at home!
November 13, 2018 by Jaughna Nielsen-Bobbit.
From affordable to high-luxury, there's a brunch for you in Stockholm!
Christmas Cheers: What is J-Dag in Denmark?
Crack open a Christmas brew; Tuborg's beloved beer is available for six weeks only.
November 1, 2018 by Rebecca Thandi Norman.
This perfect autumnal dessert recipe is just what you need for all those apples you've been meaning to use!
October 22, 2018 by Marta Karcz.
A tasty dish made from golden chanterelles, the popular mushroom available across Scandinavia.
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Hot, thick soup for the cold winter months made with West Indies and South American traditional flavors.
September 29, 2018 by Rebecca Thandi Norman.
Delicious beer, and you get to design the label yourself!
Over 30 food and drink stalls, 15 creative workshops, and a constantly evolving roster of offerings make this space one of the most exciting in the city.
August 21, 2018 by Rebecca Thandi Norman.