text:
Melinda's Review: The Leopard King
Please welcome one of my newest reviewers, Melinda! She's kicking things off with a paranormal romance that was recommended to her during this year's RomBkLove. I've read this one and really enjoyed it as well.
The Leopard King by Ann Aguirre
Publisher: Ann Aguirre (September 28, 2016)
Series: Ars Numina, 1
Proud. Imperious. Impassioned.
Until three years ago, those words applied to Dominic Asher, the leader of Ash Valley. His family has ruled the feline branch of the Animari for hundreds of years, guiding the pride through perilous times. Unspeakable loss drove him into seclusion, a feral beast nobody can tame. Now he's wrecked, a leopard king in exile, and he wants nothing more than to die.
Fierce. Loyal. Determined.
Fortunately for Dom, those words still apply to Pru Bristow, his dead mate's best friend. She's had her heart broken too, but she never quits. With the conclave approaching, alliances with the Pine Ridge pack and Burnt Amber clans on the verge of collapse, she's prepared to do whatever it takes to drag their leader back, before his second can start a war.
At best theirs seems like a desperate alliance, but when their mate bond turns hot and fierce, there's no end to the questions and the doubts. Neither of them expects to fall in love. But sometimes people don't know what they're looking for until they find it.
Melinda's Review:
I picked this book up because it was recommended via twitter during #RomBkLove and I'm delighted it was. Both the main characters are flawed and full of angst for a variety of reasons but the main one being that they are both mourning the loss of a loved one who happened to be her best friend and his mate. Dom retreated into exile for the last 3 years and was essentially killing himself and Pru has taken it upon herself to save him and bring him back for the sake of their pack. I love flawed characters and these had flaws in spades. Pru has never been able to shift and this has caused her extensive emotional anguish throughout her life, including having a potential mate who rejected her because of her inability to shift.
I immediately loved Pru because she did not let her inability keep her from going to drag Dom back to the pack. He refuses to come back and she doesn't back down in the slightest, and that fierceness never waivers. He lashes out with anger and she still persists.
"Pain is supposed to prompt the first shift. Fear. Anger. Passion. Any strong emotion, really. But I don't feel things properly, huh? I'm not enough, I never will be. I'm broken."
Because she persists, Pru finds the answer to how to shift and that saves both herself and Dom from an attack and finally Dom agrees to return to the pack. All of this happens rather early on in the book and leaves quite a bit of action and plot for about 2/3 more. I really liked the pacing of that because we got to see just the main characters together at first and how their relationship could be in a bubble. Without that I don't know that I would have been as into their pairing as I was. By the time they return to the pack I was rooting for them.
The action picks up quite a bit when they return to the pack. It is intense in the last half of the book and I really enjoyed seeing the political machinations of the different societies involved. I'm looking forward to the next books to see how those evolve.
I was a little wary at first because I was not enthused about the heroine having to compete with a ghost the whole book but the way the author managed to do this was in a way that surprised me. Pru was competing with her own memories and not the ghost at all. The one part that both worked and didn't work for me was Pru's previous lover, Slay. I liked that she stood up to him so effortlessly, but I was super irritated that it kept coming up repeatedly. I wanted it dealt with once and then move on.
I loved Dom's support of Pru, he loved her fierceness and supported almost everything she did. They had great communication - which, after reading tons of miscommunication in romance, is SO nice to see!
"But if you think you have to do this shit to earn me, you're out of your mind. If you never solve another problem, never again work yourself to the brink of exhaustion, never sway another leader to our side, never slay another enemy, you're still important and unspeakably precious. You were both of those things before you shifted, kitten. And you always will be."
I'll definitely be reading the next books in this series!
Source: Bought a copy
Thanks for the review, Melinda!
Labels: 4 Stars , Melinda's Review , Paranormal , Review , Romance , Self-Published


text:
Het Nutsseminarium voor Pedagogiek was een centrum dat zich richtte op opleiding van docenten en op experimenteel-wetenschappelijk onderzoek naar manieren om het onderwijs te verbeteren. Het werd in 1918 opgericht door Philip Kohnstamm voor de leerstoel in pedagogiek aan de Gemeentelijke Universiteit van Amsterdam, ingesteld door de Maatschappij tot Nut van 't Algemeen. Het was het eerste instituut in Nederland dat zich bezighield met onderzoek naar verbeteringen in het onderwijs. Kohnstamm was de eerste hoogleraar en directeur.

In 1969 werd de onderzoekstaak gesplitst van de opleidingstaak. Dit was nodig omdat het opleidingsinstituut, dat de naam Nutsseminarium bleef dragen, sterk was gegroeid. Het onderzoek werd voortgezet in het Kohnstamm Instituut.

Pedagogiek
Onderzoeksinstituut aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
package de.htwg.zeta.parser

import scala.collection.immutable.ListMap

import de.htwg.zeta.common.models.project.concept.Concept
import de.htwg.zeta.common.models.project.concept.elements.AttributeType
import de.htwg.zeta.common.models.project.concept.elements.AttributeValue
import de.htwg.zeta.common.models.project.concept.elements.MAttribute
import de.htwg.zeta.common.models.project.concept.elements.MClass
import de.htwg.zeta.common.models.project.concept.elements.MReference
import de.htwg.zeta.common.models.project.concept.elements.Method

//noinspection ScalaStyle
object ConceptCreatorHelper {

  private val baseClassRealization: MReference = cReference("BaseClassRealization", "Klasse", "InterfaceKlasse")
  private val realizationReference: MReference = cReference("Realization", "Klasse", "InterfaceKlasse")
  private val inheritanceReference: MReference = cReference("Inheritance", "Klasse", "AbstractKlasse")
  private val componentReference: MReference = cReference("Component", "Klasse", "Klasse")
  private val aggregationReference: MReference = cReference("Aggregation", "Klasse", "Klasse")
  val exampleConcept = new Concept(
    classes = List(
      cClass("AbstractKlasse", List(cAttribute("text11"), cAttribute("text21"), cAttribute("text31"))),
      cClass("InterfaceKlasse", List(cAttribute("text113"), cAttribute("text213"), cAttribute("text313"))),
      cClass("Klasse", List(cAttribute("text1"), cAttribute("text2"), cAttribute("text3")),
        List(cMethod("methodUnit", AttributeType.UnitType), cMethod("methodString", AttributeType.StringType)),
        List(baseClassRealization.name, inheritanceReference.name, componentReference.name, aggregationReference.name)
      )
    ),
    references = List(
      baseClassRealization,
      realizationReference,
      inheritanceReference,
      componentReference,
      aggregationReference
    ),
    enums = List(),
    attributes = List(
      cAttribute("text11"),
      cAttribute("text21"),
      cAttribute("text31"),
      cAttribute("text113"),
      cAttribute("text213"),
      cAttribute("text313"),
      cAttribute("text1"),
      cAttribute("text2"),
      cAttribute("text3")
    ),
    methods = List(),
    uiState = ""
  )

  def cReference(name: String, source: String, target: String): MReference = new MReference(
    name = name,
    description = "",
    sourceDeletionDeletesTarget = true,
    targetDeletionDeletesSource = true,
    sourceClassName = source,
    targetClassName = target,
    sourceLowerBounds = 0,
    sourceUpperBounds = -1,
    targetLowerBounds = 0,
    targetUpperBounds = -1,
    attributes = List(),
    methods = List()
  )

  def cClass(name: String, attributes: List[MAttribute]): MClass = cClass(name, attributes, List(), List())

  def cClass(
      name: String,
      attributes: List[MAttribute],
      methods: List[Method],
      outputReferenceNames: List[String]): MClass = new MClass(
    name = name,
    description = "",
    abstractness = true,
    superTypeNames = List(),
    inputReferenceNames = List(),
    outputReferenceNames = outputReferenceNames,
    attributes = attributes,
    methods = methods
  )

  def cAttribute(name: String): MAttribute = new MAttribute(
    name = name,
    globalUnique = true,
    localUnique = true,
    typ = AttributeType.StringType,
    default = AttributeValue.StringValue(""),
    constant = false,
    singleAssignment = false,
    expression = "",
    ordered = true,
    transient = false
  )

  def cMethod(name: String, returnType: AttributeType): Method = new Method(
    name = name,
    parameters = ListMap(),
    description = "default method",
    returnType = returnType,
    code = "nice code"
  )

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Der Auftritt des russischen Gitarristen Estas Tonne beim Stadtspektakel in Landshut im September 2011 in der Altstadt mit dem Lied The Song of the Golden. Sheet music made by YazminaZM for 2 parts: Grand Piano. Skyrim Main Theme Piano Sheet Music (The Elder Scrolls TES V) Song of Dragonborn (Skyrim main theme) with lyrics!! gonna learn these so i can finally sing without having to pretend i The best character in any Elder Scrolls. Jun 27, 2014 Music Sheets. Oblivion and Skyrim (The Elder Scrolls) Press "Play" to open Virtual Piano in a separate window and use your computer.
This is an arrangement of the theme from Skyrim, Dragonborn, for piano. I have been looking for good, free, piano music for this song for the longest. Deprecated: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is deprecated, use preg_replace_callback instead in /home/users/7/700701/domains/moetv.org/engine/classes/templates.class. Select files to upload or drag drop anywhere on this page What is MEGA? Click or scroll. "Dragonborn" by Jeremy Soule, sheet music for the Skyrim theme song for piano Cups - as performed in the movie Pitch Perfect Sheet Music by Anna. "Dragonborn" by Jeremy Soule, sheet music for the Skyrim theme song for as preformed in the movie "Pitch Perfect" Sheet Music: www.onlinesheetmusic.com. Sep 26, 2012 Skyrim Main Theme / Intro / Bm G A Em 4x HUH HUAH HEH / Bm D G Em HUH HUAH HEH HUH HUAH HEH / Bm D G A HUH HUAH HEH.
Der Auftritt des russischen Gitarristen Estas Tonne beim Stadtspektakel in Landshut im September 2011 in der Altstadt mit dem Lied "The Song of the Golden. На нашем сайте собраны, как старые любимые тексты песен, с которыми у многих возникают.


Windows® has a feature that allows one or more folders to be shared with computers on the local network. It is also possible to use this function with your MyCrypNet network to perform secure, simple and fast exchanges between your different machines. It is based on SMB. We'll see the different configuration steps to perform. If you want more general informations on how does a file sharing works or how to install it on other operating systems, check this article. You need to have a MyCrypNet network set up. Check this help page in order to create one.
This tutorial is for people who want to use the "File Sharing" feature of Windows® simply over a MyCrypNet network.
Windows® has a feature that allows one or more folders to be shared with computers on the local network. It is also possible to use this function with your MyCrypNet network to perform secure, simple and fast exchanges between your different machines.
It is based on SMB.
We'll see the different configuration steps to perform.
If you want more general informations on how does a file sharing works or how to install it on other operating systems, check this article.
You need to have a MyCrypNet network set up. Check this help page in order to create one.


Polar Bear Tracker Lesson Plan. Explore the world of polar bear scientists. Understand how they use radio collars to track and study polar bears in real time. Create scientific questions to investigate just like real researchers do, and learn how you can take action to help the bears.
Bear Tracker PowerPoint. A fascinating look at the use of satellite collars in polar-bear field research.
PBI Bear Tracker Map. Follow wild polar bears on Hudson Bay and the Beaufort Sea as they navigate the ice in search of seals.
Polar Bear Specialist Group: State of the Polar Bear. Launch the tool to explore current population, habitat, and threat information for the world's polar bears—all through an interactive map!
Four Sea Ice Eco-regions. Dr. Steven C. Amstrup explains his use of four sea-ice eco-regions to help estimate how each of the 19 polar bear populations are faring.
Up Close With Polar Bears. Head onto the Alaskan sea ice with Dr. Steven C. Amstrup as he talks about his 25-year career studying polar bears and shares his impressions of how the Arctic has changed.
Taking Action! Lesson Plan. Students gain an understanding of the impact of greenhouse gases on the environment—and with that knowledge implement an action plan of conservation behaviors.
Join our Save Our Sea Ice campaign for help in creating new energy-saving habits at home, school, and in the community.
Our Project Polar Bear Contest for classrooms, clubs, and groups (ages 11-18) is a great inspiration for community change.
Visit our YouTube Channel for videos about polar bears in the wild. Here are some just for kids.
Watch our archived Tundra Connections webcasts. See polar bears, meet scientists, and ask questions!


Smart investors know to be brave when others are wary.
A case in point is Magellan Midstream Partners LP (MMP , which still hasn't recovered from the 2016 oil market rout. The company, which is a master limited partnership (MLP), makes money from charging oil drillers and others to move crude and refined products, such as gasoline, through its pipeline network. In many ways, the firm is like a toll taker.
Investors should consider buying the stock because it is inexpensive, offers a historically high dividend yield and there's a chance that the company's earnings will get a boost later this year.
"Along with its presence in export markets, MMP is well-positioned, we think, to benefit from the growth in U.S. onshore supply of liquids," states a recent report from New York-based financial research firm CFRA.
The reason shares are cheap is that investors were stung badly during the oil market trough of 2016, and they have remained nervous ever since.
The oil market slide saw prices for crude oil slip from more than $100 a barrel in mid-2014 down to less than $30 in early 2016. That drop had a lasting effect on investors in all MLPs including Magellan.
Before the oil price plunge, the stock traded above $80, a level that it only fleetingly regained even though the oil market itself has rebounded. Futures contracts for light sweet crude oil currently trade at around $59, according to Bloomberg.
"Investors have been slow to come back to MLPs," says Art Hogan, chief market strategist, at National Securities Corporation in New York City. "People have that muscle memory of the oil patch crash."
In other words, just like someone bitten by a savage dog will tend to shy away from all canines, so investors who lost money with MLPs in the past continue shunning otherwise good stocks.
However, that's good news for those who don't mind being brave because everyone else's fear provides a remarkable opportunity.
Magellan will likely get an earnings boost this year from increased demand, and the company has a favorable longer-term outlook.
The crude oil business, which has a somewhat soft outlook this year, "is still dwarfed by the refined products segment ... where we think demand is going to be stable to higher in 2019," the CFRA report states.
In other words, the outlook is good for profits in moving refined liquids around.
Magellan is also investing heavily to position itself for a sustainable and profitable future.
"2019 will be a heavy capital-spending year with $1.3 billion earmarked for growth projects and another $500 million in projects under consideration, supporting growth well beyond 2020," according to a recent report from Morningstar.
Magellan shares are underpriced when compared to recent history, and the dividend yield is also historically high.
CFRA says the shares are worth $81 within the next year, or around a 33% premium to the recent price of $61. Morningstar is more conservative and says the stock is worth $72.
It makes sense that Wall Street sees the stock surging because it's inexpensive. The shares trade at 14.7 times next year's earnings, versus an average forward P/E of 18.8 over the last five years, according to Morningstar. In other words, the shares are far cheaper now relative to profitability than they have been historically.
The dividend yield is currently forecast to hit 6.6% versus an average of 4.4% over the last half decade, according to Morningstar.
In short, Magellan looks worthy of a bet.


Last week I had been the part of very interesting event from XCode Life. They basically work on DNA. XCode Life is a privately held personal genomics and biotechnology company founded in 2011. It was named after the X chromosome which is shared by all humans. XCode was founded by Dr. Abdur Rub and Dr. Saleem Mohammed, two passionate scientists who were among the early crop of PhD scholars, during the completion of the Human Genome Project. Abdur Rub is the co-founder and CTO at Xcode Life, a global personal genomics company specializing in Bioinformatics and Health analytics using state of the art Genomics and AI technologies.
The session was also followed by Dr. Analabha Basu who is a Statistical and population geneticist with huge experience in designing and conducting large-scale genomic studies in India. Dr Basu got his Masters and PhD degree in Statistics, from the premiere Indian Statistical Institute. His postdoctoral training is at Stanford University and University of California at San Francisco (UCSF).
Let me tell you about XCode. It is a genetics, bioinformatics and health analytics company which offers a variety of services including genetic testing and health reporting services using DNA raw data from all major international companies including 23andme, Family Tree DNA, Ancestry DNA and Helix.
XCode Life's primary focus is to provide expert genetic reports in a variety of consumer and clinical domains that include personalized nutrition and fitness, precision medicine, skin, allergy and preventive health programs along with genetic counseling. The company is now expanding its reach into infertility, transplant, oncology, non-invasive prenatal testing where the tests will focus on response to hormonal therapy, male infertility, hereditary cancers, newborn screening and miscarriage and ancestry related information. The company works with professionals such as physicians, dietitians, fitness and others in augmenting their practice with genetics.
Here is a genetic test that breaks all boundaries and barriers and tears through concepts of races, caste and other discriminating beliefs. Ancestry DNA is a genetic that estimates the proportion of DNA you have inherited from various ethnicities around the world. The XCode Life's ancestry DNA test Origin. which is the first and one of its kind genetic test, gives you a detailed break-up of the South Asian population.
Knowing your ancestry will help you realise your rich and unique heritage and your connection with the world. With Origin, you get to learn about your global heritage as well as a deeper understanding of your Indian heritage and relationship with various Indian ethnic groups. Learning about your ancestry is about discovering your connection with world. It's about uncovering your unique genetic past, which eventually leads to the realization that we are all bound together in a connective fabric, not in a metaphorical sense, but in the real, scientific sense. The genetic ancestry test is capable of re-writing all rules of populations, boundaries, ethnicities, race and caste. It's capable of ending human conflicts and leading to a harmonious world.
Hope you all did find this post helpful and would give it a try.Let me know if you have questions and queries to ask!!


text:
Knowledgebase : PaperCut > Databases
Binary logging not possible
When upsizing to Microsoft SQL server you may encounter the following error message with some configurations. SQL state [HY000]; error code [1598]; Binary logging not possible. Message: Transaction level 'READ-COMMITTED' in InnoDB is not safe for binlog...
Database Schema Diagrams
PaperCut NG and PaperCut MF share a common database schema. Organizations running PaperCut on an external database system such as Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, or Oracle may find the following schema diagrams useful when designing custom SQL queries a...
Database Tuning (Advanced Topic)
IMPORTANT: PAPERCUT'S DEFAULT DATABASE SETTINGS ARE SUITABLE FOR CUSTOMERS OF ALL SIZES. TUNING THESE SETTINGS IS NOT TYPICALLY REQUIRED. IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCE DATABASE CONNECTION ISSUES, PLEASE CONTACT SUPPORT BEFORE EXPERIMENTING WITH THESE SETTINGS. ...
Database Upgrade Error
_"Help! We attempted to upgrade our PaperCut NG/MF server, but in the process we saw an error page in the browser that said "Database upgrade error". What does this mean and how can we fix it?"_ You may have stumbled across this error page while upgradin...
Database Upgrades
_Note: This article covers the 'hidden' database upgrade process that happens when you upgrade your Application Server from e.g. version 19.x to version 20.x._ _If you're looking for more information on upgrading the PaperCut Application Server, Secondar...
Detecting and Resolving Database Corruption
This article discusses the problems associated with a corrupted PaperCut database. It is designed to help you understand what may cause corruption, and how to reduce the risks associated with experiencing corruption. SYMPTOMS OF DATABASE CORRUPTION * ...
Errors when running db-tools
On some Mac systems, PaperCut 13.3 and older may generate an error and fail when attempting to use db-tools as part of restoring a database, a required activity when migrating a Primary Server installation of PaperCut. The applicable error message is: ...
Example SQL Queries (when running on an external database)
EXAMPLE SQL QUERIES (WHEN RUNNING ON AN EXTERNAL DATABASE) When running PaperCut on one of the supported external databases [http://www.apms.com.hk/product/papercut-ng/manual/ch-ext-db.html] SQL queries may be run to find specific data or produce reports...
External Database Support Policy
WHAT IS AN EXTERNAL DATABASE? An external database is defined as any database other than the built-in Derby database that is packaged with PaperCut as standard. HOW DO I USE AN EXTERNAL DATABASE WITH PAPERCUT? If you'd like to run PaperCut from an exte...
How do I use SSL with Microsoft SQL Server?
By default PaperCut uses an internal embedded database called Apache Derby which was initially developed by IBM and sold as Cloudspace DB. PaperCut can also be run on external databases like Microsoft SQL Server. Some PaperCut customers may wish to utili...
I receive an error "Malformed \uxxxx encoding" when using db-tool...
The PaperCut Support team recently came across this error when a customer was Up Sizing [https://www.apms.com.hk/product/ng-mf/manual/common/topics/ext-db.html] their PaperCut installation to use an external Microsoft SQL database [https://www.apms.com.hk...
Migrating or Moving your PaperCut Database Server
_"I need to move my PaperCut database to a different server - how do I do that?"_ If you're running PaperCut on an external database [https://www.apms.com.hk/product/ng-mf/manual/common/topics/ext-db.html] like Microsoft SQL, PostgreSQL, MySQL or Oracle,...
Running PaperCut On An External Database
By default PaperCut uses an internal embedded database called Apache Derby which was initially developed by IBM and sold as Cloudspace DB. PaperCut can also be run on external databases like Microsoft SQL Server (including the free Express Edition), Postg...
Scripts to fetch information from PaperCut
Scripts to fetch information from PaperCut This page contains a collection of user-contributed scripts for fetching information from PaperCut. PaperCut provides many methods for retrieving information about the data it stores, including: Scheduled...
SQL Server connection problems
PaperCut can run on an external database like SQL Server. The setup process is described in the manual here: https://www.apms.com.hk/product/ng-mf/manual/common/topics/ext-db.html If you receive errors like the following when you try to connect to the SQ...
SQL Server log files (LDF files) are growing large. How can I shr...
The log file is maintained by SQL server, and managing its size is a SQL Server administration issue. The LDF file is the transaction log that allows you to perform "point in time" restores if you have system failures. The way it works is that you can res...
Using Windows Authentication with Microsoft SQL Server
By default PaperCut can use SQL authentication by configuring the database username and password in the PaperCut server.properties file. This is discussed in the manual here [https://www.apms.com.hk/product/ng-mf/manual/common/topics/ext-db-upsizing.html]...
What external database should I use?
The internal Derby database that comes as standard with PaperCut is stable, scalable, self-maintaining and provides efficient performance. For this reason most organizations do not need to run PaperCut on an external database system. That being said, ther...
When should I run PaperCut on an External Database?
PaperCut uses a database to store all of its configuration and print log data. By default, PaperCut uses an internal embedded database called Apache Derby as its database. This database is used on 10,000's of our customers PaperCut installations and has p...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Pellenc stands out above the rest
Fri, Nov 25, 2022 11:04 AM
Tony Chalkley, General Manager of D. Horne Services, has explained why he chose Pellenc above other brands of battery-powered equipment.
"For anyone that is considering changing to electric equipment I would certainly recommend Pellenc," said Tony. "The products have been 100% in every single way."
D. Horne Services, based in Girvan on the Ayrshire coast, offers a comprehensive range of external grounds maintenance and management services to a diverse client base which includes sports facilities, housing associations, educational establishments, and the corporate and private sector.
As the company continues to grow in both stature and reputation, Tony believes that it is essential to keep looking to the future and that is where battery-powered technology comes in.
"Over the past six months we've been looking for alternatives to our machinery which was using fossil fuels," said Tony. "It is important to us as a company to be able to promote zero emissions, and there are so many other benefits to using electric equipment.
"We contacted our local Pellenc dealer, which is Agrovista Amenity, and they very kindly setup a demo. We then went away and researched other battery-powered products on the market, but we were so impressed by the demonstration that we felt the Pellenc equipment would be best for us."
Over recent years, Pellenc has gained market recognition by offering a unique range of 'zero emission' battery-powered tools, thanks to the development of Lithium-ion ultra-high-performance batteries.
The extensive Pellenc product range features an impressive portfolio – from chainsaws, pole saws and hedge cutters to grass strimmers, brushcutters, blowers and mowers and Tony claims that the benefits are huge.
"It is important when you are doing grounds maintenance that you look after the customer as best you can," he said. "We work very close to offices and main buildings, and it is essential to be able to cut grass, strim, and maintain the areas as best we can without disturbing the client. The Pellenc equipment enables us to do this because it is so quiet.
"Another reason for moving over to the Pellenc equipment is because fuel prices are escalating and going through the roof. As a small company we needed to diversify and look for other opportunities to be able to do the job and do it more economically. The savings that we are making compared to fossil fuels, is a significant amount."
Tony's Pellenc fleet features Rasion mowers, Helion hedge-cutters, Excelion strimmers and Airion blowers – and he can't imagine ever switching back to petrol-based machinery.
"These Pellenc tools easily go on for hours on end with a full battery life," he said. "You don't get the vibrations, they are lightweight and easy to use, and we've never had any issues whatsoever. The difference between this equipment and petrol-based machinery is night and day."
Pellenc offers an industry leading four-year commercial warranty for all batteries and a three-year warranty for all tools.
Pellenc is distributed exclusively in the UK by Etesia UK.
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Artificial Intelligence is a very big thing for the current technological industry. The rise of AI has opened up countless opportunities for us to make new strides in the development of the current level of technology; the further we go into the studies of modern AI the newer the horizons we discover.
OpenAI is one of the biggest names which comes to mind when anyone thinks of AI-related research and development. With the introduction of OpenAI, Elon Musk had set a goal to create modern and advanced AI with countless beneficial applications for humanity as a whole. The scientists working under the OpenAI banner have worked countless hours and pitched in their experience in the field of AI to achieve things which were beyond human imagination a few years ago. One such thing is AI in eSports. With the public reveal of the Beta version of the new Dota 2 AI by OpenAI, we got to witness how powerful AI really is and how much impact it can have in the field of eSports.
The first showcase of the power of Dota 2 AI by OpenAI was witnessed when it was unveiled during a special event at The International 7. It faced one of the fan favourite players Dendi in a 1v1 match with some imposed restrictions to moderate the playstyle of the game. The OpenAI Dota 2 AI created history at the very event by defeating Dendi and bringing to light the power of AI to the likes of the world.
According to OpenAI, the AI learnt by playing the game at a rate of 180 years worth of games against itself in a single day which is a massive feat in itself. It was also pitched against other pros to allow it to adapt to their playstyle and gain crucial data before it was finally made to face Dendi in the grand unveiling where it took the win effortlessly and proved its capabilities. With the great success in the 1v1 events of Dota 2, the OpenAI team wasn't really happy with their current results back then. They wanted to push their Dota 2 AI even harder and thus, they initiated their phase 2 where the AI learned to play a full game of Dota 2 and perfected the art of winning a 5v5 match. This was the full-scale transformation to the current OpenAI 5.
With coming time and much more research being done, the OpenAI 5 was ready to play its first 5v5 game against real human players. The AI headed into its first battle against a team composed of Dota 2 players of the top 0.05 percentile on 5th August 2018, during a live benchmark full of audience and spectators waiting to see the final outcome. Even this time the match was restricted to tone down the game for the AI so it had a fair chance of cooping up and winning. In a historic battle, the AI stood as the victor and defeated the human team. The only goal left for the OpenAI 5 team back then was to achieve victory against a professional Dota 2 team in unrestricted 5v5 matches.
During TI8, the OpenAI 5 was put up against actual professional teams namely Pain Gaming and a Chinese All-Star team in 5v5 matches as a showcase event, to entertain both the audience and to allow the AI to test itself out. Even though the AI delivered a stunning performance, it failed to secure a win in any of the matches it played. But this didn't stop the OpenAI 5 team from achieving their goal. With the valuable data the OpenAI team gathered from the TI8 showcase event and a determination to prove the power of the AI they created and worked on, the team prepared the AI to face-off against the winner of TI8 during early 2019 in one final showdown.
The final OpenAI 5 was presented and revealed on 13th April by the OpenAI team which was meant to face OG, the winners of the The International 8 during a live event. During the game, the AI far outclassed its human counterpart by showing its insane playstyle and supreme control on the flow of the game. Without much effort, it whitewashed the lineup of OG with a clean 2-0 win in BO3 styled 5v5 game of Dota 2, this time, without any restrictions to the gameplay. The major win of the AI over the TI8 winners OG proved how powerful AI actually is and how much capability and potential it actually holds and thus, left the world stunned. Within a span of barely 2 years the smart-working OpenAI team had shocked the world multiple times, first with a win over Dendi in a 1v1 match during TI7 and then going all the way to achieve a flawless sweep over TI8 winners OG.
After witnessing such success of the Dota 2 AI by OpenAI in such a short time, we are left stunned and our ideas regarding AI, its implementation in video games and eSports remain challenged. It is easy to imagine a world dominated by the power of AI after such an outstanding showcase. OpenAI taught us a worthy lesson regarding AI and its implementation and it is obvious that the OpenAI team will keep impressing us with much more things to come with their AI technologies in the coming future.


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Q: Term for mentioning X by saying "I will not say X"
Possible Duplicate:
What is the origin of the phrase "not to mention …"
Is there a name for "I don't mean to…, but" phrases?

Is there a term for the rhetorical device of making a statement by disguising it in the context of saying that you will not in fact make such a statement? I'm thinking of a politician announcing "I will not stoop to calling my opponent an adulterer" and, in effect, doing exactly that.

A: Apophasis is exactly what you seek. To borrow the definition from Chambers, it means "effectively saying something by stating that you will not mention it."
It is a commonly-used word in theology: a description of God is apophatic when He is described using what He is not.
EDIT (adding another answer after FumbleFingers' comment) - Paralipsis. Once again borrowing Chambers definition, "A rhetorical figure by which one fixes attention on a subject by pretending to neglect it, as in 'I will not speak of his generosity', etc." I concur with FF that this is a better fit than Apophasis for OP's question.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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ianwylie March 30, 2014 News
The Crimson Field: Q&A
"SAVING lives, to save their own."
The Crimson Field begins on BBC1 at 9pm next Sunday (April 6).
A six episode drama series about volunteer British nurses at a field hospital in northern France.
Part of the BBC's First World War season, it features a strong cast including Hermione Norris, Suranne Jones, Kerry Fox, Oona Chaplin and Kevin Doyle.
Starting in 1915 with the arrival of new VADs – Voluntary Aid Detachment – to join professional military nurses like Matron Grace Carter, played by Hermione.
With Oona as Kitty Trevelyan, Alice St Clair as Flora Marshall and Marianne Oldham as Rosalie Berwick.
Kevin Doyle is Lieutenant-Colonel Roland Brett, the man in charge of the hospital.
But even he has to answer to others higher up the Army command ladder.
Earlier this month I attended a London preview screening of the first episode plus later series highlights.
You can read my transcript of the post-screening Q&A with the cast plus creator and lead writer Sarah Phelps below.
The Crimson Field explores the horrors of The Great War from a different perspective.
While also shining a light of the lives of women from different backgrounds, their reasons for volunteering and how they cope with what they find just a few miles from the Front.
When they were also facing a time of huge social change.
If you've got the time to read the Q&A, it contains some fascinating insights from Sarah and the cast members who took part.
I've also added links at the very bottom of the transcript to some of the material they refer to.
BBC Drama boss Ben Stephenson introduced the screening and said:
"The Crimson Field is a really unique way into the First World War that shows it from an angle we probably haven't seen before. Which is the role of, in the main, the women on the Front Line doing the nursing. A combination of professionals and amateurs who are brought in. So not only is it a real insight into the factual realities of the war but it's also an imaginative insight into what it's like to be plucked out of England and thrown into this extraordinary world on the Front Line in France."
Hermione Norris as Matron Grace Carter.
Q&A with Suranne Jones (Sister Joan Livesey) / Hermione Norris (Matron Grace Carter) / Kerry Fox (Sister Margaret Quayle) / Kevin Doyle (Lieutenant-Colonel Roland Brett) / Sarah Phelps (Creator and lead writer).
Chaired by James Rampton, with other cast members in the audience.
Q: Sarah – tell us what gave you idea for this great drama in the first place?
Sarah Phelps: "I read a book called 'The Roses Of No Man's Land' by Lyn Macdonald, who is a very eminent historian in every aspect of the First World War. It's a historical account of the nurses, both military, civilian reservist and volunteer during the First World War at Field Hospitals like the one here, hospitals at home and hospital barges and ships.
"And it sounds really mental because you feel like that you know a lot about the First World War and you know about the casualties and you're very familiar with a certain series of images of the First World War and the kind of injuries and the casualties and the terrible deaths. And yet my brain hadn't made that kind of leap into, 'Well I knew all this stuff happened but I never even thought about the women who had done the nursing.'
"So this book really opened a door into this subject matter and on to both the military nurses and also on to these girls who came from these Edwardian drawing rooms and were thrown into this extraordinary, explosive and horrifying and exhilarating world."
Suranne Jones as Sister Joan Livesey.
Q: Suranne – when you first read it, what appealed to you about this?
Suranne Jones: "Well, firstly I loved the scripts. So when I went to the meeting and David (Evans), who had directed me in Unforgiven, was there I got very excited. And I think when I left the room I said, 'Oh, good luck with this.' Thinking I'd just watch it, anyway, whether I got the part or not. Because I just thought it was beautiful. The way Sarah just drew the characters.
"I remember I read a book called 'A VAD in France' and Sarah told me to read a book about Mairi Chisholm and Elsie Knocker and it was wonderful. Then Sarah called me, because obviously I'm just at the end of ep one (when her character arrives)…and Sarah spent 20 minutes on the phone telling me what would happen in the rest of the episodes…and didn't breathe once. At the end of the conversation she went, 'Are you still there?' And I was like, 'Yes, I'm still here. Oh my God!'
"Having seen it for the first time, it's a wonderful mix of the girls and you smile at them and go, 'Oh my God they'e just experiencing this for the first time.' And then the heartbreaking stuff with Adam James and Karl Davies – (Colonel Charles) Purbright and (Corporal) Prentice – that makes you think, 'That's what it's about as well.' I think it's just beautiful. I really, really enjoyed it and I think Sarah's wonderful."
Q: Hermione – was one of the attractions the fact it was a narrative about female contributions to the war. We've seen so many stories about the men and the trenches. But this was a different perspective?
Hermione Norris: "I've always had a passion about World War One. An absolutely fascinating period of history. A time of huge social change, for women in particular. But, again, it wasn't really gender based for me. It was Sarah's script. The characters were so beautifully drawn. It wasn't about whether this was about the men in the trenches or the women in the field hospital, actually. The characters really spoke to me. Even the stage directions made me cry. And it was quite visceral and real. So it wasn't gender based. I loved Sarah's script."
Kerry Fox as Sister Margaret Quayle.
Q: These nurses are flawed. They are human beings who make mistakes?
Kerry Fox: "Strangely, I came at it from a different angle and David (Evans – one of the directors) turned it around for me…I love the fact that Margaret is so bitter and foul. She is such a cow. So I had a ball doing it. It's also quite rare to have scenes between or among women. It gets rarer. And the joy of that was really fulfilling."
Suranne Jones: "With different ages and different social backgrounds, all in one place. Because these people wouldn't meet and it's under this circumstance that they meet. I think it was great."
Kevin Doyle as Lieutenant-Colonel Roland Brett.
Q: Kevin – there are no goodies and baddies in this?
Kevin Doyle: "I think that's something that David wanted to emphasise from the off. There are pressures on everbody. And you begin to understand the pressures from on high. If you're born from a certain generation you're so used to a particular narrative of the First World War, which is 'Lions led by donkeys.' And I think we're beginning to see a different opinion of that being told now. I'm not one to echo the philosophy of Michael Gove but there was certainly something about…there were pressures on everyone. There were pressures on the generals.
"By the time this episode is screened, 1915, the British Expeditionary Force, which was 200,000, we thought we'd walk in there, save Belgium and everything would be fine. The Germans would go back home. But within months the 200,000 soldiers had been killed or captured or wounded and that Army was completely wiped out. And so they had to first of all ask for volunteers, and there were two and a half million volunteers. But then it became about conscription.
"So people were being wounded and dying in such extraordinary numbers that there was no room for people to go back home. Unless you were dying, really. Certainly I began to realise that it's good to show a different perspective, to show Purbright's need to get men back. It's a very important story to tell."
Oona Chaplin as Kitty Trevelyan.
Q: Sarah – you made the decision not to go to the trenches at all in this series. Why was that?
Sarah Phelps: "Who says we're not going to go to the trenches?"
Q: Well certainly in the first episode?
Sarah Phelps: "One of the things that was really important – from a production point of view you have to have a fixed set. You have to have somewhere where we can get used to or we can go to our world. If we go to the trenches, that's not to devalue what's going on there. But we can't go there with our women. Women didn't go into the trenches. You could have them a step back at the casualty clearing station and at the field hospitals.
"But if we go to the trenches, we don't go with the majority of our characters and we lose telling this side of the story, which I think hasn't been told. There's no reason why we can't go to the trenches if we get series two…" (laughter)
Alice St Clair as Flora Marshall.
Q: Suranne – could you talk a bit about your character because she comes in at the end of the first episode? Could you fill in her background a bit and how she fits into the jigsaw of the hospital?
Suranne Jones: "She's a reservist from Liverpool and she's never worked in an Army hospital. But she arrives in France. She's told the girls that she doesn't have a partner but obviously we've just seen that she is wearing an engagement ring. So we will find out a little bit more about who is her partner.
"She rides a motorcycle, she's had her hair chopped off. She's quite modern. She's a suffragist and she's a very modern forward thinker. She thinks it's wonderful that there are VADs and that they should have more work and more chores and more hands on.
"That clashes with, particularly, Margaret's rules and regulations. So she causes a bit of stir. And then we will find out about her background which I'm not really allowed to say…no spoilers."
Q: Hermione – could you fill is in a bit on your character? She seems very pursed-lipped and quite severe but, obviously, that's never the full picture, is it?
Hermione Norris: "No. Grace has been recently appointed Matron and I think episode one shows her wrangling with the difficulty of embracing that authority. She has been very much Margaret's protege and has been quite manipulated by Margaret over the years. We find out everybody's manipulated by Margaret. Something in a name.
"So you see her being stringy-lipped and strict and a disciplinarian, which was absolutely required. To have discipline and a correct uniform in amongst such carnage, I think the rule was that that made everybody feel safe. But you very much see Grace's compassion and here struggle with the decisions that she has to make as Matron. As the story moves along, more and more so."
Q: Kerry – in some ways then, is it like any other workplace drama with the tensions and rivalries that are always visited. Is that an element of it?
Kerry Fox: "It's quite interesting watching that (the episode) now because sometimes you think that rivalry and bitterness and the fake camaraderie, friendship between women, seems a lot more interesting often than we get the chance to see between men. It isn't so submerged and hidden and complicated. So there's a lot more of that, really. Of course Margaret is sweet and innocent and loving and kind and warm and supportive and generous and works really hard." (laughter)
Marianne Oldham as Rosalie Berwick.
Q: Kevin – it was a time of immense social change, within three years women over 30 got the vote for the first time. Do you think that's reflected in the drama as well? The end of the Edwardian era, the end of the British Empire? All those elements in there?
Kevin Doyle: "Yes. It was a massive catalyst for change. There were a lot of pressures before the war for women's suffrage and the contribution that they made during the war, back home, in the hospitals, it spoke very eloquently to the Establishment about the rightful place for women in the workplace. It had a massive bearing on the next generation. They began to feel the change when they got back home."
Q: Did you want to bring that in to the drama, the backdrop of what was happening in Britain, the cataclysmic social changes that were occurring?
Sarah Phelps: "I did a lot of research about what Britain was like before the war. I wanted to read a lot about the Edwardian period before, so I knew what kind of world everyone was coming from. I read loads of stuff. Edwardian ladies' diaries and all their experiments.
"They were so bored. There was a kind of like End of Days scenario, like the last days of the Roman Empire. They weren't exactly throwing members of their family on to the rocks in Capri but they were so bored. There was a sense of something glorious having been ended with Victoria's reign, the end of the 19th century and they're all waiting for something to explode and catapult them into the next stage.
"I read all these Edwardian ladies' diaries and they used to have morphine parties and have their friends round. A nice cup of Lapsang Souchong and a bit of gossip about who's got the best hat and then they'd roll up their sleeves and give each other injections of morphine. I read one lady – she experimented with Chloroform. And she'd say, 'Oh dear old Chloro, dear old familiar friend.'
"This was an absolutely schizophrenic society. Sexually schizophrenic, bored and there's almost a level of depravity in how bored they are. And at the same time, malnutrition and poverty which is absolutely unimaginable.
"There's a really shocking statistic from medical officers and recruiting officers when they had all these young guys volunteering to go to war. Not always from patriotic duty but a job, money in their pocket, a pair of their own boots, a nice good bit of cloth on their back, a gun, off in a foreign country with your mates, a sexual freedom and licence that they would never have at home. Three meals a day. And there's an amazing statistic which just shocks you to your core about the level of serious malnutrition in volunteers coming forward. Not your communal garden malnutrition – bad teeth and a bit skinny. Serious malnutrition.
"Those two extremes. You've got to remember that the world that they were coming from, in 1905 you'd already had a revolution in Russia which had scared the crap out of people at home. By the time we're in 1915 we've already got Gandhi in India organising the protests against the Land Taxes. We have, in this period, the absolute seeds of the end of Empire, right now when they're all fighting for Empire.
"Everybody in the world comes to this line, to the Western Front, everybody in the world. It's incredible. I've found photos of Zulu warriors at the Western Front. They were there. 1918. And it's extraordinary that at this time when everyone's talking about Empire and who is on who's side, the absolute seeds of the end of it are now flourishing – in Ireland, in India, everywhere. It has obsessed me.
"But we're talking here about women getting the vote. It was kind of a trade off because no-one went, 'Up the women,' in 1918. They were all back, barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen so the men can have the jobs back. So let's not kid ourselves."
Q: Suranne – it's an amazing set. Can you talk a bit about it and did help you to get into character?
Suranne Jones: "Yeah. We went for a read through and it was half built and we were in one of the huts. And so we could see what was about to be built by the wonderful crew. And then we went back a couple of weeks later…well, the guys had started two weeks before me actually because Joan comes in later. When I got there it was just amazing because they planted actual corn..wheat…"
Sarah Phelps: "A strain from a hundred years ago so it looked right."
Suranne Jones: "When I first got the job I thought, 'Great, I'm going to France!' And then I got on a train to Wiltshire. But it was beautiful. So where the cemetery was they planted wheat – a hundred year old wheat. Then we would have tents. So the scale and the depth of what the cameras could catch was absolutely amazing.
"And then, of course, we'd have the main hospital. Add on to that your carts and horses and vintage vehicles – we were getting out of our trailers every day and it was very easy to just walk down to the field and be in our uniforms in the actual place. So thank you to all the wonderful crew. It was beautiful."
Kevin Doyle: "It must have been months before – they built an allotment for the camp kitchen. I don't know if it was ever seen. But it just looked beautiful. The field of corn – it's only used in one scene. We're walking by on the way and back from a cemetery. And there are two or three guys scything the wheat. It's just for that moment. But they planted it months in advance. Having that kind of expertise.
"When you went into the pharmacy or the wards, just the level of contribution from the art department was just extraordinary. Everything was there that you needed. If we were trained doctors we could have taken people in. It was extraordinary. So hats off to them."
Suranne Jones: "And also the fact we started in summer, so we had wasps everywhere. Then we went into fields of mud and then rain and wind. So our dresses, for the nurses, were covered in mud up to here. We went through all that. And the set just got better and better looking. It was amazing."
Q: Why are we still so fixated by the First World War?
Hermione Norris: "For me – I can't speak for anyone else – but it's a generation that I remember. I remember the smell of that generation, the attitude of that generation. And I think the scale of loss and devastation is beyond comprehension.
"I became interested in it about 20 years ago, I suppose, and read the Pat Barker trilogy and went to Flanders. Just the psychological effect and impact on us as a nation, I think we're still living in the consequences of that. When Sarah's script came along…'We will remember them'…it was just on a very small scale from my point of view, a small act of remembrance every day. 'At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.' And you really did feel that there.
"I hope for people on a Sunday night it's a small act of remembrance. 'Small' without sounding pompous or sombre about it. It was a hugely significant war and it was a huge privilege to be a part of that."
Rosalie Berwick (MARIANNE OLDHAM), Kitty Trevelyan (OONA CHAPLIN), Flora Marshall (ALICE ST CLAIR)
Q: Can I ask about the costumes. Did they also help to get into the characters?
Alice St Clair, who plays Flora Marshall: "Yes, they really did. Mainly because the corsets were quite restricting and you couldn't believe that you had to do all the work – we only had to do it in the scene, like the bed making scene, which was exhausting. In a corset it was really difficult to bend over even. They were so upright in their beliefs and way of being as well and the costumes really helped you remember that all the time."
Richard Rankin as Captain Thomas Gillan.
Richard Rankin, who plays Captain Thomas Gillan: "Just going back to discussing the set, it was really easy to immerse yourself in the part and in the environment because the entire set was there. Like Kevin says, you could pretty much start bringing in patients. The level of detail was so great. And then add to that the costumes and the level of detail, it was brilliant."
Alex Wyndham as Captain Miles Hesketh-Thorne.
Alex Wyndham, who plays Captain Miles Hesketh-Thorne: "Watching that, it was really interesting being the love interest – it wasn't a man's story. And I was thinking, 'Oh gosh, this is what it must be like for all those girls when they go to screenings, 'Oh yeah, here I come and I just hit on the guy a little bit and then I'm off screen.' I just was really struck by the strength of it. The women's stories. Actually drawing the attention to female inter-personal relationships and making them really compelling and dynamic and fascinating. Not just a side story. It was just really wonderful to see women's stories told incredibly strongly and vibrantly, at the forefront of things."
Jack Gordon as Orderly Corporal Peter Fowley.
James then opened up questions to other members of the media in the audience.
Q: (From me) Following on from what Sarah was saying – was there anything about the day to day lives of the real people who worked at hospitals like this that took you aback or surprised you? That you didn't expect?
Sarah Phelps: "You don't even imagine for a moment just how hard they worked. One of the things that took me aback was the fact that the nurses would make a point – if they could – about making sure that dying men were what they called 'specialled'. That they didn't die on their own. And that every man would get a letter from that special nurse back to their families. Because obviously if a man died on a field then his commanding officer would generally write to the family. But they're not in the field, they're in the field hospital. So you have all these nurses writing back. And at the same time nursing men in the most appalling injuries.
"There's one nurse's book, Sister Edith Appleton, who's quite a girl. And she's alarmingly chuffed when spies are marched out to be hung and shot. But apart from that she's fabulous. And she describes – and a lot of nurses and volunteers describe – having to to sit with men who are dying from their injuries. There's absolutely nothing you can do about it. One of the things that just made me go shivering was about Sister Edith Appleton, sitting next to a patient's bed, who took upwards of five days to die from an appalling head injury. And her description of listening to him trying to breathe through the brain matter dripping down the back of his throat.
"This is what they did. And made beds. And poured bleach over their hands to get rid of any infection because a grain of dirt under your nail was the difference between a man's life and his death. So over raw hands you'd pour bleach so that you be aseptic to deal with your patient. Then you would sit by their beds and hold their hands and talk to them as they died. They went without sleep and their hands and feet split.
"Those tents – they lived in them in freezing northern French winters. You're just staggered. And listening to the description about how many of layers of clothes they had to wear in order just to not freeze to death in their beds. And going to work and having to try and wash men who came from the Front, in those winters, clarted from head to foot in poisonous mud and suffering from hypothermia and God knows what. You're staggered. Honestly, every single detail of it knocks me off my feet."
Arrival: Rosalie Berwick (MARIANNE OLDHAM), Flora Marshall (ALICE ST CLAIR)
Q: Suranne touched on this a little earlier, about the wet conditions. How difficult did it get? How boggy did it get? And the missing toes that we saw – I wonder what they were in real life?
Suranne Jones: "They used to be kept in the fridge in make up with the ears. So we'd go in to get some milk and the wonderful make up designers and girls that did all the injuries, brilliantly…and there were teams and teams of make up girls when the troops were out…there would be a second make up van that were in at the crack of dawn with all these wonderful supporting artists. So the toes were kept in the fridge.
"Our conditions? When you hear Sarah talk about that and the couple of books that I read, the chilblains and the tiredness…we have to put into perspective that we're a bunch of actors making a drama and we work long hours and I remember doing a shower scene in the middle of the forest and it was quite cold – it was open top…but you do then have to remember that it ain't nothing compared to what Sarah's just described. But it was cold and boggy and we are actors and we do like a moan." (laughter)
Adam James as Colonel Charles Purbright.
Kerry Fox: The thing that strikes me from reading about it was what Sarah said about – they had nothing. The fall back of their medical care was so limited. Don't forget that Penicillin was used for the first time in the First World War. Because my children's great grandfather was one of the first recipients of Penicillin on the beach and he had always said how much it hurt. He thought it was going to kill him. The Penicillin injection was the most painful thing he'd ever experienced – and he'd had half his arse blown off. That was one of the first times it was used. I just always had the feeling that there was so little they could do."
Sarah Phelps: "At this stage of the war…you think about now what happens with any kind of traumatic injury. You have blood transfusions, you have ways of treating shock. At this stage, not until 1917 did they have any way of storing blood for blood transfusions. It is astonishing when you read the descriptions that anybody survives these kind of injuries. How they survived gas gangrene, how they survived shock, how they survived people coming in with virtually almost no blood left in their body – and they managed to operate on them.
"The anaesthetic at the time is really, seriously brutal. I've read descriptions of operations where the only way of giving a man anaesthesia is to basically shove it up his bum. And it's really alarming. I'm stunned that men made it through. But made it through they did. And the reason they made it through is because of women and men like the ones I'm writing about. That's how they made it through."
Hermione Norris and Kerry Fox.
Q: Could I ask the ladies what it meant to you to play such forward-thinking women? Because this is really the start of women doing proper jobs and being accepted by men. What does it mean to you to play those roles that focus on that?
Hermione Norris: "Obviously that's a huge privilege. It was a time of huge social change for women. Of course working class women had always worked…but for middle class and the upper class women, as these VADs were, they were doing jobs that were beyond comprehension. Men didn't think…women probably didn't think that they were capable of working in a munitions factory, being nurses, working in hospitals, doing any work at all. Literally they were deemed incapable of work like that. So obviously as an actor or as a woman full stop, that is a huge privilege to be a part of that."
Kerry Fox: "The nurses that we are…at the beginning of the war there were 400 of them and by the end of the First World War there were 4000. There is a storyline later, which I don't think is a spoiler, but my character is very old school. She sees herself as a soldier. It's a calling very much like a career and she's recognised as a soldier – she had worked in earlier wars. So she was that sort of type."
Hermione Norris: "For the first time women had careers and being a nurse was, I suppose, the first career a woman was allowed to have."
Suranne Jones: "It's difficult without Sarah shouting 'spoiler alert', for me, but my character…I always try to do jobs, scripts that have some kind of conscience about them and are important. So it was great that this came up. And it was from the women's perspective. Joan is not only politically forward thinking, socially forward thinking, she sees herself as an equal. She has a love of people and human beings and I think that when you get to episode three and four you'll see how wide reaching that is. And that was the discussion with Sarah that I had about the end of the series. About how something huge and traumatic that happens to us as human beings can also make you see and bring people together."
Q: She's also quite forward thinking in that she's got short hair and wears trousers. Were you surprised how controversial that was or how that would be seen by other characters?
Suranne Jones: "Yeah. Sergeant Soper (Jeremy Swift), as you saw there. I remember the actor saying to me, 'You look great, quite sexy, actually.' But obviously as a character back then he would have been absolutely horrified that this woman turned up in a gentleman's greatcoat on a bike. Again the costume department…they did a great job. You watch the girls out of uniform, not only when we're all in uniform, and the detail is wonderful. Although the goggles were made for men. Women have smaller faces so when you put the goggles on they go to either side, like Toad of Toad Hall. So the girls that we had to do the stunt riding couldn't actually see very well. So it was very dangerous for them. But they did brilliantly. Obviously it wasn't me!"
Q: To confirm the time and place of the drama?
Sarah Phelps: "We're in Northern France and we start in 1915 because that was when the first wave of volunteer nurses went over to France. Obviously prior to that they thought it was going to be a two month exercise in spanking the Hun's arse and sending him home without his tea. And everyone home in time for Christmas.
"By the time that it became violently obvious that not only was this entrenched warfare and that they were swiftly running out of medical personnel to deal with the extraordinary levels of casualties and in time to put the call out in Britain and train all those girls…so this is summer, June 1915. And it's Northern France. I took some inspiration from a very similar hospital that was based near Etaples. So that's where we are. About 30 or 40 miles back from the line."
Q: Sarah – the conditions for all these volunteers, nurses, sound really horrific. What was it that motivated them to go over there?
Sarah Phelps: "So much motivated them. A load of people might have said it's duty, patriotism, it's being fired up. But also I think that at a very much deeper level it felt like a door being opened and there are loads of reasons. The same reason that loads of young men were clamouring to sign up to join the Army – for money, for a gun to be with their mates, for a good pair of boots and for adventure and thrill.
"I think a lot of women joined up for the freedoms, for getting out of these bloody claustrophobic drawing rooms where you were expected to behave in a certain way and the pressures were on you to be a wife and a mother or do good works and things like that. And then this thing happened and it was the call, 'Rise up women of Britain and stand shoulder to shoulder with your menfolk.'
"It must have been like a blast going through the blood. I'd have dropped everything like a shot and gone. Just to do something. See a different country, to wear a uniform, a sense of pride to be active. And adventure and men and friendship and comradeship and all those different things.
"I think there's loads of reasons why people join up. Lots of people could have put their hand on their heart and said, 'For King and country,' and they might have got there and been bloody useless. Some people might have gone, 'I want to go because I want to meet men.' And they might have got there and been bloody brilliant. It doesn't matter why you go. It only matters what you do when you get there."
BBC The Crimson Field
World War One at the BBC
The Roses of No Man's Land
A V.a.d.in France
Elsie Knocker and Mairi Chisholm
Pat Barker trilogy
Edith Appleton
Ian Wylie on Twitter
Posted in News and tagged Adam James, Alex Wyndham, Alice St Clair, BBC Drama, Ben Stephenson, David Evans, Edith Appleton, Elsie Knocker, Etaples, Field Hospital, First World War, Flora Marshall, Grace Carter, Hermione Norris, Jeremy Swift, Joan Livesey, Karl Davies, Kerry Fox, Kevin Doyle, Lyn Macdonald, Mairi Chisholm, Margaret Quayle, Marianne Oldham, Oona Chaplin, Pat Barker, Richard Rankin, Rosalie Berwick., Sarah Phelps, Suranne Jones, The Crimson Field, The Great War, The Rose of No Man's Land, World War 1, WW1. Bookmark the permalink.
Eileen	 on April 7, 2014 at 12:16 am
What is the theme music.
d	 on April 15, 2014 at 12:18 am
rob lane
Pete	 on April 29, 2014 at 12:33 am
Sounds like a rip-off of Randy Edelman's theme for the 1993 Gettysburg film.
baylou	 on April 29, 2014 at 4:39 pm
Reblogged this on laramaynard.
Endeavour 2: Q&A
Jamaica Inn: Q&A


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Mayor Durkan Announces $110 Million to Create 1,944 Affordable Homes, the Largest Award in the City's History
by Anthony Derrick on December 9, 2019
City will leverage $600 million in additional investments through public and private sources
Over the last 3 years City has directly invested $250 million for a total of nearly $1.5 billion to create 4,000 affordable homes
Seattle (December 9, 2019) – Mayor Jenny A. Durkan today announced that the City of Seattle will invest $110 million to create 1,944 new affordable homes in neighborhoods across Seattle, the largest investment and the largest number of affordable homes ever created in Seattle in one year in our City's history. Since Mayor Durkan entered office in 2017, the City has directly invested $250 million and together with our partners nearly $1.5 billion in public and private resources to create and preserve affordable homes.
The 2019 funds invested through the City's Office of Housing will support the construction of thirteen new buildings in Seattle (1,944 apartments) and will support a range of communities, including seniors, low-wage workers and families and people experiencing homelessness. Several of the new affordable housing buildings will include ground floor spaces to benefit the residents of the new buildings and the surrounding community – childcare, a senior health center and community spaces.
The City's rental housing awards of $110 million will leverage at least an additional $600 million in investments through additional public and private sources.
"Over the last three years, we have made monumental and historic investments in affordable housing. With nearly 900 city funded affordable homes that came online this year and another 3,400 expected to come online in the next few years, we have created a true partnership to deliver on affordability in our city," said Mayor Durkan. "Seattle is committed to investing in housing and services that help advance our shared priorities of equity and inclusion. With investments in both permanent supportive housing for individuals experiencing homelessness, affordable housing for seniors, and housing for working families, we are addressing our affordability crisis."
Funding sources for the Office of Housing investments include the 2016 voter-passed Seattle Housing Levy, incentive zoning and Mandatory Housing Affordability payments, $32 million in Real Estate Excise Taxes and over $13 million through retained sales taxes, made possible by changes in state law authorized by the 2019 Washington State Legislature and Seattle City Council.
"This historic investment in affordable homes reflects our values to create an affordable, equitable and inclusive city that will yield benefits to Seattle residents for generations to come," said Emily Alvarado, Director of the Seattle Office of Housing. "The funding through the Office of Housing will help build homes for people experiencing homelessness, provide stability and safety for seniors, mitigate displacement and help people who work in Seattle live close to their jobs."
Every year, the Office of Housing provides a notice of funding availability for the Rental Housing Program. Affordable housing developers submit proposals that respond to City priorities. This year's awards support 13 proposals.
Over the last 38 years, the Office of Housing has invested nearly $840 million in the creation and preservation of over nearly 14,000 affordable rental homes (including today's announcement). These homes are located in high-quality, sustainable buildings located throughout the City of Seattle. They remain affordable to people with incomes ranging from zero to 60 percent of the area median income, up to $46,500 for individuals and $66,400 for a family of four. The affordability remains for a minimum of 50 years, typically many years longer, and provides stability for homeless adults, families and youth, seniors and people with disabilities and low-wage working individuals and families.
2019 Affordable Rental Housing Investments
Total Affordable Rental Housing Investments: $110,000,000
Total New Affordable Rental Homes: 1,944
New Affordable Rental Housing – Permanent Funding
The mission of the Office of Housing (OH) is to create strong, healthy communities, prevent displacement and increase opportunities for people of all income levels to live in Seattle. OH supports development and preservation of affordable multifamily homes, homeownership opportunities, policy and program development, free weatherization services and home repair loans and stewardship of city-funded affordable homes.
The City of Seattle expects nearly 5,000 new affordable homes to come online between now and 2022 – this may be viewed on the Office of Housing's Affordable Housing Under Development Dashboard. Note that the 1,944 to be created with funding awarded today are not yet included in the dashboard.
More information on the Rental Housing Program, the Seattle Housing Levy and other affordable housing programs can be found  www.seattle.gov/housing
Filed Under: Housing, Office of the Mayor, Press Releases


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The challenges in understanding human motor control, in brain-machine interfaces and anthropomorphic robotics are currently converging. Modern anthropomorphic robots with their compliant actuators and various types of sensors (e.g., depth and vision cameras, tactile fingertips, full-body skin, proprioception) have reached the perceptuomotor complexity faced in human motor control and learning. While outstanding robotic and prosthetic devices exist, current brain machine interfaces (BMIs) and robot learning methods have not yet reached the required autonomy and performance needed to enter daily life.
The groups vision is that four major challenges have to be addressed to develop truly autonomous learning systems. These are, (1) the decomposability of complex motor skills into basic primitives organized in complex architectures, (2) the ability to learn from partial observable noisy observations of inhomogeneous high-dimensional sensor data, (3) the learning of abstract features, generalizable models and transferable policies from human demonstrations, sparse rewards and through active learning, and (4), accurate predictions of self-motions, object dynamics and of humans movements for assisting and cooperating autonomous systems.


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Cuban doctors care for earthquake victims in Mexico
Granma International | Monday, 23 October 2017 | Click here for original article
In the wake of a devastating earthquake in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, a brigade of Cuban doctors is offering its services in a field hospital at the Che-Nita Sports Center in the community of Ixtepec
The first days of October in the community of Ixtepec, in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, have been rainy, but this has not prevented older people, adults, children and pregnant women, shielded by umbrellas, waterproof ponchos and coats, for forming a line before 6:00 am every day to see a Cuban doctor.
In a field hospital at the Che-Nita Sports Center, a brigade of the Henry Reeve International Contingent of Doctors Specializing in Disasters and Serious Epidemics, with experience working in 19 countries, is offering its services to the local population.
The Henry Reeve Contingent emerged on the initiative of Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz on September 19, 2005, to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged New Orleans, in the United States.
At that time, then U.S. President George W. Bush rejected the offer of assistance from Cuba, which consisted of sending 1,586 doctors, 36 tons of medicines, and elementary means of diagnosis.
However, on this occasion, the 40 members of the Cuban brigade arrived in Mexico accompanied by 10 tons of equipment, medical materials and supplies, and is offering its services in internal medicine, pediatrics, gynecology, orthopedics, traumatology, surgery, and neurosurgery, supported by imaging, psychology, psychiatry, physical rehabilitation, and a clinical laboratory, 24 hours a day.
Granma International contacted Dr. Rolando Piloto Tomé, comprehensive general medicine specialist, Master in Epidemiology, and head of the brigade, who explained that the Cuban personnel are based five hours from the capital of the state of Oaxaca, one of the poorest in Mexico.
He described the situation they found on arrival as very difficult.
"Many homes, markets, institutions, and the Hospital of Juchitan itself collapsed, and are currently being demolished.
"We are substituting the medical care provided by a 30-bed institution in the city of Ixtepec, which was partially damaged and is out of service."
In what conditions are you providing services?
We set up two large tents. In one we offer medical consultations, the clinical laboratory and ultrasounds, while the other is devoted to the hospitalisation of patients who require admission to control and treat their condition. We have also set up tents for our collaborators to rest, for the pharmacy, and for the kitchen, where we prepare food.
We provide emergency care and carry out consultations from 8:00 am to around 6:00 pm. We have already treated 3,163 patients in a week. When a case that requires surgical treatment is identified, the Cuban specialists travel together with the patient in an ambulance to the Military Hospital and there they carry out the operation.
On Sunday, October 8, neurosurgeons operated on a depressed skull fracture with dura mater damage, which proved to be the first neurosurgical operation in Istmo de Tehuantepec. Likewise, the gynecologists have already carried out eight emergency cesareans and three complicated deliveries. In addition, we have visited the shelters where those who lost their homes are. They have been assessed by a team of specialists in comprehensive general medicine, psychiatry, psychology, and pediatrics.
The conditions treated?
In the first days we operated on three cases with multiple traumas; since then we have treated patients with chronic decompensated diseases (diabetes, hypertension, osteoarticular pain). We see many people with post-traumatic stress, both adults and children, because after the earthquake measuring 8.2 degrees on the Richter scale of September 7, there have been more than 7,000 aftershocks.
The population's opinions regarding the medical care received?
The population's views regarding our work have been exceptionally good, and every time they are treated they thank our country for the help that we are offering free of charge. Cuban professionals are welcomed with statements like "Viva Cuba," "Thanks for coming to help us," "God bless you," and many more.
We have also been visited by government authorities and the Health Secretary of the Federal Government and the State of Oaxaca. Recently, José Narro, Secretary of Health of Mexico, visited the Cuban doctors' camp. We have been treated very well, he said.
The print media, radio and television, have transmitted live from this hospital with interviews of our professionals and the patients who arrive for consultation.
One notable example is that by 6:00 am there are already a large number of people waiting to be seen by Cuban doctors. For example, on October 10, 407 patients were treated, even though it was raining all morning. They stood in the rain waiting to be seen."
The mood of the Cubans?
The brigade is in very high spirits and has a very positive attitude toward the work. We feel aftershocks daily, several with magnitudes of more than five degrees, and although this creates fear, we have stayed put, offering our best. We exalt the word Revolution.


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text:
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text:
Maha: Joy and patriotic fervour mark 73rd R-Day celebrations
Mumbai: Maharashtra celebrated the 73rd Republic Day with joy, enthusiasm and patriotic fervour with people from all walks of life unfurling the National Tricolour and joining in the festivities, here on Thursday.
Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari led the State Function and unfurled the National Flag at the Shivaji Park ground, inspected the ceremonial parade, and delivered his R-Day message in Marathi.
Present on the occasion were Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, elected representatives, civil officials, officers or the armed forces, the government and police, Maharashtra State Commission for Women Chairperson Rupali Chakankar, MP Rahul Shewale.
At an impressive parade, there were march-pasts by the Indian Navy, SRPF, Mumbai Police, Traffic Police, Riot Control Police, Women Police, Railway Police, Gadchiroli and Gondia C-60 Commandos, Home Guards, Fire Brigade, BMC Security Force, State Excise Department, Forest Department and other protectors.
The parade included the NSS, Sea Cadet Corps, Road Safety Patrol, Student Police Cadet, Bharat Scouts & Guides, while the Mumbai Police and SRPF's Brass Band and Pipe Bands received a thunderous applause from the gathering.
The occasion saw a colourful procession of flota from the School Education and Sports Departments on the theme of 'Journey Towards Olympics', Culture Department on 'Musical Instruments of Maharashtra' and others that were much appreciated.
Earlier, the Governor unfurled the Tricolour at Raj Bhavan while a company of the SRPF and State Police sang the National Anthem.
Shinde unfurled the National Flag at his official residence 'Varsha', while Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis did the honours at Kasturchand Park in the second capital, Nagpur.
Various Ministers, MPs, MLAs and Collectors organised similar functions in different cities, districts or constituencies with a large number of people in attendance.
Elsewhere, Central Railway General Manager Naresh Lalwani unfurled the Tricolour at the World Heritage Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Western Railway General Manager Ashok Kumar Mishra did the honours at the Maharashtra Sports Grounds, while Konkan Railway Chairman and Managing Director Sanjay Gupta unfurled the tricolour at the Navi Mumbai headquarters.
Similar disciplined functions were organised by the Indian Navy, Indian Army and Indian Air Force at their local headquarters with top officers and others joining in.
Congress state President Nana Patole, Nationalist Congress Party state President Jayant Patil, organised R-Day functions at their respective party headquarters with top leaders and activists participating while other major political parties also held festivities in different parts of the state.
R-Day was celebrated in thousands of colleges and schools, several universities, public and private companies, factories, plants, residential complexes, housing societies and slum tenements.
Many vendors and hawkers were seen selling R-Day memorabilia like big and small flags in various designs, lapels, pins, gum or magnetic stickers, artefacts, balloons, festoons in the Tricolour.
The state government headquarters at Mantralaya, the Mumbai Airport, the headquarters of CR, WR and KR, prominent government and private buildings, malls, multiplexes and other important installations were bathed in the dazzling hues of the Indian Flag since Wednesday night.
The Mumbai and Maharashtra Police had deployed tight security arrangements in the country's commercial capital and rest of the state to avert any untoward incidents.
Two policemen among nine injured in separate group clashes, 28 arrested
SC: Lapse of time between injuries and death doesn't reduce liability in murder case


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Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-ray Player
Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-ray Player Review
By Danny Phillips March 12, 2009 3:00 am GMT
Trusted Score
Review Price: £249.99
Panasonic has always been at the cutting edge of Blu-ray technology, but its latest range of players looks to push the boundaries even further. The DMP-BD60 is the entry-level player in the company's latest three-strong line-up – which also includes the step-up DMP-BD80 and the DMP-BD70V Blu-ray/VHS combi (no, really) – and the big breakthrough on these models is the inclusion of Viera Cast functionality, also found on the company's Z1, V10 and G15 NeoPDP TVs.
Viera Cast allows you to access the Internet via the deck's Ethernet connection and browse targeted sites like YouTube, much like the LG BD370 which we reviewed recently. The DMP-BD60 goes a step further by providing access to Google's Picasa web album but sadly not Amazon VOD or Bloomberg as found on the American version.
But Viera Cast is just the tip of the iceberg – like all Panasonic Blu-ray players before it, the BD60 is packed with loads of other alluring features and picture enhancing technology that could put the company back at the top of the Blu-ray tree.
After seeing a Blu-ray deck as jaw-droppingly gorgeous as the Samsung BD-P4600 (review coming soon), everything else seems ugly by comparison. But our tainted eyes are doing this deck a disservice – it's actually very pleasant to look at, with the sleek black finish, silver flashes and slim measurements resulting in a modern, tasteful piece of kit, and most importantly the build quality is terrific.
On the right hand side is a flap that conceals an SD/SDHC card slot, which allows you to play JPEG, AVCHD and MPEG-2 files, and a USB port that supports MP3, JPEG and DivX playback. The SD card slot is also needed to store downloaded updates and web content because there's no built-in memory like the Samsung BD-P4600. Alongside these sockets you'll find play, pause and stop buttons.
Rear sockets are sparse but no more so than other similarly-priced players on the market. The small cluster of connections includes HDMI 1.3, component, composite and stereo audio outputs, as well as an Ethernet port for that all important web functionality and an optical digital audio output. There are no multichannel analogue outputs, but if you really need them they can be found on the DMP-BD80.
The DMP-BD60 is, of course, fully equipped to handle any BD Live and BonusView content you throw at it, but that's old news – we're more interested in Viera Cast, which proves to be a worthwhile addition to the feature list. Press the dedicated Viera Cast button on the remote and you're greeted by a main menu that offers YouTube on the left and Picasa on the right. Select YouTube and the next screen lets you choose which videos to browse – Featured, Most Viewed or Top Rated – or you can search by keying in terms using a virtual keyboard. Just like the LG BD370, you can narrow the clips down to a particular country and log-in to your account.
The clips are listed on the left while the video plays on the right, and you can switch to fullscreen simply by highlighting the video and pressing enter. Apart from an annoying chime that plays whenever you move the cursor, this portal is simple and enjoyable to use. Likewise Picasa, which lets you key in search terms and find the photos you want, or you can play entire albums as a slideshow with music in the background. The images are displayed in crisp hi-def and we imagine this being a great thing to put on in the background during dinner parties.
Elsewhere inside the BD60 you'll find the same UniPhier single chip LSI that produced such impressive picture quality on its predecessors. Because the entire video signal processing circuit is packed onto a single chip, it helps to reduce power consumption, and the DMP-BD60 uses 16 per cent less power in standby than the DMP-BD35.
The UniPhier chip's deadliest weapon is P4HD, which processes and optimises more than 15 billion pixels per second, as well as handling all of the main video duties such as 16-level motion detection, diagonal processing and 1080p DVD upscaling. Also on board is the PHL Reference Chroma Processor Plus – introduced on the BD35 and BD55 – which processes and corrects every pixel to ensure the most accurate colour reproduction possible.
Elsewhere, the BD60 supports Dolby TrueHD, DTS HD Master Audio, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS HD, outputting them as a bitstream or uncompressed PCM from the HDMI output. The deck also offers 1080/24p output, which you'll need a compatible TV to fully appreciate, and it also plays a healthy range of disc formats, including BD-RE, BD-R, DVD-RAM, DVD-R/-RW, DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R/+R DL and CD-R/-RW. You can also play DivX, MP3 and JPEG files from data DVDs and CDs.
If it ain't broke don't fix it, so they say, which would explain why the BD60's user interface is identical to previous Panasonic players. The use of bold colours and large text gives the menus a warm, welcoming feel that won't intimidate Blu-ray first timers or patronise experienced users. All of the options are laid out in a clear logical fashion, and the cursor is slick and speedy.
Sensibly, Panasonic has also left the remote well alone, keeping the same intuitive layout, big buttons and exceptionally clear labelling found on the BD35 and 55's zappers. Of course the main change is the addition of a Viera Cast button, which is neatly integrated towards the top, but there is one small gripe – when using Viera Cast, you have to press the left direction key to go back to the previous menu, but it's too easy to hit the Top Menu button instead and accidentally switch to a Blu-ray disc.
During playback you can hit the Option button on the remote and access a smaller group of setup functions, while the Display button brings up a menu containing picture presets (Normal, Soft, Fine, Cinema and User), sound modes and Dialogue Enhancer.
The BD60 also features a Quick Start mode, which eats up more power in standby than usual (5W as opposed to under 0.5W) but allows the player to boot up a lot faster. However, in terms of disc loading times the Panasonic falls a long way behind the latest players from Samsung and LG, taking a minute to start playing "Spider-Man 3" after shutting the disc tray (twice as long as its Korean counterparts).
However, it's certainly worth the wait, as the BD60 delivers sensational picture quality that puts similarly-priced players to shame. Using the Samsung BD-P4600 and LG BD370 for a direct comparison, we found that the Panasonic's pictures look a touch sharper and smoother around the edges than its rivals, particularly with a pristine CGI movie like "Wall-E". Bright colours seem richer and more vibrant, and the punchier blacks give the overall image more depth, as well as an effortlessly cinematic feel.
The amount of detail packed into the picture is truly staggering too, with P4HD doing a marvellous job of emphasising fine patterns and textures without introducing any moiré noise or crawling. It resolves even the finest details during panoramic shots of the litter strewn landscape, giving it an astonishing clarity that epitomises what Blu-ray's all about.
Edges are also clean as a whistle with not a jaggie in sight and fast moving objects are tracked smoothly, although when running at 24fps camera pans still aren't completely judder-free on our 1080/24p compatible TV.
We also tried out "The Dark Knight" and the BD60 is equally at home with live action as it is with computer pixels. The opening bank robbery scenes are mesmerising, with Gotham's skyscrapers looking well-rounded and three-dimensional, while fine detail on clothing and the ornate bank interior is rendered with razor-sharp precision. Dark scenes are also beautifully realised thanks to the excellent contrast range, which allows objects and detail within the darkness to remain visible.
The player passes the main tests on the Silicon Optix HQV disc. It immediately locks on to the cadence of video and film resolution loss tests and takes the rotating bars in its stride, rendering the moving diagonal lines without any feathering or stepping.
We also tried out a range of DVDs and the BD60 shows few signs of weakness. The upscaling is clean and free from artefacts, colours are bright and fulsome, and there's lots of detail in the picture. At 1080p, the results don't come close to true hi-def but the images are good enough to ensure that your DVD collection is in safe hands.
As for HD audio performance, the BD60 ekes out the delicate nuances of "Wall-E's" superb sound design, like the scuttling cockroach and our titular hero's cute chirps and bleeps, which makes for an absorbing listen. More action-packed movies like "The Dark Knight" are utterly thrilling through our Onkyo TX-NR906 amp, and if you want to use the BD60 as your living room CD player then its crisp CD sound quality from the analogue stereo outs should stand you in good stead.
Panasonic continues its great work in the Blu-ray field with yet another feature-packed player that offers sensational picture performance and a user-friendly operating system. Viera Cast proves to be an attractive addition to an already impressive list of talents, and while the limited choice of YouTube and Picasa won't appeal to everyone, we think there's a lot of fun to be had watching video clips on your living room TV. The suggested retail price seems very good too and is on a par with the LG BD370 which offers a similar feature set. However, the DMP-BD60 has a far superior picture performance, made possible by the magnificent UniPhier chip.
Score in detail
By Danny Phillips


High Fashion – 5 Reel, 25 Payline progressive video slot with bonus features, multipliers, minor and major Jackpots. This game is about the modelling world with all the glitz and glamour, spotlights, and attractive models strutting down the runway.
Coins range from 0.01 to 0.25 per payline and players can choose between 1 and 25 lines to bet on.
Both Male and Female Models are Wild symbols. The Wilds double the payout when substituting for other symbols in a winning combination. Wilds will only appear on Reels 1 and 5.
5 Runways appearing anywhere on the reels can pay out 1 000x the total bet per spin up to 25 000 coins.
This thrilling, glamorous game offers many chances of landing that massive win!


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It's official: Congress will vote on whether or not to bring back net neutrality
Rachel Sandler
Congress will vote to restore net neutrality next week.
If the measure is passed by a simple majority vote, it would still need to be signed by President Donald Trump.
Right now, 48 senators appear to be in favor of the measure.
Congress will vote next week to bring back net neutrality.
A group of Senators led by Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) have gained enough support to force a vote under the Congressional Review Act, a little-known rule that allows lawmakers to overturn recently enacted regulation from a federal agency. Since the FCC repealed Obama-era net neutrality protections in December, advocates have been pursuing the CRA as a last-ditch effort to block the FCC's order.
Under the CRA, the Senate is required to consider a resolution if 30 senators sign a petition forcing a vote. A petition related to net neutrality with 32 signatures was delivered on Wednesday, thereby forcing a vote on the Senate floor. The vote is expected to take place next week.
For the measure to clear the Senate, only a simple majority vote is needed. But for the resolution to pass entirely, a majority would still be needed in the House — where it faces more opposition — and President Donald Trump would have to sign it.
In the Senate, lawmakers are just one vote shy of a majority. Currently, 48 Democrats and one Republican, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), along with Sen. Angus King (I-ME) have come out in support of the measure.
The FCC under Trump-appointee Ajit Pai voted along party lines in December 2017 to roll back net neutrality regulations put in place during the Obama administration. Net neutrality generally refers to the idea that internet service providers, such as AT&T and Comcast, should be prohibited from slowing down, prioritizing, or blocking any type of internet traffic.
Up until the CRA vote, net neutrality supporters are launching a public campaign to bring attention to the issue. Tech companies such as Etsy, Mozilla, Tinder, Shutterstock, Warby Parker, Vimeo, and Foursquare will feature "red alert" badges displayed prominently on their websites or in advertisements urging users to contact members of Congress.
SEE ALSO: Cambridge Analytica won't be rebranded under a new name, its founder says
More: Net Neutrality Congress House of Representatives Senate