text:
Warthog UGV takes out the trash in Autotrans project
by Chris Bogdon | Nov 28, 2018 | In the Field: Customer Spotlight |
Researchers have created a new autonomous system, called Autotrans, for transporting objects in unstructured outdoor settings—including anything from harvesting fruit in an orchard to collecting trash from city streets.
The system includes both hardware and software components: put them all together, and you've got a room-cleaning, trash-collecting, fruit-carrying robot!
Autotrans, which stands for "autonomous open-world transportation system," was created by researchers Brayan Zapata-Impata from the University of Alicante (Spain), and Vikrant Shah, Hanumant Singh, and Robert Platt from Northeastern University (Boston) in a collaboration at Northeastern's Helping Hands research lab.
Autotrans advances mobile manipulation research
Previous researchers have succeeded in creating systems that can only collect empty bottles, or only pick up trash lying on a patch of grass, for instance—but picking up any type of object, in any environment, has proven much more difficult.
Autotrans sets itself apart in three ways. First, it's capable of grasping a variety of objects. We already have systems that transport known objects in particular environments, but these are limited to particular applications. For instance, other researchers have developed a forklift delivery system and a way to pick books from library shelves. However, these systems could only grasp specific objects (pallets and books, respectively). Since Autotrans can grasp far more objects, it's suitable for use in many more applications.
Second, Autotrans is almost completely autonomous. Other systems are able to handle more objects, but they also require more human input. For instance, one system requires visual tags (known as AprilTags) to be added to the environment, while another needs a human operator to control it remotely. Telling a robot how to take out the trash is better than moving the trash yourself, but it still falls short of sitting back while a robot does everything for you. Autotrans has brought us one step closer to that reality!
Third, Autotrans is free of several other limitations that have plagued previous approaches. Grasp-detection systems are often only suited to bin-picking, take a long time to figure out how to grasp an object, and can't distinguish between overlapping objects. But Autotrans can pick objects off the ground as well as from bins, is relatively speedy, and doesn't need to distinguish objects in order to grasp them successfully.
How Autotrans works
The system is built to navigate to a pick-up point, grasp the desired objects, and deposit them at a drop-off point. To do so, it must overcome two huge challenges: navigating an open-world environment, and grasping unknown objects.
An open-world environment may be indoor or outdoor; it's distinguished by its dynamic elements. Unlike in a laboratory environment, no one "prepares" an open-world environment before conducting an experiment. So open-world environments are much more difficult to navigate autonomously, because they involve factors like changing lighting conditions, potential obstacles, and variable surface terrain.
Moreover, most approaches to robotic grasping are based on models. In these solutions, the robot has a database with 3D models of known objects; it determines how to grasp an object by referring back to the stored 3D model. However, this method requires the robot to recognize the object and match it to the database model, so it doesn't work very well when objects are overlapping or partially hidden.
In contrast, Autotrans does not refer to a model when generating possible grasps, so there is no need for it to distinguish objects. Instead, it takes a laser scan of the object, and then refers to GPD, a publicly available grasp detection software package, to detect the right way to grasp it.
When collecting a pile of trash bags, for instance, Autotrans doesn't know how many bags there are; it just knows that it has to find a way to grasp the shapeless black mass in front of it.
What's cool about this method is that the robot "figures out" how to transport an object between two locations all by itself. All a human needs to do is select the pick-up and drop-off points.
Warthog UGV gets the job done
The Autotrans team chose a Clearpath Warthog UGV as one of their hardware components for several reasons.
First, they needed a steady mobile base for a big robotic arm capable of lifting heavy objects.
The UR10 cobot was the best arm for the job, because it had a high payload without being a purely industrial robotic arm. As researcher Brayan Zapata-Impata explains, "Being able to mount this arm on the Warthog was crucial."
Second, they liked how the Warthog has a flat surface area on top. "It meant we could fit a ton of stuff up there: the UR10, the arm controller, a PC for doing most of the computation, the collection bin…"
The team also appreciated the Warthog's seamless integration with certain certain distance sensors, like the SICK laser they mounted on its front.
Finally, the Warthog had an excellent battery life. According to Zapata-Impata, "Since the goal was to design an object-transporting robot, we wanted it to work for at least a couple of hours. The Warthog performed flawlessly, even when we ran the system for four continuous hours!"
See the robot in action below:
To learn more about the the Autotrans project, click here.
To learn more about Warthog UGV, click here.


text:
Q: Console log only showing failed requests I am attempting to grab a url from my console log during my automated tests but for some reason its only showing all the console errors in my print out. How can I show everything thats in my console log and then pick out the url I want. Ive tried Server , Client, Performance and Driver but not getting anything back from them, any help on pulling any apis/urls going out in the console? The code im using:
    ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
    options.addArguments("start-maximized");
    options.addArguments("disable-infobars");
    options.addArguments("--disable-extensions");
    options.addArguments("--window-size=1920x1080");
    options.addArguments("--disable-cache");
    //options.addArguments("--headless");
    options.addArguments("--disable-application-cache");
    options.addArguments("--disk-cache-size=0");
    options.addArguments("--disable-gpu"); // applicable to windows os only
    options.addArguments("--disable-dev-shm-usage"); // overcome limited resource problems
    options.addArguments("--dns-prefetch-disable");
    LoggingPreferences logPrefs = new LoggingPreferences();
    logPrefs.enable(LogType.BROWSER, Level.INFO);
    options.setCapability(CapabilityType.LOGGING_PREFS, logPrefs);
    //options.addArguments("--no-sandbox"); // Bypass OS security model
    options.setPageLoadStrategy(PageLoadStrategy.NORMAL);
    driver = new ChromeDriver(options);

public static void analyzeLog() {

    LogEntries entry = driver.manage().logs().get(LogType.BROWSER);
    // Retrieving all log
    List<LogEntry> logs= entry.getAll();
    // Print one by one
    for(LogEntry e: logs)
    {
        System.out.println(e);
    }

    // Printing details separately
    for(LogEntry e: logs)
    {
        System.out.println("Message is: " +e.getMessage());
        System.out.println("Level is: " +e.getLevel());
    }

}

A: I believe browser's console log displays only errors by default, that is why you see only them. The loaded urls do not go there.
Probably you need another LogType? I do not have the setup at my side, but probably try enabling all of LogType.CLIENT, LogType.SERVER and LogType.DRIVER and see if what you need will be there. If so, try switching off one by one to see which is the appropriate LogType.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The Asian Poker Tour (APT) has announced that Matt Savage has been appointed Tournament Director for its upcoming Manila Main Event next month, due to be held at the ultra-modern Dusit Thani Manila Hotel.
The APT stated that few men are as qualified for the position as Savage as he previously served as Tournament Director for the World Series of Poker, the world's blue-ribbon poker event, in 2002 after working his way up the poker ladder. He oversaw a boom in prize money for this tournament from eleven million dollars to its almost $50 million today and was awarded the inaugural Benny Binion award for outstanding service in the poker industry in 2003.
As Tournament Director for the first leg of the APT in Manila, Savage will oversee six days of all-out poker action expected to attract around 400 players from all over the world. A third of the participants are expected to come from the Philippines, which has seen poker's popularity surge in recent years.
Being held from May 27 to June 1, the Asian Poker Tour stated that the Dusit Thani Manila Hotel is the perfect venue for the event as it is in the Philippines' central business district with easy access to accommodation, shopping, tourist spots and transport.
After the Philippine leg, the tour moves to events in Macao, South Korea and Singapore, all with a buy-in of $2,500 and a guaranteed prize pool of one million dollars.
Online satellites awarding prize packages worth $6,000 including accommodation and travel expenses are being held on most iPoker-powered poker rooms such as DafaPoker.com, TilaPoker.com, ChiliPoker.com, TitanPoker.com, BetFred.com and VCPoker.com. In addition, some of the world's most popular poker rooms including PartyPoker.com and PKR.com will host satellite events for seats at the tournament.


The Proposed Rule risks encouraging unsophisticated investors to simply synchronise their planned retirement dates with the date in the title/header of the investment offering. The Rule, if adopted as proposed, confers a superordinary importance to the date where the management between the investment and the horizon date is of greater concern.
Further, while the date is important as an anticipated horizon for the portfolio held therein, the historical trend of such funds (with a superlinear change in allocation toward debt instruments over time) may be less "conservative" than historically thought, given the dubious quality of once-robustly-rated instruments floating around in the debt market. For an example, one need only notice the rise in municipal bankruptcies (and, meanwhile, the still-heavy investment in municipal debt among retirement-oriented funds). Allowing uninformed or less-sophisticated investors to assume that - as a given date approaches - a portfolio will automatically be reshuffled to an ever-lower-variance or ever-lower-risk posture could be dangerous and is potentially-misleading.
Finally, making the horizon date of the portfolio central to the portfolio's marketing and title encourages investors to sort funds on this basis. Given the flexibility (and uncertainty) of American retirement dates in the current economic environment, emphasising the horizon date of the portfolio in question may cause investors to exclude investments well-suited to their needs.
For the reasons herein, I respectfully recommend against the Proposed Rule.
The sentiments and recommendations herein are my own and may not represent the views or opinions of the organisations and institutions with which I am affiliated.


LINCOLN – A recent Supreme Court ruling on the ownership of abandoned railways won't affect Nebraska's Cowboy Trail.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that after a railroad has abandoned a line, the land should revert to owners of the adjacent property instead of to the federal government. Some fear the ruling threatens Rails to Trails projects across the country built on abandoned railways.
The Cowboy Trail, however, is built on land that has been railbanked, rather than abandoned. When a trail is railbanked, it may be developed into a trail but the railroad retains the right to convert it back into a rail line.
The Rails to Trails Conservancy purchased the right-of-way for the 321-mile stretch of land between Norfolk and Chadron in the early 1990s from the Chicago and NorthWestern Transportation Company. The Conservancy gave the right-of-way to the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission in 1993. Since then, Game and Parks has worked to develop and maintain 196 miles of the trail between Norfolk and Valentine for walking, running, bicycling and horseback riding.


I mentioned in class that associated with each function call there is an activation record. This is essentially a block of memory that holds among other things (i) the arguments to the function, (ii) the local variables of the function, and (iii) a "return address." The activation records for all of the active functions are stored in the system stack. The activation record lives just long enough to allow a function to do its job; it is pushed onto the system stack when the function is called (becomes active) and it is popped when the function returns (becomes inactive). The LIFO ordering provided by the stack ensures that when the current activation record is popped we return to the function that called the current function.
Problem: This problem asks to simulate how the system stack grows and shrinks as a result of the sequence of function calls made during the standard recursive implementation of the Fibonacci function. To help in this, I have added some "pretty print" statements to the fibonacci function here: FibonacciPrint.java that shows the pushes and pops that were made to the system stack. For, say n = 7, this program produces the following output.
A "push" and its corresponding "pop" occur in the same column.
Two "push" operations that occur in the same column correspond to two nodes at the same level in the recursion tree. For example, the root of the recursion tree is 7 and it has two children 6 and 5; these correspond to the "push 6" in Line 2 and the "push 5" in Line 32, that appear in the same column.


text:
Shazam! It ain't happening.
January 5, 2009 Dead Projects, Projects, Shazam
Before the holidays, I promised a post-mortem on Shazam!, the big-screen adaptation of the DC comic I've been working on since early 2007. In case you're not familiar with the character, here's what I wrote when I first announced the project:
Captain Marvel is a superhero roughly as powerful as Superman, minus the heat-vision and cold breath. What's unique about the character is that in ordinary life, he's teenager Billy Batson. Speaking the name of the wizard who gave him his powers (Shazam) calls down a magic thunderbolt, transforming him into the studly superhero. But he's still a teenager in there.
If this to you sounds, "Like Big, but with superpowers," then congratulations! You now understand Hollywood.
So that you may further understand Hollywood, let me briefly fill you in on what's happened in the meantime.
I wrote a draft for New Line. Around the time I turned it in, there was a lot of speculation about whether New Line would continue to remain in business, but there was enough enthusiasm that the mini-studio ran the numbers and considered going into production before a potential actors' strike. (The WGA strike hadn't yet happened, but it looked inevitable.) Director Pete Segal was busy on Get Smart, costarring Dwayne Johnson, and rumors began building that The Rock would play Black Adam. A lot of people liked that idea, me included.
I would describe this draft as a comedy with a lot of action. It mostly centers on Billy Batson getting and learning how to use his powers, and discovering what happened to his parents that left him an orphan. One of the appeals of the project is that Billy is a comic book hero who actually reads comic books. Black Adam ultimately becomes the adversary, but he works much like Voldemort in the Harry Potter movies — a dark force to battle at the end, not a constant presence throughout. I wrote the draft I had pitched, and was very happy with how it turned out.
I got notes from New Line and the producers — mostly about set pieces, and keeping Black Adam from becoming too sympathetic — but before I could get started, the WGA went on strike. I couldn't write, nor did I talk to anyone involved for 100 days.
When the strike was over, Shazam! was suddenly a Warner Bros. movie.1 The new executive at Warners said he agreed with the New Line notes, and told the producers I should go ahead with my rewrite. We weren't on the official production schedule, but there were discussions about budgets and timelines. We were definitely Pete Segal's next movie, and many of the stories coming out of the press junkets for Get Smart were about Shazam.
When we turned the new draft in to the studio, we got a reaction that made me wonder if anyone at Warners had actually read previous drafts or the associated notes. The studio felt the movie played too young. They wanted edgier. They wanted Billy to be older. They wanted Black Adam to appear much earlier.
(I pointed out that Black Adam appears on page one, but never got a response.)
I expressed my frustration that I'd wasted months of my time and a considerable amount of the studio's money on things that should have been discussed at the outset. I asked for a meeting with the executive in charge. He and I had one phone call, then I got a new set of notes that didn't gibe with what we had discussed. (The written studio notes, I will say, were well-considered. I disagreed with the direction they were taking the movie, but they were thorough and self-consistent.)
In retrospect, I can point to two summer Warner Bros. movies that I believe defined the real issue at hand: Speed Racer and The Dark Knight. The first flopped; the second triumphed. Given only those two examples, one can understand why a studio might wish for their movies to be more like the latter. But to do so ignores the success of Iron Man, which spent most of its running time as a comedic origin story, and the even more pertinent example of WB's own Harry Potter series. I tried to make this case, to no avail.
I was under contract to deliver one more draft. So I took them at their (written) word and delivered what they said they wanted: a much harder movie, with a lot more Black Adam. This wasn't "Big, with super powers" anymore. It was Black Adam versus Captain Marvel, with a considerable push into dark territory and liminal badlands like Nanda Parbat. It wasn't the action-comedy I'd signed on to write, but it was a movie I could envision getting made. The producer and director liked it, and turned it in to the studio while I was in France.
By the time I got back, the project was dead.
By "dead," I mean that it won't be happening. I don't think it's on the studio's radar at all. It may come back in another incarnation, with another writer, but I can say with considerable certainty that it won't be the version I developed.2
Yes, that sucks. And obviously, I can only share my interpretation of what transpired. There were dozens of meetings and phone calls in which I had no participation. As a reader, you should certainly consider the possibility that I wrote shitty scripts they simply didn't want to make. Because Warners controls copyright on them, I can't put them in the Library for you to read yourself. So you have to decide whether to take my word on it.
The larger point of this retelling is to help readers understand that at every level in a screenwriter's career, there are projects that simply don't happen, mostly for reasons you couldn't anticipate at the outset. I've had good experiences at Warner Bros. (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride) and bad experiences (Tarzan, Barbarella). My next movie is at that studio, so while I'm frustrated by the way they handled this project, I have no axe to grind. When they have a movie they want and support, they're top-notch.
I got paid well to write Shazam, and I get to keep that money. The real cost is an opportunity cost — the other projects I could have written that might be in production now. More than anything, that's one of the reasons production rewrites are so appealing to established writers: you know those movies are going to get made.
Also softening the blow is that I'm already writing a new project, one I might have had to pass up if Shazam had dragged on any further. The first half of 2009 is going to be very busy. So while I'll miss Shazam, and the movie it could have been, I won't feel too bad if this is the last post I ever write about it.
Warners has a relationship with DC Comics that goes beyond the corporate kinship with New Line, so they apparently could have gotten involved even if New Line had remained separate. ↩
Keep in mind that press releases often have little relationship to reality. The same week I found out that Shazam! was dead, Variety and several online news outlets ran stories about Pete Segal's new overall deal with Warners, which highlighted Shazam! as his next project. I got several "Congratulations!" emails. ↩
Post-strike update
The Big Red Cheese

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Hello, and welcome (back) to KristenShane.com!!
I'm just going to pretend like summer isn't over for as long as possible… which means I'm still holding on to my summer tan! I'm very naturally pale and extremely freckly, which means I just don't tan easily. Even in the summer time, when I'm a few shades darker than usual, I'm still embarrassingly paler than my beautifully-bronzed-friends.
I used to (and sometimes still do) really hate how freckly I am… but I've learned that's just how my body works, and that's okay.
I'm all for protecting my very-sensitive skin, which means I'm constantly lathering up with sunblock when I am in the sun, which makes that "tan" even more of a far off daydream.
I don't think you have to be tan, or be any one way in particular, to be beautiful, but I am all about being confident and feeling good in your own skin, whatever that means for you.
For me, that means I'd like to be able to be a summer tan without harming my skin from dangerous UV rays or tanning beds.
Because of all this, I've recently starting looking into self-tanners, to find an easier, much healthier alternative to trying to get that summer glow I want, without harming my skin.
Today I'm going to be sharing my review of a self-tanner that I just tried out! Tanceuticals was nice enough to reach out to me and send me some of their products to try in exchange for my honest review! I wouldn't be talking about any product I don't stand behind.
I've only used one other self-tanning product in the past, so I was a little worried about trying another one, especially after reading reviews from my fellow #PaleSquad and #FreckleFam about lots of self-tanners leaving them more carrot-y than glow-y.
However, after reading about Tanceuticals's products, and reading a bunch of their reviews, I felt totally comfortable, and excited to try it for myself!
The Tanceuticals website clearly explains how their product works, and what ingredients they've added to make this product better than competitors. With ingredients like argan oil and shea butter, their tanners help to smooth and nourish your skin, in addition to getting you that natural summery glow!
Prep: shower, shave, and exfoliate!
I hopped in the shower to prep my skin for application. I like to use this St. Ive's Renew & Purify exfoliating wash. It smells so good and leaves my skin feeling soft and fresh.
I picked out the CC+ Color Correct Self-Tanning Body Lotion in the shade 'light'. I used the Tanceuticals mitt for application, which made it so so easy to apply, and helped avoid the mess on my hands!
I followed the directions on the bottle and while the 'light' shade is too light for me, I didn't notice any streaks, orange-ness, or uneven color.
My face, chest, and arms and somehow always tanner than my legs, so I'll probably reapply the lotion to my legs tomorrow to deepen the color.
Unfortunately, I think I would've been better off with the 'medium' lotion, as the light color didn't make too much of a difference on my skin. I was skeptical to order a darker shade since I am so pale, but the lotion itself was about the same as my current color, which is a little tanner than usual from the summer!
They also recommend daily moisturizing to elongate your tan, which I'll do this week to see how it lasts. I'll probably re-apply to my legs tomorrow and see if the color deepens at all.
Even if this color wasn't quite right for me right now, I think it'll be perfect for a super natural tan in the winter, once my summer tan has totally worn off. While the color isn't super noticeable on me, I did immediately notice the other benefits of the CC lotion: my skin was smoother, super soft, and definitely "color corrected" as advertised!
The only downside of this product was that I chose the wrong shade. It's no fault at all to the product, I just should've ordered a darker shade! I'd recommend their "medium" if you're complexion is pale/freckly like mine, and definitely don't be afraid to go darker from there.
Even without the darker tan I was hoping for, this product is still awesome in terms of the other benefits, smell, application, etc.
I'd definitely recommend checking out Tanceuitcals if you're interested in getting a great, natural, summery glow that's actually good for your skin!


text:
Asake's "MMWTV" becomes the highest-charting debut Nigerian album of all time on Billboard in 2022
Asake, also known as Ololade Mr. Money, a prominent Nigerian musician has now added another feat to his ever-growing list of accomplishments.
Asake was spotted recently in a Ghana club with Burna Boy's ex-singer, StefflonDon. The album "Mr. Money With The Vibes was the top-charting Nigerian debut album on Billboard in 2022.
This was confirmed in an update by music chart data on the micro-blogging platform, Twitter. The album was released in the latter part of 2022. It made sure to accommodate the top 1- 10 songs on Apple music in its week of release.
This only adds to Asake's already smooth record in the industry.
"In 2022, @asakemusik's 'Mr. Money With The Vibe' became the highest-charting debut Nigerian album of all time on the Billboard"
Asake's "MMWTV" becomes the highest-charting debut Nigerian album of all time on Billboard in 2022 was last modified: January 6th, 2023 by ABBStaff-Mayowa
Mr. Eazi discloses how he met his girlfriend, Temi Otedola
Victony receives emotional childhood narration from his mother as he marks his 22nd birthday
"Women will always bend to men's wishes....
"I'm so fruity" – Denrele tells colleague,...
Crayon exchanges word with troll after he...
Rema, Burna boy, and Ayra Starr's songs...
The church betrayed me – Timini Egbuson...
"Everybody just dey lie" – Reactions as...
Why I will never give money to...
Mike Bamiloye tackles actors who kiss in...
"Let me collect in private" – Uriel...
Estranged husband of BBNaija's Tega spotted in...


text:
Q: Can I nest headers in a stackview using Clarity In Clarity 2, we used the following code to generate a stack view with nested block headers.
<clr-stack-view>
    <clr-stack-block [clrSbExpanded]="true">
        <clr-stack-label>Leases</clr-stack-label>
        <clr-stack-block [clrSbExpanded]="true">
            <clr-stack-label>vApp leases</clr-stack-label>
            <clr-stack-content></clr-stack-content>
            <clr-stack-block>
                <clr-stack-label>Runtime expiry action</clr-stack-label>
                <clr-stack-content>Never expires</clr-stack-content>
            </clr-stack-block>
            <clr-stack-block>
                <clr-stack-label>Runtime Expiry Action</clr-stack-label>
                <clr-stack-content>Content</clr-stack-content>
            </clr-stack-block>
        </clr-stack-block>
    </clr-stack-block>
</clr-stack-view>

After upgrading to Clarity 3, I'm getting a glitch on my sub header where the right part of it is white instead of the background color.

This seems to be because of the following CSS rule. I can probably workaround it...
.stack-view .stack-children .stack-block-label, .stack-view .stack-children .stack-block-content {
    background-color: #fff;
    background-color: var(--clr-stack-view-stack-children-stack-block-label-and-content-bg-color, white);
}

The question is whether this a bug? Or was I just using unsupported behavior in Clarity 2? You can play with it here

A: I can't say whether it's a bug, but the following CSS override fixes it.
.stack-view .stack-children .stack-block-content {
  background-color: inherit;
}

Moreover, if I remove that style declaration completely (from dev tools), everything seems to work fine, so it seems like that rule was left there by mistake to try to make sure the clr-stack-content|label was white in the body. Heck if I know...
See https://stackblitz.com/edit/stack-view-nested-header-fixed?file=src%2Findex.html


PanARMENIAN.Net - New research published in the journal Current Biology finds that slow, repetitive movement improves sleep quality — and implicitly memory consolidation — by modulating brain wave activity, Medical News Today.
Obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease are just some of the conditions that sleep-deprived people are at risk of developing.
The director of the CDC's (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Division of Population Health recommends that people who don't get enough sleep make a range of lifestyle changes to improve their sleep quality. Changes include "going to bed at the same time each night; rising at the same time each morning; and turning off or removing televisions, computers, mobile devices from the bedroom."
But besides such sleep hygiene practices, new research suggests there is something else a person can do to improve sleep, even as an adult: rocking gently from side to side.
Two new studies, conducted by researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), University of Lausanne (UNIL), and the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG) — all in Switzerland — examine the effects of slow and repetitive movement on sleep quality in young adults and mice.


Following 30 years in the construction industry, the last 15 years as Vice President of a national home building company, Myra joined Dean Callan and Company as a Property Manager in 2006.
Her years of construction management experience made her a natural for the property management business. She currently fills the roll as Director of Operations and Assistant to the President.
Myra lives in Boulder with her husband and 2 dogs (Molly and Ani) and enjoys spending time with her family, hiking, and traveling.


text:
Giant Chocolate Spill Mars, Bars Road
By David Brennan On 12/12/18 at 7:29 AM EST
This file photo shows a chef stirring liquid chocolate at a factory in Mexico City, Mexico, on December 3, 2012. OMAR TORRES/AFP/Getty Images
World Germany Chocolate Accident Spill
German firefighters were called out Monday to a street paved with chocolate after a storage tank defect saw around a ton of the sweet stuff spill out across the surface of a road and harden into a delicious safety hazard.
Emergency services in the western town of Werl were on hand to deal with the unusual emergency. The cause was a defective tank belonging to the DreiMeister chocolate factory in Westoennen, the Associated Press reported, which allowed liquid chocolate to overflow.
Read More: Enormous Chocolate Spill Shuts Down Motorway
As it hit the freezing cold floor, the chocolate quickly solidified forming a thick layer across the road.
Reuters quoted a spokesperson for the local fire department who explained, "About a ton of chocolate ran out into the yard and from there onto the street." Firefighters were forced to close off the street and shovel the chocolatey mess to the side of the road. A specialist cleaning company then arrived to finish the job.
The Berliner Zeitung newspaper said it took 25 firefighters around two and a half hours to make the road fit for purpose again. They used hot water, high-pressure hoses and even blowtorches to clear away the chocolate, some of which had begun the permeate the road surface making it treacherously slippery.
But the fire department offered some reassuring words for local chocolate-lovers. "Despite this heartbreaking incident, it is unlikely that a chocolate-free Christmas is imminent in Werl," a spokesperson said.
Markus Luckey, who heads up the DreiMaster company, told the Soester Anzeiger newspaper the factory would be back in action by Wednesday. Luckey noted that if the spill had happened closer to Christmas, "that would have been a catastrophe."
A similar accident occured in neighboring Poland in May. There, a tanker carrying around 12 tons of liquid chocolate overturned on a highway in the west of the country. Fortunately, the driver survived, emerging with minor injuries and being taken for treatment at a nearby hospital. However, both sides of the highway were coated in a thick layer of chocolate in both directions, forcing emergency services to shut down traffic in both directions.
Local firefighter Bogdan Kowalski told the AP, "The cooling chocolate is worse than snow." He noted that before emergency services were able to close off the highway, some drivers drove through the pool of chocolate spreading it for several miles.
Still, there are worse accidents to be called to. Marlena Kukawka, a spokesperson for the local police, told local media the crews were in good spirits despite the sticky job.
"It's been a long time since I've seen so many smiles on the faces of emergency rescue folks and police officers at the scene of an accident," Kukawka said, according to NPR.
This article has been updated to include more information about the chocolate spill in Poland.
Chocolate Is 1,500 Years Older Than Previously Thought
National Chocolate Day: Deals and Discounts
Massive Chocolate Spill Shuts Motorway After Crash


text:
Kentucky Sings!
Let every thing that has breath Praise the Lord!
No tears, just worship
November 15, 2019 November 15, 2019 John Herndon
The McKameys perform during their concert at Sand Spring Baptist Church, Nov. 14, 2019. From left are Roger Fortner, Peg McKamey Bean, Eli Fortner, Sheryl Farris, Connie Fortner and Ruben Bean.
In final concerts of illustrious career, McKameys remain focused on praising God
By John Herndon, KentuckySings.com
I expected to shed a few tears when I went to see The McKameys Thursday night.
Unless you have been totally cut off from the gospel music world, you know that The McKameys, one of the most popular groups to ever share the gospel in song, will be retiring after a concert in Knoxville, Tenn., on Nov. 23. (Ticket information for that final concert can be found at https://paulbelcherconcerts.com.)
When they took the stage Thursday at Sand Spring Baptist Church, near Lawrenceburg, it was the last time The McKameys would sing in Kentucky. And I knew it would be the last time I would see this group, which has given us so many great songs of the faith, in person.
Ruben Bean. (All photos by John Herndon)
It could have been a sad time, but Ruben Bean, the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Famer who manages the group, ended any such notion just a few moments into the concert. He said something to the effect of it was not a time for sadness, but a time to lift up the Lord and that was what The McKameys would be doing Thursday night.
I wasn't expecting to write a review of the concert so I didn't have a notepad handy. That's not a direct quote, but the gist of what Mr. Bean said.
And he was right. It was nearly two-hours of heartfelt worship. Mr. Bean's wife, Peg McKamey Bean, waved her handkerchief and kicked her shoes off during the concert, much to the delight of longtime McKamey fans. Of course, she brought the house down with her rendition of the group's signature song, "God on the Mountain."
Every member of the group, including guitarists Roger Fortner and his son, Eli, sang at least one solo, as The McKameys have done for years.
Roger, Connie and Eli Fortner.
Over the years, I have attended gospel concerts when I wondered if the focus was on God or on the artist but with The McKameys, that's never been a question. When Peg starts waving that hanky or kicking her shoes off, you know it's because she is so excited about God's mercy. When Sheryl or Connie break into a solo, there's no way to explain it other than you know it's coming from the heart.
Sheryl Farris.
When they delivered "From Dust to Glory," a song written by Sheryl and on their latest CD, the crowd was mesmerized by the powerful words telling the miracle of Christ's ministry.
While Roger and Eli are gifted guitarists who often amaze with their talents, their low key style only serves to accentuate the message.
And when Ruben offered an invitation before the group sang "Just As I Am," there were no theatrics, just a heartfelt plea for all in attendance to make Jesus the Lord of their lives and live for Him each day.
Some might call The McKameys "old school" as their music is decidedly a traditional Southern Gospel or country sound, but their message is as relevant today as it was when The McKamey Sisters began more than 60 years ago.
Peg McKamey Bean waves her trademark handkerchief during a song at Sand Spring.
The McKameys have won nearly every award possible in the gospel music industry. They've played to packed houses for years. But the ministry is all about Christ, nothing else. It always has been.
One of my habits at concerts hosted by Sand Spring is to hang around to talk with the artists a few minutes after the crowds thin out. Last night, there were only a few people milling about in the lobby when I introduced myself and thanked her for taking the time to talk for an interview last month (https://kentuckysings.com/2019/10/21/big-moments-for-a-great-god/). And I thanked her for the many years of service and for The McKameys' emphasis on worship.
She could only break into that familiar huge smile and said, "I just think that's how it should be."
No tears. Just praising God's greatness.
Ruben Bean issues a heartfelt invitation at the end of The McKameys' concert at Sant Spring Baptist Church.
Tags: Connie Fortner, Eli Fortner, Gospel Music, McKameys, Peg McKamey Bean, Roger Fortner, Ruben Bean, Sand Spring Baptist Church, Sheryl Farris
← Bridging a path between the gospel and his roots
Sand Spring announces 2020 schedule →


text:
Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences (7)
https://journals.ametsoc.org/search?f_0=author&q_0=R.+G.+Roble&print
Author or Editor: R. G. Roble x
Stellar Spectra and Atmospheric Composition
P. B. Hays and R. G. Roble
The distortions to the image and spectrum of a star being observed during occultation from a satellite are discussed. The primary distortions are shown to be due to refractive dispersion, small and large particle scattering, and absorption by various atmospheric gases. Representative stellar spectra in both the visible and ultraviolet are presented, and various features relating to specific atmospheric constituents are discussed. The possibility of recovering information concerning atmospheric composition from stellar spectra is considered and several distinct processes are used for illustration.
https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1968)025<1141:SSAAC>2.0.CO;2
A Global Time-Dependent Model of Thunderstorm Electricity. Part I: Mathematical Properties of the Physical and Numerical Models
G. L. Browning, I. Tzur, and R. G. Roble
A time-dependent model that simulates the interaction of a thunderstorm with its electrical environment is introduced. The model solves the continuity equation of the Maxwell current density that includes conduction, displacement, and source currents. Lightning phenomena are neglected and the electric field is assumed to be curl free. Corona, convection, and precipitation currents are not considered in this initial study and their contribution to the source function is not specified explicitly. As a preliminary test of the model we assume that the storm is axially symmetric in spherical geometry, the conductivity depends only on the vertical coordinate, the ground is equipotential, and far from the thunderstorm region the horizontal electric field is zero. These assumptions are for computational efficiency only and can be relaxed in more realistic studies.
The mathematical energy method is applied to the continuity equation to determine boundary conditions that are sufficient to form a well-posed initial-boundary value problem. This ensures the existence of a physical solution that depends continuously on the initial and boundary data. Then analytic techniques are applied to study the dependence of the solution on the properties of the medium. There are two time scales of the problem that are analyzed and discussed: one determined by the background electrical conductivity and the other by the time dependence of the source function. The assumed source function, which represents a mechanism by which charge is separated inside the storm, contributes to a portion of the solution in which the ratio of the displacement current over the conduction current increases with decreasing altitude, i.e., in the lower atmospheric region the displacement current can have an important role in the electrical interaction between the storm and its environment. It is also demonstrated that the source function can induce temporal phase shifts in the solution, which are dependent on altitude.
To obtain details of the solution, which cannot be obtained by analytic techniques. a stable numerical approximation of the continuity equation is introduced and analyzed. The resulting numerical model is used to examine the evolution of the displacement and conduction currents during the charge buildup phase of a developing thunderstorm.
https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1987)044<2166:AGTDMO>2.0.CO;2
A Numerical Study of Gravity Wave Breaking and Impacts on Turbulence and Mean State
H-L. Liu, P. B. Hays, and R. G. Roble
A model system is established that includes three interactive components: a dynamics model, a turbulence model, and a chemistry model. The dynamics model solves the two-dimensional, nonlinear, nonhydrostatic, compressible, and viscous flow equations, and the turbulence model is adapted from the 2.5-level Mellor–Yamada turbulence model with minor adjustments. The dynamics and the turbulence models are coupled with a chemistry model to study the mesoscale impacts of gravity wave breaking on the atmospheric compositional structures. The present study focuses on the local distribution of atomic oxygen and ozone. The model system is used to study the gravity wave propagation, growth, breakdown, and its impacts on the mean state in the middle and upper atmosphere. The inclusion of a turbulence model makes it possible to study the long-term evolution of the gravity wave after wave breaking and in the presence of nonuniform turbulence, as well as the interaction between a breaking wave and turbulence. The turbulence model parameterizes the three-dimensional mixing due to the flow instability and it eliminates the unrealistically strong supersaturation observed in previous two-dimensional simulations. The modeling result suggests that the induced acceleration due to convective instability may lead to strong shear, which causes dynamical instability at lower altitudes. The result reveals the interdependence of waves and turbulence and shows that the turbulence energy density due to instability has similar temporal and spatial characteristics to previous radar observations. The result is also compared with the linear saturation theory, and it is found that the eddy diffusion coefficients in the wave-breaking region are nonuniform, and the average values are less than those obtained from the linear saturation theory. The result also suggests that the inclusion of the turbulence model could be a valid approach to study the averaged two-dimensional gravity wave and turbulence features after wave breaking. More adjustments of the turbulence model parameters, according to upper-atmosphere observations and turbulence physics studies using large eddy simulation and direct numerical simulation methods for three-dimensional gravity wave–breaking processes, are necessary to improve the model performance in future studies.
https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1999)056<2152:ANSOGW>2.0.CO;2
Meridional Circulation in the Thermosphere. II. Solstice Conditions
Robert E. Dickinson, E. C. Ridley, and R. G. Roble
The mean meridional circulation and latitudinal variation of temperature in the thermosphere are calculated for solstice conditions. The heat and momentum sources that drive the thermospheric circulation are solar EUV and UV heating, high-latitude heating due to auroral processes, and a momentum source due to the correlation of diurnal variations of wind and ion drag. The results show a solar-driven, summer-to-winter circulation that is modified by the high-latitude heat source. The high-latitude heat source reinforces the summer-to-winter circulation in the summer hemisphere, but reverses the circulation in the mid-latitude winter hemisphere at F-layer heights with transition from one cell to another in the midlatitude winter hemisphere. Below about 150 km, however, the summer-to-winter circulation is maintained at all latitudes. The zonal winds at midlatitudes are generally eastward in the winter hemisphere and westward in the summer hemisphere. At F-layer heights, there is a significant temperature decrease from the summer pole to winter pole. Good agreement between the calculated and observed circulations and latitudinal temperature distributions is obtained for a total high-latitude heat source of about 2 × 1018 ergs s−1, but with 2½ times as much heating in the summer hemisphere as in the winter hemisphere.
https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1977)034<0178:MCITTI>2.0.CO;2
Response of the Neutral Thermosphere at F-Layer Heights to Interaction of a Global Wind with Anomalies of Ionization
Robert E. Dickinson, R. G. Roble, and E. C. Ridley
Departures from a mean global-scale ionization distribution are commonly found in the ionospheric F region. Global-scale winds experience an acceleration where the ion drag is locally less than its global-scale smooth value and, they likewise, experience a deceleration where the ion drag is locally greater. Thus, a perturbation in the horizontal flow is set up in response to this ion-drag momentum source.
A two-dimensional, steady-state dynamic model of the neutral thermosphere, incorporating thermal conduction, viscosity and ion drag, is used to calculate the temperature perturbation and circulation pattern caused by these ion-drag anomalies. The forcing is given by a momentum source which depends on the interaction of a basic-state neutral wind with the anomaly. For horizontal-scale anomalies of a few hundred kilometers, such as the electron density depression within the stable auroral red arc, the momentum source due to perturbation ion drag is almost completely balanced by a perturbation pressure force. The perturbation temperature and circulation responses are, therefore, negligibly small. For horizontal-scale anomalies of the order of a few thousand kilometers, such as the day-night electron density variation at sunset, the force exerted by the perturbation pressure is not able to cancel the addition of momentum by the ion-drag anomaly. Thus, such a momentum source produces a significant perturbation in the horizontal velocity, vertical motion, and temperature field.
https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1971)028<1280:ROTNTA>2.0.CO;2
Thermospheric General Circulation with Coupled Dynamics and Composition
A general circulation model has been developed for the atmosphere above 97 km. It uses a 5° latitude × 5° longitude grid and 24 vertical levels in increments of 0.5 scale height. The prognostic variables are horizontal winds, temperature, and the mass mixing ratios of atomic and molecular oxygen, which are obtained using hydrodynamic equations and which include vertical transport by realistic models of molecular diffusion. All the prognostic variables are in near diffusive equilibrium in the vertical as the top of the model is approached. Realistic ion drag is included in the model equations for horizontal winds, including the rapid polar drifts of magnetic field fines due to magnetospheric convection. Excellent agreement is achieved between the calculated and observed global averaged composition, provided a reasonable amount of vertical eddy mixing is included in the compositional equations over the lowest model scale height. Calculations are carried out for solar minimum equinox conditions. The calculated variation of composition with latitude is opposite to that observed for the model forced only by solar heating but is brought into reasonable agreement with observations with the inclusion of auroral heating. Generally speaking, auroral heating changes significantly the global patterns of wind, temperature, and composition, and brings the model composition in reasonable agreement with that given by the MSIS empirical model. The calculated diurnal variations of composition with auroral heating are in acceptable agreement with observation. Calculated temperature variations in the upper thermosphere are consistent with a tendency for the coupled model to minimize the ratio of temperature to mean molecular mass.
https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1984)041<0205:TGCWCD>2.0.CO;2
Meridional Circulation in the Thermosphere I. Equinox Conditions
The mean meridional circulation and latitudinal variation of temperature in the thermosphere are considered for equinox conditions. With regard to these parameters there have been serious discrepancies between observational indications and theoretical expectations. A numerical model of the zonally symmetric thermospheric circulation is formulated and solved using a finite-difference initial value approach to steady-state solutions. Solutions are obtained for three different prescriptions of forcing terms: solar heating alone, solar heating plus an effective momentum source due to diurnal variations, and inclusion of a high-latitude heat source representing Joule dissipation of electric current systems. It is concluded that the Joule heating is essential for bringing theoretical predictions into agreement with observations but that the global mean of the required heating during geomagnetically quiet periods is necessarily small compared to global mean solar heating at the same levels.


text:
The Trick For Orlando Magic Unmasked in 5 Basic Steps
The initially half was the Banchero show for Orlando, the rookie needing just 16 minutes to place up an absurd 22 points on 7-12 shooting, 4-four from deep, and four-five from the line. He was supported by Bol with 9 points and six rebounds, the pair's timely shot-making assisting the Magic overcome their collective 37.5% (18-48) mark from the field. Speaking on the Celtics' post-game show, former Celtics guard Eddie Residence took a defiant tone on Boston's Friday night loss, ripping the Magic as a ten-win group that is "nonetheless garbage" regardless of their upset. Your favourite teams, subjects, and players all on your favorite mobile devices. BOSTON — — Paolo Banchero scored 31 points and Admiral Schofield had 11 of his 13 in the fourth quarter to help the Orlando Magic comprehensive a sweep of consecutive games in Boston with a victory on Sunday. Mo Bamba could be the most realistic trade candidate for the Orlando Magic this season taking into consideration his value relative to other dispensable players on their roster.
That is what aids Orlando stay in games and eases stress off the team's paint scoring and potential to get to the foul line. Wagner is second on the team in defensive rebound price at 22.1 percent. That is still a lot superior than the Magic of significantly of the final decade. Considering how compact the margins are for the Magic, two further points are winning and losing.
Absolutely everyone expects Banchero to be a player to take the group to the subsequent level. And they do not have any flashy players that got social media buzzing with gaudy stat lines. Wagner was great as a rookie for his steady consistency. Establishing a defensive identity that is consistent and resolute ought to be this team's most significant priority.
The group is also devoid of James Harden, meaning the Sixers will have a depleted backcourt … However, these games could be a target date for point forward Paolo Banchero and point guard Cole Anthony to return to action. Suggs ended up shooting just 36.1 % from the floor and 21.4 % from three-point variety though averaging three. turnovers per game. Overall, he produced .738 points per possession, which ranked last among all 341 players who recorded at least 250 possessions last season. The returns of Markelle Fultz, Gary Harris and Jonathan Isaac will prove very important to Orlando's results this year. And on top of that, the recovery of second-year guard Jalen Suggs, who not too long ago suffered a knee injury in Orlando's preseason game against the Dallas Mavericks.
Not only is Orlando the lesser team, but they are battling injuries . But then again, the memory of final week's Houston Rockets game still haunts Hawks fans. The Orlando Magic's chances at the top rated pick may perhaps have taken a shot soon after it was announced that Detroit Pistons point guard Cade Cunningham would miss the rest of the season.
He is going by way of all the usual expanding pains that come with a young player. What is astounding to us is, frankly, just Bol playing basketball. The Magic are finding spanked in third quarters by an average click this link of nearly six points, such as 4 occasions on which the beatdown blew out to double figures .
That could aid inform the front workplace about the largest priorities to address either through trades or totally free-agent signings. Harris is overpaid as a fourth banana when the Sixers are at full strength, but his adaptability has helped them dig out of an early-season hole. He moved into more of a principal scoring part when Harden, Embiid and Maxey had been sidelined, but he's slid suitable back into being a catch-and-shoot sniper with Harden and Embiid back. Even though he won't ever be a lockdown defender like OG Anunoby, he's providing notable work on that finish while knocking down a profession-high 42. % of his three-point attempts. Additional complicating matters, the Sixers don't have a ton of future draft picks that they can present to sweeten trade packages. They owe their unprotected 2023 initially-round pick to the Brooklyn Nets, and they owe lightly protected firsts to the Oklahoma City Thunder and Nets .
Banchero kept the offence rolling in the fourth also, despite the fact that he got a lot of assistance from Suggs, who scored 15 points in the quarter. Right after a slow begin, Banchero started to locate his groove and carried the Magic offence even with the reserves on the floor as the rookie put up 12 points in the third quarter. Suggs, meanwhile, had 10 points, 4 assists and two steals to do his component to make up for the No.1 pick's off evening. It was Chuma Okeke rather who was leading the way, with 12 points, four rebounds and a block off the bench. Golden State had already committed seven fouls with 3 minutes remaining in the opening quarter, permitting 11 absolutely free throws.
Final season the team ranked just 24th in terms of fastbreak points per-contest, while the 11.six points they place up is a important raise more than the existing price. They have been also correct by league-typical in the aftermath of the trade deadline in the prior campaign, averaging 12.two points every single evening across the final 15 games. Thinking of the minimal roster turnover in that time, it is an exciting observation. Furthermore, the Magic are just one particular of three sides across the entire NBA slate so far to finish a game without the need of a single fastbreak point to their name. They laid an egg in the open court in their November win more than the Suns, a statistical oddity that has occurred just 41 instances league-wide across the last two seasons. Across 48 minutes of game time a team is almost assured to choose up at least 1 bucket on the break, even if it is by accident.
Though Smith appears equivalent to final year as a streak-scoring shotmaker, he's showcased noticeably far more playmaking, averaging 5.2 assists. It's nonetheless performances like Tuesday's night's 33-point outburst that will enable sway teams to purchase describes it the Bones Hyland and Jordan Poole comparisons. First impressions of Smith have been powerful soon after he missed a month and went for 16 points with three created shots from beyond the arc, 5 assists and no turnovers Saturday.
By way of 29 minutes of action, he had scored 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field. But appropriate around the nine-minute mark of the second half, he fell to the ground with a leg injury and had to be helped off the court back to the locker room. The quite subsequent day, an MRI revealed that he had torn his ACL.
Primo had been sidelined so far this season with "left glute soreness," according to the Spurs. Cole Anthony and Jalen Suggs have currently suffered injuries through the Magic's initially five games and never have several guards in the rotation. It didn't enable that Orlando turned the ball over six instances in the second quarter, which led to 12 of Golden State's 35 points in the period. The Magic, who have been plagued by turnovers throughout the early part of this season, turned the ball more than 19 occasions against the Warriors Thursday. The Warriors committed 32 personal fouls against the Magic Thursday.
The facility includes two full-size courts overlooked by an elevated viewing balcony. To take advantage of Orlando's warm climate, the design and style incorporates covered exterior patios and decks, a creatively landscaped outside group space and indoor/outdoor training space. The facility also consists of front workplace and hospitality spaces that celebrate the Orlando Magic's brand and history. The Magic's portion of the center is designed to optimize performance and provide globe-class recovery space. The facility also involves two complete-size courts overlooked by an elevated viewing balcony.
Tags: sports
The Advantages Of Jason Statham
Los Angeles Dodgers – Your Perspective
Youth At Danger: Oxford Bibliographies On The Web Analysis Guide Oxford University Press
Next Means To Win Big At 3-card Texas Hold'em Sofia Information Firm
Previous The Truth About chandelier


text:
Ode to The Naughty Boy
, Inspiring Badassery
Are any of you old enough to remember the original Fisher Price 'Little People'? Like most vintage toys, they were far superior to the more modern versions because they were Real. Now I'm all for being politically correct when it comes to treating people with respect and kindness, but I will admit that sometimes PC can go too far.
By the time my kids were playing with the Little People, they had distinct personalities–they may have even had names…who can remember that far back? But the brilliant thing about the old-school peeps is that they let us give them their personalities. We actually got to use our imaginations. And they weren't all–gasp!–happy.
Take the Naughty Boy, for example. At least that what I've always called him. Even as a child I was fascinated by this less-than-perfect character with his orange cap, freckles, and prominent scowl. You mean, someone was actually allowed to be angry? Permanently?? This just was not an acceptable emotion back in the 70's, and honestly, even though we are told now to embrace our various emotions, let's face it–people around us get pretty darn uncomfortable when we are feeling anything but peachy keen.
My now 20-something daughter is so aware of my sentimental memories of the Naughty Boy that she gifted one to me last year. He sits on my bookshelf near a photo of me in my Hollywood band days, reminding me how the love of the Naughty Boy followed me through most of my young life.
Man, pretty much every guy I dated back in those days could have had that moniker. Sure, they all had long hair instead of the cap, along with guy-liner and lipstick instead of the freckles…but they were Bad. Oh, many of them were nice enough to me, until they weren't. These boys with the various names of Roach, Bumper, and Schitzo were only interested in themselves, and only wanted arm candy with no goals of their own except to make enough money to buy them drinks and guitars. To be fair, most of us at that age are pretty self-absorbed; but back then I really had the knack of finding the boys that were not good for me at all.
Me onstage, surrounded by Naughty Boys in all their lipstick, guyliner glory.
From talking to many women over the years, I know that I am not alone in this. Why are so many of us drawn to the Naughty Boys?
I wonder if it goes back to being enamored with the guts that the toy had to be anything but perfect? I wanted to be that Little People boy, who wasn't told to 'smile' on the days I didn't feel like it, who didn't feel that I had to be what others expected of me, to always 'fit in' so that they would like me. I wanted to be a rebel, an unconventional, I wanted to break out of the mold that was made for me.
The grown up Naughty Boys didn't care about any expectations of others…they did whatever they damn well pleased and looked out for Number One. I tried so damn hard to wear that 'Bitch' exterior; to look tough and uncaring, nothing could touch me. But it just wasn't who I was. No matter how much I had those people around me, it never rubbed off.
Of course in a healthy world, those are NOT the people we want around us, and that's not really who I ever wanted to be. I know now that I just wanted to be allowed to be my true self, and not worry that people would run away screaming if they saw that.
When we are told what to be as a young person–perfect, with nothing but happy emotions, always confident and sure of yourself–why wouldn't we worry that if we are anything less, on any given day, that we will never be accepted??
I am thankful that at some point in my life, when I met my husband, I had matured enough to know what I really wanted. That I stopped trying to be who I wasn't and therefore was ready to accept a man, not a boy, who welcomed a girl who wore her heart on her sleeve, was goofy and silly, and was and still is practically imperfect in every way.
Me and my Forever Not-Naughty Boy. That's pretty much me.
Because that's it, isn't it? Sometimes we're happy, sometimes we're ridiculous, sometimes we're angry and sad. That's who we all are, unless we're psychopaths. Much of this wisdom comes with age and experience, but it also comes from self-acceptance and the acceptance of others with their imperfect ways.
So. Today is my Ode to the Naughty Boy. As frustrating the real-life ones were to me, they taught me a lot about myself, and I wouldn't be who I am today without them. And I'm just as thankful that I'm not hanging out on the Sunset Strip with them anymore. Kissing a boy that wears more lipstick than you do gets really messy.
PrevPreviousGiving Myself a Nap
NextFrom Naughty Boys to Dirty BarbiesNext


text:
//
//  CBLEncryptionController.h
//  Couchbase Lite
//
//  Created by Jens Alfke on 2/13/15.
//  Copyright (c) 2015 Couchbase. All rights reserved.
//

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
@class CBLManager, CBLDatabase, UIViewController;

/** A completion routine invoked by -[EncryptionController openDatabaseAsync:].
    @param db  The Couchbase Lite database, or nil if it was not opened.
    @param error  The error, or nil if none. (If db and error are both nil, the user canceled.) */
typedef void(^CBLEncryptionControllerCompletion)(CBLDatabase* db, NSError* error);

/** Creates or opens an encrypted Couchbase Lite database, including all needed user interaction. (Note: database encryption is supported only if you build your app with SQLCipher, instead of
    the system-supplied libSQLite.dylib.)
    Due to the need for user interaction, the API is asynchronous.
    * If the database does not exist, the user will be prompted to make up a password, and the
      database will be created and encrypted with that password.
    * If the database already exists and is not encrypted, it's opened immediately.
    * If the database already exists, and is encrypted, the user will be prompted to enter the
      password. An arbitrary number of retries are allowed, but only at two-second intervals.
    * If the device supports Touch ID, password entry is skipped in favor of storing a
      raw key (256 random bits) in a Keychain entry protected (encrypted) by Touch ID. The user
      will be prompted to to authenticate via Touch ID when opening the database.
    The password entry UI is localizable (see comments in the source code) but pretty minimal, using
    UIAlertController. It can be replaced entirely by overriding -askForPasswordWithPrompt:. */
@interface CBLEncryptionController : NSObject

/** Returns YES if Touch ID authentication is available on the current device. */
+ (BOOL) isTouchIDAvailable;

/** Creates a controller that will open (or create) a named database.
    @param manager  The CBLManager instance to use.
    @param dbName  The name of the database to open. */
- (instancetype) initWithManager: (CBLManager*)manager
                    databaseName: (NSString*)dbName    NS_DESIGNATED_INITIALIZER;

/** Creates a controller that will open (or create) a named database in the default CBLManager.
    @param dbName  The name of the database to open. */
- (instancetype) initWithDatabaseName: (NSString*)dbName;

- (instancetype) init NS_UNAVAILABLE;

@property (readonly) NSString* databaseName;

/** The UIViewController to present password alerts on top of.
    If this is not set, password-based authentication will fail. */
@property UIViewController* parentController;

/** Should Touch ID authentication be used instead of a user-supplied password?
    Defaults to YES if Touch ID is available, but can be set to NO if you explicitly don't want to
    use it.
    Setting this property to YES is pointless (it will not cause your iPhone to grow a
    Touch ID sensor!)
    Setting it to NO is discouraged unless you are _very_ paranoid about security. Touch ID
    verification is hackable, but requires specialized techniques like acquiring fingerprints and
    making silicone replicas of them. In practice TouchID is going to provide stronger security
    than the sort of weak passcode a user will end up using on a mobile app. */
@property BOOL useTouchID;

/** Begins the process of opening a database. When the database has been opened, or an error has
    occurred, the completion block will be invoked on the main thread.
    The completion block might be called before this method returns (instead of asynchronously).
    This happens if the database is unencrypted, if the encryption key has already been registered,
    or if the password UI can't be presented because there's no parentController. */
- (void) openDatabaseAsync: (CBLEncryptionControllerCompletion)completion;

@end

/** Modes in which the EncryptionController's password UI is displayed.
    (Not needed by clients, only subclassers who want to replace/alter the UI.) */
typedef enum : uint8_t {
    CBLPasswordPromptEnterPassword,          ///< Initial prompt to enter existing password
    CBLPasswordPromptReEnterPassword,        ///< Password was incorrect; re-enter it
    CBLPasswordPromptCreatePassword,         ///< Initial prompt to create new password
    CBLPasswordPromptCreatePasswordTooShort, ///< New password was too short (< 6 chars)
    CBLPasswordPromptCreatePasswordMismatch, ///< New password didn't match in both textfields
    CBLPasswordPromptTouchID                 ///< Used only by Touch ID UI, not for passwords
} CBLPasswordPrompt;

/** Methods for subclasses to call/override, in order to replace the password UI. */
@interface CBLEncryptionController (Protected)

/** Prompts the user to enter a password; either a new password to protect a database with, or
    the password to open an existing database. Afterwards, it calls -completedWithKey:orError:.
    The default implementation uses UIAlertController; you can override it to present a custom
    UI.
    @param prompt  The type of password entry to prompt for.
    @param outError  On return, set to the error that prevented the UI from being presented.
    @return YES if the UI will be presented, NO if for some reason it can't be presented. */
- (BOOL) askForPasswordWithPrompt: (CBLPasswordPrompt)prompt
                            error: (NSError**)outError;

/** Called after a password has been entered by the user. Should be called from an overridden
    -askForPasswordWithPrompt: method, but you probably don't need to override this
    method itself.
    @param keyOrPassword  The password (as an NSString*) or raw key (as NSData*), or nil if
        password entry failed.
    @param error  The error that caused password entry to fail. As a special case, when both
        keyOrPassword and error are nil, it means that the user canceled. */
- (void) completedWithKey: (id)keyOrPassword orError: (NSError*)error;

@end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Our final Educator Preview of the year saw 75 primary and secondary school educators join us for a customised tour around S.E.A. Aquarium and The Maritime Experiential Museum to better understand both attractions and the educational programmes available.
The educators first had a whistle-stop tour of the basement of The Maritime Experiential Museum to look at the different Ports of Call.
They were then brought on a customised tour around S.E.A. Aquarium by members of the Education Team.
The tour consisted of stops at various learning stations (e.g. Hard Corals, Sea Jellies) covered in our educational programmes, where the Education Team talked about the main learning takeaways for students.
The educators got to meet some of the aquarium's newest residents, such as the Vampire Fish and Elephant Fish. Here, they were introduced to the Vampire Fish.
Following the tour, they were brought to the back-of-house of Shark Seas, where a member of the Curatorial Team explained more about caring for our sharks.
Aquarist Khew Wai shared about the different types of feeding methods, and the unique features about each shark species. He also shared about the equipment (e.g. SCUBA gear, chainmail suit) that they use when diving into the habitat to clean or feed.
After an exciting morning, the educators were led to Rock Studio at Hard Rock Hotel for a tea break. Next, the Conservation Team introduced S.E.A. Aquarium's conservation group, Guardians of the S.E.A.A..
Yan Fang from our Conservation Team spoke about the group's conservation efforts both within the resort and with various members of the community. Guardians of the S.E.A.A. also welcomes the involvement of school groups at their annual beach cleanups.
Gavin from our Education Team then shared about the various educational programmes available at The Maritime Experiential Museum and S.E.A. Aquarium.
The preview concluded with a learning journey to the Trick Eye Museum, where educators had fun learning about 3-dimensional illusions.
Learn more about Guardians of the S.E.A.A.
For the latest updates on Educator related programmes and events, including upcoming Educator Previews, sign up for our Education Newsletter.


Hi, my name is Demitra Shade and I am the owner of Top Notch Taekwondo . When I was a child, I began my martial arts journey and the positive impact it had on my life was remarkable. It was always my dream to someday own my own school, and when I opened Top Notch Taekwondo , I made a commitment to our communities in Southaven and Hernando to create an enjoyable environment for students to improve their fitness while building confidence they can carry into their everyday lives.
Our children's martial arts program creates leaders. We do this by teaching the same values you teach at home. Our adult program is second to none. From traditional martial arts to more modern self-defense styles, there is something for everyone at Top Notch Taekwondo . If you are looking to burn major calories, learn self-defense moves and get in the best shape of your life, you must come and check out our program.
The Lil' Firecrackers program is specially designed for children ages 3 to 6. It helps to improve children's focus and listening skills, self-esteem, and gross motor skills. Students learn self-discipline in a fun, structured program that helps build self-control, balance, fitness and flexibility.
My oldest child, who has ADHD among a few other things, has been at Top Notch Taekwondo for 4 years. He has been on the honor Top Notch Taekwondo has helped me with a weight loss of over 130lbs this far! The instructors are attentive to the children. Adults work at their pace, but if I need some help they are always happy to help. Overall, the positive, family type atmosphere from Top Notch Taekwondo is great. I've made some great friends there, both younger and older, have never felt embarrassed about myself, and recommend this dojo to anyone.


text:
<?php

namespace TractorCow\Fluent\Middleware;

use SilverStripe\Control\Cookie;
use SilverStripe\Control\Director;
use SilverStripe\Control\HTTPRequest;
use SilverStripe\Control\Middleware\HTTPMiddleware;
use SilverStripe\Control\Session;
use SilverStripe\Core\Config\Configurable;
use SilverStripe\Core\Injector\Injector;
use SilverStripe\i18n\i18n;
use SilverStripe\Security\Member;
use SilverStripe\Security\Security;
use TractorCow\Fluent\Extension\FluentDirectorExtension;
use TractorCow\Fluent\Extension\FluentMemberExtension;
use TractorCow\Fluent\Model\Domain;
use TractorCow\Fluent\Model\Locale;
use TractorCow\Fluent\State\FluentState;
use TractorCow\Fluent\State\LocaleDetector;

/**
 * DetectLocaleMiddleware will detect if a locale has been requested (or is default) and is not the current
 * locale, and will redirect the user to that locale if needed.
 * Will cascade through different checks in order, see "configuration" docs for details.
 * Additionally, detected locales will be set in session and cookies.
 */
class DetectLocaleMiddleware implements HTTPMiddleware
{
    use Configurable;

    /**
     * IDs to persist the locale in cookies / session in the front end, CMS, etc
     *
     * @config
     * @var string[]
     */
    private static $persist_ids = [
        'frontend' => 'FluentLocale',
        'cms'      => 'FluentLocale_CMS',
    ];

    /**
     * Use cookies for locale persistence.
     * Caution: This can make it hard to activate HTTP caching,
     * since many HTTP proxies (e.g. CDNs) won't cache with cookies.
     *
     * @config
     * @var bool
     */
    private static $persist_cookie = true;

    /**
     * The expiry time in days for a locale persistence cookie
     *
     * @config
     * @var int
     */
    private static $persist_cookie_expiry = 90;

    /**
     * Use this path when setting the locale cookie
     *
     * @config
     * @var string
     */
    private static $persist_cookie_path = null;

    /**
     * Use this domain when setting the locale cookie
     *
     * @config
     * @var string
     */
    private static $persist_cookie_domain = null;

    /**
     * Use http-only cookies. Set to false if you need js access.
     *
     * @config
     * @var bool
     */
    private static $persist_cookie_http_only = true;

    /**
     * Whether cookies have already been set during {@link setPersistLocale()}
     *
     * @var bool
     */
    protected $cookiesPersisted = false;

    /**
     * Sets the current locale to the FluentState, provided no previous middleware has set it first
     *
     * {@inheritDoc}
     */
    public function process(HTTPRequest $request, callable $delegate)
    {
        return FluentState::singleton()
            ->withState(function ($state) use ($delegate, $request) {
                $locale = $state->getLocale();

                if (!$locale) {
                    $locale = $this->getLocale($request);
                    $state->setLocale($locale);
                }

                // Validate the user is allowed to access this locale
                $this->validateAllowedLocale($state);

                if ($locale && $state->getIsFrontend()) {
                    i18n::set_locale($state->getLocale());
                }

                // Persist the current locale if it has a value.
                // Distinguishes null from empty strings in order to unset locales.
                $newLocale = $state->getLocale();
                if (!is_null($newLocale)) {
                    $this->setPersistLocale($request, $newLocale);
                }

                return $delegate($request);
            });
    }

    /**
     * Get the current locale from routing parameters, persistence, browser locale, etc
     *
     * @param HTTPRequest $request
     * @return string
     */
    protected function getLocale(HTTPRequest $request)
    {
        // Check direct request from either routing params, or request (e.g. GET) vars, in that order
        $locale = $this->getParamLocale($request);

        // Check against domain (non-ambiguous locale only)
        if (empty($locale)) {
            $locale = $this->getDomainLocale();
        }

        // Look for persisted locale
        if (empty($locale)) {
            $locale = $this->getPersistLocale($request);
        }

        // Use locale detector (if configured)
        if (empty($locale)) {
            $locale = $this->getDetectedLocale($request);
        }

        // Fallback to default if empty or invalid
        if (empty($locale) || !Locale::getByLocale($locale)) {
            $locale = $this->getDefaultLocale();
        }

        return (string)$locale;
    }

    /**
     * Gets the locale currently set within either the session or cookie.
     *
     * @param HTTPRequest $request
     * @return null|string The locale, if available
     */
    protected function getPersistLocale(HTTPRequest $request)
    {
        $key = $this->getPersistKey();

        // Skip persist if key is unset
        if (empty($key)) {
            return null;
        }

        // check session then cookies
        $session = $request->getSession();
        if ($session->isStarted() && ($locale = $session->get($key))) {
            return $locale;
        }

        if (static::config()->get('persist_cookie') && ($locale = Cookie::get($key))) {
            return $locale;
        }

        return null;
    }

    /**
     * Specify the locale to persist between sessions, or to use for the locale outside of locale-routed pages
     * (such as in unit tests, custom controllers, etc).
     *
     * Not to be confused with the temporary locale assigned with {@link withLocale()}. @param HTTPRequest $request
     * @param string $locale Locale to assign
     * @return $this
     * @todo implement this.
     *
     */
    protected function setPersistLocale(HTTPRequest $request, $locale)
    {
        $key = $this->getPersistKey();

        // Skip persist if key is unset
        if (empty($key)) {
            return $this;
        }

        // Save locale
        $session = $request->getSession();
        if ($session->isStarted() && $session->getAll()) {
            if ($locale) {
                $session->set($key, $locale);
            } else {
                $session->clear($key);
            }
        }

        // Don't set cookie if headers already sent
        if (static::config()->get('persist_cookie') && !headers_sent()) {
            // Use secure cookies if session does
            $secure = Director::is_https($request)
                && Session::config()->get('cookie_secure');
            Cookie::set(
                $key,
                $locale,
                static::config()->get('persist_cookie_expiry'),
                static::config()->get('persist_cookie_path'),
                static::config()->get('persist_cookie_domain'),
                $secure,
                static::config()->get('persist_cookie_http_only')
            );
        }

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Get the Fluent locale persistence key. See the "persist_ids" config static.
     *
     * @return string
     */
    protected function getPersistKey()
    {
        $persistIds = static::config()->get('persist_ids');
        return FluentState::singleton()->getIsFrontend()
            ? $persistIds['frontend']
            : $persistIds['cms'];
    }

    /**
     * Get locale from the query_param
     *
     * @param HTTPRequest $request
     * @return mixed
     */
    protected function getParamLocale(HTTPRequest $request)
    {
        $queryParam = FluentDirectorExtension::config()->get('query_param');
        $locale = (string)($request->param($queryParam) ?: $request->requestVar($queryParam));
        return $locale;
    }

    /**
     * Get locale from the domain, if the current domain has exactly one locale
     *
     * @return string
     */
    protected function getDomainLocale()
    {
        $state = FluentState::singleton();

        // Ensure a domain is configured
        if (!$state->getIsDomainMode()) {
            return null;
        }
        $domain = $state->getDomain();
        if (!$domain) {
            return null;
        }

        // Get domain
        $domainObj = Domain::getByDomain($domain);
        if (!$domainObj) {
            return null;
        }

        // If the current domain has exactly one locale, the locale is non-ambiguous
        $locales = Locale::getCached()->filter('DomainID', $domainObj->ID);
        if ($locales->count() == 1) {
            /** @var Locale $localeObject */
            $localeObject = $locales->first();
            if ($localeObject) {
                return $localeObject->getLocale();
            }
        }

        return null;
    }

    /**
     * Use the configured LocaleDetector to guess the locale
     *
     * @param HTTPRequest $request
     * @return string
     */
    protected function getDetectedLocale(HTTPRequest $request)
    {
        // Only detect on home page (landing page)
        if ($request->getURL() !== '') {
            return null;
        }
        // Respect config disable
        if (!FluentDirectorExtension::config()->get('detect_locale')) {
            return null;
        }

        /** @var LocaleDetector $detector */
        $detector = Injector::inst()->get(LocaleDetector::class);
        $localeObj = $detector->detectLocale($request);
        if ($localeObj) {
            return $localeObj->getLocale();
        }
        return null;
    }

    /**
     * Get default locale
     *
     * @return string
     */
    protected function getDefaultLocale()
    {
        // Get default from current domain
        $localeObj = Locale::getDefault(true);
        if ($localeObj) {
            return $localeObj->Locale;
        }

        return null;
    }

    /**
     * Check if the current user is allowed to access the curernt locale
     *
     * @param FluentState $state
     */
    protected function validateAllowedLocale(FluentState $state)
    {
        if ($state->getIsFrontend()) {
            return;
        }

        /** @var Member|FluentMemberExtension $member */
        $member = Security::getCurrentUser();
        if (!$member) {
            return;
        }

        // If limited to one or more locales, check that the current locale is in
        // this list
        $allowedLocales = $member->getCMSAccessLocales();
        /** @var Locale $firstAllowedLocale */
        $firstAllowedLocale = $allowedLocales->first();
        if ($firstAllowedLocale && !$allowedLocales->find('Locale', $state->getLocale())) {
            // Force state to the first allowed locale
            $state->setLocale($firstAllowedLocale->Locale);
        }
    }
}


Hello, my name is Fran, I am 25 year old, nice, kind, caring, funny and responsible. I wish I could help you ,and offer you my service. I love children, teach them things, play with them and especially sports. Also I love reading as well as movies. I would love to be with you about a year to improve my English. I love meeting new cultures. I am currently study in Social Education, my only down side is that I need two weeks this year to do my exams in London .I am open to more possibilities to work whatever it is. I just want to improve my English, open my mind and develop.


text:
Fit4D Changes Name to Cecelia Health and Expands Mission Beyond Diabetes
The new name reflects the company's growing mission to transform the lives and health outcomes of people living with diabetes and other chronic diseases by scaling personalized expert coaching and behavior change through the use of technology.
NEW YORK (PRWEB) January 07, 2019
Fit4D Inc., a leading technology-enabled diabetes and chronic disease management company based in New York City, announced today at the 2019 Startup Health Festival that it has changed its name to Cecelia Health. This new company name reflects the company's mission to transform the lives and health outcomes of people living with diabetes and related chronic diseases, and leverage Cecelia Health's unique data-driven insights gained from its personalized coaching platform to optimize health outcomes at an affordable cost.
The new name honors the legacy of a Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE) named Cecelia who transformed the life of CEO David Weingard when he was first diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 36. Cecelia inspired him to start a company that provides the same type of expert personalized clinical education, guidance and coaching that David received to all other patients living with diabetes and other chronic conditions.
"Despite having the resources and education to potentially navigate this life changing condition, I realized that I had no idea where to even start." says founder, David Weingard. "It was clear that everyone diagnosed with diabetes needs a Cecelia."
With over 30 million people in the U.S. and 450 million around the world living with this chronic disease, the opportunity to scale David's one-on-one CDE experience presented an exciting opportunity for innovation. Cecelia Health's use of proprietary technology, data and insights scales the personal clinician coach to improve population health and quality measures for members of health plans and ACOs, medication and device initiation and persistence for patients of pharmaceutical and medical device companies, and health and productivity for employees of self-insured employers. Cecelia Health will further the company's capabilities to drive these client goals for optimizing health outcomes by expanding its proprietary technology platform and leveraging the data and insights it has gained from hundreds of thousands of patient interactions.
"We were an early partner of Cecelia Health and have worked together with it for several years to scale and improve the health and well-being of our members. Based on the success we've seen with our members, we're now working with Cecelia Health to offer its services to Healthfirst employees," said Jay Schechtman, Chief Clinical Officer, Healthfirst. "We're looking forward to continuing to work with Cecelia Health to innovate and identify opportunities to benefit from the expansion of its mission."
A new milestone for Cecelia Health in 2019 will also include a new partnership with the Helmsley Trust and the Jaeb Center for Health Research Foundation. "I have been impressed by Cecelia Health's scaled technology coaching model and its use of data-driven insights gained from coaching diabetes patients to help drive our initiative," said Dr. Roy Beck, Executive Director of the Jaeb Center for Health Research Foundation. "We recently partnered with Cecilia Health and the Helmsley Charitable Trust to improve the health of people with diabetes using insulin via the scaled initiation, persistency and interpretation of data for patients using continuous glucose monitor (CGM) devices. This innovative model for access to devices, coaching and data at scale has the potential to transform the landscape for treating diabetes and related conditions."
"This is an extremely emotional moment for me," said Founder and CEO, David Weingard. "Cecelia transformed my life after I was first diagnosed with diabetes and naming the company in her honor reinforces our commitment to provide the same personalized support and deep compassion that she provided me to members, patients and employees of our clients. Cecelia has since passed, but it is incredibly gratifying to showcase her passion for patient care now transforming the lives of hundreds of thousands of people."
About Cecelia Health - (Formerly Fit4D)
Cecelia Health's moonshot mission is to positively transform the lives of people living with diabetes and related chronic disease states.
For health plans and ACOs seeking to improve quality measures, and for pharmaceutical and medical device companies seeking to improve adherence, Cecelia Health is a diabetes and related chronic condition coaching solution that enables Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE) and other expert clinicians to scale their reach and deliver effective, personalized, one-on-one care.
Unlike technology only applications or call centers, Cecelia Health optimizes the mix between expert clinicians and technology and unique data-driven insights to cost-effectively deliver measurable outcomes.
Cecelia Health has also engaged in numerous joint initiatives with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, American Diabetes Association, the Diabetes Research Institute and the American Association of Diabetes Educators. For more information visit http://www.ceceliahealth.com.
Fabiana Rea
Cecelia Health
@Fit4D
Fit4D


March 1: Louis the Pious was restored as Holy Roman Emperor in 834.
March 2: Dirk VI becomes count of Holland in 1121.
March 3: Dutch theologian Gijsbert Voet was born in 1589.
March 4: Saint Adrian of Nicomedia was martyred in 306.
March 5: David II of Scotland was born in 1324.
March 6: Ferdinand Magellan arrives in Guam in 1521.
March 7: Emperor Constantine declares Sunday a day of rest i n321.
March 8: Urraca of León and Castile died in 1126.
March 9: Saint Frances of Rome died in 1440.
March 10: Agnes Blannbekin, Austrian mystic, died in 1315.
March 11: Marie de France, Countess of Champagne, died in 1198.
March 12: Cesare Borgia died in 1507.
March 13: The bones of St Nicephorus were interred in Constantinople in 874.
March 14: Catherine Cornaro, queen of Cyprus, sold Cyrpus to Venice in 1489.
March 15: On this day in 44BC, Julius Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March.
March 16: On this day in 1485, Anne Neville, queen consort of England, died.
March 17: The feast of Saint Patrick.
March 18: Edward the Martyr, king of the English, died in 978.
March 19: Alexander III of Scotland died in 1286.
March 20: Cecily of York, daughter of Edward IV, was born in 1469.
March 21: St. Angela Merici was born in 1474.
March 22: Ferdinand II commissioned Amerigo Vespucci in 1508.
March 23: Margaret d'Anjou was born in 1430.
March 24: Harun al-Rashid died in 809.
March 25: Blanche of Lancaster was born in 1345.
March 26: Conrad II was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 1027.
March 27: Rachel Akerman, Austrian poet, was born in 1522.
March 28: Saint Theresa of Ávila was born in 1515.
March 29: Arthur I of Brittany was born in 1187.
March 30: Saint Quirinus of Neuss died in 116.
March 31: Francis I of France died in 1547.
The name was never common, but it was used in England, particularly in areas with strong Welsh and Breton connections; Reaney & Wilson s.n. Kay mention one Britius filius Kay from 1199.
It is not clear to what extent the relationship between Kay/Cai/Keu etc. and Gaius/Caius was recognized medievally — i.e., the extent to which occurrences of Gaius can be taken as examples of the influence of Arthurian legends. In fact, the extent is probably very minimal, especially given other more likely routes to the name, such as the various minor New Testament characters, saints, or popes. In Italy — which is where our current single example comes from — the influence of Julius Caesar, Pliny the Elder, and Tacitus, all of whose praenomina were Gaius on the Renaissance likely contributed to the use of the name more than the Arthurian character.
We kick off this month's topical discussion with a consideration of the name of the person without whom we wouldn't have this topic: Arthur himself. Without Arthur, no Arthurian literature, no Arthurian names, no interesting patterns of adoptions of these names.
Origin: The origin of the name is uncertain, but it is perhaps derived to Old Breton arth, from Proto-Celtic *artos, in turn related to Greek ἄρκτος 'bear'; certainly the name was later associated with this word retrospectively. An alternative origin which has been suggested is the Roman gens Ar(c)torius; if this is correct, Arthur would not be the only Roman name 'naturalized' into a Welsh or Celtic context. Other Arthurian names of ultimately Roman origin are the name of Arthur's seneschal Kai or Cai (from Gaius, also spelled Caius) and Emrys (from Ambrosius).
The earliest recorded example of the name Arthur occurs (as Arturius) in Adamnan's life of St. Columba, where it is the name of an Irish prince killed in 596; the earliest mention of King Arthur is in Nennius (fl. 796).
In England, the name shows up used by ordinary people in Domesday Book, and while "never very common, Arthur is most often found, in the Middle Ages, in counties bordering on Celtic districts, Cumberland, Yorkshire, Somerset, for example" (Withycombe). The Celtic connection shows up again in the use of the name across the channel in Brittany, where Arthur Duke of Brittany, the nephew of King John, had a Breton mother; and never forget that Henry VII's elder son Arthur Tudor was a Welshman.
Our examples in England are primarily from the 16th C, with one lone 12th C Latinization. The name was Latinized both Art(h)urus and Art(h)us, with the latter spelling influencing the Italian form Artusio. We also have examples from France and Scotland, and, in unprocessed data, we have the unusual spelling Aearthur in Wales in 1204. The name spread beyond the core center of Britonic influence: In unprocessed data we also have one 16th C Portuguese example of Artur. Perhaps most interesting is the single example of Arthuze we have (also in unprocessed data), from France in 1549. This is a feminine name, derived from Arthus following standard French methods of feminization.
One of the highlights of the onomastic year — whether you're a medievalist or not — is when the US Social Security's baby name data for the previous year is published. A perusal of the lists is always good for an evening of laughs, but also as an insight into the contemporary psyche as evidence by what people name their children after. Perhaps one of the most indicative of patterns is the importation of names from popular culture — movies, TV shows, books, etc. What is particularly interesting is not the phenomenon itself, but just how old that phenomenon is: People have been naming their children after literary figures for millennia. We see this with the popularity in England of the Biblical names that show up in the mystery plays, we see it in the 16th C with the revival of names from classical mythology, and we see it especially with the perennial popularity of names from the Arthurian cycles.
And that is going to be our focus this month: We'll take a tour through Arthuriana from the most well-known names to some of the least, looking at their origin and their patterns of usage. First up: Arthur himself.
December 1: Anna Komnene was born in 1083.
December 2: Gerard Mercator died in 1594.
December 3: Berengar I was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 915.
December 4: Theobald II of Navarre died in 1270.
December 5: Pope Julius II was born in 1443.
December 6: Baldassare Castiglione was born in 1478.
December 7: Saint Columba was born in 521.
December 8: Mary Queen of Scots was born in 1542.
December 9: Malcolm IV of Scotland died in 1165.
December 10: Afonso de Albuquerque conquered Goa in 1510.
December 11: Llywellyn, last sovereign Prince of Wales, died in battle in 1282.
December 12: Stephen Báthory, king of Poland, died in 1586.
December 13: Pope Celestine V resigns the papacy in 1294.
December 14: James V of Scotland died in 1542.
December 15: Basil II, emperor of the Byzantine Empire, died in 1025.
December 16: Henry VI was crowned king of France in 1431.
December 17: William I Longsword was assassinated in 942.
December 18: Theodulf of Orleans died in 821.
December 19: Agnes, Duchess of Burgundy, died in 1327.
December 20: Margaret of Provence, queen of France, died in 1295.
December 21: Pope Honorius II was elected in 1124.
December 22: Stephen of Blois was crowned king of England in 1135.
December 23: Berengaria of Navarre, Queen of England, died in 1230.
December 24: Constance of Austria, queen of Poland, was born in 1588.
December 26: Arthur III of Brittany died in 1458.
December 27: German mathematician Johannes Kepler was born in 1571.
December 28: Alaric II became king of the Visigoths in 484.
December 29: Thomas Beckett was murdered in 1170.
December 30: Vasily I of Moscow was born in 1371.
December 31: Eleonora Gonzaga was born in 1493.