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Steven Rubino
July 5: Today on TownHall Samuel Hill, Director of Product Marketing at Medigate speaks with Steven Rubino, former Biomedical Engineer and Project Manager at Scripps Health about the importance of collaboration between Biomedical Engineers and IT Departments to improve care. Then, Samuel and Steven run through the top 7 myths and misconceptions about medical devices and cybersecurity. What has changed over the course of Steven's career as a Biomedical Engineer? Why does he believe Biomedical Engineers should be at the table for discussions on cybersecurity?
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Today on This Week Health.
The IT department usually sits in our offices. They've got PC techs that run around and network guys and stuff. But the reality is the biomed team is at the bedside. They're in the departments. They see everything every day and when something new arrives, they're equipped to go "Hey, wait a minute."
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Hey welcome everybody. To another episode of this week health town hall. My name is Samuel Hill. The director of product marketing at mitigate by clarity. Today I'm joined by a very special guest one who is truly an expert in his field. Steve Rubino, formerly of Scripps health. He's now retired and has been a good friend of the medicate by clarity family.
And I wanted to lean on his expertise. He spent 20 years as an army, biomedical technician and engineer, and the last 27 years of his career working at Scripps health as a lead biomedical engineer. And I think he finished his career doing project management planning for all of the device, life cycling and expansion.
That scripts has been going through down there in San Diego. So Steve, good to see you. Thanks for joining us from the beach there in San.
Thank you, Samuel. Let's it's warm out here. So the beach is appropriate.
I can imagine, I can imagine not many more beautiful places than the beach in San Diego, but Steve, I wanted to talk to you about kind of the critical role that biomedicine, biomedical engineering plays in cybersecurity of these devices.
As we all know, there's so many devices that float around hospitals, each of them are unique and they all kind of bring a risk. With their connection. While at the same time, they're also doing a great job of caring for our patients. And so thanks for being here to share this knowledge with us.
Hey, my, my pleasure this is near and dear to my heart.
There are a lot of things that have gone on recently and while I can't get into 'em and everything, I hope to be able to share some information to the biomed community that will help them as they go forward in developing their cybersecurity program.
I know this is gonna be a fun conversation, we're gonna, as we get into it, we're gonna cover seven myths about medical devices and cybersecurity, know, seven things that are kind of commonly held to be true or believed by security professionals and hospitals by biomed professionals and hospitals that may not necessarily be true.
So I know we got a really fun list, but Steve, just from your perspective, You've been around and seen a few things. What has changed and become different over the course of your career as a biomedical engineer.
So in biomedical engineering, early in my career, it was always preventative maintenance and repair of equipment helping clinicians operate the equipment and provide a safe environment for the patients.
With the electronic medical record directive and having to integrate medical devices to the record, we now have to have our devices on the network, and that now puts us into an area that we now need to step forward and begin to become familiar with how the network works, how we protect our patient's health information.
And better yet. How do we continue to protect our patients? Should there be an adverse event that occurs via the internet and.
So the cybersecurity challenge of these devices has only been amplified, with more devices, connecting with the electronic medical records and all that interconnectedness that we're looking for really to make the lives of our frontline staff and of our patients and our communities easier.
And I remember something you told me a while ago was, originally. The biomedical engineers were the first network people in hospitals because these devices would come into the hospital and they would need to connect. And so really biomedical engineers were the first network technicians, if you will.
Yeah. If you look back into the the fifties and sixties patient monitoring, when it was developed they created their own network. It was all a closed network, but it was their own network. Their. Information it folks information services that was a department that was not created.
And so it was really left up to the biomeds and the manufacturers to develop. And then in the sixties slash seventies came wireless technology and everybody shaked their head, but that's what telemetry is. So we were responsible for being able to manage telemetry and all the issues that went on with that.
But little did we know that it would come this far into cybersecurity concerns as it is?
And I know that a lot of the work that you've done throughout your career has been, with the cybersecurity focus, where you've been able to help bridge that gap between biomed and the cybersecurity professionals that are, your peers across the organization.
What would you want folks in the biomed community and also in the security community to know about that relationship between those that manage and maintain and keep these devices operating, and those that are directly responsible for the security of the network and of the patient data.
It takes a community or a village, whatever you wish to say to protect our patient and our patient's data and not one group can do it.
The biomedical engineering team, they need to realize that they're responsible for medical devices and that the it individuals, they really don't have the qualifications to manage and support that equipment, but they can help in the support of the equipment the security team the security team.
We need them to alert us when there are events going on that we need to be aware of. And it's the three groups coming together supporting the clinicians. To make sure that everything is kept secure nowadays. And it's important to know you can't just do this job once a year. You have to do it virtually every day, every day, you need to be monitoring your network and your equipment.
There are things that come in even without your knowledge, and you've got to be able to be monitoring your network and know what's arriving and what's not.
It really is a kind of a holistic approach where, you know I think I've said this before, and I've said it numerous times where, biomedical engineering should be involved in the tabletop exercises that cybersecurity teams put together.
They should be involved in that they should have their plans put together. They should be thinking through and be involved in that process of preparing. I won't say it's the inevitability of a cyber attack or a breach or an incident. But unfortunately that might be the trajectory that we're on.
And so being in that thought process, I think is very important for a lot of biomedical engineers, because they bring such a unique level of expertise about these devices that are inherently risky to the hospital, the rest of the hospital staff. I don't know if you would agree with that, Steve, but what's your experience been about participating in the cybersecurity?
I'm going to take you down a pathway about how equipment comes in and why? I think the involvement of biomed is so crucial. you know, Sales reps walk into the, to the hospital and they get to the docks and they tell 'em, Hey, I've got a new widget and this widgets really fantastic, and this will do everything for you.
Now I'm not promoting service now, but we have a service now platform that we use for our it depart. And they we've actually got ourselves involved in what they call the idea ticket. A new product is coming in. And so they, somebody submits a clinician, submits a ticket saying, Hey, I wanna bring this piece of equipment in.
And there's a precursory review of that device to determine what inter departments within biomed and it and security that need to be involved in the review. Once that's passed and it's ready for an indepth review they do a technical review and that brings in the network people, the data, people, the cloud people, it brings security brings in everybody along with biomed.
So why does biomed need to be involved? Cause we're talking about the equipment and we're talking about the clinical aspects and its clinical functionality. So it's, we play a very crucial role in this and the clinical users generally are not going to be. And once that is, has gone through and all the questions are answered.
Then there is a design solution document that comes forward about how this medical device slash clinical system is going to be installed or implemented within your organization. And what is its integration to the different applications and how we're going to document or validate that everything is working correctly in here is probably areas that I know that bomb can play a really important role.
When a system is installed, we need the documents and we need to validate that the solution design the way that it's been approved to be put onto your network, that it is actually installed and implemented that way. You will be surprised that there will be times when a system is installed and it's not in line with the solution document. So biomed plays an important role. And then the final piece that they play a huge role as. This system is coming in. They're aware of it. They know what's going on and now they can begin to capture all the data about that system. And I'm not just talking about a manufacturer model and serial number.
I'm talking about it's operating system, the version of operating system, the antivirus I'm talking about it's port numbers, it's VLANs, and anything of that nature to make sure what is actually coming in and it's the right equipment being installed. The right.
Well, and you think about it too.
It's also biomedical engineers have the context of that device. They understand really in depth how that device is supposed to work, what it's to is supposed to be used for. And so if something does go wrong, if that is an attack surface area that is then breached or impacted by a cyber incident.
They're gonna be a wealth of knowledge about that device and the communication patterns. What's normal. What's not normal, the preventative maintenance history of that device the patch history. I mean all the different details that go along with that specific device that could help really either speed up the remediation of an attack or a threat or the forensic analysis of, Hey, what happened here so that we can avoid that mistake.
And I know Steve, we're gonna get into these top seven myths of about biomedical devices, about devices and device security. Other comments, any final thoughts that you wanted to share about why and how biomedical engineering, the whole, HTM, healthcare technology management professionals, how and why they shouldn't be involved in device cyber security.
Yeah. First of all share with the bomb, those that already have their programs, they know what I'm going to be saying now. You can no longer be an ostrich and hide your head in the sand. You've got to take and get involved. And that means. That you're gonna need to go get some training.
It helps to be net plus certified. A plus you probably are already there, but net plus, and you should at least have somebody in your shop. That's security plus certified also at Scripps health. We created a it network risk manager for medical devices and that position sits and buy on.
And that allowed us to come to the table with the it department. It took a long time to build relationships and it is gonna feel that they know everything about networks and computers and all that stuff and cybersecurity. But the reality is they don't know anything about medical equipment.
It's really important that we take and be there. The biomeds, they know more than they know about computers, but they're reluctant because for whatever reason, sometimes it's voodoo to 'em. I'm not sure why, but the reality is that they know a lot more than they give themselves credit for.
I do know that it's resource dependent mm-hmm and so therefore, whatever you can do to automate your processes, whatever you can do to help your system. Your CMMS take and capture this information. It will save you a lot of time and a lot of effort on your part. However, if you don't and you have a cyber event, I can tell you, you will spend an incredible amount of time weeks, if not months.
Having to go get information and you'll wish that you had captured all this information and could quickly provide it to your it department. And so, like I said, you have to get involved. The world is what it is nowadays, and it's not going backwards. So fix and break repair that's by the wayside.
It's now time to, to be involved in cyber.
And I think the other message for, security leaders and it leaders that are listening to this is feel free to engage those relationships with your biomedical peers or those folks, or have your teams connect share lunch, share meals, get to know each other because there's a wealth of knowledge about this really risky area of connected devices that, that group can provide.
So it's a very positive relationship.
I would offer this too. The it department usually sits in our offices. They've got PC techs that run around and network guys and stuff. But the reality is the biomed team is at the bedside. They're in the departments. They see everything every day and when something new arrives, they're equipped to go, Hey, wait a minute.
And if you've partnered with your biomed team, if your biomed team has partnered with you, Then they can quickly tell you something has come into the organization and it needs to be vetted quickly before it becomes an issue. And without that that relationship then you're really vulnerable to anything that occurs the loss of patient information.
Or it could be as easy as some service tech bringing in a USB stick to plug into his equipment. And next thing you know, your network's gone down cuz he's messed up your IP addressing or whatever happens.
Yeah. None of that's good news, but, okay. So Steve, we promised the people that we would cover seven top myths, things that are commonly held to believe or misconceptions, perhaps that may not they're widely held or generally accepted perhaps, but let's cover these myths real quick.
So I'm gonna read off the myth and I want you to respond to it. So the first myth that we have for the people today is that cybersecurity for medical devices is optional, true or false.
That is false. The cybersecurity is definitely a responsibility of, not only the FDA, but other manufacturers and healthcare delivery organizations.
So it's everybody's responsibility. Definitely an important role for everybody.
I know that myth comes to play because we're like, well, these devices weren't necessarily designed with cybersecurity in mind and that's true perhaps, but that doesn't relieve the responsibility of cybersecurity from many of the people that are responsible for it.
That's correct. There are federal regulations, but a lot of them put the onus on the manufacturer. For ensuring that his devices are meeting cybersecurity requirements that are put forth. But the reality is a lot of the devices go into many different environments many different types of organizations.
And so they can't cover all the bases. So it is not optional. It is a requirement as part of the regulations with the FDA.
Well, speaking of the FDA and the regulations, the second myth is that the FDA is the only federal government agency responsible for the cybersecurity of medical devices.
Is that true?
That is not true. Not true at all. In fact the department of Homeland security is as much responsible as well as the members of the private sector. And the manufacturers, so healthcare organizations. So no, that is not true.
And I know there's been, obviously there's an executive order that was just recently passed around cybersecurity and hospitals that pertains to medical devices both directly and tangentially, I think.
And there's a lot of work happening, but you're right. There's a lot of regulatory agencies, a lot of different bodies or authorities that are all offering. I hope their help and the guidance around medical device, cybersecurity.
I think if you consider the recent events that have gone on across the nation with ransomware there are a lot of healthcare organizations that are paying huge sums of money.
And that's caused everybody to really begin to look at this carefully. It, it does impact not only financially, but it does impact patient care.
Yeah. All right. Myth number three is that medical device manufacturers cannot update medical devices for cybersecurity reasons.
That is a false statement.
They can update their devices anytime that they feel they've got a risk and they should do that right away. Now they may send that update to the FDA, but it does not require FDA approval. They can update their equipment. Any time , that whatever they're doing to strengthen cybersecurity, they can do it at any time.
That goes back to the next bit that we'll talk about here is that the FDA is responsible for the validation of software changes made to address cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
No, the FDA is not another myth. The responsibility lies with the software design and changes. It lies with the manufacturer, the medical device manufacturer.
Yeah. So the ones that are making the device, they don't necessarily need to go get FDA approval. So if there's a vulnerability that's revealed about the device, they don't have to come up with a software patch, submit it for FDA approval, get through the regulatory hurdles that you know, are both necessary and also a pain in the butt.
But then go to market and say, okay, now the patch is available. They can patch the software vulnerability as soon as they can write a code that works and they can get that out to their devices in a reasonable way. Is that your understanding of it?
Yes. With the one added piece that not only do they write it, but they validate that right.
It is effective. Yes, that's correct.
All right. So the next myth is that healthcare delivery organizations cannot update or patch medical devices for cybersecurity.
That is a myth and I've heard this mentioned by several biomed. The reality is that you can update your operating system. You can update your antivirus.
The caveat is that if you're going to do that, you want to check with the manufacturer's device, the medical device manufacturer, and make sure that what you're doing is going to be appropriate for their their system. Now they may ask you not to do that till they validate. And so you need to take your steps to mitigate any risk at that time.
But most of the time you should be able to update that yourself unless there's a specific reason why the manufacturer says no. And I would offer this to you if you're out there and you're getting ready to buy equipment, that should be one of the questions that you're asking. The manufacturer is who's going to be doing the patching.
Who's gonna be doing the update. What can we do? And what can't we do that should be early on. You should know that right away and make sure that if you can do it, that you do it a lot of times an it department will put you into a lab where we can test the device to make sure that it's. you may pull a system that's currently not in use and you do your updates and then test it to make sure that it works correctly.
But no, you can take and do the updates. You can patch the equipment for cyber security for cyber security.
And I think that's an important piece to understand is that one of the best ways to lower attack service risk is by patching vulnerabilities. I mean, there's no if and or buts about it, whether it's a medical device or an it device or an IoT, any type of device that has a vulnerability patching that vulnerability is one of the best steps that we can take.
And now that may not be available or readily available, or even coming soon. But that's one of the things we have to be able to do. So if we can do it, if there's a patch that's there and we can get it installed. That's a pretty rapid step that we could take to make our entire environment safer. Would you.
Absolutely. And as I mentioned before for the biomed team, it's important that you try to find something that can help automate that process. Everybody knows that if you're gonna go out to XYZ manufacturer, determine if there are any updates or patches that need to occur, that can be a very painful process, but there are companies out there that do monitoring of equip.
Passively that allow you to know when there's a patch that needs to occur, an update that needs to occur, and they actually can help point you directly to the area that you need to get that patch or that update. And I think that's extremely important in going forward. So that, right away if you rely on the manufacturer to send you a notice, you could be months mm-hmm down the road before you actually get it.
The letter that comes from them may actually go to your administration and you may not get it until months, maybe even half a year down the road. And that's putting your organization at tremendous.
Yeah. So really the myth here is, hoping to help people take the action. Take the ownership of ensuring that devices are patched as much as is this physically or humanly possible?
I think would be the ideal state here. Okay. Here's one that I don't know if this is a hornet's nest or not Steve you, but the fact that, does the FDA test medical devices for cybersecurity reasons, do they perform those tests?
That is a terrible myth. No, they do not test it.
The FDA requires the manufacturer to do testing on their own for cybersecurity. And that's all supposed to be part of their pre-market testing for the medical devices when they send their documents forward to the FDA for approval. I have talked to the FDA. I won't mention her name. I've talked to a couple of 'em.
They're high up and they said, no, we don't have the resources to test. So we rely on the manufacturer and the fact that we're giving you the, these, this, these myths here. Sam, you can actually see these myths. And I don't know if you'll put that out there. This is actually a fact sheet that comes from the FDA.
So it's, it's not just Steve Rubino making these comments. This is the actual fact sheets coming from the manufacturer.
Well, we see that across. Yeah. We see that in other industries as well. I know a lot of like Boeing getting certified on the new airplane. They submit a lot of the testing to the FAA which the FAA does, they validate or they do their best, but you know, it's a resource constraint issue.
That's understandable. But no, the FDA does not specifically go to medical devices and test them for cybersecurity whether they should or should not. That's a question far above my pay grade, but I thought puts the onus back on. The individual hospital, the individual biomedical team, the individual security teams to make sure that their devices, that they're bringing in have a level of security that's commensurate with the amount of risk they wanna take,
and I would offer this to the audience and that's that Think about all the different environments, the different healthcare delivery organizations that are out there, and they all have their own different network type, their own different way. They do business and stuff. And for the FDA to sit there and try that to test for every environment is literally impossible.
So the best they could do is ask the manufacturer to do the most general. Process for validating, cybersecurity, realizing that the healthcare delivery organization, which will include your security team, your it, and your biomed, that they're gonna have to do their due diligence. They're gonna have to do their technical review to make sure that what they're getting ready to put onto their network is going to be safe and secure.
All right. The last myth we wanna share with the people today is that companies use manufacturer off the shelf software and medical devices. Those companies that are using off the shelf software and medical devices are responsible for validating the. The secure use of that software in their medical device.
So basically the way to say it would be a company makes a medical device, they're using a component software piece and their responsibility, where is their responsibility? Making sure that component software piece is secure and does not present risk to the hospital.
So in there, the manufacturer that is responsible for testing of any of the off the shelf software that they use and hardware that they use and making sure that it's secure for the healthcare delivery organizations one of the things that we are wanting to push.
Manufacturers to do is, to I call it a SBO, S B O N a software bill of materials that's embedded in their device or clinical systems. You're buying a CT scanner. It could have an iPad to operate. It can have an AP an access point. It could have specific off the shelf.
Communication within the system to send images and stuff forward. So there's a lot of stuff that goes on and I would like to, see them actually put that in our technical review. So we understand what off the shelf software is actually being used and we can track.
Well, I know that would've been a huge deal with the log for J recent thing log for J using the Apache struts undercarriage stuff.
The lot of, I mean, that's used almost everywhere, but so knowing which devices were affected by that having a software bill of materials, would've made that task a lot easier for a lot of it professionals. So you're saying the same thing on a medical device, and I'll join you in standing up and saying, we need.
The published S spam that need the published software bill of materials so that we can better understand the component parts of each of these medical devices. It better track the inherent risk from some of these parts, so we can make better decisions about em,
and think about if, if you have an attack, if you have a ransomware, an attack and they're using one of the off the shelf software.
That's in there. How do you go find it in your machines? Because if you don't know, it's there, it's impossible to find and you could be really vulnerable to something that wasn't patched or a an OTs software that is not highly secure. You could really be vulnerable. I'd really like to know about it before I buy the equipment.
And before I put it into my environ, I'd like to know exactly what's there and have it reviewed by my security team and have it reviewed by my it team to make sure that we're comfortable with what's going in, that we're in control of. I,
I may completely agree with you on that. The software bill materials is foundational to good security practice.
Being able to know what's actually there. Well, Steve I'm grateful for you sharing a little bit of this time with us. I know something we've talked about before the best healthcare is very holistic and involves a wide range of specialties and disciplines and people all coming together with the common goal.
And what I'm hearing you talk about today is that. Cybersecurity for these devices is also very holistic and comprehensive. It needs it, it needs security and it needs the biomedical engineers. And so I'm grateful for you sharing bit of the knowledge that you've experienced and accumulated over your very long and illustrious career with the folks listening today.
Hey, thank you very much. I enjoyed it. I hope it helps everybody.
I love this show. I love hearing from people on the front lines. I love hearing from these leaders and we want to thank our hosts who continue to support the community by developing this great content. We also want to thank our show sponsors Olive, Rubrik, Trellix, Medigate and F5 in partnership with Sirius Healthcare for investing in our mission to develop the next generation of health leaders. If you want to support the show, let someone know about our shows. They all start with This Week Health and you can find them wherever you listen to podcasts. Keynote, TownHall, Newsroom and Academy. Check them out today. And thanks for listening. That's all for now.
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text:
Минная стопа — медицинский термин, возникший во времена Великой Отечественной войны, который обозначал всю совокупность взрывных и осколочно-взрывных повреждений стопы человека, нанесённых ударной волной и поражающими элементами наземной мины.

В современных реалиях считается, что данное понятие не в состоянии отразить всё многообразие возможных взрывных повреждений и не позволяет дифференцировать качественно отличающиеся разновидности взрывных травм, что затрудняет выбор оптимальной тактики лечения.

См. также
 Траншейная стопа

Примечания

Травмы
Заболевания по алфавиту
Военная медицина
Мины

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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text:
National Green Tribunal: An Analysis
Published by LexQuest Foundation on January 14, 2015 January 14, 2015
By Siddhant Sharma, Amity Law School, Jaipur.
The setting up of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) was a result of lack of expert knowledge needed to settle cases relating to environmental issues.
Indian Courts had been entertaining environmental issues by the means of writs and PILs, but the technicalities were missed by the judiciary as expert knowledge is a must to decide such cases. The rise of environmental issues increased after the very well-known interpretation of the judiciary saying that 'Right to clean and healthy environment' is part of our fundamental rights (the same being interpreted within the scope of Article 21 of the Constitution of India). This was when the Courts directed expert committees that if any environmental issue knocks the Court of Law, the committee would prepare a report for the court's interpretation. But such reports of the expert committees were not interpreted in technical terms by the court of law, thus defeating the whole point of setting up such committees. In cases like-
M.C. Mehta Vs. Union of India, 1986;
Indian Council for Environmental-Legal Action Vs. Union of India, 1996;
A.P. Pollution Control Board Vs. M.V Naydu 1999;
A.P. Pollution Control Board Vs. M.V Naydu II, 2001,
The Supreme Court emphasized on one common point that, 'it is a very important and prominent time to set up Environmental Courts'. The 186th report of Law Commission of India also emphasized on starting of environmental courts in the light of the 3rd case judgment from the above cited cases. The report also referred to countries like Australia, and New Zealand etc. where Environmental Courts had been established.[i]
Essentials points in the 186th report of Law Commission of India-
The report recommended the establishment of the NGT in every state for dealing environment disputes and having appellate jurisdiction in respect of appeals under the various Pollution Control Laws.
Such courts should have the powers of a civil court in their original jurisdiction, set for reducing the burden on the High court's and Supreme Court.
These courts should not be bound with the rules of civil procedure code and evidence under the Indian evidence act.
The court follows the principle of natural justice and applies the doctrine of public trust, strict liability, polluter pays etc.
About NGT–
India is only the third country to have such a structure. The National Green Tribunal bill, 2009 was introduced by then Environment and Forest Minister, Sri Jairam Ramesh in the lok sabha on July 29, 2009.[ii] It was established on 18th October 2010, under the NGT act 2010, passed by the central government.
The NGT is a specialized body equipped with the necessary expertise to handle environmental disputes involving multi-disciplinary issues. Its objective is to provide a specialized forum for effective and speedy disposal of cases pertaining to environment protection, conservation of forests and for seeking compensation for damages caused to people or property due to violation of environmental laws or conditions specified while granting permissions. NGT is India's first dedicated environmental court with a wide jurisdiction to deal with not only violations of environmental laws, but also to provide for compensation, relief and restoration of the ecology in accordance with the 'Polluter Pays' principle and powers to enforce the 'precautionary principle'.[iii]
Structure of NGT–
Following the enactment of the NGT, the Principal Bench of the NGT has been established in the National Capital – New Delhi, with regional benches in
Pune (Western Zone Bench)
Bhopal (Central Zone Bench)
Chennai (Southern Bench) and
Kolkata (Eastern Bench).
Each Bench has a specified geographical jurisdiction covering several States in its region. There is also a mechanism for circuit benches. For example, the Southern Zone bench, which is based in Chennai, can decide to have sittings in other places like Bangalore or Hyderabad.
The Chairperson of the NGT is a retired Judge of the Supreme Court, Head Quartered in Delhi. (Shri Justice L.S. Panta, Former Judge of the Supreme Court was appointed as the first Chairperson of the NGT,[iv] Hon'ble Mr. Justice Swatanter Kumar being the present chairperson). Other Judicial members are retired Judges of High Courts. Each bench of the NGT comprises of at least one Judicial Member and one Expert Member. Expert members should have a professional qualification and a minimum of 15 years experience in the field of environment/forest conservation and related subjects.[v]
Under Rule 22 of the NGT Rules, there is a provision for reviewing a decision/Order of the NGT. If the review fails, such an order/decision can be challenged before the Supreme Court within ninety days of such review.
Notable orders–
Some of the most notable orders given by the NGT are:
Yamuna Conservation Zone- on 25 April 2014, The NGT said that the health of Yamuna will be affected by the proposed recreational facilities on the river. The NGT also recommended the Government to declare a 52 km stretch of the Yamuna in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh as a conservation zone.
Coal Blocks in Chhattisgarh Forests- the National Green Tribunal cancelled the clearance given by the then Union Environment and Forests Minister, Jairam Ramesh, to the Parsa East and Kante-Basan captive coal blocks in the Hasdeo-Arand forests of Chhattisgarh, overruling the statutory Forest Advisory Committee.
The forest clearance was given by Mr. Ramesh in June 2011, overriding the advice of the Ministry's expert panel on the two blocks for mining by a joint venture between Adani and Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited. The blocks requiring 1,989 hectares of forestland fell in an area that the government had initially barred as it was considered a patch of valuable forest and demarcated as a 'no-go' area.[vi]
India at present faces a huge challenge accounting for the millions that are affected each year by national development projects. In addition to this, industries are a burgeoning factor in the Indian economic scene so one cannot sensibly ask for capping such endeavours as they are spearheading the economic development of this still developing nation. Also the largest industries have the best lawyers in their pockets, and the others are unaccounted for. Therefore the only way to ensure the success of the NGT is a well-defined, and at this stage draconian means of judgement.[vii]
[i] 'Assessment of work of national green tribunal', June 2014 http://www.socialwatch.org/sites/default/files/swindia/Gujarat-Social-Watch-Report-2014.pdf
[ii] 'How green would be the green tribunal' http://www.law.pace.edu/sites/default/files/IJIEA/How_Green_will_be_the_Green_Tribunal.pdf
[iii] Supra, note 1
[iv] National Green Tribunal (NGT) of India, http://www.greenworldinvestor.com/2011/07/04/national-green-tribunal-ngt-of-india-what-you-need-to-know-historychallengescircuit-benchesnecessity/
[v]'Everything you need to know about the National Green Tribunal (NGT)' http://www.conservationindia.org/resources/ngt
[vi] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Green_Tribunal_Act
[vii] 'Is the NGT an open or closed law?' https://www.academia.edu/6162330/Analysis_of_National_Green_Tribunal_Act_2010
Categories:	Environment
Tags: environmentenvironmental lawNational Green TribunalNGT
India's Tryst with Renewable Energy: The 3rd Global Re-Invest Meet & Expo
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented an unprecedented challenge to industrial and economic growth across the world. Even as industries begin to recover, as per some reports, businesses continue to operate at limited capacities with India Read more…
The Legislation that Revamped Priorities: An Assessment of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972
The urgency to adopt sustainable measures to be able to conserve the ecosystem against increased human activities is now more pressing than ever. Unless the ecosystem is conserved, no developmental progress will be long-lasting.
Policy Action to tackle Air Pollution in Delhi
Information about the Issue: In a Supreme Court Judgement dated December 2, 2016 (M.C. Mehta v Union Of India), the Court directed the Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) to prepare and implement a plan to Read more…

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Photo: Whitney Browne
Orthodoxy, Unzipped
by Darcy Grabenstein
Black skirts. Black boots. Black masks. A makeshift black floor. The paint-peeling cement setting of the Brooklyn Navy Yard rooftop. Gray skies. Everything about this virtual dance production is gloomy, even the Klezmer-ish music. That's exactly what choreographer Ariel Grossman intended with Unorthodox, performed by her Jersey-based Ariel Rivka Dance, and inspired by the book and Netflix miniseries of the same name.
The book, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots is the 2012 autobiography by Deborah Feldman, a young woman who musters the courage to leave her ultra-religious Hasidic community. Grossman's dance takes on a more universal theme, juxtaposing the polite version of ourselves we show the world vs. our true inner selves. Her choreography gives us a glimpse of what might happen when we, like the Orthodox woman shedding her restrictive clothing, unzip and breathe.
The music, created by composer Stefania de Kennessey, has the tempo of traditional Klezmer music, but lacks its lightness, its lilt. In a live, post-performance Q&A session moderated by former Martha Graham Dance Company member Rabbi Mira Rivera, Grossman explained: "I knew I didn't want the piece to be joyful. I didn't want it to be a celebration."
Throughout the dance, Caitlyn Casson, Casie O'Kane, Danita Shaheen, and Hana Ginsburg Tirosh beautifully transition from tense, constricted movements to full-body releases. I'm fascinated by the way they traverse the rooftop stage, with jerky steps like a leaden moonwalk, aided by their unorthodox boots-turned-dance shoes. The dancers move backward as if retreating, forward with renewed determination, just as the young woman of the Unorthodox film vacillated between familiarity and freedom.
At times the masked dancers march in lockstep, as if constricted by straitjackets. Then they burst into motion, arms gyrating, and moving with wild abandon.
Their skirts become props, the dancers clutching the material in their fists, then flinging it away in a sudden release. "That's so Martha," commented Rabbi Rivera, referring to the dance icon.
Dancing in masks and boots was problematic for the dancers, as they revealed in the Q&A. "It definitely was a challenge to dance in these shoes," said Shaheen, "because we never wear shoes in Ariel's works ever." She added that the shoes prohibited her from feeling the floor, from getting the same extension she would if barefoot, and from sliding with ease.
Tirosh, who worked hard to get back in shape after the birth of her 6-month-old twins and contracting the coronavirus, said the mask made it even harder for her to breathe and "tamped up the emotion" during rehearsals and taping.
Like the masks, the boots were initially meant to protect the dancers but ended up becoming integral to the dance itself. The performance "wasn't intended to be a film and it wasn't intended to be outside and it wasn't intended to be during a pandemic," said Grossman.
During the Q&A, the dancers kept returning to the topic of the pandemic. "I feel the message was amplified," said Tirosh. "It was the first time we were together since quarantine."
Two of the dancers were comfortable partnering, two were not. They noted how this perfectly parallels the Orthodox prohibition of married men and women touching.
In a post-performance workshop, led by Shaheen, we learned a segment from Unorthodox. I was all in, even slipping on a black dance skirt to get "in character."
I appreciated Shaheen's teaching style, using a layered technique to introduce each part. I think I nailed the spastic-looking, zombie-like part. Shaheen encouraged us to improvise: "Get weird with it. Make it your own."
Each dancer also made it her own in Unorthodox. The dancers internalized the struggle, then unashamedly unzipped, exposing their raw emotions to the audience.
Unorthodox, Ariel Rivka Dance, Gershman Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival, Nov. 15.
Darcy Grabenstein
Darcy Grabenstein is a freelance writer and poet who has had a lifelong love affair with dance. Her earliest dance memories are of her stereotypical ballet teacher, Mrs. DeMarko, frowning and banging a wooden staff on the dance floor for added emphasis. An avowed ballet school dropout, Darcy later was introduced to the genres of international and Israeli folk dance.
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Training for strength is one thing, but accepting that you are going to step up and do that first competition can be very stressful. I remember going to watch a local strongman competition for three summers before I had the courage to commit to trying it out. Strongman originates from the mentality of just being strong and manipulating heavy awkward objects. However, this mentality makes it even more stressful for the first-time competitor since you don't want to be embarrassed, perform poorly or get injured. All of these stresses can be mitigated through proper planning. The purpose of this article is to give you a general plan to help you take the steps towards doing your first strongman competition. I have laid out this plan with the assumption that you are giving yourself six months to prepare. Feel free to adjust this to your own timeline. The main activities are broken down such that you have only one or two to focus on each month. Regardless of your timeline, just keep in mind that serious endeavours require serious planning and preparation.
The first part of this process is to evaluate yourself and make a plan. The essential skills of strongman competition are the deadlift, overhead press, load, carry, pull and flip. Ideally, the athlete should choose one movement, using strongman implements that falls into each of these general skill classes. If you only have access to a barbell, you can evaluate other barbell exercises that have some carryover to the general skills. In particular, you can evaluate your squat (deadlift, load, carry, pull, flip), bent-over row (load, pull, flip), barbell holds (carry) and bench press (overhead press, flip) along with the deadlift and overhead press. With either situation, you have six skills to test out. Try to evaluate each skill using both maximal and repetition efforts. Be conservative with these tests to reduce risk of injury and give yourself room to grow.
Once you complete this evaluation, you now have a baseline to build from. The only other task this month is to commit to a competition. Since this plan is laid out as a six month process, pick your competition and work backwards. Here in Ontario, the bulk of the contests begin in May or June meaning that December or January would be a good time to start executing this plan. However, this is usually too far away from the contest date to know about specific contests unless they have been reoccurring yearly events. If you don't have a specific contest date, commit to a date and go to the competition that is closest to it.
The next step in this plan is to become more proficient at the skills you measured. I would suggest devoting roughly 30-50% of your efforts to improving your technique through practice and education. With access to internet, it is easy to look up information about proper strongman implement technique. If you are limited to barbell exercises only, try to spend some of this time looking for someone around you who has strongman implements. If you find one, make the effort to go try out the events. Any time practicing the specific technique will be a huge benefit come competition day. If you cannot find anyone locally, focus on improving your technique with your barbell exercises.
Bigger muscle have the potential to lift heavier objects. Up to this month, you have selected your exercises, you have improved your technique with them and now it is time to build the muscles that produce these motions. To do this, ramp up the work load by increasing the volume while using moderate weights. The goal is to do a lot of work without generating a great amount of fatigue, especially within your central nervous system. In order to support this increased workload and growth, you are going to have to fuel your body. Make sure to eat a little more food, drink a little more water and sleep in a little longer to support the increased demand. Easy enough eh?
A competition simulation, sometimes known as a walkthrough, can be very useful for the first-time competitor. The aim is to simulate aspects of the competition in order to be better prepared for competition day. Some aspects you will want to consider are timing of the events, weather conditions, terrain and nutrition. The timing of the events varies based on promoters, event types and number of competitors. If you happen to know the time of year your competition will be in, whether it will be indoor or outdoor and the type of surface under your feet you should try to replicate these conditions if possible. Finally, the stress of your impending performance on competition day can make eating and drinking very hard to stay consistent with. Since, the competition is long and many times, in the sun, getting enough nutrients to fuel your performance can make the difference between recovering between events or cramping up during a big lift. Use the first three weeks of this month to prepare your competition simulation and execute it in the final week of the month.
In case you aren't sure how to develop the competition simulation, let me suggest one method for executing it. If you happen to know the event details of the competition at this time, plan on using these events in your simulation. Typically, novice contests consist of 4 test of strength. I suggest picking one variation of each of the deadlift, overhead press, carry and load if you do not know the competition details at this point. Schedule these events in alternating order of static and dynamic motions. For example, deadlift (static), carry (dynamic), overhead press (static) and load (dynamic). For each of the events, pick an effort type such as maximum effort or repetition effort on the static events and maximum distance, fastest time or medley on the dynamic events. On simulation day, start with your general warmup. If you're like me, you will show up extra early and have lots of time to do a general warmup on competition day. Next, use the following general timeline for each event: 5 minute event warmup, complete the event (60-90 seconds) and 30 minute rest. Typically, you have very little or no time to warmup for the event short of picking up the empty implement, so get used to this aspect. By the time each competitor completes the event and the promoters get the next one ready, you are typically looking at 20-40 minutes of downtime. If you follow this general template for your simulation, you will be better prepared for the aspects of the competition you aren't exposed to every training session.
At this point, you have been building from your baseline, practiced your technique, built some muscle and had your first exposure to competition during your simulation. Next, the ability to exert maximal forces with heavy weights should be developed. To accomplish this, begin slowly increasing the weight on the implements or barbell each week while maintaining or decreasing the volume. This will generate a response in your central nervous system causing adaptions that lead to increased force production of that new muscle you built. One important note is to not get carried away trying to drive your one-repetition maximum (1RM) up or completing heavy sets for as many repetitions as possible. If you do either of these, you run the risk of injury or accumulating excessive fatigue which will impede your performance. These two effort types do need to be completed but in such a manner that you can add weight to the bar consistently over the next 4 weeks. Aim for heavy weights that cause you to strain but not so much that your technique breaks down.
In Powerlifting, the training phase leading into the competition is known commonly as the peaking phase. The idea behind this is that your skills have reached their highest potential to produce the best performance at the end of it. The term peaking phase might not be common for strongman yet but we still follow the same concept. In this final month, you should continue trying to increase the weight on the bar with two changes. First, do the exercises that are most similar to those at the competition if you haven't been already. Second, slowly decrease the volume over this month. I would recommend work down from three heavy working sets on the first week to a single heavy set on the third week of the month. The final week should be used solely to recover for the competitions. No heavy lifting. Other tasks to complete this last week are planning your route to the competition, trying to find someone to come along to help you, making a checklist of the things you need to bring and preparing food for competition day.
If you were able to make it through this process, stop for a second and feel good about it. A significant amount of time and energy is required for you to complete this preparation. The good news is that you will be far more prepared than you would have been if you just decided to jump into a contest at the last minute. This preparation will help to decrease the chance of injury, make you stronger and achieve a better performance. I realize there is a lot to this entire process, much of which I have intentionally left out. However, you now have a general plan to help you towards your strongman goals. Good luck!


> I don't think he will (as can be seen from PR 192405).
> Provide a PR with the patch and I'll commit it after testing the build.
I'll update it if no one else gets to it this week or review a PR.
Willing to hand it over if someone wants it.


The Swedish language does not come easily to me. In fact it's a fairly hard slog at times. But Bengt Berger, a prodigious drummer and, dare I say, poet in his own way, introduced me to Swedish music through his iconic music and his equally iconic record label, Country & Eastern. I was enamoured of Berger long ago, when I first heard a performance of his with the great Don Cherry on Bitter Funeral Bear. Later I discovered his record label and Jonas Knutsson and several other Swedish folk musicians, which is to say Swedish jazz musicians for there is no real difference in that country. Oddly enough it was Berger who also led me back to the poetry of his country and one poet in particular, Tomas Tranströmer, a Swedish poet I greatly admired (and sometimes emulated in my own poetry) from my university days. In fact, Tranströmer was my first introduction to Sweden, a country where the very air of its countryside was music itself. Like Bengt Berger, Tranströmer drew me into Swedish poetry and to the work of Harry Martinson, Gunnar Elkelöf and to Stig Dagerman, among others. Sweden became embedded in my consciousness and it was this consciousness that was awakened when I first heard the music of Berger, Jonas Knutsson, Kjell Westling, Päkkos Gustaf, Ellika Frisell and a slew of other great Swedish musicians. Sweden has never left me since then.
So when I saw the new 2015 bilingual edition of Tomas Tranströmer's poems Bright Scythe – Selected Poems by Tomas Tranströmer Translated by Patty Crane, I jumped at the chance to re-acquaint myself with Tranströmer's poetry anew. Crane, herself a poet who was intimately acquainted with the work of Tranströmer, would surely have created a book of poems not only representative of his work, but also of his deeply moving idiom as well. I was not wrong. This is in essence how poetry in unfamiliar languages must be rendered into English – a difficult language to translate into because there is often no 'exact' way to 'name things' (in the sense of how Confucius defined it). This is why I have always been an apologist for the translations of Ezra Pound (and Ernest Fenollosa) from Japanese, Chinese and in Pound's case, translations of the Indian poet and saint Kabir as well. A grasp of poetics and music is essential to rendering poetry from foreign languages into English.
Ironically, this is how we find the 'exact name of things' – contrarily by assuming the poetics of that poetry and learning the melodicism of its music. Fenollosa, Pound and Michael Hamburger (who famously translated the work of Hölderlin), as well as the Indian poets, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra (translations from Hindi and other languages) and of course the celebrated poet Arun Kolatkar (who translated poetry written by the 17th century Maraharastrian poet and saint, Tukaram) made great translations of other poet's work. To this list must be added Patty Crane's translations of Tomas Tranströmer. And while Crane's work is heroic, the real hero is, of course, Tomas Tranströmer.
The ethereal nature of the poem where streets sing crepuscular songs and resemble something palpable, but which also something human-like that is transubstantiated as air – elemental, with the primordial power to turn as miraculous as a child's heart beat into the physical aspect of blinding light that not only unlocks darkness but in a whispered sense the nature of perception as well. The depth of the idiom and Tranströmer's articulate turn of phrase is as powerfully nebulous as it is concrete and monumental.
Note the subtle shifting of idiomatic phrase from one verse to the other, where Tomas Tranströmer is scientist as well as artist; an interloper with a penchant for melding the essence of unity of the two arts. Note also the beauty of the translations of Patty Crane. (It might not be appropriate to add Tranströmer's the Swedish lines here. Suffice it to say that Crane captures the essence of the Swedish not only linguistically but in terms of its cadence and in the nature of the music of the language.
Beside the son-in-law, who's a man of the times, Liszt is a moth-eaten grandsigneur.
the deep that wants to enter people without ever showing its face.
Patty Crane has not only maintained the cadence of Tranströmer's original but has also grasped the element of translation as Fenollosa or Pound would have done: embracing the rhythmic sweep of the metaphor and language in an elemental and breathtaking manner. Here is that folksiness that so endeared Tomas Tranströmer to a world of readers who fell in love with his sense of the rustic nature of Swedish countryside in the beautiful music of its language; yet keeping his eye and his heart always beating with the enormous humanity which he inhabited. This is what makes Tranströmer a great poet and why he was recognized with the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2011, four years before he passed from this world, but not before he left us a legacy that is worthy of any library upon which is bestowed much great poetry. And like the books in that library – perhaps imagined only by Jorge Luis Borges – this book Bright Scythe – Selected Poems by Tomas Tranströmer Translated by Patty Crane will also find a special place. First for the fact that it is bilingual, which suits me fine for I have been appropriately informed of the music of the Swedish ethos by folks like Bengt Berger and Päkkos Gustaf and Ellika Frisell, for its because of them that I came to understand and have my own understanding of the language and its music – however meager. But this poetry has also been written in a soulful manner that often transcends language as much as it is rooted in the music of the Swedish. For that we must thank Patty Crane for her wonderful work, but in the end we have to thank Tomas Tranströmer must take a central place in the great tradition of Swedish writing and in the world of poetry as well.


Big things happening at Living Aquaponics ! ! - Living Aquaponics Inc.
Home > Big things happening at Living Aquaponics ! !
– We are building a new farm!! … We are in the final stages of funding acquisition and land acquisition for a new Aquaponics farm that will be located in Keauhou. Our existing farm will continue to grow its wholesale business while this new farm will focus on the Farm To Table Sales model and will sell direct to local chefs, restaurants and consumers through direct sales and farmers markets. This new farm will also be the home of our new and expanded Aquaponics Education Facility where we will continue to teach people how to farm with Aquaponics. We will be adding lots of new trainings options as well as training and classes to teach people to grow their own food on a "back yard" level. We are excited to launch this new farm and educational facility. We are excited to prove the Farm to Table Sales model works as well as expand our commercial Aquaponics trainings. We are especially excited to be training people how to grow food for their own families in smaller very robust systems!
We expect to launch this new farm at the end of 3rd quarter of this year and we will be talking a lot more about this as we get closer!
Teaser about some very special Internships that will be available soon! ….. We plan to offer a very special set of internships while we build our second farm. These will be offered only for a few months and will be an opportunity that has never been offered before, to come learn with a real commercial Aquaponics company and get hands on experience helping to run an already existing fully functional farm as well as help build a new commercial farm. These interns will learn the building, running and business side to Aquaponics!!
We plan to offer only 8 one month "special" internships over the course of two months and we may add a few 2 week options if there is demand for shorter time frames. We estimate these internships to start around October of this year but we do not have the dates nailed down yet. Stay tuned for prices and start dates….
Also, our clients and friends at Sam Choy's Kai Lanai are running a fundraiser all this month where they have created a special menu called Noah's Menu where part of the proceeds from each dish will go out our family to help with the extra expenses. We are so thankful to Chef Scott, Sam Choy and everyone at the restaurant for support our farm and our family!!
Noah continues to do well, he suffers from all the normal short and long term side effects of chemo and steroid meds but he is a happy boy most of the time. We are thankful to have him (and his brother) alive today.
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Next Post: 05/30/2014 – Lots of rain!


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Home › Faculty › Gordon Bodnar
Gordon Bodnar, PhD
Director, International Economics Program, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University
International finance, corporate finance
About Gordon:
Dr. Bodnar joined the International Economic Program at School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) as a Professor in 1999. In 2001, he was named the Morris W. Offit Professor of International Finance. He has been the Director of the International Economics Program at SAIS since 2005. Before joining SAIS, he was an assistant professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester. He also has held visiting professorships at Frankfurt University in Germany and the Wharton School. He received his PhD in Economics from Princeton University in 1991.
His research focuses on international and corporate finance. Specific topics include corporate exchange rate exposure, foreign exchange risk management, the valuation of multinational operations, and financial disclosures. Dr. Bodnar's research has been published in major academic journals in finance, economics and accounting as well as practitioner journals. Presently, he is an research associate of the Weiss Center for International Finance at the Wharton School, and has held appointments as a research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and as a visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund. He is an associate editor for European Financial Management and the Journal of Asian Economics.
At SAIS, Dr. Bodnar teaches master's-level courses in corporate and international finance. He also teaches international corporate finance in the Wharton MBA for Executives program in Philadelphia and San Francisco as well as Cornell University's Executive MBA program and lectures in several of Wharton's Executive Education programs. Dr. Bodnar received eight Excellence in Teaching awards from SAIS, Wharton, and Cornell. He occasionally consults for the financial industry, multinational firms, and international research organizations.
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Next Sunday is the Feast of Christ the King and marks the end of the Church's Year. The Scripture readings today, then, are all about endings, both our own and the ending of the world, seen through the eyes of faith. The call of the Word of God is clear: do not be frightened; there will be fearful sights but not a hair of your head will be lost; the light of God will shine out with healing in its rays. So we face the future with hope for we know that all endings are within the sight of God, even the most distressing. God has shown this to us clearly in the death of Jesus, the only Son of God, who died in agony and isolation. In Jesus, God embraced all our endings and in the Resurrection of Jesus made clear His will that they have a glorious final outcome.
Next Sunday also marks the end of the Year of Faith we have been following at the invitation of Pope Benedict and Pope Francis. This Year of Faith has had two main aims: that we rediscover and deepen the joy of believing and that we recover enthusiasm for sharing that faith with others. The first aim, we might well say, draws on the great strength of Pope Benedict, a graceful teacher of the faith; the second from the impact and priority of Pope Francis, that we get out there and show our faith by the way we live.
I hope that you can look back and recall points of impact of the Year of Faith in your lives. Through the year we pondered first of all our faith in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father, incarnate of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, then the importance of the sacraments, then the practice of the moral life and finally the place of prayer in our daily lives. But now we must look forward.
Next Sunday every Catholic parish in the world will profess its faith, in the Creed, with renewed heart and fresh determination. And what we profess with our words in church we must make clear in our lives in the world. So now we look again at how well we live our faith in every circumstance, how ready we are to stand out by the way we speak and act, not timid about giving an account of our faith, of our love of the Lord, of the place of prayer in our lives, of our commitment to do what is right and just.
Pope Francis has a phrase which describes this call. He says, over and over again, that we are to be 'missionary disciples'. Yes we are disciples, those who wish to follow the Lord. We are his people, the People of God. But with that comes the task of being a missionary. Perhaps we are used to associating the word 'missionary' with overseas, with other countries. But the call of every follower of Jesus is to make his love present in every place, and to issue his invitation to every person.
At the end of Mass next Sunday we shall step out of the church with this fresh imperative ringing in our ears: go and make visible the love and compassion of God you have just celebrated.
Think, please, of your home life. What could you do there to make faith more visible? A fresh pattern of prayer, shared by all present, before a meal or at the end of the day? Perhaps there could be more visible signs of faith in your home: a crucifix in each room or a statue in a prominent corner. Visitors should be in no doubt that they are entering a catholic home, best of all by the way you behave, but also by what they see.
Then please think of your life at work, or in the company you keep outside your home. Can you be someone who is known and respected for being trustworthy? Someone who doesn't gossip but will always have a kind word to say about others? Can you be someone to whom people know they can turn when they are in difficulty, someone prepared to understand and to help? Are you, or could you be, someone who readily offers to say a prayer for a person facing problems? Most people are ready to welcome such an offer. They know that there is more to life than the sum of our human efforts, that there is a God who watches over us and can be turned to, even if they are very unsure as to how to do it.
There is so much we can do, so much that is simple yet profound, deeply human yet showing our faith, especially in these times when many are in difficulty. So I urge you to look again at the patterns of your daily living, in the light of the Lord's call to be his missionary disciples. As we take so many different pathways in life, look out for those who are burdened, who feel lost, who are, perhaps, walking away from the Church, their hearts downcast. Walk with them. Listen to them. Speak only as little as necessary, but from a heart full of faith and compassion. And act in the way in which you speak.
This is the way of the Lord, Christ our King. This is the way of faith. This is the way we proclaim afresh the coming of the Kingdom of God in our world today.
A heart full of faith and compassion; I wish to have as a theme song for my daily life.
A trustworthy human: I wish to be always.
Thank you for offering faith in simple, tangible and achievable daily living.


Lochmor Golf Course Launches New Web Site.
Welcome to the new look at Lochmor Golf Course. We have launched a new web page designed to be more mobile device friendly. We will be adding content throughout the year, such as upcoming tournaments and other events at the club. Please bookmark us and check in on us regularly.


text:
require 'spec_helper'

require 'rscramblesolver/dictionary/simple_dictionary'
require 'rscramblesolver/dictionary/word_reader'

include Rscramblesolver::Dictionary

describe SimpleDictionary do

  describe :real_word? do
    before(:each) do
      @word_list = ['david', 'wu']
      @dictionary = SimpleDictionary.new
      @dictionary.stub(:word_list).and_return(@word_list)
    end

    it 'should return true for words inside word_list' do
      @dictionary.real_word?('david').should be_true
    end

    it 'should return false for words outside word_list' do
      @dictionary.real_word?('davidwu').should be_false
    end
  end

  # TODO: this will need to get pulled out into some common module for dictionaries
  describe "messages" do

    before(:each) do
      @simple_dictionary = SimpleDictionary.new(
          word_reader: stub_word_reader
        )
    end

    subject { @simple_dictionary }

    it { should respond_to(:word_list) }
    it { should respond_to(:prefix_for_real_word?) }
    it { should respond_to(:real_word?) }

    private
      def stub_word_reader
        stub_word_list = ['david', 'wu']
        word_reader = WordReader.new
        word_reader.stub(:word_list).and_return(stub_word_list)
        return word_reader
      end
  end

end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: Text To Speech Keeps Repeating - JavaScript the problem I have a JavaScript implementation of text-to-speech (using the SpeechSynthesisUtterance library) that works in that text is spoken.
The main problem is that when the speak function is called after an initial condition is met(the condition being the user raising their arms in a live camera feed), the TTS repeats the speech variable way too many times regardless of the 'delayer' value we feed in.
The 'speaking' function which is called whenever TTS is used is displayed below. The condition function does call speaking correctly whenever it is True.
I have tried nearly every single method with regards to setting a context to not repeat when the condition is met once within a ten second window. Calling tts.cancel() does not appear to have an effect either.
I have a big hunch that because the camera processing function is called with so many frames a second, the utterance queue becomes packed with many requests. At the same time, I do want the TTS to be activated just once when the condition first calls speaking.
Any help is greatly appreciated and clarification can be provided. Any references to useful functions or concepts would be great too. Apologies for the beginner code!
var voice= window.speechSynthesis;
var tts = new SpeechSynthesisUtterance();

function speaking(speech, delayer) {
  let sleep = (ms) => {
    return new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, ms));
  };

  console.log("Speaking");

  if (!voice.speaking) {
    tts.text = speech;
    voice.speak(tts);
    sleep(delayer);
    clearTimeout(timerOut);
    return;

    if (voice.speaking) {
      voice.cancel();
      return;
    }
  }
  return;
}

A: here's a simpler version
function speaking(speech, delayer) {
  if (delayer === void 0) {
    delayer = 0;
  }

  if (speech.length > 0) {
    setTimeout(function () {
      var utterThis = new SpeechSynthesisUtterance(speech);
      utterThis.rate = 1;
      utterThis.pitch = 1;
      window.speechSynthesis.speak(utterThis);
    }, delayer);
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Share this Story: The odds of the Bank of Canada hiking rates in July just shot back up to 70%
The odds of the Bank of Canada hiking rates in July just shot back up to 70%
Some hawkish remarks to reporters yesterday have turned the tide for the loonie
Theophilos Argitis and Greg Quinn, Bloomberg News
Jun 28, 2018 • January 7, 2021 • 2 minute read
The Canadian dollar was climbing Thursday as bets on a rate hike rose. Photo by Canadian Press
Investors are raising bets the Bank of Canada will move ahead with an interest rate hike next month, after Governor Stephen Poloz reiterated his outlook for higher borrowing costs.
Odds of a hike at the July 11 rate decision jumped to more than 70 per cent Thursday, from just over 50 per cent a day earlier, after Poloz told reporters he expects to continue raising interest rates in spite of mounting trade tensions because inflation has already hit the central bank's 2 per cent target. The Canadian dollar gained 0.7 per cent to 75.43 US cents at 10:47 a.m. in Toronto.
The odds of the Bank of Canada hiking rates in July just shot back up to 70% Back to video
"We've said clearly that, given where the economy is, we're in a situation where the economy will warrant higher interest rates," Poloz told reporters after a speech in Victoria, British Columbia. "We'll ensure that that is a gradual process because there are certain issues that we must monitor along the way, and we've laid those out."
Poloz said the economic "big picture" supports a withdrawal of stimulus given interest rates remain at historically low levels. The central bank also isn't likely to be derailed by "single-data points," referring to a string of disappointing economic numbers in recent weeks, or heightened trade uncertainty whose actual impact remains unknown.
The speech and press conference were Poloz's last scheduled public appearances before his July 11 policy decision. Investors had been paring back expectations in recent weeks for a hike next month as trade tensions escalated globally and weak economic data cast some doubt about the underlying strength of the economy.
While Poloz's speech Wednesday focused on why the central bank should avoid over-communicating policy intentions, he was definitive at the press conference about the overall direction of the rate path. The Bank of Canada has already raised interest rates three times since last July, bringing its benchmark rate to 1.25 per cent.
"The way we think of this is that the economy is operating very close to its capacity and inflation's on target, so we're more or less what I've described as 'home' in other speeches," Poloz said. "And the thing that looks odd in that picture is that interest rates are still very low by historical standards."
Canada's central bank governor declined to say which way policy makers may be leaning for next month's decision, but seemed to downplay some recent weakness in economic data, while choosing to emphasis first-quarter gross domestic product numbers that came in exactly as the central bank had predicted. Poloz also said business investment remains "reasonably robust," giving policy makers optimism.
'More Conviction'
"On balance, I have more conviction that the BoC will hike on July 11th following Poloz's communications than beforehand," Derek Holt, an economist at Scotiabank, said in a note to investors Wednesday.
As far as trade uncertainty is concerned, Poloz said the central bank is focused on the data, not speculation on political developments, and the central bank will incorporate actual developments like U.S. steel tariffs and Canada's retaliatory measures in its decision-making process ahead of next month's decision.
"We're data dependent, not headline dependent," Poloz said. "We're not going to make policy on the basis of political rhetoric or any of that."


text:
The Sports Drop
The Internet's Most Entertaining Sports Site
July 1, 2019 by Michael Bellom
The Los Angeles Lakers Trade For Kwame Brown (2005)
The fact that Kwame Brown was one of the most spectacular draft busts of the last few decades didn't stop the Los Angeles Lakers from thinking they could salvage his career by giving him a change of scenery.
In the summer of 2005, the Lakers traded away Caron Butler — who went on to become one of the most respected players in the NBA — and Chucky Atkins, in exchange for Brown and Laron Profit. While Brown showed some flashes of growth in LA, eventually the Lakers ran out of patience and traded him away to Memphis in 2008. Butler was named to two All-Star teams as a member of the Wizards.
Back15 / 33Next
Best Conference Championship Games in NFL History
Great NBA Players Who Became Successful GMs
Way-Too-Early Top 25 College Football Rankings for 2021
Copyright ©2019 The Sports Drop. All Rights Reserved


text:
Visualisation with D3.js v7
A practical book on visualisation with D3.js version 7 that shows you how to create visualisations from the ground up.
Attributes and Styles
A Container for the Output
Creating an Empty SVG
Creating Elements and Setting Attributes
Styling with CSS and Setting Styles
Appending to the Container
We can set CSS style properties by invoking .style(name, value) on the selection, and set SVG attributes by invoking .attr(name, value) where the argument to the first parameter should be the name of the attribute we want to set, and the argument to the second parameter should be the value we want to set it to.
Let's get access to the D3.js library so that we can begin. In this case, we'll be including the library using the HTML
A common way to modify an <svg> element is by setting its attributes. The W3C SVG specification defines two categories of attributes1: the regular category which includes the style attribute for styling with CSS, and the presentation category which includes the fill attribute for painting the interior of an element.
For example, we can change the colour of a circle by setting its fill attribute to #40F99B.
<svg>
<circle cx="85" cy="75" r="50" fill="#40F99B"></circle>
But we can also set these attributes with D3.js. In this section, we'll use D3.js to modify multiple attributes for our SVG elements.
This is where you will see the output of the code cells that follow it, provided they are referencing the corresponding id.

We'll create a new detached <svg> element and use the returned selection throughout the rest of this section.
const svg = d3.create("svg");
In previous sections, we've created <circle> elements by invoking d3.append(name) and passing in circle as the argument for the name parameter. This returned a selection which we then used to set the attributes. We can do this by invoking .attr(name, value) on the selection, where the argument to the first parameter should be the name of the attribute we want to set, and the argument to the second parameter should be the value we want to set it to.
Let's set the horizontal and vertical coordinates of our circle with the cx and cy attributes, respectively2. We'll also set the radius of our circle using the r attribute.
var circle = svg
.append("circle")
.attr("cx", 85)
.attr("cy", 75)
.attr("r", 50);
This time, we'll also change the colour of a circle by setting its fill attribute to #40F99B. We can do this using the selection stored in the circle variable.
.attr("fill", "#40F99B");
Let's do something similar, but this time for a rect element.
var rect = svg
.append("rect")
.attr("x", 165)
.attr("y", 25)
.attr("height", 100)
.attr("width", 100)
.attr("fill", "#420a91")
.attr("stroke", "#FF00FF")
.attr("stroke-width", "4")
.attr("stroke-dasharray", "10,10");
Here we can see we've created a <rect> element and set its horizontal and vertical coordinates, its height and width, its fill colour, and its stroke. It's worth mentioning that the <rect> element is positioned using the x and y attributes from the top-left corner of the element by default 2, whereas the <circle> element is positioned using the cx and cy attributes from the centre of the element.
We can set CSS style properties by invoking .style(name, value) on the selection, where the argument to the first parameter should be the name of the CSS style property we want to set, and the argument to the second parameter should be the value we want to set it to.
As an example, let's set the background-image CSS property of our <svg> element to a linear gradient going from #420a91 to #40F99B.
.style("background-image",
"linear-gradient(to right, #420a91, #40F99B)");
Finally, let's append everything to our container.
.select("#container")
.append(() => svg.node());
We can see the output by checking on our container with the corresponding id, which in this case is where id=container.
If we inspect the HTML, we will see the <svg>, <circle>, and <rect> elements have been added to the
 where the id=container. We can also see that the <svg> element's background has been set to a linear-gradient using CSS, and the presentation of the <circle> and <rect> elements have been modified with several SVG attributes.
<svg style="background-image: linear-gradient(to right, rgb(66, 10, 145), rgb(64, 249, 155));">
<rect x="165" y="25" height="100" width="100" fill="#420a91"
stroke="#FF00FF" stroke-width="4" stroke-dasharray="10,10"></rect>
In this section, we've demonstrated how to modify elements using attributes and styles using D3.js.
W3C. Appendix G: Attribute Index, https://www.w3.org/TR/SVG/attindex.html. ↩
W3C. The Circle Element, https://www.w3.org/TR/SVG/shapes.html#CircleElement. ↩
W3C. The Rect Element, https://www.w3.org/TR/SVG/shapes.html#RectElement. ↩
You can support this work by getting the e-books. This notebook will always be available for free in its online format.
Get the practical book on visualisation with D3.js that shows you how to create visualisations from the ground up that are engaging and beautiful.
Discounted Price that will grow as the book does,
Code examples primarily in JavaScript,
Full Code Listings for each Section,