A vacation home can be a potential source of income if you want to rent it out when you're not using it. When the home is in the U.S., overseeing the rental process remotely — finding tenants, collecting rent, and taking care of maintenance and repairs — might be challenging.
That's why many Canadians who own and rent their property in the U.S. hire rental property managers. A property manager may be an optimal solution, saving you both time and effort, but it's important to choose the right one for the job. As you consider hiring a property manager for your U.S. vacation home, keep five factors in mind.
What you need or want the property manager to do.
The type of relationship you hope to build.
How responsive you need the property manager to be.
What type of rules you'd like the property manager to follow.
An individual property manager may be more likely to do things "your way" and give your rental individualized attention, but may be lacking in some resources.
A management company may be better positioned to assess the true market value of your rental and find an appropriate rental price. Property management companies typically handle all interactions with your tenants, including move-ins, move-outs, and evictions if necessary.
Ask for a copy of the fee schedule before signing a contract to ensure you know what you're paying for up front. If there are any fees or costs you don't understand, ask the property manager to explain them thoroughly before signing off.
In most states in the U.S., rental property managers are required to have some type of professional licensing. This typically means a real estate broker license, but some states allow a property management license instead. Check the specific laws for the state where the home is located, then ask to see the property manager's credentials.
What types of rental property they most commonly manage.
Whether they have experience working with Canadian-based homeowners.
Look into the manager's reputation as well. The Better Business Bureau is a good place to start, and consumer review sites may offer some insight into how the property manager is viewed by previous clients.
If they don't have a written communication policy, ask so you're clear on when and how the manager will stay in touch. Remember to take into account any time zone differences so you understand when the property manager is available.
Renting out a home isn't always smooth sailing and sometimes, an issue may arise. Your tenant may be late on paying rent, for example, or they may violate HOA rules if your rental is covered by a property association. If there's an issue with the property — or the tenant — that needs to be resolved, you want to be able to handle those situations quickly.
The property manager you choose should have policies in place to deal with these and other issues that might crop up. Those policies should be included in your contract. Lastly, consider how you might resolve an issue with the property manager. If they're not holding up their end of the bargain, check your contract to see what recourse you may have in those situations.


Leader of the Danish Tarvuist Assembly. Is the only living Scandinavian Lord of the [[Givil]] and is a keen amateur jeweller. Leader of the Danish Tarvuist Assembly. Is the only living Scandinavian Lord of the [[Givil]] and is a keen amateur jeweller.
- Is the (adopted) father of heavy metal singer [[Rjonni Asbjørniand]]. + Is the (adopted) father of heavy metal singer Rjonni Asbjørniand.


The Regional Museum of Natural history, Siddartha nagara, Mysore is the Southern regional centre of the National Museum of Natural History, New Delhi. This is a subordinate establishment of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.
This institute is aimed to generate, conservation awareness among the public that too children through non –formal, environmental education activities, by using the museum and museum exhibits. As part of the highly determined intention, the RMNH Mysore was established and opened to public in the year 1995.
The museum houses a preliminary gallery on biodiversity of Indian sub continent, this, exhibition gives outlines of the floral and faunal richness of the region presented with an exhibit on butterflies too. This compact display of butterflies houses 35 specimens of butterflies belonging to 3 families and 21 genuses respectively.
23. Junonia almana [Linnaeus] Peacock pansy.
25. Kallima albofasciata Moore White Oak leaf.
Source: - G. Mathew. On wings, KFRI, March 1992, Silent Valley.
Source: - G.Mathew, 19.03.1992, Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu.
Source: - P.Ray RMNH MYS, Chrysalis collected on 28.10.1996. Emergence: On 13.11.1996.
Source: - [Sl.No 1-5] P.Ray, RMNH, MYSORE.
Source: - P.Ray, RMNH, MYSORE, 20.10.1996.
Source: - G.Mathew, KFRI – 1995, on wing, March 1992, Silent valley.
78. Curetis siva Evans Shiva's Sunbeam.
82. Tirumala septentrionis [Butler] Dark blue Tiger.
Source:- Sollekolli, Kodagu, Karnataka, 03, 03, 1992, SMETACEK.
No. 67 & 87 butterflies ; Though they are mainly resticted to westren ghats , there are scanty population some times accidentaly occurs in the neibourhood also. Dr Ray has explained & confirmed this appearance as very rare instance of overlapping habitat and possible chance of happening.


Remember Junie B. Jones, the fictional children's book character?
She could close her eyes, clear her mind and "click" — save a picture with her photographic memory.
A real, practical application of Junie B. Jones' method of remembrance is more realistic: taking the time to consciously construct memories as they happen.
Breathe, listen and feel the moment.
The ride to work is much prettier when you drive slower and look around at the stoplights.
A nice breeze blowing over a lake is more enjoyable when you readily think about enjoying it.
The picture will be left untaken unless you dedicate the time to snap it.
My girlfriend and I were at a concert two weeks back, and just before the third act took the stage, a voice came over the speakers telling us to take cover under the grandstand. Before we got there, the heavens opened and we were soaked to the bone with rain droplets the size of Cocoa Puffs.
As we sat shivering under the bleachers, drying our clothes and taking turns trying to refresh our mobile weather apps, I thought about making my way for the gates.
After all, the rain didn't look like it'd relent anytime soon.
But we stayed, and by the time the headliner took the stage the rain had subsided. We smiled and sang and had the time we hoped we would, sans rain.
In the car on the way home, we talked about how we'd always remember that night because we stuck it out despite our discomfort and had a great time.
We then proceeded to soak our pruned feet in hot water while eating ice cream and macaroni.
Oddly enough, that memory reminds me of a man I spoke with for an interview about a month prior.
He sat opposite myself, relaxed in his chair and spoke emphatically about the time his collegiate football team almost upset Florida State, among many other things.
He said the crowd in Tallahassee, surely near capacity, was going berserk as he and his teammates prepared for the opening kickoff. He had never seen anything like it.
But still, he said, there was something lacking in the experience — the camaraderie he had with his high school teammates.
He said he never had more fun than lining up alongside his childhood buddies with bragging rights on the line. He tells his friends, those that didn't play in college, that they didn't miss anything when hanging up their cleats after high school.
They got the best of it, he said. They just may not have realized it then.
As is such for many of our greatest memories, the things we now perceive as special were sometimes anything but so at the time.
It just might take awhile for them to click.


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Home » Blog » Quanterix at AAIC 2022: New Possibilities for Alzheimer's Diagnosis
The 2022 Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) was held in San Diego from July 31 to August 4. The AAIC is an annual global forum to advance the science of dementia detection, diagnosis, and treatment. Quanterix has made an impact at the last few conferences, and the 2022 meeting was no exception.
Blood Biomarkers for Alzheimer's Disease
The Quanterix Simoa® platform has opened up new frontiers for the detection of Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers from plasma samples. At AAIC 2022, Quanterix scientists and their international collaborators presented their latest breakthroughs in pushing the limits of detection for several key Alzheimer's biomarkers. The data reveal how single-molecule detection can radically improve the ease, speed, and accuracy of diagnosis for several key stages of cognitive disorder. Let's take a look at two of Quanterix' presentations at AAIC 2022 to see what is now possible.
Phosphorylated Tau for Alzheimer's Diagnosis — A Fully Automated Lab Developed Test (LDT)
Phosphorylated tau (p-tau) is a biomarker with the potential to recognize if patients with mild cognitive impairment are on the Alzheimer's spectrum. Early and accurate detection of this protein in the blood would obviate the need to use cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) based assays, bringing a great deal of flexibility to diagnoses.
Quanterix, in association with Vrije University Amsterdam, presented a poster at AAIC 2022 that detailed the extensive validation of plasma p-tau181 as an LDT test with strong discriminatory power, on the Simoa HD-X Analyzer. They calculated a critical p-tau181 concentration cut-off level by comparing plasma samples from 74 patients confirmed to have Alzheimer's disease with 76 age- and sex-matched patients who were cognitively normal. Using decision threshold and Youden's analysis, the researchers determined the cut-off value of 16.7 pg/mL. ROC analysis showed an AUC of 0.845 for discrimination of AD from non-AD, indicating a strong degree of sensitivity and specificity for this biomarker.
The data shows the enormous power of the Simoa platform to discriminate AD from non-AD cases in both rule-in and rule-out diagnostic scenarios.
Clinical Aspects of Brain Biomarker Use
With the advent of several powerful blood-based biomarkers for brain disorders, clinicians have a new set of tools in their repertoire. For AD, these biomarkers include p-tau as discussed above, and others such as NfL (neurofilament light chain) and GFAP (glial fibrillary acidic protein). Biomarkers for multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury, and even general brain health are also being developed with high sensitivity.
Quanterix presented a talk outlining the range of applications of these biomarkers in a clinical setting. There are three main arenas in which digital detection of these biomarkers, as provided by the Simoa platform, are of tremendous utility. These are research and development (R&D), LDTs, and in vitro diagnostics. Brain biomarkers in these scenarios can contribute to understanding AD pathology, to approve drugs to prevent or slow down AD and to aid in patient diagnosis at clinical routine visits.
Time is of the essence for the diagnosis of brain disorders. Some patients with mild cognitive impairment will progress to dementia. In some cases, time delays in diagnosis can preclude efficacious treatment options. Blood-based analyses such as Quanterix's p-tau181 LDT assay, when used in conjunction with other diagnostic methods, afford clinicians the ability to proceed from patient presentation to accurate diagnosis in record time. This has the potential to bring treatment to far more people.
Are you ready for ultrasensitive detection in neurology research?
This test was developed, and its performance characteristics determined by Quanterix in a manner consistent with CLIA requirements. This test has not been cleared or approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Air Seychelles to fly team Seychelles to Mauritius for Indian Ocean Island Games
Air Seychelles, the national airline of the Republic of Seychelles has today announced that the airline will operate two charter flights to the island of Mauritius to carry the Seychelles delegation participating in the Indian Ocean Island Games (IOIG) in July 2019.
The series of flights to be operated by the airlines two class Airbus A320 aircraft featuring 16 business and 120 economy class seats, will depart the Seychelles International Airport on Wednesday, 17 July 2019, whilst the returning flight from Mauritius will depart Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport on Monday, 29 July, 2019.
During the signing of the charter agreement between Air Seychelles and the National Sports Council (NSC) held today at the NSC Headquarters in Roche Caiman the Chief Commercial Officer of Air Seychelles, Charles Johnson said: "As the national airline of Seychelles, we are indeed very pleased to be able to fly the national team to Mauritius for the Indian Ocean Island Games.
"Sports plays an integral part in bringing communities together and it also instills important values in the young generation such as delivering best practice, acting positively which are relative the core values of Air Seychelles, for that we are proud to be part of this journey and we look forward to welcoming the athletes onboard our aircraft."
Chief Executive Officer of NSC, Jean Larue said: "We have about 400 athletes that will be taking part in IOIG and I know that we are all looking forward to this event.
"On this note I would like to say thank you to Air Seychelles for coming to support us and for their assistance".
The Principal Secretary for Youth and Sports, Fabian Palmyre who also attended the signing ceremony said: " Speaking on behalf of the ministry and as the chairman of the national sports technical committee, I must say that today is indeed a very happy day to witness the signing of an important document that will ensure all the athletes arrives and comes back from their final destination safely.
"For the sports sector we value the support of our national airline and it is a pleasure to have team Seychelles fly the Air Seychelles colours to Mauritius.
"Furthermore, I know that there are a lot of other supporters who wishes to join the event and as this is not in the mandate of the Ministry or the NSC, I would like to take this opportunity to invite all supporters and the general public to liaise with Air Seychelles for bookings as they will be offering attractive fares for those attending the series of events at the games".
Participating islands besides Seychelles at the 10th edition of the IOIG set to take place as from 19 July until 28 July include the Comoros, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Mayotte and Reunion.
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Why is nuclear energy back on the table?
One reason is a powerful U.S. lobby where 14 energy companies spent 48 million dollars in 2007 alone to convince American politicians to give the industry huge loan guarantees because they cannot get financing anywhere else, says Ellen Vancko, a nuclear energy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a U.S.-based non governmental organisation (NGO).
This lavish lobbying effort by the energy and nuclear power sector has been ongoing since the mid-1990s, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a U.S. NGO and now totals at least 953 million dollars.
Even more has been spent to convince the public that nuclear is one of the keys to energy security so that there is significant public support for new reactors, a Gallup Environment Poll reported this year.
"There are lots of senators and members of congress talking about nuclear as a clean, renewable energy resource," Vancko says.
The other reason is the French.
France gets about 77 percent of its power from 58 reactors and is often cited as the model for other countries. "France is a special case. The entire industry is 85 percent owned by the government," says Mycle Schneider, a Paris-based energy and nuclear policy analyst.
The industry gets direct and indirect subsidies, government loans and loan guarantees "on practically anything they want", Schneider told IPS.
And despite a well-polished reputation for efficiency and low-cost, the French nuclear industry has been plagued by cost-overruns, equipment failures, and relatively low levels of reliability. Even though French reactors are all of similar design, the cost to build a plant in 1998 was 3.5 times higher than the first plants built in 1974, says Steve Thomas, professor of energy policy at the University of Greenwich in the U.K.
Unlike wind or solar energy or virtually any other technology, the costs of nuclear go up over time rather than down even in pro-nuclear France, he said. "I think that is rather telling about the technology," Thomas told IPS.
The current Finnish nuclear experience echoes the industry's long history.
Backed by French government loan guarantees, Areva, the French government-owned nuclear energy company began construction in 2005 on what is supposed to be the world's largest and safest nuclear plant at Olkiluoto, Finland.
Plagued by thousands of construction and design problems it is currently 2 to 3 billion dollars over budget and three to four years behind schedule.
"It's a total disaster for Areva," Schneider says. Areva will have to sell another 12 reactors to cover the cost overruns thus far or else French taxpayers will, he said.
However there is real danger that the nuclear industry will continue to promote itself as a 'silver-bullet' solution to climate change and give politicians the kind of mega-projects that gets them publicity, warns Schneider.
Equally important is that corporate shareholders of large utility companies can do very well financially on such projects when governments guarantee to cover any losses.
"The worst thing about new nuclear is that it steals billions of public dollars from other more effective things like energy efficiency," he says.
After seeing the disaster in Japan- one should ask the question is Nuke Power the end all for supplying energy in the future.
It will provide some- but not all- Renewables , solar and wind the rest.
I hate looking at things in a worst came scenario, but when it come to nuclear, a person doesn't have a choice. Look at Japan for an example. As far as wind is concerned, if you have a total disaster, don't stand under the turbine as it is falling. No long term effects. As far as solar goes, the lights go out until you replace the panel. I think I would rather suffer the risk that green energy posses, rather than another Japan episode.


A happy Christmas to our Orthodox Brothers and Sisters who celebrate Christmas on the 6th of January.
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexiy II, has died. The patriarch died on Friday morning, aged 79.
He had been sick for some time. Alexiy II was credited with helping restore the moral authority of the Russian Orthodox Church after decades of repression under communism, no easy tak I should think.
Alexiy II became its head in 1990, shortly before the fall of the Soviet Union.
He brought the scattered branches of the Russian Orthodox church back under the control of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said he was shocked by the death. "I respected him deeply," he said.
Born Alexei Rediger to a Russian Orthodox family living in Estonia in 1929, the future patriarch rose swiftly through the ranks of the Church after studying theology in St Petersburg.
By the age of 32 he was a bishop, by 35 he was an archbishop.
He served as the Moscow Patriarchate's chief administrator and the deputy head of the Church's external affairs department before being elected as its head.
O Master, Lord our God, Who in Thy wisdom hast created man, and didst honour him with Thy Divine image, and place in him the spirit of life, and lead him into this world, bestowing on him the hope of resurrection and life everlasting; and after he had violated Thy commandments, Thou O Gracious lover of mankind, didst descend to the earth that Thou mightest renew again the creation of Thy hands. Therefore we pray Thee, O All-Holy Master give rest to the souls of Thy servant, Alexiy, in a place of brightness, a place of green pasture, a place of repose, and, in that they have sinned in word, or deed or thought forgive them: For Thou art a good God and lovest mankind and unto Thee do we ascribe Glory, together with Thy Father, Who is from everlasting and Thine All-Holy and good, and ever giving Spirit, now, and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.
The term "monasticism" (monachos, a solitary person) describes a way of life chosen by religious men or women who retreat from society for the pursuit of spiritual salvation. The earliest form of monasticism appeared in the late third to early fourth century in regions around the eastern Mediterranean. Men and women like Antony (died 356)—whose biography provided a model for future monks—withdrew into the Egyptian desert, depriving themselves of food and water as part of their effort to withstand the devil's temptations. Along the Nile River, in the shadow of the great pyramids, Pachomius (died 312/13) and others established communal structures for ascetics that offered a daily regimen of work and prayer (29.9.2a-v; 10.176.37). Though the earliest monasteries were built to promote isolation, Christian intellectuals sought very early on to bring desert monasticism to the city.
Monasticism was integral to Byzantine life. From the fourth century, after the founding of the first monastic institution in Constantinople, Dalmatou, monasteries proliferated throughout town and country. By the early sixth century, there were over seventy monasteries in the Byzantine capital of Constantinople. Monks and nuns came to play critical roles in the doctrinal debates at the center of imperial politics.
One of the most important early monasteries was built on the site of the Burning Bush at the foot of Mount Sinai. Recognizing the religious and military significance of this locus sanctus, Justinian I, between 548 and 565, constructed a heavily fortified monastery around the shrine to protect the monks. In the tenth or eleventh century, the monastery took the name of Saint Catherine after acquiring the martyr's relics, which the saint's vita described as having been carried to the mountain by angels. This scene is depicted in The Belles Heures (54.1.1).
Though monasteries were landowners from their inception, in the tenth century they began to acquire substantial gifts of cash, precious liturgical objects, land, and livestock. Monasteries, in turn, provided a haven from the world for pious men and women, as well as for social outcasts in need of assistance. One of the major contributions of the monastic members was their achievement in scholarship, providing instrumental books about hymnography, hagiography, and theology. Monastic centers encouraged a fiercely intellectual environment, requiring literacy of brothers and sisters and creating major libraries. Today, the library at the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine still contains more than 3,000 manuscripts in a variety of languages. Monastic complexes were also patrons and sources of tremendous art and architecture, such as frescoes and wall paintings. The mosaic of the Transfiguration at Saint Catherine's is a splendid example of the artistry encouraged in monastic centers.
Monasticism spread quickly to western Europe. The Rule of Saint Benedict, compiled in the first half of the sixth century, laid the foundation for the form of monastic life most commonly practiced there. The rule—with its stress on moderation, obedience to the monastery's leader (the abbot), and a prescribed program of prayer, work, and study—synthesized many of the teachings of the desert hermits and early Christian writers. By the ninth century, Benedictine monasticism had engendered a typical monastic plan that included a church with an adjacent cloister in the shape of a square courtyard (25.120.398,.399,.452). Around the cloister could generally be found the library, chapter house (35.50), dormitory, refectory, kitchen, cellar, infirmary, and other spaces essential to the daily monastic regimen. The Benedictine order enjoyed long periods of wealth and power. One of its most influential houses, at Cluny in Burgundy, built the great Abbey Church of Saints Peter and Paul, which was reputed to be the largest church in all of Christendom (1980.263.1).
The founding of the Cistercian order in 1098 marked one of the most important monastic reforms in history. One of its champions, Bernard of Clairvaux, famously denounced the excesses of contemporary monasticism in a twelfth-century letter, criticizing the Church because it "clothes its stones in gold" but "leaves its children naked." Though the Cistercian movement advocated a return to strict asceticism by reducing all forms of material life to the bare minimum, the manuscripts its monks produced did not necessarily scorn rich decoration (1999.364.2). The mendicant orders, such as the Franciscans (1994.516) and Dominicans (1982.175), brought about more reforms in the thirteenth century. Drawn to universities and large cities, Franciscan and Dominican friars lived and preached among the people, supporting themselves by working and begging for food (mendicare, to beg).
From its earliest days, the monastic life drew scores of women. Monasteries not only offered women protection for themselves and their property, but also often nourished their intellectual growth and political power. The Benedictine nun Hildegard of Bingen, author, composer, physician, and consultant to popes and kings, is one among many female monastics who participated in the important cultural and political events of her day. Like their male counterparts, abbesses and nuns were patrons and producers of art (29.87). Their monasteries also housed great libraries and contributed to the production of illuminated manuscripts.
Many Catholics and Protestants are looking back to Benedict for the community and spiritual intensity they can't find in modern culture.
Christians struggling for sanctity in a too-comfortable world should pay attention to this observation by Mark Noll: "For over a millennium, in the centuries between the reign of Constantine and the Protestant Reformation, almost everything in the church that approached the highest, noblest, and truest ideals of the gospel was done either by those who had chosen the monastic way or by those who had been inspired in their Christian life by the monks." Can Western monasticism's "father," Benedict, still give us an antidote to cultural compromise?
At first blush, this might seem unlikely, at least in the Western church. Between 1978 and 2004—nearly the entire span of John Paul II's pontificate—the number of men in monastic and religious orders (not including priests) decreased by 46% in Europe and 30% in the Americas, while the number of women decreased by 39% and 27%, respectively. Compare this to the trend in the global South: During the same period, men in monastic and religious orders increased by 48% in Africa and 39% in Asia, with women increasing on those two continents by 62% and 64%.
A number of the Catholic writers in the 2006 volume A Monastic Vision for the 21st Century frankly wonder if "monasticism as we know it" is, in God's providential plan, destined for obsolescence in the West. Yet most suggest that new and powerful forms of the monastic impulse may even now be arising.
This is certainly the impression given by the 21st annual Monastic Institute, held in July 2006 at St. John's Seminary in Collegeville, Minnesota. There, Catholic Benedictines and members of established communities such as L'Arche and the Catholic Worker Movement joined with leaders of new Protestant communities with names like the Simple Way (Pennsylvania), Rutba House (North Carolina), and the Church of the Servant King (Oregon) to mine the riches of Benedict's Rule. This strikingly diverse group—50% Catholic, 50% Protestant—discussed the topic of "new communities" with high hopes that, indeed, God is still in the monastic impulse.
Many signs buoy this hope. Even in the midst of declining numbers, Benedictine monasticism is still thriving on a wide spectrum from the modernized (seen at places like St. John's) to the traditional. In 2000, American monks reestablished a Benedictine monastic community in Benedict's Italian hometown of Nursia, now called Norcia. American Catholic monasticism has seen new life from an unexpected quarter: young men committing themselves to a very traditional form of Benedictine monasticism at the recently founded Clear Creek Monastery near Tulsa, Oklahoma. Clear Creek's monks celebrate the Latin Mass, cultivate Gregorian chant, and practice not only the gospel demands of poverty, chastity, and obedience, but also the distinctly Benedictine gift of hospitality. Many Americans, struck anew with the yearning for holy community rooted deep in the church's history, have come to visit—and a few to stay.
But what if someone does not desire—or does not sense God's call—to make the lifelong vows of celibacy, poverty, and obedience required of monastics? Do the spiritual resources of the monastic tradition have anything to offer to the person who has made commitments to spouse and family, or is pursuing a secular vocation? History gives a resounding "yes." After all, monasticism was never intended to encompass a different set of spiritual values than those followed by all Christians. It offered a means of living the Christian life with more single-minded intensity.
For nearly a millennium, there have been people (one might call them "monastic groupies") who have connected themselves to a monastery in a less formal way, committing to certain spiritual disciplines while remaining in the world. The option of becoming a monastic associate or oblate has enjoyed a recent surge of popularity as both Catholics and Protestants have sought in monastic spirituality something they feel is missing in their own lives.
Also more numerous within the Catholic fold—and arguably no less in the spirit of Benedict himself—are members of a cornucopia of mission-driven ecclesial communities, such as the Christian Life Movement, Chemin Neuf (A New Way), and the Emmanuel Community. In June 2006, the same month that the Monastic Institute met in Minnesota, Pope Benedict XVI met with over 100 new ecclesial groups in St. Peter's Square.
Each is committed to following a disciplined pattern of life—some communally and some in the regular spheres of family and work—and to serving the world in its own way. Many include married couples along with priests and individuals who have taken vows of celibacy and poverty. Though the ecclesial communities are not deliberately "monastic," they are meeting needs that in previous centuries could only have been met by joining a monastery.
Many of us yearn to be deeply rooted in Christ in a way that reflects his holiness, and to share this rooted, holy life with a community, but we find this hard to do in the modern West. Our culture pushes us to strive for individual fulfillment, to consume more and more, and to spend much of our lives working to pay for that consumption. The result has been a world of constant mobility, alienation, and loneliness. Quasi-monastic movements like the Catholic ecclesial communities reveal a deep desire for connectedness—a sense that we need to live a regular, disciplined life of devotion to God, and that we can't do it alone.
In Protestant circles, this monastic impulse can be seen especially in the phenomenon of intentional communities. Among these, the self-described "new monastics" have taken their cue from philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre. In his influential 1981 book After Virtue, MacIntyre compared the state of the West to the decadence of the late Roman Empire, and called for "another—doubtless very different—St. Benedict." In 1998 Jonathan R. Wilson picked up MacIntyre's ideas and put them into more explicitly Christian form in Living Faithfully in a Fragmented World. He fleshed out a call for a "new monasticism" that would allow the church to truly be the church in this troubling, fragmented age.
In a time when, it seems to Wilson and the new monastics, "many parts of the church are sinking with the culture and doing so without any resistance," Benedict's wisdom has again become a fount of inspiration and guidance. In School(s) for Conversion: 12 Marks of a New Monasticism (which emerged from a 2004 meeting of "new monastic" communities) leaders concluded that at least some Christians must engage in some form of separation—not only from the "culture at large," but also from the increasingly compromised church—to model a life of true devotion and obedience to Christ.
But historically, of course, monastics have not stopped at separation—nor do these "new monastics." Benedict founded a monastic way in which hospitality to the stranger and the needy is a prophetic witness to the world. Thus these new quasi-monastic communities have dedicated themselves not only to contemplative disciplines and submission to a communal rule, but also to solidarity with the poor, racial reconciliation, and peacemaking.
Passing Fad or Promising Future?
Even in the midst of such celebration, members of new communities, both Catholic and Protestant, are aware that the current love affair with monastic forms of worship and life can amount to another unhelpful "fad" as people run after books and retreats. A few candles and a few chanted prayers do not a prophetic community make.
Time will tell whether the "new monastic" communities will survive, whether the traditional Benedictine monasteries will continue to thrive, and what new forms of counter-cultural, prayerful, prophetic community will arise to inspire Christians and shake the culture. But for now, the future of Benedict seems as bright as his past.
Chris Armstrong is associate professor of church history at Bethel Seminary and a senior editor of Christian History & Biography. The author thanks Dennis Martin for his guidance on the current state of Roman Catholic monasticism.


Clearly there is no right answer here - it's totally your decision as to what you value and need from the camper van. High demand has given life to camper van rental companies beyond count and many offer more or less the same thing. However, there are also many differences which means somewhere out there is the perfect rental no matter what you are looking for.
Here is a run-down of some of the most popular companies so you can decide what your ideal fit is.
A little bit of everything is offered by Mighty, from campers suited to the tight budget-restricted to those in search of a bit more space and comfort with a larger model motor-home.
Minimum hire age – 18 years for some models, 21 years for all. Vehicle types – 2-6 berth, small campers to big motor-homes. Self-contained options – yes, all of Mighty's camper vans are self-contained. Insurance details – 2 options – basic included in daily hire with excess of NZ$3500 (for smaller vans) to NZ$5000 and a zero excess for NZ$36 per day.
Special deals – Mighty run a price match scheme as well as offering discounts for longer term hire.
Which van design will you choose???
There are probably no more easily distinguished vans in all of New Zealand than those of Escape. Aimed very much at the backpacker market, each of its 200 odd camper van fleet has been individually painted. All are funky and distinctive; some are downright crazy or quirky. If a particular design catches your fancy you can ask for that exact van and stand a good chance of getting it if you get in early enough. Escape vehicles are very popular.
Rates are typically as low as you will find with a reputable company as they boast – and indeed do – keep a constant eye on all competitor prices to match them.
Minimum hire age - 18 years. Vehicle types - Toyota Hiace and Nissan Caravan campervans – sleeping up to 3 persons. Self-contained options – yes, if you buy an optional extra kit. Insurance details – 3 grades with excess options NZ$0- NZ$4000, from NZ$22 per day. Covered for driving on unsealed roads with the 'No Worries Mate' full insurance option.
Special deals – Escape tends to have specials and promotions coming out of their ears. You might find such things as $18 a day camper hire charges for rentals of 20+ days, camp site discounts that could save you up to NZ$300, 10% discounts on Christchurch to Auckland one ways and even the chance to win NZ$250 by sending in a shot of your van while you're on the road.
What's more, talk to Escape about any relocations needed and you might be able to have the van for free. Be aware that these relocation deals typically have a fairly rigid time schedule attached.
Renting everything from small hi-top campers to luxury motorhomes, this award wining, family owned and operated camper rental company known as Wendekreisen have been on the scene since the early 90s. The fleet of 200 vehicles range from small 2 berth hitops to large 6 berth motorhomes. And if being environmentally friendly is one of your key deciding factors, all the CO2 emissions from Wendekreisen's campervans all offset with their Carbon Project.
Minimum hire age - 21 years – must have had a full licence for a minimum of 1 year. Vehicle types – 2-6 berth campers, station wagons+roof tent and a budget range of 2-4 berth campers. Self-contained options - yes. Insurance details – 3 grades with excess options NZ$250- NZ$2000, from NZ$16 per day.
Described as 'the Swiss army knife of campers' these ingenious little vehicles can at first glance appear to be somewhat inadequate for a camping trip. However, think TARDIS – they are so incredibly well-designed that every inch of space has been utilised in some clever way. This means you get what in essence is no bigger than a large car making it easy to park and drive, more economical on fuel and less costly for the North to South Island ferry crossing.
It doesn't look like it would have the space but nevertheless Spaceships come with a full size double bed which can be used inside in winter or extended out the back into a waterproof rear awning with insect screen in the summer. In short – a Spaceship 'drives like a car, sleeps like a camper' is how the folks at Spaceship sell their rental campers.
Minimum hire age - 18 years. Vehicle types – 5 different styles of custom fitted Toyoto people movers – 2 berth. Self-contained options – yes – but only with one of the vehicle styles – the Dreamer. Insurance details - 3 grades with excess options NZ$0- NZ$3000, from NZ$20 per day. Covered for driving on unsealed roads with the zero excess option, full cover insurance.
Special deals – Spaceships offer several discounts and deals on a regular basis such as seasonal 20% discounts, relocation deals, long term hire discounts and early booking 5% discounts.
Offering a diverse range of campers from the compact to the fully fitted-out motor-home variety and for both budget and high-end customers, Euro Campers's vehicles are all self-contained.
Minimum hire age - 18 years for some vehicles, 21 years for all vehicles. Vehicle types – a diverse fleet of campers, hi-tops and motor homes with 2-6 berth options. Self-contained options – yes – all Euro Campers's vehicles are self-contained. Insurance details – Euro Campers has a 'one package' policy which means the hire price includes full insurance and with an excess of only NZ$250 (NZ$2500 on some vehicles for under 21s) offers one of the best deals around with regard to this. Within this you are covered for tyres, windscreen and glass too. Driving on unsealed/gravel roads is not permitted.
Each of the vehicles in the fleet of Euro Campers offers something different. The following applies to the lowest priced budget sleeper so will be the minimum you can expect to find. For the higher priced vehicles you may get lots more.
None offered as the equipment levels already include most if not all of what other companies would offer as extras.
Special deals – Euro Campers occasionally offers special discounts such as a seasonal 25% discount. It also operates a discount system to encourage people to book early e.g. book 7 months in advance for a 5% discount, 6 months in advance for a 4% discount and so forth.
out of hours collections and returns possible for NZ$80 fee.
Then why not try using a comparison site such as Compare and Choose who work with some of the top campervan rental companies in New Zealand to find you the best priced campervans available to you.


text:
The one area AI still falls flat by Gillian Tett in FT Magazine 18 December 2021
Jan 7, 2022 | AI, AI ARTICLES, TSR ARTICLES | 0 |
Jokes are good examples of edge cases, which AI cannot yet address.
Edge cases are those instances of a particularly rare event in a certain environment. In the UK, the classic example is the instance of a particular type of wet leaves on the railway lines causing the trains to stop running. In the arena of driverless cars, there are many examples such as roadworks or car accidents. In language, jokes make edge cases. So much of AI these days works on the back of big data. A really good joke comprises various elements, one of which is novelty. By definition, there will not be much data underpinning brand new jokes. So, AI is still no laughing matter. Why did the driverless car crash? The human passenger said, 'Move over and I'll drive.'
Link to article: https://www.ft.com/content/a71171ea-9483-4e87-8c50-fe9a3df81cd6
You may also like to browse other AI articles: https://www.thesentientrobot.com/category/ai/ai-articles/
PreviousAI for all by Gabriela Ramos in New Scientist 4 December 2021
NextAnimal magic by Sam Wong in News Scientist 18 December 2021


text:
Most Likely to Succeed? Ms. Stern
On March 8, 2019 March 8, 2019 By winsorpanelIn Back Page
By, Sam G. '19
"Most Likely to Succeed?" is a new column being introduced to the 2018-2019 Panel Backpage. In this column, the Backpage editors interview a highly-respected Winsor faculty member about an embarrassing or difficult time in their life, specifically during their middle school, high school, and early college years. The purpose of "Most Likely to Succeed?" is to teach Winsor's student body that you, in fact, do not need to be fully formed at the age of 14.
"I switched to an independent school in 10th grade, and it was a culture shock," began Ms. Stern. Ms. Stern, who had gone to public school in New York City up until 9th grade, used to find that she didn't have to "work very hard to do well" in her advanced and gifted classes; she "did the homework, studied for tests, and just did well." Ms. Stern said that upon entering 10th grade at her new school, however, "doing that same amount of work was not getting [Ms. Stern] the grades [she] had gotten before [the change in schools]." Many students attended the new school for a significantly longer time than Ms. Stern, and "they were all getting As and were all in the advanced classes." "I started feeling really like I was stupid," Ms. Stern confessed, often comparing herself to her classmates who were "getting As when [she] was getting Bs." "We would have reading to do for English class, and I'd do the reading, and then we'd be in class the next day discussing…and I'd be sitting there thinking, 'I did the reading, but I didn't see any of that.'" Ms. Stern would quickly jump to conclusions, wondering "what's wrong with me? I must be stupid." What Ms. Stern didn't realize at the time, however, was that her classmates "had been doing that kind of stuff for as many as ten years," whereas she was just learning new academic skills such as close reading. Ms. Stern said that "[she] started feeling really bad about [herself], causing her to develop a coping strategy, telling herself "well, if I don't try hard, and I do badly, then I can tell myself it's because I didn't try"; Ms. Stern thought if she tried hard in her classes and did poorly, "it must have meant that [she] was stupid." "It never somehow occurred to me that I could try and do well," and "mostly it felt like I just didn't measure up," said Ms. Stern on the remainder of her high school experience.
The feeling of academic inferiority that Ms. Stern carried throughout high school began to change in college, when she "started to do better, although it took a while to get to that." Upon looking at her friends from high school, who are all turning 60 this year, Ms. Stern sees a wide breadth of careers, few of which were expected by their level of success in high school. "A lot of us are just doing good jobs and interesting work," said Ms. Stern; in fact, one of her friends from high school "who got all As all the time" is a librarian, like Ms. Stern, who said "we're basically doing the same thing." Ms. Stern commented that "at the time, it felt like I was being left in the dust, but I wasn't really." Ms. Stern added that when she "sees students [at Winsor] feeling like they're stupid because they haven't cloned a gene or won an Olympic medal," she considers her high school peers and their life paths. "There was all that angst about who got an A and who got a B… but now we all have interesting lives and have gone through some difficult stuff…and just because we're not famous or wealthy, it all ends up that you just want to repair the world and do what you can to make things better for people."
issue 7most likely to succeedsam gvolume 67
Student Athletes: Transitioning from High School to College
The Real Patriots Parade
VIH played a strong Portsmouth Abbey program today and battled it out! Portsmouth Abbey came on with the victory 8-… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 5 days ago
Congratulations VBB on their Victory over Bancroft today 60 - 54. 5 days ago
Great game for MD1BB against a talented Beaver team! Winsor came up 1 point short 29-30. So proud of all of you!👏🏼 5 days ago
Follow @WinsorAthletics


The UC Davis Farmers Market is designed to promote student health as well as local and UC Davis food products. It is a seasonal on-campus extension of the Davis Farmers Market. It runs each Wednesday of fall and spring quarters from 11:00 am to 1:30 pm.
The UC Davis Farmers Market developed from a collaboration between a number of campus partners in an effort to increase access to fresh, local produce for busy UC Davis students, staff and faculty during fall and spring quarters. A 2011 survey of UC Davis students found that over 60% eat two or fewer servings of fruits and vegetables a day. The UC Davis Farmers Market offers an easy and convenient way for the UCD community to incorporate more nutrition-packed fruits and vegetables into their diet. The campus is operated under the umbrella of multiple sponsoring departments including Student Health & Counseling Services' Health Education & Promotion, UC Davis Stores, Campus Recreation and Unions, Davis Farmers Market Association, ASUCD Coffee House, UC Davis Student Housing, and UC Davis Dining Services to make this a possibility.
Every Wednesday morning the market occurs, UC Davis Dining Services sends out a weekly email to members of a listserve to give a brief reminder of the date and time of the market. It also includes nutritional data on some of the produce available and quick, easy recipes. To sign up for this listserve managed by UC Davis Dining Services, click here.
Voucher Program Visit the Health Education & Promotion table at the UC Davis Farmers Market to win $1 vouchers for the market. These vouchers are sponsored by the market sponsors.
In addition, Aggie Cash is accepted at the market through a dollar-for-dollar exchange for Market Dollars, which can be used both at the UC Davis Farmers Market and the Davis Farmers Market downtown.
Star Ginger - Offering a variety of bahn mi sandwiches, rice bowls, and Thai tea.
Gunrock Pub and Harvest Bakery Booth - Local and market inspired soups, sandwiches and salads from Gunrock Pub and delicious sweet treats baked fresh on campus at Harvest Bakery.
Shah's Halal Food - Offering a selection of Mediterranean and Persian halal foods.


text:
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Expert InterviewsK-CastMedical World NewsPodcastsPopulation Health Perspectives
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Sponsored ResourcesSurveys
Do Not Sell My Personal Informations
© 2021 MJH Life Sciences and Managed Healthcare Executive. All rights reserved.
How to Reduce Maternal, Infant Health Risks During COVID-19
Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis: Patient Impact and Coverage Implications for New Therapies
The Improving Patient Access Podcast
Health/Disease Strategy
Leukemia and Lymphoma
Obstetrics-Gynecology & Women's Health
© 2021 MJH Life Sciences™ and Managed Healthcare Executive. All rights reserved.
Do Certificate-of-Need Laws Still Make Sense in 2019?
Matthew D. Mitchell
MHE Publication, Vol 29 No 9, Volume 29, Issue 9
They were formed to provide greater access to healthcare and lower costs, but they may be doing more harm than good.
It's a usual regulation in a healthcare industry known for plenty of unusual rules: In 36 states and the District of Columbia, a healthcare provider hoping to open or expand her patient offerings must first prove to regulators that her community needs the service.
Providers can spend years and burn through tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to prove this need and thus obtain what is called a "certificate of need" (or CON). The CON process can be required for both small and large investments: from hospital beds and gamma knives to new hospitals and neo-natal intensive care units.
Originally intended to discourage the use of expensive technologies and procedures, in many states a CON is now required for relatively lower-cost modes of care such as ambulatory surgery centers and for services unlikely to be over-prescribed such as drug-rehabilitation services and hospice care.
The federal government once required states to have CON rules in order to obtain certain federal funds. But since the repeal of that mandate in the late 1980s, a substantial minority have done away with their CON programs. Of those that have retained the regulation, many have scaled it back. In June, Florida moved to eliminate its CON requirements for new hospitals, specialty hospitals converting to general hospitals, and for a raft of other service providers such as children's care and substance abuse hospitals.
Related article: The Future of the ACA
About four in 10 Americans now live in a state without a CON requirement. These include urban, rural, low-income, and high-income populations alike. What are the experiences of patients and providers in these communities? What has happened to access, quality, and costs of care?
Using decades' worth of state data, researchers can compare outcomes in CON and non-CON states. These statistical analyses include control variables that account for possibly confounding factors such as local economic and demographic patterns.
Their findings are consistent with economic theory: CON laws seem to limit access to healthcare, fail to increase the quality of care, and contribute to higher costs. I take each of these in turn.
The strongest evidence on the effects of CON relates to access to care. Economic theory predicts that a CON law will restrict the supply of healthcare services, and that once repealed, patients will tend to access greater levels of care.
Indeed, researchers have found that states that have removed these rules have more hospitals and more ambulatory surgery centers per capita. They also have more hospital beds, dialysis clinics, and hospice care facilities. Patients in non-CON states are more likely to utilize medical imaging technologies and less likely to leave their communities in search of care. Though CON advocates sometimes claim that the rules protect rural facilities, states without CON laws have more rural hospitals and more rural ambulatory surgery centers than states with CON laws.
Advocates also sometimes claim that CON rules encourage hospitals to provide low-cost or uncompensated care to low-income individuals. The idea here is to create a sort of quid-pro-quo: CON will protect hospitals from competition, and in return, hospitals will provide charity care. In some states, this quid-pro-quo is explicitly built into the CON approval process. In others, it is assumed. The evidence, however, suggests that there is no higher rate of charity care in states with CON laws. There is, however, greater racial disparity in the provision of care in CON states relative to non-CON states.
Though the CON approval process is not meant to directly assess a provider's qualifications, safety record, or treatment success rate, it is sometimes said that CON programs might indirectly improve quality. The idea is that CON might cause more procedures to be channeled through fewer providers, allowing those providers to improve their proficiency. While not unreasonable, the idea must be weighed against another, well-supported proposition: that competition tends to elevate quality.
What do the data say? Early studies tended to focus on individual procedures such as coronary bypass surgery and had a difficult time distinguishing causation from correlation. The results were mixed, with some early studies associating CON with higher-quality outcomes, others with lower-quality outcomes, and still others with mixed or inclusive results. One recent study is worth discussing in detail because it touched on multiple aspects of the patient experience and because its careful research design makes it possible to draw causal inferences.
Related article: How Medicaid Expansion Impacts Cardiovascular Health
Two of my colleagues, George Mason University Professor Thomas Stratmann and PhD graduate student David Wille, set out to assess the effects of CON on hospital quality using Hospital Compare, a database maintained by CMS. This database assesses quality through multiple dimensions-everything from patient satisfaction surveys to heart attack readmission rates to pneumonia mortality rates.
In a unique research design, Stratmann and Wille estimate the effects of CON by looking at healthcare markets spanning CON and non-CON states. This allows them to control for other, unobservable, factors that might affect health outcomes such as culture and environment. Like other CON researchers, they also control for several observable demographic and hospital characteristics that might confound their estimates.
Stratmann and Wille find that hospitals in non-CON states have statistically significantly lower mortality rates for pneumonia, heart failure, and heart attack. They also find lower mortality rates among surgical inpatients with serious treatable complications. Compared with hospitals in states that require CONs for four or more services, hospitals in non-CON states have lower readmission rates for heart failure and heart attack. Patients in these states are more likely to rate their hospital experience highly.
An initial goal of CON was to limit the utilization of costly and unnecessary care. The federal legislation that encouraged states to adopt CON rules lamented a "massive infusion of Federal funds into the existing healthcare system [that] has contributed to inflationary increases in the cost of healthcare."
CON might seem an unusual instrument to achieve this end. After all, it is a supply restriction-and supply restrictions tend to increase the costs of goods and services, not decrease them. Moreover, by throttling competition, supply restrictions are likely to permit providers greater latitude to raise prices.
Still, by limiting access to healthcare services, CON might reduce the total amount spent per patient or per citizen, even if it raises the cost per service. What do the data show here?
I recently reviewed two decades' worth of peer-reviewed studies-every academic assessment of CON and spending that I could find. Four studies estimate the effects of CON on cost per service. None find that CON reduces per-unit costs. Three of the four find that it is associated with higher per-unit costs. The most recent, for example, finds that five years after repeal of CON, charges are about 5.5% lower than they would otherwise be. The fourth study-which only focuses on per-diem Medicaid charges for nursing home and long-term care-found no statistically significant effect.
Twelve studies estimate the effects of CON on spending per patient or per citizen. Of these, seven find that CON is associated with higher spending, two find no statistically-significant effect, and two find that it is associated with higher spending in some areas and lower spending in others.
Only one study finds a connection between CON and lower spending, and it was tenuous at best: The author finds that CON is associated with fewer hospital beds, which are, in turn, associated with slightly slower growth in healthcare expenditures per capita. Importantly, however, the author finds no direct relationship between CON and such expenditures.
Taken as a whole, the literature suggests that CON is associated with both higher per-unit costs and greater total expenditures.
Showing the way
The six in 10 Americans who live in states with CON laws need not speculate about what would happen should these regulations be removed. Both economic theory and data accumulated over the last four decades strongly suggest that CON removal will result in greater access to higher-quality, lower-cost care.
Matthew D. Mitchell is a senior research fellow and director of the Equity Initiative at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He's overseen and authored numerous studies on the effects of state certificate-of-need laws.
Download Issue : Vol 29 No 9


A month after 2018 kicked in?
Yes, Team Flyer, why not? Can you tell me why do we always have to wait until a brand new year to kick in the resolutions? Why not now in February? Or mid-year? Or even in the middle of October? When is there a right time to change your life? There isn´t. Duh, because now is a good enough time as any.
So… let´s get talking. I am not surely too big on resolutions. I am big on just believing that change takes time and to get to change you have to take action. Sure, the first step can be making a list, regardless of the fact you write them down or now. Then, after that? Well, comes all the hard work. Day in, day out to get to your goal. I know in the next weeks and months, I will still be binge watching my favorite tv shows, I will still be going to bed a little too late, I will still be finding a way to get everything done every day without stopping…. And these things I am partly okay with.
Granted I have made it a quest for me that this year I need to rest and relax more, tying that together with the last thing I just said… even if my list is not all done, I need to know that I did a good job with the day and learn that you can leave things for the following morning since that makes you will rest.
Moving onward we can sure make a list of other things I want to do. Maybe you see yourself reflected in some, maybe you want to add your own. Whatever they may come, they come in no particular order and desire. They are realistic things that I want to get done, knowing that they will take time and work to achieve them.
I will leave all social media behind at a reasonable hour before going to bed. This includes posting for you lovelies, as well as talking to friends. Leaving a huge imprint on talking to people (those people who aren't friends but need stuff from you), talking to ex or flings or anything in the love spectrum that doesn't require my full attention at that time since they are passengers, watching videos that lead to getting me hyped up at the wrong time, just to name a few. These conversations and energy will be better after getting eight hours of sleep and getting my mind equally as rested.
I will eat healthier. Now, this is something I have been achieving slowly and surely already. Nonetheless, working with kids, there are a whole lot of cookies and sugary treats. So, getting that out of the way completely, I also have to exclude certain food. Even though that is just me being me, I´d like to exclude food like meat and greasy fried food as much as I can. Especially for dinner, gosh, my stomach does not need that much food right before bed.
Appreciate, appreciate and appreciate. Granted, I know if you know me, you know I do this often. I love being thankful and letting my close ones know how much they mean to me. I shall continue with this because that is just who I am.
Know boundaries and know who is who. This links up with number three. Since my real friends who know appreciated I am of them and we have constant real talks… I also want to talk to myself and see who I am allowing into my own inner circle. Since this is a tricky thing, as I meet new people and have them as a constant, reflect on how much they mean to me and how the relationship goes both ways. This will save me lots of mini heartbreak and headaches and explosions. This one is going to take me some time since it comes so natural to me to be friendly and let people hang.
I want to be more selfish. I want to know what I want more, get in tune with my goals and just think of myself. Sure, love is fun and comes and goes, sure, I can fall in love at any time of my life, nonetheless… before that comes into my life, I want to know myself a million times more every day. Even though it is something I can do while having a partner, I must say that it is much better to take advantage of singlehood and do it as much as you can. Hence, I wanting to talk to myself on a daily basis to figure out the whole she-bang called life.
So, these five are big ones, let´s wait another week to get another five more to be honest because there is more where that came from. Let me know yours, let me know how you are doing with yours, just chat away, we are always here listening, open heartily and honestly… Team Flyer, yo.


Learn how to operate, provision, and maintain a Tellabs Optical LAN system.
In this course, you will learn how to operate, provision, and maintain a Tellabs Optical LAN Access system using the Tellabs Panorama PON Manager. After a brief introduction to the Tellabs Optical LAN system and hardware functionality, you will learn how to provision the system to provide the voice, data, and video services and applications supported by the Tellabs Optical LAN system. You will also learn tools and procedures for monitoring and maintaining the system.
This course includes hands-on activities using a Tellabs training lab equipment. It is designed to help you reinforce concepts that have been presented.
Individuals responsible for operating, provisioning, maintaining, and monitoring a Tellabs Optical LAN system.


text:
Games, 2014, Electroids, Series 1
Final Version Series 1
The Electroids Game was a game on the Cartoon Network Mixels website.
Although Mixels.com was nullified in 2018, the game remained on Cartoon Network's site. It was removed from Cartoon Network's website in 2019, but can still be accessed from various third-party sites.
Players have to guide Cubits of a certain color through a mess of other Cubits. If the tower touches a wrong colored Cubit, it will blow apart and land in a different location. A timer is set up for difficulty.
The game is based off of "Pokémon - Towering Legends", and reuses various assets from it.
.swf file of the game
Retrieved from "https://mixels.fandom.com/wiki/Electroids_Game?oldid=360569"


text:
Q: Trying to script a matrix multiplication experiment So I am tasked with scripting a program that multiplies random matrices between size 50 and 3000, and I have hit a snag. I am unsure of the best way to change the size while the script is running. I could manually do it but that would take hours of sitting in front of the computer, and I feel like there is a simple way that I am missing. I am aware that if I define these matrices within main, anything over about 800 will cause the proverbial stack overflow, which is why I have placed them outside of main. Unfortunately, now I cannot simply pass N as argv[1]. My question is this: is it possible to be able to script something along these lines:
./matrix 50
./matrix 150
./matrix 200

et cetera
and if so, how?
#include <foo>
#define N 1000

int A[N][N];
int B[N][N];
int result[N][N];

int main(int argc, char *argv[]){
//so on

thank you in advance to all who reply.

A: If the dimension n is passed to the program as an argument, the
malloc/calloc is a good option. I'd do something like this:
int **matrix_create(size_t dim)
{
    int **matrix = calloc(dim, sizeof *matrix);

    if(matrix == NULL)
        return NULL;

    for(size_t i = 0; i < dim; ++i)
    {
        matrix[i] = calloc(dim, sizeof *matrix[i]);
        if(matrix[i] == NULL)
        {
            matrix_free(matrix, dim);
            return NULL;
        }
    }

    return matrix;
}

void matrix_free(int **matrix, size_t dim)
{
    if(matrix == NULL)
        return;

    for(size_t i = 0; i < dim; ++i)
        free(matrix[i]);

    free(matrix);
}

Then you can create the matrix from main like this:
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    if(argc < 2)
    {
        fprintf(stderr, "usage: %s dim\n", argv[0]);
        return 1;
    }

    // just an example of how to convert,
    // you could also use strtol
    size_t dim = atoi(argv[i]);

    int **matrix_a = matrix_create(dim);
    if(matrix_a == NULL)
        return 1;

    int **matrix_b = matrix_create(dim);
    if(matrix_b == NULL)
    {
        matrix_free(matrix_a);
        return 1;
    }

    do_something_with(matrix_a, matrix_b, dim);

    matrix_free(matrix_a);
    matrix_free(matrix_b);

    return 0;
}

Note that I used calloc instead of malloc, because calloc has the benefit
to set 0 to the allocated memory. It's great for initializing and error
handling, because free(NULL) is allowed, so as you see when allocating memory
for the matrix[i] rows, if something goes wrong, I can safely use
matrix_free on the whole matrix.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Country Album Chart News: The Week of February 12, 2014: Florida Georgia Line #1, Eric Paslay Debuts Top 5; Whiskey Myers, Moonshine Bandits, Scotty McCreery
Posted By Matt Bjorke on Wednesday February 12, 2014 at 04:02AM PST 2014-02-12 13:02:00
Once-again, Florida Georgia Line sit atop the Top 10 Country Albums chart this week with Here's To The Good Times, their debut album. Continue on here to see where Eric Paslay, Moonshine Bandits, and Whiskey Myers debuted along with the return of Vince Gill and Paul Franklin's Bakersfield album!
Country Album Chart News: The Week of February, 2014: Musgraves #1, Taylor Swift Top 5, Scotty McCreery, Cassadee Pope, & Keith Urban news
The numbers are out and The Grammy Awards were good to all the nominees but were particularly good to the winning and performing stars of the night, including Country music's stars like Kacey Musgraves. Take a look here for our Complete Top 10 Albums chart with notable notes as well.
Country Album Chart News: The Week of January 29, 2013: Jennifer Nettles Stays #1; Kacey Musgraves, Taylor Swift Return To Top 10
Posted By Matt Bjorke on Wednesday January 29, 2014 at 02:01AM PST 2014-01-29 11:01:00
Talented vocalist and songwriter Jennifer Nettles remains at #1 for a second week in a row with her debut solo album That Girl. Continue on here to see where the rest of the Top 10 Country albums fall (including the return of Kacey Musgraves & Taylor Swift)!
Country Album Chart News: The Week of January 15, 2013: With news on latest albums from Luke, Garth, Cassadee, Danielle and Scotty
Posted By Matt Bjorke on Tuesday January 14, 2014 at 11:01PM PST 2014-01-15 08:01:00
The early part of January is always a tough few weeks for the Music business but perhaps no week is worse than the week chronicled in our rundown this week where the best-seller moved 16,000 copies. Get the full scoop -- as always -- about Country Music's Top 10 albums here!
Country Album Chart News: The Week of January 8, 2013: With news on latest albums from Luke, Garth, Cassadee, Danielle and Scotty
With the holiday shopping season behind us, the retail sales for albums dips lower than perhaps any other point in the year, as it always does, this first full week of January. Continue on here for the full scoop about this week's Top 10 Country Albums with 5 other notable albums, including Duck Dynasty.
Country Album Chart News: The Week of January 2, 2013: Garth Brooks, Duck Dynasty, Cassadee Pope, Danielle Bradbery & Scotty McCreery
Posted By Matt Bjorke on Thursday January 02, 2014 at 03:01AM PST 2014-01-02 12:01:00
With another 91k sold, Blame It All On My Roots showcases the sales power that Garth Brooks still holds with sales over 3/4 million 8 disc box sets in just 4 weeks on the charts. Get the full details on that set and the rest of the Top 10 with 10 more notable album releases, exclusively here!
Country Album Chart News: December 26, 2013: Garth, Duck Dynasty, Scotty McCreery, Cassadee Pope, Danielle Bradbery Strong Sellers
Posted By Matt Bjorke on Thursday December 26, 2013 at 06:12AM PST 2013-12-26 15:12:00
Once again we find Garth Brooks dominating the Roughstock Top 10 Country Music Albums Sales chart. Blame It All On My Roots outsells the competition by nearly 60k this week. Continue on here to see the entire Top 10 and 10 Notable albums sold this week.
Album Review: Duck Dynasty's "Duck The Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas"
Posted By Matt Bjorke on Sunday December 22, 2013 at 06:12AM PST 2013-12-22 15:12:00
With their stardom higher than perhaps anyone in America at the moment of Duck The Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas, it was inevitable that the family would find the time to craft such an album of Yuletide fare. But is it worth the time for anyone but the show's biggest fans?
Country Album Chart News: The Week of December 18, 2013: Garth Brooks, Duck Dynasty, Cassadee Pope, Parmalee, & Scotty McCreery
Posted By Matt Bjorke on Wednesday December 18, 2013 at 03:12AM PST 2013-12-18 12:12:00
With sales surpassing Gold, Duck Dyansty's Robertson Family has managed to wrangle one of the year's most interesting stories and album releases with Duck The Halls. Check out here to see how Garth's Box set and the rest of the Top 10 and 10 interesting albums fared this week!
Mickey Guyton Releases New Single "Sister"


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10 reasons people are lonely? It's more complicated than that
Sue Bourne
In the making of The Age of Loneliness, I set out to find people brave enough to tell me about their feelings on camera, and found some surprising results
Mon 4 Jan 2016 06.52 EST Last modified on Wed 20 Sep 2017 14.36 EDT
'We're all a bit scared of of being alone. Of being left. Of not being loved. Or cared about.' Photograph: Alamy
How do you make a film about loneliness that isn't bleak and despairing? It's hugely important subject, and it's reaching such epidemic proportions in Britain that I knew I had to make a film. And somehow make a film people would watch – and not run away from.
Loneliness is dangerous: ignore it at your peril | Philippa Perry
The problem I think is that we're all a bit scared of loneliness – of being alone. Of being left. Of not being loved. Or needed. Or cared about. "Lonely" hits a spot of fear in all of us even if we don't acknowledge it. So a year ago, I set out to find people who were brave enough to admit and talk about how lonely they were. But I wanted to find people whose stories offered hope – either because they'd found a way of dealing with loneliness or because they had something in their lives that, even in a small way, alleviated their loneliness.
What was also vital was that the focus moved beyond old people. The loneliness epidemic is affecting people of all ages. It can be as big a problem for young and middle-aged people as for their grandparents.
I wish after making The Age of Loneliness I could identify 10 key reasons people today are lonely. And 10 key things that could be done to help. But it's complex. And lonely people can be hard to do something for because they often don't want to admit they are lonely and need help.
Why are we so lonely? Society has changed – our communities, villages, towns and cities are different. We move away from our support networks – for work, for training, for college, for university. If we have children we are usually no longer surrounded by our relatives. The company of babies and young children may be magical, but it can also make us feel lonely. Then vast numbers of us get divorced so we don't have the companionship of a partner to go through life with. Losing your job or constantly having to move for work makes your rootless.
'I wish I could identify 10 key reasons people today are lonely. And 10 key things that could be done to help. But it's complex.' Photograph: Alamy
Mental health can be a factor in loneliness too. In the film, Christine, Martin and Iain talk eloquently about the isolation of living with mental health problems and their different solutions.
And of course as we all start living longer, that means even if we do have a partner one of us will die and the other will spend much of their so-called twilight years alone – at an age when they are least able to fend for themselves.
As we all start living longer, it means we will probably spend much of our so-called twilight years alone
That all sounds a bit bleak. But there are definite glimmers of hope. What I discovered over the last year is an enormous and wonderful network of charities and volunteers – people who talk on the phone to lonely people, who organise parties for them, who befriend or visit, who run groups and outings. When you see what a difference such a small thing as a cup of tea or a chat can make to someone's life it really does make you want to sign up immediately.
I learned from the remarkable 93-year-old Bob that he expects to feel lonely for the rest of his life because his beloved Kath is no longer by his side, though he takes great comfort from her ashes seated in the chair next to him. But equally importantly, he has started volunteering – it gives him a purpose, a reason to get out of bed. He doesn't deny how lonely he is but he's trying his best to keep going.
Loneliness is not a private matter | Emily White
Olive, at 100, sits there day in day out, craving someone to chat to. The high point of her life is the monthly tea party that brings together lonely over 75s. But it also gives a purpose to lonely younger people like Kylie, who says as a volunteer she gets as much out of the occasion as people like Olive.
Some men can find it hard to talk about their emotions, so it was all the more remarkable that 72-year-old Richard was willing to go on camera and talk about how lonely he was following the death of his wife. Loneliness, he said, scared him more than death and the prospect of another 20-plus years on his own horrified him. He's taken to internet dating with a vengeance, though admits his chances of success are probably slim. In spite of material wealth and a large family, Richard says it just doesn't fill the void in his life. And that is what I heard again and again. People of all ages missed someone to do nothing with. To chat idly. To sit next to. Part of me feels we have to train ourselves to enjoy solitude more. And perhaps also work harder at being kind to others and creating new support networks to replace the traditional ones, now lost.
From knitting to BDSM: readers on where to find a sense of community
As people distance themselves from organised religion, we asked you about your communities and what they mean
Your thoughts: how do you stay happy?
How I swapped the loneliness of the cross-country runner for the cosiness of the club
Are your friends really your friends?
10 ways to beat loneliness


Your car has many gauges to tell you about the state of your car: how hot is the engine? Does it have enough gas? Does it need more oil? How is the air pressure in each of your tires? Gauges are a great way to measure some basic, important information about one of your key assets.
But how are you doing? While our bodies don't come with the same built-in gauges, there is a way to check some of your body's most basic, important health information. That is why we offer reduced rate blood tests at our Early Blood Draw & Health Fair events. In a series of events taking place Saturday, January 26, through Saturday, February 23, we'll be serving Ridgway, Olathe and Montrose with events that not only serve the people in these cities, but also provide convenient access to health gauges for many of our Friends & Family in the surrounding communities.
As of this writing, more than 2,700 people have registered for their blood draw, and hundreds more will be a walk-in at other events including our Health Fair on Saturday, February 23. Our events offer a variety of screenings, including our HealthScreen (Chemistry) & Lipid Panel, $45; Hemoglobin A1C, $35; PSA for Prostate Health, $30; Complete Blood Count, $20; Vitamin D Screening, $40; Vitamin B-12, $40; and Male Testosterone, $45.
If this is the first you're hearing about our events, I have good news for you: it's not too late. You can attend the MMH Health Fair on Saturday, February 23 at the Montrose Pavilion between 6:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. and receive your blood draw. No registration is required – just show up with cash or check payment (no credit cards accepted) and make sure you fast for 12 hours before arriving. Take your medications as usual. We will not bill your insurance.
Our health fair event offers additional perks: we have other 'gauges' to help you, including blood pressure checks, BMI screenings and more. More will be announced in the coming weeks – please visit www.MontroseHospital.com for the most up-to-date information.
It's our pleasure to serve our Friends & Family and help provide them information about the state of their health. Although this screening does not take the place of a visit to your healthcare provider, these gauges are incredibly helpful to your provider during your annual checkup.


Russian military is set to receive a new, improved version of the iconic Tu-160M long-range bomber. The jet will get modern avionics, weaponry, radar and other upgrades which would make it better in virtually every aspect.
The Russian military is expected to receive the highly modernized variant of the iconic Tu-160M long-range bomber in 2021, Russia's Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said. On Wednesday, he and other top military officials visited a plant in the city of Kazan, where the modernized planes are being produced.
"The plane is fitted with new-gen NK-32 engines that greatly expand their operational range and flight time," Shoigu said.
While the existing planes are set to receive serious modernization – with basically only hulls remaining in place – the Russian Defense Ministry has also voiced plans to produce additional bombers.
The Tu-160 long-range bombers were introduced in late 1980s, shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union. The plane was created as a carrier of long-range cruise missiles, fitted with nuclear warheads, yet it's capable of carrying other –conventional – and less destructive munitions.
The Tu-160 saw action for the very first time during the Russian anti-terrorism campaign in Syria, where they were used to strike militants' munitions depots, HQs and other important targets.


Beginning October 8, 2014, your favorite health coach and Akhenaten S'L'M-Bey, AKA "The Witch Doctor" will bring to you a 30-minute segment within the Night Watch Expressions program which aires from midnight to 3 am EST each TWednesday. You will be inspired and empowered to thrive in life and love while fulfilling your divine purpose.
We will share our expertise in the areas of personal development, nutrition, healing and spirituality. We will share true stories from our clients, educational and life experiences that will encourage our listeners to take care of their body temples in order to support them as they pursuit their hopes and dreams.
Tune-in at http://www.wrfg.org from anywhere in the world.


This is a topic for members to exchange birthday celebrations and holiday greetings and news.
If you know that someone's birthday is coming up, here is a good place to say Happy Birthday.
Also, it has just been Thanksgiving in USA so American members can tell Europeans about that!
Well, Thanksgiving Day in the USA is a secular holiday (with some generic religious themes of appreciating our blessings) celebrating the arrival & survival of the first Puritan settlers (English Protestants) to the New England area of the North American continent in the 17th century. By extension, it celebrates all early settlers who came to what became the USA. Canada also celebrates a Thanksgiving holiday, in October rather than November. Thanksgiving Day is sort of a mix of harvest festival, a salute to the early European settlers, & a time to connect with family & friends (whether in person over a huge feast or by long-distance communications of telephone, email, etc.) It has also more & more over the years come to signify the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. And, of course, the men love to watch football matches (American style) on this day!
The meal is very important & the generic holiday meal is usually considered to be roasted turkey with some kind of highly seasoned bread-based stuffing/dressing (or other carbohydrate base such as rice), also some kind of sweet-potato dish, some variety of cranberry sauce or compote, & various pies for dessert. Of course, there are various vegetable accompaniments to the meal. Each area of the country has its own variation on the preferred foods for the meal, & the feast will incorporate the favored specialties of the area (seafood in coastal areas, fowl, beef, pork, or game in others). Turkey is almost de rigueur in addition to any other meat dishes. Pies tend to be the favored dessert with pumpkin (or other winter squash or sweet potato), pecan, & apple pies very common. It seems that eating until one is about to burst is the main focus! It is a wonderful blend of traditions enriched over the years by all the immigrant cultures that have mixed into the mainstream American experience. And although it was only my husband & me here yesterday, we had a traditional kind of meal (only no turkey-- chicken breasts browned in butter then baked in a casserole over a bread stuffing; baked & mashed sweet potatoes with brown sugar, butter & spices; a freshly cooked cranberry sauce; & steamed broccoli-- we skipped having pie because we are already too big!). And we called all family members to visit & ask details of each others' meals. And hubby did indeed watch football! And then today we used up all the leftovers.
But I think the American Thanksgiving, was always about the eating, even though it is a bit late for a real harvest celebration.
I had a very nice Thanksgiving. We had a wild reared local turkey, mashed potatoes (with some sort of other kind of root vegetable) but no stuffing, no sweet potatoes and no cranberries -- and we had fish because my sister is a vegetarian. And salad and other things to make a complete meal.
Alice, your meal sounds delicious! I had wild smoked turkey one year as we knew someone who was a turkey hunter. It was really delicious, much better than the domestic bird.
Thank you . Lussi. We hope to learn about other people's holidays, too.
For Christmas one phone company has put up some great little videos. I think they are very sweet,a change from the usual T.V publiity and Ho-Ho-Ho..
...although I dread the thought of Christmas. Its all about presents now..
This year we will have something special to celebrate,though. Our grandchildren twins are being Baptised on 26th Dec.
Great idea from Orange. They are my mobile phone provider since my first mobile in 1995!
Macdoum, I agree - so many people dread Christmas now. So much expense, so much food, so much work.
We have another Birthday to celebrate today!
to AME! Have a great day!
oh boy, thank you all so much!
Happy Birthday to you - I wish you a sound and happy new year of life.
Sorry that I cannot put a nice picture here, but the programm doesnt work at the moment.
Oh dear,oh dear, I missed your Birthday AME..sorry.
Have a happy year and hope it brings Linda & Sulev back to us.
Now,its Manu's turn.. Happy Birthday..
So, though it is late, Happy Birthday to Bleggi & Ame, and also to Manu, whose birthday is today!