text:
Ten Video Moments from 2006
December 28, 2006 June 15, 2015 Destiny All Articles, Pop Culture, Science & Tech, Video Fun
The past year saw new issues around sex, privacy, media and politics — sometimes, all at the same time. But with TV on the web, and web users on TV, the boundaries melted into a swirl of media — ours, mine, and theirs. Accidental stars discovered they were soaking in it, at the center of a spinning globe that likes to watch.
And everyone else had a lot of fun.
1. Carl Monday is watching you masturbate
A 23-year-old masturbates with the public library's computer — but when he gets outside, there's someone waiting for him. It's Cleveland investigative reporter Carl Monday! "For some, pursuing the porn sites is a favorite past time at local libraries," Monday warned somberly in a news segment broadcast in May. (Monday even follows the "unemployed porn site user" to his parents' home, where he asks for their opinion on their son's public masturbation.) Video of Monday's disturbing ambush interview brought him interent fame, with one entrepreneur selling t-shirts with Monday's dour face (along with the words "Carl Monday is watching you masturbate.") Ultimately even The Daily Show got involved, leading to a surreal encounter in which Carl Monday interviewed Jason Jones interviewing Carl Monday. (Jones turns the tables by asking Monday the same question Monday asked the hapless library masturbator.)
And what happened to the library masturbator? He was sentenced to one year's probation and a promise to avoid all public libraries — and Carl Monday was there in the parking lot to ask for a comment.
Not surprisingly, the comment turned out to be: "Get the hell away from me."
2. "If I were one of those sick-o's..."
"We track library books better than we track pedophiles," Congressman Mark Foley told America's Most Wanted, adding "If I were one of these sick-os I'd be nervous with America's Most Wanted on my trail."
"Maybe this was an overt cry for help," John Walsh later told Larry King.
Shortly after running his last campaign ad (which touted "a record we can be proud of...") it was discovered that the Republican Congressman had been sending cybersex messages to underaged male Congressional pages. When the first hints of scandal surfaced, Foley tried brazening it out. ("Congressman Mark Foley's office says the e-mails were entirely appropriate," reported an ABC News blog, "and that their release is part of a smear campaign by his opponent.") But the flood of evidence was overwhelming, eventually revealing that Foley once even held up a vote on Emergency War Time supplemental appropriations for cybersex with a high school student. (A commenter on the gay South Florida blog
asked: "Where's Ken Starr, now that he's really needed?") Foley resigned — although his name remained on the ballot for the November elections. (He came within 1% of beating his opponent, though all votes for Foley were transferred to a replacement candidate.) While bloggers wondered whether Foley would ultimately be prosecuted under sex predator laws that he helped pass, the U.S. Attorney's office now appears unlikely to press charges. But the episode still left politicians stunned by the changing rules for privacy in an information-hungry world.
3. The head-butt heard round the world
Zinedine Zidane had already announced his retirement from the French soccer team after completing a five-year, $66 million contract. His last game would be the infamous match against Italy in the final round of the 2006 World Cup tournament. With the score tied after two hours of hard soccer, and the teams headed for a shootout of penalty kicks, Zidane got into an argument with Italian defender Marco Materazzi. From various news accounts their conversation went something like this.
Zidane: "If you're going to grab my shirt, why don't you just take it?"
Materazzi: "I'd rather have your sister."
There followed a fierce headbutt from Zidane — whose position, ironically, was "attacking midfielder". He was thrown from the game (which Italy ultimately won 5-3), achieving a second notoriety for his final-game foul. According to Wikipedia, French President Jacques Chirac congratulated Zidane for being a national hero and a "man of heart and conviction".
And inevitably, footage of Zidane's attack found it's way to the internet, where the career culminating moment was re-mixed again and again and again.
4. The yin and yang of Comedy Central
Virtually every news story of 2006 drew sardonic commentary from both Jon Stewart and his former correspondent Stephen Colbert. But in April they made a rare joint appearance to present the Emmy award for best reality TV.
"It's a pleasure to be here tonight," Stewart says innocuously.
"Good evening, godless sodomites," Colbert offers as a counterpoint.
The event gave a rare glimpse into a comedic yin and yang which challenges the way media outlets cover politics. While both men target the echo chamber of news shows, Stewart simply shares how bewildered he is by foolish politicians and the correspondents who cover them — while Colbert creates a walking caricature of the rabid ideologues he's targeting. (On the Emmys Colbert said he was reading from the teleprompter in his heart.)
In a final irony, both men have been given cable TV shows to attack other cable TV shows. But while their popularity continues to grow, this clip shows that there may be a limit. Colbert and Stewart's final jokes note that The Colbert Report lost earlier in the evening after being nominated as "best performance in a variety or music show". The ultimate winner? Barry Manilow.
5. Special comments
Keith Olbermann was entering his fourth year as an MSNBC prime-time commentator — but in August he discovered large audiences would tune in for his "Special Commentary" segments. Since the first one aired in August, his ratings have nearly doubled, and Olbermann is now reportedly asking MSNBC for a multi-million dollar increase in his contract.
In a memorable segment on September 11, Olbermann remembered working near Ground Zero and seeing fliers for colleagues who had perished in the towers. "All the time, I knew that the very air I breathed contained the remains of thousands of people, including four of my friends..." he said sternly. "For me this was, and is, and always shall be, personal.
"And anyone who claims that I and others like me are soft, or have forgotten the lessons of what happened here, is at best a grasping, opportunistic, dilettante, and at worst, an idiot — whether he is a commentator, or a Vice President, or a President."
6. The legend of Jihad Jerry
Meanwhile Devo shocked the world in March by joining Disney to create a new incarnation of their pioneering geek band using cute pre-teen Disney kids. ("If you're not upset...we haven't done our jobs," Devo's Gerry Casale told The New York Daily News.) But while the children sang and eventually toured as "Devo 2.0," 58-year-old Casale was plotting fresh subversions. Soon a mysterious new band appeared called "Jihad Jerry and the Evildoers" (including all the current members of Devo). The liner notes explain that a young Jerry turned to music when the Ayatollah declared his secular high school "evil" and he was "unwilling to finish his education without girls."
"You have the right to remain naked..." he sings in "Army Girls Gone Wild,"a subversive political commentary in the guise of a music video. "What happens in Abu Ghraib stays in Abu Ghraib."
Casale also surprised the online world in 2006 by paying a visit to two video blogs.
7. Code Monkey
Movie attendance is still lower than it was in 2004, partly because geeks would rather spend time playing massively multi-player games. One glorious moment combined everything into a shiny package — work, games, and music videos. Musician Jonathan Coulton had been writing a new song every week, and hit the jackpot with his ballad about an under-appreciated computer programmer who is also a monkey. When the song was released for a re-mix contest, Adobe employee Mike "Spiff" Booth then envisioned its evolution into a music video created with in-game footage from World of Warcraft. With poignant echoes of a real-world workplace, the gorilla stoicly endures his deskbound manager-goblin Rob, and pines for the company receptionist, a green-haired night-elf who is watching her weight. Besides being one of the best music videos of the year, it's playful proof that the online world is still curiously exploring new possibilities for collaborative creativity. And best of all: "No monkeys were harmed in the making of this film."
8. "This is NOT a joke!"
When you're being filmed in the Web 2.0 era, the worst thing you can do is over-react. Jason Holt, the student body vice president at the University of South Carolina, was the target of a standard-issue college prank. In April he returned from an appearance before Congress to discover his office filled with colorful balloons. His dramatic outburst was surreptitiously videotaped, capturing Holt's furious eyes burning with undergraduate intensity as he yells "It's not a joke! Look at me being serious...! I want to go to bed and you fucked up my office!!" Within two weeks the video had found an audience online at its new home — Look At Me Being Serious.com. And Holt had become a perfect example of how privacy is changing in a technology-enabled world.
The video was eventually broadcast on VH-1, and in a July letter Holt called the aftermath "bitterly painful". Saying he'd received over 100 "negative and demeaning" emails he wrote that he'd learned "humility" and the abiliity to "admit a mistake."
"[M]y actions in the video were rude, arrogant, and inconsiderate," he continued, wondering if his tantrum would cost him a career in public service, and asking for the student body's prayers "as I continue to deal with the consequences."
9. Brokeback Brady
At the Oscars in March, the most-nominated film was Brokeback Mountain — but overall movie receipts had fallen by six percent, with finicky consumers enjoying new entertainment choices which also included new gaming consoles and personal video recorders. This means Americans probably were more likely to discover a sympathetic same-sex relationship when they played back the May episode of That 70s Show where Greg and Peter Brady played a gay couple. Two actors from the 1970s family sitcom The Brady Bunch were transported back to the decade one more time as the new neighbors for hard-nosed Red Forman.
This snapshot of the way we were in 2006 was followed two weeks later with another TV-sized message of acceptance. That 70s Show culminated its eight-year run with a finale showing class-conscious Jackie falling for foreigner Fez.
10. The last joke of Louis Rukeyser
A television legend flashed his last smile — but not before getting the last laugh. In 2002 the producers of Wall Street Week ousted Louis Rukeyser for someone younger. But the wily 69-year-old used his last show to encourage viewers to follow him to a new network. "I'll let the market decide," the Wall Street commentator joked, knowing his audience would stay loyal after 32 years. His new show premiered with CNBC's highest ratings ever, while the old PBS show lost 84% of its audience, and was eventually canceled altogether.
Louis Rukeyser died on May 2 of a rare form of blood cancer at the age of 73. But if he could see how the web continues forcing old media to evolve, I'm sure he'd be smiling.
Just like the rest of us.
Worst Vlogs of 2006
2007 Re-Mixed
Lawrence Welk vs. The Hippies
Five Druggiest High School Sitcom Scenes
2 thoughts to "Ten Video Moments from 2006"
Danny Boy says:
Louis was a hero on PBS. Between him and the Motley Fool I learned what I needed to know about investing.
And Keith tapped a nerve, I never watched him before that little diatribe – now I watch him all the time. Mostly on YouTube.
Michael Kane says:
not only library that some people masturbate in public, park or malls still be there in nowadays.
Has Michael Crook Harassed You?
World Sex Laws


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Liaises closely with key stakeholders from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), the Ontario Waste Management Association (OWMA), the Canadian Biogas Association (CBA), and any other associations with significant input into the waste management sector.
Drives the implementation of the City of Toronto's Long-Term Waste Management Strategy and provides updates to the Deputy City Manager, City Manager and Council on progress being made and any updates to the plan.
Oversees and coordinates the policy framework and administration of Solid Waste Management Services Division's programs.
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Effectively manages procurements, including RFPs, RFQs, REOIs, Calls for Tender and ensures compliance with all purchasing guidelines.
Develops the remaining biogas and landfill gas assets within the Division and ensures ongoing compliance and alignment with provincial and federal emissions reductions and First Nations consultation requirements.
Provides strategic advice and guidance to the Mayor, relevant Standing Committees, Council, Task Forces and Citizen Groups.
Consults with Council to explain the rationale and reasons for the need to modify and/or update regulations, policies and standards and provides feasible alternatives that will ensure compliance.
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Contact: Jeff Richmond | 416-238-6400 | jrichmond@nafor.com | Book a Call to find out more. I am happy to discuss the role in detail before interviews begin.
Contact: Jeff Richmond | 416-238-6400 | jrichmond@nafor.com | Book a Call to find out more. I am happy to discuss the role in detail.


Wow, I take bad pictures.
This was dinner for my not-quite 2.5 year old.
The little pastry pockets are filled with peas. That's it, just frozen peas. He loves peas! He pretty much eats at least 1/2 cup of peas and an apple every day.
The pastry is made with half whole wheat flour. Our family actually prefers half whole wheat pastry for most pies... it adds a yummy harvesty taste.
For dessert he had another pastry pocket filled a teaspoon of some nutella-like stuff and part of a chopped up Chocolate Coconut Larabar.


Samples should be prepared by running the desired protein sample down a 1D SDS-PAGE gel or a 2-dimensional SDS-PAGE gel. Sample purity is critical in obtaining good protein identification. Therefore 2-Dimensional SDS-PAGE is the preferred method of sample preparation.
SDS-PAGE gels should be stained with stains compatible with MS analysis. It includes Coomassie Blue, SYPRO Ruby and Cy dyes. Only the Silver stain that compatible with MALDI analysis is recommended. For strong stains like Coomassie Blue and MS compatible Silver Stain, pooling of 2 spots is sufficient for 1 MS analysis. For weaker stains like SYPRO Ruby and Cy dyes, pooling of 4 spots is recommended. Proteins should be excised from the SDS-PAGE gel and placed in dried 1.5mL of micro tubes.
We offer 2 types of MS analysis: (i) MALDI-ToF/TpF and LC/MS/MS. The MALDI-ToF/ToF is sensitive enough to give spectra on samples that have as little as femtamoles of protein present but more of the sample would secure better results. A general rule of thumb is if the spot can be seen on a Coomassie stained gel, then MALDI results should be able to be obtained. To secure higher successful rate of MS analysis, all low abundant protein(s) that could only be seen with MS Compatible Silver Stain, SYPRO Ruby and Cy dyes will go directly for LC/MS/MS services.
Samples should be submitted with our Service Order Form. The results will be released within 1 to 2 weeks upon receipt of your samples. An email will be generated to you to acknowledge the receipt of your order.
The preparation of samples in solution in a form suitable for protein sequencing is more difficult. Please ensure information on sample concentration, volume, and type of buffer is indicated on the order form.
There is no price difference for MS analysis of proteins from gel pieces or in solution.
The solution must contain 1 protein only. Samples containing more than 1 protein will produce more than 1 sequencing signal.
The more steps used in sample preparation, the greater the possibility of sample loss.
Samples should be in a volatile solvent such as water, acetic acid, trifluoroacetic acid, triethylamine, or acetonitrile.
Reagents and solvents should be ultra-pure or analytical grade.
The sample solution should not contain reagents that interfere with the sequencing process. Tris, HEPES, glycine, glycerol, sucrose, Triton X-100, ammonium sulfate and other ammonium salts are some of the reagents that can interfere and should be removed.
The easiest and most efficient way of preparing a protein for sequencing is to carry out 1 dimensional SDS-PAGE or 2-D IEF-SDS -PAGE followed by electro-transfer to PVDF. This has the advantage of removing any contaminating salts or detergents from the sample. Please use fresh reagents and prepare the gel at least 24 hours in advance to avoid risk of N-terminal blockage of the sample due to reaction with free acrylamide in the PAGE gel.
Before transferring the protein from gel to PVDF membrane, remove the glycine by washing both the gel and membrane with transfer buffer. It is preferable to use the high binding capacity PVDF membranes such as Millipore Immobilon-Psq, Bio-Rad Sequi-Blot PVDF, or ABI ProBlott. Nitrocellulose cannot be used as it is not compatible with the solvents used in Edman chemistry. We have found that 'tank' blotting gives better results than 'semi-dry' blotting and we recommend its use. The transfer buffer used depends on the protein of interest.
For proteins with pI between 4 and 7: Dissolve 6.06g Tris and 3.09g boric acid in about 600 ml of ddH2O and adjust the pH to 8.5 with NaOH. Make up to 1L.
For proteins with pI between pH 6 and 10: Dissolve 2.21 g CAPS in about 600 ml of ddH2O, add 100mls MeOH and adjust pH to 11 with NaOH.
The time of transfer depends on the thickness and percentage acrylamide of the gel and the molecular weight of the protein. Time can vary from 1-6 hours. We have obtained good transfer with CAPS buffer blotting for 2 hours at 500mA.
The PVDF is then stained by a brief (< 5 mins) incubation in Coomassie stain (0.2% Coomassie blue R-250, 45% MeOH, 10% Acetic acid) and destained in 45% MeOH, 10% acetic acid. The membrane is allowed to dry and the protein band can then be cut from the membrane for sequencing. Please do not use Pierce GelCode Blue Stain or other pre-made stains as they may contain detergents, which can interfere with some PTH amino acids.
When a large amount of protein (40-100 pmol) is available, running three to five lanes is helpful. Multiple bands can be cut if needed, especially for higher molecular weight proteins. If the amount of protein is limited (10-20 pmol), try to load more onto the gel or prepare multiple bands of the same sample. It is recommended to send 5 to 10 pmoles.
It is recommended that the entire membrane be sent with a copy marking the band(s) with estimated molecular weight on a photocopy of the gel image.
Complex samples containing more than one protein in solution cannot be analyzed by this process.


text:
The Budget judgement
The UK economy grew well until the spring of 2017. Policy was then changed to slow the economy by a combined fiscal and monetary squeeze. In the year that followed money growth halved. The combined effects of the 2016 property tax rises and the 2017 car tax rises damaged activity levels in the two largest purchases people make, homes and cars. The tax effects were reinforced by the reduction of credit availability. Money growth slowed thanks to higher interest rates, the removal of special Bank of England facilities to the commercial banks, and the Bank guidance to lend less on car loans , mortgages and consumer credit.
It is time to lift the squeeze. There is no great inflationary danger lurking in the UK economy. There is only a modest increase in wages. The world background is not inflationary, with some monetary tightening in the USA and the Euro area. This budget should not strive to get the UK deficit down further, and should seek to repair the damage done to individual sectors by past tax rises. The forecasts should be more realistic, after a run of forecasts which exaggerated the deficit.
The Prime Minister has said she will end austerity. This then is the budget to do so. Austerity is not just something in the public sector. It was what Labour delivered with the falls in output, jobs and real incomes at the end of the last decade. It has dragged on for some thanks to the slow recovery and the poor growth rates in earnings since the banking crash. To lift austerity we need to spend a bit more on some public services, and take less tax off people in work so they have more of their own money to spend. The good news is we can afford to do both. The Treasury regularly under estimates incoming revenue, and ends up cutting the deficit more than planned.
The UK has a modest state deficit these days, but a rather bigger balance of payments deficit. I have been more worried about the balance of payments deficit than the state deficit for some time. That deficit needs financing by either selling assets to foreigners, or borrowing from overseas. It has resulted from the very large trade deficit we run with the EU, dominated by large imports of food and cars and by the huge payments we make in EU contributions and Overseas aid. We could grow more of our own food and buy more of our own cars. This will depend in part on what tariffs we put in place for next March – or for any later exit date from the EU.
Ending the EU contributions will make an important contribution to cutting the balance of payments deficit. Today we have to sell a lot of assets to meet those contributions, as it is all money we need to send across the exchanges into Euros. Spending more of the overseas aid on the set up costs of the asylum seekers and economic migrants at home would also be a helpful option. Ending EU contributions also frees up that part of the budget for domestic spending or tax cut priorities.
Lifelogic.
As you say "austerity is not just something in the public sector". But there has actually been very few real cuts in the hugely bloated and largely inept state sector at all. State sector workers with pensions included are still remunerated at nearly 50% more than the private sector ones and many there produce little of any value at all. Plus they work fewer hours, take more sick leave, retire earlier and do less dangerous jobs. Quite a high proportion of them actually destroy value. Furthermore the state sector though daft red tape, employment laws, planning restrictions, the litigation culture, the endless green crap subsidies, expensive energy and OTT health and safety make the private sector far less efficient too. At least 50% of university degrees being financed by tax payers are largely pointless and just lumber people with debt they will often fail to repay. There are many pointless jobs in the private sector too due to idiot red tape, planning, tax and employment laws.
The spectator leader has it exactly right. Just what is the point of the (tax to death remainiac and economic illiterate) Philip Hammond. What is needed given the current position (with the highest and most complex taxes for for nearly 50 years) is large tax cuts, tax simplification, a bonfire of red tape, massive cuts in the bloated state sector, reversal of the green crap agenda and to replace Hammond with someone who had a sensible small state vision. Plus more freedom & private competition in education and health care with a level fiscal playing field rather than dire virtual state monopolies.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/10/what-is-the-point-of-philip-hammond/
Patience for now
Hysteria, with a capital aitch, from the Parliamentary militia persons (MPs) Remainers, as self-titled in their own introverted lament would have been, literally a pain in the necks, limbs, physical and mental immune systems of our people. But for the fact, no-one of account pays them much attention, do not worry their spoofing worries.
With media so technologically advanced they could have wounded us all. Instead they just wasted the shoe leather of Labour's socialist middle class. Hopefully, they needed corn plasters. Something real for them to worry their Local Authority fixed-for-them job-heads.
So our people are still waiting for Brexit. Where's our own beef?
Nig l
In the last ten years U.K. plc has spent £100 billion on foreign aid. When will it's Chief Executive tell it's shareholders what we got for our money?
Funny how the budget narrative seems to be changing, suddenly he got money to give away. Surely the Treasury is not bribing it's MPs to accept its Brexit narrative?
As for public spending, yes the politics requires it. Canute trying to support a High Street that is unsupportable, poor service, poor choice, poor prices. Planning consent changes would be welcome.
As for the NHS and the rest, no doubt we will get the usual BS about efficiency savings. In the last 2/3 weeks Lloyds Bank has said it has saved 660,000 hours through digitisation and Vodafone how it's Chatbots are developing and now adding real value and both, and all other major plcs, are looking to maximise benefits from this approach.
This is a subject close to your heart. There has to be billions that could be saved in thvPublic Sector. Why not in the budget, with the announcement of giving away more money, include the formation of a Department for Government Efficiency with the specific role of dealing with computer legacy issues., digitisation and the use of AI, and saving money!
As an aside, it has been announced that the head of the Electoral Commission is to move on. It's one eyed anti Brexit stance was transparently obvious and, frankly, disgraceful. Another discredited source of information that the Remain campaign leaned on, closed.
It would be a pleasant change if the budget put the brakes on HS2 as another means of providing funds for accelerating Brexit.
The balance of payments deficit is a direct result of increased consumption and this, in part, is due to an increase in population. So, by reducing consumption you will end up by reducing the deficit, but also the economy.
I don't want to see more wasteful taxpayer financed spending to finance Labour's unreformed, union controlled client state. I want to see reform of this backward, politicised construct that benefits Labour when and when not in government
If Marxist Labour do achieve power your predilection for more State spending will provide them with an even greater precedent with which to justify their destructive collectivist policies
The Tories have been owned by Labour's client state political project. Purge Labour and their acolytes from every corner of the State
The UK is not the public sector. Yes, the dependents dominate the media space through the BBC and their allies in the press but that's too be expected in a client State. It is the productive and self-financing private sector that keeps the UK solvent.
I don't like politicians in government who spend money to pacify opposition. The taxpayer's function is to finance essential public provision not too finance the creation of a favourable political climate
Nonsense. The private sector is a long way from being "… self-financing private sector that keeps the UK solvent".
Public sector employees are paid £184 billion a year and spend a lot of it buying stuff from the private sector. The public sector also spent £11.5 billion subsidising private sector activities; slightly less than the £12.3 billion in spent on grants to feed starving displaced kids / families abroad.
Do yourself a favour and start studying the interaction between the public sector; the private sector and the social economy. Here is a Venn diagram to give you a starter, http://hastingsonlinetimes.co.uk/hottie/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Social-Economy-Diagram4_600.jpg
And understand, on a Venn diagram, a private sector is always totally enclosed by a, currency issuing government sector; an unregulated private sector can't exist otherwise.
Those public sector employees, collectively in their jobs, spent another £219 billion, buying goods and services from the private sector, for the common good of their fellow 66 million citizens.
Edward2
So if we all were public service employees we would all be rich.
I have absolutely zero faith in The Prime Minister or the Chancellor so I will wait for Monday before I make further comment, but past history suggests higher taxes and more cans kicked down the road.
Can a leopard change their spots ?
Tad Davison
I guess Hammond feels he needs to try to hobble Brexit somehow or miss the chance of a lucrative EU commissioner's job further down the road, but apart from the BBC, he doesn't appear to be making any progress as more and more people see this scaremongering for what it is. We clearly need a change of direction, but the only way to achieve that is for a change in personnel. His urgent replacement is second only to that of his boss.
Do I detect a bit of Modern Money Theory creeping in JR? "I have been more worried about the balance of payments deficit than the state deficit for some time." The state deficit only matters if it exhausts the capacity of the economy to produce goods and services and generates inflation in the prices of labour and/or real resources.
PLease, please JR, allow your commenters a two minute read of https://modernmoneybasics.com/
Meanwhile, you can see where the Chancellor is pulling in more tax from in "Table" in the following. Compare "financial years to date".
https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/publicsectorfinance/datasets/appendixdpublicsectorcurrentreceipts/current/datdataset4appendixdfinal.xls
One may not be able to run out of UK pounds, but they can however devalue to be worth rather less than the costs of issuing or printing them!
I have been more worried about the balance of payments deficit than the state deficit for some time.
Have you seriously , then you absolutely nothing about trade or economics and are still labouring with ideas last current around the time of the corn laws.
I do not believe you are this dim
Start a new tax legislation book and sending the old one to a museum after Brexit, would be a good idea, since the second world war the British tax book has been infected with pure BS from both parties who have been in power since 1944, one of the biggest failings is personal taxation from 1944 with a wealth tax later on followed by employment taxes, then go on to european taxes, VAT instead of sale tax, theses are he-ness crimes against humans which have spread and are still spreading around the world.
There are better ways of doing things which would yield better results for gov businesses and people but nobody can be bothered to look into it with little cost to the gov, a much more friendly system for all concerned.
Lindsay McDougall
Sorry, but total State debt is still too high. As we have seen with Greece and Italy, nations with too much State debt are not truly free. And what's this about financing asylum seekers and economic migrants? Just exclude them.
Ron Olden
It doesn't matter what the 'world background' is.
Inflation is monetary phenomenon specific to the currency in which the prices are measured.
UK inflation has been above target for two years and is still above target. The 2% target is too high anyway. A zero to 2% range would be more appropriate.
House prices are STILL rising and banks are again showing an alarming level of risky debt in their balance sheets.
The modest monetary tightening we've encountered so far is exactly the right policy. Whether another quarter point rise will be required I don't know.
There has been no new 'fiscal squeeze' in the past twp years. The deficit has (belatedly), come down as result of the policies announced in the years prior to, and in the 2016. budget.
The budget deficit is still too high. At this stage in the economic cycle we shouldn't have a deficit at all.
If we need tax cuts (which we do) public spending should be cut by at least the same amount.
Rien Huizer
MR Redwood,
"There is no great inflkationary danger" . But if you get the brexit outcome you advocate, ie a "no deal" (no transition, no withdrawal agreement with financial settlement, no solution for the Irish border, etc) a reasonable observer of foinancial markets would expect that investors would drive the GDP to much lower levels than we have today. Just look at what the Pound does on a day when "deal" news is leaked out. That scenario(the certainty of no deal, that could start to have an effect around the end of the year) would result in three things: higher CPI, reduction of overseas investment in EU-export oriented manufacturing (announcements), a swift response on the part of the BoE to both support the Pound and discourage an inflationary spiral setting and promises by the Treasury to tighten the fiscal situation. The combination of that would reduce consumer spending power in two ways: lower real wages, higher interest rates and overall pessimism about the economic future.
You were there in 1976 when the IMF receivers were booking their tickets. Then the country was preoccupied with irrelevant (for the future) political issues like foreign policy on the right and anachronistic crude marxism on the left (topped off with some semi criminal union activity). History never repeats itself of course but.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The Dunedin Public Libraries network comprises six Libraries and two Bookbuses. Contact details and information about each Library branch can be found below, and by following the links.
Pay and display underground parking is available for $2.00 per hour (maximum stay one hour) during the following hours: Monday – Friday 7.15 am – 8 pm; Saturday and Sunday 10.15 am – 4.00 pm. Drive up the ramp which is past the Town Hall and Library entrances on Moray Place, just before George Street.
The Bookbus service is your Library on wheels. Our two buses visit 50 stops each week, from Mosgiel to Portobello.
Free parking is available in a car park adjacent to the Library or along Hartstonge Ave.
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New York Public Housing Risks 'Demolition by Neglect' Without Intervention, Report Says
The New York City Housing Authority needs $45 billion in repairs over the next 20 years to keep its apartment buildings habitable.
Jared Brey October 24, 2019
(Photo by Jared Brey)
If the public housing system in New York City was its own city, it would be larger than New Orleans, with 400,000 residents paying an average of $522 per month for an apartment. It's a critical lifeline for low-income people, whose options for finding affordable housing in New York are increasingly vanishing. And without an immediate and sustained commitment to rehabilitate its 326 housing complexes, according to a new report from the Regional Plan Association (RPA), the system could all but collapse.
The report, called "Time to Act: Restoring the Promise of NYC's Public Housing," builds on previous research showing that NYCHA properties are in need of $45.2 billion in repairs over the next 20 years in order to remain habitable. Today, the report says, conditions in public-housing units in New York "range from the unacceptable to the deplorable." Failing to keep up with repairs adds millions to the overall rehabilitation cost, and puts the buildings in danger of becoming uninhabitable. "If we do not act now, we will find ourselves quickly facing a massive situation of demolition by neglect," the report says.
Moses Gates, the vice president for housing and neighborhood planning at the Regional Plan Association and lead author of the report, notes that there has been a lot of research describing NYCHA's needs — including another report released by the RPA last December called "NYCHA's Crisis."
"There's a decent amount of information out there to work with," Gates says. "What we were trying to do was not just focus on how we got here and whose fault it is and what the problems are, but to focus on something going forward."
The report includes 10 recommendations for how New York can address the crisis, and the first is to form "a new civic coalition for NYCHA." The deterioration of public housing in New York is "a source of shame for us all," the report notes. And it's not just NYCHA residents that have a stake in public housing, but their employers, religious communities, banks, and the businesses where they spend their money, the report says. Civic institutions like those should come together and possibly create "an independent oversight and advocacy organization," according to the report. The report cites initiatives like the Straphangers Campaign, which acts as a check on the city's public-transit system.
"When we have a real crisis in New York, the civic sector bands together," Gates says. "You saw it in the 1970s with the fiscal crisis, and what we're saying is, the crisis in NYCHA is at that level … Everybody needs to give something, whether that's advocacy, whether that's funding, or whether that's working in a little bit less self-interested manner and more of a civic manner."
The report also calls for public housing, which has traditionally operated outside of New York City's municipal operations, to become the focus of the city's housing efforts, with goals for rehabilitation and preservation that can be tracked over time. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the New York Housing Development Corporation are adept at finding ways to finance deals that preserve affordable housing, and those skills should be put to use for public housing projects, the report says, even if it comes at the expense of the city's other housing goals.
"The biggest thing that can happen that would help is for HPD and HDC to take charge of coming up with a real plan to finance the rehabilitation of the whole portfolio," Gates says.
The report also suggests that the Authority could consider de-consolidating its operations and creating more localized property-management arms — NYCHA is by far the biggest landlord in New York — to be more responsive to repair and maintenance issues. Earlier this year, NYCHA hired a new CEO, Gregory Russ, who used to lead the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority. (Next City requested an interview with Russ over a period of several weeks in August, until NYCHA's communications office stopped responding.) Other recommendations in the report include bringing independent voices to the Authority's board of directors, while keeping the board under mayoral control.
Some of the money for necessary rehab projects could be generated by expanding the ways that NYCHA can transfer development rights to other builders, the report notes. Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) is a way for owners of some buildings, often historically protected ones, to sell the unused space on their property to other owners without actually building anything additional onsite. Zoning may allow for a 10-story building on a site that only has a three-story building, for example, and in some cases owners can sell the excess zoning permission to others. A recent deal in Brooklyn saw NYCHA selling more than 90,000 square feet of buildable space to a private developer in return for $25 million in repair work on existing public-housing projects, as Curbed reported. More money could be raised by allowing NYCHA projects more leeway to sell those rights, such as by extending the radius in which development rights can be sold to a half-mile, the RPA report says.
The report also explores the possibility of creating a "pied-a-terre tax," which would generate revenue from apartments that are occupied less than half the year. The idea was on state lawmakers' agenda earlier this year, and reportedly will be considered again.
Gates says the seeds of a coalition that could bring the needed focus to NYCHA's portfolio is already in place, with the alliances of affordable-housing developers and tenants' rights groups that were influential in the creation of new laws in New York and Albany this year. He hopes the report and others like it will draw attention to the issue from a larger set of institutions.
"A big part of it is trying to galvanize a lot of civic will around this," Gates says. "We're hoping to install a sense of urgency, and we're hoping to really solidify the understanding among folks in New York City about the importance of public housing and public-housing residents to the life of this city."
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article has been updated to correct the name of the Regional Plan Association.
This article is part of Backyard, a newsletter exploring scalable solutions to make housing fairer, more affordable and more environmentally sustainable. Subscribe to our weekly Backyard newsletter.
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Jared Brey is Next City's housing correspondent, based in Philadelphia. He is a former staff writer at Philadelphia magazine and PlanPhilly, and his work has appeared in Columbia Journalism Review, Landscape Architecture Magazine, U.S. News & World Report, Philadelphia Weekly, and other publications.
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FDA approves coronavirus test that produces results in 45 minutes
Cepheid, a Silicon Valley firm, says it'll begin shipping its tests next week with roll-out availability by March 30.
Author: TEGNA, Associated Press
Published: 4:59 PM CDT March 21, 2020
Updated: 5:50 PM CDT March 21, 2020
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first rapid coronavirus test, which produces results in about 45 minutes, according to Cepheid.
An FDA spokeswoman confirmed the approval after an announcement from the Silicon Valley molecular diagnostics company.
It can take at least a few days to get results from current coronavirus tests, which typically are sent in batches to reference labs, said Dr. David Persing, Cephied's chief medical and technology officer.
"What's really needed is a test that can rapidly determine status of infection on site when patients are being seen," he said on a company video. "An accurate test delivered close to the patient can be transformative — and help alleviate the pressure that the emergence of the 2019-nCoV outbreak has put on healthcare facilities that need to properly allocate their respiratory isolation resources."
RELATED: Coronavirus live updates: White House task force provides updates on US response
FILE - This Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, file photo shows the U.S. Food and Drug Administration building behind FDA logos at a bus stop on the agency's campus in Silver Spring, Md. The Food and Drug Administration's first broad testing of food for a worrisome class of nonstick, stain-resistant industrial compounds found high levels in some grocery store meats and seafood and in off-the-shelf chocolate cake, according to unreleased findings FDA researchers presented at a scientific conference in Europe. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
"With the development of point of care diagnostics, Americans who need tests will be able to get results faster than ever before," Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement. "More and more options for reliable, convenient testing are becoming available at an incredibly rapid pace, thanks to the hard work of our FDA team and the ingenuity of American industry."
RELATED: US tourists stranded abroad don't know when they'll return
RELATED: Nursing home outbreaks lay bare chronic industry problems
Cepheid said it will begin shipping its tests next week with roll-out availability by March 30.
"Our dedicated team at the FDA has been working nonstop to expedite the review and authorization of novel diagnostics during the COVID-19 public health emergency," said FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn in a statement.


This year, I celebrate 15 years operating as a manager, in one form or another. I am by no means an expert, I certainly wouldn't be the sort of person to conduct high-priced seminars that espouse "empowerment" or "entrepreneurism". I've had the luxury of having some really good managers over the years, who were solid mentors, able to point out what it would take to guide others, to handle problems practically, and offer feedback in constructive ways.
My many years of not being stuck in the weeds has also allowed me to look around at those with similar roles, and see how they approach the same challenges. The ability to talk to them, to see the results of their labours, to hear from those they manage also lets me get a better idea of what I'm doing right, and where I can improve. That's given me a strong sense of what makes a good manager.
"Information Technology", or IT as it's more commonly known, tends to get a bad rap. It's a black box to organizations, there to serve arcane purposes that always seem to have a habit of getting in everyone else's way of doing whatever they need to be doing. The end result is the idea that "IT is evil".
Oh, I'm getting ahead of myself a bit. Let's rewind a tad, shall we?
Choo Choo and Monkey did a couple of early Valentine cards tonight. The one Choo Choo gave me might well be one of the best I've ever gotten.
I'm rotating this 90 degrees from how she wrote it. But every word (and spelling) is hers.
I should add that Choo Choo is learning to spell.
Yeah, "valentine" isn't spelled correctly, either. I don't mind one bit.
"Experience" is a tough word to use in the digital marketing industry. Quite often, it's used to encompass one's adventure and awareness through a user interface of an application. It's one of the most common applications for "experience", but it's not the only one.
There's also the definition that includes knowledge and wisdom, held by those who have spent years honing skills, learning from mistakes, and becoming enlightened from real-world execution.
And it's the latter that I'm finding, more and more, to be a key to delivering the former.
I met my friend Nancy when I first joined Critical Mass in April 2000. She was my first project manager, as we slugged away at the Proctor & Gamble Presiva project (it's a fringe product that thankfully died out about eight or nine years ago). We reunited on the Mercedes-Benz USA project, where we continued to do battle with the forces of … uh … weird client requests? Sure, let's go with that.
Nancy (wisely) left the digital agency world over a decade ago, and went off to start her own business, using horses to teach leaders how to be effective. It was a novel approach, and it's done well. One advantage of her doing that was moving out into the country (after all, that many horses do not do well in city limits). Which means she started to make good contacts with her neighbours.
Including one that raised sheep.
I remember when your first tooth came in, so many, many years ago. I remember naming your teeth … or at least being told their names. I remember when the first one came loose, and then fell out. You were quite a bit more scared than I thought you'd be, but I suppose things falling out of your head are cause for alarm when you're a kid.
Two decades ago today, I did something immensely stupid: I left home. Literally and figuratively. Twenty years ago, I was still sleeping in my room on Gatestone Avenue in Oakville. While I had lived on my own at university, and while I was on my co-op work terms in Ottawa, staying at home was … comfortable. And as my parents didn't object, it seemed like a good idea. Literally leaving home wasn't the problem — I'd already done it a dozen times.
Figuratively leaving home — notably the familiarity of the Greater Toronto area, but Ontario in general — was another matter. I'd not really lived abroad, where going to my parents' house was something I did in an afternoon. I decided to throw myself into the world without any plan whatsoever.
Twenty years on, it was the smartest move I ever made.
Okay, to be fair, Monkey is now 10, and Choo Choo is rapidly approaching 8. They've seen "new years eve" a few times, but they've been more the family-friendly type. Staying up to midnight is the new thing. The only time they've ever been up past midnight is because of travel, and that's always been a bit of a struggle.
Last night, for the first time ever, they watched a clock tick from 23:59 of one year to 00:00 of another. Honestly, they fared better than I did.
And that, my friends, is not a good sign.


text:
Video: Fleetwood Mac talks 2013 tour how music keeps them young - Lindsey & Mick speak!
Really sweet words from Lindsey... I hope they do follow through with more "Buckingham Nicks" type of singing on the tour.
Fleetwood Mac talks their 2013 tour
by Nichole Hamilton
Fleetwood Mac members Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood talked to OTRC.com about their upcoming 2013 tour, and how they've managed to maintain their fan following for so long.
"You can't really stop," Nicks told OTRC.com on January 24. "I have a friend, Doug Morris, who said to me once, 'when you retire, you just get small.' And I think that's really true - I love that. So, you can't just go on a three year vacation, because when you come back, it won't be there. And that's why a lot of the big bands that still try to play, and they don't play for eight or nine years, and then they try to play - they're not good anymore."
Nicks went on to say that while rehearsals are slated to start in February, the group is still debating on what the official set list will be.
"We're all just thinking now, and going over in our heads what, you know, which songs," Nicks said. "Because, there are those specific 10 songs, 12 songs, whatever, that you play because you - because the audience really wants to hear them, and because they are the foundation of the band, and because they are the reason we all have really nice houses. So, those are there. But beyond that, we have the other songs to play with, so it's really fun, but we don't really know yet because we haven't started, so it's really mysterious."
Lindsey Buckingham, the veteran guitarist, who once shared a romantic relationship with Nicks, explained how the close, songwriting pair are rediscovering their bond.
"We are still somehow inventing new dynamics within the two of us," Buckingham explained of his friendship with Nicks. "We are still discovering things about each other. Perhaps we are still getting back to things we once had ... It just makes it very sweet, that after all these years, we can perhaps now we can really start to address some of the love that's always been there, and some of the things that we have shared."
Full Article at On The Red Carpet
Posted by Nickslive at Thursday, January 24, 2013
Labels: 2013 Interview, Fleetwood Mac 2013, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks
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Tom Ridgely Named Shakespeare Festival St. Louis Executive Producer
Lynn Venhaus April 18, 2018	No Comments Penny PenningtonShakespeare Festival St. LouisTom Ridgely
After a nine-month national search, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis has appointed Tom Ridgely, a Drama Desk-nominated director, producer and educator, as the Festival's new Executive Producer, a title that encompasses both artistic and executive leadership roles.
"The Festival Board members are excited that we have found in Tom Ridgely a leader who will provide the artistic vision, entrepreneurial talent, organizational management skills, and inspired drive towards innovation essential to Shakespeare Festival St. Louis' continued growth," said Penny Pennington, board chair of the Festival.
"Tom's expertise will ensure the Festival continues to be a key contributor to the arts in our region, as well as a catalyst and stage for viewing topics important to our community — all through the lens of performance. We are also personally thankful, and want to recognize the leadership and stewardship of Jennifer Wintzer during this interim period, who has led with great skill the programs we are about to unveil to the community," she said.
Ridgely is currently the artistic director of Waterwell in New York, which he founded in 2002 with actor Arian Moayed. Under his leadership, Waterwell has developed and produced more than a dozen world-premieres and adaptations of classics, as well as been nominated for three IT awards, a Drama Desk, a New York Magazine Culture Award and a Village Voice "Best of NYC."
Known for building innovative community partnerships, his recent work includes the resurrection of a collection of the lost WWII-era Frank Loesser musicals "Blueprint Specials," featuring Broadway and military veterans and presented on board the former USS Intrepid as part of the Public Theater's Under the Radar Festival. He also adapted and directed Waterwell's dual-language (English/Farsi) "Hamlet," which was designed and performed by a company of predominantly Middle Eastern and South Asian artists. Ben Brantley of the New York Times described the production as "conceptually bracing…a magnetic reminder of where Hamlet came from and what he has lost."
As a director, Ridgely has been nominated for a Drama Desk Award and developed or presented work at the Public, The Old Globe, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Society, Red Bull, and Ars Nova, to name a few. He's worked with Tony nominees Sting, Sherie Rene Scott, Laura Osnes, Will Swenson, Arian Moayed, Micah Stock, and others. His productions have won DFW Theater Critics Forum and ECNY Awards and been nominated for CT Critics Circle and BroadwayWorld Connecticut Awards.
As artistic director of Waterwell, he oversees the Waterwell Drama Program at the Professional Performing Arts School, one of the preeminent training grounds for young actors in the country. In partnership with the Department of Education it offers daily, year-round, conservatory-style classes to more than 200 New York City public school students absolutely free of charge.
"I simply couldn't be more honored or thrilled that the board has entrusted me with leading this next exciting phase in the life of the Festival," Ridgely said. "It is a dynamic and innovative organization that has woven its way into the fabric of this vibrant American city. The Festival's history of community engagement, and commitment to making Shakespeare accessible to all St. Louisans, is as radical as it is necessary. Building on and extending that legacy will be a tremendous privilege."
Ridgley will assume his duties beginning May 21. He will be joining an ambitious and forward-thinking staff whose work reflects the Festival's mission of producing high quality, professional programming In the Schools, In the Streets, In the Parks and, this fall, a festival of new plays, In the Works. Since its founding 18 years ago, the Festival continues to use theater as a powerful tool for social change through inclusion and access.
In his new role, Ridgley will be responsible for planning and executing the Festival's current slate of programs and events while simultaneously developing viable strategies for new programming. The 2018 programmed season includes the Festival's main stage production of "Romeo & Juliet," June 1-24, at Shakespeare Glen in Forest Park; Shakespeare in the Streets' production of "Blow, Winds," June 15-16, on the steps of the St. Louis Public Library, Central Branch in downtown St. Louis; and, In the Works, a festival of new plays inspired by Shakespeare's canon.
"Tom Ridgely is one of the most exciting talents working in today's American theater. A visionary stage director and a big thinker, he has a passionate commitment to the idea that theater really matters and that it brings joy and meaning to the life of a city and every community within it," said Barry Edelstein, artistic director of The Old Globe. "He's also a warm, approachable, and generous man with a great sense of humor and openness. St. Louis is lucky to have him. I can't wait to see all the wonderful things he's going to do there."
Ridgely's appointment is the result of a national search process, conducted in partnership with Management Consultants for the Arts, with input from the Festival's Board, artists, staff, and community.
About Shakespeare Festival St. Louis
Since its inception in 2001, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis has surpassed the one million mark in attendance through its work In the Schools, In the Streets and In the Park with more than 710,000 people attending the free main stage productions at Shakespeare Glen in Forest Park. The organization has reached an additional 300,000 students In the Schools through its educational programming. In 2010, the Festival launched SHAKE 38, a marathon participatory presentation of Shakespeare's entire 38-play canon community wide. In 2012, the Festival shut down its first street, Cherokee, to present a community-based play In the Streets. Leadership support for Shakespeare Festival St. Louis' 2018 season is provided by the Whitaker Foundation. The Festival is also funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Missouri Arts Council, the Regional Arts Commission, and the Arts & Education Council of Greater St. Louis. For more information, please visit www.sfstl.com, or call 314-531-9800.
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Q: Using a (logical) vector from a reactive expression in a reactive context / attempt to apply non-function error I am trying to use a logical vector from a reactive expression. This generates an error in a function xor() when I try to perform a logical operation on this vector in another reactive expression. I would like to generate a reactive expression (logical vector), and then use it in another reactive function. A toy example below. The error appears when points on the plot are clicked.
In the original here, keeprows() is not reactive, but I would like to make this structured as on the schematic below (from Shiny website). The fist object is input for a reactive expression, and then a second (reactive) object (which is a user-subsetted table) is used for point selection, etc. The elements after bifurcation are the tables with the kept and excluded points. I have a problem in making this last subsetting to work.

Could someone explain to me the root of this problem?
library(ggplot2)
library(shiny)
library(dplyr)

ui <- fluidPage(
  fluidRow(
    column(width = 6,
           plotOutput("plot1", height = 350,
                      click = "plot1_click",
                      brush = brushOpts(
                        id = "plot1_brush"
                      )
           ),
           actionButton("exclude_toggle", "Toggle points"),
           sliderInput(inputId = "efficiency", value = 20, label = "MPG", min = min(mtcars$mpg), max = max(mtcars$mpg))
    )
  )
)

server <- function(input, output) {
  # For storing which rows have been excluded

  mt_subset <- reactive(mtcars %>% filter(mpg > input$efficiency))

  vals <- reactiveValues()
  vals$keeprows <- reactive(rep(TRUE, nrow(mt_subset()), label = "TuProblem", quoted = FALSE))

  output$plot1 <- renderPlot({
    # Plot the kept and excluded points as two separate data sets
    keep    <- mt_subset()[ vals$keeprows(), , drop = FALSE]
    exclude <- mt_subset()[!vals$keeprows(), , drop = FALSE]

    ggplot(keep, aes(wt, mpg)) + geom_point() +
      geom_smooth(method = lm, fullrange = TRUE, color = "black") +
      geom_point(data = exclude, shape = 21, fill = NA, color = "black", alpha = 0.25) +
      coord_cartesian(xlim = c(1.5, 5.5), ylim = c(5,35))
  })

  # Toggle points that are clicked
  observeEvent(input$plot1_click, {
    res <- nearPoints(mt_subset(), input$plot1_click, allRows = TRUE)

    vals$keeprows <- xor(as.logical(vals$keeprows()), as.logical(res$selected_))
  })

  # Toggle points that are brushed, when button is clicked
  observeEvent(input$exclude_toggle, {
    res <- brushedPoints(mt_subset(), input$plot1_brush, allRows = TRUE)

    vals$keeprows <- xor(vals$keeprows(), res$selected_)
  })

}

shinyApp(ui, server)

A: I'm not sure if this is the output you're looking for, but this code reads in a local file and then performs the brushing point selection, greying out the brushed points after "toggle points" is hit and also adjusting the correlation.
library(ggplot2)
library(Cairo)   # For nicer ggplot2 output when deployed on Linux
library(shiny)
library(readxl)

data(iris)
write.xlsx(x = iris, file = "iris.xlsx")

ui <- fluidPage(
  fluidRow(
    fileInput(inputId = "file",
              label = "Load file"),
    column(width = 6,
           plotOutput("plot1", height = 350,
                      click = "plot1_click",
                      brush = brushOpts(
                        id = "plot1_brush"
                      )
           ),
           actionButton("exclude_toggle", "Toggle points"),
           actionButton("exclude_reset", "Reset")
    )
  )
)

server <- function(input, output) {

  # Get file
  getFile <- reactive({ if (is.null(input$file)) {
    return(NULL)
  } else {
    return(input$file)
  }})

  # Read data
  data <- reactive({ if (is.null(getFile())) {
    return(NULL)
  } else {
    as.data.frame(read_excel(getFile()$datapath))
  }})

  # For storing which rows have been excluded
  vals <- reactiveValues()
  observeEvent(data(), {
    vals$keeprows <- rep(T, nrow(data()))
  })

  # Toggle points that are clicked
  observeEvent(input$plot1_click, {
    res <- nearPoints(data(), input$plot1_click, allRows = TRUE)

    vals$keeprows <- xor(vals$keeprows, res$selected_)
  })

  # Toggle points that are brushed, when button is clicked
  observeEvent(input$exclude_toggle, {
    res <- brushedPoints(data(), input$plot1_brush, allRows = TRUE)

    vals$keeprows <- xor(vals$keeprows, res$selected_)
  })

  # Reset all points
  observeEvent(input$exclude_reset, {
    vals$keeprows <- rep(TRUE, nrow(data()))
  })

  output$plot1 <- renderPlot({
    if (is.null(data())) {
      return(NULL)
    } else {

      # Indices for keep and exclude
      keep_v <- which(vals$keeprows)
      exclude_v <- which(!vals$keeprows)

      # Subset data
      keep <- data()[keep_v, , drop = F]
      exclude <- data()[exclude_v, , drop = F]

      ggplot(keep, aes(Sepal.Length, Sepal.Width)) + geom_point() +
        geom_smooth(method = lm, fullrange = TRUE, color = "black") +
        geom_point(data = exclude, shape = 21, fill = NA, color = "black", alpha = 0.25)

    }
  })

}

shinyApp(ui, server)

A: Solved:
library(ggplot2)
library(shiny)
library(dplyr)

ui <- fluidPage(
  fluidRow(
    column(width = 6,
           plotOutput("plot1", height = 350,
                      click = "plot1_click",
                      brush = brushOpts(
                        id = "plot1_brush"
                      )
           ),
           actionButton("exclude_toggle", "Toggle points"),
           sliderInput(inputId = "efficiency", value = 20, label = "MPG", min = min(mtcars$mpg), max = max(mtcars$mpg))
    )
  )
)

server <- function(input, output) {
  mt_subset <- reactive(mtcars %>% filter(mpg > input$efficiency))
  vals <- reactiveValues()
  observeEvent(mt_subset(), {
  vals$keeprows <- rep(TRUE, nrow(mt_subset()), label = "TuProblem", quoted = FALSE)
  })
  output$plot1 <- renderPlot({
    # Plot the kept and excluded points as two separate data sets
    keep    <- mt_subset()[ vals$keeprows, , drop = FALSE]
    exclude <- mt_subset()[!vals$keeprows, , drop = FALSE]
    ggplot(keep, aes(wt, mpg)) + geom_point() +
      geom_smooth(method = lm, fullrange = TRUE, color = "black") +
      geom_point(data = exclude, shape = 21, fill = NA, color = "black", alpha = 0.25) +
      coord_cartesian(xlim = c(1.5, 5.5), ylim = c(5,35))
  })
  observeEvent(input$plot1_click, {
    res <- nearPoints(mt_subset(), input$plot1_click, allRows = TRUE)
    vals$keeprows <- xor(vals$keeprows, res$selected_)
  })

  observeEvent(input$exclude_toggle, {
    res <- brushedPoints(mt_subset(), input$plot1_brush, allRows = TRUE)

    vals$keeprows <- xor(vals$keeprows, res$selected_)
  })

}
shinyApp(ui, server)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Are Doctors Wrong About CoQ10?
By Ann Lindemann
"What is a coenzyme?" is one of the essential questions to ask if you're planning to take coenzyme Q10. To know the answer, read this post.
RELATED: CNN Health – What Are The Experts Taking?
Should I Take CoQ10?
Understanding Coenzyme Q10
CoQ10: Your Mitochondria's Battery
Exposing the Supplementary Theory Flaw
Are You Wasting Your Money on CoQ10?
Bioavailability Limitations and Coenzyme Q10 Side Effects
Possible Benefits of Coenzyme Q10
How to Crack the Mitochondrial Barrier
A Quick Recap
What Is a Coenzyme And Other Important Facts about Coenzyme Q10
Here's why it's necessary to ask, "What is a coenzyme?" According to U.S. News and Report, coenzyme Q10 (or CoQ10 for short) is the third most popular supplement in the United States.
CoQ10 supplementation is prescribed by many doctors for treating or preventing a range of conditions from headache relief to Parkinson's disease.
Today, CoQ10 is a $700 million global business. Over six million North Americans consume CoQ10 daily.
It is marketed not only as an antioxidant but also as an anti-aging compound, a therapy for heart health, and a prophylactic against the toxicity of statin drugs.
What are statin drugs? They are a class of medications that help lower triglycerides to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and hypertension.
Doctors are both recommending and prescribing CoQ10 for these and other conditions under the assumption that the supplement is beneficial to mitochondrial health.
But is this theory wrong? Given CoQ10's popularity, one would assume there's copious research to support these important health claims.
However, there is no real evidence that CoQ10 supplementation does what doctors think it does.
"What is coenzyme Q10?" Coenzyme Q10 is a critical biological compound, which plays a central role in cellular bioenergy generation and its regulation.
It can be found in most cells of the body with the highest concentrations found in the cells of your heart, kidneys, liver, and the most metabolically-active and mitochondrially-rich tissues.
CoQ10's mystique as a nutritional supplement surely stems from its presumed association with the mitochondria. Its physiological mechanisms seem to include presumed antioxidant effects in addition to its well-characterized role as a cofactor in multiple metabolic energy pathways.
CoQ10 plays a central role in cellular bioenergy generation and its regulation. In our bodies, CoQ10 functions as an electrical component in our mitochondria.
If it sounds pretty important, that's because it is.
Recall that protein complexes within our mitochondria biochemically convert nutritional fuels into electrical charges and, ultimately, adenosine triphosphate, the biological currency of energy.
These protein complexes, known as the electron transport chain (ETC), are always anchored within the mitochondrial membrane. It is the layered lipid sheets that form the overall structure of the mitochondria.
These lipid membranes form the physical features of cells and also serve to anchor proteins and protein complexes. In its native function, CoQ10 resides within the lipid membrane layer of the mitochondria and functions to move electrical charges between components of the ETC.
In this fashion, CoQ10 functionally resembles a very small battery. Or, perhaps more accurately, it's like a capacitor, which means that it can temporarily hold electrical charges and also participate as an antioxidant.
As it turns out, the most important aspect of CoQ10 as a nutritional supplement isn't its bioelectrical function but its molecular nature. CoQ10 is very lipophilic or "oil like."
Lipophilic molecules dissolve in oil while hydrophilic molecules dissolve in water. Very few molecules do both.
Exposing the Supplementation Theory Flaw
A significant point in answering "What is a coenzyme?" is to know its benefits and disadvantages, especially the supposed coenzyme Q10 benefits.
CoQ10 is a cofactor, which means that it is a required factor for proper enzymatic activity. However, CoQ10 is not a required nutrient and thus not actually a vitamin.
In fact, the body synthesizes and recycles natural CoQ10 rather efficiently.
One interesting twist of biochemistry is that the natural CoQ10 in your body is made by the same metabolic machinery that also synthesizes cholesterol. Indeed chronic use of statin drugs seems to lower natural CoQ10 levels.
So there is some rationale behind its co-administration with statins. But does dietary supplementation of such a specific biochemical really help out the native metabolic pathways in which it typically functions?
Since CoQ10 is synthesized in every cell, in close locational relation to the actual mitochondrial machinery that utilize it, is there any reason at all to think that the CoQ10 you take is absorbed by the gut and finds its way to your mitochondria?
Indeed, a recent meta-analysis of a large array of CoQ10 clinical trials determined there were no improvements in cardiac function, repair, or mortality. The study pointed out that the only common "improvement" was increased serum CoQ10 levels.
RELATED: Newsweek – The Gurus' Guide To Daily Nutrition
CoQ10 is sold as a nutritional supplement and is intended to provide the mitochondria with more antioxidants and electron shuttling power.
Anecdotally, the supplement has been associated with improvements in free radical scavenging, cardiovascular function, diabetes, hypertension, and much more. Of course, a lot of supplements are marketed with such claims.
The problem lies in bioavailability and takes us back to the oil-and-water concept. Most CoQ10 supplements show bioavailability of less than 15%.
Eighty-five percent or more of the supplement just passes through the gut unabsorbed. Even with such low bioavailability, oral supplementation with CoQ10 is known to increase blood and lipoprotein concentrations of CoQ10 in humans.
Of course, it has to be absorbed and transported within the bloodstream via lipoproteins—microscopic oil vesicles—since it does not dissolve in water.
However, to date, there is no evidence that orally supplemented CoQ10 ever makes it into other tissues beyond the bloodstream, let alone the mitochondria.
In addition to bioavailability being limited by its lipophilic nature, CoQ10 is also a relatively large and cumbersome molecule, which physiologically isn't typically transported around the body.
So while CoQ10 is certainly a mitochondrial cofactor physiologically, nothing in the research suggests that it is a mitochondrial nutrient when taken as a supplement.
Indeed, much of the supposed healthy effects noted in clinical testing of CoQ10 seem likely due to its antioxidant function in the bloodstream.
Much like vitamin E, CoQ10 may contribute to cardiovascular health simply by preventing some of the associated oxidative spoilage of lipoprotein vesicles↘—a completely passive side effect.
CoQ10 is safe and relatively inexpensive. Despite the dearth of scientific evidence questioning its efficacy and marketing claims, many people do report improved well-being. CoQ10 is definitely safe enough for that task, but if you're taking it for your mitochondria's sake, you might think again.
If you are interested in your mitochondrial health on a molecular level, some supplements verifiably do become transported to the mitochondria.
A vast body of research literature demonstrates that dietary lipoic acid and carnitine are rapidly absorbed and transported to tissues including passing the blood-brain-barrier. In tissues, these nutrients are readily taken into mitochondria and demonstrate improved mitochondrial function and positively associated clinical outcomes.
These include Juvenon Cellular Health Tablets. It contains the following:
Alpha lipoic acids
Acetyl L-carnitine (or ALCAR) is an essential nutrient as it helps transport fatty acids to the mitochondria, which will then use it as fuel.
That's not the only benefit, though. It may also be helpful in improving brain function.
In a double-blind study, it may delay the deterioration of the cognitive processes or abilities of people with Alzheimer's disease. In another study, the consumption of L-carnitine resulted in lower blood pressure and better glucose response.
Alpha lipoic acids, meanwhile, are one of the mitochondrial nutrients. This is because they have a direct and indirect positive effect to the functions of the mitochondria:
Scavenge free radicals
Boost cofactors such as coenzyme Q10
Protect enzymes from oxidation
Prevent the production of oxidants
Inhibit the reactivity of oxidants
Stimulate enzyme activity
Decrease age-related oxidative damage
What is a coenzyme? Also known as a cofactor, it is a non-protein compound necessary for the activities of enzymes.
It may work as a catalyst, which boosts chemical reaction. One of these is coenzyme Q10.
What is q10 coenzyme? It is a naturally occurring antioxidant the body produces and stores in the cell's powerhouse called mitochondria.
Mitochondria are responsible for creating energy, which the rest of the cell needs to do its other functions. The role of Q10 is to help generate this energy.
Some people, however, value it for being an antioxidant. It's not unusual for a coenzyme Q10 supplement to promote its supposed ability to reduce the risk of heart disease.
Making it even more popular is the fact its production can decline as a person ages. This provides more reasons to either increase the coenzyme Q10 dosage or take the best form of CoQ10.
These supplements may not be the best choice for anyone who wants to be healthy. There are issues about bioavailability and contraindications especially among those taking statins.
Worse, the supplement version of this coenzyme may not even break into mitochondria, where they can be the most helpful. Instead, they only raise blood levels of Q10.
For vitality, it may be necessary to go beyond "What is a coenzyme?" and focus on the substances that have a much better chance of breaking the mitochondria barrier.
What do you think about this information about coenzyme Q10? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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Editor's Note: This post was originally published on June 3, 2014, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.
Ernster L, Dallner G. Biochemical, physiological and medical aspects of ubiquinone function. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1995; 1271(1):195-204.
Crane FL. Biochemical functions of coenzyme Q10. J Am Coll Nutr. 2001; 20(6):591-598.Langsjoen PH, Langsjoen AM. The clinical use of HMG CoA-reductase inhibitors and the associated depletion of coenzyme Q10. A review of animal and human publications. Biofactors. 2003;18:101-1Zhang Y, Aberg F, Appelkvist EL, Dallner G, Ernster L. Uptake of dietary coenzyme Q supplement is limited in rats. J Nutr. 1995;125(3):446-453.Svensson M, Malm C, Tonkonogi M, Ekblom B, Sjodin B, Sahlin K. Effect of Q10 supplementation on tissue Q10 levels and adenine nucleotide catabolism during high-intensity exercise. Int J Sport Nutr. 1999; 9(2):166-180.Bhagavan HN, Chopra RK. Coenzyme Q10: Absorption, tissue uptake, metabolism and pharmacokinetics. Free Radical Research. 2006; 40 (5): 445–53.
Liu J. Alpha-lipoic acid: a potent mitochondrial nutrient for improving memory deficit, oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction. in: Patel MS and Packer L. Lipoic acid: energy production antioxidant activity and health effects. CRC Press, Boca Raton, 2008; 475-93
Inano A, Sai Y, Nikaido H, Hashimoto N, Asano M, Tsuji A, Tamai I.
Acetyl-L-carnitine permeability across the blood-brain barrier and involvement of carnitine transporter OCTN2. Biopharm Drug Dispos. 2003 Nov; 24(8):357-65
Madmani, ME, et al. "Coenzyme Q10 for heart failure."The Cochrane database of systematic reviews9: CD008684
Ann Lindemann
Ann Lindemann is an alternative health and wellness writer. Her work can be found in a variety of national publications and online newsletters.
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