text:
Buddhist Paints Taj Mahal in Acrylics
This just in: My latest book, Another Fine Mess: Life on Tomorrow's Moon, is featured in ezvid's "Thoughtful Books Covering Important Social Issues." I'm not sure how thoughtful it is. Still….
Now onto the post:
The other day I ran across one of my old reporter's notebooks. In it I found raw notes on a subject I'd long forgotten: the time I met a Buddhist who was working for Donald Trump. This was way back around 1990 when he was bringing his magic touch to the Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City. I was in town on another story, wandered inside and discovered that in preparation for opening, the decoration of the "Seventeen Acres of Pure Pleasure" had fallen to Pema Wangyal, a painter of sacred Buddhist imagery. He came from Tibet.
"This is Brahma!" he cried, pointing at a floating emperor with four faces and four arms who was riding a flying goose in the Buffet Room. "A very magical Hindu god!"
Wangyal, I recall, had a thick ponytail and a super-mellow attitude. He was calm even when he was hollering, which he had to do a fair amount amid all the hammering and hubbub. Even though the room was a mess, his murals were almost finished. The artist pointed out panels of sloe-eyed kings, lovers, ministers, hawks, pelicans ("a symbol of fertility") and more. They were replications, he explained, of 16th and 17th century designs of the Raiput, or southern Indian, style…
I asked if he was surprised to find himself working in a casino.
Having once meditated for five months on the interdependence of cause and effect, he said, very little surprised him. "Besides, I visualize everything as not strange. I visualize it as beautiful. Transform everything into heaven: that's Buddhist teaching. If I say ugly, ugly, that's going to bang in my mind. After two days, I'll drop my brush and take off."
A buzzsaw started up. Eeeennnnnhh. "You hear that?" he asked unnecessarily. "I visualize that as a beautiful instrument."
Half a dozen painters were at work in the Buffet Room and elsewhere around the Taj, but Wangyal was boss, the only Eastern artist on the project. To solve a recent squabble — everybody wanted to paint figures, not backgrounds — he had taken a turn doing spiraling vines and clusters of flowers. "That's ok," he said. "I bring no ego to this."
In my hopelessly Western way I was finding it hard to believe that nothing about this scene bugged him. What about the delusional color scheme? What about the strobing acrylics he had to use? "Casino logic," he said, and shrugged.
Wangyal said he'd been reared a Buddhist in a tiny, ice-crusted village near the Nepalese border. He specialized in Tibetan t'hanka, or scroll, paintings ("portable, good for nomads"). T'hankas, he explained, often depict scenes from the life of Buddha, or mandalas; the colors (outside of casinos) are created from ground-up minerals, including lapis lazuli, malachite, rubies and gold.
He baffled his relatives by leaving town in his late teens. Why the wanderlust? "Karma," he said. Soon he was painting murals in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, at the monastery of the Swyambunath. Otherwise known as the Monkey Temple, it is famous for its hundreds of frisky baboons.
"The monkeys were my best friends," he said. "There is a hole in the center of the temple, which sometimes would fill with rain. The monkeys would swim and splash. Leap from trees. It was so beautiful."
Wangyal led the way out of the Buffet Room headed toward the elevator, chatting through a punishing fire alarm test — wheep wheep wheep — that had others standing with fists clamped to their ears. "Those monkeys would jump on people," he said. "Especially Westerners."
On the floor below was the coffee shop with more murals. There was a 17th century prostitute on horseback approaching a luminous palace and a prince in a gazebo being fanned by a slave. "He's using a peacock feather," said Wangyal. "Removes all negativity."
I asked him what he'd do when this job ended. "Whatever God gives," he said. Then for reasons I can't remember he took me outside. Heading toward the exit, we passed the Oasis Pub, which he and other artists had also painted with traditional Indian filigree, this time in raspberry and blue to match the rug.
Standing with our backs to the ocean, we contemplated the Taj's seventy domes and minarets (sixty-six more than its namesake). Wangyal pointed out the raucous candy striping on different domes, the expanses of pink.
"Tacky," he said. "But kind of interesting."
Song of the Day: Lightnin' Hopkins, Gambler's Blues
Blog, Movies, Music, TV
Roxies Hart
Prompted by the Fosse/Verdon eight-parter, I've been following Chicago in its many manifestations backward into the past. Among my discoveries: Susan Misner, who plays Fosse's pre-Gwen wife Joan McCracken (famous in her own day as "The Girl Who Fell Down"), and who previously played the long-suffering Sandra Beeman on The Americans, appeared in the movie version of Chicago as Merry Murderess #1: "You know how people have these little habits that get you down?….You pop that gum one more time…." She's a sensational dancer:
Cell Block Tango
There's also a great dance scene in the 1942 version, Roxie Hart, which isn't a musical at all so it comes out of nowhere. Maybe Ginger Rogers insisted. Reprise of sorts here:
Roxie Clip
Finally, here's the glamour-puss who started it all. Beulah Annan, real-life inspiration for Roxie:
"We both reached for the gun…."
With a little help, she said it.
Song of the Day: Gus Arnheim and His Orchestra Live at the Cocoanut Grove:
Here's an easy way to do a lot of good: donating school supplies to teachers in need around the country, many of whom are forced to pay for things out of their own pockets (or more likely do without) because government funding for education is so piss-poor. Wishlists are posted below from teachers in 45 states (Mississippi, hello?). You can give individual items or supply a whole classroom. Have a look:
https://sites.google.com/site/classroomgiving/we-need-supplies
Song of the Day: Graham Parker: Back to School Days
Blog, Fine Dining
Anchovies and Sheep
For reasons that need not detain us I recently bought a South African cookbook published in 1891. Old cookbooks are the trippiest things this side of Doors of Perception. I remember seeing a first edition of The Joy of Cooking a few years ago which contained a recipe for something involving possum. It entailed keeping the main ingredient in a cage out back for a week while fattening it up. The past is another menu.
Anyway I thought I'd share a couple of entries from Hilda's Where Is It? Of Recipes in case you're tired of the same old Mediterranean salsa and would like to try something new. To be clear, I'm not saying they're all silly. I'm sure some would be delicious, but sometimes the ingredients make my hair stand on end, and I'm not the target market for "A Pleasant Gruel." Whopping great booze recipes however.
BLOATER TOAST: 1 teaspoon full of bloater paste, 1 teaspoon of anchovy sauce, 1 tablespoon of cream, 1 oz. of butter, a little cayenne — spread on toast. That's just mysterious.
CURRY SOUP: Head and feet of sheep…. That's as far as we're going.
FOR HORSES SEIZED WITH VIOLENT SPASMS OR COLIC: 50 drops of Laudanum, 1/2 pint of whiskey, 50 drops of peppermint oil. This would never have gotten as far as my horse.
Some of the cakes look tasty.
More on this to come perhaps.
Song of the Day: Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, That's What I Like About the South
Blog, Books, Fiction
Order More Sackcloth
The touch of malicious joy I expected to feel about this news story didn't materialize because the whole thing's so depressing. Kosoko Jackson, who is black and gay, has been freelancing as a "sensitivity reader" at major publishing houses — which means, as you are no doubt aware, working as a member of the imagination police screening manuscripts for things that might trigger offense in any number of identity groups. In what Jennifer Senior in the NYT called a "karmic boomerang," Jackson's debut YA novel, A Place for Wolves, has incited the wrath of some of those very groups who've come at him like a torpedo of bees, to the point where he has asked to have the book withdrawn. He has presumably been sent somewhere for regrooving, after which I expect he'll have a tough time writing a sentence for a long time to come.
It does no good to cite oh anyone, E.M. Forster, how we'd have to set fire to A Passage to India to satisfy the inquisitors re who gets to imagine what or whom. I'll just invoke the cry of Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington in 1824, "Publish and be damned," or I would except I've just discovered he was one of the architects of the Raj who wallowed in plunder…. Rats.
Song of the Day: Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Umqombothi
One Man's (sorry) Opinion
Herewith the cover of Writers' Chronicle for Jan/Feb, slugged "A Room Without Men," and my letter to the editor regarding it published in the Mar/April issue.
Dear Editor: I am appalled by your latest cover ("A Room Without Men") featuring women painting out a man's face. What about A Room Without Blacks? Or a Room Without Whites? If your cover showed the reverse — men painting out a woman's face — your headquarters would be attacked. This kind of exclusionary, anti-male propaganda helps no one and makes a mockery of the ideals of diversity and community toward which we the enlightened are supposedly striving. Diversity — make that life — includes men, even white men. An irritating state of affairs, but there it is.
Song of the Day: Kris Delmhorst, Invisible Choir
Can Wildlife Be Solved?
For your delectation and amusement here's a riff I did in response to an item in USA Today last week:
"Civilian flights based in the USA reported 14,661
collisions with wildlife in 2018…. That's more
than 40 a day, tying the previous year's record."
"Tying! I know it's an embarrassment!"
Those were virtually the first words out of the mouth of Elmo Klein, the Interior Department's Undersecretary for Wildlife Obliteration, when I visited him in his office last week. In fact, he almost refused to do the interview, concerned that I was going to do a hatchet job on him. When I assured him that on the contrary, I was there to publicize the problems he's up against, to get his side of the story, his face took on a look of gratitude rarely seen in a public official.
"Okay then," he said, "let's talk birds. I don't like pointing fingers, but here's why the numbers aren't moving. One, the airline manufacturers. Boeing and those guys, they're so busy writing manuals they're not even distributing, they've taken their eye off the ball. The planes we've got in the air now, they're bigger, faster, quieter, which gives birds less time to get out of the way. Full marks for that. But it doesn't mean the job's done. You need to keep pushing the technology. Two, the folks in the cockpit. That's the other piece. A lot of these planes now virtually fly themselves. But if a pilot puts the thing on cruise control so he can whatever, I hate to imagine, he's not alert to the opportunities. Whole flocks get by. Where's management on this? These birds aren't going to eliminate themselves."
But of course the feathered population is just one sliver of Klein's immense portfolio, the size of which weighs heavily upon him. As he knows too well, it's one thing to announce a zero-tolerance policy vis a vis wildlife and another to achieve it. Much of the problem, Klein told me, is lack of resources.
"Which surprises me frankly, given the rhetoric out there, the promises made. I realize we're not the only scorched-earth program competing for funds. Still, you'd think ours would be higher on the list. For example, I've got people in twelve states shooting fish in barrels. Everyone assumes that's easy. Well, the fish don't get there by themselves. It requires money and personnel, and we need more of both." He sighed. "Everywhere I turn it's a struggle. Zoos. They're hard to burn down. You can't just ask any arsonist. Sure, a child can torch a monkey house, but the flames don't spread, you know? All the wide-open spaces. It's a job for specialists. You need weapons-grade accelerants and guys who know how to use them. Everything's expensive."
"Where do you think the money should come from?"
"We're taxpayer-funded. Where else would we get it? As far as I'm concerned, that last tax cut for the rich was a big mistake. I mean, I don't want to get myself fired, but I'm fighting for my department. We've pretty much sucked the poor dry on this, the middle class. And then some tycoon comes up to me and says 'Hey, how come I'm still seeing this antelope?' Well, look in the mirror, pal."
"What should your budget be then? Perfect world."
"I'm not a numbers guy. All I know is the pressure's ridiculous. People go out, see a chipmunk, the phones light up. And I get vilified. Meanwhile the EPA gets all the love. Toxic this, cancer that. Like what they do is hard."
"You don't know how much money you need?"
"All I can say is every bit helps. I saw the other day, some X number of millions going to funding for the arts. A pittance, they say. Do you know what I could do with that money? I'd have a team in the field tomorrow taking out the last of the red wolves. There are still more of those left than people realize."
"What other challenges are you facing?"
"Bounce-backs drive me crazy. God, buffalo. They're like the measles. You think they're eradicated, you turn around, boom, they're back."
"What kind of cooperation are you getting on the international front?'
"Spotty. Kenya's an inspiration, but in some other areas…. Whales! How can people not see the size of that problem? It's a whale for Christ's sake. God bless the Japanese, but they're like the lone flag flying. Almost every other nation looks the other way. Can't be bothered. Leave it to the next guy. With that kind of mentality…."
"Well, here at home anyway, what about getting the public involved?"
"I understand there are still some holdouts, people hiding species on private land."
"What are you saying? Send in volunteers?"
"I can see the argument, but…. I mean sure, this country's got armed maniacs coming out of its ears. They'd do a spectacular job. But would they stop there? That's the problem. Besides…. What's that cartoon, I forget what it's called, the one where the big foot comes down on Bambi? That's the central function of government right there, to crush. The top regimes like to do it themselves."
"Actually though — cute story — I got a call the other day. Older gentleman. Lovely guy. He's trying to do his bit. 'Mr. Klein,' he says, 'I get up every morning, go out back and see what I can shoot for you, but I always miss. It's discouraging.' Isn't that sweet? I sent him a pin." Klein pulled a box toward him and poured some of its contents onto his desk: lapel pins of everything from hares to herons with red diagonal lines through them.
"I love these," he said.
"How's the morale in your department?"
"Up and down. Depends on the day. But I'm always right there encouraging my troops. Reminding them of the victories in sight. Condors, we're close."
"You've been close for a while."
He gave me such a look of pained reproach I apologized at once.
"Birds are the worst," he said. "You don't understand. There are millions of them, and they're shifty. But I'll tell you one thing. If I do nothing else in this life, I'm going to clear out the parks. Yellowstone, Glacier National Park — that's still there, isn't it? — places like that. They're sanctuaries. They're supposed to be. But are they really? Let's just say there's peace, and there's peace with twittering, which as far as I'm concerned is no peace at all."
As I stood to leave, Klein expressed warm thanks for my visit and offered me a button. "How about a nice polar bear?"
I told him that unfortunately I couldn't wear it. "A reporter becoming part of the story he's covering, it crosses a line."
"Line?"
"It's an ethical thing."
"Really?" he said. "That's fascinating. Journalism, ethics. I never put the two together."
"Just kidding," I said. "Pin it on."
Song of the Day: Robert Plant & Alison Krause, Gone, Gone, Gone
Blackface, Age 6
Like all old saws, the old saw that the past is another country isn't always true as the convulsions in Virginia re blackface vividly remind us. It reminds me too of my own turn in blackface, which is how I broke into show business.
A minstrel show was our first-grade play so we all corked up. This was in rural Maryland in the 50s. I don't remember much from that year. I remember the smell of mimeograph paper, and I remember a kid in the corner. He was sitting on a stool with a dunce cap on his head like a mule in the rain. (Okay, that past is another country. I hope.) Anyway, in an environment like that it's not amazing how the teachers chose to showcase our cuteness. We performed a full slate of minstrel sketches of which I recall two in particular. One was the Tambo and Bones routine — one squirt piping to another, I swear to God, "Who was that lady I saw you with last night?" — and the other one a dance routine in which I participated.
I participated in two ways. First, I was given some kind of loose-limbed, jivey dance to do. Second, I was told I wasn't good enough so they gave it to Billy Groff and I had to stand there clapping for him instead. It was one of those moments of searing humiliation a kid never forgets.
So that's two shots of poison in one hypo. And they stay in your blood. They dilute and diminish over the years, but CSI could still find them.
Eons later, my kids' fourth-grade play was a parable about environmental awareness. A wood-chopper in the rainforest fell asleep and the spirits of the forest appeared and fluttered and whispered to him and he woke up a changed man who would no longer chop down (yay!) trees. It was brutally boring. It also pissed me off. Elementary-school plays should be kids having a big old silly ball. I will brook no argument on this.
Miles better than a minstrel show, absolutely. Still…
Past and present: no and no. We need another another country.
Song of the Day: The Diamonds, Little Darlin'
A new book about the ad business, The Adman's Dilemma, brings to light a cool attempt to monetize poetry far from the halls of Hallmark. In 1955 the Ford Motor Company was so flummoxed about what to name their fabulous new midsize model that Robert B. Young of the Marketing Research Department reached out to Marianne Moore, the iconic poet, for help. It was all balls of paper around the office, and the guys were wondering if she might have some ideas. For inspiration, Mr. Young wrote, "you might care to visit with us and muse with the new Wonder which is now in clay in our Advance Styling Studios….All we want is a colossal name (another 'Thunderbird' would be fine."
Miss Moore said she'd give it a shot, which frankly makes me like her poetry better. Over the next few weeks they exchanged several letters — in which, to give him his due, Mr. Young's literate and sprightly style outshone hers. But I'm taking too long to get to the names. Herewith a sample of her suggestions:
Mongoose Civique
Ford Silver Sword
The Impeccable
Thunder Crester
Pastelogram
Varsity Stroke
Turbotorc
Triskelion (three legs running)
Pluma Piluma (hairfine, feather foot)
Andante con Moto (description of a good motor?)
Turcotinga (turquoise cotinga — the cotinga being a solid indigo South American finch or sparrow)
Tir a l'arc (bull's eye)
Resilient Bullet
Intelligent Bullet
Bullet Cloisone
Bullet Lavolta
Ford Faberge (that there is also a perfume Faberge seems to me to do no harm, for the allusion is to the original silversmith)
The Intelligent Whale
Hurricane Hirundo (swallow)
Hurricane Aquila (eagle)
Hurricane Accipter (hawk)
….43 in all.
Separate and last she sent in on December 8, 1955:
Mr. Young, May I submit UTOPIAN TURTLETOP? Do not trouble to answer unless you like it.
On December 23 Miss Moore received a bouquet of roses, eucalyptus and white pine with a note from Mr. Young:
Merry Christmas to our favorite Turtletopper.
December 26, her reply: Dear Mr. Young, An aspiring turtle is certain to glory in spiral eucalyptus, white pine straight from the forest, and innumerable scarlet roses almost too tall for close inspection. Of a temperament susceptible to shock though one may be, to be treated like royalty could not but induce sensations unprecedented august…..
Nearly a year went by. Then in November 1956 Miss Moore received a note from a Mr. David Wallace in Marketing telling her the company had, as we would say today, gone in a different direction:
"We have chosen a name out of the more than six thousand-odd candidates that we gathered. It has a certain ring to it. An air of gaiety and zest. At least, that's what we keep saying. Our name, dear Miss Moore, is: Edsel."
Song of the Day: Jan and Dean, Dead Man's Curve
Titanic Under Alles
I'm fresh from seeing a very strange movie called Titanic. It is indeed another film about the sinking, the difference being that this one was made in 1942 under Hitler's regime and all the characters speak German. The movie elevates English greed and bumbling to towering heights, and the lone voice of sanity is (totally fictional) First Officer Pederson, the only German on board, who practically begs the stupid owner and the stupid captain to slow down because if we hit an iceberg at this speed then oh the humanity. Production notes: the film was conceived and propelled by Goebbels despite the enormous costs as a great propaganda vehicle. Partway through the filming the director, Herbert Selpin, made some complaint about the regime so Goebbels had him killed. A new director came in to finish filming the traumatized cast. Finished at last! Time for the premiere! But by then the Allies were bombing Germany all up and down so Goebbels blocked its release on the theory that the public might be demoralized by a film full of death and panic when they were getting so much of it right outside.
But, to return to first principles, it's watching characters like buffoon John Jacob Astor and his idiot countrymen freaking in German that stays with you. The sinking stuff (water pouring in etc.) is very well done.
Song of the Day: Norah Jones, Sinking Soon
Stolen Rembrandt — keep your eye out — big reward


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My Month in Reading, July 2019
September 3, 2019 September 1, 2019 by Jeff
After a slow June, I got back in the swing of things for July. I finished several audiobooks and a few graphic novels along with the final book in the His Dark Materials trilogy.
The Apocalypse Codex by Charles Stross
Bob Howard, supernatural IT guy slash reluctant field agent, is a fun character to follow. Even still, I've been slow to read this series, which is now nine books long. In fact, I read book three in 2011 and originally started the series way back in 2007.
I think it helps to understand that the Laundry Files began as a parody of British spy novels, and then Stross either felt restricted by that premise or grew bored with it, so slowly but surely rejiggered it into something else, eventually turning it into a reliable yearly release.
This book felt a bit transitional, possibly because of that shift. From what I remember of the earlier books, Bob was generally at the forefront of the story, driving events and saving the day. In this volume, Stross introduces a few new viewpoint characters and Bob is in a more reactive role. He's still the one narrating events or recording them for posterity, but he's in over his head and oftentimes sidelined during action scenes.
From reading the summaries of the later books, it sounds like Bob isn't always the primary viewpoint character, which makes sense if Stross wanted to open up the premise a bit. I'm still enjoying the series, but I'll probably have to read another book or two to get an idea of where he's taking it.
The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
It's kind of amazing how out there this trilogy gets. I wish I'd known back in the day when I first started reading it, because I might have made the effort to finish what I'd started instead of stopping after book one. These books were easily some of the best I've read in a good long while, and each book in the trilogy only improved on the one before it.
This one includes a harrowing trip into the afterlife for Lyra and Will and ends with some hard choices for both characters. There is an epic battle scene between humans, angels, witches and just about everything under the sun.
I'm hugely excited about the HBO adaptation, which will hopefully do it justice, even though they are condensing the books into two seasons instead of doing a book per season. Still, the bizarre visuals in the second and third books should more than make up for anything condensed for television.
⭐⭐
The Pin-Up Art of Bill Ward
Bill Ward is a famous pin-up artist who drew the kinds of comics you might find in Playboy or its forgotten men's magazine predecessors. The most interesting thing I learned from this collection is that he drew with a conté crayon and his originals were huge as a result.
He definitely had a knack for drawing glossy black leggings on absurdly exaggerated statuesque women. Less successful were the gag captions, which I only rarely found funny, probably because they're from a different era but also because the jokes were clearly not the point.
This volume also makes it clear that Ward had a few go-to poses and settings, and most of his comics were variations on a handful of themes. His work probably stands up slightly better in an uncollected form, which essentially means that this collection only diminishes it.
DISLIKED IT
Act of God by Jill Ciment
I got bored with this book halfway through and almost didn't finish reading. Instead, I listened to The Apocalypse Codex and then decided to give this another shot since it is relatively short.
My main problem with Act of God is that it isn't nearly as interesting as the cover or the summary implies. It's a story about four women catastrophically affected by fast-growing mutant mushrooms that infest their homes, which makes it sound like the book is going to be weirder than it is.
You could replace the mushrooms with any natural disaster and tell about the same story. Aside from that hook, the book isn't all that compelling.
Cash Boy, Volume 1 by Mio Murao
Sometimes I read comics just because they are available on ComiXology Unlimited or Hoopla or Overdrive and the bar for entry is low. I've read more manga in the last year or so, mostly thanks to those resources, and sometimes I've found some pretty decent reads. This was not one of those times.
The basic premise is that a college boy and a high school girl become step-siblings when their parents marry, but then they are soon orphaned when their parents die on the way to their honeymoon. Lucky for them, their parents left them a huge amount of money that they then spend irresponsibly, oftentimes resulting in sexy hi-jinks. Oh, and there is a bit of sexual tension between them because they were strangers and now they're only siblings in the legal sense.
The worst part of this book was the translation, which is clunky and rife with typos, but the views on women were also questionable. First, the boy obsesses over a materialistic woman who turns him down because he doesn't spend enough money on her. Then, he starts going to a fashion hotel, (aka love hotel aka brothel), where he becomes infatuated with a sex worker. This does not end well for him.
Ice Cream Man, Volume 1: Rainbow Sprinkles by W. Maxwell Prince and Martin Morazzo
This book is sort of like what you might get if the Sandman comics were about some kind of demonic entity pretending to be a friendly neighborhood ice cream man who just so happens to cause mayhem wherever he goes.
Each issue is an episodic story about something terrible or weird (or both) that happens either adjacent to or because of the Ice Cream Man's influence. I liked the art and I generally enjoyed the book, but the stories felt slight and kind of forgettable.
The series is clearly going for a classic horror anthology vibe, but none of the horror twists had the gut punch you get from a Twilight Zone episode. Instead, they were just a series of gross or horrible happenings.
Cryptofauna by Patrick Canning (Full Review)
This was an entertaining book that was almost too silly for its own good. I enjoyed it, but found myself wishing that there was a little bit more substance behind all the absurdity. Still, I would happily pick up another book by this author.
Die, Volume 1 by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans
Gillen describes Die as goth Jumanji, which is a pretty fair summary. The art, by Stephanie Hans, is painterly and gorgeous and is by far my favorite part of the book.
Imagine, if you will, a group of friends who shared a horrifying trauma many years ago. They've drifted apart in the intervening years, but something draws them back together and throws them into the mix of a new and developing trauma. Needless to say, they are cranky about it.
In the first volume of Die, we meet that group of former friends, now splintered apart and living emotionally damaged existences. Once, when they were young, they played an intense and dangerous game that pulled them into another universe with real and lasting consequences, including the disappearance and presumed death of one of their number.
Many years later, they reluctantly decide to get the gang back together after the delivery of a die belonging to their lost friend. This artifact transports them back into the game that changed their lives and forces them to reckon with the many ways this alternate universe has changed and moved on since they went home and tried to resume their former lives.
This first volume is bleak and cynical and sets up the horrifying consequences of something that should have been nothing more than a game. The characters are all flawed and searching for something they lost or never had. It's a fascinating world, and I can't wait to read more.
Categories Month in Review Tags 2019, July Post navigation
My Month in Reading, June 2019
My Month in Reading, August 2019
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Today, I am going to feature something that is both simple and functional. I was blessed to have received it almost two months ago: The Pampered Chef Ceramic Egg Cooker. These days I have been quite busy, and so anything that is low maintenance and gives you fast results in food preparation, gets a high five. It has been a life changer for me when it comes to getting something ready within 20 minutes or less for breakfast for two college kids, who are always rushing out the door in the mornings. I am not getting paid to share this item with you. I would just like to share the blessing of having this simple, functional, Ceramic Egg Cooker from Pampered Chef.
This egg cooker can make microwave omelets, oatmeal, french toast, muffins, etc. The two things that I have tried is the omelette and the muffins. The omelette takes literally five minutes. There are two and a half minutes of prep time, and then another two and a half minutes of cook time in the microwave. The best thing to do if you want to use frozen vegetables or quinoa, is to cook them at night so that they will be ready in the morning. Otherwise, you can use fresh veggies, and it will only require the two and a half minutes. Because of the fact that my son loves eggs, I have tried several varities of the omelette: omelette with cheese, omelette with cheese and lunch meat, and an everything omelette, which is the one that I will be discussing.
Place two eggs, milk, and parsley into the egg cooker.
Put on the top to the egg cooker and cover the hole with your pointy finger.
Shake the egg cooker ten times, holder the top in place.
Fold the lunchmeat in half, cutting it into square pieces.
Add the quinoa, lunch meat, and cheese, and stir.
Place in the microwave for 2 and 1/2 minutes with the lid.
Take the top of using a silicone trivet or oven mitt.
Take a butter knife, outlining the omelette in a complete circle.
Invert the omelette into a plate.
Place olive oil, flaxseed meal, milk, and vanilla extract into the egg cooker and stir.
Add all the rest of the ingredients and stir.
Cook for two minutes and 20 seconds without the lid.
Place in the microwave for 2 and 1/2 minutes.
Take the top of with a silicone trivet or oven mitt.
Take a butter knife, outlining the muffin in a complete circle.
Invert the muffin into a plate.


text:
Applied Management Studies
Join a community focused on helping you finish your degree, and become the professional you aspire to be.
Business Administration-Accounting
Our discussion-driven, adult learning environment develops strong business and accounting skills.
By earning your master's degree in accounting, you can launch your career as a tax or audit associate with a public accounting firm, be selected for a leadership development program with a large corporation, or serve in a variety of other accounting roles for leading employers in the region.
Master of Science in Exercise Physiology
Our MSEP program will prepare you for a career focused on improving health through fitness and nutrition.
Our MSW program gives you maximum career flexibility within its approach of working with others, and the skills to be an effective advocate for children, adults, and diverse communities.
Nursing, RN to BSN
If you are a Registered Nurse who is ready to take the next step, we offer a top-quality and convenient RN-BSN program for working adults.
Our MBA program can prepare you to be an innovative business leader who motivates and inspires others and surpasses all professional goals.
Master of Physician Assistant Studies
Whether you want to provide primary care to residents in rural America or work in hospitals in underserved communities, St. Ambrose has a program to help you achieve – and exceed – all of your goals.
Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology
We teach you the skills to improve the speech – and lives – of others. At SAU, our two-year MSLP program allows you to complete your degree quickly without shortchanging the experience.
Multimedia Journalism
Journalists witness the world. They also share it. At SAU, you'll learn the art of balancing facts, perspective, and personal stories. You'll build your ethics and creativity, and gain the writing and technical abilities to inform readers and viewers in a thought-provoking manner.
Public Relations and Strategic Communication
If your desire is to shape and influence how people receive information about a company or organization, your career path into public relations should begin at St. Ambrose University.
Whether you want to launch a new career, or move up the ladder in the company where you now work, our Bachelor of Business Administration can help you reach, and exceed, your goals.
If you aspire to produce a TV program, rock the airwaves as a radio personality, or report breaking news for a major network, you'll need skills, ethics, and drive to navigate an ever-evolving media landscape. At SAU, you'll gain that education, and so much more.
Whether you strive for a career in teaching, law, writing, library science, or a bevy of other sectors, studying English at St. Ambrose you get the skills and opportunities to master your craft.
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text:
Foundation EMLC
Reading: Esther Schreuder, Cupido en Sideron. Twee moren aan het hof van Oranje
XML (EN)
Esther Schreuder, Cupido en Sideron. Twee moren aan het hof van Oranje
How to Cite: editors, F. the ., 2017. Esther Schreuder, Cupido en Sideron. Twee moren aan het hof van Oranje. Early Modern Low Countries, 1(2), p.374. DOI: http://doi.org/10.18352/emlc.39
Published on 22 Dec 2017
This book presents the lives of two black servants at the court of stadholder William V. Sideron arrived from Curaçao in 1763 at the age of seven, Cupido, who was slightly younger followed three years later from the African West coast. Why they came remains unclear. Most likely they were gifts, a relatively common practice at the European courts of the eighteenth century as Esther Schreuder describes in this informative and highly recommended book. Schreuder explains how the two children lovingly and respectfully grow up to have successful careers as servants of William V of Orange-Nassau and Wilhelmina of Prussia with whom their fate was closely intertwined. Schreuder never strays far from the sources she found in the Dutch Royal archives. However, by carefully contextualizing these documents with information about the legal status of blacks in the Netherlands, life at court, political and overseas history she is able to sketch an amazingly complete picture of the exceptional lives of Cupido and Sideron. Cupido married a German girl in 1802, Schreuder has found that his descendants live in The Hague to this day.
editors, F. the ., 2017. Esther Schreuder, Cupido en Sideron. Twee moren aan het hof van Oranje. Early Modern Low Countries, 1(2), p.374. DOI: http://doi.org/10.18352/emlc.39
editors F the. Esther Schreuder, Cupido en Sideron. Twee moren aan het hof van Oranje. Early Modern Low Countries. 2017;1(2):374. DOI: http://doi.org/10.18352/emlc.39
editors, F. the . (2017). Esther Schreuder, Cupido en Sideron. Twee moren aan het hof van Oranje. Early Modern Low Countries, 1(2), 374. DOI: http://doi.org/10.18352/emlc.39
editors F the, 'Esther Schreuder, Cupido En Sideron. Twee Moren Aan Het Hof Van Oranje' (2017) 1 Early Modern Low Countries 374 DOI: http://doi.org/10.18352/emlc.39
editors, From the. 2017. "Esther Schreuder, Cupido En Sideron. Twee Moren Aan Het Hof Van Oranje". Early Modern Low Countries 1 (2): 374. DOI: http://doi.org/10.18352/emlc.39
editors, From the. "Esther Schreuder, Cupido En Sideron. Twee Moren Aan Het Hof Van Oranje". Early Modern Low Countries 1, no. 2 (2017): 374. DOI: http://doi.org/10.18352/emlc.39
editors, F. the .. "Esther Schreuder, Cupido En Sideron. Twee Moren Aan Het Hof Van Oranje". Early Modern Low Countries, vol. 1, no. 2, 2017, p. 374. DOI: http://doi.org/10.18352/emlc.39
Published by Werkgroep De Zeventiende Eeuw and Werkgroep De Achttiende Eeuw | Supported by Utrecht University Library Open Access Journals


Kathiravan, S., Suriyanarayanan, S., Nicholls, I.A. (2019). Electrooxidative Amination of sp2 C–H Bonds : Coupling of Amines with Aryl Amides via Copper Catalysis. Organic Letters. 21. 1968-1972.
Kathiravan, S., Nicholls, I.A. (2017). Cobalt Catalyzed, Regioselective C(sp(2))-H Activation of Amides with 1,3-Diynes. Organic Letters. 19. 4758-4761.
Kathiravan, S., Nicholls, I.A. (2017). Monoprotected L-Amino Acid (L-MPAA), Accelerated Bromination, Chlorination, and Iodination of C(sp(2))-H Bonds by Iridium(III) Catalysis. Chemistry - A European Journal. 23. 7031-7036.
Kathiravan, S., Nicholls, I.A. (2017). Rhodium(III)-catalysed, redox-neutral C(sp(2))-H alkenylation using pivalimide as a directing group with internal alkynes. Tetrahedron Letters. 58. 1-4.
Kathiravan, S., Nicholls, I.A. (2015). Palladium Catalyzed Vinyltrifluoromethylation of Aryl Halides through Decarboxylative Cross-Coupling with 2-(Trifluoromethyl)acrylic Acid. Organic Letters. 17. 1874-1877.
Kathiravan, S., Ghosh, S., Hogarth, G., Nicholls, I.A. (2015). Copper catalysed amidation of aryl halides through chelation assistance. Chemical Communications. 51. 4834-4837.
Kathiravan, S., Nicholls, I.A. (2014). Rhodium-Catalyzed Oxidative Perfluoroalkenylation by Carbonyl Group Directed C-H Bond Activation. European Journal of Organic Chemistry. 7211-7219.
Kathiravan, S., Nicholls, I.A. (2014). Rhodium(III)-catalysed aerobic synthesis of highly functionalized indoles from N-arylurea under mild conditions through C-H activation. Chemical Communications. 50. 14964-14967.
Kathiravan, S. (2017). Towards novel perfluoroalkylation of arenes. Abstract of Papers of the American Chemical Society. 254.


snailish, louzislouz, mafiosa, russheath, coca, mapix, sommer, tsingtao, yyyhorn, endorphin, zopia, buckshot, pregrino_george, lucaro, darwin1974, pitfall, grazie, rik041, atria007, pussylove, giovannidecarlo, realrampage, oliviermenard, alex34, fabioduarte77, neanderthalis, gatokinetik-o, why-yu, meryl, albeelee, clickiemcpete, nquelhas, tagliatele_la_testa, minchi, nerdlab, ironsymphony, adamo-75, usha_berg, adash & mich and 4 more lovely people. Show less, please.
OMG!!! This is like when Doc sends Marti back to the future!!!!! I NEED THIS!!! Amazing album!!!


It's a rare item that pleases both gadget and nature lovers, but the Jupiter Mouse from Actbrise Electronics does just that. This wooden mouse is handmade from Chinese flowering ash in Japan's rural Gunma prefecture and earns its name from the natural wood grain swirls and click button that resembles the largest planet's famous spot.
The innovative design, however, isn't limited to form: the cursor moves in direction and velocity according to the tilt of the spherical mouse, which rests comfortably in the palm of your hand. The Jupiter mouse not only brings a refreshing natural element to your desk bit also offers an exciting new approach to navigating your computer screen.


text:
Electronic Voice Phenomena – fenomeno delle voci elettroniche
 Enhanced Virus Protection – tecnologia AMD che tenta di prevenire l'esecuzione da parte del processore di codice malevole
 Evangelische Volkspartei – Partito Evangelico Svizzero, partito politico svizzero
 Executive Vice President – titolo che nelle società statunitensi è attribuito a taluni manager (v. Presidente di società).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Home › News › The Press- News column. July 8
The Press- News column. July 8
By Mike Yardley • July 11, 2014
Political Spotlight Set to Head East.
As the pulse rate of the central city rebuild starts to beat with purpose and vigour, expect the political spotlight to head East in the coming weeks, with higher wattage bulbs to boot. A welcome appetiser emerged on Friday, with a city council-appointed advisory group selecting a hot salt water pool complex as the recommended legacy project for New Brighton. The enduring success of Dunedin's equivalent complex, gracing St. Clair beach, demonstrates their magnetic allure. Meanwhile, it's been two years since the city council first committed $30 million to constructing a new aquatic and recreation facility out East, to replace QEII. A classic Christchurch bitch fight fast derailed hopes of finalising a site. Powered by parochial extremism, this turf war has been a risible exhibition of reverse Nimbyism. A second council-appointed advisory group, tasked with busting through the imbroglio, is scheduled to settle the score this month. Also on the horizon, the government is poised to formally unveil its community engagement action plan on the future of the residential red zone. The size of the Eastern red zone alone equates to five Hagley Parks. How assertively will the government front-foot the engagement process with some pre-packaged future-use proposals? What will they champion? Ever since February 2011, Gerry Brownlee has been a true, albeit quiet, believer in seizing the post-quake opportunity to create a world-class flat water sports facility on the Avon. Surely, it's a no-brainer. How extensive is National's war-chest, to flash the cash for such projects? Recently I paid a visit to Zealandia, the Karori wildlife sanctuary. What a triumph to have kaka, kiwi, takahe, tuatara and ever-expanding flocks of saddlebacks, kereu, bellbirds and tui, thriving in the heart of Wellington. Zealandia's financial track-record has certainly been pock-marked, but visitor numbers have soared since they slashed admission prices. Many local ecologists are eager to see Travis Wetland super-sized with red zone land to create a similar predator-proof-fenced sanctuary in Christchurch. As a signature new drawcard for the East, it's an eminently likeable vision. But, who pays? Of course, the Avon-Otakaro Network, an industrious grass-roots group with an impressive alliance of multi-agency support partners, has already done a lot of the early running, championing a variety of exciting river park options. Political parties would be foolish to ignore them. Meanwhile, during November's by-election, Labour's David Cunliffe rashly pledged to revitalise New Brighton. A detailed policy package, in addition to affordable housing, is apparently set for launch. Pork-barrelling Christchurch for the party vote seems a sure bet. The East can't lose this election.
Mike Yardley's weekly current affairs column, as published in The Press, July 8. www,press.co.nz
« ZB Travel – Rarotonga July 5
ZB Travel – Oz Winter. July 12 »


text:
Ukraine crisis: Scores of Russian soldiers killed in east Ukraine, opposition report says
Updated May 13, 2015 06:55:34
Photo: The West says many of the troops fighting in Ukraine are Russian. (Reuters: Baz Ratner)
Related Story: 300 US troops arrive in Ukraine to train local military
Related Story: Russian opposition leader shot dead in central Moscow
Map: Russian Federation
At least 220 Russian soldiers have been killed in east Ukraine, opposition activists say, in a report offering what they call "ample evidence" to rebut president Vladimir Putin's denial his troops are fighting there.
The report, the last project of murdered Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov, also said Russia had spent more than 53 billion roubles ($1.3 billion) in 10 months to fund the conflict and deprived people of 2.75 trillion roubles ($68 billion) lost to inflation.
Nemtsov was shot dead in central Moscow in February and members of his party, the liberal RPR-Parnas, and journalists helped finish the 65-page report based on open source information and interviews with soldiers' families.
"The war with Ukraine is an undeclared war, a vile cynical war which amounts to a crime against all of the Russian nation," Ilya Yashin, an aide to Nemtsov, said.
"Putin will go down in history as the president who made Russians and Ukrainians foes.
"The main conclusion of our report is that we have collected and systematised [information] which we think provides ample evidence of the presence of Russian soldiers in Ukraine," he told a news conference to unveil the report, called Putin. War.
A spokesman for the Kremlin declined to comment on the report, saying he was not familiar with it and could not say if Mr Putin would look into it.
Mr Putin says there are no serving troops fighting in Ukraine, only volunteers.
World news in your inbox
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The West accuses Russia of providing arms and troops to the separatists fighting government troops, as well as giving them training and intelligence.
It stepped up sanctions on Moscow over the conflict, which has killed more than 6,100 people.
The West first imposed sanctions on Russian businessmen and officials after Moscow annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in March 2014, before unrest spread to the east of the country.
Ties between Washington and Moscow have deteriorated since then, with Moscow accusing Washington of orchestrating last year's overthrow of a Ukrainian president who was supported by Russia.
On Tuesday, US secretary of state John Kerry met with Mr Putin and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov Sochi for highest-level talks since the fighting began.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, the two foreign ministers accentuated the positives despite the fact that relations have sunk to their lowest level since the Cold War.
"We have an understanding that we need to avoid steps which are able to inflict a long-term harm to bilateral relations between Russia and the United States," Mr Lavrov said.
"There is no substitute for talking directly to key decision makers, particularly during a period that is a complex and fast moving as this is," Mr Kerry said.
Compensation offered to some families, report says
Reuters has collected testimony from soldiers and their families about Russian servicemen fighting in Ukraine, which also calls into question the Kremlin's arguments.
The report, which Nemtsov started after families of Russian troops killed in east Ukraine asked for his help, said at least 150 Russian servicemen had been killed in fighting around the village of Ilovaisk and elsewhere in the region last summer.
Their relatives received 3 million roubles ($75,000) in compensation provided they did not speak publicly about the deaths, according to the report.
Another surge in violence killed at least 70 Russian soldiers in clashes around the town of Debaltseve earlier this year, the report said, adding that the relatives of these troops were left without compensation.
Authors said Russian soldiers were mostly forced to quit the army officially before heading to east Ukraine. They earned up to 90,000 roubles ($2,240) a month.
The authors also estimated that Russia had spent 53 billion roubles ($1.3 billion) over 10 months to support Russian "volunteers" and local rebels as well as provide military equipment.
At a time of economic crisis when growth is being squeezed by sanctions, they said inflation — which is running at over 16 per cent — had eaten up about 2 trillion roubles' ($50 billion) worth of people's salaries and 750 billion ($19 billion) in savings.
Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, government-and-politics, foreign-affairs, russian-federation, ukraine
First posted May 13, 2015 05:35:28
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Developer Zero Gravity today revealed that its upcoming first-person space survival sandbox game, Hellion, will be playable for the first time at the fifth annual Reboot InfoGamer Conference in Zagreb, Croatia.
The games show will run from November 8 to November 13. Zero Gravity will be located in Booth 8A/10.


text:
Q: Check if line crosses a polygon What I'm trying to do is with JSTS to check with lineGeom.crosses(polygonGeom) function if a line is crossing completely a polygon.
The problem is that both cases from the picture returns true. I don't know why.
Is there another way to check only the first case with line 1.

A: You need to understand the definition of the spatial predicates. What you're really want is to know if a line traverses the polygon (and not simply cross it)
Using the JTS Topology Suite, you can see that in both cases the predicates are the same: the two lines intersects and crosses the polygon:

and

With the JTS Topology Suite, you can use the Dimensionally Extended nine-Intersection Model (DE-9IM) and the Clementini Matrix:
In the first case it is
1 F 2
0 F 1
And in the second, it is
1 0 2
0 F 1
What does that really mean:

*

*in the second case the result of the intersection of the boundary of the polygon and the boundary of the line has a dimension of 0 (must obligatorily be one Point, and only one)

*in the first case the result of the intersection of the boundary of the polygon and the boundary of the line has a dimension of F (is not important, 2 Point here)

Therefore you are able to discriminate between the two cases.
line.intersection(LinearRing(polygon)) = 1 Point

or
line.intersection(LinearRing(polygon)) = 2 Points

New: if the polygon has holes:
You need to understand the topological definitions of interior, exterior and boundary of a geometry: this is fundamental if you work with JSTS, JTS or GEOS.
1) the polygon

2) the boundary of the polygon in red (LinearRing)
!
3) The result of the intersection of the line and the boundary of the polygon because the holes lie within the interior of the polygon

And the resulting DE-9IM matrix change:

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


In the creative industries, inspiration is found everywhere and as the saying goes – history repeats itself. This could not be truer than in the design and development process. We are continually looking at the past and present to create the future. Mr. Gunn summed it up perfectly during a speaking engagement at FIT by saying "know the history of your discipline." I am reminded of this with the start of each semester when I introduce one of my favorite courses HP231 America at Home.
Meeting the G6 Gen Ed Arts requirement, HP231 is a blend of history, architecture, interior design, and the design process of home products. It provides students with the opportunity to explore how the home developed throughout the 20th century; looking at its influences and trends. With the DIY movement and popularity of HGTV, the home industry is reaching a much broader and younger crowd. Knowing and understanding the history of home design not only fulfills a requirement, but allows you experience everyday objects in a new way.
Object and project based, the course incorporates the library, writing studio, and field trips to engage students in the history of the home. The curriculum is designed to build upon basic skills in research, presentation, and the development process that are a basis for many of FIT courses. And last but not least – The Chair Project. Find your inspiration, create your design and develop a model chair.
See you this fall semester – HP231 America at Home.
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The February Cravebox was called the Make-A-Date Cravebox. Now I am not really sure how all of the products in this month's box went with that theme but I didn't care because I love the products I got.
The box started with two think Thin bars. These were perfect for me since I have been on a diet since January. Any nutrition bar is a friend of mine right now. They sent to flavors. One was a creamy peanut butter bar and the other one was a chocolate nut bar. I love peanut butter so this bar was perfect for me. The second item in the box was EBoost. This was probably my least favorite product just because I am not really one to drink these vitamin energy booster supplements. My husband loves them however and said these tasted pretty good. One of my favorite products in the box were the two Amore Pacific product. We were sent a face wash as well as a face spritzer. I love them both! Even though they are pretty expensive products I love how my skin feels after using them and may have to buy more in the future. This is a product I had never heard of and if it weren't for Cravebox I probably never would have tried it. The fourth product was the Downy Wrinkle Releaser. I love this product. I brought it to work with me and within four days it was gone. Everyone in my office was trying it and were amazed at how well it took the wrinkles out of our clothes. Last but not least was my favorite item in the box. There were six BiC Mark-it permanent markers. As a teacher little things like markers make me happy. I also brought these to school and gave one to a few fellow teachers. Everyone loves them. They are great markers and I loved the Valentine's Day colors they sent me.
Cravebox is still in the Beta phase but I think it is here to stay. I love that for $10 a month I get a box filled with awesome full sized products. Cravebox is offered through She Speaks and would be worth your time to check it out. There is currently a wait list to be a part of Cravebox but it has been such a wonderful experience and I would say would be worth the wait.


text:
Hovhannes Erznkatsi ( — John of Erznka or Erzinjan) ( 1230– 1293) was an Armenian scholar and philosopher. He was nicknamed Blouz, probably because of his short stature.

The little that has reached us of his voluminous works reveal an exceptionally gifted scholar, with treasured knowledge of vast scope. Living mostly in the latter part of the thirteenth century, he was also the last of the higher class of the Armenian authors of the ancient and medieval ages. Erznkatsi wrote hymns, commentaries, odes, eulogies, a Martyrology, an astronomical treatise on celestial elements, and a grammar. He was personally known and honored in almost every center of learning in Greater Armenia and Cilicia.

An outstanding orator, he was the main speaker on the occasion of the conferring of knighthood on Hetoum and Thoros, sons of King Leon III, which was celebrated at Sis in 1284. Having studied Latin, apparently at an advanced age, he translated certain parts of the Theology of Thomas Aquinas into Armenian.

References

 Stephen Cushman, Clare Cavanagh, Jahan Ramazani, Paul Rouzer. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: Fourth Edition. — 4. — Princeton University Press, 2012. — P. 83

1250s births
1326 deaths
13th-century Armenian writers
Ethnic Armenian translators
Translators to Armenian
13th-century translators


text:
Application of Nanomaterials and fe3o4 introduction
Updated 04:06 pm
Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said Wednesday that the European Union could face a shortage of about 27 billion cubic meters of gas in 2023, or about 6.8 percent of the bloc's benchmark total gas demand.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) held the offline launch of its report "How the EU can Avoid Gas shortages by 2023" in Brussels on the same day. At a joint news conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Mr. Birol said the unusually mild early winter weather in Europe was not certain to continue, Russian gas supplies could decline further and global liquefied natural gas supplies were expected to tighten. These three things add up, and the EU could have a problem.
According to the report, the IEA proposes a series of practical short-term measures to improve energy efficiency, such as renovating buildings and using LED lights in street lamps.
Birol said energy security issues have overtaken ecological issues as the main driver of renewable energy deployment in the European Union.
Von der Leyen said the EU would step up efforts to buy liquefied natural gas in 2023, implement a joint procurement mechanism and expand and accelerate the deployment of renewable energy to combat energy shortages.
Application of Nanomaterials fe3o4
The application of fe3o4 nanomaterials is a fast developing area of research. These materials are used for various purposes, such as sensing, antiviral agents, pharmaceuticals, and pavement engineering.
Antiviral agents
Developing antiviral agents is a huge undertaking, not just because of the many types of viruses that plague humankind, but also because of the vast amount of biochemical complexity and genetic diversity among the various viruses. It isn't as easy as simply synthesizing a molecule, and as a result, these drugs are far and few between. Thankfully, the FDA has approved a number of medications that are effective against a variety of viral infections. These include hepatitis C, herpes simplex and HIV. Moreover, many of these medications are capable of targeting multiple viruses at once.
In addition to the usual suspects, there is a host of innovative and promising antiviral compounds on the horizon. Among the latest additions is entecavir, a compound that has been shown to have anti-HIV activity at sub-nanomolar concentrations. However, the development of these medications isn't going to come easily, as viral resistance is a serious threat to clinical success. In addition, there are several other unanswered questions, including what's the ideal dose, how do you assess drug-induced toxicity, and how to maximize the effectiveness of entecavir?
Sensing applications
Nanomaterials fe3o4 have been extensively explored for applications in environmental monitoring and sensing. Their high surface-to-volume ratio and robust and stable structures have been utilized for detection of diverse targets. Some of the advanced nanomaterials are metal-organic frameworks, semiconductor quantum dots, noble metal nanoparticles, and carbon-based nanomaterials.
The application of nanomaterials has opened up the possibility for novel sensing technologies. They can be used to detect toxic metal ions, viruses, bacteria, and pharmaceuticals. These sensors offer alternative to classic transduction techniques.
Nanomaterial-based gas sensors have demonstrated ultrahigh sensitivity and multiple functionalities. They fe3o4 have a high surface-to-volume ratio and chemical/physical gas adsorption capability. They have also shown low power consumption.
Graphene-based nanomaterials are used as quenching fluorescent transducer-based biosensors. They convert molecules for detection and provide unique properties, such as strong electrical conductivity. These nanomaterials are also used for electrochemical detection.
Other types of fe3o4 nanomaterials include silicon, noble metal, magnetic nanoparticles, and carbon nanotubes. They have been used for various applications, including bioimaging, flow assays, and chemical and biological detection.
Nanosized materials fe3o4 have a variety of applications in various fields of health and medicine. Some of the most important uses include drug delivery and cancer therapy. In addition, they have wide-ranging application in research and industry.
The development of various nanoparticle-based drugs is a testament to their effectiveness in clinical use. Some of the important examples of such drugs are doxorubicin, PEGylated liposomes, polylysine, and polyethyleneimine.
The application of these materials in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries is the focus of Nanobiomaterials in Drug Delivery. The book provides an overview of the latest developments and technologies based on these materials. It focuses on the development of different medical products, fabrication, and impact in tissue engineering, antimicrobial therapies, and drug delivery. The book has been written for undergraduate and post-graduate students as well as researchers.
These nanoparticles fe3o4 are designed to carry small molecules to target cells. They can be conjugated to specific molecules or can be released through biodegradation. Several types of these materials are available, including organic nanomaterials, such as micelles and dendrimers, and inorganic materials, such as quantum dots and gold.
Nanomaterials are useful in pavement engineering because they can improve the physical properties of materials, and provide a more durable and cost-effective alternative to conventional materials. They fe3o4 can also enhance the water stability of materials, and increase the rutting resistance of a road.
However, despite their many benefits, there are still some challenges involved in their use. This paper discusses some of the common problems and their solutions.
One of the main concerns is the potential environmental impact of nanomaterials. They may be in contact with people and therefore pose safety issues.
Another challenge is the fact that nanomaterials have large surface areas, and if the material is not properly dispersed, it can have an adverse effect on the final outcome. Hence, a plasticizer must be used to ensure the proper dispersion of the mixture.
Furthermore, nanomaterials can increase the moisture content of a mixture, and thus, require a larger amount of water. This causes an increase in the drying time of the materials before they can be compacted. This is an undesirable situation and only worsens the problem.
A bout TRUNNANO- Advanced new materials Nanomaterials fe3o4 supplier
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Titanium Silicide
Zirconium Silicide
For more information about TRUNNANO or looking for high purity new materials fe3o4, please visit the company website: nanotrun.com.
For the latest product knowledge news, you can also check out the following:
How heat resistant is boron nitride ?
Why silicon boride is resistant to chemical attack?
Why is the conductivity of titanium diboride so strong?
Why High Purity Graphite Powder Resists High Temperature ?
Why is amorphous boron powder so strong in oxidation resistance?
Why boron carbide has high hardness?
Or send an email to us: brad@ihpa.net
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The emergency rescue department of Berlin, Germany, reported that the world's largest independent cylinder aquarium burst on the 16th local time and about 1 million liters of water mixed with debris poured onto the busy street. The report quoted the…
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OCP Summit, SAN JOSE, Calif. – March 19, 2018 –Today, Cavium, Inc. (NASDAQ: CAVM), a leading provider of semiconductor products that enable secure and intelligent processing for enterprise and cloud data centers, announced that it is collaborating with Microsemi Corporation, and Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL), leading providers of semiconductor solutions, to demonstrate a reference architecture for accelerating and scaling out NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF™). The architecture will be demonstrated live on ARM64 and x86 architectures at the OCP Summit 2018 in San Jose, California, in booth #A37.
Integrating a broad range of proven Cavium technologies (ThunderX2® processors, FastLinQ® 100GbE NICs, XPliant® Programmable Switches) with Microsemi's Switchtec™ PCIe switches and Flashtec™ NVRAM cards and Marvell's NVMe SSD controllers enables multiple differentiated and validated end-to-end NVMe solutions, including NVMe-based all-flash arrays (AFAs), just a bunch of flash (JBOF) and fabric-attached bunch of flash (FBOF).
In addition to a robust hardware solution, the collaboration enables software integrations of Microsemi's open source PCIe peer-to-peer (P2P) technology and Cavium FastLinQ concurrent RoCE and iWARP for Storage Performance Dataplane Kit (SPDK). This solution enables new efficiencies and performance by offloading the compute resources from the data path leveraging NVMe 1.2 Controller Memory Buffer (CMB) technology.
At the OCP Summit 2018, Cavium, Microsemi and Marvell are demonstrating concurrent 100Gbps NVMe-oF RoCE and iWARP connectivity from FastLinQ 100GbE OCP NICs on x86 servers to a Celestica Nebula JBOF (with Marvell NVMe SSD controllers) and Facebook Lightning JBOF driven by Cavium's ThunderX2 and XPliant platforms. The demonstration showcases how storage IHVs can leverage PCIe P2P and SPDK technology to completely offload the server CPU from the datapath and reduce latency.
"NVMe technology is rapidly changing the way cloud and enterprise data centers connect to shared storage, but building NVMe-oF solutions require industrywide technology integrations," said Christopher Moezzi, vice president of marketing, Ethernet Server Adapter Group, Cavium. "Cavium FastLinQ Universal RDMA technology combined with the broader Cavium and Microsemi portfolio delivers a high performance and validated reference platform for JBOF/FBOF implementations, reducing risk and time to market for joint storage customers."
Driven by the performance demands of NVMe, high performance, low latency networking is a fundamental requirement for a fabric to scale out. Ethernet-based RDMA fabrics with their exceptional low latency and offload capabilities have become a popular choice for NVMe-oF. Cavium FastLinQ 10/25/40/50/100GbE Ethernet adapters support Universal RDMA (RoCE, RoCEv2 and iWARP) and deliver the ultimate choice to customers for scaling out NVMe over a general-purpose Ethernet fabric. In addition, Cavium LiquidIO® line of SmartNIC solutions are key enablers for delivering JBOF/FBOF management and AFA storage services like full IPSEC offloads, compression and deduplication.
The ThunderX2 product family is Cavium's second-generation, 64-bit ARMv8-A server processor SoCs for the data center, cloud, storage and high-performance computing applications. The family integrates high-performance custom cores along with outstanding I/O connectivity, memory bandwidth and capacity. Delivering high single core performance and multiple PCIe lanes per socket, Cavium ThunderX2 SoCs enable highly optimized JBOF/FBOF configurations.
The XPliant family of Ethernet switches improves compute and storage application performance in cloud, enterprise, and service provider data centers by offering a variety of industry leading features. The XPliant Programmable Architecture enables switching solutions that can be optimized for specific network architectures, including storage networks. Integrated end-to-end network performance management via the Packet Trakker™ instrumentation tool suite and large fully shared packet buffer guarantee robust lossless performance required for scaling out NVMe-oF.
Cavium ThunderX2 ARM64 processors, FastLinQ 100GbE OCP 2.0 NICs with Universal RDMA and XPliant 3.2T Programmable Ethernet Switches are generally available from Cavium and its collaborators worldwide.
For more information, visit www.cavium.com , www.microsemi.com and www.marvell.com.
Cavium, Inc. (NASDAQ: CAVM) offers a broad portfolio of infrastructure solutions for compute, security, storage, switching, connectivity and baseband processing. Cavium's highly integrated multi-core SoC products deliver software compatible solutions across low to high performance points enabling secure and intelligent functionality in Enterprise, Data Center and Service Provider equipment. Cavium processors and solutions are supported by an extensive ecosystem of operating systems, tools, application stacks, hardware reference designs and other products. Cavium is headquartered in San Jose, CA with design centers in California, Massachusetts, India, Israel, China and Taiwan.


Get away from it all and go camping!
All camping areas in Mikkeli region are located on the lakeside. Camping sites charm you with their beautiful lake scenerys and hospitality. Make sure to pack your sportswear with you, because all camping sites offer diverse outdoor activities and perfect starting points for canoeing.


Remember Child Musings written by @Jetttson that we all enjoyed, well, in case you missed out on it, read it Here. Yes, just click the "Here". Now, we present to you the ever funny Child Musing ii by @jetttson again.
First off… I thank you all for all the comments… re-tweets… "LOLs"… "LMAOOOOOs"… "LWKMDs" etc… I appreciate gaan ^_^… I am most especially grateful to bev (@shytalkative) and @ObaFuntAy… they helped out a lot (although they didn't correct my gbagauns in the previous post >.>)… anyway… without further ado… I present child musings…….


The great outdoors awaits. Getting outside with the kids is one of parenting's great pleasures. Showing the kids your favourite trails, discovering new paths and parts of the world unknown. Getting away from the daily grind, seeing the natural world and bonding as a family is simply one of the best things a family can experience.
To do it safely, plan plan and plan some more. keep skills in mind when packing and don't push too hard. Proper equipment is the key to a successful hike. A good rule is to plan on getting lost and having to spend a night on the trail. By having enough supplies in each person's pack to allow for that, a family of hikers will come out with a great story instead of a tragedy.
When choosing equipment, go for the brightly coloured items. Dropping a dark coloured tool on the forest floor in fading light usually means that tool is gone until morning (if it's ever found again). Wrap EVERYTHING in duct tape and paracord. Both duct tape and paracord are indispensable tools when getting stuck for the night.
A day pack needs to be properly sized to every child. Take them shopping and try on all the packs. The biggest mistake parents make is getting a pack too large for their child's body. A large pack tends to accumulate extra 'stuff' and become heavier than you would otherwise want. Adjustable straps, padded waist belt and chest harness keep the pack properly adjusted and help distribute the weight. Here is one that has all the right features including outside pockets, external compression straps and ventilation. The more reflective material on the kids backpack the better.
An extra hat for the sun, sunscreen, rain gear are all essential. Check the forecast before setting out and plan for the worst case. Each pack should have a bag large enough to cover it to keep contents dry. Commercially made pack covers like this one keep the contents dry. Get the right size for the pack. An orange garbage bag with slots cut in it for the straps, installed with the sealed end facing up will do the same job. In cold weather, add an extra pair of everything.
A day pack should plan for an emergency overnight wherever you get stopped. The basic needs for spending a night in the woods can be found here, but shelter, fire, water and food are important things. Kids under 8 likely won't know about lighting a fire. That's the parents responsibility. Teaching kids to stay still, blow their whistle in groups of three and keep warm is far more likely to stick.
Foil blankets (mylar sheets) are the pinnacle of outdoor warmth. Like these ones here, a foil blanket will keep anyone dry (keep the top open to allow for evaporation), insulated from the ground and waterproof. Their reflective surface makes finding a lost hiker easier. Lightweight, taking up almost no space, two or three of these should be in every pack (as well as your vehicle emergency kit).
For fall/spring hiking, consider adding a warm toque and a pair of mittens to the pack if overnight temperatures fall below 40ºF. Dry socks are a must regardless of the season.
Hand Warmers are great for keeping fingers and toes from becoming frostbitten. They stay warm for about 6 hours, so overnight requires two for each extremity.
A water bottle that holds 20oz or so is a good size. While hydration packs are handy, they don't allow the cleaning of contaminated water. A stainless steel water bottle can be suspended over a fire to boil water for drinking. A wide mouth bottle, such as this one will allow ice and snow to be added as well.
Pro tip: ice produces more water for less heat than snow and never ever underestimate the amount of water you should bring when you go for a hike or a wander off into the woods. You can do without many things for a period of time but water (clean drinking water) is essential and you must be prepared for the worst.
Granola bars, nuts, jerky, dried fruits are all good to have on the trail. Plan for snacks, and one full meal more than the intended hike duration. Dehydrated meals such as these from Mountain House provide a warm, nutritious meal without much preparation.
They do, however, require boiling water. Not a bad idea to keep one on hand in case of an unexpected overnight. As always be prepared and make sure you have the essential with you at all times – no matter where you go. You never know when things could take a turn for the worse.
It is no harm to stick a few of these into your pack before you head out anyway. They weigh little or nothing but could be vital in times of crisis to give you a much needed energy boost.
A small first aid kit makes the hike more pleasurable. Blisters can be prevented with a little duct tape over the hot-spot to stop the friction. Bandages (bandaids) of various sizes, alcohol swabs and a couple of triangular bandages will address the common injuries. 5 years old is a good time to start talking about first aid measures.
When hiking with kids, most families won't go into uncharted territory. Know your area. In most cases, a lost hiker will be stumbled upon by other hikers accidentally. To increase the odds of that happening, have a plan. It is generally accepted that groups of three signals mean 'help'. Three whistle blasts, three fires, three shots from a firearm (mostly pertaining to hunters) mean that someone needs help. A whistle is absolutely essential safety equipment, no matter where the trail takes you. The Fox 40 Classic classic is the gold-standard of emergency whistles. Its piercing tone can be heard for miles, over just about any other sounds and with no moving parts it's unlikely to fail. Anyone can use the Fox 40 without over-blowing it.
Light sticks are another great way to be seen at night. A couple of these strung from a tree or hiking stick make a lost hiker easily visible.
The most important thing to do when lost is to stop. Stay still and get help. Teaching this to kids, and teaching them to use the equipment in their packs is the most important. Test all the gear in the backyard, run through the what-if scenarios.
Tailor each child's pack to them. An avid hiker that knows how to use a map and compass should have both in their kits. a diabetic should have extra insulin and the right kinds of food. Winter hiking should have more food planned as the travel is harder through snow.
When I was young and camping with my parents there was no such things as proper tent lighting to be honest. We did have an old lantern style thing that had two batteries the size of a house, that would last for a couple of nights if you were lucky. There was light off the campfire if you were old enough to stay up late and sit by it. But once you went to bed that was it. Pitch dark with only the light of the moon to comfort you. As a small child I have very fond memories of this but I'll be honest and say I was a bit terrified at times by the darkness.
Things have come a long way since then and in todays modern world there are is a whole range of camping and tent lights available for you to choose from. What we wanted to try and do with this post was look at some of the features (both good and bad) of some of the most popular ones so you can make an informed decision next time you go buy lighting for your tent.
The Coleman MicroPacker LED Mini Lantern review is first up and let me tell you this is superb.
Its multifunctional from the point of view that it is both a camping lantern and a flashlight. It only weighs 6 ounces even when the batteries are installed. Speaking of batteries, the light will run for up to 15 hours with three AA batteries so cheap enough to run as well. The bulbs are 'lifetime LEDS' so you wont have to worry about changing them either.
You can change from normal to directional lighting mode by sliding up the reflector. A very handy feature if you need to head out of the tent in the night. Both lantern and flashlight in the same place. While it is small – important when packing your bag – it still gives off plenty of light. Great for hanging in the tent for reading.
The final point to make is that it is a Coleman so quality wise it is top notch.
Next up we want to look at the Rayovac Sportsman 240 Lumen 3D LED Lantern.
The Rayovac Sportsman is a compact very bright handy lantern for both camping and home use. Easier to justify buying something and better for the environment if you can find more than one use for it.
It comes in at seven inches tall and puts out a startling 240 lumen in lighting so perfect for any camping trip or walk at night.
Also popular with emergency preppers because it is lightweight, durable and water resistant.
It has a built in green led that flashed every few seconds when the light is turned off so you don't have to fumble around in the dark looking for it. It sports optimized beams and comes complete with a fold out rubber grip. You can pull out a hook from the bottom of the lantern and hang it upside down in your tent for full handsfree lighting.
This light may be small but do not let that put you off. It will give off enough light to fill a room or even better – a tent. Happy camping.
The final tent lantern we want to cover is the Coleman Quad LED Lantern. This is very popular when you are camping with the kids because of its design.
When fully together the lantern runs of 8 D size batteries. This gives it a bit of weight but it has a solid sturdy handle so nothing to worry about there. It gives off a serious amount of light and is perfectly suited for camping.
Set it up while cooking or just in the tent for relaxing a reading and you are good to go. Despite all the LEDs it runs cold and safe to the touch.
You get about 75 hours running time when its all together which is unbelievable if you think about the light it gives off.
You can take all four panels off the light and use them individually. Its great that you can give each of the kids one when they go to bed, or when there is a toilet run. Each individual light has a handle on the top so its easy to carry.
You then just simply clip them back onto the base and you have a very bright and powerful camping lantern suitable for every need.
Each light will give you about one and a half hours of light, provided by a built-in rechargeable battery. We have used these for the kids coming back from kids camp in the evenings or at dusk when outside with their friends.
They give great comfort at night and saves you having to buy individual lights for each of the family.
All in all our favorite lantern style camping light.
The final thing I want to discuss here are batteries. Often overlooked when you are packing up for a long trip and its very hard to find a shop in the middle of a forest. I suggest you go for a set of rechargeable batteries and a good quality charger (likethis one.) The panasonic charger is first class and once charged the batteries will last for ages.
Why not leave us a comment and let us know what type of lighting you use when camping or do you have any thoughts or opinions on our selection. Remember it you guys and gals that are using this gear and we love feedback.
Thanks for stopping by and see you at the campsite some day soon.
When there are just the two of you going camping and hiking out in the wild a good tent is a must have. Think about it for a second, most of the time you will be trekking about in the mud and wet or dust and arid landscape so when it comes to bed time you want to at least have something you can rely on. A good tent doesn't have to weigh a lot, nor cost a small fortune, but invest wisely and you will have many a happy night camping out in the wild.
We have used and trialled many tents over the past number of years and today we are going to give you a run down on the best of the bunch and some of the new additions into the camping market for 2015.
First up is the NX from MSR.
The original version of this tent hit the market a few years back and has pretty much topped the best sellers list since day one.
It is extremely light by design but has all the room a couple could need in a tent.
It was originally designed for backpackers and people who like to travel light. Weighing in at just shy of four pounds this tent is great when you are on the move. It packs up really well and fits nicely into most decent backpacks.
This is an easy to assemble tent and comes with all the features you expect from a brand like MSR.
Symmetrical pole geometry for more space and easy to set up free standing hub system complete with DAC featherlight poles.
Multitude of air vents to reduce condensation and increase air flow even when its raining.
The MSR takes out top spot for a quality durable and lightweight two person tent that you should take with you on your next camping adventure.
Guided by over thirty years of outdoor experience Mountainsmith has designed an award winning two person tent that is exceptional value for money.
This really is a great offering and comes with a raft of features even to the point of printing the setup instructions on the tent bag.
A brilliant yet cost effect tent suitable for any weather and every camping occasion.
A good all rounder two person tent full of features. Some of the things we liked about this were the handy overhead storage areas, the footprint and the taped seams. Works great in the rain so no need to worry about getting wet.
The Mountainsmith Morrison 3 season tent takes out our best value tent for this review. Quality and feature rich at an affordable price point.
If you are a weekend car camper or love camping out in the wild during the summer the you can't go wrong with the Coleman Sundome.
These tents are designed to be very easy to setup on your own because they use a continuous pole and sleeve/pin and ring system.
They are suitable if it does rain because of the WeatherTec system included in the design.
The best thing about this tent is the price. We cannot find anything else this good for the same money.
We loved the adjustable Variflo airflow ventilation system – a feature you would normally see in a much more expensive tent and at 48 inches in height you have plenty of room to move about when inside.
The Coleman Sundome is by far the best value tent we can find given the long list of features and the outstanding price point. A great all rounder that wont break the bank.


Things are slow around here while I'm preparing a more mature release of Fnk that will include changes specially tailored towards making it a better standalone application (that'll be 0.2) and while I get my stuff together to move to another country (something that should hopefully happen in a couple of months). In the meantime, however, I'd like to point readers to this great article by Clive Thompson on Wired Magazine: The Netbook Effect: How Cheap Little Laptops Hit the Big Time. It talks about how Netbooks came to life, what niche they're filling – surprisingly, not just the "poor net user" category – and what sort of impact Netbooks and web-based applications can have. The latter is the part that interests me the most.
Maybe this is not so obvious in this website, but one of the most important aspects in my defense of the Fnk project during my final college presentation was how we're moving to web-based applications to many of the common tasks we'd only usually find in expensive standalone programs, so it's refreshing to see I'm not the only one who think there's a silent revolution forming up. That's not to say I believe we'll completely replace standalone applications with web-based ones, but I can see a large number of web apps taking over.
Ironically, to me, this is a full change of mind from how I saw things around 4 years ago; I used to laugh at the idea of someone editing text documents online, but my own college experience has made me open my eyes. That's because during college, I normally needed to do some tasks like edit documents or spreadsheets from different computers – from different operating systems – just about all the damn time, and almost never using the same computer. Remoting to my home computer (through VNC) was a problem due to firewalls and lack of speed; portable, thumb drive-based applications were too slow (and I needed both OSX and Windows versions of those). But when I started using applications like Google Docs, things just snapped into place. It just clicked, and I started using Google Docs every day for college-related stuff.
I certainly don't think this is a solution for everyone, but for some, web applications is just perfect, and this is also something I hope to defend with Fnk.
How has the development been coming along in 2011?


text:
Bill to scrap one Iowa license plate resurfaces in Legislature
The Iowa Automobile Dealers Association supports the one-plate legislation, in part because new car bumpers don't have holes drilled to install license plate brackets.
Bill to scrap one Iowa license plate resurfaces in Legislature The Iowa Automobile Dealers Association supports the one-plate legislation, in part because new car bumpers don't have holes drilled to install license plate brackets. Check out this story on desmoinesregister.com: http://dmreg.co/2BZQpjF
William Petroski, bpetrosk@dmreg.com Published 1:25 p.m. CT Feb. 6, 2018
The winner, which will be announced in late August or early September, will represent the first change in the design of Iowa's license plates in more than two decades. Aaron Young/The Register
The Register Iowa license plates cover the walls inside Mullet's diner. The old county code for Polk County was 77.(Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)Buy Photo
Iowa motorists would only need a single license plate placed on the rear of most vehicles under a bill that's resurfaced in the Iowa Legislature.
Senate File 2122, supported by the Iowa Automobile Dealers Association, is aimed at reigniting a debate that began two years ago between law enforcement officials, who believe two plates are important for identification purposes, and car lovers, who don't want to install license plates on classic cars and other expensive vehicles.
However, the measure stalled Tuesday in a Senate subcommittee. Sen. Waylon Brown, R-St. Ansgar, who chaired the meeting, returned the bill without recommendation to the full Senate Transportation Committee. His action allows both sides to respond to questions that arose and leaves the door open for further consideration.
The Iowa Automobile Dealers Association supports the one-plate legislation, in part because new car bumpers don't have holes drilled to install license plate brackets. Sales representatives need to inform new car buyers that Iowa law requires a front license plate and then get permission to install it.
"We are always in support of one plate," said Brad Epperly, a lobbyist for the Iowa Automobile Dealers Association.
In addition, many new vehicles are designed with bumpers that cause low-hanging license plates to strike curbs, damaging the plates, according to car dealers. They note that Iowa law already permits car dealers to demonstrate vehicles with a single dealer plate, and cars from 19 states with one-plate laws can operate legally in Iowa.
Iowa law enforcement officers say having front and rear license plates is important for criminal investigations, both for tracking vehicles and surveillance camera recordings. Authorities also say having two plates on a car is important when they issue Amber Alerts to seek public cooperation when a child has been abducted and is in danger.
Opponents to the bill include the Iowa Police Chief Association and the Iowa State Sheriff's and Deputies Association.
Amber Markham, a legislative liaison for the Iowa Department of Public Safety, said the state agency is officially registered as undecided on the bill. But Iowa State Patrol officials are supportive of keeping two plates, she added, explaining they "believe very strongly that this is an important investigative tool."
Another factor is that rural Iowa has thousands of miles of gravel roads, and the rear plate on many vehicles is often covered in mud. So it's important to have a front plate as well, Markham said.
Scott Weiser, a lobbyist for 3M Co. and its affiliates, which supply materials used to manufacture Iowa license plates, also spoke against the bill. He said he could cite "dozens and dozens" of examples around the United States where license plates have played a critical role in solving crimes.
In addition, Weiser warned that if one plate is eliminated, it will be expensive and difficult to collect license plates that are no longer in service, costing taxpayers money.
"We don't want them floating around. It would be a logistical nightmare," Weiser said.
The Iowa Department of Transportation hasn't taken a position on the one-plate debate. But eliminating the front license plate would prevent people from avoiding detection of unregistered vehicles by splitting plate pairs on two vehicles, DOT officials said previously. However, if license plate pairs are split, only one plate has a registration tag.
One exception to the legislation would be for truck tractors, which would continue to have a plate installed to the front of the truck tractor.
Read or Share this story: http://dmreg.co/2BZQpjF
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