text:
TBD. What's next. Watch on TV
TBD Food
An hour-long curated playlist of the internet's most delicious and entertaining food based videos. Check-in professional chefs, restaurateurs, and amateur cooks from all over that'll make your mouth water.
TBD Food Episode 34
TBD Food doesn't want you to miss your favorite sports game this weekend, and we especially don't want you to go hungry while you're there! That's why we've packed this episode with some of the best game-time snacks for any gathering you may be headed to. Julie Nolke is our signature chef up to bat, and she's serving up some hummus and spinach artichoke dip to die for! It's always a home run on TBD Food!
TBD Food is celebrating everyone's favorite Fall-time holiday with a few tricks and treats of its own. Halloween couldn't come sooner, and we've got some spooky and delicious recipes from Bobby Parrish and A Sweet Pea Chef to satisfy any fan of this special day. It's a delicious and deadly episode that you're gonna want to see before it's too late....
TBD Food is headed under the sea with some amazing seafood dishes. Meghan Mitchell is your guide to underwater cuisine as she cooks up some delicious salmon and shrimp. We've also got a look at a group of surfers who hold dining in high esteem and a lesson on what exactly might be in your sushi.
It's oodles and oodles of noodles today on TBD Food. We've got Frankie Celenza bringing us a history lesson in ramen, and a series of recipes from udon to drunken pasta that will have your mouth watering. Plus, we've got a hack for some insane chicken stir fry from Spoon University that any college kid would love to try.
Thanksgiving is a time for friends, family, and most importantly food! That's just what this episode has in store with the help of chefs like Jen Phanomrat and Lauren Simon who are taking the traditional Thanksgiving feast and putting their modern twists on it. Also, we answer the question of what turkey would taste like in zero gravity!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
A Photon Beam Propulsion Timeline
Breakthrough Starshot's four-meter sails are the latest (and best funded) concept in a long series of beamed propulsion ideas. As Jim Benford explains below, the idea of beaming to a sail goes back over fifty years, with numerous papers and the beginnings of laboratory work in the intervening decades. What follows is the first cut at a timeline of this work, one that Jim intends to supplement and re-publish here with full references. Keeping in mind the scope of the timeline as Jim explains it, feel free to suggest any missing references in the comments. Discover Magazine, by the way, has just published a look at the Benfords' work on beamed sails called "Riding on a Beam of Light," now available for subscribers online.
by James Benford
From recent media pieces following the announcement of Breakthrough: Starshot, I gather that the press is not aware of how much has been done by the propulsion community over the last decades in the areas of photon beam-driven sail system concepts, to include experiments and simulations of sail beam-driven flight, sail stability ('beam-riding'), and dynamics (such as beam-driven spin of sails for stability).
This is a brief history of the deep origins, significant events in the development of beam-driven sails for interstellar travel purposes. It excludes, for example, solar sails, launch to orbit, and mass beams. For those interested in mass beams, my thoughts on the subject, with references, appear in several earlier articles here [see, for example, Sails Driven by Diverging Neutral Particle Beams] as well as in a JBIS review article by Nordley and Crowl ("Mass Beam Propulsion, An Overview", JBIS 68, pgs. 153-166, 2015).
First mention of beam-driven propulsion for interstellar purposes in the refereed literature was by Bob Forward, in Missiles and Rockets in 1962. More people perhaps read the Marx paper in Nature four years later, but Marx didn't pursue his idea further, at least not in the literature.
But Bob did continue to work on it and built the foundations of the subject. This is described in his unfinished autobiography, Fast Forward Fifty Years.
My thoughts on the timeline of significant events, meaning ideas and actions that advanced the field and influenced following events, including recent milestones, follow below.
Image: Beamed propulsion leaves propellant behind, a key advantage. Coupled with very small probes, it could provide a path for flyby missions to the nearest stars. Credit: Adrian Mann.
The Visionary Era
1962: First mention of beam-driven propulsion for interstellar purposes in the refereed literature, by Robert L. Forward, in "Pluto – Gateway to the Stars," in Missiles and Rockets.
1966: G. Marx publishes the concept for Interstellar Vehicle Propelled by Laser Beam' in Nature. He considered only x-rays to drive the sail, because he flinched from large apertures for the antenna and sail.
1967: Robert Forward and Eugene Mallove publish the first Interstellar Bibliography.
Image: Interstellar propulsion theorist Robert Forward.
1974: Authors Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle feature an interstellar laser-pushed lightsail in their science fiction novel The Mote in God's Eye, basing their design on unpublished calculations by Robert Forward.
1975: Richard Dickinson and Robert Brown demonstrate efficient transmission of 34 kW over 1.5 km.
1976: Robert Forward proposes a roadmap for interstellar exploration with a launch to Alpha Centauri in 1995.
1980: Bruce Murray, director of JPL, convenes a workshop to make a concept for an interstellar probe. Members include Freeman Dyson, Robert Forward, Robert Bussard, William Fowler and Robert Leighton. Dyson and Forward quantify Forward's 1962 concept, including a means of returning a payload. Murray is disappointed by the large size of the sail and beamer, as well as the enormous power required. The Workshop papers are never published. Forward continues work on his concept.
1982: Robert Forward proposes laser-driven return star missions in his science fiction novel Flight of the Dragonfly. The final expanded version, Rocheworld, with technical appendix, appears in 1990.
1984: Forward presents "Roundtrip Interstellar Travel Using Laser-Pushed Sails," the first detailed analysis showing the feasibility of the lightsail concept.
Image: Forward's separable sail concept used for deceleration, from his paper "Roundtrip Interstellar Travel Using Laser-Pushed Lightsails," Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets 21 (1984), pp. 187-195. The 'paralens' in the image is a huge Fresnel lens made of concentric rings of lightweight, transparent material, with free space between the rings and spars to hold the vast structure together, all of this located between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus.
1985: Forward, encouraged by conversation with Freeman Dyson, proposes microwave beam-driven interstellar flybys in "Starwisp: An Ultra-Light Interstellar Probe." He also introduces the 'smart sail' concept whereby the sail contains microcircuits which capture images and diagnostic data, returns data to Earth.
1986: Forward conducts first study of dielectric film sails.
1989: Geoffrey Landis analyzes the laser driven lightsail, concluding that the performance is driven by the temperature limits of the sail, and proposes refractory dielectric films as sail material.
1999: NASA Advanced Concepts Office, largely driven by JPL, proposes a roadmap for interstellar exploration with a launch to Alpha Centauri in 2028. Limited funding of initial studies and experiments follow.
Image: Plan for the development of sails for interstellar flight, 1999.
1999: Tim Knowles of ELSI invents the carbon micro-truss, a strong, very low areal mass density graphite sheet that doesn't melt; it sublimes at very high temperature.
1999: Geoffrey Landis and James Benford propose using the new carbon micro-truss, strong structures of very low mass per square meter. They show that, with this material, a laboratory experiment can demonstrate microwave beam-powered sailing.
December 20, 1999: Leik Myrabo-led team measures deflection of a pendulum moved by laser beam hitting sails of carbon micro-truss, giving acceleration of 0.15 gravities.
Feb 2000: Geoff Landis reexamines use of dielectric films for highly reflective sails, points out drawbacks to multiple layers.
March 2000: Gurkirpal Singh of JPL, in a dynamics simulation, shows that conical sails can ride a beam stably.
April 5, 2000: James Benford-led team achieves first flight, at JPL. Sails of carbon micro-truss, driven by microwave beam, are accelerated up to 13 gravities; sails are recovered intact. They discover the highest accelerations are due to desorption of deeply embedded chemicals when the sail reaches high temperatures. Experiments are described in "Microwave Beam-Driven Sail Flight Experiments."
June 12, 2000: James Benford-led team spins a suspended micro-truss sail with circularly polarized microwave beam. Basic physics of spin-driven effects are demonstrated.
December 8, 2000: Leik Myrabo team, using a carbon-dioxide laser, flies molyebdenum-coated carbon sails at 1 gravity above liftoff, giving velocities up to 3 m/sec.
Image: First flight of beam-driven sail. Carbon sail lifts off truncated rectangular waveguide under 10 kW microwave power. (4 frames, 30 ms interval, 1st at top).
July 2000: Geoff Landis, in "Starwisp Revisited," substantially reduces mass and power required for microwave-driven mesh sail.
2002: Stable beam-riding of a conical sail on a microwave beam demonstrated experimentally by the Benford brothers, Gregory and James, at UC Irvine. Physics of spin-driven effects on various sail shapes are explored in both experiment and theory.
Image: Geometry of 3-D sail simulation used to access sail stability. Beam is injected from horn at bottom.
2003: Chaouki Abdallah and team at UNM, with a 3D dynamics simulation, confirm that the conical (umbrella) sail is the most passively stable shape, while other shapes, such as inverse conical, are not stable. They quantify the stable parameter range for beam shape, angle of the cone and location and mass ratio if sail and payload. They show that active dynamic feedback control can stabilize most shapes.
Image: Graphic user interface for sail stability simulation, Chaouki Abdallah 2003. Geometry
of sail shown above, power distribution of beam shown below.
May 21, 2010: First deployment of a functional solar sail in space, "IKAROS" (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun) is demonstrated by the Japanese Space Agency JAXA.
2011: "100 Year Starship", a joint project between NASA (Pete Worden) and DARPA (David Neyland), convenes a colloquium in Orlando to discuss interstellar travel, stimulating interest in practical starflight.
2012: Greg Matloff proposes graphene for sail material that can sustain high accelerations.
2013: Starship Century Symposium held at UC San Diego May 20, date of the publication of the book Starship Century. A second Starship Century Symposium is held at the Royal Astronomical Society in London. In the book James Benford predicts "the first starship will be a sail – a sailship – driven by a beam of photons."
2013: James Benford creates a cost-optimization equation for beam-driven propulsion systems.
April 2015: Philip Lubin introduces concept for small ultra-light 'spacecraft on a wafer' using multi-layer dielectric on metalized plastic film. In "A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight," Lubin draws on Forward's laser-sail work and extends it into much smaller sail designs.
August 2013: 1st Interstellar Congress held in Dallas, Texas by Icarus Interstellar. Eric Malroy introduces concepts for the use of nanomaterials in sails.
March 2016: Yuri Milner concludes the only credible way to achieve interstellar travel in the near-term is beam-driven sails, in consultation with Avi Loeb, Pete Worden and Pete Klupar.
April 12, 2016: Yuri Milner, Stephen Hawking and Pete Worden announce the beginning of Breakthrough Starshot, a project to launch beam-driven sails to Alpha Centauri within 20 years. Freeman Dyson is present.
2016: Kevin Parkin creates an engineering inference engine for optimizing beamed sail systems, including cost minimization.
April 15, 2016: Breakthrough: Discuss, a 2 day symposium, brings together the Breakthrough Starshot team, as well as that of Breakthrough: Listen, a SETI project begun it 2015.
The notional timeline for Starshot is said to be 10 years of R&D, 10 years for construction of the System, 21 years transit time for the first sailcraft. At 0.2 c, it would enter the Alpha Centauri double-star system in 2057, a century after the first Earth satellite.
"Make no mistake — interstellar travel will always be difficult and expensive, but it can no longer be considered impossible."
–Robert Forward, 1985
We owe it to the future to record our past. What I have described is journalism, but journalism is only the first draft of history. Doubtless there are significant events I have forgotten or never knew. Please suggest additions and modifications. A revised timeline will appear later, including references.
I thank those who I interviewed over the years about history: Robert Forward, Freeman Dyson, Geoff Landis, Kevin Parkin, Gregory Benford, Leik Myrabo, Pete Klupar, Avi Loeb and Gregory Matloff.
Perhaps you could include a link to Dr. Lubin's vision. http://www.deepspace.ucsb.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/A-Roadmap-to-Interstellar-Flight-15-d.pdf
Ahh sorry. Here's the most recent revision. https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1604/1604.01356.pdf
Michael June 24, 2016, 14:46
Thanks John, nice find
Marc Millis June 24, 2016, 13:31
Cool to see this as a timeline. That helps remind us that it takes a legacy of events to add up to progress.
I believe stabilisation could be controlled via using electric fields to control the transparency of the dielectric mirror, very, very small time controls can be achieved. The spinning could be controlled via a grating texture that deflects some light to the side. The electronics and MEM's can be protected against heating via added layers of dielectric to improve reflection in those regions.
We have the technology now to build at least scale models, it is no longer a miracle^X project.
Perhaps we don't need to spin the sail too much if we had a diffraction grating surface structure that reflected some of the the light towards the centre of the sail to tension the sail.
https://www.rp-photonics.com/diffraction_gratings.html
As for the control of the reflectivity of the dielectric the change can be very rapid, sub femto seconds~ 10^-15!
Brett Bellmore June 27, 2016, 17:47
You'd have to have fine control; The sail in the Starshot concept is undergoing enormous acceleration, and yet is incredibly flimsy; At that level of acceleration, each tiny part of the sail is going to have to be in effect flying independently in formation with the rest of the sail, because the inherent structural strength of the sail material is so tiny compared to the forces involved. A momentary fraction of a percent force imbalance would tear the sail to pieces.
Glass and diamond potential materials are very strong in tension and even stronger in compression. If they are very thin they can be very flexible.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/600894/flexible-glass-could-bring-back-the-flip-phone/
Femto second control allows micron control movements.
Alex Tolley June 24, 2016, 15:18
At one point there was a critique of Lubin's use of lasers for sail propulsion compared to microwaves. Has this changed in the light of new developments, and if so, what were those developments?
Adam June 24, 2016, 19:22
The critique was from Jim Benford, purely on costing grounds. I don't believe much has changed, but the advantages of lasers may lead to their cost coming down with further R&D.
Robert June 24, 2016, 16:11
He assumes the acceleration is constant because the beam power is constant. That depends on the instantaneous power required for the probe each instant and if the beam can deliver that power at higher speeds.
The beam power can't be constant to keep the sails acceleration constant because of the Doppler effect, but been a phased array that will not be a problem.
The instantaneous power of the beam has to be able to provide the power to maintain the constant acceleration. This becomes increasingly difficult as the speed increases since the beam can only add energy at a fixed rate in time yet the kinetic energy increases quadratically. At some point, there is a mismatch. That makes the concept of a constant acceleration engine hard to realize.
This may all be worked out here since the acceleration phase is short.
With the phased array the frequency of some of the lasers can have a higher frequency to componsate for the doppler effect provided they don't have atmospheric issues, the frequency shift is not that big but it will affect the power delivered.
Robert July 7, 2016, 12:25
What I said sounds right but now I think it's wrong. Only the power in the instantaneous rest frame of the ship matters. The increasing velocity of the ship is not relevant in that frame of reference. The Doppler effect is small except at very relativistic speeds wrt the beam.
Colin Wernham June 25, 2016, 4:23
One question I never see asked about Starshot:
How will any data make it back to Earth, with a small sail and tiny payload?
Colin, one of the reasons for the multiple papers on gravitational lensing at the recent Breakthrough: Starshot event was to consider whether it would allow data return from such tiny payloads. Getting data back at any reasonable rate at these distances is a huge problem, and is one of the many challenges Starshot has identified as possible deal-breakers unless it can be solved.
Colin, there is also the possibility of using relay sails, if they are very cheap many can be made. If many can be made and sent on as a stream of probes they can not only be used for relaying information to and fro but also used to observe space around them, much would be seen with thousands of probes.
Andrew Higgins June 25, 2016, 13:05
Colin:
The answer to your question can be found on pages 6-7 here:
http://www.deepspace.ucsb.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Brashears-etal-SPIE-2015-Interstellar-WaferSats-v07b-comments-removed.pdf
Thanks for that Andrew. It does look just possibile, which can only be improved on.
James Benford June 25, 2016, 16:50
Alex & Adam: I didn't make a critique of Philip Lubin's preference for lasers compared to microwaves. My argument about their relative costs, both capital and operating costs, was published 3 years ago in a paper "Starship Sails Propelled By Cost–Optimized Directed Energy" in JBIS. There I proposed a figure of merit proportional to the capital (equipment) cost of a directed energy system. For a given mission, the minimized cost scales like [p^2/3a^2/3]/f^2, where p is the cost of beam power per watt ($/W), a is the cost per square meter of the radiating aperture and f is the frequency. I found that the microwave, millimeter-wave and laser technologies had equivalent costs, I e., the same figure of merit.
The focusing advantage of lasers, which is the essence of Lubin's argument, is canceled by the high cost of both laser equipment and laser apertures. In addition, the operating cost, the cost of electricity to produce the beam, is much higher for lasers because of their low efficiency. So they have a higher total cost when you count both the cost of building the system and the cost of operating it. It appears that today the total cost of millimeter-wave systems is lower than either microwave or laser systems.
Lubin counts on "Moore's Law" (the observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years) to make lasers much cheaper in the future, but there's very little cost data about fiber lasers so far because of their rather recent development.
I think the argument about one frequency over another is a diversion. The important questions are:
1) How do we make a sail that can sustain high acceleration? Of course, the material chosen for the sail must be able to reflect the beam very well and absorb practically nothing in order to be practical at high accelerations and that choice of materials is frequency dependent.
2) How do we make the sail ride on the beam in the stable passive way? The latter question does not depend upon frequency, only on the beam shape, sail shape, reflectivity and mass distribution. Therefore useful experiments can be done with millimeter and microwave systems, which are much more readily available and much cheaper to operate compared to lasers.
'How do we make the sail ride on the beam in the stable passive way?'
We may have to have a compromise, a semi-stable conical shape with control surfaces and/or reflectances changing devices around the skirt of the craft. MEM's can be used to adjust the surface of the skirt to control the amount of light and therefore forces applied, the same can be said for using electric fields to adjust the dielectric reflectivity of the mirror around the edges. The internal cavity of the sail can be used to house a MEM's gyroscope to keep it on target and allow active control, they can be very accurate and very small and survive high G forces.
Jens Knudsen June 25, 2016, 20:40
I believe thePlanetary Society has a solar sail initiative underway: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2016/20160609-lightsail-2-morse-code.html.
Greg Matloff June 27, 2016, 8:39
Dear Paul and Jim
Very nice timeline. Just one small correction–you might wish to add that Bob Forward's 1985 paper on Starwisp was encouraged by conversation with Freeman Dyson.
Regards, Greg
The author proposes laser arrays 10km on a side. That's just a non starter for me. How can such concepts be taken as serious?
Been a phased array each laser built can still carry out tasks in the solar system, it can be made to pay for itself more and more.
Robert, if you're referring to the Breakthrough Starshot phased array, the initial thinking is 1km to the side not 10.
Thanks, I was confusing that with Dr. Lubin's vision.
I realize that Lubin's original photonic drive cannot work unless the the vehicle had active control to stay on the beam, as the mirror would need to be conic for stability and therefore unable to reflect the beam between source and vehicle.
As for small scale experiments, an evacuated volume on the ISS would be an interesting test bench. Is there any way to do that – provide an enclosed volume inside a module, which can be evacuated to space outside for such experiments?
'I realize that Lubin's original photonic drive cannot work unless the the vehicle had active control to stay on the beam, as the mirror would need to be conic for stability and therefore unable to reflect the beam between source and vehicle.'
A conical sail can be made with the surface designed in steps to reflect the laser light.
A vertical evacuated tube a few inches in diameter could be used, might be a lot cheaper than going into space.
I don't understand the dynamics of a conical sail, but I think your stepped idea won't work. As the sail drifts out of alignment, I think it is the horizontal vector of the reflected beam that pushes the sail back on station. For a stepped system to work, at least part or the beam would have to be reflected with a horizontal vector.
What happens when the sail points away from the beam direction? That is one scenario I don't understand teh dynamics of. Intuitively a reverse conic should work, but it is stated that it doesn't compared to a forward conic. For a photonic propulsion, the sail must remain perfectly oriented to reflect the beam back to its source. A stepped mirror won't work if the sail wobbles away from its correct orientation.
For a large sail and craft, small thrusters could work to keep the sail oriented correctly, but this wouldn't work for tiny sails.
'What happens when the sail points away from the beam direction? That is one scenario I don't understand teh dynamics of. Intuitively a reverse conic should work, but it is stated that it doesn't compared to a forward conic. For a photonic propulsion, the sail must remain perfectly oriented to reflect the beam back to its source. A stepped mirror won't work if the sail wobbles away from its correct orientation.'
In the conical sail I see as the sail goes off centre less light is available at the side that moves towards the centre line away from the beam, the other side gets more light as it moves into the beam and therefore is pushed back into line. A reverse conical sail does not have the centre of mass advantage of a normal conical sail and is therefore less stable in the beam.
'For a large sail and craft, small thrusters could work to keep the sail oriented correctly, but this wouldn't work for tiny sails.'
There are tehnologies for small satellites that could be built for sails.
http://lmts.epfl.ch/MEMS-ion-source
But what you haven't answered is what happens when the sail points in a different direction to the beam, so that the reflection does not return to the source? If the "steps" are cubic reflector, the beam reflects correctly but doesn't correct the sail attitude to the beam. I think you only get to pick one.
There is going to be some to the sides but only a small amount of energy is needed to correct the attitude of the craft. Perhaps cubic reflection at the centre regions with normal reflectance to the sides at the top where there is more leverage to move the sail.
This is starting to feel like a classic cybernetics problem. How to design a sail with varying properties to maximize stability with a true photonic drive. That I would like to see in simulations, and if manufacturable, a small test in a vacuum.
Michael July 1, 2016, 16:52
It won't be exactly like balancing a pin on a fired artillery shell but it must get really close to it! We could test low powered versions fairly easily, if we could balance a sail actively on a laser beam we would have made enormous progress.
Brian Wang June 28, 2016, 15:49
For manned missions going beyond 1000 km per second, the wafer chips could be accelerated at a manned ship with a pusher plate (like the Project Orion ship) but the energy would be kinetic and not nuclear.
For large object construction, we need to develop the Tether Unlimited Spiderfab.
Jeff Harris July 11, 2016, 7:57
A further reference for the timeline.
Author Larry Niven has aliens called Monks arrive On Earth in his novelette "The Fourth Profession" (1971). Their ship was sent here by laser beam. The Monks want humans to build a giant laser cannon to launch their starship and accelerate it to a large fraction of lightspeed sending them on their way for the next leg of their interstellar journey.
Next post: Spacecoach: Toward a Deep Space Infrastructure
Previous post: Revisiting Enceladus' Ocean


One ingredient can make all the difference, and this small jar of sweet, succulent tomatoes can be blended to make a rich sauce or added, with the oil, to coat a chilled pasta salad - perfect leftovers for lunchboxes.
A fantastic source of protein and rich in dietary fibre with no added sugar or salt or need for soaking - makes the best lentil bolognese in minutes!
Certified by the Italian Celiac Association (AIC), made using the best corn and rice flours, this one calls out for a chunky vegetable sauce.
Pitted green Manzanilla olives are a staple food in Spain - try them in this hearty recipe for chickpea, kale and olive pesto pasta.
Traditional Cypriot pasta, made in Limassol, since 1966. We love this one tossed through a basil pesto with crunchy pine nuts. Find the recipe here.
A great gluten-free alternative to regular durum wheat pasta - try Explore Cuisine's recipe for mung bean fettuccine with courgette ribbons, pecans, pomegranate and pesto.
Vegetarian Society approved and an ethical alternative to Parmesan - try it grated on top of fresh pasta just before serving. It's freezes well too, so great to reducing food waste.


watch | Whatever you like.
NTMC: Two Finger Skull Ring and Golden Watch Necklace.
NTMC: New To MY Closet/Collection.
A two finger skull ring! I really love two finger rings, they're just so nice.
And a golden watch necklace. I really love golden accessories and I like the ones that can tell me time even more! It looks great on plain shirts, which don't have a print on it.
I'll be visiting that market more often!


Is collecting data the biggest waste of teacher time?
Data is an endless chore for teachers, simply designed to inform school leaders of student progress and 'where interventions may be able to take place' in examination classes – under-performing groups if you're lucky!
Now, that sounds like common sense to me!
Data is an endless chore for teachers, simply designed to inform school leaders of student progress.
Jury: Collect richer data, less often.
← Podcast 27: Why Don't We Let Children Lead Their Education?
Ok, with a secondary, gendered section split across 2 sites, we manage and collect data 3 times a year, one each term, and that's enough to inform and ensure quality assurance.
Any data a teacher collects should be useful to them. If it is also useful to management then surely it is a bonus.
Tracking tools which are useful to inform planning learning experiences for the teacher should be adapted so that SLT can access them too.
However, there should be no extra expectations, demands or deadlines on teachers for things which do not directly make the teacher's job easier.


text:
"""
Some utility classes for exception handling of exceptions raised
within listeners:

- TracebackInfo: convenient way of getting stack trace of latest
  exception raised. The handler can create the instance to retrieve
  the stack trace and then log it, present it to user, etc.
- ExcPublisher: example handler that publishes a message containing
  traceback info

:copyright: Copyright since 2006 by Oliver Schoenborn, all rights reserved.
:license: BSD, see LICENSE_BSD_Simple.txt for details.

"""

import sys, traceback
from typing import Tuple, List, Sequence, Mapping, Dict, Callable, Any, Optional, Union, TextIO

from ..core.listener import IListenerExcHandler
from ..core.topicmgr import TopicManager

class TracebackInfo:
    """
    Represent the traceback information for when an exception is
    raised -- but not caught -- in a listener. The complete
    traceback cannot be stored since this leads to circular
    references (see docs for sys.exc_info()) which keeps
    listeners alive even after the application is no longer
    referring to them.

    Instances of this object are given to listeners of the
    'uncaughtExcInListener' topic as the excTraceback kwarg.
    The instance calls sys.exc_info() to get the traceback
    info but keeps only the following info:

     * self.ExcClass: the class of exception that was raised and not caught
     * self.excArg: the argument given to exception when raised
     * self.traceback: list of quadruples as returned by traceback.extract_tb()

    Normally you just need to call one of the two getFormatted() methods.
    """

    def __init__(self):
        tmpInfo = sys.exc_info()
        self.ExcClass = tmpInfo[0]
        self.excArg = tmpInfo[1]
        # for the traceback, skip the first 3 entries, since they relate to
        # implementation details for pubsub.
        tb_list = traceback.extract_tb(tmpInfo[2])
        IGNORE_FRAMES = 2
        import re
        assert re.search(r'pubsub.core.listener\.py', tb_list[IGNORE_FRAMES - 1][0])
        self.traceback = tb_list[IGNORE_FRAMES:]
        # help avoid circular refs
        del tmpInfo

    def getFormattedList(self) -> List[str]:
        """
        Get a list of strings as returned by the traceback module's
        format_list() and format_exception_only() functions.
        """
        tmp = traceback.format_list(self.traceback)
        tmp.extend(traceback.format_exception_only(self.ExcClass, self.excArg))
        return tmp

    def getFormattedString(self) -> str:
        """
        Get a string similar to the stack trace that gets printed
        to stdout by Python interpreter when an exception is not caught.
        """
        return ''.join(self.getFormattedList())

    def __str__(self):
        return self.getFormattedString()

class ExcPublisher(IListenerExcHandler):
    """
    Example exception handler that simply publishes the exception traceback.
    The messages will have topic name given by topicUncaughtExc.
    """

    # name of the topic
    topicUncaughtExc = 'uncaughtExcInListener'

    def __init__(self, topicMgr: TopicManager = None):
        """
        If topic manager is specified, will automatically call init().
        Otherwise, caller must call init() after pubsub imported. See
        pub.setListenerExcHandler().
        """
        if topicMgr is not None:
            self.init(topicMgr)

    def init(self, topicMgr: TopicManager):
        """
        Must be called only after pubsub has been imported since this
        handler creates a pubsub topic.
        """
        obj = topicMgr.getOrCreateTopic(self.topicUncaughtExc)
        obj.setDescription('generated when a listener raises an exception')
        obj.setMsgArgSpec(dict(
            listenerStr='string representation of listener',
            excTraceback='instance of TracebackInfo containing exception info'))
        self.__topicObj = obj

    def __call__(self, listenerID: str, topicObj):
        """
        Handle the exception raised by given listener. Send the
        Traceback to all subscribers of topic self.topicUncaughtExc.
        """
        tbInfo = TracebackInfo()
        self.__topicObj.publish(listenerStr=listenerID, excTraceback=tbInfo)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Health Information Technology Archives
Embí elected to TN HIMSS board of directors
Oct. 13, 2022—Vanderbilt's Peter Embí, MD, MS, has been elected to the Tennessee Chapter of Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (TN HIMSS) board of directors.
Scale measures confidence with telehealth technology
Jun. 2, 2022—Vanderbilt's Digital Health Care Literacy Scale uses responses to three brief items to assess whether patients or caregivers are apt to have the confidence and basic know-how required to use digital health care services such as telehealth.
VUMC receives 2021 CHIME Digital Health Most Wired recognition
Oct. 25, 2021—Vanderbilt University Medical Center has achieved the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) Digital Health Most Wired Certified Acute Level 8, receiving the Quality Award.
COVID-19 doesn't prevent Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital's transition to new IT systems
Apr. 27, 2020—In the early evening hours of April 23, Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital (VWCH) completed most of its transition to VUMC's clinical and information technology (IT) systems. The change represented a critical step in fully integrating the hospital into the Vanderbilt family.
VUMC again ranked among nation's 'most-wired' health care systems
Nov. 2, 2018—Vanderbilt University Medical Center has again been named one of the nation's "most-wired" hospitals and health systems for its innovation and leadership in medical technology and health care information management.
Johnson honored by Nashville Technology Council
Sep. 27, 2018—by Paul Govern Each year the Nashville Technology Council inducts a tech industry leader to the NTC Hall of Fame, and this year that honor will go to Vanderbilt University Medical Center's Kevin Johnson, MD, MS, professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Senior Vice President of Health Information Technology. Johnson will...


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Arti Sahgal
Head of Digital Media Optimization, Data-Driven Marketing, Heineken
Arti is a successful technology entrepreneur and an accomplished Digital Marketing executive. She has spent the last few years evangelizing Digital Transformation at Fortune 500 companies across various industries. Arti is currently heading up Heineken's global Data-Driven Marketing program, and is leading their Digital Media Transformation. Arti has built several businesses in the U.S. and in Europe, she serves on the Executive Board of select emerging companies, and is a founding member of multiple start-ups in the field of Mobile, Data and Cloud. As a successful female executive with global accomplishments, Arti is a sought-after thought leader and frequently shares her experiences as speaker at conference keynotes and on panels.
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and into smaller markets," said Sanford Goodkin, executive director of Peat Marwick`s Goodkin Real Estate Consulting Group in San Diego. Lewis Goodkin. bulk warehouses and all-suite hotels as hot.
Our dining scene now looks like a white hipster has attempted to recreate the set of Sanford and Son. bar in the neighborhood (not counting Porto Vista Hotel, which has struggled). As a rule, San D.
SAN DIEGO COUNTY. known locally for building hotels and for a stint as publisher of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He is also behind plans to redevelop the Navy Broadway Complex in downtown San Diego.
Organized by the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM) and the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center at UC San Diego, the Cell & Gene Meeting on. will be held October 3-5 at the Estancia La Jolla Ho.
The American Cancer Society Soiree was held on Nov. 3 at the US Grant Hotel. The event raised $157,000 and included a challenge paddle raise for $47,850 restricted to cancer research. The 2016 Celebra.
On May 15, 2017, President Donald Trump announced that the next U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas will be a rich, ultraconservative real estate developer and hotel. San Diego and of Wake Forest Univer.
Denny Sanford has committed two-thirds. magazine article from July 1969 on San Diego's 200th birthday. Is this Mimi's sister Lisa on the tortoise? (National Geographic DVD) Hundreds of San Diego ho.
Spokane Arena Feb. 7 – San Diego, Calif. @ Viejas Arena Feb. 8 – Fresno. Target Center Mar. 6 – Sioux Falls, S.D. @ Denny.
55 miles south of Florida, Grand Lucayan Bahamas sits on 7.5 acres of sandy beach. The 742 guest rooms and suites hug the pristine beaches and turquoise ocean.
(The mesa is Torrey Pines Mesa, the epicenter of San Diego's life science sector. The Alliance holds the conference along with the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center at UCSD Health. On Friday, the s.
San Diego has had the wonderful fortune of having many extraordinary individuals who have supported a wide variety of causes, from health care and science to the arts and education. My dear friends T.
Hotels line the downtown North Embarcadero. investigative stories that matter to San Diego. A San Diego woman with connect.
Kristy Crystal Vasquez and Jerrold Wayne Allen were married Oct. 13 at the Sanford House, a hotel in Arlington. She graduated from Ashford University in San Diego. She is a daughter of Edna M. Vasq.
The revenue from the fee was to pay for an approximately 1,600-space parking garage at a planned billion-dollar hotel and. of dollars. A San Diego woman with connections to former Gov. Arnold Schwa.
NEWT DAVIS, 89, Volusia Drive, DeBary, died Sunday, April 9. Mr. Davis was a retired farmer. Mr. Calligan was a retired hotel and restaurant manager. Born in San Diego, he moved to Central Florida.
Known as "Papa" Doug, Manchester. for building hotels and for a stint as publisher of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He is also behind plans to redevelop the Navy Broadway Complex in downtown San Die.
We look forward to seeing you at the 2017 PBS Annual Meeting in San Diego, May 15 – 17. visiting professor at Duke University's Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy and visiting fellow at Harva.
Hotels in Central Florida posted more good numbers in July as tourism continued its rebound. Both hotel occupancy rates and average daily. Rounding out the Top 5 are Chicago, Atlanta, San Diego and.
The corridors along the San Diego Freeway in Irvine and Costa Mesa. when everyone used to leave," Sanford said. The Sakioka family said the plan is good for Costa Mesa. "We feel this type of produc.


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KONICA MINOLTA Group Italia
Konica Minolta Business Solutions Italia S.p.A.
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The principal risks that may materially affect financial condition, operating results or cash flows in Konica Minolta group (the "Group") are described below. These risks are not necessarily exhaustive of all risks and may in the future be affected by other risks that we do not anticipate or that we believe to be immaterial.
In addition, we consider risk to be "uncertainty affecting organizational revenues or losses." Risk management is positioned as "activities that seek to maximize returns while minimizing the negative impact of risks" based on an understanding of risk not only from a negative perspective, but also from a positive perspective as an "opportunity."
All forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs of the Group in light of information available at the time of publication of this fiscal year ended March 31, 2020. In addition, items related to the impact of COVID-19 are summarized by segment at the end of this document. These forward-looking statements are based on judgments made by the Group as of May 31, 2020.
1. Risks Related to Economic Conditions
1) Economic Trends and Market Environment
We provide MFPs and digital printing systems, healthcare equipment, optical systems, products and components for industrial use, display materials, and related services to customers around the world. Sales and profits in these businesses are significantly affected by economic trends and the business environment in each country.
In Europe, economic stagnation continued from the second half of FY2019, and despite the decision by the United Kingdom to leave the European Union in January 2020, uncertainty persisted as negotiations between the United Kingdom and the European Union continued. There are also ongoing concerns over the trend of protectionist policies by the United States, the implementation of additional tariffs due to trade friction stemming from the fight for hegemony in the United States and China, the impact of the high-tech Cold War, geopolitical factors, particularly in the Middle East, and stagnant economic growth in China and emerging countries.
Economic downturns in national markets may cause customers to curtail investment, reduce expenses, or depress consumption. As a result, the Group's operating results and financial condition may be adversely affected in the future, including an increase in inventories that exceed our expectations, a decrease in selling prices due to intensified competition, or a decrease in the number of new installations.
We experienced a major impact on financial performance in FY2019 as global expansion of COVID-19 from the February constrained our sales activities, particularly installation of equipment, supply of services and new orders, due to lockdowns in Europe and the U.S. This issue is described in detail in "4. Risks Related to COVID-19."
2) Exchange Rate Fluctuation
As indicated by the high percentage of overseas revenue, we are expanding our business globally and are significantly affected by exchange rate fluctuation. With respect to the euro, the impact of a ¥1 in exchange rate on operating profit will be approximately ¥600 million, which will have a direct impact on earnings. In other major currencies as well, the yen's appreciation will have a negative impact on our financial performance and the yen's depreciation will have a positive impact. In addition, the yen value of our assets and liabilities arising from transactions denominated in foreign currencies, or the translation differences of foreign operations arising from financial statements of foreign subsidiaries denominated in foreign currency may be at risk of fluctuation.
2. Risks Related to Business Activities
1) Risks Related to Environmental Changes of Printing in Office Business
Mainly in developed countries, there is a risk that opportunities for printing on paper in offices will gradually decrease due to changes in work styles, in addition to the acceleration of the spread of digital equipment such as tablets and smartphones as a means of information sharing instead of paper. In addition to this, there are concerns that the spread of telework due to the spread of COVID-19 will accelerate the actualization of this risk. If we are unable to respond to these changes in our customers, our operating results will be adversely affected.
2) Regulations in Each Country and Region
Many of the Group's business activities are conducted outside of Japan, such as North America, Europe and Asian countries, and are affected by legislation, regulations and approval procedures specific to the country or region. We always pay close attention to economic trends, such as increases in mutual tariffs triggered by trade friction between the U.S. and China, and restrictions on technological exports. However, in the future, if regulations by governments or international frameworks, such as taxation, import and export controls, currency controls, regulations on protection of personal information, digital tariffs, and various other rules, are newly introduced or changed, costs may be incurred to respond to them or the business activities may be hindered. In addition, if we are unable to respond to such unanticipated events, our financial performance could be adversely affected.
In particular, in Healthcare and Bio-healthcare businesses, we are affected by various healthcare systems and licensing procedures in each country. If the healthcare system reform or other factors causes unpredictable and large-scale changes in healthcare administration policies, and if we are unable to respond quickly to those changes, our financial performance could be adversely affected.
3) Next-generation technological change
In the future, technological innovations ahead of other companies are a key source of competitive advantage in new business fields that we should develop. We constantly take on the challenge of developing innovative technologies with active R&D and capital investment in the fields. However, our competitors may be able to create similar or alternative technologies in advance.
In addition, the spread of digital technologies, such as IoT and AI, will expand the scope of data utilization, which is expected to bring about changes in various industrial fields and business models. If we are unable to respond to these changes, our financial performance could be adversely affected, including the loss of our positions in the market in the future.
4) Transition to New Products
Our operating fields are those in which the functions required for products and services are rapidly generalized due to rapid technological advances in hardware and software, and we need to improve the performance, the content, and the functions of our services even within the product life cycle. For this reason, we constantly take on the challenge of developing innovative technologies in order to respond to customer and market needs with investing in a large amount of resources in R&D. But the transition to new products and services is inherently subject to many risks. Delays in development or production, quality issues in the early stages of mass production, fluctuation of production cost or the impact of new product introductions on current product sales could adversely affect our operating results.
In addition, our operating results may be adversely affected by the timing of launching new products and services in the market by our competitors, such as the advanced introduction of products and services similar to ours by the competitors.
5) Collaboration with Other Companies, and Acquisitions, etc.
From the perspective of enhancing our business competitiveness or effectiveness, we are pursuing collaborations with other companies, including equity alliances and corporate acquisitions.
Accompanying acquisitions, the Company has recorded goodwill and intangible assets, and conducts periodic impairment tests. We may recognize impairment losses if changes in the business environment result in anticipated declines in future cash flows related to the acquired companies, which could adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.
6) Procurement, and Production, etc.
The Group has adopted a procuring policy for certain products, parts, materials, and energy from multiple suppliers worldwide. Unforeseen situations at those suppliers could adversely affect our ability to produce and supply products.
Financial performance could be affected by rising prices for raw materials, such as steel, aluminum, and other metals, petrochemical products made from crude oil, rare earths, and other rare natural resources used in the Group's manufacturing activities, as well as energy prices.
In the Group's mainstay businesses, such as Office Business, Professional Print Business and Industrial Business, we continue overseas manufacturing activities to strengthen cost-competitiveness and supply products swiftly to the market. One of the Group's key operating bases is located in China, where economic development is accompanied by ongoing legislative reforms and infrastructure improvements. Nevertheless, there is a possibility of unpredictable legal changes, difficulties in labor policies, rising labor costs, revaluation of the Renminbi, changes in import and export regulations, taxation systems, environmental regulations, or other situations. For the Group, which conducts a portion of the production activities of our core businesses in China, our financial performance and growth strategies could be adversely affected if we are unable to address these risks.
7) Responsibilities for Products and Quality
Our domestic and overseas group companies and subcontractors have established a rigorous quality assurance system to provide our customers with high-performance and reliable products and services. In the unlikely event of a defect in our products or services, there is a possibility that the Group incur liability of damages resulting from the defect and we could incur significant costs to measure the defect. In addition, this issue could damage corporate and product brands and adversely affect operating results.
3. Other Risks
1) Severe Earthquakes, Natural Disasters, Infectious Diseases, etc.
We have R&D, procuring, manufacturing, sales, and other bases in various countries around the world, and are expanding our business activities globally. Earthquakes, fires, large-scale disasters associated with climate change such as typhoons, floods, and forest fires, the outbreak of major infectious diseases such as COVID-19 and the new influenza, or acts of war, terrorism, cyber-attacks, etc. could cause damage to our facilities, etc. It may cause temporarily operational shut down and delay in production and shipments, which could adversely affect our financial performance.
In particular, in the event of a severe earthquake occurring directly below the Tokyo metropolitan area or along the Nankai Trough, it may exceed the expected damage according to our contingency plan which has been formulated by considering the degree of the impact. Although we continue to promote disaster prevention measures and business continuity management, in such the event, the continuation of the Group's business activities may be affected by the suspension of providing services to customers or the product shipments, etc. due to functional stoppages, damage to facilities, supply suspensions of electricity, water, gas, etc., shutdowns of public transportation or communication methods, or damage to the supply chain, etc.
2) Environmental Regulations and Climate Change
The Group is subject to various environmental laws and regulations relating to air pollution, water pollution, removal of hazardous substances, waste disposal, product recycling, soil and groundwater contamination, and we invest the necessary management resources to comply with them. However, we may incur costs or be liable for environmental liability associated with our current and past production activities. In addition, further tightening of regulations governing greenhouse gas emissions, energy efficiency, the European Circular Economy, new and additional environmental laws or regulations, such as carbon taxes, in the future could result in additional obligations and costs of compliance, which could adversely affect our financial performance.
In addition, the progress of climate change and other global environmental issues may adversely affect our financial performance in the future in phases of mitigation and adaptation of them. On the other hand, if we can contribute to the resolution of these issues, it could have a positive impact.
3) Intellectual Property Rights
The Group accumulates a great deal of technologies and know-hows in product development process and strives to acquire intellectual property rights to protect them. However, in some regions and countries, systems to protect intellectual property may be inadequate, and we may not be able to prevent third parties from manufacturing and selling similar products using the Group's intellectual property rights.
In addition, while the Group is developing products as preventing infringement of the rights of other companies, we may be alleged to infringe on the intellectual property rights of other companies due to differences in views, and the Group may not be able to use the technology or may be liable for heavy compensation for damages. In addition, the use of the intellectual property rights currently licensed by third parties to the Group could be discontinued in the future or changed to unreasonable terms.
4) Keeping Human Resources
We recognize that the continuous acquisition of excellent human resources is essential to our future growth centered on new businesses in the Group. In particular, it is necessary to strengthen IoT human resources in order to respond to changes in various business models due to the expansion of the areas of data utilization accompanying the spread of digital technologies such as IoT and AI. If we are unable to strengthen our human resources as planned, it may affect the conversion of our business to the solution business that the Group is aiming for.
5) Information Security
Through its various business activities, the Group sometimes obtains personal or confidential information of its customers or business partners. In the information management, unforeseen incidents could cause unauthorized access, tampering, data destruction, loss, or leakage due to cyber-attacks or other events. The leak of, or unauthorized use of, the Group's confidential technical, contractual or personnel information to third parties could also adversely affect the Group's financial performance.
4. Risks Related to COVID-19
1) Impact of the Outbreak of COVID-19
The Group operates globally, and more than 80% of the revenue is earned in the market other than Japan. In this business circumstance, the global outbreak of COVID-19 that emerged in late January 2020 caused disruptions in supply chains and production activities in China and other Asian regions due to lockdowns and requests for self-restraint by governments. The Group also faced temporary shutdowns and reduction of production at some factories. In Europe and the U.S., our sales activities were forced to stagnate, because business activities of our client companies stagnated, and then demand declined significantly. The impact of COVID-19 is estimated by the Group based on information available at the end of May and is assumed to be certain condition. However, due to uncertainties, it is difficult to predict the impact on financial performance in concrete terms. On the other hand, in the process of resuming economic activities while fighting COVID-19, further support for healthcare professionals is expected to be required, and people's values and work styles are expected to change. We anticipate expanding our business opportunities by solving these social issues, such as diagnostic support system with AI for chest X-ray images, remote diagnosis assistance, support for working style reform through multi-site collaboration using Workplace Hub, and providing telework know-how gained from in-house implementation.
The following is a description of each segment from the perspectives of both risks (negative side) and opportunities (positive side).
(Office Business and Professional Print Business)
Telework and restricted business activities in client companies could result in delays in product purchasing decisions and installations, constrained opportunity or prolonger of business negotiations, and print volume reduction, which could adversely affect our operating results.
On the other hand, our IT service solution and "Workplace Hub," which support new work styles such as teleworking, are expected to expand sales opportunities as solutions that realize remote collaboration while establishing robust information security in our main customers, such as small-and medium-sized companies and government agencies.
(Healthcare Business and Bio-healthcare)
We anticipate a temporary decrease in sales due to a decrease in the number of general patients and patients participating clinical trials, constraints on visits to hospitals and pharmaceutical companies from the Group, and other factors.
On the other hand, we expect these demands to return after COVID-19 subsides. In addition, we anticipate an expansion of sales opportunities for remote diagnostic imaging systems that support sustainable healthcare regime, including those for infectious diseases, Dynamic Digital Radiography, image interpretation supporting systems with AI, "informity," which supports medical image management and collaboration of medical facilities, remote medical diagnosis and counseling systems, and employee healthcare management programs.
In April 2020, in response to a request from the U.S. government, we are commissioned to conduct PCR and antibody tests for companies and healthcare professionals using our testing laboratories and DNA testing technologies. In drug discovery support service, we are working to support the study of a new treatment for COVID-19.
(Industrial Business)
We anticipate delays in the expansion of flat panel display (FPD) manufacturing line in client companies and the impact of fluctuation in demand for final products.
On the other hand, with the spread of new work styles, we anticipate the possibility of expanding sales opportunities, such as the sales of materials for small-and medium-sized displays for notebook PCs, tablets, and smartphones, which are expected to grow in demand, as well as the Group's unique solutions that support labor-saving through the automation of inspection processes in clients' manufacturing lines.
In the field of imaging IoT, demand for surface temperature measurement solutions with thermal cameras based on AI analysis is increasing, and sales opportunities are expanding.
(Procurement and Production)
The spread of COVID-19 also affects the business activities of our suppliers. There is a possibility that prices of procured items rise due to the business continuity costs of suppliers, or procuring substitutes cause additional if their business continuity is judged to be difficult.


Who is religious history for, anyway?
I would accept entirely that this is a legitimate criticism to make from the point of view of the academic study of history. But the irony is that, amongst another section of the readership of the book, it is precisely this evaluation that is required. The questions are asked: was Ramsey right or wrong to have done something, or not to have done something? Is the Church of England, and the worldwide Anglican church, and indeed Britain as a whole, in a better or worse position now as a result of his actions and omissions? What might the contemporary churches learn from his experience? These are different questions, to be sure, but they are certainly questions that are asked, by those in the churches to whom the current state of British and world Christianity is a matter of real importance.
At base, the book was trying to show that Ramsey had a coherent theological vision of the nature of the church, to which all of his actions can be related. I am also convinced that the model of church-in-relation-to-culture that he offered is a more sustainable one in the conditions of the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century west, and that he was ahead of many of his contemporaries in seeing the need for a transition in that direction. Perhaps to make such a statement is to step out of the legitimate territory of the historian, but to write the history of the contemporary church is always to walk that particular line. Such evaluation is what a significant proportion of the readership seems to require. There is a certain irony in that for academic writing to reach those outside the academy in this way might (in some other disciplines) be described as "impact", an altogether Good Thing.
Previous Article What do we need to know about the archived web?
I've likewise found that the way to do history in the present – not just religious history – is to show how such study garners insights which may help us understand how we got to where we are, and to navigate the present wisely. Narrative reconstruction, however fascinating and original, is not enough to justify the historian's work.