The conjunctiva is the pink tissue that lines the inner surface of the eyelids and covers the white portion of the eyeball (sclera). It is a protective layer that contains special glands that secrete a component of the tear film that helps maintain normal eye health. Conjunctivitis is a condition where the conjunctiva becomes reddened, congested, and painful. It may occur in one or both eyes, depending upon the cause. Causes of conjunctivitis include foreign matter, chemicals, bacteria, viruses, and environmental irritants like smoke.
Other causes may be due to systemic diseases or allergic reactions. Conjunctivitis may lead to, or be a sign of, corneal ulcers (abrasions of the cornea), eye infections, corneal scarring, corneal vascularization, corneal mineralization, corneal sequestrum (primarily in cats), conjunctival adhesions, nasolacrimal blockage (blockage of normal tear flow), and keratoconjunctivitis sicca (dry eye).
1.Laboratory tests, including blood tests, conjunctival scrapings and cultures may be needed to help determine the cause and an effective treatment, if there is no readily apparent cause on examination.
2.Attempts should be made to prevent further irritation to your pet's eyes from such things as contaminated water, soap, dust, sprays, smoke, (self-) trauma, etc.
3.The medical treatment for conjunctivitis may involve life-long or intermittent use of topical and/or oral medications depending on the underlying cause. Treatment is designed to stop progression and recurrence of the disease process and to reverse some of the damage already done. Life-long topical medications rarely give rise to complications. Your doctor will discuss any relevant potential side-effects of prescribed treatments with you.


text:
Islamic Group Demands Air Force Fire "Anti-Muslim" Instructor
The Islamic terrorist front group that transformed the way U.S. law enforcement agencies conduct anti-terrorism training is ordering the Air Force to sever ties with an instructor it considers to be anti-Muslim. The question is will the Trump administration cave into its demands? Under Barack Obama, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a group that reportedly raises money for Hamas, wielded tremendous power and managed to bully law enforcement agencies at the local, state and federal level to alter counterterrorism training materials deemed by the group to discriminate against Muslims.
This includes getting the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to purge anti-terrorism training curricula of material determined to be "offensive" to Muslims. Judicial Watch uncovered that scandal and obtained the FBI records. Based on troves of government documents, Judicial Watch subsequently published a special, in-depth report on the scandal. CAIR is not specifically named but the records show that an undisclosed group of "Subject Matter Experts" (SME) determined the federal training material was offensive to Muslims. CAIR also got police departments in Illinois to eliminate anti-terrorism training materials and instructors deemed anti-Muslim. As an example, CAIR asserted that an instructor for the Lombard, Illinois police force wrote an article years earlier that included disparaging comments about the Prophet Muhammad. The course was called "Islamic Awareness as a Counter-Terrorist Strategy" and departments in Lombard, Elmhurst and Highland Park caved into CAIR's demands.
Keep in mind that CAIR is a terrorist front group with extensive links to foreign and domestic Islamists. It was founded in 1994 by three Middle Eastern extremists (Omar Ahmad, Nihad Awad and Rafeeq Jaber) who ran the American propaganda wing of Hamas, known then as the Islamic Association for Palestine. In 2008 CAIR was a co-conspirator in a federal terror-finance case involving the Hamas front group Holy Land Foundation. Read more in a Judicial Watch special report that focuses on Muslim charities. Judicial Watch also tried to find out if CAIR got the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to overhaul its anti-terrorism training but the spy agency said it could "neither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence of records" involving meetings or communications with the Muslim rights group. The CIA asserted that the information is classified intelligence protected from disclosure. The response goes on to cite the statutes—such as the CIA Act of 1949 and National Security Act of 1947—that allow the agency to hide even the most benign information from the American public. It's likely that the CIA met with CAIR during the Obama years—or at least had communication with the extremist group—and doesn't want the public to know about it.
Time will tell if CAIR's cozy relationship with the Obama administration will carry over into the new one. Regardless, the group was emboldened in the last eight years and continues making demands in the name of Muslim rights. This week it called on the military to get rid of a top counterterrorism instructor at the United States Air Force Special Operations School (USSAFSOS) in Florida. The instructor, Patrick Dunleavy, teaches a course called "The Dynamics of International Terrorism" designed to provide awareness and appreciation of the organization, motivation, operational capabilities and threat posed by terrorists on an international, national, and regional basis. It was designed for individuals with no previous antiterrorism training and focuses on protective measures that government personnel and their families can employ to minimize threats.
Dunleavy, the course instructor, is a former deputy inspector general for the New York State Department of Corrections and has testified before Congress as an expert witness on the threat of Islamic radicalization in the nation's prison system. Dunleavy is also a senior fellow at a decades-old nonprofit dedicated to investigating the operations, funding, activities and front groups of Islamic extremists worldwide. The think-tank, Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), is recognized as a comprehensive data center on radical Islamic terrorist cells and its founder is a terrorism and national security expert who has advised Congress, the president, FBI and National Security Council. After 9/11 he published a best-selling book documenting how one of the world's most notorious terrorist groups plotted the worst terrorist attack on American soil without detection or scrutiny by American authorities.
CAIR uses Dunleavy's association with IPT to call for his ouster as a military antiterrorism instructor, asserting that the research center is an "anti-Muslim propaganda mouthpiece, and has made a number of false statements betraying a personal prejudice against Islam and Muslims." IPT's founder, Steven Emerson, has a history of making "Islamophobic" statements, CAIR says, involving terrorist attacks that date back to the 1990s. The Islamic group reminds the commander of the U.S. Airforce Special Operations Command at Hurlburt Field in Florida (Lieutenant General Marshall B. Webb), that under Obama the military caved into its demands. "As you may recall in 2012, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey ordered the U.S. military to 'scour its training material to ensure it doesn't contain anti-Islamic content," CAIR writes in a letter to Lieutenant General Webb. Judicial Watch will monitor this situation to see how the Trump Department of Defense (DOD) handles these preposterous requests.
http://www.judicialwatch.org
The motto of Judicial Watch is "Because no one is above the law". To this end, Judicial Watch uses the open records or freedom of information laws and other tools to investigate and uncover misconduct by government officials and litigation to hold to account politicians and public officials who engage in corrupt activities.
DOD to Release Al Qaeda Operative with Ties to 9/11 Terrorist
Court Win for Professor Sued by Muslim Student
What If Obama Were President and KKK Terrorists Took Control of American City?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Ekaterina Delovaya, who won bronze in underwater swimming for 50 meters, achieved the first medal to Ukrainian team.
Ekaterina Delovaya brought the first medal to Ukraine at the World Games-2017 in Wroclaw in Poland and entered the top three in the underwater swimming for 50 meters, UNIAN reports.
80 sportsmen of the national team represent Ukraine at this forum. They claim for awards in 20 sports.
On 21 July sportsmen competed for the first medal set in underwater swimming. Ukrainian athlete Ekaterina Delovaya won bronze in this category, swimming 50-meter under the water in 16.46 seconds.
World Games are the largest competition in non-Olympic sports, which are held every four years. More than 3,500 athletes from 111 countries take part in this forum.
Since 2005 Ukraine has been certainly one of the favorites of the competition and has been in the top 10 of the most successful teams.
Sportsmen are competing in underwater swimming, bowling, rhythmic gymnastics, rock-climbing (bouldering) and others at the World Games on July 22.
Earlier, on July 19 XXIII Deaflympic Games started in Turkey.


text:
Gal Gadot shares picture of her 'movie memorabilia' - 'Wonder Woman' headgear
17 December 2020, 12:29 pm ·1-min read
Gal Gadot's movie memorabilia (Image Source: Instagram)
Washington [US], December 17 (ANI): 'Wonder Woman,' actor Gal Gadot on Thursday (local time) shared a picture of the most special movie memorabilia which is the headgear of her DCEU (DC Extended Universe) character.
The Israeli actor took to Instagram to share a picture of the 'Wonder Woman' headgear that she has worn in both of the films of the franchise.
The 'Justice League' actor penned down a short note and expressed how she had put the memorabilia on the display in her house.
"I don't usually have movie memorabilia lying around my house, but this one is so special for me I just had to put it on display," she wrote.
Gadot also shared that the headgear symbolises "strength, legacy, and hope."
"I won't spoil it for you but it's a symbol of strength, of legacy, of hope, I love having it with me to remind me of all that," the 35-year-old actor wrote.
This comes a day after her recent film 'Wonder Woman 1984,' was released in select territories across the world. The flick will make its way to many countries including the American theatres on Christmas i.e. December 25.
The DCEU movie will release a day early in Indian movie theatres and will hit the screens on December 24. (ANI)


Image Title: Leather Sofa Suite Maxim Black Corner Cheap With Affordable Inspirations 11. Filename: leather-sofa-suite-maxim-black-corner-cheap-with-affordable-inspirations-11.jpg. Image Dimension: 750 x 500 pixels. Images Format: jpg/jpeg. Publisher/Author: Lenny Welch. Uploaded Date: Saturday - April 28th. 2018 13:35:33 PM. Category: Architecture. Image Source: ikea.com.
Tap The Thumbnail Bellow to See Related Gallery of "Leather Sofa Suite Maxim Black Corner Cheap With Affordable Inspirations 11"


If you email before this time, you will not be charged for the meet. If you sign up, don't attend and don't email before this deadline, your swimmer will still be charged for the meet.
This meet is open to all swimmers who have not achieved their LMR qualifying time in Silver, Gold and Junior Competitive. PASS meets are fun, introductory swimming competitions. Swimmers will typically race 3-5 events, typically 2x50m or 25m events, a 100 or 200IM and a 100 or 200. These meets are designed for newer swimmers to get introduced to swim meets with swimmers from other clubs in a fun, non-threatening environment. Swimmers cannot be disqualified if they don't follow a stroke rule.
This is an SKSC hosted event. Please see job sign up for available positions (note, sign up open closer to date).


The Hoxell concept was the vision of a hotelier with a long family tradition in the hotel business, working with a team of professionals and technicians specialised in the hospitality industry.
Hoxell thus combines an enormous passion for the hotel business with the conviction that guest satisfaction is the absolute fundamental element for the success of any accommodation facility.
Hoxell adapts seamlessly to all kinds of facilities allowing all of your guests to customise their stays and begin a personal, direct relationship with your team.
It optimises workflow, streamlines tasks, and speeds the flow of information among your staff.
It simplifies work, it's easy to install, easy to learn and immediately operative.
It integrates with existing systems, avoids useless expenditures and connects all of the functions involved in running a hotel, quickly and logically.
Hoxell lets you monitor the operational flow of the whole hotel in real time: from bookings and arrivals to guest room occupation, breakdowns, staff communication and communication with guests before, during and after their stays – which thus gets customised to the highest degree. The goal of Hoxell is to provide exceptional service, enhancing both the work atmosphere within the hotel and the hotel's relationship with its customers.
Your guests' MyPage will stay permanently active and they will be able to access it any time they want, benefiting from being recognised and rewarded by your establishment.
Use the interactive screen below to learn more about the Hoxell functions that can be customised to meet any needs.
Booking information entered into your PMS is automatically transferred to Hoxell, which then creates a personal MyPage for your guest. From that point forward, MyPage becomes the centre of all communication with the guest: before, during, and after their stay.
Room customisation: temperature, pillow type, minibar contents, etc.
Confirmation and 'bon voyage' emails to guests: once the confirmation email is sent, you will begin communicating with your guests, offering them the information most useful and relevant to their stay. A simple and intuitive 'call to action' will invite them to customise their own guest room, personalising their experience at your hotel in every detail. It's a pleasantly surprising introduction to your hotel's hospitality.
'Welcome home' email: to increase your brand reputation even more, you can opt to send your guest a 'welcome home' email, inviting them to share their experience at your hotel with other Web users. You can decide whether or not to include a widget with a direct link to TripAdvisor or any other online Web platform.
Customised emails: your staff will be able to respond to guest requests by sending a customised email that brings them to their MyPage by either choosing from a range of pre-compiled templates, in a variety of languages, or creating a new one in just a few seconds. You can also send customised offers to increase direct sales, using a simple, intuitive interface that lets you send tailor-made 'online' quotes in less than 60 seconds. And you can monitor the status of the offer (pending, confirmed, rejected) and send, if necessary, a reminder to encourage the sale and increase your confirmation rate.
This is the module that will let you bring the Guest Experience platform to your facility quickly and easily, making communication between departments extremely fluid and greatly improving information exchange.
With Hoxell, most of the daily activities connected to guest rooms (preparation, checking, malfunction management, guest requests, shift collaboration, minibar notifications, lost & found, etc.) are handled in a totally new way; helping your staff to work more efficiently, reducing stress, and gaining back valuable time that can be dedicated to the guests.
Room Assignments: say goodbye to printouts, Excel spreadsheets, Post-It notes and last-minute phone calls. With Hoxell, you can organise the housekeepers' work in just a few minutes and make real-time updates to the schedule.
Room Cleaning: when the room is clean, the housekeeper can inform reception and all of the other departments that the room is ready to be occupied.
Malfunction Notifications: in-room and common area malfunctions can be signalled, so that they can be fixed right away.
Minibar and Linen Usage: Hoxell lets you monitor minibar and linen usage, so that you can get a quicker and more accurate count.
Room Standards and Assessment: you can assess the quality of the room cleaning using a simple form, assisted by visual support of operational standards.
Your hotel's ordinary and extraordinary maintenance work can be easily managed through the dedicated Hoxell module.
Signalling and Fixing Malfunctions: when a malfunction is signalled, the information is shared in real time with the entire staff, increasing your hotel's operational effectiveness and efficiency.
Assigning and Planning Regular Tasks: all requests for assistance can be resolved or moved to the to-do list, so that the right personnel can be scheduled for the job.
Everything Kept Under Control in Real Time: through advanced, graphic reports, you can analyse all signalled and resolved malfunctions.
This function lets you save valuable time and communicate with staff simply and quickly, avoiding misunderstandings and confusion.
Ad Hoc Messages: every staff member can communicate with any other or, in the case of more general information, communicate information to multiple colleagues as the same time.
The push notification system and message-received notifications ensure that messages wil never be lost or forgotten.
Messages for the Entire Staff: you can post messages on a convenient online 'notice board' that the whole staff can see, as well as schedule future messages using a convenient calendar.
Hate spreadsheets? Using a convenient calendar, you can create work schedules for every department with less effort and clearer results.
Calendar Recap: you can review past shift assignments at any time, to make sure that scheduling stays fair.
Requests for Days Off and Special Permission: your staff can request days off using a simple form in the Calendar section, which keeps track of all requests as well as their acceptance or rejection by the department manager.
Using Hoxell you will discover a simpler and more effective way of doing your work; increasing communication, decreasing wasted time, and reducing mistakes to a minimum. The tablet based interface that your staff will use is simple and intuitive and will not present any difficulties, even for those who have never used a computer or a touch screen before. Staff training requires a minimal amount of time, so that your personnel are immediately operational and independent.
To be honest, I have always thought that all of the advanced technologies designed to help with the work done in a complex department like housekeeping ... were completely useless! We couldn't even imagine that a computer programme could help the housekeepers and porters improve their work... We are delighted to have been proven wrong and, especially, surprised to have discovered something that increases our professionalism and has made the whole staff more motivated and enthusiastic about having, finally, and always at hand, so much information. We wouldn't know what to do without Hoxell!!!
Hoxell is a programme that transforms situations that are complex and often out of control into simple, extremely efficient activities. Hoxell provides concrete help with coordinating the entire staff's work towards a single goal: the customisation of the service we offer. With Hoxell, coordination between departments is improved, there is a stronger sense of being a team and information is passed on immediately, optimising time. It provides valuable assistance, letting us immediately distinguish what is both important and urgent from what is important but not urgent. Hoxell creates a dependency since it helps us face the day with all of the information we need, just a few clicks away.
Honestly, at first we did not think that this programme would be very helpful for the kind of work we do, but once we got familiar with it and understood what it is really all about, we realised that it would not only be useful for what we do but would also let us become an even stronger team. With simplicity and clarity, this program is like a treasure chest where we can find everything we need for everything we do, from booking rooms to satisfying any and all special requests from guests and more. Communication and helping each other, even when doing different tasks, all in real time. We learned all of this from the people who created the programme and the people who, right up to today, have always been right by our side, whenever we have needed them, improving and growing together. Always leaving us with unique, real knowledge. At this point, we really couldn't do without HOXELL.
The Hoxell system facilitates communication between departments while reducing the margin of error. As head of reception, I am very satisfied with this platform and fully recommend it to my colleagues.
Finally, an up-to-date programme: fresh, intuitive and within everyone's reach. Hoxell in just one word? It would have to be efficiency. It is a programme that we can enthusiastically recommend, that helps improve work results and performance. You can tell that it was created and developed by a hotelier, Carlo Fontana, who is exceptionally experienced and professional. After just one season using Hoxell, we can say that it is really a success. Even the housekeepers have confirmed that using the tablets, which at first made them nervous, has been easy and intuitive. It is an excellent way of speeding up communication between departments. The customer service is also to be praised: Davide and his team are always ready to get on board and resolve any problems that might come up, 24/7. They are extremely kind.
Hoxell is a tool that lets you work quickly, flexibly and precisely. Thanks to the programme's various functions, we can get immediate information, making collaboration between departments more effective and thus guaranteeing excellent service for the guest as well. It was really a happy discovery and I would not want to do without it.
Thanks to the Hoxell system, now it is really possible to have complete supervision over the department, even over two separate structures, at all times. Knowing what state a guest room is in or where you can find a co-worker lets us improve and simplify the organisation of our work as well as the management of the guest rooms and the daily check. The exchange of information between different departments and within your own department, communicating modifications, changes and other information, is faster with Hoxell, since it is always updated in real time. This is a huge help to all of us!
It is very good value for money, but the thing I liked best was the professionalism of the staff, making you feel like a special guest with little perks, like a bon voyage message after checkout, not something that happens in every hotel. We recommend it and hope to return very soon.
I'll start with the only sad part of the stay: the size of the room. As for the rest, the hotel truly sets itself apart with all of the pampering it offers guests. I was won over by the online service, which lets you choose all of the room's amenities in terms of the bed (what kind of pillow), the mini-bar (juice? Chocolates? Wine?), towels, toilet paper (ecological? Colourful?) all before you arrive! Extremely courteous and accessible staff, fair price, generous breakfast. I will be back.
How have you been doing it up until now?
Is Hoxell only for big hotels or can it also be used for a small business like mine?
Hoxell is for any kind of accommodation facility. The most important thing is for the people who choose our platform to have a mentality focused on hospitality excellence. An exceptional facility is not made up of stars, but of people. That is who Hoxell is designed for.
What are the technological requirements I need in order to install Hoxell?
Hoxell is a Web platform and does not require installation on the hotel's computers. The facility needs to have a good Wi-Fi connection, which is what the mobile devices will be connected to. Hoxell is entirely installed in the cloud, but you can also install it on a local, dedicated server. Hoxell is perfectly compatible with iOS (Apple) and Android systems.
Which PMSs can Hoxell interface with?
Many PMSs are already certified for use with Hoxell, for example: Opera, Fidelio 8, Protel, HotelCube… The list is constantly growing, since we add new interfaces every day.
Does Hoxell interface with technological systems other than PMSs?
Is there a help service?
Hoxell offers various types of technical assistance, based on the version you have installed. What they all have in common is high quality and fast response times for resolving problems and requests.
Will Hoxell replace my current booking engine with MyPage?
No, Hoxell integrates the booking engine already being used by your hotel. Since MyPage is a secure page specific to the individual guest, you are free to offer any kind of promotion or discount, customised to each guest, thereby fostering loyalty and disintermediation from online sales portals.
How much does Hoxell cost?
We do not have a price list for our platform. The price is determined ad hoc after a deep analysis of your facility and the functions that you would like to implement. To get an idea of the investment involved, contact us through the contact form and one of our sales staff will get in touch with you as soon as possible.
Copyright © 2015 hoxell.com. All rights reserved.


text:
Bryan Beller Picks the Essential Mike Keneally
Posted in: bryan beller, career retrospective, dethklok, dweezil zappa, eric's episodes, frank zappa, G3, includes music, interview, joe satriani, mike keneally, picks the essential.	3 Comments
Bryan Beller shares his 10 Essential Mike Keneally songs. Originally connecting in Dweezil Zappa's band in the early 90s, Bryan Beller (The Aristocrats) and Mike Keneally have been longtime friends and collaborators in various bands (Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, G3, Dethklok) and on each other's work for 25+ years. The music of Mike Keneally is creative, progressive, versatile, introspective, layered, adventurous, humorous, emotionally powerful, and musically brilliant. Bryan walks us through his list of Keneally song selections, sharing memories of recording and performing these songs, why he chose the songs he chose, and offers wonderfully detailed musical and technical insight.
http://traffic.libsyn.com/podsodcast/2018-03-22_PTE6.mp3
Subscribe or leave a rating/review on iTunes
EM64 – Joe Satriani
Posted in: career retrospective, crowded house, eric's episodes, eric's interviews, G3, includes music, interview, joe satriani.	2 Comments
Joe Satriani joins Eric in conversation to discuss his early days of discovering guitar, building his first ad-hoc amp out of a reel to reel tape player, touring in a disco cover band in his late teens, following his muse and making the move to California at a young age, building a new network in California, how he ended up singing background vocals on Crowded House's self-title debut album, what he loved about giving lessons to many of the guitar greats of our time, views of his breakout album Surfing With The Alien after celebrating it's 30 year anniversary, what he's learned from 20+ years of touring with the world's greatest guitarists in G3, how the idea of his new album What Happens Next featuring his friends Glen Hughes and Chad Smith came together, and much more.
http://traffic.libsyn.com/podsodcast/2017-10-24_EM64.mp3
Watch on YouTube:


Red Dye: Unflavoured but sweet in composition. Incorporating Spotted Fin's unique fish catching stimulants. Can be used for dying most hookbaits or added to particles such as chopped worms, casters, maggots when feeding via a pole mounted pot. This creates a lingering cloud of fish feeding triggers.
Yellow Dye:Unflavoured but sweet in composition. Incorporating Spotted Fin's unique fish catching stimulants. Can be used for dying most hookbaits or added to particles such as chopped worms, casters, maggots when feeding via a pole mounted pot. This creates a lingering cloud of fish feeding triggers.
This entry was posted in Carp fishing, Course Fishing, Spotted Fin, Spotted Fin Coarse, Spotted Fin Match Range and tagged #leadDontFollow, #spottedfin. Bookmark the permalink.


Well being Savings Accounts help you arrange a tax-deductible account to pay for medical expenses that are not covered by your medical insurance. Students who haven't accomplished the core coaching in scientific medicine may be required to follow a prescribed course of research in Oxford for all or part of their 10-week elective as an alternative of arranging a placement. Medicines can treat illnesses and improve your well being.
The scientific examine or apply of diagnosing, treating, and stopping diseases or problems of the physique or mind of an individual or animal. The Faculty of Medicine has 22 clinical and fundamental science departments offering a variety of training opportunities.
Accredited by the Common Medical Council (GMC), this Primary Medical Qualification entitles the holder to use to the GMC for registration to practise medicine in the UK. The intercalated diploma is a one-12 months BSc programme which provides you the chance to review the themes of your selection in higher depth across King's and the university's medical partners.
Please be aware that overseas candidates are only capable of apply in October for entry onto the programme in September the following 12 months. Philippe Bourgois, professor-in-residence of psychiatry at the David Geffen Faculty of Medicine, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Generally a healthcare professional could recommend that you just take an off-label or unlicensed medicine. At the University of Pittsburgh Faculty of Medicine, we teach and prepare medical doctors to deal with the realities of a brand new era in medicine. The GMC has determined to introduce a Medical Licensing Evaluation – the MLA – from 2022 to show that those who acquire registration with a licence to practise medicine in the UK meet a common threshold for secure practice.


Something shuffled on the floor above him. Snow drifted down through the gigantic hole that drilled through all six floors. He moved back to get a better view. Someone was searching through the few cabinets still standing. Another intruder. Mael sighed heavily.
In the beginning he'd given the few hollow-cheeked visitors food before chasing them away. But they returned, probably attracted to the fire and the scent of his cooking. One man had even tried to kill him. He could still remember the man's stinking breath and wide desperate eyes. Mael knew that if he hadn't started to carry an iron rod around, he'd be dead now. The rod was his weapon, hunting tool and hammer. He didn't go anywhere without it.
After a while, he'd managed to seal all the openings in the walls with scrap from the building and the furniture. The activity calmed him. Not only did it make it difficult for intruders to enter the damaged building, it also cut off the horrible glimpses of the world outside. Mael couldn't believe the images he'd seen through the openings: office buildings with huge gaping holes, asphalt torn up and folded over in the streets, shops with broken windows, dead bodies. Once he saw a dog tear an arm off a dead man lying on the pavement just outside the building. He'd had trouble sleeping for days after that.
There were only two ways into the building now: the massive hole and the door leading to the underground tunnels that travelled all over the city. No one had come through the door in a long time. Mael was in his own world, protected and safe. Sometimes he heard dogs barking and snarling, and men shouting, but it was only distant noise carried with the winds through the hole in the ceiling.
In the first days he'd thought he was stuck in a nightmare. He'd walked through the shattered building with eyes wide open, yet not really seeing his surroundings. A layer of rubble covered everything. The air was thick with dust. Papers drifted down from the upper floors like enormous square-shaped snowflakes. Finally, it was his deep sense of loyalty that had snapped him out of his daze and into a frenzy of cleaning the building. Or that's what Mael told himself. The truth was that he couldn't stand the mess.
There was of course nothing he could do about the yawning shaft that trailed its way from the roof to the basement as if a giant boulder had been dropped through the house. He'd managed to climb up on the roof once, but the gap stretched too wide for him to repair and he'd almost fallen off. He still shuddered at the memory.
Cleaning away the grey-black fungus that kept growing on the walls was a losing battle. If he leaned against them, mould would slick his clothes. The air stank of old and rotten things. Mael had been coughing up thick slime for a long time now, as if the rot had taken root inside him too.
He fought the decay without pause. Just keeping the lower floors clear of rats and bugs occupied most of his time. He always took a moment to polish the Award and the glass walls of its display cabinet, his fingers lingering over the engraved names. The gleaming metal pleased him.
The work kept the painful thoughts of the desolation outside the building away and in the evening, his mind and body were so numb after the many working hours that he never had trouble sleeping.
Mael studied the person shuffling around on the floor above. Was it a man or a woman? He couldn't tell. Dressed in dirty rags that revealed nothing, head obscured under a hood, the person opened drawers but didn't close them. Papers flew down from the desk. Mael scowled. There would be quite a mess to clean up after this one. Furious, he threw a snow ball at the back of the person's head. Whoever was up there staggered for a moment before swirling around.
"H - hello?" A woman's voice. The person moved closer to the edge of the hole. He wondered how she had managed to enter the building without drawing his attention. He stepped into the light.
"You are not allowed to be here. Please leave." He picked up his iron rod.
The person stared at him from the depths of the hood. "Mael?"
He lowered the rod, surprised. He hadn't heard anyone say his name in a long time. "Who are you?" he shouted, suddenly hoarse, his heart thudding.
She pulled down the hood. Large golden curls tumbled out. A heart shaped face looked down at him. His legs trembled.
"Mael, it's me. Bergljot. I'm so happy to see you." She smiled broadly; Mael's legs threatened to give in and he had to sit down. That smile. He would have recognized it miles away.
Down in the basement, next to the fire, the temperature was steady, warm and pleasant. He'd chopped all the broken furniture into firewood and stacked it into piles that towered over him. The smoke rose upwards through the hole, lingering briefly around the edges on the upper floors before disappearing through the roof. The woodpiles were still tall, but they had shrunk visibly. He didn't know what he would do once he'd burned the last stick.
Mael had dragged the leather couch from the director's office into place in front of the fire. He felt a little ashamed that he'd taken it, but it served as both a couch and a bed He was sure the director would forgive him.
He invited Bergljot to sit on the couch and threw more wood on the fire, which sparkled before it settled. He stood staring at her, not sure whether to believe it was really her.
The Bergljot he'd known had been his young up-and-coming leader, efficient and talented, but reserved. Mael had rarely seen her smile. When she did, he'd felt as if the sun was flooding the room. Her eyes had sparkled when she laughed, a sweet and tinkling sound that had warmed his always frozen limbs. Sometimes when she'd passed him on the way to her office, he'd get a whiff of her perfume. Roses. In his dreams, she never wore the grey business suit, but a white lace summer dress. Her angelic golden curls would cover his pillow as she lay looking up at him with her twinkling blue eyes and a shy smile.
She looked so different now. She'd been a sturdy woman with chubby red cheeks and fat on her arms that quivered when she moved. He would never have been able to wrap his arms all the way around her, but he'd loved that she was so large. If it hadn't been for the hair and the smile, he would have sworn that the woman who sat in front of him now wasn't Bergljot, but a pale copy.
Her heart shaped face was hollow cheeked, the skin tight over the bones. Her spotless business suit and red nails flashed into his mind. He remembered how much time she'd spent fussing with her hair and fixing her lipstick. But this woman didn't seem to care about her looks. He frowned. She looked as if she'd found some rags somewhere and put them on: at least three sweaters in different sizes and colours, dirty and stained with dark spots. He wrinkled his nose.
But the worst change, he thought, was her eyes. They'd been clear and sharp. In fact, Mael had often avoided her intense gaze, which seemed to penetrate him as if she could see all his thoughts. Now she was the one who stared down at the floor, swallowing visibly. He shook his head to clear his mind.
"Are you hungry?" he asked and walked towards her. Craning her neck to look up at him, she nodded. She seemed scared, he thought, surprised. Scared and ashamed. He caught her scent. Not roses. He grimaced in disgust and held his breath. "Come, I'll make you some food." He moved towards the kitchen, not looking to see if she followed.
Some parts of the building were intact: the basement, some of the offices on the lower floors, and a few of the corridors. Mael always felt strange going through these areas. He could imagine the workers arriving any minute now. He sometimes lingered in some of the offices, looking at the pictures on the walls, shuffling through the papers on the desks, and smiling to himself when he recognized a few of the cases.
The basement was the least damaged area. He stayed there most of the time. He had food and the couch, and he could keep an eye on the entrance and the fire.
They entered the kitchen and he watched Bergljot's eyes widen. Mael had been very pleased to discover that the kitchen was intact and that the storerooms had been well stocked with food. He feared the day he would have to leave the building to search for food. Mael hadn't known how to cook, but enjoyed experimenting. He had invented some dishes he was quite proud of. Experienced now, he picked different cans from the shelves. Feeling Bergljot's eyes watching him silently from the doorway, he suddenly felt strange and self-conscious. He wasn't used to having another person there.
He carried the cans out to the work bench he had set up by the fire, opened them, cut the ingredients into small pieces and put them in a casserole. Bergljot stood next to him, watching every movement. He put the casserole into the oven he'd built in the fire pit with scrap materials from the kitchen, then turned to face her.
"Don't you want to sit down?"
She shook her head and stared down into the fire, huddling into her many sweaters as if she was cold. "No, I'm fine."
He shrugged and stirred the boiling stew. When it was ready, he put it on two plates and gave her one. She wolfed it down, gasping at the heat. Pleased to see her eating, he gave her his own plate. "You eat," he said in answer to the questions that burned in her eyes. "It's not long since I ate and you need the food."
Afterwards, she lay down on the couch and fell quickly into a deep sleep. While Mael worked, his eyes darted to the sleeping figure now and then. She never moved. Thinking the worst, he trotted over to examine her face. When he saw that she still breathed, he left her alone. She must be exhausted, he thought, wondering where she had been all this time and why it had taken her so long. He wondered if she would give him the Award now. He still didn't understand why he hadn't received it that night. Before the world changed.
After all the extra hours Mael had put in, he'd been incredulous when Rune received 'The Worker of the Year Award'. Mael was the first one at work in the morning and the last to leave in the evening. His colleagues had teased him, saying he must surely be sleeping over in the archive room. "Have you lost your home?" they'd said, laughing. Bergljot had begun nodding approvingly to him when she arrived each morning. When asked, Mael said he worked so much because the new head of the research department demanded it. This was partly true. The new leader had been concerned with sorting and clearing out the mess of files left behind when the last leader had retired, and Mael was a good archivist. But there was another reason that Mael had begun to work so hard all of a sudden.
He had coveted the Award for years. He couldn't explain why, but ever since he'd first seen the golden trophy engraved with names gleaming in the cabinet in the main entrance, he'd wanted to see his own name on it. He'd dreamed of the ceremony. All eyes would be on him as he walked up to receive the Award when the director called out his name, telling him what an outstanding worker he was, and how they couldn't have done it without him. All the leaders and his co-workers would clap their hands and whistle and he would give a speech so touching that it would become legendary. Bergljot would secretly dab at the corners of her eyes with a lace handkerchief and smile just for him.
Mael had been certain that Bergljot would nominate him after all his hard work in the months preceding the Award presentation. When Rune received it instead, Mael was sure there had been a mistake. Wanting an explanation, he'd gone looking for Bergljot after the ceremony, but couldn't find her. He'd stayed behind after everyone else had gone home, hoping she would show up. Her red winter parka still hung on the coat stand in her office, so he'd believed she was still in the building.
He'd been sitting at his desk watching the grey-white strands of faux fur on her hood stir in the waves of heat from the radiator when he'd heard thunderous cracking sounds in the distance and thought it was fireworks, but couldn't remember reading about any special occasion in the newspaper. Then came a deafening high-pitched whine and flashes of white light, and everything had gone strangely quiet. That was the last thing he remembered. When he woke up, the world as he knew it had changed.
Mael didn't remember much about the first few days after the white light, but he always wondered why he'd never left the building then. Now he knew it was because he'd been sure Bergljot was in the building, trapped, injured or worse. When he'd finally managed to access the heavily damaged upper floors, he had moved through them carefully, prepared to find her dead body under the broken furniture or the fallen walls. But he never did. He found no one. That's when Mael had started to hope. Surely they would come looking for him, he told himself. He must keep the building ready for them. He would say it out loud when his loneliness and loud sobs threatened to swallow him and all he wanted was to end it all: She would come. If he was patient and stayed put, she would come. He couldn't leave. One day she would come. She would smile up at him from his pillow. She would give him his Award.
Bergljot stirred in her sleep, mumbled something and waved her arms in the air. Then she was motionless and silent again. He wondered who or what she had fought against in her dreams.
The following days went by in a blur. Bergljot slept most of the time. Now and then Mael would feel her eyes on him and turn to find her gazing at him, as if trying to identify him, then recognizing him, she would go back to sleep. He was curious about why she was so worn out. Where had she been all this time? Why had she not come earlier? Where were the others? Questions burned on his tongue, but he decided to wait until she was ready. He'd waited so long for her to come. Surely he could wait a little bit longer, he mused.
Bergljot was awake for short periods of time in which he fed her hot stew and heated snow. He showed her where he had made a latrine, and a bathroom next to it out of one of the former restrooms. Every morning, he washed up with melted snow or rain water and brushed his hair with a comb he'd found in one of the destroyed offices.
He had also gathered the clothes he'd found in the building. It was a surprisingly huge amount, because people liked to change into a more casual style before leaving work and heading home. The clothes he found were thus mostly business clothes. Mael could walk around in a three-piece suit if he wished, and he sometimes did, just for the elegant feeling of it. Most of the clothes were quite worn and torn now, but he tried to keep them mended and clean. When the winter storms came, he would put on most of the clothes and take shelter deep in the basement. The only clothing he didn't touch was Bergljot's parka. It still hung on the coat stand in her office.
When Mael caught sight of Bergljot gaping at herself in the bathroom mirrors, he heated snow in one of the largest casseroles and gave her soap and a comb. When she emerged from the bathroom, he hardly recognized her. She'd put on the few women's clothes he had found; a shirt, a blazer, a skirt. The colours didn't match, but since she had lost so much weight, the clothes fit perfectly, though he could see the outline of her ribs through the fine fabric. From the many pairs of shoes, she'd chosen some lovely high heels. Her wet blond curls glistened down her shoulders, and her cheeks were red from scrubbing.
"You look nice," he said, smiling. She returned the smile, and it was one of her amazing smiles that he remembered so well—one of those smiles that warmed cold limbs and flooded the room with sunshine. Sighing happily, she put her dirty clothes on the floor and lay down again on the couch.
"I'm sorry I'm so sleepy," she said and yawned.
"Don't worry," he murmured. "Sleep. I'll be here."
He hesitated, then walked into her office with determined steps and fetched the parka. He laid it over her. The faux fur stirred a little when she breathed. Her blond hair spread out over the couch. Looking up at him with sleepy eyes, she smiled and huddled into the jacket, reminding him of his old favourite dreams, where she smiled up at him, just like this, from his pillow. But this was not the Bergljot of his dreams. This was a thin, anxious and foreign woman he wouldn't have looked at twice in the old days. Shaken, he got up to clean her dirty clothes, chasing the dark thoughts away. That night he worked in a frenzy, not wanting to think, until he finally collapsed next to the fire in the growing daylight. But sleep didn't come easily. He lay on the ground, staring at Bergljot. Her fair angel-curls hung over the edge of the couch.
When he awoke, Bergljot sat down on the ground next to him. She'd put on the parka. It was too big for her now, but she looked stunning, he reflected sleepily. She had gained a healthier colour in her cheeks. He smiled up at her.
"Why are you here, Mael?" She cocked her head, looking directly into his eyes.
"Why are you in this building?"
Mael bent over and coughed for a long time, his body shaking. When the coughing finally ceased, he sat up and cleared his throat. Bergljot was still watching him, her head tilted to one side, pity etched around her eyes.
"What do you mean?" he asked, his voice raspy. "Where else should I've been?"
"Have you been here all the time?" she asked.
"I felt I had to look after the place."
She looked at him, shaking her head.
"I just can't believe you are here."
She dipped her head so that he couldn't see her face. He studied her, sensing that something was wrong.
"Why are you here?" he finally asked, emphasizing the 'you'.
She looked up. "Oh, I dunno. Thought there was food or something here," she said and got up, stretching her body.
Mael wrinkled his forehead. She seemed so nervous. He stood up, towering over her. "Come," he said. "I want to show you something."
They climbed the broken stairs to the next floor and the main entrance. Once, it had been a magnificent room with a grey marble floor and walls of granite. He had chopped up the reception desk to make firewood. The only furniture left was the glass-walled cabinet. Inside, the golden trophy glinted in the meagre light.
"Yes. I found it in the director's office, so I put it back here," he said.
A list of names covered one side of the trophy. One spot was empty. They had not yet engraved Rune's name.
"I like to look at it."
"I wanted it ready for when you arrived."
"Since there was a mistake last time, I wanted to make sure there'd be no more mistakes."
"Since it was me who was supposed to have it, not Rune, I wanted to be sure the director would fix it when he returns and sees I've kept the place in order."
"Mael. The director is dead."
"Mael. They are all dead."
She paused, as if she was searching for words.
"Mael, have you been here the whole time?"
"Yes, I told you so."
"No, I wanted to stay here and look after the place until you came back."
He didn't like the way she looked at him. As if he was a little child.
"Mael, I don't know what to say. I don't know how to explain this to you so you'll understand."
She sighed. "You know the city has been destroyed?"
He nodded. Yes, he'd figured out that much.
"Well, it's not just the city. I think the whole world is destroyed." She looked at him expectantly, as if waiting for his reaction.
"I'm not sure what happened. People I've met talk about everything from asteroids and alien attacks to nuclear bombs and worldwide wars. We've lost contact with the world. All communication systems are down."
He didn't respond to this. Her eyes flickered. Mael touched her hair; she cringed and pulled away. Red-cheeked, she paced around the room, waving her hands as she spoke. She seemed agitated.
"People say that all the large cities are empty shells now. The buildings are damaged, the cars ruined. Very few people survived. They wander around, desperately searching for food. The horrible gangs controlling the roads have robbed and killed so many." She shuddered. "And the packs of dogs that roam the cities are killing people too. No place is secure anymore."
Mael only half listened. Thoughtful, he leaned against the wall, watching her. He wondered why he had waited for her for so long. She did have a beautiful smile. But that was all. Mael felt betrayed by this woman with her skin drawn tight over her cheek bones. After the first time, she hadn't bothered to brush her hair, even though he had given her a comb.
Bergljot said she had survived because she'd been in a basement when it happened. She only remembered intense lightning and a penetrating high-pitched sound. When she woke up, she had searched the streets for people she knew. She'd found some of them, all dead. Eventually she'd left the city for her parents' cabin in the woods. "I hoped they were there, but it was empty." Her eyes glistened. "Their pantry was still full of food. I stayed a long time. I only went to the city once in a while to search for more food.
"I don't know what I was thinking. I wanted to come back here. I thought maybe someone had survived. Someone I knew. I wanted to see my home. I wanted to see my workplace." She paused. "I wasn't expecting the office building to be still standing, but it is, and my key worked." She grinned and pointed. "I still had my key. Unbelievable, huh?" A rusty key dangled from a thread around her neck.
Mael studied her. He wasn't sure what to think. He understood now how she'd entered the building. He hadn't thought of that. There were a few doors into the basement and the first floor, but they were all locked. He chastised himself for not sealing them off too.
He frowned. Bergljot was clearly keeping a lot from him.
"Why were you in some basement? I was waiting for you here," he said.
She stopped pacing and looked at him for a long time. "Is that important?" she sighed. "I don't remember all the details. Rune invited a few of us from work to celebrate that he had received the Award. We took a cab to his house. They all died. Rune lived a few days. I was just lucky, I guess." She dipped her head, sad. "Poor Rune. Did you know we planned to marry?" Tears trickled down her cheeks.
Mael stared at her. His thoughts whirled. "So it was not a mistake then? I was not getting the Award?" he asked.
"No, Mael, you were never going to get the Award." Bergljot laughed hysterically. Mael thought it sounded mocking.
All the work he had done.
Margrét Helgadóttir is a Norwegian-Icelandic writer and editor from Oslo, Norway, who started writing fiction in English late 2012. She's got stories in several magazines and print anthologies. Her debut book is published by Fox Spirit Books late 2014.


For Your Next Date Night Look, Why Not Shake Off Those Gender Norms?
"I like the hat," Cate Blanchett's Carol character whispers to a smitten Rooney Mara, as the two would-be lovers lock eyes in a serious staring contest across a bustling department store in the seminal scenes of Todd Haynes's film, opening Friday. It's 1950s New York, the two heroines are most likely falling in love, and somehow the conversation has come back to . . . well, fashion. It seems appropriate enough: While exploring one's sexuality, a girl may start to experiment with and re-examine her wardrobe. And while fashion can hardly determine personal identity, it can certainly help us play with its construction, no? Look at the runways of Hood By Air and J.W.Anderson or films Blue Is the Warmest Color and Set It Off as proof that redressing gender expectations can be damn freeing.
Now your options are truly your own. You can keep it Dietrich cool in an all-black, no-frills ensemble of J Brand skinny jeans, a Saint Laurent button-up with a sleek tee layered underneath, and Christian Louboutin ankle boots to prepare you for the unexpected. Or lean heavily on menswear classics: Carhartt's wool scully, a Helmut Lang structured denim jacket, a pair of traditional Red Wing boots. And if your wardrobe isn't necessarily going through a huge shift, simply wear your heart on your chest with Andrea Fohrman's Technicolor rainbow pendant necklace, or stitch a cheeky Itchy Scratchy Patchy embroidered patch onto an otherwise unadorned T by Alexander Wang tee. It's the bold declaration that we've all been waiting for.


At Buffalo Wings and Rings, we love everything about wings. So, we made a promise way back in '84, when we served our very first wing, to give America the absolute finest wings, along with more sauce combinations and heat levels than ever before seen. Today, we still blend our signature sauces from our original recipes and make our homemade bleu cheese dressing fresh each morning. That's wing commitment. And our servers and staff want nothing more than to help you discover new tastes and flavor combinations. So whether its our famous wings and rings, the perfect beer pairing or BW&R's bold take on burgers, sandwiches and salads, Buffalo Wings & Rings is the kind of inviting place where friends and family like to get together, watch a game and share stories over the best wings and rings anywhere.


When I was growing up in Arroyo Hondo, a small village in Northern New Mexico, our family phone was the beacon to the outside world. When it rang, we answered it. There was no answering machine. Making a call took some effort as each number had to be pulled on the rotary dial, making a funny noise at it returned for the next number. Every call, in or out, was precious. We may have talked on the phone once or twice a week at the most, the rest of the time was spent running around outside, splashing in the creek, chasing each other with cactus spears, riding bikes, battling red ant piles, and running home with various wounds to mend.
My dad built our house on top of an old adobe with the Rio Hondo in our front yard and the wild mountains behind us. He and my mom courageously raised horses, kids, chickens, cats, dogs and goats. We were the first ones in my neighborhood with a television set, so my best friend would often spend the night and we'd wake at the crack of dawn to catch the morning cartoons. My mom forbid us to watch Tom and Jerry, claiming it was too violent. On school days we walked half a mile to catch the school bus to the old elementary school in lower Hondo, on the weekend we were building forts, riding bikes, or in the case of my sister, riding horses. The icing on the cake was the special treat of piling in my Dad's truck with my friends on a saturday night to go see Star Wars and Blade Runner at the drive-up movie theater. Yep, the Walmart lot used to be the outdoor theater and the plaza theater (hasn't been open for decades) was the "old school" cineplex.
Flash forward from Taos of the 1970's to Taos High school in 2018 where I am currently teaching UNM Taos Media Arts classes. Recently a student said to me, "Mr. I'm mad at you." "Why?" "Because you let your second period class use their phones and you're always cracking down on us!" I was surprised to hear this because I thought I had a pretty consistent "no-phones in class" policy. Turns out I was wrong. This student provided hard cold evidence to the contrary. She said, "Look, here you are on their snapchat photo from 2nd period" And these days you know what happens with juicy media…it gets shared. Not in a linear fashion but more like a instant spider web that gets big faster than you can reach out and grab it. We are long gone from the nostalgic days of rotary phones and film cameras!
I am accepting that this generation is indeed, glued to their smart phones. And obviously not only the kids. We all are! However, it seems to me, these high school students are the first generation to grow up sleeping with their phones under their pillows. Their brains, hearts, and minds have become fully attached to the magic and power of their devices. There does not seem to be any turning back. As one student told me, "Mr. I can't listen without my phone." Take it away from her and she will freeze and become incredibly confused.
I wanted to do an experiment and find out how far I could push the video production part of my class using smartphones. If I could never win the battle over attention, at least I could attempt to harness their incredible HD capabilities and supreme ease of use! During fall semester, students shot two short film projects. Out of fifty students, only two requested to check out traditional, hand-held cameras.
I went to work with another group and when I looked across the room at the cheer team, they all sat there on their individual phones, no group work, no collaboration, just individuals and their screens. I couldn't tell who was working on their video and who was texting, snapchatting or just playing games. And to make the situation more surreal, all of them were sitting in front of giant screens connected to amazingly powerful mac computers, completely unused! Five students isolated on five small screens, representing their own mini-universes.
I spoke with the girl who did the app editing and said "I need to see your movie rough-draft edits on the computer." "Why???" She looked at me like I was from Mars. "Because this is a computer with powerful editing software and a big screen!" I thought it was obvious. "Why do I need a computer when I have my phone???" Honest question. I was caught of guard, she was right in many ways. I was at a loss what to say. Fortunately I was saved by the bell and the students went rushing out of class, phones in hand.
I had a few days to think through this new dilemma. I had opened a can of worms. Yes, I was happy to have them all be able to film on their smart phones, saves me the logistical troubles of bringing in cameras and all the accessories. However, now the phones are always on and they always have the excuse that they are editing. Ya right!
So I came up with an idea. They must take whatever they shoot & edit on their phones and get it onto the computer and screens so I can do a draft review with them. They grumbled and moaned at the new task and asked, "how dow we get it from our phone onto the computer?" "Figure it out. Use your cable, blue-tooth it, email it, upload it to youtube, download it. Whatever it takes. Just get it there!".
Once on the big screen all the flaws are apparent and I can give them editing tips, and ways to improve their project. It is another battle to teach them that the first draft does not mean finished. It takes multiple rounds of hawk eyes and bat ears to polish a strong video.
When it was time for the oral stories to be told, one student said, "Hey Mr! You should put a campfire on the computer!" Brilliant idea! Within seconds I googled "campfire video HD", and connected it to the massive Apple TV built into the front wall of my classroom. The speakers are surround-sound built into the ceiling, so each student got to stand with a huge roaring fire behind them and the crackling sounds permeating down onto their pineal glands as they told their stories!
So for all of you reading this…please stay tuned as we remember generationally-told, oral stories and mix them through our media editing lab. I'm confident some excellent stories will come out the other end. In my dream we would build a giant bonfire (a real one), and project the movies (shot mostly on phones of course) onto a huge outdoor screen. Inviting the entire taos community to come share the tradition of Taos storytelling which is alive and well with a digital twist and a much shorter attention span.


Platelet-rich plasma therapy is a procedure that is becoming pretty popular in effective treatment for pain relief.
Dr. Michael Monfett of Skyline Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation one of many New York pain doctors specializing in Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy is located in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.
Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) is blood plasma with concentrated platelets of a patients own blood. Theses concentrated platelets contain growth factors that stimulates tissue healing and renewal.
PRP therapy is used as a treatment for conditions like arthritis, tendon injuries, and ligament injuries.
Platelet Rich Plasma Injections For Chronic Pain Relief May Help You Avoid Surgery.
PRP therapy has become quite popular among athletes and individuals suffering musculoskeletal injuries.
Arthritis (disorder most commonly affects joints in your hands, knees, hips and spine).
Joint pain (Pain within the joint is a common cause of shoulder pain, ankle pain, and knee pain).
The procedure usually takes about an hour and most of the time is separating the platelet-rich plasma from your blood sample. The procedure is performed with the patient awake. The PRP may be injected with a numbing agent.
The procedure is performed by drawing blood from a patient, placing it in a centrifuge (a machine with a rapidly rotating container that applies centrifugal force to its contents, typically to separate fluids of different densities.) to separate the platelets from the rest of the blood components. The concentrated Platelets are tiny blood cells are then directly injected into the injured area of tissue.
The "rich" platelets contain multiple growth factors that can stimulate new tissue growth. Some of these factors include transforming growth factor, connective tissue growth factor, epidermal growth factor, and vascular growth factor. These growth factors recruit new cells to the area to stimulate healing.


Oman Cement plans to invest in a new cement mill with a design capacity of 150tph. Mr Abdullah Abbas Ahmed chairman of the Board of Directors said that tender documents for consultancy services as well as the Engineering-Procurement Construction contract are due to be floated by the 2Q of this year.
The announcement comes on the heels of the completion of Oman Cement's third clinker line which will boost the company's total clinker production capacity by 4000tpd.
Trial production and commissioning of the new facility built with an investment of OMR62.7m is underway with performance guarantee tests due to be carried out during the current quarter.
Last month, the company signed contracts for a capacity upgrade of Kiln 1 along with the refurbishment of the kiln's pollution control systems. Both upgrades, entailing an investment of OMR14.27m will be completed by April 2012.


text:
Q: Compare my software's representation of exponential numbers and 0? Suppose I have a real number
$$
x=\sum_{i=1}^n a_i e^{\lambda_i}
$$
where $a_i,\lambda_i$s are complex algebraic numbers.
Is there an algorithm to determine whether it is greater than 0 or less than 0?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The 991.5 Made in UK shoe features a 991 upper on a 1500 sole to deliver a modern approach to classic style. The traditional silhouette honors New Balance's beginning while fresh colors combined with premium materials offers a modern take on weekend wear.
Made in our Flimby factory, the 991.5 Made in UK is crafted with the style and premium comfort that define a true classic. Sneaker also features ENCAP technology for superior support and durability.


U.S. stock futures rise slightly, European shares are mostly higher and Asian markets end mixed ahead of a policy statement from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday afternoon.
1. -- U.S. stock futures rose slightly, European shares were mostly higher and Asian markets ended mixed ahead of a policy statement from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday afternoon.
Expectations are that central bank officials will keep rates on hold this month.
London's FTSE 100 rose 0.2%. Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.8% and the Shanghai Composite Index in China rose 0.2%.
Benchmark U.S. crude rose 2.2% to $37.13 a barrel early Wednesday.
2. -- The economic calendar in the U.S. Wednesday includes the Consumer Price Index for February at 8:30 a.m. EDT, Housing Starts and Building Permits for February at 8:30 a.m., Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization for February at 9:15 a.m., Crude Inventories for the week ended March 12 at 10:30 a.m., and the interest rates decision from the Federal Open Market Committee at 2 p.m.
3. -- U.S. stocks on Tuesday dipped into the red for much of the day but came off of lows in the afternoon session. The S&P 500 finished down 0.19%, and the Nasdaq slid 0.45%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average turned slightly positive, closing up 0.13%.
Investors remained trigger-shy Tuesday, waiting for Wednesday's announcement from the Federal Reserve that's expected to offer clues on the pace and timing of interest-rate changes.
4. -- Hillary Clinton triumphed Tuesday in the Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and Illinois presidential primaries, putting her in a commanding position to win the Democratic Party nomination. Donald Trump had a big win in Florida but fell in Ohio to that state's governor, John Kasich.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio ended his campaign after a devastating home-state loss. The GOP primary is now down to three candidates: Trump, Kasich and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
Trump also picked up wins in North Carolina and Illinois.
5. -- London Stock Exchange Group (LNSTY and Deutsche Boerse (DBOEY finalized a merger agreement to unite under a holding company worth close to $30 billion.
It will be 54.4% owned by shareholders of the German partner. Deutsche Boerse CEO Carsten Kengeter will lead the merged company.
The merged company's headquarters will remain in London and Frankfurt.
6. -- Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler is likely to circulate a draft order as soon as this week approving Charter Communications' (CHTR - Get Report) $55 billion deal to buy Time Warner Cable (TWC with certain conditions, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The order would impose a number of conditions on the transaction, many of them aimed at boosting online video as a competitor to cable, the Journal noted. One condition would bar Charter from including clauses in its pay-TV contracts that restrict a content company's ability to offer its programming online or to new entrants, the people told the Journal.
7. -- Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG - Get Report) is considering stepping back from some of the food-safety changes it touted just a month ago in the wake of a series of disease outbreaks, the Journal reported.
Chipotle last month said it was conducting high-resolution DNA-based testing of many ingredients. Now, the company is considering dialing back or eliminating pathogen testing on some ingredients, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Chipotle said Tuesday that sales plunged 26.1% in February, compared to a 36.4% nosedive in January. According to Chipotle, sales began to recover on Feb. 8 after it started to text digital coupons to customers in an attempt to regain their trust following several food safety incidents.
8. -- Oracle (ORCL - Get Report) , the software maker, reported fiscal third-quarter adjusted earnings of 64 cents a share, 2 cents above analysts' expectations.
Revenue was $9.01 billion for the quarter, below estimates of $9.12 billion.
Sales of key cloud products rose 57% in the quarter to $583 million.
The company said its board authorized additional repurchases of $10 billion of common stock under an existing share repurchase program.
9. -- Moody's cut Valeant Pharmaceuticals' (VRX credit rating deeper into junk territory after the company on Tuesday posted fourth-quarter results that missed profit expectations, slashed its 2016 financial forecasts, and said it's technically in danger of defaulting on its debt.
10. -- Earnings are expected Wednesday from FedEx (FDX - Get Report) , Jabil Circuit (JBL - Get Report) , Williams-Sonoma (WSM - Get Report) and Guess (GES - Get Report) .


Fill your drawers: Can you stock up on stationery, postage and courier bags before 31 March? Claim now and save.
Audit reviews by Inland Revenue (IR) can happen to you at any time and can result in unplanned professional fees. Audit Shield Protection can pay the fees for you.
Trustees need to manage beneficiaries' expectations on what they are entitled to from the trust and how and when they will receive it.
Are you planning a Christmas event for your clients? Is gift-giving on your to-do list?


Hi guys! Long time no see.
Mabe some people have started new life. Others have just set out commonplace your life. For me, new school season has beguan today.
What's your goal or aspiration of this year?
I have a lots of ambitions, but my ultimate goal is to enter university,which I want to attend.


text:
Home » NGPC News » Mountain lion kills goat near Chadron
Mountain lion kills goat near Chadron
Justin Haag July 17, 2018	Leave a comment
CHADRON, Neb. – Nebraska Game and Parks Commission officials have confirmed that a male mountain lion killed a domestic goat near Chadron in Dawes County.
The goat's owner contacted Game and Parks officials July 16 after finding the dead animal. That day, Game and Parks biologists examined the carcass and its surroundings. The condition of the carcass and presence of nearby mountain lion evidence suggested a high probability that one of the big cats was responsible.
The landowner and Game and Parks officials worked together to identify and euthanize the cat July 17 in accordance with the agency's Mountain Lion Response Plan. Game and Parks is working with the landowner on practices to lessen the risk of future depredation.
"In Nebraska, people are allowed to protect themselves and their livestock from immediate threats from mountain lions," said Alicia Hardin, wildlife division administrator for the Commission. "In cases of confirmed depredation, Game and Parks will assist in euthanizing the mountain lion upon the owner's request."
This is the fourth confirmed case of livestock depredation in Nebraska by a mountain lion since the species' confirmed presence in the state in 1991. In addition to the latest case, the confirmations consist of a calf in Blaine County in 2014, a calf in Sheridan County in 2017, and two goats in Dawes County in 2017.
In June, Game and Parks commissioners approved a hunting season for mountain lions in the Pine Ridge that aims to lower mountain lion densities — a response to public concerns and Commission research. The season is scheduled Jan. 1-Feb. 28, 2019.
More information about mountain lions in Nebraska may be found at outdoornebraska.org/mountainlions.
Justin Haag
About Justin Haag
Justin Haag has served the Commission as a public information officer in the Panhandle since 2013. His duties include serving as regional editor for NEBRASKAland Magazine. Haag was raised in southwestern Nebraska, where he developed a love for fishing, hunting and other outdoor pursuits. After earning a bachelor's degree in journalism from Chadron State College in 1996, he worked four years as an editor and reporter at newspapers in Chadron and McCook. Prior to joining the Commission in 2013, he worked 12 years as a communicator at Chadron State, serving as the institution's media and public relations coordinator the last five. He and his wife, Cricket, live in Chadron, and have two children.
@Nebland_Haag
Previous Crofton's Dam Race July 28 is unique triathlon at Lewis and Clark Lake SRA
Next Schedule shortened for re-enactments at Fort Robinson
Purchase big game permits beginning Aug. 5
Cooper, Oettinger win state high school fishing tournament
Be wary of limited access at recreation, wildlife areas
LINCOLN, Neb. – Access at many state recreation and wildlife management areas may be limited …


Rebecca is an experienced Environmental Consultant who works closely with developers and contractors to author, review and deliver technical reports and Environmental Statements, and to provide environmental advice on infrastructure projects. She has worked on wind farm developments across the UK including single turbines, multi-turbine planning applications and Section 36 applications. Rebecca has also worked on major transport projects including the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (AWPR), Forth Replacement Crossing (FRC) and the Edinburgh to Glasgow Improvement Project (EGIP).
Furthermore, Rebecca is a trained CEEQUAL Assessor, and has advised the Contractors on their CEEQUAL assessment of the design and build phase for the FRC project.


text:
1. Fork and clone the repo.
2. Run `npm install`.
3. Create a new branch, please don't work in your `master` branch directly.
4. Open a file in the `src` folder.
5. Make your changes. (Please don't edit files in the `dist` folder.)
6. Update the tests and check console output. Tests should run automatically whenever you save a file. If this is not the case, use `gulp test` command to run them manually.
7. Update the documentation to reflect any changes.
8. Push to your fork and submit a pull request.

## Code style
Please follow [airbnb conventions](https://github.com/airbnb/javascript). Here is a quick reference;

* Use semicolons;
* Commas last,
* 2 spaces for indentation (no tabs)
* Prefer `'` over `"`
* `'use strict';`
* 80 characters line length
* No trailing spaces.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Posts Tagged 'Tech'
Those Flying Boats Fight The CO2 Catastrophe
California, while burning, in a never seen before way, builds (some) electric cars and installs a significant solar electric production capability. However, there are other ways to advance the struggle for more ecological tech. Competing sailboats is one way.
A competition of sailboats is organized from Saint Malo, France, to Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, every four years. It's open to all transoceanic sailboat categories, "ultimes", multi-hulls, monohulls IMOCA, etc… as long as there is only one person on board. Prizes are attributed in each classification category.
Up to four years ago, the fastest boats were giant trimarans. Now, no more. A new, even faster category, has blossomed: enormous flying maxi-trimarans, known as "Ultimes". Other boats also fly onto of foils, including monohulls…
Banque Populaire Flying Giant Trimaran flying at the start of Route du Rhum… Against the wind… Notice it leaves little wake, relative to the motor boats escorting it. The same boat left floater, high up in the air in this picture, would tear apart in a storm at 70 km/h, a few thousand kilometers later…
An object in a liquid is slowed down by friction, all along the hull. If one can reduce the surface of the object rubbing against the liquid, one can go faster. Thus the Ultimes rise above water on wings (which fly inside the water). 16 tons of boat rest on just a total of 4 square meters of foils. (Wings can be much smaller in water, and enable to fly at much lower speeds, as water is 1,000 times denser than air…)
So what? What's the wisdom to be extracted from all this tech avalanche?
Well, we, humanity, are a tech avalanche. No tech, no wisdom. Or then just that of an orangutan.
Ah, yes, we are killing the planet.
It's going to get way worse, in the next decades, as the man-made CO2 climate catastrophe enfolds. Predictable and predicted! Picture by author, last January, Tahoe:
https://patriceayme.wordpress.com/2018/01/10/climate-catastrophe-california-forests-dying-giant-fires-coming-in-2018/
Maritime transport is one of the main sources of CO2 pollution.
The technology developed by these (mostly) French boats could be applied to cargo boats 10,000 times heavier.
Same flying boat in action, foils in evidence.
Nothing to smirk at: the sailboats can fly at 80 kilometers an hour (50 mph), using just the wind. Not just pushed by the wind, but even zigzagging into the wind.
It's not without risks: the "ultime" Banque Populaire IX (pictured) lost its left floater, while in a storm, in the middle of the Atlantic, and immediately capsized. Shortly before that, it was flying with minimal sails at 70 kilometer and hour, in five meters seas. (A fisher boat recovered the captain, an expert capsizer, and brought him to Portugal, two days of motorboat away.)
At least two other flying boats capsized because of storms in the same race, one, skippered by a British sailor hit rocks off Guadeloupe shortly before the end. Alex Thomson, who placed second and third prior in the Vendee-Globe, solo around the world race, had forgotten to charge his shockwatch. So he overslept in his 20 minutes sleep, and got woken up when his boat hits the rocks. Thomson was leading in the monohull category, and was in fourth place overall behind two ultimes and one multihull. The international jury gave him a 24 hour penalty for using his motor to extract himself from the reefs…) Another boat captained by the Normande Claire Pruvot was hit by a cargo ship which recovered her 45 minutes later…
Overall, the death rate of these sailing adventures is now very low. Capsizing has become a well mastered art, with insubmersible boats, and immediate alerts. It was not always this way: the famed solo sailor Alain Colas disappeared on the same Route du Rhum, 40 years ago, while leading it. His boat, then the world's most advanced multihull, could sink, it was made of metaL, and sink it did. Colas' last message, in a terrible storm, was that he was surrounded by mountains of water.
The reason sailboat tech has not been applied much in large transport has been mostly political, as usual. Maritime transport was long excluded from pollution rules, thus used the very worst oil residue refineries produced… this is the highly polluting "bunker" fuel. Rotating sails can be used (they exploit the fact that if wind slips faster on one side of an object, a low pressure occurs, just as where the wind slows down, so molecules pack up, and higher pressure happens. This is why rotating balls have curving trajectories.) Rotating sails enable at least 10% savings.
Investing massively in wind tech for major boats has an element of risk, so government should help. Northern Europe has mandated stricter pollution rules.
Recently a giant cruise ship, the largest in the world, made in France, berthed in Marseilles, France. It was computed that it polluted as much as two million cars, that is of the order of the entire Provence region of France.
Air transport will also have to be improved, with electricity (hybrid planes, recharging while descending, etc.) Yes, that depends upon batteries. But, as with antibiotics, much more public research investment have to be done. One can't just let private companies do it all. The rumor has it that Samsung has improved battery tech considerably with graphene (charging in minutes, and with 40% more energy storage). Right, graphene was discovered thanks to government research funding. But more public funding is needed.
A 62 year old Frenchman, Francis Joyon, won the Route du Rhum this year. A few miles from the end, his boat was just a few boat lengths away from Gabart, a young sailing and engineering genius who had been 200 nautical miles ahead earlier on. But Gabart's most modern boat was "broken", with a missing foil on the right, and a missing safran on the left. The competition was nearly delayed, because the storms piling up in the Atlantic were so numerous and so nasty (still another consequence of the climate catastrophe).
Francis Joyon of France set a new record time for the 3,542-nautical mile Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe solo transatlantic race from Saint Malo in Brittany to Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe. At the helm of the maxi-trimaran IDEC Sport, Joyon completed the solo race in seven days, 14 hours and 21 minutes, beating the existing course record by just 46 minutes and 45 seconds (Gabart and Joyon mostly slowed down by storms; the other four ultimes were damaged, or capsized, although two restarted after repairs over a few days in Spain).
That Frenchman Joyon holds the around-the-world world record in a sailboat; less than 41 days (with a team)… It was his seventh participation in that competition, and his first win… Gabart, and many others, wants foils to be controlled automatically in real time: it will allow the boats to fly more safely and better. Right now regulations forbid automatic wing adjustments (although they are central to modern aviation… The reason is that it will cost money to have adaptive foils, and that will advantage the wealthiest, and that's seen as unfair by the competition authorities at this point. Joyon won with an older "Ultime"; the three most recent "ultimes" broke, although Gabart was able to cross the Atlantic with his "broken boat"…)
Gabart's MACIF boat flying. Gabart placed second with MACIF, seven minutes behind Joyon. MACIF had lost its left wing… Those boats can sustain 70 km/h in 5 meters seas…
High tech moguls from Silicon Valley informed me years ago (before Elon Musk), that only software was really high-tech (Musk is changing that perfectly dumb perspective). The rest of tech was obsolete, they reckoned. Material high-tech was not high-tech, according to those mentally deficient characters obsessed by software. But software without hardware can't exist, and they progress together. Flying sailboats use ever more electronics, and will probably soon use active flying surface, quite a bit similar to those the BFR, the Big Falcon Rocket of Elon Musk's SpaceX plans to use when re-entering the atmosphere at 11 kilometers per second…
Tags:Flying boats, Foils, Route du Rhum, Sailing, Solo, Tech
Posted in Sports, Technology | 11 Comments »
Very Ancient Relationships
NO SISYPHUS: OF WOLVES, NEANDERTHALS, TECH & HOPE AS MOST HUMAN
Does it matter for tomorrow's philosophy what Neanderthals aspired to do and succeeded to do, 100,000 years ago? Yes. Why? Because it helps us figuring out the human condition, our condition.
We are, in particular, trying to make intelligent, cooperative machines to serve us, just as Neanderthals artificially selected wolves into kind beings to serve us.
Paleontology, is a field where knowledge is progressing by leaps, bonds, and revolutions. To wit, the recent discovery in Ethiopia, of a different species of hominid contemporary of the famous "Lucy" (Australopithecus Afarensis). That new hominid is (more) in the direct line of Homo… And is associated to the oldest tools ever found (3.3 million years old).
To come back to the wolf domestication story: it seems, to me, to say much more, very clearly. First, wolf domestication is part of technologization (a neologism). Dogs were the science fiction robots of new tech, 100,000 years ago.
Second, it is striking that dogs were evolved, by artificial selection, from EUROPEAN wolves. This has momentous philosophical consequences on the human condition.
The chronology is clear. The Goyet dog (at least 31,000 years old, maybe 36,000 years) was clearly very evolved, artificially, away from the original EUROPEAN wolves (it was very physiologically different from a wolf).
Striking conclusion? The Goyet dog had to have come from a very old linage. Wolves were domesticated by European Neanderthals (there were Neanderthals, and African wolves, in Africa… little known facts).
So we are left pondering the Neanderthals, symbolic of humanity's fate. Neanderthals were the first to burn coal (73,000 years ago, in present-day France). this is when we started to reach for the stars…
https://patriceayme.wordpress.com/2014/04/27/neanderthal-superiority
The oldest art found now seems to go way back to Homo Erectus.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/12/141203-mussel-shell-oldest-art/
Homo Sapiens Neanderthalis was, apparently, mentally superior: why did other human subspecies not domesticate their local wolves? How could that be? From the fact Neanderthals lived in the hardest, subarctic environment. Technology enabled them to do so. Technology was not just pants and coal, it was also dogs. Thus need forced excellence. More hardships led to more humanity!
When the going gets tough, the tough gets techie. By opting for dogs and coal, 100,000 years ago, Neanderthals showed us the way.
If Neanderthals were so superior, how come that they disappeared? Well, first they did not really disappear: Neanderthal genes are found all the way to the southern tip of Africa (!).
Secondly, I have engineered a sophisticate Neanderthal sort-of-disappearance theory, which is purely mathematical, considering how the smaller body masses of Homo SS from Africa would advantage their reproduction during climate change (when it's known Neanderthals got swamped by Homo SS).
Details are found in:
https://patriceayme.wordpress.com/2013/03/14/why-did-neanderthals-disappear/
So what of the myth of Sisyphus?
Maybe it applied to Camus. Some people are their private hells. However, Sisyphus does not apply to the human condition in general, something stronger than ever, four million years after setting itself on its journey of hope.
And now for Paul Handover's essay!
My relationship with Pharaoh has echoes of much earlier times.
This is a post that was originally published by Learning from Dogs back in July 2012!
It seemed so fitting to repost it this week. Not only in recognition of my dear Pharaoh's birthday yesterday, but also in recognition of all the dogs and their loving human companions since time immemorial. What magnificent creatures they are.
The woof at the Door.
The grandeur of the ancient relationship between dog and man.
A couple of weeks ago, I came across a fascinating article that had been published in American Scientist magazine (online version) written by Professor Pat Shipman. The article provided the background and evidence to support the proposition that dogs may have been man's best friend for thousands of years longer than we realized.
Very quickly I came across Pat Shipman's website and learnt that this is one clever lady…
Tags:Neanderthals, Tech, Wolves
Posted in Biology, civilization., Evolution, Roots of Civilization, Uncategorized | 10 Comments »
Tech, Science, Thinking, Stalled By Plutocracy
TECH STALLED BECAUSE SO IS SCIENCE, & THINKING, AS OUR MASTERS DESIRE
Technology, Energy, Science, Economy all entangled, & Stalled:
Some have observed tech is bringing up more hype than progress: we did not get flying cars, but 140 characters. Productivity is stagnating. The Internet hype led a devolution of thinking, for all to see. Some sites seem popular, mostly because they induce a parody of thinking (even on "academic" sites).
Against the will to stupidity, genius roars in vain.
So much of the "high Tech" is not truly high tech, or at least new tech. It's no big deal, indeed. The "high tech" monopolies, with their "big data" will allow to make with robots what our ancestors used to have with domesticated animals (an ass, horse, or an ox are clever, and respond to voice commands, like the day after tomorrow's robots).
There is not enough financing of the possible avenues of futuristic research. Here is one:
Real high tech would mean progress in energy production: this is the core of what defines our species. An obvious possibility, indeed, is thermonuclear fusion. H-Bombs work splendidly, and are very small. Making a thermonuclear engine has been difficult, but propulsion in space could turn around a lot of the difficulty we presently have.
Krugman noticed some of this in "The Big Meh" [I sent wise comments, therefore all censored by the New York Times; the Times later sent me kindly an unsolicited letter to justify its censorship; there is no excuse: the New York Times should not censor serious and cogent comments, this is a misuse of technology].
Krugman: "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"… began with some technology snark, dismissing Earth as a planet whose life-forms "are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea."… Since then we've moved on to much more significant things, so much so that the big technology idea of 2015, so far, is a digital watch…
O.K., I'm snarking, too. But there is a real question here. Everyone knows that we live in an era of incredibly rapid technological change, which is changing everything. But what if what everyone knows is wrong? And I'm not being wildly contrarian here. A growing number of economists, looking at the data on productivity and incomes, are wondering if the technological revolution has been greatly overhyped — and some technologists share their concern."
We evolved as a technological species: weapon and tool usage precedes the apparition of Homo:
Technology preceded the apparition of Homo Erectus, two million years ago. So we can only conclude that technology, and its attached science, and scientific method, created the ecological niche in which Homo, even homo Erectus, evolved.
The fundamental evolutionary niche our very distant ancestors, pre-Homo Erectus, chose was to improve the quantity and quality of energy at our disposal. They went to explore, far from trees and cliffs, armed with stone tools and weapons, with a bias towards a much more carnivorous diet.
Technology and science are us. This is as human as we get. That does not mean anything goes. Just, that's how humanity gets going.
Thus, our very evolution is entangled with our mastery of energy. Neanderthals used coal (lignite!) already 80,000 years ago. When our ancestors learned to domesticate animals and then invented agriculture, we improved our mastery of energy considerably. In the last 2,000 years, wood was progressively replaced by fossil fuels.
However, fossil fuels have become unsustainable. It is not just that they have put so much CO2 in the lower atmosphere, warming it, melting the ice, rising the seas, and into the ocean, making it acid.
The Return On Investment (ROI) of fossil fuels is now terrible. Major oil companies do not make much profits on new fields: they cost too much to find and exploit. Fracking makes money, but only because the states, and others, pay the price. Remember: 5.3 trillion dollars of fossil fuel subsidies out there.
However progress in economic matters is all about ROI in energy. Without energy we have no food, no shelter, we die.
We don't have flying cars because we did not improve our mastery of energy as much as that would require (the very first plane, part of a French military program, did not fly very far: it used a heavy steam plant; shortly after, the internal combustion engine allowed to take-off more clearly; right now Airbus sells an electric plane, and intents to develop that technology much further).
Fundamental progress in energy technology has been stalled by lack of advances in fission, fusion, and batteries. Only solar photovoltaics is making really spectacular progress.
This stalling of major technological progress where it counts, in energy management is why society, and the planet, are threatened. This stalling is directly related to a dearth of fundamental research funding, itself related to the rise of a non-tax paying plutocracy. We are in whirlpool of disaster, and the greed of an oligarchy is its nature.
P/S: Latest News: Amazon Inc. just announced it would stop hiding its European profits in Luxembourg, and would set-up tax paying subsidiaries in various countries: it was threatened by incoming British and French laws. However, skepticism is widespread about the fine print in Amazon's proposal…
The future was not stalled in the past: Contrarily to what happened around the era from, say, 1900 to 1970, when many futuristic technologies were researched; the USA operated nuclear rocket engines, France flew a "statoreacteur" ("ramjet") plane, etc.; the inception of motorized flight, from the French steam plane, all the way to jet engines, took around 50 years!
Tags:Big Meh, Homo, Homo Erectus, Krugman, plutocracy, Research, Science, Stalling, Tech
Posted in Education, Research, Systems Of Thought, Taxes, Technology | 17 Comments »