text:
A Response To People Who Think Protesting Is Useless
by Elvera Gurevich James Madison Jan 18, 2017
publicintelligence.net
The dinner table may not always be the best place to discuss politics, but as a student living away from home, it may be the only time to talk with your family about your values and political issues. While I was home for the weekend, I was telling my parents about my interest in attending the Women's March On Washington this Saturday, January 21, and my mom asked me an intriguing question.
She said, "Growing up in the Soviet Union, I was taught to never speak out against the government. Donald Trump is going to be president whether you like it or not, what's the point of protesting?"
So, here's my answer.
It's one of the most American things you can do.
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects our rights to freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and the right to peacefully assemble. These rights were established to challenge our government and ensure that the voice of the people will always be louder than the voice of the party in power.
Actions speak louder than words.
It's fairly easy to ignore marginalized groups when all they do is talk. However, it is virtually impossible to ignore thousands of people, physically marching in solidarity, for ideas and concerns that they feel are important in American society.
I can and will speak for others.
I identify with a number of marginalized groups as well as privileged groups in American society. Not everyone feels confident or able to speak out for what they believe, but I do. Therefore, it is my responsibility to take action for those who cannot.
Activism and policy change cannot occur in hindsight.
Often, it is difficult to "see the point" until something has changed. It is up to us to stand up for what we believe in and be part of the catalyst that drives that change.
We cannot remain silent.
We must always challenge the status quo in our nation and across the world. As Elie Wiesel said, "Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim." Without protests, women would not vote, our schools would still be segregated, and our friends in the LGBT community would not be able to marry the ones that they love.
I encourage all of my readers to stand firm in what they believe and when they see something that is unjust to them to take action.
Be the change you wish to see in the world.
Cover Image Credit: publicintelligence.net
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'I'm going to start practicing social media distancing' | Seb Tanti Burlo
Among the many cultural casualties of covid-19 was Seb Tanti Burlo's exhibition 'Other Places: Because Let's Face It We've Fucked This One', which was set to show off the political cartoonist's more wistful side before the artist and curator Ann Dingli decided to pre-emptively postpone the opening in the interests of public safety. He sits down at a safe distance from TEODOR RELJIC to talk about how the pieces set to be shown carry an added resonance in these quarantined times
by Teodor Reljic
The paintings forming part of Seb Tanti Burlo's 'Other Places' series are made up of imaginary fragments of various places the artist had visited in the past
Now that social distancing has led to the closure of the planned 'Other Places' exhibition, would you say that the wistful escapism inherent in the works becomes all the more poignant? With even less fantastical places becoming forcefully 'othered', do you see the potential for the works slated for this exhibit to resonate even deeper?
Possibly. I may have created these Other Places as a reaction to the fact that I do not particularly like the world we've created for ourselves. Exasperated inequality, short term and myopic infrastructural upgrades, wasteful construction and a horrible dependency on one of the stupidest economic drivers: tourism. Now that people are forced to sit with themselves through self or forced quarantined in their homes, they may begin to come to terms with the fact that maybe the flat they took out a back-breaking loan to purchase ain't really worth it, or actually makes their quality of life worse than they previously thought. But they may also just not even bother and enjoy their L-shaped sofa they bought from IKEA while wasting away in front of Netflix or social media. Personally, I think I'm going to start practicing some good ol' fashioned social media distancing.
You're best known for your satirical cartoons on national media. Was 'Other Places' something of a holiday from all that?
No, not a holiday. Perhaps more a revisiting of a younger self. Or another self. I suppose the work, although different to my satirical and political cartoons that are published in the media, dip into the same ink well from which they're born. Other Places deals with the same issues and problems I deal with in my cartoons, only expressed in a different form. My satirical work is reactionary in its nature. It stems from journalism and current events – it's a social commentary about a specific moment in time. Other Places is similar as its scenes are reactionary pieces too. Escapist or confrontational, they are places that will never be, but places that I hope to see.
Seb Tanti Burlo. Photo by Simon Tanti Burlo
Walk us through the actual process of coming up with and designing these 'other places'. What took precedence as you were thinking them up? Was it the actual architecture and geography, or more of a general mood or atmosphere?
I wouldn't say there was an actual process to creating the works. Some of these places illustrated in the series have been sitting in my head for some time – they were just waiting for something to bring them out. That something was the paper they're painted on. Old government issue typewriter paper. A little longer and narrower than a A4 sheet, yellowish with age, flimsy and translucent, with encircled GM water marks over the surface.
I found a stack of them. I drew a line across one with a black ink drafting pen, I liked the way the paper took the ink – clean crisp line, no bleeding. Offhandedly, I ran a brush busting with water colour to remove the excess water and, again, I liked the result. Thin washes of watercolour opened up fairytale landscapes and the thicker application of the colour (to which the paper handled remarkably, to my surprise) allowed me to paint in stark detail.
The architecture and geography within this series of work are parameters painted in to tell a story. All the buildings and surroundings are taken from different countries I've travelled to. Places I've seen and experienced. The fairy tale atmosphere of the paintings was dictated by the paper, I simply went along with the story.
What were the appealing, perhaps even escapist, characteristics that most clearly motivated you to come up with these other places? What are they 'other' to, exactly?
Yes, escaping from this place into these paintings was appealing. I guess that's why I created them. I got to escape this world and sit down in my studio at my desk, listening to whatever I wanted to, and forget about the world outside me while getting lost in drawing ancient steps or painting leaves on some forgotten tree temple.
Whereas at the same time I am drawing everything from the same reality I am escaping. The vernacular architecture is stolen from scenes I've encountered here and there, and landscapes tweaked and exaggerated (or not) to create these Other Places, which when distilled, belong to this place only to be seen in different lights. Are the scenes other to this or other to that? I don't know, they're just other places.
The paintings forming part of Seb Tanti Burlo's 'Other Places' series
What do you make of the local visual arts scene? What would you change about it?
I suppose there is a scene in as much as there are people that meet up, exchange ideas with each other, drink and dance together, argue amongst ourselves. That's a scene I guess.What's to change? The scene is what the scene is at any given moment in time and all I can do is throw my work into the mix. Plus with such luminary characters as Jose Herrera, Jason Micallef and Phyllis Muscat leading the government's cultural institutions, the visual scene is bright: a carnival of colour. If there is a scene, it is I suppose fragmented, albeit packed with talented individuals both local and foreign.
With the covid-19 pandemic set to stretch into indefinite months, what role do you think artists have to play in bringing comfort, support and enlightenment to the wider population?
I don't presume to know what an artist's role is on a 'normal' day, let alone during this pandemic. All I can offer is that anyone professing to being an artist knows that their art stems from their own examination of life around them, and that there is something (within me at least) that compels me to mark these observations – be it through drawing, painting, writing – and in other people's cases – song, music, dance, film. So as long as there is life there will be someone who will examine that life from their point of view and try in their own way to create something.
And if they are compelled like me (from some form of twisted hubris), they will share their work. This may indeed enlighten, comfort and support the wider population, but it could and should also make people feel uncomfortable, question themselves and prod.
But, yes, if I can make somebody laugh at these trying times or bring some form of enlightenment then I guess… job well done.
"Something simple that's been happening for centuries: if you like an artist and you've got the capital, then become a patron to that artist"
But there's also the matter of artists needing to support themselves while they work. What kind of positive structural changes (institutional, social, cultural) would you hope to see once the current crisis abates?
How should I know? I just paint and draw. I desperately do not want to deal with these issues. There are many people who fetishise over controlling and setting up these aspects about art, I don't want to have anything to do with it.
Something simple that's been happening for centuries: if you like an artist and you've got the capital, then become a patron to that artist. Stop buying expensive white Audi SUVs, you wankers, and buy art!
Teodor Reljić was born in Belgrade, Serbia and raised in Malta. He writes fiction across ...
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This course provides an overview of policy development within the context of the larger society. The particular policy area covered will depend on the area of expertise of the professor but may include one or more of the following areas: (1) health; (2) children''s and family services; and (3) employment. * This course may be cross-listed with a policy course in the Social Work master''s program.


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Whistleblower complaint about President Trump delivered to Congress
Posted 11:05 PM, September 25, 2019, by CNN Wire
A whistleblower's complaint about President Donald Trump's communications with Ukraine will be delivered Wednesday afternoon to Capitol Hill for lawmakers to review, Sen. John Cornyn said.
A whistleblower's complaint about President Donald Trump's communications with Ukraine was hand delivered Wednesday afternoon to Capitol Hill, giving lawmakers their first chance to see the classified account that spurred Democrats to launch a formal impeachment inquiry.
Democrats reading the document, which is available to lawmakers in two secure facilities, one in each chamber, say it backs up their commitment to their investigation. Rep. Chris Stewart, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said on Twitter late Wednesday night that the complaint had been declassified but the document was not immediately available publicly.
The move came just hours after the White House released a rough transcript of a July 25 phone call that shows the President repeatedly pressed the leader of Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.
"I found the allegations deeply disturbing," said House Intelligence chairman Adam Schiff, D-California. "I also found them deeply credible and I understand why the inspector general found them credible."
Illinois Democrat Rep. Mike Quigley, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, called the whistleblower complaint "troubling, disturbing" and "reinforces our concerns."
He also said he thought the complaint was "very well done."
"Having read the documents in there, I'm even more worried about what happened than I was when I read the memorandum of the conversation," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
California Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell said the whistleblower "invokes other witnesses to the disturbing conduct" in the complaint, and lays out "a lot of other documents."
Swalwell, a member of the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire is blocking lawmakers from seeing the full report, but said he was able to read the whistleblower's complaint.
Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt told reporters the report was about 10 or 12 pages long, but said he didn't count the pages. He said he was not more concerned now than before he read the report.
The conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is included in the whistleblower complaint, a source familiar with the situation said last week, a revelation only raised more questions in the ongoing controversy.
Trump has downplayed the significance of the complaint, claiming the whistleblower is partisan and his conversations with foreign leaders are "appropriate."
During a news conference in New York, the President claimed the individual — who has not been identified — "didn't have any first class or first rate or second tier information from what I understand."
Trump said he has told House Republicans he wants "full transparency on the so-called whistleblower information," but continued to peddle conspiracy theories about the Bidens and Ukraine.
Most lawmakers declined to comment on the complaint.
"I'm not going to talk about classified information, you know better than that," said Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican.
Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine, said he still has some "open questions" so he'd rather not comment further.
Sen. Richard Burr, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he has started to read the document but declined to give his initial thoughts.
One Republican who did speak to reporters, Rep. John Ratcliffe, said the best evidence he saw was the transcript of Trump's call with the Ukrainian President "as opposed to an accounting of the conversation from someone who wasn't there."
"It provided information beyond the transcript," he said of the complaint, but wouldn't weigh in on whether that information is detrimental or beneficial to Trump.
The intelligence community inspector general last week suggested that the whistleblower complaint that triggered the Ukraine-Trump drama, raised concerns about multiple actions, sources told CNN.
However, the inspector general — who spoke at a closed-door briefing last week — would not say if those instances involved Trump, the sources said.
On Thursday, Maguire will appear before the House Intelligence Committee to discuss the issue. He will also brief members of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Topics: Congress, Donald Trump, president, whistleblower
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Two final pronouncements of the Constitutional Chamber
Today El Salvador's National Assembly is choosing new magistrates for the country's Supreme Judicial Court. Two final decisions by the outgoing magistrates from the Constitutional Chamber of the Court, show why the choice of these magistrates is so important.
One decision has profound implications for the upcoming presidential election. The Chamber issued a ruling which could lead to the de-registration of Cambio Democratico (CD) as a political party. The Chamber declared that the Salvadoran election authorities must decide whether to cancel CD's status after it failed to obtain 50,000 votes in 2015 national legislative elections. If the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) now cancels CD's registration as a party it will block a possible route for former San Salvador mayor Nayib Bukele to get on the 2019 presidential ballot. Bukele had formed an alliance with CD because of concerns that his own political party Nuevas Ideas may not have met the deadlines to be formed and hold internal elections.
The country is currently awaiting a decision from the TSE on CD's status. The TSE is expected to rule by the end of July. If the Chamber's decision leads to cancellation of CD and Bukele is prevented from running for president, there could be serious unrest generated by his large base of supporters.
In another decision, the Chamber also reaffirmed what many human rights activists considered its most important decision, overturning the 1993 amnesty law. The Chamber has held hearings in the two years since that decision to evaluate whether the other branches of Salvadoran government are complying with their obligation to provide justice for the victims of crimes against humanity during El Salvador's civil war. The Chamber on Saturday ruled that the executive branch and legislative branch have failed to comply with the court's ruling through their delays in providing for restorative justice for the victims. The Ministry of Defense was ordered to preserve and make available documentation from its archives. The Attorney General was acknowledged to have made progress in opening human rights cases from the war years, but more needs to be done.
The legacy of the Chamber is a complicated one, but its importance as an institution is obvious.
2019 elections Constitution Human Rights Justice system Nayib Bukele


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grandiloquence (n.)
"lofty speaking or expression," 1580s, from Latin grandiloquentia, from grandiloquus "using lofty speech, bombastic," from grandis "big" (see grand (adj.)) + -loquus "speaking," from loqui "to speak" (from PIE root *tolkw- "to speak").
Entries linking to grandiloquence
grand (adj.)
late 14c., grant "large, big" (early 12c. in surnames), from Anglo-French graunt and directly from Old French grant, grand (10c., Modern French grand) "large, tall; grown-up; great, powerful, important; strict, severe; extensive; numerous," from Latin grandis "big, great; full, abundant," also "full-grown;" figuratively "strong, powerful, weighty, severe," of unknown origin.
In Vulgar Latin it supplanted magnus and continued in the Romanic languages. The connotations of "noble, sublime, lofty, dignified," etc., were in Latin. In English it developed a special sense of "imposing." Meaning "principal, chief, most important" (especially in titles) is from 1560s; that of "of very high or noble quality" is from 1712. As a general term of admiration, "magnificent, splendid," from 1816. Related: Grander; grandest.
Grand jury is late 15c. Grand piano from 1797. The grand tour of the principal sites of continental Europe, as part of a gentleman's education, is attested by that name from 1660s. The Grand Canyon of the Colorado River in western U.S. was so called by 1869, popularized by Maj. John Wesley Powell, scientific adventurer, who explored it; earlier it had been known as Big Canyon. For grand slam see slam (n.2).
*tolkw-
Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to speak."
It forms all or part of: circumlocution; colloquium; colloquy; elocution; eloquence; grandiloquence; interlocution; interlocutor; locution; locutory; loquacious; loquacity; loquitur; magniloquence; magniloquent; obloquy; soliloquy; somniloquy; vaniloquence; ventriloquism; ventriloquy.
It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Latin loqui "to speak;" Old Irish ad-tluch- "to thank," to-tluch- "to ask;" Old Church Slavonic tloko "interpretation, explanation."
grandiloquent (adj.)
1590s, probably a back-formation from grandiloquence. Related: Grandiloquently.
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Etymology of grandiloquence by etymonline
Harper, D. (n.d.). Etymology of grandiloquence. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved $(datetime), from https://www.etymonline.com/word/grandiloquence
Harper Douglas, "Etymology of grandiloquence," Online Etymology Dictionary, accessed $(datetime), https://www.etymonline.com/word/grandiloquence.
Harper, Douglas. "Etymology of grandiloquence." Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/word/grandiloquence. Accessed $(datetimeMla).
D. Harper. "Etymology of grandiloquence." Online Etymology Dictionary. https://www.etymonline.com/word/grandiloquence (accessed $(datetime)).
Dictionary entries near grandiloquence
grand-daughter
grandee
grandfatherly
grandiloquence
grandiloquent
grandiosity
grandly


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Conscience: Two Soldiers, Two Pacifists, One Family: A Test of Will and Faith in World War I
Title Conscience: Two Soldiers, Two Pacifists, One Family: A Test of Will and Faith in World War I
Authors Thomas, Louisa
Publisher Penguin Press
City New York
Norman Thomas (1884-1968) and his brothers' upbringing prepared them for a life of service--but their calls to conscience threatened to tear them apart. This volume is an account of the remarkable Thomas brothers in a time of trial, exploring the difficult decisions the four brothers faced with the advent of World War I. Sons of a Presbyterian minister and grandsons of missionaries, they shared a rigorous moral upbringing, a Princeton education, and a faith in the era's spirit of hope. Ralph enlisted right away, heeding President Wilson's call. Arthur, the youngest, was less certain about the righteousness of the cause but sensitive to his obligation as a citizen. Evan became a conscientious objector; when the truce was signed in 1918, he was in solitary confinement. Norman left his ministry in the tenements of East Harlem, New York, and began the course he would follow for the rest of his life, fighting for civil liberties and social justice, and against violence as a method of change. This volume tracks how four young men navigated a period of great uncertainty and upheaval.
Military & Men/Masculinity
War, Politics/Citizenship & Men/Masculinity
Peace Movements & Men/Masculinity
War & Religion
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VOL. 132 | NO. 15 | Friday, January 20, 2017
East High T-STEM Program Takes Applications
Dedric McGhee got right to the point Wednesday, Jan. 18, as he explained to a group of about a dozen parents of eighth-graders what the new optional school at East High School will be about.
East High will begin its gradual conversion to a T-STEM optional school in August. During the four-year phase-in, the T-STEM school will co-exist with the conventional school but have its own principal.
(Daily News/Andrew J. Breig)
"How many of you hated the flyover?" the Shelby County Schools STEM manager asked as hands were raised in reaction to the question about the design of the state's tallest flyover linking Interstate 40 with Interstate 240.
In another part of the more modern annex of East High School, other instructors talked about flying and building jets, robotics, coordinating traffic signals with technology in cars, driverless vehicles and architecture.
When the new academic year begins in August, East High will begin a transition over several years to become a T-STEM optional school – with the "T" standing for transportation in addition to the traditional STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
"It took a little while to develop, but it's actually been moving pretty quickly," said Heidi Ramirez, Shelby County Schools' chief academic officer. "We're still just making tweaks on the design and continue to grow."
Those tweaks depend on an ongoing survey of parents and other input.
"We're still developing some of the offerings," Ramirez said. "This allows for an even deeper dive around the transportation theme. You can imagine in a social studies class thinking about the way cultures have evolved based on transportation to some extent.
"Some of the hands-on learning in science and engineering will be specific to transportation. Think about bridges. Think about moving things. … It doesn't mean everybody has to go into a transportation career later on, but it's one common lens to sort of drill into this good, exciting stuff at once."
McGhee pointed to the back of East's engineering lab, where students have begun assembling an electric car – after their teachers purposely removed a few critical parts from the box to see if the students would notice.
"No, they did not just open a box and put it together," McGhee said. "The first thing they did when they opened it, they called me and started fussing, 'There's something missing out of this box.' … We want our students to be critical thinkers."
In an aviation lab, there isn't as much hardware at work tables. But there are flight simulators lining three of the four walls in the room, and FedEx pilots as well as leaders of the local chapter of the Organization of Black Aeronautical Professionals are working with students. There are also some ties to the aviation optional program at Wooddale High.
Martin Lipinski, the director emeritus of the University of Memphis Intermodal Freight Transportation Institute, is also part of the East effort.
"I'm going to be working with people from FedEx and the CN (Canadian National Railways) and the BNSF railroad to develop projects and things of interest that industry can work on and students can work on," Lipinski said. "We're going to try to make things real all the way through."
The more modern annexes at East reflect several forays by the school system into STEM curricula.
"We have the last several years made some investments in STEM-related labs, a lot of interesting things going on here during the school day and after it," Ramirez said. "We want to leverage that and create greater access to the good stuff."
The T-STEM school will begin with a ninth-grade class in the 2017-18 academic year. It will exist side by side at East High with the conventional school, with a separate principal for each.
Students who start ninth grade this August will graduate in 2021 – either in the first class of T-STEM grads or the last class of conventional grads. At that point, East's conversion to a "full-on optional school" will be complete, Ramirez said.
From that point on, East won't have a geographic attendance zone but will instead be open to students from anywhere in Memphis and unincorporated Shelby County who test into the T-STEM program.
Wednesday's school fair at East was one of several being held this week at SCS optional schools in advance of the beginning of the application process for all optional schools later this month.
"If this is your choice … we have space," said Brett Lawson, who is instructional leadership director at East, referring to the line of parents already setting up tents outside Shelby County Schools' headquarters for the first bar-coded applications next week.
"Don't get in that line," Lawson said. "Don't camp out."
The annex building that will be the home of the T-STEM school has room for 300 students, and Lawson is expecting 125 ninth-graders in August. The T-STEM students can participate in East's robust athletic department. They might have their own lunchroom in the annex since it has a culinary arts lab that can prepare the lunches.
SCS superintendent Dorsey Hopson has been looking for a new use and emphasis for East for several years because of declines in student achievement as well as the number of students on the school's campus, which includes the large, circa-1948 main building as well as later additions on the Walnut Grove side of the campus.
East currently has 561 students in grades 9-12. By the most recent state report card, the school's average ACT composite score is 15.7, with a staggering 98.2 percent of its students below basic proficiency in geometry and 90.9 percent below basic in Algebra I. U.S. history is the only subject in the statewide assessments in which a majority of its students did not show up as "below basic."
The school has a Level 1 overall ranking under the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System for student growth – the lowest of the five levels.


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Boc-Gln-Ala-Arg-AMC
Protease substrate
BML-P237-0005 5 mg 130.00 USD
Sold as net peptide weight.
Fluorogenic substrate for trypsin (kcat/Km=2.0 x 107 M-1sec-1; Km=6.0 µM); matriptase/MT-SP1 and matriptase-2/TMPRSS6; PRSS12; KLK5; KLK11/PRSS20, KLK12, and KLK14; tryptase and thrombin; and dust mite allergen Der p 1. Ex.: 380 nm, Em.: 460 nm, although the following Ex/Em can also be used: 355,375/440,450. This substrate is useful for inhibitor screening and kinetic analysis. Also available: fluorogenic calibration standard AMC (BML-KI144).
Alternative Name: Boc-QAR-AMC
Sequence: N-tert-butoxycarbonyl-Gln-Ala-Arg-AMC [AMC=7-amino-4-methylcoumarin]
Formula: C29H42N8O8
Appearance: Lyophilized solid.
Solubility: Soluble in DMSO (≥10mM) or methanol (50mg/ml).
Use/Stability: Protect from light and moisture.
Targeted deletion of HAI-1 increases prostasin proteolysis but decreases matriptase proteolysis in human keratinocytes: D. Lu, et al.; Hum. Cell 34, 771 (2021), Abstract;
Gender-specific changes in energy metabolism and protein degradation as major pathways affected in livers of mice treated with ibuprofen: S. Tiwari, et al.; Sci. Rep. 10, 3386 (2020), Abstract; Full Text
3-Cl-AHPC inhibits pro-HGF maturation by inducing matriptase/HAI-1 complex formation: F. Ye, et al.; J. Cell. Mol. Med. 23, 155 (2019), Abstract; Full Text
The Kunitz Domain I of Hepatocyte Growth Factor Activator Inhibitor-2 Inhibits Matriptase Activity and Invasive Ability of Human Prostate Cancer Cells: S.R. Wu, et al.; Sci. Rep. 7, 15101 (2017), Abstract; Full Text
Human cancer cells retain modest levels of enzymatically active matriptase only in extracellular milieu following induction of zymogen activation: L.L. Chu, et al.; PLoS One 9, e92244 (2014), Application(s): Use of Boc-QAR-AMC to measure matriptase activity, Abstract; Full Text
Antithrombin regulates matriptase activity involved in plasmin generation, syndecan shedding, and HGF activation in keratinocytes: Y.W. Chen, et al.; PLoS One 8, e62826 (2013), Application(s): Use of Boc-QAR-AMC to measure matriptase activity, Abstract; Full Text
Matriptase is a novel initiator of cartilage matrix degradation in osteoarthritis: J.M. Milner, et al.; Arthritis Rheum. 62, 1955 (2010), Application(s): Use of Boc-QAR-AMC to measure matriptase activity, Abstract; Full Text
Enzymatic properties and localization of motopsin (PRSS12), a protease whose absence causes mental retardation: S. Mitsui, et al.; Brain Res. 1136, 1 (2007), Abstract;
Enzymatic properties of human kallikrein-related peptidase 12 (KLK12): N. Memari, et al.; Biol. Chem. 388, 427 (2007), Abstract;
Expression and enzymatic characterization of recombinant human kallikrein 14: S. Rajapakse, et al.; Zoolog. Sci. 24, 774 (2007), Abstract;
Biochemical and enzymatic characterization of human kallikrein 5 (hK5), a novel serine protease potentially involved in cancer progression: I.P. Michael, et al.; J. Biol. Chem. 280, 14628 (2005), Abstract;
Matriptase-2, a membrane-bound mosaic serine proteinase predominantly expressed in human liver and showing degrading activity against extracellular matrix proteins: G. Velasco, et al.; J. Biol. Chem. 277, 37637 (2002), Abstract;
Synthesis and physical characterization of a P1 arginine combinatorial library, and its application to the determination of the substrate specificity of serine peptidases: S. T. Furlong, et al.; Bioorg. Med. Chem. 10, 3637 (2002), Abstract;
A novel isoform of a kallikrein-like protease, TLSP/hippostasin, (PRSS20), is expressed in the human brain and prostate: S. Mitsui, et al.; BBRC 272, 205 (2000), Abstract;
Activation of hepatocyte growth factor and urokinase/plasminogen activator by matriptase, an epithelial membrane serine protease: S. L. Lee, et al.; J. Biol. Chem. 275, 36720 (2000), Abstract;
A sensitive fluorescent assay for measuring the cysteine protease activity of Der p 1, a major allergen from the dust mite Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus: O. Schulz, et al.; Mol. Pathol. 51, 222 (1998), Abstract;
Isolation and characterization of a novel serine proteinase complexed with alpha 2-macroglobulin from porcine gastric mucosa: T. Uchino, et al.; J. Biol. Chem. 268, 527 (1993), Abstract;
Highly sensitive peptide-4-methylcoumaryl-7-amide substrates for blood-clotting proteases and trypsin: S. Kawabata, et al.; Eur. J. Biochem. 172, 17 (1988), Abstract;
Matriptase-2 (human), (recombinant)
Integral player in iron homeostasis, acts as a potent negative regulator of hepcidin.
Produced in Drosophila Schneider 2 (S2) cells. Recombinant human matriptase-2 (aa 78-811) is fused at the C-terminus to a V5-His-tag. Produced by plasmid transfection expression. | Print as PDF
ALX-201-752-1 125 U 392.00 USD
ALX-201-752-0500 500 U 495.00 USD
Matriptase
Trypsin Substrate
Matriptase Substrate
Serine protease Substrate
Kallikrein Substrate


He gave me my intuition.
Most of all he sent you here for me to love you..
I enjoyed the 'Wonder' link as well as 'Meganne Forbes' artwork.
To be full of wonder is wonderful.
I like this it rhymes, I am looking for links, would you like a link?


Firm orders worth almost £2.5 million were secured by companies on the recent Invest Northern Ireland trade mission to the established markets of Singapore and Malaysia and the emerging market of Vietnam.
Among companies securing substantial business were Mivan of Antrim, which signed contracts worth £817,000 for fast track construction of high-rise residential accommodation; Colorite Europe, Belfast, £810,000 for medical grade vinyl used in medical devices; Fast Engineering, £129,000 for portable water storage tanks; and FM Environmental, Newry, £172, 000 for waste water treatment technology.
In addition, two companies, Lowe Refrigeration of Carryduff, and Edge Innovative Learning International, Belfast, completed arrangements to open offices in Singapore. Mission members were also supported in developing business contacts throughout South East Asia by Amelia Yeo, Invest NI's Singapore-based representative.
Several companies used the mission to explore opportunities in other markets in the region such as Thailand, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Welcoming the successes of the 31 companies on the 10-day mission from 8-18 April, Tracy Meharg, Managing Director of Innovation and Capability Development at Invest NI, said: "The overall performance of companies on this mission, the biggest ever from Northern Ireland to South East Asia, is extremely encouraging. Trade missions enable local companies to explore new markets and to introduce new products cost-effectively.
"Equally significant is the participation of a number of smaller companies – two thirds of the delegation were small to medium-sized enterprises - in a mission that centred on Singapore and Malaysia, two of the most competitive markets in the region, and included Vietnam, a marketplace that is developing rapidly but is complicated for small companies because of its ongoing transformation from a command to a market-led economy.
"A key Invest NI objective is to assist companies, especially the small to medium sized enterprises which are the backbone of the local economy, to broaden their horizons and add value to their business by taking part in our comprehensive range of marketing activities overseas.
"Our Corporate Plan projects 10 per cent annual growth in exports over the next three years from a greater participation by local companies in missions such as this to the Asia/Pacific region. This growth rate will have a significant impact on the bottom-line of the participating companies, on employment and the overall economic wealth of the community," she added.
Dr Ivan McCabrey, Mivan Managing Director, said: "The mission provided an extremely important springboard for us in developing business for our formwork construction with existing clients, particularly in Malaysia and Hong Kong.
Another company with significant business in the region, Colorite Europe, which is based at Poleglass, secured substantial orders from major medical device manufacturers based in Singapore. Colorite manufactures medical grade vinyl pellets used in the production of plastic devices such as blood lines.
Said Ian Kenny, Colorite Europe's Managing Director: "We've been targeting South East Asia for over three years and now have more than 15 per cent of the market there.
Seamus Connolly, Fast Engineering's Managing Director, Antrim, a company specialising in portable water storage tanks for a range of applications including cleaning up oil spills and pollution, used the mission to explore opportunities in a new market for the company, Vietnam.
Highlighting the potential of this developing market, Mr Connolly said: "Vietnam is going to be a very significant business nation. There's a tremendous energy throughout the country. The people are very industrious and keen to do business with the West. Our products were very well received and I secured substantial orders from the oil industry now developing rapidly offshore. As a result, I'll be going back in November.
"Trade missions are a particularly cost-effective and flexible means of identifying market opportunities and of keeping abreast of trends within established markets," he added.
Jim O'Neill, Managing Director of Newry-based Environmental Products and Services, taking part in a mission for the first time, was impressed by the team spirit that developed among participants during the 10-day trip.
"I pinpointed some very interesting opportunities in the region and gained a lot from the experience of others on the mission who are well established there," he added.


classification reports for objects that are distributed to registered users and are indexed on the ADS.
notifications, including in particular notifications about re-classification of objects.
for information about an object by coordinates, name, type and more.
All AstroNotes are public, are provided free of charge to post and to read and are indexed on the ADS and citable.
TNS, go to "My Account", scroll down to the "AstroNotes notifications" box and change your preferences accordingly.
We hope you find this service useful, and please feel free to send us any comments or requests to tns AT weizmann.ac.il.
A new switch (query field) was added to the Search API -> "public_timestamp".
If specifying here a certain date-time, the query will retrieve all objects that received a (public) discovery or classification report after that time.
This can serve for querying and downloading object details (using the "Get object" API for the retrieved object names) according to what was added/changed on the TNS from a specified date-time.
We have updated the interactive spectra plots.
the elements checkboxes (for over-plotting their lines) have been revised, now enabling to select separately the forbidden lines.
To view the spectra on separate plots, click the figure icons in the spectra list (below the aggregated plot).
The TESS FOVs are now maintained on the TNS, so that notifications can be received whenever a reported transient coincides with the current TESS FOV.
As with previous catalogs, on your "My Account" page, check the TESS-SectorX checkbox for receiving live notifications via email.
Every ~1 month there's a shift of sector and a new sector will become active (you may check the schedule here: https://tess.mit.edu/observations/#sched).
Please make sure to mark each new sector whenever it becomes available.
Radius threshold to determine coinciding objects updated to 5"
On Jan 28 we increased the (cone search) radius threshold for determining coinciding objects from 3 to 5 arcsec.
This should decrease the amount of situations in which a new object is created (the separation from an existing object exceeds the threshold), but then has to be united with an existing event.
The new threshold of 5" also serves as the default cone search radius on the home page and search page, whenever a query by coordinates is performed.
which can be used to help develop the required scripts to work with the TNS.
file uploads, update of proprietary end date, search and get object details.
The sample codes (PHP+Python) can be downloaded from the help page, under the relevant APIs sections.
Data" directs to the aggregate report on the TNS, which includes links to all objects' pages and certificates.
A total of ~1800 ADS indexes are now (Jun 2017) in place for all TNS reports since the begining of operation in Jan 2016.
The KEGS-C14 catalog was added to the TNS, consisting of ~14500 galaxies (PI: Rest).
please remember to check the KEGS-C14 checkbox at the bottom of the MY ACCOUNT page.
We added a display of the PS1 color stamp on the Object page, next to the SDSS thumbnail.
The PS1 stamp (if within the footprint) should become visible within ~1 hr after the appearance of a new object.
Improved cone search (on both the search page and in reporting of a new object) to handle computer truncation/rounding problems.


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Home to more than 31,000 students, Northern Arizona University (NAU) provides a student-centered experience through distinguished programs led by committed professors. The university's main campus is located in Flagstaff, Arizona, with an additional 19 satellite community campuses statewide. As a public research institution, NAU is committed to developing solutions to challenges while driving innovation in a supportive, inclusive, and diverse environment.
University of Wisconsin — Milwaukee
The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UWM) excels in teaching, research, and service to the community while fueling the Wisconsin economy. Crestron technology isn't new to the UWM campus; the university has been utilizing Crestron AV platforms for over 10 years.
Brock University is a public research university located in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. Brock is committed to ensuring students and faculty have access to the modern technology they need to help achieve their professional and academic goals. In fact, the amenities are so advanced that the university doubles as one of the area's most popular conference centers.
Peppermill® Resort Spa Casino: Reno's Race and Sportsbook
The largest casino in Reno, Nevada, the Peppermill Resort Spa Casino is a premier AAA Four Diamond award-winning resort with over 1,600 luxurious guest rooms. One of the resort's main attractions is the 110-foot wide screen located inside the Peppermill Reno Race & Sportsbook. The seamlessly designed display is powered by DM® NVX, features 4k resolution capability, and is fully customizable with up to 30 different games and events playing at once.
The University of West of Scotland
The University of the West of Scotland introduced a brand new campus designed to revolutionize learning and set a new standard for student engagement. The Lanarkshire campus, located at the Hamilton International Technology Park, features clever interior design and Crestron technology paired seamlessly to create a forward-thinking learning environment.
National Museum (Prague)
The National Museum is one of the most respected buildings in Prague and has held listed status since 1962. Highlighting modern Czech history, this iconic building is admired by many and forms part of the recognized National Museum Institution. After a complex restoration project, the building reopened in October 2018 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Czech Republic.
Luxurious Shading Solution Protects Sunny Colorado Home
With impressive floor to ceiling windows throughout the home, a motorized shading solution that could be customized to fit, and be easily controlled from anywhere, was essential.
Top-to-Bottom Upgrade Elevates Control for Tech-Savvy Client
The owners of this Newport Beach, CA home were no strangers to superior home automation technology, the main focus for this project was to upgrade the home's existing platform with the latest Crestron technology.
Custom UI Delivers Infinite Control to Florida Homeowners
Based in Hollywood, FL, Digital Automation specializes in providing best-in-class custom smart home solutions of unparalleled quality and with premier service.
Crestron Integrator Brings It All Together Impeccably
For this tech-savvy homeowner, distributing 4K video through the entire home was a top priority. It was essential to design a solution that would deliver what the client was looking for while also maximizing rack space and leveraging the existing equipment in the most efficient way possible.


We've seen a trend in recent years, especially in the technology sector of acquisitions and consolidations. It's been something Microsoft has been doing for a long time, acquiring smaller niche companies to improve/supplement their existing product lines.
In recent years the trends has shifted towards web services and of course security, many smaller security companies have been acquired, most recently would be the Sunbelt acquisition by GFI.
Back in 2007 Google Acquired Web Security Startup GreenBorder. There have been many others of course, a lot of which we haven't covered as they are more business related than anything else.
Bruce Schneier has also been talking about these kind of acquisitions for over two years.
There has been a pretty unanimous WTF from the tech community as Intel isn't even a software provider, they are a hardware manufacturer…and yes they've had some flaws in their products but does that justify spending almost $8 Billion USD to acquire a security company?
And well McAfee isn't exactly highly thought of within the security community.
Both boards of directors have approved the deal, which is still subject to McAfee shareholder approval and regulatory approval.
Intel said the deal signalled its decision to put security on par with energy-efficient performance and internet connectivity as a strategic focus area.
The details can be seen on Market Watch here.
And well McAfee don't even provide hardware security functions, which is I assume what Intel is looking for. Who knows, this may just be a capital investment strategy from Intel and not particularly related to what McAfee produces.
Intel of course can benefit from the security knowledge McAfee has and integrate that into their hardware – but that is going to take some time.
Several security analysts have given their opinions of what this could mean and how it could effect Intel, McAfee and the industry in general.


Stemming from a donation drive for a local jazz club, this compilation deals out an overview of some of the best jazz Seattle has to offer. While the title alludes to the piano as a centerpiece, the album doesn't focus so strongly on it. Every track save one includes an outstanding pianist (Marc Seales, John Hansen, and Dave Peck are among the brightest of the bunch), but they're often overshadowed by some incredible horn players, vocalists, and the occasional bassist and drummer (both posts are held solidly throughout). You'll pick this one up for the piano solos, but keep listening to it for the whole picture.


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May 16, 2016 by moviesmarkus Leave a Comment
With a first half that is little more than an overlong political drama and a second half filled with huge action, Whedon-esque quips from a multitude of super-cameos; capped off with a single (masterful) revelation sequence, the main reason "Captain America: Civil War" only garners 3 ½ stars has to do with a finale where…How do I say this without spoiling things?…"Captain America: Civil War", a movie which contains the epic Iron Man vs. Captain America confrontation; a confrontation which has been at least four films in the making, settles on a resolution that can only be described as "civil".
Synopsis: Do the Avengers do more harm than good? NATO thinks so, as they petition to garner control of this super-group, after global outcry from citizens who were a part of the collateral damage seen in the last two Avengers films, request governmental restraint on the independently run team. This diplomatic plot device divides the group; with unresolved results.
Is it me or did that plot seem way too CNN for a superhero movie? Well, that's because it was. And the deeper into the political well the extremely talkie "Civil War" fell into, the harder it became for me to wrap my mind around the fact that I potentially could be stuck watching an entire superhero film consisting of a series of repetitive moral and ethical round table discussions for 2 ½ hours.
Mid-Second Act, with the emergence of cameos from Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) Ant-Man (Paul Rudd)and the new Spider-Man (Tom Holland) who was shockingly the best part of the film, "Civil War" becomes the action packed superhero movie I'd been promised. During these moments (and only during these moments) do directors Anthony and Joe Russo shine. It just took so long to get there, as the plot did not warrant the pacing displayed within the first hour or so.
And it all seemed to be going well. I was now entertained. During the final Act I had become immersed in a Greek tragedy plot twist which had me leaning forward in my seat (essentially in a bloodlust). And then… Bottom line, the conclusion to this film was surprisingly tame. So much so, that in the end "Civil War" comes off as a set-up 3 ½ star film for an upcoming 5 Star film, rather than the 5 Star film all of its predecessors had been leading up to.
Final Thought: Not only was "Captain America: Winter Soldier" a better movie, but so was "Batman v. Superman".
Follow me @moviesmarkus
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Nuclear-weapon endorser: hosts nuclear weapons on its territory
20 U.S. nuclear weapons hosted
Participated in TPNW negotiations
Has not yet joined TPNW
The Netherlands is one of the five NATO states to host US nuclear weapons as part of NATO's nuclear sharing agreement. The Dutch air force is assigned approximately 20 B61 nuclear bombs, which are deployed at Volkel Air Base.
The Netherlands has not yet signed or ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The Netherlands participated in the negotiation of the treaty at the United Nations in New York in 2017. It was also the only NATO member to participate and the only state to vote against the adoption of the treaty.
A public opinion poll conducted by YouGov in April 2019 found that 62 per cent of Dutch people believe that their government should sign the treaty, with 18 per cent opposed to signing and 19 per cent undecided.
In explaining its 'No' vote at the 2017 negotiating conference of the TPNW, it said: "While we cannot support this treaty, we appreciate how it has placed nuclear disarmament in the limelight and created a broad momentum for disarmament." It also said that it considers the treaty to be "incompatible with our commitments as a NATO state".
In its opening statement to the negotiating conference, the Netherlands said that it could "support the concept of a legally binding instrument prohibiting nuclear weapons as an element of a nuclear-weapon-free world".
However, in November 2018, the Dutch parliament called on the government to re-examine the treaty and to work to increase the support for the treaty among NATO members. The parliament also sought legal advice on the legislative requirements of becoming a state party.
In response to the parliament's request, the Dutch foreign minister, Stef Blok, and defence minister, Ank Bijleveld, wrote in January 2019 that no changes would be needed to existing Dutch legislation if the Netherlands were to adhere to the treaty, but additional implementing legislation would be needed.
Pressure is mounting on the government to work for the removal of US nuclear weapons deployed in Dutch territory and to sign the treaty.
The Netherlands voted against a UN General Assembly resolution in 2019 that welcomed the adoption of the treaty and called upon "all states that have not yet done so to sign, ratify, accept, approve, or accede to the treaty at the earliest possible date".
In 2016, the Netherlands abstained from voting on the UN General Assembly resolution that established the formal mandate for states to commence the negotiations in 2017 on "a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination". It was the only NATO member not to vote against the resolution.
In a "non-paper" sent to NATO members ahead of the vote, the United States "strongly encourage[d]" members, including the Netherlands, to vote against the resolution, "not to merely abstain". In addition, it said that, if the treaty negotiations do commence, allies and partners should "refrain from joining them".
Pressure from the Dutch parliament and the public appeared to have a significant bearing on the Dutch government's decision to participate in the negotiating conference.
[PARTNERS]
Dutch Medical Association for Peace Research
Campagne Tegen Wapenhandel
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (Netherlands)
NVMP
Tribunaal voor de Vrede
Vrouwen voor Vrede
Burgemeesters voor Vrede
Atheïstisch Verbond
[LOCALSUPPORT]
Local support Get involved with ICAN in the Netherlands ›
ICAN Parliamentary Pledge
These are the elected representatives in this country that support and promote the TPNW:
Kathalijne Buitenweg
Sadet Karabulut
Lilianne Ploumen
Bram van Ojik
Liesbeth van Tongeren
Lisa Westerveld
Netherlands European Parliament
Dennis de Jong ME
Bas Eickhout MEP
ICAN Cities Appeal
These are the cities and towns in this country speaking out in support of the TPNW:
Polls: Public opinion in EU host states firmly opposes nuclear weapons
NEW POLL: Europeans reject US nuclear weapons on own soil
US pressured NATO states to vote no to a ban


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Edinburgh, Glencoe and Isle of Skye
The heritage of Scotland is fascinating
9 days Sold out
2022 Tour code: SKS22
After an overnight journey from London on the Caledonian Sleeper Train, discover historic Edinburgh before heading into the Highlands by way of the West Highland Line. Enjoy visits to the Isle of Skye as well as some of Scotland's most iconic castles and glens.
Experience two overnight journeys on the Caledonian Sleeper Train.
Travel on the West Highland Line aboard the steam-hauled Jacobite Steam Train
Enjoy a Scottish whisky tasting in Roy Bridge and afternoon tea at Armadale Castle as well as a tour of the delightful gardens.
Visit the Isle of Skye via the scenic Skye Bridge and stop at Eilean Donan Castle.
Learn about the history of the Highland clans at the Clansman Centre on the banks of Loch Ness.
Call for options
Enquire about this tour
Standard Class Rail
Heritage Rail Excursion
All rail and coach travel throughout your tour
3-4* Accommodation
6 nights' hotel accommodation
2 nights on the Caledonian Sleeper Train (bunk cabin)
Complimentary luggage service from Edinburgh
Excursions & Entertainment
UK Tour Manager from start to finish
13 meals including 8 breakfasts and 5 dinners
Cancellation & Travel Insurance is not included in the price of the tour
Day 1 - London and the Caledonian Sleeper Train
We meet at London Euston to board the Caledonian Sleeper Train for our overnight journey to Edinburgh.
Day 2 - Edinburgh
Disembarking in the Scottish capital, we have a guided tour of Edinburgh, before the rest of your day being free to explore. Edinburgh is crowned by its iconic castle, built over the caldera of a long-extinct volcano, and boasts a history stretching back to the 2nd century. You may like to take a walk up to Arthur's Seat, which boasts incredible views.
We take a guided underground tour of Edinburgh at the Real Mary King's Close today. This infamous alley is famous as the Scottish capital's most haunted street, and is the birthplace of various legends and ghost stories. Mary King's Close has been closed to the public since the 18th century, only to be opened more recently. During that time, the street became shrouded in mystery, which we begin to unravel on our tour. Afterwards, you're free to discover Edinburgh by night - why not take a stroll up the lively Royal Mile or make a stop at one of the many pubs playing live music?
Day 4 - The West Highland Line and Fort William
We take the train to Glasgow, joining the West Highland Line to Fort William, a rail route regularly voted the best in the world thanks to the stunning scenery of heather-clad moorland and fairytale glens it passes through. Highlights of the route to keep an eye out for include Highlights include the Clyde Estuary, Ben Lomond and the Falls of Falloch. We transfer by coach to Roybridge, where, after dinner, we enjoy a tasting of Scotland's most famous export - whisky.
Day 5 - The Clansman Centre at Loch Ness
Today, we visit the Clansman Centre on the shores of Loch Ness to learn about life in the Highlands over the centuries, enjoying the chance to try on the traditional Scottish dress of the region - Feilidh Mhor and Arisaid - and hear about the history of the local clans. Stepping back in time to the 17th century, the past is brought to life with recreations of a Highland turf house, an old school room and a variety of interactive exhibits. We then take a scenic drive to the Glen Ord Distillery where we get a taste of Scotland with a a tour and whisky tasting.
Day 6 - The Isle of Skye
We travel to the Isle of Skye via the Skye Bridge, pausing to admire picturesque Eilean Donan Castle en route. Making our way to Armadale Castle, we're welcomed with afternoon tea before a guided tour of the grounds and interiors. The former home of Clan Donald, this incredible castle is exactly how you'd expect a medieval fortress to look, with square towers and crenelated parapets. Despite its ancient appearance, however, this castle was only built during the 18th and 19th centuries, falling into ruin in 1925. The remains of this castle are now romantically draped in ivy, and are a delightful place to while away a few hours. We return to Mallaig by ferry, where a coach transfers us to Glencoe.
Day 7 - The Jacobite Steam Train*
Back in Fort William, we board the Jacobite Steam Train, travelling in restored carriages along the most famous stretch of the West Highland Line. During the journey, we're treated to an abundance of scenic highlights, including the UK's highest mountain range, the shores of scenic Loch Eil and the 21 magnificent arches of the Glenfinnan Viaduct. Built between 1897 and 1901, this archway was famously used in the Harry Potter films and is a striking yet familiar sight to behold.
*Please note on early/late season departures the Jacobite Steam Railway excursion is replaced by the scheduled Scotrail service.
Day 8 - Loch Linnhe and the Caledonian Sleeper Train
Our day begins with some time at the Glencoe visitor centre ahead of a visit to the West Highland Museum, which tells the story of the West Highlands and Islands via archaeological finds and treasured heirlooms. We continue in the afternoon with a scenic cruise on Loch Linnhe, during which we hope to see salmon farms and mussel beds as well as seals basking on the rocks and plenty of birds. If the weather's clear, we should even be able to spot the summit of Ben Nevis. We enjoy dinner together before joining the overnight Caledonian Sleeper Train to London.
Day 9 – London
We disembark at Euston station after breakfast on board, and you're free to continue your journey homeward.
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Departure times
Provisional departure and return times, where available, can be found together with our dates and prices by clicking on the 'Prices & Availability' button. We write to all booked customers approximately 10 weeks prior to the start of their tour to advise the exact departure and return time for their particular group.
Mobility information
Due to the nature of our tours they are generally unsuitable for those with restricted mobility. If you'd like to discuss any particular holiday with us in this respect, then please don't hesitate to call us.
Radisson Blu Edinburgh, Edinburgh
Kingshouse Hotel, Glencoe
Glenspean Lodge Hotel, Roybridge
West Highland Line
Enhance your holiday
UK Rail Connections
Extending your holiday in Edinburgh
3.4 / 5 · 19 reviews
M Jenkins
Submitted 23 Sep 2022
We saw a lot of the area in the time we were there. The steam train was great fun, travelling through places that would be hard to access by other means and the sleeper was an experience not to be missed. David was a fantastic guide who was very knowledgable and looked after everyone on the tour. Great tour, great accommodation and would recommend.
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S Eyres
Lovely holiday - thanks to all involved!
Mr Mcquillen
Submitted 25 Jul 2022
Good hotels, good fellow travellers and decent trips
william oxenham
Submitted 09 Jun 2022
The worst part was the Caledonian overnight train to Edinburgh. It was inhumane especially having to have two suitcases in our cabin. Hotel food choice was very limited but scenery exquisite and tour manager and coach driver first class
Gillian Tully
Lovely guide, small group, diverse destinations and hotels and a well organised tour. Great places to visit. Spectacular scenery and lots of varied experiences.
Lynne Styles
Submitted 05 Nov 2021
Extremely disappointed with the overall experience starting with a ridiculously expensive upgrade for a tiny compartment on the Caledonian Sleeper train to Edinburgh. Virtually shut in as no facilities available. (Understandable due to Civid-19 but no compensation offered.) Breakfast terrible & Gluten Free not delivered as pre-ordered and promised. No arrangements to transfer from train to hotel - expected to walk up a steep hill in the wet with our cases. etc., etc., etc.
from Great Rail Journeys
Good Morning Mrs Styles Thank you for your review, we would like to discuss it in more detail with you and will be contacting you soon. Kind Regards Victoria
We look forward to hearing from you. Regards Lynne & John Styles
Hi Mr & Mrs Styles, I tried calling you just now but sadly couldn't get hold of you. If you can give me a call on XXXXXX, or let me know when a convenient time to call is, that would be great. Thank you -Sarah
OK to call me most days - we no longer have a landline number. Please call on my mobile:XXXXXX. Regards John Styles
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Handmade in NZ by the very talented Tom Muir. Each Knife differs in character but all are made of native salvaged timber. Perfect for cutting cakes, or large soft cheeses.
Each piece comes with a handwritten tag showing the provenance of the particular timber used.


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His lies to push the Iraq War forward violate the academy's own honor code. Why honor that?
In George W. Bush's home state of Texas, if you are an ordinary citizen found guilty of capital murder, the mandatory sentence is either life in prison or the death penalty. If, however, you are a former president of the United States responsible for initiating two illegal wars of aggression, which killed 7,000 US servicemen and at least 210,000 civilians, displaced more than 10 million people from their homes, condoned torture, initiated a global drone assassination campaign, and imprisoned people for years without substantive evidence or trial in Guantánamo Bay, the punishment evidently is to be given the Thayer Award at West Point.
The Thayer may be one of the most important awards that hardly anyone has ever heard of. In a sense, it's a litmus test when it comes to West Point's moral orientation and institutional values. Academy graduates around the world—in dusty GP medium tents as well as Pentagon offices—all sit at the proverbial table where momentous, sometimes perverse decisions are regularly made. To invade or not to invade, to bomb or not to bomb, to torture, or not to torture—those are the questions. As the Trump era has reminded us, the US military's ability to obliterate all organized human life on Earth is beyond question. So it stands to reason that the types of beliefs pounded into cadets at West Point—the ones that will serve to guide them throughout their military careers—do matter. To the classes of cadets now there, this award will offer a message: that George W. Bush and the things he did in his presidency are worth emulating. I could not disagree more.
George W. Bush deceived the nation, cheated noncombatants of both their bodily autonomy and moral significance, and waged unjustifiable, unnecessary wars, which misallocated trillions of dollars that would have been better used to ensure the prosperity and well-being of Americans. And he once described his messianic mission as "this crusade." Is the world's premier military academy not then honoring the dishonorable?
As I recall from my time wearing cadet gray, West Point regularly indulged in talk about doing "the harder right rather than the easier wrong," about exhibiting "moral courage," and about "Army Values." Our ethical compass was given to us, standard issue, early on, often in the form of quaint military parables.
These were meant to set the ethical standards for behavior in war. Despite serious transgressions of those values by West Point graduates in these years, I still believe that the majority of West Pointers, even in the most stressful situations, are challenged by a nagging little voice asking what West Point would do. In a sense, we have all been hard-wired to follow the ethical protocols we learned at the academy. As far as I'm concerned, however, this award shifts the goal posts. It establishes a new moral paradigm for what should be considered acceptable behavior in war and foreign policy.
As someone who also fought in one of those wars, let me just say that presenting Bush's legacy as a template for cadets to follow is—not to mince words—a moral obscenity. Once the collective "we"—that is, West Point and its alumni—acknowledge that Bush's wars and the state-sanctioned torture that went with them are not just acceptable, but laudable, we have lost any plausible claim to the moral high ground, the ground I once believed West Point was founded on.
Now that the Thayer Award has been given to former President Bush and we, the alumni, have even officially sponsored the act (not me, of course), it seems that the values we were taught don't stand for anything at all.
By idolizing Bush, a man whose major legacy is defined by acts of state terrorism (rebranded "counterterrorism"), West Point and its alumni have canonized by association his now-16-year-old war on terror. West Pointers have long been placed in a precarious position in relation to that war, simultaneously helping to perpetrate it and suffering from it. Too much energy has been devoted to pursuing it and too much lost for it not to have some grand meaning. By retrofitting the past, West Point and its graduates are now attempting to lessen the sting of, the reality of, those last 16 years. In the process, they are continuing to delude its graduates, who are still being deployed to commit political violence in, at best, a morally dubious set of wars.
At West Point, it's still possible to believe that we are fighting in the interests of the Afghan people when, for 16 years, a coalition of the most powerful armies on Earth led by the United States—supposedly with the support of most Afghans—hasn't been able to get rid of a few thousand ragtag Taliban fighters. Why is it that, at the academy, the contradictoriness of such claims never leads to an inconvenient but possibly more reasonable explanation: that we've failed because enough of them oppose us, that we're part of the problem, not the solution? In his final address to the Afghan parliament in 2014, President Hamid Karzai suggested as much, claiming that the last 12 years of war had been "imposed" on Afghanistan.
The extreme psychosocial dynamics of West Point make it a masterful teacher of such Orwellian "doublethink." In the process, people like Bush—or former national-security adviser and secretary of state Henry Kissinger (another Thayer Award recipient)—are deified. They must exist as role models, not villains or war criminals. Being sure that the enemy is the enemy is an imperative of combat, so it's essential that no one thinks about this topic too much or too deeply.
Inconvenient facts are deliberately omitted as threats to both recruitment and retention. Blind devotion is considered a virtue. Cadets are trained to proverbially place all their self-esteem eggs in the military basket. Morality is partitioned. Emphasis is put on individual actions in combat, not the morality of the war being fought. We were typically taught that, a few bad apples aside, throughout its history the United States has always been "the good guy," never the perpetrator.
In direct combat in Afghanistan, my soldiers and I faced death, disability, and despair. But perhaps the deepest wound was coming to realize that such tragedies were in service to, at best, a quixotic cause and, at worst, political expediency.
Because of an overriding obligation to the state and a purely subordinate obligation to the truth, West Point is structurally incapable of adhering to its own honor code in practice. Dishonesty, however, has a subtler aspect to it. It leeches away whatever integrity the academy does possess beneath its granite foundation. In that sense, the latest Thayer Award is an attempt to revise history by denying the illegality of Bush's wars and absolving him of any accountability for them.
Lest we forget: None of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Iraqi or Afghan citizens, nor did Iraq's autocratic ruler have nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction, nor was he in any way involved with Al Qaeda. Instead, as revealed in the leaked Downing Street Memo, President Bush "wanted to remove Saddam, through military action.… the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." Meanwhile, his top officials continued to publicly push the lie that Iraq "possesses and produces chemical weapons," as well as supposed evidence (fraudulent, as they knew at the time) indicating that Iraq was "reconstituting its nuclear weapons program." This claim would be explicitly contradicted by the US intelligence community's prewar National Intelligence Estimate, which stated that Saddam Hussein's regime did not have "sufficient material" to manufacture any nuclear weapons and that "the information we have on Iraqi nuclear personnel does not appear consistent with a coherent effort to reconstitute a nuclear weapons program." The very justification for Bush's invasion and occupation of that country, in other words, was built upon lies. This year's Thayer Award is simply a concrete manifestation of those lies.
To former President Bush, I'd like to say: There is no betrayal more intimate than being sent to kill or die unnecessarily by your own countrymen.
Think of this Thayer Award, then, as an undeserved rehabilitation of George W. Bush's reputation that's meant to cheat history. Put another way, West Point supports giving the former president this award not because he earned it but because they wish he had.
It's hard to find a time in American history when more was spent to accomplish less. Even on the most practical level, the spread of terror groups and insurgencies of various kinds continues to outpace the rate at which the United States can kill the latest "bad guys." The entire war is, in the long run and to the tune of trillions of taxpayer dollars, unsustainable. It's only a question of how much damage we want to do to our own soldiers, how much public funding we intend to divert, while destroying the social fabric of other countries, before we pack it up and leave.
Bush leveraged the future prosperity of America into trillions of dollars of debt, an intergenerational heist meant to give him the appearance of being "tough on terror." That's a reality that should be unappealing to members of both political parties. For fiscally conservative Republicans, it bloats the budget; for Democrats, it diverts precious funding that might otherwise have gone into crucial social programs. In short, the honored former president stole from American citizens a chance to deal adequately with climate change, infrastructure needs, education, and health care.
And it's difficult to discuss stealing without recalling Bush's illegal mass-surveillance program. It's hard to imagine how spying on one's own citizens without a warrant could be emblematic of what the Thayer Award stands for.
When cadets, soldiers, and other servicemen swear an oath, they trust that the president will be guided by sound principles. By sending us to fight his bogus war on terror, George W. Bush betrayed that commitment. In giving the Thayer Award to him, West Point and its graduates not only put their stamp of approval on a president who broke with their stated values; they glorified and cleansed him. This award, in Dubya's hands, is distinctly stolen valor.
There are many Americans who exemplify the very best of what our country—and West Point—could be. As graduates of the academy, none of us should have difficulty finding deserving Thayer Award recipients. George W. Bush's terror wars, however, were not just a tragedy but also a crime. It's now a secondary tragedy that West Point lacked both the honor and conviction to say so.
The former president deserves a cold metal bench in a stockade awaiting trial, not an award and a warm round of applause from the academy. No coffee table books featuring his paintings—a perverse form of macabre exhibitionism—will atone for his actions. If West Point and its Association of Graduates want to maintain any credible pretense of adhering to the values they claim to espouse, they should revoke the most recent Thayer Award immediately.
Erik EdstromErik Edstrom is a graduate of the West Point class of 2007. He was an infantry officer, Army Ranger, and Bronze Star Medal recipient who deployed to direct combat in Afghanistan.


text:
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May 25, 2020 VintageMediaGroup 0
P A S $ I O N is a singer and songwriter based in London, UK. Recently, he announced the release of his very first song, "Questions." This track features influences ranging from contemporary rap and old-school hip-hop, going for a melodic style that still retains a lot of energy.
The song sports a darker, hard-edged trap feel, but it also features some haunting cinematic melodies that set the bar higher. P A S $ I O N is working to develop a one-of-a-kind sound. The song's chorus has a really great melody, and the lyrical flow is very smooth, especially when you listen to the verses, which talk about his current mindset. This song shows that he's growing as a human being, and an artist too!
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P A S $ I O N is a rap artist based in London, UK. He recently finished working on his very first track, "Questions," marking his explosive debut on the local rap scene. Don't pass up on this release, which is available on Spotify and other streaming platforms.
Social Network Links.
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/passionsoundtracks/
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tags: Audio breaking Debut Dope Download England Hip Hop Introducing Listen London Media Music Music Videos P A S $ I O N Questions Single spotlight Talent VMG Approved
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