Deanne Kay Stock, 55, of Saint Charles, Mo., died Friday, March 23, 2018.
She was born April 27, 1962, to Charles and Grace (Garrow) McCaskey of Morenci. She attended Morenci Area High School and graduated from Adrian College in 1984 with a bachelor's degree in business administration. She married the love of her life, Chuck Stock, on May 9, 1987, and was co-owner of the family business.
Deanne loved spending time with her family and her life revolved around her three girls and her golden retriever, Jersey.
In addition to her husband, Chuck, she is survived by three daughters, Katlyn, Courtney and Madelyn; her parents; sister, Debbie Johnston of Wauseon, Ohio; brothers, Dan (and Kym) McCaskey of Adrian, Mich., and Doug (and Amy) McCaskey of Sylvania, Ohio.
A funeral mass was held at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in St. Charles, Mo., on March 27 and interment was in St. Charles Memorial Gardens. Arrangements were made by Baue Funeral and Memorial Center.
Memorial contributions are suggested to Powered by Hope or the Siteman Cancer Center.


Bulbous noses, warts and dark circles under the eyes are among the skin conditions commonly used by filmmakers to indicate villains, researchers have found.
A study by a team of US dermatologists has highlighted that while heroes of the silver screen typically have barely a mark on their features, characters with dubious morals are often depicted with all manner of skin traits – an association that, the researchers say, is damaging.
"It something that has been perpetuated in film, sometimes maybe even unintentionally, but it is something that has become more and more prevalent over the years," said Julie Amthor Croley, co-author of the research from the University of Texas.
"It is not only perpetuating this tendency towards discrimination towards people with skin disease but it also does affect the person on an individual basis," she added.
For the research, published in the journal JAMA Dermatology, Amthor Croley and colleagues began by scrutinising the appearance of the top ten heroes and villains as rated by the American Film Institute.
Top of the list of ne'er-do-wells was Hannibal Lecter, from The Silence of the Lambs, followed by Norman Bates of Psycho, Darth Vader of Star Wars, and the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz. The virtuous list, meanwhile, was topped by Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird and included, among others, James Bond, TE Lawrence, and Rocky Balboa.
The team found that while skin features or conditions were common among the villains, cropping up in six of the ten cases, they were largely absent among the heroes – only Indiana Jones from Raiders of the Lost Ark and Rick Blaine from Casablanca were found to have scars, and then only single marks. What's more, these scars belonged to the actors rather than being the handiwork of makeup artists, and were subtler and shorter than those of villains.
Baddies, however, had a host of skin problems ranging from warts, as found on the chin of the Wicked Witch of the West, to a condition known as rhinophyma which can cause a bulbous, red nose – such as that of the Queen in Snow White who, when in her hag-like disguise, was also found to sport deep wrinkles.
"All these associations of skin findings with film villains date back to the silent film age in a time when all filmmakers had to communicate [with] was visual cues, they didn't have spoken word," said Amthor Croley, adding that one villain often sported multiple skin conditions, designed to hint at a nefarious character. "With specific reference to scars, filmmakers may use them to illustrate a sort of a stormy past filled with violence," she added.
Beyond the top ten lists, the team point to other features which have frequently been linked to movie villains, including albinism – a condition seen in killers in the Da Vinci Code and Cold Mountain, among other films.
While the study does not consider whether many features such as hair loss were intended, prosthetic or just a natural feature of the actor, and only considers a small range of characters, experts say the research highlights an important issue.
"Skin disease is often trivialised as being nothing more than cosmetic disfigurement, but as this study shows, society holds deep-seated stereotypes about the association between skin appearance and personality," said Kim Thomas, professor of applied dermatology research at the University of Nottingham, who was not involved in the research.
James Partridge, chief executive of the charity Changing Faces, said that findings of the study were not surprising. "For years, facial differences, such as dermatological conditions, scars or alopecia, have been used to indicate a villainous character. What concerns us is that this type of visual shorthand is used without any thought as to how it might affect the lives of real people with a visible difference," he said.


Adoptive parents will benefit from new funding worth £19.3 million to access the best possible care for children who have often been victims of abuse and neglect.
The Adoption Support Fund will pay for therapeutic services - such as cognitive therapy, play and music therapy, and intensive family support - helping children recover from their previous experiences, bond with their adoptive families and settle into their new lives.
The new Adoption Support Fund will be a lifeline for many adoptive families, helping them to access specialist services when their family needs them most. I also hope it will reassure parents thinking about embarking on the hugely rewarding journey of adoption that if challenges do arise, they will no longer be left alone to cope.
We know that children adopted from care have often lived through terrible experiences which do not just simply disappear once they have settled with their new families.
The Adoption Support Fund will provide adoptive families with the right support - from cognitive therapy to music and play therapy and attachment based therapy - to ensure that these children have a stable and fulfilling childhood - a fundamental right for every child, no matter what their starting point in life.
Eighty-one per cent of adoptive parents said their support needs were identified, yet only 56% were given the support they needed; and over half of the adoptive parents surveyed needed therapeutic services, but only 28% of adoptive parents reported that their adoption agency provided this.
Following the trial - which will commence shortly - the Adoption Support Fund will be rolled out nationally in 2015, giving providers the confidence to expand and offering adoptive families much greater choice and access to the therapeutic services they need.
The fund will represent a new approach to how adoption support is delivered. Over time we want to see local authorities, adoption agencies and other organisations contributing to the fund, ensuring that long-term provision of adoption support becomes self-sustaining.
We believe that the government's commitment to providing funding for adoption support has the potential to be the most influential advance so far in improving today's adoption system. With the majority of children currently waiting in care for adoption coming from a traumatised background, this momentous development provides the foundation on which a successful adoption system can be built.
We know that this will be warmly welcomed by our members who have been instrumental in letting us know what is needed and we anticipate that it will be hugely valuable in recruiting more adopters for all those children still waiting to be placed with the right family.


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Hyundai World Archery Medellin: medals for Italy and France!
The Hyundai Archery World Cup, held in the Colombian capital from 22-28 April, has come to a close.
Numerous medals for archers sporting the jerseys made by Erreà, also the World Archery technical sponsor, and which took part alongside the French and Canadian national teams.
In the compound team finals, the Italian men's team finished in first place, while the women beat Peru to become the bronze medal winners. In fact, Sergio Pagni, Federico Pagnoni and Viviano Mior were awarded the gold medal thanks to their success in the final against France (Peineau, Deloche, Boulch) in their Erreà jerseys, with a score of 234-231, also winning the silver medal in the mixed compound category.
Winning the bronze for the women were Anastasia Anastasio, Marcella Tonioli and Sara Ret who triumphed over Peru. In the olympic archery, a silver medal was also won by the champion Italian junior team of Andreoli, Boari and Landi, who were beaten by South Korea.
Well done to all our archers!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The Dawson Creek Public Library is one of my favourite places. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of the books in that humble building bear my fingerprints. As a child I was a speed reader and a Beverly Cleary fan, and I used to have half of my books read before we left the parking lot. The library staff and I are on a first-name basis, and Jenny Snyder, who runs the library, has been a long time supporter of my painting. I'm always delighted to receive a commission from her, either personally or on behalf of the library, and last year she mentioned a desire to see one of my paintings on the library's Christmas cards.
We didn't get to it last year, but this year she approached me "officially" with her request, and while I had never painted a Santa scene before, she knows my style well enough to trust me on the outcome.
It was fun to paint a sweet, simple scene like this! For the pose, I used an old photo of my husband reading to our daughters when they were small, and adapted the faces to suit, as Wade owns neither a Santa suit or a beard! I sketched out my design in my sketchbook, and then refined the lines by tracing the image onto tracing paper. I then took that finalized sketch and transferred it to watercolour paper using graphite paper. I really like yellow graphite paper for watercolour since the lines don't show in the finished painting. Sometimes with grey or black graphite paper, I will go over the lines with an eraser prior to painting, and make them as faint as possible so they don't show through the transparent watercolour. Never use carbon paper for watercolour since it contains oils that will resist the watercolour paint.
Because there were two areas in this painting that require whites - Santa's beard, and his fur cuffs and hat trim, I used a warm white and a cool white to differentiate between the grey shadow areas in the whites. Grey is made by mixing two complementary colours (like green and red, or orange and blue) and you can make a grey warm by adding slightly more of the warmer of the two colours (i.e. orange). Cool grey is made by adding more of the cool colour (i.e. blue).
This painting didn't come completely trial-free, and I'm going to share a bit more of my process in a future post. I'd love to know what you think of this fun venture into a more illustrative style, and if it gives you a little Christmas cheer!


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Campus & Community / Magazine Feature
City revises zoning code; University to host community meetings
Posted April 23, 2009 at 10:00 am
Changes affecting nearly every piece of property in Denver are being rolled out in May, and the University of Denver will be a site for part of the public education effort.
The changes are part of a revision of the city's zoning code and are aimed at updating the rules by which existing homes can be altered or new homes can be built. A task force has been working on the new code since 2005. It is ready to unveil its plan at a series of community meetings.
According to the Denver's Web site, the existing zoning code is 53 years old and "broken."
"Inconsistent and redundant procedures that plague the current zoning code will be removed to make the new zoning code more predictable, transparent and clear," the site says. "Outdated regulations that present barriers to sustainability and affordability will also be removed."
District 7 City Councilman Chris Nevitt says the reason for the new code is even more basic.
"You need to be able to know what can happen next door to you," he told the West University Community Association recently.
To make sure DU's neighborhood residents are informed and have a chance to comment, Nevitt is conducting a series of meetings prior to the official rollout. DU will host one of these meetings, which begin April 23 and continue to June 4. The DU meeting will be May 21 in Sturm Hall, Room 151, from 6–8 p.m. No registration is necessary. For a list of meetings, go to Nevitt's page at www.denvergov.org/electedofficials.
The city's official rollout of the new code and the first unveiling of the map that will accompany it will be May 12, at 5:30 p.m., at the Denver Convention Center. Other meetings throughout the city are on May 13, 14, 19, and 21. For details on locations and times, go to www.newcodedenver.org.
The final version of the new zoning code will come before City Council at the end of 2009, Nevitt says. Until then, the city will be taking public testimony and comments.
"If you guys hate it," Nevitt says, "I have perfect confidence you'll let us know."


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Q: Exercise of statistics Hello  I can not understand how to get the formula for the result in this stash exercise:
EXERCISE:
A computer store owner estimates that 45 percent of customers entering his store buy a computer, 15 percent buy a smartphone, while the remaining 40 percent only enter for curiosity and leave without purchasing. If there are 5 customers in your store on a given day, what is the probability that you sell exactly 2 computers and 1 smartphone? Suggestion. Calculate the probability of selling three objects when 5 customers enter.
SOLUTION:
The probability of buying 3 objects is:
Image Solution
How does the formula get result?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


For more information about the Greater Shelburne Falls Area Business Association (GSFABA), including our staff and the local businesses we serve, please visit our website.
Shelburne Falls is easily accessible from Route 2 (the Mohawk Trail). Please see our Visitor Information page for directions, parking info, and more.


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The Top 10 World War 2 Books of All Time
With so many amazing World War 2 books out there, however can I choose my Top 10 World War 2 books?
In general, I can't say that I am huge into historical fiction. Not to say that I don't like it, I just don't find that historical fiction is my go-to genre. However, when it comes to books about World War 2, I can't seem to get enough.Of all the periods of time, World War 2 seems to have one of the clearest depictions of good versus evil. The acts of bravery and depths of horror stand out in stark contrast against one another.
Unlike the complicated politics of the first World War, World War 2 seems so much more clear cut. I love reading both fictional and nonfiction accounts of the events that occurred in such an important period of history.
Am I really qualified to choose the top 10 books of any subject, much less the top 10 World War 2 books? Probably not, but I'll do it anyway. Having an opinion on a topic is my prerogative as a blogger.
I can't say that I've read every World Ward 2 book out there, but I aim to do so someday. Though, I will admit that I have read quite a few. Generally, I gravitate toward bestselling World War 2 fiction, but I have tried to read a lot more World War 2 nonfiction lately.
As with any list, my list of the Top 10 World Ward 2 books is quite subjective. Maybe you'll love it and be inspired to pick up Audie Murphy's autobiography. Maybe you'll hate it because I left off Anne Frank's diary.
Whether you love it or hate it, let me know in the comments. I'd love to hear how your top 10 World War 2 books differ from mine. Or feel free to check out what WWII historical fiction our readers love the most.
Top 10 World War 2 Books – 5 Best Fiction
Let's kick off this list of the Top 10 World War 2 books with one of my favorites. I'm not at all surprised it won a Pulitzer Prize; the writing is fabulous. Anthony Doerr masterfully interweaves the stories of Marie-Laurie, a blind French girl who flees from Paris to the coastal city of Saint-Malo with her uncle, and Werner, a German radio operator charged with rooting out the French resistance. While the plot is interesting in and of itself, the character development and storytelling will keep you glued to the page.
Publication Date: 6 May 2014
Amazon | Goodreads | More Info
Slaughterhouse-Five
How to describe Slaughterhouse-Five? It's a postmodern anti-war science fiction World War II novel, which gives it a unique place among World War 2 books. The unreliable narrator tells the tale of Billy Pilgrim, a time-traveling man being held in an alien zoo. Through flashbacks, we relive Billy's capture during the Battle of the Bulge, life as a POW working in a slaughterhouse (Slaughterhous #5) during the Dresden firebombing, and his subsequent life after the war. If you can get past Vonnegut's strange style, his discussion of fate, free will, and death earn it its place among the top 10 World War 2 books. For, "so it goes."
I hated this book when I first read it. I mean, I absolutely despised it. It's completely ridiculous. Heller's brand of satire involves stories that are over-the-top exaggerations, and he's never heard of character development. Yet, a few months after I finished it, random bits from the book would pop up in my mind and make me laugh. The man whose name is Major Major Major Major. The Allies bombing their own bridge. I promise you, you'll either love this book or hate this book. But, if you are in the right frame of mind, you'll eventually see why this book earned its place in the Top 10 World War 2 Books.
Publication Date: 10 November 1961
Code Name Verity
Elizabeth Wein
I know many would scoff at my choice, but I can't recommend this book enough. You'll find yourself immersed in a world of intrigue with the story British spy, Agent "Verity." Captured when her plane crashes in occupied France, Verity is interrogated by the Gestapo in an attempt to learn of her mission. As she confesses under torture, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat wondering what secrets she is willing to exchange for her life. How far is she willing to go for her mission? A brilliant and emotional read that you won't want to miss. Definitely my favorite of the World War 2 books for teens.
The Caine Mutiny
To round out the fiction section of my top 10 World War 2 books, I've chosen Herman Wouk's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Written only six years after the end of the war, The Caine Mutiny has astounding detail most modern authors can never hope to achieve. Mostly because the story is heavily based on the author's own experiences during the war. The story details the life aboard the U.S.S. Caine and the moral complexities of wartime decisions, especially the hard choices that need to be made by a captain at sea.
[social_warfare buttons="Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter"]
Top 10 World War 2 Books – 5 Best Nonfiction
The Hiding Place
What would you do if you noticed your neighbors suddenly disappearing? A quiet old maid living with her older sister and elderly father, Corrie ten Boom knew that she had to act. Her family joined the Dutch Underground and built a secret room to hide Jews within, for which they were to pay the ultimate price. Corrie ten Boom's heartrending account of her life will inspire you to have faith, hope, and courage no matter what obstacles you may face.
To Hell and Back
Audie Murphy was one of the most decorated soldiers in World War II, earning basically ever honor possible including the Congressional Medal of Honor. Reading his book, I came to the part describing his account of the actions that earned him the Medal of Honor, and he made it sound like it was no big deal. He single-handedly held off a whole company of German soldiers for more than an hour. But he just did what had to be done. That's the true mark of a hero. Interestingly enough, after World War II, Audie Murphy went on to become a movie star, even starring in the film adaptation of his autobiography.
I was debating putting two Holocaust stories on this list, but I think you should read both of them. While Corrie Ten Boom illustrates finding the joy within any trial, Elie Wiesel's story is a heart-wrenching account that really shows no mercy. While I love good World War 2 novels, World War 2 nonfiction books fully illustrate the depth of the Holocaust. It is our responsibility to read books like this, no matter how depressing, so that truly understand the horror of these events to ensure they don't happen again.
While we are often reminded of the horrors of the Holocaust, we seem to sometimes overlook the awful events that occurred in the Pacific theater during World War 2. Laura Hillenbrand's bestselling book details the life of Louis Zamperini, a former Olympic runner who even shook hands with Hitler at the Berlin Olympics. Shot down in the Pacific Ocean in 1943, Lt. Zamperini managed to survive on a life raft for 47 days only to be found by the Japanese. Lt. Zamperini's resilience will amaze you as he struggles to survive life as a Japanese prisoner for almost three years.
Stephen E. Ambrose
Last, but not least, for our Top 10 World War 2 Books we have the thrilling account of Easy Company, a unit of the 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army. The book gets its title from the Shakespeare quote, "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today who sheds his blood with me shall be my brother." Instead of following one man's journey, the cast of characters winds in and out as men come and go from the company due to reassignment, injury, and death. Stephen Ambrose's powerful book is a remarkable look at the everyday men who became legends. If you haven't seen the HBO miniseries, you are truly missing out.
How does your list of the top 10 World War 2 books stack up against mine?
The Best World War II Novels of the Last Decade
WWII Historical Fiction You'll Be Dying to Read
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Hailey says
This list looks very good, and I enjoy Night, by Ellie Wiesel, but as an avid WW2 Novel lover, I'm shocked that a couple of books are not on this list. The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak is one of the most amazing novels I've ever read, and definitely deserves to be on this list. I feel that we hardly ever hear the story of citizens of Germany during WW2, and this one does it beautifully. Also, Between Shades of Grey, by Ruta Sepetys, is a fantastic story about a girl and her family who are captured by the Soviet Union, but the book has a really nice underlying theme of love and hope. Please don't take this as an angry review, just a couple of suggestions, Keep up the great work!
Rachael says
Oh, the Book Thief is one of my favorite books. I haven't read Between Shades of Grey yet, but I have enjoyed her other books. Limiting my list to only 10 books (and only 5 fiction!) was incredibly hard. I will admit that this page is on my list of posts to update this year, so you'll have to come back and see if I change anything.
Jack says
With great respect, you have the typical myopic view of most Americans: that everything written or accomplished by an American is the biggest and best in history. It must not be forgotten that Great Britain, Canada and other countries of the British Commonwealth entered the war in 1939, whereas the U.S. did not do so until 1943. While many of the books to which you have referred are excellent, any real student of WW ll knows that the greatest books ever written by a western author about WW ll were Winston Churchill's treatise The Second World War, in 6 volumes, which led to Churchill being awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. Any true scholar or antiquarian bookseller is aware of this and I would encourage you and your readers to read those books, which were written by an author of immense talent whose command of the English language is unmatched.
I have read 84, Charing Cross Road, To Hell and Back, The Nightingale, The Things They Carried, The Alice Network, Code Talker, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. WW 2 fiction and nonfiction are my favorite books


Vision: To Honor the land and provide services to protect and conserve it!
Mission: To provide leadership, services, technical assistance, education, and administer programs to assist Dewey County producers and general public in the conservation of our natural resources and to improve the environment.
Office hours: Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m. -- 4:30 p.m.


Chemistry at its heart is the formation and breaking of electrical bonds between atoms. This happens as electrons are shared between atoms or redistributed due to interactions. Despite the many elements and molecules they make, and all the marvelous complexity of chemistry, there are only three basic types of chemical bonds: covalent (where an electron is shared between two atoms), ionic (where an electron is swapped), and hydrogen.
Hydrogen bonds are responsible for the structure of ice (including snowflakes!), DNA, and a wealth of other important things. Here's how it works: a molecule containing hydrogen shares electrons unequally, giving the hydrogen a slight positive charge and the other atom (such as oxygen or nitrogen) a slight negative charge. Two of these molecules can then attract each other, with the positive bump on one molecule bonding with the negative bump on another.
The image above shows the molecule 8-hydroxyquinoline, which involves several atom types structured in smaller molecules bound together by hydrogen bonds. The image was produced by an atomic force microscope, which maps the distribution of electric charge as it repels atoms on the microscope tip. (Atomic force microscopes are very cool, and worthy of a later blog post!) What's fascinating is that the picture of the molecule produced this way is remarkably similar to the schematic diagram next to it. Our mental picture of the shape of molecules is actually the way they "look", if we could see with electrons.


Our Signable culture plays a huge part in how we treat our customers, you! Drawn from the values of our team, our commandments mean they tie perfectly in with our personality as a brand and a company.
If you're looking to update or write your own company commandments, our could be a good start!
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"Fanny's Menagerie" transcribed
Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880) began her career almost two centuries ago, and some of her writing is dated, yet some resonates today in odd ways. She address the contradiction in American society as to whether to conserve of consume with her association of ideas. Child also offered this thought: The United States is a warning rather than en example to the world." This odd group including a bird, bees, a squirrel, a whale, a wax doll, and a horse will appeared in "Fanny's Menagerie," to be presented at the Children's Literature Association conference this week. Design by Meredith Eliassen, 2018.
Fanny's Menagerie.
OH, dear me, what a long day!" exclaimed Fanny, impatiently. "Rain, rain, rain, all the time and nothing pleasant to do. My Doll is in bed, ill with the scarlet-fever. It won't do to take her up for she will certainly take cold this damp day. I have read through all my story-books. They all tell about good little girls, who hemmed handkerchiefs, and did every thing they were told to do. I am sure I don't think it is very entertaining to be good, if that's the way they do it. There goes Charlie Green, driving home the cows and whistling merrily. I wish I were poor too; then I could run about barefooted. My mother would n't be always saying, 'You must n't go out, Fanny, You will wet your feed; you must n't do this, you must n't do that;' as if I were made of sugar or salt. What a fine time the ducks are having on the pond! If I only had a coat of feathers, I should n't mind a little wetting. I could duck and dive, and splatter about all day long. But now I suppose I must go to sleep; for there don't seem to be anything else in the world for me to do." So Fanny threw herself on the bed and lay with eyes half open, watching the ran-drops as they trickled down the window-panes.
Flap, flap, flap! "What's that at the window?" Flap, flap, flap! In flew a dozen geese, screaming, "Quack! quack! quack! Who carried off our feathers?" They flew round the room like wild creatures, beating their wings against the walls and ceiling.
What Large quills they have in their wings," thought Fanny. "If I had one of them, I suppose I should have to write six pages of 'Virtue is its own reward,' in my new writing-book. What a noise they do make? Why are they all coming toward me?"
Flap, flap, flap, when all the geese, directly over Fanny's head, and down they pounced upon the pillow. In a few minutes it was ripped to pieces, and the feathers scattered all over the floor. "Quack, quack, quack! Here are our feathers!" cried all the geese; and each one seized a bunch of feathers in its bill.
"What a pity you have n't aprons to carry them in," said Fanny. "Wait a minute, only white goose, and I will lend you one of my doll's aprons. You would look like a perfect beauty with it tied round your neck." The geese paid no attention to her jokes, but flew off with all the feathers they could carry, leaving the air so full of down, that it seemed like a snow-storm.
Patter, patter, patter! "Can that be Carlo in the entry? It sounds as if there were a dozen dogs there." Patter, patter, patter! The door was gently pushed open, and a sheep peeped in. "Pray, walk in, Madam," said Fanny; and in walked a whole flock. "Baa, baa, baa! Where is the wool they cut from my back?" said a great black sheep. "Baa, baa, baa! Who has carried off our wool?" cried all the sheep; and they went snuffing about all over the room.
"I did n't carry off your wool," said Fanny. Stop, stop! That's my shawl. You must n't take that. Why, what are you pulling the carpet to pieces for?"
Without mind a word she said, the great black sheep tried to put the shawl on. She was rather awkward about it, but the others managed to help. Fanny was so amused that she never thought of taking it away. It made her laugh heartily to see the old black sheep march about with the shawl on her shoulders, followed by all the others, with pieces of carpet folded over them. She thought to herself, "I wish mother could see them walking out of the front door in procession. I am sure she would think them regular thieves."
Buzz, buzz, buzz! "What comes to the window now?" In flew a swarm of bees.
"Buzz, buzz, buzz! Where is our wax?" said the queen-bee.
"Hum, hum, hum! Who stole our wax?" murmured all the bees.
"There is no wax here," said Fanny; "but there is plenty of honey in the pantry. Go ask the cook for it, and see what she will say to you."
The bees did not answer here, but went thrusting their stings into everything, crying, "Buzz, buzz, buzz! "Hum, hum, hum!" They seemed to be very angry about something.
"Oh dear," explained Fanny; "they have all lighted on my doll, and are nibbling away her pretty face. Oh, my beautiful wax doll! Her cheeks were so red, that I played she had scarlet-fever; and now they have eaten her all up. What shall I do? What shall I do?"
Tramp, tramp, tramp! "Is that a giant stamping through the entry?" Tramp, tramp, tramp! and presently a long waving thing was poked into the door, and went curling about, first in one direction, then in another. "I really believe it is the sea-serpent," exclaimed Fanny. "Oh no, I see now that it is the trunk of an elephant. What can the great creature want of me?" The elephant walked slowly about the room, saying, "I want my ivory back again. Who carried off my tusks?" He lifted up tables and chairs with his trunk, tumbled the bed-clothes, and turned everything upside down.
"There, now he has seized my pretty ivory basket!" cried Fanny. "Please don't take that away, Mr. Elephant."
"It's a very singular thing to come out of my tusks," replied the elephant. "It cannot be of any use to me know; but I should like to carry it home and show it to my little elephants. I am sure they will consider it quite a curiosity." Saying thus he tramped heavily out of the room, with the basket hanging from the end of his truck.
I wonder how that huge beast ever got up stairs," thought Fanny. They were obliged to make a hole in the wall, the other day, to bring a sofa in. I should think they would have to knock down the house to make way fro an elephant."
"Hark! Is that my Canary? I never heard him wing so sweet a song before. I hear wings fluttering. How softly they sound!"
Two beautiful little spirits floated in at the window; one in light drapery of blue gossamer, the other with the mantle of grey mist. With a voice sad as the autumn wind on a lonely hill, she sang,
"Sister, sister, mourn with me,
For I have lost my sheltering tree.
Day and night I wander lone,
And to the breezes make my moan.
On sunny hill, in flowery vale,
To every bird I tell the tale.
Far and wide they freely roam,
But none can find my long-lost home.
Ah, whither has gone my maple-tree?"
The spirit in blue folded her arm round her companion, and looked lovingly in her face, while she pointed to the furniture, and sang,
"See this table, bureau, chair,
Carved with skill, and polished fair!
These were once thy sheltering tree.
Thy home it never more can be.
Sister dear, we'll upward fly,
And float with fairies in the sky."
"Poor dear little spirit! How sorry I am for you," said Fanny as they flew away. When my maple furniture was brought home, I thought extremely pretty; but I am afraid I shall never like it again, now that I know it is made of the fairy's beautiful tree. How she must have lover to hear birds singing on its branches, and winds whispering among the leaves. And now, poor thing, she has no place shelter her from this pouring rain. I hope she will fly far above the clouds, till she comes to clear blue sky. How I do wish I could go with her."
"What makes such a splashing in the entry? Things to on so queerly to-day, I should n't wonder if a brook came running into the room, full of frogs and fishes." Water oozed gradually through the cracks of the door, till the whole floor was covered with it. "There go the chairs and tables swimming about, " said Fanny. 'I suppose my bed will soon be drifted out of the window, with all the other things after it; just as I have seen a great duck paddling along, with a troop of little ducks behind her. What a loud spattering and dashing there is against the door! It sounds more like a fountain than a brook. Pray walk in all at once, Mr. Fountain, and not sneak through the cracks in that style. I should like to see how you look walking along all by yourself."
The door opened, and a whole whale came spouting into the room, with Neptune riding on his back. "I always wanted to see old Father Neptune," thought Fanny. "I have seen grand images of him riding on dolphins and whales. I supported he was dead a long time ago' but here is in my chamber, sure enough; and finely he looks, with his long white beard, his mantle of green sea-weed, and the trident in his hand. I am very happy to see you, sir; I wish you had brought some of your Tritons along with you."
The old sea-god did not trouble himself to thank her for her compliments. "Who stole the oil from my favorite whale?" said he in a commanding voice. Ho, ho! Here it is in this glass lamp. I should like to see how it burns. I think I have in my pocket a box of excellent cigars, which I picked up from a wreck near Havana. There were not such things when I was young. But we sea-faring people learn to love strange things." He took a match from the box, and lighted the lamp; then began to search his pockets, which appeared very deep. "I wish I could peep in," thought Fanny. "I dare say they are full of all sorts of treasures from the ocean. He might at least throw me a handful of pearls." But except for an oyster shell, on which he rubbed the match, he took out nothing but a cigar. He puffed away at a great rate, and very coolly sailed out of the room, with all the water flowing after him.
"There's a fine cataract to go over the stairs!" thought Fanny.
"Well, at last I have seen a real whale; and, what is more, a real Neptune, too. The house must have enlarged very much before they could get in. I noticed that my room seemed to stretch itself out, as if it were made of India Rubber. Now it has become small again, and all the furniture has settled down."
"What is that chirping in the elm-tree? I should think every leaf was changed into a locust." A gray squirrel peeped in at the window, and six little brown ones peeped over his bushy tail. "Who stole our nuts?" said they, as they went frisking and frolicking over the chairs and tables. One of them looked in the glass, and seemed surprised to see a strange squirrel there. "Shake your paws with him," said Fanny; "you should always be polite to strangers."
"I have found our nuts!" exclaimed the gray squirrel; and all the brown squirrels began to squeak, "This is the little girl who stole them."
"Frank and I expected to have such a good time cracking nuts this evening," said Fanny. "Pray, don't carry them away."
Let us pelt the little thief," said they; and all the squirrels began to throw nuts at her.
"Dear me! It's a perfect hail-storm," exclaimed Fanny. "But I can play ball as well as you." She started up and tossed the nuts back again, and away scampered all the squirrels as fast as they could.
"Now there is a great prancing and stamping in the entry. I wonder what will come next?" In trotted a troop of horses, neighing loudly, "Who stole our flowing manes? Who carried off our long waving tails?" "Here they are," said a great white horse, and he began pulling the mattress to pieces.
I shall have nothing but the bare sacking to seep on now," thought Fanny, as they went galloping out of the room, with their mouths full of horsehair. "I wish I could have jumped on the back of that great white horse. Frank would be so astonished to see me cantering down the front door-steps in that style. But what on earth is jumping through the entry now? It sounds like a kangaroo, or a gigantic grasshopper."
"Fanny! Fanny! Why don't you come down to tea?" shouted Frank, bursting into the room.
"Oh, Frank," said she, "Did you meet the horses cantering down stairs?"
"Horses cantering down stairs! What are you talking about, Fanny?"
"Why, a whole troop of horses came into the camber, and tore the mattress to pieces. A great whale has been flouncing about here. A flock of sheep carried off the carpet. A swarm of bees have eaten up my doll's head. The squirrels have been taken away our nuts; and everything has been topsy-turvy in the room."
"Here are our nuts, safe and sound," replied Frank. "Your doll is lying on her bed, with cheeks as red as cranberries. The carpet looks as pretty as ever; and the room is all in order. Sister dear, I think you have been dreaming a great deal of nonsense for one afternoon.
Fanny sat up, rubbed her eyes, and looked round the room with great surprise. "This is very strange!" said she. "I suppose I must have been asleep and dreamed it all. But I really thought those animals had been here. I wish they had; it would have been such rare fun. I guess mother will laugh, when I tell her about this queer dream."
And away she ran down stairs, as if a whole menagerie were after her.
Source: "Fanny's Menagerie," Rainbows for Children, edited by Lydia Maria Child (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1847): 119-131.


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Even so, the first infomercial of the same type we see on TV today, aired in 1982 and was for a hair growth supplement called "New Generation" which was marketed by entrepreneur Robert E. Murphy Jr. It was such a success that other companies quickly began following suit and purchasing program-length commercial air time. At this time infomercials used to commonly be shown during late night/early morning hours, although stations discovered success showing them at other times when they learned that the majority of purchases were made in the morning, during the day, and around primetime.
Yet despite having a hand in so many different industries, consumers largely trust Amazon with everything from their personal information and buying habits to the literal conversations they have in their own homes. According to a study The Verge conducted in partnership with consulting firm Reticle Research last year, Amazon is the most-liked and trusted technology brand by a wide margin. One likely explanation there is that the company has a strong relationship with its customers, thanks in part to its zealous commitment to low prices and a seemingly never-ending quest to make modern life more convenient.
In September 2017, Amazon announced plans to locate a second headquarters in a metropolitan area with at least a million people.[45] Cities needed to submit their presentations by October 19, 2017 for the project called HQ2.[46] The $5 billion second headquarters, starting with 500,000 square feet and eventually expanding to as much as 8 million square feet, may have as many as 50,000 employees.[47] In 2017, Amazon announced it would build a new downtown Seattle building with space for Mary's Place, a local charity in 2020.[48]
Foregoing private stores or other online alternatives, a large number of individuals and businesses prefer to sell through Amazon.com. With more than 95 million unique visitors each month, Amazon can be an ideal place for vendors looking to increase sales or simply unload items they no longer want or need. And because Amazon enjoys a generally positive reputation with its customers, the site can be a great place for sellers to build brand recognition for their businesses.
Compare prices and availability by typing in your search, scanning a barcode or an image with your camera, or using your voice. Never miss a deal with easy access to Lightning Deals and the Deal of the Day. You can also sign-up for shipment notifications to know when your order ships and arrives. You have full access to your Shopping Cart, Wish Lists, payment and Prime shipping options, Subscribe & Save order history, and 1-Click settings, just like on the full Amazon.com site. All Amazon Shopping app purchases are routed through Amazon's secure servers to encrypt and safeguard your personal information.
Throughout the summer of 2018, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders criticized Amazon's wages and working conditions in a series of YouTube videos and media appearances. He also pointed to the fact that Amazon had paid no federal income tax in the previous year.[170] Sanders solicited stories from Amazon warehouse workers who felt exploited by the company.[171] One such story, by James Bloodworth, described the environment as akin to "a low-security prison" and stated that the company's culture used an Orwellian newspeak.[172] These reports cited a finding by New Food Economy that one third of fulfilment center workers in Arizona were on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).[173] Responses by Amazon included incentives for employees to tweet positive stories and a statement which called the salary figures used by Sanders "inaccurate and misleading". The statement also charged that it was inappropriate for him to refer to SNAP as "food stamps".[171] On September 5, 2018, Sanders along with Ro Khanna introduced the Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies (Stop BEZOS) Act aimed at Amazon and other alleged beneficiaries of corporate welfare such as Wal-mart, McDonald's and Uber.[174] Among the bill's supporters were Tucker Carlson of Fox News and Matt Taibbi who criticized himself and other journalists for not covering Amazon's contribution to wealth inequality earlier.[175][176]
If your new dress doesn't fit right or a gadget arrives broken, Amazon accepts returns on most sales within 30 days of delivery. In general, third-party sellers offer the same policy, although you'll usually have to pay for return shipping to the seller unless the seller advertises free returns, whereas Amazon often provides a prepaid shipping label for its own returns. The cost of the return may be subtracted from the refund if the item was returned for some other reason than Amazon's mistake.
Browse, search, get product details, read reviews, see immersive product images and videos and shop for millions of products available from Amazon.com and other merchants. With the Amazon TV app, you will be able to enjoy a lean back shopping experience on the largest screen in your house, using just your Fire TV remote. Search for products using text; use filters and change sorters to find the product you want. Browse through immersive large product images and videos. In addition to basic product information such as title, price, byline, seller, Prime badge and product description, you will also be able to see the delivery promise, availability, star ratings and customer reviews. Discover other products through the "Customers also bought" widget on the detail page. Browse through campaigns from various product categories (including Fashion, Electronics, Amazon Devices, Beauty, Toys and Home) on the app gateway and click through to get to the product detail page. Browse through your wish lists on the app. Once you select a product you want to buy, you can checkout the product or save it to the wish list for future consideration or to review later on your phone or computer. During checkout, you can choose your preference from the available shipping options, saved payment methods and address book. You can also redeem your existing gift card and promotional balances to make the purchase. After you make the purchase, sit back and relax, the Amazon package will be delivered straight to your door. All purchases are routed through Amazon's secure servers.
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In May 2018, Amazon threatened the Seattle City Council over an employee head tax proposal that would have funded houselessness services and low-income housing. The tax would have cost Amazon about $800 per employee, or 0.7% of their average salary.[202] In retaliation, Amazon paused construction on a new building, threatened to limit further investment in the city, and funded a repeal campaign. Although originally passed, the measure was soon repealed after an expensive repeal campaign spearheaded by Amazon.[203]
That same year, the company launched Dash buttons for instant reordering of products like laundry detergent, and it's more recently been investing in new services that let package-carrying couriers unlock the truck of your car and even your front door. Most recently, Amazon has signaled an intention to disrupt health care by purchasing online pharmaceutical startup PillPack. All of this has helped Amazon grow its North American retail operation at an unbelievable pace; annual sales for the division more than doubled from $50.8 billion in 2014 to $106.1 billion last year.
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On the logistics side, Amazon has for years been building out a network of delivery workers, fulfillment centers, trucks, cargo planes, and freighters to move products from manufacturers to customers at speeds once thought impossible. The company is now facilitating sea freight shipments, leasing Boeing cargo planes, building a $1.5 billion air cargo hub in Kentucky, and expanding its own UPS and FedEx competitor called Shipping with Amazon, or SWA. All of this is an effort to establish a global logistics network that no one company will be able to compete with.
Brilliance Audio is an audiobook publisher founded in 1984 by Michael Snodgrass in Grand Haven, Michigan.[93] The company produced its first 8 audio titles in 1985.[93] The company was purchased by Amazon in 2007 for an undisclosed amount.[94][95] At the time of the acquisition, Brilliance was producing 12–15 new titles a month.[95] It operates as an independent company within Amazon.
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National Lampoon (Literature)
"It's insulting. You call us for a meeting, and then you strand us there with those Lampoon jackasses?"
Lampoon is a synonym for satire. There have been many humor rags with Lampoon in the title, most notably National Lampoon, which grew out of the Harvard Lampoon. Then for some reason there were all those Chevy Chase movies (like National Lampoon's Vacation) which didn't seem like they had a lot to do with a humor magazine, but maybe I'm just missing the point. Anywho, either the Lampoon jackasses at Hearst, who are lampooning the Hearst Free Press, were doing an homage to National Lampoon, or they're just really uncreative. I mean, they could have called it The Hearst Enslaved Wrinkler! ...Maybe not.
Animal House (Movies)
"Hi. Uh, Chip. Sorry, brothers only past the entryway without invitation."
"Hi, Chip."
Chip Diller, one of jackass Pi Sig frat boys, is also the name of Kevin Bacon's character in Animal House. While Bacon's character is merely a pledge, this Chip Diller is a full-fledged fraternity brother, complete with the cool nickname Ice Man and the privilege of bedding the dean's wife. The important question here, though, is obvious. How many degrees connect Kevin Bacon and David Tom? Discuss.
2.16 "The Rapes of Graff"
Who's Who bio: !none
National Lampoon's Vacation (Movies)
"The park is closed. The walrus out front should have told you."
This 1983 film was the first in a series of films starring Chevy Chase as patriarch of the Griswolds, who just can't seem to have a proper vacation. They get to Walleyworld, a fabulous amusement park, and are told by John Candy: "Sorry, folks, park's closed: moose out front should have told you." Wait, wait, a moose? As in moose-tastic? Where did Veronica get this "walrus" business? Has she been listening to too much Beatles? In any case, given what we know of Veronica's movie tastes, it's certainly believable that she and Keith would have watched it together.
3.08 "Lord of the Pi's"


The large number of green certifications available is hampering businesses' ability to effectively promote their products as environmentally friendly, and is confusing to consumers, who are overwhelmed by the array. To solve this problem the European Commission aims to standardise the measurement of products' environmental performance. This standard measurement will be titled Product Environmental Footprint or PEF.
Specific rules on how PEF is measured for different product groups are currently being developed. To aid with this, the European Commission is inviting stakeholders from across Europe to provide input. At present the group "feed, food, drink and related products" is slated for discussion. The deadline for applications to take part is 28 March 2014 at 17.00 CET.
This is an excellent opportunity for interested parties to help shape EU rules for years to come – all measures developed during the pilot phase will become the product rules valid under the PEF, to be used by all stakeholders in the sector. Individual companies, industrial associations or any other private, non-governmental or public organisations can volunteer to lead the process.
A global review of the degree to which sustainable public procurement (SPP) and green public procurement (GPP) are being implemented by national governments has been carried out by UNEP, detailing both positive trends and persistent barriers. Overall, there is an increased commitment to SPP/GPP compared to previous years and greater international cooperation among procurement networks, with the result being a boost to the emerging green economy.
The main barriers to the uptake of SPP/GPP include the perception that green products are more costly than conventional products, and a lack of clarity over determining the environmental credentials of one product in comparison to another. This is partly attributable to a large increase in the number of ecolabels and standards in the past years, making the market place more difficult to navigate.
The report concludes by saying that a set of internationally agreed and recognised principles and assessment systems is needed for procurement of sustainability, as well as a global set of indicators. The drivers, challenges and trends in SPP/GPP are explored in-depth within the report.
The use of smart logistics equipment has enabled Vaxjo municipality (Sweden) to cut its delivery traffic in half, saving the council money and reducing the amount of harmful emissions released. Optimising the delivery system has led to the number of different distribution companies used falling from 73 in 2009 to just one.
Today all suppliers send goods to a distribution depot, where the frequency of deliveries is based on need (groceries, for example, are delivered more often than stationery).
A web-based ordering system provides information on upcoming purchases to the distribution centre, allowing staff to plan more effectively. Delivery routes have also been made more efficient, with the town separated into two delivery zones.
The Senator for Finances of the State of Bremen (Germany) will host the final LANDMARK Conference on 27 March 2014. The conference will address challenges surrounding verifying social responsibility, particularly in light of the recently adopted EU Procurement Directives, which strengthen the use of social criteria in public tenders. Participation is free of charge, but registration is necessary to ensure a place.
Places will be allocated on a 'first come first serve' basis and registration is open until 7 March 2014. Registration for the event is available online, as well further information about the programme and practical information. The event will be attended by key speakers in the field of sustainable public procurement, and will see a high-level roundtable discussion, as well as four workshops.
The workshops will examine: monitoring of the supply chain in Public Procurement in Scandinavia – what other European countries can learn; public procurers: how public procurers can gain competences in applying social criteria; labels, auditing systems and other schemes for reliable verification; and the why and how of fair trade cotton and supply chain justice in public procurement. The conference is held in cooperation with the ICLEI European Secretariat, the Network of Development Politics of Bremen (BeN), the Fair Cotton Procurement Project and the LANDMARK project. The event will also include the Fair Cotton Procurement Awards.
On Wednesday 15 January the European Parliament (EP) approved the new EU Public Procurement Directives. The new legislation will replace the current directives and will be binding in all EU Member States once they have been transposed into national law. States have up to two years time for the transposition.
The overall goal of the directives is to ensure public authorities purchase best value for money and facilitate bids from SMEs. Central aspects of the new directives include the 'most economically advantageous tender' (MEAT) as the standard award criterion and 'innovation partnerships' as a mechanism for encouraging dialogue with bidders and fostering innovation procurement.
"Public procurement will no longer be a question of simply accepting the lowest price. Smart customers will work with smart suppliers to provide better solutions, better tailored to meeting customer needs in more innovative ways," said British MEP and Rapporteur Malcolm Harbour, Chairman of the EP's Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee. The introduction of the MEAT criterion should serve to further support the use of environmental and social criteria in public tenders.
To further aid in the uptake of public procurement of innovation (PPI), the Procurement of Innovation Platform will publish three guidance documents. Each guide is designed to enhance public procurers' understanding of PPI, enabling them to easily and effectively purchase innovative goods and services. Before publication, the PPI Consortium is seeking stakeholder input to further refine the guides' content. Specific questions have been developed to help focus stakeholders' contributions; the full list of questions can be found on the PPI platform website.
Contributions are being sought until the end of February 2014. To do so, contact info@innovation-procurement.org. The first guide will give a general introduction to the topic, outlining the most effective methods of implementation. The second will focus on risk management, providing an overview in the context of effective PPI. Guidance on intellectual property forms the focus of the third guide, including how to contractually deal with new findings, insights and technologies.
Stakeholders are also invited to discuss specific topics posted on the Procurement Forum. The PPI guidance documents are being developed with support from the European Commission by the PPI Consortium, a partnership between ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, PIANOo – the Dutch Public Procurement Expertise Centre, REC – the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe and IWT – the Flemish Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology.
German municipalities could save billions of euros if sustainable procurement practices were implemented more efficiently, a new study from KPMG has revealed. Up to three and half percent of the country's annual purchasing costs of €480 billion could be cut through transitioning to effective sustainable procurement - a figure which would have a significant impact on public finances.
Of the 56 cities and towns surveyed, a lack of tools and know-how proved the most-frequent barrier. In many cases staff lack the skills required to effectively procure sustainably (only a third of survey respondents had the knowledge and set up needed). The inclusion of sustainable procurement in the planning and budgeting stages was also lacking in the majority of cases.
"A recurring cardinal error is the late integration of procurement and a fixation on price and less on the Life cycle costs and the actual added value of the required products and services." said Clemens Dicks, procurement consultant at KPMG. New German laws require municipalities to include ecological and social aspects into their procurement processes, providing the ideal time for municipalities to revisit their overall procurement practices, says Mr. Dicks.
The study is available to download in the SPRC Resource Centre.
The European Union's newest member, Croatia, is wholeheartedly embracing the concept of green public procurement. A seminar run by GPP 2020 from 27 - 28 November 2013 aimed to equip procurers with the knowledge and skills to procure low-carbon products, services and works. The seminar was attended by a host of municipalities, national and regional ministries and organisations, and academic institutions from across Croatia.
The seminar focused in detail on the legal and organisational framework for green tendering procedures and on calculating life-cycle costing. Having received the training, participants will now implement low-carbon tenders in ten categories, demonstrating the impact that low-carbon criteria in public procurement can have and serving as examples to other procurers.


Midwest Vein Center is widely seen as one of the leading non-surgical vein treatment clinics of vein disease and related disorders. As one of the first vein centers in the Greater Chicago Metropolitan area to provide Endovenous Laser for varicose vein treatment, Midwest Vein Center not only has effectively treated countless patients with its vein treatment procedures, but it has also helped train physicians throughout the nation on its state-of-the-art vein treatment techniques. Every one of our doctors has taken thorough fellowship training and our vein clinic is also recognized as one of the few vein treatment centers in the area where all the physicians are board certified in Phlebology. To receive this certification, our doctors must demonstrate total proficiency and expertise in a definite area of medicine. With the wide choice of effective and minimally invasive treatments existing today, it is not surprising that Near North Side residents are eager to find out how Midwest Vein Center can help them in their efforts to look and feel better with our vein treatment procedures.
Near North Side, Chicago is one of the 77 well-defined community areas of Chicago. There are more than 80,000 residents who make the Near North Side home. One of Midwest Vein Center's five vein clinics in Chicago is conveniently located in the nearby area. Near North Side residents understand that if they suffer from varicose vein problems, Midwest Vein Center in Chicago is the vein clinic for them. We endeavor to provide advanced vein treatments to all of our Near North Side patients who are beset with both the pain and embarrassment of varicose veins and who may be apprehensive that traditional vein removal surgery is their only option.


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China's WeRide to launch robotaxis on GAC's Ontime ride-hailing app
China's WeRide to launch robotaxis on GAC's Ontime ride-hailing app - Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021
SHANGHAI – WeRide, a China-based autonomous driving startup, said on Thursday it plans to make its robotaxis available for booking by the public on Guangzhou Automobile Group's Ontime ride-hailing app by next year.
Backed by Nissan Motor, WeRide said in a statement it plans to offer test rides for the public at the Guangzhou Auto Show, which begins in the southern Chinese city on Friday. It added that its robotaxi has been integrated into the Ontime platform and they were conducting testing.
Automakers and technology firms are investing billions of dollars in autonomous driving, aiming to take an early lead in what many consider the future of mobility.
On Tuesday, Chinese autonomous vehicle startup AutoX, which is backed by Alibaba Group said it had expanded its robotaxi zone in China's southern city of Shenzhen to become the country's largest fully driverless robotaxi zone, at 65 square miles (168 square km).


I have been to colleges in 5 different states. This is by far the worst college I have ever experienced. The fail rate in MOST of the classes exceeds 50% and the staff at UAH could care less. Condescending, out of touch with reality, happy to take your money and screw you over. Large number of the teachers do not speak English and somehow that is the student's fault. This school should come with a warning label.


Systems thinking is the process of understanding how things, regarded as systems, influence one another within a whole.
Russell L. Ackoff (1974) Redesigning the future, p. 20.
Russell L. Ackoff (1999). "Disciplines, the two cultures and the scianities". Systems Research and Behavioral Science. 16 (6), p. 537. Cited in: Sherryl Stalinski (2005) A Systems View of Social Systems, Culture and Communities. Saybrook Graduate School. p. 5.
Béla H. Bánáthy (1991) Systems design of education p. 31.
It was appropriate to say up front that systems thinking is the parent of design thinking and systems inquiry embeds design inquiry.
Bela H. Banathy (1996) Designing Social Systems in a Changing World. p. 163.
Ludwig von Bertalanffy (1968) General System Theory, p. 3.
Walter F. Buckley (1967) Sociology and modern systems theory, p. vii; As cited in: cited in: Ludwig von Bertalanffy (1968) General System Theory. p. 7-8.
Walter F. Buckley (1967) Sociology and modern systems theory p. vii.
Critical systems thinkers like Midgley identify three waves of systems thinking over the last 50 years or so. Early systems theorists (e.g. Bertalanffy) described systems in physical terms, resorting to metaphors from electronic computation or biology. This 'hard systems' tradition still has its advocates and practitioners... Subsequently the limits of the physical metaphor... were reached, and the second wave of systems thinking developed. This 'soft systems thinking' employed social metaphors to develop appropriate systems approaches for human systems. The move to a more phenomenological, interpretative understanding of human systems, where meaning is central and is negotiated intersubjectively, parallels the new paradigm / crisis of social psychology of the 1970s. The Third wave, or critical systems school, in which Midgley locates himself, has drawn on the critical theory of Habermas, particularly in relation to theories of knowledge and of communicative rationality, and on the work of Foucault and followers on the nature of power.
Mark Burton (2003) "Review Systemic Intervention: Philosophy, Methodology, and Practice MIDGLEY, G. (2000)" in: Journal of Community and Applied Psychology 2003 13 (4) 330-333.
The ideas set forth by organismic biologists during the first half of the twentieth century helped to give birth to a new way of thinking — "systems thinking" — in terms of connectedness, relationships, context. According to the systems view, the essential properties of an organism, or living system, are properties of the whole, which none of the parts have. They arise from the interactions and relationships among the parts. These properties are destroyed when the system is dissected, either physically or theoretically, into isolated elements. Although we can discern individual parts in any system, these parts are not isolated, and the nature of the whole is always different from the mere sum of its parts. The systems view of life is illustrated beautifully and abundantly in the writings of Paul Weiss, who brought systems concepts to the life sciences from his earlier studies of engineering and spent his whole life exploring and advocating a full organismic conception of biology.
Fritjof Capra (1996) The Web of Life p. 29.
Fritjof Capra (1996) The Web of Life p. 46.
With the subsequent strong support from cybernetics, the concepts of systems thinking and systems theory became integral parts of the established scientific language, and led to numerous new methodologies and applications -- systems engineering, systems analysis, systems dynamics, and so on.
C. West Churchman (1968) The Systems Approach p.x.
C. West Churchman (1968) The Systems Approach, p. 231 cited in: Michael C. Jackson (2003) Systems Thinking: Creative Holism for Managers. p. 139.
Systems thinking means the ability to see the synergy of the whole rather than just the separate elements of a system and to learn to reinforce or change whole system patterns. Many people have been trained to solve problems by breaking a complex system, such as an organization, into discrete parts and working to make each part perform as well as possible. However, the success of each piece does not add up to the success of the whole. to the success of the whole. In fact, sometimes changing one part to make it better actually makes the whole system function less effectively.
Richard L. Daft (2008) The Leadership Experience. p. 141.
Systems thinking is a mental discipline and framework for seeing patterns and interrelationships. It is important to see organizational systems as a whole because of their complexity. Complexity can overwhelm managers, undermining confidence. When leaders can see the structures that underlie complex situations, they can facilitate improvement. But doing that requires a focus on the big picture.
An example from soft systems thinking is Checkland's appreciation of soft systems methodology. He wants to introduce hard systems approaches to deal with hard problems only after and through a soft systems analysis.
Robert L. Flood (1993) Dealing with Complexity: An Introduction to the Theory and … - Pagina 127.
Robert Louis Flood, Norma R. A. Romm (1996) Critical Systems Thinking: Current Research and Practice. p. 165.
In a previous paper on progress in general systems research... I avoided the issue of defining a system. I noted that no definitions are satisfactory, and it seemed to me the essence of the subject area that none can be so. I went on to say that it is the systems approach—emphasizing lack of disciplinary boundaries, the freedom to apply knowledge, and techniques gathered in one field to problems in another, or to suggest that two distinct fields are in fact one, the disciplined freedom of the unconstrained intellect—that has been the source of dynamism and progress. I noted that perhaps the most telling progress of all is that we can so confidently speak of a common field of interest knowing that we could not, and would not wish to, agree on a definition of what a system is.
Brian R. Gaines (1979) General systems research: quo vadis?
An ecological approach to public administration builds, then, quite literally from the ground up; from the elements of a place — soils, climate, location, for example — to the people who live there — their numbers and ages and knowledge, and the ways of physical and social technology by which from the place and in relationships with one another, they get their living. It is within this setting that their instruments and practices of public housekeeping should be studied so that they may better understand what they are doing, and appraise reasonably how they are doing it. Such an approach is of particular interest to us as students seeking to co-operate in our studies; for it invites — indeed is dependent upon — careful observation by many people in different environments of the roots of government functions, civic attitudes, and operating problems.
Systems thinking is a lost art with a very practical set of tools which our consultants and l use. lt assists us and our clients' thinking, diagnoses, and actions in whatever we do... and wherever we go in a much better, more holistic and practical way than traditional methods.
Stephen G. Haines (2000) The Complete Guide to Systems Thinking and Learning. p. iv.
Stephen G. Haines (2007) Strategic and Systems Thinking: The Winning Formula. p. v.
Derek K. Hitchins (2003) Advanced Systems Thinking, Engineering, and Management. p. xv.
Systems thinking is not new; it has been around for thousands of years in many different guises. Ancient creation myths were instances of systems thinking. Operations analysis, systems analysis, failure analysis, risk analysis, corporate benefit analysis, financial modeling, quantity surveying, investment appraisal, finite element analysis, civil engineering models, economic modeling, simulations, and many more are all modern ways of thinking about systems. Imaginative visualization should be on the list, too.
What is new, perhaps, is the ready availability of powerful desktop tools that permit and enable us to think about the most complex and complicated issues and systems. Processors allow us to tackle problems of such complexity and magnitude that, without them, we would be obliged to guess. The same tools reveal unexpected complex behavior from simple systems.
Derek K. Hitchins (2003) Advanced Systems Thinking, Engineering, and Management. p. 133.
Practitioners and proponents embrace a holistic vision. They focus on the interconnections among subsystems and components, taking special note of the interfaces among various parts. What is significant is that system builders include heterogeneous components, such as mechanical, electrical, and organizational parts, in a single system. Organizational parts might be managerial structures, such as a military command, or political entities, such as a government bureau. Organizational components not only interact with technical ones but often reflect their characteristics. For instance, a management organization for presiding over the development of an intercontinental missile system might be divided into divisions that mirror the parts of the missile being designed.
Agatha C. Hughes and Thomas P. Hughes eds. Systems, Experts, and Computers: The Systems Approach in Management and Engineering, World War II and After. The MIT Press, 2000. p. 3.
Hard systems thinking is also accused of conservatism. It privileges the values and interests of its clients and customers, and lends its apparent expertise to their realization. It thus gives the facade of objectivity to changes that help to secure the status quo. In general terms, despite its many strengths and achievements, hard systems thinking is today thought of as having a limited domain of application.
Michael C. Jackson (2007) Systems Thinking: Creative Holism for Managers. p. 62.
Peter Senge (1990), Fritjof Capra (1996), Peter Checkland (1999), and other researchers have transferred systems thinking principles and theories into practice by applying them to real-world organizational- wide issues, thus encouraging the thus encouraging the creation and development of learning organizations.
Paul Keys (1991) Operational Research and Systems: The Systemic Nature of the Operational Research. p. 171.
As our world continues to change rapidly and become more complex, systems thinking will help us manage, adapt, and see the wide range of choices we have before us. It is a way of thinking that gives us the freedom to identify root causes of problems and see new opportunities.
Donella H. Meadows, Diana Wright (2012) Thinking in Systems: A Primer. p. 17.
John Mingers (2006) Realising Systems Thinking: Knowledge and Action in Management Science. p. 87.
Systems thinking is a special form of holistic thinking - dealing with wholes rather than parts. One way of thinking about this is in terms of a hierarchy of levels of biological organization and of the different 'emergent' properties that are evident in say, the whole plant (e.g. wilting) that are not evident at the level of the cell (loss of turgor). It is also possible to bring different perspectives to bear on these different levels of organization. Holistic thinking starts by looking at the nature and behaviour of the whole system that those participating have agreed to be worthy of study. This involves: (i) taking multiple partial views of 'reality'... (ii) placing conceptual boundaries around the whole, or system of interest and (iii) devising ways of representing systems of interest.
C.J. Pearson and R.L. Ison (1987/1997) Agronomy of Grassland Systems. p. 8.
Philip M'Pherson (1974). A perspective on systems science and systems philosophy. Futures, 6, pp. 219-239; As cited by: Hieronymi, A. (2013), Understanding Systems Science: A Visual and Integrative Approach. Syst. Res. doi: 10.1002/sres.2215.
Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline (1990). p. 68.
Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing the 'structures' that underlie complex situations, and for discerning high from low leverage change. That is, by seeing wholes we learn how to foster health. To do so, systems thinking offers a language that begins by restructuring how we think.
Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline (1990). p. 69.
The general systems movement has taken up the task of helping scientists unravel complexity, technologists to master it, and others to learn to live with it.
Gerald Weinberg (1975) Introduction to General Systems Thinking. p. 3.


text:
Education/Resources/Wikimedia Education database
From Outreach Wiki
< Education | Resources
Wikimedia Education Database
Events and Opportunities
The Wikimedia Education team spent the two months in between July 2018- September 2018 working on mapping the education work that Wikimedians have been doing across the globe. The community members and affiliates have adopted different documentation process at different platforms, such as Meta, Outreach Wiki, Local Wiki, to document their programs. To conduct the research, we held interviews with individual program leaders, scanned newsletters, grant proposals, Facebook pages, and country pages, and looked at the various databases within the network. Needless to say, an impressive number of volunteer leaders have worked together and partnered with institutions in their local communities to help create and spread knowledge.
We believe that the centralised document of the Education Programs will help educators and community leaders to understand the strategies, ideas and workflow followed by different affiliates and education leaders, which can be localised into different contexts. We are still relying heavily on the whole Wikimedia Education community to help complete the information we may have missed using their own knowledge of the work being done within their communities, and the sources they have accessible to them.
Find out who is doing what in the Wikimedia Education movement.
Retrieved from "https://outreach.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Education/Resources/Wikimedia_Education_database&oldid=212162"
Edit-a-thons
Users by skillset
Wikipedia store
Wikiversity Beta
About Outreach Wiki


Frocket is a cool online Unity 3D game in which your prime objective is to reach the cupcake at the end of each level. There are stars to be collected from the surrounding in order to help unlock the new levels. The superb graphics of the game enhances the already interesting features of the game. There are 15 spectacular levels featured here in the game.


text:
Languages of New York, via Twitter
Maps / language, Twitter
In a follow-up to their map on most used languages in London, James Cheshire and Ed Manley, along with John Barratt, mapped the most commonly used languages in New York, based on the ones used on Twitter.
English (in grey above) is by far the most popular with Spanish (in blue above) taking the top spot amongst the other language groups. Portuguese and Japanese take third and fourth respectively. Midtown Manhattan and JFK International Airport have, perhaps unsurprisingly, the most linguistically diverse tweets whilst specific languages shine through in places such as Brighton Beach (Russian), the Bronx (Spanish) and towards Newark (Portuguese). You can also spot international clusters on Liberty Island and Ellis Island and if you look carefully the tracks of ferry boats between them.
Beaker allows data exploration in various languages
Endangered languages project
Mapping Twitter demographics
Iranon — February 27, 2013 at 11:07 am
Notable that Chinese isn't present despite the sizable population. I'm guessing they use different apps (QQ and the like).
AVEbrahimi — February 27, 2013 at 10:05 pm
Great chart
I suggest adding numbers to all languages in chart, it's good to know all of them.
The Most Unisex Names in US History
Moving on from the most trendy names in US history, …
Data Underload #17: Famous Movie Quotes, p. 2
Carpe diem. Seize the data, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.
If We All Left to "Go Back Where We Came From"
Imagine that those with immigrants in their family tree left the country. Almost everyone, basically.
Firearms Dealers vs. Burgers, Pizza, and Coffee
As of May 2016, there were 64,432 licensed firearms dealers and pawnbrokers, which got me wondering how that compares to other businesses.


text:
Q: Invalid Datatype CREATE table flight_details(
flight_id char(10),
flight_date date,
flight_time time,
flight_place varchar2(50),
tp_id char(8),
primary key (flight_id),
foreign key (tp_id) references travel_package(tp_id));

when i execute this
this error appear
flight_time time,
            *
ERROR at line 4:
ORA-00902: invalid datatype
How to solve this?

A: timestamp instead of time
CREATE table flight_details(
flight_id char(10),
flight_date date,
flight_time timestamp,
flight_place varchar2(50),
tp_id char(8),
primary key (flight_id),
foreign key (tp_id) references travel_package(tp_id));

A: Use interval day(0) to second instead of time data type for flight_time column.
and refer this link https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/42084/most-efficient-and-practical-way-to-store-time-values-hhmm-in-oracle-that-mak


text:
Q: Sum column of renderDataTable in RShiny and store results in dataframe for later use Not sure if I am taking the right approach here but I have created a Shiny app which works as expected.
It takes data from source and presents it as a chart and also as a table when user hits execute button.
Code for reprex below. Some functionality removed for simplicity.
library(shiny)

ui <- fluidPage(

  actionButton("exe", "Run",
               style="color: #fff; background-color: #337ab7; border-color: #2e6da4"),

  mainPanel(

    DT::dataTableOutput("datatable"),

  ))

server <- function(input, output, session) {

  ga_data <- eventReactive( input$exe, {

    the_date <- as.Date(c('2020-03-01','2020-03-02','2020-03-03','2020-03-04','2020-03-05' ))
    users <- c(346, 223, 167, 431, 293)
    employ.data <- data.frame(the_date, users)

  })

  output$datatable <- DT::renderDataTable({
    req(ga_data())
    ga_data <- ga_data()

    })

  }

  shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)

What I actually want to do however, is take the sum of the column 'users' and store that single value (1460) in its own variable or dataframe for later use in the code (eg as the denominator for calculating a conversion rate) and have the table NOT visible to the user.
Any help appreciated.

A: Sure, we can store the sum of the column 'users' and not have the table visible. Note the use of the <<-, that makes sure the value is available anywhere, not just in the place it was created.
library(shiny)

ui <- fluidPage(

  actionButton("exe", "Run", style="color: #fff; background-color: #337ab7; border-color: #2e6da4"),

  mainPanel(plotOutput('myplot'))

)

server <- function(input, output, session) {

    ga_data <- eventReactive(input$exe, {

        the_date <- as.Date(c('2020-03-01', '2020-03-02', '2020-03-03', '2020-03-04', '2020-03-05'))
        users <- c(346, 223, 167, 431, 293)
        employ.data <- data.frame(the_date, users)

        #Store the sum of the column 'users' in a global variable, so we can use it anywhere later
        employ.data.sum <<- sum(employ.data$users, na.rm = TRUE)
        showNotification(paste("The sum of the column 'users' has been stored and is ready to use anywhere. Its", employ.data.sum))

        employ.data

    })

    output$myplot <- renderPlot({
        req(ga_data())
        plot(employ.data)
    })

}

shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)


text:
Cai Guo-Qiang creates artwork from fire and gunpowder
March 25, 2019 - Exhibitions
In a explosive display, one of the world's most dynamic contemporary artists currently working, Cai Guo-Qiang, created a gunpowder drawing Transience II (Peony) in Melbourne last week.
The 31 metre art work created from fire and gunpowder is the largest of three works to be presented as part of the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces that opens at NGV International on 24 May 2019.
Located in a Williamstown warehouse, Cai drew complex patterns in gunpowder, layered upon 11 sections of silk before igniting it. The designed explosion scorches the intricate patterns onto the silk canvas, depicting the blooming process of the peony flower in reference to ancient Chinese culture.
"I've used gunpowder in my art for the past 30 years," said Cai Guo-Qiang. "What I like most about it is its spontaneity and unpredictability. Every situation is different. It's an unkown which you will accomplish with the help of an invisible force."
Inspired by ancient Chinese culture and its enduring philosophical traditions, Cai has created all new works including Transience II for the NGV's world premiere exhibition, Cai Guo-Qiang: The Transient Landscape presented in parallel with Terracotta Warriors: Guardians of Immortality.
The exhibition will also feature a sculpture of porcelain peonies as well as a monumental installation of 10,000 suspended porcelain birds. Spiraling over visitors' heads, the birds create a three-dimensional impression of a calligraphic drawing of the sacred Mount Li – the site of the ancient tomb of China's first emperor, Qin Shihuang, and his warriors. Cai will also collaborate on the exhibition's design, creating immersive environments for the presentation of both his work and the Terracotta Warriors.
"Cai Guo-Qiang is one of the most exciting contemporary artists working today," said Tony Ellwood AM, Director NGV. "Cai's practice draws parallels between ancient and contemporary Chinese culture, through the use of Chinese inventions like gunpowder, porcelain, silk and paper, exploring the notion that tradition and history can inform contemporary art."
Presented in parallel, Terracotta Warriors: Guardians of Immortality is a large-scale presentation of the Qin Emperor's Terracotta Warriors, which, discovered in 1974 in China's Shaanxi province, are regarded as one of the greatest archaeological finds of the twentieth century and widely described as the eighth wonder of the world.
The exhibition will feature eight warrior figures and two life-size horses from the Imperial Army, as well as two half-size replica bronze chariots, each drawn by four horses.
Terracotta Warriors: Guardians of Immortality and Cai Guo-Qiang: The Transient Landscape will be on display from 24 May 2019 – 13 October 2019 as part of the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces program. For more information, visit: www.ngv.vic.gov.au for details.
Image: Cai Guo-Qiang, the making of Transience II (Peony) – photo by Tim Carrafa


The story starts at the beginning of Winter. 'Dear Autumn' is the creation of Dallas-based sample-wizard post-wave producer Mitrxxx and as he put it, the track is a 'display of the cold and despair that comes with winter and how we don't really appreciate Autumn until she's gone'. The second track 'Vicissitude' comes from Baxtak. Referring to he meaning of the song title being a sudden change in circumstance, this song represents the unpredictable elements of winter; how one minute all can be sunny and one minute there could be a hailstorm.
The final lightning start of the winter makes room of an epic build to the moment of Equinox.; to the moment when day and night are finally equal and the solar positioning resets the cycle. This cinematic interlude to the Equinox is a chilling deep ambient track by Scandinavian producer and composer Nyanara. Leading into the the equinox moment, the track 'Revolution' is a collaboration between UK-based multi-genre producer Mettakin and Nepali reggae/dub producer Cultivation Muzik. This track is a lyrical onslaught of truth and its as anthemic as youth mobilizing reggae dub love anthems go.
The morning after the revolution. The calm after the storm. The first dawn of spring. The moment of renewal. Canada-based Kurt Funk came out with this liquid drum and bass track which evolves from a frosty dawn, with the sun peaking out the horizon, into a spiraling barrage of living and breathing sounds. Finally, as the warmth of spring approaches, Koyo, our representative from the island of New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean, this song is based around that post-winter remembrance feeling that hands can be warm without support.
Last but not least, Ian Jones provided this beautiful artwork for the album, clearly portraying what Outtallectuals represent, and what the theme of this album requires.
The album and the artwork are freely available for download on Bandcamp. Enjoy, share, support, repeat!
All track credits are enlisted within the individual tracks.


Come and enjoy the Annapolis Film Festival!
Join the Big Apple Circus at National Harbor! Times vary.
Come and see the wonderful story of Peter Pan come to life!
Don't miss an opportunity to spend a day with Thomas the Tank Engine at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore!


Do you need to pick a senior home care facility for your ageing mother or father? If he or she currently lives alone and needs extra help that you are not always able to provide, searching for the best senior home care Massachusetts has to offer is something you should start doing in advance because you need to gather as much information on these different places as possible. While different facilities are available, some places may simply cater more to the needs of your aging parent than others.


In Lightwave 8.3, I'm trying to follow the Hamish character from the book "Cartoon Character Creation". One of the steps involves the 'cut' tool (Multiply-Subdivide-Cut).
I have used this tool successfully before, but when trying to cut a certain row of polygon, I get the unusual error message, "trying to access indexed set out of bounds". That has to have been written by a programmer. Does anyone know what this means in English, and what I should do about it?


Today the Daily Gleaner continued their previews of each of the six participating teams at this year's University Cup by looking at UNB's two opponents, the #6 ranked UQTR Patriotes and #4 ranked Western Mustangs. Both articles via UNB Athletics.
"Patriotes could be tournament sleeper"
"Mustangs focus on what's ahead"
They have previously taken a look at both Moncton and McGill.
Also, the CIS has their lengthy tournament preview here.


London-based quartet Yuck presented their third and latest studio album with a moody show at the Great American Music Hall last month.
Formed in 2009, the band consists of drummer Jonny Rogoff, guitarist Ed Hayes, bassist Mariko Doi and lead vocalist/guitarist Max Bloom. Stranger Things is the name of Yuck's brand-new LP, which came out more than a month ago, and according to Wikipedia, the four-piece recorded it in Bloom's parents' house in London.
It was a small crowd at GAMH for a Saturday night, and the wait for Yuck to finally play felt long enough. But after Big Thief and Vaadat Charigim performed opening sets, these four rockers finally hit the stage.
Their sound is regarded as shoegaze, and it does echo something pretty outdated. Then again, the 90's revival is right around the corner — in which case, Yuck could be the sound of a new trend, a recycle of sounds if you will. If you go green on this analogy, make sure to also check out DIIV from Brooklyn, N.Y.