PlayStation's parent company details financial forecast.
Sony Corporation has posted a forecast for its financial year ending March 31, 2017, and projected it will sell 20 million PlayStation 4 consoles in this period.
This, according to Sony, represents an 8.3 percent rise in overall sales compared to the previous year. It believes "PS4 software sales including sales through the network" and "PS4 hardware unit sales" will both contribute to the overall increase.
Currently, total PS4 sales are believed to be around 40 million units. With the projected sales included, this would bring the PS4's global sales to 60 million.
By comparison, the PlayStation 3 has sold more than 80 million units worldwide as of November 2013, which was seven years after its initial launch.
The PS4 has been available for three years.
In February 2016, analysts said the PS4 will go on to sell more than 100 million units worldwide before its lifecycle is over. This is a milestone that only five other consoles have reached.


text: ( na numeração romana) foi um ano bissexto do século VI, do Calendário Juliano, da Era de Cristo, teve início a um domingo e terminou a uma segunda-feira, com as Letras dominicais A e G.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


It's that time of the month again. We're sharing what we've been up to with Experience God. This month, we're learning about how God asks us to seek him and our memory verse is from Luke 12:34.
It's seriously cute. Last month was kinda the same thing, except it was the God's Gift to Us Creative Bible Story Art with cornstarch noodles.
Mother Goose Time definitely knows little kids. From the awesome themes to the fun activities that we both look forward to, there's never any disappointment. This curriculum is such a huge blessing for us and we totally couldn't live without it. I mean, it's been almost two years of getting a little yellow school bus box every month.
Can you even wrap your head around that? The little guy is about to turn four. We started Mother Goose Time on his second birthday. Literally. I opened our very first preschool curriculum kit (It was A to Zoo Animals, by the way. That theme will always have a special place in my heart.) that Monday after we had finished celebrating his birthday.
He thought that preschool was tons of fun that day and obviously some things never change. That's especially true when you're working with a company as wonderful as this one.
If you're interested in making one of these fun, colorful birds with your little kids, then definitely keep reading.
Ask: What do you think a bird needs to stay strong? What do you need to be strong?
Just as God provides food for the birds, he provides food for us.
We need to eat to stay physically strong and healthy. We need to read the Bible and pray to stay spiritually strong and healthy.
Fold the circle in half with the bible verse inside. If you're trying this at home without a kit, cut out a large circle from a piece of color cardstock and write the following verse from Matthew 6:26 inside.
Decorate the half circle with feathers and wiggle eyes to make it looks like a bird.
Use the yellow paper for the beak and other decorations.
Open up the bird to read the bible verse inside.
Explain: God feeds our bodies and our hearts so that we are strong like him.
Of course the little guy loved the feathers and the glue. Going into an activity like this, I can always kind of anticipate what he'll be into and what he wont. Like I've said before, he's all about anything and everything messy at this point.
Don't forget to check back if you're interested in seeing what we're up to with our It's A Small World theme. And if you missed our preschool space post, you can check it out here.


Ummmmm. . .anyone see my phone booth?
This pretty much sums up my week. . .
Several faithful HancAquam readers have written to ask if I am discerning whether or not to continue blogging. . .
No, that's not what I am discerning. HancAquam will continue on. . .
I'm discerning questions around the future of my ministry here in Rome. I will not be teaching in the spring as I had hoped. In fact, there will be no teaching for me here until (and if) I finish the Ph.D. That could be two years or more.
I came to Rome with the distinct impression that I would be able to teach as a junior member of the faculty with the license only. Once here I discovered that the Vatican had signed the Bologna Accords (yet another power-grab by the E.U. statists to create a federalized Europe) and now pontifical universities can only allow as teaching faculty those with Ph.D.'s in their respective fields. So, now I have to get the Ph.D.
Recently, I learned that I wouldn't even be able to teach as a "graduate assistant" w/o the doctorate. None of the license exams can be taken until the French translation exam is passed. And there's almost no chance that I will pass that in Jan. So, all my rushing to complete the license this semester has been in vain. Well, not entirely. . .at least the thesis is more or less done.
My discernment question is: are my gifts being used here? At U.D. I was able to teach in the two fields in which I have competence--English and theology. I celebrated Mass four or five times a week, preaching at all of them. I heard confessions and did a lot of spiritual direction. In other words, I was a priest who also happened to teach at a Catholic university. My gifts were being used. . .sometimes to the stretching point! But here? Not so much. It's not clear to me why anyone needs to be a priest to do what I am doing here now.
Don't get me wrong. . .I love the time I have to read and write, and learning is one of my passions. Truly, it is a luxury. But I joined the Dominicans to be a preacher not a professor. . .or maybe a preacher who is also a professor. Had I wanted to spend my life as an academic I could have done so w/o becoming a priest or a Dominican.
The other issue is the need the Order has for Dominican professors in our international centers of study, especially in philosophy. We are drowning in theologians and canon lawyers! But Dominican philosophers are as hard to find as my skills in foreign languages and math.
On top of all this navel-gazing, I rec'd three other bits of unsettling news yesterday . None of which I can share. All of which are hitting me with an odd combination of vocation-questioning power.
Anyway, please pray for me. None of this is meant to be final. . .just thinking and praying and ruminating out loud. I'll do what is needed of me. . .but I'm searching for a way to understand it all.
Let's do the math: Started college at 18 y.o. I'm 45 y.o. now. I've spent 19 yrs of those 27 years between 1982 and now as a student. Can I get an AMEN on "I've been a student too long!" :-) And, yes, I know. . .good Dominicans are life-long students. But there's a big difference btw being an enrolled student and Being a Student. I could take my father's advice: "Shut up and enjoy it. They could make you go to work!" HA!
UPDATE 2.0: Something else just occurred to me. . .if you are a professional (doctor, lawyer, teacher, banker, etc.) imagine spending ALL of your time with other doctors, lawyers, teacher,s bankers, etc. I mean, ALL of your time. You live with them. Eat with them. Go to church with them. All of your mundane, daily tasks are done in the midst of them. Perhaps I am just longing to be around everyday Catholics. . .
Hmmmm. . .I suddenly feel very normal. . .
and begin to slit throats"
Slow blogging for the next week. . .I have some things to "sort out" (as the Brits say).
The meeting with my thesis director went well last night. He suggested a few minor changes. . .mostly just to clarify terms and make sharper distinctions. No major revisions will be necessary!
I am writing the concluding chapter (10-15 pgs.), cleaning up the hundreds of typos, expanding the footnotes, and starting on the dreaded bibliography.
Most of the friars will be headed out for the Christmas break in the morning, so the place will be very quiet. . .nearly abandoned, in fact, for about a month.
Plenty of time to go deeper into Seclusion Mode and start studying for comps, writing exam questions, and learning French. Ugh.
Nawwwww. . .priests should never be political, never call politicians on their human rights abuses, never say a word against genocide, torture, abortion, totalitarianism, racial and religious persecution.
This guy, for instance, should have just kept his big mouth shut. Just better for everyone. . .no, really.
Transubstantiation and the Real Presence?
1). Can you explain transubstantiation and the Real Presence?
Transubstantiation is a philosophical concept the Church uses to explain the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Trans means change and substance means what a thing is fundamentally. So, we hold that by the prayer and action of the priest, bread and wine are changed into the substance of the Body and Blood of Christ. As an explanation of the Real Presence transubstantiation is not dogmatic.* The Real Presence that results from the process we call transubstantiation is dogmatic.
The term "transubstantiation" comes out of an Aristotelian metaphysics introduced to Catholic theology by Thomas Aquinas. The term predates Thomas in theological use, but he made it popular by teasing out all its philosophical and theological implications. For example, he is able to explain how the substance of bread and wine are changed (what they are) but remain true in their accidents (how they are perceived by the senses).
Probably the most common confusion among Catholics is the use of the word "substance." Even a very quick review of the history of this term will demonstrate that it has had a long and extraordinarily complex history. In modern English, we use the term to mean "stuff" or "materiality." Think of "substance abuse" or "an unidentified substance was found at the crime scene." This is not its meaning in metaphysics. In transubstantiation, "substance" refers to the basic nature of the bread and wine/Body and Blood, i.e. what a thing is most fundamentally. What bread and wine are most fundamentally is changed into what Christ's Body and Blood are most fundamentally.
When we teach the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, we mean that Christ is substantially present under the appearance of bread and wine. Typically, we use the phrase "sacramentally present." In an effort to defend the Real Presence, some have said that "Real Presence" means "physically present," i.e. present in such a way that the consecrated elements can be chemically analyzed to produce DNA or blood type. Rather than being a defense of the Real Presence, this is actually a capitulation to material science. How? By defining the "really Real" as material. There are things in Catholic theology that are real yet not materially verifiable: God, angels, souls, etc. We do not have to surrender the Real to material science in order to understand reality.**It is far greater and more complex than the sum total of the physical objects and processes in nature.
Christ is present in the Eucharist "in the fullest sense." To restrict his presence to the merely physical is to deny the fullest of his true presence. No doubt my sharp commenters will point out that Pope Paul VI goes on to write with regard to the sacred species: ". . .beneath which Christ is present whole and entire in His physical 'reality,' corporeally present. . ." Very true. What is often left out of the quotation is the final phrase that defines what he means by "corporeally present." The rest of the sentence is ". . .although not in the manner in which bodies are in a place" (MF 46). Here the Holy Father is paraphrasing Thomas' teaching found in the Summa (III.76.5).
So, what does it mean for Christ to be corporeally present but not in the way that bodies occupy a place? Thomas writes in the Summa (III.76.1, ad 3): As has been already stated after the consecration of the bread into the body of Christ, or of the wine into His blood, the accidents of both remain. From which it is evident that the dimensions of the bread or wine are not changed into the dimensions of the body of Christ, but substance into substance. And so the substance of Christ's body or blood is under this sacrament by the power of the sacrament, but not the dimensions of Christ's body and blood. IOW, Christ physical presence is located within the spatial dimensions of the sacred species. Imagine your pastor praying the consecration prayer over the paten and chalice at Mass. . .BOOM!. . .now he has a full grown Jesus standing on his altar! This is not what "corporeally present" means. REMEMBER: "Real" is not limited to "material stuff."
We have to avoid two extremes in thinking about the Real Presence. First, we must reject the materialist/physicalist notion that the sacred species can be chemically analyzed to discover human genetic material. This is a failed defense against science that actually adopts the premises of the attackers. Belief based on evidence is not faith. Second, we must reject the "mere symbol" school of thought that reduces Christ's presence to being merely symbolic. As always, the Church takes the middle way: Christ is sacramentally present as a sign (not just a symbol) of God's real presence among us. Signs both point to and make present that which they signify.
* The Council of Trent teaches that the process of achieving the Real Presence of Christ is "suitably and properly called Transubstantiation" (XIII.4). IOW, if you don't like transubstantiation as an explanation for how the Real Presence is achieved, you have to come up with something else that entirely preserves the dogmatic elements of the Real Presence. There are other ways to explain the Real Presence, but they tend to fall short of the ideal. Also, it is important to note: the Church has never dogmatically taught a philosophical doctrine.
** "The presence of Christ's true body and blood in this sacrament cannot be detected by sense, nor understanding, but by faith alone, which rests upon Divine authority" (Summa III.75.1).
"Saving the planet" is NOT about rescuing Mother Gaia from the evils of capitalist industrialization. We serve the greater dignity of the human person by being good stewards of creation. Those of us who refuse to be bullied by the Panic Industry of Climate Alarmism are not anti-environment. It is entirely possible to be fervently against pollution, waste, etc. without following the Alarmist Lemmings off the cap and tax cliff.
If the Church's magisterium expresses grave misgivings about notions of the environment inspired by ecocentrism and biocentrism, it is because such notions eliminate the difference of identity and worth between the human person and other living things. In the name of a supposedly egalitarian vision of the "dignity" of all living creatures, such notions end up abolishing the distinctiveness and superior role of human beings. They also open the way to a new pantheism tinged with neo-paganism, which would see the source of man's salvation in nature alone, understood in purely naturalistic terms. The Church, for her part, is concerned that the question be approached in a balanced way, with respect for the "grammar" which the Creator has inscribed in his handiwork by giving man the role of a steward and administrator with responsibility over creation, a role which man must certainly not abuse, but also one which he may not abdicate. In the same way, the opposite position, which would absolutize technology and human power, results in a grave assault not only on nature, but also on human dignity itself.
New blog to check out: St Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association.
And Fr. Gerald Mendoza, OP (a novitate classmate of mine) has rebooted his blog: In Spiritu et Veritate.
In the great Christian epic poem, Paradise Lost, John Milton portrays the fall of God's angel, Satan, using four simple words: "I will not serve!" Confronted by the Archangel Michael, the rebellious Satan is ordered to submit to the will of the Father and conform to his angelic nature—to be a servant of the Almighty. Satan is poisoned by pride and a lust for power, famously declaring, "Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n." He justifies his rebellion against heaven's King by appealing to the injustice of God's rule, describing his Creator as "our grand foe [. . .] Sole reigning holds the Tyranny of Heav'n." Adding rank hypocrisy to his list of sins, Satan establishes himself as the sole tyrant of Pandemonium (Hell), thus demonstrating that he is willing to serve after all, so long as it is his own will that he serves and no other. "Non serviam—I will not serve!" is the rallying cry for generations of those who know better, do better, feel better, and think better than He Who created them. The difference between the rebellious angel and rebellious man is that the man or woman who refuses God's service can repent and embrace the goodness of their Creator's beatific plan. Advent is a time for us to examine our willingness to serve, to be working servants of God for one another.
Jesus sets before the chief priests and elders a question about two brothers. The first refuses to serve his father but changes his mind and does as he is ordered. The second readily agrees to serve but never does. The question Jesus asks is: which one of the two did his father's will? In the end, both agreed to serve, but only the first brother actually served. The priests and elders correctly answer that the first brother, despite his initial refusal, does his father's will. Rather than praising the priests and elders for their wisdom, Jesus condemns them for their disobedience to John the Baptist. He says, "Yet even when you saw [prostitutes and tax collectors believe and repent], you did not later change your minds and believe him." Like the fallen angels before them, the priests and elders said, "Non serviam—I will not serve." Their stubborn refusal to believe John's message—despite the faithful witness of the worst sinners—leaves them abandoned on the wreck of sin and last in line to enter the Kingdom, if they enter at all.
It is important that we are clear about exactly what it is that Jesus is condemning. More than their disbelief, Jesus is condemning the priests and elders for ignoring the evidence of God's mercy in the repentance of the worst sinners among them. It's not that the priests and elders disbelieve; it's that they disbelieve even after they have been shown direct evidence of God's power to transform disobedient lives. In his question about the two brothers, Jesus is careful to show that the first brother refuses to serve at first but later changes his mind and faithfully serves. The second brother easily agrees to serve but does not follow his brother's example and change his mind about actually serving. It is not enough that we say we will do the Father's will. That's easy. We must follow through and actually serve, really do the work given to us. Heart, mind, hands must all serve together to do His will. Any one of these—heart, mind, hands—can say, "I will not serve" and all three are sent to the back of the line that waits to enter the Kingdom.
While waiting for the coming of the Lord among us at Christmas, we are given the chance to change our minds about serving the Father's will. We cannot deceive ourselves as Satan did and believe that b/c we will not serve God we do not serve anyone at all. Refusing to serve God is nothing more than serving one's own will. That's not the freedom that brings us to Christ. Satan preaches that God's tyranny in heaven is slavery. But pride, especially the pride of "Non serviam," is a self-imposed slavery—a slave wrapping himself in the chains of rebellion. Watch the prostitutes and tax collectors. They are free in the service of their Father's will.
On becoming a hermeneut. . .not a hermit!
Some very observant HancAquam readers have noticed and commented upon recent changes in the WISH LIST.
Once stocked with a healthy selection of philosophy of science books, the List is now populated by tomes on divine revelation, epistemology, and hermeneutics.
Have I abandoned philosophy of science for theology? No.
Writing the thesis has revealed to me a number of deficiencies not only in self-discipline but also in my general understanding of science. My thesis subject, the Rev'd Dr. John Polkinghorne, an Anglican priest and quantum physicist, frequently uses examples from his scientific specialty to illustrate philosophical and theological insights.
So long as he remains mostly on the side of theology, I can follow his argument. However, when he lapses into the arcane yet beautiful world of mathematics and quantum theory, I am lost. . .completely lost. The only way I could be any more lost would be if he were writing in Tang Dynasty Chinese. . .with his left hand.
A license thesis is a fairly straightforward review of the literature and critical evaluation of the chosen topic. Seventy-pages. A dissertation, however, is a 250-300 page project that exhibits competency in the relevant literature and makes an original contribution to the field. If I have trouble subtracting 39 from 46 w/o a calculator, I have no business trying to contribute anything original to the field of philosophy of science.
I would feel confident teaching the basic concepts and methods of the philosophy of science to undergrads, but conducting a graduate seminar would be a test of my intellectual limits and a test of my students' patience.
So, I am not abandoning philosophy of science; rather, I am shifting my focus to philosophical theology, more specifically, to those questions raised by the epistemology of divine revelation. The most exciting questions (to me anyway) in this field involve explorations of divine hiddenness and how philosophers can help theologians navigate the rocky seas between faith and reason in the development of doctrine. Imagine for a moment delving into the philosophical assumptions of the "Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation" (Dei verbum) promulgated by Vatican Two! I know, right?
This is where philosophical hermeneutics comes in. . .and my training in literary theory and poetry. Hermeneutics is the art and science of interpretation. The general field of hermeneutics is as old as poetry itself. Think of Aristotle's Poetics. The early Church Fathers spent a great deal of time thinking and writing about how to interpret scripture (Origen, Augustine). After the Nicene Council in 325 A.D., theologians and philosophers argued about how to interpret the creed, etc. Philosophical hermeneutics is a more recent development (mostly Germans: Scheliermacher, Dilthy, Gadamer). Rather than prescribing fixed interpretative models for finding and extracting meaning from texts, P.H. pulls interpreters back from the reading process and challenges them to think about themselves as readers in philosophical terms. For lack of a better term, P.H. is about meta-interpretation: what are your assumptions about texts, readers, meaning, language, communication, etc.?
A shaky analogy: as philosophy of science is to scientists, philosophical hermeneutics is to philosophers/theologians. I wonder if theologians and philosophers are any friendlier to P.H. than scientists are to philosophy of science. . .
Bottom-line: without abandoning philosophy of science, I am expanding my interests to include philosophical hermeneutics and at the same time narrowing my focus to religious epistemology.
Now, time for more coffee! This post burned up all my stored caffeine. . .
How do you wait for a revelation?
Three words come to mind on Gaudete Sunday: joy, expectation, revelation. Since Advent is a penitential season we could easily add penance to the list. But like Laudete Sunday during Lent, Gaudete Sunday breaks the fast of the season, giving us a peek at the coming revelation of the incarnation. These "times off" were likely much more welcomed in ages past. Fasting and abstinence were a bit more severe and a Sunday spent partying a week before Christmas and Easter served to relieve the burden of penance, giving faithful souls a boost for the final week of soaking in the mortality of the flesh. Nowadays, we jump from Thanksgiving straight to Christmas without much of anything in between. This is an old complaint among us Advent Nazis, one that falls on ears deafened by hypnotizing muzaked carols and the cha-ching of the cash register. Try as we might, those of us who push Advent as its own season usually fail in our mission, managing only to foist upon Christmas-happy Catholics modest concessions in displaying seasonal symbols and the occasional scheduling of a communal penance service. I'm told again and again, "Stop being Father Grinch, Father!" With great pastoral sensitivity and an ear to the popular mood, I usually just release an exasperated sigh and do my best to preach that without a sense of expectation, waiting is useless to our growth in holiness; without a sense of the hidden, revelation has nothing to reveal; and without a little holy fear, joy is just a mood-stabilizer for the bubble-headed. Gaudete Sunday, properly understood, is more than a peek at the holiday to come; it is a expectant-peek into the unveiling of our joy in Christ.
We re-joice. We en-joy. We can be joy-ful. We can take delight in; be gladden by; we can relish, appreciate, and even savor. We can be satiated and satisfied. Where do we find joy, discover what gladdens us? And why? Why do find joy in this but not that? Why aren't we gladden by all that God has made? Why isn't everyone joyful? St. Thomas gives us an important (if somewhat dry) insight: "[. . .] joy is caused by love, either through the presence of the thing loved, or because the proper good of the thing loved existed and endures in it [. . .] Hence joy is not a virtue distinct from charity, but an act, or effect, of charity"(ST II-II 28.1, 4). Joy is an effect of love. Love causes joy. Where there is no love, there can be no joy. This may sound simple enough, but how often have you heard joy explicitly linked to the virtue of charity, the good habit of loving for the sake of love alone? Don't we usually think of rejoicing, of being joyful, as a temporary emotional spike in an otherwise hum-drum existence? We move along the day in a comfortable flat-line until something happens to us that lifts our spirit, bumps the happy meter up a peg or two. Then the line goes flat again, waiting for the next spike, for the next jump to excite the bored soul.
If love is the food and drink of the Body, then Christian joy can not be a temporary condition, an momentary infection easily defeated by the chores of survival. As beings made in the image and likeness of Love Himself, our very existence—forget our acts; forget our thoughts and attitudes—just-being-here is evidence of love's sustaining power. It is the holy will of a loving God that we Are, just that we live, move, and have our being in Him. From this gift alone we can nourish and harvest a formidable holiness! If God is love and love causes joy; and if we are made in the image and likeness of God who is love; then we are love embodied. We were made to cause joy. But because we too often seek the raw counsel of mere survival—forgetting love and strangling joy;—because we run after things that cannot love us; because we work ourselves bloody toward the low horizon of worldly achievements; because of disobedience and sin, we require a push toward, a tug from Love Himself. One name for this tug, this divine seduction is The Incarnation.
Just as we wait for the Easter resurrection during Lent, we wait for the incarnation during Advent. On Easter morning, the tomb is emptied of our crucified Lord and he ascends to the Father. On Christmas morning, the Son is emptied of his divinity, and he descends to become a servant, a man like us. Before the tomb is emptied, before the Son is emptied, we wait a season with penitential hearts. We do not set aside our joy to mourn; rather, because we are joyful, our failure to always be the cause of joy in others is made all too apparent. The contrast and conflict between who we were made to be and who we have become is sharpened by penitential mourning, by regret and repentance, giving us the chance to see and hear that the perfection of our joy is coming among us—the Incarnation. He emptied himself to become our sin so that our joy might be complete.
What are we waiting for during Advent? A revelation, an unveiling. We expect his arrival in the flesh because we know that he loves us. Our penitential waiting seasons our rejoicing, salts our anticipation, adding to the food and drink of the Body the fullness of both our confessed failures and the assurance of His forgiveness. But if we do not wait; if we fail to seek out what is hidden; if we will not love one for another; then, we cannot expect a joyful revelation. We can expect Santa Claus and Christmas hams and brightly wrapped presents. But we cannot expect to see and hear the birth of our Lord among us. If, after the long season of Lent, we expect the tomb to be empty on Easter morning, then we must expect the Son to be emptied on Christmas day. Without the coming of Christ, Christ never arrives.
Advent is set aside for us to mourn our failures to love. Gaudete Sunday is set aside so that we are reminded of creation's coming Joy. We have one more week to wait. What is it that you are waiting for? More importantly, who are you waiting for and how are you waiting?
Apparently, they don't teach logic in Islamic universities. . .
Homily is percolating. . .
There's a Gaudete Sunday homily in the works. . .
I was up at 3.30am with a bad case of acid reflux. Worked for a while. Went to Mauds (Lauds + Mass). Crashed again.
Got up. Read what I had written in the wee hours and deleted it. Now, I'm starting over.
Also, the Blackwell Anthology of Modern Philosophy arrived. No shipping invoice, no return address. So, thanks to the generous soul who sent it to the Angelicum library!


text:
'Countless atrocities against civilians and their stories of pains and sorrows made me want to work for justice.' ‒ Interview with Hassan Ali Faiz, Research Director of Civil Society and Human Rights Network (CSHRN)
9 November 2020 5:28 pm
In this month's e-newsletter, FORUM-ASIA talked with Hassan Ali Faiz, Research Director of the Civil Society and Human Rights Network (CSHRN), FORUM-ASIA's member in Afghanistan. In the interview, Faiz shared with us how the discrimination and almost-complete execution of the Hazara ethnic group to which he belong motivated him to fight for human rights.
How did you become involved with human rights? And how did you become involved with FORUM-ASIA?
Back in the 1990s as a child living as a refugee in Pakistan, I first read the word 'human rights' on a signboard. At that time, I wasn't aware of its true meaning, but still, I figured out it was something related to justice and being equal. It was something new and intuitively fascinating for me, but I couldn't really understand how a refugee and a citizen, how the poor and the rich, could be equal. It was probably interesting to me because I lacked all these privileges.
In the late 1980s, we had to seek asylum in Pakistan following the murder of my three uncles and relatives in the war against the Russians and later in the Afghan civil war. I can still remember the Russians bombing villages and how we had to seek shelter and hide in small underground tunnel dugs. We had to flee to mountains where there were roads to hide when the Russians were advancing toward our village to pursue the Mujahideen. Sometimes my father would wake us up in the middle of the night, tell us to pack quickly, load the donkeys with essential clothes and food, and get ready to go.
Later, during the civil war among ethnic groups, even neighbours would fight with neighbours. The years of civil war ultimately led to the emergence of a more brutal force, the Taliban, who castigated anyone who would dare to defy their rulings. An ultra-radical group coming from one ethnic group ruthlessly crushed and suppressed all other ethnic groups.
The events that ranged from the Russian invasion to civil war and the Taliban's brutal ruling left behind countless incidents of human rights violations, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The more prevalent and severe human rights violations were hurting many Afghans deep inside. For many Afghans who became human rights activists later, the driving force was the injustice inflicted on them directly or to their country fellow men and women. I was one of them. Countless atrocities against civilians and their stories of pains and sorrows made me want to work for justice.
In 2003, I returned to Afghanistan after living for over a decade in wartime exile. In 2004 I joined the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) – a newly established human rights institution to protect and promote human rights in the country. Over the years, I learnt more and more about human rights. As I learnt more, I became more interested in this noble cause.
As the armed conflict intensifies in Afghanistan and civilians bear the brunt of war, the prospect for human rights to be respected in this country looks less promising. Even though our struggles for protecting human rights don't seem to be very fruitful, what keeps the momentum alive is the feeling of doing something positive and being helpful to someone in complete despair. This feeling might seem little, but it still gives you a sense of inner peace. It is important to feel that you are fighting for a cause and struggling to instill the claim for justice, as a few noble human causes have appeared to fade away in many societies.
In 2013, after I stopped working with the AIHRC, I met two people from the Asian NGO Network on Nation Human Rights Institutions (ANNI) during their visit to Kabul. They persuaded my organisation to write about the National Human Rights Institution's performance and establishment for the Afghanistan's chapter of the ANNI Report. Later on, in 2014 and in 2015, I wrote two reports on the performance and establishment of Afghanistan's Human Rights Institution. These were my first engagements with FORUM-ASIA.
What motivated you to become involved? And has that motivation changed over the years?
I come from an ethno-religious minority background with a history of persecution and discrimination. Throughout history, members of the Hazara ethnic minority, my ethnic group, have been massacred several times under the Taliban regime, during the civil war, and once we almost reached extinction. In 1891-1893, it is estimated that over 60 percent of members of my ethnic group were massacred or sold out as slaves.
Until the Communist regime of the 1970s, our community members were officially banned from enrolling in cadet schools that train military and police officers, and in some faculties at the universities. However, even today, they are systematically discriminated.
The overall injustices arising from conflict or based on ethnicity motivated me to work for justice and human rights. This motivation has deepened over the course of my professional career. In the beginning, it was very sensational, but now it is more realistic. I used to underestimate a challenge in the past, but now I deal with every even trifling issue with care and confidence.
Please tell us one of the most inspiring moments for you in your work in the past?
There have been many inspiring moments in my career. Rescuing children from exploitation and sexual abuse, rescuing women from domestic violence, and sending criminals behind bars were all inspiring moments of my career.
What do you experience as the main challenges as someone working on human rights? And how do you deal with such obstacles in your work?
In a country like Afghanistan, a traditional Islamic country torn by conflicts, working for human rights is very challenging. Here, the government thinks that civil society organisations work for the interest of other groups, such as donors or foreign countries, the radical insurgents think you are a collaborator of unbelievers, and the communities believe you are preaching alien values ‒ only you know that you are doing the right job ‒ working for human rights becomes truly demanding. In a country where violence is the norm, people are used to the news of killings and murders, and mere survival is difficult, human rights work requires profound courage and dedication.
You need to be wise and to take calculated steps to work and live. Thinking of the cause you are fighting for and the society that needs you, you must remain alive to work. Therefore, you must exercise utmost care and caution in your work.
If you could give a message to the new generation of people working on human rights or development, what would it be?
Changing society is a time-consuming process; it won't happen with just a sleight of hands or a snap of fingers. It requires patience, deep commitment, and dedication. It is difficult, it is risky, but it is worth it. Don't get frustrated; it is a long way ahead. I believe that working for the protection of human rights is a virtue and brings immense inner peace that you will not get out of other professions.
'We need to work actively as human rights defenders in the country.' – Interview with Kashif Aslam, Programme and Research Coordinator of the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), Pakistan
'The support of a NHRI in the work of women human rights defenders will provide a form of shelter and encouragement for women to engage in their areas of work, especially knowing that a redress mechanism and protection mechanism exist close to home.' – Interview with Shahindha Ismail, Executive Director of the Maldivian Democracy Network (MDN), a member of ANNI in the Maldives
'Being a part of the human rights family is what drives me every day.' – interview with Shahindha Ismail, Executive Director of Maldivian Democracy Network, The Maldives
'We need to listen to and learn from those involved in human rights advocacy' – Interview with Wahyu Wagiman, Executive Director of Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM), a member of FORUM-ASIA in Indonesia.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Water is essential to life, but many people do not have access to clean and safe drinking water and many die of waterborne bacterial infections. River water quality was affected by rainfall, sewage and miscellaneous human activities. In this study, water samples were collected from different locations of Tigris river stream within Wasit province from summer 2015 until spring 2016 for isolation and molecular identification of different bacterial strains. Water samples were taken from each place and kept in sterilized containers, then transported to laboratory under aseptic conditions. Aliquots of water samples were spread on nutrient agar plates and incubated at 28°C for 24 hours. Genomic DNA of pure single colonies grown on the medium was extracted for molecular identification of these isolates according to the nucleotide sequence of 16S rDNA gene. Results of extraction showed that pure DNA (250 μg/ml) was obtained and appear in single band after electrophoresis on agarose gel (1%). In order to amplify nucleotide sequence of 16S rDNA gene for each bacterial isolate, genomic DNA was first extracted from these isolates and amplified by using universal primers. The resulting amplified fragments were sequenced to determine the nucleotide sequence of 16S rDNA gene, then these sequences were aligned with related sequences for the same genes outlined in NCBI database. Results of molecular identification showed that these isolates are Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Bacillus sp., Exiguobacterium profundum, Enterobacter hormaechei, Pseudomonas compositi, Aeromonas veronii, Pseudomonas sp, Aeromonas caviae, Aeromonas hydrophila, Aeromonas punctata, Enterobacter cloacae and Aeromonas caviae.
Keywords: gene, 16S rDNA, the PCR technique, Tigris river, Wasit.


As the Head of Design & Discovery (D&D) within the Library IT division, Rachel oversees a team of user experience and accessibility specialists, web designers, front-end web developers, and program managers.
Beyond the library, she's a member of the NISO's Flexible API STandard for E-content NISO (FASTEN) Working Group, on the Board of Directors for ALA's Games and Gaming Round Table, on an advisory committee for the Designing for Digital conference, and is an editorial board member for Web Management & Marketing: The Peer-Reviewed Journal.
Previously, Rachel was the 2014 President of the Library & Information Technology Association (LITA), a 2014 Library Journal Mover & Shaker, and a 2007 American Library Association (ALA) Emerging Leader. She was also invited to participate on the Horizon Project Academic & Research Library Panel of Experts for 2016-2017, a group that selects the topics and informs the production of the New Media Consortium (NMC) Horizon Report: 2017 Library Edition.
Her research and professional interests include user experience, information architecture, open source technologies, digital libraries, discovery technologies, service design, and library leadership. She's also an avid board gamer.
Rachel is originally from southwest Ohio and earned her Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Dayton and her Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh.
Rachel joined the U-M Library in August 2016. She has previously worked at the University of Houston in Houston, TX, Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, and Miami University in Oxford, OH.


If you didn't already know, the "angel's share" is the 2% of whisky that evaporates while it matures in a barrel. And if you didn't know that then this is the right spot to visit if you're a Scotch neophyte.
If you didn't already know, the "angel's share" is the 2% of whisky that evaporates while it matures in a barrel. And if you didn't know that then this is the right spot to visit if you're a Scotch neophyte. A grand selection of the golden nectar is on offer – over 100 – with an emphasis on Single Malts (and some helpful instructions on hand on whether to drink with ice, cut with water or neat). Further demonstrating its devotion to whisky is a hefty 210 liter barrel of 17 year old Glenlivet 1995, from which attentive bar staff can draw a dram or two. The bare brickwork and muted mid-tones make it a comfortable if uninspiring place to sample something from the cocktail list, which rests itself mainly on the shores of Scotland. However there are some intriguing Asian twists among the selection of Old Fashions, giving an indication this is part of local bar impresario Charlene Dawes' Tastings Group of Hong Kong trad-with-a-twist watering holes, that also includes Quinary and Ori-Gin. Food runs along the lines of the gastropub variety- think fat chips, mini wagyu burgers and risotto balls for light snacks. While a few steps from the thick of things along Wyndham Street, it's a shame it's stuck on the second floor of an anonymous building with only a clunking lift by way or entrance. But that could be a good thing if you want a quite drink, space to appreciate the complexity of the good stuff and a relaxed atmosphere.


text:
Brought to you by Psychologies
Life Labs
Sex, How To Save Your Relationship, Family & Relationships
Sarah Calvert UKCP, COSRT
Many people embark on psychosexual and relationship therapy because, frankly, they want to have better sex! They come (pardon the pun) because sex is not working for them. For some, the reasons for this are evident and for others the causes for their less than satisfactory sex lives, appear to be elusive.
For many, a disappointing sex life or a lack of desire for sex can be extremely distressing and for others it can be like living with a constant, underlying niggle, like a piece of grit in one's shoe. Either way, living with something that is amiss and unresolved is uncomfortable to say the least and can cause bigger issues, for individuals and couples, if unattended to.
Like making a cake, there are many different components that contribute to a 'good' sex life, and similarly to making a cake, if an ingredient is missing or spoiled then the whole thing can be ruined.
So, what are the ingredients of 'Good' Sex?
There are lots of contributory factors that influence our sex life, and some of the most common are:
Communication, Communication, Communication!! I cannot stress the importance of good communication enough in life generally; it's pretty crucial to functioning well. The majority of people could benefit hugely from improving their communication.
What I mean by good communication is the ability to communicate with ourselves and our partners. Knowing what you think and feel emotionally is pretty widely accepted as important. However, what about your body? If I asked you what your vagina or penis feels like right now – would you know?
One of the major problems that I see in my practice is a lack of connection / communication with our bodies; most people have lost touch with their bodies, spending the majority of their lives in their heads, overthinking or worrying, and this can cause a multitude of problems in life, and it becomes particularly problematic when it comes to sexual functioning. We need to retrain our bodies, switch them back on and re-connect.
Knowing what we like and dislike and being able to communicate it, and I'm not just talking about in the bedroom, or wherever else you are having sex, I'm talking about ALL communication with your partner. If the communication is 'off', you can bet that the sex will be too.
Other relationship issues that can lead to a less than satisfactory sex life, or indeed a complete absence of a sex life, are, amongst others, resentment, fear and distrust. There is nothing like this trio to disrupt a couple's sex life. In addition, overt or underlying conflicts that are present in the relationship will also result in less than optimal sex. The relationship we have with our partner is a fundamental ingredient in a good sex life. What state is your relationship in? When did you last have a relationship M.O.T? Disappointing sex can be a difficult and worrying subject to raise with a partner, and although it can be perceived as an issue belonging to one partner, inevitably you will both be affected.
In some cases, it is the body that betrays. Issues such as erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation, retarded ejaculation, painful sex (dyspareunia), vaginismus and anorgasmia all have a detrimental impact on sexual functioning and can cause huge distress; as one may imagine.
These conditions can emanate from psychological and emotional issues (inorganic issues), such as: relationship issues, lack of connection with the body, childbirth, negative body image, negative or traumatic sexual experiences, or from the shame we have developed as children as a consequence of messages that we have received about sex and who we are.
They can also be medical in origin (organic) for example: vascular disorders, diabetes, cancers, medication side effects, to name a few. Regardless of their origin, it is important to know that if you are experiencing one of these conditions you don't have to suffer, there are treatment options available within psychosexual therapy and medically.
Working with a qualified and accredited psychosexual and relationship therapist can be a positive and safe way forward to address sex and relationship problems, helping you, either as an individual or couple, to find solutions to enable you to experience a happier and more fulfilling sexual and relationship life.
www.sarahcalvert.co.uk
Fixing the Problem - beyond Christmas
Back to How To Save Your Relationship
Why People Fear Therapy
I am both a qualified and accredited Psychotherapist (UKCP) and a Psychosexual and Relationship therapist (COSRT) with a wide-ranging and in-depth experience of working both in private practice and within the NHS, most recently at the prestigious 56 Dean Street clinic (Chelsea & Westminster) I have experience of working with a broad spectrum of different issues in general practice including: anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, blocks to moving forward, bereavement and addictive behaviours. As a Psychosexual and Relationship therapist I work with both couples and individuals to address issues such as: erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation, painful sex, sexual avoidance, hyper and hypo sexual desire, fertility issues, communication issues, affairs, compulsive porn use and conflict resolution. I have a special interest in working with all Psychosexual issues and relationship problems, whether experienced within a couple or any other relationship. Please contact me so we can talk about how therapy could help you work towards your goals. Sarah
How to change unhealthy relationship patterns
Self, Family & Relationships
Katherine Baldwin
Set your intention for beneficial change
Barefoot Coaches' Channel , Self, The Happiness Club , Work, How To Achieve Your Goals, Money, Family & Relationships , Barefoot Coaches Training Room
Beverly Landais PCC
How to Stick to Your Goals
Barefoot Coaches' Channel , Head Talks, Self, 360me, The Happiness Club , The Great Wake Up, Work, How To Achieve Your Goals, Money, Family & Relationships , Barefoot Coaches Training Room
Becca Forshaw - Life & Career Coach
my way is open | no fence; I haven't noticed! | Still I choose to climb
UKCP Therapists' Channel, Head Talks, Self, Work, Family & Relationships
Patty Everitt Psychotherapist|Clinical Supervisor|Clinical Hypnotherapist
Copyright © 2020 Kelsey Media All rights reserved. Powered by Zapnito.
Barefoot Coaches' Channel UKCP Therapists' Channel Psychologies Ambassadors Head Talks
How To Save Your Relationship
360me
The Happiness Club
The Great Wake Up
How To Achieve Your Goals
Happiness Book Club
Storyteller in Residence
How to Achieve Your Goals Free Taster Trial
How to Save Your Relationship 3-Day Free Taster Trial
How to Use Yoga to Transform Your Life
Find a Coach Find a Therapist Leaders Meet the Team
About Life Labs
Practical Wisdom FAQs
Practical Wisdom Taster Courses
Practical Wisdom Courses
Sign in to Life Labs
Or sign in via
Facebook Twitter Lifelabs
Register to Life Labs
Life Labs is Psychologies' expert blogging platform, where we are inspired by and interact with global experts as we seek to learn how to thrive, flourish and live our best life.


text:
OpEdNews Op Eds 7/7/2019 at 11:06 AM EDT H4'ed 7/7/19
US Foreign Policy Is A War On Disobedience
By Caitlin Johnstone (Page 1 of 2 pages) 5 comments
This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
From Caitlin Johnstone Website
US Endless Wars
(Image by YouTube, Channel: DAHBOO777) Details DMCA
In an excellent new essay titled "We're Not the Good Guys -- Why Is American Aggression Missing in Action?" Tom Engelhardt criticizes the way western media outlets consistently describe the behavior of disobedient nations like Iran as "aggressions," but never use that label for the (generally antecedent and far more egregious) aggressions of the United States.
"When it comes to Washington's never-ending war on terror, I think I can say with reasonable confidence that, in the past, the present, and the future, the one phrase you're not likely to find in such media coverage will be 'American aggression,'" Engelhardt writes. He then asks a very fair question:
"So here's the strange thing, on a planet on which, in 2017, U.S. Special Operations forces deployed to 149 countries, or approximately 75% of all nations; on which the U.S. has perhaps 800 military garrisons outside its own territory; on which the U.S. Navy patrols most of its oceans and seas; on which U.S. unmanned aerial drones conduct assassination strikes across a surprising range of countries; and on which the U.S. has been fighting wars, as well as more minor conflicts, for years on end from Afghanistan to Libya, Syria to Yemen, Iraq to Niger in a century in which it chose to launch full-scale invasions of two countries (Afghanistan and Iraq), is it truly reasonable never to identify the U.S. as an 'aggressor' anywhere?"
In other words, does it really make sense for any nation to be able to take over the world and then look up with Bambi-eyed innocence saying "I was attacked! Completely out of the blue!" whenever any government pushes back on this? If you ask the empire's narrative makers, the answer is a resounding yes.
The U.S. has military forces in over a hundred countries. So why won't the mainstream media call us an aggressor? https://t.co/8jFs4QSyqV
The Nation (@thenation) July 5, 2019
This important discrepancy is as close as we'll ever get to an honest admission from the political/media class that they consider empire-building and endless war to be normal, and any opposition to it freakish. All nations are meant to submit to America's use of military and economic force upon them, and if they don't, that's "aggression." The official position of the political/media class is that the US is a normal nation with the same rights and status as any other, but the unofficial position is that this is an empire, and nations will either obey or be destroyed.
It's a machine with the same values as Napoleon or Hitler or Genghis Khan or any other imperialist conqueror from ages past; the only difference is that it pretends not to be the thing that it is. The US markets itself as an upholder of rules-based liberal democratic values, even though it consistently flouts international law, wages imperialist wars of aggression, imprisons journalists, crushes dissent and uses propaganda just as much as any totalitarian regime. The only difference is that it does so in a way that enables its supporters to pretend that that's not what's actually happening.
Forget the "war on terror." If US foreign policy were honest it would unite all its war propaganda sloganeering under a single banner: the War on Disobedience.
After the end of the first cold war there was much celebration. At long last! The USSR was no longer a threat, so America could finally stop pouring its resources into the nuclear arms race and finally just relax and start acting like a normal country in the world. But it didn't take long after the Berlin Wall fell for the neoconservatives to find their way into key points of influence and steer US foreign policy into the agenda of ensuring that America never again risks losing its status as the world's only superpower. Which necessarily meant expanding the use of military and economic force to a level never previously seen.
So now you've got this weird dynamic where the US is constantly working to make sure that no other countries surpass it and gain the ability to treat America the way America treats other countries. That's all US military and economic agendas in a nutshell right now.
The nation that poses the greatest threat to US hegemony is of course China. Most of the US war machine's aggressions right now are ultimately built around securing resource control and geostrategic dominance to prevent China from surpassing it without attacking China itself. Any time you see the US ramping up hostilities toward a given nation, just do a search for that nation's name plus China (or plus "Belt and Road Initiative"), and you'll usually find a strong connection.
So the USSR was simply replaced with China, and the nuclear arms race was simply replaced with greatly increased global military expansionism. The plutocrat-owned media and the plutocrat-owned political class have fallen right in line with this and normalized the idea of US imperialism around the world. The cold war never ended, it just shifted its narrative and focus. Neoconservatism never went away, it just went mainstream.
U.S. Foreign Policy for Dummies: pic.twitter.com/jRZh0lSW5f
Caitlin Johnstone Social Media Pages:
Caitlin Johnstone is a brave journalist, political junkie, relentless feminist, champion of the 99 percent. And a powerful counter-propaganda tactician. Rogue journalist, poet, illustrator, utopia prepper, and proudly 100 percent reader-funded through Patreon (more...)
Related Topic(s): China; Empire; Foreign Policy Institute - Neocons; Policy Analysis; Wars; World, Add Tags
US Military Apologizes For Posting Uncomfortably Honest Tweet
Leaked Mueller Report Proves Barr Lied; Collusion Theorists Vindicated
Jerusalem Post says US Attack on Iran is Imminent
Nothing In Any Conspiracy Theory Is As Bad As What's Being Done Out In The Open
Hating Neocons Is Becoming Mainstream Again, And It Is Excellent
The Friendly Mask Of The Orwellian Oligarchy Is Slipping Off
"Humans have spent 99 percent of our developmental time in the wild kingdom, which tutored us in what Rob Kall calls bottom-up values?small, local, interdependent, respectful, egalitarian and decentralized -- and which the world desperately needs in order to balance out some of the darker impulses of top-down values. His faith that bottom-up values represent a critical re-balancing act for humanity, if not an outright better mousetrap, is compelling and hard-won, and I offer him a high-five for his courageous inquiry into the deep wisdom inherent in our age-old intimacy with natural rhythms, native intelligences, and interconnectedness."
Gregg Levoy, author of Callings and Vital Signs


text:
Турако или бананоеды () — род птиц из семейства тураковых (Musophagidae).

Турако населяют преимущественно кроны деревьев в лесистых областях и саваннах Африки и питаются среди прочего молодыми побегами, насекомыми, ягодами и плодами.

Турако — это длиннохвостые птицы, достигающие длины от 35 до 45 см. У них имеется прямой хохол из перьев на голове. Окраска оперения чаще металлически зелёная и синяя. Самец и самка в пределах своего вида не имеют отличий в окраске и размере. Их маховые перья тёмно-красные.

В брачный период птицы демонстрируют себя, поднимая хохол из перьев и широко расставляя маховые перья.

Обе родительские птицы высиживают кладку до 3-х недель и затем принимают участие в выкармливании выводка.

Ранее были отнесены к отряду кукушкообразные, но, как выяснилось, у представителей отрядов есть очень много отличий в строении и физиологии, а также поведении, что привело к тому, что их решили сделать самостоятельным отрядом.

Классификация

В роде турако 14 видов:

Примечания

Литература

 Herausgeber: Forshaw, Joseph: Enzyklopädie der Vögel, 1999 — ISBN 3828915574
 Hans von Boetticher: Lärmvögel, Turakos und Pisangfresser, (2. unveränderte Auflage von 1955), 2004 — ISBN 3894326077

Роды птиц


text:
Home/Magazine Subscriptions/Subjects/Business and Money/Industries/Sports and Entertainment
Powerhouse: The Untold Story of Hollywood's Creative Artists Agency
The Power of the Actor: The Chubbuck Technique — The 12-Step Acting Technique That Will Take You from Script to a…
Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration
All You Need to Know About the Music Business: 10th Edition
Slugfest: Inside the Epic, 50-year Battle between Marvel and DC
One Little Spark!: Mickey's Ten Commandments and The Road to Imagineering
Designing Experiences (Columbia Business School Publishing)
Disney's Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World
No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention


text:
Varcode
=======

Varcode is a library for working with genomic variant data in Python and predicting the impact of those variants on protein sequences.

Installation
------------

You can install varcode using [pip](https://pip.pypa.io/en/latest/quickstart.html):

```bash
pip install varcode
```

You can install required reference genome data through [PyEnsembl](https://github.com/openvax/pyensembl) as follows:

```bash
# Downloads and installs the Ensembl releases (75 and 76)
pyensembl install --release 75 76
```

Example
-------

```python
import varcode

# Load TCGA MAF containing variants from their
variants = varcode.load_maf("tcga-ovarian-cancer-variants.maf")

print(variants)
### <VariantCollection from 'tcga-ovarian-cancer-variants.maf' with 6428 elements>
###  -- Variant(contig=1, start=69538, ref=G, alt=A, genome=GRCh37)
###  -- Variant(contig=1, start=881892, ref=T, alt=G, genome=GRCh37)
###  -- Variant(contig=1, start=3389714, ref=G, alt=A, genome=GRCh37)
###  -- Variant(contig=1, start=3624325, ref=G, alt=T, genome=GRCh37)
###  ...

# you can index into a VariantCollection and get back a Variant object
variant = variants[0]

# groupby_gene_name returns a dictionary whose keys are gene names
# and whose values are themselves VariantCollections
gene_groups = variants.groupby_gene_name()

# get variants which affect the TP53 gene
TP53_variants = gene_groups["TP53"]

# predict protein coding effect of every TP53 variant on
# each transcript of the TP53 gene
TP53_effects = TP53_variants.effects()

print(TP53_effects)
### <EffectCollection with 789 elements>
### -- PrematureStop(variant=chr17 g.7574003G>A, transcript_name=TP53-001, transcript_id=ENST00000269305, effect_description=p.R342*)
### -- ThreePrimeUTR(variant=chr17 g.7574003G>A, transcript_name=TP53-005, transcript_id=ENST00000420246)
### -- PrematureStop(variant=chr17 g.7574003G>A, transcript_name=TP53-002, transcript_id=ENST00000445888, effect_description=p.R342*)
### -- FrameShift(variant=chr17 g.7574030_7574030delG, transcript_name=TP53-001, transcript_id=ENST00000269305, effect_description=p.R333fs)
### ...

premature_stop_effect = TP53_effects[0]

print(str(premature_stop_effect.mutant_protein_sequence))
### 'MEEPQSDPSVEPPLSQETFSDLWKLLPENNVLSPLPSQAMDDLMLSPDDIEQWFTEDPGPDEAPRMPEAAPPVAPAPAAPTPAAPAPAPSWPLSSSVPSQKTYQGSYGFRLGFLHSGTAKSVTCTYSPALNKMFCQLAKTCPVQLWVDSTPPPGTRVRAMAIYKQSQHMTEVVRRCPHHERCSDSDGLAPPQHLIRVEGNLRVEYLDDRNTFRHSVVVPYEPPEVGSDCTTIHYNYMCNSSCMGGMNRRPILTIITLEDSSGNLLGRNSFEVRVCACPGRDRRTEEENLRKKGEPHHELPPGSTKRALPNNTSSSPQPKKKPLDGEYFTLQIRGRERFEMF'

print(premature_stop_effect.aa_mutation_start_offset)
### 341

print(premature_stop_effect.transcript)
### Transcript(id=ENST00000269305, name=TP53-001, gene_name=TP53, biotype=protein_coding, location=17:7571720-7590856)

print(premature_stop_effect.gene.name)
### 'TP53'
```

If you are looking for a quick start guide, you can check out [this iPython book](./examples/varcode-quick_start.ipynb) that demonstrates simple use cases of Varcode

Effect Types
------------

Effect type  | Description
-----------: | :-----------
*AlternateStartCodon* | Replace annotated start codon with alternative  start codon (*e.g.* "ATG>CAG").
*ComplexSubstitution* | Insertion and deletion of multiple amino acids.
*Deletion* | Coding mutation which causes deletion of amino acid(s).
*ExonLoss* | Deletion of entire exon, significantly disrupts protein.
*ExonicSpliceSite* | Mutation at the beginning or end of an exon, may affect splicing.
*FivePrimeUTR* | Variant affects 5' untranslated region before start codon.
*FrameShiftTruncation* | A frameshift which leads immediately to a stop codon (no novel amino acids created).
*FrameShift* | Out-of-frame insertion or deletion of nucleotides, causes novel protein sequence and often premature stop codon.
*IncompleteTranscript* | Can't determine effect since transcript annotation is incomplete (often missing either the start or stop codon).
*Insertion* | Coding mutation which causes insertion of amino acid(s).
*Intergenic* | Occurs outside of any annotated gene.
*Intragenic* |Within the annotated boundaries of a gene but not in a region that's transcribed into pre-mRNA.
*IntronicSpliceSite* | Mutation near the beginning or end of an intron but less likely to affect splicing than donor/acceptor mutations.
*Intronic* | Variant occurs between exons and is unlikely to affect splicing.
*NoncodingTranscript* | Transcript doesn't code for a protein.
*PrematureStop* | Insertion of stop codon, truncates protein.
*Silent* | Mutation in coding sequence which does not change the amino acid sequence of the translated protein.
*SpliceAcceptor* | Mutation in the last two nucleotides of an intron, likely to affect splicing.
*SpliceDonor* | Mutation in the first two nucleotides of an intron, likely to affect splicing.
*StartLoss* | Mutation causes loss of start codon, likely result is that an alternate start codon will be used down-stream (possibly in a different frame).
*StopLoss* | Loss of stop codon, causes extension of protein by translation of nucleotides from 3' UTR.
*Substitution* | Coding mutation which causes simple substitution of one amino acid for another.
*ThreePrimeUTR* | Variant affects 3' untranslated region after stop codon of mRNA.

Coordinate System
-----------------
Varcode currently uses a "base counted, one start" genomic coordinate system, to match the Ensembl annotation database. We are planning to switch over to "space counted, zero start" (interbase) coordinates, since that system allows for more uniform logic (no special cases for insertions). To learn more about genomic coordinate systems, read this [blog post](http://alternateallele.blogspot.com/2012/03/genome-coordinate-conventions.html).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Get Rid of Bush & What do you Have in Clark?
american civil liberties union, american way, an analysis, and patriot act, anthony romero, are democrats, attorney general john ashcroft, big eight, bush, bush administrations, bush junior, by eric lichtblau, cases, clark, congressman jack metcalf, crimes, customs enforcement, democratic party, elliot mincberg, end part two, expanded, federal, federal reserve system, federal reserves, general, general accounting office, general clark, george bush junior, george w. bush junior, government, i. but, i. there, imperial war, internal revenue system, international relations expert, judiciary committee, justice, justice department, law, mark corallo, middle eastern, military affairs, new york times, numb chomsky, officials, orange county, patriot, patriot act, posse comitatus act, powers, pursue crimes from drugs, republican four star general, retired general wesley clark, s. uses terror law, special assistant, special projects, terrorism, trojan horse, united states, used, wesley clark, white house, you democrats


The assessable task for this course is to develop an intelligent spam filter. In this exercise we are going to explore our first spam filtering technique: the expert system. The basic idea is quite simple: we write a number of rules that classify emails as spam or genuine. Complications arise when we try to write rules that match only spam not genuine email, and when we must combine several rules that give differing classifications. This is the essence of the approach taken by the SpamAssassin filter. I recommend you read a bit about SpamAssassin to get some ideas for the rest of the exercise.
We have prepared two corpi of emails: one of genuine emails, and one of spam. At the moment the corpi are quite small. Later we will want bigger corpi. Gathering spam emails is easy (there are several repositories online) but gathering genuine email is difficult. Hence we request that you contribute any genuine emails you are prepared to see in the corpus. If you have emails to contribute please forward them to nhw@cs.bham.ac.uk with subject line Email for Corpus.
The corpi can be obtained from the course webpage. You should download and extract them in your local directory. When the corpi get larger we will install them in a globally accessible part of the School's filesystem to save your quota.
(http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/dorai/t-y-scheme/t-y-scheme.html) A quick introduction to Scheme if you are familiar with another programming language.
SISC Home (http://sisc.sourceforge.net/) The SISC homepage has downloadable and online documentation for the SISC implementation of Scheme. This won't teach you how to use Scheme but will tell you how to use the features that are unique to SISC, such as its integration with Java.
Schemers.org (http://www.schemers.org/) Links to many more Scheme resources the majority of which are available online. In particular see How to Design Programs (HtDP), and Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP). These are two of the best books on programming and both use Scheme (though the focus is not on Scheme, but rather fundamental concepts). HtDP is a gentler journey; SICP covers more ground.
(http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/dorai/schelog/schelog.html) Documents the Schelog logic programming system that runs within Scheme.
If Scheme doesn't interest you, you won't need to learn much to do this tutorial.
If you get to this step, congratulations, everything works and we're now ready to start extending the expert system spam filter.
Note that the show-spam function only shows the body (and only the first body of multipart emails). If you want to get fancy you can look at the headers and other parts of multipart emails. Read the Javamail API documentation for this. Now think of a way you could classify this email as spam. Try you think of a way to classify it that will catch as much similar spam as possible without incorrectly classifing any genuine email. Write a rule to do this. There are two example rules you can base your code off: AfricaRule.java and fake-url-rule.scm, written in Java and Scheme respectively.
If you write a rule in Java it must implement the Rule interface. It will automatically be added to the list of rules once you have compiled it. If you write a rule in Scheme you must call add-rule! to add it to the list of available rules. Once you added your rule, reload spam-filter.scm and see what effect your rule has. Make sure no genuine emails are incorrectly classified!
Implement the basic rules to identify airlines, Africa and bank accounts.
Modify the email is classified as spam if all three rules match, but not if any one matches individually. You will need to read the Schelog documentation to do this.
If you have time implement some more rules. Extend the spam filter as far as your imagination and free time permit.
The URL of this page is http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~mmk/Teaching/AI/e2.html.


A thriving retail environment is dependent on good customer service. Unsurprisingly, customer service boils down to the interactions between customers and employees.
Retail directly and indirectly supports 42 million jobs, provides $1.6 trillion in labor income, and contributes $2.6 trillion annually to U.S. GDP, according to a study from National Retail Federation (NRF). Retailers expect a return on investment on these jobs, which means the process of recruiting talent and motivating and training staff is crucial to encouraging a positive and thriving retail experience. Creating the right digital experience for employees—from the moment they become a prospect—will greatly impact the overall process in a positive way.
Today's retail workforce is more global and diverse than ever. This creates an enormous opportunity for retailers that are able to cultivate the skills and ideas of employees with a broad range of backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences. As we all know, winning over the best talent isn't always easy, but there are a couple of measures HR can take to help the process along.
Creating a positive digital experience targeted toward prospects will help to win over new hires. If a candidate's experience with a company is inundated with antiquated, paper-based processes or slow response times, he or she is less likely to feel a positive connection with that employer. Today's world is very much a digital one—especially in retail—so it's important to show that your company incorporates prospects' tech-savvy attitudes. In fact, a survey from NRF revealed that nearly 39% of young adults say that learning a new or innovative technology is an experience and skill they want to obtain at their first job.
Diversity in the workforce is a business and economic imperative, with research clearly showing better financial returns and improved employee engagement for companies with diverse workforces. A recent Leaders 2020 study conducted by SAP and Oxford Economics shows that Digital Winners* know that workforce diversity pays off, reporting a 36% greater likelihood of recognizing the impact of workforce diversity on the bottom line.
Bias in business undermines employee commitment, performance, and retention, and it unconsciously creeps its way into the hiring process. Machine learning–based sentiment analysis of job descriptions, something SAP incorporated into its SuccessFactors Recruiting Management solution, identifies potentially biased language in job descriptions and recommends alternative language to ensure the descriptions are gender-neutral. To drive home the importance of eliminating bias, the NRF survey also found that 25.3% of 18- to 24-year-olds say companies whose mission and values match their own is important to them when considering a future employer.
Training isn't something you should toss at employees on their first day—nor should it be a stack of papers for them to read through. It's an evolving, ever-present process that needs to continue throughout the employee experience. Retail employees should be well-informed of product or messaging updates as they happen so that when a customer asks about a product, they can provide a knowledgeable response. Implementing omnichannel strategies can help keep employees informed, allowing them to react to new products in a timelier manner.
SAP's customer ULTA has used technology to keep pace with its rapid store growth and increasing number of associates. ULTA's omnichannel strategy and underlying technology ensures both customers and associates are accessing and utilizing the same set of information at any point. From product discovery to education to testing and purchase to social sharing and feedback, ULTA is simplifying and facilitating the process. As a result, ULTA's employees are well-informed with the right information—or can look it up in an instant—and are provided the tools necessary to do their best work.
Tomorrow we'll take a look at motivating employees with technology and creating a thriving experience for customers.
*Digital Winners: Oxford Economics identified a set of characteristics and practices that define the best-managed companies, calling this group of high performers Digital Winners. The analysis is built on the assessments of individual executives who rated the skills and strategies of management across their organizations. In short, Digital Winners are companies with executives who are better prepared for the digital economy.
Lori Mitchell-Keller is Global General Manager of Consumer Industries at SAP. In this role, she leads the Retail, Wholesale Distribution, Consumer Products, and Life Sciences Industries with a strong focus on helping SAP customers transform their business and derive value while getting closer to their customers. Mitchell-Keller brings over 25 years of experience in the software and consumer goods industries, including more than fifteen years as an executive driving business strategy while building strong and sustainable relationships with customers, partners, financial analysts and industry experts.