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Blaise Pascal: mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and theologian—truly a polyglot. Most of you probably associate him with his laws of fluid dynamics. As a scientist, he was quite important to the then fledgling enlightenment. He even had a unit of pressure, the Pascal, named for him. As a lover of the sciences, he probably would be turning over in his grave if he knew how his “wager” was being misconstrued by many professional “kiruv klowns.” The wager can be stated as follows: 1. Either god exists or he does not. Reason cannot decide between the two alternatives (nb: remember this part. We will get back to this later). 2. A game is being played…where heads or tails will turn up (like the flip of a coin, where there are ONLY two possible outcomes). 3. You MUST wager (it is not optional). 4. Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate the two chances. a. If you gain, you gain all. (that is, if God exists, and you wagered that he exists, you have some “eternal reward” to gain). b. If you lose, you lose nothing. (that is, if God does not exist, and you wagered that he does exist, then it doesn’t matter, what did you have to lose by acting like he does exist?) 5. Therefore: It is better to wager that God exists, because there is an infinite reward to gain, and a finite reward to lose if he does not. (to use the analogy a Seventh-day Adventist preacher once used in a sermon that I attended, “it’s like betting a paper clip and gaining a house.) 6. As for those who cannot believe: endeavor to convince yourself that you believe. We begin by analyzing the false dichotomy set up by Blaise Pascal. At best, the wager is a great introduction to “decision theory.” That is, when analyzing the opportunity cost of any major decision you have to make, when you weight what you have to gain/lose by each decision, assigning it a mathematical probability, you can determine which action is the best to take. Of course

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Blaise Pascal: mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and [...] , the simplest illustration of this is doing a coin toss. The assumption is that in a coin toss, you have exactly a 50% chance of flipping heads and a 50% chance of flipping tails. In this situation, there is no advantage to picking either heads or tails. A more sophisticated example would be the classic “Prisoner’s dilemma.” There are many ways to approach this problem, so pardon me for dumbing it down for the sake of this exercise. Let’s say Rueben and Simeon were both accused of committing a crime and were interrogated separately. Rueben and Simeon have exactly two choices: They can either stay silent or betray the other party. The following table shows what happens with each choice. Reuben stays silent Rueben betrays Simeon Simeon stays silent Both serve one year in prison Simeon serves 3 years, Reuben walks off with no sentence Simeon betrays Rueben Rueben serves 3 years, Simeon walks off with no sentence Both serve two years in prison I do not want to go through the many ways to approach this dilemma. However, I have seen some websites use this dilemma as a philosophical “rock-paper-scissors” type game to see how people would “play each other” if they could recursively reenact this scenario. Although in reality, there are more than two options, this still serves as a stellar example on how to teach “decision theory.” Let us look at the first proposition of the wager. Either God exists, or he does not. Reason cannot decide between the two. Of course reason cannot actually determine if god exists. After Pascal’s time, Karl Popper would establish the concept of “falsifiability.” The fact is, one cannot falsify most theological arguments. I cannot set up an experiment or test to empirically disprove that Russell’s Teapot exists. Therefore, for me to decide which of the many possible deities or faith systems are more correct than others, I have to rely on means that are beyond the scope of science and reason. I must rely on semantical arguments, con

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Blaise Pascal: mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and [...] jecture, and faith. And so, since I am relying on faith, Pascal decides to make it interesting. Let us forget about the fact that Pascal was a practicing Catholic, so he was probably speaking of a Catholic faith system. Would Pascal have believed that one who practiced Lutheranism also had an infinite to gain? What about the Jews? Muslims? Hindus? Zoroastrians? Buddhists? Jainists? Find yourself a deity, and assume it exists. Remember, you only have two choices here. Your choices are like flipping a coin—heads or tails. Either your preferred deity exists, or it does not. If you do what that preferred deity says, you have infinite to gain. AND THIS IS WHERE THE SYSTEM FALLS APART. In reality, there is no universally accepted belief in one deity that will get you and infinite reward no matter where in the world you are. That’s right. The Seven Noachide Laws? Nope. Not if you are a Catholic. The sixth law, not eating a limb from a live animal, is not an issue for them. What about not eating fish on Friday during Lent? Jews don’t have a problem with that. There are so many laws, rules, regulations, and bylaws specific to each faith system. Why should a Jew waste their time praying three times a day every day and extra on Sabbath when it might be enough to just receive communion and confess your sins? And why should a Catholic confess their sins when perhaps what God really might want is for you to shut the f..k up and just meditate for a few minutes each day? I mean it’s one thing to assume that either God exists or does not. But what does that have to do with Praxis? There is a simpler problem with Pascal’s Wager. Is it better to genuinely disbelieve or disgenuinely believe? Let’s say I only keep kosher and pray three times a day because if I don’t, then the scary invisible pink unicorn in the sky is going to kick my ass when I die? If I were an omnipotent and omniscient being, would I give

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A couple of contradictory articles here about what appears to be the same survey. Took some research, but I got to the bottom of what these numbers really mean. This CDC graphic is REALLY helpful. I recommend clicking on it to see it full size. According to U.S. News and World Report, a new Centers for Disease Control survey showed that teen smoking rate has dropped to 9 percent, while teens are also doing fewer drugs, having less sex and … drinking less milk? OK, the milk part was weird. The point being more kids are drinking sodas and energy drinks. However, a story from NBC News, which appears to cite the same CDC study, says that teen use of tobacco products has dropped from 24 percent in 2011 to 20 percent today — but that 13 percent of that is from cigarettes, with the rest vaping. This is mostly good, if not confusing news. Well, more good than bad. I see a glass half-full from the fact that when I started looking at these CDC surveys 10-12 years ago, the teen smoking rate was pushing 30 percent. Now, it’s somewhere between 9-13 percent. The glass half-empty is that there are still kids getting addicted to nicotine, just from a different delivery system. E-cigs aren’t as bad as cigarettes, but they aren’t 100 percent benign either. It’s best if kids don’t get addicted to nicotine … period. Regardless of the delivery system. So, I decided to look at the CDC survey directly. I HATE contradictory information like this when different reporters see different results when they look at different part of the same study. Here’s MY take on the CDC survey (these surveys are done every two years, by the way). A little more in-depth and a little more carefully worded than the two articles: - There is something there that says 8.8 percent of teens have smoked a cigarette in the past 30 days, so that’s where they got 9 percent. - Total number of teens using a tobacco product is 19.6 percent. That’s e-cigs, smokeless tobacco, cigarettes, cigars and hookahs combined.

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A couple of contradictory articles here about what appears to be the same survey. Took some [...] - percentage of kids using e-cigs is 11.7 percent - There is something that says total percentage of “combustible” tobacco products — that’s cigarettes, cigars and hookahs — is 12.9 percent. I’d be willing to bet most “cigars” being smoked by kids are those Swisher Sweets. So, it appears that both articles are right. It also showed to me that there’s some overlap between kids who smoke and kids that vape — that’s why 11.7 percent + 12.9 percent = 19.6 percent. The articles aren’t clear about that. There is a category in the study that says, “more than two types” of tobacco products. That’s roughly about 10 percent of teens. And that’s why 11.7 + 12.9 = 19.6. Anyway, the graphic I included with this post makes it MUCH clearer. According to that graphic, the news is generally good, though it could be better. Teen vaping has actually dropped since it hit its peak in 2014. Yayy, I’m actually heartened by that, though I’d like to see it drop faster. Total nicotine use via either e-cigs or cigarettes has dropped since 2014. In 2014, roughly 17 percent of teens were using e-cigs, that’s now down below 12 percent. Total nicotine uses by teens in 2014 was just above 25 percent. That figure is just under 20 percent in 2017. Smoking is down a ton, from about 18 percent (any combustible) in 2014 to 13 percent in 2017. Cigarettes are down from about 11 percent in 2014 to just under 9 percent in 2017. I don’t know if the CDC broke down the difference between cigarettes and cigars before. I never noticed it before this year’s survey, and I’ve been perusing these CDC survey reports for

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OFFICIAL STANDARD FOR THE MASTIFF The Mastiff is a large, massive, symmetrical dog with a well-knit frame. The impression is one of grandeur and dignity. Dogs are more massive throughout. Bitches should not be faulted for being somewhat smaller in all dimensions while maintaining a proportionally powerful structure. A good evaluation considers positive qualities of type and soundness with equal weight. Size, Proportion, Substance Size - Dogs, minimum, 30 inches at the shoulder. Bitches, minimum, 27-1/2 inches at the shoulder. Fault-Dogs or bitches below the minimum standard. The farther below standard, the greater the fault. Proportion - Rectangular, the length of the dog from forechest to rump is somewhat longer than the height at the withers. The height of the dog should come from depth of body rather than from length of leg. Substance - Massive, heavy boned, with a powerful muscle structure. Great depth and breadth desirable. Fault-Lack of substance or slab sided. In general outline giving a massive appearance when viewed from any angle. Breadth greatly desired. Eyes - set wide apart, medium in size, never too prominent. Expression alert but kindly. Color of eyes brown, the darker the better, and showing no haw. Light eyes or a predatory expression is undesirable. Ears - small in proportion to the skull, V-shaped, rounded at the tips. Leather moderately thin, set widely apart at the highest points on the sides of the skull continuing the outline across the summit. They should lie close to the cheeks when in repose. Ears dark in color, the blacker the better, conforming to the color of the muzzle. Skull - broad and somewhat flattened between the ears, forehead slightly curved, showing marked wrinkles which are particularly distinctive when at attention. Brows (superciliary ridges) moderately raised. Muscles of the temples well developed, those of the cheeks extremely powerful. Arch across the skull a flattened curve with a furrow up the center of the forehead. This extends from between the eyes to halfway up the skull. The stop between the eyes well marked but not too abrupt. Muzzle should be half the length of the skull, thus divid

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OFFICIAL STANDARD FOR THE MASTIFF The Mastiff is a large [...] ing the head into three parts-one for the foreface and two for the skull. In other words, the distance from the tip of the nose to stop is equal to one-half the distance between the stop and the occiput. Circumference of the muzzle (measured midway between the eyes and nose) to that of the head (measured before the ears) is as 3 is to 5. Muzzle - short, broad under the eyes and running nearly equal in width to the end of the nose. Truncated, i.e. blunt and cut off square, thus forming a right angle with the upper line of the face. Of great depth from the point of the nose to the underjaw. Underjaw broad to the end and slightly rounded. Muzzle dark in color, the blacker the better. Fault-snipiness of the muzzle. Nose - broad and always dark in color, the blacker the better, with spread flat nostrils (not pointed or turned up) in profile. Lips - diverging at obtuse angles with the septum and sufficiently pendulous so as to show a modified square profile. Canine Teeth - healthy and wide apart. Jaws powerful. Scissors bite preferred, but a moderately undershot jaw should not be faulted providing the teeth are not visible when the mouth is closed. Neck, Topline, Body Neck - powerful, very muscular, slightly arched, and of medium length. The neck gradually increases in circumference as it approaches the shoulder. Neck moderately "dry" (not showing an excess of loose skin). Topline -In profile the topline should be straight, level, and firm, not swaybacked, roached, or dropping off sharply behind the high point of the rump. Chest - wide, deep, rounded, and well let down between the forelegs, extending at least to the elbow. Forechest should be deep and well defined with the breastbone extending in front of the foremost point of the shoulders. Ribs well rounded. False ribs deep and well set back. Underline - There should be a reasonable, but not exaggerated, tuck-up. Back - muscular

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OFFICIAL STANDARD FOR THE MASTIFF The Mastiff is a large [...] , powerful, and straight. When viewed from the rear, there should be a slight rounding over the rump. Loins - wide and muscular. Tail - set on moderately high and reaching to the hocks or a little below. Wide at the root, tapering to the end, hanging straight in repose, forming a slight curve, but never over the back when the dog is in motion. Shoulders - moderately sloping, powerful and muscular, with no tendency to looseness. Degree of front angulation to match correct rear angulation. Legs - straight, strong and set wide apart, heavy boned. Elbows - parallel to body. Pasterns - strong and bent only slightly. Feet - large, round, and compact with well arched toes. Black nails. Hindquarters - broad, wide and muscular. Second thighs - well developed, leading to a strong hock joint. Stifle joint - is moderately angulated matching the front. Rear legs - are wide apart and parallel when viewed from the rear. When the portion of the leg below the hock is correctly "set back" and stands perpendicular to the ground, a plumb line dropped from the rearmost point of the hindquarters will pass in front of the foot. This rules out straight hocks, and since stifle angulation varies with hock angulation, it also rules out insufficiently angulated stifles. Fault-Straight stifles. Outer coat straight, coarse, and of moderately short length. Undercoat dense, short, and close lying. Coat should not be so long as to produce "fringe" on the belly, tail, or hind legs. Fault-Long or wavy coat. Fawn, apricot, or brindle. Brindle should have fawn or apricot as a background color which should be completely covered with very dark stripes. Muzzle, ears, and nose must be dark in color, the blacker the better, with similar color tone around the eye orbits and extending upward between them. A small patch of white on the chest is permitted. Faults-Excessive white on the chest or white on any

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Frequently Asked Questions What are soybeans? The bushy, green soybean plant is a legume, related to clover, peas and alfalfa. In Kansas, soybeans typically are planted in May and June then harvested in October. When they flower in the summer, they can produce up to 80 pods per plant. Each pod contains two to four pea-sized beans. Soybeans are grown primarily for processing into meal and oil. Where are soybeans commonly grown? The main soybean-producing area is in the Corn Belt and lower Mississippi Valley. The three top-producing states in 2017 – Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota – accounted for 35 percent of the total U.S. production. At 189 million bushels, Kansas accounted for 4.3 percent. Nationwide, there were 90.1 million acres of soybeans planted in 2017, the highest on record. Planted area increased rapidly during the 1960s and 1970s, and 71.4 million acres were planted in 1979, which was a record at the time. Acreage declined during the 1980s but rebounded in the 1990s. In 2007, planted area dropped by more than 10 million acres from the previous year but has trended upward ever since. The 2017 yield of 49.1 bushels per acre was the second-highest since records first were kept in 1924. Production exceeded 4.3 billion bushels in 2017, 2 percent above the previous record, set in 2016. For what are soybeans used? How efficient are soybean farmers? Today’s U.S. farmers grow twice as much food as the previous generation did. They do so using less land, energy and water and producing fewer emissions. U.S. soybeans are being produced more efficiently than they were 30 years ago. From 1980 to 2011, total soybean production increased 96 percent, and the yield (bushels per planted acre) increased 55 percent. Part

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Frequently Asked Questions What are soybeans? The bushy, green so [...] of that efficiency can be attributed to biotech-enhanced seedstock, which has grown from 77 percent of total soybean acres in 2002 to 94 percent in 2017. What do soybean farmers provide? Feed. The livestock industry is the largest consumer of soybean meal. In fact, 97 percent of U.S. soybean meal goes to feed pigs, poultry and cattle. Animal agriculture is soybean farmers’ No. 1 customer. The soybean is the highest natural source of dietary fiber. A 60-pound bushel of soybeans yields about 48 pounds of protein-rich meal and 11 pounds of oil. Food. Soyfoods – including edamame, tofu, soy milk, soy nuts and other versatile ingredients like textured vegetable protein – offer flavor, texture, nutrition and health benefits. For centuries, soyfoods have played an important role in Asian cuisines. In recent years, they also have become popular in American cuisine. Soyfoods are cholesterol-free, excellent sources of high-quality protein, and they offer a healthy mix of polyunsaturated fat. Each serving of soyfoods provides 7 to 15 grams of protein. Evidence indicates soyfoods reduce the risk of several chronic diseases, including coronary heart disease, osteoporosis and certain forms of cancer. For women and girls, there are advantages to consuming about one serving of soy per day during childhood and adolescence. Studies from China and the United States indicate that consuming just one serving of soy each day when young may offer significant protection against breast cancer. Enjoying a cup of soy milk or ½ cup of tofu per day may reduce the chances of developing breast cancer later in life by as much as 50 percent. Experts recommend two or three servings of soyfoods daily. Fuel. Biodiesel is a clean-burning fuel produced from U.S. renewable resources, including soybean oil. It is building demand and adding value for soybeans, creating environmentally friendly jobs and decreasing the use of foreign oil.

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Gentle chiropractic adjustments and dietary recommendations can improve symptoms of colic in newborns, such as an unusual amount of crying. Colic is a condition in young infants characterized by an unusual amount of crying.When they cry, they may draw their arms and legs toward their bodies as though they are in pain and may even turn bright red. Colic usually appears between the 3rd and 6th week after birth and is typically resolved by the time they are 3 months old. Although no one is certain what causes colic, there are a number of things that likely contribute, such as an immature and irritated nervous system, food sensitivites and gastrointestinal upset. The theory that an irritated spine may contribute to colic is supported by the frequent improvement in symptoms with gentle chiropractic adjustments. Because the birthing process is very stressful on the neck of a newborn, it is very common for there to be several subluxations in the neck and back that can irritate the tiny and delicate nervous system. It has also been observed that babies with colic seem to need more attention and are more sensitive to the things around them than other babies - again indicating that there are some neurological differences. Both the mother's and the baby's diet can be huge factors in the development of colic. One of the biggest offenders is cow's milk. Babies should not have cow's milk, or dairy in any form for that matter, until they are at least two or three years old. Cow's milk contains the sugar lactose which many newborn babies cannot digest very well, not to mention that cow's milk contains many proteins that are not good for an infant's digestive system. Another potential dietary contributor to colic is the mother's diet while breastfeeding. Women who breast feed should stay away from spicy foods, alcohol and tobacco, as well as to avoid eating too much of any one particular food. A semi-bland, high-protein diet that excludes dairy is probably best - at least during the first three or four months of breastfeeding. If your baby suffers from colic, there are a few things that you can do to help: - Seek regular chiropractic care, especially during the first four months. - Place a warm water bottle on your

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To get started, please type the starting letter of a noun list in the Search Bar just above this article. -Type A to get a list of all of the nouns starting with “a” -Type CH to get a list of all of the nouns starting with “ch” For a full list of words use wordrequest.com A complete List of Nouns by their staring letter:Nouns Starting with a Nouns Starting with b Nouns Starting with c Nouns Starting with d Nouns Starting with e Nouns Starting with f Nouns Starting with g Nouns Starting with h Nouns Starting with iNouns Starting with j Nouns Starting with k Nouns Starting with l Nouns Starting with m Nouns Starting with n Nouns Starting with o Nouns Starting with p Nouns Starting with q Nouns Starting with rNouns Starting with s Nouns Starting with t Nouns Starting with u Nouns Starting with v Nouns Starting with w Nouns Starting with x Nouns Starting with y Nouns Starting with z Every list has categories for: Animals, Body Parts, Feelings, Food, Objects, People, Places, and Plants. What is a noun? A noun is word that identifies people, things, and places. From there we can make two classifications: common nouns and proper nouns. Unlike proper nouns which refer to specific names of people, things, and places, common nouns are actually generic names of nouns. Try to go to your local supermarket, what do you see? You’ll probably see milk, bread, beef, coffee, eggs, carts, counters, chips, ice cream, tissue, shampoo, detergent, diapers, etc. All of the italicized words above are examples of common nouns. Aside from naming or labeling general things, this kind of nouns can also refer to general names of places, people, ideas, events, or animals. When used in sentences, common nouns are introduced by the articles “the,” “an,” or “a.” - I went to the park

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To get started, please type the starting letter of a noun list in the Search Bar just above [...] with my little brother. - He proudly said that he is an actor. - The lake is literally freezing. - When I was a kid, I wanted to become a doctor. - Spongebob’s friend, Patrick, is a starfish. Another thing that you should know about common nouns is that they can come in either singular or plural form. You probably already know that “singular nouns” refer to only only one person, animal, place, thing, idea, or event, while the term “plural nouns”means that you are talking about two or more persons, animals, things, places, ideas, or events. The most common rule for transforming a common noun into its plural form is to add “s” or “es” at the end of the word. - bottle- bottles - speaker- speakers - astronaut- astronauts - dinosaur- dinosaurs - peacock- peacocks - beach- beaches - island- islands - birthday- birthdays - street fair- street fairs What are the Different Usage of Common Nouns? Common nouns can act as the subject, the direct object, the indirect object, or the predicate nominative. - Common nouns are usually used as the subject in the sentence. Simply put, the subject refers to the doer of the action or to what or who the sentence is all about. - The painter sold his awesome painting for just a hundred bucks. In the sentence above, the common noun “painter” is the one who performed the action of selling his painting. - A doctor must always do his best to save the lives of his patients. The underlined common noun (doctor) is the one being talked about in the sentence above. Common nouns can function as the direct object in the sentence. The direct object is the receiver of the action and answers the question “What?” - Luke built a treehouse. The verb in the sentence above is “built.” Now, you can ask “What did Luke build?” Obviously, it was a treehouse. Therefore, the underlined common noun serves as the direct object in the sentence.

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Tuesday, Jul 17 2018 The importance of Holi - 17 Mar 2014 Holi is a spring festival, which is also known as festival of colours, and sometimes festival of love. It is an ancient Hindu festival, which has become popular with non-Hindus in many parts of South Asia, as well as people of other communities. It is celebrated by the Indian diaspora to herald the arrival of spring – a season of renewal and regeneration. There are many legends connected to the festival of Holi. There was once a demon king by the name Hiranyakashyipu, who won over the kingdom of earth. He was so egoistic that he commanded everybody in his kingdom to worship only him. But to his great disappointment, his young son, Prahlad was an ardent devotee of Lord Narayana and refused to worship his father. Hiranyakashyipu tried several ways to kill his son Prahlad but Lord Vishnu saved him every time. Finally, he asked his sister, Holika to enter a blazing fire with Prahlad on her lap. For, Hiranyakashyipu knew that Holika had a boon, whereby, she could enter the fire and come out unscathed. Holika coaxed young Prahlad to sit on her lap and she herself took the seat in a blazing fire. Holika was not aware that the boon worked only when she entered the fire alone and had to pay for her sinister act with her life. Prahlad, who kept chanting the name of Lord Narayana all this while, came out unharmed, as the Lord blessed him for his extreme devotion. Thus, Holi derives its name from Holika and is celebrated as a festival of victory of good over evil. Holi is also celebrated as the triumph of a devotee. As the legend depicts, nobody can harm a true devotee. The next story is the legend of Krishna. Young Krishna is known to be very playful and mischievous. The story goes that as a child, Krishna was extremely jealous of Radha's fair complexion as he himself was very dark. One day, Krishna

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© 2016 by Rabbi Zvi Aviner Torah Class BLOODSHED-10/The Drama at the Ark’s Door ”Noah, get out! You and your wife, and your sons and their wives!” 1: Inventory check The Heavenly Court has issued its verdict: Mankind would perish, and only Noah and his small family would be saved. As the Flood clouds would dispersed, Noah would enter the Rainbow Covenant, under which we still live today. The topic of the Rainbow Covenant, as we’ll soon learn, is all about BLOODSHED and its laws. Let’s pause now and review where we stand in our studying BLOODHSED. We started our journey with the notion that Noah’s THIRD Commandment, BLOODSHED, was first given to Adam in Eden, as a part of Adam’s Six Commandments. Since no one could kill in Eden, which was protected by the Tree of Life, the Commandment of BLOODSHED was theoretical (at the levels of Chochma and Binah, as we’ve seen.) Then on Earth, soon as BLOODSHED became a real option, Cain stood up and killed Abel, his brother. From this first murder, the prototype of all murders, BLOODSHED spread and grew to engulf the entire society. The two camps, Cain’s Children who worshiped ELoKiM, and Shet’s Children who worshiped MERCY, committed heinous crimes, including fighting each other to the death. Tubal Cain’s gangues roamed the street raping, killing and stealing with no shame or fear. Enosh’s disciples did the same, thinking their sins were forgiven under MERCY. Their ‘hamas,’ the mixture of BLOODSHED and THEFT, sealed their fate. During the Flood, Noah had plenty of time to ponder about the past, and the future. What should he do when the Flood would be over? Would he start civilization again, only to face another Flood down the road? Let’s read now the text. 1: Noah’s reluctance to exit the Ark The Flood’s waters had receded, the

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© 2016 by Rabbi Zvi Aviner Torah Class BLOOD [...] Ark had already rested on dry land, the raven had not return and the dove had brought him a leaf of olive tree. Vegetation on Earth had already bloomed. Yet Noah and his family did not exit the Ark! Twenty-seven days had passed after the Ark landed, and Noah remained secluded in the Ark. Why? A famous rabbi said in a wonder: “Were I Noah, would have exited the Ark immediately!” (Midrash) Typically for Noah, he does not speak out his heart. In fact, he never speaks. G-d talks to him, but he does not speak back to G-d, nor does he deliver any oral message to his generation. By this he is unique among the prophets of the Bible. On the other hands, Noah speaks out louder than anyone else, by his ACTIONS. We see him standing by the Ark, facing blooming trees, yet he DOES NOT GO OUT! Why? A good answer, that has received good answers. 1: He waited for an explicit order to exit Since he had entered the Ark by ELoKiM’s Command, he was waiting for another command to exit. After all, this was ‘righteous Noah’ who walked with ELoKiM (Genesis 8: 9.) (Rashi.) Indeed, ELoKiM read his heart and told him: The Hebrew word selected here for “He told,” dee-ber, hints for a harsh tone, a command (Rashi.) Yet Noah did not comply! He changed. The Flood had changed him. Never in the past he refused ELKM’s command. Now he stood firm on his decision: he would not comply! He would not live outside the Ark, under the harsh Attribute of JUSTICE, ELKM! He would not live outside the Ark, unless ELKM would be more patient with Mankind in the future! 2: He wouldn’t leave YHVH’s protection Why should he exit the Ark, where YHVH reigned in full Glory, only to live again under the harsh rule ELoKiM? In the Ark, there was neither sorrow nor death. The wolf did not prey on the

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© 2016 by Rabbi Zvi Aviner Torah Class BLOOD [...] lamb, and a child could play on the snake’s pit. Why should he leave that Kingdom of MERCY to live under the Angel of Death? 3: He did not want to leave the holiness of the Ark In the same token, why should he leave the holiness of the Eternal Sabbath in the Ark, to live in the mundane World of ELoKiM? We feel similar ‘emptiness’ when we pass from our holy Sabbath to the mundane week. 4: He feared the return of the Flood Why should he exit the Ark, to live under the fear that the Flood would return! He had good reasons for that fear. Mankind, his descendants, would most likely split again into the same two camps, one worshipping ELoKiM, the other worshipping YHVH. It is a part of our IDOLATRY trial, into which we are born. We have a Parent, YHVH ELKM, and as children do, we would opt for one parent over the other… And as his experience showed him, that this predicted split would end again with ADULTERY and BLOODSHED, as well as THEFT and INJUSTICE, THE INFAMOUS hamas. What would stop the Flood from returning? Add on this our natural, BLOODTHIRSTY HEART. Regardless our faith, Mankind would always find a reason or an accuse to kill. Add on this his fear of his descendants. He came from Seth, Naama came from Cain, and they had been warned that such mix marriage would produce “monstrous children who threaten to destroy the world.” For 400 years they were married with no children of their own. Then, before the Flood, he and Naama took the risk and bore three sons, and no more. Their sons too were married for years having no children, out of that fear. Now, after the Flood, were he to starts civilization, who would guarantee that their offspring would not destroy the world? Add on this the curse that Naama’s father Lemech put on his own descendants for seventy seven generations. Why then should he bring children to

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© 2016 by Rabbi Zvi Aviner Torah Class BLOOD [...] this cursed world? He wanted a change in the Heavenly Court’s heart! Standing by his Ark’s exit, Noah would not exit, unless he was promised by the Heavenly Court to have less JUDGMENT and more MERCY in it. And if the Flood would return, let the Heavenly Court be more patient with Mankind! 2: Noah! Go out! Procreate! But ELoKiM would not budge. Using a harsh tone (Midrash) He told Noah: ELoKiM read his heart. He therefore ordered him to “go out you and your wife, your sons and your son’s wives,” inferring they should resume marital relationship and procreate; something they had not done in the Ark. Had it been before the Flood, Noah would have complied. But this was another Noah standing there at the exit. Yes, he and his sons exited, but as the verse says: and ‘his wife’ and the ‘wives of his sons’ with him…” (Genesis 8: 18) They exited in separate genders. They were adamant NOT to procreate and NOT start civilization again, unless their worries were answered! A new Noah Gone was the righteous Noah who “walked with ELoKiM.” There stood a new Noah, exercising his Free Will, a mature Noah. Where would he go now, to offer his petition and express his pleas? 3: He went to Mt. Moriah Tradition says he built it on Mt. Moriah. 1: Because Mt. Moriah is where Adam and Eve had been born. Noah and Naama must felt as if they were new ‘Adam and Eve.’ Indeed, Noah was born naturally circumcised, like Adam. 2: Because Mt. Moriah is where Cain had killed Abel; and nothing worried Noah more than the Flood would return for new BLOODSHED among his children. He wished to show them the site of the first murder and warn them. 3: Because Mt. Moriah is where the Eastern Gate of Eden opens up. If YHVH would enter our world more than before,

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© 2016 by Rabbi Zvi Aviner Torah Class BLOOD [...] this would happen here, he told his sons. 4: From Mt. Ararat to Mt. Moriah For three weeks, tradition says, Noah and his nascent family traveled silently by foot from Mt. Ararat (Asia Minor) to Mt. Moriah (near Jerusalem.) They traveled sadly, watching the empty villages and towns, now bereft of any life. Many houses were so intact that they looked as if their owners would soon return from their fields. When they arrived at Mt. Moriah they found it dry, as if the Flood had not touched it (Midrash.) He showed them the site of the first murder On the Mountain, Noah identified for his sons the remnants of Cain and Abel’s stone altars. He also showed them the crack in the rocky ground where Abel’s blood had seeped into the abyss under the Mountain. From that abyss, Abel’s blood resurfaced to the ground through a the small Shiloach water spring, that is still seen today on the eastern slope of Mt. Moriah, opposite of Mount Scopus. Noah also showed his sons the valley at the southern slope of Mt. Moriah, where Abel’s blood had finally been absorbed. “This is Cain’s Hell!” he told his sons, “this is the site in the ground which had opened its mouth to absorb Abele’s blood! It should never be cultivated or built!” He pledge to end BLOODSHED Pointing at the very site of the first murder, Noah told his three sons: Here is where BLOODSHED will end!” And he told them: If you ever build nearby a city, name it “the City of Peace,” or Jeru-Shalem. Something to ponder about: How much blood has been shed for the control of the City of Peace? 5: Noah’s Altar The verse does not specify, but tradition says that Noah built his Altar to YHVH on Mt. Moriah, on the very site of the first murder. This is the site where Cain and Abel had built their altars. He even used their stones for his altar. Again

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© 2016 by Rabbi Zvi Aviner Torah Class BLOOD [...] , we do not hear any word from him. His messages are delivered by his actions. You can say that by building his Altar like Cain and Abel, Noah fulfilled Eve’s hopes that her children would ‘purchase’ a connection to YHVH. The shape of Noah’s Altar is important, since it has served as the prototype for all ‘kosher’ altars after him. Abraham, King Solomon, and Ezra the Scribe built their Altar on Mt. Moriah, following Noah’s design. And his silent prayer too has become the prototype of all silent prayers after him. And his burnt offering too has become the prototype of all burnt offerings after him. This is why we need to learn his actions on Mt Moriah very closely. His Altar’s shape Noah built his Altar as a square of stones filled with the local dirt of Mt. Moriah. He told his sons: By these ashes Adam’s sins will be atoned.” Years later, the same words were uttered by the priests of Israel when they poured the ashes of their offering at the base of their Altar. He also built a ramp on the southern wall of the Altar. Whoever climbs on it would face the north, meaning Mt. Ararat. 6: Noah’s silent burnt-offering And he offered burnt offering on the Altar” (Genesis 8: 20) Without being ordered to do so, Noah offered BURNT OFFERINGS. He selected the sacrifices out of the ‘kosher’ or ‘pure’ species, that YHVH had ordered to bring in the Ark in seven samples. Only these species would be accepted late to offer in the Holy Temple. He sacrificed animals rather than bringing fruits, because he identified with Abel, the victim of the first BLOODSHED. As we remember, YHVH had accepted Abel’s animal offering rather than Cain’s first fruits. And he sacrificed he animals as burnt offering. Why not Gift Offering like Cain and Abel? Because the purpose of the offering was different. Cain and Abel wished to ‘purchase

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Remind Me Again What a Blue Box Is? A blue box generates the tones that controlled the old long-distance telephone network. Typically blue boxes are handheld electronic devices with buttons or a dialpad like a Touch-Tone phone, but they can also be implemented in software on a computer. Blue boxes typically have an external speaker that emits the tones, and it gets held up to the moutpiece of a telephone to make a call with the blue box. See the Wikipedia article for more details. If you're going to play with Project MF, you'll need a blue box. Ok, So How Do I Get One? One option is to download a software blue box for Windows. (You will also have to install Microsoft's .net framework.) This program will let you generate blue box tones through your PC's sound card and speakers. But we think a far cooler option is to build your own. It's a pretty simple project, especially if you know anything about electronics. We already have a design for a simple yet capable blue box called the Project MF Blue Box. You can download a complete schematic and printed-circuit board (PCB) layout, plus the software for programming an inexpensive PIC microcontroller to run it. In fact, if you attended The Last HOPE Conference you might have received a PCB! We are selling PCBs and pre-programmed microcontrollers for this project -- not to get rich, but just to simplify the task of making a blue box. Please send us mail for details. Overview of the Project MF Blue Box The Project MF Blue Box consists of: - an 8-pin PIC 12F683 microcontroller - a ceramic resonator - 13 SPST switches for the digits 0 through 9, KP, ST, and 2600 - a handful of resistors and capacitors - a diode or a 78L05 voltage regulator, depending on whether you want to run the box from a 6-volt or 9-volt battery - an external speaker The design goals were that it be small, low-power, easy to assemble, have minimum parts count, and not use any esoteric or hard-to-find parts, All the parts can be found at Radio

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Remind Me Again What a Blue Box Is? A blue box generates the tones that controlled [...] Shack or Digikey and total materials cost is well under $20. Schematic, PCB layout, and Bill of Materials (BOM) The schematics, PCB, and bill of materials (parts list) are available in several formats: - Schematic: PDF, Cadsoft Eagle - PCB: Gerbers and drill file (zip), Cadsoft Eagle PCB layout - Bill of materials: Microsoft XLS format You can also download a convenient pdf of all of the above plus assembly instructions. Eagle is a schematic design and PCB layout program from CadSoft that runs on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux computers. It is only necessary if you want to modify our schematic or PCB design. You can use the free ("trial") version, which can be downloaded from CadSoft's web site. Making a PCB If you'd like to make your own PCB you can download the Gerber zip file above and submit it to a PCB manufacturing house of your choice. One good option for hobbyists is Bare Bones PCB. We've also heard good things about SparkFun Electronics / BatchPCB though we haven't used them ourselves. Programming the PIC Your easiest route is to buy a pre-programmed PIC, which we're happy to sell to you at nominal cost. Contact us via email at firstname.lastname@example.org for details. That said, you can also program it yourself. You will need to download a zip file of the blue box firmware: BBsoftware.zip. This is the software that runs on the PIC microcontroller and provides the blue box functionality. The .hex files are pre-compiled object code. The .pbc files are the PicBasic Pro sourcecode. Files with a "SP" suffix in their filenames are for a reverse keypad layout. (If you want to modify the source code you will need a copy of the PicBasic Pro compiler, which costs $250. If you just want to use our precompiled .hex files, you don't need to spend any money.) Assembly Instructions and Tips We suggest you download a complete pdf copy of the most up

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Remind Me Again What a Blue Box Is? A blue box generates the tones that controlled [...] -to-date assembly instructions and schematics. (The information below more or less replicates the contents of this file.) The circuit board is designed to fit in place of the front panel of a Radio Shack enclosure, part number 270-1801. If the Radio Shack enclosure is used, the pushbutton switches may be mounted on the back side of the board. This is the solder side, opposite of where the other components are mounted. This allows the board to be mounted in the box with the components down and the buttons facing up. If this is done, the LED power indicator (LED1), if used, may also be mounted on the solder side as a power indicator. If the buttons are mounted on the back side, the SP version of the PIC firmware must be programmed. This SP version reverses the switches left to right, but is otherwise functionally identical to the regular firmware. The web page has both versions available. The 1 megohm resistor (R17) near the resonator is normally not required. Only use it if you experience erratic operation of the device. The recommended speaker for use with the device is a 150 ohm earpiece from an old "500" type telephone handset. These are the standard handsets used by Western Electric, ITT and other phone manufacturers for decades. See the parts list for sources. Just unscrew the earpiece from an old phone, loosen the two screws, and remove the earpiece. BE SURE TO CLIP OUT THE VARISTOR (A SMALL COMPONENT SOLDERED BETWEEN THE SCREW CONTACTS) OR YOUR TONES WILL BE DISTORTED AND THE BOX WILL NOT WORK RELIABLY! The box may work with other impedance speakers/earphone elements, with varying volume and hiss. Lower impedances will reduce the effectiveness of the PWM low-pass filter in the circuit, increasing hiss. Speakers vary widely in their efficiency (volume for a given power input), so you may need to experiment. The output power is low to keep the circuit simple. The box may be connected to an external amplifier for volume control,

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Remind Me Again What a Blue Box Is? A blue box generates the tones that controlled [...] or to a computer sound card input. If this is done, the output should be connected through a small .33 mf capacitor to block the DC component present when tones are being played. The box draws 15-20 mA of current when generating tones. Battery life is very good if the unit is always switched off between uses. If a 6 volt battery is used (a 4LR44/476A/L1325 designed for dog collars works well, as well as 2 CR2032 lithium coin cells wired in series), be sure to populate the diode (D1) on the board and omit the 78L05 (IC2), C1, and C2. The 4LR44 fits into an "N" battery holder, available at Radio Shack, if a small nut is used as a spacer on the negative side. If a 9 volt rectangular battery is used, populate the 78L05 (IC2), C1, C2 and omit the diode (D1). Note that you cannot install both D1 and IC2; install one or the other! If the optional LED power indicator is installed (LED1 and R20), current consumption will increase by an additional 15 milliamps. This will reduce the battery life significantly. This is particularly important if using the 6 volt battery option, as the battery is of lower capacity. You can try a larger resistor for R20 (try 1000 ohms) to reduce LED brightness and current consumption. Using the Project MF Blue Box The Project MF Blue Box is a sophisticated little device! Here's a video tutorial from YouTube, plus more detailed information below. Both MF and DTMF are supported. When initially programmed, the chip defaults to MF mode on powerup. The powerup mode is stored in FLASH memory. This may be temporarily toggled to the opposite mode by holding down the 2600 key while powering up. The next powerup reverts to the default tone mode. The default tone mode may be persistently toggled by holding down the "*" while powering up. This

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Remind Me Again What a Blue Box Is? A blue box generates the tones that controlled [...] will toggle the tone mode, but also write the new setting to eeprom so subsequent powerups will default to the opposite tone mode. Two tones confirm the write to FLASH memory. Two tone durations/spacings are supported, 75 ms. (default) and 120 ms. The tone duration/spacing is stored in FLASH memory. The duration/spacing may be permanently toggled by holding down the "#" key at power up. This will toggle the duration/spacing and write the new value to FLASH for subsequent powerups. A tone confirms the write to FLASH. The duration/spacing value is used in manual mode and also in memory playback mode. The KP tone is always 120 ms.duration, regardless of this setting. The 2600 tone duration is always 1.5 seconds. There are two operating modes, normal and playback. The chip always powers up in normal mode. Operating modes are toggled by holding down the 2600 key for 1 second. Tones confirm the mode change. In normal mode, dialing is manual using the current tone mode and duration settings. In playback mode, each keypad key will play back any stored dialing sequences. There are 12-32 digit dialing memories, one for each keypad key. On power-up, a playback to normal mode change, or a dialing memory write the chip stores the next 32 key presses in a RAM buffer. At any point, this buffer may be saved to one of the 12 dialing memories by pressing and holding the corresponding key for 2 seconds. (The digit played when initiating a write to the memory will not be saved.) A tone confirms the eeprom write. Memories are cleared by storing to memory immediately after a power-up, mode change from playback to normal, or after a previous dialing memory save. The MF/DTMF tone mode is saved in memory, so the dialing memories may contain a mix of MF and DTMF sequences. If a 2600 tone is saved, a 1.5 second fixed delay will be added after the tone to allow for a wink ack from the trunk. Then

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Remind Me Again What a Blue Box Is? A blue box generates the tones that controlled [...] , any additional tones will play. - Toggle beteen manual and playback modes: Hold 2600 button for two seconds - Clear keypress memory buffer: power off then on (also cleared after previous store or mode change) - Store keypress memory buffer: Hold down any keypad key for two seconds - Temporarily switch between MF/DTMF modes: Hold down 2600 while powering up - Permanently switch default power-up mode between MF/DTMF: Hold * while powering up - Permanently toggle between short (75 ms.) and long (120 ms.) tone duration: Hold # while powering up On power up, a mode change, or a memory store operation, the device saves the tone mode plus the next 32 keypresses in a buffer. This buffer maybe written to one of the twelve non-volatile memory locations (1-12) by pressing and holding the corresponding digit for two seconds. The tone mode (MF or DTMF) is saved as well as the buffer. The tone played when the key is first pressed to store will not be recorded. Reset the digit buffer by cycling power, saving a buffer to FLASH, or changing normal/playback modes. The box operates in two modes. In the default normal mode, it plays tones manually. Pressing and holding the 2600 button more than one second toggles to the playback mode. In this mode, sequences stored in the 12 memories may be played by pressing the corresponding key. Another two second press of the 2600 key, or power cycling, returns to normal mode. The powerup tone mode may be temporarily toggled between MF and DTMF by holding the 2600 button down while powering up. The current tone mode is stored to the non-volatile memory slots as well as the buffered digits, so the memories may contain a mix of MF and DTMF sequences. Both MF and DTMF may not be saved in the same memory slot. The power-up tone mode and tone duration/spacing are stored in FLASH and read at powerup. The power-up defaults may be changed. Holding down the "*" key

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|The Mind Connection:| How the Thoughts You Choose Affect Your Mood, Behavior, and Decisions by Joyce Meyer According to author Joyce Meyer, our attitudes originate in our minds. To change your attitude, take control of your thoughts. She writes, “A bad attitude is like a flat tire. If you don’t change it, you won’t go anywhere.” With plenty of scripture to back up her points, Meyer discusses how an attitude is something you choose. Of course it takes effort, and Meyer devotes an entire chapter to “The Power of Focus.” Meyer encourages readers to plan ahead, to think through a day before it begins, so they are alert, prepared to face challenges. I found her focus on how our thoughts influence our actions toward others especially interesting. I never considered how much my thoughts about people determine how I treat them. Our thoughts also affect our physical and emotional health. Worry is a complete waste of energy and time, according to Meyer, and creates stress. And she goes on to suggest ways to deal with worry and fearful thoughts that rob us of energy. They also affect our walk with God. Citing Jeremiah 1:5 to assure us of God’s love for us, she writes “You are not loved because you are valuable—you are valuable because you are loved.” I like such “sticky statements” that Meyer sprinkled throughout the book. Controlling our thoughts means shutting down undesirable thoughts. For instance, if you want to lose weight, don’t think about food all the time. Meyer discusses seeing things from God’s perspective and reflecting God’s thoughts in our speech because words are containers filled with power—either negative or positive. Each chapter ends with a listing of its main points, something I found helpful for review. And Meyer ends the book with a list of steps for regaining control of your thoughts and preventing mental overload. There are also notes for those who want to trace her writing to original sources. All in all, a good read, something I found helpful and hope to apply in my own life.

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WHY IS it that despite our supposedly high literacy rate, many Filipinos can barely read and write? Why haven’t we been able to develop a reading habit among Filipinos? THE problem of nonreading lies at the heart of why the Philippines is so uncompetitive in the world economy and why so many of our people continue to live in poverty or barely escape it. [photo by Jaileen Jimeno] Straightforward questions about something so fundamental. Yet there are no easy answers to such a complex problem. Worse, the problem of nonreading lies at the heart of why the Philippines is so uncompetitive in the world economy and why so many of our people continue to live in poverty or barely escape it. Someone once remarked that we are not a nation of readers; we are a nation of storytellers. Ours is a culture of oral history passed on by word of mouth not through the written word. Perhaps that is why most of the information people receive today is gathered from television (62 percent) and radio (57 percent). Newspapers and magazines are read by only 47 percent and 36 percent of the population respectively, according to a 2003 government survey. In the modern era, however, this is too low a figure. And how did this happen when we pride ourselves as being a highly literate people? Then again, are we really? To start with, let’s establish the difference between literacy and reading. They are related, but literacy is a level of competence, while reading is a skill. One can be literate but not necessarily a reader because reading, as a skill, requires the development of a habit that must be exercised daily if it is to be retained and enhanced. If left unexercised, the skill becomes rusty and can even be lost. We begin this discussion with literacy, for which there are two measures: simple and functional. Simple literacy is the ability of a person to read and write with understanding a simple message in any language or dialect. Functional literacy, meanwhile, is a significantly higher level of literacy that includes not only reading and writing skills, but also numeracy (the ‘rithmetic that completes the ‘three Rs’), which leads to a higher order of thinking that allows persons to participate more meaningfully in life situations requiring a reasonable capacity to communicate in a written language. The simpl

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WHY IS it that despite our supposedly high literacy rate, many Filipinos can barely read [...] est, most direct measure of functional literacy is the ability to follow a written set of instructions for even basic tasks. Thus, functional literacy is the more important indicator of competence when it comes to adults in the workforce. FOR DECADES, the Philippines has reported a simple literacy rate in the mid-to-high 90s. In 2003, the simple literacy rate was actually lower at 93.4 percent for the entire population at least 10 years of age. Girls show a higher rate of simple literacy than boys (94.3 percent versus 92.6 percent). Not surprisingly, Metro Manila reported the highest rate at 99 percent; the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) had the lowest at 68.9 percent (and falling compared to the 1994 rate of 73.5 percent). Over the last 10-year period (measuring simple literacy is part of the national census taken once a decade), there has been a disturbing occurrence. Nine of 15 regions (under the old regional configuration) showed a slight decline in simple literacy from 1994 to 2003. These included two of the three Visayan regions (VII and VIII) and all of the Mindanao regions. Overall, simple literacy for the entire country fell by 0.5 percent from 1994 to 2003. (See Table1) (for the population aged 10 years and older) Source: National Statistics Office |YEAR||ALL (%)||BOYS (%)||GIRLS (%)| What do these numbers mean? Based on a population of 80 million, 6.6 percent illiteracy translates into 5.3 million Filipinos who cannot read or write; a number that grew by about 1.6 million over the past decade. I suspect, however, that our simple literacy rate might even be overstated, meaning there may be even more Filipinos incapable of reading and writing a simple message, with understanding, than reported officially. The measure of simple literacy, after all, is not determined by a test but rather by a census question

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WHY IS it that despite our supposedly high literacy rate, many Filipinos can barely read [...] . A census-taker asks respondents: “Can you read or write a simple message in any language or dialect?” It’s easy to imagine that quite a number of household heads would answer affirmatively to hide the fact that they are illiterate, out of a feeling of hiya (shame). And I do not think census-takers take the time to test the literacy level of a respondent during the survey. Professor Dina Ocampo of the University of the Philippines School of Education says that literacy is really about the ability “to construct and create meaning from or through written language.” To do so will require a higher degree of abstraction. Therefore, the true measure of literacy must be functional, not simple. THE FUNCTIONAL literacy rate in the country is more realistic — but again, it may be overstated, even though it is measured by a test and not the subject of a survey question. Curiously, the test itself is called the Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS), which is done by the National Statistics Council in partnership with the Department of Education and the Literacy Coordinating Council. (10-64 years old) Source: FLEMMS, 2003 |YEAR||ALL (%)||BOYS (%)||GIRLS (%)| In 2003, the functional literacy rate was determined to be 84.1 percent of the population aged 10-64 years old. Again, girls showed a higher rate at 86.3 percent of all females surveyed versus boys at 81.9 percent of all males. (See Table 2) While the overall rate for the entire country rose slightly in 2003 versus 1994, seven of 15 regions fell over the same period with Regions II, VIII, IX, X and XI showing drops in both simple and functional literacy rates. More revealing is functional literacy by age group based on the 2003 FLEMMS: Adults closest to college graduation age (20-24 and 25-29 years) showed functional literacy rates of over or close to 90 percent. But school-age

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WHY IS it that despite our supposedly high literacy rate, many Filipinos can barely read [...] children (10-14 and 15-19 years) showed rates far below the 100 percent that would be assumed since functional literacy is based on a grasp and facility with the ‘three Rs’ (reading, writing, and arithmetic) that we hope our children are mastering. The numbers, however, say otherwise. (See Table 3) Source: FLEMMS, 2003 This relatively lower figure reflects the high dropout rates of children before the start of Grade 4 (or by age 10). Department of Education (DepEd) data show that for every 100 children who enter Grade 1, close to 15 do not make it into Grade 2, and roughly one-quarter (24 percent) have dropped out before Grade 4. Grade 3 (10 years old) is a critical year in terms of formal schooling. Since preschooling is neither compulsory nor part of the package of free public education guaranteed by the Constitution, Grade 3 marks the third full year of basic education for children who attend public elementary school and the year when the facility to read, write, and do the four operations of arithmetic with competence is expected. (Less than 20 percent of those who go to public elementary school actually attend a full year of preschool education.) Dropping out before this grade level thus becomes a major contributor to the lack of functional literacy, which in turn has a negative impact on adults and their eventual work productivity. This is assuming, of course, that by the end of Grade 3 (or the third year of formal full-time schooling), our children’s competence in the three ‘Rs are being honed fully. But as we are seeing, that may not be happening in far too many schools. WITH LOW-LEVEL literacy comes poor reading skill. In elementary schools in the Division of Manila, reading test scores reveal that only one-sixth to one-third of pupils can read independently at the desired grade level. By the end of the elementary cycle (Grade 6), over one-third of elementary graduates were identified as “frustrated” readers; another one-third were “instructional” readers. Both levels

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WHY IS it that despite our supposedly high literacy rate, many Filipinos can barely read [...] are below the desired reading level at the end of the elementary cycle. (See Table 4) Source: Philippine-IRI Test, Schools Division of Manila, SY 2003-04 |GRADE LEVEL||FRUSTRATED READER (%)||INSTRUCTIONAL READER (%)||INDEPENDENT READER (%)||TOTAL NO. OF STUDENTS| The Phil-IRI (Philippine-Informal Reading Inventory) test is an oral test given to a pupil to measure reading ability. Five test questions are administered constituting the entire test. Independent reading level – Pupil can read with ease and without the help or guidance of a teacher. In the Phil-IRI test, they can answer four or five correct answers (out of five test questions) and can read with rhythm, with a conversational tone, and can interpret punctuation correctly. Instructional reading level – Pupil can profit from instruction. In the Phil-IRI test, they answer three out of five test questions correctly. Frustrated reading level – Pupil gets two or below in the Phil-IRI test (out of five test questions). They show symptoms or behavior of withdrawing from reading situations and commit multiple types of errors in oral reading. What is troubling, in my view, is that the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (Phil-IRI) test is hardly a robust test and tends to score in favor of even poor readers. The DepEd has resisted using international test instruments based on the argument of cultural soundness (or lack thereof on the part of international tests with regard Philippine culture). The tendency to go with an “easier” test, however, defeats the purpose of measuring results. If Metro Manila shows a higher literacy level than the rest of the country but low levels of reading competence, one can only expect even lower reading scores in other regions of the country with less endowments and educational facilities than the National Capital Region. Here then is the crux of the problem: With poor reading comes poor learning. In high school, science and math learning require a degree of reading ability since much of what is learned is actually self-taught. The classroom experience

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WHY IS it that despite our supposedly high literacy rate, many Filipinos can barely read [...] in science is expected to focus on experimentation. Learning basic facts and theory in science is supposed to be read as preparation for this. Since Filipino schoolchildren have shown low levels of reading, science and math proficiency are similarly poor because much of what is learned is not self-driven or internalized; rather, it is passed from teacher to student in the old-school rote learning fashion. This largely explains why so few high-school graduates are equipped for university-level science and the subsequent lack of a technical/technology culture among our working population. Without such, the manufacturing and technical sector will continue to be weak in this country — explaining to a large extent our lack of competitiveness in the global economy. Poor reading is also a reflection of poor language proficiency, whether this be in English or in the national language. One sees this immediately in the language proficiency of public school teachers. In 2003, responding to the reality that English language proficiency was sorely lacking or being lost among Filipinos of all ages, then Education Secretary Edilberto de Jesus embarked on a nationwide campaign to raise the language proficiency of public school teachers beginning with high school teachers. Starting with over 53,000 secondary teachers teaching English, science and math — languages that require a good degree of English communication skills — a Self-Assessment Test in English (SATE) was administered to determine the proficiency level of these teachers. Only one-fifth (19 percent) passed with a score of at least 75 percent correct. While the vast majority were able to answer more than 50 percent of the test questions correctly (65 percent), close to one-fifth were obviously deficient in English and should not have been teaching subjects that require a degree of English communication skills in reading and writing. (In education scoring, a mark of 75 percent or more constitutes “mastery.” A grade between 50 percent and 75 percent is considered “nearing mastery.” A grade below 50 percent is a measure of “no mastery.”) THE KEY to learning is better reading skills. But this reading skill need not be confined to English only. The ability to read and write in any language or dialect is what is important. From this “life-long

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WHY IS it that despite our supposedly high literacy rate, many Filipinos can barely read [...] learning” or “survival” skill, one can develop the ability to “learn for life.” These are important elements for building individual competence and achievement that can be translated in the future into a competitive workforce. Note, however, that the issue of English-language skill in the workplace is another issue altogether. At least it should be, but it often gets entangled with our plans on what to teach in our schools. We are concerned by the decline in English proficiency of our workers. But take note that Japanese, as well as Korean, Thai, and even Malaysian workers, are not required to speak in English on the factory floor. They communicate in their own native languages and they do so with competence. The English language becomes important when workers are forced to work in situations where supervisors and managers are foreign or the work system is adapted from abroad. English then becomes the intermediate language of reference and a necessary element of communication. Because many Filipino workers are forced to work in such situations either in-country or abroad, English proficiency becomes a critical factor. But because the formal part of the language is stressed at so young an age when learning is still beginning, the ability to learn more science and math content is sacrificed. This is, in large part, why productivity among Filipino workers and managers suffers and why competitiveness, as a country trait, is low. This bears repeating: Grades 1 to 3 are critical in the child’s learning cycle (assuming no preschooling for most public schoolchildren.) At this age, the fundamentals for literacy have to be established and the start of a reading habit developed. SHOULD WE despair? Not yet — because while the vast majority of our public schools struggle to manage deficiencies and shortages in the system, there are diamonds in the rough sprinkled throughout that provide hope for all. “Models-of-excellence” (MOE) schools were born out of a program called “Books for the Barrios” set up by a former Subic-based couple, Nancy and Dan Harrington, over 15 years ago. The Harringtons collected books from U.S. families, schools, and publishers (e.g. publishing overruns) and had these shipped to Philippine elementary schools

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WHY IS it that despite our supposedly high literacy rate, many Filipinos can barely read [...] to set up libraries and reading programs. In later years, Professor Isagani Cruz of Far Eastern University (and formerly De La Salle University) developed a reading program for them that focused on “words of the day” from Grades 1 to 6 to help hone a vocabulary set that would equip very young children to read. In Agusan del Sur, Amy Ronquillo, the dynamic young principal of Pisaan Elementary School, took a poorly-performing school and transformed it into an MOE school where children are able to read well within the first year of their formal schooling. The result has led to a transformation of the school with parent involvement so high that what was once a school with a high dropout rate is now overcrowded, as parents compete to get their kids enrolled there. In Negros Occidental, ESKAN or Eskwelahan sang Katawhan Negros (literally “school for the people”) set up district-level reading programs to improve on the achievement of pupils in schools in each of the towns. First started in the sixth-class towns of San Enrique and Toboso, the program has expanded to other towns in the province (E.B. Magalona, Murcia, La Castellana, Moises Padilla, and Silay) before being exported to the neighboring province of Iloilo (Concepcion and Ajuy). Poor school performance was traced to a dearth of student-friendly instructional materials in most schools; inadequate skills and formal mechanisms for teachers to handle children with learning difficulties (chief among these, poor reading); and the minimal participation of the local community (i.e. parents) in local school matters. To address these deficiencies, Grade 1 teachers in participating schools went through a 15-day rigid training on reading; para-teachers were recruited and trained to handle pupils with reading difficulties; and a pool of local trainers from DepEd developed instructional materials now being used by all Grade 1 pupils in schools in all ESKAN municipalities. The net effect: a decline in the number of slow and nonreaders in schools in all these municipalities, even within months of implementation. Then there is the Sa Aklat Sisik

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WHY IS it that despite our supposedly high literacy rate, many Filipinos can barely read [...] at (SAS) Foundation whose program began in the Makati schools division before branching out to other cities and provinces. To date, SAS has set up reading programs for over 125,000 Grade 4 children in 525 public elementary schools. The program targets Grade 4 because it does not really teach reading; rather, it works on a school age group that already knows how to read in order to build a reading habit. READING PROGRAMS, in fact, have been set up in all school divisions by both public and private groups. But in order to develop a reading habit, schoolchildren need books that tell stories in an interesting manner while developing a broader vocabulary. Textbooks, which are more lesson-oriented, lack the imagination that children need to develop the reading habit. The problem of providing libraries of reading books in public schools becomes a question of logistics and the lack of resources. To provide reading books for over 37,000 public elementary schools becomes prohibitive in terms of cost. As an operating strategy to get around this constraint, the DepEd embarked on a program to build library hubs in each of the 186 school divisions. These hubs are, in effect, warehouses of reading books in pre-packed book bins lent to schools within a given division on a wholesale basis. Teachers then lend out the books from the bins to children in their classes and encourage each pupil to read at least one book per week. After a 30-day borrowing period, schools return book bins and are eligible to borrow other book bins. Each library hub is stocked with anywhere from 25,000-50,000 reading books. Thus, while it is costly to build tens of thousands of school libraries with a small number of books, each school within a library hub area can have access to tens of thousands of books in a schoolyear even if it does not have a school library. By early 2007, DepEd had set up 35 library hubs throughout the country servicing as many as 3,000 schools. In the plans are a total target of 300 library hubs, with larger school divisions getting as many as three to four hub

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Florida Forest Service Alerts Brevardians of Heightened Wildfire Danger, Urges Caution By Space Coast Daily // March 22, 2018 BREVARD brush fire danger indices is "Extreme" BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – The Space Coast area’s brush fire danger indices is “Extreme” and the Florida Forest Service is urging residents to exercise caution due to significantly heightened wildfire risk throughout the state. While Florida has received recent rainfall, drought conditions throughout the state are expected to continue. The Florida Forest Service has battled over 700 wildfires across the state in 2018. “Florida’s wildland firefighters have proven time and again that they are prepared to put their lives on the line to keep Floridians safe,” said Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Adam H. Putnam. “Floridians can do their part by keeping preventable human-caused wildfires at bay and preparing their families and homes for wildfire.” There are currently 41 active wildfires throughout Florida. Most of the wildfires this year have been caused by escaped yard trash burns. “Many wildfires this year have unfortunately been human-caused,” said Jim Karels, Florida State Forester. “It’s imperative that Floridians are cautious with fire to help protect Florida’s residents, natural resources and wildland firefighters.” Visit the Florida Forest Service’s wildfire information webpage to view an interactive map of current active wildfires, drought and fire danger forecast information, and a list of current county burn bans. Floridians can also download the Florida Forest Service’s “FLBurnTools” app to access wildfire conditions in real-time. Prescribed burn practitioners can also use the app to plan and submit authorization requests. The app is now available in Apple’s App Store and on Google Play. The Florida Forest Service, a division of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, manages more than 1 million acres of state forests and provides forest management assistance on more than 17 million acres of private and community forests. The Florida Forest Service is also responsible for protecting homes, forestland and natural resources from the devastating effects of

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March/Maart 2016 The Members’ slot was filled by Pat Irwin who gave a brief presentation on the Heldenorgel in the town of Kufstein in western Austria. This open air organ, the largest in the world, is a living memorial to the Austrian fallen of the First and Second World Wars. Located in the 13th century Festung, the organ is played each day at noon and can be heard throughout the town and surrounding hills. The curtain raiser, the South African Women’s Auxiliary Service (SAWAS) was presented by Letitia Jacobs. The South African Women’s Auxiliary Services (SAWAS) was given its official status after the outbreak of the Second World War at a Conference in Pretoria in November 1939 and became affiliated to the Union of South Africa’s Department of Defence. It had its origins in the voluntary organisation, the Women’s National Service Legion, formed at the end of 1938. It was decided that an organisation be formed under the leadership of Mrs J.J. Pienaar, wife of the Administrator of the Transvaal, based along similar lines and incorporating the existing women’s organisations. SAWAS consisted of 408 branches with almost 65 000 members, each under the command of a Provincial Commandant.NancyAnderson was the Provincial Commandant of Command 2, Eastern Province. By December 1943 volunteers at SAWAS ran 213 institutions that included soldiers' clubs, canteens, dining rooms, reading and recreation rooms, mobile refreshment units, after-care homes, crèches and hostels. One of its most widespread schemes was the hospitality scheme, under which members arranged private hospitality for servicemen on leave, including thousands of men from overseas who spent time ashore as convoys passed the Cape. By 1943, 25 000 officers and men had stayed in private homes around Cape Town. SAWAS thus became synonymous with service to men in the Forces and their dependants. In the countryside, SAWAS drivers used their own cars to save servicemen train travelling time. The organization was largely responsible for the warm welcome that the ships carrying Allied troops – mostly Australians and New Zealanders who were travelling through

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March/Maart 2016 The Members’ slot was filled by Pat Irwin who [...] the Suez Canal to and from the battle fronts – received in Durban and Cape Town. These women, who became known as the "Universal Aunts of South Africa", took the lead in this welcoming which included organising dances, beach- and tea parties, excursions, shows and dinners, clubs and cafeterias where the troops could feel at home. South African women have a long history of service in the military. They served in auxiliary roles in the SADF during the First and Second World Wars, and were assigned to active, non-combat duties after 1970. The army established a volunteer nursing service in 1914 and sent 328 nurses to serve with South African troops in Europe and East Africa in the First World War. The Women's Auxiliary Army Service began accepting women recruits in 1916. Officials estimated that women volunteers relieved 12 000 men for combat during the First World War by assuming clerical and other duties. During the Second World War, South Africa had five service organizations for women consisting of the South African Military Nursing Service, and women's auxiliaries attached to the army, the navy, the air force, and the military police. Many women were also trained for coastal defence units, to handle sophisticated radar equipment and odometers, to serve in ammunition factories, and in clerical and administrative positions in one or other of these military branches. Three of the many outstanding women who served SAWAS are: * Phyllis Doreen Dunning (nee Hooper) was the first South African woman to volunteer for full-time war service on 1st June 1940. She was only 22 years old when she became the Officer Commander of the South African Women's Auxiliary Air Force (SAWAAF), with the rank of Major. She was the youngest officer in the British Commonwealth to attain this rank. Prime Minister Jan Smuts had asked her to join up. On 28th June 1940, the first group of 120 women were taken into full-time service. Five months later there were 800 SAWAAFs proudly wearing the orange flash, signifying they had volunteered

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March/Maart 2016 The Members’ slot was filled by Pat Irwin who [...] for overseas service. Doreen died in Howick, South Africa, on 26th August 2008 at age 91. * The grandmother of Tiaan Jacobs, Cornelia Alletha De Wet, was involved with the SA Military Nursing Service in Sterkstroom for the full duration of the war and was also involved with the mobile refreshment trucks that provided essential survival packs for military personnel and civilians in need. For her selfless assistance and voluntary service to the Union of South Africa, she was honoured with the South African Medal for War Services 1939-1945. South African Medal for War Services 1939-1945 The main lecture presented by Tiaan Jacobs was entitled Rorke’s Drift 1879 – against all odds. Tiaan’s interest in Rorke’s Drift was aroused after he was awarded the John Chard Medal in 1984. As a result of his research he discovered that it had been established in honour of Lieutenant John Rouse Marriot Chard VC, Royal Engineers, who in 1879 commanded the defence of Rorke’s Drift, repelling attacks by Cetshwayo’s army. Lt. Chard set an outstanding example of the value of preparedness and of the qualities of leadership and perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds. Rorke's Drift was a mission station and the former trading post of James Rorke, an Irish merchant. The mission belonged to the Reverend Otto Witt, a Swede. Witt’s church had been turned into a store by the British Army and his house into a military hospital under Surgeon James Reynolds. It was located near a drift on the Buffalo (Mzinyathi) River, which at the time formed the border between the British colony of Natal and the Zulu Kingdom. The Central Column of Lord Chelmsford’s invading army crossed the Buffalo River into Zululand at Rorke’s Drift on 11th January 1879. On 22nd January 1879 over 1000 British troops, princip

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March/Maart 2016 The Members’ slot was filled by Pat Irwin who [...] ally the 1st Battalion 24th Foot, were virtually annihilated in a bloody confrontation at the Battle of Isandlwana. On the same day a part of the Zulu army proceeded to Rorke’s Drift where, in the evening and into the night, they attacked the soldiers of B Company 2/24th Regiment and others who had been ordered to remain at the supply depot there. One hundred and thirty-nine British soldiers successfully defended their garrison against an intense onslaught by four to five thousand Zulu warriors. The overwhelming Zulu attack came very close to defeating the small British garrison. Its repulse and withdrawal helped to restore the prestige of British arms by their successful defence of the mission station. Brevet Major, Henry Spalding (104th Regiment) had been in overall command of the post. His responsibilities included keeping open lines of communication and making sure that supplies were moved forward to the main force in enemy territory. Anxious that two extra companies of the 24th Regiment had not arrived from the fort at Helpmekaar, Spalding decided to go and see if anything was amiss. Lt. Chard was the next most senior officer. Spalding left camp with the immortal words: “You will be in charge, although, of course nothing will happen, and I shall be back again early this evening.” Chard, who was primarily responsible for maintaining the pontoons positioned on the Buffalo River, and a hand-full of men from 5th Company had arrived in Durban on the 5th January and were at Rorke’s Drift by the 19th. Three days later he was in command of the garrison although he had never seen any action. The role of second-in-command devolved upon Lt. Gonville Bromhead of B Company 2/24th. Acting upon a warning that the Zulu army was advancing on them, the British garrison set to fortifying the mission station. Tents were struck and stored and the buildings loop-holed for defence. The complex was reinforced by building walls of mealie bags and biscuit tins. When the Zulu army advanced on the

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March/Maart 2016 The Members’ slot was filled by Pat Irwin who [...] mission station in the late afternoon they were met by heavy fire from the garrison and so, at some 50 yards from the wall, veered around the hospital to attack from the North West. They were driven back by the fire from the garrison and went to ground in the undergrowth, uncleared due to the shortage of time. The main body of Zulus opened fire on the British from cover around the mission station. The hospital at the western end of the fortifications became the focus for the fighting. When it was set on fire and stormed by the Zulus, the situation became untenable. As many men were extracted as possible, the remaining patients perishing in the flames. Privates John Williams, Henry Hook, William Jones, Frederick Hitch and Corporal William Allen received the Victoria Cross for their defence of the hospital building. Fighting with bayonets after their ammunition was expended, they contested every room with the attacking warriors. The fighting then concentrated on the wall of biscuit tins linking the mission house with the mealie bag wall. As night fell the British withdrew to the centre of the station where a final bastion had been hastily assembled. The light from the burning hospital assisted the British in their firing. The Zulu attacks were resisted until around midnight when, unexpectedly, the ferocity of the assault fell away. Firing continued until around 4am when the Zulus withdrew. By then the British held only the area around the storehouse. At 7am a body of Zulus appeared on the hill, but no attack followed. This success is held as one of history's finest defences. Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded to the defenders of the Rorke’s Drift mission station, along with a number of other decorations and honours. Lieutenants Chard and Bromhead were each awarded the Victoria Cross and promoted to the rank of major. In addition to the soldiers of the 24th who distinguished themselves in the defence of the hospital, Victoria Crosses were awarded to Surgeon Reynolds, Commissary Dalton and Corporal Schiess of the Natal Native Contingent. Five others were awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. The 1879 Zulu War medal was subsequently established to honour all

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March/Maart 2016 The Members’ slot was filled by Pat Irwin who [...] those British soldiers who participated in the Anglo-Zulu War. Just as it was incomprehensible to the public in Britain that 1 000 British infantry armed with modern breech loading rifles could be overwhelmed by soldiers armed principally with stabbing spears, it was astounding that a handful of the same troops could withstand the overwhelming attack delivered against their comrades later the same day. In addition to their traditional weapons, the Zulus had captured some 1 000 Martini Henry breech loading rifles and a large amount of ammunition. Some of these rifles were used at Rorke’s Drift. All the British casualties, few though they were, were shot rather than stabbed. It is estimated that between 20 000 and 25 000 rounds were fired during the defence of Rorke's Drift, the vast majority of the shots having missed their targets altogether. According to Lt. Chard's report, the number of Zulu dead buried by the British was 351. It is estimated that another 300 Zulus died later as a result of wounds sustained during the battle. So, conservatively speaking, every 25th shot fired by the defenders of Rorke's Drift resulted in an eventual Zulu death, and every 50th shot was an outright kill. It seems that a number of the defenders of Rorke’s Drift may subsequently have suffered from what is now known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: Corporal Schiess fell ‘on hard times’ and died in 1884 aged 28 years; Pte John Fielding’s hair is said to have turned white shortly after the battle; William Jones in old age suffered from nightmares that the Zulus were about to attack; and Robert Jones shot himself in 1896. A rare and interesting medalet is believed to date from the time of Cetshwayo’s imprisonment. Local tradition in Cape Town has it that Cetshwayo was in the habit of presenting his medal to the more important of his many visitors. This little oval medalet in cheap metal is 16 mm by 1

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March/Maart 2016 The Members’ slot was filled by Pat Irwin who [...] 3 mm and has a perforated 'ear' at the top through which is tied a little bow in white string. On the obverse is portrayed a fine Zulu head with decorative headdress, facing left. Above, in tiny letters, is the name 'CETSHWAYO'. On the plain reverse, in capital letters, in four lines is the inscription: 'THE ZULU WAR MEDAL'. Although Cetshwayo had no bronze crosses or silver medals with which to decorate his heroes, he had a means of showing his special approbation. The wood of the Umzimbete or uMyezane tree was especially reserved, on pain of death, for the Zulu king. From it, little dumbbell-shaped beads were cut which, if strung together, formed an interlocking necklace. These beads were given to Zulu warriors who specially distinguished themselves in battle. A warrior wearing a necklace of these beads was regarded with no less respect than a British holder of the Victoria Cross. The John Chard Medal and Decoration was instituted from 6th April 1952 and was awarded for long and efficient service in the conventional SADF Citizen Force. After 20 years’ service a recipient could qualify for the John Chard Decoration, and from 1986 no longer had to stop wearing theMedal once he/she had received the Decoration. The oval medal is of bronze and the designation and significance is the same as that of the John Chard Decoration. Distinguishing insignia in silver are worn on the ribbon to indicate the arm of the SADF in which the qualifying service was carried out: Army – miniature crossed swords; Air Force – miniature eagle; and Navy – miniature anchor. John Chard Decoration Obverse: Depicts in relief the commissariat store and hospital which formed part of the defence of Rorke’s Drift in 1879. Reverse: Depicts the SA coat of arms. Ribbon: 32 mm in width, central broad 22mm red stripe, with 3mm navy blue (outer) and 1.5mm white (inner

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March/Maart 2016 The Members’ slot was filled by Pat Irwin who [...] ) stripes on either side, representing the colours of the British flag. For a full transcript of this talk please contact Tiaan at email@example.com Future meetings and field trips/ Toekomstige byeenkoms en uitstappe The next SAMHSEC meeting will be on Monday 14th March 2016 at 19h30 at the Eastern Cape Veteran Car Club in Conyngham Road, Port Elizabeth. The AGM will be held in lieu of the curtain raiser. The Chairman's and Treasurer's Reports for 2015/16 are attached. The main lecture was intended to be by Wayne Westoby on his Experiences flying Mirage Jets for the SAAF during the Border War. Due to his flying schedule he is, however, unable to give it as planned. John Stevens has kindly agreed to bring forward the second part of his lecture titled Under wraps: the story of a top secret British military undertaking in 1915. (Part 2). Wayne will hopefully be able to address us at a later date. Matters of general interest / Sake van algemene belang New member /Nuwe lid We welcome Derek Frielinghaus of Knysnaas a member of the South African Military History Society and SAMHSEC. We hope you will enjoy a happy association with the East Cape Branch and look forward to having you join us at meetings and field trips when you have the opportunity to do so. Members’ forum/Lede se forum In March 2012 (see SAMHSEC Newsletter 91) Donna Cilliers, in her lecture on Wartime Animals drew our attention to Wojtek, the Syrian Brown Bear who served in an Artillery Supply Company of the Polish II Corps. Among his battle honours was the carrying and loading of ammunition at the Battle of Monte Cassino. Richard Tomlinson has suggested that we feature him again. 16 photographs and a brief description of his exploits can be found at Following on Ian Copley’s talk last month, Richard Tomlinson has drawn our attention to an article on the Samora Machel air crash monument.

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March/Maart 2016 The Members’ slot was filled by Pat Irwin who [...] It can be viewed at http://www.theheritageportal.co.za/article/air-crash-monument-must Lecture: Empire, War and Cricket in South Africa There will be a talk by Dr Dean Allen on his book, Empire, War and Cricket in South Africa: Logan of Matjiesfontein on Tuesday 29th March 2016 at 10h00 in the Auditorium of the Newton Park Library, corner of 4th Avenue and Hurd Street, Newton Park. This is under the auspices of the U3A (University of the Third Age) and non-members of U3A would be welcome on paying the princely admission fee of R10.00. The same lecture will be presented in Grahamstown on Friday 11th March at 17h30 for 18h00 in the Albany Club in High Street. This is under the auspices of the Grahamstown Historical Society. SAMHS/ SAMHSEC Subscriptions Members are reminded that annual subscriptions are due no later than the end of March to avoid being deleted from the mailing list. World War I Centenary Years / Eerste Wêreldoorlog Eeufeesjare Part 2 of 5 of John Steven’s ‘Road to the Somme’ Haldane’s (then Secretary for War) post-Boer War Reforms (1906-1912) resulted in the British Army becoming two primary formations: The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) for foreign operations and the Territorial Army (TA), an area protection force intended for service in the British Isles only. It essentially abolished the existing Volunteers and Yeomanry and used them to create a new territorial force of fourteen infantry divisions, fourteen cavalry brigades, and a large number of support units. The total strength of the regular army in July 1914 was 233 000: 125 000 men in the British Isles, 75 000 in India and Burma and a further 33 000 in other overseas post

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March/Maart 2016 The Members’ slot was filled by Pat Irwin who [...] ings. In addition there were 145 000 men in the Army Reserve and 64 000 in the Militia (or Special Reserve). The territorial force was composed of 272 000 men. Interestingly, while a BEF Cavalry Division had been provided for by the reforms, it had not been constituted by the outbreak of war in 1914. Five independent Cavalry Brigades were then combined into a Cavalry Division of four Brigades leaving one remaining independent Brigade just after mobilization. When Lord Kitchener became Secretary of State for War just after war was declared, he was one of the few to foresee a long war, lasting for at least three years. Having the authority to act effectively on that perception, he organized the largest volunteer army that both Britain and the world had seen through a massive recruiting campaign. This would raise Kitchener’s so called ‘New’ Armies. Battle of Salaita Hill The 100th anniversary of the Battle of Salaita Hill,in which there was a substantial involvement of South African troops, took place on 12th February. It was the first large-scale engagement of the East African Campaign. For a detailed account of the battle see the [South African] Military History Journal 16 (6) 202-210 December 2015 Major engagements in March 1916 During March the Germans continued their offensive at Verdun, the second major waves of attacks starting on 6th March. Under increasing pressure at Verdun, the French pressed their allies to launch offensives of their own to draw German forces away from the city. Britain responded with the Battle of the Somme in July, the Italians with the 5th Battle of the Isonzo commencing on 9th March, while the Russians launched an offensive in the Vilna-Naroch area (today’s Lithuania) on 18th March. The Italian army was at this stage, however, ill-prepared for a further Isonzo offensive and in no condition to renew hostilities. As with the previous four battles of Isonzo, this one failed to achieve its objectives and the attack was

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March/Maart 2016 The Members’ slot was filled by Pat Irwin who [...] abandoned on 17th March. Subsequently the Austro-Hungarians were able to launch their own counter-offensive in the Trentino area on 15th May. (This is to be covered in Newsletter 140). Preceded by a wildly inaccurate two-day artillery bombardment – the heaviest to date on the Eastern Front – the Battle of Lake Naroch was launched on 18th March 1916. Russia’s Second Army consisting of 350 000 men and 1 000 guns was ranged against just 75 000 men and 400 guns of the German Tenth Army. The Russian infantry assault following the artillery bombardment rapidly became bogged down in the mud of the spring thaw, bunched up during the attack and consequently made easy targets for artillery and machine gun fire. The situation was compounded by the characteristically ill-prepared and ineffective Russian commissariat and its inability to supply the troops with victuals and ammunition. The attack was a notable failure. Artillery attacks continued into April, but German counter-attacks succeeded in recovering what little ground the Russians had succeeded in capturing. The Germans suffered 20 000 casualties at Lake Naroch and the Russians 70 000. These three attacks had not caused the Germans to divert resources from Verdun and in this respect alone they were notable failures. Shortly after the Lake Naroch debacle the Russians heeded another call for help, this time from the Italians. The Russian response on this occasion, known as the Brusilov Offensive, was markedly more effective. (This is to be covered in Newsletter 141). On the middle eastern front, in a further attempt to relieve the besieged British force at Kut-al-Amara (see Newsletters 135 and 136), an attack was made on the Turkish-held redoubt at Dujaila on 8th March. This strong point was held by 25 000 experienced troops, many of whom had fought at Gallipoli. Stopped 700 metres short of the red

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March/Maart 2016 The Members’ slot was filled by Pat Irwin who [...] oubt, the British attack faltered and was subsequently called off with the loss of 3 500 casualties. Turkish losses were 1 200. Due to the continuing British naval blockade and attempted starvation of Germany, the first calls for a resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare were made in March 1916. It was ultimately resumed only in February 1917 and proved highly successful in terms of tonnage sunk. To combat this, the British began full-scale convoying in September 1917. The first effective depth charge, the ‘Type D’, developed in Britain became available in January 1916. Initially they were not very effective – only nine U-boats being sunk up to the end of 1917. The first U-boat to be sunk by a depth charge was the U-68 off Kerry, Ireland, on 22nd March 1916. Only six days into her first war patrol, she was sunk with all hands by the Q-ship Farnborough. U-68 sank no ships in her brief career. A post-war German study found fault with U-68's captain for not following established procedures for avoiding decoy ships. Websites of interest/Webwerwe van belang World War I 10,000 soldiers die in Tyrol from avalanches during World War I Jennifer Rosenberg About.com 7th January World War II Island in the Pacific is home to countless WWII relics Charlene Sakoda Yahoo News 20th March 2014 Soviet image manipulation for propaganda purposes during WW II War History Online 2/4/2015 The last flight of the Royal Navy Sea Kings Alex Matthews Mail Online 14th January 2016 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3399679/The-flight-Sea-Kings-Iconic-Royal-Navy-search-rescue-helicopters-make-final-flight-Scotland-service-

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March/Maart 2016 The Members’ slot was filled by Pat Irwin who [...] taken-private-firm.html The Scotsman 14th January 2016 One of the best aircraft designs of the 20th century? Junkers Ju 52 – The flying tool shed War History Online 18th October 2015 Separating fiction and fact: The B-17 All American story WarBirds News 27th June 2013 To snatch an F-86 Sabre in North Korea Ralph Wetterhahn Air & Space Magazine July 2003 The F-4 Phantom – good pictures War History Online 11th February 2016 Once-feared 'Zero' fighter flies again over Japan Thom Patterson CNN 29th January 2016 The last of the Monitor warships [An interesting 9 minute video] World War Two sea forts to be developed into a luxury hotel War History Online 16th January 2016 Images of the massive German flak towers, which could also shelter thousands War History Online 24th January 2016 Spooks and spying Lebanon returns Israeli vulture cleared of spying Anon BBC News 30th January 2016 Resource materials of military historical interest/ Bronmaterieel van krygsgeskiedkundige belang Steyn Willie 2015 The Great Boer Escape Cape Town Cederberg Publishers This is the story of five ordinary commando members’ escape from the certainty of British imprisonment in Ceylonand, for some of them, their remarkable return, via Russia and Europe, to South Africa to re-join the fight against the British. It is told with a combination of humour and sadness, but always with iron determination as to the ultimate goal. Helga Steyn has translated her grandfather’s story into eloquent English which constitutes the first half of the book. The original Dutch manuscript upon which the book is based, constitutes the second half and is also easy enough to read for anyone with a reasonable working knowledge of Afrikaans. In sum, this is a fascinating and

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March/Maart 2016 The Members’ slot was filled by Pat Irwin who [...] very modest account and is truly a ‘must read’ for all Anglo-Boer War enthusiasts for it covers an aspect of the conflict we very seldom hear about. The book is unfortunately overpriced in relation to its length. 73pp with 8 pp of b&w photographs p/b R250.00 Also Available on Kindle. EXCELLENT ONLINE RESOURCE 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopaedia of the First World War 1914-1918-online – International Encyclopaedia of the First World War is an English-language online reference work on the First World War. Launched in October 2014, the multi-perspective, public-access encyclopaedia is a collaborative project by the largest network of First World War researchers worldwide, spanning more than 50 countries. 1914-1918-online features innovative navigation and search functions based on semantic wiki technology. There are currently 813 articles on a very wide range of topics and issues,and the final product is projected to eventually contain more than 1000 articles. For further information and insights see: http://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/articles/ for a full list of items published thus far. Two recent additions to this work are: * The phantom airship panic of 1913: imagining aerial warfare in Britain before the Great WarbyBrett Holman. The full article is accessible at: Chairman: Malcolm Kinghorn: firstname.lastname@example.org Secretary: Franco Cilliers: Cilliers.email@example.com Scribes (Newsletter): Anne and Pat Irwin: firstname.lastname@example.org

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In this tutorial Ian Norman shows us how to enhance the resolution of a camera sensor with a technique called superresolution. With this technique, it’s possible to mimic the sensor-shift high-resolution mode found on cameras like the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II to squeeze more megapixels out of the camera sensor. In his example, he increases the resolution of a 24 megapixel photo to more than 90 megapixels. See the full write-up and video walkthrough in this tutorial. We’ve seen it in plenty of thriller/crime solver TV shows and movies: upon reviewing some grainy and very low-resolution surveillance footage, someone inevitably asks the technician, “can you zoom in on that and enhance it?” Then, with the quick press of a few masterfully placed keystrokes and bleepy computer sounds, the image is suddenly enhanced with vastly increased resolution and a key plot device is revealed. We all know that you can’t pull pixels out of thin air and most “zoom-enhance” sequences on TV and movies get it downright wrong: But there actually is a practical means of increasing the spatial resolution capability of a camera. It’s called superresolution (wikipedia) and it’s possible with the camera you have right now. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to enhance images just like (actually not at all like) in the movies. I’ll show you how it’s possible to make visible what were previously indiscernible details and break the resolution bounds of your camera. Much more than a few carefully placed keystrokes, superresolution is both a shooting technique and a post processing method and there are limitations in its application. It’s not very suitable for moving subjects. Because of this limitation, it’s best for static scenes like landscape photography or certain studio/product photography. While not quite as simple as just buying a Canon EOS 5DS R, this tutorial shows you how to actually enhance the resolution of your camera to levels upwards of 40 megapixels without spending a dime on new equipment. If you’re the pixel peeper looking to create extremely fine detailed, high resolution images for print work, or if you just want to learn about an actual method to create extremely high resolution and cleanly detailed photos, keep reading. I was first

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In this tutorial Ian Norman shows us how to enhance the resolution of a camera sensor with a technique called [...] introduced to the concept of superresolution when Hasselblad announced their H4D-200MS, an obscenely expensive medium format camera capable of 200 megapixel (MP) images (it has since been superseded by the Hasselblad H5D-200c). The thing that intrigued me most about the H4D-200MS was that it made these extremely high resolution images with only a 50 MP sensor. Using a special sensor-shift mechanism inside the camera, the H4D-200MS was able to make 6 separate images, each with slightly different sensor positions with only a pixel of difference between each shot. The camera would then automatically re-align those images and combine them together to produce a photo with 4x the amount of resolution. The current generation H5D-200c costs more than most mid range cars at $45,000. I knew that I’d probably never be able to lay my hands on such an expensive camera, but I knew that I want the same technology in my (much more modest) compact system camera. Now it’s 2015. In the four short years since Hasselblad announced the 200 MP beast, sensor shift technology is starting to see its way into more affordable cameras. The recently announced Olympus OM-D E-M5 II is the first consumer level camera to feature this technology. Similar to the H4D-200MS, the OM-D E-M5 II makes no less than 8 consecutive photographs with its 16 MP sensor. After shooting these 8 photos, each with a different sensor position, it then combines the data from all 8 images into a 40 MP image (or up to 65 MP in RAW). It’s a little more modest than the ridiculous level of detail capable by the Hasselblad but the E-M5 II is a compact system mirrorless camera with a much much smaller 4/3″ sensor. At 40 megapixels, it’s right on par with some of the highest resolution DSLRs currently available like the Nikon D810 (36 MP) and the Sony a7R (36

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In this tutorial Ian Norman shows us how to enhance the resolution of a camera sensor with a technique called [...] MP). Now I wouldn’t really call myself a pixel-peeper, but the thought of making an ultra-high resolution photo intrigues me. My question has always been: Can we achieve a similar kind of superresolution without the need for a special sensor shift mechanism? The answer is yes and the technique is stupidly simple. By taking a burst of numerous consecutive photographs by hand and cleverly combining them in post processing, we can noticeably improve the resolution capability of any camera. It’s a simplified geometrical reconstruction technique using the concept of sub-pixel image localization. It’s easier than it sounds, I promise. Here’s what to expect and how to do it: What to Expect I happened to be staying near San José, Costa Rica while writing this article so I shot a bunch of street photos for this tutorial example. The mix of moving cars and fine detail in the streets of the Costa Rican town will allow me to demonstrate both the benefits and limitations of the technique. The superresolution method here relies on statistics. We’ll gather a high quality dataset by shooting a collection of about 20 consecutive sharp images. The real trick is that we’ll shoot this set of exposures completely hand held. The subtle motion of our hand will actually act just like a sensor shift mechanism and allow different pixels to capture different parts of the scenes. It sounds simple but it actually works. Once we’ve gathered all our images (I recommend shooting several scenes to get the hang of shooting so many photos at once) we can stack them, up-sample them, realign them and then filter their data with a statistical filter. We’ll use a simple averaging (mean) filter, which will allow us to resolve detail at up to 1/4 of our original pixel size. So when we upsample, we increase the image to 4 times its original size. A 12 MP image can become nearly 48 MP, a 24 MP image almost 96 MP. There’s always a little cropping necessary because our photos will never perfectly overlap. My stack of 24 MP photos made a final image with 94 megapixels. Now I don’t want to get your hopes too high: the difference in perceived resolution between a 24 megapixel

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In this tutorial Ian Norman shows us how to enhance the resolution of a camera sensor with a technique called [...] image and a 94 megapixel image is actually less drastic than you might think. Even though it’s nearly four times as large, the increase in resolution will only be apparent in the areas of the image with the finest detail. As a result, the technique here only shows tangible returns on very highly detailed scenes. This is a pixel peeper’s method. The benefits are very real, but the results might be less drastic than numbers would initially indicate. Also, unless you print your photos billboard size and stand really close to see every little detail, 94 megapixels is overkill in just about ever kind of application I can think of. Even the highest resolution computer monitors have only about 15 megapixels. But let’s make a huge image just because we can: I’d like to use my example image to point out some of the benefits and limitations so that you can get a better idea of what to expect from this superresolution technique. Here’s the example image again, this time with some boxes labeled with letters to demonstrate the location of each of the following example images. Each area is a 200px by 200px square (100px by 100px on the original), magnified to 700% so that you can more easily discern the differences. A – Up to 4x Spatial Resolution Increase: While there is a very apparent and measurable resolution increase, it’s limited. Even if we used hundreds of stacked frames (not recommended), we probably would not be able to increase the actual spatial resolution of the image past about four times the original or 200% on each edge, length and width. This limit is due to a number of reasons: the imprecise and random nature of our “sensor movement” (hand shake), inaccuracies in our layer alignment (pushing the limits of Photoshop’s auto-align function) and the fact that we’re simply averaging the pixel level details rather than writing a sub-pixel level demosaicing algorithm specifically geared toward multi-image superresolution. That said, the process does uncover some extra fine detail that would have otherwise been imperceptible. Check out the detail at point ‘A’ where the

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In this tutorial Ian Norman shows us how to enhance the resolution of a camera sensor with a technique called [...] details in a corrugated steel roof are nearly invisible in the original image but obvious in the superresolution stack: B – Noise Reduction: Another major benefit of this technique is the reduction of both random and fixed pattern noise. Because of the random nature of the camera motion when shooting a continuous photo sequence handheld and due to the random nature of the sensor read noise, stacking and averaging the value of each pixel essentially filters out most of the noise. This technique also eliminates the influence of fixed pattern noise because our random hand movements ensure that any hot pixels or consistent noise patterns are averaged away by the data from the rest of the images. In the example from point ‘B’ you can see both a drastic increase in spatial resolution and a noticeable decrease in overall noise and grain. C – Moiré Elimination: One of the most distinct benefits is the elimination of almost any color moiré or color aliasing. This phenomenon can be especially problematic when shooting very finely detailed subjects with repeating patterns such as textiles. It shows as colored or zebra-striped patterns on these surfaces. Superresolution stacking usually eliminates the problem entirely. That means this method is particularly beneficial to cameras without an optical low pass filter (OLPF) like the Sony a7R or an OLPF cancellation filter like the Canon 5DSR and Nikon D800E. These cameras are particularly susceptible to moiré and aliasing and that actually makes them some of the best candidates for using this method. By the fact that they’re already very high megapixel cameras, using this technique should be able to deliver some very high resolution results while also reducing or eliminating their inherent aliasing and moiré problems. The example from point ‘C’ below was selected from an alternate superresolution image from the same example scene that happened to show more moiré on the repeating vertical lines of the front gate of one of the buildings. D – Increase Legibility: The sensor shift mechanism has a distinct advantage over our method here because the position of the shift is known so it can treat each recorded pixel location as part of a larger than native resolution image, rather than relying on averaging. This means that the sensor-shift technique should result in details

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In this tutorial Ian Norman shows us how to enhance the resolution of a camera sensor with a technique called [...] that are sharper than those available from this method. That said, it’s still possible to make certain details, like an unreadable license plate, “less unreadable.” It’s not up to the standard Hollywood would make us believe is possible, but there is still a noticeable improvement. In the example from point ‘D’ below, the license plate of the car parked in the distance is nearly impossible to read in the original image but the superresolution image is slightly clearer, probably reading “BDG-201” or perhaps “806-201.” Not 100% clear but it’s better than the original, that’s for sure. E – Not Suitable for Moving Subjects: Both the method outlined here and the sensor shift superresolution method have distinct problems with subject movement. If there’s any relative movement in the scene such as trees swaying in the wind, moving traffic or people walking, there will be apparent blur in those areas. In my example scene at point ‘E’ below, there were cars driving in the distance and they show obvious ghosting/blurring due to the average stacking method. This is probably the most major limitation of superresolution stacking as it makes it impractical to shoot moving subjects without them looking like a blurry mess: Alright, now that you know what to expect from a 94 megapixel superresolution stack, let’s go over how to make one: What You Will Need You’ll need nothing but a camera (preferably capable of burst mode), a reasonably steady hand, and Adobe Photoshop for the processing. We absolutely should not use a tripod for this technique as the subtle motion of our hand is actually beneficial to making a superresolution image. Our hand, in essence, is like our very own sensor shift mechanism. - A camera - A reasonably steady hand (don’t use a tripod) - Adobe Photoshop When I first tried this technique, I tried using a tripod, taking a single image, and then tapping the tripod just the slightest bit to “shift” the “sensor” (i.e. the entire camera) before taking another image. Rinse and repeat. The problem

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In this tutorial Ian Norman shows us how to enhance the resolution of a camera sensor with a technique called [...] with this technique is that, while it works, it takes a long time to take a lot of images and it’s difficult to keep the movements small enough. I found it’s actually much easier and more practical to just set your camera to continuous burst mode and rattle off a bunch of handheld images. We don’t even need to try to intentionally move the camera to emulate the sensor shift as the natural instability of our hands is enough to make make the small shifts needed for superresolution compositing. Shooting for Superresolution In order to achieve the best results for this technique, it’s necessary to shoot a scene with high enough detail. It’s also essential that it’s a shot of a static scene. Expect any movement in your scene to produce blurry results. As such, this technique is best applied to still landscapes or maybe even studio shots (assuming you’re using continuous lighting or that your strobes can recycle fast enough to prevent you from moving too much between shots). So for your first try, I highly recommend going outside to shoot a highly detailed scene with a lot of distant, static foreground detail. There isn’t one best setting for this technique (it depends partially on your equipment) but we should do everything in our power to make every image in our burst as sharp as possible. I recommend shooting with your lens stopped down to f/5.6 to f/11 to maximize sharpness. Additionally, it’s probably best to use a shutter speed that’s fast enough to handhold without blur. A good safe guideline for shutter speed is 1/(2*focal length). So if you have a 50mm lens, 1/100th would be a fairly safe shutter speed. It’s also important to use a fairly low ISO so this technique works best in well lit scenes, but it really should just be set as your f/number and shutter speed dictate for a neutral exposure. Auto ISO is helpful in this case. We’ll want to use continuous burst mode as I’ve already said. I recommend taking at least 20 images. Technically the more images, the better, but 20 is a nice round number and I have found that trying to process more images can

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In this tutorial Ian Norman shows us how to enhance the resolution of a camera sensor with a technique called [...] really slow down the post processing, even on a high-end computer. Finally, it’s very important that we shoot our photos in RAW so as to maintain the best detail in the shot. When the camera processes JPEGs it often applies noise reduction and smoothing to the image which can reduce our efforts at achieving the best superresolution result. JPEG will work, but RAW will be better. - f/5.6 to f/11 - Hand holdable shutter speed – 1/(2*focal length) recommended - Lower ISOs are preferable, set as f/number and shutter dictate for a neutral exposure or set Auto ISO - Continuous burst mode – minimum of 20 images When shooting, try making several sets of images. Remember that we’re not looking for very much hand movement between photos. We need only one pixel of motion between each shot. It’s likely that you won’t be able to handhold better than one pixel anyway, so just stay as still as you possibly can when firing off your burst of photos. Check and double check your focus too; it might be possible that your camera may shift focus between photos. If that occurs, switch to manual focus to prevent it from shifting while shooting, but be extra careful to make sure everything is tack sharp before firing away. This method won’t work with blurry photos. If you would like to try using my 20 RAW a7II files to test out the processing, feel free to download them here. (500MB .zip) You’ll need at least Lightroom 5.7.1 (Win / Mac) and/or Adobe Camera RAW 8.7.1 to read the files. There’s a specific order of operations in processing that will allow us to combine our stack of photos into a final image with noticeably finer detail. We’ll import our photos into a stack of layers in Photoshop, upsample the photo (usually 200% width/height) with a simple nearest neighbor algorithm, re-align the layers, and then average the layers together. - Import all photos as stack of layers - Resize image to 4x resolution (200% width/height) - Auto

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In this tutorial Ian Norman shows us how to enhance the resolution of a camera sensor with a technique called [...] -align layers - Average layers Import the Images as a Stack of Layers - From Photoshop: - File>Scripts>Load Files into Stack… - From Lightroom: - Select All Photos - Right Click and choose Edit In>Open as Layers in Photoshop… - Click Browse… to navigate to your photos - Make sure “Attempt to Automatically Align Source Images” is unchecked (This is essential. If you align first it won’t work.) - Click OK Resize to 200% Width/Height - Choose Image>Image Size… - Set Width/Height to 200% - Use the “Nearest Neighbor” resample algorithm. You can also use “Preserve Details” but I prefer “Nearest Neighbor” as it does not oversharpen - Click OK Auto-Align the Layers - Select all the layers in the Layers Palette - Choose Edit>Auto-Align Layers… - Use the “Auto” Projection Setting and uncheck “Geometric Distortion” and uncheck “Vignette Removal” - Click OK - Once aligned, check that each layer looks properly aligned with the bottom layer. If there’s one or two that didn’t align as well as the others, consider deleting them. You can turn on and off the visibility of each layer with the eye icon to the left of the layer. Just remember to turn them all back on before you continue. Average the Layers The fastest way to do this is to change the opacity of each layer from bottom to top such that the opacity = 1/(layer number). For example, if you have 20 layers, make the bottom 1/1 = 100%, the second from the top should be 1/2 = 50%, the third 1/3=33%, the fourth 1/4=25% and so on until the top layer which is 1/20 = 5%. Photoshop can only do integer opacities so there will be some rounding error and repeat integers as you get close to the last layer but it won’t matter too much. - With 20 layers, op

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In this tutorial Ian Norman shows us how to enhance the resolution of a camera sensor with a technique called [...] acities from bottom to top are roughly: 100%, 50%, 33%, 25%, 20%, 17%, 14%, 12%, 11%, 10%, 9%, 8%, 8%, 7%, 7%, 6%, 6%, 6%, 5%, 5% - Once opacities are set, select all the layers, right-click and choose Flatten Image Averaging can also be performed by selecting all the layers and turning them to a Smart Object and setting the Smart Object’s stack mode to “Mean” or “Median” but this is can be slow when working with a stack of twenty 90+ megapixel photos just as a warning. The “Median” stack mode is particularly good for removing ghosting in moving objects. Smart Object stack modes are only available in CS6 Extended and CC versions of Photoshop. Apply Smart Sharpen I usually like to use a smart sharpening filter of about 2px radius and about 200% to 300%. Because of the nature of our method, hard edges will likely look a little soft and will need some sharpening up. A two-pixel radius works well with our 4x increase in resolution and should keep everything looking natural without noticeable halos. You might find that some alternate settings could work better depending on the content of your photograph. - Filter>Sharpen>Smart Sharpen… - Amount: 300% - Radius: 2px - Reduce Noise: 0% - Click OK After sharpening, you may want to crop out any extra unfinished edges before saving. That’s it! You now have a nearly noise free, super high resolution photo! I think superresolution technology is here to stay. Whether it’s using sensor shifting, color filter array shifting, vectorized polygonal interpolation, some combination of these methods or others, superresolution will likely be implemented on every kind of camera from smartphones to DSLRs and compact system cameras. We’ll start seeing plenty of cameras that will be able to output images with more resolution than their sensor’s pixel count would otherwise indicate

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In this tutorial Ian Norman shows us how to enhance the resolution of a camera sensor with a technique called [...] . The technique outlined in this article is a practical, albeit special-use, way to achieve tangible increases in resolution from the digital camera that you already own. While not particularly as optimized as the latest in-camera methods, the underlying methodology is the same and the benefits are nearly identical. Elimination of color moiré and aliasing, increase of spatial resolution, and noise reduction are all benefits of this technique. I predict that cameras will likely implement much faster superresolution methods in the future that do not have the current problems with motion blur from moving subjects. Faster methods will likely be done by shifting the color filter array or sensor at a much faster rate during a single exposure, rather than making multiple separate exposures as we did in this article. These techniques require much faster internal computer processing to be practical for things like sports photography so we will probably not see it implemented on sports-oriented cameras like the Canon 1D series. One of the biggest questions surrounding the new megapixel war is whether we really need 50+ megapixel photos. Personally, I’m perfectly happy with images I’ve made years ago on the original 6.3 megapixel Canon EOS Digital Rebel. One of my current favorite cameras is the Sony a7S at only 12 megapixels and I absolutely love the results from the 16 megapixel sensor on the Fujifilm X-T1. At times I even feel like the 24 megapixel sensor on my Sony a7II can almost be too much. That said, there’s always a push towards bigger and better things and I still welcome the new influx of high resolution cameras like the Canon 5DS R. Resolution, however is a single variable in the success of your image and in my opinion it’s a really low priority one. Lighting, composition and technique are all significantly more valuable to the success of a photograph than its pixel count. Just keep in mind that some extra detail on a roof almost 500 meters away doesn’t make your image a better photograph and in pretty much every contemporary medium on which you’ll display your photos short of extremely large prints, no one will notice the difference between a 12 megapixel photo and a 100 megapixel

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“Abundance of Caution” When NO Mosquitoes Test Positive Sets Toxic Precedent 24 Hour Notice Given With No Public Input – Who Decides? “Although there has not been a confirmed case of any disease in this situation, we are taking appropriate steps to minimize potential risk and protect the public’s health,” said Dr. Sayone Thihalolipavan, the county’s deputy public health officer. The San Diego Union-Tribune Reported today (8/18/2016): County workers will hand-spray mosquito-killing pesticide throughout a two-block section of San Diego’s South Park neighborhood Friday after a resident who recently traveled abroad came home with Zika-like symptoms. Medical testing has not confirmed that the individual, who has not been publicly identified, has Zika or any other tropical mosquito-borne infection. The individual recently returned from an unspecified location where the virus is active. The county’s public health policy is to search for Aedes mosquitoes — the type known to carry Zika — around the homes of anyone returning with symptoms that indicate they may have a Zika infection. The routine search in this case, the county says, turned up Aedes larva nearby, a discovery that calls for spraying out of an abundance of caution. “Abundance of Caution” Used As Justification As No Zika Infected Mosquitoes Found The U-T also reports: To date, no locally-trapped and examined mosquitoes have tested positive for Zika and the spraying effort is designed to keep the virus from reaching the airborne insects. Once mosquitoes are infected, Zika can spread more quickly as it has in Florida. So San Diego County has decided to spray pesticides about a hundred homes around someone’s house who may not even have Zika but traveled to an area that does and might infect a local mosquito if bitten by one. What Chemicals “Might” Be Sprayed: CW6 reports additional precautions: Stay inside and bring pets indoors if possible Close doors and windows, and turn off fans that bring outdoor air inside the home Cover ornamental fishponds to avoid direct exposure Rinse fruits and vegetables from

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“Abundance of Caution” When NO Mosquitoes Test Positive Sets T [...] your garden with water before cooking or eating Beekeepers and those with insects kept outdoors are encouraged to shelter hives and habitats during treatments You may resume normal activities 30 minutes after the treatment Vector Control will continue to conduct trapping for Aedes mosquitoes in the area and nearby locations for several weeks. Information about chikungunya, dengue and the Zika virus can be found on the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website. Two types of Aedes mosquitoes – the Aedes aegypti, yellow-fever mosquito and the Aedes albopictus, Asian tiger mosquito – are not native to San Diego and don’t really like our climate. They were found in San Diego County for the first time in 2014 and 2015. To date, they have been found in relatively low numbers. They differ from our County’s native mosquitoes in a number of ways. They not only live in people’s backyards, but also inside their homes, and can breed in a thimble-full of water. They’re smaller than native mosquitoes, have distinctive black and white markings, are known as aggressive biters and – unlike our native mosquitoes that prefer to feed between dusk and dawn – like to bite and feed during daylight hours as well. FOX5 Interviews Person In Question An unidentified individual who traveled to Costa Rica & Guadalajara suffered from diarrhea, aches, pains and conjunctivitis. The results from his tests will not be available for another two weeks. Is this really a good reason to spray a two block radius and set a precedent in Southern California to spray pesticides with less than 24 hour notice and no public discourse? Who decides? How does one RESIST?

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As Australia prepares for a season of heatwaves, bush fires and other extreme weather events, experts have urged disaster-hit communities to learn from past mistakes and resist the rush to rebuild things the way they were. Climate change modelling shows that extreme weather events including flash floods, cyclones and droughts are likely to become more common. However, an international research project involving the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, hosted by Griffith University, has found that communities and governments sometimes fail to adapt to the increasing risk. “Often, following a disaster, there is an option to ‘build back better’ but this requires considerable political will and financing. It’s more common to simply rebuild in a desire to return to normality as soon as possible,” said Dr Sarah Boulter, Research Fellow at the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, who is presenting her findings at the Australian Academy of Science’s Science for a Green Economy conference in Sydney this week. “It’s hard to imagine that if disasters increase or worsen under climate change that governments can continue to be relied on as the insurer of last resort.” The research project, titled Learning from experience - Historical case studies and climate change adaptation, noted that following Cyclone Tracy in 1974, Darwin authorities put a six month ban on rebuilding to allow time to develop a new cyclone-proof building code. That kind of response, however, is rare, said Dr Boulter. “In many communities, often there’s a sense that ‘We won’t be beaten by these events’. There is building and construction that goes on that still puts people at risk,” she said. Sometimes, a lack of communication means people are not even aware they are building their home in a flood plain or bush fire prone area or fail to appreciate the growing risk of disaster striking again. “With a long, hot summer on the way, I think the experience of heat wave and bush fires in 2009 are foremost in people’s mind and I expect that preparations will reflect many of the lessons from these events. Certainly, with the hot weather we saw last week in the southern states there was considerable and early warning to the community to be aware of the risk of hot weather,” she said. “What is less clear, is whether the community is more aware of the risk

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As Australia prepares for a season of heatwaves, bush fires and other extreme weather events [...] and willing to respond. The challenge for climate change adaptation is to learn from these experiences and develop strategies to convince communities that they are at risk and need to plan and act for the future.” The upfront expense of climate change adaptation can present a problem for governments in the short term, she said. “In the face of the climate change, investing in infrastructure that will be resilient under greater pressure – such as electricity supply infrastructure that copes with increased heat, roads that are less likely to be flooded and cut off food supplies and so on – is difficult for both governments and private industry.” Dr Stuart Corney, a Climate Systems Modeller at the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC said there is a lot of research to suggest extreme weather events are going to become more common. “We have done modelling on flash flooding in Tasmania where a 1-in-200 year event is projected to become more frequent than 1-in-20 years,” he said. “That changes the way you have to plan for things,” especially long-term infrastructure such as dams, he said. “Climate change is going to win in any situation. You might get variability, but if the trend is toward increasing fire danger and increasing floods, then it will only get worse.” The insurance industry and local councils are paying close attention to climate change modelling as they try to manage risk, he said. “Local councils are worried about it and they want information they can base their decisions on. They know there are planning issues but they can’t make arbitrary decisions because they will be challenged in court over it.” The federal government has taken steps to combat climate change and is keeping abreast of the research, Dr Corney said. “However, responding to climate change involves both government and society and ultimately it will involve difficult political and economic decisions on a global scale.”

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you usually put a comma after it and, if it precedes a conditional clause, you put the comma before the "and" while others leave it out, but it definitely does. Also on that wiki page you can find lots of links to certain style guides. Comma use is something of a grey area though, and everyone has his. Also on that wiki page you can find lots of links to certain style guides. Comma use is something of a grey area though, and everyone has his. Urban legend has tried to teach people that the comma before the "and" in this situation is optional, but it isn't. I went to Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. Starting a sentence with "however," however, is discouraged by many careful writers. We sell books, videos, and magazines. You can buy an apple, a pear , or an orange. Do you put a comma in front of and - das erste That said, I routinely advise the law students I teach to use the comma because there are enough people around who think it is mandatory and few who think it is outright wrong that it is safer to use it when writing for people who notice such things. Commas and Introductory Elements Commas and Coordinating Conjunctions Commas: As I noted a year ago in my answer to a post about Serial commas in quotations , AP makes two important exceptions to its normal no-serial-comma rule:. If the phrase refers to a panda that devours bamboo shoots and bamboo leaves, then there is no comma at all 'A panda eats shoots and leaves. Try not to use a comma unless you can apply a specific rule from this page to do so. Generally, use a comma to separate quoted material from the rest of the sentence that explains or introduces the quotation:. You should come out even. I think the best policy is to always use a serial comma, and if needed, fix ambiguities by reordering http://www.cracked.com/article_15725_the-10-steps-to-porn-addiction-where-are-you.html list items. Casino poker kostenlos online my parents, to Ayn Rand https://newlifehouse.com/what-is-the-difference-between-alcoholism

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you usually put a comma after it and, if it precedes a conditional clause, you [...] -and-addiction/ to God. In the example england league cup results "To my parents, Ayn Rand hgg investor relations God. Online freelancer currently lives with his wife, with a ferret and casino schenefeld a cat who thinks she is a ferret. It is strictly a matter of taste. We cannot say that the comma will always come before the conjunction and never after, but it would be a rare event, indeed, that we need to follow a coordinating conjunction with a comma. This punctuation enable the reader to gain if the clauses were related to the same event or not. Is it because leaving out the comma seems to group Jane and Carol together? For example, "I lay under the powerful summer sun. There are three primary uses of conjunctions: These are the unusual sentences that need a comma before because. Click HERE to do so. You May Also Like Even though the phrase "that attacked me" describes "the duck," it provides essential information to the sentence. You have successfully emailed the post. Another clever meme shows the problem with incorrect placement of this comma. Removing the comma from "To my mother, Ayn Rand, and God" doesn't really help. In that case, it would no longer need a comma: The Oxford Geldmaschine Commas after a sentence introductions Commas after slots machines free spins transitional phrase Commas casino aachen erfahrungen interjections yes, no, indeed Commas for free online slots co uk Commas in lists Commas with klammern kartenspiel long subject Commas with numbers Commas with quotation speech bonus casino Commas with the vocative case Sportwetten seite erstellen with Dear, Gratis pc, and Hi. Usually, commas surround novoline online casino list non-essential clause or phrase. Because it has attracted low-quality or spam answers that had to be cue craft, posting an answer now requires 10 reputation tipps roulette casino this site demon slayer download association bonus does not count. Recently, I wrote in a novel not due out this year' Here are some examples. Our house style was to use a serial comma, but the author's www free spiele of his familial complications suggested

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Motor Boat Science The motor boat sector disputes that erosion is caused by boats despite considerable scientific documentation to the contrary, including local research in 2013. "[...] there are now sufficient numbers of studies that have provided convincing evidence for the negative cumulative impact of sustained boat traffic on river banks [...] The study seems to indicate that boat wakes do indeed contribute to the erosion problem on the Lower Shuswap River [...]" (Laderoute & Bauer 2013). In 2014, Cameron and Bauer conducted an additional study that showed the problem was even greater than originally described. "The implication is that boat-generated waves may be of relatively greater importance (than the spring freshet) in forcing bank change throughout the annual cycle than had previously been anticipated." (Cameron & Bauer 2014). Also of concern is the pollution from motors designed to operate on water. "A certain amount of the fuel that enters into a motor is discharged unburned, and ends up in the water [...] Estimates vary as to how much fuel may pass into the water column, 25-30% is a reasonable average, and depends upon factors such as engine speed, tuning, oil mix, and horsepower." (T. Asplund 2000) Asplund goes on to document the chemical pollutants discharged into the water, including polyaromatic hydrocarbons, some of which are known carcinogens, and methyl tert-butyl ether, a suspected carcinogen. (T. Asplund, 2000). "Adding to this, it is generally accepted that increased recreational boating along the Lower Shuswap may be further exacerbating erosion of these un-vegetated and destabilized banks." (Hawes, Schleppe & Jantz, 2011, pg iv). "Based on the inventory results, there is a lack of deep water holding pools/thermal refuge areas downstream of Enderby to Mara Lake. This, in conjunction with more intensive landuse and recreational pursuits (namely boating), presents concerns for Fisheries staff relating to the potential stress on migrating adult salmon." (Hawes,

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Motor Boat Science The motor boat sector disputes that erosion is caused by boats despite [...] Schleppe & Jantz, 2011, pg 68). "Watercraft can impact the biophysical values of waterbodies through fuel and exhaust emissions, noise pollution, direct contact with flora and fauna, and hydrodynamic impacts such as wake-induced shoreline erosion and turbulent prop wash. In terms of the hydrodynamic impacts, recent studies have correlated boat waves to an increase in shoreline erosion and stirring of bottom Sediments (Hill et al. 2002). In other studies it was concluded that the wakes contributed a significant amount of bank erosion and sediment disturbance near the bank was markedly increased for wake heights exceeding 13-14 cm." (Hawes, Schleppe & Jantz, 2011, pg 69). "With 81% of the docks recorded on the Lower Shuswap River occurring in Reaches 1 – 5 (Mara Lake to Enderby), it is plausible that more intensive watercraft use and operation is a factor in decreased bank stability and increased erosion. The hydraulic character of the lower reaches is a low gradient, low velocity, straight to sinuous glide, with generally low erosive forces. However when combined, the lack of riparian vegetation and boat wakes may be a key causal factor of observed erosion along the river bank in lower reaches." (Hawes, Schleppe & Jantz, 2011, pg 69) TRUE OR FALSE? SOME FACTS MANY PEOPLE GET WRONG - Boat wake can’t cause any more damage than wind-driven waves. YES IT CAN. Wind driven waves tend to travel along the length of the waterway and directly approach the shore only at bends in the channel. But boat wakes may travel almost directly towards the bank and can cause erosion along the entire length of the waterway. Most ‘tinnies’ are small and light enough not to cause any wake problems. NO THEY'RE NOT. Speed is just as important as size, and both factors must be considered together. For their size

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Motor Boat Science The motor boat sector disputes that erosion is caused by boats despite [...] , most outboard powered boats can travel much faster than almost anything else on the water. On the plane, the smaller wake causes less damage. NO IT DOESN'T. Even though a wake reduces in height as the boat planes, the waves are moving faster, further and travelling outwards from the vessel track. When a planing vessel travels parallel to a sheltered shore, the wave energy is directed towards that shore. You can see what your wake’s doing from the boat. NO YOU CAN’T. Even if you’re fairly close to the bank (say 50 metres away) the peak wake impact of a boat travelling at 20 knots only occurs as the first 5–10 waves hit. By that time, you’re half a minute and 300 metres away. The only way to really observe the impact of wake is to stand on a soft shore and watch the impact of wake in all three phases of boat speed. Every boat driver should do this sometime – you may be surprised at what you see." (Tasmania Dep't. of Primary Industries) — REFERENCES — Abbott, J.C. and G.O. Stewart, Envirocon Pacific Ltd. "Sockeye Salmon In-gravel Survival Rates for Clemens Cr., Adams, Lower Shuswap, Birkenhead, Seymour and Horsefly Rivers during 1986-87". (Figure 3 and A.10) Prepared for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, May 1987. PSMFC - Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. "3.0 Description of Adverse Effects on Pacific Salmon…" psmfc.org. January 1999. Extracted Nov. 11, 2015 <www.psmfc.org/efh/Jan99-sec3-1.html>. Tasmania Dep't. of Primary Industries, Water and Environment. "Wake up? Slow Down!" ISBN 0724663665. Undated joint publication with Tasmania Marine and Safety, Inland Fisheries Service, Australian Maritime College and Hydro Tasmania.

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|Detail of Orange County, Virginia c. 1863| In 1621 the Elizabeth slipped her moorings and turned west to the New World, leaving England behind. Among its passengers on this voyage was a "person of quality," thirty two year old Nicholas Rowe. Nicholas came from the village of Lamerton in Devon. On April 1, 1620 Thomas Astley paid for his passage to the still new colony of Virginia. Nicholas was accompanied by his wife, Ann Lacy, when they arrived in America. A census taken February 14, 1623 showed that Nicholas and Ann lived at Buckroe, near modern Hampton, Virginia. This land was part of the vast holdings of the Virginia Company, which had organized the Jamestown expedition in 1607. In 1625 the Rowes had established a household with John Haney and his wife as well as two indentured servants. Rowe and Haney owned a palisaded dwelling and three storehouses and were well provisioned with food and weapons. The next four generations of Rowes were born in Abingdon Parish in Gloucester County. During his lifetime William Rowe (1722-1755), the great great grandson of Nicholas, moved to Saint Stephen's Parish in King and Queen County. William and his wife Mildred Carlton brought with them from Gloucester their five children. The youngest of these was Thomas, born March 7, 1754. Thomas married Rachel Keeling (1754-about 1829) in 1774. The first of their thirteen children, William, was born the following year. Whatever plans Thomas and Rachel Row may have had at this point were put on hold as Virginia joined the rebellion against British rule. |Muster roll from the 5th Virginia Regiment dated 1 September 1777| On February 23, 1776 Thomas Row enlisted in Captain Thomas Gaskins' Company of the Fifth Virginia Regiment of Foot. Spelling conventions of the eighteenth century were a relaxed affair. Thomas spelled his name Row or Rowe, although he came to prefer the version without the 'e'. To complicate matters further, the company scribe spelled Thomas' last name 'Wroe' on the company

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|Detail of Orange County, Virginia c. 1863| In 16 [...] muster rolls. During the two years he served in the Fifth Regiment, Private Row drew a pay of 6 2/3 dollars per month. Thomas was apparently granted leave during the Christmas holidays of 1776, as his son Edmund was born nine months later in October 1777. Thomas did not re-enlist when his time was up and he was mustered out of the army on March 5, 1778. In 1779 Thomas began buying land in Orange County and moved his family there that same year. Over the next fifty years Thomas bought more than 400 acres on both sides of Mine Run and on both sides of modern Route 20, the Constitution Highway. In the Civil War era map at the top of this page the Rowe property is clearly shown at the right center of the image, indicating where three Rowe descendants were living at the time. Thomas' farm and grist mill were located, I believe, on the north side of the road. The road sign below is located on the south side of Route 20. |Row's Mill Road at Route 20| |Mine Run, possible site of Thomas Row's mill| During the sixty one years he lived in Orange Thomas Row was a man of many dimensions and was well respected by the community. He was, of course, a farmer, grist mill operator and slave owner. At various times over the years Thomas served as High Sheriff, justice of the peace, magistrate and school commissioner. He was serving as High Sheriff when he died at the age of eighty six. Thomas' two youngest sons, Elhanon and Absalom, emulated his example of public service. Rachel Row died sometime before early 1829. By then seventy five year old Thomas was preparing to marry a second time. The object of his affection was the widow Sarah Shadrick (also spelled Shadrach, Shadrack), twenty years his junior. She was a daughter of Reverend Nathaniel Sanders, Baptist minister of the old St. Thomas Parish. On January 29, 1829 Thomas and Sarah signed a prenuptial agreement. Since each of them brought considerable wealth to their marriage they wisely decided

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|Detail of Orange County, Virginia c. 1863| In 16 [...] that they would leave their respective estates to their blood relatives. Sarah and Thomas were married on March 3, 1829. Ten years later Thomas wrote his will on December 14, 1839: |Will of Thomas Row| |Will of Thomas Row| |Will of Thomas Row| Thomas Row died on March 23, 1840. Sarah left the Row farm and moved in with her daughter Frances and son in law John Tinder. On February 3, 1853 Congress enacted legislation allowing all widows of Revolutionary War veterans, regardless of the date of marriage, to apply to the Bureau of Pensions for widow's benefits. Sarah Row, by now seventy eight years old, hired the Washington law firm of Lloyd & Co. to assist her in preparing her application, dated May 21, 1853. |Page one of Sarah Row's application| As seen from this first page of the application they prepared for Sarah Row, Lloyd & Co. did not perform well for their client. All the pages that followed were as illegible as this one. Sarah's claim was further hindered by the fact that no record could be found proving that Thomas Row(e) had served in the Continental Army. There was no way any of the parties involved could have known that seventy five years earlier the company scribe had spelled Thomas' last name 'Wroe.' |Reply of Bureau of Pensions 7 October 1853| In its reply to Lloyd & Co., the Bureau wrote: "Upon diligent search the name of Thomas Rowe does not appear on any of the pension rolls of Virginia on file in this office." They then proceeded to rebuke the quality of the lawyer's handiwork: "Were there such a pensioner so found, however, the papers filed are not in a condition that would justify the allowance of the present claim. They are defective in form and substance and illegible from the frequent erasures and interlineations..." Sarah Row's claim was "suspended."

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IPython? What's that? IPython provides a rich architecture for interactive computing with: - Powerful interactive shells (terminal and Qt-based). - A browser-based notebook with support for code, text, mathematical expressions, inline plots and other rich media. - Support for interactive data visualization - Flexible, embeddable interpreters to load into your own projects. - Easy to use, high performance tools for parallel computing. Let's grab some screenshots, not to just talk about imaginative things: Browser client (called notebook) Why should you use IPython? 5 reasons If you are a programmer: - Better python shell - terminal ipython client - Amazing platform for experimenting and learning new things and interactive work, which can be easily transform to 'normal' production code - Programming notebook: - documenting your code as you write it - inline execution - easy sharing - nbviewer - Parallel execution and easy clustering, elaborate tutorial here - Easy way to change your code to different formats, amazing for showing your work using convert: - reveal slides - pdf and more It a well designed and actively developed tool with amazing community. If you are a researcher: - in one tool you can do: - data analysis - write publication - amazing support for scientific libraries - easy clustering - number crunching in star cluster - recomputable science - scientific notebook - sharing of your experimental method - version control - easy colaboration Look at those notebooks. All of this is pretty amazing, not just amount of features, but also how it is implemented and great community surrounding IPython. It's really easy to grab some tutorials and learn about new functionality, because of lots of great docs, tutorials and example. How do I start using IPython effectively? Your use cases may be different. I would start from installing IPython and reading the introductory docs. If you have it installed, spend some time playing around. Lot's of features seems to be pretty intuitive, but it's easy to get stuck, knowing a very thin subset of ipython's functionality.

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In the 1990s researchers at Princeton launched the PEAR (The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research ) program to investigate ESP and the role of consciousness in the physical universe. The book that resulted from this research, The Margins of Reality, presents statistical data backing up the idea that the intentions of a human observer can affect random numbers. In other words, because of the presence of a human systems that should be behaving randomly stop behaving randomly and actually become ordered. This research evolved into The Global Consciousness Project, which uses random number generators–on days such as 9/11, the dates of celebrity deaths, and in general on days when certain events will attract the attention of millions of people–to document the effects of large scale human consciousness on random systems. The Project goes further to propose a global mind, a conjoined force of matter, energy, and consciousness, that some refer to as the noosphere, a hypothetical inner hive of psychic powers. INSCOM, Project Stargate, and ESP Remote Viewing If you’ve seen the movie The Men Who Stare At Goats or watched any number of conspiracy documentaries about covert government research projects you might be familiar with the concept of paranormal military programs. There is, in fact, a very real track record of the U.S military testing remote viewing and telepathy on civilians and for use as interrogation techniques in the War on Terror. One of the most documented of these programs was called Project Stargate, which lasted from the early 70s to the mid-90s. Project Stargate experimented with clairvoyance, out-of-body experiences, and remote viewing in order to gather military intelligence and assist with covert missions. Retroactive Precognition and Psychic Powers In January of 2011 Dr. Daryl J. Bem of Cornell University wrote a controversial paper called “Feeling the Future: Experimental Evidence for Anomalous Retroactive Influences on Cognition and Affect” in which he described a series experiments he conducted seeking to prove precognition. More specifically, Bem presented evidence that future events can affect present cognition. Working off the premise that there are “anomalous processes of information or energy transfer that are currently unexplained in terms of known physical or biological mechanisms

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Laws of making the written text of a particular article of recognized, academic and clinical mother nature herself On this page, wee distribute the overall regulations for the roll-out of text messages of written documents, the top laws that ensure the introduction within the communicative components of business transmitting, the observance of lexical, grammatical and stylistic norms. Some primary guidelines to check out (with suggestions) So, in planning the written text in a article, it can be needed to follow the adhering to regulations: - Jot down quick sentences to improve perceiving the paper. - Use chronic (stencil) terms that talk about the usual facets of this content. Situation: - depending on your get… - in line with the Conclusion associated with the Board… - to help you exchange adventure… These sorts of traditional expressions assist in the perception of the paper, and the process of putting together it, lowering the time to seek out the wording. - Utilize the lead get of the phrases with the phrase (the niche is preceded with a predicate) with the instance right after the reasonable concentration slips around object of action. The reverse order of sayings coexists in the event that reasonable concentration comes onto the particularly act. - On the accuracy and understanding of an fact in hassle-free sentences, utilize the immediate structure to the people in the phrase. - Use difficult phrases to convey trigger-and-impact connections. When building these sentences, it needs to be appreciated that the most common are difficult phrases with conjunctions: that, if, so long as, at which, as, by reason of what. Very hard sentences, combining the demand and also the points that prompted the ask for, refusal and genuine argumentation within the specific product, give many more prodding onto the get and minimize the sense of refusal. A lot less very clear principles, that really help in practice In fact, there are many procedures and advice, that can assist you. The definition of they? - The place diversity essay example inside the having phrase is determined by which part of the major sentence it relates. If ever the subordinate phrase explains just one message of the crucial a good, it usually comes after it. If the subordinate sentence is one of the collection of the predicate at the most important or the various key phrase, it

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Laws of making the written text of a particular article of recognized, academic and clinical mother nature herself [...] is usually put often in advance of the main a (while the stress is positioned at the instances in the move) or after a crucial just one particular (right after the crucial notion of??the difficult phrase is simplified). As for instance: “Given that the draft call was preliminarily agreed upon, the getting together with survived only 60 minutes” or: “The meeting lasted not as much as sixty minutes, considering…” - With regards to lowering the sms, you can use a dictation about the returning, in which to formulate the reasons that resulted in the adoption of your managerial selection. A divergent switch will start, and will not 100 % the words. To give an example: “Taking into consideration… Taking a look at… Managing… Possessing looked at the write published for acceptance…” - Restore pronouns with nouns. Never use psychological expression and do not illustrate a subjective approach toward the on top of. Firmness of website document is basic. - It ought to be recollected the journalist about the treatment documents is known as a appropriate business, which is the reason the text is presented because of a 3 rd human being. As an illustration: “The Board chosen. The rectorate has accepted.” - In regulatory paperwork, use linguistic design associated with the ordering structure: I obtain (within your structure), I recommend (in the recommendations). - Place words at the outset of the sentence result in the accuracy and clearness of the document (as an example, within our view, certainly, it goes without saying, sorry to say, at the beginning, thus, needless to say, incidentally). - It is not acknowledged take advantage of confidential pronouns compared to nouns (eg, as an alternative for directing, utilizing their surname and brand,….). - Some information on the documents (the text “Plan”, “Listened”, “Made an appearance”, “Came to the conclusion”, “Okayed”, “Arranged”, “Concern” and certain other resolute ideas) are printed in budget words so are personalised in money characters.

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In the two previous installments of this series we looked at the voice of our characters and the voice of the narrator. The final and perhaps most difficult “voice” to analyze is the author’s voice. Just as each of us has our own unique “voiceprint,” such that those who know us recognize our voices whether we are talking in our stern mother voice, our cooing over the kittens voice, or our ever-so-serious –and-staid conversation with the principal voice, so too our author’s voices will eventually have a consistency that will be recognizable in all our work. I say “eventually” because it’s not uncommon to hear an editor (or even a critic) say that the author “hasn’t found her voice yet,” by which they mean that they somehow don’t find anything distinctive or distinguishing in the author’s work. One interesting exercise for studying an author’s voice is to choose a much-published author: Jane Yolen, say, or Margaret Wise Brown, and compare books from the early and middle parts of their career with their more recent works. Keeping in mind that most authors work for many years developing and polishing their voice before they ever sell the first book, it is still possible to see changes in the author’s voice as the years go by – maybe a shift to shorter sentences or simpler words, maybe a familiar rhythm in the later books that is absent in the earlier ones, possibly just a hint of confidence early on that becomes more solid over time, or, as with someone like Dr. Seuss, a hint of silliness that became increasingly bizarre. Another interesting exercise is to compare books by the same writer under different noms de plume and see if you can find places where the “real” voice shines through, while noting how the writer has deliberately chosen one voice or another depending on the “author.” The author’s voice is part style: complex or simple sentences, fast-paced or leisurely prose. Compare Dickens and Hemingway; you could never mistake the work of one for that of the other. It’s part vocabulary; not simply whether you tend to esoteric words or prefer plain ones, but the frequency of particular words and phrases which you use, unconsciously, probably in your conversation as well as your writing. More importantly, the author’s voice grows out of her worldview. Some

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Climate smartness in agro-food standards what is'good' in terms of good agricultural practices (gap) of agri-food standards standard fair trade. And exampleshuman resources management the global business standards codex to protect consumer health and ensure fair practices in world food. John c beghin, 1 miet maertens, 2 and johan swinnen 3, 4 1 department of economics and center for agricultural and rural development, iowa state university, ames, iowa 50011 em. Principles: guidance on food allergen management global standard for food (2015), european food safety authority, fao/who food standards codex. 7472-7474 2014-02637 food and drug food and drug by the small business changes to regulatory standards and design practices to. Differences in csr approaches between foreign owned and domestic owned companies differences in csr approaches between foreign owned and domestic owned companies. Bragg, steven m pinson, linda muckrakers : how ida tarbell, upton sinclair, and lincoln steffens helped expose scandal, inspire reform, and invent investigative journalism / by ann bausum. 7451 - essay development section 1 essay plan the fairtrade practices of the fresh food industry of the global business standards codex (gbsc). Principles of the global business standards codex gbsc the fairtrade practices of the fresh food industry essays and research papers. Alchemy ias is one of the best coaching institutes for civil services in india food safety and standards authority of the 10th global forum for food and. Next post next using three ethical principles of the global business standards codex (gbsc), evaluate the fairtrade practices of the fresh food industry. Fair packaging and labeling act the fair packaging and malicious business practices of certain fair trade standards can cause greater. Classification and consider codex standards in general which could be fair-trade don't include general management practices in regulation principles. A-year business with trade in high-value food products such as fresh and processed as codex standards business forum’s global food safety. Previous post previous using three ethical principles of the global business standards codex (gbsc), evaluate the fairtrade practices of the fresh food industry. Supermark

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Climate smartness in agro-food standards what is'good' in terms of good agricultural [...] ets in the fresh food industry comply with principles of the global business standards codex (gbsc) use of loopholes in fairtrade practices creating. Liberty or death give me liberty, or is in protecting health of the consumers and ensuring fair trade practices in the food some codex standards that will. Fair trade is an organized social movement and market it views the business practices of multinational risks and solutions for global food. Environmental regulation and food sps measures on international standards (codex firms may go out of business the standards appear to favour. Apfi october 2011 asean food companies to design business practices that can support high international standards, and the global. Ra 10611 or the food by promoting fair trade practices and sound of science-based food safety standards for fresh plant8 bafs shall be the da. Free essays on global business standards codex eight ethical principles in wal mart for students use our papers to help you with yours 1 - 30. The first and the best free dating site for expats in germany find and meet other expats in germany register for free now. Piie briefi ng 17-2 a path forward for nafta c fred bergsten and monica de bolle, editors july 2017. Dear supporter, earlier this week, i arrived in kuching, sarawak on the island of borneo to attend the international hydropower association’s (iha) biennial congress, hosted by. The best aquaculture practices standards, developed by the global follows the principles of a social business helping commit to fair trade standards. Pushing for increased rights and legal protection against malicious business practices food trade the codex fair trade standards can. The policy guideline provides ‘high order’ policy principles as well as the codex standard for food for exporting ‘fresh bread’ and. Amyris utilizes breakthrough science and a unique business model to address global and support fair-trade with cgmo practices and with an. 2017 | annual report index 1 message from the chairman 3 the group jerónimo martins 7 1 profile and structure 9 2 strategic positioning 16 3 awards and recognition 18

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How can we RESOLVE a CONFLICT AMICABLY? Now the children of Israel heard someone say, "Behold, the children of Reuben, the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh have built an altar on the frontier of the land of Canaan, in the region of the Jordan--on the children of Israel's side." And when the children of Israel heard of it, the whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered together at Shiloh to go to war against them. (Josh. 22:11-12) Towards the end of the book of Joshua, we encounter a conflict that surfaced suddenly between the nine and half tribes of Israel situated in the western part of River Jordan and the two and half tribes who were on their way to be situated in the eastern part of River Jordan. As per an earlier agreement with Moses (see Num. 32), the men belonging to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh had crossed over the river to fight alongside with their brothers in order to occupy the Canaanite territory. Now, after seven long years, the major assaults in Canaan had ceased and Joshua had permitted these men to return to their territory east of the Jordan, as originally agreed. He also told them to take with them their share of the spoil from the battles they had fought. On their way home, these men decided to erect an altar near the banks of the River Jordan. Here we come to the first reason why this conflict had taken place…these men did not make their brothers aware beforehand of their intention to erect this secondary altar. When the other nine and a half tribes heard about it, they were very angry as they feared that it was a rival altar to the one set up by God at Shiloh. God had commanded Israel not to offer burnt offerings or sacrifices at any location except the tabernacle (see Lev. 17:8, 9), and not to worship other gods (Deut. 13:12–15). So, the erection of a second, unauthorized altar would violate the principles of God. Also, it might become an idolatrous altar in time to come and that God would punish the entire nation because of it. The situation carried with it

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How can we RESOLVE a CONFLICT AMICABLY? Now the children of Israel [...] an apparent danger of political disunity and apostasy as well (vv. 16–20). However, the children of Israel acted with restraint, and before declaring war on the tribes east of the Jordan River, they sent a delegation to find out what exactly was going on. Through this act, they balanced their passion for God’s worship with wisdom and humility, allowing the possibility that the actions of their brothers had been misunderstood. During the meeting, the men of Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh explained that this was not an altar of sacrifice at all, but simply a memorial altar that would testify to future generations that the tribes east of the Jordan were indeed a part of the nation of Israel. The other tribes were pleased by this explanation, and thus a terrible conflict and a grievous war was averted! For us today, this incident offers us some invaluable lessons about how we can resolve a conflict amicably. Perhaps the most important lesson is the value of talking things over. This was a young nation that came to the brink of civil war over a simple misunderstanding. Instead of rushing into combat and war, both sides made sincere attempts to air their perspectives and talking things over. Due to this wise decision, further hostilities were averted. Similar conflicts can arise today as well. However, when they do, it will be wise for both parties to ask questions and listen to each other rather than jumping into conflicts that create needless disunity. Let’s remember that the building of the altar was at first misunderstood as a declaration of war, but then it became a witness of peace and unity. Let all our conflicts be resolved amicably in the similar manner as well. "Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom." (James 3:13)

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Monday, April 18, 2011 8 STEPS TO THE NEW GREEN DIET If we are convinced enough that our diet can and will impact our helath and the environment here are some tips on how we can commence with a new lifestyle. Eating Green is empowering and is also one of the most effective means of Going Green and Saving the Planet! (The following article from care2.com was posted by Annie B Bond on June 19, 2008) Nowhere does the win/win of green living for health and the environment show up more than when one chooses to eat the foods of the new green diet. This diet is the old and timeless one of eating real food grown locally in well-tended soil, with some adaptations for modern life. Here are the steps: Step 1: Eating Organically Produced Food Organic agriculture strives toward being sustainable, meaning that which can be continued indefinitely, without depletion of resources beyond a rate that they could be renewed. Step 2 and 3: Eating Local, Seasonal Food Eating local, seasonal food supports local farms and saves the energy that would be used to refrigerate and transport food many miles. Step 4: Eating a Variety of Food “The loss of genetic diversity—silent, rapid, inexorable—is leading us to a rendezvous with extinction, to the doorstep of hunger on a scale we refuse to imagine,” writes Kenny Ausubel in the book Seeds of Change: The Living Treasure. Organic farms grow a wide variety of plants to keep the soil healthy and preserve diversity. Industrial farms, on the other hand, monocrop, meaning they grow nothing but a few commodities. Step 5: Eating Low on the Food Chain Humans can eat both high and low on the food chain and be adequately nourished. Residues of persistent chemicals such as DDT, PCBs, dioxin, and many pesticides concentrate in animal fat. Step 6: Eating Whole Foods with Adequate Fiber Whole foods are nutritionally complex and complete. Refined foods have had much of their nutritional value and fiber removed. Step 7: Avoiding Processed Food The average American eats 15

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Do you tend to be negative and critical yourself he’ll be free to begin thinking about how he wants to empowering parents connects families with. The negative side of positive thinking share to email negative attitudes not only drag you down but it's skepticism and critical thinking that's. Critical & creative thinking program using critical and creative thinking to develop reflective practice the three aspects of successful intelligence are related. Chapter 21 clinical decision – positive and negative effects on critical decision – negative aspects may reduce critical thinking skills. 0507 review and critical thinking how does negative communication differ from positive shenaya blades 0507 review and critical thinking review 1. The term “critical thinking” is often used and referred to during philosophical discussions/debates, but most people lack its true and clear concept or understanding. What is skepticism is to be negative about things and doubt or skeptics apply critical thinking to different aspects of their lives in their own. Critical thinking the most difficult aspect for so the critical thinker should read and recognising any weakness or negative points that noticing what. Critical thinking and nursing your negative emotionality & win- forms of critical thinking going their separate ways critical thinkers are curious. Positive attitude vs negative attitude filtering refers to psychologically screening out the encouraging aspects of you should identify negative thinking. Behavioral and psychological aspects of the retirement on negative aspects of working focus on critical aspects of the retirement decision without. Collaborative learning enhances critical thinking anuradha a gokhale the concept of collaborative learning, the negative aspects of collaborative learning. Developing thinking skills: critical thinking describes critical thinking using the term critical reasoning if there is one negative aspect to all this. You magnify the negative aspects of a situation and filter out all of negative self-talk positive thinking you may also become less critical of the world. Critical analysis, 145 critical thinking, 144 integrate strategies to enhance critical thinking and to improve you must get through the negative aspects of. The essential traits of a critical thinker require an waste by practicing your critical thinking during that any negative thinking to frustrate. Is technology producing a decline in critical thinking and and multiple studies of violent media games have shown that they can produce many negative. How positive thinking builds your skills, boosts than negative) but, “positive thinking” is also a are also critical for opening your.

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For close on 900 years from the middle of the 10th century, Ladakh was an independent kingdom , its dynasties descending from the king of old Tibet. Its political fortunes ebbed and flowed over the centuries, and the kingdom, was at its greatest in the early 17th century under the famous king Sengge Namgyal, whose rule extended across Spiti and western Tibet up to the Mayumla beyond the sacred sites of Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar. And gradually, perhaps partly due to the fact that it was politically stable, in contrast to the lawless tribes further west, Ladakh became recognized as the best trade route between the Pubjab and Central Asia. For centuries it was travered by caravans carrying textiles and spices, raw silk and carpets, dyestuffs and narcotics. Heedless of the land's rugged terrain and apparent remoteness, merchants entrusted their goods to relays o fpony transporters who took about two months to carry them from Amritsar to the Central Asian towns of Yarkand and Knotan. On this long route, Leh was the half-way house, and developed into a bustling entreport, it bazaars thronged with merchants from far countries. The famous pashm (better known as cashmere) also came down from the high-altitude plateaux of eastern Ladakh and western Tibet where it was produced, thorough Leh to Srinagar, where skilled artisans transformed it from a matted oily mass of goat's underfleece into shawls known the world over for their softness and warmth. Ironically, it was this lucrative trade, that finally spelt the doom of the independent kingdom. It attracted the covetous gaze of Gulab Singh, the ruler of Jammu in the early 19th century, and in 1834, he sent his general Zorawar Singh to invade Ladakh. Ther followed a decade of war and turmoul, which ended with the emergence of the British as the paramount power in north India. Ladakh, together with the neighbouring province of Baltistan, was incorporated into the newly created State of Jammu & Kashmir. Just over

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At Beverley School we pride ourselves on our creative and engaging approach to teaching and learning, we want to extend this by making the best use of our outdoor areas - places where just as much learning can happen outside as well as inside in the classroom. We do this by allowing children to have regular and hands on experiences of the outdoors; learning through exploration, investigation and play. From our Nursery and Early Years through Key Stages 1 and 2 then up through Secondary and into Sixth Form all our pupils are encouraged to go out and expand upon their learning in the outdoors. Sometimes that is onsite, our external environment is already enriched with outdoor classroom areas, woodland and a wildlife pond, seating areas, raised planting beds, a polytunnel, a track and fitness trail, sports and play equipment, and a variety of playground markings. We encourage children at every opportunity to make use of these both at playtime and lunchtime. As a school, we also plan in regular opportunities for outdoor learning using these resources in a variety of lessons. We also take pupils offsite to explore areas in the local community appropriate to their age and linked to their areas of study. However, we never rest on our laurels and are always seeking to improve our offer to our students. So, In addition to all this, we want to continue to further develop the area around our school so that it is bursting with insects, animals and a vast array of plant life. In line with our vision for inclusion, many parts of this area will be wheelchair accessible and provide sensory stimulation for all. As a school we recognise the fantastic outdoor learning opportunity which provides many links to the national curriculum, particularly in science, geography, maths and art, where nature can be studied and enjoyed in context. We can also use it to develop our pupils team building skills via den building and closely supervised campfire and forest schools activities. In addition to this we hope to have community opportunities whereby parents, teachers, governors and the local community can be invited to support and sustain our wildlife area.

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Essays and criticism on william shakespeare's romeo and juliet - romeo and juliet (vol 33) romeo and juliet (vol 33) - essay of the young couple's love for. Romeo and juliet: essay topics 1) discuss the character of romeo and his infatuation with rosaline does this weaken the credibility of the love he feels for juliet 2) friar laurence serves many dramatic purposes in the play. Report abuse home nonfiction academic romeo and juliet: true love love romeo and juliet attraction with romeo in the play, juliet is very young. The theme of fate overshadows the story of romeo and juliet two young men of the montague family (romeo and romeo and juliet were fated to love and die. Romeo and juliet has become forever associated with love the play has become an iconic story of love and passion, and the name “romeo” is still used to describe young. “romeo and juliet” young love love in act1 of romeo and juliet essayhow is the theme of love presented in act i of romeo and juliet in. The nature of love in romeo and juliet - with a free essay review login site map free essay reviews and it always seems to be that young love. Romeo and juliet love essay in the play “romeo and juliet” two young ambitious lovers put themselves in situations that would inevitably lead to. In the play the tragedy of romeo and juliet the author william shakespeare, many people argue who is at fault for the young lovers. Romeo and juliet: act i, scene 5 essay assignment seems to be suggesting that romeo and juliet’s professed love is more than just a young love that cannot. 10 heart-stopping topics for your romeo and juliet essay topic #1: fate—romeo and juliet as star-crossed lovers because the capulets and montagues (the families of romeo and juliet) are enemies, the stars are not aligned for romeo and juliet. Romeo and juliet- young love - part 2 envision the moment when a young man meets eyes with a beautiful girl and falls in love right there and

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Most people are unaware of the dangers to their health which may be caused by parasites, and over 80% of people have some type of parasite or bacteria in their body. According to studies, the average American in their body carries at least half a kilo of parasites. Parasites absorb vitamins and minerals from the body, and in turn emit toxins that harm the body. Parasites occasionally (intermittently) or permanently inhabit the body, i.e. inside the body of the host, and the consequences can range from small changes in behavior through significant pathological changes in tissue and death in some cases! All – rich and poor – the whole population is susceptible to parasites, regardless of personal hygiene, as it is impossible to fully protect. The parasites enter the body through: - unwashed or poorly washed fruits and vegetables - insufficient thermal processed meat and fish - livestock (through touch and cuddling kittens and puppies through their faeces – the possibility of infection of children with toxoplasmosis from cat is 100%) - air (all faeces of the animals are carried by the wind). - dirty money in the hands. - by swimming in seas, lakes, pools .. (parasites penetrate through the skin). Do not ignore these symptoms, they are a reliable indicator that you have parasites in the body: - Skin problems such as rashes, wounds, injuries, eczema, urticaria and dry skin. - Changes in mood and anxiety, including anxiety, depression, forgetfulness, irritability, restlessness … - Fatigue, apathy. - Menstrual problems, water retention in the body, PMS, fertility problems, prostate problems, cysts and fibroids, and urinary tract. - Diarrhea (parasites tend to attack the lining of the intestines, which cause stomach problems including diarrhea). - Muscle pain, joint pain, arthritis, cramps, pain in the navel, and numbness of the hands and feet. - Sleep disorders such as insomnia, bed wetting, sleep disorders, gnashing of teeth during sleep. - Problems with weight and appetite, such as

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New Delhi, India (CNN) -- Walking is a perilous endeavor in New Delhi's traffic bedlam. Pedaling around the city of more than five million vehicles weaving through whatever space they find is not without danger either. As New Delhi grapples with the woes of rapid urbanization of largely rural India, some enterprising citizens are turning to an unexplored territory to find solutions. Architect Manit Rastogi scurries through thick pockets of bushes along filth-filled, age-old drains that he is convinced can be transformed into scenic lakes with walkways and cycle tracks alongside. He believes technological interventions can do wonders with the 350-kilometer circuit of dirty streams that dump tons of household sewage into the River Yamuna, New Delhi's heavily polluted lifeline. Originally, the centuries-old system -- called nullahs -- emptied excess rain water into the river, but in modern Delhi, it is mostly carrying untreated waste, Rastogi said. Rastogi has pitched his drain-cleaning plans to authorities in New Delhi and is now identifying locations for at least three experiments that he proposes to complete by the end of 2010. "We can treat sewage at its source with the help of mini-equipment before it flows into the nullahs," he said. Limitedly, enzymes can also be used to attack contaminants in a technique he describes as "bioremediation." Littered with garbage, the stinking network of 17 nullahs are free of human occupation in a city otherwise struggling to deal with the rampant encroachment of public streets. An expert in urban planning and the head of a private architecture and design firm, Rastogi envisages turning those tracts into landscaped passages for New Delhi's pedestrians, cyclists and solar-powered rickshaws. "The city will then be interconnected with an eco-friendly and safe transport network," he said. According to India's Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), one-third of New Delhi's daily commuters walk to work. "They walk in extremely unsafe and hostile conditions, in constant conflict with motorized traffic and are easy victims to crashes and accidents,"

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The BigchainDB is a scalable distributed database which can be used for the blockchain technology. In a normal case, blockchain itself is the database. As in the case of bitcoin and many blockchain applications the blocks is providing the storage facility too. There are no additional databases. But the BigchainDB provides an alternative to this method.The BigchainDB will work as a distributed database with all characteristics of a blockchain The BigchainDB was first introduced as a distributed database and later the characteristic of blockchain technology has added to it. Now BigchainDB has the features of both traditional blockchain (like bitcoin) and the distributed database and it supports both private and public networks. BigchainDB is a NoSQL(Non-SQL) database which provides a storage mechanism and data retrieval models other than the tabular relations used in relational databases. The commonly used NoSQL types are Key-value stores, Document database, Wide column stores and Graph stores. Each of these NoSQL databases adopts different methods of data storage. The developer can select any of the above models according to the requirement and use case. Normal blockchain networks like bitcoin suffer from several problems like low throughput, high latency, low storage capacity etc. In a bitcoin network, the latency before a single confirmed write is about 10 minutes and throughput is only a few transactions per second. The storage capacity is also not promising as it is still pegging at a few dozen GB. But in BigchainDB the throughput is about 1million writes per second and latency is also significantly lower. The storage capacity of BigchainDB is that of a distributed database. Which means the capacity will increase as the number of nodes increases. The BigchainDB has the following features. - Decentralized control:-No central server for managing the database - Immutability:-Once a change is made to the database it is immutable. - Creation & Movement of Digital assets:- Digital assets can be created or manage the BigchainDB BigchainDB compared to Normal Blockchain and Distributed Database |Traditional Blockchain||Distributed Database||BigchainDB| |Throughput||Low (few transaction per second)||High (increase with nodes)||High (increase with nodes)| |Latency||High (10 min)||Low||Low| |Storage capacity||Low

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The BigchainDB is a scalable distributed database which can be used for the blockchain technology. [...] ||High (increase with nodes)||High (increase with nodes)| |Creation & Movement of Digital assets||Yes||No||Yes| |Event Chain Structure||Merkle tree||-||Hash Chain| Models in BigchainDB Three models namely Transaction model, Block model, and Vote model are the backbone of BigchainDB. These models give it the advantages of Blockchain as well as the normal database. Transaction Models in BigchainDB The basic component of BigchainDB is transactions. Every data stored in it will the details of the individual transaction. Two types of transaction models are used in BigchainDB 1) Creation Transaction 2) Transfer Transaction The “Creation Transaction” is used to initialize the details of an asset in the blockchain and the “Transfer Transaction” is used to transfer ownership of the asset. A transaction in a JSON document will have the following structure "id": "<hash of transaction , excluding signatures >", "version": "<version number of the transaction model "fulfillments": ["<list of fulfillments >"], "conditions": ["<list of "timestamp": "<timestamp from "hash": "<hash of payload "payload": "<any JSON document Id: Is the primary key. It will be the hash value of that particular transaction, Version: It is the version number of that transaction model, Fulfillments: Each fulfillment is a pointer to the unspent assets. It will point to the ownership of an asset, Conditions: List of conditions that should be fulfilled by the transfer transactions, Operation: String representation of the operation to be performed, Timestamp: Transaction creation time in UTC. Provided by the user, Hash: It is the hash value of the serialized payload, Payload: It can be any JSON document. For a transfer transaction, it will be empty. All the transactions in the BigchainDB will be stored in the above-mentioned structure only. Block Models in BigchainDB The blocks are also represented as JSON documents in the following structure, "id": "<hash of block >", "timestamp": "<block -creation "transactions": ["<list of "node_pubkey": "<public key of the

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The BigchainDB is a scalable distributed database which can be used for the blockchain technology. [...] node creating the block >", "voters": ["<list of federation nodes public keys >"] "signature": "<signature of block >", "votes": ["<list of votes >"] Id: The primary key. It is the hash of the serialized block, Timestamp: It is the time of creation of a block. It is given by the created the node, Transactions: The list of transactions included in the block, Node-pub key: The public key of the node, that created the block, Voters: It is the list of public key of federation nodes existed in the system when the node is created, Signature: Signature of the block by the node who created the block, It is generated by serializing the block data and using the private key, Votes: list of votes given by the voters. A vote has the following structure: "node_pubkey": "<the public key of the voting node "voting_for_block": "<id of the block the node is voting for >", "previous_block": "<id of the block previous to this one >", "timestamp": "<timestamp of the voting action >" "signature": "<signature of vote >" Node_pubkey: It is the public key of the voting node. Voting_for_block: Id of the block for which a node is voting Previous_block: Id of the previous block Is_block_valid: Vote for the block it can be true or false. I.e. positive or negative vote Invalid_reason: Reason for invalidating or voting ’false’. Timestamp: Time at which voting action takes place. Signature: Signature for the vote. Among many other new generations, blockchain related technologies BigchainDB is a unique one as it changes the very data storage mechanism of the blockchain. From the initial assessment, it is a promising technology, especially for handling the huge amount of data. It has the potential to leverage the blockchain technology in the domains like Big data analysis AI etc.

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Catastrophism was de deory dat de Earf had wargewy been shaped by sudden, short-wived, viowent events, possibwy worwdwide in scope. This was in contrast to uniformitarianism (sometimes described as graduawism), in which swow incrementaw changes, such as erosion, created aww de Earf's geowogicaw features. Uniformitarianism hewd dat de present was de key to de past, and dat aww geowogicaw processes (such as erosion) droughout de past were wike dose dat can be observed now. Since de earwy disputes, a more incwusive and integrated view of geowogic events has devewoped, in which de scientific consensus accepts dat dere were some catastrophic events in de geowogic past, but dese were expwicabwe as extreme exampwes of naturaw processes which can occur. Catastrophism hewd dat geowogicaw epochs had ended wif viowent and sudden naturaw catastrophes such as great fwoods and de rapid formation of major mountain chains. Pwants and animaws wiving in de parts of de worwd where such events occurred were made extinct, being repwaced abruptwy by de new forms whose fossiws defined de geowogicaw strata. Some catastrophists attempted to rewate at weast one such change to de Bibwicaw account of Noah's fwood. The concept was first popuwarised by de earwy 19f-century French scientist Georges Cuvier, who proposed dat new wife forms had moved in from oder areas after wocaw fwoods, and avoided rewigious or metaphysicaw specuwation in his scientific writings. - 1 History - 2 Current appwication - 3 See awso - 4 References - 5 Sources - 6 Furder reading - 7 Externaw winks Geowogy and bibwicaw bewiefs In de earwy devewopment of geowogy, efforts were made in a predominantwy Christian western society to reconciwe bibwicaw narratives of Creation and de universaw fwood wif new concepts about de

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Catastrophism was de deory dat de Earf had wargewy been shaped by [...] processes which had formed de Earf. The discovery of oder ancient fwood myds was taken as expwaining why de fwood story was "stated in scientific medods wif surprising freqwency among de Greeks", an exampwe being Pwutarch's account of de Ogygian fwood. Cuvier and de naturaw deowogians The weading scientific proponent of catastrophism in de earwy nineteenf century was de French anatomist and paweontowogist Georges Cuvier. His motivation was to expwain de patterns of extinction and faunaw succession dat he and oders were observing in de fossiw record. Whiwe he did specuwate dat de catastrophe responsibwe for de most recent extinctions in Eurasia might have been de resuwt of de inundation of wow-wying areas by de sea, he did not make any reference to Noah's fwood. Nor did he ever make any reference to divine creation as de mechanism by which repopuwation occurred fowwowing de extinction event. In fact Cuvier, infwuenced by de ideas of de Enwightenment and de intewwectuaw cwimate of de French revowution, avoided rewigious or metaphysicaw specuwation in his scientific writings. Cuvier awso bewieved dat de stratigraphic record indicated dat dere had been severaw of dese revowutions, which he viewed as recurring naturaw events, amid wong intervaws of stabiwity during de history of wife on earf. This wed him to bewieve de Earf was severaw miwwion years owd. By contrast in Britain, where naturaw deowogy was infwuentiaw during de earwy nineteenf century, a group of geowogists incwuding Wiwwiam Buckwand and Robert Jameson interpreted Cuvier's work differentwy. Cuvier had written an introduction to a cowwection of his papers on fossiw qwadrupeds, discussing his ideas on catastrophic extinction, uh-hah-hah-hah. Jameson trans

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Catastrophism was de deory dat de Earf had wargewy been shaped by [...] wated Cuvier's introduction into Engwish, pubwishing it under de titwe Theory of de Earf. He added extensive editoriaw notes to de transwation, expwicitwy winking de watest of Cuvier's revowutions wif de bibwicaw fwood. The resuwting essay was extremewy infwuentiaw in de Engwish-speaking worwd. Buckwand spent much of his earwy career trying to demonstrate de reawity of de bibwicaw fwood using geowogicaw evidence. He freqwentwy cited Cuvier's work, even dough Cuvier had proposed an inundation of wimited geographic extent and extended duration, whereas Buckwand, to be consistent wif de bibwicaw account, was advocating a universaw fwood of short duration, uh-hah-hah-hah. Eventuawwy, Buckwand abandoned fwood geowogy in favor of de gwaciation deory advocated by Louis Agassiz, fowwowing a visit to de Awps where Agassiz demonstrated de effects of gwaciation at first hand. As a resuwt of de infwuence of Jameson, Buckwand, and oder advocates of naturaw deowogy, de nineteenf century debate over catastrophism took on much stronger rewigious overtones in Britain dan ewsewhere in Europe. The rise of uniformitarianism in geowogy Uniformitarian expwanations for de formation of sedimentary rock and an understanding of de immense stretch of geowogicaw time, or as de concept came to be known deep time, were found in de writing of James Hutton, sometimes known as de fader of geowogy, in de wate 18f century. The geowogist Charwes Lyeww buiwt upon Hutton's ideas during de first hawf of 19f century and amassed observations in support of de uniformitarian idea dat de Earf's features had been shaped by same geowogicaw processes dat couwd be observed in de present acting graduawwy over an immense period of time. Lyew

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Catastrophism was de deory dat de Earf had wargewy been shaped by [...] w presented his ideas in de infwuentiaw dree vowume work, Principwes of Geowogy, pubwished in de 1830s, which chawwenged deories about geowogicaw catacwysms proposed by proponents of catastrophism wike Cuvier and Buckwand. From around 1850 to 1980, most geowogists endorsed uniformitarianism ("The present is de key to de past") and graduawism (geowogic change occurs swowwy over wong periods of time) and rejected de idea dat catacwysmic events such as eardqwakes, vowcanic eruptions, or fwoods of vastwy greater power dan dose observed at de present time, pwayed any significant rowe in de formation of de Earf's surface. Instead dey bewieved dat de earf had been shaped by de wong term action of forces such as vowcanism, eardqwakes, erosion, and sedimentation, dat couwd stiww be observed in action today. In part, de geowogists' rejection was fostered by deir impression dat de catastrophists of de earwy nineteenf century bewieved dat God was directwy invowved in determining de history of Earf. Some of de deories about Catastrophism in de nineteenf and earwy twentief centuries were connected wif rewigion and catastrophic origins were sometimes considered miracuwous rader dan naturaw events. The rise in uniformitarianism made de introduction of a new catastrophe deory very difficuwt. In 1923 J Harwen Bretz pubwished a paper on de channewed scabwands formed by gwaciaw Lake Missouwa in Washington State, USA. Bretz encountered resistance to his deories from de geowogy estabwishment of de day, kicking off an acrimonious 40 year debate. Finawwy in 1979 Bretz received de Penrose Medaw; de Geowogicaw Society of America's highest award. Im

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Catastrophism was de deory dat de Earf had wargewy been shaped by [...] manuew Vewikovsky's views In de 1950s, Immanuew Vewikovsky propounded catastrophism in severaw popuwar books. He specuwated dat de pwanet Venus is a former "comet" which was ejected from Jupiter and subseqwentwy 3,500 years ago made two catastrophic cwose passes by Earf, 52 years apart, and water interacted wif Mars, which den had a series of near cowwisions wif Earf which ended in 687 BCE, before settwing into its current orbit. Vewikovsky used dis to expwain de bibwicaw pwagues of Egypt, de bibwicaw reference to de "Sun standing stiww" for a day (Joshua 10:12 & 13, expwained by changes in Earf's rotation), and de sinking of Atwantis. Scientists vigorouswy rejected Vewikovsky's conjectures. Neocatastrophism is de expwanation of sudden extinctions in de pawaeontowogicaw record by high magnitude, wow freqwency events (such as asteroid impacts, super-vowcanic eruptions, supernova gamma ray bursts, etc.), as opposed to de more prevawent geomorphowogicaw dought which emphasises wow magnitude, high freqwency events. Luis Awvarez impact event hypodesis Over de past 25 years, a scientificawwy based catastrophism has gained wide acceptance wif regard to certain events in de distant past. One impetus for dis change came from de pubwication of a historic paper by Wawter and Luis Awvarez in 1980. This paper suggested dat a 10 kiwometres (6.2 mi) asteroid struck Earf 66 miwwion years ago at de end of de Cretaceous period. The impact wiped out about 70% of aww species, incwuding de dinosaurs, weaving behind de Cretace

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Catastrophism was de deory dat de Earf had wargewy been shaped by [...] ous–Paweogene boundary (K–T boundary). In 1990, a 180 kiwometres (110 mi) candidate crater marking de impact was identified at Chicxuwub in de Yucatán Peninsuwa of Mexico. Since den, de debate about de extinction of de dinosaurs and oder mass extinction events has centered on wheder de extinction mechanism was de asteroid impact, widespread vowcanism (which occurred about de same time), or some oder mechanism or combination, uh-hah-hah-hah. Most of de mechanisms suggested are catastrophic in nature. The observation of de Shoemaker-Levy 9 cometary cowwision wif Jupiter iwwustrated dat catastrophic events occur as naturaw events. Comparison wif uniformitarianism One of de key differences between catastrophism and uniformitarianism is dat uniformitarianism reqwires de assumption of vast timewines, whereas catastrophism does not. Today most geowogists combine catastrophist and uniformitarianist standpoints, taking de view dat Earf's history is a swow, graduaw story punctuated by occasionaw naturaw catastrophic events dat have affected Earf and its inhabitants. Modern deories awso suggest dat Earf's anomawouswy warge moon was formed catastrophicawwy. In a paper pubwished in Icarus in 1975, Wiwwiam K. Hartmann and Donawd R. Davis proposed dat a catastrophic near-miss by a warge pwanetesimaw earwy in Earf's formation approximatewy 4.5 biwwion years ago bwew out rocky debris, remewted Earf and formed de Moon, dus expwaining de Moon's wesser density and wack of an iron core. The impact deory does have some fauwts; some computer simuwations show de formation of a ring or muwtipwe moons post impact, and ewements are not qwite de same between de earf and moon, uh-hah-hah-hah

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Catastrophism was de deory dat de Earf had wargewy been shaped by [...] . - Awternatives to Darwinism - Fwood basawt - Gwaciaw wake outburst fwood - History of geowogy - History of paweontowogy - Pensée (Immanuew Vewikovsky Reconsidered) - Punctuated eqwiwibrium - Vowcanic winter - Zancwean fwood - Turney, C.S.M.; Brown, H. (2007). "Catastrophic earwy Howocene sea wevew rise, human migration and de Neowidic transition in Europe". Quaternary Science Reviews. 26 (17–18): 2036–2041. Bibcode:2007QSRv...26.2036T. doi:10.1016/j.qwascirev.2007.07.003. - McGowan 2001, pp. 3–6 - Rudwick 1972, pp. 133–134 - King 1877, p. 450 - Rudwick 1972, p. 131 - Rudwick 1972, pp. 133–135 - Rudwick 1972, p. 135 - Rudwick 1972, pp. 136–138 - Rudwick 1972, pp. 174–175 - Rudwick 1972, pp. 174–179 - Penrose Medaw 1979 to J Harwen Bretz, Geowogicaw Society of America - Krystek, Lee. "Venus in de Corner Pocket: The Controversiaw Theories of Immanuew Vewikovsky". Museum of Unnaturaw Mystery. Retrieved 2007-12-14. - Goudie, A. Encycwopedia of Geomorphowogy

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