text:
\section{Introduction}
\label{intro}

Our spectroscopic work on this molecule is motivated by the current high interest in ultracold ensembles of Strontium atoms \cite{Mickelson,FerrariBO2006,Daley,Takamoto}, which could be a candidate for an optical frequency standard \cite{Boyd2007,Blatt,Ludlow2008}, and also by interest in ultracold Sr$_2$ molecules \cite{Zelevinsky2008,ZelevinskiC2008}. Though for all these experiments reliable knowledge of collision properties for Sr atoms like scattering lengths would be of advantage, there was no sufficiently precise ground state potential available from \textit{ab initio} calculations or experimental work, from which these quantities could be derived by directly solving the radial Schr\"o\-din\-ger equation.

In \cite{SteinSr2008} we reported on the optical spectrum of the system 2$^1\Sigma^+_u$ --- X$^1\Sigma^+_g$ with more than 10300 transitions which involve the term energies of nearly 60\% of the existing rovibrational levels of the ground state for the main isotopologue $^{88}$Sr$_2$ and additionally many levels for the isotopologues $^{86}$Sr$^{88}$Sr and $^{87}$Sr$^{88}$Sr. We reached vibrational levels up to v$''=49$ and rotational levels up to J$''=224$. Using this data set we had to correct the rotational assignment given by \cite{Gerber_Sr2_1984} by four units and were able to construct a potential energy curve (PEC) which is reliable in the range from 4 to 11 \AA{}, covering an energy region from the bottom up to 9 cm$^{-1}$ below the dissociation asymptote. With the help of theoretically calculated long range coefficients C$_6$ and C$_8$ \cite{Mitroy2003,Porsev2006} and at that time available node positions of the scattering wave function at large internuclear separation for a kinetic energy of a few microkelvins \cite{Yasuda} and 2 mK \cite{Mickelson} from photoassociation, we estimated a complete set of scattering lengths for all combinations of naturally abundant Sr isotopes. Using our derived potentials to calculate Franck-Condon factors we proposed spectroscopic schemes to measure the highest existing vibrational levels of the ground state. Meanwhile new work on photoassociation \cite{MartinezDeEscobar} was performed and the binding energy of the last vibrational level v$''=62$ for $^{88}$Sr$_2$ was determined and for $^{84}$Sr two groups reached Bose-Einstein condensation \cite{BEC1,BEC2}.

In this work we report on successful experiments in the proposed direction and derive ground state levels close to the asymptote with which we extend the precisely known potential region significantly into the long range regime. With these data the experimental knowledge about the long range coefficients C$_6$, C$_8$ and C$_{10}$ and the precision in the scattering lengths will be improved.

The paper is organized as follows: Section \ref{sec:exp} describes the experimental methods, Sec. \ref{sec:analysis} shows the obtained data set and discusses the measurement uncertainties, Sec. \ref{sec:results} presents the resulting ground state potential and scattering lengths. Sec. \ref{sec:conclusion} gives conclusions and a short outlook.

\section{Experiment}
\label{sec:exp}

The apparatus is the same as in \cite{SteinSr2008}, the experimental procedure is an extension of the earlier one. Strontium is filled into a stainless steel heatpipe, which is heated to a temperature of about 1220 K under 20 mbar of argon as a buffer gas. To keep the optical path free from condensing strontium crystals growing at both ends of the heatpipe, the oven has to be moved every two hours to bring this Sr back to the heated zone. This means, that the heated cell is not working perfectly as a heatpipe where the condensed substance flows back to the heated region.

The molecules are excited to the v$'=4$ level of the state 2$^1\Sigma^+_u$ by light from a Coherent CR 699 ring dye laser operated with Rhodamine 6G at frequencies close to 17635 cm$^{-1}$ (depending on the rotational quantum number J). The power of the dye laser was about 70 mW in front of the heatpipe. The fluorescence light emitted antiparallel to the beam direction of the laser is imaged into a Bruker IFS 120 HR Fourier-transform spectrometer.

To measure the highest vibrational levels of the ground state, the vibrational band of the excited state with v$'=4$ and the rotational levels with J$'=25$, J$'=21$, J$'=17$, J$'=13$, and J$'=9$ were selected. Low J are very important for observing asymptotic levels because high J are not existing for these v. For measuring the progression starting from J$'=25$ a resolution of 0.05 cm$^{-1}$ was used, but because of the small spacings between the lines with  v$''>50$ it was expected that for the smaller J$'$ the P, R doublets of the highest vibrational levels would not be completely resolved with this resolution. Therefore, the resolution was increased for the remaining measurements to 0.02 cm$^{-1}$. For increasing the sensitivity of the measurements without saturating the amplifiers in the detection unit of the spectrometer selected optical filters were used. For the progressions of the four larger J$'$ (25 to 13) a holographic notch filter and a OG 590 color glass filter were inserted to suppress the internal HeNe laser of the spectrometer and the stray light of the dye laser, respectively. For the three progressions (J$'$ = 25, 21, and 17) up to 600 scans of the spectrometer were averaged and for J$'=13$ about 800 scans were necessary to identify safely lines to the highest existing levels with v$''=59$ and 60. To be able to observe v$''=60$ also for J$'=9$, where the intensity is already significantly lower because of the smaller degeneracy of that level, the experiment had to be further optimized. With a single bandpass filter with 10 nm FWHM (\underline{f}ull \underline{w}idth at \underline{h}alf \underline{m}aximum) around 600 nm, where the expected fluorescence for v$'' > 30$ should appear, and a laser power of more than 200 mW in front of the heatpipe it was possible to identify two more rotational levels for v$''=60$ (J$''=8$ and J$''=10$) by averaging 600 scans.

The method, mentioned in \cite{SteinSr2008} and successfully used  for Ca$_2$ in \cite{Allard_2003}, of excitation spectroscopy by tuning the laser over the transition frequencies to the desired levels and filtering the detected fluorescence with a monochromator, was not used for observing even higher v$''$, i.e. 61 and 62, because for these levels, which exist only for J$''\leq8$, the line separations of the P, R doublets become already smaller than the Doppler widths of the individual lines. Beam experiments would be needed to obtain sufficient resolution for this purpose.

\section{Data set}
\label{sec:analysis}

\begin{figure}
\resizebox{0.5\textwidth}{!}{%
\includegraphics{XDataSet.EPS}}
\caption{(Color online) Overview of the observed energy levels of the ground state X$^1\Sigma^+_g$, including all measurements of ref. \cite{SteinSr2008}.}
\label{XData}
\end{figure}

The data set published in \cite{SteinSr2008} consisted of 4673 different rovibrational levels for the ground state, containing 3163 of the ca. 5400 existing ground state levels of the main isotopologue $^{88}$Sr$_2$. The current ground state data set is extended to 6077 different rovibrational levels, of which 4159 belong to the isotopologue $^{88}$Sr$_2$ and 1301 and 617 belong to the isotopologues $^{86}$Sr$^{88}$Sr and $^{87}$Sr$^{88}$Sr, respectively. The complete data field is shown in figure \ref{XData}.

The assignment of the 15700 lines (5400 new since publication of \cite{SteinSr2008}) of the current data set was done using a partially automated software as already described in \cite{SteinSr2008} (in a prior version in \cite{SteinLiCs2008}). This software uses the differences between individual lines of a selected progression to automatically assign them to a molecule and an electronic transition and to quantum numbers v$'$, J$'$, v$''$ and J$''$, provided that the data of the ground and as much as available of the excited states of the molecules are input to the program. Additional lines which cannot be automatically identified to belong to the progression, because they extend significantly beyond the precisely known region of the ground state potential, are individually selected by the user before the program automatically assigns the best fitting quantum numbers.

In \cite{SteinSr2008} the uncertainties for the differences of the line frequencies were estimated to be 0.005 cm$^{-1}$ in most cases. This is one tenth of the applied resolution of 0.05 cm$^{-1}$. We keep this uncertainty for the lines which are taken from the earlier data set and also the lines newly measured using the same resolution. For the new lines measured with the higher resolution of 0.02 cm$^{-1}$ we estimate a smaller uncertainty of 0.002 cm$^{-1}$ for the stronger lines (S/N ratio larger than 5). For these lines a significant contribution of any Doppler shift can be excluded, since the excitation frequency was optimized on the center of the Doppler profile and thus the velocity components of the excited molecules parallel to the direction of observation will be very small. The specified uncertainty of the Fourier spectrometer for frequency differences within a spectrum is 0.001 cm$^{-1}$, still below the assumed experimental uncertainty. For weak lines and lines belonging to accidentally overlapping excitations an uncertainty of 0.004 cm$^{-1}$ is assumed.

The complete list of assigned lines can be found in the additional online material.

\section{Results}
\label{sec:results}

For the ground state a potential energy curve is calculated using the same type of representation as in \cite{SteinSr2008} (details can be found in \cite{Allard_Ca2_2002}). The central part of the potential ($R_i\leq R\leq R_a$) is described by

\begin{equation}
\label{GVC}
V_c(R)=T_m+\sum_{j\geq1}a_jx^j
\end{equation}

\noindent with the nonlinear mapping function

\begin{equation}
\label{GVx}
x=\frac{R-R_m}{R+bR_m} \mbox{ .}
\end{equation}

The inner repulsive wall ($R < R_i$) is given by

\begin{equation}
\label{GVi}
V_i(R)=A+\frac{B}{R^n} \mbox{ ,}
\end{equation}

while the long range part ($R > R_a$) is represented by

\begin{equation}
\label{GVa}
V_a(R)=U_\infty-\frac{C_6}{R^6}-\frac{C_8}{R^8}-\frac{C_{10}}{R^{10}} \mbox{ .}
\end{equation}

The coefficients $a_j$ are the main fitting parameters, while the parameter $T_m$ is adjusted to obtain at the point $R_a$ a continuous connection between the central and the long range part of the potential. $R_m$ in eqn. (\ref{GVx}) is chosen close to the minimum of the potential. The parameters b and $R_i$ are manually chosen to optimize the fitting result with a small number of parameters $a_j$. The real parameter n \cite{n_s} is an additional fitting parameter, while the parameters A and B are adjusted for a continuously differentiable connection at the point $R_i$.

The radius $R_a$ should be close to the LeRoy radius $R_b(AB)=2\left[\sqrt{\left<r_A^2\right>}+\sqrt{\left<r_B^2\right>}\right]$\cite{LeRoy1974}, where $r_A$ and $r_B$ are the radial coordinates of the outermost electrons of atom $A$ and atom $B$, here $r_A=r_B=r_{Sr}$. The resulting LeRoy radius $R_b$ is 9.7 \AA{} or 10.5 \AA{} for the X state of Sr$_2$, if $\left<r_{Sr}^2\right>$ is taken from \cite{Lu1971} or from \cite{Fischer1972}, respectively. The larger value $R_a=10.5$ \AA{} was chosen for the final potential evaluation. This choice should justify the neglect of a formal term for an exchange energy in the long range part according to eq. (\ref{GVa}).

\begin{figure}
\resizebox{0.5\textwidth}{!}{%
\includegraphics{XResiduals4.eps}}
\caption{(Color online) The residuals of the X$^1\Sigma^+_g$ potential fit divided by the specific uncertainties represented by histograms compared to Gaussian fits.}
\label{XResiduals}
\end{figure}

The residuals of the potential fit can be found as histograms in figure \ref{XResiduals} compared to Gaussian profile fits. The plot for the main isotopologue $^{88}$Sr$_2$ shows a symmetric profile with a FWHM of 0.8, while the shapes for the other two isotopologues are significantly wider and are not as symmetric as for the main isotopologue. This can be attributed to the much lower number of data for the isotopologues $^{86}$Sr$^{88}$Sr and $^{87}$Sr$^{88}$Sr and on average significantly weaker line intensities, which lead to a less precise determination of the frequencies.

\begin{table}
\caption{The potential coefficients and derived molecular constants for the ground state X$^1\Sigma^+_g$. The potential energy is calculated with respect to the asymptote, the dispersion coefficients are the recommended values from the third column of table \ref{XPotC}.}
\label{XPotential}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{lp{0.1\textwidth}r}\hline\noalign{\smallskip}
a$_{1}$   && -6.50$\times 10^{-2}$ cm$^{-1}$ \\
a$_{2}$   && 1.5939056$\times 10^{4}$ cm$^{-1}$ \\
a$_{3}$   && -2.9646778$\times 10^{4}$ cm$^{-1}$ \\
a$_{4}$   && -6.269777$\times 10^{3}$ cm$^{-1}$ \\
a$_{5}$   && 4.4952358$\times 10^{4}$ cm$^{-1}$ \\
a$_{6}$   && 8.709016$\times 10^{3}$ cm$^{-1}$ \\
a$_{7}$   && -1.0054929$\times 10^{5}$ cm$^{-1}$ \\
a$_{8}$   && 5.94784152$\times 10^{5}$ cm$^{-1}$ \\
a$_{9}$   && -9.95239126$\times 10^{5}$ cm$^{-1}$ \\
a$_{10}$   && -1.14496717$\times 10^{7}$ cm$^{-1}$ \\
a$_{11}$   && 4.606463055$\times 10^{7}$ cm$^{-1}$ \\
a$_{12}$   && 3.74666573$\times 10^{7}$ cm$^{-1}$ \\
a$_{13}$   && -5.439157146$\times 10^{8}$ cm$^{-1}$ \\
a$_{14}$   && 9.364833940$\times 10^{8}$ cm$^{-1}$ \\
a$_{15}$   && 1.387879748$\times 10^{9}$ cm$^{-1}$ \\
a$_{16}$   && -8.4009054730$\times 10^{9}$ cm$^{-1}$ \\
a$_{17}$   && 1.5781752106$\times 10^{10}$ cm$^{-1}$ \\
a$_{18}$   && -1.5721037673$\times 10^{10}$ cm$^{-1}$ \\
a$_{19}$   && 8.376043061$\times 10^{9}$ cm$^{-1}$ \\
a$_{20}$   && -1.88984880$\times 10^{9}$ cm$^{-1}$ \\
\hline
b     && -0.17    \\
R$_m$ && 4.6719018 \AA \\
T$_m$ && -1081.6384 cm$^{-1}$ \\ \hline
R$_i$ && 3.963 \AA \\
n     && 12.362    \\
A     && -1.3328825$\times 10^{3}$ cm$^{-1}$ \\
B     && 3.321662099$\times 10^{10}$ cm$^{-1}$\AA$^n$ \\ \hline
R$_a$ && 10.5 \AA \\
C$_{6}$ && 1.525$\times 10^{7}$ cm$^{-1}$\AA$^{6}$ \\
C$_{8}$ && 5.159$\times 10^{8}$ cm$^{-1}$\AA$^{8}$ \\
C$_{10}$ && 1.91$\times 10^{10}$ cm$^{-1}$\AA$^{10}$ \\ \hline \hline
\multicolumn{2}{l}{derived constants:}       \\
D$_e$    && 1081.64(2) cm$^{-1}$ \\
D$_0$    && 1061.58(1) cm$^{-1}$ \\
R$_e$    && 4.6720(1) \AA \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

The derived potential coefficients are given in table \ref{XPotential}. The normalized standard deviation of this potential fit is $\sigma=0.80$ which indicates that the applied measurement uncertainties are as a whole not underestimated. It correlates to the width of the histogram in fig. \ref{XResiduals} which also gives a normalized FWHM of 0.8 for the main isotopologue. The values of the dissociation energy $D_e$ and the equilibrium internuclear distance $R_e$ depend on the chosen potential description, namely on the number of potential coefficients $a_i$, on the parameter $b$ and on the connection radii $R_i$ and $R_a$. The given uncertainties are 1$\sigma$ standard deviations derived by comparing 35 different potential versions with different parameter settings which all had almost the same $\sigma$ values. Compared to $D_e$ the value for $D_0$ (dissociation energy with respect to (v=0,J=0) for the main isotopologue $^{88}$Sr$_2$) is less model dependent.

\begin{table*}
\caption{Comparison of the long range coefficients derived from fits of freely varying parameters with the recommended values applying a fixed $C_8$ value and with theoretical long range coefficients published in recent years. For the details on evaluation procedure and uncertainty estimates see text.}
\label{XPotC}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{lccccccc}\hline\noalign{\smallskip}
 & freely var. & recommended & \cite{Mitroy2003} & \cite{Porsev2006} & \cite{Stanton1994} & \cite{Porsev2002} & \cite{Lima2005} \\ \hline\noalign{\smallskip}
$C_6$  [$10^7 $cm$^{-1}$\AA$^6$]       & 1.527(33)    & 1.525(5)          & 1.566 & 1.495(3)   & 1.5481 & 1.528(94) & 1.509(20) \\
$C_8$  [$10^8 $cm$^{-1}$\AA$^8$]       & 5.1(15)     & (5.159)\cite{aC8} & 5.201 & 5.118(4)   &        &           &           \\
$C_{10}$ [$10^{10}$cm$^{-1}$\AA$^{10}$]& 2.0(13)     & 1.91(27)          & 1.61  & 1.593      &        &           &           \\ \hline\
\end{tabular}
\end{table*}

For the first potential fits the long range coefficients $C_6$, $C_8$, and $C_{10}$ were treated as free parameters. Despite the precision of the energies of the levels v$''=62$, J$''=0$ and J$''=2$ from \cite{MartinezDeEscobar} incorporated in the fit, the set of coefficients is still significantly correlated. While the $C_6$ coefficient is quite well fixed the coefficients $C_8$ or $C_{10}$ can be varied over a larger range of values without a significant reduction in the quality of the description of the data set, if all other coefficients are adjusted accordingly. To estimate uncertainties for the long range coefficients different potential fits were done where each time the $C_8$ coefficient was held fixed at a different value within its range as given in the second column of table \ref{XPotC}. The results shown for the other $C_i$ coefficients are averaged values from the series of fits and their uncertainty bounds represent an increase of the sum of the weighted squared residuals by 2\%, which is a quite safe limit, since only 113 of the 6077 energy levels included in the fit are directly affected by this change.

Because the derived uncertainty for the $C_8$ coefficient is significantly larger than the uncertainty claimed for the theoretically calculated coefficient by \cite{Porsev2006} (see the fifth column of table \ref{XPotC}) and also larger than the difference between the two available theoretical $C_8$ coefficients \cite{Mitroy2003,Porsev2006}, additional potential fits were done, where each time the $C_8$ coefficient was held fixed at a value taken from \cite{Mitroy2003} or \cite{Porsev2006} or the average of both. Such a procedure was also tried with the theoretical $C_6$ coefficients, but those resulting potentials gave a significantly less convincing description of the data set and also the resulting coefficients $C_8$ and $C_{10}$ showed strong deviations to the theoretical values. Additional fits were done for different numbers of potential coefficients $a_j$ and different connection radii $R_i$ and $R_a$. For a few fits $R_a$ was set to values as large as 13 \AA{}, which led to significantly less well determined long range coefficients with higher correlation without obtaining a significant improvement in the description of the data. The resulting $C_i$ coefficients of all the fits using either the $C_8$ coefficient from \cite{Mitroy2003} or from \cite{Porsev2006} or its mean value were averaged to obtain the recommended values, which are listed in the third column of the table \ref{XPotC}. The uncertainties are 1$\sigma$ standard deviations of the averaged values.

Table \ref{XPotC} compares the dispersion parameters derived with freely varied $C_i$ coefficients and the recommended values with the published theoretical long range coefficients from recent years. As one can see, the values in the second column are in good agreement with all the other values, while the recommended values do deviate from the most precise theoretical coefficient set from \cite{Porsev2006} more than one would expect considering the given uncertainties, there. This could be due to different reasons. The paper \cite{Porsev2006} used the lifetime of the atomic $^1$S---$^1$P transition from \cite{Yasuda}, which was calculated from the $C_3$ coefficient of the state 2$^1\Sigma^+_u$ fitted to photoassociation data. In \cite{Yasuda} line broadenings of the PA resonances are mentioned, which could indicate predissociation due to the coupling to the continuum of electronic states from lower asymptotes and could lead to a systematic shift of these asymptotic levels of the state 2$^1\Sigma^+_u$. Another reason could be that the presently derived uncertainties are underestimated because of a too low number of different potential descriptions used for averaging. The computing effort of testing the long range correlation by a Monte Carlo study would be enormous for the presently employed analytical type of potential description and the available hard and software.

A pointwise representation of the potential derived from the parameters in table \ref{XPotential} and the analytical potential description for the best fitting values obtained by freely varying $C_i$ coefficients can be found in the additional online material.

For the convenience of the reader we also made fits using the MLR potential description from \cite{LeRoy_pre}, which might allow for defining the potential by a lower number of parameters. It has the mathematical form

\begin{equation}
\label{MLR}
V_{MLR}(R)=D_e\left[1-\frac{U_{LR}(R)}{U_{LR}(R_e)}e^{-\beta(y^{ref}_p)\times{}y^e_p(R)}\right]^2
\end{equation}

with the long-range function

\begin{equation}
\label{uLR}
U_{LR}(R)=\frac{C_6}{R^6}+\frac{C_8}{R^8}+\frac{C_{10}}{R^{10}}
\end{equation}

and the exponential function

\begin{equation}
\label{beta}
\beta =y^{ref}_p(R)\beta_\infty + \left[1-y^{ref}_p(R)\right]\sum^N_{i=0}\beta_i y^{ref}_q(r)^i \mbox{ ,}
\end{equation}

where

\begin{equation}
\label{betaInf}
\beta_\infty=\ln\left[\frac{2D_e}{U_{LR}(R_e)}\right] \mbox{ .}
\end{equation}

Three mapping functions $y^a_b$ are defined as

\begin{equation}
\label{map}
y^a_b=\frac{R^b-R^b_a}{R^b+R^b_a} \mbox{ .}
\end{equation}

where the placeholder $a$ can either be '$e$' for the equilibrium radius $R_e$ or '$ref$' for $R_{ref}$ and the exponent $b$ can either be $p$ or $q$. $R_{ref}$ is an expansion point at an internuclear distance larger than $R_e$. The $\beta_i$, $C_i$, $R_e$, and the dissociation energy $D_e$ are the fit parameters, while the parameter $R_{ref}$ and the exponents $p$ and $q$ are manually chosen to optimize the potential description with a minimum number of coefficients and to get the proper long range behavior.

\begin{table}
\caption{The coefficients of the MLR potential description for the ground state X$^1\Sigma^+_g$. The potential energy is calculated with respect to the potential minimum, the dispersion coefficients were taken from table \ref{XPotC}.}
\label{XPotMLR}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{lp{0.1\textwidth}r}\hline\noalign{\smallskip}
$\beta_{0}$   &&  -1.458760592449 \\
$\beta_{1}$   &&  -0.031511799120 \\
$\beta_{2}$   &&  -0.912033020316 \\
$\beta_{3}$   &&  -0.033913017557 \\
$\beta_{4}$   &&  -0.465124882150 \\
$\beta_{5}$   &&   0.287008644909 \\
$\beta_{6}$   &&  -0.585285048765 \\
$\beta_{7}$   &&   2.490073196261 \\
$\beta_{8}$   &&   3.065232204927 \\
$\beta_{9}$   &&  -8.521057394373 \\
$\beta_{10}$  &&  -0.771989570637 \\
$\beta_{11}$  &&  17.679758812808 \\
$\beta_{12}$  && -11.143746759192 \\
$\beta_{13}$  &&  -1.704727367184 \\
$C_{6}$       && 1.525$\times 10^{7}$ cm$^{-1}$\AA$^{6}$ \\
$C_{8}$       && 5.159$\times 10^{8}$ cm$^{-1}$\AA$^{8}$ \\
$C_{10}$      && 1.910$\times 10^{10}$ cm$^{-1}$\AA$^{10}$ \\
$D_e$         && 1081.6352 cm$^{-1}$ \\
$R_e$         && 4.6719032 \AA \\
$R_{ref}$     && 5.5 \AA    \\
$p$           && 5 \\
$q$           && 3 \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

The potential coefficients for the MLR description are given in table \ref{XPotMLR}, the normalized standard deviation is $\sigma=0.80$ as for the description given in table \ref{XPotential}. Thus there is no significant difference in the quality of the description of the data set. The clear advantage of the potential description from table \ref{XPotMLR} compared to the potential description from table \ref{XPotential} is the lower number of potential coefficients necessary (14 $\beta_i$ instead of 20 $a_i$) and the fact that it is indefinitely continuously differentiable at all points which is not the case for the potential of table \ref{XPotential} at the points $R_i$ and $R_a$. Disadvantages are the much more complex formula with three mapping functions instead of one and a much stronger correlation of the long range coefficients $C_i$ with the potential coefficients $\beta_i$ (see eqn (\ref{MLR})). For the potential description from table \ref{XPotential} the correlation between the $C_i$ and the $a_i$ is only due to the integration of the wave functions over the full potential region. Thus we applied the recommended $C_i$ values from table \ref{XPotC} for the fit of the MLR potential. The dissociation energy obtained in the MLR approach agrees very well to the derived value in table \ref{XPotential}.

\begin{table*}
\caption{The scattering lengths in units of $a_0$ (Bohr radius) derived with different long range estimations and compared to earlier values published in 2008. The hyperfine splitting of the isotope $^{87}$Sr is neglected.}
\label{Scat}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{rcccc}
\hline\noalign{\smallskip}
isotopes            & $C_i$ freely var. & recommended $C_i$ & \cite{MartinezDeEscobar} & \cite{SteinSr2008} \\ \hline\noalign{\smallskip}
$^{84}$Sr+$^{84}$Sr & 122.58(72) & 122.762(92) & 122.7(3)       & 121 to 127  \\
$^{84}$Sr+$^{86}$Sr & 31.4(11)   & 31.65(14)   & 31.9(3)        & 30 to 36    \\
$^{84}$Sr+$^{87}$Sr & -58.6(43)  & -57.61(61)  & -56(1)         & -64 to -45  \\
$^{84}$Sr+$^{88}$Sr & 1561(400)  & 1658(54)    & 1790(130)      & $\geq$1170 or $\leq$-1900 \\
$^{86}$Sr+$^{86}$Sr & 777(84)    & 798(12)     & 823(24)        & 677 to 1430 \\
$^{86}$Sr+$^{87}$Sr & 161.9(15)  & 162.25(21)  & 162.5(5)       & 160 to 171  \\
$^{86}$Sr+$^{88}$Sr & 97.24(53)  & 97.374(69)  & 97.4(1)        & 97 to 101   \\
$^{87}$Sr+$^{87}$Sr & 96.06(53)  & 96.198(68)  & 96.2(1)        & 95 to 99    \\
$^{87}$Sr+$^{88}$Sr & 54.64(73)  & 54.819(92)  & 55.0(2)        & 54 to 58    \\
$^{88}$Sr+$^{88}$Sr & -2.5(20)   & -2.00(27)   & -1.4(6)        & -4.8 to 4.5 \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table*}

Table \ref{Scat} shows the derived scattering lengths of the different isotopic compositions and compares them to other recent publications. The values in the second column were calculated from the potentials which were applied for the estimation of the uncertainty of the long range coefficients as given in the second column of table \ref{XPotC}. The values in the third column of table \ref{Scat} are averages from different potentials which were obtained using $C_8$ coefficients from \cite{Mitroy2003} and \cite{Porsev2006} and resulted in the recommended values in the third column of table \ref{XPotC}. It turned out that the influences of different connection radii $R_i$ or $R_a$ or numbers of parameters $a_j$, which causes mainly a change in the central part of the potential, has a much larger influence on the scattering lengths than the question if the $C_8$ should be taken from \cite{Mitroy2003} or from \cite{Porsev2006}. All of the potentials used reproduce the measured data nearly equally well and also the node positions of the scattering wave functions from photoassociation \cite{Mickelson,Yasuda}. The uncertainties given in the second and third column of table \ref{Scat} are 1$\sigma$ standard deviations in units of the last digit shown. The uncertainties in the fourth column are taken from \cite{MartinezDeEscobar}. The last column provides the results from our earlier analysis in \cite{SteinSr2008} for comparison. The very precise analysis of the present work is consistent with the values from \cite{SteinSr2008} and with those from the photoassociation work \cite{MartinezDeEscobar}. The new determination yields about a factor of 2 smaller uncertainties than reported in \cite{MartinezDeEscobar}.

\section{Conclusion}
\label{sec:conclusion}

After publishing a description for the ground state potential for the region from 4 to 11 \AA{} and the vibrational interval from v$''=0$ to 48 in \cite{SteinSr2008}, for the present paper we concentrated our work on the asymptotic levels of this state. By applying the same spectroscopic method but improving the detection scheme, increasing the signal averaging time and selecting appropriate excited rovibrational levels to reach the long range regime we were able to observe levels with v$''$ up to 60, while v$''=62$ would be the last existing one for low J$''$. This allowed us to extend the potential region up to an internuclear distance of 23 \AA~from our data set.

Including the term energies of the v$''=62$, J$''=0$ and J$''=2$ levels measured by photoassociation \cite{MartinezDeEscobar}, we were able to derive the long range coefficients $C_6$, $C_8$ and $C_{10}$. By taking the $C_8$ coefficient from theory \cite{Mitroy2003,Porsev2006}, which has in our modeling a larger uncertainty than the theoretically calculated $C_8$ coefficient, we derived an internally consistent set of the remaining two coefficients $C_6$ and $C_{10}$. This leads to a further reduction of the uncertainties in the calculation of the scattering lengths for all combinations of natural abundant isotopes of Strontium. We were also able to give a reliable value for the dissociation energy $D_0$ of the X state.

The combination of the data of both the state 2$^1\Sigma^+_u$ \cite{SteinSr2008}, and the ground state X$^1\Sigma^+_g$ can be useful for experiments producing ultracold molecules. The transition path successfully applied for this work to observe vibrational levels of the ground state close to the asymptote can be used in the reverse direction to transfer population of highly excited ground state levels to deeply bound vibrational levels of the X state within a single STIRAP step \cite{BergmannSTIRAP}. The asymptotic ground state levels, which can be populated e.g. by spontaneous decay after photoassociation, show the best Franck-Condon overlap with the v$'=4$, v$'=3$ and v$'=9$ levels of the state $2^1\Sigma^+_u$. While either the v$'=4$ or the v$'=3$ level give good overlap with almost every level of the X state, by excitation of the v$'=9$ level almost 12\% of the spontaneous decay reaches the v$''=0$ level. By the use of the $2^1\Sigma^+_u$ potential determined in \cite{SteinSr2008} together with the ground state potential from this work the transition frequencies from all ground state levels to the minimum region (v$'$=0 - 12) of the state $2^1\Sigma^+_u$ should be easily calculable with a precision better than 0.01 cm$^{-1}$. This accuracy should reduce substantially the time for finding STIRAP transitions.

For the near future we plan to further investigate the excited states of the Sr$_2$ molecule. We already started with the state $2^1\Sigma^+_u$ and we will look for the state $1^1\Sigma^+_u$ and a state of type $^1\Pi_u$ for which we found one Q progression during this work.

\section{Acknowledgments}

The authors are grateful to A. Gerdes who helped with the preparation of the dye lasers and to A. Pashov for useful discussions. This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft in the Sonderforschungsbereich 407.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
Archives For LAIR
Follow Up: The LAIR
April 25, 2012 — Leave a comment
This past weekend I had the privilege of visiting the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens where I had a warm experience among cold blooded animals at the Zoos newest exhibit, the LAIR – Living Amphibians, Invertebrates, and Reptiles.
The Zoo is also home to more than 1,100 animals representing more than 250 different species of which 29 are endangered. In addition, the Zoo's botanical collection comprises several planted gardens and over 800 different plant species with over 7,400 individual plants. Needless to say, you could spend an entire day exploring the 133 acre lot, just as I did.
After visiting some exhibits and building the suspense, I made my way to the LAIR. The new exhibit houses the Zoo's dynamic collection of reptiles and amphibians in themed areas with hand-painted murals including Oak Woodland Pond, Bite and Squeeze, Care and Conservation Room, Arroyo Lagarto, Crocodile Swamp and Desert LAIR. Each area transports you to its respective habitat and you see the critters in their natural environment.
The facility encompasses several visually stunning areas that include habitats for various unique and endangered species. LAIR is one of the few reptile and amphibian-focused facilities to open within the past decade in a North American Zoo. The collection includes the Chinese giant salamander, venomous snakes, poison dart frogs, Gila monster, Fly River turtle, radiated tortoise, and much more such as these colorful monitors. Keep a sharp eye out as many of the creatures are camouflaged and hard to find.
Skylights peek through the mural canopy showcasing a dazzling array of snakes in Betty's Bite and Squeeze room named after Betty White, co-chair of the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association. The serpent species include the Mangshan viper, a venomous snake from the mountains of China; a fast slender arboreal snake from Africa; and the bushmaster, the largest venomous snake of the Americas. My favorite snake was this white Isla Santa Catalina rattlesnake. Ironicaly, the most distinctive feature of this rattler is the lack of the rattle. The base of the rattle is degenerate, so the rattle segment falls off as it is formed.
Next, we ventured into the Southwest Desert Building which represents the semi-arid desert climate of Mexico, Arizona, and my own backyard – Southern California. The Desert LAIR houses snakes, lizards, turtles, and scorpions. Visions of lightening and the sounds of thunderstorms and monsoons wisp through the exhibit mimicking the weather sporadically encountered in these dry climates. Don't forget your umbrella!
After exiting the exhibit I passed by the endangered species' pool to get a glimpse of the intimidating false gharials of Southeast Asia that can reach a length of 15 feet long. This area also offers a good photo opportunity.
By now I had worked up an appetite and ventured over to the giraffe exhibit for lunch. The weather was perfect and the meal satisfying. The overall Zoo experience was exciting and enlightening, I recommend visiting the Zoo and LAIR exhibit before they go extinct.
WHAT: The LAIR
WHEN: Monday – Sunday | 10 am – 5 pm
WHERE: Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens | 5333 Zoo Drive | Los Angeles, CA 90027
CONTACT INFO: (323) 644-4200 or http://www.lazoo.org
Tickets: Adults $16, Children (2-12) $11, Children under 2 free, Senior Citizens (62 and older) $13 and Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association (GLAZA) members are free
I appreciate your support and feedback. Please respond to this article now by leaving a comment and/or "liking" it. For exciting, up to date events in Los Angeles, subscribe to this blog via email. You can also share this article with friends and family and visit my Facebook and Twitter pages.
Stick with me and I guarantee you'll never run out of things to do because you'll always be connected, and your friends and family will admire you.
The LAIR Opens! (xplorela.com)
In Family	Betty White, Botanical garden, Chinese giant salamander, LAIR, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Zoo, Venomous snake, Zoo
The LAIR Opens!
March 14, 2012 — 1 Comment
This is not a fictional LAIR; but a living, breathing, crawling LAIR. Step inside for a glimpse into the prehistoric past in this fun and educational exhibit for all ages.
The LAIR (Living Amphibians, Invertebrates, and Reptiles) is the newest exhibit to open at the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens. The facility encompasses several visually stunning areas that include habitats for various unique and endangered species. The LAIR is one of the few reptile and amphibian-focused facilities to open within the past decade in a North American zoo.
The unique collection in the LAIR comprises some of the rarest species among North American zoos – some of which are not showcased anywhere else in the world and others that have never been displayed at the Los Angeles Zoo until now. Zoo Director John Lewis comments that "the LAIR is home to fantastic and stunning creatures that were present on Earth well before humans arrived, but now unfortunately depend on us for their survival." Over 60 species of amphibians, invertebrates, and reptiles are represented in this assortment of living jewels. Each habitat is beautifully themed with hand-painted murals of damp and misty forests, rainforest canopies, red rock formations, mountain ranges and vistas, and dry arid deserts to exemplify the natural environments of the many diverse species.
Entrance/Oak Woodland Pond
Upon entering the LAIR's exhibit area, your are welcomed by the native residents of Oak Woodland Pond. This organically inhabited exhibit is designed specifically to provide a habitat that the local wildlife of Griffith Park and Southern California reside in.
The Desert LAIR
The LAIR's secondary building represents the semi-arid desert climate of Mexico, Arizona, and our own backyard – Southern California. The Desert LAIR houses snakes, lizards, turtles, and scorpions. Visions of lightning and the sounds of thunderstorms and monsoons wisp through your ears mimicking the weather sporadically encountered in these dry climates.
Crocodile Swamp
When you travel through the Crocodile Swamp you encounter the LAIR's false gharial exhibit. You can look down into this endangered species' pool to get a glimpse of the intimidating species of crocodile found in Southeast Asia. False gharials can reach a length of 15 feet long.
Arroyo Lagarto
Arroyo Lagarto literally translates to "lizard stream" in Spanish. This outdoor desert environment features a potpourri of reptile species including California's official state reptile – the desert tortoise. The neighboring radiated tortoise habitat adds to the showcase of reptile diversity. Just beyond both outdoor habitats lies a garden of tough, distinctive, and typical desert plants ranging from Mexico to Southern California.
Click to see a list of all the critters in the exhibit and get to know the zoo keepers as well. Here are some fun facts about the exhibit:
The LAIR encompasses over 60 species of amphibians, invertebrates, and reptiles from around the world.
There are a total of 49 exhibits; each exhibit closely resembles the natural ecosystem of its inhabitants.
The LAIR is comprised of 6 diversely themed areas: the Damp Forest, Betty's Bite and Squeeze room named after Betty White, co-chair of the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association, Care and Conservation room, Behind the Glass, Arroyo Lagarto, and the Desert LAIR.
The LAIR's principal building is 6,289 square feet. The Desert LAIR building is 2,085 square feet.
The LAIR is one of a few facilities built in North America within the past decade that specifically focuses on reptiles and amphibians.
All murals are hand-painted by different artists and represent the natural habitats of the LAIR's species including mountainous regions of China, Central America, and Mexico; lush forests of Africa, South America, and the Philippines; river banks of New Zealand, Australia, and Louisiana; deserts of Southern California, Arizona, and Mexico.
The outside benches that provide seating for guests are recycled from the pine trees removed during the building's construction.
Many exhibits within the LAIR have UV basking lights and heated floors to provide the proper care for the animals.
See a video on the LAIR here featuring Betty White and Slash.
This facility showcases species in as close to a natural environment as captivity can provide and will give you the opportunity to view many rare and unusual creatures, that most would never have the opportunity to see in person. Visit and tell us your experience.
CONTACT INFO: (323) 644-4200
L.A. Zoo opens $14-million reptile 'condominium' today (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
Slash, Betty White Star In New Los Angeles Zoo Ad (losangeles.cbslocal.com)
L.A. Zoo Opening New Reptile House (laist.com)
In Family	Betty White, LAIR, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Zoo

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Refresh Recyclerview I want to insert a value in the database and update the recyclerview automatically.
I have this block of code to insert into the database.
.setPositiveButton("Sim", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                                @Override
                                public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which) {
                                    int PessoaNova = aula.getPessoas();
                                    DBHelper dbHelper = new DBHelper(context);
                                    int resultado = aula.getId();
                                    PessoaNova = aula.getPessoas() + 1;
                                    dbHelper.AlterarPessoa(resultado, PessoaNova);

And the code I use to update the list is this
swipeRefreshLayout = v.findViewById(R.id.swipeRefreshLayou);
        swipeRefreshLayout.setOnRefreshListener(new SwipeRefreshLayout.OnRefreshListener() {
            @Override
            public void onRefresh() {
                db = new DBHelper(getContext());
                aulasDAO = new AulasDAO(getContext());
                aulas = aulasDAO.getAulas();
                recyclerViewAulasAdapter = new RecyclerViewAulasAdapter(aulas,getContext());
                RecyclerView.LayoutManager layoutManager = new LinearLayoutManager(getActivity());
                recyclerView.setLayoutManager(layoutManager);
                recyclerView.setItemAnimator(new DefaultItemAnimator());
                recyclerView.setAdapter(recyclerViewAulasAdapter);
                recyclerViewAulasAdapter.notifyDataSetChanged();
                swipeRefreshLayout.setRefreshing(false);
            }
        });

I wanted the list to update automatically when the user clicked the button

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Miller was the Butkus Award winner as the nation's top linebacker, and it seems like his game will translate very well to the next level. He is a great athlete that has prototypical size and very good instincts for the linebacker position. He is at his best as a pass rusher in a 3-4 defense, as he is explosive and strong with an arsenal of pass rushing moves. He may lack the size to consistently anchor against the run, but he flashes the ability to disengage from blockers and is an underrated run stopper. Overall, Miller is an excellent prospect that could get drafted in the top 10.
I don't think Tebow is going to be a top level NFL Quarterback. Denver, who recently acquired Brady Quinn, will be looking for another Quarterback draft within 3 years. IMHO.
NFL.com writes- Pick Analysis: Josh McDaniels continues to place himself in the midst of controversy with his draft day decisions. By selecting Tim Tebow, the Broncos opted to bypass on Jimmy Clausen in favor of a quarterback more adept at running a spread offense. While critics will talk about Tebow's quirky mechanics and throwing motion, his character profile is in line with McDaniels' desire to create a strong locker room rooted in team-first principles. In addition, the presence of Kyle Orton and Brady Quinn ensures that Tebow will have the opportunity to fully develop as a passer before he takes the field in a season or two.
Tebow is arguably one of the best college quarterbacks of all time. He has won a lot of games over the years as he is a perfect fit for Urban Meyer's offensive system. He will need a lot of retraining when he gets to an NFL camp as he plays out of the shotgun formation and will need a lot of work on dropping from center and setting up in the pocket while reading coverage schemes. He has a strong arm but his accuracy has been inconsistent over the years as he often ends up throwing the ball when on the move. He is not generally real quick to pull the trigger once he decides where he wants to throw the ball.


text:
Polymeria calycina är en vindeväxtart som beskrevs av Robert Brown. Polymeria calycina ingår i släktet Polymeria och familjen vindeväxter. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Externa länkar

Vindeväxter
calycina

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


At Alpharetta High School, the stormwater management and the gardens are coincident. Specially devised downspouts align with runnels that are also sculptures. Runnels deposit water into plant-filled rain gardens. The gardens are simultaneously learning opportunities, outdoor classrooms, and they are equipped with casual amphitheaters that make them active teaching spaces. The inhabited stormwater gardens are complemented by planted stormwater gardens in the parking lots that are swathes of reforestation. Other stormwater management areas are woven into the landscape unnoticed.


text:
Bismarck writer Dopson lends a woman's point of view to the oil boom
BISMARCK -- From the start of the oil boom, the Bakken has been fertile ground for reality TV, journalists, documentarians and non-fiction writers of every sort. But since the slowdown in the oil industry, fiction has begun to emerge as the oil p...
By Matt Hickman
BISMARCK -- From the start of the oil boom, the Bakken has been fertile ground for reality TV, journalists, documentarians and non-fiction writers of every sort. But since the slowdown in the oil industry, fiction has begun to emerge as the oil patch's preferred media product, as the ABC drama "Blood & Oil", and the film, "Roughnecks", which concluded shooting last weekend in Williston, can attest.
What, to the best of anyone's knowledge, has yet to be attempted is a romance novel. Now, thanks to the inspiration of Bismarck-based counselor, Lorraine Dopson, whose new book "Hard Road Home" tells the story of life and love in the heyday of the boom times in all its steamy and libidinous glory.
"It's both a coming-of-age story and a romance," Dopson explained. "My main heroine, Amanda Swinson is a naive, young redhead, who is a 23-year-old receptionist in Bismarck. She's working in a medical clinic and one day she runs into a tight-lipped trucker named Clayton Sloan. His goal is to drive an oil truck 80 hours a week to save the family farm. He has no time or interest in women; he's just straight ahead and doesn't want to be bothered. But one thing leads to another; he can't help but notice Amanda and she has noticed him in a big way."
From there, Dopson insists, the book drives for a tone of sensual literariness, not cheap smut.
"She has a strong sexual feeling for this guy and she tries to fit into his life, to see if she can't crack through the hard exterior," Dopson said. "It's about his struggle to figure out what he wants and her struggle to get what she wants. It's a romance book and there's a strong sexual tension in it, but kind of a literary sexual tension... It's not a sleazy romance book."
Dopson, whose previously published works "The Light at the End of the World", a scientific and spiritual book exploring lives at the end of the last Ice Age,' and "Visions from Heaven", a non-fiction book based on hospital bed interviews with a dying cancer patient, began research for what would be her first work of fiction without even knowing it.
At the height of the boom, when people were jamming into Williston day after day with little to no services to accommodate them, Dopson's husband, a neurologist with more than three decades of experience, would do weekend warrior duty at the El Rancho Motel.
"Sometimes I went along with him and got a sense of the patients he was seeing," said Dopson, herself a PhD from the University of North Dakota. "My husband was dealing more of those with chronic pain that was work-related so I got to see that element of the Williston development, too. I talked with some of his truck driver patients, spent some time in Watford City, researched online and reading."
Dopson had also acquired some counseling experience of her own, doing some statistical analysis of affected workers for the North Dakota Department of Labor during the 1980s oil boom. Both experiences informed her narrative of the true hero and victim of booms, then and now.
"There's always big money in oil excitement, but the working man sort of gets left by the wayside," she said. "He comes here to make a new life, but the workers are always the tail getting wagged by the dog. My point in writing this is partly to let them have a voice, too."
Also frequently lost in the boomtown narrative is the voice of women. And in observing media portrayals of the Bakken, it dawned on Dopson to give her novel a distinctly feminine point of view.
"Three years ago the state was just pulsating with Bakken, Bakken, Bakken," she said. "It was the midst of a testosterone rush where thousands of innocent young men, mostly, were pouring into the state. I know there are a lot of dark things that happened in terms of sex and drugs and those stories have been told really well in fiction and nonfiction. I was kind of feeling that one way to put it as a strong sexual vibe was from the point of view of a female character. It seemed like exploring the romantic angle would be an interesting way of telling the current story about the Bakken, address some of the energy and tension rising up in the state."
With "Hard Road Home" in print and book signing events around the state littering her calendar well into 2016, Dopson hasn't given second thought to what's next.
"People always ask after the first book, 'when's the sequel?'" Dopson said. "But my first book took a good four years out of my life and this one took another three years. I've got a lot of catching up to do and right now, my emphasis is on getting out and telling people about the book and seeing how far I can go with it."
For more information about "Hard Road Home" or to purchase any of Dopson's books, visit lorrainedopson.com
Related Topics: BISMARCK
Pornography or protected speech? Lefor, Steiner defend library restrictions bill
With HB 1205, Reps Mike Lefor and Vicky Steiner would prohibit "sexually explicit content" in public libraries. Facing an uphill battle, the pair remain united in their commitment to see it passed.
Minnesota man dies in snowmobile crash southeast of Bowdon, ND
The North Dakota Highway Patrol is investigating the crash.
By Jamestown Sun staff report
Dickinson boosted revenue with 28% increase in oil impact and highest sales tax collections in 7 years
City accountant reports increases in oil impact, sales tax, hospitality tax and occupancy tax revenue during the Jan. 24 meeting, commission approves two policy amendments.


Being in a relationship isn't all about texting, calling, and talking on social media. It's also about spending time with your partner and making new memories together. But before you get that far ahead, make sure that these expectations are met while still courting the Filipina girl you're interested in.
Spend quality time with her. Dates don't need to be extravagant; it could be as simple as watching movies, going on a drive, or even walking her dog together. You just have to prove that you're genuine and serious about her. Visiting her and doing activities you both enjoy can make her see what a potential relationship with you would be like. Once she realizes you're a perfect fit, then you're already on the right track.


Emily Burns '13 followed her Women's and Gender Studies major with a Master of Public Administration program.
As an undergrad, Emily Burns '13 studied human trafficking on a month-long trip to India. Now her graduate studies focus on a new intersection: social mobility and public transportation.
Feminist theory remains a constant thread in her work, which began as a Women's and Gender Studies major at Ohio University.
She notes that public transportation directly impacts a person's capacity to get to a job—and whether that individual will be able to break socioeconomic barriers.


Victor JF-4EVS electronic variable speed vertical knee mill is driven by 3 HP frequency inverter drive comes with rigid one-piece bed and a special double wall designed box structure column casting. The mill is built to highest quality standards to ensure reliability and consistency.
Distance from spindle nose to table: 16.88"
Approx. Net weight: 3,450 lb.


text:
Pictures & images of the Byzantine tympanum fresco of Theotokos, depicting the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, and child, 1126-1130, in the apse of the Gelati Georgian Orthodox Church of the Virgin, 1106. The medieval Gelati monastic complex near Kutaisi in the Imereti region of western Georgia (country). A UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Gelati monatery, Georgian Golden Age, medieval Georgia, East Christian church, Medieval Orthodox monastery, Georgian Orthodox, medieval architecture, Georgian architecture, architectural, historical, historic monument, historic site, historic site, historical site, historic landmark, ancient monument, Ancient Monument, Monument, scenic, landscape, picturesque, tourist attraction, tourist site, tourist destination, landmark site, UNESCO, UNESCO World Heritage Site, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, world heritage site, nobody, no one, no person, Georgia country, Georgian, Caucasus, Eurasia, Christian architecture, christian architecture, Religious architecture, Christian art, christian art, Christian arts, Christian artwork, Christian artworks, Christian artworks, religious art, religious artworks, Christian fresco, christian fresco, Christian frescoes, Christian frescoes, ecclesiastical, liturgical decoration, liturgical decorations, religious decoration, religious decorations, religious decorative arts, religious decorative art, Byzantine fresco, Byzantine frescoes
88887-64-Gelati-Monastery-Georgia-Virgin-Mary-Church-Frescoe-Theotokos.tif
10002x8901 pixels


Each year, AirTanker and the Voyager Community embark on a number of Battlefield Tours. This year we visited Passchendaele, Dunkirk and Bastogne to retrace the steps of the many who fought for our freedom. In recognition of Armistice Day, we would like to share stories of the journeys we've been.
Following the arrival of the first nine F-35B Lightning II aircraft earlier this year, the first UK refuel took place on 16th October, around 19000ft over the North Sea.
Competition winner Freiya Elton, from Malvern St James Girls' School, had the flight of a lifetime on a Voyager taking part in the RAF100 Flypast, one hundred days after the Royal Air Force's 100th birthday.
To mark International Women in Engineering Day on June 23rd, we spoke to Emma Farrell about her role as a Quality, Safety and Assurance Engineer with AirTanker and what inspired her to pursue an engineering career.
Three RAF Voyager aircraft have played a vital role in the delivery to the UK of the first four F-35B Lightning II aircraft.
With the school summer holidays well underway, we look back at when AirTanker visited Queens C of E Academy, Warwickshire, and gave the school an experience to remember; discussing and demonstrating the roles and responsibilities of life in the contrails.
Voyager is set to arrive at RAF Fairford, ready to showcase its cutting edge technology in Air-to-Air Refuelling, Air Transport and Aeromedical capability to the crowds at the Royal International Air Tattoo 2017.
AirTanker is pleased to announce that a new A330-200 ACMI Lease has been secured with leading leisure airline Jet2.com. Operating throughout their summer schedule, this is a new civil leasing development for AirTanker in support of Jet2.com's network growth.
The role that employers play in supporting foster carers is often overlooked. David Haydock, AirTanker Services Finance Director, argues that businesses can make all the difference with a positive, flexible mind-set.
As the UK marks Foster Care Fortnight (May 8th to 21st), AirTanker employee Dale Jones talks about the experiences he and his wife Dawn have encountered through fostering and the critical nationwide shortage of foster carers.
AirTanker is delighted to welcome back to the Hub its first six Aeronautical Engineering Apprentices following their initial training over the past eight months at Resource Group, Cotswold Airport.
It is National Apprenticeship Week (6-10 March) and our apprentices are now six months into their Aeronautical Engineering apprenticeship. We caught up with them recently to find out about their journey so far and their future aspirations.
We celebrate International Women's Day 2017 by highlighting a few of the many indivuduals who make a difference to the operations of AirTanker, the Voyager and the people behind it.
Today we celebrated reaching another milestone as we welcomed on-board our 1,000,000th passenger. A couple were given a Valentine's Day surprise on check-in at RAF Brize Norton where they would fly on Voyager to RAF Akrotiri.
This week we have teamed up with British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) radio presenter Alex Gill who has been speaking to some of the personnel behind AirTanker and the Voyager capability.
AirTanker Services (ATrS) announces the appointment of Colin Wood to the role of Managing Director. He takes over the position from outgoing MD Keith Filbey who retires on 16th January 2017 after having played a pivotal role in the development of ATrS over the past decade.
Chief Technician Marshall-Brown of RAF Brize Norton has been awarded a personal commendation from Chief of the Air Staff as part of the Queen's Birthday Honours List 2016.
On 30th September 2016, AirTanker reached the final establishment phase milestone in the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) programme with the achievement of Full Service Date (FSD) on time and on budget.
AirTanker Services proudly announce that six apprentices have now started their journey on our Aeronautical Engineering Apprenticeship Scheme.
A second surge fleet aircraft from the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft programme is set to impress following its entry into service within the commercial ACMI market.
The AirTanker programme has accomplished its 10,000th flight since the first Voyager took to the skies in April 2012 operating for the Royal Air Force.
AirTanker has today [13 July 2016] taken delivery of its fourteenth and final A330-200 aircraft in the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft programme.
AirTanker has yesterday [24/02/16] taken delivery of its penultimate A330-200 at RAF Brize Norton following its arrival from the Airbus Defence and Space facility in Getafe, Spain.
Tony Carder joined AirTanker Services' as its new Director of Leasing in October. He explains why he believes AirTanker delivers a step change in ACMI wide-bodied aircraft leasing.
Three decades on from a daring tanking mission in support of a bombing operation over the skies of the South Atlantic, Voyager Media discovers that 'little' and 'much', has changed in air-to-air refuelling.
With the French Air Force expected to place its first order for the MRTT, we catch up with Capitaine Francois Gilbert, Armée De L'Air, who has joined Voyager on secondment.
Three months in to his new post, Wing Commander Jamie Osborne O/C 10 Squadron shares his thoughts on the Voyager programme. Voyager News reports.
No. 101 stood up as a Voyager Squadron in early autumn signalling a new chapter in a proud operational history. Voyager Media reports.
Airtanker Services runs a battlefield tour series as part of its programme to build understanding amongst its civilian employees of the sacrifice made by UK Armed Forces servicemen and women. Voyager Media reports.
Voyager Media caught up with Iain Cullen, AirTanker Services' Director of Flight Operations. He shares his thoughts on Voyager, the RAF and life as a Sponsored Reservist.
Voyager Media guest author, Craig Hoyle reports from the AirTanker/Voyager Hub at RAF Brize Norton on the progress made by the service to date.
In service with more than 90 airlines, the A330 [Voyager] has an established reputation in its civilian configuration. Voyager Media reports on one of the world's most technically advanced aircraft.
Voyager boasts one of the world's most sophisticated aviation training programmes. Voyager Media reports on an operationally critical service.
The first of AirTanker's Sponsored Reservist pilots to have completed training at RAF College Cranwell graduated at the end of last year. Voyager Media examines their role and reports on their experiences so far.
Enter your details to be notified when news items are posted.
AirTanker Corporate from AirTanker on Vimeo.


Welcome to my site. I began this page as a means to share information about my travels, but then I found so many other things I could do with it. So, I hope that you will poke around, read about my travels, perhaps some of my stories, and try out some of my recipes.
The site will probably change a lot, as I continue to play with it and learn what I can do. So, please take a moment to subscribe to my site, below.
Hello, Nathan! In case you are wondering who I am — I am Jim Harrigan's aunt and would like to follow youse guys on your Scotland trip. Hope youse have a great time! Thanks!
Absolutely! I am in Taynuilt tonight, while he is with Doni no Fort William. I hope to be Begin posting within the next day or so.


Yesterday we brought you some news about the new additions to Supergirl for its second season, and now TV Line is reporting details on two newcomers for another DC show in Gotham season three.
According to the site, casting is underway for the character of Vicki Vale (played by Kim Basinger in 1989's Batman), who is described as "an ambitious young journalist" and is in her late 20s. Given that David Mazouz's Bruce Wayne is around 15 years old in the series, it's probably safe to assume she isn't going to be a love-interest for young Master Wayne.
Gotham is set to return to Fox for its third season in the fall.


A well respected organisation based in Hove are seeking an Assistant Accountant on a permanent basis.
Assist in preparation for and during the statutory audits.
Assist with the preparation of monthly management accounts.
Balance sheet, intercompany and bank reconciliations.
AAT/ACCA/CIMA studier or equivalent knowledge.
Can demonstrate Accounts Assistant / Assistant Accountant knowledge.
Proven track record of working with finance systems, including Excel.


The Relais Fontana di Trevi offers four-star-hotel-standard rooms in the heart of Rome right by the Trevi Fountain. I stayed for two nights in February 2008, and found it a comfortable and practical base. I booked three days before travelling, through Booking.com, and found a double room with a price of 100 euros per night for single occupancy. Although this wasn't a bargain, the price did compare favourably with other hotels in Rome for the same dates. This can be an expensive city to stay in, so I felt that for a four-star hotel with good reviews and a great location it was (again, comparatively) good value for money. As soon as my booking was confirmed I received, as well as the standard confirmation email, a friendly email from the hotel with a welcome and details of airport transfers.
The most striking thing about the Relais Fontana di Trevi is the location; right by the Trevi Fountain. It is on a little lane leading away from the fountain, just a few doors up. Some of the bedrooms, and a small breakfast/bar terrace have an attractive partial view of the fountain. I refer to the enterprise as a hotel, but perhaps it doesn't officially qualify as a four-star hotel, since it lacks public space and amenities. It basically consists of very comfortable bedrooms, a small first-floor reception area, a breakfast room and terrace.
The hotel's entrance - an anti-climax after the excesses of the Trevi Fountain - is a humble doorway with the name of the hotel just above it. It opens into a narrow carpeted corridor with stairs leading up to the reception area on the first floor. There is a small lift, but it is one of those (common in Rome) which stops on the stairway between floors, so you'll still have some steps to manage. The staff were good at appearing to help with luggage, though.
I had a momentary excitement on arrival when I was offered an upgrade and shown to a large front room - only for the porter to notice someone else's possessions. So after a brief wait I was re-allocated to the standard room I had booked.
My room is a good-sized double room, with a large firm bed. The decor is pleasant in a peaches-and-cream way; with fabric-covered walls and an attractive wooden floor. The bedroom has been decorated with attention to detail, and not on the cheap. Furniture comprises: a small desk, a suitcase stand, mirror, coat hooks, a padded stool, an upright chair, two little bedside shelves, and a wardrobe set into the wall with plenty of hangers inside, some drawers, a safe and a spare quilt. An LCD tv screen is fixed to the wall - I tried to turn it on, failed and then forgot to try again or to ask for help. The best feature is a kettle and a welcome tray with tea bags and instant coffee. There is no milk, but this is still a step beyond other Italian hotels. The small fridge contains two free bottles of mineral water again demonstrating the hotel's attention to detail: one is sparkling, one is still. There are sufficient electricity sockets by desk and bed (again, this is not standard in Italy) and I particularly appreciate the goodnight card and chocolate placed on my pillow.
My en-suite bathroom is a comfortable size and nicely-decorated. It has a fancy shower with a mirror and water-jets. The bathroom also has shelf space and a good make up/shaving mirror. Unusually, there is no bidet. The hair-drier is attached to the wall and is not very good; possibly the one thing that lets the room down. There are free toiletries and oddments: dental and shaving kits, soap, shower gel, shampoo, showercap and slippers.
I didn't spend a great deal of time in the hotel room during my stay, but I actually wished I could. As well as being extremely comfortable it was also amazingly peaceful. It was at the back of the building, looking over a courtyard space with a little children's play area (not used when I'm around). Occasionally I heard footsteps, church bells, the lift or plumbing sounds but generally the only sound was of my own fingers typing. I am a light sleeper and I would never have expected such a silent room in the heart of Rome; no traffic sounds, no sirens, no garbage trucks.
Breakfast is taken on the third floor in a couple of small, warm and over-enthusastically decorated rooms, or on the adjacent terrace (not in February when I visit). Hot drinks come from a machine - there are teabags and pots but no jugs for milk, necessitating a bit of invention. Two fruit juices (watery,sugared) are also from a machine. The bread doesn't look special, but there's a toaster, nice little filled croissants, yoghurts, cold meat and cheese (served with the same fork, which isn't good for vegetarians) and scrambled eggs with sausages. I don't much care for the MTV soundtrack but otherwise, for Italy, this is a pretty decent breakfast. The terrace is little but very picturesque; there's a small bar here in warmer months.
Wireless internet covers the hotel and is free and efficient; a real boon if you are travelling with your own computer and want to get connected. The international staff are helpful and friendly, defaulting to the English language. The receptionists and porters were always around and ready with a friendly greeting and offers of assistance. They kept my luggage securely after check-out, and I was grateful for the opportunity to return during the afternoon and use the wireless internet once again before my departure.
Hotel address: Via del Lavatore, 44. This is the lane heading up to the right as you face the the Trevi Fountain. The nearest Metro stops are Spagna and Barberini. There is a small bus terminus nearby in Piazza San Silvestro, and the 175 from Stazione Termini also stops on Via del Tritone, close by.
Arriving and leaving you do have to dodge the crowds of tourists around the fountain, as well as the many dodgy salesmen brandishing pointless plastic goods. You can feel smug, though, as you dive through the mob and head into the hotel. It's a good location for the main shopping areas and the Centro Storico is a short walk away - cross Via del Corso and it's only a few more minutes to the Pantheon. It's quite good for transport too; Piazza San Silvestro is a hub of the city's bus network and you can catch a bus in almost any direction within five minutes' walk of the hotel. There are always municipal police on duty by the fountain (partly to stop drunk tourists diving in, or thieves stealing coins) which I found reassuring when I returned alone at night.
I loved the opportunity to see the fountain at different times of the day. I headed out before breakfast and found the water switched off while council employees were 'vacuuming' up all the coins thrown in the previous day.
Initially I was a little disappointed with the lack of a traditional hotel feel, although I know that the steps-to-reception set-up is typical in Rome. But I really appreciated the comfortable room and the consideration shown in furnishing and equipping it. The kettle and tea really makes an overseas traveller feel welcome - I find it amazing that so few hotels in Italy have thought of making the effort. The staff were almost over-eager to help, breakfast was pretty good and the free wireless internet access was another welcome touch. The location suited me, and I'd recommend the Relais Fontana di Trevi to travellers wanting to stay somewhere picturesque yet practical too. It's not a sense-of-occasion hotel, but if you're looking for a comfortable place to spend the night it's a good choice.
This hotel is one that states during the booking process that it 'reserves the right to pre-authorise your credit card'. In my case, the hotel charged my credit card double the amount of my stay, processing two transactions on the day I checked out, under different business names. In response to my email they assured me that this was just the pre-authorisation process and one transaction would vanish. A week, a couple of phone calls to my bank and another email later they admitted that their bank had made an error, and the duplicate charge would be refunded - which it was, very promptly. Presumably an honest error, but it serves as a reminder that you should always keep a close eye on your credit card statements, especially when you are travelling and using cards frequently.
Relais Fontana di Trevi hotel review by Italy Heaven editors.


text:
'Very Pleased With Him': Cox Tabs Owendale For Breeders' Cup Classic
by Paulick Report Staff | 10.14.2019 | 3:42pm
Owendale crosses the finish-line lights first in the Grade 3 Oklahoma Derby on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2019 at Remington Park.
Oklahoma Derby winner Owendale will make his next start in the Breeders' Cup Classic, trainer Brad Cox told drf.com. The 3-year-old son of Into Mischief has won four of his seven starts this season, including the G3 Lexington and G3 Ohio Derby, and also finished third in the G1 Preakness Stakes.
"He breezed Saturday morning, his first work after the Oklahoma Derby," Cox said, referencing a half-mile work in :49.00 at his Churchill Downs base. "He went great. We're very pleased with him."
Owendale's regular rider, Florent Geroux, was injured during a morning training incident on Sunday at Keeneland. The jockey broke his sternum, and it is currently uncertain whether he will be able to return to riding in time for the Breeders' Cup. Cox said he would wait for Geroux to make a decision before pursuing a new rider for the colt.
Read more at drf.com.
This entry was posted in Breeders' Cup, NL Article and tagged brad cox, Breeders' Cup, breeders' cup classic, Florent Geroux, Horse Racing, into mischief, lexington stakes, Ohio Derby, Oklahoma Derby, owendale, Preakness Stakes, santa anita by Paulick Report Staff. Bookmark the permalink.


text:
Callistemon 'Splendens' is a  commonly grown cultivar of the plant genus Callistemon. It has a compact and rounded habit and usually grows to about  high and wide, although it may grow taller. Large, well-displayed "brushes" are produced in late spring, with further flowering sometimes occurring at other times. New growth is pink-tinged and  the leaves are elliptic and up to 90 mm long and 20 mm wide.

The cultivar, which  has been in grown for many years, is of uncertain origin. It was originally known as Callistemon citrinus var. splendens, first formally described in 1925 in Botanical Magazine.  In 1970 it was promoted under the name 'Endeavour' to mark the bicentennial of James Cook's voyage to Australia on the Endeavour. It was registered under the name Callistemon 'Splendens' with the Australian Cultivar Registration Authority in 1989.

This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Cultivation
The cultivar is most suited to climates ranging from temperate to sub-tropical. It adapts to most soils, and is tolerant of frost and salt spray.

See also
 List of Callistemon cultivars

References

Splendens
Cultivars of Australian plants
Garden plants of Australia


City in Context successfully concluded with symposium titled 'Conversation' at the Alhamra Arts Council in Lahore. The fourth and last day of City in Context was a mixture of discussions and interactive sessions bringing together people from diverse fields of study.
The curatorial premise of the biennale aimed towards rethinking and reinventing existing biennale formats, dispelling the concept of "one grand exhibition", and exploring fully the artist/public and gallery/public space dichotomies. With critical discourse and debate at its core, Conversation endeavors to function not as a prelude or postscript to the event; rather, a coexisting mechanism that would initiate systems of experimental debate. The symposium presented the first public discussion session in Pakistan with the aim to contribute to the larger discourse surrounding the curatorial premise. The introductory seminar was designed as a think tank session, with the audience as participants in conversations with professionals from diverse backgrounds.
Load Wedding Has Proved That It Is "Bari EID Ki Bari Film"!


All add-ons are compatible to each other and can be extended. You can to get an unlimited amount of combinations by mixing the addons. Or take a complete set of addons in order to feel the full force of Mega Main Extensions. We usually come back to you in less than 24 hours.


Wolfgangsee lake in the winter in January.
ОООО....необыкновенный свет...ощущение нереальности бытия...и этот мостик в никуда....Браво!!!
here I think you have managed to make a very movement in the picture. It drags the viewer into the center of the picture.
Very glad that you enjoyed it!


Charles County Sheriff Troy D. Berry is pleased to announce the graduation of two school resource officers from the 34th Maryland D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) Officer Training class recently held at the Public Safety Education and Training Center in Sykesville. PFC Brock Virts and PFC James Plunkett were among 30 officers from across the region to complete the two-week, 80 hour certification course to become some of the nation's newest D.A.R.E. instructors.
D.A.R.E. is a community-based, nationwide program which links law enforcement, schools and parents in a partnership to educate children about the dangers of drugs, gangs, and violence. The class is taught by police officers who present information to children in a classroom environment, providing skills on how to resist drugs and how to build resiliency to staying away from drugs. The program also includes discussions on bullying, internet safety, cyber-bullying, and prescription drug abuse. D.A.R.E. instructors are certified to deliver programs to students from kindergarten through 12th grade.
For more information about the CCSO school resource officers, visit http://www.ccso.us/school-resource-section/.


text:
Paramonacanthus is a genus of filefishes native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Species
There are currently 11 recognized species in this genus:
 Paramonacanthus arabicus Hutchins, 1997
 Paramonacanthus choirocephalus (Bleeker, 1852)
 Paramonacanthus cryptodon (Bleeker, 1855)
 Paramonacanthus curtorhynchos (Bleeker, 1855)
 Paramonacanthus filicauda (Günther, 1880)
 Paramonacanthus frenatus (Peters, 1855)
 Paramonacanthus japonicus (Tilesius, 1809)
 Paramonacanthus lowei Hutchins, 1997
 Paramonacanthus matsuurai Hutchins, 1997
 Paramonacanthus nematophorus (Günther, 1870)
 Paramonacanthus nipponensis (Kamohara, 1939)
 Paramonacanthus oblongus (Temminck & Schlegel, 1850)
 Paramonacanthus otisensis Whitley, 1931
 Paramonacanthus pusillus (Rüppell, 1829)
 Paramonacanthus sulcatus (Hollard, 1854)
 Paramonacanthus tricuspis (Hollard, 1854)

References

Monacanthidae
Ray-finned fish genera
Taxa named by Pieter Bleeker


Dr. Monique Burton, MD is a sports medicine specialist in Seattle, WA and has been practicing for 20 years. She graduated from Temple University School Of Medicine in 1999 and specializes in sports medicine.
The doctor is nice, and looks like she cares. She spent enough time with my child an kindly answered to all my questions.
×Post a ResponseAre you Dr. Monique Burton, MD?
How was your experience with Dr. Burton?


Chic Chandelier Bathroom Lighting Hampton Bay Mini Chandelier A Minimal Design Chandelier – As much as home decoration goes, chandeliers are one of one of the most sophisticated devices that you can get for your homes. There are many of them readily available out there today that it often gets tough to choose on which one would be best fit for your home. They come in a range of products, sizes and shapes that choosing is hard without some pointers to aid you in the process.
Lights can be found in ranges of forms, design, design, color as well as illumination. The wider the area, the more area the lighting fixtures can cover as well as the more potent the character the area can show. Basically, there are points you should take into consideration in order to choose the ideal fitting for your home or for every area in your home.
The Chic Chandelier Bathroom Lighting Hampton Bay Mini Chandelier A Minimal Design Chandelier above is a photo with the size 1024 x 1024 and the section of chandelier bathroom lighting, choices the very best libraries along with ideal resolution only for you, and this photographs is one of images libraries inside our finest images gallery concerning Brilliant Chandelier Bathroom Lighting. I really hope you might think it's great.
As you already know, The Sleek Lighting Fixtures has been a popular home remodel ideas for this years and it has so many benefits. Hopefully, the can help you create a simple interior design for your home or apartment.
Thank you for visiting, If you found any images copyrighted to yours, please contact us and we will remove it. We don't intend to display any copyright protected images. We hope you can find what you need here. We always effort to show a picture with HD resolution or at least with perfect images. Chic Chandelier Bathroom Lighting Hampton Bay Mini Chandelier A Minimal Design Chandelier can be beneficial inspiration for those who seek an image according specific categories. Finally, all pictures we have been displayed on this site will inspire you all..


Elephant Footprints, Amboseli, 2012 (final image of Brandt's photo trilogy).
It's an unlikely starting point for Nick Brandt's nature photography and trilogy of books on the endangered wildlife of East Africa: directing a 1995 Michael Jackson music video "Earth Song." A plangent cry against a human and environmental apocalypse set against the still haunting images of the then recent Bosnian war—the video prompted the director/photographer to begin a more than decade long mission to record the quickly vanishing animals inhabiting the immense game parks of Kenya—especially the greatest pachyderms, elephants, whose ivory tusks are the lucrative cash crop for high tech international poachers.
Brandt's three books, the last one published in September of 2013, document a looming tragedy—that these great beasts of the African wilderness could soon be found only in zoos and private reserves.
As a shocking visual metaphor of this possibility, Brandt speaks of a magnificent photograph he made of a line of elephants in Amboseli Preserve in 2008.
Elephants walking Through Grass, Amboseli, 2008.
An evocative and echoing composition, twenty-two rangers supporting poached ivory tusks, also photographed in Amboseli only three years later, will haunt you. This image hangs in my and Carol's living room; I see it every day, a graphic reminder of the mindless predations rampant on our small planet.
22 Rangers with Poached Elephant Tusks.
Brandt's first photo safari was in 2000; it was planned with the exactitude of a movie shoot. Each subsequent trip Brandt has made broadens the scope of his work, and the final book in the trilogy, Across the Ravaged Land, includes disturbing images of animal heads mounted on posts, surveying the sere landscape they once roamed. This book also includes human figures for the first time, portraits revealing dedicated park rangers as witnesses to the slaughter.
Ranger with Tusks of Killed Elephant.
Many infant elephants are orphaned because of poaching. Two years ago, Carol and I were in Kenya with an International Outreach group from AMPAS, and we visited the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust outside Nairobi, which takes in orphaned wildlife, especially elephants. Like us, elephants have a lengthy period of dependency. Native workers on site sleep in row stables on straw pallets with the infants, "parenting" them, even blanketing them on cold nights. The trust's website provides an overview of its mission.
A video invokes the urgency of their situation.
I'm not interested in creating work that is simply documentary or filled with action and drama, which has been the norm in the photography of animals in the wild. What I am interested in is showing the animals simply in the state of Being. In the state of Being before they no longer are…. This world is under terrible threat, all of it caused by us. To me, every creature, human or nonhuman, has an equal right to live, and this feeling, this belief that every animal and I are equal, affects me every time I frame an animal in my camera. The photos are my elegy to these beautiful creatures, to this wrenchingly beautiful world that is steadily, tragically vanishing before our eyes.
Exhibition room of Dunkers Museum, Sweden.
There is a deeply personal connection to wildlife photography that draws me to Nick Brandt's work. In early 1970, as a still tyro camera assistant, I traveled to Tanzania and Kenya for producer Irwin Rosten. The assignment was to film a one-hour television documentary for National Geographic to be broadcast on NBC. That documentary, Kifaru, Swahili for rhinoceros, was commissioned to examine the territorial habitat of East Africa's black rhinos through the eyes of a Canadian wildlife biologist named John Goddard. John, his wife Shelly, and their pre-teen daughter had spent several years recording, photographing, and tagging the black rhinos in Tanzania's Ngorogoro Crater, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that lies close to the Serengeti Plains and Olduvai Gorge.
Ngorogoro Crater, Tanzania, the Caldera Valley.
We later followed Goddard to Kenya's East Tsavo National Park, an arid preserve similar to the American Southwest, to continue studying the black rhino population—but also to understand what was the ever-growing problem of elephant over population. Competition for forage between the two great browsers, elephants and rhinos, was turning vast areas of the preserve into sand dunes and blowing soil. Poachers were always a presence but many of the deaths came from local villagers trying to feed their families—not the large-scale, commercial killing fields of the 21st century. The landscape of Tsavo, especially that surrounding the village of Voi, is iron-rich, red dirt; it coats both pachyderm species in a beautiful umber mantle. Goddard feared that unless the elephants were forthwith put under a program of "cropping," the entire ecosystem would collapse and become a dust bowl. At the least, the highly vulnerable, and grossly myopic, rhinos would be decimated. This was my introduction to the dilemmas caused by man in his mis-management of the fragile wild environments that bore his footprints. The game parks of East Africa were often, even then, enclosed with perimeter fences and human constructed watering holes. One of the most popular of these pools for the local elephant population lay at the base of the hill of the Voi Safari Lodge, one of the few hostels within the park, located almost midway between Nairobi and Mombasa.
Man made watering hole at the Voi Safari Lodge.
A half century later, I still recall sitting around the lodge's open air bar having a drink at evening twilight, freshly showered after a dusty, bumpy day in a beat up Land Rover, coughing up that fine powder of red dirt—raptly watching several dozen elephants come in to wallow and water in the fading, cool light. The behemoths seemed invulnerable both in number and size; the threat to them seemed remote; at that time the danger was the relentless pursuit of rhino horn, not elephant tusks—horns to be ground into a powdered aphrodisiac for a gullible and avid Asian market. But by the late 1980s, it became clear that a threat existed to both elephants and rhinos. A fascinating issue from 1990 of the journal Pachyderm demonstrates how critical the problem of survival had become.
Cinematographer Erik Daarstad and I, with our trusty Éclair NPRs, were always on the move in the game parks, keeping up with the speedy Goddard—tracking and recording sightings of the always-elusive rhinos that, unlike the socialized elephants, were stubbornly solitary.
I continued filming documentaries for several years after this adventure, but I eventually became seduced by the blandishments of fiction filmmaking; I've maintained an ambivalent posture toward fiction feature films ever since, especially as we are now deep in a golden age of non-fiction cinema. It doesn't take a weatherman to track the heady winds of great documentaries swirling around the often static, dried-up clichéd fictions of the major studios. It's no mere stylistic trope that so many of our feature films desperately seek to emulate the engagé style of documentary films.
Several weeks ago, I confessed to a group of UCLA students that if I had it all to do over again, yes, I believe I would have stayed with non-fiction filmmaking. My most recent nod in that direction was simply to sponsor the gifted Buddy Squires, cinematographer to Ken Burns and many others, into membership of the ASC. The society can only be blessed with more artists like him, cinematographers whose legacy surely will be more enduring than the disposable "tentpole" movies that continue to dominate local multiplexes every weekend.
It's uncertain to know what future projects may attract Nick Brandt—but I do hope it's more like his current work than a return to the lures of music videos. Documentaries still can embrace such committed artistry.
Rhino on Lake, Nakuru, 2007.


This Book contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy.
It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler's map, the pilgrim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword, and the Christian's charter. Christ is its subject, our good its design, and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently and prayerfully.
It is given to you in life, will be open in the judgement, and be remembered forever. It involves the highest responsibility, rewards the greatest labor, and condemns all who trifle with its holy precepts.
The English Standard Version (ESV) is an essentially literal Bible translation that combines word-for-word accuracy with literary excellence, beauty, and depth of meaning.


text:
Save the Date: September 5, 2019
Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C.
Preview of 9th Summit is Below
Four keynotes on YouTube
Dana Deasy, Chief Information Officer, U.S. Department of Defense. Click here.
TK Keanini, Distinguished Engineer and Product Line CTO for Analytics, Cisco. Click here.
Jeremy Fleming, Director, GCHQ. Click here.
General Paul Nakasone, United States Army, Commander, United States Cyber Command, Director, National Security Agency/Chief, Central Security Service. Click here.
The following speakers delivered ideas, strategy and insight over the full day session:
Dana Deasy, Chief Information Officer, U.S. Department of Defense
Jeremy Fleming, Director, GCHQ
TK Keanini, Distinguished Engineer and Product Line CTO for Analytics, Cisco
General Paul Nakasone, United States Army, Commander, United States Cyber Command, Director, National Security Agency/Chief, Central Security Service
Dr. John Zangardi, Chief Information Officer, Department of Homeland Security
Government Speakers
Marianne Bailey, Deputy National Manager for National Security Systems, National Security Agency
Mark Bristow, Director, NCCIC Hunt and Incident Response Team, National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, Dept. of Homeland Security
Michael Burke, Technical Director, Cyber National Mission Force (CNMF)
RDML David Dermanelian, Assistant Commandant for C4IT (CG-6); Commander, Coast Guard Cyber Command, U.S. Coast Guard
Capt. Edward Devinney, Director, Corporate Partnerships and Technology Outreach, U.S. Cyber Command
Dr. George Duchak, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications, Cyber & Business Systems, Dept. of Defense
John Felker, Director, National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Centr, Dept. of Homeland Security (invited)
Lt. General Stephen G. Fogarty, Commanding General, U.S. Army Cyber Command
MajGen Matthew Glavy, Commander, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command
George Gonzales, Chief, Operations Branch, Ops Support & Sustainment Division, MILSATCOM, U.S. Air Force
Vicki Hildebrand, Chief Information Officer (CIO), Department of Transportation
Jeanette Manfra, Assistant Secretary, Office of Cybersecurity and Communications, National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD), Dept. of Homeland Security
Thomas P. Michelli, Acting Deputy DoD CIO for Cyber Security, Department of Defense
Emile Monette, Program Manager, Cyber Supply Chain Risk Management, Office of Cyber Security and Communications, NPPD, Department of Homeland Security
Mark Sayers, Deputy Director, National Cyber Security Strategy, NSS, UK Cabinet Office
Stephen Schanberger, Command Acquisition Executive, U.S. Cyber Command
Matthew Scholl, Chief, Computer Security Division, NIST Information Technology Lab
Grant Schneider, Federal Chief Information Security Officer, Senior Director for Cybersecurity Policy, National Security Council, Office of Management and Budget
Maj. Gen. Robert Skinner, Commander, 24th Air Force; Commander, Air Forces Cyber; and Director, Joint Force Headquarters-Cyber, Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas
Eric Welling, Deputy Assistant Director, Cyber Division, FBI
Burke "Ed" Wilson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy, Department of Defense
Jeremy Wiltz, Assistant Director, IT Enterprise Services Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation
George "Dennis" Bartko, Principal and Founder, Innovative Leadership Partners LLC
Jon Bottarini, Technical Program Manager II, HackerOne
Michael Daly, Chief Technology Officer, Cybersecurity and Special Missions, Raytheon
John DeSimone, Vice President, Cyber Security and Special Missions, Raytheon
Anthony Di Bello, Sr. Director, Market Development, OpenText
Tim Erlin, Vice President, Product Management and Strategy, Tripwire
Mark Fabro, President and Chief Security Scientist, Lofty Perch, Inc.
Ryan Gillis, Vice President, Cybersecurity Strategy and Global Policy, Palo Alto Networks
Jeff Greene, Vice President, Global Government Affairs & Policy, Symantec
Karl Gumtow, Dreamport Director, and CEO of the Maryland Innovation and Security Institute
Linnie Haynesworth, Sector Vice President and General Manager, Cyber and Intelligence Mission Solutions Division, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems
Aaron Hughes, Vice President and Deputy CISO, Capital One
Ralph Kahn, Vice President, Federal, Tanium
Dr. Matt Kraning, CTO and Co-Founder, Qadium
Dr. Mark Kuhr, Co-Founder & CTO, Synack
Paul Lucier, Vice President of Sales and Business Development, ISARA
Jeffrey Massimilla, VP, Global Cybersecurity, General Motors Company
Simon McCalla, Chief Technology Officer, Nominet
J.O. McFalls, Principal Owner, McFalls Associates LLC
LG (Ret.) Kevin McLaughlin, Founder and President, McLaughlin Global Associates LLC, Former Deputy Commander, U.S. Cyber Command
Brad Medairy, Senior Vice President, Booz Allen Hamilton
Jay Mork, Vice President, Electromagnetic Warfare Systems, General Dynamics Mission Systems
CJ Moses, Deputy CISO, Amazon Web Services
Dr. Sean O'Brien, Manager, Programs, Algorithmic Warfare Operating Unit, Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation
Philip Quade, CISO, Fortinet
Michael Raeder, Director, Information Security Operations & Identity Security, Northrop Grumman Corporation
Avi Rembaum, VP of Security Solutions, Check Point Software Technologies, Inc.
Victoria Samson, Washington Office Director, Secure World Foundation
Caroline Shannon-McCarthy, Sr. Manager, Global Value Chain Security, Cisco
Brad Stone, Vice President, Booz Allen Hamilton
Patrick Sullivan, Senior Director of Global Security Strategy, Akamai
Paul Tamburello, Chief Technologist, Booz Allen Hamilton
Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Gregory Touhill, President, Cyxtera Federal Group, Cyxtera Technologies; Former U.S. CISO
Andy Zembower, Vice President, Encryption Products, Cyber and Electronic Warfare Systems, General Dynamics Mission Systems
Sponsorship Opportunities for the leading Fall Forum on cybersecurity are now available by calling contacting Tom Billington at tkb@billingtoncybersecurity.com or at 240-463-0166.
Unique Thought Leadership & Networking at 2018 Summit:
Speakers and Keynotes:
General Paul Nakasone, Commander, United States Cyber Command, Director, National Security Agency/Chief, Central Security Service
DHS's Jeanette Manfra and U.S. CISO Grant Schneider
GCHQ Director Jeremy Fleming in his first address in the U.S. in his postion
Opening Panel Featuring Four Service Cyber Commanders
Full Main Session Hall
"The Billington Cybersecurity events are the best gathering of the nation's top cyber leaders. Regardless of whether you are in public service, in academia, or in the private sector, if you want to improve your awareness on the latest cyber issues, policies, or technology, the Billington Cybersecurity conference is the place to be. If you can only attend one cyber conference in DC, this is the best and the one to attend."
— Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Gregory Touhill, President, Cyxtera Federal Group, Cyxtera Technologies; Former U.S. CISO


For those who are an entrepreneur, apolo santana vieira then you certainly have to continue to keep a beneficial mindset. This is a must to suit your needs. You may hardly ever be capable of obtain your targets being an entrepreneur in case you don't have a favourable outlook in the direction of everyday living, irrespective of how much complex abilities and qualification does one posses. Within the time with the commence of a enterprise, each individual entrepreneur has the commitment as well as passion to achieve his aims. Even so the real exam of one's perspective will come when you'll find any problems or problems in the enterprise. If you can be a person with a weak will electrical power you then will take these hurdles for a particular failure. You may feel that the issues can not be solved and it is improved to give up when you are not able to overcome them. But here is the wrong attitude to obtain. Relatively, here is the time when you being an entrepreneur will have to continue to keep a constructive mindset in direction of life.
Simply because a constructive look within the situation will inform you that it's incredibly organic for virtually any entrepreneur to make faults. You ought to instead deal with your issues being an possibility to discover and gain from this knowledge. You should try and discover from the problems and never shed hope. As opposed to shedding heart and quitting the enterprise, it is best to make an effort to experience the problems and locate a resolution. In the event you continue to keep a good attitude then you definately will show incredible efficiency and temperament for functioning toward your ambitions till the tip. It is possible for you to to discover items and scenarios having a positive issue of watch and have the power to choose oneself up on your own toes. Will not matter how tricky you fell.
Being an Entrepreneur, you extra often than not will have to function by using a workforce. As a way to maintain your group inspired, you will need to have a constructive mind-set. It is because in the event the group will work with it then it functions well and turns into much more successful inside their function. For that reason, it is best to retain it towards your perform as well as endeavor to preserve the work environment as favourable as you can mainly because it will allow you to in acquiring your aims speedier. For that reason, if you are an entrepreneur and want to accomplish your aims fast, then you definitely must undertake a beneficial angle instantly.