Bhakti: The Yogi's Perspective, from "This and That for Yogis"
This is a compilation of random thoughts I put down quite some time ago that were completely without any order. Unlike Satsang With the Abbot, it is now somewhat arranged according to subjects, though the final section is not. I hope it will be useful to those who read it.
I certainly wish someone had told me these things when I first attempted to be a yogi. Things would have been much easier and I would have avoided wasting a great deal of time.
Unfortunately bhakti is usually considered to be emotion directed to God, especially as love. But bhakti means dedication in the search for God. It is Ishwarapranidhana, the offering of the life to God, which Patanjali says is the way to superconsciousness (Yoga Sutras 2:45). Shankara simplified and clarified it greatly when he said that bhakti is seeking God and jnana is finding God.
"All over the world there have been dancing and jumping and howling sects, who spread like infection when they begin to sing and dance and preach; they also are a sort of hypnotists. They exercise a singular control for the time being over sensitive persons, alas! often, in the long run, to degenerate whole races. Ay, it is healthier for the individual or the race to remain wicked than be made apparently good by such morbid extraneous control.
One's heart sinks to think of the amount of injury done to humanity by such irresponsible yet well-meaning religious fanatics. They little know that the minds which attain to sudden spiritual upheaval under their suggestions, with music and prayers, are simply making themselves passive, morbid, and powerless, and opening themselves to any other suggestion, be it ever so evil.
Little do these ignorant, deluded persons dream that whilst they are congratulating themselves upon their miraculous power to transform human hearts, which power they think was poured upon them by some Being above the clouds, they are sowing the seeds of future decay, of crime, of lunacy, and of death.
Vivekananda knew what he was talking about because Bengal, his native land, was gripped by the false bhakti of the "dancing and jumping and howling sects," especially Gaudia Vaishnavism (the Hare Krishna movement in the West), and still is to a great extent.
What is true bhakti? It is like the oil in a lamp without which there would be no light. It is the inner power that moves the yogi forward, intent on his goal.
"A man with 'green' bhakti cannot assimilate spiritual talk and instruction; but one with 'ripe' bhakti can.… One cannot assimilate spiritual instruction unless one has already developed love of God.… One can see God through bhakti alone. But it must be 'ripe' bhakti, prema-bhakti and raga-bhakti. When one has that bhakti, one loves God even as the mother loves the child, the child the mother, or the wife the husband.
This is considered an adequate rejection of the non-dual view of the goal of human life. It sounds rather cute, a kind of childish wisdom, but analysis reveals its character. Is God something to be licked on like a lollipop? Does God exist for our delectation? Do we really want to devour God? Do we want to control God? "God is the servant of His devotees" is another egoic cliché current in India. This is childish greed, and an equally childish desire to control and be the center of attention.
We see this in Christian Fundamentalist hymns. They go on and on about how "I love God" and "God loves me." The focus of attention is totally on "I" and "me." That is why the central object in Protestant churches is the pulpit from which a hired minister performs for the attendees who expect to be benefited, entertained, challenged, inspired, etc.
I well remember a Methodist minister who had been to a vesper service in our monastery complaining to a friend: "I didn't know what to do with no one looking at me!" What a spiritual disease: egotism to a psychotic degree.
It is the same with "bhakti" in the beginning. God is a source of constant entertainment. Often when these "devotees" finally get bored with all the playing with dolls and being emotionally titillated in various ways, they lapse into a bored cynicism which they then claim is jnana.
Yet there are those whose sincerity and purity of heart enables them to develop the realization that in true bhakti the "me" is not the focus at all, but God alone. Then bhakti begins to ripen and they realize how small and insignificant their "love" is at present.
So they want to purify and develop themselves so their love will be worthy of its object. They become more and more absorbed in God, so much so that the contemplative life is understood to be the only spiritual life.
The ideal, highest bhakti is devotion to the ideal of liberation, not the emotionality that is commonly known as bhakti yoga. If we are very dedicated and do our utmost, then we shall progress far on the path to liberation. On the other hand, if we only make a little effort then we shall only move a very little bit forward toward the Goal and will have wasted a great opportunity. Two things are essential: persistence and intensity of aspiration and effort. Then the Goal is certainly within our reach.
Bhakti means dedication to spiritual life, to sadhana, to pursuit of Brahmajnana. Intelligence is purposeless without the orientation Godward, without the determination to realize God in this very life. Nor can this dedication be some kind of external show.
Bhakti must be internalized and subtle, not like the raucous and absurdly theatrical bhakti constantly seen in India, usually involving crowds, noise, and even frenzy.
"Among the virtuous, four kinds seek me: the distressed, the seekers of knowledge, the seekers of wealth and the wise. Of them, the wise man, ever united, devoted to the One, is pre-eminent. Exceedingly dear am I to the man of wisdom, and he is dear to me. All these indeed are exalted, but I see the man of wisdom as my very Self. He, with mind steadfast, abides in me, the Supreme Goal" (7:16-18).
The true devotee seeks God because he knows it is his nature and purpose, that God alone is his goal.


To celebrate their arrival, they're not only bringing back the 'London Burger Bash' winning Bleecker Black, but also 50% off food all day.
The Bleecker St. truck is serving from 11:30am and will be closing the hatch at 8pm.
That's a good way to enjoy a substantial burger for less.
The normal and inescapable was made authority this evening, Breeders Cup 2018 Live Stream when it was reported that Justify, the thirteenth victor of Thoroughbred hustling's Triple Crown, had been resigned.
The last Melbourne Cup 2018 nine spring fair plunderers went into isolate in the UK and Ireland medium-term, featured by Melbourne Cup $15 measure up to most loved Magic Circle.
Prepared by Ian Williams, Magic Circle will be ridden in the $7 million component by two-time Melbourne Cup-winning racer Corey Brown.
In the interim, one of the most noteworthy evaluated global marauders Torcedor is out of Melbourne Cup dispute.


text:
Q: Display data in jsp I am new in jsp and faced with one problem. I need to create jsp page, that displays data from servlet.
Servlet code:
protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
        throws ServletException, IOException {
    CustomersDao customersDao = new CustomersDaoImpl();
    List<Customers> custList = customersDao.getAllCustomers();
    request.setAttribute("customersList", custList);
    request.getRequestDispatcher("/test.jsp").forward(request, response);
}

jsp page code:
<%@page contentType="text/html" pageEncoding="UTF-8"%>
<!DOCTYPE html>

        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
        <title>JSP Test Page</title>

        <%-->

                ${requestScope['customers'].name}
                ${requestScope['customers'].lastname}
                ${requestScope['customers'].totalAmount}

        <--%>

            <c:forEach var="element" items="${requestScope['customersList']}">

                    <c:out value="${element.name}" /> TEST.name
                    ${element.lastname} TEST.lastname
                    ${element.totalAmount} TEST.totalAmount
                     ololo

             </c:forEach>

When I send single object to jsp it's work normally (commented part of code). But when I try to send list, I can not separate object and browser shows me only test messages. So how do I fix it?

A:
When I send single object to jsp it's work normally (commented part of code). But when I try to send list, I can not separate object and browser shows me only test messages.

You have forgotten to include the core tag library. that's why <c:forEach> is not working but it works if you pass just single object.
<%@ taglib prefix="c" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core"%>

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Tourism development planning requires consideration of indicators regarding the intensity of tourist activity within destination and measure that should not be exceeded in further improvement of this activity, in order to prevent disturbing the needs of local community and sustainability of local environment. The village Zlakusa is located within the territory of the City of Užice and it represents an important tourism destination of South-western Serbia. Rural tourism of Zlakusa is characterized by its authenticity and recognition, regarding the pottery and ethnopark called "Terzića avlija". Accordingly, tourist function indicators were used in this research: tourist accommodation density, Defert Baretje's index, Charvat's index and Schneider's index, with the aim of emphasizing the importance of rural potentials of Zlakusa for tourism development within this village, but also within the whole territory of the City of Užice. Research results showed that tourism is important industry w...ithin Zlakusa, with necessity of its further affirmation on tourist market and its adaptation to contemporary needs of modern tourists. Also, research results showed that Zlakusa participates in total tourist arrivals with 18%, as well as in total tourist overnights with 13% and it comprises 1.9% of accommodation capacities of the overall tourism development within the City of Užice for observed period (2008-2016). Therefore, results of this study actually show that Zlakusa is highly oriented towards tourism industry, which is the main reason of necessity for further improvement of conditions for its development, especially in the case of rural tourism, without threatening the local community and local environment.


text:
Inclusive Sustainable Development
Exploring the Global "Grand Challenge" of Disability and Development
November 14, 2016 by elisanavarro
Multistakeholder Internet Governance
The issue of Internet governance in today's hyper globalized world is quiet complex due to the fact that as an entity, the Internet is not technically owned by anyone. This lack of concrete ownership complicates the organization of oversight and regulatory management. Starting as a military research project, the Internet has grown at incredible speeds and spread across the entire world. All corners of the world have been touched by the Internet and in fact, almost everything in one way or another now depends on the Internet, whether it be businesses, schools, governments, or individuals. With so many individuals and organizations dependent on the Internet and with only parts of the Internet being owned, the best approach to Internet governance is through a multistakeholder approach in which decision-making is accountable, sustainable, and effective (Internet Governance (IG) – reading). However, the multistakeholder approach cannot be seen as the single solution but rather as a toolbox in which a source that has been developed and maintained by many actors can by governed by an open, distributed and interconnected governance force (IG – reading). Due to the Internet being transnational in scope, the multistakeholder governance attributes such as inclusiveness and transparency, collective responsibility, and effective decision-making and implementation are crucial and it is why it is important to ensure the survival of a multistakeholder approach to Internet governance.
Since there is no global government in place, there are a couple of multistakeholder platforms that help maintain an open dialogue around the key issues in Internet governance. First off there is the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), which brings people together and facilitates the discussion around public policy issues relating to the Internet. Although it does not create a concrete negotiated outcome, its importance lies in informing and inspiring those that do have policy-making power both in the private and public sector. Meetings for the IGF are held annually and all of their sessions are live streamed allowing as many people as are interested to join in. Another important global body is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Its main function is to coordinate the maintenance and procedures of databases related to the namespaces of the Internet. Ultimately, ICANN performs more of the technical maintenance work of the central Internet address pools by authorizing domain name sales and handling registrations. The main critique of ICANN is that it does not do enough for development, but that is not really its focus.
As most things, if not all things, Internet governance is far from perfect. However, as with other topics in development, there is the concern that the global North is too involved in the process and doing as it pleases without concern for the rest of the world. In the summer of 2013, after the Snowden revelations, ex Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff accused the U.S. of breaking international law. The outcome of this was the NETmundial meeting that focused on the elaboration of principles of Internet governance and the proposal for a roadmap for the future development of this ecosystem (NETmundial). Apart from being a very open and transparent process, NETmundial was important also for the fact that it was hosted and organized by the global South. Although the meeting was successful, the follow up NETmundial initiative was said to be hijacked by the north. Therefore, this concern will continue to be at the forefront. However, what is important is that we as a world community continue to participate in and respect the importance of the multistakeholder approach to Internet governance.
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Manuscript received on February 5, 2001; accepted for publication on February 12, 2001.
Cell volume changes are associated with alterations of intrinsic optical signals (IOS). In submerged brain slices in vitro, afferent stimulation induces an increase in light transmission. As assessed by measurement of the largely membrane impermeant ion tetramethylammonium (TMA) in the extracellular space, these IOS correlate with the extent and time course of the change of the extracellular space size. They have a high signal to noise ratio and allow measurements of IOS changes in the order of a few percent. Under conditions of reduced net KCl uptake (low Cl solution) a directed spatial buffer mechanism (K syphoning) can be demonstrated in the neocortex with widening of the extracellular space in superficial layers associated with a reduced light transmission and an increase of extracellular K concentration. The nature of the IOS under pathophysiological conditions is less clear. Spreading depressions first cause an increase of light transmission, then a decrease. Such a decrease has also been observed following application of NMDA where it was associated with structural damage. Pharmacological analyses suggest that under physiological conditions changes of extracellular space size are mainly caused by astrocytic volume changes while with strong stimuli and under pathophysiological conditions also neuronal swelling occurs. With reflected light usually signals opposite to those observed with transmitted light are seen. Recording of IOS from interface slices gives very complex signals since under these conditions an increase of light transmission has been reported to be superimposed by a decrease of the signal due to mechanical lensing effects of the slice surface. Depending on the method of measurement and the exact conditions, several mechanisms may contribute to IOS. Under well defined conditions IOS are a useful supplementary tool to monitor changes of extracellular volume both in space and time.
Key words: intrinsic optic signals, spatial buffer, brain slice, extracellular space volume, spreading depression.
The extracellular space is an important pathway for signal transmission in the brain. The properties of this pathway can be modulated by several factors causing changes of the tortuosity and the size of the extracellular space. Several techniques have been developed to measure these properties. Most of these rely on the measurement of the concentration or dynamics of - ideally completely membrane impermeable - ions which are either released from a nearby microelectrode or continuously superfused over the preparation. An attractive alternative method has evolved from the observation that changes in extracellular space volume are accompanied by changes of the intrinsic optical properties of the preparation. In the following we will describe such methods and discuss their advantages and limitations.
Activity-dependent changes of the optical properties in excitable tissue were first described several decades ago (Hill and Keynes 1949). Such activity-dependent intrinsic optical signals were recorded from different preparations including cerebral slices (Lipton 1973, MacVicar and Hochman 1991, Holthoff and Witte 1997, Andrew and MacVicar 1994, Holthoff et al. 1994), and isolated whole brain (Federico et al. 1994). Similar signals can also be recorded in vivo in animals (Grinvald et al. 1988) and in humans (Haglund et al. 1992). Two major components of the signal in vivo can be attributed to either changes in blood volume or changes in oxygen consumption (Frostig et al. 1990) while the nature of a third component is not yet clear. This latter component is wave length-independent and based on scattered light. In vitro, only the third component of the intrinsic optical signal can be recorded. Several studies have indicated that this component is attributable to cell swelling (MacVicar and Hochman 1991, Andrew and MacVicar 1994, Andrew et al. 1999, McManus et al. 1993, Holthoff and Witte 1996).
A change of light transmission by cell swelling was first demonstrated in erythrocytes (see Aitken et al. 1999). This cell swelling does not depend on the presence of haemoglobin and can also be recorded from leukocytes and tumour cells. Shrinkage of the cells following exposure to hypertonic solutions was associated with a reduction of light transmission, and swelling with an increase. One could envisage that the alteration of light transmission is due to a change in the refractory index between intra- and extracellular compartments. However, White et al. (1996) showed that - among others - also changes in the refractive index of the membrane bilayer that result from an alteration in the extent of hydration and/or the phospholipid packing density contribute to the light scattering. Another property which may contribute is the unfolding of a cell as it swells (cf. Andrew et al. 1999).
The situation is complicated if one considers that neurons as well as glial cells may contribute to light scattering, and cellular as well as nuclear or mitochondrial membranes may participate (cf. Muller and Somjen 1998). One can thus not simply derive the light scattering from theoretical considerations. It is therefore necessary to show by actual measurements under which conditions changes of intrinsic optical signals do correlate to extracellular volume changes.
Intrinsic optical signals may be recorded from transmitted or reflected light. These signals give in principle the same results though with different polarity (Aitken et al. 1999): with transmitted light, the signal intensity increases when the preparation is superfused with a hypotonic solution causing cell swelling, while it decreases with absorbed light. While the transmitted light integrates the properties of the whole trans-illuminated slice, the changes in light reflectance will mainly reflect changes in the surface layers of the slice preparation. We record the signals from an illuminated slice using a dark field configuration. This collects mainly the scattered light. In this configuration the light source is also below the slice, and the recording objective above it, and the signal intensity is mainly affected by the amount of light transmitted through the slice. In consequence, this configuration also gives an increase in light signal with cell swelling and a decrease with widening of the extracellular space (Holthoff and Witte 1996). We found a higher signal-to-noise ratio using the dark-field configuration compared to transmitted light. In darkfield configuration the slice shows a rather uniform light intensity. It has not been tested whether - compared to brightfield configuration - this configuration is more sensitive to the refractive index of the membrane bilayer and less to the opacity of the cells.
Recordings are usually obtained in the near infrared range. Other than in the intact brain, the signal is not wavelength dependent. It is therefore unlikely that absorption changes of cytochromes influence the optical signal (MacVicar and Hochman 1991). The longer wavelength is chosen because it penetrates better into the depth of the slice than does visible light, resulting in a more homogeneous background intensity distribution of the original microscopic image. It is important to remove the infrared cut-off filter of the CCD-camera which is usually mounted in front of the target.
One important issue is the choice of the camera and the optical imaging system. Even with strong stimuli like spreading depressions the change of the intrinsic optical signal is only in the order of 10%, and it is much smaller with physiological stimuli and in the darkfield configuration. With an 8-bit camera which has to span the whole range from white to black with only 256 intensity levels, such small changes can only be recorded with massive averaging. One bit is furthermore lost by image subtraction. A better alternatives is the use of a scientific grade CCD camera with a signal resolution of at least 12 bit. Alternatively, contrast enhancement may be used (cf. Fig. 1). We use a two step contrast enhancement (Holthoff and Witte, 1998): The analogue signal is amplified in such a way by the camera control unit that the grey levels of interest span the complete 12 bit input of the DVS 3000 video processing unit. Within this processor, a resting image is captured before stimulation and subtracted on-line from the current video images. Additionally, the resulting difference images are 8-fold digitally enhanced. For that, the function called 'enhancement look-up table (LUT) processing' of the DVS 3000 is used. It allows to project a part of the dynamic range onto the full range of 0-255 pixel values of the video frame grabber in the computer.
Fig. 1 - Contrast enhancement of images. In order to achieve sufficient signal dynamics the video signal is first offset corrected and analogue enhanced, and is then digitally enhanced before it is fed into a conventional 8 bit video digitizer. From Holthoff and Witte 1998, with permission.
Most experiments are carried out with slices from juvenile animals. These are much easier illuminated because they are less opaque. However, it was recently shown in our lab that it is also possible to make recordings of intrinsic optical signals of slices obtained from adult animals (Sagnak and Niermann, unpublished observations). In our hands, a vibratome causes less damage to the slice, and allows better signals than a tissue chopper.
All of our recordings were obtained from submerged slices. Intrinsic optical signals may also be recorded from interface chambers. The differences between these two configurations have elegantly been investigated by Kreisman et al. (1995) who measured light transmittance in interface and submerged slices. They reported that the sign of the intrinsic optical signals reverse when the fluid level in a tissue slice is raised so as to completely submerge the slice. Thus, superfusion of a submerged slice with hypotonic solution causing a cell swelling results in increased light transmission, while the same slice displays a decreased light transmission when brought into the interface configuration. They explained this effect in the following way. Cell swelling causes an increase of light transmission. In the interface configuration, this effect is compensated and even outnumbered by an increased "lensing" effect of the slice. Due to its swelling, the slice bulges out of the solution and its surface assumes the shape of an optical lens. Shortening of the radius of curvature increases bending of light rays and decreases the amount of light proceeding to the detector. Under these conditions, the actual size and direction of the signal may depend even on the distance between detector and slice surface.
Experiments were done on juvenile male Wistar rats (14 days old). The animals were anesthetized and decapitated. Brains were rapidly removed and cooled to 4°C. 400mm thick neocortical coronal slices were prepared and stored at room temperature in artificial cerebrospinal fluid (aCSF) containing (in mM): NaCl 124, NaHCO3 26, KCl3, CaCl2 2, MgSO4 2, NaH2PO4 1.25, and glucose 10, equilibrated with 95%O2 and 5%CO2 to pH 7.4.
The slices were stored in the recording chamber submerged at 32°C and equilibrated for at least 30 min before starting with any experimental procedure. To avoid changing light reflections at the boundary between water and air, we covered the recording chamber with a small cover slip. For electrical stimulation (pulses of 200ms/2-9 V in a train of 50Hz for 2s), a bipolar concentric stimulation electrode (SNEX 100, Science Products Inc.) was put perpendicularly into the slice in layer VI near to the border of the white matter. If the stimulation electrode was put diagonally into the slice we failed to induce IOSs due to a short circuit via the bath fluid. Therefore, the first 2 mm of the tip of the stimulation electrode (tip diameter 100mm) were bent by about 90 degrees.
A schematic drawing of the experimental setup is given in Fig. 2. An upright microscope (Axioskop FS, Zeiss) with an x 2.5 Neofluar objective (0.075 n.A.) was used. The slices were illuminated using a darkfield configuration. The illumination light was filtered with a bandpass interference filter ( 750 50nm, Oriel). The video imaging system consisted of a CCD (charge coupled device) camera (C 2400-77 type 01, Hamamatsu), a camera control unit (CCD-camera control unit C2400, Hamamatsu) including an analogue contrast enhancement and shading correction system, a video processing device (DVS 3000, Hamamatsu), and a S-VHS Videorecorder (RTV 950 PC, Blaupunkt). Experiments were analyzed off-line using a Macintosh FX personal computer equipped with a frame grabber card (QuickCapture, Data Translation) and the NIH Image software.
Fig. 2 - Arrangement of recording. The slices were illuminated using a darkfield configuration of an upright microscope (1). The video imaging system consisted of a CCD camera (2), a camera control unit including an analogue contrast enhancement and shading correction system (3), and a video processing device (4). Due to the previous contrast enhancement (see Fig. 1) the signal of interest spans the complete 8 bit input range of the computer (6) and can be stored on conventional S-VHS recorders (5). From Holthoff and Witte 1998, with permission.
To detect stimulation-induced changes in IOSs, the video signal obtained from the CCD-camera was contrast enhanced and inhomogenities were corrected by the shading correction system. This image processing was done by the camera control unit, i.e. before digitizing the images by the DVS video processor. Usually, a double contrast enhancement was chosen. The shading correction unit includes linear and elliptic characteristic curves. With this function it was possible to correct also uneven intensities across the field of view. Image processing including background subtraction, digital enhancement of the difference image, and moving averaging were done in a DVS 3000 video processing system. Finally, a moving average filter, processing two images at a time, was applied to reduce noise.
In the presence of quaternary ammonium ions, the used ISMEs are virtually blind to potassium ions (Huang and Karwoski 1992b).
Fig. 3 shows representative intrinsic optical signal from a neocortical slice following stimulation of layer VI with a 2s 50Hz train. Such a stimulation is expected to depolarize neurons by excitatory postsynaptic potentials and action potentials which are associated by outwardly directed potassium currents (Dietzel and Heinemann 1986a, Lux et al. 1986). The signal displayed a characteristic pattern with an increased light signal which had a maximum around layer IV. Using such stimulation paradigms, it is possible to functionally map the cortex, yielding characteristic activation patterns in different brain areas (Holthoff, Sagnak and Witte, unpublished observations). The activation columns were associated with increases of extracellular potassium activity from a baseline of 3mM up to peak levels of 10mM (cf. Fig. 3A). The TMA signal increased in association with the light signal indicating a reduction of extracellular space size.
Fig. 3 - Correlation between intensity of intrinsic optical signal and changes in extracellular potassium concentration and extracellular space volume. A. Intrinsic optical signal from neocortex 4s after onset of stimulation (2s train) in layer VI and time course of extracellular potassium concentrations in different cortical layers. Scale bar 300mm. The dotted lines represent an extracellular potassium concentration of 3mM. The arrow marks the beginning of stimulation. B. Intrinsic optical signal 4s after beginning of stimulation and time course of shrinkage of the extracellular space volume in different cortical layers as assessed by measurement of TMA concentration. Scale bar 300mm. The arrow marks the beginning of stimulation.
The intrinsic optical signal was well reproducible in size and time course with subsequent stimulations. In the recording configuration chosen for our experiments, it had very high signal to noise ratios which were at least on order of magnitude better than the signal to noise ratio of the TMA signal. With different stimulation intensities up to 10 V, a linear relationship between signal size and TMA signal was found.
The intrinsic optical signal correlated well with the TMA signal, both in space and time, suggesting that it mainly indicated changes of extracellular space size. There was a good correlation between the amplitude of the intrinsic optical signal and the change of the TMA signal, both in the vertical extension (from layer I to layer VI) and in the horizontal dimension (Holthoff and Witte 1998). In contrast, amplitude and extension of the intrinsic optical signals and the increases of extracellular potassium concentration did not correlate well (cf. Fig. 3A). The stimulation-induced intrinsic optical signals had a time to peak of 3.8 0.6s (n=20) very similar to that of the TMA signal ( 3.1 0.3s, n=10) and slower than the potassium signal ( 2.1 0.04s, n=10). The potassium concentration decayed back to baseline levels from a maximum of 7.4 0.9mM (n=10) with a mono-exponential time constant of 3.1 0.6s (n=10) considerably faster than the intrinsic optical signal ( 40 10s, n=20) or the TMA signal ( 14 4, 7s, n= 10). The somewhat faster decay of the TMA signal can be explained by a diffusion of TMA away from the area of local increase into the surrounding bath (Hansen and Olsen 1980). In accordance with the assumption that the bright signal is caused by a net uptake of KCl in the cells a stimulation does not induce any bright signal in the absence of chloride in the solution (Holthoff and Witte 1996). Concomitantly, the TMA signal is also blocked while the amplitude of the extracellular potassium transient is not significantly affected. A block of the bright signal as well as the TMA signal by furosemide indicates that the swelling is probably mainly due to an uptake of KCl into glial cells by a furosemide-sensitive Na-K-2Cl cotransporter (Holthoff and Witte 1996).
The brain possesses several mechanisms to control the ensuing extracellular accumulation of potassium: a Na/K-exchanger is present in glial cells and neurons, and a NaK2Cl-cotransporter resulting in a net-uptake of KCl is present in glial cells (Walz and Hinks 1986). In addition, a so-called spatial buffer mechanism may contribute to potassium homeostasis (Orkand et al. 1966, Dietzel et al. 1980, Dietzel et al. 1982, Dietzel et al. 1989, Dietzel and Heinemann 1986b, Gardner-Medwin and Nicholson 1983, Gardner-Medwin 1986). The glial cells are coupled by gap junctions constituting a syncytium. This network may work as a draining system for extracellular potassium, which takes potassium up in regions of high potassium and liberates it in low potassium regions. In mammalian retina, a directional preference of the spatial buffer has been described, extending the concept to "potassium siphoning" (Newman et al. 1984).
Fig. 4 - Time course of stimulation-induced changes ofr intrinsic optical signals in layers II/III, induced by subsequent stimulations in layer VI with different stimulation strengths.
A working spatial buffer mechanism should lead to characteristic alterations of the extracellular space. The extracellular space should shrink at regions of potassium uptake and should widen at regions where potassium is liberated. In terms of changes of intrinsic optical signals this should be reflected in a darkening of the slice. In order to visualize such a mechanism we lowered the extracellular chloride concentration to 17mM (Holthoff and Witte, 2000). This should increase the relative contribution of the spatial buffer mechanism to ion homeostasis compared to net local cellular KCl uptake.
Electrical stimulation in layer VI caused a bright intrinsic optical signal in middle cortical layers. In contrast, superficial and lower cortical layers became darker (Fig 5). The brightening was caused by shrinkage of the extracellular space as shown by measurement of TMA concentration. In layer I, extracellular space volume increased by 1.9 0.2% (n=4, mean SD). The darkening of the slice in cortical layers I-III started perpendicular above the stimulation electrode and in the next seconds spread out parallel to cortical layer orientation to a full width half maximum of 910 300mm (n=9). These results confirm the predictions of a spatial buffer mechanism. Also in accordance with these predictions the extracellular potassium concentration increased in all cortical layers, also in the region with the dark signal.
Fig. 5 - Reduced light transmission associated with widening of the extracellular space in superficial cortical layers. Recordings were obtained under conditions which reduce net KCl uptake (low chloride solution) and enhance the contribution of the spatial buffer mechanism to clearance of potassium from the extracellular space. Signal induced by stimulation in layer VI of the cortex.
Gap junctional communication between glial cells is an important part of the functioning of the spatial buffer mechanism. We therefore tested whether stimulation-induced changes of the extracellular space were altered by modulation of the functional coupling between cells. Carbenoxolone and intracellular acidification which block gap junctions were tested (Ishimatsu and Williams 1996). Treatment of the slices with carbenoxolone as well as intracellular acidification effectively blocked stimulation-induced widening of the extracellular space in superficial cortical layers (Holthoff and Witte, 2000). These procedures did not alter field potential amplitudes suggesting that excitability was not influenced.
It has recently been demonstrated that astrocytes express high levels of a water channel, aquaporin-4. Since vasopressin is known to regulate aquaporin expression and translocation in kidney collecting ducts, and thereby control water reabsorption, we hypothesized that vasopressin might serve a similar function in the brain. By recording intrinsic optical signals in an acute cortical slice preparation we showed that the radial water flux in the neocortex which manifests itself as a black wave are facilitated by vasopressin and vasopressin receptor V1a agonists. V1a antagonists blocked the facilitatory effect of vasopressin and reduced the water flux even in the absence of any exogenous agonist. V2 agonists or antagonists had no effect. These data suggest that vasopressin and V1a receptors play a crucial role in the regulation of brain water and ion homeostasis, most probably by modulating aquaporin-mediated water flux through astrocyte plasma membranes (Niermann et al. 2001).
All the above experiments were carried out within the more or less physiological ranges of activity, and with changes of the extracellular space in the order of a few percent. Under these conditions, there is a very good correlation between changes of extracellular space size and intrinsic optical signal. There have, however, been recent reports that under pathophysiological conditions this relationship might be lost (Muller and Somjen 1998, Vargova et al. 1999, Tao and Nicholson 1999). Conditions that are expected to cause massive changes of cell size include elevations of potassium above the ceiling level of about 10-15mM (Heinemann and Lux 1977), spreading depressions, ischemia, and pronounced changes of the osmolarity of the cerebrospinal fluid. Fig. 6 shows a recording of a spreading depression from the neocortex in our setup. The signal starts as a wave with a bright signal, which slowly moves across the slice and is followed by a dark signal.
Fig. 6 - Subsequent appearance of increase and decrease of light transmission with spreading depression in the neocortex. Spreading depression induced by local application of 2 M KCl through microelectrode.
The present data show that with physiological activity in the brain slice preparation intrinsic optical signals (transmitted light, darkfield configuration, contrast enhancement, submerged slice) are well correlated to changes of extracellular space volume, and hence cell swelling and shrinkage. Spatial extent, time course, alteration by low chloride solution and furosemide, as well as direction of the signal all behave in the expected ways, and the intrinsic optical signals can be employed to demonstrate also increases of extracellular space size as expected from the spatial buffer mechanism. The signal has an excellent signal to noise ratio in the employed setup, is well reproducible, and shows a fast time resolution sufficient to monitor changes of extracellular space size in the order of seconds.
The present data favour the glial cells as the major cell type involved in regulation of extracellular volume under physiological conditions. Thus the widening of the extracellular space in superficial cortical layers depends on cell coupling as shown by pharmacological manipulations and are suggested to be due to potassium syphoning through the glial network. The local decreases of extracellular volume can be blocked by furosemide, suggesting an uptake of KCl by the glial furosemide-sensitive Na-K-2Cl cotransporter (Walz and Hinks 1986, Walz and Hinks 1985, Walz and Hertz 1984). Under more extreme conditions, the situation changes: in the hippocampus, spreading depressions first cause a bright signal in the dendritic layers, followed later by a bright signal in the cell soma layer (Basarsky et al. 1998, Andrew et al. 1999, Jarvis et al. 1999, Rutledge et al. 1998). Under these conditions cell swellings may also occur in the absence of chloride in the bath fluid, possibly due to a cellular uptake of glutamate and other organic anions (Muller and Somjen 1998).
The nature of the black wave following spreading depressions or application of NMDA (Jarvis et al. 1999) is unclear. As shown in this paper, one can record black waves which are accompanied by increases of extracellular volume under certain conditions. Polischuk et al. (Polischuk et al. 1998) have shown that a darkening of the signal can also be observed when irreversible neuronal damage occurs. Further experiments will be necessary to analyse those conditions in which discrepancies occur between intrinsic optical signal and changes of extracellular space size.
Mudanças do volume celular estão associadas com alterações de sinais ópticos intrínsecos (SOI), que são revistos no presente trabalho. Em fatias do encéfalo submersas in vitro, a estimulação aferente induz um aumento na transmissão de luz. Segundo avaliado por medidas no espaço extra-celular do ion tetra-metil-amônio (TMA), que pouco permeia a membrana, estes SOI se correlacionam com a extensão e curso temporal das mudanças na dimensão do espaço extra-celular. SOI têm uma alta relação sinal: ruído e permitem medidas de (suas) mudanças da ordem de alguns percentis, com velocidade de video. Sob condições de reduzida captação líquida de KCl (solução com baixo cloreto), um mecanismo de tamponamento espacial dirigido (sifonamento de potássio) pode ser demonstrado no neocórtex, com ampliação do espaço extra-celular nas camadas superficiais, associada com reduzida transmissão de luz e um acréscimo da concentração de potássio extra-celular. A natureza dos SOI sob condições fisiopatológicas é menos clara. Depressões alastrantes causam inicialmente um acréscimo na transmissão de luz e depois um decréscimo. Tal decréscimo tem sido observado após aplicação de NMDA onde está associado com dano estrutural. Análises farmacológicas sugerem que sob condições fisiológicas mudanças na dimensão do espaço extra-celular são causadas principalmente por mudanças no volume astrocitário enquanto que com estímulos fortes e sob condições fisiopatológicas também ocorre intumescência de neurônios. Com luz refletida são vistos usualmente sinais opostos a aqueles observados com luz transmitida. Registros de SOI da interface de fatias produzem sinais muito complexos desde que, sob estas condições, foi relatado um acréscimo de transmissão de luz ao qual se superpõe um decréscimo do sinal decorrente de efeitos mecânicos de ''lente'' da superfície da fatia. Dependendo do método de medida e das condições exatas, vários mecanismos podem contribuir para os SOI. Sob condições bem definidas, SOI constituem uma ferramenta suplementar útil para monitorar mudanças espaciais ou temporais no volume do espaço extra-celular.
Palavras-chave: sinais ópticos intrínsecos, tamponamento espacial, fatias encefálicas, espaço extracelular, depressão alastrante.


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text:
Atherinopsidae es una familia de peces, perteneciente al orden Atheriniformes. Las aproximadamente 104 especies en 13 géneros se distribuyen a través de aguas tropicales y templadas del Nuevo Mundo, tanto en hábitats marinos como de agua dulce. A esta familia pertenecen los pejerreyes argentino (Odontesthes bonariensis) y peruano (O. regia), la sardina Menidia menidia y el gruñón (Leuresthes tenuis y L. sardina).Menidiinae SCHULTZ
Menidiinae fue creado por SCHULTZ (1948) para
alojar aquellos atherínidos americanos que carecen
de embudo hemal, aunque la monofilia del grupo fue
confirmada recién por CHERNOFF (1986).
Menidiinae es significativamente más grande que
Atherinopsinae en número de especies las cuales han
irradiado en forma importante en las aguas continentales
de México y América Central. Menidiinae es
diagnosticado por 13 caracteres (DYER, 1997) y está
compuesto por dos tribus : Menidiini (Menidia,
Chirostoma, Poblana, Labidesthes) y Membradini
(Membras, Atherinella, Melanorhinus), de los cuales
solo Atherinella tiene representantes en aguas del
Hemisferio Sur (CHERNOFF, 1986).

Dentro del orden Atheriniformes se dintinguen por las siguientes características: dos aletas dorsales ampliamente separadas, la primera con espinas flexibles y la segunda con una espina seguida de radios blandos al igual que la aleta anal, con aletas pectorales situadas en una posición alta en el cuerpo. Tienen una boca pequeña en el extremo, con mandíbula superior con o sin protusión, dos líneas laterales divididas, la superior se extiende por el dorso terminando antes de la aleta anal para continuar una inferior que se extiende hasta el pedúnculo caudal. La longitud máxima descrita es de 52 cm para Odontesthes bonariensis y la más pequeña de unos 4 cm para Menidia colei.

Se alimentan de zooplancton, insectos, pequeños peces y, en ocasiones, de caracoles.

Géneros
Existen 13 géneros agrupados en dos subfamilias:

 Subfamilia Atherinopsinae:
 Atherinops (Steindachner, 1876)
 Atherinopsis (Girard, 1854)
 Basilichthys (Girard, 1855)
 Colpichthys (Hubbs, 1918)
 Leuresthes (Jordan y Gilbert, 1880)
 Odontesthes (Evermann y Kendall, 1906)

 Subfamilia Menidiinae:
 Atherinella (Steindachner, 1875)
 Chirostoma (Swainson, 1839)
 Labidesthes (Cope, 1870)
 Melanorhinus (Metzelaar, 1919)
 Membras (Bonaparte, 1836)
 Menidia (Bonaparte, 1836)
 Poblana (de Buen, 1945)

Referencias

Enlaces externos
 Menidia beryllina foto e información de MBL Aquaculture
 Revisión sistemática de los pejerreyes de Chile

Atherinopsidae

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Yan Zhenqing -- A Politician with Integrity, A Brave General and A Great Calligrapher in Chinese Culture
Yan Zhenqing (709 -- 784) is one of the most exceptional calligraphers in the history of China; he was also a great general in the eight-year An-Shi Rebellion of the Tang Dynasty.
One of his most valuable calligraphy masterpieces was finished during this war, after hearing his beloved nephew sacrificed in fighting against the rebel army.
A Highborn Genius Who Didn't Flatter
Yan Zhenqing was born into a noble family, and achieved a high score on the Imperial Examination. Then he was promoted several times because of his excellent political performance.
However, the current Emperor Li Longji was enjoying life with his favorite concubine Yang Yuhuan, and soon nominated Yang's brother as the most powerful prime minister.
However, Yan was too candid. He had never flattered, and even displeased Yang's brother for several times. Yan was therefore demoted and banished to a small city.
This small city was under control of a powerful warlord, the person who initiated the eight-year long rebellion war in the Tang Dynasty.
Some time after Yan Zhenqing arrived this city, he found the warlord was planning something against the Tang Empire.
Yan pretended to being a poet and a calligrapher who only loved literature and having fun; but secretly he constructed many defensive projects to protect his city.
A Brave, Loyal and Successful General
Years later, the rebel war started; Yan led his soldiers and civilians fought against the rebel army bravely.
Of all the 24 cities that had been attacked by the warlord in the first round, only 2 cities didn't surrender, Yan's was one of them.
Initially, Yan only had about 3000 soldiers, but then he recruited and united more people who didn't want to surrender.
He even sent money and his own son as a hostage to make sure some powerful generals would stay firm and fight against the rebel army together.
Yan's brother was the leader of another city, who was also loyal and strong and fought against the rebel army decisively.
In the end, they finally succeeded and defeated the rebel army with other Tang soldiers.
Yan Zhenqing was promoted because of his loyalty and his outstanding military achievements.
An Honorable Scholar Being Framed Up in His Late Years
Throughout his career, Yan Zhenqing had been promoted and demoted for several times, and served in many positions; the highest was the teacher of the crown prince.
However, some powerful people were displeased or threatened, because of his integrity, straightforward attitude and exceptional achievements.
When another army initiated another rebel war, Yan was framed up and was sent to the rebel army to "persuade" them to stop fighting by himself.
Many people tried to stop this, because everyone knew that the leader of the rebel army hated Yan very much.
But the person who set up this trap was quite powerful, so Yan went there anyway.
Yan Zhenqing's Unbending Sacrifice
Yan was already 76 years old at that time.
This old man was captured right after he arrived, and was threatened and humiliated in the rebel army for a long time.
But he never complied as they commanded; he, like he always did, never abandoned his fidelity. So he was murdered soon.
Yan Zhenqing had been banished, demoted, framed up for several times, nevertheless, his loyalty to his country was permanent.
In addition, he was a great master in calligraphy who had created a new branch, which is influential and important throughout the history.
Nowadays, people could see his integrity and strength from his calligraphic masterpieces and excellent essays.
Next Story: Contributive Marshal of Recovery of the Realm — Guo Ziyi
A Controversial General Who Put Loyalty Before Everything — Zhang Xun


text:
Games Completed 2019
seansthomas
Re: Games Completed 2019
Post by seansthomas » June 16th, 2019, 7:54 am
1st February - Dark Souls
8th February - The Gardens Between
9th February - Quarantine Circular
20th February - Night in the woods
26th March - Ape Out
16th June - Brothers
Been a while since I could add to this list. Have either been replaying lengthy games with the kids we've still not beaten (Mario Odyssey, Breath of the wild), hit a wall I can't overcome or bailed at (Starlink, Virtua Racing, Valkyria Chronicles) or playing games that don't ever really end (Picross, Rocket League, etc).
Picked this up the other day though and was keen to play it after I'd heard such good things.
And maybe it's showing its age or it's been expanded upon by newer titles, but I dunno... It didn't do much for me?
Felt a bit heavy handed compared to titles that came before it like Ico, didn't hit me in the heart like Gris or Rime managed or make me think like Firewatch, Night in the woods or Oxenfree did. All those games seem to have a singular point or moment they're building up to, but Brothers felt patchy and never quite gelled with its melding of mythology, family, loss and adventure.
Liked the idea of using a different stick to control each character and a couple of the puzzles were good, but yeah... solid 6/10 try that missed the mark for me.
1st Jan - Virginia (Xbox One)
13th Jan - Gravity Rush 2 (PS4)
27th Jan - Mortal Kombat (Vita)
3rd Feb - Mortal Kombat X (Xbox One)
18th Feb - Crackdown 3 (Xbox One)
12th Mar - Dark Souls 3: Ashes Of Ariandel (Xbox One)
17th Mar - Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City (Xbox One)
6th May - Guildmaster Story (iOS)
15th May - Mortal Kombat 11 (PS4)
22nd May - Mortal Kombat 11 (PS4) (Platinum Trophy)
27th May - Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (Xbox One)
2nd Jun - Sekiro: SDT (Xbox One) (1000G)
6th Jun - Astro Bot: Rescue Mission (PSVR)
13th Jun - Furi (PS4)
Rolled credits on Furi, though I didn't make it all the way to the end until the following day. A D-Rank performance, the game's end screen reliably informed me,. Though I get the impression that first playthroughs are unlikely to be highly ranked.
More on the podcast, of course. See you on Issue 374!
Michiel K
Post by Michiel K » June 16th, 2019, 4:22 pm
16-6 - Furi (PC)
Finally got the post credits boss today. And what James said.
ColinAlonso
Post by ColinAlonso » June 16th, 2019, 7:55 pm
Jan 16 - Yakuza Kiwami 2 (PS4)
Jan 20 - FTL: Faster Than Light (PC) (Easy)
Jan 25 - Final Fantasy VIII (PSVita - PS1 Classic)
Jan 27 - Puzzle Bobble (Switch) (Difficulty Level 4 - One credit)
Feb 3 - Metal Slug 3 (PS4 - PS2 anthology version on Easy)
Feb 8 - Puzzle Bobble 2 (Switch)(Vs Computer mode - Normal)
Feb 12 - Puzzle Bobble 2 (Switch)(Puzzle mode - One credit)
Feb 20 - Professor Layton and Pandora's Box (3DS - DS cart)
Feb 21 - Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Switch) (World of Light)
Mar 3 - Ristar (JP version) (PC)
Mar 22 - Wargroove (Switch)
Mar 31 - River City Ransom (Switch - NES rom)
Apr 2 - Donkey Kong '94 (3DS - VC)
Apr 20 - Super Dodge Ball (Switch - NES rom)
Apr 28 - Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4)
May 2 - Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze (Switch)
May 2 - Aladdin SNES (PC emulation)
May 6 - Aladdin Mega Drive (PC Emulator)
Jun 16 - Yakuza Kiwami 2 - Majima Saga (PS4)
After finishing the main game in January, I left this for a while as I wasn't ready for another 5-10 hours of Yakuza straight after.
Turns out I needn't have bothered waiting, its less than two hours. There are no substories or distractions apart from the minigames (darts, pool, karaoke) that are in the main game. Cutscenes probably make up a third to a half of the running time (this is what would happen if all the side stuff was removed from the main games too) The plot is inconsequential apart from showing why Majima is running a legitimate construction company in the main game. Majima is overpowered even compared to the usual Yakuza beatdowns. All said, its a pretty weak addition to the game.
Alex79uk
Joined: September 2nd, 2012, 10:36 am
Location: Redditch, UK.
Contact Alex79uk
Post by Alex79uk » June 17th, 2019, 11:09 am
I really want to play Kiwami 2 after really enjoying Zero and the remake of the first game, but for some reason it never seems to come on a sale! Kiwami and Zero are always in the sale, but I'm holding out!
Caligulas Horse
Post by Caligulas Horse » June 17th, 2019, 2:20 pm
I finished Suikoden 2 over the weekend, it made me sad that I had to finish it.
Post by Beck » June 17th, 2019, 2:40 pm
May 23rd, 2019, 5:56 am
I have this lined up for my Great Summer of Gaming. The problem is really one of getting stuck in - at some point your backlog fills up with absolutely massive games, as you pick the low-hanging fruit, so I have this, Pillars, and half a dozen massive 4xes sitting there staring me down at the moment. Intimidating.
Sorry bud, just spotted this.Haha, I'm the same. Pillars is on that list but I don't think it can hold up to Divinity so perhaps it will stay on that list of shame forever. I'd recommend Divinity though
Yoku's Island Express - Switch
A Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.
Resident Evil 2 - Lean side A
Zelda - Breath of the Wild
Batman Arkham Asylum - Man, what a game. Still one of my favourite games of all time.
South Park: The Fractured but Whole - This was kind of a disappointment. Loads of repetition in both gameplay and assets and empty spots with no music or interest which made the game drag. Would I recommend it? Meh.
Post by duskvstweak » June 17th, 2019, 3:16 pm
I finished Mad Max. It's such a strange game. I wouldn't say I had tons of fun playing it, but there was something gently satisfying about just cleaning up the map, akin to carpet cleaning. It was the perfect game for where my heads been at.
It's one of those games, where if someone could only have one game for a month or two, I'd suggest it. It would keep them busy and they'd feel like they got their money's worth.
Kiwami 2 has only been out about 10 months I'd guess. I think the sale prices for Yakuzas start about a year after release.
Caligulas Horse wrote: ↑
Good to hear, its a fantastic game that has aged very well over the last 20 years.
The game as a few endings, the best of which requires all 108 stars of destiny (characters). Ending spolilers ahead.
I actually preferred the ending I got. Nanami and Jowy survive in the best ending. It's nice but it felt like a cop out given the tone of the game
Jun 17 - Tetris Effect (PS4) (Normal)
The easiest way to describe it is Lumines: Tetris Edition and a lot of the cool ways the gameplay, sound and visuals interact are all present and correct but this really does feel like a step up from those games. Of course I only played it on a 1080p screen with headphones and despite never having used VR, its obvious that the visuals were designed for VR and would look stunning with it.
Post by dezm0nd » June 18th, 2019, 12:03 am
Jan 1 - Cat Quest
Jan 3 - Nex Machina (Arcade, experienced)
Jan 4 - Celeste
Jan 10 - Yoku's Island Express
Jan 13 - Evil Within 2
Jan 14 - Pilotwings
Jan 21 - Edith Finch
Jan 26 - Resident Evil 2 (Leon A)
Jan 27 - Resident Evil 2 (Claire A)
Jan 31 - Resident Evil 2 (Leon B)
Feb 11 - Firewatch
March 19 - Donkey Kong 64
March 29 - Goldeneye 007 (00 Agent)
April 9 - Yoshi Crafted World
May 8th - Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts
May 19th - Rage 2
May 26th - Guacamelee 2
June 4th - Gato Roboto
June 14th - Dishonoured Death of the Outsider
June 17th - Cadence of Hyrule
Cadence of hyrule - loved it
Post by duskvstweak » June 18th, 2019, 12:21 am
I just started the first game last night!
Post by Caligulas Horse » June 18th, 2019, 12:47 pm
ColinAlonso wrote: ↑
Yeah I actually spent quite a bit of time replaying the end section just to get the 'good' ending.
I enjoyed the happy ending and thought it was quite touching despite it not really making much sense lol.
Nanami's fake death was just silly though and it is especially nonsensical that even if you trigger the conversation between Huan and Shu where Nanami reveals she is alive, you still have to do everything else at the end with Jowy for Shu to actually reveal that Nanami is alive to you AND if he doesn't do that then she is actually dead at the end.
duskvstweak wrote: ↑
Awesome, I kind of wish I had done it first but plan to give it a go at some point anyway.
Post by Chopper » June 19th, 2019, 10:02 am
There's no completion condition here so I made up my own - visit all locations in the game. That's done now and I'm still left wondering about this game's curious appeal. There were times in the game where I was seriously considering buying the Oregon and Washington expansions, and other times I was wondering what the hell I was doing.
It worked on some levels for me and not on others. I quickly got tired of the mod that plays real radio stations as it got too depressing - not only the gouging and politics, but the ads for prison officers paying 15 bucks an hour (14 an hour for cooks in the same place, I know which one I'd be going for).
I did listen to a lot of podcasts. Best for me was this one about a car dealership in New Jersey.
It doesn't really work as a tourist simulator, as the nods to the big attractions are cursory; to be fair, there's a lot of Americana in the American Southwest, and for me it worked best as a 'this looks interesting, let's have a look on Wikipedia'-type experience. Virtual tourism then.
I think they got the ambience of the Southwest right - there's a definite sense of place - but a lot of genericness too. I was slightly disappointed some geographical features were not present - the big mountain that features so prominently in Breaking Bad is missing from Albuquerque - but they did very well indeed overall. The transitions between biomes - high mesa, desert, coastal forest - was well done and the sunrises and sunsets were lovely.
Done with it now though thank the lord.
Jan - Lego Marvel Avengers
Jan - Titanfall 2
Feb - Oxenfree
March - Gorogoa
April - Resident Evil 2 Remake - Leon A + Claire 2nd Run + Runaway
April - Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 - story
April 29th - holedown
June 18th - Abzú (Xone)
Because I didn't spend enough time over the weekend trying out new games, I ran through Abzú (well mostly swam) getting 100% inside of three hours. For anyone who has played Flower , this played very much the same and had a very similar progression (though thankfully no motion controls!).
Obviously Abzú is ocean themed to Flower's wind/petal gimmick but the mix of nature to technology pretty much mirrors that of the earlier game.
There were some stunning visuals but there was nothing more to do with the experience beyond what was presented. Didn't outstay it's welcome but Journey certainly remains my top pick for this style of landscape traverse games.
I'm glad I've played it but, sadly, more glad that I didn't pay for it (thanks Game Pass)
Post by Scrustle » June 20th, 2019, 12:37 pm
25/01 - Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes
31/01 - Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas
01/02 - SOMA (Safe Mode)
09/02 - Shadow Warrior
18/02 - Mulaka
26/02 - NieR: Automata - 3C3C1D119440927 DLC
02/03 - Race Driver: GRID
04/03 - Bladed Fury
10/03 - Devil May Cry 5 (Devil Hunter)
13/03 - AER: Memories of Old
17/03 - Devil May Cry 5 (Son of Sparda)
20/03 - Devil May Cry 5 (Human)
05/04 - God of War III Remastered
12/04 - Devil May Cry 5 (Dante Must Die)
14/04 - Journey
15/04 - ABZU
28/04 - Lost Planet: Extreme Condition - Colonies Edition
30/04 - Dangerous Driving
02/05 - Final Fantasy XV - Episode Gladiolus/Episode Prompto/Episode Ignis
12/05 - The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - Enhanced Edition
21/05 - RiME
22/05 - Remember Me
20/06 - Bioshock
So after wrestling with the awful remaster, I switched over to the original version instead. Still a great time that stands up very well, although it does feel a tad clunky in some ways. Aiming feels a bit wonky, but I've always thought the feel of shooting is pretty good. It's got good sound design and weapons have a real kick to them.
But everything that got this game so much praise a decade ago is still as sharp and impactful today. Great art design and aesthetic, a really well written story with a brilliantly delivered twist (apart from it being rather clumsily re-explained the moment after they reveal it so expertly), and some very interesting political themes. In fact those themes feel more relevant now than ever with how the world has been going recently. It's also really enjoyable to come back to this game years later, having got a deeper understanding of the kinds of things it covers, and so being able to get more meaning out of it. This being my third time through, that's not even the first time that's happened. Makes me hopeful that I might be able to to it again some other time down the road.
Another thing that stood out to me is how this game actually has some parallels with the parts of Infinite that got so highly criticised. The way that game fumbled its depiction of the Vox Populi that caught it so much flak is actually somewhat similar to some of the stuff they do with Atlas in this game. They manage to steer away from putting their foot in it here for the most part, but it's kind of interesting to go back to this game after hearing all of those criticisms, and seeing they kind of have a slight precedence here. Now it makes me curious to go back to Infinite again and see how it compares. I picked this one up along with 2, and was sort of intending on playing that after if I felt like it. But now I think I might go for Infinite instead.
Post by James » June 21st, 2019, 6:36 pm
18th Jun - Blood & Truth (PSVR)
21st Jun - Watch Dogs 2 (PS4)
After playing and loving Astro Bot recently, I decided to pick up Blood & Truth. It was getting some pretty-good word of mouth, and I was up for another VR game.
Turns out it is pretty good, I think. The story is a collection of action scenes strung together by some tried and tested plot beats, but it's really all about the action. The problem is that PSVR tracking can be a bit iffy, I've found. So Blood & Truth, in theory, allows you to hold a gun in two hands and look down the sights. When this works I felt like I was in a ridiculous action film, taking out enemies with unbelievable speed and precision. More often than not though the rifle would jump from my hands, backwards through my head, making aiming more of a guessing game. It was bad enough that I decided instead to resort to holding whichever gun I had at full arms length and pointing it in the general direction I wanted to shoot, with kinda decent-ish results.
Throw in a bucket of gangster cliches and Colin Salmon inexplicably putting on an American accent that I just couldn't get on board with, and it's an odd experience. A full, narrative-meets-action experience like this in VR is quite impressive when it works, but PSVR's tracking and resolution issues (the game is quite blurry in the middle-to-long distance) hold it back. Oh, and the vehicle chase sequences were endlessly frustrating for me. Probably my fault, but I died way too often in those sections to have any fun at all.
On the other end of the spectrum is Watch Dogs 2. I heard good things about it back in 2016, but the marketing of the game had kinda put me off. Now, nearly three years later, and egged on by the announcement of Watch Dogs: Legion, I decided to pick WD2 up for under a tenner. It's very Ubisoft open world (no towers to climb though), and enthusiastically adopts the pop-culture hacker aesthetic.
But I really enjoyed WD2. The story has been a little surpassed by some of the events of the past few years, which gives the game a weird hopeful atmosphere; yes, corrupt politicians and privacy-ignoring corporations and election fixing and racist police, but the game presents a group of individuals coming together to counter all of this. That I was able to play non-lethally was a nice surprise, and there were plenty of "hacking" skills to keep the gameplay varied throughout.
A really-enjoyable reminder that Ubisoft's open worlds don't have to be endless to be good value. And whatever they may say, their games won't ever be apolitical.
Post by Michiel K » June 23rd, 2019, 8:48 pm
23-6 - Donkey Kong '94/GB (3DS)
Fun times. Now back to the arcade original once more.


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Katharina Uhde
Alex Austin
Anne Marie Ouverson Bice
Joseph Bognar
Jeffrey C. Brown
Lorraine S. Brugh
Christopher M. Cock
Maura Janton Cock
Jeffrey Scott Doebler
Dennis Friesen-Carper
Cynthia Tenny-Fudala
David Govertsen
Ericka Tyner Grodrian
John Grodrian
Claire Happel
Jeff Hazewinkel
Jennet Ingle
Steven Ingle
Sunghee Kim
Denise Chigas Kirkland
James Konsbruck
David Machavariani
Sky Macklay
Stacy Maugans
Mary Lee Riley
Stephen Schnurr
Phillip Serna
Charles Steck
Sangeeta Swamy
Emily Yiannias
21st-Century Musician
An Honor of a Performance
Concert Creator
Singing to New Heights
A Symphony Across Cultures
Discovering Purpose
Endless Opportunity
Finding a Home in the Arts
Bachelor of Music Therapy
Minor in Music
Changing Degree Program
Studio Lessons
Music for Non-Majors
Germany Tour, Reformation 2017
Chamber Concert Band
Extracurricular Ensembles
Minimum Standards
Lutheran Summer Music
LSM hosts many recitals and concerts throughout the summer. Please find the calendar on the LSM website.
Valparaiso University is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Music.
Assistant Professor of Music
VUCA 2518
katharina.uhde@valpo.edu
Katharina Uhde is an assistant professor of violin and musicology. She holds two doctorates: a DMA from the University of Michigan (2009) and a Ph.D. from Duke University (2014), where she completed a dissertation on Joseph Joachim under R. Larry Todd. She has published score reviews and an article in Nineteenth-Century Music Review with the title "Joseph Joachim's Abendglocken Op. 5: a Musical Daguerreotype." As a concertizing violinist, she has played with many orchestras as a soloist in Germany, the U.S., Serbia, and Brazil.
Born in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, she began playing the violin at the age of six. After receiving her B.A. degree in violin performance at the University of Music, Karlsruhe, under Ulf Hoelscher, she came to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, for her M.Mus. with Stephen Shipps. In 2006, she finished her Teaching Diploma and her Artists Diploma at the University of Music, Karlsruhe. In 2009, she completed her doctoral studies (DMA) and a Certificate of Musicology at the University of Michigan. In the spring of 2011, Uhde taught as a visiting professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Several exciting recitals and projects were taken up in 2011 and 2012. Besides a series of concerts with all of Brahms' sonatas, Uhde went on a concert tour to Scandinavia at the end of November 2011, where she performed sonatas by Beethoven and Erzherzog Rudolf with her father, Prof. Michael Uhde and gave a lecture and master class. Furthermore, she appeared as a soloist with orchestra in the famous Belgrade concert hall Kolarac in December 2011, where she performed Beethoven's Triple Concerto and Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante and gave a master class at the Belgrade University School of Music. In 2012, she again went on tour with the Triple Concerto in Germany with her cellist twin sister, pianist Judith Mosch, and the Lemberg Sinfonietta. Uhde appeared as a soloist with the Berlin Camerata in August 2012 and traveled to Brazil in September 2012 for an ongoing CD recording project on Brazilian chamber music of the 19th century. Chamber music has played an important role in Uhde's life since 1998, when she founded the Viktor Ullmann Quartet, which has won several international competitions. Honors and prizes include the first prize at the International Competition Concertino Praga, fisrt prize in the International Competition Verfemte Musik, second prize in the International Competition Charles Hennen. Other honors include a Fulbright grant in 2004, a one-year scholarship of the Landesstiftung Baden-Württemberg in 2005, and the Ludwig Marum prize of the city of Karlsruhe in 2003 for special cultural engagement for Jewish composers. In 2000, Uhde participated in chamber music recitals with Martha Argerich and Ivry Gitlis, with whom she performed the Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals and the Mendelssohn Octet. As a winner of the Concerto Competition of the University of Michigan 2004, Uhde has appeared as a soloist with the Barber Violin Concerto, which she performed at the Ann Arbor Hill Auditorium with orchestra. Other recital halls include the Cologne Philharmonic and the "Rudolfinum" in Prague. She has also appeared as a soloist with the Sinfonia Varsovia, the Baden-Baden Philharmonic, the Goettinger Musikfreunde Orchestra, the Marburg University Orchestra, and the Belgrade University Orchestra. She has toured as a soloist and chamber musician through Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Estonia, Poland, Czech Republic, Serbia, Montenegro, Israel, and Brazil. Uhde's performances were radio and TV broadcast throughout Germany and Europe by Südwest Rundfunk, Südwest Television, Bayrischer Rundfunk, Norddeutsche Rundfunk, and Deutschland Funk. Uhde's teachers include Rainer Kussmaul (former concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic), Joerg Hoffmann, Sergej Kravtschenko, Petra Muellejans, members of the Alban Berg Quartet, members of the Tokyo String Quartet, the La Salle Quartet, the Beaux-Arts Trio, the Amadeus Quartet, the Hagen Quartet, the Rubin Quartet, and the Mandelring Quartet.


O'Brien discusses the state of American "national drama" and discourages playwrights from attempting this genre. He encourages American dramatists to focus on "domestic drama" because of their plot-based nature. O'Brien aruges that American society lacks sufficiently interesting character types and feels that character-driven plays are unsuccessful dramatic efforts.
O'Brien writes that he, Brougham, Goodrich are currently working on a three act play titled "The Dark Hour Before Dawn" to be performed by amateurs for a Dramatic Fund Association benefit in the chief cities of the Union (3).


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Starbucks promotes Rachel Ruggeri to CFO as Pat Grismer retires, reiterates outlook
Starbucks Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Patrick "Pat" Grismer is pictured at the Annual Meeting of Shareholders in Seattle, Washington on March 20, 2019.
Jason Redmond | AFP | Getty Images
Starbucks said Thursday that Rachel Ruggeri, senior vice president of finance for the Americas division, will take Chief Financial Officer Pat Grismer's place when he retires on Feb. 1.
The coffee chain also reiterated its outlook for the first fiscal quarter of 2021 and the full-year forecast.
For the fiscal first quarter, the company projects adjusted earnings of 50 cents to 55 cents per share. During the entire fiscal year, Starbucks expects to earn between $2.70 and $2.90 per share, after adjustments, on revenue of $28 billion to $29 billion.
Grismer will stay on as an advisor to CEO Kevin Johnson through May 2 to help the transition. He assumed the role of chief financial officer in 2018 after holding the same title at Hyatt.
Ruggeri started working at Starbucks 16 years ago as a member of the accounting team, helping launch the first Starbucks Card. She has 28 years of experience.
Shares of Starbucks, which has a market value of $122 billion, were flat in premarket trading. The stock has risen 18% over the last year.
This chart shows how the restaurant industry's recovery stumbled in December
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Lumber futures swing 10% in wild session as speculative…


Hollywood is returning to normal after a two-month long award season, which began with the Golden Globes back in January.
The season has been building to its climax – the Oscars – and for the final week, a stretch of Hollywood Boulevard has been closed off to prepare for the big night, for the building of bleacher seats, the laying of the red carpet and the erection of giant Oscar statues.
Many of the fans who fill the stadium seating are more interested in the dresses than the films that this event his been designed to celebrate.
Given how similar many of the results were, between the Globes and the Oscars, it almost makes you wonder why they don't just stick with the one awards ceremony, although the final award of the season – the Oscar for Best Picture – at least confounded some of the experts.
In becoming the first woman to be voted the Best Director, Kathryn Bigelow also led her low budget film – The Hurt Locker – to the top prize. In both categories, she beat her ex-husband James Cameron, whose Avatar – the most expensive film of all time – took the Golden Globe for the Best Dramatic Film.
The Hurt Locker – about an American bomb disposal squad in Baghdad in 2002 – picked up six Oscars from its nine nominations – including Editing, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Original Screenplay.
Avatar went away with just three prizes – for Art Direction, Visual Effects and Cinematography. This last award was seen as controversial, since the most visually impressive parts of the film were computer generated and not photographed at all.
This part of the Oscar telecast also raised a few eyebrows in Hollywood, since the work of the nominated Directors of Photography weren't even shown to the audience – the one award, perhaps more than any others, where the the visual element is key and the nominees were simply listed, with not even still images.
The show itself lacked lustre, with the two co-hosts, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, amusing, but hardly ever seen. Most of the screen time was taken by a succession of actors reading lists. Only Ben Stiller raised the bar – presenting the award for Best Make-Up – made up to look like a character from Avatar. He pointed out the irony that this was one of the few films where make-up was hardly an issue, because the aliens were all animated anyway.
After The Hurt Locker and Avatar, the next biggest winners of the night were Crazy Heart, Precious and Up.
In one of the most predictable awards of the night Crazy Heart won Best Leading Actor, for Jeff Bridges. It also took Best Original Song for its theme, The Weary Kind, by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett.
Precious won Best Supporting Actress, for Mo'Nique and Best Adapted Screenplay (Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire). This was another upset, beating Up In The Air, which had triumphed at previous awards ceremonies. Britain's In The Loop and An Education were also in the running in this category.
Up was the voted the Best Animated Feature as well as collecting the Best Score prize.
Sandra Bullock fought off competition from Meryl Streep – as well as Brits Carey Mulligan and Dame Helen Mirren – to take the Best Leading Actress Oscar for The Blind Side.
Another well sign-posted award was the first to be handed out – the Best Supporting Actor Oscar went to Christoph Waltz for playing the Jew Hunter in Inglourious Basterds – the film's only win from eight nominations.
Another of the night's few surprises was in the Foreign Language competition. The Oscar went not to the Cannes winner, Germany's The White Ribbon or France's A Prophet, which won the BAFTA and the inaugural London Star award at the London Film Festival – but to Argentina's The Secret In Their Eyes.
The Best Animated Short Film went to France's Logorama, beating Britain's Nick Park's A Matter of Loaf and Death.
The Best Live Action Short was The New Tenants an American/Danish co-production.
The Cove was the Best Feature Documentary and Music By Prudence won the Best Documentary Short.
Star Trek won the Best Make-Up and the only British winner of the night was The Young Victoria, for costume.
Once the formalities are out of the way, it's time to party – first at the Academy's official Governor's Ball, upstairs at the Kodak Theatre and then the winners are ferried between a number of events, such as those hosted by Sir Elton John and Vanity Fair magazine.


I am thinking-- what exactly are the differences between the Chrome and the Noir apart from the stickers? I have not played or even picked up either so am hoping that someone would enlighten me a bit about this. I feel interested to experiment with the Noir but am not sure whether I should instead be saving some money and getting the old Chrome instead. Thanks, guys.
Just from looking at the images, it looks like the Noir is just a beefier version of the chrome. Other than that, the shape/sweet spot location seems identical.
Noir has fractionally smaller spine if you compare the GM book of cricket from the two years. Presumably to make the edges look bigger.
I did ask... but didn't really follow up on it.
If anyone has access to last years catalogue, it may say the dimensions/ volume (albeit not the curvature, exact peak swell position etc). The2019 catalogue shows the Noir to have max edges of 38mm, max spine of 64mm and a volume of 2,274 cm3.
Given the similarity from above, I suspect they will pick up in a very similar way (st the inevitable differences from bat to bat).
2018 v: 2283, e38, s:65.
As I said, looks like a tiny bit off the peak spine and little else changed. Lower spine and removing those stickers on the back make the edge look a little larger.
I personally go with whichever are the better individual bats rather than worry about stickers and BNG.
I have to say if I am really nit picking then the Noirs feel a little chunkier than a Chrome... I've had a few Chromes and most had a smaller edge than the stated 38mm so they looked a little thin. If the Noirs are being made to stated 38mm edges then I think when combined with the other visual changes (marginally smaller spine and no back stickers) I can see why the Chrome and Noir would be perceived to be quite different, though they should be pretty identical in theory.
The Chrome I currently have is just over a 39mm edge and a slightly lower spine so has the chunkier than every other Chrome I have had or seen. Even with GM's technology there is scope for a little bit of variation in shapes/ sizes.
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Celestial Seasonings sustains double-digit growth in packaged tea: 'It's flavor-forward, it's global, it's better for you'
The new Tea Well organic line features on-trend ingredients including melatonin for sleep and ginseng for mood. Picture credit: Celestial Seasonings
Related tags: Tea, Hain celestial, Celestial Seasonings
US retail sales of packaged tea have been sluggish in recent years, with Nielsen data* showing a flat market until 2020, when covid prompted a 16.8% surge, before everything slowed back down again. Celestial Seasonings, however, has maintained double-digit growth in recent months, driven by a raft of on-trend launches, says general manager Tim Collins.
Collins, who was speaking to FoodNavigator-USA as Celestial Seasonings prepared to re-open its offices in Denver to move to a hybrid working model, explained: "In recent years there have been really low dollar growth and volume declines in the tea category, with growth coming from premiumization and pricing; the category had been really sluggish, losing households year over year for a number of years... until we hit the pandemic.
"And then we saw people really coming back into the category, so light users increased their usage, but we also had new people coming into the category, and household penetration expanded for the first time in about five years.
He added: "If you look at our bagged tea business, in the past 52 weeks, we're up about 10.5% in consumption. And then if we were looking versus two years ago, we're up 24.5%, so we're outpacing the overall category.
"We've won an outsized share of TDPs or distribution points over the past year, so we've had double-digit increases in our distribution on our bagged business, and then we've also dramatically grown our K cup business over the past year."
Sleep, energy, immunity…
So what's behind the growth, aside from more people staying home?
According to Collins: "I think there's been a renewed level of interest in the category, but we're also proud of the innovation that we've brought to the market over the last 18 months, so we've been able to bring data to retailers really going after duplication in the category, so we can create space [for new products] by going after the ninth, tenth or eleventh versions of some of the category's classic and repetitive flavors or benefits or formats."
'Even the most ardent tea people still tend to start their days with a cup of coffee'
He added: "In our business, we've seen tremendous expansion of the Sleepytime businesses as consumers were looking for a way to get a better night's sleep, but immunity and energy have also been of intense interest over the past year.
"So we launched an energy tea with as much caffeine [95mg] as a cup of coffee [and more than a can of Red Bull, which has 80mg] to really address that energy deficit that exists in the category, as we found even the most ardent tea people still tend to start their days with a cup of coffee.
"We also did a great job on bringing more millennials into the category with innovations such as the Tea Well premium organic wellness sub brand with some really disruptive and unique benefits like sleep with melatonin, gut health with pre- and probiotics and fiber.
"When you look at the younger generations, millennials, Gen Z-ers, they are drinking more tea, but they're also the 'more of everything' generations, they're sampling across a wider selection of categories than any other cohort so they don't necessarily generate the same volumes, but what we're incredibly happy with over this past year is that we grew our millennial household penetration 47% faster than the tea category."
Energy Tea contains more caffeine (95mg) than a can of Red Bull (80mg) Picture credit: Celestial Seasonings
'There were some weeks where our business was up 60% versus the same week a year previously'
Asked about operational challenges during covid and inflationary pressures, he said he could not comment on pricing, but added: "We're certainly not immune to the inflationary pressures that most categories are experiencing.
"We're sourcing from over 35 countries and we've had to weather supply chain disruptions and shipping container shortages, so I'm incredibly proud of the way we were able to deliver over this past year; we took a category that has been essentially flat for a number of years, and then you're layering on 25% growth… there were some weeks where our business was up 60% versus the same week a year previously, and we retained a very high service level."
'We've seen really explosive growth in the world of e-commerce'
As for the e-commerce business, he said, "We've seen really explosive growth in the world of e-commerce, both our direct to consumer business and in the rest of our e-commerce ecosystem; we've just seen phenomenal growth, and it's become a really effective way for us to get innovation out there.
"We recently launched a new line of cold brew iced tea, and on Amazon that's quickly risen to our number one selling variety pack on Amazon."
Cold Brew Iced Tea – new from Celestial Seasonings - comes in five flavors: Sweetened Black Tea with Lemon; Half and Half; Citrus Sunrise; Red, White & Blueberry; and Unsweetened Black Tea. The teas brew in cold water in minutes with no boiling required. Picture credit: Celestial Seasonings
Tea potential: 'I feel tea has every imaginable tailwind'
So when it comes to per-capita consumption, how does the US stack up to some other markets, and will this 'covid-bump' last, or is it a blip?
Said Collins: "I often like to look north of the border at Canada, where they have 2x the per capita tea consumption of America. There are a couple of reasons for that, so one is cultural - it's a Commonwealth country - plus you get colder weather that helps drive some of that consumption.
"But as we look at the category I feel tea has every imaginable tailwind over the last five years that really matters in food and beverage, it's flavor-forward, it's global, it's better for you, it's low or no sugar, so there is an opportunity there if you come in with unique and different offerings, and right now, we're still seeing significant double digit growth, so consumers [that bought into the brand during the pandemic] are sticking around."
*According to Nielsen data (total US xAOC), US retail sales of packaged tea rose 16.8% in the 52 weeks to Jan 2, 2021, and rose 1.7% in the 52 weeks to July 3, 2021.
Picture credit: Celestial Seasonings
Related topics: COVID-19, Trendspotter, Health & Wellness, Flavors and colors, Health and nutritional ingredients, Sugar reduction, Manufacturers, Markets, R&D, People, Views, Beverage, Food retail and e-commerce
Hain Celestial seeks acquisitions to become a 'bigger fish' in snacks, dairy & meat alternatives
ExcelVite
By T. Hasegawa USA Fueling-up with Flavor: How Science and Technology are Improving the Taste of Sports Nutrition Beverages
By IFF Rethinking health with dairy


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Stoltenberg co-chairs UN climate group
The UN High-level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing photographed at a meeting in London in March. . Photo: 10 Downing Street
Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg will lead the UN High-level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing in developing countries. He succeeds former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the group shall mobilise the resources promised at the Copenhagen Climate Summit last December.
"To secure sufficient financing of climate actions in developing countries will be decisive in order to reach a new international climate treaty. I look forward to leading the group together with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi", says Stoltenberg.
According to the Copenhagen Agreement reached at the end of the December summit, developed countries will raise up to 30 billion US dollar for the period 2010-2012 and a total of 100 billion dollar annually from 2020. The agreement also stated that countries will work to limit the temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius, and implement efforts to reduce or limit the emission of greenhouse gases.
The new UN climate group will draw up practical proposals for the financing of emission cuts and adaptation strategies. The means will come from the private as well as the public sector.
In addition to Stoltenberg and Zenawi, the group includes Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo and ministers and economists from a number of countries. The group's members represent both developing and developed countries.
The UN climate group will present its final report before the next UN climate summit, in Mexico in December this year.
Source: Norway Mission to the UN
Norway's Induct software names former Fast executive as CEO
by The Norwegian American · Published March 10, 2009
Crown Prince joins opening of "Hydrogen Highway"
by The Norwegian American · Published May 12, 2009
Norwegian Ambassador fears EU isolation
by The Norwegian American · Published September 5, 2009
Next New leader opens key UNICEF meeting in New York
Previous Almost 600 adoptions in 2009


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Katanya
eSports: A new breed of professional athlete
With more viewers than the NBA finals and revenue over USD1b we should all pay attention
Welcome to the fantastical money maker that is eSports: Video games played at competitive levels. It sounds a almost unbelievable, right? Who's gonna pay to watch a teenager play MineCraft? Turns out more than 148 million people and by the way, that number is predicted to climb to 215 million by 2019.
According to an article published in May by CNN; last year, a single game "League of Legends" attracted 36 million paid viewers for its World Championship — that's a bigger audience than the NBA Finals.
But if you're wondering about the legitimacy of these gaming athletes, according to one journalist, the mental agility and physical reflexes of gamers rivals that of conventional athletes as they produce the same amount of cortisol as professional race car drivers. Their pulses can beat up to 180 beats per minute, which is the same rate as that of a marathon runner.
"The mass appeal of video games is a driving force behind eSports popularity. Just like how a baseball fan enjoys seeing the best play, a video gamer enjoys watching the best compete."
Professional gaming is so competitive in fact that ESL, the world's biggest eSports league, has been testing players since 2015 for performance-enhancing drugs like Adderall.
What was once seen as a hobby for grown men reliving their adolescence, is now big business where players can make seven figure salaries and are hailed as gods — you can even go to university on an eSports scholarship.
eSports marketing opportunities for brands
Work with micro-influencers who align with your product and brand message.
Stretch your marketing budget further by supporting up and coming streamers
Supporting a team can increase your exposure greatly. As each member of the team may be streaming individually, your brand may have multiple vehicles.
Tournaments are played to packed out arenas in front of tens of thousands of fans while simultaneously streamed through Twitch to huge paying audiences at home. We're talking millions of paying viewers tuning in to watch these worldwide tournaments played for millions of dollars in prize money; the largest prize pool for a tournament to date was USD$24M in 2017 for the game "Dota 2".
With that kind of money up for grabs, it's no wonder eSports continues to grow in popularity and revenue — it's expected the industry's global revenue will hit more than USD$1billion by 2019. Its growth is so rapid, that it is now a legitimate competitor with conventional sports in terms of viewership and fans.
Conventional sports teams are playing catch-up and have begun investing in, sponsoring, and even creating their own eSports teams. According to a PwC's Media Outlook report, sports have always been important in terms of driving advertising and subscriptions and it seems eSports are no different with teams backed by some major sporting organisations.
Research group Newzoo as reported by CNN, the industry "has been experiencing double digit growth for several years" thanks in part to paid subscriptions, live events and investment from third parties.
The biggest drawcard in terms of the bottom line are obviously the global tournaments held in stadiums and arenas where merchandise, food, drink, and transport to and from the venue, add additional revenue.
But then there's all the money flowing in from the micro transactions in the form of subscriptions and donations, also known as digital gifting; it allows users to give something personal to their favourite gamer, like an emoticon or customised message.
People can also pay for special "in-game" items, interactive gaming, and passive viewing where they're watching it for sport. Because for Gen Z, eSports IS sport and in turn, creates a lucrative opportunity for businesses. Riot Games who created one of the biggest games played in eSports, made USD$2 billion in revenue as a result.
Very few firms deal with the levels of earnings that eSports make which means a major (business and marketing) opportunity for those savvy enough to get in on the action. And if you're now considering an alternative career path as a professional gamer: In the competitive league for the game "League of Legends", average player salaries jumped from USD$150k in 2017 to USD$327k in 2018.
Titbits and takeaways
In 2017, the video game industry made more than twice the movie industry ($70b vs $35b) with eSports alone expected to contribute USD1.5b in 2020.
eSports can provide sponsorship and marketing opportunities for both FMCG and PS brands to target a number of demographics
There are significant consulting opportunities for professional services firms in supporting the full supply chain of the eSports industry.
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Q: Implement the existing RichText editor in jQuery form I have been working hard to develop custom forms that are completely done in jQuery/javascript. I can create all of the fields I want except for the richtext editor fields. I know sharepoint uses some core javascript files to render these on the screen. I just want to use them on my form. I am displaying the forms in a jQueryUI dialog and using Marc Anderson's SPServices library to add the data to the lists which works fine. Can this be done and what do I need to do to get this functionality in my form.

A: What about using TinyMCE? http://tinymce.moxiecode.com? That one's very easy to implement.

A: I think most of the functions you need are in Form.js in the 12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033 folder (assuming an english install of WSS 3.0/MOSS 2007.)  You may also need HtmlEditor.js and AssetPicker.js depending on which aspects of the toolbar you are rendering.  I have never even attempted to do what you are suggesting and these functions are not documented so you will need to work that out for yourself.
Is it seriously a business requirement that the whole list form renders in a dialog?  Or are you just establishing a POC/R&D?
Additionally you could use the Telerik RADEditor Lite for MOSS its the last link on the page, oh yes and its free.  Its also cross browser compatible (if that is an authoring issue for you.)
http://www.telerik.com/community/free-products.aspx