The UK, France and Germany on Sunday demanded evidence from Saudi Arabia to back its claim that Jamal Khashoggi died in a brawl at its consulate.
In a joint statement, they said Riyadh's explanation - that the dissident journalist was killed when an argument spiralled out of control - needed "to be backed by facts" amid growing scepticism about the Saudi version of events.
Meanwhile a senior official in Riyadh said Khashoggi's body had been smuggled from the consulate wrapped in a rug even as Saudi Arabia's foreign minister appeared on American TV to claim authorities still did not know exactly how the 59-year-old died or where his body was.
In his strongest comments yet, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said on Sunday that Ankara would release "the naked truth" in the form of a full report on Tuesday.
In the joint statement Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary, Jean-Yves Le Drian, his French counterpart, and Germany's Heiko Maas condemned the killing.
"Yet there remains an urgent need for clarification of exactly what happened on October 2 - beyond the hypotheses that have been raised so far in the Saudi investigation, which need to be backed by facts to be considered credible," they said.
The three demanded proper accountability and due process for any crimes committed.
"We will ultimately make our judgement based on the credibility of the further explanation we receive about what happened and our confidence that such a shameful event cannot and will not ever be repeated," they said.
Saudi's admission, released in a flurry of statements late on Friday night, was the third version of events offered by the kingdom. Those accounts began with denials, claiming that Mr Khashoggi walked out of the consulate, before moving on to blaming "rogue killers" and finally settling on the supposed fight that erupted during what officials said were "discussions".
A Saudi official, speaking anonymously to Reuters, offered more details about what might have happened inside the consulate.
He said a team of 15 Saudi nationals sent to confront Mr Khashoggi threatened him with being drugged and kidnapped, and taken to a safe house in Istanbul for questioning. He was killed in a chokehold when he resisted.
His body was then smuggled out of the building wrapped in a rug while a member of staff dressed in Mr Khashoggi's clothes to make it appear as if he had strolled out of the consulate.
Yet in an interview on Fox News, Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, said it was unclear what had happened as he offered his condolences to Mr Khashoggi's family.
Late on Sunday, the Saudi Press Agency said both Saudi King Salman and Prince Mohammed had called Mr Khashoggi's son, Salah, to express condolences.
Critics believe that the official explanation may be designed to shield Mohammad Bin Salman, the crown prince, from blame and have stepped up calls for his removal.
But Mr Jubeir said that was unfair.
For two weeks, Saudi officials claimed Mr Khashoggi had left the embassy safely. But a drip-feed of information from Turkish security sources painted a horrifying tableau of premeditated murder carried out by a hit squad who flew in from Riyadh with a bone saw.
Turkey is said to hold recordings of what happened in the consulate.
Mr Erdogan told a rally on Sunday: "We are looking for justice here and this will be revealed in all its naked truth, not through some ordinary steps but in all its naked truth." He is expected to make a full statement on Tuesday.
The Turkish president and US President Donald Trump spoke on the telephone and agreed that "all aspects" of the case needed to be cleared up, Turkey's Anadolu agency said early on Monday.
Boris Johnson, the former Foreign Secretary, said the Saudi state had copied the playbook of Vladimir Putin and his efforts to silence critics, such as the attempted killing of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury.
"This cannot become a pattern. We cannot just let it pass," he writes in The Daily Telegraph.
And he added that the UK and US must take the lead in holding Riyadh to account.
Mr Trump also toughened his line on Saudi Arabia, accusing Riyadh of lies and deception.
The US president initially said the official Saudi account – that the dissident journalist was killed in a "fistfight" - was credible.
He also defended the kingdom as an "incredible ally" and returned to the possibility that the Saudi crown prince did not order his agents to kill a troublesome critic.
"Nobody has told me he's responsible. Nobody has told me he's not responsible. We haven't reached that point. . . I would love if he wasn't responsible," he said.
His words illustrate a dilemma for the US, which sees Riyadh as a customer for billions of dollars of arms and an ally in its effort to contain Iran.
While government ministers and investors from all around the world have withdrawn from the Future Investment Initiative – known as Davos in the desert - on Sunday it emerged that Steven Mnuchin, Mr Trump's treasury secretary, would travel to Riyadh this week to discuss the campaign against Iran.


NEW YORK — A senior NYPD commander has been transferred amid questions about the handling of a police source accused of tipping off terror suspect Najibullah Zazi that he was under surveillance, an official confirmed Thursday.
Police and city officials have refused to discuss the removal of Inspector Paul Ciorra from the NYPD's Intelligence Division, first reported Thursday in The New York Times.
But a law enforcement official, who was not authorized to speak about the transfer and insisted on anonymity, confirmed that Ciorra had left the unit and been replaced by an officer with experience on an FBI-run terrorism task force. The official said Ciorra would become commanding officer of the NYPD's highway patrol, despite the Times report that he would be transferred to an administrative position. The highway patrol has 400 officers and had lost its commander to retirement.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg declined to discuss the move Thursday, telling reporters that high-level personnel decisions made by Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly are "between he and I." The mayor also downplayed any internal NYPD fallout from investigation, suggesting it was unfair to second-guess police.
"When I talk to people that I've talked to, there does not seem to be the feeling that they made a mistake. ... Only in retrospect can you tell whether it was the right path or the wrong path."
Roy Richter, leader of a union representing Ciorra, insisted the transfer was not considered disciplinary.
An indictment unsealed Thursday in federal court in Brooklyn charged Zazi with conspiracy in an alleged plot to use homemade bombs in a large-scale terror attack. Court papers alleged that the 24-year-old airport shuttle driver and unidentified coconspirators, while under FBI surveillance, had bought and tested bomb-making materials in Colorado before traveling to New York City this month.
After federal authorities alerted the NYPD to the possible threat, detectives from Ciorra's division sought information about Zazi and others from an imam the Queens neighborhood where Zazi once lived. The next day the imam, Ahmad Wais Afzali, telephoned Zazi, telling him, "They asked about you guys."
Through the recorded conversation, the FBI learned that Zazi "learned directly that the law enforcement officers were tracking his activities," federal prosecutor Jeffrey H. Knox wrote in court papers filed Thursday. "Zazi ultimately purchased an airline ticket and returned to Denver on Sept. 12."
Over the next few days, heavily armed investigators staged a series of aggressive raids in Queens, and arrested Zazi, his father and Afzali on initial charges they lied to investigators. The sudden burst of activity raised questions about whether the detectives' decision to reach out to a source who prove untrustworthy had forced the FBI to go public with the investigation before the extent of the threat and the identities of all the players were known.
In a joint statement, Kelly and Joe Demarest, head of the FBI office in New York, denied reports that the questioning of Afzali and his alleged betrayal had caused a rift between the agencies.
Afzali, who was released Thursday on bail, has denied any wrongdoing.


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Boheman is a Swedish surname.

Prevalence
Outside of Sweden, the surname is also prevalent in the United States.

Origin

The surname originates from the name of a burguess from Jönköping.

Notable people
Notable people with this surname include:
 Carl Adolf Boheman (1764-1831), Swedish mystic
 Carl Henrik Boheman (1796-1868), Swedish entomologist
 Erik Boheman (1895-1979), Swedish diplomat

References

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Another erstwhile effective terrestrial fly relegated to dust collecting status over the last few years is the parachute hopper. In the 2000's and early 2010's this fly delivered some outstanding results particularly in the August and September time frame. I continue to believe that the parachute hopper imitation is the most realistic in the eyes of western trout. My parachute hopper post of 2013 provides additional background on my experience with this classic pattern that utilizes all natural materials.
Although my utilization of the gray parachute hopper diminished, as I gained confidence in foam imitations, I decided to count my supply as part of my comprehensive winter preparation for the upcoming season. I continue to resort to the life-like hopper during the summer, when the large bulky foam versions prompt repeated refusals. I would not wish to be on the water without a few of the old reliables in my fly box.
In my opinion the triggering characteristic of the parachute hopper is the knotted pheasant tail legs. I purchase pheasant tail feathers with pre-knotted legs rather than endure the tedious exercise of pulling fragile fibers through a small loop. I was pleasantly surprised to learn, that I purchased a new feather; and therefore, I possessed a more than adequate supply of legs. As was the case with the parachute green drakes, I adopted the technique of tying off the hackle to the wing post, and did the same for the whip finish. This method avoids trapping hackle fibers under the thread and results in a nice uniform spread of hackle fibers around the wing post.
I discovered twenty-six parachute hoppers in my various containers, and I deemed this quantity adequate to cover my needs in 2019. Part of my process includes checking the canisters of damaged flies, and this exercise revealed six parahoppers in varying states of disrepair. The most common maladies were unraveling hackle and missing legs. I clamped these idle flies in my vise and converted them into viable imitations. Perhaps 2019 will be a renaissance for parachute hoppers.
Up until 2013 the yellow Letort hopper was my "go to" top fly in a dry/dropper configuration, and it maintained that status for a very good reason…it caught a lot of fish. However, I grew dissatisfied with the fly's penchant for absorbing water in the large dubbed body, so I began to experiment with foam creations such as the Charlie boy hopper, pool toy hopper, and more recently the fat Albert. These large terrestrial patterns displaced the Letort hopper, as they performed better at supporting nymphs in a dry/dropper configuration, and they also attracted fish from time to time.
For a material list and a glowing report on the Letort hopper's effectiveness prior to my conversion to foam check out my 12/9/2011 yellow Letort hopper post. Another post simply titled yellow Letort hopper provides additional insight on this terrestrial fly. My love affair with the old classic provoked me to tie a large quantity, and my inventory remains quite adequate given my reduced usage. I often wonder if more time on the line could return this fly to its former glory, and occasionally I knot one on my tippet. The ploy yields a fish or two during the season, but I suspect that my commitment and confidence are lacking, and this results in diminished production from the old favorite.
I counted my large supply and determined that I possessed in excess of forty in my combined fly storage containers. I decided to sort through my six canisters with damaged and unraveling old flies, and I was surprised to find seven models in varying states of disrepair. I sat down at my tying counter and refurbished these hopper imitations, and in most cases I salvaged the body and tied on a new turkey wing segment for the underwing and a new deer hair wing. Perhaps 2019 will be the year that I recommit to the Letort hopper, but I suspect that will not be the case. I do feel that a size 10 yellow acts as a reasonable imitation of a golden stonefly, so perhaps I will select the Letort hopper more frequently during prime golden stonefly activity in late June and July.
My love affair with the fat Albert began during a trip to Patagonia in December 2013, and I tied a small starter quantity in March 2016. I began with a variety of colors, but over the intervening years I settled on a size six yellow version as my favorite. If you read my post of 02/25/2018, you will learn of my success with the yellow fat Albert on the challenging waters of Penns Creek.
For the most part I view the fat Albert as a strike indicator with a hook point. The large, visible, buoyant, and durable attractor is better than a strike indicator, when it comes to suspending two size 14 beadhead nymphs. A yellow fat Albert, beadhead hares ear nymph and salvation nymph yielded numerous outstanding days during the past three years, and I expect this performance to continue.
Although I clearly view the large foam hopper imitation as an indicator, it often surprises me by initiating a savage attack from a stream resident. In fact the trout that crush the fat Albert are generally larger than the cousins that focus on the subsurface nymphs. Surely the hopper or stonefly imitation represents a significant feast to these veterans of the underwater world.
I counted sixteen yellow fat Alberts among my fly box collection, and I decided to tie five additional models to bring the 2019 beginning inventory to twenty-one. I plucked three from my fly box and replaced missing legs to make them viable imitations, and then I manned my vise and produced two more from brand new hooks. Fat Alberts will once again appear on western rivers and streams, and I am certain they will fool trout and support nymphs in 2019.
A pool toy or a fat Albert? I struggle with this question quite often. During 2017 I opted for the fat Albert early in the season and late, but leaned on the pool toy during the July and August time period. The comparison may not be valid, since I tend to tie fat Alberts with yellow bodies and pool toys with tan bodies. Also I construct fat Alberts on size 8 hooks, and my pool toys are built primarily on size 10 hooks. I point these differences out to suggest that other variables besides type of fly may factor into the effectiveness of these two large foam hopper imitations.
2017 was the second year that I fished a fat Albert extensively, and I was quite pleased with the results. In situations where I yearn for a large buoyant visible fly to support a pair of beadhead nymphs, the fat Albert is my preferred choice. The size 8 high floating attractor with dangling sexilegs is easy to track, and when combined with a beadhead hares ear nymph and salvation nymph provides hours of productive prospecting.
Despite my recent preference for a fat Albert I am not inclined to abandon the pool toy. In situations where I attempt to match the grasshopper hatch, the pool toy is very effective. For this reason the pool toy occupies my line frequently during the months of July, August and the first half of September. My 1/31/2013 post chronicles my introduction to the pool toy and describes some of the questions that I confronted during my first attempts to replicate the Andrew Grillos pattern. My 02/11/2017 post describes the intrusion of the fat Albert as an alternative surface indicator fly in a dry/dropper configuration.
I counted thirteen tan pool toys in my various fly bins, so I manned my tying bench and manufactured an additional seven to bring my total to twenty. Eight yellow versions occupied space as well, and I decided to increment that total to ten by tying two more. I feel that I possess an adequate supply of foam grasshopper patterns to entertain the trout population in 2018.
Although the fat Albert is a decent fish attractor in its own right, it earns significant time on my line purely due to its visibility, buoyancy and durability. I particularly love the fat Albert as my lead surface fly, when I deploy a three fly dry/dropper arrangement. It is unsurpassed as a highly visible indicator fly that floats above the surface even with two size 14 beadhead nymphs dangling below. The yellow color combined with a white wing and its large size make the fat Albert easy to follow in riffles and difficult light situations. Often it is simply an indicator with a hook point, as I search the stream with a productive nymph combination.
There are incidents, however, where the fat Albert attracts the attention of opportunistic fish. One such memorable situation occurred, while I fished in Penns Creek on 6/1/2016. In this instance a brown trout crushed a yellow fat Albert likely mistaking it for a golden stonefly. I frequently deploy the yellow fat Albert during high run off conditions, as I edge fish, and I recall numerous instances where a large bank dweller ignored the dangling nymphs and pounced on the juicy foam attractor. Of course during hopper season in August and September, the fat Albert performs as a serviceable grasshopper imitation as well.
My 3/27/2016 post documents my introduction to the fat Albert, and a 12/18/2016 post chronicles the fat Albert's effectiveness during 2016, its first full season of use. I counted twelve yellow fat Albert's in my fly boxes, so I busied myself with the task of tying an additional eight to bring my 2018 starting total to twenty. Yellow has been my most productive color, although I must admit that I have not experimented extensively with the green and orange body versions, that I tied among the initial batch. I plan to visit Pennsylvania this year for my college reunion, and you can be certain that I will pack an adequate supply to test on wily central Pennsylvania brown trout in case large golden stoneflies are present. Twenty should be sufficient to lead my nymphs through pockets, runs and riffles during the 2018 fly fishing season.
My post of 02/12/2017 sums up the status of the Chernobyl ant in my fly boxes. It remains an important weapon, but it ceded some of its importance to the fat Albert and Jake's gulp beetle. In addition I enjoyed moderate success with a slightly smaller and lighter hippy stomper in the late fall of 2017, so this rising fish deceiver may displace even more line time from the Chernobyl ant.
My introduction to the Chernobyl ant extends back to my first trips to the Green River in Utah, and if interested, you can read about my early contact with the large foam ant in my post of 02/01/2011. In the initial days of tying the Chernobyl ant I experienced frustration with the single layer of foam spinning around the hook shank. This generally occurred after landing two or three fish. My 02/13/2014 post describes a significant modification to my tying methodology that eliminated the spinning shortcoming.
As the fat Albert and Jake's gulp beetle pilfered line time from the Chernobyl ant, my need to restock my supply shrank as well. I counted an adequate supply of size eights, but I determined that additional size tens were required. It is difficult to totally abandon a fly that factored so prominently in past success. I backed off on the hares ear nymph several years ago, but it returned to the number one productive fly in my box, just as I sensed its effectiveness was fading. It is far too early to write off the Chernobyl ant, since it owns a solid history of success.
Historically I resort to an ant pattern when a gust of wind initiates a flurry of surface rises, or a feeding fish rejects several of my fly offerings but continues to feed. In the latter case it is very gratifying to dupe a reluctant feeder with a small black ant riding low in the film. Both of these scenarios are described nicely in my 02/03/2016 parachute ant post, and this was the last time I tied a batch of ants.
During the past summer I experienced several days on South Boulder Creek, when a parachute black ant became a very effective searching dry fly. The most prominent example is 10/17/2017. In this instance the trouts' posture toward beetles was very tentative; however, they sipped my black ant with utter confidence. On a visit to South Boulder Creek on 09/21/2018 the black ant provided a preview of its later season effectiveness, as it yielded the first four trout of the day.
Naturally the increased deployment of parachute ants resulted in a higher rate of depletion due to break offs, snags, and unraveling flies. My elevated level of confidence in the ant pattern suggested, that I would opt to knot it on my line with increased frequency, so I counted my holdings. I learned that my various storage boxes contained sixteen parachute black ants that complied with my exacting standards, so I decided to augment the supply by fourteen to thirty. I searched for and found my 01/11/2012 post, where I created a materials table and documented the excellent tying steps demonstrated by Tom Baltz at the Fly Fishing Show. I modified these instructions for one change. I now tie off the hackle and whip finish against the wing post rather than around the hook shank. This method traps far fewer hackle fibers. I also suggest using a finer thread such as 8/0 to avoid excessive build up in the waist area.
I searched through all my damaged fly containers and uncovered eleven that were unraveling or poorly tied. Over the years I came to believe that a narrow waist between two well defined bumps is a triggering characteristic when casting an ant. I stripped quite a few ants from the hook that did meet my higher standards. The fourteen flies that I tied originated from unraveling flies, or flies that I deemed unacceptable for my exacting ant specifications.


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Potential Plasma Instabilities For Substorm Expansion Onsets
Space plasmas present intriguing and challenging puzzles to the space community. Energy accessible to excite instabilities exists in a variety of forms, particularly for the magnetospheric environment prior to substorm expansion onsets. A general consensus of the pre-expansion magnetosphere is the development of a thin current sheet in the near-Earth magnetosphere. This review starts with a short account of the two major substorm paradigms. Highlights of some observations pertaining to the consideration of potential plasma instabilities for substorm expansion are given. Since a common thread of these paradigms is the development of a thin current sheet, several efforts to model analytically a thin current sheet configuration are described. This leads to a review on the instability analyses of several prominent candidates for the physical process responsible for substorm expansion onset. The potential instabilities expounded in this review include the cross-field current, lower-hybrid-drift, drift kink/sausage, current driven Alfvénic, Kelvin-Helmholtz, tearing, and entropy anti-diffusion instabilities. Some recent results from plasma simulations relevant to the investigation of these plasma instabilities are shown. Although some of these instabilities are generally conceived to be excited in spatially localized regions in the magnetosphere, their potentials in yielding global consequences are also explored.
Venus Express on the Right Track
A paper originally presented by EADS Astrium at the 55th IAC in Vancouver in October 2004.
On October 26th of next year, Venus Express spacecraft will depart from Baikonur on-board the Soyuz/Fregat Launch Vehicle. It will be the very first European mission to the "morning star", two years after the first European trip to Mars. Venus Express will carry 7 science payloads dedicated to global investigation of the Venusian atmosphere.
Water production rate of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
The Solar Wind Anisotropies (SWAN) instrument is a scanning Lyman-alpha imager on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft. Since becoming operational in January 1996 SWAN has been producing full sky Lyman-alpha maps which are primarily used to study the interaction between solar wind and the interplanetary neutral hydrogen. In addition to that SWAN images can be used to study the hydrogen coma of comets down to about a visual magnitude of 12. After the retargeting decision of the Rosetta mission the SWAN archive was checked for possible occurrences of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Five values were obtained for the 1996 apparition but none for the 2002 apparition because of degraded instrument sensitivity and larger observing distance. The observations suggest a perihelion water production rate of about 8x10^27 per second and possible post perihelion increase of activity.
XEUS CDF Report
The objectives of the study were to perform a system conceptual design and trades, prepare a preliminary system design including budgets and subsystem designs with required performance, show science requirements compliance, define critical design issues requiring further analysis and assess and analyse programme, risk and costs. Further the constraints imposed by the chosen design were analysed and described, where appropriate. This document reports on the analysis performed and conclusions drawn for an X-ray Evolving Universe Spectroscopy conceptual design.
Eight Years of SOHO - Some Highlights
Since its launch on 2 December 1995, the joint ESA/NASA SOHO mission has provided a wealth of information about the Sun, from its interior, through the hot and dynamic atmosphere, to the solar wind and its interaction with the interstellar medium. Analysis of the helioseismology data from SOHO has provided the first images of structures and flows below the Sun's surface and has shed new light on a number of structural and dynamic phenomena in the solar interior, such as the absence of differential rotation in the radiative zone, subsurface zonal and meridional flows, and sub-convection-zone mixing. Evidence for an upward transfer of magnetic energy from the Sun's surface toward the corona has been established. The ultraviolet imagers and spectrometers have revealed an extremely dynamic solar atmosphere where plasma flows play an important role. Electrons in coronal holes were found to be relatively ``cool', whereas heavy ions are extremely hot and have highly anisotropic velocity distributions. The source regions for the high speed solar wind have been identified and the acceleration profiles of both the slow and fast solar wind have been measured. SOHO has also revolutionized our space weather forecasting capabilities by providing a continuous stream of images of the dynamic atmosphere, extended corona, and activity on the far side of the Sun. At the same time, SOHO's easily accessible images and movies have captured the imagination of the science community and the general public alike. This article summarizes some of the key findings from 8 years of SOHO.
Chandra and XMM-Newton Observations of the Nucleus of Centaurus A
We present X-ray spectra of the nucleus of the nearby radio galaxy Centaurus A from observations with the XMM-Newton EPIC CCD cameras (two exposures separated by 12 months) and the Chandra HETGS. For the first time in an FR I type galaxy, we resolve fluorescent K alpha emission from cold, neutral, or near-neutral iron at 6.4 keV, with an rms line width of ~20 eV. The Fe line parameters observed are consistent with fluorescent emission from material at a large distance from the active galactic nucleus, either in the form of an absorber that nearly completely surrounds the central engine or a torus that lies predominantly out of the line of sight. Unresolved emission lines from neutral Si K alpha at 1.74 keV and neutral S K alpha at 2.30 keV are also detected. We find no evidence in the data for a previously reported 6.8 keV broadened Fe line. The continuum spectrum is well fitted with a combination of a heavily absorbed power-law component that we relate, using Bondi theory, to accretion phenomena in the form of a standard, geometrically thin, optically thick disk, and a second, less absorbed, power-law component that we associate with emission from the subparsec VLBI radio jet.
ISOC is completing the preparations for the forthcoming Announcement of Opportunity (AO-3) which will be released on 13 September 2004 calling for new INTEGRAL observing proposals for the period February 2005 until August 2006.
Mars Express - The Scientific Payload
Editor: Andrew Wilson
Scientific Coordination: Agustin Chicarro
This ESA Special Publication focuses on the Mars Express scientific instrumentation and its state about a year after launch in order to include some initial scientific discoveries. In spite of the Beagle 2 failure, the lander's payload is also thoroughly described here because it is of the highest scientific value. Furthermore, the orbiter instruments are looking specifically for possible evidence of past or present life. No other mission to Mars since NASA's Viking missions in the 1970s has made exobiology so central to its scientific goals.
First determination of the dynamical mass of a binary L dwarf
We present here the results of astrometric, photometric and spectroscopic observations leading to the determination of the orbit and dynamical masses of the binary L dwarf 2MASSW J0746425+2000321. High angular resolution observations spread over almost 4 years and obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT), and a the W. M. Keck Observatory (Keck) allow us to cover ~36% of the period, corresponding to 60% of the orbit, and, for the first time, to derive a precise estimate of the total and individual masses of such a late-type object. We find an orbital period of 3850.9+904-767 days. The corresponding total mass is 0.146+0.016-0.006 MSun with uncertainties depending on the distance. Spatially resolved low resolution optical (550-1025 nm) spectra have been obtained with HST/STIS, allowing us to measure the spectral types of the two components (L0± 0.5 for the primary and L1.5 ±0.5 for the secondary). We also present precise photometry of the individual components measured on the high angular resolution images obtained with HST/ACS and WFPC2 (visible), VLT/NACO (J, H and KS bands) and Keck I (KS band). These spectral and photometric measurements enable us to estimate their effective temperatures and mass ratio, and to place the object accurately in a H-R diagram. The binary system is most likely formed by a primary with a mass of 0.085±0.010 MSun and a secondary with a mass of 0.066±0.006 MSun, thus clearly substellar, for an age of approximately 300±150 Myr. H-alpha variability indicates chromospheric and/or magnetic activity.
Transport of solar wind into Earth's magnetosphere through rolled-up Kelvin-Helmholtz vortices
Establishing the mechanisms by which the solar wind enters Earth's magnetosphere is one of the biggest goals of magnetospheric physics, as it forms the basis of space weather phenomena such as magnetic storms and aurorae. It is generally believed that magnetic reconnection is the dominant process, especially during southward solar-wind magnetic field conditions when the solar-wind and geomagnetic fields are antiparallel at the low-latitude magnetopause. But the plasma content in the outer magnetosphere increases during northward solar-wind magnetic field conditions, contrary to expectation if reconnection is dominant. Here we show that during northward solar-wind magnetic field conditions - in the absence of active reconnection at low latitudes - there is a solar-wind transport mechanism associated with the nonlinear phase of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. This can supply plasma sources for various space weather phenomena.
Isolated electrostatic structures observed throughout the Cluster orbit: relationship to magnetic field strength
Isolated electrostatic structures are observed throughout much of the 4RE by 19.6RE Cluster orbit. These structures are observed in the Wideband plasma wave instrument's waveform data as bipolar pulses (one positive and one negative peak in the electric field amplitude) and tripolar pulses (two positive and one negative peak, or vice versa). These structures are observed at all of the boundary layers, in the solar wind and magnetosheath, and along auroral field lines at 4.5-6.5RE. Using the Wideband waveform data from the various Cluster spacecraft we have carried out a survey of the amplitudes and time durations of these structures and how these quantities vary with the local magnetic field strength. Such a survey has not been carried out before, and it reveals certain characteristics of solitary structures in a finite magnetic field, a topic still inadequately addressed by theories. We find that there is a broad range of electric field amplitudes at any specific magnetic field strength, and there is a general trend for the electric field amplitudes to increase as the strength of the magnetic field increases over a range of 5 to 500nT. We provide a possible explanation for this trend that relates to the structures being Bernstein-Greene-Kruskal mode solitary waves. There is no corresponding dependence of the duration of the structures on the magnetic field strength, although a plot of these two quantities reveals the unexpected result that with the exception of the magnetosheath, all of the time durations for all of the other regions are comparable, whereas the magnetosheath time durations clearly are in a different category of much smaller time duration. We speculate that this implies that the structures are much smaller in size. The distinctly different pulse durations for the magnetosheath pulses indicate the possibility that the pulses are generated by a mechanism which is different from the mechanism operating in other regions.
Density structures inside the plasmasphere: Cluster observations
The electron density profiles derived from the EFW and WHISPER instruments on board the four Cluster spacecraft reveal density structures inside the plasmasphere and at its outer boundary, the plasmapause. We have conducted a statistical study to characterize these density structures. We focus on the plasmasphere crossing on 11 April 2002, during which Cluster observed several density irregularities inside the plasmasphere, as well as a plasmaspheric plume. We derive the density gradient vectors from simultaneous density measurements by the four spacecraft. We also determine the normal velocity of the boundaries of the plume and of the irregularities from the time delays between those boundaries in the four individual density profiles, assuming they are planar. These new observations yield novel insights about the occurrence of density irregularities, their geometry and their dynamics. These in-situ measurements are compared with global images of the plasmasphere from the EUV imager on board the IMAGE satellite.
Multipoint investigation of the source region of storm-time chorus
In this case study we investigate the source region of whistler-mode chorus located close to the geomagnetic equator at a radial distance of 4.4 Earth radii. We use measurements from the four Cluster spacecraft at separations of less than a few hundreds of km, recorded during the geomagnetic storm of 18 April 2002. The waveforms of the electric field fluctuations were obtained by the WBD instruments in the frequency range 50Hz-9.5kHz. Using these data, we calculate linear and rank correlation coefficients of the frequency averaged power-spectral density measured by the different spacecraft. Those coefficients have been recently shown to decrease with spacecraft separation distance perpendicular to the static magnetic field with a characteristic scale length of 100km. We find this characteristic scale varying between 60 and 200km for different data intervals inside the source region. We examine possible explanations for the observed large scatter of the correlation coefficients, and we suggest a simultaneously acting effect of random positions of locations at which the individual chorus wave packets are generated. The statistical properties of the observations are approximately reproduced by a simple 2-D model of the source region, assuming a perpendicular half-width of 35km (approximately one wavelength of the whistler-mode waves) for the distribution of power radiated from individual active areas.
3-D Computation of Plasma Thruster Plumes
AIAA 2004-3632: Presented at the 40th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit 11 - 14 July 2004, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Electric propulsion represents one of the most promising technologies for application in future space missions. The knowledge of the plasma plume evolution in the thruster surrounding space is still of fundamental importance, at system design level, for new generation satellites, in order to integrate the propulsive subsystem with the other vehicle subsystems. Furthermore, the necessity to simulate realistic configurations leads to the need of powerful and flexible 3-D tools. Alta S.p.A. and Consorzio Pisa Ricerche developed a three-dimensional particle-in-cell code capable to simulate conditions found both in space and in ground vacuum facilities, for realistic satellite configurations for Hall Effect Thrusters and Gridded Ion Engines. The present article will present a brief description of the PICPluS 3D code, including the various physical models that can be used and the code validation. Numerical results related to the ESA's SMART-1 satellite, launched on 27 September 2003, will then be compared with flight data. Finally, an analysis of the influence of the simulation paramaters on the results will follow.
Robust Pressure Regulation System for the SMART-1 Electric Propulsion Sub-System
AIAA-2004-3977: Presented at the 40th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 11-14 July 2004
Onboard the ESA SMART-1 spacecraft, (Small Mission for Advanced Research in Technology), the Xenon feeding system operates since the September 30th 2003. EPS Contractor, ESTEC, and EPS manufacturer, SNECMA MOTEURS, present in detail the major performances of the Pressure Regulation System, with a comparison to the ground tests results. The PPS® -1350 Hall Effect plasma Thruster needs a regulated xenon pressure as input of the flow controller. Such pressure is delivered and controlled by two pieces of hardware, the "Bang-Bang Pressure Regulation Unit" and the "Pressure Regulation Electronic Card". The concept is described as well as its main features: the robustness by design that cannot allow a direct communication between the high-pressure parts (the xenon tank) and the low-pressure parts (the thruster input). The paper highlights the possibility for various parameters to be tuned by telecommands in order to reach different performance levels of the pressure regulation. The real flexibility of the concept allows smoothing the pressure regulation. This paper describes the performances results of the pressure regulation in space environment compared to the ground tests results. It discusses also the advantage of the regulation tuning capability during the first flight phase. This new features of primary electric propulsion subsystem demonstrates its robustness and flexibility toward thruster initial requested tuning to keep the thruster loop fine pressure regulation in an adequate range.
The SMART-1 Electric Propulsion Subsystem In Flight Experience
Onboard the ESA SMART-1 spacecraft, (Small Mission for Advanced Research in Technology), the primary Electric Propulsion Subsystem (EPS) operates since the 30th September 2003. EPS Contractor, ESTEC, and EPS manufacturer, SNECMA MOTEURS, present in detail the major performances of the complete electric propulsion system, with a comparison to the ground tests results. The PPS®-1350-G Hall Effect plasma Thruster and its Power processing unit, developed in the frame of the CNES Stentor Program, was tested at Snecma facilities. The main feature of the Smart-1 system is its variable power supply. Integrated into the whole spacecraft the electric propulsion system was tested at ESTEC before the in-flight first firing after the successful Ariane V launch. Results of these main tests demonstrate a good prediction of the in flight EPS behavior including the robust bang-bang xenon pressure regulation for the input pressure and variable electrical power supply. This paper describes the performance results of the PPS®-1350-G firing in space environment. It discusses also the consequences of the Van Allen radiation belt crossing during the first flight phase, particularly the behavior of the floating potential of the thruster with respect to the satellite electrical ground. The initial successful results obtained supports the first technological experience objective of the SMART-1 mission. These new features of primary electric propulsion subsystem and especially the low-power start-up and variable power features can be also a significant added value for any commercial application using electric propulsion for station-keeping and/or orbit transfer.
Plasma Thruster Plume Simulation: Effect of Vacuum Chamber Environment
AIAA 2004-2357: Presented at the 35th AIAA Plasmadynamics and Lasers Conference 28 June - 1 July 2004, Portland, Oregon
Present simulation techniques for plasma thrusters plume simulations usually implement a Particle In Cell / Monte Carlo approach to a plasma flow considered in a quasi-neutral state, with the possibility of a residual atmosphere (typical of a vacuum chamber test facility). Nonetheless it is difficult to compare directly results, even with measurements taken in very similar laboratory configurations, because it's not yet achieved the possibility to simulate at the same time realistic chamber geometry, pumping system performance and effect of the sputtering caused by the ion beam impinging the chamber walls. The present article will show the results of a series of PIC/DSMC simulations executed with CPR/Alta codes on HET plumes, considering a wide range of realistic laboratory configurations, and considering also the effect of different physical models; results will be also compared with experimental ones from literature and Alta testing facilities and flight data from the European SMART-1 mission.
ESA SP-1276: ESA's Report to the 35th COSPAR Meeting
Scientific editor: A. Gimenez
Editor: A. Wilson The report for the 35th COSPAR Meeting covers, as in previous issues, the missions of the Scientific Programme of ESA in the areas of astronomy, Solar System exploration and fundamental physics. This year's COSPAR Meeting occurs only weeks after the Saturn-orbit insertion of the Cassini spacecraft - carrying Europe's Huygens probe to explore the atmosphere of Titan - and at the same time as the launch of the second satellite of the Double Star project.
CDF Study Report - Europa Low Resource Radar (ELRR)
This is an edited version of the Final Report of the Europa Low Resource Radar study, performed by the Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) at ESA ESTEC for the Science Directorate (SCI-A), in the frame of the Jupiter Minisat Explorer Technology Reference Study. The objectives of the study were to:
perform instrument conceptual design and trades
prepare a preliminary instrument design including budgets and subsystem designs with required performance
show science requirements compliance
define critical design issues requiring further analysis
assess and analyse programme, risk and costs
Further the constraints imposed by the chosen spacecraft platform and orbit were analysed and described where appropriate. This document reports on the analysis performed and conclusions for a Europa Low Resource Radar (ELRR) conceptual design.
Hall Thruster 3D Plume Modeling and Comparison with SMART-1 Flight Data
Presented at the 4th International Spacecraft Propulsion Conference, Chia Laguna (Cagliari), Sardinia, Italy, 2-4 June 2004
Electric propulsion represents one of the most promising technologies for application in future space missions; Hall Effect Thrusters (HET's) and Gridded Ion Engines (GIE) are particularly interesting for their relatively high thrust capability coupled with a specific impulse which is up to one order of magnitude higher than latest generation chemical systems. The knowledge of the plasma plume evolution in the thrusters surrounding space is of fundamental importance, at system design level, for new generation satellites, in order to integrate the propulsive subsystem with the other vehicle subsystems: as known, the use of electro-magnetic thrusters can create compatibility problems, due to the electrically charged particle flow, which can interfere with telecommunication signals and generate erosion and insulation loss for critical satellite surfaces (e.g. solar panels, optical instruments and sensors etc.) A number of Hall thrusters plume models have been developed, present simulation techniques usually implement a Particle In Cell / Monte Carlo approach to a plasma flow considered in a quasi-neutral state, with the possibility of a residual atmosphere (typical of a vacuum chamber test facility). In this paper the 3D plume simulation model developed by Alta will be described, and applied to model the SNEMA PPS® 1350 thruster used on the SMART-1 satellite.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


You are here: Home › Blog › State of the Art › Meetings, The Benefits of Shared Understanding and How To Achieve it!
Had any meetings recently? How would you score the meeting and your co-attendees out of 10?
My own experience is that a '10 meeting' needs clued-up, contributing, relevant people and a good process that travels the path from "Welcome" to "See you next time". I recently met Kelvin McGrath of MeetingQuality at the 2017 #PMOConference. Kelvin focusses on just these concerns.
Kelvin runs http://www.meetingquality.com where he has combined the insights of Ron Burt (Boundary Spanning) and others in a way that allows you to measure the quality of your meetings and business relationships with sufficient insight that the analysis is a contributing predictor of project success!
My own interest is to turn knowing how to measure, analyse and predict into guidance about how to foster more 10 scoring meetings and enhance project success.
Somewhere in that mix is a second and third theme of interest to me; I believe that remote working – through tools like skype/lync, zoom, hangouts and #slack – offers opportunity for creating BETTER shared understanding than many face-to-face meetings achieve!
The nature of some project 'meetings' is now that they are held asynchronously. In that case you should sometimes read 'collaboration and communications' where I have written "meetings".
My third theme is that great communications have to be translated into follow-through of actions and results. Meetings are a hurdle at which we can fall but not of themselves a source of success.
In total there are many meeting types or meeting purposes. In the specific context of projects at least some of our early meetings are intended to determine direction of travel; to define the target result desired. Getting these right is crucial to success. Other crucial meetings design the journey. Yet others share status etc but maybe success is less sensitive to their quality?
Within the meeting type's purposes are the determinants of how to foster good meetings. What makes 'good' is situational.
The freshly minted The Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK®-G) 6th Edition (PMBoK-G6) has a newly explicit Tool and Technique at 10.2.2.6 Meeting Management which tells us to distribute agendas and stay on time. Now while that is 'good advice' sometimes the advanced creation of an agenda and appointment of a chair person are two ways to contribute to or reinforce a systemically bad meeting that turns off people's ability to contribute and thus destroys motivation. Not always but potentially. If your aim is to 'rail-road' a decision that is how you do it.
The wrong meeting set-up, particularly where it counts; as a project struggles to overcome inertia by collecting and growing people's enthusiasm has far reaching negative fall-out. Done well the early parts of the project's interactions bring the participants to a place where enthusiasm and energy build team and momentum that helps us cruise to project delivery.
Have you ever received any meeting 'best-practice' advice that said something other than "You HAVE TO have an agenda and a chair"? If not then thus far the guidance you've received is rather naive. PMBoK-G6 expresses a vastly different perspective on project best practices than its predecessors but it is repeating socially naive guidance when it comes to meetings and meetings are perhaps the dominant consumer of project team time and energy and so the fulcrum of project success or failure.
The way in which together we achieve project results is by sharing understanding. Understanding is searched for and 'constructed' by building models in our heads of the world around us.
When we seek to share those models, we embark on a hard task.
It is no surprise (I hope) that the process is helped by pictures over words and working (prototype?) systems over pictures. Until Elon Musk's Nueralink human computer interface or its imitators and successors are in wide use we will have to manage with yellow sticky notes, the ubiquitous (mis-use?) of PowerPoint equivalents and increasingly the tools of virtual collaboration spaces like shared desktops.
Even pictures and prototypes are of no use if the sociological aspects of people's interactions are not also tuned to the constructive needs of the participants. Here it starts to get complicated. Kelvin directed me to a paper by Christoph Haug that analyses the elements of a meeting's conduct. Christoph's analysis explores physical meetings but is still very relevant to my interests of a functional meeting using virtual team technologies in a project setting.
Physical meetings take many forms, for example folk may be sat around a table. These meetings favour words as the medium of exchange. Tables and words are the first factors affecting achievement of purpose if that purpose is design oriented. The presence of the table 1) creates a physical barrier and 2) puts some attendees where the likely dynamics are face-to-face or in constant direct eye contact while other's eye-contact becomes hard. These forces have a myriad affects.
At least everyone knows how to sit at a table and in that case the full range of words, tone of voice, body language and so much more non-verbal communication becomes part of the total dialogue. The fuller communications can enrich the discussion by aiding the transmission of ideas, promote debate and enhance search for shared view-points and acknowledged ranges of disagreement.
On the other hand, barriers such as tables, non-verbal cueing and other factors are also the sources of a disempowering meetings. For example the chair can use eye-contact to 'allow' speakers to contribute and eye-contact can inhibit people to broach difficult topics. In the virtual world participants can be further disadvantaged by being unsure of the technology and the new etiquette conventions such as how to signal "I have a point to contribute here".
When the wrong meeting structure is selected or the wrong conduct allowed, encouraged or even enforced then the sociological and psychological forces at play reduce the chance of success or even prevent it.
I can recall several whispered "that was a load of b****cks" comments with colleagues in the corridor on exit from failed meetings. I have two opposites in my mind. One started "we need your input…" and then set the agenda and told us the problem, told us the diagnosis, told us the resulting actions imposed on us, the 'solution' (which by the way didn't work) was already a fait-accompli. Contributions were not wanted. Another likewise started "we need your input…" but ground to a halt as the facilitator struggled to get anyone present to contribute freely. Participants had insufficient trust to share their opinions openly because everyone knew resolution needed some bruising exchanges and the prevailing culture was one of power not seeming to be linked to very open ears.
In contrast to meetings held by sitting at the same table are electronically hosted meetings. They may put all the participants in different locations but they also remove eye-contact and change the dynamics of what is socially acceptable. For example, lack of eye contact, even as reduced by video meetings allows remote participants to step-outside physical meeting norms. I have several current team member colleagues who self-selected virtual working as their preferred way to work collaboratively because it allows then freedoms they didn't enjoy face-to-face such as raising topics otherwise considered too sensitive. It seems remoteness makes people bolder; perhaps in compensation for a reduction in intensity?
Perhaps most usefully eMeetings put all the inputs and tools of search-engines, document and picture libraries, shared white-boards, even animation, video and increasingly 3D printing and more not just at our shared finger tips but centre stage of our meeting's expected conduct. Output wise eMeetings make easy and already common recordings that time-shift for absent colleagues. Real time speech to text is also easy but so far uncommon in my experience.
On the negative side and most obvious is that electronically hosted discussion enables, perhaps even encourages multi-tasking which is a comprehension killer in any situation that needs attention to detail. Virtual collaboration spaces are powerful amplifiers of the good and the bad.
Collaboration tools from PowerPoint and flip-charts to shared virtual desktops and #slack are with us all the time now but in my experience the transition to routine use by all is far from yet achieved. While people COULD use them in physically collocated meetings take-up beyond static PowerPoint is low and fluency in virtual spaces is even lower.
For example my experience in virtual meetings is that I find I'm in the minority switching on a webcam. My experience is that often the technical environment has glitches whose causes are roughly equally security policies and immature tech. Bandwidth issues are less of a challenge but not eradicated. Prime though is that our participants are not sufficiently tool literate to use the facilities available.
Additionally, continual shared collaboration spaces like #slack require everyone to communicate through them. I frequently experience (and sometimes cause) several days delay for simple replies from busy people.
Kelvin tells me his data shows that the biggest bug-bear of mixed in-person and virtual meetings is inadequate attention to the participants out of the room by those in the room and that even slack's CEO recognises that when part of asynchronous collaboration moves back to eMail then "it [open forum discussion] tends to fall apart".
Shared generation of value is only likely if the people have the skills in both the new cultural paradigms and tool literacy, the tech. works and the meeting's combination of 'Regimes' is conducive to purpose.
Meeting regimes are Christophe Haug's decomposition of 6 themes of constraint to 18 variations (I have applied my own filters and interpretations and rewordings to his ideas). For the original see the references at the end.
For a fuller – but still adapted – description of Christoph's Regimes see the tables in the appendix.
What I have 'lifted' verbatim is Christoph's analysis of how the three patterns of regime combination in the table result in differently empowering (or in the first column's case disempowering) meetings. Christoph points out that 726 more combinations are possible beyond the three above!
The first column above could be great for a project sponsor explaining the vision they are paying to have delivered. That can be a vital part of project success.
But big but; it is a disaster for a group of subject matter experts seeking to explore and debate design issues with the aim of shared understanding and commitment to act – which is also a vital part of project success.
I'll explain more of regimes and their combination into styles later. The right style simply enables. The meeting's style determines how the meeting is run. Within that style we also need the right participants being enabled.
I could write reams here about meeting passengers etc. but I'll be more succinct. A valuable participant has the subject matter expertise to understand and contribute to the meeting's purpose. They also have a reason to attend. They arrive appropriately prepared and with will and energy to play their part (appropriate preparation can range from 'none' so as to arrive with an open mind through to rehearse, scripted presentations and more).
In addition to a proposed list of 18 'real' reasons to attend meetings amazingly Kelvin's data from the field shows about 1 in 8 participants have a 19th which is they don't know why they are at any given meeting.
In some circumstances a participant's value may be the authority to make decisions.
I have found in many projects that some topics deserve a meeting that explores options and a separate meeting that decides and different (overlapping?) participants at each.
In my experience, the power of a segmentation approach has been that I can get senior people to attend short meetings with clear focus and a decision orientation. I can build motivation in open forum that searches for opinion and consensus. I can combine the two to avoid the "won't talk in front of the boss/ overdrive attention seeking in front of the boss/ blind agreement with the boss" types of dysfunction while keeping the combined 'commitment to act, and act with authorisation' overall.
I mentioned Ron Burt above. Burt shows us how people in organisations are connected to each other and that some individual's connections reach a long way from what we might call their local close circle. He called these people boundary spanners. They are connectors. Many commentators have since shared Mark Granovetter's "The Strength of Weak Ties" and Malcolm Gladwell's observations in his book Tipping Point.
I'll assert that in a project environment there is only one ultimate reason to hold all the ancillary meeting types; to motivate and coordinate committed actions. All the others are preparatory of this ultimate reason.
Gladwell identified that to build momentum needs a stickie message and the ability to reach out through connections to new communities.
Gladwell describes three personality traits that have been combined whenever we see unstoppable social momentum; someone with a message (the maven) links with someone who is highly connected who links with someone who is highly persuasive (the salesperson). Of course all three abilities may reside in one head.
The right meeting style (collection of regimes) is an example of multi-criteria decision making where participant's personality type, the nature of the subject matter, the meeting's purpose and the shared culture are all contributing factors.
One step to better meetings is to understand the axis of analysis that reveal the social mechanisms in use. Social mechanisms are often forces affecting us all that a lot of people could not name or describe but that we recognise when they are explained. Christoph's regimes are an example.
Another axis is the technologies available (but not if our environmental regime is 'Ignored' – see the regime definitions later).
Another is our choice of words. All sharing of ideas and options needs communications. Words can be helpful but they are also a hindrance (more in a minute). Communication is often best achieved using graphics. Working prototypes systems can be even better but are hard to create – although note that a scrum (agile) end of sprint product demonstration is a discussion with a working system and could be said to be using the 'Inclusive' environmental regime (recall more regime details in the appendix).
Using more graphics is obviously aided when we use tools like skype well or when we use white-boards and flip-charts well. 'Search for understanding' meetings where people are sat around a table and rely on just words always frustrate me. Words are so often, so far from well used to convey concept.
Is it just me or do you also hear people start their descriptions with an obvious encyclopaedia of assumed but unlisted, unexplained factors creating ambiguity and uncertainty in their messages? How much better then to use graphics tools and how much better to de-materialise the meeting around shared collaboration spaces that everyone has equal access to? Even concurrent access!
Lets explore words and structuring their presentation a little more.
Chelle Rose Charvet wrote an excellent book (Words That Change Minds) on people's mindsets and how their words reveal them. Are you a big-picture person? Rule bound or rule maker? Problem resolving or goal seeking? Should I aim to help you 'see what I mean', 'Hear what I say' or 'Sing from the same hymn sheet' or 'get in step'?
Whether we draw pictures and build models or not we still need to use words. Even when we can perceive the mindset of a speaker or of our listeners from their words and thus improve the transmission of meaning we still face the challenge of constructing arguments that link objectives or problems to actions that are agreed and taken.
Describing a vision (seekers) or problem is bringing us towards my third interest above – generating committed actions. But first we need to overcome the problem that to simply agree the description of goals and problems turns out to be hard in some cases.
The terms 'Wicked Problem' and 'Mess Management' have been used to describe 'problems' whose description and analysis is fraught with complexity. Wikipedia gives a good introduction to wicked problems and the whole class of responses. Responses are 'vocabularies' and techniques for argumentation and design rationale representations like Horst Rittel's IBIS (and see also Jintae Lee and Kum-Yew Lai's 1992 MIT working paper). A wicked problem is one: whose existence involves emergence, whose description is unique for each observe, whose description anchors the solution search, whose potential solutions cannot be assessed in advance as right/wrong and often only present as "that's enough" after we get past a point of recognition and for which each attempt at solution changes the problem left.
When dealing with these problems when is it right and useful to use which tools and techniques? What meeting style should be combined with which purposes and participants?
Great meetings need the right style from Christoph's 6 axis of constraint. Then within that context there are techniques and orientations which can assist us to build teams that select and deliver the organisation's portfolios of project based change.
Most people have heard of Kick-Off meetings.
Kick-Offs communicate "this is where we are going, why action is needed, what the constraints are". As I alluded above Christoph's 'Disempowering' combination may well be the most appropriate in this context. Used well the impression created could be a clear vision, a firm sense of direction and confirmation of reliable sponsorship through easy and tough times. Maybe disempowering should be relabelled Power-Focussing?
Within the Kick-Off context my preferred tool for envisioning is the Program Exit Test (maybe I should ™ that!). Adapted from Use-Cases, Test Driven Development and elsewhere "As <role> I am coming to inspect <operational procedures> in routine use on <date>".
There is *so* much that flows from the backcasting of actions from program exit tests through business behavioural tipping points, benefit flow measurements and eventually cascade-able project milestone targets that I'll leave the expansion here to my video training on project meetings at http://learn.logicalmodel.net/. Suffice to say we have to know how to conduct a meeting, use techniques to share opinions AND have the tool-set to capture the meeting's agreed semantic content.
Less people seem to use framing sessions. They are perhaps more important than kick-offs for the success of business investments (projects).
Here it is appropriate to use Christoph's functional boundary and pragmatic environment regimes. It is right to add discussion tools like those I previously mentioned from Hörst Rittel and wicked problems (IBIS and the Compendium software) and Russel Ackoff's Mess Management perspective of synthesis instead of analytical decomposition.
Framing sessions need chairing or facilitating, they still need participants from the right constituencies, they need communication outside the meeting that has previously 'kicked-off' something empowered and they will need other communications that will subsequently turn exploration into decision then decision into action and then action to results.
Framing asks "what is possible? Where are the possible boundaries?, How?, Can we chart the implications of competing choices?". Used well these are optioneering sessions whose result can be to build commitment by having shown willingness to listen. They do not have to be power-sharing but they are encouraging the use of a debate-space.
If Kick-off cascades the target destination (What) then framing is the nemawashi* before kick-off that selected destinations and the nemawashi after kick-off that option-eers potential solutions (How-To) backwards from Program Exit Test to project milestones via Gladwell's Tipping-Points using Ritel's IBIS or other argumentation language.
When the context is complex then the governance control regime is freedoms, adaptive and iterative. When the context is linear certainty and simplicity then management can be predictive and optimised for efficient swift delivery.
Once again it is too much to include the details here of how meeting protocol, ideation tools and project governance, leadership and management all coalesce but project success depends on them and increasingly we are seeking success in collaborations based on virtual team spaces.
I'll just summarise by saying that once our meeting constraints are well constructed then our envisioning meetings benefit from an attendee outlook that synthesises rather than analyses and benefits from tools that capture proposition and argument to visualise conversations and choices. I'll leave the expansion of these themes to my video training on project meetings at http://learn.logicalmodel.net/.
Lets first share his 6 regimes.
Purpose – why people convene – Can be vague to focussed – Meaning – frame of reference to interpret meeting's content – defines actions and words that can be said & meaning heard.
Frames are created by agendas- Removes need/ ability to negotiate.
Leadership Regime Leadership regimes handle emerging status differences and where decision making authority lies.
Groups develop hierarchy through public interaction (so via meetings) based on the apparent evaluation made by others plus asymmetry of reciprocation of gestures of approval.
I.e. What I think of someone is based on what I think you think. Initiating meetings often = initial status.
People self claim social value from 'my contribution'.
Loss of face = embarrassment to others.
Conflict Social Regime is needed for Egalitarian Leadership Regime; otherwise embarrassment stops challenge to/ correction of hierarchy forming actions like asymmetric reciprocity.
Boundary Regime Meeting's temporal boundaries and sense of urgency. Distinctiveness of formal meeting's start and end.
A meeting style is a collection of one each of the ways a Regime can be applied to the meeting.
Each of the three options for a regime (so 18 in total) are described below. The three styles below have non-overlapping use of the regimes.
Disempowering Style's Results Interaction constraints are beyond most participants ability to affect.
Participants are in a ritualistic silent pretence of endorsement of what is outside of their ability to influence.


Dragon Scales - Software Informer. An easy-to-play, hard-to-master puzzle challenge with great graphics.
Dragon Scales is an easy-to-play, hard-to-master puzzle challenge with great graphics. The screenshot below is a typical position (you can play in windowed mode or full-screen).
The object is to remove all the scales in groups. Only scales that are not overlapped by any others can be removed. It's a bit like Mahjongg (sometimes called Shanghai) - as in that game, you can't see everything because some scales are hidden beneath others.
In the image, two hexagonal scales are being removed - they leave a trail of sparks as they fly towards their box on the right.
There's no time limit on the free trial (shareware) version, but the puzzles will repeat after ten at each skill level. The full version can create infinitely many puzzles, and also allows you to define your own layouts.


text:
22-NOV-2017: AMU Phd student receives WHO award
Aligarh, November 22: Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Phd student from the university?s Department of Psychology, Mr Faisal Hassan Rizvi has been conferred with a special ?Research-Award? by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for his research on 'Psycho-Social impacts of mental disorders in India: Emergent needs of evidence based approach for public health'.
Mr Rizvi received the award during the 17th Pacific Basin Consortium Conference in New Delhi. The conference was jointly organised by the Public Health Foundation of India and East West Centre, Hawaii, USA.
Mr Rizvi was awarded after a panel found his research as an important breakthrough towards the intersections of mental health and public health based upon evidences being translated into policy.
He has earlier received the Excellent Academic Contribution Award in Bhutan besides being honoured with the title of ?Youth Icon? for conducting academic rehabilitation of undergraduates from indigenous Tharu tribals of India-Nepal border. Mr Rizvi was also invited to speak at the Activate Johannesburg Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Mr Rizvi is pursuing research under the supervision of Professor Mohammed Ilyas Khan (Chairperson, Department of Psychology, AMU).


This level entry 3 bdrm, 2 bath rancher is located on the border between Sunnymead and Cordova Bay. Situated on a spacious 10,000+ sq ft lot with nicely landscaped sunny south/west facing rear yard. Built in 1989 this property offers a clean, well-maintained home for new owners. Move-in as-is or modernize to suit your tastes, either way you won't be disappointed. Enjoy both the proximity to Cordova Bay Golf Course with the adjoining Mattick's Farm shops and the lush retreat of Mt. Doug Park. Showings are easily arranged and quick possession is possible.
The blue circle drawn on the map represents the area which is most likely to contain listings comparable to 4778 Cordova Bay Rd. If you wish, you may adjust the circle by dragging the white center handle to move it, or dragging one of its other white handles to resize it. Press the 'Next' button at the top when finished.


There is one set of Common Core standards, but there are many Common Core tests. Some states are creating their own tests, while others are using common tests developed by two state-led, federally funded consortia (SBAC and PARCC).
The new tests are meant to be more challenging than past state tests. The idea is to better measure students' critical-thinking, communication and problem-solving skills.
How well would you do on one of the new tests? Click on the teasers below to try some Common Core test questions.


Katherine Mansfield. (2019). The HistoryHop.com website. Retrieved 10:04am UTC, Apr 22, 2019, from historyhop.com/famous-people/katherine-mansfield/bio.
Katherine Mansfield. [Internet]. 2019. The HistoryHop.com website. Available from: historyhop.com/famous-people/katherine-mansfield/bio [Accessed 22 Apr 2019].
"Katherine Mansfield." Bio. The HistoryHop.com website, 2019. Web. 22 Apr 2019.


Sheryl Andrews is an enthusiastic advocate of the home arts. This award-winning quilter and crafter has spent a lifetime exploring the depths of traditional home skills. Sheryl, who marries a modern understanding of process engineering with the pleasure of creating beauty, believes an enriched home environment adds to the fullness of life.


Grapes have a special place in our hearts…ahem, wine—but they also have a pretty interesting history too. Grapevines are thought to have originated around Mesopotamia and were one of the earliest fruits to ever be cultivated. Grapes are associated with wealth, power, good fortune, and they're just plain tasty. Good news for grape lovers: KRAVE® has a Grape Vine flavored e-cig, perfect for when you want something with a little sweetness.
In honor of the awesomeness that is everything grape-flavored, we are rolling out the second installment of our Music to Vape to series, and we're showcasing KRAVE®'s Grape Vine e-cig.
This playlist includes an eclectic mix of fun songs that reminded us of a Grape Vine KRAVE® e-cig. We couldn't open this playlist with anything other than Marvin Gaye's groovy classic, I Heard It Through The Grapevine. Following is the mellow hit Grapevine Fires from indie favorite Death Cab for Cutie. The experimental electronic rock duo Ratatat lend their unique sounds with the track Grape Juice City, and Los Angeles producer Flying Lotus closes out the list with his song Grapesicles.
Get up and groove along to this playlist with your Grape Vine KRAVE® e-cig or checkout the track listing below—and make sure to be on the lookout for more playlists especially curated for the awesome flavors of e-cigs brought to you by KRAVE®. For more music, check out our blog on Fall Tours We're KRAVE®ing here or check out all of the KRAVE® products here.


Using Jobs-to-be-Done, design thinking, and experience design to reimagine a hospital's travel and lodging experience.
How might we re-imagine a better hospitality experience for our most acute patients and their families who travel to us for care?
As Nebraska Medicine continued to grow, a strategic decision was made to close its onsite hotel that was used predominately by patients and their families. As a result, the Nebraska Medicine patient experience team needed a way to reimagine the travel and lodging experience with the constraint of zero on-campus lodging. With a recently renewed focus on patient experience within the organization, Nebraska Medicine knew that the most valuable, creative, and relevant insights would come from a human-centered approach to ideation.
To address the initial research phase for this project, Cast & Hue employed a largely qualitative methodology. This approach, called Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD), is a research method used for understanding consumer behavior and decision-making.
This technique helped to uncover patients' behaviors and decisions when navigating their patient journey, as it digs deep into a job a patient or family member is trying to accomplish. One of the more interesting aspects of JTBD is that it takes the perspective that purchasing decisions are based on more than just features, but instead are often driven by hidden motivations and needs.
Ten former and current patients of Nebraska Medicine and three non-Nebraska Medicine patients were interviewed for this project, as well as key stakeholders from multiple service lines and internal departments. Each of these statements revealed hidden contexts and true needs that may have otherwise gone undiscovered.
As an output of qualitative research, the Jobs-to-be-Done interviews uncovered dozens of patient needs. Those needs were synthesized into major themes across the travel and lodging journey. Within those themes, there were significant gaps between the service delivery and patient expectations which, if addressed, could dramatically improve the overall patient experience. Those major unmet needs were converted into problem statements to be used as the focal point of design thinking sessions with patients and staff.
The workshop yielded over one hundred solutions ranging from small ideas like a bag of quarters for late-arriving patients to use in vending machines to a community house where long-term stay patients can cook, wash clothes, and interact with other long-term patients.
The viable design thinking solutions created during the patient workshop would lay the foundation for the new Nebraska Medicine travel and lodging experience.


There was an article in NY Times about turning phones to grayscale. I found it while waiting in line in a theatre, January 18th. The line was long and as anybody else in the line, I was holding my phone in front of my face, reading and texting.
Text: Obviously, no problems. Reading online can be even better, because you can ignore ads more easily.
Camera: I like black and white photography, it was OK.
Images: My photos were OK, however with some pictures from other people I wished to see colors.
Video: Watching videos felt like watching and old TV. I almost stopped watching videos (mostly on youtube) on my phone.
Maps: This was the biggest problem. Especially with a subway map, I could not tell the color of a line. I use maps often in the city. For me this is important and the reason to go back to colors.
What did I learn? With grayscale display, the world around you seems to be more attractive than your phone. However it can be impractical for some applications. Customized filters for apps could be a good compromise.


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There's also something very cozy about this record - perhaps because it was recorded amongst the vast forests and wetlands in Woodinville, Washington - or perhaps because it also includes natural sounds of the life outside of the studio. When you listen to the dreamy final track on the record, "Just Kids," you can hear the sound of creek life throughout the last half of the song. "At the very end of the process, we filled the control room with candles and candy and listened to the whole record from start to finish." Brandi remembered, "...we'd been joking about it the whole time but hadn't found a way to do it but finally, at that point, we took a microphone out to the creek and recorded the frogs."
There is little I can say to do this record justice - it is, in its entirety, extremely touching yet light and fun. The opening track on the record, "Hard Way Home" is a nice little introduction to the down-home, sort of country, familial feeling that you get from all of the songs on Bear Creek. Songs like "100," "Heart's Content" and "A Promise to Keep" are true musical gems from instrumentation to vocal delivery and lyrics - the progressions on these three songs are just gorgeous. "I'll Still Be There" and "In The Morrow" are Folk and Americana at their best.
Brandi is set to hit the road this summer with a variety of musicians including another Seattle favorite, Dave Matthews. You can catch Brandi in your city - check out her full list of tour dates here! Check out our interview and don't forget to pick up what is easily one of the best records of 2012 thus far: Brandi's latest album, Bear Creek, available NOW!
I had a chance to listen to the record and I can only think of one word to describe it: magical. I can't say that about many albums. Is that something that you and the twins could feel in the studio?
Brandi Carlile: There tends to be a youthful innocence about the way that me and the twins work together, we lean heavily on the concept of kismet and magic.
What's one of your favorite memories from the recording process?
At the very end of the process, we filled the control room with candles and candy and listened to the whole record from start to finish. It was then that we decided to name the record Bear Creek and we'd been joking about it the whole time but hadn't found a way to do it but finally, at that point, we took a microphone out to the creek and recorded the frogs.
What do you hope people feel after they listen to the new album in its entirety? Is there a theme?
We went into this studio with the mindset of shunning any tangible sense of continuity, it was something we'd been conscious of in the past and we wanted to see if continuity would happen without trying to make it happen.
What does this record mean to you?
It means independence, freedom and just youthfulness.
You're famous for your live performances - constantly gaining new fans on the road and drawing in the old ones time and again. How did you learn to leave such a resonating impact, to have that kind of connection with people on such a broad scale? Did you have a mentor? Someone you tried to emulate? Just lots of practice?
I consciously and subconsciously try to emulate Elton John on a regular basis with regard to my respect for performance art; but as far as just day to day love of music and performing, I take really seriously the exchange of energy that happens between an audience member and a person on the stage. I don't think that there needs to be a divide between the two.
What vocal microphone do you use for your live performances?
I use the Neumann live microphone.
You've got a big tour ahead! Big venues, Dave Matthews...What are you looking forward to?
Dave Matthews is a unique performer with a unique audience; they set the bar very high with regard to the aforementioned exchange of energy. I look forward to having that with them and getting to know Dave better as a person.
Elton John once told me to learn to embrace the concept of timelessness in my own generation.
I'd love also include a bit about your organization, The Looking Out Foundation. How's that going? Are there any projects that you're extra excited about right now?
Well, an organization we're supporting at the moment is Charity: Water. In honor of my 31st birthday, I asked my fans not to buy me presents but to donate $31 to this cause; which helps to build freshwater projects for people in developing nations and my charity, the Looking Out Foundation pledged to match the total raised. I am really excited to see how much we manage to raise, my fans are notoriously generous!
Do your guitars have names?
I call my road weary touring guitar from the first part of my 20's Willie, after Willie Nelson's guitar. It has like three holes in it that I dug out over time with my guitar pick.
You could do a duet with anyone in history - who would it be?
Patsy Cline or Freddie Mercury.


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Tag: New Orleans
Mardi Gras in Louisiana: Carnivals Between the City and the Country
From the first days of January and Mardi Gras, held on February 25 this year, Louisiana celebrates a French tradition that dates back to the Middle Ages — the carnival. The line-up includes floats and bead necklaces in New Orleans, and masked horse riders and Cajun songs in the countryside. This is the world's biggest show enjoyed for free every...
On the Road (to the Elysée): Jacques Chirac in America
Before becoming president of France, Jacques Chirac was a vagabond in America during the 1950s. At least, that was the story he liked to tell. Jacques Chirac, who passed away on September 26, was a friend to America and would tell anyone willing to listen. One such person was President Bill Clinton, whom he met in Washington in 1995 less...
Françoise Gilot: Muse and Artist
With the recent republication of her hit memoir Life With Picasso and a gallery show opening on August 3 in New Orleans, artist Françoise Gilot remains more current than ever in the seventh decade of her career. "A painter, his model, and an intelligent woman, she is a superb witness to Picasso as an artist and to his views on art."...
Degas House in New Orleans Enshrined by French Culture Minister
The house at 2306 Esplanade Avenue where Edgar Degas lived and painted from 1872 to 1873 has received the Maison des Illustres label from the French minister of culture. This is the second site in the United States to be recognized in this way, along with Marguerite Yourcenar's house in Maine. The label was created in 2011 to showcase "residences that...
Edgar Degas, an Impressionist in New Orleans
Edgar Degas is renowned for his paintings of young ballet dancers and horse races, and his series depicting women ironing. A lesser known painting is that of New Orleans. He travelled to the city in 1872 to see the American side of his mother's family, who worked as cotton and textile merchants. The painter saw this six-month stay as a...
Five Unusual Guides for Traveling in the United States
Major U.S. cities are attracting an increasing number of tourists and expats in search of new and original experiences. For those looking to make the most of New York, Miami, Los Angeles, or Chicago, here is a selection of guides written by French travelers. Destination New York, the very first Francophone guide created online [caption id="attachment_71497" align="aligncenter" width="670"] The third...
A Musical Journey Through New Orleans After Katrina
Music holds sway in New Orleans. In Faubourg Tremé, a book published in French and English on October 12, Parisian photographer Alexis Pazoumian studies the role of music in the reconstruction of the city ten years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans has always held a deep attraction for photographers. Lee Friedlander, Bernard Hermann, William Claxton, and George...
Lessons from Noah's Ark
Who or what is responsible for the hurricanes Harvey and Irma that recently devastated the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. Global warming? Urbanization? Or perhaps Nature itself? Natural disasters were equated to some divine punishment until the 18th century — a theory that dates back to the Flood. After destroying land and sea, God personally promised Noah to never...
300 Years of French Culture in Alabama
Sixteen years before they founded New Orleans, the French established a settlement on the Gulf of Mexico, a town now called Mobile, in Alabama. To celebrate the bi-centennial of its annexation by the United States, Alabama is organizing a symposium on its French heritage this weekend. We asked Steve Murray, director of the Alabama Department of Archives and History, to...


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Irmintraut Richarz (* 13. März 1927 in Suhl; † 10. April 2012 in Münster) war eine deutsche Haushaltswissenschaftlerin und Professorin. Sie war die erste Direktorin des Instituts für Haushaltswissenschaft und Didaktik der Haushaltslehre im Fachbereich Chemie der Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität in Münster.

Richarz war zunächst mehrere Jahre Lehrerin in ländlich-hauswirtschaftlichen Schulen und studierte dann Landbauwissenschaften, danach Sozialwissenschaften und Pädagogik an der Universität Göttingen. 1969 erfolgte die Promotion zum Doktor der Sozialwissenschaften und ein Jahr darauf wurde sie auf den neu eingerichteten Lehrstuhl für Hauswirtschaftswissenschaft der Pädagogischen Hochschule Westfalen-Lippe, Abteilung Münster, berufen. Nach deren Integration in die Universität Münster wurde sie 1980 Direktorin des Instituts für Haushaltswissenschaft und Didaktik der Haushaltslehre. Sie wurde 1992 emeritiert.
Am 5. März 2010 wurde sie in Münster mit dem Bundesverdienstkreuz für ihre langjährigen wissenschaftlichen Forschungen ausgezeichnet.

Einzelnachweise

Sozialwissenschaftler
Hochschullehrer (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität)
Hochschullehrer (PH Westfalen-Lippe, Abteilung Münster)
Träger des Bundesverdienstkreuzes am Bande
Deutscher
Geboren 1927
Gestorben 2012
Frau


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Iranian architecture awarded by 2013 Middle East Architect
TEHRAN (ISNA)- An Iranian architecture Kourosh Hajizadeh was handed the prize for Architect of the Year, at the Middle East Architect Awards 2013.
The award was presented to the architect by Shaji Ul Mulk, founder and chairman of Mulk Holdings, the company behind Alubond.
The panel described Hajizadeh as an architect with a strong body of work ranging from masterplans to individual buildings.
The judges praised the strong graphic communication of ideas as a great strength of this year's winner as well as his desire to innovate and take that one- step further to create something special.
Amongst Hajizadeh's many projects are the University of Isfahan, Iran and the Tehran War Museum, Iran.
"I still don't believe it," said Hajizadeh. "I'm very happy right now. I'm extremely grateful to all of the people involved in this event; both the organizers and the judges. It's been an amazing evening."
He continued: "This award will be a new beginning for me in this region," said Hajizadeh. "I'm extremely interested in focusing on is the relationship between people, cities and architecture. I intend to really focus on this relationship; I want to create harmony between these three factors."
Pierre Martin Dufresne of U+A Architects was highly commended for the category, already winner of Principal of the Year at the event.
By ISNA
The Iran Project is not responsible for the content of quoted articles
Iranian architecture Kourosh Hajizadeh, Middle East Architect Awards 2013, Quoted	December 17, 2013
Spokeswoman calls on west to change approach to start human rights cooperation with Iran
No problem with oil exports to India


It has been warming up and I hope so will my photos. I have had fun exploring the loveliness of low light, but it is time to add some flare (pun intended). This week we have just been getting back into the swing of things after Vegas. Mainly just enjoying the sun!


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Art Explorers with Miss Nora
« Toddler Time at NYA
Learn As We Go Crochet »
Join Miss Nora on Wednesday afternoons for creative fun in the library meeting room where we celebrate the process, not the product. Children and their caregivers will create art together using a variety of mediums including paint, crayons, markers and collage materials. Please dress for a mess. For ages 3-6. Registration is required.
https://www.eventkeeper.com/mars/xpages/C/CHBOOTH/EKMONTH.cfm?zeeOrg=CHBOOTH
C.H. Booth Library
Newtown, CT, CT United States + Google Map
Storytime Adventures for Ages 2-5
An event every week that begins at 10:00 am on Monday and Tuesday, repeating until January 31, 2023
Toddler Time at NYA
An event every week that begins at 10:00 am on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, repeating until June 9, 2023
Musical Monday with Principal Al
One event on February 13, 2023 at 11:00 am
One event on March 6, 2023 at 11:00 am
One event on March 20, 2023 at 11:00 am


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Paige Driscoll is an award winning photographer, filmmaker, and doula as well as a mother to five boys. She is a storyteller of real-life moments specializing in birth and motherhood. She captures the most transformative time of your life in an artful way.
The births of her five boys were the most beautiful and empowering experiences of her life which led her down the path to becoming a birthworker. She is a certified birth doula, has training through Childbirth International as well as DONA, is a trained Hypnobabies doula, and holds a B.A. in Child and Adolescent Development. She has attended over 150 births, each one so beautifully unique. Her full spectrum of personal birth experiences range from hospital birth to birthing at home and is supportive of all birthing methods. Her goal is to help birthing parents feel confident, safe, and supported during their pre-natal, birth, and post-partum journey all while documenting their story. With her passion for birth and her extensive experience and expertise as both a photographer and birthworker she is able to support women in labor and capture the true rawness and beauty of birth as it unfolds.