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The Invention of "Ethical Artificial Intelligence": How Big Tech Manipulates Academia to Avoid Regulation
TECHNOLOGY, 23 Dec 2019
Rodrigo Ochigame – The Intercept
Illustration: Yoshi Sodeoka for The Intercept
20 Dec 2019 – The irony of the ethical scandal enveloping Joichi Ito, the former director of the MIT Media Lab, is that he used to lead academic initiatives on ethics. After the revelation of his financial ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier charged with sex trafficking underage girls as young as 14, Ito resigned from multiple roles at MIT, a visiting professorship at Harvard Law School, and the boards of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the New York Times Company.
Many spectators are puzzled by Ito's influential role as an ethicist of artificial intelligence. Indeed, his initiatives were crucial in establishing the discourse of "ethical AI" that is now ubiquitous in academia and in the mainstream press. In 2016, then-President Barack Obama described him as an "expert" on AI and ethics. Since 2017, Ito financed many projects through the $27 million Ethics and Governance of AI Fund, an initiative anchored by the MIT Media Lab and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. What was all the talk of "ethics" really about?
For 14 months, I worked as a graduate student researcher in Ito's group on AI ethics at the Media Lab. I stopped on August 15, immediately after Ito published his initial "apology" regarding his ties to Epstein, in which he acknowledged accepting money from the financier both for the Media Lab and for Ito's outside venture funds. Ito did not disclose that Epstein had, at the time this money changed hands, already pleaded guilty to a child prostitution charge in Florida, or that Ito took numerous steps to hide Epstein's name from official records, as The New Yorker later revealed.
The discourse of "ethical AI" was aligned strategically with a Silicon Valley effort seeking to avoid legally enforceable restrictions of controversial technologies.
Inspired by whistleblower Signe Swenson and others who have spoken out, I have decided to report what I came to learn regarding Ito's role in shaping the field of AI ethics, since this is a matter of public concern. The emergence of this field is a recent phenomenon, as past AI researchers had been largely uninterested in the study of ethics. A former Media Lab colleague recalls that Marvin Minsky, the deceased AI pioneer at MIT, used to say that "an ethicist is someone who has a problem with whatever you have in your mind." (In recently unsealed court filings, victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre testified that Epstein directed her to have sex with Minsky.) Why, then, did AI researchers suddenly start talking about ethics?
At the Media Lab, I learned that the discourse of "ethical AI," championed substantially by Ito, was aligned strategically with a Silicon Valley effort seeking to avoid legally enforceable restrictions of controversial technologies. A key group behind this effort, with the lab as a member, made policy recommendations in California that contradicted the conclusions of research I conducted with several lab colleagues, research that led us to oppose the use of computer algorithms in deciding whether to jail people pending trial. Ito himself would eventually complain, in private meetings with financial and tech executives, that the group's recommendations amounted to "whitewashing" a thorny ethical issue. "They water down stuff we try to say to prevent the use of algorithms that don't seem to work well" in detention decisions, he confided to one billionaire.
I also watched MIT help the U.S. military brush aside the moral complexities of drone warfare, hosting a superficial talk on AI and ethics by Henry Kissinger, the former secretary of state and notorious war criminal, and giving input on the U.S. Department of Defense's "AI Ethics Principles" for warfare, which embraced "permissibly biased" algorithms and which avoided using the word "fairness" because the Pentagon believes "that fights should not be fair."
Ito did not respond to requests for comment.
Joichi Ito, then-director of MIT Media Lab, speaks during a press conference in Tokyo on July 8, 2016.
Photo: Akio Kon/Bloomberg/Getty Images
MIT lent credibility to the idea that big tech could police its own use of artificial intelligence at a time when the industry faced increasing criticism and calls for legal regulation. Just in 2018, there were several controversies: Facebook's breach of private data on more than 50 million users to a political marketing firm hired by Donald Trump's presidential campaign, revealed in March 2018; Google's contract with the Pentagon for computer vision software to be used in combat zones, revealed that same month; Amazon's sale of facial recognition technology to police departments, revealed in May; Microsoft's contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement revealed in June; and IBM's secret collaboration with the New York Police Department for facial recognition and racial classification in video surveillance footage, revealed in September. Under the slogan #TechWontBuildIt, thousands of workers at these firms have organized protests and circulated petitions against such contracts. From #NoTechForICE to #Data4BlackLives, several grassroots campaigns have demanded legal restrictions of some uses of computational technologies (e.g., forbidding the use of facial recognition by police).
Meanwhile, corporations have tried to shift the discussion to focus on voluntary "ethical principles," "responsible practices," and technical adjustments or "safeguards" framed in terms of "bias" and "fairness" (e.g., requiring or encouraging police to adopt "unbiased" or "fair" facial recognition). In January 2018, Microsoft published its "ethical principles" for AI, starting with "fairness." In May, Facebook announced its "commitment to the ethical development and deployment of AI" and a tool to "search for bias" called "Fairness Flow." In June, Google published its "responsible practices" for AI research and development. In September, IBM announced a tool called "AI Fairness 360," designed to "check for unwanted bias in datasets and machine learning models." In January 2019, Facebook granted $7.5 million for the creation of an AI ethics center in Munich, Germany. In March, Amazon co-sponsored a $20 million program on "fairness in AI" with the U.S. National Science Foundation. In April, Google canceled its AI ethics council after backlash over the selection of Kay Coles James, the vocally anti-trans president of the right-wing Heritage Foundation. These corporate initiatives frequently cited academic research that Ito had supported, at least partially, through the MIT-Harvard fund.
To characterize the corporate agenda, it is helpful to distinguish between three kinds of regulatory possibilities for a given technology: (1) no legal regulation at all, leaving "ethical principles" and "responsible practices" as merely voluntary; (2) moderate legal regulation encouraging or requiring technical adjustments that do not conflict significantly with profits; or (3) restrictive legal regulation curbing or banning deployment of the technology. Unsurprisingly, the tech industry tends to support the first two and oppose the last. The corporate-sponsored discourse of "ethical AI" enables precisely this position. Consider the case of facial recognition. This year, the municipal legislatures of San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley — all in California — plus Somerville, Massachusetts, have passed strict bans on facial recognition technology. Meanwhile, Microsoft has lobbied in favor of less restrictive legislation, requiring technical adjustments such as tests for "bias," most notably in Washington state. Some big firms may even prefer this kind of mild legal regulation over a complete lack thereof, since larger firms can more easily invest in specialized teams to develop systems that comply with regulatory requirements.
Thus, Silicon Valley's vigorous promotion of "ethical AI" has constituted a strategic lobbying effort, one that has enrolled academia to legitimize itself. Ito played a key role in this corporate-academic fraternizing, meeting regularly with tech executives. The MIT-Harvard fund's initial director was the former "global public policy lead" for AI at Google. Through the fund, Ito and his associates sponsored many projects, including the creation of a prominent conference on "Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency" in computer science; other sponsors of the conference included Google, Facebook, and Microsoft.
Although the Silicon Valley lobbying effort has consolidated academic interest in "ethical AI" and "fair algorithms" since 2016, a handful of papers on these topics had appeared in earlier years, even if framed differently. For example, Microsoft computer scientists published the paper that arguably inaugurated the field of "algorithmic fairness" in 2012. In 2016, the paper's lead author, Cynthia Dwork, became a professor of computer science at Harvard, with simultaneous positions at its law school and at Microsoft. When I took her Harvard course on the mathematical foundations of cryptography and statistics in 2017, I interviewed her and asked how she became interested in researching algorithmic definitions of fairness. In her account, she had long been personally concerned with the issue of discriminatory advertising, but Microsoft managers encouraged her to pursue this line of work because the firm was developing a new system of online advertising, and it would be economically advantageous to provide a service "free of regulatory problems." (To be fair, I believe that Dwork's personal intentions were honest despite the corporate capture of her ideas. Microsoft declined to comment for this article.)
After the initial steps by MIT and Harvard, many other universities and new institutes received money from the tech industry to work on AI ethics. Most such organizations are also headed by current or former executives of tech firms. For example, the Data & Society Research Institute is directed by a Microsoft researcher and initially funded by a Microsoft grant; New York University's AI Now Institute was co-founded by another Microsoft researcher and partially funded by Microsoft, Google, and DeepMind; the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI is co-directed by a former vice president of Google; University of California, Berkeley's Division of Data Sciences is headed by a Microsoft veteran; and the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing is headed by a board member of Amazon. During my time at the Media Lab, Ito maintained frequent contact with the executives and planners of all these organizations.
Big tech money and direction proved incompatible with an honest exploration of ethics, at least judging from my experience with the "Partnership on AI to Benefit People and Society," a group founded by Microsoft, Google/DeepMind, Facebook, IBM, and Amazon in 2016. PAI, of which the Media Lab is a member, defines itself as a "multistakeholder body" and claims it is "not a lobbying organization." In an April 2018 hearing at the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the Partnership's executive director claimed that the organization is merely "a resource to policymakers — for instance, in conducting research that informs AI best practices and exploring the societal consequences of certain AI systems, as well as policies around the development and use of AI systems."
But even if the Partnership's activities may not meet the legal threshold requiring registration as lobbyists — for example, by seeking to directly affect the votes of individual elected officials — the partnership has certainly sought to influence legislation. For example, in November 2018, the Partnership staff asked academic members to contribute to a collective statement to the Judicial Council of California regarding a Senate bill on penal reform (S.B. 10). The bill, in the course of eliminating cash bail, expanded the use of algorithmic risk assessment in pretrial decision making, and required the Judicial Council to "address the identification and mitigation of any implicit bias in assessment instruments." The Partnership staff wrote, "we believe there is room to impact this legislation (and CJS [criminal justice system] applications more broadly)."
In December 2018, three Media Lab colleagues and I raised serious objections to the Partnership's efforts to influence legislation. We observed that the Partnership's policy recommendations aligned consistently with the corporate agenda. In the penal case, our research led us to strongly oppose the adoption of risk assessment tools, and to reject the proposed technical adjustments that would supposedly render them "unbiased" or "fair." But the Partnership's draft statement seemed, as a colleague put it in an internal email to Ito and others, to "validate the use of RA [risk assessment] by emphasizing the issue as a technical one that can therefore be solved with better data sets, etc." A second colleague agreed that the "PAI statement is weak and risks doing exactly what we've been warning against re: the risk of legitimation via these industry led regulatory efforts." A third colleague wrote, "So far as the criminal justice work is concerned, what PAI is doing in this realm is quite alarming and also in my opinion seriously misguided. I agree with Rodrigo that PAI's association with ACLU, MIT and other academic / non-profit institutions practically ends up serving a legitimating function. Neither ACLU nor MIT nor any non-profit has any power in PAI."
Worse, there seemed to be a mismatch between the Partnership's recommendations and the efforts of a grassroots coalition of organizations fighting jail expansion, including the movement Black Lives Matter, the prison abolitionist group Critical Resistance (where I have volunteered), and the undocumented and queer/trans youth-led Immigrant Youth Coalition. The grassroots coalition argued, "The notion that any risk assessment instrument can account for bias ignores the racial disparities in current and past policing practices." There are abundant theoretical and empirical reasons to support this claim, since risk assessments are typically based on data of arrests, convictions, or incarcerations, all of which are poor proxies for individual behaviors or predispositions. The coalition continued, "Ultimately, risk-assessment tools create a feedback-loop of racial profiling, pre-trial detention and conviction. A person's freedom should not be reduced to an algorithm." By contrast, the Partnership's statement focused on "minimum requirements for responsible deployment," spanning such topics as "validity and data sampling bias, bias in statistical predictions; choice of the appropriate targets for prediction; human-computer interaction questions; user training; policy and governance; transparency and review; reproducibility, process, and recordkeeping; and post-deployment evaluation."
To be sure, the Partnership staff did respond to criticism of the draft by noting in the final version of the statement that "within PAI's membership and the wider AI community, many experts further suggest that individuals can never justly be detained on the basis of their risk assessment score alone, without an individualized hearing." This meek concession — admitting that it might not be time to start imprisoning people based strictly on software, without input from a judge or any other "individualized" judicial process — was easier to make because none of the major firms in the Partnership sell risk assessment tools for pretrial decision-making; not only is the technology too controversial but also the market is too small. (Facial recognition technology, on the other hand, has a much larger market in which Microsoft, Google, Facebook, IBM, and Amazon all operate.)
In December 2018, my colleagues and I urged Ito to quit the Partnership. I argued, "If academic and nonprofit organizations want to make a difference, the only viable strategy is to quit PAI, make a public statement, and form a counter alliance." Then a colleague proposed, "there are many other organizations which are doing much more substantial and transformative work in this area of predictive analytics in criminal justice — what would it look like to take the money we currently allocate in supporting PAI in order to support their work?" We believed Ito had enough autonomy to do so because the MIT-Harvard fund was supported largely by the Knight Foundation, even though most of the money came from tech investors Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay, via the Omidyar Network, and Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and Microsoft board member. I wrote, "If tens of millions of dollars from nonprofit foundations and individual donors are not enough to allow us to take a bold position and join the right side, I don't know what would be." (Omidyar funds The Intercept.)
It is strange that Ito, with no formal training, became positioned as an "expert" on AI ethics, a field that barely existed before 2017.
Ito did acknowledge the problem. He had just received a message from David M. Siegel, co-chair of the hedge fund Two Sigma and member of the MIT Corporation. Siegel proposed a self-regulatory structure for "search and social media" firms in Silicon Valley, modeled after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, a private corporation that serves as a self-regulatory organization for securities firms on Wall Street. Ito responded to Siegel's proposal, "I don't feel civil society is well represented in the industry groups. We've been participating in Partnership in AI and they water down stuff we try to say to prevent the use of algorithms that don't seem to work well like risk scores for pre-trial bail. I think that with personal data and social media, I have concerns with self-regulation. For example, a full blown genocide [of the Rohingya, a mostly Muslim minority group in Myanmar] happened using What's App and Facebook knew it was happening." (Facebook has admitted that its platform was used to incite violence in Myanmar; news reports have documented how content on the Facebook platform facilitated a genocide in the country despite repeated warnings to Facebook executives from human rights activists and researchers. Facebook texting service WhatsApp made it harder for its users to forward messages after WhatsApp was reportedly used to spread misinformation during elections in India.)
But the corporate-academic alliances were too robust and convenient. The Media Lab remained in the Partnership, and Ito continued to fraternize with Silicon Valley and Wall Street executives and investors. Ito described Siegel, a billionaire, as a "potential funder." With such people, I saw Ito routinely express moral concerns about their businesses — but in a friendly manner, as he was simultaneously asking them for money, whether for MIT or his own venture capital funds. For corporate-academic "ethicists," amicable criticism can serve as leverage for entering into business relationships. Siegel replied to Ito, "I would be pleased to speak more on this topic with you. Finra is not an industry group. It's just paid for by industry. I will explain more when we meet. I agree with your concerns."
In private meetings, Ito and tech executives discussed the corporate lobby quite frankly. In January, my colleagues and I joined a meeting with Mustafa Suleyman, founding co-chair of the Partnership and co-founder of DeepMind, an AI startup acquired by Google for about $500 million in 2014. In the meeting, Ito and Suleyman discussed how the promotion of "AI ethics" had become a "whitewashing" effort, although they claimed their initial intentions had been nobler. In a message to plan the meeting, Ito wrote to my colleagues and me, "I do know, however, from speaking to Mustafa when he was setting up PAI that he was meaning for the group to be much more substantive and not just 'white washing.' I think it's just taking the trajectory that these things take." (Suleyman did not respond to requests for comment.)
Regardless of individual actors' intentions, the corporate lobby's effort to shape academic research was extremely successful. There is now an enormous amount of work under the rubric of "AI ethics." To be fair, some of the research is useful and nuanced, especially in the humanities and social sciences. But the majority of well-funded work on "ethical AI" is aligned with the tech lobby's agenda: to voluntarily or moderately adjust, rather than legally restrict, the deployment of controversial technologies. How did five corporations, using only a small fraction of their budgets, manage to influence and frame so much academic activity, in so many disciplines, so quickly? It is strange that Ito, with no formal training, became positioned as an "expert" on AI ethics, a field that barely existed before 2017. But it is even stranger that two years later, respected scholars in established disciplines have to demonstrate their relevance to a field conjured by a corporate lobby.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, now chair of the Department of Defense's Defense Innovation Board, takes his seat for the House Armed Services Committee hearing on "Promoting DOD's Culture of Innovation" on April 17, 2018.
Photo: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images
The field has also become relevant to the U.S. military, not only in official responses to moral concerns about technologies of targeted killing but also in disputes among Silicon Valley firms over lucrative military contracts. On November 1, the Department of Defense's innovation board published its recommendations for "AI Ethics Principles." The board is chaired by Eric Schmidt, who was the executive chair of Alphabet, Google's parent company, when Obama's defense secretary Ashton B. Carter established the board and appointed him in 2016. According to ProPublica, "Schmidt's influence, already strong under Carter, only grew when [James] Mattis arrived as [Trump's] defense secretary." The board includes multiple executives from Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, raising controversies regarding conflicts of interest. A Pentagon employee responsible for policing conflicts of interest was removed from the innovation board after she challenged "the Pentagon's cozy relationship not only with [Amazon CEO Jeff] Bezos, but with Google's Eric Schmidt." This relationship is potentially lucrative for big tech firms: The AI ethics recommendations appeared less than a week after the Pentagon awarded a $10 billion cloud-computing contract to Microsoft, which is being legally challenged by Amazon.
The majority of well-funded work on "ethical AI" is aligned with the tech lobby's agenda: to voluntarily or moderately adjust, rather than legally restrict, the deployment of controversial technologies.
The recommendations seek to compel the Pentagon to increase military investments in AI and to adopt "ethical AI" systems such as those developed and sold by Silicon Valley firms. The innovation board calls the Pentagon a "deeply ethical organization" and offers to extend its "existing ethics framework" to AI. To this end, the board cites the AI ethics research groups at Google, Microsoft, and IBM, as well as academics sponsored by the MIT-Harvard fund. However, there are caveats. For example, the board notes that although "the term 'fairness' is often cited in the AI community," the recommendations avoid this term because of "the DoD mantra that fights should not be fair, as DoD aims to create the conditions to maintain an unfair advantage over any potential adversaries." Thus, "some applications will be permissibly and justifiably biased," specifically "to target certain adversarial combatants more successfully." The Pentagon's conception of AI ethics forecloses many important possibilities for moral deliberation, such as the prohibition of drones for targeted killing.
The corporate, academic, and military proponents of "ethical AI" have collaborated closely for mutual benefit. For example, Ito told me that he informally advised Schmidt on which academic AI ethicists Schmidt's private foundation should fund. Once, Ito even asked me for second-order advice on whether Schmidt should fund a certain professor who, like Ito, later served as an "expert consultant" to the Pentagon's innovation board. In February, Ito joined Carter at a panel titled "Computing for the People: Ethics and AI," which also included current and former executives of Microsoft and Google. The panel was part of the inaugural celebration of MIT's $1 billion college dedicated to AI. Other speakers at the celebration included Schmidt on "Computing for the Marketplace," Siegel on "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Algorithms," and Henry Kissinger on "How the Enlightenment Ends." As Kissinger declared the possibility of "a world relying on machines powered by data and algorithms and ungoverned by ethical or philosophical norms," a protest outside the MIT auditorium called attention to Kissinger's war crimes in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, as well as his support of war crimes elsewhere. In the age of automated targeting, what atrocities will the U.S. military justify as governed by "ethical" norms or as executed by machines beyond the scope of human agency and culpability?
No defensible claim to "ethics" can sidestep the urgency of legally enforceable restrictions to the deployment of technologies of mass surveillance and systemic violence. Until such restrictions exist, moral and political deliberation about computing will remain subsidiary to the profit-making imperative expressed by the Media Lab's motto, "Deploy or Die." While some deploy, even if ostensibly "ethically," others die.
Google Continues Investments in Military and Police AI Technology Through Venture Capital Arm
Facebook Uses Artificial Intelligence to Predict Your Future Actions for Advertisers, Says Confidential Document
Why an "AI Race" Between the U.S. and China Is a Terrible, Terrible Idea
Amazon Promises "Unwavering" Commitment to Police, Military Clients Using AI Technology
Rodrigo Ochigame
Go to Original – theintercept.com
Tags: Artificial Intelligence AI, Big Brother, Science, Technology
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Home»RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT»WHO introduces global registry on human genome editing
WHO introduces global registry on human genome editing
By Abdallah el-Kurebe August 31, 2019 No Comments3 Mins Read
TheWorld Health Organisation (WHO) expert advisory committee has approved the first phase of a new global registry to track research on human genome editing.
The UN health agency in a statement via its website on Friday said the 18-member committee also announced an online consultation on the governance of genome editing.
Human genome editing has been raising controversy in the international medical space as there is no regulating body or laws to monitor what scientists do.
WHO last month strongly warned against clinical modification of the gene of eggs, sperms or the embryo to produce genetically edited babies.
WHO Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus, had said "it would be irresponsible for any anyone at this time to proceed with clinical application of human germline genome editing" without an agreed international standard regulating the practice.
Gene Controversies
The committee was constituted against the backdrop of the latest events of scientists clinically conducting human germline genome editing without international regulation.
The calls for stiffer regulation arose after a Chinese researcher, He Jiankui, in 2018 said he had used a gene-editing technology known as CRISPR to make the world's first genetically-edited babies.
He used the CRISPR technique to modify the CCR5 gene on the embryos of seven couples, in order to make them resistant to the HIV virus. One of the couples subsequently gave birth to twins – Lulu and Nana.
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The international community is yet to establish standards for gene-editing researches. Global ethical principles will prevent unethical researchers from moving to whichever country that has the loosest regulations.
Addressing the second meeting of the committee on effective governance and oversight of human genome editing, Mr Ghebreyesus said since their last meeting, some scientists had announced their wish to edit the genome of embryos and bring them to term.
"This illustrates how important our work is, and how urgent. New genome editing technologies hold great promise and hope for those who suffer from diseases we once thought untreatable. But some uses of these technologies also pose unique and unprecedented challenges – ethical, social, regulatory and technical," he said.
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Mr Ghebreyesus emphasised that countries should not allow any further work on human germline genome editing in human clinical applications until the technical and ethical implications have been properly considered.
Accepting the recommendation of the committee, WHO announced plans for an initial phase of the registry using the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP), a WHO entity.
"This phase will include somatic and germline clinical trials. In order to ensure that the registry is fit for purpose and transparent, the committee will engage with a broad range of stakeholders on how it will operate," it stated.
The committee called on all relevant research and development initiatives to register their trials. To enhance the development of a global governance framework for human genome editing, the committee will undertake online consultations and in-person engagement.
Biotechnology human genetics Human genome editing Register of human genome editing WHO
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Steeler Addicts - Pittsburgh Steelers News, Forum. Blog, Downloads, & Fan Site > 6 Time Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers > Steelers Talk > Bye Bye Pats !!!
View Full Version : Bye Bye Pats !!!
Wow what a wild game, but congrats to Tony Dungy for finally making it to the Super Bowl with the colts.
BYE BYE Pats !! Don't let the door hit ya on the way out !
WHOOOHOOOO way to go, DUNGY!!!!!
:nahnah: :nahnah: :nahnah: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: That ROCKED!!!!
I hate rooting for Manning too, but I hate rooting for Brady even more so atleast the lesser of 2 evils got it done today.
Seeing the Pats get sawed off at the end of the game was just plain great.
Congrats to Manning and Dungy.....Beat the Bears!!
That would be the ****.
Captain comeback didn't quite have it tonight!
Holy **** what a comeback!!!!
Way to Peyton, Dungy, and the Colts. Great game! Peyton played his *** off. He was getting some huge hits after his throws, but he hung in there and made some huge plays for the win. Addai and Rhoads were great, Reggie Wayne made possibly the biggest play of the game when he lost that ball and pulled it back, the defense stepped up in the 2nd half, Clark and Utech made some huge plays, the Colts played through injuries, it was a great game and they deserve to go to the Super Bowl.
Anyway, congrats Colts, and you deserve to win the Super Bowl.
Holy s*it was that wild! I hate wanting the Colts but if the Patriots would have made it they would have tied the Steelers for 6 times in th Super Bowl, and if they won would have had 4 and just would need one more to tie the Steelers with 5 and most all-time.
Did anyone else see that lame *** interview by Belichick at the end, he was so short and smart assed it wasn't even funny !
Yeah I saw that, and Boomer Esiason was laughing at it.
I was too, ol Belichick thought the game was theirs lol - i'm so glad they lost. I dont want Brady to ever get 4 SB rings, Terry is the greatest!!!
To Hell with Belliache. He needs to get a damn life. He been a prick ever since he coached in Cleveland.
I missed it but I hope one of the networks gives a replay.
How about after the game when Manning went over to shake Belichick's hand and Belichick(not even looking at Manning)taps Manning on the back and keeps on walking.
Yep he didnt want to see or talk to anybody, complete lack of class and common courtesy !
Why does that surprise you, Matt? We all knew this would happen. I hate that mother****er to begin with.
Was it just me or did he push pass Manning and not shake his hand?
**** the Colts **** the Pats **** Brady and **** Manning.
Da Bears all the way. My best friend and his Dad are diehard Bears fans and I'm happy for them the Bears are in the Super Bowl and are going to get the **** out of the Colts.
Was it just me or did he push pass Manning and not shake his hand?I didn't see it but I heard that Peyton was waiting to shake his hand and he blew right by him.
Yeah, there's a thread about it on patriotsplanet. Apparently Manning went over to Dungy right as Belichick was congratulating him, and then Belichick walked past Manning, Peyton stuck out his hand for a handshake, and Belichick just ignored it and kept walking. LT was right, Belichick has no class.
And Boomer Esaison just lost his speaking privleges. WTF was up with wearing a ****ing Belichick hoodie during the pregame? And then at halftime when they were talking about Hobbs's pass interference on Reggie Wayne in the endzone that wasn't called, Boomer was like "I think that was a great call." Way to be unbaised, douche.
I didn't think that was pass int. Wayne tripped on his own before Hobbs even touched him. And that is an unbiased statement cause I really don't care for either team.....lol On the replay Wayne clearly tripped on his own which caused the contact. I thought it was int. when it first happened but changed my mind on the replay.


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"To Hell With You", "Anybody But Catholics" and other Reactions to HHS Mandate
Bishop Zubik, Diocese of Pittsburgh, HHS, HHS Ruling, mandate, Mary Ann Walsh, Pennsylvania, Religious Liberty, USCCB
There has been much reaction to the recent HHS edict that will force Catholics to violate their conscience.
Bishop David Zubik of the Diocese of Pittsburgh wrote, "It is really hard to believe that it happened. It comes like a slap in the face. The Obama administration has just told the Catholics of the United States, "To Hell with you!" There is no other way to put it." Read the rest here.
Send a message to congress and President Obama asking them to respect religious liberty by clicking here.
Bishop Joseph McFadden of the Diocese of Harrisburg said, "Never before has the federal government forced individuals and organizations to go out into the marketplace and buy a product that violates their conscience. This shouldn't happen in a land where free exercise of religion ranks first in the Bill of Rights." Read the entire statement here.
Bishop Joseph Bambera of the Diocese of Scranton wrote, "Simply put, as Catholics, we cannot comply with this unjust law. People of faith cannot be made second class citizens. We are already joined by our brothers and sisters of all faiths and many others of good will in this important effort to regain our religious freedom. Our parents and grandparents did not come to these shores to help build America's cities and towns, its infrastructure and institutions, its enterprise and culture, only to have their posterity stripped of their God given rights. In generations past, the Church has always been able to count on the faithful to stand up and protect her sacred rights and duties. I hope and trust she can count on this generation of Catholics to do the same. Our children and grandchildren deserve nothing less." Read the entire letter here.
Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia wrote, "Bishops and lay Catholic leaders across the United States have made it clear that we cannot comply with this unjust law without compromising our convictions and undermining the Catholic identity of many of our service ministries. This is not just another important issue among the many we need to be concerned about. This ruling is different. This ruling interferes with the basic right of Catholic citizens to organize and work for the common good as Catholics in the public square."
In her column "Free Exercise No Longer Free or Exercisable," PCC's Joelle Shea writes, "Do not be falsely led into believing that this edict is only about contraception – a teaching of the church that many Catholics admittedly may not fully understand or follow. The HHS mandate insidiously uses a tried and true tactic of targeting an unpopular position first in the effort to raze an entire principle."
Bishop Trautman of the Diocese of Erie said, "I want to underscore the fact that this is not a Republican or a Democratic issue, but rather a fundamental, constitutional issue. At stake is our own constitutional right to religious liberty andfreedom of conscience protected by the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment."
Read "Six Things Everyone Should Know About the HHS Mandate."
Sister Mary Ann Walsh of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) asks about a Catholic bias, "The government allows other religions to live out their beliefs. The Amish and Christian Scientists have a conscientious objection to health insurance, and so the law exempts them from buying it. The government acknowledges the right of these religious groups to live out their religious convictions in U.S. society. Why are beliefs of Catholics and others dismissed?" Read the rest here.
Here is a video message from New York's Archbishop Timothy Dolan, the president of the USCCB:


McLaren's 2019 Formula 1 line-up and the team's chief executive officer visited the Motorious stand at the Autosport International Show today.
Motorious.com, a new asset of the Motorsport Network, is the global destination for enthusiasts who want to read about, buy and sell collector cars.
Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz Jr are both new signings to McLaren, and during their press commitments spent time to admire the McLaren P1 and 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray on display at the Motorious stand.
The P1 utilises technology from McLaren's F1 programme, including some innovations that are banned in the sport today, and was produced between 2013 to 2015. It is Brown's own example of the 903bhp hypercar that forms half the display.
McLaren's entry into the Indianapolis 500 this year will use Chevrolet engines, and so it was natural that the drivers also admired the Corvette, a rare fuel-injected 327ci V8 model, most noticeable for its split rear window and another of Brown's own cars.
Rob Kauffman, chairman of Motorious.com, was also present, and chatted with the McLaren team for Motorsport.tv, the Motorsport Network's online platform for video content.
Motorious.com is a joint venture between the Motorsport Network and Speed Digital, a market-leading US business that provides its proprietary software solutions and digital platforms across the North American automotive and classic car industry.
The organisation is focused on assisting dealers, auctioneers and collectors with its state-of-the-art dealership management software and custom web & marketing solutions.


Head southwest. Turn left onto Bellevue Ave. Turn left onto S Clyde Morris Blvd.Turn right onto W International Speedway Blvd. Turn right onto S Peninsula Dr. Turn left onto Cheshire Rd. Turn right onto S Atlantic Ave. Destination will be on the left.
Follow Red Cleveland Blvd to E Lake Mary Blvd. Continue on E Lake Mary Blvd. Take State Rte 415 N, Tomoka Farms Rd and Dunlawton Ave to Florida A1A N/S Atlantic Ave in Daytona Beach Shores. Turn left onto E Lake Mary Blvd. Continue onto State Rte 415 N. Continue straight to stay on State Rte 415 N. Continue onto Tomoka Farms Rd. Turn right onto Taylor Rd. Continue onto Dunlawton Ave. Continue onto Dunlawton Bridge. Continue onto Dunlawton Ave. Use the left 2 lanes to turn left onto Florida A1A N/S Atlantic Ave. Destination will be on the right.
Get on FL-528 E from Jeff Fuqua Blvd. Take FL-417 Toll N and I-4 E to US-92 E/W International Speedway Blvd in Volusia County. Take exit 129 from I-4 E. Continue on US-92 E/W International Speedway Blvd. Drive to S Atlantic Ave in Daytona Beach Shores. Merge onto US-92 E/W International Speedway Blvd. Turn right onto S Peninsula Dr. Turn left onto Cheshire Rd. Turn right onto S Atlantic Ave. Destination will be on the left.
The hotel cannot accommodate parking for oversized vehicles or trailers.


Who is announcing Thursday night & Saturday night?
According to Wikipedia, which I don't know how accurate that is, it says Jim Nantz and Phil Simms are calling the Chargers vs. Raiders game as well as Redskins vs. Eagles. I find it hard to believe they're calling both games. I think they would get the Redskins vs. Eagles game with both teams having something to play for unlike the Chargers vs. Raiders game.
But you could say the same for Gumbel & Green who will be in Baltimore on Sunday. I think with this being a holiday week and all, you will have N & S in Philly on Saturday, and will likely have Harlan (who calls more games than any of us will ever see) & Gannon calling Chargers/Raiders or, as a long shot, Bill Macatee & Randy Cross. I doubt the latter pair, and had Tom McCarthy & Adam Archuleta been tagged for the Texans/Titans, instead of Dedes & Wilcots, then Spero & Sol would have had the call on Xmas Eve.
Any idea who is doing the Saturday Night Game? Is it Phil Simms and Jim Nance?
Check out my Thursday Night Football Schedule for the answer, and Nantz & Simms will be doing the Thursday game and Eagle and Green will do the Saturday game.
Kevin Harlan is my favorite play by play announcer in the NFL. I am so glad when we get him for Chiefs games!
Harlan and Gannon calling Chiefs games is like Gumbel and Dierdorf calling Ravens games a few years ago.


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Home > 4R Partners > The McGregor Company
The McGregor Company
This partner can help with the Right Place, Right Rate, Right Source, Right Time,
The growth and success of The McGregor Company is attributed to finding "good people" – many of whom have been with us for 20 years or more. We are proud of the involvement of our employees in the communities we serve. Long term support from the outstanding farmers of the Inland Northwest and dedicated employees have combined to make The McGregor Company the largest independent retailer of agricultural products in the Pacific Northwest. The McGregor Company has deep roots in Inland Northwest agriculture. More than 100 years ago the McGregor family came to the Palouse country, as sheep raisers.
In 1901, the McGregors added wheat to their farming enterprise. Promising nutrient research work done on the McGregor Ranch by Washington State College agronomist Harley Jacquot led to further experimentation. Sherman McGregor, a second generation family member, began experimenting with commercial fertilizers in 1948. Jacquot became a full-time agronomist for us in 1950. Together we established the first soils testing laboratory in the area. Farmers from throughout the Inland Northwest traveled to plot tours held each summer on the McGregor Ranch. This marked the beginning of the McGregor commitment to agricultural research and development, which we have continued since those pioneering days with commercial fertilizers.
The McGregors also began to develop an equipment manufacturing business in the early fifties. We designed and tested applicators and sprayers to meet the needs of the extensive wheat farm of the Inland Northwest. Our coil spring shanks and advanced design application equipment became the standards throughout the Inland Northwest and the Canadian prairies.
What started as a sideline of the family's general store at the ranch headquarters in Hooper, Washington, grew steadily under Sherman McGregor's leadership. By 1956, The McGregor Company was set up as a separate company to handle our family's fertilizer, crop protection, and equipment activities. The McGregor Company grew to 17 retail outlets by its centennial year of 1982. Today, more than 40 communities in three Pacific Northwest states are served by The McGregor Company.
The McGregor Company supports the 4R initiative as it complements the decades of applied research in the area of responsible fertility management. Our company has been a pioneer in the area of fertility management and has taken a lead role in developing environmentally sustainable approaches to managing fertilizer plans under direct seeding systems.
AVAILABLE 4R PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Select appropriate fertilizer and on-farm nutrient sources for the cropping system
Soil testing N, P, K secondary and micronutrient
Nutrient management planning
Application timing
Fertilizer product choice
Incorporation of fertilizer
Conservation tillage
Yield goal analysis
Plant tissue analysis
Website: www.mcgregor.com
Address: 28232 Endicott Rd. Colfax WA 99111
Stay up to date with the 4Rs
The Fertilizer Institute
Fertilizer Canada
International Plant Nutrition Institute
International Fertilizer Association
425 Third Street, S.W., Suite 950
Copyright © 2017 The Fertilizer Institute, All Rights Reserved.


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Plymsparris (Asparagus africanus) är en art i familjen sparrisväxter och förekommer naturligt i Sydafrika och Namibia. Arten odlas som rumsväxt i Sverige och används ibland som snittgrönt i buketter.

Varieteter
Två varieteter kan urskiljas:
var. africanus
var. puberulus

Synonymer
var africanus
Asparagopsis lamarckii Kunth
Asparagus asiaticus var. mitis (A.Rich.) Chiov.
Asparagus gourmacus A.Chev.
Asparagus irregularis Baker
Asparagus mitis A.Rich.
Asparagus sennii Chiov.
Asparagus sidamensis Cufod.
Protasparagus africanus (Lam.) Oberm.

var. puberulus (Baker) Sebsebe
Asparagus pilosus Baker
Asparagus puberulus Baker
Asparagus pubescens Baker
Asparagus shirensis Baker

Externa länkar
Svensk Kulturväxtdatabas

Sparrisväxter
Krukväxter
Pl Växtindex

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Make a world of difference with your class, club, or community group. Browse the Climate Change Action Projects Database and find a service learning project that is right for you.
Select "environment" and then "climate change" from the issues at TakePart.com Actions happen when people like you feel inspired to do something!
Select "environment" from the causes at DoSomething.org and hit search.
If you believe that your government could be doing more, contact your elected officials and tell them about what you've learned and what you think should be done. Locate and contact your Elected Officials.


Top secret documents revealed by former United States National Security Agency contractor, Edward Snowden indicate that American and British intelligence agencies have cracked much of the online encryption which is supposed to protect the privacy of people's personal data and email communications.
The documents reveal that the spy agencies used methods to defeat the use of "ubiquitous encryption across the Internet" such as: covert means to ensure that the NSA controlled setting of international encryption standards; the use of super computers to break encryption; and collaboration with technology companies and internet service providers (ISPs).
This information came from documents from the NSA and its United Kingdom counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), which were obtained and published by the Guardian and the New York Times newspapers and the non-profit investigative journalism organization ProPublica.
The agencies, according to reports, also injected so called "backdoors" into commercial encryption software to ensure they could decrypt messages when they wanted to.
The assault against Internet encryption has been carried by the agencies since 2000, according to the documents. As much as $250 million is poured into the program by the NSA each year. The program includes covertly influencing product designs.
The GCHQ has also been working on breaking into the encryption traffic of online companies, Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Hotmail.
Earlier this year, Snowden blew the lid off the NSA's Prism program which was designed to gather online user data. Following the leak, it was made known that U.S. intelligence agencies are secretly empowered by law to compel American companies to release metadata on customers communications. Snowden is now in asylum in Russia.
The U.S. government has maintained that it was not spying on American citizens and that the surveillance activities were responsible for thwarting several critical terrorist plots.
Revelations that some high-profile American technology companies have been providing data to the government has caused some consternation in the industry with several businesses involved in the scandal scrambling to repair the public relations damage arising from privacy concerns.
Some analysts estimate that U.S. cloud computing firms could lose as much as $35 billion from the fallout of the Prism scandal.


I understand prayer to be an individual expression of submission to God's will.
By that I mean: (1) prayer is a petition to God springing from the depths of the soul of each petitioner, notwithstanding the group setting in which many prayers are uttered; and (2) prayer is a demonstration to God that we are individually willing to do, and accept, His will above our own, notwithstanding that prayer is usually a request for blessings.
What I'm emphasizing is that for God to honor our prayers, we need to do our part and make sure we — alone — are sincere in seeking His will, not simply relying on others to pray in our stead; we also need to make sure it is His will, not necessarily our own, that we are seeking in the first place.
As we analyze the "Lord's Prayer" thoughtfully, we notice that the most fundamental thing we are to pray for is that "God's will be done here on earth as it is in heaven." In other words, to pray as we ought, we must want this mortal life to conform, as much as we are able, to the divine pattern for righteousness decreed in the heavens, at least as far as our own conduct and influence are concerned, as we understand that divine pattern from God's word.
Put another way, we must want to help create a "heaven on earth" (beginning with our own example), realizing that the only alternative is to cooperate in building its opposite — either by default or complicity.
And finally, we are to pray for God's help in avoiding doing that which is evil or displeasing to Him. We must pray for His tutoring and guidance as we seek His sanctification, allowing Him to remake our character and behavior in His own image.
The beginning point for all such true submission to God and spiritual refinement is to be "spiritually born of Him," by the miraculous power of the Holy Ghost. We might therefore rightly assume that the key to praying as we ought is to first be transformed by His Spirit into a "new creature" (2 Cor. 5:17-21) who has taken upon us "the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:2-4), so our prayers are efficacious and so we are not prone to "ask amiss" (James 4:3).
Paradoxically, of course, the more sincerely we pray as we ought at any point in our lives — no matter where we are spiritually in God's estimation — the more we make it possible for Him to bring about our true conversion, and thus spiritual rebirth, if we have yet to attain it, as well as His blessings in any particular.
In either case, the central principle of salvation is the sincerity of our prayers, and the degree to which God accepts the feeble offering of our will in subordination to His as He seeks to bless us both spiritually and materially, knowing beforehand what we need.
All this comes to the forefront in the battle over the catastrophic socialized-healthcare travesty known as "Obamacare."
After all the grassroots activism by so many patriotic Americans — led by Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Mike Lee, and others — to spare our country from such obvious calamity, it's vital that each of us make sure we are doing the single most important thing needed for our nation to survive in liberty: praying as Christ prayed.
It's not enough to rely on political action alone in so important a cause, vital as such action may be. It's also not enough to rely on the exemplary, skilled efforts of standout patriots like Sen. Cruz. Nor is it enough to depend on organized prayer vigils or religious efforts led by others. If our country is to survive, God requires our own individual faithfulness — as shown by our righteous life, the sincerity of our supplications for deliverance, our commitment to overcome — through Him — our lapses and weaknesses, and above all, our submission to His will, no matter the outcome, as we seek to supplant evil with good, as He defines such things scripturally.
As America's future literally hangs in the balance right now, we need to humbly pray to God with all our might for His deliverance, while we do all within our power to conform our life to His scriptural pattern of righteousness and faith.
Our most important duty as citizens of this divinely-endowed nation is to live in harmony with God's will, not our own. Prayer is the way we tell God we are ready for His "will to be done, in earth as it is in heaven."


Eco-Tech alternates provide a money-saving, environmentally-friendly alternative to the stock alternator that comes standard in your heavy-duty vehicle.
Why choose Eco-Tech over a standard, stock alternator?
Eco-Tech uses a patented design to deliver high output at low RPM, which differs drastically from stock alternators. Heavy-duty alternators typically come standard on larger vehicles, for example, an Navistar bus. These alternators are specifically designed to satisfy a high electrical need at idle, however, they force the engine into high RPM mode. What this means in the long run is essentially an engine that will wear out too quickly, an alternator that is working much too hard, and a battery that will have a more reduced life, due to the constant electrical spiking. Many owners of heavy-duty vehicles have found that installing other components such as high idle or load shedding devices to be helpful, however, this is unnecessary with a simple Eco-Tech alternator replacement.
alternator. This covers all IC buses (school buses), and many other types of transportation buses commonly found in use. This 200-amp alternator struggles to keep up with the electrical load required by a school bus. Think of everything that a school bus does at idle: flashing lights, parked to let children off and on, and more. A low-RPM Eco-Tech alternator easily delivers 260 Amperes, and this is at idle. An alternator that is rated at 200 will deliver much less when the bus is sitting.
An Eco-Tech replacement also saves money on fuel economy, thereby reducing the carbon footprint. Overall, Eco-Tech is the better choice, delivering more power at a low RPM, in a money-saving, green way.


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is defined as the scientific process of transforming data into insights for making better decisions.
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Home / Products / All Products / Antigens & Antibodies / SARS-CoV-2 (N501Y, D614G Mutant) Spike Glycoprotein (S1), Sheep Fc-Tag (HEK293)
SARS-CoV-2 (N501Y, D614G Mutant) Spike Glycoprotein (S1), Sheep Fc-Tag (HEK293)
SARS-CoV-2 (N501Y, D614G mutant) spike subunit 1 (S1) is a recombinant antigen manufactured in HEK293 cells to high purity. This antigen contains both N501Y and D614G amino acid changes relative to the Wuhan-Hu-1 isolate. The N501Y mutation has been reported to increase binding affinity to human ACE2. SARS-CoV-2, previously known as the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), causes the pandemic COVID-19 disease.
SARS-CoV-2 (N501Y, D614G Mutant) Spike Glycoprotein (S1), Sheep Fc-Tag (HEK293) quantity
SKU: REC31930 Categories: Antigens & Antibodies, Human Coronavirus antigens Tag: SARS-CoV-2 D614G N501Y Spike
SDS-PAGE: Coomassie-stained SDS-PAGE showing purified SARS-CoV-2 (D614G, N501Y Mutant) spike subunit 1.
SARS-CoV-2 (N501Y, D614G mutant) spike glycoprotein (S1) is a recombinant antigen manufactured in HEK293 cells to high purity. This antigen contains both D614G and N501Y amino acid changes relative to the Wuhan-Hu-1 isolate. The N501Y mutation has been reported to increase binding affinity to human ACE2. SARS-CoV-2, previously known as the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), causes the pandemic COVID-19 disease.
PRODUCT DETAILS – SARS-COV-2 (N501Y, D614G MUTANT) SPIKE GLYCOPROTEIN (S1), SHEEP FC-TAG (HEK293)
SARS-CoV-2 (N501Y, D614G Mutant) spike subunit (S1), Acc. No. QLG75761.1
Expressed in HEK293 and purified by affinity chromatography, with C-terminal sheep Fc-tag.
Presented in DPBS at
Coronaviruses have a large genome and encode a 3′-to-5′-exoribonuclease that permits high-fidelity replication and a range of tolerated variation by the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (Denison et al., 2011). The coronavirus exonuclease extends the coronavirus genome size through preventing lethal mutagenesis imposed by error rates of viral RNA polymerase (Smith et al., 2014). Therefore, SARS-CoV-2 could acquire rare but favorable mutations with fitness advantages and immunological resistance due to natural selection (Grubaugh et al., 2020) and a number of mutations to the SARS-CoV-2 genome have been observed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic (Erol, 2021).
Rapidly spreading variants of SARS-CoV-2 have arisen in the United Kingdom and South Africa and these share the spike N501Y substitution, which is of particular concern because it is located in the receptor-binding domain (RBD) and increases binding to the receptor ACE2 (angiotensin converting enzyme 2). The N501Y mutation is one the key six contact residues within the RBD (Starr et al., 2020). The novel UK variant, known as VUI-202012/01 or lineage B.1.1.7 carries 14 defining mutations in the spike protein (Rambaut et al., 2020); N501Y co-occurs with several mutations of potential biological importance, including P681H and deletion of the amino acid at the 69th and 70th residues (Δ69/Δ70) on the spike protein (Leung et al., 2021). Indeed, an unusually large number of genetic changes, defines this variant with at least 24 mutations including 14 non-synonymous mutations, four deletions and six synonymous mutations in ORF1ab, ORF8, nucleocapsid and spike proteins (Leung et al., 2021).
Preliminary epidemiologic, modelling, phylogenetic and clinical findings have suggested that SARS-CoV-2 VOC 202012/01 has increased transmissibility. However, preliminary analyses also indicated that there was no change in disease severity (as measured by length of hospitalization and 28-day case fatality), or occurrence of reinfection between variant cases compared to other SARS-CoV-2 viruses circulating in the UK (WHO, 2020).
Denison M.R., Graham R.L., Donaldson E.F., Eckerle L.D., Baric R.S. Coronaviruses. RNA Biol. 2011;8:270–279.
Erol A. Are the emerging SARS-COV-2 mutations friend or foe? Immunol Lett. 2021 Feb;230:63-64.
Grubaugh N.D., Hanage W.P., Rasmussen A.L. Making sense of mutation: what D614G means for the COVID-19 pandemic remains unclear. Cell. 2020;182:794–795. 014;1:111–132.
Leung K, Shum MH, Leung GM, Lam TT, Wu JT. Early transmissibility assessment of the N501Y mutant strains of SARS-CoV-2 in the United Kingdom, October to November 2020. Euro Surveill. 2021 Jan;26(1):2002106.
Rambaut A., Loman N., Pybus O., Barclay W., Barrett J., Carabelli A. 2020. Preliminary Genomic Characterisation of an Emergent SARS-CoV-2 Lineage in the UK Defined by a Novel Set of Spike Mutations.
Smith E.C., Sexton N.R., Denison M.R. Thinking outside the triangle: replication fidelity of the largest RNA viruses. Annu. Rev. Virol.
Starr T.N., Greaney A.J., Hilton S.K., Ellis D., Crawford K.H.D., Dingens A.S. Deep mutational scanning of SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain reveals constraints on folding and ACE2 binding. Cell. 2020;182:1295–1310.
WHO. SARS-CoV-2 Variants, Disease Outbreak News. 31 December 2020.
Human IgG1 Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S1) Antibody (CR3022)
Human CD147 (22-205) Recombinant Protein, Fc-Tag (CHO)


Come home to luxury living every day of the week at Oxford at The Ranch. Our community of upscale apartment homes boasts must-have features both for personal and shared use. When you reside with us, you'll enjoy a number of fabulous amenities, including spacious bedrooms and entertainment areas, fully-equipped kitchens, garden tubs, walk-in closets, and much more. We also provide our beloved resident with a private patio or balcony, in-home laundry appliances, and cable readiness. Step outside your front door, where you'll find an outdoor cooking area, resident social room with a billiard table, and a comprehensive fitness center equipped with the best Precor equipment. Best of all, we're pet-friendly, so we welcome not only you but all of your furry family members as well! Despite the type of lifestyle you lead, you're sure to find accommodation at Oxford at The Ranch!
Oxford at The Ranch is a pet-friendly apartment community and provides a wonderful place for not only you to live, but also a wonderful place for your pet to live. Pets are known to better your physical health and mental well-being. They also ensure a more active social life and lower stress at work. With all these benefits, we understand why you would want to have a lovable companion to greet you upon your return every evening. Oxford at The Ranch believes that pet-friendly apartments are an important part of life, which is why we have policies to accommodate pet ownership. We welcome cats and dogs with a $200.00 refundable pet deposit, $300.00 pet fee, and $15.00 a month in pet rent. Weight and breed restrictions apply. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call during our normal business hours to ask about our pet policies and our pet-friendly amenities.


It would be nice if you could rearrange the pages while creating a photo book. Shutterfly has this feature and it's much easier then redoing the pages from scratch. Thanks.
You can swap two pages with each other by holding down the shift button and left clicking on your mouse to drop and drag one to the other.
>It would be nice if you could rearrange the pages while creating a photo book. Shutterfly has this feature and it's much easier then redoing the pages from scratch. Thanks.


As a new day dawns in Melbourne, Jack Irish finds himself staring down the barrel of a brand new case; after a random summons by one Travis Dilthey, Jack is engaged to track down Travis' missing brother Wayne.
A Salvador Dalí "The Art Institute" etching; a 1964 Frank Sinatra letter; a Mississippian culture effigy pot, 900-1500 AD.
The experts examine items such as a rare booklet containing notes made in the 17th century by one of Shakespeare's earliest readers; a gold ring complete with a moving letter tells the story of a British family that joined the Californian gold rush.
Princess Pea and Red stage a play.
Hacker and his crew drill inside a nature preserve, inadvertently destroying many animal habitats.
Peg tries to use the Aliens T-ball cards to predict where they will hit; the Electric Eleven perform on the farm.
The gang hopes that dealing with the Tibble twins will be easier when one gets sick; Arthur and his friends make music videos.
Jet and his friends construct a greenhouse on Mars so that they can grow potatoes; Jet and Mindy follow a rainbow after learning about trolls protecting a pot of gold.
While hanging out with golden pheasants in China, Martin and Chris realize how important color is for creatures when Donita Donata steals animals and removes their color.
A change in the weather may disrupt the gang's trip to Lookout Point; a series of mishaps plague Nature Cat as he makes his way to Cocono Cave.
Steve's pet hamster takes off in the city; chef Pisghetti's cookbook vanishes.
Andy unearths an ancient statue in Cairo; Andy and the others search for the meaning of hieroglyphics.
Daniel gets too excited visiting Dad Tiger's Clock Factory; the children have a hard time settling down at the library.
While flying a kite, Daniel, Katerina and O learn that it's okay to feel two different feelings; when Daniel arrives at the carnival he feels excited and scared about riding the ferris wheel.
Pink-a-Girl and Pirate Peter must save the day when a storm knocks out Pinkville's power lines days before Halloween.
Nina, who knows many different dances from around the world, teaches everyone on Sesame Street the moves to their favorite dances.
While Splash and friends are playing in the clubhouse, another group shows up, claiming the clubhouse is theirs; Splash learns about some of the living creatures in the reef.
4:30 PM — 6:05 PM Miss Marple Miss Marple Why Didn't They Ask Evans?
1:00 AM — 2:34 AM Miss Marple Miss Marple Why Didn't They Ask Evans?
Ros is caught in the siege when the Saudi Embassy is stormed.
Forensic profiler Grace Foley is called to give evidence at Tony Greene's appeal 30 years after she assisted in his arrest and conviction for the murders of young men.
Fiona Bruce and the experts return to the beautiful setting of Pembroke Castle in West Wales; objects featured include a beguilingly rare sapphire ring that changes color in different light, and Pope Pius XII's papal hat.
The store's heat is turned off to conserve fuel.
When a champion rower drowns after being thrown into a lake in celebration, Dr. Lucien Blake suspects foul play.
A retired local psychic inadvertently makes the most amazing and impossible prediction of his career.
Fleming is asked to write a blueprint for the CIA; Godfrey is persuaded to form a group of tough soldiers.
The junior sales assistants fraternize despite hostility between the department heads.
Jet lag sends Lionel to bed and affects Jean badly at the office.
Board Britain's most famous steam locomotive to celebrate the golden age of travel.
Wilf likes Jean's old nanny; Logan's lack of enthusiasm frustrates Nancy.
Archie organizes a Midsummer's Ball to celebrate regaining control of the estate and Stella's departure.
Archie and Lexie are surprised at Hector's frosty response to their engagement announcement.
Dooley's latest scheme awakens the ghost of an 18th-century highwayman; Edso gives Kathleen driving lessons after she wins a car.
Someone from Avril's past arrives in the village; Liam and Donal pressure Dooley into returning the money he borrowed from them.
Grace Brothers' employees hold a trial to determine whether Capt. Peacock spent the night with a staff secretary.
When Pullman and Standing refuse to work with the new team member, Lane continues the search for missing Jack Walford.
3:30 PM — 4:00 PM Nature Cat Nature Cat Wild Batts!; No Birds Left Behind!
7:00 PM — 7:30 PM Ready Jet Go! Ready Jet Go! Astronaut Ellen Ochoa!
11:30 PM — 12:00 AM Ready Jet Go! Ready Jet Go! Astronaut Ellen Ochoa!
12:30 AM — 1:00 AM Dinosaur Train Dinosaur Train Laura the Giganotosaurus; Dinosaur Poop!
2:30 AM — 3:00 AM Nature Cat Nature Cat Wild Batts!; No Birds Left Behind!
Pinkalicious tells a story while drawing with chalk; Pinkalicious and Peter invite Norman the Gnome to watch over their plants.
Carmen's confidence returns when she enters an Australian boomerang competition; Andy discovers the opera house in Sydney.
Wild Batts!; No Birds Left Behind!
Two wild bat brothers need to find new shelter after their tree home is destroyed; Nature Cat and his friends help a Baltimore oriole with an injured wing.
Koki and Jimmy deal with mosquitoes in the Cypress Swamp.
The Wild Kratts set off to find and re-create spider silk.
Agents and the maintenance workers switch jobs for a day; the agents get trapped in a computer.
Delivery Debbie vows to stop a group of villains known as the Breakfast Club; Olympia decides to throw Dr. O the best goodbye party ever.
The Tibbles play rough when when they pretend to have superpowers; D.W. tries to trick the Tooth Fairy into giving her more money.
Arthur and his friends find out exactly how much they can accomplish within 15 minutes.
Jet, Sydney, Mindy and Sean are excited when Dr. Ellen Ochoa, director of the Johnson Space Center, comes to visit.
Bampy Botsford panics the city with the tale of the evil giant artichoke; Tobey tricks WordGirl into performing his poetry at the talent show.
Nina teaches Abby and Zoe all about karate; after learning how to practice and focus, Abby and Zoe kick a ball off a stand with a special karate kick.
Jekima and friends hike, play soccer, dance and do yoga to find out which exercise suits them best.
A new kid, named Jimmy, moves into the house across the street and starts to bully everyone.
Buddy spends time with Laura Giganotosaurus, also a three-toed theropod; Buddy and Tiny learn that all creatures need to poop, even big dinosaurs.
Becky and Toby both want to win a Key to the City; Chuck goes on a crime spree while Becky is out of town.
Peg and Cat create The Electric Eleven by bringing together the Three Bears, Three Little Pigs and the Three Billy Goats Gruff; Peg and Cat plan an escape when they fear the Giants want to eat them.
The WordFriends must figure out the correct "ing" word to stop Frog's new machine from covering everything in frosting.
Charley watches Clifford for a night; Charley doesn't like a dream he has about living a dog's life. Featuring the voices of John Ritter and Kel Mitchell.
George wants to buy a pair of red elephant mittens at the Annual Corn Roast and Attic Auction; George wants to perform "Hansel and Gretel" for Betsy.
Daniel learns the importance of sharing his feelings; Daniel pays attention to how many feelings he experiences in a day.
A family of dinosaurs has large, sharp toe-claws; Don makes friends with a dragonfly named Howard.
Nick and Sally learn how flour is made; Nick and Sally meet three big cats.


This recipe for Shepard's Pie strays from the traditional, but it's a complete upgrade and now fits within a Paleo lifestyle. By adding more vegetables, this version is now packed with nutrition, yet still retains it's traditional feel. It's a very satisfying Paleo dish.
To take nutrition a step further, substitute Mashed Cauliflower on top instead of the mashed potatoes.
Cut the potatoes and place them in a large pot.
Add 2 garlic cloves and enough water to cover the top of the potatoes.
Boil over high heat for 20 minutes or until soft.
Drain the potatoes, keeping about 1/4 cup of the water in the pot, and add the ghee.
Using an immersion blender, blend the potatoes into a mash.
Heat the avocado oil in a large, flat bottom pan over medium heat.
Add the ground meat and cook until done.
Remove the cooked meat and set aside for later.
In the same pan with the accumulated juices, add the onion, carrots, broccoli, squash, mushrooms, 4 crushed garlic cloves, tomato paste, coconut aminos, thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper.
In a small bowl, whisk together the broth and arrowroot starch and add the mixture to the pan.
Once vegetables are tender, combine the cooked ground meat.
Split the pie mixture between two pie dishes and top with mashed potatoes.
Finally, whisk and pour the eggs over the mashed potatoes.
Bake the pies in the oven for 15 minutes.
Turn the broiler on hi and broil the pies for an additional 5 minutes.
The pie portion of this Shepard's Pie can be made ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator in freezer for later. When ready, simply make the mashed potatoes or the Mashed Cauliflower topping and bake the pies in the oven only to warm the pie and brown the top.
Check out some other casserole options like this Butternut Squash Casserole.
Much appreciated for the content and for sharing!
Thank you for checking out my website and thank you very much for your comment. I find joy in sharing these recipes and helping others enjoy a Paleo lifestyle as much as I do. What did you think of the Shepard's Pie? Its one of my favorites and reminds me of growing up in the Northeast.


Apr 26, 20170183;32;The company has begun holding employee rallies to address the problems it's facing and potentially scare the crap out of workers.
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text:
Helping Dunkirk's migrants – God's will or collusion in illegal entry?
March 15, 2017 By Abigail Frymann Rouch Calais, Converts, Dunkirk, Egypt, Eritrea, France, Iran, La Linière, Migrants, Refugees
Iranian migrants line up for prayer alongside other members of the congregation at the Dk Live church in Dunkirk
Reaching out to the migrants who arrive in the north of France presents the Church with a weighty dilemma. The migrants have generally paid smugglers several thousand pounds to help them to cross Europe, and have their eyes – and their hearts – set on reaching England, which will mean putting more money in the hands of smugglers, who operate in criminal gangs. It will also mean entering the UK illegally, potentially endangering or implicating the lorry driver whose load they will usually infiltrate, and causing material (and perhaps psychological) damage.
Pastor Lydie Granger, whose church in Dunkirk, Dk Live, offers migrants material and spiritual support, told World Watch Monitor: "We give them food, clothes, shoes, anything they need. And [we] pray for them, for God's favour and protection.
"We don't help them to go illegally, but we pray God's favour on them. I'm not saying God's favour is to help them to go illegally, but they are in such a situation that personally I'm not looking at that [aspect]."
She said it was important to remember the hardship the migrants had fled from. "As I was praying one day I was asking God, 'What is the solution?'" she said. "Something needs to change in England for them to go, or to change in France. The Lord reminded me of the situation with Moses and the people of Israel running out of Egypt to go to their Promised Land. They were being followed by the Egyptians and their lives were in danger. And I had this picture of them coming by the Red Sea and it needed a miracle. Nobody asked if it was legal or illegal to open the Red Sea."
She continued: "We say, 'We are happy to welcome you and help you stay in France,' but [England's] where they want to go; in their minds it's like their Promised Land."
Mrs Granger said that at a recent meeting of local clergy, one man said he prayed the migrants would decide to stay in France because he could not cope with the idea of them going illegally. "And I understand," she added.
One of the church's volunteers believes the French authorities could do far more to encourage the migrants to apply for asylum locally. Laila Mohamed, who is half-Yemeni and speaks fluent Arabic, said migrants prefer England to France because they are more likely to know some English than any French.
But she added: "If there was a prospectus, a leaflet, on what France would do for them – education, work, health, encouragement, school, formation – they would stay … The picture migrants have today of France is negative because some have been beaten by police, some have been sworn at while doing nothing wrong."
She is highly critical of efforts by Calais Mayor Natacha Bouchart to ban food distributions and the offering of showers to migrants.
"Are we going to leave a dog in the street?" Ms Mohamed asks. "We're not. And today, in France, they are forbidding us from feeding the migrants in the street. So where are the human rights in this?"
One of the migrants Laila has befriended, Sara, 43, said she wished there were legal ways for her to reach England. She fled Iran after becoming a Christian and being told the secret police were arresting members of her underground church.
"I wish it wasn't illegal, but it is impossible. I would like it to be legal; it would be better and safe," she said.
Mrs Granger said some people have suggested the church cease its outreach, telling her it does not help the situation, because the migrants are still coming.
But she said: "They'll still come; that's not the point." Instead, she said she has had to say to her church, "Times have changed, and whether we want it or not, we will have to face that."
Those changes are not just the establishment of the well-worn path from Middle Eastern warzones to rural northern France. Mrs Granger said economic migrants are arriving from further afield – Egypt and Eritrea – and climate-change is expected to begin producing yet more refugees. "People say it's not going to get better," she added.
When migrants began attending services, the church initially carried out bag checks to help the congregation feel safe. Mrs Granger said they felt further reassured when they saw migrants becoming Christians and being baptised. Mrs Granger said she accepts that some migrants may attend church – and even get baptised – to enhance their application for asylum. And that she wonders what the migrants understand in church if there is no French-to-Farsi interpreter on the day. One worship song during the Sunday service is sung in Farsi, to the delight of the migrants there. The church runs weekly Farsi Bible studies and offers newcomers Bibles in Farsi and Arabic.
She said that one migrant the church recently baptised told her: "Thank you … before I was always stressed, my mind was like darkness."
"The Holy Spirit is doing his work," Mrs Granger added.
Ms Mohamed, who runs the church's outreach to migrants and converted from Islam 20 years ago, is categorical: "A lot of those who come to church are Muslim. We are not entitled to close the door. It is not our house; it's God's house. So as it is the Father's House, you have to let whoever wants to enter, enter."
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I recently conducted an informal poll of embedded board designers, specifically those who were designing with an ARM-based microprocessor. I was surprised to learn that the Freescale i.MX architecture dominated the space (note that thanks to the NXP/Freescale merger, the family is now part of the NXP portfolio). There wasn't any one processor within that family that came out head and shoulders above the others, but the family itself was a clear winner.
This week, NXP is launching some new additions to the family, with an emphasis on graphics on the first pair. The i.MX 6DualPlus and i.MX 6QuadPlus (Figure 1) applications processors are designed with an ARM Cortex-A9 core running at up to 1.2 GHz (initially, a 1.0 GHz will be available). These devices are follow-on products to NXP's i.MX 6Dual and 6Quad (without the Plus), and they maintain software and pin compatibility with those devices.
According to NXP, the parts offer a 50 percent improvement in graphics performance and memory efficiency. Integrated into the devices are 1 MB of L2 cache, a pre-fetch and resolve engine, and optimized 64-bit DDR3 or 2-channel, 32-bit LPDDR2 support. I/O comes through FlexCAN, MLB buses, PCI Express, and SATA II, as well as LVDS, MIPI display port, MIPI camera port, and HDMI v1.4.
The i.MX 6DualPlus and 6QuadPlus can also drive the car's infotainment unit (pun intended). Hence, in addition to better graphics, the same device can also handle Internet connectivity, GPS/navigation, video, and so on, all enabled through a touch screen display. And now that backup camera mandates are in place (by 2018), you can control them from the same CPU, too.
Other applications wherein the i.MX 6DualPlus and 6QuadPlus can shine include external vision and camera systems, seat-back displays on airplanes, digital signage, IPTV/media streaming, industrial HMI, and health care, such as patient monitoring and fitness equipment.
NXP is simultaneously launching a development board based on the i.MX 6DualPlus and 6QuadPlus processors, called the SABRE board (Figure 3). The board helps developers get their end products to market more quickly by allowing them to work with the majority of the processor's primary features with the corresponding software support.
Just beyond the i.MX 6DualPlus and 6QuadPlus processors is the launch of the i.MX 7Solo and i.MX 7Dualprocessor families, which are scheduled for release in May.
Thanks to its integrated ARM Cortex-M4 core, the i.MX 7 series has a heterogeneous architecture, with the ability to run at up to 1 GHz on the Cortex-A7 core, with the M4 running at 200 MHz. Hence, the M4 can run an RTOS while the A7 is available to handle a display interface, for example.
The i.MX 7 series architecture allows designers to utilize the different cores and peripherals and opens opportunities to maximize these features in the system architecture. In order to help designers reach the full potential, NXP has established a strong ecosystem that covers all the potential usage models for the diverse customers that will utilize the chip. In addition, other enablement tools including system-level reference designs, the SABRE development board (a general-purpose development board), and the WaRP7 wearable reference design (Figure 4) have been created.
The WaRP7 incorporates the i.MX 7Solo applications processor into a design optimized for wearables including small form factor, long battery life, usability, and low cost. This is just the beginning, as the ecosystem of both hardware and software partners will enable a wide range of companies and industries to shorten development and time to market. Six companies are currently available to jump-start evaluation board designs based on the i.MX 7 series.
Markets that will be well served by the i.MX 7 series include anything that can benefit from power efficiency and small packages, like the mobility market in general, such as wearables, handheld point-of-sale systems, and patient-monitoring platforms. It's capable of running a high-level OS like Linux or Android and handling multiple interconnects like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
A good target example is the smart thermostat. It requires multiple levels of connectivity, such as USB, Gigabit Ethernet, UARTs, I2C, and CAN, as users want the ability to monitor and control their homes over the Internet. But they also desire the simplicity that requires a rich graphical user interface.


Ohio-based IDM Computer Solutions, Inc. has been developing preeminent software solutions for over 20 years. Their award-winning UltraEdit text editor software is globally recognized as one of the premier products of its breed. IDM products have nearly 2 million registered users around the world and are localized in 8 different languages.
Concept Software is honored to be designated by IDM as one of its trusted partners, a distinction garnered by outfitting IDM with a fully integrated, start-to-finish software licensing solution. One of Concept Software's most prolific customers, IDM has been a noteworthy Instant SOLO Dedicated URL user since 2010. Beginning in early 2012, IDM incorporated Concept Software's Protection PLUS 5 Native Edition libraries as part of its comprehensive licensing solution, with widespread deployment on Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms.
IDM founder Ian Mead recalls how perhaps the most important point in regards to IDM's success story with Concept Software is the tenacity with which Concept Software's architecture team, headed by co-founder and CTO Mike Wozniak, responded to the formidable challenge IDM presented. "The goal was for IDM to make the registration process as simple as possible. The only drawback we saw was that the [SoftwareKey] solution was only extensible to Windows applications. We challenged Concept Software to provide Protection PLUS 5 libraries for Mac and Linux platforms as our desire was to have a single licensing solution that would cover all our platform offerings. Concept Software answered that challenge with resounding results. Not only did they provide us multi-platform licensing, they provided us the ability to issue a common key for products sharing multiple platforms."
IDM was initially impressed with the SoftwareKey System from Concept Software because of its ease of implementation and flexible online/offline license registration options. Migrating to SoftwareKey provided another significant benefit to IDM: A sophisticated yet elegant mechanism for automating check-for-updates functionality. Ian's description of the solution could also serve as a succinct testimonial: "SoftwareKey has provided IDM a 21st century software license solution that is on par with any major publisher we know of... that includes quality and excellent customer service and support. Easy to register, extensible to multi-platforms, and easy for our users to stay current!"
IDM has found the Instant SOLO licensing server to have extremely high availability and near-perfect uptime. Ian says, "We have also integrated the Instant SOLO solution into our e-commerce system so that we can instantly (and automatically) issue license codes upon order processing. Our customer support staff uses the SOLO Server interface to exercise complete control authority over every license we issue. It is a powerful solution and we expect to extend our use of the platform for many years to come."
As an independent software vendor (ISV) and Microsoft Certified Partner, IDM wants to continue to focus on what they do best --- which is publishing world-class software products. Looking to third parties for specific core competencies, first-class professional services, and peerless business solutions they need, is critical to IDM's success. This includes managed web servers, e-commerce solutions, packaging, distribution, and of course, software licensing.
When IDM encountered a few minor issues with the embryonic versions of the PLUSNative alpha libraries, Ian was comfortably reassured by Concept Software's determination to meet the issues head-on and speedily deliver the required solutions and/or fixes. Concept Software's CTO and co-founder Mike Wozniak concurs that being able to provide exceptional customer service while working together to meet challenges is the key contrast between a mediocre business relationship and an extraordinary business relationship with true and measurable value.
IDM is home to UltraEdit, UltraCompare, UltraFinder, UEStudio, and UltraSentry. Collectively, these products constitute the industry's #1 file management solution. IDM publishes its products on Windows/Mac/Linux platforms and offers product distribution in 8 languages for its multi-million member world-wide user community. Anyone needing to edit text or vast amounts of data use IDM's products, including: governments, institutions, universities, and Fortune 500/1000 companies. Many verticals, such as engineering, financial, insurance, pharmaceutical, and software programming/engineering, rely on UltraEdit and other IDM products for their daily computing needs.


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- Match 3 or more identical Jelly.
- Match the Jelly until the board transparency,the Jelly will appear.
- Make the Jelly down to last line to pass the level.
Tips: Eliminate Jelly quickly can get extra scores.
- Two Game Modes: Arcade & Classic.
- Match 4 Jelly can win the Jelly bomb.
- Match 5 Jelly can win color-changing Jelly and 2 lighting Jelly.
- Jelly bomb can eliminate the Jelly around.
- Color-changing Jelly can eliminate to any other colored Jelly.
- Timing Jelly can extend the playing time!
- Lighting Jelly can eliminate Jelly in one row or column!