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One from the archives, sort of. At least, something that was born back in 2015, at the the "hack day" of the National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno. These are sessions where people work in groups (loosely) to throw together something to do with astronomy (it's a pretty broad field). It can be software, hardware or, really, anything. There's often a lot of coding going on to make software tools/websites, but sometimes things are more simple. Now and again, the "hacks" mature into full-blown projects, and such "hack days" or "maker days" (they go by various names) are a staple of many science conferences. Continue reading →
This entry was posted in Educational resources, Resources on September 30, 2018 by Chris North.
Pythagorean Astronomy: Gravity and Light
[Cross posted from the Cardiff Physics Outreach blog]
Artist's impression of the collision of two neutron stars. Image credit: NSF/LIGO/SSU/A.Simonnet
On 16th October a huge team of astronomers announced to the world that they had detected, for the first time, gravitational waves and light from the same event. That event was the collision of two neutron stars in a galaxy around 130 million light year away. The signal was first detected by the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave detectors, and less than two seconds later by the Fermi gamma ray satellite.
This entry was posted in Gravitational Waves, Media, Radio on October 26, 2017 by Chris North.
Pythagorean Astronomy: Cassini's Grand Finale
[Cross-posted from the Cardiff Physics Outreach blog]
Cassini at Saturn. Image credit: NASA
The 15th of September marked the Cassini spacecraft's final plunge into Saturn's gaseous atmosphere. This grand finale marked then end of a 20 year journey, 13 of which were spent orbiting Saturn, studying the ringed planet and its extended family of moons. Here in Cardiff, Dr Emily Drabek-Maunder has been closely following Cassini, and working with some of its data. This seemed like an ideal time to gather Emily's thoughts on the remarkable mission. Continue reading →
This entry was posted in Media, Radio on October 3, 2017 by Chris North.
Pythagorean Astronomy: The Astronomer Royal and Potatoes on Mars
April's edition of our monthly astronomy podcast, presented by Chris North and Edward Gomez.
Earlier this month we were treated to a talk in Cardiff by Lord Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal and Professor of Astrophysics at University of Cambridge. This afforded us the opportunity to speak to Professor Rees about the subject of his talk: "The World in 2015 – and beyond". After discussing the challenges facing the long-term survival of humanity, and possible solutions, we also discussed Lord Rees' role in the House of Lords, and recent developments in astronomy and cosmology. Continue reading →
This entry was posted in Media, Radio on April 25, 2017 by Chris North.
Pythagorean Astronomy: TRAPPIST-1 and other stories
At the end of last month, there was a lot of interest in the discovery of seven roughly Earth-sized planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system. One month on, Chris North and Edward Gomez discuss the implications of this discovery. We also get an update from the Amaury Triaud, of the University of Cambridge, about TRAPPIST and its successor, SPECULOOS.
Here in our own Solar System, there's the discovery of a cometary landslide from Rosetta, a milestone in wheel-wear on the Mars Curiosity Rover, and an update on some of Saturn's darker rings from Japan. Further afield, a study of the rotation of galaxies in the distant Universe came under some scrutiny, shedding a bit of light on the process of scientific discovery.
http://astrog80.astro.cf.ac.uk/pythagoras-trousers/mp3/Mar2017_full_PHYSX.mp3
An extended edition of the an original broadcast on 27th March 2017 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.
For an archive of Pythagorean Astronomy, visit pythagastro.uk.
This entry was posted in Media, Radio on March 27, 2017 by Chris North.
Pythagorean Astronomy: Backyard Worlds
Artist's impression of the proposed Planet Nine. Image Credit: Caltech/R,. Hurt (IPAC)
[Cross-posted from pythagastro.uk]
February saw the first launch of SpaceX's Falcon Rocket from Launchpad 39A – the same launchpad used by the Apollo missions and the Space Shuttle. In this month's Pythagorean Astronomy, Edward Gomez and Chris North discuss these impressive structures along with the study of a supernova (the explosive death of a massive star) just hours after it exploded, providing crucial insights into the very early stages of these extreme events.
A new Zooniverse project, Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, was also announced designed to let "citizen scientists" (i.e. you!) help track down Planet Nine – whose existence was seriously proposed a year ago. Project leader Marc Kuchner told us about that project.
For those wondering, we recorded this before the announcement of both TRAPPIST-1 and the SpaceX announcement of their planned lunar missions – but they're pretty safe bets for discussion next month!
http://astrog80.astro.cf.ac.uk/pythagoras-trousers/mp3/Feb2017_full_PHYSX.mp3
An extended edition of the an original broadcast on 27th January 2017 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.
This entry was posted in Media, Radio on February 28, 2017 by Chris North.
What's really interesting about TRAPPIST-1?
The planets around TRAPPIST-1. Image credit: NASA/R. Hurt/T. Pyle [Click for larger image]
Earlier this week there was an announcement that a team of astronomers had discovered seven planets around a nearby star. That star is a cool dwarf star called "TRAPPIST-1", and gets its name from the project that started this all off – the TRAnsiting Planet and PlanetIsimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST), with a small (0.6m) telescope in Chile. A few years ago the team running the telescope, led by Michaël Gillon and including many members from around the world (including the UK), spotted some unusual transits around a small, cool, red dwarf star that used to go by the name "2MASS J23062928-0502285" (the star was originally discovered by the 2MASS survey), but which is now commonly referred to as TRAPPIST-1.
There were previously three planets known about (well, two for sure and another maybe). The new results have confirmed six, with another tentative seventh. All seven have been identified through the "transit method", whereby the planets pass in front of the star from our point of view. This gives us an estimate of their size (relative to the star), but not their mass – at least that's usually the case. The seven planets are labelled "b" to "h" (by convention, "a" is reserved for the star itself).
Finding Earth-mass planets isn't new anymore. Finding lots of planets in one system isn't new. Finding planets very close to Earth isn't new. So what's so interesting about TRAPPIST-1? I think it's fair to say that the news was overhyped in much of the media coverage, I guess partially because of the embargo period which tends to get people wound up. Getting people talking about exoplanets is good – but the community needs to be careful that people don't think that these results are all the same, and so stop paying attention. Having said that, while some aspects of this result are "incremental", there are some really neat bits in there when you dig down.
A packed system
Environment of the planets in TRAPPIST-1 compared with our Solar System. Original source & more info: Gillon et al. (2017) [Click for larger image]
The orbital periods of the planets (i.e. their years) are all less than a couple of weeks, putting them much, much closer to the star than any planets in our Solar System. However, the parent star is so faint (less than a thousandth the luminosity of than the Sun), that they could potentially all be of the right temperature to host water.
There have been many articles and commentaries about the possible conditions on the seven planets, three of which lie in what is normally called the "habitable zone" (i.e. where the surface temperature could allow liquid water) and all of which are classed as "temperate", meaning that the right atmospheric density and composition could allow for liquid water.
There are a lot of "coulds" in there, and we simply have no idea about their atmospheres – though it's very possible that future telescopes, such as the planned Extremely Large Telescope and the soon-to-be-launched James Webb Space Telescope, will be able to make progress on that front.
For now, all we know is how much starlight falls on the planets, and therefore what the temperature of a bare lump of rock would be. As shown in the image above, even though they are similar in that sense to Earth and Venus, that doesn't tell us much. That's perfectly illustrated by the fact that Earth (nice and temperate) and Venus (inhospitable hellhole) are so different. The Earth's average surface temperature would be -15°C without the atmosphere, but is increased to about +15°C by the atmosphere. Venus, on the other hand, receives twice as much light from the Sun, but with its thick atmosphere has a surface temperature of about 500°C. Put simply, although the right atmosphere could lead to nice temperature planets, the wrong atmosphere could equally lead to a very inhospitable planet.
Multiple transits
Triple-transit of three TRAPPIST-1 planets observed in December 2015 by the VLT. A cartoon of the planets passing in front of the star is shown at the bottom. Original source & more info: Gillon et al. (2017) [Click for larger image]
There are lots of neat things here just in the discover itself. For example, the reason there was so much interest in this system was that the initial observations (by TRAPPIST and the Very Large Telescope) a few years ago caught a triple transit – where three planets passed in front of the star at about the same time (see left). That led the team to observe the system with a whole host of other telescopes – the Liverpool Telescope (in La Palma, despite its name), the William Herschel Telescope (also in La Palma), the UK Infrared Telescope (in Hawaii), the South African Astronomical Observatory 1m telescope (in, erm, South Africa), the Spitzer Space Telescope (in space, duh), and a northern-hemisphere twin of the original telescope, TRAPPIST-North (in Morocco) [TRAPPIST-1 is on the celestial equator so can, conveniently, be observed from the northern and southern hemispheres]. That's a lot of telescopes, but having all these observations is key to uncovering the secrets of this unusual system.
Resonances
Orbital resonances of the TRAPPIST-1 planets. Image credit: C. North [Click for larger image]
For me the really interesting thing is quite how much has been learned from transits. I mentioned above that the transit method normally only gives us the size of the planet. To get a planet's mass (and therefore its density), we normally need to use another method, usually the Radial Velocity method, to pick out the weak gravitational effect of the planet on the star, causing the star to wobble a little bit. However, the TRAPPIST-1 system has another feature that helps us out – the planets are so close together that we can measure their gravitational effects on each other.
There's also a sort of synchronicity between the orbits. Take the 4th and 5th planets, called "e" and "f", for example: for every two times planet "f" orbits the star, planet "e" orbits three times. That means that every other time "f" gets to a particular point in its orbit, planet "e" is in the same place. Having that repeatable pattern is something called a "mean motion resonance", and there are links between all the planets. The image on the right shows the orbital periods and the "resonances" relative to the inner-most planet.
We see this in our own Solar System. Three of Jupiter's largest moons (Io, Europa and Ganymede) have orbital periods in the ratio of 1:2:4 (for Io:Europa:Ganymede) – so for every once Ganymede goes round, Europa goes round twice and Io four times. This keeps their orbits locked, means Europa's orbit is slightly elliptical, and ultimately helps generate the heat that create Europa's subsurface ocean. There are also resonances between the orbits of asteroids and Jupiter, as well as between Kuiper Belt objects and Neptune (with Pluto and Neptune having periods in a 3:2 ratio).
Transit Timing Variations of TRAPPIST-1, comparing the simulations (red) with the observations (black datapoints). Original source & more info: Gillon et al. (2017) [Click for larger image]
These relationships mean that the planets have small, regular tugs on each other, effectively either slowing them down or speeding them up a bit. That changes the precise time that they pass in front of the star, which is something we can measure very accurately. By predicting what the effect would be of different masses, and comparing that to the observed "transit time variations" (sometimes called TTV) it is possible to estimate the masses of the planets. Since such resonant systems have a habit of being unstable, and this one presumably has been there for a long time (unless we got really lucky!), it may even be possible to even better constrain the masses of the planets.
Masses and radii of the TRAPPIST-1 planets, compared with models. Original source & more info: Gillon et al. (2017) [Click for larger image]
At the moment, those masses aren't know very well, but it does start to give a handle on the density of the planets. The graph below shows the masses and densities along with some predictions of various compositions. Although two of the planets look like they could be "water worlds" (made largely of water), the uncertainties are large enough that they could also be your common or garden rocky planets.
To get the masses better we need radial velocity measurements, but that could be tricky. I had a play with the Radial Velocity Simulator from the Nebraska Astronomy Applet Project, and put in the values for the closest planet (star mass = 0.08 Msun, planet mass=0.003 Mjup, semi-major axis=0.01au, inclination=90deg, ecentricity=0) to see the size of the effect. The planet's mass are so small that it would only cause the star to wobble by about 2m/s, which is, in principle, within reach of the best instruments on the largest telescope, but the issue may well be that the star is too faint to get a strong enough signal. I'm not an expert on the intricacies of radial velocity measurements, though, and would be delighted to be proved wrong!
This entry was posted in Exoplanets, Science and tagged exoplanets, resonance, science, trappist-1 on February 24, 2017 by Chris North.
Gravitational Waves: One year on
It's a year since the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, including the Gravitational Physics group here in Cardiff, announced the very first detection of gravitational waves. I've been working with the teams in Cardiff and internationally for a little over a year, and it's been a rollercoaster.
The announcement day itself was, quite frankly, crazy – but a good kind of crazy (radio interviews, live TV interviews on the roof, videos, podcasts, press conferences etc.). Since then I've given a number of interviews, public talks and school workshops about the detection and it's all still as amazing as it was a year ago.
A lot of that is because the numbers are so earth-shattering, for example:
36 septillion yottawatts blasted out of the black hole collision that #LIGO detected last year. https://t.co/4KGjlLvPxw pic.twitter.com/3qWspE5pnl
— Science News (@ScienceNews) February 11, 2017
It says something that to express the power you need not one but two non-standard expressions of magnitude (septillion and yotta) – though since "yotta" and septillion both mean 1024, I can't help thinking that it might sounds better as a "yotta-yotta-Watt"!
I also took this opportunity to update the Gravitational Wave Catalogue I made a while ago (fullscreen version here). You can change the axes on the graph, and show more information about the detections.
As for the future, LIGO is currently in Observing Run 2 ("O2" for short). Nothing much to say at the moment, but an official announcement by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration on 28th January read:
The second Advanced LIGO run began on November 30, 2016 and is currently in progress. As of January 23 approximately 12 days of Hanford-Livingston coincident science data have been collected, with a scheduled break between December 22, 2016 and January 4, 2017. Average reach of the LIGO network for binary merger events have been around 70 Mpc for 1.4+1.4 Msun, 300 Mpc for 10+10 Msun and 700 Mpc for 30+30 Msun mergers, with relative variations in time of the order of 10%.
So far, 2 event candidates, identified by online analysis using a loose false-alarm-rate threshold of one per month, have been identified and shared with astronomers who have signed memoranda of understanding with LIGO and Virgo for observational followup. A thorough investigation of the data and offline analysis are in progress; results will be shared when available.
The "reach" of the LIGO is defined by its sensitivity – because more distant events are fainter and so harder to detect (meaning that a more sensitive detector network can detect more distant events. The reason for giving three distances for different mass pairings is because more massive binaries produce stronger signals so can be "seen" further away – historically the range of gravitational wave detectors has been stated as the 1.4+1.4 Msun mergers (i.e. two neutron stars).
In terms of scale a Mpc is a "megaparsec" (one million parsecs), which is about 3.26 million light years. The Andromeda Galaxy (our nearest large neighbour) is about 2.5 million light years (0.75 Mpc) away. The Virgo cluster of galaxies, the closest large galaxy cluster, is about 50 million light years (15 Mpc) away, so well within range of LIGO. Though do remember that the previous detections were much further away than that – at around 1 billion light years.
This entry was posted in Gravitational Waves, Science on February 11, 2017 by Chris North.
Pythagorean Astronomy: Star Attractions
Image courtesy of National Museum Cardiff
Join Chris North and Edward Gomez as they discuss the month's astronomy news. Not only were there two new NASA missions announced this month, but Space-X successfully returned to flight with their Falcon 9 rocket. Further afield, there are predictions of a pair of stars that are set to explode in a few years.
Being January, the National Museum in Cardiff hosted its annual public event celebrating all things space. With exhibits, demonstrations and shows for all ages, several thousand people attended "Star Attractions" and get to learn a bit more about astronomy and space. While we were there with a stand from the School of Physics and Astronomy, Chris spoke to a few people who were there to find out what they got out of it.
http://astrog80.astro.cf.ac.uk/pythagoras-trousers/mp3/Jan2017_full_PHYSX.mp3
Originally broadcast on 30th January 2017 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.
This entry was posted in Media, Radio on January 30, 2017 by Chris North.
Pythagorean Astronomy: Assassin Supernova
Close-up of star near a supermassive black hole (artist's impression) Image credit: ESO, ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser
When is a supernova not a supernova? The brightest supernova on record was discovered in 2015 by the All Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN). Named ASASSN-15lh, this remarkable event – what looked like a huge brightening of a star in a distant galaxy – was observed by many other telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the Las Cumbres Observatory network. With careful study, it became apparent that ASASSN-15lh was not quite what it seemed. Rather than being the explosion of a massive star, it is now thought that it was the final flash as a star was swallowed by a supermassive black hole.
This month, Morgan Fraser, from University College Dublin, and Las Cumbres Observatory's Edward Gomez explain the story of this discovery – and rediscovery! We finish with a brief recap of 2016, and a look forward to 2017.
http://astrog80.astro.cf.ac.uk/pythagoras-trousers/mp3/Dec2016_full_PHYSX.mp3
Originally broadcast on 19th December 2016 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.
This entry was posted in Media, Radio on December 19, 2016 by Chris North.
Listen to the Podcast at pythagastro.uk
chrisnorth
I am Head of Public Engagement and Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Cardiff University's School of Physics and Astronomy.


If you are looking for reliable help with your math homework online you should look for a private tutor. There are many benefits for students who use online or offline homework help. Getting homework help in the form of a tutor is especially beneficial.
When you work with a tutor one-on-one you have fewer distractions. Instead of working only in a classroom setting where other students are talking and there are many interruptions you can work in a quiet environment that is conducive to focus and attention. Private homework help offers a controlled environment that is much less susceptible to any form of interference.
When you get a homework helper either offline or online you have control. You get to select which tutor works with you. You can find one that suits your learning style or matches your personality. If you are easily distracted you might want a tutor who is strict and keeps you on target. If you prefer working alone but you need someone to hold you accountable just by being present then you might want a more relaxed style of teaching. You have control. If you hire a homework helper and their personality does not suit or their teaching style is not improving your comprehension then you can simply hire a new one. You might be stuck with a teacher you don't like who uses a learning style you don't understand but when it comes to your homework helper you have the power.
When you are in school there are many subject areas you have to learn. Your teacher may not have the time to work with you one on one with some of the more challenging subjects. That being said you can always work with a private tutor or homework helper who is highly qualified in the area that is bothering you or the most difficult for you. You can work with a private homework helper and focus only on the subjects that are problematic for you.
Working with a homework helper either online or in person can work wonders for your confidence and for your self esteem. Struggling with homework or falling behind on a particular assignment is never good for your self confidence. It often leaves students distrusting their abilities or feeling as though they do not have what it takes to succeed. But this is not true. Every student struggles from time to time. But some get homework help during those times of struggle and can overcome it faster. The easier and faster it is for students to learn new concepts the better their self esteem will be. The more complicated subjects they grasp with the help of a tutor the better they will feel about their schoolwork and their academic abilities.


Regal FC is all set to conduct trials for the MDFA (Mumbai District Football Association) 3rd Division 2019-20 on 2nd February 2019, Saturday, at St. Xavier's Ground (Parel).
The trials will be conducted under the guidance of MDFA Elite Division side Sellebrity FC and Soccer Raiders' Manager Rohan Shinde. All the interested candidates must report at 06:30 am sharp in their full playing kit as the trials will go underway from 07:00 am onwards.
For further information, Contact 7666762777 and 9112111484.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for all the latest happenings in the world of Indian football.


Back in January, I professed my absolute love for The Body Shop's Moringa Shower Gel. How I managed to write a post solely on a shower gel is beyond me and it was with much sadness that I finished it up a couple of weeks ago. Then, as if Harry Potter himself flew in with his wand and said "Wingardium leviosa" which we all know makes stuff fly, not make stuff appear in your post box, this was sent to me.
The Moringa Body Butter has literally brightened up my days like nothing else. It's spring time in a tub with a bright and delicate floral scent that I can't get enough of. And when I'm this excited about a product, I need to tell everyone around me. So much so, that the other day, one of the girls from work came into my office to "have a bit of lip gick" (translation: apply some lip balm slowly so we can have chats and not get busted.) As she applied the lip gick, I shoved my arm in her face and said "Here, smell me, I smell gorgeous" and as she inhaled my lovely scented forearm, one of the other girls walked by the window and stopped in her tracks. Busted.
Since getting it, I've been applying it after my morning shower. It's a thick, unctious body butter that absorbs in a couple of minutes so I wouldn't recommend getting dressed right away. Stay in your nudie patoodies and let it sink in. Once that's done, I get dress and go about my business for the day; essentially making people smell me. I apply it at about 7am and I kid you not, I can still smell it when I'm going home at 4pm.
I haven't needed to wear perfume with this and while we're on the matter, if The Body Shop ever makes a perfume in this scent, put me at the top of the list to buy it! The Moringa Body Butter comes in at €18.95 and I will purchase this myself without any hesitation and I think it's going to be sooner rather than later, as I've been decanting the butter into little pots for my chums to try.
What's your favourite body butter from The Body Shop?
Sounds divine! Must give this a sniff next time I'm in the Body Shop.
I love the coco and shea butter but they are winter scents - this one sounds light?!
hehehe... I can just imagine you at a bus-stop... "Here, you! Will you ever c'mere to me now, here, now smell me arm..."
I've been using Body Shop body butter too.
Moringa is very powerful plant that is used for many health problems. Moringa are used as an herbal medicine remedy against many known diseases. Its tree is a fast growing tree and can be seen in almost every street in Manila.


Prior to its present use, Dudhope Park and Castle had been used as a military base. In 1795 a lease was taken by the Ordnance Office for the Castle and the Park of Dudhope for a period of 95 years.
The Castle was used as a barracks from 1796 to 1879. It ceased being used by the army in 1881.
The Castle is now used as office accommodation by Dundee City Council and is unfortunately not available for civil ceremonies. The gardens and surrounding parkland are all approved for civil weddings however and the castle provides a unique and historic backdrop for your photographs.
The landscaping is largely limited to the steep slopes of the park, allowing the grass areas to be used for active and passive recreation.
Recreational facilities within the park include; tennis courts, an equipped play area, a concrete skateboarding park and a multi use game area (5-a-side football / basketball).
An active volunteer group, the Friends of Dudhope Park help look after and promote this lovely central Dundee green space.


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Julia Michaels Inner Monologue Part 2
Posted by Bronwyn Cook on 6/19/19 • Categorized as Music News,News
Julia Michaels has announced the release of her second collection of songs Inner Monologue Part 2, due out on 28 June 2019.
The exciting news follows the 2019 CMT Music Awards where she took home the award for Collaborative Video Of The Year for her huge country hit 'Coming Home' featuring and co-written with Keith Urban.
The new release is the follow-up to Inner Monologue Part 1, which she surprised fans with earlier this year. The EP debuted at No.1 on both the iTunes Pop Albums Chart and No.5 on the Overall iTunes Albums Chart. It included big collaborations with the likes of Selena Gomez on track 'Anxiety' and 'What A Time' with Niall Horan.
CHECK OUT THE VIDEO HERE:
The Grammy Award-nominated, multiplatinum singer-songwriter recently joined P!NK on the US leg of her tour as well as embarked on her first-ever solo headline tour. She will head to the UK in September to play a run of shows in Manchester, Glasgow, London and Dublin – tickets are on sale now from Gigantic Ticketmaster Ticketweb See Tickets
FIVE FAST ARTIST FACTS:
Julia Michaels debut single 'Issues' was the top-selling debut single by an artist in 2017.
In 2018 she received Grammy nominations for Best New Artist and Song Of The Year.
Since its release 'Issues' has gone triple-platinum and amassed almost two billion streams worldwide.
Michaels has co-written 21 titles that have charted on the Billboard Hot 100 – eleven of which have entered the Top 40.
Some of her biggest songwriting credits include Justin Bieber's 'Sorry', Selena Gomez's 'Good For You' and 'Hands To Myself' and Hailee Steinfeld's 'Love Myself'.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Wednesday Bag o' Days
Posted on July 15, 2020 July 15, 2020 by Paul Woodford
It's National Pet Fire Safety Day, observed every July 15th since 2009. Did you know that? Now you do. Today's also National Clean Beauty Day and if that's not enough of an excuse to drink it's National Give Something Away Day as well.
You have to get up early to beat the heat in southern Arizona, so when the dogs started stirring at 5:30 I said what the hell and got up with them. The pool sweep was jammed with twigs and mesquite beans from the weekend's monsoon storm, so I fished it out and cleaned it. I've been wanting to clean the motorcycle battery terminals and leads, so I did that, then fired up the air compressor and filled the tires, a PITA of a job because you have to lay prone on the garage floor to get to the rear tire, and with my knees it's hard to get up again. But I did, and it feels great to get stuff done. Now for some bloggage.
This may seem a trivial use of valuable Paul's Thing space to you, but something's been bothering me and it's my blog, so there. Compare these two images: a Hulu menu screen for the British series Misfits, and a photo of the actual cast.
Not even remotely the same, am I right? I'm either witness to a tear in the matrix or they're rebooting the series with an all-white cast of 30-somethings playing teenagers, which sadly seems the more realistic explanation.
Speaking of TV, like everyone else we're streaming more. A lot more. As in paying for 1) Xfinity/Comcast cable TV, 2) Netflix, 3) Amazon Prime, 4) Hulu, and 5) Disney+. The Comcast subscription includes HBO & its streaming counterpart, HBO Max (same content as far as we can tell), as well as NBC's streaming service Peacock. Donna pays extra for an Amazon add-on channel, PBS Living, which has the Julia Child archives. Friends tell us to subscribe to Britbox, Acorn, and Apple TV so as not to miss anything, but good lord the entertainment bill's encroaching on car payment territory as it is.
Disney+ is our latest add. We signed up in order to watch Hamilton. I listened to the soundtrack on a car trip two years ago and have wanted to see the show ever since. We subscribed to Disney on a month-by-month basis, thinking we'd watch Hamilton and then unsubscribe, but we might stay for The Mandalorian, which isn't half bad. The first two episodes shamelessly cash in on what made the first Star Wars movies such hits — weird-looking aliens in seedy cantinas, cute droids, baby Yoda, and of course the Jawas and their land crawler — but what's wrong with that? It's fun. I tried to get into Altered Carbon on Netflix, which similarly cashes in on Blade Runner, but in such a cheesy, un-fun, ripoff way I gave up on it. And truth, while Blade Runner may have been good dystopian sci fi, no one could call it fun.
Back to Hamilton, though, and our big confession: we got halfway through, took a pause-button intermission, and probably won't return for the second 90 minutes. There, I said it. Yes, it's an amazing production and the talent is overwhelming. But there's a lot of historical whitewashing going on, and the civics lesson it delivers is grade-school stuff.
Went to the hardware store yesterday, then stopped at Safeway on the way home for a frappuccino from the Starbucks kiosk. Happy to say I didn't see a single person not wearing a mask. The government may be in denial, but most people know what's up and are acting responsibly. The real test will be next month, when school's supposed to start.
Arizona "re-opened" in May and I started getting haircuts again. Now the virus is surging, far more so than in March and April when the governor took the lead and shut barbershops down, but this time around he seems to have given up. Wonder what changed? Anyway, I have an appointment in two weeks and was kind of hoping he'd issue another shutdown order, saving me the uncomfortable confrontation of canceling — my barber, you see, is a personal friend and motorcycle riding buddy — but it looks like I'm going to have to be the bad guy and make the call myself.
Not that anyone cares, but I have a suggested name for that football team that's finally retiring its racist name: The Washington Footie McFootball Faces. Don't say I never gave you anything, NFL. And hey, it's not even noon and already I've protected our dogs from fire and cleaned my hands and face with a bar of Donna's beauty soap, ticking off all three national July 15th observances.
Two novels I pre-ordered in 2019 popped up on the Kindle yesterday, David Mitchell's Utopia Avenue and Mary Robinette Kowal's The Relentless Moon, so I'm going to spend the afternoon reading. Please stay safe and wear your mask if you have to go out!
© 2020, Paul Woodford. All rights reserved.
Posted in Books, Consumerism, Critters, Current Events, Personal, Reviews, TV, UncategorizedTagged #COVID_19, #MaskingUp, Hamilton, StreamingTV
4 thoughts on "Wednesday Bag o' Days"
Ok, gonna disagree w you on Hamilton. It is a stage show not AP history. Plenty of books, movies, etc. to take issue with from historical point of view. Full disclosure: I enjoy GWTW and Atlas Shrugged. ?
You skipped the second act? Are you kidding? Have you forgotten the showstoppers it contains? Jefferson's return ("What did I Miss?"), those wonderful cabinet meetings, Hamilton's temptation and fall ("Say No to This"), to say nothing of "The Room Where It Happened" and the heartbreaking lament of the Hamiltons' grief, "Unimaginable." To this day I can't get through the second act without a fair number of tissues. Remember, the second act is what the show is really about: the story of a broken life. But then, an English major who writes (paragraph two) "because you have to lay prone…" shouldn't really be throwing stones. "Lay prone"? "Lay," really? I'm shocked. Shocked. Now get back and finish watching the show.
Paul Woodford says:
Lay and lie have always tripped me up. I'll get back to Hamilton, not to worry. Although I may have to finish it on my own.
Lay and lie trip up almost everyone. David was asking me about them yesterday. I predict one hundred years from now "lay" will be used only to refer to position and "lie" to the speaking of falsehoods. Also, the apostrophes will disappear from contractions. The internet and texting are going to have massive effects on written language. Something about living in interesting times?


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Isles (2xLP Picture Disc + Logo Print)
Bicep - Isles (2xLP Picture Disc + Logo Print) (Ninja Tune)
Bicep Logo Picture Disc + Print of Logo exclusively for Love Record Stores.
Available from 9pm on Saturday 4th September.
Reserve & 'Collect In Store' available at checkout.
Belfast-born, London-based duo Bicep (Matt McBriar and Andy Ferguson) release their hotly anticipated second album, "Isles", on 22 January 2021 via Ninja Tune.
Two years in the making, "Isles" expands on the artful energy of their 2018 debut "Bicep", while digging deeper into the sounds, experiences and emotions that have influenced their lives and work, from early days in Belfast to their move to London a decade ago. "We have strong mixed emotions, connected to growing up on an island" they say, "wanting to leave, wanting to return". "Isles" is, in part, a meditation on these contradictions, the struggle between the expansive and the introspective, isolation and euphoria.
Electronic, House


Race toward justice with this board book shaped like Catboy's Cat-Car with wheels that really move!
To the cat car, everyone, it's time for super cat speed! PJ Masks are on their way, into the night to save the day! Kids will love racing around with this interactive board book that includes moveable wheels to really make the Cat-Car go!
Book Cover Image (jpg): To the Cat-Car!


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This is Julia's room. I was moved to this room due to construction in my own. I haven't slept in peace since.
Did anyone realize that the bell pull is not connected to anything?
It was put there several years back, how very strange..
We shall spend the night in your room, if that's ok with you and would you stay here for the night?


sailboat. : Owliver the Oil Burner!
Happy Sunday, I hope you're having a lovely weekend!
Whether it's because I'm twenty-four going on eighty four or the long chilly winter nights, I had found myself loosing a few minutes or so here and there looking at various oil burners and different scents of wax tarts. There's something inherently magical about the warm, flickering glow of a candle and anything that gives me that extra cosy feeling as I'm tucked up under my favourite knitted blanket with a good book is a good thing in my eyes.
Recently I've been going through candles like there's no tomorrow but every time I finish one I can't seem to part with the empty jar and I've amassed quite a collection, it's beginning to border on just being silly now but who knows when I'll need that particular sized glass jar?! The answer is never but even though I know that, it doesn't seem to help! My desire to try something new has led me to the world of wax tarts and tart warmers and I think... think I like them more than candles.
I bought three wax tarts, black cherry, black coconut and fireside treats. Cherry is one of my favourite scents ever and black cherry is really intense, not something I would burn all the time but perfect for when I'm in a cherry kind of mood. Coconut is another one of my favourite scents and black coconut is especially nice because it's not just straight up coconut, there's a little something extra in there. Fireside treats is one I had to try because I've seen so many of my favourite ladies mention it in posts and I can see why! It's not too sickly sweet and smells extra good combined with black coconut.
My mum loved my little owl so much she asked me to buy her one too. She asked for pink sands, fruit fusion and sicilian lemon. I must also say that we're both really impressed with the delivery time, both of our orders arrived the next day so I'm sure these won't be our last orders from there!
Do you have any scent recommendations?
Or the best place to buy wax tarts from?
Oooh, love this, just added to the wish list!
I actually have a Scentsy burning like this for my bedside table, its a plug in oil/wax warmer (with the children this is great for something I can have lower down). Over Christmas I had some lovely sandalwood wax which so many friends commented on, now I have some fresh linen and cotton wax, great for cleaning and getting the year started! I love you Rabbit lights, where are they from? My daughter would love those in her room!
I got an oil burner for Christmas but this one is so cute!! Wax tarts are so great, we've been able to re-use one every day since Christmas and it still smells!
I had to chuckle at being a twenty-something going on to eighty-something - I often make the same comment about myself! Owliver is adorable - what a great find!!
The wax tarts are great, I have to say the Black Coconut is my favorite at the moment but I am going to try the fireside treats one as that sounds yummy too. Love your blog btw.
I have the fireside treats tart and i love it! I haven't used it yet though because i don't want to spoil it ahaa!
Aww he's just darling! Hello Owliver! <3 I'm technically not allowed candles in my rented Uni house, but I don't think wax tarts and the like come under that so maybe I can sneak them past our landlord!
Wax tarts are a great way to scent smaller places, I still prefer regular candles but I do have a wax warmer in the bathroom!
I have thus oil burner too I love him, cranberry ice and Lemon and Lavender are really nice sents to try.
I have a similar burner, and absolutely adore it! Fills up the room with sweet smells instantly!
I've got him as well! I got him from the range though. I had only used it for oils with water before I got some of those yankee candle melts for christmas. I tend to break them in half and only put in half at a time until the scent is gone because it's so powerful compared to the oils.
I LOVE my wax tart burner, this one is so cute!
Adorable! I should get an oil burner as well. Lately I've been going through candles like nothing, and I like melting off the last bit that can't be burned so I can reuse the jar for something else. Seems like such a waste throwing perfectly good wax out.
Cherry scents, hmmm... I was never really one to like cherry flavors or scents, except for actual cherries. I may give the next cherry scented candles I see a whiff, just out of curiosity.
I have a complete candle obsession but have never tried the little tarts before and I have no idea why! I definitely want to pick up a few now + the owl is so cute!
Oh he's beautiful - I'm glad you managed to find a burner!
I love those Yankee Candle Cakes their such a good size to try out scents. Your owl burner is so adorable!
Okay, that owl is too cute. I'm having to ignore the urge to buy myself one. I have a slight obsession with owl shaped things and with one owl tealight burner and two owl shaped candles already I think it's something I should resist. I am loving the sound of that fireside treats though. Maybe I'll treat myself to that instead...watch this space!
I love this so much! I've literally just logged on and bought one, plus about another £35 worth of wax tarts and tealights! Just don't tell the hubbie!!
That burner is so adorable! I have an elephant one I use for aromatherapy oils and another one I use for tarts - I am new to them too, just got two as a Christmas present!
This is so cute, I want to get a wax tart/oil burner! Nothing better than a nice smelling home!
Well isn't he a cutie. I'm actually with you in that I find wax tarts to give off a better scent than candles do.
This is such a great idea and so much cuter than the regular old candle jars!
This is too sweet! <3 I adore Yankee Candles of any kind... would recommend Red Velvet cake which is a delicious scent & also pine needle is very nice.
Very cute! This would make a bedroom so much cosier :) The black coconut scented candle sounds amazing!
what a beautiful burner, my mum would adore it!
Oh so cute! My grandma's superstitious about owls though :/ so we can't have any in the house *sigh* but would make a great gift for one of my friends. Thanks for sharing!!
I'm going through a massive candle moment these days but I'm totally going to swap up and get my hands on this burner and some tarts! Eee!
I have an owl oil burner too! But he's taller and he has stars cut out instead of circles, I love him so much! aha!
Owliver is gorgeous! I'm burning Black Coconut at the moment and love it.
I'm still a bit confused about how wax tarts work, but the black coconut one sounds lovely.


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RipRock Renegades @ "The Money"
"rap-rock has been it's own genre for well over a decade — but what's specifically compelling about the RipRock Renegades is that their sound is much closer to the genre's roots than many I've heard in recent years. It feels genuine and fresh."
The RipRock Renegades were formed in 2005, by "J. Ruckus" and "Jack the Ripper".The two rappers started performing regularly in 2008, at small venues and house parties in up-state SC. Then in Janurary of 2009 they met "Leecroy" at a show in spartanburg,who later started recording guitar and bass parts to some of their songs. Now with a guitarist to liven up their stage performances it only seemed right to add a bassist and drummer.First in late Feburay they auditioned "Fro" on bass,and needed to look no futher,cause Fro"s playing exceeded their expectations.Two weeks later they meet "Animal" on craigslist and he auditioned on drums for the band. Animal like Fro exceeded RipRock's expectations and became the fifth and final member of the RipRock Renegades.After a few practices the Renegades started performing as a five piece band and have been ripping and rocking ever since.We would like to share who our influences are but our music sounds nothing like any of them and there are too many to list, but we would like to challenge anyone who hears our music to step up and say who we sound like cause no one has been able to thus far. With that being said hope to play for you soon and we'll keep rippin' and rock'n.peace."Update" Fro has left the band, so Leecroy moved to bass and Adam has joined the group on guitar. Now we are even better than before.
"This is why we rock"
"Heartshaped Advice"(nirvana cover with RipRock lyrics).
Our set list is 20 songs that take up about 1 hour and 30 minutes, with more songs on the way soon.


The Gamlebyen Sport og Fritid (GSF) skate park is an oasis by Dyveke's Bridge that combines creativity, diversity and community in Gamlebyen (Old Oslo). Fall is a project by choreographer Martine Hammervold-Austinat with music by Åse Ava Fredheim and lighting by Silje Grimstad, performed by co-creative dancers Kristine Steinsdatter Jensen, Vibeke Sæther and Vigdis Langeggen.
Gamlefar (Ol' Daddy) is described as one of the most challenging bowls for skaters due to its variable depths and the curvature of the landscape. Its surface is smooth, but its visual expression is rough in appearance. The dynamism contained in the concrete bowl is the point of departure for the dancers' movement in the performance Fall.
The choreography for Fall reflects the physical possibilities and challenges of a skate park, accompanied by a sound track and lighting design commissioned specifically for the performance. The music has been composed together with recordings of GSF's ambient sounds: the skaters, the workshop, graffiti-writing, traffic and noise from the nearby building site. The lighting design both challenged and supported the dancers' continuous movement and physical expression through the basic principles of light and shadow. The performance was worked out as collaboration between the choreographer and the dancers – in the bowl and in the dance studio – departing from the skaters' natural patterns of movement.
Martine Hammervold-Austinat (1987) holds a BA in Dance with Pedagogy, majoring in Modern/Contemporary dance from Norges Dansehøyskole in Borggata 7 in Oslo. She has choreographed a number of improvised stunts and site-specific dance performances in public space. She has also held three performances at Scenehuset in Oslo, in collaboration with Åse Ava Fredheim.


Zazie is an androgynous and highly precocious twelve year old girl. She's come to Paris with her mother with one aim in sight: to experience the Metro, the world famous Paris subway system. Her mother has a new flame so she disappears off with him from moment one, leaving Zazie instead with her uncle Gabriel, who seems to live on a different plane of reality to everyone around him. Then again half the people around him are far from any standard of normality we might expect, leaving this film in the same quirky world as something like Amelie, which can hardly be a bad thing. I wonder how much Jean Pierre Jeunet was influenced by it.
The style of this film is joyous but far from conventional. I found myself bemused at the way Malle put certain scenes together but laughing aloud anyway. Scenes seem to try to outdo each other in surreality. Quite a lot of film is overcranked so that it can't help but remind of Benny Hill. So much happens in the background that we catch out of the corner of our eye that we often completely lose track of what we're actually supposed to be watching, only to find that we're falling prey to Malle's twisted intentions all along. Early on we experience the most awesome train of Chinese whispers I've seen on film, which gets hilariously reprised later, and nigh on halfway through we see the most amazingly surreal chase scene I've ever been privileged to witness.
Of course it makes us seriously wonder just what we're watching. Obviously this isn't reality, far more like a frenetic live action cartoon, especially with all the bomb throwing that goes on. It has to be entirely within young Zazie's imagination but we're never entirely told that and while it's comic genius it's presented as it if it was the most serious thing in the world. We see second hand children, men literally thrown from one scene into another, boots that talk, cops that forget their own names, a polar bear on top of the Eiffel tower. At one point a man mysteriously turns from white to black and back in a couple of frames. Zazie herself puts her shoes on by throwing them in the air, seemingly teleports and eats mussels but throws away the pearls. At points the soundtrack speeds up, slows down or switches into unknown languages. What is Black Forest Talk anyway?
And I give up taking notes for now. I've seen a few movies lately that require a second viewing to fill in gaps or to increase understanding. This is something to see about a dozen times before you can even make the remotest sense out of it. Right now I'll just say the first half of this is truly wondrous and the second half is completely zany and I'll be buying it very shortly indeed. I expect to watch this film often and maybe one day on viewing number fifty see everything it has to offer.


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TD07F lies over Fiji
Ritika Pratap
A heavy rain warning has been issued for most parts of the country in light of TDO7F.
Meteorology Director – Ravin Kumar says this weather will continue throughout the weekend.
"TD O7F is now lying over Fiji and from last evening we have been experiencing some heavy rains especially in the North and that has drifted to the South over the Northern Viti Levu and Eastern Viti Levu. With this a heavy rain warning remains in force for the Eastern and Northern Viti levu, Lomaiviti and Kadavu."
Kumar says flood warning is now in force for low lying areas.
"A flood warning is now in force for low lying areas and adjacent areas to Wailotua Station and areas downstream of Wainibuka River. A flood alert is now in force for the low lying areas and areas adjacent to the Nayavu Station and areas downstream from the Wainibuka River. We also got some heavy rain in the Western Division especially in the Rakiraki area so a flood alert is now in force for low lying areas adjacent to the Rakiraki station and downstream of Rakiraki."
Kumar says this rain is expected to continue today especially in the North Eastern parts of the country and as well as Kadavu.


Cottage cheese (paneer) 400 gms.
Red chili powder 1½ tsps.
1.Break the red chilies into two pieces, peel and chop the onions into thick slices and separate the onion rings.
2.Peel and chop ginger into pieces, wash & chop the green chilies.
3.Cut the tomato and capsicum into half, remove the seeds and cut them into long slices.
4.Finely chop the coriander leaves and cut the paneer into small rectangular pieces.
5.Heat oil in a kadai, add cumin seeds and when they change colour, add the halved red chilies.
6.Add ginger pieces, sliced onions and sauté for a minute.
7.Add red chili powder, turmeric powder & stir well.
8.Mix capsicum pieces and cook for a few minutes, then add the paneer pieces and toss.
9.Finally add salt, vinegar, tomato pieces, garam masala powder & cook for 2-3 minutes.
10.Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.


According to The Blast, Kelis is headed straight to trial with her child's father Nas after denying she violated their custody agreement by taking their son out of the country.
According to court documents, Kelis entered a plea earlier this week of not guilty to 20 counts of contempt. The trial has been scheduled for June 20, when Kelis could be sentenced to fines or even as harshly as jail time if the judge sees fit. Earlier this year Nas filed court documents wanting Kelis to be found in contempt and claimed she had violated their custody agreement over 17 times since last year.
In his affidavit for contempt, the rapper explained how Kelis had violated the terms that they set.
But she reportedly did not return to L.A. on January 4, instead, she made him wait until January 14 before bringing the child back into the States.
During this time Nas claimed that he was unable to reach or speak with his child when he was in Colombia.
Nas accused Kelis of knowingly violating the custody order and refusing to allow him to see his son. He also claimed Kelis refused to pay $8k in sanctions she was ordered to pay previously.


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Our goal is to empower individuals, families, and communities by leading them to a deeper relationship with God, themselves, and others through contemplation, nature, art and music.
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Why is Seeds of Life Important?
Growing in our relationship with God and in the knowledge of God's presence mostly happens when a person learns how to be silent inside and notices the presence and love of God in them already. This interior silence requires exterior silence, and it is helped immensely when the beauty of nature can transmit without words the invitation to simply be with God. When surrounded by and involved in the wonder of nature, a person often experiences the space needed for deep healing and the reclaiming of their own worth and power to make positive changes in their lives and in society.


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Ассоциация по изучению четвертичного периода Европы ( — Ассоциации для изучения четвертичных отложений Европы, АИЧОЕ) — международная научная ассоциация европейских учёных по изучению четвертичного периода, существовавшая в 1928—1936 годах.

История
17-30 июня 1928 года в Копенгагене (Дания) состоялся международная ассамблея европейских геологов (), посвящённая 40-летию образования Датского геологического института или Датской геологической службы. На конгрессе присутствовало 102 делегата из 17 стран (от СССР были Д. И. Мушкетов, А. Е. Ферсман и А. А. Борисяк).

25 июня директор Датского геологического института (Victor Madsen) представил инициативу польской делегации (во главе с М. Лимановским) о создании новой международной ассоциации учёных-четвертичников стран Северной Европы. Её хотели сделать по примеру Карпатской ассоциации (основана в 1922), так как отсутствовала научная кооперация геологов-четвертичников соседних европейских стран и большинство публикаций было на скандинавских языках.

Во время дискуссии против выступил шведский учёный Г. Я. Геер, который хотел ограничиться созданием научного журнала. Идею поддержали делегации из СССР, Германии, Австрии и других стран. Был избран организационный комитет куда вошли 14 учёных, в том числе Д. И. Мушкетов.

Учредительная встреча
26 июня состоялась учредительная пленарная сессия на которой единогласно был принята декларация о создании организации — Ассоциация по изучению четвертичного периода Европы (АИЧПЕ) (), c 5 подсекциями, отражающими её задачи:
 Информационный сервис
 Помощь в геологических исследованиях в странах участниках
 Стандартизация терминологии
 Организация периодических конгрессов
 Разработка карт четвертичных отложений.

Было избрано бюро Ассоциации из 15 делегатов во главе с руководителем Геологического комитета России Д. И. Мушкетовым (первый президент бюро Ассоциации по изучению четвертичного периода Европы).

14 стран учредителей: Австрия, Бельгия, Чехословакия, Дания, Финляндия, Франция, Германия, Великобритания, Нидерланды, Норвегия, Польша, СССР, Испания и Швеция.

II конференция в Ленинграде
В каждой из стран участниц было создано Информационное бюро национальной ассоциации, выпускавшее свои журналы. В СССР это были выпуски Бюллетеня Информационного бюро Ассоциации для изучения четвертичных отложений Европы при ГГРУ ВСНХ СССР (с 1931 года).

1-7 сентябре 1932 года состоялась II международная конференция АИЧПЕ в Ленинграде, после неё состоялась геологическая экскурсия

В Ленинградской конференции приняли участие 263 человека, из которых только 20 человек из стран: Австрия, Чехословакия, Финляндия, Нидерланды, Норвегия, Германия (самая большая делегация), Польша, Швеция, Дания, Англия, Эстония, Латвия.

Кроме пленарных выступлений, 60 докладов были разделены по темам:
 Стратиграфия — 20 докладов, руководитель секции Жирмунский, Александр Матвеевич
 Геоморфология — 14 докладов, руководитель секции Эдельштейн, Яков Самойлович
 Антропология — 16 докладов, руководитель секции Бонч-Осмоловский, Глеб Анатольевич.

К конференции была выпущена «Карта четвертичных отложений европейской части СССР и прилегающих территорий» в масштабе 1: 2 500 000, под редакцией С. А. Яковлева.

Сразу после конференции состоялось торжественное заседание посвящённое 50-летнему юбилею создания геологического комитета, хотя сам Геолком к 1930 году уже был реорганизован.

C 1934 года Борис Земляков был учёным секретарём Советской секции Ассоциации по изучению четвертичного периода.

В 1940 году национальное объединение ещё называлось — «Советская секция Ассоциации по изучению четвертичных отложений Европы».

Переформатирование во всемирную организацию

Ассоциация по изучению четвертичного периода Европы была переименована в:
 1936 — Международная ассоциация по изучению четвертичного периода ( или ) в 1936 году на конгрессе в Вене, где уже участвовало 187 делегатов из 23 стран, не только Европы.
 1936 — Труды Советской секции Международной ассоциации по изучению четвертичного периода (INQUA) / ред. А. А. Блохин. Вып. 2. Ленинград; Москва: ОНТИ-НКТП-СССР, Главная редакция геолого-разведочной и геодезической литературы, 1936. 61 с.

 1953 — Международный союз по изучению четвертичного периода (INQUA), на конгрессе в Риме организация была преобразована в современный союз.

Современная INQUA входит в Международный совет по науке.

Конференции
Конференции проходили в разных городах мира, как правило раз в 4 года:
 1928  — Копенгаген
 1932  — Ленинград
 1936  — Вена
Дальнейшие конференции назывались конгрессами INQUA.

Публикации
 Compte rendu de la Réunion géologique internationale à Copenhague, 1928 rédigé par V. Nordmann, publié par Victor Madsen. Copenhague: C. A. Reitzel, 1930. 269, [1] p. incl. front :, ill., ports., maps, plans. VI pl. (part fold., incl. maps, diagrs.)
 Бюллетень Информационного бюро Ассоциации для изучения четвертичных отложений Европы. 1931.
 Ассоциация для изучения четвертичных отложений Европы (А. И. Ч. О. Е.): Путеводитель экскурсий Второй четвертично-геологической конференции. , : Геолразведиздат, 1932.
 Труды 2 Международной конференции Ассоциации по изучению четвертичного периода Европы (АИЧПЕ). 1933.
 Труды Советской секции Международной ассоциации по изучению четвертичного периода Европы. (1935)
 К докладам Советской делегации на 3 конференции Международной Ассоциации по изучению четвертичного периода. Т. 1. Л.; М.: ОНТИ Главная редакция геолого-разведочной и геодезической литературы, 1936.

См. также
 Четвертичный период и Четвертичная геология
 Комиссия по изучению четвертичного периода
 Бюллетень Комиссии по изучению четвертичного периода
 Лаборатория стратиграфии четвертичного периода

Примечания

Литература
 Мушкетов Д. И. К организации международных комиссий — ледниковой и ископаемого человека // Бюллетень Информационного бюро Ассоциации для изучения четвертичных отложений Европы при ГГРУ ВСНХ СССР. № 1. 1931. С. 22-24.
 Нейштадт М. И. Вклад советских ученых в организацию и работу INQUA // Бюллетень Комиссии по изучению четвертичного периода. № 42. 1974. С. 28-42.

 Alexandrowicz S. W. Polskie korzenie Międzynarodowej Unii Badań Czwartorzędu (INQUA) // Prace Komisji Historii Nauki Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności. 2009. N 9. S. 53-86.
 Compte rendu de la Réunion géologique internationale à Copenhague, 1928 / ed. C.A. Reitzel. Copenhague: Danmarks geologiske undersøgelse, 1930. 269 p.
 Neustadt M. I.'' Historique des Congrès. Moscou: INQUA, 1969. 97 p. (Supplement au Bulletin de l'AFEQ. 1969. N CPPP. 43204).

Ссылки
 A History Of INQUA — The International Union For Quaternary Research на сайте INQUA, 2011.
 История — Лаборатория стратиграфии четвертичного периода ГИН РАН.

Четвертичная геология
История науки

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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News>Dirty Projectors
Watch the video for new song 'Little Bubble'
The new Dirty Projectors song 'Little Bubble' is Quiet Storm for a climatically unstable future. A gorgeous song about love and loss, it gives us one of David Longstreth's most guileless and beautiful melodies yet.
Social bubbles; cultural and technological bubbles; the bubbles we create and inhabit in our most intimate relationships: 'Little Bubble' is a very timely exploration of the double-edged sword of comfort and insularity, and the trade-offs we make choosing them.
The lush production — Rhodes electric piano, acoustic guitar, string quartet & trombone trio, and huge, intricate drums — reminds us of Longstreth's work on Solange's A Seat At The Table. The production simultaneously looks backward — to Ellington as much to Stevie Wonder — and forward, to a digital singularity in which audio is just another form of data to be glitched, hacked and manipulated.
The video explores the metaphor of Earth itself as a fragile bubble of life in a cold, dead universe. Building on the visual language of Dirty Projectors' 2012 short film Hi Custodian, it was directed by Longstreth and longtime collaborator Adam Newport-Berra.
After the devastatingly damaged soul of 'Keep Your Name,' here is 'Little Bubble' — the second song from the hotly anticipated, possibly forthcoming but yet-unannounced next Dirty Projectors work
More Dirty Projectors News
Dirty Projectors share new track "That's A Lifestyle"
Dirty Projectors announce Lamp Lit Prose, Out 13th July
Dirty Projectors share Cool Your Heart Remix EP
Dirty Projectors make live return on The Tonight Show
Self-titled album released 24th February
Dirty Projectors share new song, Keep Your Name


Developments and deadlines are happening almost daily, so we want to take a moment to update you on a couple of the most pressing matters regarding immigration.
USCIS indicated on September 27, 2017 that it was "on track to resume premium processing" for all H-1B petitions on or before October 3.
USCIS has clarified that only those persons whose current DACA expires between September 5, 2017 and March 5, 2018 are eligible to renew their deferred action grant, and then only if the renewal request had been received by USCIS by October 5, 2017. Under the previous DACA guidelines, a person could seek to renew DACA if their deferred action had been expired for less than one year. However, that one-year grace period is no longer in effect, and those with DACA that expired before September 5, 2017 are not eligible to renew.
Individuals with DACA and associated work authorization that expire after March 5, 2018 are no longer eligible to submit a renewal request. However, their current DACA and work authorization will remain valid until they expire, unless otherwise terminated or revoked.
For more information about the elimination of DACA, please see our previous post on September 8th.
We will continue to update you as developments warrant.


text:
My Publishers
Authors I Read
Webrings
RECKLESS - A contemporary erotic romance novel
Available in print from:
And in digital format from:
Kindle US
Kindle UK
A forbidden lover in the night.
A valuable art collection.
A mystery to be solved…
When Katrina Hammond finds herself at the center of a struggle for power and dominance between two brothers, she welcomes the darkly erotic charge the situation brings.
Katrina's job is to value a collection of art in the Spanish villa of the Teodoro family, where Sergio Teodoro rules. Sergio is a dominant man who compels her attention. Nicolas, his younger brother - a passionate artist - also seeks her out. One brother will seduce her and win her heart, but danger awaits Katrina in the shadows of the Teodoro villa. As she uncovers the subterfuge surrounding the collection, she finds that there is more to Nicolas and Sergio's battle than meets the eye, and more to her growing allegiances than may be good for her.
80,000 words in length, contemporary suspense romance.
Please note: this title was previously published with a different cover.
"RECKLESS is unique and unlike any romance I have ever read. Saskia Walker is a genius; the turn of events in RECKLESS shocked me completely...Arousing, enigmatic and gripping, RECKLESS is on my 'highly recommended' list. If a dark romance with many suspenseful, surprising, and erotic moments is what you crave, then RECKLESS is the book for you!" Romance Junkies
"Saskia Walker delivered everything I love in a good erotic romance and more. I literally sat down and read this book in one sitting." Queue My Review
"Reckless is an erotic, suspenseful novel that leaves the reader on edge." The Romance Studio
"Reckless is a thrilling read."Coffee Time Romance
Katrina glanced down into the hallway, where the shadows were far too mobile for her liking, as if the ghosts of the house were about to emerge. Stepping quickly across the half landing, she went upstairs to the wing where the bedrooms were located. Pausing at the end of the corridor she noticed that the wall lights were now switched off, only the occasional ceiling lights every ten feet or so illuminated the corridor, which gave it even more of an air of mystery than the office area.
Except for the sound of crickets outside, all was quiet, but the scent of the night was heavy in the air. The moist plants outside the windows omitted a heady smell, made stronger after the gardener had watered the foliage beneath the windows at sundown. She breathed it in, noticing the aromas of earth and the eucalyptus trees from farther away, mingling in with the scent of the garden. As she watched, the night breeze shifted the curtains at the open windows between the doorways. The long swathes of sheer fabric lifted eerily in time, one after the other, like the tide along the shore. It was a ghostly image and it reminded her of any number of scary movies. This corridor felt even spookier then the rest of the place, as if an unknown presence lurked by.
The curtains lifted again. The skin on her back prickled, and Katrina felt herself becoming aware of all the lives that had been lived here, the people who had walked these corridors in years gone by. It was a beautiful house, but a strange one too—a house full of secrets and ghosts.
She clutched her laptop bag against her chest and tiptoed quietly along the corridor. As she did, she heard a sound. She paused, but other than the movement of the curtains, all was still. She walked on.
A door to her left, at the rear of the house, was ajar. She kept walking, eager to get to her room. As she passed the open door, her footsteps slowed. She could see a large bed and beyond it a desk. Sergio was sitting at the desk, working, but with the door open. Was he waiting to catch her as she walked by? If so, she wasn't ready for that, not now. Could she creep past unseen? Cautiously, and as stealthily as she could, she moved on. When she reached her door and had her hand on the handle, she glanced back down the corridor to see if Sergio had emerged. Her breath caught in her throat. There was someone standing there in the half-light, but it wasn't Sergio.
At the end of the landing where she'd been just moments before, stood Nicolas Teodoro. At first glance she thought she was imagining it, that she had conjured forth an image from the shadows to satisfy her desire for him. But no, he really was there.
Dressed entirely in black and still as a statue, he looked like a cat burglar. Is that what he was, a forbidden intruder here? He was watching her intently, his eyes black in the dim light, his unruly hair falling forward. She sensed that he was ready to act. How, to take flight if she raised the alarm? Confusion riddled through her, and that wasn't all that she was feeling. He looked so darkly sexy and she'd been held in those arms, felt those lips on hers—a forbidden liqueur that she had tasted in a dark street during the festival.
Why was he here, now?
He put his fingers to his lips and at first she thought it was a signal to be quiet, but then he turned those fingers toward her and mouthed a kiss, winking at her. Katrina's legs felt shaky under her and she gripped the door handle tighter. As if she hadn't been aroused enough the night before, here he was making a secret connection with her, reminding her of what had happened between them.
Glancing from Nicolas back to the open door halfway between them on the other side of the corridor, she could scarcely breath. If Sergio emerged now, he'd see them both, he might even guess she'd had contact with his disinherited brother, the brother she had been warned about.
Nicolas followed her glance, and then gestured at her, nodding and indicating that she should go into her room. Then he tapped his chest and pointed at her door. Katrina stared at him. He couldn't be serious? He was going to just walk down there to her, past the open door, past his estranged brother?
No. He stepped quickly to the nearest window on the front side of the house. Signaling again, a master of mime, he indicated to her that he meant to come to her room from the outside of the building.
Her concern ratcheted. The balconies were too far apart, surely? That would be even more dangerous than walking past Sergio's open doorway. But before she could even react he was climbing out the window, and as she watched his fit rear end disappear through it she couldn't decide what unsettled her more—that he was risking the climb, or that he would appear in her room at the end of it.
Her legs swayed, she felt suddenly weak. He was scaling the outside of a building aiming for her window. He wasn't supposed to be there at all, not in the middle of the night, and especially not in her room.
Go in and refuse him, lock the windows to the balcony. Even as she thought it, she knew she had no intention of doing so. She had to know what he was going to say. The way he'd held her in Barcelona and the way he'd touched her, all of it echoed through her senses, and she staggered against the wall as she went inside and closed the door, pressing it closed and holding it that way, as if that would ground her.
The curtains wafted in the breeze and she stared at them, not daring to blink as she watched the moonlight filtering into the room—until she saw a shadow move at the edge of the balcony.
What if her clients found her talking to him, in here, in their home? There was still time to run over there and bar the window before he got inside. But Katrina didn't want to lock him out, and as she watched the shadow climbing onto her balcony in the moonlight, her heart raced, her body suffused with anticipation.
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Musings of a Palaeolinguist: Affordable Japan?
Next year's Evolang conference (Evolang 9 http://kyoto.evolang.org/) is set to take place from 13-16 March, in Kyoto, Japan. I'm excited about this for a number of reasons, one, that I have been itching to return to Japan ever since my lone travelling experience there in 2006, and two, because I hope this will be my first Evolang conference where I will contribute with a poster or a presentation. The call for papers is already open, and abstracts are to be in by 15 August.
I have been wondering lately what impact the recent earthquake and tsunami will have on the conference - I hope that it is a positive generator of tourism as I'm expecting Japan will be on the road to recovery next March and will benefit from having a few hundred evolutionary linguists bobbing around. I was already thinking the location of this conference might put some people off because of the associated cost and distance, but I hope recent events have not prevented people from wanting to experience this amazing country for themselves and having a chance to meet Japanese researchers in language evolution on their own turf.
I hope to encourage people if I can by dispelling some of the ideas that Japan is a really expensive place - the ticket, for most, will be pricy - once you are in the country, things really are no more expensive (and maybe even a bit cheaper!) than parts of Europe. I'm sure North Americans and Europeans alike will be shelling out close to $800 US to get there. I have no idea what flights are like within Asia and from the Australian area. The price of the actual conference has always been a bit pricy for this poor recovering former student. I can't remember offhand what the cost was in 2010, but in 2008 it was 280 Euros for the non-student early bird fee, plus workshops and dinner.
1) Well first of course you have to get to Kyoto. If you are flying into Narita airport in Tokyo, you will need to take the train to Kyoto and that can be a bit costly. However, tourists can benefit from a Japan Rail Pass (http://www.japanrailpass.net/) that is well worth its price if you plan on doing a bit of travelling while you are in the country. A one week ticket is 28,300 yen ($335 US or £206 GBP), and it allows you to go practically anywhere in Japan except on the super fast trains - and apparently now they also allow you to go on the Tokyo's metro system as well. A trip or two back and forth to Kyoto makes it well worth the price, and there are also 2 and 3 week tickets. Anyone who lives in Britain and travels by rail wont find these prices uncomfortable! Of course you can also fly into Osaka which is much closer to Kyoto.
2) For accomodation, prices are quite reasonable. I'm speaking from the point of view of cheap hostels, of which I have stayed in 4 in Japan (plus a ryokan and a standard hotel), and found them really well run and very clean, and very affordable at between 2500-3000 yen a night (about $30 USD or £20 GBP).
3) Food is the loveliest thing about prices in Japan to discuss, as it is delicious and can be very affordable! Restaurants can of course be very expensive, but a giant bowl of ramen will only set you back 5-700 yen and green tea is complementary. There is an udon restaurant called Hanamaru Udon that is very cheap - 100 yen for a plain bowl and then you can add extra bits like tempura. The food was definitly the highlight of my trip. Convenience stores and vending machines are everywhere so you will never go hungry or thirsty, and being in Kyoto do make sure you try a regional favourite called okonomiyaki, a type of savoury cabbage pancake with meat. I'd only budget about 1500 yen a day for eating three meals - you'll be on a budget but will still have a full belly (although if you eat more than a 120 pound girl you might disagree a little).
As an aside, one of my fondest memories of Japan was waking up and going to this strange cafeteria place in Tokyo on the grounds where my hostel was, and paying 400 yen for an amazing buffet breakfast. I usually had a couple cups of coffee, orange juice, miso soup and a croissant, scrambled eggs, spaghetti and salad(omnipresent at western breakfasts??). I would sit in a large room full of people about to head off to school or the office and was a really fun way to people watch.
= rougly £1000 pounds total. So not pocket change, and more expensive than The Netherlands last year for those from Europe, but doable if you start saving now!! ...I hope to see you there in March!
Please comment with any helpful links or tips for saving a bit of cash in Japan.
The local organizing committee is aware that the cost of coming to Japan might be quite off putting for some people (particularly students) and so we are exploring a number of options to lighten the burden. While I can't confirm details yet, I can say you are significantly over estimating the conference fee:) Also, this won't be the only thing we will be doing to make it easier for students!


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Q: Receive data from CSV file as variable to "PATH" -> "HTTP Request" sampler I have static domain name (test.com) of site and CSV file with path to different pages like home.html, contacts.html, projects.html and other. How I have to configure Jmeter to receive data from file as variable to "PATH" to "HTTP Request" sampler?

A: *

*Add CSV Data Set Config to your Test Plan and configure it as follows:

*

*Filename: /path/to/your/csv/file

*Variable Names: anything meaningful, i.e. path

*In the HTTP Request Sampler define "Path" element as /${path}

See Using CSV DATA SET CONFIG article for more detailed explanation of above and other settings.

If your CSV file structure is as simple as "one line - one entry" you can even get rid of the CSV Data Set Config and use __StringFromFile() function instead.

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text:
package com.graphicsfuzz.generator.transformation;

import com.graphicsfuzz.common.ast.TranslationUnit;
import com.graphicsfuzz.common.util.IRandom;
import com.graphicsfuzz.generator.semanticspreserving.StructificationMutation;
import com.graphicsfuzz.generator.semanticspreserving.StructificationMutationFinder;
import com.graphicsfuzz.generator.util.GenerationParams;
import com.graphicsfuzz.generator.util.TransformationProbabilities;
import java.util.List;

public class StructificationTransformation implements ITransformation {

  public static final String NAME = "structification";

  @Override
  public boolean apply(TranslationUnit tu,
                       TransformationProbabilities probabilities,
                       IRandom generator,
                       GenerationParams generationParams) {

    final List<StructificationMutation> structificationOpportunities =
          new StructificationMutationFinder(tu,
              generator,
              generationParams)
                .findMutations(probabilities::structify, generator);
    for (StructificationMutation so : structificationOpportunities) {
      so.apply();
    }
    return !structificationOpportunities.isEmpty();
  }

  @Override
  public String getName() {
    return NAME;
  }

}

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