Offshore Pipeline IS&M – Inspection Survey and Mapping. The company has been involved with the inspection and detailed reporting of the conditions of offshore structures since the 1970's. We conduct inspections by our Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) or other means of manned or unmanned inspection.
Cathodic Potential testing is conducted to assist with the analysis of the cathodic protection system.
Inspecting and reporting on the integrity of marine structures and platforms helps the owner make informed decisions on maintenance or replacement of key components. We provide the base data and information, exactly as it exists on site, to facilitate the ower's decisions. The welds on 25% of the structure are cleaned and the welds are prepared for NonDestructive testing. If the platform is on a regular inspection cycle, the welds may be cleaned at 20% -25% each year, which provides for a 100% underwater structural evaluation over a 4-5 year period.
The inspection is documented on video and /or digital photographs.
Inspection formats for the various services and a comprehensive written report is made for submission to the client.
Our Platform IS&M procedues have been accepted by the Naval Facilities Engineering Command and industry platform operators as well as a number of Platform Operators.
We can provide the complete service of Inspection to determine actual conditions of marine structures, provide detailed written reports accompanied by CAD drawings. Staff engineers review all reports and make recommendations to the platform owner for maintaining the integrity of their structures.


18 XMlite 915Z LED Matrix Moving Heads joined the Juniors Kingsford's new lighting rig early 2017. These 915Z features French GAGGIONE lens for premium color blending quality from ProLight 15W RGBW LEDs. The heads are pixel mappable and supports infinite Pan/Tilt, with a 10-50° zoom function.
Lighting designer Paul Kirk has been using them a lot and he love them. "the pixel mapping really helps me to create various effects efficiently. I could just run a video across the fixtures", "The lights are quiet, fast and very powerful for their size. I am only running them at 70% output".


DeliveryPoD provides a proof of delivery solution for many types of environment, ranging from internal delivery to third party logistics tracking.
Our system uses a combination on barcodes, RFID Tags, mobile computers and software in order to track items to the person who needs them. Once there, typically the person signs on the mobile computer screen to acknowledge that delivery has taken place.


The bill spells out a woman's legal entitlement to job adjustments to help ensure good health while pregnant, following childbirth or when other related medical conditions are present.
Specifically, the bill makes it illegal for employers in New York City to refuse to provide pregnant workers "reasonable accommodation," which may include more breaks to stay hydrated, periodic rest for women whose job requires long periods of standing, extra bathroom breaks and assistance with manual labor.
The bill was created after councilmembers heard reports of women being removed from their positions or fired after requesting workplace adjustments because of a pregnancy or recent childbirth.


An Indian-origin factory worker from Wolverhampton has revived 'Shastar vidya', the ancient form of Sikh marial arts that was so deadly that the British banned it in the 19th century in colonial India.
Nidar Singh Nihang, 41, has been teaching 'Shastar vidya' in Hounslow, west London , to a growing number of students.
During colonial rule, British rulers banned the form but allowed and encouraged 'gatka', a ceremonial and toned-down version of 'Shastar vidya' which is widely displayed during Sikh festivals today.
Singh Nihang hopes that he can make 'Shastar vidya' as widely practised as the 'gatka'.
"Most people who practise Indian martial arts nowadays are simply learning the toned down exhibition styles that were allowed by the British," he told The Independent.
Detailed records of 'Shastar vidya' are available from the colonial era in the British Library and V&A Museum here.
One of Singh Nihang's top students is Iqbal Singh, a 39-year-old businessman from Slough who spent many years looking for a master who might be able to reconnect him with his culture's fighting past.
"When I was younger I used to head down to the British Library where there are loads of manuscripts and books from the Sikh empire," he said.


text:
class AddFinishedAtToJob < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def self.up
    add_column :jobs, :finished_at, :datetime
  end

  def self.down
    remove_column :jobs, :finished_at
  end
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Медівни́к новогвінейський (Philemon novaeguineae) — вид горобцеподібних птахів родини медолюбових (Meliphagidae). Мешкає на Новій Гвінеї та на сусідніх островах. Раніше вважався конспецифічним з рогодзьобим медівником.

Підвиди
Виділяють п'ять підвидів:
 P. n. novaeguineae (Müller, S, 1842) — острови Західного Папуа, півострів Чендравасіх, південь і південний схід Нової Гвінеї;
 P. n. aruensis (Meyer, AB, 1884) — острови Ару;
 P. n. jobiensis (Meyer, AB, 1874) — острів Япен і північ Нової Гвінеї;
 P. n. subtuberosus Hartert, E, 1896 — острови Тробріана і острови Д'Антркасто;
 P. n. tagulanus Rothschild & Hartert, E, 1918 — острів .

Поширення і екологія
Новогвінейські медівники живуть в тропічних лісах.

Примітки

Медолюбові
Птахи, описані 1843
Птахи Індонезії
Птахи Папуа Нової Гвінеї
Птахи Нової Гвінеї

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


A pan that can do it all? Sounds like the stuff of dreams. Curtis has turned your culinary fantasy into reality with his updated, Dura-Diamond nonstick Multipurpose Pan. With over 50% more capacity than the original, it'll be on your stove, in your oven and on your table from morning to night. And since it's perfect for baking, roasting, frying, steaming and more, you can cook up pretty much anything — even the meal of your dreams.
This pan works so much better than the stuff that As seen on TV sells. This pan really works, you get what you pay for.
Couldn't be more descriptive than it's Nonstick name. Extra large pan makes it easier to cook anything. And, Nothing Sticks. This pan exceeds all my expectations. All the other "nonstick" pans I have purchased are now gone. Clean up efforts are now very easy with this pan. Pan-Tastic!
I am a picky purchaser and I rarely say I love an object but I love my Curtis Stone Dura-Pan so much I bought this one for my son. It makes my life so easy. I even cook small can's of vegs and soup in it. A bit awkward when moving to a bowl but I don't care - it washes up in seconds. I don't know if the new metal around the pan helps with hot handles but hot handles used to be my only complaint.
I love this pan! Great size, easy to clean and heats evenly. Plan to order more from his line. Thank you HSN and Curtis Stone!!
I love this pan and have already used it twice. Excellent heating thoroughly and such an easy clean up! So happy I bought this !


Wu Hung and the Smart Museum presented an unconventional exhibition. Its subject was not an artists or a group of art works, but another exhibition that was never realized: It's Me (Beijing, 1998), a group show curated by Leng Lin that was canceled by Chinese officials the day before its scheduled opening. The project raised questions about artistic freedom and censorship. Our direction intentionally pushed the boundaries through the use of strong typography, juxtaposition of images and color.


In this article I hope to be able to show if there are any picture quality benefits to bringing in DV (I'll refer to miniDV, DVCAM and DVCPro as DV as they all share the same codec) to Apple's Final Cut Pro over uncompressed SDI compared to the "normal" route of transfer over Firewire and using the Apple DV codec. I will also investigate new algorithms for dealing with DV chroma sampling issues. Many thanks to Peter McAuley of AXYZ Edit in Toronto who made this article possible and AOL Canada for permission to use the footage of the boy in the red shirt. Over the course of writing this article, there was a bit of "scope creep" as more ideas to analyse the video were thought of, and we decided to throw analogue BetacamSP into the mix for consideration. Near the end of writing the article I came across a controversy over whether Digital Betacam is an 8bit format or a 10bit format, so that too was included into the scope of the investigations.
Before I start, I'd first like to look at some terminology and an explanation of chroma sampling.
The CCDs that capture our image inside our video camera, capture colour by the use of Red, Green, and Blue filters. The phosphors in our CRT monitor, and filters in our LCD monitor and DLP projector also use Red, Green and Blue filters. Why is it then, that digital video is stored and manipulated as separate luma and chroma components? Separate luma and chroma are used so that the resolution of the chroma can be reduced with respect to the resolution of the luma so that large savings cand be made in the amount of data that needs to be transmitted - it is a form of compression. This reduction in the resolution of the chroma components works perceptually as our human vision systems are not as able to see fine details in colour as we are in lightness.
4:2:2 Full resolution luma, and half (2/4 = 0.5) resolution horizontally on the chroma components. This is the traditional broadcast standard for chroma sampling and is used by DigiBeta, DVCpro50 etc.
4:2:0 Full resolution luma, and half resolution in the horizontal direction and vertical direction for the chroma components. 4:2:0 is a very complex chroma sampling with many variants depending on wether the video is progressive or interlaced, or if it is being used by PAL DV or MPEG2. 4:2:0 compresses the resolution of the colour to 1/4, just like 4:1:1 compresses the resolution of the colour, but whereas the compression in 4:1:1 is horizontal only, the compression in 4:2:0 is horizontal and vertical. The illustration below is for PAL DV 4:2:0 chroma sampling.
Before we look at the DV over SDI v Firewire comparison, it is useful to see what a full quality 4:2:2 Digital Betacam image looks like, so that we have a sense of how both the the SDI DV and Firewire compare. Due to the nature of these tests we do not have the same footage for both this comparison and the later tests, but I still think this is a worthwhile exploration.
To make these comparisons possible, I wrote a few plugins for Apple's Final Cut Pro which allow us to examine the Y' Cb and Cr components seperately (G Take). Also, due to some codecs (like the uncompressed 4:2:2 codec used for the Digital Betacam captures) smoothing chroma and some (like the Apple DV codec) leaving chroma unsmoothed, I wrote plugins (G Make 422 & G Make 411) to show us unsmooth chroma where there codec wants to smooth it!
The Digital Betacam footage used is from 35mm film (Kodak 5293) transferred on a Rank C Reality with a Da Vinci 2K colour corrector to a DVW500 Digital Betacam deck. The Digital Betacam footage was brought into Final Cut Pro using a Kona SD card (with Decklink 4.6 driver) via SDI as fully uncompressed 8bit and 10bit files. With regards to chroma sampling, there is no real difference between the 8bit and 10bit files, but the 10bit files are of an overall higher quality. We will look at the difference between 10bit and 8bit capture later.
Here are the block diagrams that show the path the video took to get to Final Cut Pro.
Traditionally DV has always been captured using it's native Firewire connection that effectively allows a NLE like Final Cut Pro to copy the exact data on tape to the hard drive, placing it in a Quicktime wrapper for easy use. Apple supply a DV codec for Quicktime and it has evolved over the last few years to become very capable. However, the Apple DV codec, unlike the Avid DV codec does not smooth the DV's blocky 4:1:1 chroma. This may sound like a bad move on Apple's part, but this allows it to have better generational quality. As an option, Apple inlude a filter named 4:1:1 in the keying section of filters to smooth DV 4:1:1 chroma.
Some professional DV decks, like the Sony DSR-1800 that was used for these tests, have an SDI output option. SDI, or Serial Digital Interface, is designed for a professional level 4:2:2 uncompressed transfer of video between decks. It can also be used to allow Final Cut Pro to capture 4:2:2 uncompressed video if you have a suitable capture card like the Kona SD used in these tests. Because DV is neither uncompressed nor 4:2:2, the deck must first transform the data into a format suitable for transfer over SDI. The DV data on tape gets uncompressed, and the 4:1:1 chroma gets upsampled to 4:2:2. I have not been able to find out the exact mathematical method by which the chroma is upsampled, but we shall see in these tests what it looks like compared to both unsmoothed and smoothed DV via the Apple DV codec.
This is the workflow used to examine the DV footage over Firewire.
This is the workflow to examine the DV footage over SDI.
The next image was generated using the above workflows, and the footage was shot on a Canon XL2. It was brought in via SDI from the DSR-1800 deck through the KonaSD card into Final Cut Pro. The Firewire footage was brought in via Firewire from the DSR-1800 deck. Great care was taken to align the captures so that the frames match precisely, although due to timecode uncertainties, this was tricky. The still images were brought into Photoshop, aligned and cropped to allow easy comparison.
With the naked eye, it is practically impossible, in this example, to see much difference in the Y'CbCr colour pictures. It is also very difficult to see any difference at all in the Y' pictures. This is good. There is no reason why the Y' should be any different between getting decoded by the hardware in the deck compared to being decoded by Apple's DV codec. The Cb abd Cr chroma component images are very telling. It is quite obvious that the unsmoothed Firewire chroma are very inferior to the chroma via SDI, but that the smoothed Firewire chroma images are practically identical to that of the SDI chroma images.
To highlight any subtle differences I decided to examine another piece of footage shot on the Canon XL2. This time I did not look at the unsmoothed Firewire chroma as we know it's going to look bad. Instead I concentrated on the difference between the smoothed Firewire Chroma and the SDI chroma.
In this case I have highlighted the differences by using a scaled difference technique in Photoshop whereby the difference between the two images being compared it scaled to allow subtle differences to be easily seen. Because we have reference image, it is impossible for us to tell which is better, SDI or Firewire, but we can tell that the differences between them are subtle indeed. There seems to be a subtle, random difference between the two Y' components, which, due to it's very low level, is hard to determine the origin of. The chroma components are certainly different, especially on the visible edges. Again, the differences are at such a low level that they are practically inconsequential.
Test 3 - DVCAM, Digital Betacam and BetacamSP Compared.
In this test we take the original video clip that we used in Test 1, of the boy in the red shirt, and we use the Digital Betacam version as a reference master. From the Digital Betacam dubs were made to BetacamSP via component to a UVW1800 BetacamSP deck and to DVCAM via SDI.
and the DVCAM was brought in by both SDI and Firewire.
The BetacamSP was brought in by multiple methods: buy using the Digital Betacam deck as a high quality component to SDI converter to allow the analogue video to be brought in via SDI uncompressed 4:2:2, and the BetacamSP was brought in via a component dub to DVCAM, and from there via SDI and Firewire.
This produced a lot data which I've sumarised in the picture below.
Looking carefully at the results, I can see the instant superiority of the Digital Betacam master, in both the luma Y' component and both the chroma Cb and Cr components. It's hard to make out, but the Y' on the BetacamSP captures is slightly softer than the original Digital Betacam and the DVCAM. Again the DVCAM over SDI is practically identical to the DVCAM over FW after it has been smoothed.
The chroma on the BetacamSP is very interesting as it is significantly softer than the 4:2:2 chroma of the Digital Betacam, but also appears slightly sharper than the 4:1:1 chroma of the DVCAM. The BetacamSP to DVCAM dubs look worst of all, which is nor surprising given that they have gone down an extra generation compared to the other examples.
To see this more clearly, I have produced two sets of differences, the first is a plain difference, the second has the differences scaled by a factor of 8. I could not scale the differences to the factor of 128 as the differences are very much more pronounced.
Differences are unscaled in this diagram.
Differences scaled by a factor of 8.
The scaled difference pictures are very interesting. I'm not quite sure why the Y'CbCr colour difference shows such a large variation between DVCAM Firewire smoothed and DVCAM SDI, but again, the luma components are practically identical and the chroma components very similar. It's hard to say which is better, but I'd give the edge to the SDI chroma upsampling, but it a difference that's unlikely ever to be visible without such analysis. Final Cut Pro's scaling algorithm is fairly poor, so if a better scaling algorithm was employed it is doubtful wether even this slight difference would remain between the two methods.
The BetacamSP shows the larges luma differences from the original Digital Betacam. It is interesting how the right hand edge of the boy's red shirt shows a significant luma difference, probably caused by a subtle but noticible ringing / sharpening of the image coupled with the slight blurring noticed in the previous test. The chroma of the BetacamSP is also showing significant differences from the original Digital Betacam, of similar magnetude to that of the DVCAM differences, but again we see clearly that the chroma resolution is somewhere between that of Digital Betacam and DVCAM.
To allow you to see the subtly lower resolution of the BetacamSP luma compared to the Digital Betacam and DVCAM, I have extracted out just the luma differences and placed them side by side. Again, it's tricky to see but I'm noticing ringing / sharpness artifacts on the right hand edge of the boy's shirt and a thickening in the stalk and head of the grasses on the left of the picture. There is a general softness and subtle lack of detail in the BetacamSP luma.
I found the differences above hard to see so I've enlarged the images in Photoshop by a factor of 4 (nearest neighbour scaling) to allow them to be seen more clearly.
During the course of these experiments, it came to my attention that there is some confusion in some people's minds over whether Digital Betacam is a 10bit format or an 8bit format. In digital video, 10bit or 8bit refers to the precision of the quantisation of the luma and chroma components. A 10bit format has four times the precision compared to an 8bit format, so there should be a significant and measurable difference.
This test involved the use of Apple's Shake due to it's floating point compositing precision and flexible tool set. I also recieved some help from Apple Shake support in the creation of some of the analytical scripts.
First, to get an idea of what a know 10bit and know 8bit video looks like under the test script, a 16bit gradient from black to white was created in Shake, and exported as a 8bit movie using the 8bit uncompressed Black Magic Design codec, and also exported as a 10bit movie using the 10bit Black Magic Design codec. These original movies were kept for comparison and also dumped to Digital Betacam tape, and recaptured over SDI using the KonaSD with the 10bit Black Magic Design codec.
By examining the output of the PlotScanline1 node, I hoped to be able to determine 8bit or 10bit by looking at the smoothness of the resulting line.
The resulting image showed to me that Digital Betacam is indeed a 10bit format.
From the above images it is clear that 8bit images leave clear gaps in the histogram, whereas 10bit images do not. Next I repeated the experiment upon the Digital Betacam video and dubs to BetacamSP and DVCAM we used for the earlier chroma sampling experiments. Because these are colour videos, the resulting histogram was also displayed in colour, although in RGB rather than Y'CbCr. There is no option in Shake to deal with video in it's native Y'CbCr format and any format conversion in Shake was found to muddy the results somewhat. Shake was chosen for these experiments because of it's ability to handle high precision video, and it's useful tools for analysing images.
From these histograms we can see quite clearly whether a video format is 8bit or 10bit. This does not, however mean that the quality of the video is 8bit or 10bit, just that it's using or not using 8bit or 10bit quantisation levels. For instance the 10bit DVCAM image does not show the all missing quantisation levels that the 8bit formats do - it appears to be somewhere between 8bit and 10bit. We know that DVCAM is 8bit in nature so they filling in of the missing quantisation levels could be caused by the transfer to Digital Betacam or the 10bit codec used, or perhaps that Shake is dealing with the video as RGB rather than Y'CbCr. BetacamSP, being an analogue format, can be digitised at whatever quantisation you choose, whether that be 8bit or 10bit. That does not mean that BetacamSP is equivalent in quality to 10bit, however, as noise from the analogue tape will be a limiting factor.
The limiting factor in the quality of DV in Final Cut Pro is related to the method by which the 4:1:1 chroma is dealt with. By using the SDI output into an uncompressed Final Cut Pro editing system, DV chroma can be quickly and easily upsampled to 4:2:2, although the upsampled chroma is visually lacking compared to a reference 4:2:2 Digital Betacam original. If SDI outputs are not available, then a traditional Firewire approach to DV capture can be used if care is taken over the workflow to ensure that the DV 4:1:1 chroma is upsampled before a chroma key or the DV footage is "bumped" up to uncompressed to be mastered out to Digital Betacam or other 4:2:2 format video tape. There is a quality difference between the two approaches. The luma and chroma components are practically identical in both cases, but the chroma generated from the hardware upsample in the DSR-1800 DVCAM deck is slightly closer to the original Digital Betacam 4:2:2 chroma, but the difference is of such a small magnetude for me to recommend you pick your DV capture method based upon workflow requirement rather than any quality difference between the two methods.
By including BetacamSP in these experiments I hope I have broadened the reader's understanding of how both DVCAM and BetacamSP compare to a reference of Digital Betacam. After performing these experiments and carefully examining the video footage, I find it hard to decide wether BetacamSP is better or worse than DVCAM, because although BetacamSP offers a quality of chroma that appears to be about half way between that of DVCAM and Digital Betacam, it's luma resolution softness and edge enhancement ringing detract more visibly. The chroma differences would seem to require special analysis to easily determine differences by eye, whereas the luma differences are obvious as the video is playing without the aid of analysis tools.
However, this is not the end of the story. I have spent the last year working with the chroma components of DV format video in an attempt to develop smart algorithms that would allow the quality of upsampled chroma to be improved beyond what "simple" interpolation offers especially for use when chroma keying from DV sources or for up-rezzing DV to HD formats.
Again using the footage of the boy in the red shirt, I applied two versions of my algorithm, labled G Nicer (a) and G Nicer (b). One of the benefits of using your own algorithm is that you can tweak the settings to your own liking. The (a) and (b) represent different settings of the same algorithm. The version of G Nicer being used is a beta of V2.0.
The algorithm used in G Nicer (a) and G Nicer (b) is designed to enhance edges and one of the main uses for it is to allow better chroma keying with DV footage. In the (a) version it is quite clear that it does indeed both find and enhance the sharpness of edges, and it's ability to add in detail can be seen in the grass to the left of the boy. (b) uses a setting which aims for a smoother balance of edges and detail and seems to deal with the details and edge of the red shirt better, at the expense of absolute sharpness. Now for a more detailed close-up look at the boys shoulder (scale factor 4).
In close-up, you can see that the Cb component is quite blocky in all the DV versions, however the DV via Firewire smoothed with the Apple 4:1:1 filter is more blocky than the rest. This is purely down to the interpolation algorithm used by Apple. G Nicer (b) fares slightly better at the neck, but is blocky on the shoulder. The DV over SDI is again slightly better than the Apple 4:1:1 filter. I can see definate improvements with the G Nicer (b) algorithm which manages to match the appearance of the original Digital Betacam better than the rest, although it still has some blockyness visible.
From this, it can be seen that by using different algorithms to deal with DV's 4:1:1 chroma sampling significant improvements over it's appearance can be made.
Graeme Nattress is the software developer at Nattress Productions Inc. where he enjoys researching cutting edge algorithms for the improvement of video quality. He is a frequent contributor to the kenstone.net, LAFCPUG, 2-Pop and Creative Cow websites and forums.


text:
Europe's retailers wary amid sluggish recovery
By Mark Potter and Nicholas Vinocur
LONDON/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Europe's retailers are seeing only tentative sign of economic recovery and are worried that steps to rein in government borrowing could hit consumer spending in the months ahead.
Swedish fashion chain Hennes & Mauritz (HMb.ST) and British clothing and foods group Marks & Spencer (MKS.L) both reported better-than-expected sales figures on Thursday 8 April, but said new products and cost cuts had driven the gains.
"I do believe that 80 percent at least of what's happened to us is the fact that we've worked hard to get our business in a better place," Marks & Spencer (M&S) executive chairman Stuart Rose told reporters.
"This is about pinching market share from competitors," he said, adding consumer spending was likely to be "pretty flat" in Britain this year as a new government, following elections on May 6, seeks to cut debt from a record 12 percent of GDP.
Official data showed on Thursday 8 April that retail sales volumes were flat in February versus January across the European Union's 27 member states, supported by a strong performance in Britain.
For the 16 members of the euro zone, retail sales fell a bigger-than-expected 0.6 percent.
"The further drop in retail sales in February maintains suspicion that consumer spending is likely to remain a weak link in the euro zone's recovery over the coming months, thereby limiting overall growth prospects," said IHS Global Insight economist Howard Archer.
"High and still rising unemployment across the euro zone, likely muted wage growth over the coming months and the ending of car scrappage schemes will likely limit the upside for consumer spending," he added, noting fiscal policy would also generally be less supportive as governments look to cut debt.
H&M SEES ENCOURAGING SIGNS
H&M, Europe's second-biggest fashion chain, said pretax profit leapt a larger-than-expected 42 percent to 5.1 billion Swedish crowns ($700 million) in the three months ended February, the first quarter of its fiscal year.
Same-store sales rose 2 percent in what the firm described as a tough economic environment, helped by strong demand for its spring ranges. They also surged 9 percent in March, flattered by a weak performance in the same month last year.
"We can see signs that (the economic climate) it is turning in some markets," said Chief Executive Karl-Johan Persson.
"I'm not an expert, but my guess is that it will improve somewhat this year."
H&M, like bigger Spanish rival Inditex (ITX.MC), has coped better than many clothing retailers in the economic downturn, thanks to its focus on low prices as fast-changing fashions.
Japan's Fast Retailing (9983.T) also reported a 43 percent surge in first-half operating profit on Thursday 8 April, helped by strong sales at its budget fashion chain Uniqlo.
Yet H&M, which has around 2,000 stores across 37 markets, said tight cost control was also a key part of profit growth.
At 1030 GMT, its shares were up 5.7 percent at 497.8 Swedish crowns, after touching a record high of 498 crowns, outperforming a 0.1 percent rise on the STOXX 600 European retail index .SXRP.
Citi analysts saw analysts' consensus full-year profit forecast rising 4-5 percent to 25.5-26 billion crowns.
M&S FIGHTING BACK
M&S, which is Britain's biggest clothing retailer and also sells food and homewares, said sales at British shops open at least a year rose a higher-than-expected 5.1 percent in the 13 weeks to March 27, the last quarter of its financial year.
Rose described the British clothing market as "broadly flat," and said the group had lifted market share by 110 basis points to 11.9 percent, helped by particularly strong demand for its knitwear and formalwear ranges.
M&S also said it was on track to hit analysts' current full-year profit forecast of 620-630 million pounds, with stronger British sales offset by higher bonus payments, weak fourth-quarter international sales, particularly in Greece and Ireland, and a small rise in operating costs.
M&S's profits plunged 40 percent to 604 million pounds in the year ended March 2009, hit by its mid-market position in clothing and upmarket position in food.
The group has fought back, introducing lower-priced "Wise Buys" in food and new clothing ranges like Indigo.
Analysts, however, say new Chief Executive Marc Bolland, who turned round Wm Morrison Supermarkets (MRW.L) and joins in May, faces a battle to lift profits back towards 1 billion pounds.
"We remain concerned over the outlook for consumer spending and despite this strong performance there are still some fundamental problems that need to be addressed by the new CEO," said Execution Noble analyst Caroline Gulliver.
At 11:30 a.m. (British time), M&S stock was down 1.3 percent at 373.3 pence.
(Editing by Simon Jessop)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Conservation Partners Legacy grants
CPL Information
Traditional Grant Cycle
Metro Grant Cycle
Expedited Conservation Project Grant Cycle
Current Grantee Information
Previous Years' Grant Information
Office of Grants Management
CPL has awarded more than $8.2 million through 79 grants this year.
All grants awarded
CPL has awarded nearly $8 million through 70 grants so far.
DNR received 127 applications and funded 107 applications, totaling $10.8 million. Traditional awarded a total of 22 applications for $4.6 million, Metro awarded 17 applications for $3.6 million, and ECP awarded 68 applications for $2.64 million.
FY2018 received 101 applications totaling $10.6 million. Of the 101 applications submitted, 87 were awarded for $8.2 million. The Traditional grant cycle had 35 applications, with 29 awarded for $4.4 million. The Metro grant cycle had 15 applications, and 9 were awarded for $2 million. The ECP grant cycle had 51 applications in two rounds of funding, and awarded 49 of them for $1.8 million.
FY2018 RFP
FY2018 grant awards
FY2017 received 90* applications, totaling over $11 million. Of the 90 applications submitted, 66 were awarded for nearly $7.5 million. The traditional grant cycle had 28 applications, with 16 awarded for $3.45 million. The metro grant cycle received 35 applications in two funding rounds, and 23 were awarded funding for $2.94 million. The ECP grant cycle had 28 applications in the first round of funding, and awarded 27 of them for almost $1.1 million. All ECP funds were expended in the first round of funding.
*There were unfunded applications from the first metro grant cycle that were resubmitted in the second metro grant cycle- these applications were only counted once.
FY2017 Grant Information
FY2016 received 112 applications totaling $15 million. Of these, 69 were awarded funding for a total of $7.6 million. The Traditional grant cycle had 37 applications in one funding round, and 16 were funded for a total of $3.2 million. The Metro grant cycle received 34 applications in two funding rounds, and 21 were funded for a total of $3.4 million. The ECP grant cycle had 41 applications in 3 funding rounds, and 32 were funded for a total of $1 million.
For FY2015, 78 grants were awarded for a total of $7.6 million. The Traditional grant cycle had 25 applications, and 14 were funded for a total of $3 million. The Metro grant cycle had 32 applications and 22 were funded for a total of $3.4 million. The ECP grant cycle had 48 applications and 42 were funded for a total of $1.2 million.
For FY2014, $4.405 million in grant projects was awarded. The first round of the Traditional and Metro O25K/U25K closed on September 16, 2013. Of the 29 complete and eligible applications received, 17 projects were funded at a total of $3.116 million. A second grant round was not needed. The ECP grant cycle opened on August 1, 2013 and closed on March 12, 2014. The ECP grant cycle funded 41 projects in only 4 rounds for a total of $1.289 million, which exhausted all available funds and a 5th round was not held.
For FY2013, $4.624 million was available for grant projects. The first round of O25K/ U25K closed on September 26, 2012. Of the 41 applications received (over $5.2 million in requests), 24 projects were funded at a total of $3.5 million. A second grant round was not needed. The new ECP grant cycle opened on August 16, 2012 and closed on May 15, 2013. The ECP grant cycle funded 42 projects for a total of $1.243 million.
In FY2012, there was a total of $5.31 million available for grant projects. Applications for the first round of awards were accepted until September 15, 2011. Of the 31 applications ($2.83 million in requests), 20 projects were funded for a total of $1.8 million. Round 2 yielded 66 applications ($6.3 million in requests), with 38 projects being funded totaling $2.56 million. Remaining funds were awarded during FY13 grant rounds.
In FY2011, there were 2 rounds of funding. For the first round, 56 applications totaling $5.9 million in requests were received. Of that, 35 applications for a total of $3.72 million were funded. During the second round, 21 applications totaling $1.3 million were received and 13 projects for a total of $630,400 were funded. Click on the FY11 Grant Information link below for all current available information on these awarded grants. A total of $4,065,584 was awarded in FY2011.
For the first year of the CPL Program, 127 applications totaling $16.5 million in requests were received. Of that, 35 applications for a total of $3.74 million were funded. Click on the FY10 Grant Information link below for specific application and summary information. All grant funds were awarded during the fall cycle.


text:
About TFA
Filmmaker Advisory Board
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Home›About›Filmmaker Advisory Board
Tallgrass Film Association > About > Filmmaker Advisory Board
Every year, TFA gathers a group of alumni filmmakers from the previous year's festival to join the Filmmaker Advisory Board. This group of individuals possesses years of professional experience in the film industry, insight into the craft of filmmaking and all made very impactful visits to Wichita with their films.
The filmmakers help us to amplify our regional filmmaking community, as well as improve the festival experience for both the audience and the visiting filmmakers while expanding the Tallgrass reach beyond our region. Their input and participation helps to shape the Tallgrass Film Festival experience for years to come.
At the 2019 Tallgrass Film Festival, these filmmakers will participate in a special educational programming celebrating Tallgrass' 17th anniversary and Wichita's entrepreneurial spirit.
Meet the Filmmakers
Yasmin Mistry
Yasmin Mistry is an Emmy-nominated animator, and filmmaker. Her work has been displayed worldwide including showings at the United Nations and White House as well as at film festivals such as SXSW, Tribeca and DOC NYC. She is the recipient of grants from the Brooklyn Arts Council, Puffin Foundation, Riverside Sharing Fund, Artists Volunteer Center and Harnisch Foundation and was a finalist for funding from the 2018 ITVS Diversity Development Fund. Films from her documentary shorts series about foster care have been featured in over 100 film festivals and won more than 25 awards. She is currently in production on a feature documentary about family separation and the quest for reunification.
Kendall Goldberg
Originally from Chicago, 23-year-old Kendall Goldberg is an LA-based writer/director/producer. Kendall is fresh off the release of her debut feature, Tallgrass 2018 official selection WHEN JEFF TRIED TO SAVE THE WORLD, starring Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) and Jim O'Heir (Parks & Recreation). It was awarded the International Film Critics' (FIPRESCI) Prize for Best Directorial Debut at the 2018 Heartland Film Festival and the Indie Vision Breakthrough Performance Award at the 2018 Twin Cities Film Festival. The film is available on all VOD platforms via Gunpowder & Sky. Kendall graduated with a B.F.A. in Film Production from Chapman University. While there she was selected as aMarion Knott Scholar and was mentored by Producer Richard Gladstein (Pulp Fiction). She was honored with the Women of Chapman Endowed Filmmaker Grant andZonta Award for her thesis film GLORIA TALKS FUNNY, starring Candi Milo (Dexter's Laboratory). GLORIA screened at over 50 festivals and won several awards, including a $60,000 Panavision Filmmaker Grant. Her doc short DEMPSEY THE DIABETIC SUPERHERO was a Student Academy Awards Semifinalist. Kendall is signed with Chicago-based commercial/music video production company Strange Loop, and most recently directed a series of six videos for Walgreens and Second City Works. She was selected as a mentee for the 2019 Women In Film Mentoring Program.
Kyle Solomon
Kyle Solomon is a musical artist and film composer, whose DIY attitude towards scoring film has lead him to write, direct, and score two short films of his own ("THE VOICEMAIL" and "HUSH-HUSH" respectively), as well as provide film music for several other independent filmmakers.
David J. Phillips
This will be David's third consecutive year at The Tallgrass Film Festival. Last year David's film "The Maestro" won the Audience Award for Best Picture, as well as the Best Actor Award for Xander Berkeley. The year before, his dramatic greaser gang film "Badsville" won the Best Ensemble Cast Award. David has 13 feature films and 2 shorts under his producing belt in the past 8 years. This year, in addition to releasing "The Maestro" to rave reviews, he's currently in post-production on a film starring Tony Hale with Elisha Cuthbert, Alan Tudyk and Sarah Chalke - and also filmed "Mighty Oak" in San Diego with Janel Parrish, Alexa PenaVega, and Rayven Simone. In years before, he was an Executive Producer on Rick Alverson's "Entertainment" which premiered at The Sundance Film Festival and starred Gregg Turkington, John C. Reilly, Michael Cera, & Tye Sheridan. In 2016 he produced the sex comedy "Amateur Night" with Jason Biggs & Ashley Tisdale as well as "Moments Of Clarity" - a female road trip comedy starring Lyndsy Fonseca, Jon Lajoie & Eric Roberts. Prior to that, David produced "Line Of Duty", a Latino crime-thriller acquired by Lionsgate that featured Sean Patrick Flanery, Vivica A. Fox & Will Estes. Though most of David's experience is in film, in 2013 he also helped produce the reality show pilot "Covert Kitchens" with master-chef Graham Elliot for Spike TV. After an acting career in Canada that included three years performing classical theatre at the esteemed Stratford Festival, hosting popular kid's gameshow "Video and Arcade Top Ten", and also hosting the Miss World Canada Pageant - David J. Phillips moved to Los Angeles and began producing in 2010 with three films: "L!fe Happens", a well-received hit starring Kristen Ritter, Kate Bosworth, and Rachel Bilson that was distributed domestically by Universal and Lionsgate for foreign after opening in theaters across the USA, as well as the Christmas movie, "A Holiday Heist" with Lacey Chabert, Vivica A. Fox, and Chris Kattan; and lastly the comedy "Boy Toy" starring Morgan Fairchild and distributed by Alliance Atlantis & Lionsgate. @dj_phlips @phillmprods
Natalie Cordray
Natalie is a director/producer who has spent the last 7 years working in network television, feature films, and commercials, with credits on CBS's "Hawaii Five-0", CMT's "Nashville", and NBC Universal's "Jurassic World". Natalie first stepped into the indie world last year, producing her first award-winning short, "Claire McKenna", which premiered at Tallgrass. "Claire McKenna" was an artistic portrait, featuring the current crisis of opioid use in the United States, and was the recipient of the audience choice award at DC shorts fest. Natalie is currently writing her first feature film, and has a feature documentary in post!
H.P. Mendoza
H. P. Mendoza is a Filipino-American filmmaker and artist best known for his micro-budget work as screenwriter, composer and lyricist on Colma: The Musical (2007), as well as his award-winning directorial effort, I Am a Ghost (2014). Mendoza's musical films have been dubbed "mumblechoral" by Steve Seid of Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, while David Lamble of the San Francisco Bay Area Reporter dubbed Mendoza, "San Francisco's queer cinema poet". In 2012, Mendoza was inducted into Essential SF by San Francisco Film Society alongside Terry Zwigoff and Judy Stone. Along with his feature films, Mendoza is also known for his music in films, installations and albums, notably his second album, Nomad, re-released for its 10th anniversary in 2016. H.P. Mendoza is currently in Tokyo and the Philippines researching for his next film after finishing his theatrical release of Bitter Melon, his latest film distributed by Gravitas Ventures and ABS-CB
Emily Kincaid
Emily Kincaid is an award-winning Actor and Producer living in Los Angeles. She produced the award-winning true-crime documentary, Abducted in Plain Sight, which had its world premiere on Netflix in January of 2019 after taking the film festival circuit by storm, winning 14 awards, multiple being for Best Documentary. Abducted in Plain Sight has been called "The Craziest True-Crime Documentary," by publications including Rolling Stone, Vice and Thrillist. Growing up, Emily was a member of The Greater Atlanta Girl's Choir and performed at The Royal Opera House of London and Carnegie Hall. She holds a B.A from Marymount Manhattan College, and is represented theatrically by Industry Entertainment, one of the leading talent management companies in Los Angeles. She is currently a Producer on Hudson, a dramedy feature film making its way on the festival circuit, already having won multiple awards including Best Feature Film. Emily is also producing a female driven sports documentary called On The Grid, which is currently in pre-production.
Lis Bartlett
Emmy nominated Director / Producer Lis Bartlett has long been captivated by true stories. Her first feature documentary Light in the Water had its festival debut at Tallgrass '18, where it won "Best Editing." Light in the Water tells the story of the first openly gay swim team, West Hollywood Aquatics. It has played in festivals around the world including the Palm Springs International Film Festival where it was voted "Best of Fest" by audiences. As well, a TV version premiered on Logo TV in July of 2018 and has since been nominated for a Daytime Emmy. Lis is based in Los Angeles and also works as an Editor. Credits include Kobe Bryant's Showtime documentary MUSE, "The Pitch" for Audience Network, and work for Tastemade, Radical Media, and the Coachella 2019 Webcast.
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Q: How to disable background screen after alertdialog appear or enable only alertdialog? I have a game after game over, I am save the score and name using alertdialog into database,its fine but when I click any where on game window alertdialog closed and again game is working for that I need disable game window after game is over or alertdialog never closed event I click on game window.
my code is:
mainactivity:

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

static TextView editText;
static int score=0;
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
     editText=(TextView) findViewById(R.id.editText1);
     //editText.setText(""+score);
     Button button=(Button) findViewById(R.id.button1);
     button.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {

        @Override
        public void onClick(View v) {
            // TODO Auto-generated method stub
            new AnimatedView(MainActivity.this).pauseClicked();
        }
    });
}
public static void setCount(int count) {

    //new MainActivity().onCreate(null);
    score=count;
    editText.setText(""+score);
}

Animatedview:
public class AnimatedView extends ImageView{

String name;
static int count=0;
private Context mContext;
int x = 130;
int y = 450;
private float a,b;
private int xVelocity = 20;
private int yVelocity = 20;
private Handler h;
private final int FRAME_RATE = 25;
BitmapDrawable ball;
boolean touching;
boolean dm_touched = false;
float move=3;
int bm_x = 0, bm_y = 0, bm_offsetx, bm_offsety,bm_w,bm_h;
boolean paused;
private Paint line, ball1, background;
static int click=0;
private static final int TEXT_ID = 0;
DBCeation dbCeation;
public AnimatedView(Context context) {
    super(context);
}
public AnimatedView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs)  {
    super(context, attrs);
    mContext = context;
    h = new Handler();
}

private Runnable r = new Runnable() {
    @Override
    public void run() {
        //Log.e("game","run called");
        if(touching = true)
        invalidate();
    }
};

@Override
protected void onDraw(Canvas c) {
    BitmapDrawable ball = (BitmapDrawable) mContext.getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.ball);
    if (x<0 && y <0) {
        //x = this.getWidth()/2;
        y = c.getHeight()/2;

    } else {
        //Log.d("s",""+xVelocity);
        Log.d("s",""+yVelocity);
        x += xVelocity;
        y += yVelocity;
        if ((x > this.getWidth() - ball.getBitmap().getWidth()) || (x < 0)) {
            xVelocity = xVelocity*-1;
        }
        if (y >( this.getHeight() - ball.getBitmap().getHeight()) ||y <0) {
            yVelocity = yVelocity*-1;
        }
    }
    c.drawBitmap(ball.getBitmap(), x, y, null);
   //Log.e("sarat",""+touching);

  if(click>=2){
  if(bm_h+y>630){

       final EditText input=new EditText(mContext);
      Toast.makeText(getContext(),"game over",Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
      AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(mContext);
      builder.setTitle("Game Is Over");
        builder.setMessage("Enter your Name");
         // Use an EditText view to get user input.
         input.setId(TEXT_ID);
         builder.setView(input);
         builder.setPositiveButton("save", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {

            @Override
            public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which) {
                // TODO Auto-generated method stub

                name=input.getText().toString();
                Log.d("name",""+name);
                int score=MainActivity.score;
                dbCeation=new DBCeation(mContext);
                dbCeation.insertValues(name, score);
                Intent intent=new Intent(mContext,Home.class);
                click=0;
                mContext.startActivity(intent);
            }
        });
      builder.setIcon(R.drawable.ic_launcher);

      builder.show();
      x=150;
      y=200;
      xVelocity=0;
      yVelocity=0;

  }}
    if(touching){
         // Log.e("game","iftouch called called");
        h.postDelayed(r, FRAME_RATE);
        bm_w=ball.getBitmap().getWidth();
        bm_h=ball.getBitmap().getHeight();
      }
  }
public void pauseClicked()
{
    xVelocity=0;
    yVelocity=0;
    invalidate(xVelocity, yVelocity, 0, 0);
}
@Override
public boolean onTouchEvent(MotionEvent event) {
    // Log.d("game","ontouch called");
    int touchType = event.getAction();

     switch(touchType){
        case MotionEvent.ACTION_MOVE:
            a = event.getX();
            b = event.getY();
            touching = true;

           /* if (dm_touched) {
                x = (int) a - bm_offsetx;
                y = (int) b - bm_offsety;
            }*/
            //invalidate();
            break;

         case MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN:
             //x and y give you your touch coordinates
              a = event.getX();
              b = event.getY();
              touching = true;
              if(a>x+20&&a<330&&b<=y+320&&b>y){
                     click++;
                     Log.d("click",""+click);
                 invalidate();
                 touching=true;}
             /* if (touching) {
                    // paused = true;
                    h.removeCallbacks(r);
                    touching = false;
                } else {
                    touching = true;
                }*/
              //Log.d("game","action_down called");
              Log.e("s",""+ a);
              Log.e("s",""+ b);
              Log.e("s",""+ x);
              Log.e("s",""+ y);
              Log.e("s",""+ bm_w);
              Log.e("s",""+ bm_h);
              if ((a > x) && (a < bm_w + x) && (b > y) && (b < bm_h + y)) {
                  count++;
                MainActivity.setCount(count);
                  //invalidate();
                  Log.i("score",""+count);

                }
              if (dm_touched) {
                  if ((a > x) && (a < bm_w + x) && (b > y) && (b < bm_h + y)) {
                  move+=2;
                    //x = (int) a - bm_offsetx;
                  y = (int) (yVelocity*-1);

                  //invalidate();

                }}
               // dm_touched = true;
         case MotionEvent.ACTION_UP:
             a = event.getX();
              b = event.getY();
            /* if(a>x+20&&a<330&&b<=y+320&&b>y){
                 click++;
                 Log.d("click",""+click);
             invalidate();
             touching=true;}*/
             if ((a > x) && (a < bm_w + x) && (b > y) && (b < bm_h + y)) {
                Log.e("game","clicked");
            }

            default:

                dm_touched = true;
            }

            return true;
}

@Override
public void destroyDrawingCache() {

    count=0;
    click=0;
    super.destroyDrawingCache();
}

}

A: You can use the setCanceledOnTouchOutside(false) method of AlertDialog if you want to prevent the AlertDialog from closing on window click but still want to be able to close it on back button click.

A: You can use its cancallable method like below,
builder.setCancelable(false);

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
R0 - R50 (2)
Available to order (24)
4DVD (1)
Blackstone Audiobooks (2)
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Harper Collins Audio (3)
HarperCollinsPublishers (2)
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Showing 1 - 24 of 24 matches in All departments
Downton Abbey: The Finale - 2015 Christmas Special (DVD)
Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern 2
Final episode of the award-winning ITV costume drama following the lives and loves of those above and below stairs in an English stately home.
In this special, set in late 1925 and early 1926, everyone reunites for Edith and Bertie's wedding on New Year's Eve while Anna prepares to give birth. Elsewhere, Carson reveals to his wife that he suffers from a hereditary illness known as the palsy, which makes him question his role at Downton, and Lord Merton tells Isobel about his own illness but retains his desire to marry her. However, his daughter-in-law Amelia keeps Isobel from seeing him.
Will the year end happily for those at Downton Abbey?
The Commuter (DVD)
Liam Neeson, Vera Farmiga, Letitia Wright, Elizabeth McGovern, Patrick Wilson, …
R150 R30 Discovery Miles 300 Save R120 (80%)
In this action-packed thriller, Michael is an insurance salesman whose commute home suddenly takes a dangerous turn.
After being confronted by a mysterious stranger, Michael must race against time to uncover the identity of a passenger on his train, as he's swept into a conspiracy with life-and-death stakes for himself and his fellow passengers.
Downton Abbey - Season 3 (Blu-ray disc)
Maggie Smith, Hugh Bonneville, Jessica Brown Findlay, Laura Carmichael, Elizabeth McGovern, … 1
The entire third series of the ITV costume drama following the lives and loves of those above and below stairs in an English stately home. With World War One finally over, the 1920s heralds the promise of a new age for those at Downton Abbey. But while the family prepare for the wedding of Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) and Matthew (Dan Stevens), Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) learns that the future of Downton is in grave jeopardy after the collapse of investments made with his wife (Elizabeth McGovern)'s fortune. With the family beginning to gather for the wedding celebrations, a grand entrance by Cora's thoroughly modern mother, Martha Levinson (Shirley MacLaine), threatens to ruffle a few of the Dowager (Maggie Smith)'s feathers.
Downton Abbey: The Weddings (DVD)
Hugh Bonneville, Jessica Brown Findlay, Laura Carmichael, Maggie Smith, Elizabeth McGovern, … 1
For all six seasons, the relationships of Downton Abbey's couples have had us celebrating, commiserating and, above all, sharing their most vulnerable and very best moments. This celebration collection includes some of the most romantic and touching wedding scenes and episodes from the entire series of Downton Abbey.
Spanning the idyllic pre-war era through the storms of The Great War into the roaring 1920s, there have been many crucial relationships both upstairs and downstairs in the great house. As the world around them undergoes extraordinary change, love affairs within the sumptuous home continue to be marked by passion, ambition, and heartbreak.
Features 5 full episodes (including the Finale), and also includes brand new and exclusive filmed introduction and discussion from the show's creative team who brought these relationships to life and their insights into the romance and storylines.
Woman in Gold (Blu-ray disc)
Charles Dance, Helen Mirren, Tatiana Maslany, Ryan Reynolds, Elizabeth McGovern, … 1
Ryan Reynolds and Helen Mirren star in this drama based on the real-life story of Maria Altmann and her legal campaign against the Austrian government. Mirren plays Altmann, who, since fleeing Europe during the Second World War, now lives in Los Angeles. When the death of her sister leads to Altmann finding out that a portrait of her aunt painted by Gustav Klimt was stolen by the Nazis from her family home during the war and now hangs in the Belvedere Palace in Vienna, she enlists the help of young lawyer Randy Schoenberg (Reynolds) and embarks on a legal campaign to reclaim her family's losses...
The entire fourth series of the award-winning ITV costume drama following the lives and loves of those above and below stairs in an English stately home. It's 1922, and six months after a tragic car accident, Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) is still trying to come to terms with her loss. Meanwhile, as mass unemployment, political upheaval and economic crisis threaten the social order of the day, the family and staff of Downton Abbey try to adjust to life in a changing world.
Buffalo Soldiers (DVD)
Joaquin Phoenix, Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, Anna Paquin, Gabriel Mann, …
Gregor Jordan's film takes place in Germany during the last days of the Cold War. Stuck on duty as Batallion Clerk at a US Army base in West Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Ray Elwood (Joaquin Phoenix) maintains a lucrative sideline in blackmarket trade under the nose of his superiors - and is even sleeping with the wife of his boss, Colonel Berman (Ed Harris). Things begin to change, however, when a new sergeant (Scott Glenn) arrives and tries to clean up the base. Elwood thinks he can handle anything, even the sergeant's daughter (Anna Paquin), but he doesn't realise who he is up against.
Downton Abbey: Series 1-3/Christmas at Downton Abbey (Blu-ray disc)
The first three series, plus the Christmas special, of the award-winning ITV costume drama following the lives and loves of those above and below stairs in an English stately home. In the first series, set before the outbreak of World War One, the Grantham family, long-time custodians of Downton Abbey, face a crisis when the heir to the estate dies on the Titanic. With his three daughters unable to inherit by law, Robert Crawley (Hugh Bonneville), the current Earl of Grantham, must try and marry his eldest daughter off in order to obtain an heir. Meanwhile, the family's determination to cling to class and rank is mirrored in a number of growing rivalries between the servants which threaten to undermine the smooth running of the house. In the second series, after the outbreak of WWI, Matthew (Dan Stevens) and Thomas (Rob James-Collier) are off fighting at the Somme, while both Lord Grantham and William (Thomas Howes) feel frustrated at being barred from taking part in the war. Meanwhile, Lady Sybil (Jessica Brown-Findlay) defies her aristocratic position and enlists in the Royal Army Nursing Corps and Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) puts on a brave face when Matthew arrives home on leave with his future wife, Lavinia Swire (Zoe Boyle), in tow. In the third series, with the war finally over, the 1920s heralds the promise of a new age for those at Downton Abbey. But while the family prepare for the wedding of Lady Mary and Matthew, Lord Grantham learns that the future of Downton is in grave jeopardy after the collapse of investments made with his wife Cora (Elizabeth McGovern)'s fortune. With the family beginning to gather for the wedding celebrations, a grand entrance by Cora's thoroughly modern mother, Martha Levinson (Shirley MacLaine), threatens to ruffle a few of the Dowager (Maggie Smith)'s feathers.
Chirping in the Rain (Paperback)
Cold Shoulder (Audio cassette, Abridged ed)
Lynda La Plante; Read by Elizabeth McGovern
Patricia Cornwell Gift Set, No.1 - "Isle of Dogs", "Cruel and Unusual", "Body of Evidence" (Audio cassette)
Patricia Cornwell; Read by Lorelei King, Kate Burton, Elizabeth McGovern
Drowning Ruth (Audio cassette, Abridged ed)
Christina Schwarz, Christina Schwartz; Read by Elizabeth McGovern
At the close of World War I, Amanda retreats from her nursing job to her family's farm on a lake in rural Wisconsin. She is hoping life with her sister, Mattie, and her three-year-old niece, Ruth, will become a refuge. Very soon Amanda comes to realize that she has carried her troubles with her.
Elegance (Multiple copy pack)
Kathleen Tessaro; Read by Elizabeth McGovern
It was a slim, grey volume entitled Elegance...
Louise Canova is at a crossroads in her life. Her marriage is faltering and the insecurities of adolescence have returned to haunt her. Browsing in a second-hand bookshop, she stumbles across a faded grey volume. Written by the formidable French fashion expert, Madame Genevieve Antoine Dariaux, Elegance is an encyclopedia of style. It promises to transform plain women into creatures of poise at all times. And from Accessories to Zippers, there is nothing that Madame Dariaux can?t advise upon - including inattentive husbands, false friends, and the powerful bond between mothers and daughters.
When Louise vows to follow Madame?s advice, her life is transformed in ways she never imagined. Within the book?s pages lie clues to her own past. And as she begins to unravel them, she discovers a courage she never dreamt possible.
However, everything, even elegance, has its price.
Starting with A and finishing with Z, Elegance is a unique journey of timeless fashion, true friendship, and the rare, unexpected gift of love.
Elegance (Abridged, Standard format, CD, Abridged edition)
It was a slim, grey volume entitled Elegance?
Louise Canova is at a crossroads in her life. Her marriage is faltering and the insecurities of adolescence have returned to haunt her. Browsing in a second-hand bookshop, she stumbles across a faded grey volume. Written by the formidable French fashion expert, Madame Genevieve Antoine Dariaux, Elegance is an encyclopedia of style. It promises to transform plain women into creatures of poise at all times. And from Accessories to Zippers, there is nothing that Madame Dariaux can?t advise upon ? including inattentive husbands, false friends, and the powerful bond between mothers and daughters.
Postmortem (Abridged, Audio cassette, Abridged edition)
Patricia Cornwell; Read by Elizabeth McGovern
A serial killer is on the loose in Richmond, Virginia. Three women have died, strangled in their own bedrooms early on Saturday mornings. Dr Kay Scarpetta has the task of finding new forensic evidence for the police, but not everyone is pleased to see a woman in this powerful job.
Body of Evidence (Abridged, Audio cassette, Abridged edition)
Someone is stalking Beryl Madison - someone who spies on her. Terrified, she flees to Key West - but eventually must return to her Richmond home. On the night of her arrival, she inexplicably invites her killer in. Dr Kay Scarpetta retraces Beryl's footsteps, and the nightmare soon becomes her own.
The Scarlet Letter (Audio cassette, Abridged ed)
Nathaniel Hawthorne; Read by Elizabeth McGovern
Set in the Puritanical society of 17th-century Boston, this novel tells the story of Hester Prynne, a married woman who has an affair and gives birth to a daughter. Hester refuses to name her lover, but when her estranged husband appears unexpectedly, he determines to discover the man's identity.
The World of Downton Abbey (Abridged, Standard format, CD, Abridged edition)
Jessica Fellowes; Read by Elizabeth McGovern
Downton Abbey has captured the imagination of the nation. Written by Oscar-winning writer Julian Fellowes the show has become the benchmark for quality drama, and a commentary on all things British. Downton Abbey portrays a world of elegance and decadence, a world of duty and obedience and a world of romance and rivalry: this companion book, full of rich historical detail, takes fans deeper into that period than ever before. Step inside one of the most beautiful houses in Britain, past Carson the butler at the front door and into the grand hallway. Catch a glimpse of the family having drinks in the drawing room before dinner, dressed in their evening finery, whilst Lord Grantham finishes writing a letter in his study. Then climb the grand sweeping staircase to the maze of rooms upstairs and peak through Lady Mary's open door to see Anna, her maid, tidying scent bottles and jewellery on the ornate dressing table. Follow Anna down the servants' stairs and into the kitchens to watch Mrs Patmore frantically preparing dinner. Mrs Hughes keeps a watchful eye from her study and the world of Downton comes alive before you. Experience the inner workings of the downstairs life and be dazzled by the glamour of upstairs life with profiles of all the major characters, interviews with the actors, behind the scenes insights and in-depth information on costumes and props.
The Scarlet Letter (Abridged, Standard format, CD, Abridged edition)
'Ah, but let her cover the mark as she will, the pang of it will be always in her heart.' A tale of sin, punishment and atonement, The Scarlet Letter exposes the moral rigidity of a 17th-Century Puritan New England community when faced with the illegitimate child of a young mother. Regarded as the first real heroine of American fiction, it is Hester Prynne's strength of character that resonates with the reader when her harsh sentence is cast. It is in her refusal to reveal the identity of the father in the face of her accusers that Hawthorne champions his heroine and berates the weakness of Society for attacking the innocent.
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Carly Simon; Read by Elizabeth McGovern 1
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Laura Moriarty; Produced by Penguin Audiobooks; Read by Elizabeth McGovern
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Laura Moriarty; Read by To Be Announced, Elizabeth McGovern
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The reaction by the majority of the gaming community to the Oculus Rift's pricing at $600 is very similar to the ill informed comparisons between PC and console costs. While the last two console generations have added limited media and web functionality, the two experiences are not in the same galaxy. To narrow the view to just games is to grossly undermine the value of the hardware and non-gaming software available. This is true for VR as well.
before putting shovel to dirt, open a portal to the past for students to attend historical events, create opportunities for travel for those that have physical limitations preventing them from doing so like bedridden patients or homesick astronauts, and much more. Oculus Rift plus a compatible PC will run about $1600 for someone not willing to build their own computer. That's a steal for a device with such a wealth of capability in its early stages.
With time, the cost to purchase VR hardware will drop alongside production costs. One could also wait for the Playstation VR which, considering its targeted gaming experience and limited specs, will come at a much more gaming-consumer friendly entry fee.
Save your condemnation of the $600 (plus whatever PC investment needed) for Oculus Rift and, whenever the HTC Vive's price is revealed to be upwards of $800-$1200, save your denunciation then too. These devices are shaking up the future of tech, taking us into a virtual age we've only witnessed in science fiction. Though these companies are definitely luring us in with the next level of gaming, we can't ignore the big picture.


Brian Koppelman joins The Influencer Economy as this week's guest. Brian is the co-writer of films such as Rounders and Ocean's Thirteen, as well as the co-director of the Emmy Award winning "30 for 30" film on Jimmy Connors This is What They Want.
He's also a prolific podcaster hosting a show called "The Moment," a weekly podcast that is part of the Grantland network. Brian is interested in the way people accomplish remarkable things and how they process the big moments in their lives.
Brian was invited to talk about his creative process around filmmaking and how he embraces of social media in the digital age. As a creator, he has launched many big ideas online, establishing himself as a defining member of The Influencer Economy.
Brian is an avid podcast listener and"loves the intimacy of the conversations ." He talks about how Marc Maron's WTF inspired him to get into podcasting, how he connected Bill Simmons and Dave Jacoby of Grantland, and how The Moment podcast came to be.
He is currently working on a series for Showtime and shooting the pilot in the beginning of next year. The show, titled Billions, is set is the financial industry in New York. He is collaborating with his long time writing/directing partner David Levien and Andrew Ross Sorkin.
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Our general exams cover all the basics of dental health and alert the dentist of any foreseeable problems with your teeth. Your dentist will give your a thorough examination and cover all aspects of dental care. Also, your dentist will point out certain things about dental care that you should be made aware of. Each exam will be different for every person, but still cover all the bases. You can learn more about it from your dentist once you meet him.


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Lane Luckie
Aviation & Spaceflight, People & Profiles
Retired NASA astronaut reflects on two Shuttle missions, future of human spaceflight
Posted by Lane Luckie on October 5, 2019 November 26, 2019
Two visits to low Earth orbit have forever changed the outlook on life for former NASA astronaut Byron Lichtenberg. Even though he's now retired form the space agency's astronaut corps, he's still using those experiences to inspire the next generation of aerospace professionals.
As a professor at LeTourneau University, he's currently working with students to put a miniature CubeSat into orbit. I recently had the opportunity to moderate a Q&A with Dr. Lichtenberg, where he remarked on the profound impact of seeing Earth without borders and the shades of colors on a map. Gazing down from the Space Shuttle at 300 miles above our planet, Lichtenberg spoke about working on behalf of all humanity, as a global citizen.
Lane Luckie moderates a Q&A with retired astronaut Byron Lichtenberg at the Galactic Gala held by the NASA Columbia Museum in Hemphill, Texas.
I have had the privilege of serving on the board of directors of the NASA Columbia Museum in Hemphill, Texas, which serves as a memorial to the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy and as an educational facility dedicated to creating science and technology-inspiring learning opportunities for children and adults.
The museum held a gala fundraiser on October 5, where I moderated a Q&A with Dr. Lichtenberg. Questions from the audience touched on range of topics, from unexpected experiences in orbit, NASA's plans to return to the Moon, anticipated challenges for the first mission to Mars, and his son's unique proposal in simulated weightlessness. Watch the presentation by clicking the video below.
His biography details an extraordinary career with NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and several successful private ventures, before entering higher education. Here is the introduction I read at the gala:
Dr. Lichtenberg has flown two space shuttle missions as a Payload Specialist. In this capacity, he represented over 100 scientists with experiments from all parts of the world. As the first NASA Payload Specialist astronaut, Dr. Lichtenberg flew his first mission, SPACELAB 1, in 1983 aboard the shuttle Columbia where he spent 10 days in orbit conducting 72 different experiments in 5 scientific disciplines. This mission was the first flight of the European developed Spacelab module and was a demonstration flight for the different types of science that can be conducted in orbit including life science, materials science, Earth observations, astronomy and solar physics, and upper atmospheric and plasma physics.
During his second flight, ATLAS-1, in 1992 aboard the shuttle Atlantis, Dr. Lichtenberg conducted 14 experiments during 9 days primarily studying the upper atmosphere and the sun. During this mission the crew created the first ever artificial aurora by firing a beam of electrons into the lower atmosphere to produce spots of light similar to, but much dimmer than the "Northern Lights."
Dr. Lichtenberg received his bachelor of science degree from Brown University in 1969 in aerospace engineering. Following a tour of duty in the Air Force during which he flew 138 combat missions in Vietnam (earning 10 Air medals and 2 Distinguished Flying Crosses), he returned to graduate school at MIT. He received his Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering in 1975 and his Doctorate in biomedical engineering in 1979.
Dr. Lichtenberg also continued his flying career by flying F-100 and A-10 fighter aircraft in the Massachusetts Air National Guard from 1974 to 1992. During this time he received numerous commendations including the Meritorious Service Medal.
In 1984, after his first spaceflight, Dr. Lichtenberg co-founded Payload Systems, Inc., a spaceflight science and engineering support services company. They are probably best known for flying the first commercial experiments aboard the Soviet space station MIR. They were purchased by Aurora Flight Sciences which has subsequently been purchased by Boeing.
He has been a Co-Investigator on a series of space experiments designed to study the vestibular system (the human inner ear organs of balance) adaptation to spaceflight, and also how human eye-hand coordination and mental performance changes in space. From these experiments he has written numerous scientific articles.
Dr. Lichtenberg is a founding member of the Association of Space Explorers, an international group of astronauts and cosmonauts dedicated to the advancement of space exploration for all people, a member and former Board Member of the National Space Society, and a member of the Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Xi engineering and science organizations. He also is a founder of the X-Prize Foundation dedicated to commercializing space transportation and was part of the initial cadre of the International Space University. He has been on numerous committees for NASA and the National Research Council.
As Chief Technical Officer and founder of Zero Gravity Corp. (ZERO-G, www.gozerog.com, a company dedicated to providing a weightless experience using a Boeing 727 airplane), he is still working to make space travel and the experience of being an astronaut available to all people. ZERO-G has flown over 1,000 people in weightless flight since 2004, and is probably best known for giving Dr. Stephen Hawking his first weightless experience. Zero-G has supplied reduced gravity research flights to NASA since 2008.
He is the Chairperson of a NASA Standing Review Board to independently assess the Commercial Crew Program, developing commercial vehicles by Boeing and Space X to send astronauts to the International Space Station.
He is a retired airline captain from Southwest Airlines and is now a professor at LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas teaching entrepreneurship and engineering.
The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect the views of KLTV/KTRE-TV or Gray Television. They are solely the opinion of the author. All content © Copyright 2019 Lane Luckie
Hemphill, TX 75948, USA
Aviation & SpaceflightByron Lichtenbergmanned spaceflightNASASciencespaceSpace Shuttle Columbiatechnology
Published by Lane Luckie
Lane Luckie is an award-winning journalist based in Tyler, Texas. A news anchor, reporter and producer, he is also an avid photographer and traveler. His journalistic interests include government, aviation, spaceflight, religion, and higher education. Luckie received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Broadcast Journalism from Northwestern State University.	View all posts by Lane Luckie
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New York Yankees 2011 (155/216)
Apr 03, 2011; Bronx, NY, USA; New York Yankees catcher Jorge Posada (20) during game against the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium. Tigers defeated the Yankees 10-7. Mandatory Credit: Tomasso De Rosa
Filename: POSADA, JORGE (T DeROSA) 1795 .jpg
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Starting and running your own technology company can be an exhilarating experience – you get to be your own boss and have a direct impact on the evolution of your business. This autonomy comes with an increase in responsibility that can sometimes prove daunting, especially when it comes to the laws and regulations surrounding many business decisions that must be made.
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Celso Boscariol, K.C. Co-hosted a Webinar on Doing Business in Canada under CETA
Celso Boscariol, K.C., President of the EU Chamber of Commerce in Canada, and Partner at Watson Goepel LLP, delivered a webinar presentation on Thursday, March 17, 2022. The webinar was a joint effort between the EU Chamber of Commerce in Canada West, INOVA, Watson Goepel LLP and the Portuguese Steelwork and Construction Association. Celso discussed…
Land Owner Transparency Registry filing deadline extended
The B.C. government has announced a one-year extension to the deadline for pre-existing owners to file with the Land Owner Transparency Registry ("LOTR"). Reporting bodies with an interest in land will now have until November 30, 2022 to file a transparency report without incurring penalties. The government has explained that the rationale behind this extension is…
Video: Legal tips for tech entrepreneurs at Vancouver Startup Week 2021
Business and Securities lawyers, Anand Athiviraham and Robert Galletti presented at Vancouver Startup Week 2021 earlier this year. In their one-hour presentation, Anand and Rob discuss their top legal tips for entrepreneurs and explain the importance of setting the right tone from the ground up. Click to view the presentation and see further presentation details…
Landowners take note: 3 month deadline to file landowner transparency report (LOTR) and avoid penalty
Relevant corporations, trustees of relevant trusts, and partners of relevant partnerships which have an interest in land are required to file a transparency report under the Land Owner Transparency Act ("LOTA") by November 30, 2021. Failure to do so could result in significant fines being levied against the corporation or other entity. The following summarizes…


This week, Toph preached from Mark 16:1-8 on the Resurrection. Our songs were gathered around the theme of Easter Hope (and resurrection). Below, you'll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, there is an example of one way you might think of these songs in light of this week's theme. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.
In the Night: We sang this song every week of Lent, adding a verse each week (If you felt like this song just kept getting longer, that's because it was). This song chronicles examples of God's saving God's people from throughout the Bible--the crown jewel of which was the death and resurrection of Jesus--showing that there is a great precedent for trusting God in the midst of immense darkness.
Death In His Grave: This song proclaims Easter Hope through an artful narrative of the crucifixion and resurrection.
Amazing Grace: We sang this song to think about what Jesus' resurrection ultimately means for the human condition--God has saved us from our self destruction and we don't have to feel trapped in our brokenness.
Because He Lives: This song reminds us that the resurrection isn't just something we look back on, but something that breathes meaning and purpose into the present and gives us hope for tomorrow.
When Death Came Calling: This song examines grief in light of the Resurrection. We often hear that, because Jesus has risen from the dead, death has lost its sting. This phrase can potentially make us think that death shouldn't be tragic for Christians, but this is simply not true. Death is immensely tragic and worthy of grief, whether one is a Christian or not. The Easter Hope Christians have is for the future--that the end goal of human life is no longer death, but resurrection; that the day will come when there is nothing left for death to take away. This hope carries us in the present, but we hold this hope alongside our tears, not instead of them.
Wayward Ones: We always sing this song alongside communion, reminding ourselves that none of us is worthy of sharing the Lord's table, yet he invites us nonetheless.


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Q: How to transform matrix to this form by unitary transformation? Without loss of gernerality, we can only consider $n$-dimensional diagonal matrix $M$ whose elements are all nonnegative, i.e.
$$M=\operatorname{diag}(m_1,m_2,\cdots,m_n)\ (m_i \geq 0).$$
Then is there any $U,V\in U(n)$ such that
$$UMV=\sum_{k=0}^{n-1}c_kS^k,$$
where
$$S=\left(
\begin{array}{cccc}
 0 & 1 &  &  \\
   & 0 & \ddots &  \\
   &   & \ddots & 1 \\
   &   &   & 0 \\
\end{array}
\right),\ c_i \in \mathbb{C}$$
It is true for $n=2$, but what about a general $n$?

Note: This problem is arised in quantum theory, where unitary transform can be ignored. So, we want to find some simple representation and we do not know whether the above question is true or false. Any help or suggestion will be appreciated!

A: Eden, your last post is false!
Let the $(n_i=m_i^2)$ be given non-negative numbers and $T=\sum_k c_kS^k$. We search the $(c_i)$ (assumed to be real numbers) s.t. the eigenvalues of $TT^T$ are the $(n_i)$.
If $n=2$, then $CharPoly(TT^T)=X^2-(2c_0^2+c_1^2)X+c_0^4$ that has $2$ non-negative roots.
More generally, we must solve a system of $n$ algebraic equations with $n$ unknowns. The calculation of $c_0\geq 0$ is staightforward. Then it "remains" to solve $n-1$ equations in $n-1$ unknowns. We have a look at the case $n=4$: we use the theory of Grobner basis. $c_1$ is some root of a polynomial of degree $48$ (recall that $c_0$ is known). After, it is easy: $c_2$ and $c_3$ are solutions of polynomials of degree $1$ (recall that $c_0,c_1$ are known). Some numerical calculations seem to "show" that the required result is true.

A: Re-edited in view of comments made on (incorrect) first post- which means that this is reduced to a couple of remarks. I assume that the $m_{i}$ are intended to be real and positive. We may label so that $m_{1} \geq m_{2} \geq \ldots \geq m_{n},$ possibly after modifying $U$ and $V$ by permutation matrices, which are unitary in any case. Notice that $UMV$ still has operator norm (wrt Euclidean norm on vectors) $m_{1}.$ Now $\sum_{k=0}^{n-1} c_{k} S^{k}$ has spectrum $\{ c_{0} \}.$ Hence $|c_{0}| \leq m_{1}$ if $UMV$ has this form.
  Now there is an inner product on the space of $n \times n$ complex matrices given by $\langle A,B \rangle = {\rm tr}(A\overline{B}^{T} )$. Note that $\langle A,B \rangle = \langle XA,XB \rangle$ whenever $X$ is unitary.
By Cauchy-Schwarz, we have $|\langle U\sqrt{M}, V^{-1}\sqrt{M} \rangle| \leq {\rm tr}(M).$
Hence we must have $|{\rm tr}(UMV)| \leq {\rm tr}(M).$ But if $UMV$ has the stated form,
then we should have ${\rm tr}(UMV) = nc_{0}.$ Hence we in fact must have  $|c_{0}| \leq \frac{1}{n} \left( \sum_{i=1}^{n} m_{i} \right)$ if $UMV$ has such an expression.