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This is no time to be quoting Yeats.
In the original 1972 novel by Ira Levin (Random House), The Stepford Wives have been murdered. Such was the heightened state of Artificial Intelligence in Ira Levin's imagination at the end of The Sixties, that they have been replaced by robots identical in every respect except that they're compliant. They can't be described as "sex robots", to use a modern term, because they're also "washing-up robots" and "doing-the-housework robots" as well. We could compare Levin's vision with the current state of robotics – those life-size dolls that will answer simple questions; the various table-top gadgets we can tell what to do – and that would be amusing.
 But I'm thinking about something else. The same is true – the women are dead; the men seem to be okay with robot wives – in the 1975 film. But then came successive made-for-TV versions (I'm relying heavily on Wikipedia here, but it's an interesting trail to follow) in which (1980) the wives were hypnotised, broke free, took revenge; (1987) wives and children were victims but husbands ("conspirators", says Wikipedia) ended up being killed; (1996) the title was changed to The Stepford Husbands, which says what needs to be said. In that last one, the making-into-robots/hypnotising was led by a woman, and the wives*, I imagine, didn't do much clearing up around the house. No, I haven't seen it.
 I didn't know any of that (thanks, Wikipedia). I did read the book and then see the original film, years back, and then I saw the 2004 film (do I have to insert "made-for-cinema" here?) directed by Frank Oz and starring Nicole Kidman, Bette Midler and Glenn Close, among others. With that cast, perhaps it's not surprising that the wives weren't murdered and replaced with mindless automata**. They're capable of being rescued. Yes, one of them is shown to be a robot (spoiler) or a machine or a something by a husband who uses her as a cashpoint (her mouth dispenses banknotes), but even she is capable of being restored to, er, full working order.
 After The Stepford Wives, Ira Levin wrote The Boys From Brazil (1976, Random House), which gives us an interesting take on cloning technology. In 2011, in a Guardian review, Sophie Martelli wrote, "What scares today is Levin's premise based on biological engineering: in the 1970s, although scientifically possible, [the villain's] plan belonged firmly in the realm of fiction; now it's not nearly so far-fetched." I've always liked the idea that cultural change can be tracked through popular entertainment***; maybe Ira Levin's unusual prescience also extended to the impacts of science. If you're thinking of indulging in a little light cloning over the weekend, read The Boys From Brazil first.
 Yes, I know I haven't mentioned Rosemary's Baby, Ira Levin's second novel (first published on 12th March 1967 by Random House). In a discussion of Ira Levin's curious prescience, perhaps that baby is just a little problematic. She (he?) would lately have celebrated her fifty-first birthday. Or thereabouts. Not that I'm in any way mentioning politics in this post, and I'm not in any way thinking of the plots of The Omen (1976) and its sequels (yes, there was a remake), but, you know, isn't fifty-ish a good age to be thinking about running for office?
*I'm assuming they did agree to marriage, as the title suggests.
**Is that too finicky? I mean "automatons".
***For example, the idea that all those black-and-white movies of the fifties about alien invasion expressed fear of communism.
To complete the record, Ira Levin's first novel, A Kiss Before Dying (1953, Simon & Schuster), told the story of a wife-killing serial murderer. Spoiler - he ends up boiled, which a cinema buff might consider a blow for bunnies everywhere.
Hard at work in a garden of stone.
There's a saying. "Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic." And a definition. "Engaged in futile or ineffectual actions." Apparently, it's humorous. Thank you, Collins Dictionary. Dot com. I was thinking about that saying earlier, and it struck me that if you were the deck-chair attendant on the Titanic, in the ship's last hours, you'd probably want some comfortingly familiar activity to take your mind off things. And then it struck me that badly placed deck chairs might be an obstacle to an orderly evacuation. You'd be needed.
 But if we come at the saying from a slightly different angle, we might get: continuing to engage in activities that are long past their sell-by date. Those deckchairs would need to be out of the way, and you wouldn't want to throw them over the side for fear of hitting a lifeboat, so you would perhaps secure them as per regulations for adverse conditions. But then going around collecting drinks orders, or advising that the late-night deck-quoits competition is scheduled to begin in five minutes, would be inappropriate.
 Enough with the Titanic. People died. There was a deckchair attendant, at least one, and at some point he realised that there wasn't a place on a lifeboat for him. What I'm saying here is – we're often mistaken about usefulness. To go somewhere else and pick a different example, it's not exactly "futile or ineffectual" to have the soldiers (visibly) guarding Buckingham Palace dressed in conspicuous red jackets, nor indeed for the travelling on important state occasions to involve gold-coloured, horse-drawn vehicles*. All of that may be past its sell-by date (the real guarding is done by [redacted]; a black cab would get you there quicker), but it does bring in tourist dollars (yen, etc.) and it draws the eye.
 Soldiers in red jackets are useful. But not for their original purpose. It's disconcerting (but not surprising) to research the subject online, and find that red jackets remained part of the British Army's standard going-into-battle uniform until shortly before the First World War. See for example Stanley Baker, Michael Caine et al in the film Zulu (1964)**. The idea of the red jacket was for the enemy to see the British Army coming and be frightened off the battlefield (or not). Let's have some emphasis here, please: once that red jacket was written into the regulations, not even (for example), the increasing accuracy of snipers' rifles through the nineteenth century could dislodge it.
 Happily for those young officers leading the charges up out of the trenches and into the barbed wire, and for the men following them (who were shot if they didn't go), by then the red dye for the jackets had become too expensive for widespread use***. We can conclude that a century ago, cost-cutting worked better than leadership in saving us from a rule-bound adherence to sending men into battle dressed as targets. And it occurs to me to say: maybe just about anything works better than leadership – or is that going too far? I think of the community response to the Grenfell Tower fire, against the official government response, and the way that every clever government reorganisation of services ends up with fewer services.
 You can't even cost-cut effectively if your biggest state secret is that you've mismanaged everything to the point of having no money. But this is me going off on a tangent again. Somewhere back there, I was on target to make the point that usefulness is all about what works, in financing public services, evacuating ships, bringing in tourist dollars (yen, etc.), and not about official roles, official uniforms, what the rulebook says. I should clarify that this is not a post about those organisations of today that employ battalions of lawyers and PR executives to tell us how useful they are; that tell us "lessons have been learned" every time they hurt people; that respond to requests for an apology by telling us how sorry they are that we're upset.
 It's not about them. But – "engage in futile or ineffectual actions"? And – "engage in activities that are long past their sell-by date"? Hm. Let's hear it for the deckchair attendants. And the locals. Like I said, often we're mistaken about usefulness. And effectiveness. And sometimes we're not.
*Although I remember the so-called "minor royals" turning up in grey minibuses for the most recent royal wedding. Why do reporters call them that?
** "By 2007, critics were divided over whether the film should be seen as deeply anti-imperialist or as racist," says Wikipedia. Also, same source, the battle at Helm's Deep in The Two Towers (2002) was filmed with Zulu in mind.
***"Nonsense! That red jacket will frighten the snipers away, man. Off you go." I think I remember reading somewhere that a sniper could always spot an officer because he'd be the one holding a handgun and not a rifle. Officers were to be killed first, of course, to cut off the flow of orders.
Here's the link to the gold-watch app.
With social media and marketing, I think it's important to maintain the illusion. I get regular emails from total strangers addressing me as "Dear William" (and occasionally as "Dear FNAME), and I feel I should write back in the same affectionate way. My mobile-phone provider always expresses such excitement in its texts about competitions – there are "hundreds of prizes to be won" in the current one, apparently – that I feel guilty for never texting back and offering them the chance to win one of my old mobile handsets.
 Omitting company names to protect the innocent (sic), I had this through the post the other day – the old-fashioned post, I know, but still. It's a slip of paper bearing the message: "We are pleased to share with you the exciting news that the takeover of [one company name] by [another company name] has succeeded and our new brand name is [a third company name]." I've kept it. Occasionally I take it out and imagine the pleasure, the excitement, the wild celebrations – the parties, the dancing on desks, the instantly regretted spontaneous hugs and kisses – and I think about writing them an impassioned letter – through the post, of course; green ink, scented paper, the works – to tell them how much the news that [one company name] has changed into [a third company name] has changed my life for the better.
 I get over it quickly enough (although I'm tempted to go ahead and write anyway). The second single-sentence paragraph on the slip tells me what the company does. There's something marvellously zeitgeist about sharing all that excitement and then feeling the need to explain who they are and what they do. And something even more zeitgeist about an explanation that leaves me none the wiser. This company is "a market-leader in the delivery of technology-enabled solutions". Unlike all its rivals, who are backward-looking providers of spare parts for stagecoaches, of course.
 I remember the opposites test - may even have invented it. I used to apply it, still do, and once I even wrote about it in a book (Can I Quote You On That? Harriman House, 2006). The test is: could this person (or company) say the opposite and still make sense? If not, they can safely be ignored. A doctor telling you that she cares for her patients can be ignored, because she couldn't say the opposite. But a doctor saying that she treats everything with a short course of tablets is telling you something worth knowing – if you believe in talking cures, for example, or the restorative power of fresh air and cold baths, or homeopathy, you might want to go elsewhere.
 The opposites test can be applied to politics, although the results are almost always disappointing, and might be a useful tool for generating follow-up interview questions, for interviewers prepared to go off-script and chance it. A variant is to replace "men" with "women" and vice-versa in any text about who's equal to whom, et cetera. We only achieve true equality when the two versions make equal sense.
 But the new thing is the right-relation (not) between statement and emotion. We don't really believe, do we, that the staff at [one company name] were quite so gripped with enthusiasm when management got them together and told them they were now working for [a third company name]? We know, don't we, and they know, that the next exciting conversation will be about achieving efficiencies? And we know what that word means. Same applies to every announcement these days: are you really that thrilled? If not, why are you bothering to pretend?
 All that excitement is the house style of the connected economy, and at best it's meaningless. At worst - if the emotion doesn't fit the statement, and both fail the opposites test, well, that's an exciting opportunity to engage proactively with the challenges that the future presents to us as individuals, isn't it? We appreciate your contribution over the years, and wish you every success in whatever you choose to do next. Here's a box for your personal items. Goodbye.
Another sunny day in the modern world. But where is everybody?
Stop me if you've heard this before, but there's a scene in the film Terminator 2 – Judgement Day (1991) in which Arnold Schwarzenegger, playing the Good Terminator, has to explain the workings of the Bad Terminator (played by Robert Patrick) to the young John Connor (played by Edward Furlong). If you missed the film, Arnold has been sent back through time by the older John Connor to protect the young John Connor from the Bad Terminator, which has been sent back…
 You see, the older John Connor is successfully leading The War Against The Machines*, which began when Skynet became self-aware (in, er, August 1997) and realised that people were trying to turn it off. Skynet's losing the war (so much for AI – ha!) but it does have a time machine so it can kill the hero while he's still young. This isn't Isaac Asimov's I, Robot short-story collection (Gnome Press, 1950) because Skynet is concerned for its own wellbeing. Self-interest rather than protecting people from themselves – how times change.
 Bad T, as we might as well call him, is an advanced prototype, made of liquid metal**, a T-1000 to Our Arnold's T-101. Bad T can take the shape of anything he (it) touches. Young John's question is, why can't it become a bomb and get him by exploding? Reasonable question, and there is a case (although this isn't one of them) for films that end with the hero(ine) being wiped out at an early stage*** to give us all a bit of a rest while we watch the bad guy take over the world and then have to start fielding complaints from neighbours about, I don't know, the latest economic data and Brexit.
 Sorry. All this explanation has slowed down the blog post. Where was I? Oh yes. That question. You're making an action sci-fi movie, and sooner or later, your audience is going to wonder why Bad T doesn't just get close to John Connor and explode. So you write the question into the script before the audience gets to it. But then you have to answer it in a way that doesn't slow down the action…
 …and all of a sudden it's time to halt the narrative again with another laborious explanation from me. I read a lot of fiction on Kindle, independent small-press and self-published fiction. I like writing that's published that way, because it's subject to natural selection: you're either good enough to find an audience, or you're not. And why shouldn't you go direct to an audience for that judgement? And yes, it is standard practice to offer the first 10% of a book as a free sample before buying. But, oh, the explanations. Oh, the number of sub-Chandler detectives who are visited out of hours by an alluring would-be client with sex appeal and a secret … detectives who then take us through a laboriously explained, clumsily scene-setting reminiscence of who they are and why their world is as it is.
 Oh, the action heroes who have only to pick up a gun to remember the chapter-long entirety of their military careers and weapons training; oh, the fantasy heroines who have only to get up in the morning and find they're out of coffee to remember the entire history of, say, witchcraft as it works in their world. If I was running a creative-writing course, I'd say: trust the audience! With the exclamation mark. Let the characters know what they know, let them show it through their actions rather than bore us with a back-story dump at the outset, and let's just trust the audience – I would say "readers", but the ebook trade seems to prefer "fans" – to pick up or supply the rest.
 So my point is – have I explained this enough? – give the audience something, even just an acknowledgement of the issue (not an evasion), and they'll do the rest. They don't want the narrative to stop any more than you do. And now back to the blog post.
John Connor asks his question. And what could happen is: the entire film could grind to a halt while Arnold Schwarzenegger explains the imaginary but necessary science behind shape-shifting terminators made of "mimetic poly-alloy" (brilliant). Without that explanation, we might wonder. But this is a big-budget Terminator movie. These people don't stop for anything, and nor do their terminators. Arnold's reply is a masterclass in how to handle any kind of explanation or background that might slow things down.
Why doesn't the T-1000 get up close and explode? The reply starts with a couple of sentences about complex machines with moving parts, et cetera. Maybe a second or two of screen time. Then…
Then Mr Schwarzenegger gives us the all-important explanation. Everything we could possibly need to know about the T-1000's limitations in one sentence.
"It doesn't work that way," he says.
And that, people who write the books I read before going to sleep, is how you do it. Please.
*Another war against the machines. See also the Butlerian Jihad, covered here.
**Another blob! Scroll down for last week's blob coverage. Just occurred to me that the thing in The Thing was a blob too. They're all over the place.
***If you haven't seen Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), see it now.
What goes where?*
Maybe I should start by saying that I caught the last ten minutes of The Blob last night, the 1958 film starring Steve McQueen. Interesting how old the young people looked, and how frequently the not-quite-so-young authority figures kept dismissing them as young. A plot device, I suppose, and it was a film of course, but I don't associate "young" with men and women that old. The leading actress, Aneta Corsaut, playing Steve's girlfriend, had to be carried out of several of her scenes, literally, helped out of the rest, and I couldn't quite get my head round the relationship between the two of them. The term "submissive" has fifty shades of meaning that I don't intend here, but Steve was definitely in charge.
 That was his first starring role! Didn't realise. The film is a "cult classic" and was released as half of a double bill with I Married a Monster from Outer Space. In The Blob, Steve McQueen "plays a typical oversexed, car-lovin' highschooler who can't get anyone to believe his story", says the internet. Oh, wow. Compare and contrast Steve and Aneta with, say John Travolta and Nancy Allen in the original Carrie (1976; the one with Sissy Spacek). Depictions of oversexed, car-lovin' highschoolers changed a lot in that eighteen-year period, and I'd say that Nancy Allen's character was certainly dominant in that relationship.
 I did want to say something about the latest data from the Office for National Statistics, released on Friday 9th March, showing that manufacturing is up while construction is down, but given last week's observation that my "unique visitors" prefer film talk to boring stuff about Brexit, et cetera, maybe I should say first that there was a remake of The Blob in 1988, and the title is listed as "in development" on IMdb. Expect more blobs. Such a divergence in relatively long-term economic data - no, don't go! I saw Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri last night. Dixon's character arc was interesting, and no wonder Sam Rockwell won an Oscar for it - just quickly, if you don't mind, such a divergence is yet more evidence that the world is changing....
 ...well, I find it interesting. In one window of my local cinema is a b/w (grey, geddit?) poster bearing the injunction "Don't Miss The Climax" and in the next window is a colourful poster depicting a group of garden gnomes. Front and centre is, I do believe, Sherlock Gnomes. And yes, I have just looked that up, and it is a film. Clever old me. As for the other one - you know, it's just occurred to me, out of nowhere, that back around the time of the original The Blob, the term "women's picture" meant something completely different from what it might mean today...
 ...so I've looked up "women's picture", scrolled down the search results, and on second thoughts, given current sensitivities** and realising that I'm completely out of my depth here, maybe I will finish by insisting on saying that a dramatic divergence of economic data might as well be welcomed as a sign that the world is changing. We don't need to - probably shouldn't, although so often it's the automatic response - defend the status quo in manufacturing or indeed in construction. Or membership of international trade bodies like the European - but you're right. Enough already.
The Blob - spoiler - ended with the blob itself being flown off to the arctic, where the cold would render it inert. Pity they didn't take it to Antarctica, where it would have really helped Kurt Russell in The Thing (1982), which was another remake of a (1951) cult classic - but I could go on all day, and there'll be more economic data next week. Don't want to use up too many film references all at once.
*The 1951 film The Thing from Another World became John Carpenter's The Thing of 1982, and then Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.'s The Thing of 2011. All of them were based on John W Campbell Jr.'s 1938 novella Who Goes There? which was first published in the August 1938 edition of Astounding Stories - at around the time Campbell was appointed editor, oddly enough. Campbell was successful in the role, Wikipedia tells me, and remained editor until his death in 1971. Note: the magazine went through several titles; I've abbreviated one.
**Posters up outside our little cinema this morning include Tomb Raider, with Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft, and Mary Magdalene ("Her Story Will Be Told"), which I found described online just now as the "Rooney Mara Jesus Movie". We are so very much of our time, aren't we? If we're speaking in movie titles - Analyse That!***
***Since you ask, 2002 sequel to 1999's Analyse This.
Sun just coming up on Wodehouse Terrace, Falmouth. Not the easiest place to park, especially in term time. But that's the Sea View Inn right in the middle there, and the sun's rising out of a view of the harbour and the Roseland Peninsula beyond it.
Let's invent modular cars. Little one-seater roadworthy vehicles, I do mean cars and not bikes, that clip together when two - or more - friends want to share a journey. Electric, I imagine, with onboard AI to handle the docking with another modular car. For riding on intelligent roads, I imagine; roads made out of sensors and waste plastic trawled from the ocean.
 You sit in your car, which is a cross between a mobility scooter, a Smart car or equivalent, and one of those ancient Heinkel three-wheeler one-person cars (click here to see one - the front opens, in case you're wondering), and if somebody else wants to come with you, the decision is: which side to put his car? Then, let's say, his front wheel on that side and your back wheel on that side retract as the cars dock with each other. Then you roll back your window, he does the same, then you're both front-seat drivers while the AI and the GPS do the actual work. Maybe the convention is that only one of two docked cars is powered to drive - the one on the right, say, shuts down for the journey.
 Any more friends (family) - bolt them on behind. Give it time, and augmented reality - AR? Is that right? - can do the road signs. The sensors in the road talk to the AI whenever there's a junction coming up, and our little cars route us round any potential traffic jams. If we take some kind of Nudge* approach to speed limits and distance, all slowing down together and gradually adjusting our ideas of how far is too far, maybe we'll all end up so local that we talk to our neighbours as easily we do the staff at the reception desk today.
*Nudge by Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler, Yale, 2008. "Nudge Theory" advocates changing behaviour via interventions that are "easy and cheap to avoid". Example: put the junk food on a high shelf and the fruit at eye level. For speed and road safety - I think of those tiny shrines of flowers, cards and photographs that flash past occasionally on the verge, and also of those roadside signs showing the black silhouette of a motorcyclist, with a number beneath.
 We would have to "harness the power of technology" to do this, of course, reducing our intelligence to the level of the computers we were applying to the project, but that would be okay because we could also go back to using "Space Age technology", in the sense that these cars would dock in the way that Command Modules docked with Lunar Modules - Columbia docked with Eagle on the Apollo 11 mission, for example.
Continuing the caption above, I wonder how archaic it will seem in future, to have a street packed with this many cars of this size and vintage. One of the attractions of really old photographs, is the range and variety of antiquities that the people in them seem to take for granted.
More harm has been done to the world by people who think that they know what's best for the future, than by people who worry that they aren't up to the job. Discuss. I think I'm becoming an enemy of certainty. The world's unpredictable. No, you can't be sure that's how it's going to turn out. Stop pontificating. Learn humility. "Nobody knows anything," said William Goldman (Adventures in the Screen Trade, Warner Books, 1983), who did at least know that much.
 And more, actually. It's a good book. Token television reference: I came across a Freeview channel the other night, on which they were making a great deal of fuss over the news that Lost in Space was going from black and white into colour. Pretty sure I was there when that happened first time round. I struggle to describe my feelings at this evidence of how far we've come in all those years.
Falmouth's answer to the Champs-Elysees in Paris, the Unter Den Linden in Berlin and The Mall in London (I mean the one between Admiralty Arch and Buckingham Palace) is Arwenack Avenue, which reverses the normal arrangement for avenues, in the sense that the pedestrians go up the middle and the cars go up and down the outside. No idea why, but it's a pleasant walk.
The Slow News Day of Reason
Some weeks, I'm just fresh out of opinions. I like the idea of sitting down here and writing this, but nothing much has happened (that I've noticed) and my interior monologue has failed to turn up any worthwhile (no, I'll be the judge of that, thank you) insights into anything. No reflections on superhero movies, no more thoughts on last week's brief snow - nothing to distract from this still-life morning with its ice-flat shiny sea reflecting dark clouds one way and blue sky the other, with the sun kind of cramped in under the clouds and - hey, look! - Stena Line ferry easing itself slowly towards the dry dock.
 Went to Sainsbury's last night, in Truro, and there was no milk. Gaps on the shelves. Went to Tesco at the weekend, in Falmouth, and there was very little of anything. Deliveries not back to normal after two whole days of snow, I suppose*. The usual news sources tell me that we're facing water shortages due to burst pipes and floods due to melting snow. Engineers are "working through the night" to restore power to homes cut off by, er, whatever it is about snow that kills electricity. Engineers work through the night in the way that political leaders reach agreement after all-night talks, treaties are only ever signed at the last moment** and winning athletes couldn't have done it without the support of the crowd. All part of the myth we live by.
 Back to those engineers. The snow lasted two days. Two whole gruelling days. Imagine the state of the country if it had lasted through the weekend. [There is absolutely no way I can work in a reference to the film 30 Days of Night (2007) here, is there? No? Good film, anyway. Watch the extras.]
 Not to get too apocalyptic on a peaceful morning with the sun now decisively shining, but is this really how the unexpected hits us? I think it's fair to say that country-wide snow really is unexpected in the UK. Every time. The weather here is famously unpredictable, and yes, it was sunny just before the snow, and again on the afternoon after Day Two Of The National Crisis. That was when I sat out in the sunshine on Prince of Wales Pier and thought: nobody in those countries that get snow predictably and handle it sensibly would believe this - that it's all vanished overnight. They can laugh at us, but how would they handle not knowing what the next day will bring?
 Yes - genuinely unexpected. And because it's unpredictable and never hangs around, there's no point in spending money on being prepared for it. Which suggests to me that country-wide snow in the UK gives us a good indication of how something truly unpredictable would hit any equivalent*** nation. Not snow, necessarily, but anything unexpected (like, say, a strike of fuel-tanker drivers - another British first). Supermarket shelves empty after two days, engineers losing sleep, talks continuing through the night to find a solution. Given the fragility of our socio-economic whatchamacallit, structures, civilisation, arrangements for keeping everything going, you really don't need zombies to stage an apocalypse these days. Just a glitch in the supply chain.
 The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters is the title of a 1797-1798 etching by Francisco Goya. It's satirical, according to something I read, and apparently a self-portrait; Goya had interesting dreams. The Slow News Day of Reason is the title of a 2018 blog post by William Essex, and it seems to have taken us from a nothing-happening sunny morning to a zombie-free apocalypse in five, now six, paragraphs. Maybe on my next trip to a supermarket I'll get a really big trolley and work myself up to some panic buying.
 We're all doomed. Again.
 I feel much better now, thank you.
* "Just-in-time (JIT) is an inventory strategy companies employ to increase efficiency and decrease waste by receiving goods only as they are needed in the production process, thereby reducing inventory costs. This method requires producers to forecast demand accurately." So says Investopedia. I remember JIT coming in. Books were written. There were gurus. Nobody mentioned snow.
** Although the fashion these days is to sign them after the last moment - the US government actually does shut down before a budget deal is reached, for example.
*** I nearly put "civilised". Then I thought about "western", but got hung up on W or w. Then I thought: what I'm trying to say is "equivalent". So I put "equivalent".
And finally ... not that I got distracted or anything, but I find that the antique question "Do you want to come up and see my etchings?" has been superseded by the invitation to "watch Netflix, and chill". Okay. I have noticed recently that people talk about what they've seen on Netflix in the way that they used to talk about what they'd seen on TV. But I don't think "Do you want to come up and watch my television?" ever took off. "Come up" implies apartment-dwelling, above the ground floor. Above the art-supplies shop, perhaps. [This is probably my moment to mention Bloodhound Gang's 1999 single Bad Touch. Everybody was watching X Files back then, chilled or not.]
Log in, fly out. As a civilisation, we're really good at escapism, if that's the word for moving people and things in bulk from one place to another while simultaneously moving the same numbers of people and things from another place to one. Must look silly on a flowchart.
I've noticed something about this weekly blog. Finally. After all this time. Whenever I decide that what the world needs now is a further dose of what I think about Brexit, Trump, the NHS or politics generally - whenever I decide that and write accordingly, the number of "unique visitors" to the site goes down dramatically. Ordinary visitors stay away as well, I guess, although there isn't a count for them*. But when I say something about a film, or box set, or other screen-based entertainment, my unique visitors all come back again. Dramatically, yes, because they're like that - or that's how I visualise them.
 How do they know? Is it the title? No - wait. Before I say anything else: I am in the middle of bingeing on the two-season box set of Afterlife (2005/2006; I mean the one starring Lesley Sharp and Andrew Lincoln), which was axed apparently because Britain's Got Talent was getting more viewers (thanks, Digital Spy). I'm one disc (two episodes) away from the end, and when I finish, I'm thinking of tracking down the first season of Medium (2005/2011, starring Patricia Arquette and Jake Weber), which ran all the way to its natural conclusion without being cancelled.
 Thinking of watching Medium for the comparison: the two series started in the same year and tackled roughly the same subject. One's a US drama; the other's British. I like Andrew Lincoln's character's houseboat, but I think I'd want to live in the Medium house - but not the neighbourhood (predictable weather). Perhaps the house could be transferred, flat by flat, prop by prop, to the UK? Like that bridge was taken from London to a US desert, is that right? Anyway - maybe I could get a few paragraphs out of the comparison. Fictional ghosts in the US behave a lot better than their UK counterparts.
 Oh, and yeah. I was saying something about unique visitors. Websites and how people somehow instinctively know to stay away from a post about Brexit. Something about that. But more importantly, I have been watching television. Promise. Came home last night, flicked it on to see Michael Douglas say, "I'm the bad guy?" (Falling Down, 1993, Robert Duvall's in it too), flicked over to Newsnight - no, wait. Don't go. Gladiator (2000) was on, and a thing in which a group of remarkably attractive young Americans were tracking down a murderer**. That lasted me through till bedtime. No news at all. Promise. No, really.
Okay - I'll go to the cinema again.
*Of course I know what unique visitors are. Sort of. I'm trying to be funny.
**Medium was on, too. They all looked a little older, so no doubt it was a later series than I remember, but doesn't it strike you as odd, sometimes, this peculiar immortality of TV characters? With their clunky old mobiles and black-and-white complexions? Long time since I first saw Jonathan Harris arguing with Billy Mumy on that distant planet, and even Randall and Hopkirk (deceased) (1969) are still bickering.


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Pr Ilona Boniwell
Managing Director of Positran
Professor Ilona Boniwell is one of the European leaders in Positive Psychology, having founded and headed the first Masters Degree in Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) in Europe at the University of East London. Nowadays, she heads the International MSc in Applied Positive Psychology (I-MAPP) at Anglia Ruskin University (that includes a dedicated positive psychology coaching pathway), teaches Positive Management at l'Ecole Centrale Paris and HEC, and consults around the world as a director of Positran. Her main teaching expertise lies in the areas of Positive Psychology and Positive Psychology applications, with research interests around: subjective time use, time perspective, eudaimonic well-being, tangible tools and applications of Positive Psychology to business, executive coaching and education.
Ilona founded and was the first Chair of the European Network of Positive Psychology (ENPP), and was subsequently the member of its Steering Committee for many years. She organised the first European Congress of Positive Psychology in June 2002 (Winchester), starting a successful tradition of bi-annual events. She was the first Vice-Chair of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) and has been continuingly the member of its Board of Directors since 2007. She is now the Vice-President for the Francophone Association of Positive Psychology, serves on the Board of Directors of the International Positive Education Network (IPEN) and is a co-editor of the Applied Positive Psychology Journal.
Ilona is the author of Positive Psychology in a Nutshell (2006, PWBC; 2016, McGraw-Hill), co-author of The Happiness Equation (2008, Adams Media), Positive Psychology: Theory, Research and Applications (2011, 2019, Open University Press), Well-Being Lessons for Secondary Schools (2012, Open University Press), co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Happiness (2013, Oxford University Press) and co-author of Motivated Adolescents (2015, Odile Jacob) and PEPS: Positive Education for Parents and Schools (2018, Leduc). She is currently working on a new book, Positive Psychology at Work in a Nutshell (forthcoming in 2020). She acted as the main consultant for and appeared in the BBC2 series The Happiness Formula (2006). Her other media work included Guardian, Times, Top Sante, Cosmopolitan and Psychologies articles, interviews, and columns. She is a current columnist for the Positive Psychology magazine (France), and gives many radio and TV interviews. She frequently addresses psychology and professional audiences at national and international conferences, having delivered hundreds of keynotes, presentations and workshops.
Ilona is passionate about practical applications of Positive Psychology to coaching, business and education. Her clients include L'Oreal, Microsoft, SNCF, EDF, Sanofi, Bull, Mars, Eric Bompard, Microsoft, BNP Paribas, Sanofi, Sodexo and many others. Nowadays, as a director of Positran, a boutique consultancy specialising in the applications of evidence-based methodologies to achieve lasting positive transformation, Ilona delivers advanced professional training in Positive Psychology. She has developed her own approach to positive psychology coaching and training and trained thousands of professionals around the world (in Japan, Singapore, China, Dubai, South Africa, Portugal, France and the UK). She further worked for the Government of Bhutan to develop a framework for happiness-based public policy at the request of the UN, as a member of the International Expert Working Group for the New Development Paradigm. Currently, she consults the Prime Minister's Office of Dubai around the development of the toolkit for workplace positivity and organisational well-being assessment.
Love of learning, Explanation, Creativity.
Field of intervention:
The set of themes of positive psychology in general. Discover her curriculum
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POSITRAN creates psychological tools grounded in research and develops applied training programs to optimise well-being, engagement and performance of individuals and groups.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Who's Who in Crypto
James Ellis: The British cryptographer who invented public key cryptography before Diffie-Hellman (and kept quiet about it)
By @Cryptobill on June 3, 2018
When you think of heroic British spies, the image of a math guy in heavy frame glasses working behind a desk piled with math books does not usually come to mind. While the world enjoyed James Bond movies and the West was writing scripts for audiovisual pearls like Rambo, Braddock and Nico (Steven Seagall) a special agent, armed with with pencil and paper, sat creating one of the world's most powerful military weapons at the time : an asymmetric key cryptosystem.
British engineer James H. Ellis sat over a cup of tea and watched as the world of cryptography hailed Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman as the inventors of public key cryptography in 1976. Only this was six years after he had written a paper about public key cryptography. Why didn't the world know about Ellis' work? How come Diffie-Hellman were considered the fathers of asymmetric cryptography for over 20 years? You may have guessed it from our introduction: Mr. Ellis was a spy working for Britain's GCHQ (similar to the NSA in the US). His paper, titled "The Possibility of Secure Non-Secret Digital Encryption", was secret and meant only for internal circulation at GCHQ.
Mr. Ellis reportedly got his idea during World War II, from a Bell Labs researcher who mentioned the possibility of adding some information to communications to make them unintelligible, sending the data over through the airwaves and then removing the extra information again at the receiving end. This gave him the idea to attempt the same feat using mathematical concepts.
Although James Ellis, Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman all had the same idea, none of them implemented a viable public key cryptosystem straight away after publishing their results. This was done by Rivest, Shamir and Adler who later patented the system and developed a commercial product from it named after their initials: RSA. The RSA patent expired in the year 2000 and since then the system has been incorporated into web browsers, payment systems, privacy guarding systems and all kinds of both proprietary and open source software without the need to pay royalties.
Although the public had no way of knowing about Mr. Ellis' and his team's feat before 1997, we now recognize his contribution to the world of cryptography as one of the most important developments of its time. Sadly, Mr. James Ellis never saw his invention go public as he passed away just days before his colleagues distributed his then classic paper to the public during an event in December 1997.
Previous: Understand asymmetric AKA public key cryptography
Next: Tether is backed by Bitcoin converted to U$, not by actual US Dollars


H-Farm and Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy, have teamed up to create a program focused on supporting students who need help to build a business idea.
Contaminations Lab is considered as a project which is neither an university lab nor an incubator, but something exactly in between. As stated by Riccardo Donadon, founder of H-Farm, it aims to represent the shortcut between the academic and the entrepreneur world.
Entrepreneurs network VeNetWork also will participate in the project to help students build their ideas.


Peters Professional Blossom Booster has high phosphate levels and a N:K ratio of 1:2. This combination makes Blossom Booster the ideal product for improving bud formation and development.
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Cryptocurrencies are notoriously volatile, preventing them from being used as mediums of exchange. However, stablecoins aim to change that, and this article discusses how.
Satoshi Nakamoto envisioned that "a purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution", and that is the essence of Bitcoin - decentralized money. However, the fluctuations in price (just yesterday BTC rose from under $7,000 to over $8,000) render Bitcoin ineffective when it comes to a medium of exchange and a store of value.
Ask any business which accepts cryptocurrency payments and you'll realize how challenging the accounting process becomes when the value of their digital assets is not even remotely stable. Similarly, if a business pays out salaries in crypto, they can't purely decide upon a BTC figure because one month they could be paying out $20,000 and the next month it could only be $10,000.
While we can't deny the advantages of digital currencies, particularly their decentralized natures, near instant transactions times, privacy-centric features and seamless cross-border accessibility (regardless of geographical and political boundaries) - at the end of the day most of us turn towards USD, GBP, EUR or other fiat currencies because they are stable.
The question then arises, can we have stable cryptocurrencies or stablecoins?
The notion is very alluring - a digital currency which brings the best of both worlds - but is such a currency even possible? Let's discuss.
Simply put, in order for a digital currency to be stable, it needs to be pegged to something (collateralized), and in most cases, these pegs are fiat currencies.
For instance, if an entity decides to issue new tokens which are supposed to be worth a carrot each, the easiest way to ensure that stability is to deposit one carrot for each token released into the market.
While this is not an organic way to move forward, it is an efficient solution which makes sense; however, it is not without its compromises.
Tether or USDT is a great stablecoin example, backed by USD. According to Tether Limited, each Tether is redeemable for a dollar, which is why you'll see that its price never fluctuates more than a few cents.
In reality, Tether is just like an IOU, and somewhere, in a bank, controlled by Tether Limited, there should be nearly $2.3 billion, backing each USDT in circulation.
"Should be" is the key term here, because when we're using USDT, we are effectively trusting Tether Limited to be maintaining the USD peg (unless they are regularly audited - something the company avoids).
Moreover, having the whole collateral held in a fiat currency, in a traditional bank, goes against the principles of decentralization. If anything, the fiat-backed USDT is vulnerable to governmental interference, changing banking laws and financial regulations, and may leave token holders without any recourse in any of the aforementioned events.
Finally, with a stablecoin like USDT, if you wanted to exchange your tokens for cash, you would have to resort to traditional payment systems, such as wire transfers, which again fall under governmental controls, are slow and costly.
Given all this, we can see that a fiat-backed stablecoin achieves price stability at the cost of decentralization, security and privacy. However, USDT is widely used on crypto exchanges as a store of value, especially when traders and investors want to secure profits from highly volatile crypto markets.
To avoid some of the issues that come with a fiat-pegged stablecoin, we could look at a crypto-collateralized digital currency model.
Firstly, since cryptocurrencies are by nature volatile, we need to figure out a model which allows for a stablecoin to be pegged to an unstable digital currency.
One way to create such a stablecoin is to over-collateralize - which means each stablecoin is backed by a cryptocurrency (like ETH or BTC) with a value higher than what is being issued.
For instance, if we want to issue a crypto-backed stablecoin valued at $1, we could do that by collateralizing it against $5 worth of ETH and protecting it from market volatility.
One example of such a stablecoin is Havven, which introduces a dual-token model, comprising of Nomins and Havvens.
Users holding Havven tokens are able to issue new Nomins worth 20% of their Havven holdings (and thereby collateralized by the remaining 80%), and in exchange, they receive a portion of the transaction fees.
In such a model, collateral providers are incentivized by fees and currency users get a stablecoin valued at a certain price and protected against price fluctuations.
However, even this model is not without its issues. Firstly, it depends heavily on the underlying cryptocurrency (in this example ETH), and even though the stablecoin is over-collateralized, it is not uncommon for the crypto market to suffer from deep corrections that can last over long periods of time.
Secondly, the system is inefficient when it comes to capital usage and as the ratio cited above suggests, you have to lock-in a large amount of digital currency to issue a small fraction of its value as a stablecoin. The advantages on the other hand, include decentralization and higher liquidity, and at the end of the day, such a model could prove profitable for collateral providers if the stablecoin reaches mass adoption.
A decentralized, secure and private stablecoin is the dream, but as of now, the possible models are not without compromises. If we want the ultimate price stability, the answer is a fiat peg, but that takes us towards centralization and its pitfalls. To avoid those, we can go the crypto route, but that is not the most efficient model and cannot guarantee stability to the same extent.
Other examples of stablecoins include the gold-backed DigixDAO and True USD which use similar models. At the end of the day, stablecoin users pick their own compromises and move ahead until alternative models are introduced, but they definitely raise interesting questions, which if solved, could lead to a mass-adopted crypto stablecoin.


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Are you looking to sell your house now without the wait and hassle associated with listing your home through a real estate agency? If so, you've come to the right place.
At CLT Home Solutions, we are a team of local Charlotte residents that helps homeowners sell their homes in as little as two weeks–for cash. Our process helps you sell your home now, without the extended closing periods or fees typically associated with the home selling process.
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If you are in the Charlotte, NC, area and you are looking to sell your house now, contact us today at CLT Home Solutions. Start working on the sale of your home today!


1-1/4 inch corner crimper locks corner beads with a single blow. No nails or screws required. Rubber mallet sold separately.
Upper step for bench. Provides walk-up stability.
SurPro 1-1/8 in. Cornerbead Crimper1-1/8 inch corner crimper locks corner beads with a single blow. No nails or screws required. Rubber mallet sold separately.


del Hoyo, J.; Collar, N.; Kirwan, G.M. 2018. Little White Tern (Gygis microrhyncha). Barcelona Available at: https://www.hbw.com/node/467311. (Accessed: 19.07.18).
Steadman, D. W.; Kirch, P. V. 1990. Prehistoric extinction of birds on Mangaia, Cook Islands, Polynesia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 87: 9605-9609.
Steadman, D.W. 1999. The prehistory of vertebrates, especially birds, on Tinian, Aguiguan, and Rota, Northern Mariana Islands. Micronesica 31: 319-345.
BirdLife International (2019) Species factsheet: Gygis microrhyncha. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 19/04/2019. Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2019) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 19/04/2019.


Do you use harsh chemicals to unclog drains? How that effects your health.
Becoming healthier can be accomplished in so many little ways. You can make better food choices. You can go to bed earlier. You can watch more funny movies and laugh more. You can schedule an evening with a friend. And you can eliminate unnecessary household chemicals and reduce your exposure to toxins.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that over 80,000 chemicals are in use today. If you got your blood and urine tested today, it is very likely that around 300 environmental chemicals would be found. Even newborn babies are not spared from the burden of toxic exposure. Often more than 200 chemicals are detected in umbilical blood.
hypothyroidism just to name a few.
Eliminating unnecessary household chemicals is one simple trick to make yourself and the world a healthier place.
Today lets pick a fight with drainage cleaners and learn how to unclog drain with baking soda environmentally friendly. We usually store household cleaners all the way back in the cabinet. On the back of the drainage container it has this nasty orange looking sign – a skull and crossbones. It means DANGER! It's HARMFUL! Don't let your children get close to it. It has this protective cap that only opens after three unsuccessful attempts, because you have to push and turn counterclockwise at the same time. When you finally get to pour half the bottle of this expensive toxic liquid down the drain, you are advised to leave the room immediately and most definitely not to breathe in any of the vapor. After a couple of hours you are asked to let water flush it away. If the sink is still clogged, the label on the container recommends repeating the same procedure. And eventually the mission "unclog drains" will be accomplished. If you were very careful, wore gloves, didn't breathe and rinsed enough water on it, chances are good that you were not exposed to any of the chemicals. Good for you, right?
But flushing a bottle of toxic chemicals down the toilet or the sink doesn't mean they are gone!
Wastewater treatment plants CAN'T remove everything we pour down the drain and some of it reaches the environment and shows up in your tap water. I don't think anyone enjoys birth control pill residue with his or her tap water? How about some leftover drainage cleaner chemicals? Your tap water looks clean and smells freshly chlorinated? Good for you? I don't think so.
So your next contribution to a healthier you and a healthier environment is very simple. You check if you have the following environmentally friendly and cheap ingredients at home. Baking soda and white distilled vinegar. If not then put them on the shopping list, now. And go for the bigger bottle of white vinegar. You might find more uses for it in the near future on this blog. Next time you have to unclog drains in your house or apartment you take these two ingredients and unclog drains as follows.
(make sure area around the drain is dry so the baking soda won't react with water outside the drain).
Pour ½ cup* of white vinegar down the drain.
Now you'll witness a fancy foam coming out of the sink. You could contain this reaction to the inner plumbing by stuffing a rag into the drain. But it's not necessary. Some people advise to heat up the vinegar before adding it into the sink. I had great results with the way mentioned above.
Let it do its work for 5 minutes and then rinse sink with hot running water.
Tell your friends, relatives, neighbors, landlord, and strata council about this great tip to unclog drains and save money and becoming healthier.
* Amount may vary depending on the seriousness of the clogging situation.
Clog is gone! No harm done to you and the environment. Great job!
Use the same method to maintain your drains on a regular basis. White distilled vinegar is effective for killing most mold, bacteria, and germs, due to its level of acidity. Stay tuned for more uses of white vinegar.
You don't have to shuffle your kids into a save place during the procedure. This is the formula that teachers use to entertain students with a spitting volcano in chemistry class.
Read here how to reduce toxins on a daily basis.
Thank you for this! So true. It always amazes me how unaware people are about what they are putting into the earth. Cheers to you.


United States ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley, said on October 9, 2018 that she would resign at the end of the year, marking a high-profile departure of one of the few women in the president's cabinet.
Ms. Haley, a former governor of South Carolina, had been an early and frequent critic of Mr. Trump; when he named her to the United Nations job weeks after his election in November 2016, the appointment was seen as an olive branch. As ambassador, Ms. Haley has been an outspoken and often forceful envoy — someone whom foreign diplomats looked to for guidance from an administration known for haphazard and inconsistent policy positions.
"I think you have to be selfless enough to know when you step aside and allow someone else to do the job," she added.
White House staffers were caught off guard by the announcement, which Ms. Haley and Mr. Trump had kept closely under wraps. But the president said Ms. Haley had informed him roughly six months ago that she wanted to take a break after finishing two years with the administration. He said he hoped Ms. Haley would return in a different role, and would name her successor within the next two or three weeks.
Ms. Haley, the first cabinet-level United Nations ambassador for a Republican administration since the end of the Cold War, quickly made clear she saw the position as a steppingstone to a higher political office — a possibility that Mr. Trump may have resented.She became a far more visible face of American foreign policy than her first boss at the State Department, former Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson. Mike Pompeo, Mr. Tillerson's replacement, has recently reasserted the secretary of state's traditional role.
But Ms. Haley, who has long been seen as a potential presidential candidate, said on Tuesday she had no intention of running for president in 2020, as has been speculated. Instead, she said, she plans to campaign for Mr. Trump's re-election.
Stepping away now could be a logical end point if Ms. Haley wants to preserve her own political future. But in the short term, people familiar with her thinking said that she is likely to work in the private sector and make some money.
For the moment, few Republican strategists believe that Ms. Haley is inclined to challenge Mr. Trump in 2020. But those who know her believe that she is likely to run, whether in 2024, or even in 2020 — should the president not run again.
"An open presidential race is a better chance to show off her incredible political skills, rather than some quixotic primary effort," said Matt Moore, who was the Republican Party chair in South Carolina when Ms. Haley was governor there.
The daughter of immigrants from India, Ms. Haley favored free markets and global trade and earned international attention when she was governor for speaking out against the Confederate battle flag in the aftermath of the 2015 massacre at a black church in Charleston. During Mr. Trump's presidential campaign, she sharply criticized his demeanor and warned what it might mean for American diplomacy — even suggesting that his tendency to lash out at critics could cause a world war.
As ambassador, Ms. Haley acknowledged her policy disagreements with the president in an op-ed in the Washington Post last month when she criticized an anonymous senior administration official who penned an opinion piece in The New York Times, describing a chaotic administration in which many of the president's aides disagreed with their boss.
Possible successors include Dina Powell, a former deputy national security adviser to the president, and Richard A. Grenell. Mr. Grenell, the American ambassador to Germany, served as spokesman for John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, when he was ambassador to the United Nation under former President George W. Bush.


text:
Black Badge #10
The Badges continue to unravel the mysterious history of the program, learning the secret history of their parents...and their role in the threats the Badges must now face!
Tyler Jenkins
Hilary Jenkins
Matt Kindt and Tyler Jenkins, the Eisner Award-nominated team behind Grass Kings, reunite for a new ongoing series about a top-secret, elite branch of boy scouts tasked by the government to take on covert missions. Among their organization, the Black Badges are the elite; the best of the best. They are feared even by the other badges. The missions they take are dangerous, and they will only get wo
A best-of-the-best secret agent with memories he couldn't possibly possess, a mystery writer in her eighties who spends her retirement solving crimes, a man of action with mysterious drugs that keep him ahead of a constant string of targeted disasters, a seemingly omnipotent terrorist organization that might be behind it all . . . And they're all connected to one man: a science-fiction author with
From The New York Times bestselling writer Matt Kindt (Mind MGMT) and Peter Panzerfaust artist Tyler Jenkins comes a rural mystery series chronicling the tragic lives of the Grass Kings, three brothers and rulers of a trailer park kingdom, a fiefdom of the hopeless and lost, of the desperate poor seeking a promised land. Eldest brother Robert leads a grief-stricken life, having lost his daughter t
Manor Black
Roman Black is the moribund patriarch of a family of powerful sorcerers. As his wicked and corrupt children fight over who will take the reins of Manor Black and become representative of the black arts, Roman adopts a young mage whom he gifts his powers to with the hope that someone good will take his place against the evil forces out to bring down his family and legacy. Collects Manor Black issue
A science-minded adventurer gets mixed up in the mysteries of a fantasy world in this charming new adventure from an award-winning creative team. Boone Dias is an interdimensional explorer, a scientist from Earth who has stumbled into great responsibility. He's got an explanation for everything, so of course the Ether's magical residents turn to him to solve their toughest crimes. But maybe keepin


Thoreau famously admonished one to "simplify, simplify, simplify," too, in ON WALDEN POND, and that is possibly the first and best step toward realizing "the eternity in every moment".
Very good words of advice. Thanks for sharing that.
I join Brett and say thank you, too!
Thanks to you also, precious kitty!
I'm probably more partial to the leafier trees, which make a nice contrast to all the evergreens.
Ah, Brett, just touching. Love this photo to float with. I haven't been to Butchart Garden. Must make a note to visit a friend in Victoria next month. Have a great week. Perpetua.
Wow!!! Just, wow!! What a beautiful pic!!!! I love how it captures the range of shape and colours of Autumn!!
Thanks very much! I would like for the image to have been sharper but I do like the composition.
Would you be willing to have your beautiful photo " Floating Fall Leaves, Butchart Gardens, Victoria, B.C." inspire a traditionally hooked rug? Please let me know, thank you.
Thanks for your message and kind words. I'm very open to whatever inspiration others might take from my photographs. So, yes, that would be wonderful by me. Textile art is fascinating, especially because it has a functional aspect. I looked at the gallery on your site and that's some amazing rug work!


Share photos of your tank!
We'd really appreciate it if you could take pictures and make notes during your trial period. Your comments and before/after photos will help us understand our product performance better in different tank environments and the more data you can give us, the better!
The *best* photos are ones that are taken from straight on, and the more of the photo you can fill with the tank, the better.
We also love close-ups! We want to see everything going on in there including that pesky bristle worm poking out of the rock in the back of your tank.
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text:
Brünisried é uma comuna da Suíça, no Cantão Friburgo, com cerca de 564 habitantes. Estende-se por uma área de 3,24 km², de densidade populacional de 174 hab/km². Confina com as seguintes comunas: Alterswil, Plaffeien, Rechthalten, Sankt Ursen.

A língua oficial nesta comuna é o Alemão.

Comunas de Friburgo (cantão)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Patterns of Extinction
Several mass extinctions have occurred throughout earth history. Cycles found to be associate with these events has resulted in paleontologists proposing mechanisms to explain these events. It seems that mass extinctions occur at regular time intervals with a periodicity of approximately 26 million years. This concept was first suggested by Alfred Fischer and Michael Arthur, but has been further expanded upon by various researchers utilizing data collected by David Raup and John Sepkoski. Raup and Sepkoski constructed graphs utilizing incidences of extinction of marine families through time. The rate of extinction was represented on a graph as a series of rising and falling peaks. Surprisingly, these peaks coincided with most major events of extinction throughout earth history. However, a significant number of paleontologists believe Raup and Sepkoski's research to be flawed, arguing that the dates used in the study are incorrect, and that the spacing pattern is not always 26 million years. Until new evidence can be brought forth, the question of periodicity will clearly remain a source of debate within the paleontological community.
The concept of periodicity has important implications for determining which factors cause extinction. Hypotheses invoking catastrophism have particularly been advanced utilizing this concept, which imply extra-terrestrial forces as extinction-causing agents. This is because only astronomical forces are known to operate on such a precise periotic time schedule. Contrary to catastrophism are hypotheses which focus on gradualism. These gradualistic hypotheses invoke various terrestrial extinction mechanisms including volcanism, glaciation, global climatic change, and changes in sea level. Most recently hypotheses centered on the new non-linear science of complexity have emerged. Under these hypotheses species-species interactions lead to occasional instability resulting in cascades which may ripple through entire ecosystems, with potentially devastating results.
Click here to view Mass Extinctions of the Phanerozoic menu
Click here to return to the Main Menu


text:
Olympique de Marseille, "l'OM", är en fotbollsklubb i Marseille i Frankrike, bildad 1899.

Olympique de Marseille är en av Frankrikes mest populära fotbollsklubbar.

Historia
Olympique de Marseille grundades 1892 av René Dufaure de Montmirail, och namnet antogs 1899. I början var den största sporten rugby. 1902 började fotboll spelas i klubben. Under 1920-talet blev Olympique de Marseille ett av de bättre fotbollslagen i Frankrike och vann franska cupen 1924, 1926 och 1927. 1929 följde den första franska mästerskapstiteln.

Marseille-anfallaren Gunnar Andersson blev skytteligavinnare 1952 med 31 gjorde mål. 1959 åkte Marseille ur förstaligan. Förutom en ettårig sejour förblev Marseille i andraligan fram till 1965.

1969 blev Marseille franska cupmästare, 1971 blev klubben franska ligamästare och 1972 vann klubben en så kallad dubbel med seger både i cupen och ligan. Bland lagets största stjärnor fanns svensken Roger Magnusson och jugoslaven Josip Skoblar. Skoblar gjorde säsongen 1970/1971 44 mål, vilket fortfarande är rekord i högsta divisionen (nuvarande Ligue 1) i Frankrike.

Olympique Marseille tog klubbens första internationella titel 1993 genom att vinna Uefa Champions League, efter finalseger mot Milan, vilket gjort Marseille till ensamt franskt klubblag som vunnit denna liga. Segern skulle dock följas av en stor mutskandal med Marseilles klubbdirektör Bernard Tapie i centrum. Kända spelare under perioden 1989–1993 var Jean-Pierre Papin, Chris Waddle, Abedi Pelé, Enzo Francescoli och Dragan Stojković.

Marseille kom tillbaka efter skandalen och slutade tvåa i franska ligan 1999 efter Girondins Bordeaux. 2004 nådde laget finalen i Uefa-cupen men förlorade mot Valencia i Göteborg. 2007 blev laget återigen tvåa i franska ligan och kunde via tredjeplatsen 2008 återigen delta i Champions League. 2010 blev Marseille franska mästare och vann även franska ligacupen och Trophée des Champions.

Spelare

Truppen

Utlånade spelare

Årets spelare

Svenskar i laget
 Gunnar Andersson  (1950-1958)
 Gunnar Johansson (1950-1958)
 Dan Ekner (1950-1951)
 Stellan Nilsson (1954)
 Roger Magnusson  (1968-1974)
 Anders Linderoth  (1977-1980)
 Klas Ingesson  (2000-2001)

Referenser

Externa länkar


text:
Early this morning: Senate approves trial rules after bitter debate
Trump's tweeting about impeachment this morning
State AGs urge Senate to reject impeachment in stinging letter: 'A dangerous historical precedent'
Tucker Carlson: Even if Trump's Senate impeachment trial ends quickly, Democrats may never stop
'Monty Python' star Terry Jones dead at 77
Impeachment-weary Trump tees off on 'sleazebags' Nadler and Schiff, says he'd 'love' to attend trial
Will Titanic's sunken wreck be protected? Treasure hunters skeptical of new US, UK agreement
By: Jim Kevlin 07/27/2019 2:10 pm
Home › AllOTSEGO | Breaking News | People › Joe Campbell 'Changed A Lot Of Hearts,' Many Recall At Today's Rites
Joe Campbell 'Changed A Lot Of Hearts,' Many Recall At Today's Rites
07/27/2019	AllOTSEGO, Breaking News, People
100 CELEBRATE 'VOICE OF ONEONTA'
Joe Campbell 'Changed
A Lot Of Hearts,' Many
Recall At Today's Rites
Oz Smith, a pal of Joe Campbell and former WDOS announcer who also sang on Broadway, sings his original composition, "By The Time Tomorrow Comes," for his old friend, ending with the standard, "Without a Song," concluding, "I know there ain't no love at all without a song." At right is Joe's portrait from his radio days.. (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)
By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
"Big Chuck" D'Imperio remembers his radio colleague's hearty handshake, infectious laugh and "pure joy for the art of broadcasting."
ONEONTA – Take heart.
Joe Campbell Jr.
The 100 friends and admirers at "Voice of Oneonta" Joseph Campbell's memorial service this morning certainly did, wife Judith reminded them of one of her husband's favorite exhortations in good times and bad: "Life is just a bowl of cherries. Everything will be OK."
That wasn't always the case for Campbell, you might think, but you'd be wrong, judging from the testimony at the hour-long service at the Elks Club.
In failing health, he spent the last few years before he passed away at Hampshire House, but he loved life to the end, said son Joe: When one of his granddaughters reminded him he was almost "91 and a half," Campbell was delighted. He passed away on March 6, 2019, at "91 and a half," after hearing "The Campbells Are Coming," performed on bagpipes.
CLICK TO REVISIT JOE CAMPBELL'S OBITUARY
After the service, one attendee, Madolyn Palmer, the revered city schools' retiree and former Common Council member, recounted how Campbell remained active in the community of Hampshire House right until the end. "Many people don't get involved," she said.
When a Hampshire House resident might have felt blue on any particular day, the caregivers would call for Joe Campbell to stop by. "He would cheer them up," Palmer said.
Pastor Eda Dorosky presided, and two of Campbell's grand-daughters, Emily and Elizabeth, tearfully delivered one reading, John 14:1-4 ("Do not let your hearts be troubled") and another, the 23rd Psalm, ("The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.")
Emily read from her grandfather's Bible and remembered the one-time boxer used to say, "I always packed it in my boxing bag with my boxing gear" and would read a tract or two before each match. "If I won," he told her, "right verses. If I lost, wrong verses."
Joe Jr., Campbell's brother Bill and Chuck D'Imperio, who in his early years worked with the older man at the latter part of his career, recalled his early advocacy of weight-lifting – he won the Mr. Catskill body building contest – and, as OHS football coach, gave his teams a leg up by putting them through weight training.
From the honoree's 38 years of teaching, mostly Grade 6, mostly at Greater Plains Elementary, they recounted some of his off-curriculum teaching methods. At one point, youngsters were weight training in one corner and writing poetry in another. A third corner was devoted to "Radio."
Teacher, coach, he was also "The Voice of Oneonta" on WDOS. His oldies show, "Sentimental Journey," ran for 50 years (1952-2002).
His sign-off, D'Imperio said, "echoes almost everything we came to know about Joe. And they seemed almost perfect."
Campbell would cup his ear, as old-time broadcasters would do, and would intone: "And so, my dear friends, I close by saying, let the music play as long as there's a song to sing. And I, yes I, will stay younger than the spring," (echoing a Rodgers & Hammerstein number from "South Pacific.")
Said brother Bill, "He never sought to make a lot of money; but he changed a lot of hearts."
coach, Joe Campbell, Oneonta News, otsego county news, teacher, voice of Oneonta
First Baptist Wins Landmarks Grant | First Indian Restaurant Opens Doors In Oneonta
2 thoughts on "Joe Campbell 'Changed A Lot Of Hearts,' Many Recall At Today's Rites"
Jim Downie July 31, 2019 at 5:11 pm
I was I Joe's sixth grade class with Mr. Matthews (late 1970's). I was one of the youngsters in the corner lifting weights and doing pull-ups and sit-ups. It set the course for a life of health and strength. The only way I passed most of his tests were to write "The Big Bands shall return" at the bottom of my test paper… I got to work out with Joe at Muscles in Motion when I was in my 20's when I came back to O-town from CO to visit and he was still was stronger than me! Love you Joe! Thanks for investing so much in me. See you later brother!
Emily Boulnois July 31, 2019 at 8:41 pm
Thank you to everyone who came to my Grandpa Joe's memorial service and to those who are continuing to share their wonderful memories. He was special to so many people. He loved hearing from all of his former students, colleagues, classmates, friends, and family members.


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Q: Creating a point corresponding to the maximum elevation of a DEM I am wondering how can I create a point corresponding to the maximum elevation value of a DEM. I mean, from the DEM I can easily get the maximum elevation. For the sake of a viewshed analysis, I would like to create a point feature corresponding to the spot with maximum elevation. I guess it is simple, but I am having difficulties in finding the right procedure.
I am using arcgis 10.1 (with advanced license).

A: if you compute the statistics of your raster, (or with zonal statistics if you look for a specific zone), you can find its maximum value (properties > source > Statistics > max)
Then you can use the value in raster calculator
Con("raster" == maxvalue, 1)

EDIt: where maxvalue is either the raster created by zonal statistics or the value that you read in the properties.
EDIT Actually it does work in Map algebra. Thank you @WhiteboxDev for the idea :
 Con("raster" == "raster".maximum, 1 )

and convert the resulting raster to point.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Marilyn Monroe's Famous Final Phone Call Involved Serious Threat To President Kennedy
Monroe planned to take down JFK & ruin his bid for re-election, podcast reveals.
Oct 7, 2019 @ 16:43PM
Shutterstock(2)
Hours before she was found dead in 1962, Marilyn Monroe placed a shocking final phone call that involved a devious plot to take down the President of the United States, a new podcast reveals.
"The Killing of Marilyn Monroe" podcast releases chilling details each week of the late actress's tumultuous affairs with some of the country's most powerful men. But in episode eight, featured above, Monroe's dark plot to ruin the reputations of President John F. Kennedy and his Attorney General brother, Bobby Kennedy, were exposed.
According to experts, Monroe was furious that the two political brothers ended their affairs with her in an effort to maintain their public images. In order to get her revenge, Monroe phoned up President Kennedy's relative, Peter Lawford, to deliver a sinister message.
Depressed & Disillusioned' Marilyn Monroe's Visit To Mental Institution Exposed
"She was planning to hold a conference the next Monday and reveal what the Kennedys had done to her," biographer Lois Banner revealed.
Biographer Danforth Prince added that Monroe's message was voiced with fury and deceit. Monroe planned to take down the brothers by possibly exposing their affairs with her in a very public way.
"You tell him that if he doesn't fly down to see me and talk things over, he'll hear from me at my press conference Monday morning," Prince claimed Monroe told Lawford. "It'll make headlines around the world, although not of the kind that would Jack's bid for re-election."
Monroe told Lawford that if Bobby did not come to her home to meet with her in person on August 4, 1962 by 6 p.m., that both men should "tune in" to her planned announcement days later.
Frank Sinatra Refused To Marry Marilyn Monroe Over Her 'Suicide' Plan, Podcast Reveals"
"You might also call Jack at the White House," Monroe threatened, according to Prince. "I know he has a busy schedule, but he'll have time to watch me. I plan to look dazzling!"
As Radar readers know, the final year of Monroe's life featured incredible lows for the Hollywood icon. In addition to being drugged and sexually assaulted one week prior to her death, Monroe was also taken to a mental institution against her will, the podcast previously revealed.
Hollywood historian Bill Birnes explained in episode eight that Lawford was the man the Kennedys asked to control Monroe.
Marilyn Monroe Once Wiretapped By FBI & CIA Over JFK Affair, Podcast Reveals
"They say to Peter Lawford, 'Look, you've gotta watch her. She's outta control. She's gonna blab state secrets,'" Birnes claimed.
As Radar readers know, Monroe's death on August 5, 1962 remains controversial. While her death was ruled a "possible suicide" by the Los Angeles Medical Examiner at the time, others believe she was murdered.
From the creators of Natalie Wood podcast "Fatal Voyage: The Mysterious Death of Natalie," the "Killing of Marilyn Monroe" podcast drops a new episode every week. For more eerie details of the icon's death, listen to episode eight by downloading and streaming everywhere podcasts are available.


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HomeUSA News
Official says Guantanamo detainees were held without cause
9 Apr, 2010 20:57
A high-ranking former official in the Bush Administration has admitted that many of the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay were innocent.
In a document obtained by The Times of London, Lawrence Wilkerson, army veteran and former chief of staff to Colin Powell, alleged that President George W. Bush knew that many of the detainees sent to the prison at Guantanamo Bay were innocent. Wilkerson says that the men were not even captured by US forces, but turned over to American troops by Afghans or Pakistanis who were paid up to $5,000 for the prisoners.Wilkerson says that the detainees continued to be held, even after no evidence of guilt could be produced, because Bush and others in his administration believed the increasing number of captured "terrorists" bolstered their case for war in Iraq.
"It amounts to an indictment of George W. Bush for war criminal acts," said Brian Becker, national coordinator for the Answer Coalition. "It says under oath that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld knowingly kept hundreds of innocent people at Guantanamo Bay, a center the UN itself identified as a torture center."
The fallout of the announcement may not lie so much in the consequences for Bush, who is unlikely to ever face any charges, but in continued distrust of America abroad – particularly in its efforts to fight the global war on terror.
"We cannot torture people, hold them without due process, rip them away from their families. You can't do that to human beings and not create bitterness and anger – not just from them, but also from their families and their neighbors. When you treat them badly, you generate fierce resistance," Becker said.
The time for a Palestinian state has come
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US wants more troops in Afghanistan
UN report criticizes night raid in Gardez
NATO admits guilt in Afghan slayings
Russian pilot of hijacked helicopter in Sudan free and fine
First Georgian casualty in Afghanistan sparks debate in Tbilisi
Bagram: America's best-kept Afghan secret


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Qualcomm aims to take on Nvidia, Intel with new AI chips
Qualcomm has unveiled a new chip for speeding up artificial intelligence work, aiming to diversify beyond its stronghold in mobile phone chips
Qualcomm on Tuesday unveiled a new chip for speeding up artificial intelligence work, aiming to diversify beyond its stronghold in mobile phone chips and into a fast-growing market now dominated by Nvidia and Intel.
At an event in San Francisco, Qualcomm said it plans to begin testing its new Cloud AI 100 chip with partners such as Microsoft later this year, with mass production likely to begin in 2020.
Qualcomm's new chip is designed for what artificial intelligence researchers call "inference" - the process of using an AI algorithm that has been "trained" with massive amounts of data in order to, for example, translate audio into text-based requests.
Analysts believe chips for speeding up inference will be the largest part of the AI chip market.
Nvidia has released special chips for the task and Intel is working with Facebook on one that will be released later this year. Cloud computing vendors such as Amazon's Amazon Web Services and Alphabet's Google Cloud unit are also making their own inference chips.
All that activity means Qualcomm is entering a crowded field behind its rivals.
But Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm's president and the chief of its chip division, said the San Diego company is taking a different approach by aiming to serve the smaller, simpler data centres that are proliferating around the world so that consumers can benefit from faster response times for their internet-connected apps.
In order to serve those smaller "edge" data sites, Qualcomm is focusing on AI chips that consume small amounts of electricity and generate little heat - a speciality it developed when making chips for mobile phones, which run on small batteries and live in pockets.
Rivals such as Intel and Nvidia make more powerful chips that dominate in centralized data centres that suck up electricity and need complex cooling systems.
"You can't rely on big [data centre] buildings with air conditioning," Amon told reporters at the San Francisco event. "That's our bet - performance per watt leadership."
Qualcomm tried before to parlay its mobile chip expertise into data centre sales, when it aimed to compete directly with Intel's core business by selling CPU chips based on mobile phone chip technology. That effort has largely been wound down as a cost-cutting measure.
"I think this is a good start for Qualcomm, but they have a lot to prove in the higher performance accelerator space," said Patrick Moorhead, founder of Moor Insights & Strategy.
AI Chips
Cloud AI 100 chip
Cristiano Amon
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Let and be two fixed points (the foci) a distance apart. A Cassini oval (or Cassini ellipse) is a quartic curve traced by a point such that the product of the distances is a constant .
Let and let be the circle with center and radius . Let be a point on and let be the midpoint of . Let be the orthogonal projection of on the perpendicular bisector of . Let be the circle with center and radius ; let be the circle with center and radius . Let be the intersection of the circles and . Let be the angle between and .
Then , . The difference of these two equations gives , so that satisfies the defining condition for the oval.
This construction is described in .
 M. Razpet, "Ellipse and Cassini Oval" (in Slovenian), Presek, 36(1), 2008–2009, pp. 14–15.
Marko Razpet and Izidor Hafner "2. Constructing a Point on a Cassini Oval"


Mirrors built to last. Purchase your Mirrors here today.
Measures 39 in. H x 24 1/2 in. W x 6 in. proj.
Mirror. Made of pine this mirror has an architectural windowpane style with a decorative arch top. Crafted of pine this mirror comes with a rich heirloom pine stain. The inner windowpane moldings are black which provides more interest and depth. Measures 39 in. H x 24 1/2 in. W x 6 in. proj.


Sick of auction chaos? Check out this post for tips on how you can collect back the money you've lost due to tenant delinquency at your storage auction.
If you're new to the storage industry, check out our top ten list of the most popular blog posts for new self storage owners and investors.


Created in the workshops of the renowned writer Antonius van Damme and the famous book painter Simon Bening, the Van Damme Hours are a testimony of the highest craftsmanship. This masterpiece from the last golden age of Flemish book painting is characterized by the freshness of its colors, the magnificent trompe-l'oeil borders and the charming calendar pages, which offer a fascinating insight into the everyday life of Flanders in the 16th century.
The Van Damme Hours, created around 1531 in Bruges, are one of the most beautiful works of the Flemish book art of the 16th century. On 258 pages, in 32 full-page miniatures and twelve richly ornamented calendar pages, a fascinating panorama unfolds in fresh, bright colors: vignettes, which tell of peasant work and aristocratic pleasure; religious scenes that radiate quiet, meditative dignity; lush, velvety landscapes; all wrapped in richly decorated floral decorations. The highly ornamental floral borders are set in fascinating contrast with the one-sided miniatures.
The manuscript contains a selection of texts characteristic of an hour-book; among others, a calendar, the Office of the Virgin, penitential psalms, the litany, and a series of prayers. The magnificent Van Damme Hours are named after its writer, Antonius van Damme (active from 1495 to 1545). Although the painter, as usual, did not leave a signature, the miniatures are attributed to the Flemish book painter and probably the greatest miniature master of the 16th century, Simon Bening (1483-1561).
The Van Damme Hours contain all the stylistic and iconographic elements typical of Bening's works: charming calendar scenes, dignified religious scenes, lush landscapes, trompe-l'oeil edges, and accurate observation of details and textures of everyday objects such as textiles and musical instruments. The twelve calendar pages give a fascinating insight into everyday life in the Flanders of the 16th century.
Saturated reds and blues dominate the wonderful picture worlds of the hourbook. The edges of the manuscript are adorned with flowers in a loose stripe pattern. Bening created incredibly realistic miniatures. It almost seems as if the viewer could enter the picture and touch the figures. "Close-ups", which place the figures in the miniatures close to the edge of the picture, dramatically reduce the distance between the viewer and the figure, and the viewer also feels emotionally closer to the figure. Bening is also characterized by its high sensitivity to landscapes and atmosphere. Many small brush strokes compose a texture that makes the landscapes in the manuscript as bright as light.
True-to-the-original facsimile edition of the manuscript MS M.451 of the Morgan Library in New York. A total of 32 full-page miniatures, 12 calendar pages, and magnificent trompe l'oeil borders illustrate the Van Damme Hours on 258 pages in the format of 7.4 x 5.6 cm. The edition is strictly limited to 882 copies worldwide. The cover of the normal edition is made of finest leather with rich gold embossing. The luxury edition, limited to just 98 copies, is bound in a reproduction of the original red velvet cover and is embellished by a genuine replica of the fantastic Venetian silver filigree work. The commentary on the edition is published by Roger S. Wieck, curator for the medieval and renaissance manuscripts of the Morgan Library in New York.


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Geldermalsen (plaats), een dorp in de Nederlandse provincie Gelderland
Geldermalsen (gemeente), een voormalige gemeente met het dorp als hoofdplaats
Geldermalsen (schip, 1747), een V.O.C.-schip dat in januari 1752 ten onder ging

Zie ook

 Wijken en buurten in Geldermalsen


hooked4life had the most liked content!
You guys are crazy!!! great job on those fish though!
All I Want For Christmas Is A Gag On The Line!
Absolutely worth it. We stayed at an airbnb place on marco island over Labor day weekend and I killed the mangrove snapper from the dock. Also caught a nurse shark and variety of other grunts and such. I had my best luck with live shrimp but the dead stuff will work too. There are a couple of different marina's and bait shops that can hook you up. good luck!
Glad to see these reports again. Thanks for sharing!
Wow, that was a nice group of hogs!
I like the DOA paddle tail or Zman paddlers. Color doesn't seem to matter with the trout, I think they just go on movement as I have caught them on a variety of colors. Another old school soft plastic would be the Love's Lure tandem rig. Trout love that thing and will tear it up.
Hope that storm keeps going west!


The match of Hrvatski Dragovoljac U19 vs Slaven Belupo U19 in Croatia U19 League is started at 2019-4-6 16:01. For this match, the initial Asian Handicap is Hrvatski Dragovoljac U19+0.5; The initial Goals Odds is 3.0,3.5. Totally, Hrvatski Dragovoljac U19 and Slaven Belupo U19 fought for 3 times before. Over Goals occurred for 1 times and Over Corners occurred for 1 times. Hrvatski Dragovoljac U19 got 1 win, 1 draw and 1 lost with 4 Goals For and 4 Goals Against.
For the last 15 matches, Hrvatski Dragovoljac U19 got 6 win, 6 lost and 3 draw with 26 Goals For and 34 Goals Against. The average of Goals For is 1.7 per match and the average of Goals Against is 2.3 per match. The rate of Over Goals is 100%; The rate of Handicap Win is 60%; The rate of win is 40%; The average of corners is 3.6 per match and the rate of Over Corners is 75%.
For the last 15 matches, Slaven Belupo U19 got 5 win, 7 lost and 3 draw with 24 Goals For and 26 Goals Against. The average of Goals For is 1.6 per match and the average of Goals Against is 1.7 per match. The rate of Over Goals is 53%; The rate of Handicap Win is 40%; The rate of win is 33%; The average of corners is 5.3 per match and the rate of Over Corners is 100%.
Except the history stats of Hrvatski Dragovoljac U19 vs Slaven Belupo U19, ScoreBing also offers predictions and lineups of Hrvatski Dragovoljac U19 vs Slaven Belupo U19, that may help you predict or replay the match.


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Aldeias es una freguesia portuguesa del concelho de Armamar, con 5,34 km² de superficie y 376 habitantes (2001). Su densidad de población es de 70,4 hab/km².

Enlaces externos

 Aldeias en freguesiasdeportugal.com (en portugués)
 Gobierno civil e información administrativa del Distrito de Viseu (en portugués)

Freguesias de Armamar


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Opponents accuse Messer of rigging straw poll
U.S. Senate candidate Luke Messer is paying for college students to attend a state Republican party straw poll event on Saturday.
Opponents accuse Messer of rigging straw poll U.S. Senate candidate Luke Messer is paying for college students to attend a state Republican party straw poll event on Saturday. Check out this story on IndyStar.com: http://indy.st/2mj2B9A
Tony Cook, tony.cook@indystar.com Published 1:23 p.m. ET Jan. 11, 2018 | Updated 1:33 p.m. ET Jan. 11, 2018
From left: Congressman Luke Messer, Congressman Todd Rokita and Sen. Joe Donnelly.(Photo: Provided photos)
U.S. Senate candidate Luke Messer is paying for college students to attend a state Republican party straw poll event on Saturday — a move his opponents are criticizing as vote rigging.
But Messer's campaign and the state's Republican party chairman are defending the tactic.
Emails and social media exchanges obtained by IndyStar show that Messer campaign staffers offered to cover registration and hotel costs for college students to attend the Indiana Republican Party's Congress of Counties conference.
The event takes place Friday and Saturday and will include a straw poll featuring all six GOP candidates running in Indiana's contentious U.S. Senate primary. The state party describes the straw poll as "the first grassroots barometer to measure early support in this high-profile, statewide race that has national implications."
More than 500 Republicans are expected to attend.
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General Assembly: Sunday alcohol sales clears key Indiana Senate committee for first time ever
Messages obtained by IndyStar were sent by a Messer regional field director, a political field organizer and a campaign intern to college students.
In one message, a group of students at Ball State University are told the campaign will "be able to help out with hotel rooms if you need us to" and that "we really only need you that Saturday."
An email to another student says, "The campaign will cover your ticket and lodging, just not gas expenses. Meals at the event will also be covered."
A third message to students emphasizes that "attendance at the straw poll is required" and says the "campaign has taken care of your pass for the whole event and you are welcome to attend as much (or as little) of the rest of the conference as you wish."
In response to inquiries from IndyStar, the Messer campaign acknowledged Wednesday it is taking care of registration fees for "a few dozen" college students and paying for a single hotel room for students.
Messer Campaign Manager Chasen Bullock called the criticism "crazy."
"We look forward to participating in these very valuable trainings, and because our campaign believes in grassroots organizing — we want our volunteers to attend," he said. "What's wrong with covering a $30 registration fee for college Republicans to meet Gov. Holcomb and attend grassroots trainings this weekend?"
But Messer's primary opponents expressed doubt about the campaign's motivations.
Congressman Todd Rokita and former state lawmaker Mike Braun said they are not covering expenses for any of their supporters.
"It is completely disrespectful to the hardworking Republican activists of this state for Luke Messer to try to rig their straw poll," said Rokita campaign spokesman Nathan Brand.
Braun said he was "surprised" that Messer would pay attendees' costs "because of the optics."
"The straw poll results should be the result of a free and open process, not people who are paid to be there," he said. "I think that would devalue whatever benefit you try to get from doing it."
But Indiana Republican Party Chairman Kyle Hupfer said campaigns are not only allowed to pay their supporters' registration fees — they're smart for doing so.
"That's what I would be doing if I was a candidate — to send a message about my organization and my ability to get people to turn out," he said. "I encourage people to get folks there any way they can."
The accusations are just the latest to fly in what has been dubbed the GOP's nastiest Senate primary.
Rokita and Messer have squabbled over everything from residency issues to Wikipedia edits, at times calling one another "unhinged."
Braun, a businessman who is largely self-financing his campaign, joined the fray more recently, but found himself the target of criticism after an Associated Press report about how he routinely voted in Democratic primaries until 2012.
They are competing to take a shot at Sen. Joe Donnelly, who is a top Republican target in 2018 and widely considered one of the most vulnerable Democrats.
Michael Feldman, a spokesman for the Indiana Democratic Party, suggested the drama surrounding the straw poll is indicative of apathy among the Republican base.
"Nothing speaks louder about Republican voters' lack of enthusiasm for their leading Senate candidates like having to pay for college students to come out and vote," he said. "Five more months is plenty of time for more mudslinging and petty moves like Congressman Messer's to wear voters down even further."
The primary takes place May 8. In addition to Messer, Rokita and Braun, the Republican field includes Andrew Horning, Mark Hurt and Andrew Takami.
Sign up: IndyStar's new politics newsletter
Call IndyStar reporter Tony Cook at (317) 444-6081. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
Read or Share this story: http://indy.st/2mj2B9A


D9024S provides two-stage surge protection for floating I/ 0 signals of measurement and control and safety systems . With width of 6mm, it can be easily fitted into any marshalling cabinets or distribution cabinets. The SPD provides surge protection with 6 MHz bandwidth 4.7Ω Loop impedance . With disconnect knife on both signal paths features for easy testing of the loop.
Surge protection for most I/O signals; AI, AO, DI, DO. Nominal 24V DC, maximum 36V DC. D9024S provides surge protection for all kinds of applications in different industries such as Oil&Gas, Petrochemical, Steel etc. Avoiding signal interruption and protecting control room equipment.
Operating: temperature limits –40 to + 80 °C, relative humidity max 95 %.
SIL 3 conforms to IEC61508:2010 Ed.2.
T35 DIN Rail according to EN50022.
Connection: screw terminal blocks to accommodate terminations up to 2.5 mm2 flexible.
Location: installation in Safe Area or Zone 2 or Zone 1, Group IIC T4…T6.
Dimensions: Width 6.2 mm, Depth 69.1 mm, Height 94.8 mm.
D9324S provides surge protection for floating I/ 0 signal circuit in screw-on module with IP67 protection for sensor heads, connection ½ inch 14 NPT.
Voltage Protection Level: ≤ 65 V (C3 – 10 A) core to core. ≤ 1.1 kV (C3 – 100 A; C1 500 A); ≤ 1.2 kV (C2 10kV/5kA) core to ground.
Environmental conditions: Operating: temperature limits –40 to + 80 °C (non-Ex), relative humidity max 95 %.
½ inch NPT; direction of action Line-Line and Line-Earth Ground.
Housing material: High-grade steel, silver colour .
Dimensions: Width 28 mm, Depth 79 mm, Height 28 mm.
Or for connection to a circuit in accordance with FISCO.