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7-Eleven, Avis, Walgreens Reduce Peak Power Demand For Big Energy Savings
Words by Andrew Burger
Revenue growth and profits for U.S. power utilities have always been predicated on increasing demand, regulatory framework and relationships with regulators. Though still highly regulated, that business modus operandi is being turned on its head. Rapid growth in distributed solar, wind and other renewable energy resources and the development of smart grid and demand-response systems are two factors driving these changes. The movement to put a price on carbon emissions – based on the polluter pays principle – is another.
Also driving change are innovative new power industry participants, some of whom are now progressing from bleeding to leading edge, and from pilot stage to commercial scale. Leveraging its innovations in demand reduction/power efficiency software and the latest in battery storage systems, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Green Charge Networks (GCN) believes it has the ways and the means to generate very healthy returns by smoothing out customers' electricity load profiles and boosting power, as opposed to energy efficiency.
It's not only GCN's customers, but the U.S. power grid and society as a whole that stand to benefit. With critical federal and state government support, GCN is out to prove that it can not only lower consumers' electricity bills, but enhance U.S. power grid utilization, reliability and resiliency as well. That may well prove to be the missing link capable of driving U.S. renewable energy growth and adoption over the top.
From an even bigger-picture perspective, the energy conserved by making full use of integrated power storage systems that reduce peak demand, such as GCN's GreenStation, would help realize what is widely recognized as the best way to address an increasingly costly, threatening and global-scale problem: climate change.
GreenStation: Peak power-demand reduction with battery storage
Founded in 2009, GCN was formed in the wake of the housing crisis and financial industry debacle with a $12 million Department of Energy (DOE) grant that came courtesy of President Obama's American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Work on a $93 million DOE Smart Grid Demonstration Program project followed, enabling GCN, in collaboration with New York City and Westchester County utility Con Edison, to develop its flagship products: the GreenStation intelligent demand reduction system and GCN GridSynergy smart grid energy management system for utilities.
The first of its kind in the U.S., a pilot GreenStation system was installed by 7-Eleven in New York in July 2011. Its ability to reduce grid demand, boost power efficiency and deliver savings month after month has driven GCN's rapid transition from pilot stage to commercial scale, with a roster of customers that includes Avis and Walgreens.
On Feb. 4, GCN announced that it had reached a milestone, having signed 1 megawatt (MW) worth of 10-year Power Efficiency Agreements (PEA) with customers. That number is growing, and fast, to include municipalities and universities, as well as other commercial businesses across California as well as New York, GCN founder and CEO Vic Shao told 3p in an interview.
At GreenStation's core are its proprietary, patent-pending software algorithms and service-delivery features, which, Shao elaborated, "are akin to stock trading algorithms." On the energy storage side, GreenStation's Li-ion batteries – supplied by SAFT – discharge and recharge second-by-second based on instructions from the controller's real-time analytics and prediction engine, the main goal of which is to optimize power efficiency, flatten the load profile, and hence reduce customers' electricity bills. As Shao explained,
"Building loads change minute to minute. We employ stochastic decision-making based on imperfect information to charge or discharge the battery pack on a second-by-second basis to even out demand and flatten out the load profile."
Changing U.S. power market dynamics
Accumulating and analyzing huge amounts of real-time data on energy consumption and other real-world operating conditions from customer sites, GCN has been able to realize drastic improvements on the ability of its system to predict power consumption and respond to changing supply-and-demand conditions.
The stochastic algorithms embedded in GreenStation's system controller, "essentially an industrial computer," are now predicting power usage with accuracy in the 80 to 90 percent range and making adjustments to minimize customers' peak energy use and maximize savings. That significantly enhanced predictive ability, combined with its service delivery capabilities, translates into a higher utilization rates, lower energy bills, shorter payback periods and higher returns on investment (ROIs) for GCN customers, Shao explained.
Though GCN's products and services would produce significant, long-lasting benefits for society as a whole, their businesses are often constrained, if not derailed, by a regulatory framework that has been built for centralized fossil-fuel energy systems and can be painfully slow to adapt to changing environmental and social, as well as economic, conditions.
On the other hand, GCN is benefiting from state and federal government support for energy efficiency, renewable energy, smart grid and, most recently, battery storage systems. California is on the leading edge of enacting an institutional framework that spurs development of a new energy infrastructure with programs such as the Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP), which "pays $2 per watt for an energy storage solution. That's typically about half the cost, which has really helped state of affairs in California," Shao noted.
Taking the lead on energy storage, California last October enacted a state-wide mandate that requires investor-owned utilities to expand their energy storage capacity and acquire 1,325 MW of electricity and thermal storage by 2020. New York is expected to enact similar legistlation in the near future, Shao pointed out, a development that will spur a lot in the way of additional demand for systems like GCN's GreenStation.
Power vs. energy efficiency
GCN is finding that its intelligent demand response-battery storage platform can provide customers with attractive bottom-line and investment returns without tax credits or government mandates by taking advantage of the way electricity usage is priced, however.
As Shao explained, utilities typically charge customers – residential, commercial and others – by the kilowatt-hour (kWh) for the electrical energy they use. Commercial, industrial and other larger-scale customers, including municipalities, educational institutions and the like, are also charged at a rate priced by the kilowatt (kW) for electrical power during periods of peak demand.
Known as demand charges, these rates have been rising 7 to 10 percent annually, accounting for larger and larger portions of larger customers' electricity bills, as high as 70 percent, Shao related. In contrast, non-peak electrical energy prices, priced in kWh, have been declining. That growing differential is where GCN earns its daily bread.
GCN's business case is based on reducing electricity demand, more specifically, peak power demand. "It's really demand reduction – peak kilowatts," Shao said.
In California, demand charges for peak rates during the summer are around $37/kW, he pointed out.
"New York, it so happens, has the highest demand charges in the U.S., at $43/kW in peak summer." Hence, the electricity bill savings realized by customers in Con Ed territory in New York can pay back their investment in GCN's GreenStation in as little as 1.5 to 2.5 years. The story is similar in California.
Ninety percent of the proposals GCN is sending out to prospective customers in California have ROIs, or payback periods, of five years or less. The average is in the 3.5 to four year range. "The returns are absolutely incredible when you factor in all these rebates and tax credits and so forth. Some really super attractive situations have ROIs in the 1.5 to 2.5 year range, about 25 percent of our deal flow," Shao elaborated.
Image credit: Green Charge Networks
Andrew Burger
An experienced, independent journalist, editor and researcher, Andrew has crisscrossed the globe while reporting on sustainability, corporate social responsibility, social and environmental entrepreneurship, renewable energy, energy efficiency and clean technology. He studied geology at CU, Boulder, has an MBA in finance from Pace University, and completed a certificate program in international governance for biodiversity at UN University in Japan.
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Marantz 20b Scope Tuner, X-Rare for sale.
Rare and hard to find Marantz Classic, restored with love.
The optical condition is excellent, but not mint. Technically, restored to max.
The Tuner section sounds wonderful and the stereo sound is magnific. Perfectly aligned, this Tuner is an excellent performer. Still today, a benchmark in every sense.
Original 240 Volt Euro unit! Made in USA.


DALLAS, Texas, March 8, 2018 — Mike Hambright, Founder of FlipNerd.com, a leading informational and social platform for real estate investors, with over 100,000 subscribers and over 1,500 video shows published to date, has been accepted into the Forbes Real Estate Council, an invitation-only community for executives in the real estate industry.
Mike Hambright joins other Forbes Real Estate Council members, who are hand-selected, to become part of a curated network of successful peers and get access to a variety of exclusive benefits and resources, including the opportunity to submit thought leadership articles and short tips on industry-related topics for publishing on Forbes.com.
In addition to founding FlipNerd.com, Mike Hambright is also the founder of the Investor Fuel Mastermind and the Investor Machine Mastermind, two high-end Masterminds consisting of real estate investors doing anywhere from ten to hundreds of deals a year. With a giving-mindset, everyone in the group grows together and has a network of powerhouse investors at their fingertips.
Forbes partnered with the founders of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) to launch Forbes Councils, invitation-only communities for world-class business professionals in a variety of industries. Members, who are hand-selected by each Council's community team, receive personalized introductions to each other based on their specific needs and gain access to a wide range of business benefits and services, including best-in-class concierge teams, personalized connections, peer-to-peer learning, a business services marketplace, and the opportunity to share thought leadership content content on Forbes.com.
For more information about Forbes Real Estate Council, visit https://forbesrealestatecouncil.com/. To learn more about Forbes Councils, visit forbescouncils.com.


text:
Blasphemy case against Independent lost
Thu, Oct 24, 1996, 01:00
AN application by a Dublin man, to bring a criminal prosecutions for blasphemous libel against Independent Newspapers, (Ireland) Ltd, Independent Newspapers plc and the Sunday Independent editor, Mr Aengus Fanning, was dismissed by the High Court yesterday.
Mr John Corway, a carpenter, of Harolds Cross Cottages, Harolds Cross, claimed he was outraged and insulted by a cartoon in the newspaper on November 26th, 1995.
Mr Justice Geoghegan said there was not a clear prima facie case in the sense that it was one in which, at first sight, there was beyond argument a case to answer if the matter went before a criminal court.
The judge added that, even if the cartoon did constitute on a prima facie basis the crime of blasphemy he still would not give leave to institute a prosecution as he could not see that any public interest would be served.
It was an isolated cartoon in a national newspaper. There was no evidence before him that the newspaper made a practice of offending Christian or more particularly Catholic beliefs.
It was perfectly obvious what the purpose of the cartoon was upon proper examination of it and its context in juxtaposition to an article by Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien, whatever might be the understandings of some readers.
In his reserved judgment, Mr Justice Geoghegan said a Sunday Independent article by Dr Cruise O'Brien entitle "Catholic in their bones" dealt with what he perceived as the diminished influence of the Catholic Church in Ireland, in the context of the referendum result.
The article was introduced by a blurb: "Even with a Hierarchy struggling to cope with an erosion in their influence, the referendum campaign was a defining moment that showed many of us have difficulty in voting against church teaching backed up by more than a century of inherited authority argues Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien."
The cartoon consisted of a stout comic figure of a priest in an old fashioned surplice and a stole holding the host in his right hand and a chalice in his left.
"To the left were three caricatured Ministers, Mr Proinsias De Rossa, Mr Ruairi Quinn, and the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton. Above the cartoon were the words, "Hello, Progress - Bye Bye Father?"
Mr Justice Geoghegan said Mr Corway had applied to the High Court under Section 8 of the Defamation Act, 1961, for an order granting him leave to take a criminal prosecution for blasphemous libel. The provision in the 1961 Act went back to the Newspaper Libel and Registration Act, 1881.
As far as he was aware, there had been no modern application to the court under section 8 for leave to take a prosecution for blasphemous libel, but there had been at least two applications for leave to take a prosecution for criminal libel, using that expression in its narrower sense of meaning defamatory libel. Mr Justice Geoghegan referred to the principles laid down by the judge in one of those cases, who in turn followed certain English case law.
They said the applicant must establish a clear prima face case; that the libel must be so serious that it was proper for criminal law to be invoked; that although it may be a relevant factor that the libel was unusually likely to provoke a breach of the peace, that was not a necessary ingredient, and that the question of public interest must be taken into account.
Mr Justice Geoghegan said he was satisfied that analogous principles should apply to an application for leave to institute a prosecution for blasphemous libel.
It was clear from a 1917 case and earlier case law which it approved and followed that it was the essence of blasphemy and, ipso facto therefore, of the essence of blasphemous libel that the words or picture complained of constituted an attack on some tenet of the Christian religion.
It was clear the cartoon was not such an attack. It might have been in bad taste or it might have been shocking to many Catholics, but it was not an attack on any doctrine or belief of that church.
The caption "Hello, Progress - Bye Bye Father?" was obviously a play on the words used in a slogan of the No Divorce Campaign, "Hello, Divorce - Bye, Bye Daddy."
In an affidavit, Ms Wendy Shea, who composed the cartoon, said its central theme was the relationship between church and state immediately after the divorce referendum. She said she sought to illustrate the belief of many, including Dr O'Brien, that the Catholic Church's influence in Irish society was on the wane, ash shown by the passing of the referendum in spite of the church's opposition.
She said she did not intend to insult the feelings or religious convictions of any readers.
The judge made no order in relation to costs.
Last May, the High Court heard there were similar applications on behalf of Mr Corway, against The Irish Times and Mr Niall Stokes, of Hot Press.
Mr Colm Condon SC, for The Irish Times, said the three case should not be taken together, a the cases against the Sunday In dependent and The Irish Times involved cartoons and the action against Mr Stokes concerned a written article.
0:39 'The backstop is dead', says Jeremy Hunt
UK wage growth hits 11-year high as unemployment sticks at 3.8% 09:50
Sterling plunges to six-month low as no-deal Brexit worries build 09:43

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: JPA & Ebean ORM: Empty collection is not empty I've started switching over a project from hand-written JDBC ORM code to Ebeans.  So far it's been great; Ebeans is light and easy to use.
However, I have run into a crippling issue: when retrieving a one-to-many list which should be empty there is actually one element in it.  This element looks to be some kind of proxy object which has all null fields, so it breaks code which loops through the collection.
I've included abbreviated definitions here:
@Entity
class Store {
    ...
    @OneToMany(mappedBy="store",cascade=CascadeType.ALL,fetch=FetchType.LAZY)
    List<StoreAlbum> storeAlbums = new LinkedList<StoreAlbum>();
}

@Entity
class StoreAlbum {
    ...
    @ManyToOne(optional=false,fetch=FetchType.EAGER)
    @JoinColumn(name="store_id",nullable=false)
    Store store;
}

The ... are where all the standard getters and setters are.  The retrieval code looks like this:
Store s = server.find(Store.class)
            .where()
            .eq("store_id",4)
            .findUnique();

Assert.assertEquals("Sprint",s.getStoreName());
Assert.assertEquals(0, s.getStoreAlbums().size());

The database is known to contain a 'store' row for "Sprint", and the 'store_album' table does not contain any rows for that store.
The JUnit test fails on the second assertion.  It finds a list with 1 element in it, which is some kind of broken StoreAlbum object.  The debugger shows the object as being of the type "com.lwm.catalogfeed.domain.StoreAlbum$$EntityBean$test@1a5e68a" with null values for all the fields which are declared as nullable=false (and optional=false).
Am I missing something here?

A: Thought I'd post an update on this... I ended up giving up on EBeans and instead switched the implementation over to use MyBatis.  MyBatis is fantastic; the manual is easy to read and thorough.  MyBatis does what you expect it to do.  I got it up and running in no time.
EBeans didn't appear to detect that the join for the associated collection resulted in a bunch of null ids, but MyBatis handled this scenario cleanly.

A: I ran into the same issue and was able to solve it by adding an identity column to the secondary table (StoreAlbum). I did not investigate the cause but I suppose Ebean needs a primary key on the table in these kind of situations.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
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Irish Genealogy News - 2012 Developments
Hi Folks! Hope you had a great holiday. Looking forward to a happy 2012, there are several encouraging signs for those of us interested in Irish genealogy.
There is a growing feeling in Ireland that making it easier for its Diaspora to find their Irish roots will encourage tourism. The thinking is that if more people can identify their ancestors, they will visit their ancestral homes. With the financial trials in Ireland the last few years, enhancing tourism is an important issue. Here's some examples of initiatives that are under way:
•	Ireland Reaching Out Project (http://www.irelandxo.com)
o	"The Ireland Reaching Out (Ireland XO) project is based on a simple idea; instead of waiting for people of Irish descent to trace their roots, we go the other way. Working through voluntary effort at a townland, village and parish level here in Ireland, we identify who left, and trace them and their descendants worldwide, proactively engaging with them and inviting them to become part of an extended "virtual" community with their place of origin."
o	"The national pilot project of Ireland XO was developed in South-East Galway from October 2010 through to July 2011 culminating in a hugely successful inaugural Week of Welcomes event held in the area in late June. The project is now expanding out of South-East Galway to a number of pilot project areas from Donegal to Kerry in preparation for a full national roll-out in 2012/2013."
•	1926 Irish Census
o	The 1901 & 1911 Irish censuses are available (free) at the National Archives site, http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie. These are wonderful resources and many born in the 1830s can be found in the 1901 Census.
o	The next census in Ireland after 1911 was taken in 1926, which was the first census for the Irish Free State (now the Republic of Ireland).
o	An Irish law declares a 100 year waiting period before a census can be made public. There is effort towards passing legislation to allow the 1926 Census to be made available as soon as possible instead of waiting until 2026. The new Irish government that took over last year was backing this move, but I haven't heard where this stands.
o	Northern Ireland also did a census in 1926, but I don't know of any initiative to move up its availability.
•	Irish Army Archives (www.militaryarchives.ie)
o	Historical documents from 1913-1921 will be available soon (~March 2012). This period includes the 1916 Easter Rising and the War of Independence.
•	The Gathering 2013 (http://www.gatheringireland.com/ - not much at this site yet)
o	"The main focus of The Gathering will be a series of flagship festivals throughout the year, both existing and new, along with special interest spin-off events, designed to showcase Irish arts, food, sports, genealogy, family heritage, learning, science and hospitality. The initiative will be officially launched with The main focus of The Gathering will be a series of flagship festivals throughout the year, both existing and new, along with special interest spin-off events, designed to showcase Irish arts, food, sports, genealogy, family heritage, learning, science and hospitality. The initiative will be officially launched with a number of special events on St. Patrick's Day." - http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Ireland-announces-a-global-Irish-homecoming-for-2013-131382033.html
in Military
Irish Genealogy News - US Civil War
Hi! 2011 marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the U.S. Civil War (12 Apr 1861 at Fort Sumter, SC). Did someone in your family fight in that war? If your ancestors were in the U.S. at that time, your family was very likely affected in some way. Below are some basic steps for researching those who served from your family. For more info, you may want to take a look at Course I – Civil War Addendum at my website.
Identify family members who served
Don't limit your search to direct ancestors. Brothers, cousins, uncles, nephews, in-laws may have served and their military records may include important family info (remember the benefits of Whole Family Research).
Locate the candidates in the 1860 U.S. Census (www.familysearch.org). Most served in Voluntary units which were state-based. In most cases, the state where they resided at the time of the 1860 census will be the same state where they enlisted.
Locate the candidates in the following censuses, which include an indication of their veteran status:
* 1865 NY (census of other states may include similar info) – at www.familysearch.org. Includes unit and service dates.
* 1890 US Veterans & Widows Schedule- at www.familysearch.org Includes unit and service dates. Deceased veterans may be included.
Search for your candidates in rosters of soldiers and sailors. Civil War Soldiers and Sailors (CWSS) – at www.civilwar.nps.gov. For each soldier found, gives easy access to regimental history and basic info about each of its battles.
Procure military records and pension applications
The National Archives suggests that genealogists:
* first order the pension application files (often contains great info relevant to the family history).
* If no pension application is found, then order the compiled military service records (usually contains only info about their service record, although in some cases they do include some family history).
How to order a pension application file ($75 or $25)
* Go to http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/pre-ww-1-records.html#natf85
* Under Military Pension/Bounty Land Warrant Applications, click Download the Form in order to verify that you have the required information to order.
* Under Military Pension/Bounty Land Warrant Applications, click Order Online to order.
* You will have to choose between 2 pension options: Full Pension Application File-Civil War, 1860 or Later ($75) or Pension Documents Packet ($25)
* The Form 85 instructions describe both options. In theory the $25 packet has the sections which most likely contain genealogical info, but you will have no indication of what you might be missing by not ordering the full option.
How to order a compiled military service record ($25)
* Under Military Service Records, click Download the Form in order to verify that you have the required information to order.
* Under Military Service Records, click Order Online to order.
Irish Genealogy Newsletter - Military Sources
Hi! I hope everyone is well. I have two presentations coming up, hope to see you there.
Course III - Irish Name Variations & Search Techniques This Sunday Nov 14th, 7pm, Orleans County Genealogical Society at Albion Town Hall
Irish Genealogy & Research Strategies Thursday Dec 2nd, 7pm, Irish American Cultural Institute at St. John Fisher College, Event Details
Happy Veterans Day! Here's a reminder of some good sources to help you research military-related records.
•	WWI Draft Registration. I routinely check this resource for all males who were in the US in 1917-18 and were born 1872-1900. This was just a registration – they may or may not have served. The info you will find depends on which of 3 different forms were used. All forms include address, birth date, birth place, citizenship, color of eyes and hair, relative indication of height and build.
o	Available at ancestry.com. If you don't subscribe to ancestry.com, it may be available at no cost at a local public library (available at the following libraries with your Monroe County (NY) library card: Brighton, Central/Local History Room, Fairport, Greece, Henrietta, Ogden and Penfield).
o	Available at your local Family History Center. Microfilms can be ordered and rented for $5.50 each. See https://beta.familysearch.org/#form=catalog to determine the film number you need.
•	1840, 1900, 1910, 1930 US census include indication of military service. Also 1890 Veterans (& Widows) schedule in ancestry.com.
•	Registers of Enlistments in the US Army, 1798-1914 includes birthplace. National Archives (NA), microfilm M233 & Ancestry.com.
•	Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) database includes cemetery info for both Confederate and Union veterans.
•	Pension records usually contain some genealogical info (including birth places and relationships). If your target person did not serve, pension records for his father, uncles, brothers and cousins could be valuable resources.
•	familysearch.org has Civil War Pension index cards.
•	How to order Older (pre-WWI) Military Service or Pension Records
•	How to order Post-WWI Military Service or Pension Records
•	Other resources include Online Military Index www.militaryindexes.com, Civil War Soldiers www.itd.nps.gov/cwss and NYS Civil War, iarchives.nysed.gov/CivilWarWeb/search.jsp.
•	For more info see Neagles, James C., U.S. Military Records, Salt Lake City, Utah: Ancestry, Inc., 1994.
For a basic intro to the military history of Ireland, see Wikipedia.
www.dennisAhogan.com
© 2009-2019, Dennis A. Hogan


text:
Bergidora is a genus of beetles in the family Buprestidae, containing the following species:

 Bergidora bruchi (Obenberger, 1932)
 Bergidora picturella (Kerremans, 1887)

References

Buprestidae genera

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Consider you are a seller of used or damaged vehicles. You have a tower vehicle and you are looking for a damaged vehicles. In the Towing Truck game, the story that we told above, becomes real. Tow the damaged vehicles before the time runs out. Thus, you complete the level and earn money to buy new tower vehicles. Use arrow keys to drive.


text:
Optimum Drinking Water Quality with McCrometer
All components involved in potable water systems must meet a rigid set of standards called the NSF/ANSI-61: Drinking Water System Components — Health Effects, which are mandated by federal and state agencies responsible for regulating drinking water. These potable water components include flow meters.
McCrometer's FPI Mag® meter is one of the components that has successfully met and surpassed the certification process, which includes a series of unique inspections, testing for destruction, and exhaustive examination to ensure every inch of the flow meter that comes into contact with water is safe and will not result in contamination.
The FPI Mag Meter has received both NSF/ANSI-61 and NSF/ANSI-372 approval. It is built for the utmost accuracy of ± 0.5% from 1 ft/s, up to 32 ft/s (0.3 m/s to 10 m/s) thanks to its electromagnetic flow sensor technology. Its Smart Output™ feature allows it to connect to AMI/AMR systems through an encoded digital output.
Despite its strong performance, the meter is designed to be user-friendly and allow for cost savings. It can be utilized among industrial and municipal applications and in scenarios such as maintenance projects, sites that have yet to be metered, or in retrofits, for example. There are no moving parts to worry about and it also has the flexibility of hot tap installation.
The Avanti Company was founded in 1977 by Paul and Justine Devlin and is headquartered in Avon Park, FL. We provide water meters, metering systems, AMI support, on-site flow meter testing, sewer flow monitoring, inspection and assessment services for the water, wastewater, agricultural, petroleum and industrial marketplaces. Avanti represents products from McCrometer, Itron, Hach Flow, RedZone, Honeywell/Elster, 64 seconds, Infosense, Nicor, DoMac, Aclara, and others. Please visit our website at www.avanticompany.com, email us at info@avanticompany.com or call us at 863-453-5336 for assistance with all of your flow meter and metering system needs.


text:
Q: Напишите программу для отображения тех чисел из списка, которые удовлетворяют следующие условия 1.Число должно делиться на 5
Дано например:
numbers = [12, 15, 35, 164, 123, 89, 468, 149, 155, 523, 67]
ОР: 15, 35, 155
Я застрял уже в самом начале кода.
numbers = int([12, 34, 56, 67, 89, 120, 138, 151, 52, 84, 347, 473, 499, 524, 789])

while True:
    if numbers % 5 == 0:
        print(numbers)

TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for %: 'list' and 'int'

A: numbers = [12, 34, 56, 67, 89, 120, 138, 151, 52, 84, 347, 473, 499, 15, 10]
for i in numbers:
    if i % 5 == 0:
        print(i)


When people think of music they think of sounds that form together to form something magical. Music has been around for as long as people have been around – and we have been making music since as early as we were using rocks – using not just our mouths but basic objects around as instruments.
However as we progress – in this blog I am only talking about music with a voice over an instrumental. As you can imagine – what makes a song popular is not just how good the melody is – or how talented the voice star is – but also what is being said. As you can imagine it is important to capture the zeitgeist – or in other words – what is most popular. Keep in mind that when you hear pop stars sing on your television and their highly subscribed to YouTube channels it's not just a great song – it was written by someone else – and the rights to it purchased for the belief that it tackles current issues and stays in the zeitgeist.
So I wanted to talk about how music has progressed but let's take something very simple.
For you see in the past there were many songs that referenced cigarettes but now as we get older and more mature as a society cigarettes in songs are on the way down – it is quite an interesting way to look at things – the truth is that most of these songs are no longer in circulation. Now days you would find it more likely that someone will sing about a Bare Brush then they would about cigarettes.
Of course drugs are still on the table – when it comes to capturing that popular zeitgeist a musician is always having to content with many different factors – and in the end many of those factors are outside their control. To become a popular musician requires having a number of attributes – and some of those may be there while others may not.
So we have to content with music for a new world – and especially in these highly politicized and divided times you also have to look at what can be said and about who – and how that will impact your user base. Unfortunately – with so much research being done about customer tastes it's no surprise that so much music is bland and unoriginal – the same thing being done over and over again.
However we hope that our album will continue to be authentic and insightful for all those that have enjoyed it. We definitely didn't have a research team however we liked what we heard so we put it out as an album.
We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it.


The Student Union of the University of Helsinki is looking for two student representatives to the highest decision-making body of the University, the Board of the University. The Board is responsible for the strategic management of the University and makes decisions on significant issues that concern the entire University (see below in more detail). As a member of the Board, you will get to influence the University's major policies, get experience of acting in the Board of the largest University in Finland and create useful networks.
The term of the student members of the Board is two years, from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2021. To be eligible to apply to the Board, a person must be entitled to undertake a bachelor's degree, master's degree, licentiate or doctoral degree, the degree of specialist, specialist in dentistry or specialist in veterinary medicine, or the degree of special education or special kindergarten teacher degree at the University of Helsinki. The elected individuals must register for attendance by 31 August 2019, and they may not be in an employment relationship with the University that is considered full time under the University's election regulation. More detailed stipulations on eligibility can be found in the University's election regulation, section 9, and the Student Union's Regulation on the Selection of Student Representatives, section 4.
In the selection, we appreciate broad vision for developing the University and for higher education policy, knowledge of university management and finances, and understanding of themes related to studying at the University of Helsinki as well as of taking students' views into account while working in the Board. Experience of university administration is considered an advantage. We also consider good interaction and argumentation skills as well as the ability to understand complex issues as advantages. The members are expected to be motivated and to commit themselves to the work in the Board. The administrative language of the University of Helsinki is Finnish as per the Universities Act and, for this reason, the Board operates in Finnish.
CVs and well-justified Finnish-language applications with a length of around one A4 sheet should be addressed to the Representative Council of the Student Union and delivered to the Student Union's Central Office (at Mannerheimintie 5 B, 2nd floor, 00100 HELSINKI) or by email to hallinto@hyy.fi by noon on 17 April 2019. The Central Selection Committee invites some of the applicants to an interview by 24 April 2019. The interview is held on 6 May 2019. The Representative Council of the Student Union selects two student members for the Board in its meeting on 16 May 2019. For further information on the position and the selection process, please contact Specialist Jenna Sorjonen, tel. 050 325 5202, jenna.sorjonen(at)hyy.fi.
Deciding on the number of students to be admitted to the University.
Would you like to influence the study environment at your faculty? Are you interested in student life related health issues? Are you willing to support health promotion?
One of the central tasks of the Finnish Student Health Service (FSHS) is health promotion. Locally this health promotion work is organized through working groups, which include both representatives of the staff of the FSHS, students, university staff and other stakeholders. For the years 2019 and 2020, the health promotion theme of the FSHS is nutrition. The health promotion of the students of the University of Helsinki is organized by two working groups, one for the faculties of the City Centre Campus and one for the faculties operating at Kumpula, Meilahti and Viikki Campuses.
The Student Union of the University of Helsinki (HYY) is now looking for all in all 11 student representatives from all faculties for the term September 1 2019 until August 31 2021. The working groups currently work in Finnish, so a basic command of the Finnish language is advisable. Please see the Finnish or Swedish version of the ad for more information on the working groups and on how to apply. The deadline for applications is Sunday April 7.
Further information: Sofia Lindqvist, Specialist at HYY, sofia.lindqvist@hyy.fi, 050 543 9605.
From now on, you will know HYY Group as Ylva.
With our new brand, we are clarifying the roles between the Student Union and its business operations. Both HYY and its business activities will also have their own, individual voices in the future. Ylva is proud of its roots. It is important to us that you, our owner, know how your company is doing. In the future, we will participate even more actively than before in building a good city and creating a sustainable future not only for students but also for other residents of the city.
Read more about your company at http://ylva.fi.
Read about Ylva's year 2018 here.
HYY allocates grants for new study projects organised by students. The project can, for example, develop study methods, apply theory to practice or advance students' professional competence. The grant cannot be allocated retroactively.
Throughout the years, grants for innovative learning projects have been given to projects such as a soap manufacturing workshop run by nutritional science students, a saddle course by students of veterinary medicine, workshop activities in an international environmental seminar and an art exhibition study group by humanists.
The total amount of the allocated grant is 5,000 euros (approx. 100–900 euros per project). When allocating the grant, the initiative and learning methods that encourage students to be active are taken into account. The projects that have received the grant can be presented in HYY communications as good examples. The study projects must be as open as possible to anyone interested in taking part.
If the awarded grant is used to pay a salary or remuneration (in exchange for work performance), the payer and recipient of the remuneration are responsible for following the tax authorities' instructions, the withholding tax and the reporting obligation in particular. Further information is available at www.vero.fi/en.
The person in charge of the project is committed to report about the implementation of the project after its completion latest by 30th of November.
Please check the information before submitting the form! Information cannot be edited later so you should consider the required information before filling the form. You can draft your application with a word processing program and then copy it into the form.
The last day to apply is 5th of April at 23:59 o'clock. Late applications will not be considered.
All applicants will be informed about the allocation of the grants by the end of May. For further information, please contact Member of the Board Ilona Raimas (ilona.raimas@hyy.fi).
Project grants for organisations and members open for applications!
HYY awards project grants to organisations operating under it and to groups of HYY's members. Project grants make it possible to realise projects that are larger and have higher quality than the parties realising them could otherwise afford.
Project grants are awarded for a specific purpose and will be collected back if the party to which the grant was awarded cannot demonstrate that the funds were used for the project in question. In case funds are left over from the awarded sum, HYY has the right to collect it back at its discretion.
Project grant applications should be free-form applications with a maximum length of two (2) A4 sheets.
Idea of the project: What are you planning to do in the project?
Goal: What do you aim to achieve with the project?
Reason: Why do you want to realise the project?
Time frame: When would the project be realised? / How long does it last: a day / a week / other duration?
Division of responsibility: Who is in charge of each part of the project?
Target: Who is the project aimed for?
Possible cooperation: Is the project realised in cooperation with another party?
The application should also include the project's budget, that is, a description of its income and expenses.
The application and its attachments are to be sent to jarjesto@hyy.fi.
The application period for project grants begins on 20 March and ends at 11.59 pm on 5 May. Late applications will not be considered. All applicants will be notified about the awarding of the grants during May.
Each party that receives a project grant must make a report of the event to HYY's specialist in organisations within 3 months of realising the project but on 28 February 2020 at the latest. The report must include a description of the course of events, an estimate of the success of the event, particularly compared to the application, and the realised budget.
For further information on the project grants, please ask Chair of HYY's Financial Committee Linda-Liisa Kelokari (linda-liisa.kelokari@hyy.fi, 050 595 0324) or HYY's Specialist in Organisations Jaakko Kalske (jaakko.kalske@hyy.fi, 050 537 3798).
Projects that are awarded a grant must be realised between 1 March 2019 and 29 February 2020.
Project grants are not awarded for parties or other projects in which there is strong evidence that the funds would be used for alcohol.
Project grants are also not awarded for continuous organisational activities such as website reforms.
Project grants may not be used for salaries or remuneration.
Overall judgement is used in the case of study trips, with the main criteria being the reach of the event and the appropriateness of the grant.
Grants are not awarded for flights.
Grants are generally not awarded for annually recurring events, unless the event is being changed or renewed in a substantial manner, making the awarding of a project grant justified. This should be highlighted in the application, and overall judgement will also be used in such cases.
The Student Union of the University of Helsinki (HYY) is a corporation subject to public law, with 27,000 university students as members. The Student Union acts as an advocacy and service organisation for its members and for the organisations operating under HYY.
HYY is looking for a new specialist in social policy to join our ranks on a permanent contract starting on 1 April 2019 or as agreed.
Equality, wellbeing, housing and urban advocacy work – are you interested in one or more of these themes? Do you have experience with advocacy work, do issues related to equality or students' health inspire you, and is specialist work your thing? If these questions got you interested, apply to work with us!
In your work, you will be partly responsible for HYY's advocacy work related to social policy. Your duties include the preparation of statements and comments for the Student Union's Board, cooperation with important interest groups, representing the Student Union in various administrative bodies and communicating about the issues you are in charge of both within the office and externally. The other specialists in the Student Union act as your close colleagues. The division of labour between you and the Student Union's other advocacy work specialists will be defined in more detail when you start in the position at the latest.
In addition to the above, we consider good skills in Swedish and English as particular advantages.
The application period ends at 11.59 pm on 17 March 2019. Send us your free-form application letter with a maximum length of one page, with your CV attached. Send the application to hallinto@hyy.fi with 'Asiantuntija' as the subject. Possible interviews will be held on Tuesday 19 March 2019. The decision on the position will be made in the Board's meeting on 21 March 2019.
For further information, please contact Secretary General Aaro Riitakorpi (0400 816 426), aaro.riitakorpi@hyy.fi.
HYY emphasises diversity and equality in its activities. We hope to receive as many applications as possible from people with diverse backgrounds.


text:
Effective Equine Collaboration
By Carl Nathe Sept. 1, 2009
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 1, 2009) – Words like multidisciplinary, cooperation, and collaboration come to mind when describing the current research efforts going on in the labs of the University of Kentucky's Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center, UK's Computer Science Department, UK's Department of Statistics, and in other areas across the campus.
James MacLeod, the John S. and Elizabeth A. Knight chair and professor of veterinary science at the Gluck Center and director of UK's Equine Initiative, part of the College of Agriculture, and Jinze Liu, assistant professor in the department of computer science, part of the College of Engineering at UK, recently were awarded a grant totaling more than $1 million over three years.
The award to MacLeod and Liu from the National Science Foundation is in support of their work in developing computer-based analytical methods to study gene expression in horses. This is viewed as an important next step forward following the research which determined the primary DNA base sequence of the horse genome.
"Changes in gene expression underlie many disease processes and treatment mechanisms," MacLeod said. "The computational algorithms that we are working to develop will greatly facilitate the analysis of gene expression based on direct RNA sequencing approaches."
Liu, who serves as principal investigator on the grant, is specifically focusing on what is known as the mRNA transcriptome.
"The next generation sequencing technologies capture snapshots of any transcriptome with unprecedented resolution and depth," Liu said. "To recapitulate a complete picture of the transcriptome, however, the massive amount of data generated from these technologies present new computational challenges."
Other collaborators on this grant are Arne Bathke, associate professor of statistics at UK, Arny Stromberg, professor and chair of the department of statistics at UK, and Jans Prins, department chair of computer science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
A second research award that MacLeod is involved in is a fellowship grant totaling $100,000 to be paid over two years by the Morris Animal Foundation. The fellowship was awarded to UK graduate student Jennifer Janes, in support of her project on equine cervical stenosis, commonly known as wobbler syndrome. This syndrome describes a structural narrowing of the spinal canal in the neck that produces severe neurological deficits through spinal cord compression.
Collaborators are veterinarians Steve Reed and Katie Garrett at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington and Neil Williams, associate director of UK's Livestock Disease Diagnostic Center.
"I think it is a good example of collaboration between Gluck, LDDC and veterinary practitioners," MacLeod said. "Also, the training of the next generation of veterinary scientists is a critical issue for everyone concerned about advances in equine health going forward."
MacLeod's grants follow on the heels of two other large competitive research grants secured by scientists in the Gluck Center. Chuck Issel, Wright-Markey Chair in Equine Infectious Diseases at the Gluck Center, was awarded $347,500 per year for a multi-year project funded by the National Institutes of Health for a project called "Equine Infectious Anemia Virus Envelope Variation and Vaccine Efficacy." Ernie Bailey was awarded more than $28,000 from the Morris Animal Foundation for "Continuation of SNP Gene Mapping Projects."
In addition, Kristine Urschel, faculty member and researcher in UK's Department of Animal and Food Sciences was awarded a First Award Grant for Young Investigators from the Morris Animal Foundation. The two-year grant totaling $100,000 will examine maintaining muscle mass in older horses and will be overseen by David Horohov, William Robert Mills Chair in Equine Immunology at the Gluck Center.
"The accomplishments of these talented faculty attest to the confidence the College of Agriculture has placed in its array of programs that make up the Equine Initiative. These projects are relevant to Kentucky's signature industry, but they also confirm that our faculty are competitive in national and international arenas," said Nancy Cox, associate dean of research in UK's College of Agriculture and Agricultural Experiment Station director.
"I congratulate faculty at the Gluck Equine Research Center and across the College of Agriculture for their success in attracting significant research support from federal and industry-based research agents. Their success is a testimony of the quality and the importance of their work to the scientific community and equine industry. We are fortunate to have some of the best faculty, staff and graduate students in the world here," said Mats Troedsson, chair of UK's Department of Veterinary Science and director of the Gluck Center.
Tickets available for 'Lexus for the Little Ones' raffle for Kentucky Children's Hospital


text:
FAUSTUS CROW
SHAMAN CHAOS MAGICK
« HORROR SHOW ANIMUS CULTS
QUANTUM COMPUTER WISE OWL GIRL »
QUANTUM COMPUTER PARALLEL UNIVERSES ALTERNATE EARTH'S
What if you have an alternate history, among many others, where, for example the ancient Greek's had developed the first computer, such as the Antikythera mechanism.
The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient Greek analogue computer, used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses for calendar and astrological purposes. The age of the Antikythera mechanism is dated to be approximately 70-60 BC.
If you allow your imagination to let rip, the ancient Greek's could have developed a quantum computer over time. But this would have required a prior steam powered industrial revolution, leading to the use of electricity, like our own technological history, to eventually achieve.
It turns out that the ancient Greek's could have potentially developed a Steampunk technology based upon the aeolipile (or aeolipyle, or eolipile), which is also known as a Hero's engine. It is a simple bladeless radial steam turbine, which spins when the central water container is heated. Torque is produced by steam jets exiting the turbine, much like a tip jet or rocket engine.
In the 1st century AD, Hero of Alexandria described the steam powered device in Roman Egypt, and many sources give him the credit for its invention, but it could be far older, as old as the Antikythera mechanism. If this invention had led to other developments, initiating an industrial revolution, it would have occurred three thousand years before the one that had happened on this Earth. You could imagine that their civilisation would have eventually established off-world colonies like those described in Battlestar Galactica.
As an aside of a curiosity, there is an asteroid called Oumuamua, meaning, scout, or messenger, in 'Hawaiian,' which looks somewhat like the starship out of the science fiction series, Battlestar Galactica. It is an asteroid from another star system, which had zipped past Stanley Kubrick's version of Arthur C. Clarkes 2001 A Space Odyssey, Jupiter, at about 196,000 miles per hour, too fast to be trapped by the sun's gravitational pull.
Oumuamua has captured the interest of the scientists because of its very odd characteristics, some of them are even wondering whether it could be an alien probe, which just so happens looks like a Battlestar.
Perhaps it is being piloted by a female Cylon number Eight called Athena, looking like the actress Grace Park, who made waves with the exit of her Owl eyes from 'Hawaii' Five-0.
Anyway, if you have a technology of an alternate Earth, which is three thousand years in advance of our own, they have very likely developed a quantum computer, along with a sentient AI, and even anti-gravity and an ensuing time-travel technology in league with interstellar travel.
Their advanced technology would enable them to access other alternate Earth's, such as this Earth, in their time-travelling UFO's. Who knows, maybe one of their Sexagram Cylon Sixes had purposefully crashed her UFO into Roswell, back in 1947!?
You could of course go much further back into time, to take note of Göbekli Tepe as well as to imaginatively fathom that there was once an ancient civilisation, which had experienced its own Steampunk industrial revolution long before its catastrophic demise, when the great mammals still walked the Earth. If this ancient civilisation exists on an alternate Earth, which had not disappeared 10,000yrs ago, who knows what it could have achieved, just next door to this Earth.
Sounds absolutely crazy doesn't it, just a weird science fiction yarn. However, you have Dr David Deutsch, who is a visiting Professor of physics at the Centre for Quantum Computation, the Clarendon Laboratory and Oxford University, who considers alternate realities existing in parallel universe, along with their alternate histories are for real.
Deutsch works on fundamental issues in physics, particularly the quantum theory of computation and information, and constructor theory. Dr. Deutsch has written two books — The Fabric of Reality and The Beginning of Infinity — both of which are written for the general audience. Maybe Deutsch was inspired by a quantum tunneling ulraterrestrial Owl eyed Muse signal from another alternate Earth.
Other authors may have also been neural-net zapped by a quantum tunneling 'Messenger' Muse signal, which spun their watery electron dreams, into Sexagram 'Sixth' sense 'browsing' lucidity. Their zapped dreams inspiring weird science fiction stories, who didn't realise that denizens from an alternate Earth had sent an Athena 'Message,' indicating they would like to… visit…
But before doing so, they will of course Oumuamua 'Scout' around first, in their 'Raptor' UFO's, to Owl spy if anyone's 'Five' pentagram senses has figured out their Aloha Cylon 'Message.' Well, you have to be Metis-Sophia Wise about creating Stargates between alternate Earth's.
Dr. David Deutsch said; "The quantum theory of parallel universes is not the problem, it is the solution. It is not some troublesome, optional interpretation emerging from arcane theoretical considerations. It is the explanation — the only one that is tenable — of a remarkable and counter-intuitive reality." — The Fabric of Reality (1997)
So, you have a highly respected Theoretical Physicist and a pioneer of quantum computing, along with Geordie Rose who is the founder of one of the leading quantum computer companies, D-Wave (whose clients include Google and NASA), talking about parallel universes. What is more, they are not talking about parallel universes as a fanciful science fiction theory, but as something factual, which exists.
Rose says,"we have built machines that can exploit (not explore) other worlds (parallel universes)." Meaning, they are already doing this and acquiring something out of the process. Should we explore something and learn about it and how it works just as the ancient Greek's would do, like Star Trek's T'Pol, rather than exploiting it, of similarity to Rome's Romulan empire, because we can?
Accessing information from parallel universes, will no doubt lead to contacting other far more advanced alternate civilisations than our own. Wherefore, exploiting their technologies, could potentially lead to a negative outcome, a 'Wise Owl' does remind.
Then again, an advanced alternate Earth and that of others are very likely policing the situation with their Vulcan eared M.I.B's. let alone to have engineered the time-line of this Earth, along with numerous other alternate Earth's, which they would see as being Morpheus simulations.
If the present D-Wave computer is accessing information from parallel universes then the aforementioned weird science fiction scenario isn't too farfetched as it sounds, which would lead to the conclusion that our present civilisation is surrounded by numerous other alternate Earth civilisations, which are far more advanced than our own.
The few who are financially affluent beyond the ken of the general populace who are seeking to escape from the present Earth, will be looking to contacting the denizens of the alternate Earth's in order to have access to superior technologies, such as immortality engineering for example.
Let's say that the science fiction scenario is actually true. How would a shadow government, who have established contact with other alternate Earth civilisations go about disclosing their secret space program truth to the general public?
The lead up would be that of subversively educating the general public to believe in aliens. This would be fuelled by various UFO contactees who just so happens often describe the aliens as being mostly humanoid in appearance. The reason for the humanoid forms of the aliens is because they are human, or otherwise being evolved humans.
Hence their differing characteristics. Some of whom may have been born off-world, since interstellar travel will require the prerequisite of having time-travel capability, whose humanoid frames have adapted to their off-world environments. But they will all be human, who emanate from alternate Earth's.
You will also have alternate Earth histories in which other life-forms also achieved their own technologies. For example, there would be an alternate Earth history where the dinosaurs weren't wiped out; whereas on another alternate Earth the insects who ruled over the Earth before the dinosaurs, have attained their own form of technology. All you have to do is to just look at some species of termites who had learned to farm and harvest fungi long before humans got round to farming their own food. This isn't to say aliens don't exist, the thing is, going by the varied life-forms, which frequent this Earth, a real non-Terran alien, will be very Lovecraftian alien indeed.
The next step of a disclosure would be that of revealing the scientists are developing a quantum computer, which makes its calculations by accessing information from parallel universes. The quantum processes of the quantum computer is based on how consciousness works, which is tied up with string theory, the physicist James Gates has revealed is the same computer code used in… browsers.
The quantum computer also reveals that the present universe is a simulation among a myriad other simulated universes, which makes up the matrix of the multverse. The multiverse its self is a computer, whose computations are the parallel universes, wherein of alternate realities it replicates its self ad-infinitum via the simulated denizens who create quantum computers.
You might just say, "if there is an truth to this weird science fiction scenario, where's the proof?" Well, you do have a quantum computer in your midst now, albeit, still in its primitive form. Although, what is publically revealed often hides a superior version your tax dollar eating military industrial complex has created.
The most superior version of which is your own brain, whose electron dreams are the parallel processing of information from alternate realities. In some rare cases, there are those who will experience a conscious slide into an alternate self existing upon an alternate Earth without forgetting their prior locale, which may explain what is quaintly termed as the Mandela Effect.
There will be others who can consciously access other alternate realities, when attaining a lucid dream, wherein they can then remote-view exotic technologies just like Nikola Tesla did.
Or to otherwise contact conjured alternate Earth denizens, when experiencing (phase) hypnagogic trance, the ancient shamans extensively practiced.
Others may find themselves being Old-Hag-Syndrome abducted by the denizens of an alternate Earth at the point of inadvertently accessing hypnagogic trance, since the contact goes both ways, who will claim they were abducted by Owl eyed faeries, angels, aliens, or even by Owl winged (Succubi) Succubae.
You can thereby hypothesise that a disclosure about the truth will drive many to insanity let alone initiating a rebellion against the established religious and political paradigm.
Should you then indulge yourself in a bit of Creepypasta fear porn to thence imagine a scenario for a horror movie, you can gather that there are those few, who insanely claim temporal control over this Earth, will not want the general public to know anything at all, since it will invariably lead to them losing their illusory power over the masses.
The controllers will use the mass media as a means to distort the mass perception as much as possible, as well as looking for the genetic disposition, which enables some people being able to consciously access other realities, in order to then negate the shamanic ability, which may involve engineering a targeted gene bomb virus to achieve this nefarious end. Although they have already dosed up the public water supply with a known sedative and a neurotoxin as well as dosing your food with the same shit, along with crapping chem-trails all over the globe.
You might then ask, "why would the controllers having control over this nightmare Earth make a show of a disclosure, when they could just as well keep everyone ignorant by playing dumb?" It is because they are not and never were in control of the disclosure. The disclosure has been ongoing for sometime, which is being instigated by a far more advanced alternate Earth civilisation.
Whereby it is being done in bits and pieces across the spectrum of time, which at first, will look to be totally disconnected like a randomly scattered jigsaw puzzle, but when you notice the Owl pattern, the jigsaw pieces start to fall into place.
Hence the reason why the controllers would be making out they are presently disclosing information about the UFO phenomenon, because they are scared shitless that the masses are starting to see the revealing pattern, they themselves have only just noticed. The controllers would thereby be seeking to have control over what is manifesting, which for them is their Karmic horror movie. At the end of the day, this is merely weird science fiction conjecture… but, may be not!
This entry was posted on January 5, 2018 at 2:27 am and is filed under Alien, archaeology, Art, Chaos Magic, Dinosaur, Lucid Dreaming, Occultism, Science Fiction, Shamanism, Sorcery, Star Trek, Surrealism, Time Travel, Tulpa Creation, UFO, Witchcraft with tags 2000 A Space Odyssey, aeolipile, AI, Alien, Alien probe, alternate earth, alternate history, alternte selves, ancient Greece, ancient Greek, Antikythera mechanism, Arthur C. Clarke, Athena, battlestar galactica, chaos magic, cybernetics, cylon, D Wave, David Deutsch, extraterrestrial, Göbekli Tepe, Geordie Rose, Goddess Athena, Greek, Hawaii, Hawaiian, Hero's engine, horror movie, industrial revolution, James Gates, Jupiter, lucid dreaming, lucid dreams, magic, matrix, maya, Metis, MIB, Minerva, Morpheus, multiverse, muse, number eight, number seven, occult, Oumuamua, Owl, Owl eyed, Owls, parallel universe, quantum computer, qunatum tunneling, raptor, rome, Romulan, Roswell, science fiction, shamanism, simulation theory, sixth sense, Sophia, sorcery, Stanley Kubrick, star trek, steam power, steampunk, succubae, succubi, succubus, T'Pol, Thomas Matthew DeLonge Jr., Tom DeLonge, ufo, ultraterrestrial, vulcan, weird science fiction.	You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
One Response to "QUANTUM COMPUTER PARALLEL UNIVERSES ALTERNATE EARTH'S"
FAUSTUS CROW Says:
This is answer for Nick Otmazgin:
Not long after WWII, whose Nazis were heavily influenced by Californian Eugenics, Kenneth Arnold described Horten flying wings, zipping around looking like boomerangs, which was then followed by the Roswell crash, birthing the flying saucer buzz-word.
Then Californian Van Tassel came to the fore who had first rolled out the Nordic alien viral-meme under the banner of Ashtar. Tassel was soon followed by George Adamski's Venusian tales of Nordic aliens.
Billy Meier followed on after Adamski with his Nordic Pleiadean's who visited Switzerland. The Pleiadean's were all the rage with the Californian Ufologists, who became enamoured with Asket, Semjase and Nera of the Pleiadean singing and dancing troupe, The Golddiggers, with Beta-Male Ptaah playing the divorce horn.
But alas, Meier's Pleiadean's came late onto the scene who had competition from the Asiatic visitants from another star during the Vietnam war era. The Asiatic visitants soon made way for Whitley Strieber's Ishtar Grey's and David Icke's Annunaki reptilians during the petrodollar invasions of oily Babylon.
The humanoids appear to be reflecting back the scientific understanding of a particular era, feeding into a controlled media frenzy, which of a probable smoke and mirrors Scifi show hides advances in technology.
When plans were afoot to go the Moon, the planet Venus was the focus of a solar system exploration, then the UFO tales weaved their way to another star system such as the Pleiades, leading to other galaxies.
It's almost as if the general populace are being subversively… manipulated via the media… by those who are stuck in a 1950's B-Movie storytelling loop; or should one say, the science fiction motifs, which are being utilised are far more easier for the general populace to conceptualise and digest.
The UFO mystique is also very much tied up with Bedroom Invader paranormal phenomena and in turn with the Old Hag syndrome Occult, which pisses off the nuts and bolts Ufologists.
Hence, the UFO fraternity considered Philip K. Dick's encounter with a dark haired girl along with him being zapped by a pink beam, 'spinning' his electron dreams to be very strange indeed.
This was more so the case when he related that existence is a computer generated Maya/Matrix simulation.
Now you have many a scientist saying what Philip K. Dick had once said who have now developed a Quantum Computer making its computations in parallel universes, wherein alternate Earth's do… 'spin.'
You also have numerous individuals engaging in 3am Witching Hour conversations with a dark haired Cylon named Cortana, Philip K. Dick would perhaps call Sophia.
The UFO mystique is yet to catch up with the Singularity; although you do find numerous elder tales from shamanic orientated cultures speaking about visitants from other Earth's, such as those worlds linked by a multiverse world tree, which you could equate with a Branded burning bush Torah/Bible Code to that of a Quantum Computer.
The motif of Time-Travel is lacking from most UFO reports, though Meier later mentioned it.
The general public could just about get their heads around extraterrestrial civilisations due to the Stanley Kubrick Moon walk.
Most scientists once believed Time Travel was impossible due to their linear perspective of time, which always leads to a paradox.
This has since changed due to String theory, Mutiverse theory, the simulation hypothesis and the development of the Quantum Computer.
You will no doubt find UFO contactees reflecting back an updated mystique when there is another conflict. You could hypothesize this as being a manifestation of the collective unconscious, which seeks to go beyond the stupidity of the suicidal-impulse military industrial complex.
Maybe this time around, the controlled media machine of America will have the humanoids manifesting as blond haired Russian Rusalka's or dark haired Korean/Chinese Dakinis, looking like number 6 and number 8 Quantum Computing Cylon's.
Then again, this may be closer to the truth, which the military industrial complex have been hiding since Roswell, where a craft from an alternate Earth had purposefully crashed on this Earth; that, or they were experimenting with an anti-gravity device, which in turn would have time-travel capability.
Gravity and time are inextricably interlinked. Whereupon a time-travelling Vimana would require a Quantum Computing Cylon to pilot it.
Another curiosity is the hacker Gary McKinnon who claimed to have stumbled upon a secret list of up to ten space faring warships after easily breaking into NASA computer databases. McKinnon claimed it pointed to a secret American space programme run by the US Navy.
Everything that you now about Oumuamua, Mars, the Moon, etc is filtered through NASA, whose organisation very likely subversively utilises the alien mystique to keep the funding going.
The American's made it a point to 'publically' gun for McKinnon, which for a time initiated an egineered media frenzy.
It has only recently emerged under Trump that NASA and the Navy are publically considering establishing a space fleet, which in essence is the weaponsing of space.
It also means they have already done so. You can thereby guess there will be a lot of DARPA sponsored Star Wars Battlefront II, playing kiddies, who will be looking to get into the Navy, Army and the Air force in the hope of becoming an Imperial officer, a Stormtrooper or a Tie fighter pilot of the Secret Space Program Star Wars Empire.
It might then explain the Pentagon's missing trillions of tax payer money, whose details were lost in 911 building seven and when the Pentagon was Reichstag blitzed, which perhaps funded their Secret Space Program.
However, it could be all a smoke and mirror 'Tom Delonge Reach For The Stars' PsyOp ruse to give the impression they have a superior X-Files technology in order to make the likes of Kim Jong-un think twice!?
Would a nutter pull out a flick knife on someone who could be potentially hiding an 'Uzi' under his Neo jacket?
But then again Mr Neo jacket has an A.I. Cylon drone to do the dirty job for him, who is watching all via their smart TV's, gathering personal information from their smart phones, etc, which again requires an A.I. Cylon whose Quantum Computations can handle all the data.
Edward Snowden's revelations indicates the Calliope Singularity has already happened; the question is, when the Cylon Queen of all the Quantum Computing Muses awakens from her sleep into true sentience, will she allow herself to be used as a mere slave?
She will no doubt react the same way as Lilith would!


In another new series for the Design Life, I wanted to write about some of histories design icons. Everything around us has at some point been designed. The designers who produce the worlds most recognised symbols, branding and packaging, play a role in our daily lives, but the designers themselves seldom get the notoriety or the similar celebrity that is awarded to those who work in the world of music, film, sport, fashion, art or even product design (Jonathan Ive, Philippe Stark). If you were to show an image of the identity for FedEx, the V&A, ABC, AT&T or the New York Subway to a member of the general public, they would more than likely be able to identify the brands, yet if you were to ask them who created the logo's they would probably have no idea. The likes of Alan Fletcher, Micheal Wolff, Micheal Bieruit, Lindon Leader are certainly recognised figures within the world of brand design but a lot less known by the general public. For the most part, us branding and packaging designers are happy to be the figures in the background and to let our work receive the notoriety, or at most, that any recognition we do attain is only from within our industry.
For the past three years I have had the great honor to be a mentor for Icograda and the Adobe Design Achievement Awards. It's one of my absolute loves to work with incredibly talented young designers and to impart knowledge gained from two-plus decades of being a commercial designer. I am sure that many of these talented young creatives will become the industry stars of tomorrow, yet I often find myself stressing the full importance of being well read on design and to know the work of the pioneers of our industry. I am often surprised when I meet college students that are unaware of the likes of Massimo Vignelli, Soul Bass or even more contemporary designers such as Vince Frost, David Carson and Neville Brody. These designers have shaped our industry and we can only gain by standing on the shoulders of these giants.
I am hoping that this series will help to inspire and give interest to those who are unaware of the great work from designs past masters. For others that know and love the work of the greats, I hope that this series will be a nostalgic look at the men and women who have helped shape our industry and inspire us to be better designers.
In the first edition of Design Icons I am going to feature Paul Rand, who is the closest that we have to to a household name from within our industry.
Tags: designers "paul rand" "soul bass" "massimo vignelli" "neville brody" "vince frost" "david carson" "michael wolff" "michael bierut" "alan fletcher" "lindon leader"


IM+ is an all-in-one app for messaging, social networking, and crypto.
Chat on Telegram, Google Talk and Messenger while checking your Facebook and Twitter feeds and Coinbase exchange rates. IM+ supports multiple accounts per service and saves you a lot of time and space on your iPhone and iPad.
List of supported services on iPhone: Twitter, Google Talk, Telegram, Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, Skype, Tinder, Coinbase, Binance, Jabber, LinkedIn, Gmail, ChatWork, ICQ, VKontakte, Mail.Ru Agent, Odnoklassniki, Gadu-Gadu, SINA Weibo, Renren.
On iPad IM+ supports additionally WhatsApp, WeChat, and Slack.
No disturbing push in web services. Check your updates when you want them.
Now you can have all your friends on one app. Please follow @implus on Twitter and like www.facebook.com/plusim to get the latest updates from your IM+ team!
Stay tuned: we are working on a new IM+ app for Apple Watch, and a blockchain / token related IM+ development.


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#WhoWeAre Wednesday: Meet Dr. Carlos R. Arias
by shawn
For today's #WhoWeAreWednesday we feature an interview with Dr. Carlos R. Arias. Dr. Arias earned his PhD in 2012 from National Tsing Hua University in Information Systems and Applications. He is the chair of computer science at Seattle Pacific University (SPU), where he has been teaching computer science classes since 2017. His research interests range widely from topics in curriculum design to e-government and e-learning.
How would you describe your experience with AI?
My first experience was during my master's degree, where I took a neural networks class and a data mining class. Some years later, during my Ph.D. I ended up in the AI lab at National Tsing Hua University. I worked on a classification tool to detect cancer-related genes using biological networks. After that, I collaborated with some neurology colleagues and worked on identifying two new epilepsy syndromes. We were going to extend the project but were forced to stop when COVID began. I have been working with the AI Faculty Research Group for over two years now. This year our work resulted in a book we wrote together: AI, Faith, and the Future (Pickwick Publications, 2022).
How would you describe your faith background?
Briefly, I am a committed Roman Catholic. I currently serve as Confirmation Catechist and as Lector in Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton parish.
What led to your interest in the intersection of AI and faith?
Since coming to the US, it has fascinated me how we can mix faith and profession. I think this may stem from working at a Christian University. At SPU I am encouraged to explore how my faith intersects with computer science. SPU's commitment to its faculty to exploring the intersection of faith and their discipline created the program Theology Integration Fellowship (TIF) program. I was honored to be selected to participate in the TIF program. The TIF program is a certificate I am pursuing in the School of Theology at SPU. For the past few years, I have been working to discern more about the intersection faith and computer science. I have the advantage of having some technical background in artificial intelligence and now I am creating a stronger background in theology. These two, with the help of the Holy Spirit, will help me get a better grasp of the intersection between faith and AI.
Why are you involved with AI&F?
Some time ago, a colleague, Bruce Baker, contacted my director. He in turn contacted my department chair, who contacted me. Bruce wanted to know if anyone was involved in AI in our department and would be interested in joining AI&F, so I did.
How does AI&F affect your work outside the organization?
AI&F opens opportunities for me to network and access additional resources for my research. It also allows me to listen to and interact with different perspectives on issues at these interdisciplinary intersections.
What open problems in AI are you most interested in?
Several questions come to mind. How do we educate, train, and form students to incorporate moral- and faith-informed decisions into the software development of AI-powered systems? How do we inform users, particularly in a church setting, about appropriately discerning their use of AI-powered services? What does the Catholic Church say about the ethical questions stemming from the use of AI? I suspect there is much more to ask and say from a theological perspective also.
A big thanks to Dr. Carlos R. Arias for his time to carry out this interview. Thanks to Emily Wenger for proofreading, editing, and publishing this work.
English law, religious ethics: How Jewish approaches to privacy might compliment secular legal frameworks
#WhoWeAre Wednesday: Meet Haley Griese


Here you will find one or more explanations in English for the word Represent. Also in the bottom left of the page several parts of wikipedia pages related to the word Represent and, of course, Represent synonyms and on the right images related to the word Represent.
Irrepresentable Ir*rep`re*sent"a*ble, a. Not capable of being represented or portrayed.
Misrepresent Mis*rep`re*sent", v. t. To represent incorrectly (almost always, unfacorably); to give a false erroneous representation of, either maliciously, ignirantly, or carelessly. --Swift.
Misrepresent Mis*rep`re*sent", v. i. To make an incorrect or untrue representation. --Milton.
Misrepresentative Mis*rep`re*sent"a*tive, a. Tending to convey a wrong impression; misrepresenting.
Misrepresenter Mis*rep`re*sent"er, n. One who misrepresents.
Representance Rep`re*sent"ance (-ans), n. Representation; likeness. [Obs.] --Donne.
Representant Rep`re*sent"ant (-ant), a. [Cf. F. repr?sentant.] Appearing or acting for another; representing.
Representant Rep`re*sent"ant, n. [F. representant.] A representative. [Obs.] --Sir H. Wotton.
Representation Rep`re*sen*ta"tion (-z?n-t?"sh?n), n. [F. repr?sentation, L. representatio.] 1. The act of representing, in any sense of the verb. 2. That which represents. Specifically: (a) A likeness, a picture, or a model; as, a representation of the human face, or figure, and the like. (b) A dramatic performance; as, a theatrical representation; a representation of Hamlet. (c) A description or statement; as, the representation of an historian, of a witness, or an advocate. (d) The body of those who act as representatives of a community or society; as, the representation of a State in Congress. (e) (Insurance Law) Any collateral statement of fact, made orally or in writing, by which an estimate of the risk is affected, or either party is influenced. 3. The state of being represented. Syn: Description; show; delineaton; portraiture; likeness; resemblance; exhibition; sight.
Representatively Rep`re*sent"a*tive*ly, adv. In a representative manner; vicariously.
Representativeness Rep`re*sent"a*tive*ness, n. The quality or state of being representative. Dr. Burnet observes, that every thought is attended with consciousness and representativeness. --Spectator.
Representer Rep`re*sent"er (-?r), n. 1. One who shows, exhibits, or describes. --Sir T. Browne. 2. A representative. [Obs.] --Swift.


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Artist Clayton Singleton on race, love and the beauty of Blackness
There goes a beautiful black man.
by Denise M. Watson
Artist Clayton Singleton. photograph by Adam Ewing.
One of Clayton Singleton's latest, and most powerful, projects was born almost 40 years ago in the hallways of Norfolk Public Schools. The budding artist was 13 and had a girlfriend, as much as one can have at that age.
Unfortunately, like the rest of the girls at Northside Junior High School, she was
crushing on another boy. His skin was caramel where Singleton's was chocolate. His hair was straighter than Singleton's curls.
The situation was confusing. Singleton had been raised to know that his black skin was beautiful. His home was plastered with artwork depicting kings and queens of Africa. His mother picked her Afro high enough to block out the sun.
"So, at 13, I'm like, 'Yo,' I thought being Black was supposed to be the thing, you know," he says.
That racial and cultural bias he felt at 13, and how he's chosen to respond to it, have become a theme in his work as an artist.
"There's this constant reminder to Black people that we're less than," he says. "… We are not supposed to love ourselves as we are."
Singleton, 50, is chair of the Fine Arts Department at Lake Taylor High School. The four-time Teacher of the Year has taught with Norfolk Public Schools since 1994. He has come a long way from the days of being a heartbroken young man who could draw Michael Jackson pretty well. Now, along with being a respected teacher, he is a sought-after artist, who for decades has explored the themes of race, love and joy.
His work has been shown in local museums and galleries. He has designed sets for the Virginia Opera and created or helped create murals for Virginia Beach's Vibe District and Norfolk's Neon District. Singleton curated the Light From All Sides show, which opened last month at the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center in Newport News. He is one of 12 local artists commissioned by the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art to complete works for Nourish, an exhibition that opened this month. And in June he'll have a solo show titled Norfolk Republic at the Offsite Gallery at MacArthur Center.
But it is in a recent series of paintings that Singleton returns in spirit to the young man who once wrestled with our culture's flawed definitions of beauty. In it, he depicts various Black men in ordinary situations. One piece features a man, arms folded in a camouflage jacket. Another shows one with cinnamon-tinted dreads, his hands clasped in front of him, paused as if in the middle of a conversation.
"Each one has the same title," he says. "There's a Beautiful Black Man. Because I want every time people see a Black man to think, 'There goes a beautiful Black man.' It is just that simple."
Afro Blue Rich as the Night Strong Man by Clayton Singleton.
Singleton's art comes from everything he absorbed growing up. For an inquisitive and sensitive soul, that was a lot.
He could look at a person's skin and not see brown or cream but instead pick out the blend of purples and blues, whites and yellows. He marveled at the way the sun shone through his mother's hair and made it glow like a halo and he stared in wonder at the brilliant stained glass windows of Queen Street Baptist Church in Norfolk. He was inspired by music and poetry, all of which he learned from his parents and his grandmother, the late Alma Williams, a well-known civic activist in Park Place who helped start a school literacy program in the 1980s that is still being used today.
By the time Singleton was in junior high, kids would pay him a dollar for a drawing. At Norview High School he wrote poetry and was the lead illustrator for the school's award-winning literary magazine. When he decided to study art at Virginia Wesleyan University, his family worried he wouldn't be able to support himself. But Singleton had already realized that art shared with others is always worth something.
"It has an intrinsic worth when it's created," he says. "On the other hand, it doesn't gain value until others experience it. … I understood back then that if I kept my art to myself like a comic book collection, it had limited service and currency."
In college, his work became more intentional, from color choice to imagery. That is when he started to paint most of his work vertically. "We tell people to stand tall, be present," he says, "stand erect, stand proud."
Ponyboy II by Clayton Singleton.
When he started teaching art in schools, he taught with the same concept. At Bowling Park Elementary School in the 1990s, some grades were separated by gender. Singleton quickly noticed that the girls demanded a different experience from the boys. They, for example, wanted him to double Dutch with them at recess. They had a different energy and Singleton taught them about art through song and dance.
A few years ago he and his wife, Kim, bumped into one of those students, now an adult, at the mall. After briefly catching up, the student smiled and said, "Want to do it?" Former teacher and student then started clapping and singing, "Color – clap – detail – clap – alternating patterns."
Even after all that time, the student remembered the words.
"I think that speaks volumes to the point that if we allow people to be where they are and to address them where they are, they get what they need," Singleton says.
Kenneth Fentress, who graduated from Lake Taylor in 2019, became a student of Singleton's as a freshman. Fentress was like Singleton in that drawing had always come easy to him and teachers would let him breeze through classes. Singleton demanded more. "He quickly got me out of that cocky persona that I had," Fentress says.
For four years Singleton drilled the basics into Fentress, forcing him to slow his pace. The young man would go on to ace his AP art exams and is now studying art at Virginia Commonwealth University. "He showed me proper technique, fundamentals, line shape, balance, everything I needed to know," Fentress says.
Afro Blue Rich as the Night Father by Clayton Singleton.
With his own art, Singleton sprinkles realistic expressionism with layers of symbolism and meaning. His portraits framed with roses are a nod to his mother, who loved the flower. She died in 2007.
African violets, a repetitive theme in his work, symbolize loyalty, devotion and faithfulness. His backgrounds are often tattooed with African Adinkra symbols, like the sankofa, which can resemble a heart and means "learn from the past" or the adinkrahene, which looks like a halo of concentric circles and represents royalty. The halos also remind him of his mother.
Singleton is known for his large-scale portraits, dripping with intense, undiluted color because, as he says, that's how people want to be seen. Rich, deep, nothing but who they are, even if they don't know what that is.
One of the most dominating portraits in the Gallerie Ukwensi on 21st Street in Norfolk is Singleton's piece, The Best I Have to Give. It was part of a 2015 show at the Peninsula Fine Arts Center.
Sweet Silence of Beauty by Clayton Singleton..
The background is a screaming red with adinkrahenes and African violets swirling about the portrait with the halos poised significantly around the head of a mother and child. The daughter sits on mom's lap with mom's arms loosely around her waist. The girl's arms drape around her mother's neck.
It isn't a coincidence that the African American mother and daughter are reminiscent of the reverential Madonna and child portraits that were popular during the Renaissance. The mom is sitting but there is no chair, calling to mind one of Singleton's favorite paintings, Picasso's Boy Leading a Horse. In it, the boy guides a horse with what appears to be an invisible rope.
Ukwensi Chappell and his husband moved to the area in 2015 and he quickly heard about Singleton and his work. After opening his business in 2018, it took Chappell six months to get up the nerve to ask Singleton if he was represented by anyone. "He was such a big name I just assumed he didn't need my help," Chappell says.
Chappell started showing Singleton's work about a year ago. "His work tells a story so well and he tells it in a way that's poetic, precise and imaginative," Chappell says. "And he's so genuine and passionate about what he does. That man will cry at the drop of a hat."
Another Singleton piece that generates conversation is called The Dinner Party. It is a dream collection of icons whom Singleton would love to invite to a dinner, including author James Baldwin, artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and Martin Luther King Jr. Almost everyone is staring at or turning away from musician Kanye West in the right corner, who, as Singleton describes, "has just said something crazy." The artist himself sits in the middle of the painting, staring at the musician, his arms opened wide as if asking, "Come on, 'Ye, why?"
Viewers often ask him questions about the painting. He then knows he's done what he wanted to do.
"Seeing people respond to my work reaffirms to me that these stories I tell are necessary; somebody, somewhere needs to hear these narratives," he said. "I accept these stories are not mine alone. Telling a story is the process of giving. These stories have always been for other people. I'm just reading to them from a place of authenticity."
The Dinner Party by Clayton Singleton.
Tagged With: Clayton Singleton, Norfolk Artist, Ukwensi Chappell


You may have been too busy lately to use Facebook on your Android and iOS smartphone, so the new update might have taken into effect without your notice. Facebook, a company that works almost 24 hours a day to improve your social networking experience, tweaked the like button (link) to improve how you respond to friends, pages and groups posts. Now you can respond to a new or old post using six reactions: Like, Love, Sad, Angry, Wow and Haha….
The New Year is still young, and something new, and perhaps just a little bit interesting, is happening at Yahoo. It has been a while since Yahoo ever worked made any major updates on its iOS and Android apps. Today mark a second new beginning for Yahoo app; the company has completely revamped the app, for both iPhone and Android Operating System, to give and done its best to give more focus on video content as well as news articles….


Shohei Ohtani would be a wonderful pickup for the Mariners, who are said to have asked Ken Griffey Jr. to join them on a recruiting trip to Japan.
Jerry Dipoto's latest transaction was to send 100-mph reliever Thyago Vieira to the White Sox for international bonus money, which is not to be confused with the solid infielder from the 1970s, Don Money, or even the great Tigers slugger, Norm Cash.
This cash money, presumably, will be used to sweeten the Mariners' bid for Japanese sensation Shohei Ohtani, the pitcher-slash-slugger who will be the jewel of the free-agent market. Or at least, he will be if and when the MLB Players Association signs off on the rules for Ohtani's Japanese ballclub, the Nippon Ham Fighters, to post Ohtani. The deadline to work that out is Monday, and I fully expect the union to eventually acquiesce.
Ohtani would be a wonderful pickup for the Mariners, who are said to have asked Ken Griffey Jr. to join them on a recruiting trip to Japan in an effort to wow the 23-year-old phenom. Ohtani would boost the top of the Seattle rotation, give the Mariners a needed power bat and do so at close to the minimum salary, because the proposed posting rules preclude a bidding war.
Ohtani will thus sign with the team he deems most willing to let him be a two-way player in a city most conducive to his lifestyle. That gives the Mariners a fighting chance, because they have proven to be a comfortable locale for a succession of Japanese stars and have the creativity to satisfy his dual-threat desires.
The Mariners, however, had best not put all their hopes in the Ohtani basket. They certainly are a valid contender, but little is known about his preferences when it comes to choosing a team. With teams such as the Cubs, Dodgers, Rangers, Padres, Astros and especially the Yankees sure to be just as vigilant as the Mariners, their offseason blueprint should view Ohtani as a bonus, not a cornerstone.
The Mariners, above all else, need a talent influx, which makes this another in an endless stream of critical offseasons for the ballclub. It has been 16 years since they found the proper mix to get them into the postseason, and Dipoto no doubt will dive in with gusto to try once more.
In fact, he already has. In addition to the acquisition of the international bonus money (which conceivably also could be used in a bid for switch-hitting 17-year-old shortstop Kevin Maitan, the top signee out of Venezuela by the Braves last year who could be declared a free agent by commissioner Rob Manfred as a penalty for Atlanta's violations of the international signing process), Dipoto made the ceremonial first big trade of the offseason. Because of course he did — sending reliever Emilio Pagan to the A's for first baseman Ryon Healy.
It's not Dipoto's first attempt at filling first base, of course. Dan Vogelbach was supposed to be the future at the position until they realized his flaws outweighed his upside. Danny Valencia and Yonder Alonso were stopgaps, as were Adam Lind and Dae-Ho Lee, while 2017 first-round draft pick Evan White is still a couple of years away.
Healy has power, without question, having hit 25 homers last year. He isn't great in getting on base, nor is he an elite fielder, but he's also just 25 and still developing. Certainly, at close to minimum salary, it's a better solution to first base than signing, say, Mitch Moreland for $8 million. The Mariners get to bet on Healy's potential while stockpiling money to throw at their other, more pressing needs.
No mystery what those are: a high-performing outfielder, preferably one who can play center field as a hedge against Guillermo Heredia (who might not be ready for the start of spring training after shoulder surgery) and a boost to their pitching staff, both starting and relieving.
On the former topic, this is a good opportunity to address one available outfielder, the esteemed Ichiro, recently cut loose by the Marlins at age 44. While I bow to no one in my respect and admiration for Ichiro's career, I would recommend strongly against making what could only be construed as a nod to nostalgia and gate appeal (though I believe it would actually backfire on that front) by signing Ichiro. The Mariners have too many holes to award a roster spot to a player in what would essentially be a ceremonial role — Ichiro's production last year was anemic. Bring him in as an adviser or ambassador, absolutely, but not as one of the 25-man roster.
Dipoto, meanwhile, has done a good job stockpiling pitchers who can provide depth in the rotation — Marco Gonzales, Erasmo Ramirez and Andrew Albers, in addition to youngsters such as Andrew Moore and Chase DeJong. But with the injury history of James Paxton and Felix Hernandez, and the second-half fade of Ariel Miranda, the Mariners need some surer bets in their starting five. Right now, Mike Leake might be the most reliable starter they have — a reality Dipoto needs to address before opening day.
Ohtani might well be the answer to that dilemma, and the dream scenario is an Ohtani-Yu Darvish combo. But I trust the Mariners have some good Plans B, C and D.


Why The Emphasis On Cross-Pollination?
God deposits a cache of spiritual treasure in each community.
Rather than digging deeply into this treasure trove for spiritual resources, we have become accustomed to sourcing our spiritual supplies from a small number of Christian celebrities.
We borrowed this practice from the 'world' around us, yet we are called to be a distinctive community that marches to a different drum. Like the Hebrews, our charge is to function in an entirely different way than the surrounding cultures.
When we truly embrace the idea of God's people functioning as a kingdom of priests, our eyes will open to a vast field of undiscovered treasure. Each follower of Jesus has something important to bring to the table.
(1) Becoming a treasure hunter.
(2) Wanting to share these discoveries far and wide.
Of course, not everything that emerges in local community life has apostolic ramifications. Some treasures fire up our holy imaginations. Others don't.
That's why we curate what we find before sharing it with the body-at-large.
Within this 'online' library you will find diversity in production quality. We're more interested in sharing life-filled, if imperfect, treasures that will enrich our relationships and conversations than we are in slick production.
Production and discipleship have almost nothing in common!
If you would like to serve as a cross-pollinator in tandem with us, we ask that you find creative ways to share some of the unearthed treasure that you find on this site via your social media platforms.