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UNICEF reports three-fold rise in verified attacks on children since 2010
A 10-year-old girl stands by metal debris which was once part of a girls' school that was destroyed during a bomb blast in 2015, in Bodyalai village, Afghanistan. © UNICEF/Marko Kokic
Conflicts around the world are lasting longer and claiming more young lives, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said on Monday, as the agency reported that over this 'deadly decade', there has been a three-fold rise in verified attacks on children since 2010 – an average of 45 violations a day.
"Attacks on children continue unabated as warring parties flout one of the most basic rules of war: the protection of children," said Ms. Fore, noting that the number of countries experiencing conflict is the highest it has been since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989.
With dozens of violent armed conflicts killing and maiming children and forcing them from their homes, the UNICEF chief said that for every act of violence against children that creates headlines and cries of outrage, "there are many more that go unreported."
In 2018, the UN verified more than 24,000 grave violations against children, including killing, maiming, sexual violence, abductions, denial of humanitarian access, child recruitment and attacks on schools and hospitals. While monitoring and reporting efforts have been strengthened, this number is more than two-and-a-half times higher than that recorded in 2010.
Attacks and violence against children have not let up throughout 2019. During the first half of the year, the UN has verified over 10,000 such violations against children – although actual numbers are likely to be much higher – in conflict zones from northern Syria to eastern Democratica Republic of the Congo (DRC), and eastern Ukraine.
As 2019 draws to a close with "no letup in the attacks and violence against children in sight," UNICEF is calling on all warring parties to abide by their obligations under international law and to immediately end violations against children and the targeting of civilian infrastructure, including schools, hospitals and water infrastructure.
The UN Children's Fund is also calling on States with influence over parties to conflict to use that influence to protect children.
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UN officials fear US terrorist designation will hasten famine in Yemen
Senior UN officials have expressed concern over the potential impact of the decision by the United States to designate Yemen's Ansar Allah, more commonly known as the Houthi movement, a terrorist group, the Security Council heard on Thursday.
Briefing the online meeting, UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths said Yemen was going through dark times following a deadly attack last month on its newly-formed Cabinet, and with millions facing potential famine, but emphasized that peace is still possible.
Mr. Griffiths condemned the 30 December attack at the airport in Aden, which targeted the Government officials who had just arrived from Saudi Arabia. Dozens of civilians, aid workers and a journalist were also killed.
"The attack cast a dark shadow over what should have been a moment of hope in the efforts to achieve peace in Yemen. The formation of the Cabinet and its return to Aden was a major milestone for the Riyadh Agreement and for the stability of state institutions, the economy, and the peace process", he said.
"The Government has launched an investigation into the Aden attack and has made its conclusions public earlier today that Ansar Allah was behind the attack."
'Chilling effect' on peace efforts
For more than five years, Yemen has been mired in conflict between the internationally-recognized Government, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition, and Houthi rebels.
On Sunday, the United States announced it will designate the group a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under domestic law. Mr. Griffiths expressed serious concern over this prospect.
"We fear in my mission that there will be inevitably a chilling effect on my efforts to bring the parties together. We all hope to have absolute clarity on far-reaching exemptions to be able to carry out our duties", he said.
Yemen remains the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Some 16 million people will go hungry this year, and 50,000 are already essentially starving to death, amid a shortfall in aid. Preventing a massive famine is the most urgent priority, the UN Humanitarian Affairs chief and Emergency Coordinator told ambassadors.
Yemenis stockpiling food
Mark Lowcock called for the FTO designation to be reversed, which Mr. Griffiths also supported, outlining its potential impact on aid relief in a country that overwhelmingly relies on food imports.
He explained that humanitarian agencies provide food vouchers or cash to needy Yemenis so they can shop at markets.
"Aid agencies cannot, they simply cannot, replace the commercial import system," he stressed. "What this means is that what the commercial importers do is the single biggest determinant of life and death in Yemen."
Mr. Lowcock reported that Yemenis are already rushing to markets to stockpile food, while commercial traders fear the designation will affect their operations.
"Some suppliers, banks, insurers and shippers are ringing up their Yemeni partners and saying they now plan to walk away from Yemen altogether", he said. "They say the risks are too high. They fear being accidentally or otherwise caught up in US regulatory action which would put them out of business or into jail."
Although the US plans to introduce licences so that some aid and imports can continue, the relief chief said further details will not be available until 19 January, the day the designation takes force.
Reverse designation, or face catastrophe
The head of the World Food Programme (WFP), David Beasley, gave a blunt assessment of the prospects, putting aside his prepared remarks to speak "heart-to-heart".
"We are struggling now without the designation. With the designation, it's going to be catastrophic. It literally is going to be a death sentence to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of innocent people in Yemen," he said.
Mr. Beasley, an American, also removed his "UN hat" for a moment, to speak about his engagement with Washington, which allocated $3.75 billion to WFP last year.
"I'm very grateful for that", he said. "But this designation, it needs to be re-assessed, it needs to be re-evaluated, and, quite frankly, it needs to be reversed."
Mr. Beasley added that Yemen is among several countries facing famine, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated these crises.
The WFP chief called for Gulf States "to pick up the humanitarian financial tab for this problem in Yemen", and urged the Council and world leaders to apply pressure on the warring parties to end their fighting.
"I can assure you that Mark Lowcock and I will be before you pretty soon talking about other countries," he said. "And if we can't solve this one – this is man-made completely – shame on us."
UNICEF: Closing schools should be 'measure of last resort'
Teachers and students wear face masks and maintain physical distance at a school in Cambodia. © UNICEF/Chansereypich Seng
The head of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) underscored on Tuesday that "no effort should be spared" to keep children in school, as the coronavirus pandemic continues into a second year.
"Despite overwhelming evidence of the impact of school closures on children, and despite increasing evidence that schools are not drivers of the pandemic, too many countries have opted to keep schools closed, some for nearly a year", Henrietta Fore said in a statement.
A high cost
The UNICEF chief highlighted that the cost of closing schools has been devastating, with 90 per cent of students globally facing shutdowns at the peak of the COVID disruptions last year, leaving more than a third of schoolchildren with no access to remote education.
"The number of out-of-school children is set to increase by 24 million, to a level we have not seen in years and have fought so hard to overcome", she said.
"Children's ability to read, write and do basic math has suffered, and the skills they need to thrive in the 21st century economy have diminished", Ms. Fore added.
Closure a 'last resort'
Keeping children at home puts their health, development, safety and well-being at risk – with the most vulnerable bearing the heaviest brunt, she said.
She pointed out that without school meals, children are "left hungry and their nutrition is worsening"; without daily peer interactions and less mobility, they are "losing physical fitness and showing signs of mental distress"; and without the safety net that school often provides, they are "more vulnerable to abuse, child marriage and child labour".
"That's why closing schools must be a measure of last resort, after all other options have been considered", stressed the top UNICEF official.
Evaluating local transmission
Assessing transmission risks at the local level should be "a key determinant" in decisions on school operations, Ms. Fore said.
She also flagged that nationwide school closures be avoided, whenever possible.
"Where there are high levels of community transmission, where health systems are under extreme pressure and where closing schools is deemed inevitable, safeguarding measures must be put in place", maintained the UNICEF chief.
Moreover, it is important that children who are at risk of violence in their homes, who are reliant upon school meals and whose parents are essential workers, continue their education in classrooms.
After lockdown restrictions are lifted, she said that schools must be among the first to reopen and catch-up classes should be prioritized to keep children who were unable to learn remotely from being left behind.
"If children are faced with another year of school closures, the effects will be felt for generations to come", said Ms. Fore.
Humanitarians seek $1.3 billion to help millions in war-weary Afghanistan
The UN and humanitarian partners in Afghanistan are seeking $1.3 billion to assist almost 16 million people in need of life-saving assistance as a result of decades of conflict, recurrent natural disasters, and the added impact of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of people targeted for assistance is over a six-fold increase compared to four years ago, when 2.3 million people were targeted for assistance, according to Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General.
The situation of children is particularly worrying.
"It is projected that nearly one in two children under the age of five will face acute malnutrition this year," Mr. Dujarric said on Monday.
Hunger is "soaring" as people have lost their livelihoods, he added, noting that in 2021, nearly half of Afghanistan's population will need humanitarian assistance to survive.
People 'increasingly desperate'
According to the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), across Afghanistan, about 18.4 million people are in need of assistance, a number that rose sharply last year with the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
"While enduringly resilient, people are increasingly desperate, resorting to debt and other more dangerous coping mechanisms to survive including marrying off their young daughters and sending their children to work," Parvathy Ramaswami, Humanitarian Coordinator a.i. for Afghanistan, said in the foreword to a humanitarian response plan.
The survival of the 15.7 million most vulnerable depends on humanitarians operating there receiving sufficient financial resources to deliver a response, she noted, adding that "the consequences of late or inadequate funding are very real."
The outlook for 2021 has worsened further due to significant unmet needs last year due to funding shortfalls and the acute focus on COVID-19, as well as the slow rollout of complementary development assistance, the response plan noted.
'Exhausted and hungry for peace'
Ms. Ramaswami went on to note that in spite of the bleak situation, there is "still cause for hope" with the start of the intra-Afghan negotiations.
"After enduring decades of war, people are mentally exhausted and hungry for peace, yearning for an end to civilian deaths and suffering."
She also highlighted the need for a permanent ceasefire or a persistent reduction in violence, to allow humanitarians to assess the situation, especially in the hard to reach areas.
"Until this much hoped for peace becomes a reality, the humanitarian community stands beside the people of Afghanistan during what surely must be one of the country's difficult periods," the UN official added, stressing "we all must do more, stretch higher, and do better to deliver life-saving assistance to those who need it most."
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Wonder drug beats effects of sleep deprivation
A drug could reverse the effects of sleep deprivation in the brain, a US study of monkeys has suggested.
The drug comes from a class of molecules called ampakines which enhance how some chemical receptors work in the brain.
It helped monkeys overcome their lack of sleep, the study in the Public Library of Science - Biology showed.
Researchers from North Carolina's Wake Forest University hope it could help people like doctors and shift workers, reports BBC News.
According to Reuters, in an article in the research journal PLoS Biology, Dr. Sam A. Deadwyler and his associates propose that CX717 would particularly benefit individuals affected by extended work hours or night shifts.
To test this possibility, they taught monkeys to perform a "delayed-match-to-sample task," in which they were presented with a single image on a computer screen, then would use a cursor to identify that image in a group of several different images.
During normal alert conditions, performance accuracy of the animals was improved from an average of 75 percent to 90 percent after an injection of CX717. The drug also shortened response times, suggesting that "CX717 also facilitated attentional processes related to speed of responding on successful trials."
When the monkeys were subjected 30-36 hours of sleep deprivation, average performance accuracy dropped to 63 percent, which was restored to 84 percent after CX717 treatment.
The distinct shifts in EEG recordings and changes in brain scans following sleep deprivation were also reversed by drug treatment.
"The fact that (compounds like) CX717 can temporarily alleviate the effects of prolonged periods of sleep deprivation...indicates their potential applicability to many circumstances in which human performance is compromised by extensive sleep loss," Deadwyler and his associates suggest.

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Mind & BodyFacebookShareSubscribe
The Words You Use in Facebook Statuses Can Predict 21 Medical Conditions
Terms like "head," "pain," "god," and "tears" are all linked to health conditions.
By Emma Betuel
Filed Under Data, Diseases, Health, Mental Health, Privacy & Public Health
In the eyes of a trained algorithm, Facebook status updates may be more than stray thoughts cast out into an online void. Instead, a team of scientists from the University of Pennsylvania showed that they may represent a "digital health footprint" capable of detecting diagnoses from depression to diabetes with uncanny accuracy.
Using an algorithm described in a paper published Monday in the open-access journal PLOS One, this team reports that language patterns within the Facebook statuses of consenting individuals can be used to predict 21 different medical conditions — including mental health issues and bodily health problems like sexually transmitted diseases. In fact, for 10 conditions, Facebook language proved to be a more powerful predictor than demographic data like age, sex, or race, which have been used to predict conditions and highlight inequities in public health research.
For 10 different diseases, Facebook statuses were better at predicting whether someone had the condition or not.
Facebook statuses were significantly better at predicting cases of diabetes, pregnancy, anxiety, psychoses, chronic pulmonary disease, STDs, drug abuse, collagen vascular diseases, coagulopathy (a blood-clotting disorder), and alcohol abuse. Importantly, the algorithm found these conditions hidden in language that may not pop up during a normal conversation with a doctor, noted H. Andrew Schwartz, Ph.D., an assistant professor of computer science at Stony Brook University and a study co-author.
"Our digital language captures powerful aspects of our lives that are likely quite different from what is captured through traditional medical data," Schwartz said.
The team developed the algorithm based on the health records and Facebook status updates from 999 individuals (a total of over 20 million words). From there, the team started to develop a series of "word clouds" that appeared to be associated with each condition.
Some of the words in these clouds were fairly straightforward. Alcoholism, for instance, was associated with words like "drunk" or "bottle"; depression was discerned by words associated with physical and emotional discomfort, like "head," "hurt," "pain," and "tears." But there were also some far less intuitive language patterns.
Substance use disorder tended to have ties to hostile language in Facebook updates — in the paper, the team highlights words like "dumb" or "bullshit." On the other hand, religious language had strong ties to diabetes. The patients who mentioned terms like "god," "family," and "pray" the most were 15 times more likely to have diabetes diagnoses than those who used less religious language.
A sample of word clouds from statuses that could reliably be used to predict diabetes, STDs, or drug abuse.
Used in tandem with demographic information, they were able to predict with "above chance" accuracy for all 21 conditions. But overall, the algorithm tended to really perform well when predicting rates of pregnancy, diabetes, and mental health conditions including psychoses, anxiety, and depression.
Lead study author Dr. Raina Merchant, the director of Penn's Center for Digital Health, added that she hopes this information could be used to help patients manage conditions, or at least help doctors see things they might otherwise miss.
"For instance, if someone is trying to lose weight and needs help understanding their food choices and exercise regimens, having a healthcare provider review their social media record might give them more insight into their usual patterns in order to help improve them," Merchant said.
But despite the promise of this analysis, it is a strange time to debut research that seeks to combine Facebook with information as intimate as a medical status. Facebook is under a federal privacy investigation and has been caught in the crosshairs of privacy concerns facing big tech since the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Inverse reached out to Facebook regarding the PLOS One paper's findings and will update this article when we hear back.
Our digital language captures powerful aspects of our lives that are likely quite different from what is captured through traditional medical data."
In contrast to some of Facebook's practices, this research falls well within ethical boundaries — to start with, it was conducted on a sample of willing participants who knew that they were providing their social media information for medical purposes. And the authors are aware that these results don't exist in a vacuum. They note that "the power of social media language to predict diagnoses raises parallel questions about privacy, informed consent, and data ownership."
But now that we know how powerful this data may actually be, the authors are aware that continuing to inform patients will be important. Still, the potential to spot the origins of serious conditions highlights the big benefits of finding a morally acceptable way to work with people's social media data on an even larger scale.
We studied whether medical conditions across 21 broad categories were predictable from social media content across approximately 20 million words written by 999 consenting patients. Facebook language significantly improved upon the prediction accuracy of demo- graphic variables for 18 of the 21 disease categories; it was particularly effective at predict- ing diabetes and mental health conditions including anxiety, depression and psychoses. Social media data are a quantifiable link into the otherwise elusive daily lives of patients, providing an avenue for study and assessment of behavioral and environmental disease risk factors. Analogous to the genome, social media data linked to medical diagnoses can be banked with patients' consent, and an encoding of social media language can be used as markers of disease risk, serve as a screening tool, and elucidate disease epidemiology. In what we believe to be the first report linking electronic medical record data with social media data from consenting patients, we identified that patients' Facebook status updates can pre- dict many health conditions, suggesting opportunities to use social media data to determine disease onset or exacerbation and to conduct social media-based health interventions.
Media via Pixabay , PLOS One , Pxhere
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Tonight I got to have some fun in the kitchen – by making my own chocolate!
The wonderful people at Glee Gum – makers of some fantastic all-natural chewing gum – recently came out with a few great DIY candy kits. I was contacted by the company with the opportunity to try one out for myself – I had to choose between making my own chewing gum, chocolate or gummies. It was a tough decision but I went with the chocolate – you can't go wrong with chocolate, right?
The Make Your Own Chocolate Box came with everything you need right inside. Along with step by step instructions to make your chocolate stovetop or in the microwave.
I ended up making about a dozen little cups – the hardest part of the entire process was getting the chocolate (gracefully) into the liners, while still keeping the cups "cute," but I did manage to get a few good ones.
But let's be honest, who cares what they look like, as long as they taste good, right?
And tasty they are! I was pleasantly surprised! The instructions gave you an option to add in any little "extras" to personalize your chocolate creations – like peanut butter, marshmallows or anything else your heart desires! I kept my chocolate plain this time, I wanted to see how it turned out in its original form, next time I might add PB & marshmallows! Bam!
I had a great time with the chocolate kit tonight – I could definitely see myself baking up a storm with some of the younger kids when everyone is home for the holidays, I know a little girl that would love it!
Want to make some chocolate of your very own?! The wonderful people at Glee Gum have offered up a Make Your Own Chocolate Kit to one lucky And Her Little Dog Too reader this week! Want to win one for yourself or a loved one just in time for the holidays?
Don't forget to "Like" And Her Little Dog Too on Facebook and/or follow AHLDT on Twitter for extra votes!
Sounds like a fun and tasty project! I'd love to win!
Looks like a fun and tasty time!
How fun! I think I would definitely add some Peanut Butter, such a winning combination!
I would add some crushed peppermint and maybe some white chocolate shavings and try and make a peppermint bark – just in time for the holidays!
This sounds like such a fun (and tasty) weekend project!
WOULD LOVE TO TRY THE CHOCOLATE OR GUMMY KIT!
What a fun idea! I'd love to try it.


Sep 27: Teens turn to libraries for "Books with Beat"
CHICAGO – With Teen Read Week just around the corner, the American Library Association (ALA) is offering online resources to help public and school libraries publicize their activities.
CHICAGO - Susan Stroyan and Maureen Sullivan are the candidates for the 2012-13 presidency of the American Library Association (ALA).
On Oct. 18, 2010, the Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations (ALTAFF) will launch its Trustee Academy, a series of online courses to help Trustees become exceptionally proficient in their roles on behalf of their libraries.
Sep 22: John Cotton Dana Award winners will receive $5,000: Apply Now!
Sep 21: Book banning alive and well in the U.S.
CHICAGO – The State Library of North Carolina is following the lead of libraries all across the country by reminding parents and children that a library card is the smartest school supply of all.
CHICAGO – Dynamite topics and great speakers will come together in San Diego for two outstanding symposia from the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services.
CHICAGO — Are you facing a smaller budget, with more service demand? Are you trying to introduce new services you know teens at your library will want, but you're facing pushback because your management tells you that they just don't have the resources?
CHICAGO - The Public Library Association (PLA) is now accepting preconference and program proposals for the PLA 2012 Conference, March 13-17, 2012 in Philadelphia, Pa.
CHICAGO—Registration is now open for the fall 2010 offerings of the Reference and User Services Association's (RUSA) popular classes Genealogy 101, Business Reference 101 and Readers' Advisory 101.
CHICAGO — Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction winner Richard Rhodes will deliver the Arthur Curley Memorial Lecture as part of the American Library Association's (ALA) Midwinter Meeting in San Diego. Rhodes is sponsored by Random House.


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Prof. Michael Flynn elected IEEE Fellow for contributions to analog-digital interfaces
Flynn has achieved important breakthroughs in the performance and energy efficiency of analog-digital interfaces.
Prof. Michael Flynn has been elected IEEE Fellow, Class of 2015, for "contributions to analog-digital interfaces."
Prof. Flynn has achieved important breakthroughs in the performance and energy efficiency of analog-digital interfaces. His research has significantly impacted three primary areas: 1) analog to digital conversion; 2) the analog-digital interface in wired and wireless communication systems; and 3) applications to complete systems, particularly brain-machine interfaces.
Prof. Flynn has helped transform the field of analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) by introducing novel and creative techniques that have resulted in key performance improvements. He introduced new architectures and techniques that allow analog circuits to take advantage of process scaling. Finally, his techniques greatly expanded the usefulness of successive-approximation (SAR) ADCs, and led to successful CMOS folding ADCs. Several of his ADC schemes have been widely adopted by industry and academia.
With his research group, Prof. Flynn enhanced the analog-interface in wireless receivers by improving both the capability and energy efficiency of wireless transceivers. His group was one of the first to incorporate an efficient ADC in a CMOS RFID tag to make a complete RF-powered sensing system. In later work, his group transcended one of the fundamental limitations of fractional-N PLLs when he introduced the first all-digital fractional-N PLL modulator with a single-bit phase detector. Prof. Flynn has applied aspects of this research to wireless sensor networks for the purpose of monitoring and ensuring the safety of the nation's infrastructure.
In the field of integrated brain-machine interface circuits, Prof. Flynn demonstrated the first single-chip closed-loop stimulation device for the treatment of Parkinson's Disease. This research has paved the way for practical closed-loop commercial devices that better treat the disease.
Prof. Flynn's current research is focused on analog and mixed-signal circuits, analog-to-digital conversion, and other interface circuits. These include high-speed serial transceivers, RF transceivers and sensors. He and his research group mainly focus on circuits that transfer information between the analog and digital domains.
Prof. Flynn is currently editor-in-chief- of the IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits and a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society. He is a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, the CoE Kennedy Family Team Excellence Award, and the CoE Education Excellence Award. Prof. Flynn received the latter award in part for his overhaul of the analog circuits curriculum, making it one of the strongest programs of its kind in the country.
About IEEE Fellows:
IEEE is the world's largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity. The IEEE Grade of Fellow is conferred by the IEEE Board of Directors upon a person with an extraordinary record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest.
Honors and Awards; Integrated Circuits and VLSI; Michael Flynn; Precision Health; Wireless Systems


text:
washingtonpost.com > Politics > Special Reports > U.S. Attorney Firings
Fired Prosecutor Disputes Justice Dept. Allegation
By Dan Eggen
A recently fired U.S. attorney based in Seattle said yesterday that he was told of no performance problems when he was asked to resign, and he called critical remarks by a top Justice Department official "unfair" and inaccurate.
The comments by former U.S. attorney John McKay add to a growing tide of criticism of the Justice Department's decision to fire seven top prosecutors without explanation, and came on the same day the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13 to 6 to limit the attorney general's power to appoint replacements.
McKay said in an interview that his Seattle office received glowing reviews as recently as last fall, when an intensive Justice Department audit heaped praise on McKay and his staff.
McKay challenged testimony this week by Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty, who told the Senate panel that McKay and five other Republican-appointed U.S. attorneys were forced to resign for "performance-related" reasons.
"That is unfair," McKay said. "That reflects on my former colleagues in the office and the good work that we did, and I know that's not true."
McKay is the third U.S. attorney to speak publicly about his dismissal. Daniel G. Bogden of Nevada told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he was given no explanation for being forced out and that he had not been told of any problems with his performance.
McNulty's testimony Tuesday also included an admission that the chief prosecutor in Little Rock, Ark., was fired to make way for GOP stalwart J. Timothy Griffin, a protege of presidential adviser Karl Rove and former researcher for the Republican National Committee.
The firings have angered lawmakers in both parties and have rapidly evolved into a serious political problem for the Justice Department. Yesterday's vote by the Judiciary Committee included approval from three Republicans: Sens. Arlen Specter (Pa.), Charles E. Grassley (Iowa) and Orrin G. Hatch (Utah).
The measure would repeal a provision in last year's USA Patriot Act reauthorization law that gave Attorney Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales the authority to appoint interim prosecutors for indefinite terms. The new legislation would return to the previous system, under which the attorney general appoints a replacement for 120 days and district courts appoint an interim U.S. attorney if a permanent one is not named in that time.
Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said the legislation is necessary to ensure Senate oversight and limit the "politicization of U.S. attorneys offices."
Justice Department spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos said that allowing Gonzales to appoint interim prosecutors is "good government and constitutionally sound."
"We are disappointed by congressional efforts to restrict our ability to appoint our own employees for temporary periods of time while a permanent nominee is selected," Scolinos said.


Formed in 2012, the IVRA is the leading international pressure group for vegan rights.
The IVRA is an international network of vegan legal professionals working together to promote veganism in law and to campaign for the international implementation of vegan rights. We are mainly composed of legal professionals but welcome interested non-legal professionals who would like to join our network to support our mission.
Jeanette founded the IVRA in 2012 as a way of contributing to anti-speciesist discourse. Her PhD centres on the idea that vegans' right to freedom of conscience brings human rights to a threshold where they intersect with animal rights.
Inspired by the philosophy of otherness developed by Emmanuel Levinas, Jeanette suggests that the legal recognition of vegans, whose claims present the moral standing of nonhuman animals, gives expression to the original duty to respond to suffering, which is entrenched in the idea of human rights. She argues that since the suffering narrative of human rights is grounded by the philosophy of otherness, it should explore the value of veganism in the search for a postmodern principle of inclusive justice.
Greg has been involved with the animal rights and vegan movements for the last 10 years and is currently a director of Vegan Australia. His focus is on reducing the barriers to veganism by campaigning for systemic changes which make veganism more mainstream, convenient, accessible and appealing. The work of the IVRA is in alignment with this.
Greg has been vegan for 20 years. His favourite quote is the Edgar's Mission motto "If we could live happy and healthy lives without harming others... why wouldn't we?"
Ralf Müller-Amenitsch is a German lawyer that works in his own law office in Berlin. He is specialized in labour, social and family law . He was born in 1963 in Bavaria, is married and studied in Bonn, Gemany and Lausanne, Switzerland . He is the author of the first German book on vegan law that has been published in 2016 under the name "Vegan im Recht", and co-authored the Austrian version of the book, published in 2017.
He supported the work of the IVRA since 2016 and became the German representative for the organisation the same year. He co-organised the first International symposium on the right to a plant-based diet in 2016, Berlin, Germany. He also supports PETA-Germany in national and international conferences on vegan topics.
Since 2018, he is a lecturer on vegan law and animal rights.
Lucas has been involved with the IVRA since 2012, taking responsibility for the organisation's I.T. (including the IVRA website, blog, all graphic design & photography, etc.) and admin.
He believes that vegans have the right to manifest their ethical convictions in their daily lives and that promoting their legal equality can help in the struggle for animal liberation.
Dr Gábor T. Fodor represents the IVRA in Hungary. He is an attorney at law, focusing mainly on labour law issues. He is an author of labour law related articles in Hungarian and in English, his works are published regularly in different specialized papers. He recently played a critical role in the establishment and legal recognition of the Hungarian Vegan Association.
Nuno Alvim is the president of the Portuguese Vegetarian Association. He has a master degree in Criminology.He´s been engaged in active lobbying and campaigning for promoting veganism and animal rights. He was the main organiser of a petition in Portugal that has resulted in legislation for the provision of strict vegetarian food in public canteens.
Dina is an Animal Rights Advocate and public speaker, who raises awareness about the realities of the meat and dairy industry through the organisation of national campaigns, the provision of talks and the hosting of vigils at slaughterhouses via The Save Movement. She is a non-practicing solicitor, having left full time practice to concentrate on the vegan movement. She believes that every nonhuman animal deserves to live free from exploitation and sees Veganism as the least that human beings can do for their fellow nonhuman animal inhabitants. She is a strong believer that Veganism must be acknowledged and accepted in its totality in law if we as a species are to move away from the currently dominant and detrimental speciesist behaviour that is not only destroying sentient lives, the planet and our health.
Matthew is half Welsh and half English. He will graduate this year, 2018, from the University of Bristol, with an undergraduate degree in Law. As part of Matthew's final year studies, he has produced ground breaking research in veganism and law. He is the treasurer of the Animal Law Society of the University of Bristol and the Student Liaison for the IVRA.
In his free time, Matthew enjoys rugby and hiking.
Edwina is an animal protection lawyer, which predominantly involves working within the field of public law. She is also a trustee for the UK Centre of Animal Law (A-law) where she set up and now manages the student group.
Petr Kudelka studied law, human rights and jazz guitar, currently working for the Vegan Society of Austria, coordinating a project on the human rights of vegans. He also works on human rights implications of community policing as well as privacy and data protection. He is interested in animal rights, drug policy and psychedelic research and is a passionate musician and meditator.
IVRA network spreads all over the world.


When you use the up arrow or the down arrow key within the excel sheet , the active cell would also change . There are times when you don't want the active cell to change when using the keyboard to navigate.
How to Scroll through the Worksheet in Microsoft Excel 2013 without changing the active cell ?
In this case , use the Scroll Lock key .
Turn on the Scroll lock key in the keyboard and perform the navigation using the navigation keys within the worksheet.
How to return to the original active cell ?
Use the shortcut key Ctrl + backspace to navigate to the original active cell.


text:
Q: How i can show sums and count of orders for domestic orders and non domastic orders separetly for each customers country? I have 2 requests and want to combine  them into 5 columns like Country_name - count_of_orders_for_domestic - sums_for_domectic  - count_of_orders_for_non_domestic - sums_for_non_domestic
domestic count of orders and sums
SELECT co.name country,
       count(cu.id) domestic_orders,
       sum(o.price) domastic_sum
FROM countries co
JOIN cities c ON co.id=c.country_id
JOIN customers cu ON c.id=cu.city_id
JOIN orders o ON cu.id=o.customer_id
JOIN products AS p ON o.product_id=p.id
WHERE p.country_id=co.id
GROUP BY co.name

non domestic count of orders and sums
SELECT co1.name country,
       count(cu1.id) non_domestic_orders,
       sum(o1.price) non_domastic_sum
FROM countries co1
JOIN cities c1 ON co1.id=c1.country_id
JOIN customers cu1 ON c1.id=cu1.city_id
JOIN orders o1 ON cu1.id=o1.customer_id
JOIN products AS p1 ON o1.product_id=p1.id
WHERE p1.country_id<>co1.id
GROUP BY co1.name

I try Union but it makes 3 columns and I cant see the difference between domestic and nondomestic. Then I try to make a new alias but I have a problem with count and sums operations.

A: You can use filtered aggregation:
SELECT co.name as country,
       count(cu.id) filter (where p.country_id = co.id) as domestic_orders,
       sum(o.price) filter (where p.country_id = co.id) as domastic_sum,
       count(cu.id) filter (where p.country_id <> co.id) as non_domestic_orders,
       sum(o.price) filter (where p.country_id <> co.id) as non_domastic_sum
FROM countries co
  JOIN cities c ON co.id=c.country_id
  JOIN customers cu ON c.id=cu.city_id
  JOIN orders o ON cu.id=o.customer_id
  JOIN products AS p ON o.product_id=p.id
GROUP BY co.name

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Sam Shankland US Junior Champion in bidding war
7/22/2010 – Three players tied for first in the US Junior Championship. The playoff mode is unusual: the players secretly bid for the amount of time they would be willing to accept for their games. The lower bid gets that, the choice of colour and draw odds, the opponent has 60 minutes. In the end Sam Shankland triumphed over Parker Zhao and GM Ray Robson. Final report from Saint Louis.
2010 U.S. Women's and
Junior Closed Championships
Two of the most prestigious tournaments in the country, the 2010 U.S. Women's Championship and the 2010 U.S. Junior Closed Championship, took place from July 9-20 at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. IM Anna Zatonskih was looking to defend her crown, which she won for two years in succession. In the Junior section Ray Robson was the top seed.
IM Sam Shankland had an atrocious first two rounds at the Junior Closed Championship. After announcing his early retirement from chess before coming to the Junior Closed, Shankland appeared listless as lower-rated opponents made quick work of him in rounds one and two.
Then, after scoring a win against FM John Bryant in round three, Shankland appeared more relaxed, and was even able to crack a few jokes in his post-mortem analysis with GM Ben Finegold and WGM Jen Shahade. Shankland went on a tear to close out the Junior Closed, scoring six points out of his final seven games.
Initially, his round eight draw appeared to seal his fate, as GM Ray Robson entered round nine a full point, and Parker Zhao a half point, ahead of Shankland. In a bizarre turn of events, Robson lost to FM Warren Harper in the final round, and Zhao was unable to convert a winning endgame against Bryant.
As the Bryant-Zhao game unfolded, Shankland and Robson were watching with tense anticipation to see if Bryant could hold the draw. As both players got down on time, Zhao finally agreed to a draw to ensure he didn't blunder away his chance at a playoff for the title.
In an unlikely scenario, Robson, Shankland and Zhao tied for first place and had to play an Armageddon playoff to determine the champion.
The playoff featured a unique set of rules. Robson, by virtue of being first on tiebreaks, elected to receive a bye in the first round of the playoff. Zhao and Shankland had to play first to determine who would play Robson for the championship.
In the playoffs: Parker Zhao and GM Ray Robson
Both players had to bid on how much time they were willing to start with, and whoever bid the lesser amount of time got the option to choose his color, with the black pieces getting draw odds (meaning that in the case of a draw, black is declared the winner). Whoever lost the bid received a full 45 minutes, with both players receiving a five-second increment for each move.
Shankland's bid of 31 minutes was trumped by Zhao's 29 minutes and 54 seconds, but even with draw odds, Zhao was no match for the newly focused Shankland.
Because of the victory, Shankland got his choice of color in the championship game, with Black again having draw odds. Shankland again chose Black and got a ten-minute respite to mentally prepare himself for Robson. Robson attempted a line he hoped Shankland wouldn't know, the Fantasy variation of the Caro-Kann, but Shankland was obviously prepared as he quickly whipped out the moves. Robson, as he has for most of the games throughout this tournament, once again found himself in time trouble, and Shankland cruised to an easy victory.
"I've been happy with my play," Shankland said. "I think ... in the last seven rounds of the tournament, I think I played my best chess. Unfortunately the first two count as well."
Shankland said he may make an exception to quitting chess, instead calling it a long hiatus with the possibility of returning next year. "It's a nice feeling to get someone who normally gets you, but really it's just the title that matters. If he had offered me a draw at any point I would have just taken it."
Sam Shankland Bio
I was born on October 1, 1991 in Berkeley, California. I lived there until I was four, and then when my brother was born, my parents decided to move to Orinda, a small suburb in the Bay Area. I lived there until September 2009, when I decided to move in with my friends in El Cerrito, where I currently reside.
I started playing chess when I was nine years old, and I played my first tournament when I was ten, achieving my first USCF rating ever of 1269. At first, I didn't play very often, mainly just the Friday night scholastic tournaments at the Berkeley Chess School, the place where I first learned chess. A year later, my rating had dropped a bit and I was down to under 1086. Starting at that point, I would go on to have one of the steepest learning curves in American chess history. It started with a strong result in the Berkeley Peoples K-6th grade chess competition, where I tied for third place. I then played another scholastic tournament in Stockton, and this would be the first time that I took first place in a reasonably strong scholastic tournament, scoring a perfect 4/4.
I then played the K-6th grade state championship, an enormous tournament with some 200 entrants. I was still listed as being rated 1083 because my other results had not been submitted yet, and I had no idea that I was actually unofficially 1300 already. Thus, it came as quite a shock to me that I upset the top seeded Aaron Garg, rated over 1600, in round two. I would maintain a perfect score all the way to the last round, where unfortunately my Cinderella Story was ended by a painful last round loss. Still, I tied for fourth overall in all of California for K-6th grade. This was the start of a long string of good results.
Just three years later, I became a National Master, breaking 2200 USCF. However, at that point I ran into a brick wall and leveled out. I would stay at about 2200 for about a year, and at the end of that year something wonderful happened. I had two wretched results in a row, losing 45 points. I was very down on myself, but it was a good wakeup call – I had been so blinded by my previous successes that until then I had not noticed what I was doing was the wrong attitude toward chess, and my style or attitude had realized its limitations. For more about what exactly that entails, look at the coaching tab.
Sam 'n Josh on their way to a 2009 US Chess Championship round
I then took the summer off from tournaments, and I studied almost every day with the three best friends I've ever had in David Pruess, Josh Friedel and Vinay Bhat. Following that summer, I had not only become a stronger player in general but my attitude toward the game completely changed.
From August 2007 to October 2008, I went from a no-name 2200 USCF to an IM rated over 2450 FIDE, as well as becoming the youngest California adult state champion ever at 16. Just a month later, I would go to Vietnam to play the World u18 championship. Initially I was not even invited by USCF because I needed to be a certain rating as of April, and one of my results was not submitted in a timely manner. The head of the US delegation, FM Aviv Friedman, helped to get me a spot on the team, which I am eternally grateful for. I also must say I think he made the right choice, as I went on to tie for first place and become the 2008 World under 18 co-champion, receiving the bronze medal on tiebreaks. This would be my biggest claim to fame to date. Since then my FIDE rating has increased to nearly 2500 and I have two of the three required norms to become a Grandmaster, and I'm still an active tournament player and searching for the final norm.
Sam Shankland's web site
All games in PGN: Women – Juniors
The games were broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!


Team MMS bring you our all natural cleaning products in a Mini!!
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Miracle Mini Gift Set; it is ideal for the new customer, that special teacher or friend. When you order a Gift Basket, we give you a basket that can be used for any purpose.
2 - Get 1 - 10ml Essential Oil bottle for use in a diffuser; choose from Bursting Citrus, Zen Blend, Immunity, ButterFly Kisses, Inner Peace and Awaken.
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This is an incredible package; pure therapeutic grade essential oils can easily cost you in excess of $17 for a similar size. We use only the purest of essential oils in our own home, so why would we give you anything less for your home?
Essential Oils can have a direct impact on your health; so we only use oils that come with a guarantee of ethically sourced and thoroughly tested for quality & effectiveness in all our products. !
Our organic soaps are made with equally natural ingredients safe for the youngest of skin! We hand make all our soaps and only use quality ingredients such as soothing Aloe, Olive Oil and Shea Butter to name a few then we top them off with essential oils that help with wake your senses and moisturize your skin up!
Go ahead and spoil yourself with this incredible Gift Set! Try out the new kid on the "Cleaning" Block! Once you spray My Miracle Solution you promise won't be going back!


For the 5th consecutive year, professionals of the beauty industry will gather in London at Beauty Trends & Innovations Conference - Real Insight, Future Inspiration on 26th September to investigate beauty trends.
How to enchant consumers with real-world insights into the hottest beauty trends, inspirational campaigns and profitable future innovations.
How are award-winning beauty brands and retailers standing out on-shelf and boosting profits with exciting marketing?
What are beauty customers on the hunt for and which brands make them feel great!
Not only will this one-day event provide real-life case studies, but also the opportunity to discuss and develop practical solutions and strategies to enchant beauty consumers.
Quote 'premium' to save £150 when booking online here, call the team on +44 (0)20 3479 2299 or download the brochure here.


Apprenticeships – what's in it for the employer?
Find out how apprenticeships work for different employers across Brighton & Hove. Suzanne Charlesworth, Nursery Manager at Each Peach Childcare and Andy Parsons, Founding Director Yelo Architects explain the benefits of working with apprentices, training them and watching them grow.
Apprenticeships – how can they help your business?
Find out how apprenticeships work for employers, the opportunities available for apprentices and benefits to different businesses.
To find out more about apprenticeships call 0800 015 0400 or visit www.getingofar.gov.uk and www.findapprenticeship.service.gov.uk.
A brief outline of the reasons that employers hire apprentices and the benefits that can result.
More videos about local apprenticeships and pre-employment training can be found on our YouTube channel here and other videos on the National Apprenticeship Service channel here.


text:
package com.szajna.fractals.model;

import static org.jocl.CL.CL_CONTEXT_PLATFORM;
import static org.jocl.CL.CL_DEVICE_TYPE_ALL;
import static org.jocl.CL.CL_MEM_WRITE_ONLY;
import static org.jocl.CL.CL_TRUE;
import static org.jocl.CL.clBuildProgram;
import static org.jocl.CL.clCreateBuffer;
import static org.jocl.CL.clCreateCommandQueueWithProperties;
import static org.jocl.CL.clCreateContext;
import static org.jocl.CL.clCreateKernel;
import static org.jocl.CL.clCreateProgramWithSource;
import static org.jocl.CL.clEnqueueNDRangeKernel;
import static org.jocl.CL.clEnqueueReadBuffer;
import static org.jocl.CL.clGetDeviceIDs;
import static org.jocl.CL.clGetDeviceInfo;
import static org.jocl.CL.clGetPlatformIDs;
import static org.jocl.CL.clSetKernelArg;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;

import org.jocl.CL;
import org.jocl.CLException;
import org.jocl.Pointer;
import org.jocl.Sizeof;
import org.jocl.cl_command_queue;
import org.jocl.cl_context;
import org.jocl.cl_context_properties;
import org.jocl.cl_device_id;
import org.jocl.cl_kernel;
import org.jocl.cl_mem;
import org.jocl.cl_platform_id;
import org.jocl.cl_program;

import com.szajna.util.Filesystem;
import com.szajna.util.Log;

public class FractalModel {

    private static final String LOG_TAG = FractalModel.class.getSimpleName();

    public static final int ITERATIONS_COUNT_MIN = 100;
    public static final int ITERATIONS_COUNT_MAX = 1200;
    public static final int ITERATIONS_COUNT_DEFAULT = 300;

    private final static int THREADS_COUNT = 8;
    private final static double MAX_BETRAG_QUADRAT = 16.0;

    private int[][] fractalData;
    private int[] fractalData2;

    private int width = 0;
    private int height = 0;
    private int iterationsCount;

    private double centerCx;
    private double centerCy;
    private double zoom;

    private boolean openClSupported;
    private boolean openClDoubleSupport;

    private boolean openClEnabled;

    /**
     * The OpenCL context
     */
    private cl_context context;

    /**
     * The OpenCL command queue
     */
    private cl_command_queue commandQueue;

    /**
     * The OpenCL kernel which will actually compute the Mandelbrot
     * set and store the pixel data in a CL memory object
     */
    private cl_kernel kernel;

    /**
     * The OpenCL memory object which stores the pixel data
     */
    private cl_mem pixelMem;

    /**
     * Constructs fractal model object.
     * @param width - fractal width.
     * @param height - fractal height.
     */
    public FractalModel() {

        setToDefaults();
        setSize(0, 0);
        this.iterationsCount = ITERATIONS_COUNT_DEFAULT;

        try {
            this.openClSupported = openClTryInit();
            this.openClEnabled = this.openClSupported;  // enable if supported

        } catch (UnsatisfiedLinkError e) {

            Log.e(LOG_TAG, "Could not load native OpenCL library");
            Log.i(LOG_TAG, "To install it on Ubuntu try:");
            Log.i(LOG_TAG, " sudo apt update");
            Log.i(LOG_TAG, " sudo apt install ocl-icd-opencl-dev");
            this.openClSupported = false;
            this.openClEnabled = false;
        }
    }

    /**
     * Creates fractal taking parameters from another model.
     * @param width - fractal width in pixels.
     * @param height - fractal height in pixels.
     * @param other - other model, must be != null.
     */
    public FractalModel(int width, int height, FractalModel other) {

        this.width = other.width;
        this.height= other.height;
        this.iterationsCount = other.iterationsCount;
        this.centerCx = other.centerCx;
        this.centerCy = other.centerCy;
        this.zoom = other.zoom;
        this.openClSupported = false;
        this.openClDoubleSupport = false;
        this.openClEnabled = false;
        setSize(width, height);
    }

    /**
     * Sets zoomX, zoomY, minCx, minCy and iterationsCount to default values.
     */
    public void setToDefaults() {

        centerCx = -0.50f;
        centerCy =  0.00f;
        zoom = 4.0f;
    }

    /**
     * Initialize OpenCL: Create the context, the command queue and the kernel.
     * \return true if initialized with success, otherwise return false.
     */
    private boolean openClTryInit() {

        final int platformIndex = 0;
        final long deviceType = CL_DEVICE_TYPE_ALL;
        final int deviceIndex = 0;

        // enable exceptions
        CL.setExceptionsEnabled(true);

        try {
            // Obtain the number of platforms
            int numPlatformsArray[] = new int[1];
            clGetPlatformIDs(0, null, numPlatformsArray);

            int numPlatforms = numPlatformsArray[0];
            if (numPlatforms < 1) {
                Log.d(LOG_TAG, "OpenCL - no platforms");
                return false;
            }

            // Obtain a platform ID
            cl_platform_id platforms[] = new cl_platform_id[numPlatforms];
            clGetPlatformIDs(platforms.length, platforms, null);
            cl_platform_id platform = platforms[platformIndex];

            // Initialize the context properties
            cl_context_properties contextProperties = new cl_context_properties();
            contextProperties.addProperty(CL_CONTEXT_PLATFORM, platform);

            // Obtain the number of devices for the platform
            int numDevicesArray[] = new int[1];
            clGetDeviceIDs(platform, deviceType, 0, null, numDevicesArray);

            int numDevices = numDevicesArray[0];
            if (numDevices < 1) {
                Log.d(LOG_TAG, "OpenCL - no devices");
                return false;
            }

            // Obtain a device ID
            cl_device_id devices[] = new cl_device_id[numDevices];
            clGetDeviceIDs(platform, deviceType, numDevices, devices, null);
            cl_device_id device = devices[deviceIndex];

            // check double support
            openClDoubleSupport = openClCheckDoubleSupport(device);
            Log.d(LOG_TAG, "OpenCL device support for double: " + (openClDoubleSupport ? "yes" : "no"));

            // Create a context for the selected device
            context = clCreateContext(contextProperties, 1, new cl_device_id[]{device}, null, null, null);

            // Create a command-queue for the selected device
            commandQueue = clCreateCommandQueueWithProperties(context, device, null, null);

            // Program Setup
            String programResource;
            if (openClDoubleSupport) {
                programResource = "kernels/mandelbrot_double.cl";
            } else {
                programResource = "kernels/mandelbrot.cl";
            }

            InputStream sourceIs = getClass().getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(programResource);
            if (sourceIs == null) {

                Log.d(LOG_TAG, "OpenCL error loading program: " + programResource);
                return false;
            }

            try {

                String source = Filesystem.readFile(sourceIs);

                // Create the program
                cl_program cpProgram = clCreateProgramWithSource(context, 1, new String[]{ source }, null, null);

                // Build the program
                clBuildProgram(cpProgram, 0, null, "-cl-mad-enable", null, null);

                // Create the kernel
                kernel = clCreateKernel(cpProgram, "computeMandelbrot", null);

            } catch (IOException e) {

                Log.d(LOG_TAG, "OpenCL error loading program: " + programResource + ", error: " + e.getMessage());
                return false;
            }

        } catch (CLException e) {
            Log.d(LOG_TAG, "OpenCL error: " + e.getMessage() + ", OpenCL status: " + e.getStatus());
            return false;

        } catch (Exception e) {
            Log.d(LOG_TAG, "OpenCL error: " + e.getMessage());
            return false;
        }

        return true;
    }

    /**
     * Checks if device supports double.
     * @param device - openCL device
     * @return true if double supported on that device, otherwise false.
     */
    private boolean openClCheckDoubleSupport(cl_device_id device) {

        boolean doubleSupported;
        int val[] = new int[1];

        clGetDeviceInfo(device, CL.CL_DEVICE_PREFERRED_VECTOR_WIDTH_DOUBLE, Sizeof.cl_uint, Pointer.to(val), null);
        int preferredVectorWidthDouble = val[0];

        clGetDeviceInfo(device, CL.CL_DEVICE_NATIVE_VECTOR_WIDTH_DOUBLE, Sizeof.cl_uint, Pointer.to(val), null);
        int nativeVectorWidthDouble = val[0];

        if (preferredVectorWidthDouble == 0 || nativeVectorWidthDouble == 0) {
            doubleSupported = false;
        } else {
            doubleSupported = true;
        }

        return doubleSupported;
    }

    /**
     * Calculates fractal using OpenCL.
     * Execute the kernel function and read the resulting data.
     */
    private void openClCalculate()
    {
        // Set work size and execute the kernel
        long globalWorkSize[] = new long[2];
        globalWorkSize[0] = width;
        globalWorkSize[1] = height;

        clSetKernelArg(kernel, 0, Sizeof.cl_mem, Pointer.to(pixelMem));
        clSetKernelArg(kernel, 1, Sizeof.cl_uint, Pointer.to(new int[]{width}));
        clSetKernelArg(kernel, 2, Sizeof.cl_uint, Pointer.to(new int[]{height}));

        if (openClDoubleSupport) {
            clSetKernelArg(kernel, 3, Sizeof.cl_double, Pointer.to(new double[]{ centerCx }));
            clSetKernelArg(kernel, 4, Sizeof.cl_double, Pointer.to(new double[]{ centerCy }));
            clSetKernelArg(kernel, 5, Sizeof.cl_double, Pointer.to(new double[]{ getZoomX() }));
            clSetKernelArg(kernel, 6, Sizeof.cl_double, Pointer.to(new double[]{ getZoomY() }));
        } else {
            clSetKernelArg(kernel, 3, Sizeof.cl_float, Pointer.to(new float[]{ (float)centerCx }));
            clSetKernelArg(kernel, 4, Sizeof.cl_float, Pointer.to(new float[]{ (float)centerCy }));
            clSetKernelArg(kernel, 5, Sizeof.cl_float, Pointer.to(new float[]{ (float)getZoomX() }));
            clSetKernelArg(kernel, 6, Sizeof.cl_float, Pointer.to(new float[]{ (float)getZoomY() }));
        }
        clSetKernelArg(kernel, 7, Sizeof.cl_int, Pointer.to(new int[]{ iterationsCount }));

        clEnqueueNDRangeKernel(commandQueue, kernel, 2, null, globalWorkSize, null, 0, null, null);
        clEnqueueReadBuffer(commandQueue, pixelMem, CL_TRUE, 0,
            Sizeof.cl_int * width * height, Pointer.to(fractalData2), 0, null, null);

        for (int x = 0; x < width; x++) {
            for (int y = 0; y < height; y++) {
                fractalData[x][y] = fractalData2[y * width + x];
            }
        }
    }

    /**
     * Calculates fractal.
     */
    public void calculate() {

        long startTimestamp = System.currentTimeMillis();
        boolean useOpenCl = (openClSupported && openClEnabled);

        if (useOpenCl) {
            openClCalculate();
        } else {
            // single thread implementation
            // calculate(0, width);

            // multi-thread calculation
            Thread [] threads = new Thread[THREADS_COUNT];
            for (int i = 0; i < threads.length; ++i) {

                int startX = i * width / THREADS_COUNT;
                int endX = (i + 1) * width / THREADS_COUNT;

                threads[i] = new Thread(new FractalWorker(this, startX, endX));
                threads[i].start();
            }

            try {
                for (int i = 0; i < threads.length; ++i)
                    threads[i].join();
            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }

        long calcTime = System.currentTimeMillis() - startTimestamp;
        Log.v(LOG_TAG, "OpenCL: " + useOpenCl + ", calc.time: " + calcTime);
    }

    /**
     * Calculates fractal - useful for dividing job on more threads.
     * @param startX
     * @param endX
     */
    public void calculate(int startX, int endX) {

        double cx;
        double cy;

        double zoomX = getZoomX();
        double zoomY = getZoomY();

        for (int x = startX; x < endX; ++x) {

            cx = centerCx - zoomX / 2.0 + ((double)x / (width - 1)) * zoomX;
            for (int y = 0; y < height; ++y) {

                cy = centerCy - zoomY / 2.0 + ((double)y / (height - 1)) * zoomY;
                fractalData[x][y] = pointIteration(cx, cy, MAX_BETRAG_QUADRAT, iterationsCount);
            }
        }

    }

    /**
     * Gets fractal data.
     * @return fractal data.
     */
    public int[][] getFractalData() {
        return fractalData;
    }

    public void setSize(int width, int height) {

        if (width < 1)
            width = 0;
        if (height < 1)
            height = 0;

        fractalData = new int[width][height];
        fractalData2 = new int[width * height];

        if (openClSupported) {
            // create the memory object which will be filled with the pixel data
            pixelMem = clCreateBuffer(context, CL_MEM_WRITE_ONLY, width * height * Sizeof.cl_uint, null, null);
        } else {
            pixelMem = null;
        }

        this.width = width;
        this.height = height;
    }

    public void setIterationsCount(int iterationsCount) {
        this.iterationsCount = iterationsCount;
    }
    public void setCenterCx(double centerCx) {
        this.centerCx = centerCx;
    }
    public void setCenterCy(double centerCy) {
        this.centerCy = centerCy;
    }
    public void setZoom(double zoom) {
        this.zoom = zoom;
    }

    public int getWidth() {
        return width;
    }
    public int getHeight() {
        return height;
    }
    public int getIterationsCount() {
        return iterationsCount;
    }
    public double getCenterCx() {
        return centerCx;
    }
    public double getCenterCy() {
        return centerCy;
    }
    public double getZoom() {
        return zoom;
    }
    public double getZoomX() {

        double aspect = width / (double)height;
        return aspect > 1.0 ? zoom * aspect : zoom;
    }
    public double getZoomY() {

        double aspect = width / (double)height;
        return aspect > 1.0 ? zoom : zoom * 1.0 / aspect;
    }

    public boolean isOpenClSupported() {
        return openClSupported;
    }

    public boolean isOpenClEnabled() {
        return openClEnabled;
    }

    public void setOpenClEnabled(boolean openClEnabled) {
        this.openClEnabled = openClEnabled;
    }

    private int pointIteration(double cx, double cy, double maxBetragQuadrat, int maxIterations) {

        double betragQuadrat = 0;
        double x = 0;
        double y = 0;
        int iter = 0;

        double xt;
        double yt;

        double xQuadrat;
        double yQuadrat;

        while (betragQuadrat <= maxBetragQuadrat && iter < maxIterations) {

            xQuadrat = x * x;
            yQuadrat = y * y;

            xt = xQuadrat - yQuadrat + cx;
            yt = 2 * x * y + cy;
            x = xt;
            y = yt;

            betragQuadrat = xQuadrat + yQuadrat;
            ++iter;
        }
        //return iter - (float)(Math.log(Math.log(betragQuadrat) / Math.log(4)) / Math.log(2));
        return iter;
    }
}


text:
G Burns Jug Band: Tales of Trains, Tubas, and Washboards
By Terry Roland, September 2015
G Burns Jug Band: (front row) Batya MacAdam-Somer, Jonathan Piper, Meghann Welsh, (back row) Clinton Davis, Anders Larsson. Photo by John Hancock.
Busking in downtown San Diego. Photo by John Hancock.
Clinton Davis. Photo by Dave Smith.
Batya MacAdam-Somer. Photo by Dave Smith.
Jonathan Piper. Photo by Dave Smith.
Meghann Welsh. Photo by Dave Smith.
The funny thing about music is that it doesn't rest so well in history. Because music is a living thing, it challenges us to explore its soundscape, no matter where in history or geography it resides. It is like a comet with a great tail that pulls us into its fiery allure.
Take jug band music as an example.
In the era preceding World War II, especially during the 1920s and '30s, much of the roots music of the day had been handed down from the years following the Civil War. It came to us through whatever instruments the musicians of the streets and back alleys could conjure and create. If they didn't have the money to buy guitars, mandolins, or banjos, they made them from cigar boxes, discarded pie plates, gourds, washtubs, and old whisky jugs. The music, which was made predominantly in the Deep South by African-Americans, lay dormant through the middle decades of the 20th Century until it was given a re-birth during the folk boom of the 1950s and '60s through artists like John Sebastian's Lovin' Spoonful, the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, and the Grateful Dead.
But, for Kentuckian and San Diego resident Clinton Davis, exploring the history of the music of his home town in Louisville was as natural as walking out his front door to climb trees. According Davis, who is enrolled in the ethnomusicology program at San Diego University, exposure to the music of his locale was inspired by his father. "My Dad made sure I grew up hearing good music," he says. "He would take me to see jug bands that showed the historical connection with where we lived," Davis recalls. "By the time I got into college, I was studying for a master's degree in classical piano, but I had a real hunger for pre-war music. I was working at my college radio station," he says, "and their library was so vast and varied, I learned about all kinds of music. That was when my love for jug band music really began to grow."
Through his college radio experience Davis found he yearned for something more than mainstream pop sounds. "I find a vitality and joy in the intensity of this music," he explains. "There's a depth of feeling that makes playing it very rewarding."
Today, as he fronts the unique sound of the San Diego-based G Burns Jug Band, he never finds his homegrown music far from his heart. In fact, it's always just a guitar strum away. And since 2012 he has gathered together a community of musicians to help him realize his dream of playing jug band music. The band has just released a new album, The Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe, with the help of a recent successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign.
Along with Davis on vocals, guitar, tenor banjo, and banjolin — a combination of a banjo and a mandolin — the remaining band members, all graduate students in the music department at San Diego University, include Meghann Welsh on accordion, tenor banjo, and vocals; Anders Larsson on percussion, including washboard; Batya MacAdam-Somer on fiddle and vocals; and Jonathan Piper on jug, tuba, and vocals.
While their reputation has grown enough in national old time music and bluegrass festivals to allow them to share the stage with such musical luminaries as Jim Kweskin and Del McCoury, they're finding enthusiastic appreciation at home. This is evident in their recent nomination for Best Local Recording in the 2015 San Diego Music Awards.
Indeed, it is a well-deserved honor. Their new album authentically captures jug band music in a way that makes it feel immediate and in a uniquely fresh way and current, as though it had been just created today on the front porch of some cabin in the Deep South after an afternoon of emptying a jug of moonshine. Although the band members have a strong musical academic background, it never gets in the way of their performance on this record as they present the feel of an early jug band that has just emerged from a back alley somewhere in Louisville or Memphis. They don't merely replicate the sound, they have given the music a new life by emulating and embodying the pre-war music of the era. In so doing they have made the music of those early jug bands as relevant today, as an outlet for good times and singing the blues, as they were sung in their heyday.
On familiar songs, "On the Road Again," and "John Henry" as well obscure nuggets like Ma Rainy's sex romp "Prove It All Night," "KC Moan," and Sarah Martin's "Jug Band Blues," the new album, recorded live in the studio at Rarified Recording in North Park, presents the spirit of bittersweet joy and celebration. There is a well-crafted and creative warmth to these sessions that serves as a subtle reminder of the source of this music. It may create a desire in the listener to go back to the original recordings as well as enjoy these present day interpretations. Their sound is infectious and joyfully chaotic as jugs, tubas, and washboards merge with banjos, guitars, and mandolins. The album is distinctly and unmistakably jug band music of the finest kind complete with its own raucous and wooly sensibility.
The history of the music has its genesis in the decades between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of World War II. While the music was grown in the cotton fields, prison labor camps, minstrel shows, traveling medicine wagons, and by the street songsters and buskers, saloons entertainers and eventually on the vaudeville stage, it was ultimately captured with the advent of recording technology in the early 20th century. Young and old artists alike were brought into the primitive recording studios of the day where they preserved the songs that had been handed down to them for generations. Included in this was jug band music. It also became known as "skiffle" a term that is familiar today when it was used to coin the style of music that became popular in England during the late 1950s. Skiffle even influenced the Beatles.
Clinton Davis' hometown of Louisville, Kentucky was the first to record jug band music. Although Sara Martin's 1924 recording of "Jug Band Blues" is often referred to as the first jug band recording, fiddle player; Clifford Hayes' Old Southern Jug Band recorded songs as early as 1923. Soon, popular recording artists like Jimmie Rodgers included jug band music on their records. The Kentucky style of jug band music is heavily influenced by jazz and blues.
The other landmark region for jug band music was Memphis, Tennessee. The style there was solid country blues. The country style can be heard on the recordings of the Memphis Jug Band, Gus Cannon, Jed Davenport, and Ma Rainy, whose early recordings featured the first appearance of slide guitar via Tampa Red. Ralph Peer, who was responsible for recording the Carter Family, traveled the area with recording equipment, capturing the joyful sounds he heard and sending them out to the world. By 1929, Columbia Records, Okeh Records, and Vocalion Records were releasing jug band music.
As the country moved into the Great Depression of the 1930s, jug band music began to fall silent. After World War II, the musicians began to turn in their unusual instruments to join more traditional blues and jazz bands. It wasn't long before the unique street music was all but gone in the face of rapid cultural change with the progress of radio and record companies focusing on artists who became stars. When it became labeled as "ethnic" music the result categorized roots music nearly out of existence or at least out of the reach of mainstream (white) audiences. The music was kept a safe distance from popular exposure with their own segregated venues, radio stations, and charts.
However, as a new generation came along in the '50s, the safe distance created by musical racism began to close in on the bland conformity of the conservative era. As Elvis Presley stepped into Sun Studios in Memphis, rock 'n' roll was born, which would set the stage for an even greater explosion, marking the return of jug band music.
Along with rock 'n' roll, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s brought in a renewed interest in the music created during the pre-war years. The Folk Music boom of the late '50s, which grew into an enduring and epic movement of roots music, brought back the jug bands, as the youth of the day went searching record archives for the music of the '20s and '30s. It became popular enough to signal a jug band revival that has continued over the last 50 years.
The first jug band recordings of the '50s folk era was released in 1958 called Skiffle in Stereo by the Orange Blossom Jug Five, which included Dave Van Ronk and Sam Charter in their ranks. In 1963 Gus Cannon's "Walk Right In" became a #1 hit on mainstream pop charts. Jug band music was back in full force and form with a new generation to champion its roots and bring back to life music born in another century.
No artist did more to spread, modernize and popularize jug band music than Jim Kweskin. His self-named band was founded in Boston in 1963 with friend Geoff Muldaur, who would later bring his wife, Maria, into the fold. The band influenced and inspired young folk singer, John Sebastian, who went on to form the Lovin' Spoonful, giving a full pop-rock flavor to the music. Most notably, however, was the group of musicians in San Francisco, who upon hearing Kweskin's music would form their own jug band. Later, they would go electric and call themselves the Grateful Dead.
In the 50 years since the days of Kweskin's band, jug band music has slowly grown into its own national culture, with festivals and spring and summer competitions. Once considered far outside of the mainstream of national music, today jug band music influences much of what is heard in Americana music through artists like the Carolina Chocolate Drops and Pokey LaFarge. Louisville's own Juggernaut Jug Band has managed to incorporate pop, jazz, and classical music into the jug band form, covering songs like the Doors classic "People Are Strange," The Who's "Pinball Wizard," and Dylan's epic "Desolation Row." It's all done in expert fun with a trace of early hokum.
G Burns Jug Band represents a new generation of artists devoted to the purity of the sound and form. On The Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe album, the band turns back the musical clock, undoing some of the adaptations done by artists like Juggernaut Jug Band and Jim Kweskin, returning to the blueprint created by the founding artists of jug band music.
At the center of this joyous recreation is the acknowledged front man, Clinton Davis. Along with his own musical heritage growing up in Louisville, he carries a love for the authenticity of pre-war music and its artists. The most revealing comments came during a recent interview when he was asked if the band had considered writing original songs. "Yes, that subject has come up. My feeling is, I don't want to write anything unless it is as good as these songs we cover." Of course, that is a daunting challenge, especially with a near endless catalog of songs and styles to work from. For him, this music seems to be almost as sacred as faith and important in a way that suggests the roots of this music runs very deep in his soul.
After graduating with a four-year degree in classical piano, Davis decided to continue his studies at the University of San Diego. Upon arriving, he began recruiting fresh musicians for his vision of an authentic jug band based in Southern California. "I found an openness here to this kind of music that I'm not sure I would find in other places," he explained. "All of the musicians seemed to come at the right time for the band." And indeed they did fall into place in a way that allowed for the talented and skilled musicians to learn something entirely new for them.
The members of the band are as interesting as they are diverse. While they are all accomplished musicians in other genres, they had little experience with jug band music prior to joining up with Davis.
Violinist Batya MacAdam-Somer sums it up, "I am a classical violinist by training. I went to Manhattan School of Music for my undergrad and recently earned a DMA at UCSD. I maintain a classical career performing with Quartet Nouveau and other San Diego-based ensembles." But her cultural family background in Texas allowed MacAdam-Somer a degree of comfort in becoming familiar with jug band music. "I was fortunate to grow up in a rich musical environment that provided me a broad range of influences. I have three siblings who are all musicians — my eldest sister is a violinist and has been fiddling since she was young. We were raised in Houston, a great town for music and certainly a place with ties to folk and country music. So I was definitely drawn to the sounds I heard growing up.
Jonathan Piper has charge of the tuba and the jug. He may be the only jug player in America who holds a Ph.D. His teaching experience includes courses in Western European music from the 1600s. But, his experience with G Burns has been the most unique of his musical life. And while he is a classically educated tubist, the jug became a struggle for him to learn.
"The band started out with me playing the tuba; that's my instrument. Clint was always pushing me to try out some kind of jug, but nothing ever felt right," Piper explained. "As frustrating as this was, I felt even worse that we called ourselves a jug band without a dedicated jug player." But, things would soon change. "Finally, on our first tour, we played a show with the Americans. Their bassist/jug player told me that, in his experience, the trick for brass players coming to jug was that we just didn't know how hard to blow. He let me borrow his jug for our tour, and I started playing it during busking sessions. That simple advice clicked — the harder I blew, the better it felt and sounded. It can be tricky going between the instruments — jug blowing is way too hard for the tuba, and tuba blowing barely makes any sound on the jug. Now, there are times when I feel more comfortable on the jug. There's less mechanism between me and the resulting sound, and it almost feels like singing," Piper said with relief.
For percussionist Anders Larsson, the experience has been equally unique. He is on staff at University of San Diego, however, he met Clinton Davis when the punk-a-billy band Two Wolves, which he drums for, shared the bill with G Burns Jug Band. "When Clint asked me to join I had to give him full disclosure. I told him up front, 'I don't play this kind of music.' My mom was into the folk revival music of the '50s and '60s. But, my familiarity with the music was entirely passive. But, the band was looking for a percussionist with a clean musical slate in order to learn the music on its own terms." Larsson received his master's degree in jazz studies in New Orleans at Loyola University, the city where much of the jazz orientation of the early jug bands originated. It was there he had experience playing the washboard with Cajun Zydeco bands. "I've also learned the spoons and bones, but I have yet to incorporate them into the band in performance," he said.
One of the critical parts of the story of G Burns Jug Band's development revolves around the creation of a music scene. When a friend and bandmate of percussionist Larsson gave the band a place to play on a regular basis, the Black Cat Bar became the place to go where they could work out their songs before a live audience without pressure. According to Davis this has been a key part of the band's history. "The residency at Black Cat Bar has given us somewhere to show up and try out new music," he said. According to Piper, playing live has been a new experience. "Our shows at the Black Cat have been really important to me, because it has always felt like a safe and supportive space to work on my identity as a jug band musician. Touring feels totally different, since we can't depend on a rapport with the crowd. But I think we've all gotten to a place of confidence and familiarity with what we're doing that we can count on giving a great performance anywhere we go," he said.
As a violinist, Batya MacAdam-Somer puts it, "Playing with the band is a blast. I love the sense of abandon I get from the music, sharing that with the rest of the group, and sharing that with the audience as well. Watching people of all ages get up and dance to our music is, for me, sheer joy."
For Larsson the Black Cat Bar shows have been an important ingredient in the authenticity of the music. "It helps us to put a foot in the real world. Because of the Black Cat Bar and our monthly shows there, the band is not just an academic exercise. You know it's real when people go there on a Saturday to dance to the music at 12:30 in the morning."
According to both Davis and Larsson the Black Cat Bar has an old school feel to it without being contrived. It has a vintage feel that gives the band's music the kind of atmosphere it needs. For G Burns Jug Band, this has been critical to the group's success.
As the band carries on with the long tradition of pre-war music, there is much to discover, uncover, and recover from the historical archives left behind by the musicians of the past. But, this band of musicians is now in the midst of resurrecting something that is vitally important for us. It is a treasure that cannot be contained merely in history, but must also be expressed by the best and the brightest of us. G Burns Jug Band has proven this to be a reality.


text:
In astrology, the Equatorial Ascendant, or the East Point, is the sign and degree rising over the Eastern Horizon at the Earth's equator at any given time.  In the celestial sphere it corresponds to the intersection of the ecliptic with a great circle containing the celestial poles and the East point of the horizon.

Calculation
Equations derived from spherical trigonometry allow for the conversion from equatorial coordinates to ecliptic coordinates. As points in the ecliptic have no latitude (=0º) and the East point of the horizon has a right ascension 6h higher than that of the meridian (or 90º more in hour angle), the equation that determines East Point's longitude can be written as:

EPEP

where  is the local sidereal time and  is the obliquity of the ecliptic. The equation can also be derived from the Ascendant at the equator (=0º).

 Angles in the degrees ( ° ), minutes ( ' ), and seconds ( " ) of sexagesimal measure must be converted to decimal before calculations are performed. Whether they are converted to decimal degrees or radians depends upon the particular calculating machine or program.
 Angles in the hours ( h ), minutes ( m ), and seconds ( s ) of time measure must be converted to decimal degrees or radians before calculations are performed.     (1h = 15°     1m = 15'     1s = 15")
 Angles greater than 360° () or less than 0° may need to be reduced to the range 0° - 360° (0 - ) depending upon the particular calculating machine or program.
When L.S.T. is 0h 0m 0s (=0º), East Point's longitude is 90º.
 Inverse trigonometric functions are quadrant-ambiguous, and results should be carefully evaluated by taking into account that EP is roughly 90º more than MC.
 For the past 5 million years, Earth's obliquity has varied between 22.042500° and 24.50444°. The effect on EP is less than 0.53°. For values referred to the standard equinox J2000.0 use 23.4392911°; for J1950.0 use 23.4457889°.

See also
Ascendant (astrology)
Accidental Ascendant

References

Technical factors of Western astrology

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Filters: Author is T. Arnold [Clear All Filters]
Prinn, R. G., R. F. Weiss, J. Arduini, T. Arnold, H. L. DeWitt, P. J. Fraser, A. L. Ganesan, J. Gasore, C. M. Harth, O. Hermansen et al. "History of chemically and radiatively important atmospheric gases from the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE)." Earth System Science Data 10 (2018): 985-1018.
Arnold, T., A. J. Manning, J. Kim, S. Li, H. Webster, D. Thomson, J. Mühle, R. F. Weiss, S. Park, and S. J. O'Doherty. "Inverse modelling of CF4 and NF3 emissions in East Asia." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 18, no. 18 (2018): 13305-13320.
O'Doherty, S. J., M. Rigby, J. Mühle, D. J. Ivy, B. R. Miller, D. Young, P. G. Simmonds, S. Reimann, M. K. Vollmer, P. B. Krummel et al. "Global emissions of HFC-143a (CH3CF3) and HFC-32 (CH2F2) from in situ and air archive atmospheric observations." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 14, no. 17 (2014): 9249-9258.
Arnold, T., D. J. Ivy, C. Harth, M. K. Vollmer, J. Mühle, P. K. Salameh, P. L. Steele, P. B. Krummel, R. H. J. Wang, D. Young et al. "HFC-43-10mee atmospheric abundances and global emission estimates." Geophysical Research Letters 41, no. 6 (2014): 2228-2235.
Kim, J., P. J. Fraser, J. Mühle, A. L. Ganesan, P. B. Krummel, P. L. Steele, S. Park, S.-K. Kim, M.-K. Park, T. Arnold et al. "Quantifying aluminum and semiconductor industry perfluorocarbon emissions from atmospheric measurements." Geophysical Research Letters 41, no. 13 (2014): 2014GL059783.
Rigby, M., R. G. Prinn, S. J. O'Doherty, B. R. Miller, D. J. Ivy, J. Mühle, C. M. Harth, P. K. Salameh, T. Arnold, R. F. Weiss et al. "Recent and future trends in synthetic greenhouse gas radiative forcing." Geophysical Research Letters 41, no. 7 (2014): 2013GL059099.
Arnold, T., C. M. Harth, J. Mühle, A. J. Manning, P. K. Salameh, J. Kim, D. J. Ivy, P. L. Steele, V. V. Petrenko, J. P. Severinghaus et al. "Nitrogen trifluoride global emissions estimated from updated atmospheric measurements." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110, no. 6 (2013): 2029-2034.
Ivy, D. J., T. Arnold, C. Harth, P. L. Steele, J. Mühle, M. Rigby, P. K. Salameh, M. Leist, P. B. Krummel, P. J. Fraser et al. "Atmospheric histories and growth trends of C₄F₁₀, C₅F₁₂, C₆F₁₄, C₇F₁₆ and C₈F₁₈." Atmos. Chem. Phys. 12, no. 9 (2012): 4313-4325.
Arnold, T., J. Mühle, P. K. Salameh, C. Harth, D. J. Ivy, and R. F. Weiss. "Automated Measurement of Nitrogen Trifluoride in Ambient Air." Analytical Chemistry 84, no. 11 (2012): 4798-4804.
Vollmer, M. K., B. R. Miller, M. Rigby, S. Reimann, J. Mühle, P. B. Krummel, S. J. O'Doherty, J. Kim, T. S. Rhee, R. F. Weiss et al. "Atmospheric histories and global emissions of the anthropogenic hydrofluorocarbons HFC-365mfc, HFC-245fa, HFC-227ea, and HFC-236fa." Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 116, no. D8 (2011): D08304.
Kim, J., K.-R. Kim, J. Mühle, S.-K. Kim, M.-K. Park, A. Stohl, D.-J. Kang, T. Arnold, C. M. Harth, P. K. Salameh et al. "Emissions of Halogenated Compounds in East Asia Determined from Measurements at Jeju Island, Korea." Environmental Science & Technology 45, no. 13 (2011): 5668-5675.


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Q: Setting Font in CGBitmapContext.SelectFont using variable I'm trying to write a general purpose routine that will set the font using a variable instead of the literal font name.
CGBitmapContext.SelectFont(fontName, fontSize, CGTextEncoding.MacRoman);

instead of:
CGBitmapContext.SelectFont("Arial", fontSize, CGTextEncoding.MacRoman);

But it seems not to work. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Rick

A: Please post a more complete sample, the following code works for me:
context.SetFillColor (0.0f, 1.0f);
context.SelectFont ("Arial", 28, CGTextEncoding.MacRoman);
context.ShowTextAtPoint (pageRect.GetMidX (), pageRect.GetMidY (), "Hello Select Font (string)");
string font = "Arial";
context.SelectFont (font, 28, CGTextEncoding.MacRoman);
context.ShowTextAtPoint (pageRect.GetMidX (), pageRect.GetMidY () + 40, "Hello Select Font (var)");

Both lines uses Arial and it still works if I switch them (using the var first).