Devas Unlimited works for personal and spiritual transformation through Divine guidance from the Devic (angelic) realms. Our endeavor is to serve by making accessible to you, all the help that the Devas wish to extend. Our clients come from all walks of life from more than 40 countries around the world.
When Devas Unlimited was started, Shivani's Guru told her, "Devas Unlimited is meant to help people connect with their inner self." The Devas are here to help you do this. They are pure light and love.
The testimonials Shivani, Shaguna and Ruth receive from clients substantiate how angels help heal people's bodies, mind, emotions, relationships, families, career and finances.
Shivani Sinha Sola is the Founding Partner at Devas Unlimited. She is a spiritual counselor who works with the Devic/Angelic, Elemental, and Ascended Master realms. Devas Unlimited was started in 2008 under the guidance of Shivani's Guru when Shivani and her family moved to Bangalore from the USA. Shivani's inner balance and centeredness is what reflects in her interactions with clients and gives them a feeling of upliftment.
Prior to starting Devas Unlimited, Shivani worked as an investment banker for top commercial banks. She has received several honors for her investment work.
Shivani and Shaguna have their foundation of spiritual values from their Guru Sri Sathya Sai Baba, their mother and maternal grandparents, while their father played his role by encouraging them to be self-sufficient and truly empowered individuals.
Read more about Shivani and Devas Unlimited from the Deccan Herald newspaper.
Shaguna is the Managing Partner at Devas Unlimited. Like her sister Shivani, she has had strong intuitive capabilities since a young age. She joined Devas Unlimited in 2011 to help more and more people connect with the Devic realm. Shaguna's life was transformed through the Devas, and she excels in helping others to receive Devic guidance for themselves. When clients are with Shaguna, they are often overwhelmed by the pure unconditional love that naturally radiates from her.
Shaguna has been a management consultant, academician and an entrepreneur prior to taking up the Devas work. She is an ardent dog lover and takes care of 5 pets at her home in Secunderabad, India. Shivani jokes that Shaguna is a doggie magnet.
Ruth brings more than 20 years of experience in healing and spiritual counseling to Devas Unlimited. She has studied with some of the most respected spiritual healers in the United States, including the well-known Delphi University in North Carolina, USA. She conducts spiritual counseling, psychic investigations, healings, workshops, and speaking engagements across the USA and internationally.
Ruth's healings are magical and the wisdom that she shares with clients work like magic pills.
Ruth and Shivani have worked together informally for many years. In fact, Ruth was one of Shivani's earliest spiritual mentors. Ruth resides in the mountains of North Carolina, USA.


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As our plans are to travel off the bitumen as much as possible, we were really keen to ensure that our accommodation would also go anywhere with us. We wanted something compact yet comfortable, strong and sturdy, lightweight, and very reliable. Our extensive research led us to a camper trailer.
With many options available, we decided on CUB. They had a great product, with great service. It also meant that we were supporting Australian industry, as all components are manufactured right here. The team at CUB Campers in Melbourne were extremely helpful in identifying our needs and wants, and providing us with a solution. So, we ended up with a CUB SupaMatic Escape Off-Road Camper – and couldn't be happier!
It has everything we need to be self sufficient, and with a few additional camping accessories, we can stay 'off-the-grid' for a fairly decent amount of time.


Chick-fil-A is improving some of its products!
Did you know there's a new Muppets movie coming out?
I have made the difficult and exciting decision to move to New York City. I don't have a job (yet!), but my friends Amber and Joe have graciously offered to let me stay with them until I get one and am able to be on my feet. I'm really excited about potential opportunities moving to NYC will offer me.
The hardest part will of course be leaving Louisville family, friends, and my church behind. Thankfully, it's easier than ever to keep in touch with those far away.
One of the first things I needed to worry about was organizing and packing my things. Packing is not my favorite thing, so I enlisted the help of family and friends. I'm SO grateful to everyone who helped. It's important to note that my parents have supported and helped me through all this - even though they aren't both in these photos!
One of the most "exciting" parts of moving was misplacing my car's title. Thankfully, I found it and was able to sell my car! Such a good feeling.
It doesn't take anything fancy to say "Thank You" to someone you know!
Love this idea for a little kid's costume!
Bryan Todd just painted a new mural in my church's parking lot...it's beautiful!
Well, after my countdown of several months, I finally got to go to the Austin City Limits music festival (ACLfest)! My weekend in Austin turned out really well - even though the last day of the festival was rained out. I think I can speak for the group and say that Tyler, Spenser (Tyler's roommate and friend from college), and I all really enjoyed getting to go to ACLfest. I didn't even get sunburned too badly, haha. I think my favorite sets were Muse and Jake Bugg!
When the festival got rained out on Sunday, we stayed in, ordered riceless sushi, and watched football.
I wrote about my last trip to Austin here.


This event is held twice a year to raise funds for the Reepham Primary School. It involves collection of unwanted clothing.
Mini-scrapbox in Reepham collects and stores a wide variety of materials, mainly donated by companies, that can be RE-USED in the community by drama and music workshops, clubs, schools and playgroups for arts & crafts, design technology, etc. These materials are usually thought of as 'redundant' or 'scrap' but in fact can provide a valuable resource.


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Black Education Matters
Apply for Award
Category: Award Winners
June 24, 2020 June 24, 2020 I AM AN EDUCATOR 2020, Announcment, Award Winners, Uncategorized
2020 "Black Education Matters Student Activist Award" winners announced!
Online Press Conference/Award Ceremony:
2020 "Black Education Matters Student Activist Award"
winners announced!
–Fifth annual ceremony–
*Super Bowl champion and NFL Pro Bolwer Michael Bennett to present one of the awards in the name of his mother.*
Award ceremony for anti-racist student organizers to be held at on online zoom press conference
When: 5:00pm Pacific, Thursday June 25th
Where: online, Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83370603426?pwd=ZXg4TTd6M2kzaGIrajJoaXJPOFkyUT09
Seattle, WA: The Black Education Matters Student Activist Award (BEMSAA) offers a $1000 package to deserving Seattle public school students who demonstrates exceptional leadership in struggles for social justice against institutional racism.
All around the nation young people are joining an uprising for Black Lives. These youth don't want another person to have to experience what George Floyd, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and so many other Black people have experienced. They also want to build a school system that teaches the truth about Black history and uplifts Black history.
"Here in Seattle we are honoring four of the most dynamic students activists in the struggle for Black lives who have been doing this work for years. I am so proud of this year's winners of the Black Education Matters Student Activist Award," said BEMSAA director Jesse Hagopian. "They have all contributed greatly to undoing institutional racism in the schools and the boarder society and have demonstrated brave leadership in struggles for social justice."
The 2019 award winners are:
Angelina Riley is a Rainier Beach High School student and incoming president of the Seattle King County NAACP Youth Council. Angelina helped write a petition asking the district to no longer allow police in the schools that garnered some 18,000 signatures in a few days and led to the Seattle Public Schools announcement that police would be removed from the schools for a year.
Azure Savage is a queer, trans, Black student graduate of Garfield High School. He is the author of You Failed Us: Students of Color Talk Seattle Schools, an exploration of the experience that students of color have in the schools they attend around the Seattle area. It incorporates direct quotes from interviewed students, as well as the author's own personal experiences from when they were in elementary school, to now, about to enter their senior year of high school. Azure's book helped ignite a discussion about combating institutional racism in the Seattle schools. Azure has also organized BLM rallies at Garfield and participated in BLM rallies throughout the city.
Bethel Getu is a Graduate of Garfield High School graduate and senator for the Black Student Union. Bethel served as a student consultant for the forthcoming Young Adult edition of, "The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks," and was an organizer for the "Youth Shall Lead: Seattle Children's March" where she helped craft demands around ending police violence.
Kidist Habte, is a co-founder of "Black and Brown Minds Matter," and is a junior at Rainier Beach High School. As Parent Map wrote, "She helped conceive of and organize the group's inaugural Sept. 4 rally to raise awareness of funding inequities across the district, many of which are caused by the under-projection of school enrollment numbers that results year after year in budget cuts and under-resourcing of Seattle Public Schools serving students in South Seattle." She also helped organize the petition to remove police from schools that received over 18,000 signatures in a few days and led to the Seattle Public Schools announcement that police would be removed from the schools for a year.
Past award winners have been among the most impactful student leaders in Seattle, including leading mass walkouts against president Trump's inauguration, leading the successful movement for ORCA transportation cards for Seattle students, leading whole teams to take a knee during the national anthem, launching the NAACP Youth Coalition, leading movements for food justice, and more.
The award was started with funds Seattle teacher Jesse Hagopian received in a settlement after suing the Seattle Police Department and the City of Seattle when he was wrongfully assaulted with pepper-spray by a Seattle Police officer.
On MLK Day 2015, Jesse Hagopian was pepper sprayed in the face by a Seattle police officer without provocation. The incident occurred not long after Hagopian gave the final speech at the MLK Day community rally. Hagopian is committed to turning that pain into the empowerment of youth for social change.
May 24, 2019 May 24, 2019 I AM AN EDUCATOR 2019, Award Winners, Michael Bennett, Uncategorized
Introducing the 2019 Black Education Matters Student Activist Award Winners!
Left to right: Bestselling author/Super Bowl champion Michael Bennett, Rena Mateja Walker Burr, Khabirah Weddington, Cece Chan, & Jesse Hagopian
Black Education Matters Student Activist award ceremony
At the first NAACP Youth Coalition Racial Justice Conference on Saturday, ethnic studies teacher Jesse Hagopian and Superbowl champion/bestselling author Michael Bennett presented the Black Education Matters Student Activist Award (BEMSAA) to three of the most dynamic and powerful changemaking youth in Seattle.
The 2019 BEMSAA award winners are:
Rena Mateja Walker Burr, Cleveland High School
Rena is an NAACP Youth Coalition leader and one of the most outspoken leaders for ethnic studies and the Black Lives Matter at School movement.
Khabirah Weddington, Garfield High School
Khabirah founded the Black Student Union at Madrona Elementary School and has served as the Garfield High School BSU president for the past three years. She has been a relentless advocate for Black students and lead many struggles for racial justice and initiatives to promote Black excellence.
Cece Chan, Nathan Hale High School
Cece serves as the Nathan Hale's representative on the NAACP-Youth Coalition and has been a leader in the struggle for ethnic studies and for the Black Lives Matter at School week of action. Cece has also recently finished a documentary about the struggle and promise of ethnic studies in the Seattle schools!
The Black Education Matters Student Activist Award (BEMSAA) offers a $1000 package to deserving Seattle public school students who demonstrates exceptional leadership in struggles for social justice, and against institutional racism.
Michael Bennett gave Rena the special Pennie Bennett award in the name of his mother saying,
My mom worked in the school district for the last 30 years…Me and Jesse have been friends for a while and I wanted to be able to create an lasting award for Black education and give out an award out every year to represent what my mom believes in…My mom was looking at all the things you were doing and she said, that girls is amazing! And I'm lucky to be able to give this award to Rena!
"I am so proud of this year's winners of the Black Education Matters Student Activist Award," said BEMSAA director Jesse Hagopian. "They have all contributed greatly to undoing institutional racism in the schools and have demonstrated brave leadership in struggles for social justice."
Ifrah Abshir , 2016 winner of the Black Education Matters Student Activist Award, created this video to tell the 2019 winners what the award ment to her.
The BEMSAA award was started with funds Seattle teacher Jesse Hagopian received in a settlement after suing the Seattle Police Department and the City of Seattle when he was wrongfully assaulted by a Seattle Police officer.
On MLK Day 2015, Jesse Hagopian was pepper sprayed in the face by a Seattle police officer without provocation. The incident occurred not long after Hagopian gave the final speech at the MLK Day community rally.
Visit http://www.BlackEducationMatters.org to learn more about the award or to nominate a youth leader.
Apply today for the BEM Student Activist Award!
Application to the The Black Education Matters Student Activist Award is due by May 5th, 2018. The Award was created by Jesse Hagopian to honor the work of youth who challenge institutional racism and oppression.
Common Dreams: "How One Educator Transformed an Act of Police Brutality into a Force for Good"
Seattle Weekly: Black Education Matters 2017 Award Winners
Seattle Medium: 2016 BEM Award Winners

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


On Thursday, March 16th Penn Law alumni, students, faculty, and staff had the opportunity to hear Charlene Stern, a patent attorney, speak about her career as well as cutting edge intellectual property and health law issues at this year's PIPG Symposium, "A Healthy Dose of IP." Ms. Stern's legal experience has ranged from working with global law firm Goodwin Procter, to more recently joining Editas Medicine. Notably, Ms. Stern continues to describe herself as "a scientist first, a lawyer second." For law students and young IP lawyers, Ms. Stern's words of wisdom included the importance of seeking out mentors early in one's career, and the need to step outside the office to meet and engage with other people.
3D Printing in Africa: Huge Benefit or Big IP Threat?
Can the Supreme Court's Erosion of Patent Rights Be Reversed?
How Will Trump Handle Intellectual Property Disputes With China?


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Topps Deckle Edge Baseball Cards
Brooks Robinson (Baltimore Orioles)
Boog Powell (Baltimore Orioles)
Ken Harrelson (Boston Red Sox)
Carl Yastrzemski (Boston Red Sox)
Jim Fregosi (California Angels)
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Luis Tiant (Cleveland Indians)
Denny McLain (Detroit Tigers)
Willie Horton (Detroit Tigers)
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Jim Wynn (Houston Astros)
Rod Carew (Minnesota Twins)
Mel Stottlemyre (New York Yankees)
Rick Monday (Oakland Athletics)
Tommy Davis (Los Angeles Dodgers)
Frank Howard (Washington Senators)
Felipe Alou (Atlanta Braves)
Don Kessinger (Chicago Cubs)
Ron Santo (Chicago Cubs)
Tommy Helms (Cincinnati Reds)
Pete Rose (Cincinnati Reds)
Joe Foy (Kansas City Royals)
Rusty Staub (Houston Astros)
Tom Haller (Los Angeles Dodgers)
Maury Wills (Los Angeles Dodgers)
Jerry Koosman (New York Mets)
Richie Allen (Philadelphia Phillies)
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Curt Flood (St. Louis Cardinals)
Bob Gibson (St. Louis Cardinals)
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text:
Joint Statement - 75th. Anniversary of the Victory over Nazi-fascism
The victory over Nazi-fascism in the Second World War is a major event in History, the memory of which must be preserved and defended in the face of repeated attempts at historical falsification aimed at making us forget the decisive role played by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, by the communists and by anti-fascists from around the world.
Generated by capitalism, Nazi-fascism was the most violent and terroristic manifestation of monopoly capital. It was responsible for the outbreak of this war of aggression and plunder that caused close to 75 million deaths, of which approximately 27 million were Soviet citizens, and for the immeasurable suffering and horror of the Nazi concentration camps. The peoples can also not forget dark pages, such as the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the USA, without any military justification, which represented a display of power and of their world-wide hegemonistic ambitions.
The Second World War (1939-1945) was the result of increasingly acute inter-imperialist contradictions and, at the same time, of the intention to destroy the first Socialist State, the USSR, which was namely expressed in the support and connivance of the United Kingdom, France and the United States with the rearmament and expansionist ambition of Nazi Germany.
In commemorating the 75th anniversary of the historic Victory on May 9, 1945, the undersigned communist and workers' parties, certain in the knowledge that they portray the feelings and aspirations of workers and peoples from all over the world:
- Pay tribute to all those who gave their lives on the battlefields against the Nazi-fascist hordes and in particular to the heroism of the resistance movements and anti-fascist fighters and to the heroic Soviet people and Red Army, led by the Communist Party, whose contribution, written in heroic pages such as the battles of Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad, was decisive for the Victory over barbarism;
- Consider that the Victory over Nazi Germany and its allies in the Anti-Comintern Pact was achieved thanks to the decisive contribution of the USSR, to the class nature of the Soviet power with the participation of the masses of the people, to the leading role of the Communist Party, to the superiority which was displayed by the Socialist system. That victory is an enormous historical legacy of the revolutionary movement;
- Value the outstanding advances in the social and national emancipation of the workers and peoples that the Victory and the resulting advancement of the forces of social progress and peace made possible, extending the sphere of socialism within the countries of Europe, Asia and Latin America, creating the conditions for the advance of the labour movement in capitalist countries, the sweeping development of the national liberation movement and the resulting liquidation of colonial empires;
- Denounce and condemn the campaigns that aim to belittle, distort and even deny, the role of the USSR and of the communists in the defeat of Nazi-fascism and also to unjustly and falsely blame the Soviet Union for starting the Second World War, to expunge the responsibilities of big capital and the governments at its service in the promotion and rise of fascism and in unleashing the war, and whitewash and rehabilitate fascism, while destroying the monuments and memory of the liberating Soviet army, promoting anti-communism and criminalizing communists and other anti-fascists;
- Denounce and condemn the EU's anti-communist resolutions and the slanderous historical falsification which attempts to equate socialism with the fascist monster;
- Warn that the most reactionary and aggressive sectors of imperialism are increasingly viewing fascism and war as a "way out" of the deepening crisis of the capitalist system, whose inhuman character becomes particularly obvious when, even in the face of the very serious epidemic outbreak of Covid-19, imperialism, the USA, NATO, the EU and its allies capitalist powers, continue a criminal policy of blockades and aggressions against countries and peoples;
- Consider that the struggle for peace, social progress and socialism are inseparable; and make a commitment to seek a stronger common action of the working class, of the workers and peoples of the world, of the political forces engaged in blocking the path to fascism and in the struggle against imperialism, imperialist aggressions and a new war of tragic proportions.
The situation with which the workers and peoples of the world are confronted underlines the importance of strengthening the struggle against imperialism, for the sovereignty of the peoples and the independence of States, for the rights of the workers and peoples, as leading forward to the revolutionary overcoming of the capitalist system, a system which breeds fascism, war, the injustices, dangers and contradictions of the present. As it was 75 years ago, it is today the struggle of the communists and all those facing capitalist exploitation and oppression that will open the way for the future for Humanity.
Communist Party of Armenia
Communist Party of Australia
Party of Labour of Austria
Communist Party of Azerbaidjan
Communist Party of Belarus
Communist Party of Belgium
Communist Party of Cuba
The Progressive Party of the Working People - AKEL
Communist Revolutionary Party of France
Communist Party of Greece
Kurdistan Communist Party - Iraq
Party of the Communist Refoundation – European Left (Italy)
Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan
Workers' Party of Korea
Socialist Party (Lithuania)
Popular Socialist Party – National Political Association (México)
Communist Party of Mexico
Party of the Communists (Mexico)
New Communist Party of Aotearoa (New Zealand)
Palestinian Communist Party
Philippine Communist Party (PKP - 1930)
Communist Party of the Russian Federation
Russian Communist Workers Party
Union of Communist Parties - CPSU
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist of Serbia
Communist Party of Slovakia
Galizan People's Union
Communist Party of the Workers of Spain
Galician Nationalist Bloc
Communist Party of Swaziland
Communist Party of Sweden
Syrian Communist Party (Unified)
Communist Party of Turkey
Union of Communists of Ukraine
Communist Party of the Donetsk People's Republic
The joint statement is open to other subscriptions.


text:
Cinergy Amarillo
https://cinergy.com/
Screens: 10
Showing Movie Times for January 16th
(PG, 110 mins)
This holiday season, the new chapter in Illumination's smash animated franchise arrives with big dreams and spectacular hit songs as the ever-optimistic koala,…
10:00 am | 11:30 am | 12:30 pm | 2:00 pm | 3:00 pm | 4:30 pm | 5:30 pm | 7:00 pm | 8:00 pm
Buy tickets • Trailers • Synopsis
(R, 131 mins)
As a collection of history's worst tyrants and criminal masterminds gather to plot a war to wipe out millions, one man must race against time to stop them.…
11:30 am | 2:15 pm | 5:00 pm | 7:45 pm | 10:30 pm
(PG-13, 124 mins)
From director Jason Reitman and producer Ivan Reitman, comes the next chapter in the original Ghostbusters universe. In Ghostbusters: Afterlife, when a single…
10:30 am | 9:30 pm
When a top-secret weapon falls into mercenary hands, wild card CIA agent Mason "Mace" Brown (Oscar®-nominated actress Jessica Chastain) will need to join…
10:30 am | 1:15 pm | 4:00 pm | 6:45 pm | 9:30 pm
American Underdog tells the inspirational true story of Kurt Warner (Zachary Levi), who went from a stockboy at a grocery store to a two-time NFL MVP, Super…
10:00 am | 12:30 pm | 3:00 pm | 5:30 pm | 8:00 pm | 10:30 pm
(PG-13, 90 mins)
Tom Hardy returns to the big screen as the lethal protector Venom, one of MARVEL's greatest and most complex characters. Directed by Andy Serkis, the film also…
Twenty-five years after a streak of brutal murders shocked the quiet town of Woodsboro, a new killer has donned the Ghostface mask and begins targeting a group…
10:00 am | 11:45 am | 12:30 pm | 1:15 pm | 2:15 pm | 3:00 pm | 3:45 pm | 4:45 pm | 5:30 pm | 6:15 pm | 7:15 pm | 8:00 pm | 8:45 pm | 9:45 pm | 10:30 pm
For the first time in the cinematic history of Spider-Man, our friendly neighborhood hero is unmasked and no longer able to separate his normal life from the…
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text:
If you go down to the woods today...
OK, there's a few technical inaccuracies with the post title and the associated assumptions therein: I wasn't exactly in a wood; it wasn't today; there were no bears; no picnic occurred; and, I did believe my eyes, 'cos there's photographic proof.
But apart from that, it's spot on. Because. A certain because.
So whilst it wasn't a big surprise, it was mildly pleasing in a wildlife watching kind of way.
Which would obviously ruin the scansion, but hey, when did you ever tune in to Imperfect and Tense for faithful renditions of a 1932 children's song?
Really? You should get out more.
Anyway, the following took place on consecutive weekends in May, at the Hanson Environmental Study Centre, just down the road from Tense Towers.
Not so very long ago, when Our Lass and I were still struggling to find a single member of either the Zygoptera or Anisoptera with which to commence the 2013 flight season, we were bimbling through the reserve, noticing all manner of invertebrate life with the exception of dragons and damsels.
Loitering by a particularly interesting patch of Comfrey, we were roused from our bug reverie by the sound of a large splash and a great deal of honking (as of a goose, rather than someone throwing up).
Aware that about 100 yards further along the path was a view across to the nest of a Canada Goose, and wondering what the heck was going on, we made haste to said spot. Rounding a bend in the track, we immediately spied the goose, stood over its nest and calling in a rather agitated fashion. The water which surrounded the small outcrop of land where the nest was built, was still showing signs of ripples from whatever had created the big splash.
I was musing upon which suspects would go up on the Scene of Crime Officer's wall, when Our Lass nudged me and excitedly whispered "Fox!"
Appearing out of the undergrowth, not far from the anxious Anatidae, was a healthy-looking Fox, who proceeded to head towards us along the track, apparently oblivious to our presence.
Photo courtesy of Our Lass
Eventually, some vulpine sense kicked in and we were rumbled, the would-be thief and goose-botherer melting into the undergrowth quicker than you could say "Look at the brush on that!"
Once things had quietened down, we left the goose in peace and wandered off to the Near Hide, where we were soon treated to some more entertainment courtesy of Reynard Productions. The Fox had found its way onto the bund and was busy searching the vegetation at the water's edge for any signs of nesting birds. It soon came to the attention of a pair of Lapwings, who took great delight in dive-bombing it, with accompanying alarm calls, until they had harried it into departing stage left.
Cut to the following weekend and, again, we were to be found at HESC, soaking up the Spring sunshine and basking in the glow of satisfaction at having now seen a dragon or two. Whilst JD (of Rotton Yarns fame) and I were talking to another wildlife watcher, Our Lass wandered off. When we set off again, she was nowhere to be seen. As we rounded a bend in the path, we spotted her, 50 yards up the track, gazing intently into the undergrowth. Turning to face us, Our Lass put a finger to her lips to warn us to be quiet. Intrigued as to what she might have found, I inquired by means of much arm waving as to whether it was a dragon (flaps outstretched arms) of perhaps a mammal (makes scrabbling paws motion). Our Lass shrugged an internationally understood shoulder movement, as if to ask what the heck I was on about. Patiently, and to the consternation of JD, I repeated my flapping and scrabbling message, which this time provoked a definite scrabbling response.
Turning to JD, I sternly intoned, "It's a Badger, don't ask how I know."
We crept up to join Our Lass, who was still watching a patch of thick vegetation consisting mainly of Comfrey and Nettles. The occasional movement of a leaf or plant was accompanied by a crunching sound, not unlike someone enjoying a packet of crisps. I mean really enjoying a packet of crisps, none of this genteelly nibbling one at a time.
Now this was 4pm on a sunny afternoon, so JD was fairly convinced that it was a Rabbit chewing on a juicy stem. But Our Lass and I had experienced this particular noise before, perhaps twelve years previously, and not too far from this spot. We were in no doubt that it was a young Badger, presumably gorging upon snails. Unfortunately, the thick vegetation made it impossible to achieve anything like a decent confirmatory view, other the occasional glimpse of several square inches of rough grey fur, the proverbial Badger's arse. After patiently watching for fifteen minutes or so, we were rewarded with a flash of black and white stripes through the leaves. Case proven!
Eventually, Junior Brock had eaten his fill and disappeared further into the undergrowth, his course identified by the twitching of stems into the distance until all was still once more.
Labels: HESC
Progress of sorts
Odonata numbers have crept up this weekend.
At HESC, we now have six species on the wing:
Azure damselfly
Large Red damselfly
Common Blue damselfly
Red-eyed damselfly
Broad-bodied Chaser
Hairy dragonfly
Female Hairy dragonfly
Labels: HESC, Odonata
Image courtesy of bbc.co.uk
It is evening, just before 9pm. The sun has just set and the light is fading fast.
To the south, a gibbous moon shines weakly. The temperature is dropping quickly under clear skies and a freshening wind.
You receive a phone call from a friend.
"Just wanted to let you know there's a dragonfly at the nature reserve... thought you might be interested... I'm about 18 inches away from it...I've taken a few photos, but had to use flash."
What would you do? Would you go?
Hell, yes.
I carefully abandoned parked the car beside the Centre and dashed strolled over to the raised tanks that were used in the past for what I presume were trials of different aquatic habitats. The info received said that the dragon was here somewhere.
I checked all the vegetation, but couldn't see an insect anywhere. I checked again, walking around the other side of the tanks. Nothing. Then I looked at the surrounding wall to see if it was roosted there. Nope.
I left a voice message to say thank you for the tip, but it looked like the dragon had flown or been predated. Hanging up, I put the phone back in my pocket and happened to look down. There, in the tank with little vegetation protruding above the surface and hence the one I'd not given much more than a cursory glance, was sat a Broad-bodied Chaser. A few feet to the left, its exuvia was clinging to the wooden frame around the tank.
21.12 Exuvia (shed larval skin) clinging to woodwork above raised tank
21.15 Female Broad-bodied Chaser dragonfly
This might be today's only good news story.
The Light Brigade had it easy
A pleasantly warm Sunday delivered another species of ode on the wing, in the form of several Common Blue Damselflies. Now that the flight season has kicked off for the jewelled matchsticks of the insect world, it was anticipated that there would be a slight lessening in the grumpiness of Yours Truly.
This is the view that greeted me when I returned home to Tense Towers this evening and went to look at the pond for signs of damselfly emergence.
That lush greenery is one of the favoured emergence sites for the larvae, always presuming that they've been able to avoid the shoals of newts patrolling the inky depths.
So, as a new recruit to the air breathing fraternity, you probably wouldn't want to find a frog sitting on the surface, in the midst of the party, waiting to pick off any unsuspecting individual as he or she struggles out of their diving gear and into a flying suit.
It's just not cricket.
Labels: Odonata, Rant, Tense Towers
Bug-gity, bug-gity, bug-gity, let's go racing, girls!
With apologies to Darrell Waltrip and oval racers everywhere.
Following the many and varied types of weather experienced in the UK this week (fortunately, this neck of the woods avoided the snow), today's offering from the meteorological gods was relatively benign. Solid white cloud, little wind, temperatures around 14C (57F).
Not warm enough for you-know-what.
Ever hopeful, Our Lass and I ventured to Hanson Environmental Study Centre this afternoon, to see if we could find any signs of previous dragon or damsel emergence during the past week (shed larval skins clinging to emergent vegetation). Chances were minimal, owing to the rain and hail showers which have occurred on recent days, as these would likely have washed the exuviae back into the water.
Along the boardwalk and by the pond-dipping pool, we drew a complete blank. The only insects on the wing were countless midges (dragon food!). As we walked through the Near Paddock, Our Lass spotted a Green-veined White butterfly sat on a Cowslip. Even the close presence of my phone didn't induce it to take to the air.
We visited the usual sheltered and well-vegetated spots most likely to attract teneral and immature Odonata, but to no avail. That isn't to say that the place was devoid of life, for as we progressed through the reserve, many species of insects were to be found on the plants beside the path.
Green dock beetle, Gastrophysa viridula. Er... x 3
A hover fly, possibly Helophilus pendulus
I think this is an Amber Snail, Succinea putris
Alder Fly, Sialis lutaria
Not a clue what this fly is (the plant is Garlic Mustard aka Jack-by-the-Hedge, Alliaria petiolata). I only included this photo for the cutesy little caterpillar!
Whilst we're talking about wild plants, this time of year has some magical moments. For me personally, there's something rather lush about the gorgeousness of fresh Comfrey flowers. Forgive me for not knowing whether this is the native Common Comfrey, Symphytum officinalis, or the naturalised hybrid Russian Comfrey, S. x uplandicum. Just enjoy the lushness!
Whilst I was trying to photograph yet another bug, a stunning red and black froghopper, Our Lass called out "Damsel!"
Sure enough, she had found an immature male Azure Damselfly, still only partially coloured blue and very nervous. It flew off before I could take a picture.
My better half then proceeded to find another three Azures at various sites within the reserve, before I managed to get in on the act with an individual that flew low over some vegetation before alighting on a grass stem. Our Lass looked at it through her bins, agreed with my ID and then pointed out another one that I had missed, roosting just behind it. I was able to identify this individual as a Large Red Damselfly.
So, six hard-won damsels in total, as late as the eighteenth of May. This is the only year where the first ode I've seen has been anything other than a Large Red. 2013 is just plain weird.
Labels: HESC, Odonata, Wildflowers
Pedant's revol...ution
I had a bit of a humbling experience at work today.
Having submitted several documents for approval and sign off, I then received a phone call from the Pedant-in-Chief. I knew something was wrong immediately, as he was struggling valiantly to control his mirth. In contrast, dark clouds gathered above my head.
"Oh my giddy aunt!" I thought. "What on Earth have I done?" [this is a pre-watershed, diluted version of the torrent of verbal ditch water that poured through my mind]
"I don't want to appear pedantic..." began my chuckling colleague.
Images of a misplaced comma or a glaring homophonic error rushed across my tortured subconscious.
"No, no, 'pedantic' is the point, " I replied, then continued nervously, "Go on, what is it?"
The gleeful (there was no other word for it) voice instructed me to look at a particular page on the submitted pdfs, specifically the .pdf rather than the .doc file. My tormentor was pretty sure that the .doc file would be ok and had correctly guessed that after converting to pdf, I wouldn't have thought to proofread again.
Puzzled, I did as instructed and found to my horror that the drawings within the documents had been rotated around the vertical axis so that the text was mirrored.
Sure enough, the originals in Word were fine. Doh!
Fortunately, my inquisitor turned saviour and offered to solve the problem for me, which is probably more than I deserved.
The episode was made all the more poignant as, earlier in the week, I had a ground out a reasonable score in an online grammar quiz on the BBC News website.
Choose any one from the following statements:
1. Oh, how the mighty are fallen.
2. Pride cometh before a fall.
3. Tense, you're a pillock.
Sulky Saturday
I had a pleasant wander around the local nature reserve on Saturday morning. Highlights included Whitethroat, Kingfisher, Cuckoo, Garganey and several dozen Swifts.
The paths and boardwalks were littered with countless broken twigs (some up to an inch in diameter!) as a result of the strong winds the previous day. With the overnight rain, storm-lashed blossom coated many surfaces giving the place a surreal air, as if I had missed a grand wedding.
Speaking of missing things...
Once more unto the breach that is the unforgiving blank page.
Labels: Birds, HESC, Odonata
Recently, comedian/actor Bill Bailey presented two documentaries on BBC2 to highlight the important, but forgotten, role played by Alfred Russel Wallace in the publishing of the theory of evolution. Not only did he arrive at the same conclusions as Charles Darwin (though admittedly 20 years later), he also added the vital piece of the jigsaw that allowed his slow-to-publish idol to complete the puzzle.
During the programmes, much was made of the Wallace Line, the boundary between the fauna of Asia and that of Australia. This was something of which I knew nothing and left me wondering what else I could learn from the history of natural science.
To that end, I drew up a hasty, and makeshift, short list of iconic books covering three centuries of natural history.
With which to edumificate the enthusiasm-rich but knowledge-poor Tense.
Possibly.
It's not an exhaustive list, I'm open to alternative suggestions, but here's my five must-reads:
The Natural History of Selborne (1788-9) by Gilbert White
The Origin of Species (1859) by Charles Darwin
Silent Spring (1962) by Rachel Carson
Gaia (1979) by James Lovelock
Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo (2009) by Michael McCarthy
I'll let you know how I fare, just don't expect the blog to experience a sudden and monumental rise in scientific rigour and factual accuracy. Never forget, since 2009, Imperfect and Tense has been the home of this.
Shooglenifty
Three years ago, I walked into a peedie record store in Lerwick, Shetland, called High Level Music (it was up a flight of steps).
The wee lassie behind the counter looked aghast at my question, "What would you recommend for someone who likes Lau and the Peatbog Faeries?"
To her credit, though it must be difficult to cater to such an unfair question, she came up trumps with Murmichan by Shooglenifty. Having listened to a sample in store, we bought it on the spot and still haven't given it to its intended recipient.
They are a Celtic fusion band, but have been variously described as Techno ceilidh, Acid croft and Hypnofolkadelia.
Tonight, Shooglenifty played The Stables in sleepy Milton Keynes.
Man, those guys are awesome.
If, dear reader, you are detecting that old Tense is a little less on edge than normal, it may have a little to do with several pints of Murphy's, but definitely much to do with a cracking evening's entertainment courtesy of six fine musicians.
Labels: Rock, Shetland
Parisienne walkways
That rarest of creatures, a sunny Bank Holiday weekend, has been spotted in the UK. Unlike any Odonata in the vicinity of Yours Truly.
Looking back at my last seven years' records, the earliest date for damselfly emergence at the local nature reserve was the 24th April, with the latest being the 12th May. Well, we're 66% of the way through that range and my next likely opportunity to continue the search won't be until the 11th, I reckon.
And what really kicks the arse out of it, pardon my Klatchian, is that Our Lass spotted a Hobby this afternoon. Yeah, that's right, the bird of prey that eats dragonflies. I do not recall previously setting eyes on one of these sleek falcons before the odes (damsels and dragons) are on the wing. Oh, I do hope the poor thing doesn't die of starvation, he said, somewhat petulantly.
Still, we've had several pleasant nature walks this weekend, so I can't complain too much.
This morning, for instance, we drove out to Little Linford Wood, where the Wildlife Trust reserve manager had mentioned that there was a patch of Herb Paris in flower. Once we were able to distinguish it from the Dog's Mercury that was rushing to engulf it, we found several dozen plants. To my mind, it has the feeling of 'other' about it, and that was before I discovered it was poisonous (via Wikipedia, not through falling ill).
Amongst the many other woodland wildflowers that are hurrying to complete their life cycles before the tree canopy closes in, we also found Greater Stitchwort along the edges of the rides,
as well as Barren Strawberry,
which sounds like a very ennobled plant indeed.
Labels: Birds, Little Linford Wood, Odonata, Places, Wildflowers
Steely sentinel of a screaming Summer
Still no damsels or dragons to be seen in the environs of Tense Towers or the local nature reserve. The torture continues.
However, we did have a most pleasant wildlife experience yesterday evening. As the four of us (Our Lass, First and Second Born, me) walked back to the car after an excellent meal in an Italian restaurant, a shape in the sky caught my attention. Initially misjudging the range, I assumed it was a Swallow, but as the bird turned this way and that, it offered a very different silhouette. The dying rays of the sun lit up its black plumage so that it appeared to have the glow of hot embers as it... there's no other word for it... scythed through the air.
Swift!
Silent scything, admittedly, but the piercing calls will come as more of these gorgeous birds return to their traditional nest sites to breed.
[Happy contended sigh]
Labels: Birds, Odonata, Tense Towers


text:
BBC's DJ G Money Set For Konshens' Show
September 30, 2012 Staff Writer
All is set for Konshens show as DJ G Money is set to accompany him for his concert slated for 5th October at the Kyadondo Rugby Grounds. DJ G Money born in Harlesden, London is a disc jockey and radio presenter. G Money established Bassline FM in 1993 because he could not get a spot on the established pirates of the day. Bassline was highly influential in the pirate radio scene in London, because the people behind the station were in their teens. His show The Bassment was a key fixture on the station. Bassline went on to become one of the major players on the pirate scene in the UK. Originally a "Bashment" DJ, G now specializes in playing hip-hop and RnB. He has Djayed at parties for Lauryn Hill, Wyclef, Ja Rule and many others, and at clubs around the world. As well as DJing and presenting the TXU News programme on BBC 1Xtra, G Money also works for voluntary youth programmes in South London such as The Connexions Initiatives, where artists such as Usher, Kelly Rowland, Alicia Keys and Tyrese visit schools and encourage pupils to stay focused to achieve their goals. G Money currently DJs for a Kenyan radio station called Homeboyz Radio (91.5 fm). He has been the host of the morning breakfast show where he plays Hip hop R&B and Reggae/ragga. Dancehall soljah Konshens will be performing at Kyadondo Rugby Grounds on the 5th of October 2012.
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1 thought on "BBC's DJ G Money Set For Konshens' Show"
we shall be waiting for you buddy.


Medaka (Oryzias latipes) is a popular animal model used in vertebrate genetic analysis. Recently, an efficient (~ 30%) knock-in system via non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) was established in zebrafish using the CRISPR/Cas9 system. If the same technique were applicable in medaka, it would greatly expand the usefulness of this model organism. The question of the applicability of CRISPR/Cas9 in medaka, however, has yet to be addressed.
We report the highly efficient generation of knock-in transgenic medaka via non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). Donor plasmid containing a heat-shock promoter and a reporter gene was co-injected with a short guide RNA (sgRNA) targeted for genome digestion, an sgRNA targeted for donor plasmid digestion, and Cas9 mRNA. Broad transgene expression in the expression domain of a target gene was observed in approximately 25% of injected embryos. By raising these animals, we established stable knock-in transgenic fish with several different constructs for five genetic loci, obtaining transgenic founders at efficiencies of > 50% for all five loci. Further, we show that the method is useful for obtaining mutant alleles. In the experiments where transgene integrations were targeted between the transcription start site and the initiation methionine, the resultant transgenic fish became mutant alleles.
With its simplicity, design flexibility, and high efficiency, we propose that CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knock-in via NHEJ will become a standard method for the generation of transgenic and mutant medaka.
Medaka (Oryzias latipes) is a small freshwater teleost species. Similar to zebrafish (Danio rerio), medaka is a popular animal model for vertebrate genetic analysis and offers many advantages, including the availability of highly polymorphic inbred strains that can be effectively used for genetic mapping [1–3].
Transgenic animals with reporter expression in specific tissues or cell types are valuable tools, and many transgenic strains have been generated in medaka [1, 4]. Traditional methods for the generation of transgenic medaka, however, require promoter/enhancer hunting or bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) modification, both of which involve time-consuming steps. Recently, the targeted knock-in of a reporter construct via a homology-dependent DNA repair was shown to work well in medaka using the CRISPR/Cas9 system . Although the technique is ideal for precise knock-in, it also requires time-consuming molecular cloning steps for the construction of a donor plasmid. In zebrafish, an efficient (~ 30%) knock-in system via non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) has been established . In this method, the co-injection of donor plasmid, short guide RNAs (sgRNAs), and Cas9 mRNA lead to the concurrent digestion of the genomic DNA and the donor plasmid, resulting in the incorporation of the donor plasmid into the genome. The technique does not require molecular cloning steps for the construction of a donor plasmid, and is now becoming standard for the generation of transgenic fish with reporter gene expression in a specific tissue. The technique has also been shown to be useful for the generation of mutant alleles . If the same technique were shown to be applicable in medaka, it would greatly expand the usefulness of this model organism. To date, however, this question has remained unresolved.
We show that reporter constructs consisting of a medaka heat shock promoter (expected to work as a minimum promoter) and reporter genes integrated into the aimed genomic loci with high frequency via CRISPR/Cas9-mediated NHEJ; more than 50% of raised animals became transgenic founders. We further show that integrations can lead to the disruption of a gene when the integration was targeted between the transcription start site and the initiation methionine. Given its simplicity, design flexibility, and high efficiency, we propose that CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knock-in via NHEJ will become a standard method for the generation of transgenic and mutant medaka.
Medaka adults, embryos, and larvae were maintained at 25–28 °C. All procedures were performed in compliance with the guidelines approved by the animal care and use committees of the National Institutes of Natural Sciences and Nagoya University. Animals were staged by days post fertilization (dpf). The parental strain for the generation of all transgenic fish was d-rR. The genetic background was Nagoya for ml-3 (sox5), orange-red variety for lf-2 (pax7a), and d-rR for pnp4a.
Tbait (GGCTGCTGTCAGGGAGCTCATGG) sequence  was used as a bait sequence in donor plasmids. Two types of donor plasmids were used in this study: Tbait-hs-loxP-RFP-loxP-GFP and Tbait-hs-GFP. The hs represents the 0.8 kb sequence from the medaka hsp70 promoter (the hsp70.1 gene; ). The sequence was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with primers: AGCTGCGTCACGTGGTCCCG (forward) and TGCTTTGTGCTGTAAAGACGC (reverse). Except for the usage of the medaka hs promoter, the constituents of Tbait-hs-loxP-RFP-loxP-GFP and Tbait-hs-GFP plasmids are essentially as described in  and .
Zebrafish hspa8 promoter, approximately 2.6 kb in length [9, 10], was used to express Cre-mCherry-NLS  ubiquitously in early embryos. The zhsp8 promoter, Cre-mCherry-NLS, and bovine growth hormone (BGH) polyA sequences were placed in this order in the Tol2-based vector, pT2KXIGΔin . Microinjection of Tol2-based plasmid DNA into medaka embryos was performed as was done in zebrafish .
Template DNA for sgRNA synthesize was PCR-amplified from pDR274  with the forward primer, ATTTAGGTGACACTATAgaxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxGTTTTAGAGCTAGAAATAGC (for SP6 polymerase) or TAATACGACTCACTATAggxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxGTTTTAGAGCTAGAAATAGC (for T7 polymerase), and the reverse primer, AAAAGCACCGACTCGGTGCC. The lowercase letters correspond to genome-targeting sequences (either 19 or 20 mer) in sgRNAs. The genome-targeting sequences in sgRNAs used in this study are shown in Table 1. After PCR amplification with Prime Star Taq polymerase (Takara, Otsu, Japan), PCR product was purified using a QIAquick PCR Purification Kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany). Template DNA thus obtained was used for the in vitro transcription of sgRNAs using a MAXIscript T7 kit (Life Technologies, Carlsbad, USA). pCS2-hSpCas9 (a gift from M. Kinoshita and F. Zhang; ) was digested with NotI, and Cas9 mRNA was transcribed using an mMESSAGEmMACHINE SP6 kit (Life Technologies). sgRNAs and Cas9 mRNA were purified using an RNeasy Mini kit (Qiagen).
For the vacht and nr5a1 genes, we tested two sgRNAs. The sgRNA that yielded best results in F0 expression assay was chosen to generate stable transgenic fish (Table 1). For the sox5, pax7a, and pnp4a genes, we tested just one sgRNA for each gene (Table 1).
sgRNAs and Cas9 mRNA were co-injected into one-cell stage medaka embryos with Qiagen miniprep (Qiagen) purified donor DNA. Each embryo was injected with a solution containing ~ 9 ng/μl of sgRNA for digesting Tbait, ~ 18 ng/μl of sgRNA for digesting genome DNA, ~ 200 ng/μl of Cas9 mRNA, and ~ 9 ng/μl of donor plasmid. Injection volume was adjusted such that approximately 30–75% of injected embryos were dead within one week after injection (Table 2).
For insertion mapping, fluorescent F1 animals at 5–9 dpf were collected, and genomic DNA was extracted with standard protocols. The insertion status was examined on either the 5′ side or the 3′ side of the insertion. For example, to examine the 5′ side of the insertion, a PCR reaction was performed using a 5′ primer that was specific to each gene (upstream of the expected insertion site) and a 3′ primer that was specific to the donor plasmid (sequence within the hsp70 promoter for detecting the forward insertion, and sequence within pBluescriptSK for detecting the inverse insertion). To examine whether the tandem-array insertion in the same direction occurred, a PCR reaction was performed with the two primers within the donor plasmid.
For the sox5 and pax7a transgenic fish, nucleotide sequences of PCR products were determined to examine the joint regions of the insertions.
Images were taken using an MVX10 microscope (Olympus, Tokyo, Japan), an MZ APO stereomicroscope (Leica, Wetzlar, Germany), and an LSM700 confocal laser-scanning microscope (Zeiss, Oberkochen, Germany).
For NHEJ-mediated knock-in in medaka, we employed an experimental scheme previously established by our group in zebrafish . Briefly, we co-injected sgRNA1 (for genome digestion), sgRNA2 (for plasmid digestion), donor plasmid, and Cas9 mRNA into one-cell-stage medaka embryos (Fig. 1a). The vacht (vesicular acetylcholine transporter; also called slc18a3) gene, which is known to be expressed in cholinergic neurons (motoneurons, primarily), was chosen as an initial target. The donor plasmid (Tbait-hs-lRl-GFP) contains a bait sequence (Tbait; ) upstream of the insertion cassette for sgRNA2-guided DNA cleavage. This bait sequence was selected because the corresponding sgRNA (sgT) appears to have no off-target site in the medaka genome (Additional file 1: Table S1). Tbait is followed by a medaka hsp70 promoter, which we expect to work as a minimal promoter (Fig. 1b). In this study, we extracted a 0.8 kb sequence of the medaka hsp70.1 promoter (see Methods) for this purpose. The hsp70 promoter is followed by the loxP-RFP-loxP-GFP (lRl-GFP) sequence (Fig. 1b). Without application of Cre recombinase, RFP will be expressed as a reporter gene. The target site for genome digestion was set upstream of the prospective transcriptional-start site of vacht (Fig. 1b; the sequences used are shown in Table 1). Concurrent digestion of the genome (guided by sgRNA1) and the plasmid DNA (guided by sgRNA2) with Cas9 would result in the integration of the donor plasmid into the genome via an NHEJ (Fig. 1b).
We tested two sgRNAs (vacht-sg1 and vacht-sg2; Table 1). Injected animals were investigated for their RFP expression around the hatching stage. In the case of vacht-sg1, we found animals that showed wide-spread RFP expression in the trunk motoneurons (Fig. 1d; 1c is a control animal) in 55% (11 of 20) of the animals (Table 2). The remaining 45% of the animals either showed sparse RFP expression in the motoneurons (Fig. 1e) or no expression. In the zebrafish experiments, there was a strong correlation between the expression levels of a reporter gene in injected animals and the probability of becoming transgenic founders. Animals that had good reporter gene expression had a high probability of becoming positive founders . Thus, we raised only those animals that were considered to have "good expression" (Fig. 1d; Table 2). The raised animals were crossed to wild-type to examine if they would produce fluorescent offspring. Among 10 fish screened, five produced larvae with RFP expression in the motoneurons (Fig. 1f; Table 2). The expression patterns of RFP in these Tg [vacht-hs:lRl-GFP] transgenic fish were similar among progenies from different founders. We investigated the insertion sites of each line by PCR, and found that, in all cases, the transgene was integrated around the expected site in the genome. As was seen in zebrafish, both forward-direction integration and reverse-direction integration were observed. Moreover, in some cases multiple copies of donor plasmid were integrated (Additional file 2: Table S2).
The medaka hsp70 promoter employed in this study showed activity in female germ cells. Embryos produced from transgenic females showed ubiquitous red fluorescence due to the maternal effect (Fig. 1g). Expression levels were variable even among progenies from the same female (Fig. 1g). This maternally-derived fluorescence became negligible at around 3 dpf, and thus did not represent a major problem for observation of RFP-labeled motoneurons at later stages. The maternally derived fluorescence was also observed in other lines generated in this study.
The reporter sequence (loxP-RFP-loxP-GFP) in the Tg[vacht-hs:lRl-GFP] fish described above was aimed such that RFP expression could be converted to GFP expression by the application of Cre. To conveniently change RFP transgenic fish to GFP transgenic fish, we generated transgenic medaka that ubiquitously express Cre-mCherry-NLS fusion protein  in early embryos. For this purpose, we used the zebrafish hspa8 promoter, which is known to drive gene expression ubiquitously in early zebrafish embryos [9, 10].
Tg[zhsp8:Cre-mCherry-NLS] transgenic medaka was generated by a Tol2-based transgenic method (Fig. 2a). Transgenic embryos of this line expressed Cre-mCherry-NLS proteins ubiquitously in the early stages (Fig. 2b). We crossed this Tg[zhsp8:Cre-mCherry-NLS] fish to Tg[vacht-hs:lRl-GFP] transgenic fish. As expected, we obtained larvae that expressed GFP instead of RFP in the motoneurons (Fig. 2c). The GFP-expressing animals were raised to adulthoods, and crossed to wild-type fish. Approximately one-half of the fish expressed GFP in the motoneurons; no RFP-expressing fish were obtained. These results indicate that RFP transgenic fish can be genetically transformed to GFP transgenic fish (Tg[vacht-hs:GFP]) by crossing alone.
Next, we chose the nr5a1 (also called ftz-f1) gene, and examined if the same technique worked for this gene. The nr5a1 gene is known to be expressed in cells in the hypothalamus (hp), interrenal gland (ir), and gonad (g) (; see also Figs. 3e and f). We tested two sgRNAs (nr5a1-sg1 and nr5a1-sg2). In both cases, the target sites were set upstream of the prospective transcription start site (Table 1), like the experiments with the vacht gene. We performed microinjections with the Tbait-hs-lRl-GFP (see, Fig. 1b). In the case of nr5a1-sg1, we observed animals that had RFP expressions in the expression domains of nr5a1. Compared to the experiments with the vacht gene, the expression of RFP in these tissues in the injected animals was more difficult to see, because strongly auto-fluorescent red pigment cells were located near the tissues where nr5a1 was expressed (see Figs. 3a–d). We selected three animals (out of 31 survivors) that had good RFP expression in these tissues, and raised them (Table 2). Of these three fish, only one survived to adulthood. The survivor was crossed to a wild-type fish, and it turned out that the fish was a positive founder (Tg[nr5a1-hs:lRl-GFP]). RFP expression in the transgenic fish was observed in the expected tissues (hp, ir, and g in Figs. 3a–d). No GFP expression was observed in the transgenic fish (Figs. 3c' and d'). We investigated the insertion site of the line by PCR, and found that the transgene was integrated in the expected site in the forward direction as a single copy (Additional file 2: Table S2).
We then examined if RFP fish could be converted to GFP fish by crossing. A Tg[nr5a1-hs:lRl-GFP] transgenic founder was crossed to Tg[zhsp8:Cre-mCherry-NLS] fish. This resulted in the production of animals in which GFP instead of RFP was expressed in the hypothalamus (hp), interrenal gland (ir), and gonad (g) (Figs. 3e and f). The animals were raised to adulthood, and were then verified to produce GFP-expressing fish. These GFP transgenic fish did not express RFP (Figs. 3e' and f'). Thus, RFP transgenic fish were converted to GFP transgenic fish, resulting in the establishment of Tg[nr5a1-hs:GFP].
In the knock-in experiments for the vacht and nr5a1 genes, we did not aim to disrupt gene functions. The insertion sites were set upstream of the genes, not in the exons. In zebrafish studies, the NHEJ-mediated knock-in technique has also shown to be effective for obtaining mutant alleles by inserting the transgene into exons . This led us to examine whether this is also the case in medaka.
pax7a (paired-type homeobox) and sox5 (sry-related high-mobility-group box) were chosen as initial target genes, because mutations of the genes lead to skin pigmentation defects [16, 17], and the phenotypes can be identified easily by the absence or increase of pigment cells. We used Tbait-hs-GFP as a donor plasmid (Fig. 4a). The target sites were set between the transcription start site and the first methionine (Fig.4a and Table 1). We performed microinjection, and with high probability, obtained animals that had broad GFP expression in the expression domains of pax7a (tectum, hindbrain, etc.; see also Fig. 4b–d) or sox5 (CNS from the forebrain to hindbrain, dorsal neural tube, etc.; see also Fig. 4e–g). We raised those animals that were considered to exhibit good expression (Table 2), and crossed them to wild-type fish. We obtained 6 pax7a-transgenic founders out of the seven fish raised (85.7%). The expression patterns of GFP were similar among the progenies of different pax7a-transgenic founders. Examples are shown in Fig. 4b–d. The fluorescent signals in the progenies of these founders mimic the endogenous pax7a expression, including the tectum, hindbrain, anterior neural tube, somites and pre-migratory neural crest (Fig. 4b–d), and presumable pigment cell precursors on the body surface (progenitors of xanthophore and leucophore) (see also Additional file 3: Figure S1A and B), as previously reported . We also obtained seven sox5-trangenic founders out of the 10 raised fish (70%). The expression patterns of GFP were similar among the progenies of different sox5-transgenic founders, and mimic the endogenous sox5 expression in a range of the central nervous system (CNS) from the forebrain to hindbrain, dorsal neural tube (Fig. 4e–g, see also Additional file 3: Figure S1C), and a portion of pre-migratory neural crest (Fig. 4f') and presumable xanthophore precursors (Fig. 4g, see also Additional file 3: Figure S1D). The analyses of the insertion status with PCR revealed that, except for one case, the transgene was integrated at the expected location with several forms: forward, reverse, and multiple copies (Additional file 2: Table S2). In one case, PCR analyses failed to detect amplicons on both of the 5′ and 3′ sides (#5 strain for sox5; Additional file 2 Table S2). In this transgenic fish, large deletions that exceeded the locations of 5′- and 3′-gene specific primers might have been introduced in the genomic DNA when the integration occurred. To reveal the sequences of the joint regions of each transgenic strain, we performed sequencing experiments for the PCR products that spanned the genomic DNA and the donor DNA (Additional file 2: Table S2). The results, which are presented in Additional file 4: Figure S2, show that indels were frequently introduced in the joint region, as was seen in the previous study .
We investigated whether the insertion led to disruption of the gene function. To do this, we crossed one of the transgenic founders to a homozygous mutant of pax7a or sox5, which has defects in skin pigmentation: the pax7a homozygotes lack yellow xanthophores and white/orange leucophores, and the sox5 homozygotes exhibit an absence of xanthophores and excessive formation of leucophores. We found that all of the progeny fish with GFP expression showed the phenotypes of the mutants deficient for the corresponding targeted gene, pax7a (Fig. 5a–g) or sox5 (Fig. 5j–p). The GFP-positive pax7a trans-heterozygous larvae (pax7a GFP/lf-2 ) lacked xanthophores and leucophores (Fig. 5d–e), phenocopying the pax7a mutant lf-2 (Fig. 5f–g). These larvae had GFP-positive cells in the skin (presumably xanthophore progenitors and leucophore) (Fig. 5i), as was seen in pax7a heterozygotes (pax7a GFP/+ , Fig. 5h), suggesting that pax7a function is not required for the formation of the GFP-positive bipotent progenitors, but is for the differentiation of xanthophores and leucophores. Likewise, GFP-positive larvae (trans-heterozygous for GFP insertion and the sox5 mutation) had excess leucophores and lacked xanthophores (Fig. 5m–n), phenocopying the sox5 mutant ml-3 (Fig. 5o-p). The GFP-positive cells were almost completely absent from the dorsal surface of the trunk in sox5 GFP/ml-3 larvae (Fig. 5r; compare with wild-type in 5q), suggesting that sox5 is required for the formation of GFP-positive xanthophore precursors. Non-GFP fish showed essentially normal pigmentation, although we occasionally observed non-GFP fish with the mutant phenotypes. This could be due to the induction of independent indels (induced by CRISPR/Cas9) in the sox5 locus in different germ cells of the founders. In any case, the results indicate that the insertion of the transgene led to disruption of the gene function.
Next, we performed experiments in another gene, guanineless (gu)/pnp4a. Mutations of this gene are known to result in defects of guanine formation in iridophores and to result in less-pigmented eyes and abdomens. pnp4a expression has been observed in the eye and abdomen at 3–4 dpf with in situ hybridization . As was done in pax7a and sox5, the target site was set between the transcription start site and the first methionine (Table 1). We performed microinjections to the d-rR strain, which is wild-type at the gu/pnp4a locus, and screened for fish with good expressions of GFP (Table 2 and Fig. 6a, b). These fish were raised to adulthood, and three transgenic founders (producing GFP-positive F1 fish) were identified out of six fish. The expression patterns of GFP in F1 fish were generally similar across strains, and donor plasmid was knocked-in at the expected site in all founder fish (Additional file 2: Table S2). One GFP-positive founder fish was crossed with homozygous gu/gu mutant, which has a deletion of exon 4–7 at the pnp4a locus . Among the F1 progenies obtained, GFP-positive fish showed less pigmented iridophores in the eye (right-side embryo in Fig. 6c, d) and GFP-negative fish showed the wild-type phenotype as expected (left-side embryo in Fig. 6c, d). Among the offspring obtained, 16 GFP-positive offspring had the less-pigmented phenotype (guanineless phenotype) and 10 GFP-negative offspring had the wild-type phenotype (Fig. 6e, f). These data indicate that the donor plasmid was knocked into the gu/pnp4a locus and induced a loss of function mutation at the gu/pnp4a locus.
In zebrafish, we have previously shown that knock-in transgenic fish can be efficiently generated via NHEJ by co-injection of two sgRNAs (one for the digestion of the genome and the other for the digestion of donor plasmid), donor plasmid, and Cas9 mRNA. Here, we have shown that the same method is perfectly applicable in medaka. Injected animals frequently show reporter gene expression broadly in cells where targeted genes are expressed (frequency, 30–50% for three of the five genes (vacht, sox5, and pax7a) and 10–20% for the other two genes (nr5a1 and pnp4a); in total, 27% (47 of 177); Table 2). By raising those animals to adulthood, we were able to obtain transgenic founders with very high frequency. Efficiencies exceeded 50% for all five genes (Table 2). Thus, we have succeeded in establishing a highly-efficient knock-in system in medaka fish.
The frequency obtained in this study was higher than that in zebrafish where 5–10% of injected animals usually show "good expression", and approximately 30% of raised animals became positive founders . One potential reason that accounts for these higher frequencies is the slower development of medaka embryos compared to zebrafish embryos [20, 21]: In medaka, there may be more opportunities for the donor plasmid to integrate in the very early developmental stages.
The NHEJ-mediated knock-in method described here has one clear advantage over the homology-based recombination technique that was recently described by . The current method does not require any DNA construction experiments. By contrast, recombination techniques based on long-homology arms require DNA construction steps. One clear disadvantage of the NHEJ-mediated knock-in system is that it is not suitable for precise knock-in. As shown in Additional file 4: Figure S2, indels were frequently introduced in the joint region, similar to the previous study . For experiments in which precise knock-in is critical, methods that rely on homology-dependent repair systems (i.e., ) need to be employed.
In this study, we demonstrated that mutant alleles can be efficiently generated by NHEJ-mediated knock-in. For all three of the genes tested, we succeeded in obtaining mutant alleles with high frequency (Table 2). The basic experimental design was that the reporter gene construct (Tbait-hs-GFP) was targeted to be introduced between the transcription start site and the first methionine. This method has several advantages compared to conventional knock-out methods of introducing indels. First, the evaluation of sgRNAs can be achieved readily by screening reporter gene expression in injected animals. The time-consuming molecular biology steps, including DNA extraction, PCR reaction, and sequencing, are not needed. Strikingly, in the present study, we tried only one sgRNA for each of the genes (sox5, pax7a, and pnp4a) and obtained good results in all cases (Table 2). Second, upon establishment of mutant alleles, the strains express a reporter gene in the expression domains of the gene of interest. This makes it possible to monitor the morphological defects of the affected tissues by the expression of the reporter gene. Third, the presence of the reporter gene is greatly beneficial for selecting animals that will inherit the mutant allele in future generations.
As we did in zebrafish, we knocked in constructs with the hsp70 promoter (Figs. 1b and 4a). For this, we extracted a 0.8 kb sequence from the promoter of the medaka hsp70.1 gene . We showed in this study that this fragment works well as a basal (minimal) promoter. There are several advantages to utilizing the hsp70 promoter in DNA constructs for knock-in. First, the efficiencies of obtaining transgenic founders are likely to be increased, as reporter gene expression occurs irrespective of the direction of integration. Indeed, we found both types of integration (including multi-copy integrations) in the transgenic lines generated in this study. Second, the reporter construct can be targeted virtually anywhere near or within a gene of interest. This feature gives researchers flexibility in designing sgRNAs.
There are two potential disadvantages or concerns regarding the usage of the hsp70 promoter. First, the promoter has activity in female germ cells. We observed maternally derived fluorescence in many of the lines generated in this study. Although this did not present major problems in the present study, it could be a problem for monitoring the expression patterns of genes in the early stages. Nonetheless, this problem can likely be overcome, in many cases, by using transgenic males for mating. Second, gene expression may not be completely recapitulated with the usage of a heterologous promoter. Although reporter gene expressions appeared to mimic the expressions of the endogenous genes in the transgenic fish generated in the current study for all five of the genes, the possibility of an occurrence of ectopic expressions cannot be completely excluded. Indeed, we have noted an ectopic expression in a Tg[evx2-hs:Gal4] transgenic fish strain in the case of zebrafish . Thus, researchers need to be aware of the potential occurrence of an ectopic expression when using the hsp70 promoter.
In this study, we showed that RFP expression can be changed to GFP expression in transgenic fish with the loxP-RFP-loxP-GFP construct. To make this occur ubiquitously, we established Tg[zhspa8:Cre-mCherry-NLS] in which the Cre-mCherry-NLS fusion protein is expressed ubiquitously in early embryos. Using this line, one reporter gene was easily converted to another reporter/driver gene by crossing alone. This is a powerful system for establishing transgenic fish that express a reporter/driver gene that is itself not fluorescent (without the aid of fluorescent reporters, prescreening before raising animals is not possible). For example, we succeeded in establishing several Gal4 driver lines using this system in zebrafish (our unpublished observation). In these studies, we first established loxP-RFP-loxP-Gal4 lines, and RFP was then converted to Gal4 by utilizing Tg[zhspa8:Cre-mCherry-NLS] transgenic zebrafish. The same strategy could be used to generate transgenic medaka that express reporter/driver genes that are not fluorescent themselves.
We report that the NHEJ-mediated knock-in system is highly efficient in medaka, and is very useful for establishing mutant alleles. With its simplicity and high efficiency, we propose that the method described may become a standard technique for the generation of transgenic and mutant medaka.
We thank the Medaka National Bioresource Project (NBRP Medaka), which is supported by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, for providing the d-rR (MT837) and gu (MT827) strains. We also thank Ms. T. Yamazaki, H. Ito, and Y. Terasawa for their excellent technical assistance.
This work was supported in part by grants from the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology, Sports and Culture of Japan.
Donor plasmids, as well as their sequence information, are available from the Medaka National Bioresource Project in Japan (NBRP Medaka).
SH conceived and designed the study. IW performed the major parts of the experiments. YK helped some of the experiments that IW performed. HH performed the experiments related to the sox5 and pax7a genes. SY and KN performed the experiments related to the pnp4a gene. All authors contributed to the writing of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Fish were maintained and used in accordance with the guidelines approved by the animal care and use committees of the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (approval number: 17A002) and Nagoya University.


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Q: Estimating the Size of Binary Data encoded as a B64 String in Python So I have some Binary data in python (a jpg Image, in this case) that I am retreiving from an API as a B64 encoded string. Is there an easy way to estimate the size of this (image) file on the disk?
<Image>/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAgEASABIAAD/4RriRXhpZgAATU0AKgAAAAgABwESAAMAAAABAAEAAAEaAAUA
AAABAAAAYgEbAAUAAAABAAAAagEoAAMAAAABAAIAAAExAAIAAAAeAAAAcgEyAAIAAAAUAAAAkIdp
AAQAAAABAAAApAAAANAACvyAAAAnEAAK/IAAACcQQWRvYmUgUGhvdG9z ....... </Image>

A: You can multiply the length of the string by 3/4 to get the size in bytes.
(len(str) * 3) / 4

A: I'm using this:
def size(b64string):
    return (len(b64string) * 3) / 4 - b64string.count('=', -2)

We remove the length of the padding, which is either no, one or two characters =, as explained here.
Probably not optimal. I don't how efficient str.count(char) is. On the other hand, it is only performed on a string of length 2.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


I remember the first time I heard Pink Floyd. Not a song. Not a concert. But the actual words Pink Floyd. Two glorious words. And my first introduction to pop music.
Growing up in the Children of God cult, I was not allowed to listen to music that was not produced by the group. We kids knew well the story of Jeremy Spencer, world-famous slide guitarist of Fleetwood Mac, who one night at a concert met some eccentric people backstage and left his band to join the Children of God. He never looked back. The Children of God attracted many young, talented musicians from the '60s. Music, songs, and dancing were abundant and common. But any music produced outside of the group was forbidden and shunned.
"Do you guys like Pink Floyd?" Chris Huffman said as he lit up an unfamiliar green substance in a small metal pipe. I had never seen drugs before, nor listened to pop music. Now I was sitting in the back seat of my new friend's car as he lit up a substance that had to be heroin (all drugs are heroin when you've grown up in a cult). What was I becoming? Heroin and Pink Floyd — I was doomed. I was fast becoming a systemite. I was going to have to play it cool, and playing it cool is not something you learn growing up in a cult.
"No, thank you," I said to the heroin. The car filled up with a billow of smoke as I racked my brain for an answer to the question: Do I like Pink Floyd? The Dark Side of the Moon blasted from the old stereo system. I was going to have to lie. Yes, I loved Pink Floyd. I was going to have to lie many times when questioned about my knowledge of pop culture. It may well have been a contact high, but listening to systemite music for the first time was a milestone in my emergence into the world I was cut off from.
Learning to identify "What Is Cool" started a few years earlier, when Father David died and my family was relocated to a house in the South Side of Chicago. That's when I started reading — books, magazines — and watching TV for the first time. I can count on two hands how many movies I've seen growing up. We had a recommended list with all the movies we were allowed to watch; The Ten Commandments and Jesus of Nazareth were top picks, along with 101 Dalmatians and Annie.
Riverside Library in Cook County now became a safe haven where I could escape into the world that I had been sheltered from. The TV upstairs was our window to the world. We became enthralled with shows like The Love Boat, Full House, and Entertainment Tonight. We watched fast-paced action films starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. I saw my first scary movie, The Silence of the Lambs. Like any normal teenage girl, I developed celebrity crushes, top-model envy, and was intrigued by the idea of status and fame. Rich people were a novelty growing up, and now here they were separated only by a thin TV screen and some grey static. The only two celebrities I knew of growing up were Michael Jackson and Madonna. Father David had taught us that they were evil and worldly, vessels of sin and corruption. Their music was of the Devil, and I was never to listen or I would burn in hell for all eternity.
The images that struck me most from this new avalanche of media were the stories I saw on the news. I had never watched the news growing up, and when my family arrived in Chicago from Thailand, the '94 Winter Olympics were on. The Nancy Kerrigan–and–Tonya Harding scandal was making headline news. I watched the clip over and over of Nancy Kerrigan wailing in pain as she held her knee. I couldn't help but also notice the beauty of the sport. When the skaters glided across the ice, they looked happy and free. They moved effortlessly and wore costumes fit for ballerinas. They were beautiful. I watched as 16-year-old Oksana Baiul collapsed in tears when it was announced that she had won gold. I wanted to rejoice with her. I wanted to be her. I couldn't help thinking, Sports can't be evil, even though Father David had led us to believe they were.
The next year, Timothy McVeigh bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma, and O.J. Simpson was acquitted of murder charges in the trial of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson's stabbing. These stories took center stage on our family's TV. I was beginning to experience firsthand the enormous impact media can have on the human psyche. I began to have questions and doubts. I began to inquire about morality. The world was becoming a complex myriad of grey — no longer black and white, no longer a simple story of good and evil. I was beginning to wonder where would I fit in. I saw power in how humans communicated through television, books, and magazines. Advertisements became a full-time obsession. I became fascinated with how words were used to manipulate and sell products that I had never heard of.
In the years since, I've had countless instances where I'd hear of a cool band, TV show, or movie from my childhood years that I have no reference for — but I've also had an incredibly rich experience with culture. The first album I listened to in its entirety was Björk's Homogenic. A best friend from high school wanted me to have it, and I listened to it over and over again. It was an almost spiritual experience. Now my tastes are eclectic and broad, ranging from country, folk, and soul (Alison Krauss and Union Station, Brandi Carlile, Alabama Shakes) to pop (Emeli Sande, Sam Smith, FKA Twigs) to hip-hop (the Roots, Outkast) and experimental trip-hop. Classic rock (Simon and Garfunkel; the Beatles; Crosby, Stills and Nash) makes me nostalgic for the quasi-counterculture '60s environment I grew up in. However, I have absolutely no references to music from the '80s (sorry, Prince). That decade will always remain as enigmatic and obscure as my complicated childhood.
When time allows, I binge unapologetically on shallow reality-TV shows, my guilty pleasure. But some things never go away: People are still shocked that I've never seen Star Wars, have no recollection of Barney, memories of Sesame Street, or Saturday-morning cartoons. I still have a long list of "make-up movies" that I hope one day will fill the gap for all the things growing up in a cult didn't teach me. And when the world gets too loud, I put on some headphones and dissolve into a corner of The Dark Side of the Moon.
Read Flor Edwards's earlier piece for Vulture on what Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt gets right about growing up in a cult.


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Indonesia quake damages some homes, churches as residents return
Reuters - November 15, 2019
Jakarta – At least two people were injured and some churches and homes damaged after a powerful earthquake struck eastern Indonesia, although residents who had fled to high ground fearing a tsunami had started returning, the disaster agency said on Friday.
The quake in the Moluccas struck late on Thursday and had a magnitude of 7.1 with its epicentre in the sea 139 km (86 miles) northwest of the city of Ternate, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
A tsunami alert was lifted after almost two hours, although there have been more than 90 aftershocks since the initial quake.
Agus Wibowo, a spokesman for Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency (BNPB), said two people sustained minor injuries in Ternate in the province of North Maluku, also known as the Moluccas, citing the local disaster mitigation agency. Six houses and two churches were also lightly damaged.
"The local disaster mitigation agency in Ternate has also said that the people who were staying away from beaches started returning to their homes this morning," he said in a statement, adding that calm had returned to the city of Bitung on Sulawesi island and in the Halmahera district in the Moluccas.
The quake had earlier caused panic among many residents, prompting them to flee to higher ground.
Indonesia is situated on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, which frequently has earthquakes and sometimes accompanying tsunamis.
A magnitude 7.3 earthquake had struck the Moluccas in July, killing at least four people. The most devastating earthquake in recent Indonesian history was on Dec. 26, 2004 when a magnitude 9.5 quake triggered a massive tsunami that killed around 226,000 people along the shorelines of the Indian Ocean, including more than 126,000 in Indonesia.
[Reporting by Fransiska Nangoy; Writing by Stanley Widianto; Editing by Ed Davies, Raju Gopalakrishnan.]
Source: https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-quake/indonesia-quake-damages-some-homes-churches-as-residents-return-idUKKBN1XP0I
BNPB BMKG admits shortcomings of early warning system
West Java declares emergency over floods, landslides as death toll rises
As flood risks grow, Jakarta needs to restore and manage ecosystem


How can a hamster get fleas?
There are almost innumerable ways in which your hamster can become a sanctuary or host body for fleas to breed quickly. The most likely place from where the hamster is liable to pick up fleas is his bedding. And fleas prefer to stay in the hamster's bedding and only attach themselves to his body when they need to feed on his blood.
The possibility of coming into close proximity with other animals that might lead to the rodent becoming a host site for fleas is remote. Nevertheless, if you've other pets in your home like cats or dogs that are already carrying fleas, then the probability of the hamster picking up the parasite goes up.
Your hamster shedding hair from his fur is one telltale sign that he's contaminated with fleas or mites. Sore or swollen spots on his body resulting from constant scratching or scraping are clear symptoms of the presence of fleas. If you carefully observe the body of your hamster by directing a flashlight or torch, you'll see microscopic dark spots that are in motion.
Additionally, if you pat his fur in a backward direction, you'll spot several of these parasites rushing away in an attempt to hide themselves. The simplest way of detecting the presence of fleas is to track 'flea dirt'. If you spot specks of dirt on the fur and spread across the skin underneath the fur, you can be certain that fleas are either present in the hamster's bedding or in the kennel.
Once you have reasons to believe that your pet has fleas, you should almost immediately discard its old bedding and make arrangements for getting a new one. To thoroughly ensure that the hamster gets to live in an environment that is completely free from fleas, you can consider going for a new cage. Before you can buy a new hamster cage, you should cleanse the cage to rid of all the flea-eggs.
After you're done with cleansing the living environment of the hamster, you should schedule an appointment with the local vet. Alternatively, you can take your hamster along with you to a veterinary clinic nearby. Expect the vet to prescribe an aerosol frontline spray or other branded sprays. Pet stores sell a range of flea shampoos that can be applied to weed out fleas from your pet's body. Only use products that have been recommended by the vet.
Conclusively, it can be said that in order to prevent parasites like fleas, ticks or mites from infesting your hamster, you should regularly change his bedding. You should also keep all his other belongings clean and also take appropriate steps for keeping other household pets free from pests and parasites.


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text:
GAAS Audit Committee Inauguration
By GAAS GAAS News April 29, 2022
The Director General of the Internal Audit Agency, Dr Eric Oduro Osae yesterday, 27th April 2022 inaugurated the 5-member Audit Committee of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences established under the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921). The ceremony was held at the conference room of the Academy.
Dr. Eric Oduro in his remarks charged the committee to work together with Management and all stakeholders of the Academy as partners in development towards accomplishing efficient management of public funds.
The chairman of the committee, Mr Simeon Tawiah in his address assured the governing Council of the Academy of the committee's preparedness to execute their mandate according to the code of the profession and prayed the Academy gives them the necessary support to function effectively.
The Ag. President of the Academy, Emerita Professor Isabella Akyinbah Quakyi said the Academy is ready to provide the needed support to the committee. She thanked the outgoing committee for their good work.
Other members of the committee are Prof. Alfred Oteng Yeboah, FGA, Prof. Joshua Abor, FGA, Mr Michael Amoah Addo and Mr Solomon Quartey. Present at the ceremony was the Deputy Executive Secretary, Mr. Francis Ankrah, and staff of the Academy.