I never know that hue have a motion sensor until I read some forum discussion. As one of the EVE motion sensor constantly need manual power cycle to keep it working, I want to replace it. The whole idea of purchasing these homekit stuffs is automation. There is no reason to keep removing battery and put it back on in order to keep the sensor working. I decided to give hue motion a try.
Sadly, I can’t find HUE motion is selling on apple store nor hktvmall, where I used to shop gadget online. I hate go to computer mall as it is too big and I usually overlook things anyway.
Luckily, I found that HUE motion is of course selling on Amazon us store. And it can ship to here. I ordered two immediately and picked the global priority to have them shipped asap.
The size of HUE motion is surprisingly tiny. Way smaller than EVE motion. It is super easy to setup. And what actually surprised me is that it even included temperature reading!! I didn’t actually study about HUE motion or otherwise I wouldn’t purchased the EVE degree from apple store at the same time 🙁
Both HUE motion working very fine. The respond time is much better than EVE motion. There is some delay for EVE motion to trigger lights when motion detected. But HUE motion don’t, it trigger HUE lights immediately.
The temperature sensor from HUE motion is working well too. I can setup a rule to turn on the fan when 1. motion detected and 2. temperature is higher than 24 degree. The apple home app do not provides option to set temperature as a rule, but the EVE app does.
Both HUE motion are in good shaped and none of them requires manual power cycle to keep it working.
Couldn’t live without those sensor now. Never needed to turn on/off lights manually for ages.
Spent quite some times to reset most automation rules however T_T
Update Jan 4 2018
Just ordered three more from amazon to completely replace EVE motion and have all the hue lights in all room turn on automatically.
I’m throwing the EVE motion to the rubbish bin. It have major flaw and just not working.


As of Friday, May 8, the world is verging on another grim milestone of 4 million confirmed COVID-19 infections. Worldometer now reports 3,949,240 cases along with 271,785 deaths.
Outside of the US, the countries with the most confirmed cases are:
- Spain: 256,855 confirmed cases; 26,070 deaths.
- Italy: 215,858 confirmed cases; 29,958 deaths.
- UK: 206,715 confirmed cases; 30,615 deaths.
- Russia: 187,859 confirmed cases; 1,723 deaths.
- France: 174,791 confirmed cases; 25,987 deaths.
Deaths Spike in Brazil
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Brazil have spiked to 135,106, along with 9,146 deaths, according to the Brazilian Health Ministry. Despite the surge in cases, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who confirmed he tested positive for the virus, has downplayed the pandemic and believes “the worst has passed”. However, many health experts fears that the worst is yet to come for Brazil.
The Pandemic is Creating a “Tsunami of Hate and Xenophobia,” According to UN Secretary General
The COVID-19 pandemic is causing “a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scare-mongering,” the United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said. As such, the UN chief is imploring political leaders to help enhance social relations in their communities. “I’m appealing today for an all-out effort to end hate speech globally,” he said.”I call on the media — especially social media companies — to do much more to flag … and remove racist, misogynist, and other harmful content. “And I ask everyone, everywhere, to stand up against hate.”
Boris Johnson Says Coronavirus Fight Requires Same Spirit as WWII
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a speech marking the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe that fighting COVID-19 “demands the same spirit of national endeavor” as the fight against Hitler and Nazi Germany. “We survived and eventually triumphed thanks to the heroism of countless ordinary people who may be elderly today, but once carried the fate of freedom itself on their shoulders,” he said.
“All of us who were born since 1945 are acutely conscious that we owe everything we most value to the generation who won the second world war.”
Friday, May 8, 2020
Death Toll Exceeds 77,000; New York Update
The novel coronavirus has now killed over 77,000 people in the US and there are 1,298,369 confirmed cases as this article goes to publish. The US epicenter, New York, has 337,421 confirmed cases and 26,365 deaths. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that at least 216 died from COVID-19 yesterday, which is down from 231 people on Wednesday and 232 people on Tuesday. Cuomo added that the number of fatalities isn’t dropping as quickly as he’d like. Also, hospitalization rates are “just about flat,” but Cuomo hopes for a “steady, sharp decline in those numbers.”
Outside of NY, the US states with the most confirmed infections are:
- New Jersey: 135,106 confirmed cases; 8,834 deaths.
- Massachusetts: 73,721 confirmed cases; 4,552 deaths.
- Illinois: 70,873 confirmed cases; 3,111 deaths.
- California: 62,477 confirmed cases; 2,545 deaths.
- Pennsylvania: 56,002 confirmed cases; 3,592 deaths.
Employment Hits Great Depression Levels
A record 20.5 million Americans lost their jobs in April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday – by far the sharpest decline since the government began tracking data in 1939. The US employment rate is now 14.7% – the highest its been since The Great Depression – further evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic has devastated America unlike any other event in the nation’s history. The rate of unemployment for adult women is slightly higher than adult men (15.5% vs. 13%, respectively) while Hispanics (18.9%), blacks (16.7%), Asians (14.5%), and whites (14.2%) have all suffered a record high employment rate in their groups, with the exception of black people.
The numbers paint “a pretty dismal picture, but April may be it for job losses going forward with the country starting to reopen,” Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank, told CNBC. “If there is a silver lining in today’s dismal jobs report, it is in the realization that the economy cannot possibly get any worse than it is right now.”
Is COVID-19 Sexually Transmitted?
Researchers found traces of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in the semen of some severely infected men, according to a study which appeared in the journal JAMA Network Open. However, it remains unclear if this finding proves that the virus is transmitted through sex. “I think that’s premature,” said Dr. Ryan Berglund, a urologist with the Cleveland Clinic’s Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute in a CBS News report. “You have to look at this as a sign that semen, as along with a number of other body fluids, can contain the virus.”
However, Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore, said “the fact that the novel coronavirus’ genetic material is found in the semen of male patients is an important finding that will need follow-up study.”
Some Restrictions Lift in California
Some California retailers were allowed to reopen their businesses today, by authorization of California Governor Gavin Newsom. The easing of restrictions occurs after groups of protesters gathered across the state in defiance of lockdown orders last week. However, Gov. Newsom stated that the reason California is able to ease some restrictions is because “the data says it can happen.”
VP Pence Staffer Tests Positive
A now second member of Vice President Mike Pence’s staff tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, one day after a personal valet of President Donald Trump tested positive for the novel virus. The positive result caused a one hour delay of Air Force Two for a flight to Iowa. The plane idled at Andrews Air Force Base with Vice President Pence aboard. Although the infected staff member was not on the plane, out of what a senior administrator called “an abundance of caution,” six aides who had been in recent contact with the COVID-positive staffer were asked to deplane and remain in Washington.
Thursday, May 7, 2020
- The New York Department of Health issued an alert that said 64 children and teens in New York State are suspected of having a mysterious inflammatory disease linked to COVID-19. Similar cases – including one death – have been reported in other US states and Europe, though the syndrome remains largely a mystery.
- One of President Donald Trump’s personal valets tested positive for COVID-19, marking the the closest known exposure of the president to the virus. After being made aware of the positive test, both President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were both tested, and came back with negative results.
- Neiman Marcus declared for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Thursday, making it the largest retailer to do so amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Company CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck said in a state that (Neiman Marcus) and other retailers are facing “unprecedented disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has placed inexorable pressure on our business.”
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
- President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the White House coronavirus task force will continue working “indefinitely,” reversing an initial decision he made on Tuesday to phase out the team in the coming weeks.
- A new genetic analysis of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease COVID-19, shows that coronavirus started circulating in people late last year, and spread extremely quickly after the first infection, according to a CNN report.
- The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention says that at least 4,893 incarcerated or detained people have been infected with COVID-19. Moreover, the CDC reports that at least 2,778 staff members have tested positive for the respiratory disease, resulting in 15 deaths.
- The projected US death toll from COVID-19 has hit an upward trajectory. Researchers who developed the model that has been cited by the White House nearly doubled their estimated death toll to 134,475 deaths through August.
- US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is underway with human testing for an experimental coronavirus vaccine in the US, the company announced on Tuesday. Pfizer, working in conjunction with German drugmaker BioNTech, said the first human participants have been dosed with the potential vaccine, BNT162. Human trials for the experimental vaccine initiated last month in Germany. “With our unique and robust clinical study program underway, starting in Europe and now the U.S., we look forward to advancing quickly and collaboratively with our partners at BioNTech and regulatory authorities to bring a safe and efficacious vaccine to the patients who need it most,” Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement.
- Officials in 46 US states, as well as Washington DC, have ordered or recommended that schools remain closed for the duration of this academic school year to prevent the further spread of COVID-19, according to CNN data. Moreover, schools in five US territories – America Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands – will also keep schools closed for the remainder of the academic year.
Monday, May 4, 2020
- Scientists working on the White House’s “Operation Warp Speed” to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 have honed in on 14 vaccines to focus on, a Trump administration official told CNN. President Donald Trump said Sunday night at a Fox News town hall, “We are very confident we are going to have a vaccine by the end of the year.”
- A Trump administration model is now predicting a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the coming weeks as most states begin easing lockdown restrictions that were put in place to mitigate the spread of the virus. The model is projecting up to 3,000 daily deaths in the US by June, according to an internal document procured by the New York Times. However, the White House said in a statement that the document obtained by the Times has not undergone review by the White House’s coronavirus task force.
- New Jersey schools will remain closed for the duration of the 2019-2020 academic year, by order of New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. Murphy made the announcement at his daily news briefing. “This is a difficult decision and I know that many students, parents, and staff would like to be able to return to school,” Murphy said in the statement. “However, I have been unwavering on the message that we need to make decisions based on science, not emotion. And while New Jersey is making great strides in mitigating the spread of COVID-19, science tells us that at this point, we can’t safely re-open our schools.”
- J.Crew Group, the parent company of J.Crew ad Madewell Brands, became the first national US retailer to file for bankruptcy due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a CNN report. The popular clothing retailer announced on Monday that it began the process of filing for Chapter 11 proceedings in federal bankruptcy court in the Eastern District of Virginia. “We will continue all day-to-day operations,” J.Crew Group CEO Jan Singer said in a statement.
Friday, May 1, 2020
- Dr. Anthony Fauci said the Trump administration is ramping up efforts for developing a coronavirus vaccine, and one could be available by January, the NY Post reports. “We want to go quickly, but we want to make sure it’s safe and it’s effective,” Fauci said on NBC’s “Today” show on Thursday. “I think that is doable if things fall in the right place.”
- The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention how the US deals with the COVID-19 pandemic in the coming weeks will be “critical” to how the virus will evolve come the fall season. “I do think that what we do this summer is going to be critical,” said Dr. Ann Schuchat, CDC principal deputy director in an interview with JAMA Network. “The more we intensify the testing and expand the public health capacity and assure that our hospital capacity and material to support the hospitals is adequate or has excess, the better we’re going to be in the fall.”
Here’s a full wrap-up of COVID-19 happenings from the month of March.
DocWire News will provide breaking updates on the COVID-19 pandemic as they become available.


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Any family would want to see their child marry with great fanfare. This occasion marks an important milestone in our adult life, which is why parents want it to be a great event.
Of course, careful saving and investing help in the planning and execution of this grand occasion, but you also have the option to apply for a wedding Personal Loan to cater to all expenses related to the big day.
What Is A Wedding Loan?
Your wedding loan, which is a variant of Personal Loans offered by banks, NBFCs, and private lenders, helps you cover the cost of a wedding and meet all your wedding-related expenses.
You can avail a marriage loan if you meet the eligibility criteria of the lenders. Wedding loan interest rates are generally the same as Personal Loan rates, and you can get up to Rs 40 lakh as a wedding loan with a repayment tenure of 5 years.
However, your loan amount, loan term, and interest rate depend on your credit rating, repaying capacity, regular income, and employment status.
Most of the wedding loans are unsecured Personal Loans. Owing to the online ease of application, many people are availing of these Personal Loans today.
A smart, competitive analysis will help you get the most affordable and conducive Personal Loan online, which not only meets the needs of applicants but also saves time, is easy to process, and offers the best interest rates among competitors.
Important Factors To Consider Before Applying For A Personal Loan For A Wedding
Wedding loans are quite enticing, and their best feature is that they are extremely easy and quick to obtain online. They come as a savior when you have not planned your savings carefully and to help you meet your financial needs to cover the total cost of the wedding.
However, there are several factors to consider when applying for a wedding loan. Here are eight important factors to consider before you apply for a Personal Loan online or offline to celebrate the precious occasion of your wedding:
Mind Your Credit Rating
APRs can be expensive if you have less than perfect credit. One of the most important rules for borrowing is to base APR rates on creditworthiness. A poor credit rating can lead to a higher rate of interest.
So, supervise and monitor your ratings before applying for the loan.
Take Only What You Need And Go For A Fixed Repayment Term
Budget before you plan your wedding and avoid overspending. Make sure you pick up the things you need and get a loan only for the required amount. You can also plan how much of your income you will use to pay off the loan each month as you pay off the balance over a set period.
You’ll need to schedule much larger monthly payments to fulfill the loan EMI, which can strain your finances heavily, so plan your EMIs using a Personal Loan EMI calculator and assess your loan needs carefully.
Consideration Of Marriage Loan Eligibility Criteria And General Needs
Lenders follow stringent eligibility criteria, and failure to meet the same will result in a drop in credit score.
So, make sure you meet the required personal loan eligibility criteria and fully assess your needs and requirements for a wedding loan. This will help you apply for the right loan amount and determine the overall loan term.
Consider The Additional Charges
Wedding loans may come with additional fees like processing charges, prepayment penalties, etc. Thus, it is imperative to go through the fine print of your marriage loan document carefully.
The goal is to get financial help from lenders with minimal qualms, charges, and inconvenience.
Are Your Ready To Start Your Marriage In Debt
You are about to enter a new phase of your life, so are you fully prepared for a Personal Loan for a wedding in India that could increase your financial burden in the future? This can lead to problems making ends meet and even resentment.
Make sure you have a solid backup for repaying the debt, and that money problems don’t lead to any complications in your married life.
Be Organized In Your Documentation
Once you have decided on the marriage loan amount you want, organize your paperwork well so that your loan application, verification, approval, and disbursement can be processed faster without going back and forth.
Determine The Repayment Process
Create a repayment plan after properly analyzing your finances before you apply for a wedding loan.
If a person does not have a fully and effectively established repayment schedule, there will be a high likelihood of greater penalties when the EMIs payments fail and bigger financial issues. So, finding a holistic reimbursement process based on an individual’s finances is paramount.
Analyze, Evaluate And Understand The Terms And Conditions
It is important to read the terms and conditions of the marriage loan very carefully. Failure to read it may lead to missing out on important terms, and you may not be able to secure the loan amount or end up paying a lot more.
It is, therefore, crucial to examine the Personal Loan document very carefully.
Keep Your Family Informed
If you plan on taking a Personal Loan, be sure to discuss this with your family.
Telling them your reasons will keep them informed, and their suggestions will give you a better perspective. They can even come to your rescue in times of short-term cash shortages.
Customer Service and Support
When participating in a competitive comparison of wedding loans, it is critical to consider the overall customer service that a lender provides after obtaining a wedding loan. The customer service should be approachable, available, and impeccable.
It is essential to do a thorough background check on the quality of a lender’s customer service and check customer reviews and ratings before finalizing the marriage loan.
We agree that you must not compromise on your wedding dreams as it is an extremely important milestone in your life. So, don’t hold yourself back to celebrate one of the most memorable moments of your life in the grandest of manner. You can apply for a quick Personal Loan for a wedding in India when you need more funds.

domain: finance


Chief Minister Siddharamaiah on Tuesday said that his efforts to seek an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi since July 27 to seek the Centre’s intervention on Mahadayi-Malaprabha river linking project and the Kalasa-Banduri Nala diversion have not yielded any results.
The chief minister told this to reporters after visiting the house of deceased farmer Gurunath Chapgavi at Badal Ankalgi village in Belagavi taluk on Tuesday to console the family members. The debt-ridden farmer had committed suicide on June 8.
“The State government has been planning to lead an all-party delegation to Delhi to highlight the plight of the farmers in the State in the prevailing drought conditions and seek the intervention of the prime minister in resolving the niggling issues between riparian States in Mahadayi and Kalasa and Banduri projects. The prime minister, however, has not given an appointment so far,” Siddaramaiah said.
With the protests demanding for the speedy implementation of the twin projects gaining steam in Mumbai-Karnataka region, the ruling Congress is under tremendous pressure to act and act fast.
The chief minister said that he had even met Union Ministers D V Sadananda Gowda and Ananthkumar and had urged them to use their good offices to get an appointment with the prime minister. “But, they are quiet on the issue,” he added.
The image of the government has taken a beating because of the spurt in farmer suicides, he said adding that suicide was no solution to the farmers’ problems.
He said, the State Government can take care of the loans availed by the farmers from the co-operative sector. But most of the farmers have borrowed from nationalised and scheduled banks which are controlled by the Union Government. Hence, the Centre should come to the farmers’ rescue, the chief minister urged.
Chief Minister siddaramaiah: Most of the farmers have taken loans from nationalised and scheduled banks which are controlled by the Union Government. Hence, the Centre should come to the farmers’ rescue


Mr. Wilfrid LaCroix (Quebec-Monimorency) moved
the second reading of Bill No. 13, to amend the Criminal Code (subversive activities).
He said: Mr. Speaker, the purpose of this bill is to prevent communism from extending its propaganda activities in this country. For the last few years the communist party of Canada and the Soviet embassy in Ottawa have been using the mails to pour out floods of propaganda originating in Russia and
designed to establish international communism. I have here a pamphlet entitled, "The Fortieth Anniversary of the Great Social October Revolution", essays by the propaganda section of the Marxist-Leninist Institute, which openly advocates world revolution in favour of a socialist and communist system in all nations on earth. Those pamphlets have been sent to all hon. members of this house, to a large section of the Canadian population and they have been more particularly distributed in the province of Quebec. It seems to me high time that the necessary steps be taken to stop this active propaganda which is likely to contribute to the creation of communist cells whose spying is bound to be detrimental to us in the event of a war against Russia.
It will perhaps be claimed that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are keeping an eye on communist activities in this country but- and I want to stress this point-they will be powerless against the infiltration of communistic ideology among the poor, the unemployed and even among certain so-called intellectuals. All of these, once converted by that propaganda might do us considerable harm in case of war with Russia.
I have already submitted this bill on various occasions when I was sitting on the government side. Everybody here knows its contents. This year I have introduced changes to make it identical with an act passed by the United States government which, according to Mr. Edgar Hoover, chief of the federal bureau of investigation, has proved most effective in curbing communist activities.
I should like this afternoon by keeping my remarks brief to avoid taking up too much of the only hour reserved to a study of this bill so that hon. members who favour the adoption of the bill may vote before the house has used up all the time reserved to the consideration of public bills. I would therefore ask those who are in favour of the bill simply to abstain from any prolonged discussion which would rule out all possibility of this bill going through for otherwise it would drop down to the bottom of the order paper.
There is nothing to prevent us from approving the bill on second reading and then referring it to a committee of the house which would consider and even amend it should the committee feel that it falls short of the objective I have in mind. I strongly object, however, to any attempt to kill it by protracted discussion which indeed would prevent a committee of the house from giving it further study for what I am seeking through this bill is to prevent communist propaganda
from spreading in our country at a time when the taxpayer is being heavily burdened precisely to face this enemy.
It might perhaps be suggested that if this bill were to pass it would lead to a breakoff of our diplomatic relations with Russia. This would be a misconception because the United States, in spite of their having adopted similar legislation, still have an ambassador in Moscow. I may add that the former leader of the opposition, the present Prime Minister (Mr. Diefenbaker), has often advocated in this house legislation against the communist party.
Topic: CRIMINAL CODE
Subtopic: AMENDMENTS WITH RESPECT TO SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES


Printable Ruler Mm Download – A Milimeter Ruler is really a tool that precisely steps specific dimensions and can be used to measure peak, width, depth, and the circumference from the true item. You’d probably most often see a millimeter ruler employed for tests or measuring the scale of a problem after which for measuring the correct measurements. It’s a tool that has a round leading that has a graduated scale on either side.
Once you have taken the goal measurement from your very first degree towards the fourth diploma, the top from the unit will move toward the correct. The tool is made up of two circular metal bases that permit the device to produce its measurement.
The instrument typically takes an “open”closed” approach. A closed method is one in which the instrument moves from your remaining towards the right although an open technique is one where the instrument moves from the right to the remaining. If you have ever tried to utilize one, you know that it is much simpler to use one that moves from your proper towards the remaining. Nonetheless, you will find some disadvantages to making use of the open technique of measurement.
You’ll find different ways of measuring issues in non-metric nations like the United states, so if you happen to be using a instrument to measure the precise measurement, it could result in difficulties. Furthermore, the sort of measurement that you’re looking for might not be effortlessly measured by the traditional technique that the majority individuals are utilized to.
You will find distinct specifications including the US lawn, metric foot, metre and imperial foot. If you are not sure of what measurement you’re searching for, you’ll be able to either get in touch with an expert and obtain their help or utilize the online assets to look for what you are seeking for.
The device is pretty simple to use since it arrives with a one inch ruler. The various measurements are very tiny and simple to measure so that you can get your measurements with one inch rulers. One point that lots of individuals don’t realize is that this method could be really correct whenever you understand how to make use of it.
It’s less difficult to utilize than the usual standard measurement technique however it is not for everyone. In fact, this really is one approach that you should use cautiously in order to avoid creating blunders.
If you are searching for any precision and precise measurements, there is no other far better method of getting them. If you are wondering about its accuracy, keep in mind that it’s a fast and productive method of getting the precise measurement.


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Aspirin target deciphered
January 19, 1994
Aspirin target deciphered
January 20, 1994
Roadmap to designing better pain relievers
X-ray crystal structure of unusual membrane protein may spell relief for millions who take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
Millions of arthritis sufferers and others who regularly take aspirin to reduce pain and inflammation may be able to look forward to improved drugs with fewer side effects now that researchers at the University of Chicago Medical Center have determined in atomic detail the three-dimensional structure of the target molecule of these drugs. The finding, reported in the January 20 issue of the journal Nature, shows that the target belongs to a long-sought and elusive class of biomolecules and could also aid cancer research.
Aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen and indomethacin work by inhibiting an enzyme that produces prostaglandins--hormone-like messenger molecules that trigger many processes in the body, including inflammation. Less than three years ago several groups found that the enzyme, prostaglandin H2 synthase, exists in two forms: an ever-ready PGHS-1, present in nearly all cells for basic housekeeping duties, and PGHS-2, made only as needed and just by those cells involved in inflammation and immune responses.
Unfortunately for pain sufferers--and especially for rheumatoid arthritis patients, who must take huge doses daily--none of the current crop of 16 NSAIDs discriminates between the two enzyme forms. Before it can trickle into the bloodstream and alleviate inflammation by reining in PGHS-2, the drug lands with a thud in the stomach, where it knocks out PGHS-1, causing excess acid secretion and stomach upset or ulcers.
"Just three years ago the consensus in the pharmaceutical community was you couldn't build a better aspirin," says X-ray crystallographer Michael Garavito, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. He and research associates Daniel Picot and Patrick Loll grew crystals of PGHS-1 and determined its molecular shape by analyzing the diffraction pattern of X-rays passed through a crystal. Because the gene and protein sequences of both enzymes are known, "now we can take the whole repertoire of drugs and see how they bind to PGHS-1, predict how they might bind to PGHS-2, and try to fashion whole new families of drugs that would be highly specific for one form or the other," Garavito said.
PGHS-1 is tightly bound to an intracellular membrane. Such proteins are notoriously difficult to study because the detergents needed to separate the protein from the greasy membrane make crystallization difficult. The researchers spent six years devising conditions for growing and handling the crystals. Using PGHS-1 isolated from sheep seminal vesicles, they bound the molecule to the NSAID flurbiprofen and slowly changed the composition of the solution and the surrounding vapor over a period of weeks to grow brown, rod shaped crystals less than one sixteenth of an inch long that they then were able to X-ray.
The structure held some surprises. Most membrane proteins are threadlike molecules that lace back and forth across the two layers of the membrane. PGHS-1 turns out to be the first "monotopic" membrane protein, balled up against just one surface. The existence of such proteins was long supposed but never proven. "It floats on the membrane like a boat," said Garavito. Two loops of the protein act as pontoons, forming the main Contact points with the membrane.
Drug developers are most interested in targeting PGHS-2, whose structure can now be inferred and will be the next object of study in Garavito's laboratory. But aspirin's beneficial effects in preventing vascular disease and heart attacks are thought to be a PGHS-1 phenomenon, and improved anti-platelet drugs may derive from today's study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
PGHS-1 has also been implicated in the activation of carcinogens in the body, and recent studies have shown daily aspirin may decrease the incidence of colon cancer. Garavito is now doing American Cancer Society-sponsored research to study how PGHS-1 activates carcinogens through a free radical mechanism. Knowing how the enzyme grabs compounds and converts them into carcinogens might allow chemists to engineer safer substances, Garavito said. "It may be possible to modify industrially promising chemicals to biologically inert forms that can't be activated."

domain: medical


text:
Cyber security – Which vendors will do most to shape this fragmented super-category as it enters the Tornado?
July 16, 2015
Several weeks ago in a blog titled “Bits & Pieces”, I drew attention to the fact that information security is now a C suite and board-level concern.
However, information security has long been, and still is, an extremely broad and fragmented super-category with hundreds of different product and service offerings in twenty or more product categories.
So the two questions I want to attempt to answer in this article are 1) which vendors will take it upon themselves to do more to consolidate distinct but important product and service offerings under one roof or one ecosystem?, and 2) which companies will thrive most as we enter a multiple-year tornado in this business?
I have no illusions that the “C suite” observation I made several weeks ago was particularly perceptive; it was already obvious that boards and CEOs were about to become much more accountable than has been the case till now for safeguarding sensitive data about their customers, partners, and employees, and/or about their industrial installations, trade secrets, and products and services. The sheer number, scale, and aggressiveness of some of the more headline-grabbing incidents are enough to get shareholders, customers, and others into a militant frame of mind in defense of their interests. For sure, regulators everywhere are going to become far more active, lawsuits from aggrieved parties will proliferate, and other factors such as brand or reputational damage will each exert their influence in this direction. And, as everyone assumes today, the sheer relentlessness, creativity and mischief isn’t likely to subside any time soon.
Just a week or so ago, the federal government sheepishly announced that, in addition to hacks into the data of 4 million people, they had uncovered another incident compromising 21 million more people. In total this equates to almost 10% of the U.S. population being impacted in ways that we don’t yet fully understand by penetration of government-run IT and even operational systems. Disturbing indeed. Even more so, when you allow your imagination to roam into other areas, such as possible future hacks into airline flight logistics systems or airplane control systems, into hospitals and the health system, into nuclear and other power plants, or into military defense systems. In short, ensuring cyber security in all its forms is now not only a business problem, but a major governance issue on a global basis. Even worse, the crisis of confidence in security is turning into a highly sensitive and rapidly unfolding geopolitical crisis. Governments are certainly not letting on to their citizens how concerned they are about the ability of foreign nations from China to Russia, or hostile regimes and rogue states like North Korea or Iran, to penetrate the most sensitive information systems and cause catastrophic physical and other damage. Besides government to government actions, authorities and businesses have to deal with small cells of hackers based in a number of different countries around the world.
In light of the critical and urgent nature of what’s happening, the table is now set for security vendors of all types, supported by private and public investors, to bring to bear a more integrated portfolio of solutions. The field of IT/cyber security contains everything from protection for critical infrastructure (sensors, databases, analytics – the world of IoT), firewalls, threat intelligence and threat management, crisis response, incident response and forensics, fraud detection and remediation, disaster preparedness, managing mobility (including BYOD management), cloud, network, and endpoint vulnerabilities, ensuring database security, malware detection, and remediation, user identity management, video surveillance, Ddos protection, and so on. Increasingly, every one of these sub-categories requires advanced analytics, including retrospective, real-time, preventative, and predictive capabilities, in order to provide for adequate anticipation and protection as well as remediation and incident response and/or disaster recovery. In part because this industry depends so much on deep human domain expertise in arcane and granular areas in order for the technology solutions to be deployed and utilized effectively, it has resisted the kind of category consolidation that comes more easily to less complex technology applications and infrastructure such as desktop productivity applications or server virtualization. So achieving some degree of consolidation into major themes is not a trivial task. That said, someone’s got to do the dirty work someday.
Consider the following instructive example reported by UBS, that resulted from an analysis by Cisco as part of its announcement of an expanded and more aggressive IT security strategy. It suggests that the average large enterprise has 54-plus security vendors (no, this is not a misprint), making it extremely difficult for CIOs and Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) to manage such a complicated landscape and the correspondingly byzantine systems architecture required to manage them. Analyst Amitabh Passi of UBS notes: “We don’t believe Cisco has any delusions of replacing 50-plus vendors with just itself, but (in Cisco’s case) the goal is to simplify the landscape.” Without such a simplification of offerings and a clearly defined roadmap, organizations won’t know how to proceed. This doesn’t mean that they won’t make investments in an attempt to significantly enhance their defenses against hacks and other attacks, but that most likely a lot of money will get thrown at the various problems with little strategy or cohesion, resulting in enormous waste and, perhaps, worse, no effective solutions to some of the more serious challenges. This in turn could create a massive hangover for customers as well as vendors, eventually slowing the pace of innovation and investment in the category.
In light of all these factors, let me attempt to answer the two questions I posed at the beginning of this article. Firstly, as so often is the case with emerging and growing product categories, there are three broad groups of product vendors capable of influencing the growth trajectory of the industry by serving customers with innovative and differentiated solutions to today’s most challenging problems:
Major global systems vendors consolidating myriad offerings into a single portfolio of products and services to provide integrated one-throat-to-choke solutions to today’s and tomorrow’s problems;
Fast-growing best-of-breed players selling one or more targeted offerings that address specific current security problems;
Recently funded startups bringing dramatically new offerings to market to solve (hopefully) tomorrow’s problems as well as some of today’s hairier ones.
I don’t pretend to be sufficiently familiar with the competitive landscape to name all the likely winners in each of these groups. But among the first group of global players, Dell, Cisco, IBM, and HP will undoubtedly be important players. It’s difficult to see at this point which of these four global hardware, software, and services companies will become the more dominant “category consolidator”. They’ve all been doing acquisitions and they all have their own in-house products and domain expertise to offer. Since going private Dell has made major investments in security software and services; IBM has long been a player in this area; and besides Cisco, HP has made moves more recently to expand its presence and focus on security. These systems companies are all providing managed security services – or starting to do so – employing cloud and hosted on-premise solutions. All of these companies will need to make aggressive moves to differentiate themselves against the others by, for example, acquiring one or more of the companies in Group B despite, or even because of, their high valuations. Besides providing technology and products that are gaining broad acceptance, this type of acquisition typically brings with it experienced management talent and domain expertise including former NSA and DoD analysts, security managers, and threat intelligence experts.
In the same note sent out by Seeking Alpha where the UBS analyst provided their observations on Cisco’s strategy, BMO’s analyst Tim Long suggested that more M&A is likely. “Cisco believes that one of the key changes that will occur in the industry over the next few years is that customers will increasingly move from point vendors that provide niche solutions to companies that can provide an architectural approach … This should also drive increased industry consolidation.” Besides the consolidation of product portfolios within an integrated reference architecture, providing deep domain expertise in emerging, esoteric, and critical areas such as IoT sensor security, malware prevention analytics, or cloud or mobility security will be paramount.
The disparate group of companies in Group B includes players such as Fireye, Fortinet, Imperva, Palantir, Palo Alto Networks, Splunk, and a number of others. Due to the growing importance of cyber security as a headline-grabbing concern, the market caps of these fast-growing companies vary between $7bn and $15bn. despite them all being sub $800m. in annual revenue today (Imperva’s market cap is $2bn on 2014 revenues of $164m). In addition to building out their product portfolios organically, we must expect that these companies will (continue to) make aggressive acquisitions in order to expand their footprint and attempt to become significant players on a global basis; otherwise, despite their rapidly increasing market caps, since they are still ‘tweeners, they may become food for one of the hungrier global players in group A.
As for group C, there are hundreds if not thousands of young networking, software and services startups being funded around the world to fight the security war. By this time next year or mid-2017 we’ll all become aware of companies that today are invisible to most of us, but that have developed solutions to ward off the most challenging attacks. Among the young companies gaining attention and even being acquired in their relative infancy are Morta (recently acquired by Palo Alto Networks), Skyfence (acquired by Imperva), Caspida (just acquired by Splunk), and a host of other still-independent companies including Aorato, Bitglass, Bluebox, CloudLock, Confer, Cybereason, Cyphort, Elastica, Forter, Niara, Okta, Skycure, Zimperium, and many others.
In conclusion, inside customer organizations of all types, the share of IT spend on security is growing rapidly today and in some areas is resulting in hyper-growth for some key product and service providers, thanks largely to the accelerating number of high-profile cyber-attacks at Home Depot, JP Morgan Chase, Target, Sony Pictures, Anthem Health Insurance, and now the U.S. government. The next 12-24 months are going to be extremely interesting in terms of the vendors that will be most influential in shaping the cyber security industry going forward. Let’s hope that at least one of the major global players, in addition to a number of the companies in Group B and C, makes the right moves because there is a lot at stake for citizens, customers, businesses and governments everywhere.
Note: For a detailed description of the tornado stage of hyper-growth, see blog published on July 14 2015 by Andrew Salzman and Paul Wiefels of The Chasm Group.

domain: news


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EMIT was very fortunate to have Sam Rivers appear in concert seven times during the past 16 years of concerts. Sam was a legendary figure in creative music and jazz. He lived in Orlando where he had a tremendous impact on the music scene statewide.
Sam performed on the EMIT series with his trio (on several occasions), Fluid Motion (a quintet), his quartet (Dalifest and and the Hickman Theater) and even dropped by to perform a duo with Evan Parker. He will be missed greatly.
If you don't know Sam Rivers, check out this NPR article on him: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112554824&sc=emaf

domain: entertainment


Metal-Tech Partners is dedicated to providing you with the exact equipment you need.
To accomplish this goal, we utilize an innovative manufacturing process that allows us to offer you precision-tolerant, premium-quality products at competitive prices. We also maintain a full inventory so that your standard-item orders are available for immediate delivery. In addition, MTP strives to provide you with the highest level of customer service.
Our Quality Policy insures that we give you exactly what you want when you want it, and at the most competitive price in the industry.


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Tell us a little about yourself?
Most of my kin call me Youngblood but, as a rapper, I go by Big Homie. I’m from the United States; I’ve lived all over, so I claim a lot of love for cities in the South & Midwest & even out on the West Coast. My love for hip-hop runs as far back as I can remember; even though I’m relatively new to writing and recording, I feel like (if you really know me) music was always going to be involved in my path somehow.
How did you come up with your artist name?
At first, I wanted to go by “Middle Child”. I’m the middle of 7 children, suffer immensely from the effects, and that particular J. Cole single was in HEAVY rotation when I first started writing. But it was actually the lyrics at the beginning of his second verse that formulated the transformation….
“I’m dead in the middle of 2 generations, I’m little bro and big bro all at once; Just left the lab with young 21 savage, I’m bout to go and meet Jigga for lunch.”
My full artist name is actually Big Coach the Big Homie. “Coach” & “Coach Youngblood” was always thrown around by some of my peers, and the “Big Homie” vibe comes from my roots and connections in so many relationships/communities.
I’ve lived in 7 states and worked overseas in multiple countries, making lifelong friends along the way. I’m at the early end of the “millennial” spectrum but still feel like my ability to appreciate the old classics as well the new wave is essential. Big Homie is a product of moving through multiple environments with a desire to learn from experience & speak everyone’s language.
How long have you been in the music industry?
About 2 years give or take. I met my team in the spring of ’18 but didn’t have any ambition or knowledge about the subject of recording. They were just looking for any kind of contribution, so we took our time getting to know one another, talking music and becoming comfortable with the vibes. I made my first “verse” about a year later in the spring of ’19.
How did you get started in the music business in the first place?
Tetrahedron Crew is the team that put me on. I moved to Oregon and met them, they were already making a ton of music and we instantly linked over beats and similar aesthetics. They convinced me it “wasn’t that hard” to make a song, which I couldn’t fathom. It was really a snowball effect though once i started writing. I love to write anyways, but never really found a lane i wanted to contribute to. The hip-hop way was inevitable once they helped show me the ropes.
How would you describe your latest single?
I guess “I Can’t Feel My Face” is considered the latest single, it’s doing really well off the new album “Rainy Season Music”.
It’s a fun, island vibe of a beat, that has a hook that everyone loves to sing and a flow that let’s you rap along with Homie haha. I think we knew we had a hit with this one right away. I think it works on both levels – it has potential to just get you dancing which is what half of the people are here for, and simultaneously contains lyrics that are relatable and raw.
When can fans expect the visuals for the single?
Oh you KNOW we going to the beach hahaha. I’d honestly love to go back to Sierra Leone to film it on the coast! We will take our time with this one though because it has to be PERFECT haha.
Who are your inspirations in the music industry?
I love artists who are multi-faceted and show a wide range of skills and vulnerability with their work. People like Jaden, Badu, Gambino, Outkast. And not just on some music shit either. I love how ASAP MOB is working on Substance abuse awareness. Or all the work Akon is doing in Africa. I hope philanthropy and service are embedded in my career.
How do you go about writing a song and what is your process?
I’m at my best with some simple headphones, my Notes app open, and the beat running out of my Files tab so I can see everything down to the second. Back when we made Vectors, me and Ahava’s first tape, I’d say each verse took me 2 to 3 days to write. I would walk the halls of my work, pouring over each word and cadence, haha it was such a process! These days it’s more like a few hours to get it done, then a few touch ups here and there before I record. The writing is by far my favourite part of the entire effort to get a song out.
What is the concept behind your forthcoming project if working on one?
‘Quiet Places’ is the 2nd act of a 3 part play of songs I wrote and recorded when I was in Africa. It’s a 4 song EP, conceived over a 2 month period when I was really going through it and I didn’t have a lot of will to write anything. Plus I had nowhere to record and the Dry Season had just taken over so I was just wasting away. This tape symbolizes that time for me, and continues Big Homie’s story. I really do love these 4 songs though, they helped me get through it and provide a symbiotic bridge to the 3rd act.
Any plans on touring to promote your latest single?
BRUH. If we could, I would! Can you imagine? Not just the single, but anything off of RSM, LIVE?!?!?! Fire marshall shit.
What did you buy with your first check off music?
Oh that just went right back to the team. There is so much to do when it comes to management and marketing, I haven’t hit that rapper lick just yet. I feel like every dollar spent at this moment has to be about foundational work, we just tryna eat.
What are must haves when you’re in the studio working?
Water, weed, wine…… Haha but for real though, I don’t need much, at least at the moment. We cheffin’ in closets sometimes, just to turn around make hits! As long as the team is nearby, and we got swishers, I’m gucci.
What is the best piece of advice in this business you actually followed?
Not sacrificing my vision for what people think could happen hypothetically. I understand that people feel like they only have one chance to make a first impression, but i think if you focus on longevity, you’re only going to grow as an artist, and those same naysayers often give credit where credit is due.
Will you be collaborating with any other artists in the future?
Bruh I HOPE so. I love the creative process of working with new artists, and once we take the operation global, anyone that’s got the desire and drive can link with me.
What artist have you had the pleasure of working with and what was it like?
Damn, I probably gotta shout out my guy SM De Editor for this one. Bruh YOU A REAL ONE. Haha he sent the bikes to come get me at my crib and we whipped out to a local studio in town. It was real trap house vibes and he was definitely on his boss shit. The booth was dope and he was gassing me up to everyone there haha. It was actually kinda crazy and the adrenaline had me blackin cuz I snapped on my One Take Drake shit and the studio went wild hahaha! A lotta love for that man and those people!
Name an artist(s) that you would love to work with?
STORMZY! I love that UK drill shit and ever since I went to the Wireless Festival and EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON. in the crowd knew the lyrics to ‘Shut Up’, I’ve been a fan.
Do you think your music is mostly enjoyed more for the beats or for the lyrical flow and content?
I think these days, in general, most people are just here for the vibes, which means they love a good beat. I am fortunate enough to have a lot of older peers and colleagues who still compliment me on my lyrical acumen, but most of the texts and DM’s say, “OH I LOVE THAT BEAT BRO”.
What area do you need to improve on in regards to your career? (Example: Better production, Delivery, Stage presence, etc..
I’d say I need to improve it all. I’m still painfully new to a lot of the intricate details that go into making a great song. I can’t wait until we are a fully functioning machine, and I can use every second towards learning. There is always room for improvement and thank God my team challenges me every day and I’m not surrounded by a bunch of yes men.
What’s your all-time favourite song?
All Of Me – Joe Budden feat. Emanny
I know, I know, everyone hates Joe. But you weren’t there when Mood Muzik 3 (The original with DJ Onpoint) came out and the world stood still for 7 minutes and 26 seconds while that song played for the first time.
I’m here for the lyrics and the storytelling, the flow and the pain, and to me, this was it. To truly paint such a beautiful picture was for me at the time the epitome of what music could be. I actually fought back and forth with a lot of songs for this question, but this one is the truth. I NEVER skip this song if it comes on shuffle. No matter the mood.
What was the last album you listened to?
I Can See The Universe From Here – Yog$
Your favourite artist of all time and why?
I’d probably have to say it’s a tie between Gambino & Drake. The parallel similarities and the chords they hit in my life throughout my entire maturation are no coincidence. I watched both from the very beginning, and I think any artist would be so lucky to experience an iota of the growth that either of those artists has gone through.
Whose your fav five artist right now?
Probably Saint JHN. Can you name a time ‘Freedom Is Priceless’ is not appropriate to be played? Plus i’m tryna get that Honda Accord on my right wrist. Motivation.
In your opinion who is the most influential and successful artist in your genre today and why?
Drake. He birthed all of y’all. And not only that, who’s co-sign hits harder? I believe if he walked away from streaming platforms, the game would inevitably change. WHO ELSE IS DOING THAT????
Who have been some of your favourite artists that you’ve been able to work with?
Ahava, Caveman, FKA Entropy, Kami Ka, Rising P, B Spark, SM De Editor, Lau…… I just started but all of these artists are worthy of studio time with the new artists in the game.
How do you feel about the current state of music?
It’s the WILD WEST! Granted, there are a few monopolistic tyrants giving shiny crumbs & sheckles out to 99% of the game but I see it as a power to the people situation. The fact that we can just have a mic and a laptop and make a song is incredible. I think there is good and bad to it not being about talent as much anymore. I think there are MILLIONS of talented artists at this point. I think blogs like this and the growing HHT movement are creating new gatekeepers and on a macro level I think it looks like the way out of the oppression. I feel like i could go on and on about the state of affairs, but overall I’m optimistic; I think we have the will and desire to outlast the wear and tear of the game.
Any dream award shows you hope to one day play at?
It’d be cool to make a song that gets picked up in a soundtrack, then maybe do the oscars. I’m a bit of a cinephile so i’m tryna harass some directors.
What is your main goal as far as music?
I hope it helps people like it helped me, thats all. I’ve had some truly dark and down moments, and music saved my life. When people hit me up and say they love something I’ve done because it helped, that’s it.
Who would you say your music relates to the most?
People who feel stuck, code-switching our entire lives to appease a generation of buffoons too prideful to let go of their material things. I’m here for the revolutionaries.
What separates you from other artists? (What’s makes you different?)
I think I have a unique perspective coupled with patient experience. I like to think I spent most of my life analysing the game, and jumped in with a worthy effort. If you listen to my last album, should I not be here too?
When you’re not in the studio, What do you like to do for fun and relaxation?
I’m still a big gamer at heart, I love any one player game with a painfully intricate campaign, I feel like the puzzles and sense of completion help with my creativity. When it’s warm I’m at the beach or skateboarding, I’m still tryna kick this soccer ball around and I’m always down to link with the homies for whatever.
If you could work with any producer who would it be?
Prolly 40. Haha, I realize most of my answers are OVO based but when you a fan, you a fan. His ability to make the hairs on my arm stand up to this day, on songs I’ve heard a million times, that’s beyond talent. It’s ethereal.
What’s the biggest highlight of your career thus far?
Releasing our music on streaming platforms and talking to my mom about it. I don’t really care about too much right now, I just love making music and sharing it with my family.
What is your dream venue to perform at?
SHUT DOWN WIRELESS, SHUT DOWN TWITTER!
What’s the name of the last book you read and by whom?
Heart Of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
What’s your favourite sports team and why?
Manchester United. I remember the first time I saw them play back in the 90s. It was against Sheffield Wednesday for a cup final on a grainy television. I loved soccer more than anything at the time but alas, we rarely got to see any games. They were it though. Swag personified. I knew I was a Red Devil that day and every day after.
Whose your favourite actor or actress and their best movie?
Denzel – Man On Fire or Pacino – Scent of A Woman
Name someone famous who inspires you and why?
Jaden – I want to do something like he’s doing with Just Water. I think one of the largest crimes to humanity is the lack of access to clean drinking water in so many communities. We can also do better about our footprint. Some sort of endeavour with water would be ideal with what I want to pursue in the future.
What can we expect from you in the future?
A LOT. If all goes according to plan, I have 6 more solo projects coming out this year, along with multiple group and joint efforts with my team, Tetrahedron Crew. I want to treat this year like a “mixtape” phase and get our foundation set for what’s next!
For now, it’s all about streaming ‘Rainy Season Music’ and getting ready for ‘Quiet Places’.
Where can the fans check out for your music?
We are streaming almost everywhere you can find music right now. My newest release “Rainy Season Music” is a 12 track LP I wrote and recorded while living in Africa, and it just came out January 29th, you should check it out! There’s also a ton of older music from last year available in the same place, take a minute to see how much we’ve grown!
Support this artist by using the links below:

domain: artistic


Cases of COVID-19 in the Netherlands and across Europe are increasing again. So far, the rising numbers received surprisingly little media attention. Only in the last day or two, major news outlets started to focus again on the pandemic. Ever since the Dutch public health institute, RIVM, scrapped the daily reports, the public seems to have moved on. Having seen the impact of COVID-19 among family members, I find this worrying.
That’s why I developed a simple COVID-19 in the Netherlands dashboard, using the RIVM’s public data. The data updates daily at around 2pm Amsterdam time. It’s work in progress and not optimized for use on mobile devices. Still, it provides users with an overview of the latest numbers per municipality. The dashboard also shows how numbers developed over the last week. Data on hospital admissions and deaths is also available. Take a look here.
As cases are rising, I hope we can all remind ourselves: this pandemic is far from being over. We should do all we can to bring down case numbers to avoid a second wave. The cold Dutch autumn is coming fast.


Con Brio Men's Chorus
Wanted: "A Few Good Men" for Con Brio Men's Chorus. Join our gifted singing fraternity.
"Men of integrity, singing from the heart to the glory of God."
Conducted by Timothy Sawyer, Con Brio Men's Chorus is comprised of 40–50 mostly first-year male students, an enthusiastic and elegant "singing fraternity" whose repertoire ranges from glee club to sacred classics for men's voices. Spiritual formation, fun, laughter and energetic camaraderie are important elements in the life of this group. It's definitely “a guy thing to do!” Con Brio Men's Chorus brings its vitality and uplifting music to churches, schools, and other concert venues throughout Minneapolis-St. Paul, greater Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas. In addition, the men are featured on campus in a fall concert with other ensembles, Christmas at Northwestern, and tours annually around the region each spring, bringing the joy of music wherever they go! Come; join the fraternity.
Con Brio Men’s Chorus Recent Tours
2019 North Branch, Willow River, and Moose Lake
2018 Chaska and Shakopee
2017 Buffalo, Stewartville, and Rochester
2016 Eastern Minnesota
2015 Northern Minnesota Iron Range


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taipei police on Thursday (April 15) rejected allegations that they are losing the fight against crime, pointing out that they have received praise for being the country’s best special municipality at tracking down guns.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) City Councilor Wang Shih-chien (王世堅) compared the capital to “Gotham City” due to the number of crimes, suspects, and victims, CNA reported.
However, top police officers retorted that all major violent crimes are being solved and that Taipei is even leading the way in the fight against illegal guns.
In 2020, Taipei police found 151 illegal guns and 86,395 rounds of ammunition, with 57 percent of guns and 98 percent of bullets being tracked down outside the capital. Of the six special municipalities, Taipei registered the second-lowest number of shooting incidents, and all of them were rapidly solved, according to local police.
Between 2018-2020, there were 5,637 thefts and robberies, 4,765 cases of public endangerment, including drunk driving, 4,747 cases of fraud, and 4,440 drug-related incidents, police statistics show. Officials have blamed the level of crime on the complex nature of a major urban area.


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Scholar Exchange: Founding Documents
Part lecture and part lively conversation, our LIVE online classes are open to the public so that students, teachers, and parents can join in a constitutional discussion with NCC scholars.
In this fast-paced and fun session, students will review America’s founding documents from a typical course of study for an AP Government class. This class helps students understand these essential documents better—including their fundamental ideas and the major principles underlying the U.S. Constitution. Primary sources include the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of the Confederation, the Constitution (including the Bill of Rights), The Federalist Papers (#51, #70, #78), Brutus #1, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from the Birmingham City Jail.
- Register for Middle School Session April 26 and 28 at 12 p.m. ET
- Register for High School and College Session April 26 and 28 at 2 p.m. ET
- Register for All Ages Session April 30 at 1 p.m. ET

domain: history


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PSN Retro Review: Wild Arms 2For only six dollars? Yeah, you're going to want this game.10.15.09 - 8:52 PM
Unless, of course, you can't stand a bad English script.
The English localization of Wild Arms 2 has, for years, been notoriously remembered for its awful script. But if you can look past that, and look past the pulled Japanese vocal tracks, what you'll find is one of the most interesting RPGs from the 32-bit era.
That's what I found anyway. And this was my first time playing the game. And it's all thanks to the PlayStation Network (which needs a bigger library in the North America!).
Read the full review by clicking below. Retro action for all!


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A committee looking at how at the UK could meet its 2050 net zero climate change target has recommended a cut in consumption of beef, lamb and dairy products.
But, despite some of the headlines it has generated, the Committee on Climate Change’s (CCC) report focusing specifically on land use and climate has some encouraging conclusions and recommendations for the UK farming sector.
The headline recommendation calls for a reduction in the consumption of the most carbon-intensive foods, ie beef, lamb and dairy, by at least 20% per person, alongside a reduction in food waste by the same amount. The report says this would save 7 MtCO2e of on-farm emissions by 2050.
“These measures imply a shift towards current healthy eating guidelines and can drive sufficient release of land to support the necessary changes in tree planting and bioenergy crops. Alongside expected population growth, they imply around a 10% reduction in cattle and sheep numbers by 2050 compared with 2017 levels. This compares with a reduction of around 20% in the past two decades,” the report says.
As far as pig production, the report notes that meat from non-ruminant sources, including pigs and poultry, are generally more greenhouse-gas (GHG) intensive than plant-based proteins, but less so than most methods of ruminant meat production, particularly beef from dedicated beef herds.
The report also stresses that the ingredients that go into animal feed must also be taken into account when analysing food’s contribution to climate change.
Other recommendations and conclusions include:
- Low-carbon farming practices such as controlled release fertilisers, improving livestock health and slurry acidification can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from soils, livestock and manure management by 10 MtCO2e by 2050.
- Extend existing regulation to reduce on-farm emissions (eg Nitrogen Vulnerable Zones) and use new legislation to regulate additional sources of emissions not currently regulated.
- Public funding should be used to incentivise the take-up of low-carbon farming practices, eg precision farming where they go beyond requirements of new regulation and where they imply costs to farmers.
- Delivering emissions reduction should not be at the expense of increasing food imports that risk ‘carbon leakage’. UK trade policy must protect risks of carbon leakage from trade in agricultural products and avoid undermining the required changes in UK land management.
- Increasing UK forestry cover from 13% to at least 17% by 2050 by planting around 30,000 hectares or more of broadleaf and conifer woodland each year.
- Expanding the growing of energy crops by around 23,000 hectares each year.
NFU president Minette Batters also pointed out that the report acknowledged that ‘British farming produces some of the most sustainable food in the world, highlighting that emissions from UK beef is half that of the global average’.
“The report also emphasises that we can’t risk importing food with a higher carbon footprint than food which has been produced in the UK,” she said. “A comprehensive approach across the whole UK economy is needed, and when it comes to farming we need to focus on the whole agricultural system.”
CLA president Mark Bridgeman CLA said: “Overall, we welcome the findings in this report. We are particularly pleased to see that, following the last report, the Committee have significantly lowered their calls for a reduction of cattle and sheep numbers from 46% to 10%.
“The livestock sector has a big role to play in tackling climate change, but it is important this role is proportionate to its actual impact on global temperatures.”

domain: food


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Laser Eye Surgery Claims Against Optimax
We have helped many clients make claims for laser eye surgery, and we can help you too. If you have had laser eye surgery with Optimax and suffered an injury, as a result, our laser eye surgery claims lawyers can help you make a claim for compensation.
Optimax now offer what was once a highly specialist procedure carried out by medical professionals as a consumer service. The consequence of this is that the number of claims for medical negligence brought against Optimax is on the rise.
Making a Laser Eye Surgery Claim Against Optimax
To bring a claim for an injury following laser eye surgery or lens replacement surgery, you must be able to prove that the professional who carried out your surgery was negligent in doing so. This can include the below circumstances:
- You are an unsuitable patient for the surgery, but it has been carried out anyway
- The practitioner was not qualified to carry out the surgery
- The practitioner failed to tell you about the risks and alternatives to the surgery
- The aftercare fell below an acceptable standard
- The professional has fitted a faulty lens
- The surgeon was negligent during surgery
- You have been fitted with the wrong type of lens
- The surgeon has failed to consider the pre-surgery eye prescription
- The surgeon has not taken into account an existing eye condition
Lens Replacement Surgery Claims Against Optimax
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Stanford U. Bans Hard Liquor Over Sex Assault Case
This won’t stop drinking, it’ll just drive it underground
A recent sexual assault case at Stanford University which involved drinking has led to a new alcohol policy which bans hard liquor except in limited cases.
Does anyone believe this policy will keep students from obtaining and consuming hard liquor?
Campus Reform reported:
Stanford takes shots at alcohol, Pres. Hennessy bans liquor
Stanford University has banned all hard liquor at undergraduate parties in an effort to reduce binge drinking on campus.
The new policy comes after Brock Turner, a former Stanford swimmer, received a six-month sentence for sexual assault after a night of heavy drinking, which triggered national outrage and launched a several months long discussion a Stanford about student alcohol consumption.
In a March email to students, Stanford President John L. Hennessy and Provost John Etchemendy observe that “colleges and universities across the country continue to wrestle with alcohol and the high-risk behaviors that can result from its misuse,” claiming that Stanford is no exception.
“At Stanford, we have worked together…in many ways…to build a healthier campus culture around alcohol,” the missive continues. “Despite the progress that has been made, we believe a serious issue still confronts this campus.”
They went on to argue that the school needs new solutions to combat binge drinking and its effects on campus, and said they would be exploring new options to change the culture around alcohol on campus.
Now, the school has issued a new directive banning all spirits over 20 percent alcohol content (40 proof) at undergraduate on-campus parties.
Graduate students will still be allowed to consume hard alcohol at on-campus parties, but only in the form of cocktails, and even those may only be consumed at a party at which no undergraduate students are present.
This, of course, means that shots of alcohol are banned on campus under all circumstances.
College students who want to drink whiskey, vodka or gin will find a way to do it, despite any proclamations from the university administration. More to the point, the liquor ban may not do anything to stem sexual assaults.
USA Today reports:
Critics: Stanford’s new alcohol ban won’t prevent sexual assaults
A new, stricter alcohol policy announced this week at Stanford University is coming under fire from critics, who say the ban on hard liquor at most on-campus parties will do little to prevent sexual assault…
Washington, D.C., attorney Douglas Fierberg, who specializes in lawsuits involving fraternity hazing, deaths, injuries and other cases, said the new hard liquor rules don’t really address the core issue at hand: fraternities that are allowed to self-govern.
“It’s hard to look at this policy with respect to fraternities and be very optimistic,” he said. Though Greek Life organizations at Stanford are considered university housing, Stanford exerts “no responsible supervision” over fraternities.
“While this policy goes a long way to prohibit certain quantities of alcohol in housing, the Greek community is still not supervised like all other Stanford housing,” Fierberg said. “So the idea that increased restrictions (are) going to solve the problem in the Greek community will never be better than its means of implementation. That same assumption has failed thousands of times across the country.”
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We tried this kind of things with sailors. It didn’t work, it backfires.
When I say “we” I don’t mean to say I was on board with this.
Disagree here, although you are probably correct that hard alcohol consumption will go underground. But there’s a far larger point: alcohol abuse is virtually inseparable from many of the reported sexual assaults. By banning hard liquor, some assaults and certainly some drunkenness will continue–but, depending upon how serious enforcement is taken, such abuse will be increasingly driven to the margins. Give this enough time and I would predict rates of abuse will drop.
I predict the opposite. There is such a thing as “the forbidden fruit syndrome”, and it manifests itself most powerfully in the yoooths.
Border jumping, murder, rape, and armed robbery are all illegal. Those things never happen anymore in our society…
“U.S. Navy bans booze in Japan”
Uhh, you can’t ban booze in Japan. And you can’t treat sailors like children. And, I suspect, Stanford students will deliver the same message.
Boogs, wouldn’t it be more correct to condemn the hook-up culture? Or, at least, just as accurate?
I am not condoning boozing. But at the same time I am not going to turn a blind eye to what I see as equally damaging. The idea that there’s such a thing as consequence-free sex.
When the fragile cupcakes need “safe space”, then booze in any form is beyond their demonstrated maturity (or more accurately their demonstrated immaturity)Same with co-ed dorms, and maybe Sanford needs to have the state change the laws to raise the age of sexual consent on the campus and campus related institutions.
What banning hard liquor does is nominal. Except for making underage drinkers have to consume more volume or “illegally” drink the hard stuff.
A full alcohol ban would make a presumption of guilt on all intoxicated parties that would have the imbibing aggrieved party wait until they are sober, making evidence collection a problem and adding to the cries that the school isn’t doing anything about the sexual assault and the laws need to be changed (do away with that “presumption of innocence” bit, and the “right” to face your accuser, maybe even that troublesome “trial” bit and go straight from accusation to serving out a life sentence)
One person poops their pants and now everybody has to wear a diaper.
No wonder. It’s a “Junior University”.
The bulk of undergrads are too young to drink anything in the state of CA. That hasn’t stopped them in the last 125 years I’m not sure how this is going to change anything.
“At Stanford, we have worked together…in many ways…to build a healthier campus culture around alcohol . . . .”
When I attended the then-touted “prestigious” Stanford, its culture was built around things academic and intellectual.
We know that Stanford has dropped the academic and intellectual focus, as evidenced by, inter alia, allowing its student body to reject the formerly mandatory year-long freshman course The History of Western Civilization.
Now the top Stanford administrators claim that its culture is built around alcohol. My guess is that those administrators are out of touch, and that the culture is built around many drugs. It also seems that those administrators themselves could benefit from the formerly mandatory freshman course that attempted to teach students how to write.
Arminius: you’re spot on in raising hook up culture and even more accurate with “equally.”
I would add one other word: integrated. Hook up and booze are joined at the hip.
Back in ’89-90 at Western Illinois U, a rookie Lacrosse player (a club sport, not school-sponsored) was alcohol poisoned with “jungle juice” hazing.
How does the school respond? Ban tailgating at football games, and they banned the club.
“We had to do something”, so they crippled the growing alumni tailgating trend for half a decade.
Stanford should have avoided the “middle man” and just baned rapes. /sarc
They problem is that prohibition did not last long enough because of the generations that knew the taste of liquor. It took 40 years for the children of Israel before they got to the promised land because of the previous generations holding the back the younger generations.
Just enforce the existing laws on alcohol consumption, and giving it to minors. No it won’t stop drinking but it will stop the big parties at frat houses. Start chucking frat presidents into jail for allowing minors to drink and you see a lot better policing. Expell any one under 21 found intoxicated on school grounds, well maybe after third violation, need somebody left to pay tuition.
Why not just ban voluntary unmonitored self-aneasthetization?
Prohibition has always worked, whenever it’s been tried, with no negative consequences.

domain: sociology


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Fatal Frame Wii U/Project Zero
The tides are finally turning for the Wii U with the roaring engines of Mario Kart 8, igniting console sales which reached 510,000 units from April to the end of June. Total Wii U unit sales have now reached 6.68 million while software sales have reached 36.67 million, supported by Mario Kart 8‘s 2.82 million unit sales in a month’s time, according to Nintendo’s first quarter earning’s release. That’s a lot of numbers to say that things are looking up for Nintendo.
With the support of a very successful E3, a promising line up of games due out before the end of the year including Hyrule Warriors, Bayonetta 2, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, and Super Smash Bros., as well as the continued release of indie and digital titles. Coupled with the continued success of the 3DS and its upcoming lineup (including Smash Bros. and Pokemon), Nintendo stands to revive its sales and perhaps some of its credibility as a major player in the gaming industry. Throw in some third party titles to support sales, and you have a winning formula to maintain this ascent.
While the likes of Disney Infinity 2.0, LEGO Batman 3, and Sonic Boom are liable to be hot third party sellers on Nintendo’s latest home console, I doubt they will equate console sales, especially from those who remain skeptical of the Wii U. Where Nintendo succeeds is in its first party titles, which are often enjoyed by a broad audience, as Mario Kart 8 is and Super Smash Bros. are sure to be. Where the company still struggles is in how they are perceived by the so called “hardcore” crowd in the gaming community. Too often Nintendo is written off as kiddie stuff, and third party support of this caliber isn’t likely to help that image. What Nintendo needs to succeed in the global region with the most skeptics, the U.S., is unique third party titles with mature content that appeal to this “core” category of gamers.
Enter Fatal Frame Wii U. About a month ago developer Koei Tecmo and Nintendo took to popular Japanese video site Niconico to reveal footage from the long awaited fifth installment in the Fatal Frame series (Zero in Japan, and Project Zero in Europe), slated for release in Japan much sooner than many anticipated on September 27. For those unfamiliar with the series, Fatal Frame is an exceedingly well received survival horror franchise distinguished by its unique combat mechanic where players capture spirits with a camera in eerie haunted locales. The original Fatal Frame first materialized in 2001 and titles have appeared on a wealth of consoles since, including the PS2 and Xbox, until, with the release of the fourth title, Nintendo gained sole publishing rights. Since then, the second title has been rereleased on the Wii with several added features and a spin-off has appeared on the 3DS in the form of Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir.
The upcoming entry is the perfect opportunity for Nintendo to not only seize some sales and perhaps some future third party support, but to offer another exclusive title that appeals to a different audience. Admittedly, this plan isn’t without snags. Tragically, the fourth installment of the franchise, as well as the remake of the second, wasn’t offered in the U.S., leaving a narrative hole. Secondly, the first three titles are now a generation old, which might prove ostracizing to newcomers of the series and those without the means to play these titles (though, as a side note, they are available for download via the Playstation Network). The seemingly easy solution: release an HD remake of the first four games. Think about it. As the new sole publisher of the franchise, it only makes sense that all games be available on a Nintendo console. This would allow all players to familiarize themselves with the series, as well as perhaps pacify those who felt slighted by the lack of a Stateside release for the fourth game and the remake of the second. Finally, this would not only boost software sales in general, but likely bolster sales and generate excitement for the new entry.
Obviously, sales are important to Nintendo’s success. However, now is a very vital time in the Wii U’s lifespan. It is gaining footing in terms of reputation, sales, and value with the expansion of its library and it would be a shame to see it slip up when things are finally improving. A steady flow of games and sales will only help. The Western localization of Fatal Frame Wii U could be an exceptional asset in terms of monetary gain as well as demonstrating the appeal of the Wii U to a wider audience. With more success will come more support; consequently, Nintendo has nothing to lose and everything to gain by not only releasing more titles, but by targeting new audiences, such as survival horror fans. If I were NOA (Nintendo of America), the choice would seem easy. Hopefully, with time we will hear release dates for Fatal Frame Wii U for both North America and Europe. Perhaps we’ll even see the previous entries revived. Until then, here’s to hoping Nintendo ceases to look like a ghost of itself and more like the gaming colossus it used to be.


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Ananda Leeke, Kari Fulton, and Dr. Alla Tovares served as panelists for Howard University’s New Media Symposium at Founders Library on April 6, 2011. Fulton is the National Campus Climate Challenge Coordinator for the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative. Dr. Alla Tovares is a Howard University Professor and author of How to Write about the Media Today. Angela Adrar, an International Strategy and Communications Consultant, served as the moderator.
Dr. Ada Vilageliu Diaz, a Howard University professor, organized the symposium for freshman students as part of her writing-intensive composition course on new media entitled: New Media Writing and Race. The symposium’s goal was to have students learn from new media/social media experts and to further understand the possibilities of new media to support social causes and to enhance leadership possibilities.
Click here to see event photos
Watch videos from the Symposium below (filmed by Dr. Ada Diaz).
1) Angela Adrar and Dr. Alla Tovares
2) Dr. Alla Tovares
3) Kari Fulton
4) Group Discussion with Kari Fulton, Angela Adrar, Ananda Leeke, and Michele Roberts


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I had been looking forward to visiting Guatemala the entire voyage, not because it was the last country on our itinerary—I was actually rather unhappy about that part—but because I was scheduled to visit a real, live, functioning coffee plantation! And seeing as how Guatemala is one of the top coffee exporters in the world, I was also excited to get my hands on a fresh cup of locally-grown coffee. The plantation I visited is called the Roberto Dalton Coffee Plantation and it is located right outside of Antigua, the historic colonial tourist destination of Guatemala. After driving through Antigua (we didn’t get to stop there, all the more reason for me to return someday!) we reached the plantation and were taken on a walking tour to see the whole coffee growing, processing, and roasting operation. The coolest part, I think, is that they take the roots from one coffee species—Robusta, a lower quality species—and connect it with the top of another species—Arabica, a gourmet coffee—because worms eat Arabica roots, but not Robusta roots. That way, R. Dalton can grow the higher quality coffee without using pesticides. It’s a labor intensive but environmentally friendly process. We saw the fields where the coffee is grown, the machinery where the layers of the beans are removed, the large patios where the beans are dried, and finally where they are roasted. We even saw the tasting room where they have a professional taster come in every Saturday to taste their coffee, not unlike the tasters that visit the vineyard I visited in South Africa! I wouldn’t mind having that job. We were given a nice, steamy cup of coffee before heading back to the ship. It was heavenly.
The next morning I got up early to leave for Honduras. It was an eight hour bus ride across Guatemala to get there. While most of the people on the bus slept, I was too busy watching the landscape and listening to our guide, Jose, talk about Guatemala. Guatemala is mountainous and green, then barren and flat, then even more mountainous than before. There are volcanoes so tall I saw their bases, the middles shrouded by clouds, and the tips peeking over the top. Jose said that to the rest of the world Guatemala is coffee and pineapples and bananas and poverty, but that’s not the real Guatemala. “Poverty” to the rest of the world doesn’t mean what it means in Guatemala. In Guatemala, the “poor” don’t have flat screen TVs and brand new cars and air conditioning, but they eat. They don’t need all that stuff because they don’t care. They are more in tune with nature. I think he was mostly talking about the large population of Mayans still living in Guatemala. Someone asked a question about the drug trade in Guatemala and Jose defended his country by saying that very few people do drugs in Guatemala; they just grow and export them. He said that if there were no demand in the United States, there would be no “drug problem” in Guatemala. He said Guatemala is not about coffee, tropical fruits, and drugs. Guatemala is about its rich history and diverse population. It’s about its people.
When we crossed the border into Honduras it was a short half-hour drive to Copan and our hotel. There we ate dinner before going horseback riding. That night I got some pizza and wandered around Copan. It’s such a cute little town full of small shops and restaurants. The locals were all out at night too and everyone was friendly. It felt like daytime, actually. It was dark but the stars were out and the narrow cobblestone streets were lit with street lamps and by store fronts. There were a lot of tourists, though. Copan is quite a tourist destination because it is home to one of the greatest Mayan ruin sites.
The next day we visited the ruins. When I was in seventh grade I did a project on the Maya and the Aztecs and ever since then I’ve wanted to see the ruins of their cities and temples. I’ve always been fascinated by their complex civilization. It just seems impossible for such sophistication at that time. Jose called Copan the “Paris” of the Mayan world because Copan is known for its art rather than its size. Tikal, Mayan ruins located in Guatemala, would be considered the “New York” because of its giant temples and its reputation as the largest Mayan city. I can’t believe how much of the Copan ruins are still intact and how detailed some of the carvings and statues still are. It’s amazing to see how they incorporated astronomy into their architecture and lives. I really wish I could say more about the ruins, but I don’t know how. It’s another one of those places where I don’t think words can do it justice. I’m afraid to try. After we left the ruins we drove back to the ship to board the MV Explorer for the last time.
Soon after that the ship passed through the Panama Canal. I remember sitting on the back deck, watching the last locks of the canal close behind us and feeling like those doors were separating me from the rest of the world, from everything I had just experienced. I was not ready for it all to be over. I’m still not! I would do it all again in a heartbeat. While I was watching that last lock disappear behind the ship I wrote this in my journal: “This ‘world’ I’ve been living in, it has been the world. I’ve been viewing this whole experience as a bubble, a departure from my real, my normal life, but I’ve been wrong. My life back home is a bubble. I went about my daily business, blissfully unaware of the world going on outside of my own experience.” I feel like I’ve slipped back into that perspective a bit since I’ve returned, become less aware of the world and preoccupied with my own little corner of it. It’s been hard living in sleepy little Sioux Falls after all of that traveling. It’s hard to feel motivated to pay attention to places so far away and so seemingly irrelevant to my everyday life. But I have been changed in a great many ways and am still learning every day how I’ve been affected. I talk to the friends that I made on the ship nearly every day still and even flew to Boston earlier this summer to visit a few of them and the Explorer. They serve as a constant reminder of where I’ve been and what I’ve seen and what it all meant to me. I guess my next big challenge is learning how to take the rest of the world home with me, how to use my experiences to better my little corner. And, of course, I’ll have to figure out how I’m going to top sailing around the world…

domain: geography


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The process of listing hands with an ever lower average return continues until the average return for the hand is less than the average return for a totally new hand. The word “Redraw” or words to that effect are placed at this point in the strategy chart. This means you will get a higher return by totally replacing your hand than by trying to make something of it. The strategy chart is now complete.
You can usually gamble your winnings when you hit a successful hand at video poker. If you do decide to gamble, you’ll be presented with a card, and you have to guess whether the next card drawn will be higher or lower. If you pick right, your prize is doubled. If you choose unwisely, then you lose everything. Depending on the game, you should be able to go ‘double or quits’ up to five times in succession.
Video poker is a very volatile game, about four times as much as blackjack. In any form of gambling, short-term results mostly depend on normal mathematical randomness (what some might call luck). However, in the long run, results mostly depend on skill. If you play a game with a return of 100.76% perfectly, that does not mean that you will have a 0.76% profit every time you play. The 100.76% is an EXPECTED return. Much in the same way, if you flip a coin ten million times, the expected number of tails will be five million, but it is unlikely you will hit five million on the nose. Actual results will vary significantly from expectations, but the more you play, the closer your actual return percentage will get to the expected return.
Slot machines are extremely popular. One of the reasons for their popularity is that they are easy to play. The only skill that is necessary is to be able to insert money into the game and press a button or pull a lever to start play. That is it. From that point on, everything that happens depends on luck. The results of slot machine spins are based totally on randomness. The instant the slot player presses the spin button the result of that spin is locked in. Whether it is (most likely) a loser, a small winner, a moderate winner, or a jackpot winner has already been decided. Slot players can do nothing to change the odds either for or against them.
The Jacks or Better category is named for the lowest paying winning hand – a pair of jacks or better. Each game in the Jacks or Better category has a pay table with all the same winning hands as the original Si Redd produced game. They are the royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pairs, and a high pair of jacks or better. The games also all play similar to the table game of draw poker, that is, five cards are dealt, the player can discard any or all of them and the discards are replaced with new cards.
The don'ts are mainly related to making sure you do not end up losing more than you can afford when playing. If you have lost your daily budget it is important to call it quits for the day. Chasing your losses is a bad idea as it can lead to even more losses. You should also avoid drinking too many alcoholic beverages as this can lead to making strategy mistakes and bad decisions.
Progressive games are different than any other type of game presented in this chapter of the guide. Any of the other games presented can be played at any time. The bankroll requirements will be the same. The variance will be the same. The strategy will be the same. They will all be the same regardless of when you start playing the game. They will be the same regardless of how long you play the game. Bankroll size, variance, and strategy will never change for the duration of your play because nothing about the game changes. Each winning hand pays the same for each hand on which it occurs.
By now you have all the knowledge you need in order to begin your successful journey playing video poker. You know about how the pay table gives you important information about the characteristics of each game. You understand the importance of having an adequate bankroll and how to determine the proper size of that bankroll. You understand what a strategy chart is and how the video poker strategy is developed in order to allow you, the video poker player, to extract everything that you can from the casinos. You know how to use a strategy chart in order to obtain those results.
Press “deal” to start gambling. If you’re playing “Jacks or Better” the machine will deal you five cards from a deck of 52 cards. However, other kinds of poker games such as “Deuces Wild” and “Joker Poker” have jokers in the deck. This could lower your chances of getting the cards you want. Therefore, most people prefer to play “Jacks or Better.”
Had purchased "The Ultimate Video Poker Experience" as gift for my husband and it was very disappointing for him - you can read my review of it here on Amazon. This one, however, he is thrilled with. He goes to Vegas quite often (I don't go) and loves the video poker slots so wanted some coaching on making the correct choices when playing. We thought the other game included a tutorial but it didn't - that was just one thing. This one lets you play, but if you make a "move" that is not wise, it will stop you and help you choose the right move. Then, if you have done so, it will let you continue on. This is just what he wanted and he is very pleased with it. Good variety of games to choose from. Fast shipping too; we got it in no time.
For more precise and even better odds, below is a table telling you exactly which cards to keep and which to throw away depending on your starting 5 cards. To read the table, start at the top and match your hand to the highest one on the list and follow the number listed there. In other words, while you may have both a pair and four cards to a flush, such as having the Ace of hearts and the Ace, King, Queen, and Jack of spades (AAKQJ) you will discard the Ace or hearts and try to hit the royal straight flush, since "four-card royal straight flush" is higher on the chart than "High pair."
Prior to this chapter you have learned everything you need to know about video poker in order to begin live casino play. You now know how the various dierent video poker games work. You learned about bankroll sizes. You learned about strategy charts; how they are developed and how they are used for live casino play. You now have all the tools you need to become a successful player of live casino video poker – or even online video poker for that matter.
The pay back calculations on all of the pay tables listed on this site are based on the fact that every hand will be played with the correct strategy to achieve the highest possible return. Holding the right cards on every hand is the only way to do this and while this might seem obvious many players still do not follow any strategy when they play video poker.

domain: game