By PRAJNAN BHATTACHARYA
Associated Press Writer
Hundreds of monks and followers gathered Wednesday to welcome the 17-year-old Tibetan high lama called the Karmapa on his arrival in this northern Indian town of Buddhist ruins.
Ugyen Thinley Dorje, the 17th Karmapa, will stay in Sarnath for a week before he proceeds to join the Dalai Lama at Kalachakra prayers in eastern India, the biggest annual gathering of Tibetans and other Buddhists.
During his stay, Dorje will take teachings from Thangu Rimpoche, who heads a center of Buddhist learning at Sarnath, 420 miles southeast of the Indian capital, New Delhi.
Dressed in traditional robes, Dorje sat on an eight-foot throne in front of a gold and bronze statue of Buddha and blessed his followers and the monks.
The Karmapa is the third-ranking lama in Tibetan Buddhism and the only senior lama to be recognized by both the Chinese government and the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama.
He trekked 875 miles to escape Chinese-ruled Tibet in January 2000 and currently lives in Dharmsala, the northern Indian home of the Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile.
The Indian government has yet to announce whether the Karmapa will be allowed to take his seat at the Rumtek monastery in northeastern state of Sikkim. The seat has been vacant since the death in 1981 of the 16th Karmapa, who had also fled Tibet.
His arrival for this year’s Kalchakara prayers was delayed by a week after the Indian government hesitated over granting him permission to attend.


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Weight and stationary ways of life are turning into the reason for significant medical issues worldwide and especially in the United States. Individuals can discover numerous approaches to decrease weight, yet the battle against weight reduction doesn’t end there. After inordinate weight reduction and weight lessening medical procedure the skin looses its versatility and the once extended skin can’t adjust to the diminished body structure.
Careful body forming is a methodology which reshapes and tones the body tissues and evacuates overabundance fat and listing skin which results from extreme weight reduction and weight decreasing medical procedure.
The methodology one can settle on is called body molding. This system removes the abundance tissue and fat from within surface of the skin, subsequently molding and conditioning the body. Todays plastic specialists are more talented and innovatively progressed than those working in the 1980-90s. Liposuction in New York City
Patients who have visited and been fruitful with get-healthy plans ordinarily decide on this system in an offer to smoothen and condition the body. There are propelled systems accessible that are standard to adroit and experienced plastic specialists. They join techniques like extraction and liposuction in this manner direct the medical procedure in an easy way, definitely decreasing the potential inconveniences.
For patients needing to pick up the sense of pride in the public arena and lose the shame of corpulence, it is important to complete their weight reduction technique with body shaping. Molding must be done particularly in body parts which list most after weight reduction. These incorporate the arms, stomach area, bosoms, thighs and posterior.
Body shaping additionally positively affects weight and heart. With two or three systems an accomplished specialist can direct this technique adequately with negligible noticeable scars accordingly giving the patients a tremendous certainty support. It is favored by the vast majority of the specialists to go in for numerous little systems, instead of one huge one. Once in a while much more than one specialist deal with the patient at the same time.
Different sites on the web give data on masters who lead this methodology. It is critical to do exhaustive research before settling down on the ideal individual. The specialist ought to be capable enough to exhort the patient the correct way. Most normal medical procedure directed on patients in America includes the lifting of the lower body like guts, thighs, bum as indicated by the American Society for Esthetic Plastic Surgery.
Chest area lift is likewise exceptionally mainstream. Bosom lift and arm lifts include expelling abundance skin in the upper arm. Patient ought to be cautious in not putting on weight after the technique. This will bring about incredible worry for the skin because of its having lost versatility, and skin in different parts will in general list more. It is smarter to likewise balance out weight reduction before going in for body forming.
As per a portion of the top specialists playing out this methodology, individuals who have a high weight file are probably going to have more inconveniences in light of this strategy. Confusions incorporate delayed growing, torment, loss of skin and staining, scarring, seroma which is development of protuberance because of amassing of liquid, disease, and dying.

domain: medical


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Artists of the Great War
When war broke out just 13 years after Federation, the Australian community was charged with imperial loyalty and new-found independent patriotism. Between 1914 and 1918 propaganda pictures presented two views of the overseas conflict: the heroism of individual efforts on the battlefield and the threat of violence from across the oceans. Both stories were employed to encourage enlistment. Artists of the Great War presents propaganda imagery by Will Dyson, Fred Leist, Lionel and Norman Lindsay and Harry Weston.
Following the defeat of two conscription referendums in October 1916 and December 1917, Norman Lindsay was commissioned to produce a ‘recruitment kit’. Working with the three key principles of persuasion, fear and guilt Lindsay’s poster Today the German Monster threatens the world with bloodshed, slavery and death 1917 depicts a maniacal German ogre threatening the world. The oversized figure’s menacing arms are drenched with blood. Originating in central Europe, the bloodshed spills out in all directions, smothering the globe, reaching close to Australia. Lindsay’s poster is a deliberate, powerful expression of the threat of invasion.The collection of propaganda posters and prints in Artists of the Great War explores a range of symbols, motifs and texts that artists used to encourage enlistment. From Leist’s outback crusader to Lionel Lindsay’s emblematic crucified Belgium, these artists present Australia’s participation in the war as a moral good and a global necessity.
Norman Lindsay Today the German Monster threatens the world with bloodshed, slavery and death 1917, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra , purchased 1981 @ H.C. & A. Glad

domain: library


Ultra-Deep Hubble Space Telescope Imaging of the Small Magellanic Cloud: The Initial Mass Function of Stars with M <~ 1 M ⊙
Authors: Kalirai, Jason S.; Anderson, Jay; Dotter, Aaron; Richer, Harvey B.; Fahlman, Gregory G.; Hansen, Brad M. S.; Hurley, Jarrod; Reid, I. Neill; Rich, R. Michael; Shara, Michael M.
Abstract: We present a new measurement of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) based on ultra-deep, high-resolution photometry of >5000 stars in the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) galaxy. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Advanced Camera for Surveys observations reveal this rich, cospatial population behind the foreground globular cluster 47 Tuc, which we targeted for 121 HST orbits. The stellar main sequence of the SMC is measured in the F606W, F814W color-magnitude diagram down to ~30th magnitude, and is cleanly separated from the foreground star cluster population using proper motions. We simulate the SMC population by extracting stellar masses (single and unresolved binaries) from specific IMFs and converting those masses to luminosities in our bandpasses. The corresponding photometry for these simulated stars is drawn directly from a rich cloud of 4 million artificial stars, thereby accounting for the real photometric scatter and completeness of the data. Over a continuous and well-populated mass range of M = 0.37-0.93 M ⊙ (e.g., down to a ~75% completeness limit at F606W = 28.7), we demonstrate that the IMF is well represented by a single power-law form with slope α = -1.90 (+0.15 -0.10) (3σ error) (e.g., dN/dMvprop M α). This is shallower than the Salpeter slope of α = -2.35, which agrees with the observed stellar luminosity function at higher masses. Our results indicate that the IMF does not turn over to a more shallow power-law form within this mass range. We discuss implications of this result for the theory of star formation, the inferred masses of galaxies, and the (lack of a) variation of the IMF with metallicity.


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This podcast features two separate conversations Andile Masuku had with senior executives working for the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB). Both exchanges yielded intriguing insight into the values, investment outlook and business MO of the world’s preeminent provider of sharia-compliant development finance.
The first part of this episode features a brief chat with Musa Sillah, the Director of the Africa and Latin America Department at the IsDB. Sillah explains what distinguishes the IsDB from other leading development institutions like the World Bank and the African Development Bank, and offers insight into some of the work they are doing to promote sustainable economic development within the organisation’s 57 member states.
The second half of the episode features a conversation with the Lead Fragility and Resilience Specialist at the IsDB, Mohamed Alhadi. Alhadi sheds light on how the IsDB frames the notion of "fragility" and how that informs the development and implementation of constructive policies that deliver real value to the IsDB's membership.
SPARK is the presenting sponsor of this podcast, which is part of an African Tech Roundup miniseries focused on inclusive economic progress being made in vulnerable states.
African Tech Roundup retains full editorial control over all published content. Opinions expressed by the host, Andile Masuku, and his guests, do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the presenting sponsor, SPARK.
This podcast series was taped at the fringes of SPARK’s 6th annual IGNITE Conference - a premier gathering of refugees, entrepreneurs, educators, private sector actors, government leaders, academics and NGOs.
Image credit: Hala AlGhanim

domain: finance


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domain: entertainment


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Global Aspartame Market: Overview
The dietary products and food products are the main segments which are preferred on the ingredients used. The increase in the health conscious food products and government regulations forces manufacturers to use specified ingredients specifically coloring and flavorings agents. Aspartame is one of the nonnutritive, intense sweetening agent derived from genetically modified amino acid. It is used in the wide product portfolio including dietary and food products. It is a white powder around 200 times sweeter than the sugar and is odorless. In Europe and France, it is categorized as the E951. Aspartame is consumed in varied foodstuffs namely desserts, beverages under the name Canderel, Pous-suc. The properties of the aspartame agent gain the market attraction in early 80’s as it is the best to substitute for the saccharose due to its high sweetening power. The aspartame came more into focus due to its side effects on the health. Currently, it is approved by number of regulatory agencies and health organizations namely, FDA i.e. Food and Drug Administration, American Dietetic Association, American Heart Association, and United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
Due to constant and heavy complaints from the customers about the use of aspartame in the Pepsi products, initially the company with the strategic intent of gaining customers’ trust, changed their production process by adopting Splenda instead of aspartame. But later due to customers demand for the change, it is launched back in the process in 2016.
Global Aspartame Market: Dynamics
Although the aspartame faced severe controversies about its side effects, the regulatory agencies supported the use of Aspartame in the food and other related markets. It is the largely consumed sweetening agent which is anticipated to be driven majorly by the food and beverage industry. The factors driving the Aspartame market includes substitute of sugar to reduce the calories without affecting taste of the food, increasing demand for sucralose, high shelf life and sweetening power, and taste enhancement property. With the support of all the above factors, the main driver for the consumption of the aspartame agent is the authorized permission from major health and regulatory organization favoring the growth aspartame market.
The popularity of the aspartame market attracts the attention of health-conscious customers and organizations regarding its side effects on the human health. Aspartame is avoided by the Phenylketonuria i.e. metabolism disorder patients as it doesn’t get excreted in the same form upon ingestion. The factors such as differences in the market regarding the use of aspartame in the food, increasing awareness about such artificial agents over the health, the stability of the aspartame affect the aspartame market. The market also gets back roped due to an availability of natural substitutes as a sweetening agents namely honey, maple syrup, fruit juices and molasses.
Global Aspartame Market: Segmentation
The aspartame is segmented based on
- Food production
- Animal and Agriculture feed
- Distribution Channel
- Convenience stores
- Departmental stores
Global Aspartame Market: Segment Overview
Aspartame market is segmented by its applications. Considering its consumption in wide and varied product portfolio, aspartame is segmented within food preparations which include jellies, candies and confectionaries, tooth pastes, cereals, gums, desserts, tabletop sweeteners and other foodstuffs. In beverages, dietary drinks, carbonated drinks, coffee contains aspartame. After food preparation, beverages bare the highest share in the aspartame consumption. It is also used in cosmetic, personal care products and pharmaceuticals and supplements.
Under the different brand names, aspartame is present in supermarkets, departmental stores, convenience stores and others.
Global Aspartame Market: Regional wise Outlook
Aspartame market is segmented geographically into seven regions namely North America, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Japan and the Middle East and Africa. North America accounts for a significant share in terms of consumption of the aspartame market as aspartame is used in beverages such as milk, drinks, tea, soft drinks based on the rigorous rules and regulations of the regional regulatory body. Moreover, Australia and New Zealand regulatory agencies has permitted the use of intense sweetener in the varied food range at the specified levels, thereby leading to the high growth in Asia Pacific during the forecast period. North America and Asia Pacific are expected to create significant opportunities for the players operating in the global aspartame market. Overall, the outlook for the global aspartame market is projected to witness positive growth due to the growth in food and beverage industry during the forecast period.
Global Aspartame Market: Prominent Players
The players contributing to the market share in the aspartame market includes following prominent players
Ajinomoto Group, NutraSweet Company, Niutang Chemical Ltd., HYET Sweet, Merisant, Cargill Incorporated, Hermes Sweetener Ltd., Ingredion Incorporated, Vitasweet, Foodchem International Corporation, Shaoxing Marina Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (Yamei aspartame) Daesang, Changmao Biochemical Engineering and others.
The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.
The study is a source of reliable data on:
- Market segments and sub-segments
- Market trends and dynamics
- Supply and demand
- Market size
- Current trends/opportunities/challenges
- Competitive landscape
- Technological breakthroughs
- Value chain and stakeholder analysis
The regional analysis covers:
- North America (U.S. and Canada)
- Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)
- Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)
- Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)
- Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)
- Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)
The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industry’s value chain.
A separate analysis of prevailing trends in the parent market, macro- and micro-economic indicators, and regulations and mandates is included under the purview of the study. By doing so, the report projects the attractiveness of each major segment over the forecast period.
Highlights of the report:
- A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent market
- Important changes in market dynamics
- Market segmentation up to the second or third level
- Historical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volume
- Reporting and evaluation of recent industry developments
- Market shares and strategies of key players
- Emerging niche segments and regional markets
- An objective assessment of the trajectory of the market
- Recommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the market
Note: Although care has been taken to maintain the highest levels of accuracy in TMR’s reports, recent market/vendor-specific changes may take time to reflect in the analysis.

domain: geography


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Posts tagged: Lake Lenore
FISHING — The recently resolved Lake Lenore poaching case involving 242 fish illegally gillnetted by four Western Washington men, stood out for the jail time and fines handed down by the Grant County District Court.
However, poaching cases at the many scattered fishing lakes in central Washington are not uncommon.
Here are answers to a few followup questions I posed regarding the case to Patrick Schaff, the deputy prosecutor who worked on the case:
Do you know of any other illegal fishing cases of this magnitude occurring in Grant County?
“This seems to be the only Grant County case of this magnitude in the last several years. We see cases of similar character (i.e. late-night net poaching of rare or semi-rare fish) a couple of times a year, usually from Lake Lenore but occasionally from Banks Lake. But those cases usually involve a couple dozen fish on average. This case obviously stands out because of the large number of fish taken.”
Is there any information on what the defendants were planning to do with so many fish?
“We don’t know what the defendants intended to do with the fish, but they clearly took more than would be needed for a personal or family supply.”
What is the citizenship of the four men involved in the Lenore illegal fishing case?
“I don’t know the citizenship status of the four men and I would not feel comfortable speculating. Our office is prohibited by law from considering citizenship or national origin when choosing how to resolve cases.”
A Washington Fish and Wildlife Department enforcement captain offered more insight into the case.
FISHING — Media attention and angler outrage may have factored into last week's successful prosecution of four Western Washington men who were caught on April 6 gillnetting 242 prized Lahontan cutthroat trout from Lake Lenore, a prized “quality fishery” south of Coulee City.
Grant County prosecutors, like prosecutors across the state, are chronically overbook with cases. Fish and wildlife cases often are brushed aside to make time for priority cases in which people are the victims.
“Sportsmen's groups and the press did a great job following up and emphasizing the importance and severity of this case,” said Capt. Chris Anderson, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife enforcement supervisor in Ephrata. “The prosecutor's office responded and did a great job.”
Lake Lenore is managed as a selective fishery geared to catching large cutthroat trout. Sport anglers at Lenore are limited to keeping no more than one fish a day.
Vitaliy Kachinskiy, 23, of Mount Vernon, Wash., and three Everett men: Sergey Otroda, 32, Igor Bigun, 26, and Oleg Pavlus, 25, pled guilty to gross misdemeanor charges, Grant County Prosecutor D. Angus Lee confirmed on Friday.
Each man was sentenced to 20 days in jail, 40 days of electronic home monitoring and fines or costs totaling $4,100, he said.
In addition, the pickup being used at the time of their arrest was seized by the two Fish and Wildlife police who staked out the scene and managed to round up the fleeing poachers despite their attempts to escape in the darkness.
“They could appeal the forfeiture in Grant County Superior Court,” Anderson said. “But if the judge ruled that we followed the law in our arrest and seizing the vehicle, it would remain the property of the state.” No appeal has yet been filed, he said.
WDFW has investigated other instances of illegal gillnetting for sportfish in Eastern Washington lakes involving ethnic groups.
Asked what the men were planning to do with all the fish they illegally netted at Lenore, Anderson said, “We do not have any direct knowledge that these Lenore fish were destined for a market, but we have heard in the past that they do sell the fish within the Russian community only.”
UPDATED 11:41 a.m. with details of arrest from officer's incident report:
FISHING — Last night, a man at the Spokane Fly Fishers program asked me if I'd heard a fishing report from Lake Lenore. I didn't have an answer for him, but I do today.
The fishing for large Lahontan cutthroat trout at the quality fishery is pretty darned good - IF YOU'RE POACHING with GILLNETS.
Washington Fish and Wildlife Department officers arrested four Western Washington men in the early hours of Saturday morning with 242 cutthroats seized in an illegal night-time netting operation at the prized Grant County lake.
The lake is managed as a “quality fishery,” attracting anglers who want to use single barbless hooks and no bait to catch-and-release large fish. Anglers are allowed to keep no more than one fish at day from Lenore.
Arrested were Vitaliy Kachinskiy, 23, of Mount Vernon and three Everett men: Sergey Otroda, 32, Igor Bigun, 26 and Oleg Pavlus, 25.
The Grant County prosecutor's office said today it has not yet begun processing the case.
“We have members of two ethnic groups involved with an annual thing of illegal netting that's causing great concern for our fish program,” said WDFW Capt. Chris Anderson in Ephrata. “One group has been caught targeting mostly whitefish at Banks Lake and this group was targeting the big spawning cutthroats at Lenore. The 242 fish were just one night's catch. We're not sure how many nights or weeks worth of fish they've taken out of the lake.”
WDFW agents also nabbed two Spokane men from another ethnic group for similar illegal netting activity in January. One of the subjects threatened an arresting officer with retribution.
This is a huge bummer for fishermen. Not only do we deal with environmental issues that plague fish, but also with human pond scum that will do this to a fishery that means so much to anglers and the local economy.
Read on for the chilling details about the stake out and arrest.
FISHING — This archive video has been making the rounds for a few years, but it's worth bringing up for a little fishing camp banter now that the fishing for Lahontan cutthroats is picking up at Lake Lenore.
The 1947 newsreel shows the U.S. War Assets Administration using Lake Lenore as a disposal site for drums of sodium into the lake.
Lake Lenore is in Grant County south of Coulee City, Wash. At the time of this newsreel, it was thought to be too alkaline to support fish.
Decades later, Washington fisheries biologists imported Lahontan cutthroat trout stock originating from the alkaline waters of Pyramid Lake, Nev. The fish thrived in Lenore — as well as farther north in Douglas County's Grimes Lake — to provide a popular selective fishery for anglers.

domain: news


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27 nations ink cybersecurity pledge, Gojek launches video streaming platform GoPlay & More News
Updated: Sep 27, 2019
This week in tech news: Gojek takes on Netflix with video-streaming platform 'Goplay', 27 countries sign cybersecurity pledge and Alibaba unveils self-developed AI chip for cloud computing services.
Tech news you need to know, in two minutes or less.
Twenty-seven countries have signed a joint agreement on what constitutes fair and foul play in cyberspace — with a nod toward condemning China and Russia. The statement, released on Monday at the United Nations ahead of the beginning of the UN General Assembly's General Debate, is largely a broadly written agreement that countries should follow international law. While views of what constitutes acceptable state-sponsored hacking vary, the US and its allies generally agree on basic rules. It's fair game for intelligence services to hack targets purely to spy and to attack military targets, but attacking civilian infrastructure or to give a country an economic advantage is off limits.
The countries that signed are: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. The signatories mirror the large group of countries involved the previous two occasions that countries jointly blamed a cyberattack on one country, China, for a more than decade-long hacking campaign, and Russia for creating the infamous NotPetya ransomware worm, which spiralled out of control and locked up computers around the world.
Gojek launched a video-streaming service 'Goplay' featuring original movies and TV shows on Thursday (Sept 26), as the firm makes a big push into online content in South-east Asia's largest economy, its entertainment chief said. GoPlay will compete with a range of streaming services such as Netflix, iFlix, and Hooq.
"We see that there's a gap where people want to watch Indonesian high-quality content, but where the only choice to see it is to go to the cinema," Gojek Entertainment group chief executive Edy Sulistyo told Reuters in an interview. Though the streaming service focuses on Indonesian content, Gojek has inked partnerships with foreign production companies such as South Korean media giants CJ E&M and SM Entertainment to feature their TV shows on the platform, according to the report. About 125 million people in Indonesia, or half of the nation’s population, is currently online. Sulistyo said Gojek sees a lot of potential for GoPlay’s growth in the country.
Chinese Retail Giant Alibaba announced recently that they would soon begin marketing a self-developed AI chip that is streamlined for use in cloud computing. The chip, already being used within Alibaba itself to power their internet searches, will be named Hanguang 800. In addition to powering searches, Hanguang 800 is also being used to deliver personalized recommendations to clients and handle automatic translation duties of websites.
Overseas tech giants such as Alphabet Inc and Facebook Inc are also developing their own custom chips, aiming to improve the performance of specialised AI tasks at company-operated data centres. The chip was developed by DAMO Academy, a research institute Alibaba launched in late 2017, and T-Head, the company's specialised semiconductor division. Alibaba's foray into the chip sector comes amid efforts by Beijing to promote China's semiconductor industry and reduce the country's reliance on foreign imports of core technologies. Alibaba also released its first core processor IP in July based on RISC-V open-source chip architecture.


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Donal Geary, skipper of the John-Boy, sent in this report '....Saturday gone, the last day of April, proved to be a fantastic day's fishing aboard the John-Boy. With a group of 9 anglers from the Cuckoo's Nest bar in Dublin, some who travelled down on the Friday and stayed at the Commodore Hotel; more travelled down on the morning. We set out from Cobh at 10am. We weren't too optimistic about our chances as there was a force 3 to 4 easterly and the forecast was for it to increase to force 6. We were greeted at the entrance to the harbour by a large pod of dolphins who put on a great show as we passed Roches Point. We had our first stop about 2 miles south east of the point, where we had been getting some fine cod of late. To our surprise we immediately started catching mackeral, three at a time. The mackeral were so plentiful we couldn't, even with bait, get to the bottom for the cod. When we had a box of bait we went about a mile further south. Unfortunately, some of our crew were now turning a bit pale. We hit the cod straight away with many upto 5lb. However, the wind was freshening all the time, resulting in a very fast drift and a lot of snags and tangles. At about 1:30pm I noticed there were only 3 or 4 anglers still fishing, the rest were in sick bay. I decided to get back to the shelter of the harbour and dropped anchor in the shelter of White Bay where we could have a mug of coffee. While having lunch we boated a thornback ray of 10lb. We also had a few small cod and a few doggies. We then went to the harbour rock and landed 8 conger to 16lb. While this was going on, a box and a half of fine cod were filleted, which would be frozen down by the Commodore Hotel ready for transport back to Dublin in cooler boxes. On our way back to Cobh we saw a small basking shark close to Spike Island...a very unusual sight for April indeed.'
If you'd fancy a day out on the John-Boy, you can contact Donie at http://www.sea-fishing-ireland.com/


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AW16 Unice Prince Stola Scarf in Black
Destin Unice Prince Stola Scarf in Black. Large rectangular scarf in a soft wool-polyamide-silk-cashmere blend. Textured knit with black and white pattern. Raw edging with tonal fringed detailing.
72% Wool 18% Polyamide 7% Cashmere 3% Silk
Dry Clean Only
Made in Italy

domain: design


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‘Embarrassing About-Face’: FDA’s Aduhelm Labeling Change Does Little To Improve Frustration Over Alzheimer’s Approval
US FDA’s update to Biogen’s Aduhelm label was the right move, drug policy experts say, but that doesn’t mean the agency should expect a round of applause. Instead, they expect it will only heighten the controversy and tension over the unexpected June accelerated approval of the pricey new Alzheimer’s disease drug and could further erode trust in the agency. The updated indication, which emphasizes initiating treatment in patients with mild disease, still gives plenty of wiggle room for wider prescribing.
You may also be interested in...
Company discusses its strategy for negotiating a change in the recently-proposed Medicare coverage decision for Alzheimer’s drugs during a presentation to analysts.
With CMS draft decision expected next month on amyloid-clearing antibodies for Alzheimer’s, Biogen slashes Aduhem’s price 50% to $28,200 per year. Move reverses another aspect of the approval that drew criticism, including the expansive label and long horizon for confirmatory data.
Acting US FDA Commissioner says it is standard for the Office of Neuroscience to issue broad labels like the one originally granted to Biogen’s new Alzheimer’s drug, but the agency declined to answer follow-up questions on such a policy. Woodcock continued to defend Aduhelm’s accelerated approval but conceded that the process might have been improved in an unusually tense public appearance.


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ONE purple dreamcatcher chained ear cuff, turquoise and amethyst
This will be on a PLAIN silver tone cuff NOT a cross stamped cuff You will be getting nothing but compliments when you wear this one!! ! The PLAIN silver toned cuff has 3 different lengths of silver plated chains that are draped and attach to the back of the wonderful little dreamcatcher. The dreamcatcher is done on a hammered 16mm silver toned circle and the dreamcatcher even has genuine turquoise and amethyst chips on it! Its finished off with beaded pieces in turquoise and lavenders that are finished a tiny silver toned feather charm dangling from it. the dreamcatcher is attached to a silver toned earring hook . Also to not forget the cuff there is the same tiny silver toned feather and lavender and turquoise seed beads hanging from a tiny ring . This piece dangles about 2 1/2 inches from your ear lobe.
You wont want to take this one off!
please note: Your cuff will be made to order so it may vary slightly from the photo as the turquoise and amethyst are naturally one of a kind but your ear cuff will be as close to the photo as possible
It's enough to make you smile when you're Gilded in Gypsy, and you'll catch other people smiling too!

domain: artistic


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The Allies of Whiteness
A few long weeks ago, during the Covid-19 pandemic but before the murder of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department, I wrote about racism in publishing, looking particularly at whom publishing lauds and applauds. The Pulitzer Prizes, those cherished gewgaws of the would-be kings and queens of publishing, had just been handed out a few days earlier. As my column noted, the award for feature writing was handed to a young white male journalist named Ben Taub. A darling at The New Yorker (who has, per one journalist who served with him on a panel, “an unlimited budget”), Taub won his Pulitzer for an article titled “Guantánamo’s Darkest Secret.”
None of this was surprising; staff writers at The New Yorker (whose editor David Remnick sits on the Pulitzer Prize Board) win Pulitzers all the time and almost ritualistically; the only question seems to be who among them will be selected. Except that there was a problem. Much of Taub’s story was drawn from a book by Mohamedou Ould Salahi about his time in the Guantánamo prison, not from any length of field reporting (he spent only a week with Salahi). Salahi’s book, Guantánamo Diary, did not receive a Pulitzer Prize. A white man won a prestigious award for telling a story that a brown man had already told. The white people involved noticed nothing amiss. Nor did any of them—either those at The New Yorker or anyone associated with the board of the Pulitzer Prizes—ever bother to respond to questions I had raised.
I bring this up now because in the weeks since, as America’s simmering pot of racial cruelties has boiled over, many who are instrumental in lubricating the rise of the Ben Taubs of the world, or scores of others like him, have cast themselves as “white allies.” Never mind their routine preference for promoting those in whom they “see themselves”; never mind their secret biases, their always-white darlings. Those who once simply hid behind a haute snobbery (think Vogue editor Anna Wintour) are now, thanks to the fear of cultural irrelevance, donning the garb of white allyship.
It is a tricky situation. At a time when so many feel their public face requires some sort of pretense to being “white allies,” it becomes necessary to distinguish them. White allies, the long-standing and authentic ones, are not simply performing allyship on social media; they have been—since before yesterday—finding ways to make changes; they are reaching out in real life, considering and critiquing their own choices and their own complicity. (Margaret Sullivan’s column this week in the Washington Post is a good example of this.) On the other hand, these interloping others—I call them “allies of whiteness”—are interested only in the most superficial, most easy-to-use, convenient-from-country-homes sorts of allyship.
Allies of whiteness are not interested in making any actual changes to their organizations, their friend groups, their workplaces; they are are interested in riding out this period of racial upheaval.
Allies of whiteness are not interested in making any actual changes to their organizations, their friend groups, their workplaces; they are simply interested in riding out this period of racial upheaval and tumult until they can return to the business of ensuring, ever so subtly and far more cleverly (than, say, the average Trump voter), the continuation of the status quo.
In the meantime, these allies of whiteness will perform wokeness, carefully asking for the correct pronunciation of your name in front of others, splashing pictures of their “butter chicken” recipe on Instagram in the morning, their turmeric latte in the evening, peppering their sentences with “y’all” and “girl.” It is all for show. Here’s an example. In the very early days of the pandemic, I was (like all the rest of us) a near voracious consumer of a particular newly born literary form known as the “Covid-19 Diary.” Provoked by the “historic” feel of the moment, these were splattered on nearly every publication, writers finding themselves suddenly possessed with plenty of time and bounteousness of a moment when everything was material.
One of the websites featuring this conversion of moment to material was that of The New York Review of Books, a publication of great renown that has, by and large, featured white and usually (read: nearly 80 percent) cisgender males. The 2018 VIDA Count, which looks at gender and racial demographics of literary magazine contributors, noted that “The New York Review of Books (whose previous editor Ian Buruma resigned in 2018 after an uproar owing to his publication of an essay by a Canadian radio broadcaster who had been accused of sexual assault by multiple women) had the most pronounced gender disparity among the fifteen publications they studied, with only 27 percent of published writers who are women.” Though it is much harder for researchers to provide a tally of bylines by race or ethnicity, the Pew Research Center reported last year that only 7 percent of newsroom employees in their 2013–2017 survey were black, while 11 percent of U.S. workers overall are black.
Even still, I was not thinking of any of this when I started to read the diaries published by the New York Review Daily section. But a cursory glance at the entries revealed a curious pattern: white contributors were writing about any place that they might be, anywhere in the world. Non-white contributors, by and large, were writing from “where they belonged”: India, Thailand, etc. On March 29, I tweeted at @NYDaily, saying simply, “The list of quarantine entries over at @NYRDaily is an interesting insight into who gets to claim what ‘place.’ It appears, as per usual, that white writers can write about anyplace while others have to stick to ‘what they know.’”
A courteous reply pointing out that I was wrong would have done the thing. But those were days before we were talking about systemic racism again, about how white people define the cultural narrative while authors of color are stuck in their various niches, experts only on race or curries, etc. I was not even sure that I was substantively right. It didn’t matter, though; there would be no further discussion of the point. Not only did I not get a response, I was blocked by their Twitter account.
The example illustrated what usually happens to writers (or any other profession) of color when they question a system that they perceive is marginalizing them. Even while the NYRB now features articles on race and the ongoing protests, no one from the editorial staff has, despite my repeated inquiries, responded to my observation. That kind of exchange, which would take place privately via email or a phone call, is not required in the performance of woke-ness in which they are now engaged. Actually having a dialogue with a female writer of color, one that reflects an openness to reconsider the editorial assumptions made by their website, is something a white ally must do—but it has no place on the to-do list of “allies of whiteness.” They’re simply waiting out the moment of reckoning, without engaging in any reckoning.
Another example: the well established book critic Carlin Romano has remained on the Board of the National Book Critics Circle after vehemently disagreeing with Hope Wabuke, one of six people of color on the twenty-four-person board, who had attempted to draft a statement of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter protests. Many board members resigned in solidarity with Wabuke. Romano has not—and he has threatened to sue anyone who votes to remove him. Allies of whiteness never cede space; they simply wait for the outrage to be over, then carry on as before.
Allies of whiteness quite simply are those who are invested in maintaining the architecture of white supremacy even as they pretend to deplore it. They join in condemnations of systemic racism in theory, but they never actually do anything that would end it. Allies of whiteness will condemn racial discrimination in an abstract sense but never take a position against someone specific: a co-worker, a friend, a relative. They will hide within generalities, condemning someone already condemned (Donald Trump, for example), some epoch of the past (Jim Crow), some inchoate act that cannot be attributed to any one person (racism in the media at large). They will never take a stand, never make overtures toward racial equality without a public audience.
It is the underlying current of the nation’s racism; hard to quantify, because racists are both systems and individual people, and so many racist acts that deserve scrutiny do not make national news. Racists are not all public figures; they are more likely people who work and study with you. Acts of racism are not all shootings and lynchings. Most, such as the now infamous video of the dog walker in Central Park, happen in ordinary circumstances and interactions; racism is enacted by people who are certain that they have done nothing racist—nothing that they will be held accountable for. Racists everywhere have been able to survive and thrive because allies of whiteness have enabled them, made excuses for them, stayed coyly quiet instead of exposing them.
It’s also true that allies of whiteness can be brown or black. If some black and brown people have spoken out against racist systems of preference, others are riding on risks that others took for them, the benefits of which they are eager to reap. Like South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott, they will say next to nothing about matters of race, but will eagerly become the face of racial “reform” because they are the safe brown or black people, whom the allies of whiteness can trust. Scott fronts for GOP Senators like Mitch McConnell, who suddenly need to make a show of their belief in police reform.
In recent weeks, as protests have raged through the country, as video after video of white entitlement and its consequences has surfaced, many white people have been wrestling with whether they are being good allies to black people and other people of color. This is an urgent and worthwhile reckoning. My category “allies of whiteness” may be inexact, but it encapsulates the silent supporters of those with overtly racist views, those who fight to keep up statues that celebrate slavery, those who actively create new structures of oppression.
As we go deeper into what will—I hope—be a social and cultural transformation, it is essential to identify a theoretical basis that understands and exposes the different technologies that white majorities have deployed to ensure that things remain as they are. In the meantime, nearly three months after I was blocked by the New York Review Daily, I have been unblocked. But I have not received any response or communication from either their editors or their publisher, all of whom I contacted in the hope of a dialogue.

domain: sociology


text:
Among the draft Finance Bill clauses recently published were amendments to the UK double tax relief rules (“DTR Rules”) which are likely to be of interest to many UK based corporates with overseas income streams.
The general aim of the DTR Rules is to allow relief for foreign tax against UK tax on the same income or gains on which foreign tax has been suffered. If a repayment of that foreign tax is made by a foreign tax authority to the taxpayer or a connected person, the credit against UK tax is correspondingly reduced. This sounds logical and straightforward, but the system is complex in practice and some taxpayers have tried to claim credit against UK tax for amounts greater than the amounts of foreign tax actually suffered.
The Finance Bill 2014 will amend the DTR Rules, with effect from 5 December 2013, to:
- reduce the credit allowed against UK tax where a repayment of tax is made by a foreign tax authority to a third person who is not connected with the relevant taxpayer if the repayment to that third person is part of a scheme; under the previous rules, a repayment reduced the UK tax credit only if made to the taxpayer or a connected person; and
- counter schemes that attempt to “cross-credit” some of the foreign tax on income arising under loans or from intellectual property and other intangible assets; the aim is to put beyond doubt that credits for foreign tax on such income will be limited to the UK corporation tax on that income and not available to set against UK tax on other income.
Alongside the measures tightening up the CFC and world-wide debt cap rules (see our earlier blog here), this represents a tightening up of the tax regime for UK based multinationals which have generally been net beneficiaries of recent Budgets as the Chancellor seeks to make the UK an attractive jurisdiction for holding companies.

domain: law


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Lymphatic filariasis (LF), commonly known as elephantiasis is one of the leading causes of permanent, long term disability which affects the social and economic aspects in Asia, Africa and western pacific part of the America (Ottesen 1997; WHO 1995). Globally, this disease is known to affect about 120 million people in endemic countries. In India it has been estimated recently that, there are more than 27 million microfilaraemic carriers, around 20.8 million cases of symptomatic filariasis and about 429 million individuals at risk of filarial infection (Sabesan, 2000). The World Health Assembly has inaugurated the “Global Program to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis” (GPELF) and India is one of its signatories (WHO, 2006).
Classification of lymphatic filariasis:
It has been reported that the three major groups of people are found in a filarialendemic area which are associated with specific symptoms and immune responses (Ottesen, 1992; Ottesen, 1994; Evans et al., 1993).
1) Asymptomatic microfilaraemic: Those people who have microfilariae (Mf) in their bloodstream and generally showed no outward signs of filarial disease.
2) Chronic patients: The second group of individuals displayed chronic pathology, such as lymphoedema, hydrocele and elephantiasis. Individuals of this group are generally amicrofilaraemic.
3) Endemic normal: This group represents the population who, are continually exposed to infective mosquito bites but remain both symptom and Mf-free, suggesting that they may be immune to invading larval infection (Maizels and Lawrence, 1991).
Major problems and challenges for the disease control of LF:
Though effective on larval stages, mass drug administrations (MDA) is fairly ineffective at killing adult worms and provide only partial benefit to infected patients. Efforts to alleviate suffering and disability of infected patients focus on hygiene aimed at decreasing secondary bacterial and fungal infection. In 2000, control efforts were formalized as the GPELF by the year 2020 through the distribution of drugs (Molyneux and Zagaria 2002). The aims of this global program are to eliminate transmission of the disease and prevent morbidity in affected individuals through the use of antifilarial drugs in endemic populations (WHO, 1999). The strategies underlying the global programme are well documented and recently reviewed by Ottesen et al., 1997 and Gyapong et al., 2005. These recommended strategies were
(1) MDA with single dose of Albendazole and ivermectin tablets in areas where LF is co-endemic with onchocerciasis for 4-6 years annual,
(2) In non onchocerciasis co-endemic areas single dose annual albendazole and DEC for 4-6 years,
(3) use of DEC tablets or DEC fortified salt for 1-2 years
(4) vector control measures,
(5) home based management of lymphoedema and elephantiasis for affected individuals,
(6) improved access to surgical intervention for men with hydrocele.
The requirement for ongoing annual dosing to prevent the build-up of new larvae from the surviving adult worm is a significant operational challenge in endemic regions subject to poverty and civil unrest. Early diagnosis and treatment play important role to interrupt transmission of infectious diseases and preventing the development of long-term complications. The useful diagnostic methods must be accurate, simple and affordable for the population where they are intended. Despite their importance, diagnostics have been an undervalued component of disease control and prevention.
Diagnosis of LF:
Due to nocturnal periodicity of microfilaria in human blood stream, blood sample should be taken within two hours either side of midnight when the highest density of microfilariae is expected to occur. Simonsen et al., (1997) have devised a method to adjust the effect of sampling time on microfilariae density which helps to predict the microfilariae density at midnight in blood collected at 22:00 hours. The simplest technique for direct diagnosis of microfilaraemia is a thick blood smear methods (Khamboonruang et al., 1987; Schuurkamp et al., 1994) and the number of microfilariae can be calculated in terms of mf/ml in the measured amount of blood such as 40 to 60ul (Moulia-Pelat et al., 1992). However, detection of microfilariae in night blood examination by thick blood smear has some disadvantages; first, it underestimates the prevalence of microfilaraemia at low density (Panicker et al., 1991; Turner 1993) and the second disadvantage is loss of microfilariae from the film during processing especially if anti-coagulated blood is used.
By concentration methods for microfilariae:
To obtain the viable microfilariae, knott concentration method is widely used (knott, 1935). The viable microfilariae can be obtained when citrate-saponin solution is substituted for the 1% formalin solution (McQuay, 1970). The method has been improved by Melrose et al., (2000) in which addition of Triton X-100 dissolves most of the proteinaceous deposit and enhances the visibility of the microfilariae. Another widely used concentration method is the membrane filter technique used where 1ml of blood has been diluted in water and passed through a cellulose filter to trap microfilariae on the filter (Nathan et al., 1981; Moulia-Pelat 1992).
By the DEC provocation test:
DEC can be helpful to detect microfilaria in the day time. A recommended concentration DEC may subjected to provoke the microfilariae to leave the lungs and entering the peripheral circulation where they can be detected by any of the above techniques (who, 1987). The use of this test was discouraged due to its low sensitivity than night blood examination method (WHO, 1987). The other antifilarial drugs ivermectin and albendazole do not induce microfilariae to leave the lungs and enter in the blood circulation during day time (Dunyo et al., 1996).
By detection of filarial antigen:
Filarial antigenicity is associated with active filarial infection (Hamilton, 1985). Several investigators have developed assay for detection of filarial antigens using both polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies raised against various antigens such as in L. corinii, D. immitis, B. malayi, S. digitata (Dasgupta et al., 1984; Hamilton, 1985, Harinath, 1986) and W. bancrofti (Weil and Liftis, 1987). Anti-rabbit B. malayi adult worm antigens can be used for the detection of W. bancrofti microfilaraemic antigen (Hamilton and Scott, 1984). In the earlier reports, polyclonal antibody of B. malayi adult soluble antigen was useful for the detection of filarial antigen in 90-93% of microfilaraemic and 30% of clinical filarial sera (Cheirmaraj et al 1992). Zheng and coworker (1987) showed higher level of filarial antigen detection (>95%) in microfilaraemic and clinical filarial (60%) sera of bancroftian and brugian filariasis using polyclonal antibodies along with a monoclonal antibody raised against B. malayi antigen.
By detection of filarial antigen in body fluids other than blood:
Needham et al (1996) showed a novel approach for potential filarial diagnosis through the detection of antibodies in saliva. The saliva sample can be used for detection of filarial antigens with similar method used for blood, but this would be a much less invasive test than blood collection and would not expose health workers to the danger of blood-borne pathogens such as HIV and hepatitis B and C. Das and coworker (1987) reported the use of urine sample for detection of potential filarial antigen. This anomaly is thought to be caused by the formation of antigen - antibody complexes in the circulation (Das et al. 1987), which should not interfere with detection of filarial antigen by Trop Bio test however as that assay includes a procedure to disassociate antigen - antibody complexes (More and Copeman, 1991).
By detection of filarial-specific enzymes:
Filarial-specific enzymes have been characterized and showed their diagnostic potential either as antigen for antibody assays or by the detection of the enzyme itself. Earlier Mishra et al. (1993) have identified filarial acetylcholinesterase in serum of microfilarial infected peoples. Filarial Glutathione binding proteins, Glutathione-stransferase, proteinases and superoxide dismutase have been detected in the serum of filarial-infected cattle and humans (Beuria et al., 1995) and the latter has been shown to be strongly antigenic.
By filarial antibody assays:
The filarial specific antibody can be detected by various methods like complement fixation, indirect haemagglutination, gel diffusion, immunoelectrophoresis, counter current immunoelectrophoresis, indirect immunofluorescence and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ambroise-thomas, 1980).
Fortunately, there is marked cross reactivity between filaroid species (Tandon et al., 1981) and wide range of other crude filarial parasites antigens have been utilized for filarial antibody detection. Many investigators have reported that cross reactivity of Dirofilaria immitis crude antigen with W. bancrofti (Ambroise-Thomas, 1980; Turner et al., 1993) and B. malayi serum (Riyong et al. 2005). Dissanabake and Ismail (1980) reported that antigenic cross reactivity of Setaria digitata with surface antigen of W. bancrofti microfilariae and W. bancrofti infected serum antibody. There are several reports showing that Litmosoides carinii (Tandon et al. 1981; Rajasekariah et al. 1986) and Setaria cervi (Tandon et al. 1981; Almeida et al. 1990; Sharma et al. 1999) cross reacts with human filarial infected individual’s sera. Excretory secretory product and surface antigen of Dirofilairae immitis used for the detection of W. bancrofti infection by ELISA (Dekumyoy et al. 2000).
By demonstration of parasite DNA using polymerase chain reaction (PCR): The PCR method has been successfully used for the diagnosis of filarial infection using W. bancrofti and B. malayi DNA. W. bancrofti DNA used in sputum (Abbasi et al. 1996; Abbasi et al. 1999), blood, plasma and urine (McCarthy et al. 1996). The B. malayi DNA in blood used for diagnosis of its active infection (Lizotte et al. 1994; Rahmah et al. 1998). A combination of PCR-ELISA method for detection of filarial DNA has been devised by Fischer et al. (1999).
Because the adult worm is generally considered responsible for the pathogenesis of lymphatic filariasis, considerable effort has gone into the search for a safe and effective macrofilaricidal agent (Ginger, 1986). In the first half of the 20th century, many drugs were tested for activity against adult filarial parasites. The most common Antifilarial drugs are diethylcarbamazine (DEC), ivermectin and albendazole.
1) DEC: For human use, DEC is manufactured primarily as the dehydrogenate citrate salt. The drug is rapidly absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract and reaches peak levels in the blood within 1-2 hours after an oral dose of 50 mg (Ottesen EA, 1985). The time required for the kidneys to excrete DEC increases with the pH of the urine, but even when the urine is alkaline, the half-life of DEC in the blood is only 10- 12 hours (Ottesen EA, 1985).
2) Ivermectin: Ivermectin, a macrolide antibiotic, is the drug of choice for treatment and control of onchocerciasis. A potent microfilaricidal agent, Ivermectin profoundly suppresses the concentration of W. bancrofti and B. malayi microfilariae in the peripheral blood for periods of 6- 24 months (Dreyer et al. 1995; Kazura et al. 1993; Richards et al. 1991; Eberhard and Lammie 1991; Addiss et al. 1993). Some researcher have hypothesized that ivermectin exerts a macrofilaricidal effect (Ismail et al. 1996), but it is clear from recent ultrasound studies that the adult worms are not killed. For this reason, ivermectin is not the best drug of choice for treatment of individual patients with W. bancrofti or B. malayi infection; however, the drug may play a very important role in community-based control programmes, where lack of local adverse reactions associated with death of the adult worm may enhance community acceptance (Sutanto 1985; Moulia-Pelat 1995).
3) Albendazole: According to Shenoy et al. (1999), this antihelmintic drug is shown to destroy the adult filarial worms when it given twice a day for two weeks. The death of the adult worm induces severe scrotal reactions in bancroftian filariasis since this is the common site where they are lodged (Jayakody, 1993). Albendazole has no direct action against the microfilaria and does not immediately lower the microfilaria counts. When given in single dose of 400 mg in association with DEC or ivermectin, the destruction of microfilaria by these drugs becomes more pronounced. Albendazole combined with DEC or ivermectin is recommended in the global filariasis elimination programmed.
Recent research on the early diagnosis of LF:
As asymptomatic micro?laraemic stage is considered as one of the bottlenecks in the global elimination of LF. Recent study has suggested that, heat shock protein 70 can be a promising agent for immunodiagnosis (Srivastava et. al., 2010). The role of heat shock protein 70 in parasite biology has been reviewed (Srivastava and Rahman, 2014). We have shown that proteomic analysis is very useful in characterizing HSP70 as a disease associated protein, although proteomics was performed in a small cohort which may explore the diagnostic accuracy in the immunodiagnosis of lymphatic ?lariasis in an endemic area. This study also opens a possibility to explore heat shock proteins for their use in the diagnosis of other helminth diseases too.
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About Author / Additional Info:
I am working as Research Associate in National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi

domain: biology


text:
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For more information about the event, contact Kate McCahill, SFLR Faculty Advisor and Editor-in-Chief by email at email@example.com, or call 505-428-1903.
October 5 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm


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4th Gen Toyota 4Runner Shocks and Springs
I purchased my 2003 Toyota 4Runner 5 years ago and have been driving on its stock suspension since. After seeing tons of lifted 4Runners online, I finally made the plunge. A lifted 4Runner provides a really nice looking stance; many say this is how the car should have come from the factory.
I didn’t want to just lift the 4Runner just for the sake of looks alone. If I were to have the suspension upgraded, I would patiently wait until I felt the shocks and struts were in need of replacement.
My car has really been through a lot; I’ve used it to haul furniture, dirt, concrete—you name it. The 4Runner could probably go on for many years with the same suspension, but I felt it was getting incredibly soft. I decided after 5 years of driving on the same stock suspension, it was time for a change.
Which Lift Configuration To Go With?
I debated on whether I’d want to go for a full 3″ lift, but there were a few things that kept me from going that route. First, I was worried it might make the car too high for my family to get in and out of, so I thought a more mild lift would be a better choice. The other issue had to do with the possibility of having to replace other parts: upper control arms (might need aftermarket UCA’s due to the caster being out-of-alignment), brake lines (they could stretch from the increased height), and sway bar relocates (due to possible contact between front coils and front sway bar).
To avoid these issues, I decided to go with a smaller lift that would raise my vehicle about 2″ all around. This would require the Bilstein 5100 shocks with the front adjustable shocks set to 0.85″, and FJ Cruiser OEM springs all around. This setup eliminates the factory rake (front end of car lower than the back end) and most closely evens out the final rake of the vehicle.
*If you’re interested in how a 3″ lift kit looks or you want to know how to do it yourself, I ended up doing the full 3 in. lift kit (rear coil springs, front shocks and springs). Since I already had the Bilstein 5100’s, I ended up replacing the coil springs in the front and rear.
FJ Cruiser springs are a tad stiffer than the 4th gen 4Runner springs. I also like the fact that they are OEM parts. The thing I did not like was the fact that they were difficult to procure. They are difficult to find on forums as people will snatch them up the moment they are for sale. New OEM springs are pretty expensive.
Since I couldn’t find any used FJ springs, I shelled out some money to pay for the new springs. This just gave me reassurance that I wouldn’t be getting some used springs that I could not verify the mileage of.
These are the parts that I purchased:
Front Bilstein 5100 Ride-Height Adjustable Shocks (Part #24-239370) – Qty 2
Rear Bilstein 5100 Shocks (Part #33-187174) – Qty 2
Moog Front Strut Mounts – Qty 2
For miscellaneous parts, I did research to see if I should use aftermarket parts in place of OEM parts. In the case of the strut mounts, I came to the conclusion that Moog strut mount assemblies were adequate. I purchased these off RockAuto.com, which is an excellent and well-priced solution for these types of products.
OEM Re-boot Kits (Part #: 04427-60141) – Qty 2
I noticed that my 4Runner had some torn CV boots. I explored the option of replacing the entire axle shaft (half shaft), but the OEM option was incredibly pricey. Aftermarket axle shafts were more affordable, but I could not find a universally recommended one. What scared me was the fact that all aftermarket axle shafts available for this vehicle, had some horror story of it snapping off while they were driving on it.
OEM re-boot kit on eBay.com
Because I could see that the boot had not been torn for an extended period of time, I thought it would be cost-effective to buy an OEM re-boot kit and have my mechanic remove the old boot and grease, clean it all up, and re-grease and re-boot the axle shaft. If a lot of dirt had gotten into the boot causing grittiness within the axle shaft, I would have shelled out the money to replace the half shafts with OEM ones instead. I was lucky in this case.
Axle Shaft Oil Seal – Passenger Side (OEM Part #90311-47013) – Qty 1
Purchase on Amazon.com: Genuine Toyota 90311-47013 Type-T Axle Shaft Oil Seal
Search results on eBay.com
Axle Shaft Oil Seal – Driver Side (OEM Part #90311-47027) – Qty 1
Purchase on Amazon.com: Genuine Toyota 90311-47027 Type-T Axle Shaft Oil Seal
Search results on eBay.com
Because the half shafts were going to be taken out of the vehicle, I figured why not replace the axle shaft oil seals on each side. For the additional cost of these seals, it gives me comfort knowing that I won’t have to worry about it leaking in the future, and in-turn having to remove both sides’ axle shafts in order to get to them.
All of the new parts ready to go in!
Stock Parts Removed
Here are the removed axle shaft oil seals. They still look like they are in decent shape, but it’s better to get these taken care of while they are already accessible.
Over 200 thousand miles on these stock 4Runner shocks and springs.
Before: Stock Ride Height
After: Lifted on FJ Springs & 5100 Bilstein Shocks (Front Shocks Set at 0.85″)
Lift Height Comparison
When trying to decide what exact lift height I wanted on my 4Runner, I scoured the web for photos of different configurations and what they looked like. I hope this comparison helps those who are looking at comparing what different setups look like. Below are the following lifts:
Left: Stock shocks & stock springs
Center: FJ Cruiser springs and Bilstein 5100 shocks all around – 0.00″ height setting on front shocks
Right: FJ Cruiser springs and Bilstein 5100 shocks all around – 0.85″ height setting on front shocks
Eventually, I wanted a higher lift, so I went with a 3″ Toytec Lift Kit. Since I already had Bilstein 5100’s on my car, I decided to install the additional springs for the full kit. More info available here:

domain: hobby


Illegal and substandard sachet water factories in Diobu, Port Harcourt and its environs have been closed down.
This is sequel to ongoing clampdown on illegal sachet water factories by Rivers State Ministry of Water Resources on Monday.
At the seven factories so far visited and sealed, the Commissioner’s team was appalled by the unhygienic conditions, poor storage facilities and sachets of water bagged for sale to members of the public, popularly called “Pure Water.”
In some of the factories so far visited and sealed, the Ministry found out that Water directly collected from taps and filled inside the sachets without treatment and filtering for residues.
It was also gathered that some the water processing equipment were in disuse.
The Operators of illegal factories visited and shutdown are to face stiff sanctions for allegedly endangering Public health.
The team was led by Rivers State Ministry of Water Resources Commissioner, Tamunosisi Gogo Jaja.


Ideas from books, articles & podcasts.
Most of us have encountered people around us, friends, family or colleagues, who aren't the best of listeners.
As the world gets more and more connected and complicated, listening is turning out to be a neglected aspect of communications. Whether it's the news on TV, where authenti...
The Political landscapes across the globe were proving drastically wrong forecasts, with improbably wrong polling data.
The mainstream media, which is relying on social media for most of the data, was misleading because of it, and the political forecasters were not listening to what needed ...
By deriving polling data from social media and quoting trending soundbites from Twitter and Facebook, real voices that may not be trending and of any interest to politicians, lobbyists, activists or business interests are losing ground.
Fake accounts and bots are repeating the narrative across the internet to shape the perception as per need.
Politicians and Pop Celebs have millions of fake followers and bots to derive likes and trend their posts, setting the stage for what is to be paid attention to.
This rule states that only a small section of users (around 1%) in any given platform (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and many others) post any content actively.
9% are occasional contributors, and the rest 90% of them are a silent majority only looking at content that is p...
Most people have gotten used to others not listening to what they want to say, so they have stopped demanding others to listen.
Most of the talk doesn't go beyond the usual jokes and social niceties, as deeply personal talk is now being considered as a burden on others.
It is getting awkward for some to talk face to face, and email or text conversations seem more efficient and lead to better screening.
Sitting with a person face to face, without disturbance and listening to what is being said is now almost a lost art.
Due to an increase in distractions, listening now takes a lot more effort than before.
The ability to listen carefully diminishes if one is not using it often, so it is imperative that we practice this lost skill more.
❤ Brainstash Inc.


Comedores de beneficencia alimentan a pobres de Sri Lanka
July 27, 2022 - La inflación disparada de los precios de los alimentos y la escasez crónica de gas para cocinar y gasolina convierten la vida diaria en una batalla para millones de esrilanqueses, que experimentan la peor crisis económica en Sri Lanka desde su independencia en 1948.
The World Food Program estimates that three in 10 Sri Lankan households are experiencing food insecurity amid an inflation rate of 58.9 per cent.
Food inflation is driving price rises, which surged by 75.8% in June 2022 from 58.0% in May. Transport inflation jumped even more, to 96.8 per cent compared with June last year.
The worsening economic crisis has already led to food rationing, with supermarkets restricting the quantity of rice, milk powder, sugar, lentils and tinned fish sold to consumers. The price of a kilogram of rice had risen to 246 rupees, from 112 rupees a year ago, an increase of more than 120 per cent.
The United Nations estimates that around 5.7 million Sri Lankans, including 2.3 million children, require humanitarian assistance due to the spiralling cost of living.
In the tenth consecutive month of record-high inflation, Sri Lankans are spending days queuing for fuel, forgoing meals, and dealing with daily power cuts.


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Egypt’s overhaul of its bread subsidy program isn’t likely to lead to any significant change in how much wheat the country buys on the international market, according to traders and analysts.
A fast growing population means that Egypt, the world’s largest wheat importer, will continue to need large amounts of foreign grain and the effect on prices will be minimal. On Wednesday, the Supply Ministry said from August it would only subsidize the final sale of bread, instead of production from grain bought locally or via international tenders.
“Import demand will be the same as people still need to consume wheat and flour and Egypt’s bread consumption is one of the highest in the world,” said Haitham Nouh, chief executive officer of Roots Commodities in Egypt. “We expect import volumes to stay normal and any increase in wheat imports will only be a reflection of the increase in population.”
The new system aims to reduce wheat and flour smuggling and lower subsidy costs by at least 5 percent.
Egypt’s subsidies are unsustainable in the long term, and the government will eventually need to reduce its role in producing bread -- a staple part of the local diet, Nouh said by phone.
“Since it is a very political and socially sensitive issue, the government will have to make the transition smoothly and gradually, ” he said.
Chicago-traded wheat futures slipped 1.6 percent as of 4:29 a.m. local time. Prices dropped by as much as 3.3 percent Wednesday after a U.S. Department of Agriculture report showed U.S. wheat production will be bigger than analysts expected.
Egypt is closely watched by the wheat market because it spends billions of dollars on grain each year to provide bread for its 90 million people. The country is trying to clamp down on smuggling and make sure it doesn’t pay more than necessary to help feed its population, half of whom live near or below the poverty line.
“The new move is mostly irrelevant for volume of imports and prices, at least short term,” Andrey Sizov Jr., managing director of consultant SovEcon in Moscow, said over email. “The new system looks more transparent and less costly, this will help to save precious foreign reserves for the country.”
Under the new system, the state-run buyer will sell local and imported wheat to public and private mills, and those mills will sell flour to bakeries to make bread that the government will then subsidize, Supply Ministry spokesman Mohamed Suwaid said. Currently, the government pays millers to turn wheat into flour and then pays bakeries to make bread, before subsidizing the final product.

domain: politics


text:
FingerprintDive into the research topics of 'C-reactive protein concentration and risk of selected obesity-related cancers in the Women’s Health Initiative'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
- Sort by
Theodore M. Brasky, Geoffrey C. Kabat, Gloria Y.F. Ho, Cynthia A. Thomson, Wanda K. Nicholson, Wendy E. Barrington, Marisa A. Bittoni, Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, Thomas E. Rohan
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review


ETRO is revamping the characteristics of the Scapigliatura—an Italian movement in the late 1800s that propelled outside-the-lines creativity. Over the next several weeks, ETRO’s menswear creative director Kean Etro is changing our perception of poets, highlighting eleven artists of varying creative professions to partake in its project dubbed “The Circle of Poets.” By inviting artists to share their stories from professions in photography, film, clothing design, fine art, and more, ETRO is enabling the creative community to express their mutual connections, and generate more of a dialogue around the possibility and value of art.
Designated by profession, artists from Milan are showing off their truest talents, while being photographed in ETRO by “The Circle of Poets” photographer Nicolò Gialain. Alongside Gialain are 10 other professionals: Adalberto Lombardo, a film director; Alan Borguet, a painter; Andrea Zardin, an art dealer; Catherine Leo, a student of fine arts; Cesare Rimini, a designer; Edoardo Tabacchi, a tattoo artist; Federico Signorelli, an entrepreneur; Jacques Leo, a painter; Matteo Ciabattini, an architect; and Niccolò Basso, a musician.
“The Circle of Poets” will be showcased over the brand’s social media platforms, and readers are encouraged to submit works for consideration on Etro.com.


PLANS FOR A £4bn regeneration of East London have been secured this week after London's Olympic chiefs agreed not to compulsorily purchase the Stratford City site for the 2012 Games.
There were fears that the land would be compulsorily purchased by the London Development Agency (LDA) because it contained areas essential for access roads and car parking for the Games.
The site owners, headed by Channel Tunnel Rail Link client London and Continental Railways, had warned that a pulsory purchase order (CPO) would have threatened the osed regeneration.
They would also have claimed hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation.
The LDA has instead accepted a legal promise from the site owners that they will co-operate fully with companies requiring access to work on the Olympic Park site.
The site, which is adjacent to Stratford International railway station, was sold by the government on a 99-year lease to LCR and a consortium of construction fi ms before London's successful Olympic bid.
Development will include shops, offi ces and 4,850 homes, but now overlaps the proposed site for the Olympic Village.
The LDA will retain 'step in' rights, allowing it to take control of the land if Olympic construction falls behind schedule.


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With Gotham Knights releasing, now is a good time to go back and see where WB Games Montréal got their start in the superhero subgenre with Batman: Arkham Origins. This prequel entry of the Batman: Arkham franchise has seen a resurgence over the years and is often considered an underrated game.
Arkham Origins features a well-told grounded story, some of the best bosses of the Batman: Arkham games, and has quite a few memorable side quests for players to beat while roaming the winterly Gotham City. However, not all of them are great, with some coming off as glorified fetch quests, while the better ones practically steal the entire game.
While it was refreshing that Arkham Origins used a wide variety of villains such as Copperhead and Firefly, the inclusion of Bird was an odd choice. He's Bane's lieutenant who suddenly becomes his own standalone villain seemingly out of the blue even though he was only mentioned by Bane's men only once or twice.
The mission itself is nothing special either: Batman interrogates a criminal to get the location of Bird. The only thing that stands out is the club setting in which Batman fights Bird and his men. Even the name of the character is generic since there are already so many aviary-themed characters in the DC universe.
It's unfortunate that Black Mask was one of the most wasted characters of the Batman: Arkham games. In Arkham Origins, the Black Mask that Batman was chasing throughout was not even the true Black Mask. Meanwhile, the real Black Mask is reduced to a mission that is essentially a rehash of the Bane side-mission from Batman: Arkham City.
Batman just has to destroy drug stashes across the city with his explosive gel; been there, done that. However, the final encounter and fight with Black Mask is a nice way to end the mission since it allowed for more dialogue from the character.
In contrast to Batman: Arkham Knight, Batman and Jim Gordon's relationship in Arkham Origins has way more friction, with neither trusting each other at first, then becoming partners by the end. This is best shown in the post-story when Jim Gordon contacts Batman through Barbara's connection.
The mission itself is just okay, with Batman fighting groups of enemies across the city, saving escaped convicts from Blackgate Prison for last. However, the addition of showing the partnership between Batman and Gordon evolve is enough to make it worth it. As a bonus, there is a funny Easter Egg to find with one of the convicts.
The Penguin Arms Caches
This side mission is very similar to the Black Mask side mission; Batman goes across the city to take out thugs guarding a crate filled with weapons which Batman destroys with the disruptor. This one is much better due to having more action and interactions with Barbara Gordon.
The teenage Barbara is the one who gives the mission to Batman, and with each crate destroyed, she talks with Batman over his comlink. It's a nice way of showing how Batman became acquainted with Barbara and why she is one of the best side characters of the Arkham games.
The biggest problem with this mission is that it feels way too short, with Shiva becoming one of the most underused characters in the game. It has a great build-up starting with the fake crying baby which leads Batman to find and save Shiva's victims as well as fight ninja swarms. The entire mission sets up this grand encounter with Shiva that is going to test the player's skills.
Unfortunately, when the Shiva fight happens, it's a slightly taxing fight that ends far too quickly, and the story comes to an awkwardly abrupt conclusion. The way it ends makes it feel more akin to the halfway point of the side mission, but instead, that is the actual ending. It even teases that Shiva is actually working for Ra's Al Ghul, but nothing ever comes of it.
On the bright side, this proto-Riddler known as Enigma is not nearly as irritating to deal with as in Arkham Knight. The downside, however, is that there are no riddles at all; his mission in Arkham Origins is essentially a collect-athon with Batman having to find all of Enigma's datapacks containing extortion data.
This also forces Batman to destroy Enigma's transmitters and fight his data handlers. As a result, this version of the Riddler side quest is less demanding but a bit too easy at times. It's far from bad, but it is just decent in the end.
One of the best things to come out of Arkham Origins that make it so underrated is the focus on being the world's greatest detective. Throughout the game, there is a series of unsolved murders that pop up across Gotham City, and it's genuinely fun to uncover how the murders took place.
They always lead to an encounter with the murderer with unique dialogue. The best one is when Batman has to solve the murder of a couple that he knows as Bruce Wayne, leading to some great acting from Roger Craig Smith, who voices Batman.
Cyrus Pinkney Cold Case
This is a side mission that is a secret in Batman: Arkham Origins; hidden throughout the city are plaques dating back centuries, and these plaques hold hidden messages containing details of Gotham City's oldest cold case.
It leads to a story featuring ancestors of Gotham's founding families, from Solomon Wayne to Cyrus Pinkney to even the Arkham family. When completed, it leads to a surprising reveal that shows how many hard-to-find Easter Eggs there are in the Arkham games and how many of them are actually hidden in plain sight on the maps.
The use of Anarky is the best example of using an obscure villain well for a side mission. Anarky, an evil analog of V from V For Vendetta, has placed three bombs across Gotham City in a foolish attempt to kill the biggest sources of Gotham's corruption.
It all leads to a race against time with Anarky testing Batman to see what choice he makes. It all leads to Batman confronting Anarky in the Solomon Wayne Courthouse, resulting in Batman essentially learning that Anarky is what Bruce Wayne could have become if he let his anger and rage turn him to the dark side.
The Batman: Arkham games love to put the player through stealth-centric missions known as Predator Missions. Some of the hardest challenge maps in the Batman: Arkham games are Predator Missions, and Deadshot's side mission is essentially one of those but even harder.
Thanks to Deadshot's ricocheting ability with bullets, he is able to spot Batman from nearly anywhere and deal more damage than the goons can. So, this side mission requires the player to plot out their actions in the bank carefully. As a bonus, there is a nice detective element towards the beginning of the mission.
The Mad Hatter
There have been a lot of celebrity voices in the Arkham games, and one who steals the show in each game he appears in is Peter MacNicol as the Mad Hatter. Arkham Origins shows the first time that he met Batman by kidnapping a woman named Alice, and Hatter's hypnosis technology sends the Caped Crusader into Wonderland from Alice In Wonderland.
Taking a bit of inspiration from the Scarecrow encounters in Arkham Asylum, the Wonderland setting is depicted rather well, matching the whimsical yet nightmarish aesthetic that the story is known for. Hatter is talking to Batman the whole time and MacNicol nails the soft and creepy voice of the character.
NEXT: Every Confirmed Villain (So Far) In Gotham Knights, Ranked By StrengthSource:gamerant.com

domain: game


text:
Tips for Small Businesses, Investors and the Self-Employed
Run your business like a business. And, don’t over complicate it.
When do you need to use a bookkeeping software?
You must have a Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet for your company from day one. You can’t run a business via a spreadsheet.
(See below … When To Hire A Bookkeeper)
Do not use your social security number. Use an EIN.
Do not comingle your personal funds with company funds. Ever. (An LLC, for example, is a disregarded entity for tax purposes only. It is not disregarded as a company.)
There is no need to have to “pay your vendors fast.” You run your company. You pay approved and vetted vendors per
your company policies.
Do not pay a vendor unless you have their W-9. Do not accept a W-9 unless it is legible and signed and dated. Do not accept
an older version of a W-9. All companies should provide their customers with the most current version of a W-9 (www.irs.gov).
Pay your vendors with business to business transactions. Do not use third party processors like Venmo, PayPal, etc. even
though some do have or are working on business platforms. (Would Home Depot pay a vendor using one of these services?
Would they refund money to a shopper using one of these services?)
Do not use a personal bank account for your company. The bank account statement should have your company name on it.
Do not use a personal credit card for your company. The credit card statement should have your company name on it.
Using your personal home equity loan to fund your company? Do not deposit funds from your personal HELOC directly into your company. Do not “pay back” your personal HELOC from your company bank account. Money should pass through your personal bank account.
Taking a draw from your company? Is there profit on your profit and loss statement? If not, there is no money to “draw.”
When to hire a bookkeeper:
Need help doing your books? See Workshops on the Main Menu.
You need a bookkeeper, if you are too busy to do your books.
You need a bookkeeper, if you dread doing your books (and therefore, aren’t doing them).
You hire a bookkeeper so you have time to run your business.

domain: economics


25 Février 2012
No-fly zone over Fukushima plant scaled back
Japan's transport ministry has scaled back the no-fly zone over the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant as radioactivity over the site has dropped to a safe level.
Aircraft are barred from flying within a 3-kilometer radius of the plant from midnight on Friday. The prior restricted zone had a radius of 20 kilometers.
Earlier this month, the transport and science ministries jointly surveyed radiation levels within the 20-kilometer no-fly zone.
The survey found that the levels had dropped to 12 microsieverts per hour or below, at the minimum safe flight altitude of 150 meters.
The transport ministry concluded that radioactivity at that level could pose no risks to passengers and flight crew.
No regular routes of passenger aircraft cross over the Fukushima plant.
The ministry had banned aircraft from flying within a 30-kilometer radius of the Fukushima plant following the nuclear accident last March. The zone was reduced to areas within a 20-kilometer radius in May of last year.


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LOVE Actually is getting a second sequel, featuring scenes not shown in last week’s Comic Relief special.
Fans were gutted to see that American actress Laura Linney was missed out of the reboot, which aired on BBC last Friday.
But it’s good news, as her character Sarah WILL be making an appearance is a US sequel, which will be shown on NBC in the States on May 25.
Laura is set to film her scenes in April, after being contacted by director Richard Curtis.
She told Entertainment Weekly: “(Richard) sent me an email, explaining this short film reunion. I said yes, obviously. How could I say no?
“Right away we were figuring out our schedules. I have no idea what I’m doing yet. Not a clue.”
Laura’s original storyline saw her finally prepare to bed her work crush Carl, played by Rodrigo Santoro, after the couple became close at their office Christmas party.
However, their night together was cut short when kind-hearted Sarah received a call from her mentally ill brother.
She told EW: “Rodrigo and I were both heartbroken at the time we made the film.
“We’d both recently been through terrible relationships and were bemoaning that moment in our lives, but we both got to make each other feel better all day long.
“I think you can see it in the scene after I do my Snoopy dance in the doorway: two injured people finding each other.”
MOST READ IN LIVING
FAMILY AFFAIRMum who was raped and beaten by her dad from the age of ten hired a hitman at 16 who MURDERED him
HORROR HOUSE FIREMum burned while saving her kids from a raging fire recalls her skin MELTING as she tried to escape
While Laura didn’t make an appearance in the UK Comic Relief special, there was lots of reminiscent action from the original 2003 movie.
Hugh Grant starred as the newly re-elected Prime Minister, Colin Firth had a small army of kids with his Portuguese lover, and Andrew Lincoln had followed through with his promise to marry a supermodel – introducing his wife Kate Moss.
While Liam Neeson met up with son Sam, who was planning to marry his American girlfriend and childhood sweetheart Joanna.
Rowan Atkinson’s frustratingly fussy salesman also made a return, at the Red Nose Day shop, as did a happily-married Keira Knightly.
Sadly, there’s still no talk of either Death in Paradise star Kris Marshall or Emma Thompson returning for the second sequel.


Pacific Sensor Technologies distributes the Fluke 1502A thermometers designed to offer accuracy up to ±0.006ºC.
Fluke 1502A thermometers can read 100-ohm, 25-ohm, and 10-ohm probes, offer a resolution of 0.001ºC across the entire range, and are the smallest units in their class. An optional battery pack is provided for complete portable operation.
Each Tweener is programmable to match a probe’s constants for maximum linearity and accuracy. All probe constants and coefficients are programmed through simple, front-panel keystrokes. Temperature is displayed in ºC, ºF, K, or resistance in ohms.
The 1502A accurately measures the resistance of the probe and then converts the resistance to a temperature value using its built-in algorithms.
For convenience, the 1502A thermometers read the common industrial grade IEC-751 or 385 ALPHA RTD without any programming. The actual R0 and ALPHA of the individual probe must be entered for increased accuracy. Maximum accuracy is assured with the ITS-90 formulas. The Tweener accepts the sub ranges 4 and 6 through 11.
ITS-90 formulas reside in the Tweener’s firmware. If the probe has been calibrated for any of the above sub ranges of the ITS-90, once can simply enter the coefficients directly into the Tweener. Each thermometer comes complete with an RS-232 interface for automation of temperature data collection, calibrations, or process control functions. An IEEE-488 interface is available as an option.
The 1502A is calibrated digitally using the front-panel buttons. This calibration protocol further reduces the cost of the 1502A portable thermometers.