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Will you come visit my school?
I love talking with students and meeting with readers. If you’d like to host an author event at your school, please ask a teacher, librarian, or PTA administrator to contact me for details. Here is a helpful link to more information about hosting and planning an author event.
I’m a student writer or aspiring author. Will you read and critique my work?
Sadly, I am unable to read unpublished work for critique or feedback. I meet hundreds of student writers and aspiring authors every year, and many ask if I would be willing to read their drafts. My deadlines and family commitments keep me very busy, and I have a group of very prolific and devoted critique partners I’m beholden to. However, if you have a draft or sample of writing and you’re ready for feedback, I strongly recommend finding a critique group of your own! Sharing your work with other writers and exchanging honest, constructive, supportive feedback is the best way to grow and improve. Check out some of the links below for more information about starting a crit group of your own.
I’m a teen writer and I’m interested in publishing. Can you help me find resources?
YES! Here are a few links to some great resources for teen writers to get you started. Don’t see what you’re looking for here? Feel free to drop me an email with your specific question, and we’ll see if we can find the answers together.
Where can I find a list of discussion questions for my book club or my classroom?
Downloadable Reader Guides may be found here.
How many Nearly books will be in the series?
For now, Nearly Gone and Nearly Found are the only books planned. You can read more about that here.
What’s next after Nearly Gone and Nearly Found?
Where can I learn more about THE SUFFERING TREE?
THE SUFFERING TREE will release in 2017. Meanwhile, you can read more about it and add it to your TBR shelf here and you can pre-order a copy now through any online or retail bookseller.
Have you received any awards or recognition?
2015 Edgar Award Finalist (Nearly Gone)
2015 International Thriller Award Winner: Best Young Adult Novel (Nearly Gone)
2015 Winner of the Mathical Book Award: grade 9-12 category (Nearly Gone)
2015 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award Finalist: Best Young Adult (Nearly Gone)
2015-2016 Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Award Nominee (Nearly Gone)
2015-2016 Georgia Peach Book Award Nominee (Nearly Gone)
2016-2017 Louisiana Teen Readers’ Choice Nominee (Nearly Gone)
2016-2017 Florida Teens Read List (Nearly Gone)
2016 – 2017 South Dakota Teen Choice Nominee (Nearly Gone)
2015 Kansas State Reading Circle, Starred Designation (Nearly Gone)
Starred Review, School Library Journal (Nearly Gone)
Bank Street College of Education’s Best of Children’s Books List – 2015 (Nearly Gone)
SWON (Southwest Ohio & Neighboring) Libraries 2014 Best Dark Mystery (Nearly Gone)
What else have you written?
Essay in TIME.com
Essay in Huffington Post
Essay on John Scalzi’s “The Big Idea” blog
I’m doing a book report. How can I learn more about you?
Here are a few interviews I’ve done. Most of your questions (my writing process, how I landed my agent, how long it takes to write my books, where my ideas come from, etc…) are answered within these interviews. If not, you can email me through the contact form on this website.
Where can I buy a signed book? How can I receive a signed bookplate?
Email me through the contact form for details.
Can you send me a free review copy of your book?
Unfortunately no, I do not keep review copies on hand. Bloggers, librarians, and reviewers may contact Penguin Young Readers Group to request a review copy of the Nearly books. Review copies of HOLDING SMOKE and THE SUFFERING TREE may be requested through Edelweiss and NetGalley.
I am in love with Reece Whelan. Where can I learn more about him?
Here is an interview about Reece’s character that might interest you.
How did you come up with Nearly’s name?
Read about the origin of Nearly’s name here.
How do you conduct research for your books?
Here’s a fun interview about my research for the Nearly Gone series.
Are there really undercover police officers in high schools? Where can I read more about them?
Will Nearly Gone be made into a movie?
At this time, there are no plans to bring Nearly to the big screen. But that could always change.
Who left the personal ad for Nearly at the end of book #1?
This is not a cliffhanger. If you read the book carefully, the clue to figuring out the identity of the bad element can be found on page 122.
If I loved the Nearly books, what other books would you recommend I try?
If you love young adult thrillers with a hint of mystery, consider trying books by these fantastic authors: Megan Miranda, Ashley Elston, Kimberly Derting, Kim Harrington, Jill Hathaway, Romily Bernard, and Lydia Kang.
What advice do you have for writers seeking representation?
Read my advice on submitting queries and interviewing potential agents here.
Photo courtesy of Powell Woulfe Photography.


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|beeld||image, picture, statue, figure, portrait, representation|
|afbeelding||image, picture, figure, diagram, representation|
|schilderij||painting, picture, canvas, image|
|plaat||plate, sheet, record, slab, disc, picture|
|portret||portrait, portraiture, picture, photograph, likeness|
|prent||print, picture, engraving|
|tafereel||scene, picture, description|
|schildering||painting, picture, portrayal, decoration, description, decor|
|beeltenis||portrait, picture, effigy|
|toonbeeld||model, example, paragon, picture, pattern, mirror|
|tableau||tableau, picture, scene|
|schilderkunst||painting, pictorial art, picture|
|voorstelling||performance, representation, presentation, idea, conception, picture|
|schilderen||paint, depict, portray, picture, decorate, pencil|
|afbeelden||depict, image, represent, picture, figure|
painting, photograph, concept, personification, movie, scene, characterization, flick, photo, impression, image, video
Betekenis van het woord picture
Voorbeelden van de vertaling
- This seminar aims to link children’s picture books with simple science experiments and thus fulfil the requirements of Bilinguales Lehren und Lernen in a primary school.
- Students will select appropriate stories/picture books and work out teaching units which display the main three steps of a storytelling lesson (pre-, while- and post-listening phases) and include basic hands-on science activities.
- To these we attend, and the rest we ignore—for which reason conscious attention is at the same time ignoreance despite the fact that it gives us a vividly clear picture of whatever we choose to notice.
- For when the astrologer draws a picture of a person’s, character or soul, he draws a horoscope—that is, a very rough and incomplete picture of the whole universe as it stood at the moment of that person’s birth.
- Thus, under suitable environmental conditions, a bacterium can develop into a spore stage, which is completely different in Then there is the other, complementary, side of the picture as presented by the eminent biophysicist Erwin Schrödinger.
- Then it is a question of the quality of the pictures.
- Besides picture books, rare early printed books in fragmentary state are sometimes thought suitable ‘breakers’ for typographical collections.
- It becomes torn apart, unsure in its judgement of the world picture and its expressions, loses the perception and the feeling for its own purposes, and in place of this it sinks into a confusion of international ideas, conceptions, and the cultural hodgepodge springing from them.
- And the word is sometimes, but wrongly, used of the printer’s – or even of the publisher’s – device on A broad category, common in booksellers’ catalogues, including any book with plates in colour, whether picturesque, sporting, natural historical or satirical, and whether these are wholly printed in colour, aquatinted with hand-coloured detail or wholly hand-coloured on an engraved or lithographed base.
- Hind’s A History of Engraving or Singer and Strang’s Etching, Engraving and the Other Methods of Printing Pictures, which also contains a full bibliography.
- I have already tried to draw a brief picture of the momentary German instrument of military power, the Reich Defence.
- Just imagine Germany allied with a real anticapitalist Russia, and then picture how this democratic world Jewish press would mobilise all the instincts of the other nations against Germany.
- More loosely, the words, as opposed to the pictures, in a book.
- Such pictures would often be fullpage.
- Obviously this could not give a completely clear picture, but it is in the nature of the weakness of the national bourgeoisie gladly to deceive itself over the real situation.

domain: artistic


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A few recently published cannabis studies that should be on your radar.
Recent studies show conflicting findings about the effects of THC on cardiovascular health.
According to the authors of a new study, CBD contributed to “extending lifespan”
Dr Caitlyn Norman, explains the crucial difference between synthetic cannabinoids and cannabis.
Preliminary evidence supports the use of both CBD alone and balanced THC:CBD preparations in treating CUD.
Researchers have been exploring how cannabis may affect certain demographics differently.
Grow Pharma explores the latest research around medical cannabis for headaches and migraines.
Two experts on how to understand the limitations of cannabis studies.
Historically, the cannabis root has been used for numerous remedies.
The world-renowned cannabis scientist was the first to discover the endocannabinoid system

domain: biology


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Conventional Loan Calculator Let Hard Numbers Guide Your FHA or. When you're looking at different upfront charges, interest rates and.
· Home buyers who use fha loans pay an upfront mortgage insurance premium (MIP) of 1.75 percent. Borrowers also pay a modest ongoing fee with each monthly payment, which depends on the risk the FHA takes with your loan.
. offers upfront rates (interest rates and APRs) for FHA loans and FHA refinancing on their website, taking into account the loan amount, loan-to-value ratio, geographical location and credit score.
Thirty-year FRM backed by the FHA had an average contract rate of 4.68 percent compared. Base period and value for all indexes is March 16, 1990=100 and interest rate information is based on loans.
Current Interest Rates Fha Mortgage Rates Highest in a Week – Stock prices and interest rates moved lower together for the better. If within 30 days of closing, i would go ahead and lock today at current pricing. -victor burek, Churchill Mortgage Today’s Most.
Check out the current interest rates for FHA mortgages and see whether it makes sense to apply now. Our analysis of FHA loans includes a day-to-day overview of current loan offers available for your neighborhood and includes both purchase and refinancing data. Read on to find the current FHA interest rate for today.
Use our free fha loan calculator to estimate how much your monthly mortgage payments will be with a FHA interest rate mortgage. To calculate your FHA mortgage payments, add the cost of your home in the field and select calculate my payment.
The 91-day, 5-year and 24-year government securities have yields of 6.6 per cent on average, 10.2 per cent and 12.9 per cent.
FHA loans have been deemed ideal for first-time homebuyers and anyone else. The following table contains the average interest rates for 30-year fixed rate.
Orange County Fha Loan Limits 2019 Interest Rates For Fha Loans Millennials Took Advantage of Lower Rate to Refinance,Latest Ellie Mae Millennial Tracker Finds – Millennial homebuyers took advantage of slightly lower interest rates in January to refinance. Refinances for Conventional loans for Millennial borrowers rose to 14 percent, up from 11 percent in.2019 Down Payment Assistance Florida | Up to $15,000 dollars – 2019 FHA Loan limits lending limits for FHA Loans in FLORIDA Counties ALACHUA County GAINESVILLE, FL Single Duplex Tri-plex Four-plex $275,665 $352,950 $426,625 $530,150 BAKER County JACKSONVILLE, FL Single Duplex Tri-plex Four-plex $330,050 $422,500 $510,700 $634,700 BAY County PANAMA CITY, FL.
Average Fha Loan Rates | Jacintocitypd – Current mortgage rates on 15 year fixed loans are averaging 3.78 percent, a decline from last week’s average 15 year rate of 3.84 percent. And in especially good news for buyers, fha mortgage rates remained at historic lows as 2010 began.
The FHA offers 1-year ARMs and 3-, 5-, 7- and 10-year hybrid ARMs. The interest rate on the 1-year and 3-year versions cannot increase by more than 1% per year after the introductory period or by more.
It took an average of 40 days. mortgages and 28 percent were FHA, while VA and other loans accounted for two percent and three percent, respectively. “Homebuying tends to pick up in the spring and.

domain: finance


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Stumped for dinner? Get our life-saving Dinner Daily newsletter. You (and your stomach) can thank us later!
I grew up in malaysia for 24 years. Now residing in Orlando florida. I love to cook. everybody calls me a cookaholic. I have many Malaysian authentic recipes passed down from my mother who is a great cook!. Hope you will enhjoy them!

domain: food


As the world looks to meet targets for carbon emissions, one of the ways to reduce energy use is through LED lightning.
While halogen and incandescent lights are more commonly used, there are a number of benefits with the continuing uptake of LED technology.
The emergence of the technology being used in both commercial and domestic environments has been attributed in some quarters to increased efficiencies in chip technology.
As well as being long lasting, containing no harmful chemicals and not requiring any time to warm up, LED lights also mean an extremely small carbon footprint compared to other lighting types.
Indeed the WWF has in the past signalled its intentions to get phase out “wasteful” incandescent and halogen lights.
And according to IMS Research LED lighting offers between 50 and 90 percent reduction in energy usage as compared to halogen lamps.
One firm, GlacialLight says its LED lights have been used to bring about a 61 percent energy saving with LED panel lighting in one of its client’s factories, replacing T8 tube lighting – a nice saving on the leccy bill.
Furthermore as GlacialLight mentions there are no harmful radiation and no hazardous metals. “LEDs don’t emit harmful radiation such as Ultraviolet or Infrared emitting halogen lamps and don’t contain hazardous metals such as mercury contained in mercury lamps.”
They also have “extremely long lifetimes, free users from frequent bulb replacement, and small carbon footprints, making it “an environmentally-friendly technology”.
However one of the problems with LED lighting is the initial expense, though as IMS Research has told us this is expected to come down as the technology hits the mass market.
According to LED suppliers EXLED the price of a halogen lamp is approximately £3.50 per unit, compared to the typical cost of a MR16 LED replacement being just over the £13 mark.
However, EXLED believes that overall halogen lamps, to name one type, are costly due to their poor efficiency.
With recent developments such as the use of ‘white light’ with LEDs, EXLED believes that there are cost benefits to using the lights.
Apparently a typical 50 watt halogen lamp produces 22 lumens per watt of energy produced, with a lifespan limited to around 2,000 hours. With most of its energy being given off as heat there is substantial waste.
In comparison, an LED replacement is said to produce the same amount in terms of lumens, for just seven watts of power.
Combined with an expected lifespan of over 50,000 hours there is obviously significant cost benefits after the initial outlay.
EXLED also points to the heat reduction also giving advantages where lighting can be mean a need for air conditioning, meaning further expense.
Over the coming years the technology will become more widely used too. It is said that over 70 percent of newly constructed buildings will feature the lighting by 2014.
This means that LED lightning will not be used as a decorative addition to traditional lighting, but be the main bulk of lighting.
So with prices expected to fall by between 10 in some years, even 40 percent in other, as components become more cheaply produced LED lighting will likely present itself as an even more viable option.


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Ghanaians across the country are expected to gather at the ‘Asomdwee’ park in Accra today (July 24, 2017) to celebrate the fifth passing on of the former President John Evans Atta Mills.
The late Professor who aged 68 was buried at the Geese Park, now known as ‘Asomdwee’ Park, close to the Osu-Castle.
He died on July 24, 2012 after being rushed to the 37 Military Hospital in Accra for treatment.
The Deputy General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and former spokesperson to the late President, Koku Anyidoho explained that as part of the activities, there will be a wreath laying ceremony.
“A fifth anniversary is a milestone event, there will be a gathering at the Asomdwee Park where he was buried, followed by a wreath laying ceremony and then we will gather at the Osu Kuuku hill office which used to be President Mills’ campaign office when he was opposition leader.’ he said.

domain: history


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The Jones Graduate School of Business (JGSB) also known as Rice|Business at Rice University is committed to delivering a top-tier business education to a diverse group of high-performing students. The director, business information resources is responsible for the administration of the Business Information Center (BIC). This includes budget oversight and hiring, training, and review of staff. S/he is the point person for in-depth research assistance using a broad range of digital and print resources, course-related and resource-specific instruction, and collection development for all areas of business in support of the curriculum and faculty research at JGSB, as well as business-related research across campus. BIC staff consists of 2.5 paraprofessionals and six to ten students. S/he manages research analysts (who support faculty research) and serves as the liaison to the Department of Economics and as a member of the Fondren Library Research Data Management Team. This position reports to the Dean of JGSB, with a dotted line to the assistant university librarian for Research Services in Fondren Library. Active participation in library committees and project team work, as well as commitments to professional development, are expected.
Position Status: Full-Time
Rice University is an Equal Opportunity Employer with commitment to diversity at all levels, and considers for employment qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, genetic information, disability or protected veteran status.
Internal Number: 22543
About Rice University
As a leading research university with a distinctive commitment to undergraduate education, Rice University aspires to pathbreaking research, unsurpassed teaching and contributions to the betterment of our world. It seeks to fulfill this mission by cultivating a diverse community of learning and discovery that produces leaders across the spectrum of human endeavor.

domain: library


News of Radio Prague
Czech anti-chemical unit arrives in Kuwait to take part in US-led campaign
A Czech anti-chemical unit has arrived in Kuwait to take part in the United States-led military campaign entitled 'Enduring Freedom'. A plane carrying almost all of the 250 soldiers who will take part in the campaign arrived in Kuwait on Tuesday morning. The soldiers were taken to the camp at Dauha where they are to spend the next six months. Czech anti-chemical troops are said to be among the best in the world.
Lower house committee meeting on possible security breach by police adjourned
The lower house of parliament's defence committee adjourned a meeting on Tuesday due to the non-attendance of police chief Jiri Kolar, who is on a trip abroad. The meeting was to discuss an incident last week in which around 30 uniformed and possibly armed police officers attended a lower house session debating a bill on the security services. Member of the opposition Civic Democrats said that the police officers' aim was to intimidate MPs. The interior minister, Stanislav Gross, has denied that the police officers broke security regulations. The defence committee is to discuss the matter when police chief Kolar returns to Prague.
Visegrad environment ministers to meet despite recent dispute between leaders
The environment ministers of the Visegrad Four countries are set to meet on Wednesday, despite a dispute which arose between the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary last month. A planned meeting of the four countries' prime ministers was cancelled following statements made by the Hungarian prime minister Vitkor Orban over the Benes decrees. Under the decrees ethnic Germans were expelled from Czechoslovakia and Hungarians had their property confiscated after World War II. The Czech environment minister, Milos Kuzvart said on Tuesday that environmental issues were not restricted by either borders or terms of office.
Spending on medicines up by 15 percent, consumption up 6 percent
Spending on medicines in the Czech Republic increased by 15 percent last year compared to the year 2000, according to the State Institute for the Control of Medicines. However, daily doses of medicine per head increased by only 6 percent in 2001.
Pensioner gets prison term for large-scale loan fraud
An old-age pensioner who conned some 130 people out of 8.5 million crowns has been sentenced to five years in prison. Jaromira Flekova, who is 63 and from the north Bohemian town of Jablonec, has also been ordered to repay all the money. Mrs Flekova borrowed money from her victims offering them interest of up to 30 percent, but in several cases only paid the interest without returning the money.
Czech paralympic team returns from Salt Lake City with five medals
The Czech Pararlympic team has arrived back from the Salt Lake City Paralympics with five medals. The blind skier Katerina Tepla won two golds and one silver, while Sabina Rogie - who is also a blind skier - took two bronze medals. The Czech Republic was 14th in the medals table at the games.
And finally a look at the weather forecast for Wednesday. It should be cloudy with rain in places, with temperatures between nine and thirteen degrees.


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Notable at the time and now is the fact that the Berkeley County Sheriff's Department was not involved in the raid.
Neither Mucklow nor Anderson would comment on why, but both stressed that deputies with that department are now integral to the success of the Eastern Panhandle Drug and Violent Crimes Task Force, a multi-agency department that consists of undercover officers working together to conduct investigations.
The Task Force was officially created in 1994, but it traces its beginnings to The Hill bust, Mucklow said.
Still a problem
A police officer for 32 years, Anderson said that the time when The Hill was an open-market drug area was dangerous because of all the associated crime, including property crimes and crimes against people.
"Back at that time, that was probably one of the most dangerous times to be a police officer," he said. "It was an eerie time. It was like nothing I'd ever experienced."
Drugs still permeate Martinsburg, but in a different way.
"What you don't have today other than a couple little pockets, you don't have that supermarket-type of dealing," Anderson said.
For the most part drugs are sold from within houses, not on the streets.
Crack cocaine, powder cocaine and marijuana are still around and heroin trade is growing, as is the use of meth and the abuse of prescription drugs.
Investigations continue, and Anderson said the public does not always realize what police are doing. He said the Martinsburg Police Department likely averages 30 to 40 drug arrests a month, both for possession of a controlled substance and the more serious charge of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance.
Mucklow said the major drug dealers moved eastward.
"Most of the drug trafficking for that period, they all moved down to Charles Town" after The Hill bust, Mucklow said.
Keeping pace with them, investigators switched their focus to that area and conducted a raid there a couple of years after The Hill raid.
The success of the raid in Martinsburg caused it to be used as a template for later busts throughout the state, including in Morgantown, Fairmont and Clarksburg, Mucklow said.
The raid's effects
After the raid, litter, including broken bottles, disappeared. Walking safely down the streets around The Hill became possible again.
"Within a week of this (bust) happening, it was like a different culture evolved in that area," Anderson said. "It's probably one of the better areas in town (now)."
The same people who had chastised city officials at City Council meetings returned, but their anger had transformed into praise, Dockeney, the former mayor, said.
"They were just so relieved and so grateful that something had been done," he said.
An appreciation gift - a clock - was given to the chief of police at the time, and Dockeney remembers the chief openly crying.
"The important thing is that the raid was effective," Dockeney said, adding that at first some worried the drug dealers would simply set up a new operation a street or two away.
That never happened, and the neighborhood was reborn.
"It was the difference between night and day," Dockeney said.
Cleanup efforts were organized, police patrols were effective at discouraging criminal activity and the sights and sounds of children on playgrounds returned.
For those involved in the investigation, friendships were formed and it is remembered as a successful operation.
"It was the most remarkable event in my law enforcement career," Mucklow said.
The effects included the creation of the task force, as well as more of a federal presence in Martinsburg.
"This office is here now because of that," Mucklow said of the U.S. Attorney's Office. The ATF, FBI, U.S. Marshals Service and a federal judge also all are in Martinsburg.
"I can trace it all the way back to Oct. 16, (1986)" Mucklow said.
Griffith, who spent all but three years of his tenure with the state police doing investigations, focusing on drugs from 1978 until his retirement in 1998, said that cooperation between the police agencies involved made The Hill raid a source of pride.
"The level of the cooperation and the magnitude of it really worked, and I think that was really responsible for the success of it," he said.
In 1996, 10 years after the raid, Griffith, Mucklow and retired FBI agent John Moran - who played an integral role in the investigation and now is an artist - returned to The Hill area together.
They walked around, shared memories and posed for photographs, some of which hang in a small conference room in the U.S. District courthouse in Martinsburg.
"It was just a serene scene there," Griffith recalled of that visit a decade ago. "There was no illegal activity of any kind going on. No drug dealers in sight."

domain: news


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The Legal Intelligence has reported In the wake of the Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia that reportedly killed at least seven and injured in excess of 100 people, lawsuits are certain to be filed. However, attorneys have said until federal investigations are complete, the direction of the litigation will remain unclear.
The train traveling from Washington, D.C., to New York went off the rails at a sharp turn in Philadelphia’s Port Richmond section around 9 p.m. Tuesday night, according to media reports. More than 200 people were aboard and well over 100 were hospitalized. Calls to Amtrak’s media relations office were met with repeated busy signals.
Personal injury lawyers said that any potential claims made against Amtrak will rely on whatever the National Transportation Safety Board uncovers in its investigation. That investigation, according to attorneys, will likely focus on engineer error, drug testing, track defects, faulty equipment, and what has been recorded by the “black box.”
If you have legal questions about your rights please contact Jamie Sheller Esq at 1800 883 2299 for a free consultation


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[April 9, 2015 Sirisena, in white with hands together, greets his supporters after praying at a Buddhist temple outside Colombo. Ishara S. Kodikara—AFP/Getty Images ]
When the Sri Lankan President’s motorcade encounters a red light now on the streets of the capital, Colombo, it does something unthinkable just months ago—it stops and waits for a green signal. The convoy itself is much smaller than it once was, down to three or four cars and two motorcycles from the as many as 16 cars and numerous outriders that sped through this port city until the man at the center of the procession—the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa—encountered an unexpected red light on Jan. 8.
That morning, election results showed a sudden reversal for Rajapaksa, 69, who had ruled the island nation for nine years. In 2009 he crushed separatists from Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority to end a nearly three-decade civil war in a final push that the U.N. says may have claimed the lives of as many as 40,000 Tamil civilians. A year later, backed by the country’s Sinhala Buddhist majority, Rajapaksa overwhelmingly won a second term in office. As he tightened his grip on power, blithely ignoring calls to investigate allegations of human-rights abuses during the close of the war, the extended Rajapaksa clan wrapped itself around government like out-of-control wisteria. One of the President’s brothers oversaw national defense, another had charge of economic development. A third was Speaker of Parliament. Dissidents, meanwhile, risked being squashed by an iron fist. Critical journalists and activists were arbitrarily detained or harassed by shadowy thugs who would haul them away in unmarked white vans. Some did not return. (The Rajapaksa regime has denied any such involvement.)
Then, suddenly, it was over for the mustachioed strongman. Voters jettisoned him in favor of a little-known former ally who promised to be the anti-Rajapaksa. Maithripala Sirisena, 63, pledged to reverse Sri Lanka’s slide toward autocracy and save it from becoming a one-family state. Even Sirisena was surprised by the outcome. “For a short period after being elected, I was not really certain that I am the President,” Sirisena tells Time, breaking into a smile during an interview at his Colombo office, his first with an English-language news organization since becoming Sri Lanka’s leader. “Similarly, the Rajapaksa family … must be thinking, ‘What happened here?’ ”
More than Rajapaksa’s extensive motorcade and security detail are out. The former presidential compound—expanded by Rajapaksa to include a 5,000-capacity banquet hall with shimmering chandeliers that change color at the flick of a switch—has been passed to the new Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, who uses it as an office. Sirisena continues to live in the Colombo home he occupied as Rajapaksa’s Health Minister.
It’s not just optics, say Sirisena’s aides. He is supporting constitutional amendments to weaken presidential powers, reintroduce term limits scrapped under Rajapaksa, and share authority with a stronger parliamentary executive headed by the Prime Minister. Under the Rajapaksas, Sirisena tells Time, Sri Lanka fell into the hands of one family: “With the amendments to the constitution, we will not leave room in the future for any single family to control the country in this manner ever again.”
sri lanka is one of the developing world’s oldest democracies, with a tradition of elections that predates full independence from the colonial British in 1948. So a return to past freedoms and a lighter governing touch are critical for the country’s future after years of strife. But the ripples of Sirisena’s unexpected ascent reach beyond Sri Lanka. Whether it wishes or not, the island nation is a player in a geopolitical game among bigger powers.
Sirisena works out of a large first-floor office in a grand colonial-era building on the Colombo waterfront. Right opposite, extending out from shore, giant red cranes loom over piles of rock and sand—the site for the Colombo port-city project, an ambitious $1.4 billion Rajapaksa-era venture to build shopping malls, hotels and apartment complexes on reclaimed land that has been suspended as the new government reviews the project’s approvals and permits. Backed by Beijing, which pumped billions of dollars in loans to fund big-ticket infrastructure projects under Rajapaksa, the project was inaugurated in September by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Xi’s visit underlined Sri Lanka’s growing strategic significance. Though small, with a population of only around 20 million, Sri Lanka sits just off India’s southern coast, making it a coveted bridgehead to the vast Indian Ocean—where India, China and the U.S. are vying for influence. Falling out with the West over his alleged human-rights record, Rajapaksa steered Sri Lanka toward Beijing, borrowing billions and then twice last year alarming India by allowing a Chinese submarine to dock in Colombo. “Rajapaksa had been very much playing up his relationship with China,” says Teresita Schaffer, a former U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka and a senior fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, casting it as the “diplomatic equivalent of thumbing his nose” at the West for its focus on allegations of wartime abuses.
The election of Sirisena, whose campaign manifesto said Sri Lanka’s foreign policy had “fallen into disarray after the military victory of 2009,” has sparked speculation of a diplomatic realignment. “I don’t call it a tilt away from China,” Prime Minister Wickremesinghe tells Time. “The fact is we moved away from everyone else, leaving only China. We antagonized the West, we antagonized India. You can’t carry on like this. Sri Lanka needs the West, it needs India, it needs China.”
Indeed, since January, Sirisena has visited India—his first overseas trip after taking office—hosted its Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and traveled to China, where he was accorded a grand welcome, complete with an honor guard at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People. Still, the now suspended port project has become something of a test case for relations between Colombo and Beijing. Sirisena says his administration is reviewing both foreign-funded and domestic ventures as it investigates allegations of irregularities and corruption under the previous regime. But, he tells Time, “we do not have any enmity toward anybody; we extend the hand of friendship to all countries.”
An Unlikely Leader
There is little in Sirisena’s political résumé to herald a disrupter. Like Rajapaksa, Sirisena is a member of the country’s Sinhala Buddhist majority and a veteran of the establishment Sri Lanka Freedom Party, joining its youth wing while still at school. In the early 1970s, Sirisena was jailed for 15 months for his alleged involvement in a left-wing antigovernment insurrection. He was arrested again in the late ’70s, shortly after quitting his job as a local administrative official to become a full-time politician, eventually entering Parliament in 1989. In the years that followed, Sirisena held a series of key party posts and did a variety of ministerial jobs. Throughout, he avoided scandal and cultivated an image as a clean-living leader with his feet firmly rooted in the paddy fields of his native Polonnaruwa district—traits that served him well when he defected from Rajapaksa’s side in November. “He made a contrast with the [Rajapaksa family’s] plans for dynastic rule, their love of luxury, the allegations of large-scale corruption,” says Alan Keenan, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group.
Sirisena has also won a global PR battle. Rajapaksa resisted international pressure to allow a U.N. probe or to conduct an independent local inquiry into the allegations of human-rights abuses by the military at the end of the civil war against the separatist fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. (The Tigers were themselves known for brutality—they pioneered the use of suicide bombers.) Sirisena campaigned with the promise of setting up an independent domestic probe, the details of which, he tells Time, will be announced by the end of June. Giving Sirisena time, the U.N. has postponed the release of its own report to September. Colombo has also appointed a new governor in the Tamil-dominated Northern Province, replacing a retired soldier with a civilian, and has revived efforts to form a South Africa–style truth and reconciliation commission.
But, first, Sirisena’s political supporters must win re-election. The President tells Time that he plans to dissolve Parliament in May, which means a general election at the end of June or early July. The vote could bring Rajapaksa back into the political picture—an aide says he is likely to contest a parliamentary seat. “He is like a sword of Damocles” over the new government, says Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, a Colombo-based think tank. In his villa in the seaside town of Tangalle on the southern coast, Rajapaksa tells Time that the new government should not write him off: “Too much of confidence is not so good.” He also denies accusations of misrule, nepotism and allegations that, before he left in January, he attempted to forcibly hold on to power. Rajapaksa tells Time the new government “wants to throw mud” at him.
For now, Sirisena is looking good. As he nears the completion of his first 100 days in office, activists and journalists in Colombo speak of a more tolerant attitude toward critical voices. “I feel less scared now,” says Ruki Fernando, a human-rights activist detained last year when investigating the arrest of a Tamil campaigner against political disappearances. “If you look at the state media, people they called traitors before are now on TV talk shows.”
Sirisena says he wants to reinforce the foundations of Sri Lanka’s democracy. “I came here not to strengthen power but to give over the power that is in my hands,” he says. “It’s a major problem for the country that power has been centralized. Power must be distributed.” In a nation that only months ago seemed destined to become a full-fledged autocracy, that message—and hope—rings loudest of all.
—with reporting by Amantha Perera/ Colombo
– TIME magazine


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Applications are now open for suitable candidates to participate in a second round of Cultural Leadership trainings (Train-the-Trainer and Cultural Leadership courses) presented by the African Arts Institute (AFAI), in Cape Town, South Africa, during March 2014.
AFAI will present:
– A five-day Train-the-Trainer course, aimed at individuals, from the Southern African region, wanting to apply existing training skills within the arts and culture sectors. The course is presented in Cape Town from 3 to 7 March 2014.
– A ten-day Cultural Leadership course, aimed at individuals in high-level leadership positions in the arts and culture sector, and from English-speaking countries, will be presented from 3 to 13 March 2014.
A minimum of ten applicants will be accepted onto each course, with full scholarships.
The deadline for applications for both courses, is Wednesday 20 November 2013.
Dowload the application form for Cultural Leadership here, and Train-the-Trainer here.
Application forms, including details on essay assignments, is also available on request from firstname.lastname@example.org
The training is part of a three-year programme, funded by the European Union and implemented by AFAI and partners across five African regions. Since its launch last year close to 100 individuals, from African creative or related sectors have successfully completed courses in Cultural Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Training Development.
Read more on the programme and past courses and participants at www.culturalleadershiptraining.wordpress.com


Spring is coming, and with it turkey season on Delmarva
It's always about this time of year that a hunter's thoughts begin to turn from good memories of the recent season to grand hopes for the next. That next season, of course, being the spring wild turkey season.
After a long cold winter there's nothing like a warm, sunny morning in the spring woods listening to turkeys gobbling from the treetops. With fresh green budding from the trees, dogwoods and pears in full blossom and songbirds merrily singing, it's enough to bring a smile to any hunter looking for a reason to hit the woods.
The spring hunts always begin with the youth hunts and all three Delmarva states have them. April 7 is the youth hunt in Delaware, with Virginia holding its youth hunt that same weekend, April 7-8. The Virginia weekend is also available to apprentice hunters who meet a special set of requirements. In Maryland the youth hunt is the following weekend, April 14-15, although the Sunday hunt is very limited with the only opportunities on the Shore being private lands in Kent and Caroline counties and public and private lands in Dorchester County.
Following those special hunts are regular spring wild turkey seasons in all three states. Delaware begins on April 14 and, as anyone who hunt turkeys in that state knows, there are some special rules you'll need to know. To hunt turkeys on public land in Delaware you'll need a special draw permit. You also need to have completed a special turkey hunting safety course to hunt in Delaware. The bag limit is one bearded turkey for the season and hunting hours are one half hour before sunrise to 1 p.m. Make sure to read the Delaware regulations carefully if you're not familiar with turkey hunting there.
In Virginia the regular season also begins April 14. The first segment of the season there is open one half hour before sunrise to noon and continues through May 6. On May 7 the hunting hours increase until sunset and continue through May 19. The bag limit is one bearded turkey per day, up to three for the season if no birds were taken during the fall hunt.
The Maryland regular season begins April 18, with hunting hours of one half hour before sunrise to noon. That continues through May 9, then hunting hours increase to sunset from May 10-23. The bag limit is one bearded turkey per day, two total for the season. If you happen to hunt turkeys on Blackwater NWR as part of their special draw hunt, take note that birds killed there do count toward your general state bag limit.
Just like for the youth hunt, the regular season in Maryland does include some Sundays, but on the Shore it is only for Caroline and Kent counties on private land, and private and public land in Dorchester. Of the limited Sunday hunting that's been passed through the Maryland Legislature, the Sunday turkey hunts are certainly a favorite. With a relatively short hunt and few open weekends, being able to spend a Sunday sunrise in the woods listening for gobblers is a special treat. If your county doesn't have it yet, get to work pushing your elected state senators and legislators.
More:Hunter mistakes friend for turkey, shoots him, wildlife officials say
More:Laurel man arrested on charges of deer hunting violations
March 24: Blackwater NWR public meeting on proposed 2018-19 hunting season regulations, Visitor Center on Key Wallace Drive, 10 a.m.-noon
Through April 5: Virginia light/snow goose conservation order season
April 7: Delaware youth turkey hunt
April 7-8: Virginia youth and apprentice turkey hunt
Through April 13: Delaware conservation order light/snow goose season
Through April 14: Maryland conservation order light/snow goose season
April 14-May 12: Delaware spring wild turkey season
April 14-15: Maryland youth turkey hunt, Sunday for private land only in Caroline County and private and public land in Dorchester County
April 14-May 19: Virginia spring wild turkey season
April 18-May 23: Maryland spring wild turkey season
April 21-May 15: Maryland Chesapeake Bay striped bass trophy season, one per day, main bay only, minimum size 35 inches.
Through April 30: Maryland tidal water chain pickerel season closed
Through June 15: Maryland nontidal largemouth bass season closed
Through June 15: Maryland tidal water largemouth bass size limit increases to 15 inches minimum


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Mathematica Examines Federal Support for Working-Age People with Disabilities
Contact: Amy Berridge, (609) 945-3378
WASHINGTON, DC—September 8, 2011—A paper published today in Health Affairs and an accompanying issue brief—both prepared by experts at Mathematica Policy Research—show that in fiscal year 2008, the federal government spent $357 billion to assist working-age people with disabilities, representing 12 percent of all federal spending. The states provided an additional $71 billion, mostly in Medicaid payments. Despite this more than $428 billion in total spending, services provided to those with disabilities are often fragmented, confusing, and ultimately less effective than they could be. Mathematica's brief documents how the expenditures are spread across multiple agencies that oversee more than 60 different programs to help working-age people with disabilities.
“These numbers are too large for fiscal reformers to ignore,” said David Stapleton, senior fellow and director of Mathematica’s Center for Studying Disability Policy, and co-author of the paper, “Now is the ideal time for policymakers to reshape federal disability policy. They should continue to address the needs of people with disabilities in the short term, while making smart investments that reduce costs over the long term. Working-age people are seeking greater independence but often are misperceived as unemployable. More of the considerable resources currently spent to assist these individuals should go toward helping them get and keep good jobs. This would enhance both their livelihood and the U.S. economy.”
The brief explains how, under the existing system based on programs created during the Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations, the government largely serves a caretaker role. The authors point out that this model runs contrary to the current goal of “maximizing self-sufficiency” embraced by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and fails to direct funds in ways that have the most potential benefit to help those with disabilities join, remain in, or return to the U.S. workforce.
About the Center for Studying Disability Policy: The Center for Studying Disability Policy’s mission is to inform disability policy formation with rigorous, objective research and data collected from the people disability policy aims to serve. The center was formed in 2007 to coalesce and further strengthen Mathematica’s extensive disability policy research and data collection efforts, and to ensure that the results of Mathematica’s work are accessible to the disability policy community.
About Mathematica: Mathematica Policy Research, a nonpartisan research firm, provides a full range of research and data collection services, including program evaluation and policy research, survey design and data collection, research assessment and interpretation, and program performance/data management, to improve public well-being. Its clients include federal and state governments, foundations, and private-sector and international organizations. The employee-owned company, with offices in Princeton, N.J., Ann Arbor, Mich., Cambridge, Mass., Chicago, Ill., Oakland, Calif., and Washington, D.C., has conducted some of the most important studies of health care, education, international, disability, family support, employment, nutrition, and early childhood policies and programs.

domain: politics


The Redding Powder Trickler Model #5 ensures reloaders achieve the most accurate powder loads by trickling one or two granules of propellant powder at a time.
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The Redding Powder Trickler Model #5 is perfect for finite control of propellant powder charges when single stage reloading. Because reloaders often require exceptionally precise charge weights, conventional powder drops have a tendency to deliver inconsistent charges. Many reloaders prefer the incredibly precise control of a powder trickler to ensure the powder charge weight is absolutely perfect every time.
With a turn of the knob, theReddingpowder tricker will add propellant powder to the scale pan a granule or two at a time ensuring spectacular charge consistency. The model#5 powder trickler is typical of Redding build quality, outstanding! It is made from solid steel and has enough mass not to tip over with use spilling powder over your reloading bench. Its height is also ideal to conveniently fit above most powder scales.


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View Points Davos is a series of 4 landscape pictures, framed in embroidery hoops.
They are replicas of pictures I took in my hometown of places (view points) I really like.
On the back, the exact geographic coordinates are indicated.
To the fiber techniques (appliqué and hand stitch), mixed media is added (miniature sculpting and painting). The pieces are adorned with paraphernalia I found in exactly the same places as depicted (dried flowers, stones, lichen etc.).
Here are the four pieces:
One of the pieces (Albertibach) was juried into the yearly contemporary art exhibition Bündner Werkschau at the gallery Kabinett der Visionäre in Chur in 2016.
The stamped series is not new, but I am catching up with this blog today… hopefully… 😉
So: for the stamped series, I cut stamps (obviously!). I started with cutting lino, but my fingers didn’t like the band aids very much… therefore, I bought some rubber sheets which are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay easier to cut!

domain: hobby


When it comes to sports history, no sport has a history quite like baseball. Great players from the early 1900’s are still known by all baseball fans today, great moments still talked about and records still be broken. People in the U.S. are most familiar with Major League Baseball, which was founded in 1876, but as the years have past, baseball leagues have continued to emerge around the world. Baseball has long been referred to as “America’s Pastime”, has become the world’s game.
And that is evident, whenever you buy a ticket to see a baseball game. Players from around the world fill the rosters of Major League teams, and will continue to for as long as the game goes on. Baseball has recently capitalized on the growing popularity of the sport around the world with the implementation of the World Baseball Classic, or WBC. Teams representing countries battle it out to see whose country has the best players. Though still in its infancy, the WBC is becoming a popular event among baseball purists.
After a quite pitiful season for the Detroit Tigers, they host their last series at Comerica Park this weekend against the Minnesota Twins- three games that will have virtually no effect on their second-to-last League standing. Bad news for Tigers fans: their team sucks. Good news: their tickets are... Read more
Another hurricane has hit the U.S., this time forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents of Florida and parts of Georgia and South Carolina. The Atlanta Braves announced on Thursday that they’d be offering free tickets to their four-game series against the Miami Marlins this weekend to any families... Read more
The Eagles, fresh off their Classic East and Classic West performances, are red hot as they tour with Glen Frey’s son Deacon in place of his late father, landing three shows in the Top 5 of today’s Market Heat index, as well as their piece of the Classic Northwest... Read more
After a remarkable run, including a win for at this year’s Tony Awards, Ben Platt is saying goodbye to Dear Evan Hanson on Broadway. It should come as no surprise, then, that the final dates of the actor’s run with the show are burning up the charts in the... Read more
The NBA season is upon us – at least in terms of the schedule being out – and the New York Knicks were all over the marketplace on Tuesday, taking six of the top 12 spots in the Market Heat Report for the day. The Spike Lee Favorites had contests... Read more
For those who came of age in the early 2000s, the Kansas City Royals were a bit of a punch line. But that’s no longer the case. KC has taken the MLB marketplace by storm this season, with at least one game in the Market Heat Report every day this... Read more
Just over a month away in Pennsylvania, Farm Aid makes an appearance in today’s Market Heat Report, coming in at No. 9 in the daily recap of the TicketNetwork marketplace top sellers. The show, which features Dave Matthews and John Mellencamp as well as headliner and spirit animal Willie... Read more
It’s a football-heavy time for the TicketNetwork marketplace, as the worldwide one (aka soccer) continues to have hot-selling marquee events, and the American version starting to come on line with hot fall tickets already creeping into the rankings. Saturday’s International Champions Cup “El Classico” match between FC Barcelona and... Read more
Former Beatle and prolific songwriter Paul McCartney saw both of his Hollywood Casino (Tinley Park, IL) shows among the hottest in the land, with Tuesday’s concert at No. 13 and tonight’s at No. 10 in the Market Heat Report from the TicketNetwork marketplace. That said, the top of the... Read more
Monday was on-sale day for the highly anticipated boxing showdown between MMA star Conor McGregor and unbeaten legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. – so it should come as no surprise that the fight dominated the TicketNetwork marketplace on the day. Tickets for the event came in at No. 1, with... Read more


The smell of baking bread is irresistible as head chef Kris Walker shows a group of visitors the trailer he and his team have been working out of for the past year. The tiny trailer is steamy from hours of food preparation, and cramped with only five people in it. Yet somehow this is where Walker and his team have been able to prepare three healthy meals a day from scratch for more than 300 kids for the past year.
School meals matter. Children consume as much as one-half of their daily calories at school. As a result, the food kids eat at school can either be an opportunity to encourage healthy eating behaviors and curb America’s childhood obesity epidemic, or can be a contributor to poor health and increased chronic disease risk.
Increasing the availability of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products as part of school meals can be an effective strategy to improve healthy eating behaviors among children.
The next few weeks will see plenty of news stories about the potentially devastating effects of President Trump’s proposed budget, especially the proposed 29 percent cut to SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or what used to be known as food stamps.
A program that’s been around since the 1960s, SNAP has been studied extensively and consistently been shown to be effective in lifting people out of poverty and reducing the number of people who are food insecure.
January is a time to think about positive changes, and often our resolutions have to do with health and healthy eating. As you work toward meeting your resolutions this year, take heart and get some added motivation by knowing that your food choices today may eradicate chronic diseases by the end of the century. Incredible, right? But true.
A growing body of research has given us new insight into the origins of chronic disease and indicates that susceptibility to diseases like obesity,
We here at Better the Future believe that reducing the prevalence of chronic disease throughout life starts by promoting healthy, nutrient-rich diets based on wholesome foods – before conception, during pregnancy and lactation, and in infancy and early childhood. Our beliefs are grounded in the science of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, or DOHaD.
DOHaD provides the scientific understanding for how the environment we are exposed to before birth and for the first 1,000 days following conception affects our risk for developing chronic diseases like obesity,
What was the impetus behind starting a farmers market at OHSU?
My director and I were at the very first Food-Med conference. We heard a presentation about the process of starting farmers markets at Kaiser Permanente facilities in California. A lightbulb went off in both of our brains simultaneously. OHSU is located on a hill with little access to fresh fruits and veggies, and at the time had no place for the community to gather.
Have you ever stopped to really think about what you eat? And why you eat it? Have you ever considered where your food comes from, how it was produced? Or really thought about how what you eat affects your health, or the health of your future children and grandchildren? The answer is probably no. It’s not something we’ve been encouraged to do. Our lack of attention to our food has an enormous influence on the health of the American public.
“Instead of wagging fingers, we need to generate consensus. Empowering consumers to call for better access to better food will put pressure on politicians to respond to voters, and on the food industry to please their customers.”David Barker, Ph.D. from Nature, 2013


Thune: ISIS a threat to United States
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., called for the destruction of the terrorist group known as ISIS — the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria — on the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
"These forces continue to carry out horrific atrocities," Thune told reporters in a conference all. "They've got to be stopped. They've got to be sought out and destroyed wherever they are operating."
As he remembered serving in the U.S. House and calling home to his family South Dakota when al-Qaeda terrorists flew airplanes into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon, he said ISIS poses a similar threat to the homeland.
"Anybody who does not think this group is a threat to the United States has forgotten the lessons of 9-11," Thune said.
The fight continues, Thune said, as he remembered promising his then 11-year-old daughter that America would "get the bad guys."
"It's going to take a broad coalition of people from around the world," Thune said.
Thune did not say he supports deploying American combat troops to the Mideast, but he said he hopes the Iraqi Army, the Free Syrian Army and Kurdish Peshmerga troops will fulfill that role.
Thune said he has signed onto a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry seeking details about the United States' plan to monitor American citizens who have joined ISIS in the Mideast region.
"We're seeking answers on how this administration is monitoring U.S. passport-holders fighting alongside ISIS and how they are preventing them from returning to America," Thune said.
Thune said passports can be revoked, and he is seeking information about whether these individuals are on the no-fly list.
Thune said that with newly upgraded levees along the Big Sioux River and Skunk Creek in the Sioux Falls region, FEMA should quickly update its floodplain maps so that some 1,600 affected homeowners and businesses in the area can see lower premiums for the flood insurance they are required to purchase.
"I'm hearing it could take up to two years to complete a new map, which I find totally unacceptable," Thune said.
Thune said that as part of continued attention to a backlog in grains and other products needing to be shipped out of South Dakota by rail, a bill he has co-sponsored will be marked up by the Senate Commerce Committee on Sept. 17. The bill would streamline operations for the Surface Transportation Board so the oversight agency can respond more quickly when problems arise, he said.
"Right now, they are hamstrung in many ways. By streamlining the operations, it will enable them to be more proactive when it comes to addressing some of the rail service issues we face in this country," Thune said.


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Lot 122: Italian School. Rustic landscape with ruin and figures, circa 1800, pencil, monotone sepia pen and ink and watercolour with body colour on laid paper, showing three figures on horseback, mother and child in conversation with a gentleman, and two stone breakers near a ruin among trees, indistinctly signed and dated to lower margin left, (?)'E Garamissi fecit 1791', 16 x 24cm (6.25 x 9.5ins), framed and glazed (1)
Dominic Winter's Fine Art & Antiques Auction July 2015
Thursday, 16th July 2015
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>Sonora / Tuolumne News, Sports, & Weather, Angels Camp, Twain Harte, Jamestown | Union Democrat
The “Restaurant: Impossible” episode featuring Hillbillies Restaurant in Murphys will premiere tonight on The Food Network.
The episode, hosted by chef Robert Irvine, was filmed in November at the restaurant, at 55 Highway 4.
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Ill. bill could mean interest-free college loans
Illinois generic . (Photo: AP Graphics). SHARE 5 CONNECT 1 TWEET 1 COMMENTEMAILMORE. SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - An Illinois state lawmaker says he's sponsoring legislation that would give what could amount to interest-free loans to college students.
Interest-free college loans possible in Illinois bill
Proposed Bill Could Mean Interest-Free College Loans
Proposed Legislation Asks State To Study Interest-Free College Loans

domain: economics


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The pear, nectarine and floral aromas seem to lack clarity. This wine is full of stone-fruit flavors that bring a touch of sweetness and lead to a warm finish.
In addition to his work at Wine Enthusiast, Sean P. Sullivan is the founder of Washington Wine Report, a site dedicated to the wines and wineries of the Pacific Northwest that has twice been named ‘Best Single Subject Wine Blog’ by the Wine Blog Awards. Sullivan has authored over 100 print articles on Northwest wine. He resides in Seattle, Washington.Email: email@example.com.


P. Liakopoulos, The adoption of renewable energy sources towards more sustainable urban transport systems. A case study on the city of Athens, MSc thesis, July 2022.
The present study was prepared as an M.Sc.Thesis for the postgraduate studies program “Environment and Development” of National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). Urban transports, both individual or mass transports and transportation of goods account for a large proportion of annual energy consumption per capita not only within the city’s limits but on a national scale. In all big cities the current urban planning trends promote the adoption of clear energy, the installation of systems exploiting renewable energy sources and new technologies for energy saving and recovery. Both the urban mass transports operators and the citizens are encouraged to adopt these policies on a different extent, but with the same ultimate goal, the gradual electrification of the network. The goal of the study is to summarize the available techniques and technologies in vehicles used in urban transports and relevant infrastructure adopting alternative energy sources along with various environmental aspects which apply to the complex urban environment as well as mentioning the various strategies involved such as the decarbonisation and the sustainable urban mobility plans. The second part of the study focuses on the Attica region which includes Athens and its greater suburbs zone. Athens is the capital of Greece and can be easily classified as a metropolis not only by the population of residents which is almost 4 million but also with the area occupied and is suffering from severe atmospheric pollution problems caused to a great extent by the aged fleet of personal cars and the fleets of urban transportation. Therefore it was deemed a perfect testbed to study how the current status could be affected by interventions such as new vehicles and infrastructure upgrades along with policies aiming to electrify part of the public transports road network, increase the renewable energy yield in the transport grid, adopt state-of-the-art technologies to cut energy consumption and retrieve it back. Three separate scenarios regarding implementation of solar energy systems are explored and their benefits are evaluated using several assumptions. These steps along with plans and policies to encourage citizens to use public transport regularly, in combination with non-polluting means of transport such as bicycles or light electric vehicles can effectively reduce carbon emissions, achieve a more sustainable urban environment, and lead the way to reducing our general environmental footprint towards a net zero-footprint.
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The United Arab Emirates’ central bank said on Sunday it had reduced banks’ reserve requirements for demand deposits by 50% to support the country’s economy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The aggregate value of all capital and liquidity measures adopted by the central bank since March 14 is 256 billion dirhams ($69.70 billion), the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) said in a statement.
The bank halved the reserves requirements for demand deposits for all banks to 7% from 14%, which it said will inject about 61 billion dirhams of liquidity to support banks’ lending and liquidity management.
The central bank also extended the duration of a previously announced stimulus package for affected retail businesses and corporates.
The deferral of loan principal and interest payments for customers was extended until the end of the year, and banks participating in the scheme can benefit from a capital buffer relief until December 2021. The value of the capital buffer relief is 50 billion dirhams.
Banks are also allowed a “zero-cost funding facility” against collateral until the end of this year – a programme also worth 50 billion dirhams.
Banks will be allowed to use a third of their current liquidity buffers and have the flexibility to maintain a minimum loan coverage ratio (LCR) of 70% and a minimum eligible liquid assets ratio (ELAR) of 7%. The overall release of regulatory liquidity buffers is estimated at 95 billion dirhams, the regulator said.
CBUAE said it has collaborated with other regulators to issue guidance on financial reporting standard IFRS 9 for banks and finance companies.
“The planned implementation of certain Basel III capital standards will be postponed to 31 March 2021 for all banks, to minimize the operational burden on the financial industry during this challenging period,” the central bank said.
“CBUAE has issued a new requirement for all banks to apply a prudential filter to IFRS 9 expected loss provisions,” the bank said, adding it aims to minimise IFRS 9 provisions’ effect on regulatory capital “in view of expected volatility due to the COVID-19 crisis.”
IFRS 9 provisions will be gradually phased-in during a five-year period through the end of 2024.


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“Steel, an alloy of iron and carbon, is both stable and elastic, extremely resistant and a permanent item of our everyday life. Today there are over 2,500 standard steel types, with new grades and applications emerging all the time. Each steel type is therefore especially made for its specific purpose. It is subject to stringent quality standards to ensure that it optimally withstands the specific loads”  . “A standard can be defined as a document, established by consensus and approved by a recognized body, which provides, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context”  . “In July 2007, the new steel inclusion rating standard EN 10 247 has been introduced in Europe. In connection with the European standardization of steel specifications, there was an urgent requirement to define a new standard method for steel inclusion rating. The European Committee for Iron and Steel Standardization ECISS resolved the elaboration of the new EN 10 247 as long ago as 1988, and it was published as a preview standard in 1998. The valid standard was finally published in July 2007”  . It is an interesting question to know if these standards do really have an effect on the competitiveness of the industry. Many of those standards are dictated by requirements for important downstream industries such as automotive, packaging and construction. The reason for the high-quality steel products European steel companies are producing is mainly determined by this standardisation. As such, the sector has an advantage over lower-cost producers, specifically for European industry which appears to prefer local made steel due to these higher quality standards. Steel standards are coded with EN while Chinese standards are coded in GB. The translation of one standard to another is sometimes very difficult, only specialists are able to make comparative tables.
220.127.116.11. Justification of the assessment
Although many of the previously mentioned factors were not as positive for the European steel industry, we can state that standards are actually one of the minimal advantages of Europe compared to China. Thanks to the process of standardisation in Europe, European steel is worldwide considered as superior quality and reliability. Chinese steel manufacturers are rapidly catching up and are having implemented standards which are considered to be at equal quality then the European ones. The fact that BMW is already producing their high quality cars like the 3 series and 5 series in China with Chinese steel means that their steel products meet the requirements of high-end users  .
18.104.22.168. Indication of the trend
Even though European steel is worldwide considered as one of the better quality deliverers, developing countries are expected to catch up quickly and deliver similar quality. The competitive advantage of European standards is therefore expected to be less significant in the near future. Standards will remain important for end consumers like car manufacturers, construction companies and packaging firms. The standards are necessary for the consumers in order to define if the quality is sufficient enough for their specific use.
22.214.171.124. Assessment of the importance
The European standards are developed and set by the European Committee for Iron and Steel Standardization (ECISS) and are having a direct influence on important downstream industries like automotive, packaging and construction. The EU steel industry has managed to maintain some of the highest quality levels – in part due to standardisation. That’s why the European industry has an advantage compared to lower-cost producers such as China. European companies which have to respond to those standards are more likely to consume European steel because they are sure that the quality meets the required standards. On the scale of importance, researchers of ECORYS are giving this issue a 7 on 10.
However, not everyone is convinced that these European standards are of such an importance to the competitiveness of the European steel industry. Buttiens: “In the end, it is always the client who decides what kind of steel he/she needs, no matter the standard”. The client asks for a certain thickness, towing ability, ductility, etc. On basis of these specifications, the steel standard is determined. So standards are actually working in both directions. At one side, there is the client who asks for a certain type of steel and on the other side, there is the steel manufacturer who produces what is demanded. Everything what is produced should be tested and during this stage one determines the standard.
Concerning the importance of standards on the international plan, Buttiens states that high quality steel is in general not imported. The main export product is hot rolled coil, which is an intermediate steel product. The standards for this hot rolled coil are not that important so as a conclusion we can state that standards are important but that the difference between the regions is minimal. Buttiens should therefore give a 5 on the scale of importance.
5.4.3. Consumer standards (health and safety)
Consumer standards are documents describing acceptable characteristics or usage for products, materials and services used by individual consumers. They may specify dimensional, performance or safety requirements for household products  . Virtually every consumer product – from children’s toys to refrigerators and cars – is regulated for safety  . The European Union has established EU laws on the safety of food and other products, on consumers’ rights and on the protection of people’s health  . Consumer standards are not playing a major role in the steel industry. The reason is very simple: almost all steel products are intermediate products used in the production of final goods. These consumer standards are therefore captured in industry-specific standards or in key directives for the downstream industries.
126.96.36.199. Justification of the assessment
Although consumer standards are not having a direct effect on the steel industry, they are transferred to the industry-specific standards for the downstream industries  . That means that there is indirectly a link between both. It is maybe not of the greatest importance but the effect is not negligible and that is the reason why it is decided to put it in the list with factors influencing the steel industry.
188.8.131.52. Indication of the trend
It is not expected that consumer standards will be increasingly important for the competiveness of the steel industry. Products which are sold in Europe are already strongly controlled and unsafe or unhealthy products are banned from European markets. A further enforcement of the consumer standards in Europe is not foreseen. In China, on the contrary, there is still room for improvement. Recent examples from the food industry (the 2008 milk scandal) show that consumer standards are sometimes insufficient  .
184.108.40.206. Assessment of the importance
Since almost all steel products are intermediate products and therefore not subject to consumer standards, the researchers of ECORYS only give this issue a 5 on the scale of importance. We can therefore conclude that these consumer standards are having a minor effect on the competiveness of the European steel industry.
This thesis tried to analyse the “Practical Impact of Environmental Policies on the Competitiveness of the Steel Industry”. It did focus on concrete comparative elements in between China and the EU.
Taking China and the EU as two cases of world importance for steel production is based on their economic and historical value as power houses. China, as the biggest steel nation of the world, produced about 568 million tons of crude steel in 2009 and counted for 36.25% of total global steel output. The EU 27 produced during the same year around 138 million. The economic success of China during the last three decades has also been impacting the international steel markets. With huge infrastructure and construction projects, and the rise of a growing middle-class with purchasing power, the demand for steel is outspoken in the most populated nation on earth. Despite even the hardest economic crisis the world has seen since 1929, Chinese crude steel production and consumption soared. This is also partly due to a Chinese stimulus package but it is definitely not the only reason. The European Union intervened with stimulus packages as well but the effects on the steel industry have not been felt as drastically as they did in China. It is also clear that the economic development of China is certainly not over yet.
The structure of the Chinese and European steel market has some key points of differentiation. Since Mao turned China into a communist country in 1949, he launched a number of development plans in order to become a respectable industrial superpower. One of his ideas was to install in every village a steel mill. As a consequence, steel mills appeared all over the country and crude steel output kept increasing. The steel industry has always been considered by the central government as a “strategic” and “preferred” industry. It should be said that this remains the case today. With a today’s average of 60% of steel companies owned by the government and a prohibition on any foreign control stake in a Chinese steel firm, Chinese government officials are still considering steel as an essential commodity for their economic development.
In the early 80’s, the European steel industry was also characterized by this strong relationship between governments and steel companies. Government officials were well positioned in the board of directors of many steel companies. During the last 30 years, global economic development reduced its unique reliance on the steel industry, and as such its “political” importance. A wave of privatizations was the result. In a next phase another phenomenon appeared which we notice in China today as well: consolidation. In Europe, we have the impression that the last steps towards consolidation are finished. The European steel industry, in a permanent search for added value, has been focusing on technical innovations and transformed itself into a high-value industry. Consolidations are occurring now on a global scale, far beyond the boundaries of Europe. The two leading European steel companies both have been integrated into worldwide conglomerates: the European Arcelor and the Indian Mittal Steel merged in 2006 and formed ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steel producer. And in 2007 Corus has been taken over by Tata Steel, the other Indian steel giant.
Consolidations are also very common in the today’s Chinese steel industry. The consolidation spree which passed through Europe during the eighties and nineties is passing through China now. A clear difference is that consolidation in Europe was driven by privatizations. In China, consolidations are more seen as the ideal way to tackle inefficiency, boost productivity AND reduce pollution. The Chinese central government decided to combine consolidation with “greenification” and to build huge state-of-the-art steel production facilities with an impressive environmental record and an incredible efficiency.
Overall this study does reveal that environmental policies do have a serious impact on the way the steel business operates.
In Europe numerous regulations and regulatory frameworks define the working principles of the steel production. The EU climate policy consists of the EU emission trading scheme (ETS), REACH, IPPC and many others. These environmental regulations, who tried to constantly reduce the carbon emissions, are seriously interfering with their business operations and are, as commented in our interviews, even harming the competitiveness of the European steel industry. It is especially in Europe that steel companies are constantly feeling increased pressure on their productivity in order to remain competitive. The real competitive issue is that the steel industry is such a globalized industry. The European steel industry is forced to make additional costs due to the mandatory nature of the ETS regulations. In many other steel producing countries these emission reductions are mostly voluntary and thus less constraining and decisive. This means that the EU producers will face a serious cost-disadvantage vis-à-vis their global competitors. A possible solution should be to implement ETS on a global scale and to do additional efforts to create an equal playing field. But it’s highly unlikely that the EU diplomats are able to force a breakthrough.
In China environmental regulations are only in their “embryonic “phase. It is only recently, with the creation of Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) that a centrally governed institutional organ can focus on the law enforcement and control of the local steel industry. In the Five-year plans (FYP) of the Chinese central government, much attention has been paid to the recycling of waste water and air pollution treatment. In general, most of the environmental impact and progress has been made by the massive consolidation wave of the small steel mills in China, and the investment into major new state-of-the-art steel plants, which allow production efficiency to be combined with massive emission optimizations.
The Chinese steel industry proofs and serves as an example to other industries that economic growth and environmental efforts could go hand in hand. In order to tackle further on environmental problems, China is not as far developed as Europe yet. In the next FYP for environmental protection, much more environmental plans will be unveiled.
An interesting observation is that environmental policies could seriously impact the overall competitiveness of the steel industry and its regional players. The huge difference in ‘active’ endorsement of emission limitations and environmental regulations between European and Chinese steel companies seems to seriously damage the competitiveness of the European steel industry. Direct feedback from the interviews with senior management of ArcelorMittal shows their strong concern and call for action to resolve this structural imbalance.
Although “environmental regulations” seem to impact directly the competitiveness of the steel industry, it was interesting to analyse deeper some of the other core determinants of this industry sector’s competitiveness in a globalized world. Some of the major factors are: labour laws and regulations – state aid, subsidies and free market principles – product specialization and intellectual property rights.
Regarding labour, we can state that there are some fundamental differences between China and EU and that these differences do have an impact on the competitiveness of their respective steel industries. When we compare the EU and China, we remark that European steel production facilities are more capital-intensive than their Chinese counterparts. This means that they need more highly-skilled labour. However, the consolidation wave in China gives rise to bigger state-of-the-art production plants and therefore more highly-skilled labour. In general, European workers are better skilled but also more expensive while Chinese workers are less skilled and therefore less expensive, although this has been changing as well. China forms great highly-skilled engineers but those people are asking for a better pay as well. European steel companies are having quite a lot of difficulties in attracting talent due to the high pressure on productivity and unattractiveness of steel in Europe. In China, it’s the exact opposite: steel is flourishing and many talented people are eager on launching a career in the industry. Today, the effects of labour on the competitiveness are minimal but this is likely to change.
Regarding state aid and state subsidies, steel factories in developing nations such as those in Europe are suffering compared to some of their international counterparts. Especially governments from emerging markets like Russia, Ukraine and in our study also particularly China don’t see problems in allocating direct or indirect state-aid and subsidies to industries which they consider as strategic for their economic development. The more developed countries like Japan, the US and the EU opposed more state-aid because these could distort the free market. Out of our management interviews with ArcelorMittal, it looks that the EU adheres most consequently to these free market principles. Even the Japanese and American government are historically and actually still very protectionist towards their own production factories. In a globalized industry where goods like steel can easily and quite cheaply be moved from one continent to the other, dumping practices do harm the European steel industry. Despite import quotas that have been imposed to protect the industry, the overproduction problem in China has been harmful for European steel companies. Closely related to the previously mentioned aspect are the international trade and investment regulations. In a global business where steel as a product can be easily transported, trade barriers and import tariffs are having a serious influence. So far, we have been noticing that the Chinese government is not really keen on imports. That’s why they are having a quite protectionist policy. The EU is often considered as an easy client who heavily promotes free market mechanisms and as such can be considered as an easy customer for other steel producing nations. Many nations are not respecting the quotas, trade barriers or tariffs. The mechanisms which should protect European markets from dumping practices are often too slow or not working properly.
In its drive to create more and more “added value”, the steel industry tries to specialize itself with high tech products. As such the protection of these “intellectual rights” becomes more and more an issue and needs closer attention. Since special steel is also getting more and more important in developing regions like China, automatically IPR and their protection should be considered. In China, IP is still not well protected. At this moment special steel is mostly produced in countries with stronger IPR rights like the EU and Japan. Competition in the steel industry is quite fierce and any major steel producer will need to innovate in order to remain competitive. So the effects of IPR issues can have their effect but are not from a major importance to the competitiveness in the steel industry.
As a general conclusion, one could state that environmental regulations do seriously impact the competitiveness of the steel industry. This factor could even be considered as the most important in our list of influential factors. It is remarkable to see the differences between the EU and China, especially the maturity and style of the regulations, regulatory organizations, plans to cope with climate change and of course the impact of these regulations on the competitiveness of the steel industry. It is quite interesting how the Chinese are combining greening and the consolidation of this industry sector. The EU remains at the forefront of tackling climate change and is doing tremendous efforts to reduce pollution and GHG emissions, often at the expense of the European steel producers. In order to develop a “sustainable” industrial activity on a global scale like the steel industry, serious questions have been raised on how this international business should be organised and how an equal playing field between regions, continents or nations should be acquired.


The public is in for a big showdown between two of the biggest tech companies currently in the market. But while most have an eye out for the Galaxy S8 and the iPhone 8 - which should be good because of retribution and a ten year anniversary, respectively - Samsung and Apple are about to release other notable items. The Galaxy Tab S3 and the iPad Air 3 are going to be two of 2017's biggest releases.
TechRadar notes that Samsung has already confirmed that it will unveil the Galaxy Tab S3 in September this year. However, the specific date and corresponding release to the market is still unknown. In the case of the current Galaxy Tab S2, the tablet was announced July 2015 and released September 2015. So its successor might arrive just before the end of the year.
There is not much else confirmed other than a vague announcement date. Nevertheless, the publication points out that a leaked photo of the Galaxy Tab S3 indicates relatively the same design. That is a 4:3 ration, a home button on the front of the screen and a plastic back. The photos were only of one size, but the unit is expected to come in an 8 inch and 9.7-inch variants.
The other rumored specs of the Galaxy Tab S3 are pretty exciting in themselves. The tablet will apparently come with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 653 processor and a 4000 mAh battery. Furthermore, the device will run on 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. Front and rear cameras are expected to hit at least 2 megapixels and 8 megapixels respectively.
The lowest end of the Galaxy Tab S2 is available for about US$399 for the 8-inch variant and about US$499 for the 9.7-inch variant. The Galaxy Tab S3 has no pricing at this point, but at least the same price range is expected. It might even be slightly more expensive, but the jump - should there be one - is not expected to be overwhelming.
Meanwhile, Apple is reportedly working on the third generation of the iPad Air. The Cupertino giant has yet to officially announce the same, but the current generation was released in October 2014. As such, various reports suggest that the next helping of the lineup will be released within the year.
According to IBTimes AU, the iPad Air 3 will arrive in March 2017 in a thinner and lighter body than the current generation. The sleeker design will apparently make it more comfortable to hold and additional color options will be provided as well. But more than the physical and aesthetic changes, Apple is expected to make some necessary alterations to the features as well.
The publication goes on to say that the iPad Air 3 might sport some of the features of the iPhone 7 Plus, particularly the dual lens camera. Other than this, an HD 4K display and 3D Touch technology are also possibilities. In addition, 16GB and 32GB storage memory will be provided. Price is expected to reach about US$610. However, should Apple release the same, it might be the last one in the Air lineup.


Originally published: July 29, 2014
Last updated: July 29, 2014 - 7:46pm
[Commentary] In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt launched the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the Rural Electrification Administration, among a number of other offices meant to provide power to those who'd been passed over by the privately owned utilities because those areas weren't as profitable.
TVA in particular worked with cities like Chattanooga to provide affordable energy. To supporters of publicly owned broadband networks, the TVA's circumvention of commercially owned electric utilities to support public utility projects helps justify the rise of municipal Internet today -- despite the protests of incumbents both then and now.
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After the European summit of 18-19 October a two-folded conclusion can be drawn: the European banking union has been put forward and nations’ interests still diverge. After a night of discussion, as usual at these summit, European leaders agreed to establish a banking supervisor for the eurozone, the first pillar of a concrete banking union (the others are a centralized management for crisis and a banks recapitalisation system), at the latest by the end of 2013. “Member States would aim to agree on a legal framework by 1 January 2013”, this is the wording of the official final agreement.
The EU’s view is that a sound banking union is fundamental to achieving the economic and monetary union that can remedy the current crisis. According to the European Commission’s original proposal, the banking supervisor would watch over all 6,000 banks in Europe by the end of 2013 allowing the European Central Bank (ECB), which has supervisory powers, to intervene in the event of crisis or potential default. Thanks to the European supervisor, the ECB would not only be allowed to shut down a hazardous bank but to grant funds via the new established European Stability Mechanism (ESM).
At their traditional post-summit press conference, European Commission president José Manuel Barroso and European Council president Herman Van Rompuy stressed that “the urgent element now is setting up a single supervisory mechanism to prevent banking risks and cross-border contagion from emerging”. At present, the ESM is completely useless as the primary calm down effect on the markets is over.
Nevertheless here it comes the bad news. Once again Member States disagreed on how the supervision should take place and, last but not least, on the timing of it. Germany succeeded in stopping the direct recapitalisation of banks in trouble without a complete supervision mechanism in force. Hidden behind the boutade of stronger central powers for the European Commission to veto national budgets, German Chancellor Angela Merkel obtained what she really wanted: no immediate help for Greek and Spanish banks. Even though the agreement of the central supervisor is without any doubt a step forward a more integrated monetary union, its timing lacks of ambition. For this reason, France and Spain pushed for the supervisor to be in place by the end of the year, but Mrs Merkel judged this option to be “technically impossible”.
Moreover, Germany pointed out that “banks must be supervised in a differential way” as Berlin see all 6,000 banks being under the EU control as “unrealistic”. To be honest, Mrs Merkel should have said “envisageable” as what Germany really seeks is to avoidhaving all of its banks supervised by Brussels. In his regard, French president François Hollande, after a volcanic arrival at the summit (when he made clear that there were no room for discussion on a EU veto on national budgets), stated that the EU should start supervising the banks receiving state aid before moving on to larger cross-border institutions. In this regard, most day-to-day oversight would be delegated to national bodies.
Mr Hollande added that the new system needs “a council of the eurozone to meet on a regular basis” and “different speeds agreed by everyone”. In other words, this proposal means that European Financial Ministers should meet more often and have more control on the bank situation, even though the supervision system has been studied, draft and put in place by the European institutions. Once again La Republique française tries to assure a primal role in driving the future of Europe by switching the control of the future banking union from the EU to Ecofin, the meeting of European Finance Ministers.
A final proposal for the bank supervisory mechanism is due to be agreed by the end of the year. Let’s see what is next.


text:
The reader understands the organization and function of the respiratory control system.
- Describes the general organization of the respiratory control system.
- Localizes the centers that generate the spontaneous rhythmicity of breathing.
- Describes the groups of neurons that effect inspiration and expiration.
- Describes the other centers in the brainstem that may influence the spontaneous rhythmicity of breathing.
- Lists the cardiopulmonary and other reflexes that influence the breathing pattern.
- States the ability of the brain cortex to override the normal pattern of inspiration and expiration temporarily.
- Describes the effects of alterations in body oxygen, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen ion levels on the control of breathing.
- Describes the sensors of the respiratory system for oxygen, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen ion concentration.
Breathing is spontaneously initiated in the central nervous system. A cycle of inspiration and expiration is automatically
generated by neurons located in the brainstem; in eupneic states, breathing occurs without a conscious initiation of inspiration and expiration. Normal individuals do not have to worry about forgetting to breathe while they sleep.
This spontaneously generated cycle of inspiration and expiration can be modified, altered, or even temporarily suppressed by a number of mechanisms. As shown in Figure 9–1, these include reflexes arising in the lungs, the airways, and the cardiovascular system; information from receptors in contact with the cerebrospinal fluid; and commands from higher centers of the brain such as the hypothalamus, the centers of speech, or other areas in the cortex. The centers that are responsible for the generation of the spontaneous rhythmicity of inspiration and expiration are, therefore, able to alter their activity to meet the increased metabolic demand on the respiratory system during exercise or may even be temporarily superseded or suppressed during speech or breath holding.
Figure 9–1.Graphic Jump Location
Schematic representation of the organization of the respiratory control system. A cycle of inspiration and expiration is automatically established in the medullary respiratory center. Its output represents a final common pathway to the respiratory muscles, except for some voluntary pathways that may go directly from higher centers to the respiratory muscles (dashed line). Reflex responses from chemoreceptors and other sensors may modify the cycle of inspiration and expiration established by the medullary respiratory center.
The output of the respiratory control centers in the brainstem controls breathing via a “final common pathway” consisting of the spinal cord, the innervation of the muscles of respiration such as the phrenic nerves, and the muscles of respiration themselves. Alveolar ventilation is therefore determined by the interval between successive groups of discharges of the respiratory neurons and the innervation of the muscles of respiration, which determines the respiratory rate or breathing frequency, and by the frequency of neural discharges transmitted by individual nerve fibers to their motor units, the duration of these discharges, and the number of motor units activated during each inspiration or expiration, which determine ...

domain: medical