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Two years ago, Nancy Moran moved from Yale University to the University of Texas, Austin, along with 120,000 bees. Bees are famous for living in large social groups, but Moran was interested in more than just the hive: She’s delving into the diverse ecosystem of bacteria that evolved along with the bees, a group that contributes to the health of hives and their resilience to infection.
Bees and their microbiota are just one example of symbiosis — a close relationship between two species that typically helps both. Symbiosis can take a variety of forms. Cleaner fish scour dead skin from other fish and gain a meal in the process. The myriad microbes that live within our guts help us digest certain foods.
But much of Moran’s work has focused on a deeper kind of partnership, one involving microbes known as endosymbionts that are passed from their host to its offspring. With her collaborator Paul Baumann, a bacteriologist at the University of California, Davis, Moran uncovered the tightly interwoven nature of these host-microbe relationships. Many pairs have become completely dependent on each other, some even swapping genes. Her research centered largely on aphids, sap-feeding insects that infest plants. The aphids can’t survive without a microbe called Buchnera aphidicola, which lives within the insect and provides it with essential nutrients.
Moran is now doing similar work with bees, and her research could eventually help scientists understand colony collapse disorder, the mysterious plague devastating honeybee populations. Moran hopes an evolutionary biologist’s perspective will also provide important insight into the workings of the human microbiome — the collection of microbes that live on and inside us — which has become a hot topic in human health.
Quanta Magazine spoke with Moran in July at the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution conference in Vienna, where she presented her latest research on bees. An edited and condensed version of the interview follows.
Continue reading article – HERE


Palm Beach Post
August 20, 2013
As Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives struggle to reach positions on immigration reform, some observers say that before the debate is over, Democrats also may have to make difficult decisions about the fates of 11 million people who entered the country illegally.
The Democrat-controlled Senate, with the help of 13 Republicans, passed a bill in July that calls for a path to citizenship for those millions.
Read more: GOP-palatable immigration...


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More than 850,000 people have seen “Star Trek: Horizon,” the fan-film that continues the story started by “Star Trek: Enterprise.” And now those fans (and even new ones) have a chance to see a little behind behind the scenes.
Producer Tommy Kraft has released some of the bloopers and other outtakes from the film, which launched online in February. The overall production cost less than $50,000, and most of the settings used were virtually created using computer-generated images. That can be seen in these clips, where just about everything has a green screen backdrop — where the visual effects will be added later.
So what happened while Kraft filmed “Horizon”? Get your behind-the-scenes look here …
Composer makes stop at historic landmark July 8-9
Documentary from Adam Nimoy expects to debut this weekend
Fan-film shows some of its behind-the-scenes antics
Hear Michael Giacchino’s theme on the ivories
Sega actually produced a Star Trek game for the Atari in 1983. Really.
Auralnauts mix the latest movie with classic ‘Star Trek’
William Shatner once guested on Shandling’s ‘Larry Sanders Show’
New video explores the two fandoms, and why you enjoy both if you want
Can he give the quesalupa the boost the restaurant chain needs?
Bit of an oldie, but still a goodie flashing back to Gangnam style
See what Vic Mignogna was doing long before ‘Star Trek Continues’
A mall was the scene of this 1976 gathering that featured Leonard Nimoy, James Doohan

domain: artistic


Indexed on: 10 Aug '19Published on: 09 Aug '19Published in: ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
Large-scale industrial application of flexible device has called for development of transfer methods that deliver high yield and stability. Here, we show an ultrafast and chemically stable transfer method by using a water-soluble NaCl sacrificial layer. Extremely thin (10 nm) and large-area (4 in. wafer) free-standing Au nanomembranes (NMs) prepared on silicon substrate were successfully transferred to flexible PDMS substrate by dissolving the NaCl sacrificial layer. This transfer method enables highly transparent and electrically conductive Au NMs on PDMS substrate. To transfer a multilayered optoelectronic device, we fabricated flexible hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cell on a glass substrate and transferred it to a PDMS substrate. There was no degradation of the electrical characteristic of the solar cell after the transfer. This approach enables the integration of high-temperature-processed a-Si:H solar cell onto low-temperature tolerant flexible polymer substrate without chemical contamination or damage.


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Construction has started on James City County's first affordable apartment complex for seniors, kicking off a timeline that could have residents moving into the much-needed units by fall 2008.
Parker View Senior Apartments, a total of 67 rental units in the Ironbound Square area across the street from New Town, will be available for occupants 62 years old or older and with a combined income not above 50 percent of the area median income.
The income limits for 2007 are $22,450 for an individual and $25,650 for a couple.
In 2004, the nonprofit Bay Aging of Urbanna won a $5.77 million federal housing grant to build the three-story complex in a partnership with the county, the Peninsula Agency on Aging and the Williamsburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
County supervisors also voted to accept a $300,000 grant contract from a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development program in December 2005 to pay for drainage work outside the apartments.
Though the apartments will be open to any takers, officials expect most residents to come from the Williamsburg area. Rent will be charged as 30 percent of the occupants' income, minus a utility allowance and deductions for out-of-pocket medical expenses.
Bay Aging, a nonprofit that aims to help senior citizens remain independent, will own and manage the apartments. In addition to other services provided to the elderly, Bay Aging has developed and managed residential units from Gloucester to Colonial Beach.
Affordable housing for James City County's senior citizens is in desperate need due to twin trends of escalating housing rents and costs, and ballooning growth in the county's elderly population.
Applications to rent units in Parker View will be available next summer. For more information, call Bay Aging at 804-758-2386 or e-mail Joshua Gemerek, a Bay Aging senior vice president, at email@example.com.
Those who apply to live in Parker View will undergo a screening process, including income and criminal background checks.

domain: economics


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NZH An outstanding companion for all vegetables especially tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and potatoes. A bush type marigold also known as French marigold with gorgeous orange and deep red single flowers. The scent from plant and root matter is said to deter several insect pests including whitefly and nematodes simultaneously accumulating phosphorus in the soil. Interplant in the vegetable garden to attract pollinators. Annual, height to 40cm, frost tender.
Sow in Spring or Late Summer for continuous colour in the garden. Direct scatter sow in borders and rows, or sow into trays and prick out to 4cm diagonal spacing when true leaves appear. Transplant out to 30cm diagonal spacing in fertile soil. This seed is hard to process and we include lots because some of the seeds will be immature. Sow thickly for best results.

domain: biology


Britain reconsiders due to energy crisis
“We did not expect to stand here again against the Fracking. New road.
Barbara Richardson is particularly surprised that she could not believe this topic was back on the table. “Why do they want to do this?” She asks loudly. “It’s not climatic. And they know the residents here are strongly opposed to the drill. How do they get it?”
Shale case drilling is highly controversial in the North English region. The well in Lancashire has been the subject of fierce protests for years by locals and activists. The site was closed after the 2019 earthquake. But the cement did not come to permanently close the well of the research firm Quadrila. Now, in the midst of the energy crisis, the British House of Commons is once again talking about shale gas drilling.
Shale gas is extracted by breaking up deep underground rock layers with water, sand and chemicals. According to protesters, it pollutes and leads to earthquakes. But supporters point to Fracking’s success in shale gas extraction in the United States, sparking a real energy revolution. Thanks to the domestic extraction of gas there, energy tariffs for Americans are much lower.
The United Kingdom could have experienced a similar shale gas revolution if drilling had continued, some scientists say. The British Geological Survey estimates that the county’s soil contains about 36 trillion cubic meters of natural gas (36,000 billion cubic meters). Only 10 percent of that will be needed to keep the whole country warm for the next 50 years.
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US denies submarine was in Russian waters as Moscow claims
A U.S. Navy spokesperson said there was no contact of any kind between the Russian ship and the U.S. submarine
The United States denied Moscow’s claim Saturday that an American submarine was conducting operations in Russian territorial waters, breaking international law as tensions are high amid a possible invasion of Ukraine.
“There is no truth to the Russian claims of our operations in their territorial waters,” U.S. Navy Capt. Kyle Raines, a spokesperson for the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said, according to Reuters. “I will not comment on the precise location of our submarines but we do fly, sail, and operate safely in international waters.”
Vladimir Putin’s government claimed the submarine ignored commands from the Russian navy via sonar to surface near the Kuril Islands in the Pacific Ocean early Saturday, forcing it to chase the U.S. vessel away using unnamed “appropriate means,” the Navy Times reported.
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ALTOONA, Pa. — Penn State Altoona will offer a presentation by Odell Bizzell at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 1, in the Pond View Lounge of the Slep Student Center. Bizzell’s presentation is part of the college’s commemoration of Black History Month.
Bizzell is a podcast host, trained facilitator, entrepreneur, and author. His presentation, “What Would Dr. King and Malcolm X Teach Today’s Leaders?” offers three pieces of generational changing advice for people that care about diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The presentation is sponsored by Penn State Altoona’s Office of Student Diversity and Inclusion Programming.


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Embark on the Royal Caribbean Independence of the Seas and get ready for three days of leisurely travel across the sea from Port Canaveral and back!
This sailing is particularly interesting because you will only spend time in rare cities such as CocoCay. This route is a common one for the Independence of the Seas.
The price is the total you pay for an outside cabin, no surprises. Coming in at less than $175 a day for an outside cabin, this represents a bargain. This cruise is an especially good deal because today you can book a window outside room for the price of an interior outside room!
The Independence of the Seas, based in Port Canaveral and refurbished only four years ago in 2018, is a highly-rated Freedom class ship that can house over 3,800 people.
The Royal Caribbean Independence of the Seas is home to several of Royal Caribbean's exclusive amenities such as the Flowrider artificial surf wave, an escape room, and a boxing ring. On top of that, experience rare features like the, a roller skating rink, an ice skating rink, and a trampoline park.
The Independence of the Seas also offers seven jacuzzis, a minigolf course, an outdoor movie theater, a basketball court, a casino, a solarium, a gym, three pools, a waterslide, a ping pong table, and a spa.
The accompanying graph indicates the price over time for all types of cabin. Since it was first listed on February 24th of last year, The price of an outside stateroom on this sailing has varied between $374 and $602 inclusive of $101 in taxes and port charges.
|$173.33 per day||$173.33 per day||$229.67 per day||$309.67 per day|
|Book Now||Book Now||Book Now||Book Now|
This sailing spends zero sea days and two days in port. High points include visits to very uncommon destinations like CocoCay.
|Fri, Jul 22||Port Canaveral, FL||4:00pm|
|Sat, Jul 23||CocoCay, Bahamas||7:00am||5:00pm|
|Sun, Jul 24||Nassau, Bahamas||7:00am||3:00pm|
|Mon, Jul 25||Port Canaveral, FL||7:00am|
The Independence of the Seas sails this route three times this year in addition to eight times next year. The Mariner of the Seas and Allure of the Seas also sail routes with the same stops but slightly different schedules. In the accompanying graphic you can see a visualization of when this ship sails as well as the relative price for an outside cabin.

domain: geography


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The future of the pharma industry increasingly lies in drugs for diseases with smaller patient populations, and those targeted more precisely at specific patient sub-populations. Many of the new chemical entities approved in 2011 were targeted at cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, as well as bacterial and viral infections
Last year saw an increase in approval of agents for the treatment of cancers, while new diabetic and infectious disease therapies were also approved. Dr Sarah Houlton looks at 2011’s new chemical entities.
With the days of the big blockbuster drug largely coming to an end, the future of the pharma industry increasingly lies in drugs for diseases with smaller patient populations, and those targeted more precisely at specific patient sub-populations. Many big therapeutic areas are now well-served by effective generics – especially with the expiry of patents on some of the biggest selling drugs like atorvastatin (Lipitor) and clopidogrel (Plavix) – but there is still potential for new medicines in many well-served areas if safer, more effective drugs that act at novel targets can be discovered. Many of the drugs that were approved in 2011 fit squarely into these categories.
As has become the norm, a significant proportion of the new drugs given the green light by EMA last year were for treating various forms of cancer. Melanoma is a particularly difficult form of cancer to treat, because it is aggressive and prone to metastasising before it is spotted. Two new drugs to treat it were approved – Roche’s vemurafenib (Zelboraf) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) from Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Vemurafenib fits directly into the personalised medicine category – it is a protein kinase inhibitor that acts at the BRAF serine-threonine kinase with a mutation at position 600, otherwise known as BRAF V600E. This mutation gives constitutively activated BRAF proteins, which can result in cell proliferation in the absence of those growth factors that would normally be required. It has been approved as monotherapy for melanoma patients with this mutation whose melanoma is unresectable or metastatic – in the absence of the mutation it appears the drug may actually promote tumour growth instead of inhibit it.
The other new melanoma drug, ipilimumab, is a fully human immunoglobulin G1 monoclonal antibody that binds to cytotoxic T-lymphocyte associated antigen 4. This cell-surface molecule is thought to be important in regulating immune responses, and by blocking its activity it gives a sustained active response when attacking cancer cells. Again, it is approved for use in pre-treated metastatic or unresectable melanoma.
A new drug to treat prostate cancer, abiraterone (Zytiga), originated in the labs at Cancer Research UK, was commercialised by BTG and licensed to Cougar Biotechnology, which was then acquired by Johnson & Johnson. It inhibits the enzyme 17 a-hydroxylase C17,20 lyase, or CYP17A1, which is expressed in prostate, adrenal and testicular tumours. It catalyses two reactions involved in the synthesis of dehydroepiandrosterone and androstenedione, both of which are androgen precursors of testosterone. Inhibiting this activity thus reduces the level of circulating testosterone. It has been licensed for use in combination with prednisone or prednisolone in metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer in men whose disease has progressed despite being given docetaxel therapy. It was given accelerated approval because of the poor prognosis of the target patient population.
Cabazitaxel (Jevtana) from Sanofi is also designed for patients with hormone refractory metastatic prostate cancer who have been pretreated with docetaxel. The semi-synthetic taxol derivative is, like its parent, a microtubule inhibitor, and again is designed to be given in combination with prednisone or prednisolone.
Another complex natural product-derived molecule, Eisai’s eribulin (Havalin) has been approved to treat breast cancer. It is a fully synthetic macrocyclic ketone analogue of halichondrin B, a molecule first extracted from a marine sponge. It is another form of microtubule inhibitor, and largely binds to high affinity sites at the ends of existing microtubules, rather than preventing them from forming in the first place. This has the effect of blocking mitosis, thus leading to cancer cell death. It has been recommended for use in patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer whose disease has progressed after at least two previous chemotherapy regimens.
A lot of the targets being investigated in cancer are kinases, as they are well understood, and many play roles in the growth and propagation of tumours. Vandetanib (Caprelsa) from AstraZeneca inhibits two of the most common protein kinase targets – vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). It is also active against the rearranged during transfection, or RET, tyrosine kinase proto-oncogene. In trials, it improved progression-free survival in patients with aggressive and symptomatic medullary thyroid cancer, whose disease was unresectable and either locally advanced or metastatic. This is the first drug on the market designed to treat this form of cancer.
Type II diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions in the developed world, thanks to poor diets and unhealthy lifestyles, and new drugs are still very much needed to treat it as many of the current therapy options have undesirable side-effects, or are not sufficiently effective in the long term.
Two new antidiabetics were approved last year. The first of these, Boehringer Ingelheim’s linagliptin (Trajenta), is an inhibitor of dipeptidyl peptidase IV, or DPP-4 (Scheme 4). It joins three other DPP-4 inhibitors – sitagliptin, vildagliptin and saxagliptin – on the market. Like its rivals, it inhibits this enzyme which degrades the incretin hormones glucagon-like peptide
(GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP). These enzymes increase the biosynthesis and secretion of insulin from pancreatic beta cells in the presence of both normal and elevated glucose levels, and thus by blocking their degradation the release of insulin is encouraged in a glucose-dependent way.
The second novel Type II diabetes treatment is actually a new formulation of an old molecule but, interestingly, it gives a once-weekly treatment option. Byudureon from Amylin and Eli Lilly contains exenatide, the active in Byetta. The peptide hormone was originally isolated from the saliva of the Gila monster, a poisonous lizard from Mexico. To create the long-lasting drug, it was formulated using technology from Alkermes. It is a GLP-1 receptor agonist, thus mimicking the effect of the natural hormone that induces insulin production. Trials showed that this once-weekly formulation gave better results than the twice-daily oral form of the drug.
Despite many cheap options being available for the treatment of hypertension, a new one was approved last year – azilsartan medoxomil (Ipreziv and Edarbi) from Takeda, joining a class in which there are already half a dozen drugs on the market. It is an angiotensin II receptor agonist, and by both potently and selectively blocking this receptor it inhibits the renin – angiotensin – aldosterone system, thus reducing blood pressure.
Clotting is a real problem during elective joint replacement surgery, and thus it is routine to administer an anticlotting drug. In the past, this would probably have been an injectable heparin such as enoxaparin, but now oral therapies are
beginning to become available and another of these was approved last year – apixaban (Eliquis) from Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer. The compound is a direct factor Xa inhibitor, and is indicated for the prevention of venous thromboembolic events in adult patients who have undergone elective hip or knee replacement surgery.
Some therapeutic areas are very underserved by drug treatment, and GlaxoSmithKline’s belimumab (Benlysta) reached the market for one of these – systemic lupus erythmatosis. The drug was developed by Human Genome Scientists from antibodies provided by Cambridge Antibody Technology, and commercialised by GSK. The antibody acts against B-lymphocyte stimulator, a protein that is believed to increase the production of cells that attack healthy tissue, and which is present in elevated levels in patients suffering from lupus. Previous therapies have relied on preventing lupus flare-ups, as the cause of the disease remains unknown, rendering it difficult to identify a target. This is the first new licensed drug for lupus for more than half a century.
Another disease where treatment options are severely limited is multiple sclerosis, and fingolimod (Gilenya) from Novartis is the first orally available drug for the disease. Licensed for the treatment of patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis with high disease activity, it is a sphingosine 1-phosphate receptor modulator, and works by sequestering lymphocytes in the lymph nodes. This has the effect of preventing them from having an autoimmune effect. The starting point for the medicinal chemistry was the immuno-suppressive natural product myriocin, which was isolated from a fermentation broth of the fungus Isaria sinclairii that is used in traditional Chinese medicine.
A novel antiepileptic was also approved. Retigabine (Trobalt) from Valeant Pharmaceuticals and GlaxoSmithKline is an anticonvulsant licensed as an adjunctive treatment for partial onset seizures in adults with epilepsy. Its activity largely derives from its ability to open voltage gated potassium channels in the brain, the first antiepileptic medicine to work via this mechanism.
In the area of infectious diseases there were several new entrants, two of them designed to treat bacterial infections. The first of these, fidaxomicin (Dificlir) from FGK and Optimer Pharmaceuticals, has been shown to eradicate pathogenic Clostridium difficile – one of the bacteria that has recently been causing real problems in a hospital setting due to resistance (Scheme 6). It is the first in a new class of narrow-spectrum macrocyclic antibiotics, and is a fermentation product produced by the actinomycete Dactilo-sporangium aurantiacum. As a non-systemic antibiotic, it is only minimally absorbed into the bloodstream, and it has a limited effect on the microflora in the gut, which may reduce the likelihood of the C. diff infection returning. It is bactericidal and acts by inhibiting RNA synthesis by bacterial RNA polymerase, but importantly for treating resistant bacteria, it acts at a different site on the polymerase than the rifamycins.
The second new antibacterial agent, Astellas’s telavancin (Vibativ), was approved to treat nosocomial pneumonia that is either known or suspected to have been caused by methicillin-resistant Streptococcus aureus, or MRSA. The drug is a synthetic derivative of vancomycin, and thus inhibits bacterial cell wall synthesis in Gram positive bacteria. It is already approved in the US for treatment of complicated skin and skin structure infections, but has not been given this indication in Europe in the first instance. Limiting the application of the drug in this way may prolong its MRSA activity in a hospital setting.
Two new antiviral agents for use in hepatitis C were also approved, and in quick succession. Both boceprevir (Victrelis) from Merck Sharp & Dohme and telaprevir (Incivo) from Janssen-Cilag and Vertex are licensed for use in patients with genotype 1 hepatitis C infection and compensated liver disease, and they are to be given in combination with the standard therapy of interferon and ribavirin.
They can be used either in treatment-naïve patients or those who have previously failed standard therapy. Both drugs are protease inhibitors that bind to the non-structural 3, or NS3, active site on the virus. By directly inhibiting viral replication in infected host cells, administering these drugs can lead to the eradication of the virus in patients with chronic hepatitis C infection.
Combination therapy has become a cornerstone of the treatment of HIV, and another such drug has been approved from Gilead. Eviplera combines three antiviral agents – the nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil, and the second generation non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor rilpivirine. While all these agents have previously been approved, this new combination is licensed for treatment-naïve patients, and by combining the actives into one pill it should improve compliance.
Another new combination, this time for malaria, is Eurartesim from Sigma-tau, which incorporates dihydroartemisinin and piperaquine phosphate into one pill. Surprisingly, this is the first antimalarial medicine to be approved by EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use, and it is designed for the treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria.
Introducing combination therapies has been a real trend in the pharma market in recent years. Not only can it improve patient compliance, but there is also a commercial driver – by combining two molecules into one pill it can extend the patent life of older molecules, with patients being transferred to the combination rather than taking older single agent pills that may already be off patent.
Combinations are particularly popular in the area of cardiovascular and metabolic disease treatment. Rasitrio from Novartis, for example, was approved, which contains its renin inhibitor aliskiren with Pfizer’s off-patent calcium channel blocker amlodipine and the old diuretic hydrochlorothiazide. The medication has the effect of lowering the blood pressure via three different pathways. Similarly, a second combination from Novartis, Rasiamlo, combines the first two of these ingredients. Another cardiovascular combination, Pravafenix from Laboratoires SMB, combines the cholesterol lowering drug pravastatin with the older lipid reducing drug fenofibrate.
A further combination product, Komboglyze, has been licensed by Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca, and combines the DPP-4 inhibitor saxagliptin and the older antihyperglycaemic drug metformin, which is thought to act by decreasing hepatic glucose production, reducing intestinal absorption of glucose and improving insulin sensitivity. It is designed for patients whose glucose levels are not being sufficiently well controlled by metformin alone.
At the other end of the spectrum from these well-known actives finding new formulations is tafamidis (Vyndaqel) from Pfizer, which has been given approval despite a lack of comprehensive evidence on the medicine’s efficacy and safety. The agency decided that it was worth the risk as it is the first oral drug for treating transthyretin amyloidosis in patients with symptomatic polyneuropathy – a severe and progressive orphan disease.
First discovered in the labs of the Scripps Institute and developed by FoldRx, a biotech company that was acquired by Pfizer in 2010, the drug works by kinetically stabilising the correctly folded tetrameric form of the protein transthyretin. In patients with this disease, the protein dissociates and aggregates into amyloid fibrils, leading to failure of the autonomic or peripheral nervous system and, ultimately, heart failure. Tafamidis slows the fibril formation process, and thus may have a positive effect in patients with this severe and otherwise untreatable disease.
Diabetes is achieveing epidemic status: two new antidiabetics were approved last year: one of these was linagliptin (Trajenta) from Boehringer Ingelheim
Image: Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH

domain: chemistry


Crews install first of Seattle's 'smart' parking meters
SDOT promises dynamic time-of-day rates and faster credit card transactions with new machines
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The city Department of Transportation installed the first of Seattle's new "smart" parking meters Monday in an effort to improve motorists' experience with the city's pay stations.
The first stations were installed on Occidental Way South near CenturyLink Field. The city will roll out the meters by neighborhood through 2016.


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The Humber River Hospital is one of Canada’s largest regional acute care hospitals, serving a catchment area of more than 850,000 people in the northwest Greater Toronto area. The hospital currently operates on three sites with a total of 656 beds, 3,300 staff, approximately 700 physicians and 400 volunteers and have worked with Modulex on the wayfinding and signage installation project.
Hospitals have very specific requirements in terms of wayfinding with intense demands for supporting a diverse range of users. The employees group is large with over 4,000 staff and complex including doctors, nursing staff, transport staff and cleaning staff whilst the composition of the visitor group is also varied including both visitors and patients typically from a wide social background and age group. This broad spectrum of users puts heavy demands on the wayfinding system.
The resulting wayfinding program needed to balance both static and digital elements which work in collaboration to guide patients and visitors around the extensive site. Modulex were brought in as wayfinding consultants at the initial stages and have worked with Humber River Hospital on the implementation of the signage and wayfinding products including exterior and interior products.

domain: medical


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Researchers have uncovered the mechanism by which certain skin rejuvenation techniques work.
Ineffective recipes for homemade sunscreens are being praised on social media platforms such as Pinterest, according to a new study. A study published online ahead of print in the journal Health Communication (May 21, 2019), investigated how homemade sunscreens were marketed, shared, and portrayed on Pinterest.
Women pay more than men for the same facial moisturizer products according to a new study published online ahead of print in the in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology (April 15, 2019). In investigating the products sold by these retailers, researchers looked for marketing cues such as language, graphical design, and container shape to determine if products were priced differently based on which gender they were geared toward.
With gardening season fast approaching, the American Academy of Dermatology has released a list of 7 tips for avoiding skin problems while working with plants.
Atopic dermatitis can have a negative effect on sleep quality in children. Though pruritus can be worse at night, scratching episodes accounted for less than a quarter of nighttime disruptions. This has lead researchers to conclude that nighttime scratching is not the only factor in sleep
A medication used to treat tyrosinemia has been shown to increase melanin production in some people with oculocutaneous albinism type 1B. By increasing melanin production, the medication, nitisinone, could help protect people with albinism against UV rays and help improve their vision, which can also be affected by the condition.
Skin cancer patients with a history of smoking have a significantly lower survival rate than skin cancer patients who do not smoke. Smoking cigarettes decreases survival rate in melanoma patients by 40 per cent according to a new study published by the medical journal Cancer Research (Feb. 17, 2019).


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Choose Between Two Options
- $39 for $60 worth of steak, seafood, and American fare for two
- $75 for $120 worth of steak, seafood, and American fare for four or more
Chefs sear bacon-wrapped filets, blackened salmon with cucumber dill sauce, and chicken breast encrusted with parmesan. See the full menu here.
Cast Iron Steak House
Succulent aromas and a symphony of sizzling meat emerge from Cast Iron Steak House's kitchen, where bacon-wrapped filets and rib eye steaks sear inside of cast-iron skillets. For each of these steakhouse favorites, the staff personally cuts and rubs aged USDA beef in-house. Though it's their specialty, the team's expertise extends beyond steaks, as they offer a variety of chicken and fish entrees. A side dish and salad accompany most main course menu selections.

domain: food


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Shrimp is a great food to include in your diet. It’s not only high in protein but also low in calories, carbs, and fat. Three ounces (85 grams) of shrimp contain 12 grams of protein and only 60 calories ( 11 ). Shrimp is rich in selenium, choline, and vitamin B12.
Category: What is the healthiest steak?
Black Angus Steakhouse 18-Ounce Bone-In Ribeye It is, in fact, a 1,030 calorie steak with 750 calories from fat, 83 grams of fat (and 37 grams of saturated fat) plus 1,680 milligrams of sodium and 275 milligrams of cholesterol. 28 Sep 2022


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I’ve always been a fan of libraries. As a child, school holidays in the summer time meant keeping occupied, and keeping occupied meant either going to the beach, or visiting the library. As I’ve grown older, my love of visiting the library is still there, and one of the first things I did after moving to New York (and after exhausting myself by visiting every possible tourist trap) was to sign up at the library.
Linda Holmes’ NPR article gives us a few more reasons to love libraries and why she thinks they’re the next big pop-culture wave. But, with libraries starting to go bookless these days, do you agree they could still make a big come back? And if so, can you add to Linda Holmes’ list of reasons why?
PS: The Librarians Do Gaga video is mentioned in this article – if you haven’t seen it, check it out!

domain: library


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If you’ve been in the real estate industry for a while, then you’ve most likely heard of “Real Estate Comps.” If you haven’t heard of “Real Estate Comps,” then it’s time to get fully acquainted right now!
What you are about to learn in this article will teach you several different things, like how to find comps in your area or neighborhood, how to find comps without a realtor, how to look up comps online for free, and the Comp Criteria we use at Real Estate Skills. The Real Estate Skills Comp Criteria has been responsible for accurately analyzing property & generating millions in real estate investing profits for years.
By the end of this article, you’ll be able to find real estate comps to determine the value of any house, and you will fully understand the principles that the best real estate investors in the world use to determine home value estimates.
Whether you are a Real Estate Wholesaler, Fix & Flipper, Homeowner looking to sell your house, a Real Estate Investor honing your skills, or a Real Estate Agent looking to be sharper at comping properties, you will all find value in this article.
Let’s go over the comps definition for real estate. “Comps” is short for the word “comparables.” Real Estate Professionals use real estate comps to appropriately determine the current house value estimate of a property, and also the future house value estimate of a property.
Until recent years, we used to have to rely on Realtors & Appraisers to use real estate comps to determine the house value. Thanks to technology, we don’t need to necessarily use Realtors & Appraisers to determine the value of a house anymore.
Quick note: There are many words & phrases used for finding comps. We know how Real Estate Lingo can get confusing so in order to steer clear and not confuse you, let us point out the most common phrases used for finding real estate comps, that essentially, all mean the same thing.
These are the phrases that all real estate professionals use interchangeably for finding real estate comps (we’ll probably use a few of these different variations as you read through the article):
How to find real estate comps / finding real estate comps
How to get real estate comps / getting real estate comps
How to pull real estate comps / pulling real estate comps
How to run real estate comps / running real estate comps
How to look up real estate comps / looking up real estate comps
How to determine real estate comps / determining real estate comps
How to check for real estate comps / checking for real estate comps
How to calculate real estate comps / calculating real estate comps
How to read real estate comps / reading real estate comps
How to search real estate comps / searching real estate comps
All of these different keywords and phrases boil down to the same thing: using past historical sales data of real estate sales to determine the current or future value of a property.
House comps are used by anyone looking to determine the value of a new home. Real estate comps can be used by homeowners looking to estimate the value of their current residence to set the listing price in case they want to sell. Or they can also be used by home shoppers looking to determine whether the asking price of a home is fair.
Comps can also be used by real estate professionals, such as real estate agents, to help their clients determine a fair listing price or offer. Plus, they're even used in the actual home appraisal process to determine the exact value of a home.
Although an appraiser will rely on a more comprehensive array of factors other than just comps to determine an official value. But basically, anyone looking to get a fair estimate of the value of a particular home may use real estate comps to do so.
Finding real estate comps is not as complicated as you might think. There is plenty of data available that anyone can access to locate recent sales similar to the subject property. Here is a closer look at finding comps.
Finding real estate comps is as simple as looking for similar properties to your own that have recently been sold. You can find recently sold homes by looking on Zillow or referencing local property records to find similar sales in the area. Or, if you're working with a real estate agent, you can have them pull MLS comps for you.
Look for homes with a similar number of bedrooms, square feet, and lot size. Also, be sure you're looking at the same type of housing. So if you own a single-family home, don't look at townhouses and vice versa.
It may not be possible to find homes that are an exact match but look for three to five roughly similar properties and the final sales price. Then, divide that by the square footage of each home by the sales price to determine the general cost per square foot.
Then take the average price per square foot of each of the comps you pulled (if they are radically different, you may need to look at additional comps) and multiply it by the square footage of your own home. There are home value calculators available online to help you with this process. Doing so will give you an approximate valuation of your property based on the available market data.
You can also use a Realtor, Real Estate Agent, or Broker to find real estate comps for your subject property. Usually, the real estate professional will compile the comps into a data sheet called a "CMA."
CMA stands for Comparative Market Analysis. CMA's are commonly put together at no charge for homeowners who are using a Realtor's, Real Estate Agent's, or Broker's services for buying/selling a home.
There are 2 Main Ways to Find Comps For Real Estate Without A Realtor:
Let's dive into each one:
1. The MLS (Multiple Listing Service)
So, what’s the Multiple Listing Service? The Multiple Listing Service is the database of ALL houses on the market in your area! Not just active properties, but hoards of SOLD properties, which are comps that you need to determine the house value.
The MLS was created by real estate professionals in order to have a database of property values and to effectively show all the properties on the market.
The MLS in your area is accessible through an online database with usually 2 main ways to get access: 1) Being a licensed real estate agent/broker, or 2) Being an unlicensed real estate assistant.
The Pros of the MLS are that it's thorough & robust with real estate market data in your area, making it easy for getting real estate comps. The housing value market history goes back to when the MLS was created in your area, which for some regions is 10+ years. 10+ years of market data at your hands to help you in real estate analysis! I'm sure you're starting to realize how powerful the MLS can be for you & your real estate business...
The Cons are that the MLS is not easily accessible as other forms of getting comps. Also, it is not necessarily free. Typically, it costs about ~$25 a quarter (every 3 months) for unlicensed assistant access and can be more expensive than that if you are a licensed real estate agent or broker.
Here’s a great quote from Wikipedia on why the Multiple Listing Service is so powerful:
The MLS is KING when it comes to finding out information about a property because it has been updated for years by real estate professionals who are experts in your area on real estate valuations. By utilizing the MLS, you can look up past historical sales data to easily find comparable properties.
A lot of Multiple Listing Service systems have sophisticated tools for finding comps, such as search & filtering functionality, radius tools to easily look up comps around your subject property, and alerts to be notified if specific properties have any changes in value, sell, or get under contract.
Referring back to the quote from Wikipedia, typically public real estate websites try to pull & retrieve their information from the MLS to populate their websites. Once again, this is why the MLS is the best when it comes to finding comps because its data is the most complete when compared to public real estate websites which can have impartial information.
Even though public real estate websites like Redfin.com, Zillow.com, and Realtor.com may not have as much data as the MLS itself, the public real estate websites are easier to access than the MLS.
The Pros definitely outweigh the Cons with the MLS making it the best-paid way to find real estate comps online.
Let's dive into the other ways for finding real estate comps:
2. Public Real Estate Websites, such as:
These are public websites you can use to access historical sales data in your area/neighborhood and to look up real estate comps around your subject property. If you do not have access to the MLS in your area, then the websites listed above are phenomenal secondary resources for finding your comps!
(Here's an image of the search functionality for finding real estate comps using Zillow. Source: Zillow)
So, what's the role of an Appraiser? According to the Appraisal Institute:
An appraiser is a professional you can pay in order to get the current value of a real estate asset. Appraisers are commonly used by banks & lenders to find the value of a home in order to make an informed decision on whether or not they should lend on a property via a mortgage.
Thankfully, from reading this article, you now understand that you can use the MLS, or free real estate websites (like Zillow.com or Redfin.com above) to get an accurate value estimate without having to pay an appraiser.
First off, you may want to find real estate comps to determine your house market value in order to sell your house on the market for the best price possible. By finding real estate comps and getting comparables for your subject property, you will be able to determine how much it is worth on the current market today.
This is powerful because if someone gives you an offer on your property, you will be able to know if it is a good offer or not! No more guessing and crossing your fingers while hoping you have a good offer for your property!
Secondly, you can use real estate comps to find the FUTURE house market value of your property.
There are several different factors you should consider when pulling real estate comps. The main factors you should look at are the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, and lot size. However, that doesn't always tell the full story.
So, if you want to be as accurate as possible, you should also examine other factors that may impact home values which may differ from property to property.
For instance, how old is your home compared to the others, and what is the condition? You could have two homes on the same block that are roughly the same size and have the same number of bedrooms. But if one was built in 2010 and the other was built in 1970, the home prices would differ, especially if the latter is in worse condition.
Also, consider any additional features or upgrades that may make certain properties more or less desirable. For instance, if your home has a pool or an open-concept kitchen and the others don't, the value may be slightly higher than the others, even if they're roughly the same size.
Location is another critical factor that may impact the ultimate value. A home in New York will be worth far more than a similar home in Ohio. But the location also plays an essential factor even in the local market.
For instance, if one of the homes is in a different school district, it may affect the price. Or if the walkability of a particular neighborhood is better and it's close to shopping and local attractions, that could also impact the value.
Finally, also take into consideration the local housing market conditions. For instance, if it's a strong seller's market with a high demand for housing, your home may be worth slightly more now than it did six months ago.
Or if a particular neighborhood is especially desirable in the local market, it could drive up the price. That's why it's best to look for comps that sold recently and are as close to your home as possible geographically.
Great question! You want to determine the future value of your home for a couple of reasons. Let’s say you want to renovate your kitchen & bathrooms to sell your home at a higher price. Well, how do we get the home estimate of what your home will be in the future? By using real estate comps. You actually look at the renovated comparable properties in your area to determine what the future value will be!
If you ever wonder, "What adds value to my house?" Then, you can look at the renovated comparable properties around your house to see what the value-adds they have and the prices they sold at. From this little experiment, you are able to deduce which renovations can add value for the future price of your home/subject property.
For Real Estate Professionals (especially investors), the future value of a property once it has been renovated is usually called the “ARV.” ARV stands for “After-Repair-Value,” “After-Renovated-Value,” “After-Remodeled-Value,” or “After-Rehabbed-Value.” Once again, Real Estate Professionals use all of these words & phrases interchangeably!
Before we show you the Real Estate Skills Way for finding comps, let us make it absolutely clear that you DO NOT need a Realtor / Real Estate Agent to find real estate comps for you.
The best way to find comps is to run a search on the MLS. However, the database isn't open to the public. So, if you're listing the property as an FSBO, you may have to rely on Zillow and public records. But it's a fairly simple process if you're using an agent or somehow gain access to the MLS on your own.
The database should allow you to search for specific property types, including single-family homes, ownership types, school districts, etc. You can also narrow your search by inputting the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, and so on. Make sure to also look for closed or active sales.
Then you should be able to generate a map showing you all the nearby homes that have recently sold. Then, you can then use a tool to select the comps closest to your property and generate a report containing all the necessary data you need to determine a rough estimate of your home's value.
Let us show you an example of using the Real Estate Skills Comp Criteria for finding comps and determining the future value (ARV). This example will help you tremendously if you are a Real Estate Wholesaler, Fix & Flipper, or Homeowner who wants to add value to their home to sell it at a higher listing price in the future.
Let’s say your subject property you are analyzing is a 3 bed / 2 bath 1,200 sq. ft. property and you want to find the ARV (After-Repair-Value) to determine its future value.
Go into your MLS system, or use one of the free public real estate websites listed above, and look up the search criteria/function. From there, type in the address of your subject property and pull up a half-mile radius around the property.
Then, in the search criteria, modify the search so that you are only looking for SOLD properties within the past 6 months. We do not want to initially be looking at comparable properties that have sold outside of 6 months. This means if today is July 1st, 2018, we would only want to look at SOLD properties from January 1st, 2018 to July 1st, 2018.
In the search criteria, make sure the initial square footage you are looking for comparable properties is within +/-20% of the subject property. In this example, the subject property is 1,200 sq. ft. - this means you would only look for properties that have SOLD in the past 6 months between 1,000 sq. ft. & 1,400 sq.ft.
Additionally, you do not want to use comparables that have a different bed and bath count than your subject property. Since your subject property has 3 beds and 2 baths, you want to find comparable properties that are also 3 beds / 2 baths.
From there, you will now begin to see all of the "comparable" properties within a .5-mile radius around your subject property!
Now you use the comparable properties that have been renovated to current market trends to determine the future sales price of the home for your subject property for when it is renovated!
For example, from using the Real Estate Skills Comp Criteria, let's say you find a 1,112 sq. ft. 3 bed / 2 bath renovated home that sold at $390,000 two months ago on the same street as your subject property. And then, you also find a 1,300 sq. ft. 3 bed / 2 bath home that sold at $410,000 1 month ago on the same street as your subject property.
Now what you can do is take the average of those 2 comparable home sales and determine that your ARV will be right around $400,000 for your subject property once it has been renovated, given is the 1,200 sq. ft. 3 bed / 2 bath property used in the example!
And, there you have it! It is not much more complicated than that. What makes a true real estate professional who is great at using comps to determine a house value is someone who continually practices finding comps. You will get better and much quicker at analyzing property using this method over time. Once you have this skill honed, you will be able to quickly & accurately analyze the property for your company and clients.
We've been asked a lot to make a handout with the Real Estate Skills Comp Criteria, so we made it into a PDF just for you. Now you will always remember how to find real estate house comps in your area! You can download the Real Estate Skills Comp Criteria Cheatsheet for free here.
(The image above shows the search functionality and capabilities of MLS Services. The image shows the SOLD comparable properties within a .5 mile radius of the subject property.)
A common question that comes up when finding real estate comps is:
Here's what to do in this scenario:
Keep in mind that the less "comparable" a property is to your subject property in terms of square footage, location, bed/bath count, and features; the less it should be used as a completely accurate representation of the future value of your subject property!
A lot of real estate professionals wonder "How Do I Get Better At Finding Comps?" Our answer is that nothing replaces actually DOING THE WORK. You get better at finding accurate comps the more you use this method of finding comps. Over time, you will get a better eye for seeing why properties sell at certain prices and where your subject property will sell at!
Be sure to review the section above constantly for finding comps. The Real Estate Comp Criteria is the method that we & our clients and students use to accurately analyze the property to determine its current or future value.
So, maybe you've heard about real estate appraisers or realtors finding comps and have some questions about this, as well. Before we wrap up, let's get those questions answered!
There you have it! At Real Estate Skills, we commend you for reading the full article on Real Estate Comps: The (ULTIMATE) Guide.
You now know that you can find real estate comps for the current value, or future value, of a property for free!
The Real Estate Skills Comp Criteria listed above have been used to analyze property effectively for real estate investors, professionals, home buyers, & home sellers for years. We recommend you use the Real Estate Skills Comp Criteria for finding your real estate comps!
In fact, we made a PDF handout of the Real Estate Skills Comp Criteria so you can print it out, review it with your team, and keep it handy so you never forget it!
Click right here to download the Real Estate Skills Comp Criteria Cheatsheet!
In order to be notified for more insightful skills, how-to's, interviews, discussions, and tips, be sure to subscribe to our email list below. Don’t worry, we won’t spam you! We’ll just send real estate golden nuggets to help you develop the skills to achieve your financial goals through real estate.
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domain: finance


Elder Financial Abuse: Why Does it Happen, and How Can Credit Unions Spot It?
September 11, 2012
September 11, 2012
By Mary Sroufe, Attorney at Law
In 2010, more than one quarter of the vulnerable adult abuse complaints received by the Washington state attorney general were regarding financial abuse. It was the most reported form of vulnerable adult abuse.
Why does it happen? Simple: it is lucrative and relatively low-risk. In the U.S., people over the age of 50 control 70 percent of the wealth, and many of them do not know it. Many seniors bought their houses (or other assets) many years ago and are unaware of the appreciation these assets have undergone. This makes seniors an excellent target, simply for financial reasons.
In addition, seniors tend to be vulnerable, often depending on others for help with daily living—sometimes formally by hiring caregivers, but even more often informally by asking for help with errands, house maintenance, transportation and the like. Every one of these needs in an opportunity for an enterprising criminal to gain the trust of the senior or gain information necessary to perpetrate identity theft.
Advances in technology such as online banking have also made it much easier for a bad actor to gain access to funds not belonging to them, and technology has made it much more complicated for a senior member to manage his or her financial affairs. In today’s technology environment, a bad actor can gain access to a member’s online account, either through identity theft methods or by conning the member into grating access, and remove stunning amounts of money in the blink of an eye.
That covers why professionals perpetrate elder financial abuse, but sadly, this type of abuse is also committed by loved ones. Spouses, children, grandchildren and trusted friends have all been known to exploit senior members financially. Motivations range from needing money to support a drug habit to wanting to “protect” the inheritance of one family member over another.
The signs of financial abuse include sudden changes in legal documents granting access to the senior’s funds and transactions that are not in keeping with that member’s established patterns. Questionable transactions could be withdrawals to help people with stories that are too good to be true, loans for vehicles the member will never drive, ATM transactions at unusual locations for your member, and in-person transactions directed by another person when your member seems frightened or confused.
Credit unions should also be alert to changes in their member’s behavior, such as confusion, fear, or avoidance where the member previously did not seem confused, fearful or avoidant. Suspicious behavior in a party accompanying the member includes vague explanations for the transaction in question, aggressiveness when asked about the transaction, unwillingness to let the member speak for him or herself, and unwillingness to allow credit union staff to speak to the member alone.
Of course, credit union staff should use caution in evaluating a potential abuse situation. None of these signs in isolation is a positive indication of elder financial abuse. The credit union must consider the whole circumstances to make an accurate judgment. Every one of these suspicious circumstances can occur in a legitimate transaction.
Interested in Learning More?
All credit unions have members who are victims of elder abuse, but what is the credit union’s role? How can credit unions help their members while still staying within the boundaries of privacy and legality? Mary Sroufe, attorney at law and former director of compliance services for the Northwest Credit Union Association (NWCUA), will lead a breakout session at the NWCUA’s 2012 Convention and Annual Business Meeting entitled, “What You Need to Know about Elder Abuse.” The session, scheduled for 2 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 4, will feature a frank discussion of credit union options and resources, including learning to recognize the signs of elder abuse, the boundaries for intervention, and some outside-the-box solutions.
Online registration for Convention, scheduled for Oct. 2-4 in Vancouver, Wash., is available now, with discounted registration options open until Friday, Sept. 14, 2012. Visit the Association’s dedicated Convention website for more information.
Questions? Contact Training Programs Coordinator Yuri Jung: 206.340.4817, email@example.com.


Did you get orders to Kuwait? Sweet! Have a good time. Enjoy the base theatre, Olympic sized pool, Pizza Hut, and Subway. If you get a chance swing by the Shopette and pick up some of those new weird flavored Oreos. Just don't come back and tell war stories. We all know Kuwait isn't a real deployment.
• 50% polyester/25% combed ring-spun cotton/25% rayon
• Fabric weight: 4.2 oz
• Raw edge seams
• Fabric is laundered to reduce shrinkage
*Location, size, and color of actual print may vary slightly from display image.


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|MTI Limo & Shuttle Services, Inc.|
Nationwide network of uniformed chauffeured limousines, providing pickup, transport and shuttle solutions for airport transfers, weddings, corporate events, funerals, group travel, conventions, and parties.
|Executive Car Service|
Nationwide, ground transportation service for airport pick-ups and drop offs, business travel, corporate meetings, trade shows, conventions and special events. Free rate quote request.
Limos, school buses, hummers, and mini coaches for weddings, proms, bachelor or bachelorette parties and corporate events. Company serves all of New England including Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.
Luxury limousine services for airport transfers, weddings, proms, night outs, parties, celebrations, funeral, business and sports events from a network of limo companies across the USA. Different membership plans for limousine service providers.
|Midway Limousine Service|
Limousine service and professional chauffeured transportation for corporate, sporting and funeral events, airport transfers, weddings, proms, city tours, night outs and other special events in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
|Stretch Limousine, Inc.|
Wedding, concert, bachelor party, prom and sporting event packages, party buses, airport transfers, corporate transportation and other limo and bus rental services in the Chicago metropolitan area, Illinois.
|Top VIP Transportation|
California-based chauffeured Lincolns, SUVs, Mercedes, executive vans, stretched hummers and limousines that can carry from 2 to 22 passengers.
San Francisco and Bay area 1 to 40 passenger limousine service including point to point transfers, personalized tours, airport pickups, weddings, sporting events, concerts, graduations, proms, and business meetings.
Family-owned car rental agency with locations in major airports and luxury hotels in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada and Texas, USA catering to the private jet industry and fine hotels.
|Airport Metro Transportation|
Airport transfers and chauffeured limousine services for weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, proms, private parties, sporting, corporate and business events in the Detroit metropolitan area, Michigan, USA.

domain: travel


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The European Central Bank will on Thursday weigh when and how to end its bond-buying stimulus program — an exit that will have far-reaching consequences across the economy, from long-suffering savers to Europe’s indebted governments.
The bank, which sets monetary policy for the 19 countries that use the euro, has been buying 30 billion euros ($35.5 billion) a month in government and corporate bonds from banks. The purchases are slated to run at least through September, and longer if necessary.
Analysts say that decisions on the exit path, which could include several intermediate steps, might come Thursday or at the July 26 meeting. Scenarios include reducing the purchases past September, and then stopping them at the end of the year.
An end to the stimulus would be part of a major shift in the global economy. The ECB would be joining the U.S. Federal Reserve in withdrawing the massive monetary stimulus deployed to combat the Great Recession and its aftermath. The Fed is expected to raise rates at its meeting Wednesday.
The ECB’s bond purchases, which started in March 2015, pump newly printed money into the economy, which in theory should help raise inflation toward the bank’s goal of just under 2 percent. Inflation was an annual 1.9 percent in May, but the bank needs to be able to say that inflation will stay in line with its target even after the stimulus is withdrawn.
Market participants pricked up their ears last week when top ECB official Peter Praet said Thursday’s meeting would be an occasion to consider when to wind down the program. Praet supervises economics at the ECB as a member of its six-member executive board and in that capacity proposes monetary policy moves for debate and decision by the 25-member governing council. That gives his words extra weight.
The impact of the ECB’s bond-buying stimulus has been felt across the economy.
It has pushed up the prices of assets like stocks, bonds and real estate but also lowered returns for savers. It has helped keep borrowing costs low for European governments as the ECB purchases have driven bond prices up and yields down. Yields and prices move in opposite directions.
For example, the Italian government, which is burdened with the second-highest debt load in the eurozone after Greece at 132 percent of gross domestic product, pays only 2.79 percent annually to borrow for 10 years. That’s less than the 2.96 percent yield on 10-year U.S. Treasurys.
The ECB meeting will be held in Riga, Latvia, as one of the ECB’s occasional road meetings away from its Frankfurt headquarters to underline its role as a pan-European institution. A bribery investigation is expected to keep the head of the host central bank, Ilmars Rimsevics, from attending the meeting and news conference with ECB President Mario Draghi.
The ECB is continuing its slow progress toward withdrawing the stimulus despite turbulence in Italy, where the new populist government has questioned the spending and debt restrictions required of euro members. Concerns over Italian politics caused big swings in the country’s financial markets for several days last month, before easing.
Analysts Joerg Kraemer and Michael Schubert at Commerzbank said that the ECB may soon have to end its stimulus program anyway as it risks running out of bonds that are eligible for purchase. The ECB has limited itself to no more than one-third of any member country’s outstanding bonds to avoid becoming the dominant creditor of member states.
With the purchases widely expected to be stopped at the end of this year, they said, attention would now turn to how long the bank would wait after the bond-purchase exit before starting to raise its interest rate benchmarks.
“The ECB probably wants to ensure that the end of bond purchases does not unleash speculation about interest rate hikes,” they wrote in a research note. “The ECB Council… might declare that rates will not be increased for ‘at least’ six months after the end of purchases.”
Currently the short-term interest rate benchmark is zero, and the rate on deposits left by commercial banks at the ECB is negative 0.4 percent. The negative rate is a penalty aimed at pushing banks to lend that money instead of hoard it.


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Peru region to develop mystic tourism
Peruvian region of Ucayali will boost mystic tourism in order to attract more domestic and foreign visitors, especially tourists from Europe.
Regional tourism authorities are currently launching a project to start next July.
Local tourism official Freddy Rios Flores said they are waiting for the first financial support (29,000 soles) from the regional government.
Every aspect of the Rice Goddess ceremony, Mnhum Yang Potai, is highly symbolic.
“Red symbolizes sweat, blood, and the energy needed to grow rice,” says Ya Hang, a 53-year old leader of the ethnic Chu Ru community in a remote Lam Dong Province village.
Hang and several other men from Proh Commune, Don Duong District, squat in the hot Central Highlands’ sun, carving two long bamboo poles.>>>
Even a youthful vandal who was caught in the act of bending and breaking off portions of a bronze statue’s headdress couldn’t stop the healing of Mother Earth that took place Saturday, June 20, at the southeast corner of the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Anderson.
“We know there was once a village here where this shopping center now stands. This was a flat plain and there was a spring up on the hill,” >>>
Few people have destroyed the world more than Roland Emmerich. In his mega-hit "Independence Day," aliens laid waste to pretty much every metropolitan center on the planet, and in his eco-thriller "The Day After Tomorrow," much of the northern hemisphere finds itself buried under ice. In his third crack at presenting the apocalypse, this fall's "2012," Emmerich taps into the angst of thousands of astrologers, doomsday enthusiasts, and conspiracy theorists who fear that a massive cataclysm will strike the earth on December 21 of that year.>>>CHILE: Festival to Showcase Films on Native Peoples
SANTIAGO, Jun 17 (IPS) - Thanks to the growing number of films by and about indigenous peoples, over 90 movies, mainly from Latin America, will be screened and voted on by spectators at the First Chilean Indigenous Peoples' Film Festival in the Pacific port city of Valparaíso.
"Indigenous people have long been demonised by the media," Chilean filmmaker Nelson Cabrera,>>>

domain: news


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Welcome to the 2018 Adult Summer Reading Challenge at RHPL! Read 4 books to earn an exclusive "Libraries Rock" tote bag and entry into our weekly prize drawings. Complete additional challenges to earn additional entries!


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1903 | 147,054.56| 3.42| 3,767.93| 3.77 | 179,355.00| 2.78| 11,680.00| 1.90
1904 | 163,226.18| 3.59| 2,945.68| 2.96 | 198,214.25| 2.59| 16,940.00| 2.18
1905 | 165,917.00| 3.73| 4,835.45| 4.95 | 174.946.28| | 14,345.00| 2.13
1906 | 162,905.82| 3.70| 2,945.68| 3.02 | 176,799.00| | |
Differences in the rate of morbidity in different trades affect the cost, but these are relatively unimportant in the unions considered. A more important cause of difference in cost is the extent to which the unions are able to prevent the sick benefit from becoming a pension to members incapacitated by old age and disease. The heavy cost in the Typographia is partly due to the more liberal provision which is made for such members. In those unions, such as the Iron Molders and the Leather Workers on Horse Goods, which do not maintain an out-of-work benefit, the cost of the sick benefit is undoubtedly somewhat higher than it would be on account of the temptation of the unemployed member to feign illness.
The out-of-work benefit, of prime importance among English trade unions, has made little headway in America either as a national or even as a local trade-union benefit. In 1905 the amount expended for out-of-work benefits could not well have exceeded eighty thousand dollars, and of this sum a considerable part was spent by the Amalgamated Carpenters, a British trade union with branches in the United States. Certainly less than one half of one per cent. of the expenditures of American national unions, and less than one per cent. of their expenditures for beneficiary purposes, is for out-of-work relief. In the one hundred principal English trade unions twenty-one per cent. of the total expenditure in the ten years from 1892 to 1901 was for out-of-work benefits. Of the sum spent by the same unions for benefits of all kinds (not including strike pay) about one third was for out-of-work benefits.
[Footnote 155: Weyl, “Benefit Features of British Trade Unions” in Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, No. 64, p. 722.]
Relief to the unemployed member has assumed in American unions three forms: (a) an out-of-work benefit of a fixed amount per week in money, (b) exemption of unemployed members from weekly or monthly dues, and (c) a loan or benefit sufficient to transport the unemployed member in search of employment. The first and second of these are ordinarily known as out-of-work benefits, while the third is known as a travelling benefit.


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Graham Cracker Chews
For a variation on this recipe, add
Serves: 24Hands-on: 10 minutesTotal: 1 hourDifficulty: Easy
- 1½ cups graham cracker crumbs
- 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1½ cups brown sugar
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 9" × 9" pan; set aside.
- Combine graham cracker crumbs and flour in a bowl. Add butter with your fingers until mixture is crumbly. Press crumbs into pan; bake 30 minutes.
- Mix eggs and vanilla in a bowl until frothy. Stir in brown sugar and pecans. Pour over baked crust.
- Bake 20 minutes, or until set. Cool completely.


In the dynamic world of braking systems, innovations continue to reshape the landscape, aiming to enhance efficiency, reliability, and performance. One such innovation that has gained momentum is the Magnetic Particle Brake (MPB).
Before delving into the advantages, it’s crucial to grasp the fundamental workings of Magnetic Particle Brakes. Unlike traditional braking systems that rely on friction, MPBs utilize the principles of magnetism to control torque. The core of an MPB consists of two main components: the rotor and stator. The rotor contains ferrous particles, and the stator produces a magnetic field. When the magnetic field is applied, the ferrous particles align, creating a solid connection and transmitting torque. This innovative approach presents several advantages over conventional braking systems.
Top 4 Advantages of Magnetic Particle Brakes
1. Precise Torque Control
One of the standout advantages of Magnetic Particle Brakes is their ability to provide precise torque control. Traditional braking systems often exhibit a degree of latency and can be prone to sudden fluctuations. In contrast, MPBs enable fine-tuning of torque levels, ensuring a smooth and controlled deceleration. This precision is particularly valuable in applications where exact control is critical, such as industrial machinery and robotics.
2. Maintenance Efficiency
Maintenance is a pivotal aspect of any braking system, and Magnetic Particle Brakes shine in this regard. Unlike traditional brakes that may require frequent adjustments and replacements due to wear and tear, MPBs experience minimal mechanical wear. The absence of physical contact between the rotor and stator reduces the need for regular maintenance, resulting in cost savings and increased operational uptime.
3. Heat Dissipation
Traditional brakes generate heat during operation due to the friction between braking components. Excessive heat can lead to performance degradation and, in extreme cases, brake failure. Magnetic Particle Brakes, however, operate without friction, minimizing heat generation. This not only enhances the overall lifespan of the braking system but also eliminates concerns related to overheating, making them ideal for applications where temperature control is paramount.
4. Response Time
In dynamic environments where quick response times are crucial, Magnetic Particle Brakes demonstrate a notable advantage. The absence of mechanical components in direct contact allows for rapid engagement and disengagement. This responsiveness is particularly beneficial in applications like high-speed automation and conveyor systems, where split-second adjustments can have a significant impact on overall efficiency.
Top 4 Applications Of Magnetic Particle Brakes
|Precise torque control for efficient production processes
|Quick response times enhance the agility of robotic systems
|Maintenance efficiency ensures consistent print quality
|Heat dissipation prolongs the lifespan of braking systems
In conclusion, Magnetic Particle Brakes emerge as a compelling alternative to traditional braking systems, offering a blend of precision, efficiency, and reliability. From precise torque control to reduced maintenance requirements, the advantages presented by MPBs position them as a preferred choice in various industries. As technology continues to advance, Magnetic Particle Brakes stand as a testament to the transformative power of innovative braking solutions.


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By John Ikani
The Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, has returned to operating at full capacity, with worshippers praying shoulder-to-shoulder for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began.
While social distancing measures were lifted, authorities said visitors must be fully vaccinated against coronavirus and must continue to wear masks on mosque grounds.
Also, workers removed floor markings that guide people to social distance in and around the Grand Mosque, which is built around the Kaaba, the black cubic structure towards which Muslims around the world pray.
However, the Kaaba, towards which Muslims around the world pray, remained cordoned off and out of reach.
“This is in line with the decision to ease precautionary measures and to allow pilgrims and visitors to the Grand Mosque at full capacity,” the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
Pictures and footage on Sunday morning showed people praying side by side in straight rows of worshippers, the formation revered in Muslim prayers, for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold last year.
The authorities also lifted curbs on fully vaccinated people at closed venues, gatherings, transportation, restaurants and cinemas.
Masks are no longer mandatory in open public places while still imposed at closed venues, it added.
Furthermore, fully-inoculated sports fans will from Sunday be allowed to attend events at all stadiums and other sports facilities, reported SPA.

domain: sociology


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KARACHI: The government’s focus should be on undertaking meaningful reforms to increase revenue and increased tax collections should be made from those who have, so far, kept themselves out of the tax net, said the American Business Council (ABC).
“The government needs to widen the tax net and ensure that all sectors of the economy are taxed appropriately. Pakistan has the lowest tax-to-GDP ratio in the world, it is imperative for the government to identify new sources of revenue,” said the ABC President Nadeem Elahi.
These suggestions were part of the budget proposals the ABC had submitted to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for the upcoming fiscal year 2016-17 (FY16-17)
The detailed document prepared by the ABC Finance and Taxation subcommittee, included proposals for the elimination of 8% minimum tax on services and calls for the applicability of a standard income tax across all businesses.
The proposals also called for sales tax to fall under the value-added tax (VAT) mode, thereby allowing full adjustment of inputs and urged the government to review the taxation structure for salaried individuals as unjustified increases in the tax rate were contributing to an outflow of talent.
The chamber, in order to promote foreign direct investment (FDI), proposed the qualifying period for tax credits under section 65 (D&E) to remain in place without any binding of time, as companies evaluating investment plans in Pakistan would include the incentives in their feasibility plan.
“We believe the legitimate sectors of the economy are disproportionately targeted in the application of tax laws,” said the council, adding that the problem was further magnified by companies that are openly selling illicit goods and not paying taxes.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 21st, 2016.
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domain: law


Vaio has recently launched its 4G LTE smartphone and entering in Tablet market with Vaio Z Canvas. The Japanese company has setup a US page and teasing the slate will be shipping in the fall here.
The 2-in-1 VAIO Z Canvas sports a 12.3-inch screen with 2560 x 1704 pixels resolution and 95 percent Adobe RGB coverage. Like the Surface Pro this tablet has a stepless kickstand and comes with both a detachable keyboard and active stylus. The stylus offers 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity and there is minimal parallax thanks to the optical resin bonded screen display.
The VAIO Z Canvas employs an Intel Core i7-4770HQ running at 2.2GHz (3.4GHz boost) with 4 cores/8 threads and including Iris Pro Graphics 5200. In terms of connectivity specs, it include Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0 × 2, HDMI 1.4 output, Mini DisplayPort, audio output, IEEE 802.11ac /a/b/g/n wireless LAN , Bluetooth 4.0, SD card slot and TPM 1.2.
The Z Canvas comes with a 2MP front camera and also houses an 8MP rear camera. The tablet includes acceleration, gyro and geo sensors. Battery life is about 8.5 hours. The device measures 301 × 213 × 13.6 mm and weighs 1.21Kg without the keyboard accessory which is 4.4mm thick and weighs 340g. The slate rung on Windows 8.1 operating system.
The top model of VAIO Z Canvas (cost $3,300) consists of 16GB (dual-channel) RAM and SSD 1TB (PCIe 512GB × 2). A cheaper model with a 512GB SSD costs $2,650, and the base model with just 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD costs $2,050. It seems that the prices include a keyboard and stylus bundle. Liliputing expects prices to be more competitive when the VAIO Z Canvas 2-in-1s arrive in the US later this year.
Source | Via


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A Molecular Biomarker System for Assessing the Health of Coral (Montastraea faveolata ) During Heat Stress
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Using a novel molecular biomaker system (MBS), we assessed the physiological status of coral (Montastraea faveolata) challenged by heat stress by assaying specific cellular and molecular parameters. This technology is particularly relevant for corals because heat stress is thought to be an essential component of coral bleaching. This phenomenon is widely believed to be responsible for coral mortality worldwide, particularly during 1997–1998. Specific parameters of coral cellular physiology were assayed using the MBS that are indicative of a nonstressed or stressed condition. The MBS distinguished the separate and combined effects of heat and light on the 2 coral symbionts, a scleractinian coral and a dinoflagellate algae (zooxanthellae). This technology aids in the accurate diagnosis of coral condition because each parameter is physiologically well understood. Finally, the MBS technology is relatively inexpensive, easy to implement, and precise, and it can be quickly adapted to a high-throughout robotic system for mass sample analysis.
- A Molecular Biomarker System for Assessing the Health of Coral (Montastraea faveolata) During Heat Stress
Volume 2, Issue 6 , pp 533-544
- Cover Date
- Print ISSN
- Additional Links
- Key words: coral reefs, heat stress, molecular biomarkers.
- Industry Sectors
- Author Affiliations
- A1. Marine Biotechnology Program, U.S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, National Ocean Service, Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research, Charleston, SC 29412, U.S.A., US
- A3. Center for Tropical Research, Mote Marine Laboratory, Summerland Key, FL 33042, U.S.A., US
- A4. Department of Biological Sciences, Brevard Community College, Palm Bay, FL 32909, U.S.A., US
- A5. Department of Biology, University of Charleston, Charleston, SC 29422, U.S.A., US


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As you are probably aware, Dynamics CRM is undergoing some changes and one of them is a new name, Dynamics 365. My blog posts this month will focus on some of the functionality updates available in v8.2 and our next meetup will review them in more detail. Be sure to sign up and join us!
Another cool, new feature is that you can group by fields directly from a view within CRM. You don’t have to create a report or export to Excel to group the data. In the customizations area, click on the name of the entity then open the Controls tab.
Then add a control and choose Editable Grid.
Finally, choose which devices you want to be able to use the editable grid control. Save and publish your changes.
Navigate to the entity and you will now see a box where you can specify how to group the records in the view. The options will be limited to the fields seen in the view. For example, if you want to group by State or Province you will need to add this field to the view first.


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Cliff Valley School
School in Atlanta where Todd teaches music, starting August 2015.
South Lawrence East Elementary Music Website
Google Site for students and parents at SLEE. Maintained by Todd.
The Boston Conservatory Autism Program
Program for students on the autism spectrum where Todd teaches.
Noteflight Studio Login
Noteflight login page for Todd's piano and trumpet students.
Teachers Pay Teachers Store
Elementary music handouts created by Todd, shared with teachers.
New England Philharmonic
Boston-based orchestra where Todd plays trumpet.
Gordon Institute for Music Learning
Professional organization for Gordon's Music Learning Theory.


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Start 200' right of Jubilant Song, at a crack system that is continuous for 2/3 of the face and consists of left-facing corners. Pitch 1: Climb the crack in the moderate black face to a rocky ledge. Pitch 2: Ascend the chimney. Above this, climb the overhang of face and go left on easier climbing. Pitch 3: Ascend the left-facing corner to a black face. Pitch 4: Ascent the easy black face to a broad ledge. Pitch 5: Go up a corner to a point 30 feet below an overhang with a water trough. Step right, by way of a small overhang, around the corner onto the face. (5.7 crux) Pitch 6: Go up, past a pine tree and belay at the oak tree mentioned in Jubilant Song. Pitch 7: Step right into the waterstreak and continue up it until you come to a large ledge on your left. Pitch 8: Step left and ascend the left facing book to the summit. (5.5) Variation: From the last belay, you can step right and ascend the waterstreak to the summit. (5.7+) Descent: Same as Jubilant Song.
Submitted by: vegastradguy on 2003-02-13
Route ID: 32386

domain: hobby


The question about what things you should be considering while playing an acoustic guitar really depends on how long you have been playing and how much practice you have put into your acoustic guitar playing.
Many experienced guitar players will tell you that when playing they don’t really consider anything, it’s a bit like meditation they are just into the music and everything is done on brain memory a bit like the moves of a martial arts master, they don’t have to think about blocking, kicking or punching, it becomes instinct.
When you are first starting out and for the first few years you will need to consider things like:
Keeping the melody in your head while you try and play along with it is what probably consumes most player’s thoughts when playing an acoustic guitar when they first start playing. After they have played and really know a melody it just naturally flows as subtle changes of their own improve on it until they really feel comfortable playing.
Practice makes perfect, but only if you are playing it correctly because if you are not playing correctly, then you will find the mistakes you practice, will become very hard to overcome later.
Start playing a new song very slowly and carefully until you know and feel comfortable playing it, and then speed it up to the right tempo. In this way, you will avoid learning a mistake and then having to unlearn it.
Consider being totally relaxed, sometimes this is difficult to achieve when in different circumstances and surroundings to those you’re accustomed to. You should be relaxed, especially your shoulders. Unnecessary tension will tend to hold your playing ability back and make practice as well as playing less enjoyable.
Don’t get too hung up on technique
Style and technique are a matter of individuality and largely start from the way you were originally taught and then your own interpretation from there as you learn to improvise and look for notes on the fretboard. Except when practicing, you don’t (and even then for many people while practicing) think about scales or other technical issues. You learn these so they become natural and then do them without thinking about, the music – brain – finger connection kicks in, you are just playing where your ear and ability to hold a tune takes you.
What’s important is the result and the way it makes you feel as well as any response you get from your audience.
When you first start out playing an acoustic guitar you need to think about or at least consider the way notes within a given cord are musically connected, but dwelling on them too much can cause you to get lost so in reality, you need to think less and feel more. This comes from practice and more practice, so you need to find a song you like to practice on and get it right.
Whether you’re playing an acoustic guitar or electric type of guitar most people do not have to consider too much what their fingers are doing as most of the work comes from brain fingers memory learnt through hours of practice. What you should consider is playing your version of the song.