War of the Worlds Season 2 Episode 4 Review: Does Sacha’s Psychopathy Explain the Aliens’ Cruelty?
Sacha shows his true colours in London, while Catherine and Sophia bond on their journey north. Spoilers.
Warning: This War of the Worlds review contains spoilers.
Back when we thought the killer robo-dogs were the Invaders, their disregard for human life was easy to understand. They were emotionless machines whose only goal was to methodically clear the planet. Stomp stomp stomp, squelch, stomp stomp stomp, squelch, and so on. Watching them murder children as if they were swatting flies was harsh, but it wasn’t personal.
In season two, it’s personal. We know that the child-killing robo-dogs are the weapons of alt-humans who have no compunction about committing genocide. That revelation sparked its own mystery: just what is the Invaders’ damage? Yes, humans have always done terrible things to each other in the name of survival (and regrettably, in the name of far less), but usually, we’re at least conflicted about it. This lot stitch bombs into stomachs and – as Bill’s new companions noted in disgust – kill kids without remorse. Why the lack of fellow-feeling? Episode four suggested a possible answer: Sacha.
Until now, Mathieu Torloting’s Sacha has just been part of the general hum of uneasiness on War of the Worlds. Like the rotting corpses on the streets and the regular child executions, he’s been a background source of disquiet, but not the main event. You wouldn’t want to pick him in a Secret Santa, but you couldn’t put your finger on exactly why. Now, the why is obvious: Sacha’s a psychopath who feels nothing when he kills someone. And if Sacha’s a psychopath, and Sacha’s also a genetic ancestor of the Invaders (the current theory to beat), perhaps that’s why the Invaders also seem to feel nothing when they kill… everyone?
The ‘someone’ Sacha killed was, unforgivably, the War of the Worlds character with the most natural warmth (and not just because of the insulating properties of that beanie hat). Ever since we met Aaron Heffernan’s Ash, grieving his fiancée and trying to Octomom all those those orphaned babies, he’s been this show’s on-radiator, taking the chill off the aloof characters around him. Even this week, his comedic “Is it because he’s French? Because that would be wrong,” shone a rare shaft of light in a dark and serious hour.
Murdering Ash in such a callous, disinterested way was a fast ramp to villainy for Sacha. Only by killing a litter of golden retriever puppies could the audience now hate him more. Add that to his playground bully taunting of Bill and Kariem, and the ease with which he lied about Ash’s murder, and he’s quite definitely stepped out of the shadows and into the role of baddie. Torloting handled his scenes well, imbuing Sacha with believably creepy detachment.
All of which made Emily’s decision to jump his bones uncomfortable to watch, but then, when your entire family thinks you’re a murderer, perhaps it’s any port in a storm. It almost wasn’t Emily’s decision, anyway, but pre-destined as she’d already seen their projection room hook-up happen in that vision.
(On the subject of the projection room, the multiplex cinema location was made good use of this episode. The space, stars and alien theme seemed to carry over into the empty popcorn boxes, galactic carpet design and, presumably, fictional film poster for alien abduction sci-fi ‘Passenger’ – perhaps a hint of what’s to come for Emily and Sacha on board the alien ship?)
Was that the moment of conception for Emily and Sacha? Is she now pregnant with a child that will inherit each of their genetic weaknesses, and who’ll go on to found the psychopathic Invader race? If so, Emily won’t be the only new mother around.
Sophia’s story this episode was another example of this show’s best trick – using the end of the world to talk about… the world. You don’t need to have witnessed an adorable blonde poppet’s brain being skewered by an alien cyborg that morning to wonder whether or not it’s wise to bring new life into this world. Apocalypse or not, people ask that question all the time. The same goes for Catherine and Victor’s moving exchanges about regrets. Parallel universes and time travel might have prompted their confessions, but at any of life’s big junctions, we all say the same, aliens or no.
It was a pity to see Victor go so soon, but unlike Ash – whose death was as cruel and arbitrary as we’ve come to expect from this series – he was at least granted a hero’s ending. Victor died saving the others, including Sophia and Nathan’s unborn child, which made his death mean something in a way it wouldn’t have done if he’d expired alone in that car. His character’s time on the show was only brief, but did much to develop our sense of Catherine. Their pairing added real warmth and even hope to this otherwise cold and bleak story.
A story that, at season two’s halfway point, is really ramping up. Catherine and co. are just across the Channel. Emily and Sacha are an item. Sacha’s a baddie. And in Aimee Ffion-Edwards’ Invader Isla, Bill now has the live test subject he was after, chained to a radiator in London’s Barbican Centre. Le progress!
War of the Worlds season two is airing weekly on Epix in the US and starts on Disney+ in the UK from Friday July 16th.


May 24, 2023 - Real-time IDC Research® opinion on industry news, trends and events
IBM Quantum Network Partner Forum, 2023: A Quantum Event for Quantum End Users
You need a subscription to access this IDC Link. Log in to see if you have access.
For more information please contact us or call one of our worldwide offices.
Quantum Computing Trends and Strategies
- by Analyst
- by Subscription
- IDC's Worldwide Quantum Computing Taxonomy, 2023
- Microsoft's Quantum Computing Strategy: A Pragmatic Approach to Quantum Advantage
- Rigetti Computing: Is This the Story Where David Loses and Goliath Wins?
- IBM Accelerated Discovery: A Hybrid Classical and Quantum Compute Platform for Accelerating Science


text:
DJing gives you wings
Always the turntable tart, I felt inspired today to craft this little homage to Hermes the great messenger of the Greek gods. Natch.
Seeing as our trusty cans live half their lives clamped to our noggins, they also deserve the chance to look flash an’ all.
(They’ll probably survive one gig I’ll wager)

domain: hobby


text:
I wanted to share my recent discovery of the most amazing online radio experience! It's called "Radio Internetowe Online," and trust me, it's a game-changer for music lovers like us.
I stumbled upon this gem while searching for a convenient way to enjoy music from around the world. Radio Internetowe Online offers an extensive collection of radio stations, catering to every musical taste imaginable. Whether you're into pop, rock, jazz, or EDM, you'll find something to groove to.
What makes it even better is that it's all online, so you can access it from anywhere, anytime. No need to worry about reception or signal drop-offs. Plus, it's completely free!
The user interface is super user-friendly, and you can easily navigate through different stations. You can even discover new music by exploring stations from various countries.
So, if you're looking to broaden your musical horizons and enjoy a seamless online radio experience, give Radio Internetowe Online a try. It's been a game-changer for me, and I'm sure you'll love it too! Happy listening!

domain: artistic


UKGBC’s vision for a sustainable built environment is one that mitigates and adapts to climate change.
UKGBC’s Whole Life Carbon Roadmap illustrates that the UK Built Environment is currently responsible for (i.e., has direct control over), 25% of total UK greenhouse gas emissions (buildings and infrastructure). If surface transport (vehicle emissions) is included within the scope of the built environment, the total share of UK emissions increases to 42%.
Over the last two decades, built environment emissions (excluding surface transport) have reduced by c.30%. Most of this decrease occurred after 2010 and is largely due to a reduction in operational emissions, most of which are attributable to rapid decarbonisation of the electricity grid in recent years, rather than improvements in the energy efficiency of buildings.
Newly constructed buildings are more energy efficient, but 80% of buildings in 2050 have already been built, so a major priority is decarbonising our existing stock. Yet Government policies aimed at improving the efficiency of existing buildings have scaled back dramatically, and insulation installation rates have stalled.
The built environment is crucial to allow us to adapt to changing and increasingly extreme climatic conditions. Yet several million properties are in areas at risk of flooding, and the risk of overheating remains very high.


text:
Only selling because they are a bit too hot for me so I've replaced them with more vintage PAF flavoured pickups. £70 for the pair
funny you should say that. my gsg gypsy does the les-paul-through-marshall brilliantly, but, despite altering volume and tone knobs, i can't get any other workable sounds, except maybe coil-tapped bridge
It worked pretty well for me and the guitar was used in a few records before the change in pickups. I was experiencing issues with the original pots so I thought I may as well try some more appropriate pickups for what I play at the same time.


Neo-prog band Pendragon formed in London during the heady days of punk, but didn't coalesce until 1983, when the band began playing around London and earned a small spot at that year's Reading Festival. The lineup stabilized, after the 1985 album Jewel, around vocalist/guitarist...
Additional information - releases number
|Track / Artist||from album||Bitrate||Size (Mb)||Price||Download|
|Indigo||Classic Rock Presents Prog Prognosis 3||213||20,87||ˆ0.10|
|Schizo (A Tribute To Pink Floyd)||Solar Project: A Tribute To Pink Floyd||192||9,54||ˆ0.10|
|Marillion ||Fish ||Eloy ||Spock's Beard |
|Camel ||Arena ||Pavlov's Dog ||It's A Beautiful Day |


In distinction to Rasheed, Mufti Muneebur Rehman had earlier this week claimed that the proscribed TLP had by no means wished the federal government to expel the French ambassador, and nor did they need the closure of the nation’s embassy as he disputed experiences that these have been the group’s key calls for.
Addressing a press convention in Karachi, Mufti Muneeb had mentioned: “The ministers lied […] the individuals who held talks with TLP lied about [the group] asking for the French ambassador’s expulsion, closure of the embassy, and severing ties with the Europen Union.”
Rasheed, whereas chatting with journalists right this moment after attending a ceremony of Rescue 1122, mentioned he had satisfied Rizvi the matter of the ambassador’s expulsion can be mentioned within the parliament.
“On this regard, I’ve signed an [agreement], which I stand by,” the minister mentioned, including he was unaware of any talks that passed off in his absence.
In the meantime, in a significant growth earlier within the day, the Punjab dwelling division despatched a abstract to Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar for the revocation of the TLP’s proscribed standing, to which an preliminary approval has been granted.
Following the chief minister and the provincial cupboard’s nod, the federal authorities will probably be moved to cast off TLP’s proscribed standing, the house division mentioned in a press release.
The Punjab authorities has additionally determined to take away the names of not less than 90 activists of the proscribed outfit from the fourth schedule — in compliance with a secretive deal between the federal government and the proscribed TLP.
On November 2, the federal government started implementing its accord with TLP, with experiences suggesting that it had launched greater than 800 supporters of the celebration arrested throughout Punjab.
The federal government signed an accord with the proscribed outfit on Sunday, underneath which staff of the organisation who will not be going through any formal felony costs have been to be launched. The amnesty may even prolong to the celebration’s prime chief, Saad Rizvi.


text:
Cataract SurgeryIt’s thought to be among the list of safest and many thriving surgeries in America these days.
After the laser has accomplished the reshaping course of action, a protective Speak to lens is then put more than the treated location to allow for more quickly healing and less soreness.
On the other hand, cataract surgery will help restore your vision, extensive before you decide to expertise lack of eyesight major sufficient to interfere along with your daily routines.
Sad to say, cataracts are progressive and cannot be prevented. Even so, eradicating the cataract and changing it with a synthetic lens might enhance your eyesight and, in many ways, appreciably enhance your Standard of living. Time to own your cataracts eradicated is when the quality of your eyesight begins to limit your routines and enjoyment of everyday living.
The IntraLase laser is significantly less likely to provide significantly slender flaps or incredibly thick flaps, events which may lead to problems.
To be a applicant for LASIK, you have to be about 18 decades of age, not pregnant or nursing, and become freed from any eye disease. Also, you shouldn't have had a improve within your eye prescription in the final 12 months and should have a refractive mistake within the choice of correction for LASIK.
An optometrist or ophthalmologist will perform a comprehensive eye Examination to determine your candidacy. Other diagnostic assessments including corneal topography would also be done to make certain superior outcomes.
Personalized LASIK lets our staff to generate an especially in depth map of the eye, one that accounts for even bigger-buy aberrations that classic LASIK will not deal with. Furthermore, the usage of the Allegretto Wavelight Excimer Laser features monitoring know-how to ensure laser eye surgery processes may be customized to every client.
Dr. Moran has actually been performing refractive eye surgeries due to the fact 1993 and is the founder of the primary laser Heart in Leigh Valley. He has finished Countless eye surgical procedures and his specialty features no-stitch cataract surgery, comprehensive eye care and LASIK eye surgery.
Enroll in no cost LASIK consultation with Dr. Luo. The 1st way is always to simply call our office and ask for the LASIK coordinator, he/she should have the current data to indicator you up to get a free LASIK consultation. Our number is (570) 628-4444.
To become an ophthalmologist, pupils ought to complete undergraduate coursework, total health care university, and get involved in a three-year residency plan. The moment these demands are actually fulfilled, ophthalmologists will have to sit for and go the board examination to earn their license to practice.
Pointed out for improving upon the safety and predictably of LASIK by changing the hand-held oscillating microkeratome blade Traditionally used in the initial step, the IntraLase laser has also been verified to here offer for much better than twenty/20 visual outcomes, even among Customized/Wavefront patients.
With blade-free of charge Wavefront LASIK, this well-known laser vision correction surgery is a lot more safe and precise than in the past just before. Chester County Eye Care offers more info this ground breaking know-how to our patients to be sure a better level of basic safety and the absolute best click here eyesight result.
An correct representation with the requested useful resource couldn't be discovered on this server. This mistake was produced by Mod_Security.

domain: medical


text:
Creativity Cabin Estes Park is celebrating its grand opening this Saturday, November 9 from 12-5 p.m.
We are a Paint Your Own Pottery studio. We have a wide selection of premolded and prefired bisque pieces, ready to paint. We have some pieces that are “color book bisque” with a design already printed on them that can just be painted in the lines. Stencils, stamps and various shapes of sponges are available for people who want to design their own images. And of course, free-hand painting is always an option! Once painted, we will clear glaze them and fire them in our kiln. Items are priced per piece with a range from $5-25 currently. A $10 studio fee covers the paints, brushes, glaze and firing. Depending on the size of the piece, the level of detail, and the speed of the artist, creating takes anywhere from 30 minutes to multiple hours. We are happy to keep larger, unfinished pieces at the studio for people to complete over multiple visits. There are snacks available for purchase; artists are welcome to bring food and drink to enjoy while painting.
We also offer parties for kids of all ages. We have items for kids’ birthday parties, Mom’s group outings, Mom’s night out, Girls’ night out, Guys’ night out, bridal parties, team building, holiday parties or just a friend gathering. Studio fees are reduced for reserved parties of 10 or more and can be scheduled outside of walk-in hours. Creativity Cabin Estes Park welcomes the Friendship Card and offers buy one, get one half off studio fees with the card. We also have multiple studio fee punch cards to be able to offer a discount on studio fees for local Estes Valley residents.
Creating is therapeutic. We believe that all people are creative at our core and not only are we all able to create when we get past any inhibitions, some kind of creativity is an important part of who we were created to be.
Creativity Cabin Estes Park is located in Piccadilly Square behind the Estes Angler. 342 West Riverside Dr. Our website is createinestes.com. Like us on Facebook Creativity Cabin Estes Park and follow us on Instagram Creativity Cabin EP.
Please join us for our Grand Opening celebration this Saturday, November 9 between 12 and 5 p.m. We will have food, prizes and half off studio fee. There will be hourly prize drawings and two grand prizes! Sign up for either a free party ($140 value) or a basket of Estes Park goodies including a RMNP calendar from Brownfield’s, taffy from The Taffy Shop, Laura’s Fudge, and gift certificates from Inkwell and Brew, Coffee on the Rocks, Kind Coffee. Help us decorate by painting a tile for our wall.
Patti Aldridge is excited to make her dream a reality with this creative space. Patti and Mike moved to Estes Park with their children Isaac and Grace in August, 2017 from Austin, Texas for a change in pace and more family time. Patti also works two days a week as a pediatrician at Estes Park Health and owns and teaches Jazzercise in the same space Monday through Saturday mornings. Mike is a nursing professor at University of Northern Colorado, and Isaac and Grace attend Estes Park Middle School.


text:
Sorry, we couldn't find any hotels in Tasbuku.
Here are some hotels near Tasbuku:
|Ottoman Konak Hotel Kerme in Akyaka
Catalcam 50 Kadin Azmak, Akyaka, 48650 Turkey (TUR) (Lake)
~7.77 Miles from Tasbuku
|Kervansaray Marmaris Hotel in Marmaris
Armutalan No:19, Marmaris, 48700 Turkey (TUR) (Resort)
Kervansaray Marmaris is the perfect place for families and groups friends that want an action packed vacation with sun, sea and sand.
A short distance away you will find beaches that offer a variety of water sports. There are daily cruises that takes you around the turquoise coves, mountainous shoreline, ruins of ancient cities, and a cave (the only entrance of which is from the sea) surrounding Marmaris.
Alternatively, the city also has a wide range of restaurants, bars and plenty of shopping with fabulous bargains.
~9.49 Miles from Tasbuku
|Faros Hotel Marmaris in Mugla
Çevreyolu Cad. No:31, Mugla, 48700 Turkey (TUR) (Downtown-City Center)
~9.60 Miles from Tasbuku
|Hotel Hawaii in Mugla Turkey
Çildir Mah. 228. St. No:3 Marmaris, Mugla Turkey, 48700 Turkey (TUR) (Resort)
~9.80 Miles from Tasbuku
|Marti Resort Deluxe Hotel in Mugla
Kumluörencik Mevkii Içmeler Marmaris, Mugla, Turkey (TUR)
~12.88 Miles from Tasbuku
|Eden Garden in Icmeler
Golenye Mah 242 Sokak No:6, Icmeler, 48720 Turkey (TUR)
We would like to welcome you to Eden Garden. With stunning views of pine trees and lush green surroundings you will know you have arrived at a very special place. Our family extends a very warm welcome of traditional Turkish hospitality from the moment you arrive. Our goal is to make your holiday dreams come true. Our family offers you local insight, traditional cuisine, a fun, relaxed atmosphere, and a place you can comfortably call your "home away from home."
We are located on the outskirts of Icmeler Town Center. Just 2km to the icmeler beach and 10 km to the vibrant city of Marmaris.
~13.31 Miles from Tasbuku
|Otel Gulet in Mugla
Cumhuriyet Caddesi No: 177, Mugla, Turkey (TUR) (Downtown-City Center)
~17.76 Miles from Tasbuku
|Dalyan Caria Hotel in Dalyan
Maras Mah Yali Sok No:9 Dalyan, Dalyan, 48840 Turkey (TUR) (Riverfront)
At a beautiful location next to the river, mountains and the King Tombs, Hotel Caria is a small and lovely hotel offering charming accommodation close to the centre of town.
From the river, just metres away, you can take a boat trip to the secluded and unspoilt Iztuzu Beach. The beach is famous for its Loggerhead Turtles that visit every year.
All rooms have en suite and a private balcony. Many of the balconies overlook the emerald green river, giving you fantastic views of the famous king's tombs set in dramatic mountain scenery.
~25.63 Miles from Tasbuku
|Caretta Caretta Hotel in Mugla
Maras Mah. Caretta Sok. No:19 Dalyan, Mugla, 48840 Turkey (TUR) (Downtown-City Center)
Our family owned hotel is situated at the center of small and charming town Dalyan neighboring Iztuzu Beach where Caretta Carettas lay their eggs past 15 million years, and the ancient city Kaunos, that is established by Apollo’s grandson Kaunos.
Our rooms have comfy beds, with sparkling clean linens, soft Turkish towels, and 24/7 hot water. We are committed to serve our guests with their needs in mind first and provide the outmost professional service, since we love what we do.
~25.69 Miles from Tasbuku
|Hapimag Resort Sea Garden in Bodrum
P K 3 Yaliciftlik Bodru, Bodrum, 48400 Turkey (TUR)
~36.65 Miles from Tasbuku
[1 - 10 of 29]

domain: geography


text:
Gmina Nowy Wiśnicz is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Bochnia County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. Its seat is the town of Nowy Wiśnicz, which lies approximately 8 kilometres (5 mi) south of Bochnia and 40 km (25 mi) south-east of the regional capital Kraków.
Gmina Nowy Wiśnicz
Nowy Wiśnicz Commune
|Coordinates (Nowy Wiśnicz): Coordinates:|
|• Total||82.49 km2 (31.85 sq mi)|
|• Density||160/km2 (400/sq mi)|
The gmina covers an area of 82.49 square kilometres (31.8 sq mi), and as of 2006 its total population is 12,895 (out of which the population of Nowy Wiśnicz amounts to 2,716, and the population of the rural part of the gmina is 10,179).
Apart from the town of Nowy Wiśnicz, Gmina Nowy Wiśnicz contains the villages and settlements of Chronów, Kobyle, Kopaliny, Królówka, Leksandrowa, Łomna, Muchówka, Olchawa, Połom Duży, Stary Wiśnicz and Wiśnicz Mały.


text:
First, let me say that the 505 spray that stained my quilt came out entirely with dry cleaning, just as the manufacturer suggested.
Remove 505 with dry cleaning
Last weekend I taught my “Scrappy New Year” quilt at Studio Stitch in Greensboro, NC. Everybody brought stacks of scraps cut into strips of various widths.
We joined the strips into strip sets.
Then we cut the strip sets into 1-1/2 inch strips and assembled the pieced strips into blocks.
The blocks varied in size and shape, depending on the choice of the designer.
And there was at least one alternate layout for rectangular, rather than square, blocks. When the pieced strips alternated with solid strips the blocks went faster.
Eventually, everyone will have a quilt something like this:
Scrap quilt made with strips that finish 1″ wide
And as a last fun part of the weekend, I got to see a beach bag I made for our daughter several years go.
How was your week?


text:
For the best experience on the Abcam website please upgrade to a modern browser such as Google Chrome
Take a look at our BETA site and see what we’ve done so far.
Search and browse selected products
Purchase these through your usual distributor
The cells are cultured and stimulated on plates coated with antibodies that capture specific target molecules released by the activated cells. The presence and distribution of these analytes is then detected through a sandwich ELISA that deposits a reporter substance where the analyte is capture.
Each spot that develops in the assay represents a single reactive cell, providing both qualitative (type of immune protein) and quantitative (number of responding cells) data.
FLUOROSPOT assays employ sandwich ELISA technology, with fluorescence detection instead of chromogenic detection.
Used in the analysis of cytokines and other soluble molecules produced from secreting T-cells, FLUOROSPOT can identify secreted products at a single cell level.
Dual ELISPOT and FLUOROSPOT can detect secreted cytokines and measure the frequency of single cells that simultaneously produce two cytokines or other effector molecules. They help you save cell material and measure cytokines that are co-expressed.
Dual ELISPOT and dual FLUOROSPOT differ by theirt detection methods
Click and expand the image below to learn more.

domain: biology


At this year’s meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, researchers reported that use of a hybrid day-night closed-loop insulin delivery system is better than sensor-augmented pump therapy for blood sugar control in people with poorly controlled Type 1 diabetes.
The JDRF-funded study included 44 men and 42 women with Type 1 diabetes and randomly assigned them to receive treatment with an insulin pump and a continuous glucose monitor or a closed-loop insulin delivery system.
Participants who used the insulin pump and a continuous glucose monitoring sensor were responsible for making insulin-dosing decisions. But closed-loop insulin delivery systems are designed to integrate the data collected by CGMs directly with an insulin pump, automating insulin delivery using an algorithm.
Over the 12 weeks of the study, people in the closed-loop group spent significantly more time in the target blood sugar range compared to those in the control group. The researchers also noted that participants in the closed-loop group had significant reductions in HbA1c levels compared to the control group.
The time that participants spent with very low blood sugar levels (hypoglycemia) was a median of 12 minutes lower in the closed-loop group and the time spent with very high blood sugar levels (hyperglycemia) was a median of 2 hours and 24 minutes lower in the closed-loop group, according to the researchers.
The study also found that the proportion of time spent in dangerous conditions overall fell from 3.5% at baseline to 2.6% after the study in the closed-loop group. Meanwhile, in the sensor-augmented pump group, this value rose from 3.3% at baseline to 3.9% after the study.
“The use of day-and-night hybrid closed-loop insulin delivery improves glycaemic control while reducing the risk of hypoglycemia in adults, adolescents and children with Type 1 diabetes compared to conventional pump therapy or sensor-augmented pump therapy. Results from our study together with those from previous studies support the adoption of closed-loop technology in clinical practice across all age groups,” the researchers wrote in The Lancet.
“Dr. Hovorka’s study is significant in that it adds to the ever-growing body of evidence showing that closed-loop insulin delivery systems improve outcomes and reduce burden for people with Type 1 diabetes,” Daniel Finan, research director at JDRF, added. “In particular, this study demonstrates that people with diabetes who have sub-optimal control can benefit greatly from such technology.”
“These are great results. I congratulate Professor Hovorka on the vital work he is doing. Type 1 diabetes is a challenging condition, but these results take us a step closer to changing the lives of the millions of people that live with the condition across the world,” Rachel Connor, director of research partnerships at JDRF, said.


text:
The Chamba administration has come up with a unique information education and communication (IEC) campaign amid the coronavirus pandemic, involving the mascots Syanu (the wise) and Namanu (the stubborn).
“Syanu apprises the people of ‘to dos’ in the local dialect,” says Chamba deputy commissioner Vivek Bhatia.
Namanu, names and shames violators on social media, he tells people what not to do, says Bhatia.
“We have adopted these strategies to ensure people follow social distancing, hand hygiene and coughing etiquettes and do not break quarantine,” he said.
The walls in market areas have been painted with portraits of the mascots to remind the public of Syanu and Namanu while they are out and about.
SYANU INTEGRATED HELPLINE NUMBER
The administration has also launched the ‘Syanu integrated helpline number’ on WhatsApp, which will manage and maintain the border management system at barriers and integrate entries with a panchayat-level “panch-astra” home quarantine surveillance, the DC said.
The app provides a one-stop solution to all grievances of people during the lockdown period.
“The app’s workflow is simple and intuitive. Officials can connect with any person without having to connect with each and everyone,” he said.
The common man can connect with any officer without knowing the officer’s contact details or number.
WhatsApp was selected for the integrated helpline as it is the most commonly used medium.
“The helpline aids both officials and the common man. Anyone can send their grievances on WhatsApp number 98166-98166. Our back-end system will respond with a solution as soon as possible,” he said.
FOLLOW-UPS MADE EASY
“Systematisation and follow-ups have been made simple as the grievances are redirected to the officer concerned. The helpline facilitates officers in case of a law and order problem, quarantine violation, supply of essentials (ration and medicine), emergency, home delivery and curfew-pass management,” the DC said.
The app was launched on May 21 and the district authorities received 296 queries on the helpline and resolved them the same day.
Another, IT-enabled initiative is the Chamba Home Delivery android app, which helps to get supplies to people’s doorsteps.
Relax Chambyal Careline
For those emotionally distressed, the Relax Chambyal Careline has been launched. Both help lines are also integrated with the Syanu Helpline, said Bhatia.
The administration is also considering integrating barber and salon services on the platform.

domain: news


Final Hubble Repair Mission, HD
Sign in to YouTube
Sign in to YouTube
Sign in to YouTube
Uploaded on Jan 17, 2009
During the next servicing mission, Servicing Mission 4 (SM4), astronauts will make the final trip to the Hubble Telescope. Over the course of five spacewalks, they will install two new instruments, repair two inactive ones, and perform the component replacements that will keep the telescope functioning at least into 2014. The effort-intensive, rigorously researched, exhaustively tested mission also involves diverse groups of people on the ground throughout the country.
Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission 4
Servicing Mission 4 (SM4) is the final Shuttle mission for the Hubble Space Telescope. Astronauts will bring new instruments to Hubble along with gyros, batteries and other components crucial for the telescopes continued success through the year 2013.
With more than 17 years of historic and trailblazing science already accomplished, Hubble will be reborn with SM4. The mission will feature the installation of two new cutting-edge science instruments to enhance Hubbles capabilities by large factors, the refurbishment of Hubbles subsystems and extension of operating life to at least 2013. Astronauts will also attempt the first ever on-orbit repair of two existing instruments the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph and the Advanced Cameras for Surveys.
SM4 was originally planned for 2004, but was postponed after the Columbia Space Shuttle tragedy in 2003 and then canceled in light of Agency safety concerns. Following the successful recovery of the Shuttle program and a re-examination of SM4 risks, NASA approved one last servicing mission. The reinstated SM4 is currently scheduled for flight in Fall 2008.
The new instruments are the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and Wide Field Camera 3. A refurbished Fine Guidance Sensor will replace one degrading unit of three now onboard, and will maintain a robust ability to point the telescope. Astronauts will also install gyros, batteries and thermal blankets to ensure Hubble functions efficiently for a minimum of five years after servicing.
Repairs and a Future Rendezvous
Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph — STIS, the most versatile spectrograph ever to fly on Hubble, ceased operations in August 2004 due to failure of its power supply. In order to restore STIS to operational status, astronauts may attempt an on-orbit replacement of a failed electronics board inside one of its main electronics boxes. COS and STIS are highly complementary and would work effectively together to provide a full set of spectroscopic tools for astrophysical research.
Advanced Camera for Surveys — ACS has produced many of the most popular and dramatic images from the Hubble Space Telescope over the last few years, but in January 2007 the instrument had a serious power failure which caused the three observing channels, the Wide Field Channel, The Solar Blind Channel and the High Resolution channel, to cease operation. The Solar Blind Channel was returned to service in February 2007. Astronauts will attempt to repair the Advanced Camera for Surveys by replacing the CCD electronics box in the Wide Field Channel and power this box with a replacement low voltage power supply. If this repair is successful, ACS will again provide the most sensitive images available at visible and near-infrared wavelengths.
Soft Capture Mechanism — The SCM is a compact device that, when attached to the Hubble aft bulkhead, will enable and assist in the safe de-orbit of the Hubble Space Telescope at the end of its useful life. This circular mechanism has structures and targets that will allow a next-generation vehicle to more easily capture and guide the telescope into a safe controlled re-entry.
Standard YouTube License
- 1:00:02 STS 125 Mission Highlightsby NASA Featured 39,609
- 9:58 Space Shuttle carried on 747 on low approach, HDby Plasma Ben421,436 views
- 3:01 Space Tools used for Final Hubble Repair, HDby Plasma Ben2,587 views
- 3:59 Final Hubble Repair Mission Flyby, HDby Plasma Ben1,918 views
- 0:51 Shuttle Arrangement for Final Hubble Repair Mission, HDby Plasma Ben3,714 views
- 1:21:41 Hubble - 15 Years of Discovery (2005)by Paul Chattaway84,456 views
- 45:49 National Geographic: Hubbles Amazing Universeby Computationer110,425 views
- 100 videos Play all watchhhhhby oceanbluesky
- 13:22 Awesome pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope [1080p]by OrionnebelGalaxie17116,268 views
- 7:20 Hubble Space Telescope Images 2011 NASA & The Last Secret - Jonn Serrieby 1HarryH137,477 views
- 4:17 Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2009by ElyanSun4,225 views
- 2:38 The most important picture ever takenby dotphotovideo4,377,995 views
- 6:44 STS-125 Atlantis Hubble SM4 - Hubble Release [HD]by basvg16,723 views
- 47:29 Hubble - A Fronteira Finalby Mente Aguçada21,996 views
- 45:49 National Geographic: Hubbles Amazing Universeby UFO Disclosure Group273,149 views
- 4:21 The Majestic Beauty of the Cosmos (Hubble) HD Relaxing space music NASAby Relaxicity394,379 views
- 9:49 NASA UFO's; Hubble Space Telescope Repair May 2009by MrMunson24014,271 views
- 4:55 When Hubble Opened its New Eyesby AndromedasWake29,528 views
- 10:31 STS-127 Launch HDby NASA197,920 views
- 1:16:13 "Hubble-15 lat odkryć" [lektor PL]by wszystkonatentemat66,317 views


text:
|Home > East Asia >
U.S. sponsors resolution on China's rights abuses
The Epoch Times
The United States announced plans to introduce a resolution on China's human rights practices at the 2004 U.N. Commission on Human Rights meeting in Geneva.
Speaking at a press briefing on Monday, State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said, “The United States has been disappointed by China’s failure to meet the commitments made at the U.S.-China Human Rights Dialogue in December 2002 as well as its failure to follow through on its stated intention to expand cooperation on human rights in 2003.”
“We are also concerned about backsliding on key human rights issues that has occurred in a variety of areas since that time.” he continued.
China immediately announced it was suspending its human rights dialogue with the United States. Reuters news agency reported that Assistant Foreign Minister Shen Guofang told U.S. Ambassador Clark Randt, "The United States should bear all consequences that might arise from this."
The State Department announcement comes a week after a leading human rights organization called upon the U.S. to criticize China for its human rights violations.
“If President Bush needs more proof of China’s abusive practices, he need look no further than the litany of violations detailed in the U.S. State Department’s annual human rights report,” according to Brad Adams, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division.
In a statement issued March 17, Human Rights Watch said that China’s recent release of political prisoners such as the Tibetan nun Phuntsog Nyidron and Uighur businesswoman Rebiya Kadeer was an attempt to stave off a resolution without actually changing its human rights practices.
The State Department’s own annual human rights report, issued on February 25, condemned China for its worsening human rights record, citing an in crease in the arrests of democracy activists and Internet essayists, stepped up repression of the Falun Gong spiritual movement and a continuing crackdown on Muslim Uighurs in the name of fighting terrorism.
The U.N. Commission on Human Rights is in session March 15 through April 23. More than 3,000 delegates from member and observer States and from non-governmental organizations participate in the meetings each year.
The U.S. is urging other Commission members to support its resolution. It has introduced a similar resolution nearly every year since the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.
|© Copyright 2002-2007 AFAR|

domain: sociology


text:
The Philanthropist; Or, A Good Twenty-Five Cents Worth of Political Love Powder, for Honest Adamites and Jeffersonians
Dumfries, VA: [n.p.], 1799. Very Good. Item #11478
Dumfries, VA: [n.p.], 1799. Octavo. , 30 pp. Bound in modern grey cardstock wraps. Touch of spotting to title page; overall very good.
Scarce pamphlet from Parson Weems, who was the source of many apocryphal tales about George Washington (such as the tale of the cherry tree) and would go on to write the first biography of George Washington in 1800. Here Weems attempts to reconcile feuding Federalists and Republicans, and prints Washington's favorable recommendation on the title page. Printed on the second leaf is a dedicatory letter addressed to Washington from Weems.
[Evans 36697; Sabin 102492].

domain: literature


Doggett, Levin, McDermott Urge CMS to Grant Special Enrollment Period for ACA Sign-ups
WASHINGTON – Today, Ways and Means Committee Human Resources Subcommittee Ranking Member Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI), and Health Subcommittee Ranking Member Jim McDermott (D-WA) issued statements following the end of the Affordable Care Act’s open enrollment period urging CMS to grant a special enrollment period for individuals paying a Shared Responsibility Payment. In December, Rep. Doggett requested a special enrollment period in a letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS).
“A prompt announcement by CMS—free of any confusing delays or exceptions—will greatly benefit taxpayers as well as the many organizations across the country working to help people enroll,” said Rep. Doggett. “For the many families who may now be about to pay a penalty, there should be an opportunity to avoid both further penalties and to obtain affordable health insurance.”
“We strongly urge the Administration to consider a special enrollment period to give individuals who will be paying the Shared Responsibility Payment an opportunity to sign up for health insurance,” said Reps. Levin and McDermott. “The ACA enrollment period ended before many Americans filed their taxes. Without a special enrollment period, many people making a Shared Responsibility Payment won’t have another opportunity to get health coverage this year. We share in the Administration’s efforts to provide affordable insurance to all Americans, and believe that a special enrollment period would complement these efforts.”
The U.S. Treasury Department has estimated that between 3 million and 6 million taxpayers may make a Shared Responsibility Payment on their 2014 taxes.


A World War II bomb detonated in Great Britain, the sound of the explosion was heard up to 15 kilometers away while citizens felt the tremors in buildings.
According to foreign media, a 250-kilogram World War II bomb discovered 4 days ago in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, British county, was detonated and exploded.
Norfolk police officials say that British agencies, the military, the police and the bomb disposal squad have been busy trying to defuse the bomb for three days.
Police officials say that due to precautionary measures, there was no loss of life as a result of the blast, the area was evacuated before the administration took action to defuse the bomb and erected a sand wall at the bomb site. had gone
Police officials said that there was a pothole in the road at the site of the explosion, which has been opened for all types of traffic after being repaired.


text:
Our beef bones are hard to keep in stock! Popular to our Paleo, Westin Price and other health foodies, our beef bones make a delicious and nutritious bone broth or stock. We recommend slow cooking for 3 days to extract all of the minerals and other nutrients.Please note: Because weight of cuts in our inventory varies, prices are approximate. Final price will be adjusted before shipping.
Used these beefy bones to cook up bone broth in my instant pot along with some chicken feet I had on hand. Delicious and I appreciate knowing they are sourced from healthy cows!
I love making bone broth with these bones or giving them to the dog for a treat!!!!
tasty, fresh meat. Thank you
These bones made beautiful bone broth.

domain: food


text:
Hiv Evidence Infographic Other Hiv Prevention Strategies Health Communication Capacity
Download the full other hiv prevention strategies infographic. this infographic shows highlights of the evidence that health communication can make an impact on other hiv prevention strategies, such as partner reduction and cross generational sex. Lancet hiv 2015;2(12):e512 e519. donnell d, baeten jm, bumpus nn, et al. hiv protective efficacy and correlates of tenofovir blood concentrations in a clinical trial of prep for hiv prevention. j acq immun def syndr 2014;66:340. grant rm, lama jr, anderson pl, et al. preexposure chemoprophylaxis for hiv prevention in men who have sex with men. Infographics. this page includes infographics for various topics related to hiv including african americans, continuum of care, gay and bisexual men, hiv testing, latinos, pre exposure prophylaxis (prep), women, and youth. additional infographics used on social media are available from the hiv awareness day pages and the let’s stop hiv. The strategy sets bold targets for ending the hiv epidemic in the united states by 2030, including a 75% reduction in new hiv infections by 2025 and a 90% reduction by 2030. to guide the nation toward realizing the vision, the strategy focuses on four goals: prevent new hiv infections. improve hiv related health outcomes of people with hiv. In 2010, the white house released a national hiv aids strategy. the national hiv aids strategy was updated to 2020 (nhas 2020) in july 2015. the strategy includes 3 primary goals: reducing new hiv infections. increasing access to care and improving health outcomes for people living with hiv. reducing hiv related disparities and health inequities.
Global Aids Strategy 2021 2026 End Inequalities End Aids Pancap
Immune function is typically measured by cd4 cell count. the most advanced stage of hiv infection is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (aids), which can take many years to develop if not treated, depending on the individual. aids is defined by the development of certain cancers, infections or other severe long term clinical manifestations. Prevention of mother to child transmission (pmtct) treatment continuum; condom use; other prevention; using data to ensure scientifically sound investments will yield the greatest impact, the evidence outlined here makes the case for the value of health communication across each core hiv intervention area as defined by pepfar 3.0. to reach the. To prompt policymakers to revitalize hiv prevention, this study identifies a comprehensive list of hiv aids preventive interventions that are likely to be effective and cost effective in thailand. methods: a systematic review of the national and international literature on hiv prevention strategies from 1997 to 2008 was undertaken.
Hiv Aids Prevention Infographics Visual Ly
today, more tools than ever are available to prevent hiv. this video answers important questions about hiv prevention. jhpiego's kelly curan and tigistu adamu explain new approaches for hiv prevention that bridge the gap between communities hiv is the virus that causes aids. hiv is considered a sexually transmitted disease (std) because it can be spread through teachaids ( teachaids.org) is a nonprofit social venture founded at stanford university that creates breakthrough interactive in conjunction with brian zanoni of harvard medical school the harvard university cfar presents basic course in hiv. basic visit us ( khanacademy.org science healthcare and medicine) for health and medicine content or what are hiv & aids? hiv, or human immunodeficiency virus, is a type of virus that infects human immune cells. over time the u.s. federal response to the global fight against hiv aids, through the president's emergency plan for aids relief hiv aids 101 is a video that uses new technologies, cutting edge graphics and story to convey the most important messages that to learn more about licensing this video for content marketing or patient education purposes, visit: this seminar was part of the 2011 cdc sponsored lecture series, "hiv aids: 30 years of leadership and lessons". the program yourekascience.org portfolio demystifying hiv pre exposure prophylaxis prep, short for pre exposure prophylaxis, is a


text:
Also Discussed in this Essay:
The Name of the Rose
Harvest Books ($15)
The Aesthetics of Chaosmos: The Middle Ages of James Joyce
Harvard University Press ($15)
by Summer Block
Mundus Senescit: Umberto Eco recreates the Middle Ages
Umberto Eco's recent historical novel Baudolino opens with a sort of gibberish made up of Latin, German, Italian, and English, a gleeful combination of inside jokes, puns, and scholarly winks and nods. The tale, written on top of an earlier history that has been scratched off the parchment but occasionally peeks through, is a story in a story in a story on a story. If that sounds complicated—well, it is. Trickster Baudolino, an unreliable narrator by his own unreliable report, tells his long life story to Niketas, an historian whom Baudolino hopes will be able to give shape and meaning to an otherwise almost-random-series of events and decisions. From the very beginning, Eco is playing with myth, truth, history, and storytelling—and tackling a project far more lofty than Niketas'.
With the recent publication of Baudolino, Umberto Eco returns to writing fiction set in the Middle Ages—and creates an ultimate symbol for medieval thought and history, in its own time and in our own. Eco's concern for medieval philosophy, present in both his popular and scholarly works, is in fact a sort of nostalgia for a time now much maligned and misunderstood, a forgotten kingdom of intellect and imagination. Very much a realist, Eco never suggests we can—or should—return to a medieval mindset (Society for Creative Anachronism aside, no one who truly knows the Middle Ages could ever wish to live it over.) But in medieval thought he finds an elegant system, though one that was obsessed with its own eventual irrelevance and decay. In his essays, he expounds on the tension that exists between medieval and modern thought; in his novel The Name of the Rose, he heralds the emergence of the modern man; in his new Baudolino, the book itself is a symbol for medieval thought, its triumphs, its failures, and its eventual decline.
Baudolino starts realistically enough, with the adoption of the young peasant Baudolino by the emperor Frederick. Baudolino becomes a symbol of the new social mobility of the late Middle Ages, when urban centers and burgeoning nations created footholds for merchants and even peasants in the upper classes. Quick-witted and gifted with languages, Baudolino is sent to study in Paris, where he meets up with a group of friends (characters that are sadly never much developed). Baudolino falls in love twice, marries, takes part in battles and sieges, and generally leads a remarkable—but believable—life.
Our hero, however, is obsessed with the myth of Prester John, a legendary king and priest who rules a mythical empire in the east. Prester John's story begins to take on a life of its own when Baudolino shares the tale with his classmates, each of whom contributes to the kingdom whatever vision they hope to find there (for a Jewish scholar, it is the lost tribes of Israel; for a romantic poet, it is a cherished woman). Soon, they devise a letter in which Prester John describes to Frederick his fabulous kingdom, and its most fabulous treasure—the fabled Holy Grail. What begins as a political ploy spins out of hand, as copies of the letter—all altered slightly from the original—spread out. As the lie disseminates, history becomes entwined with myth. Baudolino and his friends soon set off to find this mythical land—a land they themselves invented—and find there precisely what they expected. The word becomes the world, and the last half of the book is as full of monsters and magic as any fantasy novel. Not surprisingly, Baudolino makes some bold assertions about language and reality, but none so bold as the very model of the book itself-as Baudolino's world fades into the sunset of dreams, so too does the whole medieval world, its philosophical models and ideas, even our perception of it, clouded by myth and time.
Mundus senescit: The medieval world anticipates its own decline
Just two years after the publication of The Name of the Rose, Eco laid out his own version of the medieval system in his slim volume The Aesthetics of Chaosmos: The Middle Ages of James Joyce, in which he makes a convincing argument for Joyce as a medieval man—or, more appropriately, a man in whom a basic medieval understanding warred with a modern sensibility. This battle between the medieval and the modern, of course, is as much a hallmark of Eco as of Joyce, and one doesn't have to think too far ahead to watch Eco carry out the same sort of drama he attributes to Joyce. In this essay, Eco devotes a section to "The Medieval Model," in which he presents a sort of "Middle Ages for dummies," a simplified, practical key to medieval thinking. Naturally, the section says as much about Eco as it does about either Joyce or medieval writers; in this section, we learn what to expect in Eco's historical fiction.
"The medieval thinker," Eco begins, "cannot conceive, explain, or manage the world without inserting into the framework of an Order." True enough. It's easy today to imagine the Middle Ages as a time of great intellectual chaos, even stupidity. In fact, the Middle Ages was a time of great intellectual rigor and passion, born out of a need to bring order to the chaos unfolding in religion and politics, the ravages of disease and greed, the uncertainties of a changing world. When errors were made—and they often were—they were not the result of chaos, but the result of an excess of reason. When the order is primary, stubborn details that do not fit must be altered or disregarded. Yet this reason-before-reality system is not evidence of faulty thinking, only of different goals. Their reliance on systems, after all, was no less a liability than the modern thinker's, who cannot explain the whole for the tyranny of details.
All around was unrest and dissolution, but still there remained immense intellectual potential. The world was waiting to be remade. Classical thinkers, while still respected, were to be assimilated or ultimately discarded; after Christianity, all thought and experience was new again, waiting to be explained, classified, and ultimately redeemed.
In his essay, Eco contrasts medieval order with the disorder of modernity and post-modernity—a jumble of signs and references, a movement "from the ordered cosmos of scholasticism to the verbal image of an expanding universe." Still, within this ordered cosmos a wilderness is contained, a "grid of allusions." "The medieval mind," Eco goes on, "does not fear innovation, it conceals changes under the form of commentaries." This dialogue among texts, part of "an unlimited chain of relations between creatures and events," unfolds as "history telling itself to itself." This very idea of speaker and reference is at the heart of Baudolino, where the character tells his history—and, by extension, the story of the whole medieval period—to another, and the story is spread and changed even as the world it depicts diminishes and gradually passes away.
Eco cites here the common medieval wisdom, "Mundus senescit" (which he refers to in both The Name of the Rose and Baudolino as well). The Latin phrase sums up the basic medieval nostalgia, the preoccupation with age and decay; then, too, it describes the eventual decline of the medieval system under the pressures of modern thought. Eco uses it to invoke the way the very notion of the "Middle Ages" has declined in popular imagination, straying off into myths of King Arthur and dragons, the real substance and detail of everyday life increasingly difficult to imagine.
Mundus senescit: Eco charts the passing of the medieval era
Language, storytelling, detail, and order are all embedded in Eco's first medieval novel, The Name of the Rose. In this mystery story, a forward-thinking monk and his apprentice are called to an abbey—and its vast library—to solve a series of murders. Using signs, the monk William interprets the clues in the natural world, coming to conclusions in a thoroughly modern way. He maneuvers through the ordered library, itself a model of an ordered world, and masters it; finally, the ordered library is itself destroyed and its knowledge forever lost. Naturally, it is easy to see in this story an allegory for the dissolution of the medieval philosophical system and the rise to prominence of the scientific method and all it entails. Eco is quick to complicate the matter, however, by telling The Name of the Rose in a series of frames—William's apprentice, Adso, tells the story, which is supposedly found in manuscript form, an "Italian version of an obscure, neo-Gothic French version of a seventeenth-century Latin edition of a work written in Latin by a German monk toward the end of the fourteenth century." This self-conscious list of references naturally calls into doubt the veracity of the text and its translation; already the ordered intellectual world of the Middle Ages is on shaky ground.
Adso opens his story meditating on "the disaster of an aging world," its unruliness and vice. He remembers fondly his teacher, the monk William, a man who could "read the great book of nature," though perhaps also sensing that William is the sort of modern man of science, of detail, that is bringing down the order he mourns. The story progresses, all contained in the space of only a few days, in the small space of one abbey. Following these unities of place and time, The Name of the Rose is a small work, but one that contains hints of bigger things. The murder weapon—a poisoned book—is the first sign that The Name of the Rose is more than just a mystery novel. The book presages the work that Eco will produce in time. In fact, a list of monsters, found in an illuminated library text, alludes to precisely the same sort of monsters that appear in the flesh in the great, sprawling adventures of Baudolino, stories whose only unity is in their own telling.
The Name of the Rose is a relentlessly practical book. After all, there is a murder to solve, and that sort of directedness does not allow the wild game of allusions that leads Baudolino everywhere but to the point. Yet at the end there is a key, a way to unlock the mysteries of the library and tear down its rigid order. Adso stumbles on this clue almost by mistake, causing William to exclaim, "Why, of course . . . the discourse is presumed de dicto and not de re." Of words and not of things: this little line is the key to more than just the mystery. In Baudolino, Eco will create a vast system of allusions, lies, jokes, puns, myths—a world of words and not of things, a modern system of texts that defy any order.
Mundus senescit: The medieval world fades into obscurity
Enter Baudolino, Eco's return to fiction and the culmination of his nostalgia, his predictions, his games, and his lessons. Baudolino is full of everything—history, magic, philosophy, science, theology. There are debates about the nature of the vacuum, the nature of the Grail, the nature of the Trinity. It is as if Eco meant this book to be a compendium of everything medieval, every idea, every system, a real, wide world fading to memory and myth. In The Name of the Rose, the book did it; here, the book is it, the lesson, the device, the universe. (Medieval literature, too, is replete with frame stories, dream visions, and unreliable narrators.)
If The Name of the Rose is the Middle Ages that was, Baudolino is the Middle Ages that we see now, looking backwards, its details dissolving into myths and misconceptions and generalities. When Baudolino and his companions ride off to find a place they made up themselves, Eco refutes the very notion of the accurate and the real. Baudolino's lies become reality, while annihilating the very possibility of reality and order, annihilating the library of The Name of the Rose, annihilating itself. You can imagine the giddiness with which the wise semiotics professor employs language to simultaneously create and destroy, to usher in a modernity of information and communication and dissolve forever the stately calm of the medieval system.
While The Name of the Rose is small in scope, Baudolino is huge. It tackles every issue: war and peace, the creation and dissolution of cities, the creation and dissolution of kingdoms. These issues were at the forefront of the medieval consciousness as well; the birth of nations, the need to bring fractured and warring kin groups together for "national" interests, the rise of urban power centers and the university elite, the violent conflict between Church and state—all of these demanded a system of political and religious thought that could put order to chaos.
Authenticity is at the very heart of Baudolino, where much of the plot hinges on phony relics. Baudolino even carries a phony Grail, one he himself fabricated, and comes to guard it through years of wandering torment with the passion of a believer. In Eco's world, believing makes it so, whether it is a phony relic or a phony kingdom. "When you say something you've imagined, and others then say that's exactly how it is, you end up believing it yourself," Baudolino explains to Niketas. Baudolino uses his fabulous stories to deceive, to seduce, to entertain, and to encourage—and the listener has an eager ear, because he is waiting to be lied to. Often, Baudolino lies out of a sense of duty; of three phony relics, the supposed bodies of the Magi, he says it was "up to me to give those three bodies a new Bethlehem." And you believe him, because you can hear in his voice how much he wants to believe himself.
The mythical kingdom of Prester John may or may not be real, but real is no longer a category worth considering. Previously, in the medieval system, the world was organized and ranked, a great chain of being that accounted for all things. Baudolino represents a new world of half-truths and relativity, a world without organization or rank. At the end of his life, Baudolino is bound to his lies, committed to living out the truth he made. He lives in his own mad dreams and wills them into reality. Whether this is a punishment for lying or a gift for genius, one can't say.
Baudolino is certainly a novel of the head and not the heart. The characters are more allegorical than personal, the allusions and cleverness make it hard to feel a bond of affect with the characters. Yet Eco intended to make Baudolino not only an allegory for medievalism and its decline, but a lesson about truth and memory. Again and again, reading the novel, you want to ask, "How could that obviously phony letter fool them all?" But we are all fooled by narratives of our own devising, sometimes heroically, sometimes tragically. Eco, too, is a victim of his wildest dreams, for while he struggles to save medieval scholasticism from the dustbin of history, he takes another step toward fabulous obscurity.
Rain Taxi Online Edition, Winter 2002/2003 | © Rain Taxi, Inc. 2002/2003

domain: library


text:
Many have tried — and failed — to define Surly. Contrary to popular belief, we’re not a bunch of deranged, clown-obsessed, serial killer wannabes — well, not all of us. We’re not drunk 24/7 and we don’t live in the woods behind our office anymore. What we are is an assortment of personalities and humanoids all brought together by one common interest: bike nerdom. We make serious steel bikes for people who don’t take themselves too seriously.
We don’t like to talk down to other frame materials. Instead, we’re adamant that steel is the best material for the kinds of bikes we design and ride. Our ‘Natch!’ tube sets are designed by our engineers to match the intended use and loading characteristics of each individual model. Size-specific tube sets, Custom butting profiles, proprietary forks, design details out the wazoo... all these features create the “Surly Ride” – comfort and compliance – that is consistent across all Surly bikes.

domain: design


text:
Coming Soon? Blockbuster movie? Someone better and wiser than the current ACA Director General?
KUALA LUMPUR, April 2 (Bernama) -- The new director-general of the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) will be announced as soon as possible, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Monday.
The ACA deputy director-general would be acting ACA chief for the time being, he told reporters after opening the Heads of Malaysian Missions conference here.
The agency has two deputy directors-general -- Datuk Ahmad Said Hamdan is Deputy Director-General I while Datuk Zakaria Jaffar is Deputy Director-General II.
Abdullah was queried on who would become the new director-general following the government's decision not to renew the contract of Datuk Seri Zulkipli Mat Noor which expired on March 31.
On police investigation into allegations of corruption and abuse of power levelled against Zulkipli, Abdullah said: "Investigation papers are not to be revealed."
Police have set up a special team of 10 officers from Bukit Aman and the Kuala Lumpur Police Contingent to conduct the probe.
It has so far recorded statements from 21 witnesses.
The allegations against Zulkipli was made by former ACA Sabah director Mohamad Ramli Abdul Manan.
tags : anti corruption agency aca director general malaysia abdullah ahmad badawi
| Related Articles : |

domain: law


Ep.1 trailer added for JTBC drama series “Monthly House” starring Jung So-Min & Kim Ji-Suk. The trailer shows how the two main characters first meet. Na Young-Won (Jung So-Min) is kicked out of her rental apartment, because the apartment is sold to Yoo Ja-Sung (Kim Ji-Suk) at an auction. They meet again when Na Young-Won begins to work as an editor at Monthly House Magazine, where Yoo Ja-Sung works as the CEO.
“Monthly House” first airs June 16, 2021 in South Korea.


text:
The need for water treatment and reuse is increasing globally and membrane bioreactor technology (MBR) is a proven technology to fulfill this. Fouling is still the limiting factor to run high performance and energy efficient installations. Berghof Membrane Technology produces tubular ultrafiltration membranes and modules for the use in sidestream MBR applications. The advantage of these tubular membranes with inner tube diameters ranging from 5 till 10 mm is the throughput of flows with high suspended solid contents (up to 25 g/L MLSS) without clogging the module. The external configuration allows inside-out filtration, which permits excellent fouling control, efficient and easy cleanability, and the optimization of process and membrane/module design leads to reduced energy consumption.
We will report on the experiences we made respective to established filtration modes: crossflow with and without backwash (Biopulse resp. Bioflow). A direct comparison was performed for a period of 14 months in an installation used in tannery wastewater treatment. The Biopulse-configuration performed at a lower crossflow velocity. Although, the investment cost are 20% higher, the energy consumption is reduced by 45% and the process stability was improved.


text:
Screenings Fall 2009
Lola (2008) Ghosts and Gravel Roads (2008) and Lola (2008) will be screening at the following venues and festivals: Pacific Cinematheque (DIM Cinema), programmer Amy Lynn Kazymerchyk, The Films of the Double Negative Collective, September 28th DIM Cinema Pacific Cinematheque Festival du film de Saint-Severin, October 2nd http://www.festivalcineseverin.org Gimme Truth: The Winnipeg Documentary Project, October […]
GGR // EXiS // SPLICE MAGAZINE
Ghosts and Gravel Roads will be screening at the EXiS Experimental Festival in Seoul, South Korea, in September as part of the Competition Section Ex-Now. In other news, an article written by One Take Super 8 Event founder Alex Rogalski for Splice Magazine features myself and other prominent Saskatchewan filmmakers including Brian Stockton and Lea […]
GGR // Curt.doc Festival Internacional de Curtmetratges Documentals de Vidreres
photo credit: Jessica Grosman Ghosts and Gravel Roads was awarded 2nd Prize at the Curt.doc Festival Internacional de Curtmetratges Documentals de Vidreres this week. The jury comprised of film critic Angel Quintana, director German Garcia, programmer Carlos Puig, and producer German Garcia picked German director Wolfram Huke’s film Stiller abtrag (2007) as Best Film. Curt.doc […]
The Eye of the Storm
On June 30th 1912, Regina Saskatchewan was thrashed by a powerful tornado that destroyed the residential and warehouse districts of the downtown core and near Wascana Lake. To this date it remains one of the most deadliest tornadoes in Canada’s history. The tornado killed 28 people and injured thousands. Approximately 500 buildings were either destroyed […]
Nightwood // Electric!
Check out more photos on FLICKER For more information about Nightwood // Check HERE and HERE
Yesterday I watched a rough cut from Marianna Milhorat‘s new film and we had a discussion about beginnings / entries / openings. After thinking about opening sequences and title credits later in the afternoon my mind started to wonder to the work of Pablo Ferro, a self taught animator. Ferro created numerous opening credits for […]
From the series Subway Portraits (1938 – 1941) by Walker Evans
Everett Baker – Saskatchewan in Kodachrome
As summer approaches, nostalgia of Saskatchewan overwhelms me. I was born and raised in the prairie province and most of my films are shot there. Recently I purchased a book about the photography work of Everett Baker, a field man for the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. His job took him on travels to remote places in […]
What’s Playing Tonight?
Ingmar Bergman – Persona (1966) Hiroshi Sugimoto – Tri City Drive In 1993 Weegee – Lovers at the Movies 1940 Hiroshi Sugimoto – Cinerama Dome Hollywood 1993 Edward Hopper – New York Movie 1939 Edward Ruscha – Exit 1990 Artists: Ingmar Bergman Hiroshi Sugimoto Weegee Edward Hopper Edward Ruscha


A service that will specifically help island residents who live with chronic illnesses has been soft launched with a view to be fully open to referrals in the next month.
Funding for the service, which will support those living with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME)/ chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and ‘Long Covid’, was approved by Tynwald in February of this year with work beginning on the service in April according to Health and Social Care Minister Rob Callister MHK.
Mr Callister updated the chamber on the service’s progress after a question from Daphne Caine MHK and also praised the efforts of ME Support Isle of Man, who have advised the Manx Care team working on the service. Juan Corlett, chairman of the group, said: ‘Manx Care’s new team are passionate and enthusiastic, and the service is based on the latest guidance.
‘The nature of these conditions is that the service will not provide a cure, but the therapy programme will help individuals to manage their own condition and the new pathway will make diagnoses more robust.
‘The team will be supporting those recently diagnosed and long-standing cases, so there could be a high number of referrals initially. The new service is a big step in the right direction and we look forward to helping it grow.’
On the recent progress of the service, Mr Callister said: ‘After an expansion of the multidisciplinary team to three clinicians, two therapists, one clinical psychologist and a GP with a special interest in ME/CFS and Long Covid, over the summer, the service soft-launched in mid-September, meaning that patients who have been on the waiting list for the longest have started to be triaged in preparation for commencement of assessment and treatment.’
ME/CFS is a complex illness which is thought to affect 0.2-0.4% of the population with a variety of symptoms including ‘fatigue, pain, poor memory, “brain fog”, orthostatic intolerance, sleep disturbance, hypersensitivity to sound and light, IBS, and swollen glands’.
The service will fully launch once the full team is installed, which is expected to be within the next four weeks.


text:
Today I started the morning by creating a new banner to publicize the feedback survey currently on the Z-arts website, customer feedback is vital for everything so I knew this was important. The banner is now up on the website and by giving feedback, customers have the chance to win tickets to one of the performances at Z-arts.
Talking of performances, today I got the chance to view a unique piece of children’s theatre which was being performed in the theatre. All of the nursery school aged children viewing the performance sat still, entranced and barely made a sound (apart from laughter) throughout the performance. ‘Casa’ was not puppetry or animation, instead it was a piece of interpretative theatre designed for young minds and unlike anything I have seen before. Only 2 actors were featured with little speech involved but they still managed to hold the attention of a young audience and portray a simple story- a cute tale of friendship.
At the end of this performance the young children were invited up into the stage space to play with water and bubbles with the two actors, I feel this audience interaction will have been really exciting for the toddlers after all that sitting still, To find out more about ‘Casa’ then follow this link – http://www.testoniragazzi.it/produz.php?iddoc=1733
After watching the performance I settled down to add listings for all of the regular Z-arts activities to the Manchester City Council website. Most of these will be free or free to Bright Sparks members. After this I did the same with the upcoming shows, putting the event listings on Netmums and Mumsnet. After lunch I did the same on Skiddle and updated the website with the details for an event called ‘Harmonise’ before doing some work on Z-arts ‘Mix it up Families’ activities; it is an art club for adults and children to do crafts together- a great way to bond in a relaxing environment.
For a bit of a break from the computer screen, it was suggested I went to do some photography of the current changing exhibit- Syria: Reaching Out to Children and Parents of War, the exhibit was really interesting and insightful. It featured drawings that children in the middle of the conflict had drawn showing innocent children’s perspectives and how they differ, it was quite emotional to look at some of the pictures. You can read more about the exhibition here- http://www.z-arts.org/events/syria-reaching-out-to-children-and-parents-of-war/ The exhibition also had a film being shown, delicious Syrian food such as flat-breads, nuts and Baklava and children’s activities.
To end my days work I updated Facebook with some colorful photos taken at the Giving Tree event, where children of supporters of the center had added their hand-prints to the wall. This was my favorite of the pictures, and probably the most colorful! (I also love the little girls cat ear headband! very cute!)
Thanks for reading!


The Waukesha Taxpayer League has a handy-dandy timeline on the controversial OPEB Trust Fund. Just in time, Director of Business Services/Comptroller Erik Kass is leaving for the Madison school district.
School official set to take Madison job
Waukesha - In addition to finding a new superintendent, the Waukesha School Board now will have to replace its top business official after the one it hired less than 1 1/2 years ago accepted another job.
Erik Kass, the Waukesha district's executive director of business services, has been offered a job as assistant superintendent of business in the Madison Metropolitan School District. His appointment is scheduled to be voted on by Madison's School Board on May 5, said Bob Nadler, Madison's executive director of human resources.
"It was an extremely tough decision," said Kass, 29, who had served as the Waukesha district's controller for about three years before taking over the top business job in January 2007. "I love my job here, and it's nothing against Waukesha."
Madison has been without a permanent business manager for nearly a year.
Meanwhile, you might have missed Amy Hetzner's critical piece in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Online on borrow-to-invest schemes for school districts:
Five Wisconsin public school districts’ decision to borrow-to-invest to help fund employee retirement benefits has spurred a column in the online edition of a national trade magazine cautioning other public officials who might have similar ideas.Perhaps if the problem because widespread enough the legislature might show an interest in the matter. Maybe Erik Kass will bring the same plan to the Madison school district and put it right under their noses.
The column, which is now on the Web site for the Governing magazine, is skeptical of the schemes, in which the districts formed trusts that borrowed millions of dollars that they invested in collateralized debt obligations. As global interest rates have changed, the value of the CDOs purchased by the districts – Kenosha, Kimberly, Waukesha, West Allis-West Milwaukee and Whitefish Bay – have plummeted.
An upcoming article in the New York Times Magazine, slated for publication on Sunday, explains why some CDOs with high credit ratings are no longer the safe investments they were thought to be.
The Governing.com column, in addition to warning municipalities and school districts about borrowing for their retirement liabilities, also suggests federal regulators “look into this fiasco” in Wisconsin.


text: I have hatched under a broody before... I have always brought them into the house and let them do their job.. removed them when they were hatched and sent mom back to coop and raised the babies in the house till they were old enough to go to the coop thi time I dont have the space to bring mom(s) I have 2 broodies- into the house so they are brooding out in the coop. Both of them are in one nest its actually funny and cute what happens when they hatch? the babies cant get down out of the nest on their own so I will have to come up with some sort of brooder and put it in the coop but I want mom to be able to keep them warm and do all the work her self but if she can get in and out to eat will the others go in and kill the babies? i will make the brooder big enough for the babies not to get out i will give them their own food and water.. but i am worried that the other will cause harm... any suggestions?

domain: pet


text:
The best of EcoWatch, right in your inbox. Sign up for our email newsletter!
Army Corps OKs Access to Alaskan Oil Reserve
Conoco Phillips was issued a key federal permit (under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act) by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Dec. 19 to begin work on the first-ever commercial oil well in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A).
According to an Army Corps press release about the project, the modified wetlands-fill permit authorizes construction of a drill pad, six-mile long access road, four bridge crossings, two valve pads with access roads and new pipeline support structures connecting its CD-5 project with the Alpine oil field on state land just east of the petroleum reserve. It also includes 22 conditions intended to minimize the impact on the environment within the Arctic Coastal Plain. In addition, Conoco Phillips agreed to pay mitigation fees to the Conservation Fund to compensate for unavoidable losses to aquatic resources.
Here's the Corps' fact sheet about the permit.
Initially, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Fish and Wildlife Service objected to a bridge and a pipeline that the energy giant has wanted to build over the Colville River to reach its leases in the 23-million-acre North Slope reserve. The decision by the Alaskan District of the Corps comes two weeks after these agencies removed their objection.
The petroleum reserve on the North Slope was originally created by President Warren Harding in 1923 and covers 23 million acres—an area slightly smaller than the state of Indiana. As of July, the reserve had 310 authorized oil and gas leases totaling more than three million acres. A federal lease sale Dec. 7 took high bids of $3 million for 141,739 more acres. This project is expected to be the first in a chain of small oil fields in the NPR-A that would feed into the Conoco Phillips-operated Alpine field on state land.
In October 2010, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated there were nearly 900 million barrels of oil and 53 trillion cubic feet of natural gas within NPR-A and adjacent state waters. The oil estimate was about 90 percent less than what USGS had projected in 2002.
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
Dairy aisles have exploded with milk and milk alternative options over the past few years, and choosing the healthiest milk isn't just about the fat content.
Whether you're looking beyond cow's milk for health reasons or dietary preferences or simply want to experiment with different options, you may wonder which type of milk is healthiest for you.
At least 1,688 dams across the U.S. are in such a hazardous condition that, if they fail, could force life-threatening floods on nearby homes, businesses, infrastructure or entire communities, according to an in-depth analysis of public records conducted by the the Associated Press.
By Sabrina Kessler
Far-reaching allegations about how a climate-sinning American multinational could shamelessly lie to the public about its wrongdoing mobilized a small group of New York students on a cold November morning. They stood in front of New York's Supreme Court last week to follow the unprecedented lawsuit against ExxonMobil.
By Alex Robinson
Leah Garcés used to hate poultry farmers.
The animal rights activist, who opposes factory farming, had an adversarial relationship with chicken farmers until around five years ago, when she sat down to listen to one. She met a poultry farmer called Craig Watts in rural North Carolina and learned that the problems stemming from factory farming extended beyond animal cruelty.
Temperatures plunged rapidly across the U.S. this week and around 70 percent of the population is expected to experience temperatures around freezing Wednesday.
In April, he claimed they caused cancer, and he sued to stop an offshore wind farm that was scheduled to go up near land he had purchased for a golf course in Aberdeenshire in Scotland. He lost that fight, and now the Trump Organization has agreed to pay the Scottish government $290,000 to cover its legal fees, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.


text:
Be the first to write a recommendation.
to write a recommendation.
“an album full of strong and beautifully simplistic musical ideas..one of my favorite records of 2014 so far”Mojo Magazine
"if there's any justice, it'll be big...You get everything from narcotic late-night lullabies to multi-lingual wordplay to the glorious mambo weirdness of the title track"The New York Times
"nonchalant, elusive, sophisticated and resolutely hedonistic music that connects the Velvet Underground and Talking Heads…charming"The Real Music
"a debut record full of rich and varied melody, picture-painting lyricism and an almost tangible level of emotional candour"more >>The Underground Of Happiness
"The world suddenly looks a whole lot better with some Sabina in it"The Line Of Best Fit
“Toujours reminisces to an age of simple love songs, and Sabina encapsulates a more elegant, subtle popstar in the milieu of Serge Gainsbourg’s Paris…wonderfully atmospheric.”Independent on Sunday
"A delightful Indie pop record that's by turns intense, playful and touching"NME
"The tunes – from the devilishly catchy to the clattering, and the swoonsome, panoramic - are superb. You’ll feel love."more >>Q Magazine
"brings an engaging spirit of defiant romance"more >>MOJO Magazine
"An effervescent, boho mix of elegantly mutold dance-pop and post-punk art-moods recorded in Paris...a thread of seafaring intrigue running throughout"more >>Sleep in Music
“retro euro-pop madness with a saucy French vibe and 60’s style vocals”

domain: entertainment


text:
Records published April 3, 2020
Villard man injured in crash
NEW LONDON — A Villard man suffered non-life-threatening injuries when two semitractors collided Thursday morning in the intersection of U.S. Highway 71 and state Highway 9 near Sibley State Park in rural New London, according to the Minnesota State Patrol.
Bobby Lee Christian Funk, 40, was transported to Rice Memorial Hospital in Willmar after his 2007 International semi hit another truck that entered the intersection. He was northbound on Highway 71 when he struck a 2013 Freightliner semi that was traveling eastbound on Highway 9 and had stopped at Highway 71 before entering the intersection. Driver Mihajlo Korceba, 21, of Tacoma, Washington, was not injured, according to the report.
Both drivers were wearing their seat belts and neither of their airbags deployed, according to the State Patrol.
According to the report, Korceba suffered no injuries.
Road conditions were dry and alcohol was not involved, according to the State Patrol.
Lifelink, the Kandiyohi Sheriff's Office, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and New London Fire and Ambulance also responded to the accident reported at 9:40 a.m. Thursday.
WILLMAR — A 34-year-old was arrested on a warrant at 3:05 p.m. Wednesday on the 1200 block of Pleasant View Drive Southeast.
According to the incident report, the man had been threatening staff at the group home.
WILLMAR — A 46-year-old man was arrested for violating a harassment restraining order around 11:45 a.m. Thursday on the 300 block of 17th Street Northwest.
According to the incident report, the man tried contacting his ex the night before.
WILLMAR — An officer noticed unreported graffiti on multiple sides of a house around 1:45 p.m. Thursday on the 900 block of Third Street Southwest.
The graffiti was demeaning toward a specific person and the house appeared to be unoccupied. The front door was sealed with a yellow tag stating it was unoccupied, according to the incident report.
The officer spoke with a neighbor who said a separate person was known to sleep in the building on occasion.
Hit and run
WILLMAR — A Ford F-150 pickup pulling a trailer sideswiped an unoccupied gold Jeep and then left the area, according to an incident report. The hit and run was reported around 12:47 p.m. Thursday on the 1300 block of Fifth Street Southeast.
WILLMAR — A party reported a stolen car at around 8:30 a.m. Thursday on the 3100 block of Seventh Avenue Northwest. The car was reported to have been stolen Tuesday, according to the incident report.
WILLMAR — A bike was reported stolen at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday on the 2000 block of Fifth Street Southwest.