The third Tuesday of September will bring this month’s second Planning Commission meeting, and another installment in my effort to demystify the Town’s development review process and provide some insight on development applications that Town Council may be considering in the near future. (If you’d read the last edition, you’d have been one of the first to learn of the 12-story residential building proposed on East Rosemary St.)
First, the basics: As always, you can find Planning Commission agendas on the Town’s agenda website. Just scroll down and click “Meeting Details” next to the upcoming meeting. That link will take you to a web page for the meeting, including a link to the hard copy (PDF) of the agenda which includes links to supporting documents, and individual pages for each item that is being discussed.
The first two items on the agenda are approval of previous meetings’ minutes. By reviewing the minutes of the September 5 meeting, you’ll learn the commission unanimously (though with some reluctance) recommended approval of a modification to the affordable housing development at 2200 Homestead—we were disappointed that fewer affordable units are proposed for the site than previously. In addition, the Planning Commission recommended approval of the 12-story residential building at 157 East Rosemary.
This week, the Commission is asked to review two development applications and provide a recommendation to the Town Council, which has the authority to make decisions on the applications.
This is a residential project on the corner of Huse Street/Pope Road and Old Chapel Hill Road, on the northeastern end of Chapel Hill. It’s a combination of what were previously two separate projects—one just north of Old Chapel Hill Road (introduced in 2021), and one south of it (introduced in 2022). It was previously before the Town Council for a public hearing in June, where it received some opposition from neighbors as well as some critical comments from the elected officials.
After going back to the drawing board, the applicant is back with a revised proposal. The current configuration includes between 290 and 329 residential units, split across Old Chapel Hill Road. The northern portion includes an apartment building with just under 200 units, while the southern portion includes between 100 and 130 dwelling units split between townhomes and cottage homes.
Both components will include affordable housing opportunities. For the northern site, the applicant has provided two options — 10 rental units available to households at or below 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI), and 10 rental units available to households at or below 65% of AMI; or, 14 rental units available to households at or below 60% of AMI. For the southern site, the developer proposes that 15% of the units be affordable—as with the rest of the units no the south side, all will be for sale.
Here’s how the developer states the project supports the “Community Choices” goal of Chapel Hill 2020, the town’s comprehensive plan:
The project will provide small and medium sized rental apartments in urban style buildings. This gives Town residents a choice of apartment style living which is not garden-style walk up, but a more urban framework that features larger community spaces. The apartment building will be an urban style interior corridor loaded facility with interior amenities as well as site recreation facilities. The facility to the north will be marketed to young professionals and empty nesters with a majority of units being 1-bedroom, which are unlikely to attract families or student populations. However, the residential offerings on the south side will have the opportunity for sale units in the form of townhomes with or without flex space for work or ADUs, and small single family detached houses. This variety of housing product will promote a diversity of residents – diversity in age, life stage, and income levels.
The applicant suggests the development supports the Sustainability goal by providing dense housing, and protecting existing forest on the and stream/RCD buffers on the north size.
Town staff state the project is consistent with town policy except for the Future Land Use Map (FLUM) on the south site, which calls for lower-density residential development than is included in the proposal.
At its meeting last week, the Town Council moved the public hearing for this project to its September 27 meeting, so it should be back before council shortly.
This is a residential project proposed for the site right on the southeast edge of Chapel Hill, on the corner of Stancell Drive (which runs next to NC 54 heading out to I-40) and Barbee Chapel Road, diagonally across from Meadowmont. It’s tucked a bit behind the gas station and car wash and extends towards the east. You may recall it as near one of the stations for the proposed Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit project, and without that level of transit service, what’s being proposed is a typical automobile-oriented rental apartment complex.
The development proposes between 390 and 500 apartments; some will be in buildings up to five stories in height (the buildings closer to NC 54), while the buildings to the south will be no more than three stories in height. The developer can provide a maximum of between 452 and 567 car parking spaces. The existing multiuse path that extends from the Aloft Hotel at Hamilton Road past Barbee Chapel Road is proposed to be extended down NC 54, while new multiuse path is proposed along the project’s frontage with Barbee Chapel Road.
The developer is providing two options for affordable housing. One sets aside 10 percent of the units as affordable, with half of those reserved for households earning 60% or less of AMI, and the other half reserved for households earning 80% or less of AMI. The other option sets aside 7 percent of the units as affordable, all reserved for households earning 60% or less of AMI.
Staff notes that the project is generally consistent with town policies except for several issues, such as the lack of detail regarding the design of several sections of the development.
In the last municipal election cycle, we helped increase turnout by over 20 percent. We're all volunteers who care deeply about Chapel Hill and Carrboro, and we're working to make Chapel Hill and Carrboro more vibrant, accessible, fun, and sustainable. Please consider a small donation to help us keep our digital lights on, host events, and hire students to do data deep-dives.


|Publication number||US8089751 B2|
|Application number||US 12/765,207|
|Publication date||Jan 3, 2012|
|Priority date||Apr 22, 2010|
|Also published as||US20110261525|
|Publication number||12765207, 765207, US 8089751 B2, US 8089751B2, US-B2-8089751, US8089751 B2, US8089751B2|
|Original Assignee||Yu-Nan Lo|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (15), Referenced by (4), Classifications (10), Legal Events (1)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a memory device, and more particularly to a portable memory device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A conventional flash disk (namely portable memory device) is normally provided with a cover to protect the plug of the flash disk. When the cover is taken off, the plug can be plugged into the USB port of a computer to transmit data to and from the flash disk. However, the cover is likely to be lost because of the user's negligence. Therefore, many more designs are created to solve the cover-lost problem, however, no matter how the designs change, the cover is always undetachably fixed to the flash disk as to prevent the cover from getting lost. For example, one of the designs is such that the cover is undetachably fixed to the body of the flash disk, and to use the flash disk, the cover should be pulled out of the plug of the flash disk to the from end of the flash disk and then turned 180 degrees, after that, the cover is pushed backward to the rear end of the flash disk. Hence, such a flash disk is structurally complicated and inconvenient to use.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages.
The primary object of the present invention is to provide a portable memory device which is very convenient to use since the plug of the memory device can be easily exposed or covered simply by a pulling or pushing action.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a portable memory device, no matter whether the portable memory device is in use or not, its rear end is always closed to prevent foreign objects from entering the housing and causing damage to the circuit board.
To achieve the above objects, a portable memory device in accordance with the present invention comprises a housing, a circuit board, and a covering member. The housing is formed in a front end surface thereof with a front port in communication with an interior of the housing, and a rear end surface of the housing is provided with a jointing portion and a rear port in communication with the chamber, the housing is provided on each of the two side surfaces with a guiding groove. The circuit board includes a plug and a connecting portion at both ends thereof and is slidably disposed in the housing with the plug selectively sliding out of or back into the front port. The covering member includes a first covering portion and a second covering portion formed at one end of the first covering portion, another end of the first covering portion is pivoted to the connecting portion of the circuit board, at both sides of the first covering portion are formed two protrusions to be slidably received in the guiding grooves. When the plug is retracted into the front port, the first and second covering portions will close the rear port, when the plug extends out of the front port, the second covering portion cooperates with the jointing portion to close the rear port.
The present invention will be clearer from the following description when viewed together with the accompanying drawings, which show, for purpose of illustrations only, the preferred embodiment in accordance with the present invention.
The housing 10 is formed by an upper cover 11 and a lower cover 12 and includes an upper surface 13, a lower surface 14, two side surfaces 15 connected between the upper and lower surfaces 13, 14, and a front end surface 16 and a rear end surface 17, which cooperate together to define a chamber 18. In the front end surface 16 is formed a front port 161 in communication with the chamber 18, and the rear end surface 17 is provided with a jointing portion 171 and a rear port 172 in communication with the chamber 18. The rear end surface 17 is partially concave toward the front end surface 16 to form a jointing portion 171 which extends downward from the upper surface 13. The housing 10 is provided on each of the two side surfaces 15 with a guiding groove 151 extending from the rear end surface 17 toward the front end surface 16. Each of the two side surfaces 15 is further provided with a stop portion 152 which is located close to the jointing portion 171.
The circuit board 20 includes a plug 21 at one end and a connecting portion 22 with concave and convex configurations at the other. The circuit board 20 is slidably disposed in the chamber 18 of the housing 10 in such a manner that the plug 21 selectively slides out of or back into the front port 161, and the circuit board 20 is stopped by the stop portions 152 from disengaging from the rear port 172, while the connecting portion 22 is capable of sliding between the two stop portions 152.
The covering member 30 includes a first covering portion 31 which has one end folded to form a second covering portion 32. Another end of the first covering portion 31 has concave and convex configurations and is pivoted to the connecting portion 22 of the circuit board 20. At both sides of the first covering portion 31 there are two protrusions 311 to be slidably abutted against a bottom 151A of the guiding grooves 151, so as to prevent the circuit board 20 from disengaging from the front port 161.
When the plug 21 is retracted into the front port 161, the first and second covering portions 31, 32 will cover the rear port 172 in such a manner that an outer surface 312 of the first covering portion 31 is flush with the rear end surface 17 of the housing 10, and an outer surface 321 of the second covering portion 32 is flush with the upper surface 13 of the housing 10. When the plug 21 extends out of the front port 161, the second covering portion 32 cooperates with the jointing portion 171 to close the rear port 172, meanwhile, the outer surface 321 of the second covering portion 32 is flush with the outer surface 171A of the jointing portion 171.
The abovementioned are the relations of the main components of the extensible portable memory device in accordance with the present invention, and functions and operations of the embodiment of the present invention are described as follows.
After having finished using the portable memory device, the user can follow the above steps reversely, namely, pushing the plug 21 of the circuit board 20 back into the front port 161 of the housing 10, and then pulling the covering member 30 making it cover the rear port 172 of the housing 10.
The portable memory device in accordance with the present invention is very convenient to use since the plug of the memory device can be easily exposed or covered simply by a pulling or pushing action. Furthermore, no matter whether the portable memory device is in use or not, its rear end is always closed to prevent foreign objects from entering the housing and causing damage to the circuit board.
While we have shown and described various embodiments in accordance with the present invention, it is clear to those skilled in the art that further embodiments may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.
|Cited Patent||Filing date||Publication date||Applicant||Title|
|US6456500 *||Dec 5, 2001||Sep 24, 2002||Speed Tech Corp.||Assembling structure for portable memory device|
|US6522534 *||Oct 3, 2001||Feb 18, 2003||Speed Tech Corp.||Pen-type portable memory device|
|US6676419 *||Feb 13, 2003||Jan 13, 2004||Asia Vital Components Co., Ltd.||Portable storing device with universal serial bus|
|US7035110 *||Oct 12, 2004||Apr 25, 2006||Super Talent Electronics, Inc.||Portable computer peripheral apparatus with reinforced connecting ring|
|US7095617 *||Feb 8, 2006||Aug 22, 2006||Super Talent Electronics, Inc.||Portable computer peripheral apparatus with reinforced connecting ring|
|US7172460 *||Dec 28, 2005||Feb 6, 2007||Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co., Ltd.||Universal serial bus connector with integral shell|
|US7361032 *||Mar 10, 2006||Apr 22, 2008||Imation Corp.||Mechanical spring component for use in memory device|
|US7503780 *||Jan 24, 2008||Mar 17, 2009||Ho E Screw & Hardware Co., Ltd.||USB flash disk with cover|
|US7524198 *||Oct 31, 2007||Apr 28, 2009||Super Talent Electronics, Inc.||Press/push flash drive|
|US7672122 *||Mar 2, 2010||Phison Electronics Corp.||Flash memory disk with rotatable and telescopic protection structure and method using the same|
|US7740495 *||Jun 22, 2010||Yu-Nan Lo||Portable storage device|
|US7833056 *||Nov 16, 2010||Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co., Ltd.||USB application device|
|US7850468 *||Dec 14, 2010||Super Talent Electronics, Inc.||Lipstick-type USB device|
|US7881051 *||Feb 1, 2011||Micron Technology, Inc.||Memory module and cover therefor|
|US20080192149 *||Feb 6, 2008||Aug 14, 2008||Tseng-Chieh Lee||Digital TV receiver with a built-in antenna|
|Citing Patent||Filing date||Publication date||Applicant||Title|
|US8206161 *||Feb 24, 2011||Jun 26, 2012||Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co., Ltd.||Electrical connector assembly|
|US9130297 *||May 20, 2014||Sep 8, 2015||Huawei Device Co., Ltd.||USB connector and electronic device|
|US20140256180 *||May 20, 2014||Sep 11, 2014||Huawei Device Co., Ltd.||USB Connector and Electronic Device|
|US20160111828 *||Aug 21, 2015||Apr 21, 2016||Cvilux Corporation||Usb device|
|U.S. Classification||361/679.31, 439/131, 439/135|
|International Classification||H05K7/00, H05K5/00, G06F1/16|
|Cooperative Classification||G06K19/07732, H05K5/0278|
|European Classification||H05K5/02H2C, G06K19/077E7|


text:
Steven Murray Myhra
Height: 6-1 Weight: 237 lbs.
Born: April 2, 1934 in Wahpeton, ND
Died: August 4, 1994 in Detroit Lakes, MN
High School: Wahpeton
College: Minnesota, North Dakota
Drafted by the Baltimore Colts in the 12th round (139th overall) of the 1956 NFL Draft.
Weighted Career AV (100-95-...): 6 (8785th overall since 1950)
Our primary support comes from users like you. Sponsor this page for $5. Your message will replace this ad.

domain: sports


text:
I play and sing your " favorite music of the holidays" as well as songs from the 50's and 60's and today, on my electronic piano "arranger" . I can also provide pre-agreed upon , Praise and Worship songs for your event . My "Jukebox" selections may be selected live from "Pat's Piano Jukebox" Song list provided in advance of your booking and available at your venue . Songs may include those suitable for listening and dancing .
Restaurants , Parties, Schools , Colleges , Church Halls, Coffee Houses, Parks, Campsites, and Rental Halls. Songs for Church worship functions and Benefits held to raise money for worthy causes, Celebrations and Holiday events.
Price Range: $150 to $3000
Gig Length: 60 - 180 minutes
What to Expect
I will set up my Korg Arranger PA3x Keyboard, and my PA system and use my microphone to play and sing groups of songs made popular by artists such as Frank Sinatra (High Hopes), Dean Martin (That's Amore), The Beatles (Wait), (I'll Be Back), Herman's Hermits (Wonderful World), The Monkees (Daydream Believer), Peter and Gordon (Woman), Rick Nelson (Hello Mary Lou), Elvis Presley (Hound Dog), Perry Como (Catch A Falling Star), Bing Crosby (White Christmas), and the Everly Brothers (Bird Dog);(Wake Up little Suzie), Paul Mc Cartney (Another Day), Tangled (When Will My Life Begin) and any songs we have discussed and agreed upon in through gig salad in advance of your function . You will hear a variety of sounds from my keyboard - piano, organ, electric guitar, acoustic guitar , twelve string guitar, banjo, violin, drums, bass , accordion, harmonica, brass, and strings and more . I play for the length of time we agreed upon . I am serious about the music I provide for you . That is why :
1. I play professional level musical keyboards and
2. Supply my own amplifiers, speakers , keyboard and microphone for your enjoyment.
3. Your guests may select songs they would like to hear from a list of over 100 "Pat's Piano Jukebox Hits"
While in College , my band “The Spindrift”
played at a “Good Guys” dance at the Oceanside High School. Neil Diamond performed at the same dance as did Tommy James and the Shondells .
I provided music for the 9 AM mass each Sunday at the Sacred Heart Church in Island Park , New York where I played the church organ.
Later, I led a children’s choir at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Woodbridge, Connecticut. I selected music in keeping with the liturgy of the mass and played guitar, acoustic piano and keyboard synthesizer .
I organized another children’s choir and provided liturgical music for the choir using the Korg i3 piano keyboard at St Vincent Ferrier Church in Naugatuck Connecticut where I planned and played music for Sunday Mass.
I joined “The Companions”, a Christian Music Group . We performed at
various churches, playing songs having praise and worship themes.
I have composed, sang, played, and recorded a small number of original songs to share with my 5 grandchildren. Through a third party music aggregator, I have made some of these available for sale on the iTunes Apple Music store as well as on (link hidden) . You can hear "Robinson Pond" which is one of my copyrighted songs written for my grandchildren, on this gigsalad promotion.
I am a member of a Contemporary Music Choir in New Hampshire and the Musical Director of the Rainbow Theater Group in Manchester New Hampshire, now calling itself the "United Stars" since 2016 .
Additional Booking Notes
If I need additional lighting for my performance I will use a portable music clip on light or a portable halogen light for adequate visibility of music and instrument controls.
I need a normal grounded electrical outlet ( 110 volts )
If playing outside, my equipment needs to be protected from rain . I don't play outside if it snows we reschedule . Performances are not held outdoors if the temperature is below 60 degrees or there is. excessive wind or precipitation. We reschedule the event.
Past Booked Events
|October 31, 2018 • 12:00pm - 1:30pm||North Andover|
|October 29, 2018 • 6:30pm - 8:00pm||Manchester United Stars|
|October 24, 2018 • 12:00pm - 1:30pm||North Andover Ma|
|October 22, 2018 • 6:30pm - 8:00pm||Manchester United Stars of NH|
|October 17, 2018 • 12:00pm - 1:30pm||North Andover Massachusetts|
|October 15, 2018 • 6:30pm - 8:00pm||Manchester United Stars|
|October 10, 2018 • 12:00pm - 1:30pm||North Andover Massachusetts|
|October 08, 2018 • 6:30pm - 8:00pm||Manchester United Stars|
|October 03, 2018 • 12:30pm - 1:30pm||North Andover|
|October 01, 2018 • 6:30pm - 8:00pm||United Stars Manchester|
|September 24, 2018 • 6:30pm - 8:00pm||Manchester|
|August 05, 2018 • 10:00am - 11:30am||St Thomas Derry New Hampshire|
|May 19, 2018 • 7:00pm - 9:00pm||DIsney Event|
|May 18, 2018 • 4:00pm - 8:00pm||Dress Rehearsal|
|May 16, 2018 • 6:30pm - 8:30pm||Disney Rehearsal|
|May 14, 2018 • 5:00pm - 8:30pm||Disney Rehearsal|
|May 02, 2018 • 12:30pm - 2:30pm||Senior Sing Along|
|April 22, 2018 • 5:30pm - 7:30pm||St Thomas Mass|
Disney Songs -from Disney Hit Movies- When Will My Life Begin (Instrumental)
The Everly Brothers - All I Have to Do Is Dream, Devoted to You, Wake Up Little Suzie
The Beatles. Paul Mc Cartney - Another Day, I Will, Another Girl, We Can Work It Out
Stephen Bishop - On and On. All of My Life
Herman's Hermits- Wonderful World
Elvis Presley - Hound Dog
Ricky Nelson- Hello Mary Lou, String Along
Jerry and the Pacemakers - How Do You Do It ?
Peter and Gordon
The Monkees - Daydream Believer,
Frank Sinatra - High Hopes
Dean Martin m- That's Amore
Billy Joel - Anthony's Song
Lionel Richie - Still
Barry Manilow - Copacabana
Influences & Inspiration
The Everly Brothers
Peter and Gordon
Songs of the 80's
Disney Songs from Films and Cartoons
110 Volt Electrical service is required along with adequate lighting
New York City, NY
Recent review: New York, NY Dueling Pianos really made our corporate holiday party the best yet. We received…
Recent review: Debbie's music at our wedding reception was wonderful. Debbie plays different styles and is very…
A regular on the New England piano bar and dueling piano circuit, Ricky will keep you you tapping your feet…
Recent review: Casey and Eric were fantastic! Engaging, accommodating and INCREDIBLY talented! It was such a…

domain: artistic


HONOLULU (HAWAIINEWSNOW) - Lorna Lim's beautiful voice, her deep knowledge of hula, and her connection to the Big Island's music tradition place her among Hawaii's living treasures.
Born and raised in the North Kohala district on the Big Island, she began playing music at an early age with her siblings and parents, an award-winning family musical group known throughout Hawaii simply as 'The Lim Family'.
Her sister Nani is one of Hawaii's most renowned Hula teachers, and her Grammy nominated brother, Sonny, is one of Hawaii's top slack key guitar players. Lorna's performances have taken her throughout North America, Europe, and Japan.
Lorna recorded "Polinahe" for hula dancers, in a style that reflects her personal musical tradition. The translation of the title - "poli", meaning from the heart, and "nahe", meaning sweet and pure - sums up Lorna's musical style and the beautiful quality of her voice.
Hawaii News Now
420 Waiakamilo Road, Suite 205
Honolulu, HI 96817
Main (808) 847-3246
News (808) 847-1112


text:
Correction on Wednesday, Nov. 6: this story was originally published with the headline "This generation is nothing but apathetic" but should have read,
The headline has been updated to accurately reflect the story.
For a generation so inundated with technology and
Popular News Stories
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domain: news


text:
President Nicolae Timofti today met French Ambassador to Moldova Gerard Guillonneau, at the end of his diplomatic mission.
Timofti described the bilateral relations as excellent and thanked Gerard Guillonneau for his efforts to foster the Moldovan-French ties in all sectors. „There are multiple premises to further develop a sustainable partnership. We are two countries that share the same European values, as well as those of the Francophonie,” Timofti said.
The president highlighted France’s support provided to the authorities of Moldova on the latter’s European integration path and underscored the importance that the western partners transfer experience for the process of modernising society.
Gerard Guillonneau welcomed the signing of the Association Agreement between Moldova and the European Union in Brussels today. The official was confident that the Moldovans would use this historic opportunity to join the family of European nations.
„Moldova, by its culture and history, has European vocation. The Moldovan authorities must carry out the justice reform, fight corruption, implement rural development programmes, so that the state’s institutions comply with the European Union’s requirements. Such actions will always enjoy the support of France,” Guillonneau said.


text:
Blog Category: Behind the Scenes
I believe there’s a preconceived notion in landscape photography that shooting a landscape photograph means shooting wide.
I believe that because..
In my experience, the strongest portraits and the ones that end up being my favourites, come from people who are comfortable with you taking their..
So many times when I’m shooting a candid style of photography during my travels, I’ll get caught in the middle of taking it by my..
It’s been over 2 years since my last post on this blog. I think it’s time to put it to use again.
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text:
Permanent Executive Agency jobs in Copywriting
Broaden your search
Refine your search
Found 6 jobs
Copywriter wanted for B2B agency in the M40 Corridor
A multidisciplinary and well renowned creative agency, who work across travel, automotive FMCG and luxury, are looking for a Writer to join their t...
Major Players are working on an exciting copywriter opportunity, with a unique communications agency based in central London.
My agency client are looking for a writer who likes to challenge and explore the defining tone of voice for brands especially within the b2b space
Bluetree are working for a fabulous B2B Marketing agency that is made up of a very close knit team who specialise in finding creative but practical...
Are you bold and a bit weird? Are you a super-talented, passionate, creative brain, who can come up with killer digital ideas and write thumbstoppi...


text:
Alex Constantine - June 18, 2007
George Bush insists that Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. In fact, he is making a case for a military intervention into the country on that basis but New York Times reporter James Risen has released an explosive new book that reveals that six years ago, America gave Iran blueprints on how to make nuclear bombs. While the author says this resulted from a series of bungling, miscalculations and "a spectacular intelligence fiasco", the real question is, was it premeditated? Here are excerpts.
She had probably done this a dozen times before. Modern digital technology had made clandestine communications with overseas agents seem routine. Back in the cold war, contacting a secret agent in Moscow or Beijing was a dangerous, labour-intensive process that could take days or even weeks.
But by 2004, it was possible to send high-speed, encrypted messages directly and instantaneously from CIA headquarters to agents in the field who were equipped with small, covert personal communications devices. So the officer at CIA headquarters assigned to handle communications with the agency's spies in Iran probably didn't think twice when she began her latest download. With a few simple commands, she sent a secret data flow to one of the Iranian agents in the CIA's spy network. Just as she had done so many times before.
But this time, the ease and speed of the technology betrayed her. The CIA officer had made a disastrous mistake. She had sent information to one Iranian agent that exposed an entire spy network; the data could be used to identify virtually every spy the CIA had inside Iran.
Mistake piled on mistake. As the CIA later learned, the Iranian who received the download was a double agent. The agent quickly turned the data over to Iranian security officials, and it enabled them to "roll up" the CIA's network throughout Iran. CIA sources say that several of the Iranian agents were arrested and jailed, while the fates of some of the others is still unknown.
This espionage disaster, of course, was not reported. It left the CIA virtually blind in Iran, unable to provide any significant intelligence on one of the most critical issues facing the US - whether Tehran was about to go nuclear.
In fact, just as President Bush and his aides were making the case in 2004 and 2005 that Iran was moving rapidly to develop nuclear weapons, the American intelligence community found itself unable to provide the evidence to back up the administration's public arguments. On the heels of the CIA's failure to provide accurate pre-war intelligence on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, the agency was once again clueless in the Middle East. In the spring of 2005, in the wake of the CIA's Iranian disaster, Porter Goss, its new director, told President Bush in a White House briefing that the CIA really didn't know how close Iran was to becoming a nuclear power.
But it's worse than that. Deep in the bowels of the CIA, someone must be nervously, but very privately, wondering: "Whatever happened to those nuclear blueprints we gave to the Iranians?"
The story dates back to the Clinton administration and February 2000, when one frightened Russian scientist walked Vienna's winter streets. The Russian had good reason to be afraid. He was walking around Vienna with blueprints for a nuclear bomb.
To be precise, he was carrying technical designs for a TBA 480 high-voltage block, otherwise known as a "firing set", for a Russian-designed nuclear weapon. He held in his hands the knowledge needed to create a perfect implosion that could trigger a nuclear chain reaction inside a small spherical core. It was one of the greatest engineering secrets in the world, providing the solution to one of a handful of problems that separated nuclear powers such as the United States and Russia from rogue countries such as Iran that were desperate to join the nuclear club but had so far fallen short.
The Russian, who had defected to the US years earlier, still couldn't believe the orders he had received from CIA headquarters. The CIA had given him the nuclear blueprints and then sent him to Vienna to sell them - or simply give them - to the Iranian representatives to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). With the Russian doing its bidding, the CIA appeared to be about to help Iran leapfrog one of the last remaining engineering hurdles blocking its path to a nuclear weapon. The dangerous irony was not lost on the Russian - the IAEA was an international organisation created to restrict the spread of nuclear technology.
The Russian was a nuclear engineer in the pay of the CIA, which had arranged for him to become an American citizen and funded him to the tune of $5,000 a month. It seemed like easy money, with few strings attached.
Until now. The CIA was placing him on the front line of a plan that seemed to be completely at odds with the interests of the US, and it had taken a lot of persuading by his CIA case officer to convince him to go through with what appeared to be a rogue operation.
The case officer worked hard to convince him - even though he had doubts about the plan as well. As he was sweet-talking the Russian into flying to Vienna, the case officer wondered whether he was involved in an illegal covert action. Should he expect to be hauled before a congressional committee and grilled because he was the officer who helped give nuclear blueprints to Iran? The code name for this operation was Merlin; to the officer, that seemed like a wry tip-off that nothing about this programme was what it appeared to be. He did his best to hide his concerns from his Russian agent.
The Russian's assignment from the CIA was to pose as an unemployed and greedy scientist who was willing to sell his soul - and the secrets of the atomic bomb - to the highest bidder. By hook or by crook, the CIA told him, he was to get the nuclear blueprints to the Iranians. They would quickly recognise their value and rush them back to their superiors in Tehran.
The plan had been laid out for the defector during a CIA-financed trip to San Francisco, where he had meetings with CIA officers and nuclear experts mixed in with leisurely wine-tasting trips to Sonoma County. In a luxurious San Francisco hotel room, a senior CIA official involved in the operation talked the Russian through the details of the plan. He brought in experts from one of the national laboratories to go over the blueprints that he was supposed to give the Iranians.
The senior CIA officer could see that the Russian was nervous, and so he tried to downplay the significance of what they were asking him to do. He said the CIA was mounting the operation simply to find out where the Iranians were with their nuclear programme. This was just an intelligence-gathering effort, the CIA officer said, not an illegal attempt to give Iran the bomb. He suggested that the Iranians already had the technology he was going to hand over to them. It was all a game. Nothing too serious.
On paper, Merlin was supposed to stunt the development of Tehran's nuclear programme by sending Iran's weapons experts down the wrong technical path. The CIA believed that once the Iranians had the blueprints and studied them, they would believe the designs were usable and so would start to build an atom bomb based on the flawed designs. But Tehran would get a big surprise when its scientists tried to explode their new bomb. Instead of a mushroom cloud, the Iranian scientists would w
itness a disappointing fizzle. The Iranian nuclear programme would suffer a humiliating setback, and Tehran's goal of becoming a nuclear power would have been delayed by several years. In the meantime, the CIA, by watching Iran's reaction to the blueprints, would have gained a wealth of information about the status of Iran's weapons programme, which has been shrouded in secrecy.
The Russian studied the blueprints the CIA had given him. Within minutes of being handed the designs, he had identified a flaw. "This isn't right," he told the CIA officers gathered around the hotel room. "There is something wrong." His comments prompted stony looks, but no straight answers from the CIA men. No one in the meeting seemed surprised by the Russian's assertion that the blueprints didn't look quite right, but no one wanted to enlighten him further on the matter, either.
In fact, the CIA case officer who was the Russian's personal handler had been stunned by his statement. During a break, he took the senior CIA officer aside. "He wasn't supposed to know that," the CIA case officer told his superior. "He wasn't supposed to find a flaw."
"Don't worry," the senior CIA officer calmly replied. "It doesn't matter."
The CIA case officer couldn't believe the senior CIA officer's answer, but he managed to keep his fears from the Russian, and continued to train him for his mission.
After their trip to San Francisco, the case officer handed the Russian a sealed envelope with the nuclear blueprints inside. He was told not to open the envelope under any circumstances. He was to follow the CIA's instructions to find the Iranians and give them the envelope with the documents inside. Keep it simple, and get out of Vienna safe and alive, the Russian was told. But the defector had his own ideas about how he might play that game.
The CIA had discovered that a high-ranking Iranian official would be travelling to Vienna and visiting the Iranian mission to the IAEA, and so the agency decided to send the Russian to Vienna at the same time. It was hoped that he could make contact with either the Iranian representative to the IAEA or the visitor from Tehran.
In Vienna, however, the Russian unsealed the envelope with the nuclear blueprints and included a personal letter of his own to the Iranians. No matter what the CIA told him, he was going to hedge his bets. There was obviously something wrong with the blueprints - so he decided to mention that fact to the Iranians in his letter. They would certainly find flaws for themselves, and if he didn't tell them first, they would never want to deal with him again.
The Russian was thus warning the Iranians as carefully as he could that there was a flaw somewhere in the nuclear blueprints, and he could help them find it. At the same time, he was still going through with the CIA's operation in the only way he thought would work.
The Russian soon found 19 Heinstrasse, a five-storey office and apartment building with a flat, pale green and beige facade in a quiet, slightly down-at-heel neighbourhood in Vienna's north end. Amid the list of Austrian tenants, there was one simple line: "PM/Iran." The Iranians clearly didn't want publicity. An Austrian postman helped him. As the Russian stood by, the postman opened the building door and dropped off the mail. The Russian followed suit; he realised that he could leave his package without actually having to talk to anyone. He slipped through the front door, and hurriedly shoved his envelope through the inner-door slot at the Iranian office.
The Russian fled the mission without being seen. He was deeply relieved that he had made the hand-off without having to come face to face with a real live Iranian. He flew back to the US without being detected by either Austrian security or, more importantly, Iranian intelligence.
Just days after the Russian dropped off his package at the Iranian mission, the National Security Agency reported that an Iranian official in Vienna abruptly changed his schedule, making airline reservations to fly home to Iran. The odds were that the nuclear blueprints were now in Tehran.
The Russian scientist's fears about the operation seemed well founded. He was the front man for what may have been one of the most reckless operations in the modern history of the CIA, one that may have helped put nuclear weapons in the hands of a charter member of what President George W Bush has called the "axis of evil".
Operation Merlin has been one of the most closely guarded secrets in the Clinton and Bush administrations. It's not clear who originally came up with the idea, but the plan was first approved by Clinton. After the Russian scientist's fateful trip to Vienna, however, the Merlin operation was endorsed by the Bush administration, possibly with an eye toward repeating it against North Korea or other dangerous states.
Several former CIA officials say that the theory behind Merlin - handing over tainted weapon designs to confound one of America's adversaries - is a trick that has been used many times in past operations, stretching back to the cold war. But in previous cases, such Trojan horse operations involved conventional weapons; none of the former officials had ever heard of the CIA attempting to conduct this kind of high-risk operation with designs for a nuclear bomb. The former officials also said these kind of programmes must be closely monitored by senior CIA managers in order to control the flow of information to the adversary. If mishandled, they could easily help an enemy accelerate its weapons development. That may be what happened with Merlin.
Iran has spent nearly 20 years trying to develop nuclear weapons, and in the process has created a strong base of sophisticated scientists knowledgeable enough to spot flaws in nuclear blueprints. Tehran also obtained nuclear blueprints from the network of Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, and so already had workable blueprints against which to compare the designs obtained from the CIA. Nuclear experts say that they would thus be able to extract valuable information from the blueprints while ignoring the flaws.
"If [the flaw] is bad enough," warned a nuclear weapons expert with the IAEA, "they will find it quite quickly. That would be my fear"
This is an edited extract from State of War, by James Risen, published by The Free Press © James Risen 2006


text:
Two trailer parks in Denver’s Westwood neighborhood will be sold and replaced with 185 apartment units with the help of grants from the city.
Denver approved a deal to loan $2 million of the city’s federal Community Development Block Grants for 21 years to St. Charles Holding Company to acquire the property in the 4400 block of Morrison Road spanning both the north and south sides.
“There’s a huge need in Denver for affordable housing at all income levels,” Denver City Councilman Paul Lopez said. Lopez represents the area and said this deal gives the city some “skin in the game” to bring more affordable housing to the area.
St. Charles Holding is set to close on the land Sept. 9. Residents in both the Belmont and Shady Nook mobile home parks will be given 90 days notice to vacate in the spring, meaning the residents will be displaced sometime in June 2015.
“They have almost a year before they are physically affected,” said John Lucero, deputy director of Denver’s Office of Economic Development.
Also moving will be La California Panaderia on the south side of Morrison Road and Ortega Auto Repair at 4331 Morrison Road.
The St. Charles Holding Company declined to comment due to the pending status of the sale, and the property owners, Vince and Marley Vranesic, did not return phone calls.
Residents of both Belmont and Shady Nook received letters informing them that the property was being sold. Lucero and Lopez met with several members of the two parks on July 31. Lucero said the developer is committed to helping the current residents relocate and Lopez said he hopes to secure a right of first refusal for current trailer park residents should they qualify for affordable housing.
A letter to the council from the Westwood Residents Association expressed concern over whether the residents would be able to receive relocation money because they are undocumented. Lucero said the relocation funding would come from the developer and that all residents would be able to meet with relocation specialists.
Lopez said he didn’t know how many, if any, of the residents are undocumented but that all parties involved should receive money for relocation.
“For me, they are living and breathing in this country and they should be treated as such,” he said.
Construction should begin on the affordable housing units shortly after the two trailer parks are razed; the goal is to have new units open by late 2016.
For the Morrison Road affordable housing project, a family or individual must make 60 percent or less of the area median income. For one person the cutoff would be $32,220 per year. A family of four could earn up to $46,020 and qualify.
“We want to make sure, no matter the income level, people should have access to clean, affordable, safe and decent housing,” Lopez said. “That’s a standard in Denver that we have to protect.”
Residents at the Belmont Mobile Home Park said they were surprised to hear the news. Many residents own their trailer outright and pay around $400 per month for the lot space.
“We were shocked, we didn’t really expect it,” said Reveca Garcia, who lives in a trailer with her husband and four children. She and her husband are saving money because they aren’t sure what they will receive from the developer to relocate. She would like to stay in the area to keep her children in their school.
One resident, Leobardo Jaquez, said he was sad because the trailer park was a close-knit community. He has lived there for seven years.
He added: “Everybody knows everybody. It’s kind of sad. It won’t be the same.”
Joe Vaccarelli: 303-954-2396, firstname.lastname@example.org or twitter.com/joe_vacc

domain: sociology


text:
Let’s dive into the fascinating world where magic mushrooms meet therapy! Understanding the therapeutic use of psilocybe cubensis mushrooms can, of course, be a challenging journey, and the landscape itself is changing fast. The following information is based on some of the most recent ideas and studies associated with these remarkable therapeutic drugs:
- Psilocybin is like the key that unlocks doors in the mind. In therapeutic settings, it’s administered in controlled doses, guiding mental health patients through profound and introspective experiences. This can be a game-changer for conditions like depression, anxiety, and PTSD, especially alongside the support and guidance of a qualified therapist.
- Unlike traditional therapies, the magic mushroom experience is often described as a journey within. It allows those involved to confront and process deep-seated issues, offering a unique perspective and a sense of interconnectedness.
- Integration is a crucial phase where individuals work with therapists to make sense of their experiences and apply insights to their daily lives. It’s not just a one-and-done deal; it’s a process that may extend over the long haul and help patients discover and solve deeper issues that they never even knew they had.
While the therapeutic potential is promising, it’s not a DIY endeavor. Medical supervision is paramount. Dosages, settings, and psychological preparation are carefully managed to ensure a safe and beneficial experience.
You can buy magic mushroom spores online for research purposes only at Hidden Forest Mushroom Spores.

domain: medical


Research Area:  Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks
Vehicular sensing has gained prominence in recent years with its use in entities, including traffic management centers, forensic authorities, and air pollution control units. It also provides end users with real-time street images, parking summaries, and road congestion status. To reduce bandwidth usage and improve the content value, the sensed data must be aggregated. Data aggregation is said to be efficient when the destination (i.e., a node that serves as a data collection point in the network) is capable of receiving sensed data from a significant proportion of vehicles. However, when a large number of vehicles attempt to send sensed data, the network becomes congested eventually causing packet losses and collisions. Thus, if aggregation is performed without considering key factors, such as number of vehicles and network dynamics, it is difficult to ensure the efficient collection of sensed data at the destination. In this paper, we propose a dynamic hierarchical aggregation scheme in which sensed data is aggregated using a hierarchy. Moreover, the hierarchy is dynamically updated based on theoretically estimated delivery efficiency. In particular, we perform partition and merge operations within the hierarchy to achieve an improved value of delivery efficiency. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme ensures efficient data collection even with stringent delay requirements and achieves scalability with respect to a number of vehicles in the network.
Author(s) Name:  Jagruti Sahoo,Soumaya Cherkaoui,Abdelhakim Hafid and Pratap Kumar Sahu
Journal name:  IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems
Publisher name:  IEEE
Volume Information:  Volume: 18, Issue: 9, Sept. 2017
Paper Link:   https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7917274


text:
A Good Morning Britain guest has divided audiences after giving his frank views on ISIS bride Shamima Begum.
Saturday saw the Supreme Court deliver a verdict that Ms Begum could not return to the UK to fight a citizenship battle.
Ms Begum is now stuck in a detention camp in Syria after the decision was announced.
She had left the UK aged 15 with two friends to join terror group Islamic State, which led to her British citizenship being revoked on grounds of national security.
Now Human Rights Barrister Adam Wagner has argued that the Supreme Court's decision was the wrong one - suggesting that the law has been bent to make an exception of Miss Begum due to her public notoriety.
Mr Wagner told Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid: "She has done some terrible things and the thing she had said are despicable but this comes down to due process.
"She has not been charged with a crime. She was born her and she was raised here.
"The Supreme Courts have said she can never had an appeal while she is in Syria. She has had citizenship taken away so she is now stuck."
He continued: "We have brought back hundreds of similar cases and it's not clear to me why she can't be brought back and do what we do best and give her a fair trial."
"You raise a good point," Piers chimed in, "I wouldn't let any ISIS killer back.
"But she expressed no regret. This woman shows no remorse, no regrets...She has had time to think about what went on."
Piers added: "She hasn't changed. She is 21 now. She hasn't denounced ISIS. Hasn't said anything against them. She seems to be stuck in the position that she thinks ISIS wasn't a bad thing."
Viewers were left divided over the issue.
One tweeted: "Sorry, no. An example needs to be made here, Laws can change and should be fit with modern, secular societies. What example does allowing her back make? That you can willingly travel somewhere to commit despicable crimes and we'll let you back. No."
"She made her bed let her lie in it!" another tweeted, "I think our authorities have enough to deal with without having extra idiots to deal with."
A third insisted: "She should never return, not have any right to appeal it."
Others disagreed, however, one penning: "Shamima has been treated very badly by the UK government. She is being made an example of. The law cannot be changed just to appease the British public."
Another wrote: "She's a British citizen, she needs to come back, evaluated and potentially prosecuted."
*Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV.


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Sport Antiques Catalogue - Antique Hunting & Shooting
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Item images and text are the © copyright of Manfred Schotten Antiques. Please contact us if you would like to use them for publication.
Hunting Knife with leather sheath, Enzo Necker 70
A good fixed blade knife, made in Finland. The blade is 7 cm long and made of stainless Sandvik 12c27 steel. The handle has a brass rivet, lanyard tube and is made from green linen Micarta. Comes with a sturdy leather sheath.
H 16 cm


text:
Zirconium crowns are an excellent restoration option for teeth where the tooth crown has been significantly destroyed. It offers a good chewing experience due to its excellent aesthetic properties and resistance to high forces.
The prices of zirconia crowns, a necessary and advantageous dental treatment method, are the subject of curiosity. Zirconia crown provides a successful aesthetic smile and excellent chewing function. Our dental clinic in Istanbul allows our patients to continue their daily lives immediately after treatment.
How Is Zirconia Crown Produced?
- Teeth that are cut under local anesthetic are measured.
- They are sent to a certified laboratory. Here the CAD / CAM system comes into play: the scanner creates a 3D model of the future tooth based on the measurements and transfers the information to the dental milling machine.
- Then the prosthesis is coated with ceramic or zirconia layer, painted to the desired color, then finishing and polishing gets done.
Zirconia crown produced on computerized machines eliminate the “human factor” and possible errors. Computerized 3D Cad-Cam machines creates a perfect copy of the tooth. As a result, the produced crown is ideal for the patient, aesthetically more beautiful than other teeth and has a fairly natural appearance. They are not noticeable unless specifically mentioned!
Zirconia crowns are one of the best options for the restoration of damaged teeth. They are suitable for restoration of both front and chewing teeth. The popularity of this material is due to its excellent biocompatibility, reliability, and durability. Zirconia veneers can be painted to the desired color. Due to its light reflection and natural translucency, such designs are almost indistinguishable from real teeth. The smile will be beautiful and natural from every angle and light.
With Hollywood smile and smile design practices, excellent aesthetic results and desired white smiles are achieved. Due to its high biocompatibility, food doesn’t get stuck between the teeth and does not smell. Zirconia coatings also do not lose their color properties, unwanted colorings do not occur as well.
Characteristic Features Of Zirconia
Zirconium dioxide is a natural silicate material compound. Yttrium and aluminum are added to stabilize and increase its bending strength. In addition to the practice of dentistry, it is actively used for prosthetics in audiology and orthopedics. Scientific studies have shown that all the qualities of the mineral and its compatibility with the human body last in the long term. This means that zirconia is safe even for those who suffer from allergies, and the appearance of prosthetics will not change over time. Meanwhile, zirconia resists chewing forces, so the patient usually eats. This also considerably increases the patient’s quality of life.
What Are Zirconia Crown Prices In Turkey?
Dental zirconia prices depend on many different parameters. Changes may occur depending on the brands used and the laboratory that makes the product. For example, at Omer Istanbul Dental Center in Istanbul, zirconia prices are very reasonable, and our experts help you as much as possible with the necessary process and price information to suit your needs. In Turkey, especially in Istanbul, we welcome you to our clinic as soon as possible for detailed information about Istanbul zirconia prices for the zirconia treatment. After a thorough oral examination and X-ray, experts will provide you with appropriate treatment and price information.
Many options affect zirconia prices:
- The brand of zirconia material used and in which country it is produced
- Experience of the dentist and the dental technician providing the treatment
- The number of teeth for the treatment, the number of fillings and root canal treatments on the teeth
- Position of the tooth that needs a new crown
- You can contact our experts via phone or WhatsApp to clear all procedure and price information.
How Zirconia Crowns Are Placed?
Zirconia crowns require several doctor’s appointments. On the first visit, the dentist carefully examines the oral cavity and discusses a treatment plan with the patient. If necessary, the treatment of problem areas is carried out. If there is an infection, it should be cured first. The essential filling, gum treatment, and canal treatment should be done.
Teeth are prepared for fixing prosthetics; this manipulation is called preparation. Unlike other dentures, the doctor does not need to erode much of the tooth for zirconia. The doctor then measures and seals the tooth with a temporary plastic tooth. The patient can easily continue regular life by using temporary teeth during treatment.
The finished product will be placed in the mouth and secured with dental glue at the next appointment. It is essential that a thin, durable zirconia coating is firmly attached to the tooth, completely sticks to it, and prevents the development of infections.
At Omer Istanbul Dental Center, the price of the zirconia crown depends on how many teeth should be restored and which prosthesis option is most suitable for the patient. The main parameters to be taken into account when calculating zirconia prices are:
- Examination and X-ray by a doctor,
- Analysis and refinement of the treatment plan,
- Measuring and preparing teeth with cad-cam on the computer,
Zirconia dental crowns are affordable and guaranteed at Omer Istanbul Dental Center. With regular medical supervision, oral hygiene, and brushing, you can forget the absence of your “own teeth” forever. A dentist should only recommend the choice of brush, paste, irrigator, and floss for zirconia crown.


text:
Francesco Braschi will move from KIC Motorsport to race for MP Motorsport in Formula Regional European Championship this weekend, taking the place of the injured Dilano van’t Hoff.
MP has only had two cars race for the past two rounds as van’t Hoff missed Paul Ricard after receiving medical treatment on a shoulder injury he sustained earlier in the season, then withdrew after the first free practice session at Zandvoort when the pain from the injury proved too much to be able to continue. It will remain on two cars as Michael Belov skips this weekend.
Van’t Hoff currently sits 30th in the standings, with a best finish of 18th from the five races he was able to contest.
“Unfortunatly I’ll be home until Spa-Francorchamps [round at the end of July],” the 17-year-old told Formula Scout.
“I had surgery one week before Monaco [on May 27-29], and then monaco must have hurt it even more. So then in Zandvoort it was too much. But its a lot better already.”
Braschi is one place above van’t Hoff in the points, with a best finish of 17th, and his move to MP means he will have driven for three different teams in FRegional this year having started 2022 contesting the category’s Asian championship with 3Y Technology by R-ace GP. He did three rounds in that series and scored three points.
“I am really happy to drive for MP, for me it is a great opportunity to grow,” he said to Formula Scout. “I want to thank MP for giving me this chance, I can’t wait to get on track.”
The 17-year-old’s first two years in single-seaters were spent racing for Jenzer Motorsport in Italian Formula 4, with appearances in several other F4 series before he stepped up to FRegional.
Elsewhere on the FREC grid, Race Performance Motorsport has signed Owen Tangavelou for the Hungaroring round after the French rookie parted ways with G4 Racing.


text:
Should Indian media be restrained?
Troubled times for media across the world, including India
The Indian media not just imparts news but these days also seems to be making news, albeit for the wrong reasons. Naveen Jindal, industrialist and a Member of Parliament, has accused Zee News editors of resorting to blackmail regarding coverage over allegations of improper allocation of coal fields to his company.
Recently, I had occasion to address some of the concerns about the role of the media when I was invited to deliver the 3rd Sat Paul Sahni Memorial Lecture in Jammu. My topic was “Media and Governance”, but I was bombarded with a barrage of questions by the audience on how to get the media to behave with greater restraint and responsibility.
Paraphrasing Charles Dickens, I informed them that in my view it is the best of times for Indian media and it is also the worst of times. It is the best of times because today there are an estimated 146 million television households viewing over 623 channels, 82,000 newspapers with a readership of 182 million and over 130 million Internet users.
Never in the past has the mass media in India had such reach and access as it does now, making it an extraordinarily powerful tool of communication. There is what Nandan Nilekani termed as the “death of distance” with the coming of the new media, including the smartphones that give you instant access to information anywhere, anyplace, anytime.
All these developments have heralded unprecedented changes in the way we keep ourselves informed. Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal successfully harnessed the media to spread their anti-corruption message. Individuals have bypassed traditional media to reach out directly across audiences — witness how Kolaveri Di and the Gangnam dance became viral across Indian nets. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah now uses twitter to directly communicate his thoughts to the people.
Yet it is also the worst of times for media across the world, including India. The coming of the Internet revolution has seen the print medium under severe pressure in the US and Europe. Major newspapers have gone into the red as they lost readership and revenue with most consumers unwilling to pay for information on the Net and wanting everything for free.
There are other ominous portents that we have to look out for. Media experts have pointed out that we are also transiting from an era of traditional, responsible journalism to one being determined by blogs and tweets. As traditional checks and balances break down, the quality and reliability of information becomes the first casualty. The concept of accuracy, fairness and balance — the cornerstone of good journalism — is increasingly under threat. Like instant coffee, there are now snap judgements being made about people and events, particularly by TV news channels, in the race for breaking news.
There are now serious allegations being levelled against the media. Internationally, Britain has been rocked over the scandal of phone tapping of individuals by journalists that saw the closure of a major newspaper. A media commission headed by a former judge has called for the evolution of an independent mechanism to regulate media excesses.
Even in India there has been a growing demand for bringing some sort of control over the media. The Supreme Court recently had wanted to bring in restrictions over reporting court cases as there were complaints of “trial by media”. The court restrained itself by giving the right to the individual concerned to appeal to a higher court to block coverage till the trial was over. But one could reasonably ask whether Jessica Lal’s killers would have been brought to book if the media had not exposed the massive cover-up?
I would advocate that if there is any regulation it should come from within — that is, from the media itself — rather than without, which usually means the government. No other pillar of democracy, whether the legislature, executive or judiciary, faces the intense daily scrutiny that the media is subjected too. Readers and viewers are usually the best judge about the media's fairness and relevance. They have the unrestrained power of refusing to buy a newspaper or turning off a news channel they think is biased.
All editors are liable under law and can face both civil and criminal charges for defamation or unethical reporting. Moreover, curbing the media would mean restraining your right to be informed about events around you. At the end, it is not just the media that would be under threat but your individual right to free speech guaranteed under the Indian Constitution. Media has always been on the forefront of bringing out inconvenient truths.
Jawaharlal Nehru said in a speech at a newspaper editors' conference in January 1950: “I have no doubt that even if the government dislikes the liberties taken by the Press and considers them dangerous, it is wrong to interfere with the freedom of the Press. By imposing restrictions you do not change anything; you merely suppress the public manifestation of certain things, thereby causing the ideas and thought underlying them to spread further. Therefore, I would rather have a completely free Press with all the dangers involved in the wrong use of that freedom than a suppressed or regulated Press.” That philosophy I believe holds good to this day.
(Feedback at email@example.com)
(The Sunday Tribune)
Lastupdate on : Sun, 9 Dec 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 9 Dec 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 10 Dec 2012 00:00:00 IST
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ChakiArsalan (Bandipora), Dec 9: A 70-year-old man from Chaki Arsalaan Khan area of this north Kashmir district is serving the State Education Department on a monthly salary of Rs 25 for the past two decades More
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SYED IMRAN ALI HAMDANI
Srinagar, Dec 9: The onset of harsh Himalayan winter has started to hit summer Capital life on yet another front. This time the allegedly poor power supply has badly hit even the traffic signal functioning More
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Jammu, Dec 9: In an obvious bid to undermine the victory of the National Conference in the recently held Legislative Council elections, former Chief Minister and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) patron More
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Islamabad, Dec 9: A senior al-Qaeda leader and three others were killed today in a US drone strike in Pakistan's restive North Waziristan tribal region, the second time a top terrorist has died in an attack More
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A MOTHERS TRAGEDY--II
In a narrow lane in downtown Baghi sundar, Maidanpora, Darish Kadal( Safa Kadal), Syeda Begum, 66, is anxiously waiting for her 8-year-old adopted son to come home safe after school. The sight of More


text:
Whenever people have trouble processing information from what they read in books, their learning rate goes down. This is more of a neurological disorder and can have negative effects on a person’s ability to organize thoughts and remember important details. Here are a few more learning disorders to note.
The symptoms of dysgraphia can mostly be seen in a person’s handwriting. This learning disorder has a huge impact on a person’s fine motor skills. People diagnosed with dysgraphia may exhibit irregularities in their handwriting, such as inconsistency when it comes to spaces, clear differences in font sizes, inconsistent use of paper space, numerous spelling errors, and overall difficulty in composition.
|Image source: danielcameronmd.com|
Auditory Processing Disorder or APD
As the name suggests, people diagnosed with APD have difficulty processing information that they hear. When there are subtle differences in the sounds of words, it often goes unnoticed by people with APD. This happens even when words are clearly spoken. Individuals with APD also have difficulty pinpointing the origin of the sound, and they sometimes find it impossible to make sense of it.
Visual Perceptual and/or Motor Deficit
This is very similar to APD except that the sense that is affected is sight. People with visual perceptual or motor deficit not only find processing and interpreting what they see, but they also have a difficult time copying or drawing it. Shapes and letters, as well qualities such as colors can get past them. They also have problems drawing either because they hold the pen or pencil too tightly, or they have poor hand and eye coordination.
|Image source: huffingtonpost.com|


text: To start the year off I am hosting my first ever "Craft Party." Plan to have some challenges and some standard things to do, like make Valentine cards. I've been sewing, cutting, organizing, etc. to get all the supplies ready for everyone, including those quilted Valentine hearts. This is the invitation I ended up making (RSVP and address left off for picture purposes). I sewed the edges and embossed the letters (need to keep working on that).

domain: hobby


Aquino admits giving Duterte ‘raw’ info on possible bomb attack in Davao-A A +A
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III admitted Tuesday that he conveyed "raw" information to Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte regarding his city being a possible target of terror attack.
While the information was raw, Aquino said he still relayed it to Duterte to make sure that the mayor was given all of the pertinent information to adequately prepare Davao.
"The reports stated and I emphasize...the raw report stated that this terrorist who is a bomb maker had sent a bomb or a bomb-laden vehicle to Davao City to further a terrorist attack," Aquino said in an interview in Pampanga.
It was Duterte who disclosed to the media about the terrorist threat that Aquino conveyed to him, prompting police and military to be on alert.
Duterte, as head of the Peace and Order Council for Davao City, should be made aware of pertinent information so that he has the wherewithal to adequately prepare his community for it, the President said.
Both the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines are actively determining the validity of the report and continuing operations against the known terrorist, he added.
The terrorist threat in Davao City has prompted United Kingdom to warn its citizens from traveling in Eastern Mindanao.
Aquino said UK could not be blamed for issuing a travel advisory to its nationals.
"We cannot blame the English government. I assume that they will also seek to be very extra cautious and, of course, we will appeal to them na: is the amount of caution commensurate to the threat? And at this point in time, we are winning the battle against them but it is still a battle ongoing," he said. (SDR/Sunnex)


Bharat Forge, one of the world’s largest auto industry suppliers, has acquired a 35% stake in electric truck maker Tevva Motors for £10 million.
The deal is part of wider round of funding, which has seen £11.8m injected into the Chelmsford-based manufacturer.
Tevva chief executive officer and founder Asher Bennett told Commercial Fleet he believes the multi-million pound deal will provide the company “with a solid platform to grow the business both in the UK and abroad”.
With Bennett confirming that Tevva will deliver 15 7.5-tonne electric trucks to UPS “by the end of the summer”, he says his short- and medium-term goals will be heavily focused on “upscaling current production levels” and building electric range-extending lorries in the 14-to-18-tonne category, the first batch of which he expects to be completed “later in the year”.
He said: “Not only will the money enable us to double the size of our factory and the size of our team, it will provide us with the launch-pad to develop next generation technology for the UK commercial vehicle sector, and in new geographies too such as China and India, where the government wants to introduce zero emission vehicles by 2030.”
Bennett was keen to stress the wider benefits of the partnership, which he says will provide Tevva with a unique opportunity “to collaborate with Bharat Forge, one of the largest names in global truck manufacturing”.
The agreement will give Bharat Forge a commercial licence to use the Tevva technology within India where it is based.
It will also enable Tevva to grow its R&D capability both in India and at home.
“I think this presents a learning opportunity for skilled engineers from both companies,” said Bennett.
“We’ll host Indian engineers at our factory and vice versa. I believe that this form of information exchange will not just benefit the UK and the Indian automotive industries in the long term, but will ensure we can get our ideas from concept phase to assembly line much more quickly.”
Bharat Forge has already put in place a dedicated team for the EV business and acquired a 45% stake in an Indian start-up focused on electric two-wheelers.
The investment in Tevva will be another step in building the EV supply chain business.
Furthermore, the investment will enable Tevva’s software developers to produce a next generation version of its Predictive Range Extender Management System (PREMS), and advance the electric motor and battery cell technology.
Bennett, says of the PREMS technology, which allows back-to-base fleets to autonomously plot their routes so they can always deploy the electric battery in zero-emission zones: “The combination of new battery cell technology, coupled with a leading-edge range extender and electric motor will lower costs and drive much greater efficiencies than is currently possible.
“Secondly, the range extender will work with myriad alternative fuels including glycerol natural gas and petrol, which will mean the technology we are developing will be accessible to more fleets.”
Bennett also revealed that Tevva is keen to corner the larger electric truck market to produce heavy goods vehicles.
“I cannot say too much at this point, but next year we are aiming to produce a 40-tonne truck, which will have a range of 500 miles,” he said.
“While this would be an evolutionary development for electric trucks, it is important to add that we are still focusing our efforts on back-to-base fleets, but a truck with this range would certainly extend current reach.”
With Tevva’s order book growing month on month – it has secured large orders from eight major customers and has won many smaller orders from SMEs – Bennett says that “as well as building new vehicles”, it will “continue to provide a retrofit option to its customers”, and has “developed a range of innovative leasing models to entice new customers”.
He continued: “We are also releasing an option whereby fleet owners can rent the trucks for six months, meaning that they can take a lower risk approach to learning about the technology.
“Rather than us telling them about the benefits, we want to provide them with a real-world picture, and show them that our vehicles will solve their range anxiety challenges, deliver massive fuel savings and can be seamlessly integrated into their fleets.”


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Cowpea IT84S2246D mutants were screened for useful agronomic traits. Dry seeds of cowpea ’IT 84S2246D were exposed to gamma irradiation from cobalt 60 source at 196 and 245 Gy dosages. The non-irradiated parent was used as the control. Identification and selections were carried out at the second generation (M2). The eight mutants selected from 245 Gy population included plants with light green pods, plants with leaflets having tendrils, early maturing plants with broad leaflets, plants with pigmented pods and plants with pods above canopy. They also included plants with dark green pods, plants with wide angled pods and pigmented plants with hairy pods. The two mutants selected from 196 Gy populations were early maturing and dwarf plants. The selected mutants were found to possess useful agronomic traits capable of conferring on them selection advantage for increased yield, easy harvesting and insect tolerance.
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Cowpea is one of the major sources of plant protein in Nigeria. The advent and subsequent improvement of legumes such as cowpea through induced mutation could make it possible to develop new germplasms. The use of induced mutation had long been recognized as a rapid source of producing genetic variability in crops (Harris, 1979). This is because existing genes can change into different alleles, linkage groups can separate and gene(s) can change positions or be eliminated (IAEA, 1977). Variations have been generated in inherited characters in many crops such as yield, maturity time and nutritional quality (FAO/IAEA, 2004). By inducing mutations in cowpea, it may be possible to identify new genes and thus broaden the spectrum of inheritable changes and expand cowpea germplasm. Plant architecture is recognized as one of the major trait for higher yield in grain legumes. Alterations of plant type characterized by modification of leaves into tendrils have been extensively used in developing new cultivars in pea. However information on morphological mutations in cowpea is very limited. This study thus aims at identifying and selecting mutants with useful morphological attributes and agronomic traits.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
This research was conducted at the Teaching and Research farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria between August and November 2002. Dry seeds of cowpea IT 84S 2246D were exposed to gamma irradiation at the rate of 24 Gy/min, at the optimum dose of 245 Gy and the lower limit of 196 Gy (Adekola and Awoleye, 2002) from Cobalt60 source at the Center for Energy Research and Development, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. The non-irradiated parent IT84S 2246D was used as the control.
The first generation plants (M1) were established on a land previously ploughed, harrowed and ridged. The experiment was laid out as randomized complete block design. Seeds were sown at 30x30 cm spacing on ridges in a double row planting at the rate of two seeds per hole. All necessary cultural practices such as weeding and spraying at two weeks intervals with 20 Emulsifiable Concentrate (EC) lambda cyhalothrin (Karate) done. At maturity, all the dry pods from all plants in each population were harvested and threshed. Seeds were bulked according to dosage level and were treated with 20 EC Actellic solution and kept in airtight containers. The M1 seeds were used to raise the second generation during the second planting season of 2003. The experiment was also laid out as a randomized complete block design with blocking based on dosage level. Weeding was done manually and spraying at two weeks intervals using 20 Emulsifiable Concentrate (EC) lambda cyhalothrin. The M2 generation plants were examined for visible changes from the parent such as changes in plant height, plant architecture, leaf colour, leaf length, leaf texture. Also, changes such as earliness, flower colour, pod texture, pod shape, pod angle, pod colour and seed coat colour, presence of pigment and growth habit were examined.
The following mutations were identified with different morphological attributes from the parent. Leaf mutations: the parent has narrow hastate leaf shape, green coloured and smooth textured leaflets. Shape of leaflets of mutants ranged from broad hastate of mutant 10 to ovate of mutant 7 (Fig. 1). Leaf textures identified ranged from slightly rough found in mutant 3 (Fig. 2) to rough in mutant 10 (Fig. 3). Colour of leaflets also varied from light green in mutant 3 to dark green in mutant 7 (Fig. 4). Some mutants were also identified with growth habit which differs from that of the parent. The parent has medium size branches while the identified mutants have branches which ranged from short in mutant 5 to very long in mutants 9 and 10. Mutants with long branches were tendril-like. Mutants 3 and 10 have semi erect plant type (Fig. 5) while mutant 9 has a prostrate plant type. These differ from the parent, which has erect plant type. Extra early maturity was exhibited in mutants 1 and 4 as compared with early maturing parent. Dwarf ness was also identified in mutant 5.
|Fig. 1:||The different leaf mutants, showing from left to right Broad hastate (Mutant 10), ovate dark green (Mutant 7), hastate light green (Mutant 3) hastate green (parent)|
|Fig. 2:||Slightly rough textured leaves, light green colour of Mutant 3 as compared with smooth textured green leaves of the parent on the right|
Some mutants were identified with pods, which differs from that of the parent. The parent has smooth textured, straight and pendant pods. However, rough textured pods were identified in mutant 10. Pod shape ranged from slightly curved of mutants 1 and 2 while curved shaped pods were found in mutant 9. Pod position varied from pendant in mutant 1 to slightly upright in mutants 4 and 8 (Fig. 7). Mutant 7 was found with pods carried above the plant canopy while mutant 9 has pods at wide angle.
Pigmentation: The parent has no pigmentation on the leaflets, stem and peduncles. Mutant 1 and six other mutants were found with pigmentation on the leaflets, stem and peduncles (Fig. 6). Flower colour of the parent is cream yellow. However, purple colour flowers were identified in mutants 3, 9 and 10 (Fig. 8). Seed coat colour of the parent is dark brown which differs from light brown of mutant 2 and 10, brown seeds of mutant 7 and reddish brown of mutant 3. Seed coat texture of the parent is rough while smooth textured seeds were identified in mutants 3 and 10.
|Fig. 3:||Rough textured light green leaves (broad hastate) Mutant 10 as compared with the parent on the right|
|Fig. 4:||Smooth textured leaves, dark green colour mutant 10 and the green leaves of the parent on the right|
|Fig. 5:||Semi-erect plant growth with profuse branches of mutant 10 shown above as compared with erect plant growth of the parent below|
|Fig. 6:||Pigmented veins plus peduncles of mutant 1 (above) and non pigmented veins/peduncles of parent (below)|
|Fig. 7:||Light green pod of mutant 3 above; dark green pod of mutant 8 below|
|Fig. 8:||Flower colour mutant, showing purple colour of mutant 10 and cream yellow flower of parent|
Cowpea with broad hastate leaflet shape may have yield advantage over the narrow hastate. This is because light penetration may be deeper into the leaf canopy and this may enhance photosynthetic activities of such plant (IITA, 1989). It may also imply high leaf area index, which may result in higher photosynthetic rate. The rough texture of leaflets may be an escape mechanism from leaf feeding insects. Mutants with dark green leaflets may be more efficient in photosynthetic activities due to increase in chlorophyll pigments. It may also serve as genetic marker for easy identification of cowpea.
As for the growth mutations identified, the mutants with short branches and erect growth habit are mostly determinate in nature. This may confer the advantage of planting at higher density. Such high population tends to result in significant yield improvement. Similar results have been observed by Awoleye (2000) in cowpea. On the other hand, higher branching may favour higher production of pods which may result in higher seed yield. Fawole et al. (1985) reported the identification of a cowpea mutant with branched peduncles which is potentially capable of carrying more than usual number of pods. Extra early maturing mutants may be selected for the many advantages it may confer on the plant. These include ability to escape or tolerate insect damage due to short duration of reproductive period. Short duration of flowering has been known to prevent insect population from building up on such plants. Hence, such plants may suffer less yield reduction (Jackai, 1982). Early maturing mutants are also suitable for late planting in areas with short rainfall duration as they show better tolerance to drought. The dwarf mutant that was identified in this study may possess the advantage of lodging resistance due to their short basal branches.
Pod mutations such as rough texture suggest the presence of trichomes. Cowpea plant with trichomes has been found to suffer less damage by Maruca vitrata (Veeranna and Hussain, 1997). Pod position may also confer selection advantage on the plant. Mutants with upright pods and pods above plant canopy may be selected for mechanical harvesting. Such findings have been reported by Wien and Summerfield (1980). Furthermore, mutant 9 with pods at wide angle has the potential of suffering less damage from insect. This is because Maruca damage has been reported to vary inversely with pod angle. Pods that were held closely at narrow angle were found to be more susceptible to Maruca damage than those held widely apart (Oghiakhe et al., 1992).
The presence of anthocyanin pigment on stem and peduncles as found in mutant 1 may confer selection advantage on such plant. This is because it may likely exhibit better level of insect tolerance. Woolley (1977) reported similar findings whereby plants that have pigments exhibit better level of tolerance to Maruca vitrata. Cowpea pods with dark green coloration have been reported to show less damage to Maruca (Ojomo and Cheda, 1975). Also, flower mutation as observed in mutant 10 has been found to make plants more attractive to foraging by insects particularly when they are large in size. Such plants are more susceptible to insect damage when left unprotected (Ntonifor et al., 1996). Seed coat colour and texture have important effect on consumers preference which differs among regions of the world. In Nigeria, rough textured seeds are preferred, probably due to short cooking time.
Significant morphological variability was created among mutants using gamma irradiation. The selected mutants show useful agronomic traits capable of conferring on them selection advantage for increased yield and insect resistance. There is therefore, possibility for further cowpea improvement through induced mutation (FAO/IAEA, 2001, 2004).
- Oghiakhe, S., L.E.N. Jackai and W.A.M. Makanjuola, 1992. Cowpea plant architecture in relation to infestation and damage by the legume pod borer-Maruca testulalis geyer (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)-2. Effect of pod angle. Insect. Sci. Appl., 13: 339-344.

domain: agronomy


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Late-life and life history predictors of older adults' high-risk alcohol consumption and drinking problems.
Moos RH, Schutte KK, Brennan PL, Moos BS. Late-life and life history predictors of older adults' high-risk alcohol consumption and drinking problems. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. 2010 Apr 1; 108(1-2):13-20.
AIMS: This prospective, longitudinal study focused on late-life and life history predictors of high-risk alcohol consumption and drinking problems during a 20-year interval as adults matured from age 55-65 to 75-85. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS: A sample of older community residents (N = 719) who had consumed alcohol in the past year or shortly before was surveyed at baseline and 10 and 20 years later. MEASUREMENTS: At each contact point, participants completed an inventory that assessed their alcohol consumption, drinking problems, and personal and life context factors. Participants also provided information about their life history of drinking and help-seeking. RESULTS: Older adults who, at baseline, had more friends who approved of drinking, relied on substances for tension reduction, and had more financial resources were more likely to engage in high-risk alcohol consumption and to incur drinking problems at 10- and 20-year follow-ups. With respect to life history factors, drinking problems by age 50 were associated with a higher likelihood of late-life high-risk alcohol consumption and drinking problems; having tried to cut down on drinking and participation in Alcoholics Anonymous were associated with a lower likelihood of high-risk consumption and problems. CONCLUSION: Specific late-life and life history factors can identify older adults likely to engage in excessive alcohol consumption 10 and 20 years later. Targeted screening that considers current alcohol consumption and life context, and history of drinking problems and help-seeking, could help identify older adults at higher risk for excessive or problematic drinking.


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It’s easy to love Demi Lovato. Over the years she’s proven herself to be a true creative genius and bridged a career as a successful actress, musician and activist. She’s never shied away from speaking out about her struggles with bipolar disorder, body image, and self-harm. Throughout the course of her career she’s managed to establish herself as a force to be reckoned with and a true advocate for mental health issues. Just when we thought that the Latina had done all that she could, she hit us with some news.
Earlier this past week, Demi Lovato graciously announced her new role as Global Citizen’s Newest Mental Health Ambassador on Instagram.
For real, this girl doesn’t just hit the trifecta, she is the definition of. Take notes.
In her post to fans, Lovato explained her strong desire to work with “vulnerable communities” across the globe and at the moment touch the lives of Iraqi children in particular.
…with [Global Citizen’s] support and our combined platforms, I will be able to further my work around some of the issues I deeply care about as it relates to mental health and well-being around the world.
The singer went on to explain the moment she felt compelled to help Iraqi youth.
In October 2016, I, along with my friend and partner Mike Bayer, went to Kurdistan to visit one of the biggest refugee camps in the world. The experience of meeting with some of the displaced families, and my encounter with a very young girl who told me all she wants is to just be happy (what a simple and yet completely out of reach wish), will stay with me for the rest of my life…The trauma that displaced families and children all around the world feel from losing not only their homes, but also some of the people closest to them, is unfathomable and has long lasting impacts. My hope is that this program can bring at bit of comfort to those who need the most. This isn’t about politics or race or religion. It’s simply about humanity and protecting one another.
The “Sorry Not Sorry,” singer broke her silence about her fight against mental health in 2015. Since then, Lovato has worked to support fans and fellow artists battling with their own mental health issues. Last year, she spoke on the importance of mental health awareness at the Democratic National Convention. And her efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. She’s been the recipient of numerous awards for her advocacy including the GLAAD Vanguard Award and the Artistic Award of Courage,
Super pumped to see what other mental health-related work Lovato has planned! There’s no doubt there’s quite a bit of room for her help in so many communities.