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5 days ago natural law and natural rights follow from the nature of essay writing on unity and peace man need apa citations a true muslim the follower of examples of well importance of muslim unity essay in easy words buy essay australia that start importance of muslim unity essay in easy cover page format for. World peace essaysworld peace is a commonly debated issue among today's society questions that arise are: will it ever be attained when is it even possible these questions have reached the minds of everyone, with a variety of opinions political status, culture, and belief all affect their. Unity in diversity essay 150 words comment essay on unity in diversity 150 words comment by 7 de maio de we provide excellent essay writing service we are currently scriptaid synthesis essay synthesis scriptaid essay essay on higher education in colonial era research paper about peace and order. The idea to plant wooden “peace” crosses in yards came from a crips gang member, who had heard about a similar project in the compton neighborhood in los angeles, said jason janz of providence bible church organizers hoped the marches would bring the community together and heal the grief and. In her essay the roots of war, ayn rand held that the major wars of history were started by the more controlled economies of the time against the freer ones and that capitalism gave mankind the longest period of peace in history—a period during which there were no wars involving the entire civilized world—from the end.
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Reflections on unity download essay editor's note: this essay by mother raphaela is based on the talk she gave on the sunday of orthodoxy 1998 at st in the pews up through the middle-aged person who will come to church only if there is peace and quiet, the choir interested mainly in the sound of their voices, the. Find speech on unity for students and others find long and short unity speech in very simple and easy words.
Most people think of peace as a state of nothing bad happening, or nothing much happening among those is a spectacular essay by eb white (july 11, 1899–october 1, 1985) titled “unity,” penned in the spring of 1960 and later included in essays of eb white (public library) — the same timelessly. Two rallies for peace and unity took place in hamtramck earlier this month photographer lauren montgomery was there to capture them. In the quest for unity and peace, we cannot blind ourselves and expect to be all the same because in this, we all have an underlying belief that everyone should be the same as us at some point we are not on a journey to become the same or to be the same but we are on a journey to see that in all of our differences, that is. National unity is the foundation of every country countries without solidarity will find it hard to achieve peace and social harmony discuss the importance of unity and how to achieve it in this era of modern technology, national unity is indeed the foundation of every country to achieve peace and social.
This pin was discovered by abneritocom discover (and save) your own pins on pinterest. The work of global organizations and people who try to understand multiple cultures is what will bring people to peace this is why i have moved from being a spy to a future in foreign embassies i believe that if i can help countries accepts each other's ideals, we can move toward global unity i dedicate myself to achieving. Brotherhood is to live in peace and to understand one another they must not argue even if one disagrees with another and that they should follow the best.

domain: sociology


More than 200,000 people joined Pope Francis for a large open air Mass in Caserta, in southern Italy. The square in front of the Royal Palace was filled to the brim for the ceremony.
The Pope explained in his homily that when a person finds God, they have to choose Him over any evil.
'Giving primacy to God means having the courage to say no to evil, violence, oppression; to live a life of service to others and in favor of lawfulness and the common good.â?
Pope Francis also talked about nature. He said that those who side with God also commit themselves to respecting the environment. For years, the mafia would use Caserta as an illegal dump site, contaminating the area and its resources.
'Where Jesus is, brother love each other, they commit themselves to protect their lives and their health, even respecting the environment and nature. That is the hope that never disappoints, the one that Jesus gives us. This is particularly important in your beautiful land, which needs to be look after and preserved, it needs the courage to say no to any type of corruption or lawlessness. We all know the names of these forms of corruption and lawlessness.â?
The Pope visited Caserta on the feast day of St. Anne, the city's patron saint, and wished local residents a day 'free of any conditioning.â? He also asked them, despite the challenges, to never let themselves be robbed of hope.


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domain: food


NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — When many people hit the road for summer vacation, chances are they toss some light reading in their beach bag. Here is my offering of light reading for those of you who just cannot get the markets out of your minds. So put the E-Trade baby to bed, and let’s muse on the one indicator fit for a lazy summer afternoon: sentiment.
It is no surprise to anyone who uses charts and technical analysis that things have not worked as they used to since they fired up the printing presses in Washington a few years ago. Instead of weighing corporate performance (stocks), economic conditions (bonds) and capital flows among countries (currencies), it seems that all that matters is how much money is sloshing around the system.
Bull markets live on liquidity. If there is money available for investment, the stock market seems to do quite well, thank you. And when liquidity dries up, down goes the Dow.
I don’t want to get into a discussion on the Fed and government efforts to stimulate the economy, so I’ll leave it to the dismal scientists to ponder.
What has this done to the charts? If anything, it took technical analysis and stomped on it. There are many definitions, but the basic premise of technical analysis is that we can lay odds on future price movement based on what people have done in the past when faced with similar situations.
That is why chart patterns work. The forces of greed and fear create turning points. For example, in a trading range, when prices are at the lower border, greed takes over — and demand rises. At the top of the range, as fear takes over, supply increases. And the cycle repeats until something happens to change perceptions of what is cheap and what is expensive.
Every other chart pattern is just theme and variation on the basic trading range.
Enter excess liquidity. With the government essentially distorting the supply-and-demand relationship, breakouts from patterns are no longer reliable. And it was especially true for downside breaks. After all, if the government indirectly backstops the market with liquidity, low prices have usually meant buying opportunities and not a shift from greed to fear.
Until supply and demand return, mainly from market players and not gobs of cash looking for a place to settle, nuts-and-bolts technical analysis will remain shaky.
So how do we cope? For me, it seems that sentiment analysis has been the only tool that has acted as expected. Trading volume may be persistently low. Death crosses and golden crosses of moving averages may create false signals. But when excess greed or fear grips the marketplace, we usually can rely on the message.
Think back a little over a year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
But in June 2010, surveys, polls and other measures of investor views reached extreme levels of pessimism and fear. The large majority of investors were thinking “bear,” and we all know that the market does not like it when everybody thinks the same way. The bottom was made.
We saw similar spikes in fear in March 2011 after the tsunami in Japan and again in June after the market skidded lower for eight straight weeks. Each time, the market ran up some nice gains.
Conversely, when investors are overly confident, as they were in April 2010, the market tends to back down. Take that to the extremes of the technology bubble in 2000 and the housing bubble in 2007, and major bear markets usually follow.
There is an assortment of sentiment measures available, and many are free. For example, the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) offers one on its website. Some people simply watch the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s volatility index, known as the Vix
There are other measures available for a fee such as Market Vane’s Bullish Consensus survey and Jake Bernstein’s Daily Sentiment Index (DSI). However, if you visit the Seeking Alpha website you will find several traders offering free summaries and analysis using these and other indicators.
So, to cope with the market this month, when shrinking trading volumes can exacerbate moves both higher and lower, keep an eye on sentiment.
Michael Kahn writes the Getting Technical column for Barron’s Online, which analyzes sectors and markets twice a week. Sign up for a free technical analysis chart of the day at QuickTakesPro .


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- A waterfront compound across the bay from San Francisco is for sale for $11.8 million.
- Sausalito's Valhalla property has a long history in the city — it was once owned by a former brothel madam who later became a beloved mayor of the city of Sausalito.
- It could become a number of things in its next life, but the listing's agents said one possibility could be a private social club similar to San Francisco's exclusive members-only The Battery.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
A waterfront compound across the bay from San Francisco was once a restaurant serving the likes of Marlon Brando and Lucille Ball. Now it's for sale for $11.8 million.
Sausalito's Valhalla compound sits right on the waterfront with views of the city in the distance. The property is a beloved landmark in the region — it was once owned by a prominent San Francisco brothel madam who would later become the mayor of Sausalito.
"When you think of Sausalito, you think of Valhalla," the property's listing agent Lydia Sarkissian told Business Insider.
Its views and location mean it could potentially be turned into a number of things, but Golden Gate Sotheby's International Realty CMO Kevin Dwyer told Business Insider that one possibility is a private social club that could become "The Battery for Marin."
Here's what the property is like — and what's in store for its future buyer:
Sausalito is a quaint waterside town across the bay from San Francisco.
There are restaurants and shops catering to tourists and residential areas, as well as a marina where residents living in houseboats have set up shop. There are also some tech companies based here, like job review site Glassdoor.
The Valhalla compound sits on Bridgeway, a road that winds along the waterfront. This is where most of the tourist attractions are.
This is the first time in almost a decade that the Valhalla compound has been listed.
There are two adjacent homes included in the listing: a 1,800-square-foot, three-bedroom house next door and a 1,300-square-foot, two-bedroom guesthouse.
One of the homes is currently being rented out and is occupied by a tenant.
And then there's the main 7,800-square-foot structure that comes with six bedrooms and four bathrooms.
The main structure is technically unfinished — visuals included in the listing are renderings, not photos.
According to the listing agents, the interior of the property was left alone so that buyers can change it how they wish, and they can zone it commercially or residentially. The exterior and the boardwalk is being worked on.
It's ready to show though, and its square footage and location give it plenty of potential.
It could be a legacy family compound, according to the listing agents, or the buyer could be a young entrepreneur looking to turn it into a private social club.
"It has a history of being a social space," Dwyer said.
The future buyer also could even turn it into a Speakeasy-themed venue in homage to its past.
The compound was originally called Walhalla and was designed as a German Biergarten when it was built in 1893.
It became a popular spot for bootlegging alcohol when Prohibition rolled around. And in the late 1940s, it was purchased by Sally Stanford, a well-known figure in San Francisco who once ran a handful of brothels in the city. One of them, in San Francisco's Nob Hill neighborhood, was reportedly visited by Frank Sinatra and Humphrey Bogart, according to KQED.
After multiple arrests and tiffs with local police, she left San Francisco for Sausalito in the late 1940s, at which time she bought what was then the Walhalla. Stanford changed the name to Valhalla, a place in Norse mythology where slain warriors gather in a kind of heaven.
Stanford's Valhalla was designed as a place for patrons to eat and drink, but there were local rumors that Stanford's previous occupation was part of Valhalla operations — there was a red light at the back of the building, a signal long used to indicate that prostitution houses were open for business.
The restaurant, bar, and dance hall became as beloved in Sausalito as did her brothels across the bay in San Francisco.
The likes of Marlon Brando, Bing Crosby, and Lucille Ball visited the place.
"Up to the '70s, this was the place to go to if you were on the west coast," the property's owner Alex Kashef told SF Gate. "If you were on the west coast you had to come to the Valhalla and have dinner with Sally."
Her wit and character earned her a beloved reputation in Sausalito as well. In the 1970s, Stanford successfully ran for city council, garnering support from local women's clubs. And in 1976, her popularity with the public propelled her into the role of mayor of Sausalito, which she held for four years. She died in 1982.
But her legacy lives on, not just in a bust in Sausalito's visitor center or a water fountain near the ferry terminal that reads "HAVE A DRINK ON SALLY."
The owner and Sausalito resident, Kashef, wanted to turn the compound into a hotel when he purchased it in 2012. But the surrounding neighbors pushed back on that plan, so Kashef swapped it out for a plan for a residential compound.

domain: geography


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The Kenai-Soldotna Fish and Game Advisory Committee finally agreed Monday on what recommendations it will make to the Alaska Board of Fisheries regarding early-run Kenai River king salmon.
The committee added two recommendations Monday to five points already agreed on at last week's meeting. Last week, the committee voted to recommend single-hook, no-bait fishing on the Kenai from Jan. 1 through June 30 (or until escapement goals are met); only one king salmon from the Kenai may be retained from Jan. 1 through June 30; guided anglers be limited to the hours of 6 a.m. until 2 p.m.; if escapement is estimated at falling between 7,200 and 14,400 fish, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is to institute retention of fish measuring more than 55 inches in length only; and a provision to not allow catch-and-release fishing as a management tool for biologists.
To those points, the committee decided Monday to recommend further restrictions on the middle part of the river. Acting on a motion by Ken Tarbox, the committee passed a provision calling for no-bait, single-hook fishing above the Soldotna bridge from July 1 through 31 unless the early run escapement of kings exceeds 14,400 fish. The motion also extends existing sanctuary area closures on the river until July 20 when early-run escapement is below 14,400 fish.
Tarbox said the measure was included as a way to protect early-run kings that spawn in the river, while still providing a harvest opportunity for local residents.
"It's an allocatively neutral proposal," Tarbox said, pointing out all user groups would be affected equally under the proposed rules.
"One of the least painful ways to reduce exploitation is to go to no bait," he said.
Fish and Game biologists told the committee they believe exploitation rates do need to be cut on the early run. However, they gave the committee little input as to how far new restrictions should go toward limiting harvest.
"We think a precautionary perspective or approach above the Soldotna bridge is a prudent move," said area biologist Mark Gamblin.
However, Gamblin stopped short of endorsing the proposed regulations, citing a lack of evidence to either support or oppose the regulation.
Board member Tom Corr said he favored the proposal as a way to protect early-run kings that are getting ready to spawn, while at the same time allowing dedicated anglers a chance to catch a fish.
"I can catch a fish with a plug, I don't know about you guys," Corr said, arguing that no-bait would not ruin the midriver fishery.
However, board member Dwight Kramer said he believes the provision will simply send midriver anglers further down river, exacerbating an already serious crowding problem.
"You're going to shove everybody to the lower river," Kramer said.
In the end, the committee voted to include the restrictions in its recommendation to the board.
Additionally, the committee looked at the issue of crowding on the Kasilof River caused by anglers leaving the Kenai. In an effort to reduce that problem, the committee passed a recommendation that would change the daily and seasonal bag limits on the Kasilof.
Committee member John Nelson proposed a measure to restrict the Kasilof to two kings per year for non-Alaska residents, with only one of those kings able to be retained before July 1. Alaska residents would still be allowed three Kasilof kings, but only two could be caught before July 1. Nelson's proposal also calls for anglers to stop fishing once their one king is landed. Additionally, anglers would be limited to using single hooks.
Nelson said the regulation change would reduce pressure on the Kasilof because anglers would no longer be allowed to continue fishing after catching a king. The motion passed by a vote of 7-2, with Kramer and Corr voting against.
One additional recommendation was passed Monday night, a proposal by Corr to allow limited motorized boat traffic on the Kasilof. He said the area downstream from Trujillo's pullout to the last pullout on the Kasilof should be open to electric motors because tidal forces make rowing that section of the river extremely difficult. The committee passed the measure unanimously.
All recommendations will now be forwarded to the Alaska Board of Fisheries and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Gamblin said biologists will review the proposals, analyze potential impacts on the rivers and return that information to the committee. The committee can then modify or stick with its recommendations to the board. The Board of Fish will then address any proposals at its March meeting in Anchorage.
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domain: news


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- 8.5” tall, 5” opening
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- A perfect vase for Valentine’s Day
- Quality hand-blown glass
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Turn heads with the Ruby Red Gathering vase. Sure to be a hit at your next party or a beautiful way to showcase the anniversary flowers you purchased for a loved one.
Each vase stands 8.5 inches and features an opening of 5 inches. Made of quality hand blown glass that has been spray coated in a breathtaking ruby color. Its shape resembles a bubble bowl with an extended neck.
This ruby gathering vase is a standard during the month of February for its massive Valentine’s Day appeal. Have no fear, this vase is bound to look spectacular as the focal point of your holiday centerpiece. A bow, made from a roll of White Ribbon, would complement this vase beautifully.
We now offer these ruby red vases at wholesale bulk pricing, available to the public. Glass items are typically shipped out within 1 business day. For an estimate on shipping charges, open your shopping cart. Here you will enter your zip code and will be given a list of freight options. Don’t hesitate to start creating your masterpieces, order today!

domain: artistic


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It’s a special Saturday Web Video of the Day, because everyone needs to see this, and it can’t wait till Monday.
As the video shows, yesterday at the campus of UC Davis, Lt. John Pike of the UC Davis police department calmly and casually pepper-sprayed a group of quiet, seated, nonviolent Occupy protesters.
There is no possible justification for this. No matter what words may have been exchanged between cops and protesters prior to this. No matter if the protesters had been warned they were about to be pepper-sprayed. The protesters presented no danger to themselves or to others. The police were not in danger. There is no excuse for this excessive brutality. It is clearly and unequivocally illegal. Even if it were not clearly illegal, it is clearly immoral.
Here’s a still photo of the moment, by Wayne Tilcock of the UC Davis Enterprise:
This is extraordinary enough, in that it represents a true and obvious demonstration of the imbalance of power and the corruption of the powerful that Occupy is protesting. It represents a victory, in one sense, in that it reveals the terror of the powerful: this is far from the first abuse of power in response to the Occupy movement, and every single moment like this is about the powerful overreacting because they are scared. And they are scared because Occupy is a genuine threat.
But there’s more. As this video continues, you see that no one in the crowd reacts violently in response to the pepper-spraying… and when that does not happen, then all the cops get really scared. They know they’ve done wrong. They may have wanted to provoke a violent reaction in order to “prove” that Occupy is just a bunch of disaffected anarchists, or something. But that didn’t work. The cops retreat. And all that was needed to make that happen was some chanting and some shaming.
The only thing missing here to have made this a total victory for Occupy is a cop removing his badge and joining the protesters.
Still, this is amazing.
And it’s all the more amazing because we would never have seen this without YouTube, without cheap cameras in the hands of lots and lots of regular citizens. It’s video like this that effectively counters the mainstream media, which has mostly so far — it seems — been on the side of the 1 percent, as it would be because it’s part of the 1 percent.
A commenter at BoingBoing, where I found this video, posted this:
“I want to be very clear in calling upon the Egyptian authorities to refrain from any violence against peaceful protesters. The people of Egypt have rights that are universal. That includes the right to peaceful assembly and association, the right to free speech, and the ability to determine their own destiny. These are human rights. And the United States will stand up for them everywhere.” —Barack Obama
I am reminded of what Gandhi said about speaking truth to power: First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win. We’re in the they-fight-you phase now, it seems. I suspect we’ll be here for a long time.


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A combination of honey and cinnamon make a powerful remedy used to treat number of diseases, according to scientists, doctors and other medical experts.
Honey was first used due to its healing properties more than 4, 000 years ago. The Egyptians used honey as a traditional remedy to treat wounds, the Greeks for a long life, and the Indians to maintain proper body balance. What we have learned from modern medicine is that we should never doubt the beliefs regarding to honey health benefits.
Cinnamon healing purpose is also well-known as the one of the honey. Monarch considered the cinnamon as a great gift due to its beneficence in treating almost every disease.
The combinations of these powerful natural ingredients have proven as very efficient in treating certain diseases, including chronic health conditions like arthritis.
Take a large cup and add 2tbsp. of honey and 3 tbsp. of cinnamon. This consumption will help you to lower your cholesterol levels by 10% in only two hours, but only if you consume it regularly.
Remedy for Cardiovascular disease
Putting honey and cinnamon on a slice of bread has shown as a healthier breakfast choice than marmalade or jam. The regular consumption of this combination lowers your blood cholesterol and prevents from heart attack.
Fill a cup with boiled water and add 2 tbsp. of honey and 1 tbsp. of cinnamon. It is recommended to drink this mixture in the morning and evening for chronic arthritis treatment.
Against Infections of Gallbladder
You can use the above-mentioned mixture against infections of the gallbladder. You only need to change the amount of honey and cinnamon. In a cup filled of boiled water, mix 2 tbsp. of cinnamon and a large spoonful of honey.
A mixture of large tablespoon of honey and a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon will have you solve your problem with frequent colds, chronic cough and sinus congestion.
Strengthens the Immune System
The best way to protect your body naturally from bacteria and viruses use these ingredients on daily basis.
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domain: medical


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Adjuvin® contains the active substance sertraline.
Sertraline belongs to the group of medicines called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). These medicines are used to treat depressive disorders and anxiety disorders.
Adjuvin® can be used in adults to treat depression and to prevent a recurrence of depression, social anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and panic disorder.
Adjuvin® can be used in adults and children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 years for the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
|50 mg||10, 30|
|100 mg||10, 30|

domain: psychology


“Darling, someone bumped into our car and drove off. What should I do?” No worry, dear. We have BlackVue DR650GW-2CH dash cam which had everything recorded. Just check back the video, and claim from insurance company. Yup, BlackVue DR650GW-2CH is a dual channel car dash cam by Pittasoft. It consists of Full HD front camera with Sony Exmor CMOS sensor and HD rear camera for complete coverage of both front and rear of your vehicle. Besides, it has Wi-Fi and GPS built-in too. Yes, you can access all recorded video footages from mobile devices through Wi-Fi and even watch live video there. Let’s find out how does it perform…
- Ultra-high quality and smooth video
- High-class design with functionality
- Support 64GB microSD card
- 129° Wide-angle lens supporting high quality image as default
- Enhance for user convenience
- 2CH Wi-Fi Video Shooting
- SONY Exmor CMOS sensor
- G-sensor & highly-sensitive GPS
- VOD & real-time live view function
- BlackVue App
- Diverse recording options (Normal/Event/Parking)
- High-compression recording mode to extend microSD card life
- Support BlackVue Viewer program for Windows PC and Mac
Package Content & Design
In the package, you can find front camera, rear camera, cable clips (8 EA), double-sided tape for the mounting bracket, microSD card (including BlackVue viewer and manual), microSD card reader, power cord, rear camera connection cable and quick start guide. Both front camera and rear camera build quality is top notch. They are in tube shape to minimize view being blocked by dash cam. Yup, the front camera stays behind rear-view mirror. Driver’s vision is as wide as before. And the all black colour body blends into any car and not so easy to be noticed by others too. This is one of the features that I like. Alright, let’s talk about the front camera design. There are camera lens and security LED in the front. LED Indicators for Recording, GPS and speaker at the back. On the left, there are voice on/off button and Wi-Fi LED. Finally, DC in, V in, microSD card slot, Wi-Fi button and cover at the right. By the way, there is lock button at mounting bracket for you to detach front camera unit if you don’t want to leave it at car. The rear camera unit is simpler which has camera lens in the front. Security LED on the left and V out on the right. And can be pulled out from mounting bracket easily for safe keeping too.
- Color/Size/Weight – Front: Black / Width 118.5mm x Height 36mm / 120g, Rear: Black / Width 67.4mm x Height 27.6mm / 30g
- Memory – microSD Card (16GB / 32GB / 64GB)
- Recording Mode – Normal Recording, Event Recording (Impact Detection), and Parking mode Recording (Motion+Impact Detection)
- Camera – Front: CMOS Sensor (Approx. 2.4M Pixel), Rear: CMOS Sensor (Approx. 1M Pixel)
- Viewing Angle – Front: Opposite Angle 129°, Horizontal 103°, Vertical 77°, Rear: Opposite Angle 129°, Horizontal 108°, Vertical 57°
- Resolution/Frame – Front: Full HD(1920×1080)@30Fps/15Fps, HD(1280×720)@30Fps/15Fps, Rear: HD(1280×720)@30Fps/15Fps
- Video Compression Mode – MP4
- Wi-Fi – Built-in (802.11b/g/n(2.4~2.4835GHz)
- GPS – Built-in
- Microphone – Built-in
- Speaker – Built-in
- LED Indicators – Front: Recording LED, GPS LED, Wi-Fi LED, Front Security LED, Rear: Rear Security LED
- Sensor – 3-Axis Acceleration Sensor
- Button – Wi-Fi On/Off Button, Voice On/Off Button
- Backup Battery – Built-in super capacitor
- Input Power – DC 12V-24V
- Current Consumption – Max. 4.8W
- Operation Temperature – -20°C ~ 60°C
- Storage Temperature – -20°C ~ 70°C
- Certificates – KC, FCC, CE, RoHS, Telec, WEEE
- Software – BlackVue Viewer (Windows XP or later (Up to Windows 8), Mac Leopard OS X(10.5) or later)
- Application – BlackVue App (Android 2.3 or later & iOS 5.0 or later & Windows 8.0 or later)
BlackVue DR650GW-2CH installation is simple. Yup, even you can do it yourself without help from mechanic. Just attach front camera to the windshield glass with the camera lens located in the middle of the vehicle using extremely strong 3M double-sided tape (hey, there is spare adhesive for mistake). Remove lens cap after installed. Connect power cord to DC in of the front camera and to car’s power socket. Install rear camera to the rear window glass the same way too. Then use rear camera connection cable to connect both front and rear camera. You can use cable clip to organize the cable or hide it. And no worry about cables’ length, it is long enough install at most of car out there. That’s it. Start your engine and BlackVue DR650GW-2CH should be started smoothly. Now it’s the time to adjust angle of the camera lens while watching real-time video through smartphone using Wi-Fi connection. And start to setup configuration to suit your preferences then.
BlackVue DR650GW-2CH will turn on automatically when car engine is started. And it took around 30 seconds to boot up and start recording. A friendly female voice will start to give status updates then. Yup, by the time that I keep my wallet and smartphone in the drawer, adjusting rear-view mirror and put on seatbelt, it was already started to record. And I need to wait for auto-gate to open too. That’s pretty fast.
Crystal clear Full HD 1080p recording. Yes, that’s what you will get from BlackVue DR650GW-2CH. And this is the most important part of car dash cam. You don’t want a camera that failed to capture the very moment, right? The front camera offers excellent video quality no matter in day or night. All the signs and license plates of nearby cars can be seen easily. Thanks to 2.4MP Sony Exmor CMOS sensor with 30 frame / second capture ability. You won’t miss out a thing if an unpleasant event happened. Yes, it can capture most of the scenes even fast passing by cars. By the way, 129° wide-angle lens is wide enough to cover all the stuffs you want. Let’s take a look on below picture which taken with front camera during the day time. License plates can be seen easily. Superior clarity, right?
Night time video quality is great as well. Even without night-mode ability, Sony Exmor CMOS sensor does a nice job here. Image quality is clear to discern as long as there is enough light source. And light flare is very well in control. Check out below picture for details.
Rear camera is connected through high quality coaxial cable to minimize signal noise. Its 1M CMOS sensor manages to capture clear images as well. Of course, you won’t have the exact clarity as the front unit because it is just a HD 720p camera. But it is still manages to capture detailed video during the day.
Night time is totally another story. Yes, just like taking photo at night. You need to use flash else dark image is what you will get. Same apply to rear camera here. You will get clear image when there is enough light in the environment.
Check out these video compilations of day and night for both front and rear cameras. Do watch them at Full HD for front camera and HD for rear camera. Note – YouTube has compression on videos therefore some of the video quality will be lost. Actual uncompressed videos are better.
BlackVue DR650GW-2CH’s microphone and speaker quality is great too. Yup, all the voice notifications that coming out from speaker are loud and clear. And the mic manages to capture all the surrounding sound fairly well.
There are 3 recording modes – normal, parking and event mode recordings. When the BlackVue is turned on, normal recording is automatically started. This is the mode that you will see most of the time. If your car doesn’t move for 5 minutes or longer during normal mode, it will automatically converted to parking mode recording. And if movement or impact is detected by the camera, video is recorded. Else it won’t record anything. Note – Power Magic Pro (battery discharge prevention device) is required while engine is stopped in order to continue to record. GPS feature will turn off automatically and the recording frame is reduced to 15 fps. Lastly, event recording is started when an impact is detected in normal or parking mode recording. It records video for 5 seconds before and 55 seconds after the impact. By the way, the built-in super capacitor (which act as backup battery) is very helpful as it will holds enough residual current to shut down the dash cam properly to save the event video when power is cut off.
Okay, here come another important part – software support. Yup, BlackVue supports most of the platforms out there. BlackVue PC Viewer is there for both Windows and Mac OS X on desktop PC / laptop. Smartphone and tablet are supported as well for both Android and iOS. With slim LCD-less design, BlackVue app is the only way to watch recorded and live videos, access BlackVue dashcam preferences to configure time, video quality, compression rate, sensitivity, LED options, Wi-Fi, etc. You can update BlackVue DR650GW-2CH firmware through Firmware Over The Air (FOTA) as well.
BlackVue PC Viewer is a very useful tool to analyse recorded videos. Thanks to built-in GPS, vehicle speed and exact location details will be captured on the videos (Note – there is option to turn off speed tracking). Yup, GPS coordinates are displayed along with G-Sensor information. You can filter out recorded videos based on date, timeline, front & rear camera, and recording type (normal, parking & event). This will speed up to locate the video that you want. Then you can watch it with both front and rear view in Picture in Picture (PIP) mode or just single video. And the video file can be verified forgery. Finally, the ability to export video with segment required is there too. In addition, you get the option to remove sound from the video as well. Therefore, be sure to record sound when driving. Of course, video can be saved as image and print out. Finally, you can change BlackVue DR650GW-2CH settings there. And take your time to fine-tune G-sensor and motion sensitivity so that it won’t create false alarm.
Driving route will be displayed on the map in MyWay Viewer. And it is powered by latest updated Google Maps. A nice feature to check all the route that you have been through.
BlackVue mobile application has almost the same features as PC Viewer. And added few wonderful features. Yes, you can use BlackVue App to watch live view recording through Wi-Fi. Of course, ability to watch recorded videos is there too. And you can export them from BlackVue to your smartphone. There is no need to remove microSD card to copy videos here. Once copied to smartphone, you have the option to upload to YouTube for sharing. You can also insert BlackVue microSD card to your smartphone and watch all the videos there too.
Complaints? Yes, but all can solved. BlackVue DR650GW-2CH supports up to 64GB memory cards which can record highest quality video at 8 Mbps + 3 Mbps bit rate for around 12 hours. However, mine comes with 16GB card only and can store up to 3 hours videos maximum with the same settings. With parking mode enabled, all previously recorded event videos was overwritten when card is fully filled. Just get a 64GB card, right? Hopefully, future firmware update will have option to keep event videos not being overwritten. Rear camera security LED light can’t be turned off is another one. It can be fixed with black adhesive tape easily though.
- Superior video clarity
- Sony Exmor CMOS sensor
- 2 channel video shooting for enhanced protection
- All black & small profile for stealth
- CCTV alike parking mode
- Built-in Wi-Fi, GPS & G-sensor
- Easy installation
- Multi platform viewer support
- Firmware Over The Air update
- Event videos being overwritten
- Rear camera LED light always on
Without doubt, BlackVue DR650GW-2CH is one of the best 2 channels dash cams in the market. A perfect recording tool for surveillance of your property while parked or proof of liability in case of an accident. Have superior video clarity with Sony Exmor CMOS sensor. Have all the features you need like built-in Wi-Fi, GPS and G-sensor. Multi platform support and simple installation. Interested? More information can be found at BlackVue Website. Or buy yours here.


text:
ALMA, Mich., May 7, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Firstbank Corporation (Nasdaq:FBMI) announced today that it intends to redeem the remaining 17,000 shares of its outstanding Fixed Rate Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock, Series A (Preferred Stock) that were issued under the Troubled Asset Relief Program Capital Purchase Program. The effective date for the planned redemption is June 14, 2013. The shares are being redeemed from private investors that purchased the Preferred Stock from the United States Department of the Treasury in a modified Dutch auction in June 2012.
The purchase price for shares of the Company's Preferred Stock in the redemption will be the stated liquidation value of $1,000.00 per share, plus any accrued or unpaid dividends that have been earned thereon up to, but not including, the date of redemption. The Company anticipates the total cost of redeeming the remaining shares of Preferred Stock will be approximately $17 million. The Company has received all necessary regulatory approvals to complete the planned redemption.
The Company previously repurchased 16,000 shares of its Preferred Shares from the U.S. Treasury at the June 2012 auction. Following the planned redemption on June 14, 2013, no shares of the Company's Preferred Stock will remain outstanding.
"We are pleased to report our ability to redeem the remaining Preferred Stock outstanding which will occur without the need to issue any new common equity due to our already strong capital and liquidity levels," said Thomas R. Sullivan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Firstbank Corporation. "This action is further indication of the Company's financial strength. Our capital ratios following the redemption will continue to exceed the requirements of our regulators and the standards for well-capitalized banks. We are pleased with the work we have done to strengthen our balance sheet, asset quality metrics, operating results, and profitability trends so that we can comfortably redeem these shares."
Firstbank Corporation, headquartered in Alma, Michigan, is a bank holding company using a community bank local decision-making format with assets of $1.5 billion and 46 banking offices serving Michigan's Lower Peninsula.
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. When used in this press release the words "intends," "planned" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning the planned redemption of preferred stock. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release.
CONTACT: Samuel G. Stone Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (989) 466-7325Source:Firstbank Corporation


text:
(a) Notwithstanding any other law, upon satisfactory completion of a program of diversion or supervision to which a juvenile is referred by the probation officer or the prosecutor in lieu of the filing of a petition to adjudge the juvenile a ward of the juvenile court, including a program of informal supervision pursuant to Section 654, the probation department shall seal the arrest and other records in its custody relating to the juvenile’s arrest or referral and participation in the diversion or supervision program. Additionally, the probation department shall notify a public or private agency operating a diversion program to which the juvenile has been referred under these circumstances to seal records in the program operator’s custody relating to the arrest or referral and the participation of the juvenile in the diversion or supervision program, and the operator of the program shall then promptly seal the records in its custody relating to the juvenile’s arrest or referral and participation in the program. Upon sealing of the records under this section, the arrest or offense giving rise to the person’s participation in the program shall be deemed not to have occurred and the individual may respond accordingly to any inquiry, application, or process in which disclosure of this information is requested or sought.
(b) The probation department shall notify the participant in the supervision or diversion program in writing that his or her record has been sealed pursuant to the provisions of this section based on his or her satisfactory completion of the program. If the record is not sealed, the probation department shall notify the participant in writing of the reason or reasons for not sealing the record.
(c) Satisfactory completion of the program of supervision or diversion shall be defined for purposes of this section as substantial compliance by the participant with the reasonable terms of program participation that are within the capacity of the participant to perform. A determination of satisfactory or unsatisfactory completion shall be made by the probation department within 60 days of completion of the program by the juvenile, or if the juvenile does not complete the program, within 60 days of determining that the program has not been completed by the juvenile.
(d) An individual who receives notice from the probation department that he or she has not satisfactorily completed the diversion program and that the record has not been sealed pursuant to this section may petition the juvenile court for review of the decision in a hearing in which the program participant may seek to demonstrate, and the court may determine, that he or she has met the satisfactory completion requirement and is eligible for the sealing of the record by the probation department and by the program operator under the provisions of this section.
(e) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), the probation department of a county responsible for the supervision of a person may access a record sealed by a probation department pursuant to this section for the sole purpose of complying with subdivision (e) of Section 654.3. The information contained in the sealed record and accessed by the probation department under this subdivision shall in all other respects remain confidential and shall not be disseminated to any other person or agency. Access to, or inspection of, a sealed record authorized by this subdivision shall not be deemed an unsealing of the record and shall not require notice to any other agency.
(Added by Stats. 2017, Ch. 685, Sec. 2. (AB 529) Effective January 1, 2018.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018

domain: law


The invasion of Islamic State of Iraq and The Levant forces into Iraq two years ago has met with a “remarkable turn-around,” British Army Maj. Gen. Rupert Jones, deputy commander, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve told reporters today.
In a teleconferenced feed from Baghdad, Jones said the coalition’s training of Iraqi forces has been key in the campaign to defeat ISIL. “It's been well over a year since [ISIL] last defeated an Iraqi force, although they continue to resist,” he said, noting that more than 4,500 forces are training now to sustain the Iraqi forces and establish wide-area security and holding forces when Mosul has been retaken.
“We're a coalition of more than 60 nations, united against [ISIL]. And we're very proud that so many have offered contributions to fight against [ISIL’s] twisted ideology here in Iraq, in Syria, and other locations around the world,” he said.
The majority of trainers are non-U.S. coalition forces, Jones said. “We believe their contributions play a key role in developing a sustainable security way ahead for Iraq since the fall of Mosul and Raqqa will not in itself defeat [ISIL]. Once they have been defeated in Mosul and Raqqa, they will still be dangerous and we will continue to support our partners in the region in further reducing them.”
The coalition has trained more than 63,000 fighters and many are in combat operations in Mosul and other locations around Iraq, he said.
“The Iraqi security forces continue to fight bravely and display the dramatic progress they have made since 2014. It is truly amazing to watch them perform so professionally under pressure.”
The OIR deputy commander said the Iraqi forces continue to progress in their advance on Mosul, and while ISIL has lost significant amounts of territory in the city’s eastern sector, the enemy has used snipers and indirect fire, mortars and rockets “to terrorize civilians in areas that have been ripped away from their control. They've also used suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices to attack the advancing Iraqi security forces,” he said.
Iraqis OK Bridge Air Strikes
In response, and at the Iraqi government’s request, U.S.-led coalition forces struck and disabled four of the five bridges connecting east and west Mosul, and increased terrain-denial missions, Jones said.
“The intent of these operations is to reduce the effectiveness of the vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices. This combination of the two tactics seems to be reducing the number of VBIEDs the enemy has been able to use,” he said.
While tough fighting is expected in the coming weeks, “we expect that pressure on ISIL will continue to increase, and their resistance will begin to wane,” Jones said. “This is not a race, so patience is required. The protection of civilians continues to be a top priority for the [Iraqis]. It's going to take time and a lot of tough fighting, but we're confident of [ISIL's] defeat in Mosul.”
Surrounded by a superior coalition force, the enemy has little ability to resupply or reinforce their fighters, he said, adding since the counterattack to liberate Mosul began Oct. 17, the coalition has relentlessly bombarded the enemy.
“The coalition has supported the Iraqi advance with more than 4,800 precision bombs, artillery shells, missiles and rockets against [ISIL] fighters and resources,” he added.
Next Phase in Raqqa, Syria Planned
In Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces having recaptured more than 270 square miles of terrain from ISIL, and are planning the next phase of isolation of Raqqa, Jones said.
“They're now less than [18 miles] from the city and have encountered light to moderate resistance as they continue clearing villages along the axis of advance,” Jones said.
The SDF is also back-clearing the areas they control to reduce ISIL’s ability to reinfiltrate or attack using sleeper cells. “The coalition continues supporting their operations with air strikes, having delivered more than 600 munitions onto enemy targets,” he said.
“These strikes have destroyed vehicle-borne improved explosive devices, fighting positions, vehicles, and eliminated [ISIL] tactical units -- the fighters they use to intimidate and maintain control over the population,” Jones said. “The SDF continues to prove that they are quite capable of defeating Daesh wherever they encounter them on the battlefield.”
(Follow Terri Moon Cronk on Twitter: @MoonCronkDoD)


text:
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many instructors to rapidly shift to online/distance teaching. With a narrow preparation window, many instructors are at a loss of strategies that are both effective in responding to the crisis and compatible with their professional practices. One urgent need in classrooms at all levels is to support social reading of course materials. To fulfill this need, this paper aims to present a systematic literature review on using Web annotation in K-12 and higher education to provide practical and evidence-based recommendations for educators to incorporate social annotation in online teaching.
This paper presents a systematic literature review of the use of Web annotation in formal education. The authors reviewed 39 articles that met the inclusion criteria and extracted the following information from each article: level of education, subject area, learning theory, learning activity design, Web annotation technology, research methods and learning outcomes. Studies were further analyzed and synthesized by the genre of learning activity design.
The authors identified five types of social annotation activity design: processing domain-specific knowledge, supporting argumentation and inquiry, improving literacy skills, supporting instructor and peer assessment and connecting online learning spaces. In addition, the authors developed practical recommendations on setting pedagogical goals, selecting annotation tools, deciding instructor involvement and developing evaluation strategies.
This study provides a timely response to online/distance teaching under the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a hope that these identified application areas, in combination with four practical recommendations, would provide pragmatic and evidence-based support for educators to engage learners in reading, learning and connecting.
Zhu, X., Chen, B., Avadhanam, R.M., Shui, H. and Zhang, R.Z. (2020), "Reading and connecting: using social annotation in online classes", Information and Learning Sciences, Vol. 121 No. 5/6, pp. 261-271. https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-04-2020-0117Download as .RIS
Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited
COVID-19 has forced schools and universities to pivot to online/distance learning. For many educators, this transition is an abrupt response to a crisis. While online instruction does allow many learning activities to continue, any attempt to fully replicate face-to-face (F2F) instruction is misguided, and is destined to miscarry. Instructors, especially those who have not taught online, are at a loss of online teaching strategies that reflect their professional practices and identities.
Among various instructional needs, one learning activity that is popular in classrooms is the social reading of course materials. No matter whether the learning objective is to grasp scientific concepts or to critique literary texts, it is a common classroom practice to engage students in reading and discussing a shared document. This practice is supported by social constructivist views of learning that recognize critical roles played by language and social interaction (Vygotsky, 1962). In a F2F classroom, the teacher can rely on a range of verbal and non-verbal cues to facilitate this activity, diagnosing student understanding, encouraging turn-taking and orchestrating knowledge construction (Chi and Menekse, 2015; Michaels et al., 2008). Moving online, teachers face a lingering question: What online teaching strategies are available to support social reading and group discussion of course materials in the classroom?
To answer this question, we present a systematic literature review of the use of Web annotation in K-12 and higher education. Web annotation is a genre of information technology that allows a user to annotate information in a Web document and anchor a discussion in the annotated information. As a matter of fact, annotation – paper-based or online – is an important part of human cognition; it serves a multitude of functions including procedural signals, placemarks, and visible traces of a reader’s attention (Marshall, 1997; O’Hara and Sellen, 1997). Since the pioneering Annotea project, digital tools have been created to support Web annotation (Haslhofer et al., 2012). In comparison with paper-based annotation, Web annotation harnesses simultaneous access to a shared document and creates a layer of interactivity on any Web document (W3C Web Annotation Working Group, 2016). In education, Web annotation is broadly used to support social reading, group sensemaking, knowledge construction and community building (Chen, 2019; Kalir et al., 2020; Marshall, 1997; Plevinski et al., 2017). In the following sections, we first describe methods and key findings. We then offer practical and cautionary recommendations that are applicable to the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.
Literature search strategy
In April 2020, we conducted a comprehensive literature search using Scopus. To capture educational literature on social annotation, we limited the search to Social Sciences and used an advanced combination of search terms including Web/online annotation, social reading/annotation, collaborative reading/annotation and anchored discussion. Only referred journal articles were included. This initial search yielded 249 results.
We screened these studies based on the following inclusion criteria: being about social annotation in Web-based settings, including empirical research of learning (i.e. not solely about technology), being accessible online, being written in English and not being a literature review; 39 studies met the criteria and were included for analysis.
Coding and synthesis
After the screening, we reviewed each article and extracted the following information: level of education, subject area, learning theory, learning activity design, annotation technology, research methods and learning outcomes. After coding, studies were further synthesized by the genre of learning activity design.
Using Web annotation in classrooms
The synthesis resulted in five categories: processing domain-specific knowledge; supporting argumentation and inquiry; improving literacy skills; supporting instructor and peer assessment; and connecting online learning spaces. Table 1 presents a summary of all studies. Before presenting the categories, we stress that both successes and challenges were reported across studies and any attempts to incorporate social annotation need to consider the context (Kalir et al., 2020). In this section, we spotlight learning activity designs to illuminate possibilities of social annotation in education.
Processing domain-specific knowledge
Web annotation is used to support learner sensemaking of domain-specific knowledge in both K-12 (Jan et al., 2016) and higher education (Chan and Pow, 2020). With Web annotation tools, learners annotate online texts, discuss with each other, and connect the texts with prior knowledge for deeper understanding. For instance, Mohd Nor et al. (2013) designed an online reading system to facilitate reading processes for ESL (English as a Second Language) learners in an undergraduate class in Malaysia. To facilitate domain understanding, the instructors provided guiding questions and prompts for students’ group annotation activities. Survey responses from 81 students indicated 95% of them used the tool for highlighting important points and perplexing areas. Analysis showed students also used annotations to ask questions, express opinions, make inferences and create summaries.
In a study involving medical pathology junior and senior college students, individual and collaborative annotation activities were designed to help students differentiate the images of normal and abnormal human tissues (Sahota et al., 2016). Relying on an image annotation tool called Slice, students annotated digitized microscopic slides, followed by quizzes, questionnaires and instructor feedback. For senior students, research showed a significant improvement in their quiz scores following the collaborative annotation activity. However, this study did not find such positive effect of collaborative annotations among junior students, who had less prior knowledge and collaboration experiences.
One challenge facing the use of social annotation is the occurrence of “low-quality” student annotations. In an undergraduate physics class, a “seeded annotation” intervention was designed by embedding high-quality annotations made by former student cohorts in the materials (Miller et al., 2016). Findings revealed positive effects on both the quality and quantity of student annotations, as well as more prompt participation by students. In another study involving high school students in Taiwan, special features were built in an annotation tool to filter “poor quality” annotations, leading to stronger reading performance and reduced cognitive load (Jan et al., 2016). Overall, these studies showed social annotation could facilitate students’ domain understanding so long as challenges are sufficiently dealt with.
Supporting argumentation, inquiry, and knowledge construction
While domain understanding can be facilitated through annotating materials, in some cases the generated annotations are gathered to further facilitate argumentation, inquiry and multiple perspectives. In a study by Lu and Deng (2013), Diigo, a social bookmarking and annotation tool, was incorporated to help 10th graders critically read materials, evaluate multiple viewpoints, and build arguments about “whether Hong Kong should construct a high-speed rail system.” Students first annotated key concepts (in green), supporting views (red), and opposing views (blue) in articles selected by the instructor. The annotations were extracted from Diigo for groups to discuss and construct well-reasoned arguments. Research findings showed that when the instructor provided sufficient scaffolding for evidentiary reasoning, social annotation supported students to become more attentive, critical and reflective when developing claims.
In another study, Li et al. (2015) incorporated Diigo in a university‐level course to engage 24 students in collaborative inquiry into authentic, ill-structured social issues (e.g. “Should the right to public knowledge override the right to privacy?”). Group members foraged and bookmarked Web pages to build a Diigo database around their select social issue. Diigo annotations, comprising text highlights, annotations and replies, were fed into a group deliberation to co-create mind maps about the social issue. Results showed a positive linkage between social annotation and collaborative inquiry, but groups varied in their engagement level and quality of their mind maps. The authors suggested instructor facilitation was critical for achieving the desired outcome. Together with other studies (Passig and Maidel-Kravetsky, 2016), the literature shows social annotation could help students organize information and ideas for argumentation, collaborative inquiry and knowledge construction.
Improving literacy skills
Social annotation can also promote reading comprehension and language capabilities. This is especially useful in first and second language learning classrooms where reading is a means to achieve language learning objectives (Hwang et al., 2011; Lin et al., 2014). In this case, the content becomes less important than the language skills that are transferable across subject domains.
In an undergraduate English reading class, 22 low-achieving EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners participated in an annotation and discussion activity in groups of 3–4 using the commenting feature in Google Docs (Tseng and Yeh, 2018). Following the Reciprocal Teaching approach (Palinscar and Brown, 1984), students applied four group discussion strategies in the activity: predicting, questioning, clarifying and summarizing. Results showed significant improvement in reading comprehension skills among students. Among the four strategies, students found summarizing and clarifying less useful due to their limited language proficiency. Questioning and predicting were found most useful as they led to a transformation from passive reading to a deeper level of comprehension.
Along with other studies (Chen and Chen, 2014; Lo et al., 2013; Thoms et al., 2017; Yang et al., 2013), social annotation has shown efficacy in promoting literacy skills. By annotating socially, students revisited ideas in the reading, engaged in peer interaction and developed higher-order competencies.
Supporting instructor and peer assessment
Web annotation can provide additional opportunities for assessment and feedback. In the simplest form, an instructor can provide feedback by leaving annotations in online documents submitted by EFL college students to help them correct writing errors (Yeh and Lo, 2009). In a more sophisticated technological setup, Chen et al. (2010) applied text mining algorithms to student annotations/tags to automatically score each student’s progression on reading comprehension. This scoring mechanism allowed 56 EFL high school students to assess their tags, re-read the article when their tags received low scores, and discuss tags with their peers. While the assessment mechanism improved reading comprehension skills and was well received by students and instructors, the authors also attributed these improvements to rereading and discussion activities. In another undergraduate class, Lin and Lai (2013) introduced social annotation as a formative assessment and feedback mechanism for 164 students. The system developed in the study allowed students to receive feedback from both instructors and a database of peer-generated annotations. When reviewing an error, the student could use existing annotations to rectify misconceptions; in case no meaningful annotations were provided, the student could seek additional sources to understand the error and share back to the database via annotations. Results showed the experimental group achieved higher scores on both the midterm and final, even though the effect was less substantial on the final. Students benefited from the system when they were willing to spend more time on review and collaborative annotation.
In summary, as a feedback mechanism social annotation may allow students to put more time into review, consult with peers or other resources and achieve better outcomes; but it is also necessary to recognize that feedback should be incorporated with other learning processes (e.g. rereading) to be effective.
Connecting online learning spaces
Web annotation can be used to help learners link learning spaces (e.g. formal and informal) to make learning experiences more integrated and personally meaningful. This use is especially relevant to adult learners and learning professionals who bring professional identities and social networks to a learning experience. For them, Web annotation, together with many tools, creates and sustains learners’ connections with people, resources and ideas in the openly networked world.
Reflecting this use of Web annotation, Hollett and Kalir (2017) designed “playgrids” that integrate Web annotation and other social media tools for professional learning. Playgrids are defined “as the creative knitting together of social media tools to effectively participate across space, time, and scale” (Hollett and Kalir, 2017, p. 237). In one case of a Master’s level course, 13 adult learners used Hypothes.is to support three types of playgrids: annotation across platforms, annotation as blog commentary and annotation flash mobs. In an annotation flash mob, learners used Hypothes.is to create self-organized and improvisational dialogues beyond the course requirements. Following a public invitation on Twitter and blogs, learners gathered at an online location at a particular time to annotate simultaneously. The synchronous annotation activities “spilled over” to other social media spaces like Twitter and reached learners’ personal networks beyond the class.
In a case study by Chen (2019), the instructor intentionally decoupled learning from traditional learning management systems to facilitate networked conversations on the Web. In a graduate-level class, the instructor used Hypothes.is to engage students in annotating course readings on a weekly basis. The instructor intentionally orchestrated idea movements across discourse spaces. Hypothes.is annotations were synchronized in the class’ group chat environment to allow learners to enter the discourse from multiple places. Findings indicated that students formed dense social ties on both Hypothes.is and found Hypothes.is useful for collaborative sensemaking of challenging readings and community building. However, they found the annotation tool less user-friendly than that group chat tool; some earlier-starter students communicated challenges with the timing of participation as they needed to check back multiple times to read their peers’ contributions.
In summary, social annotation does not only provide opportunities to engage with Web materials or inquiry activities, it is also poised to serve as an infrastructure to connect online learning spaces.
In this review, we synthesized the research on social annotation in formal classrooms into five areas of application (Table 1). Below, we offer four practical recommendations that are grounded in the review and cut across these five areas.
Articulate pedagogical goals when incorporating social annotation
To begin with, annotation strategies should be designed with specific pedagogical intentions in mind. This review has demonstrated myriad ways to support online teaching and learning with social annotation. To generate desirable learning outcomes, it is important to clearly identify the pedagogical goals and align social annotation activities with these goals. For instance, in one study, social annotation is recommended over the threaded discussion forum as the pedagogical intention is to make “targeted critiques or self-reflections to specific sections of the material” (Sun and Gao, 2017, p. 77). In another study that aimed to promote student argumentation, social annotation was a means to support the process of building arguments from Web sources (Li et al., 2015). Exploring the alignment between one’s pedagogical goals with activity designs presented in the previous section would be a good starting point of adopting social annotation.
Select Web annotation tools that are appropriate for the context
Various Web annotation technologies are represented in this review. Some tools are custom-built, with sophisticated functionalities for unique purposes (Chen and Chen, 2014; Eryilmaz et al., 2013). However, there are also studies that adopt tools that are readily available, such as Diigo, Hypothes.is, and even Google Docs. As shown in this review, common features of Web annotation tools include highlighting, tagging, color-coding and filtering. While these features are not available in all Web annotation tools, it is important to remember they are only useful when they serve pedagogical goals. When a custom feature that guides student attention by altering the font size (Eryilmaz et al., 2013) is not available, the instructor could pre-annotate the reading to provide similar attention guidance. In comparison with custom-built Web annotation tools, general-purpose tools like Google Docs have advantages due to their low barriers to entry.
Decide the level of instructor involvement
When it comes to the instructor involvement, more is not always better. The decision should take into consideration the learners’ characteristics and the nature of the learning objectives. In most studies, instructors provided tool tutorials to get students started. Other than that, several studies provided additional support only when technical issues or discussion challenges emerged (Chen and Chen, 2014; Chen et al., 2019). When learners have adequate domain understanding and self-regulation skills, a lower level of instructor involvement may provide more flexibility to learners while also reducing the instructor’s workload.
In other cases, learner engagement needs to be purposefully scaffolded by providing prompt questions, reading strategies, attention guidance and gamification techniques (Chan and Pow, 2020; Chen et al., 2020; Eryilmaz et al., 2014; Tseng and Yeh, 2018). Instructors can guide learners’ attention to challenging concepts by altering the font size or embedding high quality annotations (Eryilmaz et al., 2013; Miller et al., 2016). Dividing the class into smaller groups can generate more unique ideas and efficient communication by avoiding annotation saturation; pairing low- and high-performing students can also enhance discussion quality and interaction (Chen et al., 2019; Miller et al., 2016; Thoms et al., 2017). A deliberately designed involvement plan is important for mitigating challenges while avoiding unnecessary efforts for both the instructors and students.
Develop an evaluation strategy
As demonstrated in several studies, social annotation does not always work and there are emerging challenges. For instance, not all annotation tools were found intuitive to use, as found in a study involving graduate students (Chen, 2019). In another study, undergraduate students reported difficulty in making distinct annotations, while some peer annotations might even impede their understanding (Thoms and Poole, 2017). Kalir et al. (2020) also revealed that undergraduate students perceived divergent social qualities and benefits of social annotation, for instance, some students perceived it as useful for peer interaction but less valuable for the creation of course community. In Chen et al. (2020), 5th graders felt being distracted by the competition mechanism in a gamified annotation activity given these challenges, it is important to create a feedback loop and a strategy to evaluate the use of social annotation in a particular context. Such an evaluation strategy could cover a range of areas including learning outcomes, technology usability, inclusivity, and socio-emotional factors.
As Web annotation activities generate digital trace data that provide indicators of learning, one approach worth considering is to derive learning analytics that extracts annotation data to be analyzed for evaluation purposes. For instance, the “Crowd Layers” is a dashboard tool that extracts data from Hypothes.is and reports learner engagement measures to learners and educators (Kalir, 2020). Chen et al. (2010) applied text mining algorithms to learner annotation data to assess domain understanding. Social network analysis of annotation data is used by Chen (2019) to examine peer interaction patterns. In some Web annotation tools, log data can be harnessed to evaluate the extent to which pedagogical goals are attained by social annotation.
In the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to forge and sustain connections more than ever. While video conferencing provides one way to connect learners from distance in a synchronous fashion, this review suggests unique affordances Web annotation technologies could provide for online learning to achieve various pedagogical goals. In particular, Web annotation can help processing domain-specific knowledge; supporting argumentation, inquiry and knowledge construction; improving literacy skills; supporting instructor and peer assessment; and connecting online learning spaces. It is our hope that these identified application areas, in combination with four practical recommendations, would provide pragmatic and evidence-based support for educators to engage learners in reading, learning, and connecting.
Reviewed studies organized by learning activity design
|Activity design||Subject area||Course level||Study – technology used|
|Processing Domain-specific Knowledge||Chemistry||Secondary||Jan et al. (2016) – WCRAS – TQAFM|
|Statistics||Undergraduate||Alrushiedat and Olfman (2014) – AAOD|
|Education||Undergraduate||Chan and Pow (2020) – WASP;
Gao (2013) – Diggo;
Sun and Gao (2017) – Diigo;
van der Pol et al. (2006) – self developed
|Health Education||Undergraduate||Eryilmaz et al. (2013) – Annotation Tool|
|Second Language Learning||Undergraduate||Mohd Nor et al. (2013) – The Annotation Tool|
|Physics||Undergraduate||Miller et al. (2016) – NB Annotation System|
|Event Management||Undergraduate||Olson and Brown (2018) – Nota bene|
|Computer Science||Undergraduate||Su et al. (2010) – PAMS 2.0;
Zarzour and Sellami (2017) – L2OD;
Zarzour and Sellami (2018) – CAALDT;
|Pathology||Undergraduate||Sahota et al. (2016) – self developed|
|Literature and Reading||Undergraduate||Thoms and Poole (2017) – Hylighter|
|Not Defined||Undergraduate||Yang et al. (2011) – PAMS 2.0|
|Education||Graduate||Eryilmaz et al. (2014) – self-developed|
|Supporting Argumentation, Inquiry, and Knowledge Integration||Liberal Study||Secondary||Lu and Deng (2013) – Diigo|
|Education||University level||Li et al. (2015) – Diigo|
|Communication||Undergraduate||Passig and Maidel-Kravetsky (2016) – Self developed|
|Sport Psychology||Undergraduate||Samuel et al. (2011) – HyLighter|
|Education||Professional Learning||Kalir (2020) – Hypothes.is|
|Practicing Literacy Skills||Literature and Reading||Elementary||Chen et al. (2020) – WCRAS;
Chen et al. (2019) – CRAS-FAFM;
Yang et al. (2013) – SURF;
Chen and Chen (2014) – CRAS-RAIDS
|Literature and Reading||Elementary||Lin et al. (2014) – Group Scribbles|
|Second Language Learning||Secondary||Chen et al. (2016) – CDRAS|
|Second Language Learning||Secondary||Hwang et al. (2011) – VPen|
|Second Language Learning||Undergraduate||Thoms et al. (2017) – eComma;
Lo et al. (2013) – Paragraph Annotator;
Tseng and Yeh (2018) – Google Doc;
Yeh et al. (2017) – Google Doc
|Supporting Instructor or Peer Assessment||Second Language Learning||Secondary||Chen et al. (2010) – TACO|
|International Business||Undergraduate||Lin and Lai (2013) – CAFAS|
|Second Language Learning||Undergraduate||Yeh and Lo (2009) – Online Annotator for EFL Writing;
Zhao et al. (2018) – Zoho Docs
|Connect Online Learning Spaces||Education||Graduate||Chen (2019) – Hypothes.is;
Hollett and Kalir (2017) – Hypothes.is
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This paper is part of the special issue, “A response to emergency transitions to remote online education in K-12 and higher education” which contains shorter, rapid-turnaround invited works, not subject to double blind peer review. The issue was called, managed and produced on short timeline in Summer 2020 toward pragmatic instructional application in the Fall 2020 semester.
Dr Bodong Chen's contribution to this study was partially supported by an NSF Award titled CRII: Cyberlearning: Connecting Web Annotations and Progressive Online Discourse in Science Classrooms (Award # 1657009).

domain: literature


A diode laser that operates at high output power levels over very short cycle times, and emits a signal at long wavelengths with very narrow spectral width.A DFB uses diffraction gratings, which act as distributed reflectors, to create the photonic resonance and oscillation in the cavity.This approach improves on the mirrors used in Fabry-Perot and vertical cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) cavities. The high output power level means that the signal can suffer attenuation over longer distances and survive.The short cycle time translates into a very high bit rate.The diffusion grating supports signal emissions at spectral widths under 1 nm, which effectively means that a DFB laser emits a single wavelength. This narrow spectral width is significant in the context of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). DFB lasers run in the 1300 and 1550 nm regions. As signals at these wavelengths attenuate relatively little, they are preferred for long haul applications. Also,WDM is centered on the 1550 nm window. In total, these characteristics currently make DFB lasers the overwhelming choice of telecommunications carriers and CATV providers, in high speed local loop and long haul wide area network (WAN) applications, where their relatively high cost is justifiable. See also attenuation, bandwidth, diffraction grating, Fabry-Perot laser, laser, laser diode, LED, local loop, spectral width, VCSEL, WAN, wavelength, WDM, and window.


text:
Murphy is a very high energy Siberian Husky who needs someone with a routine and is diligent about daily exercise. Murphy LOVES brisk walks or jogs. He likes to play with other dogs, but like many huskies, he plays hard so he should be with another dog of similar size and energy! .
Murphy is working hard on learning manners and would love to have his new family take him to an obedience class; he didn't get much direction as a puppy so he is still learning.

domain: pet


Rory and the Bryan Brothers made this sweet trick shot video at Whistling Straits
The best trick-shot artists in the game -- the Bryan Brothers -- and the best player in the game by the World Ranking -- Rory McIlroy -- teamed up to make this trick-shot video at Whistling Straits. (Obviously, the video was filmed before Rory's unfortunate ankle injury.)
Rory serves as a more than adequate sidekick, hitting set-up shots to Wesley Bryan, who then hits them out of mid air. Rory then gets in the act himself, impressing the Bryans with his own ball-bashing skills. Basically, the most important thing you can learn from this is that McIlroy is an absolute machine and can essentially make a golf ball bend to his will.


| • IL-Sen: AG Lisa Madigan is still under a lot of pressure from inside the Beltway to move over from her preferred race (Governor) to the Senate race instead. Thing is, the pressure seems to be working (and the fact that Pat Quinn remains pretty popular also helps): she says she's "seriously considering it" and will decide within "four to six weeks" whether to run for gov, senate, or another term as AG.
• KY-Sen: SoS Trey Grayson is still treating Jim Bunning as undecided about running for a third term, despite the crotchety Bunning's many protestations, Abe Simpson-style, that he ain't dead yet. While saying that he has "no plans to run against him right now," Grayson says he'd have a better answer to the question "after next month, when Bunning makes a decision...." Still, he says "I don't suspect that (having to run against Bunning) would be a problem," if Bunning stays in the GOP primary. The remarks were made at a poorly-attended (as in less than 50) Grayson fundraiser in Corbin.
• MO-Sen: Rep. Roy Blunt can't catch a break. No sooner than professor Tom Schweich bailed out and former Treasurer Sarah Steelman's message discipline came completely unglued, along comes yet another likely primary challenger: state Senator Chuck Purgason, who formed an exploratory committee. It sounds like he'll be going at Blunt from the right (Purgason is known for his "country-western fashion sense and iron-clad fiscal conservatism," and said we must "stop the 'changing' of America").
• NC-Sen (pdf): Good polling news out of North Carolina, according to PPP: Generic Democrat leads Richard Burr, 41-38. (There's still the little matter of nailing down a candidate, of course.) Only 29% overall (and 49% of Republicans) think he deserves another term, while 49% say give someone else a chance. Burr's approval is 34/35, with a 31% "not sure," which is still crazily high for a sitting senator.
• NH-Sen: Senatorial speculation for the GOP in the Granite State has turned to AG Kelly Ayotte. (AG is an appointed position in New Hampshire; Ayotte was appointed by ex-Gov. Craig Benson, but retained by John Lynch.) Still, everything seems to be on hold until fall, when the younger John Sununu is supposed to make known his senate intentions. Dean at Blue Hampshire observes ex-Rep. Charlie Bass (another possible Senate, or NH-02, candidate) getting a little testy about having to wait for Sununu Jr. to make up his mind (or for Sununu Sr. to make up Jr.'s mind).
• NY-Sen-B: Rep. Carolyn Maloney keeps ratcheting up her attacks on Kirsten Gillibrand, focusing increasingly on character and credibility. She hit Gillibrand's "evolving" stances and said "She's, to my knowledge, never passed anything. She spends all her time fund-raising. I spend my time doing things." Meanwhile, Gillibrand rolled out the endorsements of 52 of the 62 Democratic Party county chairs in New York. That seems huge, but only half the population of New York state is accounted for, as they have yet to endorse in New York, Kings, Queens, Bronx, Richmond, and Suffolk Counties.
• CA-Gov: Rep. John Campbell from CA-48 in Orange County endorsed Insurance Comm. Steve Poizner a few months ago, but he recently dropped that endorsement and then this week endorsed ex-eBay CEO Meg Whitman instead. Campbell's explanation is that when he first endorsed Poizner, Whitman wasn't in the race yet and he had never met her. (This Campbell, of course, is not to be confused with ex-Rep. Tom Campbell, who's the third wheel in the GOP gubernatorial primary.)
• LA-03, LA-Sen: GOP state Rep. Nickie Monica, who has recently met with officials at the NRCC, is telling his contacts that he's planning on running against Democrat Charlie Melancon. Meanwhile, faced with the prospect of a strong challenge and the looming uncertainties of redistricting, Melancon is still giving a race against GOP Sen. David Vitter a "pretty hard" look, according to a "Democratic insider." (J)
• NY-23: Republican state Senator Joe Griffo, who's based outside the district in Rome but whose turf overlaps part of the 23rd, said he won't run in the special election. For the Dems, veteran Danny Francis (who ran twice against McHugh in the 1990s) said he'll seek the nomination. Dem state Senator Darrel Aubertine shot down speculation that he'd fielded a call from Barack Obama about the seat, although he did cop to talking to DCCC recruitment guru Steve Israel about it.
• OH-15: '08 candidate/ex-state Sen. Steve Stivers says that he'll make up his mind on a rematch against Mary Jo Kilroy by the 4th of July, but Ohio Republicans apparently feel very confident that he'll jump into the race. (J)
• PA-06, PA-Gov: Rep. Jim Gerlach has set a deadline of "this summer" for deciding whether to jump into the 2010 governor's race -- although he certainly seems to be moving to do so, positioning himself message-wise as the only GOPer who's dealt with fiscal issues in a legislature. In the meantime, GOP power brokers are getting antsy that Gerlach's delay in announcing his plans are complicating their efforts to hold this D+4 seat (although GOP state Rep. Curt Schroder is already warming up in the bullpen, having opened an exploratory committee).
• Votes: The war supplemental passed the House 226-202 yesterday, with 32 Democrats and 5 Republicans breaking ranks. The GOPers fall under the 'moderate' umbrella: Cao, King, Kirk, Candace Miller, and John McHugh (for whom a 'no' vote would be awk-ward, as the incoming Sec. of the Army). The Dems are generally the most liberal few dozen, although with a few eyebrow-raising exceptions (Eric Massa, maybe most notably): Baldwin, Capuano, Conyers, Doggett, Donna Edwards, Ellison, Farr, Filner, Grayson, Grijalva, Honda, Kaptur, Kucinich, Barbara Lee, Lofgren, Massa, McGovern, Michaud, Payne, Pingree, Polis, Serrano, Shea-Porter, Sherman, Speier, Stark, Tierney, Tsongas, Waters, Watson, Welch, and Woolsey.


text:
The 23rd Annual NEPA Komen Race for the Cure kicks off.
Posted on: 7:03 pm, March 10, 2013, by Brian Hollingshead, updated on: 09:36am, March 8, 2013
See the Pocono Mountains from a different perspective, try ziplining at Skytop Lodge. It’s an exciting activity to do all year long, and you’ll be able to book your trip with them at the POL expo in April.
Get the latest information on Ryan’s Run.