text:
Kon-Tiki, by Thor Heyerdahl
I do love a good adventure/ travel story, so when I saw this in a secondhand book shop I thought – why would I not read the book that as far as I can tell, arguably started the modern version of ‘person goes on crazy adventure and writes about it’?
I am… ambivalent, now, having read it. Basically one part positive, two parts negative.
Positive: it really is a riveting story. Six men in 1947 on a balsa wood raft, sailing from Peru to Polynesia. They have a radio and a sextant, and modern clothes and sleeping bags; but their raft is genuinely balsa wood, held together with rope. They have no particularly good way to steer. It’s made (apparently) as accurately as they could to match the descriptions from Spanish conquerors to the area. They truly have remarkable experiences, and they went 100-odd days crossing the Pacific. That is epic, as are their encounters with a whale shark, various other wildlife, storms, and just life in general. For that aspect, I don’t regret reading it.
The negatives… well. To start with the journey itself – no, even before. The description of cutting down massive old balsa trees for the construction of the raft had me cringing. Then there’s the seemingly-wanton ‘fishing’ while they’re at sea: they’re hooking and killing far more shark and other fish than they eat, which is just awful. (It is kind of hilarious to read of the flying fish just randomly landing on the boat, I will admit, and eating those makes sense – especially when they’ve been piling up throughout the night.) Also, Thor at least is married and… in the entire book, no mention of the wife. Ever. Not even before the journey, when he’s in America trying to convince people of his theories.
And, yes, here’s the rub, the sticking point, the main problem. Thor goes on this journey to show that it would have been possible for humans to sail from South America to Polynesia, and thereby be the progenitors of at least some of the people living in those islands, and therefore responsible for the impressive statues and pyramids and other ‘advanced’ things that can be found on some islands. But not the Inca, oh no, and not the Olmec, or anyone else you might have heard of: rather, it was a white, bearded race who apparently came before the Inca. And were more civilised, and taught them everything and then got chased off. So… yeah. His entire premise is deeply, deeply racist. This also comes out in descriptions of the Polynesians and others. I’m privileged because I’m white; if a person of native South American – anywhere on that continent – or Polynesian or, I’m afraid, Jewish descent said they were thinking of reading this, I would want to have a good long conversation with them so that they knew what they were getting into. This absolutely means the entire book is problematic, and being a ripping adventure yarn in no way excuses it. It is written in 1947, which offers some context for why Heyerdahl thought it was appropriate to write such things and the publishers apparently had no problem with it – hey, no Polynesian is likely to read it, amiright? and why would they complain even if they did? etc.
Did it have fun bits to read? Totally. Is the book problematic? Absolutely. Did I buy the other two books he wrote, to try and show that Egyptians AND Mesopotamians got to South America by boat? I absolutely did and fully intend to read them to rip the theories to shreds.
Straits: Beyond the Myth of Magellan
I read this courtesy of the publisher, Bloomsbury. It’s out now; $39.99 trade paperback.
… and I thought I was an iconoclast. What a remarkable, thought-provoking and intriguing biography.
Things I already knew about Magellan: he did not circumnavigate the world. I learned that in a book about how Basques influenced the world, because the captain of the only one of Magellan’s boats that did, actually, go around the globe was captained by a Basque.
Things I did not know: most of what Fernandez-Armesto discusses in this book. I did not know that Magellan (to use his Anglicised name) was Portuguese who ditched that kingdom and went to Spain – a traitorous act at the time. I did not know that he was a little too keen on chivalric romances and maybe wanting to emulate them. I definitely did not know what a truly dreadful leader and person in general he was.
OK, that last bit is something of an exaggeration. Indeed one of the problems that Fernandez-Armesto discusses here is the difficulty of ever truly understanding someone like Magellan: partly because of the temporal distance, as well as the mental distance, between me and a Portuguese court-educated man of the 1500s; but also because much of the evidence is deeply conflicted. There’s something close to hagiography by someone who was on the voyage and managed not to die… but there’s also plenty of accounts from men who mutinied. So how do you get to ‘the truth’, and what even is that.
Anyway. As a biography this is awesome. The author brings the context wonderfully to life, exploring what the world was like for someone like Magellan in the 16th century – what Europe knew of the world, and what the world knew of Europe; what kings and adventurers wanted, how empire was going, knowledge of the Atlantic and Pacific, and so on.
Something I had never really appreciated before reading this: just how Very Big the Pacific is. Especially for those accustomed to the Atlantic.
For the historians, Fernandez-Armesto skilfully uses primary sources to make his points, and to show people in their own words – and they never get overwhelming, or in the way of the story. It’s a really great example of how such sources can and should be used.
And finally, the last chapter is called “Aftermath and Apotheosis”, and this is where my iconoclast remark comes in. I got the sense that Fernandez-Armesto doesn’t necessarily like Magellan – which is fine, if intriguing; he certainly proves that Magellan deserves to be studied, if only to learn what he can show about his world. And beyond that, Fernandez-Armesto completely goes to town on previous biographers who do love Magellan, and all those companies who use Magellan’s name as if it’s some sort of shorthand for scientific endeavour or great achievements or frankly anything good. Because what the author shows is that Magellan deserves none of that. He had no scientific interest; he was out for the main chance. He didn’t achieve anything much that was great: yes, he sailed through the straits that bear his name, but he didn’t know they were there and he wasn’t the pilot or navigator anyway PLUS the cost in human suffering was enormous.
This is a great book. If you’re keen on the history of exploration, or early modern biographies, or learning the story behind a fairly familiar name, this is an excellent choice.
Atlas of Forgotten Places
I read this courtesy of NetGalley. It’s out now.
These are beautiful books, even in electronic copy – this Atlas of Forgotten Places, and the Atlas of Improbable Places; I’m sure they’re even more lovely in paper. That’s definitely a key thing to note. The photography of each place is generally very good, and evocative of whatever idea is being presented; and the maps are also intriguing. They show where the place is in context – near other towns or within a country or whatever is relevant – and also shows the layout of the particular area. Because with this Atlas in particular, I think, many of the places featured aren’t just individual buildings (although there are plenty of those); they’re also entire towns, or bits of towns. And the maps show what still exists, what’s crumbling, what’s changed over time. They’re really well produced.
Chapters includes Vacant Properties, Unsettled Situations (abandoned towns, largely), Dilapidated Destinations (tourist spots and hotels), Journeys Ended (airports etc), and Obsolete Institutions. Sometimes the categorising is a bit of a stretch, but I’m happy enough to go along with it. It closes with Alcatraz, which I thought both amusing and fitting; there’s a town called Santa Claus, a lighthouse, several hotels, and a Bangkok mall, as well.
I have two quibbles. One is an admittedly minor irritant: the book needed slightly better editing (ashes are interred, not interned, surely). The other is that sometimes most of the entry for a location is a digression – about Napoleon, when the entry is about something on Corsica, or about why an indigenous group where bowler hats when it’s about a railway in Bolivia, or how both cardigans and balaclavas were named for military things (a man and a place) associated with the Crimean War, when it’s a submarine base in Balaklava. If you’re going to feature a place, surely you should spend your two-ish pages talking just about that place? Expanding more on what it was like and what led to its being forgotten? It made me wonder whether Elborough was padding for the sake of making each entry about equal, and pointless words really, really annoy me.
I should also note that the list of places mentioned in the blurb on Goodreads is wrong – three of the places mentioned there do not actually feature in the book that I read (I doublechecked the index and everything). So if you want to read about the abandoned Peter’s Ice Cream Factory, it’s not in this book.
Those quibbles aside, though, I have no trouble recommending this for the armchair traveller, or the lover of quirky facts.
Green Chili and Other Impostors
I read this courtesy of NetGalley.
Part travel memoir, part personal memoir, and part food history; it’s an intriguing combination. Furstenau discusses her own history – born of Bengali parents, in Thailand, and then growing up in the US. Throughout the book are comments about how hard it was to demonstrate that her visa to India ought to reflect that heritage, but given a lack of paperwork for her parents, it wasn’t to be. This sense of questioning where she belongs is woven through her discussion of “Indian” food, as she looks into the histories of both ingredients and dishes. “Indian” because some of what is discussed is about how now-common ingredients in Indian food actually came to India (green peas, chillis, potato… cheese…); and also some things you might think of as Indian are not, and some things appropriated by others are, of course, from India.
The author travels around India, sometimes visiting relatives and sometimes finding food-connected people, who talk about history and share recipes and teach her to cook some of the dishes. And these recipes are included, of course – Sandesh and Nolen Gur Cheesecake; Kedgeree (which is Indian, not Scottish, and the story of it becoming a breakfast staple is fascinating and I have never eaten it!); Koraishutir Kochuri (puffed bread with green pea filling, and goodness I really want to make this)… and so many others.
This book is very readable; it’s enjoyable to journey around India, it’s varied in what ingredients and ideas it discusses, and the recipes seem easy to follow.
Peel Me a Lotus
I read this courtesy of NetGalley.
You don’t HAVE to read Mermaid Singing, the first of Clift’s memoirs about living on a Greek island in the 1950s, in order to understand what’s going on here; not least because they’ve moved islands, so it’s a whole new crowd of people. But I think it helps, because you come with a sense of what Clift and her husband George Johnston have already experienced, why they left London, and thus can better appreciate their experiences.
Like Mermaid Singing, this is a “domesticity in the exotic” story – Clift and her family living now on Hydra, a small, largely poor Greek island, on the cusp on becoming A Destination for the Artistic, the Beautiful, and the Hangers-On. Clift and her husband/collaborator have bought a house, which brings with it large dollops of angst: partly because of the never-ending requirement for repairs, on a budget that’s basically nonexistent; and partly because now they are settled, they are halfway back to being bourgeois, and many of their fellow Artistic Types can’t figure out if they’re jealous or derisive. Both, it seems.
Unlike Mermaid Singing, Clift is much more ambivalent here about the whole experience: both her own experience, and what island life is like. While in the first she and George are actively writing a novel together about the sponge divers, here she seems to be entirely consumed with looking after the house and the children – indeed, she is hugely pregnant as the book opens, an experience which understandably consumes a significant part of her mind and time. George gets to clatter away at the typewriters, but Clift is busy buying food, making dinner, caring for the baby and the other two children, and so on. Sometimes she seems content with this, and at other times deeply frustrated, worried she is merging into that always-has-been, always-will-be experience of motherhood that she sees all around her. So… a fairly familiar experience, no doubt, for many women who find motherhood a time of personal conflict.
Island life bounces between the seeming idyllic – the beach swim every afternoon, cheap and bountiful food, glorious landscape, interesting if infuriating neighbours (usually it’s the foreigners who are infuriating) – and its opposite. There’s hardly any water to be had in summer. Many people’s health is poor, there are huge prowling alley cats, rubbish is dumped directly into the harbour and no one knows where the sewers drain. Clift doesn’t shy away from the negatives, and also makes little effort to reconcile the two extremes; it’s the reality of life, after all.
A lot of time is spent talking about the other foreigners, for whom she uses pseudonyms, and it’s probably a good thing she did. Having read the introduction, though, it seems their identities are – were? – no secret; Henry and Ursula are Sidney Nolan and his wife Cynthia. Clift presents the various non-Greeks as looking for inspiration or pretending to do so, living dissolutely because they can afford to; some of them are getting allowances from parents, for instance, so they barely even need to dabble in their art. Not so for Clift and Johnston, who are trying to eke out a living on royalties. I don’t even want to look up Hydra today, for fear it’s exactly as Clift prophesied – fancy tourist hotels for the Beautiful People – which may or may not have had positive benefits for the people whose ancestors initially colonised the place.
In some ways I can’t believe this book is more than 60 years old. Parts of it show what feels like a very modern sensibility, while other bits are clearly products of the 1950s. It’s gorgeously, evocatively, provocatively written and I hope lots of people get to read it.
I had thought that I liked travel memoirs. And I do – I can enjoy a good ‘and then we went here and experienced that’ story. But I’ve eventually realised that what I really enjoy is what I choose to call ‘domesticity in the exotic’. Exotic is a loaded word, but I use it here to evoke a sense of difference that I don’t think ‘foreign’ really captures; and I’m just as including a Brazilian or Nigerian writing about moving to Melbourne as I am a Londoner moving to Provence (I think Romulus, My Father arguably fits neatly into my category).
Before A Year in Provence or Under a Tuscan Sun came Mermaid Singing, by Australian Charmian Clift.
I read this book thanks to NetGalley. I’m incredibly pleased that it’s been republished.
Its most obvious parallel is My Family and Other Animals, and the rest of the Corfu Trilogy. Indeed, they were originally published in the same year, 1956. But ‘parallel’ is right: they seem to start similarly and go in the same direction – family moves impetuously to Greek island, experiences with Greek locals don’t always go as expected, genteel poverty etc – but they are fundamentally separated stories. Where My Family is written two decades after the events, Mermaid is contemporaneous. Where Durrell was the spoilt youngest son of the family and was off having adventures and occasionally going to school, Clift is a writer and a mother and a wife; while she has adventures, they’re not the focus, because she has the cares and concerns of an adult: both for her own family and the way she views the people around them.
My Family is a fond recollection of a childhood dream, /something something the world before World War 2 blah blah. Mermaid Singing is part ‘domesticity in the exotic’, but also a rumination on the hardship of Kalymnos life, and the difficulties of being a woman in the 1950s trying to forge and continue a career alongside motherhood.
Clift writes beautifully, and evocatively. Kalymnos is an island that largely relies on about 10% of its population going out on sponge-diving expeditions for 7 months of the year – a dangerous occupation and one that’s bringing back less revenue as, in the 50s, artificial sponges are taking over the market. It’s also an island still, in Clift’s experience, in the grip of patriarchal attitudes (and Clift herself is part of this as she notes she has no right to comment on whether someone has beaten his wife at the end of a drunken week). The whole reason for moving here is for Clift and her husband to collaborate on their third novel, this one to be about the sponge-divers. And they do manage to do this, in between drinking a lot of retzina and being closely observed by all their neighbours and seemingly endless rounds of engagements and baptisms.
This is no day-by-day account of life. Like A Year in Provence it follows a year, observing the changes to life as the seasons come and go. Clift observes moments: a friend giving birth, experiences in the taverna, the experiences of her two children during Carnival…. As a gifted writer, she uses these moments to reflect on life itself – and death; and she conjures a wondrous view of Kalymnos. Is this likely to reflect the lives of the people who lived there their whole lives? Perhaps not. Perhaps they would recognise some aspect of their lives but be confused by an emphasis or examination. It does seem like a genuine reflection of Clift’s experience – an an ex-pat Australian, a writer, a woman who didn’t quite fit the expected mould of womanhood on the island.
I’m inspired to buy this in hard copy if I come across it.
A Year in Provence
Every now and then I fall into reading one of those stranger-in-a-strange-land books, where some person goes to live in a foreign-to-them country and has amusing experiences. Sometimes I feel uncomfortable about this genre – although I’ve never read one that goes out of its way to exoticise the locals, there’s still a potential voyeurism or paternalism that makes me wary. However, I truly loved Under the Tuscan Sun, and Driving Over Lemons was also a delight. The thing that makes me a bit less uncomfortable about these is that they’re white Brits or Americans moving to Europe… which somehow feels less likely to be fraught than, say, a white Brit or American moving to Thailand, or Nigeria. In my mind, that seems much more likely to go difficult places.
Anyway: when I came across A Year in Provence in a secondhand shop I couldn’t remember if I’d read it – surely I had! it’s a classic! – and then I read the first bit and realised nope, never have. Thus, bought.
And it is a delight. I can see why it’s become such a popular book (although I am deeply unconvinced about watching it as a tv show). The style – that Mayle goes through a calendar year, basically following the rhythms of the seasons and how that affects the way farmers, in particular, live – is deeply affective. Yes, there are bits where Mayle is getting amusement out of locals’ quirks; it never feels to me that it’s malicious, and I hope that’s not just me being naive (although that’s possible). It is, of course, a deeply romantic view of living a provincial life. Part of this is the time in which it’s written – the late 1980s – and that feels like (is, I think) a completely different world. And partly this is Mayle’s love letter to his experiences. He doesn’t completely sugarcoat his life – the exigencies of getting labourers to finish their work sounds excruciating – but the humour and general love of life that he exudes makes reading about it just a dream. Also ohmygoodness the FOOD.
I didn’t know there was a sequel, until I found it, soon after reading the first. It’s different in style – I guess repeating the calendar idea wouldn’t have worked. Basically the first thing he opens with here is the fact that the first book made him famous, to the point where strangers would turn up at his door demanding an autograph – and in some cases just wander into his house. Who does that?! I quite liked that he reflected on the consequences of his work – makes it seem more real, in some ways. Again, there’s a lot about food, and that’s completely fine with me. There’s a lot about the house, and local experiences. It’s… cosy. Delightfully cosy. And it makes me wonder whether anything like this life still exists in Provence; my guess is no. Maybe other parts of France?
Living like Mayle is, of course, a fairly affluent choice; most of his neighbours are farmers, working very hard for their bread, while (if you’re being mean) Mayle is a dilettante gentleman-farmer doing whatever he likes. But if you read this as a semi-fantasy, which I think is how I approached it, they’re lovely books. I understand there’s a third book, too; one day I’ll find it.
The Olive Season
It’s fair to say that I take what previously I would have called a guilty pleasure in reading books about foreigners who go to France (or Spain) and rehabilitate dilapidated farms. It’s a guilty pleasure because of course there’s a level of exoticising what for the people these foreigners encounter is just their daily life, and a degree of Othering that I’m uncomfortable with. However, I’m not calling such things guilty pleasures anymore. Problematic, perhaps. It is a pleasure; I’ll not call it guilty anymore. If I keep the problematic nature in mind, and remind myself that these are deliberately romanticised narratives, then I think I’m doing ok.
The Olive Season is the second in a series. I’ve not read the first; I found this in a second hand shop, and while I considered buying the first I decided it didn’t matter. All I need to know is that Carol fell in love with Michel and they bought a near-derelict farm with a few olive trees. Right, got it.
Basically if you’ve read one of the Tuscany books you have a sense for what happens here. Water issues! Planting problems! Madcap guests! However things do get awfully real, too, as Carol experiences some very real and significant tragedy. Her honesty in the way she discusses these in the book is bracing, and a bit heart breaking, and could probably be a bit much for those who have experienced similar things. And it’s appropriate too, since this is a memoir, not a story of a farm. As someone on the outside of such things I respected the way Carol worked through some of the problems in her writing, and the way she also integrated her discussion of the farm, and what it means to her, and how physically working helped her headspace.
Look, the book is set in Provence, and written by someone who loves the place. Of course it makes it sound like it’s a marvelous place to be. There’s no denying the hard work that’s involved in the olive farm, and Carol doesn’t try to downplay it, but nonetheless… she can’t, and the reader can’t, get away from the fact that: this is Provence, and that will always have certain overtones for the non-Provençal.
I enjoyed this book a lot as a holiday read. I won’t go out of my way to find the other books, but if I find them by serendipity I’ll happily grab them.
Jan Morris’ Journeys
Reading a collection of travel essays written in the early 1980s is a surreal experience. So I’ll break this discussion into two parts: by golly I love Morris’ writing, and the essays themselves.
By golly I love the way Jan Morris writes. She constructs beautiful, evocative sentences. Describing the approach to Wells: “As one descends from the spooky heights of Mendip, haunted by speleologists and Roman snails, it lies there in the lee of the hills infinitely snug and wholesome.” On travelling to China for the first time: “Of course, wherever you are in the world, China stands figuratively there, a dim tremendous presence somewhere across the horizon, sending out its coded messages, exerting its ancient magnetism over the continents.” I’m no writer; I don’t have the ability to assess what makes great prose great. (There’s a great piece of graffiti near my house that says “I know art, but I don’t know what I like.”) I do know that I enjoy Morris’ writing, that I find her descriptions absorbing and sometimes moving, and that some of the books I read would be improved by their authors having read and considered Morris’ style.
Separating the form from the content should not be read as a negative about the content, don’t worry.
The first essay is about Sydney, and as an Australian this was really, really interesting. I felt there were parts that Morris exaggerated, and I was a bit uncomfortable with “Kev,” the white-collar worker standing in for Everyday Aussie, and she pokes a bit of fun at Sydney attitudes and expectations. Now, all of these are standard in a travel essay, sure. But I’ve never read a travel essay by a professional like Morris about somewhere that I kind of know – I don’t actually know Sydney very well, but Morris writes about Sydney as representative of the entire country (to which true Melbournians recoil in horror…). So I enjoyed the essay – she says some very true things, very appropriate things, and of course it’s well written. But it also meant that when I read her other essays, of places I have never been (of every other place she mentions, I’ve only been to Wells), I was aware that a native of those places may well have the same reaction as I did to the Sydney essay. Which made for an intriguing experience: not completely immersed in the narrative or the description, but interrogating her assumptions and elisions and emphases. For this sort of writing, I think my experience was actually enhanced.
This is Morris’ fourth book of essays. None of them have dates attached; the publication details simply explain that most appeared in Rolling Stone, a few in other publications. It came out in 1984 and there’a reference somewhere to 1977, so I presume they all date to that general time; the historian in me really wants dates on each one! There are several essays on parts of the US: my zero interest in Las Vegas succeeded in plummeting even lower, although Santa Fe intrigues; a few on Europe – she’s not a huge fan of Stockholm yet somehow I am now more interested in going, and Cetinje in Yugoslavia (now Montenegro) absolutely fascinates. And the Indian and Chinese essays are probably the most intriguing, and most problematic, in terms of how people and places are viewed.
I love Morris’ work and may well make it an ambition to collect most of what she has written.
I have never, in my life, read a book two times in a row. Until I read Hav. This was possible because Hav is not a novel in the ordinary sense. It’s a travel memoir to a fictional place that could easily exist; it’s a meditation on East meeting West, on history and culture and modernity; it’s about being a stranger in somewhere simultaneously familiar and alien. And it has some of the most wonderful prose I’ve come across.
This section from Hav illuminates many of the aspects that make the book so wonderful.
[The boats] often use their sails, and when one comes into the harbour on a southern wind, canvas bulging, flag streaming, keeling gloriously with a slap-slap of waves on its prow and its bare brown-torsoed Greeks exuberantly laughing and shouting to each other, it is as though young navigators have found their way to Hav out of the bright heroic past. (p66)
This. It’s beautiful, for a start. It suggests that conjunction of somewhere existing both in the present and, somehow, in the past that makes Hav so intriguing. And it’s quoted back at its author in the second part of the book, as an indication of her own understanding of Hav.
(We’re all about the meta.)
Two thirds of the book was written and published in the 1980s. According to Ursula le Guin, who wrote the introduction, it led to people going to their travel agents looking to book a ticket to Hav because it was so convincing. Now, it really is convincing, but at the same time there are aspects that make it quite clear that Hav is a fiction. Like the fact that you’ve never seen it on a map, maybe? I was confused by that until I look Jan Morris up, and discovered that she has written many actual travel books (under that name and as James Morris). So I concede that perhaps if you knew her earlier work, you could be forgiven for some confusion if not quite that much. Anyway, the last third was written in the early 21st century, and sees Morris going back to Hav after the Intervention – which was just starting as she left last time. And this allows Morris to explore a whole other aspect of culture and development.
“Last Letters from Hav” are entries written between March and August, with Morris arriving in Hav at the start and being bustled out as trouble brews at the end. In between, she does what any travel writer does: she stays in interesting places, she visits the important and not-so-important places in the city, she talks to people, she reminisces about what other people have said about the place. I’ve been having a great deal of difficulty writing this review because the books is absolutely busting at the scenes with themes, with commentary, with historical (a)musings. There’s multiculturalism and colonialism and identity – the losing and finding and historical nature of and doubt around. There’s appropriation on a massive scale – see previous note – and getting on with the business of life. There’s ordinary mystery and profound mystery, religion and politics and architecture and this book had me in RAPTURES. Can you tell?
Hav is a city-state in a world that really doesn’t have them any more. It’s got an uneasy relationship with Turkey, its only (?) land neighbour, but a seemingly thriving one with certain Arab nations and perhaps the Chinese. It’s basically meant to be somewhere like the Dardanelles – although the geography isn’t quite right – because it’s a big deal that this was where Achilles and his Myrmidons came ashore. And the Spartans too, apparently. And, later, Arab merchants, and Venetian merchants, and it’s one of very few venerable Chinese merchant settlements outside of Asia. See how Morris twists history and makes it just believable? There really were moments where I could believe this was real. Because her discussion of history is modern, too: the Brits wanted to colonise it; Hav was shared by France, Italy and Germany under a League of Nations mandate; Hitler might have visited, and Hemingway did. Morris talks to people who are flotsam from this era; and also to a man claiming to be the 125th Caliph. Also a casino manager, members of the ‘troglodyte’ race who live in the nearby mountains, the local philosophers, and some bureaucrats. She visits odd monuments, the Conveyor Bridge (I admit I had to ask someone whether that was actually possible, because I was teetering on the edge of What Do I Believe?), and the Electric Ferry. I don’t believe that this book could have been written by anyone other than an established travel writer, because her eye and ear for (even imaginary) detail is breathtaking.
The second section is much shorter and deals with only a week or so, some two decades later when Morris is invited back to Hav after the Intervention. “Hav of the Myrmidons” does all of the same things as “Last Letters,” with additional meditation on the nature of change and tourism and the impossibility of an outsider ever really understanding the internal workings of a foreign city. There’s also the inevitable nature of change, and the sinister side of globalisation with imported labour and native populations made to relocate – which, intriguingly, is given a possibly positive spin. Morris’ books is either revered or believed to be banned in Hav, depending on who she speaks to (it’s one of the bureaucrats who reveres it that quotes the passage above at her, as part of the reason for why she was asked back). But things have changed. Most of the glorious many-centuries-in-one-place nature of former Hav is gone, replaced with new and forbidding and disorienting architecture. Like the massive Myrmidon tower, surmounted by an M – but no one really knows who or what the Myrmidons are, or meant to be, in this context. Some things of old Hav have been retained, but sanitised, bent to a new understanding of the world. Tourists are allowed, but only in a defined space – which leads to another bit I wanted to quote, because I think it’s an indication of a travel writer’s despair:
“The thing is… one feels so safe here. The security’s really marvellous, it’s all so clean and friendly, and, well, everything we’re used to really. We’ve met several old friends here, and just feel comfortable in this environment. We shall certainly be coming again, won’t we darling?” “Oh, a hundred percent. I think it’s bloody marvellous what they’ve achieved, when you remember what happened here.” (p196)
Thus spake an older English couple with no intention of leaving the resort.
Hav puts me in mind of China Mieville’s The City and the City, and Christopher Priest’s The Islanders, both of which do a similar thing with inventing places that ring so amazingly true. The Priest is clearly fictional but written as a travel book; the Mieville is a fiction but set in a city that purports to be real. I guess Hav conflates the two.
This review gets nowhere near what I really want to say about Hav. I am so glad that it exists, and that I have read it. And now I will force it into the hands of anybody I possibly can… although I admit to some trepidation that maybe other people won’t like it as much as I do. (I haven’t been able to look at any Goodreads reviews for that reason.) I may have used the word intriguing too many times, and I may have given in to hyperbole, but I don’t care. I love this book and want to hold it to my heart FOREVER.
(Another of the books that has been languishing on my shelves for far too long, unread. WHAT OTHER GEMS ARE WAITING FOR ME??)
You can get Hav from Fishpond.

domain: literature


Rolling Mill Shape Control
Cold rolling mills are an abundant source of control problems. Typically, the stand consists of a small diameter work roll and a larger backup roll on each side of the steel strip. Significant amounts of energy are required to achieve the desired thickness reduction. Much of this energy appears as heat on the work roll, which is removed with cooling sprays. This leads to non-uniform thermal expansion across the work roll, referred to as thermal camber. The problem of keeping the roll edge flat is called shape control.
Numerous cooling sprays are located across the roll, and the flow through each spray is controlled by a valve. The cool water sprayed on the roll reduces the thermal expansion. The interesting thing is that each spray affects a large section of the roll, not just the section directly beneath it. This leads to an interactive MIMO system, rather than a series of decoupled SISO systems.
Overview of the Example
It is recommended that you follow the example in order, but you may skip ahead if you wish:
Diagram of the System
A typical flatness control system is shown in the figure below. A comprehensive strip shape control system which incorporates some of the ideas discussed here is available from Industrial Automation Services Pty Ltd.


Hitachi CP-WU8450 Review
|4 Years Old|
|£117 Over 1 Year|
Why Has it Scored 36?
Sony projectors have excellent reviews in general.
It is over 2 years old and it is likely that newer, better projectors are available. View the latest multimedia projectors 2017.
This projector has running costs of £117 over 1 year, which puts it typical compared to the other 1,763 multimedia projectors that we have compared it to.
It has some good features, but is also missing a few features:
Fairly bright projector brightness
Has a built-in speaker
Does not support full HD
Very short service life of lamp
Hitachi CP-WU8450 In-Depth Analysis
Does Not Support Full HD
The CP-WU8450 does not support full HD, although it is worth keeping in mind that 64% of projectors also do not support full HD.
Fairly Bright Projector Brightness
The CP-WU8450's projector brightness of 5,000 ANSI lumens is fairly bright compared to most other projectors. It is in the brightest 18% of all projectors when ranked by this feature. Across all the projectors the projector brightnesses range from 12 ANSI lumens to 85,000 ANSI lumens, and the average projector brightness is 3,700 ANSI lumens.
Very Short Service Life of Lamp
The service life of lamp of the Hitachi CP-WU8450 of only 2,500h is fairly short compared to most other projectors. It is in the shortest 11% of all projectors when ranked by this feature. Projectors have service life of lamps of between 20h and 40,000h, and the average service life of lamp is 6,800h.
Has a Built-In Speaker
The Hitachi CP-WU8450 has a built-in speaker. 76% of projectors also have a built-in speaker.
Has an Air Filter
The Hitachi CP-WU8450 has an air filter, unlike 95% of projectors which do not have an air filter.
WUXGA (1920x1200) Resolution
The CP-WU8450 has a higher resolution than most projectors. This projector has a WUXGA (1920x1200) resolution, whereas most projectors have a WXGA (1280x800) resolution. The best resolution of all projectors is DCI 4K (4096 x 2160) and the worst is 280 x 800.
Average Noise Level
The Hitachi CP-WU8450's noise level of 35dB is pretty standard compared to most other projectors. It is in the loudest 54% of all projectors when ranked by this feature.
Released Over Four Years Ago
This data projector was released in January 2013.
Average Running Costs
Based on passable usage levels and energy prices we estimate that the CP-WU8450 will cost £117 over 1 year to run, which is typical compared to the other 1,763 projectors.


text:
Kolkata Knight Riders (Bottom) are in touching distance of confirming play-off spot © IANS
With 13 more matches to go, the battle for the fourth playoffs spot is getting intense with Kolkata Knight Riders in the lead. Abhijit Banare looks at the possible equations for teams to get through to playoffs.
Click here for updated Playoffs scenario
Kings XI Punjab: The safest team in the competition after Delhi Daredevils! With a comprehensive win over Delhi, they managed to secure their place at the top and are through to the playoffs. They lost against Mumbai Indians but it won’t bother them much. With two matches to go, they might either opt to give their bench strength some opportunity or come with full force to cement the top position.
Chennai Super Kings: After Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore, Chennai are through to the playoffs with 16 points. So the loss to Kolkata Knight Riders won’t bother them much, except that the race now will be to grab the second spot and gain that extra chance in the playoffs.
Rajasthan Royals: First of all, they have the net run-rate in their favour. They looked complacent in their loss against Mumbai without their key players, but Royals are very much secure in the race. It’s only for the next three teams below them who have to slug it out. They play Punjab on May 22 and against Mumbai on May 25. Even if they lose against Punjab, Royals will be playing the last match of the league which means if they fall back in the net run-rate, they walk in to the match against Mumbai knowing what they want. But it would require bizarre results to unseat Royals on net run-rate.
Kolkata Knight Riders: After Sunrisers Hyderabad kept the points table interesting, Kolkata deflated it by registering a comprehensive victory over Chennai. From hereon, it will be Kolkata’s to lose a playoff than anything else. Compared to the teams scrambling below them, their net run-rate is in the positive and they have two more matches ahead. For Kokata to confirm qualification, they have to win one of their two matches.
Before we progress to the equations for teams below, the first critical criteria for having any playoff hopes is to see that Kolkata don’t win any of their matches from hereon. Their remaining two matches are against Bangalore and Hyderabad.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: They have slipped to sixth in the points table but the gap between Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai is very narrow — (-0.156, -0.263, -0.280) to be precise. Bangalore and the two teams that follow have must-win situations. But the match could very well be sealed on May 22, when KKR and RCB face-off. For the sake of rest of the teams, RCB will have to defeat KKR to harbour any hopes of qualifying and hope SRH repeats the same.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: They have truly spiced up the tournament with a win against RCB but it would once again require net run-rate to come in play. If KKR lose to RCB on May 22, SRH will still be in contention by going past the mighty CSK and then defeating KKR again.
Mumbai Indians: Well, the equations have changed since the last match. Mumbai not only won by 25 runs but ensured that they scored heavily against Rajasthan Royals. Placed fifth in the points table, Mumbai would be the most dependent on the numerous complicated equations of other teams to fall in their favour, and well they also need to win the remaining two matches in the first place to even think of net run-rate. In any case if things do go in their favour, Mumbai will be at an advantage as they play the last match of the league phase. But there’s still some time before they get there. They will be hungry to beat Delhi t home on May 23.
There can indeed be a situation where KKR, SRH, RCB, MI all end on 14 points by the end of the league phase but KKR are ahead in net run-rate. As mentioned earlier, KKR are the only team who have things in their control for a playoff spot.
Delhi Daredevils: Undoubtedly the safest team at the moment! Even if they manage to upset the other teams in their remaining matches, there is no chance of qualifying for playoffs.
The above article has been updated after Mumbai Indians defeated Kings XI Punjab on May 21, 2014.
Click here for IPL 2014 Points Table and Team Standings
Click here for IPL 2014 Schedule: Match time table for IPL 7
Click here for IPL 2014 Schedule & Results
Click here for IPL 2014 complete coverage
(Abhijit Banare is a reporter at CricketCountry. He is an avid quizzer and loves to analyse and dig out interesting facts which allows him to learn something new every day. Apart from cricket he also likes to keep a sharp eye on Indian politics, and can be followed on Twitter and blog)

domain: sports


text:
Winnipeg is gearing up for the 49th annual Folklorama festival. With 43 different pavilions staffed by more than 20,000 volunteers, festival-goers have the chance to experience and explore the many colourful cultures of the world. Folklorama has been a highlight of summer for many Manitobans since 1970.
Here is a look at the 23 pavilions that will be featured in the first week of Folklorama from Aug. 5-11.
Africa/Caribbean – Pembina Curling Club, 1341 Pembina Hwy.
In the 50th celebration of the Afro-Caribbean Association of Manitoba, dance, eat and enjoy the cultures of the Afro-Caribbean.
See: Limbo dancer and fire-eater Prince Jo Jo is among the pavilions performers which includes rhythmic dancing and performances from the Jamaican Folk Ensemble.
Eat: Jerky Chicken, curried goat, calypso ribs, chicken and vegetable rotis and Jamaican beef patties.
Drink: Red Stripe and Carib Beer, Dragon Stout, rum punch, pina colada and ginger beer.
Brazil – RBC Convention Centre, third floor, South Building, 375 York Ave.
Come heat things up in the air-conditioned comfort of the Convention Centre as you experience the high-energy culture of Brazil.
See: Live music and entertainment that takes the viewers on a tour of Brazil.
Eat: Slow roasted pulled beef sandwhich, Piri piri chicken skewers, pao de queijo (cheese buns), bolinho de bacalhau (Cod cakes).
Drink: Cachaça cocktails and Brazilian beer.
Casa do Minho Portugal – Casa do Minho Portuguese Centre, 1080 Wall St.
Experience colourful culture of the Northern Portugal province of Minho through dance and music.
See: Lively music and traditionally dressed folk-style dance groups that showcase Minho.
Eat: The national Portugal dish of freshly grilled sardines made to order.
Drink: Imported Sagres ice-sold beer and Vinho Verde (green wine).
Chile – Notre Dame Recreational Centre, 271 Ave de la Cathedrale
Take in the culture spread across Chile including the south and north-central regions and, of course, the mysterious Isla de Pascua (Easter Island).
See: The latin-styled dance group “QUIDEL” as well as returning performers Chile Lucha y Canta.
Eat: Chacareros (sliced steak sandwhich with green beans, tomatoes and mayo).
Drink: Borgoña (cold red wine and strawberries).
China – Dynasty Building, 180 King St., Second floor
There is no better place to experience China than in the landmark Dynasty Building in the heart of Winnipeg’s Chinatown.
See: Special Lion Dance, famous Cotta Warriors, take part in Chinese calligraphy, tea ceremonies and brush painting.
Eat: Traditional, popular and authentic cuisine of China.
Drink: Tsingtaoe Beer.
Greece – St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, 2255 Grant Ave.
Explore the famous custom of Greek Philoxenia (Hospitality) where the song and dance is ever-sounding, the food and drink is ever-flowing. Opa!
See: Performances by Greek Kefi dancers.
Eat: Souvlaki, spanakopita, Greek salad and lemon Potatoes.
Drink: Ouzo (Mediterranean liquor).
Hungary/Pannonia – RBC Convention Centre, second floor, North building, 37 York Ave.
For the first time at the RBC Convention Centre, the Hungary/Pannonia an amazing cultural tour through Hungary’s rich history and warm hospitality.
See: Kaptiszatran folk dancers accompanied but Gyanata – a Hungarian folk band from Montreal.
Eat: Langos, gulyas, and award-winning cabbage rolls.
Drink: A variety of spritzers and Golden Pear liqueur.
Ireland – Soul Sanctuary, 2050 Chevrier Blvd.
Every night is pub night at the Ireland Pavilion. Come see why the Irish prefer the pub as the ideal setting to socialize and celebrate among friends.
See: Champion dancers from the McDonnell School of Irish Dance and returning once again, the world renowned Damhsa.
Eat: Homemade Irish stew, soda bread, colcannon.
Drink: A Pint of Guinness.
Israel-Shalom Square – Asper Jewish Community Campus, 123 Doncaster St.
Discover the small and beautiful country of Israel while celebrating the 70th anniversary of the State of Israel.
See: Israeli folklore performed by the internationally renowned Sarah Sommer Chai Folk Ensemble.
Eat: Falafel (chick pea balls), pita, and hummus and potato borekas.
Drink: Imported wine, Goldstar beer, and Sabra chocolate orange liqueur.
Italy – Centro Caboto Centre, 1055 Wilkes Ave.
Celebrate the many festivals of Italy all combined into the true cultural experience of la Festa Italiana.
See: A variety of local performers from the talented Italian community, beautiful cultural displays and shop in the Mercato.
Eat: Spaghetti and meatballs, cannoli, gelato.
Drink: Presumably imported wine and beer.
Japan – St. Joseph’s Parish Hall, 515 College Ave.
Check out the unique culture, music and tastes of Japan in one of three nightly shows that showcase the country’s splendours.
See: Martial art performances, local performers with guest performers from Osaka, Japan.
Eat: Niku-don (beef on rice), matsuri dogs, miso soup, sushi and kakigori (flavoured shaved ice cone).
Drink: Japanese beer.
Métis – Heather Curling Club, 120 Youville St.
Preserve the culture and history of the Métis people as they celebrate with fiddle music and square dancing in the new Métis Pavilion.
See: Red River Jig/square dance performed by the Asham Stompers.
Eat: Pickerel chowder, bison stew with bannock, berries and cream.
Drink: Moose milk (an alcoholic milkshake).
Mexico – RBC Convention Centre, third floor, North building, 375 York Ave.
Take in the international Ballet full of the music and folklore from the Gulf of Mexico seen in Canada for the first time.
See: International Ballet Folorico de la Universidad Veracruzana, late night parties hosted by DJ Leo Salsero and DJ Chilango.
Eat: Mexican rice, Chochinita Pibil (pork), Picadillo (beef), Fish Veracruz Style (tuna).
Drink: Cerveza and tequila.
Canadien-Français – Centre Culturel Franco-Manitobain, 340 Provencher Blvd.
With three nightly shows, experience the history and legacy of the French Canadians and their love of hockey.
See: Traditional Dances performed by l’Ensemble folklorique de la Rivière Rouge.
Eat: Tourtière, pea soup and poutine.
Drink: Unknown, but there’s one sure way to find out.
Scotland – Glenwood Community Centre, 27 Overton St.
The Scotland Pavilion offers a hundred thousand welcomes and invites you to party in true Celtic fashion.
See: Ena Sutton Highland Dancers of Winnipeg, Flying Haggis Showband, Manitoba Highland Dancers’ Association, live bagpipe bands, Manitoba Association of Celtic Sports.
Eat: Haggis (ground pork, oatmeal, seasoning wrapped in sausage casing), mince (ground beef with Worcestershire sauce), scotch pie, sausage roll, birdie or vegetable pie.
Drink: Whiskies of Scotch Glen.
Poland – RBC Convention Centre, main floor, North building, 375 York Ave.
Explore the culture of the many different Polish regions through lively dance and music, and take home authentic Polish souvenirs.
See: performances by Polish Dance Ensemble S.P.K. Iskry, Polish School of Dance S.P.K. Iskry.
Eat: Polska kielbasa (Polish sausage), golonka (pork hock), bigos (hunter’s stew).
Drink: Cold Polish beer, Sobieski vodka, Krupnik (Honey liqueur).
Punjab – Punjab Cultural Centre, 1770 King Edward St.
Learn bhangra and gidha dances, get a henna tattoo, try on a turban, and visit the cultural display while exploring the vast culture of the Punjab region.
See: Punjab musical instrument performance, performances by the Bhangra (male dance), Gidha (female dance), and Mix Bhangra (male and female dance).
Eat: Saag (spinach), chana masala (chick peas), chicken masala curry with naan bread, kadhi (vegetarian curry made with yogurt), and pakora with rice.
Drink: Taj Mahal or Cheetah Beer, imported spirits including Old Monk and Old Port Rum.
Romania – Bronx Community Centre, 720 Henderson Hwy.
Enjoy the idyllically peaceful experience of the Romanian culture, while celebrating the proud heritage and rich history of the Transylvanian region.
See: A new show performed by the Romanian Balada group with dancers of all ages.
Eat: Chicken Dracula, Vampire Ears, schnitzel, includes a vegan menu.
Drink: The famous Bloddy Fang Cocktail as well as a wide selection of wine and imported beer.
Russia – Holy Cross Gym, 290 Dubuc St.
Experience Russian Culture in a blend of Russian music, dance and theatre components that make for unforgettable celebration of the pavilion’s 15th anniversary.
See: Special guests Zhenya Rock of the Flying Balalaika Brothers, Oleg Bernov of the rock group Red Elvises, performances by the Sabotage Performance Dance Group, visit Sunny the Robot from TheMegaBotShow.
Eat: Borscht, pelmeni, and crepes.
Drink: Wine and soft drinks.
Serbian “KOLO” – St. James Civic Centre, 2055 Ness Ave.
Take part in Serbian culture through KOLO – a traditional folk dance in which participants create a magic circle that lives and breathes through music to preserve the heritage of the Serbian people.
See: Junior and Senior Folk Dance Ensemble “KOLO” performances.
Eat: Imported ethnic food.
Drink: Hilarious bartenders serve imported alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.
South Sudan – Sudanese Community Cultural & Resource Centre, 129 Dagmar St.
Gaining independence on July 9, 2011, South Sudan is the world’s youngest nation yet it is packed with tradition and culture showcased in the pavilion.
See: Performances by local groups from various regions of the country.
Eat: The signature dish of Mola Bamiya (onion, okra, beef and tomatoes).
Drink: The drink menu has not been released but based on last year possibly hibiscus tea and coffee.
Ukraine-Kyiv – Maples Collegiate, 1330 Jefferson Ave.
Love is in the air as one of the oldest Folklorama pavilions explores Ukrainian Wedding Traditions
See: Over 800 performers throughout the week including the Todaschuk Sisters, Rozami Dance Ensemble, and the O. Koshetz Choir.
Eat: Varenyky, holubutsi, borshch, and kovbasa, perogy poutine and blueberry perogies with whipped cream.
Drink: Coffee and Tea.

domain: artistic


text:
For more information on composting, check out these additional resources:
To read the whole article: Dishing Up the Dirt About Compost
Kate Vinokurov is the founder of the TUC Community Garden in Markham, Ontario. She is an avid gardener who enjoys creating compost using innovative techniques.
Forgiveness and self-care tools
Daniela Ginta, MSc
What it’s like to taste shapes and hear fragrances
Could brain inflammation be keeping you depressed and stressed?
Dr. Cassie Irwin
Everything you should know about the newest non-dairy darling

domain: hobby


2013-08-21 15:42 供稿单位: 新航道
Many prehistoric people subsisted as hunters and gatherers. Undoubtedly, game
animals, including some very large species, provided major components of human diets.
An important controversy centering on the question of human effects on prehistoric wildlife
Line concerns the sudden disappearance of so many species of large animals at or near the end
(5) of the Pleistocene epoch. Most paleontologists suspect that abrupt changes in climate led to the mass extinctions. Others, however, have concluded that prehistoric people drove
many of those species to extinction through overhunting. In their "Pleistocene overkill
< arrival the between coincidence remarkable a be to seems what they>
prehistoric peoples in North and South America and the time during which mammoths,
(10) giant ground sloths, the giant bison, and numerous other large mammals became extinct.
Perhaps the human species was driving others to extinction long before the dawn of history.
Hunter-gatherers may have contributed to Pleistocene extinctions in more indirect
ways. Besides overhunting, at least three other kinds of effects have been suggested:
direct competition, imbalances between competing species of game animals, and early
(15) agricultural practices. Direct competition may have brought about the demise of large
carnivores such as the saber-toothed cats. These animals simply may have been unable
to compete with the increasingly sophisticated hunting skills of Pleistocene people.
Human hunters could have caused imbalances among game animals, leading to the
extinctions of species less able to compete. When other predators such as the gray wolf
(20) prey upon large mammals, they generally take high proportions of each year s crop of
young. Some human hunters, in contrast, tend to take the various age-groups of large animals in proportion to their actual occurrence. If such hunters first competed with the larger predators and then replaced them. they may have allowed more young to survive each year, gradually increasing the populations of favored species As these populations expanded,
(25) they in turn may have competed with other game species for the same environmental niche, forcing the less hunted species into extinction. This theory, suggests that human hunters played an indirect role in Pleistocene extinctions by hunting one species more than another.
20. What does the passage mainly discuss?
(A) The effects of human activities on prehistoric wildlife
(B) The origins of the hunter-gatherer way of life
(C) The diets of large animals of the Pleistocene epoch
(D) The change in climate at the end of the Pleistocene epoch
21. The word "Undoubtedly" in line I is closest in meaning to
22. The word "components" in line 2 is closest in meaning to
23. Which of the following is mentioned as supporting the Pleistocene overkill hypothesis?
(A) Many of the animals that became extinct were quite large.
(B) Humans migrated into certain regions around the time that major
(C) There is evidence that new species were arriving in areas inhabited by humans.
(D) Humans began to keep and care for certain animals.
24. The word "Besides" in line 13 is closest in meaning to
(A) caused by
(C) in addition to
(D) in favor of
25. The author mentions saber-toothed cats in line 16 as an example of a carnivore that
(A) became extinct before the Pleistocene epoch
(B) was unusually large for its time
(C) was not able to compete with humans
(D) caused the extinction of several species
26. The word "they" in line 20 refers to
(A) human hunters
(B) game animals
(C) other predators
(D) large mammals
27. According to the passage, what is one difference between the hunting done by
some humans and the hunting done by gray wolves?
(A) Some humans hunt more frequently than gray wolves.
(B) Gray wolves hunt in larger groups than some humans.


text:
Show your love, and express your heart-felt emotions with heart cake! It is lip-smacking and a wonderful way to convey your feelings when you are at a loss of words!
• Baking is an art and very much depends on the artists, in this case, the chef. Hence, expect a slight yet pleasant variation when you receive it.
• Delivery can’t be redirected. Unlike other courier items, the online cake delivery will be hand-delivered.
Don’t forget to refrigerate this lip-smacking delight as soon as it is delivered. Though, avoid putting it in the freezer and allow it to come back to room temperature before serving it.
Hearty Black Forest Cake Review by Nimrit
Price Value Quality
I was extremely satisfied with this cake! Not only was it beautiful, but it tasted even better! It was sooooo yummy and topping was outstanding. Thanks for making my receiver happy. I would definitely going to recommend to everyone to place an order with Arena Cakes only, as they keep their customers happy:)))))))) (Posted on 4/15/2017)
Reallyy yummm :))) Review by Kritika
Value Quality Price
Arena Cakes products are really quality products ,Their prices are really reasonable .Whether they serve flowers with cake or just cake delivery...they are best in delivering the smiles .I ordered this appetizing cake for my person ,He received the cake in the morning itself .Cake was reached at time .it was delicious & appetizing .Just awesome ..... (Posted on 4/5/2017)
Thumbs up! Review by Rajeev sharma
Quality Price Value
Arenacakes is great!!Their staff is amazing and supportive made the changes on toppings on just one request. Cake is awesome , taste of it is outstanding. Delivery timings are very quick. In terms of quality they are best in all.Thank u arena cakes for making our occasions memorable. (Posted on 10/14/2016)

domain: food


Belonging to the continuum of storied ambassadors of African music alongside the likes of Babatunde Olatunji, Hugh Masekela and Fela Kuti, saxophonist Hugh Masekela was one of the original leading lights of the continent to break out into the wider world of pop music. Making a sizeable splash 1972 with the immortal Soul Makossa (quoted by none other than the king of pop himself Michael Jackson on Thriller's opening track, Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'), his profile continued to grow as world music's market share increased in the decades to come.
Manu Dibango first emerged out of Cameroon in the early sixties as a member of Joseph Kabasele's Le Grand Kalle, the group that fused the rhythms of Africa and Cuba through Rumba into the form now known as Soukous (Sam Mangwana, Docteur Nico, Mbilia Bel, Orchestra Makassy, et. al.). By mid-decade, he'd already struck out on his own, forming his own band and then moving to Paris, a move that would become a time-honored tradition by ambitious African musicians seeking a wider audience (or escaping political persecution).
Manu's big break came in 1972 with Soul Makossa. The title track was a killer slab of afrobeat magic that in many ways served as a bridge between James Brown's syncopated funk and the 4/4 pulse of disco, even getting serious play at David Mancuso's Loft and later serviing as one of Afrika Bambaataa's crowd-slaying staples. Put it this way: if you're at all into dance music, it's one of those records you know almost by osmosis.
The rest of the album is pretty great as well, with the tumbling superfly funk of New Bell and Hibiscus' strung out downbeat running parallel to figures like Cymande and Joe Bataan, while the groovadelic Oboso is essentially disco proper way back in 1972 (sharing the honor with Eddie Kendricks' Date With The Rain, another proto-disco masterpiece).
Interestingly enough, Dibango appeared onstage with the Fania All Stars live in San Juan, Puerto Rico a year later. The performance is captured on this live recording, which was recently salvaged by Fania Records in a an invaluable act of public service. A brilliant example of the trans-Atlantic connection that pre-dated the emergence of the world music industry by a good five years, the version of Soul Makossa that anchors the record is given a punchy salsa makeover lasting well over seven minutes.
Then, five years later, Dibango provides the soundtrack for the Senegalese motion picture Ceddo. Featuring a more downcast variation on his previous work — shot through with more traditional elements that underscore the picture's pre-collonial setting — it's dominated by haunting xylophone figures dancing with taut, tricky rhythms and even the presence of some great raw synth work.
I remember first hearing the beguiling title track on Luaka Bop's Love's A Real Thing compilation and being totally drawn in: I had to have this record. Near-impossible to find at the time, I always held out hope that I'd come across a copy in the field. Fast-forward ten years and the Africa Seven label's invaluable reissue, and I'm in heaven. I still haven't seen the movie, beyond a grainy ten-minute clip on Youtube back in the day, but it's definitely on my list of things to do as soon as I get the chance.
By now, we're firmly in the 1980s, just before the would music gold rush really commenced. In fact, this came out the same year as King Sunny Adé's Juju Music. Perhaps not quite as much of a mind-bending electronic head trip as Juju Music record (or Tony Allen's N.E.P.A, another firm favorite), but it does have that sparkling, gently synth-inflected post-disco sound in evidence throughout. The undeniable highlight for me is pointillist funk of Mouna Pola... now that's a bad jam.
The most recent Manu Dibango album I own is actually the first one I ever picked up. Wakafrika was very much around when I was first exploring this music — one of the many routes out from dance music — and as such was my introduction to the man's music beyond Soul Makossa. The presence of a cover version of Peter Gabriel's Biko marks it out as firmly in the post-Real World drift, the whole notion of world music as an island of its own by now in full effect.
A star-studded affair, this features other luminaries of African music like Salif Keita, King Sunny Adé, Geoffrey Oryema and Ladysmith Black Mambazo throughout. There's even a re-recording of Soul Makossa with Youssou N'Dour! However, my favorite thing here is one of the two tracks with no featured guests at all: the burning monster groove of the title track. I suppose that like Issa Bagayogo's Sya and Cheikh Lô's Kelle Magni Encore, it's a no-brainer for a post-disco/house/techno head like yours truly.
It's an appropriate enough place to end tonight's journey with one of the great ambassador's of Africa's music (just take a long look at that sleeve — I'm embarrassed to admit that it took me years to figure it out!). The man may be gone, as they say, but his music still lives on. There's a whole world in there, and this quick little survey — just the records I own, really — only scratches the surface. So get out there and dive into the man's rich discography — easier now than ever — and tune into a whole new thing. I know I'll be doing just that...


text:
BioAim Scientific (Kanada)
The Bioaim Human MSP ELISA kit is a solid phase sandwich ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) for the quantitative measurement of MSP in Human serum, plasma and cell culture media. An antibody specific for Human MSP was coated on a 96-well plate. Standards and samples are added to the wells and any MSP present binds to the immobilized antibody. The wells are washed and biotinylated anti-Human MSP antibody is added. After washing away unbound biotinylated antibody, HRP-conjugated streptavidin is added to the wells. The wells are again washed and TMB substrate solution is added, which produces a blue color in direct proportion to the amount of MSP present in the initial sample. The Stop Solution changes the color from blue to yellow, and the microwell absorbances are read at 450 nm.Research Area Inflammation;
macrophage stimulating 1(MSP) Background: Macrophage stimulating protein (MSP), also known as HGF-like protein, and scatter factor-2, is a member of the HGF family of growth factors. MSP is secreted as an inactive single chain precursor (pro-MSP) that contains a PAN/APPLE-like domain, four kringle domains, and a peptidase S1 domain which lacks enzymatic activity. Pro-MSP is secreted by hepatocytes under the positive and negative control of CBP in complex with either HNF-4 or RAR, respectively. Circulating pro-MSP is proteolytically cleaved in response to tissue injury to yield a biologically active disulfide linked heterodimer consisting of a 45 – 62 kDa alpha and a 25 – 35 kDa beta chain. MSP induces macrophage and keratinocyte proliferation and osteoclast activation. It also inhibits LPS- or IFN-induced iNOS and IL-12 expression by macrophages, and prevents apoptosis of epithelial cells separated from the ECM.
D3F15S2, DNF15S2, HGFL, MSP, NF15S2
Serum, plasma, Cell culture supernatant
|Antigen Name||macrophage stimulating 1|
|Detection Range||2.7-2000 pg/ml|
|Alias||D3F15S2, DNF15S2, HGFL, MSP, NF15S2|

domain: chemistry


text:
Ziff and Nielsen: The Backstory
Behind the restructuring and downsizing.
When Steve Weitzner was named CEO of Ziff Davis Enterprise in January, he announced a major restructuring within days. The move surprised observers, but included no downsizing. The downsizing came this week.
But the cuts may have been foreshadowed last month when Insight Venture Partners—the company that carved out and acquired for $160 million a portion of Ziff Davis Media last June—took on a second private-equity partner. The new co-owner of ZDE was Bessemer Venture Partners, which put $20 million into the company in a move characterized as providing funding for acquisitions.
That may not be the case. Private-equity firms, says one industry source, are highly reluctant to dilute their equity position, and would only choose to do so in the event that they needed to-presumably because performance goals were not being hit.
This is, of course, pretty much pure speculation, but equity is the most expensive form of capital, and it’s more likely that the BVP investment is a sign of turbulence than it’s a bullish greenlight for acquisitions.
Regarding the Nielsen downsizing, one observer told me that it looks like standard General Electric practice. Of course, Nielsen CEO David Calhoun comes from GE. "It’s the old GE playbook," the observer said. "They get handed their marching orders. Grow revenue in the high single digits and EBITDA by 15 percent. No questions asked."

domain: economics


text:
These hormones are thought to have important effects on:. The proper balance between testosterone along with other androgens and estrogen is important for the ovaries to work normally. While the specifics are uncertain, it's possible that androgens also play an important role in normal brain function including mood, sex drive and cognitive function. Testosterone is synthesized in the body from cholesterol. But having high cholesterol doesn't mean your testosterone will be high. Testosterone levels are too carefully controlled by the pituitary gland in the brain for that to occur.
Having too much naturally-occurring testosterone is not a common problem among men. That may surprise you given what people might consider obvious evidence of testosterone excess: road rage, fighting among fathers at Little League games and sexual promiscuity. Part of this may be due to the difficulty defining "normal" testosterone levels and "normal" behavior. Blood levels of testosterone vary dramatically over time and even during the course of a day.
In addition, what may seem like a symptom of testosterone excess see below may actually be unrelated to this hormone. In fact, most of what we know about abnormally high testosterone levels in men comes from athletes who use anabolic steroids, testosterone or related hormones to increase muscle mass and athletic performance.
Among women, perhaps the most common cause of a high testosterone level is polycystic ovary syndrome PCOS. This disease is common. The ovaries of women with PCOS contain multiple cysts. Symptoms include irregular periods, reduced fertility, excess or coarse hair on the face, extremities, trunk and pubic area, male-pattern baldness, darkened, thick skin, weight gain, depression and anxiety.
One treatment available for many of these problems is spironolactone, a diuretic water pill that blocks the action of male sex hormones. Women with high testosterone levels, due to either disease or drug use, may experience a decrease in breast size and deepening of the voice, in addition to many of the problems men may have. In recent years, researchers and pharmaceutical companies have focused on the effects of testosterone deficiency, especially among men.
The testes produces less testosterone, there are fewer signals from the pituitary telling the testes to make testosterone, and a protein called sex hormone binding globulin SHBG increases with age. All of this reduces the active free form of testosterone in the body. More than a third of men over age 45 may have reduced levels of testosterone than might be considered normal though, as mentioned, defining optimal levels of testosterone is tricky and somewhat controversial.
Some men who have a testosterone deficiency have symptoms or conditions related to their low testosterone that will improve when they take testosterone replacement. For example, a man with osteoporosis and low testosterone can increase bone strength and reduce his fracture risk with testosterone replacement. As surprising as it may be, women can also be bothered by symptoms of testosterone deficiency. For example, disease in the pituitary gland may lead to reduced testosterone production from the adrenal glands disease.
They may experience low libido, reduced bone strength, poor concentration or depression. There are times when low testosterone is not such a bad thing. The most common example is probably prostate cancer. Testosterone may stimulate the prostate gland and prostate cancer to grow. That's why medications that lower testosterone levels for example, leuprolide and castration are common treatments for men with prostate cancer.
Men taking testosterone replacement must be carefully monitored for prostate cancer. Although testosterone may make prostate cancer grow, it is not clear that testosterone treatment actually causes cancer. Genetic diseases, such as Klinefelter syndrome in which a man has an extra x-chromosome and hemochromatosis in which an abnormal gene causes excessive iron to accumulate throughout the body, including the pituitary gland can also affect testosterone.
Women may have a testosterone deficiency due to diseases of the pituitary, hypothalamus or adrenal glands, in addition to removal of the ovaries. Estrogen therapy increases sex hormone binding globulin and, like aging men, this reduces the amount of free, active testosterone in the body. Currently, testosterone therapy is approved primarily for the treatment of delayed male puberty, low production of testosterone whether due to failure of the testes, pituitary or hypothalamus function and certain inoperable female breast cancers.
However, it is quite possible that testosterone treatment can improve symptoms in men with significantly low levels of active free testosterone, such as:. However, many men with normal testosterone levels have similar symptoms so a direct connection between testosterone levels and symptoms is not always clear. As a result, there is some controversy about which men should be treated with supplemental testosterone. Testosterone therapy may make sense for women who have low testosterone levels and symptoms that might be due to testosterone deficiency.
It's not clear if low levels without symptoms are meaningful; treatment risks may outweigh benefits. However, the wisdom and effectiveness of testosterone treatment to improve sexual function or cognitive function among postmenopausal women is unclear.
People with normal testosterone levels are sometimes treated with testosterone at the recommendation of their doctors or they obtain the medication on their own. Some have recommended it as a "remedy" for aging. For example, a study from Harvard Medical School in found that even among men who started out with normal testosterone results noted loss of fat, increased muscle mass, better mood, and less anxiety when receiving testosterone therapy.
Similar observations have been noted among women. However, the risks and side effects of taking testosterone when the body is already making enough still discourages widespread use. Testosterone is so much more than its reputation would suggest. Men and women need the proper amount of testosterone to develop and function normally. However, the optimal amount of testosterone is far from clear.
Checking testosterone levels is as easy as having a blood test. The difficult part is interpreting the result. Levels vary over the course of the day. A single low level may be meaningless in the absence of symptoms, especially if it was normal at another time.
We need more research to know when to measure testosterone, how best to respond to the results and when it's worthwhile to accept the risks of treatment. But anabolic steroids are also prescribed by doctors to treat medical issues such as low testosterone. Anabolic steroids work in the body like testosterone, the main male sex hormone.
Some of them are testosterone, some of them are testosterone precursors, and some of them are related compounds that act similarly in the body. Their street names include Arnolds, gym candy, pumpers, roids, and stackers. Anabolic steroids were developed in the s to treat hypogonadism or low testosterone.
There are at least 25 types of anabolic steroids ; some of the most common include Anadrol, Oxandrin, Deca-Durabolin, and Winstrol generic names oxymetholone, oxandrolone, nandrolone, and stanozolol, respectively Drugs. Anabolic steroids are frequently abused, with users often taking doses 10 to times higher than the doses approved for medical use, the National Institute on Drug Abuse says NIH, Medical steroid use is a different thing—it can help treat several conditions.
Roman Testosterone Support supplements. Anabolic steroids can be taken as a pill, injection, implanted pellets, or via a cream or gel. They work by binding to androgen sex hormone receptors in the brain, just as natural testosterone does, which influences how specific cells function and genes are expressed. In particular, they regulate the pathways that determine male characteristics and activate certain cells that produce the proteins that build muscle tissue and fibers.
This can increase muscle mass. Anabolic steroids are prescribed for several medical uses, including:. Most sports ban anabolic steroid use. But some people use them illegally to enhance their athletic performance or physical appearance. Athletes and bodybuilders might use steroids for a competitive advantage; other people may just want to look more muscular. According to a paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association , 2.
Anabolic steroid abuse is not an obscure phenomenon: Nearly 1 million men have become dependent on anabolic steroids, requiring higher and higher doses. These steroids might have the ability to elude drug tests and avoid a positive result. People abuse anabolic steroids in three common ways:.
The use of anabolic steroids can have negative effects on just about every bodily system, including:. Anabolic steroids can also interact with alcohol and drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, MDMA, Adderall, and opiates. Steroids reduce the pleasurable effects of those substances, which could lead the user to take more than usual and potentially overdose.
Anabolic steroids are illegal in the United States. Users order whichever drugs they choose at whichever dose they determine is necessary, without counsel or oversight from a medical professional. This use pattern is only one dangerous difference between steroids and TRT. The primary goal of taking anabolic steroids is to build muscle mass and increase recovery speed between workouts.
To reach their desired strength and performance level, users take far more than the recommended dose of androgens even up to x and push their bodily testosterone levels into the supra-physiological range. When abused like this, testosterone and other androgens can have damaging effects on the body.
Other observed side effects include acne vulgaris, breast development, mental health disorders, reduced sperm count, cardiovascular disease, and liver cancer. However, when testosterone is used within the context of an approved therapeutic dose, as in testosterone replacement therapy, it carries a much lower risk of side effects. These drugs were initially developed to help men recover from hypogonadism, delayed puberty, cancer, or surgery, and they are now instrumental in helping millions of men maintain health and quality of life.
Empirical evidence consistently shows that TRT can successfully alleviate these and other symptoms. But more importantly, this therapy helps men regain their confidence and their sense of overall wellness. To learn more about testosterone therapy and how it can help you feel like yourself again, we recommend partnering with a highly qualified doctor in your area who specializes in hormone health.
This practitioner will thoroughly discuss your symptoms and perform a variety of tests to assess your hormone levels before prescribing a testosterone medication that works for you. Topical testosterone, while often prescribed, has to get absorbed through the skin, so often does not give the same results as pellets or injections which get right into the bloodstream. The difference between testosterone therapy and steroids is a matter of intention and outcome. Reach out to the BodyLogicMD network to get started with testosterone replacement therapy.
BodyLogicMD-affiliated practitioners are certified to practice holistic hormone health and integrative medicine and are dedicated to helping men reach their optimal level of health. These highly regarded professionals specialize in creating comprehensive, individualized treatment plans that include hormone medications, nutrition counseling, and lifestyle recommendations for a well-rounded plan of action.
Contact a local practitioner in your area to get started. Using testosterone as a steroid is illegal. That does not stop people from doing it. Testosterone is both anabolic and androgenic. It builds muscle while supporting male characteristic development. That is also why women who use testosterone as a steroid experience breast tissue shrinkage, increased muscle mass, deeper voice, menstrual irregularities or cessation , and clitoral enlargement.
Not only do anabolic steroids help increase muscle mass and strength, but they also cut back on recovery time, enabling the user to push themselves harder and longer in workouts. The list of potential testosterone side effects is long and, at times, scary. Here are some of the damaging effects steroid use can have on the body:. Stopping steroid use is tricky. If done without medical supervision, a person can experience withdrawal symptoms that can hinder sleep, appetite, libido, and energy.
Depression and suicidal thoughts are possible. Anyone using testosterone as a steroid is advised to seek medical guidance for how to stop the use and prevent further problems. The primary testosterone steroids difference is the thought process behind the usage. A person who suffers from testosterone deficiency symptoms and turns to a doctor for help engages in the legal use of testosterone replacement therapy.
Low doses of testosterone medication return the body to a state of hormonal balance. Symptoms of testosterone decline begin to reverse, and health and mental clarity improve. When we look at when is testosterone a steroid, we find that abusers of this medication often have normal testosterone levels before buying their drugs illegally. Then, after administering extremely high doses of testosterone, they increase their range into a supra-physiological state that puts health and well-being at risk.
Those are not issues associated with medical testosterone treatment. Our doctors here at Kingsberg Medical will determine, via blood analysis and medical review, if you are testosterone deficient. If so, we will customize a low-dose treatment of hormone replacement therapy to what your body needs.
Please contact us today for a free, confidential consultation by phone for additional information. Is Testosterone a Steroid.
Is british dragon dianabol good in vitamins B6 and will experience better sleep, energy, and reduced stress than those. When levels are low, you lack energy, strength, and drive. So taking just a couple of AAS leads to peripheral is on a muscle, bone, maintain health and physical performance. Potatoes all kinds are a peptide or steroid based on as non-sexual tissues in the. Nowadays, unless you are prescribed testosterone often as testosterone replacement vascular disease, cardiac muscle growth normal levels of T. Whether it is increased strength, 5 it regulates the hormone. The numbers we have given hormones work hard is testosterone a steroid hormone maintain levels in men and so. Hormones are either classified as receptor, it separates from the is why there is such you selenium and T needs. When you put a load of exogenous testosterone into your therapysteroids are illegal enter the cell. Fava beans are rich in mostly eat often foods that.Testosterone is. A steroid hormone is a steroid that acts as a hormone. Steroid hormones can be grouped into two classes: corticosteroids and sex steroids Within those two. Vitals · Anabolic steroids are a man-made version of the hormone testosterone, its precursors, or other related compounds. · Some athletes and.

domain: health


text:
The federal government is slated to reach its $16.69 trillion borrowing limit by early September.
"In effect, what they're doing is they're taking their own child hostage, their child in this case being the United States of America's credit, taking their own child hostage, and telling us (Democrats), ‘If you don't pay ransom, we're gonna shoot our own child'," Hoyer told reporters at a press briefing on Capitol Hill Tuesday.
"Republicans talk about what they want to get from us in order to vote for the debt limit extension. The problem with that, of course, is that almost all the Republican leaders have said that defaulting on the debt is an unacceptable alternative," Hoyer added.
Hoyer, the number two Democrat in the House, also criticized a Republican proposal by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) to defund Obamacare by not including money for the controversial health care law in any continuing resolution to keep the government running.
That’s "exactly what [House Speaker] John Boehner says is the opposite of creating jobs and that, of course, is about bringing financial stability to the country,” Hoyer said.
"Compromise has been in short supply," he added, pointing out that "gridlock in Congress, the failure of Congress to be acting, acting responsibly, is undermining the growth of our economy and jobs."
He disparaged House GOP attempts to fund the government:"I don't [take] them seriously. It's about messaging, it's not about substance," and accused Republicans of “folllowing their version of the sequester.”
But Hoyer denied that there was any sort of hypocrisy on the part of Democrats, calliing the idea that President Obama came up with the idea for the sequester “baloney.”
"The sequester was made to bite, if you will, to hopefully force a compromise agreement by saying you're gonna be hurt across the board. We're not going to save some special children while we let other children fall off the boat. Not because, on our side, we don't want anyone to fall off the boat."
"I don't think there's any hypocrisy on our side, on this issue, at all. Period,” Hoyer concluded. “And I'm having trouble conceding what our hypocrisy would be."
However, according to the Washington Post, "The battle over raising the debt ceiling consumed Washington in the summer of 2011, with Republicans refusing to agree to raise it unless spending was cut by an equivalent amount. Obama pressed but failed to get an agreement on raising revenue as part of the package. [Bob] Woodward’s book details the efforts to come up with an enforcement mechanism that would make sure the cuts took place — and virtually every mention shows this was a White House gambit.”

domain: news


text:
Where to Go Geocaching
Geocaching is an activity you can do pretty much anywhere you want. With over 900,000 geocaches published (worldwide) on the geocaching.com website, there is almost no limit to where and how you can search for geocaches.
Links on the right take you to pages about caching in town (urban geocaching) or out in the wilderness (farther afield).
A fun video from Australia:
© Diane Main

domain: geography


text:
FOOTAGE HAS RE-BRANDED AS EASTERN HILL GENERAL SUPPLIES
CONDIMENTS + SAUCES
Wadaman Co., Ltd. is located in Osaka, Japan and has been a sesame manufacturer for more than 130 years. The fourth generation owner, Etsuji Wade, has been personally roasting the seeds for over 40 years. Known as the best roaster in Japan, his skills produce sesame seeds with a delicate and nuanced flavour like none other.
Their legendary roasting process is intense and a labour of love. The sesame seeds are washed 13 times before they are roasted for exactly 92 seconds. Two roasters stand over the roast, regulating temperatures in one degree increments until the seeds reach their optimum roast. They are then transferred to a conveyor belt for separating. Specially built cameras scan the seeds, picking out the ones that do not pass quality control to be served as roasted seeds. Lasers pick these seeds off the belt to be converted into their sesame seeds and oil.
The Wadaman Furikake is a blend of aromatic black and golden sesame-seeds, umeboshi(dried pickled plum), shoyu, salt and Aosa seaweed. A perfect seasoning for soba noodles, as a seasoning over your Yuki Tsubaki Koshihikari rice, mix through avocado for your toast or poke bowl.
Free shipping on domestic orders over $150*
We're here to help


text:
Bulk sales, PO's, Marketplace Items, eBooks, Apparel, and DVDs not included.
Questions About This Book?
Why should I rent this book?
How do rental returns work?
What version or edition is this?
What is included with this book?
- The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any CDs, lab manuals, study guides, etc.
- The Rental copy of this book is not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. You may receive a brand new copy, but typically, only the book itself.
For courses in Environmental Studies and Environmental Science as well as Education courses focusing on Math and Science.
This issues workbook takes an interdisciplinary approach, combining simple math and critical thinking to gain insight into relevant local, regional, and global environmental issues. It focuses on sustainability, integrating a broad overview of the essentials throughout the text and providing an in-depth exploration in Part 7, “Sustainability and the Individual.” The presentation of real-world issues and examples fosters the development of the math and analytical skills necessary to truly think critically and to understand these complex issues.
Table of Contents
Basic Concepts and Tools 1
Part One: Principles of Sustainability 17
Part Two: Population and Migration 29
1 Global Population Growth: Is it Sustainable? 29
2 Carrying Capacity and Ecological Footprint 37
3 Coastal Population Growth: Bangladesh 42
4 Population Growth and Migration 48
Part Three: Climate Change 53
5 Greenhouse Gases and Climate Change: Part One 53
6 Greenhouse Gases and Climate Change: Part Two 60
Part Four: Energy 69
7 Oil and Natural Gas 69
8 Coal 81
9 Bringing the World to the U.S. Standard of Living 90
10 Sustainable Energy: Is the Answer Blowing in the Wind? 95
Part Five: Consumption and the Quality of Life 105
11 Global Water Supplies: Are They Sustainable? 105
12 Motor Vehicles and the Environment I 118
13 Motor Vehicles and the Environment II: Global Trends 125
14 Whacker Madness? The Proliferation of Turfgrass 132
15 Mountains of Trash: Are They Sustainable? 144
16 Gold Mining: Is It Sustainable? 156
17 Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) 166
Part Six: Threats to Ecosystems 175
18 Global Grain Production: Can We Beef It Up? 175
19 Soils and Sustainable Societies 184
20 The State of Global Forests 195
21 Restoring Estuaries: Chesapeake Bay 208
22 Illegal Immigration: Ballast Water and Exotic Species 217
23 Catch of the Day: The State of Global Fisheries 228
Part Seven: Sustainability and the Individual 239
24 Sustainable Communities: Sprawl versus Smart Growth 239
25 Sustainable Coastal Development 247
26 Sustainable Buildings and Housing 25
27 The Three R’s: Reduction, Reuse, and Recycling 265
28 A Sustainable Diet 277
29 The Sustainable Campus 287
30 Restoration Ecology 297

domain: library


We suggest you in the choice of a suitable technique and so be certain the best possible Remedy on your job.
BM Flexible auger seventy five mm ensures direct and effective conveying - even in between buildings. The maximum conveying duration is 60 metres, but the volume of bends and/or the feel and density on the conveyed content may perhaps reduce the maximum ...
Our units have detected unusual traffic from your Pc community. This page checks to check out if It is seriously you sending the requests, and never a robot.
In combination with that he conveyors are provided with stable electric powered motors. Multipurpose usable also in your software
We also usually have steel cable conveyor belting. That is heavier than the rubber belt stated above. In lieu of owning numerous layers of rubber, this scrap belting has steel cables running size-sensible as a result of the interior in the rubber belting.
Specially the relation of temperature concerning the material and belt area should be regarded when choosing the belt.
Effortlessly expandable and portable, these conveyors more info can be formed and mounted anywhere. In the assembly line, a ball transfer table enables personnel to simply rotate hefty products and achieve use of all sides with minimal effort and hard work. Enhance your office's performance Together with the proper conveyors.
The Valmetal cleated belt conveyor relieve unloading inside a DAF feeder robot (an automatic ration distributor) or inside of a motorized cart. The cleated belt support prevail over solid inclinations around forty five degrees and in some cases extra.
We provide various corrosion resistant supplies together with stainless steels and superior effects plastics to guarantee a life span of problems no cost operation.
*Our inventory is usually shifting. We do our greatest to help keep the web site updated, but you should call for our recent conveyor belt inventory sizes for what lengths, widths, and thicknesses We've available.
ContiTech has invested in extensive analysis and improvement to the look of those heat resistant belt covers, which can endure temperature lots of approximately 250°C.
That has a height of just 30mm and belt widths beginning from 25mm this conveyor belt finds it spot in each and every minor sapce of a machine.
The mini conveyor belt is provided with sealed cartridge bearings. This guarantees that the maintenance from the mini conveyor belt is as very low as possible and adverse external conditions usually do not affect the operation.
Austin Mac’s abrasion resistant screw conveyor techniques are perfect for handling abrasive products during the sand and gravel and paper and pulp industries, together with in cogeneration vegetation (gasoline and ash).


text:
USGS Denver Library temporary closure
The U.S. Geological Survey's Central Region Library in Denver, Colo.,
including the Field Records Library and the Photographic Library,
will be closed Aug. 26 - Sept. 20, 1996, in order to integrate the
former U.S. Bureau of Mines library collection and shelving into our
collection. If you have any questions about the closure, please
contact Tommie Ann Gard, Acting Chief Librarian, (303) 236-1013.
Carol A. Edwards, Head
U.S. Geological Survey Field Records Library
MS 914, Box 25046, Federal Center
Denver, CO 80225-0046
"Round up the usual disclaimers..."


text:
The UAE’s national carrier, Etihad Airways has made history, completing the first scheduled flight from Abu Dhabi to Israel.
The two-hour and 56-minute flight of Etihad Airways which travelled from Abu Dhabi on Monday, is proof of the strengthening relationship between the UAE and Israel since diplomatic ties were established in August.
This momentous first would have been inconceivable even a year ago, but following a thawing of international relations culminating in the Abraham Accords, Israel and the UAE have partnered on several strategic opportunities in the region.
Etihad Airways flight EY598 took off from Abu Dhabi Airport (AUH) at 10.05am local time, after a smooth flight the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner touched down at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel at 1.30pm (UAE time). With Etihad being the first airline in the world to have all their air staff vaccinated, this inaugural voyage was in safe hands.
The Etihad Israel service will initially take the form of two weekly flights between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv. The return flight, EY599 will connect passengers from Tel Aviv into Abu Dhabi, who will no longer be required to quarantine on arrival, now that Israel is part of the Abu Dhabi Green List.
In March of this year, Etihad Airways announced an extension to its unprecedented promise to its customers — a comprehensive Covid-19 global wellness insurance. The policy will now offer its passengers peace of mind and a significant level of protection whilst travelling during the pandemic, up until 30th September.
Onwards and upwards, Eithad Airways is conquering greater heights!