text:
Daniel Drake (1785-1862)
Physician and educator who founded the Medical College of Ohio in 1820. John J. Lowry was educated at the school.
John Jefferson Lowry (1780-1863) was born in Philadelphia and attended the Medical School of Ohio in Cincinnati. He lived for a time in St. Louis before moving to the Boonslick, first at Old Franklin and finally at Fayette. He practiced medicine for many years in Howard County, but "appeared at times to be more politician than physician." [McCandless, Missouri 1820-1860, 218] In his politician role, served as Vice-President of the 1855 Lexington Convention. [Craik, Southern Interest, 373]
The "Central Clique" controlled the Democratic Party in Missouri after the 1840 election, with all nine members of the state central committee living in the Boonslick. Lowry was named first chairman of the reorganized party. Its central committee had full power to fill vacancies, so a "perpetual Boonslick oligarchy" was created. [Phillips, Missouri's Confederate, 101]
When the Bank of Missouri was created by the Missouri General Assembly in 1837, Lowry was made first president of the Fayette branch, to which the St. Louis headquartered bank " was required to set aside one-tenth of all capital stock received...and had no power to withdraw these funds." The Central Clique "made sure to allow (the Fayette branch) special powers and latitude." [Phillips, Missouri's Confederate, 85]
Lowry also played an important part in education in Missouri. I830, he was a member of the Governor's commission to formulate a "common school system for Missouri" and in 1839 he was appointed to the first board of curators of the University of Missouri. [Houck, History of Missouri, 251]

domain: library


|Publication number||US4956582 A|
|Application number||US 07/183,648|
|Publication date||Sep 11, 1990|
|Filing date||Apr 19, 1988|
|Priority date||Apr 19, 1988|
|Publication number||07183648, 183648, US 4956582 A, US 4956582A, US-A-4956582, US4956582 A, US4956582A|
|Inventors||Roger J. Bourassa|
|Original Assignee||The Boeing Company|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (13), Referenced by (44), Classifications (8), Legal Events (4)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
This invention generally pertains to a device for generating a plasma, and specifically to a plasma generator using radio frequency (RF) energy to dissociate diatomic molecules, such as O2.
Low orbit satellites are frequently exposed to monatomic oxygen present in the upper limits of the earth's atmosphere. It has been found that certain materials used in satellites are extremely reactive with monatomic oxygen, even in the relatively limited extent to which it is present in the rarefied upper atmosphere. These materials are significantly degraded or destroyed through the process of chemical oxidation resulting from exposure to this substance. Since there is little correlation to the reaction of the material with diatomic oxygen molecules, O2, the state in which oxygen is normally found on the surface of the earth, it is difficult to predict the reaction potential of a material with monatomic oxygen. Therefore, empirical testing provides the only reliable basis for determining whether a material is sufficiently resistant to reaction with monatomic oxygen for use in satellites. To carry out such tests, a source of monatomic oxygen is required.
Although normally used to produce positively charged ions by removing one or more valence electrons from an atom, a plasma generator may also be used to dissociate diatomic oxygen molecules into monatomic oxygen. Certain types of plasma generators use a DC field or an RF induction coil to generate ionized particles, but are not suitable for producing monatomic oxygen for testing material specimens, because the heat generated by either of these methods does not properly simulate the desired low temperature conditions of outer space. However, another type of plasma generator produces a relatively low temperature plasma by ionizing atoms as they pass between two spaced-apart electrodes that are excited with an RF signal. Even using this method, it is preferable to produce the monatomic oxygen in a separate section of the plasma generator, so that it cools slightly before entering a test section in which the material under test is disposed.
In the conventional approach to generating a low temperature plasma with this method, one of the electrodes is grounded and an RF signal referenced to ground potential is applied to the other electrode. In attempting to use apparatus thus constructed, it was found that substantial RF energy was radiated by the plasma generator, requiring that it be fully shielded to prevent radiation levels in its vicinity from exceeding safe limits. Even with this shielding, radiation emanating from the unit interfered with thermocouples and other nearby laboratory equipment used in monitoring the test section. In addition, specimens and a specimen holder disposed in the test section of the device were subjected to heating caused by a plasma glow discharge current flowing from the energized (nongrounded) electrode to a grounded screen disposed in the test section. The grounded screen was installed to protect a vacuum pump attached to the device from the glow discharge current. These problems made it difficult, if not impossible, to use the low temperature plasma generator for its intended purpose.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to substantially reduce the RF radiation from a low temperature plasma generator, and to eliminate heating of a specimen due to a glow discharge current. These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the attached drawings and from the Description of the Preferred Embodiment that follows.
In accordance with the present invention, a low temperature plasma generator includes a chamber formed of a material that is substantially electrically nonconductive. The chamber includes a vacuum port adapted for connection to a vacuum pump and an inlet port adapted for connection to a source of a gas. A first and a second electrode are disposed in proximity to the chamber, spaced apart, but generally adjacent each other.
A radio frequency power source referenced to ground potential is connected to a primary terminal of a transformer, another primary terminal being connected to ground potential. Secondary terminals of the transformer are isolated from ground potential and are of opposite polarity relative to ground. Balanced impedance matching means connect the secondary terminals of the transformer to the first and second electrodes and are operative to match the output impedance of the secondary terminals to the input impedance of the first and second electrodes.
The balanced impedance matching means comprise a balanced LC circuit having a first current path referenced to the first electrode and ground potential and a second current path referenced to the second electrode and ground potential. Each current path includes a variable inductor and a variable capacitor, permitting the impedance of the circuit to be adjusted.
The chamber includes a glow discharge section on which are disposed the inlet port and the first and second electrodes, and a test section on which is disposed the vacuum port. Optionally, the plasma generator may include a ground potential electrode, placed inside the chamber, proximate to the vacuum port and comprising an electrically conductive screen that is connected to ground potential by a conductive lead that passes through the material forming the chamber.
In another aspect of the invention, a method of reducing radio frequency emissions from a low temperature plasma generator includes the step of converting a radio frequency power source signal referenced to ground potential into a pair of opposite polarity signals relative to ground potential using a transformer that is connected to the power source. The output impedance of the transformer is matched to the input impedance of two electrodes of the plasma generator so that the opposite polarity signals are balanced when applied to the electrodes. The matching impedance is trimmed to compensate for dynamic changes in the input impedance of the two electrodes during operation of the plasma generator.
FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a prior art low temperature plasma generator;
FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a low temperature plasma generator, in accord with the present invention; and
FIG. 3 is an electrical schematic diagram showing the balanced potential impedance matching circuit of the present invention.
With reference to FIG. 1, a low temperature plasma generator representing a prior art design is generally indicated by reference numeral 10. Prior art plasma generator 10 includes an "L" shaped chamber 12, having a test section 14, in which a specimen to be exposed to monatomic oxygen produced by the plasma generator may be positioned. Access to the interior of test section 14 is provided through a flanged port at one end, which is normally covered by a cover plate 16. The cover plate may be removed for insertion or removal of test specimens and monitoring devices (not shown). The other end of test section 14 includes a vacuum pump port 18, which is connected by a flexible line (not shown) to a vacuum pump (also not shown). The vacuum pump is used to evacuate chamber 12 to a pressure of approximately 70 millitorr (of Hg) prior to operation of the plasma generator.
A glow discharge section 20 extends from one side of test section 14, forming the other leg of the "L" shaped chamber. Glow discharge section 20 includes a gas port 22, which is connected to a metered supply of diatomic oxygen (O2) gas for use in testing the susceptibility of a material specimen to reaction with monatomic oxygen produced by the plasma generator. A curved electrode 24 extends around slightly less than one-half the circumference of the exterior of discharge section 20, and is connected to ground by means of a lead 26. Opposite electrode 24 is another curved electrode 28, also disposed around part of the circumference of the exterior surface of the glow discharge section, but spaced apart from electrode 24. Electrode 28 is connected to an RF power supply 38, through leads 30 and 34, and a coaxial cable 36.
The RF signal output from RF power supply 38 is referenced to ground and is supplied to electrode 28 via an impedance matching circuit, used to match the output impedance of the RF power supply (and the impedance of coaxial cable 36) to the input impedance of electrodes 24 and 28. In this respect, the impedance matching circuit includes a signal-to-electrode impedance, Z2, indicated by reference numeral 32, and a signal-to-ground impedance, Z1, indicated by reference numeral 40. Both impedances Z1 and Z2 may include inductive, capacitive, and resistive components, which are not separately shown in FIG. 1. Coaxial cable 36 is shielded, and the shield is connected to ground via lead 42. Lead 42 also connects to a ground potential electrode 44, disposed inside test section 14, upstream of vacuum pump port 18. The purpose of ground potential electrode 44 is to shield the vacuum pump from any glow discharge current that propagates from glow discharge section 20 into test section 14.
During operation of prior art plasma generator 10, a metered flow of diatomic oxygen gas is provided through inlet port 22. Since a vacuum is continually drawn on test section 14 through vacuum port 18 by the attached vacuum pump, the gaseous oxygen passes between electrodes 24 and 28, where it is subjected to an RF electromagnetic field. The electromagnetic field is sufficiently strong to break the molecular bond of at least some of the diatomic oxygen molecules, producing monatomic oxygen. The resulting mixture of diatomic and monatomic oxygen flows from the glow discharge section and into test section 14.
While thus successful in producing monatomic oxygen, the prior art plasma generator is subject to significant problems associated with radiation generated by the device. This radiation both creates a safety hazard for personnel working in the vicinity of plasma generator 10 and disrupts measurements made using thermocouples disposed within test section 14. In addition, a glow discharge current traveling through the device between electrode 28 and ground potential electrode 44 causes heating of the specimen holder and thus of the material placed within the holder. Such heating cannot be tolerated in experiments intended to simulate exposure of the materials to monatomic oxygen at relatively low temperatures.
To remedy these problems, a plasma generator was developed in accord with the present invention, as shown in FIG. 2, generally represented by reference numeral 100. Plasma generator 100 includes many elements common to prior art plasma generator 10, which are identified by reference numerals that differ by "100," from those applied to the prior art plasma generator. For example, plasma generator 100 comprises a chamber 112, which is shaped and functions exactly like chamber 12 of prior art plasma generator 10. Similarly, chamber 112 includes a test section 114 and a glow discharge section 120, equivalent to test section 14 and glow discharge section 20. Test section 114 is connected to a vacuum pump (not shown) by a test port 118, which is disposed at one end, and at its other end includes a flanged access port, which is normally sealed by a cover plate 116.
An electrode 150 comprises a curved metal plate disposed around a portion of the circumference of the exterior of glow discharge section 120, but unlike electrode 24 in the prior art plasma generator, electrode 150 is not grounded. Instead, it is connected (through a balanced impedance matching network 200) to the secondary of a balun transformer 158 by means of conductors 152 and 156. An electrode 160 also comprises a curved metal plate, which is disposed on a portion of the outside circumference of glow discharge portion 120, spaced apart from but opposite electrode 150, and is connected (through the impedance matching network) to the other side of the secondary winding of balun transformer 158 via leads 162 and 166. The primary of balun transformer 158 is connected to an RF power supply 138 through a coaxial cable 136, having a center conductor 134, the RF output signal from the power supply being referenced to ground. A shield in coaxial cable 136 is connected to ground via lead 142.
Use of balun transformer 158 enables electrodes 150 and 160 to be energized with an RF signal that is isolated from ground, so that the RF signal applied to electrodes 150 and 160 is at opposite polarity with respect to ground potential. The relatively low output impedance of balun transformer 158 is matched to the relatively high input impedance of electrodes 150 and 160 by the impedance matching network, comprising a signal-to-electrode impedance, Z2, identified by reference numeral 154, a signal-to-electrode impedance, Z4, identified by reference numeral 164, a signal-to-ground impedance, Z1, identified by reference numeral 168, and a signal-to-ground impedance, Z3, identified by reference numeral 172.
In using plasma generator 100, cover plate 116 is removed and a sample of the material that is to be tested is loaded into a specimen holder (not shown), which is disposed within test section 114. The cover plate is replaced and air is evacuated from chamber 112 using the vacuum pump connected to vacuum port 118. A metered flow of diatomic oxygen gas is provided through input port 122, so that the diatomic molecules of oxygen pass between electrodes 150 and 160. RF power supply 138 is energized and the output impedance of balun transformer 158 is adjusted to match the input impedance of electrodes 150 and 160, as described below. The RF electromagnetic field developed between these two electrodes dissociates at least some of the diatomic molecules of oxygen into monatomic oxygen, and the mixed monatomic and diatomic oxygen flows into the test section. Reactivity of the material specimen with the monatomic oxygen may then be monitored for an extended period of time.
Unlike prior art plasma generator 10, radiation from plasma generator 100 is reduced to such a low level that it is virtually undetectable, even with no shielding used around test section 114. Shielding is still used around glow discharge section 120 and around the balanced impedance matching network comprising impedances Z1 through Z4, but the radiation produced by these components is relatively minimal. Furthermore, test specimens within plasma generator 100 are not subjected to any heating effects due to glow discharge current traveling through the test section. In fact, a screen electrode 144 disposed in front of vacuum port 118 and connected to ground potential via lead 174 is considered optional, since there is almost no RF current flowing through the test section and thus no need to protect the vacuum pump from such current. Thermocouples inserted at the specimen holder, and differential calorimetric probes disposed within the test section operate properly, free of any RF radiation effects.
Turning now to FIG. 3, details of the balanced impedance matching network 200 used in plasma generator 100 are illustrated. The impedance matching network includes an input connector 202, e.g., a BNC type, or other connector suitable for use with coaxial cable 136. A grounded shield 204 surrounds the impedance matching network 200, protecting against stray RF leakage. From connector 202, the RF signal from RF power supply 138 (shown in FIG. 2) is conveyed by a lead 206 to one end of a primary winding of balun transformer 158. Balun transformer 158 is an autotransformer, having three series connected windings separated by intermediate taps 212 and 216. Other types of transformers having separate primary and secondary windings might also be used. Tap 212 is connected via lead 210 to the outer shield of connector 202 and thus to ground potential. Tap 216 is connected via lead 214 to one end of a variable inductor 230. The other end of the variable inductor is connected to a wiper arm 232 that is used to adjust the inductance, and to a lead 234. Lead 234 conveys an output signal from the variable inductor to an output terminal 236 of the impedance matching network. Similarly, the end of the winding of balun transformer 158 at 220 is connected through a lead 218 to one end of variable inductor 222, its wiper arm 224 being connected to the other end of the variable inductor. An output signal from variable inductor 222 is carried via a lead 226 to an output terminal 228. Variable inductors 222 and 230 are matched, and their wiper arms 224 and 232 are connected together so that the values of their inductance may be adjusted in balance.
A fixed capacitor 240 is connected between lead 214 and a lead 238. Similarly, a fixed capacitor 242 is connected between lead 218 and lead 238. Lead 238 is grounded by a lead 248 and one end of lead 238 is connected to a ground potential terminal 208. A variable capacitor 244 is connected in parallel with fixed capacitor 240, and a variable capacitor 246 is connected in parallel with fixed capacitor 242. Variable capacitors 244 and 246 are matched and ganged, so that adjustment of the capacitance of one produces an equal and balanced change in the capacitance of the other.
With reference to FIG. 2, impedances Z1 through Z4 comprise a balanced LC circuit. While other types of balanced impedance circuits may also be used, in the preferred embodiment, impedance Z1 comprises the sum of the capacitance of fixed capacitor 240 and variable capacitor 244, and impedance Z3 comprises the sum of the capacitance of fixed capacitor 242 and variable capacitor 246. Further, impedance Z2 comprises the inductance of variable inductor 230, and impedance Z4 comprises the inductance of variable inductor 222. Ignoring the inherent resistance, and stray capacitance and inductance of the impedance matching network, impedance Z1 equals impedance Z3 and impedance Z2 equals impedance Z4. The purpose of balanced impedance matching network 200 is to match the low output impedance of balun transformer 158 to the high input impedance of electrodes 150 and 160 (shown in FIG. 2) in a balanced fashion, so that the potentials on the two electrodes are also balanced relative to ground potential.
As will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, a standing wave ratio (SWR) meter (not shown) may be connected between RF power supply 138 and input connector 202 to indicate the extent to which proper impedance matching adjustment has been achieved. Initially, variable capacitors 244 and 246 are adjusted to achieve a minimum indication on the standing wave ratio meter, and variable inductors 224 and 232 are then adjusted until the standing wave ratio meter again indicates a minimum SWR. By repeatedly trimming the variable capacitors and inductors of balanced impedance matching circuit 200, an operator may "tweak" these adjustments to achieve the lowest possible SWR reading, indicating that proper impedance matching has been achieved. During the operation of plasma generator 100, it is likely that it will be necessary to repeat this adjustment from time to time, since the impedance of electrodes 150 and 160 changes dynamically, depending upon conditions inside chamber 112, such as pressure, temperature, and O2 flow rate.
The reduction in radiation emissions from the plasma generator due to use of the balanced impedance matching circuit shown in FIG. 3 results from applying a positive potential to one of electrodes 150 and 160, while the other electrode is energized with an equal but negative potential with respect to ground. As the RF signal applied to the primary connections of balun transformer 158 periodically cycles through its positive and negative sinusoidal waveform, the output signals at secondary taps 216 and 220 likewise respectively cycle through positive and negative potential with respect to ground potential. Accordingly, electrodes 150 and 160 periodically cycle through positive and negative voltages with respect to ground potential, and are always opposite in potential with respect to each other. Since impedances Z1 and Z2 are equal respectively to impedances Z3 and Z4, the net potential applied to electrodes 150 and 160 is always zero with respect to ground potential. Thus, little or no current flows between either electrode and any grounded conductive surface, inside or outside test section 114. For this reason, ground potential electrode 144 is not required to protect the vacuum pump, and is optionally included. The absence of glow discharge current within test section 114 also avoids any heating effects on the material specimens placed within the test section, and eliminates RF interference with instrumentation disposed within the test section.
Plasma generator 100 was specifically developed to produce monatomic oxygen. However, it may be used with any ionizable gases to produce a plasma for other applications. The advantages of the balanced impedance matching network explained above should apply regardless of the application in which plasma generator 100 is used.
While the present invention has been described with respect to a preferred embodiment, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that modifications may be made thereto within the scope of the claims that follow below. Accordingly, it is not intended that the scope of the claims be in any way limited by the disclosure, but instead that it be determined entirely by reference to the claims.
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|U.S. Classification||315/111.21, 315/111.51, 333/25, 313/231.41, 343/859|
|Oct 21, 1988||AS||Assignment|
Owner name: BOEING COMPANY, THE, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON A CORP. O
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST.;ASSIGNOR:BOURASSA, ROGER J.;REEL/FRAME:004988/0641
Effective date: 19881010
Owner name: BOEING COMPANY, THE, A CORP. OF DE., WASHINGTON
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:BOURASSA, ROGER J.;REEL/FRAME:004988/0641
Effective date: 19881010
|Mar 11, 1994||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 4
|Mar 10, 1998||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 8
|Mar 8, 2002||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 12


text:
Hi folks, new to the community here, have spent the last couple of days reading and enjoying, I have a question that maybe somebody out there will know the answer too, in the song "So many roads" the lyrics go
"thought I heard a jug band playing/if you wont then who will?"
I am curious if that lyric rings any bells for anyone? Hunter was well versed in jug band music so I can't help but think he had a specific song in mind. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

domain: entertainment


If your business isn’t using an online dashboard, you don’t know what you’re missing. It’s a web service that offers users access to business data like metrics and key performance indicators online. It’ll help you to monitor, analyze, and measure relevant information in critical areas.
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You’ll also want to look into report delivery functions since that’s a big part of what businesses want in an online dashboard. If you need to share information with members in a specific department or across the entire company, you need an online dashboard that can accommodate this. Instead of requiring employees to go into the online dashboard to retrieve reports, you can use the solution to automate the process so that relevant parties get the reports they need.
It’s important to know what to look for in the sort of online dashboard that’ll be useful to your business. In addition to researching what makes an online dashboard useful, you’ll want to see examples. For instance, your business’ IT team might want to check out datapine’s 5 professional IT dashboard examples to get some ideas for what a suitable dashboard entails.


text:
Restoring Şengal: Yazidis Gather to Secure Justice and their Future
By Fréderike Geerdink
In two conferences in Amsterdam and Brussels, members of the Yazidi community tried to heal wounds and look at the future, finding strength in coming together. The genocide against the Yazidis, carried out by ISIS, happened ten years ago, in August of this year. Or, better phrased: it began ten years ago, but the violence and denial of rights continue. So the wounds remain open.
“After I escaped from Daesh (ISIS), I knew that if I wanted to heal, I had to go back to Şengal to fight and liberate my land”, Suad Murad Khalaf said during one of the panel discussions in Brussels. She joined the YPJ (Women’s Protection Units), the Kurdish women’s forces in Syria, and is now generally known as comrade Hêza Şengalî, a commander in the YBŞ, the Yazidi women’s forces in Iraq that the YPJ helped to set up. “Also, as an organisation, we had to keep our promise to the Yazidi people.”
Promises kept and promises broken are brought up again and again during two conferences about the Yazidi genocide recently held in Europe. Promises, but also expectations, disappointments, disillusions, and pain. But both conferences left space for hope as well.
The first conference that the author attended was the Yazidi Survivors Conference at the University of Amsterdam, held on the 26th of January. It was organised by the Yazidi Legal Network, an organisation that considers it its mission to assist the Yazidis in achieving recognition of and accountability for international crimes committed by ISIS. The second was organised by the umbrella organisation of the Ezidi Women’s Councils in cooperation with the Union of Êzîdî Associations, both based in Germany, and was held in the European Parliament in Brussels.
The latter initiative was co-organized by Feleknas Uca, a well-known and well-respected member of the Yazidi community in Germany who used to be a Member of European Parliament herself and served two terms in the Turkish Parliament for the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), until the elections of May 2023.
The Brussels conference was more political and the Amsterdam one more judicial, but the political and the judicial are inextricably entwined. Before the genocide, the Yazidis were a largely unknown group. The genocide radically and tragically changed that, but now, ten years later, their plight is not very much in the picture anymore. The story has judicially and politically become complicated. New conflicts emerged elsewhere in the world and recently, another genocide in Gaza has attracted most of the global attention.
But the Yazidis cannot move on. Their homeland in Şengal (Arabic name: Sinjar), in northern Iraq, is still largely shattered. Tens of thousands of Yazidis are still staying in tent camps in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, where life is hard and perspectives are grim. Part of the community has found refuge elsewhere, for example, in Europe, Canada, Australia, and New-Zealand, leading to fragmentation that could contribute to the fading away of one of the oldest religions and cultures of the Middle East.
How do you turn the tide? By uniting, that much became clear during both conferences. And by not giving up. As Farhad Shamo Roto, the president of the NGO Voice of Ezidis and opening speaker of the conference in Amsterdam, said, “Giving up on us would be a great thing for ISIS.”
Another potential solution: uniting to bring perpetrators of the genocide to justice, for starters. This has proven to be extremely difficult for a variety of reasons, some of which were discussed in both Amsterdam and Brussels. The experience and knowledge of the participants gave important insights into the everyday struggles of survivors, lawyers, prosecutors, and advocacy groups.
What we know, for example, is that prosecuting those responsible for the genocide is difficult because it is hard to link specific crimes to specific suspects. Who exactly kidnapped that specific victim, and how convincing can the case against him be made in court? Which women exactly assisted their husbands in the sexual exploitation of which Yazidi women, and is the role these women played enough for a conviction of which crime exactly? And which country even has the legal jurisdiction to prosecute whom?
The speeches of those working with these questions on a daily basis gave profound extra insights into these difficult issues. In Amsterdam, survivor Kawla Ali was one of the speakers. She was a captive of ISIS for five years and is now connected to the Farida Global Organisation. She is originally from the village of Kocho (where Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad is also from), one of the last villages to be liberated in 2017. Kawla Ali said: “For survivors, interviews about what happened to them are traumatising them anew. Their testimonies are important but they shouldn’t be asked to share what happened to them again and again.”
This was acknowledged by all in attendance. To make sure that survivors are treated as respectfully as possible and that they are not unnecessarily re-traumatized, cooperation is of utmost importance. Cooperation across borders, but also across groups of professionals who work on bringing perpetrators to trial.
One of the attendants in Amsterdam was public prosecutor Anne van Dooren, who works for the International Crimes Unit of the Dutch Public Prosecution Service. She said she was investing a lot of time into building relationships with survivors and the NGOs representing them, in order for those who give testimony to feel safe. “To successfully prosecute, we need the personal involvement of victims. But we are also often looking for a needle in a haystack when it comes to evidence,” she said, referring to specific evidence that can be linked to a specific location and crime, and to a specific victim. “So interviews with survivors have to be meticulously done, but very carefully.”
A joint investigation team was set up with Sweden, Belgium and France, in which also UNITAD (United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by ISIS) plays a role. “Talking to one team, means other teams can use the information in their investigations too. But it remains difficult. For example, a survivor doesn’t know if a perpetrator had a Dutch passport or Swedish, or which information is important for which specific case. To gather as much useful information as possible in interviews, remains difficult.”
The topic was high on the agenda at the conference in the European Parliament in Brussels as well. Lawyer Rojda Arslan remarked that the people who carried out the genocide were of at least eighty different nationalities. On top of that, crimes were committed in both Iraq and Syria. Who is to prosecute whom? Which law applies? Which trajectory serves the survivors best? Arslan added another layer, though: “Several countries have recognised the Yazidi genocide, but this recognition comes with responsibilities. One of those responsibilities is to punish the perpetrators. Germany has pioneered prosecuting offenders and also in France and the Netherlands, court cases are ongoing, but what I miss is a coordinated effort between prosecutors across countries.”
One of the countries that recognised the genocide is the country where it happened: Iraq. At first glance, that offers a good opportunity to punish those who carried out the crime, but the reality is unruly. The country doesn’t have a domestic legal framework to enable the prosecution of international crimes (genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity), the result of which is that ISIS members are merely prosecuted for terrorism-related crimes without any investigations being carried out into international crimes and therefore not bringing any justice to the victims.
Another complication is that Iraq has the death penalty. This renders it impossible for UNITAD to share evidence with the Iraqi judiciary system. Especially now that the UNITAD mission is about to end in September this year, much to the shock of survivors and their representative organisations, the fear has intensified that most of the perpetrators will never be held to account.
When it comes to crimes committed, especially against women, lawyer Arslan has dedicated part of her legal struggle to try to get sexual crimes added to the Genocide Convention as a genocidal act, just as they were previously recognised as a war crime.
Meanwhile, the situation on the ground in Iraq remains dire for the Yazidi community as well. Şengal city is still largely in ruins, as are most of the towns and villages around it, which together constitute the Yazidi homeland. Tens of thousands of people remain stuck in camps in Duhok in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, some three hours (and many checkpoints) northeast of Şengal. And even though the conference in Amsterdam was mainly judicial, here too, political points were made.
In his opening speech, Farhat Shamo Roto of Voice of Ezidis criticised the lack of protection by the international community and added, “Further atrocities can happen.” He explicitly pointed to a hate speech campaign in Iraq last year, which led to actual violence in Şengal. “We want justice,” he said, “but we also need peace.”
Not the First
He was referring to an incident around a mosque in Şengal last year, a story that was built on misinformation and led to dangerous incitement against Yazidis. Such anti-Yazidi sentiments can easily be triggered in a country where Yazidis have forever been discriminated against, where many people, both in the Kurdistan Region and in Iraq proper, still see them as apostates. The genocide that started ten years ago was by far not the first in the long history of the Yazidis. As Wahhab Hassoo, a Dutch Yazidi activist and political scientist who founded the NL Help Yezidis Foundation (the Netherlands Helps Yazidis), said at the Amsterdam conference: “We are a closed community, which is based on all the atrocities committed against us in history.”
But the politics go much further than that. At its core, politics is about self-determination. In August 2014, it became very clear that both the Iraqi army and the Peshmerga of the KDP, the leading party in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq that reigned over Şengal at the time, were not committed to protecting the Yazidis against ISIS’ genocidal attack.
It was the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) guerrillas that rushed from the mountains to Şengal to try to repel the ISIS attack. PKK fighters opened a corridor from the Şengal mountain, where the community had fled in panic, to safety in the Rojava region of Syria. From across the border, the forces of the YPG and (women’s forces) YPJ, who adhere to the same Democratic Confederalist ideology as the PKK, played their part and welcomed the community.
This ideology revolves around self-determination and self-defense. The PKK helped set up the YBŞ (Şengal Resistance Units) right after the genocide started. The community had to be able to defend itself instead of trusting others to do it. A PKK-guided and community-led initiative started to organise autonomy for the Yazidis in their homelands. The goal was to no longer be ruled by Baghdad or Erbil (the Kurdistan Region capital and KDP stronghold), but to rule themselves.
The international community has not only not supported the initiative; it has actively frustrated it. The most explicit frustration is the adaptation of the so-called Sinjar Agreement between Baghdad and Erbil, under the auspices of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq and supported by Turkey. Part of the plan is to remove ‘illegal forces’ from Şengal, and even though it is not made explicit, the YBŞ is one of them.
Hêza Şengalî, who is a commander in the YBŞ, expressed her opinion on that in a panel discussion in the European Parliament in Brussels:
“We are supposed to leave Şengal, but we are the local self-defence forces, so where are we supposed to go? We are not going anywhere, we won’t let anybody else defend us. We are not a legal force? What have the legal forces ever done for us?”
Feleknas Uca said, like other speakers in Brussels, that a no-fly zone must be declared and implemented for Şengal, so Turkey’s bombings stop. Uca: “This will make Şengal safer, and give people stuck in the camps in the Kurdistan Region a better opportunity to return home.” She accused European politicians of not being informed enough about the situation: “Ambassadors only travel to Erbil and Baghdad, never to Şengal. They need to go there too.”
The fact that Turkey supports the Sinjar Agreement is telling. Turkey has basically nothing to do with Şengal (Şengal is the name in Kurmanci Kurdish, which is the mother tongue of the Yazidis), but it was involved in the agreement because it considers the YBŞ to be a terrorist organisation because it was set up by the PKK and adheres to their principle of self-defense.
As such, Turkey has been bombing Şengal often since the genocide started and has killed several YBŞ members and destroyed YBŞ locations and civilian infrastructure. One member of the audience in the European Parliament in Brussels said:
“Nobody in Şengal has ever thrown as much as a stone at Turkey, and still, Turkey keeps bombing us.”
The KDP supports Turkey in the war against the PKK and Baghdad wants the bombings to stop but has no leverage to demand it from Turkey, so the removal of ‘illegal forces’ was put in the agreement to satisfy Iraq’s northern neighbour. Simultaneously, this removal will help restore KDP’s and Baghdad’s influence. While the Yazidis pay the price.
The insecurity about the future of the community in Iraq, also leads to an ongoing wish for Yazidis to relocate to other countries. Especially in the first few years after the genocide, the relocation efforts were supported by several countries, among them Germany, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. But with time, the flaws of the policies practiced by western countries became clear. For example, only direct family members can join a Yazidi who has made it to Europe as a refugee, and in general, nobody from the extended family can.
Lawyer Rojda Arslan said during the Brussels conference: “European countries have to re-evaluate that policy. Thousands of Yazidi men have been murdered in the genocide, and families have been destroyed. The community needs the opportunity to come together again in different ways, and that includes members of extended families.”
Some 2,700 women remain missing. Some of them must have died alongside the ISIS members who held them captive; some of them may still be alive. Some ISIS families have moved to Turkey and taken the Yazidi women with them, and occasionally such women are rescued. More often, Yazidi women are rescued from Al-Hol camp, where ISIS women and their children have been kept since ISIS was territorially defeated in 2018. The camp is guarded by Kurdish.
The most recent case is that of a 24-year-old woman who was brought to safety with her two children. She returned to her family, but no news has been shared about the children. The Yazidi community welcomes back the women who were kidnapped but does not accept the children of ISIS men, who are often placed in orphanages. A film shown at the end of the conference in Amsterdam, Mediha, mentioned it as one reason some Yazidi women make the painful choice not to be rescued, in order not to be separated from their children.
Add to that the horrifying fact that although ISIS may have been territorially defeated, the organisation still exists and is actually gaining strength again both in Syria and Iraq. The fight against ISIS, mainly carried out by the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces), of which the YPG and YPJ form the backbone, is seriously hampered by Turkey’s rejection of the SDF and its insistence to link it with ‘terrorism’. The SDF and the whole autonomously ruled northeast-Syria are subject to an intensified bombing campaign, in which, just like in Şengal, both military structures and vital civilian infrastructure are routinely targeted.
It is not that there is no good news. Former Member of European Parliament and former Member of the Turkish Parliament Feleknas Uca said: “We should not only see the pain of your community but also the resistance. We must praise the heroes who are fighting for all the people.”
Also, reconstruction efforts were highlighted. The importance of that must not be underestimated, as the destruction of cultural heritage was part of the genocide, as it intended to annihilate a community and its culture and religious practices, which are inextricably connected.
In the margins of the Brussels conference, Çiçek Yıldız of the Central Association of Yazidi Associations, located in Germany, said they visited Şengal last year. With Yıldız remarking: “We saw that a temple that was destroyed in 2014, is being rebuilt. We saw Yazidi and Arab communities of women work on reconciliation. I think that if reconstruction progresses and the standards of living become better, people will start to return to Şengal.”
According to Feleknas Uca, people are already returning: “Since three or four months, a few hundred families have left the camps to return.”
Suad Murad Khalaf, who now goes by Hêza Şengalî, did eventually return to her homeland. But not in 2015, a year after the genocide, when the city of Şengal and part of the villages in the region were cleared from ISIS, because at the time, she was still held hostage by ISIS. But in May 2017, when the local Yazidi forces, in cooperation with the PKK, Peshmerga, and the Iraqi Army kicked the remainder of ISIS out. She was also part of the successful campaign against ISIS in Raqqa, the city where she herself had been sold in a market when she was still in the brutal organisation’s claws.
Did her revenge heal her, I wondered? Hêza replied, “We cannot heal because the genocide continues. We cannot forget because so many women and girls were kidnapped and not all of them have returned. The fighting continues.”

domain: politics


Seven young musicians from across the state will perform at MTSU on Feb. 27 for the Tennessee VSA Young Soloist competition.
The musicians will take the stage at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 27, at Hinton Music Hall inside MTSU’s Wright Music Building.
The competition, which is organized by VSA Tennessee, is open to any vocalist or instrumentalist ages 14 to 25 with any form of disability. The state event feeds into an international competition, which is hosted by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
All types of music are accepted, including country, classical, jazz, rap, rock, bluegrass and world music.
VSA Tennessee is a statewide nonprofit organization that provides resources, tools and opportunities for arts programming for people with disabilities. It’s also an affiliate of VSA, the international organization on arts and disabilities founded in 1974 by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith and formerly known as Very Special Arts.
Tennessee contestants submitted country, jazz and classical entries for the 2013 Young Soloist event, organizers said.
“The entries this year are the strongest overall group of entries that VSA Tennessee has ever seen,” said judge JP Williams, a singer-songwriter for Major Bob Music.
“Not only are they talented musicians, but the creativity and artistic expression is extremely impressive.”
Each state’s Young Soloist winner receives a small monetary award, a plaque and performance opportunities. Recordings of performances by the top two state winners are submitted to the national VSA Young Soloist Competition.
Winners at the national level receive $5,000 scholarships and the opportunity to perform at the Kennedy Center.
VSA Tennessee Executive Director Lori Kissinger, who teaches organizational communication at MTSU, has once again recruited members of her experiential learning classes to help with the event.
Kissinger’s Organizational Communication 3250 EXL class is coordinating the logistics. Last semester, her students worked in several capacities on “The Golden Ratio Project,” an arts performance that ultimately will travel to Athens, Greece, for an international arts education exchange.
“We feel honored to be involved with such a great project,” said MTSU junior Brian Schulist, who is majoring in organizational communications and is a member of the EXL class.
“These young performers are extremely talented and each bring a unique genre to the competition. With so much talent on one stage, it will be a great night of music!”
The VSA Young Soloist state competition is open to the public. Tickets are $5 each and may be purchased from students in the Organizational Communication EXL class or at the door on Feb. 27.
For more information, visit www.vsatn.org or contact Kissinger at email@example.com or 615-210-8819.
The Tennessee VSA Young Soloist competition is sponsored by the First Tennessee Bank Foundation.


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This is the third straight winter that Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s fiscal policies have left the Alaska Marine Highway System with gaps in ferry service to rural communities. Now, the uncertainty created by those schedule reductions has left the state with a severe crew shortage and the new MV Tazlina sitting on the sidelines.
The good news is thanks to our congressional delegation the system is about to be bailed out with federal funds.
“I think you’re gonna see a lot more funding here in the next few months designated for the marine highway system,” Dunleavy said in response to a question at the press briefing where he announced plans to replace the 57-year-old MV Tustumena. “We know we’re getting money from the feds,” he explained, “in the neighborhood of … hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Although he neglected to elaborate on why that money is coming, I’m sure all the reporters in the room knew it’s part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed by Congress last month.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski worked with a bipartisan group of senators to craft the bill. She and Sen. Dan Sullivan were among the 19 senate Republicans who voted in favor of it. After a small group of House Democrats refused to support it, Rep. Don Young and 12 other Republicans saved it from defeat.
But because his tongue is tied by a twice-impeached, one-term former president, Dunleavy couldn’t bring himself to publicly thank the delegation or even name the bill.
Months earlier, Donald Trump had declared it a disgrace and warned Republicans not to vote for it. After it passed the House, he called Young and his colleagues “RINOs, sellouts, and known losers!” In the same statement, he referred to Murkowski as the “Disaster from Alaska. … There is ‘almost’ nobody worse!”
Murkowski, of course, isn’t intimated by Trump.
Young isn’t either, according to the Washington Post. After interviewing him last week, the headline of their story read, “Don Young is the rare Republican who’s not afraid of Trump — or of saying he needs to ‘shut up’.”
The delegation had good reasons to back an infrastructure bill aimed at improving the nation’s roads, bridges, airports, water systems and more. For the first time, the state will be able to apply Federal-aid highway funds for AMHS operations and repairs. And it will provide $1 billion for essential ferry service to rural Alaskan communities.
That’s a much bigger neighborhood of federal dollars than Dunleavy cared to mention. He’s not about to turn it down.
But offering any display of gratitude to Murkowski and Young would be a slap in the face to Trump. The legislation is a glaring reminder of his failure to keep a major campaign promise and of his ineffectiveness at governing.
Trump convinced many voters that, as a builder himself, he’d make infrastructure improvements a high priority. “Domestically, we need to undertake a massive rebuilding of our infrastructure,” he wrote in his 2015 book, “Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again.” Three months before the 2016 election, he told the host of a Fox Business Network program he had a $500 billion plan to do just that.
His message didn’t change after being inaugurated. “It is time to recapture our legacy as a nation of builders,” he said in June 2017. “I’m calling on all Democrats and Republicans to join together, if that’s possible, in the great rebuilding of America.”
That was during what the White House called infrastructure week. Between then and July 2020, he made six other attempts to get the ball rolling. By that time though, everyone in Congress understood Trump never had a plan at all.
If he really wanted to get something done, he could have asked for help from a bipartisan group of Senators. It’s easy to imagine Murkowski and Young, in consultation with then-Gov. Bill Walker, making sure there was sufficient money for AMHS to maintain reliable service to its 30 communities.
Had that happened, it would have been easy for Dunleavy to keep the campaign promise he made three years ago to ensure AMHS “remains the backbone of transportation in Southeast.”
Instead, Trump failed. And we’ve got a governor who is afraid to say where Alaska is getting the money to rebuild the system he broke.
Rich Moniak is a Juneau resident and retired civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector.

domain: news


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After yesterday’s news that the People’s Bank Of China (PBOC) intends to close accounts used by Bitcoin Exchanges, it naturally followed that Bitcoin’s price was going to slump. Hence, price has fallen from a high of yesterday of 588 until a low today at 472.
Let’s take a closer look at the BTC/USD H1 chart below (click to expand):
FBS CopyTrade Launches a New Card Scanning Feature!Go to article >>
I’ve performed the Fibonacci study from the two points mentioned above, i.e. from 588 till 472.
As can be seen, price did manage to perform a 50% retrace (circled in red), at 530. I have to say that’s a pretty strong retrace for a piece of bad coin press.
However, since the 50% retrace, price then continued to fall down until the 23.6% Fib level at 500. Of course, 500 is a significant number as it’s a psychological whole number.
Right now, price is hovering around the 23.6% Fib level (500), but with the Accelerator Oscillator and Awesome Oscillator having turned red, and the Stochastic Oscillator also crossed down, we could see a further drop to around the lower Bollinger band, as long as 23.6% / 500 (which is now a support), level fails to hold.

domain: economics


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David Bowers’s fond retooling of ‘Astro Boy’, the seminal boy-bot creation of late Manga godhead Osamu Tezuka, is about as innocuous as family toons get. Set in the floating future world of Metro City, it’s the story of a young boy (Freddie Highmore) accidentally vaporised in an industrial accident, only to be rebuilt as a miniature robot gunship by his scientist father (Nicolas Cage). Donald Sutherland lends his voice to ultra-right-wing demagogue President Stone, who lusts for state-of-the-art firepower while spouting militarist buzzwords and allowing the audience to ally with the now-shunned Astro Boy and his new cadre of plucky outcasts. While far from an unmitigated disaster, Bowers’s play-it-straight attitude towards the material combined with the crisp, if unspectacular, animation doesn’t allow ‘Astro Boy’ a moment to bob its head above the ever-swelling digimation pack. Though it may pass muster with the very wee ones.
Friday February 5 2010
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domain: artistic


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Entomologist Jonathan Larson anticipates a ‘spectacular, macabre Mardi Gras’ this spring as two cicada broods simultaneously emerge in the eastern United States from late April to June, according to an NPR article. They say,
“Much of the eastern United States can prepare for what one entomologist described as a ‘spectacular, macabre Mardi Gra’ this spring.
The event Jonathan Larson, an extension entomologist at the University of Kentucky, is referring to is the simultaneous emergence of two cicada broods that will erupt in states from Virginia to Illinois come late April through June.”
Thomas Jefferson was president the last time these cicada broods emerged together. Entomologist Gene Kritsky notes it’ll be 221 years before they coincide again. Periodical cicadas spend years hibernating underground, according to a Dallas Morning News article. It reports,
“The last time these two broods emerged at the same, Thomas Jefferson was president. After this year, it will be 221 years before the broods appear together again, said Gene Kritsky, an entomologist at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati and author of the book ”A Tale of Two Broods,” about this year’s dual emergence.
These types of cicadas are periodical, spending most of their lives hibernating underground and feeding on tree roots. Cicadas in the Northern Illinois Brood have been hibernating for 17 years, and those in the Great Southern Brood for 13 years.”
Though Texas had no reports of Great Southern cicadas in the past two emergences, an early straggler was reported last year. Entomologist Gene Kritsky launched the Cicada Safari app to map sightings and monitor changes in cicada behavior.


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Urfi Javed praised Irrfan Khan’s son by clapping, but Babil ignored it!
Bollywood’s famous fashion designers Abu Jani-Sandeep Khosla held the premiere of their latest fashion film ‘Mera Noor Hai Mashhoor’ in Mumbai on Thursday. From Jaya Bachchan to all the stars of the industry reached this film event. During this, Babil Khan, son of late star Irrfan Khan was also seen. At the same time, Urfi Javed also participated in this program. Urfi Javed praised Babil in the program. She signals to paparazzi that Babil has arrived and he is amazing. You take pictures of Babil. But during this time Babil once again did not look at Urfi. Seeing this, the users started cursing about the actress.
Let’s talk about Urfi Javed first. She came to Abu Jani-Sandeep Khosla’s film launch wearing red saree and Taj etc. She talks to paparazzi while continuously getting photos clicked. As soon as she gets off the carpet, Babil joins in. During this, Urfi praises Babil khan.
Urfi Javed praised Babil Khan
As soon as Babil comes to the program, he starts posing for paparazzi. Urfi, standing next to him, signaled to the paparazzi that everyone should take pictures of Babil. Babil has come, he is very amazing. While Babil’s attention must have been on the photos, perhaps he did not look at the actress.
Did Babil ignore Urfi Javed?
As soon as the users saw this video, they started commenting. One wrote – Babil took the limelight of Urfi Javed as well. While one wrote – Babil did not even give a sense to Urfi. While some commented on Babil’s dressing sense. One user wrote that why Starkid is wearing girls’ clothes.
the truth of the video is something else
Fans made an impression after watching a video that Babil ignored Urfi Javed. But some other photos have also surfaced, seeing which it is clear that Babil did not ignore the actress. Rather both met each other. Babil shook hands with Urfi with a big smile.
Irrfan Khan’s son Babil
Please tell that Irfan Khan is no longer in this world. Irrfan Khan and Sutapa have two sons. The elder son is Babil who made his debut in the Netflix film Kala last year. His acting in this film was highly appreciated. His opposite Bulbul fame Trupti Dimri was seen.

domain: celebrity


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Action: Anticonvulsants are divided into the barbiturates, benzodiazepines, hydantoins, succinimides, and miscellaneous products. Hydantoins act by inhibiting the spread of seizure activity in the motor cortex. Succinimides act by inhibiting spike and wave information; they also decrease amplitude, frequency, duration, and spread of discharge in seizures.
Uses: Hydantoins are used in generalized tonic-clonic seizures, status epilepticus, and psychomotor seizures. Succinimides are used for absence (petit mal) seizures. Barbiturates are used ub generalized tonic-clonic and cortical focal seizures.
Side effects / Adverse reactions: Bone marrow depression is the most life-threatening adverse reaction associated with hydantoins or succinimides. The most common side effects are GI symptoms. Other common side effects for hydantoins are gingival hyperplasia and CNS effects sych as nystagmus, ataxia, slurred speech, and mental confusion.
Contraindications: Hypersensitive reactions may occur, and allergies should be identified before these products are given.
Precautions: Persons with renal or hepatic disease should be watched closely.
Interactions: Decreased effects of estrogens, oral contraceptives (hydantoins).
Possible nursing diagnoses:
» Risk for injury [uses]
» Noncompliance [teaching]
» Sleep pattern disturbance [adverse reactions]
» Renal studies, including BUN, creatinine, serum uric acid, urine creatinine clearance before and during therapy
» Blood studies: RBC, Hct, Hgb, reticulocyte counts qwk for 4 weeks then qmo
» Hepatic studies: AST, ALT, bilirubin, creatinine
» Mental status, including mood, sensorium, affect, behavioral changes, if mental status changes, notify prescriber
» Eye problems, including need for opthalmic exam before, during, and after treatment (slit lamp, fundoscopy, tonometry)
» Allergic reactions, including red, raised rash; if this occurs, drug should be discontinued
» Blood dyscrasia, including fever, sore throat, bruising, rash, jaundice
» Toxicity, including, bone marrow depression, nausea, vomiting ataxia, diplopia, cardiovascular collapse, Stevens-Johnson syndrome
» With food, milk, to decrease GI symptoms
» Good oral hygiene is important for hydantoins
» Therapeutic response, including decreased seizure activity; document on patients chart
» To carry emergency ID stating drugs taken, condition, prescriber’s name, phone number
» To avoid drinking, other activities that require alertness
Selected Generic Names
Valproate/Valproic acid, Divalproex sodium

domain: health


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Dogs usually eat everything but they arent able to digest all the meals. Thats why it is important to pay special attention to their stomach intolerances and add only the kind of food that will keep it healthy and easily digested. If your adult dog is sensitive to grain and gluten, then introduce this Naturo grain-free dog food in its diet and maintain a healthy and happy lifestyle.
These meals are blended with herb gravy to enhance the flavour and make everything more magical for the canine companion. Naturo wet food tins are made from natural ingredients (free from artificial additives of any kind) and are rich in vegetables and fruits for a wholesome and fulfilling diet. Naturo canned dog food packs are rich in Omega-3 and 6 fatty acids, derived from salmon oils and sunflower for shiny skin and coat. These food packs with added minerals and vitamins keep your dog up and running throughout the day!
Naturo adult dog food contains chondroitin and glucosamine to maintain healthy joints and bones. These protein-rich meals support the natural cell regeneration and improvement of the immune system. They also contain the right balance of fats and proteins for weight management. A perfect feed means keeping a check on the everyday requirement. So, always ensure that you serve the right amount of Naturo wet dog food to your pet to prevent overindulgence.
Chicken (50%), Sweet Potato (4%), Mixed Peppers (4%), Green Beans (4%), Vitamins And Minerals, Sunflower Oil, Salmon Oil, Flaxseed Oil, Dried Kelp, Dried Basil, Dried Chicory Root, Mannanoligosaccharides, Dried Nettle, Green Tea, Dried Rosehip, Glucosamine Chondroitin Sulphate, Marigold, Duck (50%), Blueberries (4%), Pumpkin (4%), Courgette (4%), Dried Rosemary, Turkey (50%), Cranberries (4%), Broccoli (4%), Carrot (4%), Dried Parsley
Calcium Iodate (0.62mg/Kg), Manganese Sulphate (11.72mg/Kg), Sodium Selenite (0.89mg/Kg), Vitamin A (3000IU/Kg), Vitamin B Complex (26.3mg/Kg), Vitamin D3 (420IU/Kg), Vitamin E (40mg/Kg), Zinc Sulphate Monohydrate (107.14mg/Kg)
Moisture (81%), Protein (8%), Fat Content (5%), Inorganic Matter (3%), Crude Fibre (1%)
We want to make sure that your parcel gets to you and your pet as quickly as possible.
Typically orders are taking between 1-3 working days to be dispatched. There may be occasions such as a stock availability issue or high orders volumes where your delivery may not arrive within 5 working days.
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DELIVERY TO REPUBLIC OF IRELAND CURRENTLY SUSPENDED: Due to the current situation, our carriers are not making deliveries to the Republic of Ireland. Because of this, we are unable to offer delivery for the time being. We will update the site when this changes.
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|Northern Ireland Standard Delivery||£7.99|
|Republic of Ireland Standard Delivery - CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE||CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE|
|Isle of Wight Standard Delivery||£13.99|
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Free UK delivery is only applicable for mainland UK addresses, delivery charges will still apply for Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Isle of Wight, Scottish Highlands, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.
We are pleased to announce that Click & Collect is now available across all our stores.

domain: pet


text:
Image used by permission of Gail Baker
You might think I’m an infant.
You might be right.
I can’t remember,
but it seems unlikely that,
as an infant,
I felt this kind of pain.
This kind of anger and doubt and emptiness.
As cooing, soft, young and sensitive flesh,
I don’t think I understood the danger.
Now, though, I lie in my cradle,
the fleeting, flashy, nearly translucent cocoon of endless silk
the dangling rattle to occupy my attention.
It hangs there,
not connected to any one thread but my body.
The cocoon is always there.
Every solitary night
I forget what it’s like to be alone.
Did I ever really know?
Sometimes, I can keep it at bay.
I can hold off the mummifying, volatile cocoon
protecting the rest of me
from the silent strangling.
But I know
I always know
that I want it.
I reach up to grab it
and, of course,
it drops with all its weight
straight onto my stomach
pinning me in place.
Mostly I feel shame.
I unraveled the cocoon.
I lifted my arm and looked up and pulled it down onto my organs, tender and innocent.
I didn’t have to.
I didn’t want to.
I knew what would happen.
This is not the first time.
I know what that tempting and taunting package holds inside.
I know it so well I don’t have any room left to know myself.
I tug that hanging poison
even when my body rejects it,
does everything in its power to prevent the onslaught.
I wrench the silk out of the sky
(it’s never beyond my reach)
with a malicious grin
and a sharp cackle.
I think I’m being clever.
But every time,
it’s the same.
when I am light,
and I can convince myself that the cocoon is far,
far above me,
I know it’s there.
I feel its presence,
its fragility and its dependence on my every thought.
It always threatens to collapse at any time
falling squarely on my head and entangling my entire body.
It does warn me, though.
And every time, I pull it down.
I’m the only one who can.
It whispers to me
and takes on different forms
but it doesn’t fool me.
We’ve been acquainted far too long.
But I can fool myself.
Well, that’s what I say.
I justify my defiance of every screaming particle of myself
and flatten all my innards.
My bundle sends me pictures
of everything I could have been
everything I’m not
every rule I’m breaking
I’m all too aware of.
I can’t be the only one.
I’m not that delusional
to think only I know this kind of suffering.
The world doesn’t care about me enough
to create a unique closet hell just for me.
I’m not that special.
But why can’t I see everyone else’s cocoons?
Why don’t I hear the whispers,
the crashes of dragging down the sky
against all morals and values and beliefs and knowledge
to spontaneously self-destruct
over and over again?
Why don’t I notice the others
fighting, always fighting
to push the tangle ever farther
in agony even when they’re not being crushed
because they know the only culprit
and they can’t find it in themselves to love it.
The ruthless criminal
is the only savior,
or so they tell me.
if I cut the string
just cut it loose,
cease my endless reaching and deafening shame,
let the threads entwine themselves across and around and over and above and through me
squashing every beating, moving, throbbing, living parasite
wringing out every stagnant drop,
my eyes would open to the billions of cocoons
doubtlessly suspended throughout space,
they would complete their metamorphosis
Art by Gail Baker

domain: literature


text:
From Our Editors
When you're on the market for tasty and healthy eats, pay Prey's Fruit Barn and Orchards in Leavenworth a visit and load up on great groceries. Eating healthy isn't always easy, but with produce on hand like this it just got easier.
Find parking easily in one of their many available spaces. Keep your kitchen fully stocked with healthy and flavorful groceries from Prey's Fruit Barn and Orchards in Leavenworth and munch and crunch your way to happiness.

domain: food


text:
Welcome to The Green Isle Hotel
Conference and Leisure Centre
✔ Best Rate Guarantee ✔ Free Wi-Fi ✔ No Booking Fees ✔ Free Cancellation
The 4* Green Isle Hotel is conveniently located in Newlands Cross making it the perfect gateway to Ireland's Ancient East and the ideal choice of hotel whatever the reason for your visit to Dublin.
Step into a warm family friendly hotel in Dublin, offering luxurious bedrooms ranging from double to large family Rooms to suit all your needs, 8 Conference Rooms and 40 boardrooms with our ballroom catering for 750 delegates. For every occasion, we have a solution. Avail of our new self check-in kiosks and enjoy a meal in The Green Isle Bar and Bistro, with Live Entertainment every weekend.
All guests have complimentary use of the Inspiration Leisure Centre which has a fully equipped gymnasium, indoor heated swimming pool, steam room, Jacuzzi, and a separate kids pool.
Parking is complimentary for all guests staying with us at The Green Isle Hotel. Your ticket will be validated upon checkout.

domain: travel


text:
Why should I have oil skimmers on my machines?
- In most machine tool coolant systems and detergent wash systems, tramp oils are the number one contaminant.
- In coolant systems, tramp oils collect on top of the coolant sealing off oxygen and promoting the growth of anaerobic bacteria. The bacteria feed on tramp oils and the components of the coolant. It also produces offensive hydrogen sulfide gas (Monday morning smell).
- By removing tramp oils using oil skimmers, bacterial growth can be reduced or eliminated and sump life can be greatly increased.
- In wash systems, tramp oils can leave residues on parts. By using oil skimmers to remove them, the bath life can be extended.
- Most oil mist is more tramp oil than coolant and poses more of a health risk than coolant mist only. Removing tramp oils with an oil skimmer can reduce the amount of oil mists.
- Some tramp oils, such as hydraulic fluid, can react with the coolant causing splitting and accelerated bacterial growth, resulting in premature pumpouts. They can also be an irritant to the operators.
- Tramp oils can also cause accelerated tool wear, as they do not have the machining properties of the manufacturers’ lubricants.
Oil skimmers can also be used to remove petroleum, vegetable, or synthetic oils and also greases from process tanks, holding tanks, or catch basins. Virtually any liquid floating on top of another liquid can be removed with an oil skimmer using the correct belt or other material. Non standard applications may take some experimentation.

domain: chemistry


text:
I’m pleased to share some cool kid-friendly pieces. Sold separately, each unframed print is available at www.DrewGold.com.
DrewGold.com is officially up featuring exciting, new and original PopArt, Comix/Books, Home Decor, Posters and Apparel designed and drawn by yours truly. It’s all created and printed in the USA, even the mugs and apparel.
Thanks for looking!
All Graphics (c) 2016 Drew Gold. All Rights Reserved.
#popart #comix #homedecor #apparel


text:
Well I have said on here and in other outlets for a long time that when you start to target groups of people and take their rights away it is never long before you find some of your own rights will be up on the chopping block soon enough.
And Arizona has been so kind as to prove my point. This state which has passed the “driving while brown” bill. (still fighting the feds to keep it on the books).
Now wants women to prove to their “overlords” (employers) why they need birth control. And if the company they work for thinks the reason is not good enough (by their standards) they can claim for “religious reasons” that they can’t pay for this basic part of women’s health care. And we know a company will never ever claim to have found true faith just to cut it’s insurance premium’s, right?
I am not going to get into all the reasons why this new bill is wrong. I am only going to point out here when you start to target groups of people and their rights that it ends up hurting us all. As it seems it is never long before “YOUR” group is the next target.
Want to protect yourself? Then fight like hell to make sure others (even if you don’t like them) get to keep their rights.

domain: sociology


text:
They watched the fantastic metamorphosis at sunset, the orange sun being gobbled up the calm blue sea, crimson petals dancing in the sky, twilight enveloping – romance was in the air.
Arun and Sadhana held each other tightly, looked at the distant horizon, and thought of the happy life of togetherness that lay ahead.
1. If you share this post, please give due credit to the author Vikram Karve
2. Please DO NOT PLAGIARIZE. Please DO NOT Cut/Copy/Paste this post
© vikram karve., all rights reserved.


CoolSafe 95/55-80 models are designed for pilot scale, vial or bulk freeze drying protocols with large 80 litre condensers and fully programmable operation. Either 5 or 8 electrically heated shelves inside the condenser with micro-processor or computer control options.
80 litre condenser with either -55 °C or -95 °C lowest temperatures
Bulk drying or Vial drying (with stoppering) configuration
Flask drying manifold options
Precise temperature & vacuum regulation (with vacuum valve)
Pilot Scale CoolSafe PRO Large Capacity Freeze Dryers


text:
The Business of…Celebrity Name Brands
It’s not enough to be a star athlete or celebrated actor anymore, staying power means building yourself into a brand. Here are the most enterprising in celebrity name brand.
November 22, 2011 4:42 by p.deleon
Name brand extensions aren’t exclusive to Hollywood, of course. Bollywood also has a line of celebrities that have expanded their brands into merchandise, most of them opting for perfumes. Actor and producer Sunil Shetty, however, braved into the world of hotels, liquor and fashion through a clothing line called Mischief.
Hailing from Mulki, Mangalore taluk, Karnataka, this black-belt kickboxer has also launched a promotion and entertainment marketing company called Popcorn Entertainment to promote Bollywood actors touring abroad for stage shows and concerts.
HSBC Q1 profit falls 14 per cent as market remains uncertain
UAE non-oil business slows in April as employment stalls
UAE – Jersey trade relations: from a tax haven to taxonomy
No fines for negative comments on economy, Dubai confirms
UAE and Azerbaijan discuss economic, trade ties


text:
Mr. Preston Prendergast
Mr. Robert Van Leuven
Mr. Derek Lactaoen
Mr. Reed Michaelsen
Mr. Kramer Ortman
Mr. Riley Abel
County Platform Rep. (Cascade):
Mr. Chris Nielsen
County Platform Rep. (Columbia):
Mr. Seth Mcdonald
County Platform Rep. (Palouse):
Mr. Jordan Bergstrom
County Platform Rep. (Puget):
Mr. Christopher Birge
2006 Party Platform
- We are strongly for city and county cleanliness.
- We are for an increase in state funding for counties.
- We strongly desire stricter crime laws.
- We strongly support education and educational institutions.
- We strongly favor restrictions in budgets and financial efficiency.
- We desire less government regulation on business.


text:
I'm here to bring positive vibes all afternoon long. I moved here from the east coast (Northern New Jersey) after previously living on the west coast in Portland, Oregon. I've had my time on both coasts but looking to see how the middle of the US treats me. I love long drives around Michigan and also sneakers, yes I'm kind of a sneakerhead. I'm also a fan of a good sandwich and going to the beach, which means swimming in one of the Lakes here. You can check in with me at anytime on Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat @maxonyourradio or on Facebook - Max On-Air. Also if you follow me or ask for a shout out I do those as well at 3:30 everyday.
Things People From Ohio Secretly Think About Michigan
Ohioians don't want to admit to any of these because they are just secretly jealous of Michigan.
Take This Helpful Idea For Lansing Trick-or-Treaters
Giving out candy on Halloween is going to be different this year with social distancing but this Midwesterner thought of a great idea.
Summer is Over Lansing, The Frost Is Coming
We had some great weather this summer, but it looks like fall is here and winter is right behind it with frost coming this weekend.
Smokey Start to Week in Lansing & Michigan
This week's weather was supposed to be clear and sunny and you may have noticed it wasn't that, well that is because of the west coast wild fires.
Hey Lansing! Do You Remember This 1990s Commercial?
This was a gem that I found scrolling through the internet this weekend and it is everything you could want from a 1990s commercial.
Could We Live on Venus? Possible Life is Found
2020 on Earth has been strange but it looks like it might get stranger as things are happening on Venus
No Peeps & Other Candies For Halloween! When Will They Be Back?
Sorry but here is some bad news....don't be looking for peeps as well as a few other candies for Halloween
Be Aware of This New Road Construction in Lansing
Road construction seems like it has accelerated over the last few weeks, this is mostly due to coronavirus, and there are a few you need note of.
Hey, Lansing! What Used To Be Here?
I have lived in the Lansing area for just about 5 years and I often drive around wondering "What used to be here?"
What is Going on With COVID-19 in East Lansing?
Michigan State is not open to in person classes, not nearly as many students on campus, yet coronavirus cases are keep going up

domain: geography


text:
PHILADELPHIA CREAM, October 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The 7the The annual Children’s Music Day is officially celebrated this friday october 7e, with special events and promotions to benefit children playing music all over the United States and a dozen other countries all this week. Keep Music Alive is delighted to once again partner with the Music & Arts chain of stores that make trying out music easier (and more fun) than ever!
The Music & Arts The retail chain offers lessons for more than 23 musical instruments and voices and will host a student showcase and TWO free group music lessons at more than 250 lesson locations across the country:
Friday 10/7 – Student Showcase – Come see their course schedule first hand and watch student and instructor performance and meet your local instructors.
Saturday 10/8 – Free group guitar lesson with instructor performance and free registration for a trial lesson.
RSVP – https://events.musicarts.com/events/free-group-guitar-class-for-beginners-400214912577?source=LGOABHCA
Sunday 10/9 – Free group guitar lesson with instructor performance and free registration for a trial lesson.
RSVP – https://events.musicarts.com/events/free-group-guitar-class-for-beginners-400228994697?source=LGOABHCA
All participants in group lessons can register for a free trial lesson with an instructor of their choice. As a special offer, any event attendee who signs up to become a student on 10/7, 10/8, or 10/9 will receive a FREE guitar (while supplies last)!
More than a dozen famous artists show their support for music education by lending their names as Children’s Music Day Ambassadors, including:
Julie Andres, Jack BlackAnn & Nancy Wilson of heart, Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo, Michael Feinstein, Kenny Connections, Richie Sambora, Sarah McLachlan, vanessa williams, Victor Wooten, Todd Rundgren, Neil Nayar, Philip Lawrence, Bernie Williams, Damien Escobar and Mandy Harvey
children’s music day is also backed by a number of music industry brands, including Alfred Music, CASIO EMIConn-Selmer, D’Addario Foundation, Kala Brand MusicHungry for Music, Les Paul Foundation, Make Music, Music Nomad Equipment Care, Musicology, Remo Percussion and the Spirit of Harmony Foundation. Keep Music Alive is honored to welcome these partners who help share the message of Children’s Music Day, inspiring more children to start their own musical journey.
Keep the music alive is a national 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to helping more children and adults experience the educational, therapeutic and social benefits of music. Major programs include Teaching Music Week in March, children’s music day in October and throughout the year Musical Instrument Petting Zoo events. For more information, call (610) 874-6312 or visit www.KeepMusicAlive.org and www.KidsMusicDay.org.
Music & Arts, one of the nation’s largest music lesson providers and part of the Guitar Center family of brands, continues its mission to promote and support the merits of music education and the joy of music lessons by offering this opportunity for new musicians to get involved. To learn more about music and the arts, visit www.MusicArts.com.
View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/keep-music-alive-to-celebrate-7th-annual-kids-music-day–friday-october-7th- 301642638. html
SOURCE Keep the Music Alive


text:
For anyone in the hospitality sector, the first three weeks of December can mean only one thing: Christmas party season.
With so many events to pack into one short month, catering for the Christmas party rush can be a hectic task. Whether serving up food for a company celebration or for families going the extra mile, preparation is vital to ensure your tasty creations are the star of the show.
So to make the festive season run that little bit more smoothly for our local caterers, this week BAKO North Western are putting 50 years of food industry experience to good use with these useful tips for stress-free Christmas party catering.
Main meal morsels
Turkey dinners are notoriously tricky to get right, and are understandably an even more daunting challenge when cooking for a large number of people. Instead, try finding clever ways of introducing traditional Christmas flavours into dishes that can be prepared in advance and are less messy to serve.
As a handy hint, try BAKO NW’s new ready-prepared turkey, bacon, cranberry & mayo filling inside delicate finger sandwiches or oven-baked potato skins.
Christmas is a season of indulgence, so December is a time when dessert really matters. Sweet treats that can be served either hot or cold are ideal for buffet-style Christmas parties, so old festive favourites like mince pies will always go down well.
For a more unusual alternative, try DAWN’s new limited edition cranberry and orange muffins, available from BAKO NW, or pipe snowman faces onto sweet snow covered BAKO Jam Ball doughnuts for a fun seasonal twist on a classic.
All the trimmings
Food is just one part of the equation for creating the perfect Christmas party, and the wrong presentation can really let your delicious kitchen creations down. Alongside an enticing array of edible goodies, BAKO North Western also stock non-food essentials in a range of festive colours, from cake cases to napkins, to put the finishing touch on your Christmas party feast.
Want to wish BAKO North Western a Merry Christmas? Next year marks our 50th anniversary as one of the leading suppliers to the North West food industry, and we’d love to hear your stories on working with BAKO over the years.


You have probably heard the term ‘local food sourcing’ and you may very well be in favor of it for your local restaurants and grocery stores. It seems like a great idea – it helps farmers and your local economy, it saves energy by making it so foods don’t have to be transported so far from farm to table, and it puts you more in touch with nature. That is, you eat according to nature’s schedule of asparagus in the spring, zucchini in the summer and apples in the autumn and turnips in the winter.
But have you ever considered local food sources in the context of a school cafeteria?
The Pros of Local Food Sourcing
The United States Department of Agriculture supports the use of locally sourced foods in schools. The USDA provides program flexibility, as ‘local’ might differ for school districts in Chicago versus school districts in Little Rock. The USDA also provides entitlement money for schools. Schools can elect to spend some of their USDA food entitlement funds on fresh fruits and vegetables under the Department of Defense’s Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program. This California information is typical of the program, e. g. that it’s a ‘use it or lose it’ type of program.
Locally grown produce, when it’s at the height of its season, is inexpensive, particularly in bulk. If you have ever tried to get rid of extra baskets of zucchini or tomatoes in your garden, then you are well aware of the abundance of riches. Florida has citrus, California has avocados, Wisconsin has cheese, and Texas has dairy and beef, just to mention a few.
Locally sourced food goes beyond fruits and vegetables and can include wheat as made into bread or pizza crusts, turkey in sandwiches, and the cheese in grilled cheese, milk in a cup, and more. The only limits on the use of locally sourced foods come from a school’s and a school nutrition specialist’s imagination and budget.
The Cons of Local Food Sourcing
And of course that is the big elephant in the room – the budget. Even with USDA programs, school cafeterias always must be budget conscious. Michigan State University puts school lunch costs at maybe 30 to 50 cents per serving, with a near-equivalent amount of the cost to the child going to foodstuffs and to labor. The remaining 10% or so goes to supplies, contract services, and indirect charges. As MSU notes, even donated food costs schools money, as it needs transportation, storage, cooking, and serving. Plus the remainder must be cleaned up.
Another con is the seasonality of foods. For a school in New Jersey, citrus can never be locally sourced. Must that school give up its orange juice? And in the winter, what’s available locally in the Garden State? As is the case with much of the northern parts of the United States, about the only crops available are root vegetables like turnips, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, and onions. This also creates a flexibility issue. When are the most fruits and vegetables available? In the summer. When are most students not in school? That’s also in the summer. There is a disconnect between supply and demand, and food storage does not help much, as many of these produce items are too delicate for long-term storage. You cannot freeze lettuce, for example, without destroying it.
Which brings us to the next con – will the kids eat it? Food waste is a huge problem already. The National Institutes of Health studied middle schools in Boston in 2013 and found that the students discard about 26.1% of the food. If extrapolated across the United States, that comes to annual food wastage of $1.24 billion. Will the kids eat cauliflower unless it’s really camouflaged, perhaps in a chili? What about parsnips, which are a vegetable many school children have never seen before?
Some tips from the Restaurant Industry
Locavore restaurants have been dealing with these issues, and they have a few methods which can translate to school cafeterias.
Go to Farmers’ Markets
Find out what’s available and ask questions if you do not see what you want. You might be surprised to learn what can be grown in your state – and what is available locally if you expand the definition of ‘local’.
Read Food Labels Closely
When you see a local food for sale at your local grocery, take note of which farm or company supplies it. Develop relationships with these suppliers so that they will work with your school if an item is not available or if the supplier has an overstock.
For restauranteurs, it is somewhat easier to tell adult diners that the Brussels sprouts are not available during any given week. But what can you say, when it comes to children? Will they balk if their favorite strawberry shortcake is off the menu for months? Perhaps this is a good time for a teachable moment. If children are taught that food is not available all the time, they might grow up to be locavores themselves. Plus a lesson in delayed gratification is probably a good idea, too.
Edit Your Menu
The smaller your menu is, the easier it is to cook seasonally. As a corollary to this, consider all the different ways you can use a particular foodstuff. If you have a lot of ground beef, it can go into burgers, sloppy Joes, pizzas, and the like. This can also help to cut down on the number of leftovers.
Local Food Sourcing Can Work
Local food sourcing can definitely work, but it needs time, flexibility, and imagination, plus it needs the support of the school board and other management. Parental support can help as well. Enlisting the help of parents and the community will help to assure buy in. Local food sourcing is often healthier and it can be less expensive. Those are both big wins for nutritionists, parents, teachers, and students alike.


text:
- Anam Faruqui
- February 13, 2018
The heyday of cryptocurrencies, despite the recent Bitcoin fluctuations, is basically not over, and that also means freeloaders are trying to enrich themselves at the expense of users. In the case of Bitcoin, this means that they are trying to tap into computational power without the knowledge of users. The latest target is the cryptocurrency Monero.