text:
The most notable companies in this group are NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA), Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO), Costco Wholesale Corp (NASDAQ:COST), Lockheed Martin Corp (NYSE:LMT), Freeport-McMoran (NYSE:FCX).
The investment seeks to achieve high (greater than for the stock market as a whole), long-term appreciation in the value of its shares.
The fund invests in stocks and stock warrants of U.S. and foreign companies that are expected to have a higher profit potential than the stock market as a whole and whose shares are valued primarily for potential growth in revenues, earnings, dividends or asset values rather than for current income.
The average market capitalization across the Permanent Portfolio Aggressive Growth A MF is 188.75B. The market cap for tickers in the group ranges from 9.77B to 1.18T. NVDA holds the highest valuation in this group at 1.18T. The lowest valued company is DINO at 9.77B.
The average weekly volume growth across all stocks in the Permanent Portfolio Aggressive Growth A MF was -49%. For the same stocks of the MF, the average monthly volume growth was -38% and the average quarterly volume growth was -54%
Fundamental Analysis Ratings
The average fundamental analysis ratings, where 1 is best and 100 is worst, are as follows
Valuation Rating: 56
P/E Growth Rating: 59
Price Growth Rating: 40
SMR Rating: 42
Profit Risk Rating: 52
Seasonality Score: -4 (-100 ... +100)

domain: economics


3/26/2007 (10:13 pm) by brian lewis
i am having problems connecting a kirrio gps system with holux reciever to my palm tungsten T.
The gps has a female ps/2 connector and the kirrio cradle has usb and mini-usb coinnectors but i have no cable to connect them.
I believe that the gps reciever needs to be powered from a cigarette socket ?
can anybody help me with finding the right cable that i need ?
3/26/2007 (10:30 pm) by Alex Charron
Try the PDA forums located here:


Audi RS4 - coming to a showroom near you soon
The first RS 4 models will be in dealers’ showrooms by the end of this month. The car that will perform the 0 - 200 km/h sprint in 16.6 seconds is now available for ordering, at a price starting at EURO 69,900.
Numerous technical innovations - many of which originally hail from motorsport - give the new Audi RS 4 its character. These include the high-revving concept, now being introduced for the first time in a production Audi, innovative FSI technology in conjunction with a V8 and the latest generation of quattro drive. The 420 bhp eight-cylinder engine revs up to a speed of 8,250 rpm. With a displacement of 4,163 cc, the saloon breaks through the magic barrier for production cars of 100 bhp per litre. 90 percent of the total torque is available between 2,250 and 7,600 rpm. The result is excellent pulling power at all times, enabling the driver to drive in a relaxed style without frequent gear changes.
The performance of the RS 4 clearly demonstrates these enhancements: it reaches the 100 km/h mark in 4.8 seconds, and 200 km/h in 16.6 seconds. Top speed is limited electronically to 250 km/h. The challenge is to transfer all this power to the road in the best way possible. For the last 25 years, Audi’s answer to all the particular requirements in this respect has been “quattro”.
The car features 40 (front) to 60 (rear) asymmetric/dynamic torque split and self-locking Torsen centre differential, the latest generation of Audi’s permanent four-wheel drive (which is featured for the first time on the RS 4), and the quattro drive is further enhanced by DRC (Dynamic Ride Control) which significantly reduces both the rolling and pitching motions of the vehicle.
Driving the Audi RS 4 means driving a sports car without missing out on any of the comforts. The RS 4 therefore comes with virtually all the features already boasted by the Audi A4. As well as extensive technology, these include deluxe automatic air conditioning, central locking with radio remote control, the Audi parking system at front and rear, the concert radio system and sports suspension with variable damping (DRC).
Furthermore, RS 4 drivers can also opt for even higher levels of comfort in features such as the navigation system plus or dynamic adaptive light technology.
Text - Classic Driver
Photos - Audi
ClassicInside - The Classic Driver Newsletter


The other big news at Akai’s for this Musikmesse 2014 is the MPX16 sampler, that our team went to discover this morning.
The Akai MPX16 is a portable device designed to play and record sound samples in WAV format to an SD card. The big brother of the MPX8 features 16 MPX-style pads but you can also trigger the sounds externally via a MIDI or USB MIDI controller.
- 16 MPC-style velocity-sensitive pads
- 2 balanced 1/4” inputs
- Internal microphone
- Internal processor with ADSR envelopes, filters, tune, Choke groupe and more
- WAV recorder to SD card
- LCD display
- MIDI DIN in and out
- USB or external power supply
The MPX16 will the available this summer for the US price of $199.99.
Viewers of this article also read...
- This Summer, jam with BeatBuddy Mini for $99 Singular Sound has announced a special offer on their BeatBuddy Mini personal drum machine.
- Moogfest: Moog to bring back Minimoog Model D While Moogfest 2016 is currently (May 19-22) being held in Durham, NC, Moog is bringing back Minimoog Model D through a pop-up factory.
- [MUSIKMESSE] Dreadbox present Drips Dreadbox is at the Musikmesse to present Drips, a Eurorack format modular drum machine.


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There's nothing like a bowl of fresh strawberries, but these pureed, baked, sauced, layered, and frozen strawberry recipes are as good as it gets.
Tangy goat cheese whipped with cream cheese and honey, baked into a rich base for balsamic strawberries and basil.
A springtime classic, no matter how you use it.
This fizzy punch is tart, juicy, and a little herbal.
These adorable candies are sure to melt your heart.
A new way to serve fruit salad at your Independence Day feast.

domain: food


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- Afghan Placement and Assistance (APA)
RWC Baseline Survey Report
This report provides an overview of the findings from the Baseline Survey administered in December 2022 to national and local resettlement agencies. This report offers invaluable insights into the current landscape, providing a solid foundation for a collaborative effort toward capacity building in refugee resettlement.


text:
How to Transplant or Move a Rose Bush
There may come a time when you wish to move a rose to a more ideal location in your garden or landscape. Or the rose has outgrown the spot where it currently lives and it needs to be moved. You will be pleased to know that roses are quite adaptable to being placed in a ‘new’ home. However roses do not like to ‘rent’ or ‘lease’ their place in the garden. They want a brand new home, a place where nothing has previously been planted. In this regard you will find the rose species a bit finicky. But not to worry; we’ll give you advice that will make transplanting a rose fairly simple and successful.
We will present two methods of transplanting and you can decide which will work best for your situation. First of all, timing is important. The best time to transplant a rose is in the early spring when the rose is still dormant. This will cause less stress and shock to the plant. Wait until all threat of frost or freezing weather has passed. Cut the rose canes back to 10-12 inches and remove all foliage, if there is any. Dig a new hole for the rose and make sure that there is good drainage. (If you’re not sure about drainage, dig your hole, fill it with water and come back in an hour. If the water has drained out, you have a good spot. If not, select another place. Roses do not like to have ‘wet feet’ or roots; they will fail to grow). Next, dig far enough away from the root ball that you do not damage the roots and are able to take as much root as possible. Mix equal amounts of mulch, potting soil and peat moss together and add ½ of this mixture around the roots after placing the root ball into the new hole. Water the soil well when the planting hole is only half filled and allow the water to settle (you may need to adjust the height of the rose at this point if the soil sank an excessive amount). Add the remainder of the soil mixture and water again. Water the rose every day for at least a week or two depending on your weather. Do not fertilize or use any insecticides until you see new growth on the rose.
The second method of transplanting takes place during the growing season. Roses are tougher than you think and can be moved during the growing season if they have the right amount of water. A liquid vitamin B1 transplanting fertilizer purchased from your local nursery will help in getting the rose to adjust when moving. You want to water deeply before transplanting, so all the cells of the rose are as full of water as possible. This lessens the demands on the roots. Again, dig far enough away from the root ball that you do not damage the roots and are able to take as much of the root as possible. If the rose is wilting when transplanted it may not survive. You can elect not to cut the rose back letting it decide how much of its top it can support. It will tell you by wilting at the tips, which is a sign to increase watering. The material that does not recover within a few days of liberal watering needs to be removed at that time. Prune any dried or dead material from the plant. Or you can elect to cut the taller canes down to a manageable height before digging it up. Some prefer to match the height of the rose canes to the size of the root ball, which is acceptable also. Again, wait until there is new growth to resume regular fertilizing. Always remember that fertilizers need water in order to work; fertilizers are essentially salts and can burn your rose if enough water isn’t applied. It is good practice to water the rose both before and after applying any fertilizer.

domain: agronomy


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1935 dodge pickup for saleFollow this search
Mesa 85207, AZ, United States4 weeks ago on chooseyouritem.com
For sale $24,900dodge black 1934 77,000mi pickup
1935 Dodge Pickup 77578 original miles, frame-off rebuild in 2000, rebuilt engine, rebuilt transmission, rebuilt rear. Working cowl vent and crank-out windshield for ventilation, ooogah horn. New brakes, battery, and tires, with original wheels & gas tank, black interior, electric fuel pump, good paint is silver-metallic on the body, with dark blue-metallic fiberglass fenders and steel ...
Marion, OH, United States3 weeks ago on ebay.com
For sale $35,000dodge 1935 truck
1935 Dodge long bed, Rare second series, many car and truck show awards. Featured on the cover of Vintage Truck magazine 2007. Rare 1940s and 50s speed equipment, Restored ...drive it home if you want. Transmission and rear end updated for todays roads All Dodge parts. Engine has been totally rebuilt, Fenton carbs, Fenton exhaust, Mallory ignition, high compression ...
1935 dodge pickup for sale:
Cody 82414, WY, United States2 weeks ago on ebay.com
For sale $2,500dodge 1935 truck
1935 dodge rat rod truck. 351 Cleveland (rebuilt) with c-6 trans (currently disassembled, but with new rebuild kit and proper torque converter). ford econoline front end ford truck rear end. needs a pusher fan for radiator(has plenty of room for one). most wiring is done, but needs to be finished. have all the parts to finish this ...
Eureka CA, United States1 month ago on craigslist.org
For sale $4,000dodge 1935 pickup
Posted: ... :28pm 35 dodge pickup - $4000 (Eureka) 1935 dodge pickup Early 35 pickup (factory suicide doors) unbelievably good condition- disassembled, most has been taken down to bare metal and primed (by professional shop) framed has been boxed set up for sbc/turbo 350 (included) all chrome is good. All glass is good. Looks to be complete truck. As is, ...
Gresham OR, United States3 weeks ago on ebay.com
For sale $12,000dodge 1935 pickup
1935 dodge kc pickup rare!! in solid lower cab very good shape fenders A little rough but repairable body very good as is box, all original sheet metal nice grill, new glass all around, new whiskers, and run channels, new interior headliner very nicely done windshield cranks out cowl vent works good www tires split manifold raps nicely!! carb ...

domain: hobby


text:
As they near two years of hardships brought on by the pandemic, officials at shelters in New Jersey said a dip in temperatures is not the only factor expected to drive up demand this winter. They anticipate more demand for services once residents unable to pay rent are forced out. Read the Full Article.
Home / Community / Homeless shelters hunker down for winter, anticipate higher demand due to COVID and evictions
- NJACTS Community Engagement Core Available Services
- Are You Getting Enough Sleep? Probably Not.
- Using Artificial Intelligence and Innovative Design to Save Patient’s Lives During the COVID19 Pandemic.
- NJIT Machine Learning Expert Pan Xu Combats COVID Vaccine Inequity.
- Join in: “Oh the Possibilities: Careers in Clinical Research” Apr 17, 2023 6:00 pm

domain: news


The Radio Spectrum Inventory Act (HR 3125) has been
scheduled for a vote Apr. 14 in the House.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has put the bill
on the suspension calendar, according to a notice from his office. That
calendar is for votes on noncontroversial bills and allows for limited debate
(the inventory act has a bunch of both Democratic and Republican supporters).
The bill, which was approvedby a voice vote in the House Energy & Commerce Committee March 10,
directs the FCC and the National Telecommunications & Information
Administration to figure out how and where private stakeholders are using their
It also mandates the creation of a centralized Web
portal/website for public access to the data.
The commission is looking to start the process of reclaiming
spectrum from broadcasters and others this year as part of an aggressive
rollout schedule for the national broadband plan.
Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), chairman of the Communications
& Internet Subcommittee and a co-sponsor of the bill, has said that a
thorough inventory is necessary before the FCC can determine where and from
whom it needs the spectrum, which it plans to auction for wired broadband use.
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text:
Mega Man Star Force 3 is an action RPG title in the Star Force series. Players control Geo Stelar, a fifth grade student who can transform into Mega Man in order to travel through the wave world – an EM based environment.
Gameplay is based in both the physical and wave worlds. While in the physical world, Geo is able to view the wave world by using his Visualizer. When transformed, Mega Man can travel through the wave world on a series of roads comprised of radio waves. These roads are littered with viruses that will attack randomly.
Battles are fought on a 3D grid, with the camera behind Mega Man. The Mega Buster can always be used to attack, but more powerful attacks require Battle Cards to be equipped. Star Force 3 introduces the Noise feature – Mega Man increases his Noise percentage by defeating enemies, and as the percentage increases, more abilities are unlocked.
Star Force 3 was released in two versions – Black Ace and Red Joker. Gameplay is identical in both flavours, but certain transformations and Battle Cards are unique to a single version.

domain: entertainment


Film podcast host Matthew Pejkovic of Matt’s Movie Reviews invited me on to discuss one of my all time favorite topics: comic book films. We cover pretty much everything. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, DCEU, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sony’s Spider-Man franchise, and so much more!
According the video description, “In the third episode that looks back at the themes, players, and the films that shaped 2021, Matthew Pejkovic of Matt’s Movie Reviews is joined by pop culture commentator and author Jacob Airey to talk about the superhero movie releases of the past year, including Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Black Widow, the future of the MCU, the direction of the DCU, and more!”
Check out the interview:
Check out Matt’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq_LLiCjmHyAuk0SnKfjWlw
FOR FURTHER READING:
What do you think? Let me know in the comments below. Tell me if there is a comic book, movie, or novel you would like me to review. While you are at it, check out the Slcmof panel discussing the Wolverine and Spider-Man 2 Gaming Speculation. Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe for more posts like this one.
Look for me on social media! Facebook: Author Jacob Airey | Instagram: realjacobairey | Twitter: @realJacobAirey | MeWe: Link | YouTube: StudioJake | Minds: Link | Rumble: StudioJake Media | Gettr: Click Here


text:
Read Advisory Board's take on this story.
The vast majority of states earned an "F" grade for failing to publicly disclose health care price information, according to a new report from the not-for-profit Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute (HCIII) and Catalyst for Payment Reform (Barkholz, Modern Healthcare, 7/26).
The fourth-annual report evaluated states on four criteria:
- Using rich data sources, such as an all-payer claims database;
- Providing "meaningful" price information to consumers, not just so-called charge prices;
- Including information for different scopes of procedures and services, such as inpatients versus outpatient; and
- Having an accessible, high-quality, public website to provide pricing information.
Only three states received an "A" grade this year:
- Maine; and
- New Hampshire.
Only four other states received a passing grade: Oregon received a "B" grade, up from an "F" grade in 2015; Vermont and Virginia received "C" grades; and Arkansas received a "D."
The remaining 43 states received an "F" grade.
François de Brantes, a report co-author and executive director of HCIII, said many states failed to make the leap from collecting data to achieving price transparency. "Real health care price transparency for consumers is dependent on rich data sources that provide meaningful price information on a wide range of procedures and services," he said. "But that's not enough. It must be presented on an accessible, publicly available website."
This year, 12 states collected the necessary price transparency information to share with consumers but failed to share the information publicly, according to the report.
In a commentary published in Health Affairs, de Brantes, along with co-authors Suzanne Delbanco, and Judith Hibbard, said price transparency was increasingly important to consumers. "Without price transparency, consumers and their physicians cannot predict their medical bills or alter their behavior to choose high-quality, low-cost care," they wrote. "High deductible health plans—which now account for 24 percent of insured lives—can't function properly without public pricing information."
Moreover, de Brantes said that it was important for states to share such information because industry cannot be relied upon to do so. "For many consumers, the trustworthiness of information that emanates from health plans isn't very high," he said (Japsen, Forbes, 7/26; Barkholz, Modern Healthcare, 7/26; Delbanco et al., Health Affairs, 7/26; Report Card on State Price Transparency Laws report, July 2016).
Advisory Board's take
Leslie Schreiber, Managing Director
As high-deductible health plans become increasingly common, more and more patients are comparison shopping for health care. In fact, a recent study from Public Agenda found that 56 percent of Americans now actively look for pricing information before getting care.
This increase in health care shopping has significant consequences for hospital revenue. Advisory Board research found that a four-hospital system can see swings in revenue of $16 million to $40 million due to its price transparency strategy—or lack thereof. The potential financial impact makes it critical for providers to share concrete pricing information prior to service to steer patients away from competitors. Unfortunately, more often than not, hospitals traditionally aren't well situated to discuss price with patients—and, as evidenced by the preponderance of states receiving a failing grade in the new report, most institutions haven't adapted to this market imperative by creating easy-to-access, transparent patient pricing.
We've found that the most progressive organizations are getting ahead of the competition by developing a robust consumer pricing strategy, informed by market analyses; consumer, employer, and referring physician surveys; accurate charge and rate benchmarking; and an objective view of their patient financial experience.
For more information about crafting a consumer pricing strategy in the face of external market pressures, download our new playbook and learn how progressive organizations are getting ahead of negative media coverage with a robust consumer pricing strategy.
DOWNLOAD THE PLAYBOOK
Next in the Daily Briefing
ACO roundup: What the November elections mean for value-based care


text:
Welcome to Benoir Beach - Four Season Cottage Rental. The perfect Ontario cottage rental for your next vacation or weekend getaway.
Benoir Beach cottage rental is fully equipped and boasts a huge stone fireplace, beautiful wood floors and hand-crafted pine cabinets. You'll enjoy all the comforts of home, with a fully stocked kitchen, a three bedroom main cottage with two bathrooms and an additional bunkie for extra sleeping. With ample space for your family and friends, the cottage can accommodate groups of up to 10 people, with sleeping quarters for 9 in the main cottage and 3 or 4 in the separate bunkie.
Situated on a superior waterfront property, Benoir Beach cottage rental features a large stretch of golden sand beach and clean, clear water that is great for swimming. Surrounded by Algonquin majestic pines offering the perfect amount of shade, and outstanding western exposure makes it a prime location for watching beautiful sunsets.
Nestled on Benoir Lake, in the Haliburton Highlands of Ontario, Canada, Benoir Beach cottage rental rests on the outskirts of the southern tip of Ontario's Algonquin Park and is located just 25-30 minutes from both Haliburton and Bancroft. Connecting to Elephant and Baptiste Lakes, Benoir Lake offers 35 miles of superb scenery, boating and fishing.
Highlights at a Glance:
-Superior west facing sand beach
-Room for up to 10 persons
-High Speed Wifi Internet & Satellite TV
-2 Canoes, 2 adult kayaks, 2 kid kayaks
-2 adult paddleboards, 1 kids paddleboard, Paddleboat
-Full size kids playset with swings, slides etc.
-Indoor games, outdoor games, toys and a water mat
-Large dock, with muskoka chairs and loungers
-36 miles of superb Boating & Fishing
-Safe, Relaxing Shoreline & flat lot
-Fully equipped kitchen & Large BBQ
-2 bathrooms, shower and tub
-Outdoor Campfire pit
-Fully heated for all seasons
-Indoor Wood burning Fireplace
-Under 5 minutes from Algonquin Park
-Small motor boat rental available

domain: geography


text:
Gift Basket: Rebel Dad Basket
If your dad refuses to wear a tie and can usually be found outside in the fresh air- he's going to love this basket.
- Sweet Chili Chocolate Moose Fudge popcorn
- Rampage Code Black coffee
- Cowboy Caviar Hot and Sweet jerky
- Sweetsmith Candy Co. Smokey Bacon brittle
- Three Foragers Spicy Bee honey
- Raw Karma Hot & Spicy chocolate bar
- Deadly Dan OG Hot Sauce
- 2 Invigorate chocolates
* Due to availability of stock we reserve the right to substitute items of equal or greater value when necessary.
* Got a special message? Email it to us at firstname.lastname@example.org (with order number)


The new Mercedes-Benz A-Class is a much improved car. It is as though the company made a list of each shortcoming of the current model, in production since 2012, and worked through the product by product.
There is a reason why Germans have a reputation for being methodical and thorough.
High on the to-do list was to fasten the little hatchback's rigid and jiggly ride, its substandard all-round vision, squeezy and hard to access rear seat, not enough space, moving dual-coupling auto and too high noise level.
Fire-conscious customers ignored all this and instead focused on the chance to buy something wearing the triangular star from under $ 40,000.
Far from perfect, the current A-Class has become a hit. Last year, it was the second most popular model in Australia, reaching nearly 5,000 sales.
But Mercedes-Benz started working on the replacement with a clean sheet.
The new A-class is considerably longer overall, a fraction broader and has a small extra distance between front and rear axles.
The larger body has more space in all directions, the rear seat is now quite spacious and the reardoor rear doors make access and exit easier.
The cargo compartment is larger and the newly fitted tailgate has a wider opening to ease the load of large parts.
Larger windows and carefully designed front posts enhance versatile vision. The exterior style is not as sporty as the previous model, although cleaner and less freaky look is an improvement.
The car is also more slippery and quieter than before.
The first A-Class family member to arrive in Australia will be A200, in August. We concentrated on this on the car's recent presentation to international media in Croatia.
Driven by a new 1.3-liter turbo four, it comes only with a seven-speed double coupling automatically, also new and one way smoother shifter.
The performance is especially good at low and medium speed, although some things vibrations are felt when pushed higher.
Variable rate shock absorbers will be an option in Australia. So equipped and set to comfort mode, the A200 gets a plush ride relative to the outgoing model.
Sport mode increases the fastness and improves smoothness, even though the A200's electronically assisted steering does not give the feeling of connection with the car to really drive hard driving.
The new line-up will lead to higher prices. Expect the A200 without options to be around $ 46,000, up by almost $ 3000. The A180 with a less powerful version of turbo 1.3 liter will arrive in December to around $ 40,000.
A250 4matic, with a powerful new 2.0-liter turbo and upgraded full-wheel drive, arrives with the A180 and will be around $ 58,000.
All variants come with a seven-speed dual-coupling auto, as in the A200. Mercedes-Benz Australia is not planning to import a diesel.
The new model will be an expensive little car, but the expected prices will not seem outrageous once you've been inside it and experienced first hand what it can do.
Mercedes has gone a lot longer than just fixing what was wrong with the old one. There is also an excellent new inside look, filled with some of the brand's most advanced technology.
The slim and simplified dash has a wide but slim flat screen display that makes instruments and infotainment interfaces in great high resolution.  Mercedes-Benz builds the A-Class with three different display levels, but all Australian market cars come with the best version. This has two 10.25-inch screens behind its single glass sheet.
The A-Class is also the first Mercedes-Benz that has artificial intelligence. This is the power of what the company calls MBUX for Mercedes-Benz User eXperience.
Its centerpiece is a voice build setup that's better than anything a car manufacturer has installed to date and it's awakened by just saying "Hey Mercedes." The car can often, but not always, understand requests in natural language.  According to engineers who have helped to develop the technology, the ability of the new A-Class to understand its owner will improve in time.
AI also means the car is able to learn the habits and routines of its users and then anticipate their needs.
The upcoming A-Class is much more than an improved small car from Mercedes-Benz.
LONG STRATEGY STRATEGY
A200's 1.3- liter turbo four was a joint effort from Mercedes-Benz and Renault. The engine is assembled in Germany, but the great French automaker delivers what is known in the industry as the "long block" cylinder block, plus crankshaft, pistons and connecting rods. 19659030] MERCEDES-BENZ A200
PRICE $ 46,000 (est)
SAFETY Not yet rated
ENGINE 1.3-liter 4-cylinder turbo; 120kW / 250Nm
TRANSMISSION 7-speed DSG; FWD
THIRST 5.6L / 100km (est)
0-100KM / H 8.0 seconds


If you're willing to understand how neural networks work behind the scene and debug the back-propagation algorithm step by step by yourself, these slides should be a good starting point.
We will cover deep learning popular applications, the concept of the artificial neuron and how it relates to the biological one, the perceptron and the multi-layer one. We'll also dive in activation functions, loss functions and formalize the training of a neural net via the back-propagation algorithm.
In the last part, you'll learn how to code a fully functioning trainable neural network from scratch. In pure python code only, with no frameworks involved.
All the code is available on my github repo.
You can view the slides here:
Here's an animated slideshow of the back-propagation:


text:
The Killing Room
By Richard Montanari
Packed with ingenious twists and relentless excitement, and starring two of the most compelling heroes in crime fiction, The Killing Room is a major thriller event: the best novel yet from one of the world's best suspense writers
'The thing is, Detective...
If you believe in God, you've got to believe in the Devil.'
Deepest winter. Darkest Philadelphia.
A murder shocks the frozen city - the most spectacular homicide in its 300-year-old history: an ex-cop has been lured to the basement of an abandoned chapel, wrapped in barbed wire - and kept alive for ten days.
Twenty-four hours after the discovery, Detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano find another victim in another church, encased in a pristine block of ice.
Someone is transforming the city's cathederals into killing rooms, someone who is determined to raise hell on earth.
Packed with ingenious twists and relentless excitement, The Killing Room is a novel of blistering thrills and heart-stopping suspense.
Richard Montanari was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to a traditional Italian-American family. After university, he travelled extensively in Europe and lived in London.
Returning to the US, he started working as a freelance writer for The Chicago Tribune, The Detroit Free Press, The Seattle Times, and many others. He wrote his first book, Deviant Way, in 1996 and it won the OLMA for Best First Mystery. His novel Shutter Man was named a New York Times Crime Novel of the Year for 2016, and his books have now been published in more than twenty-five languages.
- Other details
- Publication date:
28 Mar 2013
- Page count:
Scary good! Montanari expertly weaves a mesmerizing tale of devillish killer stalking a city's abandoned churches and stoking its innermost fears. You will leave the lights on, long after finishing this book — Lisa Gardner
Killer thriller . . . there's a whiff of hellfire and brimstone in the air when a sadistic killer stalks the streets of Philadelphia in this bone-numbing thriller . . . suprises waiting round every cobwebbed corner . . . Byrne and Balzano make a great cop duo — Peterborough Evening Telegraph
The crescendo delivers with phenomenal force which can leave your mouths agape as you close the book. It's immensely satisfying . . . a wonderful spin on the crime fiction genre. This book is relentless — The Novel Reviewer
Ace chiller — Weekend Sport
A sizzling story that will not only keep you turning the pages, but also provides the kind of tender note not usually found in a thriller as taut and exciting as The Killing Room — Mystery People
A master of the pulse-pounding novel of suspense — Good Book Guide

domain: library


text:
Rocker Chris Martin and actress Gwyneth Paltrow’s ten year marriage anniversary might see the lovely renew their wedding vows to celebrate this ‘milestone.’ The forty year old actress and her husband’s anniversary is round the corner in December and Gwyneth Paltrow stated that they may like to mark the special day with a vow renewal ceremony.
While speaking to a leading entertainment website, she told that people do that a lot now. Nobody in her family has ever done that. You never know. Iron Man 3 actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who has two kids – 8 year old Apple 7 year old Moses with the Coldplay frontman. She recently stated that the secret to their marriage is that they do not try to change each other.
She told that she totally accept him and what he does, so she is not the kind of wife who is like to ask ‘Where are you?’ everytime and she never make him feel hemmed in or like he is in some kind of trouble. And on a personal level as friends, they really get along. They really laugh, and they are super into our kids. There is a good foundation.
They also have not ruled out having more children. Gwyneth told that people think that they would not like to go back to diapers again. But her best friend’s mother once said not to do your planning around the pain of infancy, as it is very finite. Plan it around how many people you want at Thanksgiving.
A loway couple, who had been setting up their wedding since a long time, found a week before their wedding ceremony that President Barrack Obama had resolute to do a rally at the venue which the couple has chosen for their wedding purpose. This refers that the couple will not get the chance to get into the parking area at the great Living History Farms on their wedding day which is on September 1, letting the bride and her friends to drag her wedding dress from a distance. It was also expected that the rally could prohibit the event if it ran for too long.
The couple said to a news channel that this is our luck and we can’t help it. Three of us have chosen the same place – the couple said. But fortunately the rally finished on time and the wedding ceremony continued as planned. In the meantime president Obama left the spot leaving a handwritten note of wishes and congratulations along with some gifts – mint julep cup along with a silver platter. Both of them were given with presidential seal.
On asking about how are they feeling after receiving the gifts, the couple said that they consider themselves fortunate enough to receive gifts from the president himself and also they said that they have used the mint julep in the first night. They also said that the gift was super charming.
Finally the event worked out well as everything worked according to what they planned. Though the rally created some sort of disturbances but it was okay for the couple because the rally ended within time without creating any hassles. It was a big day for the couple and was also a memorable day.

domain: sociology


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Check here for the latest nutraceutical and company news, from the latest product releases to information about the growth of our organization.
Press – If you would like to get more information about the GHT Companies, or schedule an interview with us, please click here.
Studies have shown that chronic stress can lead to the overproduction of cortisol, the “fight or flight” hormone which can result in dangerous symptoms such as an increased heart rate and insomnia. Whey protein have been shown to help lower cortisol levels . . . | Read more
October 17, 2016
RuckPack Moves “Beyond the Tank” with The GHT Companies as their Primary Formulation/Manufacturing Partner
The team at RuckPack counts on The GHT Companies as the only source they trust to manufacture the RuckPack nutritional supplements . . . | Read more
April 18, 2016
Individuals whose blood showed they were deficient in vitamin D experienced cognitive declines that were two-to-three times faster than those with sufficient vitamin D, according to the study . . . | Read more
October 05, 2015
Previously, as D3 usually comes from lanolin extracted from sheep’s wool grease, vegans would have had to settle for vitamin D2, the less-effective ergocalciferol form. The trademarked Vitashine ingredient . . . | Read more
September 01, 2015
Cranlac was exclusively designed with the company’s proprietary probiotic blend that has more than 11 years of proven success maintaining overall digestive health. Specific strains of friendly bacteria were chosen . . . | Read more
March 26, 2015
Several studies suggest that vitamin D3 is 70 percent to 87 percent more potent than vitamin D2 and easier for the body to absorb. Vegan Vitamin D3, which is derived from lichen, is the only known source of vitamin D3 that uses absolutely no animal . . . | Read more
March 2, 2015


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This fall, Marvel is teaming up with My Social Canvas to help empower women in a new way. In addition to NFTs, they are offering exclusive comic book content and statues for their fans to enjoy. This collaboration with My Social Canvas aims to celebrate women’s empowerment. Here are some reasons why you’ll want to check out the Boss Beauties set. Read on to learn more about them and find out how you can get your hands on them.
The Boss Beauties collection is a collective of 10,000 female role models. Each girl represents a unique superhero or super hero, and her portrait can be viewed by anyone. These NFTs are also a way to access exclusive events, like panels with prominent business leaders and a chance to win exclusive prizes. In addition to being a symbol of empowerment, these characters represent the strength of women everywhere. So, if you are looking for a new superhero costume, you’ll want to check out the Boss Beauties!
The Boss Beauties are also making headlines in the world of fashion. The line of apparel has been inspired by the stories and dreams of women and girls everywhere. The brand teamed up with My Social Canvas, an impact consultancy working with the UN’s Office of Partnerships, to make these characters a reality. The event will feature an exhibit of the full Boss Belles range, keynotes and panels, and will include speakers from companies and brands with a positive impact on the world.
Boss Beauties is the latest NFT collection. With the help of My Social Canvas, the brand will continue to empower women and inspire a generation of female superheroes. This initiative was inspired by a tweet that Marvel had made on Nov. 18 about a special Spaces conversation. As a result, the Boss Beauties will be featured in the Nasdaq Tower during the International Day of the Girl. In November, a partnership with Marvel will make it a part of Marvel’s ongoing efforts to champion women.
In addition to empowering women, Boss Beauties is a global impact consultancy. It works with the United Nations Office of Partnerships to help achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The collaboration between Marvel and My Social Canvas aims to reach women around the world. There are two main objectives for this project: aspire to empower young people and increase diversity in the world, and to build confidence in women. The latter’s role in advancing society is to improve the well-being of women.
Boss Beauties is an NFT project created by girls, aiming to inspire women to take action in their communities. Its 10k NFT collection will be featured in the Nasdaq Tower on the International Day of the Girl, highlighting the achievements of female superheroes across the globe. The project will be a huge success for both the company and its partners, including My Social Canvas. With the help of My Social Canvas, it will be able to empower women around the world.
The Boss Beauties project is a global movement. With the help of My Social Canvas, Marvel is partnering with a global impact consultancy, 5th Element Group. The firm is a non-profit organisation that works to bring the nonprofit, public, and government sectors together in support of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The event will include a full-scale exhibition of the Boss Beauties collection, and panel discussions with speakers from major brands.
As a part of its global impact, the Boss Beauties have also partnered with fiveth Element Group. It is a global impact consultancy that works with the United Nations Office of Partnerships. The team aims to connect nonprofits, the public and the nonprofit sectors to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The event will include a full-scale exhibition of the Boss Beauties Role Models collection. It will also feature a series of keynotes and panels featuring prominent brands.
The Boss Beauties are an NFT, a social media platform which promotes female leadership and encourages women to pursue their dreams. The campaign’s purpose is to help women realize their full potential by inspiring them to pursue their goals. The brand’s collaboration with Marvel is part of the initiative’s goal to promote equality for women. By using the NFT, Boss Beauties hope to empower millions of girls and young women worldwide.


One look at the south cinema reveals the Tollywood circuit is the most enticing and promising arenas for any business entity planning to invest in cinema. This is the reason why many big Bollywood houses have been making their foray here.
But now, it looks like one stinking rich Sandalwood entity is also eyeing Tollywood. We are talking about the production house owned by former CM H D Kumaraswamy who is currently in the process of giving his son Nikhil Gowda the right takeoff.
Nikhil came with the movie Jaguar with a whopping budget of Rs 75 crores and now plans have begun for his second project with similar or even higher budget. Buzz is that this would have maximum Tollywood technicians and even the director could be Puri Jagannadh or Surendar Reddy. Good for filmnagar!
ALSO READ : LEGENDARY ACTOR HOSPITALIZED, FANS WORRIED!


THE NORTHWEST Regional Airport’s new instrument landing system (ILS) is scheduled to go into service in the middle of October.
Installation took place starting at the end of June and was finished earlier this month.
It was then successfully tested by a plane used by NavCanada, the federal not-for-profit agency which runs navigation systems at airports.
But the new system won’t officially go into service until the next publication of landing approaches at Canadian airports and that won’t happen until Oct. 15, says NavCanada official Ron Singer.
He said the new ILS will more than adequately serve the airport for years go come.
“Reliability will be increased and a lot of the repairs can be done remotely which wasn’t the case before and that means no one has to travel up [to Terrace],” said Singer. “And maintenance costs will be less.”
A piece of equipment called a localizer was replaced and new antennas were put into place as part of the project which cost an estimated $1 million.
An ILS guides pilots to lower altitudes in order to see the runway during inclement weather and then land.
The ILS being replaced had been at the end of its life cycle and was subject to more repairs and down time, particularly this past April.
It was also taken out of service while the new one was being installed but fog affected flights on just one occasion.
Northwest Regional Airport general manager Carman Hendry was happy with the replacement.
“It’s going to lower our [landing] limits a little bit more. It’s the newest and best equipment,” he said.
Once operational the new ILS will further strengthen the airport’s ability to act as a base for industrial and commercial activity, Hendry added.


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MOUNT PLEASANT, TN -- Landmark Ceramics recently hosted a grand opening event to show off its newly constructed 700,000-square-foot tile production facility, showroom and North American headquarters. The event signals the launch of the company into the American ceramic tile market. Guests included representatives from the Tennessee State Government, Mt. Pleasant City officials, architectural firms, designers and owners of distribution companies from across the country and Canada.
More than 200 guests were on hand for the invitation only event which included a ribbon cutting and tour of the plant, offices and showroom. The day began with the arrival of busloads of people being transported across the 96 acre grounds to the impressive corporate headquarter office for introductory speeches by company president, Federico Curioni, and general manager, Filippo Sgarbi. Guests were also greeted with remarks from Luca Mussini, owner of Landmark Ceramics' Italian parent company, Gruppo Concorde, who explained the many reasons behind making the choice of Maury County. "The most important one is that our family culture is close to the agricultural world, due to the fact that our grandparents were farmers and we have found here the same cultural tradition, ethics and values that are a part of our family," he said.
After speaking about the significance of Landmark's $90 million investment in the project, Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community
Development, Randy Boyd told the audience, "To make something like this happen is not easy. A company like this can literally locate anywhere in the world, but they chose here, Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee, and so, it's a big deal they chose our community."
In addition to relating the company's history and goals for the future, Curioni told guests, "The plant that you will visit today, in full operation and producing the high notch porcelain tile that you will see displayed in our showroom, is one of the most advanced manufacturing facility in our business, worldwide."
Mussini and Boyd were joined by Maury County Mayor, Charlie Norman, State Senator, Dr. Joey Hensley, to cut the ceremonial ribbon at the entrance to the Landmark Ceramic showroom. Following the ribbon cutting, attendees were shuttled in smaller groups for a guided tour of the production plant led by company executives to see the massive facility which has a production capacity of 50 million square feet of high quality, porcelain tile annually. The tour was divided into six stations where the production process was explained by plant workers who shared their expertise of the inner workings of Landmark.,
Afterwards the celebration resumed at the modern design ceramics showroom where a luncheon was served in a casual atmosphere that allowed people to browse the company's products. The indoor and outdoor display of the Landmark tiles was the high point of the day to many of the guests.
"This is some of the finest tile I have seen," said Maury County Mayor, Charlie Norman. "This project is a prime example of what community teamwork can accomplish."
Mt. Pleasant Vice Mayor, Jim Bailey agreed. "To see a company work on this scale, but pay such attention to energy efficiency, recycling and respect for staff in the process is good to see in Maury County," he said. "We are proud to have Landmark in our community."
To conclude the day, buses carried the attendees to Nashville for a special evening at the Country Music Hall of Fame. Landmark arranged for the Conservatory at the museum along with live entertainment from some of the Music City's finest, cocktails, elegant dinner and an afterhours tour of the Hall of Fame.
According to Mr. Sgarbi, the company's intent was to show guests some real Southern hospitality, and although of Italian origin, that Landmark is proudly an American company. "We felt there could be no better way to show our American spirit than to do it with the music of America, Country Music," he said.
His sentiments were echoed by the company president. "As we welcomed these fine people to join us for this momentous occasion, our hope is that they will in turn welcome us into their businesses as a point of reference in the porcelain ceramic industry as they seek to serve their clientele," said Curioni.


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Now Lost, Lost to Those From the East, Is Valimar!
By Dolores J. Nurss
Chapter 32, Part 242
Yavanna of the Swamps
December 14, 1452
The crying of a baby wove in and out of Frodo�s dreams. Then it seemed that he heard someone say, �She�s back,� and then much murmuring of voices, came into his awareness�voices as ugly and tender as still-soggy, new-hatched eagles. The words faded in and out of his half-sleeping mind�s attention as he slowly began to wake, against a background of constant bawling, this time in a full-grown throat. And gutteral voices answered with gentleness: �It�s all right.� �You did the right thing, Bataronk. That�s all that matters now.� �Yes. You came back.� �We�ve all felt it.� �We�ve all run away from it.� �Coming back is the main thing.�
Frodo opened his eyes, and once again saw the young orc mother suckling her young, where she squatted on the tunnel floor. One thing had changed, however, for she wept�loudly, messily, tears dribbling off her chin, lips trembling around gaping fangs, her nose running, the loud, aching sobs bursting from deep within her chest. �I thought it wuh, wouldn�t happen to me. I, I, I grew up in a fambly!�
�Curse that Dark Lord,� Lobbie Aandar muttered as Frodo sat up, �for what he wrenched right out of us!� She looked towards Frodo and Mattie. �We have to learn from scratch what comes naturally to most.�
Bataronk blubbered kisses all over her baby, murmuring. �I won�t leave you again�I won�t, I won�t, I won�t!� Then she turned red eyes to Frodo. �Bring it here, Luv.�
�Bring what?� he asked, though his heart guessed.
�You know,� she told him in her whiney voice. �That.� And she nodded towards his chest.
�Oh. No. Not after...it�s too strong a, a medicine.�
�Not to touch, not me. Oh no, no, no�I�m not big enough for that! But bring it here, anyway. Please?� she wheedled.
Reluctantly Frodo rose and went over to her. �Just hold it for me, over my baby.� This he did. Wincing, Bataronk forced herself to gaze through the lens at her child�s magnified face. �Oh!� She gasped. �Oh!� She clutched her daughter close, then, rocking her, still crying and yet smiling now. �Oh! Oh! Oh!�
Behind Frodo Aandar murmured, �Well, you have truly stirred this ol� ant-nest up royally, Frodo son of Samwise, stirred it up so strong that the ants�ll never be the same.� Yet when he turned to her he found her smiling. She sounded almost gentle when she asked, �Tell me, Frodo: did it hurt a lot, giving up the grog? Did it hurt horribly?� She laughed softly at the look on his face. �Oh, I can figure out a thing or two in a couple nights, m�boyo. I was a leech even before I became shatraug.�
�Yes,� he said. �It hurt a great deal. Like life coming back to frozen feet.�
�Then if you can come through it to the thawing point, so can we. If there�s one thing that our kind can do, better than anybody else, it�s endure pain.� She winked at him. �We�ll be all right. Better than all right, now.� Suddenly brisk, she clapped her hands together and declared, �And now it�s time for you and your mate to move on.�
�Lobbie Aandar,� he called just as she had begun to turn away, �I cannot thank you enough.�
She shrugged, �Oh, it was no big deal. Snatching two-legged prey from the jaws of wargs is good practice for what we want to be. And as for our hospitality, you brought the meat with you, yourself.�
Frodo gulped down his horror and said, �Not that alone, Lobbie Aandar. For being. For the Iingolug-Hai. For giving me hope again, when I have the most need of it.�
She chuckled and smirked. �Then I�d say we�re even, Gardner. A safe and happy road to you and yours.�
Frodo had a hard time finding any sort of designated place to wash up and such, but eventually the orcs deduced his wishes and supplied a basin of clean-enough water and a comparatively fresh rag to serve as towel, and anything else that he might desire. They often averted their eyes from his, yet he would catch them glancing back shyly, cautiously, and he saw nothing hostile whatsoever in their faces; they seemed even almost grateful in a dazed sort of way.
He bid them all a solemn adieu. He walked past a pile of pelts where Grumbull snored noisily, his hand still bandaged, his eyes rolling behind his lids in dreams, past Bataronk now playing with her baby and chuckling over him, past Lulthak seated quietly by the fire, staring into her hands, past Farmak whittling a cane from some giant sort of bone while an old orc-gaffer looked on, past Khlarkmoz staring at the outdoor passage with beetled brow, over to where Mattie waited, next to snaga-sized backpacks full of supplies to replace what they had lost.
Frodo looked at the packs, and felt a pang of regret for his sister�s needlework blowing across the marsh somewhere, till each piece, one by one, must inevitably sink into mud and slime, some of the clothing never even worn by him. Then he felt at the beads beside his lens, and his grief welled up to nearly overwhelm him. Yet he murmured, �You led me to them, Bleys. Yes, in a sense you did. You led me to orcs who adorn bones with flowers.� Mattie handed him coarse bread smeared with something yellowy-gray; they ate as they went out. It tasted surprisingly good, actually; he didn�t even gag when she informed him that he ate fried snails.
Once they passed out of the cave-mouth, Frodo and Mattie walked quite a ways without speaking. He gazed upwards a lot, appreciating the wind that had cleared some of the clouds overhead (even as it blew his hair about his face) to reveal the stars a-twinkle in the wrack. He breathed deeply the fresh air. The slopes led ever downward, back to the marsh, but even it smelled better than the lair of even the kindliest of orcs. The slope grew more and more gradual as it melted towards the swamps, till once again they followed a faint ridge of rockier land amid the pools and mud. Soon they heard nothing behind them, or before, or to either side, except for the various chirps and buzzes of the last surviving insects, the soft crunch of frosted mud underfoot, and an occasional splash or drip. The wind did not abate; tatters of mist blew across the waste like companies of ghosts. Then Mattie shook her head, smiling ruefully. �Traveling by night. Again. Here, of all places.�
Frodo shrugged. �I�ve been in darker places.�
Mattie glanced over at him. �That was quite some song you sang, yesterday.�
�Thank you. I had it straight from the source.�
They walked some yards before she murmured, �Frodo, I got the distinct impression that you did not approve of my own song.�
He drew breath, reconsidered, then said with forced mildness, �It was not your best.�
�For pity�s sake, Frodo, I was singing to orcs!�
�Orcs who strive with everything they have to become something better, orcs willing to endure an agony that we cannot even imagine in order to wrench out the evil rooted within them. It does not help them to celebrate the degradation of unfortunate women who...�
�What do you know about unfortunate women?� Her voice went shrill. �What do you know about a trade that...�
�More than I want to know! Mattie, do you have any idea how I wound up lying in the street that night when people thought that wargs had taken me? Didn�t anybody tell you? I was pitched there, face first, for being too ugly to sell the last thing that I had left to exchange for grog!�
�Oh...� She stopped, even as he did. �Oh Frodo!� And he welcomed her embrace, made clumsy by the packs though it might be.
�Ai, Mattie,� he husked on her shoulder, �I have learned so many words never spoken in the Shire. Prostitution. Addiction. Molestation. Rape. I feel more poisoned by words, by the ideas behind them, than by anything I ever drank. And nothing can heal me of my knowledge�not withy domes nor crystal rites, not athelas nor sage, not elf nor king. I, I have so many scars by now, Mattie, that I can�t even make out what I used to be without them.�
Gently she took his hand, and led him to walk again. �We are what we are,� she said, �and have to make the best of it, never mind whatever we might have been. We just have to keep going forward, is all.�
�Where are we going, Mattie?�
�I don�t know. The next shelter, whatever that might be. Maybe we can find another tree to climb.�
�Are we lost?�
�You tell me.�
He sighed. �We�re lost.� Now he felt the ground grow moist and soft beneath his feet. �As good a time as any, I suppose, to continue our botanical survey, although I do not know what creature might ever carry my notes back to Seaside, now.� He stopped, scanned the area around him, and forced a brighter tone. �Those phosphorescent growths over there look intriguing, at least.� As he opened up the flower-press, he chuckled faintly. �After all, I have my father to live up to. He never let a failure of hope stop him from his duty.�
Mattie regarded him a moment, then nodded to herself. �Frodo, you wait here, and conduct your survey. I have to scout on.�
�For whatever might make us un-lost, or otherwise bring us aid.� She smiled back at him over her shoulder. �Don�t worry, darling. The Four Sisters will help me.�
He took her hand. �Are you sure?�
She nodded. �Right now I am the best equipped to find us a way. And you are the best equipped to learn whatever might help Nurn, no matter where you land. So�we each have our duties to perform; let�s get about it, shall we?� They kissed and then she left, meandering among the shifty paths and pools as best she could.
Frodo gathered the fungus, made notes, then climbed up again, so that he could follow Mattie�s progress from the height. The view still amazed him, to look out upon a marsh at night with elvish sight. The greens of moss and scum glowed against the water�s shimmering black, in odd shapes and swirls like something out of delirium. Mattie he could clearly see as a sort of rosy glimmer all her own, quite different from the bluish tones of elves when seen in shadow. Her progress twisted this way and that, around about the pools and fens, by more than hobbit instinct, till she dwindled in the distance to a pink little wandering star, that his eyes nevertheless followed compulsively.
�Ah, Mattie! Where would I be without you?�
Not in fear for your sobriety, at least, had she not corrupted you in the first place.
�You are not Sauron. You are not even a whole person. I know you, now. You are the voice of my own doubts and temptations, which he borrowed for a time, shadow that he is.� He took a firm grip on the Glass of May. �And so I answer you confidently, from the honest part of myself. I would have fallen with or without Mattie pouring the elixir of the poppy down my throat. It might not have happened without Sauron, that much I will concede; the flaw might never have cracked without pressure from him�or from him beguiling me to put pressure on myself. But the flaw has always waited, even as the temptation towards the working-dust awaits in my sister Rose, if only she should hear of it and find it in her reach. It is but the dark side of our father�s gift, to give himself over completely, passionately, even to the point of death, for that which matters to him. We are a passionate people, we Gardners, who do nothing by half-measures. Yet I myself can choose whether to use this for ill or good.�
So, then. What do you propose to give yourself over to? Because, being you, you must surrender wholeheartedly to something.
�Ah, another voice in my heart! Glad to meet you, wise questioner! My father surrendered to Elbereth Gilthoniel, yet I lack the stature for the Lady of the Stars. No, Nienna has been my savior, and never holds herself too loftily for anyone. And...� and here a new thought came to him, from he knew not where, �...and Yavanna, Lady of gardens and farms, forest and desert, of all glad, growing things. She has ever favored my people. I give myself over to her, as well as to Nienna. For it is Nienna�s weeping for Yavanna�s suffering creatures here in Mordor that first turned my steps towards this land, though I knew it not at the time.�
Then it hit him, how he, of all people, had neglected Yavanna, gardener and hobbit though he was�Yavanna of the living earth! He had ventured into strange and intimate encounters with Death, Time, Ocean, Dreams, and Mercy, but not Nature herself, not though his entire mission centered around her works and interests�not though everything he had ever been or become yearned towards her like a flower towards the light. �Oh, Yavanna!� he breathed. No wonder his labors had become exhausting and unfulfilling!
�Sauron must have diverted my attention,� he murmured. �And I stupidly went along with it. Of course! He, once mighty, who lost everything because he cut himself off from the source of all the goodness that he once desired to nourish, knew well the pitfall that he laid before me. The gaping thirst within me, that no amount of grog can fill, is the depth and breadth and width of Yavanna herself!�
Tucking the glass back into his clothing, he ventured down the slope, to the soggy edge of the marsh, and knelt there on the soft, moist ground, and took up a dripping handful of silt, glowing to his eyes with the living slime that prospered in it, least of all Yavannah�s creatures and yet foremother to the rest. �Yavannah, I consecrate myself to you!� He raised up his dripping hand, and then he pressed the silt to his brow and let it all run down his face and into the neck of his shirt, knowing just how mad the gesture must appear, yet long past caring about madness. His father would have called the odor foul, but he smelled the esters of life in it, dead matter in the process of conversion to something that could nourish living things. He felt the cold trickle down his breast, until it touched the rim of his lens�and then his world took fire!
His eyes shot open.. Green and red radiance lit the swamplands, beyond the scope of elvish sight. From fish and scum, insect and bird, water-lily and high-rooted marsh-surviving tree, the light ascended higher and higher, until it formed a giant of a lady, gazing down on him, with forests for her hair and birds who flew in place for eyes, and running horses as the necklace that she wore.
Tardily have you thought of me, my wayward servant. Ever you have striven to do my will, yet never have you asked me what my will might be. I have rewarded you in any case, perceiving your sincerity beyond your folly and neglect. I have and will continue to bless your harvests and your labors, dearest prodigal. And yet no fruit of vine nor barley, nor distillation of any gift of mine, would ever have hurt you, had you sought me sooner. Too late for that�my enemy�s wound cuts deep, and the scar might reopen at any time if you guard it not. Yet blessings in abundance remain for you, now that you have remembered me.
Then the dread gaze looked down thoughtfully on him. And yes, Frodo, I am more than your imagination, more than a simple voice in your head, saying things which you have hidden from yourself.
�Oh blessed Yavanna, glad servant of Illuvatar! I am yours�under your leadership, let us serve Illuvatar together!�
�Frodo! Frodo!� Mattie�s voice came from the distance, hurrying towards him, but he had closed his eyes again, swaying in bliss, and didn�t see. �I found it�a pool of the purified water, surrounded by some sort of floating plant, just as you described!� Yet Frodo felt too overcome with joy to answer her. �And did you see the ice-lights? Red and green, rippling in the heavens? I have heard of such things illuminating the night betimes far to the north, but never before so far south as Mordor�what a blessing we have received!�
She found him, kneeling in the seeping soil, mud streaking his face, an open smile of ecstasy upon him. Without a word she gently washed his face. �Are you going to tell me about it?� she finally asked him, after giving him a generous drink of water.
�Tell...with words? How could I ever find the words?�
�No harm in trying, love.�
�I don�t even know what is real anymore, and what is all my imagination�and I find that I do not care! I will go along with whatever works, moment by moment.� He turned a radiant smile towards her. �And this works, for me!�
�You still haven�t said what...�
�Yavanna,� he sighed.
�Oh.� Asking no more of him, she led him back up the slope.

domain: artistic


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I am currently stuck in a bit of a wardrobe rut. I have many big, billowing tops which I had been teaming with skinny jeans, however, the new season has brought a new trouser shape which is causing problems! This Spring trousers are baggy around the hips (think harem pants or carrot leg trousers) so teaming with an oversized blouse is very unflattering.
The solution comes in the shape of figure hugging tops like these floral corsets. Mischa Barton has already sported the style, which is a softer take on the traditional corset. They're brightly coloured and cut to flatter your curves. You could wear it with cut-off shorts and chunky sandals for a cool festival look.

domain: design


text:
[What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.]
Words are written on it, steelworkers’ words like “OK to weld” that do not speak to what happened in the place where it is going.
They are written on the last steel beam for one of the last major construction projects at the World Trade Center site, brand-new metal bound for a place where 18 years ago ruined girders became symbols of destruction.
At some point in early April, truckers will haul the 374,000-pound, 34-feet-long, 12-feet tall beam over the George Washington Bridge and down the West Side Highway under a police escort. It has been lying on its side on a trailer in a parking lot in New Jersey. One of the trucking-company executives involved in the move said the tolls would probably cost about $700.
When it arrives in Lower Manhattan, it will play an important role at a performing arts center, holding the place up — literally. It is to be the linchpin of a building that will have three theaters close to 1 World Trade Center, so close that the beam will be fitted into two slots in the concrete foundation of that 1,776-feet-tall tower.
The designers say the beam and six smaller ones already in place will act like massive stilts, distributing the weight of the new arts complex, officially known as the Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center.
The beam has a name. “Big Boy, we sometimes call it,” said Maggie Boepple, the president of the arts center. “Who was the Greek god who held up the world? Big Boy is our Atlas. Unfortunately, he’ll be in the dark very soon. He will be covered by concrete and very expensive fire-retardant paint and some foam.”
Ms. Boepple was so excited about the beam that she went to New Jersey for a first look with colleagues on the arts center team. “I spent two years looking at things on a piece of paper,” said Matthew Wilson, the construction manager. “It’s good to see it.”
Ms. Boepple said she was “almost weepy, and I’m not like that.”
Unlike the office towers and the Cortlandt Street subway stop on the No. 1 line, which was buried under debris on Sept. 11, 2001, the arts center is not a replacement for something that was destroyed. The trade center complex never had an arts center.
But Daniel Libeskind’s 2003 master plan for the site called for one, and the architect Frank Gehry did two mock-ups, a building that was a series of rectangular shapes, like shoe boxes stacked atop one another. There was talk of possible tenants, including the New York City Opera, the Signature Theater and the Joyce Theater.
The City Opera filed for bankruptcy, the Signature moved to West 42nd Street, the Joyce stayed put in Chelsea, Mr. Gehry’s blueprints were put aside and the arts center seemed slow to evolve.
Ms. Boepple said it could not have taken shape sooner, because it will occupy space that had been used for a PATH station until Santiago Calatrava’s World Trade Center Transportation Hub opened in 2016.
But according to Frank Sciame, the chairman of the construction company that will build the Perelman structure once the beam is in place, it had an influential champion: John C. Whitehead, a well-connected former investment banker who was the chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, a state entity that was given the mandate to rebuild the trade center site.
Mr. Sciame said that when stakeholders were wrangling over real estate and federal aid, tax breaks and insurance payments, Mr. Whitehead told him, “Do not touch the performing arts center. Without the performing arts center, ground zero and Lower Manhattan will never be revitalized.” (Mr. Whitehead died in 2015.)
The current plan was eventually created by the Brooklyn-based firm REX and its principal, Joshua Ramus, who was formerly a partner of Rem Koolhaas. The marble-skinned cube will be a flexible performance space with maneuverable walls that can be joined in different ways, forming three small-to-medium-size theaters, or a single 1,200-seat one. There are 13 possible combinations.
When the project is completed in 2021, there will be a restaurant and cafe in the lobby. Ms. Boepple said she had heard from people who work in the office towers at the trade center that “what they wanted was a place to come and hang out and get away from the corporate atmosphere.” She said she was borrowing “the whole concept of hanging out” from the Young Vic Theater in London. “It’s open all day long,” she said, “and it’s always full.”
So far, the center has raised 84 percent of the $390 million construction cost. Mr. Perelman, a billionaire, jump-started the project with a $75 million donation in 2016, less than a year after he stepped down as chairman of Carnegie Hall, where he had clashed with its staff and other board members. (He said in 2016 that his donation was not related to his departure from Carnegie Hall.)
Last year, the center hired an artistic director, Bill Rauch of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, who has a reputation for commissioning intriguing projects. Some arts executives say one challenge the Perelman could face is standing out, considering the competition for audiences from spaces like the Shed, in the new Hudson Yards complex.
The project is unusually complicated because the theater will sit not on the ground but on top of a structure owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Ms. Boepple said it houses nine kennels for Port Authority police dogs and a messenger center for 1 World Trade Center, among other things.
For the beam, the New Jersey parking lot, down the road from a landfill and a truck-overhaul garage, is a stop on a journey that began in Columbia, S.C., where it was fabricated. John McCafferty of J. Supor and Son, the company that will carry the beam into Manhattan, said it had taken eight weeks to negotiate a route. City agencies turned down several possibilities, he said, and the clearance on some turns will be tight.
“There are times where you’re talking about an inch,” Mr. McCafferty said.
Ms. Boepple walked around the beam in the parking lot, delighted. “Over and over, the structural engineers did these calculations, and we had all the naysayers — ‘Can’t be done, can’t be done,’” she said.
One batch of calculations showed that the beam could bear a load of more than 6,600 tons. Another, less essential set showed that 6,600 tons was slightly more than the weight of 900 elephants.
“Big elephants,” Ms. Boepple said. “We’re not talking about babies. Adults.”


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You've seen it plenty of times on the big screen: Scientists spot an enormous asteroid hurtling toward Earth and the only hope for mankind is to send a team to plant a nuclear bomb inside the looming monster. Despite several suspenseful setbacks, the intrepid team is ultimately successful, and the asteroid explodes into millions of pieces. Earth is saved yet again from certain doom. Yahoo. Movies like "Deep Impact" and "Armageddon" make it seem so easy. Surely nuclear weapons that can obliterate entire cities contain enough destructive power to blow a giant space rock to bits, right?
The answer is yes and no. To start with, asteroids come in all shapes and sizes. Ceres, the largest known asteroid, stretches 580 miles (933 kilometers) in diameter, while one of the smallest on record, 1991 BA, measures 20 feet (6 meters) across. An asteroid larger than 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) in diameter is considered "extinction class," or powerful enough to destroy life on Earth if it collides with our hapless planet [source: NASA].
Technically, a nuclear bomb could obliterate a smaller asteroid, but it's not these smaller entities that pose a threat to Earth's safety. The asteroids that would be really worrisome -- those larger than 1,312 feet (400 meters) -- wouldn't be easily wiped out by such a bomb. Sure, great hunks of one might break off, but not enough to neutralize the danger. A 2007 NASA report indicated that planting a nuclear bomb on or under the surface of an asteroid would most likely cause it to fracture into several pieces -- and large pieces of an even larger asteroid can still be pretty dangerous if they're hurtling toward the Earth [source: NASA].
So while yes, a nuclear bomb could be used to blow up a small asteroid, it's unlikely that world leaders would waste expensive resources on that endeavor. As for large, Earth-threatening asteroids, a nuke likely wouldn't succeed at blowing it up completely.
Keep reading to learn whether NASA thinks the whole explosive business is a good idea.
NASA's Asteroid Defense Plan
So a nuclear bomb would be essentially useless at disintegrating an asteroid several miles wide, but scientists at NASA think that a nuclear weapon could be used in a different way to defend the planet.
In 2005, U.S. Congress asked NASA to develop plans for preventing an asteroid-Earth collision. In 2007, the space agency presented its ideas at the Planetary Defense Conference in Washington, D.C. (which sounds like something out of a sci-fi flick). In its report, NASA outlined several options, a few of which involved using nuclear explosives to deflect the asteroid away from Earth. The force from the explosions would (hopefully) provide enough momentum to nudge the asteroid in a different direction, preventing disaster.
In the explosions category, NASA discovered that nuclear explosives are way more effective for asteroid deflection than non-nuclear explosives, due to the sheer amount of energy they produce. NASA tested four nuclear scenarios: a surface explosion, a delayed surface explosion, a subsurface explosion and a standoff explosion (where the bomb doesn't come into contact with the asteroid). The surface and subsurface explosions are the most effective, but there's a good chance of splitting the asteroid. In the end, the space agency determined that a series of standoff nuclear explosions would be the most effective way to deflect an asteroid headed for Earth.
The best option in the non-nuclear category is a kinetic impact (a nice way of saying they would ram objects into the asteroid), but doing so would require detailed knowledge of what the surface of the asteroid is like. Some other non-nuclear options that NASA considered include using a laser or a giant mirror to focus energy on a spot on the asteroid and "boil off" parts of it, or using a spacecraft to tug the asteroid in a different direction.
So, will we ever know in our lifetime if it's possible to deflect an asteroid? Maybe. In December 2009, the director of the Russian Federal Space Agency, Anatoly Perminov, announced that Russia was considering making plans to deflect the 270-meter (885-foot) asteroid Apophis from its possible collision course with Earth. While NASA claims that the chances of Apophis colliding with Earth are only about 1 in 250,000, it does demonstrate that shooting objects at asteroids to knock them out of the way is a definite possibility [source: Discovery News].
For more information about bombs, asteroids and bombs blowing up asteroids, visit the links on the next page.
Related HowStuffWorks Articles
More Great Links
- Fountain, Henry. "Armageddon Can Wait: Stopping Killer Asteroids." The New York Times. Nov. 19, 2002. (Jan. 19, 2010)http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/19/science/space/19ASTE.html?pagewanted=all
- Graham, Thomas, Jr., and Russell L. Schweickart. "NASA's Flimsy Argument for Nuclear Weapons." Scientific American Magazine. March 2008. (Jan. 19, 2010)http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=nasas-flimsy-argument-for-nuclear-weapons
- Greenfieldboyce, Nell. "NASA Report on Asteroids Suggests Nuclear Option." National Public Radio. March 13, 2007. (Jan. 18, 2010).http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7867322
- Isachenkov, Vladimir. "Russia May Send Spacecraft to Deflect Incoming Asteroid." Discovery News. Dec. 30, 2009. (Jan. 20, 2010)http://news.discovery.com/space/incoming-asteroid-spacecraft-russia.html
- Lamb, Robert. "Top 10 Ways to Stop an Asteroid." Discovery.com (Jan. 18, 2010)http://dsc.discovery.com/space/top-10/asteroid-stopping-technology/
- Mills, Cynthia. "The Art of Asteroid Deflection." Discovery News. Dec. 17, 2009. (Jan. 19, 2010)http://news.discovery.com/space/near-earth-asteroid-threat.html
- NASA. "Near-Earth Object Survey and Deflection Analysis of Alternatives: Report to Congress." March 2007http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/171331main_NEO_report_march07.pdf
- Rowe, Aaron. "Nukes Are Not the Best Way to Stop an Asteroid." Wired. July 27, 2008. (Jan. 18, 2010)http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/07/nukes-are-not-t/
- Shiga, David. "Asteroid attack: Putting Earth's defences to the test." New Scientist. Sept. 23, 2009. (Jan. 18, 2009)http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327271.300-asteroid-attack-putting-earths-defences-to-the-test.html?full=true
- Wagensell, Paul. "NASA Researchers Ponder Nuclear Asteroid Deflector." Fox News. Aug. 8, 2007. (Jan. 19, 2010)http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,292464,00.html
- World Book at NASA. "Asteroid." NASA. (Jan. 19, 2010)http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/asteroid_worldbook.html


College Basketball Picks for 1/13/23
7:00 PM EST
Rotation # 874
Purdue -14.5 over Nebraska (win)
Purdue and Nebraska play for the second time this year tonight. Earlier this year, both teams played a low-scoring game in overtime which Purdue won. The point spread tonight is Purdue favored by 14.5 points. Nebraska has a great defense, and it’s odd for this number to be so high just because Purdue is at home. I think Vegas knows something because Juan Gary will be out for Nebraska tonight. Gary is the team’s leader in block shots, steals, and rebounds. I wonder if Nebraska can compete with him out of the lineup. The Boilermakers should win big tonight at home. Take Purdue.


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By Richard Winton and Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times –
LOS ANGELES — A veteran Los Angeles teacher charged this week with lewd acts on 23 children was also investigated in 1994 after a girl reported that he tried to fondle her, sheriff’s officials said.
No charges were filed in that investigation.
The girl, who was 10 or 11 at the time, told her mother in January 1994 that Miramonte Elementary School teacher Mark Berndt tried to touch her genitals four months earlier, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Dan Scott said.
“She was taking a test at her desk in Berndt’s classroom when the teacher reached towards her genitals and she pushed his hand away,” Scott said.
She was clothed at the time of the incident, Scott added.
The girl told her mother, saying she realized it was wrong after seeing an “Oprah” show about inappropriate touching, he said. Her mother reported the alleged incident to school officials, who called the Sheriff’s Department.
The allegation was investigated by a sheriff’s detective and presented to the district attorney’s office, which rejected the case, Scott said.
The district attorney’s office declined to comment, saying it was prohibited by law from discussing cases more than 60 days old in which charges were not filed.
But two sources familiar with the investigation who were not authorized to discuss it said the prosecutor at the time believed there was a lack of evidence of a crime and that the attempted touch could be viewed as accidental.
Scott said he discovered the prior investigation Wednesday evening while reviewing records.
L.A. schools Superintendent John Deasy confirmed that he, too, had learned of an episode of alleged inappropriate behavior by Berndt “sometime in the 1990s” on Wednesday evening.
“I don’t have any records in the district of it,” he said. “It’s in the sheriff’s office.”
Deasy has assembled an internal investigative team to examine Berndt’s case and determine if there is a record of past incidents or suspicions about Berndt. So far, the district team has turned up no such internal records, he said.
Berndt remains in jail on $23 million bail. His public defender has declined to comment. He is accused of blindfolding children as part of a “tasting game” and spoon-feeding them his semen. In some cases, the children were gagged, sheriff’s officials said, and sometimes he placed giant Madagascar cockroaches on their faces.
Los Angeles Unified School District officials said he was removed from the classroom in January 2011, immediately after they learned of the allegations. He was fired at a school board meeting in February 2011, but he challenged the dismissal and was able to resign while his case was under appeal. The resignation allowed him to keep his lifetime health benefits from the district. He also receives a nearly $4,000-a-month pension from the state.


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The Kremlin said on Friday that Western countries supplying additional tanks to Ukraine would not change the course of the conflict and the West would regret its “delusion” that Ukraine could win on the battlefield.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his government was expecting “strong decisions” from defense leaders of NATO members and other countries meeting on Friday to discuss boosting Ukraine's ability to confront Russian forces with modern battle tanks.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “We have repeatedly said that such supplies will not fundamentally change anything, but will add problems for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.”
For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
Asked whether the supply of increasingly advanced weapons to Ukraine meant that the conflict was escalating, he said: “You are absolutely right, it really is developing in an upward spiral. We see a growing indirect and sometimes direct involvement of NATO countries in this conflict...”
“We see a devotion to the dramatic delusion that Ukraine can succeed on the battlefield. This is a dramatic delusion of the Western community that will more than once be cause for regret, we are sure of that.”
Peskov said the way to prevent further escalation was to heed the strategic concerns that Russia had expressed in late 2021, a few weeks before sending its armed forces into Ukraine.
Russia says it had to act to protect Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine from persecution, and to prevent an aggressive West using Ukraine to threaten Russia. Kyiv and Western countries say these are baseless pretexts for an imperial-style land grab.
Russian proxy forces claim capture of Klishchiivka, south of Ukraine’s BakhmutRussia’s defense ministry said on Friday that its forces had taken control of Klishchiivka, a settlement south of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk ... World News
Western tanks no ‘silver bullet’ for Ukraine: NATO commanderA senior NATO commander warned on Thursday that Western tanks would not be a “silver bullet” for Ukraine in its fight with Russia, despite Kyiv’s new ... World News
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy thanks US for ‘powerful’ $2.5 bln defense packageUkraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday thanked Washington for a massive new package of arms and munitions for Kyiv with Western allies set ... World News


How can I join two tables together in drupal 7.
I have a simple database schema and I want to join it to the user table could someone give me a coded example of joining a custom build table to the user table.
If I take a basic table example
$schema['location'] = array ( 'descritiption' => 'location', 'fields' => array ( 'locationID' => array( 'description' => 'primary key for patients table', 'type' => 'serial', 'unsigned' => TRUE, 'not null' => TRUE), ), 'addressone' => array ( 'description' => 'this shows the first line of the address', 'type' => 'TEXT' ), 'county' => array ( 'description' => 'this is a county list' ), 'postcode' => array ( 'deescription' => 'stores the postcode' ), 'primary_key' => array('locationID') );
How would I join this to the user table. I would like to query data from both tables. So when I add a record into the user table I want the custom table to have the data added as well so there is a link between the two tables.
here is a high level example
user table data
vis id 1
So what i want to happen is when i add data into the user table I build a relationship to what is entered in the visitors table. I know you can use a join which has kindly been explained to me but I am not sure what is meant by building the relationships in code.


BILLINGS — The Zonta Club of Billings honored Billings’ educators with its 2022 Status of Women award Wednesday, delivering banners and gift bags to the city's middle schools.
"The Zonta Club of Billings recognizes that the last two years have been extremely difficult for our Billings teachers and staff whose job it is to educate and look out for our kids," said Kelli Gallinger. "Juggling teaching standards, pandemic restrictions, student mental health, concerned parents, and their own families and physical health has put a burden on our educators like nothing we’ve ever seen before.
"We are so appreciative to these folks who keep showing up and doing their best for our kids, every single day."
The Status of Women award honors outstanding women who work to empower and uplift others in the Billings community.
"We feel it is important to honor other women in our community who are dedicated to saving and changing lives and empowering women and girls through their programs, careers and volunteerism," Gallinger added.
The club was established in 1950 as part of Zonta International, which seeks to advance the status of women worldwide by improving the legal, political, economic, educational, health and professional status of women at the global and local levels through service and advocacy.


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Every December, the Hendrick Hudson Chapter of the NSDAR gives a Good Citizens award to high school seniors from Columbia County who have been selected as their school’s DAR Good Citizen. Awardees for the 2021-2022 school year are, in alphabetical order by high schools:
- Vincent Marasco, Chatham High School
- Gabriella Popow, Hudson High School
- Daniel Chen, Ichabod Crane High School
- Benjamin Chaput, New Lebanon Jr Sr High School
- Madeleine Dennis, Taconic Hills High School
Created in 1934, the Good Citizens Award and Scholarship Contest of the Daughters of the American Revolution encourages and rewards qualities of good citizenship shown by high school seniors from accredited high schools, both public and private, throughout the United States. This award recognizes and rewards individuals who possess the qualities of dependability, service, leadership, and patriotism in their homes, schools, and communities. These students are selected by their schools because they demonstrate these qualities to an outstanding degree.
For one part of the scholarship requirement, students write an essay. This year’s is entitled: “Our American Heritage and Our Responsibility for Preserving It: How do the qualities of a good citizen (dependability, service, leadership and patriotism) help support our nation?” Additionally, students list all activities they have participated in. They also provide two recommendations as well as their academic record.
Each student receives a certificate, a monetary award, a pin, and a wallet-size card.
One of the five high-school awardees will receive the Hendrick Hudson Chapter award on the 12th.
Congratulations to these deserving students for all their accomplishments and for being chosen as winners of the Good Citizen contest for their schools!


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Purchase this article with an account.
David F Nichols, Howard S Hock, Annemie Ploeger, Gregor Schöner; Linking levels in motion pattern formation through dynamical coupling: evidence from psychophysics and simulations. Journal of Vision 2003;3(9):278. https://doi.org/10.1167/3.9.278.
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© ARVO (1962-2015); The Authors (2016-present)
Motion pattern formation is studied for the motion quartet, a bistable apparent motion stimulus for which either a horizontal or vertical motion pattern is perceived. Because there is more detector activation for shorter motion paths (Gilroy & Hock, 2000), the horizontal pattern is favored when the aspect ratio of the quartet (vertical/horizontal distance) is relatively large, and the vertical pattern is favored when the aspect ratio is relatively small. The dynamical basis of pattern formation is indicated by the occurrence of hysteresis when the aspect ratio is gradually increased and gradually decreased (Hock, Kelso & Schöner, 1993). In the current study, changes in motion detector activation were introduced during the course of hysteresis “runs” by perturbing the luminance contrast of the motion quartet. This perturbation affects the dynamics of local motion detectors; for the same reduction in contrast, motion sometimes is perceived and other times nonmotion is perceived (Hock, Kogan & Espinoza, 1997). It was found that perturbations of luminance contrast affect the pattern-level hysteresis obtained by varying the aspect ratio of the motion quartet, and further, that the reduction in hysteresis due to a downward perturbation depends on the local-level dynamics (i.e., whether or not there is a switch from motion to nonmotion as a result of the perturbation). This evidence for the coupling of local- and pattern-level dynamics is simulated with non-linear dynamical equations representing the activation of directionally selective motion detectors in Area V1 (where inhibitory interactions are with detectors activated by motion-independent stimulus information) and Area MT (where inhibitory interactions are with motion detectors having different directional selectivity).
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domain: psychology


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The grand barony of hochland is a major and founding imperial province that lies to the north central lands of the empire of manthe lands of hochland like its neighbor ostland has within its boundaries parts of the middle mountains and vast tracts of untamed wilderness because of this is often compared to its larger and wealthier northern neighbor. We are hochland jobs career jobs career its our responsibility sustainability a set of strong brands brands we are international sites a long established company company history we love what we do production may we introduce ourselves facts figures theres a lot to talk about press center
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