text:
A Not-So-Secret Senate Election
Today at 12:35, replacing their normal agendas of morning meetings and school events, the High School Senate will be having a not-so-secret election for next year's Senate Officers, voted by the Senate themselves. The election is not-so-secret because even though most have not heard of it, the election is not collectively hidden by the senators. It's just that no one ever ask.
As the leadership section of the Senate, Senate Officers comprise the head of this important student organization. President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Communications Officer, and Secretary, these prestigious titles come with a responsibility. These 5 people can make or break the Senate under their term of office. With the departure of the seniors, a new group of leaders must be elected and it is with their leadership that the Senate can smoothly transition from one school year to another over the summer.
An internal election, at least 11 Senate Representatives and 3 Senate Officers will listen to 3-5 minutes made by senators that have put themselves up for candidacy for these five positions. Five positions, but technically only three are available; the position of President and Secretary has been won by default. There was only one applicant for each role. Although this may sound anti-competitive and anti-climactic, maybe it is important to know that the student officers elected last year all won by default as well.
For the different roles, we have Nam Nguyen (11) and Awua Buahin (10) vying for Communication Officer. Jin Sun Park (10) and Seyon Park (9) are both aiming for Treasurer, while Jonas Fiebrantz (11) and Michael Emblem (10) will be competing for Vice Presidency. The Secretary position has already been "unofficially" given to Kimberly Knaggs (9) and the top of them all, President of the Senate, to Duong Nguyen (11), although they too, have to make speeches.
Though some may argue that normal high school citizens of UNIS should be able to vote on these positions instead of only the senators, good arguments have been made against this. Candidate Awua Buahin states that "we have a better background knowledge [on the candidates]" and therefore should be able to "make better decisions", he said, citing the fact that everyone attends the same meetings and will know each other better than the normal student. Also, as these senators were chosen by their selective grade level students, their vote will represent the vote of the people.
As for the voting stage themselves, senate representative So Hee Jeong (11) speculates that there will be a huge battle for vice-presidency as both members were "already Student Officers", and have already demonstrated their worth to the Senate over the span of the school year. Though it should be noted that Mr. Emblem is incumbent as Vice-President, therefore, he may have a slight advantage over Mr. Fiebrantz. As for the roles of Communication Officer and Treasurer, it really is a grey area that can't be guessed without inside information.
Whatever the results may be, there is no doubt another group of highly capable and experienced leaders will be elected for next school year. The real question everyone should be asking is when will our new president makes it compulsory for everyone to tattoo SPQR on their right arm, you know, the old fashioned way.


text:
D-Link's PowerLine HD Ethernet Adapter is an ideal solution for connecting computers, HD media players, game consoles, and network attached storage devices to your home network. Simply connect one adapter to your router and plug it into an existing power outlet to turn every other power outlet in your home into a possible network connection – just plug in additional adapters as needed.
Tap into your existing power outlets to create a home network with D-Link's PowerLine HD Network Starter Kit. Easy.
D-Link's Powerline HD Ethernet Adapter is ideal for connecting an Ethernet-enabled digital media device such as a Tivo® or Slingbox™ to your network and the Internet. D-Link PowerLine HD Ethernet Adapters also enable you to connect gaming consoles like the Xbox 360®, PlayStation® 3, or Nintento Wii™ to the Internet. To top it all off, QoS support helps prioritize your data, enabling smooth video streaming and lag-free gaming.
Conveniently Connect
Connect multiple devices in the farthest corners of your home by attaching a switch or wireless access point to a D-Link PowerLine HD Ethernet Adapter*. Plus, D-Link's PowerLine HD Ethernet Adapters implement 3DES encryption for securing your connection to help keep your data safe from intruders.
What this product does
D-Link's PowerLine HD Ethernet Adapter (DHP-300) and Starter Kit (DHP-301) take advantage of your home's existing electrical wiring to create or extend a network*. Turn every power outlet into a possible network connection to connect computers, digital media players, and game consoles throughout your home.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
American engineers have done astounding things to bend the Mississippi River to their will: forcing one of its tributaries to flow uphill, transforming over a thousand miles of roiling currents into a placid staircase of water, and wresting the lower half of the river apart from its floodplain. American law has aided and abetted these feats. But despite our best efforts, so-called "natural disasters" continue to strike the Mississippi basin, as raging floodwaters decimate waterfront communities and abandoned towns literally crumble into the Gulf of Mexico. In some places, only the tombstones remain, leaning at odd angles as the underlying soil erodes away. Mississippi River Tragedies (NYU Press, 2014), by Christine A. Klein and Sandra B. Zellmer, reveals that it is seductively deceptive—but horribly misleading—to call such catastrophes "natural."
Drive through any suburban area and you are likely to find subdivisions with names like "Oak Tree Farms," "Meadow View," and "Eagle's Nest." But try to find the features that inspired those names, and you may discover that the trees, meadows, and nests have given way to farms, neighborhoods, and lush lawns. Are those places still "natural," even though sod has replaced meadow, and dog houses have replaced bird nests? Walk into any grocery store and there will probably be an aisle dedicated to natural foods. Does that suggest, somehow, that the stock filling the rest of the aisles is "unnatural"?
The fuzzy line between natural and unnatural reflects ambivalent attitudes toward nature. We idealize it, naming our neighborhoods and our healthiest foods in its honor. And yet we also see nature as an adversary to be conquered, blaming it for such "natural disasters" as floods, storms, hurricanes, and erosion. Sometimes, we even blame the Almighty and attribute our woes to "acts of God."
Nowhere is this tension clearer than in the Mississippi River basin. The great river and its tributaries flow through, drain, or form the border of more than thirty states. Overall, the Mississippi drains about 40 percent of the continental United States, from Montana to New York, from New Mexico to North Carolina, and from Minnesota down to Louisiana. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency in charge of managing the river, describes it as one of the nation's "outstanding assets." But the Corps also asserts that the Mississippi, in its natural condition, represents a "liability . . . [that poses] a threat to the security of the valley through which it flows."
When calamity strikes in the Mississippi basin, our first impulse is to shudder at the uncontrollable fury of nature. We sense, deep in our gut, that it was only a matter of time before the Mississippi unleashed a natural disaster, revealing itself as the deadly liability recognized by the Corps. And what's worse, we fear that we have no control over the disaster and that we are powerless to stop it. Nothing could be further from the truth.
War in the Mississippi Basin
The Mississippi River flows through one of the most highly engineered river basins in the world. Today, if you were to fly over the river, you might think that the upper Mississippi was not a river at all, but rather a chain of large lakes, one thousand miles long and as much as three miles wide. Concrete chambers — locks — punctuate the upper Mississippi, serving as a watery staircase that allows boats of all shapes and sizes to navigate the river's uneven course. Crafts headed downstream wait in one lock as the dam opens and water drains into the lock below, and then continue on their journey when the levels are equalized. To travel upstream, the process is reversed: boats wait in the lower lock, floating up as dam-released water flows in from above. There are twenty-nine pairs of such locks and dams on the upper Mississippi, extending from northern Minnesota past St. Louis to the mouth of the Ohio River at Cairo (pronounced Kay-roh), Illinois. This river segment has been transformed so dramatically that it resembles a set of steps more than a natural water body. The architect of the transformation, the Army Corps of Engineers, refers to its handiwork as a "stairway of water."
The locks are a marvel of modern engineering. But even before they were built, engineers had attempted to tame the river by dredging mud and silt from its channels and by blanketing its shoreline with levees, floodwalls, jetties, and other structures designed to control floods. Now, a 1,607-mile levee system lines the lower Mississippi River, from Cairo all the way downstream to the Gulf of Mexico. An additional 596 miles of levees extend along southern tributaries of the river.
A bird's-eye view of the Mississippi delta, where the river meets the gulf, reveals multiple hues of blues and browns, where freshwater mixes with seawater and where silt, sand, and clay are deposited, layer by layer, creating side streams called distributaries that carry water and sediment to the ocean. In addition to these natural distributaries are channels that have been dredged into the delta to promote shipping and oil and gas development. Situated between the distributaries and channels are low-lying pockets of land created from river deposits — bayous, marshes, and coastal wetlands — that look like the webbing of a duck's foot.
The Corps of Engineers has struggled mightily to control the Mississippi — an effort it likens to war. The metaphor is not surprising, given the Corps' military pedigree. On the eve of the American Revolution, the Continental Congress established not only the Army, but also named a chief of engineers. (Colonel Richard Gridley, appointed in 1775, was the first.) Since that time, the chief and his Corps — made up of both military and civilian personnel — have provided engineering support for military and civilian matters. In the Corps' words, its mission is to "[p]rovide vital public engineering services in peace and war to strengthen our Nation's security, energize the economy, and reduce risks from disasters."
The Corps takes the risk-reduction aspect of its mission seriously, particularly when it comes to the Mississippi basin. In vivid prose, unexpected in a bureaucratic document, the Corps' Mississippi Valley Division describes the focus of its work as the "contumacious" Mississippi River. Explaining the difficulty of its task, the Corps refers to the river as both "beast" and "benefactor": "This Janus-faced colossus periodically seeks to challenge the flood control system imposed upon it, while its opposite profile is a vital waterway network that extends into the heart of the nation — a true cornerstone of our economy."
"Contumacious"? "Janus-faced colossus"? The Army does not mince words — or tread lightly — when it comes to battle with what it perceives as the stubborn and willfully disobedient river. Clearly, the Mississippi River has been modified by many human hands, including those of the Corps, following the instructions of Congress, responding to the will of the electorate. But just as clearly, some of those efforts have backfired.
Law and Unnatural Disasters
To examine the relationship between human action and disaster, legal scholars have called for the development of a new area of study. In 2006, professors Daniel A. Farber and Jim Chen published Disasters and the Law: Katrina and Beyond, a law school textbook that considers legal rules that deal with catastrophic risks, including prevention, insurance, emergency response, compensation, and rebuilding strategies. As the authors explained, "we are all stunned by each new disaster, but rapidly come to view it as exceptional and never to be repeated. Thus, we fail to prepare for the next one." Instead of this insufficient, piecemeal response, the authors highlight the need for a comprehensive legal approach to major disasters. The developing field has come to be known as disaster law.
The systematic study of disaster poses intellectual puzzles that involve law and a variety of other academic disciplines. One of the thorniest questions — and one of the main themes of this book — is where to draw the line between "unnatural" and "natural" disasters. This challenge was taken up by historian Ted Steinberg in Acts of God: The Unnatural History of Natural Disaster in America. Steinberg traces the practice of blaming nature for calamity to the late nineteenth century, when the wide-spread belief that disasters were God's punishment for sin gradually gave way to the notion of nature as culprit in a shift that neatly excused humans from moral or other accountability for harm. As Steinberg argues, "This constrained vision of responsibility, this belief that such disasters stem solely from random natural forces, is tantamount to saying that they lie entirely outside human history, beyond our influence, beyond moral reason, beyond control." Blaming nature also proved to be politically expedient, as powerful figures sought to "normalize calamity." By convincing us that we should expect random strikes of nature, Steinberg concludes, our leaders "have been able to rationalize the economic choices that help to explain why the poor and people of color — who have largely borne the brunt of these disasters — tend to wind up in harm's way."
This excerpt has been reprinted with permission from Mississippi River Tragedies: A Century of Unnatural Disasterby Christine A. Klein and Sandra B. Zellmer, and published by New York University Press.


text:
Custom audio and communication solutions
Looking for answers for your hearing loss and hearing aid related questions?
Information and resources so you can better understand hearing loss.
Take a look at our events.
Marypat is a hard working asset to your company. I had several problems with pairing to phone. She worked diligently to correct problems. It took some time, but the problems were solved. Thank you Marypat.


text:
Amitabh Bachchan with daughter Shweta Nanda, industrialist Anil Ambani and wife Tina Ambani with their mother Kokilaben paid their last tribute to socialite and entrepreneur Parmeashwar Godrej, who passed away on Monday at Mumbai's Breach Candy Hospita ... read more
Parmeshwar Godrej Follow
All About Parmeshwar Godrej
Socialite, philantrophist and wife of Adi Godrej, Parmeshwar Godrej passed away on Monday at Mumbai's Breach Candy Hospital. She was reportedly suffering from a lung disease and suffered pneumonia, as per doctors. She was full of life and was an active social worker. She was close to many ... read more
Parmeshwar Godrej, philanthropist, business woman, socialite and wife of Adi Godrej passed away in Mumbai at Breach Candy Hospital, on Monday night. She was suffering from lung disease for a long time and was undergoing treatment. He was 70. Pakistani politician and former cricketer ... read more


text:
Tampa Turnaround
- For all the right moves Stevie Y made in his first GM attempt in Tampa, the goaltending band-aid was the most over looked. Mike Smith was already in the stable coming off a banged up year, Niittymaki had left for San Jose on free agency, so Yzerman picked up Dan Ellis the same way. Smith/Ellis tandem didn't exactly create fear in opposing forwards and similarly probably didn't give the Bolts confidence from the back either. As you would expect, the two goalie's play has been mediocre at best all year, despite the fact that Lightning have been playing some incredible hockey with Stamkos and St. Louis at the forefront. So the immortal Wing picks up Dwayne Roloson, shipping what was left of the disastrous Dan Boyle trade from his predecessors, to the Island. Rollie pulls a 1-0 shutout in his first start, against the Caps no less, and then gets thrown in net the next night by Boucher for an 8-1 stinker against the Pens. Now you can't judge a trade based on two games, but at the very least they've added a veteran competitor who hates to lose, and hopefully in the process pushes either Ellis or Smith to get their shit together. My guess is that they'll be playing for the backup role regardless.
- As an aside, I think Friedman mentioned it, when Yzerman was asked why he didn't pursue Nabokov after the news that he had been released from his KHL contract, and instead pulled the trigger in Roloson, he stated that he didn't think Nabby would clear waivers.
Box Office Winter Ordinary
- HBO's 24/7 was a huge success in that it exposed the non-hockey fan to the game in an in-depth fashion, and allowed the rapid hockey fan to eat up all the nuances and intricacies of life between the periods for the players, coaches, and GM's. The selection of teams for the Classic was a yawn for most of us, chalking it up to a contrived rivalry, but it was genius for documentary using the two posterboys of the League to ham up the drama. The location was the real bust. I don't think Heinz Field strikes anyone outside of Pittsburgh as a truly memorable location like Wrigley or Fenway. The real disappointment in the series lies in the fact that it was only four episodes long.
- My next pick for the Winter Classic: New York Rangers vs. Los Angeles Kings in Central Park. Think about it, Bettman's always talking about how the TV ratings drive the markets, well here's the two biggest cities in the U.S. going to head to head with youthful teams showing a lot of promise. There's not a real rivalry there, but who are you going to match the Rangers up with? The sadness that is the Islanders? Or Devils for that matter? I know it'll never happen in terms of feasibility, but the League's going to have to keep coming up with new ideas, and you might as well start literally thinking outside the box (of existing sports stadiums) and go with a venue shakeup. Bangin Panger had some good ideas on the next Winter Classic.
- Oh, and somebody else mentioned this and I wholeheartedly agree, don't show other games that day either. The only other game I was looking for was the Heritage Classic and that wasn't scheduled for another two months.
Cursing the Canucks
- Ryan Kesler has taken a huge leap in terms of becoming a complete hockey player. Always known as a defensive centerman, his production has seen a dramatic increase at the other end of the ice. And its not like his benefitting from the telepathy of the Sedin's either, less than half of his goals have come on the powerplay where he's paired with the twins. With 41 points in 42 games, he's learned to shut his mouth and hit 'em where it hurts.
- Vancouver is humming right now aren't they? Too early to peak? That whole roster is playing well right now. Torres is playing some of the best hockey I've ever seen him play, Malhotra is still lights out in the dot, Raymond is playing well, Bieksa has turned it into something positive. It would be scary if Samuelsson actually got the goal scoring going. Somebody needs to piss him off, maybe tell him to fuck himself.
- I'll tell you I could not care less about the All-Star Game. I haven't even looked at the rosters, despite it being plastered everywhere in some sort of greasy combination with fans bitching about snubs, media whining about how players asked not to be included so they could rest, and the League boasting it as an important marketing event. While the idea of "Captains" picking the teams is novel, the game needs a complete overhaul to make entertaining (and remotely interesting). And who needs Captains for an All-Star Game anyway? Let the players pick the two Coaches (can't pick their own), and let the Coaches pick the two teams. I know the Coaches don't have the personality (unless we're talking Ron Wilson vs. John Tortorella), but I can't stomach another Crosby vs. Ovechkin makeout session.
Do You Smell Something?
- How fucked is Ottawa? Completely dysfunctional. Murray wants to fire Clouston, and Melnyk tells Murray if he does that he's gone too. Frankly that's the best idea I've heard come out of that organization.
- Wanna see parity? Check out the glut in spots 1 through 12 in the Western Conference.
- Wanna see a distinct separation between playoff teams and non-playoff teams? Look at the Eastern Conference.
- The lowest scoring team in the West (Edmonton) has the lowest scoring team in the East (New Jersey) beat by 25 goals. And a -55 in goal differential I might add.
- This shit between Langenbrunner and Lemaire had to come to a head at some point after catching whiffs of it stemming from last year when Lemaire was at the helm before retiring. Again. I think it's pretty obvious that Kovalchuk's arrival rubbed Jaime the wrong way, and the $100million offseason and subsequent abysmal year following probably didn't help matters.
- The Pacific Division has three teams in the top 8 spots, Dallas (Leader), Phoenix, and Anaheim. Los Angeles and San Jose are on the outside looking in right now, how many of you would have predicted that even at this point in the season?
- And I don't mean to jump on the bandwagon with this, but this Guardian project is as bad as Chaka Khan at the Awards Show. Especially when they're all rip-offs.


text:
Sunday Hike All Weekend
Ever since the Big Birthday Trip to New York three years ago, the three amigos have been trying to organize another adventure. Portugal was our first choice, but timing has been an issue along with the plummeting Canadian dollar. We decided our need to get away together was more important than the location so we booked a four day weekend at Cathedral Lake Lodge. With their base camp a mere two hour drive from our Tim Horton's stop, it guaranteed a whole lot of quality time together, surrounded by nature.
Here we are at base camp waiting for our ride. Cathedral Lake Lodge provides three trips up the mountain daily. For residents of the Lodge, it's included in the price. For others it's $100 return. I cannot imagine lugging camping gear etc. up to this place, even by vehicle but I'm not a camper so if you are, check out Trip Advisor for more info.
Not long after we arrived two big trucks pulled up and discharged their load of passengers and gear. We clambered into the back of a beat up Suburban. It took about an hour for driver Don to ferry the three of us and five others up a jarring dirt road. Don claimed to have driven the road over 6,000 times in the past 25 summers. He seemed to know every curve, rock and bump, and by the end of the ride, so did we. That's not a complaint, just an observation. Despite the fact that it was raining fairly heavily, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.
We housed ourselves Unit 1 of the Lakeview Cabins, right next to the Lodge.
Our essential supplies!
First photo at 6 a.m. on the first morning.
Food was plentiful and delicious. Meals were served buffet style. At 7 a..m. you could help yourself to a breakfast with a selection of fruit - you name it they had it - a variety of cereals, and coffee or tea. This was followed by a hot breakfast at 7:30 - eggs, bacon, potatoes and toast.
The staff laid out an assortment of breads, meats, fruits, veggies, cookies and a variety of delicious condiments (sriracha mayo, pesto mayo, mustards, and chutneys) allowing you to pack a lunch for your travels.
Our first hike was the Diamond Trail which went around Scout Lake and over Scout Mountain. It was considered "strenuous" with an elevation change of 300m. It took us about 4.5 hours as we stopped for photos, lunch, deer, eagles, marmots and pika (yes, they resemble pikachu).
There was a dusting of frost on the low lying plants and a nip in the air so we dressed in our woolies. Once we were above the tree line, the sun warmed us up quite nicely and we slowly shed our layers.
A short detour off the Diamond trail took us to Scout Lake.
Can you see the deer hiding in the trees?
Christina and I at the trail peak with Scout Lake below us.
Friday night we were treated to an impressive set of music provided by our driver Don and his wife Rhonda. Don played a gorgeous rich sounding Stratocaster, beginning with Santanas Samba Para Ti. Rhonda played the piano and sang. The couple spend their summers at Cathedral and then winter in Puerto Vallarta where they gig in Old Town and Rhonda is the musical director for a live stage show.
Day two dawned warmer than the first, but it was a smokey one.
Still, we knew we were going to be at a higher altitude so we layered up once more and headed for the Rim Trail. We hiked the Glacier Lake trail up to the Rim Trail, hiked past the Devil's Woodpile , through Stone City, Down the Lady Slipper Trail, past Lady Slipper Lake, between Pyramid Lake and Lake of the Woods and ended up back at the lodge around five o'clock. Check it out on the map here. It took us about 8 1/2 hours.
The trail was well worn and where it was rocky, it was well marked with stone cairns.
Tracy, our fearless leader with Glacier Lake below.
Several years ago I ordered an XL T-shirt from "Connected in Motion", a community that strives to inspire, educate and challenge Type 1 Diabetics with insulin pumps. The t-shirt seemed incredibly small for an XL and it annoyed me that their idea of who was appropriate for their group did not seem inclusive of people not in perfect shape. I knew I would eventually take a photo of myself wearing the T, no matter how small it looked. I forgot to take it with me when we hiked La Soufriere in Guadeloupe this past March but I was determined to remember it for my Cathedral Lake climb. Here I am at the top of the Rim Trail at an elevation of about 2600m ...tah dah!
Hiking through Stone City
This was the absolute worst part of the hike. I think we came down between the large bit of rock and the smaller piles. It was very unstable shale. I'm not sure if I would rather have gone up or down it.
Heading down Ladyslipper Lake Trail
A little free climbing (wink wink)
He looks skeptical...
Pyramid Lake
And up and over once again.... Looking down at Pyramid Lake
Between Pyramid and Lake of the Woods.
As we walked over the bridge, nearly home, I couldn't help but
sing out "Looks like we made it!"
sing out "Looks like we made it!"
We felt pretty good the next day and wanted to keep our muscles moving. We had to be ready for the 1:00 trip back down the mountain so we did the one hour loop around Lake of the Woods after breakfast. It was lovely.
We saw two of these boys and their dads the previous afternoon coming up the Ladyslipper Lake Trail and the others walking along Pyramid lake also with their fathers, carrying their fishing rods and three nice sized trout.
I highly recommend you spend four days and three nights
(or more) at Cathedral Lakes Lodge. You won't regret it!


text:
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Mike Webb: Clinton's 'My Life' a must read for history enthusiasts
As I prepared to sit down and read the autobiography of one of our past presidents, I had to be sure my goal was to finish the book. Most biographies can be summed up in approximately 400 to 600 pages. Bill Clinton's "My Life" took on a life of its own with more than 900 pages. I'm glad I stuck through
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
Ahead of Apple's 2018 Worldwide Developers Conference event, app developers have formed a union calling for fairer App Store policies.
The group, aptly named "The Developers Union," published a letter on Friday asking Apple to allow for free trials on the iOS and Mac App Store, a "more reasonable" revenue cut, and other "community-driven, developer-friendly changes."
"We believe that people who create great software should be able to make a living doing it," the letter reads. "So we created The Developers Union to advocate for sustainability in the App Store."
The group's first goal is to advocate for free trial periods for all App Store apps. The Developers Union asks that Apple implements such a policy by July 10 — the tenth anniversary of the App Store.
The Developers Union was spearheaded by a cadre of app creators and app industry designers, including Brent Simmons, Jake Schumacher, Loren Morris and Roger Ogden.
It is not a traditional "union" in the strictest sense of the word. (At least, not yet.) According to a recent WIRED profile of the group, it's only loosely-formed thus far — and it has yet to implement firm membership requirements or collective bargaining strategies.
Still, their aim is to bring developers and supporters together to advocate for the aforementioned "community-driven, developer-friendly" policy changes.
The short-term goal as far as awareness and membership is to gain a thousand new members this week, and 20,000 by the time that Apple's June developer's conference takes place, the team told WIRED.
App free trials have long been a requested feature from app developers. While the App Store does currently allow subscription-based apps to offer free trials, no such option exists for non-subscription apps that cost money.
In other words, app consumers have no way to try out expensive, one-time-purchase applications before buying them. While this obviously applies to iOS, it's been a particularly pressing issue for Mac developers.
While expanding free trials to all apps is the Union's most immediate and specific goal, it's also advocating for a fairer revenue cut.
Apple currently takes a 30 percent cut of all the cash that developers make from the App Store. It has made some changes to that policy in recent years, offering a lower 15 percent cut which incentivizes developers that get customers to maintain long-term subscriptions.
The Union has yet to highlight or outline any specific revenue split strategies that it would like to see. Presumably, that's because the group seems to be focused on bolstering its ranks and advocating for free trials in the near future.
As of the writing of this article, 50 individuals and 60 applications have lent their support to The Developers Union. Interested parties can learn more about the initiative — or sign up to support them — on its website.


text:
The M²CBD formula
We've supercharged CBD by combining it with functional mushrooms to create our own unique formula: M²CBD. This formula simultaneously targets the body's endocannabinoid and immune systems to boost your health on all fronts.
Get 15% off on your first order
Does CBD oil work for anxiety
There is increasing evidence showing CBD may help manage the symptoms of anxiety. Scientists found CBD activates serotonin receptors and therefore calms the mind and anxiety Serotonin is a neurotransmitter being found in the brain and the gut which is responsible for managing our hormones and this is reflective of our mood changes and imbalance. The Journal of Neurotherapeutics suggests CBD reducing many anxiety disorders such as; generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder (PD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), social anxiety disorder (SAD), and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD)2 and references it as potential treatment. Over 240 women (between 25- 45) in a 2021 study have used CBD for self-perceived anxiety, sleep problems, stress, general health and wellbeing and reported CBD use was effective for stress, sleep problems and anxiety. FYI: Everyone on medication should consult their doctor first before taking CBD.
Does CBD oil work for a better night's sleep?
Another 2019 research study found 'sleep scores' improved, with CBD usage, within the first month, for 2 out of 3 participants. Anxiety scores also decreased, within the first month in over 79% of people. We know very well that anxiety and stress contribute to sleep problems such as insomnia - CBD can effectively reduce anxiety and stress, therefore aiding a better quality of sleep. However, it's important to note that a low dosage of CBD might cause alertness, whereas a higher dosage will help you to feel drowsy and sleepy.
Can using CBD oil improve other things too, including stress, sex drive?
Research has shown CBD works effectively to target the Endocannabinoid system (ECS), our bodies network system. Endo (meaning within) and cannabinoid (molecules like CBD and THC), it is like a computer software which sends signals to the brain, nervous system, immune cells, organs and it acts like a main control of restoring balance in all biological functions, from sleep to appetite, memory, mood, immune system, pain control, energy, reproduction and cell replication. The Endocannabinoid system is found in all humans and animals and its function is vital for a long and healthy life. The ECS has a direct effect on our brain including the hypothalamus and pituitary, but also the adrenal glands or (HPA – complex feedback system) which regulates stress reactions, immunity, and fertility. Some evidence suggests that CBD could stimulate sexual desire. According to this theory, cannabis can directly influence the brain by activating sexual excitement and it reduces stress and anxiety, so helping you become more relaxed.
Are there different ways to take CBD oil?
You can take CBD in the form of drops/tinctures, capsules/tablets, sublingual (under the tongue) sprays, edibles like gummies but you can also apply them topically like creams, lotions, serums, and transdermal patches. The list doesn't stop here though, there are foods and clothes fortified with CBD lately, so it's quite common you will find beer, hummus, masks, bath bombs or active wear, absolutely anything infused with CBD etc. The best way to consume CBD is in the form of liquid drops. This is the most efficient way of taking it as you need to hold it under your tongue for a minute or so, and by that you absorb it through your mucosal membrane under your tongue. Some studies have shown liquid drops are three to 10 times quicker absorption than swallowing a tablet.
Does CBD oil get you high? Good to touch on THC?
It's important to differentiate between CBD and THC - There are over 140 cannabinoids which have been discovered since the 1960's due to the work of Prof. Mechoulam, the 'Grandfather of Cannabis science'. CBD or cannabidiol is the most abundant ingredient in Hemp and is known for its health supporting benefits. The other compound is THC or tetrahydrocannabinol, which is a controlled substance and is illegal in most countries worldwide. There are 3 different kinds of CBDs which are commonly available on the market including: full-spectrum, broad-spectrum and CBD isolate. Full-spectrum contains other cannabinoids not just CBD but also THC, which has to be less than 0.2 per cent in UK/Europe and less than 0.3 per cent in the US. Although it's a trace amount, every individual has a different reaction to it. Broad-spectrum or Zero THC CBD oil as it has all the cannabinoids like CBD and others, however any THC has been removed. The first two may offer the 'Entourage effect' which is the synergy between the CBD and other compounds together. And finally, there are many who prefer CBD isolate as it only contains CBD and no other cannabinoids and absolutely zero per cent THC. With isolate, you can guarantee the amount of CBD per crop; it is pure and odourless plus there is no potential allergic reaction to other ingredients found in the hemp plant. This is being backed up by a very recent study in the Lancet Psychiatry. People who use higher concentrations of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, are more likely to have addiction and mental health problems, the study authors found8. So no, if you use a CBD with THC within the legal limit, then it doesn't get you high. Better still if you use broad-spectrum or CBD isolate, then it will never make you high as they contain zero per cent THC.
Then what is the difference between CBD and marijuana?
Both come from the Cannabis Sativa plant. To be specific to your question, both hemp and marijuana contain CBD. Hemp is a seed which has been traditionally used for its strong fibre, making textiles, clothes but also seed milk (hemp milk) and hemp seed shells which can be enjoyed for breakfast. It's rich in Omega 3 fatty acids which is excellent for the brain, heart, and vision health. Hemp however contains less than 0.2 per cent THC in Europe/UK and less than 0.3 per cent THC in the US. It's also used for making medicine. Anything above this legally allowed percentage, so above 0.2 or 0.3 per cent is considered marijuana. It's being consumed for recreational use, it's illegal in most countries and gives that high or psychoactive side effects. It's important to mention that it can only be prescribed by doctors as 'medical cannabis' for helping certain conditions.
Is CBD oil legal in the UK?
The UK has become the first country in the world to regulate CBD for oral consumption with the Food Standards Agency (FSA)'s public list of cannabinoid (CBD) products permitted for consumer sale. Only those CBD products featured on the list have been given the green light by the FSA to stay on the market, in line with the UK's Novel Food requirements. Products not included must now be removed from shelves. Novel Food means that CBD doesn't have historical consumption (going back to many decades) therefore it must be regulated by the FSA. Products you inhale or apply to the skin are not covered by FSA so do not appear on their list.
How long does CBD oil take to work for anxiety?
We are all different individuals, so it may take longer for some people than others. Anecdotal evidence suggests it can take up to 15 minutes when using an oil, drop, tincture or mouth spray. Though, tablets and creams can take longer.
And is it worth taking continuously to keep up the effect or is having periods off using CBD okay?
With everything in life, it's good to take a break. Our body can produce an endocannabinoid just like CBD but inside the body called anandamide (which means bliss in Sanskrit). However, CBD can increase the body's own anandamide production and therefore balancing effect. Just to remind you here, CBD is a Phyto or plant cannabinoid which is found in the hemp plant which can give a boost to the body's own cannabinoid production. We also need to eat certain foods like truffles to produce these anandamides. So, to the question, if it's okay to take it long-term, it's best to take a break for a while in every season and perhaps leave it to the body to deal with it at other times. UK's Food Standards Agency & WHO suggests taking 70mg of CBD a day. Some study suggests that extremely high doses of CBD negatively impacted the liver9, however this has been widely discredited.
Do you need to speak to a doctor before considering using CBD oil?
If you are on any medication, you must consult with your doctor first before using any kind of CBD. It is not advisable to take CBD in pregnancy. Otherwise CBD is readily available online and in UK retail stores. Make sure to ensure the CBD is from a credible, safe and trusted source.
Does CBD oil have different impacts on each individual person?
We all have a different genetic make-up, unique metabolism and endocannabinoid system and it's difficult to predict how each person responds to it. It can also depend on how much CBD we are taking by body weight so we can have different outcomes as a result.


text:
Don't remember when was the last blog I did. I decided to add my deserts to the blog. I love baking, especially doing different kind of deserts. To start off, I decided to add my Flan, which is just right for the Holidays. Flan, which is kind of custard dessert has been going on in my family for years and very easy to do.
I remember my grandma and aunt, which by the way my aunt is a great baker. I remember going to spend the night at her house and smelling the sweetness coming out of her apartment and she enjoyed baking. She still does, but very little now.
When my daughter was pregnant with my Mia I had to do a flan like every other week for her, that's how much she loved it and still do.
This flan consists of
2 Carnation Milk
6 Eggs
1 Condensed Milk
1 Cup Of Sugar, depending how much caramelized sugar you want.
Set oven at 350, put in a large pot with water in the oven. This is what we call aqua bendita (holy bath).
Beat all 3 ingredients together, now you are to put a pot or frying pan on the stove and add in that one cup of sugar and let it brown up a little.
When the sugar is caramelized to your liking, you than put it in baking pan. No cooking spray needed. Add in the liquid ingredients into the pan, place that pan in the Holy Water and bake for about 45 minutes.
When I say this is such a delicious dessert, its delicious. Bon Appetite.


text: Shaquille O'Neal is undoubtedly one of the best basketball players that have ever played the game. There's a legitimate argument to be made that he's the greatest center of all time and a top-five player that ever played the sport. There was only one downside to his game and some fans made it known to him that he needed to be better on that side of the court. The one thing that Shaquille O'Neal struggled with throughout his career, was none other than free throws.


text:
Researchers find the current health plan environment is not conducive to profitability for new provider-sponsored plans. Given proposed cuts to Medicaid and changes to individual plans in the American Health Care Act, the future of the remaining provider-sponsored plans could face even greater uncertainty.
About the Author
Allan Baumgarten is an independent research analyst whose work focuses on health care policy, finance and local market strategies. He publishes Minnesota Health Market Review and reports in eight other states analyzing trends and strategies for health care payers and providers. He works with a variety of organizations to help them analyze the market competition and policy issues they face and to develop business strategies to meet the challenges of dynamic markets and health reform. His clients include health plans, provider organizations, government agencies and manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and other health products and services. For more information, visit www.allanbaumgarten.com.


text:
Five-year-old Tyler's mouth slackens and his eyes close as he puts his hands around his neck and rotates slowly below an imaginary rope.
"When he killed himself, he went like this," he tells filmmaker Andrée Cazabon as he describes the day in April, 2006, when he and his older brother, Kyler, 6, watched their father hang himself from the ceiling of their home in the northern Ontario First Nations community of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug.
For Cazabon, who spent 1½ years filming the family's story — Tyler and his seven brothers and sisters lost their father, mother and stepfather to suicide — that scene is probably the most difficult.
And it is one scene Cazabon almost cut this week in advance of the film's premiere Thursday at the Royal Ontario Museum.
"But Chief Donny (Morris) told me I had taken a lot out already," she said in an interview. "He said: 'If it makes people uncomfortable to watch this film, they should try living it.' "
Cazabon's film, 3rd World Canada, is about the shocking conditions First Nations children endure in Ontario's isolated north.
It is a plea to the south to learn and to act.
"I've never witnessed such levels of poverty . . . that tend to create the need for child welfare to be involved," Tikinagan Family Services head Michael Hardy says.
Hardy, whose agency is responsible for 30 remote northern communities spanning two time zones and a geographic area the size of France, says the need is unimaginable.
"There's something not right in Ontario when the amount of poverty that's here, the amount of despair, the amount of loss, the amount of suicides are here and (there is) silence in Ontario," he says.
Cazabon, 36, is a Gemini-nominated filmmaker who grew up in foster care and made her first film, Letters to a Street Child, in 1999 about her life as a homeless teen in Toronto.
Of all the harrowing experiences she has lived and brought to the screen, 3rd World Canada, her fifth film, was the most difficult to shoot, she says.
"It was the first time I have ever cried behind the camera," she says from her home in Ottawa.
"It is a painful topic. But as we eagerly help Third World nations around the globe, I think we can match that same enthusiasm for helping the Third World nation in our backyard."
The $165,000 film was largely bankrolled by the Law Foundation of Ontario with assistance from the Laidlaw Foundation, the Ontario Arts Council, the Atkinson Charitable Foundation and the Rotary Club of Toronto.
Toronto businessman and Rotarian John Andras hopes the film sparks a dialogue that begins to look at solutions.
"You see the film — it's devastating. It's almost impossible to believe this is Canada. We should be better than this," says Andras, a past president of the club.
"I think seeing is believing in this instance and I hope that a lot of people's eyes are going to be opened on Thursday. And I hope from that will come the desire for change."
The 46-minute film, which screens at 7 p.m. at the ROM, will be introduced by former Ontario lieutenant governor James Bartleman. It will be followed by a panel discussion at 8 p.m. with community members from Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug.
Tickets are $50 and can be purchased at the door or at thirdworldcanada.ca/order. Proceeds will go into a trust for the children in the film.


text:
Happy Eid Fitr Mubarak Wishes In Advance 2017 are very friendly way to greeting each other for whom those are out of country or city that's why people love to give them wishes in advance. The festival of eid reminds us of making honesty, affections and seeks blessings of our life. On this eid send your friends and relives eid cards and wishes to make them happy and wish a new expectation for ei8d in advance.
Happy Eid Fitr Mubarak Wishes In Advance 2017


text:
ConAgra Pot Pie Salmonella Outbreak LawsuitsMarler Clark filed six Salmonella lawsuits against ConAgra, the company whose Banquet and store-brand chicken and turkey pot pies were identified as the source of a nationwide Salmonella outbreak. Three of the lawsuits were filed in Washington State, while the other three were filed in Minnesota, Michigan, and Nebraska.
In the face of criticism and litigation, ConAgra recalled all poultry pot pies produced in its Missouri plant. The company has since reopened its facility for processing Banquet pot pies and began shipping the products to stores for sale in January, 2008.
In its final report, CDC determined that 401 people were sickened by the outbreak in 41 states. Marler Clark's Salmonella lawyers resolved more than 30 cases on behalf of victims.
Marler Clark files Salmonella lawsuit on behalf of child sickened after eating pot pie
Marler Clark files second lawsuit against ConAgra on behalf of victim of Salmonella outbreak traced to Banquet pot pies
Marler Clark files fifth lawsuit against ConAgra on behalf of man who ate contaminated Banquet pot pies
Seattle law firm files sixth lawsuit against ConAgra over Salmonella-tainted pot pies
You can read more about the ConAgra pot pie Salmonella outbreak at the Marler Clark-sponsored Web site about Salmonella.


text:
"Lil' Liberals" is the latest spoof video created by Remedy Pictures' Patti McCreary and her business partner Steve Utaski. Produced to coax smiles from liberals and conservatives, alike, "Lil' Liberals" main intent, according to the producers, is to change the focus from dolls that are measured by hair, clothes, and bling, to dolls that are measured by their opinions about social issues. Isn't that how we should learn to know others – by listening to their opinions and engaging in respectful dialogue together?
McCreary and Utaski acknowledge
the difficulty in making this potentially polarizing video, and tried "to ride
that line right down the center of the blue and red state divide." I think they did a good job. Their work is a good reminder to take time to
listen to what others' think, and not to be too eager to lump everyone together
under red or blue team pennants, all while challenging the social norm linking
women's worth with outward appearance.
Bravo! Brava!
Click this link to watch the Lil' Liberals video on vimeo. What do you think?


text:
Austin Carlile issues health update, undergoes surgery
Austin Carlile has been open about his struggle with Marfan Syndrome—a rare connective disorder—and has explained in detail about the struggles he has faced while battling the disorder.
He opened up on his Instagram story, explaining that he had been taken into the hospital for cysts growing on his lower spine.
Read more: Of Mice & Men's Austin Carlile opens up about Marfan syndrome to create awareness for rare disorder
In his messages, he explains that he was taken by helicopter to San Jose, Costa Rica to have surgery to remove the cysts growing on his lower spine. He further explains that it's been "a rough 8 months" with his battle, but as "the fight continues on, I must as well."
Read his message in full below:
Earlier this year, he took to Twitter to talk more about his battle with Marfan Syndrome. It's a genetic disorder that he has had his entire life, and because it's so rare, that's why he's working to raise awareness for it.
Though it's been a struggle, he explains that he's learned "strength, patience and compassion," with an "ability to understand so much better that so many people have it so much worse than me." Read more from Carlile's open discussion about Marfan's Syndrome here.
Our thoughts are with Carlile and his family.
Follow the Marfan Foundation on Twitter here.
Watch more: APMAs 2016 Interview—AUSTIN CARLILE | PRS Lounge


text:
Attorney General Dale Marshall is adamant that Government will do all it can to stamp out corruption in this country.
He expressed this sentiment during a recent courtesy call with British High Commissioner to Barbados, Janet Douglas.
During the meeting, Mrs. Douglas disclosed that her office would soon release a publication entitled Toolkit: Investigation and Prosecution of Corruption, which she believes will be beneficial in this island's fight against corruption.
She noted that the information was written in an applicable way, and this would be ideal in assisting law enforcement officers.
Mr. Marshall said the toolkit would be specifically helpful for the White Collar Crime Unit, since corruption was not an easy crime to prove. He also suggested that the toolkit be complemented with face to face training to accomplish maximum results.
Stressing that a small percentage of addressing the issue of corruption was punishment, he insisted that it was key to make the environment as inhospitable as possible, so that people would be deterred from corrupt practices.
"Corruption is somewhat like a culture in some countries, but we need to arrest this while it is young," he said, adding that one challenge was also to get witnesses to come forward.
During the meeting, the British envoy offered to provide training for judges in the area of developing sentence guidelines. Noting that currently cases were used to give direction for punishments, she pointed out that if categories of offences and sentences were created, it would help with fairness, eliminating backlogs at the court and preventing inconsistency of judgments.


text:
Couple of years ago we started to use Efficiency by Heart as a guiding tag line to help finding a balance between work and private life.
Efficiency is often associated with hard work, thoroughly detailed plans and schedules followed up on a minute to minute basis. However, in our context it is more of a methodology to sort out what is needed to do, and not. Time is most precious and we should be aware how we spend it.
"the heart dictates the conditions for what efficiency can be"
Heart means to be able to set your own pace. By doing that, we allow ourselves to be reflective and positive. We should listen more to ourselves and put less energy into what others think and do. Heart also means we should care about each other and the planet we live on. All in all, the heart dictates the conditions for what efficiency can be.
From tag line to implementation.
So how do we implement Efficiency by Heart in our daily work at Lagonda. Here are a few examples:
- Employees set their own work hours. We work remotely AND we meet freqently. And we allow for education during work hours.
- We never push a customer in a direction. We think long term and we always suggest the best solutions for you, whether it will be profitable for us or not. Simply put, we believe in Karma 😉
- Sharing is caring. Last year we sent a percentage of our profit to the Swedish Heart and Lung foundation to let science make further research and advancements in the field of heart and lung diseases.
Interested to hear more about us or to collaborate with us? Do not hesitate to contact us and we can have a, real or virtual, meeting. We'd love to hear from you!


text:
I love Louis CK. I'm man enough in my sexuality to say that. He's easily my favorite stand up comedian right now. That's more than likely because I'm a balding, pudgy middle man with two kids. He has an amazing ability to capture the quiet desperation that most American men seems to shamble through these days. (Plus he's not afraid to get extremely dirty with his jokes.) I'm not quite ready to give him Discordian sainthood yet because he needs to do something amazing to reach that plateau.
Currently he has a hilarious show on FX simply called Louie. It's mostly clips of him doing stand up interspersed with scenes of him dealing with his family and wondering aimlessly around NYC. Brilliant stuff (especially the guest spots by Rickie Gervais as his asshole doctor). If you are in the US you can watch all 13 episodes on Hulu.
I'd especially like to call attention to episode #11: God. In it he flashes back to when he was a Catholic school kid. An evil nun brings in a creepy medical doctor to scare the hell (literally) out of the kids by going into gory detail about the horrors of crucifixion. I didn't go to a Catholic school but I went to enough Good Friday services as a kid to hear the exact same sermon as an impressionable youngster. The episode raises some interesting issues about how religion uses fear and guilt to convert children who don't know any better. There's also a very touching scene with his mother near the end that shows a good example of how skeptics should present religion to their own children. You can check the episode out here:
But if you are outside the US or are reading this post after the video expires then just enjoy this clip from when Louis was on the old Conan show.
Or this clip where he investigates the Catholic Church:
All clips NSFW, obviously.
Louie, Louie, You're Gonna Cry
Posted by : Rev. Ouabache | Sunday, September 26, 2010 | Published in Christianity, larf, religion, skepticism, video
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
Grand Seiko has unveiled its first two tone sports watch with the launch of Ref. SBGE248, a Spring Drive GMT timepiece that sits in the Japanese brand's Sport collection. Grand Seiko is usually synonymous with more conservatively-styled dress watches but this is new timepiece has an extroverted outlook with the gold and blue tones.
The luxury watchmaker has done quite a lot of work on its sports watches in recent years and this year at Baselworld, Grand Seiko unveiled a new range of sports watches to commemorate the 20th anniversary of their proprietary Spring Drive movement. The color scheme of the SBGE248 is familiar - the most famous example of a sports watch in steel and gold with a blue dial has to be the Rolex Submariner Ref. 116613B.
The new timepiece has a 44 mm brushed stainless steel case with beveled edges and a case profile that measures 14.7 mm. It is fitted with an 18K yellow gold bezel — a first for the Sport collection since Grand Seiko saves the yellow gold color scheme for its more commemorative editions like the Ref. SBGW252 or Ref. SBGH266 — with a blue sapphire crystal bezel insert. The insert has the customary 24 hour markings as is standard in most GMT models with a rotating bezel, the markings are coated with Seiko's proprietary Lumibrite luminescent material. Apart from the 18k yellow gold bezel, the screw-down crown placed at 4 o' clock is also made from the same metal and the watch is depth-rated to 200 meters.
The cobalt blue dial also has gilded hour makers and hands all coated generously with Lumibrite. The GMT hand is gilded too, so are the markings on the dial and the power reserve indicator. A date window is placed at 4 o' clock. The blue and gold accents play really well off each other here.
The watch is powered by Spring Drive GMT Caliber 9R66. Seiko's proprietary Spring Drive movement celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Seiko produced the first prototype of the Spring Drive-powered watch in 1982. It was developed by Yoshikazu Akahane, an engineer who wanted to create the perfect watch, a timepiece that would tick three boxes – the accuracy of a quartz movement, the perpetual power supply of an automatic caliber and also possess refined good looks. It took 17 years to develop the first production model in 1999.
Caliber 9R66 has an incredible average accuracy rating of ±1 second per day or ±15 seconds per month. It has a power reserve of 72 hours and has a stop seconds function for accurate setting of time. It also has an independent second time zone hand that can be adjusted to local time without stopping the movement. The watch is fitted with a matching steel bracelet with a three-fold clasp with push button release. It will be available this September and is priced at $11,500.


text:
On Thursday 18th August , Halswell House hosted a visit by members of the Weston Super Mare U3 (University of the Third Age) Architecture Appreciation Society
Russell Lillford, Chairman of the Somerset Building Preservation Trust had given a talk to their members last winter and suggested that this was followed up with a visit to Halswell. The visit, led by Martha Perriam, proved very popular with a full contingent of 30 turning out.
The group were welcomed by Mark Lidster and Sam Foster of Corbel Conservation and Ann Manders of the SBPT.
Following a short site Health and Safety induction from Sam, the group took the opportunity to view the display of maps, photographs and other historical documents set up in the meeting room. Ann then gave a brief talk covering the history of the site which was followed by a guided tour of the house, taking in the main staircase, the Chinese wallpaper room, the ballroom, the master bedroom, the back stairs and finally up out onto the roof.
During the tour Mark spoke about the various aspects and challenges of restoring and conserving the fabric of the house and the important historical features. Once on the roof the group were able to view the surrounding countryside and historic parkland, they were also treated to a wonderful birds eye view of the recent roof restoration works to the Tudor range.
Following their rooftop descent the group took the opportunity to wander around the garden and woodland surrounding the house and especially enjoyed visiting the newly restored Rotunda.
The group expressed their thanks to Mark, Ann and especially the owner, Edward Strachan, for a very interesting afternoon and hoped that they would be able to visit again as the restoration work progresses.


text:
Enjoy the most precious time of the year
in our family-run bed & breakfast hotel.
We are conveniently located directly in Ischgl,
only 200 m from the centre with numerous
restaurants and shops.
In a 2 minutes walk you can reach the new
pedestrian tunnel, which leads you directly
to the PARDATSCHGRAT-ropeway.
Everything in Ischgl is within a
few minutes' walking distance –
this way your car is also "on holiday"


text:
Accounting For Value: A Quantitative Securities Research, Inc. Presentation for Residual Earnings Method of Stock Valuation:
This page illustrates how a HUGIN model in combination with the HUGIN Web Service API can facilitate Accounting For Value[Penman, 2011] based on the Residual Earnings Method for stock valuation. Our example is from Accounting for Value, page 67, Cisco Systems, Inc: (NasdaqGS: CSCO) fiscal year end July 31, but updated for July 31, 2012. Model inputs are 2013 and 2014 Wall Street forecasts for earnings per share (EPS), 2012 Book Value Per Share (BPS), assumed cost of equity capital r1 and g is the growth rate of residual earnings implied by Cisco's stock price of $15.95 on July 31, 2012. Given the implied g for any stock price, that stock price will increase annually by the required rate of return r as demonstrated in the CSCO seven year forecast of fair value price per share.
Residual Earnings Method variable inputs may be changed for the investor to explore the effect on g embedded in any stock price and speculative growth. Fair value price per share is the calculated per share value at the end of each fiscal year given the variable model inputs of r, g, and EPS. The calculation of fair value price per share may be simulated in a Bayesian network using Monte Carlo simulation to show probable outcomes of buying CSCO at any price per share given the model inputs. The Monte Carlo simulation also ranks CSCO Buy, Hold, or Sell.
The Cisco example is a proof of concept, but this model can be used to analyze any stock if the investor inputs the current market price per share and the specified r and EPS inputs for that stock. The investor has to decide if positive g building blocks showing positive speculative growth indicate the stock is overpriced or if negative g building blocks showing negative speculative growth indicate the stock is underpriced. If the investor inputs the stock price for g equals zero (Book Value + Value from short-term accounting building blocks) that sometimes helps decide the answer. The commercial product will be driven by the input of the stock symbol for any global stock, automatically update daily, and have the capacity to rank stocks by g or other variables.
|Value (constant)
|Enter Current Market Price
|Enter BPS_12A
|Value (Variable)
|Enter r
|Enter EPS_13E
|Enter EPS_14E
Press the button below to update the remaining parts of the page
Determining Speculative Growth g
|Growth (g)
Building Blocks That Identify the Market's Valuation of Speculative Growth
UNDER REVISION - Simulation
Fair Value Price Per Share (PPS) Growth in EPS
|Price Per Share (PPS)
|Growth in EPS
|Fair Value PPS 2012A
|Fair Value PPS 2013E
|Fair Value PPS 2014E
|Fair Value PPS 2015F
|Fair Value PPS 2016F
|Fair Value PPS 2017F
|Fair Value PPS 2018F
|Fair Value PPS 2019F
Accounting For Uncertainty In Accounting For Value
This part of the web site illustrates how it is possible to account for uncertainty in Accounting For Value using a Bayesian network in combination with Monte Carlo simulation (using 10000 samples).
The Monte Carlo simulation is performed assuming a Normal distribution for each input parameter; i.e., g, r, EPS_13E and EPS_14E. For each input parameter the mean value is set equal to the value entered above while the variance can be changed below. A default value for the variance is specified.
The variance represents the uncertainty in each input parameter. The default values for the variances are determined as a percentage deviation from the (initial) mean values defined above (i.e., the initial values for g, r, EPS_13E and EPS_14E). For g and r the default variance is calculated as ten per cent of the mean squared while for EPS_13E and EPS_14E the default variance is calculated as five per cent of the mean squared.
|Variable name
|Mean (from above)
Select output variable (i.e., variable to simulate)
The simulation model contains all seven years (i.e., 2013 to 2019) and in each iteration it computes the Fair Value PPS for each year based on a simulation of the input parameters. The button below is used to specify the year to monitor for Fair Value PPS simulation.
Monte Carlo simulation of 10,000 stock prices based on inputs.
|Maximum Price (+2 STD)
|Sell Threshold (+1 STD)
|Mean: Target Price
|Buy Threshold (-1 STD)
|Minimum Price (-2 STD)
|Standard Deviation (STD)
|Action Today
|Market Price
The frequency distribution over the selected output value will be shown above. Each of the samples generated by the simulation will produce a value of the selected output variable. The frequency distribution is constructed by defining 20 bins for selected output variable. The bins are determined based on the lowest and highest values produced. The range from the lowest to the highest value is divided into 20 bins (i.e., intervals) of equal size. The values computed for the output variable are mapped to the bins producing the frequency distribution.
The frequency distribution can be used to assess the probability (according to the simulation model and input values) of getting a value of the output variable in one of the intervals defined by the bins. The frequency count in each bin reflects the probability of achieving a value of the output value in the corresponding interval.
Accounting For Uncertainty Using Bayesian Networks and Simulation
Using a Bayesian network it is possible to model different types of distributions and correlations between input parameters of the Accounting For Value model. Here we assume for simplicity that BPS_12A is known whereas the r, g, EPS_13E and EPS_14E are assumed to follow a normal distribution (with mean and variance as defined by the values specified above).
The figure below shows how a HUGIN model encodes the valuation (for seven years).
In each step of the simulation process, the Bayesian network model is used to generate a set of values for the input parameters of the valuation model. This set of values for the input parameters is a scenario. The valuation model is applied to this scenario producing one value of the selected output variable. The set of values obtained by evaluating the valuation model on each scenario is the distribution over the output variable shown in the table.
The Bayesian network model only simulates the input parameters of the valuation model.
[Penman, 2011] Accounting For Value, Stephen H. Penman, Columbia University Press, 2011. Stephen H. Penman is the George O. May Professor of Accounting at Columbia University Graduate School of Business. Stephen H. Penman's Curriculum Vitae may be downloaded here. Accounting For Value in hard cover and (eBook) may be ordered at: Amazon.
[1] Dividends are not included as a model input because value is not affected by dividend payout policy, Accounting For Value[Penman, 2011], page 18.


text:
- Scott Elmquist
- "It's not the time for taking it easy/It's not the time for being undone/It's time for unification/...And I like Electraglide" sings Max Monroe (pictured) on his crucial synth-funk cut, "Electraglide."
In the fall of 2011, record collector Troy Hurt was flipping through 45-rpm singles at Carrington's Music, a tiny store on East Washington Street in Petersburg, when he came across something enticingly unfamiliar. It was called "Come to Me Softy," by a group called the Trash Company, recorded in 1979 at the former Broad Street studio Alpha Audio.
"No one had heard of it. It was a weird-looking record, and the name, Trash Company was just ... weird," Hurt recalls. "I had my portable record player and I listened to it and it was sort of folky, sort of psychedelic. Unusual."
He bought two. Hurt — one half of the old-school funk- and soul-record-playing DJ team the Scorpio Brothers — told his DJ partner, Marty Key, about the rare find. Key, who co-owns Steady Sounds record store on West Broad Street, also is a musician, having played bass in the indie-rock band Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, probably the most well known among his many bands.
Intrigued, Hurt looked up the songwriter listed on the single, Max Monroe, on the website of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. There, he found a local address and phone number.
"When I called, Max seemed completely shocked that someone would call him out of the blue about that record. But he was happy," Hurt says. Monroe told him that he had written songs, played guitar and sang for the Trash Company, which was heavily influenced by Funkadelic. But it had grown apart in the early '80s. The band may have played one more gig at June Jubilee, but nothing remarkable. At most the group was an advanced-level trivia question in Richmond's version of musical "Jeopardy."
Soon after they spoke, Monroe sent Hurt a few emails, featuring several home-recorded MP3s of his own songs. That's when things got interesting.
"We were just blown away. Marty and I are texting each other, like, 'Oh my God, here come some more tracks,'" he says. "We were dumbfounded this guy was in Richmond all this time writing and recording these songs on a four-track, and no one had ever heard of him. He didn't seem to fit into any kind of scene."
Despite Hurt's research, he couldn't find any information about Monroe from local musicians who were in the R&B and soul scenes of the '80s. Nobody had heard of him. Monroe was a mystery man.
"You listen to this music and there are tracks that sound like Suicide, and other cutting-edge stuff that was going in New York at that time," Hurt says. "Here this guy was living by himself at the old Earle Hotel, and he just sort of arrived at it himself."
Hurt and Key were further astonished when Monroe provided dozens of other old demo tapes, stuff that had just been piling up in his closet. A story began to emerge of a bedroom recording genius — the kind of thing that record geeks and music enthusiasts live to discover.
After playing the material for a Washington, label, People's Potential Unlimited — whose owner, Andrew Morgan, was similarly blown away — the Scorpio Brothers asked Monroe if he'd be interested in releasing some of the material. What resulted is the inaugural release for Steady Sounds' label, "Trash Company: the Earle Hotel Tapes 1979-1993." It's named after the former flophouse at the corner of West Main and Adams streets, a notorious hotel where Monroe lived for much of his life, which eventually became a drug-infested eyesore. The place was demolished in 1989 and turned into a parking lot for the Jefferson Hotel.
- Scott Elmquist
- Steady Sounds co-owner Marty Key, at left, couldn't believe his ear holes when he heard the bedroom funk demos saved up for the last 30 years by local musician Max Monroe. Together, Steady Sounds and the Washington-based People's Potential Unlimited have released "The Trash Company: the Earle Hotel Tapes: 1979 – 1993" (inset). The cover was designed by local art director Doug Dobey.
" Look for the black hat."
That's what Max Monroe tells me when I arrange to meet with him at one of his favorite spots, Aunt Sarah's Pancake House on Broad Street. He's easy to spot midday in the mostly empty restaurant, sitting in a booth wearing his black fedora and smiling. Monroe's been coming here for years. He likes the warmth of the wood walls and the earthy, muted colors of the place — not to mention the food. Monroe claims to be a synesthete, meaning he perceives sounds, words and letters in terms of color, often feeling he can sense the aura of a person or place. It was said that musicians such as Duke Ellington and Jimi Hendrix also had the condition.
That's why, when talking about the Earle Hotel where he lived for years alongside many other working-class people, Monroe says such things as, "When I got there it was yellow, when I left it was purple."
Monroe started writing music when he was 8, growing up on the 600 block of First Street in Jackson Ward (he has roots in Baltimore but prefers not to discuss them, noting that he lived up and down the East Coast growing up). His grandmother bought him his first guitar in the summer of 1969 and he taught himself how to play.
"Somebody that lived on the other side of the wall from us, he or she knew how to play guitar," he recalls. "I never met him. But I would play a lick and they would play a lick on the other side in response. That's how I learned."
Monroe began working as a custodian for the city when he was 16, he says, around the same time he began paying $28 a week to rent a room at the Earle. He had issues growing up with his father and left home early.
"My father loved the gangster life. I left after he trained me how to kill a person with an ice pick and get rid of bodies," Monroe says. "None of which I did."
Back then, the Earle was like Richmond's version of New York's infamous Chelsea Hotel, filled with eccentric artists and characters, as wide-ranging as two retired circus clowns, a rich eccentric named Dick Griffith, who was president of the Richmond Rose Society, and an alcoholic who claimed to be a member of Elvis' Memphis mafia.
One day at the hotel in 1975, Monroe was asked to join a young Richmond funk band, the Trash Company, which consisted mainly of the Cheatham brothers, Watusi, Bee and Pop — childhood friends from Jackson Ward. They eventually played a disastrous gig at Maggie L. Walker High School, which involved dumping trash on a horrified audience. It was later rumored that George Clinton tried to get the Cheatham brothers, who were charismatic dancers, to join Parliament Funkadelic to no avail. But Monroe soon left the band over artistic differences, he says, though he remained close friends with Watusi.
Monroe began accumulating material recorded in his hotel room — surreal synth-funk and lo-fi soul and rock music made with cheap equipment. He mailed it to countless record labels in hopes of making it as a songwriter, only to receive countless rejections, some nicer than others (Capitol Records once wrote him back saying, "some music was never meant to be heard"). He says he even received a letter from Frank Sinatra offering encouragement after another rejection, but couldn't find a copy of it to show. In Monroe's mind, his music is more mainstream than it often sounds, and he counts as influences bands from the Beatles to the Motels.
After a contentious relationship with the city, judging from the numerous times he took it to court (he says he often "fought for the rights of city employees"), Monroe retired on disability. These days he spends his time fishing and writing crime novels and reserves Sundays as his special music-making day.
"You pay a price for being around people with limited vision, and no interest in a world view. Most people's motto should be, 'We walk alike, we talk alike, we act alike, we look alike, and who are you?'" Monroe says. "You want to step outside the box, but most people, their goal is to fit in, and I could not care less fitting in with anybody or any group. I am me."
Key still can't believe the luck of stumbling onto Monroe's music.
"This was a guy that put out one single that barely played in Richmond, nobody knows who he is, and he's just been sitting on all this stuff," Key says. "Reissues are cool ... but I think it's more interesting to find something that never came out from that era."
So far the album has nearly sold out its first pressing of 500 copies and received lavish attention mostly on music blogs (including a great review on a Japanese site), as well as praise from New York's leading underground record stores, Other Music and Academy Records, which already have called it one of the best reissue albums of 2013. For those who can't find a copy, Key says there probably will be downloads available eventually. For now he's just happy with the finished product.
"If the Trash Company hadn't put out the one single, nobody would've ever known," Key says. "It's pretty cool. I like finding just weird, unknown stuff like that. Just think about how much great music is out there that will never be discovered." S
There's a listening party for the record at Balliceaux on Feb. 20, open to the public starting at 9 p.m. On Feb. 23, Andrew Morgan will DJ at Balliceaux in a second celebration of the joint release.


text:
Here's a debate on whether anything supernatural exists where I argued the Pro case. I attempted to defend the argument from reason and a version of Plantinga's evolutionary argument against naturalism. Fun times.
Here's my opening statement:
Good evening, and thank you for coming to tonight's debate.
My opponent stipulates that I may defend any version of the supernatural I wish, so let me define the version of supernatural I intend to defend in this debate.
The supernatural refers to one of two things: (1) to anything that exists that is not describable by the laws of physics and chemistry, and (2) any event in the natural world whose cause is not also part of the natural world. By "the natural world," I mean the world of matter and energy, or that aspect of reality that is describable by the laws of physics and chemistry.
What I will argue is that rationality and justified true beliefs are not possible if all that exists is the natural. Naturalism (the view that only the natural exists) is self-refuting because it undermines the necessary preconditions for rational thought and justified belief, including whatever line of reasoning lead to belief in naturalism. If we are in fact rational and justified in at least some of our beliefs, then some version of supernaturalism must be true.
If naturalism is true, then all of our beliefs are determined by non-rational cause and effect. After all, the brain is just a physical object that obeys the laws of nature. For whatever belief one has, it doesn't matter whether there are good reasons for it. So long as the brain fizzes in the right way, that belief will emerge. A belief can only be rational or justified if it is the result of good grounds. But arriving at a belief through physical causes is quite different than arriving at a belief through a line of reasoning and "seeing" the logical relations between propositions. In fact, we frequently dismiss the validity of a belief by pointing to its causes. For example, people frequently say things like, "You only believe that because you were born in a western culture." A belief that is caused by an accident of birth is said to be unjustified on that basis. If the fact that a belief is caused is any reason to dismiss it as being justified or rational, then given naturalism, none of our beliefs are justified or rational, including the belief in naturalism because they are all caused by our brain chemistry. The perception we all have of thinking through a line of reasoning is just an illusion since each step in the process is directly caused by the underlying chemical activity in our brains which happens deterministically according to the laws of nature.
One might respond by saying the brain acquired the ability to produce mostly true belief through evolution since true beliefs are more advantageous than false beliefs. So even though our beliefs are caused by blind mechanistic events in the brain, as long as the brain is "programmed" through evolution to result in mostly true beliefs, the fact that our beliefs are caused by brain chemistry doesn't undermine the reliability of our belief-producing cognitive faculties. Our beliefs may not be "rational" in the sense of being arrived at through a process of sound reasoning, but they can nevertheless be reliable.
However, natural selection can only act on behavior. What determines whether you survive and reproduce in any situation is the movement of your body parts, not whatever belief or desire that might be going on in your head. The only way belief and desire could contribute to survival value is if belief and desire determined your behavior. Under naturalism, it isn't possible for your beliefs and desires to affect your behavior. Your behavior is determined by your brain chemistry. The brain fizzes in a certain way, and that fizzing produces electrical signals that are sent to your muscles via your nervous system. Since there is no soul under naturalism, all of your mental events are caused by the brain. The mental events themselves don't cause anything. Each brain state, from moment to moment, is caused by the previous brain state according to the laws of nature. There is no room from anything like a desire or a belief to have any causal influence over the brain. The desire and belief are, themselves, caused by the brain. They are passive and just ride on top of brain activity. The feeling we have of intending to act, then acting on that intention, is just an illusion created by the brain. One and the same brain state might simultaneously cause the sensation of desire and the movement of the arm, but the desire does not cause the arm to move. Since natural selection selects for adaptive behavior wholly apart from whatever belief/desire might be associated with that same brain state, natural selection cannot select for true beliefs or reliable belief-producing cognitive faculties. So if naturalism is true, we should not expect to have developed the capacity for arriving at true beliefs. That makes naturalism self-refuting.
But let's suppose that somehow or other beliefs and desires actually DO affect our behavior. Under naturalism, they can only do so by virtue of their underlying physical brain state. That is, it would not be the semantic content of our desires and beliefs that result in behavior; rather, it would be the syntatic content of the underlying brain state. So we'd be in exactly the same situation. If syntax determines our behavior, then it doesn't matter what the semantic content is. If a false belief has just the right syntax to get our bodies moving in such a way as to ensure our survival and reproduction, then false beliefs would be just as adaptive as true beliefs. If it happened that true beliefs resulted in adaptive behavior, that would just be dumb luck. It would be a remarkable coincidence if it happened that mostly true beliefs were associated with syntax that lead to adaptive behavior.
But let's suppose that somehow or other, even under naturalism, that even the semantic content of our desires and belief affect our behavior. It's hard to imagine how that could even be possible under naturalism, but let's suspend belief for a moment and pretend that it's not only possible, but actual. In this case, one might argue that since true beliefs are generally more advantageous that false beliefs, that evolution would tend to result in reliable belief-producing cognitive faculties. The problem, though, is that for any true belief one might think is adaptive, it's trivially easy to think of a false belief that would do the same thing. For example, one might think that if one has a true belief that snakes are poisonous and ought to be avoided, that will result in a person living longer than somebody who thought snakes were safe and frequently stuck their hands down in rattle snake nests. But it is just as easy to imagine a person who wrongly thinks rattle snake are safe and fun to play with and that the best way to play with them is to run away from them. Running away, rather than sticking their hand in the nest, would ensure the person's survival. Or, you can imagine a person has an innate desire to die by poisoning, and he wrongly and stubbornly believes that fresh fruit and vegetables are the best poinsons by which to commit suicide. That would result in a person eating healthy and living longer. Since it's just as easy for a false belief to result in adaptive behavior as a true belief, there is no reason to think that evolution would produce reliable belief-producing cognitive faculties given naturalism.
So naturalism is self-refuting. If naturalism were true, we should not expect that any of our beliefs would be true or that we'd have reliable belief-producing cognitive faculties. And with that being the case, belief in naturalism is irrational. However, if we are quite convinced that we are rational beings and that we do generally have true beliefs rather than false beliefs, then to be consistent, we must reject naturalism. Rejecting naturalism--that the natural world is all their is--entails embracing supernaturalism--that some things exist beyond the natural.
Therefore, supernaturlism is true.


text:
Danielle Farrar
March 16, 1997
Triatomic oxygen, O3, is most commonly known as ozone. It has a resonance structure, and can be drawn in two different ways: O=O- O-O=O It is a bluish, explosive gas at room temperature, and has a boiling point of -119°C. It has a melting point of -193°C, and is a blue liquid. It 's critical temperature and pressure are -12.1°C and 53.8 atm, respectively. It has a pleasant odor in concentrations of less than 2 ppm, and is irritating and injurious in higher concentrations. The density of ozone gas is 2.144 g/L, and the density of ozone as a liquid is 1.614 g/mL. It is extremely unstable, and solutions containing ozone explode upon warming. It is found in varying proportions on Earth, but it is about 0.05 ppm at sea level. Ozone absorbs harmful ultraviolet radiation in the upper atmosphere, and protects humans from skin cancer. But ozone is also the main ingredient of smog, and causes serious health effects and forest and crop damage in the lower atmosphere. Ozone is formed through the chemical reaction of volatile organic compounds and nitrogen dioxide, in the atmosphere, in the presence of sunlight.
This reaction is called a photochemical reaction, because sunlight is required.
The product is known as smog. The notorious brownish color of smog is due to nitrogen dioxide of the mixture. Increased temperature stimulate the reaction, which is why ozone conditions are worse in the summer. It is an oxidant, meaning it takes electrons away from other molecules, and disrupts key structures in cells by starting chain reactions. Ozone is a serious national problem. Half of the largest urban areas in the United States exceed the ozone standards. The worst regions in the US include California and the Texas Gulf coast, and the northeast and the Chicago-
Milwaukee area during the summer. The ozone condition varies from year to year, as the temperature and weather fluctuate. This fluctuation also occurs
Bibliography: Harte, John, and Cheryl Holdre, Richard Schneider, and Christine Shirley. Toxics A to Z. pp 372-74. University of California Press: Los Angeles, 1991. "Ozone Most Harmful to Trees" USA Today Magazine. June 1992. pp 9-10 Scott, Geoff. "The Two Faces of Ozone," Current Health. September 1992. pp 24- -25.


text:
Luxury on Thailand's Railways
Too dear for you? With a bit of planning, you can enjoy a perfectly civilized rail journey from Bangkok to Vientiane, Laos, at a fraction of the E&O price. The State Railway of Thailand operates several trains a day to the border crossing at Nong Khai, including overnight trains equipped with clean and comfortable first-class sleepers. Tickets can be bought up to 60 days in advance at Bangkok's Hualamphong Station or through a local travel agency. First-class berths are a steal at $30 a person, twice that if you're traveling solo and want the compartment to yourself. Be sure to book as far ahead as possible, especially during holiday periods like Chinese New Year, when demand is high. On the day of departure, set aside an hour for provisioning. A limited menu is available aboard the train, but a nice bottle of vin rouge and a simple picnic hamper will enhance your Orient-Express fantasy. Peppers on Soi Langsuan (in the Langsuan Balcony Building near Lumpini Park, tel. 02-254-7355) can fill your basket with Mediterranean-inspired sandwiches and roast vegetables. Or you can pick up a selection of bread, charcuterie and pastries at the Oriental Shop in the Oriental Hotel (02-236-0400). The shop also has branches at Central Chidlom on Ploenchit Road, Isetan in the World Trade Centre and Emporium on Sukhumvit Road.
After a restful night lulled by the gentle rocking of the train, you'll wake to see the deep green countryside of northeastern Thailand rolling past in dawn's early light. You'll arrive at Nong Khai around 7:30 a.m. Hop on a tuk-tuk to the Friendship Bridge across the Mekong, and, after completing border formalities, take one of the plentiful taxis to reach Vientiane in time for a breakfast of croissants and caf� au lait.
Similar journeys can be arranged from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, Surat Thani, Trang or Hat Yai, with connections to Malaysian trains for onward journeys to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. For timetables and fare information, visit the State Railway of Thailand's website at www.srt.motc.go.th/httpeng/index.html and Malaysia's KTM Berhad website at www.ktmb.com.my.
ASIANOW Travel Home
Quick Scroll: More stories from TIME Travel Watch
|Back to the top
© 2000 Time Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.


text:
In vitro differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) or inducible pluripotent stem cells (IPS) to megakaryocytes and platelets using specific differentiation conditions (liquid and 3D media). CRISPR/cas mutagenesis of HSC or IPS to study the effect of gene depletion or specific mutants on
Last updated on: 26-05-2022 - 10:41
Contact: Kathleen Freson
Organisation: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL)
Status: Still in development, Internally validated, Published in peer reviewed journal
Quantum Dots (QDs) have been hypothesized as potential probes for the optical monitoring of electrogenic cell activity given their high optical absorption cross-sections compared to organic fluorophores, high brightness and low photobleaching. Despite the theoretical predictions, less than a handful
Last updated on: 04-08-2021 - 16:50
Contact: Stijn Jooken
Organisation: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL)
We have established organoid cultures from patient-derived ovarian cancer (OC), in particular from the most prevalent high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC). Testing multiple culture medium components identified neuregulin-1 (NRG1) as key factor in maximizing OC organoid development and growth,
Last updated on: 28-01-2021 - 11:08
Organisation: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL)
Development of organoids from human endometrial diseased tissues for mechanistic pathogenic research and (personalized) drug screening
We have developed multiple organoid models from a broad spectrum of endometrial pathologies that capture endometrial disease diversity and will provide powerful research models and drug screening and discovery tools. Organoids from endometriosis show disease-associated traits and cancer-linked
Last updated on: 28-01-2021 - 11:08
Organisation: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL)
We have established organoids from mouse pituitary with the aim to generate a novel research model to study pituitary stem cell biology in both healthy and diseased glands. The organoids originated from the pituitary cells expressing the stem cell marker SOX2, were long-term expandable, displayed a
Last updated on: 28-01-2021 - 11:08
Organisation: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL)
We tissue-engineer in vitro, skeletal muscle consisting of aligned myofibers. To create the so-called bio-artificial muscle (BAM), human muscle progenitor cells are expanded, and a 3D construct is created by mixing the cells with a hydrogel. The cell-gel mix is cast into custom-made silicone molds
Last updated on: 08-12-2020 - 17:46
Contact: Lieven Thorrez
Organisation: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL)
Intestinal organoids are cultured from intestinal biopsies obtained during routine endoscopy. The stem cell containing crypts are isolated and cultured in a 3D ECM (Matrigel) in the presence of the desired growth factors. The present stem cells will expand and give rise to all epithelial cells of
Last updated on: 15-10-2020 - 14:32
Contact: Cannot be disclosed
Organisation: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL)
Reverse pharmacology is a high-throughput in vitro method to characterise ligand-receptor interactions. In this method, a receptor of interest is expressed in a heterologous cell line and used as a hook to fish out its ligand(s) from a library of synthetic compounds. Receptor activation is measured
Last updated on: 17-04-2020 - 09:56
Contact: Isabel Beets
Organisation: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL)
Performing biopredictive dissolution tests in in vitro models that are frequently used in pharmaceutical and academic institutions and using these in vitro dissolution data as input for PBPK models to predict the systemic exposure of the drug in humans/patients.
Last updated on: 08-04-2020 - 17:29
Contact: Bart Hens
Organisation: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL)
Standardized in vitro static digestion for diverse nutrients: understanding the consequence of food parameters on digestion kinetics
We study the influence of food parameters on the digestive kinetics of diverse nutrients throughout the upper gastrointestinal tract. For this, we use a static in vitro digestion protocol based on the standardized, consensus method recommended by the INFOGEST consortium. Briefly, the food is first
Last updated on: 31-03-2020 - 21:01
Contact: Tara Grauwet
Organisation: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL)
Partners: INFOGEST consortium


text:
She is a published poet who once wrote a prose poem about feet. He has a foot fetish. Obviously, they were made for each other.
But that isn't how they meet.
In Kate Fodor's hilarious new romantic comedy, "Rx," now having its Los Angeles premiere at The Lost Studio, she comes to him as a potential client. He is a research doctor conducting a clinical trial for a large pharmaceutical company. The pill he is testing is supposed to cure workplace depression.
She is the editor of a magazine for swine farmers and she hates her job. So she applies to become one of his guinea pigs.
Jonathan Pessin is the doctor, Phil, whose bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired. He is still conscience-stricken for having sworn at a little boy who bit him during an examination.
Mina Badie is the editor, Meena, who prides herself on the fact that she never cries in the office. She goes to a nearby department store and cries in the department that sells oversized underpants for fat ladies. "Those big white panties that look like the sails on a boat," she explains.
And so she becomes part of the drug trial and comes to see him every couple of weeks. The drug, called SP9 to 5, doesn't seem to be curing her depression, but she is feeling better because she believes she will begin to feel better "any minute now."
In the meantime, they fall in love. And she does begin to feel better. But is it the pill or Dr. Phil that is transforming her from a "depressed worker" to a zealously obsessive workaholic?
The plot is simple — nothing terribly profound — but it becomes a modern classic by virtue of the supporting characters and the extraordinary actors who play them. Noel Coward, eat your heart out.
Chief among them is Kirsten Kollender as Allison, the tall blonde office manager/marketing consultant/martinet who emphasizes and enforces "the rules" by smacking everyone with her clipboard and wrinkling her nose. She steals the show every time she appears onstage with her bouncy, self-confident stride.
Then there is Michael Dempsey as Richard, who comes up with the marketing campaign for the new pill (Allison bolsters his confidence by calling him "a Sherpa for consumers"). Dempsey also plays Ed Morgon, a rumpled doctor who delivers the funniest bit in the entire play. Which is saying a lot, because this play is laugh-out-loud funny all the way through.
Rounding out the superb cast is K Callan, a sweetly ditzy old lady that Meena encounters in the underpants department, and James Donovan, her nerdy boss at the magazine.
And masterfully guiding the whole production is director John Pleshette, who keeps everyone moving expeditiously through a minimal set that he designed. It's a clever use of a small space, with a rack of underwear representing the department store and a single desk and an examining table representing the necessary offices.
"Rx" will continue at The Lost Studio, 130 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. through March 1. Call (323) 960-7780 for tickets.
Cynthia Citron can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.