of the 1st district of Palawan (since 2022)
March 15 – Ricardo Zulueta (b. 1981 or 1982), former Bureau of Corrections official and suspect in the killing of Percy Lapid
March 19 – Fe Hidalgo (b. 1936), acting Secretary of Education (2005)
March 21:
Zenaida Seva (b. 1944), astrologer
Gia Baquiran-Sison (b. 1970), physician and mental health advocate
March 29 – Hubert Guevara (b. 1967), Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission (since February 2024) and former Senior Deputy Executive Secretary.

=== April ===
April 4:
Victor Corpus (b. 1944), AFP and NPA defector, chief of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (2001–2003)
Renato Constantino Jr. (b. 1944), Martial law dissident and political activist
Melvin Vargas Sr. (b. 1954), governor of Cagayan (1990–1992)
April 7 – Kathleen Okubo (b. 1953), journalist
April 10 – Tito Mina, singer
April 15 – Proculo Maslog (b. 1948), journalist
April 18 – Victor Aguinaldo (b. 1943), acting mayor of Muntinlupa<|endoftext|> dudery in games. Despite this, there are some that still think this “pandering” is misguided, which brings me to my next point …

3. “There’s no reason to think pandering is profitable”

Much like the previous complaint, this one is indicative of a systemic misconception; namely that only straight white men play games and therefore any attempt to market to another demographic is misguided. Quite simply, this is flat out untrue.

Pictured: Blizzard’s response to criticism over their lesbian character Tracer

On the contrary, it is often the case that representation convinces large groups of people to play a game who might not otherwise. This makes sense, people want to see media that is relevant to them or at the very least acknowledges their existence positively (a tall order for some studios). Video games don’t have to sacrifice believability to be inclusive; in fact, the opposite is true. If video games want any chance of garnering respect they will need to demonstrate their ability to be grounded in the real world. That means incorporating people from a wealth of different cultures and backgrounds, not just a small sliver. Despite the reality that there is no “average” gamer, there exists a common criticism leveled at any who would challenge the video game hegemony …

4. “All these SJW’s don’t even care about video games”

This is another complaint stemming from the flawed belief that women and other minorities only criticize games rather than play them. Aside from being altogether untrue, this idea seems to equate critique with dislike of video games as a whole. In reality, the opposite is true. People only take the time to discuss and evaluate the media they enjoy; for most it’s part of their enjoyment. In pointing out of the flaws of the games industry critics help to define what makes a game good and bad. This helps games grow and mature. If no one ever leveled a complaint at a game, by what metric could they ever help to improve?

“Games about non-white pixels are just pandering”

Even those that deem criticism of games valid take issue with some pretty major talking points. That’s why you hear things like …

5. “Male characters are just as sexualized as female characters”

Okay this one is admittedly a little more believable. I mean, there’s plenty of hot video game guys right?

Seriously though if protagonists weren’t enviable and attractive people wouldn’t want to play as them. The inherent joy of games is getting to play as a pinnacle of our own ideals and desires. The issue lies in the misconception that this fantasy is equitable amongst genders. It cannot be said that both women and men exist as sexual fantasies in games. While this is often true for women, it is more appropriate to say that men exist as power fantasies. Quite simply, men are the people we want to emulate while women are meant to be objects for the viewer’s consumption. We can look at this from another angle by examining what role women tend to fill in video games. It is often the case that on a given team of characters there exist a multitude of personality types, for males that is. The hero, the doofus, the wizard, the smooth talker, a male can fall into any number of archetypes. All too often however any female characters are just that, female. They have no niche to fill other than the fulfillment of their gender. This phenomenon is appropriately referred to as the “smurfette principle“. The message here is that male is the default, the expected. Women are confined to a simplistic existence of contrast for the male identity. Still, there are those that argue that women can be sexy and still “empowered”, that’s why you hear things like …

6. “Dictating how women should dress is the REAL sexism”

This observation asserts that, because women in video games are choosing how to present themselves, it is sexist to claim that they are objectified. “Who are we to question her decision? Clearly this is just how this woman expresses herself. When you try and tell a woman what she can and can’t do, that’s sexist.” Even if we ignore the fact that in the physical world women are inherently forced to commodify themselves and their sexuality to demonstrate value under the capitalist system, there is a pretty glaring flaw in this logic. Namely, that video games aren’t real. Ivy from the Soul Calibur doesn’t “choose” to dress like she does, the writers do.

The magical dancing sword whip is the most believable thing about this image

This is because Ivy isn’t a person, she’s a character within a story. We can’t know what her choices would be because she doesn’t exist. This argument might hold weight if just as many characters chose to be enticing to the male gaze as those who didn’t, but this certainly isn’t the case. These characters are subject to a pretty blatant agenda of objectification, regardless of whatever convenient narrative is constructed to justify it. It’s like saying, “Hey I’m not racist, I’ve got lots of black friends.” except all your black friends are just crudely drawn pictures made by you.

Every art medium changes over time as new practitioners add their own unique skills and viewpoints. It was once believed that books signaled the end of intelligence but we’ve been reading them for a while now and are doing okay so far. The truth is that gatekeeping does nothing to protect the integrity of a given artform. Instead, it only promotes stagnation. There’s only so many times a swarthy space marine can mow down a wave of space baddies before we start to feel a strong sense of déjà vu. New gamers means new perspectives and new games. There were always be a market for sex-fueled murder romps, they’re not dying anytime soon. Rather than ensure that these are the only games that have a right to exist we should instead seek out new and exciting genres. There’s plenty of room for everyone.<|endoftext|>By Rev. Everette Chapman

Among my favorite books are those by Dr. William L. Stidger, a minister of a previous generation.  May I share two of his stories for your reflection?  Dr. Stidger writes in Sermon Stores of Faith and Hope:

   Bishop Francis J. McConnell once told me a story of one of his vivid experiences on Cape Cod when he was a student preacher.  He was walking one stormy night with an old sea captain along the shore.  The captain was a patrol for the life guards, and he loved it.  It was a wild, noisy, tempestuous night and each had to yell above the noise of the elements in order to be heard.

   Suddenly the captain halted dead still in his tracks, cupped his hand to his ear, and said: “I hear a cry of distress out in the surf.  Somebody is in trouble.”  Bishop McConnell hadn’t heard any cry of distress, but that old man’s ears were tuned to a cry of distress, and he had heard it.  He reported it immediately to the life guards and, sure enough, they went out and rescued two fishermen who were clinging to an upturned boat.

   I then told the good and great bishop a story to match his—for a fair exchange is no robbery.  A little child had been sick for several nights, and her mother had tended her each night, but this one particularly hot summer night she had retired early for a much-needed rest.  The windows being open, the “clang” and “bang” of two streetcar lines caused a terrible din, but she slept on undisturbed.  A fire engine swept by with its siren blowing full blast, but her deep slumber was uninterrupted.  Boys, playing baseball in a next door lot, yelled and shouted, but she slept, unconscious of what was happening around her.

   The telephone rang three times before the father answered it.  He had been absorbed in the radio baseball news.  When it proved to be a wrong number, he let out a yell of indignation, but then

 dudery in games. Despite this, there are some that still think this “pandering” is misguided, which brings me to my next point …

3. “There’s no reason to think pandering is profitable”

Much like the previous complaint, this one is indicative of a systemic misconception; namely that only straight white men play games and therefore any attempt to market to another demographic is misguided. Quite simply, this is flat out untrue.

Pictured: Blizzard’s response to criticism over their lesbian character Tracer

On the contrary, it is often the case that representation convinces large groups of people to play a game who might not otherwise. This makes sense, people want to see media that is relevant to them or at the very least acknowledges their existence positively (a tall order for some studios). Video games don’t have to sacrifice believability to be inclusive; in fact, the opposite is true. If video games want any chance of garnering respect they will need to demonstrate their ability to be grounded in the real world. That means incorporating people from a wealth of different cultures and backgrounds, not just a small sliver. Despite the reality that there is no “average” gamer, there exists a common criticism leveled at any who would challenge the video game hegemony …

4. “All these SJW’s don’t even care about video games”

This is another complaint stemming from the flawed belief that women and other minorities only criticize games rather than play them. Aside from being altogether untrue, this idea seems to equate critique with dislike of video games as a whole. In reality, the opposite is true. People only take the time to discuss and evaluate the media they enjoy; for most it’s part of their enjoyment. In pointing out of the flaws of the games industry critics help to define what makes a game good and bad. This helps games grow and mature. If no one ever leveled a complaint at a game, by what metric could they ever help to improve?

“Games about non-white pixels are just pandering”

Even those that deem criticism of games valid take issue with some pretty major talking points. That’s why you hear things like …

5. “Male characters are just as sexualized as female characters”

Okay this one is admittedly a little more believable. I mean, there’s plenty of hot video game guys right?

Seriously though if protagonists weren’t enviable and attractive people wouldn’t want to play as them. The inherent joy of games is getting to play as a pinnacle of our own ideals and desires. The issue lies in the misconception that this fantasy is equitable amongst genders. It cannot be said that both women and men exist as sexual fantasies in games. While this is often true for women, it is more appropriate to say that men exist as power fantasies. Quite simply, men are the people we want to emulate while women are meant to be objects for the viewer’s consumption. We can look at this from another angle by examining what role women tend to fill in video games. It is often the case that on a given team of characters there exist a multitude of personality types, for males that is. The hero, the doofus, the wizard, the smooth talker, a male can fall into any number of archetypes. All too often however any female characters are just that, female. They have no niche to fill other than the fulfillment of their gender. This phenomenon is appropriately referred to as the “smurfette principle“. The message here is that male is the default, the expected. Women are confined to a simplistic existence of contrast for the male identity. Still, there are those that argue that women can be sexy and still “empowered”, that’s why you hear things like …

6. “Dictating how women should dress is the REAL sexism”

This observation asserts that, because women in video games are choosing how to present themselves, it is sexist to claim that they are objectified. “Who are we to question her decision? Clearly this is just how this woman expresses herself. When you try and tell a woman what she can and can’t do, that’s sexist.” Even if we ignore the fact that in the physical world women are inherently forced to commodify themselves and their sexuality to demonstrate value under the capitalist system, there is a pretty glaring flaw in this logic. Namely, that video games aren’t real. Ivy from the Soul Calibur doesn’t “choose” to dress like she does, the writers do.

The magical dancing sword whip is the most believable thing about this image

This is because Ivy isn’t a person, she’s a character within a story. We can’t know what her choices would be because she doesn’t exist. This argument might hold weight if just as many characters chose to be enticing to the male gaze as those who didn’t, but this certainly isn’t the case. These characters are subject to a pretty blatant agenda of objectification, regardless of whatever convenient narrative is constructed to justify it. It’s like saying, “Hey I’m not racist, I’ve got lots of black friends.” except all your black friends are just crudely drawn pictures made by you.

Every art medium changes over time as new practitioners add their own unique skills and viewpoints. It was once believed that books signaled the end of intelligence but we’ve been reading them for a while now and are doing okay so far. The truth is that gatekeeping does nothing to protect the integrity of a given artform. Instead, it only promotes stagnation. There’s only so many times a swarthy space marine can mow down a wave of space baddies before we start to feel a strong sense of déjà vu. New gamers means new perspectives and new games. There were always be a market for sex-fueled murder romps, they’re not dying anytime soon. Rather than ensure that these are the only games that have a right to exist we should instead seek out new and exciting genres. There’s plenty of room for everyone.<|endoftext|>By Rev. Everette Chapman

Among my favorite books are those by Dr. William L. Stidger, a minister of a previous generation.  May I share two of his stories for your reflection?  Dr. Stidger writes in Sermon Stores of Faith and Hope:

   Bishop Francis J. McConnell once told me a story of one of his vivid experiences on Cape Cod when he was a student preacher.  He was walking one stormy night with an old sea captain along the shore.  The captain was a patrol for the life guards, and he loved it.  It was a wild, noisy, tempestuous night and each had to yell above the noise of the elements in order to be heard.

   Suddenly the captain halted dead still in his tracks, cupped his hand to his ear, and said: “I hear a cry of distress out in the surf.  Somebody is in trouble.”  Bishop McConnell hadn’t heard any cry of distress, but that old man’s ears were tuned to a cry of distress, and he had heard it.  He reported it immediately to the life guards and, sure enough, they went out and rescued two fishermen who were clinging to an upturned boat.

   I then told the good and great bishop a story to match his—for a fair exchange is no robbery.  A little child had been sick for several nights, and her mother had tended her each night, but this one particularly hot summer night she had retired early for a much-needed rest.  The windows being open, the “clang” and “bang” of two streetcar lines caused a terrible din, but she slept on undisturbed.  A fire engine swept by with its siren blowing full blast, but her deep slumber was uninterrupted.  Boys, playing baseball in a next door lot, yelled and shouted, but she slept, unconscious of what was happening around her.

   The telephone rang three times before the father answered it.  He had been absorbed in the radio baseball news.  When it proved to be a wrong number, he let out a yell of indignation, but then remembered his sleeping wife.  He tiptoed into her room and smiled to himself when he saw that his roar had not disturbed her sleep, nor had the ringing phone.  She was oblivious to all the noise.

   He had hardly sat down again when the baby’s voice in the back bedroom cried out feebly: “Mother!  I want my mother!”  In a flash, that soundly-sleeping mother was up, out of the room, and at her baby’s side.  She was not disturbed by the streetcars, fire engines, yelling boys, or ringing phone, but her ear was tuned to the cry of distress from her sick baby.

There are lessons for us in these stories.  Selective deafness would be beneficial to us during these days when so much bad news thunders at us from the media.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful not to hear all the dire predictions of doom, all the words of hate, and all the strident voices around us during these stressful times?

We do need to shut off some of the doomsayers and angry voices around us and be wisely unhearing amidst all the static of a world seemingly gone mad, but we need to be sensitive to the voices we need to heed.  We need to listen when a friend gives us words of encouragement and to hear the quiet cries of


caused no casualties. Ukrainian rescuers then cleared the sports ground.

=== Residential development strike ===

At 19:00, Russian forces hit a dense residential area in the center of the city with an S-300 missile, striking the pavement next to a residential complex housing a cafe, post office, and beauty salon and wounding 18 people (including a 14-year-old teenager).

== Reactions ==
In response to the attacks, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address that the attacks were "yet another example of Russian madness". Zelenskyy also called for increased air defenses to keep Kharkiv and other cities in the country safe.
French President Emmanuel Macron on social media platform X wrote that the strike on the superstore was "unacceptable."
Senior United Nations official Denise Brown described the attack on the shopping center as ″utterly unacceptable″, adding that attacks by Russian forces hitting civilians and civilian infrastructure must stop.

== See also ==<|endoftext|> God can do for us, and start asking God what we can do for Him. The transformation occurs when we lose sight of ourselves and allow our vision to be overwhelmed with the glory of God.

Something I Really Hate

Allthings2all carries a story about a Christian leader in New Zealand convicted of sexually assualting minors. Catez does a great job of discussing how confusing things can get for Christians in this circumstance, and she chastises me (albeit unknowingly).
It is always difficult when a "Christian" is brought to justice for this type of offending. Often there is confusion - some people will get big on the need to forgive "the brother", and even suggest he should not be submitted to the legal process. My position, and this comes from having seen this type of scenario before, and from talking with victims, is that a true Christian would take responsibility in order to stop offending, and would take steps which show repentance. If the offender truly considered the damage to the victims, then he would not have qualms about facing up to his actions and owning them. In Capill's case, it was a victim who is now an adult who turned him in - years after his offending she was a bridesmaid at a wedding and he tried to kiss her. No sign of repentance from Capill there.

There's a certain kind of message - I could call it morality railing I suppose - which has always caused me concern. It seems to me that there is too much protest in that kind of message, and the harshness suggests to me that the messenger is off the beat. Not necessarily in the way Graham Capill was, but when some-one is trying to sell hostility as love it doesn't add up to a real Christian response.
She chastises me because my gut impulse in a situation like this is to string the guy up and do unspeakable things to him. The damage this man has done in the name of God, and to the name of God is almost incalcuable.

I have far more experience with situations like this than I would like to have. In separate incidents, I have been very close to both perpetrator and victim. There are some things that need to be understood -- people who do these sorts of things are driven by compulsions that they can never rid themselves of. With guidance, and care, and compassion they can gain some control over those compulsions, but they must forever after be viewed with suspicion and care. In these instances even genuine repentance and forgiveness can never result in a loosing of the safeguards that must be erected around such individuals to prevent it from happening again. There must always be something of the pariah about a person who has done this sort of thing. A person that is truly repentant will understand that and invite the safeguards and the associated "scarlet letter," if not for themselves, then for the sake of their vicitims and potential victims. I am at peace with the perpetrator I have known, but it will forever be an uneasy peace, and it is someone I love dearly.

As to the victims -- they face enormous amounts of very hard work to bring their lives into some sort of normalcy. Many find it easier to wallow in the state of victimhood, fortunately the victim I have known did that hard work. My prayers are with them in this situation.

As to the damage this man and others like him have done to God's name and His Kingdom, only God can decide what to do about that in the end. Fortunately, I don't have to. I think Catez is right when she says
As Christians I think we need to be clear on these sort of issues.
If the church is too quick and easy to forgive we run the risk of appearing to condone such things. If too harsh, we cancel out the gospel message. But the church must be crystal clear, we cannot afford ambivalence.

Official Denouncement

As Christians, we need to police ourselves when our brethren do something really bad. This is one of those times.
NewsCenter 5's Gail Huff reported that Staff Sgt. Christoper Piper, 43, served in both Afghanistan and Iraq and was awarded a bronze star for his combat service. The Green Beret died when his convoy was bombed June 3 in Afghanistan and a right-wing Protestant Christian church group from Topeka, Kansas is planning to demonstrate at Piper's funeral services at the Old North Church. They claim U.S. soldiers like Piper are dying because the country is being punished for its tolerance of what they see as immoral behavior, such as homosexuality.
Do they honestly think God would do something that unjust?

I hereby declare this group not Christian by any standard I know, so anyone that wants to use them to point out the foibles of Christianity, you aren't doing it here.

The Best of Pravda

A cow and a bull were caught during an act of love in public, which they arranged in the Kaliningrad region of Russia. The two loving animals "did it" in an office supplies shop.
I'm thinking they need better fences, or stronger doors there in the Kaliningrad region.

Zone-51 is a mysterious and secret US base located 130 kilometers off Las Vegas, Nevada. The green room is believed to be situated in this very army base. The room supposedly contains not only alien remnants, but fragments of an alien spaceship, which crashed in 1947.
Well....they believed in communism too.

Those Malayasian priests are pretty funny guys.

Way Cool!

Go here and follow the directions.
Tilt and rotate the view to see 3D terrain and buildings.
This may be the ultimate map!

Call Mulder

Man: Flesh-eating aliens were chasing me when I caused fatal car crash

This sounds like his kind of case.

Because It's Instinctive?

USDA Fails To Figure Out Why Tiger Attacked Illusionist Roy Horn

Just a wild guess on my part -- I mean it's not like tigers have spent centuries undomesticated, roaming huge territories and killing things.

That's A Relief

Cosmic Crash Won't Destroy Comet or Earth

And here I thought the Deep Impact mission was a plan by Osama Bin Laden to wreak interplanetary havoc. I'll sleep much better tonight.

Write Your Own Punchline

Cop Stabbed During Dunkin' Donuts Heist

Sometimes they make it a little too easy. This one falls in that category too:

Manila faithful flock to bury Sin

I just hope at the funeral no one said, "I have come not to bury Sin, but to praise him."

And if you are the least bit dirty minded, you'll come up with a dozen or so real winners for this goody:

Why You Can't Tickle Yourself

And they will all be best kept to yourself.

A Novel Approach

Women in an eastern Indian forest are stripping naked to distract police and to help a criminal gang avoid arrest while illegally chopping down trees, the Hindustan Times reported on Tuesday.
That may be the most inventive bit of criminality I have heard about in a long time. People this smart almost deserve to get away with it.

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Aging Churches

Cerulean Sanctum has been examining the business/church interface for a while now. His latest got Transforming Sermons attention -- and mine. I want to use the same money quote TS does, and another. First the one in common with TS
The "old is bad" meme has caught on even within God's Body. Churches preach that your appearance does not matter and that age means nothing--while at the same time they kick out the gray-haired worship pastor in favor of the trendy postmodern guy who loves Coldplay.
I have to be honest, I think CS aims well here, but still misses the essential point. Appearance isn't the issue in these cases, it's the perception that "the young are the future of the church." The media driven stuff that does this sort of falls into the background when you consider the real cost of ejecting the older:

I really like the second quote from the post

What we in the church tell the downsized and unemployed is a contradictory message, too. We say we'll stand by them, but then offer no help in finding them work.
Churches should be running ministries specifically to job-seekers. My father ran one for years, he helped people prepare resumes and CV

 God can do for us, and start asking God what we can do for Him. The transformation occurs when we lose sight of ourselves and allow our vision to be overwhelmed with the glory of God.

Something I Really Hate

Allthings2all carries a story about a Christian leader in New Zealand convicted of sexually assualting minors. Catez does a great job of discussing how confusing things can get for Christians in this circumstance, and she chastises me (albeit unknowingly).
It is always difficult when a "Christian" is brought to justice for this type of offending. Often there is confusion - some people will get big on the need to forgive "the brother", and even suggest he should not be submitted to the legal process. My position, and this comes from having seen this type of scenario before, and from talking with victims, is that a true Christian would take responsibility in order to stop offending, and would take steps which show repentance. If the offender truly considered the damage to the victims, then he would not have qualms about facing up to his actions and owning them. In Capill's case, it was a victim who is now an adult who turned him in - years after his offending she was a bridesmaid at a wedding and he tried to kiss her. No sign of repentance from Capill there.

There's a certain kind of message - I could call it morality railing I suppose - which has always caused me concern. It seems to me that there is too much protest in that kind of message, and the harshness suggests to me that the messenger is off the beat. Not necessarily in the way Graham Capill was, but when some-one is trying to sell hostility as love it doesn't add up to a real Christian response.
She chastises me because my gut impulse in a situation like this is to string the guy up and do unspeakable things to him. The damage this man has done in the name of God, and to the name of God is almost incalcuable.

I have far more experience with situations like this than I would like to have. In separate incidents, I have been very close to both perpetrator and victim. There are some things that need to be understood -- people who do these sorts of things are driven by compulsions that they can never rid themselves of. With guidance, and care, and compassion they can gain some control over those compulsions, but they must forever after be viewed with suspicion and care. In these instances even genuine repentance and forgiveness can never result in a loosing of the safeguards that must be erected around such individuals to prevent it from happening again. There must always be something of the pariah about a person who has done this sort of thing. A person that is truly repentant will understand that and invite the safeguards and the associated "scarlet letter," if not for themselves, then for the sake of their vicitims and potential victims. I am at peace with the perpetrator I have known, but it will forever be an uneasy peace, and it is someone I love dearly.

As to the victims -- they face enormous amounts of very hard work to bring their lives into some sort of normalcy. Many find it easier to wallow in the state of victimhood, fortunately the victim I have known did that hard work. My prayers are with them in this situation.

As to the damage this man and others like him have done to God's name and His Kingdom, only God can decide what to do about that in the end. Fortunately, I don't have to. I think Catez is right when she says
As Christians I think we need to be clear on these sort of issues.
If the church is too quick and easy to forgive we run the risk of appearing to condone such things. If too harsh, we cancel out the gospel message. But the church must be crystal clear, we cannot afford ambivalence.

Official Denouncement

As Christians, we need to police ourselves when our brethren do something really bad. This is one of those times.
NewsCenter 5's Gail Huff reported that Staff Sgt. Christoper Piper, 43, served in both Afghanistan and Iraq and was awarded a bronze star for his combat service. The Green Beret died when his convoy was bombed June 3 in Afghanistan and a right-wing Protestant Christian church group from Topeka, Kansas is planning to demonstrate at Piper's funeral services at the Old North Church. They claim U.S. soldiers like Piper are dying because the country is being punished for its tolerance of what they see as immoral behavior, such as homosexuality.
Do they honestly think God would do something that unjust?

I hereby declare this group not Christian by any standard I know, so anyone that wants to use them to point out the foibles of Christianity, you aren't doing it here.

The Best of Pravda

A cow and a bull were caught during an act of love in public, which they arranged in the Kaliningrad region of Russia. The two loving animals "did it" in an office supplies shop.
I'm thinking they need better fences, or stronger doors there in the Kaliningrad region.

Zone-51 is a mysterious and secret US base located 130 kilometers off Las Vegas, Nevada. The green room is believed to be situated in this very army base. The room supposedly contains not only alien remnants, but fragments of an alien spaceship, which crashed in 1947.
Well....they believed in communism too.

Those Malayasian priests are pretty funny guys.

Way Cool!

Go here and follow the directions.
Tilt and rotate the view to see 3D terrain and buildings.
This may be the ultimate map!

Call Mulder

Man: Flesh-eating aliens were chasing me when I caused fatal car crash

This sounds like his kind of case.

Because It's Instinctive?

USDA Fails To Figure Out Why Tiger Attacked Illusionist Roy Horn

Just a wild guess on my part -- I mean it's not like tigers have spent centuries undomesticated, roaming huge territories and killing things.

That's A Relief

Cosmic Crash Won't Destroy Comet or Earth

And here I thought the Deep Impact mission was a plan by Osama Bin Laden to wreak interplanetary havoc. I'll sleep much better tonight.

Write Your Own Punchline

Cop Stabbed During Dunkin' Donuts Heist

Sometimes they make it a little too easy. This one falls in that category too:

Manila faithful flock to bury Sin

I just hope at the funeral no one said, "I have come not to bury Sin, but to praise him."

And if you are the least bit dirty minded, you'll come up with a dozen or so real winners for this goody:

Why You Can't Tickle Yourself

And they will all be best kept to yourself.

A Novel Approach

Women in an eastern Indian forest are stripping naked to distract police and to help a criminal gang avoid arrest while illegally chopping down trees, the Hindustan Times reported on Tuesday.
That may be the most inventive bit of criminality I have heard about in a long time. People this smart almost deserve to get away with it.

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Aging Churches

Cerulean Sanctum has been examining the business/church interface for a while now. His latest got Transforming Sermons attention -- and mine. I want to use the same money quote TS does, and another. First the one in common with TS
The "old is bad" meme has caught on even within God's Body. Churches preach that your appearance does not matter and that age means nothing--while at the same time they kick out the gray-haired worship pastor in favor of the trendy postmodern guy who loves Coldplay.
I have to be honest, I think CS aims well here, but still misses the essential point. Appearance isn't the issue in these cases, it's the perception that "the young are the future of the church." The media driven stuff that does this sort of falls into the background when you consider the real cost of ejecting the older:

I really like the second quote from the post

What we in the church tell the downsized and unemployed is a contradictory message, too. We say we'll stand by them, but then offer no help in finding them work.
Churches should be running ministries specifically to job-seekers. My father ran one for years, he helped people prepare resumes and CV's, he counselled them on interviewing technique, he networked them. Any church of any size ought to have such a ministry. My church is small enough that when I hear someone is out of work, I just go talk to them, but bigger churches need to organize something like that. I strongly recommend it.

These Things Do Get Aroound!

I have been working very hard to disassociate the recent military murder in Iraq from the term "fragging." (see those posts here -- here -- here -- here) Some have wondered why. Here's Why!

Ward Churchill backs fragging
Controversial '9-11 prof' suggests rolling grenades under line officers

Obviously the guy hasn't had enough headlines lately - so he has decided to make a bigger jerk of himself than he already has.

And while we are discussing completely imbecilic ranters that are still adelpated from the 60's can we forget Tom Hayden? He is alive and blogging at HuffPo
Is


decision on a scheduled summit in June. The Socialist Forces Front promised to make the election "an occasion for a great debate", while the Rally for Culture and Democracy described the early election as a "constitutional coup de force" that would force a timeline causing "the de facto exclusion of society as a whole."
Tebboune's decision to set the elections in September also led to confusion among the Algerian public, with the Algerian Arabic phrase Ma fhemna walou (ما فهمنا ولو, "We didn't understand anything") becoming a trending topic on social media as a result.

== Electoral system ==
The President of Algeria is elected using the two-round system; if no candidate had received a majority of the vote in the first round, a second round would have been held. Candidates needed signatures from 600 elected officials or from 50,000 members of the public to be listed on the ballot. For this election, there were around 24.5 million registered voters. This election was administered by<|endoftext|> But can we? Can you? And what if you cannot walk away, or switch the offensive thing off? Can you tell someone preaching inside a crowded bus, “I am offended by your preaching, stop it”? Or are you expected to just stay offended?

No comments:<|endoftext|>Take the 2-minute tour ×

I have a few small projectors for small rooms, but I'm finding that these do not work well for pushing light to a larger screen further from the point of projection.

In looking for possible upgrades, what key features do I need to evaluate in comparative shopping? Is there a metric or feature I need to look for in a projector that will allow it to throw a bright, clear video projection from further away? To clarify, I'm not needing to replicate what the local cinema's use - I'm only showing slides not video content.

share|improve this question

2 Answers 2

You'd probably want to look for the following characteristics:

  • Min and max projection distance (from the data sheet, make sure the projector can focus correctly for the desired distance)
  • Lumen (some people recommend 500 lumen per square meter projection area, but of course, this also depends on your ambient lighting)
  • Native image resolution (projecting on a large area the image may become blurry with low resolution)
  • Diagonal image size (make sure the resulting image size fits your intended projection area)
share|improve this answer

The lumens of the projector is the primary indicator of how bright it is. Contrast ratio is also significant for determining how dark the dark pixels will be when bright pixels are bright, but a lot of that also depends on the type of screen you are using.

The size a projector can project is determined by the overall amount of light it can throw. As surface area increases, the amount of light that reaches it goes down according to the inverse square law.

This inherently makes sense when you think about it for a minute since you have a fixed amount of light coming out of the projector, but the larger the area you are trying to cover, the less light you have to cover it with per inch.

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

<|endoftext|>Saturday, 10 June 2017

Increasing productivity or part of the problem?

A couple of things happened recently that made me think differently about public perception of 3D printing.

Firstly my mum recently visited our workshop with one of my nephews. My mum repeatedly referred to our 3D printers as robots, mainly because my nephew is at an age where he is fascinated by robots and all things mechanical.

The other occasion was in a throwaway conversation with our neighbour. I was banging on about driverless cars and AI imminently taking everyone's jobs. He turned to me and called me a hypocrite, I run 3D printers which are taking away other people's jobs right?

Then during a third conversation with a surveyor who had asked us to print a hole in the ground, yes he really wanted a print of a hole in the ground! Why did he want a colour 3D print of a hole in the ground? He was trying to persuade older contractors of the value of capturing 3D data. Often they just will not wait even to take a series of photographs from which a virtual model can be created to record complex underground servicing.

From the mess of servicing underground you would think it would be a good idea to record and share this information. It is not a difficult idea to grasp but I can see how it could be a difficult idea to implement.

Putting all of that together, 3D printing of architectural design models is the staple of our business. The thing is that until 10 years ago it was really not possible to 3D print design models. 3D printers were around before that but price and speed where not right for making what are essentially concept models.

So for most architects they became design professionals without needing 3D printing to make design models. And the truth is that like recording that underground servicing it has not been easy to introduce 3D printing into most architect's design workflow.

This is not to say that architects have never used models and with the rise of 3D printing some have tried to apply 3D printing to their existing requirement for physical models - which is often for high quality presentation models. But that is not what 3D printing is good at unless a modelmaker is involved in transforming the 3D print into a convincing model.

A presentation model does not serve the same purpose as a design model. A design model helps stakeholders make decisions during the design process and presentation models sell the final design.

In this sense, 3D printing design models is an attempt to add value to the design process. If we are replacing anything, it is the time consuming card and foam models which were traditionally made by architectural assistants. Often made over the course of a night, fueled by pizza and coffee. Architectural assistants do not become architectural assistants to stay up at night making card mockups, they do so to become architects. So are 3D printers taking jobs in this instance?

There is a real threat to jobs in large established industries from AI and robotics. Capturing 3D data on building sites and in road excavations or helping stakeholders make clear decisions in the design process is not a threat to jobs. Instead these are processes for adding value and increasing productivity of existing jobs.

Public perception of 3D printing is formed not by reality but by manufacturers hype and the imaginations of the media.

Finally, is a 3D printer a robot? Robots do do boring repetitive tasks when they have time off from taking over the world I guess.

Thursday, 1 June 2017

The gig economy - a missed opportunity

The term gig economy is often not what it says it is and this is usually bad for everyone except employers (except of course that they claim not to be employers).

20 years ago I spent 3 years working in the gig economy as a self employed cycle courier. What this meant was working for a courier company with all of the usual employees, sales people, call assistants, controllers, managers but no couriers. All of the couriers; van drivers, motorcyclists and pushbikers were self employed.

At the time I didn't mind this, in fact I enjoyed the freedom and taking responsibility for looking after my own affairs was a positive experience. However the system was and remains inherently inefficient and the opportunity to make a living was limited.

20 years later I find myself in a position where I use couriers on a daily basis and being a somewhat impatient person I am frankly skeptical about the benefits of the so called gig economy.

What exactly is the gig here? Is it the individual job or is it the days work? Or the weeks work? Or the month or year? The way this work is renumerated is by the job.  The reality is that each courier is in service (employed) to a single courier company. As self employed couriers they should be free to take jobs from any courier company based on location and where they are headed.

This would effectively widen the pool of couriers available from those in service to a particular company to the entire fleet of self employed couriers working at any one time. In other words creating a real market for self employed couriers to compete in.

Increasing the efficiency of the overall system in this way would mean a better service for customers, increased productivity of the couriers and improved services offered by courier companies.

How can a proper market for the services of self employed couriers come about? Can a GPS network based technology be applied to create such a market where courier companies hire riders and drivers based on their location, direction and availability?

A system like this could increase productivity for everyone concerned including the businesses who need to use these services.

While writing this I came across a company called Brisqq who are supplying retail customers with deliveries. They say that "Brisqq's algorithm selects the best freelance courier (closest, highest rated, most appropriate vehicle etc.)"

Brisqq's reference to freelance couriers suggests they really are plugging into a pool of freelance couriers. I wonder if this is what they mean or is this their freelance couriers who are not allowed to work for anyone else? I hope its the former.<|endoftext|>site logo

Immortal Technique Land of the Gun Lyrics

Last updated: 04/01/2011 12:00:00 PM

[James Nichols from Bowling for Columbine]
Them people, law enforcement, if you want to call them that
were here and they were shaking in

 But can we? Can you? And what if you cannot walk away, or switch the offensive thing off? Can you tell someone preaching inside a crowded bus, “I am offended by your preaching, stop it”? Or are you expected to just stay offended?

No comments:<|endoftext|>Take the 2-minute tour ×

I have a few small projectors for small rooms, but I'm finding that these do not work well for pushing light to a larger screen further from the point of projection.

In looking for possible upgrades, what key features do I need to evaluate in comparative shopping? Is there a metric or feature I need to look for in a projector that will allow it to throw a bright, clear video projection from further away? To clarify, I'm not needing to replicate what the local cinema's use - I'm only showing slides not video content.

share|improve this question

2 Answers 2

You'd probably want to look for the following characteristics:

  • Min and max projection distance (from the data sheet, make sure the projector can focus correctly for the desired distance)
  • Lumen (some people recommend 500 lumen per square meter projection area, but of course, this also depends on your ambient lighting)
  • Native image resolution (projecting on a large area the image may become blurry with low resolution)
  • Diagonal image size (make sure the resulting image size fits your intended projection area)
share|improve this answer

The lumens of the projector is the primary indicator of how bright it is. Contrast ratio is also significant for determining how dark the dark pixels will be when bright pixels are bright, but a lot of that also depends on the type of screen you are using.

The size a projector can project is determined by the overall amount of light it can throw. As surface area increases, the amount of light that reaches it goes down according to the inverse square law.

This inherently makes sense when you think about it for a minute since you have a fixed amount of light coming out of the projector, but the larger the area you are trying to cover, the less light you have to cover it with per inch.

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

<|endoftext|>Saturday, 10 June 2017

Increasing productivity or part of the problem?

A couple of things happened recently that made me think differently about public perception of 3D printing.

Firstly my mum recently visited our workshop with one of my nephews. My mum repeatedly referred to our 3D printers as robots, mainly because my nephew is at an age where he is fascinated by robots and all things mechanical.

The other occasion was in a throwaway conversation with our neighbour. I was banging on about driverless cars and AI imminently taking everyone's jobs. He turned to me and called me a hypocrite, I run 3D printers which are taking away other people's jobs right?

Then during a third conversation with a surveyor who had asked us to print a hole in the ground, yes he really wanted a print of a hole in the ground! Why did he want a colour 3D print of a hole in the ground? He was trying to persuade older contractors of the value of capturing 3D data. Often they just will not wait even to take a series of photographs from which a virtual model can be created to record complex underground servicing.

From the mess of servicing underground you would think it would be a good idea to record and share this information. It is not a difficult idea to grasp but I can see how it could be a difficult idea to implement.

Putting all of that together, 3D printing of architectural design models is the staple of our business. The thing is that until 10 years ago it was really not possible to 3D print design models. 3D printers were around before that but price and speed where not right for making what are essentially concept models.

So for most architects they became design professionals without needing 3D printing to make design models. And the truth is that like recording that underground servicing it has not been easy to introduce 3D printing into most architect's design workflow.

This is not to say that architects have never used models and with the rise of 3D printing some have tried to apply 3D printing to their existing requirement for physical models - which is often for high quality presentation models. But that is not what 3D printing is good at unless a modelmaker is involved in transforming the 3D print into a convincing model.

A presentation model does not serve the same purpose as a design model. A design model helps stakeholders make decisions during the design process and presentation models sell the final design.

In this sense, 3D printing design models is an attempt to add value to the design process. If we are replacing anything, it is the time consuming card and foam models which were traditionally made by architectural assistants. Often made over the course of a night, fueled by pizza and coffee. Architectural assistants do not become architectural assistants to stay up at night making card mockups, they do so to become architects. So are 3D printers taking jobs in this instance?

There is a real threat to jobs in large established industries from AI and robotics. Capturing 3D data on building sites and in road excavations or helping stakeholders make clear decisions in the design process is not a threat to jobs. Instead these are processes for adding value and increasing productivity of existing jobs.

Public perception of 3D printing is formed not by reality but by manufacturers hype and the imaginations of the media.

Finally, is a 3D printer a robot? Robots do do boring repetitive tasks when they have time off from taking over the world I guess.

Thursday, 1 June 2017

The gig economy - a missed opportunity

The term gig economy is often not what it says it is and this is usually bad for everyone except employers (except of course that they claim not to be employers).

20 years ago I spent 3 years working in the gig economy as a self employed cycle courier. What this meant was working for a courier company with all of the usual employees, sales people, call assistants, controllers, managers but no couriers. All of the couriers; van drivers, motorcyclists and pushbikers were self employed.

At the time I didn't mind this, in fact I enjoyed the freedom and taking responsibility for looking after my own affairs was a positive experience. However the system was and remains inherently inefficient and the opportunity to make a living was limited.

20 years later I find myself in a position where I use couriers on a daily basis and being a somewhat impatient person I am frankly skeptical about the benefits of the so called gig economy.

What exactly is the gig here? Is it the individual job or is it the days work? Or the weeks work? Or the month or year? The way this work is renumerated is by the job.  The reality is that each courier is in service (employed) to a single courier company. As self employed couriers they should be free to take jobs from any courier company based on location and where they are headed.

This would effectively widen the pool of couriers available from those in service to a particular company to the entire fleet of self employed couriers working at any one time. In other words creating a real market for self employed couriers to compete in.

Increasing the efficiency of the overall system in this way would mean a better service for customers, increased productivity of the couriers and improved services offered by courier companies.

How can a proper market for the services of self employed couriers come about? Can a GPS network based technology be applied to create such a market where courier companies hire riders and drivers based on their location, direction and availability?

A system like this could increase productivity for everyone concerned including the businesses who need to use these services.

While writing this I came across a company called Brisqq who are supplying retail customers with deliveries. They say that "Brisqq's algorithm selects the best freelance courier (closest, highest rated, most appropriate vehicle etc.)"

Brisqq's reference to freelance couriers suggests they really are plugging into a pool of freelance couriers. I wonder if this is what they mean or is this their freelance couriers who are not allowed to work for anyone else? I hope its the former.<|endoftext|>site logo

Immortal Technique Land of the Gun Lyrics

Last updated: 04/01/2011 12:00:00 PM

[James Nichols from Bowling for Columbine]
Them people, law enforcement, if you want to call them that
were here and they were shaking in their shoes. They were physically
shaking, scared to death. Because certain people, said I'm a radical
I'm a wild man, I got a gun under every arm, if you say anything
I'll shoot you. If the people find out how they've been
ripped off, and enslaved, they will revolt with the blood
running in the streets.

Yo, Ticket to ride, the white crime, highway
Bring all the guns, the funds will come my way
Whether we deliverin' high grade
To the people in the pit of the tri-state
Or dabble in the hood like fly weights
Lock and load in the range with rock the globe
Made any aim possible
Til the leadbelly lost control
In the hold of the paper that fold
At one time was related to gold
Made many men lose their soul
To the price of the dice that roll
How can a light so bright make a man so cold?
So another man's plans unfold
Can you really see


Wales is extended to a further 16 venues following a trial at three locations.
A University College London study of five cases of Alzheimer's disease suggests they could have been caused by a treatment in which the patients were injected with growth hormones from dead people, a treatment that was withdrawn in the mid-1980s.
30 January
Lucy Letby has her initial request for permission to appeal against seven murder convictions and six attempted murder convictions refused by the Court of Appeal.
HSBC is fined £57.4m by the Bank of England for "serious failings" over its measures to protect customer deposits.
The ONS publishes its latest forecast of UK population, suggesting that the number of people in the UK could rise from 67 to 73.7 million by 2036, driven by strong immigration.
31 January
Post-Brexit controls on food, plant and animal imports to Britain from the EU come into force.
2024 Northern Ireland Executive Formation: Details of a deal between the UK government and the<|endoftext|>How climate model downscaling works

Climate modelling
Global climate models (GCMs) provide the best estimates of global change to our climate to the end of the 21st century. Using more global climate models in a climate modelling study gives a better idea of the range of possible future climate conditions, and the more confident we can be in the projected change in the Earth’s climate. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) considered output from 23 global climate models when compiling its Fourth Assessment Report. Climate Futures for Tasmania used the same multi-model approach. However due to the modest scale of the project relative to the IPCC AR4, we used six GCMs. As the ability to accurately simulate present climate is a useful indicator of how well a model can simulate the future climate, we chose the six models for their ability to reproduce present day rainfall means and variability over Australia.

Generating fine-scale climate projections
Generally, climate information from global climate models has a resolution of 200 km to 300 km. This means that the Earth’s surface is divided into grid cells that are 200 km to 300 km along each side. At this resolution, a single state of Australia may be represented by only a few grid cells. In each grid cell, climate variables such as temperature and rainfall, and even the topography, have just a single value. This means global climate models do not allow us to understand the regional detail of climate change at local scales, for example they can not distinguish between valleys, coastlines and mountains. For this level of detail, we downscale information from global climate models using an advanced dynamical model.

Emissions scenarios
It is very likely that rising greenhouse gases, along with aerosol emissions, stratospheric ozone depletion and other human influences, are responsible for much of the recent global climate change. The extent of future man-made climate change is dependent on the amount of greenhouse gases and other emissions that are released. The most commonly used and accepted set of emissions scenarios comes from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), who outlined the scenarios in their 2001 Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES). These scenarios, commonly referred to as SRES scenarios, are divided into six ‘families’ – A1FI, A2, A1B, B2, A1T and B1 – and are based on estimated future technological and societal (such as population growth) changes.
Climate Futures for Tasmania used a high emissions scenario (A2) and a low emissions scenario (B1). Using a high and a low emissions scenario provides a reasonable upper and lower range of climate change projections. It is worth noting that these emissions scenarios do not diverge significantly until the middle of the 21st century and thus the change in global mean near‑surface temperature is roughly the same across all emissions scenarios up until the middle of the century. Consequently, the choice of SRES emissions scenario does not become important until the latter half of the century.

Choosing a downscaling method
There are two established methods for downscaling global climate model information to a finer scale suitable for regional studies: dynamical downscaling and statistical downscaling. Dynamical downscaling uses output from a ‘host’ global climate model as input into either a limited-area climate model or a stretched grid global climate model. Limited area climate models operate over a small part of the globe. Stretched grid global climate models operate over the entire globe, but focus on one small area in particular.
Regional climate models use the same physics as global climate models, and can be just as complex; however, because a regional model focuses on a small area, it provides more detail over that area than a global model, and is much more efficient and economical to

Statistical downscaling relates patterns and changes in large scale climate to the local climate. These statistical relationships are derived from historical observations. Once established, the relationships are applied to global climate model projections to produce
fine-scale projections of local climate. Statistical downscaling is usually much less complex, and requires much less computing power, than dynamical downscaling. Statistical and dynamical downscaling produce similar results for present-day climate, but
can differ when examining future climate projections. Statistical downscaling applies historically observed links between large-scale climate variables (from the global climate model) and local climate to a future climate. This is often considered a limitation of statistical downscaling, as these relationships may change in a warmer world. Dynamical downscaling models are complex enough to allow relationships between large-scale climate and local climate to change under future climate according to our understanding of atmospheric processes. A second limitation of projecting a changing climate using statistical downscaling is that the observations being used for the downscaling must span the range of projected future climate responses. In practice, this requires long, reliable observations of both the large and fine-scale climate. Such observational datasets are often not available. Dynamical models rely on our understanding of physical processes in the atmosphere, not only observations of climate.

Dynamical models are complex enough to simulate climate and climate changes at all scales, from global to regional, in a coherent manner. Using dynamical downscaling allows us to demonstrate changes in the local climate of Tasmania, such as changes to the timing, frequency and intensity of weather events – changes that are difficult to detect using statistical downscaling. Dynamical downscaling also maintains the relationships between different climate variables. For example, ‘rainy days’ will be ‘cloudy’ and ‘cool’, or when a ‘cold front’ passes over Tasmania the ‘temperature’ drops. This allows us to assess complex changes, for example changes to agricultural production, that involve the interaction of many climate variables (for example, the incidence of frost and available water). The main constraint of dynamical downscaling is the technical complexity and computational cost. Because of the many benefits of dynamical downscaling, Climate Futures for Tasmania made the technical and financial commitment to use dynamical downscaling

Downscaling can lead to a different story: The global climate model (top image) shows that summer rainfall is projected to decrease in the future. As we downscale from the global climate model (middle and bottom image) projections show an increase in summer rainfall on the east coast of Tasmania. This different projection is due to the improved ability of the downscaled simulations to model drivers of Tasmanian rainfall.

Applying the downscaling method
Tasmania is roughly 350 km by 300 km, the size of a few global climate model grid cells. After carefully weighing up the costs and benefits involved with downscaling to different grid-scales, Climate Futures for Tasmania decided on a final resolution of 0.1 degrees . This corresponds to a grid where each individual cell has side lengths of approximately 10 km. To achieve this resolution we undertook a two-stage dynamical downscaling process using CSIRO’s Conformal Cubic Atmospheric Model (CCAM). The two-stage process used sea surface temperature from the six selected global climate models (for each of the two SRES emissions scenarios) to create intermediate resolution simulations with a resolution of 0.5 degrees (around 60 km) over Australia.
Before we use the modelling output from the global climate models, we bias-adjust the sea surface temperature to bring the modelling output in line with the observed temperatures. These intermediate-resolution simulations are used as input for the simulations with a high-resolution over Tasmania (0.1 degrees or 10 km). We also produce a simulation with very high resolution over Tasmania (0.05-degrees) using the A2 emissions scenario and CSIRO-Mk3.5 as the host global climate model. The temperature of the sea surface is a major factor in driving global climate systems (such as the monsoons, El Niño or the Roaring Forties), that in turn influence the local climate and weather conditions. Sea surface temperature (and sea-ice concentration in the polar regions) is the only information from the global climate model we use in the downscaling process. By only using information from the ocean surface, we allow the regional climate simulations to create their own pressure, wind, temperature and rainfall patterns in the atmosphere. These patterns occur in response to such local effects as topography. Using the sea surface temperatures

 La…<|endoftext|>ISLAMABAD: Ex rulers of those states which are now part of Pakistan have been given a huge allowance by Pakistan since Present day Pakistan became West Pakistan in 1956, for their loyalty. This allowance has been increased many times in the past.

Now, a Senate panel approved a bill on Monday to increase allowances of former rulers of states that acceded to Pakistan at the time of independence by as much as 200 per cent.<|endoftext|>How climate model downscaling works

Climate modelling
Global climate models (GCMs) provide the best estimates of global change to our climate to the end of the 21st century. Using more global climate models in a climate modelling study gives a better idea of the range of possible future climate conditions, and the more confident we can be in the projected change in the Earth’s climate. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) considered output from 23 global climate models when compiling its Fourth Assessment Report. Climate Futures for Tasmania used the same multi-model approach. However due to the modest scale of the project relative to the IPCC AR4, we used six GCMs. As the ability to accurately simulate present climate is a useful indicator of how well a model can simulate the future climate, we chose the six models for their ability to reproduce present day rainfall means and variability over Australia.

Generating fine-scale climate projections
Generally, climate information from global climate models has a resolution of 200 km to 300 km. This means that the Earth’s surface is divided into grid cells that are 200 km to 300 km along each side. At this resolution, a single state of Australia may be represented by only a few grid cells. In each grid cell, climate variables such as temperature and rainfall, and even the topography, have just a single value. This means global climate models do not allow us to understand the regional detail of climate change at local scales, for example they can not distinguish between valleys, coastlines and mountains. For this level of detail, we downscale information from global climate models using an advanced dynamical model.

Emissions scenarios
It is very likely that rising greenhouse gases, along with aerosol emissions, stratospheric ozone depletion and other human influences, are responsible for much of the recent global climate change. The extent of future man-made climate change is dependent on the amount of greenhouse gases and other emissions that are released. The most commonly used and accepted set of emissions scenarios comes from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), who outlined the scenarios in their 2001 Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES). These scenarios, commonly referred to as SRES scenarios, are divided into six ‘families’ – A1FI, A2, A1B, B2, A1T and B1 – and are based on estimated future technological and societal (such as population growth) changes.
Climate Futures for Tasmania used a high emissions scenario (A2) and a low emissions scenario (B1). Using a high and a low emissions scenario provides a reasonable upper and lower range of climate change projections. It is worth noting that these emissions scenarios do not diverge significantly until the middle of the 21st century and thus the change in global mean near‑surface temperature is roughly the same across all emissions scenarios up until the middle of the century. Consequently, the choice of SRES emissions scenario does not become important until the latter half of the century.

Choosing a downscaling method
There are two established methods for downscaling global climate model information to a finer scale suitable for regional studies: dynamical downscaling and statistical downscaling. Dynamical downscaling uses output from a ‘host’ global climate model as input into either a limited-area climate model or a stretched grid global climate model. Limited area climate models operate over a small part of the globe. Stretched grid global climate models operate over the entire globe, but focus on one small area in particular.
Regional climate models use the same physics as global climate models, and can be just as complex; however, because a regional model focuses on a small area, it provides more detail over that area than a global model, and is much more efficient and economical to

Statistical downscaling relates patterns and changes in large scale climate to the local climate. These statistical relationships are derived from historical observations. Once established, the relationships are applied to global climate model projections to produce
fine-scale projections of local climate. Statistical downscaling is usually much less complex, and requires much less computing power, than dynamical downscaling. Statistical and dynamical downscaling produce similar results for present-day climate, but
can differ when examining future climate projections. Statistical downscaling applies historically observed links between large-scale climate variables (from the global climate model) and local climate to a future climate. This is often considered a limitation of statistical downscaling, as these relationships may change in a warmer world. Dynamical downscaling models are complex enough to allow relationships between large-scale climate and local climate to change under future climate according to our understanding of atmospheric processes. A second limitation of projecting a changing climate using statistical downscaling is that the observations being used for the downscaling must span the range of projected future climate responses. In practice, this requires long, reliable observations of both the large and fine-scale climate. Such observational datasets are often not available. Dynamical models rely on our understanding of physical processes in the atmosphere, not only observations of climate.

Dynamical models are complex enough to simulate climate and climate changes at all scales, from global to regional, in a coherent manner. Using dynamical downscaling allows us to demonstrate changes in the local climate of Tasmania, such as changes to the timing, frequency and intensity of weather events – changes that are difficult to detect using statistical downscaling. Dynamical downscaling also maintains the relationships between different climate variables. For example, ‘rainy days’ will be ‘cloudy’ and ‘cool’, or when a ‘cold front’ passes over Tasmania the ‘temperature’ drops. This allows us to assess complex changes, for example changes to agricultural production, that involve the interaction of many climate variables (for example, the incidence of frost and available water). The main constraint of dynamical downscaling is the technical complexity and computational cost. Because of the many benefits of dynamical downscaling, Climate Futures for Tasmania made the technical and financial commitment to use dynamical downscaling

Downscaling can lead to a different story: The global climate model (top image) shows that summer rainfall is projected to decrease in the future. As we downscale from the global climate model (middle and bottom image) projections show an increase in summer rainfall on the east coast of Tasmania. This different projection is due to the improved ability of the downscaled simulations to model drivers of Tasmanian rainfall.

Applying the downscaling method
Tasmania is roughly 350 km by 300 km, the size of a few global climate model grid cells. After carefully weighing up the costs and benefits involved with downscaling to different grid-scales, Climate Futures for Tasmania decided on a final resolution of 0.1 degrees . This corresponds to a grid where each individual cell has side lengths of approximately 10 km. To achieve this resolution we undertook a two-stage dynamical downscaling process using CSIRO’s Conformal Cubic Atmospheric Model (CCAM). The two-stage process used sea surface temperature from the six selected global climate models (for each of the two SRES emissions scenarios) to create intermediate resolution simulations with a resolution of 0.5 degrees (around 60 km) over Australia.
Before we use the modelling output from the global climate models, we bias-adjust the sea surface temperature to bring the modelling output in line with the observed temperatures. These intermediate-resolution simulations are used as input for the simulations with a high-resolution over Tasmania (0.1 degrees or 10 km). We also produce a simulation with very high resolution over Tasmania (0.05-degrees) using the A2 emissions scenario and CSIRO-Mk3.5 as the host global climate model. The temperature of the sea surface is a major factor in driving global climate systems (such as the monsoons, El Niño or the Roaring Forties), that in turn influence the local climate and weather conditions. Sea surface temperature (and sea-ice concentration in the polar regions) is the only information from the global climate model we use in the downscaling process. By only using information from the ocean surface, we allow the regional climate simulations to create their own pressure, wind, temperature and rainfall patterns in the atmosphere. These patterns occur in response to such local effects as topography. Using the sea surface temperatures from the host global climate model ensures the large-scale climate is the same as the global model.

Building trust in the simulations
Running a climate simulation to generate a projection of future climate is just like running an experiment. The more often you repeat an experiment and get a similar answer, the more trustworthy the results. To test whether our projections of future climate are realistic, we run many simulations and study the similarities (and differences) in the results. Just like cars, there are many types of global climate models. Some models are


 has the ability to be the parent for a child who has intense needs.

I think in the case of somebody like Angie and Robert, where everybody talks about how much support that the family had -- in that case, when we have autism families we need to be very vigilant about [watching for] signs of stress. The message that we need to get out to them is that if you think you're reaching the edge, what you can do is you can call 911 on yourself. I don't know, I apologize, if it's the same code in Canada as it is in the States. But it's better for your child to be with the authorities and alive than it is for your child to be dead. That's the message that people need to hear. Over and Over again.

Some [other autism parents] say I'm not terribly sympathetic to them but the thing is -- I am a parent to a child with intense needs. I get it. He's big, he's as big as me now and he's only going to get bigger. But understanding that parenting can be difficult and getting in the mind space where someone would kill their kid, those are two separate things. So I think if parents are having a really hard time, that's when you need to reach out -- not when you're at the point where you feel like you're going to murder your child. Because, again, parents who are mentally ill, most of them don't kill their children, parents who have autistic children, most of them don't kill their children. So it's not because of services, you know what I'm saying? If that makes sense.

GB:  Yeah. The portrait painted of Angie by the people who knew her,  is one of a mother who loved her son but was unable to find help and ultimately driven to take her own life so I ask, is there not room for sympathy here?

SR: That is absolutely what I'm saying. But the sympathy needs to be extended before you get to the crisis. The sympathy needs to be with people who are alive, instead of after the fact saying, “Oh my God...” you know, “she should have done something differently” ...

I'm sorry, I'm getting a little flustered just because this is very emotional for me.

We need to get the message out to parents like Angie that it's OK if you're at the edge. It's OK to surrender completely in that you can give your child up to the authorities. You can walk away. It will ruin your life, yes, but at least your child will still be alive. You can do that.

I'm part of an organization called Thinking Person's Guide to Autism and all we do, all day long (and in our book) is advocate to get parents services and understanding, and work with autistic people and professionals as well. This is all I do, all day long. So there's no chance of lacking empathy or sympathy for other parents. But I cannot extend it when somebody crosses the line. Although I can say that if they didn't understand that calling services on themselves and abandoning their child is an option, then that's due to lack of understanding. That's the message we need to get out, instead of saying that autism causes murder.

GB: There's been a lot of criticism on the BC government and the rest of society, quite frankly, here in Prince Rupert about how much service there is for people dealing with children, coping and living and raising children with autism. Is there not room also for this to become a political story, a societal story in which people are forced to react?

SR: I can't do that. I can't get behind that because then you are saying, essentially, that if autism families don't get services then they're going to kill their kids. You know what I'm saying? If you use that as your lead. I think we need to work harder and longer to get services to the autistic people and their families who need it because it's what they deserve as human beings. It needs to happen, it's just what we do as a society that cares about all the people in it. And I know that BC's had a really hard time with cut backs recently, but we need to look at who the most vulnerable people in our society are, who can't necessarily advocate for themselves, and just because they aren't given the opportunity to advocate for themselves doesn't mean they don't deserve to be taken care of.

GB: Shannon Rosa we'll have to leave it there. Thank you so much for talking to us today about this very difficult topic.

SR: Thank you for having me, I really appreciate it.

GB: Take care, Good bye.

SR: OK, good bye.

GB: That is Shannon Rosa, a writer and advocate for families dealing with autism. She's also the mother of an autistic son. You can find her blog at www.squidalicious.com. We, of course, would love to hear your take on this story. Email us at: daybreaknorth@cbc.ca, Give us a call 1-866-340-1932.
We are also on Facebook, and on Twitter @DaybreakNorth.

*Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, essentially Canada's NPR or BBC.

1 comment:

  1. Wow. Amazing stuff! Please keep up the good info! www.voice4autism.org

Respectful disagreement encouraged.

Related Posts with Thumbnails<|endoftext|>Talkback: RW Interviews: Hugh Jones (Olympic Course Measurer)

3 messages
18/05/2012 at 13:29

Certainly an unsung hero. If only every race would get officially measured.

Edited: 18/05/2012 at 13:30
18/05/2012 at 13:40

Surely more people could have watched the marathon if they had opted for the London Marathon course - and Hugh is hardly an unsung hero - he is one of our best ever over the 26.2 mile distance and faster than the current crop of hopefulls!!!

28/05/2012 at 07:40

I thought the new version of the site was supposed to make it easier the spammers out. This is the script/spamming shite again.

3 messages
Forum Jump

RW Forums<|endoftext|>Snake on Saturdays - kindle ebook by Jean Gill

Free kindle book promotion on amazon 19th-23rd August

The idea for 'Snake on Saturdays' came to author Jean Gill while she was driving back from a family camping holiday in France and she scribbled down the plot on the back of a tourist leaflet. She admits that some of the experiences in the novel are true and that she did sing the Yorkshire anthem 'Ilkley Moor B'at'at' on a Welsh street with some girl friends, while of dubious sobriety. The gay disco in London is also based on a real experience, where Jean found herself to be the only woman in the nightclub and finally got the message about the man with her.

All the places in the novel exist and a reader could trace the heroine Helen's footsteps from the cuddly marmots of St Geniez d'Olt in the Lot region of France, to the dolmens of Mynydd Llangedeyrne in rural south Wales, UK.

Research for the novel included a phone call to the French Embassy in London to find out what would happen if a UK citizen were involved in an accident in France. No amount of explanantion would convince the Embassy officials that Jean was a novelist not a criminal but they sent her a useful leaflet. Research also involved Jean's local vet and when he turned up at one of her readings, everyone in the room clapped, thinking him to be the origin of Helen's lover, Dai Evans. She assured everyone that only his knowledge of bovine diseases had been featured in the book but for some reason, again, no-one believed her.

Share this:<|endoftext|>Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state.
The attack occurred during an event called the Festival of Diversity (Festival der Vielfalt), a three-day event from 23 to 25 August celebrating Solingen's 650th anniversary. It had been billed as turning the city center into a big "celebration mile" stretching from Neumarkt to Fronhof to Mühlenplatz. The incident took place at the Fronhof, a central square and marketplace in the heart of the city, where a stage had been set up for live music performances.
Prior to the stabbing, there was a 10% annual rise in knife attacks in Germany, particularly in city centers and at railway stations. Interior minister Nancy Faeser earlier in August 2024 told public broadcaster ARD that more stringent restrictions were needed on knives in public places, with exceptions only for household knives in closed packaging that have just been bought.

== Attack ==
The attack occurred around 21:40 local time (19:40 UTC). A man stabbed several people, killing<|endoftext|>Recently I’ve seen unsolicited SPAM e-mails coming directly from other peoples’ e-mail and social networking accounts. They’ll often post messages afterwords claiming that their accounts had been hacked. I’ll usually ask these friends, “Do you use the same password on multiple websites?” and the ensuing “Yes” response from them is followed by, “Change your e-mail password, and also, you need to learn something about password security.”

If your e-mail or social networking (Twitter, Facebook, et ceter

 he's learning to use that, which is great.

He goes to a school for autistic children and they actually have an adult program as well. He needs 1:1 support because really, he's very autistic and sometimes he lacks impulse control. So he wouldn't necessarily understand that he shouldn't open up car door on a freeway. But that's not because he's misbehaving, although some cases it might be. It might be that the reaction he gets from me when I see him open the door is so great that he can't resist doing it.

Again this goes back to understanding autism. I think there's a real problem with people thinking autistic kids and people are bad, when they are misunderstood. And back to these murders: you see people who are very wealthy or who have all the services in the world who still murder their kids because they don't understand autism, or they want their kids to be "cured," or not everybody has the ability to be the parent for a child who has intense needs.

I think in the case of somebody like Angie and Robert, where everybody talks about how much support that the family had -- in that case, when we have autism families we need to be very vigilant about [watching for] signs of stress. The message that we need to get out to them is that if you think you're reaching the edge, what you can do is you can call 911 on yourself. I don't know, I apologize, if it's the same code in Canada as it is in the States. But it's better for your child to be with the authorities and alive than it is for your child to be dead. That's the message that people need to hear. Over and Over again.

Some [other autism parents] say I'm not terribly sympathetic to them but the thing is -- I am a parent to a child with intense needs. I get it. He's big, he's as big as me now and he's only going to get bigger. But understanding that parenting can be difficult and getting in the mind space where someone would kill their kid, those are two separate things. So I think if parents are having a really hard time, that's when you need to reach out -- not when you're at the point where you feel like you're going to murder your child. Because, again, parents who are mentally ill, most of them don't kill their children, parents who have autistic children, most of them don't kill their children. So it's not because of services, you know what I'm saying? If that makes sense.

GB:  Yeah. The portrait painted of Angie by the people who knew her,  is one of a mother who loved her son but was unable to find help and ultimately driven to take her own life so I ask, is there not room for sympathy here?

SR: That is absolutely what I'm saying. But the sympathy needs to be extended before you get to the crisis. The sympathy needs to be with people who are alive, instead of after the fact saying, “Oh my God...” you know, “she should have done something differently” ...

I'm sorry, I'm getting a little flustered just because this is very emotional for me.

We need to get the message out to parents like Angie that it's OK if you're at the edge. It's OK to surrender completely in that you can give your child up to the authorities. You can walk away. It will ruin your life, yes, but at least your child will still be alive. You can do that.

I'm part of an organization called Thinking Person's Guide to Autism and all we do, all day long (and in our book) is advocate to get parents services and understanding, and work with autistic people and professionals as well. This is all I do, all day long. So there's no chance of lacking empathy or sympathy for other parents. But I cannot extend it when somebody crosses the line. Although I can say that if they didn't understand that calling services on themselves and abandoning their child is an option, then that's due to lack of understanding. That's the message we need to get out, instead of saying that autism causes murder.

GB: There's been a lot of criticism on the BC government and the rest of society, quite frankly, here in Prince Rupert about how much service there is for people dealing with children, coping and living and raising children with autism. Is there not room also for this to become a political story, a societal story in which people are forced to react?

SR: I can't do that. I can't get behind that because then you are saying, essentially, that if autism families don't get services then they're going to kill their kids. You know what I'm saying? If you use that as your lead. I think we need to work harder and longer to get services to the autistic people and their families who need it because it's what they deserve as human beings. It needs to happen, it's just what we do as a society that cares about all the people in it. And I know that BC's had a really hard time with cut backs recently, but we need to look at who the most vulnerable people in our society are, who can't necessarily advocate for themselves, and just because they aren't given the opportunity to advocate for themselves doesn't mean they don't deserve to be taken care of.

GB: Shannon Rosa we'll have to leave it there. Thank you so much for talking to us today about this very difficult topic.

SR: Thank you for having me, I really appreciate it.

GB: Take care, Good bye.

SR: OK, good bye.

GB: That is Shannon Rosa, a writer and advocate for families dealing with autism. She's also the mother of an autistic son. You can find her blog at www.squidalicious.com. We, of course, would love to hear your take on this story. Email us at: daybreaknorth@cbc.ca, Give us a call 1-866-340-1932.
We are also on Facebook, and on Twitter @DaybreakNorth.

*Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, essentially Canada's NPR or BBC.

1 comment:

  1. Wow. Amazing stuff! Please keep up the good info! www.voice4autism.org

Respectful disagreement encouraged.

Related Posts with Thumbnails<|endoftext|>Talkback: RW Interviews: Hugh Jones (Olympic Course Measurer)

3 messages
18/05/2012 at 13:29

Certainly an unsung hero. If only every race would get officially measured.

Edited: 18/05/2012 at 13:30
18/05/2012 at 13:40

Surely more people could have watched the marathon if they had opted for the London Marathon course - and Hugh is hardly an unsung hero - he is one of our best ever over the 26.2 mile distance and faster than the current crop of hopefulls!!!

28/05/2012 at 07:40

I thought the new version of the site was supposed to make it easier the spammers out. This is the script/spamming shite again.

3 messages
Forum Jump

RW Forums<|endoftext|>Snake on Saturdays - kindle ebook by Jean Gill

Free kindle book promotion on amazon 19th-23rd August

The idea for 'Snake on Saturdays' came to author Jean Gill while she was driving back from a family camping holiday in France and she scribbled down the plot on the back of a tourist leaflet. She admits that some of the experiences in the novel are true and that she did sing the Yorkshire anthem 'Ilkley Moor B'at'at' on a Welsh street with some girl friends, while of dubious sobriety. The gay disco in London is also based on a real experience, where Jean found herself to be the only woman in the nightclub and finally got the message about the man with her.

All the places in the novel exist and a reader could trace the heroine Helen's footsteps from the cuddly marmots of St Geniez d'Olt in the Lot region of France, to the dolmens of Mynydd Llangedeyrne in rural south Wales, UK.

Research for the novel included a phone call to the French Embassy in London to find out what would happen if a UK citizen were involved in an accident in France. No amount of explanantion would convince the Embassy officials that Jean was a novelist not a criminal but they sent her a useful leaflet. Research also involved Jean's local vet and when he turned up at one of her readings, everyone in the room clapped, thinking him to be the origin of Helen's lover, Dai Evans. She assured everyone that only his knowledge of bovine diseases had been featured in the book but for some reason, again, no-one believed her.

Share this:<|endoftext|>Recently I’ve seen unsolicited SPAM e-mails coming directly from other peoples’ e-mail and social networking accounts. They’ll often post messages afterwords claiming that their accounts had been hacked. I’ll usually ask these friends, “Do you use the same password on multiple websites?” and the ensuing “Yes” response from them is followed by, “Change your e-mail password, and also, you need to learn something about password security.”

If your e-mail or social networking (Twitter, Facebook, et cetera) account is sending out unsolicited messages on your behalf, it is unlikely your account has been hacked and much more