Minister Guilbeault announces Canada’s draft methane regulations to support cleaner energy and climate action
December 4, 2023 – Dubai, United Arab Emirates
As the world works toward the most effective and affordable climate solutions, cutting oil and gas methane emissions remains one of the fastest and lowest-cost ways to combat climate change. Canada is committed to doing its part.
Today, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, announced at the Global Methane Pledge Ministerial that Canada has published strengthened oil and gas methane regulations to cut emissions from this potent greenhouse gas. This makes good on Canada’s commitment when it became the first country in the world to set a target of reducing oil and gas methane emissions by at least 75 percent from 2012 levels by 2030.
During this event, John Kerry, the United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, highlighted that the United States recently finalized its own oil and gas methane regulations. Canada’s approach is broadly aligned with that of the United States in both form and stringency.
Putting in place broadly aligned rules across North America builds on collaboration on methane emissions that began in 2016. This aligned approach supports the competitiveness of both countries’ energy industries—that include some of the world’s biggest—to become global leaders in responsible energy production. The requirements to further reduce methane emissions in both countries also creates business opportunities for Canada’s clean tech sector, which is a global leader in affordable solutions for methane abatement. Canadian workers have the experience and skills needed to tackle methane emissions here and to help others around the world as they move to lower emissions.
In advance of COP28, 12 major oil and gas companies had already committed to lowering their methane emissions to near zero by 2030. At COP28, a coalition of 50 oil and gas companies announced their commitment to reduce their methane emissions by 80 to 90 percent by 2030. They understand the need to become among the cleanest producers of oil and gas in the world. The proposed methane regulations are consistent with Canada’s commitment to cap and cut oil and gas emissions and with calls from the International Energy Agency for all oil- and gas-producing countries to reduce methane emissions from the sector by 75 percent by 2030.
The Government of Canada notes the commitments by British Columbia and Alberta to explore ways to achieve a similar reduction target, and welcomes the increased ambition from provinces to tackle their methane emissions. Through continued collaboration with oil and gas-producing provinces, Indigenous partners, industry, and interested stakeholders, Canada will ensure its updated methane regulations achieve the best result possible.
The Government of Canada acknowledges further work is required to accurately quantify methane emissions and Canada is working with scientists, academics, and industry to close the gap between reported and measured emissions. As part of the Government’s ambitious methane abatement plan, the Government of Canada also announced today a $30 million investment to establish a Methane Centre of Excellence in the near term that will improve our understanding and reporting of methane emissions, with a focus on collaborative initiatives to support data and measurement.
Lowering methane emissions will also have positive impacts on air quality and public health. Methane emissions are often emitted along with volatile organic compounds and other toxic air pollutants, which contribute to smog that can cause asthma and other human health issues.
Interested Canadians are invited to help shape Canada’s updated oil and gas methane regulations. Starting on December 16, 2023, Environment and Climate Change Canada will accept feedback on the draft regulations for 60 days. Comments are requested to be submitted through the new Online Regulatory Consultation System. The deadline for comments is February 14, 2024.
“Lowering methane emissions from our oil and gas sector is one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways we can cut the pollution that is fueling climate change. As the world’s fourth largest oil and gas producer, we have both the responsibility and the know-how to do everything we can. At this time of robust profit margins and high energy prices, there has never been a better time for the oil and gas sector to invest in slashing methane emissions.”
– The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change
“Canadians deserve clean air. We know that methane emissions contribute to smog and climate change, which hurts our collective health and strains our health care systems. With these regulations, the Government of Canada is taking action to protect our air quality and improve the health of Canadians.”
– The Honourable Mark Holland, Minister of Health
“We are taking action to support innovation, reduce emissions, and enhance competitiveness across sectors, including in the oil and gas sector. Reducing methane emissions is one of the most efficient ways to achieve these objectives. Today’s announcement, which includes a new investment to support the establishment of a Methane Centre of Excellence, will help enhance the oil and gas sector’s competitiveness, while ensuring Canada achieves its methane emissions reductions commitments and the economic, health, and climate benefits that their achievement will bring.”
– The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources
“Great to see Canada taking strong action to achieve deep reductions in oil and gas methane emissions, just as the US finalizes our own regulations. This is an essential strategy to limit warming to 1.5 °C.”
– John Kerry, United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate
“Canada’s ambitious efforts to drive down methane emissions from its oil and gas sector are highly encouraging and show what is possible. The IEA has found that to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis, we must reduce methane emissions from oil and gas operations globally by 75 percent this decade. By adopting this target, Canada has established itself as a leader on tackling methane, and we are pleased it is now committed to delivering results. Strong and supportive regulations are crucial to turn energy and climate pledges into meaningful action.”
– Dr. Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency
Both Canada and the United States’ new oil and gas methane rules eliminate routine venting and flaring, enhance leak detection and repair, and address problems such as blowdowns and other potentially large methane releases.
From 2027 to 2040, the draft methane regulations will reduce cumulative emissions by 217 megatonnes (carbon dioxide equivalent). They will also have positive social and economic benefits of $12.4 billion from avoided global damages.
Canada is on track to meet its 2025 methane reduction target of 40 to 45 percent below 2012 levels. The draft regulations published today are amendments to the 2018 methane regulations.
Canada supports increased global ambition on climate change through the Global Methane Pledge. Momentum to reduce methane emissions is growing, with over 150 countries signing the Pledge. The Pledge commits countries to a collective goal of reducing human-caused methane emissions by at least 30 percent from 2020 levels by 2030.
Methane is a potent, but relatively short-lived, greenhouse gas, and is the second most important greenhouse gas behind carbon dioxide.
- News Release – September 20, 2023 – Beating 75 percent target for cutting oil and gas methane emissions is Canada’s next challenge: Minister Guilbeault
- News Release – November 10, 2022 – Canada and the United States to take further actions to address emissions from North American oil and gas sector
- Canada’s Methane Strategy
Office of the Minister of Environment and Climate Change
Environment and Climate Change Canada
819-938-3338 or 1-844-836-7799 (toll-free)
- Date modified:


text:
Community Level 1 – Acquainted
Materials: Paper, pencils, dice
How To Play: You will need a piece of paper for each player and
one pencil and one die per group. Divide the students up into groups of
four to six players. Groups sit in separate, mini circles. Each group
puts the pencil and the die in the center of the circle. Each player
places a piece of paper in front of him or her. The object is to be the
first player to write up to 100 by ones. Here is the catch. Players
can write only if they roll a six.
The die is passed around the circle. Each player rolls the die. The
first player to roll a six starts to write the numbers 1 to100 by ones.
Others in the group continue to pass and roll the die. The next player
to roll a six takes the pencil from the player who has it and starts
writing the numbers 1-100 by ones. This pattern continues around the
group. When a player get the pencil back, she continues to write
numbers from where she left off when the pencil was taken. The first
person to get to 100 says, “Hot 100.”
Plan for Success:
Practice the game as a whole group first. Model giving up the pencil
when someone else rolls a six. You could try this game with younger
students, but start with a smaller number.

domain: game


text:
Objective: To determine whether a new scale measuring beliefs about postponing sexual initiation (PSI) predicts sexual initiation and whether the association between PSI and sexual initiation is mediated by intention to initiate sexual intercourse.
Design: Prospective cohort study.
Setting: The Growing Up Today Study, a longitudinal cohort study of adolescents.
Participants: A total of 11,448 adolescents aged 12 to 17 years who reported in 1999 that they had never had sexual intercourse.
Main exposure: Beliefs and attitudes about PSI measured in 1999 (12-item scale, Cronbach alpha = 0.86). Higher PSI scale scores indicated stronger beliefs about postponing sex.
Outcome measure: Sexual intercourse reported on the 2000 survey.
Results: The mean (SD) age of participants was 14.3 (1.5) years, and 94.4% were white. Of the participants, 7.5% of boys and 10.1% of girls initiated sexual intercourse between 1999 and 2000. The PSI scale score was inversely associated with intention to initiate sex and with sexual initiation in boys and girls (P < .001 for both). Intention to initiate sex was positively associated with sexual initiation (P < .001). In multivariate models, PSI scale scores were inversely associated with sexual intercourse initiation in boys (odds ratio, 0.90 for a 1-U increase in PSI scale score; 95% confidence interval, 0.87-0.93; P < .001) and girls (odds ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval, 0.89-0.93; P < .001). The strength of the association decreased when intention to initiate sexual intercourse was added to both models.
Conclusion: A new scale measuring beliefs and attitudes about PSI predicted sexual intercourse initiation in the next year, and intention to initiate sex mediated this association.

domain: literature


text:
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Description: Our cute Tammy is celebrating her wedding Cermony and she is going to beautiful hair salon to get a nice hairstyle. Follow the instructions given in the game and Help our cute Tammy to get a stylish hairstyle for her wedding ceremony.. Wedding Hair Salon is a Hair Games.
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Category: Hair Games


text:
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) joins Yahoo Finance Live to weigh in on Congress passing a bill to avert a rail strike, the collapse of FTX and ensuing crypto fallout, Twitter's latest controversies, and Ticketmaster.
- President Biden signing a bill into law today avoiding a national rail strike, and what he says would have been an economic catastrophe. One of 15 no votes came from Republican Senator Pat Toomey, who said this morning the more Congress gets involved in settling these issues, the more ridiculous the outcome. Joining us now to discuss this, Senator Richard Blumenthal from the great state of Connecticut. I'm not biased. I live there.
Senator, nice to see you. Your reaction to how this played out? Congress-- and is Senator Toomey right, that Congress should not be involved in settling issues like rail strikes?
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL: My strong preference was to avoid any involvement in this rail situation. And I think my view was shared by the vast majority of my colleagues. But obviously, the looming catastrophe, and it really was a catastrophe, prompted us to take this action. And going forward, I think we need to make sure that railroad workers have paid sick leave.
I think that working conditions there need to be improved. We're not letting this issue go. And I would have been very much more reluctant to intervene had we not faced $2 billion a day-- literally $2 billion a day-- in losses and potentially even longer range impacts to the American economy and issues as simple as purifying our water, delivering chlorine so that water systems could function.
The supply chain issues that were raised, the longer term impact I think were the reason that we became involved.
- Certainly a happy ending there at least for this economy, maybe not for four of those labor unions. The other story consuming "The Business World" this week. Sam Bankman-Fried and the show he's put on attempting to explain the collapse of FTX. Are you buying his explanation that he didn't try to commit fraud nor knowingly commingled funds?
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL: You know, David, I'm really a prosecutor by career. I served as US attorney in Connecticut for four and a half years, the chief federal prosecutor. And then I was attorney general of our state for 20 years. And I can tell you all the evidence, all the signs are there of real fraud, just plain, dishonest dealings.
And whatever he may say he intended, the circumstantial evidence points to his knowing what he was doing when he moved funds, when he took advantage of his position of control. And so I think the Department of Justice ought to come down on him like a ton of bricks if the evidence is what we think it is now. Obviously, we have to say at this point there are allegations.
But there is a lot of evidence there of real fraud. I'm tempted to say garden variety fraud. You can call it crypto. You can say it's novel in that the magnitude of the losses in cryptocurrency are unprecedented. But essentially, it seems like real garden variety fraud at a massive level in a new setting.
And I think the Department of Justice and other regulatory agencies should be enforcing the law. And I think Congress has to look at stronger oversight and scrutiny, as well as regulation when it comes to cryptocurrency.
- Do you believe he'll do jail time?
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL: If he is convicted from everything we know now-- I'm not pre-judging what a judge may do-- I think that kind of punishment, some kind of prison time would be perfectly appropriate.
- You are also among a group of senators calling for the FTC to investigate Twitter over the safety and security of consumers. Why?
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL: There is clear need for greater transparency and disclosure here about how Twitter is operating as a matter of public impact and the kind of information and misinformation, as well as outright distortion of potentially what's happening internally, but also the way content modification is being done. I think consumers and the public deserve to know more.
- And the public is outraged still about another story. And that of course, the Ticketmaster debacle and Taylor Swift tickets, the unraveling of that entire system. What needs to happen?
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL: Well, as you know, David, Live Nation Twitter merged a little more than 10 years ago. When they did so, there were agreements, called a consent decree, as to conditions that would be established about preserving competition, even enhancing it. Why is that important?
Well, essentially the artists, the consumers, the venues all have an interest in choices. They should have choices rather than one seller and being at the mercy of one seller, Ticketmaster or any other single monopolist. And that's what we have right now in this industry for artists, venues, consumers-- one seller. And competition is really important, but is undermined by the fact that Ticketmaster has in effect acquired control or outright bought the sponsorships, promoters, the booking agents, the venues.
It is in effect in control of this industry to the detriment of all involved. And so I think if the investigation shows what I've just outlined as a lack of competition, the company needs to be broken up. And in fact, the merger unwound. And that's what I've called on the Department of Justice to do as a result of its investigation. It has an ongoing investigation.
Remember, that a number of us have called for investigations repeatedly in the past. And so there was another-- a second consent decree, which again Ticketmaster violated. I think that we need real action here, not just another consent decree or agreement, which Ticketmaster seems to have no way to respect.
- Have you been at all satisfied with the response from Ticketmaster Live Nation?
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL: Well, essentially, there's been no response in terms of real action to meet my concerns. As a matter of fact, almost just the opposite. You know Ticketmaster, or Live Nation's principal owner, said, well, it's really Taylor Swift's fault. Why? Because she hasn't done enough tours. It's her fault because the demand was so great that our system went down.
Well, that's not the problem. The real problem is that they have a monopoly on those tickets. And they decided to hold a number of them back. They decided to cancel the sale. They have been the ones responsible. And that's why we need either really strong enforcement of the terms and conditions of those consent agreements, or, as I've advocated, unwinding and breaking up of this merger.
- Yeah, her promoter AEG said they had no choice but to use Ticketmaster Live Nation. Senator Richard Blumenthal, always good to see you, sir. Enjoy the weekend.
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL: Thank you, David. Take care.

domain: law


Hyperscale and large data centers will need 400G connections to support rapidly growing server input/output (I/O) as the combination of higher server density and a shift to 25Gbit/s drives server I/O bandwidth per rack to 5 Tbit/s. Cloud service providers are already planning 400G deployments and expect widespread use of 400G within data centers by 2018. Many component vendors have introduced first-generation 400G components and are working on optimized solutions for introduction during 2017 and 2018.
Cloud services accessed by individuals and businesses from mobile devices and fixed-line connections are driving a huge growth in global IP traffic. These services include online storage, social media, big data processing, Internet of Things (IoT) services and audio/video content delivery. Many of these services are hosted on hyperscale data centers operated by leading service providers, including Facebook, Google and Microsoft. The shift toward virtualization using software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) is also driving growth in East-West traffic between servers.


Coastal Rompers help educate younger scouts
Group's focus is on marine biology, conservation
STRATHAM — Representatives of the Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains were spotted in the greater Exeter area and elsewhere in the Seacoast on Saturday, March 19, offering their signature brand of cookies. Among them were Sophia Gross, of Deerfield, and Gwyneth Crossman, of Durham.
As Gross explained, the scouts are members of the Coastal Rompers, a marine education and conservation arm of the Green and White Mountains Girls Scouts, serving New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont. The group is comprised of middle-school age scouts who take what they have learned about marine biology and share it with younger girls. The scouts recently visited the Boston Aquarium and will soon travel to the Mystic (Conn.) Aquarium.
Anyone interested in learning more about the Coastal Rompers can visit http://www.girlscoutsgwm.org/ and search for Coastal Rompers. For those still looking to buy Girl Scout cookies, visit https://cookielocator.littlebrownie.com.


In Hollywood movies, frequently can we witness the image of future life like all the home appliances are controlled by voice control, machines can be handled by human race intelligently. You may conceive that all of these are just fancies that will never come true someday, whereas, as technology altered from day to day, with the emerge of Infrared Remote Control Electrical Appliances, life will be at ease in real.
Apart from Xiaomi, Infrared Remote Control Electrical Appliances For Smartphone is fully capable to support most of smartphones available concurrently working properly. What you have to do is download and install the indicated software properly in your smartphone, then insert the remote controller gently can you administrate all the home appliances by one smartphone only.
Believe it or not, try to image the circumstance of all the convenience derive from the controller, you must be delighted. At the moment you arrived home with the condition of too hot to move, simply just take out your smartphone can you turn on the air condition or electrical fan which can calm you down effortlessly. Surely it is the life style that we chase all the time. Moreover, such an enjoyable experience can throughout our daily life in all aspects. Freely can you switch the channels to whatever you like by pressing the smartphone gently, it is not exaggeration to say that question-less to discard the TV controller even more. In addition, at the moment you want some musics with you before sleeping or during showering, one simply gesture can you wake them up without over complicated operation. All of these enjoyable experience will go on and on, no wonder can it be called “chief steward”.
We almost reckon that all the fancies living with high-tech devices will never come true once, however, ever since the emerge of Infrared Remote Control Electrical Appliances, we all can anticipate that day coming around the corner.


text:
Islam spread quickly across the southern Mediterranean Basin during the life of its prophet Muhammad, and even faster after his death. Under the Umayyad Caliphs, their territorial expansion eventually created an empire that bordered China in the east and the Atlantic Ocean in the West. The Abbasid Caliphs, who rose to power to replace the Umayyads, took a particular interest in the arts and sciences, with an intense fascination for Hellenistic (i.e., Ancient Greek) and Persian history and culture. Their infatuation led to a sort of cultural revolution, which profoundly influenced the writings of the leading Islamic scholars of the day. The rapid expansion of Islam also led to a keen curiosity about all the peoples who were either conquered or encountered in this new global empire. Significant advancements in the sciences, particularly in cosmology and mathematics, occurred throughout the 7th and 8th Centuries.
A key feature of this new empire was their advanced postal system, used to relay information across the vast expanses of their territory. It connected the furthest reaches of the empire with its administrative center, Baghdad. Through this postal system, the Islamic world was able to keep track of one particular people they encountered on the fringes of their lands. These were the Vikings, although the Muslims did not refer to them as such. In Arabic writings of the time, the Vikings were referred to by two names: ar-Rus and al-Madjus.
The name ar-Rus was used to describe the Swedish Vikings who sailed the Dnieper and Volga rivers, and who the Islamic world encountered on the shores of the Black Sea. The name al-Madjus described the Vikings in the West, those who terrorized the coasts of Ireland and France. It was not the Vikings who gave them this name. Arab scholars used the name al-Madjus as a means to describe the culture of the Vikings as they perceived it; a culture of fire-worshipers. They likened the al-Madjus to the Persian Zoroastrians, who they believed cremated their dead. The thirteenth-century chronicler Ibn Said explained, “nothing seems more important to them than fire, for the cold in their lands is severe.” Ibn Said’s logic is a testament to the general ignorance of the Vikings’ culture in the Islamic world, but it does help to give us a glimpse into how this foreign culture was perceived.
From the earliest sources, we know that the Muslims of the 9th and 10th Centuries understood that they were dealing with a single people, whether they encountered them on the shores of Spain, in the Mediterranean, or in the Eastern Steppes. The historian al-Yaqubi wrote in his geographical study of the Mediterranean that the attack on Seville, in 844 A.D., was carried out by, “the Magus, who are called the Rus.”
Although there is evidence to suggest earlier incursions into Iberia by the al-Madjus, the currently accepted historical start of Viking raids in Spain date to the attack on Seville in 844 A.D. Using a mixture of Christian and Muslim Chronicles to track the Vikings’ movements, historians have over the years pieced together a fairly coherent narrative of the events that marked the opening of raids in Moorish lands. It must be noted that the Muslim Chronicles, while interesting and helpful, are a mosaic of reconstructed works that had been previously lost to history. The first chroniclers, such as the historian Ahmad al-Razi, his son Isa-ibn-Ahmad, and the scholar Ibn al-Qutyyia, have no surviving works to draw upon for study. We know their names only because later historians reference their works in their own reconstructions of the events of 844. The two most authoritative works about the attack on Seville that have survived to today are the anonymous meeting about the doctrines of the 10th-century scholar, Ibn Al Qutiyya, and Ibn Hayyan’s Al Muqtabis II-I, and II-II. To complement the Arabic sources, historians also have Christians sources, chiefly the Annales Bertinian from the Carolingian Empire and the Asturian Chronicles from Galicia. Additional references from Christians include Dudo of Saint Quentin, William of Jumièges, the Annals of St-Bertin, the Chronicle of Regino de Prüm, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
The First Wave of Vikings in Spain
From what the sources tell us, a fleet of ships which had raided in the Carolingian Empire sailed along the coasts of the Bay of Biscay into Northern Spain. There they attacked a few settlements before encountering a large force of Asturians under the command of King Ramiro I. The Vikings suffered a crushing defeat and retreated back to the Bay of Biscay where it is surmised they had a base. There is much debate over the location of the base, but it may have been as close as Bayonne.
It did not take long for them to gather their forces. A few short months after the first excursion, a more massive fleet of eighty ships appeared off the coast of Lisbon where they fought three sea battles with Muslim vessels over the course of nearly two weeks. They then headed south to the mouth of the Guadalquivir. From there, they made their way inland via the river and sacked the city of Seville, which they also occupied. The attack was so unexpected that Cordova, the administrative center of Islamic Spain, known as al-Andalus, responded slowly to the news. It took them quite some time to muster forces and equipment to drive out the Vikings from the city. On the heels of their victory, Muslim troops pursued and engaged their enemy, resulting in a decisive victory for the Emir Abd al-Rhaman II. Following the Vikings’ bold incursion into his lands, al-Rhaman ordered the construction of a new fleet of ships specifically to counter al-Madjus raids.
In response to this first raid, the Emir sent a Moorish ambassador named al-Ghazal to find and study the al-Madjus. His account tells of his voyage across the ocean to a beautiful island described as having lush, flowering plants and abundant streams leading to the sea. For years historians struggled to gather consensus on where he had actually traveled. Some believe he visited Ireland, while others think he visited Denmark. The source for al-Ghazal’s embassy to Ireland is a document produced by Abu-l-Kattab-Umar-ibn-al-Hasan-ibn-Dihya, who was born in Valencia in Andalucia, about 1159 A.D. The facts and anecdotes in the story were derived from Tammam-ibn-Alqama, vizier under three consecutive amirs in Andalucia during the ninth century who died in 896. Tammam-ibn-Alqama had allegedly learned the details directly from al-Ghazal and his companions. The only manuscript of ibn-Dihya’s work was acquired by the British Museum in 1866. It is titled Al-mutrib min ashar ahli’l Maghrib, which translates to An amusing book from poetical works of the Maghreb.
al-Ghazal was not the only ambassador to travel north to meet the Vikings, although he is thought to have been the only Muslim ambassador to have launched from Spain. Others, such as Ibn-Fadlan, visited the Rus in the East and studied them in detail. Ibn-Fadlan’s account is one of the most universally known and well-studied documents about the Vikings produced by a Muslim.
The Second Wave
There is no record of any other attacks by the al-Madjus from 844 until 859 when an ambitious man by the name of Hastein made one of the most infamous Viking incursions into the Mediterranean. In 859 with the help of a man named Bjorn Ironside, a supposed son of Ragnar Lothbrok, Hastein sailed to Iberia where he hoped to gain fame and fortune by pillaging al-Andalus. At first, the expedition did not fare well. The Asturians of Northern Spain successfully fought them off, forcing the journey to continue southward without any loot. They successfully pillaged coastal settlements until they arrived at the straight of Gibraltar where they encountered a sudden storm, which blew them off course. They landed in North Africa where they raided for slaves before resuming their original intended route into the Mediterranean. From there, they continued on toward Italy.
According to the chronicler Dudo of St. Quentin, Hastein was ambitious and sought to sack Rome itself. Unfortunately, the walls of the city were too tall and too well fortified. Thus he hatched one of the more notorious plans to take the city by creating a ruse to trick the “naïve” Christians. They arrived at the city and sent a messenger to inform the bishop that their leader had been mortally wounded and, in his dying moments, wished to be baptized so that he may reach salvation. The bishop took pity on him and organized the ceremony. A day later, the Norsemen returned to the city to inform the bishop that their chieftain had died and that he had requested to be buried in the city. Again, the bishop took pity on them and organized the funeral. Hastein’s body was placed on a bier and carried by his men into the city. A gathering of noblemen and clergymen joined them to begin the ceremony when Hastein rose from the dead, snatched the sword beside him, and cut down the bishop. His men, of course, followed suit and slaughtered the rest of Christians present.
The ruse had proved successful, and the Vikings under Hastein loaded their ships with loot, proud that they had sacked the famed city of Rome. Yet as they sailed from the city, they realized they had made a navigational error. The city they had sacked was not Rome, but rather the smaller city of Luna some two hundred miles north of their intended target. Nevertheless, their ships were filled to the brim with plunder, so Hastein ordered a return to his base on the Loire. As they attempted to sail past Gibraltar, however, the Muslim fleet intercepted them, destroying a significant portion of the Viking fleet. Their chieftain survived and returned to his base on the island of Herius (today called Noirmoutier) with twenty ships, a mere third of the ships he had departed with three years earlier.
The Third Wave
Arabic sources tell of a third wave of attacks beginning in 966 A.D., over 100 years after the end of Hastein’s expedition. Where this fleet came from is not entirely clear, but there is substantial evidence to suggest they launched from Normandy after having helped Duke Richard I suppress a rebellion in his duchy. They arrived in Galicia and did what they are known best for: they pillaged. In response to their attack, the bishop of Santiago de Compostela, already a significant pilgrimage site, gathered an army to fend off the attackers. They experienced an initial success against the Vikings, but by sheer bad luck, the bishop took an arrow to the neck and died during their second battle. Devastated, his troops retreated, and the Vikings continued their terrorizing of the surrounding countryside. For three years they attacked and plundered Galicia. Historians disagree over why their long-term presence did not turn into a settlement, as it had in Ireland, Britain, and Normandy. But in 972 they appear to have made one last major push for plunder, then returned home.
The Fourth Wave
Beginning in the year 1008, a new threat emerged from the north with its sights on Galicia. Again, regular seasonal raids struck terror in the hearts of the Spaniards. In 1038, a renewed assault hit the town of Tui, led this time by Olav Haraldsson, heir to the throne of Norway. They captured at the bishop and held him for ransom, though the sources do not give us much detail on this interaction. Olav’s chroniclers, Sigvat and Ottar, heavily reference their patron’s successes in Galicia, earning him the name “the Galician Wolf.”
Ultimately, Spain experienced less of the brunt of the Viking Age than other areas such as Ireland, Britain, and France. But they did experience a fair share, and both the Christian kingdoms and Muslim territories in Iberia suffered terrible wounds from the raids. Arguably, it was the Viking attacks on al-Andalus that encouraged the Muslims of Spain and North Africa to fortify their seaborne fleets, which helped the Islamic world maintain naval supremacy in the Mediterranean over Christendom until the high middle ages. This may have directly affected the course of the crusades, and indeed the course of history in Europe. Spain is not often the focus of Viking Age events, but their experience is crucial to our understanding of the Viking Age as a whole.
Learn more about the Vikings with these great books:

domain: history


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The quest for alien life has long been one of humanity’s most intriguing and puzzling mysteries. The question “Are we alone?” reverberates through the halls of history despite the cosmos being teeming with billions of possibly livable planets. We have not yet discovered any concrete proof that sentient life exists somewhere other than our planet, despite our best efforts to explore and comprehend the cosmos. The Fermi Paradox is what this is known as, and it has spawned a lot of hypotheses and discussions among scientists and philosophers. But what if there is a Great Filter, a barrier that keeps civilizations from developing to the point where they are able to travel over space and communicate with one another, and not a lack of opportunity or resources? A terrifying and interesting explanation for our cosmic isolation is provided by the Great Filter theory, which raises the potential that humanity may be the only life in the universe due to an impassable barrier that blocks the birth of sentient life.
The Great Filter is a hypothetical explanation for the absence of evidence of intelligent life beyond Earth. It suggests that there is some sort of barrier or hurdle that intelligent civilizations must overcome in order to survive and thrive. The filter could be anything from the development of life itself to the emergence of intelligent beings, the ability to colonize other planets, or the ability to communicate with other civilizations. If this filter exists, it would explain why we haven’t detected any signs of other intelligent life in the universe, despite the many potential habitable planets.
Possible stages of the Great Filter:
The Drake Equation:
The Drake Equation, developed by astronomer Frank Drake in 1961, attempts to estimate the number of intelligent civilizations that exist in our galaxy. The equation takes into account factors such as the number of habitable planets, the probability of life arising on those planets, the likelihood of intelligent life developing, and the lifespan of those civilizations. However, despite our best efforts to estimate these variables, the resulting numbers are highly uncertain.
Arguments for and against the existence of advanced civilizations:
Arguments for the existence of advanced civilizations:
Arguments against the existence of advanced civilizations:
The Fermi Paradox and its implications:
The Fermi Paradox is the apparent contradiction between the high probability of the existence of other intelligent civilizations and the lack of evidence of their existence. If there are billions of potentially habitable planets in the universe, why haven’t we detected any signs of other intelligent life?
The Great Filter as a potential solution to the paradox:
The Great Filter hypothesis offers a potential solution to the paradox: that there is a barrier that prevents most civilizations from surviving long enough to make contact with other beings. This could be anything from the development of life itself to the ability to colonize other planets or the ability to communicate with other civilizations. One possibility is that the filter is behind us, meaning that we’ve already passed it and emerged as an intelligent species capable of space exploration. This would suggest that the development of life is not a significant hurdle, and that other civilizations may eventually reach the same point. However, it could also mean that the filter is still ahead of us, and that we are not as unique as we might hope.
The Great Filter as a potential solution to the paradox:
There are a few possible locations of the Great Filter. One possibility is that it lies in the development of life itself, and that the conditions required for life to emerge are exceedingly rare. Another possibility is that the emergence of intelligent beings is the hurdle, and that most species never develop the cognitive abilities necessary for advanced technology and space travel. A third possibility is that the ability to colonize other planets is the filter, and that civilizations that do not become multi-planetary are doomed to extinction. Finally, it’s possible that the filter lies in the ability to communicate with other civilizations, either because the technology required is too difficult to develop or because other civilizations actively avoid contact.
Current efforts to search for extraterrestrial life:
Despite the lack of evidence of intelligent life beyond Earth, the search for extraterrestrial life continues. Current efforts include SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) programs, which scan the sky for signs of intelligent radio signals, and missions to Mars and other planets to search for signs of past or present microbial life.
Future missions and technologies that could aid in the search:
In the future, new technologies and missions could help us better understand the likelihood of advanced civilizations in the universe. For example, James Webb Space Telescope that could detect signs of life in the atmospheres of exoplanets. Additionally, missions to Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, could help us determine if there is life in the oceans beneath its icy surface.
The Great Filter theory raises the potential that we may be completely alone in the cosmos, isolated by an impenetrable barrier that prohibits the creation of intelligent life, as we continue to look to the skies for indications of extraterrestrial life. At any point in the history of life, from the genesis of primitive creatures to the advancement of cutting-edge technology and space flight, this potential obstacle might be hiding. The Great Filter challenges us to consider the idea that we are the only sentient beings in the universe by posing several questions regarding the nature of the cosmos and our role within it. We may never know if we have already passed the Great Filter or if it still awaits us, ready to claim us as yet another fallen civilisation in the boundless expanse of space. This is perhaps the most terrifying feature of the Great Filter idea. The disconcerting idea that the Great Filter could be the most accurate explanation for our cosmic isolation must thus be faced as we move forward in our quest to learn the truth about the cosmos and our role within it.
This article explores the Great Filter hypothesis, which attempts to explain why we have yet to find evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life. It discusses possible locations of the filter and current efforts to search for extraterrestrial life, as well as future prospects for further understanding our place in the universe.

domain: astronomy


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I have undergone a lot of change in the last 7 years and my life is completely different in most ways, except I am very afraid. Even though I have taken a lot of steps to change my life for the better, I still wonder if the good things are just temporary. I fear I will be devastated if I invest too much in my dreams and then they can’t be fulfilled, even though they are quite simple. Can I sustain myself physically, mentally and spiritually if I stay on the path that I am on?
Don’t be afraid, my dearest one. You have experienced life, growing, evolving. And since you’ve learned and grown, nothing is lost. You fear you have made mistakes and lost ground and yet you have not. Your vibration has heightened; you now value your life. You value the opportunity set before you. You say you are afraid to believe in your dreams and yet you must. You cannot NOT believe in your dreams, my dear; for you are a dreamer, you are a romantic and you will bring that into your life. The love and the happiness will be yours, my dear. Don’t be afraid to believe in them. Just because you have seen others say they have failed in their pursuits of happiness, it doesn’t mean it must be yours. You create your reality, my blessed one, my sweet one – you can do this. Rejoice and be happy, for it is yours.
To see a video of the guide answering Charlene’s question, click here.

domain: psychology


Ericom Powerterm Lite
PowerTerm Lite is a small fast terminal emulator designed for UNIX systems. Key features: Terminal emulation: IBM AIXTerm, Wyse 50, Wyse 60, VT52, VT100, VT220, VT320, VT420, VT525, Televideo: TVI925, TVI950, Linux Console, SCO ANSI, BBS ANSI and AT386. Hosts: SCO, UNIX, Linux, OpenVMS, Citrix,...
|License: Demo||Cost: $0.00 USD||Size: 6.13 MB||Download (629): PowerTerm Lite Download|
Ericom WebConnect Client Ericom WebConnect remote desktop client provides quick, easy and secure mobile access to centrally published and managed Windows desktops and applications hosted on Terminal Services / RDS / VDI / physical PCs. Does your company use Ericom? Wherever you are, access...
|License: Freeware||Size: 16.1 MB||Download (7): Ericom WebConnect Mobile Client Download|
AccessToGo is the FASTEST mobile RDP client - includes unique patent protected technology for optimal resizing of Windows objects. Get quick, easy & secure mobile RDP access to office/home PC and Windows apps (Excel, Acrobat, etc.) from smartphones & tablets. Its the only RDP client that supports...
|License: Freeware||Size: 16 MB||Download (8): AccessToGo Remote Desktop/RDP Client Download|
PowerTerm InterConnect for Windows provides secure, seamless access to accounting, inventory management & other applications running on multiple hosts, e.g., IBM, Digital, UNIX and SCO. With extensive host system support it enables organizations to standardize on a single host access solution,...
|License: Shareware||Cost: $159.00 USD||Size: 9.73 MB||Download (725): PowerTerm InterConnect Download|
EF Commander Lite for Windows is a complete file manager for the Windows desktop.
If you've ever used and liked Norton Commander, you'll like this dual-windowed program, which comes complete with bubble and online help.
The following languages are included in the package:
|License: Shareware||Cost: $10.00 USD||Size: 437 KB||Download (159): EF Commander Lite Download|
TrendEasy Lite is the FREEware edition of the commercial product TrendEasy Standard. TrendEasy Lite is a windows-based application that monitors the end-to-end performance and availability of web & TCP services. It is optimized for unattended operation under Windows 2000/NT/Me/98/95 platforms....
|License: Freeware||Size: 3.55 MB||Download (252): TrendEasy Lite Download|
BeFaster Lite is a multi-language internet speed up toolkit with some powerful tools. It is light version of BeFaster. It optimizes AOL, Symantec PcAnyWhere, IE, Opera, Dial-up modem, Lan, Cable Modem, xDSL, ISDN, T1, DirecPc and Cable/DSL running PPPoE. You can configure settings automatically....
|License: Shareware||Cost: $10.00 USD||Size: 1.27 MB||Download (309): BeFaster Lite Download|
Features - NetBackup.lite is a complete tool for easy backup over the local network. It is designed to be simple, easy to use and able to work in any network with Microsoft Windows used on workstations. Easy and effective backup of your documents to the network folders. Thanks to the...
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Every day you have to perform various operations on your computer, modify and tweak you system for your convenience. If you're not quite satisfied with your Windows XP Professional or Windows XP Home Edition, if every now and then you feel the urge to tweak it a bit, then XP Utilities Lite is the...
|License: Shareware||Cost: $17.95 USD||Size: 622 KB||Download (112): XP Utilities Lite Download|
Flash Optimizer (Lite Edition) brings the whole new level of compression and optimization to SWF files. It inherits all the same potential and power of Flash Optimizer, but allows even beginners to optimize their files without spending time on making decisions of which optimization parameter you...
|License: Shareware||Cost: $39.95 USD||Size: 2.56 MB||Download (156): Flash Optimizer (Lite Edition) Download|
The program Power Notes Lite is a multi-featured scheduler, reminder, and organizer for Windows allowing you to create electronic stickers and display them when the time is due. The program is very easy to use and has low system requirements. The scheduler stays in the tray and does not interfere...
|License: Shareware||Cost: $10.95 USD||Size: 989 KB||Download (81): Power Notes Lite Download|
KaZaA Lite Plus is an open source file sharing client that searches the fast track network which KaZaA and Grokster run on, AND also searches Gnutella2 network, so there are a lot more files than KaZaA Media Desktop, Grokster, and Morpheus.
|License: Freeware||Size: 3.26 MB||Download (274): KaZaA Lite Plus Download|
ShixxNOTE Lite 5.home is desktop notes application. It is tool that lets you display sticky notes on your desktop. Also helps you to remind your important tasks and events. It is configurable and stable. You can write anything in note, like what you want to do today, or something you want to...
|License: Shareware||Cost: $15.00 USD||Size: 267 KB||Download (94): ShixxNOTE Lite Download|
DVDZip Lite is a software DVD sound track ripper which can extract sound tracks from any DVD and save them as. It supports convert: DVD Audio to Mp3, DVD Audio to Wav, DVD Audio to Wma, DVD Audio to Ogg, DVD Audio to Ra,Ram (RealAudio), DVD Audio to AAC,DVD Audio to APE,DVD Audio to Flac,DVD...
|License: Shareware||Cost: $29.95 USD||Size: 2.46 MB||Download (295): DVDZip Lite Download|
Right Backup Lite is an easy-to-use backup and recovery software that allows you to take a backup and restore your data with least efforts. Backup your essential information like My Documents, My Pictures, E-Mail messages, other files and folders, Windows registry etc and assure your operations....
Platforms: Windows, Windows CE
|License: Freeware||Size: 3.84 MB||Download (134): RightBackup Lite Download|
ShortKeys Lite is a macro utility allowing you to set up replacement text or paragraphs for up to 15 user defined shortkeys. Great for repetitive text needs. Automate tedious and repetitive typing. Reduce errors. You will be amazed how much time ShortKeys Lite can save. ShortKeys Lite monitors...
|License: Freeware||Size: 2.14 MB||Download (389): ShortKeys Lite Download|
EMS SQL Manager Lite for PostgreSQL is a light and easy-to-use freeware graphical tool for PostgreSQL administration. PostgreSQL Manager works with any PostgreSQL versions up to 8.1 and supports all of the latest PostgreSQL features including tablespaces, named arguments in functions and so on....
|License: Freeware||Size: 12.66 MB||Download (347): EMS SQL Manager 2005 Lite for PostgreSQL Download|
VCD Menu Lite is a free Video CD / DVD menu page generation program for Windows. Add this utility to your video toolkit and quickly produce simple but attractive menus as front-ends for your VCD / DVD movie and slideshow presentations. Pick your colors, type in titles and menu captions, grab the...
|License: Freeware||Size: 869 KB||Download (277): VCD Menu Lite Download|
KeyOff Lite monitors keyboard and mouse and initiates computer shutdown if the there has been no key or mouse activity for 900 seconds. It can be started manually or automatically via the Windows Task Scheduler. The computer shuts down 60 seconds after shutdown is initiated unless shutdown is...
|License: Freeware||Size: 356.32 KB||Download (90): KeyOff Lite Download|
Ayedo MSN Sniffer Monitor Lite is a network visibility tool to capture conversations of a MSN chat in your local network.It consists of a well-integrated set of functions that can be used to records MSN conversations automatically when your PC starts.You can export all intercepted messages to...
|License: Shareware||Cost: $59.95 USD||Size: 1.3 MB||Download (83): Ayedo MSN Sniffer Monitor Lite Download|


When Israel’s beaches
turned black two months ago, the country faced a massive ecological disaster: the oil slick off Israel’s coast polluted the waters, and storm currents deposited 750 tons of tar along 160 km. of coastline.
As the “Tar in the Storm” incident wreaked havoc on its beaches, Israel jumped into action to remedy the effects of the Tier-2 level pollution, with experts tackling environmental, financial, and political repercussions of the oil spill.
Concerns were raised at a webinar held last month on changes caused by oil
spill pollution featuring a panel of international researchers of the previous major oil spills Deepwater Horizon, Ixtoc-I and Exxon Valdez.
Biologist Dr. Steven Murawski from the University of South Florida presented some key questions Israel must address: is the seafood safe to eat? Is it safe to swim and use other natural resources? How fast will oil go away? What marine resources will be affected, and for how long? How will coastal communities be affected in the short- and long-term? Are we better prepared for the next oil spill (which will occur)?”
Is the seafood safe to eat?
The Health Ministry declared Israel’s fish and seafood safe to eat on March 9 after sampling fish species over the course of a month.
“There weren’t any fish deaths, and we didn’t see any contaminants in their tissue,” explained Dr. Peleg Astrahan, an organic chemist at the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research Institute. The IOLR sampled water and fish throughout Israel’s coast over many days and found no concerning levels of pollutants.
There is still a danger that small amounts of petroleum hydrocarbons from the spill will become more concentrated as they make their way up the food chain. While there is no evidence of immediate damage to sea life, IOLR will continue to conduct surveys on fish and marine species in the case that this occurs, said Astrahan.
Is it safe to swim and use other natural resources?
“We couldn’t see any chemical changes,” said Dr. Eyal Rahav, head of the Biology Dept. at IOLR. The lab has autonomous underwater robots with carbohydrate sensors that measured the entire water column.
Rahav, who researches the effects of crude oil on marine micro-organisms, explained that if that water was badly polluted it would quickly affect the bottom of the food chain. However, he found no “significant change or decline in productivity or biomass.”
While the chemical makeup of the water has not changed, tar is still washing up on shore. Surfers from Herzliya reported this past week that they came out of the water with their boards and legs entirely black, even after the Health Ministry reopened the Mediterranean to water sports on March 9. Lifeguards at the Acadia beach said some swimmers are still experiencing burning eyes, dizziness and headaches.
What marine resources will be affected, and for how long?
Since much of Israel’s water comes from desalination plants, another fear was that such pollution would overload their filters. It seems, however, that the plants have fared well despite the pollution.
“We were lucky that in this [recent] event, it was tar, which tends to go directly to the beach and not into the intakes of the desalination plants,” said Rani Amir, director of the ministry’s Marine Environment Protection Division.
How fast will oil go away?
The aftermath of the oil spill is difficult to predict, as it is not yet clear how much remains in the water, sediment and sea-bed.
“I expect to find some of the pollution in sediments and the deep sea,” Rahav predicted of the upcoming sea dives to survey the ocean floor. The expedition is expected to take place in the coming month. Scientists will “collect sediments and look for chemical signals of crude oil and see if bacteria were affected by the pollution.”
Rahav is concerned about the MOSSFA (Marine Oil Snow Sedimentation & Flocculent Accumulation) phenomenon that causes oil to sink down and cover the sea floor, like snow. This accumulation has the potential to remain for years, and could contaminate fish species that find their food in sea floor micro-organisms.
Another marine habitat that could retain the pollution much longer is the “hedge table” – rocks along the coast that house many sedentary species.
“The rocky area is characterized by daily cycles of tides where ‘hedge tables’ are formed, where most of the biological activity is concentrated,” Dr. Joshua Shakedi, chief scientist of the Nature and Parks Authority solemnly announced in February. “The pollution…covered and suffocated the animals clinging to the rocks...Only the removal of the tar will allow the algae and animal society to recover on the coastal rocks.”
Shakedi suggested that the tar-covered areas be mapped and the rocks be cleaned, “stain after stain,” which will take months to cover manually.
Weather factors such as waves, sun, chemical makeup, etc. will also affect the rate at which the oil and tar break down. There are many micro-organisms in the ocean that can digest hydrocarbons from the crude oil as well.
Over time, “the ecological system fixes itself on its own,” said Astrahan. Only continued research will reveal when Israel’s coastline will fully recover.
How will coastal communities be affected in the short- and long-term?
Of Israel’s 101 official beaches, 82% of them have passed the “tar index,” after massive cleanup efforts scoured the shoreline to collect tar waste. With the help of volunteers, government officials and the Environmental Protection Ministry, 61% of the beaches have been cleaned with barely any residue left, and only 3% are still closed due to the pollution.
The Environmental Protection Ministry has uploaded an interactive map
of safe beaches that are now clean and open to the public.
Are we better prepared for the next oil spill (which will occur)?
Following the oil spill, Israel passed a Memorandum of the Preparedness Law and Response to Incidents of Marine Pollution and the Coastal Environment in Oil. It will develop an emergency plan for maritime disasters using advanced technology, ships and assignment of responsibilities to regional bodies affected by the disaster. The law also established the Fund for the Prevention of Marine Pollution, which will have a NIS 25 million budget.
Additionally, the Environmental Protection Ministry launched an investigation into the source of the pollution. Through retrospective mapping of the spill, it found the “crude oil tanker called Emerald...illegally carrying cargo from Iran to Syria” to be responsible for polluting Israel’s coast on February 1 and 2, Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel informed Israelis.
Israel is working to “claim compensation for the severe damage to Israeli shores,” she announced on March 16. The insurance claim is in compliance with the 2004 Liability for the Compensation for Oil Pollution Damages Law, and will help Israel rebuild from the damages and invest in its newly established prevention plan.
Since the Emerald had turned off its AIS (automatic identification system) in a deceptive shipping practice intended to hide its exportation of oil to Syria, the tanker was not discovered until it was too late. Had there been efficient satellite observation of coastal waters, Israel could have detected the spill at the source, said Ami Daniel, CEO of Windward. His company helped Israel analyze and identify the tanker with retrospective satellite imaging and artificial intelligence.
Rahav explained how crucial early detection is in containing oil spills. “When it’s at sea, there are ways to clean most of the oil,” he said, but since there are hundreds of tankers passing through the Mediterranean, preparing for the next one is a must. “It’s just a matter of time,” he warned.
Daniel is hoping Israel will employ optical satellites and surveillance to help keep tabs on all 2,500+ vessels passing its shores each year, even those that turn off their AIS. Windward’s AI technology can also identify every ship in the sea and the cargo they are transporting.
“The strength of our research is our partners and collaborators, looking at a problem through multiple perspectives (biologists, chemists, geologists, engineers),” Murawski told last month’s oil spill panel. “Oil spills do not respect territorial boundaries. And so we need a more integrated multinational approach to this.”
It seems Israel has followed Murawski’s advice well, calling upon scientists, engineers, government officials, and international bodies to combat the ecological disaster and ensure that the county is better equipped for the next tanker spill in its waters.•


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COAS General Bajwa reveals Pakistan under hybrid war
RAWALPINDI - Chief of Army Staff, General Qamar Javed Bajwa has revealed that Pakistan is under a hybrid war from last two decades.
He said that Pakistan had been subjected to various threats especially during the last two decades.
He said that Pakistani nation and its armed forces have bravely and successfully stood up to these challenges and is on a positive trajectory to defeat it effectively.
General Bajwa said that we are now confronting hybrid conflict where focus is shifting to subversion on religious, sectarian, ethnic and social issues. This needs a comprehensive national response.
He emphasised that we now have a greater responsibility to ensure that our people, especially youth stay aware and steadfast against propaganda onslaught being launched through soft offensive.

domain: topicality


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SuperValu & AsIAm are delighted to announce the next Community Support Webinar:
Autism & Socializing (Adults) featuring community speakers Joan McDonald and Purple Ella.
Differences in social interaction is one of the primary traits associated with autism. While much attention is given to the barriers this presents to autistic children in making friends, we must acknowledge that autistic children become autistic adults.
Autistic adults, especially if they are diagnosed later in life, may struggle to find social groups or settings that do not trigger anxiety. This can often come from the notion that autistic people of any age must adapt to the environment and people around them and not vice-versa.
To discuss the topic of socializing in autistic adults we are pleased to welcome Joan McDonald and Purple Ella.
Joan has worked as a second level teacher, both in mainstream and autism classes, a trainer/manager in adult day services and as a Special Educational Needs Organiser. Joan currently works as Posautive, and has created the popular Posauteen and Posaudult programs to help people understand their autism and the importance of autistic community. Following her own autism assessment, Joan set up the Autistic Paddies, or AutPad, a meetup group for autistic adults in Ireland, which currently has over 500 members.
Purple Ella is an autistic speaker and online content creator (on Youtube and TikTok). Ella received her autism diagnosis later in life after discovering she has autistic children. More recently she has also been diagnosed with ADHD. Ella is passionate about researching neurodivergence, and finding strategies to help neurodivergent people live happy lives. She also wants neurodivergent to feel that they are enough just the way they are.
To register, click here to go to our event page!


Bella Band - New and Improved
Bellaband is a carefully constructed essential designed to hold up unbuttoned waistbands, loose maternity wear and garments that slip down around a late-pregnancy belly. Spend less time thinking about your pants and enjoy flaunting your belly.
- Wear throughout and after pregnancy
- Specifically designed to expand and recover for pregnancy
- Adjustable; wear full-length or fold for extra hold
- Fabric won’t pill, fade or lose elasticity
- New stay-put silicone strip offers more hold/keeps Bellaband from riding or rolling up
- New longer length for extra coverage and flexibility
- Sizing: Size 1 is best for a 0-8 pre-pregnancy size, Size 2 is best for a 10-14 pre-pregnancy size
- Care Instructions: Machine wash warm, wash/dry with like colors. Color-safe bleach only. Dry low temp. No iron.
- Fiber Content: 84% Nylon/16% Spandex


The PT-6 is an airborne imaging payload that features the lowest SWaP footprint in the PT series, making it ideal for integration into UAS platforms. Operating on a roll-axis, it is designed to carry out wide-area search and ISR missions.
The system includes built-in AI and machine learning software that can automatically scan for small objects in vast search areas, reducing operator burden and fatigue. It can be equipped with additional AI processing modules for specific tasks such as boat finding, surface anomaly detection and whale detection.
Size: 90x 60 cm
Weight: 2.5 kg
Avg. Power: 30w
Cameras: RGB, LWIR


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Exterior Remodeling Company in Palatine, IL
Aspen Exterior Is the Chicagoland Leader in Restorations of Windows, Doors, Siding, and Roofing Since 1978
Your home is a personal reflection of who you are. It’s where friends and family gather to build memories and share dreams. If part of your dream is an innovative quality home, Aspen Exterior Company can create it for you. We are an exterior remodeling company that specializes in dramatically transforming a home into a work of stunning craftsmanship.
Aspen Exterior is an exterior remodeling company dedicated to balancing art and function – energy efficiency, low maintenance, and lasting beauty. We take pride in our custom installation, superior work product, and professional service. Our Aspen Exterior designers work with you to craft remodeling solutions from major brands, including Pella, Marvin, Therma-Tru, Mastic, Hardie, and CertainTeed.
Come See What We Can Do Together
Visit us at our design center in the Northwest Suburbs and envision the possibilities. See the dramatic effect of sunlight beaming through energy-efficient bay windows. Step through doors of many styles, shapes, and designs. As a professional exterior remodeling company, we carry many high-quality products for siding, windows, gutters, and roofing. At Aspen Exterior Company, we turn your dreams into reality.
Aspen Exterior Company
1400 E. Northwest Highway
Palatine, IL 60074

domain: artistic


text:
The Women’s Mountain Biking Association of Colorado Springs hosts weekly group mountain bike rides for women in the area. WMBA desires to make women feel comfortable and safe on a mountain bike while having fun and meeting new friends. Whether you are a seasoned rider or just beginning to pedal on your first mountain bike, we want our group rides to be a place you can come to be with friends. We have a no drop policy, meaning we will not leave anyone behind. Group rides start at 6 p.m. and typically end around 8 p.m., please arrive early to check in and get situated.
Find out more about becoming a WMBA member HERE!
In addition to our group rides, WMBA hosts skill rides throughout the season. These rides
will focus on basic bike handling skills such as body position, clearing obstacles, and cornering. These rides are an additional $10 and held on Mondays from 6 to 8 p.m.
Social rides are no drop rides open to all men and women of any riding ability. We roll out at 10 a.m.
Each of our group rides is broken down into 4 ability groups: Never-Ever, Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced; this allow riders to choose the best group for their skill level. These groups are often divided into continuous and skills groups. In the Continuous group you’ll do more pedaling and less skill work and in the skills group you’ll stop more often and 'session' trail features.
Never-Ever: For those who have very limited or no experience riding on trails. Ride distances will be very short and there will be regular breaks for recovery. Time will be spent going over the basics of how to ride a mountain bike (shifting, breaking, mounting, dismounting, etc.) and riding on green-rated trails.
Beginner: For those those who have limited experience mountain biking or are not comfortable with mountain bike handling techniques. Ride distance will be short and groups will stop often to work on small features and bike handling skills. Trails will include a wide variety of terrain, but will mostly be consistent with green or blue trail map ratings.
Skill Building: This group will focus on basic mountain bike skills: Balance on the bike, techniques needed to navigate small obstacles (roots, rocks, etc.) and sand, and climbing and descending techniques. Ride distance will be very short, as the focus will be on learning.
Continuous Riding: This group is for riders interested in gaining more familiarity with local trails. Ride will be at a conversational pace and will include some stops to recover. No prolonged 'sessioning' of obstacles or teaching/coaching of skills. Ride distance will be greater then the Skill Building groups. Riders should have the ability to ride some, but maybe not all, small obstacles as they occur.
Intermediate: For those interested in more mileage and/or greater technical challenges, obstacles, drops of 1 ft. or less, narrow trails, limited exposure, steeper climbing/descending. Riders should be able to ride with confidence and get through most (maybe not all) obstacles. Trails will include a variety of terrain but will mostly be consistent with standard blue trail map ratings, but will most likely contain some Green and few Black rated trails.
Skill Building: This group will focus on skills needed for maneuvering through larger rocks, roots, or other obstacles, switchbacks, steep down and up hills.
Continuous Riding: This group is similar to the Green level Continuous Riding group, with an increase in distance and pace. Ride will include several short breaks to rest.
Advanced: For those interested in more difficult terrain, larger obstacles, some exposure, steep climbs and descents, greater distances, and faster pace. Trails chosen will include a variety of terrain and be mostly consistent with standard blue and black trail map ratings. Ride will include intermittent breaks to rest.

domain: sports


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American Sniper and the Trope of the Sheepdog
Enter Clint Eastwood’s new film American Sniper.
Early in the movie, Chris Kyle’s father breaks life down for his infant son (who will grow to be the titular sniper):
There are three types of people in this world: sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs. Now, some people prefer to believe that evil doesn’t exist in the world…those are the sheep. And then you got predators who use violence to prey on the weak. They’re the wolves. And then there are those who have been blessed with the gift of aggression, and the overpowering need to protect the flock. These men are the rare breed that live to confront the wolf. They are the sheepdogs.
This “wolves-sheep-sheepdogs” triad—the metaphor by which the film justifies Kyle’s bloody career—does not appear in Kyle’s autobiography. Rather, it comes from the work of military psychologist Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, best known for his 1995 text On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society.
In that book, Grossman suggests that, historically, most soldiers have not taken any human lives. In the heat of battle, he says, they tend to revert to an animal instinct that leads them to avoid deadly encounters with other members of their own species. In the natural world, competing males either posture to scare off rivals, or make a gesture of submission. During the Second World War, Grossman argues, most soldiers in close combat did the same: they fired their weapons harmlessly in the air or didn’t fire them at all. (The evidence he cites for this remarkable claim—primarily, SLA Marshall’s classic Men Against Fire—has been widely contested, but that’s another story.)
Grossman’s book On Killing was hailed by some progressives as a defense of humanity against the more common libel—that, as a species, we can be easily encouraged to gleefully slaughter each other, given the right circumstances. But Grossman’s fans fundamentally misunderstand his project. He is not a pacifist, but a soldier; On Killing is less a celebration of non-violence than it is a how-to guide.
Grossman claims that modern armies had, without really understanding how, developed techniques to break down our natural resistance to killing. So, in a sense, his work merely theorizes about what our militaries are already doing. But he also argues that there is a certain percentage of men who, he said, don’t need such guidance to be able to kill. That’s the basis of the “sheepdog” trope. In his 2004 book On Combat, he explains:
If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen: a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath—a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? Then you are a sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero’s path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed.
All of American Sniper can be summed up in those last two sentences.
Grossman has built a career running training sessions about killing for soldiers and police and really any other people who “walk the warrior’s path.” As he writes in On Combat, “If you in a war, you are a warrior. Is there a war on drugs? Is there a war on crime? Is there a war against terrorism?… Then you are in a war and you are a warrior.”
It’s worth thinking through these metaphors, particularly now that they’ve hit the big screen. What does it mean to call men with guns “sheepdogs”? Obviously, it makes the rest of us, as Grossman explains, “sheep,” feeble herd animals who require shepherding. We could never do what the warriors do—indeed, we can’t even comprehend it. “The sheep live in denial,’ writes Grossman, “that is what makes them sheep. They do not want to believe that there is evil in the world.”
This system is, more or less explicitly, a program for permanent militarism; by definition, the sheep can’t govern the sheepdogs. In American Sniper, the Kyle character has no time for those who question the value of the Iraq catastrophe. There’s evil in Baghdad; therefore, he must kill people, irrespective of the baah-ing of the flock.
Moreover, the metaphor provides a justification for military violence as an end in itself. That’s the whole message of American Sniper. By shooting hundreds of people, did the Chris Kyle character make the world a better place? Within the logic of the film, this question makes no sense. Kyle is a sheepdog precisely because he performs acts that most of us wouldn’t. The men he shoots matter only insofar as they reveal Kyle’s nature. Kyle’s ability to kill becomes, in and of itself, an act of heroism—one that doesn’t require external justification from those who can’t, by definition, understand it.
The Iraq War cost the U.S. trillions of dollars and devastated Iraq. But it did provide lots of opportunities for killing—something that American Sniper presents, to extraordinary box office success, as a kind of victory. Of course, that’s the other corollary of seeing the public as sheep. You’re always looking for opportunities to fleece them.

domain: philosophy


Join us for this weeks` CIRFA seminar given by center leader Torbjørn Eltoft. This presentation summarises the activities during our research expedition to Belgica Bank with RV Kronprins Haakon.
Join us for this weeks` CIRFA seminar given by Morven Muilwijk on the Impact of sea ice transport on Beaufort Gyre liquid freshwater content!
How are remote sensing data used and why is programming important? This week, CIRFA is invited to give a presentation about remote sensing of the ocean surface at course for teachers that is arranged by UiT`s Skolelabb.
We are pleased to invite you to this weeks` CIRFA seminar given by post doc Debanshu Ratha. Title: The Geodesic Distance-Based Approach to PolSAR Data Analysis and its Potential for Sea-Ice Applications. When: 25 November 2021, 14:00-15:00. Where: Teams Click here to join the meeting Abstract: To monitor activities and phenomenon in the Arctic region,…
In late October, CIRFA participated at the Space Day 2021 at Vitensenter in Tromsø. The event arranged by Vitensenter and Andøya Space was designed to introduce high school students and students to career opportunities in space-related research and buisnesses in northern Norway.
How do we know the paths of large floating objects including ice bergs, oil spill simulations, and how do we pinpointf search areas during Search-and-Rescue missions? This requires modeling of surface ocean currents in real time and into the future with high spatial and temporal resolution. Learn more about how remote sensing and modeling can help with such tasks in the next CIRFA seminar.
The CIRFA Annual Conference 2021 is taking place during Oct. 19-21 at the Sommarøy Arctic Hotel.
This year’s conference will feature sessions on key research topics, a poster session, talks and presentations of early career researchers, and work meetings.
Welcome to this autumn`s first CIRFA seminar. The seminar will be given by Robbie Mallett on “Snow on Arctic sea ice – much still to learn from Soviet Drifting stations”. Welcome!
Polona Itkin presents about MOSAiC research in the APECS-ARICE webinar: DEARice in MOSAiC – Connecting the world of snow, ice and ecosystem processes on 4 June.
Join us for the next CIRFA Seminar on 20. May with a special focus on icebergs.


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This project was developed with West Cumbria Rivers Trust and funded by The Greggs Foundation. The brief for the site was to create a variety of structures using materials onsite to offer a showcase of options and techniques whilst thinning the woodlands to provide better understory and structure. Three dams were created in two styles.
1. Low impact large woody debris installation, creating interlocking debris with cable fail-safe’s.
2. Live willow structures, locally coppiced and woven to create strong, effective leaky dams that have an indefinite life span.
The site continues to be monitored and modified when high flows are observed.
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text:
A 22 year old woman has been the subject of widespread criticism on social media in the past few days after she disgracefully begrudged a homeless man who has been dubbed a hero for his brave efforts whilst helping the wounded and dying during the Manchester Arena bombing.
The backlash of criticism which has been circulating across Facebook in recent days has come after the woman Emily Walton, 22, wrote a disgusting and harsh rant about the brave man Stephen Jones who was re-housed after his terrifying ordeal.
Mr Jones who came to the world’s attention just under two weeks ago was praised by many from far and wide after he helped the badly injured survive during the recent bombing that took the lives of 22 innocent people and severely injured 59 others.
However even though many feel the courageous but down on his luck man deserved his new home, Ms Walton doesn’t agree after she labeled the gesture as a disgrace and questioned why Mr Jones was given such generosity before her.
In the detailed post the disgruntled mum wrote: “F**k you world homeless man in Manchester offered a house and job for helping in terror attack and people like me and chaz cant get a place f**k you England.”
Although after a lengthy debate on the social media website the young mum refused to agree with those who believed that the courageous man deserved a new home, even when a friend tried to point out that the man had risked his life to help injured children.
The mum-of-one, who has been waiting for social housing for over a year, replied that she “didn’t give a s***.”
She then added: ‘He’s probably drugged up on heroin and still gets a place’.

domain: sociology


² Working voltage: 5.0-6.0V
² Current: 2A
² Weight: 3g
Suitable for all servos, and reverse direction servo make a positive, positive direction servo make a reverse. It is easy to install and you just need to connect the servo reverser in the servo channel that you want to reverse.
- See more at: http://www.sdshobby.com/servo-accessory/servos-accessories/servo-reverser/servo-electronic-reverser-for-all-servos-5v-6v-2a-3g-servo-accessories.html#sthash.2jnosYhB.dpuf


text:
Meet up at Yankee Hill Lock for the 2023 Canal Clean Sweep! Volunteers will clean up along the Eagle Trail and the Empire State Trail. More details to come.
The Friends of Schoharie Crossing and the site will team up with volunteers to clean up along the Eagle Trail – which connects Yankee Hill Lock to the Southside of Amsterdam. This 2.5 miles trail is in need of a little TLC – we’ll pick up any trash, trim up some branches, and clear some brambles.
Good Footwear, gloves, and proper clothing recommended. If you have clippers, manual trimmers, hand saws, rakes, etc. please bring them along and we’ll make the work fun!
Register on Parks & Trails NY website: www.ptny.org/events/canal-clean-sweep
About the Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site
Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site is dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of the Erie Canal as one of the 19th century’s greatest commercial and engineering projects. The Visitor Center exhibit traces the history of the Erie Canal and its impact on the growth of New York State and the nation.
Within the site’s boundaries are many structures dating from the three eras of the canal’s development. At the eastern end of the site is the Putnam Lock Stand at Yankee Hill that houses an exhibit on Erie Canal stores. The site’s largest structure is the remains of the Schoharie Aqueduct, which carried the water of the Enlarged Erie Canal over the Schoharie Creek.
Schoharie Crossing is also the location of 18th century Fort Hunter and the Lower Castle Mohawk village. See artifacts from that portion of our history on display at the Visitor Center.

domain: geography


Caterpillar Mens C1320002 Instigator Work Bodywarmer/Gilet (L)
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Keep your core warm with the CAT Apparel 1322033 Momentum Fleece Vest. Chest and side pockets, overlays, and drawcords make this vest functional, while polyester fleece takes care of comfort.
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Caterpillar Mens C1320012 Defender Insulated Sleeveless Bodywarmer (XL)
Mens bodywarmer. Durable water resistant finish. Quilted insulated body for warmth and maximum performance. Inside lower left tablet pocket with hook and loop closure. Reflective logo print on left chest and back collar. Full front zip with storm flap and beard guard. Inside upper left chest pocket with touch fasten closure and wire management to keep cord in place. Adjustable drawcord and cord locks and bottom sides for optimal fit. Left chest zip pocket for quick access and safe storage. Stand up collar with contrast overlay on outer collar and shoulders. Secure multipurpose pockets. Fabric: Nylon/Polyester. Machine wash cold with like colors. Do not bleach. Tumble dry low. Do not iron. Do not dry clean.
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Caterpillar Men's Momentum Fleece Jacket
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Caterpillar Men's Traverse Jacket
Three panel mesh lined hood with adjustable cord lock and hook loop back tab


text:
Contribution of the maritime sector to the French economy
Given the dispersion or absence of some of the statistical data, these figures are estimates.
However, this table is limited to jobs dependent almost exclusively on the sea. Thus activities centred on coastal tourism, which alone contributed € 28.5 billion and 190,000 jobs in 2010, have been excluded from the maritime cluster! Likewise port activities properly speaking do not take account of indirect jobs, such as those in port industrial zones or those generated in shops and businesses.
Gross National Income (an indicator similar to the former GDP) having risen in France in 2014, the value of maritime production (excluding double accounts, i.e. net of internal trade), which also rose, was stable at around 3.2% of GNI. The active maritime population (employed directly) represents 1.1% of the total active population of the country.
The maritime sector is as important if not more important than “traditional” French sectors:
The maritime sector employs more people than the aeronautical industry (180,000 jobs in 2014), the telecommunications sector (122,000 jobs in 2014) or the automobile industry (in 2013, including car parts suppliers, 201,000 jobs).
The maritime industry is bigger by value of production than the aeronautical industry (E 50.7 bn in 2014) or even the telecommunications sector (E 33.8 bn in 2014).

domain: statistics


ZFS RAIDZ Controller Disk Order
charlie.mas at gmail.com
Wed Dec 29 12:36:20 UTC 2010
I have an old "server" which has FreeBSD on it. It has a cheap PCI
raid controller in it, with the disks just set to pass through to the
OS. Then the OS had a RAIDZ configured array form the 6 x 250gig disks
passed through from the raid controller.
I decided to upgrade to an array of 4 2TB disks running on new
hardware (using the same server case). The disks were in a separate
chassis to the motherboard, its quite complicated! So I copied the
data off the old array via NFS to a separate 2TB disk. Then built the
Unfortunately I have realised I forgot to copy my old photos off the
old array. I would really like to recover the old photos although, I
suppose its not the end of the world if they are lost.
As a fail safe I had left the old array disks as they were so, that I
can just plug them back in if anything went wrong. Or so I thought! On
plugging them back in zpool is complaining that they are all corrupt,
except the first 2. It seems fairly unlikely I have got that unlucky.
So I was wondering, does the order they were in the controller matter.
They are all being presented in the same range of addresses da0
through da5 but they are probably connected up to different ports, so
da0 is now da2 and so on.
Can anyone think of a way to get them back in the correct order if it
does matter, other than trial and error. Can I find out what number
each one was in the pool from the disk somehow?
More information about the freebsd-questions


text:
To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.
S. W. | Asia
Paul has been warning Titus about the characteristics of false teachers and apostates beginning in verse 10 of Titus 1. Here he focuses on the crucial issue—the corruption of their hearts. In this context, the phrase “to the pure, all things are pure,” describes the opposite of apostates. True believers have a life of productivity in holiness. False teachers are often marked not by what they are for, but what they are against. In other words, they are not thinking about what is evil, but are setting their minds on that which is God-centered and useful. On the other hand, false teachers are impure of heart and without faith in Christ. Because of this they see nothing as pure, but are legalistic and condemn even the practice of good and pure things. In context, Paul is thinking about the Judaizers who follow “Jewish myths and commandments of men” (Titus 1:14). A mark of false teaching is an overemphasis on rules and legalistic regulations. False teachers are often marked not by what they are for, but what they are against. The ultimate reason Paul gives for this is that their minds and consciences are defiled. They have hidden sin in their thinking and hearts, and their legalism is often a smokescreen to cover and perpetuate their sin. Let us then be on guard, and avoid letting our minds and consciences become defiled. Our lives should not be marked primarily by the lists of things we are avoiding, but instead by our singular devotion to and following after Christ.

domain: christianity


text:
Today marks Sushant Singh Rajput's first death anniversary. The 34-year-old actor was found dead in his Mumbai residence on June 14 last year. Social media on Monday got filled with remembrance posts and wishes made by his fans for the late actor. Not just them but even many celebrities shared fond memories with the 'Chichhore' actor. Sailing in the same boat is Sushant's 'Pavitra Rishta' co-star and actress Ankita Lokhande who took to Instagram and shared videos featuring their happy moments together. The actor's then-former girlfriend treated fans with glimpses from various vacations as well as events that the two of them attended together.
One of the clips was captioned, "Left with these memories only. You will always be loved and cherished." While alongside the other one, she wrote, "14 June. This was our journey! Phir milenge chalte chalte."
Have a look at the two posts made by her here:
Just yesterday, she returned to social media and shared a picture from the hawan that was conducted in Sushant's remembrance.
Previously, she shared a cryptic post on her Instagram account, hinting that she might have decided to take a break from social media. "It's not a goodbye, it's a see you later," Ankita's post read.
For those unversed, Ankita and Sushant had dated each other for nearly six years before parting ways in 2016. They both met on the sets of 'Pavitra Rishta', which recently completed 12 years. Ankita even posted about it a few days ago. "12 Years!! Ohh, Yes Yes It's 12 Years Of Pavitra Rishta, Time Flies Really Quickly. With more than 66 Awards #Pavitrarishta remains to be one of the most loved show on Indian Television. Here's to 12 glorious years of this iconic show. Which not only gave me Archana but love all across the globe and made me who I'm today," Ankita wrote.
"The story that celebrates joy of life, love, family and friendship. Thank you @balajitelefilmslimited @ektarkapoor for making me Archana and thank you to all the cast and crew. Thank you Maa and Paa for always supporting me. #pavitrarishta #12years #balajitelefilms #archana #ektakapoor #love #memories," she added.
Recently, an unreleased song from their popular show titled, 'Tum Jaisi Ho Waisi Rehna' went viral on the internet. Watch it here:
Early investigations by Mumbai Police concluded that Sushant died by suicide. The case is still under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate, Narcotics Control Bureau and Central Bureau of Investigation.

domain: news


text:
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domain: fashion


Ireland's Deep Atlantic shown in all it's glory
Have you seen the recent wildlife program on RTE – Ireland’s Deep Atlantic? It was filmed and narrated by the wonderful Ken O’ Sullivan who manages to come across as professional while maintaining an almost childish glee at witnessing marine life. Although why wouldn’t he be impressed – he got to swim up close and personal with some of the top attractions in the sea; dolphins, basking sharks, pilot whales, blue whales, humpback whales.
As an avid Irish diver, I know how amazingly rich and vibrant our sea is but I was still blown away at the amount and let’s be honest the size of the marine life Ken filmed off the coast of Ireland. He encountered 2 humpback whales in one year, at different ends of the season, in summer off Kerry and in winter off Clare. Now that would be my dream come true.
Unlike most Irish marine wildlife films to-date, this program coastal beaches and headlands that we divers are well familiar with and headed out, venturing sometimes 100km from land, in what appeared to be a rather small rib. I’ve spent plenty of time bouncing around at the back of Lambay or Mullaghmore but I can’t imagine how they managed such journeys. When the weather permitted such trips, they were rewarded with crystal clear water and marine life in abundance.
The show combined underwater footage taking by some impressive free diving by Ken O’ Sullivan with overhead shots from a drone. The video from above really showed the massive size of the creatures and how close Ken was to the action. Another interesting part was shot from within Ireland’s very own ROV, on board the Marine Institute’s Celtic Explorer.
Unlike the BBC’s Blue Planet, there seems to have been made by a tiny film crew, but it doesn’t suffer by comparison. It is a slick well made production. Now I love David Attenborough and to my mind no-one is better than him but Ken O’Sullivan might be a younger pretender to the crown. He is informative without being boring, delivers strong environmental message without being preachy. Maybe it’s his Kerry charm and wit. At one point when he’s describing what it’s like to swim in the deepest parts of Ireland, he says ” sure if you can’t stand up. what’s the difference between 2 and 2000m”
If you haven’t seen Ireland’s Deep Atlantic, catch in on RTE Player. This is part of wildlife series on RTE – Our Wild Ireland. They have certainly set the bar high with this programme so I’m looking forward to watching more, even if the rest of them are on land.


text:
After one week of science fiction-free reading: 20 chapters of Jane Eyre down, 18 to go; roughly halfway through by page count. I’m not as far behind as I thought, as the beginning of the week was slow reading, and I’ve picked up the pace considerably in the last couple of days.
Oh, yes, this is late Victorian literature, all right: it’s hip-deep in orphans. Not to mention wicked foster families, abusive schoolmasters, gruel, and innocent waifs dying of consumption. I would be rolling my eyes at the piles of clichés, if I didn’t know that books like Jane Eyre were the ones that started the clichés.
To this point, Jane has been sent to a charity school for orphaned girls. After finishing school she becomes employed by wealthy bachelor Mr. Rochester, serving as governess to his young ward Adele.
There’s a sort of love triangle, and a mystery: someone in the house tried to set fire to Rochester’s bed, and attacked one of his house-guests. Oh my. I hope there’s not a mad woman in the attic!