Human Space Flight (HSF) – Realtime Data

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If conditions are right, you can see satellites and other spacecraft -- such as the space shuttle or the International Space Station -- clearly from the ground. Satellites appear as small, steady, extremely fast-moving points of light. The International Space Station is now one of the most visible objects in the sky. Most sightings follow a west-to-east path and the spacecraft appear over the western horizon and disappear over the eastern in a matter of a few minutes.

The problem for most people is that they do not know when or where to look to see the station or other spacecraft in the night sky. NASA SkyWatch is a tool for you to get this information. This guide is intended to help you run NASA SkyWatch the first time or two you try.

Generally, NASA SkyWatch can be as simple or as complex as you care to make it. For astronomy enthusiasts, there are many variables that allow you to personalize the processing of Earth orbiting satellites. For everyone else, there are only a few things to remember in order to get highly accurate sighting information. This guide will help you to master the basics of obtaining some great sighting data!

Step 1: First of all, remember that you need to be using a compatible internet browser. The Microsoft Internet Explorer v.4.0 or later or Netscape Navigator v.4.06 or later are recommended for the Windows operating system. The Java Runtime Environment v.1.4.2 is also required.

For the Macintosh operating system, the Microsoft Internet Explorer v.4.5 and the Macintosh Runtime Environment for Java v.2.1 are recommended. If you have access to these browsers, then you are ready to proceed to step 2. If you do not have access to these browsers, then you will receive security errors and the applet will not appear.

Step 2: Once the browser configuration is sorted out, you are ready to go. NASA SkyWatch can be viewed from the Human Spaceflight Web under Realtime Data and Sightings. To obtain best results, make sure your computer system clock is set to your correct local time. If all is well, all you need to do is to click on the "Start Java Applet" button on the introduction page and the applet will be displayed. Once the user interface is displayed, you are ready for step three.

Step 3: Choose a location

On the map:

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Human Space Flight (HSF) - Realtime Data

USC Institute for Genetic Medicine

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USC Institute for Genetic Medicine

The USC Institute for Genetic Medicine (IGM) is a place where researchers work closely together in a shared space to approach problems of the highest impact to human health. The IGM houses the offices and laboratories of a group of leading faculty members from the University of Southern California (USC). IGM scientists, engineers and clinicians take a multidisciplinary approach using molecular, genetic, omics, and computational technologies in human and genetic models.

The IGM is administered as a department reporting to the Dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC. It is part of the USC Health Sciences Campus, located on the east side of Los Angeles.

The IGM comprises 21 faculty members. The department is an important research training ground for USC, and typically supports about 50 trainees at any one time. Including scientific and administrative staff, the total number of people working within the IGM hovers around 110 individuals.

IGM research is funded by federal, state, and industry-sponsored grants, as well as gifts from donors and benefactors. The major sponsor is the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Center for Applied Molecular Medicine (CAMM) within the IGM holds a Physical Sciences in Oncology Center (PS-OC) grant from the NIHs National Cancer Institute.

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USC Institute for Genetic Medicine

Futurism – Matteson Art

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Futurism Magritte was given a futurist catalogue by Pierre Bourgeois shortly after they met at the Art Academy. By 1920 Magritte and ELT Mesens requested more information from the leader of futurism, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.They received more of Marinetti's futurism pamphets. In factthere'sa draft for a letter to Marinetti in which Mesens thanks Marinetti for sending futurist pamphets.

Several of Magritte's early 1920s paintings reflect his interest in futurism:

Jeunesse- Rene Magritte 1924

While lecturing to students at the Muse Royal des Beaux-Arts in Antwerp in 1938, Magritte said of Futurism:

In a state of real intoxication, I painted a whole series of Futurist paintings. Yet, I dont believe the lyricism I wanted to capture had an unchanging center unrelated to aesthetic Futurism (Torczyner 214).

Gablik suggests "his Futurism was never orthodox, in that it was always combined with a certain eroticism, as in the picture Youth, where the diffused figure of a nude girl hovers over the image of a boat (Gablik 23).

Here's an article about futurism from History of Art:

In contrast with other early 20th-century avant-garde movements, the distinctive feature of Futurism was its intention to become involved in all aspects of modem life. Its aim was to effect a systematic change in society and, true to the movement's name, lead it towards new departures into the "future". Futurism was a direction rather than a style. Its encouragement of eccentric behaviour often prompted impetuous and sometimes violent attempts to stage imaginative situations in the hope of provoking reactions. The movement tried to liberate its adherents from the shackles of 19th-century' bourgeois conventionality and urged them to cross the boundaries of traditional artistic genres in order to claim a far more complete freedom of expression. Through a barrage of manifestos that dealt not only with various aspects of art, such as painting, sculpture, music, architecture, and design, but with society in general, the Futurists proclaimed the cult of modernity and the advent of a new form of artistic expression, and put an end to the art of the past. The entire classical tradition, especially that of Italy, was a prime target for attack, while the worlds of technology, mechanization, and speed were embraced as expressions of beauty and subjects worthy of the artist's interest.

Futurism, which started out as a literary movement, had its first manifesto (signed by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti) published in Le Figaro in 1909. It soon attracted a group of young Italian artists - Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla (1871-1958), Carlo Carra (1881-1966), Luigi Russolo (1885-1947), and Gino Severini (1883-1966) - who collaborated in writing the "Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting" and the "Manifesto of the Futurist Painters", both of which were published in 1910.

Danseuse bleue-Gino Severini

Despite being the sole Italian avant-garde movement. Futurism first came to light in Paris where the cosmopolitan atmosphere was ready to receive and promote it. Its development coincided with that of Cubism, and the similarities and differences in the philosophies of the two movements have often been discussed. Without doubt they shared a common cause in making a definitive break with the traditional, objective methods of representation. However, the static quality of Cubism is evident when compared with the dynamism of the Futurists, as are the monochrome or subdued colours of the former in contrast to the vibrant use of colour by the latter. The Cubists' rational form of experimentation, and intellectual approach to the artistic process, also contrasts with the Futurists' vociferous and emotive exhortations for the mutual involvement of art and life, with expressions of total art and provocative demonstrations in public. Cubists held an interest in the objective value of form, while Futurists relied on images and the strength of perception and memory in their particularly dynamic paintings. The Futurists believed that physical objects had a kind of personality and vitality of their own. revealed by "force-lines" - Boccioni referred to this as "physical transcendentalism". These characteristic lines helped to inform the psychology and emotions of the observer and influenced surrounding objects "not by reflections of light, but by a real concurrence of lines and real conflicts of planes" (catalogue for the Bernheim-Jeune exhibition, 1911). In this way, the painting could interact with the observer who, for the first time, would be looking "at the centre of the picture" rather than simply viewing the picture from the front. This method of looking at objects that was based on their inherent movement - and thereby capturing the vital moment of a phenomenon within its process of continual change - was partly influenced by a fascination with new technology and mechanization. Of equal importance, however, was the visual potential of the new-found but flourishing art of cinematography. Futurists felt strongly that pictorial sensations should be shouted, not murmured. This belief was reflected in their use of very flamboyant, dynamic colours, based on the model of Neo-Impressionist theories of the fragmentation of light. A favourite subject among Futurist artists was the feverish life of the metropolis: the crowds of people, the vibrant nocturnal life of the stations and dockyards, and the violent scenes of mass movement and emotion that tended to erupt suddenly. Some Futurists, such as Balla, chose themes with social connotations, following the anarchic Symbolist tradition of northern Italy and the humanitarian populism of Giovanni Cena.

The first period of Futurism was an analytical phase, involving the analysis of dynamics, the fragmentation of objects into complementary shades of colour, and the juxtaposition of winding, serpentine lines and perpendicular straight lines. Milan was the centre of Futurist activity, which was led by Boccioni and supported by Carra and Russolo. These three artists visited Paris together in 1911 as guests of Severini, who had settled there in 1906. During their stay, they formulated a new artistic-language, which culminated in works dealing with the "expansion of objects in space" and "states of mind" paintings. A second period, when the Futurists adopted a Cubistic idiom, was known as the synthetic phase, and lasted from 1913 to 1916.

At this time, Boccioni took up sculpture, developing his idea of "sculpture of the environment" which heralded the "spatial" sculpture of Moore, Archipenko, and the Constructivists. In Rome, Balla and Fortunato Depero (1892-1960) created "plastic complexes", constructions of dynamic, basic silhouettes in harsh, solid colours. The outbreak of World War I prompted many Futurist artists to enlist as volunteers. This willingness to serve was influenced by the movement's doctrine, which maintained that war was the world's most effective form of cleansing. Both Boccioni and the architect Antonio Sant'Elia, who had designed an imaginary Futurist city, were killed in the war and the movement was brought to a sudden end.

During the 1920s, some Futurists attempted to revive the movement and align it with other European avant-garde movements, under the label of "Mechanical Art". Its manifesto, published in 1922. showed much in common with Purism and Constructivism. Futurism also became associated with "aeropainting" a technique developed in 1929 by Balla, Benedetta, Dottori, Fillia, and other artists. This painting style served as an expression of a desire for the freedom of the imagination and of fantasy.

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Futurism - Matteson Art

Richelle Mead’s Journal/Blog/Random Thoughts

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March 14th, 2016, 12:58 pm Fun Glittering Court Stuff My main job is writing the books, so half the time, I don't know what promo stuff is going on behind the scenes. Today I sat down at my desk to find these two challenges waiting for me:

Which Glittering Court Jewel Are You? The girls in the Glittering Court have pretty distinct personalities! See who you sync up with.

Which Five Friends are in Your Court? Who'd have your back in an intense boarding school and subsequent adventures in a strange new land? Friends can be real or fictitious, which makes it extra tricky to think of a good list.

*US only. It's the law with sweepstakes, and this is a US publisher running it. Sorry!

Tuesday, April 5th - 7:00 PM - Washington, DC Barnes & Noble 7851 Tysons Corner Center McLean, VA 22102

Wednesday, April 6th - 6:00 PM - New York, NY Barnes & Noble 97 Warren St. New York, NY 10007

Thursday, April 7th - 7:00 PM - Boston, MA An Unlikely Story 111 South Street Plainville, MA 02762

Friday, April 8th - 6:30 PM - Denver, CO Douglas County Libraries Philip S. Miller branch 100 S. Wilcox St. Castle Rock, CO 80104 *BOOKS SOLD ON-SITE BY TATTERED COVER

Monday, April 11th - 7:00 PM - Anchorage, AK Barnes & Noble 200 East Northern Lights Blvd Anchorage, AK 99503

Tuesday, April 12th - 7:00 PM - Portland, OR Powells 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd. Beaverton, OR 97005

Wednesday, April 13th - 7:00 PM - Seattle, WA University Bookstore 4326 University Way NE Seattle, WA 98105

Saturday, April 16th - Las Vegas, NV RT Booklovers Convention The Rio Hotel, Las Vegas, NV Giant Book Fair Signing - 10:30am-2pm --This signing is open to the public for $5 admission and includes 600+ authors --See rtconvention.com for more info and Richelles Friday/Saturday panels

Saturday, April 30th - Santa Monica, CA YALLWest Book Festival, Santa Monica High School An amazing day of authors, panels, signings, and more! Check yallwest.org for updates, schedule, and guest list

Thursday, May 12th - 7:00 PM - Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN Red Balloon Bookshop 891 Grand Ave St Paul, MN 55105

Friday, May 13th - 6:00 PM - Milwaukee, WI Oak Creek Library Drexel Town Center 8040 S. 6th Street Oak Creek, WI 53154 *BOOKS SOLD ON-SITE BY BOSWELL BOOKS

Saturday, May 14th - Chicago, IL BookCon West Building at McCormick Place, Chicago, IL Signing and panels TBA Follow thebookcon.com for schedule updates and to buy tickets (FYI - tickets go fast!)

Good to know: -At bookstore/library events, theres a limit of three books per person. One will be personalized to you and the others just signed. If you have more, have friends/family carry three books each or hop back in line. -Buying or pre-ordering The Glittering Court at a participating bookstore will get you a wristband that puts you in the first part of the signing line. Otherwise, youll go to the second half of the line. You can bring any of Richelles books from home to be signed (or buy other ones you dont have at the store). Powells is the exception - they dont use wristbands. -RT will have a limit of three books, and again, you may buy on-site or bring from home. -BookCon signings specs are still TBD, but they will also have small limits. Stay tuned for updates. -Photos are done with Richelle if time permits! -Contact hosting stores for additional questions!

It's been a while since I posted. Looking back, I see that my last entry was just before the Soundless tour. Recovering from that and then going straight into Thanksgiving and Christmas took a lot out of me. But, I had a great time meeting fans in the South, and thanks to everyone's support, Soundless debuted on The New York Times bestseller list. So, thank you for that! You guys are the best.

A dazzling, romantic new fantasy series set in a mix of Elizabethan and frontier worlds fromRichelle Mead, #1 internationally bestselling author of Vampire Academy.

Big and sweeping, spanning the refined palaces of Osfrid to the gold dust and untamed forests of Adoria, The Glittering Court tells the story of Adelaide, an Osfridian countess who poses as her servant to escape an arranged marriage and start a new life in Adoria, the New World. But to do that, she must join the Glittering Court.

Both a school and a business venture, the Glittering Court is designed to transform impoverished girls into upper-class ladies who appear destined for powerful and wealthy marriages in the New World.Adelaide naturally excels in her training and even makes a few friends: the fiery former laundress Tamsin and the beautiful Sirminican refugee Mira. She manages to keep her true identity hidden from all but one: the intriguing Cedric Thorn, son of the wealthy proprietor of the Glittering Court.

When Adelaide discovers that Cedric is hiding a dangerous secret of his own, together, they hatch a scheme to make the best of Adelaides deception. Complications soon arisefirst, as they cross the treacherous seas from Osfrid to Adoria, and later, when Adelaide catches the attention of a powerful governor.

But no complication will prove quite as daunting as the potent attraction simmering between Adelaide and Cedric. An attraction that, if acted on, would scandalize the Glittering Court and make them both outcasts in wild, vastly uncharted lands. . . .

And if that doesn't tell you enough, good news! The first eleven chapters are online for your reading pleasure. So, go catch up because things are about to get fast and furious over the next few months!

1. What is your next book? It's called Soundless. It comes out November 10 (that's less than 2 weeks away!). It's a standalone--so it is NOT part of any series. The first 30 pages are here, and this is its sweet cover:

2. What is Soundless about?

3. Are you going on tour for Soundless? Yes. I will be signing in Seattle, WA; Raleigh, NC; Fairhope, AL; Charleston, SC; Coral Gables, FL; and Santa Monica, CA. Stores, times, and signing policies are here.

4. What's after Soundless? In April 2016, I have a brand new series coming. It has nothing to do with Soundless or Vampire Academy or anything else I've done. It's called The Glittering Court, and you'll go crazy when you read it. The description is here, and this is its sweet cover:

5. What's the big Soundless pre-order deal that involves The Glittering Court? If you pre-order Soundless from a select independent bookstore, you will get a limited edition copy of Soundless that's autographed by me and has a fancy translucent cover wrap over it. You'll also get a special sampler that includes the FIRST ELEVEN CHAPTERS of The Glittering Court. The whole deal looks like this:

7. Can I get this deal if I pre-order Soundless from Amazon or Barnes and Noble? No. You'll get a standard copy of Soundless, which is still cool, but it won't have the fancy cover wrap, autograph, or The Glittering Court chapters. By the way--that is my actual autograph in all those limited edition ones. I signed 10,000 copies this summer.

8. I'm going to one of your November book signings! Sweet! It's at a store that's offering the special Soundless pre-order. What should I do? Pre-order it to make sure they don't run out. Then still come see me the night I sign, and I'll personalize the copy to you. Right now, they just have my signature, but I'll write something like, "To [your name], thanks for being awesome!"

9. Have you forgotten about Age of X #3? Nope. It's still in the works. And it's pretty cool. But I have to answer to a larger publishing schedule that dictates when and what I write. If it makes you feel better, I think there's going to be a #4. But that probably didn't make you feel better.

10. Why aren't you writing more Vampire Academy stuff? I can't speak for all authors, but I write because I have more ideas than I can keep inside me. I want to write them all. They keep me up at night. If I'd only ever written the first story idea I ever had, I never would have written VA--or, actually, any of my books that are out. I love the VA gang, and I love that you guys love them too, but I don't plan on writing only VA books for the next sixty years. I would definitely love to revisit those crazy kids one day, but right now, I've got to get some of these other ideas on paper. Trust me: when you start reading TGC next year, you'll be hooked into another series. And who knows? Maybe I haven't even written your favorite book yet. <3

I dont get why people are so touchy. When I told Dinah Drozdov that I wanted to keep things casual and still date other people, she was fine with that. When I told her sister Aly the same thing, she was fine with that too. But for some reason, when Dinah found out Aly was one of the other people, she flipped out. And when Aly found out about Dinah, she really flipped out. I guess theres some special rule about dating two sisters at the same time. Like that you arent supposed to do it. But then things got really bad when their dad found out. He started going off about how I was going to suffer in new and terrible ways Id never dreamed possible. When Aunt Tatiana found out, things got really, REALLY bad. I guess Lord Drozdov is critical to some motion shes trying to get passed, and he threatened to pull his support because of me. Aunt Tatiana was pissed, to put it mildly. I still dont really understand these aura things I keep seeing, but hers was deep red, and that just didnt seem like a good sign. Neither was her screaming at me. Usually, she lets me get away with anything, but this crossed a line. She told me I couldnt stick around Court for Christmas, not with Lord Drozdov there too. She needs to smooth things over, and me sitting next to him at Christmas dinner might throw that off. So now I have to go spend the holidays at some crap ski lodge in Idaho. I hate skiing, but what I hate even worse is finding out my dad is coming along. Two weeks on vacation with Nathan Ivashkov? Looks like I really am going to suffer in new and terrible ways.

If Richelle isn't coming to your city, click here to find out how to order a limited edition signed copy of Soundless from your local indie bookstore with a super cool embellished cover!(You can also pre-order one from a participating store she's appearing at -- contact them for more information!).

Tuesday, November 10th at 7:00pm Seattle, WA University Bookstore - 206-634-3400 4326 University Way NE Seattle, WA 98105 206-634-3400

Wednesday, November 11th at 7:00pm Chapel Hill, NC Flyleaf Books - 919-942-7373 752 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd Chapel Hill, NC 27514

Thursday, November 12th at 6:00pm Fairhope, AL Page & Palette - 251-928-5295 32 S Section Street Fairhope, AL 36532

Friday, November 13th & Saturday, November 14th Charleston, SC YALLFest Details forthcoming - please check the YALLFest website for schedule and tickets to Richelle's keynote

Sunday, November 15th at 1:00pm Miami, FL Books & Books - 305-442-4408 265 Aragon Ave Coral Gables, FL 33134

Thursday, November 19th at 7:00pm Los Angeles, CA Barnes & Noble Santa Monica - 310-260-9110 1201 3rd St Santa Monica, CA 90401

Signing Guidelines: -Richelle will sign three books per person, one will be personalized and the other two will just have signatures (have a friend bring three more books!) -You may bring books from home -Pictures will be allowed if time permits -Many bookstores have perks for buying Soundless from them, like going to the front of the signing line. Check back here or contact your store to find out any other details, such as line policies or tickets.

If you follow me on social media, you'll know that yesterday I supported a fundraiser for Save the Children (which you can still contribute to) and told people if that goal was surpassed, I'd write up some entries from Adrian's diary. Well, that goal was met (and then some), so as promised, here we go. I'm also working on a totally new, non-VA project right now, so I can't spend too much time in Adrian's head or else it'll throw me off. So, you just get one today. I'll try to do another next week.

Because the VA/Bloodlines series takes place in no specific year, I'm just generically dating these around the books they're taking place in.

Date: Springtime, sometime during the year Vampire Academy #1 takes place

Well, I did it. I finally quit college. Again. I shouldve known better after the first time, but Mom kept pushing me to give it another shot. After half a semester, I knew I was done. Again. Dad said I didnt try hard enough to make it work, but I think the university didnt try hard enough to make it work for me. Like, on the first day of class, my watercolors professor kept going on and on about how we needed to express ourselves. But when I told her a couple weeks later that homework wasnt really an expression of the powerful emotions burning within my soul, she said I was going to fail her class. Hypocrite. At least I was doing good in Intro to Womens Studies. My professor wrote Good effort please rewrite on one of my papers, which I think is pretty solid. I also got six girls numbers, which is more than the only other two guys in class managed to do. But I dont really need to get up early and sit through a lecture to get phone numbers. I can do that anywhere. Dad asked me what Im going to do with my life, now that Im a second-time college dropout. I told him Im going to do what Ive always done. Be awesome. Be Adrian Ivashkov.

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Richelle Mead's Journal/Blog/Random Thoughts

Nanotechnology – Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Nanotechnology is a part of science and technology about the control of matter on the atomic and molecular scale - this means things that are about 100 nanometres or smaller.[1]

Nanotechnology includes making products that use parts this small, such as electronic devices, catalysts, sensors, etc. To give you an idea of how small that is, there are more nanometres in an inch than there are inches in 400 miles.[2]

To give a international idea of how small that is, there are as many nanometres in a centimetre, as there are centimetres in 100 kilometres.

Nanotechnology brings together scientists and engineers from many different subjects, such as applied physics, materials science, interface and colloid science, device physics, chemistry, supramolecular chemistry (which refers to the area of chemistry that focuses on the non-covalent bonding interactions of molecules), self-replicating machines and robotics, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, biology, biological engineering, and electrical engineering.

Generally, when people talk about nanotechnology, they mean structures of the size 100 nanometers or smaller. There are one million nanometers in a millimeter. Nanotechnology tries to make materials or machines of that size.

People are doing many different types of work in the field of nanotechnology. Most current work looks at making nanoparticles (particles with nanometer size) that have special properties, such as the way they scatter light, absorb X-rays, transport electrical currents or heat, etc. At the more "science fiction" end of the field are attempts to make small copies of bigger machines or really new ideas for structures that make themselves. New materials are possible with nano size structures. It is even possible to work with single atoms.

There has been a lot of discussion about the future of nanotechnology and its dangers. Nanotechnology may be able to invent new materials and instruments which would be very useful, such as in medicine, computers, and making clean electricity (nanotechnology) is helping design the next generation of solar panels, and efficient low-energy lighting). On the other hand, nanotechnology is new and there could be unknown problems. For example if the materials are bad for people's health or for nature. They may have a bad effect on the economy or even big natural systems like the Earth itself. Some groups argue that there should be rules about the use of nanotechnology.

Ideas of nanotechnology were first used in talk "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom", a talk given by the scientist Richard Feynman at an American Physical Society meeting at Caltech on December 29, 1959. Feynman described a way to move individual atoms to build smaller instruments and operate at that scale. Properties such as surface tension and Van der walls force would become very important.

Feynman's simple idea seemed possible. The word "nanotechnology" was explained by Tokyo Science University Professor Norio Taniguchi in a 1974 paper. He said that nanotechnology was the work of changing materials by one atom or by one molecule. In the 1980s this idea was studied by Dr. K. Eric Drexler, who spoke and wrote about the importance of nano-scale events . "Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology" (1986) is thought to be the first book on nanotechnology. Nanotechnology and Nano science started with two key developments: the start of cluster science and the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM). Soon afterwards, new molecules with carbon were discovered - first fullerenes in 1986 and carbon nanotubes a few years later. In another development, people studied how to make semiconductor nano crystals. Many metal oxide nanoparticles are now used as quantum dots (nanoparticles where the behaviour of single electrons becomes important). In 2000, the United States National Nanotechnology Initiative began to develop science in this field.

Nanotechnology has nanomaterials which can be classified into one, two and three dimensions nanoparticles. This classification is based upon different properties it holds such as scattering of light, absorbing x rays, transport electric current or heat. Nanotechnology has multidisciplinary character affecting multiple traditional technologies and different scientific disciplines. New materials which can be scaled even at atomic size can be manufactured.

At nano scale physical properties of system or particles substantially change. Physical properties such as quantum size effects where electrons move different for very small sizes of particle. Properties such as mechanical, electrical and optical changes when macroscopic system changes to microscopic one which is of utmost importance.

Nano materials and particles can act as catalyst to increase the reaction rate along with that produce better yield as compared to other catalyst. Some of the most interesting properties when particle gets converted to nano scale are substances which usually stop light become transparent (copper); it becomes possible to burn some materials (aluminum); solids turn into liquids at room temperature (gold); insulators become conductors (silicon). A material such as gold, which does not react with other chemicals at normal scales, can be a powerful chemical catalyst at nanoscales. These special properties which we can only see at the nano scale are one of the most interesting things about nanotechnology.

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Nanotechnology - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Department of Genetic Medicine (Research) | Medicine …

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Practice Info

The Department of Genetic Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine is a highly specialized form of personalized medicine that involves the introduction of genetic material into a patients cells to fight or prevent disease. This experimental approach requires the use of information and data from an individual's genotype or specific DNA signature, to challenge a disease, select a medication or its dosage, provide a specific therapy, or initiate preventative measures specifically suited to the patient. While this technology is still in its infancy, gene therapy has been used with some success and offers the promise of regenerative cures.

As none of New York's premier healthcare networks, Weill Cornell Medicine's genetic research program includes close collaborations with fellow laboratories such as Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for stem cell projects, Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar and Hamad Medical Corporation in Doha, Qatar and Bioinformatics and Biostatistical Genetics at Cornell-Ithaca.

Department of Genetic Medicine Services

Our translational research program includes many projects in the fields of genetic therapies and personalized medicine, and we arestudying gene therapy for a number of diseases, such as combined immuno-deficiencies, hemophilia, Parkinson's, cancer and even HIV using a number of different approaches.

Patients interested in gene therapy are invited to participate in our full range of services, including:

-diagnostic testing

-imaging

-laboratory analysis

-clinical informatics

-managed therapies

In addition, we offer genetic testing to provide options for individuals and families seeking per-emptive strategies for addressing the uncertainties surrounding inherited diseases.The Department of Genetic Medicine at Weill Cornell is a pioneer in the advancement of genetics for patients and their families. These are the strengths we draw upon as we collaborate with our integrated network of partners, including the #1 hospital in New York, New York Presbyterian, to make breakthroughs a reality for our patients.

For more information or to schedule an appointment, call us toll-free at 1-855-WCM-WCMU.

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Department of Genetic Medicine (Research) | Medicine ...

North Alabama Campus – Freedom Bible College

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Freedom Bible College & Seminary North Alabama Campus 615 Brownsferry Street Athens, AL 35611 256-230-1600 E-Mail

Welcome from all of us at FBCS North Alabama Branch. If you're looking for a place to earn a degree and receive help in releasing your potential, search no further.

One of my goals as pastor and teacher is making disciples of Christ through the help of the Holy Spirit so that men and woman can understand their function and fulfill their purpose. Believers in Christ are most certainly involved warfare against an already defeated enemy. Therefore, unless they study God's Word to equip themselves with the tools needed for the particular ministry He's given them, they will not walk in victory.

I believe that you have the potential to accomplish everything that God has purposed for your life, but whether or not you learn how to release this potential is your decision. It is my hope that you make this decision and seek enrollment here at FBCS North Alabama. We presently offer Christian Workers and Pastoral Certificates, Associate Degrees in Ministry; Bachelor of Biblical Studies,

Theology, and Ministry, and Master and Doctorate of Theology, Ministry, Christian Education. Other major fields will be added as they are needed. All programs are tailored especially for you and your budget.

As President of FBCS North Alabama, I am proud to be affiliated with Dr. Vicki Church, President in our home office at Siloam Springs, Arkansas. Dr. Church works constantly and selectively as they are led by the Holy Spirit in setting up branches of FBCS in various countries around the world and across the United States.

Graduates of FBCS stand proud because they have become a part of an elite group who have earned a recognized degree from a college and seminary that endeavors the Great Commission of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:19-20).

Thank you for visiting our site, and may God bless you in your search. I am ready to assist you in setting up your program of study. If you have further questions email me at drrodhowell@juno.com

You may phone me at 256-230-1600.

No one will be denied acceptance into the North Alabama Branch because of sex, race or denominational background.

Students enrolled in one of the FBCS branches or FMTCs attend class only one or two times a week. The rest of the work is done in the comfort of their home. This plan allows the student to complete a 4 year degree or certificate in 2 years.

**Tuition may be financed with monthly payments to fit your budget!!

Curriculum

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North Alabama Campus - Freedom Bible College

Libertyville, Illinois – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Libertyville is a village in Lake County, Illinois, United States and an affluent northern suburb of Chicago. It is located 5 miles (8km) west of Lake Michigan on the Des Plaines River. The 2010 census population was 20,315.[1] (There is also a township of the same name, which includes the village and some surrounding areas.) Located in northeastern Illinois, southwest of Waukegan and west of Lake Forest, its immediate neighbors are Mundelein to the west, Green Oaks, Mettawa, and Rondout to the east, Gurnee to the north, Grayslake to the northwest, and Vernon Hills to the south.

Libertyville is located at 421703N 875738W / 42.284222N 87.960673W / 42.284222; -87.960673Coordinates: 421703N 875738W / 42.284222N 87.960673W / 42.284222; -87.960673.[2]

According to the 2010 census, the village has a total area of 9.15 square miles (23.7km2), of which 8.81 square miles (22.8km2) (or 96.28%) is land and 0.34 square miles (0.88km2) (or 3.72%) is water.[3]

The Des Plaines River forms much of the eastern boundary of the village. Other bodies of water include Butler Lake and Lake Minear.

Libertyville's main street is Milwaukee Avenue (Illinois Route 21). The main automobile route to Chicago is via Interstate 94 (the Tri-State Tollway and the Edens Expressway); Chicago's Loop is approximately 45 minutes away. The main Metra rail station sits at the northern edge of downtown off Milwaukee Avenue, and serves the Milwaukee District/North Line running from Union Station in Chicago to Fox Lake. The same line is served by another Metra station at Prairie Crossing, near the boundary of Libertyville and Grayslake. The Prairie Crossing station also serves Metra's North Central Line, with service from Union Station to Antioch.

As of the census[6] of 2000, there were 20,742 people, 7,298 households, and 5,451 families residing in the village. The population density was 2,364.5 people per square mile (913.2/km). There were 7,458 housing units at an average density of 850.2 per square mile (328.3/km). The racial makeup of the village was 92% White, 5% Asian and 1% African American. 0.1% is Native American. About 1% each are classified as belonging to other races or to two or more races. 3% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. While still largely homogeneous, ethnic diversity has increased slightly since the 1960 census, when the population was indicated as being 99.9% white.[7]

As of the 2000 census, there were 7,298 households, out of which 40% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 66% were married couples living together, 7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25% were non-families. 22% of all households were made up of individuals and 8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.7 and the average family size was 3.2.

28% of the village's population is under the age of 18, 5% from 18 to 24, 27% from 25 to 44, 28% from 45 to 64, and 12% 65 years of age or older. The median age is 39 years. For every 100 females there were 92.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.9 males.

According to a 2007 estimate, the median household income was $106,337, and the median income for a family was $127,474.[8] Males had a median income of $72,320 versus $39,455 for females. The per capita income for the village was $40,426. About 1.9% of families and 3.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.2% of those under age 18 and 4.9% of those age 65 or over.

The land that is now Libertyville was the property of the Illinois River Potawatomi Indians until August 1829, when economic and resource pressures forced the tribe to sell much of their land in northern Illinois to the U.S. government for $12,000 cash, an additional $12,000 in goods, plus an annual delivery of 50 barrels of salt.[9]

Pursuant to the treaty, the Potawatomi left their lands by the mid-1830s,[10] and by 1835 the future Libertyville had its first recorded non-indigenous resident, George Vardin. Said to be[citation needed] a "well-educated" English immigrant with a wife and a young daughter, Vardin lived in a cabin located where the Cook Park branch of the Cook Memorial Public Library District stands today. Though he apparently moved on to the west that same year, the settlement that grew up around his cabin was initially known as Vardin's Grove.[11]

In 1836, during the celebrations that marked the 60th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, the community voted to name itself Independence Grove. 1837 brought the town's first practicing physician, Jesse Foster, followed quickly by its first lawyer, Horace Butler, for whom Butler Lake is named.[11] The professionals needed services, so a post office opened, necessitating a third name change, because another Independence Grove existed elsewhere in the state. On April 16, 1837, the new post office was registered under the name Libertyville.

The town's name changed again two years later to Burlington when it became the county seat of Lake County. When the county seat moved to Little Fort (now Waukegan) in 1841, the name reverted to Libertyville, without further changes.[12]

Libertyville's most prominent building, the Cook Mansion, was built in 1879 by Ansel Brainerd Cook, very close to the spot where Vardin's cabin was built in the 1830s. Cook, a teacher and stonemason, became a prominent Chicago builder and politician, providing flagstones for the city's sidewalks and taking part in rebuilding after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The two-story Victorian mansion served as Cook's summer home as well as the center of his horse farm, which provided animals for Chicago's horsecar lines. The building was remodeled in 1921, when it became the town library, gaining a Colonial-style facade with a pillared portico. The building is now a museum with furnishings of the period and other relevant displays. It is operated by the Libertyville-Mundelein Historical Society.[13]

The community expanded rapidly with a spur of the Milwaukee Road train line (now a Metra commuter line) reaching Libertyville in 1881, resulting in the incorporation of the Village of Libertyville in 1882, with John Locke its first village president.[12]

Libertyville's downtown area was largely destroyed by fire in 1895,[7] and the village board mandated brick to be used for reconstruction, resulting in a village center whose architecture is substantially unified by both period and building material.[7] The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which gave Libertyville a Great American Main Street Award, called the downtown "a place with its own sense of self, where people still stroll the streets on a Saturday night, and where the tailor, the hometown bakery, and the vacuum cleaner repair shop are shoulder to shoulder with gourmet coffee vendors and a microbrewery."[14]

Samuel Insull, founder of Commonwealth Edison, began purchasing land south of Libertyville in 1906. He eventually acquired 4,445 acres (17.99km2), a holding that he named Hawthorn-Mellody Farms. He also bought the Chicago & Milwaukee Electric line (later the Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee), which built a spur from Lake Bluff to Libertyville in 1903. When Insull was ruined by the Great Depression, parts of his estate were bought by prominent Chicagoans Adlai Stevenson and John F. Cuneo.[7]

From 1970 until 2013, Libertyville was the resting place of the only European monarch buried on American soil, Peter II of Yugoslavia, who died in exile in Denver. On 22 January 2013, Peter II's remains were removed from his tomb at St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Monastery and sent to Serbia in a ceremony attended by the Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dai, Peter's son Alexander with his family, and Patriarch Irinej of Serbia.[15][16] Peter II lay in state in the Royal Chapel in Dedinje before his burial in the Royal Family Mausoleum at Oplenac on May 26, 2013.

Terry Weppler is the mayor of Libertyville.[17]

Libertyville is represented by Carol Calabresa on the Lake County Board.[18]

Libertyville proper has four public elementary schools and one public middle school, all comprising Libertyville District 70:

Students residing south of Golf Road attend Hawthorn District 73 schools in Vernon Hills.

Students residing in communities along Buckley Road attend Oak Grove Grade School in neighboring Green Oaks.

Libertyville High School, part of Community High School District 128, serves students in Libertyville and other communities in Libertyville Township.

The Roman Catholic St. Joseph Elementary School and the Evangelical Lutheran St. John's Lutheran School both provide K-8 education to residents of Libertyville and the surrounding area. St Sava Serbian Orthodox School of Theology in St Sava Monastery.

According to the Village's 2013 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report,[19] the top employers in the city are:

Libertyville is one of six communities comprising the Cook Memorial Public Library District. The Cook Park library, located on Cook and Brainerd streets in Libertyville, is one of the District's two library facilities. The library was originally housed in the Cook Mansion, after resident Ansel B. Cook's wife, Emily, deeded the property to the Village of Libertyville in 1920 for use as a library.[13] In 1968, a 33,000-square-foot (3,100m2) addition was added, adjacent to the Cook home. By 1984, the library's collection, as well as the population, had doubled in size. The Evergreen Interim Library opened in 2003 as a temporary facility at the south end of the district, in Vernon Hills. In 2007, the Library Board adopted plans to add an approximately 10,000-square-foot (930m2) addition to the Cook Park facility, which was completed in January 2011.

The Libertyville Review, published by Pioneer Press, covers Libertyville. Regional newspapers that occasionally contain coverage of Libertyville include the Chicago Tribune, Daily Herald and Lake County News-Sun.

Libertyville has a station on Metra's North Central Service, which provides weekday rail service between Antioch, Illinois and Chicago (at Union Station). It also has two stations along Metra's Milwaukee District/North Line which provides service between Fox Lake and Union Station, one of which shares a driveway with the station for the North Central Service.

The Libertyville water supply comes from the Central Lake County Joint Action Water Agency (CLCJAWA) located in Lake Bluff. CLCJAWA purifies water from Lake Michigan.

Libertyville has a youth football organization called the Libertyville Boys Club.[21] This includes weight-based football travel teams. The teams play at Butler Lake Park. This feeds into Libertyville High School, which has a dominant football program that makes regular appearances in the state playoffs and won the 2004 state championship.

The Libertyville Little League[22] is a baseball league with a league for every age. Libertyville has a travel team for each age as well, but they are not run by LLL.

Libertyville has a youth basketball league run by the Libertyville Sports Complex,[23] which hosts many Libertyville events.

The Greater Libertyville Soccer Association (GLSA)[24] is a successful organization in Libertyville that includes house and travel teams.

The Lake Shore Lynx[25] is Libertyville's first semi-pro sports team. The Lake Shore Lynx are the 2008, 2009, and 2010 Gridiron Football League champions. Players from Libertyville High School have been a staple of this organization. Athletes such as Kevin Fontana, Shane Voigt, Dan Nikolich, Nick Nikolich, TJ Fehling and Kevin Dickson have all helped this organization become a powerhouse in the GFL. Founders of this organization are Mike Johnson and Bryan McDermott.

The Libertyville Ladycats[26] (grades 5-8) is a girls' travel basketball team that feeds into LHS.

The Libertyville Warriors is a boy's travel lacrosse club based out of Libertyville and participates in competitions mostly in the Midwest.

In 2007, Libertyville was named the 52nd best place to live in the U.S. by CNN Money Magazine. In 2013, CNN Travel named Libertyville as one of America's best small town comebacks[27] and CNNMoney.com listed Libertyville as one of the best places to live for the rich and single.[28]

Adlai Stevenson, Illinois governor, presidential candidate, ambassador, known as "The man from Libertyville"

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Libertyville, Illinois - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Illinois Beaches from Kidzooie.com including a complete …

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Central East

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Clinton, Illinois

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Calumet Beach (9600-9900 South) Chicago, Illinois

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Admissions – College of Human Medicine – Michigan State …

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A medical education experience at MSU College of Human Medicine is like none other. Here you might "catch" your first baby during your obstetrics clinical rotation, or provide care to underserved families on a medical mission trip, or conduct research, side-by-side with the world's top Parkinson's disease scientists.

Spartan MDs make a difference in the lives of others. We are ranked #6 out of 141 U.S. medical schools for our overall social mission - of graduating MDs from minority backgrounds, who practice in primary care or who work in underserved areas.

As a community-focused medical school, we believe in exposing our students to real world medicine and diverse populations that match the public health challenges faced by all physicians in the medical profession. The opportunities to learn beyond the curriculum are amazing and the work helping people is inspiring. Ask any Spartan MD.

Medical School Admissions Diversity and Inclusion Statement

In order to best meet the needs of an extremely diverse population of people from Michigan and beyond, Michigan State University College of Human Medicines admissions process uses a balanced and holistic approach that considers an applicants academic metrics, experiences and personal characteristics in an attempt to achieve the educational benefits of a diverse student body. It also recognizes that many applicants who are underrepresented in medicine come from geographic, socioeconomic and educational disadvantaged backgrounds, and that people from these backgrounds are more likely than others to eventually serve disadvantaged, underserved and marginalized populations. As such, our admissions selection approach also allows for consideration of disadvantaged status in the decision-making process. MSU College of Human Medicine Diversity and Inclusion Statements

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M.D. Admissions | University of Michigan Medical School

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Top 10 Reasons to Choose Michigan

Reputation Michigan is consistently ranked among the top research and primary care medical schools. Residency program directors from across the country continue to rank our graduates among the top five most desirable candidates. (U.S. New & World Report, Best Graduate Schools)

Financial Support Every admitted student is eligible for a recruitment scholarship, and nearly 60% of our medical students receive some form of gift aid including scholarships and/or grants.

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OpportunitiesRealize your potential as you explore options through Paths of Excellence, clinical rotations, dual degrees, leadership activities, research projects and more.

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Halley’s Comet – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Halley's Comet or Comet Halley ( or ), officially designated 1P/Halley,[2] is a short-period comet visible from Earth every 7576 years.[2][10] Halley is the only known short-period comet that is clearly visible to the naked eye from Earth, and the only naked-eye comet that might appear twice in a human lifetime.[11] Halley last appeared in the inner parts of the Solar System in 1986 and will next appear in mid-2061.[12]

Halley's returns to the inner Solar System have been observed and recorded by astronomers since at least 240 BC. Clear records of the comet's appearances were made by Chinese, Babylonian, and medieval European chroniclers, but were not recognized as reappearances of the same object at the time. The comet's periodicity was first determined in 1705 by English astronomer Edmond Halley, after whom it is now named.

During its 1986 apparition, Halley's Comet became the first comet to be observed in detail by spacecraft, providing the first observational data on the structure of a comet nucleus and the mechanism of coma and tail formation.[13][14] These observations supported a number of longstanding hypotheses about comet construction, particularly Fred Whipple's "dirty snowball" model, which correctly predicted that Halley would be composed of a mixture of volatile ices such as water, carbon dioxide, and ammonia and dust. The missions also provided data that substantially reformed and reconfigured these ideas; for instance, now it is understood that the surface of Halley is largely composed of dusty, non-volatile materials, and that only a small portion of it is icy.

Comet Halley is commonly pronounced , rhyming with valley, or , rhyming with daily.[15][16] Spellings of Edmond Halley's name during his lifetime included Hailey, Haley, Hayley, Halley, Hawley, and Hawly, so its contemporary pronunciation is uncertain.[17]

Halley was the first comet to be recognized as periodic. Until the Renaissance, the philosophical consensus on the nature of comets, promoted by Aristotle, was that they were disturbances in Earth's atmosphere. This idea was disproved in 1577 by Tycho Brahe, who used parallax measurements to show that comets must lie beyond the Moon. Many were still unconvinced that comets orbited the Sun, and assumed instead that they must follow straight paths through the Solar System.[18]

In 1687, Sir Isaac Newton published his Principia, in which he outlined his laws of gravity and motion. His work on comets was decidedly incomplete. Although he had suspected that two comets that had appeared in succession in 1680 and 1681 were the same comet before and after passing behind the Sun (he was later found to be correct; see Newton's Comet),[19] he was unable to completely reconcile comets into his model.

Ultimately, it was Newton's friend, editor and publisher, Edmond Halley, who, in his 1705 Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets, used Newton's new laws to calculate the gravitational effects of Jupiter and Saturn on cometary orbits.[20] This calculation enabled him, after examining historical records, to determine that the orbital elements of a second comet that had appeared in 1682 were nearly the same as those of two comets that had appeared in 1531 (observed by Petrus Apianus) and 1607 (observed by Johannes Kepler).[20] Halley thus concluded that all three comets were, in fact, the same object returning every 76 years, a period that has since been amended to every 7576 years. After a rough estimate of the perturbations the comet would sustain from the gravitational attraction of the planets, he predicted its return for 1758.[21]

Halley's prediction of the comet's return proved to be correct, although it was not seen until 25 December 1758, by Johann Georg Palitzsch, a German farmer and amateur astronomer. It did not pass through its perihelion until 13 March 1759, the attraction of Jupiter and Saturn having caused a retardation of 618 days.[22] This effect was computed prior to its return (with a one-month error to 13 April)[23] by a team of three French mathematicians, Alexis Clairaut, Joseph Lalande, and Nicole-Reine Lepaute.[24] Halley did not live to see the comet return, as he died in 1742.[25] The confirmation of the comet's return was the first time anything other than planets had been shown to orbit the Sun. It was also one of the earliest successful tests of Newtonian physics, and a clear demonstration of its explanatory power.[26] The comet was first named in Halley's honour by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1759.[26]

The possibility has been raised that first-century Jewish astronomers already had recognized Halley's Comet as periodic.[27] This theory notes a passage in the Talmud[28] that refers to "a star which appears once in seventy years that makes the captains of the ships err."[29]

Halley's orbital period over the last 3 centuries has been between 7576 years, although it has varied between 7479 years since 240 BC.[26][30] Its orbit around the Sun is highly elliptical, with an orbital eccentricity of 0.967 (with 0 being a perfect circle and 1 being a parabolic trajectory). The perihelion, the point in the comet's orbit when it is nearest the Sun, is just 0.6 AU.[31] This is between the orbits of Mercury and Venus. Its aphelion, or farthest distance from the Sun, is 35 AU (roughly the distance of Pluto). Unusual for an object in the Solar System, Halley's orbit is retrograde; it orbits the Sun in the opposite direction to the planets, or, clockwise from above the Sun's north pole. The orbit is inclined by 18 to the ecliptic, with much of it lying south of the ecliptic. (Because it is retrograde, the true inclination is 162).[32] Due to the retrograde orbit, it has one of the highest velocities relative to the Earth of any object in the Solar System. The 1910 passage was at a relative velocity of 70.56km/s (157,838mph or 254,016km/h).[33] Because its orbit comes close to Earth's in two places, Halley is the parent body of two meteor showers: the Eta Aquariids in early May, and the Orionids in late October.[34] Observations conducted around the time of Halley's appearance in 1986, however, suggest that the Eta Aquarid meteor shower might not originate from Halley's Comet, although it might be perturbed by it.[35]

Halley is classified as a periodic or short-period comet; one with an orbit lasting 200 years or less.[36] This contrasts it with long-period comets, whose orbits last for thousands of years. Periodic comets have an average inclination to the ecliptic of only ten degrees, and an orbital period of just 6.5 years, so Halley's orbit is atypical.[26] Most short-period comets (those with orbital periods shorter than 20 years and inclinations of 2030 degrees or less) are called Jupiter-family comets. Those resembling Halley, with orbital periods of between 20 to 200 years and inclinations extending from zero to more than 90 degrees, are called Halley-type comets.[36][37] As of 2015[update], only 75 Halley-type comets have been observed, compared with 511 identified Jupiter family comets.[38]

The orbits of the Halley-type comets suggest that they were originally long-period comets whose orbits were perturbed by the gravity of the giant planets and directed into the inner Solar System.[36] If Halley was once a long-period comet, it is likely to have originated in the Oort Cloud,[37] a sphere of cometary bodies that has an inner edge of 20,00050,000 AU. Conversely the Jupiter-family comets are generally believed to originate in the Kuiper belt,[37] a flat disc of icy debris between 30 AU (Neptune's orbit) and 50 AU from the Sun (in the scattered disc). Another point of origin for the Halley-type comets was proposed in 2008, when a trans-Neptunian object with a retrograde orbit similar to Halley's was discovered, 2008 KV42, whose orbit takes it from just outside that of Uranus to twice the distance of Pluto. It may be a member of a new population of small Solar System bodies that serves as the source of Halley-type comets.[39]

Halley has probably been in its current orbit for 16,000200,000 years, although it is not possible to numerically integrate its orbit for more than a few tens of apparitions, and close approaches before 837 AD can only be verified from recorded observations.[40] The non-gravitational effects can be crucial;[40] as Halley approaches the Sun, it expels jets of sublimating gas from its surface, which knock it very slightly off its orbital path. These orbital changes cause delays in its perihelion of four days, average.[41]

In 1989, Boris Chirikov and Vitaly Vecheslavov performed an analysis of 46 apparitions of Halley's Comet taken from historical records and computer simulations. These studies showed that its dynamics were chaotic and unpredictable on long timescales.[42] Halley's projected lifetime could be as long as 10million years. More recent work suggests that Halley will evaporate, or split in two, within the next few tens of thousands of years, or will be ejected from the Solar System within a few hundred thousand years.[37] Observations by D.W. Hughes suggest that Halley's nucleus has been reduced in mass by 8090% over the last 20003000 revolutions.[14]

The Giotto and Vega missions gave planetary scientists their first view of Halley's surface and structure. Like all comets, as Halley nears the Sun, its volatile compounds (those with low boiling points, such as water, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and other ices) begin to sublime from the surface of its nucleus.[43] This causes the comet to develop a coma, or atmosphere, up to 100,000km across.[3] Evaporation of this dirty ice releases dust particles, which travel with the gas away from the nucleus. Gas molecules in the coma absorb solar light and then re-radiate it at different wavelengths, a phenomenon known as fluorescence, whereas dust particles scatter the solar light. Both processes are responsible for making the coma visible.[11] As a fraction of the gas molecules in the coma are ionized by the solar ultraviolet radiation,[11] pressure from the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emitted by the Sun, pulls the coma's ions out into a long tail, which may extend more than 100millionkilometers into space.[43][44] Changes in the flow of the solar wind can cause disconnection events, in which the tail completely breaks off from the nucleus.[13]

Despite the vast size of its coma, Halley's nucleus is relatively small: barely 15kilometers long, 8kilometers wide and perhaps 8kilometers thick.[b] Its shape vaguely resembles that of a peanut.[3] Its mass is relatively low (roughly 2.21014kg)[4] and its average density is about 0.6g/cm3, indicating that it is made of a large number of small pieces, held together very loosely, forming a structure known as a rubble pile.[5] Ground-based observations of coma brightness suggested that Halley's rotation period was about 7.4 days. Images taken by the various spacecraft, along with observations of the jets and shell, suggested a period of 52hours.[14] Given the irregular shape of the nucleus, Halley's rotation is likely to be complex.[43] Although only 25% of Halley's surface was imaged in detail during the flyby missions, the images revealed an extremely varied topography, with hills, mountains, ridges, depressions, and at least one crater.[14]

Halley is the most active of all the periodic comets, with others, such as Comet Encke and Comet Holmes, being one or two orders of magnitude less active.[14] Its day side (the side facing the Sun) is far more active than the night side. Spacecraft observations showed that the gases ejected from the nucleus were 80% water vapor, 17% carbon monoxide and 34% carbon dioxide,[45] with traces of hydrocarbons[46] although more-recent sources give a value of 10% for carbon monoxide and also include traces of methane and ammonia.[47] The dust particles were found to be primarily a mixture of carbonhydrogenoxygennitrogen (CHON) compounds common in the outer Solar System, and silicates, such as are found in terrestrial rocks.[43] The dust particles decreased in size down to the limits of detection (~0.001m).[13] The ratio of deuterium to hydrogen in the water released by Halley was initially thought to be similar to that found in Earth's ocean water, suggesting that Halley-type comets may have delivered water to Earth in the distant past. Subsequent observations showed Halley's deuterium ratio to be far higher than that in found in Earth's oceans, making such comets unlikely sources for Earth's water.[43]

Giotto provided the first evidence in support of Fred Whipple's "dirty snowball" hypothesis for comet construction; Whipple postulated that comets are icy objects warmed by the Sun as they approach the inner Solar System, causing ices on their surfaces to sublimate (change directly from a solid to a gas), and jets of volatile material to burst outward, creating the coma. Giotto showed that this model was broadly correct,[43] though with modifications. Halley's albedo, for instance, is about 4%, meaning that it reflects only 4% of the sunlight hitting it; about what one would expect for coal.[48] Thus, despite appearing brilliant white to observers on Earth, Halley's Comet is in fact pitch black. The surface temperature of evaporating "dirty ice" ranges from 170 K (103C) at higher albedo to 220K (53C) at low albedo; Vega 1 found Halley's surface temperature to be in the range 300400 K (30130C). This suggested that only 10% of Halley's surface was active, and that large portions of it were coated in a layer of dark dust that retained heat.[13] Together, these observations suggested that Halley was in fact predominantly composed of non-volatile materials, and thus more closely resembled a "snowy dirtball" than a "dirty snowball".[14][49]

Halley's calculations enabled the comet's earlier appearances to be found in the historical record. The following table sets out the astronomical designations for every apparition of Halley's Comet from 240BC, the earliest documented widespread sighting.[2][50] For example, "1P/1982U1, 1986III, 1982i" indicates that for the perihelion in 1986, Halley was the first period comet known (designated 1P) and this apparition was the first seen in half-month U (the second half of October)[51] in 1982 (giving 1P/1982 U1); it was the third comet past perihelion in 1986 (1986 III); and it was the ninth comet spotted in 1982 (provisional designation 1982i). The perihelion dates of each apparition are shown.[52] The perihelion dates farther from the present are approximate, mainly because of uncertainties in the modelling of non-gravitational effects. Perihelion dates 1607 and later are in the Gregorian calendar, while perihelion dates of 1531 and earlier are in the Julian calendar.[53]

Halley may have been recorded as early as 467BC, but this is uncertain. A comet was recorded in ancient Greece between 468 and 466 BC; its timing, location, duration, and associated meteor shower all suggest it was Halley.[54] According to Pliny the Elder, that same year a meteorite fell in the town of Aegospotami, in Thrace. He described it as brown in colour and the size of a wagon load.[55] Chinese chroniclers also mention a comet in that year.[56]

The first certain appearance of Halley's Comet in the historical record is a description from 240BC, in the Chinese chronicle Records of the Grand Historian or Shiji, which describes a comet that appeared in the east and moved north.[57] The only surviving record of the 164BC apparition is found on two fragmentary Babylonian tablets, now owned by the British Museum.[57]

The apparition of 87BC was recorded in Babylonian tablets which state that the comet was seen "day beyond day" for a month.[58] This appearance may be recalled in the representation of Tigranes the Great, an Armenian king who is depicted on coins with a crown that features, according to Vahe Gurzadyan and R. Vardanyan, "a star with a curved tail [that] may represent the passage of Halley's Comet in 87BC." Gurzadyan and Vardanyan argue that "Tigranes could have seen Halley's Comet when it passed closest to the Sun on August 6 in 87BC" as the comet would have been a "most recordable event"; for ancient Armenians it could have heralded the New Era of the brilliant King of Kings.[59]

The apparition of 12BC was recorded in the Book of Han by Chinese astronomers of the Han Dynasty who tracked it from August through October.[10] It passed within 0.16AU of Earth.[60] Halley's appearance in 12BC, only a few years distant from the conventionally assigned date of the birth of Jesus Christ, has led some theologians and astronomers to suggest that it might explain the biblical story of the Star of Bethlehem. There are other explanations for the phenomenon, such as planetary conjunctions, and there are also records of other comets that appeared closer to the date of Jesus' birth.[61]

If, as has been suggested, the reference in the Talmud to "a star which appears once in seventy years that makes the captains of the ships err"[62] (see above) refers to Halley's Comet, it may be a reference to the 66AD appearance, because this passage is attributed to the Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hananiah. This apparition was the only one to occur during ben Hananiah's lifetime.[63]

The 141AD apparition was recorded in Chinese chronicles.[64] It was also recorded in the Tamil work Purananuru, in connection with the death of a south Indian king.[65]

The 374AD and 607 approaches each came within 0.09AU of Earth.[60] The 684AD apparition was recorded in Europe in one of the sources used by the compiler of the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicles. Chinese records also report it as the "broom star".[66]

In 837, Halley's Comet may have passed as close as 0.03AU (3.2million miles; 5.1million kilometers) from Earth, by far its closest approach.[60] Its tail may have stretched 60degrees across the sky. It was recorded by astronomers in China, Japan, Germany, The Byzantine Empire, and the Middle East.[10] In 912, Halley is recorded in the Annals of Ulster, which state "A dark and rainy year. A comet appeared."[67]

In 1066, the comet was seen in England and thought to be an omen: later that year Harold II of England died at the Battle of Hastings; it was a bad omen for Harold, but a good omen for the man who defeated him, William the Conqueror. The comet is represented on the Bayeux Tapestry as a fiery star, and the surviving accounts describe it as appearing to be four times the size of Venus and shining with a light equal to a quarter of that of the Moon. Halley came within 0.10AU of Earth at that time.[60]

This appearance of the comet is also noted in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Eilmer of Malmesbury may have seen Halley previously in 989, as he wrote of it in 1066: "You've come, have you?... You've come, you source of tears to many mothers, you evil. I hate you! It is long since I saw you; but as I see you now you are much more terrible, for I see you brandishing the downfall of my country. I hate you!"[68]

The Irish Annals of the Four Masters recorded the comet as "A star [that] appeared on the seventh of the Calends of May, on Tuesday after Little Easter, than whose light the brilliance or light of The Moon was not greater; and it was visible to all in this manner till the end of four nights afterwards."[67]Chaco Native Americans in New Mexico may have recorded the 1066 apparition in their petroglyphs.[69]

The 1145 apparition was recorded by the monk Eadwine. The 1986 apparition exhibited a fan tail similar to Eadwine's drawing.[66] Some claim that Genghis Khan was inspired to turn his conquests toward Europe by the 1222 apparition.[70] The 1301 apparition may have been seen by the artist Giotto di Bondone, who represented the Star of Bethlehem as a fire-colored comet in the Nativity section of his Arena Chapel cycle, completed in 1305.[66] No record survives of the 1378 apparition.

In 1456, the year of Halley's next apparition, the Ottoman Empire invaded the Kingdom of Hungary, culminating in the Siege of Belgrade in July of that year. In a Papal Bull, Pope Calixtus III ordered special prayers be said for the city's protection. In 1470, the humanist scholar Bartolomeo Platina wrote in his Lives of the Popes that,[71]

A hairy and fiery star having then made its appearance for several days, the mathematicians declared that there would follow grievous pestilence, dearth and some great calamity. Calixtus, to avert the wrath of God, ordered supplications that if evils were impending for the human race He would turn all upon the Turks, the enemies of the Christian name. He likewise ordered, to move God by continual entreaty, that notice should be given by the bells to call the faithful at midday to aid by their prayers those engaged in battle with the Turk.

Platina's account is not mentioned in official records. In the 18th century, a Frenchman further embellished the story, in anger at the Church, by claiming that the Pope had "excommunicated" the comet, though this story was most likely his own invention.[72]

Halley's apparition of 1456 was also witnessed in Kashmir and depicted in great detail by rvara, a Sanskrit poet and biographer to the Sultans of Kashmir. He read the apparition as a cometary portent of doom foreshadowing the imminent fall of Sultan Zayn al-Abidin (AD 1418/14201470).[73]

After witnessing a bright light in the sky (which most historians have identified as Halley's Comet, visible in Ethiopia in 1456), Emperor Zara Yaqob, ruler from 1434 to 1468, founded the city of Debre Berhan (tr. City of Light) and made it his capital for the remainder of his reign.[74]

Halley's periodic returns have been subject to scientific investigation since the 16th century. The three apparitions from 1531 to 1682 were noted by Edmond Halley, enabling him to predict its 1759 return. Streams of vapour observed during the comet's 1835 apparition prompted astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel to propose that the jet forces of evaporating material could be great enough to significantly alter a comet's orbit.[75]

The 1910 approach, which came into naked-eye view around 10 April[60] and came to perihelion on 20 April,[60] was notable for several reasons: it was the first approach of which photographs exist, and the first for which spectroscopic data were obtained.[13] Furthermore, the comet made a relatively close approach of 0.15 AU,[60] making it a spectacular sight. Indeed, on 19 May, Earth actually passed through the tail of the comet.[76][77] One of the substances discovered in the tail by spectroscopic analysis was the toxic gas cyanogen,[78] which led astronomer Camille Flammarion to claim that, when Earth passed through the tail, the gas "would impregnate the atmosphere and possibly snuff out all life on the planet."[79] His pronouncement led to panicked buying of gas masks and quack "anti-comet pills" and "anti-comet umbrellas" by the public.[80] In reality, as other astronomers were quick to point out, the gas is so diffuse that the world suffered no ill effects from the passage through the tail.[79]

The comet added to the unrest in China on the eve of Xinhai Revolution that would end the last dynasty in 1911. As James Hutson, a missionary in Sichuan Province at the time, recorded,

The people believe that it indicates calamity such as war, fire, pestilence, and a change of dynasty. In some places on certain days the doors were unopened for half a day, no water was carried and many did not even drink water as it was rumoured that pestilential vapour was being poured down upon the earth from the comet."[81]

The comet was also fertile ground for hoaxes. One that reached major newspapers claimed that the Sacred Followers, a supposed Oklahoma religious group, attempted to sacrifice a virgin to ward off the impending disaster, but were stopped by the police.[82]

American satirist and writer Mark Twain was born on 30 November 1835, exactly two weeks after the comet's perihelion. In his autobiography, published in 1909, he said,

I came in with Halley's comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'[83][84]

Twain died on 21 April 1910, the day following the comet's subsequent perihelion.[85] The 1985 fantasy film The Adventures of Mark Twain was inspired by the quotation.

Halley's 1910 apparition is distinct from the Great Daylight Comet of 1910, which surpassed Halley in brilliance and was actually visible in broad daylight for a short period, approximately four months before Halley made its appearance.[86][87]

Halley's 1986 apparition was the least favorable on record. The comet and Earth were on opposite sides of the Sun in February 1986, creating the worst viewing circumstances for Earth observers for the last 2,000 years.[88] Halley's closest approach was 0.42 AU.[89] Additionally, with increased light pollution from urbanization, many people failed to even see the comet. It was possible to observe it in areas outside of cities with the help of binoculars.[90] Further, the comet appeared brightest when it was almost invisible from the northern hemisphere in March and April.[91] Halley's approach was first detected by astronomers David Jewitt and G. Edward Danielson on 16 October 1982 using the 5.1m Hale telescope at Mount Palomar and a CCD camera.[92] The first person to visually observe the comet on its 1986 return was amateur astronomer Stephen James O'Meara on 24 January 1985. O'Meara used a home-built 24-inch telescope on top of Mauna Kea to detect the magnitude 19.6 comet.[93] On 8 November 1985, Stephen Edberg (then serving as the Coordinator for Amateur Observations at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and Charles Morris were the first to observe Halley's Comet with the naked eye in its 1986 apparition.[94][95]

The development of space travel gave scientists the opportunity to study the comet at close quarters, and several probes were launched to do so. The Soviet Vega 1 started returning images of Halley on 4 March 1986, and the first ever of its nucleus,[14] and made its flyby on 6 March, followed by Vega 2 making its flyby on 9 March. On 14 March, the Giotto space probe, launched by the European Space Agency, made the closest pass of the comet's nucleus.[14] There were also two Japanese probes, Suisei and Sakigake. The probes were unofficially known as the Halley Armada.[96]

Based on data retrieved by Astron, the largest ultraviolet space telescope of the time, during its Halley's Comet observations in December 1985, a group of Soviet scientists developed a model of the comet's coma.[97] The comet was also observed from space by the International Cometary Explorer. Originally International Sun-Earth Explorer 3, the probe was renamed and freed from its L1 Lagrangian point location in Earth's orbit to intercept comets 21P/Giacobini-Zinner and Halley.[98]

Two Space Shuttle missions the ill-fated STS-51-L (ended by the Challenger disaster)[99] and STS-61-E were scheduled to observe Halley's Comet from low Earth orbit. STS-51-L carried the Shuttle-Pointed Tool for Astronomy (SPARTAN-203) satellite, also called the Halley's Comet Experiment Deployable (HCED).[100] STS-61-E was a Columbia mission scheduled for March 1986, carrying the ASTRO-1 platform to study the comet.[101] Due to the suspension of America's manned space program after the Challenger explosion, the mission was canceled, and ASTRO-1 would not fly until late 1990 on STS-35.[102]

On 12 February 1991, at a distance of 14.4AU (2.15109km) from the Sun, Halley displayed an outburst that lasted for several months, releasing a cloud of dust 300,000km across.[43] The outburst likely started in December 1990, and then the comet brightened from magnitude 24.3 to magnitude 18.9.[103] Halley was most recently observed in 2003 by three of the Very Large Telescopes at Paranal, Chile, when Halley's magnitude was 28.2. The telescopes observed Halley, at the faintest and farthest any comet has ever been imaged, in order to verify a method for finding very faint trans-Neptunian objects.[9] Astronomers are now able to observe the comet at any point in its orbit.[9]

The next predicted perihelion of Halley's Comet is 28 July 2061,[1] when it is expected to be better positioned for observation than during the 19851986 apparition, as it will be on the same side of the Sun as Earth.[30] It is expected to have an apparent magnitude of 0.3, compared with only +2.1 for the 1986 apparition.[104] It has been calculated that on 9 September 2060, Halley will pass within 0.98AU (147,000,000km) of Jupiter, and then on 20 August 2061 will pass within 0.0543AU (8,120,000km) of Venus.[105] In 2134, Halley is expected to pass within 0.09AU (13,000,000km) of Earth.[105] Its apparent magnitude is expected to be 2.0.[104]

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America in Prophecy: A Transhuman Replicant Future | Paul …

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The Bible warned about global government with the account of Nimrod and the Tower of Babel, mankinds first global government. The Tower of Babel and Babylon were not the product of primitive cultures. It is very possible that the charismatic leader, Nimrod, who planned and organized the Tower of Babel, was a genetically enhanced super-being, who was the product of interspecies breeding between fallen angels and human women. As such, Nimrod would have been one the worlds first posthuman leaders and a Nephilim. This would have supported the thesis that some human civilizations before the Flood of Noah were highly technologically advanced and that the Tower of Babel was a stargate or portal, which allowed entities from different dimensions access to planet earth. These ancient Babylonian occult religions and their technology may have reappeared on the scene after the Flood. Francis Bacons ideas of a New Atlantis, which seems to be the secret philosophy upon which America was built, appears to be acting like a nano-technology guidance system that is reshaping Americas body electric. Just as electrical signals can cause eyes to be grown in a frogs stomach, so ideas can radically transform America as we know it. Transhumansim and global government, managed by a scientific elite, appear to be the plan for the United States of America. The NATO Summit in Chicago, which may look like something out of the movie Blade Runner, could be the dream of global governance in Daniels prophecy of a Revived Roman Empire. Instead of Roman legions, there could be Russian Special Forces troops protecting the empire.

Currently Russian soldiers are training near Fort Carson, Colorado as part of a bi-lateral exchange program between the U.S. and Russia in order to improve skills related to fighting terrorism. In an April 23, 2012 article entitled, Blade Runner: What It Means to Be Human in the Cybernetic State by John W. Whitehead, founder of the Rutherford Institute, Whitehead writes:

If Michelangelo were alive in Ridley Scotts future world, rather than portraying God on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, he would likely paint the human creators of the Tyrell Corporation, the worlds leading manufacturer of replicants which has just introduced the Nexus-6, a replicant with far greater strength and intelligence than human beings. These latest-model replicants represent an obvious potential danger to human society, and their introduction on Earthan offense calling for the death penaltyhas been strictly outlawed. When the replicants somehow make their way back to Earth, they are systematically retired (but not killed since they are inhuman) by special detectives or Blade Runners trained to track down and liquidate the infiltrators.

The signs of the times that Jesus Christ warned us about are happening right before our eyes. Jesus Christ predicted that there would be wars and rumors of wars, nation fighting nation, which comes from the word ethnos, which could imply conflict between ethnic and racial groups. A comprehensive translation of the words of Jesus would include earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, tornadoes, floods, famines, plagues, lawlessness, anarchy and immorality, in what the Bible calls the Last Days. But Christ also warned of a coming charismatic politician who would unite the world into a one world government.

The signs are now occurring with increasing intensity and frequency. A super volcano under Yellowstone could trigger a global chain reaction connected to other super volcanoes. Earthquakes are shaking every continent on planet earth and earthquakes near the Canary Islands could send a five hundred foot high wall of water across the Pacific Ocean and submerge parts of the coastlines. The tsunamis produced by powerful earthquakes could submerge part of the West Coast of the United States and put parts of Europe under water.

A pervasive lawlessness and immorality is engulfing every nation. Human sex trafficking that includes little babies is becoming a multi-billion dollar industry. Israel was reformed as a nation in 1948, as the ancient Hebrew prophets predicted, and the Revived Roman Empire that the prophet Daniel outlined may still arise from the chaos of the European Union. Yet, one nation seems conspicuously absent from the ancient Biblical prophecies and that is the United States of America.

People ask me all the time, Paul where is America in Bible prophecy? They cannot understand how a nation as large and powerful as the United States would not be mentioned by name in the Bible. The answer to that question may simply be that America will no longer exist as a separate and distinct nation. It will either exist under a different name or America will become part of the Revived Roman Empire or coming one world government. A clue to Americas prophetic destiny may be in the architecture and symbolism of our nations capitol, Washington D.C. Washington D.C. and its architectural design are built on the ideas of ancient Rome. In fact, the Capitol building is designed after the Roman Pantheon, which was dedicated not to the Judeo-Christian God, but to the pagan gods.

Through the influence of a Rosicrucian-Masonic brotherhood, Washington D.C. seems to be constructed to be the capital of Francis Bacons vision of the New Atlantis, which is likely to become the center of the New World Order. On the back of the dollar bill we read the words Novus Ordos Seclorum, which means New Order of the Ages or New World Order. These words are found below an Egyptian pyramid with the all-seeing eye of Lucifer above it, inside of a smaller pyramid. This occult symbolism signifies that in the New World Order, a Luciferian elite will rule the masses; or to use the terminology of the Fabian socialists like H.G. Wells and Bertrand Russell, a scientific elite. This is the restructuring that is going on in America right now.

Nimrod ruled the first global government in Babylon and built the Tower of Babylon as an astrological worship portal that would place men to rule like gods in the heavens. Ancient Babylon, along with its mystery religions, is the spiritual fountainhead for the New World Order. The Freemason architects astrologically aligned the U.S. capital with the constellation Virgo (Isis). There is a picture of George Washington wearing a Masonic apron during a ceremony which dedicates the Washington capitol to these unseen pagan gods or entities that were allegedly present during the ceremony.

If you look carefully at Washingtons apron, you see the symbolism of a radiant eye or the all-seeing eye of Lucifer. The occult ceremony was an invitation for participation by the Egyptian god Horus or Osiris, which is the Greek god Apollo. The Roman gods Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus are an important part of astrology, but they are also the names of many of the NASA space programs. Is this merely coincidence?

It appears that America has a secret destiny planned by occult secret societies to birth a New World Order. The reason America is not seen by name in Bible prophecy is that it may appear under another name, such as Babylon. The Book of Revelation describes both a commercial and religious Babylon in the last days. Many believe that the Babylonian system is symbolic for a global spiritual system. There are other Bible scholars that believe that the Babylon that existed in the geographic area of Iraq will literally be rebuilt. H.G. Wells referred to Basra in Iraq being rebuilt as a world spiritual center.

2012 Paul McGuire All Rights Reserved

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NVIDIA Boosts IQ of Self-Driving Cars With World’s First …

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CESAccelerating the race to autonomous cars, NVIDIA today launched NVIDIA DRIVE PX 2 the worlds most powerful engine for in-vehicle artificial intelligence.

NVIDIA DRIVE PX 2 allows the automotive industry to use artificial intelligence to tackle the complexities inherent in autonomous driving. It utilizes deep learning on NVIDIA's most advanced GPUs for 360-degree situational awareness around the car, to determine precisely where the car is and to compute a safe, comfortable trajectory.

"Drivers deal with an infinitely complex world," said Jen-Hsun Huang, co-founder and CEO, NVIDIA. "Modern artificial intelligence and GPU breakthroughs enable us to finally tackle the daunting challenges of self-driving cars.

"NVIDIA's GPU is central to advances in deep learning and supercomputing. We are leveraging these to create the brain of future autonomous vehicles that will be continuously alert, and eventually achieve superhuman levels of situational awareness. Autonomous cars will bring increased safety, new convenient mobility services and even beautiful urban designs -- providing a powerful force for a better future."

24 Trillion Deep Learning Operations per Second Created to address the needs of NVIDIA's automotive partners for an open development platform, DRIVE PX 2 provides unprecedented amounts of processing power for deep learning, equivalent to that of 150 MacBook Pros.

Its two next-generation Tegra processors plus two next-generation discrete GPUs, based on the Pascal architecture,deliver up to 24 trillion deep learning operations per second, which are specialized instructions that accelerate the math used in deep learning network inference. That's over 10 times more computational horsepower than the previous-generation product.

DRIVE PX 2's deep learning capabilities enable it to quickly learn how to address the challenges of everyday driving, such as unexpected road debris, erratic drivers and construction zones. Deep learning also addresses numerous problem areas where traditional computer vision techniques are insufficient -- such as poor weather conditions like rain, snow and fog, and difficult lighting conditions like sunrise, sunset and extreme darkness.

For general purpose floating point operations, DRIVE PX 2's multi-precision GPU architecture is capable of up to 8 trillion operations per second. That's over four times more than the previous-generation product. This enables partners to address the full breadth of autonomous driving algorithms, including sensor fusion, localization and path planning. It also provides high-precision compute when needed for layers of deep learning networks.

Deep Learning in Self-Driving Cars Self-driving cars use a broad spectrum of sensors to understand their surroundings. DRIVE PX 2 can process the inputs of 12 video cameras, plus lidar, radar and ultrasonic sensors. It fuses them to accurately detect objects, identify them, determine where the car is relative to the world around it, and then calculate its optimal path for safe travel.

This complex work is facilitated by NVIDIA DriveWorks, a suite of software tools, libraries and modules that accelerates development and testing of autonomous vehicles. DriveWorks enables sensor calibration, acquisition of surround data, synchronization, recording and then processing streams of sensor data through a complex pipeline of algorithms running on all of the DRIVE PX 2's specialized and general-purpose processors. Software modules are included for every aspect of the autonomous driving pipeline, from object detection, classification and segmentation to map localization and path planning.

End-to-End Solution for Deep Learning NVIDIA delivers an end-to-end solution -- consisting of NVIDIA DIGITS and DRIVE PX 2 -- for both training a deep neural network, as well as deploying the output of that network in a car.

DIGITS is a tool for developing, training and visualizing deep neural networks that can run on any NVIDIA GPU-based system -- from PCs and supercomputers to Amazon Web Services and the recently announced Facebook Big Sur Open Rack-compatible hardware. The trained neural net model runs on NVIDIA DRIVE PX 2 within the car.

Strong Market Adoption Since NVIDIA delivered the first-generation DRIVE PX last summer, more than 50 automakers, tier 1 suppliers, developers and research institutions have adopted NVIDIA's AI platform for autonomous driving development. They are praising its performance, capabilities and ease of development.

"Using NVIDIA's DIGITS deep learning platform, in less than four hours we achieved over 96 percent accuracy using Ruhr University Bochum's traffic sign database. While others invested years of development to achieve similar levels of perception with classical computer vision algorithms, we have been able to do it at the speed of light." -- Matthias Rudolph, director of Architecture Driver Assistance Systems at Audi

"BMW is exploring the use of deep learning for a wide range of automotive use cases, from autonomous driving to quality inspection in manufacturing. The ability to rapidly train deep neural networks on vast amounts of data is critical. Using an NVIDIA GPU cluster equipped with NVIDIA DIGITS, we are achieving excellent results." -- Uwe Higgen, head of BMW Group Technology Office USA

"Due to deep learning, we brought the vehicle's environment perception a significant step closer to human performance and exceed the performance of classic computer vision." -- Ralf G. Herrtwich, director of Vehicle Automation at Daimler

"Deep learning on NVIDIA DIGITS has allowed for a 30X enhancement in training pedestrian detection algorithms, which are being further tested and developed as we move them onto NVIDIA DRIVE PX." -- Dragos Maciuca, technical director of Ford Research and Innovation Center

The DRIVE PX 2 development engine will be generally available in the fourth quarter of 2016. Availability to early access development partners will be in the second quarter.

Keep Current on NVIDIA Subscribe to the NVIDIA blog, follow us on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, and view NVIDIA videos on YouTube and images on Flickr.

About NVIDIA Since 1993,NVIDIA(NASDAQ:NVDA) has pioneered the art and science ofvisual computing. With a singular focus on this field, the company offers specialized platforms for the gaming, automotive, data center and professional visualization markets. Its products, services and software power amazing new experiences in virtual reality, artificial intelligence and autonomous cars. More information athttp://nvidianews.nvidia.com/.

Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, statements as to: the features, benefits and performance of NVIDIA DRIVE PX 2 and NVIDIA DriveWorks; the effects of modern artificial intelligence and GPU breakthroughs; NVIDIA's GPU being central to advances in deep learning and supercomputing; the effects of leveraging deep learning and supercomputing advances; the benefits and impact of autonomous cars; the abilities of deep learning; the features of NVIDIA DIGITS; and the availability of the DRIVE PX 2 development platform are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include: global economic conditions; our reliance on third parties to manufacture, assemble, package and test our products; the impact of technological development and competition; development of new products and technologies or enhancements to our existing product and technologies; market acceptance of our products or our partners' products; design, manufacturing or software defects; changes in consumer preferences or demands; changes in industry standards and interfaces; unexpected loss of performance of our products or technologies when integrated into systems; as well as other factors detailed from time to time in the reports NVIDIA files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, including its Form 10-Q for the fiscal period ended October 25, 2015. Copies of reports filed with the SEC are posted on the company's website and are available from NVIDIA without charge. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and speak only as of the date hereof, and, except as required by law, NVIDIA disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.

2016 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved. NVIDIA, the NVIDIA logo, Tegra, NVIDIA DIGITS, NVIDIA DRIVE, NVIDIA DriveWorks and Pascal are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. Features, pricing, availability and specifications are subject to change without notice.

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Teachings on Spiritual Enlightenment – Spiritual …

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One could be said to be the realization of what you are beyond the mind. Or rather, it is the realization of what you are not. This sense of being a "me" as a solid, limited thing separate from everything else crumbles. The idea that you are your thoughts, desires, fears, emotions falls away into the infinite consciousness that is the essence of everything.

You feel and experience yourself as formless consciousness, as everything is experienced as this same formless consciousness. It all becomes one. Everything is felt to be made out of formless consciousness.

People make sculptures out of sand. They make dolphins, mermaids, castles but it is all made of sand. In the same way, everything is felt to be made of consciousness. The boundaries that seemed to separate you from everything else are blurred to the point where you cannot tell where you end and something else begins.

Then what is left is your natural state of unconditional peace, love and joy. You still have thoughts and emotions just as you did before, but the essence of all of it is formless peace.

When you realize it, you will see why it is called your natural state- because it feels pure, free and simply put, the way you naturally are beyond your identification with your mind.

The second aspect of spiritual enlightenment is energy. This energy of pure consciousness, felt as peace, bliss and love begins to radiate through you. It begins to permeate your body, your thoughts, your emotions, your breath, your actions. You become full of light, radiating light, radiating bliss, thus the definition "spiritual enlightenment."

The third aspect is love. There is a devotional experience that naturally occurs. You feel a sense of deep love and connection to God/Guru/Presence, whatever it is for you. You fall madly in love with it. Perhaps this aspect is the most blissful of the three. It brings unfathomable joy and ecstasy.

Spiritual Enlightenment is not a change in your mental or intellectual perception, it is an energetic shift and awakening that happens at the very depth of your being.You cannot simply think your way into it. Something happens at the level of energy that completely transforms you.

If you ever had the opportunity to sit with a fully enlightened master, you know that just by sitting in their presence, automatically, you experienced deep, blissful states of meditation. Regardless of the words spoken, something much deeper happened. Enlightenment for that period of time, seemed to be automatically awakened inside you just by sitting in their presence.

And if you could remain in such enlightened presence, everything that keeps you from experiencing the truth begins to dissolve, until this presence, this peace and bliss becomes what you are.

But most westerners are uncomfortable with having a "Guru" or simply don't have the time or option to find someone who is fully enlightened and can transmit such presence to them on a daily basis.

This is why I have developed Audio CDs that transmit such enlightened presence to you. Through very special audio equipment, I record this energy vibration of enlightenment often called "shaktipat," "kundalini shakti," or "deeksha" and turn it into sound. This enables you to experience enlightened states of awareness & bliss often within minutes which you probably could not have experienced after decades of practice on your own.

I often get the question "Can't I just do it on my own?"

And the question is, why would you want to struggle on your own for years when you could begin to experience it now? In fact the very attempt to "do it on my own" can often reinforce the ego, the sense of being a separate doer.

Too many people seeking freedom end up stuck in their ideas and knowledge about enlightenment. Their ideas and knowledge end up being a hindrance to their awareness rather than being helpful. But this enlightened energy passes awakens you at the very core of your being. It awakens you from the inside out.

Simply by playing one of these CDs, a true state of enlightened awareness is awakened in you, beyond any teaching or belief system.

I am not here to tell you that these CDs are the only way to Spiritual Enlightenment. But I am inviting you to have a listen to some of the samples and see for yourself. Because if have a listen to the samples and read some of the testimonials from people who meditate to the CDs, you will probably find like so many others that this music can change your life. These CDs have already awakened so many to unconditional peace and can awaken the same peace and bliss in you. Even just by listening to the samples.

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The Seasteading Institute Discussion Forum

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Ted Chu, Phd – Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential

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We are pleased to announce that Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential is the winner of the Montaigne Medal (Eric Hoffer Book Awards) for most thought-provoking book of 2015.

Ted Chu also won the prestigious Gold Award from IndieFAB, for Best Philosophy Book of 2014

Ted Chu brings an astonishing breadth of philosophical, religious, and technological reflection to bear on the most important questions we could ask.

Ted Chu is a pioneering visionary whose futurist concern deserves close attention.

In my opinion Teds book is absolutely profound in the way it draws upon a dazzling variety of philosophical and scientific resources in order to place humanity within a cosmic evolutionary perspective . . . it is a one-of-a-kind book within my transhumanist library. Nikola Danalyov, Singularity Weblog

Today we face the imminent possibility of transcending our biological form, of becomingor creatingentirely new lifeforms that will overcome our all-too-human limitations. In Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential, Chu makes the provocative claim that the human race is not only an end in itself, but may also be a means to a higher endand that our true purpose is to give rise to our evolutionary successors. Here are key tenets of Chus book.

In this wide-ranging philosophic work, Ted Chu re-examines the question of human purpose in light of the transhuman potentials that science and technology have now placed within our reach.

Dr. Chu argues that we need a deeper understanding of our place in the universe in order to navigate the daunting choices ahead of us that arise from advances in biotechnology, AI, robotics, and nanotechnology. Toward that end, he surveys human wisdom both East and West, traces humanitys long evolutionary trajectory, and breaks new ground in evolutionary theory.

Chu makes us fully aware of the many risks ahead, but offers an original cosmic vision that provides the courage and the perspective we will need to explore the potentials of our posthuman future.Ted Chus elegantly written and well-researched book has, for me at least, the same status as Ray Kurzweils The Singularity Is Near. Even critics of his Cosmic Vision will find Chus book required reading.

Formerly the chief economist at General Motors, Ted Chu was also chief economist for Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the worlds largest sovereign wealth funds. He is currently professor of economics at New York University at Abu Dhabi. During his 25 years as a business economist, Dr. Chu also held positions as macroeconomist for the World Bank and Arthur D. Little. For the last 15 years, his second career has been conducting independent research on the philosophical question of humanitys place in the universe, building on his lifelong interest in the frontiers of evolutionary progress. As part of these research efforts, he founded the nonprofit CoBe (Cosmic Being) Institute in Michigan and serves as a senior scholar at ChangCe, a Beijing-based independent think tank. Born and raised in China, Chu graduated from Fudan University in Shanghai, and earned his PhD in economics at Georgetown University.

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Stem Cell Therapy | Cellular Prolotherapy | Caring Medical

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Home Stem Cell Therapy | Cellular Prolotherapy

Ross Hauser, MD

Ross Hauser, MD: the use of Stem Cell Therapy in the treatment of joint and spine degeneration.

Stem cell therapy is exploding in the medical field, and for good reason. Stem cells have the potential to regenerate into any type of body tissue. The amazing thing about stem cells is that when you inject them into the body, they know what kinds of cells your body needs for example, meniscus cells or cartilage cells. It is a very exciting time for medicine, especially in the field of regenerative medicine. In our office we often refer to this as Cellular Prolotherapy.

In Stem Cell Therapy we use a persons own healing cells from bone marrow, fat, and blood (alone or in various combinations) and inject them straight to the area which has a cellular deficiency.

The goal is the same: to stimulate the repair of injured tissues. Stem cells aid in fibroblastic proliferation where cell growth, proteosynthesis, reparation, the remodeling of tissues, and chondrocyte proliferation occurs. Our bone marrow contains stem cells,also termed mesenchymal stem cells and progenitor cells, among other names. These immature cells have the ability to become tissues like cartilage, bone, and ligaments.

Consequently, researchers and clinicians are focusing on alternative methods for cartilage preservation and repair. Recently,cell-basedtherapyhas become a key focus of tissue engineering research to achieve functional replacement of articular cartilage.1

Not all injuries require stem cells to heal. For many patients the success rate with traditionalProlotherapyin this office is in the 90%+ range for all patients. However, for those cases of advanced arthritis, meniscus tears, labral tears, bone-on-bone, or aggressive injuries, our Prolotherapy practitioners may choose to use stem cell injections to enhance the healing, in combination with dextrose Prolotherapy to strengthen and stabilize the surrounding support structures formeniscus repair.

In our research published inThe Open Stem Cell Journal,Rationale for Using Direct Bone Marrow Aspirate as a Proliferant for Regenerative Injection Therapy(Prolotherapy). We not only showed the benefit of bone marrow derived stem cells as a Prolotherapy proliferant solution, but also that this exciting field of medicine needs doctors and scientisists working together to expand research and technique guidelines.

Typically the tissue that we are trying to stimulate to repair with Stem Cell Therapy or Cellular Prolotherapy is articular cartilage, but we can also proliferate soft tissues structures such as ligament and tendons. This is new technology so we are studying it as we use it to treat patients.

Recent research conducted, Transplanted bone marrow mesenchymalstem cellswith platelet-rich fibrin glue scaffoldstimulates full-thickness cartilage defects to heal.

We chose to review this study to support our research and to inform people about the human studies usingbone marrow stem cellsfor articular cartilage lesions. Articular cartilage is a type of cartilage that covers joint surfaces and is most susceptible to injury compared to other types of cartilage.

Researchers at Cairo University School of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine reported on the use of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells and aplatelet-richfibrin scaffold to heal full-thickness cartilage defects in five patients. The researchers studied the treatment results from the bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells which were used in a platelet rich fibrin glue, placed on the tear and covered with a flap of the patients cartilage.

Articular Cartilagehas limited repair capacity and marrow-stimulation procedures such as microfracture, osteochondral grafts andautologouscartilage implantations have had limited success in articular cartilage defects.4The researchers from this study chose mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow because these have the ability to differentiate into cartilage cells. In the case of these five patients the bone marrow was harvested from the iliac crest (hip bone).

Platelets were used as a scaffold because platelets contain various growth factors that stimulate cartilage regeneration. The researchers expected that the biological effect of multiplegrowth factorson tissue regeneration is greater that of a single growth factor.

Results

The patients showed significant functional improvement. Two of the patients underwent arthroscopy after the transplantation and showed near normal articular cartilage. Three postoperative MRIs revealed complete healing and congruent cartilage tissue, whereas two patient MRIs showed incomplete congruity in the cartilage tissue.

Conclusion

The researchers concluded that the transplantation of autologous culture-expanded bone marrow-mesenchymal stem cells in platelet rich-fibrin glue shows great promise in the treatment of full-thickness articular cartilage defects, particularly large-sized defects (>4 cm). The positive 1 year clinical outcomes support further randomized controlled clinical trials of this treatment modality with larger numbers of patients and longer follow-up periods.

Bone MarrowProlotherapy involves direct bone marrow aspiration (or also concentrated) to get the stem cells to the site of the injury. Does the study above suggest that direct bone marrow injections without culture expanded and without the scaffold would work? Possibly, but only time will tell as research progresses. But in our experience we have discovered that these stem cells act as great proliferant solutions forProlotherapy. We use bonemarrow stem cellsin conjunction with other Prolotherapy solutions to treat large articular defects in thelabrum and meniscusareas. Typically, patients are seen every two months. Most patients need 3-6 visits. The good news is during the time of healing, the patient can exercise and start getting back into great shape! Bone marrow and adipose-derived stem cell therapies are gaining in recognition and we are happy to offer them as an option for treating chronic injuries and sports injuries.

There is always conflicting research into the efficacy of any treatment protocol and stem cell injection therapyis no different. Many times a patient will point to his or her own clinical dissatisfaction or research and say, stem cell therapy does not work as well as advertised. Lets look at some of that research:

Osteoarthritis is a cartilage degenerative processNo treatment is still available to improve or reverse the process. Stem cell therapy opened new horizons for treatment of many incurable diseasesIn this research four patients with knee osteoarthritis were selected for the study. They were aged 55, 57, 65 and 54 years, and had moderate to severe knee Osteoarthritis. After their signed written consent, 30 mL of bone marrow were taken and cultured for MSC growth. After having enough MSCs in culture (4-5 weeks) and taking in consideration all safety measures, cells were injected in one knee of each patient.

The walking time for the pain to appear improved for three patients and remained unchanged for one. On physical examination, the improvement was mainly for crepitus. It was minor for the improvement of the range of motion.

Results were encouraging, but not excellent. Improvement of the technique may improve the results.4

We agree that stem cell therapy has benefits but may not provide a full cure. This is why we recommend the use of Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy in conjunction with stem cell therapy. The study above involved cultured stem cells. In our opinion Stem cell therapy is more effective if the stem cells are given better direction. This is where the growth factors in blood platelets can be very effective. Platelets aid the stem cells in their various jobs including differentiation and then aid in the differentiated cells making the extracellular matrix to repair the injured tissue.

Platelet Rich Plasma contains a myriad of substances that stimulate healing:

Numerous studies have shown that PRP enhances the effects of Stem Cell Therapy5,6As the study above notes Results were encouraging, but not excellent. Improvement of the technique may improve the results. Platelet Rich Plasma therapy improves the technique and improves the results.

Our ultimate goal withallforms of Prolotherapy is to get the patients back to doing the things that they want to do without pain. It is our hope that the Stem Cell Therapy (Cellular Prolotherapy) treatments will form functionally, structurally, and mechanically equal to, if not better than, living tissue which has been designed to replace (or work alongside of) damaged tissue. It is hard to prove the above statement because we cannot sacrifice human beingsafterProlotherapy to see if the tissue looks and acts normally. Wecan, however, report that the majority of our patients who receive Stem Cell Therapy along with traditional Hackett-Hemwall Prolotherapy get back to activities and have dramatically decreased pain levels using this comprehensive approach.

Links to our other articles for your specific conditions

A page with more information on stem cell injection treatments combined with Prolotherapy and PRP Treatments for back pain.

In this article wediscusses research that showsthatstem cell injection therapywill aid in the repair ofarticular cartilageandmeniscus tears. The treatment relieves symptoms of stiffness,pain, disability, and inability to walk as commonly reported by our patients diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis.

Many patients have many questions about stem cell tretament for knee osteoarthritis, lets hear yours.

References for this article

1.Mazor M, Lespessailles E, Coursier R, et al.Mesenchymal stem-cell potential in cartilage repair: an update. J Cell Mol Med. 2014 Oct 29. doi: 10.1111/jcmm.12378. 2. Diekman BO, Guilak F.Stem cell-based therapies for osteoarthritis: challenges and opportunities. Curr Opin Rheumatol. 2013 Jan;25(1):119-26. doi: 10.1097/BOR.0b013e32835aa28d. 3. Hauser RA, Orlofsky A.Regenerative injection therapy with whole bone marrow aspirate for degenerative joint disease: a case series.Clin Med Insights Arthritis Musculoskelet Disord. 2013 Sep 4;6:65-72. doi: 10.4137/CMAMD.S10951. eCollection 2013. 4. Davatchi F, Abdollahi BS, Mohyeddin M, Shahram F, Nikbin B. Mesenchymal stem cell therapy for knee osteoarthritis. Preliminary report of four patients. Int J Rheum Dis. 2011 May;14(2):211-5. doi: 10.1111/j.1756-185X.2011.01599.x. Epub 2011 5. Mishra A, Tummala P, King A, Lee B, Kraus M, Tse V, Jacobs CR. Buffered platelet-rich plasma enhances mesenchymal stem cell proliferation and chondrogenic differentiation. 2009 Sep;15(3):431-5. 6. Kasten P, Vogel J, Beyen I, Weiss S, Niemeyer P, Leo A, Lginbuhl R. Effect of platelet-rich plasma on the in vitro proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells on distinct calcium phosphate scaffolds: the specific surface area makes a difference. J Biomater Appl. 2008 Sep;23(2):169-88. Epub 2008 Jul 16.

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Intelligent Aerospace: Global Aerospace & Avionics systems …

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NIJMEGEN, The Netherlands, 11 March 2016.DapTechnology a supplier of advanced IEEE-1394 protocol analyzers and equipment to the aerospace, defense, industrial, automotive, and consumer electronics markets is introducing the FireSpy9x32bT IEEE-1394 protocol analyzer. The FireSpy9x32bT, based on the 4th Generation bus analyzer architecture, combines nine single-channel FireSpy analyzers into one single IEEE-1394 bus test instrument with a powerful on-board processor and USB3 host computer connectivity.

CARROLLTON, Texas, 11 March 2016.Two Texas-based AS9100- and Mil-Spec-certified companies, Electro Plate Circuitry (EPC) and Dragon Circuits (DCI), have merged printed circuit operations. The combination of these two companies has created an energized organization with increased manufacturing capacity, decreased costs, and greater resources to support current and new markets, officials say. This synergy is a game-changer for customers, suppliers, and stakeholders.

WASHINGTON, 11 March 2016. Nevadas unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) or drone testing sites would have more autonomy to partner with private industry on emerging technology, and McCarran International Airport could use federal funds to build facilities that offer multiple transportation modes under provisions Sen. Dean Heller inserted into a major aviation bill.

MIAMI, 11 March 2016. Federal officials are asking the public not to fly drones at U.S. airports. U.S. Senator Bill Nelson and officials with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) joined Miami-Dade commissioners in their plea. While at Miami International Airport (MIA), they asked the public to be aware of restrictions against flying Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), also known as drones, at any U.S. airport.

MADRID, 11 March 2016.TAP Portugal, NAV Portugal, and Airbus ProSky in Blagnac, France, partnered to conduct flight trials to advance the SESAR JU Required Navigation Performance Implementation Synchronized in Europe (RISE) project, which aims to improve airport accessibility, enhance safety, and reduce environmental impact at airports throughout Europe. The demonstration flights took place in Madeira, where these procedures are expected to enhance safety by providing managed and repeatable procedures; improve airport accessibility by lowering approach minima; and reduce weather-related diversions.

CHARLOTTE, N.C., 11 March 2016.Boeing officials have selected UTC Aerospace Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX) in Charlotte, N.C., to supply flight-critical components and ground-maneuvering systems for the new Boeing 777X large, twin-engine commercial passenger jet.

FORT WORTH, Texas, 10 March 2016. Bell Helicopter, a Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) company, is introducing a new kit enabling customers to upgrade their Bell 412SP to the 412HP configuration to increase aircraft performance and reduce costs.

WILMINGTON, Ohio, 10 March 2016.Officials at Amazon Fulfillment Services Inc., an affiliate of Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq:AMZN) in Seattle, have contracted Air Transport Services Group Inc. (NASDAQ:ATSG) to help operate the companys new air cargo network to serve Amazon customers in the United States.

EDINBURGH, Scotland, 9 March 2016.Timber is being removed from fragile rainforests illegally to the detriment of the farming community and environment, including water, wildlife, and rare species of plants, insects, and animals. Guatemalan famers are fighting back with the help of "CCTV in the sky" space-based technology from Astrosat, a global space services and management company in Edinburgh, Scotland.

CHANDLER, Ariz., 9 March 2016.Crane Aerospace & Electronics, a segment of Crane Co. (NYSE:CR), is expanding its Iso-Divider product line for space applications with a new K-Band 2-way device. Cranes new K-Band 2-way Iso-Divider offers low insertion loss and optimum band flatness performance, as well as the small size, low weight, and high reliability crucial for space applications.

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Libertarianism Wikipedia

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Libertarianism r en politisk ideologi som fresprkar frihet frn tvng och strvar efter att minimera staten och dess inflytande ver mnniskors liv. Libertarianer vill tillta maximal sjlvstndighet och valfrihet, med betoning p politisk frihet, frivilliga sammanslutningar samt det individuella omdmet.

Begreppet anvnds framfr allt i USA. I Sverige r begreppet nyliberalism vanligare, men inte entydigt samma sak.[1][2] Vanliga stndpunkter inom libertarianism r fresprkandet av en begrnsad stat, privat gandertt och en minimalt reglerad laissez faire-kapitalism.[3][4] ven om libertarianism i folkmun syftar p den ganderttsfokuserade klassiska liberalismen[5], s br ven en vxande klunga s kallade anarkokapitalister innefattas av definitionen.

Libertarianer fokuserar ofta, men inte uteslutande, p de moraliska och etiska aspekterna kring demokrati, staten och samhllet. Libertarianismen tar avstnd frn fenomen som rasism, imperialism och nutidens form av demokrati, dr en majoritet av befolkningen fr makt ver minoriteten. Libertarianer anser ofta att mnniskor tenderar att agera i goda syften av naturen, samt frblir kapabla att hjlpa de i nd utan tvng och hot om vld i form av skatt. De fresprkar drfr i olika mn att statliga funktioner tas bort eller erstts av icke-statliga initiativ, frn t.ex. privatpersoner, fretag och ideella freningar.[kllabehvs]

Det finns ocks en s kallad frihetlig socialistisk (engelska: "libertarian socialism") inriktning som vunnit mark frmst p olika hll i Europa, men som skiljer sig starkt frn den vriga libertarianismen eftersom den istllet r anti-kapitalistisk och i praktiken fresprkar majoritetens rtt att krva socialistiska regler.

I USA p 1900-talet brjade flera anhngare av individuell frihet, begrnsad statsmakt och fria marknader att kalla sig fr libertarianer eftersom de ansg att den moderna liberalismen blivit synonymt med statlig inblandning i personliga och ekonomiska angelgenheter. Libertarianismen hrleds ofta utifrn liberalismen och i vissa sammanhang r begreppet svrt att skilja frn klassisk liberalism. De konservativa som motsatte sig New Deal, militra interventioner samt var motstndare till kommunism har ocks haft inverkan p den libertarianska rrelsen.[6][7]

De flesta libertarianer fresprkar att statens uppgifter ska vara begrnsade till att omfatta polis, domstolar och ett nationellt frsvar.[4]Anarkokapitalister likt Murray Rothbard och David D. Friedman vill helt avskaffa staten. Peri Roberts och Peter Sutch, universitetslektorer i politisk teori vid Cardiff University, definierar libertarianism som ett "extremliberalt synstt som betonar vikten av absolut gandertt och hvdar att detta bara rttfrdigar en minimal stat".[3]

Individens frihet frn tvng oberoende av om tvnget utvas av andra individer eller staten r ett grundlggande vrde fr libertarianismen.[5] Ur libertarianismens syn p individuella rttigheter hrleder man den ekonomiska liberalismen, med frsvar av kapitalismen, liksom drog- och vapenliberalism och stllningstaganden som fri invandring och total yttrandefrihet. Libertarianismens syn p privat egendomsrtt gr att beskattning blir detsamma som stld och tvngsarbete.[4] Libertarianismen gr gllande att alla personer r absoluta gare av sina egna liv och br vara fria att gra vad de vill med sig sjlva eller sin egendom, frutsatt att det r frenligt med andra mnniskors frihet.

Inom filosofin kan libertarianer karakteriseras efter tv etiska synstt: konsekventionalister som stdjer frihet fr att det leder till goda konsekvenser, samt deontologer som anser att frihet r moraliskt rtt. ven kombinationer av dessa frekommer.[8] Libertarianer som inte utgr ifrn rttighetsetik anvnder det mer utilitaristiska argumentet att konsekvenserna av ekonomisk och personlig frihet ger ett bra samhlle. Dit hr Ludwig von Mises, Milton Friedman och Friedrich von Hayek.[9]

Filosofen Robert Nozicks verk Anarki, stat och utopi frn 1974 har setts som libertarianismens frmsta verk inom politisk filosofi.[4] Nozick utgr ifrn de individuella rttigheter som John Locke och klassiska liberaler frsvarade: rtten till liv, frihet och egendom. Dessa rttigheter r okrnkbara. Fr att inte statsmakten eller ngon annan person ska krnka individens rttigheter har minimalstaten till uppgift att vrna dessa mot vld, stld, bedrgeri, kontraktsbrott och liknande. Nozick avvisar vad han kallar "mnstrade" frdelningsprinciper, det vill sga principer som rttfrdigar omfrdelning utefter vissa ideal. Nozick var emot dessa rttviseteorier eftersom de utgr ifrn att resurser inte tillhr ngon och drfr kan frdelas utan vidare. Individens sjlvgarskap och gandertt gr att fremlens historia blir viktigt eftersom de r bundna till mnniskor som har rtt till dem. Alla verfringar, som genomfrs p frivillig basis, r enligt Nozick rttvisa och frenliga med individens frihet.[10]

I ett centralt kapitel, "Distributiv rttvisa", lgger han fram en tredelad rttviseuppfattning gllande detta. Den innebr att en frdelning r rttvis om den uppfyller villkoren om legitimt ursprungligt frvrv ("en person har en legitim gandertt till ett tidigare ogt freml om hans eller hennes gande av det inte frsmrar ngon annans situation") och legitima verfringar, dr "en person har en legitim gandertt till ett freml om ngon annan, som har legitim rtt till fremlet i frga, frivilligt ger det till den personen". Om dessa inte r uppfyllda trder principen om korrigering av orttvist frvrv i kraft. Dessa tre principer principen om legitimt ursprungligt frvrv, principen om legitima verfringar av tillgngar och principen om korrigering av orttvist frvrv utgr Nozicks teori om samhllelig frdelning.[10]

1971 bildades Libertarian Party i USA som har stllt upp i alla val till kongressen och presidentskapet sedan dess. De fresprkar starka civila friheter med principen att alla individer har rtt att vlja hur de vill leva, s lnge de inte med tvng inskrnker p andras rtt till den friheten. De fresprkar frihandel, minimalt reglerade laissez faire-marknader (fri marknad) samt r motstndare till statliga ingrepp i den privata egendomen.[11] Ed Clark som var libertariansk presidentkandidat 1980 fick drygt 920 000 rster. De har haft strre std i val till kongressen. I valet till representanthuset r 2000 fick partiet fler n 1,6 miljoner rster.[12] Den fre detta republikanska kongressledamoten Ron Paul som skte den republikanska nomineringen till presidentvalet 2008 och 2012 har tidigare varit partiets presidentkandidat.

Centralt fr libertarianismen r begreppet sjlvgarskap som innebr att man menar att varje individ har en absolut och okrnkbar rtt till den egna kroppen och drmed ven alla frmgor och produkter skapade av denna kropp eller frmga. Detta r gemensamt fr svl hger- som vnsterlibertarianism.[13]. Det har ftt till fljd att de flesta libertarianer fresprkar till exempel rtt till abort. En signifikant minoritet (inklusive frre presidentkandidaten Ron Paul [14]) menar dock att ven nnu ofdda barn omfattas av den libertarianska rtten till liv, och att frsvaret fr abort drfr strider mot ideologins moraliska principer.[15].

Den frsta registrerade anvndningen av termen i politisk skrift tillskrivs anarkokommunisten Joseph Djacque.[16] Individualanarkisten Benjamin Tucker nyttjade ocks termen fr sin syn p individuell frihet. Termen libertarianism anvndes av revolutionren och anarkisten Mikhail Bakunins anhngare fr att beskriva den egna versionen av antiauktoritr och antistatlig socialism, i kontrast mot Lenins mera auktoritra regim. Denna anvndning av begreppet r fortfarande mycket vanlig i stora delar av vrlden utanfr USA.[kllabehvs]

Libertarianer r delade i tv grupper. Den ena r minarkister, som fresprkar en nattvktarstat bunden av en konstitution eller annan lagstiftning, den andra r anarkokapitalister som anser att precis allting i samhllet ska sktas p frivillig basis, inklusive institutioner som rttssystem, polis och frsvar. Det vill sga utan att tvinga ngon att betala fr dessa samhllstjnster med beskattning.

Libertarianism r med andra ord ett smalare begrepp n nyliberalism i det att anhngaren som minst fresprkar nattvktarstat, men samtidigt bredare eftersom nyliberaler inte kan tnka sig att privatisera institutioner som har till uppgift att skydda medborgarens negativa rttigheter, svida dessa privata organisationer inte r kontrollerade av en stat. Till skillnad frn nyliberaler ser en libertarian inte ndvndigtvis kapitalism som ett idealiskt eller moraliskt system, det r frivilligheten som r det centrala.

Libertarianismen hrstammar ideologiskt ifrn klassisk liberalism, samt en del statskritiskt gods, tankar om den fria marknaden och individens suvernitet frn individualanarkismen.[17] De stter liberalismens krna, friheten, i centrum. Mnniskor fr grna dela in sig i grupper med olika system dr ngra lever kommunistiskt, ngra kapitalistiskt etc. Allt fr att maximera mnniskors frihet att vlja hur deras liv ska levas, det man betonar r frivilligheten. Libertarianer anser att om det finns behov av att bilda jurisdiktioner s kommer sdana att uppst spontant beroende p efterfrgan eller kollektiv frivillig organisering. Alla ska naturligtvis ha friheten att bli medlem i en sdan fr att f rttsskydd men d blir man givetvis skyldig att uppfylla de plikter som ingr i avtalet, till exempel att betala en avgift och flja de regler och lagar som rttsskyddet ska upprtthlla. Liknande samhllstjnster till exempel brandfrsvar eller polisbeskydd fr frivilligt kpas p marknaden, precis som vilken annan tjnst (kapitalism; hr grs ingen skillnad filosofiskt p allmnnyttan och andra tjnster), eller organiseras med exempelvis kooperationer dr man kanske mste st redo att hjlpa till vid brnder eller patrullera nromrden med eller utan vapen fr att frhindra eller ingripa vid brott (frivillig socialism).

Det finns ven en vnsterinriktning av libertarianismen. Den grundlggande skillnaden mellan hgerlibertarianism och vnsterlibertarianism ligger i synen p resten av vrlden, det vill sga allt som inte utgrs av ett sjlvgande subjekt. Medan hgerlibertarianer menar att vrlden frn brjan inte gdes av ngon, menar vnsterlibertarianer att vrlden ursprungligen gdes gemensamt. Detta innebr att hgerlibertarianerna menar att det r tilltet att tillskansa sig del av tillgngarna i vrlden, s lnge detta inte inkrktar p ngon annans rtt till sjlvgarskap. Vnsterlibertarianerna menar dock att varje krav p gandertt ver ngon del av de gemensamma tillgngarna krver kompensation till de andra i ngon form. Detta gr att vnsterlibertarianer kan acceptera en strre stat n hgerlibertarianer, eftersom man menar att statens funktioner ven kan innefatta rttvis omfrdelning av resurser.[13]

Excerpt from:

Libertarianism Wikipedia