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By Jake Landers
Published August 2011
Sensitive Briar and Fern Acacia are cousins that have similar looking leaves that behave very differently. The leaves of Sensitive Briar fold up when touched while those of Fern Acacia stay put. Few plants have movements as quick as Sensitive briar, and it's done without nerves as in animals. Botanists understand that these movements in plants come about by changes in water pressure, but they can't explain the reason why. Why one and not the other! Perhaps the leaf movements might surprise a grazing animal to make it move to another plant for a bite. It's a quirk in some plants that someday may entice a young scientist to find a good explanation.
Both plants are legumes and are first choice for grazing by goats, sheep, and deer because of their high nutrient content. For this reason both have become scarce even in pastures where moderate to light stocking has been practiced. They persist in much of central Texas in parks, roadsides, and rocky sites where plants are somewhat protected from heavy grazing.
The flower clusters are similar in construction, but quite different in size and color. Fern Acacia has marble-sized white puffballs too numerous to count on the multiple sprouts in a typical colony. Sensitive Briar has a few big pink ones at the ends of sprawling runners. Seed pods are quite distinct also, with those on Fern Acacia small and flat, and those of Sensitive Briar bean-like and covered with soft spines. I am having a hard time finding seeds to get either plant reestablished in my part of the ranch.
The scientific name of Fern Acacia is Acacia angustissima var. hirta. In plain language this translates to "Thorny plant with the narrowest leaves". Most of its other cousins are thorny, including Sensitive Briar, but Fern Acacia it is soft to the touch. Sensitive Briar is named Mimosa roemeriana, although long ago I learned it as Schrankia roemeriana. At least the name-changing experts kept half of the original which is in honor of Ferdinand Roemer, the German geologist who checked out the ruins of the old Spanish Presidio near Menard 150 years ago, and wrote a book about his adventures in Texas.
Whatever the reason for the sensitive leaf movements in one and not the other, they are fascinating to watch. Several years ago one of my colleagues who also enjoyed teaching kids about native plants had a fun technique when he found a Sensitive Briar. He told the kids it was a "Scream" plant. "If you screamed at it, it would fold its leaves, and you had to get close to it because it was hard of hearing." Soon all the kids would be on hands and knees screaming and watching the movement, not realizing at first it was their breath, not the sound that caused the movement. Kids and a few grown-ups like to be tricked, occasionally, so that they can pull the same trick on someone else. But you need to be smart enough to tell the difference between the two plant cousins.


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POSTCARD OF THE MONTH – SEPTEMBER 2019
Janice Kidwell, BCGS member #5033
A Harvest Festival is an annual celebration that occurs around the time of the main harvest of a given region. In India, given the differences in climate and crops, dates for Harvest Festivals
In Southern India, Pongal is a four-day harvest festival during which a different deity is worshipped each day. In Tamil Nadu, which is where this postcard was printed and perhaps taken, harvested rice is ceremonially cooked. In Karnataka, the festival is called 'Sankranti', and, like on this postcard, the cattle are decorated and fed on Pongal, which is a sweet preparation of rice. Later in the day, the cattle are led out in procession to the beat of drums and music.

source: m-a-p/FineFineWeb


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Here we provide NCERT Solutions for Class 8 English Chapter 11 – The Ant and the Cricket (Poem), Which will very helpful for every student in their exams. Students can download the latest NCERT Solutions for Class 8 English Chapter 11 pdf. Now you will get step by step solution to each question.
NCERT Solutions for Class 8 English Chapter 11 – The Ant and the Cricket (Poem)
The cricket says, "Oh! What will become of me?" When does he say it, and why?
The cricket said the given line when it found that its cupboard was empty and winter had arrived. It could not find a single crumb to eat on the snow covered ground and there were no flowers or leaves on the tree. It wondered what would become of it because it was getting cold and since there was nothing to eat, it would starve and die.
(i) Find in the poem the lines that mean the same as "Neither a borrower nor a lender be" (Shakespeare).
(i) The lines in the poem that mean the same as "Neither a borrower nor a lender be" are 'But we ants never borrow; we ants never lend.'
The ant tells the cricket to "dance the winter away". Do you think the word 'dance' is appropriate here? If so, why?
The ant told the cricket to "dance the winter away" because when it asked the cricket what it did in the summers and why it had not stored any food for summers, the cricket answered that it sang through the warm and sunny months of summers. Therefore, in reply to this, the ant asked the cricket to "dance" the winter away just like it "sang" all through the summers and did not bother to store food for winters.
(i) Which lines in the poem express the poet's comment? Read them aloud.
(ii) Write the comment in your own words.
(i) The lines in the poem that express the poet's comment are "Folks call this a fable. I'll warrant it true."
(ii) This comment by the poet means that this poem is indeed a fable as it had a moral behind it. The cricket did not have anything to eat during the winters because it did not bother to store some food during summers. It was negligent and sang all through the summers. The ant, on the other hand, had built a nice home for itself and had stored food so that it would not starve during winters. It worked hard during summers to achieve this. Thus, the moral of the poem is to be prepared for the adverse times and always work hard instead of being negligent.
All Chapter NCERT Solutions For Class 8 English
All Subject NCERT Solutions For Class 8
I think you got complete solutions for this chapter. If You have any queries regarding this chapter, please comment on the below section our subject teacher will answer you. We tried our best to give complete solutions so you got good marks in your exam.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


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The instrumentation equipment selection of the oil station work is an important work, through the relevant testing instrument and PeiJian equipment upgrade, can effectively alleviate the labor efficiency, and enhance the quantity accuracy, provides guarantee to the production of normal operation.
An example is used to show a certain production station after reviewing tank meter reconstruction process.
Before standing library reconstruction, production station work record amount of crude oil has been using artificial meter reading, gauging read value model.
Laboratory work every two hours need to have oil chemical test, need to lock moisture content is high do sample;
Remember amount every two small repeat work, i. e. every two small need a meter reading, and automatically transfer data to the production scheduling.
Amount of artificial record and daily work but also for each big tank gauging, the beauty of each large cans of crude oil containing moisture condition to do the sample, the data will be summarized to the resposible, operate by induction of inventory data measure tank, to check for direct production operation accordingly.
This way of record amount of work is not only a difficult task, measured data are vulnerable to the influence of the external environment factors and operation experience in staff levels.
To improve management efficiency, production station good automation technology radar level meter is used to improve the beauty of the original record amount of crude oil technology, traditional record amount compared with the upgraded system: a traditional measure job way to remember a difficult task, record the results easily affected by external environment factors and operation experience in staff level, deviation is different, there is great variability;
Traditional way remember quantity cannot do instant grasp the production data, not for production inspection guide provide detailed and accurate data, production inspection instruction lack clear subjectivity;
Traditional way remember quantity to ensure production safety, not enjoy security alarm functions, easy production liability accident.
The comparison of radar level meter and pedal level meter gauge production station library informatization management stations reconstruction, on the basis of traditional adopts pedal level gauge
has carried on the innovation, to storage tanks erected radar level meter, has realized the total amount of work of mechanical automation, mechanical automation degree higher than those in the past.
The following detailed comparative analysis.
Pedal level gauge for the crude oil storage tank area quantity basic parameter is the tank oil level, known as the oil level method to remember.
The old technology to record amount of oil level are mainly composed of various steel chain float liquid level gauge, level gauge steel chain is a kind of traditional liquid level gauge.
It is made by using the theory of structural mechanics balance.
It is by the oil level inspection system, with high precision offset actuator, constant force loading system, display device, and other peripherals.
Principle: dip in the measured liquid float by force, buoyancy and uniform motion produced by constant force loading system of the tensile strength, when the vector material and of the three forces is equal to zero, float in the quasi equilibrium motionless.
When the oil level changes, the original structure mechanics equilibrium under the excitation of float by buoyancy, will move through the steel chain of reaching a new equilibrium.
Oil level test loading system (
According to the situation of the oil level pull steel chain move, shift actuator move marked by steel chain pin rotation drive system, and thus on the counter to display the situation of the oil level.
Shortcomings: its main weaknesses are friction influence precision machine commandment, deviation is very large.
Radar level meter for the crude oil storage tank area quantity basic parameter is the tank oil level, known as the oil level method to remember.
Old record amount of skill production station with the oil level comprehensive mechanical automation renovation, construction become a has higher ability of mechanical automation information management of library, the crude oil quantity work also had the very big development.
Microwave heating of the single pulse technology promotion, to the storage tank liquid level measurement method provides a new direction.
Production station has carried on the comprehensive mechanical automation renovation, construction become a has higher ability of mechanical automation information management of library, the crude oil quantity work also had the very big development.
Principle: the guided wave radar level meter (
Is according to the principle of time domain reflector based radar level meter, electromagnetic pulse radar level meter with the speed of light along a wire or rod transmission, when touching the surface of the material being tested, radar level meter part of single pulse was reflecting surface echo and along the same file directory, back to the single pulse transmitters launcher with spacing on the surface of the material being measured is proportional to the propagation time of the single pulse in the period, the calculation to calculate oil level spacing.
Guided wave radar level meter technical advantages: radar level meter for liquid, particulate matter and slurry continuous level measurement.
The determination of radar level meter is no material change, temperature changes, inert gas and vapor, dust concentration, foam, etc.
The precision of the radar level meter is 5 millimeter, dividing the value of 60 meters, 40 kg 350 ℃ high temperature, high pressure resistance, radar level meter for explosion risk areas.
Even if the load is complex, you can also use calibration precision level echo is analyzed with the software.
If you are sourcing for product development or manufacturing operations, you won't miss Guangdong Kaidi Energy Technology Co., Ltd.'s list of offer.
You can count on Guangdong Kaidi Energy Technology Co., Ltd. to be your one stop shopping site for most of the quality products you are searching for. We strive to offer a wide variety of products for you to learn about and to purchase.
Guangdong Kaidi Energy Technology Co., Ltd. harnesses science and technology to create products that support safer and healthier living and that enhance the overall quality of life.
The customized level indicator-type level gauge is poised to lead the customized level indicator market.
In terms of level gauge, why is it different than other production? How does it fit a true need or desire for your requires? Is it simple to use? Make life easier?


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- The tool control unit extension module is used to integrate nutrunners and improve process reliability.
- ▶ Product identification ensures that the correct variant work plan (with the correct process data) starts
▶ The accumulated process data is stored in the production data base
▶ The following technologies can be used for product identification:
‒ Teaching in RFID tags (available on request)
‒ Scanning in of bar or data matrix codes using a bar code scanner


Home Guide How to inspect an element on Android devices
How to inspect an element on Android devices
By Jash Unadkat, Technical Content Writer at BrowserStack -
Table of Contents
Whether during development or while casual web surfing, whenever a web developer encounters a UI bug, the first thing they tend to do is inspect that specific web element. Inspecting an element helps developers view and edit the HTML and CSS scripts of a specific web page on their personal screen without making any permanent changes.
Any UI bugs on a website appearing for a specific device can be easily troubleshot using the inspect element feature. Given the popularity of Android among users, developers must know how to inspect elements on Android phones or other devices.
This article discusses multiple methods on how to inspect elements in mobile devices with Android. This is a crucial part of Android testing. It is also important for learning how to inspect elements on mobile devices.
Using Developer Tools in Chrome & Firefox
Both Chrome and Firefox provide the feature of Device Simulation in their DevTools.
Listed below are the steps to inspect element on Android:
 1. Press F12 to start DevTools (Applicable for both browsers)
 2. Click on the Toggle Device Bar option
 How to inspect element on Android
 3. Now from the available options choose an Android deviceHow to inspect element in Android using Developer tools
 4. Once the user selects a specific Android device, the mobile version of the desired website starts
 5. Developers can now start inspecting the website on the desired Android device from their desktops
How to inspect element in Android using tool
Similar steps can be taken to inspect an element on an iPhone. One just needs to select the device accordingly.
The web is highly fragmented into different browsers (mobile and desktop) and devices (mobile, tablets, desktops). Also, let's not forget every browser has its legacy and latest versions. From a developer's perspective, developing a web application that provides robust performance in a highly fragmented environment is a huge challenge.
In such cases, teams need access to a comprehensive testing infrastructure that enables them to test web applications on multiple devices and browsers.
BrowserStack is one such platform that provides developers and QAs with an ideal test infrastructure. BrowserStack's real device cloud provides 2000+ real devices and browsers to test on. This makes the process of cross browser testing very convenient as QAs get the ideal environment to test their web applications in real user conditions.
Teams can pick combinations of real devices, browsers, and operating systems. For example, if a tester is wondering how to inspect elements on Chrome-Android, they can simply choose that particular browser device combination on BrowserStack – as shown in the image below:
Here's a look at BrowserStack's real device infrastructure:
How to inspect element in Android
Test on Real Android Devices for Free
The following image demonstrates a sample live session of mobile browser testing on a real device-browser combination – Chrome on Google Pixel 4.
How to inspect element in Android
Teams also get instant access to features like:
 1. DevTools for real-time inspection of web elements
 2. Device rotation features to test Portrait and Landscape views.
 3. Integrations with popular bug reporting tools like Jira, Trello, and Slack
 4. Geo-location testing to test the behavior of websites in different geographies
Explore the full range of features for mobile testing on BrowserStack.
For a comprehensive understanding of how to inspect web pages in mobile devices, remember to also peruse through How to inspect an element on iPhone.
The methods explained above will help developers and QAs to resolve critical UI bugs faster. Testing on platforms like BrowserStack will ensure that web applications are robust and market-ready.
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UK Vaccine Passport Plan to Use Existing NHS App
Michael Behr
UK Vaccine Passport
Despite controversy surrounding 'vaccine passports', the UK is moving ahead with plans to use a smartphone app to enable international travel.
The UK has revealed plans to retrofit an existing NHS smartphone app to work as a 'vaccine passport', Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said.
He said that the system would use the same app used to book appointments with the NHS. New functions will be added to demonstrate that users have been vaccinated or tested.
Government sources have added that the plan will not use the NHS Covid track and trace app, which allows people to check-in to venues.
However, the NHS appointment booking app is currently only in use in England. While the Scottish government has said that it is working on a digital system to show that people have been vaccinated, there are no concrete plans available yet.
It is also unclear how having multiple different systems in the UK will work.
So-called vaccine passports would allow people to prove they have been vaccinated and allow them to travel and attend gatherings. Multiple countries are currently considering whether, and how, to implement them. These could include an app like the one being introduced in the UK, a digital certificate with a QR code, which the EU is considering, or even a physical piece of paper.
"I'm working internationally with partners across the world to make sure that system can be internationally recognised," Shapps said in comments to Sky News.
He also said that the UK will announce the green list of countries people in the UK will be able to visit without having to quarantine in the coming weeks. However, travellers will still need to be tested before leaving and on returning to the UK
At present, the UK government has said that May 17 is the earliest date when non-essential international travel will be allowed.
Vaccine passports have proven controversial, with people opposed to having to prove they have been vaccinated against Covid-19 in order to engage in various activities.
On the one hand it would mean that people with a degree of protection against the coronavirus could freely travel or attend large gatherings with a minimal risk of spreading the virus.
However, they have also brought up concerns about privacy and discrimination, with people who exercise their right not to be vaccinated being excluded from activities. In addition, storing the vaccination record digitally could restrict older people and those on low incomes, as they are less likely to own smart phones.
Furthermore, in order to work there would need to be international standards to prevent forgery. Currently, airports, border agencies and airlines are concerned that a lack of a clear global standard would stop them being accepted across every jurisdiction.
Michael Behr
Senior Staff Writer
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3 Reasons Your AC System Is Humming
Posted on: 8 August 2019
Your air conditioning system makes a lot of different noises. You need to pay attention to the different sounds that your system makes. If you notice that the system is making a large humming sound, there is something wrong with your system.
Reason #1: Condenser Fan Motor
One of the major reasons that your air conditioning unit may be humming is because there is something wrong with the condenser fan within the motor. The condenser fan helps keep your air conditioning system cool. The fan is located within the motor and helps keep your motor cool.
When the fan starts to go out the consequence is usually that the fan stops spinning or doesn't spin at the right rate. However, power is still being pumped to the fan, it is just not working.
The humming sound is created by the fan not moving, but still getting a source of power. This can be fixed by replacing the condenser fan. If you wait too long to replace the condenser fan, you could also encounter more serious issues as well.
Reason #2: Mechanical Breakdown
Next, the humming sound could be caused by a mechanical or an electrical breakdown. Generally, this happens when the contactor relay switch doesn't work as it should. This type of failure happens more commonly when the outside temperatures get warm. Contractor relay switch breakdowns usually don't happen when the weather outside is mild or cold.
When the contactor relay switch fails this can cause your machine to emit a humming sound.
Once again, this issue can be fixed by switching out and replacing the faulty equipment.
Reason #3: Something Is Off
Sometimes, the reason for the humming is not that obvious. There may just be something inside of your unit that is not installed correctly. There could be a part that is worn out or loose which is causing the humming. In those types of situations, a contractor would need to take apart your unit until they figure out what is causing the humming and can fix or tighten up that part.
When it comes to a humming sound, you need to be careful. A humming sound coming from your air condition system generally means that something is wrong with either the condenser fan or with the mechanical make-up of the system. If you hear a sound you can't explain, call an air conditioning mechanic to come fix the issue for you.


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Cows have regional accents, experts confirm
Major bovine linguistic breakthrough
In a major breakthrough in bovine linguistic research, experts have confirmed that cows moo with accents distinct to their herd, the BBC reports.
John Wells, professor of Phonetics at the University of London, examined West Country farmers' claims that their beasts were mooing with a local twang.
Lloyd Green of Glastonbury said: "I spend a lot of time with my ones and they definitely moo with a Somerset drawl. I've spoken to the other farmers in the West Country group and they have noticed a similar development in their own herds. It works the same as with dogs - the closer a farmer's bond is with his animals, the easier it is for them to pick up his accent."
Professor Wells confirmed Green's observations, explaining: "This phenomenon is well attested in birds. You find distinct chirping accents in the same species around the country. In small populations such as herds you would encounter identifiable dialectical variations which are most affected by the immediate peer group."
Linguistics expert Dr Jeanine Treffers-Daller of University of the West of England in Bristol, ruminated: "When we are learning to speak, we adopt a local variety of language spoken by our parents, so the same could be said about the variation in the West Country cow moo."
The latest findings will do much to expand our understanding of the bovine world, which has in the last couple of years been enhanced by the revelations that cows enjoy a bit of girl-on-girl and bear grudges. ®

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


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Use the adverb imperiously to describe a manner that is domineering and authoritative. Shouting, "Sit! Stay!" imperiously might work well on the dog, but it won't necessarily work on your friends.
Imperiously comes from the Latin word imperare, which means "to command." Other words from this same root include empire, emperor, imperial, and imperative. Like imperiously, all of these words retain some sense of command in their definitions. When you were three, you might have imperiously announced to your toys that they must come to life immediately, or you would banish them to the dark wasteland known as the closet.


Processing sample labels using regular expressions in R
August 15, 2012
I am often found in possession of palaeo core data where the sample identifiers contain a core code or label plus the sample depth. Often these are things generated by colleagues who have used other software where for one reason or another they don't want to store the depth information as a separate numeric variable. I also generate such data sets, not because I want to but because the software often supplied with lab equipment (most recent example is the Thermo Flash EA/Delta V I've been running stable N and C isotope measurements on) that records data/measurements using a single character identifier variable.
The information in these labels is useful and I really don't want to type out all the depths again and it's not just because I am lazy; the more times you have to enter data the more opportunities for transcription errors to creep into your work and analysis. So I have things like this
R> (eg1 <- paste0("CORE", 0:10 + 0.5))
 [1] "CORE0.5" "CORE1.5" "CORE2.5" "CORE3.5" "CORE4.5" "CORE5.5"
 [7] "CORE6.5" "CORE7.5" "CORE8.5" "CORE9.5" "CORE10.5"
R> (eg2 <- paste0("FOO_", 0:10 + 0.5))
 [1] "FOO_0.5" "FOO_1.5" "FOO_2.5" "FOO_3.5" "FOO_4.5" "FOO_5.5"
 [7] "FOO_6.5" "FOO_7.5" "FOO_8.5" "FOO_9.5" "FOO_10.5"
What can be done to process these sorts of data with R to extract the useful information?
With eg2 we could split the strings on _ using strsplit() and process the resulting components. For example
R> as.numeric(sapply(strsplit(eg2, "_"), '[', 2))
 [1] 0.5 1.5 2.5 3.5 4.5 5.5 6.5 7.5 8.5 9.5 10.5
To see how that code works, note that strsplit() returns a list with as many components as elements in the character vector supplied (e.g. length(eg2)). Each component of the list contains the individual character strings created by splitting.
R> head(spl <- strsplit(eg2, "_"), 2)
[1] "FOO" "0.5"
[1] "FOO" "1.5"
Notice that the depth information is in the second element of each list component. To access this information for the first component we might use spl[[1]][2] and the second one via spl[[2]][2]. Notice that the only thing that is changing here is the number in the [[ ]]. To each of the components of spl we are applying the [ function with argument 2; that can be automated via sapply() as shown above. The last part of the example just coerces the character vector of depths to a numeric one.
All of that is a bit of a faff and won't work for eg1 because there is nothing to split on. An alternative solution is to use regular expressions. I'm no regular expression expert and if there is anything in computing that will warp your feeble little mind it is a regular expression. However, these things are incredibly useful for matching or extracting bits of data from strings.
A regular expression contains placeholders or entities that you want to match or find within a given set of strings. For example, here is a modified version of eg1 where the last element has a different format to the rest
R> (eg3 <- c(eg1, "12.5CORE"))
 [7] "CORE6.5" "CORE7.5" "CORE8.5" "CORE9.5" "CORE10.5" "12.5CORE"
To match only those with one or more alphabetical characters are the start of the string we can use "^[A-Za-z]+" as our regular expression and the grep() to do the matching
R> grep("^[A-Za-z]+", eg3, value = TRUE)
The [A-Za-z] means match anything that is a letter in the English language alphabet. I added a qualifier, the +, which means match one or more of these letters. The last bit of the regular expression is the ^, which indicates that matches should begin with one or more letters; anything that doesn't begin with one or more letters will not be matched. If you look carefully at the result, "12.5CORE" is missing because it doesn't start with one or more letters.
To match one or more letters at the end of a string, the $ can be used, e.g.
R> grep("[A-Za-z]+$", eg3, value = TRUE)
[1] "12.5CORE"
Let's turn our attention back to eg1. A regular expression that would match each component of the strings could be "([A-Za-z]+)([0-9\\.]+)". The parentheses group the various parts of the expression which we'll use in a moment. The first set of parentheses matches one or more letters whilst the second set matches one or more digits plus the decimal point. The decimal point has been escaped (which in R requires two not the usual one backslash) as it is a regular expression meta character (like + and *) that matches a single character. We want a literal. so we escape its usual meaning. As we now have a regular expression that will match the format of our sample labels we can proceed to manipulate them. This is where the parentheses come in. As I said, these group matches within the single expression. The matches within the parentheses can be referred to using backreferences. So I could use \\1 to refer to the strings matched by the first set of parentheses and \\2 to matches in the second set. Note we need to double backslash here as this is R.
To achieve our final goal of extracting the depth information from the sample labels we can combine this regular expression with the gsub() function, which does string replacement using regular expressions. If we think about what we want to do, we want to essentially replace the sample label with the extracted depth information to form a new set of strings. So we can match the two parts of our sample labels using our regular expression and replace them with a backreference to the depth part matched by the second set of parentheses. For example:
R> gsub("([A-Za-z]+)([0-9\\.]+)", "\\2", eg1)
 [1] "0.5" "1.5" "2.5" "3.5" "4.5" "5.5" "6.5" "7.5" "8.5" "9.5"
[11] "10.5"
All that remains is to coerce that to numeric and we have our depth data
eg2 can be handled in a similar way but we need to add _ to the characters matched by the first set of parentheses
R> as.numeric(gsub("([A-Za-z_]+)([0-9\\.]+)", "\\2", eg2))
or add it as a literal _ between the two sets
R> as.numeric(gsub("([A-Za-z]+)_([0-9\\.]+)", "\\2", eg2))
If you had a more complicated data set with several cores in the same file, identified by a different core code, regular expressions can be used to extract the core and depth information. For example, given
R> set.seed(1)
R> dat <- data.frame(Label = paste0(rep(c("WAST", "NAGA"), each = 3), rep(0:2 + 0.5, 3)),
+ Value = runif(6))
R> dat
 Label Value
1 WAST0.5 0._PHONE_
2 WAST1.5 0._PHONE_
3 WAST2.5 0._PHONE_
4 NAGA0.5 0._PHONE_
5 NAGA1.5 0._PHONE_
6 NAGA2.5 0._PHONE_
we could add site and label data using
R> rexp <- "([A-Za-z]+)([0-9\\.]+)"
R> dat <- transform(dat, Site = gsub(rexp, "\\1", Label),
+ Depth = as.numeric(gsub(rexp, "\\2", Label)))
R> dat
 Label Value Site Depth
1 WAST0.5 0._PHONE_ WAST 0.5
2 WAST1.5 0._PHONE_ WAST 1.5
3 WAST2.5 0._PHONE_ WAST 2.5
4 NAGA0.5 0._PHONE_ NAGA 0


Blaneys on COVID-19
Stay Informed
August 16, 2017 DOWNLOAD PDF
The Times They Are A-Changin': More Important Stuff on Expert Witnesses
Original Newsletter(s) this article was published in: Blaneys' Coffee House: August 2017
It is trite to say that the hallmark of the Canadian judicial system (and of most common-law jurisdictions) is fairness. In pursuit of preserving that hallmark, the law governing expert witnesses has evolved greatly over the past 20 years. Gone are the days of the 'hired gun' - the biased expert witness, whom a party could retain to do its bidding, and who would say whatever it took to win. Nowadays, expert witnesses must be independent, and advance evidence that is fair, objective and non-partisan, despite who is paying their bills.
In our last newsletter (April 2017: 'DIY': Experts Must Write Their Own Reports), I had talked about the obligation of expert witnesses to write their own reports, and to not have them ghost-written. This mandate contributes to ensuring fairness at trial, and to maintaining the integrity of the justice system.
This article focuses on the role and obligations of the trial judge to ensure that the expert witness does not jeopardize a fair trial.
The Trial
Recently, the Ontario Court of Appeal addressed the important role of the trial judge as gatekeeper, in the context of expert witnesses.
In Bruff-Murphy v. Gunawardena (2017 ONCA 502), the plaintiff had been injured in a motor vehicle accident. The defendant admitted liability, leaving the issue of damages to be resolved by a jury at trial.
The defendant called two expert medical witnesses, one of whom was a psychiatrist. Counsel for the plaintiff objected to the admission of the psychiatrist's testimony, on the basis that the psychiatrist had attacked the plaintiff's credibility, and was biased.
Notwithstanding the plaintiff's objections, the trial judge qualified the expert, and allowed the psychiatrist's evidence to be admitted. During trial, it became obvious that the psychiatrist had adopted the role of advocate, and lacked independence. The trial judge, however, did not raise any concerns with the jury.
Ultimately, the jury awarded the plaintiff the amount of CDN$23,500 for general damages, but rejected all other heads of damages including special damages, future care costs, and past and future income loss.
The Appeal
The plaintiff appealed the damages award, on the basis that the trial had not been fair because of the trial judge's failure to deal with the expert's impropriety.
The Court of Appeal affirmed the following threshold test to qualify a witness and allow his evidence to be admitted:
 1. The evidence must meet the threshold requirement of admissibility: relevance, necessity in assisting the trier of fact, absence of an exclusionary rule, and the need for a properly qualified expert. The essential question, at this preliminary stage, is whether the expert is able and willing to carry out his primary duty to the court.
 2. If the criteria under the first step are met, the trial judge must balance the potential risks and benefits. In other words, she must determine whether the evidence ought to be admitted because its probative value outweighs its prejudicial effect (the 'discretionary gatekeeping step').
It is only after the court has applied this two-pronged analysis that it can be properly determined whether it is probable that the witness' testimony would impair the fairness of the proceeding.
Ongoing Obligation of the Trial Judge
At the qualification stage, although the expert's report provides a roadmap of the anticipated testimony of the expert, and the specific limits to be placed on the scope of that testimony, the trial judge cannot predict, with certainty, the nature or content of the expert's actual testimony. In other words, although the issue of admissibility is determined when the evidence is proffered, and qualification is requested by a party (which is prior to the expert's report being admitted, and before the expert testifies), this does not mean that the expert will, in fact, remain fair, objective and impartial throughout the trial.
If, during the trial, it becomes apparent that the expert lacks independence and poses an acute risk to the fairness of the trial, a judge cannot act as if her job is done. She has an obligation to independently act, regardless of the initial qualification, and whether or not an opposing party makes an objection about the testimony.
Options for the Trial Judge if Prejudice is identified after the Qualification Stage
It was the Court of Appeal's view that, in the face of prejudice after the qualification stage, the trial judge could have:
 1. advised counsel that he was going to instruct the jury that the psychiatrist's evidence would be excluded, in whole or in part. In that event, counsel could have made submissions about the extent of the instruction; or
 2. invited submissions from counsel regarding the prospect of a mistrial.
It is important to note that the plaintiff's counsel did not ask the trial judge to instruct the jury regarding the problem with the psychiatrist's evidence (the general rule is that the failure to object to a civil jury charge is fatal to a request for a re-trial on appeal based on misdirection or non-direction. This rule, however, is subject to an exception: Where the misdirection or non-direction resulted in a substantial wrong or miscarriage of justice, it may warrant a new trial).
The Holding of the Court of Appeal
The court reasoned that if the trial judge had properly applied the two-pronged qualification test (he failed to apply the second prong of the test, altogether), he would have reached the conclusion that the potential risk of admitting the psychiatrist's evidence far outweighed the potential benefit: the psychiatrist lacked independence, was essentially an advocate for the defence, and was coming dangerously close to usurping the role of the jury in assessing the plaintiff's credibility.
The trial judge's inaction resulted in the evidence adversely affecting the fairness of the trial, and ultimately resulted in a miscarriage of justice. The court, therefore, granted the plaintiff's appeal, and ordered a new trial.
It is clear that, had the trial judge intervened and provided options in the face of the prejudice, the chances are that counsel would have rejected a mistrial (a Draconian step) and instead requested that the jury be properly instructed. In that regard, the court commented,
No doubt, another trial will be costly and time consuming, but it is
necessary because the defence proffered the evidence of a wholly
unsuitable expert witness.
So, despite the negative financial repercussions of a second trial, and the consequential adverse impact on the parties, the Court of Appeal chose integrity over efficiency.
What does it all Mean?
Now, there is some certainty about the conduct of the expert witness: the courts have spelled out the expectations of experts, lawyers and courts, in order that fairness will be maintained throughout the process.
A thought came to mind: What does a lawyer do in a highly complex, large-scale case, when she requires technical assistance in order to successfully examine or cross-examine an adverse party? How does she get input from her expert without crossing the line and leading him down the road to impartiality? In circumstances where the budget can tolerate it, it is often worthwhile for the lawyer to retain a second expert, on a short-term basis, who will assist her in successfully prosecuting or defending the case. For example, in a construction claim, the second expert could enhance success by directing the lawyer to ask the right questions of adverse parties, thus eliciting the best evidence. He would not have to maintain independence because he would not be called to testify at trial as an expert witness. If a second expert is not in the budget, then it is important for the lawyer to ensure that her expert witness remains impartial when providing her with technical information and assistance.
Nowadays, the court, the lawyer, and the expert witness each have an independent obligation to ensure that the witness remains impartial and independent, and does not morph into a 'hired gun' at some point during the process.


text:
Mel Bay How to Play Drum from Day One DVD
Studio musician and percussion editor Jim Payne presents this outstanding video on the basics of rock & blues drumming, assigning'singing drum sounds' or solfege syllables to the five basic components of the drumset. Payne addresses holding the sticks, playing the bass drum, and traditional notation and singing syllables of the hi-hat, bass drum, cymbals and toms. Introducing rock and blues tunes with various grooves and tempos, he stresses an awareness of song form in maintaining one's place in a piece of music. All on-screen samples are written in both standard notation and drum sounds. With the three-camera filming technique making every precise move easy to follow.


text:
The profuse white flowers of the tree is also used in curries. They taste like mushrooms. The tiny leaves of the drumstick tree is also a valuable vegetable. It can be eaten with a salad, or cooked with garlic and chillies to make a tasty dish.
The roots of the tree are used as a medicine for snake bite. The flowers, leaves and the seedpods all contain high amounts of calcium, iron vitamin C and beta carotene. The soup made from the drumstick leaves make you feel energetic.


text:
One of Toronto's little historical secrets is the mystery of why Bay St does such a large jog at Queen St. History buffs may know the answer, but I only recently came upon it myself, and it answered many questions I'd long had about the strange disconnect in (of all places) Yorkville between Yonge St and the centre of what we now think of as Yorkville, the area west of Bay St.
The jog on Bay St creates one of Toronto's most spectacular urban design moments, but it was far from deliberately planned that way – the placement of the tower of Old City Hall simply took advantage of a precondition in which Bay St ended at Queen St. What is today Bay St north of Queen St was originally a separate street running between Queen St and College St called Terauley St. Terauley St and the grid north of Queen St were originally laid out as part of a separate estate that did not line up with the grid south of Queen (even University Ave did not originally extend south of Queen St, whereas Yonge St was the exception as it was the original concession road).
North of College St there was a one block break, and then a series of streets with slightly different alignments (called St Vincent St, Chapel St and North St) continued the rough line of Terauley St north to Bloor St. North of Bloor St, no streets crossed through Yorkville along the Terauley St alignment. In the early 1920′s, the City decided to cut the Terauley alignment all the way through from Queen St to Davenport Rd and rename it as an extension of Bay St. The late date of Bay St's creation north of Queen partly explains the lack of significant historical buildings along the street.
The effect in Yorkville has been more profound, as Bay St essentially split the old village in two. Originally, the centre of Yorkville was clearly along Yonge St (very few commercial buildings even existed at the time along Bloor St). Both the library and the fire hall were located close to Yonge St on Yorkville Ave. Since the 1920′s and the cutting through of Bay St, the fortunes of Yorkville west and east of Bay seem to have gone in different directions. While Yonge St has lost most of its connection to Yorkville and sense of it's former individuality, Yorkville west of Bay was destined to become a centre for artists and alternative culture and finally a very unique boutique shopping district, maintaining a significant amount of its character and village feeling.


Should employers use questionnaires or computer software to sort through online job applications?
Author: Linda Segall, Segall Enterprises
Applicant tracking software is becoming commonly used, especially by large employers that attract unsolicited applications. This software allows employers to sort through applications easily and helps identify applicants who meet minimum qualifications. Employers need to take care, however, not to include possibly discriminatory questions as part of the sorting process.


text:
Hartakimia – CIMAH
- As the Occupational Safety and Health (Control of Industrial Major Accident Hazards) Regulations 1996 requires that the CIMAH Safety Report to be updated within three years of the date of the last report, an update of the previous CIMAH Safety Report has been carried out for Hartakimia.
- The principal objectives of the Safety Report are:
- to identify the nature of activity carried out in the facility;
- to identify the type, relative likelihood and consequences of the major accidents that might occur;
- to give an account of the arrangements:
- for safer operation of the activity;
- for control of serious deviations that could lead to major accidents; and
- for emergency procedures.
Benefits & ROI:
- CIMAH Safety Report will identify/provide:
- Information relating to every hazardous substance involved in the industrial activity and its relevant quantity
- Information relating to the installation
- Information relating to the system of management for controlling the industrial activity
- Information relating to the potential major accident in the form of risk assessment


licant make system
testing, make
pip install licant==1.9.0
Licant is designed to build small modular projects with a complex dependency tree.
What is it?
Initially Likant was written as a system for assembling code for projects on microcontrollers.
The core of the Lycant system is a make-like assembly tree solver written in python.
But, the main feature of Licant in the system of modules. The Likant paradigm consists in the description of a project by a set of modules that link to each other. Connecting the module automatically tightens the connection of dependent modules.
Modules can have several implementations, which allows flexible configuration of the project. (For example, you can change the initialization code of the microcontroller or the implementation of the input-output system simply by replacing the implementation of the corresponding module).
One of the goals of the project is to work with submodules located in remote directories. The library subsystem allows a project to refer to modules located in remote directories, which allows several projects to use the same code.
python3 -m pip install licant
#!/usr/bin/env python
import licant.make as lmake
import licant
lmake.copy(tgt = "build/b.txt", src = "a.txt")
lmake.copy(tgt = "build/c.txt", src = "build/b.txt")
print("licant targets list:" + str(licant.core.core.targets))
licant.ex(default = "build/c.txt")
Example projects


text:
Enriquez, M., Afonin, O., Yager, B., MacLean, K. (2001). "A Pneumatic Tactile Notification System for the Driving Environment." in Proceedings of Workshop on Perceptive User Interfaces (PUI '01), Orlando, FL, 2001.
Sensory overloaded environments present an opportunity for innovative design in the area of Human-Machine Interaction. In this paper we study the usefulness of a tactile display in the automobile environment. Our approach uses a simple pneumatic pump to produce pulsations of varying frequencies on the driver's hands through a car steering wheel fitted with inflatable pads. The goal of the project is to evaluate the effectiveness of such a system in alerting the driver of a possible problem, when it is used to augment the visual display presently used in automobiles. A steering wheel that provides haptic feedback using pneumatic pockets was developed to test our hypothesis. The steering wheel can pulsate at different frequencies. The system was tested in a simple multitasking paradigm on several subjects and their reaction times to different stimuli were measured and analyzed. For these experiments, we found that using a tactile feedback device lowers reaction time significantly and that modulating frequency of vibration provides extra information that can reduce the time necessary to identify a problem.


text:
Table 15.02 - Triune Polar Streams.
"In reply to the question, "What do you include in the polar forces?" Keely answers, "Magnetism, electricity, and gravital sympathy; each stream composed of three currents, or triune streams, which make up the governing conditions of the controlling medium of the universe; the infinite ninths that I am now endeavoring to graduate to a sympathetic mechanical combination, will, if I succeed, close my researches in sympathetic physics, and complete my system. These sympathetic streams from celestial space, percussing on the dense atmospheric environment of our earth, by their infinite velocities, wrest from their atomic confinement the latent energies which we call heat and light." [KEELYS PHYSICAL PHILOSOPHY - Snell]
Celestial and Terrestrial Domains
Figure 13.12 - Triune Polar Stream Characteristics
Newton of the Mind
triune polar flows


text:
Cognitive interviewing is a method used by survey researchers to investigate the integrity of their questionnaire designs prior to launching the field portion of the study. In the edited volume Cognitive Interviewing Methodology, Kristen Miller (2014) describes cognitive interviewing as "a qualitative method that examines the question-response process, specifically the processes and considerations used by respondents as they form answers to survey questions," further explaining that "through the interviewing process, various types of question-response problems that would not normally be identified in a traditional survey interview, such as interpretive errors and recall accuracy, are uncovered" (p. 2). In this way, survey researchers identify the users' (i.e., survey respondents') possible meaning and interpretation of survey questions – having to do with question structure or format and terminology – that may or may not deviate from the researcher's intent. Importantly, the objective of the cognitive interview is not to simply determine whether a questionnaire item "makes sense" to an individual but to go beyond that to explore the individual's lived experience (personal context, attitudes, perceptions, behavior) in relationship to their interpretation and/or ability to answer a particular question.
Although not typically included under the "qualitative research" umbrella (with in-depth interviewing, focus group discussions, and observation), four of the 10 unique attributes associated with qualitative research are notably relevant to the cognitive interviewing method. They are the: importance of meaning, flexibility of design, participant-researcher relationship, and researcher skill set. These distinctive qualities of the cognitive interviewing method, and qualitative methods generally, define why researchers opt for qualitative research, yet these same qualities pose a real challenge to researchers who seek to maintain the integrity of the method while also integrating best practices to arrive at valid data. It is by way of best practices and valid data that cognitive interviewing achieves its ultimate goal of mitigating survey measurement error.
The Total Quality Framework (TQF) is an approach to integrating best practices into qualitative research design and, by association (as discussed above), the cognitive interviewing method. By way of its four interlocking components – Credibility, Analyzability, Transparency, and Usefulness – the framework offers researchers a way to think critically about each phase of the research process. Credibility, for instance, has to do with the data collection research phase; specifically, aspects of the research related to Scope and Data Gathering. One of the considerations related to the Scope of a cognitive interviewing study is the number of interviews to complete, which is often considered in terms of saturation or interviewing until no new insights are forthcoming. However, as discussed in this RDR article on the in-depth interview method, saturation, from a TQF perspective, doesn't go far enough. As with in-depth interviews, there are quality aspects relevant to the conduct of cognitive interviews that need to be considered when determining sample size, such as the coverage of questionnaire items in each interview as well as the interviewers' skills, objectivity, and consistency (e.g., the consistent manner in which interviewers introduce each interview). These and other considerations are listed below.
In addition to Scope, the Data Gathering component of the TQF offers researchers a way to think about how to mitigate researcher and participant effects in the data gathering process. Because the researcher's qualitative skills are critical to the integrity of this process, it is imperative to the quality of cognitive interviews that they be conducted by a trained qualitative researcher. A qualitative interviewer is not only an expert in administering effective probing questions (i.e., questions that reveal the underlying meaning of each participant's reactions or comments) but also astute to the potential for participant effects. The ability to weaken these effects relies partly on the interviewer's skill in recognizing the ways participants may not respond honestly to the interviewer's questions or respond in an unclear manner, such as participants who exhibit one or more of the following.
These and other considerations when applying best practices to the cognitive interviewing method can be found in the presentation "A Best Practices Approach to Cognitive Interviewing" available here. As another discussion of a rigorous approach to cognitive interviewing, the edited volume mentioned earlier — Cognitive Interviewing Methodology — is also recommended.
Miller, Kristen (2014). Introduction. In Kristen Miller, Stephanie Willson, Valerie Chepp, & José Luis Padilla (Eds.). Cognitive interviewing methodology (pp. 1-5). John Wiley & Sons.


Take the 2-minute tour ×
Let $M$ be finitely generated Module over the Polynomial ring $R=k[x_{1},..,x_{n}]$, then there is a free resolution of M of the form $$0\rightarrow F_{n}\rightarrow...\rightarrow F_{0}\rightarrow M\rightarrow 0$$ We can write the free modules in the form $F_{i}=\bigoplus_{j\in \mathbb{Z} } R(-j)^{\beta_{i,j}}$, these numbers $\beta_{i,j}$ are called betti numbers, my question is how to show that $$\beta_{i,j}= \dim_{k}\; \text{Tor}_{i}^{R}(M,k)_{j}$$.
share|improve this question
What is $S$?${}$ – Rasmus May 30 '12 at 11:46
sorry, it is R. – kiranovalobas May 30 '12 at 14:56
1 Answer 1
up vote 2 down vote accepted
Here is a hint. In order to compute the Tor groups you're interested in, you have to apply $-\otimes_R k$ to your resolution then take homology. The terms of your resolution are sums of (shifts of) free modules, so because $R\otimes_R k=k$, you understand all the terms in $F_* \otimes _R k$. If your resolution is such that the images of the differentials $F_i \to F_{i+1}$ are contained in $(x_1,\ldots,x_n)F_{i+1}$, then the induced differential on $F_* \otimes _R k$ is zero. That makes it easy to calculate homology, and therefore Tor...
share|improve this answer
Your Answer


text:
"Tactical" is also an Army adverb describing things that are done in the field on exercises or in combat, as opposed to strategic things that are done at long distance or for organizations higher up the food chain than the corps. It can be a term of praise; someone who always knows what to do and when in the field will be referred to as "fucking tactical" or in extreme cases, "fucking hardcore tactical", although one usually only heard that in reference to Rangers, Green Beanies, and other species of snake-eaters.
As applied to ASA units, tactical indicates units that are either in direct support of maneuver units (for example, the 340th ASA Company (Regimental Support) assigned to the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment) or general support of such units, such as the 331st ASA Company (Ops Forward). These units would receive tasking from the division G-2 staff or regimental S-2. Strategic units, such as Field Station Berlin, received tasking from NSA at Fort Meade and were generally uninterested in tactical intelligence.


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SLU:s publikationsdatabas (SLUpub)
Forskningsartikel2021Vetenskapligt granskad
Temperature affects both the Grinnellian and Eltonian dimensions of ecological niches - A tale of two Arctic wolf spiders
Eitzinger, Bernhard; Roslin, Tomas; Vesterinen, Eero J.; Robinson, Sinikka I.; O'Gorman, Eoin J.
Sammanfattning
To better understand the consequences of global warming for species and their distribution, we need studies quantifying how environmental change affects communities and interaction networks. Where studies to date have mainly focused on climatic effects on species distribution (the Grinnellian dimension of the niche), recent research has emphasised how the environment shapes ecological interactions among species (the Eltonian dimension).Here, we explore both dimensions in a system consisting of two wolf spider species Pardosa palustris and Pirata piraticus and their prey. Drawing on a natural experiment consisting of differential geothermal heating of soil, we describe the effects of temperature on the abundance of each species and on its interactions with its prey (using metabarcoding of gut contents). The two spider species differed substantially in their Grinnellian niche, with a peak in the abundance of P. palustris around 10 degrees C and in P. piraticus around 22 degrees C. While P. piraticus consumed more prey taxa on average than did P. palustris, both predators maintained their diet breadth and taxon richness of consumed prey across the temperature gradient. This indicates that effects of temperature on metabolic demands did not alter the dietary specialisation of the two predators. Nevertheless, we did also detect effects of temperature on the Eltonian niche, with significant changes in the prey community consumed by the two spider species across the temperature gradient, and a greater turnover of prey taxa in their diet with increasing soil temperature. Importantly, this suggests that the Eltonian niche of species may be conditional on the environment, and that prey use by generalist predators may thus be modified by climate change. (c) 2021 Gesellschaft fur okologie. Published by Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
Nyckelord
Arctic; Global warming; Gut content analysis; Metabarcoding; Predator-prey; Soil food web; Temperature gradient; Wolf spider
Publicerad i
Basic and Applied Ecology
2021, Volym: 50, sidor: 132-143
Utgivare: ELSEVIER GMBH
 SLU författare
 - UKÄ forskningsämne
 Ekologi
 Publikationens identifierare
 DOI: _URL_
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Cultivate Digital
596 North Road Ormond 3204 Melbourne, VIC
Phone: _PHONE_
Are you ready for the super login?
Aug 31, 2017
The Turnbull government has a project in the works that would allow individuals to log onto a variety of websites with the same username and password.
According to Angus Taylor, Digital Transformation Assistant Minister, the 'super logon' would allow Australians to log into a variety of services without the hassle of trying to remember a plethora of different usernames and passwords.
Some of the services involved could include the Department of Human Services, banking, grocery shopping and telecommunication companies.
The process would include two-step verification with a code being sent via mobile phones to log into the system. Taylor, believes that this will reduce the incidence of identity fraud as individuals won't have as many passwords to remember so they can be more secure and complicated making them harder to crack!
Questions and Answers
Q. How do I secure my passwords online?
A. Here are 3 ways to safely store your passwords:
 1. Use your browser: All browsers have a password management system that is built into them and you can secure them here. Just make sure you have a complex password for your computer or device though to stop any people who use these from accessing them.
 2. 1Password, Dashlane and LastPass: These are paid for services that will secure your passwords for you. Encryption means that your password is safe from prying eyes.
 3. 2-step verification: Turn this option on wherever possible. You will enter your password and the system will send a code to your trusted mobile phone for authentication.
Just for Fun


Maslow Was Right
Maslow Was Right
Sixty years ago, Abraham Maslow identified that to be happier, we should break away from social conditioning.
In other words, we should be authentic and remain true to ourselves. Acting more according to our values, opinions and convictions rather than according to the dictates of society, our group of friends or even our family.
Easier said than done, since society's influence on our actions and behaviour is surreptitious, insidious, and often happens without our even realizing it. You also need a certain degree of courage and a minimum of self-confidence to be yourself in nearly all circumstances.
Leger's Happiness Index therefore focused on Maslow's affirmation ... and we must admit that he was right. The more people go against their values and convictions, the more their level of happiness is low. The gap is considerable, over 17 points on the LHI! It's no coincidence that authenticity ranks 12th among the 25 factors that influence happiness.
LHI according to whether we go against our values and convictions
We should take some consolation in knowing that only slightly more than 11% of the population acts in this way, while 70% rarely and 19% never do so. We note that the younger you are, the more you tend to go against your values and convictions. The same phenomenon is observed with levels of education and income. The lower they are, the more people lack authenticity.
Finally, it should be noted that more anglophones and allophones go against their values and beliefs.


WorldWideScience
Sample records for adiabatic flame temperature
 1. Adiabatic flame temperature of sodium combustion and sodium-water reaction
 International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
 Okano, Y.; Yamaguchi, A.
 2001-01-01
 In this paper, background information of sodium fire and sodium-water reaction accidents of LMFBR (liquid metal fast breeder reactor) is mentioned at first. Next, numerical analysis method of GENESYS is described in detail. Next, adiabatic flame temperature and composition of sodium combustion are analyzed, and affect of reactant composition, such oxygen and moisture, is discussed. Finally, adiabatic reaction zone temperature and composition of sodium-water reaction are calculated, and affects of reactant composition, sodium vaporization, and pressure are stated. Chemical equilibrium calculation program for generic chemical system (GENESYS) is developed in this study for the research on adiabatic flame temperature of sodium combustion and adiabatic reaction zone temperature of sodium-water reaction. The maximum flame temperature of the sodium combustion is 1,950 K at the standard atmospheric condition, and is not affected by the existence of moisture. The main reaction product is Na 2 O (l) , and in combustion in moist air, with NaOH (g) . The maximum reaction zone temperature of the sodium-water reaction is 1,600 K, and increases with the system pressure. The main products are NaOH (g) , NaOH (l) and H2 (g) . Sodium evaporation should be considered in the cases of sodium-rich and high pressure above 10 bar
 2. Theoretical Adiabatic Temperature and Chemical Composition of Sodium Combustion Flame
 International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
 Okano, Yasushi; Yamaguchi, Akira
 2003-01-01
 Sodium fire safety analysis requires fundamental combustion properties, e.g., heat of combustion, flame temperature, and composition. We developed the GENESYS code for a theoretical investigation of sodium combustion flame.Our principle conclusions on sodium combustion under atmospheric air conditions are (a) the maximum theoretical flame temperature is 1950 K, and it is not affected by the presence of moisture; the uppermost limiting factor is the chemical instability of the condensed sodium-oxide products under high temperature; (b) the main combustion product is liquid Na 2 O in dry air condition and liquid Na 2 O with gaseous NaOH in moist air; and (c) the chemical equilibrium prediction of the residual gaseous reactants in the flame is indispensable for sodium combustion modeling
 3. The ignition delay, laminar flame speed and adiabatic temperature characteristics of n-pentane, n-hexane and n-heptane under O{sub 2}/CO{sub 2} atmosphere
 Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
 Zhao, Ran [Huazhong Univ. of Science and Technology, Wuhan (China). State Key Lab. of Coal Combustion; Wuhan Textile Univ. (China). School of Environment and Urban Construction; Liu, Hao; Zhong, Xiaojiao; Wang, Zijian; Jin, Ziqin; Qiu, Jianrong [Huazhong Univ. of Science and Technology, Wuhan (China). State Key Lab. of Coal Combustion; Chen, Yingming [Wuhan Textile Univ. (China). School of Environment and Urban Construction
 2013-07-01
 Oxy-fuel (O{sub 2}/CO{sub 2}) combustion is one of the several promising new technologies which can realize the integrated control of CO{sub 2}, SO{sub 2}, NO{sub X} and other pollutants. However, when fuels are burned in the high CO{sub 2} concentration environment, the combustion characteristics can be very different from conventional air-fired combustion. Such changes imply that the high CO{sub 2} concentration atmosphere has impacts on the combustion processes. In this paper, the ignition time, laminar flame speed and adiabatic temperature property of C{sub 5} {proportional_to} C{sub 7} n-alkane fuels were studied under both ordinary air atmosphere and O{sub 2}/CO{sub 2} atmospheres over a wide range of CO{sub 2} concentration in the combustion systems. A new unified detailed chemical kinetic model was validated and used to simulate the three liquid hydrocarbon fuel's flame characteristics. Based on the verified model, the influences of various parameters (atmosphere, excess oxygen ratio, O{sub 2} concentration, CO{sub 2} concentration, and alkane type) on the C{sub 5} {proportional_to} C{sub 7} n-alkane's flame characteristics were systematically investigated. It can be concluded that high CO{sub 2} concentration atmosphere has negative effect on n-pentane, n-hexane and n-heptane flame's ignition, laminar flame speed and adiabatic temperature. Besides, this work confirms that high CO{sub 2} concentration atmosphere's chemical effects play a pronounced role on the flame characteristics, especially for the ignition time property.
 4. Autoignited laminar lifted flames of methane, ethylene, ethane, and n-butane jets in coflow air with elevated temperature
 KAUST Repository
 Choi, Byungchul
 2010-12-01
 The autoignition characteristics of laminar lifted flames of methane, ethylene, ethane, and n-butane fuels have been investigated experimentally in coflow air with elevated temperature over 800. K. The lifted flames were categorized into three regimes depending on the initial temperature and fuel mole fraction: (1) non-autoignited lifted flame, (2) autoignited lifted flame with tribrachial (or triple) edge, and (3) autoignited lifted flame with mild combustion. For the non-autoignited lifted flames at relatively low temperature, the existence of lifted flame depended on the Schmidt number of fuel, such that only the fuels with Sc > 1 exhibited stationary lifted flames. The balance mechanism between the propagation speed of tribrachial flame and local flow velocity stabilized the lifted flames. At relatively high initial temperatures, either autoignited lifted flames having tribrachial edge or autoignited lifted flames with mild combustion existed regardless of the Schmidt number of fuel. The adiabatic ignition delay time played a crucial role for the stabilization of autoignited flames. Especially, heat loss during the ignition process should be accounted for, such that the characteristic convection time, defined by the autoignition height divided by jet velocity was correlated well with the square of the adiabatic ignition delay time for the critical autoignition conditions. The liftoff height was also correlated well with the square of the adiabatic ignition delay time. © 2010 The Combustion Institute.
 5. Laminar Flame Velocity and Temperature Exponent of Diluted DME-Air Mixture
 Science.gov (United States)
 Naseer Mohammed, Abdul; Anwar, Muzammil; Juhany, Khalid A.; Mohammad, Akram
 2017-03-01
 In this paper, the laminar flame velocity and temperature exponent diluted dimethyl ether (DME) air mixtures are reported. Laminar premixed mixture of DME-air with volumetric dilutions of carbon dioxides (CO2) and nitrogen (N2) are considered. Experiments were conducted using a preheated mesoscale high aspect-ratio diverging channel with inlet dimensions of 25 mm × 2 mm. In this method, flame velocities are extracted from planar flames that were stabilized near adiabatic conditions inside the channel. The flame velocities are then plotted against the ratio of mixture temperature and the initial reference temperature. A non-linear power law regression is observed suitable. This regression analysis gives the laminar flame velocity at the initial reference temperature and temperature exponent. Decrease in the laminar flame velocity and increase in temperature exponent is observed for CO2 and N2 diluted mixtures. The addition of CO2 has profound influence when compared to N2 addition on both flame velocity and temperature exponent. Numerical prediction of the similar mixture using a detailed reaction mechanism is obtained. The computational mechanism predicts higher magnitudes for laminar flame velocity and smaller magnitudes of temperature exponent compared to experimental data.
 6. Experimental study of adiabatic cellular premixed flames of methane (ethane, propane) + oxygen + carbon dioxide mixtures
 NARCIS (Netherlands)
 Konnov, A.A.; Dyakov, I.V.
 2007-01-01
 Experimental studies of adiabatic cellular flames of CH4 + O2 + CO2, C2H6 + O2 + CO2, and C3H8 + O2 + CO2 are presented. Visual and photographic observations of the flames were performed to quantify their cellular structure. Non-stretched flames of methane and propane were stabilized at atmospheric
 7. Temperature measurement of plasma-assisted flames: comparison between optical emission spectroscopy and 2-color laser induced fluorescence techniques
 KAUST Repository
 Lacoste, Deanna A.
 2015-03-30
 Accurate thermometry of highly reactive environments, such as plasma-assisted combustion, is challenging. With the help of conical laminar premixed methane-air flames, this study compares two thermometry techniques for the temperature determination in a combustion front enhanced by nanosecond repetitively pulsed (NRP) plasma discharges. Based on emission spectroscopic analysis, the results show that the rotational temperature of CH(A) gives a reasonable estimate for the adiabatic flame temperature,


text:
Jazz Hands Jo Folk Art Acrylic Painting "Sweeter Things In Life"
Jazz Hands Jo (American, 21st century)
Sweeter Things In Life
Acrylic on canvas
Signed to the lower left
Inscribed to the verso
Certificate of authenticity from artist included
Jazz Hands Jo's (nom de plume) is a nomadic folk painter who grew up in rural areas throughout the United States, from western deserts to southern marsh. While meeting many other artists on her travels, Jazz Hands gained her name by quickly catching on to the skill of painting from her peers. Now a recluse, the artist uses painting as a method of connecting to her roots. Her paintings may present themselves as naive or child-like, however, they are often metaphors of her beliefs. Following her faith, Jo uses anthropomorphic imagery to speak to her audience through acrylic paintings.
- no condition details to note.


What Does Duck and Weave Mean?
Duck and Weave Meaning
Definition: To move from side to side, bobbing up and down.
People often move this way when trying to navigate through a large crowd. This expression describes a type of motion.
Origin of Duck and Weave
The verb duck predates the animal duck, although the two are related. One meaning of duck means to dive. The animal is named for the diving motion it makes through the water, and how it bobs its head in and out of the water.
Another meaning of duck is avoid a blow by moving down quickly. This meaning of duck appears in the literal meaning of the expression duck and weave, which describes a motion common in boxing.
In the sport of boxing, the athletes will move their head up and down, and move their bodies from side to side, trying to avoid the other boxer's punches.
Nowadays, people still use this expression for boxing, but also for anything with a similar motion.
Examples of Duck and Weave
duck and weave boxing duck and weave Here is an example of a teacher using the expression in a math class.
Teacher: Okay, class is finished. Don't forget to turn in your homework. Hey, you, stop ducking and weaving through your classmates. I see you trying to escape through the crowd without giving me your homework.
Student: I'm sorry, but I forgot to do it. I thought you might not notice if I escaped the classroom before you saw me leave.
Teacher: Well, next time don't move in such an obvious way. Uh, I mean, next time just finish your homework.
what does ducked mean In this example, two friends are coming back home from a party.
Monica: I think I'm done going to parties that are at nightclubs.
Janice: How come? Didn't you have fun?
Monica: Yes, I enjoyed the music and seeing my friends, but the dance floor was too crowded. There was no room to move freely to dance. I felt like I was just ducking and weaving through the crowd all night.
More Examples
This excerpt is from an article that questions the safety of dog parks. It describes the movement of a family pet.
 - Kyle Hurt and his 6-year-old son, Mason, lounged on a bench watching their energetic boxer, Jersey, duck and weave around a feisty Australian shepherd in the Hound Hill dog park near Quebec and Lincoln streets. –Denver Post
The second excerpt shows a food critic describing his walk through a restaurant.
 - My guest and I duck and weave through the crowd as we follow the hostess to our table. The dining room is just as loud. It's an echo chamber of shouted conversation and the uniquely screechy mating calls of the tequila-infused. –OC Register
The phrase duck and weave comes from the sport of boxing and describes the motion the boxer makes to avoid blows.
People now use it to describe the same type of motion when used in other activities, such as walking through a crowd.


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After clicking generate, QR codes are created to represent the resulting public address, public key, and the private key in both hexadecimal and WIF form. The QR codes can be converted to text with a double-click.
Private keys can optionally be encrypted with a password. If a private key is used, the encrypted key (NEP-2) will also be generated, which can be revealed by scrolling through the views with the 'N' button.
The tool can also be used to import wallets. This can turn it into a useful way to print paper backups of existing wallets, or to quickly check the public address or public key for a known private key, WIF, or encrypted key/password combination.
As an open source project, Ansy can be run locally. This can make it a convenient option for generating Neo wallets on a fully air-gapped machine. However, it can also be used to create new wallets in the browser with relative safety. Temporarily disabling extensions, running a malware scan, and disconnecting from the Internet are a few recommended steps to take before doing so.
You can find the Ansy github repository at the following link:


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Dangerous precedent: Lenin's statue to be erected in the German city of Gelsenkirchen
The Platform of European Memory and Conscience expressed its concern regarding the announced erection of a statue of Vladimir Lenin in the German city of Gelsenkirchen. Many members of the German public heavily criticised initiative by the Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD), which stands for the erection of the statue.
Original text of the statement by the Platform:
Lenin created the Soviet totalitarian state, killing millions during his reign. His successors and followers, believers in Marxism-Leninism, are responsible for many times more deaths. Even today people are killed in the name of this ideology. Commemorating Lenin in a public space is offensive to the memory of all victims of Communism and painful for their relatives.
The Platform commends the efforts of the local authorities of Gelsenkirchen to prevent the erection of the statue and calls on the German government to undertake the necessary steps to avoid further commemoration of mass murderers. We also appeal to the European community to adopt appropriate measures to stop the promotion of totalitarian ideologies.
DW reports that a member of Germany's national parliament, Marco Buschmann (Free Democrats - FDP), a Gelsenkirchen local, was highly critical of the plan. "A Lenin statue would be a disgrace for Gelsenkirchen," Buschmann wrote. Gelsenkirchen's administrative court lifted city orders to halt construction in March. The MLPD in a press release said then: "A few weeks before his 150th birthday, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin has once again won a great victory."
Just two years ago a statue of the founding father of the communist ideology Karl Marx was erected in the German city of Trier to mark 200 years since Karl Marx was born there. Statue was donated by China. Historian Toomas Hiio had wrote an article "Grim spectre of Karl Marx's teaching" for our portal about this sad case.


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Notes: All timings are represented in 12-hour notation in local time of San Diego, United States with DST adjustment (if applicable).
Panchang makers use either visibility of upper edge or visibility of middle limb of the Sun at eastern horizon to mark the sunrise time used in Panchang. The difference in both timing of Sunrise could be up to few minutes.
There is no consensus and most Panchang makers don't even mention it in their Panchang. Generally, upper edge timing of sunrise is considered as astronomical sunrise and middle limb timing of sunrise is considered as Hindu Sunrise. Most newspapers publish astronomical value of sunrise which consider upper edge of the Sun to mark the sunrise time.
Modern research shows that upper edge of Sunrise is more appropriate and authenticated to use as sunrise time in Panchang.
उदयास्त मनाख्यं हि दर्शनादर्शनं रवेः।
which means "visibility of sun's limb is the rising time and complete invisibility is the setting time."
which means "the first three Muhurta of the day counted from the first visibility of the sun's rays." Further it mentions -
रेखामात्रन्तु दृश्येत रश्मिभिश्च समन्वितं।
उदयन्तद्विजानीयात् होमं कूय्यात् विचक्षणः॥
which means "when even a portion of the sun with it's ray is visible it is to be considered as sunrise and at that time oblation (homa) is to be performed".
Drik Panchang shows both values side-by-side to clear the difference between upper edge and middle limb timing of sunrise and sunset. We also provide setting to change sunrise time between "Upper Edge" and "Middle Limb".
Drik Panchang uses upper edge of sun along with refraction to mark the time of sunrise. Further, by default we don't consider elevation for Sunrise calculations but provide option to enable elevation in Sunrise calculations. Elevation can change sunrise timings up to few minutes. Once setting of sunrise is updated, the new value would be used for all Panchang calculations including festivals and Muhurta timings.


_URL_ Eagle Dental Burs - Dental Burs Articles - Eagle Dental 2023-09-12T13:04:39+03:00 Eagle Dental Burs _URL_ 2023-09-12T13:04:39+03:00 2023-09-13T15:21:18+03:00 The Evolution of Dental Burs Barak levy
Take a journey through time, exploring the evolution of dental burs from ancient beginnings to their crucial role in modern dentistry. Learn about the manufacturing changes, including tungsten carbide and diamond coatings, that have made them essential tools. Discover the historical significance and bright future of dental burs.
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Ancient Origins to Modern Marvels: Tracing the Evolution of Dental Burs
The history of dental burs dates back to ancient civilizations. Early dental practitioners used various rudimentary tools, including burs crafted from materials such as bone, flint, or even copper.
The Evolution of Manufacturing
The manufacturing of dental burs has witnessed significant advancements over time, driven by technological progress and a quest for precision.
With the onset of the industrial revolution, manufacturing transitioned to mass production methods. One of the most pivotal developments in the evolution of dental burs was the introduction of tungsten carbide materials. These materials exhibit exceptional hardness and durability, significantly enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of dental burs.
Manufacturing Differences: Carbide vs. Diamond Burs
While tungsten carbide burs have become a staple in modern dentistry, diamond-coated burs are equally significant and distinct in their manufacturing process.
 - Tungsten Carbide Burs: These burs are primarily made from a mixture of tungsten powder and carbon, ensuring exceptional durability. The manufacturing process involves creating a precise mold, selecting tungsten carbide materials, sintering them at high temperatures and pressures, and then carefully finishing the bur's shape.
 - Diamond-Coated Burs: Diamond-coated burs begin with a tungsten carbide base. After the initial manufacturing steps, a layer of industrial diamonds is applied to the bur's working surface through processes like electroplating or brazing. This diamond coating enhances the bur's cutting abilities.
Modern Significance
In the 21st century, both tungsten carbide and diamond-coated burs play pivotal roles in modern dentistry. Their precision and versatility enhance dental procedures, benefiting both patients and practitioners. Technological advancements have introduced high-speed handpieces and electric systems, further improving the precision and control of these burs.
Conclusion
The journey of dental burs, from their ancient origins to precision-engineered instruments, is a testament to human ingenuity and the relentless pursuit of excellence in dentistry. The evolution of their manufacturing processes, with a focus on tungsten carbide and diamond-coated burs, has significantly contributed to the advancement of dental care. As we look ahead, it's clear that dental burs will continue to evolve, further enhancing the field of dentistry and ensuring brighter smiles for generations to come.
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_URL_ 2023-08-15T10:42:58+03:00 2023-09-18T15:23:32+03:00 Breaking the Dental Burs Curse Barak levy
Break the Burs Curse! Follow these 8 pro tips to enhance the performance and lifespan of your dental burs. From choosing the right manufacturer to maintaining proper pressure and storage, these insights will elevate your practice and ensure successful procedures every time.
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8 Tips to Boost Lifespan and Performance of Dental Burs
Introduction:
Picture this: you're in the middle of a critical dental procedure, and suddenly, the dental bur you're using breaks or fails to deliver the desired results. Frustration sets in, and you can't help but wonder if you're cursed when it comes to dental burs. But fear not! We're here to exorcise that "burs curse" once and for all. By following these tips from the pros, you'll achieve better results, encounter fewer setbacks, and bid farewell to the burs curse for good.
1. Choose a Reliable Bur Manufacturer:
First things first. To beat the burs curse, start by choosing a well-known and trusted bur manufacturer (like us :). This is the first step to having burs that work great and last a long time. Don't settle for low-quality burs that can mess up your work – go for the good stuff from the get go.
2. Match the Bur to the Job:
Using the right tool for the job is crucial. It's like using a wrench to fix a bike instead of a hammer (lol, right?). Different procedures need different burs, whether it's cutting enamel or getting rid of decay. Using the right bur makes sure you get the best results and avoid any mishaps.
3. Go Easy on the Pressure:
Too much or too little pressure can cause problems with your burs. Keep a steady hand and apply just the right amount of pressure. Too much force can wear out the bur too fast, and too little can make it less effective. Finding the right balance helps your bur do its job without breaking down. Keep in mind that specialty burs like IPR burs require specific experience and practice to maximize their efficiency. So, don't lose hope and remember that practice makes perfect!
4. Lubrication is Key:
Just like a car needs oil, your burs need lubrication. Use water or saline as a lubricant to keep things cool. This stops the bur from getting too hot and helps it last longer. Lubrication is like a shield against the burs curse, making sure your work is smooth and accurate.
5. Change Burs Regularly:
Burs don't last forever (unfortunately).. Regularly check your burs for any signs of wear and tear and change them to keep them sharp and working well. Embrace the change and you'll have burs that perform their best throughout the procedure. The more you switch them out, the longer they'll stay in good shape.
6. Clean and Sterilize After Every Use:
Keep your burs clean and germ-free by cleaning and sterilizing them after each use. This is a simple way to prevent infections and keep your practice safe and your burs at max performance.
7. Store Burs Properly:
Give your burs a good home by storing them in a cool, dry place away from sunlight and moisture. This protects them from wearing out too quickly and keeps them ready for action when you need them.
8. Stick to the Script:
Manufacturers know their products inside out. Following their advice is like having a secret weapon against the burs curse. They tell you how to use the bur safely and effectively, so it's smart to listen👂.
Conclusion:
By following these pro tips you will break the burs curse, increase performance and lifespan and save time and money in the process. Ready to start with first tip? Choose a reliable bur manufacturer like Eagle Dental Burs to ensure smoother treatments, happier patients and a curse-free practice.
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_URL_ 2023-06-27T11:15:35+03:00 2023-09-13T15:21:33+03:00 The 5 Key Advantages of IPR Burs Barak levy
Discover the power of Interproximal Reduction burs in revolutionizing enamel removal in orthodontics. With enhanced precision, improved visibility, efficient enamel reduction, and patient comfort, IPR burs are the ultimate tool for achieving exceptional treatment outcomes. Embrace the versatility of IPR burs and elevate your orthodontic procedures to new heights of success.
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Enamel Removal Done Right
In the field of orthodontics, precision and efficiency are paramount. The introduction of Interproximal Reduction (IPR) burs has revolutionized enamel removal, offering dental professionals unparalleled benefits. In this article, we will explore how IPR burs have transformed orthodontics with their enhanced precision, improved visibility, efficient enamel reduction, patient comfort, and versatility.
 1. Enhanced Precision: Crafted with meticulous precision and diamond coating, IPR burs enable dental professionals to achieve unparalleled accuracy in enamel removal. This fine craftsmanship allows for precise shaping of enamel, even in complex cases, ensuring optimal treatment outcomes and patient satisfaction.
 2. Improved Visibility: IPR burs surpass traditional tools in providing clear visibility during enamel reduction. With enhanced visibility, dental professionals can access hard-to-reach areas and make precise adjustments confidently, minimizing errors and enhancing treatment results.
 3. Efficient Enamel Reduction: IPR burs streamline enamel reduction procedures, saving chairside time while maintaining high-quality outcomes. The combination of precision and efficiency allows for faster and more accurate enamel removal, optimizing workflow and productivity.
 4. Patient Comfort: IPR burs contribute to enhanced patient comfort during enamel reduction procedures. The controlled enamel removal minimizes discomfort, reducing the need for excessive force and repetitive movements. This leads to a more pleasant treatment experience, promoting compliance and patient satisfaction.
 5. Versatility and Adaptability: With sizes ranging from 0.3 to 0.65 mm, IPR burs offer versatility and adaptability for various orthodontic cases. They effectively address interproximal spaces, providing precise enamel reduction in different tooth alignments, regardless of braces or aligners.
Embrace Interproximal Reduction Burs
In conclusion, IPR burs have


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Seppuku (stomach-cutting) is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. Seppuku was originally reserved only for Samurai. Part of the samurai honor code, seppuku was used voluntarily by samurai to die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies, as a form of capital punishment for samurai who have committed serious offenses, and for reasons that shamed them. Seppuku is performed by plunging a sword into the abdomen and moving the sword left to right in a slicing motion.
Seppuku was a key part of bushido, the code of the samurai warriors; it was used by warriors to avoid falling into enemy hands, and to attenuate shame and avoid possible torture. Samurai could also be ordered by their daimyo (feudal lords) to commit seppuku. Later, disgraced warriors were sometimes allowed to commit seppuku rather than be executed in the normal manner. The most common form of seppuku for men was composed of the cutting of the abdomen, and when the samurai was finished, he stretched out his neck for an assistant to decapitate him. Since the main point of the act was to restore or protect one's honor as a warrior, those who did not belong to the samurai caste were never ordered or expected to commit seppuku. Samurai generally could commit the act only with permission.
Sometimes a daimyo was called upon to perform seppuku as the basis of a peace agreement. This would weaken the defeated clan so that resistance would effectively cease. Toyotomi Hideyoshi used an enemy's suicide in this way on several occasions, the most dramatic of which effectively ended a dynasty of daimyo forever, when the Hōjō were defeated at Odawara in 1590. Hideyoshi insisted on the suicide of the retired daimyo Hōjō Ujimasa, and the exile of his son Ujinao. With this act of suicide, the most powerful daimyo family in eastern Japan was put to an end.
In time, committing seppuku came to involve a detailed ritual. This was usually performed in front of spectators if it was a planned seppuku, not one performed on a battlefield. A samurai was bathed, dressed in white robes, and fed his favorite meal. When he was finished, his instrument was placed on his plate. Dressed ceremonially, with his sword placed in front of him and sometimes seated on special cloths, the warrior would prepare for death by writing a death poem.
With his selected attendant (kaishakunin, his second) standing by, he would open his kimono (robe), take up his tanto (knife) or wakizashi (short sword)—which the samurai held by the blade with a portion of cloth wrapped around so that it would not cut his hand and cause him to lose his grip—and plunge it into his abdomen, making a left-to-right cut. The kaishaku would then perform dakikubi, a cut in which the warrior was all but decapitated. The maneuver is done such that a slight band of flesh is left attaching the head to the body. Because of the precision necessary for such a maneuver, the second was a skilled swordsman. The principal agreed in advance when the kaishakunin was to make his cut. Usually dakikubi would occur as soon as the dagger was plunged into the abdomen. The process became so highly ritualised that as soon as the samurai reached for his blade the kaishakunin would strike. Eventually even the blade became unnecessary and the samurai could reach for something symbolic like a fan and this would trigger the killing stroke from his second. The fan was likely used when the samurai was too old to use the blade, or in situations where it was too dangerous to give him a weapon in such circumstances.
This elaborate ritual evolved after seppuku had ceased being mainly a battlefield or wartime practice and become a para-judicial institution (see next section).
The second was usually, but not always, a friend. If a defeated warrior had fought honorably and well, an opponent who wanted to salute his bravery would volunteer to act as his second.
In the Hagakure, Yamamoto Tsunetomo wrote:
|"||From ages past it has been considered an ill-omen by samurai to be requested as kaishaku. The reason for this is that one gains no fame even if the job is well done. Further, if one should blunder, it becomes a lifetime disgrace.
In the practice of past times, there were instances when the head flew off. It was said that it was best to cut leaving a little skin remaining so that it did not fly off in the direction of the verifying officials.
A specialized form of seppuku in feudal times was known as kanshi (death of understanding), in which a retainer would commit suicide in protest of a lord's decision. The retainer would make one deep, horizontal cut into his stomach, then quickly bandage the wound. After this, the person would then appear before his lord, give a speech in which he announced the protest of the lord's action, then reveal his mortal wound. This is not to be confused with funshi (indignation death), which is any suicide made to state dissatisfaction or protest. A fictional variation of kanshi was the act of kagebara (陰腹, "shadow stomach") in Japanese theater, in which the protagonist, at the end of the play, would announce to the audience that he had committed an act similar to kanshi, a predetermined slash to the stomach followed by a tight field dressing, and then perish, bringing about a dramatic end.
Some samurai chose to perform a considerably more taxing form of seppuku known as jūmonji giri (cross-shaped cut), in which there is no kaishakunin to put a quick end to the samurai's suffering. It involves a second and more painful vertical cut on the belly. A samurai performing jumonji giri was expected to bear his suffering quietly until perishing from loss of blood, passing away with his hands over his face.