A nuclear reactor that produces energy by fusing light nuclei together, instead of splitting heavy nuclei apart as in the fission process.
1. A reference to having no practical effect or useful result: A futile effort is one which cannot succeed, is a waste of time, and gets a person nowhere.
2. Lacking serious value, substance, or a sense of responsibility: Efforts to convince some stubborn people that they should eat healthier food and lose weight is a futile attempt and will not succeed.
3. Trifling and frivolous; idle: Any futile attempt refers to any action that is ineffective, vain, useless, and incapable of producing a desired objective.
Trying to start a car with a flooded carburetor by stepping hard on the gas pedal is a futile effort because it won't work.
4. Etymology: from Middle French (about 1400 to 1600) futile, from Latin futilis, "vain, worthless, futile"; literally, "pouring out [of a vessel] easily"; therefore, "easily emptied, leaky, unreliable"; from fundere, "to pour, to melt". © ALL rights are reserved.
In a manner that is incapable of producing results; useless; not successful; not worth attempting.
A person who is convinced that human desires and actions can not be successfully accomplished.
Referring to an opinion that human activities and desires are incapable of being achieved and so they are not worth attempting: So far one would think that it is a futilitarian idea that people all over the world can live together in peace. © ALL rights are reserved.
The belief that human endeavors or efforts and aspirations are useless and can not be achieved.
1. Uselessness as a consequence of having no practical result.
2. Lack of importance or purpose; frivolousness or not serious or sensible.
1. The diffusion of a substance through water.
2. The diffusion of one liquid through another liquid.
An indirect transfusion in which the donor is first immunized by means of injections of an antigen prepared from microorganisms isolated from the recipient; later, the donor's blood is collected, defibrinated, and then administered to the patient.
The latter is then presumably passively immunized by means of an antibody formed in the donor; for example, an antibody that reacts with the microorganisms in the patient.
A transfusion of blood from a donor to a suitable storage container and then to the patient.
1. Introduce into the body through a vein, for therapeutic purposes: A drip was used to infuse the medicine into Nathan's bloodstream so he wouldn't have any more pain after the car accident.
2. To fill or cause to be filled with emotion: Sandra was infused with joy after hearing that her grandparents were coming to visit.
3. To fill by pouring: Rebecca infused the tea pot with boiling water.
4. To instill or to inculcate, as principles or qualities: Ms. Richison tried to infuse her students to love the English language by telling them jokes!
5. Etymology: from Latin infudere, "to pour in"; so, to infuse anything means "to instill something as if by pouring". Anything which infuses something else permeates and saturates it. © ALL rights are reserved.
1. Incapable of fusion or melting (Latin in-, "not" + fusio, "fusion").
2. Capable of being made into an infusion (Latin in, "into" + fundere, "to pour").
1. Resisting melting together (Latin in-, "not" + fusio, "fusion").
2. That which can be poured in (Latin in, "into" + fundere, "to pour").
1. A reference to a liquid or mixture created by putting ingredients into it: In the afternoon, Mrs. Charmson enjoyed an infusion of herbal teas with her delicate sandwiches and cookies.
2. The addition of a new or necessary quality or element to something: The new reporter at the local paper brought a welcome infusion of new ideas and witty style to the publication that was usually so serious and boring.
3. Any liquid substance, other than blood, that is introduced into the body through a blood vessel for therapeutic purposes: The nurse in the Emergency Ward installed a needle that was inserted into a vein of William's arm and secured so it would not have to be removed, or fall out, in order to allow the infusion of necessary medications.
This cartoon helps people to have a better comprehension as to what this infusion entry means.
Showing page 5 out of 8 pages of 111 main-word entries or main-word-entry groups.


After capitalizing the title right [I hope], I wanted to share a little anecdote with you. A guy of the same year of my Computer Science study has a traineeship where he's profiling a large information system. He could choose between writing his application in Java or .NET with C#, and his mentor gave the advice to do it in C# as "that's new, and you'll need to learn it anyway".
Now I think his subject is very interesting, but the stance of his tutor brought out the rebel in me. It may be 'wise' from a carrier perspective where big companies use .NET for all their applications and more, but I think we -- as academic, larger thinking computer scientists -- should create awareness of alternatives for microsoft's platform to prevent vendor lock-in. He posed that ".NET will be available for Unix too", but as you know, that's only because of Miguel de Icaza's efforts on Mono. A project that's silently ignored by microsoft itself, while Redmond claims it's an open platform. It's bad enough that so much workstations at our department are windows machines, and that when a student encounters a Linux [or Minix] machine, he or she stares at it in amazement, then turns and leaves the room. Of course that leaves us in a quiet room, but it's not the way an academic Computer Science student should [re]act.
As you know, I quit working after 4.5 years of work with my current employer. I quitted because I want to devote myself and my time to my study, but as I was leaving they send around a note saying their new development server was to be hosted this and this and this [internal] projects, and was windows based. This in contrary to an old development server that's running Debian GNU/Linux Woody and runs the same services. Well, almost the same, as they where trading Apache for IIS. *cough* Anyways, I was one of the forces behind introducing another browser [yeah, it was Internet Explorer for ages there, while the company is a respected creator of web applications], new web standards [read: standard Cascading Style Sheets etc] and I even think one of the only people there pushing Open Source Software in general. It's that lots of companies are this way and I understand their reasoning, but I'm not entirely comfortable in such an environment.
Another idea that's been floating in my head is to start a little enterprise of my own. Of course after I successfully ended my study [or at least have the finish firmly in my reach]. A company building web based applications, stand alone applications that do fun stuff with connections to those web applications and livecd's. Not yet a clear portfolio as you can see, but it's just an idea I've been playing with. Without even mentioning this idea I've already heard several people voicing wishes to join a new, small, driven club with "fun" projects, where "fun" is very subjective of course. But it would be fun to have a geek playground and making money with clever solutions too. Also "fun" is that it won't have to be a company with an office building where you have to travel too each and every day. Members of our team can be located everywhere on the globe, just like the Morphix community. Of course I'd like to hear from people with ideas or an interest in participating etc.
Or am I a weird guy and completely alone in this?


Did famed Irish CEO of Intrade deliberately go to his death on Mount Everest?
Did Irishman John Delaney, world renowned CEO of Intrade, the company which created widely watched betting exchanges on American political elections, deliberately kill himself, aged 42, on Mount Everest, in April 2011?
That is one of the theories put forward in a dramatic Fortune magazine article which lays out Delaney’s final days and the tangled financial mess he was in. His death was widely mourned and covered including an extensive, glowing obituary in The New York Times.
Delaney was a frequent contributor to CNBC and other financial and news channels during the last presidential election and the pub owner’s son enjoyed a very high profile.
But now a different version of events has surfaced, one far darker. Author Brian O’Keefe says “Irish court records show that his former company Intrade has filed suit against his widow, Orla.
On March 10, 2013, Intrade announced on its website that because of possible "financial irregularities" and other circumstances, it was forced to suspend trading immediately.
It said it was is pursuing "two substantial monetary claims against two distinct parties" for a total of more than $3.5 million. One of the claims was against Delaney.
Former colleagues say they could never understand why Delaney was not interested in selling a share of the company when big companies came calling but now they believe it was because he could not open the company books.
"I chalked it up to Delaney not wanting to release control," says John McNamara, an original founder, of Delaney's unwillingness to go through (with highly profitable deals).
"When we found out money was missing -- that was the missing puzzle piece."
Delaney had two children and another who was born while he was on Everest. He was also suffering from a severe physical illness when he left to climb Everest. He had been losing weight and was unable to reverse it despite visiting many doctors.
"I used to take the piss out of him and say he looked like a POW or a Kenyan distance runner," Mark Orr, an Irish compatriot and best man at his wedding told Fortune. Another climber said he saw Delaney inject himself daily.
Delaney said he was feeling better when he left on his ill-fated expedition. But he never told his investors where he was going.
"I know exactly what I would have said," one of them, Dean LeBaron told Fortune. "I'd have said, 'Listen, entrepreneurs don't have a life of their own. You know, you're captive of the company until such time as it can exist well without you.'"
On Everest itself Delaney got in major trouble during the final climb to the top.
The chief guide Belfast man Noel Hanna went back to get him and found him foundering in the snow. He tried to bring him back down, but Delaney collapsed and died. His body is still on Everest.
Two years later the company that Delaney ran has all but collapsed and questions about whether he wanted to die on Everest abound among his former colleagues.
Hanna is skeptical. "It's a perfect place to do it," says Hanna, "but not the way John died. If you wanted to go, there are places where all you'd have to do is unclip for a moment and you'd be gone into the void."
Some even claim it all might have been an elaborate hoax, but Hanna says he has seen Delaney’s body the past two years when he returned to Everest.
Fortune concludes that the mystery of how and why he died will remain with his body forever on Everest it seems.


Eli Manning is finishing up his finest season as a pro. With three games remaining, he's on pace to throw for 4,000 yards for the first time in his career and has 23 touchdown passes, one shy of his career high.
The main reason for those prolific numbers? The big plays.
In the last two offseasons, the Giants have bemoaned their inability to stretch the field. This year, however, they're actually doing it. They have completed 51 passes of at least 20 yards, fourth most in the NFL (trailing only the high-flying Colts, Saints and Chargers). Eleven of those passes have been for at least 40 yards, which ranks sixth in the league.
As they face the Redskins Monday night and head into the final three games of the season with the door to their playoff hopes very nearly dead-bolted, the Giants will have to keep churning out those long gainers.
But some of the Giants' longest and most effective passes this season have not been bombs that soared over the opposing secondary, arcing across the sky in slow motion while accompanied by up-tempo NFL Films music. Rather, they have come from a series of dump-offs, check-downs and quick hits that the receivers have been able to turn into huge gainers. "We'll take it any way we can get it," offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride said of those plays. "We think we've got some guys who can run the ball effectively after they catch it, and fortunately for us, they made some big plays."
The 74-yard touchdown pass from Manning to Brandon Jacobs against the Cowboys went about four yards beyond the line of scrimmage. The 68-yard touchdown pass to Hakeem Nicks last week against the Eagles was not on a deep post (Nicks dropped that one) but on an intermediate route with some missed tackles.
Despite the heavy passing stats, the Giants aren't airing it out. Most of their passing yards this season actually have come on the ground.
"You see guys have been breaking tackles and going to the house, so we feel like we can do that on any play," Steve Smith said. "In the first game [against the Redskins], I remember a few plays where if I had broken one tackle, I could have scored. That's in the back of your mind."
It's always in Nicks' mind. "For myself, I look at it as a slant or a go route, whatever it is, I just like to make a play and get into the end zone," said the rookie, who has three of the Giants' five longest receptions this season.
The 10 longest pass plays this season by the Giants have totaled 575 yards, or 16.5 percent of their passing yardage. That's on less than 4 percent of the completions.
The ability to strike quickly will be important against the Redskins. It will prevent the Giants from getting mired in the red zone, where the Redskins are the NFL's top defense. But it also helps to compensate for a Giants defense that is allowing 25.4 points per game. Since starting the season 5-0, the Giants are allowing 32.4 points per game in the last eight games, in which they've gone 2-6.
"We don't know what's going to happen with the defense," Smith said. "We just know we want to score every time. We want to be the phase of the game that picks up everybody else."
Notes & quotes: The Giants downgraded CB Corey Webster (knee) and T Kareem McKenzie (knee) to "out"; they did not travel with the team to Washington Sunday afternoon. That means Aaron Ross, who is listed as questionable on the injury report with a tight hamstring, likely will start at cornerback and rookie Will Beatty will start at right tackle . . . The Redskins removed 25 million pounds of snow from FedEx Field in preparation for tonight's game . . . The Redskins have used seven different starting offensive line combinations this season and could be using an eighth if rookie Will Robinson starts at tackle for Stephon Heyer (knee).


I want my daughter to grow up bilingual. How do I encourage language development in two languages at the same time?
Globally speaking, growing up in a multilingual environment is really quite normal, though it is perhaps less common, and certainly less encouraged, in the United States. Monolingual parents, teachers, and other adults occasionally worry that exposing young children to more than one language will "confuse" them and/or cause a delay in their language development. There is in fact no evidence linking a bilingual environment to increased risk of language delays or disorders. Children regularly exposed to multiple languages do often tend to begin saying their first words later than their monolingual peers, but not by much. When they begin to talk, they might pick one language to use at first, but they'll generally demonstrate understanding of both.
For young children developing language for the first time, the motivation is built in; they want to communicate with you! As for the exposure, that's what you provide.
There are a number of ways parents can provide sufficient exposure to two languages for the children to learn both. Probably the most common is the "one language per parent" model; for example, Mom speaks Spanish and Dad speaks English. My experience with children raised with this model is that the child will start out speaking the language that the parents speak to each other, which is often the dominant language of the community where they live. A couple I know in Germany (American dad, German mom) have been using this approach with their toddler son, who speaks only German but understands his dad just fine when he speaks English. He's heard his dad speaking German with his mom and others in the community, so he knows Dad will understand him when he uses German. On the other hand, he knows a lot of people in his community don't understand English, so he's figured out that the most efficient way to begin is with the language that everyone knows (at least everyone in his world). Smart kid, huh? He'll add English later, assuming his dad keeps providing the exposure.
Another approach is "one language per setting," where the parents use one language at home and another when they're out and about. I don't actually know anyone who's done this, so I'm not sure how well it works. My feeling is that it would be harder to provide adequate exposure to the "out and about" language, but that depends on the family's habits and practices. This may be a more viable option for children being raised by a single, bilingual parent.
I've also heard of other approaches that don't seem to work so well, such as switching back and forth "as the spirit leads," or speaking one language on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and the other on Tuesday, Thursday, and weekends. My opinion about these is that they do not adequately provide the children with an opportunity to compartmentalize their languages. Most bilingual people (children and adults alike) tend to favor one language or another according to the context they're in (work versus play, for example). Children are well-adapted to spotting patterns, and an "as the spirit leads" approach does not provide a pattern to spot; going according to the days of the week probably won't work well for infants and toddlers, since the concept of a seven-day week is something that generally develops later.
If your family is monolingual, it is harder to create a multilingual environment in the early years. Hiring a bilingual babysitter who is willing to use a second language with the child can be an option if you have the means, but many don't. In that case, starting in preschool or elementary school may be possible. The older a child gets, the more difficult it is to learn a foreign language, but elementary school is still early enough for a child to develop native or near-native fluency of a foreign language. Some communities have language immersion schools for the purpose of fostering bilingualism, but in the United States these are mostly limited to large urban areas and competition for admission is pretty stiff. Unfortunately, the prevailing practice here is to wait until high school to begin even giving children the option to learn a foreign language.
Getting back to your question, the way to encourage your daughter's language development in two languages at the same time is, quite simply, the same way as you would with one language - by creating a language-rich environment. Talk to her a lot, use a wide variety of vocabulary, and provide a healthy and varied diet of communication activities. Just do it with two languages rather than one.
By raising your daughter bilingual, you are providing her with a tremendous asset and blessing. She'll thank you when she's an adult - in two languages!


What's the best way to embed a calendar into my website? I'd like to create something that allows people to add events to the calendar but cannot seem to find one that works.
You are describing an interactive calendar which would require that it be hosted somewhere else and brought onto your Yola website. Yola doesn't have accessibility for people to access the site through the published site, only through the website builder.
There are a number of providers that supply interactive calendars but most are not free subscriptions.
Another option is to use something like Google Apps calendar and allow users access to your calendar for updates and so on.


In this delightful 3 minute video, Verizon, the $187 billion telecom giant whose former associate general counsel, Ajit Pai, is now in charge of the Federal Communications Commission, begs you to believe that it's totally in favor of the free and open internet.
"The FCC is not talking about killing the net neutrality rules," claims Verizon general counsel Craig Silliman in an "interview" recently posted on Verizon's official YouTube page. "And in fact, not we nor any other ISP are asking them to kill the open internet rules. All they're doing is looking to put the open internet rules in an enforceable way on a different legal footing."
I'm not quite sure how to square these claims with Verizon's actual behavior. After all, the telecom has a long and glorious history of taking the FCC to court to protest anything even remotely resembling what we now call net neutrality, or the principle that all data should be treated equally. In practice this means that your ISP, whether it's Comcast, T-Mobile, or, yes, even Verizon, doesn't have the right to control what websites you visit, nor the right to speed up, say, its own streaming video service at the expense of ruining your Netflix binge-a-thon with endless buuuffeerring.
Silliman then blames "advocacy groups" for "stirring people up with outrageous claims," implying, effectively, "Nothing to see here, move along." Which is weird, given that an advocacy group of his own, USTelecom, which is a lobbyist whose membership ranks also includes the likes of AT&T and Frontier, makes a scary-sounding argument of its own when it claims that net neutrality will have a "devastating impact on internet freedom." I don't quite understand how regulating ISPs to ensure that they don't mess with your internet somehow takes away internet freedom, but here we are.
Here's what's going on: ISPs like Verizon are scared to death of the net neutrality regulations that are currently on the books because they're exactly that: codified rules that are plain and clear and easily enforced. The regulatory burden of strong net neutrality is so onerous, they claim, that they wouldn't be able to continue to invest in the kind of internet infrastructure that has made America the envy of… exactly no one.
The tl;dr? Verizon is upset it has to actually abide by the rules of the road. Sad.


What is the recommended level for testing the 8482B power sensor?
Is the sensor tested with or without the fixed attenuator attacked to the sensor?
The sensor itself has an black plastic protection ring that prohibits it from connect on an normal N-connector so it's not that easy to test the sensor alone and measure the attenuation of the attenuator separate, for then compute the calibration factors. What to do?
The 8482B sensor body and attenuator are considered one unit, and are calibrated as one unit. They are not designed to be calibrated seperately to create the cal factors. The power sensor will only meet its specification if the body and attenuator are calibrated as a single unit. Any internactions between the body and the attenuator will have an inpact on the measurement accuracy. These interactions are things like: connector repeatability, connector loss, mismatch loss, etc.
The RF levels to perform a calibration on this power sensor will vary depending on the tests being performed. But +30 dBm would be a standard power level for this sensor.
I would recommend that a metrology lab perform the calibration and performance verificaiton. More tests than just the cal factors needs to be done to ensure that the power sensor is meeting its specifications: zero set, noise, lineratiry, etc.


1. Tanya is checking in at her hotel.
Tanya Для меня забронирован номер. Dlya minya zabroniravan nomir.
Receptionist Ваша фамилия, пожалуйста. Vasha familiya, pazhalsta.
Tanya Петрова. Вот мой паспорт. Petrova. Vot moy pasport.
Receptionist Спасибо. Одну минуточку... Ваш номер на десятом этаже. Вот ваша визитная карточка. Spasiba. Adnu minutachku... Vash nomir na disyatam etazhe. Vot vasha vizitnaya kartachka.
вот [vot] here (is) - the word to use when you're handing something over.
By the way, Russians do not talk about the 'ground floor'. The first floor is the floor at ground level.
2. Where can she get the key?
Tanya Скажите, пожалуйста, где можно получить ключ? Skazhitye, pazhalsta, gdye mozhna paluchit' klyuch?
Receptionist Ключ можно получить у дежурной по этажу. Klyuch mozhna paluchit' udizhurnay pa-etazhu.
Tanya А где у вас лифт? A gdye uvas leeft?
Receptionist Вот сюда, пожалуйста. Vot syuda, pazhalsta.
где можно получить ключ? [gdye mozhna paluchit' klyuch?] where can I pick up the key?
As before, read the instructions for each exercise before turning on the recording.
1. Three visitors to a hotel write their names on their luggage but forget to write which floor they are on. Listen to the recording and see whether you can fill in the missing numbers.
2. On your recording you will hear our hotel guests asking where various places are. Write down the correct floor for each. You will find the possible floors listed in the box below.
3. The man next to Tanya doesn't have a reservation.
Man Скажите, пожалуйста, у вас есть свободные номера на сегодня? Skazhitye, pazhalsta, uvas yest' svabodniye namira na sivodnya?
Receptionist Вам нужен номер на одного? Vam nuzhin nomir na adnavo?
Man Нет, мне нужен номер на двоих. Nyet, mnye nuzhin nomir na dvayikh.
Receptionist На сколько дней? Na skol'ka dnyey?
Man На три дня. Na tri dnya.
Receptionist Одну минуточку... Да, у нас есть номера. Adnu minutachku.... Da, unas yest' namira.
Man Скажите, пожалуйста, сколько стоит номер в сутки? Skazhitye, pazhalsta, skol'ka stoit nomir fsutki?
Receptionist Номер стоит сто двадцать долларов. Nomir stoit sto dvatsat' dollaraf.
у вас есть свободные номера? [uvas yest' svabodniye namira?] do you have any vacant rooms?
на сегодня [na sivodnya] for today. Ha [na] is often used to mean 'for', particularly with reservations. If the man had wanted a room for tomorrow he would have said на завтра [na zaftra].
вам нужен номер на одного? [vam nuzhin nomir na adnavo?] do you need a single room? (lit. a room for one person). The man wants a room на двоих [na dvayikh] for two. For three would be на троих [na trayikh].
If this seems too much to remember, just say на [na] with the number, and leave out the noun altogether!
сколько стоит номер? [skol'ka stoit nomir?] how much does a room cost?
в сутки [fsutki] per day. Сутки [sutki] is a 24-hour period.
3. A new reception clerk has completely mixed up some visitors' registration forms. Here they are in translation. After listening to the dialogues on your recording, see if you can spot and correct the mistakes.
4. This time you are a tourist seeking a hotel room. Andrei will give you instructions.
Tanya Можно обменять валюту? Mozhna abminyat' valyutu?
Clerk Да, пожалуйста. А что у вас? Da, pazhalsta. A shto uvas?
Clerk Сколько вы меняете? Skol'ka vi minyaitye?
Clerk Дайте, пожалуйста, вашу декларацию и деньги. Daitye, pazhalsta, vashu diklaratsiyu i dyen'gi.
Tanya Вот, пожалуйста. Vot, pazhalsta.
Clerk Здесь ваша подпись, пожалуйста. Zdyes' vasha potpees', pazhalsta.
Clerk Ваши деньги, пожалуйста. Vashi dyen'gi, pazhalsta.
Clerk До свидания. Da svidanya.
Tanya До свидания. Da svidanya.
что у вас? [shto uvas?] what have you got? The answer was фунты [funty] pounds. Most words denoting currencies are more obvious: доллары [dollary] dollars, евро [yevro] euro (old: марки [marki] marks), etc.
сколько вы меняете? [skol'ka vi minyaitye?] how much are you changing?
5. On your recording you will hear people exchanging currency at the exchange desk. Can you fill in the spaces on their receipts?
6. You are a tourist with pounds to change. Andrei will tell you what to ask for at the exchange desk.
где у вас (лифт)? [gdye uvas (leeft)?] where is your (elevator)?
вам нужен номер на одного?
на сколько дней? [na skol'ka dnyey?] for how many days?
[skol'ka stoit nomir fsutki?] how much does a room cost per day?
как он работает? [kak on rabotayit?] how (what hours) does it work?
что у вас? [shto uvas?] what do you have?
In this unit you will learn five new letters. In total you have now met more than two thirds of the alphabet. Read the letters and the words below, then turn on the recording and listen to how Andrei pronounces them.
7. Who's who and who's in the wrong place?
8. After you have practiced these letters and the words above, see if you can work out the following crossword puzzle. If you have answered each question correctly, the beginning letters of each word read vertically will give you the name of a famous Russian ballerina.
Some nouns have different endings in Russian when they become the direct object of a verb. Less abstractly, in the sentence 'Ivan reads a book', Ivan is the subject, he is doing the reading. The book is the direct object, it is being read.
It is important to be aware of these endings even if you don’t always remember to use them. In a language without set word order they can provide vital clues to help you understand who is doing what!
May I change some currency?
She asked for each of the above, beginning each time with дайте, пожалуйста,... give me please.... Can you write in the item with the correct endings?
Up to the late 1980s the majority of foreign visitors came to the USSR on package tours arranged by the State organization Intourist.
There was relatively little choice since a visa was only issued on proof of accommodation and hotel rooms booked by individuals were classified as first class and priced accordingly.
To the foreign traveler, the advantage of package tours was that they largely eliminated the problems with accommodation, transportation and general service which plague Russian travelers. The chief disadvantage was that most tourists, especially if they knew no Russian, saw little of the country. Indeed Intourist hotels were built to provide anything that a tourist (in their opinion!) might wish for: bars, restaurants, saunas, shops, etc.
At the time of writing, much of the above is still applicable; none the less noticeable changes have taken place. It has become relatively easy to visit friends in Russia. Easy, that is, for those invited - there is considerable bureaucratic red tape at the Russian end! Visitors must live at the address written on their visa, and need to receive an official stamp in their passport.
Intourist is also increasingly losing its monopoly as more enterprises open. Some of these offer package tours, while others offer accommodation in private homes or rented apartments and offices.
when departing, please, ask the floor maid for a pass to your luggage, leave her the room key and your guest’s card.
to leave guests in your room when you are absent and to let anybody use your key and your guest's card.
In case you lose your guest’s card the hotel bears no responsibility for the safety of your belongings. You are kindly requested to observe the hotel regulations ana fire safety rules.
A guest's card from Hotel 'Moskva', issued in 1990.
The rules are no longer quite so stringent.
10. You will be playing the role of Misha Ivanov, who is checking in at a hotel, and finding his bearings. As usual, read the following words and phrases and then turn on the recording.


What is the pedal triangle?
Let P be any point on a plane, and ABC be a triangle. If we put perpendicular foot to the each side (if the side is not big enough, we can extend it), we have three intersection points. Let those point be DEF. Then, the pedal triangle of ABC is the triangle DEF.
The pedal triangle of the pedal triangle of the pedal triangle of ABC is similar to the triangle ABC. In the picture below, the purple triangle is similar to the triangle ABC.
Intuitively, there must be some kind of relation between the triangle ABC and the pedal triangle of ABC since the pedal triangle is consists of three perpendicular lines to the sides of the triangle ABC. However, it is really interesting why the third pedal triangle is similar to the given triangle ABC.
There is two things that I want to use to prove the similarity of the pedal triangle.The first one is the property of the inscribed angle. As we know, the measure of the inscribed angle stays as long as they are based on the same arc.
As we see the picture above, the angle B, D, and E are congruent because they all share the same arc AC. WHY?
As we see the video clip below, the measure of the central angle is the double of the inscribed angle.
When the arc is fixed, the central angle is fixed, too. Thus, the inscribe angle should be constant since the measure of the inscribed angle is always the half of the central angle.
As we see the picture above, the sum of the opposite inscribe angles is 180°.
Thus, if the sum of the opposite angles of a rectangle is 180°, we can construct the circumcircle of it. The reason is pretty simple. Since the central angle of the whole circle is obviously 360°. Therefore, the inscribed angle of the whole circle is 180°.Since the angle B is based on the arc AC, and the angle D is based on the arc CA (counterclockwise), the sum of the angle B and D should be 180° because the sum of the arc AC and CA is the circumference.
Now, we are ready for the proof.
The pedal triangle gets smaller and smaller, and it is not easy to see it. So, I will show the relationship between the yellow and the orange triangles, then orange and red one, and red and the purple one. Eventually, I will show the similarity between the yellow triangle ABC and the purple triangle KLJ.
We can do the same job for the each angle C, and A.
In the picture below, we can see how the angles of ABC rearranged in the pedal triangle DEF.
I drew only one circle of diameter PF. There are two more circles of diameter PD, and PE. We can easily see that which angle correspond to which angle.
As we see above, ∠J=α+β, ∠K=γ+δ, ∠L=ε+θ in △KLJ.
Here is the final picture of the three pedal triangles and △ABC.
Since all the angles (α,β,γ,δ,ε,θ) stays, I noticed that they are rotating under the certain law. Therefore, the rearrangement of the six angles can be a cyclic group. For the convenience, let's number the angle such that α=1,β=2,γ=3,δ=4,ε=5,θ=6.
However, it is hard to decide which angle of △DEF should be correspond to which angle of △ABC. Well, as long as we make a certain rule, it really would not be a problem because the angles are rotating. Thus, let ∠D be the correspondent angle of ∠C, ∠A to ∠E, and ∠B to ∠F. It is just simply see the triangle upside down and mark all the angles counterclockwise.
Since the length of the cyclic group (153)(246) is 3, we know that the third pedal triangle will have the same angles with △ABC. In this way, we can figure it out why the third pedal triangle is similar to the given △ABC without constructing three pedal triangles.


How does dynamic program generation work?
The secret to Viv is the system actually writes its own code. In contrast to any other similar system, it is a profound and monumental giant leap forward.
The structure of the Voice First world is held together by Intelligent Agents. Intelligent Agents use AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) to decode volition and intent from an analyzed phrase or sentence. The AI in most current generation systems like Siri, Echo and Cortana focuses on speaker independent word recognition and to some extent the intent of predefined words or phrases that have a hard coded connection to a domain expertise.
Viv uses a patented  exponential self learning system as opposed to the linear programed systems currently used by systems like Siri, Echo and Cortana. What this means is that the technology in use by Viv is orders of magnitude more powerful because Viv's operational software requires just a few lines of seed code to establish the domain , ontology  and taxonomy  to operate on a word or phrase.
In the old paradigm each task or skill in Siri, Echo and Cortana needed to be hard coded by the developer and siloed in to itself, with little connection to the entire custom lexicon of domains custom programmed. This means that these systems are limited to how fast and how large they can scale. Ultimately each silo can contact though related ontologies and taxonomies but it is highly inefficient. At some point the lexicon of words and phrases will become a very large task to maintain and update. Viv solves this rather large problem with simplicity for both the system and the developer.
Specimen of the developer console identifying domain intent programing.
Viv's team calls this new paradigm the "Dynamically evolving cognitive architecture system". There is limited public information on the system and I can not address any private information I may have access to. However the patent, "Dynamically evolving cognitive architecture system based on third-party developers"  published on December 24th, 2014 offers an incredible insight on the future.
A dynamically evolving cognitive architecture system based on third-party developers is described. A system forms an intent based on a user input, and creates a plan based on the intent. The plan includes a first action object that transforms a first concept object associated with the intent into a second concept object and also includes a second action object that transforms the second concept object into a third concept object associated with a goal of the intent. The first action object and the second action object are selected from multiple action objects. The system executes the plan, and outputs a value associated with the third concept object.
Some consumers and enterprises may desire functionality that is the result of combinations of services available on the World Wide Web or “in the cloud.” Some applications on mobile devices and/or web sites offer combinations of third-party services to end users so that an end user's needs may be met by a combination of many services, thereby providing a unified experience that offers ease of use and highly variable functionality. Most of these software services are built with a specific purpose in mind. For example, an enterprise's product manager studies a target audience, formulates a set of use cases, and then works with a software engineering group to code logic and implement a service for the specified use cases. The enterprise pushes the resulting code package to a server where it remains unchanged until the next software release, serving up the designed functionality to its end user population.
This Viv patent is a landmark advance for Intelligent Agents and the resulting Voice First devices and uses case that will be developed on the platform. The process for adding new domain experience is a simple process in the developer app.
To define a new intent, the domain is established by programing a horizontal flow chart that helps to define ontology and taxonomy with in the entire system. The results are lines of code that will forever be dynamically changing and connecting as more domains of intent are established. Viv literally programs itself. This is process is related to self modifying code that has been around since the 1960s from assembly language to Cobol. However the process that Viv uses is radically more advanced.
"(Siri-Alexa) I want to pick up a Pizza on the way to my girl friend's house and I would like to find a perfect wine to pick up along the way. Also would like to bring her flowers."
Currently Siri and Alexa could not understand the intent of this paragraph, nor could it easy connect to the six domains and many ontologies to produce a useful result. Viv could learn this in a few minutes and constantly connect with new intent domains by expanding the ontological references each domain represents.
You will set privacy fences around any information that Viv learns and you will be able to choose to allow the system to share this data with any intent domain. Of course security and privacy will always be an issue with Intelligent Agents and Viv is working on a new model that will quickly define what is logically private and potentially shareable with permissions.
Specimen of the current domain cloud. Note the appearance of Payments and Money.
Specimen flow chart from "Dynamically evolving cognitive architecture system based on third-party developers" patent.
FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an example plan 100 created by a dynamically evolving cognitive architecture system based on third-party developers, in which action objects are represented by rectangles and concept objects are represented by ovals, under an embodiment. User input 102 indicates that a user inputs “I want to buy a good bottle wine that goes well with chicken parmesan” to the system. The system forms the intent of the user as seeking a wine recommendation based on a concept object 104 for a menu item, chicken parmesan. Since no single service provider offers such a use case, the system creates a plan based on the user's intent by selecting multiple action objects that may be executed sequentially to provide such a specific recommendation service. Action object 106 transforms the concept object 104 for a specific menu item, such as chicken parmesan, into a concept object 108 list of ingredients, such as chicken, cheese, and tomato sauce. Action object 110 transforms the list of ingredients concept object 108 into a concept object 112 for a food category, such as chicken-based pasta dishes. Action object 114 transforms the food category concept object 112 into a concept object 116 for a wine recommendation, such as a specific red wine, which the system outputs as a recommendation for pairing with chicken parmesan. Even though the system has not been intentionally designed to create wine recommendations based on the name of a menu item, the system is able to intelligently synthesize a way of creating such a recommendation based on the system's concept objects and action objects. Although FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a system creating a single plan with a linear sequence that includes three action objects and four concept objects, the system creates multiple plans each of which may include any combination of linear sequences, splits, joins, and iterative sorting loops, and any number of action objects and concept objects. Descriptions below of FIGS. 4, 5, and 6 offer examples of multiple non-linear plans with splits, joins, and other numbers of action objects and concept objects.
Just in this simple sentence "I want to buy a good bottle wine that goes well with chicken parmesan" there are dozens of intent domains that would be connected. Viv's can build a result dynamically even if this question has never been asked before. Viv operates on the intent domains from the extracted words in the sentence and in real time constructs an answer.
Viv Labs will be opening the system up to developers and I am predicting a land rush similar to when Apple opened up the App store for the iPhone.
Content application program interface providers desire branding, to sell advertising, and/or to sell access to restricted content. Data providers and data curators want recognition, payment for all content, and/or payment for enhanced or premium content. Transaction providers desire branding and transactions via selling of some good or service. Advertisers desire traffic from qualified end users. A single person or organization may play more than one of these roles.
The shift from push mechanisms of the current adversing paradigm to the pull mechanisms of Voice Commerce will define the rise of Voice Payments. Currently even the most technically defined payments companies are not in the position to adapt to the new paradigms.
This type of system may sound very familiar to most of us, this is very close to the manner that humans learn. We assemble domains and form ontologies that connect intent.
On December 24th, 2014 when I first viewed the "Dynamically evolving cognitive architecture system based on third-party developers" patent from Six Five Labs, "goose bumps" ran through my entire body, for in that moment I saw what I have been studying since 1989 in my Voice manifesto. I spoke to this in some detail recently here on Quora . In this Quora Knowledge Prize posting I detail how Voice First systems will completely change advertising, commerce and payments. I got into more details in the industry publication Tech.pinions .
Viv is the first system to pull together the right elements of speech recognition, speech synthesis, AI, ML, self modifying programs, commerce and payments in such a way that I assert in 10 years 50% of computer interactions will be via Voice primarily on Voice First devices. The Viv we see today (May 9th, 2016) is one small step in this direction, but a giant leap for the future of computers.
 Brian Roemmele's answer to Is Amazon Echo (and/or Siri and other voice assistants) actually useful, or is it just a novelty? Are usage and retention of these products growing?


Like many Asian languages, Mandarin does not have an alphabet; however, it has wide variety of different characters, which there are over 50,000 in total. However, only 20,000 are in use. Also, an educated Chinese person will know around 8,000 characters, and you will only need 2,000-3,000 to read a newspaper. Also, Mandarin is a tonal language, which means that the pitch or a slightly different pronunciation may mean a different word. Luckily the grammar and the word order are very similar to English, and once you are confident with the characters, it gets gradually easier.
Japanese has three different writing systems which mean you will have to learn all three; however the most common writing system is Kanji. The grammar is very contrasting compared to English. Luckily, there are no gendered objects so you will never have to guess the gender of an object. However, unlike Asian languages like Mandarin or Cantonese, Japanese is not a tonal language and there are only five basic vowels, which makes the language much easier when you are listening to a Japanese speaker.
Hungarian is a bit of a strange and different language in Europe as it is of a few languages which have no European roots. The Hungarian language is part of a very different family along with Finnish and Estonian. This is daunting for an English speaker to learn, as there are almost no cognate or similar words like it in English. Furthermore, Hungarian has 14 different vowels, which gives the language some tough pronunciations to master, and the grammar is also tricky to master. Hungarian grammar is considered some of the hardest grammar in the world with complicated word endings and tough word placements, and the vocabulary is very different compared to English, so learning the words with no English similarities/routes will be much harder to learn.
Unfortunately, wherever you go in the Arab world, people will speak many different dialects of Arabic, spoken in different countries and regions, and most are not intelligible, which means you will have to learn one specific dialect or standard Arabic (MSA), which people will speak as a second language only to their own dialect. Luckily for Standard Arabic, it has an alphabet which is quite straightforward to learn, and consistent, but the exotic sounds to these words are pretty tough for English speakers. The grammar is pretty complicated, as there are many exceptions.
To Conclude: Although these languages may seem hard, once you learn the language, you will feel much more a sense of achievement if you had learned Spanish, and gradually, things will get a lot easier once you understand the basics. And you learning a new language will open you up to new places and people and unlock a very great and beautiful culture.


BUPA's vision is "Taking Care of the Lives in Our Hands." It's a succinct description of what its people do around the world every hour of every day.
The British United Provident Association Limited (BUPA) is a leading provider of private health insurance in Great Britain. It has more than eight million customers in the United Kingdom and about 190 other countries, making it a leader in the highly fragmented global market. BUPA's largest foreign markets are Ireland and Spain, where its Spanish subsidiary Sanitas also runs a network of healthcare facilities. About one-third of BUPA's insurance is bought by individuals; the majority is provided by companies as a job perquisite. Other organizations, such as professional associations, also participate in group plans.
In addition to providing insurance, BUPA operates its own hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes. It is one of Britain's largest private companies. The insurance side operates on a nonprofit basis, and BUPA Hospitals is set up as a commercial company.
The provident associations had helped to offset the risk of expensive medical treatment. As Webb later told a reporter, there was considerable doubt whether there would be any need for them after the launch of Britain's National Health Service (NHS) in 1948 to provide free medical care to citizens. BUPA was not expected to last more than a few years. Its role, however, soon became clear: to provide choice for its customers. Thirty-eight thousand signed up for BUPA's coverage the first year. Subscription income was £74,000.
BUPA had 200,000 members by the mid-1950s; 2,000 companies were providing its insurance to their workers. In 1959, the group began allowing organizational members to provide coverage to their overseas employees.
In 1957, BUPA helped launch the Nuffield Homes Charitable Trust (later Nuffield Hospitals) to support endangered private hospitals and nursing homes. It acquired seven existing hospitals and built another half dozen. A dozen more were added by the 1970s. These smaller facilities dedicated to elective surgery became known as "mini hospitals."
A desire for privacy and personal treatment were two reasons for the success of BUPA and a couple of other provident associations, observed the Times. By 1966, BUPA was covering 1.1 million people, more than twice as many as its peers. BUPA had different levels of coverage, beginning at around £5 and eight shillings a year.
The main rationale for private healthcare, noted the Times in 1972, was avoiding the NHS's long wait for elective procedures, which then stood at around two years. BUPA embraced preventive healthcare in the 1970s. It opened its first wellness screening center in London in 1969 and launched research institutions. Its annual subscription income was £13 million in 1973.
BUPA also made its first ventures into countries overseas beginning in 1971. BUPA would become the largest private insurer of Britons abroad. Its coverage would ultimately be extended to those of other nationalities. A Hong Kong unit was formed in 1976.
The NHS made a few thousand of its beds available to private, paying patients. When their availability was threatened, in 1974 BUPA opened its first hospital for subscribers in St. Marylebone. Known as the Nightingale Bupa Hospital, its predecessor, once called "The Institute for Gentlewomen during Illness," was where nurse Florence Nightingale pioneered her revolutionary methods. BUPA was investing £1.5 million on upgrading the facility.
Britons, alarmed at labor strikes in the NHS, were turning to BUPA in increasing numbers in the late 1970s. In 1978, the association formed BUPA Hospitals. This would become a competitor with the old BUPA spinoff, Nuffield Hospitals, which by then was operating about 25 facilities.
The association's hospital side grew rapidly in the 1980s through acquisitions and building. In 1981 it opened a £4.8 million facility in Manchester said to be the largest private hospital outside London. BUPA also joined the NHS in joint ventures such as the St. Thomas' Hospital and the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases.
BUPA CEO Bob Graham complained of hospital groups from the United States and Kuwait driving up healthcare costs with their new, for-profit hospitals. At the same time, BUPA was continuing its own international development. In 1988, BUPA acquired Sanitas, the largest private health insurance provider in Spain, a popular retirement destination for Brits.
A number of hospitals were acquired in the late 1980s. Ten facilities were acquired from the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) in July 1989. With 27 hospitals and 1,500 beds in all, BUPA was the country's largest private owner of hospitals, with a 14 percent market share. BUPA posted a £38 million loss in 1990 but was soon in the black again, and growing.
BUPA embraced the fitness ethic in the 1990s, attaching its name to a number of sporting events, including a popular series of road races called BUPA Great Runs. The legendary BUPA Great North Run in Newcastle grew to become the world's largest half marathon, attracting 50,000 runners.
BUPA began offering dental insurance in 1993. Five years later, it acquired dental services provider Barbican Healthcare. While BUPA was diversifying, other insurers were beginning to offer competing healthcare coverage. By the mid-1990s, according to the Times, BUPA's market share had plunged to 44 percent. It was then operating 30 hospitals with 1,800 beds and 30 screening clinics.
Free gym memberships were added to BUPA's preventive health prescription in 1996. In the same year, when turnover was £1.2 billion, a dynamic new chief executive replaced Peter Jacobs, who had led the company for five years. Much would be written of Val Gooding's influence on BUPA (and still more written on her compensation, which would make her "Britain's highest-paid woman").
Gooding was a 20-year veteran of British Airways. Her training techniques included making new management hires attend surgeries, noted Campaign. "It is one way of taking people right to the heart of what the business is about," explained Gooding.
Apart from the symbolic gestures, the organization was being recast from a simple insurance company to a comprehensive healthcare provider. Much effort would go into marketing and brand communications. BUPA also was restructured into five business units.
There was a great deal of international expansion in the late 1990s. It began operating in Ireland in 1996, where it was the first foreign health insurer allowed in the country. BUPA also set up joint ventures in Saudi Arabia (BUPA Middle East) and Thailand. A short-lived health center was launched in India but folded within a few years. BUPA entered the Australian market in 2003 by buying a local company.
BUPA's turnover exceeded £2 billion in 2000. Around 2002, BUPA became one of the private providers the NHS was employing to reduce its notoriously long waiting lists. The Redwood Diagnosis and Treatment Centre was dedicated to NHS work, but this represented a tiny fraction (1 percent) of BUPA's total revenues.
BUPA was thriving in 2003 and 2004, but company officials felt the need to update its image, reported Campaign. An ad campaign was launched to get customers to think about BUPA's products before they got sick. Making the insurer seem less corporate and more approachable was another goal, though more than 90 percent of Brits were familiar with the BUPA brand. The friendlier ads included cartoon characters interacting with BUPA staff.
Revenues were up to £3.9 billion ($7.0 billion) in 2005, BUPA's sixth consecutive year of growth. Insurance accounted for £2.7 billion of the total. BUPA led the United Kingdom's private insurance market, with a 40 percent share. The group had 8.2 million customers. Claims paid exceeded £2 billion, a record. BUPA Hospitals were treating more than a quarter million patients a year. Cosmetic surgery procedures were particularly in demand. BUPA's surplus was growing 30 percent a year, its finance director told Accountancy Age. A source involved with its capital raising, however, told the Banker that the group was "reasonably highly" leveraged.
BUPA sold nine hospitals for £84 million and bought three companies. ANS Care Homes, which had 44 facilities, was acquired in a deal worth £334 million. BUPA spent £206 million on two foreign insurance companies, Denmark's International Health Insurance Danmark a/s (IHI) and Amedex Insurance Company of the United States. The purchase of Amedex, which was based in Miami, made BUPA the leading health insurance company in Latin America. It was also the market leader in Spain, Australia, Ireland, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Saudi Arabia.
Gooding was bullish about BUPA's prospects in a 2005 interview with the Sunday Telegraph. Although the government was launching another, much touted plan to improve the NHS, some of BUPA's healthcare lines would not be affected at all. In addition, the NHS, which received about £70 billion a year in taxpayer funds, was planning to outsource more treatments to private hospitals to cut waiting lists. As it evolved, BUPA was planning to sell off ten smaller facilities, while upgrading its remaining 25 hospitals.
Blackrock Hospital Limited (Ireland; 56%); BUPA (Asia) Limited (Hong Kong); BUPA Australia Pty. Limited; BUPA Care Homes (CFG) PLC; BUPA Care Services Limited; BUPA Finance PLC; BUPA Hospitals Limited; BUPA Insurance Limited; BUPA Investments Limited; BUPA Investments Overseas Limited; Sanitas, SA de Seguros (Spain; 99%).
AXA PPP Healthcare Limited; Nuffield Hospitals.
1947 Regional provident associations join to create BUPA.
1950 BUPA is insuring one million people.
1957 BUPA forms the precursor of Nuffield Hospitals to ensure survival of threatened private hospitals.
1978 BUPA Hospitals is formed.
1988 Spain's Sanitas is acquired.
1989 Ten U.K. facilities are acquired from Hospital Corporation of America (HCA).
2000 Revenues exceed £2 billion.
2005 ANS Care Homes are acquired while nine hospitals are divested; insurance companies are acquired in Denmark and the United States.
This web site and associated pages are not associated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by The British United Provident Association Limited and has no official or unofficial affiliation with The British United Provident Association Limited.


ith budgets and staff stretched to the limit, you might be looking for ways to simplify as many tasks as possible. One place you might not have looked is your bidding process.
When you're ready to build a new playground, for example, you need to put together bid documents, manage the bidding process and then select your lowest or best bidder before you can get started on construction. The process can be time- and resource-intensive. But there are other ways to go about finding the best playground deal.
Q: We want to build a new playground, but we're short-staffed and don't have enough people on hand to help manage the bid process. Is there another option?
A: Yes. You can work with a government procurement agency to help find your playground equipment. These are government-sourcing programs that help public agencies lower the cost and streamline the process of purchasing goods. They do this by combining purchasing power from a number of agencies.
If you sign up as a member of one of these agencies, you will be legally allowed to forgo handling the bid process yourself. You get the playground equipment you need, while saving all the time of setting up bidding documents, going out for bids, and waiting for and analyzing the responses.
Q: We've cut back on staff and budgets, but we still need to update our playground with new equipment. How can we save time and resources to get it done for less?
A: Working with a government procurement agency can help mitigate the impact of staff reductions and budget cuts. You won't need staff members to manage the process. In addition, you will be saving money on your playground purchase because your purchase will be pooled with other agencies.
And if you're worried about costs, you can rest assured knowing that there is no cost to join or participate in a government procurement agency.
A: The government procurement agency solicits bids for specific products or services, and then arranges contracts with vendors of products and services. You can work with these suppliers to get your playground ordered and constructed.
To take full advantage of everything these agencies can help you accomplish, you should first become a member. Then, you can contact vendors directly for specific products, services, ordering, delivery and billing information for a wide variety of goods and services.
The agency, meanwhile, works in the background to monitor vendors and their contract compliance. This helps guarantee that you and other participants in the program will be getting the level of service and quality that you deserve.


We've all been there: you want to do something; you know you should do something; but for some reason, when the time comes you don't do it. Think resolutions, think eating more healthily, think making permanent changes to how you approach your day - how many times have you meant to do something but didn't?
The problem isn't usually setting the goal - we usually have a pretty good idea what we want to achieve - the problem comes when the time comes to actually do it. Life gets in the way, the timing just isn't right, or we plain old forget. We either never get started or we are quickly derailed. This is where an Implementation Intention comes in: it forces you to specify when, where and how you will perform a goal-directed behaviour and ties that behaviour to a cue you will likely encounter. This cue then triggers the desired behaviour. Implementation Intentions have been shown to demonstrably result in higher successful goal attainment, including across areas such as physical health (e.g. I want to exercise more frequently) and emotional regulation (e.g. I won't get angry next time someone annoys me).
The basic premise of an Implementation Intention is an IF/THEN statement: IF [specific situation occurs], THEN [desired behaviour]. This is the sort of thinking that turns a goal into a habit.
By tying this to goals, much higher levels of attainment are possible. Instead of setting yourself a goal such as "I will do more exercise", you form an Implementation Intention such as "if I get home from work at 7pm, then I will immediately go for a run". Alternatively "I will stay on top of my accounts" becomes "if [or when] I finish my weekly team meeting on Monday, then I will spend 30 minutes looking back over the last week's billing numbers". A final example might be "I will read more" becomes "if it's 10pm and I'm at home, then I will turn off all my electronics and read for an hour before bed".
Implementation Intentions can help you change your overall behaviour (i.e. develop new habits that help you meet your goals) as well as deal with your daily tasks - simply by tying a desired behaviour to a real cue in your life.
It can be fairly straightforward to set up (just construct those if/then statement) but if you need a little help getting started, we have developed a handy daily Implementation Intentions Google doc for you to fill out and use as much as you want, directed at both long-term goals and daily tasks. Just click the button below to view it. Feel free to make a copy, use it and share the love.


HotSec '12 will be co-located with the 21st USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security '12), which will take place August 8–10, 2012.
Position papers are solicited for the 7th USENIX Workshop on Hot Topics in Security (HotSec '12). HotSec places its singular emphasis on new ideas and problems. Works reflecting incremental ideas or well understood problems will not be accepted. Cross-discipline papers identifying new security problems or exploring approaches not previously applied to security will be given special consideration. All submissions should propose new directions of research, advocate non-traditional approaches, report on noteworthy experience in an emerging area, or generate lively discussion around an important topic.
HotSec takes a broad view of security and privacy and encompasses research on topics including, but not limited to, large-scale threats, network security, hardware security, software security, physical security, programming languages, applied cryptography, privacy, forensics, human-computer interaction, emerging computing environment, sociology, and economics.
HotSec '12 will be attempting to add transparency to the reviewing process and will publish a summary review with each of the accepted papers. A summary review will not be published for papers that are not accepted. This short (<1 page) statement will note the reasons why each paper was accepted and concerns expressed by the PC. Reviews will be posted next to the final papers on the HotSec '12 Web site, and the authors will have an opportunity to rebut any issues both before they are made public and in the presentation of their work (a video or audio recording of which will also be included on the HotSec Web site). Taken as a whole, these materials are designed to provide the community with valuable context that is traditionally lost after a PC meeting.
Attendance will be limited to 100 participants, with preference given to the authors of accepted position papers/presentations. Sessions will be focused by topic area and include three 15-minute talks, followed by a highly interactive 45-minute discussion of the papers and problems and solutions in the thematic area. Participants are strongly encouraged to participate in the discussions.
Submissions must be no longer than 6 pages, including figures, tables, and references. Text should be formatted in two columns on 8.5" x 11" paper using 10 point type on 12 point leading ("single-spaced"), with the text block being no more than 6.5" wide by 9" deep. Pages should be numbered, and figures and tables should be legible in black and white without requiring magnification. Submissions must be in PDF and must be submitted via the Web submission form.
All submissions must be anonymized. Papers not meeting these criteria will be rejected without review, and no deadline extensions will be granted for reformatting.
Authors will be notified of acceptance by June 14, 2012. Authors of accepted papers will produce a final PDF by July 5, 2012. All papers will be available online to registered attendees before the workshop. If your accepted paper should not be published prior to the event, please notify production@usenix.org. The papers will be available online to everyone beginning on the day of the workshop, August 7, 2012.
Simultaneous submission of the same work to multiple venues, submission of previously published work, or plagiarism constitutes dishonesty or fraud. USENIX, like other scientific and technical conferences and journals, prohibits these practices and may take action against authors who have committed them. See the USENIX Conference Submissions Policy for details. Questions? Contact your program chair, hotsec12chair@usenix.org, or the USENIX office, submissionspolicy@usenix.org.
Papers accompanied by nondisclosure agreement forms will not be considered. Accepted submissions will be treated as confidential prior to publication on the USENIX HotSec '12 Web site; rejected submissions will be permanently treated as confidential.


What does writing an essay about death entail?
❶Popular Questions My family is a small family with three people.
Moreover, there are contrary opinions to judge the issue of the death penalty. In my opinion, the existence of the death penalty is necessary.
It is very expensive to hold someone in prison for life. Every year the government has to pay much money on the prisoner of life imprisonment. On the other hand, if a murder is provided by all common people, it is unfair for all common people to raise the murder who is a killer. We work hard in the world, why do we have to pay our salary to a murder?
Nothing the murder done, but the crime does. It seems too ridiculous to raise a murder who makes a big mistake for a life. Second, the death penalty can frighten and hinder committing crime. To prevent people not to take other people easily, they should know they would die if they kill somebody.
Another reporter shows that the Korea has abolished the death penalty for seven years, but the crime rate has been increase. The existence of death penalty warns people not to commit serious crimes easily, and prevent the crime rate increase.
I agree that life is a valuable present which God gives us. So the life is very important for us. A murder may take more over one life. Who can give the chance for the victim to live? The power of executing the death penalty is a warning to tell people not to murder others. Enforcing death penalty is a way to confess the relatives of dead people.
And I have not seen any research that would substantiate that point. Evidences from around the world have also shown that this punishment has no deterrent effect on crime.
Amnesty International stated that, in in the USA, the average murder rate for states that used the death penalty was 5. In in Canada, 27 years after the country abolished the death penalty the murder rate had fallen by 44 per cent since , when capital punishment was still enforced. Far from decreasing the crime rates and making the country safer, the punishment has been shown to have a hardening effect on society.
Capital punishment is unfair regarding of a wrong done to innocents. Why deprive ourselves of any chance to redeem such errors? Making judgments about other and decide whether they should live or die is unjust for anyone. Courts of Justice are known to make numbers of errors, which means it is unreasonable to allow defendants with the least doubt of guilt to be sentences to death.
One cause of the death of innocents is because of the false information given by witnesses. Timothy Hennis, for example, a US Army Sergeant who was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in because the wrong information given by one witness which had mistaken Hennis for someone who looked like him.
Capital punishment causes discrimination towards black people. Baldus, a law professor in University of Iowa found that black defendants were 1,7 times more likely to receive the death penalty than white defendants and that murderers of white victims were 4,3 times more likely to be sentenced to death than those who killed blacks.
He argued that his death sentence was tainted by racial bias. Nationwide, blacks and whites are victims of homicide in roughly equal numbers, yet 80 percent of those executed had murdered white people New York Times, The odds of receiving a death sentence are nearly four times higher if the defendant is black than if he or she is white. In conclusion, there are many reasons why death penalty has to be abolished. For some nations, it was a broader understanding of human rights.
For example, Spain abandoned death penalty in , stating that the death penalty has no place in the general penal system of advanced, civilized societies. Similarly, Switzerland abolished the death penalty because it constituted a flagrant violation of the right to life and dignity. Justice Chaskalson of the South African Constitutional Court stated that, "the rights to life and dignity are the most important of all human rights… and this must be demonstrated by the State in everything that it does, including the way it punishes criminals.
The death penalty is a major issue that brings up a lot of arguments in our society. The most important question concerning the death penalty is whether it should be abolished or not.
Keywords: death penalty should be abolished essay. The death penalty is the act of punishing someone to death for an offense. Questions have been arisen to whether death penalty should be abolished in countries around the world. The pro's and con's of death penalty.
The Death Penalty Should be Abolished Essay Sample According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), there have been executions in the United States since These executions have been performed through electrocution, gas chamber, hanging, firing squad, and the most common lethal injection, which over people have been executed by this method. Why the Death Penalty Should Be Abolished Why should the death penalty be abolished? The death penalty should be abolished because of many reasons. Many people believe the saying, 'an eye for an eye'. But when will people realize that just because someone may have killed a loved one that the best thing for that person is to die also.


Should TC reduce the minimum length of an STR (timeslot)?
This poll will stay open for two weeks.
TC are not obliged to enact the consensus of this poll.
Both The Prof and I support a reduction to the minimum length of time slots. I am certainly not all knowing, but this is an area where I have specialized knowledge because I have a degree in Statistics. The Prof has Master's in the subject and has taught statistics for over a decade. Hopefully, our recommendations will sway you to vote for eliminating/reducing minimum STRs.
Here is a somewhat rigorous example detailing my logic for this proposal.
Assume that a player sleeps for 8 hours, then is available to play Stratego for 8 hours and then works for 8 hours with no gaps in between. This roughly mirrors a typical players' schedule and makes calculations easy. Consider what happens if the player cannot play in the first hour proposed. Case 1 represents two hour slots and Case 2 represents 2 independent slots of an hour each.
The actual percent is probably a little different given some of my simplifications but Case 2 is always more likely to result in an arrangement. Extending this, you could actually eliminate the minimum slot requirement all together and mandate that each player provides 6 total hours of availability. This would give even higher probabilities of finding a start time.
For a less technical proof, TheO had a really good analogy: Case 1 can be thought of as one big interval, while Case 2 is two smaller but separate intervals. Therefore, you are more likely to find a start time in the more spread out intervals (case 2).
This poll will be closed Sunday 2100GMT and TC will consider it in their final decision.


What Does the 2016 Taiwan Presidential Election Signify?
This commentary is written as a response to Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou’s interview with the BBC. The interview was conducted by the BBC’s China Editor Ms Carrie Gracie on the morning of Monday 27 July 2015. Dr Fang-long Shih from the LSE Taiwan Research Programme was interviewed by Ms Yalda Hakim for the BBC World News Impact on the same day, in the afternoon. Dr Shih’s interview lasted for about 5 minutes, and was broadcast live. The commentary below follows on from her response, focusing on the three aspects of foreign policy, economic agreements, and social movements. She argues that there is a big gap between President Ma and Taiwan’s citizens, in particular on the issues of democracy and Taiwan’s relationship with rising China.
President Ma is well-regarded as a politician who is loyal to the Kuomintang (KMT, Chinese Nationalist Party) and to the ideal of the Republic of China, and who acts according to his convictions. He resigned as the KMT chairman after his party’s defeat in local elections last November. His analysis of this is interesting. He thinks the loss was not related to his policy on China, but due to domestic issues. However, although this is his understanding, there is a big gap between Ma and Taiwan voters – While Ma is certain about prioritising the establishment of closer ties with rising China, the voters remain doubtful and apprehensive and see China’s rise as creating many new uncertainties. His approval rating has fallen to below 10 per cent.
Since taking office, President Ma has seen improving the relationship with China as his mission. It is a delicate situation: the People’s Republic of China (PRC) does not recognise the existence of the Republic of China (ROC), which is Taiwan’s official name, but at the same time the PRC’s Chinese Communist Party (CCP) only officially talks to the mainland Chinese (not Taiwanese) leaders of the KMT, which is the party that moved the ROC from the mainland to Taiwan after losing the civil war to the CCP in 1949. The CCP does not talk to the main opposition in Taiwan, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), even though it was Taiwan’s democratically elected government between 2000 and 2008. Is the fact that the CCP will only talk to the KMT’s mainlanders on cross-Strait affairs a hangover from the civil war period?
So, President Ma is in the position to play this role, and over the last seven years he has put most of his energy into improving the relationship with the PRC. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on 10 May 2015, he said the cross-Strait relations have moved from confrontation to negotiation, and as a result Taiwan has also made gains with the rest of the world. But the majority opinion in Taiwan does not agree with this. Many people ask why Taiwan must go through China to connect with the rest of the world. It’s like the rest of the world for Taiwan only means China. Taiwan’s foreign policy looks unbalanced because of this, which is a great pity. In his interview with the BBC on 27 July 2015, President Ma said "Political progress in mainland China is unstable.” He also said he was “disappointed” that Beijing is still resisting a face-to-face meeting, and that “we are not clear about the decision-making process, but I believe it was Mr Xi who made the final decision”. Does this mean his foreign policy, with its sole focus on China, has been a waste of time? Does it mean Taiwan has lost other possibilities of building relationships with countries other than China?
President Ma likes to highlight his achievements in making progress in economic relations between China and Taiwan. Especially, there have been 21 agreements made with China. But many people in Taiwan feel uncertain and worried about closer economic ties with China. Maybe the agreements will help Taiwan to emerge from economic isolation, and revive its economic growth, but so far Taiwanese people only see more and more hotels and restaurants in Taiwan that have been bought and are now owned by Chinese mainlanders, while their own salaries remain as low as they were 20 years ago. Also, these agreements will maybe increase dependency on Beijing. People are worried Taiwan will lose democracy and sovereignty because of this. This is what inspired the protests in March last year, which are now known as the “Sunflower Movement”. Protesters were not so much against the most recent trade-in-services agreement itself, but the way it was pushed through Parliament in 30 seconds. This was a violation of democratic procedure. President Ma still hasn’t shown that he has heard this message. There is a different interpretation of democracy between Ma and the protesters.
President Ma seems to think that his election in 2008 and re-election in 2012 mean he has the right and authority to do whatever he thinks is best for Taiwan, but he has spent more energy communicating with China than with his voters. He seems very paternal, as if he knows best and doesn’t have to answer questions. Meanwhile, China’s attitude is paternal, too, as if this trade-in-services agreement is a special treat that Taiwanese people may lose out on if they don’t accept it as a package now. This approach is no longer accepted by the Taiwanese people, especially young adults who have grown up with democracy in Taiwan.
Taiwan has been democratic now for 30 years, and is becoming more mature. Taiwanese citizens, and especially students, expect the President to explain why he is doing something on their behalf. They expect a proper, line-by-line explanation of something as important as the trade-in-services agreement, with details about who will benefit and who might lose out. Especially, they expect a full discussion and debate among governmental officials, academics, practitioners, and ordinary people, as well as measures to help the adjustment for those who will face new challenges due to the new competition with Chinese business and companies. This means transparency, accountability and participatory democracy in a civil society. These are the kind of issues that we have seen the Sunflower Movement’s seed spread to Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement. Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement is campaigning for transparency, real participatory democracy, and real politics of representation, that is, universal suffrage. It is hoped the day will come when Taiwan’s President will not represent his people without communicating with them and answering their concerns and worries as Taiwan’s citizens are now capable of representing themselves.
Dr Fang-long Shih is Research Fellow at Taiwan Research Programme in the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) where she served as Co-Director between 2009 and 2014. She is interested in social scientific questions (e.g. civil society and democracy) relating to anthropology and sociology of religion on Taiwan and in comparative perspective.


VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Father Ernest Simoni, a 88-year-old Albanian, was watching Pope Francis on television this month when, to his astonishment, he heard the pontiff mention his name.
Francis announced that the simple, white-haired Roman Catholic priest, who had spent many years in jail during Albania's communist dictatorship, was to become a cardinal.
It was the first that Simoni, or any of the other 16 new cardinals named by Francis at the same time, had heard of their elevation to the prestigious rank.
"I did not believe either my ears or eyes," Simoni told Reuters in Albania. "The pope said it, but I could not believe it. 'Can he be talking about another Ernest?' I said to myself."
But more significantly, the pope had also kept nearly the entire Vatican hierarchy in the dark about his decision, which he announced on Oct. 9 to thousands of pilgrims.
The episode illustrates how Francis has used his own distinct management style to try to shake up the Church since his election in 2013. He is keeping his cards close to his chest as he tries to push through a progressive agenda to make the Church more welcoming in the face of conservative opposition.
Interviews with a dozen current and past Vatican officials and aides paint a portrait of Pope Francis, a Jesuit who turns 80 in December, as eschewing filters between him and the outside world. He carries his own black briefcase, keeps his own agenda, and makes many of his own calls.
In contrast, his two immediate predecessors, Benedict XVI and John Paul II, worked hand-in-hand with the Vatican bureaucracy, which is known as the curia.
Behind Francis's approach is a clear mandate, received from the worldwide cardinals who elected him in 2013, to overhaul the curia.
Over the decades the Vatican's administration has collected some of the Church's most orthodox officials, partly because of the lieutenants that Francis's two highly-conservative predecessors called to their entourages in Rome.
As a result, Francis believes that only by reducing the power of the curia – including surprising it on some decisions - can the 1.2 billion-member Church embrace those who have felt marginalized, such as gays and the divorced.
The approach has scored Francis some victories, such as bypassing conservative bishops to streamline the procedures by which Catholics can obtain marriage annulments.
There have also been setbacks, such as putting too much power in one cardinal's hands to resolve financial problems and later having to rein him in.
Some internal critics say he relies too much on snap judgments and others have urged greater transparency. They say his decisions to set up new structures, such as an economy ministry and an external advisory council of eight cardinals from around the world, were divisive and that he could have enacted change by putting new people at the top of existing departments.
One of the most striking differences between Francis and his two predecessors is that it is virtually impossible to determine who, if anyone, is really close to him.
The personal secretaries of Benedict and John Paul - respectively Georg Ganswein, now an archbishop, and Stanislaw Dziwisz, now a cardinal - were always at their side and became celebrities in their own right, the powerful gate-keepers to get to the pope.
By contrast, few people know the identities of Francis's two priest-secretaries - Father Fabian Pedacchio Leaniz from Argentina and Father Yoannis Lahzi Gaid, an Egyptian. Both have other part-time jobs in the Vatican and do not appear or travel with him.
"He does not want any filters," said a person who knows the pope well. "Sometimes he will tell one of his secretaries 'so-and-so is arriving in a few minutes' and that is the first they hear of it. Sometimes he tells one without telling the other."
This person, like most of the others interviewed for this article, has had direct dealings with Francis and all spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to the media.
This year, an Argentine visitor told a guard at a Vatican gate that the pope was expecting him. Phone calls had to be made to determine he was not a prankster. The pope had not told anyone he had invited the visitor.
One person close to the pope said he likes to manage this way because it gives him freedom to bypass rigid channels of communication and makes it impossible for anyone to become indispensable, as top aides of previous popes did.
Francis likes to break rules and then change them once the shock has died down. Two weeks after his election, he included women in a liturgical service open only to men. Later, he ordered that the rules be formally changed worldwide.
Pope Benedict's sudden resignation in February 2013 brought to a climax one of the most turbulent periods in modern Vatican history, including the arrest of his butler for leaking documents that exposed corruption and cronyism.
Francis watched from afar as Benedict's papacy unraveled under the weight of successive scandals.
After he was elected, he appointed trusted people to lower or mid-level positions in Vatican departments, where they can be his eyes and ears. For example, Pedacchio, his Argentine secretary, also works in the department that decides who will become bishops.
Monsignor Battista Mario Salvatore Ricca, an Italian who runs the Vatican guest house where the pope lives, was given a position at the Vatican bank as the link man between a supervisory commission of cardinals and the board of directors.
"He is sometimes like the leader who says 'I don't care what the generals say, I will tell Lieutenant so-and-so to take that hill'," said a source, adding that the pope enjoyed rattling an inefficient bureaucracy with what the source described as "joyful destruction".
Several of those interviewed said Francis puts much stock in his immediate gut feelings about people. When he takes a liking to someone he can become blind to their faults and when he does not, it is hard to reverse that first impression, they said.
Francis was impressed by Cardinal George Pell of Sydney when he met the Australian in 2013. In meetings cardinals held among themselves before that year's conclave, the former Australian Rules football player stood out not only for his height and broad shoulders but also for his command of financial matters.
Months after his election, Francis, hoping to put an end to Vatican financial scandals, moved Pell to Rome to head a new ministry, the Secretariat for the Economy.
After initially giving him sweeping powers, the pope later significantly trimmed them back when other departments accused Pell of treating them in an overbearing way and of being condescending to the Italian-dominated curia.
Pell's position in the Vatican has also been weakened by allegations of sexual abuse when he was in Australia. Pell denies the allegations and the pope has said he will withhold judgment until an Australian investigation is over.
In another controversial appointment, Francis, acting on a recommendation, named Francesca Chaouqui, a 32-year-old Italian public relations expert, to a commission advising him on reform. On July 8, 2016, a Vatican court convicted her of helping to leak embarrassing internal documents to journalists.
Insiders say the Pell and Chaouqui cases are examples of Francis making decisions too quickly.
Even though his health is good, they say he feels he has little time left and many things still to do; that perhaps explains the hastiness of some of his decisions.
Francis appears to enjoy sending signals that he alone is calling the shots.
When his predecessors spoke to the media on papal flights they were always flanked by the secretary of state or the deputy secretary of state. The stage management suggested that behind the man in white, there stood a centuries-old bureaucracy.
Under Francis, those prelates now stay out of sight in the front section of the plane.


Have some candy bars that are begging to be used? Make a batch of super simple blondies to share. It's a perfect way to use up leftover Halloween, Christmas and Easter candy.
I am so sorry! I don't know how I let this happen. I went a full week and the closest thing I posted to a dessert was some healthy muffins and a little homemade jam. What was I thinking? I wasn't obviously! I will try to do better next time.
In all honesty, I have been trying to clean up my act a bit and not post quite so many sugar laden recipes. I mean they are good, don't get me wrong. The problem with posting multiple desserts in a week is you have to eat said desserts.
Of course I don't take too much issue with extra desserts, but there is a limit and my jeans say we are there. Don't worry, it's not like we are going to have a total ban on sweets.
Just a proposed slow down. Maybe. For a while. But it is fall soon and I love pumpkin and apple treats and after that it's Christmas... so lets not hold our collective breath or anything.
As a peace offering for the supposed slow down that I may or may not follow through on, I am giving you a big batch recipe that is super easy to make. No fancy equipment, no complicated instructions, just yummy treats in a matter of minutes.
You could pretty easily cut this recipe down if you want, but it is sized perfectly for taking to share with coworkers. Which is what I happened to do. I took the tray in when I arrived and got a text from my boss later saying they didn't last 45 minutes.
There were only about a dozen people around that day due to vacations and whatnot, so I'll let you do the math. (I think they like them!) They would also be perfect for team treats or potlucks.
You can certainly use chocolate chips or even better, chunks, if you don't have candy bars. But I like the fun variance of using leftover candies. Some bites have a bit of caramel, some have a little peanut and each bit is deliciously unique.
If you have extra candy bars lying around after Halloween, Christmas or Easter, you can chop them up, freeze them and pull them out through out the year for delicious baked goods. (I know... extra candy?! Apparently that's a thing. Who knew?) If nothing else, you can make good use of the after holiday clearance candy!
Preheat the oven to 350 F and spray your 10x15x1 pan (half sheet jelly roll pan) with non-stick spray.
In a large bowl, stir together brown sugar and oil. Beat in the eggs and the vanilla.
Stir in the dry ingredients until well mixed.
Sprinkled chopped candy bar pieces over the top of the dough.
Bake for 30-35 minutes. The edges should be golden and the middle should test clean with a toothpick is inserted.
Cool completely and then cut into squares. Store in an airtight container.
So fun!! I love the idea of throwing in whatever candy bars you like. I think I'll try three different ones and see if my family can guess which ones. Love these!!
I had a mixed bag left over from a conference I exhibited at for work. Rather than bring the extra candy to the lab like I normally would, I baked them into these! They were really good that way too, I think this might be a post conference tradition!
These must be ooey-gooey good! The people at my office would hate me, but eat every single one of them! I like easy and good recipes!
They are! I'm sure they'd snap them up in a flash (and secretly enjoy every bite!) even if they are trying to be "good!" Thanks, Linda!
Too funny! I will certainly eat pumpkin pie if it is place in front of me, but of all of the pumpkin treats it isn't my favorite either. Thanks so much!
I could gobble up lotsa these blondies! Thanks for linking up with What's Cookin' Wednesday!
Ha! Me too! Thanks, Karly!
Mine did! They were gone in a jiffy which is always a good sign!
These do sound so delish! Extra candy? Really? I've never heard of that! LOL At least not if it's chocolate. Perhaps there are other candies, the yucky kind, that could be left over. But never chocolate. But you could stock up after Easter and Halloween when the goodies go on sale. Then you could make these fun cookies all the time. I think I'm going to make a point of that. I love that they are bar style, no muss, no fuss, just delish! YUM!
I know, extra candy bars seems like a fairy tale. But I made what I had left from a conference into bars so as to not just mindlessly eat it all myself! It would be a great way to use clearance candy or a good excuse to buy clearance candy if nothing else!
I always need something sweet in my life! This would a great way to use some eggs! I hope you enjoy them!
This is a very special treat, it looks awesome. Thanks so much for sharing with us at Full Plate Thursday, your recipe is great! Hope you have a wonderful week and come back to see us real soon.


As the end of Game of Thrones fast approaches, the question of who will control Westeros has morphed into a far more interesting dilemma: Who should control Westeros? Sadly for fans rooting for the Breaker of Chains, a shadow was cast on Daenerys Targaryen's moral claim to the Iron Throne during the season eight premiere. On top of the fact that she is not technically the rightful heir, she is also, it seems, a selfish and power-hungry leader.
This moment in Daenerys' story arc was a long time coming; I, like many others, have wondered with concern about her tyrannical streak and her rather incendiary sense of justice. I'm nevertheless disappointed in how her character has developed, and, more broadly, how the narratives for the show's strong women are devolving. As season eight's opening episode demonstrated, the heroines of Westeros are increasingly being portrayed as scheming, power-hungry, destructive women. In other words, the Game of Thrones writers are falling back on tired and sexist tropes so often used to dispatch with ambitious female characters.
Of course, everyone does a fair bit of scheming in Game of Thrones. Cersei's guile, for example, is what makes her a terrifying and formidable villain. Yet women have long been portrayed throughout history and literature as having obtained their power through self-serving cunning (see also: Jezebel, Lady MacBeth). What is particularly telling — and particularly annoying — on Game of Thrones is that the heroines' male counterparts do not exhibit the same hubris; rather, the heroes largely model opposite traits of honor and self-sacrifice.
Take the conversation between Yara Greyjoy and her brother, Theon, after his suspiciously easy rescue mission. "Euron can't defend the Iron Islands … We can take our home back," Yara realizes, to which Theon protests, "Daenerys went north." While Yara says the Iron Islands could be a fallback for Daenerys if things sour in the war against the dead, Theon's plan to fight rather than hide in the relative safety of the offshore kingdom is made to seem the more noble choice.
This catfight-like conflict is a particularly boring and lazy cliché, but one that is so common and easy that it defines the narratives around powerful women, even in real life. As actress Jessica Chastain has noted from firsthand experience, "There has been a stigma out there that women don't work well together. I've never seen women like this." In an article about a 2017 "feud" between Katy Perry and Taylor Swift, This magazine likewise observed "that when it comes to collaboration between female performers, drama is the only art they can make." Apparently that is true even of queens in the fictional world of Westeros.
The biggest moment in the start of this new season, though, came when Sam confronted Jon Snow in the crypt about Daenerys' aforementioned poor leadership skills. As it turned out, Sam wasn't too thrilled to learn that Daenerys executed his father and older brother for refusing to bend the knee. With tears in his eyes, Sam tells Jon, "You gave up your crown to save your people. Would [Daenerys] do the same?" There is an implicit answer in his question: Not likely. While the good and honorable Jon Snow would sacrifice anything to protect his people, Daenerys has now been cast as his foil. For all we know, she has even been turning a blind eye to her dragons eating random people across the continents.
With so many female protagonists holding power in Westeros at the start of the show's eighth and final season, Game of Thrones has a real chance to reverse some of the most damaging tropes in the long history of writing about women leaders. Unfortunately, the season eight premiere clearly served as a table-setter, and that doesn't bode well for what's in store for Yara, Sansa, or Daenerys. One queen has already left her brother to protect the realm; the other two, apparently, are going to spend the season in a power-struggle over Jon Snow and the North.
What I want from Game of Thrones is this: heroines who not just coexist and support each other, but who are portrayed as being as noble and self-sacrificing as their male counterparts. After season eight's premiere, I don't have high hopes.
Toe rings are back. God have mercy on our souls.


Which of the following actresses is nominated for both a theatrical motion picture and primetime television?
ANSWER: Winona Ryder is nominated for her role as Beth Macintyre in “BLACK SWAN” and as Lois Wilson in “WHEN LOVE IS NOT ENOUGH: THE LOIS WILSON STORY” on HBO.
YAY! Great to see Winona nominated again! Hope to see her win on Sunday! GO WINONA!!
Winona nominated for Black Swan?