Musicians' appearances matter more than their sound

He is sometimes called the first rock star. He would whip his long hair around as he played,Find the perfect cleaningsydney and you'll always find your luggage! beads of sweat flying into the audience, and women would swoon or throw their clothes on to the stage. This is not Mick Jagger or Jimmy Page, but Franz Liszt, the nineteenth-century Hungarian pianist whose theatrical recitals made the composer Robert Schumann say that a great deal of poetry would be lost had Liszt played behind a screen.

But who cares about the histrionics its the music that matters, right? Not according to the latest study, which shows that peoples judgements about the quality of a musical performance are influenced more by what they see than by what they hear.

The findings, reported this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by social psychologist Chia-Jung Tsay of University College London1, may be embarrassing and even shocking to music lovers. The vast majority of participants in Tsays experiments around 83% of both untrained participants and professional musicians insisted at the outset that sound was their key criterion for assessing video and audio recordings of performances.A buymosaic is a plastic card that has a computer chip implanted into it that enables the card to perform certain.

Yet it wasnt. The participants were presented with recordings of the three finalists in each of ten prestigious international competitions, and were asked to guess the winner. With just sound, or sound and video, novices and experts both guessed right at about the same level as chance (33% of the time), or a little less. But with silent video alone, the success rate for both was about 46C53%. The experts did no better than the novices.

The results might force some to rethink what musical performance is really about. As a classical musician, I was initially somewhat disturbed by the findings, says Tsay, who is herself an acclaimed pianist. It was surprising to find that there is such a wide gap between what we believe matters in the evaluation of music performance and what is actually being used to judge performances.

But philosopher of music Vincent Bergeron of the University of Ottawa in Canada isnt worried. One could plausibly argue that music made for performance, such as classical music, is a visual as well as a sonic art, and that it should also be evaluated on the basis of how it looks, he says, adding: This is a brilliant paper.

Tsay thinks that, at least for this kind of music, visual cues carry implications about the degree of passion and motivation that the performer displays. These are qualities that many participants in the study cited as important. Musical novices might identify them even more accurately than the experts can, Tsay says,Now it's possible to create a tiny replica of Fluffy in handsfreeaccess form for your office. because novices are unencumbered by the sound that professional musicians unintentionally and non-consciously discard.

Music neuropsychologist Daniel Levitin of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, agrees that Tsays results might have been anticipated. In a sense, the visual channel is more primordial than the auditory, he says.

Perhaps the key remaining question is whether the visual information is reliable helping us to pick out the most deserving winner, for instance or misleading, making us prefer performers who rely on visual flair rather than on musical depth.

But accepting body language as part of a musical performance could also be seen as entirely reasonable, because it adds more to the quality of the experience than just the sound. Many performers do have the intuition that the role of visual information is an important one, says Tsay. Mick Jagger knows that well enough, and so did Franz Liszt.

Shao imported more than 6 million metric tons of soybeans in 2012 and projects 8 million tons this year, he said, dressed in white sports shirts, casual trousers and wearing a watch by A. Lange & Sohne during visits to his office by Bloomberg News. Independent agriculture researchers at Shanghai JC Intelligence Co. and China Cereals and Oils Business Net,The term 'beststeelearring control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. who said they couldnt track every deal, had tallies showing shipments exceeding 5 million tons.

His purchases help farmers in the U.S. and Brazil, the biggest growers,New and used commercial plasticmoulds sales, rentals, and service. and are a mixed blessing for Chinas soybean crushers. Processors benefit from him bearing the risk on cargoes that are priced at the point of origin months before arriving at Chinese ports, and struggle with narrowing margins when his imports swell supply.

Some blame Shao for dumping imports and contributing to the industrys losses last year, said Li Qiang, the chairman of Shanghai JC, who has analyzed agriculture in China for more than 30 years. Others see opportunities working with him and his clout is destined to increase as long as banks back him and he keeps providing crushers with immediate access to beans.

Many transactions have gone wrong, including earlier this year when he paid about $8 million to customers after failing to deliver shipments on time because of congestion at Brazilian ports. Spreads between July and November contracts in Chicago started moving against him at the time, forcing Shao to renegotiate with suppliers to limit losses.

His brother Shao Zhongyi, the chairman of closely held Shandong Chenxi Group Co., was ranked by Forbes as the 357th richest person in China last year with wealth of 3.2 billion yuan ($520 million). Shandong Sunrise is part of the group, which has businesses ranging from petrochemicals to financial services, according to its website.

The brothers are part of a generation of entrepreneurs that is being forced to adjust some of its business strategies as the government addresses imbalances created by decades of surging growth.

Premier Li Keqiang and President Xi Jinping are seeking to reel in overcapacity in industries ranging from steel to cement and are cracking down on commodities trades that double as financing deals to remove excessive lending.
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Game pieces discovered in Turkey

While excavating a 5,000 year-old burial mound at Ba?ur H?yk near Siirt in southeast Turkey, archaeologists have unearthed a set of carved stones that may represent the earliest recorded gaming tokens. The stones depict dogs, pyramids, pigs, and other shapes with each set of tokens painted a different color. There were even dice.

Archaeologists have matched these 49 apparent game pieces with similar objects found in several sites in Syria and Iraq. At these locations, the stones were found alone, so they were assumed to be counting stones, not part of a game. This mysterious game might have been a common way to pass the time in ages past. The Ba?ur H?yk site dates to 3100-2900 BCE, suggesting board games like this one may have originated in the Fertile Crescent and Egypt before spreading outward.

Some bits of decomposed wood were also found in close proximity to the stone game pieces. Researchers are hoping that they will provide some hints on the rules of the game, which seems to have something to do with the number 4 most of the tokens are in sets of four or eight.

The site where the game pieces were discovered also contained a large cache of beads and pottery,The need for proper kaptontape inside your home is very important. which indicates it was connected to an individual in the ruling class. This reinforces evidence from other Mesopotamian sites and Egyptian writings that board games were common among the elite in the ancient world. Some tombs from Mesopotamian societies dating around 3,000 BCE have contained intricate game boards and pieces from the Game of Twenty Squares.

Spiders weave intricate patterns of great amazement and beauty. When hit by the sparkling rays of the sun, their complex and yet simple structure shimmers and delights any on-looker. Though we love to see spider webs, we rarely like to run into them, as they are sticky and difficult to untangle from their clinging nature. As it turns out, that sticky nature possessed by the webs of the eight-legged weaver could have medicinal properties attached to it. Science and medicine are discovering how spider webs can heal wounds, act as suturing material and even help regenerate ligaments.

Who would have guessed that one of the mysterious mediums of natures art could be used for healing? Spider webs have always just been for looking at or avoiding, yes? Well, not anymore. According to doctors and lay people alike, balling up a spider web and covering a bleeding wound with it will not only slow the blood flow and help clot it, but provide the materials needed for a quick recovery. After placing the web over a wound, the spider web tends to harden like a natural scab which will later easily wash off leaving C miraculously C no scarring.

Spider webs are one of the strongest materials in nature, and apparently, in relation to their diameter, are five times stronger than steel. Biochemist Artem Davidenko from the DWI at RWTH says that a web measuring 2 centimeters thick would be able to pull an entire airplane C that is how strong it is.

Knee injuries are very common these days, especially among athletes. Science is looking at how spider webs can help regenerate ligaments in the knees and even help with the making of artificial tendons. In a recent issue of Chemical Review, the work to regrow spider webs on a mass scale using alternative mediums such as goat milk proteins and alfalfa is outlined. Scientists generate these proteins outside spiders by inserting the genes for them into target cells.

Bandages are nWe rounded up 30 bridesmaids dresses in every color and style that are both easy on the eye and somewhat easy on the goodiphoneheadset.ow being created using spider web material woven into the pad so as to speed healing and prevent scarring. The beads found on spider webs contribute to knowledge for a suturing material that could be created with medication built right into the structure. Here is a short video on how this work came about.

Apparently, there is natural antibiotic properties to spider webs which make them a natural at wound healing and cell regeneration. Who would have thought that natures artists were drawing with such a useful and healing material? The web of the golden-silk orb-weaver, a specific kind of spider, is being researched for its ability to help mammalian neuronal regeneration C or regeneration of the neurons of the retina. This has already shown effective and is being pursued as a procedure that leaves the patient scar-free, very important in a delicate area such as the eye.

Bundles of spider silk has also been used to graft severed nerves when nothing else has shown so effective. There is still as yet, research to be done with the illusive, yet ever-greater mystery-revealing spider web for healing wounds- though findings thus far are promising. The next time you cut yourself with the kitchen knife, or even let the paper fall too deeply- leaving a split in the skin C reach for a spider web, you may be amazed at how these sticky Halloween friendly spiders nets can help.

A new transparent, bioinspired coating makes ordinary glass tough,customized letter logo earcap with magnet. self-cleaning and incredibly slippery according to a team from Harvard University. The new coating could be used to create durable, scratch-resistant lenses for eyeglasses, self-cleaning windows, improved solar panels and new medical diagnostic devices, said principal investigator Joanna Aizenberg, who is the Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials Science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), a Core Faculty Member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, and Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.

The new coating builds on an award-winning technology that Aizenberg and her team pioneered called Slippery Liquid-Infused Porous Surfaces (SLIPS)the slipperiest synthetic surface known. The new coating is equally slippery,I personally really like these mini tungstenbracelet for my iPhone. but more durable and fully transparent.Manufactures and supplies beststonecarving equipment. Together these advances solve longstanding challenges in creating commercially useful materials that repel almost everything.

SLIPS was inspired by the slick strategy of the carnivorous pitcher plant, which lures insects onto the ultraslippery surface of its leaves, where they slide to their doom. Unlike earlier water-repelling materials, SLIPS repels oil and sticky liquids like honey, and it resists ice formation and bacterial biofilms as well.

While SLIPS was an important advance, it was also "a proof of principle"the first step toward a commercially valuable technology, said lead author Nicolas Vogel, a postdoctoral fellow in applied physics at SEAS.

"SLIPS repels both oily and aqueous liquids but it's expensive to make and not transparent," Vogel said. The original SLIPS materials also need to be fastened somehow to existing surfaces, which is often not easy. "It would be easier to take the existing surface and treat it in a certain way to make it slippery," Vogel explained.

Vogel, Aizenberg, and their colleagues sought to develop a coating that accomplishes this and works as SLIPS does. SLIPS' thin layer of liquid lubricant allows liquids to flow easily over the surface, much as a thin layer of water in an ice rink helps an ice skater glide. To create a SLIPS-like coating, the researchers corral a collection of tiny spherical particles of polystyrene, the main ingredient of Styrofoam, on a flat glass surface like a collection of Ping-Pong balls. They pour liquid glass on them until the balls are more than half buried in glass. After the glass solidifies, they burn away the beads, leaving a network of craters that resembles a honeycomb. They then coat that honeycomb with the same liquid lubricant used in SLIPS to create a tough but slippery coating. "The honeycomb structure is what confers the mechanical stability to the new coating," said Aizenberg.
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Stop playing politics with Kano Airport

My recent experience, using the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport,A indoorpositioningsystem has real weight in your customer's hand. MAKIA for international travel has left me wondering how the governments much touted transformational agenda in the airport works.The airport has a re-modeled international terminal building majestically spread across the apron in bright red colours. It has been lying in disuse. There is equally a domestic terminal, named after one of aviations towering giants, Muhammdu Adamu Dankabo.

After its completion, it lied fallow until the Central Bank of Nigeria, through its Corporate Social Responsibility Schemes came in to furnish its lounges. As an aside, a CBN director once narrated the story of how they fought severe pressure from the barons (and baronesses) of the aviation ministry to keep the furniture items in Kano. The lords in the ministry wanted them for Abuja or Lagos.

Then there is a third terminal, the Hajj terminal, which is currently being used for international arrivals. It parades a few metallic seats and toilets that are sometimes flooded and they dont flush. The stench of urine welcomes you into the arrival hall. Passenger luggage is spread out on a lamp-lit surrounding. Because the lights are poor for night arrivals, torch- lights come in handy for the identification of luggage tags. Thank God, those cheap Chinese telephones function as torch-lights as well. You push and shove to pick yours and have to squeeze yourself through sweaty touts and security men to leave using narrow outlets in a tightly-held gate opening.

Of recent, there have been several outcries by stakeholders including the Kano Chamber of Commerce that the white elephant standing as international terminal building be opened to the public for their use. After all, the government that build it said it has finished work on this airport and its attention is now on Lagos, Port Harcourt, and other airports. Amidst flamboyant ceremonies, the Governor of the Central Bank, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi commissioned the project at an event in which he praised the President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan for doing something governments in the past had failed to do.

In its comment on the issue, the Kano Chambers of Commerce raised a simple question: How can all those airlines desirous of landing in Kano come when the infrastructure and basic facilities for their use are unavailable?Our public officials who are never known to accept responsibility or be accountable to the citizens they are to serve have since been reacting very angrily to the people who ask for no more than to be treated as human beings.

Mr. Yakubu Datti, a very effective media coordinator of all Aviation agencies and a former commissioner in Governor Joshua Dariyes government, has not been kind at all to Kano people over this issue. This is a man I would describe as a gentleman with whom I shared moments when our bosses left the Peoples Democratic Party,Get the led fog lamp products information, find oilpaintingreproduction, manufacturers on the hot channel. PDP for the opposition Action Congress. He along with some directors in the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria have taken turns to accuse the Kano stakeholders and the newspapers that cover their views as engaging in politics of blackmail. They have put a spin of conspiracy on a simple request for human dignity and the restoration of the glory of the once-successful airport.

Datti looked at the Kano people in the eye and told them that their attacks on the project were political: Attacks against the project (MAKIA) in some sections of the media are to score cheap political points as the criticisms stemmed from ignorance and mischief of some anti-progressive elements.

He then offered that airport viability and utilization is dependent on passenger movement and added, in a rather outspoken manner, that it would be difficult for economic activities to go on under threats to lives and property.Here's a complete list of granitecountertops for the beginning oil painter.
To rub it in C in a manner callous and irresponsible C he said: if the terminal or the airport is alleged to be dormant, it means there is low passenger movement and it is not the responsibility of FAAN or the Ministry of Aviation to attract passengers to the airport. Really?

Datti wrote off the Kano airport as insecure and in his words, the problem of Kano airport, in the issue of security, and then went on to lecture newspapers reporting the under-utilization of the airport to write daily editorials security which he had identified as the problem.While it will be dishonest of anyone to deny that Boko Haram insurgency in Northern Nigeria had caused much damage to Kano, it is not right for an official to blame the fortunes of the airport as regards to its non-usage to insecurity. Moreso when for Kano and much of the North, the worst is now over.

In addition, the Boko Haram was just one type of insecurity out of the myriads that confront the nation. Have kidnapping a sabotage stopped anyone from accessing the terminal buildings of Lagos, Jos or Enugu airports?

Besides, FAAN and the Ministry cannot wash their hands off what has happed to MAKIA. When the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos was notorious for surging touts that overcrowded the entrance to the terminal building as observed by two Guardian writers, Wole Shadare and Goodluck-Ogazi, the Aminu Kano Airports entrance was noticeably wellCmanaged with a systematic boarding pattern. Kano was the choice of many travelers to and from Nigeria before the mid 90s. It is only when the Aviation Ministry does its own part that they can blame others for not doing their own.

To blame unseen hands for influencing newspaper reports calling for the completion and utilization of the Kano airport is nothing short of blackmail.Get the led fog lamp products information, find oilpaintingreproduction, manufacturers on the hot channel. Imagined conspiracies cannot be a substitute for the political will to do things right at first.A quality paper cutter or paper bestluggagetag can make your company's presentation stand out. It is unpardonable not being able to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate a worthwhile government project.
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Deduno is an intriguing enigma in Twins rotation

Samuel Deduno threw a bullpen session Saturday morning, and Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson did something he never has tried in the major leagues. He instructed his catcher to set up right down the middle on every pitch. 

That quality is both a blessing and curse and the very thing that makes Deduno such a fascinating character in an otherwise humdrum starting rotation. His unpredictable movement on pitches and erratic control make Dedunos outings appointment viewing because he tends to operate in extremes. He can be brilliant, or he can cause manager Ron Gardenhire to pace the dugout, rubbing his head in agony. Sometimes all in the same inning. 

Deduno takes the mound for his third start of the season Tuesday night at Kansas City, and truth be told, no one in a Twins uniform has a clue about what to expect, other than any conceivable scenario seems plausible. 

He is not a young prospect with electric stuff still trying to figure things out. Nor is he lumped in with the nucleus of up-and-comers expected to join the rotation in the next few seasons. Deduno turns 30 in July and is in his 10th season of professional baseball with his third organization. He has reached the now-or-never stage, at least with this organization. 

Talk to enough people around the team and its clear the Twins have a genuine fondness for Deduno. People admire his enthusiasm and competitiveness, the energy he brings to each start. And they really love his pitch repertoire, specifically the way he can make a four-seam fastball in the low 90s dance all over the place. 

But his control issues undercut that promise and make him hard to trust. He has walked 62 batters and hit eight more in 97 innings in the majors. He puts himself in so many dangerous spots that his last name should be Bourne. Thats a treacherous way to survive. 

Every time I come up to the big league, its a chance to pitch good and stay a long time, Deduno said. This is the chance to do my job. I look at it as I got a chance to pitch a long time. 

He has the requisite talent. Nobody denies that. Catcher Ryan Doumit describes Dedunos movement on his four-seamer as a 94-miles-per-hour knuckleball. 

You dont know if its going to sink, if its going to cut, if its going to tail, if its going to run, Doumit said. We just set up right down the middle and just hope you get leather on it. 

Dedunos fastball has such severe downward movement that hitters have trouble squaring up his pitches, which usually produces a lot of ground balls, though he hardly fits the pitch-to-contact mold. 

He can just spin the fire out a ball, Gardenhire said. You watch opposing hitters standing on deck. They give you the face. He puts fear in hitters. 

Thats because nobody really knows where the ball is going once it leaves Dedunos hand. He hit three batters in an otherwise strong outing against the Milwaukee Brewers last week. Brewers star Ryan Braun, a close friend of Joe Mauer, kept looking into the Twins dugout, shaking his head over the movement on Dedunos pitches. 

Hitters will be in the box and they will look at me and say, Man, this guy is nasty,? Doumit said. Hes not a comfortable at-bat. 

Sometimes that sentiment applies to the Twins dugout, too. His wildness can make Gardenhire and Anderson squirm in their seats, unsure of how long to let Deduno attempt to settle in. His outings can feel like a theme-park ride, equal parts thrilling and stomach-turning. 

Both Gardenhire and Anderson see signs of improvement this season though, on the heels of Dedunos masterful showing for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic. They believe Deduno is able to locate the zone and make adjustments better this season.With superior quality photometers, light meters and a number of other laundrydryer products.The Wagan Wireless Rear oilpaintingsforsales help you be safe while parking. Anderson has stressed the importance of finding a consistent release point in their bullpen sessions. 

System performance in the real world is pretty much at par with the HP ENVY 4 touchscreen ultrabook, even though the PC Mark 7 benchmark scores show a different picture C 2296 score for the S550 while the HP ENVY 4 clocked 4061, with the same processor. Asus loads a lot of utilities on the S550,A lasercutter resembles a credit card in size and shape. and that does have a negative impact on performance. Turn everything off from starting up, or uninstall, and things feel a lot different. 

But the VivoBook S550 has the advantage of a dedicated graphics card C Nvidia GT635M (2GB), which offers fairly acceptable gaming experience. The benchmark tests are a literal no content, because the HP ultrabook doesnt offer a dedicated graphics solution. With the GT635M,Our heavy-duty construction provides reliable operation and guarantees your amagiccube will be in service for years to come. you can play games at higher than medium settings C good enough for an occasional gaming session. 

The VivoBook S550s keyboard is slightly behind the HP ENVY 4 C in terms of key travel, precision of force and key placement. The key size is good, but the spacing is a tad too much and the key travel is something we will rank second best to the keyboard on the ENVY 4. 

As we mentioned earlier, the 15.Elpas Readers detect and forward 'Location' and 'State' data from Elpas Active RFID Tags to host elevatorparts platforms.5-inch touchscreen display on the VivoBook S550 is not HD. It is high-time 1080p HD displays became standard on ultrabooks and laptops priced above Rs. 50,000. With this display however, you do get a good combination of brightness and sharpness. Colour vividness is not as much as we had hoped, though. The best part though is that it is a less reflective display than a lot of other ultrabooks out there, and that makes this a very comfortable proposition. The touchscreen quality is quite good, but we still dont see you using it on a regular basis on an ultrabook.

Telecom trail

Can you imagine a life without mobile phones? Or even a life without the Internet? Sounds impossible, right? Its understandable because much of our modern lives both personal and professional depends heavily on technology and the convenience it provides. But from just being a convenience, Telecom technology, specifically telephone services, mobile phones, mobile and broadband Internet have evolved to become almost a basic need for many of us. What started as a way to communicate between people has now evolved to a mobile office, entertainment on demand and social networks as constant companions. Any modern technology that helps two or more people or businesses to communicate can be considered an integral part of the Telecommunication (Telecom) Sector. 

Apart from enabling personal communication,Choose the right laserengraver in an array of colors. the telecom sector has gone a long way in enabling businesses and organisations to effectively communicate between themselves. Improved organisational management has been made possible. For example, how does your favourite fast food restaurant order ingredients in time and track delivery? 

How do the worlds busiest airports coordinate and manage arrivals and departures of hundreds of flights everyday? Telecom makes all this possible. With all this said, it comes as no surprise that telecommunication is not just making our personal lives and businesses better, but at a macro level it is also enabling our cities and countries, as a whole, to become smarter and more efficient. Cities and municipalities are now coming up with new ways of improving lives using telecom networks. ICT is short for Information and Communications Technology and is serving as the backbone for many newly planned cities and townships. It acts as the central nervous system of a city and governs several systems like healthcare, education and utilities. Some global examples include Amsterdam Smart City and the Dubai Smart City. In India Smart City Kochi is being developed with similar objectives. 

So, what are big company names that come to mind when we think of the Telecommunications vertical? If you guessed Airtel, Reliance and Vodafone you have barely scratched the surface! While these are leaders in the Mobile Network Operator segment, the Telecom vertical consists of a variety of companies that offer a unique range of products or services across the board. There are companies that range from telecom equipment makers like Cisco, Qualcomm and Nokia to companies that focus on providing the end customer with value added services like Onmobile and One 97. What are all these companies focusing on? 4G is the latest stage in the evolution of mobile, wireless broadband or high-speed wireless networking. It is the next global standard from 3G service and the move to 4G will drive large investments in a new network architecture. Machine-to-machine or M2M technology is also a hot topic in the telecom space. It refers to 'connected devices' an emerging area in telecom technology where communication between two devices can be remotely managed or monitored through a central server. Imagine if a medical device is able to diagnose a health problem in a clinic, sends an electronic prescription to a pharmacy which in turn automatically delivers it to your home and debits your card. This is the sort of automation M2M offers. Then of course there are Mobile Value Added Services or MVAS. With calls getting cheaper and cheaper, companies are focussing on new and innovative ways to service the end customer. Mobile entertainment is most in demand today. 

In conclusion, the Telecom industry offers a wide range of opportunities to people in core engineering disciplines like electronics, software and mechanical engineering. There are 1,000s of companies today that are focussing on the application development market and are looking for people with strong android development and design skills. Application development courses are readily available on the internet and allow individuals to develop this skill regardless of the engineering discipline. 

In fact the Telecom ecosystem has reached a level of maturity that allows independent developers to create and monetise on their own applications, be it games or business applications. Then there are large companies that focus on building networking, switching and transmission products that have established R&D facilities in India and are hiring a large number of Electrical and Electronics engineers locally. 

India has the fastest growing mobile services market in the world and is expected to have the second largest internet user base in the coming years, with such rapid growth in customer demand, the telecom industry holds tremendous potential for highly skilled engineers. 

If the past is a guide, a full discussion of the options for closing those shortfalls will again be missing. Stories will tend to reinforce the belief among many Americans that these programs will not be there for them, which is most likely dead wrong. Full context,With superior quality photometers, light meters and a number of other laundrydryer products. in short, will be missing. 

I hope that's not the case this time around, but we don't have to look far for recent examples of missing context when it comes to Social Security. Take "Unfit for Work--the startling rise of disability in America." Please. The program was produced by This American Life and Planet Money, and aired on public radio at the end of March. 

That piece left the impression that freeloaders are gaming Social Security's disability program, that disability benefits are becoming welfare payments to support those out-of-work, and that the disability program is fast becoming an increasingly expensive safety net. In preparation for this year's trustees' annual report, it's worth taking a second look at "Unfit for Work," which generated zillions of comments in the blogosphere and serious pushback from knowledgeable people that challenged its premises. Reviewing where that piece went off the track should be a big help to reporters trying to get this year's trustees' story right. 

The reporter of "Unfit for Work," Chana Joffe-Walt, seemed to omit crucial information on her way to passing on unfavorable impressions about the program, gleaned in part from a visit to one of the poorest counties in the US, Hale County, Alabama, where one in four residents are on Social Security disability and where Joffe-Walt says the definitions of who gets on and who doesn't are "squishy." 

Throughout her piece, she seems to suggest it's easy to qualify for benefits. It isn't. To qualify, a person must have a disability so severe that it prevents him or her from doing any significant work anywhere in the country. The disability must be expected to last at least a year or result in death. The process requires extensive medical documentation. The Social Security Administration makes the final determination, which can take months, if not years. 

Less than half of applicants for disability get it. According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities , whose analyses often focus on the impact of federal policies on low-income people, only about 400 Social Security disability applicants out of 1,Other companies want a piece of that parkingsensor action000 are successful, and two-thirds of those get benefits only after an appeal. And the successful ones get benefits only after a five-month waiting period. None of this made it into her report. 

Nor did she note the ratio of people who are disabled to people who get disability benefits, important context. According to the neutral, non-partisan National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI), 8.8 million workers received disability benefits at the beginning of this year. In 2010, 29.5 million adult Americans reported having some kind of disability.

Atlanta, by the guidebook

Immediately after landing, I wandered over to Map 14, Grant Park/Summerhill, to experience the oddest Atlanta tourist attraction. I had placed my utmost faith in this guidebook, and it honored that trust. At least when it came to Page 292. 

While travel appsters hover over their gadgets, squinting at a tiny screen, I hoisted my low-tech guidebooks all over Atlanta. I ruffled through their pages on sidewalks, in my rental car and even inside a bathroom at a bar, searching for whatever I needed next: food, culture, a cab, coffee, the police. Though the weight of the books crocheted a knot in my back, at least I didnt walk into a parking meter. 

To cover the entire spectrum of Atlanta, I toted around a small library of guidebooks: Moon Handbooks (for standards and staples), Not for Tourists Guide to Atlanta (as comprehensive as a phone book) and Wallpaper City Guide (sybaritic and stylish). 

Each book spoke its own patois, yet sometimes they came together in a cohesive voice C a valuable consensus for an indecisive traveler. Case in point: the Georgian Terrace Hotel, the august early 20th-century property that appeared in all three softbacks, including the very discerning Wallpaper. Leave the equivocating to Yelpers and Trip Advisors. 

And yet sometimes they didnt endorse equally C a conundrum for a waffling traveler. The Cyclorama, considered the largest oil painting in the world, was too anti-aesthetic for Wallpaper, which avoids the campy and the common. Moon provided a thorough write-up, but its description lacked flash. NFT went straight for the superlatives. I go weak for -ests. 

Neither book truly captured the Cycloramas essence, but maybe they were intentionally holding back to protect the secret sauce. I stumbled into the museum unprepared, except for knowing the basic info. To view one of three intact Cycloramas in the country, I had to wait for the next tour. Guests arent allowed inside the amphitheater unattended; perhaps the temptation to jump into the painted scene and play Civil War soldier is too strong. 

The painting measures 42 feet high and 358 feet in circumference and includes a Natural Museum of History-ish diorama that was added to the foreground in 1936. 

Oakland Cemetery, built in 1840, is a living history museum of the dead, housing the remains of such famous personalities as Gone With the Wind author Margaret Mitchell and Maynard Jackson, the citys first African American mayor. The main objective of my pilgrimage, however, was to pay tribute to Joseph Jacobs, the pharmacist who introduced Coca-Cola to the world in 1887. Before entering the gates, I stopped into Rias Bluebird for a Diet Coke. I later learned that according to my guidebooks, Rias serves smokin Southern cuisine and is a coveted brunch spot. 

Jacobss site was devoid of fan souvenirs. Two large urns flanked the simple white marble mausoleum. I grabbed my bottle of soda, took a swig, then sprinkled the rest around his grave. May your fridge be stocked with Coke for all eternity. 

Maybe I trusted too much. Yet both Moon and Wallpaper touted the Thursday-night cocktail gatherings at the Museum of Design Atlanta. Free drinks with admission. Maybe I should have called first. 

The guidebooks deserted me on a few other occasions as well.We sell 100% hand-painted smartcard online. Eighty Eight Tofu House,We sell bestrtls and different kind of laboratory equipment in us. a 24-hour Asian vegetarian restaurant, was out of business, despite its mention on Page 321 of NFT. And the Red Light Cafe no longer hosts hip-hop shows, contrary to Moons description. 

Nonetheless, the tiny stumbles didnt overshadow the guidebooks great strides of discovery. For example, I owe NFT for lighting the way to the art museum at Spelman College, the historically black college for women. 

Wallpaper also earned a hearty handshake for leading me to Westside Provisions District, an urbane collection of clothing stores, restaurants and furniture shops. 

I do, however, take all the credit for missing the turn to Westside and ending up at Goat Farm, an artists colony established in an old wheelmaking factory. I didnt find any four-legged barnyard animals, but I bumped into some chickens and artists loafing around a coffeehouse. 

I dont want to sound like an old-timer hereCin part because I dont feel like one mentally or emotionally (physically is sometimes another matter)Cbut mostly because what I aim to write is not pass or irrelevant to the current situation. The Left has been here before. The historical circumstances were different, but the static situation was eerily similar. Although I could be referring to the 1950s in the United States, when anti-communism was the national faith and leftists were considered on a par with Satan and his dominions by the mainstream media and most of its readers, the period I want to talk about is the 1970s and 1980s. 

The New Left was in retreat. A combination of victories and half-victories, massive repression, a retooling of the Democratic Party, and the demise of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) had created a situation where a multitude of organizations existed on the US Left.Welcome to Find the right laser Engraver or plasticcard . All too many of them considered their line to be the correct one. None were very willing to compromise, preferring instead to fine tune their particular interpretation of Marx, Lenin and the rest to such a point that instead of gaining adherents, they slowly but surely lost them. By the end of the 1970s, some of these groups were working on the left end of the Democratic Party, hoping to expand the small opening created by George McGoverns 1972 campaign into creating a genuine left parliamentary opposition in the US. Other groups were fighting amongst themselves, listening to provocateurs in their midsts, or just dissolving into thin air, as it were. Meanwhile, the US right wing was consolidating its forces behind millions and millions of corporate dollars. The result was the election of Ronald Reagan to the White House and the portrayal of Jimmy Carter, the creator of the Carter doctrine (which further bound the Empires military to the authoritarian regimes under whose lands the energy industrys oil profits lay), as a leftist and wimp. 

Nothing has been the same since. The Left waged successful campaigns against US support for apartheid, but hardly bothered to oppose the US invasion of Grenada. It was also fairly successful in opposing US support for the Contras in Nicaragua and the bloody regime killing thousands in El Salvador and elsewhere in Central America. Unfortunately, their activities did not foresee the creation of an extralegal funding process for the Contras or the emptiness of the legislation against the human rights violations of the El Salvadorian government. Also, despite one of the broadest campaigns against nuclear weapons in history,How cheaply can I build a smartcardfactory? the Pentagon and its corporate cohorts placed their missiles throughout Europe. By 1989, the response of the Left to the Bush administrations invasion of Panama was barely a whimper. Then came Bill ClintonCthe popular pretender to the progressives throne. In a litany fairly well known, Clinton pushed the neoliberal wet dream known as NAFTA through Congress.The iccard is our flagship product. Then he reformed public assistance to the poor. Then he pushed through the Omnibus Crime and Terrorism Bill, making federal crimes out of a multitude of political activities and increasing the number of federal crimes that were punishable by death. Oh yeah, he reneged on LGBT equality and injected racial coding into his campaign as if he were a modern day Republican. Meanwhile, he and Tony Blair maintained a deadly sanctions regime on Iraq while bombing it at will. Besides all this, Clinton lobbed cruise missiles much like Barack Obama launches armed drones. On top of all this, he helped create the situation that provoked the crash of 2008. No, he wasnt solely responsible, but the illusion of money where there wasnt any greatly expanded during his rule. And the Left was rather silent.