Happy Thanksgiving weekend to everyone!

Your industrious friends at Netgate have been working hard over the holiday weekend to bring you some excellent news to start your post-family-food-football-shopping-weekend.   We have a good ETA for you on the RouterStation PRO cases and kits.  (“Finally!” you say.  Yeah, we’re with you.)

December 10, 2009.

If you’ve already indicated interest by following our “I may want one!” link below, we’ll contact you with a few questions (just the case, a kit, a kit with card, pigtails and antennas) and payment options later this week when we recover from our food coma.  Don’t worry – you’re first in line.   In the mean time, if you want to look over the options we’ve collected all the relevant bits into a Ubiquiti Kits category here.

The RouterStation PRO enclosure WILL include a light guide, which raises the price to $40.

The RouterStation PRO KIT which includes the enclosure with light guide, RouterStation PRO board, and a power supply is $149.95 if purchased separately.  Our kit price is $147.95.

Various Ubiquiti cards, paired with the appropriate number of pigtails and antennas are also available on the same category page.

So go crazy!  Buy hundreds, nay, thousands!  That way we’ll be able to order 50,000 light guides from China and drop the price accordingly. 

If you have a burning question, feel free to email us at sales@netgate.com

So what’s next?  How about a 1U rack mount enclosure for the RouterStation PRO?   Stay tuned…

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Nov 21, 2009 18:03:04

As Inside Higher Education has reported today, the American Geographical Society has entered into a partnership with Wiley-Blackwell to publish its journals Geographical Review and FOCUS on Geography. (W-B press release here.) This move follows similar agreements made by the American Anthropological Association and a multitude of other publishing societies.

Hi,

Thanks for your interest – we’ve had a great response to the Ubiquiti RouterStationPRO case “I may want one!” link on our website. They are being manufactured and we hope to have a more exact ETA for you later this week, but an educated guess would put us at the first or second week of December.

We have made a few changes to the initial design based on your requests and feedback on the prototype cases:

First, there are now NINE SMA sized knockouts for antennas. There are six on the back side and three on the front.   So if you really need nine antenna leads then we’ve got you covered!

Second, we’ve modified the light guide holes to be a light rectangle.  During our tests we found the holes to be just too small to effectively see through.

Third, we’ve moved or removed some of the venting holes to make room for the additional antenna knockouts and laser etched labeling on the box.

On a related subject, we have priced out custom light guides made in the USA and have found they are all in the $10-20 range in small (500-1000 unit) quantities. Yow!  Our intrepid Industrial Designer continues to think and tinker, and it looks like he may have come up with a design in the $6-8 range.    This would normally be a few pennies each if we were making them 50,000 at a time in China, but we’re not there yet.     We will certainly ask for your feedback on this once we post the updated design.

So stay tuned! When we have a better ETA on the RouterStationPRO case and finalized pricing we’ll post it here and on netgate.com.

ServersPlus can now offer premium and value server cabinets in a wide range of sizes, and built to order – from 9U up to 47U, and 450mm depth to 1200mm depth – to accommodate everything from telecommunications equipment to complete rack servers.

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     In the last post more rules on how to address a business letter were discussed such as where to place the date, how to address the person you are writing to known as the salutation, keeping the tone of the body of the letter formal and concise and how to write your words so they will be sure to not be misunderstood by the reader.  In this post we will further consider the rules that will help you write a business letter.  

     When you are about to close a letter it is time to thank the person for their time in reading the letter, for taking the action you are asking them to take or whatever else you would like to thank them for.  It is a courteous way to end a courteous letter and remind your reader that you are a serious businessperson who wants to take every effort to resolve a problem or to address an issue of any type.  After thanking your reader, it is time to end your letter with another salutation such as With Best Regards.  Below this you will type your name as well as sign the letter by hand.  You will want to quadruple-space between the salutation and the printing of your name to have adequate room for your signature.  Writing your signature with black ink adds sincerity to what is otherwise a formal business letter.  This completes the mechanics of writing a business letter.  After it is finished you might need a copy for future reference, so storing a copy on your computer would be another good idea.

     Sometimes there are extra articles that are attached to your main correspondence.  Anything could fall under this umbrella such as a pie chart, for example, if you would like to show your reader an example of what you are writing about.  This would be an enclosure and you would let the reader know that you have included a graph or chart by typing the word Enclosure at the bottom of your business letter.  You may also need to send a copy of this same letter to more than one person.  In that case you would type cc at the bottom of the letter with the names of the people who will receive a copy of the letter written after it.  Generally, people are not sending actual carbon copies of their letters, cc stands for carbon copy, but this is the proper way to let everyone know that a copy of the letter is going out to others. 

     These rules will help you create good, effective business letters, but there are also business letter templates that will take the stress out of writing business letters.   Letters for every situation, already created and ready to be personalized by you, can be found in business letter template collections.  It’s worth a try.

I saw the below pic in a newspaper yesterday. It shows a group of chimpanzees gathered by a wire fence in their enclosure while they watch as a deceased chimp is taken away to be buried. When the chimp, called Dorothy, died in her late 40s the other chimps gathered together and appear to be in some grief at the death. Look at the two at the back; one looks to have its hand on the other’s shoulder. Several look to be quite upset. All the chimps live at the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Centre in Cameroon, West Africa. All are orphans as their parents were killed by hunters for meat and they were picked up to be sold as pets before being rescued by villagers at the centre. Apparently a new school of thought is gathering evidence that humans are not the only ones who grieve for the dead and also suggests that some creatures may even understand what death is. Chimpanzees and other primates have often been seen apparently grieving and showing signs of emotional distress when a chimp that was part of their family or tribe has died. Thanks for reading.

“THE UNCHAINED WORKERS OF DECAY” Graphite on paper – Courtesy of the FANTOM FACTION

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In honor of the upcoming celebration of open access week and because I felt the need to write something other than administrative memos, I composed the following essay outlining my relationship to commercial scholarly publishing in the wake of concluding my work as editor of Museum Anthropology. It is offered here [CC BY NC SA 3.0] for those who might be interested in my thinking on one piece of the larger scholarly communications puzzle.

Getting Yourself Out of the Business in Five Easy Steps [1]

Jason Baird Jackson
Indiana University

Last year, did you get paid nothing to work hard for a multinational corporation with reported revenues of over 1 billion dollars in 2008? [2]

If you have (1) done peer-reviews for, (2) submitted an article to, (3) written a book or media review for, or (4) taken on the editorship of a scholarly journal published by giant firms such as Springer, Reed Elisevier, or Wiley, then you belong to a very large group of very well-educated people whose unpaid labor has helped make these firms very profitable. Their profitability in turn has positioned them to work vigorously against the interests of (1) university presses and other not-for-profit publishers in the public interest, (2) libraries at all levels, (3) university and college students, (4) scholars themselves, and (5) particular and general publics with a need to consult the scholarly record.

I am not willing to freely give my labor to large multinational corporations whose interests align with their shareholders but that are antagonistic to my own. This is my view on one key aspect of scholarly communications today. Scholars can advance several different worthwhile causes by doing all that they can to stop becoming further entangled (individually and collectively) with for-profit scholarly publishers, particularly the largest of the multinational firms that increasingly seek to exert a kind of hegemony over the entire domain of scholarly communications.

There is a great variety of steps that can be taken to build a different, more accessible and progressive system of scholarly communication. My focus here is on five simple choices that scholars can make while sitting at their desk pursuing their own publishing work. These are choices that I have made and that I encourage my colleagues to consider making.

• Choose not to submit scholarly journal articles or other works to publications owned by for-profit firms.
• Say no, when asked to undertake peer-review work on a book or article manuscript that has been submitted for publication by a for-profit publisher or a journal under the control of a commercial publisher.
• Do not seek or accept the editorship of a journal owned or under the control of a commercial publisher.
• Do not take on the role of series editor for a book series being published by a for-profit publisher.
• Turn down invitations to join the editorial boards of commercially published journals or book series.

If taken, the preceding steps are individual in their point of action even as they support a variety of more collective projects aimed at redirecting the scholarly communication system in more progressive, sustainable, and open ways.

If you care about university presses, these steps will help.  If you are eager to resist corporate enclosure of public goods, resources, and ideas, they will help. If you care about reform in intellectual property systems, they will help. If you advocate for green open access publishing, they will help.  If you want to cultivate not-for-profit gold open access publishing, they will help.  If you are worried that your college or university library is on the brink of financial collapse, they will help. If you want to make sure that your scholarship is as available as possible to colleagues, students, and the public, they will help. If you believe in open education and other approaches to transforming teaching and learning, they will help. If you are concerned about the harmful effects of media consolidation, they will help. If you are selfish and resent being taken advantage of, they will help.

If you are a shareholder or employee of a for-profit publisher, they, of course, won’t help.

If you believe that only for-profit firms can sufficiently “add value” to your work between the time of authorship and the time of publication, then your views are those of the commercial firms and their lobbyists, but they do not match my own experiences as an author or journal editor or consumer of scholarly works across several disciplines.

If you belong to a discipline in which there are no viable not-for-profit publishing options left, then you and your colleagues face bigger questions that are beyond the scope of this essay (but there is still hope).

The fact that a large number of not-for-profit scholarly societies with active publishing programs have entered into partnership with the large commercial publishers makes coming to an individual conclusion about these issues more difficult, at least vis-a-vis those publications that are simultaneously producing profits for the private publishers and for the not-for-profit scholarly associations. Many scholars value their own scholarly organizations highly and appreciate the variety of services that they provide to members. Scholarly societies have chosen to partner with for-profit publishers because of a perceived need for the revenue that these publishers can provide. As a member and as a journal editor, I have experienced these dynamics in the context of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and its decision to move first from self-publishing to a co-publishing arrangement with the University of Californian Press and then to a publishing partnership with the commercial firm Wiley. The tale of these experiences and their ramifications is the topic for another essay, but my own choice is that I have selected to remain an active member of the AAA but not to undertake further editorial, authorial, or peer-review work for its journals while it remains partnered with Wiley. My hope is to be an effective advocate for (and builder of) alternative approaches to scholarly publication within and beyond the association and to work to understand the costs as well as the benefits that the Wiley partnership has brought. Thankfully, a not-for-profit sector still exists in anthropological publishing. While it has been reduced through the vigorous efforts of the commercial firms, it has been expanded, to a degree, through the founding of some new not-for-profit and open access publication outlets. Resisting commercial publishing and sustaining this diverse and non-commercial communications ecosystem is where I most wish to invest my time and labor. I regret that my association chose to turn its back on the university presses that have long been so important to the social sciences and humanities and that its embrace of commercial publishing has alienated the institutional partners that it could have cultivated in the service of more open approaches to publishing, but nothing is permanent. (On the AAA case, see Kelty et al. 2008)

Not everyone will come to the same conclusions that I have about these issues. That is the way of things. I have found encouragement though in the diversity and energy of the many colleagues who have given serious thought to the problems that scholarly communications work now faces and who are working hard to develop the many solutions that are being pioneered right now. Concluding where I began, with an image of scholars contributing to their own exploitation and to the impoverishment of society generally, I end with a the observations of anthropologist Michael F. Brown. Discussing the decision by the AAA to partner with Wiley, he reflected: “I find myself asking the following question: Why would anyone agree to edit a journal for free or to review submissions for free when the organization that distributes the final product is committed to generating profits for its shareholders or owners? The whole idea of “service to the profession” begins to look like a clever form of economic exploitation (Brown 2007).”

What choices are you making? Are you ready to get out of the business?

Notes

1. My deepest thanks go to everyone who has worked hard to teach me about the world of publishing and libraries, as well as to those who have supported my work as an author, editor and publisher.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA

2 As a measure of scale, consider the following three large commercial STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publishers. For 2008, Springer reported revenues of 892 Million Euros (or about 1.3 Billion U.S. Dollars) (Springer 2008:20). For 2008, Reed Elisevier reported revenues of 5 Billion, 334 Million Euros (or about 7.9 Billion U.S. Dollars) (Reed Elsevier 2008:6). For its Fiscal Year 2008, Wiley reported revenues of 1 Billion, 674 Million U.S. Dollars (Wiley 2008). Revenue is different from profit, but these are very profitable firms. Unlike the bulk of their scholarly content, their annual reports are freely available via the corporate information or investor relations sections of their websites.

References Cited

Brown, Michael F.

2007    Weblog Comment. http://savageminds.org/2007/08/22/press-coverage-on-the-possible-wiley-decision/#comment-112957, accessed October 11, 2009.

Kelty, Christopher M., Michael M. J. Fischer, Alex Golub, Jason Baird Jackson, Kimberly Christen, Michael F. Brown, and Tom Boellstorff

2008    Anthropology of/in Circulation: The Future of Open Access and Scholarly Societies. Cultural Anthropology 23(3):559-558. https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/handle/2022/3167, accessed October 11, 2009.

Reed Elsevier

2008    Annual Reports and Financial Statements 2008. Amsterdam: Reed Elsevier. http://www.reed-elsevier.com/PDFFiles/ReedElsevier-AnnualReports-08.pdf, accessed October 11, 2009.

Springer

2008    Springer Science+Business Media Annual Report 2008. Berlin: Springer Science+Business Media. http://www.springer-sbm.com/fileadmin/springer_internet/downloads/annual_reports/2008_interim/SpringerSBM_Annual_Report_2008.pdf, accessed October 11, 2009.

Wiley

2008    John Wiley and Sons, Inc. 2008 Annual Report. http://www.wiley.com/legacy/annual_reports/ar_2008/financial.htm, accessed October 11, 2009.

Update (10/29/2009)

As of this evening, WordPress tells me that about 750 people have specifically consulted this essay. Because it is visible on the main page, I suspect folks visiting for other reasons occasionally notice it and that the WordPress count is mainly of individuals who come to the essay via the links that are out and about. While it is dissipating, there was a lively discussion in a number of places about the essay. For everyone who took the time to read it, link to it, or comment upon it, I am very thankful.

While it has been linked to from a number of places, the discussion unfolded in a few places that can be identified for the benefit of anyone who comes along later.

The comment section of the post itself (and of the thank you post that I wrote later) is an obvious place where discussion unfolded. The others that are known to me are:

The JISC-REPOSITORIES listserv, whose archives are available here. Look for the thread titled “Wrong Advice On Open Access: History Repeating Itself” begun by Stevan Harnad on 10/21/2009. While the thread began with Harnad’s critique, a number of authors recognized that my main point was not an intervention in direct support of Green OA but about a different matter of concern to some but not all scholarly communications workers/observers. I appreciate the discussion that the repositories community gave my reflection and appreciate those who picked up on what I was trying to say.

Stevan Harnad posted a comment here on my site to which I replied. In addition to the JISC-REPOSITORIES listserv, he also posted his statement on his own website (where I also offered a comment) and circulated it on various other OA-related lists.

Thanks also to those who supportive in their positive comments and linking to the essay, including the good people at Savage Minds, Publishing Archaeology, and Cultural Sustainability.  Interested folks on Facebook and Twitter also spread the word about the essay. All of this was a useful lesson in me relative to the power of social media to help spread an idea and facilitate a discussion among scholars and their allies.

I was motivated to gather up these links and notes in an update because I just heard from my friend Randy Lewis about an event being held at the University of Texas Austin. The important gold OA media studies journal FLOW is celebrating its 5th anniversary with panel discussion in which he is participating. (Hacking the Ivory Tower: A Roundtable Discussion). He mentioned that he though he might mention my essay/post. In case anyone new came around to check it out, I wanted to make finding some of the follow up easy.  (Congratulations to everyone who has made FLOW a success, by the way.)

Update (11/1/2009)

Discussion of the essay also took place on the Budapest Open Access Initiative Forum. It can be found archived as a thread at: http://threader.ecs.soton.ac.uk/lists/boaiforum/thread-1786.html Discussion there took place (or at least began) in October. I found the comment of my IU colleague Bob Noel particularly engaging and I appreciate his arguments on behalf of my position. To reiterate, I favor (like Stevan Harnad) action and advocacy in support of green OA but (unlike Stevan Harnad) this is not the only scholarly communications issue that I am concerned to address in my own work.

In an October 31 post (Message #5233) Stevan Harnad reposted his reply to Bob Noel’s BOAI Forum post to the SPARC-OAForum. It can be found here:  https://mx2.arl.org/Lists/SPARC-OAForum/Message/5233.html Further discussion on the SPARC-OAForum might or might not materialize.

It is interesting to ponder what it means that much of the discussion of the essay has taken place on listserv’s rather than in weblog comment sections.

I forgot previously to mention an additional venue in which discussion of the essay took place–Open Anthropology Cooperative, where Keith Hart offered extensive and interesting commentary. See:  http://openanthcoop.ning.com/profiles/blogs/resisting-corporate-enclosure

Richmond hill windows Living in Toronto we experience a great variety in severe weather conditions. Our summers are short and we try to get the most out of them. For those who own outdoor pools, this means they are only few days out of the year to enjoy it. Pools are expensive to maintain and it unfortunate not be able to take advantage of it fully and all year around. One great possible solution to this problem is to turn that pool into an indoor pool. The solution is easier than digging up your basement or building a house over the existing pool. All season sunroom would be the ideal product to turn that dream into a reality. A thermally broken aluminum sunroom system to cover the entire pool with walking space around the pool, exists, and perhaps a heater? Wouldn’t it be nice to have the freedom to change the weather? It’s possible to have the sunroom in the summer heating up the pool water, keeping the leaves out, and big windows to feel the breeze. But it’s even better to have the enclosure in the winter where you can enjoy the sun, the pool and escape the cold.

Same concept can be done to any backyard and not only over a pool, but also porch and patio enclosures. These are all popular and modern ways to use dead space to create comfortable and dynamic rooms. Obviously Hexocon would be the company that provides all essential resolutions to creating these contemporary projects.

Polygraph 21

POLYGRAPH 21

Study, Students, Universities

Issue Editors: Luka Aarsenjuk and Michelle Koerner

Introduction: Available as a PDF file, Luka Arsenjuk and Michelle Koerner

Creating Commons: Divided Governance, Participatory Management, and Struggles Against Enclosure in the University, Isaac Kamola and Eli Meyerhoff

Surplus Knowledge; or, Can We Teach Today? Juliet Flower MacCannell

Destinies of the University, Alessandro Russo, Translated by Roberta Orlandini

Risky Business: Why Public Is Losing to Private in American Research, Christopher Newfield

The Financialization of Student Life: Five Propositions on Student Debt, Morgan Adamson

Axiomatic Equality: Jacques Rancière and the Politics of Contemporary Education, Nina Power

A ‘Nueva Politicidad’, A Different Epistemology: An Introduction to ‘Colectivo Situaciones’ and ‘Universidad Trashumante’, Beatriz Llenin-Figueroa

An Elephant at School and Other Texts, Colectivo Situaciones, Translated by Beatriz Llenin-Figueroa

Walking the Other Country: Reflections on ‘Trashumancia’ and Popular Education, Universidad Trashumante, Translated by Beatriz Llenin-Figueroa

On Study: A ‘Polygraph’ Roundtable Discussion with Marc Bousquet, Stefano Harney, and Fred Moten, Available as a PDF file.

Universities in France: Forty Years After May ‘68, Renaud Bécot, Translated by Justin Izzo

The Gated Campus, Its Borderless Subjects, and the Neighborhood Nearby, Gökçe Günel, Books in Review

Marc Bousquet, How the University Works: Higher Education and the Low-Wage Nation (2008), Available as a PDF file, Review by Gerry Canavan

Antonio Negri, The Porcelain Workshop: For a New Grammar of Politics (2008); Paolo Virno, Multitude: Between Innovation and Negation (2008); Christian Marazzi, Capital and Language: From the New Economy to the War Economy (2008), Review by Alex Greenberg

John R. Betz, After Enlightenment: The Post-Secular Vision of J. G. Hamann (2009), Review by Lucas Perkins

‘Polygraph’ 21 is at: http://www.duke.edu/web/polygraph/poly21.html

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Tonight I am enveloped in the sounds of crickets, newness, and quiet expectancy. It seems the last several days have been filled with subtle and yet extremely profound moments that could perhaps shape the landscape of my future in a powerful way. I aim to present to you here a description of a powerful moment I experienced yesterday, one that has shifted my mindset and put a glimmer of something very great on the horizon, and it is my choice to accept or deny whatever that glimmer represents. This entry is really more for my own benefit than for your own, and I hope you aren’t offended, but I do want this message to encourage you to think a bit about what it is you want your own life to look like. Regardless, for the time being and for our purposes here, these are the thoughts that ran casually but purposefully through the muddied and tangled paths of my mind today.

The thoughts came to me as I visited the place where my old home used to be, a shadow of what it once was with the house gone and weeds overtaking much of the landscape. I slowed my car when I got to the hill leading down to the driveway, as I had just left my aunt’s house and was thinking I might stop and take a look around since it was just around the corner. The perfectly manicured lawns and new houses, most of which were new additions as far as I was concerned, were in stark contrast to the overgrown land I once called home. So, as I came to the grassy driveway that would lead me to these old memories, I couldn’t help but feel even more nostalgic as I thought of the place as it once was.

I turned slowly into the barely-visible driveway, now overtaken with grass and weeds, and stopped almost immediately. It was around 5:00, the time when crickets begin their ritual chirping and the sun begins to dip behind the trees, and I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed at the scenery before me. The new owners had turned the land into pasture, sold and removed the house, and placed a gate at the front of the property. Stepping out of the car, I carefully made my way to the gate, squeezing myself between the wall of weeds and the car itself and running face-first into a spider web in the process. I quickly brushed away the remnants of the web from my clothes, checked to make sure it’s owner wasn’t taking residency on my person, and continued forward. Trees and tangled shrubbery had thus-far blocked my view of where the house once stood, but where the gate was positioned the weeds had formed a fortuitous arch that framed perfectly the knoll on which our home used to reside. I took in the scene. Memories began flooding my thoughts, and a pleasantness settled over me that seemed to replace those anxious thoughts that had initially dominated. I forced my way clumsily over the gate and began tracing the area where the driveway once lay.

In its former days, the red-dirt driveway would begin straight, curve sharply to the right and then slowly amble its way by the front of the house. It would then make a quick u-turn and end at the back of the house, where cars once parked. The left side was flanked by a rock bank, around two feet high, and tall trees made up the other side, with branches stretching out across so that in the spring and summer they would arch over the driveway and almost touch the high bank on the other side. This created an enclosure, a leafy tunnel of sorts, that was very beautiful; others might spend much time and money trying to replicate it. At dusk, sunlight would spill through the foliage, turning into visible streams of light and ending as shadow-patterns on the ground. This was the same driveway I learned to ride a bike on and, although nearly unrecognizable, it was the same driveway which I now found myself wandering down. It was here, tracing and remembering and stepping cautiously, that a wonderful idea began forming.

Because of both the Summer season and the time of day flies and wasps were making their rounds above and past my head, and the sounds of Summertime crickets hummed in my ears. I was noting how pleasant the temperature seemed when I reached the end of the driveway and stumbled onto an almost hidden rock pathway. The large, flat rocks, which at one time would lead from the driveway to the back porch stairs, were positioned in a perfect rectangle about two and a half feet wide and seven feet long. There was just enough space between the rocks for weeds and grass to grow through, making the pathway almost invisible, and as I slowly made my away over to this new discovery I couldn’t help but make a connection between the shabbiness of the pathway and how unfinished its work seemed to be. “No,” I thought, “this path should have something at its end. It should still lead to a home.” And it was at this moment that an idea dawned on me. How wonderful would it be to one day bring my own family here? To reclaim this land and build them a home and to give that old, worn path a purpose once more? My mind began racing, thinking of the possibilities. Visions of a big, white farmhouse sitting on top of the hill and a loving family inhabiting this place again was such an awesome thought that I am sure it will return often for the next days, weeks, months, or even years.

And here is where I suppose I should tie in my life’s direction and explain what I mean when I say the “landscape of my future” has been changed in a “powerful way.” This notion of a family and responsibility caused me to think about what I am doing, what goals I am working toward and why. What a powerful motivation to find direction! And what I realized is that, so far as I can tell, I have been very short-sighted in my vision for the future. But I wonder if a person should be very intentional about building the kind of life they wish to live, even if it’s at a young age? And then, what does that mean, to start building a future? Well, I think it means to make wise decisions, even in the smallest of matters, and it means being honest with yourself about the bad decisions you’ve made. Still more, it means pressing through with strength and determination when tough decisions loom around the corner and you think you might not have the endurance to stand.

And that is all I mean for you to take from this rambling blog post: that the future is there, waiting patiently, and that every decision you make today and yesterday and tomorrow will affect its shape. That isn’t to say we are to worry about what lies ahead, the “shape” of our future, as Scripture clearly commands us to trust in the Father; but, it is to say that we must be intentional about the choices we make and that we must find the strength to do the things we do not want to do. Luckily, for followers of the Way, that Strength is easily attainable. And as for that rapidly changing “landscape” I told you about, it’s very simple. The landscape has changed because of one, small inkling of maturation born of a solemn trip down memory lane, forcing awareness of the future and highlighting the implications of every single choice I make, who those choices will affect, and what, exactly, I wish my life to look like: goals acheived, people loved, self changed, and Him glorified.

We have yet more births to announce this week! On the 25^th April, a brown capuchin monkey was born over on the eastern side of Living Links. This new addition is a male, named Chico! He may be spotted catching a ride on the back of his mother, Junon, or even now exploring the enclosure on his own and interacting with the rest of the group.

As well as this, on the 12^th July the group welcomed another new born! This baby is yet to be sexed and named. However, it is also easy to spot clinging onto its mother, Anita’s back!

Undoubtedly, these youngsters will be learning a lot from their group. Chico, in particular, has begun spending time with not only his mum, but also his brother, Carlos, who was born in 2006. Over the past year Carlos has really enjoyed his training and research sessions with the researchers at the Living Links enclosure. After several months of work, he successfully learnt, from the researchers, that he could access honey (a great treat!) from the bottom of a box, by using a stick as a tool (a bit like an ice cream sundae spoon)! Despite, the length of time it took Carlos to learn this nifty trick, researchers spotted his mum learning exactly how to do it from him, within just 24 hours! This is a perfect example of how these intelligent primates can communicate with, and learn from one another. I’m sure that Chico may be learning such tricks from his mum and older brother very soon. Why not visit him in the Living Links enclosure on the far eastern side of the zoo, and see what he’s getting up to?

Look out for mum and baby!

Plans to move Mercedes the polar bear from Edinburgh Zoo to the Highland Wildlife Park are now well under way. Work has already begun on her enclosure and the keepers at Edinburgh Zoo have been working with Mercedes to train her to walk into the crate she’ll be transported in. Her transport crate was placed in front of her enclosure a couple of months ago and since then, keepers have been working with her every day to ensure the move goes as smoothly as possible.

Alison Maclean, Head Keeper of Carnivores, explains, “It is quite risky to sedate a large mammal so we have been training Mercedes to walk into the transport crate. We’ve been doing this using positive reinforcement – she has learned that when she walks into the crate she gets a reward, such as a piece of cooked chicken.  She responded to the training extremely quickly and has been walking in and out of her crate for a few weeks now. We are confident that the move will go well and we’re looking forward to helping her settle into her new home.”

Mercedes currently has a comprehensive and constantly evolving enrichment programme to stimulate her. She has also been trained by the keepers to stand on her back legs which allow them to check her paws and chest without the need for anesthesia.

Mercedes in training!

Mercedes is the only polar bear in a UK zoo, has been in Edinburgh since 1984. She was rescued from her native Canada after she was scheduled to be shot. Unfortunately she began roaming into a nearby town in search of food and, as they are dangerous animals, this behaviour had to be discouraged. Initially, she was captured and the number ‘39’ was painted on her coat which allowed her to be tracked. However, on her third visit to the town, the decision was made to shoot her. Luckily, she was rescued and RZSS offered her a home at Edinburgh Zoo. Mercedes Benz, the car company, assisted with the costs of her transport, hence her name.

When Mercedes arrived at Edinburgh Zoo she was paired with a male polar bear called Barney. They produced two cubs, To-Nuik and Ohoto. Barney passed away 13 years ago, since then Mercedes has been on her own, which is a natural social state for this solitary species.

Relaxing in the sun!

Some long-term residents of Edinburgh Zoo have also been moved on-show this week after several years out of the limelight. 1 male and 2 female African Spurred Thighed Tortoises are currently on show in what was the bottom red river hog house, next to the Diana monkeys. However this is a temporary move for the 6 year old tortoises, as there are plans to move them to another collection in the near future. This may therefore be your last chance to admire these slow-moving beasts before they leave the collection forever.

An African Spurred Thighed Tortoise poses

You may also be wondering what has become of the two red river hogs that previously inhabited this enclosure. Both Ruby and Buster, have also left the Edinburgh Zoo collection recently for another home. We were sad to wave goodbye to these two characters. However, we expect they will settle in well to their new home, and in the meantime, we can still watch out for the exploits of our remaining red river hogs, Belle and Hamish, who currently share an enclosure with the Eastern bongos.

Hamish shows us what red river hogs do best!

Why create a double skin facade?  The idea typically comes up when discussing a tall building.  Tall buildings lead to the desire to have expansive views and a great deal of glass.  If you create an all glass building, It takes a great deal of mechanical ventilation, and thus energy, to keep it cool in the summer and warm in the winter.  To mitigate this setback, the concept of the double skin facade can improve the thermal comfort, acoustic isolation from the exterior and potentially the energy efficiency of the building.  In a nutshell, we’re talking about 2 layers of glass and and intermediate space or cavity.  The cavity is a space of mediation between the interior and exterior enviroment.  Here is an excellent break down from this report available online:

This concept is manifested with a single exterior layer of heat-strengthened

safety glass or laminated safety glass, with exterior air inlet and outlet

openings controlled with manual or automatic throttling flaps. The second

interior façade layer consists of fixed or operable, double or single-pane, casement

or hopper windows. Within the intermediate space are retractable or

fixed Venetian blinds or roller shades, whose operation can be manual or

automated. During cooling conditions, the Venetian blinds (or roller shades)

cover the full height of the façade and are tilted to block direct sun. Absorbed

solar radiation is either convected within the intermediate space or re-radiIntroduction

19

ated to the interior and exterior. Low-emittance coatings on the interior glass

façade reduce radiative heat gains to the interior. If operable, the interior

windows are closed. Convection within the intermediate cavity occurs either

through thermal buoyancy or is wind driven. In some cases, mechanical ventilation

is used to extract heat”.

This concept is manifested with a single exterior layer of heat-strengthened safety glass or laminated safety glass, with exterior air inlet and outlet openings controlled with manual or automatic throttling flaps. The second interior façade layer consists of fixed or operable, double or single-pane, casement or hopper windows. Within the intermediate space are retractable or fixed Venetian blinds or roller shades, whose operation can be manual or automated. During cooling conditions, the Venetian blinds (or roller shades) cover the full height of the façade and are tilted to block direct sun. Absorbed solar radiation is either convected within the intermediate space or re-radiated to the interior and exterior. Low-emittance coatings on the interior glass façade reduce radiative heat gains to the interior. If operable, the interior windows are closed. Convection within the intermediate cavity occurs either through thermal buoyancy or is wind driven. In some cases, mechanical ventilation is used to extract heat.

Warm or Cool Climates

In a cool climate, the solar gain in the cavity can be circulated into the occupied space to offset mechanical ventilation requirements.  In a warm climate, the cavity is vented; the hot air rises, vents out and pulls in cooler air behind it.  This cooler cavity space reduces cooling requirements within the occupied space.

Types

Box Windows:  Consists of framed inward swinging window.  The cavity  is divided horizontally.  Vertical divisions of the cavity at every bay prevent the spread of sounds and smells from room to room.  Suited for solid facades with punched openings.

Shaft Box:  Special form of box windowed facade. Facade alternates between box windows and vertical shafts.  Shaft-box facades require fewer openings on the outside layer.  This system is best suited for lower rise construction.

Corridor Facade:  Intermediate space is closed at each floor.  Special care should be taken to prevent sound transmission from room to room via the corridor.  Best where high levels of sound insulation is required between rooms.

Multistory Facade:  Intermediate space is open with horizontal division.  In winter, the facade can be closed at top and bottom to exploit the conservatory effect and optimize solar energy gains.  Like corridor facades, special care should be taken acoustically.

Criticisms

From Wikipedia

The advantages of double skin facades over conventional single skin facades is not clear-cut; similar insulative values may be obtained using conventional high performance, low-e windows. The cavity results in a decrease in usable floor space, and depending on the strategy for ventilating the cavity it may have problems with condensation, becoming soiled or introducing outside noise. The construction of a second skin may also present a significant increase in materials and design costs.

Building energy modeling of double skin facades is inherently more difficult because of varying heat transfer properties within the cavity, making the modeling of energy performance and the prediction of savings debatable.

Buffalo has released its super small USB Thumb Drive called RMUM-8GH that measures just 5MM. With this device, you can transfer diverse types of data such as photos and movies taken by your cell phone camera between your system and PC to read write them. The storage capacity of the device is 16GB.You can use this device directly into a slot inside the male fitting of the USB connector. Besides, it has an artistic appearance and attributable to its smooth. You can have this device in Black and White colors for ¥ 15,500.00.

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