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Go back to Tsar Cannon, Russia
Search for a Landmark
Create your Landmarks list and mark landmarks as visited and want to visit.
Interesting Fact
The Library of Celsus was built to store 12,000 scrolls and to serve as a monumental tomb for the roman senator Celsus.
G u e s s G a m e s
Guess the landmarks, the countries, the continents and the capitals.
Share an interesting landmark that you have visited or want to visit.
Tips for Trips
Top 10 Landmarks
Russia
Top 10 Legends of Landmarks
Peaks by Height
Waterfalls by Height
Towers by Height
"A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles."
Tim Cahill
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<urn:uuid:615a0eb4-1345-41ff-b36d-4553c00c07ea>
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http://7tripson.com/pictures?destination=tsar-cannon-russia
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A-Fib Free? Celebrate Your Independence!
P.S. This week in the U.S., we celebrate the founding of our country with the July 4, 1776 signing of our Declaration of Independence. (BTW: Patti found this photo and writes: “Our family’s Fourth of July picnic celebrations always include a cold slice of watermelon.”)
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http://a-fib.com/a_fib-free-celebrate-independence/
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Semantic Mediawiki
Contents
What is Semantic MediaWiki?
Semantic MediaWiki (SemanticMW) allows you to introduce some database functions into a wiki. For example you might have in a wiki the category countries with pages on different countries. With SemanticMW you can then define keywords for each country like what is the name of its capital and the name of its highest mountain, as well as numbers like the total land area, population size and height of its highest mountain. In a different page, say one called "Mountains", you could then use SemanticMW to generate automatically a table of all countries in which the countries are sorted by the height of their highest mountain and which then contains apart from the names of the countries information like the names of their highest mountain, the total land area of each country as well as other information as appropriate. While the mountains are fixed, populations change continuously. With SemanticMW the content of a table showing the population size of different countries will change automatically once you change the population size in the page for one particular country.
You will find a detailed description of - and a manual for SemanticMW at the SemanticMW website
Installation and maintenance
You need to have administrator rights to install SemanticMW. The steps are:
- Ensure the extension SemanticMediaWiki is enabled as described in Mediawiki installation. This is usually already the case.
- Add the following 2 lines to the end of the LocalSettings.php file for your wiki (e.g. examplewiki="biowikifarm.net/test"):
include_once("$IP/extensions/SemanticMediaWiki/includes/SMW_Settings.php");
// enableSemantics( parse_url( $wgServer, PHP_URL_HOST ) ); # or
enableSemantics('examplewiki.net');
- Log in at your wiki as an administrator and call up the page "Special:SMWAdmin"
- Click on "Initialise or upgrade tables". This will create the necessary tables and set up the SemanticMW.
- Click on "Start updating data". This will start an automatic process of adjusting the data in the wiki so that they can be used by SemanticMW. The process typically lasts several days. You can monitor its progress by calling up "Special:SMWAdmin".
For repairing and refreshing SemanticMW data see the corresponding section under Mediawiki maintenance.
Database access rights
The maintenance script needs MySQL DROP command to function otherwise the error will appear:
- DROP command denied to user 'wikiuser'@'localhost' for table 'smw_new'
Check it in phpMyAdmin privileges settings tab. See also in Manual:Installing MediaWiki that the following MySQL commands can be used for 'wikiuser'
- INDEX, CREATE, SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, ALTER, LOCK tables (14.12.2013)
Guidelines and examples
See Help:SemanticMW.
Complementary SemanticMW extensions
A variety of additional extensions exist which extend the functions of SemanticMW. The following table provides an overview of the more important ones and where they have been installed on the biowikifarm:
SemanticMW extension | Metawiki | Testwiki | Off.Natur. | OpenMedia | ISPIwiki |
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SemanticMW (basic) | X | X | X | X | X |
Semantic Forms | X | X | X | X | X |
Semantic Drilldown | X | X | X | X | X |
Semantic Result Formats | X | X | X | X | X |
Semantic Internal Objects | X | X | X | X | X |
Interesting presentation from 2008: http://kontext.fraunhofer.de/haenelt/kurs/folien/Haenelt_SemWikiModelling.pdf
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I attended the biannual meeting of the American Association of Philosophy Teachers July 30-Aug 2, 2014, and got some fantastic suggestions/ideas for future teaching, as I did the last time I attended this conference. The AAPT workshop/conference is easily one of my top favourite conferences: it is so friendly, inviting, supportive, and there are great people to talk to about teaching philosophy as well as about life in general. I haven’t laughed this much, for so many days in succession, for a long time. It’s too bad this meeting is only held every two years, as these are people I’d sure like to see more often!
I’m going to take a few of blog posts to write down some of the (many) things that inspired me at this conference, that I’d like to try in my own teaching one way or another. There were many more things than I’m going to write about here—I have pages and pages of notes that I typed out during the conference. But in this and a couple of future posts, I’ll focus on just a few.
Broken feedback loop: when did you not respond well to feedback?
Rebecca Scott from Loyola University Chicago facilitated a session on closing the feedback loop, which started off in a really helpful way: she asked us to consider (among other things) times when we received feedback from someone (whether in the context of our academic lives or other aspects of our lives) and didn’t respond in the way that we now think would be most helpful.
I won’t give details on either situation, but one of them had to do with feedback I received at the end of a course that utterly shocked and floored me. More than one student said that I did something that was so very far from who I think I am that I just couldn’t believe it was true. All I could think of was: “How could someone think I was doing that? There’s no way I did that! They must be wrong.” I didn’t entertain (at first) the idea that the feedback could be right in some way. It just didn’t fit with who I thought I was.
Remembering this situation helped put me into the mindset of students receiving critical feedback (or, at least, helped move me closer to that I hope), and not believe it, getting angry, indignant, even lashing out. When that happens you are not even allowing yourself to think that the feedback might be true; since it doesn’t fit with who you think you are, your own evaluation of the quality of your work, the truth must be that whoever said that is simply wrong. I’m reminded of Socrates who, at least in Plato’s texts, would show his interlocutors that they didn’t know what they thought they knew, and for some the reaction was to just assume that Socrates must be wrong and to get angry with him.
Why might feedback not be incorporated into future work?
We came up with numerous reasons during the session, which I wrote down:
- Getting emotional; taking things too personally; losing sight of the goal of feedback
- Not caring about the work, just trying to get credit
- Too motivated by grade, not enough by learning
- Not believing that the feedback is true; e.g., coming into class with mindset that one is an A student b/c have gotten A’s so far, so don’t believe the instructor who gives a lower mark
- Distrust of the instructor, institution, due to larger social issues/context
- Not thinking that you could do any better, that you’re capable of improving even with feedback; including: getting discouraged at how much they have to change and thinking they can’t
- Not seeing work as formative process; thinking that when the assignment is done you are done and don’t need to revisit it, to learn from it
- Professor and students seeing diff goals of feedback; students might think that feedback is there to explain why they got the grade they did, but for the prof it might be there to show ways to improve
- Not understanding the feedback
- Not connecting feedback from past to future situations
- Thinking that just reading the comments is enough to improve for later
- Not having a clear idea of what good work looks like to aim for
- Too much feedback; overwhelmed; don’t know what to do with it
The one that I find hardest to deal with (though many are quite challenging) is the first: the emotional reaction. It kept me from addressing my situation as well as I could have, and I can see how student emotional reactions could lead them to not want to even look at the feedback again or think about it at all.
A reflective assignment to close the feedback loop
Rebecca shared with us an assignment she gives to students that asks them to reflect on their feedback, that forces them to read it and consider it and reflect on what they want to change for the future based on it. And the first item on that assignment is a question, asking them what their immediate reaction was on receiving the feedback. The idea is that maybe if they have an outlet to write it down, to let you know their emotional reaction, this might help them move past it.
But I think the rest of the assignment might help with that too. Because it goes on to ask students to
- write down how many comments they got in each of several categories (to help them see which areas they need to work on, and to ensure that they read the comments or at least skim them),
- what grade they expected, what grade they got and what do they think explains the difference between these
- how much of the feedback do they feel they understand
- what two things do they want to work on for the next assignment, and
- whether they have any questions or comments about the feedback they received
How might all of this help with the emotional reaction issue? Besides making them continue to think about the feedback even if they get angry instead of just ignoring it, it also gives them a chance to give feedback on the feedback, to try to figure out what could explain the difference between the grade they expected and the grade they got, which could include thinking about the feedback and how it might suggest that the grade makes at least some sense. Or, if they disagree with the feedback, it gives them an outlet to do so, and the instructor can follow up with them later to discuss the issue.
How I’d like to adapt this assignment, and also address a couple of the other problems above
I like this idea of a reflection on the feedback that you submit to the instructor, but I also want them to have a kind of running record of the feedback they’ve received, the 2-3 things they want to work on for the next time, what they did well and want to keep doing, etc. In addition, I want to make sure that they have to look back at this feedback for the next paper they write.
So, here’s an idea.
1. For the Arts One course I teach, in which students write a paper every 2 weeks (12 over the course of a year), I think I’ll ask them to include on each new essay:
- a list of at least two things they tried to do better on this one, based on feedback from the last one
- at least one thing they themselves noticed from their previous essay that either they think was good or that they would like to improve on, that no one else pointed out
- this is so that they don’t just look back at the feedback but also back at their previous essay and see what they themselves think, in order to do some self-assessment
2. I would also like to institute a policy in terms of my own feedback: that I will point out one or two instances of a certain type of mistake, and ask them to look for more instances (if I saw more in the essay, that is). Then, also on the next essay:
- Point out at least one other place in the previous essay where one of the comments I made applies elsewhere too.
- This is again so that they need to go do some self assessment of their work, and so I don’t need to go through and point out every single mistake. I think this could help with the issue of being overwhelmed by too much feedback
3. Finally, I think it would be great if they could keep a learning log, digitally, where they keep track of, for each essay: the comments they’ve gotten from peers, at least two things from me that they want to work on, the things they’re doing well and want to keep doing. That way they have a running record and periodically I can ask them to reflect on whether there are any patterns/repeated comments, or whether they are getting better because certain sorts of comments aren’t being said anymore.
These things could hopefully all help with the issue of not connecting feedback on previous work to later work. But I have to figure out how much of this is adding too much work for the students, or whether it is all so pedagogically valuable as to be worth it.
Back to when I didn’t respond well
At first, I just shut down. So I can understand when students do that. I didn’t want to think about it and just wanted to move past it. But I did eventually do something: I emailed all my students and asked them to fill in another feedback form, anonymously, that would just go to me. I asked them to be as specific as possible, because I didn’t get quite enough details on the first one. I got a few more details on this second round, which helped me understand some of the concerns expressed and how students may have come to the conclusion they did (and even that I might have been unconsciously doing some of what they thought, even though I’m still reluctant to believe that). But not entirely fully. I think there was some miscommunication somewhere that I just can’t rectify now.
All the more reason to give students more of a chance to give feedback during the course so problems can be solved earlier! (I just did it once, during the first term, and not at all during the second: lesson learned!)
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<urn:uuid:47cbe855-b16d-4a07-92d7-a15a7ed00a2c>
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http://blogs.ubc.ca/chendricks/2014/08/05/closing-the-feedback-loop/
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Editorial Article
The term leishmaniasis (or ‘leishmaniosis’)1 refers to a diverse group of syndromes caused by >20 different species of intracellular protozoan of the genus Leishmania, belonging to the Leishmania and Viannia subgenera1-3. The parasite infection is widely distributed across the tropical, subtropical, and temperate regions in 88 countries1,2.
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<urn:uuid:b2ebc258-0332-468a-a96a-f283d5addf8e>
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http://clytojournals.com/immunology-experimental-medicine-current-research
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by Eric Kociecki
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Things I love: Love. Things I hate: monthly fees to play games. Things that put the above in perspective: Eskil's rants. Things that were released today: Love
This game has held me captivated sine I first saw it about two years ago
We've been hit with a lot of spam lately so I'm adding a bit of a bot test here. If you're not a bot, check only the second box. If you are a bot or spammer, GTFO!
First Box:
Second Box:
Ending B is a Video Game and Anime Review/Blog.
All original content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.
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http://endingb.net/?article_id=156
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. In addition to crazes and the sounds of playing music, the way that you tune in to music seems to change at least every decade. Stay current with the trends and download you melodies from the Internet. This article below is full of easy tips on finding the most effective music to find the best prices online.
Consider joining an online forum. Many will share their downloads free of charge. This allows one to investigate the latest cd from a known artist or different genres of music without committing money or a large amount of time to the task, making it simpler to construct your library with the eclectic combination of tunes hip hop beats for sale.
If an artist is really loved by you, check out their website for music. An internet presence is maintained by most groups where they offer information on music and tours, and they will sometimes offer free music there. This could comprise a song from a brand new record they are trying to boost or unreleased tracks.
Cheap and free music downloads can be obtained by you from some band websites. Some popular groups like to give rare tracks, live tracks, and rough cuts that you won't find on their albums away. All these usually are free or really cheap on their own websites. It is a good approach to get music from a group you want, but to get access to cool extras that you just won't find at large music retailers that are online.
Regardless of the legalities of downloading free music, you also have something else to worry about when choosing music files that are free from sites that are distinct. Hackers regularly offer these files, so think twice before you join the bandwagon and download free music. It's far better by paying for it the right way, to lawfully get your music.
Be certain to are on a broadband connection before downloading music. When you download bunches of video files, the entire download size can accumulate fairly quickly, although music files usually are not the same gigantic size as them. In the event you're on a slow connection this can eat up lots of time hip hop beats free.
These applications in many cases are adware which can eat up resources on your own personal computer or internet connection, plus they add no benefit to the software itself, so only uncheck those boxes.
Pay attention to music formats. Music files come in a variety of formats. Some of those formats are unique to particular music players or music playing devices. Don't download music you can't use. What exactly are you going to use to listen to the music you are downloading? Determine the kind of file you will need.
Look for one that offers discounts, when searching for a web site to download music. Many music download websites offer discounts which are unique to the variety of music you listen to. To locate these types of promotions, sign up to get the promotional newsletter of the website's or seek the name of coupons and the website.
Before you buy music, you should preview it. It's important for the music tracks you are purchasing are clear and work properly. This is particularly true if you are buying from a lesser known business. You'll ensure that you are obtaining the song that is right by previewing it.
Music is always changing as mentioned above. Downloading music on the internet is really popular because it's easy, you are able to do it from house and is a very big selection online Going Here.
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<urn:uuid:c9a01bf8-3c45-4f0a-88a7-90465734e7d4>
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http://gagoo.free.fr/doku.php?id=Sound_Tips_Which_May_Get_Anyone_Started_With_Buy_Hip_Hop_Beats_Readily
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Please share your impressions, remarks, suggestions to help us improve the new Southplanet website. Don't hesitate to signal any bugs that you happen to come across !
Add your information (With the self-presentation files)
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© Some artistic content (photos, videos, sound recordings, written texts) is subject to copyright. Copyright is mentioned when and where it applies. Copyrighted material cannot be reproduced.
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http://www.spla.pro/en/file.event.festival-balabala-cine-2013.30415.html
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RHEE FAILS TO SHOW: A reader has tried to help us solve The Case of Rhee and the Wall Street Journal. As you may recall, the problem began with Michelle Rhee’s official biography-the one which helped the inexperienced ex-teacher get hired to run DC’s schools:
OFFICIAL RHEE BIOGRAPHY: Michelle Rhee’s commitment to excellence in education began in 1992, when she joined Teach For America after earning her Bachelor’s degree in Government from Cornell University. Her teaching career started at Harlem Park Community School in Baltimore, MD, where her outstanding success in the classroom earned her acclaim on Good Morning America and The Home Show, as well as in the Wall Street Journal and the Hartford Courant. Upon completing her service with Teach For America, she entered Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and graduated with a Master's degree in public policy...It sounded good—and it helped its author win a very important job. But is the highlighted statement true? Did Michelle Rhee’s “outstanding success in the classroom” really “earn her acclaim” from those major news orgs? Using Nexis, we found reports about Rhee’s former school, Harlem Park Elementary, in the Hartford Courant and on Good Morning America (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 7/9/07). But in no case could we find any sign that Rhee had been praised in those news orgs’ reports. Yes, there’s always room for doubt. But he claim didn’t seem to compute.
11/28/08
11/27/08
A Whale of a Meal
November 27th, 2008
Happy Turkey Day! This year, M and I are enjoying the holiday in Maine, not far from where the pilgrims would have had the “first Thanksgiving.” While we love the holiday mythos, as many know, the first Thanksgiving wasn’t really the first, it didn’t happen quite where we thought, when we thought, and they didn’t eat what we think they ate… In fact at the 1621 Thanksgiving at Plymouth they may have eaten something that would shock and revolt most Americans today.
Not far from us is a museum celebrating a tradition as fundamental to the fabric of New England as Thanksgiving; The Maine Maritime Museum. The museum has wide range of seafaring items, from figureheads, to model ships, to scrimshaw. Huge Ship WeathervaneIt also highlights a now long disappeared ocean occupation. It hasn’t been a part of Maine life for a century, but once, whaling was a way of life here.
Written in 1620 a year before Thanksgiving, the pilgrims had what they deemed “a first encounter.” It was actually two first encounters.” Walking down a cold Cape Cod beach they had their first encounter with the Cape Cod natives, and their first new country encounter with something they called a “Grampus.”
“As we drew near to the shore we espied some ten or twelve Indians very busy about a black thing.” Upon seeing the pilgrims the natives ran off into the woods leaving the Grampus which they had been cutting “into long rands or pieces, about an ell long and two handfull broad.”
The black thing, or Grampus as the Pilgrims called it, was in fact a beached long-finned pilot whale (globicephala melaena), one which the natives were almost assuredly preparing for eating, possibly preserving it through smoking it. A year later, when the Wampanoag Indians and the pilgrims dined together at the 1621 Thanksgiving, the meal consisted of berries, watercress, lobster, dried fruit, clams, venison, plums, “turkey” (in those days turkey meant all fowl so it may have been duck, goose, pheasant, turkey or all of the above) and fishes such as “cod and bass and other fish.” Other fish? Grampus perhaps?
Did the pilgrims eat whale? Perhaps, perhaps not. The celebration went on for three days, and much of the food was provided by the native king Massasoit and his people, it seems possible they would have enjoyed some smoked pilot whale. Since whale meat tastes rather like beef, (or like the venison it is known they ate at the celebration) the pilgrims might have eaten whale, enjoyed it, and never even known what it was. Today whale meat would most certainly not be welcome on most, if any, Thanksgiving tables, but at the “first” Thanksgiving it may well have been whale, not turkey they were giving thanks for.
For an excellent account of the history of eating whale in America read Nancy Shoemakers excellent article “Whale Meat in American History”, for pictures of the Maine Maritime Museum check our flickr set here. If you are interested in reading more about whaling, you might want to check out an article I recently wrote about Moby Dick, spermaceti, supernova, the history of physics, and the connection that ties them all together, which can be read online at the HTML times.
Happy Thanksgiving from Curious Expeditions!
11/26/08
What the hawks don’t get is what John Maynard Keynes understood: when the economy has as much underutilized capacity as we have now, and are likely to have more of in 2009 and 2010 (in all likelihood, over 8 percent of our workforce unemployed, 13 percent underemployed, millions of houses empty, factories idled, and office space unused), government spending that pushes the economy to fuller capacity will of itself shrink future deficits.
The Rebirth of Keynes, and the Debate to Come
The economy has just about come to a standstill – not so much because credit markets are clogged as because there’s not enough demand in the economy to keep it going. Consumer spending has fallen off a cliff. Investment is drying up. And exports are dropping because the recession has now spread around the world.
So are we about to return to Keynesianism? Hopefully. Government is the spender of last resort, which means the new Obama administration should probably be considering a stimulus package in the range of $600 billion, roughly 4 percent of national product -- focused on building and repairing the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, providing help to states to maintain services, and investing in new green technologies in order to wean the nation off oil.
But between now and late January, when the stimulus package will be voted on, we're likely to be treated to a great debate over the wisdom of Keynesianism. Fiscal hawks will claim government is already spending way too much. Even without the stimulus package, next year's budget deficit is likely to be in the range of $1.5 trillion, considering the shrinking economy and what’s being spent bailing out Wall Street. The hawks also worry that post-war baby boomers are only a few years away from retirement, meaning that the costs of Social Security and Medicare will balloon.
What the hawks don’t get is what John Maynard Keynes understood: when the economy has as much underutilized capacity as we have now, and are likely to have more of in 2009 and 2010 (in all likelihood, over 8 percent of our workforce unemployed, 13 percent underemployed, millions of houses empty, factories idled, and office space unused), government spending that pushes the economy to fuller capacity will of itself shrink future deficits.
Conservative supply-siders, meanwhile, will call for income-tax cuts rather than government spending, claiming that people with more money in their pockets will get the economy moving again more readily than can government. They're wrong, too. Income-tax cuts go mainly to upper-income people, and they tend to save rather than spend.
Even if a rebate could be fashioned for the middle class, it wouldn't do much good because, as we saw from the last set of rebate checks, people tend to use extra cash to pay off debts rather than buy goods and services. Besides, individual purchases wouldn't generate nearly as many American jobs as government spending on infrastructure, social services, and green technologies, because so much of we as individuals buy comes from abroad.
So the government has to spend big time. The real challenge will be for government to spend it wisely -- avoiding special-interest pleadings and pork projects such as bridges to nowhere. We’ll need a true capital budget that lays out the nation’s priorities rather than the priorities of powerful Washington lobbies. How exactly to achieve this? That's the debate we should be having between now and January 20 or 21st.
THANKSGIVING PRAYER
William Burroughs
"To John Dillinger and hope he is still alive.
Thanksgiving Day November 28, 1986"
Thanks for the wild turkey and
the passenger pigeons, destined
to be shat out through wholesome
American guts.
Thanks for a continent to despoil
and poison.
Thanks for Indians to provide a
modicum of challenge and
danger.
Thanks for vast herds of bison to
kill and skin leaving the
carcasses to rot.
Thanks for bounties on wolves
and coyotes.
Thanks for the American dream,
To vulgarize and to falsify until
the bare lies shine through.*
Thanks for the KKK.
For nigger-killin' lawmen,
feelin' their notches.
For decent church-goin' women,
with their mean, pinched, bitter,
evil faces.
Thanks for "Kill a Queer for
Christ" stickers.
Thanks for laboratory AIDS.
Thanks for Prohibition and the
war against drugs.
Thanks for a country where
nobody's allowed to mind the
own business.
Thanks for a nation of finks.
Yes, thanks for all the
memories-- all right let's see
your arms!
You always were a headache and
you always were a bore.
Thanks for the last and greatest
betrayal of the last and greatest
of human dreams.
*emphasis mine
Anyway, I have to drink them an hour before the scan. Many folks get to the hospital early and drink the stuff there. I, however, choose to get it ahead of time, drink it at home, and arrive just in time for the scan. That's what I did. Oh, and you can't eat for 4 hours before the scan, so you drink the barium on an empty stomach. No problem.
My scan went fine. They put you on the table, hook an IV up so they can deliver the contrast dye, and then they have you hold your breath a few times while they do the 3 or 4 passes in and out of the doughnut (the CT machine is like a doughnut, not a cave; that's an MRI).
The whole thing takes a few minutes, and then you're done. The contrast injection makes you feel warm, and a bit like you are wetting yourself. It's a weird sensation. There is a taste also. Very wierd, but not freaky.
The bad part is when the barium decides it's time to leave your body. I'm at that stage right now. Blogging may be sporadic as a result.
I won't know the results till my oncologist gives me a call. I'm not stressing. I never do. It is what it is, and will be what it will be. So far, since the surgery a couple years ago, I am clean. I intend to stay that way.
Have a happy Thanksgiving. Be thankful. Gotta go.....
Update: (Gurgle gurgle) The other thing is I am very hungry and am craving a pastrami sky-hi from Art's. But I don't live in LA anymore. Dammit!
11/25/08
Are Bar Miztvahs really necessary? Especially when your dad is an atheist and your mom believes in "baby beings"?
Jesus fucking Christ!
Update: So, I guess I should remind you that you can find ways to help TFT and son in the sidebar--you can shop Amazon via my link, buy TFT stuff at Cafe Press, and click like crazy on those Google ads!
Jim Bianco of Bianco Research crunched the inflation adjusted numbers. The bailout has cost more than all of these big budget government expenditures – combined:
• Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
• Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
• Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
• S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
• Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
• The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)
• Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion
• Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion
• NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion
TOTAL: $3.92 trillion
11/24/08
Update: Part 3 is now included.
Special report: Back-to-school week!And now, Part 2:
PART 1—EASY TO BE EASY: In a recent column, Nicholas Kristof insightfully prayed that our “War on Brains” might be nearing an end. We’ll have an intelligent president, he said. Perhaps this fact will point the way to the end of this long, foolish war.
In his next column, Kristof turned to the problems of public schools—and he lightly scolded Obama:KRISTOF (11/12/08): President-elect Barack Obama and his aides are sending signals that education may be on the back burner at the beginning of the new administration. He ranked it fifth among his priorities, and if it is being downplayed, that’s a mistake.Easy to be hard! For ourselves, we’d say that “fifth” is fairly high on a list of priorities, given the problems Obama will face—and given the fact that very few pols know squat about public schooling. Nonetheless, Kristof continued his scolding, saying high-minded things—things everyone knows—about the great value of learning. Indeed, the scribe made a series of high-minded points which most folk can say in their sleep:KRISTOF (continuing directly): We can’t meaningfully address poverty or grow the economy as long as urban schools are failing. Mr. Obama talks boldly about starting new high-tech green industries, but where will the workers come from unless students reliably learn science and math?All right, all right! We’ll eat our greens! But as you might be able to guess, our curiosity only rose as Kristof’s light scolding extended through these high-minded opening grafs. Kristof wants Obama to pay more attention to urban schools. But what exactly does he think the new president should do or propose? What does he think Obama could do to improve these struggling schools?
The United States is the only country in the industrialized world where children are less likely to graduate from high school than their parents were, according to a new study by the Education Trust, an advocacy group based in Washington.
The most effective anti-poverty program we could devise for the long run would have less to do with income redistribution than with ensuring that poor kids get a first-rate education, from preschool on. One recent study found that if American students did as well as those in several Asian countries in math and science, our economy would grow 20 percent faster.
Alas! We had to read to the end of the piece before our question was answered. Like a student killing time when asked a question he couldn’t answer, Kristof began a long discussion—an interesting discussion—about the history of our public schools. There was stuff in there we’d never heard, relayed from a hot new book by two of them perfesser fellers. (“As late as 1957, only 9 percent of British 17-year-olds were enrolled in school.”) But what was Obama supposed to do? What should he do for our urban schools? Kristof was nearing the end of his piece—and he still hadn’t breathed a word.
If scholars want to read ahead, they can see what Kristof proposed. But we were struck by a tired old thought as we perused this familiar piece. Easy to be easy, we sagely mused, when it comes to offering high-minded thoughts about the ills of urban schools. Does Kristof know whereof he speaks? Should Obama act on the gentleman’s say? With an election safely concluded, we’ll ask such questions in upcoming posts in this, our “Back-to-school week.”
Monday—Part 2: What Kristof said—and Fred Hiatt.
Special report: Back-to-school week!And Part 3:
Part 2—Easy to be fatuous: Many scribes find it “easy to be hard” when they talk about public schooling (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 11/21/08). The rules of the game are fairly simple: They scold those troubling teachers’ unions—and the troubling pols who support them.
Beyond that, many scribes find it easy to churn perfect pap about public schools—to type tired bromides about “reform,” thus avoiding actual thought. The Washington Post took this standard approach in Saturday’s editorial:WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL (11/22/08): Another [cabinet] selection that will merit scrutiny is Mr. Obama's education secretary: Will the choice reflect his stated commitment to reform? Will it be someone with hands-on experience in education and a proven willingness to experiment? While the new president's attention is understandably focused on the economy, not to mention the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it's critical to have someone who comes to the education post with those credentials.When it comes to Obama’s education secretary, the Post favors “reform”—it wants someone who’s “willing to experiment.” Meanwhile, everyone knows what these words mean when mainstream journalists discuss public schools. “Reform” means cracking down on teachers and teacher groups through ideas like merit pay and the ending of tenure. There may be some merit to these ideas—but few others seem to get mentioned.
In case we didn’t know what “reform” means in these parts of the Village, Fred Hiatt wrote a recent Post op-ed piece which made the point fairly clear.
It’s easy to be fatuous, we incomparably thought, after reading his column.
As usual, Hiatt’s piece took the form of a paean to DC schools chief Michelle Rhee. We mean that as a criticism of Hiatt, not of Rhee. Yes, this passage is utterly silly. But it was written by Hiatt:HIATT (11/10/08): Rhee is hardly anti-teacher. One problem, she says, is that "our good teachers have not been told that they're good." And she is committed to helping teachers "who have the will but are underperforming—that is essentially the biggest challenge for the District for the next couple of years."In a way, you can’t blame Hiatt for that sort of talk; it’s the type of chatter that’s routinely churned by “educational experts.” But Hiatt is being fatuous when he says that “every student can learn, write and do math” (whatever so vague an assurance might mean)—and he builds a straw man when he goes on to say that “their ability to do so should be measured.” (Few oppose sensible measurement.) Duh! The question isn’t whether “every student can learn;” the question is how much various students can learn, at what point in their public schooling. The larger question is what sorts of changes in instructional practice might help these students achieve these goals. Meanwhile, the desire to rush to the question of who’s “at fault” merely extends the problem. But Hiatt makes it clear, at the start of his piece, that fault and blame are driving his vision. He opens with an anecdote designed to show that Rhee is high-minded and good—while an unnamed principal is an uncaring villain. He then cranks out this standard text—although, within the Insider Press, churning such text is real easy:
But she won't compromise on the notion that every student can learn to read, write and do math; that their ability to do so should be measured; and that if they're not learning, it's not their fault—it's the schools'.HIATT: Rhee offers the ultimate in no-excuses leadership. She has taken on one of the worst public school systems in the nation and has pledged to turn it into one of the best within a decade. The usual excuses made for such schools—that they cannot possibly do better because their students are poor, or come from broken families, or haven't been read to, or are surrounded by crime—Rhee does not accept. She has seen such students learn, Rhee explains, in her own classroom in Baltimore in the early 1990s, and in many other schools since.Just as he drives a framework of “fault” and blame, Hiatt builds a framework in which people are looking for “excuses.” (It can’t be that they’re offering “explanations,” or describing real problems and obstacles.) Of course, it’s easy for pundits to say that we shouldn’t “accept...the usual excuses” about the progress of deserving students who may enter kindergarten far behind their middle-class peers. But those students’ achievements won’t increase just because Hiatt enjoys talking tough—because he churns familiar bromides as a replacement for thought. Once again, though, we have to cut Hiatt some slack, since he can quote “educational experts” saying the same goldarn things:HIATT: Kati Haycock, president of the nonprofit Education Trust, says Obama is "absolutely unequivocal on, 'Don't tell me black kids can't learn.' It comes directly from his gut." So maybe he will sympathize with Rhee's conclusion that patience, tact and compromise are inappropriate when half your kids or more never graduate from high school.We’re sure that Haycock is a fine person; Jonathan Kozol writes good things about her, and that’s good enough for us. But everyone knows that “black kids can learn” (whatever that vague assurance might mean); reciting this bromide makes “experts” seem noble, but it doesn’t make anyone smarter. The actual questions here are quite different: How much can this particular child learn, during this particular week, and what would be the best particular way to help him or her do that? Unfortunately, educational experts often like to cheerlead—and the Hiatts start acting like cheerleaders too. Soon, we find ourselves snarling at teachers, who surely must be “at fault” in these students’ “failure to learn.” (By which we presumably mean failure to learn enough.)
In the process, we may fail to notice how few real suggestions come from observers like Hiatt—other than the tired old bromides about things like merit pay.
In large measure, Hiatt’s piece concerns the wonders of merit pay—an idea which sometimes seem to have magical power in the world of the Village pundit. Who knows? Some form of merit pay may be a good thing—though we doubt that Hiatt has any idea, one way or the other. To our ear, his piece was the usual insider piece—a piece pundits churn again and again. He found it easy to be hard—when it came to those lazy teachers. When it came to the search for real ideas, he found it easy to be rather fatuous.
Meanwhile, his column turned—as these columns often do—on a certain miraculous tale. It’s easy to believe in miracles inside this mainstream celebrity press corps. When Post pundits talk about low-income schools, miracles tend to play a key role in their ruminations.
Tomorrow—Part 3: Easy to believe.
Special report: Back-to-school week!
Part 3—Easy to believe: It’s easy to believe—in miracles—when pundits discuss public schools. Example: In late October, Jay Mathews gushed over the “educational insurgency” of Michelle Rhee, the still-new chancellor of DC’s public schools. Indeed, he gushed over a entire “new generation of administrators, including Rhee,” who have “s[een] how teacher focus and energy could improve students' lives, and at the same time [have] learned how rare those traits were in low-income neighborhood schools.”
In Mathews’ piece, this is an heroic generation. To give you a fuller idea, here is Jay’s fuller description of this new generation of educators. This passage follows Jay’s account of a disappointing experience from Rhee’s brief (three-year) teaching career. There are heroes and villains in this portrait. It ain’t hard to see who they are:
MATHEWS (10/27/08): In an interview this month, Rhee said that jarring moment of hope followed by disappointment made her want to change the system. Many educators she knows who are also likely to run school systems someday tell similar stories. They saw how teacher focus and energy could improve students' lives, and at the same time they learned how rare those traits were in low-income neighborhood schools.
Such experiences create habits of mind and leadership qualities that inspire the most effective principals and teachers, but disturb many community leaders, politicians and educators who are used to standard operating procedures. This new generation of administrators, including Rhee, shares the prevailing cynicism about how school systems operate. But instead of going off to be lawyers, doctors or business executives as their parents wanted them to, they stay in education and violate or finesse normal processes.
You could call them the young entrepreneurs, the reformers, or maybe a name with appeal to friends and foes: the Brat Pack. They create excitement and enjoy a form of celebrity, but to many they are egregious annoyances. Rhee's new fame drew 700 applications last year from people who wanted to be principals in D.C. schools, hitherto not a popular spot for ambitious administrators. Her anti-bureaucratic instincts led her to dust off unused procedures for getting rid of unproductive teachers when the Washington Teachers' Union refused to accept such changes. Because she has seen improvisation work, she got outside foundation and university support for experiments—such as money for good grades—that others considered risky.
Of course, it’s mainly good to “get rid of unproductive teachers,” and “improvisations” like money-for-grades may have positive effects in some low-income schools—though no one who actually cares about outcomes will simply assume such a thing. For ourselves, we’re glad that Rhee has an aggressive leadership style—although we aren’t at all sure that her basic vision about low-income schooling is sound. But that’s a truly gushing portrait of Rhee and her insurgent “Brat Pack.” Its author seems remarkably sure of where the heroes are found.
That said, what makes Mathews feel so sure that the “Brat Pack” are the heroes? That their vision and their resultant approach are fundamentally sound? Here’s your answer: Rhee “has seen improvisation work,” Jay says. On that rock he builds his church. But is that foundation sound?
This brings us back to the foundational myth of the cult of Chancellor Rhee. As he starts his piece, Mathews recalls the disappointing moment which—as the story is endlessly told—fired Rhee’s unquenchable desire to “change the system.” Many pundits find it easy to believe in Rhee’s vision—and their apparent sense of certainty almost always turns on this tale. For ourselves, we were surprised to see Jay act as if this tale is established history. We were also surprised by the outright absurdity of some of what he describes:
MATHEWS: To understand D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee and the educational insurgency she is part of, you have to know what happened when she taught at Baltimore's Harlem Park Elementary School in the early 1990s.
The Teach for America program threw well-educated young people such as Rhee—bachelor's degree from Cornell, master's from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government—into classrooms full of impoverished children after only a summer of training. “It was a zoo, every day," she recalled. Thirty-six children, all poor, suffered under a novice who had no idea what to do.
But within months, for Rhee and other influential educators in her age group, the situation changed. She vowed not "to let 8-year-olds run me out of town." She discovered learning improved when everyone sat in a big U-pattern with her in the middle and she made quick marks on the blackboard for good and bad behavior without ever stopping the lesson. She spent an entire summer making lesson plans and teaching materials, with the help of indulgent aunts visiting from Korea. She found unconventional but effective ways to teach reading and math. She set written goals for each child and enlisted parents in her plans.
Students became calm and engaged. Test scores soared. She kept one group with her for second and third grade. She was convinced that her students, despite their problems, "were the most talented kids ever." Then the real world intruded, a key moment for the entrepreneurial educators Rhee counts as friends. "All of those kids would go on to other teachers and totally lose everything because those teachers were" lousy. (Rhee used an earthier adjective.)
Jesus rose from the dead in three days—and under Rhee, “test scores soared.” This tale—of Rhee’s miracle cure—is told wherever her cult is sold. Plainly, Jay believes it’s true. At THE HOWLER, we pretty much don’t. (For the record: Rhee got her Harvard master’s degree after her three years of teaching.)
To understand Rhee, “you have to know what happened when she taught at Baltimore's Harlem Park Elementary,” Jay says. But what did happen in those three years; did miracles really occur? In our view, no one who actually cares about low-income schools will leap to such conclusions—or assume that the Brat Pack is on the right path because they have (allegedly) seen similar outcomes. As we’ve explained in the past, it isn’t clear—it isn’t clear at all—that Rhee produced the miracle cure she has boasted about all through her career (links below). And good God! Who but an adept could believe that miracles occur in the way Jay describes? Did no one but Rhee ever think of having her kids “sit in a big U-pattern with her in the middle?” Did no one else “ma[ke] quick marks on the blackboard for good and bad behavior without ever stopping the lesson?” Even assuming, as we do, that Rhee was a highly diligent teacher, the story Jay tells is the stuff of legend. This type of story is perfectly fine—in books written for eight-year-old kids. But it’s dangerous when we find it so easy to believe that we start revamping our low-income schools on the basis of such absurd tales.
In an e-mail, we asked Jay why he feels so sure that Rhee produced the astounding score gains she has boasted about through the years. In particular, we posed these questions about these alleged test scores—scores which couldn’t be documented or confirmed by the Baltimore schools at the time of her ascension to chancellor:
OUR QUESTIONS:
- Are you troubled by the fact that the scores were never produced?
- Did the Post ever ask the Baltimore schools to produce the scores?
Jay’s answers were helpful, though they leave some matters hanging. Here’s what he told us:
JAY’S ANSWERS:
- Nope, because I have researched test scores at that period in other parts of the country, and nobody has them, particularly on a per teacher basis. This was way before the NCLB era. Her story is very close to what I have heard from other Teach for America teachers of that era whose work has since proved, in the NCLB era. that their scores were probably what they said they were.
- We did, and discovered what I said above. Rhee herself said she never saw any scores in writing. It was all informal chit-chat stuff, with the central office people the only ones who had lists, it seems.
Do the data from Rhee’s tenure still exist? We have no idea. At the time of Rhee’s ascension, the Washington Times seems to have pursued this matter a bit harder than the Post; in a paraphrased passage, reporter Gary Emerling said that Baltimore’s current testing director “said retrieving data from a decade ago is hard because his office changed its information storage systems for the year 2000" (our emphasis). Is retrieving these test scores hard—or impossible? We have no idea. (Emerling included some hard data about third-grade achievement at Harlem Park as a whole—data which made Rhee’s claims sound a bit improbable. An aggressive journalist could surely pursue this type of analysis harder.) Meanwhile, Rhee has long made detailed claims about her students’ success. As the Post reported, her official resume had long asserted this: "Over a two-year period, moved students scoring on average at the 13th percentile on national standardized tests to 90 percent of students scoring at the 90th percentile or higher.” At best, it’s extremely irresponsible to make such detailed claims on the basis of “informal chit-chat.”
(For what it’s worth, it seems unlikely that “central office people” would have been “the only ones” who had the detailed, student-by-student data. Beyond that, we find it hard to believe that Rhee wouldn’t have wanted to know how her individual students tested, even after she’d left the school system.)
Jay is inclined to believe such claims, based on judgments he has made about other Teach for America teachers. Our inclination is vastly different, for reasons we’ve long described. But Jay is not the only scribe who’s inclined to accept Rhee’s claims on their face. When Fred Hiatt penned the recent Post piece in which he fawned about Rhee’s vision (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 11/24/08), he too seemed to be accepting Rhee’s claims at face value:
HIATT (11/10/08): Rhee offers the ultimate in no-excuses leadership. She has taken on one of the worst public school systems in the nation and has pledged to turn it into one of the best within a decade. The usual excuses made for such schools—that they cannot possibly do better because their students are poor, or come from broken families, or haven't been read to, or are surrounded by crime—Rhee does not accept. She has seen such students learn, Rhee explains, in her own classroom in Baltimore in the early 1990s, and in many other schools since.
Pundits seem to find it easy to believe these pleasing assertions. Jay cited Teach for America teachers, but as best we can tell, Teach for America has not been able to demonstrate outstanding systematic success. (See THE DAILY HOWLER, 7/14/08.) In our view, people who actually care about outcomes will be much more hard-headed about such claims. You see, it actually matters if these tales are true, because Rhee’s whole vision is built on notions derived from these uplifting stories. In Rhee’s world, teachers can produce miracle cures—if they just get off their keisters start working harder. (If they’d only make students sit in a U, they too could see those “test scores soar.”) Her insurgency seems to be based on the idea that teachers are simply refusing to teach. If we threaten them, fire them, scare them and bribe them, they’ll finally get off their lumps off lard and all will be well with the world.
We’re sorry—we just don’t believe that. We think that vision is vastly skewed—and it seems to be Rhee’s master vision.
Can teachers produce those miracle cures? Pundits love to believe such things; they’ve promoted such notions for decades. On that point, we also asked Jay why he included that frankly silly passage about having the students all sit in a U while making those marks on the blackboard. “My fault for not making it clear that that was just a couple of the things she did,” he replied. “The obsessive lesson planning and the individual student goal keeping were likely much more important to the progress she made, also the frequent contact with parents and the looping—sticking with the same kids for two grades.” But there too, many teachers (including us) have stuck with the same kids for two grades. This practice does not produce miracle cures unless the teacher’s a miracle worker.
It’s always possible that Rhee’s students achieved the gains she has claimed, of course—but we think it’s extremely unlikely. And let’s be real: Even if some teacher can produce such cures, that doesn’t mean anyone else can. Everybody can’t be Babe Ruth. You can’t assume that all your outfielders could hit 60 home runs if they’d just try a bit harder.
We don’t know Jay, but we share the old school system tie. (In 1965, we graduated from Aragon High in San Mateo, California. Through absolutely no fault of his own, Jay had to go to Hillsdale.) He’s worked on public school issues for many years; we’re frankly biased in his favor. But for decades, journalists have found it easy to believe miracle claims about success in low-income schools. In the case of Rhee, a whole insurgency seems to be built on belief in such claims. For that reason, a more typical brand of journalistic skepticism would very much seem to be called for.
“To understand [Rhee] and the educational insurgency she is part of, you have to know what happened when she taught at Baltimore's Harlem Park Elementary School in the early 1990s,” Jay wrote. Strictly speaking, that isn’t true—and it seems that we can’t really know what happened.. But as Jay suggests, her vision is built on faith in the notion that remarkable cures are there for the taking. If we care about low-income schools, we won’t rush to believe such ideas.
Next—Part 4: From Nossiter back to Kristof.
Visit our incomparable archives: We discussed Rhee’s claims in some detail when she was named to the chancellor post. For one example, see THE DAILY HOWLER, 7/2/07. If you search our archives on the word “Rhee,” you’ll find many more examples.
11/23/08
Citigroup Scores
If you had any doubt at all about the primacy of Wall Street over Main Street; the utter lack of transparency behind the biggest government giveaway in history to financial executives, and their shareholders, directors, and creditors; and the intimate connections the lie between Administrations -- both Republican and Democratic -- and the heavyweights on Wall Street, your doubts should be laid to rest. Today it was decided the government will guarantee more than $300 billion of troubled mortgages and other assets of Citigroup under a federal plan to stabilize the lender after its stock fell 60 percent last week. The company will also will get a $20 billion cash infusion from the Treasury Department, adding to the $25 billion the bank received last month under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
This is not a particularly good deal for American taxpayers, but it is a marvelous deal for Citi. In return for all the cash and guarantees they are giving away, taxpayers will get only $27 billion of preferred shares paying an 8 percent dividend. No other strings are attached. The senior executives of Citi, including those who have served at the highest levels in the US government, have done their jobs exceedingly well. The American public, including the media, have not the slightest clue what just happened.
Meanwhile, more than a million workers in the automobile industry, along with six million mortgagees, and a millions of Americans who depend on small businesses and retailers for paychecks, are getting nothing at all.
Now who's laughing? And Schiff says we haven't seen the worst of it yet. A video from now:
It's stuff like this that makes me wonder if religious people aren't really small children arguing about who gets to be Batman, and who gets to be Spiderman. The truth is, you don't get to be either, because you're not.
“He’s trying to get the Catholic-Islamic dialogue out of the clouds of theory and down to brass tacks: how can we know the truth about how we ought to live together justly, despite basic creedal differences?” said George Weigel, a Catholic scholar and biographer of Pope John Paul II.How can they know the truth about how to live together justly? Does that even make sense? The one religious rule that is not religious, but human, is that golden one. We should treat each other justly. That's the truth.
In quotations from the letter that appeared on Sunday in Corriere della Sera, Italy’s leading daily newspaper, the pope said the book “explained with great clarity” that “an interreligious dialogue in the strict sense of the word is not possible.” In theological terms, added the pope, “a true dialogue is not possible without putting one’s faith in parentheses.”[emphasis mine]Parentheses; a good place for one's faith; there, or in the rubbish heap along with Zeus, the flat earth, and The Flying Spaghetti Monster. Religion Poisons Everything!
From:
The NYT
Disagreements over math curricula are often portrayed as “basic skills versus conceptual understanding.” Scientists and mathematicians, including many who signed the open letter to Secretary Riley, are described as advocates of basic skills, while professional educators are counted as proponents of conceptual understanding. Ironically, such a portrayal ignores the deep conceptual understanding of mathematics held by so many mathematicians. But more important, the notion that conceptual understanding in mathematics can be separated from precision and fluency in the execution of basic skills is just plain wrong.Read it (It's lllooonnnnggg)...
Why the U.S. Department of Education’s Recommended Math Programs Don’t Add Up
Posted on October 31, 2008 by the editor
What constitutes a good K-12 mathematics program? Opinions differ. In October 1999, the U.S. Department of Education released a report designating 10 math programs as “exemplary” or “promising.” The following month, I sent an open letter to Education Secretary Richard W. Riley urging him to withdraw the department’s recommendations. The letter was coauthored by Richard Askey of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, R. James Milgram of Stanford University, and Hung-Hsi Wu of the University of California at Berkeley, along with more than 200 other cosigners.
With financial backing from the Packard Humanities Institute, we published the letter as a full-page ad in the Washington Post on Nov. 18, 1999, with as many of the endorsers’ names and affiliations as would fit on the page. Among them are many of the nation’s most accomplished scientists and mathematicians. Department heads at more than a dozen universities–including Caltech, Stanford, and Yale–along with two former presidents of the Mathematical Association of America also added their names in support. With new endorsements since publication, there are now seven Nobel laureates and winners of the Fields Medal, the highest award in mathematics. The open letter was covered by several newspapers and journals, including American School Board Journal (February, page 16).
Although a clear majority of cosigners are mathematicians and scientists, it is sometimes overlooked that experienced education administrators at the state and national level, as well as educational psychologists and education researchers, also endorsed the letter. (A complete list is posted at http://www.mathematicallycorrect.com.)
University professors and public education leaders are not the only ones who have reservations about these programs. Thousands of parents and teachers across the nation seek alternatives to them, often in opposition to local school boards and superintendents. Mathematically Correct, an influential Internet-based parents’ organization, came into existence several years ago because the children of the organization’s founders had no alternative to the now “exemplary” program, College Preparatory Mathematics, or CPM. In Plano, Texas, 600 parents are suing the school district because of its exclusive use of the Connected Mathematics Project, or CMP, another “exemplary” program. I have received hundreds of requests for help by parents and teachers because of these and other programs now promoted by the Education Department (ED). In fact, it was such pleas for help that motivated me and my three coauthors to write the open letter.
Common problems
The mathematics programs criticized by the open letter have common features. For example, they tend to overemphasize data analysis and statistics, which typically appear year after year, with redundant presentations. The far more important areas of arithmetic and algebra are radically de-emphasized. Many of the so-called higher-order thinking projects are just aimless activities, and genuine illumination of important mathematical ideas is rare. There is a near obsession with calculators, and basic skills are given short shrift and sometimes even disparaged. Overall, these curricula are watered-down math programs. The same educational philosophy that gave rise to the whole-language approach to reading is part of ED’s agenda for mathematics. Systematic development of skills and concepts is replaced by an unstructured “holism.” In fact, during the mid-’90s, supporters of programs like these referred to their approach as “whole math.”
Disagreements over math curricula are often portrayed as “basic skills versus conceptual understanding.” Scientists and mathematicians, including many who signed the open letter to Secretary Riley, are described as advocates of basic skills, while professional educators are counted as proponents of conceptual understanding. Ironically, such a portrayal ignores the deep conceptual understanding of mathematics held by so many mathematicians. But more important, the notion that conceptual understanding in mathematics can be separated from precision and fluency in the execution of basic skills is just plain wrong.
In other domains of human activity, such as athletics or music, the dependence of high levels of performance on requisite skills goes unchallenged. A novice cannot hope to achieve mastery in the martial arts without first learning basic katas or exercises in movement. A violinist who has not mastered elementary bowing techniques and vibrato has no hope of evoking the emotions of an audience through sonorous tones and elegant phrasing. Arguably the most hierarchical of human endeavors, mathematics also depends on sequential mastery of basic skills.
The standard algorithms
The standard algorithms for arithmetic (that is, the standard procedures for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of numbers) are missing or abridged in ED’s recommended elementary school curricula. These omissions are inconsistent with the mainstream views of mathematicians.
In our open letter to Secretary Riley, we included an excerpt from a committee report published in the February 1998 Notices of the American Mathematical Society. The committee was appointed by the American Mathematical Society to advise the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). Part of its report discusses the standard algorithms of arithmetic. “We would like to emphasize that the standard algorithms of arithmetic are more than just ‘ways to get the answer’–that is, they have theoretical as well as practical significance,” the report states. “For one thing, all the algorithms of arithmetic are preparatory for algebra, since there are (again, not by accident, but by virtue of the construction of the decimal system) strong analogies between arithmetic of ordinary numbers and arithmetic of polynomials.”
This statement deserves elaboration. How could the standard algorithms of arithmetic be related to algebra? For concreteness, consider the meaning in terms of place value of 572:
572 = 5 (102) + 7(10) + 2
Now compare the right side of this equation to the polynomial,
5x2 + 7x + 2.
The two are identical when x = 10. This connection between whole numbers and polynomials is general and extends to arithmetic operations. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of polynomials is fundamentally the same as for whole numbers. In arithmetic, extra steps such as “regrouping” are needed since x = 10 allows for simplifications. The standard algorithms incorporate both the polynomial operations and the extra steps to account for the specific value, x = 10. Facility with the standard operations of arithmetic, together with an understanding of why these algorithms work, is important preparation for algebra.
The standard long division algorithm is particularly shortchanged by the “promising” curricula. It is preparatory for division of polynomials and, at the college level, division of “power series,” a useful technique in calculus and differential equations. The standard long division algorithm is also needed for a middle school topic. It is fundamental to an understanding of the difference between rational and irrational numbers, an indisputable example of conceptual understanding. It is essential to understand that rational numbers (that is, ratios of whole numbers like 3/4) and their negatives have decimal representations that exhibit recurring patterns. For example: 1/3 = .333…, where the ellipses indicate that the numeral 3 repeats forever. Likewise, 1/2 = .500… and 611/4950 = .12343434….
In the last equation, the digits 34 are repeated without end, and the repeating block in the decimal for 1/2 consists only of the digit for zero. It is a general fact that all rational numbers have repeating blocks of numerals in their decimal representations, and this can be understood and deduced by students who have mastered the standard long division algorithm. However, this important result does not follow easily from other “nonstandard” division algorithms featured by some of ED’s model curricula.
A different but still elementary argument is required to show the converse–that any decimal with a repeating block is equal to a fraction. Once this is understood, students are prepared to understand the meaning of the term “irrational number.” Irrational numbers are the numbers represented by infinite decimals without repeating blocks. In California, seventh-grade students are expected to understand this.
It is worth emphasizing that calculators are utterly useless in this context, not only in establishing the general principles, but even in logically verifying the equations. This is partly because calculator screens cannot display infinite decimals, but more important, calculators cannot reason. The “exemplary” middle school curriculum CMP nevertheless ignores the conceptual issues, bypassing the long division algorithm and substituting calculators and faulty inductive reasoning instead.
Steven Leinwand of the Connecticut Department of Education was a member of the expert panel that made final decisions on ED’s “exemplary” and “promising” math curricula. He was also a member of the advisory boards for two programs found to be “exemplary” by the panel: CMP and the Interactive Mathematics Program. In a Feb. 9, 1994, article in Education Week, he wrote: “It’s time to recognize that, for many students, real mathematical power, on the one hand, and facility with multidigit, pencil-and-paper computational algorithms, on the other, are mutually exclusive. In fact, it’s time to acknowledge that continuing to teach these skills to our students is not only unnecessary, but counterproductive and downright dangerous.”
Mr. Leinwand’s influential opinions are diametrically opposed to the mainstream views of practicing scientists and mathematicians, as well as the general public, but they have found fertile soil in the government’s “promising” and “exemplary” curricula.
Calculators
According to the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, or TIMSS, the use of calculators in U.S. fourth-grade mathematics classes is about twice the international average. Teachers of 39 percent of U.S. students report that students use calculators at least once or twice a week. In six of the seven top-scoring nations, on the other hand, teachers of 85 percent or more of the students report that students never use calculators in class.
Even at the eighth-grade level, the majority of students from three of the top five scoring nations in the TIMSS study (Belgium, Korea, and Japan) never or rarely use calculators in math classes. In Singapore, which is also among the top five scoring countries, students do not use calculators until the seventh grade. Among the lower achieving nations, however, the majority of students from 10 of the 11 nations with scores below the international average–including the United States–use calculators almost every day or several times a week.
Of course, this negative correlation of calculator usage with achievement in mathematics does not imply a causal relationship. There are many variables that contribute to achievement in mathematics. On the other hand, it is foolhardy to ignore the problems caused by calculators in schools. In a Sept. 17, 1999, Los Angeles Times editorial titled “L.A.’s Math Program Just Doesn’t Add Up,” Milgram and I recommended that calculators not be used at all in grades K-5 and only sparingly in higher grades. Certainly there are isolated, beneficial uses for calculators, such as calculating compound interest, a seventh-grade topic in California. Science classes benefit from the use of calculators because it is necessary to deal with whatever numbers nature gives us, but conceptual understanding in mathematics is often best facilitated through the use of simple numbers. Moreover, fraction arithmetic, an important prerequisite for algebra, is easily undermined by the use of calculators.
Specific shortcomings
A number of the programs on ED’s list have specific shortcomings–many involving use of calculators. For example, a “promising” curriculum called Everyday Mathematics says calculators are “an integral part of Kindergarten Everyday Mathematics” and urges the use of calculators to teach kindergarten students how to count. There are no textbooks in this K-6 curriculum, and even if the program were otherwise sound, this is a serious shortcoming. The standard algorithm for multiplying two numbers has no more status or prominence than an Ancient Egyptian algorithm presented in one of the teacher’s manuals. Students are never required to use the standard long division algorithm in this curriculum, or even the standard algorithm for multiplication.
Calculator use is also ubiquitous in the “exemplary” middle school program CMP. A unit devoted to discovering algorithms to add, subtract, and multiply fractions (”Bits and Pieces II”) gives the inappropriate instruction, “Use your calculator whenever you need it.” These topics are poorly developed, and division of fractions is not covered at all. A quiz for seventh-grade CMP students asks them to find the “slope” and “y-intercept” of the equation 10 = x - 2.5, and the teacher’s manual explains that this equation is a special case of the linear equation y = x - 2.5, when y = 10, and concludes that the slope is therefore 1 and the y-intercept is -2.5. This is not only false, but is so mathematically unsound as to undermine the authority of classroom teachers who know better.
College Preparatory Math (CPM), a high school program, also requires students to use calculators almost daily. The principal technique in this series is the so-called guess-and-check method, which encourages repeated guessing of answers over the systematic development of standard mathematical techniques. Because of the availability of calculators that can solve equations, the introduction to the series explains that CPM puts low emphasis on symbol manipulation and that CPM differs from traditional mathematics courses both in the mathematics that is taught and how it is taught. In one section, students watch a candle burn down for an hour while measuring its length versus the time and then plotting the results. In a related activity, students spend a whole class period on the athletic field making human coordinate graphs. These activities are typical of the time sacrificed to simple ideas that can be understood more efficiently through direct explanation. But in CPM, direct instruction is systematically discouraged in favor of group work. Teachers are told that as “rules of thumb,” they should “never carry or grab a writing implement” and they should “usually respond with a question.” Algebra tiles are used frequently, and the important distributive property is poorly presented and underemphasized.
Another program, Number Power–a “promising” curriculum for grades K-6–was submitted to the California State Board of Education for adoption in California. Two Stanford University mathematics professors serving on the state’s Content Review Panel wrote a report on the program that is now a public document. Number Power, they wrote, “is meant as a partial program to supplement a regular basic program. There is a strong emphasis on group projects–almost the entire program. Heavy use of calculators. Even as a supplementary program, it provides such insufficient coverage of the [California] Standards that it is unacceptable. This holds for all grade levels and all strands, including Number Sense, which is the only strand that is even partially covered.”
The report goes on to note, “It is explicitly stated that the standard algorithms for addition, subtraction, and multiplication are not taught.” Like CMP and Everyday Math, Number Power was rejected for adoption by the state of California.
Interactive Mathematics Program, or IMP, an “exemplary” high school curriculum, has such a weak treatment of algebra that the quadratic formula, normally an eighth- or ninth-grade topic, is postponed until the 12th grade. Even though probability and statistics receive greater emphasis in this program, the development of these topics is poor. “Expected value,” a concept of fundamental importance in probability and statistics, is never even correctly defined. The Teacher’s Guide for “The Game of Pig,” where expected value is treated, informs teachers that “expected value is one of the unit’s primary concepts,” yet teachers are instructed to tell their students that “the concept of expected value is nothing new … [but] the use of such complex terminology makes it easier to state complex ideas.” (For a correlation of lowered SAT scores with the use of IMP, see Milgram’s paper at ftp://math.stanford.edu/pub/papers/milgram.)
Core-Plus Mathematics Project is another “exemplary” high school program that radically de-emphasizes algebra, with unfortunate results. Even Hyman Bass–a well-known supporter of NCTM-aligned programs and a harsh critic of the open letter to Secretary Riley–has conceded the program has problems. “I have some reservations about Core Plus, for what I consider too shallow a coverage of traditional algebra, and a focus on highly contextualized work that goes beyond my personal inclinations,” he wrote in a nationally circulated e-mail message. “These are only my personal views, and I do not know about its success with students.”
Milgram analyzed the program’s effect on students in a top-performing high school in “Outcomes Analysis for Core Plus Students at Andover High School: One Year Later,” based on a statistical study by G. Bachelis of Wayne State University. According to Milgram, “…there was no measure represented in the survey, such as ACT scores, SAT Math scores, grades in college math courses, level of college math courses attempted, where the Andover Core Plus students even met, let alone surpassed the comparison group [which used a more traditional program].”
And then there is MathLand, a K-6 curriculum that ED calls “promising” but that is perhaps the most heavily criticized elementary school program in the nation. Like Everyday Math, it has no textbooks for students in any of the grades. The teacher’s manual urges teachers not to teach the standard algorithms of arithmetic for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Rather, students are expected to invent their own algorithms. Numerous and detailed criticisms, including data on lowered test scores, appear at http://www.mathematicallycorrect.com.
How could they be so wrong?
Perhaps Galileo wondered similarly how the church of Pope Urban VIII could be so wrong. The U.S. Department of Education is not alone in endorsing watered-down, and even defective, math programs. The NCTM has also formally endorsed each of the U.S. Department of Education’s model programs (http://www.nctm.org/rileystatement.htm), and the National Science Foundation (Education and Human Resources Division) funded several of them. How could such powerful organizations be wrong?
These organizations represent surprisingly narrow interests, and there is a revolving door between them. Expert panel member Steven Leinwand, whose personal connections with “exemplary” curricula have already been noted, is also a member of the NCTM board of directors. Luther Williams, who as assistant director of the NSF approved the funding of several of the recommended curricula, also served on the expert panel that evaluated these same curricula. Jack Price, a member of the expert panel is a former president of NCTM, and Glenda Lappan, the association’s current president, is a coauthor of the “exemplary” program CMP.
Aside from institutional interconnections, there is a unifying ideology behind “whole math.” It is advertised as math for all students, as opposed to only white males. But the word all is a code for minority students and women (though presumably not Asians). In 1996, while he was president of NCTM, Jack Price articulated this view in direct terms on a radio show in San Diego: “What we have now is nostalgia math. It is the mathematics that we have always had, that is good for the most part for the relatively high socioeconomic anglo male, and that we have a great deal of research that has been done showing that women, for example, and minority groups do not learn the same way. They have the capability, certainly, of learning, but they don’t. The teaching strategies that you use with them are different from those that we have been able to use in the past when … we weren’t expected to graduate a lot of people, and most of those who did graduate and go on to college were the anglo males.”
Price went on to say: “All of the research that has been done with gender differences or ethnic differences has been–males for example learn better deductively in a competitive environment, when–the kind of thing that we have done in the past. Where we have found with gender differences, for example, that women have a tendency to learn better in a collaborative effort when they are doing inductive reasoning.” (A transcript of the show is online at (http://mathematicallycorrect.com/roger.htm.)
I reject the notion that skin color or gender determines whether students learn inductively as opposed to deductively and whether they should be taught the standard operations of arithmetic and essential components of algebra. Arithmetic is not only essential for everyday life, it is the foundation for study of higher level mathematics. Secretary Riley–and educators who select mathematics curricula–would do well to heed the advice of the open letter.
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Author, David Klein, is a professor of mathematics at California State University at Northridge.
Source: http://mathematicallycorrect.com/usnoadd.htm
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Marks of a good mathematics program
It is impossible to specify all of the characteristics of a sound mathematics program in only a few paragraphs, but a few highlights may be identified. The most important criterion is strong mathematical content that conforms to a set of explicit, high, grade-by-grade standards such as the California or Japanese mathematics standards. A strong mathematics program recognizes the hierarchical nature of mathematics and builds coherently from one grade to the next. It is not merely a sequence of interesting but unrelated student projects.
In the earlier grades, arithmetic should be the primary focus. The standard algorithms of arithmetic for integers, decimals, fractions, and percents are of central importance. The curriculum should promote facility in calculation, an understanding of what makes the algorithms work in terms of the base 10 structure of our number system, and an understanding of the associative, commutative, and distributive properties of numbers. These properties can be illustrated by area and volume models. Students need to develop an intuitive understanding for fractions. Manipulatives or pictures can help in the beginning stages, but it is essential that students eventually be able to compute easily using mathematical notation. Word problems should be abundant. A sound program should move students toward abstraction and the eventual use of symbols to represent unknown quantities.
In the upper grades, algebra courses should emphasize powerful symbolic techniques and not exploratory guessing and calculator-based graphical solutions.
There should be a minimum of diversions in textbooks. Children have enough trouble concentrating without distracting pictures and irrelevant stories and projects. A mathematics program should explicitly teach skills and concepts with appropriately designed practice sets. Such programs have the best chance of success with the largest number of students. The high-performing Japanese students spend 80 percent of class time in teacher-directed whole-class instruction. Japanese math books contain clear explanations, examples with practice problems, and summaries of key points. Singapore’s elementary school math books also provide good models. Among U.S. books for elementary school, Sadlier-Oxford’s Progress in Mathematics and the Saxon series through Math 87 (adopted for grade six in California), though not without defects, have many positive features.–D.K.
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For more information
Askey, Richard. “Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics.” American Educator, Fall 1999, pp. 6-13; 49.
Ma, Liping. Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1999.
Milgram, R. James. “A Preliminary Analysis of SAT-I Mathematics Data for IMP Schools in California.” ftp://math.stanford.edu/pub/papers/milgram
Milgram, R. James. “Outcomes Analysis for Core Plus Students at Andover High School: One Year Later.” ftp://math.stanford.edu/pub/papers/milgram/andover-report.htm
Wu, Hung-Hsi. “Basic Skills Versus Conceptual Understanding: A Bogus Dichotomy in Mathematics Education.” American Educator, Fall 1999, pp. 14-19; 50-52.
She laughed. Hard. In a really provocative way. Then came his comeback. She shut up then. And now she's SOS. She is advising him. Ha ha ha!
She's mean. He's not. I think it is a good match.
Elected Officials Score Lower on Civics Tests Than Average Citizens (Who Score Lower than Basic Condiments)
Published November 23, 2008
American elected officials showed a shocking lack of knowledge about government, history, and basic constitutional principles. They scored a failing grade of just 44 percent on a basic test of knowledge of our nation in a quiz by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI). Average citizens scored 49 percent. Note: many of these people scored less than a random or blind selection of answers — quite an achievement.
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1645
painting
Material used : oil paint
Collection : Woburn Abbey
Location : Woburn Abbey
Genre : genre art
Depicts : girl - door
Woburn Abbey : www.woburnabbey.co.uk
RKDimages
Item on Reasonator
crotos/?q=21856774
Also known as :The Slippers
1658
Material used : oil paint - canvas
height : 103 centimetre – width : 70 centimetre
Inventory number : RF 3722
Collection : Louvre - Department of Paintings of the Louvre
Location : Sully Wing - Louvre Palace - Room 902
exhibition : Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting
Movement : Dutch Golden Age painting
Genre : genre art - still life - interior view
Depicts : room - door - pavement - painting - seat - candle - broom - shoe - The Gallant Conversation, known as Paternal Admonition
Louvre : louvre.fr
Joconde
Atlas
crotos/?q=15874406
1669
Collection : private collection
Location : private collection
Depicts : Royal Palace of Amsterdam - woman - man - dog
crotos/?q=20087977
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ABSTRACT
In June 2017, The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, organized a workshop entitled “Pharmacokinetics-Pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) for Development of Therapeutics against Bacterial Pathogens” to discuss details and critical parameters of various PK/PD methods and identify approaches for linking human pharmacokinetic (PK) data and drug efficacy analyses. The workshop participants included individuals from academia, industry, and government. This and the accompanying minireview on nonclinical PK/PD summarize the workshop discussions and recommendations. It is important to consider how information like PK/PD can support the clinical effectiveness of new antibacterial drugs, as PK/PD data have become central to antibacterial drug development programs. Key clinical considerations for antibacterial dose selection and clinical PK/PD characterization discussed in this minireview include a robust assessment of PK in the patient population of interest, critical considerations for assessing drug penetration in the lung for the treatment of pneumonia, and an emphasis on special populations, including patients with renal impairment and augmented renal function, as well as on dosing in obese and pediatric patients. Successful application of such approaches is now used to provide a more informative drug development package to support the approval of new antibiotics.
INTRODUCTION
Prior decades were characterized by the introduction of an abundance of novel antibacterial agents. Developers of these agents leveraged large studies yielding multiple indications. Noninferiority trials comparing a test agent to a standard of care comparator was the typical approach to registration. With the progressive emergence of antimicrobial resistance, recognized as a major threat to both the public and to medical progress, the scientific and regulatory community began to think differently about the requirements of clinical data to support new agents aimed at treating serious and life-threatening infections caused by highly resistant pathogens (1). The conduct of clinical trials to demonstrate efficacy against drug-resistant bacterial species is challenging, mainly because of the lack of sufficient patients who are infected with target bacterial species. Thus, it is important to consider how other information like pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) can support the clinical effectiveness of new antibacterial drugs. Over the past 5 years, both the United States Food and Drug Administration (U.S. FDA) (2) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) (3, 4) issued guidance documents enabling streamlined development programs with the caveat that agents should be used only in the setting of limited therapeutic options. While some differences exist between the agency guidance documents, one area of alignment between the U.S. FDA and EMA is that robust PK/PD data are central to antibacterial drug development programs, although the exact scope of such data requirements is loosely defined.
In the current antibiotic development era, many different sources of PK/PD data are integrated during the drug development process to support dose selection and to provide a measure of certainty ahead of larger clinical trials. Successful application of such approaches, together with integration of clinical PK/PD data, is now used to provide a more informative drug development package to support the approval of new antibiotics. There are now proposals to conduct more focused clinical trials and to require robust PK/PD data packages when a development program for an antibacterial agent for the treatment of infections arising from rare pathogens can be supported by only limited clinical data (1). Whether for the treatment of infections arising from pathogens with usual drug resistance or those arising from multidrug-resistant or extensively drug-resistant pathogens, the assessment of clinical PK/PD using data from the target patient population is useful. Here, we focus on considerations for clinical PK/PD analyses and dose selection and the importance of assessing drug penetration in the lung for the treatment of pneumonia, with an emphasis on special populations, including patients with renal impairment (RI) and augmented renal function, as well as on dosing in obese and pediatric patients. Robust clinical PK/PD analyses also require an accompanying robust nonclinical PK/PD package. A robust nonclinical PK/PD package is one that provides PK/PD targets for efficacy that are informed by data from two or more experimental systems, including one-compartment in vitro and in vivo infection models. PK/PD targets should be based on data from a relevant collection of isolates for which the MIC range and resistance mechanisms encompass those expected to be encountered clinically. The sample size of such isolate collections should be sufficient to characterize variability in the magnitude of PK/PD targets for efficacy. Lastly, such data should be externally consistent and reproducible and data for selected isolates should thus be based on experiments conducted by two or more groups of investigators. Given the importance of ensuring the durability of the antibacterial dosing regimen, studies using static in vitro systems should be undertaken to characterize mutation frequency and to determine MIC values for mutant isolates. Selected dosing regimens should be pressure tested for the ability to suppress amplification of resistant bacterial subpopulations. The in vitro hollow fiber infection model, which allows studies of longer durations, is the most common infection model used to evaluate resistance amplification. Inclusion of such data increases the robustness of the nonclinical PK/PD package. In June 2017, The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, organized a workshop entitled “Pharmacokinetics-Pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) for Development of Therapeutics against Bacterial Pathogens” to discuss details and critical parameters of various PK/PD methods and to identify approaches for linking human pharmacokinetic (PK) data and drug efficacy analyses. The workshop participants included individuals from academia, industry, and government, including the United States Food and Drug Administration (U.S. FDA). This and the accompanying minireview on nonclinical PK/PD (5) summarize the workshop discussions and recommendations, which are the opinions of individual participants and are not meant to serve as regulatory guidance.
LEVERAGING PHARMACOMETRICS FOR DOSE SELECTION
PK/PD modeling and simulation approaches typically fall into three main categories and have been utilized to various degrees in support of recent drug approval of antibacterial small-molecule new molecular entities (NMEs) (6, 7). Table 1 shows a list of entities for which population PK (PopPK) analysis, exposure-response (E-R) analysis, and probability of target attainment (PTA) analysis have been applied to the drug development programs since 2009.
PopPK analysis is a well-accepted pharmacometrics methodology to predict the PK characteristics of drugs in patients. PopPK analysis can provide the exposure information used as an input to E-R and PTA analyses. The covariate analysis within a PopPK model evaluates the impact of demographic parameters on exposure and determines the need for dose adjustment in specific populations, such as obese patients, geriatric patients, or patients with renal/hepatic impairment. The robustness of the PopPK model is dependent upon the quality and quantity of PK data included in the model together with the associated demographic data from subjects contributing PK data. PK and its variability can differ from indication to indication, as well as between healthy subjects and infected patients. Ideally, PopPK analysis used to inform E-R or PTA analyses should include sufficient PK data from patient populations with the target indication(s), with the PK/PD target determined using appropriate preclinical infection models.
E-R analysis evaluates the relationship between drug exposure and outcomes. The exposure can be characterized as the dose, area under the concentration versus time curve (AUC), maximum concentration (Cmax), or minimum concentration (Cmin), while the response can represent clinical outcomes such as safety, efficacy, or a biomarker of interest. E-R analysis plays a key role in dose selection through all phases of drug development. It should be noted that the value of dose as a metric of drug exposure can be limited, as examples of clinical trials with a sufficiently broad dose range to establish such a relationship are increasingly rare due to both advances in PK/PD to support dose optimization and ethical considerations for administering suboptimal doses in this patient population. Further, the use of dose ignores the variability between patients in exposure to drug as captured in pharmacokinetic parameter values. Due to these limitations, here we focus on drug exposure measures for establishing E-R relationships.
For antibacterial agents, E-R analyses for efficacy are typically conducted by utilizing the PK/PD indices (e.g., free-drug [f] area under the concentration-time curve [AUC]/MIC [fAUC/MIC], free-drug maximum concentration [fCmax/MIC], and percentage of the dosing interval during which free drug concentrations are above the MIC [%fT>MIC]) which represent measures of unbound exposure indexed to the organism susceptibility (as represented by the MIC). PK/PD indices evaluated for E-R analyses are typically those identified to most closely associate with efficacy based on nonclinical PK/PD studies. Of the 10 recent small-molecule antibacterial NME applications, 6 included an E-R analysis. E-R analysis for efficacy endpoints may not be informative for some antibacterial NMEs because phase 2 and 3 trials often do not include a wide enough range of exposures or a sufficient number of treatment failures due to optimal dose selection decisions based on the use of preclinical PK/PD data, phase 1 data, and Monte Carlo simulation.
In general, lack of identification of an E-R relationship for efficacy is expected in evaluating data from patients treated with a PK/PD optimized dosing regimen. In cases where a relationship is identified, this is typically based on determination of an optimal threshold value for the PK/PD indices, which are treated as dichotomized variables. Thresholds may be determined using the first split of a classification or regression tree or a receiver operating characteristic curve or may be based on a model-predicted threshold for achieving a target response. Relationships based on dichotomized variables for PK/PD indices allow patients with both lower PK/PD indices and lower percentages of successful response to be distinguished from those with higher PK/PD indices and higher percentages of successful response (8). When PK/PD relationships based on clinical data are not found, assessments of distributions of PK/PD indices achieved relative to nonclinical PK/PD targets for efficacy represent a useful assessment to confirm the original basis for dose selection.
PTA analysis is an assessment of the probability of attaining a PK/PD target in a patient population with a specific dosing regimen. The PK/PD target is determined from preclinical studies (9, 10) or may be determined from the clinical data in cases where an E-R relationship is identified, as discussed above. It is a tool to support dose selection to evaluate whether a given dose would be effective in specific patient populations or against a specific organism. PTA analysis was included in 5 of 10 antibacterial NME applications as an essential component by integrating the information from PopPK analyses in healthy volunteers and/or patients with the PK/PD target determined from in vitro microbiological studies and in vivo animal infection studies.
There is also the potential to leverage physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) analyses to predict the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on drug exposure to support dosing recommendations in specific clinical situations. Although PBPK analysis has not been included in any of 10 antibacterial small-molecule NME submissions, it is increasingly used in other therapeutic areas during the assessment of drug-drug interactions and dose individualization in subpopulations. However, a key consideration for PBPK analysis for antibacterial agents is that such models rely on estimations of physiological parameters, including organ blood flow, derived from the physiology literature. Such blood flow can be significantly altered in patients with sepsis or the critically ill, which may limit the utility of the PBPK approach in the absence of robust physiological and PK data in the patient population to appropriately tune such models. A document providing FDA guidance regarding format and content of PBPK analysis became publicly available in December of 2016 to facilitate the incorporation of this analysis tool into NME submissions to support decision-making during drug development (11). For antibacterial agents, PBPK should be considered only in circumstances in which physiological parameters in the target patient population during acute infection conditions are available.
CLINICAL PK/PD DATA CONSIDERATIONS
Phase 2 studies can be conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of two or more dosing regimens. However, the value of typical phase 2 study designs, which involve the study of doses similar in magnitude, needs to be considered in the context of the current paradigm for developing antibacterial agents. As demonstrated by Fig. 1, values representing AUC from 0 to infinity (AUC0–inf) after single doses of 1, 4, and 16 g of a hypothetical antibacterial agent would have to be many folds apart in order to avoid overlap of distributions (8). Given the concerns about administering a low dose whereby a number of patients would have drug exposures that approach zero, the evaluation of dosing regimens with minimally overlapping AUC distributions is not feasible. With the increased confidence that comes from using preclinical PK/PD and phase 1 PK data to support dose selection, phase 2 dose-ranging studies to discriminate efficacy between two dosing regimens that have overlapping distributions of drug exposures may be less useful.
Unless there are safety concerns or uncertainties about PK/PD predictions, it may be possible to carry out a more streamlined development program, conducting phase 1b studies or focused phase 2 or adaptive design clinical trials prior to studying a PK/PD optimized regimen in phase 3 studies. With this approach, a PK/PD-optimized regimen could be chosen for direct evaluation in a phase 3 randomized-controlled trial, streamlining the drug development process. However, for such an approach to be successful, it will be important to study PK in the target patient population through the execution of a phase 1b study and using phase 1 PK data from special populations that allow quantification of covariates of PK (e.g., healthy volunteers with renal impairment for drugs that are renally cleared). While inflation of the variance structure of the PK parameters of healthy subjects from phase 1 studies is a useful strategy to estimate the PK in infected patients, it will still be important to conduct phase 1b or 2 studies to evaluate PK in the target population and to confirm assumptions about dose selection prior to initiating phase 3 studies. If a phase 2 study is conducted, E-R analyses for both efficacy and safety endpoints should be investigated prior to the initiation of phase 3 studies and such data should later be pooled with phase 3 data to further enrich the sample size of evaluable patients.
Although it is often impossible to assess the effects of various doses of a new treatment because it is not ethical to knowingly “underdose” patients, such data, when available, are informative. The value of phase 2 data to assess dosing regimens and duration and safety using a pharmacometric approach can be illustrated using the example of brilacidin-treated patients with acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSI) who were enrolled from two phase 2 studies (12). Brilacidin is a defensin mimetic that disrupts cell membrane integrity and has activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative organisms, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Pooled data from the two phase 2 studies, the first of which provided active drug for 5 days and the second of which provided active drug for 1 or 3 days, allowed the formation of a rich data set that consisted of six different dose levels and three different therapy durations. The second study, which provided the benefit of increasing the sample size of the analysis population, was initiated to evaluate a loading dose and a shorter duration of therapy. E-R relationships were explored for efficacy endpoints assessed early in therapy and at traditional time points, at the end-of-therapy (EOT) or test-of-cure (TOC)/short-term follow-up (STFU) visits. Relationships between brilacidin exposure and two safety endpoints, systolic blood pressure and numbness/tingling, were assessed. E-R relationships for ≥20% reductions from baseline in lesion area on day 2 and clinical success at EOT and TOC/STFU and each of the two latter safety endpoints were identified (12). The application of these E-R relationships to simulated data generated using a PopPK model was carried out with the objective of discriminating among candidate brilacidin dosing regimens (13). As illustrated by this example, E-R relationships for efficacy and safety, when identified, can be used to assess risk versus benefit and the value proposition for further clinical development. Carried out in late-stage development, PK/PD analyses for efficacy and safety using phase 3 data produce results that can be used to support the identification of susceptibility breakpoints and patient populations with increased risk of failure and/or safety events. Such data can then be used to inform labeling and/or clinical practice guidelines.
The identification of PK/PD relationships for efficacy and safety based on clinical data collected during development has the potential to inform dosing practices postapproval, especially in the landscape of shifting MIC values. In the example of daptomycin, which was studied in patients with Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia with or without infective endocarditis enrolled in a phase 3 study (14), population PK and PK/PD analyses of efficacy and safety were undertaken to support the supplemental new drug application (sNDA) for this indication (15, 16). Pharmacokinetic samples were obtained from 106 patients, and a PopPK model was developed (15). This model allowed the evaluation of E-R relationships between measures of drug exposure normalized to MIC and (i) clinical outcome, (ii) toxicity (serum creatine phosphokinase [CPK] elevation), and (iii) resistance emergence during therapy with daptomycin (15, 16). While the results of these analyses were used to support the sNDA, the application of these E-R relationships was also useful to evaluate higher daily doses of daptomycin (8 or 10 mg/kg of body weight/day) relative to the approved 6 mg/kg/day dosing regimen in this patient population postapproval (16). Using the PopPK model, the three E-R relationships described above, and Monte Carlo simulation, the likelihood of a good outcome for all three endpoints was determined for each dosing regimen. The results of these analyses failed to demonstrate large increases in the percentages of simulated patients who achieved clinical success or large reductions in the percentages of patients with decreased susceptibility with dose increases in daptomycin from 6 to 10 mg/kg/day. However, percent probabilities of clinical success that had increased by 10% were demonstrated among subgroups of simulated patients defined by selected comorbidities who received 10 mg/kg/day relative those receiving 6 mg/kg/day. Although the percent probability of CPK elevation doubled over this dose range (7.3 to 15.6%), clinicians need to weigh such risks in the context of the mortality and severe morbidity associated with serious staphylococcal infections. These data served to provide guidance to clinicians with regard to the probabilities of clinical success and resistance emergence against the probability of toxicity, thereby providing data for the assessment of risk versus benefit. The examples described above demonstrate the value of data from E-R analyses of clinical trial results during clinical development and the application of such data postapproval to further assess dose.
PATIENTS WITH PNEUMONIA
In assessing the PK/PD of an antibiotic, it is critical to consider the concentrations achieved at the site of infection (17–19). While free drug concentrations in plasma are often viewed as representing an acceptable approximation for free drug concentrations at the site of infection, this is not always the case. This is of concern in the treatment of pneumonia and concentrations of drug in the epithelial lining fluid (ELF). The drug concentrations in ELF are typically measured in clinical studies from samples obtained via bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), an invasive process that is generally limited to a single concentration time point per patient. Historically, analysis of ELF drug penetration data was limited to obtaining ratios of drug concentrations in the ELF to those determined simultaneously in plasma. This is a flawed approach as the plasma-to-ELF penetration ratio can change as a function of time due to system hysteresis. PopPK modeling is used to estimate area under the concentration-time curve for epithelial lining fluid (AUCELF) with limited PK samples because of its ability to estimate PopPK and their associated dispersions for subjects with minimal sampling times. Once the PopPK in ELF are established, Monte Carlo simulation can then be used to estimate the ability of a drug to penetrate the site of infection, defined as the AUCELF/AUCplasma ratio, and to characterize its ability to achieve the desired PK/PD target at that site (20, 21).
Prior to conducting clinical trials, obtaining ELF penetration data in healthy volunteers is necessary to ensure appropriate dosing in terms of attaining the PK/PD target at the infection site. In these assessments, it is typically assumed that all measured drug in the ELF is unbound (free) and that protein binding in the ELF is negligible (18). However, the assumption that protein binding in ELF is negligible has not been validated and requires further assessment. In point of fact, proteins have been measured in ELF using bronchoalveolar lavage fluid for decades (22). It is straightforward to correct the measured concentrations for urea dilution. Binding could be estimated for the agent of interest employing this concentration of binding protein (most often albumin). While straightforward, this has yet to be performed for any modern antibacterial agent.
The preferred method for dose selection for antibacterial agents for the treatment of patients with pneumonia is to assess the probability of PK/PD target attainment using preclinical ELF PK/PD targets from neutropenic murine infection models and simulations of ELF concentration-time profiles. However, as shown in Fig. 2, alternative approaches for pneumonia dose selection have been pursued. Each of these methods has advantages and disadvantages. Leveraging the murine lung infection model for PK/PD target derivation ensures that the target comes from an in vivo system where infection is established at the same site of infection (the lung) as the intended indication in humans. Simulations of human ELF concentration-time profiles provide the most nearly proximal assessment of free-drug exposures to the infection site. But there remain questions as to how well the PK variability is captured in these data, given the limitations of current ELF sampling study designs. More specifically, variability may be overestimated in the ELF data due to BAL fluid sampling, urea correction, and other methodological sources, as opposed to being a representation of the true biological variability. To address or circumvent these issues with ELF variability and to leverage the measured patient plasma PK variability captured in phase 2 and 3 data, PTA analysis can be conducted using plasma PK from both murine lung and human subjects, with a correction made for cross-species differences in lung penetration ratios (Fig. 2). As described above, ELF data are typically collected in healthy volunteers, and levels of lung penetration may differ between healthy volunteers and patients, due to inflammation and other factors. Despite these concerns, ensuring optimal drug exposures at the infection site remains of paramount importance for antibacterial dose selection, especially for patients with pneumonia, for which drug concentrations in the lung can be assessed both in preclinical models and in clinical studies.
DOSE SELECTION CONSIDERATIONS IN SPECIFIC POPULATIONS
It is important to recognize that overall PTA analyses provide an expectation of efficacy across all patient populations. For antibiotics where there is no clinically significant relationship between PK parameters and patient covariates, this is not an issue. When PK parameters (e.g., volume of distribution and clearance) vary as a function of well-defined patient covariates, it is important to assess the PTA profiles across all important patient populations and determine if dosage adjustments are required for them (23). The populations where these considerations are typically applied and the points to be considered are described in the following sections.
Patients with renal impairment.In the United States and Europe, specific guidance and criteria for PK analyses to promote optimal dosing in patients with renal impairment are available. The Cockcroft-Gault and modification of diet in renal disease equations are considered suitable options to characterize the renal function of patients for the purpose of drug dose adjustment in adults with renal impairment (24–26). Note that each of these methods of estimating renal function was originally designed to be used in the setting of chronic kidney disease and may not be appropriate to estimate renal function in patients with acute renal impairment as they rely on a single-point estimate of serum creatinine. These equations require a fundamental expectation of homeostasis, which is often not the case in acutely ill patients (27).
The phase 3 noninferiority trials focusing on complicated intra-abdominal infections (cIAI) that compared ceftazidime-avibactam (CAZ-AVI) with metronidazole to meropenem (RECLAIM 1 and 2 trials) is one of the notable examples in which underdosing based on the Cockcroft-Gault creatinine clearance (CLCR) equation may have resulted in discordant response rates between treatment arms. In the RECLAIM trials, clinical cure rates were lower in the CAZ-AVI plus metronidazole group than in the meropenem-treated group among patients with moderate renal impairment (MRI) at baseline (28). On the basis of these observations, the CAZ-AVI prescribing information includes a warning regarding decreased efficacy in patients with moderate renal impairment (CLCR 30 to 50 ml/min) (29). Note that similar results (i.e., decreased efficacy in patients with renal impairment) were observed in phase 3 trials of other antibiotics such as telavancin and ceftolozane-tazobactam (29, 30).
Monte Carlo simulations performed prior to RECLAIM 1 and 2 indicated that the CAZ-AVI dose selected for patients with moderate renal impairment had a highly favorable (>90%) joint PTA profile (50% fT>MIC for ceftazidime and 50% fT>CT [threshold concentration] of 1 mg/liter for avibactam) for patients with infections with CAZ-AVI MIC values of ≤16/4 mg/liter. While the moderate renal impairment dose regimen was found to have a favorable joint PTA profile, nearly 70% of study patients with a baseline CLCR level of <50 ml/min in RECLAIM 1 and 2 experienced an improvement of renal function to >50 ml/min within 72 h of study drug dosing initiation (31). Therefore, the potential of underdosing due to the absence of an immediate dose increase in the setting of improved renal function may have resulted in deleterious patient outcomes with CAZ-AVI due to suboptimal drug exposure in this specific subpopulation.
In RECLAIM 1 and 2, patients with moderate renal impairment (MRI) (CLCR 30 to 50 ml/min) received a 66% total daily dose reduction for CAZ-AVI (2.5 g intravenous every 8 h to 1.25 g every 12 h). As shown in Fig. 3 (32), the PTA is approximately 60% for the MRI dose among patients whose renal function improves to the mild renal impairment range. Among patients whose renal function improves to the normal range, the PTA drops to less than 20% for the MRI dose. To mitigate the potential for this underdosing, the recommended dose of CAZ-AVI for patients with moderate renal impairment was increased from 1.25 g every 12 h to 1.25 g every 8 h. The PTA with 1.25 g every 8 h is greater than 95% for patients with mild renal impairment and ∼80% for patients with normal renal function. Furthermore, this updated MRI dosing scheme did not result in excess accumulation, as measured by the AUC at steady state (Table 2) (33).
Rather than relying on CLCR or GFR estimation equations to determine appropriate dosing regimens in renal insufficiency, there are alternative equations that can potentially be used to more accurately characterize renal function in the setting of rapidly changing serum creatinine levels (27, 28, 34). In contrast to relying on a point estimate of the serum creatinine to estimate renal function, these equations quantify renal function by considering the magnitude with which the serum creatinine level is increased or decreased compared to its steady-state value and the rapidity of the change; however, these approaches have not been validated to guide drug dosing. Future antibiotic development should consider the evaluation and validation of these approaches to estimate renal function for determining optimal drug dosing in patients with rapidly changing renal function.
Patients with augmented renal function.The need for appropriate dose modifications for patients with renal impairment also applies in the opposite direction for patients with augmented renal clearance (ARC). ARC, often defined as a CLCR level of >130 ml/min, is being increasingly described in subsets of critically ill patients. It is estimated that approximately 30% to 65% of patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) have ARC despite the presence of a normal serum creatinine concentration (35, 36). Patient populations with the highest reported incidence of ARC include those with major trauma, sepsis, traumatic brain injury, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and central nervous system infections. Critically ill trauma patients are often hypermetabolic and frequently require aggressive fluid resuscitation. This may result in increased renal clearance of drugs and higher volumes of distribution (37, 38). Published data suggest these patients often require more intensive dosing schemes for antibiotics that are eliminated mainly by the kidneys, due to their altered physiology. It is also important to note that augmented renal function can be associated with alterations in a number of other physiologic processes that may affect the antibiotic exposure profile. Compensatory nonrenal elimination via the gut or hepatic system may be stimulated, potentially resulting in enhanced drug clearance (20, 39). Furthermore, patients with sepsis or septic shock may have enhanced clearance of drugs caused by increasing cardiac output, leading to higher blood flow to all clearance organs (40). This phenomenon has been increasingly reported and indicates that dose supplementation may be required in patients with ARC (35). The relevance of these findings is underscored by a recent multicenter study by Roberts et al. (41) which found that ICU patients receiving β-lactams who failed to achieve critical PK/PD targets were more likely to experience negative outcomes than those who achieved PK/PD targets.
Similar to efforts to identify patients with rapidly improving renal function, estimated CLCR or glomerular filtration rate (GFR) equations that rely on serum creatinine concentrations do not accurately identify patients who exhibit ARC. Collecting 8-h continuous urine is recommended in patients at high risk for ARC to assess CLCR versus empirical CLCR/GFR estimation equations. Alternatively, therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) or use of GFR clearance biomarkers could be considered, although best practices for TDM merit further consideration (35).
Appropriate extrapolation of dose for body size.When selecting an antibiotic dosing regimen, consideration should be given to whether dosing should be fixed or weight based (42). Antibiotic dosing based on body surface area (BSA) scaling is not frequently conducted in adult patients. For weight-based dosing, the assumptions are that key PK parameters (i.e., clearance and volume of distribution) change proportionately with weight and that weight-based dosing is necessary to achieve isometric exposure distributions across the continuum of weights. Conversely, the lack of association between weight and key PK parameters permits use of a fixed dosing regimen as it is likely to result in comparable exposures across the weight continuum (42).
Early clinical studies typically included adults within a narrow range of body size, hindering the ability to fully evaluate the association between weight and key PK parameters across the current weight distribution in the United States (43). It is now estimated more than one-third of adults in the United States are obese, defined as a body mass index (BMI) of ≥30 kg/m2 (44). Therefore, early-phase clinical trials should enroll patients across the entire weight continuum to permit appropriate dose extrapolation for body size. As part of these evaluations, alternate body size descriptions such as BSA, BMI, ideal body weight, adjusted body weight, and lean body weight should be considered as alternative measures of body size in the PK analyses. This will help ensure that the dosing strategy (i.e., fixed versus body size descriptor base) selected will result in isometric exposures across the distribution of weights observed in clinical practice (43).
Pediatric patients.Full extrapolation of efficacy data from adults to pediatrics may be appropriate if it is reasonable to assume that the two populations have (i) similar disease progressions, (ii) similar responses to intervention, and (iii) similar exposure responses. A decision tree illustrating the use of an E-R relationship for bridging efficacy data in an adult population to a pediatric population is presented in the FDA draft guidance for industry (45).
Full extrapolation for efficacy is applicable for many antibacterial products. It is only when efficacy in pediatric patients can be fully extrapolated from adult studies that pediatric PK and safety studies are solely required to establish the right dose. Establishing the pediatric dose can be performed by exposure matching to adults in the case of full extrapolation, and the same occasionally applies to partial extrapolation. For antibacterial drugs, a priori standards for exposure matching include (i) identification of the target PK/PD index metric (e.g., AUC/MIC, Cmax/MIC, and/or %T>MIC); (ii) the specific target value or range of this metric; and (iii) overlapping an acceptable percentage of the adult exposure distribution.
Care should be taken to characterize and understand when differences in pharmacokinetics (beyond what can be described by allometric scaling) may manifest for antibacterial agents, especially in very young patients. Enzyme and clearance organ maturation differences may have a significant impact on drug PK, and the maturation of various elimination processes can occur over a range of the first weeks to years of life. As PK data are collected in pediatric subjects below 2 years of age, analyses should specifically look for evidence of nonlinearities in drug clearance due to maturation of elimination pathways. From a PK/PD perspective, changes in drug clearance (and half-life) has also been reported to potentially result in PK/PD driver “switching,” where if the half-life is substantially extended, the PK/PD driver can switch from being time driven (%T>MIC or Cmin/MIC) to being concentration driven (AUC/MIC) (46, 47). This can be accounted for either through the examination of PK/PD relationships in an in vitro infection model where half-lives can be easily adjusted or through pharmacometric approaches where the entire time courses of both PK and PD data are modeled (46, 47).
CONCLUSIONS
Pharmacometrics represents an embraced set of tools that allow antibacterial agents to be developed in a streamlined and efficient manner. The assessment of dosing regimens for antibacterial agents utilizes a well-accepted paradigm that includes using robust preclinical PK/PD data and clinical PK data to select a candidate dosing regimen that has a high probability of achieving the PK/PD targets associated with outcomes of interest. Studies have shown that the use of such analyses to guide the dose selection process increases the probability of a successful NDA (48) and, more importantly, ensures that patients are adequately treated for severe and potentially fatal infections. Future challenges in this area include the need to better understand, characterize, and predict PK profiles across the populations likely to be encountered in clinical practice. At both extremes of renal function, it is critical for optimal dose selection to study drug clearance and exposure profiles prior to initiating phase 3 studies. Similarly, efforts should be made to ensure adequate dosing across the entire weight continuum for the target patient population. It is also important to conduct appropriate studies and analyses for proper dose selection in pediatric patients with minimal delay beyond introduction to adults.
To accomplish the goals described above, it will be important to ensure that robust clinical PK and PK/PD data packages are assembled during early- and late-stage development (1, 8). During early-stage development, the phase 1 PK component of this package will need to include data from studies that characterize covariates describing the PK of the antibacterial agent (e.g., renal and/or hepatic impairment studies). Also, if relevant, PK studies need to be conducted to collect data about effect site exposure (i.e., evaluating ELF PK for pneumonia indications). Finally, as described here, inclusion of data from phase 1b studies will allow the characterization of PK and the associated variability of such PK in the target patient population. In late-stage development, PK data are needed from all patients enrolled in pivotal trials. Evaluation of such clinical PK/PD data will allow the confirmation of adequate drug exposure and the evaluation of potential E-R relationships for efficacy and safety endpoints. This final step will allow confirmation of dose selection decisions made during earlier stages of development and will enable patient populations with increased risk of failure and/or safety events to be identified. The conduct of appropriate studies and analyses to support dose selection in pediatric patients, with appropriate bridging to preclinical PK/PD and clinical PK and PK/PD data packages, will ensure minimal delay beyond introduction to adults for the availability of such agents for pediatric patients. As development paths for indications involving multidrug-resistant or extensively drug-resistant pathogens evolve, it will be even more important to ensure that the preclinical PK/PD packages that were described earlier and in the companion paper by Bulitta et al. (5) and the clinical PK/PD data packages are strategically designed to account for the limited clinical data collected. In conclusion, consideration of the studies and analyses described here to support dose selection decisions for antibacterial agents will reduce the likelihood of drug development failures and, more importantly, result in approved dosing regimens associated with optimized patient outcomes.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Paul Ambrose, Patricia Bradford, Ian Friedland, Sumathi Nambiar, and John Rex for their insight and contributions to the workshop.
The opinions expressed in this article are ours and should not be interpreted as the position of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
FOOTNOTES
- Accepted manuscript posted online 4 March 2019.
For a companion article on this topic, see https://doi.org/10.1128/AAC.02307-18.
- Copyright © 2019 Rizk et al.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
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I've read a lot of answers here about double-blind reviews and thesis or single articles.
My problem comes from having four self-references in my article. I feel that if I include them all, could be very easy to infer that this is the fifth one (It's a 4-year granted project and I have been collaborating in a number of software components inside a bigger architecture, now it's the time to use them all to interact with other applications) . But if I ommit some of them, I could end being accused of self-plagiarism. The other articles have been published in the proceedings of conferences that didn't require double-blind reviews, this is the first submission I make to a conference that asks for it (Maybe because of being CORE A) Also not worthless to mention that I'm going to send it as a short paper, so actually it'd be very helpful to cite rather than to repeat past texts.
What should I do?
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I'm trying to download an update for a program I use frequently. The program can only run on a non-case sensitive file system, so it can't run on my main partition. I partitioned a second drive that isn't case sensitive so I could download it. That partition is now completely full. I tried partitioning more space but disk utility says "This partition cannot be modified.". Below is a screen shot of disk utility. What can I do to get more space for my second partition? I tried making a third partition, that was non-case sensitive as well to try and merge them together, but disk utility says "This partition cannot be modified." Please help?
Thankfully I just copied everything on my second partition to my main and deleted the second partition and resized it. Thanks a lot guys.
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ARK Survival Evolved Wiki:Admin noticeboard/Archive 1
This is an archive page of ARK Survival Evolved Wiki:Admin noticeboard. Do not edit this page.
New sections can be added at the current talk page.
Contents
- 1 Naming Conventions
- 2 Date Format
- 3 YouTube Spammers
- 4 YouTube Spam Crua9 (talk • contribs • logs • block log)
- 5 YouTube Videos Removed
- 6 Videos on leveling and taming pages
- 7 Dino Bytes Videos
- 8 Mass Vandalism 22.214.171.124 (talk • contribs • logs • block log)
- 9 Recipes page
- 10 Crafting experience
- 11 Badly translated and possibly copyrighted text
- 12 About the broken 'new section' link
- 13 CCCP tribe blocking
- 14 Official Server 27
- 15 126.96.36.199 needs a break
- 16 Argentavis glitched through the map and is stuck above the map
- 17 ARK Survival of the Fittest Comepetition
Naming Conventions
I'm seeing a lot of back and forth on the pages. Should we use the Dino Dossier common name or the scientific for page names? Example: Dilophosaurus vs Dilophosaur or Tyrannosaurus vs Rex or T. rex --Doctor Arson (talk) 09:27, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
- I'd go with the Dino Dossier names since those seem to be the most official in game. I'd say once we have one, redirect the other naming conventions to it and it's pretty simple there out. Anyone searching for it will automatically go to the correct page, rather than deleting and someone recreating the page all over again. --Z3ther (talk) 15:28, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
Date Format
I have a question regarding the date format to use - Devs on Steam are using DMY so I would have gone with that, but some people are changing them to MDY - which can be confusing, as 90% of the world are using DMY (sorry America, you are nearly the only one to use MDY) Alternatively I would suggest YMD as it's the international standard for dates or write out the month to reduce confusion. This is an international game, so in my opinion it would be best to use a more international version. Amkorra (talk) 08:14, 2 July 2015 (UTC)
- In this regard we'd keep the same standards as the devs, so DMY. You can always put D M (spelled out) and Y to make things less confusing, as the four tildes shows up the same. --Z3ther (talk) 01:37, 3 July 2015 (UTC)
YouTube Spammers
There are a few users modifying pages only to post their YouTube videos, this is a blatant attempt to get free views. Should these users be banned? The videos are always on unnecessary crafting guides that add nothing to the wiki. --Doctor Arson (talk) 20:28, 7 July 2015 (UTC)
- Can you link to one so we can see. --SharpShot gif (talk) 20:54, 7 July 2015 (UTC)
- This is becoming a pretty big problem as of late. If you see it, please revert any youtube additions from any anonymous editors. Only those people who are really adding to the community and the wiki have any sort of permission, unless they work for gamepedia. --Z3ther (talk) 22:55, 7 July 2015 (UTC)
- Didn't realise this was a taboo practice. There's a few in my edits, which should suffice as a list if you want to revert them. Not my youtube account so no skin off my nose; I just thought they were helpful. I'll remove them if that is what's wished. That being said, if people are watching them does that truly make the "unnecessary"? T1G0FF (talk) 22:58, 7 July 2015 (UTC)
- I'm curious as to why someone linking a YouTube video for crafting dyes (for example) on the wiki page for "Dyes" would be considered "unnecessary", "spam", or just "a blatant attempt to get free views"? Perhaps the person producing the video realizes that a lot of people learn visually and feel that making a textual guide won't be as effective as making a visual one? A crafting guide in a game such as this is absolutely relevant, and adds plenty to the wiki, I feel. To suggest banning someone for choosing a specific medium (video) on a specific topic (crafting) as their contribution to a wiki seems a bit biased and heavy-handed. Perhaps I'm reading into the original complaint too much, but (as someone already suggested) sharing a link to an example of "unnecessary crafting guides" would probably enlighten me to some extent; otherwise it just sounds like there's someone on a witch-hunt against wiki contributors with YouTube accounts. --Asphyxiate (talk) 07:13, 8 July 2015 (UTC)
- 188.8.131.52 is who I was specifically talking about. Look at the Recipes page, there are two different videos for recipes even though they are made in essentially the same way. The crafting in this game is ridiculously simple (light the fire or click craft) and there is no reason to add video guides to every single item, dyes included. You're being very hostile about an issue that admin Z3ther already resolved. --Doctor Arson (talk) 08:46, 8 July 2015 (UTC)
- There's a difference between driveby youtubing anonymously and being part of the community wanting to help everyone out and you can really pretty quickly if you watch the video. Most often people that add the spam videos are doing it from an account that has no other contributions except adding videos to get views. T1G0FF you're someone that's been adding stuff outside of the videos, so typically if the community finds it acceptable content then those videos are ok, imo. I'm also a huge visual learner so I understand that seeing something is quite a bit more helpful. You just have to understand that with close to a million pageviews a day, this wiki is going to get people wanting to get views on their videos and will spam them anonymously regardless. --Z3ther (talk) 11:57, 8 July 2015 (UTC)
- Just so myself and everyone are on the same page: it's not so much the videos, it's the way in which they are added; anonymously, by people with nothing else to contribute and occasionally no regard for the layout of the page. The issue makes perfect sense now, apologies for "kicking the hornet's nest." T1G0FF (talk) 19:40, 8 July 2015 (UTC)
- There are now even two videos at Lazarus Chowder - Top one is the newer one added by the mentioned IP. While the second one might not have the best quality, it still does have all needed information, without any kind of advertisement, while the upper one freely advertises his server at the end. That's a big difference for me. If it was up to me, I would say Videos are fine if they present the information, but don't advertise/ask for likes. Or at least keep it to a minimum --Amkorra (talk) 09:06, 9 July 2015 (UTC)
- Thanks for the clarification on this, as I can clearly tell (now) that the aforementioned IP only seems to post videos which inevitably advertise his server, and he seems to edit the positioning on the page so that his video is the first to appear on each page; whether or not another user's video was posted first. Now I can understand why this type of behavior from this person needs some type of disciplinary action, as it completely lacks any type of etiquette or any type of respect. This is really unfair to the users that really are trying to add something to the Community, and it taints their contributions as well. --Asphyxiate (talk) 04:24, 13 July 2015 (UTC)
- There are now even two videos at Lazarus Chowder - Top one is the newer one added by the mentioned IP. While the second one might not have the best quality, it still does have all needed information, without any kind of advertisement, while the upper one freely advertises his server at the end. That's a big difference for me. If it was up to me, I would say Videos are fine if they present the information, but don't advertise/ask for likes. Or at least keep it to a minimum --Amkorra (talk) 09:06, 9 July 2015 (UTC)
- Just so myself and everyone are on the same page: it's not so much the videos, it's the way in which they are added; anonymously, by people with nothing else to contribute and occasionally no regard for the layout of the page. The issue makes perfect sense now, apologies for "kicking the hornet's nest." T1G0FF (talk) 19:40, 8 July 2015 (UTC)
- I'm curious as to why someone linking a YouTube video for crafting dyes (for example) on the wiki page for "Dyes" would be considered "unnecessary", "spam", or just "a blatant attempt to get free views"? Perhaps the person producing the video realizes that a lot of people learn visually and feel that making a textual guide won't be as effective as making a visual one? A crafting guide in a game such as this is absolutely relevant, and adds plenty to the wiki, I feel. To suggest banning someone for choosing a specific medium (video) on a specific topic (crafting) as their contribution to a wiki seems a bit biased and heavy-handed. Perhaps I'm reading into the original complaint too much, but (as someone already suggested) sharing a link to an example of "unnecessary crafting guides" would probably enlighten me to some extent; otherwise it just sounds like there's someone on a witch-hunt against wiki contributors with YouTube accounts. --Asphyxiate (talk) 07:13, 8 July 2015 (UTC)
- Didn't realise this was a taboo practice. There's a few in my edits, which should suffice as a list if you want to revert them. Not my youtube account so no skin off my nose; I just thought they were helpful. I'll remove them if that is what's wished. That being said, if people are watching them does that truly make the "unnecessary"? T1G0FF (talk) 22:58, 7 July 2015 (UTC)
- This is becoming a pretty big problem as of late. If you see it, please revert any youtube additions from any anonymous editors. Only those people who are really adding to the community and the wiki have any sort of permission, unless they work for gamepedia. --Z3ther (talk) 22:55, 7 July 2015 (UTC)
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The "the aforementioned IP" that "only seems to post videos which inevitably advertise his server" would be mine(mrcookiejunkie). I would like to say that this is all very stupid and if you want to take any "disciplinary action" out on my account then go ahead. Now if however you would like to sort this out properly then read on. Firstly with regards video placement, I'll happily admit that I posted mine above someone elses, and yeah bad move but if you go check I've moved them all now and I agree this is a fair and valid point. This however is the only item on your complaints list against me that I agree with and have resolved. To start with I spend time creating videos to help people, not everyone including myself is happy to sit there and stare at loads of text much like Asphyxiate so rightly said. I wanted to contribute to the community in the only way I knew how, by making a way in which people could easily see what it was they had to do in game. Now if you go look at the views and likes I'm sure you wouldn't be naive enough to think that people didn't respond well to this. Oh and before you ask I aren't signed into my account on my laptop hence why its just the IP
- Secondly "aforementioned IP only seems to post videos which inevitably advertise his server" is wrong seen as I started doing these videos before I made a server, additionally I do say to people they can come down and ask for help should they need to talk with someone and that's it. I was unaware that the community was so against people having servers. Also I would like to ask what the difference between adding images and videos are? I mean come on if you dont like using videos then fair enough no one is forcing you too watch them, but if it helps some people why not just leave it there?
- I am glad that the issue I have resolved was brought up as that's my bad completely. However I am annoyed that I put a load of time into creating more content for this wiki just to be had a go at on a forum page. Why can people only contribute via writing? If thats all you can do you may as well remove all the images on the wiki. If a picture is worth 1000 words whats a video worth? I will happily admit my mistakes but not sit here and get attacked by some people for simply trying to help Mrcookiejunkie (talk) 02:13, 15 July 2015 (UTC)
- mrcookiejunkie, just a head's up. I do not represent the wiki nor the administration behind it. I am an A.R.K. player that felt that the original posting seemed unfair to people creating video content for the wiki and felt like I should comment on it. After stating my piece, I realized what the OP was actually saying when I read his/her response. "Yes", your IP was mentioned, and "Yes" I noticed your edits after looking into it more thoroughly, and "Yes" I completely agreed with the fact that you were being disrespectful to other users which are trying to provide video content as well. Your edits were blatantly done to garner more subs to your YouTube channel and your Server. I am glad that you are mature enough to realize (and admit) that what you had done lacked couth, and that you've made attempts to redeem yourself. I do realize that making videos takes time and takes effort, and I believe that anyone contributing to this wiki (or any wiki) should be appreciated to an extent; just not at the expense of other contributors. --Asphyxiate (talk) 07:02, 15 July 2015 (UTC)
- Asphyxiate, whilst I will admit to my wrongs if you think I post just to gain subscribers then you severely mislead-ed . I do not appreciate being talked down to like a child. Additionally if your not an administrator why the heck are you getting involved in all this, don't get me wrong I'm glad that this issue was brought up and hopefully resolved however you act as though your sat in an ivory tower, so instead of wasting time listing off the stuff that I'm apparently doing wrong and acting like the chief of this community why not be constructive toward people instead of just badgering on at them the same old stuff. I am actually annoyed that I tried to make things right only to be insulted further by you. I know exactly what was said and do not need it explaining by you, for god sake I can read the post above your name. -_- Mrcookiejunkie (talk) 13:04, 17 July 2015 (UTC)
- mrcookiejunkie, just a head's up. I do not represent the wiki nor the administration behind it. I am an A.R.K. player that felt that the original posting seemed unfair to people creating video content for the wiki and felt like I should comment on it. After stating my piece, I realized what the OP was actually saying when I read his/her response. "Yes", your IP was mentioned, and "Yes" I noticed your edits after looking into it more thoroughly, and "Yes" I completely agreed with the fact that you were being disrespectful to other users which are trying to provide video content as well. Your edits were blatantly done to garner more subs to your YouTube channel and your Server. I am glad that you are mature enough to realize (and admit) that what you had done lacked couth, and that you've made attempts to redeem yourself. I do realize that making videos takes time and takes effort, and I believe that anyone contributing to this wiki (or any wiki) should be appreciated to an extent; just not at the expense of other contributors. --Asphyxiate (talk) 07:02, 15 July 2015 (UTC)
I have just attempted to remove YouTube spam by Crua9, but he is reverting (some of) my edits. He is asking for donations and advertising in his videos and has not contributed anything of value to the wiki, which is why I removed the videos in the first place. (They are also placed on the pages with total disregard for the existing layout.) -- IllegalOpcode (talk) 20:42, 19 July 2015 (UTC)
- Looks like @SharpShot gif beat me to a block. Def the thing that should be removed, thanks. --Z3ther (talk) 20:57, 19 July 2015 (UTC)
- I'm not sure if this is a place to defend your stuff. Anyways, IllegalOpcode marked several of my videos as spam when I was clearly showing how stuff works, what it looks like, and how to make or get something. For example, the crappy wiki page for the lamp post saying it doesn't look like the picture doesn't mean nothing. I show how the thing looks, and I even show some light tricks what you can teach someone with text.
- I have a video on oil and pearls, and it shows exactly what it looks like, how to get it, and how to turn it into gas. I've gotten 237 of e-mails thanking me for making that because the wiki is crap when it comes to telling people how to get it. Sure you can write it, but it's better to show how to get something.
- To me it sounds like you don't want anyone to use anything other than the hardest method to teach someone something. Way to go old school -- Crua9 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Crua9 (talk • contribs) at 08:35, 28 July 2015 (UTC). Please sign your posts with
~~~~
- Hey @Crua9, I've reverted your edits because of the way we've currently decided to include videos and video links. You're welcome to let your voice be heard here, but please keep things civil in your discussions. --Z3ther (talk) 08:54, 28 July 2015 (UTC)
YouTube Videos Removed
Youtube vidoes on pages has been a bit of an issue as of late as often they can become the subject of edit wars (since people want their videos higher or don't want to compete) as well as an overall slow to the pagetime load, thus I've removed nearly all videos as most seem unnecessary. If you have a problem, please don't hesitate to contact me directly. In the future we'll be looking for authoritarian and high quality videos to keep the wiki at the highest quality possible that we can. --Z3ther (talk) 19:16, 20 July 2015 (UTC)
- I agree. Can we get an official rules page like on the Minecraft wiki? This would help clear up any confusion or etiquette. http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Minecraft_Wiki:Wiki_rules --Doctor Arson (talk) 19:23, 20 July 2015 (UTC)
- Great Idea! I think having a Rules Page will be highly helpful for confusion or etiquette. I'd highly welcome input on the discussion page there and we can build it together there as a community. What do you think? --Z3ther (talk) 19:42, 20 July 2015 (UTC)
- Can I suggest a move (without redirect) from Rules to Wiki Rules? I think it is likely that there will be a Rules page covering game-related rules later. Apart from that, I think this is a fantastic idea! -- IllegalOpcode (talk) 21:33, 20 July 2015 (UTC)
- Great Idea! I think having a Rules Page will be highly helpful for confusion or etiquette. I'd highly welcome input on the discussion page there and we can build it together there as a community. What do you think? --Z3ther (talk) 19:42, 20 July 2015 (UTC)
Videos on leveling and taming pages
Why is there videos in the leveling and taming sections if there shouldn't be any youtube videos? Is it because it's showing a bias if you're leaving those alone. The video is still a video that is meant to inform. All videos, and that includes videos from Curse, should be edited out. Unless you change the rules on what videos can go in. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.108.40.206 (talk • contribs) at 16:40, 22 July 2015 (UTC)
- Videos ARE allowed as long as they are meaningful placed on the page to follow the layout to look nice without removing or placing higher than other videos. All videos should not advertise any servers or ask for donations - anyone adding content to gamepedia is doing it for free why should video users get money. We also ask that videos are of high standard and quality - script it don't just make it up as you go. I believe we should have videos but not if the poster is doing it to get credit for it (youtube hits, donations, players to server) --SharpShot gif (talk) 15:56, 22 July 2015 (UTC)
- Curse are free to do whatever they want (within the confines of the wiki's license) when it comes to videos. Their videos are also a great example of high-quality videos. Also, please sign your comments using
-- ~~~~
so we can tell who made the comment without looking at the page history. Thanks. -- IllegalOpcode (talk) 16:04, 22 July 2015 (UTC)
Dino Bytes Videos
Hello, I have sent Z3ther a message on FB, please respond. I want to establish that I am the author of Dino Bytes, one of the people who, until recently was providing video content to the community of Ark albeit not always via this site. IllegalOpcode, I would like a chance to address your last statement, for clarification. If you feel I am being unjust in my opinions please point this out to me. I agree that videos on the wiki should be of a professional nature. You justify removing the content because the other videos not put out by Curse were all unscripted videos, which sole purpose is to garner revenue, YouTube hits, donations and players to their server. In addition they were also removed because of edit wars and spamming. I am a gamer, I have watched many tutorials that were poorly edited, sloppy in execution, and while I do not think my videos are graphically (they have a professional staff that's sole focus is graphics and marketing) on par with Curse, I am still learning, and I have attempted to put out content which is scripted, to the point, and informative. I would like to also take issue with several points that you guys have been operating under. I have never posted a video to this wiki (someone else did), the money I have made from my view counts is a whopping $6.48, of which I won't ever see unless it reaches $100, I have not participated in editing wars, viewers have thanked me because of how well they thought the videos were laid out (go look at the comments yourself, all but two are positive and those two were someone trolling), my information in the videos isn't just coming from the wiki, it is also research I do myself, and I think that, whoever posted my videos did a nice job keeping them at the bottom of the page, which shows that they were not attempting to do anything but add a visual guide to the page for information. I would also like you to actually watch the taming video curse has put out, do you play this game? I honestly don't, think she plays this game, nacroberries? Not only did she say it wrong, it is spelled wrong on the bar, taming a dino by punching it isn't most effective way of taming and nothing has been said about tranq arrows (However, her mic quality is better than mine). I am speaking out about this because I think that my videos did add something valuable to the wiki. This is not only my opinion, but users of this wiki as well. I would be stupid to not try and take advantage of this situation, my view counts have gone up since I have been posted on the wiki and I am more than willing to meet the criteria you would like to see in video tutorials, but more importantly, the videos I have made are helpful, people do watch them, and it is to the deficit to the community for them having been removed. If someone could lay out exactly what authoritarian and high quality videos is and how I have not met this standard, other than my initial mic quality, I would be grateful. -- Thelyzardiam (talk) 01:46, 23 July 2015 (UTC)
- Hello there! I'm sorry you got caught up in this. I have never personally had an issue with your videos, but we have had some pretty bad YouTube spam in the span of a few days and needed to put the foot down. We have starting working on a set of wiki rules to govern stuff like this, you--and anyone else, for that matter--are welcome to join the discussion over on the Wiki Rules talk page. Oh, and next time, leave out the code and nowiki tags when you sign, or it won't work the way it's supposed to. :] -- IllegalOpcode (talk) 02:06, 23 July 2015 (UTC)
- Thanks for the reply also it was I who made them statements but I feel he answered them well for me. About Youtubers getting paid for hits was not the point I was trying to make but Youtubers adding videos just to get hits. I didn't see your videos personally but by the sounds of it they were of high quality and acceptable they just happened to be removed alone side all videos. If you like to re-add the videos am sure it would be ok along as they are placed on the page nicely. --SharpShot gif (talk) 12:35, 23 July 2015 (UTC)
Mass Vandalism 220.127.116.11 (talk • contribs • logs • block log)
This user has removed information from 3 pages can we block him. It might be a good Idea to make it so that only registered users can only edit on this pedia we are getting a lot of good edits from non-users but also bad ones. Blocking by ip is limited as most people are on a ipv6 so they can come back but if they have to make an account it will slow them down and make it harder. --SharpShot gif (talk) 13:56, 8 July 2015 (UTC)
- I blocked him right after I saw his edits and I'm going to go ahead and make you a moderator, as a thank you for your exceptional work. --Z3ther (talk) 03:34, 9 July 2015 (UTC)
Recipes page
Would it not make sense for the Recipes page to contain just a list of available recipes with links? Would anyone have any complaints if I did the same thing to the recipes page as I did to the cooking page? I doubt anyone had a problem with the cooking page edit considering it's "non-uniform appearance", but the Recipes page is quite well formatted and I don't really want to cull someone's hard work without asking first. T1G0FF (talk) 09:50, 9 July 2015 (UTC)
- I'd say knock yourself out. If you want to change some stuff around go for it. Both pages really do need quite a bit of clean up. I think the Cooking page really has potential for a cool page, but the layout and the content somewhat Sucks, like 200 different people put in a sentence,so it's a mess. If you want to tackle it, be my guest. --Z3ther (talk) 15:29, 9 July 2015 (UTC)
Crafting experience
I hope that all the infoboxes for craftable items can contain information on how much XP it gives to craft. I'd be happy to contribute the content, but i don't know how to edit all the infobox templates and whether i'd do anything wrong --Terrorbillen (talk) 11:18, 17 July 2015 (UTC)
- I have added an
experience
parameter to the ResourceInfobox template. I also added the experience per craft to Narcotic. If there is anything else I can do for you, please let me know. :] -- IllegalOpcode (talk) 12:53, 19 July 2015 (UTC)
Badly translated and possibly copyrighted text
I (and a few others) have reverted a number of edits from 18.104.22.168 (talk • contribs • logs • block log) that seem to be badly translated text attributed to Ark-Pedia by DGZ DurchGeZockt. Without knowing exactly where the text came from, we cannot be sure that it is compatible with this wiki's license CC BY-NC-SA 3.0, and I therefore advise that we revert any such edits. (I am not a lawyer, but as a software engineer I know a thing or two about licenses.) Oh, and the 'Please post new topics at the bottom of the page by clicking this link to add a new section.' link at the top seems to be broken, it shows a redirect page instead of posting the topic. -- IllegalOpcode (talk) 21:08, 19 July 2015 (UTC)
I figured out what is wrong. The link is made using {{fullurle:{{SITENAME}}:Admin noticeboard|action=edit§ion=new}}
, but because the SITENAME is 'ARK: Survival Evolved Wiki' and not 'ARK Survival Evolved Wiki', it breaks. I am confident that replacing {{SITENAME}} with ARK Survival Evolved Wiki
will fix it, like so: {{fullurle:ARK Survival Evolved Wiki:Admin noticeboard|action=edit§ion=new}}
- Sorry already beat you to it I fixed it before you posted this lol --SharpShot gif (talk) 21:34, 19 July 2015 (UTC)
- That's actually pretty funny to me, since I made the redirect and was trying to figure out how and why people were editing that page, since it was changed when we renamed the wiki from arksurvivalevolved.gamepedia.com to ark.gamepedia.com I thought I fixed any loops, but people were still editing it and adding their issues on that page. I couldn't understand, and now it totally makes sense. Thanks both of you for fixing it. The reason it still comes up is because the mainpage is ARK: Survival Evolved with the hyphen, and the Admin noticeboard doesn't have a hyphen. Hyphens really mess with wikimedia in all sorts of different ways :/ --Z3ther (talk) 22:46, 19 July 2015 (UTC)
CCCP tribe blocking
A tribe called CCCP are blocking the caves and mountain sites to stop people getting resources they have blocked frozen fang and the underwater cave at 10.4 / 39.5 the server is The-EU-PVE-officialServer126 i believe on a PVE Server this is very unfair play
- Sorry, but this is the Wiki to the Game, not a place to get help from the devs. Please use the Steam forums linked on the right under "Game Support" for it, or email them at [email protected]. On another Note, it actually shouldn't be possible to build in Caves on PVE Servers. So if that's the case, the Devs definitely will want to know about this. ---Amkorra (talk) 18:04, 20 July 2015 (UTC)
Official Server 27
On the wonderful public server of the Officialarkserver27 I am part of a good tribe ranked third place in best tribe on the server. Recently our tribe and every other tribe on the server whom we are allied with most of them have experienced a old tribe that has returned by the name of yy and continued to raid multiple big tribes including us and wrecking small bases for fun. This has become very unfunny on the server and many tribes have had to start over. We have come to a stage in recovering where we are back to normal although a new problem has risen between the server and the yy tribe. This tribe has started hacking. They have on multiple occasions shot through mountains with bows and guns and have become invincible making the gameplay even more frustrating. This tribe has terrorized the same server before, but never in this manner of hacking. It has become likely for many people to leave the server due to this. If we can have this solved, the whole server would be grateful for the admins and other helpers to get rid of the people in the yy tribe to make the gameplay better for the server and to rid hacking between the tribe and people who play legitimately. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 22.214.171.124 (talk • contribs) at 03:51, 25 July 2015 (UTC)
- Unfortunately here on the game wiki we don't have any rights to change servers or help you fix issues with other tribes. The best options currently are to visit the Steam forums and write your problem there, or contact the devs: [email protected]. --Z3ther (talk) 09:36, 25 July 2015 (UTC)
126.96.36.199 needs a break
- Ban hammer deployed. 188.8.131.52 (talk • contribs • logs • block log) now in orbit for 1 month. -- IllegalOpcode (talk) 13:10, 25 July 2015 (UTC)
Argentavis glitched through the map and is stuck above the map
I am on Official Server 47 and was riding an Argentavis named Rand' Al Thor and was coasting along the beach near the 70 Long 25 Lat, I then ran into a stone building while it was raining and misty and it glitched me through the map. I saw the entire map, literally from a bird's eye view. We were way above the map and I couldn't move the bird. I was trying everything and finally jumped off of it where I went through the "ceiling" and proceeded to fall into the water after about a full 2 minutes of falling. Is there any way of getting the Argentavis back? I understand losing it to another dino but to lose it in a game glitch is a little ridiculous.
- Unfortunately for you, this is the game wiki, and since we are not developers and pretty much have nothing to do with the game servers can't help you. Please use the Steam forums or email the devs at [email protected]. Also, please sign your comments using
-- ~~~~
, this will add a link to your user page and the current date, making it easier to follow the discussion. Thanks! --Z3ther (talk) 11:12, 30 July 2015 (UTC)
ARK Survival of the Fittest Comepetition
Hello, admins! Will any of you be watching the Survival of the Fittest competition live this weekend? If so, I have a favor to ask! Please contact me via my userpage or [email protected] if you'll be watching! Best, BriannaMCR (talk) 20:52, 30 July 2015 (UTC)
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If right-libertarians have a “comparative advantage,” it’s in writing by-the-numbers puff pieces on “free trade” that borrow the language of Ricardo and Cobden to defend what amounts to a totalitarian corporate lockdown on the world economy. This time it’s Richard Ebeling of the Future of Freedom Foundation (“Free Trade Versus Political Fallacies,” June 15) doing the honors.
Ebeling objects to the negative tone of both American political parties on international trade this election year. Listening to Clinton and Trump, he says, “the average voter would think that international trade and investment is a zero sum game in which there is a ‘winner’ and a ‘loser’. Their economic policy assumption is that other countries are gaining at the international trade game at the expense of the United States.”
At least Ebeling, unlike most right-libertarian apologists for corporate globalization, doesn’t explicitly equate the predominant form of “trade” in the real world with “free trade.” He repeatedly defends the benefits of “international trade” and the like, without ever coming right out and calling it “free trade.”
The problem is, all the stuff he has to say about the positive-sum benefits of trade are true only of actual free trade. But the transnational corporate economy we actually live in has very little to do with free trade. And the global corporate economy is very much a zero-sum game.
The actual nature of the global economy is aptly described by this passage from “Labour Defended Against the Claims of Capital,” by Thomas Hodgskin — an English writer of the 1820s and 1830s who was second to none in his support for genuine free trade.
Betwixt him who produces food and him who produces clothing, betwixt him who makes instruments and him who uses them, in steps the capitalist, who neither makes nor uses them, and appropriates to himself the produce of both. With as niggard a hand as possible he transfers to each a part of the produce of the other, keeping to himself the large share. Gradually and successively has he insinuated himself betwixt them, expanding in bulk as he has been nourished by their increasingly productive labours, and separating them so widely from each other that neither can see whence that supply is drawn which each receives through the capitalist. While he despoils both, so completely does he exclude one from the view of the other that both believe they are indebted him for subsistence.
In one thing Ebeling is right: his criticism of Clinton and Trump for suggesting it’s other countries that benefit at the expense of Americans. In actual fact it’s transnational corporations that are gaining at the expense of working people and consumers in both the United States and other countries. But substitute the global corporation for “other countries” and actually existing international trade is exactly the kind of zero-sum relationship Hodgskin described.
Most “international trade” is not what we think of when we hear the term — that is, companies in America producing for export to other countries, and companies in foreign countries producing goods that are imported for consumption in the United States. Rather, most trade is actually transfers of unfinished goods between national subsidiaries of global corporations, or the importation for domestic sale of finished goods produced under contract by foreign factories, with the trademarks of American corporations. In other words it isn’t really “trade” at all, but an administrative transaction within a global corporate bureaucracy.
And to repeat, it’s very much zero-sum.
A global corporation uses its patents and trademarks to contract out actual production to independent firms, but retains a legal monopoly on disposal of the product. As a result it can bargain unilaterally with foreign sweatshops on a take-it-or-leave-it basis, and sell the finished goods in Western domestic markets at a markup many times the actual cost of production. And it can use the same “intellectual property” to prevent indigenous Third World producers from manufacturing identical goods for their own domestic market at a price near actual production cost. That is a ZERO-SUM game in which the corporations benefit at the expense of both Third World workers and American consumers.
Under the neoliberal regime enforced by the World Bank, IMF, and assorted “Free Trade Agreements,” the “property rights” of extractive industries like oil, minerals and agribusiness in the resources they’ve looted under centuries of colonialism and neocolonialism are protected against reclamation by the Third World peoples they looted them from. That’s ZERO-SUM.
Under neoliberalism, multilateral institutions lend Third World countries the money to build roads and utility infrastructures whose primary purpose is to make the export of Western capital artificially profitable. Then those same institutions use that debt as leverage to blackmail those same Third World countries into crony capitalist “structural adjustment” programs by which they “privatize” those same infrastructures to the very corporations they were built at public expense to subsidize — and privatize them on terms unilaterally favorable to the acquiring corporations. ZERO-SUM.
Under neoliberalism, the cumulative effect of “intellectual property,” massive subsidies to long-distance transportation, and the U.S. Navy keeping the sea lanes open for container ships entirely at taxpayer expense, is to make global supply and distribution chains much longer than would be optimally efficient in a genuine free market. This means that the international “specialization” Ebeling thinks so much of is likewise artificially promoted beyond optimal levels.
“Trade,” as such, is not an unlimited good. Neither is “specialization” or “division of labor.” If they were, Earth would devote its entire economy to producing a particular kind of widget for the rest of the galaxy. They’re all things that reach a level of diminishing returns. And since the primary role of the state under capitalism is to socialize the operating costs of business and enforce monopoly profits, the point of diminishing returns for all those things is artificially raised much higher than its normal value in a free market.
Under genuine free trade, no “intellectual property” would enable corporations to control production and monopolize the distribution of goods while relegating the people of Third World countries to supplying sweatshop labor. Under genuine free trade, the expropriated and enclosed land from which peasants have been evicted under colonialism and neo-colonialism, which is used to produce cash crops or simply held out of use altogether, would be reoccupied by the cultivators who rightfully own it and force sweatshop employers to compete with the possibility of self-employment and subsistence production.
In such a global economy, a much larger share of the goods we consume would be produced in small-scale facilities for local consumption, in integrated local economies — in both the United States and the Third World. The goods produced would be much cheaper absent the embedded rents on patents, trademarks and copyrights, and the enormous overhead from the kind of supply-push distribution entailed in global distribution chains. Workers would have much greater say over the conditions under which this production took place — both here and abroad — absent state interventions on behalf of employers to suppress alternatives to the wage system.
But that’s under free trade — which is a far cry from the capitalist “international trade” Ebeling defends.
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Blog Post
Presentation: Introducing SQL Server 2012 Security and Auditing Improvements
Play Presentation: Introducing SQL Server 2012 Security and Auditing Improvements
Description
In this presentation we'll cover SQL Server 2012 improvements that impact security and auditing, including new support for default schema for groups, user-defined server roles and various auditing improvements.
Joe Sack
Principal Consultant, SQLskills
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Aldo,
Here's a comparative photo of the dress I received and the advertised photo from the site. I must say it's very accurate. The length of my dress is a little longer because I chose it to be that way. I have a bigger "behind" and if I choose shorter ones, I might flash you guys with ungodly scenes. LOL!
edressy.com is an online bridal shop, specializing in selling wedding
dresses, bridesmaid dresses, flower girl dresses, prom dresses and
other special occasion dresses. Since their goal is to make all of us customers and shoppers alike to be happy and
satisfied, they are committed to offering high quality dresses with
competitive price.The shop has then grown from providing just wedding dresses and entourage clothing to parties - prom, homecoming, among other styles.
In my country, I mentioned wearing glam dresses may not be as common since the parties we have are not as big as those in other countries. It's getting more costly nowadays. But luckily, there are shops that offer budget-friendly dresses at online shopping convenience like http://www.simplydresses.co.nz/ Go check after the cut to find out more about my views on this shop ...
| Click to Blogsvertise | Got Ad? Go click! |
#phchurpchurp is the newest social media community!
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Edressy.com offers a range of beautiful dresses, matching shoes, exquisite accessories for brides and fashion ladies. The dress collections are updated every season according to the fashion trend, in order to provide us shoppers with the latest styles. Moreover, we can also have our dresses or gowns custom made if you can’t find a right size.
Before I even got the dress, I already envisioned this look. The materials of the dress gives me this romantic or somehow Victorian-style dress - organza + lace + black & white + see-through material + sexy + backless ... it has that sexy formula! And so, as soon as I got it, this was the result!
The shop offers good quality product with keen attention to details. I am very keen on details too and I was observing how accurate this is with the product advertised on the website. I must say, very little difference on the lace patterns on the skirt. Other than that, it still look pretty much the same.
Simplydresses.co.nz aims to be budget-friendly dress provider, the moment they've established this online shopping haven, edressy.com. No matter where you are, or who you are, edressy.com offers the same low price to you. Whether you’re a retailer or a simple fashionista customer desiring to catch the latest fashion and style and trend, you can get an unbeatable low price from the site. This dress I chose, I must say; even though it's customized, the value did not change for me. It costs $125.94 USD (roughly Php5,037.60 in my local currency) when this was sent to me (please note price may change depending on the provider). Customized dresses would normally cost as much, I believe; and even more. But this one didn't change even price for my size.
I styled the look with some "blings" to add to the glamorous effect of the outfit. I believe I achieved a romantic glam look with it, don't you think? Most of my accessories are just reused from some of my past outfits hehe. I don't have an endless closet and accessories drawer anyway. I just mix and match. I can say I'm satisfied with this look. I was able to play around with the lovely outfit and the "love" I wanted to showcase in the mood, staying true to its "romantic" vibe. You can see I also used a fascinator as my hair accessory.
Pink's song has been stuck in my mind for months ... and I think it suits this look ...
Just Give Me A Reason By Pink
This outfit is as close to the song as I can see - romantic, lovely ... what more can you ask for? Learn to love again these dresses ... feel the romantic vibe ... edressy.com offers such styles and a safe and easy online purchasing experience. Their payment processes guarantee a safe and secure purchasing environment with worldwide recognized safe methods. They've taken out the hassle of international trade —from product sourcing, secure payment and shipping.
Behind edressy.com is an amazing team of real, live specialists who are happy to handle any issue you may have. The customer service is always ready to solve the problems you may come up, so feel free to turn to our customer service when you need help or have any question. I can vouch for this since for me, when I was still choosing my color, style, and sizing and how-to questions on measurements (yeah it's self-explanatory but given mine is customized, I wanted to make sure) ... their staff has been friendly enough. The one handling me as a fashion blogger was also very helpful.
The shop promises to know and believe in every fashionistas' mindset - that the dresses do mean a lot to us, so they ensure that each dress is handled with care and arrives from their warehouse to our own homes in style! Additionally, they offer fast delivery to make us get the dress in time for our big event - whether it's sooner already or if it can still take some time. I can attest to this! Their staff kept on following up with me if I already received the dress after their targeted timeframe. It was a bit delayed for me due to customs handling - there was miscommunication on the address, etc. But nevertheless; I got it as I expected it!
As I mentioned, I really got mt size much-customized than the advertised photo. I really can't go with such a very short length. My behind is really bigger - not in proportion with my whole body. LOL. And, my chest area is also ... uhmm ... bigger. So I my dress is really longer than the photo on the site. And the tube dress top itself is really bigger too to accommodate my ... erm ... my humps! The materials are of good quality as you can see on the photo. I chose this because it's not too-shiny and not too-bland as well so it's perfect for my personality and the events I'll go to. Not too grand, not too plain! And choosing it in black & white makes it a "safe" choice for any event!
I am really grateful for this opportunity to get this dress from edressy shop and write about how wonderful this dress is; and the experience in getting outfits and styles from the site. I also enjoyed the photoshoot with my sister for this look! Not so grand as well but all lovely and fun! (^_^)
What do you think?
Where to find this look?
To summarize my thoughts on this as well ...
PRODUCT REVIEW
PRODUCT CODE: JPHOMED056
Buy now!!! http://www.simplydresses.co.nz
Chai
Outfit Post: ♥♥ Learn to Love ❤ Again with Edressy ✻✻✻
As promised, I'll write about the dress I got from my new sponsor, Edressy.com and I must say, I really chose the one I could wear in local parties and events. This post is then an "outfit post" and a "product review post" at the same time! Woot! You've seen a preview of this on my last post - Save Budget and Be a Party Belle with SimplyDresses.co.nz and now you'll see it full! And when it comes to party dressing, you'll see I really put effort in my expressions, makeup, style, and show my creativity in it. My love for cosplay would mostly be reflected in the looks I create. Of course, from time to time, we show our individuality.Here's a comparative photo of the dress I received and the advertised photo from the site. I must say it's very accurate. The length of my dress is a little longer because I chose it to be that way. I have a bigger "behind" and if I choose shorter ones, I might flash you guys with ungodly scenes. LOL!
A-line Strapless Organza Short / Mini Homecoming Dress With Ruffled Skirt Me vs. Site Model ... LOL http://www.edressy.com http://www.simplydresses.co.nz |
In my country, I mentioned wearing glam dresses may not be as common since the parties we have are not as big as those in other countries. It's getting more costly nowadays. But luckily, there are shops that offer budget-friendly dresses at online shopping convenience like http://www.simplydresses.co.nz/ Go check after the cut to find out more about my views on this shop ...
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Edressy.com offers a range of beautiful dresses, matching shoes, exquisite accessories for brides and fashion ladies. The dress collections are updated every season according to the fashion trend, in order to provide us shoppers with the latest styles. Moreover, we can also have our dresses or gowns custom made if you can’t find a right size.
Before I even got the dress, I already envisioned this look. The materials of the dress gives me this romantic or somehow Victorian-style dress - organza + lace + black & white + see-through material + sexy + backless ... it has that sexy formula! And so, as soon as I got it, this was the result!
The shop offers good quality product with keen attention to details. I am very keen on details too and I was observing how accurate this is with the product advertised on the website. I must say, very little difference on the lace patterns on the skirt. Other than that, it still look pretty much the same.
Simplydresses.co.nz aims to be budget-friendly dress provider, the moment they've established this online shopping haven, edressy.com. No matter where you are, or who you are, edressy.com offers the same low price to you. Whether you’re a retailer or a simple fashionista customer desiring to catch the latest fashion and style and trend, you can get an unbeatable low price from the site. This dress I chose, I must say; even though it's customized, the value did not change for me. It costs $125.94 USD (roughly Php5,037.60 in my local currency) when this was sent to me (please note price may change depending on the provider). Customized dresses would normally cost as much, I believe; and even more. But this one didn't change even price for my size.
I styled the look with some "blings" to add to the glamorous effect of the outfit. I believe I achieved a romantic glam look with it, don't you think? Most of my accessories are just reused from some of my past outfits hehe. I don't have an endless closet and accessories drawer anyway. I just mix and match. I can say I'm satisfied with this look. I was able to play around with the lovely outfit and the "love" I wanted to showcase in the mood, staying true to its "romantic" vibe. You can see I also used a fascinator as my hair accessory.
Pink's song has been stuck in my mind for months ... and I think it suits this look ...
Just Give Me A Reason By Pink
Just give me a reason Just a little bit's enough
Just a second we're not broken just bent And we can learn to love again
It's in the stars It's been written in the scars on our hearts
That we're not broken just bent And we can learn to love again
This outfit is as close to the song as I can see - romantic, lovely ... what more can you ask for? Learn to love again these dresses ... feel the romantic vibe ... edressy.com offers such styles and a safe and easy online purchasing experience. Their payment processes guarantee a safe and secure purchasing environment with worldwide recognized safe methods. They've taken out the hassle of international trade —from product sourcing, secure payment and shipping.
Behind edressy.com is an amazing team of real, live specialists who are happy to handle any issue you may have. The customer service is always ready to solve the problems you may come up, so feel free to turn to our customer service when you need help or have any question. I can vouch for this since for me, when I was still choosing my color, style, and sizing and how-to questions on measurements (yeah it's self-explanatory but given mine is customized, I wanted to make sure) ... their staff has been friendly enough. The one handling me as a fashion blogger was also very helpful.
The shop promises to know and believe in every fashionistas' mindset - that the dresses do mean a lot to us, so they ensure that each dress is handled with care and arrives from their warehouse to our own homes in style! Additionally, they offer fast delivery to make us get the dress in time for our big event - whether it's sooner already or if it can still take some time. I can attest to this! Their staff kept on following up with me if I already received the dress after their targeted timeframe. It was a bit delayed for me due to customs handling - there was miscommunication on the address, etc. But nevertheless; I got it as I expected it!
As I mentioned, I really got mt size much-customized than the advertised photo. I really can't go with such a very short length. My behind is really bigger - not in proportion with my whole body. LOL. And, my chest area is also ... uhmm ... bigger. So I my dress is really longer than the photo on the site. And the tube dress top itself is really bigger too to accommodate my ... erm ... my humps! The materials are of good quality as you can see on the photo. I chose this because it's not too-shiny and not too-bland as well so it's perfect for my personality and the events I'll go to. Not too grand, not too plain! And choosing it in black & white makes it a "safe" choice for any event!
I am really grateful for this opportunity to get this dress from edressy shop and write about how wonderful this dress is; and the experience in getting outfits and styles from the site. I also enjoyed the photoshoot with my sister for this look! Not so grand as well but all lovely and fun! (^_^)
What do you think?
- Black & White Edressy Mini Homecoming Dress with Ruffled Skirt, Edressy.com
- Zara Trafaluc Black Slingback Chain Court Shoes TRF, ZARA
- F21 Black Glittered Diamong Handbag Clutch, Forever 21 Philippines
- Black Fascinator Hair Accessory, ACCESSORIZE
- F21 Black and Silver Teardrop Earrings, Forever 21
- F21 Black & Silver Rhinestone Collar Necklace, Forever 21
- F21 Stretched Silver Beaded Bracelet, Forever 21
- Silver Star Ring, Itsy Bitsy http://www.facebook.com/
itsitsybitsy - GEO Super Nudy Blue Contact Lenses, GEO LENSES GWYSHOP
- False Eyelashes, Shawill Makeup
- Aldo Accessories Black & Silver Rosette Ring, ALDO Shoes - Philippines
- LOVE Silver Connector Rings, Love FIVEbyFIVE
- Rei Miyamoto (宮本麗, Miyamoto Rei) Highschool of the Dead Cosplay Wig, My Little Prince! Shop
- Lash Genius Clear Waterproof Topcoat Mascara, Anastasia Beverly Hills
Where to find this look?
To summarize my thoughts on this as well ...
PRODUCT REVIEW
- Quality matches the Price of the actual product
- No false advertising.
- Actual Product appears really close to the product photo on the site
- Minimal difference on the lacey cloth used as accent but not much
- Shipment seems acceptable enough.
- I put my blogger order on Feb. 4.
- Item was dispatched sometime Feb. 11-15 week following my customized sizing.
- Item arrived Mar. 18 (but our customs and courier service had issues initially)
- I was on a business trip away from home so it was only my dad who received the item and it reached us come April 1 instead after courier attempted to re-deliver
- I got to shoot the item last April 16
- The dress is very much up to trend and keeps up with my style
- Friendly customer service experience
PRODUCT CODE: JPHOMED056
Buy now!!! http://www.simplydresses.co.nz
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Edressy
- Website (SimplyDresses NZ): http://www.simplydresses.co.nz/
- Website (Edressy.com): http://www.edressy.com/
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/edressy
PS: I'll be uploading a video of this outfit. Hope you'll watch out for it too from my Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/chenmeicai Subscribe and let me know! I'll subscribe back. (^_^)
And ... As you see, Romwe leggings are creative and unique, So many people like them;) Now we prepare a big sale for the leggings, only 19.99$ for 300+ CRAZY LEGGINGS from 2013.5.15 to 5.17 |
Chai
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https://chenmeicai.blogspot.com/2013/05/outfit-post-learn-to-love-again-with.html?showComment=1368639598246
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