text:
1595 Wildwood Drive, Saint Augustine Beach, Saint Augustine, FL 32086
To find St. Augustine accommodations nearby, visit Hotels Combined

“In St. Augustine for vacation!”
I was in St. Augustine for a week for vacation. I don’t know anyone here and I was itching to play some tennis so on a whim I reached out to coach Bobby. He responded immediately and connected me with coach Vita. She fit me in right away for a lesson and I liked it so much I requested a second one later on the week. Coach Vita is an excellent coach and I’m confident she helped improve my game with her advice and drills. Look her up even if you’re just in town for a short while.

“Amazing Coaches!”
Coach Bobby and Coach Vita are great coaches. My daughter has been working with them for several months. They have a true passion for tennis and go above and beyond simply coaching. They genuinely care about my daughter's success. Coach Bobby is constantly texting and emailing articles, pictures from practice, hitting tips, etc., anything that can help her develop physically and mentally as a tennis player. I highly recommend Coach Bobby and Coach Vita. We love them!

“Tennis fun for the whole family!!”
If you want to have fun while learning tennis, you must check out lessons with Coach Bobby and Coach Vita! My son started playing about a year and a half ago and under the guidance of these coaches, has since made the tennis team at his school. My game has gotten much better, too. It's like being a part of one big tennis family!

“Great coach…especially for beginners!”
My daughter and I began taking lessons from Coach Bobby several months ago. My daughter had no tennis experience, and I could play, but had bad habits. Coach Bobby has been great for both of us, and we are really seeing improvement in our game. He is very patient and makes sure you are getting the basics before moving ahead. His love for the game and for teaching is obvious!

“Tennis at Treaty Park with Coach Bobby"
What are you waiting for???...If you're not playing tennis, you're missing out on some of the best times and memories! Coach Bobby has been coaching my son a little over a year, he has never played before and made the high school tennis team in his first year. That speaks volumes to how good coach Bobby is at teaching state of the art tennis techniques to all ages. Not only is coach Bobby a great tennis instructor, he has also been a huge influence and mentor to our son. His passion for tennis and his great personality makes tennis FUN! Pick up a racquet, grab the family and get out there...because, "he's the best"!

“Enthusiastic, a true love for the game and kids!”
Coach Bobby is over the top. My daughter has been taking lessons for a little over 2 years. Coach has a true love for the game and an amazing way of giving the same love to the kids so they will love the game for life. Tennis can be a life sport and Coach Bobby keeps the game fun. I love that he continues his learning and stays current on all the new techniques to teach the 10 and under kids. I don't know how he stays so upbeat all the time, but he is always laughing with the kids and quickly picks up on their mood making sure they feel motivated and never discouraged by missing a shot. He teaches them the "right" way from the beginning and it's been a true joy to watch my daughter grow in confidence and skill. We live about 30 minutes away, and he's worth every bit of the drive. We just love Coach Bobby!

Coach Bobby works with all ages and all skill levels,making classes instructional and fun. Would recommend treaty park in st. augustine to everyone who wants to learn the game of tennis, with coach Bobby and his staff.

“Coach Bobby”
Fantastic Tennis coach. My daughter looks like a tiny Venus. Coach Bobby's prices allowed us to be able to let her Play. I can't say enough about how appreciative our family is. Thanks Coach Bobby :)
The Angelus Family

Coach Bobby was great! I have never played tennis before and went to 2 classes with Bobby and learned some great stuff!


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 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Update | St. Basil Catholic Elementary School
Board logo

Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Update

New - Message to Families - "All students will return to school beginning September 8, 2020." Read full message...

Recent additons

Schools and Offices Closed

All 72 Ontario School Boards closed their schools on the advice of Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health and the experts at the Provincial COVID-19 Command Table. The Premier indicated he will continue to follow the advice of medical experts and should school closures need to be extended he will advise Ontarians.

Learn at Home Portal - Ministry of Education Online Learning

The Province of Ontario launched a new online tool to help students continue learning while schools are closed. Families can access the new online resources by visiting the Ministry's website 'Learn at Home' page. The website contains reading material for elementary and secondary students. Qualified tutors will be made available through TVO, available to answer questions from students. High school content is designed with a focus on STEM courses to ensure core competencies and skills are reinforced.

Student Learning During School Closures

Visit our Distance Learning page to access resources as they are developed, and links to educational sites that have been designed to benefit student learning. Until our schools are reopened, this page will continue to be developed as a point of entry to resources for students and parents.

Catholic Education Centre (Board Office) Services Update

The BHNCDSB Catholic Education Centre (Board office) is closed to the public. Essential functions of the Board will continue, although response time may be delayed.

We would like to thank you for your patience as we work through the Ministerial Order. Please be advised that we are not accepting any deliveries at the Education Centre or our school sites.

BHNCDSB will be communicating with families through our School Communicate application (phone calls and emails), through this web page, and on Twitter (@bhncdsb). Families can subscribe to automated emails when this webpage updates by 'subscribing' to the website. Choose the Subscribe button found at the bottom of the Board's website (www.CatholicEducation.ca) to sign up.

BHNCDSB will be communicating with staff using Board email.

Board Contacts

  • Accounts Payable - accountspayable@bhncdsb.ca
  • Communication Services - taustin@bhncdsb.ca
  • Finance - finance@bhncdsb.ca (general inquiries for accounts, payroll, and finance)
  • Facilities - facilities@bhncdsb.ca
  • General Inquiries - info@bhncdsb.ca | 519-756-6505 Ext '0' to leave a message.
  • Human Resources - hr@bhncdsb.ca
  • Information Technology Services - helpdesk@bhncdsb.ca (BHNCDSB staff support only)
  • Procurement/Purchasing Services - purchasing@bhncdsb.ca
  • Security Breach - reportit@bhncdsb.ca
  • Transportation - transportation@stsbhn.ca

Response time may be impacted and we thank you for your patience.

Messages from the Chair of the Board, Rick Petrella

Other Messages to Families and Catholic Community

EQAO Assessments – Cancelled

All EQAO assessments (elementary and secondary) cancelled for the remainder of this school year. For students who are graduating in the 2019-20 school year, the literacy graduation requirement is waived. Students who are not graduating this school year will have the opportunity to write the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) in the upcoming 2020-21 school year.

Additional Closures and Cancellations

  • All BHNCDSB playgrounds are closed until further notice.
  • All child care centres, including third-party child care centres located on our school sites are closed until further notice.
  • All Community Use of School rentals are cancelled.
  • At this time, we are not processing new Community Use of School permits, including request for summer rentals.

Prevent the Spread

To help prevent the spread of all types of respiratory illnesses, including influenza, Public Health recommends:

  • Get a yearly influenza vaccination, available from clinics and pharmacies (for flu only);
  • Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly with soap and water or use an alcohol-based sanitizer;
  • Cover your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze;
  • Avoid touching your face, eyes or mouth;
  • If you don’t have a tissue, sneeze or cough into your sleeve or arm; and
  • If you or your family members are ill, stay home.

For credible information about Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), please visit:

Brant County Public Health Unit (www.bchu.org)
Centre for Disease Control and Prevention
Government of Canada (www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection.html)
Haldimand Norfolk Health Unit (www.hnhu.org)
Public Health Ontario - The 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Public health guidance for schools (K-12) and childcare programs (COVID-19)

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text:
Mallorcan Holiday

On 23rd April 31 of our members flew out to Port de Pollensa for a week of cycling in the sunshine.

There was one rainy day but many sought solace in the local Pinarello bike shop where gleaming new bikes were drooled over and new jerseys, gloves, shorts and jackets were bought.

The highlight of the week for many came on Wednesday when the hardest climb on the island ‘Sa Calobra’ was conquered.

This 6.5 mile descent was thrilling for many and scary for some but all succeeded in reaching the stunning beach at the bottom. After a quick pit stop it was back up the 6.5 mile winding mountain road. It was a steady climb for most and the sense of achievement at the summit was amazing. It was a day never to be forgotten.

Some days had several groups going their separate ways. Some cycled around the local lanes, ending up in quaint villages where a couple of hours were spent sampling the local ale whilst soaking up the sunshine. Several members braved the Mediterranean too!

Over the course of the week hundreds of miles were covered by the group. We also happened to be on holiday at the time of the Mallorcan 312 cycling event. This took place on the last day of our holiday. One of our members had entered the 312km race of which there were 6,000 entrants. James did us proud and finished in good time. Several of us arose early to cheer the cyclists on as they passed our hotel. It was certainly a sight to behold and has spurred some to enter in 2018.

Evenings usually meant an early night for most after a busy day however there were some ‘propping’ up the hotel bar until late and a few ‘ladies’ had a good singsong and dance on one occasion.

All in all it was a brilliant holiday, enjoyed by all and something that we hope to repeat next year.


text:
11 Most Comfortable Walking Sandals for Men

Whether you’re planning a getaway or starting an at-home fitness program, a pair of walking sandals is essential. If this is a new wardrobe addition, there are some basic features to consider in order to maximize comfort.

Start with contoured footbeds that gently cradle the foot and hold it in position while walking. Here, look for styles with arch support and deep heel cups. To further secure the foot while on a brisk walk, opt for a silhouette with adjustable straps and easy to use hook-and-loop closures. For those who prefer added foot coverage, classic fisherman styles are a great option and can double as closed toe shoes.

From slides to strappy sport silhouettes, shop some of the most comfortable walking shoes for men below.

Skechers Louden Sandal

This outdoor style incorporates an adjustable hook-and-loop closure for a customized fit and memory foam footbed.

Watch on FN

Skechers Louden Sandal.
CREDIT: Amazon

Dockers Shorewood Fisherman Sandal

A classic fisherman style has a roomier fit for wider feet and memory foam insole that shapes to the foot.

Dockers Shorewood Fisherman sandal.
CREDIT: Amazon

Camelsports Beach Fisherman

Versatility defines this sport sandal with adjustable straps and contoured insole, as it transitions from land to water.

Camelsports Beach Fisherman.
CREDIT: Amazon

Teva Katavi 2 Slide

An easy on-and-off style features a contoured EVA footbed for arch support and rubber outsole with enhanced traction.

Teva Katavi 2 slide.
CREDIT: Amazon

MBT Nakuru

MBT’s recovery sandal offers enhanced cushioning and anatomical footbed to promote natural alignment by gently hugging the arches.

MBT Nakuru.
CREDIT: Zappos

Clarks Brixby Cove

An updated take on the traditional sandal silhouette, the Brixby Cove features a toggle lacing system with a lightly padded footbed and flexible outsole.

Clarks Brixby.
CREDIT: Zappos

Ecco Sport X-Trinsic Textile Strap Sandal

Ready for a day of sightseeing or a light hike, this sport style features adjustable straps for a secure fit, microfiber-covered anatomical footbed and durable outsole.

Ecco Sport Xtrinsic.
CREDIT: Zappos

Mephisto Maroon Sport Sandal

This Allrounder sport-inspired style is equipped with an interchangeable footbed that features soft heel padding, while a hook-and-loop closure allows for easy access.

Mephisto Maroon.
CREDIT: Amazon

Teva Omnium Drift

A super-lightweight injection molded fisherman style is easy to pack for any outdoor vacation.

Teva Omnium Drift.
CREDIT: Zappos

Birkenstock Copenhagen Slide

This colorful slide features the brand’s signature anatomical insole with arch support and deep heel cup, then adds a cork and latex footbed.

Birkenstock Copenhagen.
CREDIT: Birkenstock

Vans UltraRange Tri-Lock

Vans does its own version of the sport sandal with the brand’s classic checkerboard design and durable rubber outsole with waffle tread. It also features a dual-density UltraCush Lite EVA footbed with arch support for ultimate comfort with every step.

Vans Ultra Range Trilock.
CREDIT: Zappos

All products featured have been independently selected and curated by our editorial team. If you buy something through our retail links, we may earn a commission and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

Want more?

The Cutest Boot Toppers You Can Buy

The Best Deals for Men From Reebok’s Friends and Family Sale Are Up to 50% Off

Thousands of Winter Boots Are on Sale Right Now — These Are the Ones to Buy

Access exclusive content


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SW:Rebellion Network

Star Wars: Rebellion [SWR]: News from Stratus

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  Happy Holidays!
News from Stratus The staff and admin team at SWRebellion Network would like to wish everyone happiness, success, and love this holiday season.

Happy Holidays! and may the Force be with you!

-Ryan, Stratus, Evaders99, EvilleJedi and the SWRebellion Network Staff
Posted by Stratus on Monday, December 02 2013 @ 22:34:07 UTC
(Read More... | 123 comments | Score: 0) (28116 reads)

  Star Citizen by Chris Roberts
News from Stratus It's been a while since we've seen a really cool Space Sim, and I am pleased to announce Star Citizen and Squadron 42 from the maker of Wing Commander, Freelancer, and many other cool PC games: Chris Roberts. Completely crowdfunded, to avoid any publisher or big company's agenda, Star Citizen is anticipated to launch in November 2014, with Alpha and Beta versions available to backers at undetermined dates. Please visit their website, at www.robertsspaceindustries.com/about-the-game/ . And if you are a gaming programmer, they are hiring for some positions at www.cloudimperiumgames.com .

Check out this awesome intro-video with in-game graphics:

Star Citizen Crowdfund Pitch - 720p from Roberts Space Industries on Vimeo.
Posted by Stratus on Sunday, July 07 2013 @ 00:35:35 UTC
(Read More... | 52 comments | Score: 5) (19602 reads)

  IRC Back up & Network Changes
News from Stratus
I would like to appraise you of some changes in the StarWars-IRC Network (SWIRC). The network is owned and maintained by Jeff Turkstra. The SWRebellion Network, which assumed management of the network in late 2011 has returned management to its primary owner, though Jeff aka Luke has agreed to allow our staff to be on his network staff. The Star Wars IRC Network now has 2 IRC servers in different physical locations. Bespin, which is owned and operated by Luke (Jeff Turkstra) and Thrawn which is owned and operated by the SWRebellion Network (owned by Evaders99 and managed by Stratus et. al.). We have moved back to UnrealIRCD and IRC Services. Services will be controlled by Jeff but we have been granted access to administer them as well. All network issues that should arise should be addressed to staff at starwars-irc dot net. The appropriate person will respond depending on the issue that occurs.

We'd like to thank Jeff Turkstra for his overwhelming support and understanding for our own server troubles, and his assistance. We are pleased to be linked to his network and once again be operating reliably.
Posted by Stratus on Monday, January 09 2012 @ 02:35:01 UTC
(Read More... | 27 comments | Score: 0) (9102 reads)

  ThaiCycles for Education
News from Stratus I am posting this message on behalf of my dear friend, Joel Ragar, Founder of ThaiCycles, an organization that raises money to provide bicycles for children in Thailand to allow them to obtain an education. Please visit www.thaicycles.com for details. Message follows:

Hi Everyone
I am writing you, my friends, for some major help! ThaiCycles went live on Tippingbucket.org TODAY! (Saturday). Tippingbucket.org helps social ventures get funding.  ThaiCycles has one week to raise $5,750  on the Tippingbucket.org site. ThaiCycles donates bikes to children in third world countries who have no transportation to school. We just finished our first bike drop 2 weeks ago in northern Thailand. It was awesome and the children were so appreciative. With your help we can make a huge impact and difference. Directly from Tippingbucket.org we will be able to do a large bike drop immediately again (it is needed this time of year) as well as sustain ourselves to continue to help many many more within the next year.

Here is what I am pleading for in me asking your help. Donate just $1 (or more if you can) on tippingbucket.org.  Each day till next Saturday (1 week) take 10 mins of your time to; post on your facebook status inviting others to donate too, send a quick email to all of your friends to donate and spread the word, post it on your blogs or ask friends you know to post it on their blog, tell family members/cousins/aunts/relatives to donate a buck and spread the world too, text 10 friends to donate a buck and to text 10 other friends to do the same. And any other creative things you can think of to spread the word and social network to all the masses about ThaiCycles and our goal.

The only way we can make this successful is if I receive your help. I can't reach all of your friends and with your help we can reach the thousands we need to to raise the funds for ThaiCycles and donate hundreds of bikes to children around the world. Please please please help, I selected you to send this email out to because I knew you could help me make the difference.

Here is the catch if we don't raise all the funds on tippingbucket.org before the time expires then all the money that was donated is given back to those who donated it and ThaiCycles does not receive anything. This is why I NEED your help to succeed and make a difference.

I have been very privileged to have started and been apart of ThaiCycles and now I need your help to keep the aid alive and growing. Please find it in yourself to dedicate the few 10-15 mins a day and make a world of difference.

Joel Ragar
Founder, ThaiCycles

Posted by Stratus on Sunday, November 07 2010 @ 02:29:31 UTC
(Read More... | 13 comments | Score: 0) (6267 reads)

  Loss of a Good Man
News from Stratus We mourn the loss of a friend and former colleague, Rhys Skywalker, who was killed in a card accident February 12th. He was a remarkable young man, full of hope, full of promise, with great potential, an excellent leader and programmer. Though he never worked for SWRebellion, I did have small dealings with him myself and hired him on a project or two.

Our sympathies to his family and friends, and to the entire SWC community.

Jim Stratus
Posted by Stratus on Thursday, February 12 2009 @ 17:30:13 UTC
(Read More... | 15 comments | Score: 0) (5730 reads)

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Tangled Talk

Free worldwide shipping on all orders over £35

Mothbites by Mothbites £0.00

This item includes a digital download.

Self-titled, debut EP from Southampton based singer-songwriter Mothbites, aka Miles Coles. Produced by Lewis Johns at The Ranch, this record expands on Miles’ stripped down live sound; layering percussion, organs and guitars to create a beautiful, bleak, alt-country soundscape reminiscent of Bon Iver and 'Censored Colors'-era Portugal. The Man. Co-released with WTS? Records.

  1. Howling Forever
  2. What I Hadn't Seen
  3. Foreign Ghost

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Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Bond 264 Batson-Hanby

264. Thomas Batson & 265. Susanna Hanby [VA, NC]

~1682, Thomas born in Northampton Co., VA, s/o 528. John Batson & 529. Grace Satchell.
1692 Susannah born in VA; d/o 530. Daniel Hanby & 351. Mary Daniels.
1702, John Daniell’s [deceased brother of Mary] cattle mark was recorded for his neice Susanna, d/o Daniel Hanby.
1/3/1709, Susanna named in her father’s will [he died by 2/1710.]
7/1710, daughter Susannah chose Col. William Waters as her guardian.
1710, Thomas married Susannah.
5/25/1718, Northampton Co., VA, Thomas bought 345 acres from John Hall for 5000 pounds of tobacco. (S) Virginia’s Eastern Shore by Whitelaw.
11/4/1725, will signed by Thomas Batson. (S) Family notes.
4/12/1725, Tuesday, Thomas died, will probated.
Aft. 1725, Susanna married widower Andrew ( 266), father of son Peter’s wife. (S) Family notes.
11/30/1732, “On date of 30 November 1732, the Palace Court at Westminster, England, issued a Sealed Commission to Thomas Batson, Esquire, as Deputy Grand Master, of the Free and Accepted Masons”. [This commission was brought to Georgia by James Oglethorpe who settled his English colonists in the present state of GA in 1732-3. Oglethorpe, in England, apparently did not know that Thomas Batson had died in VA seven years earlier. This commission is property of the Department of Archives and History at Atlanta.]
12/14/1742, Susanna sold land with son Peter and Ann (Peter’s wife and Susanna’s stepdaughter). “This indenture made the fourteenth Day of Dec. Anno Dom 1742 between Peter Batson … both of Northampton Co. … for the sum of 140 pounds current money of VA … sell and confirm … land lying in the county aforesaid at Maggoty Bay bearing date first of May Anno Dom 1679 …” /s/ Peter Batson. “Know all men … Ann Batson Wife of the within named Peter Batson for & in consideration of the sum of five shillings … do release … all my rights title and interest of Dower …”. /s/ Ann (X) Batson. “Know all men …that I, Susanna Fabin for and in consideration of the sum of 20 shillings to me in hand paid … do release … all my right title and interest of Dower. … in witness where I have set my hand & seal this fourteenth Day of Dec1742”. /s/ Susanna (X) Batson. “At the Court held for Northampton Co. on Tuesday the 14th Day of Dec 1742. Peter Batson came into court and presented … & Ann the wife of said Peter & Susanna Fabin the wife of Andrew John Fabin being …” (S) Photostatic copy of Original Deed, Bk18, (1733–1750), Northampton Co., VA.
Aft. 1742 Susanna died in NC.

Family notes:
• “In the name of God Amen, I Thomas Batson, of Northampton Co. being sick and weak but Thanks Be To God in perfect sense and memory, do make this my last Will and Testament, making void all former Wills and Testaments made or done by me, in the manner following: First: I bequeath my soul to God Almighty, God who gave it to me, and My Body to the Earth from whence it came, to be decently buried at the Desire of My Executors. Second: I do give, will and bequeath, unto my son Daniel Batson my plantation and all my land with it, being 145 acres of land to him and his heirs lawfully together. My wish is that my wife Susannah Batson, shall have the use of my plantation during her widowhood, but if my wife shall desire to marry again, then I give my Estate to be equally divided between my wife Susannah Batson, and all my children: Mary Batson, Alice Batson, Peter Batson, Susannah Batson, Elizabeth Batson, and Thomas Batson. In testimony and Witness Whereof I have set my hand and seal this fourth day of November 1725, and My loving Wife to be Executor of this My Last Will.” (S) Bk26, Wills–Deeds, 1725-1733, Red Ink, No. XXIV-R, Northampton Co., VA, P24; Certified Photostatic copy of Original Will of Thomas Batson, dated 4 Nov 1725.

Children of Thomas and Susanna:

i. Daniel Batson, born ~1711.
[Daniel named after his maternal grandfather.]
Thomas’ property left to Daniel was located on the southern tip of the VA peninsula separated from the rest of the state by the Chesapeake Bay. The Indians named this area “Accomack”, meaning “the land beyond the water”. Daniel died and the land passed to Peter.
Bef. 12/14/1742 Daniel died. (S) Sale of his land left to Peter.

ii. Mary Batson.

iii. Alice Batson.

iv. Peter Batson, Sr ( 132), born ~1715 in Northampton Co., VA

v. Susannah Batson.

vi. Elizabeth Batson

vii. Thomas Batson III.
Thomas married Elizabeth Davis.
1748, Thomas served in NC Militia during a Manherrin Indian uprising.
1748, Thomas a land owner in Northampton Co., VA.
2/13/1749 Northampton Co. Court: Ordered that the Sheriff do take …, Solomon Batson, Thomas Batson, … and the in the safe Custody keep … every of them do appear at the next Court … concerning their Misbehaviour at Hungars Church.


text:
Tectronik s.r.o.

Offered services

In addition to the implementation of our solution T-IS we offer a variety of other services such as application development, creating web pages, consultancy, management of smaller computer network, etc.

Mobile application development

Do you need mobile applivation for specific use or do you have software for which you need it? Given the fact that we are focusing on mobile applications, it is not a problem to make any application according to your requirements.

Other software application development

The custom software and application development enables customers to meet their specific needs in cases where there is uneffective deployment of standardized software systems. We also develop our own information system, which covers a range of activities and consists of both web and mobile application. The system is largely modifiable and thus also easily adaptable to specific needs.

Implementation and optimilization

Based on the customer’s requirement we make an implementation analysis, which describes the requirements and suggestions for system changes. During the analysis we map the situation which allows us to choose the optimal implementation solution individually for each customer.

The implementation services includes system installation, configuration, employee training, etc. The aim of the analysts is to realize the implementation process as effectively and quickly as possible. We are trying to ensure that the existing data, forms, documents, reports and other elements of the previous system and were incorporated into a new system.

Each implementation or optimization process follow the testing phase. Customer in collaboration with our analysts perform acceptance tests. During this phase are removed and adjusted any errors made in the implementation or optimization process.

Consultation and advice

It is very important before choosing a particular software to decide whether a given system or application meets all requirements not only in terms of functionality, but also the environment in which this product will be deployed. During our consultation we provide customers with analysis not only of the product or system they intend to deploy but also if customers hardware is sufficient with the system. Based on these findings we recommend or suggest the most effective system and present also anticipated financial statement for the development or implementation of the system together with an overview of the evaluation criteria for the system.

If interested, we provide assistance in the offer evaluation, an assessment of price and quality and subsequently provide an oversight of ordered implementation and optimization services.

Our services also include preparation, evaluation, review and comment on the contractual arrangements, both legal and factual.

Website Creation

As part of our activities we also offer website creation. We are able to provide whole website, including graphic design, coding of the site and its fulfillment.

Contact information

Tectronik s.r.o.
Kroftova 45, 616 00 Brno
+420 776 264 914

Máte zájem o náše řešení? Contact us

Cooperation or partnership

We are open to new opportunities and are happy to establish cooperation within any other area that could use our solutions. Do not hesitate to contact us regarding the meeting where we can duscuss possible cooperation and its further conditions.

Contact information

Tectronik s.r.o.
Zeyerova 2142/7, 616 00 Brno


text:
A Bystander | Teen Ink

A Bystander

February 28, 2009
By eunjilee90 BRONZE, Guadalajara, Other
eunjilee90 BRONZE, Guadalajara, Other
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'Look at that person, Dad. She's looking for her cellphone everywhere! WHILE SHE'S TALKING ON IT!' My dad and I imitated the old lady on TV, using our hands as phones, taking the cushions off the sofa, and looking underneath the TV set. Every few seconds, we would ask each other, 'Where could that cellphone have gone? It's not like it has feet.' After our little show ended, we turned to the front of the TV and continued to watch funny video clips while my mom persuaded my sister, Eunbi, to solve yet another problem set in her practice booklet. She had her science test the next day. With merely a sigh, Eunbi opened her booklet and began to answer some questions. As a soon to be first grader, I thought, 'Well, that is her duty. She should be studying right now.'

'Trrrr....' The last bell of December rang at exactly two thirty. Everyone yelled out 'Winter Break!!' Echoes of closing binders and desk drums filled the room. In less than a minute, everyone emptied the classrooms that had encaged them daily for an hour and five minutes. I, on the other hand, moved slowly, with no hurry. For once, I did not have to run home, turn on the computer, and write an extensive lab report, a ten page research paper, or finish odd problems in the math textbook.

I walked down the second floor hallway and opened locker 402. Happy faces, shining star stickers, a bright pink strawberry yogurt stain, and Korean movie star pictures ripped from magazines welcomed me for one last time in the year 2007. One binder, one notebook at a time, I gathered my homework materials and waved goodbye to the sophomore hall.

In the high school office, hosting a Christmas tree decorated with hand-made paper stars and red and white canes, Eunbi waited for me to go home. Saying goodbye to the office staff, we walked toward the bus stop and headed to our home in the yellow striped 622 route.

Once we arrived, Eunbi and I went separate ways. As I entered my room to turn on the TV, Eunbi entered hers to study for her upcoming SAT. Watching her reach out for her bluebook and her word smart, I thought, 'She has to be studying for the SAT. She's taking it next month.'

As a younger sister, I have always believed that Eunbi had to be busier and work harder than I did. I believed that it was Eunbi's responsibility to study for her science test and SAT. Nevertheless, when I entered third and tenth grade, as Eunbi had two years ago, I still looked at Eunbi and focused on why she had to do this and that in fifth grade or as a senior. I have never remembered my responsibilities. I have taken the role of a bystander. Now that the reality of the frightening SAT and AP approaches me, I will have to break the character that I have molded myself into for so many years and begin to take the role of an independent worker.

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On 12/10/2015, Inspector General Huynh Phong Tranh warmly welcomed the Delegation of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission of Korea (ACCK) leaded by Mr. Lee Choong Ho, the Assisstant to Chairman of ACCK on the occasion of the working trip in Vietnam. Attending the meeting included Deputy Inspector General Le Thi Thuy and representative of leaders from Government Inspectorate of Vietnam (GIV).

At the welcome, Inspector General Huynh Phong Tranh expressed the pleasure to welcome the Delegation of ACCK to visit and work with GIV. He insisted that both agencies had implemented the memorandum’ contents signed in 2013 effectively, which contributed to tighten the relationship between both agencies.
Besides, He also proposed that both agencies would carry out the assessment and review session of the implementation of cooperation agreements by the beginning of 2016. GIV would managed to send the high-ranking Delegation to Korea to take part in the preliminary review session. He also wished the success to the working trip of the Delegation and hoped that the Delegation would have more impressive memories of the Vietnam’s friendly and  hospitable country and people.
Mr. Lee Choong Ho also agreed that the assessment would be important and essential task to enhance the effectiveness of the cooperation between both agencies. He affirmed that during the time of working with GIV, the Delegation of ACCK would proactively share and exchange the information and experiments on the complaint and denunciations settlement. Especially, the Delegation would share more information on the effective online civil receipt applied by the ACCK. He insisted that the experiments shared by both agencies would contribute to enhance the effectiveness of the complaint and denunciations settlement system of both countries. This also would strengthen the confidence of the Koreans and Vietnameses living and working in both countries whenever they had the complaints or denunciations needed to be settled.

toan canh hoi dam hq 12-10.JPG
Right after the welcome, Delegations of ACCK and GIV had the talk on anticorruption and complaint denunciations. Deputy Inspector General Le Thi Thuy, chairman of the talk requested both Delegation to proactively exchange and share the experiment on the complaint and denunciation settlement system as well as that on the direction and management on this work.

Mr. Lee Choong Ho thanked the GIV for detail and useful information. The ACCK Delegates also briefly introduced the functions, tasks and process of settling the complaints and denunciations and practical experiments in Korea to GIV Delegation. As the Delegation informed, the information on the online civil receipt and administrative complaint settlement would be introduced more on the Delegation’s next working day in Vietnam.

Dao Phuong


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Monorail Systems Advantages

The American Monorail Project’s mission includes explaining the tremendous advantages of monorail-based systems over conventional mass transportation options.

What are some of the Advantages of Monorail Systems?

1. Adaptability

Monorail systems can be built and operated virtually anywhere; in existing urban settings, transportation corridors, open spaces, built environments or congested locations, where no other form of mass transportation can be effectively introduced or operated.

2. Cost Effectiveness

Monorail systems construction, right of way requirements, manufacturing, implementation, maintenance and operation are significantly more efficient, by every measure, than their steel-wheeled, steel rail counterparts.

3. Environmental Impacts

From land acquisition, demolition and construction to system implementation and operation, monorail system development and services are routinely implemented without the vast majority of mitigating measures required of all other forms of mass transportation.

4. Safety

In more than two billion monorail boardings world wide, not a single passenger fatality has been reported; nor has a collision between a monorail and any other vehicle or train occurred.

5. Congestion Impacts

Separated from all other transportation and urban systems by their nature and design, monorail systems do not interface or interfere with any other transportation mode or built element of any setting.

6. Carbon Footprint

From manufacturing, construction and location through operation, maintenance and energy use, monorail technology and systems register the lightest carbon footprint of all currently operating mass transportation systems.

7. Service Quality

With 98-99% on-time performance reliability and nearly silent operation as passengers travel above it all, monorails consistently provide the best ride available to an ever-increasing constituency of riders.

8. Innovation and Economic Development

Monorail systems development and services offer 21st Century industrial and economic alternatives to the US rail industry, new solutions to the intractable congestion and accessibility constraints of existing transportation systems, and the most attractive alternative to single-occupant commuter vehicle drivers.

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Monorail systems manufacturing, development and operations offer distinct new sectors of employment and careers independent of the historic US rail industry.

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From manufacturing and technological systems development, engineering and construction to the efficiencies of every aspect of monorail systems operations, monorails will set new environmental, energy, safety, adaptability, and economic performance standards for 21st Century urban mass transportation.

Learn More at Sustainability

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30 January 2016

Saturday Sparkler: Princess Ingeborg's Star Tiara

Even though turquoises are relatively inexpensive semi-precious gems, many royal families do not own significant pieces of turquoise jewelry, let alone tiaras featuring turquoises. But this tiara, once in royal hands and now owned by Danish nobles, combines turquoises with stars.

Ingeborg wears the star tiara at the Nobel Prize Ceremony in 1937 [source]

The tiara’s first owner was Princess Ingeborg of Denmark, the daughter of King Frederik VIII and Queen Louise of Denmark. (She's best known today for because of the brilliant marriages made by her daughters, including Crown Princess Märtha of Norway and Queen Astrid of the Belgians, making her the grandmother of one reigning king and the great-grandmother of a reigning king and a reigning grand duke.)

When Ingeborg married Prince Carl of Sweden in 1897, she received this tiara as a wedding present. The giver was none other than the Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, who was one of Ingeborg’s first cousins. The tiara also has a coordinating star brooch.

When Ingeborg’s jewelry was distributed between her children after her death in 1958, this tiara was inherited by her daughter, Princess Margaretha. She had married back into the Danish royal family, wedding her cousin Axel in 1919. Margaretha wore the tiara frequently, but this branch of the Danish/Swedish royal family was extremely generous about sharing jewels with their female relatives. Along with Ingeborg and Margaretha, Crown Princess Märtha was also photographed in the tiara; so was Princess Anne of Denmark, Margaretha’s daughter-in-law (and niece of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother).

Margaretha bequeathed the turquoises to her daughter-in-law, the late Countess Ruth of Rosenborg, in 1977. Today the tiara belongs to Ruth’s daughter-in-law, Countess Jutta, who has worn it at royal events. Apparently the plan is for this tiara to stay in the family, inherited by successive generations, and because the Rosenborgs still attend royal events like weddings, we may be able to see these stars shining occasionally in the future.


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Go Back   TheCattleSite Discussion Forum > "Off Your Chest"
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Unread April 19th, 2009, 07:42
happyheifer happyheifer is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 11
Default Active Members!!!

Hi All,

This is a very slow forum. I know that others have said the same thing but we need more members. All of you guys and girls out there that browse this site should get involed. It takes 5 minutes to join and I think this would be a much more informative and interesting forum, especially considering the diversity of people and information out there if more people joined!!

Get active; get involved!!

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Unread May 10th, 2009, 12:22
Rhodie Rhodie is offline
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Posts: 130

I keep up a constant presence here in the hope that more people will become active, yes Blonde the spam posts are very annoying, but I just ignor them and let the moderator take them off.
We can all help by inviting other cattle producers onto the site, and ensure we keep up any new discussions while the membership increases.
I will get some pictures of our heritage Angus and Hereford cattle over the next week, and see if we get any interest in discussing the native genotypes.
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Unread November 9th, 2009, 11:46
From field to fork From field to fork is offline
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Location: Kingston Bagpuize, Oxford, England
Posts: 9

Well....not sure I have too much to contribute here as a relative newcomer to farming. Likely to be more take than give.

But I intend to keep an eye on this site and chip in where possible on a regular basis.

Hi Blonde, hope you are fighting fit?
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Unread November 9th, 2009, 19:34
Rhodie Rhodie is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2007
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Field to fork, you can always give an opinion, or use the members as a 'sounding board' for your plans and ideas, a good discussion does not require a group of 'experts' your imput is just as valuable as certain old geezers with 30+ years experience so just jump in and join in the discussions which interest you, or better still, start some threads.
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Unread November 1st, 2010, 07:10
kristofer kristofer is offline
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having a slow forum is not a bad thing. One way to increase the traffic is promote this forum on twitter, facebook, digg etc. and submit the site in various directories.
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These Dip Powder Nail Kits Make At-Home Manicures Easy

We all want manicures that last more than two weeks and won’t chip easily. And let’s face it: gel manicures just don’t cut it. The solution? A dip powder manicure.

The DIY manicure lasts up to four weeks, but involves more steps than your average nail sesh. After prepping your nails, start with a bond polish to prevent lifting. Then comes the base coat. Follow that up by dipping your nails into a primer-like powder followed by another coat of the bond polish. Dip your nails into your powder color of choice and buff away any excess. Apply another base coat, then dip again to seal the pigment in place. Finally, brush on one last base coat and let your nails dry.

Since the dip powder method features quite a few chemically formulated products, you should also create a solid nail care routine to keep your nails hydrated and healthy, especially if they’re on the brittle side.

Ready to give dip powder manicures a try? Here are some easy DIY kits.


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The Lighthouse Psychology Practice

Moorebank: (02) 8798 7082

Campbelltown: (02) 4626 5878

The Lighthouse Psychology Practice provides professional counselling services within a safe, non-judgemental and confidential space. Our Counsellors do not diagnose, label or prescribe but seek to walk alongside you with support and empathy.  You are encouraged to actively participate in the counselling process whereby our Counsellors work in collaboration with you to make a life worth living.

The therapeutic experience arising from the counselling relationship can be immeasurable and everlasting.

Our Counsellors are registered with the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA).


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Updated : Mar 21, 2020 in Uncategorized

How can All The Different Nations Borrow Money

Just like people, nations can borrow money and just like us they also must pay back their debts along with relevant attention!

But why can’t all of the nations (nations) borrow money? Simply the exact same reason why individuals can’t – their own expenses are greater than their earnings in many cases. To cross the gap some countris try printing extra currency, raise debt and lower expenditure. Often a country combines three to tackle its financials. This is simply not good practise however.

There are roughly three ways that a country may borrow money; one is by giving bonds internally to its inhabitants, two is taking a loan through international entities like the World Standard bank or the Asian Development Bank.. and third is by undertaking loan products from other countries.

Many governments issue Treasury Bonds and other Debt related Tools which essentially means that the government can be borrowing on behalf of the country or from their citizens. While most of these bonds are usually issued to cover the expenses of the government in some cases they are issued with some specific purpose like building system etc . Normally the bonds issued by governments are considered to be the best way to invest money and so the interest rate is also the lowest. These bonds are usually bought and sold in the open market and their particular yields also fluctuate or differ.
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The 2nd source of borrowing for nations is most often from institutions such as the International Monetary Fund or the Oriental Development Bank as mentioned earlier. Here, each country has to specify the actual purpose of the funds are going to be as well as the inspectors from these institutions then go to the country to appraise the project. For example if a particular country desires to borrow money for building a Dam they will approach the international fund. The fund will then send their particular inspectors to appraise the project, see the viability and the benefits that are going to accrue to the people as a result of the particular project. They then determine the amount of the particular loan, tenure and the interest rate. Usually such loans are subsidized as they are for good causes.

This type of loan is not given out in a lump sum and money is released at different stages of the project and the repayment also normally starts at the end of the speciified time period – say five years or so. This provision is kept because the country is seeking the loan precisely because they do not have funds right away and the project getting undertaken is for the benefit of the people. Nevertheless this does not mean that interest does not accrue on that amount for the time period. Interest keeps on accruing which has to be paid later.

A 3rd way in which nations borrow cash is by borrowing it from other nations. Normally, this is also carried out with some specific purpose in mind and is reasonably well subsidized which means that the interest rates are lower than normal. Countries do this to develop strategic ties along with other nations generally to gain some form of financial or military advantage. For instance the united states may decide to lend to Pakistan to combat terrorism or India may lend to Bangladesh to tackle floods mainly because it’s a neighbor. More than simply financial aid, when nations lend to each other it’s very normally a signal of goodwill and politics diplomacy. In political diplomacy almost always there is give and take and in contrast to the case of individuals, where if a single borrows money one is expected to repay, here the beneficiary country can repay in other ways as well. Whilst all this is never clearly mentioned the cases of many debts getting written off after a period of time with out relationships getting strained is enough evidence to indicate that the lending country failed to really expect to get it back. Other favors can be given in global forums like the WTO for economic reasons or for military factors by providing a country’s airspace plus land for having a military bottom.

These are the three main ways in which nations borrow and lend money to each other or from their own citizens or even international agencies. While in some cases they have to borrow to maintain their expenditures quite often it is to take care of some special requirements like an emergency or some other task. You will notice that most of the above actions are quite similar to individuals and if you think about it long enough, you will find similarities even in your own life.

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Home Page Fiction and Poetry
Essays and Reviews
Art and Style
World and Politics

By Mark Dwortzan

The Montréal Review, December 2011

Leonard Koscianski "Suburbia," Oil on canvas, 48"x 66", 2001
Private Collection

That Monday morning, as Sandcastle Court's 200 lawns glistened beneath the spray of automated sprinklers, and their proud owners drove off to distant workplaces, summer camps, and shopping centers as if business as usual still made sense, I made an executive decision. Standing defiantly in the driveway, I ordered a team of bronzed landscapers to dig up our grass and install a citrus grove in the front yard and a vegetable garden in the back. With every planting I felt more and more empowered. But as the August sun arced across the cloudy South Florida sky, I braced myself for an explosion.

When Julie returned from work with our four-year-old son Alex in tow, she stopped short in the driveway and tumbled out of the Toyota Prius, mouth agape. "I can't believe you did this," she said as Alex ran off to the grove. "Why didn't you ask me first?"

I took a deep breath. "Don't worry, Julie," I said. "I paid for everything out of my own account, just as I did for the solar panels."

Julie scanned the front yard, now a well-ordered array of organic orange, grapefruit, and lemon trees. "My god, Carl, don't you think this is overkill?"

I looked her in the eye. "What happened to the eco-warrior I fell in love with?"

Julie bristled. "Look, I care about the Earth as much as you do, but I also care about us. Ever since you started spouting off about 'the coming cataclysm,' the neighbors have shunned us. Now they'll really think we're crazy!"

"Crazy like a fox. Once they sample our bounty, they'll spread the word. We'll get great press, and I'll finally have the platform I need to warn everyone about-"

"Whatever." Julie stormed off toward the grove.

* * *

A month later, after alarming chatter in the blogosphere almost compelled me to make another, more momentous executive decision, I resolved to talk to everyone first. As Julie and I towed Alex in a used Radio Flyer wagon to the annual Labor Day block party at 1266 Shoreline Road, I steeled myself to wake up our bedroom community to its certain demise.

I hoped people would finally listen. After one year at Sandcastle Court, I had still not found a single neighbor willing to talk to me for more than five minutes. When not hermetically sealed in their minivans or SUVs, most folks on my block sequestered themselves in their climate-controlled homes for hours on end. Few ever set foot on their expansive lawns.

Despite my protestations, Julie wouldn't consider leaving Sandcastle. A surgeon at the local hospital, she chose this gated community west of Miami to escape the city's crime and a one-hour commute. I, a home-based tech writer for Apex Systems' SmarterGrid division, agreed to an introductory tour because the brochure described Sandcastle Court as a "front porch" neighborhood much like my beloved birthplace, Dew Drop, Iowa -just "updated for the 21st century." During our tour, however, I discovered that the community's "convivial front porches" were actually air-conditioned sunrooms made of tinted glass.

When I complained about this to Julie on the long drive back to Miami, she assured me that living here would radically reduce our family's carbon footprint. Over the next week, as her odometer logged another 500 miles, she pouted me into submission. But after we moved in, my apprehensions were confirmed: Most days, the only residents to show up on Sandcastle's sidewalks were wheeled about by a fleet of foreign-born nannies.

I suppose having little ones around was better than nothing. On weekdays when I'd take breaks at Sandcastle Park, the toxic tire-crumb playground/water park where the diapered set convened, I could always count on the infants and toddlers for prolonged eye contact and an occasional smile. That's more than I can say for their parents.

Now, as we trudged past the well-groomed front yards of Shoreline Road, I couldn't wait to change all that. If my new approach worked, I would soon get to know the phantom homeowners with whom we shared this sun-baked stretch of asphalt, concrete, and pesticide-laden grass. At the block party, I'd learn their names, probe for common ground, and then dazzle them with my take on the coming cataclysm. If all went well, friendships would form, a true community spirit would ensue, and Sandcastle Court would quickly adopt my master plan.

Hopefully, Julie would be on board by then. As she tugged Alex past one of 20 sprawling, two-story, red-tile-roofed homes lining our street, I said, "See all these big houses?"

"Not again, Dad," Alex moaned.

My wife rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I know: 'When the era of cheap oil, natural gas, and coal grinds to a halt, every last one of these homes will be uninhabitable,'" she recited, mimicking my radio-perfect delivery with surgical precision. "'Even with rooftop solar panels and homegrown crops, they still won't be self-sufficient. Our only hope of survival is to take 'em all down to the studs and use the scrap to redesign Sandcastle the right way.'"

"Exactly right," I beamed as Alex giggled.

Julie shrugged her broad shoulders. "I know you've put a lot of thought into your 'master plan,' but do you still really think all these homeowners will buy into it?"

I scoffed. "When the power plants flatline and air conditioning goes out the window, people will do anything to escape the heat. One good power outage could change everything."

"I'm sure you believe that," she said, running her fingers through her neck-length hair. "But promise me, Carl, no more surprises."

Ironically, Julie, who lived by her BlackBerry, had married me because of my surprises, from a John Denver tribute concert on our third date to an engagement ring after a screening of The Day After Tomorrow. And she had won my heart by sharing many of my contrarian ideas-from giving away all our TVs to limiting our progeny to one child. But now, with our very survival at stake, I couldn't count on her. Or my own son. At four, he had better things to do than talk Peak Oil with his crazy old man. I hoped I'd have better luck with the neighbors.

* * *

After depositing Julie and Alex on a tattered blanket beneath a palm tree, I joined a nine-person queue by the propane grill at the shallow end of the host family's pool. As I scanned the lineup of adults who could easily have stepped out of an L.L. Bean summer catalog, I realized I was the only one sporting cutoffs, hemp sandals, and facial hair.

Wasting no time, I extended my right hand to a fiftyish fellow with a potbelly, receding hairline, and cigarette clamped between meaty thumb and forefinger. "My name's Carl; what's yours?" I said, cupping one hand over my airways.

"J. Blair Parker," he wheezed, flicking the cigarette butt onto the concrete, stamping it out, and shaking my free hand in one fluid motion. "You can call me Blair."

Buoyed by his informality, I tightened my grip. "Delighted to meet you, Blair."

He quickly retracted his hand. "Y'all must be new around here. Which house is yours?"

"The gray one with royal palms in front." Actually, every house on the block fit this description. This was my attempt at opening with humor, Step One of a technique I'd picked up at Winning Friends/Influencing People in the 21st Century, one of Apex Systems' many professional development offerings.

"Only kidding," I added when Blair responded with a blank stare. "Our house is the one with rooftop solar panels and a citrus grove for a front lawn."

"So you're the owner," Blair said, grimacing. "Bring the family with you?"

I pointed to the old blanket. "And you?"

"Nancy's in the house making a fruit salad. Our two girls are in college."

Sensing an opening, I moved on to Step Two: Mine their interests. "So, Blair, now that the kids have flown the coop, what do y'all do for fun?"

"Well, Nancy and I are flying to Bermuda next week for a golf vacation. That reminds me, our contractor is supposed to install a Corian kitchen countertop while we're away. But you never know; we've been waiting six weeks for him to show up-"

"I hear you," I said, tapping the pavement repeatedly with my hemp sandals.

As we edged toward the flaming grill where a few token veggie burgers and zucchini slices vied for space with a dozen beef patties, Blair said, "Smells like hamburger heaven."

Seizing the opportunity, I invoked Step Three: Transition to your topic. "Blair, did you know that the four-legged providers of those savory beef patties emit tons of methane, a greenhouse gas linked to global warming?"

Blair scratched his wide forehead. "Yeah, I saw something about that on the news."

"Then you're probably also aware that to get to our plates from the factory farm, those burgers burned through several tanks of gas."

"Yeah, well, what can you do?" said Blair, throwing up his hands.

I looked him in the eye. "For starters, we can face facts. If global warming doesn't do us in first with coastal floods and vector-borne diseases, Peak Oil will immobilize us."

Blair narrowed his gaze. "Is that a fact? Can't we drill for more oil?"

"We can, but we're fast running out of places where we can extract it on the cheap. Once we run out of cheap fossil fuels, there goes suburbia. And down comes Sandcastle Court."

"Suppose you're right. What can you do?"

Beaming, I launched right into Step Four: Make your pitch. As I shared my master plan with Blair, he nodded politely but kept his eyes trained on the grill.

"Good luck with that, guy," he said the moment our host placed two charbroiled burgers on his unrecyclable plastic plate. Blair snagged a beer from the cooler and never looked back.

Down on the blanket with my family unit, I licked my wounds in between bites of grilled zucchini. When I complained to Julie, she downed her veggie burger without comment-which only intensified my resolve.

Later, as Alex and I joined the ice cream line by the deep end of the pool, I homed in on my next targets, Eli and Leonora Cameron. A sweet retired couple, the Camerons clung to my every word as I opened with humor and mined their interests. But when I began enumerating the ecological evils of the dairy industry, they yawned profusely.

So did Alex. "Come on, Dad, the line's moving," he repeated as I sounded off on cleared rainforests, bovine emissions, and the looming collapse of suburbia. By the time we got our cones, I realized I'd need a much more powerful technique to sway this crowd.

* * *

That evening, after Julie and I tucked Alex into his organic cotton blankets, we headed down to the kitchen to wash dishes, which, as usual, filled the sink to the rim.

"What's Alex's soccer schedule like this fall?" I said as Julie scrubbed a stainless steel pan. With the defining issue of our time off the table, I could think of little else to say.

Julie handed me the pan. "Alex plays Tuesdays and Thursdays at Olin Field. You should go some time; it would mean a lot to him."

I placed the pan on the stove. "Will do. So how's your workweek shaping up?"

"Same old, same old." I extended my hands to rub Julie's back, but she turned abruptly and presented me with a Pyrex baking dish. "Can you dry this?"

I groaned. Short of new, dramatic evidence of the impending catastrophe, I wondered what it would take to move us beyond small talk and negligible physical contact.

After clearing the sink, we repaired to our respective home offices for the evening-an entrenched pattern ever since I offed the lawn. As I checked the latest News Feed on my Facebook account, the isolation ate at me. I longed for the good old days before Apex Systems demoted me from project manager to tech writer, when a conversation was just a cube away.

Back then I supervised eight programmers tasked to maintain electric power grid management software for major utilities in the Southeast. My direct reports and I joked often across cubicle walls and took long lunches at the local Whole Foods Market. I really missed the banter, though I must admit I did most of the talking. My staffers didn't seem to mind; one even said I had "high entertainment value."

Apparently, my superiors were not amused. Senior management eventually clamped down on my initiative to replace all coal-fired power plants feeding into the Southeast Regional grid with wind farms and solar power plants. My direct reports would roll their eyes when I made "campaign stops" at their cubes, just as Julie did whenever I got on my high horse. But at least those guys listened to me. You had to love a captive audience.

Now, anxious to find more receptive ears for my master plan in the wake of the block party, I checked the latest community e-newsletter, Good Tidings, for upcoming events. As I downloaded the PDF file, I wondered if anyone else bothered to open it. As usual, the community calendar was empty, except for one announcement: Our gate control battery backup system would be down for repairs for two more days.

So much for community building; I spent the next two hours surfing the Web.

My first and last stop, the Global Transformation Foundation's Running on Empty blog, had changed my life when I discovered it two years earlier. As always, the blog's opening paragraph hit home:

Picture a land of vacant schools, shopping centers, and office buildings, deserted highways, and frantic neighbors scavenging for food in each other's backyards. Like 9-11, the end of Cheap Oil will invoke a dark new age. That is, unless we transform our world NOW.

Reenergized, I marched off to the bedroom, but found Julie snoring at the right edge of the mattress. Settling along the left edge, I shut my eyes and pictured our world transformed.

Gliding along the dirt trail to our compact, seven-story, energy-efficient cohousing complex, I marvel at the surrounding patchwork of citrus groves, vegetable gardens, woodlands, and solar power stations on terrain that once accommodated 200 single-family homes. Inside the building's wood-paneled dining hall, a banner dangling from the rafters proclaims, "Sandcastle Commons Annual Block Party/Job Fair!" At round tables throughout the room, dozens of former commuters line up to offer vital services ranging from home repairs to home schooling.

Later, as the community dines on fresh-picked, sautéed garden vegetables and textured vegetable protein, I mount an empty table, grab a megaphone, and speak extemporaneously on the power of community. Alex clings to every word and Julie dotes on me.

"Carl, you're not only the savior of Sandcastle; you're my personal hero," she gushes as the crowd gives me a standing ovation. Gazing at me with dewy eyes, Julie hoists me up to the master bedroom of our family unit. Our clothes peeled off in a flash, we make love with abandon.

When I opened my eyes and noted the gaping chasm between our bodies, I felt livid. Tiptoeing to the far wall, I wondered how I could get through to a wife who once adored my ideas but now couldn't live up to them; a son who, fixated on ice cream cones and soccer balls, showed no interest in the ultimate issue of our time; and neighbors who routinely avoided eye contact. As I peered out the windows at the perfect lawns, wide garage doors, private sunrooms, and external central air-conditioning units that defined life along Shoreline Road, and imagined the neighborhood transformed, my pulse quickened.

I then recalled the morning at Dew Drop Middle School when I stood alone in a sunlit hallway on my way to the boys' room. For an eternity I stared at a glass fire alarm box on the wall. Then, with one flick of the wrist, I propelled hundreds of kids from their hardwood seats to the school's front lawn, where we greeted roaring red fire engines with resounding applause. I looked on in a daze, awestruck by how much power a single person could wield in a split second.

Now, armed with a stolen password and intimate knowledge of a critical software application, I could do it again. All with a single, undetectable mouse-click.

Sure, it would hit the young, the old, and the infirm pretty hard, but they could all be rushed to hospitals running on auxiliary power. Sure, if Julie saw my hand in this, she'd go ballistic. But years later, while chaos broke out in countless blacked-out suburbs across the globe, she'd thank me profusely beneath the blankets in our solar-powered, air-cooled bedroom.

* * *

That morning at eight, with power down throughout South Florida, the outdoor temperature approaching 90 degrees, and our four-bedroom home fast becoming uninhabitable (our solar-electric power system had "apparently" malfunctioned), Julie and Alex did the expected. As I watered our crops by hand-and feigned the need to stay behind to finish the job-they packed their bags, opened the garage door manually, boarded the Prius, and headed for the hospital. Once the garage door closed, I filled my own backpack and raced to the gate.

As I predicted, the massive steel gate that fronted Sandcastle Court remained in locked position. Too heavy to pry open with brute force, the gate now transformed Sandcastle Court into an open-air prison. Ensconced in their air-conditioned vehicles, scores of residents, none of whom apparently read Good Tidings, converged on the community's sole evacuation route. (The rest, I surmised, were treading water in backyard pools. I'd get to them later.)

Edging backward from the gate, I removed a jumbo Thermos and a stack of compostable cups from my pack and began working the line. When I approached the first car, a Toyota Sienna minivan, the tinted window rolled down to reveal a robust, fortyish woman in a pink bikini.

"How are you holding up?" I said, pouring her a cup of ice-cold lemonade from the Thermos. (Winning Friends Alternate Step One: Curry favor.)

"I feel like a caged tiger," she said before downing the lemonade in one gulp. "I just hope I make it to the beach."

"This ain't easy, is it?" This was no small talk strategy; now operating on adrenaline, I trusted my instincts.

The woman squinted at me. "Who are you?"

"Carl from Shoreline Road. And you?"

"Iris Donaldson, Starfish Road. And yes, this ain't easy." She rolled up her window.

"It's probably hardest on our seniors," I said in parting, pointing to a silver-haired couple in the rear-view mirror that I now recognized as the Camerons from the block party. As I glided over to their Dodge Grand Caravan, I felt as revved up as a TV talk show host.

Wrapped in tennis whites, the Camerons sipped the lemonade like vintage wine. "Eli and Leonora Cameron, this must be really hard on you," I began, verging on an Oprah impersonation. "What concerns you the most?"

"If power isn't restored soon," said Eli, wringing his hands, "our perishables will rot."

"I don't know if I'll last in this heat," added Leonora. "We're going to the hospital."

"That's where we're headed," said a close-cropped man in the Lexus SUV behind us after I related the Camerons' story. "I sure hope the place has Wi-Fi."

"I hear you," I said, nodding as I doled out four cups of lemonade to the man and his family. "This blackout's a real game-changer, isn't it?"

Six heartfelt exchanges later, I came upon the Prius.

"You must be out of your mind," said Julie as I handed Alex a cup.

Pausing my "talk show" for this "commercial break," I could feel the adrenaline slipping away. "You've got to admit it's a teachable moment. Why not make lemonade out of lemons?"

Julie glared. "You did this, didn't you?"

My stomach clenched. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, come on. Yesterday you said, 'One good power outage could change everything.'"

I pointed at Alex, his face eclipsed by the cup. "You really think I'd do this to our son?"

Julie sighed. "You would if you believed the experience would enlighten him."

"Look, Carl, I need some time to think. We're heading to Jacksonville to stay with my folks for a few days."

I gasped. "Julie, I really wish you'd reconsider-"

"It's too late," she said, her voice eerily calm. "By the way, I just heard on the radio that the police raided Apex headquarters. They may be onto you."

I crushed a compostable cup. "I can't believe this."

On adrenaline once more, I dashed to the 10-foot gate, climbed its evenly spaced steel bars, mounted the top platform, and unzipped my pack. Seizing the portable PA system that I had purchased that summer on the Global Transformation Foundation's "Power Outage Response" Web page, hid in my office, and kept fully charged for the right moment, I marveled at the river of idling vehicles before me.

"My friends, today we have suffered a great loss-not only of electric power but also of personal power," I bellowed into the microphone. "The power to live comfortably in our homes, schools, and workplaces. The power to drive anywhere, anytime, to places unreachable by foot. Today's power outage is temporary, but tomorrow's could be permanent . . ."

Though I couldn't see them through all the tinted windshields, I could sense dozens of eyes meeting mine as I issued a stern warning about the decline of cheap fossil fuels and the inevitable collapse of Sandcastle Court. For the first time since moving here, I felt heard. Energized, I moved in for the kill. "The good news is that we can avoid this calamity. If we prepare now. Collectively, we have the power-the renewable energy-to transform Sandcastle Court into a self-sustaining community -"

I heard one honk and then several more, an unmistakable stamp of approval. I now felt completely justified in having breached Apex Systems security and shut down the region's power grid. I not only felt heard but understood-if not by Julie, at least by the community.

So you can imagine my surprise when I felt a strong vibration emanating beneath my hindquarters. As the gate slowly swung open, my heart hammered my ribcage like a snare drum.

"Mark my words," I demanded. "The sooner y'all get back on the road, the sooner the cheap oil will run out. Before it's too late, we must all-"

Now I could barely hear my voice above the din of engines, as much of Sandcastle Court began its usual evacuation to places unreachable by foot. When the last motorist departed the gate area and the unmistakable wail of distant police sirens emerged, I sprinted to the sprinkler section of Sandcastle Park to warn the next generation. I climbed to the top of the tallest slide, grabbed the mike, and addressed six wide-eyed children.

"Hey, babies," I boomed, "Can you imagine if Mommy couldn't buy you formula because it's too far to walk to the store? And how about all you toddlers? What if Daddy couldn't bring home any new toys because there wasn't enough fuel to ship them from China? I know this sounds like make-believe, but . . ."

As the sirens grew louder and I talked on, the nannies averted their eyes, but most of the kids continued to stare at me with rapt attention. You had to love a captive audience.

Mark Dwortzan is a Boston-based writer and editor focused on promising innovations in science, technology, business, and the environment--and their potential impact on how we live and work. Currently a science writer/editor at  Boston University, he has contributed news and feature stories to academic, corporate, and journalistic publications for more than a decade.  His nonfiction has appeared in The  Boston Globe, Harvard Public Health Review, Technology Review, and other venues; his fiction has appeared in  Cadillac Cicatrix, Mouse Tales Press, and  Westview. More of his work can be found at www.dwortzan.com.

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Govt tweaks hospitalisation rules to reduce stress on healthcare Home quarantine for all asymptomatic COVID patients, contacts, rail travelers

TNN Bureau. Updated: 7/28/2020 11:09:59 AM Front Page

3 Jammu hosps reserved for only referrals; Ladakh shortens duration to 7 days

JAMMU: With no let up in rising Covid-19 cases and in order to avoid unnecessary strain on the health care system in Jammu and Kashmir, the government on Monday tweaked its hospitalisation rules and ordered that all asymptomatic patients with no co-morbidity and their asymptomatic contacts will be allowed to remain under home quarantine.
They would need a separate room at home, AAROGYA Setu application on their phones, and would report to hospitals only if their oxygen saturation levels—to be monitored with a pulse oximeter to be provided by PRIs--drops below 90%, the government said.
Along with this, the government also decided to allow home quarantine—post sampling—for rail travelers, even as it reserved the three tertiary hospitals in Jammu city as only referral hospitals for Covid-19 admissions, in line with the arrangement in Srinagar.
The significant decisions which come after experts warned of impeding scarcity of healthcare resources in near future, were taken in a meeting chaired by the Chief Secretary, B V R Subrahmanyam, to review COVID-19 mitigation measures on a day when Jammu and Kashmir recorded 470 new cases, taking its infection toll over 18-thousand-mark, to 18390, while 324 people have died in the UT so far.
The weekend lockdown in Jammu and two other districts of the region ended on Monday morning 6 am, while the 6-day-long lockdown also came to end in Valley, 12 hours later, with the government allowing regulated reopening of shops ahead of Eid.
In the neighbouring Ladakh, the UT administration modified the Unlock 2 guidelines and shortened the duration of home quarantine for all incoming persons to 7 days, while those with a Covid-19 test report not older than 48 hours before their arrival will be exempted from quarantine. The new guidelines will come into force from Wednesday.
In Kashmir region, the Directorate of Health Services made RT-PCR Covid-19 test mandatory for all private Nursing Homes and Hospitals before admitting any patient for any surgeries, after reports of violation of the same, and warned them of cancellation of their registration if these guidelines are not followed.
Earlier in Kashmir, the government had reserved four tertiary hospitals in Srinagar—SKIMS Soura, SKIMS Medical College Bemina, Chest Diseases Hospital and SMHS Hospital-- as referral only hospitals for Covid-19 patients.
On Monday, the government decided to institute a similar mechanism in Jammu city and declared GMC Jammu, CD Hospital and ASCOMS Sidhra as referral only hospitals.
“These hospitals shall now admit only such COVID-19 patients who have been referred to by other hospitals of Jammu Division while Gandhi Nagar Hospital and COVID Care Centre, Baghwati Nagar, shall now be primary centres for admission of COVID-19 patients in Jammu city,” said Chief Secretary.
The decision, he noted, has been taken with an aim to maintain availability of beds in tertiary hospitals across Jammu and Kashmir for acute COVID-19 cases who require specialized treatment or intensive care.
Asserting that the present practice of hospitalization of COVID-19 patients needs to be regulated so as to avoid unnecessary strain on the health care system, the Chief Secretary said that the hospital beds of tertiary hospitals are required to be kept available for more severe cases who may need intensive monitoring in a hospital setting.
Thus, the protocol with regard to management of COVID-19 patients has to be revised, he noted and ordered that all asymptomatic patients with no co-morbidity and not vulnerable otherwise will be allowed to remain under home quarantine, if they have a separate room facility at home and have downloaded the AAROGYA Setu application on their phones.
“All such patients will be provided with a pulse oximeter to monitor their oxygen saturation levels and in event of drop in oxygen saturation below 90% they shall immediately report to hospitals. A poster shall also be put up outside their home displaying therein the quarantine status. Reach out teams constituted by the Health Department shall monitor health status of these patients,” Chief Secretary maintained.
Similarly, in order to achieve better compliance amongst the contacts of COVID-19 patients, it has been decided that the present practice of administrative quarantine of COVID positive contacts, would be dispensed and the contacts would be permitted home quarantine provided they are asymptomatic. “However, all contacts shall be sampled and the defined protocol shall be followed in case of contacts who report positive,” he observed.
Keeping in consideration low positivity rate amongst the rail and air travellers (0.9%), home quarantine would be permitted after sampling for such rail travellers who have a valid contactable phone number and have AAROGYA Setu application downloaded on their phones.
“In the event of any rail traveller turning positive, the standard protocol with regard to management of COVID-19 patients will be followed,” he added.
Chief Secretary further said that Panchayati Raj Institutions can play an important role in controlling spread of COVID-19.
He said that a massive campaign for surveillance involving Panchayati Raj Institutions will be initiated to help in identify suspect COVID-19 cases in rural areas. The PRIs shall be supplied pulse Oximeter and contactless thermometer for the purpose and they shall be imparted training for undertaking this activity, he added.
It may be mentioned that Jammu and Kashmir has seen sharp rise of Covid-19 cases in past one month.
In the period of 118 days, from its first infection on March 8 to June 30, the UT had recorded 7497 cases and 101 deaths.
However, in next 27 days--from July 1 till July 27—close to 11000 fresh cases and more than 220 deaths have been recorded, pushing the infections tally to 18390 and death toll to 324.

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text:
Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Bad Day Meet Haunted Toilet

In my reckless, overachieving youth, I did not sleep much. I had too much to do! Too much studying, too much socializing, too many chores, too many work hours and too many school-sanctioned extracurricular activities left little time for mere biological imperatives such as sleep. I am now paying the piper, or maybe the sandman, for all that missed sleep. In my middle-age, if I don't get at least seven hours of quality shut-eye, I'm a cranky wreck the next day.

Today was one of those cranky wreck days. Every little minor chore and annoyance magnified to colossal proportions in my sleep-deprived psyche. I won't bore you with all the gory details. The main made-me-want-to-cry moments involved the toilet (yes, the toilet I thought I fixed months ago, the ONLY toilet in our 1952 house) hissing repeatedly and loudly as air pressure met water somewhere in the tank. When I removed the toilet tank lid to investigate, I watched to floater ball bouncing up and down rhythmically as the water in the toilet tank did its best impression of a wave pool.

Clearly the toilet is haunted. I'm not sure whether to call a plumber or an exorcist.

I eventually got the toilet to hush by adjusting the floater ball a bit and turning off the water supply to the toilet until it calmed down. Later I turned the water supply back on for the tank. We'll see how long that little tweak keeps to toilet tank ghost at bay.

Incidentally, my next house will be brand-spanking-new with two bathrooms and other modern conveniences!


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Little Girl's Book Club

Sweetly Six’s “BunBun” at the Bookstore

Tomorrow evening, Sweetly Six and I are attending our very first Little Girl’s book club where we will be discussing Ramona and Her Mother by Beverly Cleary.  We are both so excited. A friend of ours put the group together by thoughtfully assembling five girlfriends who love to read.

Sweetly Six has read for as long as I can remember. Frequently she says to the HOTY and me, “I love being a book worm!” …which is Silver Lined music to my ears!

There are tons of Silver Linings to a children’s book club. Here are my top 10 reasons why I’m especially excited about participating in our new book club:

  1. They provide a comfortable, communal atmosphere that promotes reading, critical thinking, and expressing ideas.
  2. It provides an extra-special glimpse of how and what children are really thinking about the world.
  3. They are a fantastic place to promote learning master literary skills including fluency and new vocabulary words.
  4. A group provides an opportunity to try different types of books incorporating different ideas and concepts that a child might not otherwise have chosen.
  5. Participating enables a child to increase knowledge and gain an appreciation of the surrounding world.
  6. They do wonders for communication skills by providing a forum for in-depth discussions and learning to assimilate differing opinions and viewpoints.
  7. Book clubs are a great way for children to begin to express opinions, summarize & present information in a coherent and engaging way to a (safe & small) audience.
  8. They are a wonderful source of  ideas as well as motivation for children to start writing their own stories.
  9. Book discussions help children practice turn-taking, encourage them to use language to analyze, make predictions and solve problems.
  10. They may also provide parents & children with a way to explore and discuss difficult topics in a safe way, e.g., bullying, conflict resolution.

What I like most about book groups is that they are FUN!

Leave a comment

  1. Nancy Melhorn says

    I just read "Just being Audrey" by Margaret Cardillo with my little one. It made me think of you and Sweetly Six. I think you would both enjoy it. It is about Audrey Hepburn, her hard work, independent spirit, facing adversity, and contributions to society. Enjoy your mother/daughter time.

    • says

      Ohhhh isn't that a wonderful book, Nancy? I loved it!
      Your holiday photos this year are absolutely gorgeous. So wonderful to see you looking so happy and (more importantly!) healthy!!!

  2. says

    Hooray for reading! I think your mother-daughter book club is a wonderful idea! I wish I would have thought of forming one when my daughter was young. Thankfully she is a reader, and like myself, always has a book at hand, as do my grandchildren. I have enjoyed being a part of a book club all of my adult life. The exchange of ideas increases understanding and promotes communication. Also assimilating others' opinions and ideas while coherently expressing your own engages good conversation skills.
    I mentor a 4th-grader in reading at my neighborhood Elementary School every Wed. for an hour. We work on vocabulary, reading fluency, phonics, word recognition, and comprehension skills, and critical thinking. It is so rewarding to see a child master his reading skills and develop a life-long love for reading.
    The Beverly Cleary books are a good choice, as Cleary addresses topics of interest for both parent and youngster. Enjoy "Ramona and her Mother"!!

    • says

      Thanks so much for your note(s) today, Carolee! How wonderful that you mentor a 4th grader. That's fabulous.
      Will keep you posted on the book club.
      Thank you, again!


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What is The Time Now?

The universe we inhabit is filled with cycles. Night becomes day, planets rotate around the Sun, seasons change, and so much more. We use these cycles to measure the passage of time, but like the universe's cycles, that was only the beginning.

We've also created time zones, calculations down to the millisecond, and various ways to measure them all. Our lives revolve around time which is why we've created a rich and varied database of tools and information that we like to call The Time Now.

The Time Now is an accurate tool providing multiple time-related services, various in-depth articles, and more. You can find out what the current local time is, in more than a hundred thousand cities around the world, as well as the UTC/GMT offset, the time zone full name and abbreviation.

You will know whether each location observes Daylight Saving Time (DST) or Summer Time, right now or the near future. This database is updated with each new decision of governments or astronomical institutions.

Know the local weather and forecast in most cities of the world. You have access to the current conditions, the 48-hour forecast, the 2-week forecast, and an hour-by-hour temperature forecast. Most websites would stop there, but we also provide you with the sunrise and sunset times, the day's length, the moon phases, and even the moonrise and moonset. Enjoy the many daily updates of these data, up to every fifteen minutes.

We've also provided an astronomy section that gives detailed information about the Solar System . We've all been stargazers at some point in our lives but now you can learn about the planets, and their moons.

Additional sections provide information about the stars, the galaxies, cosmology, how to observe the sky, and space probes. If all of that knowledge fascinates you, we'll also provide information on how to become an astronomer and a description of the job.

The Time Now also offers comprehensive local business directories with opening and closing times in many countries, such as United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany, Poland, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Finland, France and Italy. Each country's local business directory is available from its translated version of the website.

In case you need a specific conversion, we provide many useful tools such as:

The Time Now is currently available in 29 languages. It is used by millions of people worldwide each month as a valuable resource for information, knowledge, and a means of planning and understanding time around the world.

The Scientific and Philosophical Concept of Time

Before one can understand time zones, daylight savings, and other methods of measuring time, it would be best to have a grasp of how science defines this concept. Beyond science, this concept is also highly researched and discussed in the realms of religion and philosophy.

We cannot reach out and grasp it, nor can we watch it pass, and yet time exists anyway. It is defined as "a measure in which events can be ordered from the past, through the present, and into the future. It also measures the durations of events and the intervals between them."

What we can see, feel, and touch is known as the spatial dimensions. These are the first, second and third that we all know. Time itself however is referred to in science as the fourth dimension. When measuring things such as velocity and repetition, we are using standard units of measurement such as seconds, minutes, and hours.

This is known as the "operational definition of time." It's purely scientific and doesn't seek to understand the concept in any philosophical way. Of course, the lines begin to blur when scientists try to measure space-time events and other elements of the universe around us.

Trying to truly measure time is a goal that science continues to struggle with. Proper measurement is crucial in all manners of scientific fields like astronomy, navigation, and many more. Currently our international system of measurement is based on events that repeat at certain intervals.

The movement of the sun through the sky, the phases of the moon, the beating of a heart, these are all means of measuring time's apparent flow. In terms of philosophy, there are two major beliefs regarding time and its existence or lack thereof.

This first approach is named after Sir Isaac Newton. He believed that time was a part of the universe, that is exists as a separate dimension independent of our own where events occur in sequence. In one of his works, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, he spoke of absolute time and space.

The concept spoke of a "true and mathematical time, of itself, and from its own nature flows equally without regard to anything external." Things like motion and the "feel" of time were not true concepts of the term. He called these things "relative time" and they were the only concepts we could grasp as a species.

The other side of the coin is a theory posed by two famous philosophers by the names of Gottfried Leibniz and Immanuel Kant. This secondary theory is more simplistic, it simply holds to the belief that time is not a thing or a place. Given this truth, it cannot be measured accurately or traveled through.

A History of Measuring Time: Calendars and Clocks

Chronometry is the science of measuring time and it comes in two different forms: the calendar and the clock. When seeking to measure a length that is less than a day, the clock is used. Measuring something that is longer requires the use of a calendar. Let's examine how these two fundamental tools came to be.

1. A Brief History of The Calendar

The first calendars were used as early as 6,000 years ago, based on artifacts discovered from the Paleolithic era, and were dependent on the phases of the moon. Known as lunar calendars, these early versions had between twelve and thirteen months to each year. These calendars weren't entirely accurate, however, because they didn't account for the fact that a year is roughly 365.24 days.

Calendars measure days in whole numbers so a method called intercalation was introduced that adds a leap day, week, or month into the calendar when needed to keep the measurements accurate. Julius Caesar decreed in 45 B.C that the Roman Empire would use a solar calendar and it became known as the Julian calendar.

This version still suffered from a lack of accuracy because the intercalation it used caused the annual solstices and equinoxes to throw off the measurements by as much as 11 minutes per year. A second type of calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. This was known as the Gregorian calendar and it is now the most commonly used version today.

2. A Brief History of the Clock

Horology is the study of devices used to measure time. This pursuit dates back to 1500 BC when the Egyptians created the first sundial. This stationary device uses a shadow cast by the sun to measure the passage of hours throughout the day. These devices were accurate only during the day however.

A more accurate solution was something called a water clock that was also used by the ancient Egyptians. The actual origin of these devices is not known, but along with sundials these were the first tools used to measure time.

The water clock functioned by creating a set flow of water that could be used to measure the passage of time. It required constant maintenance though, otherwise the water would run out. Many ancient civilizations were very focused on keeping accurate measurements of time because they used it to track their astronomical findings.

Water clocks were used consistently until the middle ages. The use of incense, candles and hourglasses were also prevalent. While mechanical clocks did make an appearance as early as the 11th century, it wasn't until new methods like the pendulum clock were made by individuals like Galileo Galilei and Christiaan Huygens that they became reliable.

Today the most accurate tool for measuring time are atomic clocks. These incredible devices can maintain a pitch-perfect accuracy for millions of years. They are so accurate in fact, that they are used to set other clocks and GPS systems. Instead of using mechanical or repetitive methods, these clocks measure atoms as incredibly low temperatures.

An atomic clock in Boulder, Colorado called NIST-F1 is used to define the standard time for all of the United States. It is located in the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This clock's accuracy means that it won't be off by a single second for at least 100 million years. This is all based on the internationally defined standard for what constitutes a single second:

"The second is the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom."

By measuring these caesium atoms at incredibly low temperatures, atomic clocks can track time almost perfectly based on this established standard.

International Time Measurements

Our modern society requires us to have a set standard for how we measure time. The most basic means of doing this is known as International Atomic Time (TAI) and measures seconds, minutes, and hours by coordinating atomic clocks around the world.

Since 1972 we've utilized Coordinated Universal Time or UTC. It follows the TAI standard with slight changes known as leap seconds to ensure that it remains synchronized with the Earth's rotation. This standard replaced the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) but the two terms are still used interchangeably.

The reason for the replacement was because the GMT method used telescopes and solar time to set the standard instead of the more accurate method of atomic clocks. Despite the time standard changing, the location of Greenwich is still used a basis for measuring coordinates.

While the measurement of time is standardized around the world, there is also a means of defining the exact time of day in various regions known as time zones. This is another internationally observed standard that offsets the UTC time depending on the location.

These zones were implemented for legal, commercial, and social reasons and are usually placed along the boundaries of countries or states in the U.S. For the most part these zones offset the time by a whole number of hours but in some cases the change is only thirty or forty-five minutes.

The concept of these time zones was first suggested 1858 in a book written by Quirico Filopanti called Miranda! This concept was not used but it did lay the groundwork for others to follow. The invention of them is attributed to Sir Sanford Fleming but even his concept was modified heavily into what we use today.

The adoption of time zones was slow and gradual. The last country to implement the use of today's standard was Nepal in 1986. All of today's modern countries use time zones in some way, shape, or form. The idea is the same, as is the standard measurement of time, but the implementation of them varies.

For example, China and India both utilize a single time zone despite the fact that their countries are wider than the fifteen degrees of longitude that usually dictates a time zone.

A Tool for the Ages

With technology and research we've continued to grow and expand our knowledge of time, but we still have many questions unanswered. What we do have are very specific methods of measuring it around the world though and The Time Now is here to provide you with all of that information and more.

Our tools are always up-to-date and our database of information is constantly expanding and growing. We are the penultimate resource now and into the future.