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Google’s ‘Where to Vote’ Search Result Reflects Quirk of Candidate Surname, Not Bias

Social media users alleged bias against former President Donald Trump when a Google search on Election Day for “where to vote” returned an interactive map to find a person’s polling station when including the word “Harris” but not “Trump.” The reason is because “Harris” is a county in Texas, whereas “Trump” is not a location.

The post Google’s ‘Where to Vote’ Search Result Reflects Quirk of Candidate Surname, Not Bias appeared first on FactCheck.org.





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Frida's Flowers - 1 Year Crochet Project - So Much Fun!

 

It All Started with Hexie-lust!


Look back to early 2012, when my dear friend, Christy, started covering little hexagon-shaped bits of card stock with fabric, making stacks of 6 ready to sew together as petals for a hexie flower. While I was working on a beading project, she was making these utterly irresistible stacks of hexies, until finally I succumbed to the temptation, and joined her.


Here is Christy holding a whole bag of covered hexie shapes, made for the pathway around her hexie flowers.


And here I am holding my hexie quilt, showing the final seam of hand stitching needed to complete the quilt top for my hexie quilt, Grandma's Flower Garden.

You'd think that hand-stitching and quilting over 4,000 hexies would be enough for any sane person, right?


Guess I'm not sane, because in 2015 I started another hexie quilt, or as it turns out, a triptych of wall quilts, for which I've completed 733 hexie flowers (which requires 5,131 individual hexies)!

Getting Hooked on Crochet


OK.... so now, I'm finished with hexies, right?  You guessed it! The answer is, "NO WAY." And once again it's Christy's "fault." With her hexie quilt on the back burner for a while, she moved into a crochet phase, making lovely afghans and shawls. She, along with Sabine, my friend in Germany, got me hooked on crochet (pun intended). 


This is the first shawl I made late in 2015, learning and getting comfortable with the hook. 


Then....  the big bang happened...  the crochet-hexie connection!!! This is it.  I saw this picture on Huib Petersen's Facebook page, fell bonkers in love, messaged him to find out about it, and learned that there is a pattern for the flowers online. Click on the above photo of Huib's flowers to see it enlarged... Wouldn't you be a bit inclined to go bonkers over it too???

On June 12, 2016, just one day after seeing his crocheted hexie flowers on Facebook, Christy and I were in Island Wools, our local yarn shop, buying DK-weight, cotton yarn in a dozen colors, ready to begin our own stacks of crocheted hexie flowers!

On a whim, right there in the yarn shop, we decided to keep what we were doing a secret... not to show or tell anybody about our project until we finished our afghans... no blogging or posting on Facebook about it. We didn't even tell Libby or Julie at the yarn shop why we kept ordering more cotton yarn. Our secret-keeping made it all the more fun!

Original Crochet-Along, Frida's Flowers


According to Huib, the instructions for his flowers came from a Stylecraft, Crochet-Along, called Frida's Flowers, staring an original pattern by Jane Crowfoot.


This is a photo from the instructions, showing the finished afghan, which includes several identical flowers in each of 2 simple and 5 complex designs. All of the designs are are multi-colored and textural, with raised flower parts, enough to make us drool!

Bored with making 6 identical flowers - Colors calling us!


Our plan was to get together at my house every Sunday afternoon to crochet hexie flowers, each of us completing enough flowers to make an afghan. In a little over a year of working 4-6 hours nearly every Sunday and some Tuesday evenings as well, we each had completed 39 flower blocks and 6 half-flower blocks, and were ready to crochet them together.


Ooops... I'm getting ahead of myself with this story.  We began with this block, called Rosa, which was the 3rd block in the overall design. (Blocks 1 and 2 are the more simple ones with a small central bud and plain background). This one is the easiest of the full flower designs.

But, for both of us, it was difficult, as there were several stitches we didn't know. Thanks to Youtube videos, we were able to learn them. However, after making two flowers each in the pattern colors, partially out of boredom and partly because of the influence of Huib's multi-color, no-two-the-same flowers, we decided to pick our own colors, making only a pair in each colorway. This, of course, caused us both to buy a lot more colors of yarn... oh for fun!


After making 6 each of Blocks 3 and 4, mine looked like this. Christy's color choices are different... enough different that our finished afghans may look like sisters, but definitely not like identical twins.



I started looking at flower catalogs to find new color combinations... and both of us were buying yarn like crazy.  Some brands have more that 50 color choices in DK-weight cotton. I admit to spending over two hundred dollars on yarn all-in-all, with some remainders for future projects. Never mind the cost... I adore all the colors.

Designing Our Afghans


Early in the process, both Christy and I decided we wanted to make something more like Huib's, with a random or nearly random placement of the blocks. Plus, we wanted it to be a bit bigger than the 31-block original design.


Also, we didn't want to include any of the more simple blocks, except as modified half-blocks for the sides.

A year went by, with the two of us continually challenged, thoroughly enjoying the process of making our blocks. Then it was time to lay them all out!


Almost at once, it was clear that the flowers needed more space, more black around each one to set them off. So, before crocheting them together, we bought more skeins of black yarn, and added a row of double crochet around each of the blocks. This also would add a bit more to the size of the afghans, making them large enough to cover both arms and legs while watching a good movie on a winter's evening.


Here is my finished arrangement, the hexie flower blocks crocheted together with a slip-stitch, awaiting a border. Although the original design included a border that would have worked OK, by then I was flying solo, wanting a border I could call my own.  


After some experimentation, trial-and-error, crochet and un-ravel attempts, this is my final border invention, which includes the "popcorn" stitch, central to many of the flowers. It was challenging to figure out how to crochet the increases and decreases necessary for the zig-zag edges on the sides, and still keep it flat. Again, trial-and-error was part of the process.


Here is my almost-finished afghan, my own version of Frida's Flowers, showing the size!

Entering at the San Juan County Fair


As we neared completion, we faced a moral dilemma, a difficult decision. We both enjoy submitting entries at our local San Juan County Fair each year, especially in the Fiber and Textile Arts Divisions. These entries are judged and eligible to win ribbons and cash prizes. In previous years, there haven't been many crocheted items entered, nothing that has won any of the top awards.

We figured our afghans could be "game changers," that they had a chance of winning. But we didn't like the idea of being in competition with each other for the top awards, the Best of Class and the Best of Show. If we both entered, neither quilt would win a top award, or one would win and the other wouldn't (which might be the worst outcome). So, after some heartfelt discussions, we decided I would enter mine this year, and she would delay finishing hers until later so that it would be eligible to enter next year.


Here's what happened...  Best of Class and Viewer's Choice for me in 2017!!!! And hopefully, the same will happen next year for Christy's version. Twelve months from now, I know for sure all the attendees will have forgotten my quilt, and will love seeing Christy's flowers, just as they did mine this year!





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University Holiday - Thanksgiving




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Happy Thanksgiving and Black Friday Deal

We are taking this opportunity to say Thank You! We can’t express how much we appreciate you being a part of RSS Ground family. We hope our unique tools will continue to be useful to you for years to come. We usually never do this, but this time we would like to show our token […]

The post Happy Thanksgiving and Black Friday Deal appeared first on RSSground.com.






















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Video: Friday Fails #332



Pile ups and loop outs...This week's Friday Fails has it all!
( Comments: 46 )




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Video: A Summer Bike Holiday with Friends in Morzine



Ride, eat, party, sleep, repeat.
( Comments: 49 )




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The Pinkbike Holiday Gift Guide: Top Gifts for All the MTBers in Your Life



We've pulled together an eclectic mix of mountain bike-related gift ideas for all the riders on your list.
( Photos: 12, Comments: 49 )




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A day at a Florida manatee hospital

As Florida’s seagrass beds die off, manatees are starving. Can the seagrass–and the manatees–make a comeback?




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Best cities to visit in Florida, from Miami to Jacksonville

The most popular US state for British tourists has plenty more to offer than Disney – experts Susan Veness and Simon Veness share eight destinations for a fun-packed city break




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My American family couldn’t visit me in London, so we went to ‘London’ in Florida instead

Having lived in London for four years, American Kassondra Cloos thought a trip see her adopted city as imagined by the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando would be fairly pointless – but instead she finds a home from home that’s suited to even grown-up kids




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Half-term holidays give London Stansted busiest passenger day in airport history

Over 100,000 passengers passed through the airport on 27 October




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Bali flights cancelled after volcanic eruption near holiday spot creates dangerous ash cloud

Over a dozen flights cancelled or delayed between Bali and Australia




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Vida em lua de Urano? As revelações de nova pesquisa sobre condições do planeta

Dados enviados pela Voyager 2 em 1986 mostravam que as luas de Urano eram completamente diferente do resto do Sistema Solar





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FEMA Worker Being Scapegoated for Denying Hurricane Aid to Trump Supporters Says It was Agency Policy in Florida and The Carolinas

The FEMA official who was just fired for telling workers to avoid homes impacted by the hurricanes in Florida if they had Trump signs says that it was not “isolated” and that FEMA workers were instructed to do it in the Carolinas too. (X) The American people must get justice. Indict and convict. So, apparently this …




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Yale psychiatrist says you should avoid your Trump-voting relatives during the holidays

Yale medical school’s chief psychiatry resident told a TV host that people should avoid their Trump-voting relatives on Thanksgiving and Christmas. While on MSNBC with host Joy Reid, Amanda Calhoun said if you have relatives who voted for Trump, “it’s completely fine to not be around those people and to tell them why.” Calhoun suggested […]

The post Yale psychiatrist says you should avoid your Trump-voting relatives during the holidays appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.




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Why Kamala Harris lost: A flawed candidate or doomed campaign?

The vice-president failed to make the case that she would be different from her boss, President Joe Biden.




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velocityconf: Free webcast from our friends at @citrix 5/29 http://t.co/IOeY4U0wUP Learn to consolidate 40 load balancers and ADCs into single platform

velocityconf: Free webcast from our friends at @citrix 5/29 http://t.co/IOeY4U0wUP Learn to consolidate 40 load balancers and ADCs into single platform




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velocityconf: New #velocityconf CA program preview is up: http://t.co/rKjf91RXdD @ariyahidayat on End-to-End JS Quality Analysis.

velocityconf: New #velocityconf CA program preview is up: http://t.co/rKjf91RXdD @ariyahidayat on End-to-End JS Quality Analysis.






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The best Amazon Black Friday 2024 deals

Black Friday is weeks away, but Amazon already has several great deals you can find now. Here are the best Amazon early Black Friday deals.




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A brief history of America's love affair with fluoridated water — and why it's now up for debate

Too much fluoride can make your teeth brown, but getting a little bit is a dentist's dream. Here's the complete history of fluoridated water.




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News24 | Africa has other friends if Trump won't work with it - Kenya's AU candidate

Kenya's candidate for the top job at the African Union said on Saturday that if US president-elect Donald Trump does not want to work with Africa, the continent has "other friends".





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Validation is a mirage

Spend enough time talking with entrepreneurs, product people, designers, and anyone charged with proving something, and you’ll bump into questions about validation. “How do you validate if it’s going to work?”“How do you know if people will buy it to not?”“How do you validate product market fit?”“How do you validate if a feature is worth… keep reading




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Sport | Here are the 3 candidates in line to replace Bill Beaumont as World Rugby chairman

The race to succeed Bill Beaumont as chairman of World Rugby comes to a conclusion in a vote in Dublin at the governing body's headquarters on Thursday.




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Investigation: Waste of the Day – Florida Hospitals Spent $566 Million Caring for Illegal Immigrants

Investigation by Jeremy Portnoy originally published by RealClearInvestigations and RealClearWire Topline: Florida hospitals spent $566 million providing care for illegal immigrants in the last six months of 2023, according to a recent report from the state’s Agency for Healthcare Administration. Key facts: Gov. Ron DeSantis passed a law in May 2023 instructing all hospitals that …




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High affinity binding of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein enhances ACE2 carboxypeptidase activity [Molecular Bases of Disease]

The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has emerged to a pandemic and caused global public health crisis. Human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2(ACE2) was identified as the entry receptor for SARS-CoV-2. As a carboxypeptidase, ACE2 cleaves many biological substrates besides angiotensin II to control vasodilatation and vascular permeability. Given the nanomolar high affinity between ACE2 and SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, we investigated how this interaction would affect the enzymatic activity of ACE2. Surprisingly, SARS-CoV-2 trimeric spike protein increased ACE2 proteolytic activity ∼3-10 fold against model peptide substrates, such as caspase-1 substrate and Bradykinin-analog. The enhancement in ACE2 enzymatic function was mediated by the binding of SARS-CoV-2 spike RBD domain. These results highlighted the potential for SARS-CoV-2 infection to enhance ACE2 activity, which may be relevant to the cardiovascular symptoms associated with COVID-19.




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Reply to Sysel et al.: Comment on the importance of using nitric oxide gas in the synthesis of nitrosylcobalamin and ICH-validated methods to assess purity and stability [Letters to the Editor]

In their comment (1) on our publication (2), the authors make two points: (i) they raise concerns about the possible effect of residual NONOate in our study, and (ii) they promote nitrosylcobalamin (NOCbl) supplied by their own company. Both points lack merit for the following reasons. The authors make the astonishing claim that the spectra of nitric oxide (NO•) and cobalamins overlap. Unlike NO•, cobalamin absorbs in the visible region, permitting unequivocal spectral assignment of NOCbl as reported (3). We demonstrated that whereas NOCbl is highly unstable in solution, it is stabilized by the B12 trafficking protein CblC. So even if present, residual NONOate (which is unstable at neutral pH and is removed during the work-up (3)) could not account for the observed difference.The authors then misrepresent our synthetic method, claiming that anaerobic conditions were used to generate nitrocobalamin (NO2Cbl), which results in the transient formation of NOCbl. We synthesized NO2Cbl aerobically using nitrite as described (4); NOCbl is not an intermediate in this ligand exchange reaction. The aerobic instability of NOCbl has been rigorously described by inorganic chemists (3, 5) and raises obvious questions about its purported biological effects as exemplified by the authors' own 2003 JBC publication, which was later withdrawn.As to promoting NOCbl from their company, the authors refer to a synthetic route from a mixture of NO• gas and aquocobalamin. The authors' method (6) has been described as “dubious” by chemists (5). Whereas DEAE NONOate used in our method is widely known as an NO• donor,...




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Comment on the importance of using nitric oxide gas in the synthesis of nitrosylcobalamin and ICH-validated methods to assess purity and stability [Letters to the Editor]

After a thorough read of this paper (1), we wish to clarify that the authors' anaerobic method of synthesis for the production of nitrocobalamin results in the transient formation of nitrosylcobalamin, an unstable intermediate upon exposure to air. We concur that the authors' method results in the production of nitrocobalamin based on the UV-visible data as shown. The authors' adapted anaerobic method consists of mixing hydroxocobalamin hydrochloride with diethylamine NONOate diethylammonium salt in aqueous solution. Of concern, the UV spectrum of nitric oxide overlaps that of all cobalamin species under anaerobic conditions, making any assignments of the binding of nitric oxide to hydroxocobalamin suspect (2). Additionally, the use of acetone to precipitate the authors' product causes precipitation of diethylamine NONOate, resulting in an impure product. As a result, its utility for drawing experimental conclusions is faulty.The product from the authors' anaerobic synthetic method has not been assessed for purity, and the synthetic method itself has not been validated using a stability-indicating method as required by the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) (ICH Q2B, Validation of Analytical Procedures) methodology, which is a hallmark for analytical characterization. Our nitrosylcobalamin synthesis involves reacting nitric oxide gas with hydroxocobalamin acetate as a heterogeneous mixture in a non-electron-donating solvent followed by rotary evaporation. Our nitrosylcobalamin product is stable in air, releases nitric oxide gas in situ (3), and meets ICH stability guidelines (4). Additionally, our nitrosylcobalamin product demonstrates biological activity, which has not been observed for nitrocobalamin (3, 5).