All about exercise

- 1 hours and 22 minutes ago

TeXamator 1.6d
(KDE Education)
The current page of this project is :
http://snouffy.free.fr/blog-en/index.php/category/TeXamator

TeXamator is written in Python/Qt4. It is aimed at helping you making your exercise sheets. Basically, it browses a specified directory, looks for .tex files containing exercices and builds a tree with all your exercises. You can click on an element of the tree to have a preview of the exercise sheet and then add exercises to a list if you wish to. Then you can save your work to a .tex file or you can generate a .dvi (or a pdf or a ps) file. Have a look at the screenshots (not up to date but they still give an overview of the programm) !

To use this program you will need :
LaTeX
dvipng
python-qt4

To start TeXamator, extract the archive, cd to the directory and just type :
python TeXamator.py

Alternatively, you can extract the archive, browse to the directory and double-click on TeXamator.py but if you can, prefer launching it in a shell to see LaTeX running in the background.

Visit my website for more information especially if you don't get how the "compile" tab of the preferences work !

If you find a bug, if you want me to add a feature, or if you feel like telling me how much you hate/love my program, send me a mail !

changelog:
v.1.6d : changed the app's icon... and the screenshots.

v.1.6c : changed the scrollbar's annoying behaviour

v.1.6b : fixed a little bug : the names weren't correct in the tree... oops.

v.1.6 : a few things weren't intuitive in the last gui : they have been changed. The program itself remains quite the same.

v.1.5d : quick fix : v.1.5c is the same as 1.5b : I uploaded the wrong file. I'll try to upload the good one as soon as possible. In the meantime this version corrects the exporting to dvi bug.

v.1.5c : -fixed a bug that appeared in version 1.5.b when exporting to a dvi (that's what happen when you develop on more than one computer :/).
- the scrollbars work better and when you move up/down exercises from the list, changes are applied directly.

v.1.5b : fixed a bug for users that don't use the preview package.

v.1.5 : some icons have changed.
The search field now works a la google except that you don't have to click on any search button : it works on the fly.

v.1.4.9 : a tab has been added to the preferences menu where you can manage multiple headers so as to export your exercises with user-defined headers.
Synthax highlighting has been added everywhere. To keep the program fast, it has "bugs" : you can enter math mode by typing "$" and leave it with "end{equation}".

v.1.3c : save button was bugged (encoding problem).

v.1.3b : fixed a bug with default compile options. If you downloaded v.1.3 and if you can't make it work, please download this new version and delete the file ~/.partielator/compile_seq

v.1.3 : if begin{whatever} is not on the begining of a line, it will work anyway.
You can choose not to use the preview package.
You can choose how to compile your files (with pdflatex instead of latex for example).

v.1.2 : you can now edit the code of an exercise by double-clicking on it once you have added it to the list.
LaTeX is run only when necessary

v.1.1d : The icons have been changed. I now use the Crystal Diamond Icons that look awesome and the untar app weights only 520Ko, with all the icon and Qt Designer files !

v.1.1c : Files have been reorganized and the application now has its own icon (I'm not good at doing that so don't be surprised if it looks awful ;) )

v.1.1 : Main Window's layout has been greatly improved and is customizable.

v.1.0.9b : added a search field and a right click on an element of the tree will expand the tree under this element.
config files are now encoded in utf8.

v.1.0.5b : fixed a bug with the save button and translated the whole code in english (there where still some comments in french)

v.1.0.5 : you can now easily edit preferences and generate random exams

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Conscientious Objection to War

John H Armstrong

- 10 hours and 55 minutes ago

The history of Christian response to war and service in military combat is one filled with twists and turns. Every person must realize, if they exercise a modicum of thought, that this issue is deeply painful and troubling. Early Christians did not always serve in the military, though Roman soldiers were numbered among converts to the faith. Most of what we know about the early church suggests that, at least generally, Christians did not serve in the military. Over time the church developed what is called a “Just War Doctrine.” This doctrine is rather complex and has been carefully thought out over the course of centuries. But this doctrine is not of one type or expression. There are variations within it and every single Christian should think carefully about what they believe and why.

Modern complexities often create new challenges to traditional just war thinking. I have retained a modified just war position but I admit it is sometimes hard to retain. I have admitted, in public and private, that I have a great deal of respect for those who wrestle with this issue and embrace a different viewpoint than my own. The stance of Christian conscientious objection is not the way of cowards or of anti-Americans. Whole traditions of Christians respect and hold this point of view. Other churches have adopted modern positions that do not reject all combat but challenge the development of a “war mentality” that predominates so much of the world we live in today.

A fatal mistake, often made by many evangelicals, is to assume that only liberal, or politically left leaning, Christians embrace these positions about war. This is a gross over-simplification. When I was at Wheaton College in the late 1960s pacifism was embraced by more than a few students and some on the faculty. At first I found this shocking but I began to read the literature and ask some hard questions. As I say, I am still not a complete convert to pacifism and doubt that I ever will be. But I am persuaded that the current U.S. position on conscientious objection is not right. Our government allows for conscientious objection to all war but not to particular wars. I discovered this in 1968 when I began to question the moral rightness of the Vietnam War. I soon realized that I had to oppose involvement in all war or I could not take a position against this one war. I still feel that stance of our government on this matter is morally wrong. I understand “why” it has been taken, and how it evolved, but I simply do not think that it is right.

What if you hold to just war thinking, and you enter the military, and then conclude that the war in Iraq (assuming you were in the military before it began) was against your conscience and, for sake of argument, you felt the war in Afghanistan was not. This is not a trap question. There are Christian soldiers who have come to this precise conclusion. But it is illegal to refuse deployment to any war zone if you are in the U.S. military. Refusing deployment, because of conscience, leads to sanctions, possible court martial and even imprisonment. What happens to a soldier who enters the military, comes to know Christ or renews his or her commitment to Christ, and then comes under conviction that they cannot kill in this particular context?

Selective objection to some wars, even if you agree with just war theory, should be an open question. We need to have this kind of conversation in the church. Sadly, few or no conservative churches will ever have it. For starters, multitudes would leave in protest if they heard such a discussion. In fact, I have been in many mainline churches over the past ten years or so and the dominant position there seems to be “Lord bless our troops and the USA.” We just do not think about this issue until we are forced to do so or if it is our son or daughter who is the person in the context of such objection of conscience.

On Sunday, March 21, a Truth Commission on Conscience in War will be convened at the famous Riverside Church in New York City. The hope of those who have planned this event is to generate a national conversation on current CO regulations in the military. Is this such a hot-button that we who are more conservative theologically than those who lead historic Riverside Church cannot at least enter into this important discussion and listen? Watch the video on this event and decide for yourself. The least you can do is encourage a deeply Christian conversation that does not degenerate into who is anti- or pro-American. Sadly enough, even this blog will likely cause some friends to wonder what happened to my convictions as a Christian. This is the very response that I hope I have challenged, generously and carefully in the spirit of Christ.

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Broadway shocked by racism claims

Guardian Unlimited

- 14 hours and 50 minutes ago

The New Yorker's theatre critic has divided US theatregoers with a furious assault on Irish writer Martin McDonagh's hit new play

Controversial playwright Martin McDonagh is used to creating headlines in Britain and Ireland with his dark tales laced with black humour and flowing with stage blood.

So his attempt to crack the American market with his first play set in the US has caused an understandable stir on Broadway, where Christopher Walken has been persuaded to play the lead role. But trying out an American setting as opposed to an Irish one is proving a challenging exercise.

The play, A Behanding in Spokane, has a typically bleak and violent McDonagh premise: an ageing killer, played by Walken, is looking for a severed hand that he lost many years ago, then he meets a couple of con artists in a dingy hotel room who tell him they have the precious appendage.

Some reviewers have judged that McDonagh â€“ whose other plays include The Lieutenant of Inishmore and The Pillowman and who also directed and wrote the hit film In Bruges, starring Colin Farrell â€“ fails to understand the American psyche as well as he does that of his fellow Irishmen. "He seems to have lost his hitherto unerring sense of direction in the busy, open country of the United States," wrote Ben Brantley in the New York Times. USA Today called it: "...hardly McDonagh's most fully realised effort". Then there was the New Yorker. In an extraordinary and withering review, the magazine's theatre critic, Hilton Als, laid into the play for being overtly racist. "I don't know a single self-respecting black actor who wouldn't feel shame and fury while sitting through Martin McDonagh's new play," began Als's review, which is probably one of the most negative pieces of theatre criticism produced by the magazine in recent years.

Als, who is black, took umbrage at the play's use of racist insults by Walken's character, who is openly and proudly prejudiced. "A Behanding... isn't in the least palatable; it's vile, particularly in its repeated use of the word 'nigger'," Als wrote. He then went on to compare the play's lone black role, Toby â€“ played by Anthony Mackie, the star of The Hurt Locker, to the racist caricatures of black Americans that populated American cinema in the 1920s and 1930s. "The caricature he [McDonagh] presents in Toby, the young black male, as a shucking, jiving thief can't be excused," he wrote, before lamenting that he believed that Mackie and other black actors have to take such roles in order to get higher-profile work. "The sad fact is that, in order to cross over, most black actors of Mackie's generation must act black before they're allowed to act human," Als wrote.

Als appears to be the only major critic who reacted to the play's racial themes so viscerally. Few other reviews paid its use of racist language much attention, instead focusing on Walken's performance, which has been widely praised amid early whispers of Tony awards. But Als's remarks certainly hit home with the play's British producer, Robert Fox. "It was absolutely vindictive. Although Hilton Als's comments are meaningless in the scheme of things, because the show is doing very well, I think his remarks were entirely inappropriate and irresponsible," Fox told the Observer.

Fox said he thought Als's criticism was in itself an injection of racism where none was merited. "It was racist in that it was racially intolerant to write those things. He doesn't identify himself [in the review] as a black writer. I think it is extraordinary. I know people who have written to the New Yorker about it already. It is completely out of order," Fox said.

Als did not reply to emails or an interview request from the Observer. Nor did the theatre or Mackie have an official reaction. "We have no comment, nor does Anthony Mackie," said a spokeswoman for the production.

Some Broadway experts, however, agreed that, while the work does contain racially provocative material, it is unlikely to cause widespread offence, especially with audiences there to see Walken. "I can understand why an African-American may approach the play with a little reticence, but I don't think that is McDonagh's intent," said Dan Bacalzo, managing editor of Theatremania, a top New York theatre website.

Bacalzo defended McDonagh's right to put racist language in the mouths of one of his characters as he tries to take on American themes. "For Americans race is more important than class, so the material is appropriate for him to tackle when dealing with America," he added.

Vanessa Thorpe Paul Harris guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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Airplane in Nigeria crashes during mock rescue exercise

Real crash enlivens Nigerian mock rescue

White House courts devs to make healthy eating games

Media Matters: In which Glenn Beck hosts talk of tickle fights

Media Matters for America

- 1 days and 13 hours ago

This may forever be remembered as the week when "tickle fight" entered the political lexicon.

The story stretches back to last week, when Eric Massa (D-NY) announced his resignation from the House of Representatives. It took many people by surprise, including conservative commentators, who initially reacted to the story by trumpeting ethics allegations against him to tarnish Democrats. Sean Hannity compared Massa to disgraced Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL), and Rush Limbaugh sounded enthusiastic that Speaker Nancy Pelosi could lose a vote for health care reform.

But the story took an unexpected turn over the weekend when Massa charged that Democratic leaders had pressured him to resign because he was set to vote against the health care bill. On Monday, Hannity and Limbaugh changed their tune accordingly. Hannity sounded off: "[I]t looks like this is only the latest instance of intimidation to come from the Obama White House." And Limbaugh bragged that he was doing his part "to make it a national story."

Enter Glenn Beck. Massa's allegations against the Democratic leadership appeared to confirm all of Beck's theories about the Obama administration, and Beck soon booked Massa for a full hour on his Tuesday Fox News show. It was at this point that the story turned toxic for conservatives.

Earlier that day, conservative blogger Michelle Malkin had called into Beck's radio show and given him prescient advice not to spend an hour with Massa. Their conversation became tense, as Beck seemed annoyed that Malkin would question his judgment. That afternoon, Limbaugh jumped ship on Massa. After earlier touting Massa's side of the story, Limbaugh now said he wanted Massa to remain in Congress as a Democrat because he was a "loose cannon," a "kook," and a "freak."

But Beck pressed ahead with his hour-long interview. Massa did look like a "loose cannon" during his interview with Beck, in a way that did not reflect well on the host. Massa also walked back his allegations against Rahm Emmanuel and admitted to having "tickle fights" with staffers in a house they shared. Beck couldn't get Massa to name names and accuse other Democrats of corruption. Massa instead talked about the need for campaign finance reform, only further frustrating Beck. Media Matters Senior Fellow Eric Boehlert gave the following post-mortem:

Well, in one sense, Beck was right [about devoting an hour to Massa], because yesterday's colossal flop might just make television history. It might go down as one of the most pointlessly absurd -- and yes, truly unwatchable -- hours in cable news. Last night, the snickering had already reached epic levels. And with the can't-watch-TV performance, Beck most likely took the Massa issue off the table for Republicans, since the whole story now looks more like a comedy than an actual scandal.

"The result," Boehlert concluded, was that Beck became a "national laughingstock."

After the interview, Beck apologized to his viewers for wasting an hour of their time. Only an hour, Glenn?

One further note: Limbaugh apparently wanted to make sure Beck didn't get all the Massa attention. On Tuesday, Limbaugh was chatting with a caller about New York Gov. David Paterson appointing Massa's replacement. Limbaugh, never a man to back away from a race-baiting play on words, said: "So, David Paterson will become the massa who gets to appoint whoever gets to take Massa's place. So, for the first time in his life, Paterson's gonna be a massa."

Other Major Stories

The consequences of Rove's Courage

Karl Rove made some media ripples this week with the release of his memoir, Courage and Consequences. We at Media Matters obtained a copy in advance of its release date, which gave us the opportunity to expose its falsehoods before most people could even get their hands on it. What we found would not shock anyone familiar with Rove's history of "play[ing] fast and loose with the facts": Rove's book was another exercise in rewriting the wrongs of the Bush administration.

For example, in Courage, Rove distorts a 2004 Senate Intelligence Committee report to claim that Bush didn't "lie us into war." Rove writes that Bush's claims that Saddam Hussein had ties to terrorism were substantiated by the Senate report. The report actually said that only some of Bush's statements on Iraq were substantiated. The report went on to contradict Bush's claims about an Iraq-Al Qaeda partnership, and that Saddam was prepared to give weapons of mass destruction to terrorists.

With every book comes a media tour, and Rove spent much of the week appearing on what seemed like every Fox News program in the lineup (plus an hour-long appearance on The Rush Limbaugh Show). Talking-head Rove used one of these opportunities to repeat discredited claims about the Valerie Plame leak. Rove also used his latest Wall Street Journal op-ed to repeat some of the same health care reform falsehoods that were in his book.

No rest for the weary: Fishing freak-out and Glenn Beck's musical epiphanies

What happens when an ESPN column makes a far-fetched claim that President Obama would ban fishing? On ESPNOutdoors.com, Robert Montgomery claimed that a federal strategy "could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing the nation's oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters."

Conservatives took the bait, and it wasn't long before Limbaugh, Gateway Pundit, Fox Nation, RedState, and Michelle Malkin all forwarded the claim.

Was there any truth to it? Would the White House start sending out Secret Service agents to confiscate our fishing poles and shut down our local bait shop?

To the surprise of absolutely no one with a brain, the story was wrong. ESPN acknowledged its mistake.

But apparently nobody told Glenn Beck, who didn't back off the story. "No more fishing," Beck said, adding: "Forget about the frickin' fish. People are losing their rights. Who's more important: the fish or you?" Eventually, even Fox News debunked the claim.

Beck also exposed us to more of his pop music revelations. A few months ago, Beck explored the meaning of The Beatles' "Revolution" with the enthusiasm of a college freshman evangelizing Dark Side of the Moon. This week, he warned his viewers that Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" is "about a progressive utopia."

The next day on his radio show, Beck and his crew called Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." "anti-American." My Media Matters colleague Jeremy Holden took Beck and his co-hosts to task for their "simplistic version of patriotism" that "leaves little room for any criticism of America, its policy, or the behavior of its people."

For the road

It was a busy week at Media Matters, and some other items deserve attention, too. Former Bush speechwriter and Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen continued his DOJ witch hunt with more attacks on the Obama Justice Department. Glenn Beck was called out by the antipoverty group Sojourners for his continued attacks on the concept of social justice. Beck's busy week also had him selling "survival seeds" and stating without irony: "You cannot lie to the American people for very long unless you're really good." And some conservative media figures cast Democrats as "suicide bombers" in their push for health care reform.

Finally, Media Matters welcomed Joe Strupp as its new investigative reporter and senior editor. His blog "Strupp" also launched on the Media Matters website this week.

This week's media columns

This week's media columns from the Media Matters senior fellows: Eric Boehlert looks at the Pentagon shooter, insurrectionism, and right-wing bloggers; Jamison Foser considers whether Washington Post and New York Times editors are running with a bad crowd; and Karl Frisch delves deeper into the right-wing media falling hook, line, and sinker for the latest Obama-centric conspiracy.

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace and Digg

Media Matters maintains active online communities on the nation's leading social networking sites. Be sure to join us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace and Digg and join in on the discussion.

Do you listen to podcasts? Try the Media Matters Minute

For months now, radio shows and stations throughout the country have been carrying the Media Matters Minute, a daily minute-long recap of our work topped off with the "most outrageous comment" of the day. We encourage you to subscribe (iTunes / RSS) to the Minute's daily podcast hosted by Media Matters' Ben Fishel.

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Bradykinin and Nerve Growth Factor Play Pivotal Roles in Muscular Mechanical Hyperalgesia after Exercise (Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness).

Journal of Neuroscience

- 1 days and 19 hours ago

Publication Date: 2010 Mar 10 PMID: 20220009Authors: Murase, S. - Terazawa, E. - Queme, F. - Ota, H. - Matsuda, T. - Hirate, K. - Kozaki, Y. - Katanosaka, K. - Taguchi, T. - Urai, H. - Mizumura, K.Journal: J NeurosciUnaccustomed strenuous exercise that includes lengthening contraction (LC) often causes delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS), a kind of muscular mechanical hyperalgesia. The substances that induce this phenomenon are largely unknown. Peculiarly, DOMS is not perceived during and shortly after exercise, but rather is first perceived after approximately 1 d. Using B(2) bradykinin receptor antagonist HOE 140, we show here that bradykinin released during exercise plays a pivotal role in triggering the process that leads to muscular mechanical hyperalgesia. HOE 140 completely suppressed the development of muscular mechanical hyperalgesia when injected before LC, but when injected 2 d after LC failed to reverse mechanical hyperalgesia that had already developed. B(1) antagonist was ineffective, regardless of the timing of its injection. Upregulation of nerve growth factor (NGF) mRNA and protein occurred in exercised muscle over a comparable time course (12 h to 2 d after LC) for muscle mechanical hyperalgesia. Antibodies to NGF injected intramuscularly 2 d after exercise reversed muscle mechanical hyperalgesia. HOE 140 inhibited the upregulation of NGF. In contrast, shortening contraction or stretching induced neither mechanical hyperalgesia nor NGF upregulation. Bradykinin together with shortening contraction, but not bradykinin alone, reproduced lasting mechanical hyperalgesia. We also showed that rat NGF sensitized thin-fiber afferents to mechanical stimulation in the periphery after 10-20 min. Thus, NGF upregulation through activation of B(2) bradykinin receptors is essential (though not satisfactory) to mechanical hyperalgesia after exercise. The present observations explain why DOMS occurs with a delay, and why lengthening contraction but not shortening contraction induces DOMS.post to: CiteULike

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Smithsonian's Human Origins Initiative

Physical activity and risk of cancer in the NHANES I population.