Sure, you can (and should) change your password, but we've had this same complaint now for years. It also emails you this passcode in plaintext. This is a real plus, as few online fax services offer international numbers beyond Canada and UK- MyFax being a notable exception.Īfter you complete the sign up process, eFax creates your account and then takes you to a landing page with your account details, including a preset four-digit password in plaintext-not a security-conscious approach. RingCentral Fax is one of the few services that offer this feature.ĮFax also has international numbers available in approximately 40 countries. One feature that eFax does not have is the ability to offer customers a vanity fax number that is, one that you specify (likely for the novelty). Alternatively, you can sign up for a toll-free number (at not additional cost) or port your existing fax number, if it is eligible. For US-based users, you can then narrow down your choices by area code, state and city, or by zip code. When you sign up with eFax, you first choose your country. This is more cost-effective, since the end user does not need to pay additional fees above the monthly subscription cost. So, for example, a one-page fax to an Australian number would deduct two pages from your plan. We prefer the way HelloFax and Fax.Plus handle international faxes: A certain number of pages is deducted from your allotment depending on the recipient's location. This is a confusing and unreliable way to report international faxing costs. For example, sending a fax to Australia costs between 10 and 40 cents per page, depending on the carrier and phone number type. Sending faxes to international numbers costs you extra per page. Each of these faxes can include up to three pages, plus a cover page. FaxZero is the best free alternative we've tested it lets you send up to five faxes per day. Fax.Plus and HelloFax offer free send-only options, but your page allocation does not renew each month. SRFax is the cheapest paid service we've tested (in absolute terms) it costs $3.29 per month for 25 total pages.ĮFax does not offer a free tier of its faxing service for new users. It costs $12.95 per month and offers a pool of 1,000 fax pages. MetroFax is the most cost-effective fax service we've reviewed. HelloFax, for example, offers a pool of 300 pages for $9.99 per month. The Plus and Pro accounts are expensive, relative to competitors. If, for example, you only send faxes and never receive them, having a pool means that you can use all of your allotted fax pages before you start incurring overage fees. We prefer fax services such as HelloFax and RingCentral Fax that offer a pool of pages instead of putting limits on sent and received pages. (Opens in a new window) Read Our Nextiva vFAX Review If you exceed the allotted monthly number of pages for your account, you pay 10 cents per page thereafter. eFax is the only service we've reviewed that charges a setup fee, and we consider this to be a serious drawback. You can now cancel your account directly from the web interface.īoth tiers also require you to pay a one-time setup fee of $10, regardless of your subscription length. eFax Pro costs $19.95 per month and includes 200 pages of incoming faxes and 200 outbound faxes. eFax Plus costs $16.95 per month and includes 150 pages of incoming faxes and 150 pages of outbound faxes. (Editors' Note: PCMag’s parent company, Ziff Davis, Inc., is a minority shareholder of Consensus Cloud Solutions, Inc., which operates eFax.) How Much Does eFax Cost?ĮFax offers two paid tiers: Pro and Plus. Fax.Plus and HelloFax are our Editors' Choice winners for the online fax category because they offer top features and intuitive apps at an affordable price. However, eFax is held back by its high cost, upfront setup fee, security and performance issues, and problematic user experience on the web. On one hand, we like the service's mobile app and its ability to configure international and toll-free numbers. With eFax, an online fax service, you can send and receive faxes through a web interface or directly from your email client of choice. Some quality issues in fax transmission testing.Inadequate password security and no two-factor authentication.Only service we tested with a setup fee ($10).How to Set Up Two-Factor Authentication.How to Record the Screen on Your Windows PC or Mac.How to Convert YouTube Videos to MP3 Files.How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill.How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone or iPad.How to Block Robotexts and Spam Messages.
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![]() There was no disclosure of classified information. "That workspace was converted into an upstairs guestroom when the Bidens moved into the residence. Today, Vice President Richard Cheney and Lynne Cheney live in the Vice Presidents Residence. It has since been home to the Bushes, the Quayles and the Gores. "What the vice president described in his comments was not - as some press reports have suggested - an underground facility, but rather, an upstairs workspace in the residence, which he understood was frequently used by Vice President Cheney and his aides," Alexander said. Vice President Mondale was the first Vice President to move into the home. Newsweek's Eleanor Clift reported in 2009 that then-Vice President Biden revealed the existence of the bunker at an annual Gridiron Club dinner, but Biden's spokeswoman Elizabeth Alexander told Fox News that his comments were not reported accurately. (Getty Images) It wasn't until Walter Mondale, who served under President Jimmy Carter between 19, that a vice president. ![]() Bush joke with each other after a meeting in the Oval Office Jan. Blair House, the President's Guest House, is seen Jan. When loud blasts and construction noises were heard at Number One Observatory Circle in 2002, neighbors complained and received letters that read, "Due to its sensitive nature in support of national security and homeland defense, project specific information is classified and cannot be released." The letter sparked rumors that a secure bunker was being built after the attacks of September 11, 2001.Ī spokesperson for the US Navy told the BBC in 2002 that the construction was "an infrastructure and utility upgrade." Cheney: Inside the Vice Presidents Office Vice President Dick Cheney and President George W. ![]() We're ready to go to Antarctica! May be our last opportunity to tweet for a few days! We're go for departure to the launchpad! The words themselves are simple, yet thought-provoking: ![]() Aldrin himself:īuzz Aldrin's Tweet prior to departure for Antarctica J.H., who shared the following tweet from Mr. And at this stage, I wouldn't be surprised to find any of them making a sudden "tourist visit."īut there's been more to this odd story that has been brought to my attention since Thursday's News and Views, this time by Mr. All that's missing would seem to be visits of the Queen, the Japanese Emperor, the Pope, the Dalai and Panchen Lamas, a couple ayatollahs, a Grand Rabbi, a yoga or two, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Benito Mussolini's heirs. Hess, Goering, Byrd, Kiril, Kerry, and Aldrin. Then, in the past few months, we've see added to this list Patriarch Kiril III, the only Christian bishop and hierarch ever to visit the continent, followed within a few months by John Kerry, the highest-ranking political figure ever to visit there short of a head of state, and now, Buzz Aldrin, moon astronaut. The outcome of that expedition, and Admiral Byrd's strange remarks at the end of it to the Chilean newspaper El Mercuio, need not be rehearsed again here. ![]() As I pointed out in last Thursday's News and Views, this list of "top people" associated with Antarctica now includes the following very bizarre list: Rudolf Hess, Nazi Party Reichsleiter Hermann Goering, Reichsmarschal and founder of the Luftwaffe, both of whom played sponsoring roles for the Nazi expedition to the continent in 1938-1939 Admiral Richard Byrd, who, incidentally, had been flown to Nazi Germany to brief the expedition on conditions it could expect, and who led the Operation Highjump in 1947. ![]() Aldrin even had a "condition", much less from what it had "deteriorated." Aldrin does follow a string of such medical evacuations, which similarly we're told little about after the fact.Īll of this only highlights the strangeness of the southernmost continent, and of the strange list of people associated with it. We were not, of course, informed that Mr. Then, as I noted in the News and Views, this was followed by the most recent visit of former Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who had to be medically evacuated (so we're told), as his "condition" had "deteriorated." It began with the visit of Russian Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow Kirill III, a visit followed by Secretary of State John Kerry, at the height of the American presidential election, which also occurred during an otherwise predominantly diplomatic tour. In last Thursday's News and Views from the Nefarium I spoke about the strangeness going on in Earth's polar continent, Antarctica, and the strange visitors there over the past few months. ![]() We will then analyze the functionalities and C2 connection of the malware, and describe its development. In this article, we will first analyze how this malware is delivered. We first discovered this backdoor malware campaign in 2017, and over the years it has continued to upgrade its functionalities. Based on our analysis, the campaign also appears to be experimental because it uses so many different techniques and tools to target this end user community. This attack uses a watering hole attack strategy to target Chinese-speaking users by delivering malware through a hacked Chinese news site. Like Psychonauts? Like Chicago? Mwahahaha.Seriously, this is one of the best AWVs I've yet to see.FortiGuard Labs uncovered a new campaign targeted at Chinese-speakers using malware that bypasses normal authentication by exploiting known WinRAR file (cve-2018-20250) and RTF file (cve-2017-11882) vulnerabilities. Looking for Krystal(from Star fox) artwork? All your needs are at Krystalartworks!ĭUDE! EEnE FANS GO CHECK THIS OUT! MATT HILL! SAM VINCENT! THE VOICES OF ED AND DOUBLE D! *spazzes out* Visit this person! She has awesome Wicked and animal art! Please check out FanartCentral! Give it your love! ![]() DoubleDfangirl101- Her and Double D rescue scene Sonic-cody- Sonic/Geno/Raz/Midna/Master/Crazy Hand fight 83 "Fortunes R-ED," the Ed, Edd n Eddy TarotĪnd check out my brother Lucas' work in my Scraps! See folders "SMRPG Comics" and "Other Comics" in my gallery! YOU PEOPLE CAN'T MAKE ME! AHHHHHHHHHHH*is bricked*Ĭurious as to the music Nintendo-nut1 listens to?Ĭheck back every so often, it changes frequently. Even if you DO tag me, I'm STILL not gonna do it. I've done practially all the tasks you could tag me with. Heroes AND villians are equally accepted. NO HEALING POWERS or MENTAL MANIPULATION. They each only appear once in every generation. (the Eds' powers, flight, psychic, electricity, or body manipulation). No using the same powers as the ones I've already used. Be resonable and creative with their powers. ^^ġst: Create your own Super Child OC and I'll give them a role in the sequal(s?) and draw them for you.Ģnd and 3rd: Create your own Super Child OC and I'll draw them for you. Drawing the Eds with their superpowers is easy enough, but I would LOVE to see a take on any of the scenes from the fic so far. The objective is artistic skill and CREATIVITY. It's easy draw something from from my fanfic Super Eds! If you haven't read it, you can find it on. Yup! Let's get the gravy train rolling! We're about halfway through the fanfic, so I think a contest would be appropiate! "I don't fuckin' believe this, could everyone STOP GETTING SHOT!?"Īnd because I love this icon too much for words.īased on the popular fanfic of mine, Super Eds Read it here! Let's all just tough this out til it's over, and things should get swinging back into rythem soon, hopefully. I never have any problems with any of my fans being impatient, so you just keep up the good work with that and I'll get to them ASAP, I promise. is already fully inked, and 24 is in sketch mode, but I have to wait for ANY coloring until we reinstall Photoshop, and we're waiting til THURSDAY to see if the data comes back so. The MAIN thing I'm sad about is that you guys have to wait for the comic pages. ![]() It helps that most of the stuff I do is already saved on the internet. My desktop customization (which'll take, like, two minutes to set back up, once Dad sets up the seperate desktop setting for us) My IE bookmarks (which I can get back over time) My digital pics (which I got back by saving them from my gallery into a USB drive anyways, so no loss there) My PSD files (which doesn't matter 'cause I rarely edit my work XD) I looked at my REAL losses, and I realized all it was were: I'm not as broken as I thought I would be. Besides, we have to reinstall Photoshop and the different desktops again. Tech support actually told us to wait a few days to see if data comes back, so I won't do any serious work until then. Dad told me to test it out, which is why I'm on. We pretty much lost everything, but my CPU is still operational, thank god. We got the Trojan virus, in case you missed the comment Freddy posted down there for me. ![]() Likewise, if you just installed an addon update or customized Kodi build you might want to uninstall this to remove it as a potential cause. If the issue started after you installed a particular addon, try uninstalling it and see if the problem persists. First, consider when this problem began and what your actions were just prior to the problem beginning. If Kodi is consistently crashing or freezing, it’s a sure sign that something has gone wrong. Remove recently installed addons, updates, or builds For this reason, while the solutions below work in most cases, we can’t guarantee that they’ll address the root cause of a problem across all Kodi installations. This can make it difficult to troubleshoot Kodi.įor example, you may run into issues while trying to fix Kodi on your Firestick that never occur on the Android version of the software. However, while Kodi works in a similar way across platforms, each device has different system resources, user profile folders, and subroutines. Kodi is one of the most portable media center software packages and can be installed on a huge range of devices including Roku, Apple TV, and Nvidia Shield. What are some of the most common Kodi problems? Try NordVPN risk-free with the 30-day money-back guarantee. Further, it’s one of the easiest VPNs to install on an Amazon Firestick or other mobile platform. It offers fast, stable connections to servers across the world. You’ll even be able to use P2P-based Kodi addons without anyone seeing your real IP address, which is a level of protection you don’t normally have while torrenting. This renders the majority of Man-in-the-Middle attacks useless and also prevents your ISP from throttling your connection based on your browsing habits. VPNs work by encrypting a user’s internet traffic, meaning it can’t be read by anyone. ![]() Why you should always use a VPN with Kodi Neither the Kodi Foundation nor Comparitech advocates the use of Kodi for piracy. ![]() Warning: Kodi should only be used for content to which you have the legal right to access. For these reasons, we advise our readers to use only official addons and seek properly licensed content wherever possible. Additionally, third-party addons usually use unlicensed sources. They are notoriously unreliable and often come with their own problems. It’s important to note that third-party addons are less stable than official ones. We’ll provide some guidance, direction, and insight into common problems you might face when using Kodi. Source not found or unreachable file errors.The type of Kodi problems you may run into include: With luck, your problem will be fixed and you can get back to watching your favorite TV shows and movies in peace. This guide will help you troubleshoot and resolve some of the most commonly encountered Kodi issues. The good news is that most of Kodi’s problems can usually be fixed in just a few minutes. While the most common advice given is “check Kodi’s logs”, this isn’t always helpful since the logs are designed with experts in mind. It’s always annoying when Kodi runs into a problem, especially as it can be difficult to find the root cause of an issue on your own. ![]() This one-man jam in the style of a classic LucasArts adventure takes place in 1920’s Norway and is written entirely in rhyme. The very first game soundtrack I listened to this year was the score to Mattis Folkestad’s adventure game Milkmaid of the Milky Way, which Folkestad developed, wrote, and scored by himself. One of the perpetual delights of these roundups is discovering soundtracks to indie releases that fly completely beneath my radar. ![]() I’m here with the month’s game soundtracks. Do you need something to distract you from the terrible news that’s plastered all over your social media, inescapably surrounding you as though you were “Rowdy” Roddy Piper in a real-life version of John Carpenter’s They Live? Well, take your sunglasses off and put your headphones on. In April, my songwriting partner Dale North and I will be joined by a cast of dozens of friends and collaborators, to make original video game music and educational music comedy shows every day, and share it live on Twitch and YouTube! Make sure to subscribe to twitch.Greetings, friends! It’s the beginning of a new year, and I return once again, my proverbial knapsack laden with auditory delights. This is the first album (of many planned) to be released by our new studio, Mint Potion. I intentionally limited myself to pure "chip" sounds (NES, Genesis, TurboGrafx16, etc) as building blocks, and used drum samples, along with studio mixing and effects tricks, to make the resulting minimal soundscape into a lush paradise of Necro beats! So, what you hear in this album differs slightly from the original, but is the same in many ways - it's my own personal Virt take on Danny's amazing melodies, bass lines, and harmonies. I wanted to keep the original music largely intact, with Danny's ideas mingling with mine, rubbing against them sensually, etc. ![]() Rather than over-analyzing the songs and recreating them note for note. What you're hearing is me relying entirely on my ear, working from an initial interpretation of music I was unfamiliar with. My version is currently playable on the Playstation 4 exclusively, so whether or not you have that version, here is all of the music I arranged, so you can drop it into Steam, or onto your phone!Įach song was played 100% live (including any drums that are not loops) and all melodies, solos, bass lines, and chords were improvised and played by hand. This is the latest in a series of official "alternate soundtracks," which are edited as drop-in replacements and remixes of the original score, to give your favorite game some new flavors. In Crypt of the NecroDancer, the amazingly original and multiple-award-winning game from Brace Yourself Games, you to move through a huge, randomized dungeon - and fight monsters - in time to the music! Your favorite handsome young composers, Virt and Danny B, are here to provide fun and inspiration in this improvised, minimal (for Virt, anyway) back-to-basics interpretation of the original Crypt of the NecroDancer soundtrack! So, 3 November is when The Listening Party Volume II will hit the shops - I’ll be putting together a few events to celebrate the release and I’m hoping to meet some of our Listening Party family. In a case of ‘if it’s not broken, don’t fix it’ Volume II features lots more of our favourite artists and albums - some mega names you’ll already know, including Iron Maiden who have smashed all records involving our replays feature - and hopefully some records that might be new to you. He added, "The reaction to the first one blew our minds and it was a joy to work on with the team at DK - add to that the thousands of pounds raised for The Music Venue Trust and given the chance we jumped at the opportunity of making the sequel. And now we are here: Volume II of The Listening Party Book is all confirmed and nearly ready for release." 5.99 Buy iPhone/iPad Version Tim In Listening Party Land Game Android. We even finished the evening with a supergroup featuring Nitin Sawhney, Helen O Hara from Dexys and Mark Collins from The Charlatans. Tim In Listening Party Land Game iPhone/iPad. They started on Twitter, then made it into real life via festivals including Latitude, Bluedot and Kendal Calling, culminating in our 1,000th Listening Party live and direct from The Southbank Centre and featuring the album and band at the top of my wish list - Parallel Lines by Blondie. We are planning to throw a party this weekend. Join The KIDZ BOP Kids in celebrating the release of their brand new album KIDZBOP2021 Check out KIDZBOPSuperPOP here. I hope Todd is at the class reunion because he is always the life of the party. In a letter shared by Bookshop UK in March, Burgess wrote, "So, it’s two years since we started our listening parties - and we have now done, almost unbelievably, over 1,100 albums - clocking up 1,500,000 replays along the way. the life of the party the person who makes a party really exciting. The Listening Party Volume 2 was announced on 23 March of this year, the second anniversary of his first Twitter Listening Party. ![]() Invite a dynamic crew ranging in age, race, ethnicity, gender identity, cultural background, ability, occupation, and opinion. He started hosting Twitter Listening Parties just after the first national lockdown was enforced in March 2020, beginning with The Charlatans' Some Friendly album on 23 March, and to celebrate the one-year anniversary, Burgess released his first The Listening Party book, which revisited 100 of the most memorable Listening Parties, complete with stories from bands and fans, as well as rare photos and insider information from people who worked on those albums. Download our free Host and Facilitator guides to help you plan and facilitate your most important discussion yet. Listening Party hosts," and that he "must’ve read it 50 times - each time I’ve smiled and been overcome with emotion."īurgess also shared a clip of The Bangles' "Manic Monday" song, which might be a hint as to who wrote it.Ī song for today /gmgc5rKZ8C ![]() This event is possible through Toronto Arts Foundation’s city-wide Arts in the Park initiative, presented in partnership with the City of Toronto and Park People.Yesterday (22 May) Burgess announced that the second volume of The Listening Party book, which will look back at another 100 Listening Party events, will feature a foreword from "one of my favourite Nair, and Marcus “Ademi” PJ. They will be improvising to songs selected by cultural instigators Valerie Calam, Anna Gallagher-Ross, Jamie Kidd, Geneviève Gigi Marentette, tUkU Matthews, Laura Nanni, Sage Paul, and Timea Wharton-Suri. Performers include Susannah Haight, Cotee Harper, Rosemary James, Lukas Malkowski, Chantelle Mostacho, Miss Coco Murray, Harikishan S. A dance artist will accompany each selection with a spontaneous performance as the record plays.īring your own picnic blanket or pillow and enjoy some great tunes while experiencing in-the-moment performances from a diverse range of dance perspectives including contemporary, street dance and cultural-based forms. ![]() ![]() Let’s get this season started with TDT’s Listening Party! Celebrating Toronto’s love of vinyl records and dance, eight personalities from Toronto’s arts community have been asked to bring a vinyl record to the event and share a memory as to why the album is important to them. ![]() Camelcrusher comes equipped with two different distortions which can be combined to create much wider tones. If you’re looking for something to beef up your bass, drums and, well, pretty much everything else, Camelaudio’s Camelcrusher is the tool for the job. All you have to do is download and install as this 100% freeware requires no dongle or license activation. StereoTool V3 from FLUX offers ultra-precise control of input gain and individual pan for left and right channels, accurate visual feedback reflecting the signal content with a vector scope, PPM meters for inputs/outputs, phase correlation meter permanently monitoring the signal and individual left and right polarity reversal. To Push this plugin to the max and see what it can really do, download it free here. Its three modes mean you’ll be able to create three different sounding distortions – Keep High, Neutral and Keep Low. Simple and straight to the point, Softube’s Saturation Knob will add colour and analog warmth to your sounds with just the turn of a button. Download it from Robert Henke (Monolake) absolutely free, here. Created by one of Ableton’s founders, it’s available for Ableton users only and works using granular synthesis to create a constant stream of short crossfading samples from a source sound. If you’re looking to throw some unexplainable sounding glitches or atmospheric textures and pads, the Granulator II is the free plugin for you. Send thousands of MB of stems to your collaboration partners, share MIDI data and make great music together. Mixed In Key’s new Satellite Plugins 2.0 enables cross-platform collaboration within Ableton Live, Logic, FL Studio, Pro Tools, and other DAWs. Regardless of what DAW you and your collaborators use, you can exchange ideas within your DAW without bouncing stems or dealing with file-sharing websites. To date, RoughRider has had over half a million downloads. Audio Damage RoughRider 3Īlthough Audio Damage’s RoughRider compressor has been around for over a decade, it’s still one of the most popular dynamics processors on the planet. The latest version of RoughRider, RoughRider 3, has expanded on the original to include an external sidechain input, the ability to turn off the built-in “warming” filter (the FULL BANDWIDTH button), and much more accurate metering. They release a new instrument every month so keep an eye on their website for updates. From keys and synth pads to strings, choir and everything in between, LABS is great for adding some emotion to your tracks. Spitfire Audio’s excellent LABS series features a variety of raw, natural-sounding instruments created by musicians in London. ![]() Combining delays and reverb, get ready for luscious clouds of reverb, otherworldly delays, swelling waves of feedback unlike any you’ve heard before. Their reverbs are atmospheric, rich and warm and their Supermassive is no different. ValhallaDSP are renowned for producing some of the best (and best free) plugins on the market. So, if you love free stuff and need some inspiration for your latest track, follow on below and download our top picks. Think epic soft synths that glitch and whirr, effects that will widen and double your sounds, time-stretching tools that will tear your samples into new and amazing realms and some super handy organisational plugins that will leave you never hunting for your samples again. We’re back with another roundup of the best free plugins that will take your tracks to the next level. Most of you will likely be very aware of the big hitters, like Serum, Massive and others which are renowned for their sound design elements but there are some very useful free options. We all love free stuff, especially when it can enhance and refine our music production skills. ![]() The Ming created the castle in Yulin in 1474, and the castle in Shenmu in 1607. ![]() Construction on the Great Wall of China began over 2,300 years ago, and this work was finished during the Ming Dynasty. Other cities with historical flavor in Shanxi province include Yulin and Shenmu, both garrison towns of the Great Wall of China during the Ming Dynasty. Imagine: the Silk Road connected the Yellow River Valley to the Mediterranean Sea, and extended as far as those countries we now know as Syria, Iraq, and Iran. The route eventually expanded to reach seven thousand miles in length, winding through such territory as China, Central Asia, Northern India, and the Parthian and Roman Empires. The span of the trading route grew longer when the Chinese began to give silk as diplomatic gifts to Roman-Asian governments. This forced the Han Dynasty to extend military defenses further into Central Asia to better protect this trade.Ĭhan Ch'ien, a traveler who made contact with the Central Asian tribes, proposed alliances with these former enemies and, from this solution, the Silk Road was created. Initially a matter of domestic trade within the empire, caravans from the empire's heart would take silk to the western edges of the region, where these caravans would sometimes be set upon by small Central Asian tribes intent on plundering this valuable cargo. Trade in silk was developed during the Han Dynasty, which spanned 202 BC to AD 220. Xi'an also boasts more than 800 Han Dynasty mausoleums and tombs, multiple Tang Dynasty pagodas, and a stele forest-large stone tablets from different dynasties-on display in a Confucian temple dating back to the 11th century. And fish oil was used as lamp fuel to represent everlasting illumination.Īrchaeological work continues on this and other sites around Xi'an. The chamber's vault was studded with luminary pearls, meant to symbolize the sun, moon, and stars. Mercury was used in the burial chamber to signify lakes, rivers, and oceans. These mechanisms were designed to deter tomb robbers. Inside the burial chamber proper were beautiful treasures, which were guarded by machine-driven crossbows. This terracotta army, arrayed in battle formation, is set to guard the emperor in the afterlife. Archaeologists studying these terracotta warriors have learned that military rank can be determined by specific clothing differences, and can get a clear picture of how Qin warriors dressed. These terracotta warriors are lifelike in size, and vary in facial expression, height, and clothing. Imagine a terracotta army of 7,000 warriors, horses, and chariots. This complex was completed with both an inner city wall and an outer city wall, each ranging from eight to ten meters high.Ī city so impressive would not be without other defenses, also. At the height of building activity, 800,000 men were on site-almost eight times as many workers as those who created the Pyramid of Khufu.Įnvision, if you will, the grand design and impressive scope of an imperial court and city.and now imagine its glory and pomp moved below ground. The design of this complex was assigned to Prime Minister Li Si, and Grand General Zhang Han supervised construction. One year after he assumed power, the new emperor initiated a mausoleum project which would take years to complete. But perhaps the most direct link to Xi'an's fabulous past lies just to the northwest of modern Xi'an, where excavations have revealed the wonders of the terracotta warriors and masoleum of the first emperor of unified China. All told, 13 dynasties in a span of 1,100 years ruled from Xi'an, and this ancient city was home to 73 emperors in total.Īnother claim to fame is that Xi'an is the eastern terminus to the legendary Silk Road, which stretched to Africa, Arabia, and Europe. ![]() Xi'an is also one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China, home to such leadership as the Zhou, Qin, Han, Sui, and Tang dynasties. Xi'an, the capital city of this province, is therefore one of the oldest cities in China, and dates back a mind-boggling 3,100 years of history. ![]() The organization of activity settings (e.g., large group, free choice, meals, etc.) is largely a classroom feature that teachers use intentionally to structure children’s time throughout the preschool day, and can play a major role in how children practice skills, develop, and successfully transition into elementary school ( Piantaet al., 2005 Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). ![]() In other words, children’s behaviors are contextually-bound, and may be better understood by considering the educational contexts in which they occur. Early learning occurs within dynamic contexts that are interconnected and mutually dependent ( Rimm-Kaufman & Pianta, 2000 Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000), and through social processes that include resources and people ( Cohen, Raudenbush, & Loewenberg-Ball, 2003 Tseng & Seidman, 2007). The link between the classroom context and specific children’s behavior is complex ( Carta & Greenwood, 1985 Gump, 1967 Kontos & Keyes, 1999 Pianta, La Paro, Payne, Cox, & Bradley, 2002 Rimm-Kaufman, La Paro, Downer, & Pianta, 2005 Rimm-Kaufman & Pianta, 2000), in part because it is not always unidirectional. It is important to understand the connection between activity settings and children’s interactions to shed light on the classroom as a context for learning opportunities. One component of children’s classroom experiences that is not well understood is the extent to which activity settings (e.g., large group, free choice, meals, etc.) may support or constrain certain patterns of interactions. Young children learn through a wide range of interactions across the school day, and their competence or adjustment is best indicated by the nature and quality of these interactions, underscoring this as an important indicator childrens’ readiness or ability to successfully transition to school environments ( Lara-Cinisomo, Fuligni, Ritchie, Howes, & Karoly, 2008 Rimm-Kaufman & Pianta, 2000). It is now well-established that these important early childhood skills and abilities develop within interactions between the child and context ( Ladd, 2005 Pianta & Walsh, 1996), including interactions with adults, peers, and learning activities/materials within early education classrooms ( Downer, Booren, Lima, Luckner, & Pianta, 2010). Previous research has emphasized the importance of children’s early competencies for later school success, including social relationships, self-regulation (e.g., attention) during interactions with materials, and language development (e.g., Blair, 2002 Burchinal, Peisner-Feinberg, Pianta, & Howes, 2002 Duncanet al., 2007 Hamre & Pianta, 2001 Ladd, 2005 Wasik, Bond, & Hindman, 2006). Preschool is viewed as an important way to prepare young children for elementary school ( Reynolds, Temple, Robertson, & Mann, 2001). Recent reports have suggested that young childrens’ attendance in classroom-based preschool programs has dramatically increased, with nearly 1.1 million children attending public preschool programs during the 2007–2008 school year ( Noel, Sable, & Chen, 2009). These findings are not meant to discourage certain teacher behaviors or imply value of certain classroom settings instead, by providing an evidenced-based picture of the conditions under which children display the most positive interactions, teachers can be more aware of choices within these settings and have a powerful way to assist in professional development and interventions. The implications of these findings might encourage teachers to be thoughtful and intentional about what types of support and resources are provided so children can successfully navigate the demands of particular settings. ![]() Finally, gender differences were observed within small group and meals. Children experienced more conflict during recess and routines/transitions. On average, children’s interactions with peers and tasks were more positive in child-directed settings, such as free choice. Findings indicated that on average children’s interactions with teachers were higher in teacher-structured settings, such as large group. ![]() 145 children were observed for an average of 80 minutes during 8 occasions across 2 days using the inCLASS, an observational measure that conceptualizes behavior into teacher, peer, task, and conflict interactions. This descriptive study examined classroom activity settings in relation to children’s observed behavior during classroom interactions, child gender, and basic teacher behavior within the preschool classroom. |