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Warm Springs: A Classic Boondoggle?
By Harold Gilliam
If President Carter wants to bolster his antiinflation program by saving the government at least $200 million, I have a suggestion for him.
The planned Warm Springs dam, on a tributary of the Russian river in Sonoma County, is a classic boondoggle, a pork barrel item that was somehow overlooked when the President compiled his nationwide ''hit list" of water projects that he boldly said he would veto—and did.
Even in the Corps of Engineers' optimistic estimate of the dam's benefits, Warm Springs is a marginal project, with a benefit-cost ratio of 1.1. That means for every dollar of cost, there will be benefits of $1.10. If the benefits were a shade less, the dam could not be financially justified as a federal project.
Let's look at the principal benefitsrecreation and water supply.
The federal flood-control program was born 40 years ago in an effort to do a job that no state could handle alone — prevent the kind of disastrous floods that were occurring along the Mississippi, with tragic loss of life and property.
What happens on the Russian river is quite different. Floods there come not with a rushing wall of water that wipes out whole communities but with a gradual rising of the river until it laps at the doors of buildings in resort communities like Guerneville and sometimes inundates basements and ground floors.
Traditionally, after this kind of flood, the owners shovel out the mud and go back to work. It's a nuisance, but it's been happening on the Russian river for generations, and no one buying property there has any excuse for being ignorant of the river's habit of rising in heavy rains. So we may wonder by what right property owners now demand the federal government bail them out. There are ways of floodproofing buildings that would accomplish much the same results the dam would provide — lowering the high-water level by two or three feet.
Along the river and its tributaries there are places where the water is cutting its banks into agricultural land. Riprap or other channel work could curtail the bank erosion without the dam.
Some of the agricultural fields along the river — mostly in grapes now — are flooded by high water, which deposits layers of silt in the vineyards. This process is precisely what caused the land to be productive in the first place, under the natural cycles of soil replenishment. Stopping the process may be a convenience to growers, but in the long run it would amount to a death sentence on the land that is produced and sustained by river overflow. Why should the federal government be subsidizing destruction of the soil's fertility?
But even the protection that the dam would provide to existing buildings and farmlands would not add up to enough dollar benefits to pay for the dam's flood-control cost. That cost can only be met by an ingenious accounting gimmick: "benefits" to buildings and other developments that do not existbut that might exist if the dam were built.
If the dam lowers the flood crest, certain lands that otherwise would be in the flood zone could be used for building. So flood protection to those ghostly structures is counted as a benefit in order to justify the cost of the dam.
Why should the federal government be subsidizing development in the flood plain? Why should federal taxpayers be giving handouts to those lucky landowners?
Even all this remarkable accounting still would not pay for the dam. To help justify the cost, the Corps counts recreational benefits. Boaters and other users of "Lake Sonoma," the reservoir behind the dam, would eventually spend more than $1 million a year there. By some puzzling financial legerdemain these millions are counted as part of the benefits supplied by the dam. But who gets the benefits?
If a typical family spends, say $100 a year at Lake Sonoma — on boats and gasoline and hot dogs — that's $100 that it won't spend someplace else, such as the Bay Area. Why should the federal taxpayer be subsidizing a diversion of recreation expenditures from the Bay Area to Lake Sonoma? What possible federal benefit is involved?
The dam would also supply water for use in Sonorma county and adjoining areas. The water would be paid for by the water user. Theoretically. Actually the payment would extend over a 50 to 60 year peroid. But the dam has to be paid for when it is built, not some time in the next century. So Uncle Sam in effect lends the water users their share of the paid dam's cost, to be paid back over that 50-60 year period.
But because the dam was originally authorized in 1967, at a time when interest rates were only 31/8 per cent, the water users would pay at that bargain basement rate. The federal taxpayers would have to make up the difference between that and the current market interest rate, which will be three or four times that much. And that difference over a half-century period, could amount to the biggest subsidy of all.
If Sonoma county wants to double or triple or quadruple its population so that the water supply available from Warm Springs will be used and paid for, if the people of Santa Rosa want that city to become another congested San Jose, sprawling out into the farmlands, I suppose you could say that's their business. But why should the rest of us — the federal taxpayers — pay the bill?
Somona taxpayers will be paying for the dam on top of their other taxes for generations to come. The result will predictably be irresistible pressure on all local agencies to promote the fastest possible urbanization and industrialization of the county in order to get a broader tax base to pay the bills for the dam. Growth under pressure.
The dam will create jobs, yes. But if we are to rely
on dams for employment, when Warm Springs is
finished it will be necessary to build another big dam
and yet another when that is finished ad infinitum.
There is room for argument about how much water will be needed and where it will come from. Without Warm Springs, water could be available from wells (the Russian river drainage, particularly the Santa Rosa plain, is rich in ground water), from increasing the capacity of Coyote dam on the upper Russian, from conservation and waste water recycling.
How much would be needed from these or other sources—including Warm Springs—depends on what assumptions you make about population growth and about more efficient use of existing water supplies.
The Warm Springs Task Force, a Sonoma county group opposed to the dam, has a court suit maintaining that the Corps' environmental impact statement does not adequately consider alternatives to the dam, earthquake risks and other matters. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard the case last spring but for some inscrutable reason has not yet spoken. Meantime, the preliminary work goes on, millions have already been spent and construction on the main dam is about ready to begin.
The corps has estimated that the water supply portion of the dam, to be paid for by Sonoma county taxpayers, would amount to $60 million dollars. But the Task Force comes up with another figure. Adding the interest to be paid over the life of the project, plus an inflation factor, plus a cost-overrun figure, the Task Force calculates that the dam will cost the Sonoma county taxpayers $230 million -- almost $1000 added to the property tax for every man, woman and child now living in the county.
No matter whose figures are accepted, Warm Springs seems inordinately expensive way for federal taxpayers as well as for the county to subsidize urban sprawl, riverbank landowners, subdivisions on farmland, reservior recreation, and future construction in floodprone areas.
Photograph caption: SITE OF THE WARM SPRINGS DAM PROJECT. Even the Engineers consider it a marginal project with a benefit-cost ratio of 1.1
S.F. Sunday Examiner & Chronicle
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CSAM Keyword Hub
In partnership with the Technology Coalition, Thorn has developed an API containing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) terms and phrases in multiple languages to improve your content moderation process.
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1 What can I do with the CSAM Keyword Hub?
Technology companies with a chat function who are seeking to protect children from online predation on their platforms can apply for cost-free use of the technique. Law enforcement and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are also eligible to apply.
2 How should the CSAM Keyword Hub be used?
Instead of using the Keyword Hub for strictly blocking specific keywords that match the list, the strong preference is to use the list to kickstart the training of machine learning models. By doing so, we hope companies can proactively detect and remove CSAM.
3 What kind of terms can be added?
Terms must be relevant to the detection and elimination of online materials that involve sex trafficking, exploitation, or the endangerment of children. They should be able to help identify, prevent, or remove this online material. Terms may include the identifier of a known child abuse image or video (for example a filename, MD5 hash, or street name). PII included in CSAI terms (such as a series name) is allowed, but PII that includes user account information is not allowed. Once terms are added, they are intended to remain even if a company decides to no longer participate.
4 Who can participate?
This technology is available to approved Internet service companies and NGOs that have a core mission of combatting CSAM.
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Australian Bureau of Statistics
1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 2006
Previous ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 20/01/2006
|Page tools: Print Page RSS Search this Product|
ENERGY CONVERSION AND SUPPLY LOSSES
The energy conversion sectors represent an intermediate stage in the energy supply chain. These sectors transform primary energy products into more useful, higher value-added secondary (derived) energy products. Petroleum refiners, for example, transform crude oil into petroleum products such as petrol and diesel.
The main energy conversion sectors, comprising electricity generators, gas manufacturers, petroleum refiners, and operators of coke ovens and blast furnaces, are significant users of primary energy products. Of the conversion sectors, the petroleum refining and electricity generation sectors are the two main users of energy. In 2003-04 these two conversion sectors used 1,511 PJ and 2,334 PJ respectively (table 17.15). Since 1998-99 energy use by the petroleum refining sector has declined by 10% and energy use by the electricity generation sector has increased by 15% since 1998-99.
ENERGY END-USE BY SECTOR
In 2003-04, Australia's end-users of energy, comprising household and industry (excluding the conversion sectors), used 3,545 PJ of energy (table 17.16). This is an increase of 8.7% compared with energy end-use in 1998-99.
The transport sector (including household transport) is the largest end-user of energy, using 1,251 PJ in 2003-04. In 2003-04, road transport accounted for 80% (1,004 PJ) of the transport sectors energy use, with the remaining contributors being air transport (162 PJ), water transport (54 PJ) and rail transport (32 PJ).
The manufacturing sector is also a large energy end-user, using 1,138 PJ of energy in 2003-04. Together with the transport sector, these two sectors account for 67% of total energy end-use.
Energy end-use in the commercial sector and residential sector has grown by 11% and 9% respectively since 1998-99.
RESIDENTIAL ENERGY USE
Australia has a very high level of car ownership and use, and a high level of total personal travel. Table 17.17 shows, of people who work or study aged 18 years and over, the proportion driving to work or study has remained unchanged between 1996 (70.1%) and 2003 (70.3%).
The 1970s and 1980s saw an increase in the variety of energy-using home appliances available for purposes such as heating, cooling and cooking. Natural gas and electricity continue to be the key energy sources of space heating, water heating and cooking (table 17.18). In 2002, 81% of Australian residences had room heating, with the main energy source being natural gas for 34% of these residences (up from 31% in 1994), followed by electricity (31%) and wood (14%). Electricity is the major source of energy for both heating water (about 61% in 2002) and cooking (about 57% in 2002).
INDICATORS OF ENERGY USE
Australia's total energy consumption increased by 9% from 1998-99 to 2003-04. In this period the population increased by 6%, and gross domestic product (GDP) in chain volume terms increased by almost 18%. Consequently, there has been a continuing decline in Australia's aggregate energy intensity, that is, energy consumed per unit of GDP over the five-year period. While electricity use (up 19% in 2003-04 compared to 1998-99) marginally outgrew population growth over the period, it broadly matched growth in GDP (table 17.19).
This page last updated 24 January 2007
Unless otherwise noted, content on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia Licence together with any terms, conditions and exclusions as set out in the website Copyright notice. For permission to do anything beyond the scope of this licence and copyright terms contact us.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


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What is Wide Awake Hand Surgery?
Wide awake hand surgery is surgery of the hand and wrist that is done without sedation, without a tourniquet, and without general anesthesia.
This new surgical approach involves injecting local anesthetic around specific nerves in the hand and wrist. There is no need for general anesthesia, hospitalization, and the associated risks, expenses, and inconveniences. Immediately after wide awake hand surgery, you can simply walk out of the operating room, go home or back to work - just like you would after a dental procedure.
As patients seek to minimize their medical costs and time away from work, wide awake hand surgery is in higher demand. The technique is safe, effective, efficient, and cost-effective, and results in high patient and surgeon satisfaction.
How is it different from other anesthesia?

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


Teaching Elective Classes
Besides the core subjects of mathematics, science, social studies, and language arts, many teachers are needed to supply students with other necessary knowledge.
Not always true to their name, many elective courses are required. Common elective subjects are health, physical education, art, music, and foreign languages.In addition, there are many vocational-type electives including woodworking, family and consumer sciences, business, technology, and agriculture. Students taking these types of vocational courses are not necessarily part of a vocational program, and the classes are regularly offered within the traditional school system.
Vocational positions are most commonly found at the high school setting. Otherwise, elective teachers can teach students ranging from k-12.
Typically, elective teachers hold a bachelor's degree in the field they instruct like art, theatre, music, or Spanish. Majors in these fields alone may find it difficult to gain employment. Therefore, by adding teaching certification through an education degree coupled with the subject area, the potential teacher has increased job opportunities in a field she is passionate about.
Those who already have earned a bachelor's degree in a field like French or business and did not earn teacher certification at the same time, may complete a master's program in education to become certified.
The salary for elective teachers widely varies depending upon experience and the school setting. As a general guideline, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shares that the average public school teacher job for grades k-12 earns between US$50,680 to US$55,720.
Depending upon the size of the school district, the elective teacher may be responsible for many different grades.
For example, a physical education teacher at a small school district may teach all students grades k-6. While the elective teacher may be instructing hundreds of students per week, she will still form close relationships in this setting as she instructs the students during their whole elementary career.Travel between various school buildings is sometimes required of elective teachers. This is especially true for those that instruct a wide variety of grade levels.
By their nature, elective courses are hands-on experiences. Teachers are able to easily observe student growth. Compared to the traditional assignments and grading of core subjects, electives teachers can use many performance assessments. For example, a grade in physical education may be from observing students run a mile. A music grade might be the successful memorization and performance of a song.
Also, if the course is truly "elective," the students are passionate about being in the classroom, which creates an exciting teaching environment.
Elective teachers may be required to instruct events outside of the typical school day. Music concerts and art shows involve large amounts of planning and time to implement.
Nonetheless, elective teachers are rewarded by providing students with real-life skills that lead to a healthy lifestyle, an appreciation and familiarity with the fine arts, or a skill that helps with job opportunities.
The following resources offer more information on common elective areas.
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
International Technology Education Association
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"The Processing language was originally created at MIT as part of the Media lab and Aesthetics and Computation group. They needed a way to bridge the gap between software developers, artists, data visualizers, etc., and to do so in a way that allowed new programmers (or non-programmers) to do complex visual work easily. Processing was built using Java, and can be thought of as a simplified Java, with a simplified Java API for drawing and graphics." (source)
And so it is - with some little tricks.
First, Processing should get initialized in the html page like this
A Processing instance will be created, it can get accessed via Amber in this way:
processing := .
After fetching this instance, it can be used like any other Smalltalk Object:
processing background: 224.
processing line: centerX y: centerY dX: myDX dY: myDY.
I converted the clock-example to Amber, you can find it in the Example-section of my Amber Git repo. And maybe soon in the "official" Amber-Examples.


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PEP Class studies DNA.
Ms. Julie from the Colfax County Extension Office came to talk to Mrs. Cropp and Mrs. Kabes PEP class 4 times about DNA. The students were able to make strands of DNA with licorice, marshmallows, and toothpicks, they were able to remove DNA from strawberries, and they were able to find their own fingerprints. The students thought they were detectives when they were able to find their fingerprints with cocoa powder. We can't wait to have Ms. Julie back for our next lesson!


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Anubis, Companion to Osiris (Cont)
By Lee McGiffen
Immortal and Mortal Stars
Let us be more specific about the distinction between these two types of stars. The Pyramid Texts distinguish between the circumpolar stars which are considered immortal or imperishable, because they do not descend below the horizon, and the non-polar stars which are considered mortal, because they set and enter the Underworld, the Land of the Dead.
The cycle of the mortal stars is a metaphor of the reincarnation of the soul. But as in Buddhism, the ultimate aim is to escape the cycle of incarnation and to become immortal like the never-setting stars.
The relationship between the immortal and the mortal stars is reflected in the relationship between Anubis and Osiris. Anubis is immortal because he represents Ursa Minor. Osiris is mortal because he represents Orion's Belt. Orion's Belt may have taken on even more significance in this context. Knowing of the precession of the pole, the priests would have known that Orion's Belt takes up a position on the celestial equator, precisely at that era when Polaris in the constellation of Anubis took up its position at the celestial pole.
The doctrine of the mortal and immortal twins is widespread. For example, it occurs in the Zoroastrian tradition as the pair Yima and Mithras. In Greek mythology, it is Castor and Pollux, who are constellated in the sky as the two brightest stars in Gemini. The myth of Castor and Pollux does not belong to Gemini. The myth of the mortal and immortal twins is about circumpolar and non-polar stars. The myth of Castor and Pollux shows how an ancient Egyptian myth of duality in the sky can be constellated into a single constellation in a seemingly unrelated part of the sky.
Dedicated Servers and Cloud Servers by Gigenet. Invert Colour Scheme / Default


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Summer cherry recipes
Cherries are in season!
Cherries are appearing in grocery stores right now, and my kids are excited. I am, too. Fresh, sweet cherries are such a treat! A bag of cherries rarely lasts long around here. As soon as I get home from the market, I wash them and put them in a bowl -- and we usually end up sitting around the table, talking, laughing and eating cherries until they are gone.
Cherries are in season!
Beyond family bonding time, cherries are one superb fruit for cooking, baking and just plain enjoying. Canned and dried cherries and cherry juice are available year 'round, but fresh cherries are a special treat. Yes, there's some work involved in getting the pits out, but once you've started baking with fresh cherries, it's difficult to imagine baking cherry desserts any other way.
Sweet and sour Cherries
Both sweet and sour cherry varieties have their place in cooking. Cherry recipes tend to be specific about the cherries appropriate for the recipe. I tend to prefer recipes that use fresh sweet cherries, but that's just me.
Get them while you can
Cherries have a very short growing season (with significant crops in Michigan and the Pacific Northwest). Whether you use Bing, Ranier, black or another variety of cherries, take full advantage of the cherry season when it's here because you'll have to wait a year until it comes around again.
Cherries are Nutritious
Cherries are quickly becoming known as a superfruit -- high in antioxidants and other nutrients essential to health. The antioxidant anthocyanin gives cherries their red color, and studies suggest cherries also have powerful anti-inflammatory and anti-aging properties.
Tart cherries are one of the few known food sources of melatonin, an antioxidant that helps regulate biorhythms and sleep patterns. Eating a handful of dried cherries or drinking pure cherry juice an hour before your desired sleep time can help you get a better night's sleep -- and can even help with jet lag.
In addition to what we know already, research into cherries is revealing new benefits regularly. Cherries are definitely one of those foods that is rising in overall esteem.
Pitting Cherries
When using fresh cherries in recipes, you must pit them. Thankfully, the cherry pitter makes short work of the task, and most are not expensive. Several companies make cherry pitters for the commercial market, and the best one for you is really a matter of personal preference. Most pitters work on a simple principle of holding the cherry in one part of the gadget and, with a squeeze, pushing a narrow metal rod through the cherry, therefore pushing out the pit. Your hand may get a little sore, but just think of the delicious result! You also can use the gadget to remove pits from olives.
Cherry recipes
Fresh cherry salsa
Makes about 2 cups
Excellent with grilled beef!
24 fresh sweet cherries, pitted and chopped
1/2 to 1 fresh chili pepper, seeds removed and minced
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice (about 1 large)
1/2 sweet red pepper, finely chopped
12 very small sweet tomatoes, halved and sliced
1/2 small Vidalia onion, chopped finely
1/2 cup Italian parsley minced
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves, minced
1 clove fresh garlic, peeled and minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1. Combine all ingredients.
2. Let sit in the refrigerator for several hours to let the flavors meld.
Summer Salad with Cherries and Hazelnuts
Serves 4 to 6
Mixed lettuces or mesclun mix
Balsamic vinaigrette
1 pound fresh sweet cherries, pitted and halved
3/4 cup crumbled Gorgonzola or blue cheese
1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
1. Toss the salad greens with the vinaigrette.
2. Sprinkle half the cherries, cheese and hazelnuts over the salad and toss again.
3. Sprinkle the top with the remaining cherries, cheese and hazelnuts.
Cherry Chicken Stir-Fry
Serves 4
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons cornstarch, divided
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons sherry
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, cut in thin strips
Vegetable oil
1/8 teaspoon crushed dried red chiles (optional)
1-1/2 cups snap pea pods
1-1/2 cups fresh sweet cherries, pitted
1 (8-ounce) can pineapple chunks, drained
1. In a small bowl, whisk together chicken broth, sesame oil, 1 teaspoon cornstarch, sugar and black pepper. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine the sherry, remaining cornstarch and salt. Add the chicken and mix well to coat. Let stand about 15 minutes.
3. In a wide frying pan or wok, heat some vegetable oil until it is very hot. Add the chiles, if using, and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add the chicken and stir-fry until just cooked through. Remove from the pan and set aside.
4. Add a little more vegetable oil to the pan and add the peas. Stir-fry about a minute, then add the cherries, pineapple and chicken. Stir-fry 1 minute more.
5. Give the chicken broth sauce another quick whisk and add it to the pan, stirring to coat all the ingredients. Let thicken over high heat for just a minute or so, then serve over brown rice.
Fresh Cherry Pie
Serves 8
Dough for a double-crust pie, chilled
4 cups fresh sweet cherries, pitted (go for the firmer, less ripe cherries here)
5 tablespoons cornstarch
2/3 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
Juice of half a lemon
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter, cut into several cubes
1 egg
2 tablespoons water
Coarse sugar
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Combine the cherries, cornstarch, sugar, salt, lemon juice and almond extract in a bowl. Stir gently to combine.
2. Roll out half the pie crust and line a pie plate with it. Spoon the filling into the pie plate. (Don't transfer all the liquid from the bowl, though.) Dot the top of the filling with the cubes of butter.
3. Roll out the other pie crust and place it on top. Seal the edges, and cut slits in the top of the crust. You can be decorative about all this, if desired.
4. Whisk together the egg and the water, and brush the top of the pie with it. Sprinkle sugar over the top of the pie.
5. Bake 25 minutes. Reduce the temperature of the oven to 350 degrees F and bake 25 minutes more. Allow to cool completely before slicing and serving.
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Physical activity and light to moderate drinking (as is often associated with the Mediterranean diet) are recommended as ways to reduce risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes. New research shows that among healthy people, symptoms of depression can counteract the anti-inflammatory benefits of both exercise and light to moderate alcohol consumption.
C-reactive protein (CRP) is a cardiometabolic risk marker. High measures of CRP are a sign of inflammation. Leisure-time physical activity and light to moderate alcohol intake (defined as about half a drink per day for women and one drink per day for men) are associated with lower levels of CRP. Depression is associated with higher levels.
A study by Edward C. Suarez et al. published recently in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity examined 222 nonsmoking men and women aged 18-65 years. These participants were physically healthy and had no history or diagnosis of psychiatric conditions. Participants recorded the amount of alcohol they consumed and the amount of physical activity in which they participated. CRP levels in their fasting blood samples were measured, and they also completed an inventory of depressive symptoms.
Those people who were physically active had lower levels of CRP, but the 4.5% of participants with depressive symptoms did not see any anti-inflammatory benefits from physical activity. Similarly, light to moderate drinking was associated with lower levels of CRP only in men who were not depressed.
Depression did not seem to affect other markers of physical health in this study, such as levels of triglycerides or cholesterol.
Editor's Note: This study suggests that treating depressive symptoms should be a part of any plan to reduce cardiovascular risk. It seems that depression has effects that go beyond psychological distress and may prevent patients from reaping the benefits of their healthy behaviors. The effect of depression in preventing heart healthy changes in CRP could be one of many factors mediating the high levels of cardiovascular risk in depression. People with depression are twice as likely to have a heart attack than those without depression.
Research has connected cardiovascular fitness with depression risk and treatment. A Swedish study published last year in the British Journal of Psychiatry examined records of men conscripted into the military at age 18 and compared their cardiovascular fitness at the time with hospital records from later decades. Low cardiovascular fitness at the time of conscription was associated with increased risk for serious depression.
Editor's Note: This study provides more evidence that exercise, which increases cardiovascular fitness and decreases many of the elements of the metabolic syndrome, is good for cardiovascular and neuropsychological health, including mood stability. It is noteworthy that exercise also increases both brain-derived neurotrophic factor or BDNF (important for neural development and long-term memory) and neurogenesis (in animals), effects shared by almost all treatments with antidepressant properties. Making exercise a routine part of a regimen aimed at medical and psychiatric health is a great idea.
As childhood obesity has increased over the past several decades, the metabolic syndrome has also become more prevalent among children and adolescents. The metabolic syndrome consists of five measures related to obesity: elevations in fasting glucose levels or insulin resistance, a high proportion of LDL ("bad" cholesterol) to HDL ("good" cholesterol), elevated triglycerides, hypertension, and abdominal obesity or high waist circumference. A patient with three of these abnormalities would be diagnosed with the metabolic syndrome.
In adults, the metabolic syndrome has been associated with neurocognitive impairments. Researchers decided to look at adolescents with the metabolic syndrome to determine whether these brain effects are a result of long-term metabolic impairment or whether they can take place after short-term periods of poor metabolism as well. In a study published by Yau et al. in the journal Pediatrics last year, 49 adolescents with the metabolic syndrome were compared to 62 adolescents without the syndrome who had been matched for similar age, socioeconomic status, school grade, gender, and ethnicity.
The adolescents with the metabolic syndrome had lower scores on tests of math, spelling, attention, and mental flexibility, as well as a trend for lower overall intelligence. In brain measures such as hippocampal volume, amount of brain cerebrospinal fluid, and microstructural integrity in white matter tracts, the seriousness of the metabolic syndrome correlated with the level of abnormality on these measures.
Editor's Note: It seems as though even short-term problems with metabolism can lead to brain impairments like lower cognitive performance and decreased integrity of brain structures. These effects are even seen before vascular disease and type 2 diabetes are manifest.
It is doubly important, in terms of both cardiovascular and neurobiological risks, to look out for one's medical and psychiatric health. Reducing the abnormal components of the metabolic syndrome should produce benefits for both the cardiovascular system and the central nervous system.
Almost 40% of patients with bipolar illness in the US have the metabolic syndrome, so considerable effort will be required to improve this public health crisis.
Many patients with depression require two or more treatments in order to achieve remission. In a 2011 study by Trivedi et al. published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, patients with major depressive disorder who had not responded adequately to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants improved when an exercise regimen was added to their regular treatment.
The patients, aged 18-70 years old, were all sedentary at the start of the trial. They were randomized to one of two exercise regimens: a high dose regimen (16 kcal/kg per week, equivalent to walking at about 4 mph for 210 minutes per week) or the low dose (4 kcal/kg per week, equivalent to walking at 3 mph for about 75 minutes per week). Both groups improved significantly by the end of the study. Remission rates (adjusted for differences between groups) were 28.3% for the high dose group and 15.5% for the low dose group.
The rates of improvement with exercise were similar or better to those commonly seen with other augmenting agents such as lithium, T3, buspirone, and atypical antipsychotics, but without side effects and other inconveniences such as blood monitoring.
Other studies have indicated that exercise by itself and in combination with other treatments has efficacy in depression. Exercise can change serotonin and norepinephrine function and can increase brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a, and neurogenesis in the hippocampus.
The researchers looked for moderating variables that may have affected the outcomes of various participants. Men, regardless of family history of mental illness, had better remission rates in the high dose group. Women without a family history of mental illness also improved more in the high dose group, while women with a family history of mental illness improved more in the low dose group, though this finding was statistically nonsignificant.
While the researchers observed that those in the high-dose group did exercise more than those in the low-dose group, participants in the high-dose group had more difficulty sticking to their exercise regimen. It may be that even though high doses of exercise offer slightly higher rates of remission, lower doses may be more effective clinically if patients can stick to the low-dose regimen better.
A 2013 article by Smith et al. in the journal Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism reports that obese patients treated with the combination of bupropion (Wellbutrin) and naltrexone (Revia) had excellent weight loss and reduction in body fat compared to those treated with either drug alone or with placebo. The combination resulted in about a 14% reduction in body fat, while placebo, bupropion alone, and naltrexone alone each brought about only a 3-4% reduction.
Editor's Note: Researcher Roger McIntyre is an expert on the metabolic syndrome in patients with bipolar illness and has been using this combination with success in patients with mood disorders. He finds the combination of bupropion and naltrexone more helpful than the anticonvulsants topiramate (Topomax) or zonisamide (Zonegran) or the anti-diabetes drug metformin.
Since obesity and the metabolic syndrome occur in approximately 40 to 50% of bipolar patients and significantly increases cardiovascular risks such as heart attack and stroke, and since bupropion is widely used in the treatment of bipolar depression, this combination appears worthy of consideration for those with obesity. Its use should be accompanied by a good diet and an exercise regimen. Decreasing cardiovascular risk is a very important component of the treatment of bipolar disorder, and the combination of bupropion and naltrexone could have substantial benefits.
A decades-long study in New Zealand suggests that people who use marijuana persistently during adolescence lose 8 IQ points by adulthood compared to their peers who never use marijuana. Quitting or reducing cannabis use after adolescence did not restore the intellectual abilities in those who used it persistently in their youth. This is the first study of its kind that controlled for differences in functioning that existed before adolescence.
Participants took part in neuropsychological testing at the age of 13, prior to any cannabis use, and then were periodically interviewed about their use of the drug (at the ages of 18, 21, 26, 32, and 38). At age 38 they underwent IQ testing again.
Although persistent cannabis users tended to have fewer years of education, the lack of education was not responsible for the difference in adult IQ.
Those participants who only began using cannabis persistently in adulthood did not see a decline in IQ, suggesting that the adolescent brain is particularly susceptible to damage from cannabis use.
Synthetic marijuana, otherwise known as spice, skank, or K2, is not only vastly more potent than the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in marijuana plants, but it also lacks cannabidiol (CBD), the calming


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Environmental Monitoring in Antarctica
Environmental monitoring is essential in Antarctica to allow assessment of the impacts of human activities. Examples of the this monitoring work carried out by BAS are given below.
Sewage outfall monitoring, Rothera Station
Until 2003, untreated sewage was discharged into the sea from Rothera Station. Monitoring of the receiving water before and after installation of a biological treatment plant showed a dramatic reduction in the sewage plume as indicated by faecal coliforms.
Concentrations of heavy metals in lichens and marine bivalves around Rothera Research Station.
Concentrations of lead, zinc, cadmium and other heavy metals in lichens and marine bivalves are measured. The results are used to assess whether any observed pollution is due to station activities, and to determine the area of contamination.
Skua Population breeding success
The impact of Rothera Research Station on the local South Polar Skua (Stercorarius maccormicki) population has been monitored for over 12 years. The monitoring programme has recently been expanded to include measurements such as chick weight, survival and egg dimensions.


Ministry Resources
Episode 5: Resurrection to Pentecost-The Great Commission
Welcome to Network211's JourneyTalks. We want to help you discover and grow in your journey with God. We will engage the Bible with you so that you can understand better what it teaches and also so that you can apply it to your daily life.
We are continuing our series called, "Resurrection to Pentecost." Today, we present Episode Five: The Great Commission.
Your host is Dr. Mark Flattery. He serves as President of Network211. Mark is a career missionary who has served in ministry all of his adult life. He is the author of "Stand Firm: What to Do When Life Knocks You Down."
Our guest is Pastor Curt Demoff. He is the Lead Pastor at Bridgewood Church in Clarkston, MI. He and his wife started Bridgewood Church in 2002 and have been in ministry for over thirty years. They have a passion to win the lost and to see God's purpose fulfilled in the lives of those they serve. You can learn more about the church at
Questions for Reflection
 1. Read Matthew 28:18-20.
 2. What qualifies a Christian to be given a mission from Christ?
 3. Compare the authority of Jesus with the authority of others. How should you live your life knowing that you follow the One with all authority?
 4. What are the limitations, if any, to the command that believers are to go and make disciples of all nations?
 5. What does the statement mean, "evangelism is not an event but a lifestyle"?
 6. What is a disciple?
 7. What is the importance of being baptized?
 8. How important to their spiritual growth is teaching new believers to obey all that Christ commanded?
 9. What did Pastor Curt mean when he used the term, "multiplication of mission"?
 10. 10.Where do we get power to fulfill the mission?
 11. What changes should you make to your life to live out the mission given by Christ?
Please visit Network211's to see more episodes and to receive more resources to help you grow in your journey with God.
What's Next


text:
- freely available
DMP: Detouring Using Multiple Paths against Jamming Attack for Ubiquitous Networking System
AbstractTo successfully realize the ubiquitous network environment including home automation or industrial control systems, it is important to be able to resist a jamming attack. This has recently been considered as an extremely threatening attack because it can collapse the entire network, despite the existence of basic security protocols such as encryption and authentication. In this paper, we present a method of jamming attack tolerant routing using multiple paths based on zones. The proposed scheme divides the network into zones, and manages the candidate forward nodes of neighbor zones. After detecting an attack, detour nodes decide zones for rerouting, and detour packets destined for victim nodes through forward nodes in the decided zones. Simulation results show that our scheme increases the PDR (Packet Delivery Ratio) and decreases the delay significantly in comparison with rerouting by a general routing protocol on sensor networks, AODV (Ad hoc On Demand Distance Vector), and a conventional JAM (Jammed Area Mapping) service with one reroute.
Share & Cite This Article
Kim, M.; Chae, K. DMP: Detouring Using Multiple Paths against Jamming Attack for Ubiquitous Networking System. Sensors 2010, 10, 3626-3640.View more citation formats
Kim M, Chae K. DMP: Detouring Using Multiple Paths against Jamming Attack for Ubiquitous Networking System. Sensors. 2010; 10(4):_URL_ Style
Kim, Mihui; Chae, Kijoon. 2010. "DMP: Detouring Using Multiple Paths against Jamming Attack for Ubiquitous Networking System." Sensors 10, no. 4: 3626-3640.
Notes: Multiple requests from the same IP address are counted as one view.


text:
LEGO® DUPLO® Number Train 10847
Introduce STEM toys early with the LEGO® DUPLO® Number Train. It's a colorful introduction to numbers and counting. Your toddler will love to build and rebuild this developmental toy, learning early number recognition as they go! This set is the perfect educational gift for little ones and a great introduction to the LEGO STEM sets. With two child DUPLO® figures and a cat figure, the set provides endless storytelling and creativity for little minds. If you're looking for a learning toy or STEM gift, the Number Train is your best bet, and DUPLO® bricks are designed to be safe and suitable for little hands.
- Includes two child LEGO® DUPLO® figures, plus a cat figure.
- Features a buildable locomotive and three wagons.
- Includes bricks decorated with numbers 0 to 9.
- Use the decorated bricks to teach your child about numbers and counting.
- Encourage building and role-play.
- LEGO® DUPLO® products are specially designed to be safe and easy for little hands.
- This set offers an age-appropriate build and play experience for ages 1½-3 years.
- Train with wagons attached measures over 3" (10cm) high, 14" (37cm) long and 2" (6cm) wide.


University of Cambridge > Talks.cam > Microsoft Research Cambridge, public talks > Structured Prediction Models for High-level Computer Vision Tasks
Structured Prediction Models for High-level Computer Vision Tasks
Rich statistical models have revolutionized computer vision research:
graphical models and structured prediction in particular are now commonly used tools to address hard computer vision problems. I discuss what distinguishes these computer vision problems from other machine learning problems and how this poses unique challenges.
I argue that most computer vision models are misspecified and discuss the consequences of popular estimators in this case, concluding that we either have to use non-parametric models or use estimators robust to misspecification.
As one possible solution, I propose a novel discrete random field model applicable to a large number of computer vision tasks. The model is conditionally specified, non-parametric, and able to represent complex label interactions, yet it can be trained from hundreds of images in minutes on a single machine.
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250 years ago the city contained only "Altstadt" and the "Neustadt" of nowadays. From 1821 to 1848 the population of Bremen increased from 54,000 to 78,000 and more and more inhabitants settled at the outskirts. Since the building of the train station (1847), the expanding of the harbours in the northwest of the city (1888) and the industrialisation after the fall of the custom barriers the city area and the population increased extremly. Until 1905 261,000 people lived in Bremen. Unlike other cities Bremen did not build tenement houses but developed the typical "Bremer Haus". 1939 had 450,000 inhabitans. It was not until the bombs destroyed the old houses in the World War 2 that architects started to build apartment houses and skyscrapers (Osterholz-Tenever).
Additional information concerning Bremen:


text:
|International Vegetarian Union (IVU)|
A thesis presented to the London School of Economics, University of London,
The author is now Professor of Social Policy and Sociology at Kent University, England, and has given permission for this previously unpublished thesis to be published on the IVU website. The ownership and copyright remain hers and no part of this thesis may be used elsewhere without her express permission.
CHAPTER SEVEN: THE GREAT WAR AND THE INTERWAR PERIOD
[Numerical links are to the author's footnotes, use your back button to return to the same point in the text. Text links are to relevant items on the IVU website, all open in new windows]
Vegetarianism has long been associated with progressive educational ideas, (1) and in this, as with other of its early connections, it drew on the romantic tradition of social criticism embodied here in the ideas associated with Rousseau.
The modern progressive school (2) originates in the late nineteenth century with the founding in 1889 of Abbotsholme by Cecil Reddie. Reddie bad been influenced by Carpenter, and Abbotsholme was originally intended to reflect the principles of the Fellowship of the New Life; however as Reddie increasingly moved away from socialism, under the influence of German conservative thought, the link with the Fellowship faded. In 1893, A.C. Badley, an ex-master at Abbotsholtne, founded the co-educational Bedales. Both Badley and Reddie subscribed to diet-reform ideas, (3) and from the start both schools catered for vegetarian pupils. (4)
The early years of the century brought the Quaker schools into this stream. There had been a long tradition of Quaker boarding schools, many of which had been founded in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; and the separateness of Quaker society, together with the repudiation of the classical syllabus and the teaching of science, marked these schools apart from the public schools. In the early twentieth century the differences became more pronounced with the spread among them of co-education. Stewart believes this was the principal reason that brought the Quaker schools into the world of progressive education; though a more fundamental factor must be the shift that occurs in Quakerism generally that takes it into the orbit of liberal progressive thought. (5) While Quaker schools have not been vegetarian, they have since the twenties provided liberal facilities for vegetarian pupils.
In 1925 amid upheavals, Mrs Ensor resigned from the Theosophical Educational Trust and Miss King from the headship of St Christopher, where she was succeeded by Lyn and Eleanor Harris (Lyn Harris had been a CO and was a vegetarian Quaker) who continued to run the school until their retirement in 1956. Mrs Ensor and Miss King moved on to Surrey where they founded Frensham Heights, though they left after two years and with them the theosophical link ended. Mrs Ensor's work continued, however, in the New Educational Fellowship, founded in 1921, which acted between the wars as an international focus and forum for the progressive school movement.
Despite some important differences within the progressive school movement, especially between the conservative and radical wings, certain shared themes emerge, and I shall touch in particular here on those that are relevant to the vegetarian link.
The first of these was their anti-urbanism and stress upon the experience of nature. Many of these schools were situated in the country, with beautiful natural surroundings stressed. Gardening was traditionally favoured, and many were termed garden or open-air schools. Sunbathing or sleeping in the open were often practised. A number of these schools and other movements of the period aimed at bringing children into direct contact with nature, with particular stress put on the idea of the woodland, as a means of developing confidence and skills. The feeling is best expressed in Ernest Westlake's Order of Woodcraft Chivalry which was intended to be a more adventurous and libertarian version of the Boy Scouts, and with none of its militaristic tone. (10) Westlake believed that man had by civilisation been separated from the true source of education - nature - and that by this alone could be develop true instincts and faculties, and he aimed to teach not just 'the lore of the woodman, but also that simple life in nature which is the heritage, material, mental and spiritual of man in common with all living creatures'. (11)
In 1929 he founded the Forest School - a mixture of Freud and Red Indians, according to one master - and here the aim was to restore children to their 'lost birthright of freedom'. (12) In all these movements the paradise theme was strong, and Ernest Westlake speaks of the ultimate purpose as 'to regain paradise' (13)
Progressive education is important in vegetarianism because it provides the concrete embodiment of a recurring social metaphor in the tradition: that of the visionary image of the child as the embodiment of man's innocence. Running through it is the idea of the goodness, in potential at least, of the child; education should be a nurturing and encouragement, rather than a coercion and punishment, and self-directed discovery was stressed and the child, not the teacher, made the centre of the educational process. During the twenties the influence of Freud on the progressive school movement - and indeed on progressivism generally - was marked, and Freudian theory was used to underpin the liberation of the child from adult repression and to justify the belief that the natural impulses should have free expression. In certain of the schools this produced a move towards a libertarian and anarchic ideal. The progressivism of the period, however, largely used Freud as a dissolvent of conservative social values, taking up the attack on traditional religion and upon patriarchal authority. It was, however, an essentially selective reading of Freud, one that passed over the darker Hobbesian aspects of his thought, focusing instead on its libertarian potential, which was then grafted on to an essentially non-Freudian model of-man and his destiny - one that derived from the older romantic tradition.
Education meant here the education of the whole child and that involved both an emphasis on the emotional development of the child, and a widening of the curriculum to include artistic expression and craft work. In this they were influenced both by the older criticisms of the public school and its denial of feeling, and by the later psychoanalytic emphasis on the emotional and unconscious aspects of being.
Education was regarded as fundamental in the reform of society, and these schools aimed to foster co-operative and harmonious social relations. This was partly to be achieved by discouraging direct competition, whether academic or sporting (sport tended to be, as in the vegetarian milieu more widely, individual, non-competitive and. 'non-contact'), and partly through the creation of a freer, less repressed sort of person who would not need to live through earlier psychic repressions in ways that produced a distorted and destructive form of society. They were notably anti-militaristic, and they attacked in particular the harsh beatings of the public school tradition; and violence was seen here to beget violence and to brutalise children, and the prevention of war was seen as intimately bound up with the ending of violence in the home and. school. Child of Dartington Hall, summed up some of these aspects:
Finally the schools enshrined an anti-structural ideal. This was found in the reduction and even at times extirpation of social hierarchy and of the division between pupils and teachers, now often called by their Christian names. Egalitarian ideals also underlay the popularity of school councils and democratic control. Maurice Punch has interpreted Dartington Hall in terms of the anti-institution which he sees as based on:
Punch believes that the pupils identify with the radical institution and with the anti-structural ideal. Here the headmaster controls not by the imposition of rules or norms but by force of personality. Authority is thus exercised but in a covert form; roles becomes personal and attacks upon authority are deflected into attacks upon persons. Stewart makes a similar point that the psychological orientation of the progressive education means that social life is seen in terms of personal relationships, and social structure is thus devalued and only weakly perceived. (16)


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SIPOC is a tool used to determine the inputs and outputs of a process.
SIPOC is an acronym and it stands for:
A SIPOC is created for a number of reasons including to:
Creating a SIPOC is simple. Draw the following grid on a flip-chart or white board:
With a team of process experts in the room, start asking questions such as those below. There may be overlap but the point is to get the conversation flowing and gather all of the required information. As the answers come in list them under the appropriate heading. As to 'Process' map this out at a high level, the key stages, five to seven steps is best.
An easy way to get the conversation flowing is to use open ended questions. The 5 Whys and the 5Ws and 1H are ideal tools to use here.
In This Section:
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What a fantastic experience at the Iowa Children's Museum when the walls came alive with echos of seventhto ninth-grade students who were willing to give up their Saturday evening to learn about peace.
Many of the students already knew each other because of the hard work of teacher Alisa Meggitt inviting them. Some of the students' background in peaceful resolution was also apparent as they worked together, brainstormed ideas and freely shared their knowledge.
As they considered society's ills, including violence in schools, homes, war, the environment and the media, they expressed so many ways they see evidence of violence. As a culminating activity, they came up with their solutions for peaceful alternatives.
Thanks to Dan Tallon, a Veterans For Peace member and Afghanistan war veteran for sharing the fact that soldiers do more than fight. Thanks to Kariuke Maina, who told a captivating story about post-election conflict in Kenya. Thanks as well to Diana Henry and Lori Nelson, who worked hard to make this event come alive. Finally, the Coralville Hy-Vee generously provided pizza that was much appreciated.
PEACE Iowa and the NEA Peace and Justice Caucus of Iowa sponsored a meaningful evening of peaceful strategies. The students will share their knowledge with attendees at the ICM "Peace Day" on April 7.


Boys and girls
There are 11 boys and 18 girls in the classroom. Three pupils will answer. What is the probability that two boys will be among them?
Correct result:
p = 27.0936 %
n=11+18=29 C2(3)=(32)=3!2!(32)!=31=3 p=100 (32) 11n 10n1 18n2=100 3 1129 10291 18292=_PHONE_=27.0936%
Showing 1 comment:
Math student
Answer is not accurate.correct answer is.2679076632908277
Tips to related online calculators
Looking for a statistical calculator?
See also our combinations with repetition calculator.
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InfoQ Homepage Articles Using singleton classes for object metadata
Using singleton classes for object metadata
This item in japanese
So you have a bunch of objects - an object graph - the result of some operation or API call. The task: analyze the data and store the results of the analysis as metadata for the graph.
Too abstract? Think of how a compiler works: the parser spits out a parse tree (or Abstract Syntax Tree or AST) that represents the code as tree structure. Then: a lot of algorithms run over the tree in passes: gathering symbols in the symbol table, doing type inference, using these types to do type checking, etc.
But wait: the last two passes show the problem: where does the type inferencing code store its data for the type checker to use? It'd be most convenient to store the data where it's needed - i.e. if an expression node (in the AST) is found to return type Foo, then it'd be best to store that information right in the node.
To illustrate the solution, we'll look at some tools that work on ASTs - not a compiler, but tools with similar requirements. In Ruby, the ParseTree library returns Ruby source code as an AST. Example:
[:vcall, :obj, :say_hello, [:array, [:lit, 42], [:lvar, :foo]]]
This is a bit of Ruby code represented as ParseTree AST. Since this is an article and not a VM, it's a bit difficult to work with objects and object references organized as a graph - so we use ParseTree's s-expr representation of the tree. S-exprs are nested lists; each list represents a node in the tree, with the first element specifying the node type. In the sample, the node represents a call to a virtual method (vcall). The parameters are the receiver (the'self' in the called method), the name of the method and the parameters.
Ideas for tools would be a type checker, static analysis tools or automatic refactorings. One of the requirements for tools of that kind to work is some kind of type inference, i.e. determining the types of variables or expressions. For instance, this AST represents a call to the to_s method:
[:vcall, :obj, :to_s]
What information can be gathered about this, and what could be done with this information? The type of the return value, for instance. This is hard to determine - but since it's to_s, a method that returns the string representation of an object - let's just say it returns "String". This is not necessarily true - it's a guess. For tools such as a code completion, it's fine enough - 100 % accuracy isn't possible for these matters. Although in some cases, more information could be gathered, and the analyzer could determine more accurate information.
Analyzers work on the tree and annotate the AST with the metadata they have determined. For keeping codebases modular, it's a good idea to separate the analyzers from the metadata consumers, i.e. the code that walks the AST and does something with the metadata. For instance, a Ruby editor could highlight a method that overrides another in its superclass.
The solution
Long story short: here's a solution for annotating ParseTree nodes:
node = [:vcall, :obj, :to_s]
def node.set_metadata(key, value)
 _USER_ ||=
 _USER_[key] = value
def node.metadata
_USER_ ||= {}
node.set_metadata(:type, :String)
What does that do?
The secret sauce: singleton classes
Every object in Ruby is the instance of a class. Unlike many other OOP languages, Ruby allows you to change an object's class. Don't confuse this with open classes: in Ruby, it's possible to modify a class - even at runtime. Singleton classes are similar - except that they only affect one object's class. While the difference might seem small - it has the big benefit of limiting the effects of the class modification to the affected object. Open classes, on the other hand, change the class definition for all the code and all the objects of these classes. This is useful, but can also mess with other people's code and if too many pieces of code do it on common classes, name clashes with existing methods can happen. In the case of ParseTree nodes - which are ordinary Ruby Arrays - this means that only the actually used Array objects are affected - not all the Arrays on the heap.
Another way to see this: with singleton classes, the changes to the class stay local to the code that creates and uses them - they never need to be visible outside. Open classes, on the other hand, are global changes: a class name is a global variable, i.e. "String" refers to the class object representing Strings. Just as more scoped variables (local variables, member variables) are preferable over global variables, so are singleton classes to open classes.
Of course: which solution to choose (singleton or open classes) depends on the particular situation. With open classes, the change to the class happens once - after it, all objects of that class have the added methods. With singleton classes, the change to the class (i.e. creating the singleton class and changing the object's class pointer to point to it) happens at every change.
The syntax - as seen above - is simple:
def object_variable.method_name()
# code
The variable pointing to the object is prefixed to the method name. A more flexible and modular way is to use Mixins to do it. This allows to collect methods that handle some aspect in a Module and mix them in in one go. E.g.
module Metadata
def set_metadata(key, val)
_USER_[key] = val
def metadata
_USER_ ||= {}
x = [:vcall, :obj, :to_s]
x.extend Metadata
x.set_metadata(:type, :String)
Mixins allow to mix functions defined in a Module into a class - in this sample, it's the node object's singleton class. Again: only this object will have these methods now.
Another example - dead code removal
If the static analyzer code is too abstract, let's try another tool: a dead code remover. "Dead code" is simply code that doesn't really do anything and can be removed without changing the behavior of the program. Like this code:
for x in [1,2,3] do
With our annotating concept, we can look for this kind of code and annotate it as such:
node.metadata(:dead_code, :true)
But marking the code as dead is only the first step - now we need to remove it. This is where it's easy to see that it makes sense to split up analysis and action part. An IDE might just want to highlight some code as dead code, but it might also offer a simple way (a Quick Fix) that removes the code.
How can this code be removed? Sure - it'd be possible to dump the node from the AST and then use Ruby2Ruby to spit out Ruby source. But that's not a very nice solution: Ruby2Ruby turns ParseTree ASTs into Ruby source code, but it loses a lot of useful information, such as formatting (white space) and comments. Dropping these is not acceptable in an IDE or refactoring/cleanup tools.
Metadata to the rescue: the nodes can be annotated with source locations - ie. where this particular node is found in the original source code. And with that - it's easy: the cleanup code simply marches through the code, finds all nodes marked with :dead_code and removes them in the source file, using the character offsets of the source location metadata. (Of course - once some nodes were removed, the offsets of the rest of the nodes are off. This can be solved by simply tracking the number of deleted characters and subtracting them from the actual offsets. With that, it's not necessary to reparse and re-analyze the source).
The examples in this article were focussed on language tools - but the ideas are usable for all kinds of object collections. Wherever object graphs need to be annotated, possibly in multiple passes by independently written analyzers, it's convenient to store the annotations with the nodes. If the classes of the object graph are not under the developer's control and are extensively used elsewhere (e.g. the Array class in ParseTree), singleton classes are a good choice. For other situations, open classes might be a better solution.
As for implementing the specific tools mentioned here: ParseTree is available for Ruby 1.8.x, in Rubinius and JRuby (jparsetree). The JRuby version also adds source locations for the individual nodes, so it's even easier to modify source. Have fun coming up with ideas for tools and writing them - it's easy with Ruby.
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From: Thomas Hockey et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Springer Reference. New York: Springer, 2007, pp. _PHONE_
Zacut: Abraham ben Samuel Zacut
Cirilo Flórez Miguel
Born Salamanca, (Spain), probably 1452
Died Damascus, (Syria), probably 1515
Abraham Zacut was an important Jewish astronomer who contributed to observational astronomy, astronomical tables, and our historical knowledge of astronomy in Spain. Zacut came from a family originally from France; however, the evidence indicates that he was born in Salamanca, and spent his early years there as a pupil of Isaac Aboab, from whom he received the extensive knowledge that would later make him famous. Although professionally a doctor, Zacut's fame came from his works in astronomy.
During his lifetime, Zacut maintained relationships with several notable figures, including Don Juan de Zúñiga, the last Master of the Order of Alcántara (Maestre de la Orden de Alcántara), and the Bishop of Salamanca, Gonzalo de Vivero, to whom he dedicated his most famous astronomical work. When Bishop Vivero died in 1480, Zacut lost his protector in Salamanca and moved to the court of Don Juan de Zúñiga for whom he produced the following works: Tratado breve de las influencias del cielo (Short treatise on the influence of the heavens) and De los eclipses del sol y la luna (On solar and lunar eclipses). We know that Zacut was in Lisbon on 9 June 1493, working for Juan II of Portugal. It is logical to assume that he moved to this city when the Jews were expelled from Spain following the order of the Catholic kings in 1492. Zacut also worked for the brother of King Manuel I, who is said to have sought Zacut's advice for Vasco de Gama's trip around Africa, for which Zacut gave a favorable opinion. When in 1496 King Don Manuel ordered the Jews expelled from Portugal, Zacut fled Portugal and moved to Tunisia, where he was welcomed by a large Jewish colony. He lived in Carthage for several months, giving lessons in subjects for which his expertise was renowned. He eventually moved to the Ottoman lands and died, probably in 1515 although a death date of 1522 has also been suggested.
It is not clear whether or not Zacut taught at the University of Salamanca. However, he was in contact with and influenced some of the professors of astrology there. For example, Juan de Salaya, who was a professor of astrology from 1464 to 1469, translated Zacut's work titled La Compilación Magna (ha‐Hibbur ha‐gadol or The magnus compilation) from Hebrew into Spanish. The Latin translation, known as Almanach Perpetuum, was made by José Vizinho and first published in Leira in 1496. It became essential for the development of Spanish and Portuguese navigation at the end of the 15th century. The Spanish translation made Zacut famous due to its influence on his contemporaries.
La Compilación Magna was commissioned by Zacut's protector, Gonzalo de Vivero. Indeed the bishop left instructions regarding Zacut in his will as follows:
…to deliver to the Jew Abraham, astrologist, five hundred maravedises and ten measures of grain, and instructed that certain works which were in Romance, written by the mentioned Jew, should all be published in a volume together with his other books in his [i. e. the bishop's] church, because it is worthy to understand the tables made by the mentioned Jew.
This volume could be Incunable 176, presently kept at the Salamanca University Library, which contains the Spanish translation of La Compilación Magna that was dictated by Zacut to the translator Juan de Salaya.
La Compilación Magna is a collection of astronomical tables with rules (canons) that served several purposes. The tables were calculated for the meridian of Salamanca for the radix year 1473. The first part of the collection contains the rules in 19 chapters, a number Zacut uses because he considers it a golden number, following the indication of Maimonides. In those chapters he first analyzes the positions of the Moon and the Sun, their movements, circumstances, and eclipses, and then moves to the astrological houses and to the ascendant. He also provides the longitudes and latitudes of the main cities; finally he devotes a chapter to the fixed stars. In the second part of the canons, Zacut explains the circumstances of the other planets (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury) and devotes one chapter to the Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and Persian calendars. This second part comes to a close with Chapter 19, where he explains the movements of the seven planets and of the lunar node (Dragon Head). After the canons, he gives the tables for the material discussed in these 19 chapters. The structure of the tables is influenced by Jacob Poel (Bonet Bonjorn), an intermediary who connected the work of Gersonides and Zacut. More than 50 manuscripts are known of these tables, of which we should particularly note MS Sassoon 823 for its detailed "representation" of its catalog of stars. In addition to mentioning Bonet Bonjorn, whom the translator Salaya refers to by his Hebrew name Jacob Poel (Po 'el meaning "the artisan"), Zacut mentions the Jewish scholar Yehuda ben Aser. There are also references to the tables and calendar of King Alfonso X.
The canons of the Almanach perpetuum also exist in another Spanish version that was made by the same José Vizinho who made the Latin translation. A copy of this Spanish version is kept in an incunabulum of the Colombin Library of Seville's Cathedral. It consists of 23 chapters dealing with the ascendants of the 12 houses, explanations of the positions of the Sun and the Moon and their eclipses, the places and movements of the planets, and a reference in the last chapter to an "animodar."
Zacut's empirical interests are indicated by his observation in 1474 of the Moon covering the star of the spike in Virgo's hand, when this constellation was approximately in the middle of the sky. Other astronomical observations attributed to him are an occultation of Venus by the Moon in July 1476, and a total solar eclipse in June 1478.
Cantera Burgos, F. (1931). "Notas para la historia de la astronomía en la España medieval: El judio salmantino Abraham Zacut." Revista de la Academia de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales de Madrid 27: 63–98.
Chabás, José and Bernard R. Goldstein (2000). Astronomy in the Iberian Peninsula: Abraham Zacut and the Transition from Manuscript to Print. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.
Flórez, Cirilo et al. (1989). La ciencia del cielo. Salamanca: CAJA DE AHORROS.
Romano, David (1992). La ciencia hispanojudía. Madrid: Mapfre.
Noel M. (1977). "A Summary of the Derivation of the Parameters in the Commentariolus
from the Alfonsine Tables with an Appendix on the Length of the Tropical Year
in Abraham Zacuto's Almanach Perpetuum." Centaurus 21: 201–213.


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(1989). Auditory lexical access: Where do we start? In W. Marslen-Wilson (Ed.), Lexical representation and process (pp. 342-356). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
The lexicon, considered as a component of the process of recognizing speech, is a device that accepts a sound image as input and outputs meaning. Lexical access is the process of formulating an appropriate input and mapping it onto an entry in the lexicon's store of sound images matched with their meanings.
This chapter addresses the problems of auditory lexical access from continuous speech. The central argument to be proposed is that utterance prosody plays a crucial role in the access process. Continuous listening faces problems that are not present in visual recognition (reading) or in noncontinuous recognition (understanding isolated words). Aspects of utterance prosody offer a solution to these particular problems.


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When I was growing up, no one used syringes or measuring cups to dole out medication. As a result, a child could easily be over or under dosed. Why? Because the spoons used for ice cream and yogurt can vary a lot in terms of what they hold. Nowadays, doctors and parents need to be more precise in the way they give medicine to kids.
If a doctor tells you to give your child a teaspoon of Motrin for fever, he means you should administer 5 ml, not what fits in the spoons you use at mealtime.
Modern parents know this, but I thought it was worth blogging about. A measured teaspoon is 5ml. It can be given with a syringe, a measuring cup like in the picture above or in measuring teaspoon.


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Tips on Paper Selection
Choosing the right paper for a printing job can be a daunting task. It doesn't have to be though. When selecting the best paper type for a particular job, you're often faced with an overwhelming number of options. Asking your printer for "white" is like asking your waiter for "food" — you'll have to be more specific than that.
To the educated consumer, the choices don't seem nearly as intimidating. Before you order though, you've got to know the menu. Paper has ten characteristics that affect its cost and appropriateness for a given job.
The surface of paper affects its look, feel and printability. When paper is pressed at the mill, it passes through a series of rollers in a process called calendaring. Calendaring affects paper in numerous ways. As the extent of this process increases, paper is made smoother, glossier, more capable of retaining ink, thinner, less opaque and less bright. Why does surface matter? Because people do judge books by their cover.
The color of paper is perhaps the most salient of all characteristics. White is by far the most popular color and is generally optimal for conventional usage. Not all white is the same, however — it runs the gamut from ultra-severe hues to softer, more antique shades. Photo white paper is best for accentuating the contrast between light and dark hues.
Off-white sheets produce less glare, and are best used for publications such as novels or technical manuals that demand long and uninterrupted attention from readers. When comparing color, always examine paper under standard viewing conditions and with minimal atmospheric distractions.
The brightness of paper measures the percentage of light that it reflects. Most papers reflect approximately 60 to 90% of incoming light. Remember: brightness and color are not the same thing. Unlike the color characteristic (which is highly subjective and imprecise), brightness is a strictly quantitative, or measurable, attribute. Brightness is important because it affects readability — high brightness can cause eye strain, while low brightness can produce a blurring effect.
The opacity of paper is the degree to which other printing is visible through the page. High opacity, or density, minimizes the visibility of printing on subsequent pages, thus enhancing readability. Opacity increases with the bulk and weight of paper, and is influenced by numerous other factors, including paper color, ink color, coatings, chemicals and coverage.
The grain of paper describes the direction, or alignment, of its component fibers. Paper grain is either grain long or grain short. When fibers are patterned parallel to the length of a sheet, the paper is grain long. When fibers run parallel to the width of a sheet, the paper is grain short. Grain direction is a critical factor for print jobs because it directly affects usage — for example, paper strength, flexibility, tack and versatility are all impacted by grain direction.
The basis weight of paper is calculated as the weight in pounds of one ream, or five hundred sheets. Each main grade of paper has a basic size that is used to determine its basis weight. Remember that paper of equivalent basis weight is not necessarily of equivalent basic size. Smaller sized paper that is thicker can possess a basis weight identical to that of larger, thinner paper. Since paper is sold by the pound, understanding paper weight is imperative to successful cost control programs.
The caliper of paper is its thickness. Caliper is measured in thousandths of an inch and referred to as point size. In this system,.001 inch equals one point — and eight-point paper would have a thickness of.008 inch. Do not confuse type point with caliper point. Type point describes the height of a particular font; caliper point describes paper thickness.
The bulk of paper denotes its thickness relative to its basis weight. For example, uncalendared paper would have a higher bulk than gloss coated paper. Remember though that paper may be bulkier or thicker than another grade, yet still have the same basis weight.
The size of paper describes its physical dimensions. An 8.5 x 11 sheet is 8.5 inches wide and 11 inches long. Access to specific information concerning the range of paper sizes available for any given printing job is essential to containing costs and ensuring efficient usage.
The quantity of paper refers to the number of sheets bought, sold or used. A ream is a standard unit of numerical paper quantity. Paper that is "ream-wrapped" is packaged in a bundle of 500 sheets. Cartons of paper are not defined by exact numerical specifications, but approximate weight. Cartons typically weigh around 150 pounds and are used in practice as a standard unit of sales.


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Optimization of industrial processes in the process and manufacturing industries (mining, wood, paper, tooling, etc.) is the focal point of research in Process IT performed at Luleå University of Technology.
Materials Science is about research in High-performance steel for e.g., the automotive industry; Wood and bio composites as replacements for plastic in composites; and Tribology where friction and wear are studied to find ways of reducing energy consumption and increasing the working life of mechanical components. This video showcases research in Materials science at Luleå University of Technology.
Video only available in Swedish
A film about the research at LTU regarding processes in the mining industry and continuous improvement of the whole production line.
Tribology is the science of surfaces in sliding or rolling contact and include friction, wear and lubrication. The word comes from the Greek tribo, meaning rubbing.
A short film about the tribology research at Luleå University of Technology. In Swedish.


Python Connection to MongoDB
MongoDB is one of the most popular NoSQL databases, which allows developers to easily work with the stored data. This tutorial provides an example of connection to the MongoDB server from your Python application.
1. In our case we have an environment with Python and MongoDB containers inside (you can create such one at any time), but this instruction is suitable for the remote servers as well.Python MongoDB environment
2. Connect your compute node via CirrusGrid SSH Gate.Jelastic SSH Gate
3. Install a MongoDB driver for Python using the command below:
pip install pymongo
install MongoDb driver for Python
4. Set up a simple script to check your DB server connection. For that use any preferable text editor and create a file with the .py extension (e.g. vim
from pymongo import MongoClient
client = MongoClient("mongodb://{user}:{password}@{host}:{port}")
db = client.{database}
try: db.command("serverStatus")
except Exception as e: print(e)
else: print("You are connected!")
Just adjust the connection string with a relevant date, which can be gained from email for your MongoDB node:
 - {user} – username to log into database with
 - {password} – password for the appropriate user
 - {host} – link to your MongoDB container
 - {port} – port to be used for connection (use the default one – 27017)
 - {database} – database to be accessed (e.g. the default admin one)
MongoDB connection script
This script will connect to the specified database server and will try to get its status. If any error occurs in the process, its description will be printed; otherwise, just a "You are connected!" string will be displayed.
5. So, execute code in the file by running the appropriate command:
run DB connection script
The "You are connected!" string ensures, that application was able to connect the DB server successfully, so you can start managing database node by extending code with other operations.
Powered by BetterDocs


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Home to the famous Iron Canyons, Aequitas has reddish iron oxide dust (hematite) covering much of its surface, and significant blue cobalt deposits that freckle the terrain. Turian explorers have discovered hot springs in the polar ice caps, heated by magma in the planet's crust. In a strange combination of science and hucksterism, a small facility exports water from these springs, which is bottled and sold as having medicinal properties. The funds are then used to maintain a research station, which has discovered some fossil evidence that Aequitas once harbored microscopic life based on deoxyribonucleic acids in these springs.
- Assignment: N7: Abandoned Mine
Initial Scanner Result: Rich
- Æquitas is Latin for "justice" or "equality". In Roman mythology, Aequitas (or Aecetia), is also the god of merchants and fair trade.
- A bug exists in Mass Effect 3 that causes the planet to be highlighted as a mission world, but the game does not allow you to land on the planet.
- Aequitas is a mission location in the N7 HQ Galaxy at War mini-game for Mass Effect 3.


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Tennis Solutions
Tennis Tournaments Avon, Devon and Jersey
Problem: Often hitting hard serves long.
1. For players of average height, hard, flat serves have to just barely clear the net, or they will go long. Only very tall players can get hard, flat serves in consistently enough to make them pay off. Adding some topspin will increase your margin of clearance over the net to several times larger. The most preferred power serve among advanced players has a mix of topspin and slice.
2. Meeting the ball too low is like making yourself shorter, thus reducing the vertical angle from your racquet over the net to your target area. A low contact point also disrupts the upward whipping action you create at full extension. You should meet power serves at full upward extension.
3. You might be meeting the ball too far back. Generally speaking, meeting the ball more in front of you will make you hit lower. Either you're tossing too far back, or you're leaning too far forward before you've swung, thus getting ahead of the ball.
Problem: Often hitting serves into the net.
1. As noted previously, hard, flat serves have a tiny margin of clearance over the net. Hitting some topspin on the serve will allow you to hit over the net by feet instead of by inches.
2. Just as meeting the ball too low can make you hit long, it can also make you hit the net, because it reduces your margin of clearance over the net and disrupts the mechanics of a proper serve.
3. You might be meeting the ball too far in front of yourself. Try tossing less forward or leaning in more just before you swing.
4. You might be fooled by the illusion that you can hit down on a serve and get it over the net. You would have to be well over seven feet tall for this to be physically possible. Most of us have to hit upto get a serve in.
5. If your toss peaks much higher than your point of contact, the ball will develop a significant downward vector as it descends toward your racquet. Try tossing no more than a few inches higher than your point of contact.
6. Make sure to keep your head pointed upward until at least a split second afteryou've hit the ball. If you pull your head down too early, you'll pull your racquet down with it.
Problem: Unreliable second serve.
1. Remember: "Spin goes in." This popular saying really should be "Topspin goes in." Roughly 90% of second serves hit by the pros are kick serves, either topspin or twist, because these serves have a huge margin of clearance over the net. You can hit a good topspin or twist serve four feet over the net, and the spin will make it dive down into the service box. It will then jump up out of the opponent's comfortable hitting zone.
2. Here's another useful saying: "For spin serves, more is more." Contrary to what most players do, you should hit your second serves with at least as much swing speed as your first serves. A faster swing just produces heavier spin, which increases both the likelihood that the serve will go in and the height it bounces above your opponent's comfort zone.
3. If you're trying to hit topspin serves, but they're unreliable, try rotating your grip somewhat counterclockwise. Your grip should be at least Continental for hitting spin, and for heavy topspin you might go as far as an Eastern backhand
Problem: Not enough power.
1. Use a loose, quick motion and full extension. Don't try to muscle the ball. You create power by throwing the energy of your legs, torso, and arm upward, then letting that energy translate into whipping the racquet upward. Keep a loose wrist to allow this whipping to occur, but don't try deliberately to snap your wrist. It will snap naturally if it's loose and you're throwing your energy upward properly to a contact point at full extension.
2. For power, make sure you're meeting the ball somewhat to your right. If you have to lean left to meet the ball, you'll lose much of your momentum.
3. Lean forward into your serve. Your legs should push up and forward as you go to hit the ball.
4. Make sure to turn your back slightly toward the net as you coil your upper body to get ready to hit. The uncoiling as you swing makes an important contribution to your power.
5. Try to use a continuous motion from the start of your backswing to the end of your follow-through. Your backswing adds nothing if you stop at the "backscratch" position before swinging up at the ball.
6. Don't try to actually touch your back in the "backscratch" position. You want your racquet low and the elbow of your hitting arm high, but with a proper motion, you won't be able to actually touch your back.


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The above is an intuitive explanation, and is not at all rigorous. It may even be a little misleading, since the "blobs" in a true homotopy are not arbitrary sets; they are the continuous images of some other space R. In other words, a common space R must be capable of creating both blobs in S. It is the functions, not the blobs, that are homotopic.
Let R and S be topological spaces, and let f0 and f1 be continuous functions from R into S. Let I be the unit interval [0,1]. Let P be the product space R cross I, also written R:I, with the product topology. If f is a continuous function from P into S, where f restricted to 0 = f0, and f restricted to 1 = f1, then f is a homotopy, and f0 and f1 are homotopic.
Let the variable t represent time. As time advances from 0 to 1, ft moves from f0 to f1. This is the first blob moving onto the second. And for any time t, ft, the restriction of f to t, is continuous. We always maintain a continuous image.
Let's look at it another way. Fix a point x in R. This defines a subspace of P, namely x cross I, that is homeomorphic to the unit interval. Restrict f to this subspace and find a continuous map. The image of x traces out a path from f0(x) to f1(x), i.e. the continuous image of the unit interval. All the points in the first blob trace out paths as they move in concert to their destinations in the second blob.
If f0 and f1 are homotopic, compose t with 1-t to find a new continuous map that carries f1 back to f0. In other words, the homotopic relation is symmetric.
Finally assume f0 is homotopic to f1, is homotopic to f2. When t ranges from 0 to 1 f implements the first homotopy, and when t ranges from 1 to 2 f implements the second. Since both definitions agree on t = 1, f is well defined. If you want to be rigorous, you need to prove that an open set in the subspace t ≥ 1, union an open set in the subspace t ≤ 1, produces an open set in P. Choose an open set in S, and let x ∈ R be in the preimage of this open set under f1. Thus x:1 ∈ P is in the preimage under f. Let B1 be a base open set in the lower half of P, containing x:1. In other words, B1 is the cross product of a base open set in R and an open interval (1-ε,1]. Similarly, let B2 be a base open set in the upper half of P, containing x:1. Restrict B1 and B2 to an open set W in R that lies in their intersection. Now B1 is W:(1-ε,1], and B2 is W:[1,1+γ). Put this together and x:1 is contained in an open set in P. The preimage of our open set is open in P, across t = 1, and the entire function is a homotopy, making f0 and f2 homotopic. (If you want to be technical, divide t by 2, so that time once again runs from 0 to 1.)
Homotopic is reflexive, symmetric, and transitive, and forms an equivalence relation. Thus the homotopic functions from R into S form equivalence classes, and these are called homotopy classes.
And the process can be reversed. If f:g is continuous into S then f is continuous into C1 and g is continuous into C2, and f0 and f1 are homotopic, as are g0 and g1.
Let f(x,t) = f0(x)+t×(f1(x)-f0(x)). This is obviously continuous, but let's spend a couple minutes proving it. (In subsequent sections I'll probably skate quickly across these continuity details.)
Let x:t be in the preimage of an open ball in Rn. Find an open set δ so that f0(x) doesn't stray by more than ε when x is restricted to δ. Find a similar δ for f1 and intersect the two neighborhoods to make an even smaller δ.
Let y be in the δ neighborhood of x, and let u and v be the images of x and y under f0. As time advances, u and v move linearly to their new locations f1(x) and f1(y). At the start and end they are within ε of each other, and since they move linearly, they are always within ε of each other.
Now find γ so that γ×(f1(x)-f0(x)) is less than ε. When time is restricted to t±γ, the image of x does not stray by more than ε. And the image of y stays within ε of the image of x. When time and space are restricted by γ and δ respectively, this base open set is mapped into a ball of radius 2ε. The preimage of an open set in Rn can be covered in base open sets, and f is continuous.
In summary, any two functions into Rn are homotopic. There is only one homotopy class, and it can be represented by the function that maps the entire domain to 0.
Next, let the domain be Rn, and let S be any path connected space. Let f0 and f1 be any two continuous functions from Rn into S. Let x be any point in Rn. As t moves from 0 to 1, the image of x is f0((1-t)x). The homotopy slides everything towards f0(0). As t runs from 1 to 2, f runs a path from f0(0) to f1(0), which we can do, since S is path connected. Then, as t runs from 2 to 3, the image of x is f1((t-2)x). Do this for all x in Rn. Take a moment to prove this 3-part map is a homotopy. The first and third pieces represent reparameterizations of the domain, as described above. The middle piece is a path, which is a homotopy on a point. Therefore any two functions from Rn into a path connected space are homotopic.
Let v(D) represent a homotopy class of D into S. Apply f to find the corresponding homotopy class in T. Then apply g to find a homotopy class in S. The composition of these two maps carries v into something that is homotopic to v, just as it carries S into something homotopic to S. Restrict S cross I to v(D) cross I to demonstrate the homotopy on v(D). This pulls back to a homotopy on D. The result is the same homotopy class. Therefore the composition induces the identity map on homotopy classes. The same holds in reverse, hence f and g create a bijection between homotopy classes, and the spaces are homotopically equivalent.
Take a moment to prove "homotopically equivalent" is an equivalence relation. The only tricky part is transitivity. Compose functions to map homotopy classes from S to T to U, and back to T, and back to S. This composes two bijections, giving another bijection.
to illustrate, let S be a single point and let T be a closed ball in a metric space. Let f map S to the center of T and let g map T onto S. The composition in one direction gives the identity map on S. The reverse composition maps T to its center. A homotopy contracts T linearly onto its center, hence the point and the ball are homotopically equivalent. The same proof works for any set T that is star convex in a topological vector space. Its one and only homotopy class is represented by the trivial function from D onto the center of the star.
An example is the plain without the origin and the unit circle. The function g preserves the angle θ, and sets the radius to 1. The homotopy pulls the plane onto the circle. Defining the homotopy, and proving it is continuous is a bit technical; I'll leave the details to you. In any case, the homotopy classes of the circle are the homotopy classes of the punctured plane.