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Jubilant New Yorkers cheer essential workers along the Canyon of Heroes, July 7, 2021.
NYC Celebrates Hope and Perseverance With 'Hometown Heroes' Parade
By Aria Velasquez Ben Fractenberg and Jose Martinez
SHARE NYC Celebrates Hope and Perseverance With 'Hometown Heroes' Parade
The New Yorkers who kept the city going during some of its darkest days got their moment in the sun on Wednesday.
Amid scorching summer heat, health care workers, first responders, transit workers, teachers and food delivery workers were among those making their way up the aptly named "Canyon of Heroes" to mark the city's ongoing emergence from the pandemic.
The "Hometown Heroes" parade from the Battery to City Hall represented the 207th time that a ticker-tape celebration has been held in Lower Manhattan — and the first since a 2019 salute to the U.S. women's national soccer team that won the World Cup.
Wednesday's event followed a 16-month stretch in which the city became the epicenter of a global health crisis that killed more than 33,000 New Yorkers shuttered businesses or left them struggling to survive, testing those who stuck it out.
Essential workers made their way up the Canyon of Heroes Wednesday.
"We're New York strong," said Chelsea Pruett, 30, a nurse who returned from Minneapolis early in the pandemic to work at a nursing home. "We just make it."
On Wednesday, Pruett found herself near Trinity Church, back in the city for a moving 14-float salute to 260 types of essential workers.
THE CITY fanned out along the parade route to talk with those who've been waiting for a reason to celebrate after nearly a year and a half of hard times.
'This Was For Them'
Damien Lois spent the peak of the pandemic shuttling between Downtown Brooklyn and Ridgewood, Queens, on the B38 bus.
But on Wednesday, the nine-year veteran MTA bus operator savored an emotional route change, as he walked up lower Broadway alongside other transit workers.
The MTA lost more than 160 employees to COVID-19. But transit workers kept the city on the go, even as subway and bus ridership all but vanished in the spring of 2020.
Transit workers make their way up the Canyon of Heroes in a vintage subway car.
Christopher Alvarez/THE CITY
"It goes from one emotion to another to another and another," Lois told THE CITY. "All in all, it was about not wanting to get your family sick but I still had to go to work."
Lois, 43, said New York "felt like the proverbial ghost town" during those days and joked that he half expected to see tumbleweeds rolling past his bus.
"I was driving those long, articulated buses and to have one or two people in a single bus, that was surreal," he said. "To see New York as a ghost town, that's unheard of, it's something you will never forget."
Walking in the parade, Lois said, gave him time to reflect on being apart from his fiancé and young son for months in the early days of the pandemic.
"Here I was watching my son grow up via the telephone," he said. "Just because the last thing I wanted to do was get my son sick."
The parade also allowed him to think about friends he lost during the pandemic, including a mentor, a classmate and several coworkers.
"It's hard for me to not forget the coworkers we lost," said Lois. "This was for them."
Rising to the Challenge
On April 5, 2020, Erik Frampton was offered a job moving corpses from a Bronx hospital onto trailers that served as makeshift morgues.
He started the next day.
"All of the hospitals had bodies in the hallway, bodies on the loading docks, piles in the trailer," Frampton said. "It was really an eye-opening experience — probably just a few people in the world have ever seen a pile of American bodies."
Erik Frampton takes in the "Hometown Heroes" parade.
Frampton, who lost work as a custom art framer due to the pandemic, said he wasn't prepared for what he encountered.
"But it was something that every person who showed up that day rose to the challenge of," he said. "I made quick colleagues and lifetime friends through that experience."
Frampton said he was let go after 12 days for going public about conditions on the refrigeration truck — but added that he has no regrets.
On Wednesday, he marched in the parade.
"Millions of people were able to learn what the crisis really meant, which was the possibility of death, the possibility of losing loved ones as the virus spread," Frampton told THE CITY. "So, I'm proud of that and it may have cost me that role to share the story, but it's certainly the one aspect of the whole experience that I'm incredibly proud of."
Back and Better
Pruett, the nurse who now lives in Minneapolis, returned to the city for several weeks last year to assist at a Manhattan home for seniors.
For a month and a half, she worked at The New Jewish Home on West 106th Street, before moving to Minnesota.
Nurse Chelsea Pruett held back tears as she watched the parade.
"I came home to New York when I needed to," said Pruett, who'd lived in Crown Heights.
She was back again on Wednesday, happily watching the parade among other essential workers.
"I saw what it was like when we were just losing so many patients," Pruett said. "Now to see the city, it's just really closure to see New York come back to what it was."
Steve Swieciki, a social studies teacher at Lehman High School in The Bronx, said trying to connect with students during the pandemic proved difficult.
Stephen Swieciki
Aria Velasquez/THE CITY
"There's a narrative out there that people think working remotely is easy," he said. "It's not, especially when you're trying to keep young people motivated and engaged with the material. It can be a real challenge."
Swieciki, 34, said his personal struggles over the last 16 months also included catching COVID and his sister also getting sick. But he said he's proud of fellow teachers and other city workers who stayed on the job.
"People really rose to the occasion and made the best of a bad situation to help the public," he said. "I respect that, I appreciate that."
'We're All Heroes Today'
Laura Marceca, the director of a Manhattan senior center, called the parade "wonderful, emotional and beautiful."
"Everybody should be recognized for their hard work," she said.
For Marceca, that included supervising the creation of virtual programming at Greenwich House Senior Centers.
"They worked very very hard to make sure everybody had meals and social services and socialization and some type of virtual programming," she said.
That entailed teaching 1,000 seniors to use Zoom.
"We all learned overnight," she said with a laugh, adding, "We're all heroes today, we're proud of everybody."
Nurse Sandra Lindsay, who received the first coronavirus vaccine in the U.S., served as the parade's grand marshal.
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By Members' Research Service / April 15, 2021
The rise of digital health technologies during the pandemic [Policy Podcast]
Coronavirus has accelerated the rise of digital health, a broad concept that includes solutions for telemedicine and teleconsultation, remote monitoring, connected devices, digital health platforms and health apps.
© Jackie Niam / Adobe Stock
Written by Mar Negreiro,
Coronavirus has accelerated the rise of digital health, a broad concept that includes solutions for telemedicine and teleconsultation, remote monitoring, connected devices, digital health platforms and health apps. The concept also covers the related health data analysis and application in systems based on big data, for instance for epidemiological research and AI-enabled diagnosis support.
Digital technologies are becoming critical in the fight against the ongoing pandemic. They have been used, among other things, for online medical consultations from home and for increasing efficiency in diagnosis and treatment of patients through telemedicine, which, like teleworking and online education, has been a novel experience for many.
Likewise health workers have been using digital technology to diagnose the virus. For instance, China has developed new e-health apps allowing patients to assess their Covid-19 symptoms remotely. Patients with existing critical illnesses, reluctant to go to hospital because of the risk of contracting the virus, have been able to get online consultations from home and have in some cases been monitored remotely. Moreover, thanks to the availability of digital health records and e‑prescriptions in many EU countries, it has been possible to issue repeat prescriptions remotely, limiting unnecessary contact between doctors and patients and reducing the chances of exposure to the virus.
Nevertheless, there are many challenges to overcome as advances in digitalisation of healthcare come with drawbacks. They highlight a widening 'digital divide' that risks leaving behind the elderly and socially disadvantaged, who are less able to master or afford the technology. In addition, liability, reimbursement and cybersecurity issues are among the other key challenges that need to be considered, as cyber-attacks on hospitals are on the rise. Meanwhile, the transfer of personal health data is fuelling a debate over who owns and controls that data, raising questions over individuals' rights to privacy. What is clear is that digital health is here to stay.
Read the complete briefing on 'The rise of digital health technologies during the pandemic' in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.
Listen to policy podcast 'The rise of digital health technologies during the pandemic' on YouTube.
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Digital health solutions in the EU
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Categories: Economic and Social Policies, PUBLICATIONS Tags: briefings, Coronavirus (COVID-19), coronavirus disease, EPRS briefings, health policy, Mar Negreiro, multimedia, Podcasts, public health, technology
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Textbooks Out of Step With Scientists on Climate Change, Study Says
By Liana Loewus — December 01, 2015 4 min read
President Barack Obama joined world leaders from about 200 nations this week in Paris to discuss ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions and curb climate change.
"I've come here personally, as the leader of the world's largest economy and the second-largest emitter, to say that the United States of America not only recognizes our role in creating this problem, we embrace our responsibility to do something about it," Obama said in a speech.
He also reiterated a vow to reduce U.S. emissions to 26 percent to 28 percent below 2005 levels over the next 10 years.
But while the U.S. president is speaking about human impact on climate change in very certain terms, a recent study out of Stanford University found that middle school textbooks in use in California schools are sending a different message.
"Here in Paris, we can show the world what's possible when we come together" --@POTUS #COP21 #ParisClimateConference pic.twitter.com/i2mQ1VCkCB
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 30, 2015
Researchers looked at four 6th grade science textbooks that were published nearly a decade ago and are still being used in some California schools. In those texts, "the causes of climate change were shrouded in uncertainty," K.C. Busch, a doctoral candidate in science education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, and Diego Román, an assistant professor in teaching and learning at Southern Methodist University, wrote in their recent study. "Specifically, the human contribution to climate change was presented as a possibility rather than a certainty."
The texts were all approved in the most recent California adoption process, which took place in 2006. "People are like, of course they're not accurate because they're old," said Busch in an interview. "But if you look at the general scientific understanding then, they're still not scientifically accurate for the time they were written." She cited the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which released a report in 2007 asserting humans have had an impact on climate change.
"And regardless of when [the books] published, they're still at play, kids are still interacting with them and they will be for awhile," Busch said.
Overall, the textbooks send the message "that climate change is possibly happening, that humans may or may not be causing it, and that we do not need to take immediate mitigating action," the report says. In contrast, about 97 percent of climate scientists agree that climate change is due in large part to human activity, the report states.
The texts often refer to what climate scientists "believe" and "think," using verbs that convey uncertainty, rather than discussing what they've done such as collecting data, the researchers write. And two of the books mention potential positive effects of global warming, including a longer farming season.
Materials adoptions in California, which serves more than 6 million public school students, have historically had a hefty impact on the textbook market nationally. The texts reviewed for the study were earth science books published by CPO Science; Glencoe-McGraw-Hill; Holt, Rinehart, and Winston Inc.; and Prentice Hall.
Societal vs. Scientific Debate
"I was shocked at how bad [the textbooks] were," said Busch, who previously taught middle and high school science for 12 years. "You see a political ideology at play in these textbooks, and we're in a state that politically has an ideology that doesn't tend to correlate with climate denial."
The study points to 2011 research saying that only about half of U.S. teens believe climate change is occurring. And it says that teachers are reliant on textbooks to guide their instruction.
"It would be totally fine if the textbooks talked about this as a societal debate—but [it's not fine] to muddle the societal debate with the scientific debate, which doesn't exist," said Busch. "In Paris right now, they're not debating whether or not climate change is happening, they're debating what could or should be done."
California adopted the Next Generation Science Standards two years ago, and is expected to approve materials aligned to those standards in the next couple of years. The Next Generation standards document states that humans have had a large impact on global warming. The document's language on climate change has caused controversy in some states, including Wisconsin and West Virginia.
"This is a tremendous opportunity to improve the texts," said Busch.
U.S. President Barack Obama walks off after delivering remarks during the COP21, United Nations Climate Change Conference, outside Paris on Nov. 30. —Evan Vucci/AP
West Virginia Amends Science Standards, Again, to Reflect Doubt on Climate Change
W.Va, Wyo. Debate Climate-Change Mentions in Science Standards
California Set to Adopt Literacy Materials Tied to Common Core
For more news and information on reading, math, and STEM instruction:
And sign up here to get alerts in your email inbox when stories are published on Curriculum Matters.
Liana Loewus
Assistant Managing Editor
Liana Loewus is an assistant managing editor for Education Week who oversees news coverage of teaching and learning.
Textbooks STEM Next Gen. Science Standards Instructional Materials
A version of this news article first appeared in the Curriculum Matters blog.
A man dressed as George Washington and holding a Trump flag kneels and prays near the Washington Monument on Jan. 6.
Curriculum From 'Stunning' to 'Surprising': How News of the Capitol Attack Was Repackaged for Schools
Benjamin Herold, January 14, 2021


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You are here: Home / News / Competitions / Junior Rugby / Junior Rugby in Sask
Junior Rugby in Sask
20th August 2021 /in Community Rugby, Junior Rugby, Mini Rugby, News, Programs, Team Sask, Uncategorised /by Jordan Astrope
After losing out on 2 seasons of summer rugby programs due to COVID-19, Saskatchewan's junior rugby players have been busy catching up this summer. A number of junior programs and events brought our players back to the pitch, including training with local senior clubs.
These activities wouldn't have been possible without the support of community coaches, managers, organisers, and players, and the Sask Rugby High Performance Committee who continue to drive rugby's progress in the province. Your sport thanks you.
NORTH VS SOUTH
Organised by a group of women's coaches, junior girls will be taking the pitch in Saskatoon on August 21 and Regina on August 28 for some North vs South 15s exhibition games. Each day will consist of 2 games with 20 minute halves, and team lunch in between. Good luck ladies!
U18 BOYS CANADA CAMP
Sask Rugby is hosting a U18 Boys Canada camp August 21-22 in Regina for invited athletes. Out of those selected a number of Saskatchewan athletes will have their shot at a tour with the national team in December 2021 to January 2022. Good luck boys!
CANADA SUMMER GAMES TEAM TRAINING
Initially planned for 2021, the Niagara Canada Summer Games were rescheduled for August of 2022 due to COVID-19. Team Sask started its training with coaches Kayla Mack-Thiel and Gillian Allen in June of 2021. Any U18 girls interested in participating can learn more here: www.saskrugby.com/canadagames
RUGBY ID COMBINE
Organised by the Sask Rugby High Performance Committee, Sask's first ever Rugby ID Combine took place in July 2021, open to all athletes interested in developing in sport. The all-day session in Regina brought in over 30 athletes and tons of talent.
Formerly Regina Mini Rugby, Regina Minor has expanded in recent years to include players ages 15 to 18. After getting cancelled in 2020, the program returned in full force August of 2021 and plans to run until October. One of the longest standing community rugby programs in Saskatchewan, RMR is an excellent option for juniors looking to get into the game or develop in a fun environment.
RMR still delivers Minis for its 4-14 ages and the kids love it.
MacDowell Prairie Academy
The Prairie Academy was one of the only training opportunities for juniors during 2020, running sessions whenever possible. The program restarted in May of 2021 and is slated to return for fall sessions in September. The academy focuses on developing high performance rugby athletes but is open to all ages and skill levels.
NSRU Minor Rugby
Formerly Saskatoon Mini Rugby, the NSRU came together to deliver minor and junior rugby sessions in Saskatoon at the beginning of June 2021. The junior side of the program brought a number of North juniors back to the field and helped in reconnecting them with senior clubs.
https://www.saskrugby.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/SaskRugby.png 996 926 Jordan Astrope https://shared2.sportsmanager.ie/~saskrugby/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/logo-1.png Jordan Astrope2021-08-20 16:43:102021-08-20 17:47:58Junior Rugby in Sask
New Air Quality Guidelines


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Beyond the Peloton
Giro Stage 18 & Vuelta Stage 3: An instant classic on the Stelvio
beyondthepeloton.substack.com
A magic day of cycling on the Stelvio and a classic punchy day at the Vuelta
The Giro d'Italia might have been a little dull up to this point but wow, the Queen stage to Laghi di Cancano certainly didn't disappoint. The Stelvio, which kicked things off with 60km-to-go, seriously split the leaders for the first time in this race, with João Almeida losing contact and quickly falling out of the overall race lead, while Tao Geoghegan Hart and Jai Hindley rode away from second-place, Wilco Kelderman, who was forced to chase solo for the final 90 minutes in an attempt to salvage the overall race lead. Hindley outsprinted Geoghegan Hart to win the stage, while Kelderman came over the line 2'18 later, saying his race lead by 12-seconds.
Almeida would come in close to five minutes down and would ultimately lose the Pink Jersey he has held since Stage 3. He slipped from 1st to 5th place, but this shouldn't be seen as a defeat, but rather a triumph from the young rider. He has put up a great fight this entire race and did an amazing job to recover after being dropped on the Stelvio. Most young riders who hold leaders jerseys at grand tours completely give up after being dropped (i.e. Simon Yates) and are never able to make that next step because they simply sit up when they struggle, but Almeida proved he won't be one of these riders with the courage he displayed today.
The stage was blessed with dry, sunny, weather and served up beautiful high-mountain scenery on the iconic slopes of the Stelvio. The sun beaming off the newly fallen snow as the riders climbed the endless switchbacks as the race finally came to life made up for two sub-par weeks.
The Vuelta a Espana was finally put in its place by the Giro, as it merely produced an above-average first-week grand tour stage. Dan Martin broke a two-year win drought, finishing in front of Primož Roglič and Richard Carapaz, and extending 2nd place on GC over Carapaz to 8-seconds with the time bonuses.
The big news out of the Vuelta was that the race wouldn't be able to cross into France for its Stage 6 summit finish on the Col du Tourmalet and planned crossing of the Col d'Aubisque. This derails the Vuelta's hardest stage and the news will certainly be a blow to Carapaz, likely the strongest climber in the race.
Instead, the stage will still start in Biescas, near the French border, and will finish atop Aramón Formigal, which was the scene of one of the stages in Vuelta history, when Nairo Quintana and Alberto Contador teamed up to put Chris Froome to the sword with a long-distance raid back in 2016. In fact, the new parcours is an almost exact replica of that stage. At 146.4kms and three climbs with a little over 10,000 feet of elevation gain, it pales in comparison to the original course.
Correction Corner:
I said yesterday in the Vuelta race notes that Dan Martin was over 2-minutes back at one point, only for him to finish 2nd on the stage and move into 2nd place overall. I believe I got my Martin's mixed up, and it was actually Guillaume Martin who was dropped.
I also said that João Almeida had held the Pink jersey since Stage 1, when in fact, he took the jersey on Stage 3.
I got the final climb of the Vuelta completely wrong in my Stage 3 preview. I pulled details from the mid-stage climb instead of the finish. Apologies.
Giro d'Italia Notebook & Takeaways:
49.2km-11km into the Stelvio, Sunweb is on the front setting a relentless pace. Almeida is sitting towards the back of the group. It isn't a good sign that he seems to be struggling with 15km left on the climb.
48.1km-Almeida is being dropped by Sunweb's pace on the Stelvio. His teammate Fausto Masnada doesn't drop back to help him. He keeps looking back and it takes him four minutes to actually sit up and go back to him. He clearly just wanted to defend his own top-10 position. This is terrible and I would expect his director gave him some threatening words in his earpiece to make him go back.
47km-Ineos takes up the pace on the front as Filippo Ganna drops back from the breakaway. Nibali is dropped by Rohan Dennis' pace. With 10km to go on this climb, these gaps are going to be huge.
46.8km-Kelderman is dangling at the back already, wow.
46.6km-Almeida has made it back to a group with Patrick Konrad and Rafak Majka, who were dropped by Ineos. This is pretty impressive from the young guy. His teammate Masnada is actively not helping and is just sitting in. Oof. Later, Masnada seems to throw a tantrum and just sits right off the back of Almeida's group for the rest of the stage, not helping in the valley when it would have been extremely helpful.
Note that Ganna is still in the front group, this incredible climbing from him, and makes me think he could transform into a GC rider.
46.4km-Dennis is still on the front setting a fast pace. This climbing is really impressive. He is showing he can work well for teammates, which is something I've had doubts about in the past.
46km-This front group has gone down to four riders incredibly fast and they already have over a minute to Almeida. It shows that everyone in the group was just barely hanging on.
45.7km-Kelderman is dropped by Dennis. Geoghegan Hart and Hindley are still there. It is odd to watch Hindley ride on while his team leader, who is 3-minutes in front of him, dangles off the back. This is really tricky for Sunweb. Kelderman could really use a teammate right now. Also, this means the GC will likely be between Geoghegan Hart and Hindley, and now that one-second gap that Geoghegan Hart allowed due to his early celebration on Stage 15 comes into play.
44.9km-The front group catches the final breakaway rider, Ben O'Connor. There are now three Aussies in this front group. All four riders in the lead group are Anglophones, what a sad day for the Giro.
43.6km-Dennis might have to dust off the GC ambitions after this ride. He looks the strongest of them all.
43.5km-Almeida has pulled the gap back to 1'33, this isn't over.
43km-However, they still haven't hit the hard part of the climb. Also, Kelderman has already lost a lot of time.
42.5km-As I'm watching the race I'm furiously researching Hindley's career TT results versus Geoghegan Hart. He doesn't appear to be terrible, but he might have to try to attack Tao and gain time. This gets awkward since this would just further distance his teammate Kelderman, who is the current overall race leader on the road.
41.3km-I'm seeing power numbers snippets from Dennis and he is pushing a consistent 450 watts on this climb. Considering the altitude and length of the climb, that is a very, very hard pace.
40.8km-Kelderman is 36-seconds back. The time gap has stopped growing and he is still comfortably in virtual first place.
40km-The riders don't appear to have extra layers, I'm wondering how they are going to descend in near-freezing temps with just standard kit on.
39.2km-Almeida is now 3 minutes back, he is officially out of the race for first, but Kelderman is holding strong at 44-seconds.
38.7km-The two Ineos riders have really warm jackets on thanks to a well-placed team helper. Hindley is handed one closer to the top and is really fumbling with it and struggling to get it one.
38.5km- He nearly crashes and the Ineos riders are being very kind (or stupid) not to attack him here. I can think of a few riders in the past who wouldn't have been so kind (Vincenzo Nibali to name one).
38.2km-He can't get this jacket on, this is crazy. It is like an extended comedy bit. However, this is serious if he can't get it on. His race could be over on the descent. I wonder if being Australian means he isn't used to putting jackets on while riding.
37.8km-Now Hindley can't get his jacket zipped, thus eliminating almost all of the benefit of wearing a jacket. This is a disaster and shows how Ineos does the little logistics a bit better than other teams. Also, I wonder if Ineos isn't driving hard enough, Tao needs a lot more time on Kelderman than this 46-seconds.
36.1km-Hindley is descending with an open jacket, this is really bad and he will be much colder and slower than the Ineos pair.
34.8km-Kelderman is descending with an open jacket as well. Big mistake. I'm not sure why these Sunweb riders couldn't quite zip those things up. You are better off pulling over and zipping it up, the flappy jacket slows you down A LOT.
34km-It looks like Dennis is playing games with Hindley by letting a big gap go to Tao and forcing Hindley around him on the descent.
30.8km-Kelderman is losing time, out to 46-seconds.
29.8km-Kelderman losing more time, at 48-seconds. He just takes his jacket off because it is slowing him down so much.
28km-Kelderman back to 41-seconds
24.2km-Geoghegan Hart needs serious time on Kelderman, at around 2'45 back and a 15km TT on Stage 11, he will need around 3'30 on Kelderman at the start of that stage.
12.7km-They are on a flat section and Kelderman is leaking time, now at 1'19. He seems to be struggling after the cold descent. It is also due to Dennis pushing on the flats, which shows that it was a good idea for Geoghegan Hart not to attack to keep him around on the Stelvio. Perhaps Hindley should have attacked to dump Dennis on the Stelvio.
11.5km-Dennis is a huge thorn for Hindley and Kelderman, if they could get rid of him, it would force Geoghegan Hart to work and Hindley could sit on.
11.3km-They go through a bonus sprint point and Hindley doesn't see it! Geoghegan Hart gets 3 bonus sections and goes in front of Hindley. It would be amazing if this decided the race.
10.3km-Kelderman is all the way back at 1'41. The team car offers him a bottle, he takes it, but when he reaches back to get another bottle and some food, they speed off to get up to Hindley. He gestures at the disappearing car angrily and this sums up why teams shouldn't ride with two leaders.
Dennis finally pops, Hindley can sit on Geoghegan Hart's wheel now. If Kelderman continues to lose time, Hindley will have to attack Geoghegan Hart at some point and take time.
9.6km-Kelderman is caught and passed by Fuglsang and Bilbao. Oof, that's not good. Fuglsang and Bilbao could catch the two leaders. Fuglsang is going to regret losing so much time over the last two weeks, he looks incredible right now, the best I've ever seen him in a grand tour. Bilbao is proving me wrong regarding his ability to ride well with a recent Tour in his legs.
7.5km-Kelderman at 1'38, pulling time back. He maybe should have sat up and waited for Bilbao and Fuglsang on the flat section to get a rest and then climb together.
7.2km-Geoghegan Hart needs to get more time on Kelderman, the climbs on Stage 20 might not be hard enough now. He seems to be extremely angry with Hindley for not working on the front, but this is an absurd request. Hindley will never work to distance his team leader, especially one who is riding into the race lead.
6.6km-Bilbao and Fuglsang at 1'14, Kelderman at 1'36. Bilbao is only a few seconds behind Geoghegan Hart and Hindley in the overall, if he can catch them and then distance them on Stage 20, he could actually win the overall.
6.4km-Bilbao drops Fuglsang. He is really flying.
5.8km-Kelderman holding steady at 1'32, Bilbao at 57-seconds. Geoghegan Hart isn't pulling out time and is running out of road. This is where his decision to not attack back on Stage 15 comes into play. He could and should have dropped Kelderman then.
5.1km-Bilbao at 50-seconds, wow. Geoghegan Hart could be backing off the pace so that Hindley won't jump him, but this would be thinking about problem B (Hindley) before solving Problem A (Kelderman).
4.5km-A lot of questions will be raised about whether Hindley should have waited for Kelderman as he certainly would have helped, but I think there is no way he could have known that Kelderman would hold it this close and you can't let a rider like Geoghegan Hart, who you are leading by a second, go up the road.
4km-Hindley is riding below 300-watts, he might be able to attack Geoghegan Hart after sitting in the wheels for so long.
2.4km-Bilbao at 38-seconds. Hindley must be sitting on and just counting on winning the stage and leaping back in front of Geoghegan Hart with the time bonus. Kelderman is at 1'48. In retrospect, it is super impressive Kelderman wasn't tempted to increase his pace to stay with Fuglsang and Bilbao.
1.3km-Geoghegan Hart is in a TT position as the road flattens out and is really hammering. Kelderman is slipping a bit, back to 2'01.
Finish: Geoghegan Hart drives it all the way to the line and Hindley sprints around him for the win. This gets Hindley back in front of Geoghegan Hart on the GC.
Kelderman is creeping coming in here, loses 2'17, plus the 6 seconds to Geoghegan Hart and 10 to Hindley for the time bonuses. This means he will take the Pink jersey but Hindley is behind him at 12-seconds back and Geoghegan Hart at 15-seconds.
Takeaways:
An incredibly boring race has turned in a flash and is now one of the tightest top 3s we've had in a long time going into the final two GC days on a grand tour.
The race over the Stelvio was incredible and produced one of the most exciting and devastating days of grand tours racing that I've seen in a long time. Also, the additional final climb at the finish (used for the first time ever in the Giro) was key and made the race more dynamic than when we last went over the Stelvio in 2017.
The Ineos pair should have attacked Hindley when he was struggling with his jacket on the Stelvio. I know it is mean and unsportsmanlike, but if Geoghegan Hart loses this race by a handful of seconds, this moment will become a massive what-if for Ineos management.
If anyone thought the level of this Giro was down compared to year's past, guess again. Dennis, Geoghegan Hart, and Hindley set today a new record on the Stelvio (1 hour 11 minutes 6 seconds).
Bilbao really proved me wrong. I thought he would fade in the third week due to riding the Tour de France two weeks before this Giro, but the opposite is true, he is surging in this third week. He was the fastest rider on the final climb and is now only 1'19 back. He would need a massive performance to win this race, but a podium isn't totally out of reach.
Having a podium this tight going into the final few days is a very rare feat and something the Giro should be applauded for. People have complained that the race has been boring, but I think true boredom stems from a dominant rider just hammering the rest and winning by 4-5 minutes (a la Froome and Armstrong at the Tour).
Sunweb is between a rock and a hard place here. Their best bet to win is to have Kelderman hang on to Geoghegan Hart on Stage 20 and win the race in the TT on Stage 21. But if he is dropped by Geoghegan Hart again, Hindley has to try to attack Geoghegan Hart and gain more time before the TT on Stage 21.
Sunweb's lack of institutional planning was on display today. While Ineos had well-placed helpers on the Stelvio to hand off jackets and on the final climb to hand off drinks and gels, Sunweb didn't and botched both and suffered the consequences.
Kelderman descending the Stelvio without a jacket was followed by the gap to the leaders blowing up in the valley, and he seemed to lose steam in the final 2kms after his team car failed to give him two bottles. These types of unforced errors are crictical and could cost him the race.
Hindley screwed up by not attacking on the final climb. If you want to win the Giro, you have to attack. According to Velon power numbers, Hindley averaged 310 watts for the final 11 minutes, with only a few moments above threshold, which was likely in the sprint. This shows he was really just sitting on and could probably have attacked and maybe dropped Geoghegan Hart.
It is possible he was being told by his team to not attack to help the optics, but by riding two horses, Sunweb is getting too cute and could leave themselves with a 2nd and 3rd place in Milan. I think if they are going to back both, they needed to tell Hindley attack on the final climb. But even if those orders weren't given, Hindley needed to come to that conclusion on his own. Even if he didn't drop Geoghegan Hart, the changes in pace would have slowed their speed and allowed Kelderman to get closer. Geoghegan Hart was riding as fast as he could, attacking certainly wouldn't have lifted the pace.
After the stage, Kelderman was clearly annoyed that Hindley didn't wait for him and it is odd that a teammate who is 3-minutes down on his team leader wouldn't sit up. Hindley likely slowed Geoghegan Hart slightly by acting as an anchor, but once Geoghegan Hart realized he couldn't trick Hindley into working, he was likely riding all out to win the race overall. Every second counts at this point, I would be surprised if he really held back because of Hindley.
This has to be the only sport where the coaches have to make decisions while driving a car and watching the race on a delayed feed on an 8-inch dashboard screen? After today, it is clear that teams should have coaches or directors watching the race with a dashboard of information and beaming directions to the riders or the directors in the cars. I feel like a lot of Sunweb's issues stemmed from just being overwhelmed by the chaos of driving and attempting to service two riders.
I'm still not sure if Sunweb made the right or wrong decision by leaving Kelderman to fend for himself, but it is certainly strange to watch a team leader riding into the race lead being left to flounder for 90-minutes by a team. On the other hand, Kelderman is clearly fading, which I predicted at the beginning of this race, and Hindley is surging, so the simple logic could be to go with the rider who is surging, not fading. To figure out Sunweb's best chance of winning the overall, let's consider the contender's TT performances in this race so far.
Kelderman/Hindley/Geoghegan Hart TT Times
With the top three separated by only 15-seconds and only one mountain stage left, this race will most likely come down to the time trial on Stage 21. The projected performances from the top-3 need to be taken into account when considering if Sunweb made the right decision to allow Hindley to leave Kelderman.
In the Stage 1 TT, Geoghegan Hart could have assumed his time didn't matter since he was there to work for Thomas, but, he should have known he was the backup plan and tried to ride as hard as he could.
The same goes for Hindley, he couldn't have known he'd be trying to win the race in the third week, but he knows he is an amazing climber and a third week of high mountains awaited, and that he was the Plan B for Sunweb.
For the Stage 14 TT, Neither Geoghegan Hart nor Hindley knew they would be racing for the overall win a few stages later. Hindley was in 7th place and Geoghegan Hart was in 12th, but neither were that far off the lead with a lot of race left. They should have been trying their hardest in this TT.
Giro Super TT (Stage 1+ Stage 14)
Kelderman has gained 73-seconds total on Geoghegan Hart over 49kms of TTs (1.5s/km)
Kelderman has gained 99-seconds total on Hindley over 49kms of TTs (2.02s/km)
Geoghegan Hart has gained 26-seconds on Hindley over 49kms of TTs (.5s/km), which is similar to their gap on the final Tirreno Adriatico earlier this year (which was .6s/km)
If these trends held on Stage 21 (15-km TT), Kelderman will gain 22-seconds on Geoghegan Hart and 30-seconds on Hindley.
Geoghegan Hart will gain 7.5 seconds on Hindley.
This means to win the overall, Hindley needs to take 11-seconds on Geoghegan Hart, while Geoghegan Hart needs to take 37-seconds on Kelderman on Stage 20.
My personal hunch is that Kelderman will be dropped again on Stage 20. Once big gear grinders like that start fading in a grand tour, they usually continue their slide in other stages. I think Geoghegan Hart could take 37-seconds on Kelderman even on an "easier" climb like Sestriere. I think Sunweb's best bet is to have Hindley attack Geoghegan Hart.
However, if Hindley is Sunweb's GC bet, some odd decisions have been made. Firstly, Hindley pulled Geoghegan Hart up the final climb on Stage 15, only to sit up and the final km and let Geoghegan Hart take valuable seconds. Secondly, if Hindley is going to win this race, he needs to take time on Geoghegan Hart, and the final few kilometers of the final climb today would have been a great place to try.
If Kelderman is dropped on Stage 20 and Hindley can't get time on Geoghegan Hart, who then beats him on Stage 21 to win the overall, the decision to leave Kelderman alone today while not having Hindley attack is going to look incredibly stupid.
Vuelta a Espana Stage 3 Notebook & Takeaways
100km-Jumbo setting a hard pace on the front on another tough day with cold, rainy conditions.
48km-The break has already been pulled back and a handful of riders are attacking the peloton to form a second break.
37.5km-The break has 1'23 and the pace back in the peloton looks really hard. This Vuelta has been unbelievably hard.
18km-The break only has 19-seconds as the final climb approaches.
8km-The peloton is catching the break. I think I got the stats so wrong for this climb, I had it at 18kms long and the elevation data I was looking at had it gaining over 2,100 feet, but that must have been incorrect, it is starting now and looks to gain around 1,600 feet.
6km-Marc Soler has had an issue and is chasing back on at the worst possible time. He is trying to motorpace his team car but the race commissar makes them stop. I think they did get him to the back of the peloton, but that is a bad place to be when the pace is this high at the start of a climb.
5.1km-Who is that on the front? Well, it is Chris Froome! The old guy seems to be finding his legs is able to get up front and set a hard pace for Carapaz.
4.9km-Chaves has an issue and has to take a massive bike that doesn't even come close to fitting him from a teammate bike. Wow, this is horrible timing for him.
3.4km-Amador is drilling it on the front for Ineos, which is making it really hard for Chaves to catch back on.
2.8km-Carapaz swings off the wheel of Sosa on the front and starts talking into the radio, either he is hurting or wanting to attack from further back.
2.6km-King Kenny Elissonde attacks and Chaves is so close to the back of the peloton, the problem is that it is splitting as he is catching. Literally, the worst place to be in a bike race.
2km-Sosa pulls Ellisonde back and is setting pace for Carapaz. Chaves won't make it back, 37-seconds back.
600m-Roglic is towards the front of a really select group, Kuss attacks.
Finish: Dan Martin wins the sprint ahead of Roglic and Carapaz. With time bonuses he picked up yesterday and today, he's now 8-seconds in front of Carapaz in 2nd place.
I was too excited about the Giro to grab any screenshots or gifs from the Vuelta finish, but below is a link to a video of the final km.
Mihai Simion @faustocoppi60
After 833 days without a victory and many setbacks, Dan Martin wins stage 3 of @lavuelta in an uphill sprint. 👏 Roglic seemed more interested about finishing ahead of Carapaz here while Enric Mas lost 9 seconds and Chavito more than one minute. #LaVuelta
92Likes1Retweet
This is a big win for Dan Martin, but I would hesitate to say this is just a stage win. The Irishman was been perfect in the first three days of this race and without the usual dilly dally first week where he almost always crashes and loses time, he could actually figure in the overall at this Vuelta. He has looked great so far and is only 5-seconds behind Roglic and the stage where he would have struggled, Stage 6, has been taken off the menu.
Roglic looked good but I was surprised to see him lose the stage. After rewatching the finish, it kind of looked like he was more interested in making sure he beat Carapaz than winning. If he isn't considering Martin as a rival, he is making the "Carapaz Mistake" from the 2019 Giro all over again (The Carapaz Mistake is when Roglic focuses on one rider too much while letting another rider go up the road and win the race. It is ironic Carapaz could be on both sides of the mistake.)
You can tell they've just thrown some blacktop over a dirt road for this finish, which makes the climb really steep and this is shown by the time gaps that formed at the end of the stage.
Movistar's good fortune didn't last long. Mas lost 9-seconds in the last few hundred meters, Soler and Valverde lost 45 and 55-seconds.
Chaves lost 1'06 at the line. This is devastating for him since he was looking like the 5th strongest rider in this race and Stage 6 would have suited him incredibly well.
Preview & Predictions
Giro Stage 19
If you glance at this profile, you might think, oh wow, an easy stage. But look again, this is a 259-kilometer behemoth wedged between two brutal mountain stages. WHY!? This is the same distance as a stand-alone monument. I assume the answer is that the start and finish towns shelled out a good amount of cash and they just had to string them together, but this is silly.
The stage traces the west-side of Lake Como for the first 50km of the stage. This means they will pass right by the Hotel Grand Tremezzo, and I recommend the riders dip it to grab a few Aperol Spritzes on the terrace. This would also be a much better rider protest of a too-long stage than sitting on the road.
The peloton is going to be so tired and wanting to save energy for Stage 20, so I'm doubtful that the teams will want to motivation to hold this together for a sprint.
Peter Sagan was pulling at the front of the peloton at the base of the Stelvio, so he clearly feels good. Also, he knows this is his last chance to win a stage at this race, and with Majka and Konrad out of contention for a podium, the team will work to keep the race together.
Prediction: Peter Sagan is fantastic at sprinting after long stages and gets his second stage win by outsprinting Demare.
Vuelta Stage 4
The Vuelta finally gets an easy-ish day. This is a "sprint stage"," but I think the breakaway specialists could finally sniff a chance and get up the road.
Prediction: The sprinter's teams pull the break back before the line and Jasper Philipsen wins the sprint.
© 2023 Spencer Martin


Microsoft Kinect Selling Out Everywhere, or Is It?
Watching companies pimp new products, say Microsoft's Kinect or Sony's Move, often feels like dropping by an old fashioned tent revival. Plying social media services like Twitter and Facebook, paid advocates of the company hit the airwaves like missionaries, pumping endless positive vibes.
GameStop's VP of merchandizing Bob McKenzie is working the crowd, telling Gamasutra that Move and Kinect are "bringing in a new consumer...much like we've seen for years with Nintendo." McKenzie's claims are of course purely speculative. GameStop doesn't perform exit polling, or have any real sense of who's buying these things demographically speaking. All the launch line pictures I've seen depict hordes of teenage males, but I'd never assume that means only "traditional" gamers are buying the peripheral.
Microsoft's high priest of publicity Aaron Greenberg has been churning Twitter with updates like "In case there was any doubt that Kinect is everywhere, check out this pic of promotional partners." Click the link and you're treated to a snap of promotional tie-in merchandize (see above): Front shots of Kinect on Apple Jacks and Corn Pops. A "you could win!" Kinect contest grabbing half the side of a case of Diet Pepsi. Microsoft's "you are the controller" spiel splashed across the back of what looks like a box of Frosted Flakes. Never mind that these cereals rank among both Consumer Reports and CerealFacts' worst breakfast cereals for kids.
And in the UK, where Kinect launched last night, retailer Game claims the Xbox 360 motion-sensor will sell out in 24 hours due to stock shortages. Note the distinction drawn between "stock shortages" and "consumer demand."
Even a few news outlets like the UK-based Telegraph get in on the spin with a story misleadingly titled "Microsoft Kinect 'to sell out by Christmas'," despite the fact that nothing of the sort's actually said in the article. What Best Buy UK's commercial director Harry Parmer actually says is that "availability is very limited and on a first-come, first-served basis, but we expect deliveries between now and Christmas."
My local Best Buy was sold out of standalone units early Monday (no shipments on Sunday) but had Xbox 360s bundled with Kinect to spare. The local GameStop by contrast had plenty of both. Meaning? Nothing journalistically decipherable, that's for sure.
Reading around the web, you hear stories of blazing sellouts in some places and overstock creep in others. The standard wash of anecdotal flimsiness, in other words. Microsoft knows precisely what's happening but won't divulge a thing until it deems the moment "market optimal" and issues a press statement titled something like "X million Kinects sold" in such-and-such amount of time. Sony's done much the same with Move, though fudging the crucial distinction between units "shipped" and "sold-through."
In fact Sony fudges a lot of things. The company's PlayStation 3 "can only do everything," which of course it can't.
Take the PlayStation Move. Replace my plastic back scratcher? Maybe next time, Sony.


1. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle fillets evenly with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add fillets to pan; cook 3 minutes or until browned. Turn fillets over; cook 4 minutes or until desired degree of doneness. Remove fish from pan; loosely cover, and keep warm. Wipe pan clean with paper towels.
in a medium bowl. Gradually add oil, stirring with a whisk. Stir in shallots.
3. Return pan to medium-high heat. Add tomatoes, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon black pepper; sauté for 3 minutes or until tomatoes soften. Add tomatoes to vinaigrette; toss to combine.


Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a progressive neurological disorder of the brain and spinal cord. It affects approximately 120,000 people in the UK and 2.5 million people globally. Most people with MS experience two stages of the disease: Early MS – Relapsing-Remitting MS (RRMS), which is partially reversible, and Late MS – Secondary Progressive MS (SPMS), which affects the majority of patients, usually after 10 to 15 years after diagnosis.
SPMS results from progressive neuronal degeneration that causes accumulating and irreversible disability affecting walking, balance, manual function, vision, cognition, pain control, bladder and bowel function. The pathological process driving the accrual of disability in SPMS is not known at present.
Immunomodulatory anti-inflammatory disease modifying therapies (DMTs) are increasingly effective in reducing relapse frequency in RRMS, however, they have been unsuccessful in slowing disease progression in SPMS. This is the overwhelming conclusion from an analysis of 18 phase 3 trials (n=8500), of which 70% of the population had SPMS, all performed in the last 25 years. There is no current disease modifying treatment (DMT) for SPMS.
In an earlier study (MS-STAT1), 140 people with SPMS were randomly assigned to receive either placebo or simvastatin for a period of two years. The investigators found that the rate of brain atrophy (loss of neurons - 'brain shrinkage'), as measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), was reduced in patients receiving simvastatin compared to those taking placebo.
Several other long term studies have also reported that there might be a relationship between the rate of brain atrophy and the degree of impairment.
The study is designed to test the effectiveness of repurposed simvastatin (80mg) in a phase 3 double blind, randomised, placebo controlled trial (1:1) in patients with secondary progressive MS (SPMS), to determine if the rate of disability progression can be slowed over a 3 year period.


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Home Dining Winfield's Gathering Place Closing July 2
Winfield's Gathering Place Closing July 2
Mark Winfield and former St. Louis Cardinal Jim Edmonds opened the Kirkwood restaurant in January 2015.
by George Mahe
Mark Winfield announced on Facebook this morning that his namesake restaurant, Winfield's Gathering Place, located at 10312 Manchester in Kirkwood, would close on July 2 after an 18 month run.
His partner in the venture was former St. Louis Cardinal and current baseball announcer Jim Edmonds. The partnership began in 2007 at the multi-story, multi-venue Fifteen (Edmonds' jersey number as a Cardinal) at 1900 Locust Street in Downtown West. Fifteen transitioned into Jim Edmonds 15 Steakhouse, and then to the The Precinct Sports Bar & Grill and the banquet area as Jim Edmond's Space 15, both which closed in May of last year.
When the duo opened Winfield's in early 2015, Winfield (right) described it as "busy as hell," a factor that played into the decision to close The Precinct. "When one restaurant does in an hour what the other does all day, on a Friday, the reality hits you pretty quickly," Winfield said at the time.
Then the restaurant experienced a few unexpected turns. The Wood Cask opened in the same center as Winfield's few months later (which always has an impact), but in this author's mind, it was an unnecessarily harsh and one-sided article in the St. Louis Business Journal that inflicted the most damage. The Jan 12, 2016 article correctly stated that Mark Winfield had filed for personal bankruptcy but never mentioned whether Winfield's Gathering Place would remain in business or not. At the time, SLM fielded numerous inquiries regarding the status of the business, which would remain open. At the time, gift cards were apparently redeemed in droves, which spoke volumes. Business plummeted. It is likely that Winfield's never recovered from the blowback of that article.
There are rumors that another ownership group is in the wings, but in the meantime, customers old and new have a few more days to check out Winfield's award-winning BBQ ribs, lobster wontons, a wined-and-brined-and-smoked half-chicken, and the #1 selling sandwich, a burnt ends sourdough melt.
Winfield ended the Facebook post with the following: "Thank you again for your business and if you would like any other details about the close please contact me directly (314) 920-1168."
George Mahe
Mahe is St. Louis Magazine's dining editor. Originally a finicky eater, he has owned or operated restaurants most of his life. He began reviewing them for SLM in 1991.
Read more by George Mahe


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What's New in Poetry, 1-1-15
Posted by Bruce Covey | Jan 1, 2015 | What's New in Poetry |
Hi!!! Happy New Year!!! I'm so happy to bring back What's New in Poetry, this time on the web as a part of Real Pants. Thanks so much, Amy & Adam!
Our first episode has four videos. The first is from DC superstar & founder of NaPoWriMo, Maureen Thorson. The second comes from Argentina, from former Atlantan & 421 Atlanta author Dan Beauregard. The third is from one of my up-and-coming faves, MA poet Dara Cerv. The last is from Coconut Books author and Seattle poet Lauren Ireland, who totally rocks! Pictures and bios below. Have fun! & you can always contact me at bruce@realpants.com.
Maureen Thorson is the author of two books of poetry, My Resignation (Shearsman 2014) and Applies to Oranges (Ugly Duckling Presse 2011), as well as a number of chapbooks and pamphlets, most recently A Good Attitude (Flying Object 2014). She lives in Washington, DC, where she is the poetry editor for Open Letters Monthly, an online arts and literature review. Visit her at www.maureenthorson.com
Daniel Beauregard lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he runs a small press called OOMPH! that focuses on contemporary poetry in translation. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Fanzine, H_NGM_N, Smoking Glue Gun, NAP, ILK, Poor Claudia, Everyday Genius and elsewhere. He has two chapbooks available; Before You Were Born (421 Atlanta, 2013) and HELLO MY MEAT (Lame House Press, 2014).
Dara Cerv lives and writes in Jamaica Plain, MA. Poems appear and are forthcoming in Whiskey Island, The Volta, apt, and Jellyfish. Sixth Finch will publish her first chapbook in 2015.
Lauren Ireland is a graduate of the MFA program for Poets and Writers at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and an editor at Ghostwriters of Delphi. She is the author of The Arrow (Coconut Books, 2014), Dear Lil Wayne (Magic Helicopter Press, 2014), and two chapbooks, Sorry It's So Small (Factory Hollow Press, 2011) and Olga & Fritz (Mondo Bummer Press, 2011). She lives in Seattle and online at laurenireland.net and ghostwritersofdelphi.com.
Bruce Covey
Bruce Covey publishes & edits Coconut magazine & Coconut Books and, for 12 years, hosted the "What's New in Poetry" reading series in Atlanta. His sixth book of poetry, Change Machine, was published by Noemi Press in 2014.
Latest posts by Bruce Covey (see all)
What's New in Poetry, 5-7-15 - May 7, 2015
What's New in Poetry, 4-23-15 - April 23, 2015
What's New in Poetry, 3-26-15 - March 26, 2015
PreviousDeadfalls & Snares (in the Love Economy)
NextEat | Read with Kristen Iskandrian & John Dermot Woods
What's New in Poetry, 4-23-15


PCG is proud to launch our new website. We hope that this website will allow everyone to access information and interact with our programs easier. We look forward to updating our pages and posting blogs daily, so check back often. Also, be sure to like our facebook page and follow us on twitter.


Our in house dog bakery selection is grain free, Veterinary approved, and recommended.
If you're local, you can shop our store and pick up ready made cakes, cupcakes, dog candy, donuts available without ordering in advance.
Although we bake daily, our store selection is first come first serve.
You can order custom cakes online 3-5 business days in advance.
Once ordered, your cake will be ready for you by 9am the morning you've chosen for pick up.
Local pick up during our normal business hours. TUE-SAT 9am-6pm.


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In Greek mythology, Urania ( ; Ancient Greek: Οὐρανία or Οὐρανίη Ouranía means 'heavenly') may refer to the following divinities:

 Urania, the Oceanid with a 'divine in form'. She was one of the 3,000 water-nymph daughters of the Titans Oceanus and his sister-spouse Tethys. Along with her sisters, Urania was one of the companions of Persephone when the daughter of Demeter was abducted by Hades.
 Urania, one of the nine Muses, daughters of Zeus, king of the gods, and the Titaness Mnemosyne.
 Urania, a surname of Aphrodite, describing her as "the heavenly," or spiritual, to distinguish her from Aphrodite Pandemos. Plato represents her as a daughter of Uranus, begotten without a mother. Wine was not used in the libations offered to her. The tortoise, the symbol of domestic modesty and chastity, was sacred to her.

Notes

References

 Herodotus, The Histories with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920. . Online version at the Topos Text Project. Greek text available at Perseus Digital Library.
 Hesiod, Theogony from The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
 The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Homeric Hymns. Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
 Kerényi, Carl, The Gods of the Greeks, Thames and Hudson, London, 1951.
Publius Ovidius Naso, Fasti translated by James G. Frazer. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
 Publius Ovidius Naso, Fasti. Sir James George Frazer. London; Cambridge, MA. William Heinemann Ltd.; Harvard University Press. 1933. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
 Suida, Suda Encyclopedia translated by Ross Scaife, David Whitehead, William Hutton, Catharine Roth, Jennifer Benedict, Gregory Hays, Malcolm Heath Sean M. Redmond, Nicholas Fincher, Patrick Rourke, Elizabeth Vandiver, Raphael Finkel, Frederick Williams, Carl Widstrand, Robert Dyer, Joseph L. Rife, Oliver Phillips and many others. Online version at the Topos Text Project.

Oceanids
Women in Greek mythology
Epithets of Aphrodite

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Eastern District of Michigan
Barbara L. McQuade
Contact: Gina Balaya
www.justice.gov/usao/mie
Detroit One Collaboration Leads To 20 Year Sentence Of Gang Leader For Violent Racketeering-Related Crimes
The collaboration of local, state, and federal law enforcement under the Detroit One program has led to the 20 year sentence of Antonio Clark, a leader within the Traveling Vice Lords gang for attempted murder in aid of racketeering in connection with the shooting of a family of four with an AK-47 in Detroit, Michigan on May 7, 2015.
The announcement was made by Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade of the Eastern District of Michigan, Special Agent in Charge Robin Shoemaker of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Special Agent in Charge David P. Gelios of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Chief James Craig of the Detroit Police Department.
As admitted in the plea agreements, members of the Traveling Vice Lords, acting at the direction of Vice Lord leaders including Antonio Clark, were searching for two brothers who had attempted to leave the gang as part of a plan to "violate" the brothers for their perceived infractions against the gang. The defendants further admitted that, on May 7, 2015, they and others met at a Vice Lord member's house to discuss their plan and collect firearms, including an AK-47 assault rifle, and then traveled in multiple cars to the intended victims' house. After a brief confrontation with the brothers' family members, Clark opened fire with an AK-47, firing at the family more than two dozen times and hitting the brothers, their mother and 15-year-old sister. Fortunately, all of the victims survived the shooting.
Antonio Clark, a/k/a "Cheeto," 26, of Detroit, pleaded guilty on January 27, to two counts of attempted murder in aid of racketeering and using and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence, in connection with this shooting. Seven other Vice Lord defendants also have pleaded guilty to charges relating to the shooting, including racketeering conspiracy and assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering. Four of the gang members have already been sentenced and received the following terms of imprisonment:
Aramis Wilson, 25, of Detroit – 12 years, 6 months
Dion Robinson, 38, of Detroit – 10 years, 1 month
Jonathan Kinchen, 23, of Detroit – 10 years
Kojuan Lee, 20, of Detroit – 8 years, 1 month
The federal investigation includes other charges. On May 25, an alleged senior leader of the Traveling Vice Lords, Burney Everett, a/k/a "Tank," 27, of Detroit, was charged with various offenses, including racketeering conspiracy, attempted murder in aid of racketeering and witness tampering. According to the allegations in the indictment, on May 7, 2015, Everett, who holds the rank of "Three-star Universal Elite" within the gang, instructed Vice Lord members to carry out this shooting, and later plotted with other Vice Lord members to kill witnesses in retaliation for those witnesses providing information to law enforcement authorities about the shooting. A superseding indictment was returned on July 13, charging Jamerio Clark, 28, of Detroit, the brother of Antonio Clark, with witness tampering and obtaining and disclosing private health information to the gang. The private information belonged to potential witnesses and victims, and came from a patient database of a Detroit area medical provider for whom he worked.
According to the indictments in this case, the Vice Lords is a national gang engaged in a variety of crimes, including murder, robbery, narcotics trafficking and witness intimidation. The indictment alleges that the Vice Lords' leaders are located in both Chicago and Detroit, and that the gang is broken down into various "sets," "decks," or "branches," including the Detroit-based Traveling Vice Lords, Insane Vice Lords, Imperial Insane Vice Lords, Conservative Vice Lords, and Mafia Insane Vice Lords. The indictment further alleges that members who seek to leave or withdraw from the gang oftentimes endure a physical beating, known as a "beat out," by multiple Vice Lord members, or are targeted for killing, known as a "green light."
The charges related to the May 7, 2015 shooting are just one component of the federal government's prosecution of the Vice Lords street gang, which has led to the arrests and convictions of dozens of Vice Lords leaders and members over the last few years. In two trials during March and May 2015, juries convicted eight leaders and members of the Phantom Outlaw Motorcycle Club, many of whom were also leaders and members of the Vice Lords, for various crimes, including a mass murder plot against a rival organization of the Phantoms and the shooting of a member of another rival organization. Among those eight convicted defendants was the national president of the Phantoms and the "three-star general" over all of the Vice Lords in Michigan,
Antonio Johnson, a/k/a MT and Mister Tony, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison on September 8, 2015 after convictions for racketeering conspiracy, murder conspiracy in aid of racketeering, assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering, aiding and abetting the use and carry of firearms during and in relation to a crime of violence, and felon in possession of a firearm.
"Because so much of the violence in Detroit is driven by street gangs, we are focusing on dismantling them and prosecuting their leaders," McQuade said. "The Detroit One partnership brings together various law enforcement organizations to ensure information sharing and coordination so that we can bring strong cases against these violent criminals."
"Organized drug gangs like the Traveling Vice Lords jeopardize the safety of many in the Detroit community. This significant federal sentence is the result of outstanding work by ATF's Comprehensive Violence Reduction Partnership (CVRP) and the Detroit One initiative," said ATF Special Agent in Charge Robin Shoemaker, "This investigation is proof, once again, that the Detroit One initiative is making our communities a safer place to live"
"The success in this case is a direct result of the ongoing joint investigative efforts by the FBI, ATF, and our state and local partners. Utilizing the resources associated with the Detroit ONE Initiative, we will remain vigilant in our efforts to keep our neighborhoods and communities safe from the threats that gang violence pose to our citizens", said David P. Gelios, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Detroit Division. "This case exemplifies the power of the Detroit ONE Initiative and what it can accomplish through dynamic law enforcement collaborations."
Detroit One is a collaborative effort between law enforcement and the community to reduce homicide and other violent crime in Detroit. By working collaboratively, local, state, and federal law enforcement is striving to maximize its ability to identify and arrest the persons and groups initiating the violence in Detroit. Since Detroit One started in 2013, this effort has had led to significant indictments, convictions, and sentences against a number of street gangs who are responsible for much of the violent crime in Detroit. Since these collaborative efforts began, Detroit has seen a decrease in the homicide rate from 386 in 2012 to 295 in 2015 and a steady decrease in the overall violent crime rate.
Under the Detroit One Initiative, and through the lead efforts of the ATF's CVRP Task Force (Comprehensive Violence Reduction Partnership), consisting of representatives of the ATF, Detroit Police Department, Michigan State Police, and Michigan Department of Corrections, and coupled with the efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, law enforcement authorities linked various acts of violence in Detroit to the Vice Lords street gang, and identified the leaders and key members of the gang, who now have been held accountable.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Christopher Graveline and Mark Bilkovic of the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan, and Trial Attorney Joseph Wheatley of the Criminal Division's Organized Crime and Gang Section.
Detroit Field Division


SameBoy is an extremely accurate open source Gameboy (DMG) and Gameboy Color (CGB) emulator, written in portable C.
The SameBoy core has reverse engineered Game Boy/Game Boy Color boot ROMs baked into the core itself so real BIOS files aren't required. If you'd like to override this, you can place the following BIOS files in RetroArch's system directory.
Frontend-level settings or features that the SameBoy core respects.
The SameBoy core saves/loads to/from these directories.
Link cable emulation is supported in single-cart mode and in dual-cart mode.
First, we load the first GameBoy ROM through '2 Player Game Boy Link' in RetroArch's Main Menu.
The SameBoy core has the following option(s) that can be tweaked from the core options menu. The default setting is bolded.
Emulate two Game Boy games at the same time.
Only for Gameboy Color games.
Select what console/model the content is being ran on. May activate special in-game content.
This core option is enabled by default and is hidden from view when the 2 Player Game Boy Link Subsystem API is used.
Enable in-game Game Boy link cable functions.
Configure the layout of the two emulated Game Boys.
Select which Game Boy will output audio.
Select what console/model the content is being ran on for Game Boy #1.
May activate special in-game content.
Select what console/model the content is being ran on for Game Boy #2.
Select color correction for Game Boy #1.
Select color correction for Game Boy #2.
Nintendo Game Boy - Joypad - Same as RetroPad. There's no reason to switch to this.


At BlackWatch, we use athletics to build better people. Our coaches are ready to help athletes and adults ages 8 & up reach their full potential. Performance training classes are small-group style with no more than a 6:1 athlete-to-coach ratio. These classes are designed to develop athletes and adults of all different sports and fitness levels.
Membership pricing and discount information can be found here.
BlackWatch coaches are available to work with your school or club team at our facility or on-site at your school or training home. Before getting your team started, a coach will sit down with you to determine what your goals are for your athletes and team. To get your team started training tomorrow or to schedule a free session, call us today!


text:
Q: How to map a friend request entity in spring data jpa i am creating a small social media, but i don't know the best way to map the friends request entity. if it should me a many to one or a one to many, since the friend request class references the user entity class twice. one for receiver of the request and one for the sender of the request. please can you help me look at my code and see if i am doing the right thing?
    @Component
@Entity
@Table(name = "Users")
public class User extends DefaultEntity {

    @Column(name = "FirstName")
    @NotNull(message = "Enter a FirstName")
    private String firstName;

    @Column(name = "LastName")
    @NotBlank(message = "Enter a LastName")
    private String lastName;

    @Column(unique = true,name = "UserName")
    @NotBlank(message = "Enter a UserName")
    private String userName;

    @Column(unique = true, name = "Email")
    @NotBlank(message = "Please enter an Email address")
    @Email(message = "Enter a valid Email")
    private String email;

    @Column(name = "Password")
    @NotBlank(message = "Enter a Password")
    private String password;

    @Enumerated(EnumType.STRING)
    @Column(name = "Gender")
    private Gender gender;

    @Column(name = "Address")
    @NotBlank(message = "Please enter your Home Address")
    private String address;

    @Column(name = "Country")
    @NotBlank(message = "Please enter your Country")
    private String country;

    @Column(name = "Picture")
    private String picture;

    @Column(unique = true, name = "PhoneNumber") //make this accept only numbers
    private String phoneNumber;

    @Column(name = "Bio")
    private String bio;

    @Column(name = "OnlineStatus")
    private OnlineStatus onlineStatus;

    @Enumerated(EnumType.STRING)
    @Column(name = "UserType")
    private UserType userType;

    @Column(name = "Money")
    private long money;

    //@MapsId()
    @OneToOne(cascade = CascadeType.ALL, fetch = FetchType.EAGER)
    @JoinColumn(name = "playerstats")
    private PlayerStats playerStats;
}

and here is the friend request entity:
   @Component
@Entity
@Table(name = "FriendRequest")
public class FriendRequest extends DefaultEntity {

    private User sender;

    private FriendRequestStatus friendRequestStatus;

    private User recipient;

    public User getSender() {
        return sender;
    }

    public void setSender(User sender) {
        this.sender = sender;
    }

    public User getRecipient() {
        return recipient;
    }

    public void setRecipient(User recipient) {
        this.recipient = recipient;
    }

    public FriendRequestStatus getFriendRequestStatus() {
        return friendRequestStatus;
    }

    public void setFriendRequestStatus(FriendRequestStatus friendRequestStatus) {
        this.friendRequestStatus = friendRequestStatus;
    }
}

Please is my friend request entity especially the user objects in it mapped properly?

A: Let's consider the association between a request and its sender. A request has one sender. Otherwise the sender field would be a collection of users, and would be named senders. So it can't possibly be a ToMany association: it refers to one user.
Now, is it a OneToOne or a ManyToOne? Can multiple requests be sent by the same user. I gess so. A life where everyone can have only one friend would be a little sad, wouldn't it? So, multiple requests can refer to the same sender or, if you prefer, a user can send multiple requests. So it's a ManyToOne.
I'll let you do the reasoning for the other association.
Note that annotating your entities with Component makes absolutely no sense. Those are not Spring beans. Spring does not instantiate them nor inject them.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


If you love spicy, bold flavors, Seoul is the food-city for you!
Take a break from exploring UNESCO heritage sites and shopping to explore some of Seoul's mouth-watering food choices. With a population of more than ten million, the super-city is a treasure trove of literally thousands of fantastic restaurants. Seoul has it all: restaurants specializing in every type of food, countless streetside vendors and large specialty food markets.
Today, we want to introduce you to 11 dishes to try while you're in Seoul -- from mouthwatering barbecue to crispy chicken fried to perfection, your taste buds will be wanting for more.
Tteokbokki are long cylindrical rice cakes slathered in a bright red, sweet and spicy sauce. The rice cakes have a pleasant chewy but firm texture -- soft with a certain elasticity, cooked with fish cake, vegetables, and boiled eggs. Some variations add ramen and even cheese to the top! Tteokbokki is a favorite comfort food for many Koreans and is served everywhere from tiny street-side stalls to popular restaurants. This iconic dish is must-try for tourists.
Even more than an exciting food to try, Sannakji is a food experience.
The dish consists of a live baby octopus that is chopped up, drizzled with sesame oil and sprouts, then served raw. The octopus tentacles, with nerves still pulsing, squirm in the serving dish, playfully taunting the diner.
Be sure to chew thoroughly before swallowing, in order to avoid any hazards that the moving tentacles might pose on its way down. The entire experience may seem a bit challenging to stomach (no pun intended), but the freshness of the octopus paired with sesame oil is quite delicious.
When in Seoul, don't miss out on the fried chicken.
Korean fried chicken packs flavor, crunch, and juiciness into every bite. Unlike other fried chickens, korean fried chicken is double fried, which reduces the oiliness of batter, locks in the moisture of the meat and creates a pleasurable crispy exterior. Then, the chicken pieces are either, glazed in a variety of sweet or spicy sauces, tossed together with garlic and chives, or served plain.
The best way to enjoy fried chicken is with a glass of Korean beer. The term chimaek (chicken-beer) was specially formulated to describe this combo. Plus, many shops will deliver right to your door if you want to enjoy chimaek at home!
Fun fact: Perhaps as an ironic dotage to the famous American fast food chain, locals also affectionately refer to their version of fried chicken as 'KFC'. Obviously, the K doesn't stand for Kentucky in this case.
Learn how to make Korean fried chicken at home!
A visit to Seoul would not be complete without Korean barbecue.
Grills are built right into the tabletop and diners are tasked to with cooking the meat themselves. Patrons gather around the communal grill to drink and chat while perfecting the char on delicious cuts of crispy pork belly (samgyeopsal), juicy marinated beef (bulgogi), flavorful beef short rib (kalbi) and more.
Like all Korean meals, Korean barbecue also includes an extensive selection of side dishes like kimchi, pickled daikon, and marinated fish cakes to add some acidity to the protein-fest. Wrap the grilled meat in some lettuce with rice and fermented spicy bean ssam sauce, and you've got the perfect bite!
Pro-tip: It is inevitable to leave the restaurant without your clothes and hair smelling like barbecue, so plan your schedule and wardrobe accordingly.
A beloved niche fusion of Chinese-Korean food exists within Korean cuisine, an inevitable byproduct of the shared border between the two countries. Over time, iconic Chinese dishes and influences crept past national lines and Koreans readily adopted and adapted these vagrant recipes as their own. The resulting dishes, while heavily reflective of their Chinese derivatives, also possess an embedded Korean influence that runs just as deep. Accordingly, these dishes are as Korean as they are Chinese.
Though the list of dishes is extensive, one of the most popular of is jajangmyun, taken from the northern Chinese dish, zhajiangmian-- which translates to mean 'fried sauce noodles'. Jajangmyun is a noodle dish with sweet and savory thick fermented black bean sauce, minced pork, onion, and cucumbers draped over thick chewy noodles. While it resembles its dark-sauced Chinese sibling, the Korean version is noticeably darker in color and slightly sweeter in taste. While both versions are delicious, you'll definitely want to try these yummy noodles while you're in town.
Fun fact: According to South Korean tradition, those who find themselves single on Valentines Day grieve their shared singleness by wearing black and eating jajangmyun.
No meal is complete without dessert, and when in Seoul, we recommend Patbingsu.
Patbingsu is the Korean take on shaved ice-- pillowy mounds of shaved ice topped with everything from chopped fruit to red bean paste, or condensed milk. This cold treat is the perfect way to cool off in the heat, or to follow-up a hearty meal.
You can find Patbingsu in cafes, restaurants, or in shops specializing only in patbingsu. Whether you prefer smooth, silky milk based ice topped with chopped fruits or the balanced matcha green tea-based ice, there are patbingsu flavors to satisfy every sweet tooth.
Budae Jjigae directly translates to mean into Budae (Military base) Jigae (Soup/Stew). The term originates from budae jjigae's origins as a wartime food. Because of the struggling economy at that time, the soup features low-cost Western staples like spam, sausage, American cheese, and baked beans, reflecting the rations provided to the army and the region's American presence.
Despite its humble origins, the stew has remained a favorite for locals even decades after the war and is eaten regularly throughout the country. Nowadays, budae jjigae contains spam, ramen noodles, rice cake, vegetables, sliced cheese, and even the occasional baked bean. While these ingredients might seem dissonant and random, they come together in the pot with a mysterious ease. The result is a spicy, salty yet comforting broth that would satisfy the cravings of any hungry soldier.
This treat is a simple way to generate a little joy, especially when the temperatures begin to drop.
Hotteok is a small circular Korean pancake usually sold on the streets of Seoul. The pancake is served piping hot, with a crispy exterior and a gooey soft interior and is filled with a warm caramelized cinnamon sugar syrup, though sometimes it also houses savory fillings like vegetables and glass noodles. Some variations of hotteok are chewier (made glutinous rice flour) while others are crispier and almost fritter-like (made with cornstarch).
If you are looking for a small snack to warm your belly, hotteok will certainly not disappoint.
Korean cuisine features many delicious soups and stews that you don't want to miss.
Among these, one of our favorites is samgyetang, or ginseng chicken soup. Samgyetang is an extremely healthy soup, known replenish and nourish the body. It is made from a whole young chicken boiled in Korean ginseng, jujube fruit, garlic glutinous rice, and a variety of medicinal herbs.
Ironically, samgyetang is a common food during summer months, as many Koreans believe you need to balance the temperature of summer by heating up your body as well. So don't think it strange when, on the hottest days of summer, you find locals slurping spoonfuls of the hot soup while sweat drips down their brow.
Dakgalbi is the perfect shared dish for a group of friends!
Dakgalbi is a spicy marinated chicken stir-fried with gochujang (chili paste), cabbage, sweet potato, onions, rice cake, and perilla leaves. It is the perfect dish to order and share with a table of friends. Servers bring a skillet to the table and prepare the dish before the guests.
The best part is that when guests are almost finished eating, you can request for the server to make fried rice with the dakgalbi. Rice is added to what's left of the dish, stir-fried again and re-served as fried rice!
Kimbap, a Korean sushi roll, is widely available all around Seoul from markets to street vendors. It is a lunchtime favorite, often packed into school lunches by loving Korean mothers.
Unlike Japanese sushi, however, kimbap is seasoned with sesame oil rather than rice vinegar. While the assortment of fillings ranges far and wide, Kimbap is usually stuffed with vegetables like carrots, pickled radish or spinach and a protein like beef, imitation crab or eggs.
Portable and healthy, kimbap is the perfect grab and go meal when you're looking to sit down in a beautiful park and have a picnic.
These were the top 11 Delicious Dishes to Try in Seoul. Hopefully, you've gotten some insight on what you must eat in Seoul and had a delicious time doing so!
BBQ is a Korean essential! But where are the 11 best spots to pick up Korean barbecue in Seoul? Check out our guide to find out!
Planing a trip to Seoul? Check out the beautiful historical palaces, bustling shopping districts, amazing street food & more!


text:
Sustainability Subscribe
Ingka Group wood-based products come from more sustainable sources
In FY20 The IKEA business reached its goal of only using customer facing wood-based products, including paper and cardboard, from more sustainable sources. Today, close to 100 % of the wood used in these products is either FSC-certified or recycled. Wood is one of the main materials in IKEA products and an essential part of the IKEA heritage. It is durable, renewable recyclable and beautiful.
Ingka Group, as the largest franchisee in the IKEA franchise system, is responsible for all the indirect products purchased to support retail store operations. As such, the company has set the same ambitious requirements for indirect purchases of wood based products, and have made important contributions towards reaching the overall goal of the IKEA business.
Although the purchases done by Ingka Group only make up a small part of the full IKEA scope, it still represents a substantial amount, and the purchases are spread over many different countries. Suppliers are now required to deliver customer facing products that are either FSC certified or recycled. Although Ingka Group can only require this for the products they purchase, it's a good opportunity to help suppliers transition their operations to only use wood from more sustainable sources.
"We are really happy that we've come this far. Today close to 100 percent of our suppliers deliver wood, paper and cardboard based products that all come from more sustainable sources, including receipts, toilet paper and e-commerce packaging. We've been able to achieve this through systematic work, integrating it into the day to day business of the procurement teams and making it part of our contractual requirements. Now we continue working towards our next goal – maintaining what we have achieved, and having all our indirect wood based products and materials coming from more sustainable sources in 2025", says Per Stoltz, Sustainability Leader, Ingka Group.
The IKEA business recently announced its new Forest Positive Agenda for 2030. This includes improving biodiversity, supporting the rights and needs of people who depend on forests across the whole supply chain, driving innovation to use wood in smarter ways, storing carbon for as long as possible and continuing to only use wood from more sustainable sources, certified by the most credible, global third party certification systems. Ingka Group continues to work closely together with the rest of the business to achieve this by 2030.
For further information, journalists and media professionals can contact us at press.office@ingka.com or by calling +46 70 993 6376
Photo Ingka Investments Forestland 2 Georgia c Stacy Funderburke
WEF Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders calls on all governments to deliver bold climate action ahead of COP27
Ingka Group welcomes new retail associations to the Race to Zero 2030 campaign, to accelerate climate action
IKEA Retail Ingka Centres Press Releases Sustainability
First ever Atelier100 product collection launch – all products made within 100km of London
Climate Week NYC 2022 – Positive movements on the climate crisis but more action needed
IKEA stores halve production food waste, saving more than 20 million meals over four years


There are times when a product that may be well suited to your market simply doesn't exist yet, while the technical know-how is there. How do you take a great idea and turn it into a new product, from research and development, design and finally, production?
Amrosia was presented with just such a case, having been requested to assist in the design of a new water heater that would be able to operate within two domestic water heating systems – A Solar powered unit located on the roof of a residence and a Gas powered unit. The primary focus of the design was for the gas water heater to only operate when needed, thus saving the end user money while helping the environment.
Amrosia consulted with some of the best manufacturers in Asia, ultimately deciding to work with four suppliers housing the best R&D teams. Having honed the design and after a month of extensive testing and improvements, Amrosia was able to offer our customer 3 different prototypes, of which two are currently undergoing final testing in our customer's market.
As with all of our projects based on product development and new production introduction, the vast majority of the project is based on product research. We first studied the current workings of Gas Water Heaters and then the potential solutions to it working in unison with an alternative water heating source. We met with a number of suppliers in Asia and had detailed meetings with their R&D teams to discuss possible workable solutions.
Our bilingual and technical staff presented 3 different potential solutions to our customers, giving them an opportunity to meet potential suppliers with the majority of research and ground work already done. After choosing to manufacture a testing sample from two different suppliers, with an aim to choose the most economical unit, we assisted suppliers with testing and guided them through manufacturing difficulties.
Amrosia presented two final samples to our customer, both of which were accepted for testing in their domestic market.
From start to finish, creating and marketing a new product is a monumental task. Working with Amrosia allowed our customer to rely on our skills, including language, communicating with suppliers in Mandarin, the customer in Spanish and technical consultants in English. They also benefited from our position on the ground visiting factories and testing while providing timely updates, saving them both time and travel costs, while their confidence in our technical aptitude allowed us to make real-time adjustments, accelerating the development process and allowing them to invest more of their time in actually selling their new product.


text:
package com.bc.zarr.storage;

import com.bc.zarr.ZarrConstants;
import com.bc.zarr.ZarrUtils;

import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.net.URI;
import java.nio.file.FileSystem;
import java.nio.file.FileSystemAlreadyExistsException;
import java.nio.file.FileSystems;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.TreeSet;
import java.util.stream.Collectors;
import java.util.stream.Stream;

public class ZipStore implements Store {
    private final FileSystem zfs;
    private final Path internalRoot;

    public ZipStore(Path zipFilePath) throws IOException {
        final HashMap<String, String> zipParams = new HashMap<>();
        if (!Files.exists(zipFilePath)) {
            zipParams.put("create", "true");
        }
        final URI uri = URI.create("jar:file:" + zipFilePath.toUri().getPath());
        zfs = getFileSystem(zipParams, uri);
        internalRoot = zfs.getRootDirectories().iterator().next();
    }

    @Override
    public InputStream getInputStream(String key) throws IOException {
        final Path path = internalRoot.resolve(key);
        if (Files.isReadable(path)) {
            byte[] bytes = Files.readAllBytes(path);
            return new ByteArrayInputStream(bytes);
        }
        return null;
    }

    @Override
    public OutputStream getOutputStream(String key) {
        return new ByteArrayOutputStream() {
            private boolean closed = false;

            @Override
            public void close() throws IOException {
                try {
                    if (!closed) {
                        final byte[] bytes = this.toByteArray();
                        final Path filePath = internalRoot.resolve(key);
                        if (Files.exists(filePath)) {
                            Files.delete(filePath);
                        } else {
                            Files.createDirectories(filePath.getParent());
                        }
                        Files.write(filePath, bytes);
                    }
                } finally {
                    closed = true;
                }
            }
        };
    }

    @Override
    public void delete(String key) throws IOException {
        final Path toBeDeleted = internalRoot.resolve(key);
        if (Files.isDirectory(toBeDeleted)) {
            ZarrUtils.deleteDirectoryTreeRecursively(toBeDeleted);
        }
        if (Files.exists(toBeDeleted)) {
            Files.delete(toBeDeleted);
        }
        if (Files.exists(toBeDeleted) || Files.isDirectory(toBeDeleted)) {
            throw new IOException("Unable to initialize " + toBeDeleted.toAbsolutePath());
        }
    }

    @Override
    public TreeSet<String> getArrayKeys() throws IOException {
        return getParentsOf(ZarrConstants.FILENAME_DOT_ZARRAY);
    }

    @Override
    public TreeSet<String> getGroupKeys() throws IOException {
        return getParentsOf(ZarrConstants.FILENAME_DOT_ZGROUP);
    }

    private TreeSet<String> getParentsOf(String suffix) throws IOException {
        return getKeysEndingWith(suffix).stream()
                .map(s -> internalRoot.relativize(internalRoot.resolve(s).getParent()).toString())
                .collect(Collectors.toCollection(TreeSet::new));
    }

    @Override
    public TreeSet<String> getKeysEndingWith(String suffix) throws IOException {
        return Files.walk(internalRoot)
                .filter(path -> path.toString().endsWith(suffix))
                .map(path -> internalRoot.relativize(path).toString())
                .collect(Collectors.toCollection(TreeSet::new));
    }

    @Override
    public Stream<String> getRelativeLeafKeys(String key) throws IOException {
        final Path walkingRoot = internalRoot.resolve(key);
        return Files.walk(walkingRoot)
                .filter(path -> !Files.isDirectory(path))
                .map(path -> walkingRoot.relativize(path).toString())
                .map(ZarrUtils::normalizeStoragePath)
                .filter(s -> s.trim().length() > 0);
    }

    @Override
    public void close() throws IOException {
        zfs.close();
    }

    // Gets or creates a FileSystem
    private FileSystem getFileSystem(HashMap<String, String> zipParams, URI uri) throws IOException {
        try {
            return FileSystems.newFileSystem(uri, zipParams);
        } catch (FileSystemAlreadyExistsException e) {
            return FileSystems.getFileSystem(uri);
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub