For thirty years the fictional crime novelist and detective Paul Temple, together with his Fleet Street journalist wife Steve, solved case after case in one of BBC Radio s most popular series They inhabited a sophisticated world of chilled cocktails and fast cars, a world where Sir Graham Forbes, of Scotland Yard, usually needed Paul s help with his latest tricky case WhFor thirty years the fictional crime novelist and detective Paul Temple, together with his Fleet Street journalist wife Steve, solved case after case in one of BBC Radio s most popular series They inhabited a sophisticated world of chilled cocktails and fast cars, a world where Sir Graham Forbes, of Scotland Yard, usually needed Paul s help with his latest tricky case Whilst she and Paul are staying in the fishing village of Downburgh, Steve gets the uneasy feeling that she is being watched by a man at Fisherman s Point A pleasant boat trip turns into a nightmare when their craft gets shot at and the boatman himself is later discovered drowned at sea Back in London, the daughter of the head of CI5 has disappeared, and Sir Graham brings the matter to Paul s attention Could there be a connection between this and the events in Downburgh 4 CDs 3 hrs 35 mins.
Somehow I found this quite confusing, maybe because of my disjointed listening. Not as good as some of the other ones but still enjoyable.


text:
Firefighters rescue 6 kittens from fire in Lake Worth
Oxygen masks used to treat kittens
Updated: 6:07 PM EDT Mar 14, 2013
These are just some of the kittens that were rescued from a fire behind an abandoned house in Lake Worth.
Firefighters rescued six kittens from a small brush fire in Lake Worth.The fire started shortly before 2 p.m. Thursday behind a vacant home in the 2300 block of Second Avenue North.When firefighters arrived, they found patio furniture and a tree on fire."The wind picked up and it actually turned into approximately a one-acre brush fire, which extended to almost Lake Worth Road," firefighter Doug Clark said. "Luckily, we called in a brush truck, and they came in and extinguished it."Smoke from the fire seeped into the house, where the kittens were found and rescued.Firefighters used little oxygen masks to treat the kittens. They are now in the care of Animal Care and Control.The cause of the fire is under investigation.View, Share Pet Photos On WPBF.com's u local:9198764
LAKE WORTH, Fla. —
Firefighters rescued six kittens from a small brush fire in Lake Worth.
The fire started shortly before 2 p.m. Thursday behind a vacant home in the 2300 block of Second Avenue North.
When firefighters arrived, they found patio furniture and a tree on fire.
"The wind picked up and it actually turned into approximately a one-acre brush fire, which extended to almost Lake Worth Road," firefighter Doug Clark said. "Luckily, we called in a brush truck, and they came in and extinguished it."
Smoke from the fire seeped into the house, where the kittens were found and rescued.
Firefighters used little oxygen masks to treat the kittens. They are now in the care of Animal Care and Control.
View, Share Pet Photos On WPBF.com's u local:

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Two-thirds of hotel websites leak personal data
Confirmation emails are inadvertently sharing booking details with third-party advertisers
by: Bobby Hellard
Two-thirds of hotel websites inadvertently leak personal data to third-party companies and leave customers vulnerable to hackers.
This is according to research from cyber security firm Symantec, which found that the majority of booking systems used by hotels could allow scammers to access information such as mobile phone and passport numbers.
The leaks come from confirmation emails, sent to customers often containing an unsecured direct link to their booking. The report suggests that anyone on the same network could intercept the email and modify or cancel their reservation.
Principal threat researcher, Candid Wueest, tested the websites of 1,500 hotels from 54 countries and found that two in three of them, or 67%, had the problem. The security lapses are in breach of the EU's GDPR laws, which state that firms must protect the personal data of customers.
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"The fact that this issue exists, despite the GDPR coming into effect in Europe almost one year ago, suggests that the GDPR's implementation has not completely addressed how organisations respond to data leakage," said Wueest.
Of the websites Wueest tested, more than half (57%) send confirmation emails to customers with a direct access link to their booking. This is for the convenience of the customer, giving them a simple link to click straight into their reservation without having to log in.
Because these emails require a static link, the booking reference code and the email are sent in the URL itself. This wouldn't be a problem on its own, but most of the websites load additional content on the same website, such as advertisements, meaning that the direct access is shared, either directly with other resources or indirectly through the referrer field in the HTTP request.
There are other scenarios in which the booking data may also be leaked. Some sites pass on the information during the booking process, while others leak it when the customer manually logs into the website. In most cases, Wueest found that the booking data remained visible, even if the reservation has been cancelled, offering up a large window of opportunity for hackers to steal personal information.
There were a number of hotel chains suffering data breaches in 2018, such as the Radisson chain, which had its customer's details accessed via its rewards scheme, and Mariott's Starwood Hotel system, which saw a major flaw discovered in its reservation system.
Weekly threat roundup: SAP, Windows 10, Chrome
Biden nominees highlight tough cyber security challenges
Report: Security staff excluded from app development
Best MDM solutions 2020


text:
F-22 RAPTOR (ATF)
Air Force ACAT ID Program
Prime Contractor: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Pratt &Whitney
Total Number of Systems: 339
Total Program Cost (TY$): $63.4B
Average Flyaway Cost (TY$): $83.6M
Full-rate production: 4QFY03
SYSTEM DESCRIPTION & CONTRIBUTION TO JOINT VISION 2020
The F-22 is an air superiority fighter designed to dominate the air environment in the 21st century. Key features include low radar observability (with internal weapons carriage) and supersonic cruise combined with the classic fighter characteristics of superior maneuverability, wide field-of-regard offensive and defensive sensors, multi-spectral countermeasures, and high reliability.
Basic armament of the F-22 consists of six AIM-120C missiles, two AIM-9 missiles, and a 20mm cannon. F-22 will be a major contributor to the Joint Vision 2020 future strategy. It is to be a predominant Air Force weapon system to provide full-dimensional protection to all forces, and its stealth, integrated offensive and defensive sensors, and air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons mix are to effectively support precision engagement and dominant maneuver.
F-22 completed the Milestone II DAB and entered the EMD phase in July 1991. Since then, the program has undergone several major changes due to schedule delays, budget reductions, and cost growth. An independent Joint Estimating Team identified significant cost growth in the EMD phase and recommended restructuring EMD. This program restructure was approved by a February 5, 1997, DAB. A primary element of this restructure was elimination of the four Pre-Production Vehicles. The essential IOT&E impact of this change was the assignment of four aircraft (4008-4011) and one spare aircraft (4007) during four ship operations. Aircraft 4010 and Aircraft 4011 are Production Representative Test Vehicles (PRTV 1) and are the performance baseline for OT test aircraft. This program restructure also increased the length of the EMD phase by nine months, allowing more time for integrated avionics testing. Dedicated IOT&E is currently scheduled to begin in August 2002, with Milestone III scheduled for September 2003.
In December 1999, the DAB delayed the planned LRIP decision and designated the next block of six aircraft as Production Representative Test Vehicles II (PRTV II). It also provided long lead-time funding for the LRIP Lot 1 of 10 aircraft and established exit criteria for the LRIP decision planned for December 2000. The test-related exit criteria are listed below:
Complete avionics Block 3.0 first flight, initiating testing of Block 3.0 unique functionality.
Complete first flight on EMD Aircraft 4003, 4004, 4005, and 4006.
Complete static structural testing.
Initiate fatigue life testing with the goal of completing 40 percent of first fatigue life.
Conduct flight testing to include initiating Radar Cross Section (RCS) flight testing, initiating high angle-of-attack testing with weapons bay doors open, and initiating separation testing of AIM-9 and AIM-120 missiles.
Complete first portion of engine Initial Service Release (ISR) qualification test.
The F-22 was placed under OSD oversight for LFT&E in October 1989 as the Advanced Tactical Fighter. An Alternative Plan for meeting LFT&E objectives was approved, and a waiver from full-up, system-level testing was granted with notification to Congress in August 1997. The alternate Live Fire Test (LFT) plan includes testing to determine hydrodynamic ram structural damage, dry bay fire, and critical component separation as well as demonstration of active fire suppression systems. LFT in prior years has included hydrodynamic ram vulnerability testing of wing box and aft fuel tanks, fire vulnerability testing of wing attach, aft side of fuselage, main landing gear (MLG), airframe mounted accessory drive (AMAD) dry bays, and penetration vulnerability testing of avionics bays. In addition, high explosive threat effect tests were performed to evaluate component separation adequacy. Fuselage fuel tank hydrodynamic ram damage ballistic testing is scheduled for FY01. A realistic forward fuselage test article has been manufactured for this test. Aircraft 4001 is scheduled to be used for wing fuel tank hydrodynamic ram damage and leading edge dry bay fire ballistic tests in FY01 and FY02.
TEST & EVALUATION ACTIVITY
The first flight of the EMD flight test program, Aircraft 4001, occurred on September 7, 1997, at Lockheed Martin, Marietta, GA. After being transported from Marietta, the first test aircraft resumed test flights at Edwards AFB on May 17, 1998. Aircraft 4002 first flight was on June 29, 1998, and its ferry to Edwards AFB occurred on August 26, 1998. Both aircraft expanded the allowable flight envelope and have accumulated 797.4 hours at of the end of calendar year 2000. Aircraft 4003 first flight occurred on March 6, 2000, and ferried to Edwards AFB on March 15, 2000. Following an extended modification and calibration period at Edwards AFB, this aircraft started productive flight testing on September 19, 2000, and accumulated 31.9 hours by the end of calendar year 2000.
DOT&E's activities this year continued to support test planning outlined in the August 1997 F-22 TEMP. Toward this end, DOT&E participated in Integrated Product Team (IPT) meetings of the Test Planning Working Group (TPWG), Air Combat Simulator (ACS) management reviews, IOT&E Red Force Working Group, and Working IPT (WIPT) meetings. Additional program insight was provided by visits to contractor facilities in Marietta, GA, and Seattle, WA. The Seattle visits included two Flying Test Bed (FTB) test flights. A TEMP revision is required to support the LRIP DAB. Four TEMP working group sessions were held to address 11 issues submitted by DOT&E during the West Palm Beach TPWG in January 2000. All issues have been resolved and the TEMP has been approved.
Development of the ACS, consisting of two domes and ten manned interactive cockpit stations at Marietta, GA, continued in the system development stage. A $5.7 million budget reduction in March 1998 forced substitution of a Commercial-Off-The-Shelf computer to host F-22 mission software instead of the original plan to host the mission software portion of the aircraft's operational flight program on the Common Integrated Processor flight hardware in ACS. Restructuring ACS to accommodate this change has occurred with IOC to support IOT&E scheduled for November 2001. The ACS team moved into the new F-22 Air Vehicle Integration Facility this year and have received delivery of their first simulator dome. DOT&E reviewed ACS development plans periodically during this year to ensure that test adequacy is not being compromised by strong cost reduction pressures.
An FTB, consisting of an APG-77 radar in an F-22 forebody spliced onto the nose of a Boeing 757 test aircraft, completed the radar phase of testing early this year. After it was modified to install a sensor wing (containing some of the F-22 sensors and wing antennas) on top of the fuselage, FTB testing resumed emphasizing multi-sensor fusion of radar; Communication, Navigation, and Identification (CNI); and EW sub-systems. Block 3S software was tested against a variety of air and ground targets as a precursor to the initiation of Block 3.0 software testing on September 1, 2000-almost a month ahead of schedule. This FTB development testing of Block 3.0 software was a key part of the process leading to flying this software in Aircraft 4005. The Director, OT&E and his staff participated in a FTB Block 3.0 development mission this year, and his staff also participated in a Block 3S development mission earlier this year.
An equally important part of the avionics development process is played by the Avionics Integration Lab (AIL) at Boeing's Seattle plant. Development and troubleshooting of all software blocks have been conducted in this test facility since 1998. Block 3.1 software fusion of radar, CNI, and EW is in development testing in the AIL and will soon be installed in the FTB. The Block 3.1 software will provide the core functions of Block 3.1.1 software to be demonstrated in IOT&E. Block 3.1.1 is now starting elemental testing and will transition the AIL testing in mid-2001 and to FTB testing by late 2001.
Static structural testing has been conducted during the past two years, starting in April 1999. Testing was successfully completed to 100 percent of Design Limit Load (DLL) in 1999, and plans were to complete the ultimate load testing (150 percent of design loading) in 2000. The start of static structural testing was significantly delayed due to flaperon repairs. Also, the failure of the static test fixture, housing the test vehicle, at 141 percent of design limit load will further delay static testing to 150 percent of design ultimate load. However, static testing to 141 percent design limit load will support Aircraft 4003 clean envelope expansion, thereby meeting the LRIP DAB exit criterion. Approximately one and one-half months are required to redesign and change the material of the failed fixture component.
Delays in static testing also impacted the initiation of fatigue testing from the original scheduled start in early 2000 to actual start on December 21, 2000. The applicable LRIP DAB exit criterion, established in December 1999, is initiation of fatigue testing with a goal of 40 percent of first life complete by the end of 2000. While the LRIP DAB exit criterion was met, the goal was not since only about one percent of the first life has been accomplished. Although this fatigue testing does not impact expansion of the allowable flight envelope, completion of the first fatigue life does affect the point at which structural changes, necessitated by the results of fatigue testing, can be installed into the production line.
LFT&E activities in 2000 have focused on pre-test analysis and test planning for fuel tank hydrodynamic ram damage tests. Test planning and pre-test evaluation were performed for upcoming tests on a replica of the fuselage fuel tank and Aircraft 4001 wing scheduled for FY01. The Air Force conducted hydrodynamic ram analyses of the fuselage fuel tank to identify appropriate shotlines. A shotline was selected which will provide data to evaluate fuselage fuel tank hydrodynamic ram damage and its affect on safe operation of the crew escape system. A change in threat projectile for this test has required a re-evaluation of the pre-test predictions. Analyses were also conducted in support of LFT&E to assist shotline selection for the upcoming wing hydrodynamic ram test. A shotline was selected and detailed wing hydrodynamic ram damage analyses are being conducted to predict results of the test, which will be performed on Aircraft 4001.
Engine testing remains on schedule to support the flight test program through the end of EMD. The LRIP DAB exit criterion "Complete first portion of engine Initial Service Release (ISR) qualification test (2150 TACs - full hot section life)" was completed on Flight Test Engine (FTE) #18 on November 3, 2000. The complete ISR qualification test of 4325 Tactical Accelerated Cycles (TACs) is expected to be completed before the end of 2001. Based on this nearly-on-schedule test performance, engine deliveries to support the two PRTV I aircraft (Aircraft 4010 and Aircraft 4011) for IOT&E support should not be a problem. The F119 engine performance and reliability in the three F-22 flight test aircraft have been the highlight of the F-22 flight test program. There has not been an engine-caused failure to complete a scheduled test condition. In addition, there has not been an engine-related shutdown to this point in the test program, although there have been two precautionary shutdowns due to indications of Airframe Mounted Accessory Drive (AMAD) and generator problems.
In addition to flight testing at Edwards AFB, logistics testing tasks including initial low observability maintainability tasks are ongoing using low observable test articles and exercising aircraft access doors. The basic F-22 design has some good improvements in terms of minimizing the number of access doors in their design. High reliability is also essential to minimizing access requirements and the attendant low observable restoration procedures. The brush and roll repair process has been developed and should reduce repair risk. The concept for low observable sustainment and how to test it are issues yet to be addressed. Although new materials and techniques have been developed, the plan does not include demonstrating the ability to sustain operations in adverse conditions. In addition, operational field measurement capability has not been fully addressed; plans are to rely solely on maintainer adherence to technical data. Completion of logistics test tasks proceeded throughout this year but were severely constrained by the lack of flight test vehicles with avionics sub-systems.
TEST & EVALUATION ASSESSMENT
The F-22 flight test program has fallen considerably behind schedule during the last year. Although some of the necessary test support activities, such as the Flying Test Bed (FTB) and Avionics Integration Lab (AIL), have been making progress in supporting the test program, the flight testing at Edwards AFB has not met the beginning of the year 2000 projections. As of January 3, 2001, flight test aircraft have only accumulated 324 hours of the 590 hours planned just one year ago. Although Aircraft 4003 was delivered to Edwards AFB on March 15, 2000, it did not begin productive flight testing until September 19, 2000, due to a extended lay-up for structural modifications and instrumentation calibrations. Aircraft 4003 is the first flight test aircraft to incorporate the extensive structural modifications identified as Block II structure, which is the production-representative structural configuration required to expand the permissible flight envelope. This aircraft must, however, complete selective regression testing of the envelope explored by Aircraft 4001 and Aircraft 4002 before it can start to expand beyond these limited flight envelope boundaries. As of January 10, 2001, Aircraft 4003 has only flown for 31.9 hours.
Since January 2000, various problems have caused program delays and occasional flight test stoppages. Test flying was constrained primarily by late delivery of aircraft, canopy transparency cracks, aileron hinge pin problems, flaperon repairs, environmental control system problems, and inlet delamination inspections. As a result of these delays, only about 40 percent of the projected test points have been completed.
Analysis shows that late deliveries of avionics flight test Aircraft 4004 through 4009 requires 8.6 additional months to complete the currently planned 1,970, from the original 2,270, avionics flight test hours. Without any adjustments to the program schedule, the F-22 System Program Office (SPO) estimates that approximately 150 flight hours of planned airframe development testing and about 17 aircraft months of required avionics testing would not be completed by the start of IOT&E. Although some limited airframe and avionics development testing could be accomplished in parallel with IOT&E, there are other required test events that must be completed before start of IOT&E. Also, the scheduling and availability of test assets and resources would limit the scope of any parallel test operations.
The current status of the test program and the SPO schedule estimates show that the planned test program cannot be completed as originally scheduled and that IOT&E cannot be started in August 2002 without clearly unacceptable risks. On December 20, 2000, the Air Force briefed DOT&E with a plan that would defer the start of IOT&E by four to six months allowing additional time to complete the required developmental testing. Although as much as nine months to a year delay may be needed to complete required testing, DOT&E strongly supports the plan.
Weapons internal carriage provides the F-22 with lethal capabilities while maintaining low observability. The integration of avionics and weapons systems to launch precision weapons is a major step in the flight test program for validation of the software block algorithms. These software block algorithms are also necessary for the mission-level simulation in the air combat simulator (ACS) during pilot training and mission-level IOT&E sorties. The completion of three exit criterion, "Initiate high angle-of-attack testing with weapons bay doors open," "Initiate separation testing of AIM-9 missile," and "Initiate separation testing of AIM-120 missile" demonstrated the initial test tasks in weapons employment. To date, the flight test program has demonstrated unguided launch of an AIM-9M Sidewinder from the side weapons bay on July 25, 2000, and an unguided launch of an AIM-120 from the main weapon bay on October 14, 2000, from Aircraft 4002. High angle-of-attack testing with the main and side weapons bay doors open began on August 22, 2000. This testing was accomplished relatively easily, further demonstrating the F-22's outstanding high angle of attack flying qualities. Flight test validation of the software block necessary for the start of IOT&E pilot upgrade training is critical. The SPO proposed parallel developmental test (DT) sorties during IOT&E should be a DAE review topic to better understand the impact on the EMD schedule. In addition, we are concerned about the deferral of the external weapons/stores flight testing to the Seek Eagle Program, currently planned for FOT&E in 2003 at the earliest. It would be better to do this external carriage testing earlier to identify the aerodynamic impact of external stores, so that any issues could be resolved much sooner.
Completion of static structural testing without any major failures is an important prerequisite for expanding the allowable flight envelope by Aircraft 4003, justifying its selection as an LRIP DAB exit criterion. This has been achieved with only one of 19 major tests left to complete. The initiation of the first fatigue life with a goal of 40 percent of first life is another LRIP DAB exit criterion. Fatigue testing started on December 21, 2000, but only about one percent of the first life has been accomplished. Although this fatigue testing does not directly impact flight envelope expansion, completion of the first fatigue life does affect the point at which structural changes necessitated by fatigue test failures can be inserted in the production line and possible retrofit requirements.
Low observable measurement and maintainability continues to be a risk area, based on previous low observable platforms. This risk category includes reliability and logistics support. The concept for low observable sustainment and how to test it is an issue, not only to validate the new materials and repair techniques, but also to validate the low observable specifications as measured during full-scale pole and chamber testing. All available measurement tools, including ground, air, and range, should be utilized in this validation process. RCS flight testing has not yet begun. The baseline plan showed that this would be conducted in mid-2000 on an outdoor test range after RCS mapping in the Lockheed Martin RCS Measurement Facility in Marietta, GA. However, late aircraft delivery plus RCS impacts from an inflight main landing gear door gap problem and weather delayed open-air range testing. The aircraft went through extensive surface preparations and painting in preparation for this inflight RCS measurement testing. RCS measurement with an alternate inflight air-to-air imaging system was used to spot certain low observability features, but this did not meet the requirement to measure full aircraft RCS at a calibrated range. After Aircraft 4004 is ferried to Edwards AFB, it will complete the final portion of the exit criteria with a flight across a calibrated range.
Early LFT&E of wing hydrodynamic ram effects resulted in a redesign that will be tested using flight test Aircraft 4001. Changes to the wing design included addition of titanium wing spars, an additional wing rib, and additional wing skin fasteners. If successfully demonstrated, the wing redesign will significantly decrease F-22 vulnerability.
The results of the dry bay Live Fire Tests indicate that both MLG and AMAD bays, which lack an onboard fire protection system, pose significant vulnerabilities that could be significantly reduced or even eliminated. Preliminary data show that an effective fire suppression system could be developed using either pentafluoroethane (HFC-125), solid propellant gas generating technologies or other approaches. However, a programmatic decision was made by the Air Force to forgo development of fire extinguishing systems for MLG bay. An onboard fire protection system for the AMAD was not included in the aircraft design. Live Fire Testing has shown that the overall vulnerability had been underestimated. Once the vulnerability models used to estimate the overall vulnerability were updated using the test results, there was a significant increase in F-22 vulnerability. The Air Force relaxed the estimates of F-22 vulnerability requirement by about 30 percent to accommodate increases in the estimated vulnerability since January 1995. The current design meets the new relaxed design specification for vulnerability. Since no significant design changes are expected, additional changes to the vulnerability specification are not anticipated. The overall vulnerability of the current design may change depending on the outcome of the remaining Live Fire Tests.
AFOTEC has initiated a five-year Operational Assessment with periodic briefings and a report, based on a structured strategy-to-task assessment of all F-22 mission tasks, to support the Readiness to Test Certification of IOT&E. AFOTEC identified both positive highlights and potential issues during the interim briefing of operational results this year. The current results were based on bench, lab, and flying test bed data, which supplemented flight test data and extensive participation on the integrated product teams. Performance concerns included risk to avionics integration progress, development of low observable maintenance concept of operations, flight envelope expansion considerations related to structural adequacy analysis, ground handling, cockpit design, security issues, possible operational training constraints, and future performance of the environmental control system. Test and evaluation concerns included consistency of production representation among the operational test aircraft, flight envelope expansion for operational test pilot training, and air-to-air range infrastructure data processing timeline and data display capability for the primary test organization. Since an AFOTEC test pilot and several maintenance personnel are members of the F-22 combined test force, AFOTEC has first-hand knowledge of potential operational problems, thus able to contribute to timely solutions.
A lesson can be learned from the deletion of the ECS simulator as a cost-saving measure. This decision contributed to the delay of the Aircraft 4004 first flight by at least two months and may indirectly result in further delays to the remaining avionics-equipped test aircraft.
The original LFT&E strategy called for manufacturing a production-representative wing for the hydrodynamic ram test. The Air Force has decided to use flight test Aircraft 4001 for this test as a more economical alternative. Using the flight test vehicle, in addition to economic savings, will provide a more realistic test article. This use of early flight test vehicles to address LFT&E issues should be an option considered in future programs. LFT&E results thus far have shown that dry bay fires do occur but are not predicted well by current modeling and simulation (M&S). Additional M&S effort is required to develop an adequate methodology for predicting dry bay fires, taking into account all independent variables. DOT&E recommends that the Air Force reconsider its decision to eliminate the fire suppression system for the MLG bay as well as consider adding AMAD bay fire protection.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
As I have stated the last two years in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, AirLand Forces Subcommittee, programmatic efforts to reduce costs to stay within the cost cap almost always result in less testing and increased development risks. These development risks become greater with elapsed time as the cost reduction options become harder to implement. At this point, since the test budget is essentially the only remaining uncommitted EMD budget, cost reductions become test reductions. Any reduction of testing tasks increases the risk of not being ready to start or successfully complete IOT&E.


text:
\section{Introduction}
Complex networks are graphs representative of the intricate connections between elements in many natural and artificial systems \cite{strogatz,havlin,barabasi,physrep}, whose description in terms of statistical properties have been largely developed looking for a universal classification of them. However, when the networks are locally analyzed, some characteristics that become partially hidden in the global statistical description emerge. The most relevant is perhaps the discovery in many of them of {\em community structure}, meaning the existence of densely (or strongly) connected groups of nodes, with sparse (or weak) connections between these groups \cite{firstnewman}.

The study of the community structure helps to elucidate the organization of the networks and, eventually, could be related to the functionality of groups of nodes \cite{amaral}. The most successful solutions to the community detection problem, in terms of accuracy and computational cost required, are those based in the optimization of a quality function called {\em modularity} proposed by Newman and Girvan \cite{newgirvan} that allows the comparison of different partitioning of the network. The extension of modularity to weighted \cite{wnewman} and directed networks \cite{mesoscales,leicht} has been the first steps towards the analysis of the community structure in general networks.

Very often networks are defined from correlation data between elements. The common analysis of correlation matrices uses classical or advanced statistical techniques \cite{song}. Nevertheless an alternative analysis in terms of networks is possible. The network approach usually consists in filtering the correlation data matrix, by eliminating poorly correlated pairs according to a threshold, and by keeping unsigned the value of the correlation, producing a network of positive links and no self-loops (self-correlations). Recently, some authors pointed out the possibility to analyze these networks via spectral decomposition \cite{heimo1,heimo2}. We devise also the possibility to analyze them in terms of Newman's modularity to reveal the community structure (clusters) of the correlated data. However, any of these approaches can be misleading because of two facts: first, the sign of the correlation is important to avoid the mixing of correlated and anti-correlated data, and second, the existence of self-loops is critical for the determination of the community structure \cite{mesoscales}. Here we propose a method to extract the community structure in networks of correlated data, that accounts for the existence of signed correlations and self-correlations, preserving the original information. To this end, we extend the modularity to the most general case of directed, weighted and signed links. We will show the performance of our method in a real network of correlations between commercial activities, previously analyzed in \cite{jensen} using a Potts model.

\section{Generalization of modularity}
Given an undirected network partitioned into communities, the modularity of a given partition is, up to a multiplicative constant, the probability of having  edges falling within groups in the network minus the expected probability in an equivalent (null case) network with the same number of nodes, and edges placed at random preserving the nodes' strength, where the strength of a node stands for the sum of the weights of its connections \cite{newanaly}. In mathematical form, modularity is expressed in terms of the weighted adjacency matrix $w_{ij}$, that represents the value of the weight in the link between $i$ and $j$ ($0$ if no link exists), as \cite{newanaly}
\begin{equation}
  Q = \frac{1}{2w} \sum_i\sum_j \left(
        w_{ij} - \frac{w_i w_j}{2w}
      \right) \delta(C_i,C_j) \,,
  \label{QW}
\end{equation}
where $C_i$ is the community to which node $i$ is assigned, the Kronecker delta function $\delta(C_i,C_j)$ takes the values, 1 if nodes $i$ and $j$ are into the same community, 0 otherwise, the strengths are $w_i=\sum_j w_{ij}$, and the total strength is $2w=\sum_i w_i =\sum_i \sum_j w_{ij}$.

The larger the modularity, the larger the deviation from the null case and the better the partitioning. Note that the optimization of the modularity cannot be performed by exhaustive search since the number of different partitions are equal to the Bell \cite{bell} or exponential numbers, which grow at least exponentially in the number of nodes $N$. Indeed, optimization of modularity is a NP-hard (Non-deterministic Polynomial-time hard) problem \cite{brandes}. Several authors have attacked the problem proposing different optimization heuristics \cite{newfast, clauset, rogernat, duch, pujol, newspect}.

To demonstrate the flaws of modularity when trying to extract the community structure of correlated data we show the following example. Suppose we have a network with a well defined community structure as the one presented in Fig.~\ref{toy}. Let us pretend that each community is indeed a functional community, in such a way that nodes in every group have different states. To simplify the mathematics we will consider that the nodes in community A are in a state $+1$, and nodes in community B are in a state $-1$. After, we define the correlation between these data as, for example, $R_{ij}=S_i S_j$, $S_i$ and $S_j$ being the corresponding states of nodes $i$ and $j$. The question is: can we infer communities A and B from the correlated data represented in matrix $R$? Applying modularity, the answer is negative. Let us sketch the proof. The matrix R is blockwise composed of submatrices $R_{AA}$, $R_{AB}$, $R_{BA}$, and $R_{BB}$. The blocks $R_{AA}$ and $R_{BB}$ are all valued $+1$, and $R_{AB}$ and $R_{BA}$ are valued $-1$. Any matrix of this form results in zero modularity for all partitions, since $R_{ij}=\frac{w_i w_j}{2w}$ for all pairs (see Eq.~\ref{QW}).

\begin{figure}[!t
  \begin{center}
  \begin{tabular}[b]{ccc}
    \raisebox{-25pt}{\includegraphics[width=130pt]{squatri-net.eps}}
    &
    $\Rightarrow$\hspace{5pt}
    &
    \raisebox{-30pt}{\includegraphics[width=75pt]{squatri-cor.eps}}
  \end{tabular}
  \end{center}
\caption{Network with well-defined community structure and its correlation matrix.}
\label{toy}
\end{figure}

To reveal the community structure in the network presented in Fig.~\ref{toy} from
its correlation matrix, it is necessary to revise the formulation of modularity.
Let us suppose that we have a weighted undirected complex network with weights $w_{ij}$
as above. The relative strength $p_i$ of a node
\begin{equation}
  p_i = \frac{w_i}{2 w}\,,
\end{equation}
may be interpreted as the probability that this node makes links to other
ones, if the network were random. This is precisely the approach taken
by Newman and Girvan to define the modularity null case term, which reads
\begin{equation}
  p_i p_j = \frac{w_i w_j}{(2 w)^2}\,.
\end{equation}

The introduction of negative weights destroys this probabilistic interpretation
of $p_i$, since in this case the values of $p_i$ are not guaranteed to be between
zero and one. The problem is the implicit hypothesis that there is only one
unique probability to link nodes, which involves both positive and negative
weights. To solve this problem, we have to introduce two different probabilities to
form links, one for positive and the other for negative weights.

Let us formalize this approach. First, we separate the positive and negative
weights:
\begin{equation}
  w_{ij} = w_{ij}^{+} - w_{ij}^{-}\,,
\end{equation}
where
\begin{eqnarray}
  w_{ij}^{+} & = & \max\{0,  w_{ij}\}\,, \\
  w_{ij}^{-} & = & \max\{0, -w_{ij}\}\,.
\end{eqnarray}
The positive and negative strengths are given by
\begin{eqnarray}
  w_i^{+} & = & \sum_j w_{ij}^{+}\,, \\
  w_i^{-} & = & \sum_j w_{ij}^{-}\,,
\end{eqnarray}
and the positive and negative total strengths by
\begin{eqnarray}
  2 w^{+} & = & \sum_i w_i^{+} = \sum_i \sum_j w_{ij}^{+}\,, \\
  2 w^{-} & = & \sum_i w_i^{-} = \sum_i \sum_j w_{ij}^{-}\,.
\end{eqnarray}
Obviously,
\begin{equation}
  w_i = w_i^{+} - w_i^{-}
\end{equation}
and
\begin{equation}
  2 w = 2 w^{+} - 2 w^{-}\,.
\end{equation}

With these definitions at hand, the connection probabilities with
positive and negative weights are respectively
\begin{eqnarray}
  p_i^{+} & = & \frac{w_i^{+}}{2 w^{+}}\,, \\
  p_i^{-} & = & \frac{w_i^{-}}{2 w^{-}}\,.
\end{eqnarray}

Now, there are two terms which contribute to modularity: the first
one takes into account the deviation of actual positive weights
against a null case random network given by probabilities $p_i^{+}$,
and the other is its counterpart for negative weights. Thus, it
is useful to define
\begin{eqnarray}
  Q^{+} & = & \frac{1}{2w^{+}} \sum_i \sum_j \left(
                w_{ij}^{+} - \frac{w_i^{+} w_j^{+}}{2w^{+}}
              \right) \delta(C_i,C_j)\,,
  \\
  Q^{-} & = & \frac{1}{2w^{-}} \sum_i \sum_j \left(
                w_{ij}^{-} - \frac{w_i^{-} w_j^{-}}{2w^{-}}
              \right) \delta(C_i,C_j)\,.
\end{eqnarray}

The total modularity must be a trade off between the tendency of
positive weights to form communities and that of negative weights
to destroy them. If we want that $Q^{+}$ and $Q^{-}$ contribute
to modularity proportionally to their respective positive and negative
strengths, the final expression for modularity $Q$ is
\begin{equation}
  Q = \frac{2 w^{+}}{2 w^{+} + 2 w^{-}} Q^{+} -
      \frac{2 w^{-}}{2 w^{+} + 2 w^{-}} Q^{-}\,.
\end{equation}
An alternative equivalent form for modularity $Q$ is
\begin{eqnarray}
  Q = \frac{1}{2w^{+} + 2 w^{-}} & \displaystyle \sum_i \sum_j &
        \left[ w_{ij} - \left(
          \frac{w_i^{+} w_j^{+}}{2w^{+}}- \frac{w_i^{-} w_j^{-}}{2w^{-}}
        \right) \right] \nonumber \\
        &&\times \delta(C_i,C_j)\,.
  \label{QWS}
\end{eqnarray}

The main properties of Eq.~(\ref{QWS}) are the following: without negative weights, the
standard modularity is recovered; modularity is zero when all nodes are together
in one community; and it is antisymmetric in the weights, i.e.
$Q(C,\{w_{ij}\}) = - Q(C,\{-w_{ij}\})$\,.

The extension to directed networks \cite{njp} is simply obtained by the substitutions
\begin{eqnarray}
  w_{i}^{\pm} &\rightarrow &  w_{i}^{\pm,\mbox{\scriptsize out}} = \sum_{k} w_{ik}\,,\\
  w_{j}^{\pm} &\rightarrow &  w_{j}^{\pm,\mbox{\scriptsize in}} = \sum_{k} w_{kj} \,.
\end{eqnarray}

\section{Comparison with other methods}
In Fig.~\ref{hexa} we show a simple example of a network for which the original Newman modularity Eq.~(\ref{QW}) and the Potts model in \cite{jensen} do not yield the expected partition in two communities, whereas our new modularity Eq.~(\ref{QWS}) succeeds. It consists in two cliques, formed by positive links, and connected by two edges, one positive and the other negative. All positive links have a weight $+1$, and the negative a weight $v<0$. Any size of the cliques greater than or equal to three does the job.

First, the Potts model in \cite{jensen} is based on a Hamiltonian which only takes into account the difference between positive and negative weights within the modules, and is equivalent to modularity but without the null case term. In the network Fig.~\ref{hexa}, if $|v|<1$, the strength between the two cliques is $1+v>0$, thus the Potts model is rewarded to join both cliques in the same module. Clearly, the absence of the null case is responsible of this incorrect result.

On the other hand, the original definition of modularity (Eq.~\ref{QW}), which does include a null case, was not designed to cope with negative weights. In this example, its optimal partition is again a single module containing all the nodes if the value of $|v|$ is greater than the number of positive links.

\begin{figure}[!t
  \begin{center}
    \includegraphics[width=200pt]{hexagons.eps}
  \end{center}
\caption{Network with two well-defined communities. Solid lines correspond to positive links, and the dashed line to the only negative link, with weight $v<0$.}
\label{hexa}
\end{figure}

In \cite{traag} the authors propose an alternative definition of modularity for positive and negative links. Their work, also based on a Potts model representation of the network communities' assignment \cite{bornholdt}, is totally compatible with the definition found in the current work, and equivalent for the values of their parameters $\lambda = \gamma = 1$.

\section{Application to a real network}
We now turn to an example of community structure detection using our method in a specific social network. We deal with the spatial distribution of retail activities in the city of Lyon, thanks to data obtained at the Lyon's Commerce Chamber \footnote{The Commerce Chamber classifies retail activities according to commercial criteria derived from an experienced knowledge of the field. This classification is adopted here as reference.}. We have shown in \cite{jensen} how to transform data on locations into a matrix of correlated data, in this case of attractions/repulsions (i.e.\ positive and negative links) between retail activities. To compute the interaction between activities A and B, the idea is to compare the concentrations of B stores in the neighborhood of A stores to a reference concentration obtained by locating the B stores randomly. To compute the random reference, the idea \cite{duranton} is to locate the B stores on the array of {\em all existing} store sites. This is the best way to take into account automatically the geographical peculiarities of each town. The logarithm of the ratio of the actual concentration to the reference concentration gives the interaction coefficient, which is positive for attractions and negative for repulsions, as anticipated.

More precisely, the (self) interaction of $N_{A}$ A stores embedded in a larger set of $N_t$ locations is
\begin{equation}
  \label{com-aaa}
  a_{AA}(r) =  \log_{10} \frac{N_t - 1}{N_A (N_A-1)} \sum_{i=1}^{N_A} \frac{ N_A
  (A_i)}{N_t (A_i)} \,,
\end{equation}
where $N_A (A_i)$ and ${N_t (A_i)}$ represent the number of A stores and the
total number of stores in the neighborhood of store $A_i$, i.e. locations at a
distance smaller than {$r$}. Similarly, the coefficient characterizing the
spatial distribution of the $B_i$ around the $A_i$ is
\begin{equation}
  \label{com-aab}
  a_{AB}(r) = \log_{10} \frac{N_t - N_A}{N_A N_B} \sum_{i=1}^{N_A} \frac{ N_B
  (A_i)}{N_t
  (A_i) - N_A (A_i)} \,,
\end{equation}
where $N_A (A_i)$, $N_B (A_i)$ and $N_t (A_i)$ are respectively the $A$, $B$ and total number of locations in the neighborhood of point $A_i$ (not counting $A_i$). Both $a_{AA}$ and $a_{AB}$ are defined so that they take value 0 when there are no spatial correlations. In the case of the $a_{AB}$ coefficient, this means that the local $B$ spatial concentration is not perturbed, on average, by the presence of A stores, and is equal to the average concentration over the whole town, $\frac{N_B}{N_t-N_A}$. Only coefficients which deviate significantly from 0, using a Montecarlo sampling, are taken into account in the adjacency matrix. The final result of the analysis of the 11629 stores in Lyon is a directed network with 97 nodes (retail activities) and 1131 links, 715 positive and 416 negative.

We analyze the community structure of the resulting network using the modularity defined in Eq.~(\ref{QWS}). The optimization method used is Tabu search \cite{mesoscales} that for this case gave the highest modularity when compared to others \cite{jstat}. We perform a comparison between the different partitions obtained optimizing independently Eq.~(\ref{QW}) (resulting in 4~communities) and Eq.~(\ref{QWS}) (resulting in 6~communities), against the Lyon's Commerce Chamber retail activities classification (9~communities predefined). The similarity of the first two partitions to the third one is measured using three different indices, namely the Rand Index \cite{rand}, the Jaccard Index \cite{jaccard}, and the Normalized Mutual Information (NMI) \cite{strehl} (see Table~\ref{tab}). The larger their values, the more similar the partitions are. All indices show a better performance of Eq.~(\ref{QWS}) in recovering the actual communities provided by the  Lyon's Commerce Chamber. Note that in both modularities we have used all the positive and negative links. Therefore, the increase in performance can only be attributed to a proper use of the information embedded in the links.

\begin{table}[t]
\caption{Comparison between the different partitions and the Lyon Chamber of Commerce classification.}
\begin{tabular}{lcc}
\hline
\hline
& optimal partition & optimal partition\\
& of Eq.~(\ref{QW}) & of Eq.~(\ref{QWS}) \\
\hline
Rand Index    & 0.6168 & 0.6952\\
Jaccard Index & 0.1336 & 0.1426\\
NMI           & 0.1458 & 0.2310\\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\label{tab}
\end{table}

Our method is also helpful to understand the spatial organisation of retail stores. To interpret the information conveyed by the network links, we use of the z-score \cite{rogernat}. The basic idea consists in computing the z-score (Z) of the internal strength of each node with respect to the average internal strength of the community to which is assigned. To be consistent with our approach along the paper both quantities should be evaluated consistently with the sign of the interactions and with the directionality of links, then
\begin{equation}
  Z^{\pm,\mbox{\scriptsize in/out}}_{i} =
    \frac{w^{\pm,\mbox{\scriptsize in/out}}_{i,\mbox{\scriptsize int}} -
           \langle w^{\pm,\mbox{\scriptsize in/out}}_{\mbox{\scriptsize int}}\rangle}
         {\sigma(w^{\pm,\mbox{\scriptsize in/out}}_{\mbox{\scriptsize int}})} \,,
\label{z}
\end{equation}

\noindent where subindices `int' express that links are restricted within the community to which node $i$ belongs to, `in/out' refer to the direction of links, and $\langle\cdots\rangle$ and $\sigma$ are the average and standard deviation of the corresponding variables, respectively.

Using the z-score we can answer some questions about the role of nodes in their communities. For example, one can study, for each community, which are the most attractive retailers (max $Z^{+,\mbox{\scriptsize out}}$), the most repulsive retailers (max $Z^{-,\mbox{\scriptsize out}}$), the most attracted retailers (max $Z^{+,\mbox{\scriptsize in}}$), and the most repelled retailers (max $Z^{-,\mbox{\scriptsize in}}$). In Table~\ref{tab2} we show the three highest results of these z-scores obtained for the largest community found (34 retail activities). This group gathers the proximity stores, which means mainly food stores. Here are some examples of the understanding of the spatial organisation of retail stores allowed by our method. Sports facilities and funeral services are peculiar because they strongly attract (and are attracted) by some specific activities that go along with them almost systematically, e.g.\ car repairs and small hardware stores. Gas stations enjoy a paradoxical situation in this group, since they represent the most attracted and the most repelled activity. There is an interesting commercial interpretation of this paradox: gas stations tend to have the most specific commercial environment, strongly attracting some of the group's activities (such as supermarkets) and being strongly repelled by others which however are in the proximity store group (for example, butchers or cake shops stores almost never have gas stations close to them). Dairy products and cake shops strongly repel some specific of the activities that belong to their same group, such as car repairs or firm's restaurants.

\begin{table}[t]
\caption{Roles of retailers within communities.}
\begin{tabular} {ccccc}
\hline
\hline
&+ attractive & + repulsive& + attracted & + repelled \\
\hline
& Funeral Services & Dairy products & Gas Station & Gas Station \\
& Sports facility & Cake shop & Sports facility & Flea market \\
& Car dealer & Drugstore & Funeral Services & Car dealer \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\label{tab2}
\end{table}

\section{Conclusions}
Summarizing, we have proposed a new formulation of modularity that allows for the analysis of any complex network, in general with links directed, weighted, signed and with self-loops, preserving the original probabilistic semantics of modularity. With this definition one can analyze networks arising from correlated data without necessarily symmetrizing the network, skipping auto-correlation or considering only the unsigned value of the correlations. We devise that other methods are also likely to be appropriate for this task, after its pertinent adaptation, for example the analysis via clique percolation \cite{palla}, or specifically methods based on the minimization of the energy function of an equivalent spin glass system, were weighted signed links can be interpreted in terms of ferromagnetic and anti-ferromagnetic interactions between spins \cite{bornholdt}.

We have analyzed within the scope of the new modularity an interesting model of attraction-repulsion of retail stores in a large city, previously reported in \cite{jensen}. The results overcome those obtained using the original definition of modularity when compared to the Lyon Chamber of Commerce classification, and also point out the necessity of defining new roles of nodes based on directionality and sign of the weights of links, as we have proposed for the z-score.

\begin{acknowledgments}
  We thank J. Borge for help with the simulations. This work has been partially supported by the Spanish DGICYT Project FIS2006-13321-C02-1. We gratefully acknowledge Christophe Baume and Bernard Gagnaire from Lyon's Commerce Chamber who have kindly provided the location data.
\end{acknowledgments}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


With complete automation in the entire process chain from part insertion to packaging and labeling, the plastic industry is poised to handle the most demanding tasks. It has developed into one of the most important markets for all robot manufacturers in recent years.
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text:
Soltam M-71 je 155 mm vučna haubica kalibra kojeg proizvodi izraelska vojna industrija Soltam.

Dizajn
Soltam M-71 je razvijen na temelju ranijeg modela Soltam M-68 te su s njega preuzete mnoge karakteristike. Jedina je razlika u cijevi koja je dugačka 39 kalibara u odnosu na prethodnika s cijevi duljine 33 kalibra. Može ispaliti HE projektil mase 43,7 kg na najveću udaljenost od 23,5 km. Brzina ispucanog projektila iznosi 820 metara u sekundi. Poslužuje ga posada od 8 članova. Balistički stupanj elevacije je u rasponu od -5° do 75°.

Također, razvijena je i inačica Soltam M-72 koji se može postaviti na modificiranu platformu tenka Centurion, ali to vozilo nikad nije proizvedeno.

Korisnici
: izraelske obrambene snage.
: čileanska mornarica.
: iranska vojska (navodno su iranski špijuni ukrali nacrte za Soltam M-65 i Soltam M-71 te ih odveli u Iran).
 JAR: južnoafrička vojska.
: mijanmarska vojska.
: singapurska vojska koristi haubice koji su lokalno nadograđeni kao M-71S. Haubice su danas u rezervi.
: slovenska vojska koristi haubice pod lokalnom oznakom TN-90.
: Kraljevska tajlandska vojska.

Izvori

Vanjske poveznice
Korištena oružja u židovsko-arapskom ratu
Janes.com

Izraelsko topničko oružje
Oružane snage Izraela
Oružane snage Irana

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text:
News / Our Obsessions
by: Victoria Stuewe
EXO's Chen starting military duty: Inside his emotional letter
It's not the first time EXO fans have had to learn of one of their beloved idols having to take a break from EXO, but Chen said goodbye in the most meaningful way he could. South Korea's mandatory military service will take yet another member of EXO, as Chen announced that he will be enlisting in the military this October.
While the news isn't surprising, as every South Korean man must service in the military at one point in their twenties, Chen left fans with a song & a handwritten letter. Here's a look into the letter and why Chen & other K-pop stars have to take a leave of absence for the military.
EXO & Chen
EXO is one of the most popular K-pop bands, having performed in high-profile venues, including the 2018 Winter Olympics, which took place in Pyeongchang. They're an internationally recognized band with massive commercial success and have been seen as one of the mainstays of K-pop.
EXO was formed in 2011 with its original twelve Chinese & Korean idols, but now consist of nine members: Xiumin, Suho, Lay, Baekhyun, Chen, Chanyeol, D.O., Kai and Sehun. Though, it should be noted Lay hasn't publicly appeared with EXO since 2017, as he decided to focus more on his solo career in China.
Kim Jong-dae, who goes by Chen, is one of the lead vocalists in EXO. He's also a part of EXO's sub-unit trio, EXO-CBX, and SM Entertainment's ballad project group, SM the Ballad. Alongside these groups, he's been releasing solo music since 2019. Chen is also the only married member of the band. Chen has had a busy 2020, having married his fiancé while also announcing they were having a daughter, who was born in April.
South Korea's mandatory military duty
Those unfamiliar with what South Korea's mandatory military duty is might be unaware of the 1957 conscription law. According to Reuters, all able-bodied men aged eighteen to twenty-eight must complete about two years of military service, though it depends on the particular branch they're ordered to serve in. Since Chen is twenty-eight, 2021 would've been the last possible year he could have started his service.
Chen's service will start on October 26th, but he's not the only enlisted EXO member. Xiumin, D.O., & Suho have all been inactive EXO idols. While Xiumin's service began in May 2019 and Suho's began in May 2020, both were able to release solo music before their enlistment. Like Chen, D.O. wrote a letter to EXO fans, saying he was voluntarily enlisting in July 2019. D.O.'s service is expected to end in January 2021.
Chen could still technically perform during his service, as both D.O. & Xiumin have performed in military musicals during their service. Coincidentally, while they didn't perform in the same production, they both danced & sang in the military musical Return: The Promise of the Day.
Chen's letter & 'Hello'
Chen first posted the hand-written letter on October 16th to Lysn, a community for artists to talk to fans. Chen said he wrote it to "say goodbye" to EXO fans before having to enlist. He relayed his hopes to stay in good health so he can show "growth and improvement" when he returns. Chen wrote, "In that time, I hope that all of you will also stay as beautiful and healthy as you are now!! I'm always grateful to you, and I love you."
Like Xiumin & Suho, Chen has been fairly active in the music world. Earlier this year, he released Your Moonlight, a soundtrack for the K-drama Do You Like Brahms?. Along with the letter, released the solo single "Hello" with an accompanying music video.
While analyzing the song's lyrics, Somag News reported fans think "Hello" is written similarly to a letter, specifically from Chen to EXO-L, the moniker of EXO's fanbase. Somag suggested the song "could be perfectly reflecting how the idol felt wanting to reconnect with his fans".
ChanyeolChenD.O.EXOK-popLaySouth KoreaSuhoXiumin
Victoria Stuewe
Southern California freelance writer Victoria Stuewe has loved the art of cinema her entire life. She writes about everything from silent German cinema to the best of today's independent films. When not watching film, she's either reading at her favorite coffee shop or catching up on great television.
Kendrah Raymond
Reply	/
Chen is lovely. I hope.he does well wherever he goes.
Priscilla Lopez
I pray for him to find peace as he does his duty as a Korean citizen!! I hope and pray for his safe return to his wife and child.
The tragedy of Jonghyun: What happened to SHINee's lead vocalist?
Who are the richest members of EXO? Take a look at their net worth
Mel Gibson and his rampant anti-semitism: Stop watching his movies
Did Jeffrey Epstein use his famous friends to intimidate his victims?
Ron Jeremy needs to learn to keep his penis in his pants
Where did Don Lewis get his money? What we know about his funds


Now available in Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean and Thai!
So I'm an avid simulation game player and I used to love sim tower when I was younger so I decided to give this game a try. Well it wasn't very long before I was completely hooked on it. Mega mall story is a wonderful tower/store simulation game. There are a large variety of stores and facilities that you can build and many different types of customers to serve. The graphics are cute and colorful and game's UI is very easy to use. I've been playing it for hours at a time. One again Kairo has delivered a delightfully complex yet easy to understand sim game that you can play over and over again and without those infuriating in-app purchases that most games require you to buy to fully enjoy the experience. Well worth the $5 price. My only wish is that the devs would add some more content in an update. Thanks guys!
I love this game. I can play this for hours on end, but there are some issues that need to be fixed.
First, the mall rankings. Before the most recent update, I could easily rank #1 so I could get the casino. Now, no matter how much money I rack up with any of my stores(after continuously using hold sale every month) I always rank #5. I even got close to making $10,000,000 and I STILL got #5! I don't know if it's the way I'm playing or if it's a bug, but it needs to be fixed.
Second, the cost of placing different shops, facilities, hallways, etc. Before the update, if say a hallway costed $1000 to make, that's what it costed. Now, it's far more expensive. Let's say if I make 10 hallways, it doesn't cost $10,000 like it used to. It's more like $250,000 or some other ridiculous amount like that, and the cost INCREASES as I make more floors! This is the same with making shops, adding facilities, etc.
I love this game, I really do. It's a nice little distraction for me when I need it. But these bugs need to be fixed.
Very cute and fun game with good replayability. The only suggestion I have is that rival malls should not appear so often after you've completed all investment plans as that's the only way you can get rid of them besides waiting for two years (in the game) for them to go bankrupt. Other than that, Mega Mall Story is a solid app!


text:
Birding Beijing 北京观鸟
"Mouthwateringly good" – 10,000 Birds
Welcome to Birding Beijing
Latest Wildlife News from Beijing
A Birder's Guide to Beijing
A Birder's Guide To The Great Wall
A Guide to the Amphibians of Beijing
A Guide to the Mammals of Beijing
A Guide to the Reptiles of Beijing
The Mongolia Cuckoo Project
The Beijing Cuckoo Project
The Beijing Swift Project
Field Guides to the Birds of Beijing
The Beijing List
China's Conservation Heroes
"The Valley of the Cats": Snow Leopards and more on the Tibetan Plateau
Northeast China's Endangered Species
Latest Sound Recordings
Terry's Optics
Beijing Bird Sound Of The Month – Chinese Thrush
https://birdingbeijing.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/2018-06-01-1858-chinese-thrush-song-lingshan.mp3
Goodbye 2019 and Hello 2020!
Rare and Scarce Birds in Beijing 2019
Ray Mears visits the Valley of the Cats
Sichuan Schools for Biodiversity
Books for Birders
Birding Beijing on Twitter
Birding Beijing Is A BirdLife Species Champion
Tag: Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler
The Search for Swinhoe's Rail
Swinhoe's Rail (Coturnicops exquisitus) must be one of east Asia's least known birds. Traditionally, the most reliable place to encounter it was in the wet grass around Poyang Lake in winter but sightings from there have become increasingly scarce.. and due to its secretive behaviour, it is encountered only very infrequently on migration, even in relatively well-watched areas such as Happy Island and Beidaihe in coastal China.
It was only two years ago that Wieland Heim, Tom Wulf and Alex Thomas (of the Amur Birding Project) first recorded the 'song' of this secretive bird at Muraviovka Park in southeastern Russia. And in July 2017, armed with this new knowledge, Paul Holt was the first to discover singing birds in China at Wuerqihan in northern Inner Mongolia.
Wuerqihan is a wonderful place… it is very popular with bird photographers in winter when, despite the bitter temperatures (as low as -35 degrees Celsius), it's possible to see very well species such as Great Grey, Hawk, Ural, Tengmalm's, Eagle and Little Owls plus other photogenic birds such as Hazel Grouse, Black Grouse, Siberian Jay, Pine Grosbeak, Pallas's Rosefinch and, if you are lucky, Black-billed Capercaillie, . It is less well-known that summer is also pretty special. In addition to the recently-discovered Swinhoe's Rail, it is a brilliant site to see Pallas's and Gray's Grasshopper Warblers, Lanceolated Warbler, Band-bellied Crake, Pale-legged, Two-barred Greenish, Dusky and Radde's Warblers, Eyebrowed Thrush, Oriental Cuckoo and many more species. It is also just wonderful to spend time in pristine lush wet meadows, mixed deciduous forest and grassland that are all teeming with life.
One of the wet clearings in the forest at Wuerqihan.
The stunning birch forest at Wuerqihan is home to owls, warblers, thrushes and buntings.
The open wet grasslands of Wuerqihan are full of Pallas's Grasshopper Warblers!
I had already made two short summer trips to Wuerqihan, in 2016 with Nick Green and in 2017 with Derrick Wilby and I was keen to return. So, with Marie, we set aside a few days to fly to Hailar, rent a car and drive the 2.5 hours east to Wuerqihan.
We were keen just to enjoy the break and some good birding but of course we were also hoping to encounter the Swinhoe's Rail.
Our first day would coincide with the last day of the visit by British birder, Jon Holmes, for whom I had arranged local guide Zhang Wu and his 4×4 to take him around. And on day two we bumped into another Brit, Dave Woodford, accompanied by Chinese bird guide, Steven An.
The call of Swinhoe's Rail is reasonably loud and carries for quite a distance… and during our first evening on site, we had no difficulty in hearing the Swinhoe's Rails from the track, calling from the wet grass. Being poorly prepared (no wellies or torch), we decided to call it a night, do a spot of shopping in the town the following day and return the next evening.
After each picking up a pair of wellies for CNY 40 (about GBP5) we arrived on site, with Steven and Dave, around 6pm, about 2.5 hours before dusk. Already, one bird was calling intermittently and, before long, two or three began calling. We donned our wellies and headed along the edge of the meadow, stopping regularly to listen to the birds as they began calling more frequently as dusk approached. You can hear a bit about our first encounter here:
Suddenly, a dark shape flew up in front of Dave and dropped into the grass about 15m away. It was tiny and dark with obvious white secondaries – Swinhoes' Rail! Almost immediately it began to call and, having my sound recording gear with me, I was fortunate to capture this seldom heard, and rarely recorded, sound.
We were stunned and stood still, just soaking up the moment. The wonderful rich colours of the meadow at sunset, not a breath of wind and Swinhoe's Rails calling amongst the Pallas's Grasshopper Warblers, Common Rosefinches, Japanese Quails and Common Cuckoos. Simply mesmerising.
Swinhoe's Rail habitat in Inner Mongolia.
The grass was around 30cm high with c15cm of water.. Wellies definitely required.
Swinhoe's Rail in flight, Wuerqihan. Photo by Steven An.
That moment will stay with us for a very long time. And as we made our way back to the vehicles, we were accompanied by a cacophony of birdsong with Common Cuckoos seemingly all around, Pallas's Grasshopper Warblers reeling away and Japanese Quails uttering their squelchy call. Magical.
The Chinese name for Swinhoe's Rail is 花田鸡 (Huātián jī). Literally translated it means "flower frog", a fantastically descriptive and apt name.
Over the next few days, we enjoyed some pretty special encounters with some wonderful birds including a stunning Great Grey Owl in the evening light.
Pacific Swifts were common in the town, breeding in many of the buildings, particularly the older properties.
And the omnipresent Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler occasionally showed well, belying its reputation as an extreme skulker.
We recorded 98 species during our visit and had a fantastic time. Wuerqihan is a brilliant birding destination and thoroughly recommended in summer or winter. It is probably also extremely good in spring and autumn but, as far as I know, no birders have visited in that season.
Local guide, Zhang Wu, with his trusty 4×4.
Anyone wanting to visit should contact local guide, Zhang Wu, who can arrange pick-up and drop-off from Hailar airport, accommodation and food, and, with his unbreakable 4×4 and local knowledge, he will ensure any visiting birder gets to the right places and has a superb time. Although he speaks no English, it's possible to communicate the basics using a combination of sign language and the impressive translation APP on his smartphone, and you can guarantee he will work hard to try to connect you with any target species. He can be contacted directly on +86 13614709187 and, for any non-Chinese speakers, I'd be happy to help make arrangements if required.
Big thanks to Marie, Jon, Dave, Steven and Zhang Wu for being great company during the trip. And a big hat-tip to the Amur Bird Project team and Paul Holt for their discoveries in 2016 and 2017 which enabled us to connect with the enigmatic Swinhoe's Rail.
Posted on June 24, 2018 Categories UncategorizedTags Amur Bird Project, Great Grey Owl, Inner Mongolia, Pacific Swift, Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler, Paul Holt, Swinhoe's Rail, Wuerqihan, Zhang Wu12 Comments on The Search for Swinhoe's Rail
Northern Inner Mongolia in June
When South African world-lister, Derrick Wilby, invited me to accompany him to Inner Mongolia in search of some skulking grasshopper warblers, I was delighted to accept.
Wuerqihan, in the far north of the province, east of Hailar, is well-known as a special winter birding destination. With up to 8 species of owl (Eagle, Great Grey, Little, Northern Hawk, Eurasian Pygmy, Tengmalm's, Ural and Snowy) possible in that season, not to mention special birds such as Siberian Jay, Black-billed Capercaillie, Black Grouse, Hazel Grouse, Pine Grosbeak, Pallas's and Long-tailed Rosefinch, it's a must-visit for any China-based birders.
Black-billed Capercaillie is one of the sought-after species at Wuerqihan. Late autumn is the best time. This one from October 2015.
What's much less well-known is that Wuerqihan is also a brilliant birding destination in summer. On the edge of the magnificent, and vast, taiga forest, the habitat is a mixture of deciduous forest, wet meadows and damp scrub. This was only my second visit during this season but already it's becoming clear that it's a reliable place to see some of China's most-wanted species such as GRAY'S GRASSHOPPER WARBLER, BAND-BELLIED CRAKE and CHINESE BUSH WARBLER as well as providing a fantastic opportunity to get to grips with some breeding birds that are much sought-after vagrants back in the UK, such as PALLAS'S GRASSHOPPER WARBLER, LANCEOLATED WARBLER, THICK-BILLED WARBLER, BROWN SHRIKE, SIBERIAN THRUSH, WHITE-THROATED NEEDLETAIL and many more.
Derrick had a list of warblers he wanted to see – Chinese Bush, Pallas's Grasshopper, Gray's Grasshopper and Lanceolated – as well as two owls – Great Grey and Ural – plus Japanese Quail and Band-bellied Crake. I was reasonably confident about all except the crake, which I had heard once last year but not yet seen.
Local guide, Zhang Wu, with his trusty 4wd.
On arrival in Wuerqihan in the afternoon, we met local guide, Zhang Wu, checked into the hotel and immediately headed out east from the town along the old logging road. We started well with good views of several singing Pallas's Grasshopper Warblers along the first few kms of the road, singing Japanese Quail in the meadows, watchful Brown Shrikes seemingly atop every bush and Common Rosefinches whistling from their songposts before a superb encounter with a stunning GREAT GREY OWL just a few metres from the road. As we enjoyed more than 30 minutes with this most magnificent owl, a Gray's Grasshopper Warbler sang from deep in the forest.
As we headed back to town for dinner, a spectacular thunderstorm swept past to the west..
The morning of day two added singing Lanceolated Warbler (see header image by Nick Green), a handful of White-throated Needletails, Azure Tit, singing Pale-legged Leaf Warbler, Red-flanked Bluetail, Siberian Rubythroat, Siberian Thrush, Chestnut and Black-faced Buntings.
We decided to rest in the afternoon and head back out in the evening for a night drive in the hope of finding Ural Owl and, perhaps, Band-bellied Crake. The evening shift started well when we heard the latter calling briefly at dusk from the edge of a small pool. However, despite waiting patiently for more than 30 minutes, frustratingly there was no further sign. We headed into the forest to look for owls and, after only a few minutes, had a sighting of an owl by the side of the track.. it was large and pale. We turned around and approached slowly. We could see large orange eyes staring back at us and it was obvious this was an Eagle Owl, not the hoped-for Ural.
Heading east along the main track, we drove slowly with the windows down, listening. We stopped at several promising-looking areas, turned off the engine and waited for something to penetrate the silence. A few Pallas's Grasshopper Warblers and a Gray's Grasshopper Warbler chuntered away in the darkness.. and then a Chinese Bush Warbler sang from some scrub. Driving further, we picked out a Band-bellied Crake and, once we had stopped, it was clear that several were singing in the wet scrub alongside the road. One, two, three.. at least four birds competing for attention. In the darkness, there was no chance of seeing them, so we took a note of the location and would return in the morning.
By now it was after midnight and our hopes for a Ural Owl were fading. Zhang Wu turned off the main track onto a rutted, obviously rarely travelled track into the forest. After around 100m, he stopped. He had heard something. Cutting the engine, we listened intently. And there it was – a deep, low 'hoot'. Zhang Wu smiled. It was a Ural Owl. Our guide played the call of Ural Owl in answer to the bird. Immediately it responded and flew in to a tree right above us to check us out.
Ural Owl is a scarce resident at Wuerqihan.
We returned to the hotel at around 0130, the adrenaline still rushing after a special encounter.
A tougher than usual early start the next morning saw us at the site where we had heard Band-bellied Crake during the previous night. Even in the early morning, the birds were not singing.. suggesting they might be predominantly nocturnal vocalisers. We carefully walked into the marsh, trying to avoid the deep pools of water in between the grassy tufts. We heard a short call and froze. It was a crake. As we stood motionless, as if to "warm up", the short note gradually morphed into a full song.. and before long, we could see the grass 'twitching' as the crake made its way through the bog.
Band-bellied Crake, Wuerqihan (Derrick Wilby)
All that was left was to try to secure a decent view of Chinese Bush Warbler. Thanks to Zhang Wu's local knowledge, we were able to find a spot with one singing and, with patience, we were able to secure a "jigsaw" of views.. at first the bill, then the tail, then the legs… then the supercilium.. and piecing them together we were able to get a good impression of this skulker.
We headed back to the hotel in the late morning, packed our things and set off for the airport all too quickly. It had been a superb 3 days and, in total, we had recorded 102 species. I can't wait to go back… with a bit more time, I think there could be some more special birds waiting to be discovered. It wouldn't surprise me if Swinhoe's Rail is there and, who knows, maybe the enigmatic Streaked Reed Warbler is lurking in the vicinity.
You can download the full species list here.
One thing to bear in mind if visiting in summer; the insects can be a nuisance, especially the horseflies. Most active in the heat of the day, the worst can be avoided by being out early and late in the day. This video gives a sense of their menace!
Posted on July 4, 2017 Categories UncategorizedTags Band-bellied Crake, Chinese Bush Warbler, Derrick Wilby, Gray's Grasshopper Warbler, Great Grey Owl, Inner Mongolia, Lanceolated Warbler, Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler, Ural Owl, WuerqihanLeave a comment on Northern Inner Mongolia in June
Groppers Galore!
I have just spent three days in Wu'erqihan, Inner Mongolia, in the company of Shanghai-based British birder, Nick Green. It was my third visit to this stunning part of northeastern China and, after two previous trips in winter, it was a delight to see it so green and leafy, without needing to wear six layers in -30 degrees Celsius!
The Dayan River, a constant companion along the track northeast of Wu'erqihan.
Typical forest habitat at Wu'erqihan
Whilst in winter the main attractions here are undoubtedly the owls (Snowy, Great Grey, Ural, Hawk, Eagle, Boreal and Little) our main target during this visit was to try to see the three breeding locustella warblers – Lanceolated Warbler, Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler and the sought-after Gray's Grasshopper Warbler. I thought we wouldn't have too much difficulty in finding all three but I hadn't expected the numbers we encountered. Pallas's were seemingly in every inch of suitable habitat and, particularly early morning and evening, were singing constantly, even though it was mid-July. We recorded 53 (surely a considerable under-count) on our first full day. Lanceolated were less common, but still frequent, with 22 recorded and, the following morning, we counted 17 singing Gray's from the moving car during a 45-minute drive.
Renowned for their skulking habits, locustella warblers are usually tough to see. However, on the breeding grounds, despite most preferring to sing from deep cover, we were fortunate to see several examples of each species singing from exposed perches.
Lanceolated Warbler (Locustella lanceolata), Wu'erqihan, Inner Mongolia, 9 July 2016. Photo by Nick Green.
Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler (Locustella certhia), Wu'erqihan, Inner Mongolia, 9 July 2016. Photo by Nick Green.
Gray's Grasshopper Warbler (Locustella fasciolata), Wu'erqihan, Inner Mongolia, 10 July 2016. Photo by Nick Green.
Gray's Grasshopper Warbler, Wu'erqihan, 9 July 2016. Photo by Nick Green.
Wu'erqihan in July isn't only locustella heaven. The supporting cast includes White-throated Needletail, Great Grey, Ural and Eagle Owls, Siberian Rubythroat, Mugimaki Flycatcher, David's and Chinese Bush Warblers, Pale-legged, Two-barred, Pallas's, Thick-billed, Radde's and Dusky Warblers and a host of other 'sibes'.
David's Bush Warbler (Bradypterus davidi), Wu'erqihan, Inner Mongolia, 9 July 2016. This species is common in the damp forest.
Azure Tit, a scarce breeder at Wu'erqihan.
Typical buildings in Wu'erqihan.. the town has a Russian feel about it, not surprising given the proximity of the Russian border.
Sunset in the boggy grassland, northeast of Wu'erqihan.
Nick Green (left) with local guide, Zhang Wu, just after seeing a Gray's Grasshopper Warbler singing from an exposed perch!
A full trip list can be downloaded here: 2016-07 Wu'erqihan with Nick Green, 7-10 July 2016.
Posted on July 11, 2016 July 25, 2016 Categories UncategorizedTags Gray's Grasshopper Warbler, Inner Mongolia, Lanceolated Warbler, Nick Green, Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler, Wuerqihan6 Comments on Groppers Galore!
Aaaarrrggghhhhhh!
Twice in the last few days, inspired by the reports from this site by Shi Jin on Birdforum, I visited the Wenyu River in the Chaoyang District of Beijing. It is a fantastic area of paddies, weedy fields and even a disused golf course. Brian Jones and Spike Millington, both former Beijing residents, used to visit this site regularly and I can see why.
Habitat along the Wenyu River in Chaoyang District, Beijing. Perfect for Waterhens and locustellas!
Frustrating habitat at the Wenyu River paddies. When a locustella goes down in this lot, the chances of seeing it again are slim..!
On my first visit, late one evening, I arrived at the paddies just half an hour before dusk and yet I saw 4 new birds for me in Beijing – Chestnut-eared Bunting, White-breasted Waterhen, Yellow-legged Buttonquail and Little Owl.. Not bad. My second visit, early morning on Thursday, was just as rewarding. A singing David's Bush Warbler was a nice start, soon followed by the White-breasted Waterhen, singing Lanceolated Warbler, several Pallas's Grasshopper Warblers, two Schrenck's Bitterns, Yellow Bittern, Pechora Pipit on the deck and a Black-naped Oriole calling from the willows. Wow. I walked the narrow pathways between the paddies and enjoyed several encounters, albeit brief, with Pallas's Grasshopper Warblers, Black-browed Reed Warblers and the odd Zitting Cisticola. A couple of Oriental Reed Warblers were much more obliging, singing purposefully from prominent perches in the reeds. It was a cacophony of birdsong.
Oriental Reed Warbler singing its heart out early morning in the paddyfields at Wenyu River.
Schrenck's Bittern (female), Wenyu River, Beijing. One of two seen in the paddies.
Pechora Pipit. Seeing one on the ground in Beijing is not easy!
After reaching the western end of the paddies, I decided to head back and return across the maze of paths. It was along one such narrow weedy path between two paddies that I experienced one of those moments in birding that makes it such an exciting (and sometimes frustrating!) hobby. I knew that Shi Jin had seen a large locustella warbler, possibly Middendorff's, a day or two before and so I was on the lookout for large locustellas. I had also listened to the songs of the three possible large locustellas – Gray's, Pleske's and Middendorff's – on Xeno Canto Asia just in case. Suddenly, I flushed a bird from the path that zipped into the paddy and down into the vegetation before I even had a chance to lift my binoculars. It was clearly interesting – my sense was that it looked larger than the Pallas's Grasshopper Warblers I had been seeing, but still looked like a locustella in shape and structure.. ..it was plain looking, greyish, without much, if any, contrast on the upperparts… Hmmm… could it be one of the large locustellas I had been thinking about? I knew that there was a very good chance that I would never see it again… they are notorious skulkers and it was a large paddy. However, I decided to wait to see whether anything emerged from the area in which it had gone down. To my surprise, just a few seconds later, a bird began to sing and the sound appeared to be coming from the same area… I remembered the songs from Xeno Canto and immediately ruled out Gray's and Middendorff's. It reminded me of the Pleske's song… I put two and two together – large locustella, song like a Pleske's – and in my mind a big neon sign lit up flashing "Pleske's Warbler!!". But could it really be a Pleske's Warbler? In Beijing?? The bird sang for a few minutes and I quickly took out my handheld video camera to record the song, knowing that I would need that to have any chance of identifying this bird for certain in the absence of a good sight view. I recorded a few seconds of the song and then concentrated on trying to see it. Only once in the next 20-30 mins did I see a bird in that area, an incredibly brief view as a largish bird flitted across a small gap in the vegetation. Again, I got nothing on it other than it was largish and plain looking.. Frustrating to say the least.
At this point, I was excited.. I really thought that there was a singing Pleske's Warbler just a few metres away from me. I sent a SMS to Shi Jin to tell him. A few minutes later, after no sign of the bird, I began to walk back to the metro station as I didn't want to be too late back in town. And I wanted to download that sound file and check it against Xeno Canto! I then received a reply from Shi Jin to say he was on his way. He only lives 10 minutes away by car, so I headed back to the site to meet him and show him the precise spot. There was no song now and no sign of the bird. We waited a few minutes and after providing sustenance for the local mosquito population and with the day heating up fast, we decided that probably the best chance of seeing/hearing the bird would be to come back in the evening or the next morning. Neither of us could make it that evening but Shi Jin was hoping to try for it the next day. After a brief stop at the Little Owl nest site I discovered a few days before, Shi Jin kindly dropped me at the metro station for the return journey home.
On arriving home, the first thing I did was download the sound file from the video camera and check out Xeno Canto. There is one recording on Xeno Canto of Pleske's. For comparison, my recording can be heard below:
Locustella Warbler
Hmm… on listening to them both, now I wasn't so sure.. there were elements of the song that were similar but there were also differences… Doubt began to creep into my mind. Was the singing bird a Pleske's? And, in any case, could I say that the singing bird was definitely the large locustella I saw? I began to think that maybe the song was a different species. I listened to Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler (the other locustella species seen that morning in the same area) on Xeno Canto but the few recordings of this species on the site sounded different).
So, the bottom line is I don't know. I have a recording that I can't identify and a brief sighting of a largish locustella that isn't necessarily the same bird that I recorded singing anyway…! Arrggghhhh….
If anyone can help with the recording, please let me know. I have sent it to Paul Holt (who is currently away) and to Peter Kennerley, so hopefully the mystery will be resolved soon. In my head, I am expecting my song to be identified as a variation of Pallas's Grashopper Warbler but my heart is hoping that it's a Pleske's. Watch this space!
Whatever the outcome of this experience, one of the highlights of the day was meeting Shi Jin, a top birder with a lot of China experience!
Posted on June 1, 2012 June 1, 2012 Categories UncategorizedTags Beijing, Chaoyang, Oriental Reed Warbler, Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler, Pechora Pipit, Pleske's Warbler, Schrenck's Bittern, Shi Jin, Wenyu River7 Comments on Aaaarrrggghhhhhh!
The Appetiser
A walk around the Olympic Forest Park on Tuesday evening revealed that autumn passerine migration is beginning to get going… First, I flushed a Richard's Pipit from a path near the 'underwater corridor', then a Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler flew across the path and dived into deep cover, showing the white tips to the outer tail feathers. Just before dusk a snipe circled a couple of times before dropping like a stone into the edge of a reedbed. I grabbed a few very poor images and I suspect it was a Pin-tailed Snipe or Swinhoe's. Its flight was subtly slower than Common Snipe, it lacked an obvious white trailing edge to the secondaries and the legs appeared to protrude relatively far beyond the tail. Images below and opinions welcome. Swinhoe's and Pin-tailed Snipe are notoriously difficult to separate so best to go down in the book as a "Swintail"…!
"Swintail" Snipe, Olympic Forest Park
There were also some dragonflies on the wing. In addition to the usual Sympetrum kunckeli, these presumed Deielia phaon were patrolling the edge of the reedbed.
Deielia phaon (I think), Olympic Forest Park
Deielia phaon (I think), Olympic Forest Park, Beijing
The trickle of passerine migration certainly whets the appetite for what will be, I am sure, another brilliant autumn of migration here in north-eastern China. I have just booked my flight to Dalian for late September, where we will have a group of birders covering the Laotieshan area for at least a couple of weeks this autumn. After the fantastic Spring experience, I can't wait to return to see if the autumn migration matches my expectations.
On the way back from the Olympic Park to the metro station, I enjoyed watching the local Beijingers using the public spaces built for the Olympics. Great stuff!
Posted on August 19, 2011 August 22, 2011 Categories UncategorizedTags Beijing, Olympic Forest Park, Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler, Pin-tailed Snipe, Swinhoe's SnipeLeave a comment on The Appetiser
Olympic Forest Park, Beijing
First thing this morning I made my first visit to the Olympic Forest Park in Beijing. This relatively new park, as its name suggests, was created for the 2008 Olympic Games and has won awards for its design. I was pleasantly surprised by how 'bird-friendly' it is. There is some great habitat, including some large reedbeds, lakes, mature (ish) woodland and open areas, all of which are attracting birds.
Today, I explored the southern section prompted by a visiting birder, Claus Holzapfel, who had seen a Streaked Reed Warbler a few days ago. I didn't see any of these rare 'acro' warblers but I chalked up an impressive list of species for a central Beijing location (see below).
The highlight for me was an enjoyable encounter with a confiding Yellow Bittern as it hunted in one of the lily-filled lakes. It's ungainly stance belied the effectiveness with which it stalked small fish and frogs.
Oriental Reed Warblers filled the air with their chattering and there were also a few Black-browed Reed Warblers competing to be heard and a few Pallas's Grasshopper Warblers skulking at the base of the reeds. Indian and Eurasian Cuckoos were calling frequently and the song of the Black-naped Oriole was an occasional accompaniement.
In the more mature trees on the eastern side, a singing male Yellow-rumped Flycatcher was a nice sight but I failed to find the Green-backed (Elisae's) Flycatcher that Paul Holt had seen the previous day.
The Olympic Park is situated just north of the 4th ring road, north of the "Bird's Nest" Olympic Stadium and is served by metro stops as well as several bus routes, so it is easy to get to. It opens at 6am and, this morning, there were relatively few people around and it was very easy to find quiet spots – not to be taken for granted in Beijing where most city parks are full of early morning exercisers for the first few hours of daylight. For me, it's the best birding site I've seen so far in Beijing city. I'll definitely be back!
Map of Beijing Olympic Forest Park
Yellow Bittern, Beijing Olympic Forest Park, 2 June 2011
Comical as it made its way across the lillies... would definitely qualify as a Monty Python 'silly walk'
Watching you watching me..
I enjoyed half an hour with this confiding bird today in the Olympic Forest Park, Beijing
Species List (in chronological order of first sighting):
Common Magpie (many)
Tree Sparrow (many)
Grey-capped Woodpecker (3)
Eastern Crowned Warbler (2)
Indian Cuckoo (4)
Chinese (Light-vented) Bulbul (7)
Oriental Reed Warbler (at least 30)
Eurasian Cuckoo (5)
Oriental Greenfinch (3)
Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler (3)
Night Heron (7)
Red-rumped Swallow (4)
Black-browed Reed Warbler (4)
Black Drongo (1)
Common Moorhen (6)
Common Swift (12)
Yellow Bittern (7)
Goldeneye (1) – a drake on the lake near the 'underwater corridor'
Little Egret (1) – flyover
Yellow-rumped Flycatcher (1) – singing just north-east of Wali Lake
Marsh Tit (2)
Black-naped Oriole (3)
Dark-sided Flycatcher (1) – northeast of Wali Lake
Arctic Warbler (4)
Great Spotted Woodpecker (1)
Little Grebe (2)
Radde's Warbler (2)
Azure-winged Magpie (6)
Spotted Dove (2)
Posted on June 2, 2011 June 2, 2011 Categories UncategorizedTags Beijing, Black-browed Reed Warbler, Black-naped Oriole, Claus Holzapfel, Indian Cuckoo, Olympic Forest Park, Oriental Reed Warbler, Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler, Paul Holt, Yellow Bittern, Yellow-rumped Flycatcher8 Comments on Olympic Forest Park, Beijing


Opening up an example sd_synth_fast I compiled/run the code which was OK except for a "warning in VCO.inp divide_val is too small for the given sample rate in this case divide_val = '2' should be >='18' (setting divide_val to '18' whenever it is too small)". In the test.par file I find no divide_val, so I am at a loss as to where I can change the divide_val to a more correct value. When I do run the test file in the viewer, the graph of all the outputs is screwed up. Is this divide_val covered in the help files?
Where is this "sd_synth_fast" example? Help us to re-produce the problem at our end, step by step.
When I open up Sue2 there is a synthesizer_examples list on the right side with a lot of examples, including the sd_synth_fast example that I doubled clicked to put it into the main console showing the code for the example. Then I did a compile/run that gave the warning. I should mention that I had this thing running perfectly once before, but I had to uninstall this and then did a reinstall using the original setup file, and the reinstall was to be OK, with the same desktop icons as in the original install. I did delete the whole CppSim folder after uninstalling to make sure I started from scratch before doing a reinstall. The reinstall worked fine with no problems at all. But the compile\run gives the mentioned warning.


text:
Accelerating the transformation to a green university: University of Bahrain experience
Authors: Hamzah R.Y., Alnaser N.W., Alnaser W.E.
Author Affiliations: Hamzah, R.Y., University of Bahrain, P.O. Box 32038, Isa Town, Bahrain; Alnaser, N.W., University of Bahrain, P.O. Box 32038, Isa Town, Bahrain; Alnaser, W.E., University of Bahrain, P.O. Box 32038, Isa Town, Bahrain
Many universities are striving to have an environmental impact on the society as they are considered as small communities aiming to be eco-friendly and having low CO2 emission. This concept has been emerging after the worldwide concern on the ozone depletion issue and global warming. As a result, many titles have appeared like "Green Universities", "eco- friendly Universities," "Environmental sustainable Universities" and "Environmentally responsible universities," etc. This paper proposes a mechanism that allows universities to go green or become environmentally sustainable higher education bodies in a short span of time. It simply advises the universities to best practice the Environmental Sustainable Development Goals (ESDG's) Components incorporated in the seventeen United Nation Sustainable Developments Goals (SDG's) that were announced on the 25th September 2015 by all leaders of the countries which were aimed to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda where each goal has specific targets to be achieved over the next 15 years. These ESDG's listed within the SDG's are the following: 1) Good Health and Well-being. 2) Quality Education. 3) Clean Water and Sanitation. 4) Affordable and Clean Energy. 5) Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure. 6) Sustainable Cities and Communities. 7) Climate Action. 8) Life below Water. 9) Life on Land. Therefore, incorporating such 9 Goals in the strategic planning of each worldwide university that has aligned its goals with the Country National Strategy – which by default includes these SDG's – will accelerate and boost each university to transform to Green and Environmentally Sustainable campus. The paper also sheds light on the experience of University of Bahrain in this respect. © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2018.
Eshan2020-11-28T19:48:02+00:00
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