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Phish Shreds America: How the Jam Band Anticipated Modern Festival Culture
Love 'em or hate 'em, the Vermont quartet helped create a new template for the live music world: part drama, part novelty, part boogie, and filled with details to be pored over later.
Illustrations by Matteo Berton
by Jesse Jarnow
From the Pitchfork Review
In the viral video that became known as "What Phish Sounds Like to People Who Don't Like Phish," the Vermont jam band performs in front of a field of cheering fans. So far, so Phish. But when the camera points at the bassist, only random diddles are heard. The players' parts are disconnected and small. The frontman emits gibberish. "You ate my fractal," he sings obscurely, in a doofed voice, like a "South Park" character.
Originally titled "Phish Shreds IT," the 2010 video was merely the latest iteration of the "shreds" meme, all of which feature images of bands performing live set to awkwardly strange audio. But the Phish video was the first time the joke had been used in this way, to explain how an oft-reviled band might sound to non-fans. Which suggested that Phish's popularity is so bizarre, so odious, that their music is the type of nonsense that makes one's brain throb.
The "IT" in "Phish Shreds IT" refers to their 2003 one-band mega-festival, during which Phish played seven sets over three days in front of over 60,000 fans (counting the all-jam set atop an air traffic control tower but not counting the soundcheck broadcast only heard over their on-site FM station). Typical for Phish, IT was held on a decommissioned Air Force base deep into northeastern Maine. Good, the Phish non-likers might assert, out of sight, out of mind.
But getting out of sight and out of mind are surely goals for many Phishheads, and the entire experience of escaping reality is built into the idea of their festival world. Since Phish's Clifford Ball in 1996, on another Air Force base near the band's Burlington, Vermont home, long-haul drives have been built into their festival aesthetic. On the eve of the millennium, they staged their furthest-fuckin'-out event, in Florida, sending 80,000 attendees down Alligator Alley in the Everglades, literally out of the boundaries of the United States—via an 18-hour zone-crossing traffic jam—and into Seminole Indian territory, where the band played an eight-hour midnight-to-sunrise set.
In all cases, what listeners found at the far end of their trips was a world where Phish's music made complete sense. Call it Stockholm syndrome or a unified artistic vision, but there's no denying that Phish built an audience and a platform of their own. With vast tracts for campers, playful large-scale installations designed by Vermont comrades connected to the radical Bread and Puppet Theater, unannounced late-night sets, an on-site freeform radio station, food vendors, Porta Potty (and sometimes art installations made from Porta Potty), it was a ready-to-go template that the band staged year after year in the late 1990s and sporadically since. Just as Phish's music might seem alien, their festival strategy was marked by the reverse of normal music-biz logic: Instead of picking central locations for their events, the band picked destinations seemingly as far away as possible. It wasn't merely live music, but a contract to enter Tent City, U.S.A., for the duration of the experience.
In the go-go indie '90s, Phish were among the indie-est of them all, even if they weren't exactly rock music as many wished to understand it. While they remained on a major label from 1991 until 2004, it was neither Elektra nor the band's album sales that propelled them to sell out multiple nights at Madison Square Garden. Phish's most popular and compelling music was distributed for free by the band's fans, and always had been. By the time of IT in 2003, as the music industry exploded into the blogosphere, Phishheads graduated from cassettes to mp3s and CD-Rs, and soon provided the critical mass to get BitTorrent off the ground, while Phish themselves graduated to selling recordings of all of their shows online within hours of the performance.
Night after night, through improvisation and song-suites, Phish changed in ways both micro and macro, creating new content on a near-daily basis while on tour. Each time Phish plays, fans have new bits of close-listening improv to dissect, new bits of folklore to trade, new bits of themselves to actualize. While there was (and is) a jam hit parade of sorts, a different economy drives the modern live music world that Phish helped create: part drama, part novelty, part boogie, and filled with extreme levels of detail to be pored over later.
All of which is to say that Phish were pipers at the dawn of America's 21st century festival revival, direct precursors to Bonnaroo, and early builders of an underground railway that eventually led to the collision of dance, jam, and indie subcultures in the vast common ground of the non-metaphoric concert field. While it would be an exaggeration to say that they were responsible for the endless crossovers of the festival circuit, they unquestionably nurtured an audience hungry for constantly changing live music outside the traditional mechanisms of the recording industry.
The scene at Phish's IT festival, which drew more than 60,000 fans to middle-of-nowhere Maine in 2003. Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic.
When the members of Phish enrolled at the experimental Goddard College, they were a bunch of suburban Deadheads in a far-flung spot in the countercultural empire. Starting primarily as a Grateful Dead cover band, Phish eventually traded in for a repertoire of original music refined during long Vermont winters, long green summers, long practice sessions, and long weekly gigs in Burlington, where they built a hungry audience. The songs followed their own rhythmic muses and logic, a self-conscious attempt at creating a new kind of dance music, filled with palindromes, atonal fugues, and enough classic rock riffs and swing to keep hippies moving. It is here that Phish turns to gibberish for most people, for their insistence on fun, for the levels of expression coded therein.
But despite the band's oft-precious oddness, this is also why the giant multi-day campout-style music festival remains the musical platform in which Phish make the most sense. It is here that the band fully reconciles their extreme playfulness with the soaring guitar solos that arc through the summer air, over the rolling Vermont hills, and directly into memories. For those inclined to pay attention (and Phish fans do), there's a lot to pay attention to, though the drugs certainly contribute.
"The internet is to the Phish community what FM radio was for me back in the early '70s," Great Northeast Productions promoter Dave Werlin told Pollstar about collaborating with Phish to stage the biggest indie rock fests of the '90s. It's a sentiment many would voice over the years, except that Werlin said it in 1999, on the verge of Phish's millennium shows in Florida, and barely six months after Napster arrived to disrupt the American music industry at large. Using internet-enabled fanbases to create active feedback loops is a route many would come to exploit, but Phish and their Deadhead antecedents were there first, chilling.
As prescient as Phish's long-haul formula may have been, their festival success emerged in parallel with the '90s birth of large-scale microcultures, providing a Northeastern counterpart to the early American electronic dance music in the Midwest, the DIY desert adventures of Burning Man, and the swelling ranks of indie rock, to go alongside the post-SoundScan mainstreaming of country and hip-hop. Artists in many of these worlds structured their careers around recorded product and music videos, supplementing it with live appearances. Phish and their jammy ilk found places of their own that Woodstocks '94 and '99 seemed to miss entirely—funky, fuzzy destinations for specific musical communities, which reached full flower at their festivals. They picked up fans at New England boarding schools, frat houses, and liberal arts colleges alike; their shows were expected to be freethinking and generally apolitical zones, welcoming and loving to anyone who could tolerate the music.
The last time Great Northeast Productions put on a Phish festival, in 2004, it was a disaster in many ways, though it wasn't the promoter's fault. Heavy rains more or less destroyed the concert site before the fest even began, and the storms continued to batter the area. As cars pulled off in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom and hit the traditional zone-crossing traffic jam, the order came for Phish and Great Northeast Productions to tell people to turn around. The band's freeform radio station interrupted their all-night fun with a taped bummer from Phish bassist Mike Gordon. Fans were now faced with a moral choice about whether to listen to the stated wishes of their favorite band or to ignore them and trek on at their own peril. Compounding the decision-making was the fact that Phish had announced their impending breakup three months earlier.
An estimated 65,000 of 70,000 ticket buyers made it in, some weathering cross-country drives, 36-hour traffic stints, and 15-mile hikes to the concert grounds. These shows—a festival called Coventry in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom in August 2004—would be the band's final performances. In the blooming age of cross-platform storytelling and common-sense money-making, the shows were to be beamed out into movie theaters nationwide as well. In the midst of all of this, and almost certainly near the heart of the band's decision to disband, were the substance abuse issues that had crept up among them, making the wheels come off the bus even as they continued to go 'round and 'round.
Coventry was the type of legitimately emotional performance that doesn't often occur in popular music. There were mid-song tears, musical collapses, a few hot jams, and a palpably odd energy, all amid a boulder-strewn stage set designed to prevent further mudslides.
"We're not about to do a free-form jazz exploration in front of a festival crowd," David St. Hubbins barked in This Is Spinal Tap, but Phish built themselves a platform to do exactly that. In terms of the possibility of artistic creation afforded by a music festival, Coventry represented one possibility pushed to near-total bleakness. "Worst goodbye ever," read one fan-made T-shirt featuring Comic Book Guy from "The Simpsons." But it was powerful art. Though the band kept playing their familiar songs, their world had broken down, and it showed no signs of ever making sense again.
This particular Phish festival likewise came during the dawn of the new festival season. One true and deep characteristic of festivals, going back at least to Woodstock, was a guaranteed escape. If a giant news event occurred somewhere out yonder, it might only arrive in Tent City via rumor. Cell phones hit ubiquity around the time of IT and Coventry, but all-access internet hadn't yet landed; a trip to northern Vermont could be coordinated, but when the shit hit the fans and the band had to tell people to go home, it came by short-range FM radio.
Phish's "farewell" festival in 2004 was a disaster in many ways—but it still drew tens of thousands and turned out to be a legitimately emotional experience. Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc.
By the time Phish reformed in 2009, accepting a slower pace, they sounded like themselves again, crisp and filled with detailed rhythmic punchlines and longform musical narratives. But the festival world had shifted around them, turning into a national circuit for bands of all genres. First staged in 2002, Bonnaroo—built on the jammy networks that Phish had nurtured—spread into nearly every musical territory imaginable, surfing an even bigger audience by tapping into jam fans' open-mindedness toward fun-compliant live acts.
While Phish occasionally show up to play many-band extravaganzas, they are content to stick to themselves, too, and continue to stage their own festivals from time to time. But when they do—as in 2015's Magnaball, population ~30,000—the events continue to tap into something that most festivals of equivalent size miss. While jam/electronic getaways like Camp Bisco and Electric Forest have their roots in the Phish world, Phish's closest modern kin are perhaps more easily found in smaller fan-friendly events like the improv/avant-friendly Big Ears in Knoxville, with an emphasis on the intimate musical experience, even at scale. Lately, Phish have moved into luxury destination territory, having announced their second visit to a Mexican resort for 2017, though Phish fans—both recovering and active—have long constituted a reliable pocket of attendees at places like Big Ears and the earlier, more functional American iterations of All Tomorrow's Parties.
In many ways, it's a formula that few rock festivals have repeated because few have really tried: the creation of a space for absolute hyper-focused listening with the performance of the musicians at the unquestionable fixed center. Besides the advent of VIP camping and a few ticket-pricing confusions, perhaps the most controversial aspect of MagnaBall among Phish fans was whether or not the improvisation that followed "Prince Caspian" constituted a return to the song "Tweezer" or was merely reminiscent of it.
Though with unquestionable countercultural roots, Phish generated an entirely different set of parameters and concerns from the lamplight of Coachella, the active participation of Burning Man, the something-for-everybody parties of Outside Lands and elsewhere, the surf and turf deliciousness of JazzFest, the blissed-out multi-day electronic dance-outs, the yoga bend-ins, and even the so-called transformational festivals that have spread across Europe. Phish festivals aren't about counterculture or psychedelics or even the vaunted community. They are about music—a hilarious, cruel, or absolutely fitting punchline that's far funnier than any viral video could possibly convey.
This story originally appeared in our print quarterly, The Pitchfork Review. Buy back issues of the magazine here.
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Home > TRAVEL > OKINAWA > OTHER > SPOT > Is the Mysterious Yonaguni Monument Japan's Own Atlantis?
Is the Mysterious Yonaguni Monument Japan's Own Atlantis?
When I was a kid, I was obsessed with aliens and the unexplained. I remember getting a book from the library about unexplained phenomena: the Bermuda Triangle, the Mary Celeste, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and much, much more. In the book, there was a short chapter on a topic that combined two things I love – mysteries and Japan. This chapter was about the Yonaguni (与那国) Monument, the mysterious seemingly underwater city off the coast of Japan. Theories about what this site and who built it range from the mundane to pants-crappingly insane. If some of the theories about it are correct, it will rewrite everything that we know about human civilization.
What is the Yonaguni Monument? Who found it? Who built it? Or is it a natural formation? Finally, what does Yonaguni mean to our understanding of human history?
(Special thanks to the Blurry Photos podcast for reminding me of this fascinating discovery and for making such a fun and entertaining podcast.)
The Island of Yonaguni is just miles away from Taiwan and is the last island in the Ryukyu island chain (琉球諸島). It is the westernmost inhabited Japanese island. In the ice age, Yonaguni Island was part of the Chinese mainland, but due to rising oceans and land shifts, it became one of the many islands that were spread out in between China and the Japanese home islands. It was once part of the Ryukyu Kingdom (琉球王国) until it was overtaken by Japan, then it was much later taken over by the American government after the succession of WWII. It was given back to Japan with Okinawa (沖縄) in 1972. It remains today part of the Okinawa Prefecture.
Much of Yonaguni's economy is based on tourism. Many local guides take tourists on beautiful scuba diving trips. The area is a breeding ground for hammerhead sharks and has beautiful water and reefs. Local guides often explore new areas to take tourists to, and it was on one such expedition that Kihachiro Aratake (新嵩喜八郎), a local leader on the island's tourism board, noticed some strange irregularities on the seabed.
In 1985, Aratake went scuba diving to check out this area and came upon a sight that took his breath away (very dangerous underwater) – large pieces of rock seemingly cut at near perfect angles, and forming what seemed to be like a step pyramid structure. This structure is generally rectangular in shape and measures at roughly 100 meters by 60 meters and is over 25 meters tall! Gigantic!
He immediately reported his discovery to any source he could, but no one seemed to be very interested. Some time later, the University of the Ryukyus (琉球大学) sent out Professor Masaki Kimura (木村政昭). He and Aratake went diving to check out the anomaly, and Kimura determined that not only the structure was man-made, but it was the construction of a previously unknown prehistoric civilization. A civilization that would have to have been rather technologically advanced to create such a structure. He claimed that the underwater city was built over 10,000 years ago and sunk into the sea (he did later walk that theory back to only 2,000-3,000 years).
What was this "city"?
Professor Kimura postulated that the entirety of the site was carved of one bit of underlying sandstone. In an interview about the monument, Professor Kimura said the following:
"These are ruins, and to me, the fact has already been proved. The scientific conclusion is that the ruins are indeed artificial (Man made). A school of Japanese marine geologists agreed on this outcome. We found that the ruins are at least 6000 years old. It could go back another 4000 years when we consider the length of time before they sank into the water. … During the past 10,000 years, the ocean water level rose about 40 meters. From this fact, it is only natural to think that the ancient civilization is now deep in water. Drills we use to investigate ruins have improved recently, so with the help of the latest equipment, we will have a scientific conclusion on this matter in the near future."
Professor Kimura theorizes that this was not a city, but a ritual complex. He points out various areas that he believes are structures meant for ceremonial purposes only. Before you shrug off this theory entirely saying, "Why would a culture spend so much time creating a giant monument with no real purpose in mind?" Consider, what is the purpose of the pyramids in Egypt? Or for that matter, what good is the formation of Stonehenge? Or even, how does the Statue of Liberty help you? Nearly all cultures create monoliths for one reason or another. The unbelievable thing here isn't that a group of people would build a giant monument, but the scale and time period. If Dr. Kimura is correct, then that would upset every commonly accepted theory of the rise of human civilization.
Who built it?
Professor Kimura claims that there is a lost civilization that existed when there was a land bridge connecting China, Taiwan, and Japan. This civilization grew and was very advanced, but then some sort of catastrophe occurred that caused this civilization to be lost to the annals of history. Kimura does not only base his theories on the monument itself, but on similar carving practices by civilizations around the area.
Dr. Robert M. Schoch, professor of science at Boston University, takes umbrage at Kimura's theories. He claims that the monument was not man-made at all, and is actually a strange by-product of the unique properties of sandstone and ocean currents. He said the following, "During my own research on the Yonaguni Monument, one of the first things I found is that the structure is, as far as I could determine, composed entirely of solid 'living' bedrock. No part of the monument is constructed of separate blocks of rock that have been placed into position. This is an important point, for carved and Arranged rock blocks would definitively indicate a man-made origin for the structure – – yet I could find no such evidence."
There are others who disagree with both Kimura and Schoch. They claim intervention by a higher power.
The Dragon's Triangle and Ancient Aliens
You have probably heard of the famous Bermuda Triangle, an area that seemingly causes the mysterious disappearances of both water and aircraft for hundreds of years. Some believe that this area is home to the mythical Atlantis or an area of intense alien activity. Off the coast of Japan, on the same parallel is what is known as the Dragon's Triangle.
The Dragon's Triangle is an area that is well known for being a danger zone for ships and aircraft. There are many stories of the natives of the area seeing strange creatures or machines coming out of the sea. There are also stories from hundreds of years ago that speak of a "hollow ship" crashing off the coast of a Japanese island, and a strange-looking woman who the Japanese islanders were unable to understand collapsing on the beach. She held in her hands a box and would not allow anyone else to touch it. In some legends, the box contained the head of her lover, but some scholars point out that the descriptions do not sound like the boxes Japanese people typically carry heads in. (Here I have to stop and say, "What the?! Head boxes?!) No one knows what exactly was in the box. If legends are to be believed, could it be possible that the "hollow ship" was an alien ship, and perhaps the box was some sort of control box?
Could it be possible that ancient aliens (possibly even the same ones that built Atlantis) built this ancient civilization that Kimura speaks about? It would also explain Schoch's criticisms because of course, it wouldn't match any form of construction as we understand it, because it is not human engineering.
A Geoglyphic Solution
Believe it or not, the aliens theory isn't the craziest one out there. Some believe the site to be of full of geoglyphs. They measure the angles of the different ridges, edges, and lines of the monument. They then draw out straight lines to see what they connect to and create a picture or web. For example, if you measure out the lines from the Yonaguni Monument.
We see the total area that the Japanese Empire had control of (the red line). Odd that it matches almost perfectly with the Yonaguni Monument. Perhaps the Empire of Japan in WWII was indeed trying to reconquer land that its ancient predecessors had owned many thousands of years before.
While interesting and intriguing, I think that the truth of the Yonaguni Monument is much more mundane. Dr. Kimura's theories have been largely disproven by many other scholars, even Dr. Kimura himself has had to revise his theories gravely due to new evidence. The geoglyphs, while interesting, are not evidence. I can connect straight lines and edges with a lot of things, but that does not really prove anything. And the ancient aliens? Once again, where is the evidence?
The truth is probably what Schoch theorized. He mentioned that sandstone has the tendency to break on planes creating sharp edges and straight lines. This area is also prone to earthquakes and strong currents which do some really weird stuff with the seabed. Dr. Schoch says the following:
"The more I compared the natural, but highly regular, weathering and erosional features observed on the modern coast of the island with the structural characteristics of the Yonaguni Monument, the more I became convinced that the Yonaguni Monument is primarily the result of natural geological and geomorphological processes at work. … I could not find any surface evidence (such as tool marks on the rock surfaces or carved blocks that had been moved into place) that, in my opinion, would substantiate [Dr. Kimura's] contention of artificiality. Of course, I have had only a very short time to search for such evidence, and just because I did not find it does not mean it does not exist. However, at this time based on my own findings and analysis, I cannot agree with Dr. Kimura's conclusion that the Yonaguni Monument is primarily a man-made structure. My current working hypothesis is that the Yonaguni Monument is primarily of natural origin; that is, it's overall structure is the result of natural geological and geomorphological processes."
Dr. Kimura has claimed that the only reason for the heavy blowback of his theory is that it because it upsets the status quo of too many scholars, and they just don't want to admit that they might be wrong. One could call back the story of Copernicus who was burned for having a theory that did not fit in with the commonly accepted theory.
Be that as it may, there is a status quo for a reason. If out of 100 scientists, 99 say it's a duck and one says it's a dog, the outlier has to come up with a lot of conspiracy theories to explain why he is the single outlier. We can see this same thing at work in many other areas. The anti-vaccination movement and the anti-global warming crowd are two such examples.
The Yonaguni Monument is most likely nothing more than an interesting anomaly. Stranger things have proven to be true in the past and who knows, the general conception of human history could just be very, very wrong…
Reference: yonaguni.ws/
Reference: robertschoch.net/
Reference: mysteriousearth.net/
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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After Syria & Venezuela, Russian military prepares for Hybrid war
Tue, 23 Apr 2019 10:40 UTC
Moscow's new military doctrine will put less emphasis on countering a large-scale land invasion
The Russian military's main job has always been to defeat a large land invasion of the Russian heartland, such as those of Hitler, Napoleon, and Charles XII. But after the experience of Syria and Ukraine, Russian generals are adjusting their military doctrine to defeat a wider array of possible attacks, which, although less dangerous than all-out invasion, are more likely to occur.
This move is a response to US behavior. Over the past few decades, the US has involved itself in countless, never-ending, low-risk conflicts. Americans seem to have forgotten Clausewitzian purpose of war: to destroy your enemy in a decisive engagement in order to achieve your political ends. Instead, they have allowed their foreign policy to be shaped by the careerist ambitions of military officers, private contractors, and Beltway pseudo-intellectuals, whose resumes depend on a steady supply of easy-to-win, fake wars. For them, war has become an end in itself.
Russia no longer needs to face down a lion, but only stave off the jackals.
From South Front
Transcript: Written and produced by SF Team: J.Hawk, Daniel Deiss, Edwin Watson
The term "Gerasimov Doctrine", apparently wholly made up Mark Galeotti who, to his credit, owned up to his mistake, has been used by the Western media to the point of obscuring the real work on developing national security doctrines for Russia's 21st century needs. In this work, General Valeriy Gerasimov, Chief of General Staff of the Russian Federation Armed Forces, has played a major role.
During a recent conference at the Academy of Military Sciences, where Gerasimov delivered the keynote speech, he outlined the national security priorities facing the Russian Federation. This included areas where further theoretical research is necessary to inform the future dimensions of armed forces development.
While Gerasimov's address dedicated considerable attention to the problem of nuclear deterrence, it also made clear that, in terms of meeting challenges posed by the threat of rapid evolution and expansion of the United States' strategic nuclear potential, Russia's symmetrical and asymmetrical responses will ensure the viability of its nuclear deterrent for the foreseeable future. The emphasis appears to be on diversification, and not only of launch platforms but also of delivery vehicles.
The problem with the existing force of ICBMs, SLBMs, and bomber-launched ALCMs is that they represent a relatively well-known potential to counter. This means that should the US decide to invest heavily in anti-missile and anti-air defenses, it could defeat Russia's nuclear deterrent in an all-out war. Moreover, the existence of widespread anti-air and anti-missile networks means that limited escalation using small numbers of offensive weapons might be stopped, forcing Russia to make an "all or nothing" choice-either no escalation at all, or an all-out nuclear strike.
Gerasimov's discussion of a genuinely strategic system such as the Avangard hypersonic glider, Burevestnik global-range cruise missile, and Poseidon underwater unmanned vehicle together with operational-level systems such as the Zircon hypersonic cruise missile and Kinzhal aeroballistic missile, indicates the desire to constitute Russia's nuclear deterrent on the basis of an array of mutually complementary systems carried by an expanded range of carrier vehicles, including fighter aircraft such as the MiG-31 and attack submarines. Russia's leadership would thus be able to hold at risk a wide range of leadership and value targets using both conventional and nuclear systems against which it would be extremely difficult to construct a defensive barrier that would be viable in the minds of US decision makers.
Remarkably, the traditional strong suit of the Russian military, namely large-scale land warfare, received relatively little attention in Gerasimov's speech. Regarding that, he only touched upon the existing reorganization of army-brigade structure into army-division-regiments which are better suited for high-intensity operations. He also discussed the continued equipment modernization and expansion of the volunteer components of the armed forces. There were no indications that the mission of the Land Forces was about to shift from the emphasis on fighting a limited land battle on one of Russia's many frontiers against a conventional incursion launched with little warning.
However, Gerasimov's concept of defensive action also includes the "strategy of limited actions" in order to safeguard not only Russia's sovereignty and territorial integrity but also its interests abroad, including in far-flung theaters of operations such as Syria and possibly even Venezuela. Here, depending on the situation, the strategy calls for the establishment of a forces group led by one of the main branches of forces such as the Land Forces, Aerospace Forces, Airborne Assault Forces, or the Navy, in order to deploy to a remote destination and conduct operations in support of a regional ally. The unveiling of the concept of "strategy of limited actions" indicates that the Syria operation was to a large extent an improvisation, a test-bed for not only weapons but also, and perhaps especially, operational concepts including inter-service cooperation.
While a successful improvisation, the Syria campaign did reveal a number of gaps in Russia's military capabilities, including the use of unmanned platforms where it clearly lags behind the United States, and also the ability to assess and strike emerging targets in near-real time. The repeated drone swarm attacks on the Hmeimim airbase are a case where Russian forces, while able to defeat the swarms themselves, did not appear able to quickly locate and destroy the source of these swarms. Gerasimov's address recognized the need for theoretical and practical solutions to these problems, as well as the importance of political and humanitarian factors in the ultimate settlement of the conflict which definitely proved to be the case in Syria, where the adroitness of Russia's diplomacy and Moscow's ability to use political and economic levers of influence considerably changed the political landscape of not only Syria, but of the entire Middle East.
The final aspect of Gerasimov's address that is worthy of attention is the recognition that Russia has less to fear from NATO's conventional or even nuclear warfare than from unconventional "hybrid" attacks, including information and cyber-warfare, and even direct subversion using a domestic "fifth column". It is here that Gerasimov made the most extensive request for theoretical research, acknowledging that dealing with such a threat would require close coordination of military, paramilitary, and purely civilian government agencies. What Gerasimov described is essentially the Venezuela scenario. The dispatch of a delegation of some 100 Russian military personnel appears to be intended to provide both a show of support and tangible assistance in the form of advice to the beleaguered Venezuelan government. However, in view of Gerasimov's emphasis on theoretical research into dealing with unconventional threats, Venezuela also offers an opportunity to study US methods being used in this undeclared "hybrid" war. There the United States is, in effect, conducting an experiment in "non-kinetic" warfare using chiefly economic pressure, information operations, and cyberwarfare, in conjunction with what appears to be a rather weak "fifth column". The apparent lack of use of even proxy armed forces may yet change should the current US strategy fail.
All in all, even though the Russian Federation was able to successfully weather the military and political challenges of the past several years, including the undoubted success in Syria that has considerably enhanced Russia's prestige not only in the Middle East but all over the world, there was no evidence of complacency in Gerasimov's address. Instead there was a sense of awareness that this is a crisis which will not be quickly resolved and which will require the ability to rapidly develop and deploy counters to whatever new methods of confrontation Western powers will adopt.
Comment: Russia is leagues ahead in one area that the deep state players are unable to fathom: mutually beneficial, interdependent partnerships, and, ultimately, following this war of attrition, this may decide the course of the future:
The Saker interviews Dmitry Orlov
Like Libya and Syria, Venezuela is not just about oil
Alastair Crooke: The looking glass splinters
Pepe Escobar: The Pentagon's obsession with China, and Putin's strategy
The West's irrational fear of Iran is a disaster waiting to happen
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Haha that sure was a quicklittle brit kick in the behind. Repaying for the frog cottage is a tad steep up the pole for me, but then... i dont give...
LindaMay


text:
Q: Should I create singleton with Object or file-level val? We'd like to have a single instance of a class that will be used throughout our codebase. We created a dedicated package to hold this instance. If I understand it right, there are two ways to declare a singleton.
(The examples use Jackson but this is not specific to it in any way.)
Object
package net.goout.jackson

import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper
...

object Jackson : ObjectMapper() {
    init {
        configure(...)
    }
}

File-level val
package net.goout.jackson

import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper
...

val jackson = ObjectMapper().apply {
    configure(...)
}

In both cases only one instance is ever created and the call sites are identical (apart from the slight difference in the naming).
Is there any practical difference between the two approaches?

A: I can't spot any practical differences, no!
Looking at the generated bytecode shows that the two cases are more similar than you might think: both have a static initialiser, and a field.  The main difference is that in the object case those are in a new class and the field (INSTANCE) is public, while in the var case it's private and accessed through a getter method in a hidden class named …Kt.  (In practice, the getter will usually get optimised out anyway.)  That might affect the initialisation order, but that won't matter here.
At the language level, the object version will create a new subclass, while the val version won't — so you might see the latter as being slightly 'purer', though I can't see how that would matter to you.  And if you were calling from Java, the two cases would have different complications — though the question only mentioned Kotlin.
And the val version is very slightly shorter and simpler — only a tiny advantage, but in the absence of any other factors, brevity and simplicity are good things!
By the way, the question assumes that the configure() method is 'fluent', i.e. returns the object on which it's called.  But even if not, you can get the same effect by simply surrounding it in an apply() call.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Cal Poly Pomona seeks to make campus more…
Azusa mayor has long COVID
Mexican seafood in El Monte
From retirement to Rams defense
Sierra Vista football coach
Cal Poly Pomona seeks to make campus more bicycle-friendly
Students ride their bikes at Cal Poly Pomona. The school is improving non-motorists safety across the campus.
By Beau Yarbrough | byarbrough@scng.com | The Press-Enterprise
Pomona >> More than a year after the death of a Cal Poly Pomona bicyclist, non-motorist safety has improved on campus, but future improvements will be "incremental" as funding becomes available.
Bicyclist Ivan Aguilar died after being struck by a motorist on Feb. 28, 2013. His death brought renewed attention to the dangers faced by bicyclists and pedestrians on a campus originally focused on students commuting by car — he died just down the street from where fellow student Matt Myers was struck and killed in a crosswalk in 2005. The university's last major traffic study failed to take non-motorists into account, even as officials recommended incoming freshmen live on campus for the first time.
Since then, university officials restricted automobile traffic in some places on campus, and in January, the school opened a new bike path connecting the endpoint of an existing city of Pomona bike path to the heart of the university campus.
But Cal Poly Pomona still has more work to do, according to Michael Adams, secretary of sustainability for Cal Poly Pomona's Associated Students Inc. student government association.
"I live near downtown Pomona so I do about a five-mile ride every day, one way," Adams said.
"There are routes that I can take that are safer and roads that are paved appropriately for campus, but the main routes to get to campus from Pomona … are more-than-average not safe for cyclists and usually motorists don't respect bicyclists that ride on the street," including bus drivers, the fourth-year engineering major said.
Students have shared safe routes to and from campus online at the Cal Poly Pomona Bike Week Facebook page (located at Facebook.com/CalPolyPomonaBikeWeek), but additional improvements to make the campus more bicyclist- and pedestrian-friendly will likely happen periodically. (The fourth annual Bike Week continues through Saturday.)
The Pomona City Council recently approved a new Active Transportation Plan that will help city officials plan for future safe bicycling and pedestrian routes.
On campus, officials hope to extend the newly opened bike path north from the Bronco Student Center to Camphor Lane some time in the 2014-15 school year.
"We're in design right now for that," said Walter Marquez, the university's vice-president of facilities planning and management.
Extending the path allows officials to "kill two birds with one stone," he said: "extend the bike path and improve pedestrian access to the new student center, the (Bronco Recreation and Intramural Complex)."
Other coming pedestrian safety improvements include replacing some aging stairways this summer and adding an additional sidewalk on University Drive.
Officials may also build a "bike hub" near where the path currently ends, including bicycle parking and "fix-it" repair stations.
"That's one of the things we're beginning to explore," Marquez said.
Many of these improvements were planned prior to Aguilar's death, but the tragedy raised the plans' profile within official circles.
"Any time you have an unfortunate incident, it brings an awareness," Marquez said. "It's unfortunate that an incident has to do that, but these are elements that we are looking at, as well, in regards with improving circulation."
And bicyclist and pedestrian safety is part of the planning for all future development at the university, he said.
"As we plan new buildings, we always take a look around as far as the circulation, how do you get there, how do bicycles get there, how do pedestrians get there," Marquez said.
But funding is what's applying the brakes to future improvements.
"Unfortunately, right now, money is incremental," Marquez said.
Campus bicyclists hope the university will develop a bicycling master plan to plan for future improvements, but "we just don't have funding for that right now," Adams said. "That would address all of these issues – actually riding your bike around campus safely, and having bicycle racks."
He acknowledges that much of that is beyond Cal Poly Pomona officials' control.
"I think the university is absolutely listening; it's just a matter of funding," Adams said.
But the changes can't come soon enough for him:
"When I live four miles away, should I have to ride seven miles in a circle (to get to campus safely) or should I be able to ride more directly?"
Romance scam proceeds were part of illegal, international money transfers, feds say
Pedestrian dies at scene of crash in West Covina
Glendora man pleads guilty to breaking a window during storming of U.S. Capitol
Azusa Mayor Robert Gonzales still struggling with long-haul COVID-19 symptoms
Santa Anita horse racing consensus picks for Monday Jan. 17
Cal Poly Pomona
Beau Yarbrough | Reporter
Beau Yarbrough wrote his first newspaper article taking on an authority figure (his middle school principal) when he was in 7th grade. He's been a professional journalist since 1992, working in Virginia, Egypt and California. In that time, he's covered community news, features, politics, local government, education, the comic book industry and more. He's covered the war in Bosnia, interviewed presidential candidates, written theatrical reviews, attended a seance, ridden in a blimp and interviewed both Batman and Wonder Woman (Adam West and Lynda Carter). He also cooks a mean pot of chili.
byarbrough@scng.com
Follow Beau Yarbrough	@LBY3


text:
The Rehnquist Court and the Constitution
by Tinsley E. Yarbrough
Publisher: Oxford Univ Pr
Midtown Scholar Bookstore
Unmarked, light shelfwear-NICE Standard-sized.
new Add to Cart $32.82
Description: In The Rehnquist Court and the Constitution, Tinsley Yarbrough provides a comprehensive look at today's Supreme Court Justices and their record -- a study all the more valuable for the Court's mixed decisions and hard-to-categorize course.
An accomplished biographer, Yarbrough offers incisive portraits of the nine who now sit on the high bench, and tellingly reviews their nomination healings. He also explores the workings of the Court, ranging from the selection and role of the clerks to the work load (including the end-of-term "June crunch") and assignment of opinions. But the heart of the book is a systematic exploration of the Court's record in such fields as government power, economic regulation, and criminal justice. In decision after decision, the author discusses the various justices' opinions, arguments, and legal theories; he also offers his own analysis (including a sharp critique of the decision to arrow the Paula Jones lawsuit to move forward). Like many writers on the Rehnquist Court, Yarbrough finds a general continuity with the past, shaded by a conservative outlook (especially in matters of criminal justice and affirmative action), but he identifies a significant departure in its rulings on economic regulation. Since 1937, he writes, the Supreme Court had generally adopted an expansive view of federal power over economic matters; the Rehnquist Court has reversed that trend.
The Rehnquist Court has not launched an all-out assault on the Warren Court's precedents, as many conservatives hoped, but as Yarbrough shows it has embarked on important new departures. Thoughtful, wide-ranging, intelligently written, this book will stand as the finest study of the RehnquistCourt for years to come.
Seller: Midtown Scholar Bookstore
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Connecting readers with great books since 1972. Used books may not include companion materials, some shelf wear, may contain highlighting/notes, and may not include cd-rom or access codes. Customer service is our top priority!
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8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. 306 pp. Tightly bound. Spine not compromised. Text is free of markings.
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text:
Q: How to plot data on map without coordinates? I am trying to plot dataframe like:
code    name             description    estimate
0       Australia         Vegetables     854658
0       Australia         Fruit          667541
1       New South Wales   Vegetables     45751
1       New South Wakes   Fruit          77852
2       Victoria          Vegetables     66211
2       Victoria          Fruit          66211
.
.
.

For each region in Australia there are multiple rows with different description. What packages may I use to plot a map with estimate without coordinates?
I try ggplot and ozmaps with sf which mentioned in ggplot2 tutorial, and I filter the dataframe for only fruit, but there is error message :
stat_sf requires the following missing aesthetics: geometry
the code I tried :
ggplot() +
  geom_sf(oz_states,mapping=aes())+
  geom_sf(df,mapping=aes()) +
  coord_sf()

The methods I found are all required langitude and latitude to plot the data map, I tried ggmaps or geom_ploygon but didn't figure out the correct way to do so.  Is there a possible way to plot map with only region labels?
this is what I plot by tableau, and this is expected plot by using r as well:

A: So essentially, your first problem is that you're calling the wrong object within the ozmaps package. it's ozmap_states, meanwhile you called yours oz_states
I came up with this solution that I think takes what you want and elevates it.

df <- data.frame(code = rep(c(0,1,2), 2), name = rep(c("Australia", "New South Wales", "Victoria"), 2), description = rep(c("Vegetables", "Fruit"), 3), count =
             c(854658, 45751, 66211, 667541, 77852, 66211))

library(tidyverse)
library(sf)
library(ozmaps)
library(leaflet)
library(tmap)

states_full <- right_join(df, ozmap_states, by = c("name" = "NAME"))

data <- states_full %>%
  filter(description == "Fruit") %>%
  select(name, geometry, count)

ozmap1 = tm_shape(ozmap_states) +tm_polygons()

tmap_mode("view")

ozmap1 + tm_shape(st_as_sf(data)) + tm_fill(col = "count")

Basically, instead of using the sample dataframe that I created from your data, you would just use your data in the right join. You can also choose whether you want fruits or vegetables in your filter function.
The tmap package is a mapping package that can make interactive leaflet like maps.
You can look at some tutorials here: https://geocompr.robinlovelace.net/adv-map.html
End solution looks something like this.

Note: This solution uses lng/lat, but it pulls it directly from the shape file for oz state maps in the ozmaps package, therefore fulfilling the need of the question.
When you add in more data, more of Australia will be colored in depending on their count.


If you are looking for a fun new recipe to add some pizzaz to meals you must try my super easy Southern Coconut Corn Pudding.
Corn is a staple ingredient in Southern kitchens, as they love casseroles, plus it's an indulgent way to eat some vegetables—another thing Southerners are known for. As a Northerner, I was introduced to corn pudding recently and thought it sounded like a yummy recipe to try.
After reading a little background on Corn pudding I realized that it works as an awesome side dish to most protein choices or makes an delicious vegetarian light supper on its own, paired with a simple salad.
Now, for those of you who like savory breakfast foods, I really believe that this Corn pudding would make an amazing brunch dish as well, in fact I plan to bring it to our upcoming family Easter Brunch .
Most recipes I found for Corn pudding call for eggs, a large amount of heavy cream, butter, flour, a touch of sugar, and plenty of corn, of course. The pudding should have a soft, tender texture, like a cross between cornbread and a soufflé.
My goal was to make a Corn pudding without the heavy cream/butter and regular flour as so many of my family are dairy/gluten intolerant and without sugar. I decided to replace the heavy cream and butter with a combination of creamed corn and coconut milk/coconut and the sugar with a small amount of Stevia. The flour was an easy fix with my Gluten Free Flour blend.
As a bonus, my new Coconut Corn pudding recipe tastes absolutely delicious and gives you a lot more non soluble fiber than traditional southern Corn pudding recipes which, for most of us is a welcome benefit.
In a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs with a whisk.
Add in the butter/coconut oil, flour, stevia and coconut milk and whisk till lightly blended. Stir in the corn niblets , creamed corn and green onions. Blend well.
Pour the mixture into the casserole dish. Bake for 1 hour.


text:
Security and Compliance – Contact Center Platform
Security & reliability through experts, tools and processes
Superior security, compliance and reliability for your contact center
The NICE inContact Trust Office is an organization of cloud security experts, tools and processes that provide superior security, compliance and reliability by safeguarding contact centers. As a result, CXone delivers protection for critical company data, high system-wide availability and a CX platform that meets the needs of digital-first businesses. The Trust Office drives security across CXone through a meet-and-exceed approach to audits for FedRAMP, PCI DSS, HITRUST, SOC2, GDPR and more. The platform is rigorously tested though regular penetration and intrusion detection exercises, all proactively monitored by two NOCs on a 24/7/365 basis, allowing for 99.99% guaranteed platform uptime, including maintenance windows.
Risk and profit loss by avoiding data breaches and compliance fines
Mission-critical company data through regular backups and data storage options
Business continuity and disaster recovery for your contact center
IT finger-pointing and gotchas by relying on CXone
IT overhead with managed security, operations, and protection of your contact center
Cloud security experts, tools and processes
Defend Critical Data
Place your data and contact center operations in a high security environment that mitigates risk in the cloud
Reduce risk and profit loss
A rigorous security architecture
Peace of mind with a secure contact center
Gain confidence through data protection
Self-service security reporting
Rely on 99.99% Uptime
Access high reliability environment that bolsters your Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery strategy
Eliminate IT finger-pointing and gotchas
Never lose a call or session due to downtime
Preserve mission-critical company data
Confidently implement Business
Continuity/Disaster Recovery plans
Achieve Compliance Goals
Take security-driven approach to your compliance strategy to meet the protection needs for your platform
A clear path to the cloud that meets compliance requirements
Security-driven compliance with protection across all layers
Decrease risk by using industry standard best practices
Reduce IT overhead through outsourcing to NICE inContact
Deliver a better and more consistent customer experience
Achieve your NPS, CSAT and other customer experience objectives
Immediately identify and address agent behavior trends
Reduce negative customer experiences
A Security-Driven Approach to Compliance
Given the high volume of data transactions contact centers process daily, security controls and attested industry compliance are paramount. Cybersecurity programs that support the contact center while providing transparency to customer is our specialty at the NICE inContact Trust Office. More so than just awareness, we commit to a higher level of trust in ensuring you or your service provider are properly processing and securing data.
NICE inContact maintains compliance and certifications with various industry standards to assist customers in verifying security policies and processes.
The FedRAMP program Adheres to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-53 baseline security controls that, once attested, allows for the processing of data across U.S. Federal Government entities. Working with a cloud-services provider Authorized to Operate with a sponsoring and approving U.S. Government Agency enables your contact center to migrate from antiquated and generally insecure IT systems to resilient, redundant, compliant, and secure cloud-based systems. NICE inContact is the only cloud contact center provider given Authorization to Operate in a FedRAMP environment.
PCI DSS Level I and II
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) assesses the security and data privacy of cardholder data traversing across information systems. We commit to offering contact center services that adhere to data security controls approved by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council as, we understand the commitment and trust we need to have with customers across the globe when protecting sensitive customer cardholder data.
CPNI
As a telecommunications services provider, we fully comply with the Federal Communications Commission in protecting Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI). Your customer's information call types are securely stored and continuously monitored; further, it is our commitment to you that we will not sell, lend, or license CPNI data to a third-party.
AICPA SOC 2 Type 2 + HiTRUST
The System and Organizational Controls (SOC) 2 Type 2 attestation is designed to measure how well a given service organization conducts and regulates its data and organizational security programs by providing an industry-hardened report that details procedures and controls. Further, we have committed to the supplemental Health Information Trust (HITRUST) addition to SOC 2, which means we offer the assurance to process sensitive protected health information (PHI) in accordance with the HITRUST Common Security Framework mapped with the AICPA's Trust Services Criteria to streamline reporting while ensuring data privacy confidence.
The Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) aims to protect all European Union citizens from privacy and data breaches. As a data processor acting and serving our customers as data controllers, we place an extreme high importance of ensuring all GDPR Articles are enforced and audited by offering security features to use our contact center services to better protect data this is most sensitive. In fact, before the EU regulatory agencies mandated external compliant assessments, we elected to prove our GDPR commitment with a third-party qualified security assessor to validate our strong security measures, offering confidence and trust to users around the world.
NICE inContact is fully accredited through the Information Security Registered Assessors Program (IRAP), which is an Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) initiative to provide high-quality information and communications technology (ICT) security assessment services to the Australian government. The NICE inContact IRAP compliance procedure has been performed by an independent IRAP assessor and ensures that the platform protects the Australian government's data from access, abuse and disclosure when leveraging cloud contact center services.
Cyber Essentials is an information assurance protocol operated by the United Kingdom's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) that ensures information risk management by using an assurance framework and set of security controls to indicate an organization's ability to protect its customers' data from threats coming from the Internet. NICE inContact has received the Cyber Essentials Certificate of Assurance following an independent assessment of its infrastructure and technical controls, such as boundary firewalls and gateways, secure configuration, access control, malware protection and patch management.
The California Consumers Protection Act (CCPA) was designed to enhance data privacy for residents of California by disclosing customer information handling as it pertains to individual data verification, opt-out procedures and general overviews of selling customer information, and methods of requests submission criteria. By offering transparency of our privacy policies and customer data handling and processing controls via our contact center solutions, we value the importance of customer data privacy by offering CCPA-compliant based controls.
Publicly traded under NICE Ltd. (NASDAQ: NICE), we annually undergo SOX auditing to protect shareholders of the company and the general public from any accounting errors or fraudulent practices and to improve the accuracy of our corporate disclosures. We fully comply with SOX electronic record rules and security controls to address data storage and processing flows for compliant data handling.
We support and fully comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, requiring all federal agencies to make information technology accessible with disabilities. In demonstrating our compliance, we will offer a completed Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) upon request.
When a HIPAA compliant solution is requested, the resulting discussion centers around privacy and security protections under HIPAA and the Health Information Technology for Economic Clinical Health ("HITECH") Act. For covered entities and business associates subject to HIPAA, NICE inContact offers solutions for processing, transmitting, and storing protected health information ("PHI"). Upon request, NICE inContact will sign a business associate agreement ("BAA") according to the services NICE inContact provides our customers.
Congress enacted the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) in 1991 to address the growing number of telephone marketing calls being made in the US. To reduce the number of hang-up and dead air calls consumers experience, the Commissions telemarketing rules also contain restrictions on the use of auto-dialers and requirements for transmitting caller ID information. Most recently, The FCC introduced the STIR/SHAKEN Protocol, designed to combat robocalls by requiring grading call integrity before it hits the public internet or PSTN. NICE inContact offers full A-level attestation for calls originating from our platform, before they even reach the carrier. This means that all CXone calls have the thumbs-up to travel to your customer. We can then work with you on ensuring your databases meet evolving TCPA standards.
Training and education services
Open Cloud Platform - CXone


Mountain Lights from telekaster on Vimeo.
Ten years after our first audiovisual live gig at Electronic Church Berlin (25 Oct 2008), this is un saluto from the midst of the mountain mist to all of Telekaster's friends! It has ever been so magnetizing! For Stefan and me Telekaster was very much a project like a beautiful playground next to our jobs in film and theatre music… It was always a pleasure to go play or produce something for this little poetic cosm. So… mille grazie for a few supercool years with all of you, we remember a bunch of supernice Telekaster moments from whereever we went between 2008 and 2012… To quote the very beginning: Your Fireworks Brighten My Sky.
Telekaster was an audiovisual live and studio collaboration by Matthias Grübel and video-artist Stefan Bünnig. Together they created a universe of abstract narration and associative beauty consisting of Matthias' shimmering noisy soundscapes and Stefan's minimal real-film sequences. Telekaster was also the moniker used by Matthias for the releases The Silent Anagram, Into Fields, At How Many Beats Per Life (2009-2011), which were all strongly backed-up by Stefan's visual works.


text:
Why should students living at home subsidise those living in campus accommodation?
Opinion: On-campus rent increases have sparked protests, but it has to pay for itself
Tue, Mar 3, 2020, 00:00
Patrick Prendergast
In an ideal world there would be government funding for student housing, but there is not. Photograph: iStock
The housing crisis, as well as long commutes, were clearly major issues with many young people who voted for Sinn Féin in last month's general election.
For many students too, many of whom travel long distances to get to university on a daily basis or pay high rents, accommodation was the defining issue.
As well as impacting on their academic studies, a tough travel regime and the need to do part-time work to pay the rent can limit students' participation in university life and limit the benefits of higher education.
I was fortunate to live in college in my final year in Trinity in the 1980s. It enriched my time academically, culturally and socially and gave me many opportunities to participate in social activities with my peers. I didn't have to work to pay the rent, nor commute from my parents' house in Wexford to the college – and some students do that commute now.
In an ideal world, university students should have the option of reasonably priced accommodation on campus. In an ideal world, there would be government funding for student housing, but there isn't. To build the extra provision of recent years on Irish campuses universities had to take out loans from the European Investment Bank or make business arrangements with private investors. Loans, of course, have to be paid back.
On-campus housing in Irish universities is generally maintained to a high standard. While the recent rent increases announced by some institutions have sparked off protests from students, the reality is that on-campus accommodation has to pay for itself. It cannot be cross-subsidised by revenues from student fees or research grants. Why should students living in flats or at home subsidise those living in university accommodation?
On-campus accommodation is, in addition, essential if we are to increase the numbers of international students coming to study in this country. Being new to Ireland, they most of all need guaranteed accommodation for their first year of studies.
Rent out rooms
The universities are also able to rent out rooms when term ends to visiting academics, students, tourists and others. This provides much-needed revenue that subsidises academic activities – in Trinity, 80 Ussher lecturer salaries are partly paid from these commercial sources. It's one way we can offset the massive drop in public funding of higher education. The income earned is ploughed back into essential academic activity.
Campus accommodation for students is now a feature of universities in Ireland. It's common in the UK and the US but not so common on the European mainland and there used to be very little of it in Ireland until the universities took action.
When the first round of CAO offers is issued to first years in August, the mad scramble for off-campus apartments or digs begins in earnest
Universities recognise the benefits of such accommodation. The Higher Education Authority (HEA) in a 2015 report quoted US studies showing that students living on-campus are more likely to complete their studies, and in a separate study in the UK it was found that students in on-campus accommodation have a lower dropout rate of 4 per cent compared to a rate of 10 per cent for others. This may well be because of the closer proximity to facilities such as libraries, study venues, restaurants etc, and the advantages of peer networks in sport clubs and societies.
Some Irish universities are already accepting applications for accommodation for first-year students for next autumn and the remainder will do so over the next couple of months. Demand always outstrips supply; in Trinity we have almost three applicants for each space.
Inevitably many will be disappointed. When the first round of CAO offers is issued to first years in August, the mad scramble for off-campus apartments or digs begins in earnest, prompting the predictable media reports about a student housing "crisis". This race for a place to live in is complicated by the tight timeline between the Leaving Certificate results and the CAO offers, which leaves a very short timeframe to identify and access accommodation. That's why universities try to house as many first-year students as possible.
The HEA report led to the National Student Accommodation Strategy which has resulted in a significant increase in purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA). At the end of June last year, a further 6,691 PBSA bed spaces had been completed; 5,986 were under construction; 8,577 had planning permission and 203 were at the application stage. Much of this is in close proximity to college campuses.
Progress, yes, but we still have a way to go to meet the growing demand. This summer Trinity will open Printing House Square on Pearse Street with 250 student beds, and we hope to construct more in Trinity Hall, Dartry. The only way to solve the general accommodation crisis – including the student accommodation problem – is by increasing supply. All political parties are agreed on that priority, which is a good starting point. Who has the policies to make it happen remains to be seen.
Patrick Prendergast is provost of Trinity College Dublin and an engineer. He is also chairperson of the Irish Universities Association.
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Higher Options 2021 What to study? Check out Higher Options 2021
Grad Week 2021 What lies ahead for this year's graduates?
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61st Irish Times Debate Final Maynooth University and TCD speaker win Irish Times Debate final awards
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Advice: Brian Mooney
My daughter is very environmentally aware, are there viable careers in this area?
My son isn't interested in going to college. How can we change his mind?
My son is keen on studying English but I'm worried he'll struggle to find work
My daughter wants to study medicine. Are grinds for the Hpat worth it?
My daughter's third-level experience is pretty dismal. Is this normal?


The time is almost here, Halloween is quickly approaching and with that comes all creepy crawlies waiting in the shadows. If you're looking for a real scare this season, don't go see the newest horror movie, instead head down to High Park to experience a real haunted evening!
Every year High Park hosts an event called Haunted High Park that will take you on a tour of this surprisingly spooky park after dark. The High Park grounds are allegedly haunted and are home to many ghosts that suffered terrible ends. Ghosts of drowned soldiers, a bloody phantom horseman, and even a creepy man in black are said to roam the park at night.
If you're feeling brave, we dare you to head over to the park this fall and see if these eerie legends are true for yourself. The Haunted High Park tour will begin at Colborne Lodge which is said to be extremely haunted. Here the creepy stories will start and after they'll continue on throughout the park telling you all about this city's eerie and disturbing past.
The event will begin on October 13th and run until October 28th this year. You'll explore these haunted grounds for 2 hours from 7-pm after it is thoroughly pitch black. The guide will have a single lantern to take you through the grounds.
During this tour they'll even perform a Victorian-era seance! The cost of this event will be $32.50 and tickets should be bought in advance because they usually sell out very quickly.
Check out the High Park website for more information and to buy advance tickets!


Elk Run is the complex to the far right in this photo, surrounding by snow in winter for perfect ski in / ski out access & surrounding by the golf course in summer for quiet tranquility.
Living room with great light & carefree gas fireplace!
The lower level bedroom / bathroom is set up as a studio & can be used separately from the rest of the townhouse.
Elk Run is located along the Copper Creek Golf Course.....this is a spectacular year round location!
Attached one car garage with door into lower level of townhouse, locking storage closet & storage up above!
One car attached garage with plenty of storage for all of your sports equipment!


See the 12620926 (Philips) product quantities above.
Obsolete Electronic Components 12620926, as well as Fuses, DRAM, SDRAM, Crystals, Optical Drives, Multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC), Floppy Drives, Relays, or other obsolete electronic parts from our Product Line, will be shipped same day if ordered by 3:00pm PST.
If the item 12620926 (Philips), or other obsolete electronic components, outdated Mice & Other Input Devices, Fuses, CD-ROM Drives, Capacitors, Multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC) you are looking for, is not in stock but available, Obsolete Electronic Components Distributors can ship it in 1-5 days, depending on where it's currently located. If you've not received your 12620926 (Philips) items within the specified time, contact us and we will chase your delivery.
Use our Search Engine to find products related to 12620926 (Philips).
Feel free to use our Search Engine to find the right obsolete electronic components, such as 126203800, 1262075312, 12620572, DRAM, SDRAM, Hard Drives (Notebook & PC), Capacitors, Discrete Components, Transistors, Optical Drives, other obsolete electronic components.
It is crucial that you seize the opportunity when it's there, and when it's hot. Each day unused 126203800, 1262075312, 12620572, assets, surplus electronic parts are becoming less valuable. Now is the time to get rid of any extra obsolete electronics inventory from Philips manufacturer, ... you might have in stock. Don't let your Modems, Microprocessors / CPUs, Flash memory, Transceiver Modules assets go to waste. Our Obsolete 12620926 Suppliers officers are eager to do business with you.


Following up on last month's guest column by Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim tells us what planners can do to anticipate and mitigate changes in the retail sector.
Carlisle/Wortman's guest columnist, Ebenezer Scrooge, brings you the ghost of Christmas future, at least as it applies to the retail sector.
Old? Can't drive? Now what?
A powerful anecdote puts a face on the dilemma of aging in a community designed around cars.
Where there's a will there's a way, for Center Line, an inner ring suburb with a vision for its downtown.
Google Street View and Google Maps show us how cities around the world innovate to make streets safe, useful and beautiful for pedestrians.
A U.S. Supreme Court decision says that municipalities can't regulate signs based on their content but location, composition and duration can still apply.
When it comes to transportation planning, there are some new rules in town.
How can communities engage busy residents and business owners to vote in local elections, engage in public participation events and discuss and plan for the community's future?
HUD funded 30 projects to help regions and communities plan green infrastructure projects. Their report offers excellent examples and is rich with links to the grantees' work.


EcoPowerSupplies runs an e-commerce enabled website (www.ecopowersupplies.com) from which a wide selection of critical power protection products and UPS systems services can be purchased and paid for on-line.
Please remember our Price Promise as we will not knowingly be beaten on price, delivery or customer service.
Our sales team can also provide formal quotations for both products and services featured on the website and those put together as 'turn-key' packages for specific site power solutions. For a formal quotation and commercial offer please contact our sales team. They will be able to assist you in your search for the right uninterruptible power supplies, batteries, generators, static transfer switches and power management products to solve your power problems.
Please note that all offers and quotations are made against our sales terms and conditions, are based on the information provided by our clients and may be made subject to a site project survey.
Place a website order: clients can order goods through www.ecopowersupplies.com and pay for them using a valid debit or credit card through our secure payment gateway. No extra charges are incurred for debit or credit payment on-line. We can accept payments from all leading debit and credit cards, as well as payment via PayPal. Your can also Place and Park' an order on our website – this allows us to allocate stock for release when you make a separate bank transfer.
Place an order over the telephone: telephone our sales team on 0800 612 7388 and place an order over the phone. Payment must be made prior to goods shipment or service delivery using a valid debit or credit card. EcoPowerSupplies can provide a printed Customer Order Form for authorisation if required.
Send an official purchase order: companies, organisation and individuals can send an official purchase order (by email, post or fax) accepting our quotation or based on the information published on our website and in datasheets or to accompany one of our Customer Order Forms. Payment must be made prior to goods shipment or service delivery using a valid debit or credit card, BACS, IBAN or Swift payment or cheque drawn on a UK bank.
Proforma Invoice acceptance: please contact our sales team if you require a proforma invoice. Upon payment of the proforma goods will be despatch the goods and/or services. A full VAT sales invoice is issued alter.
Credit Accounts: are available for specific order values and customer types. Please see our Credit accounts information page and note that credit accounts are only available subject to successful credit status, financial and reference checking.
orders placed are accepted based on our sales terms and conditions.
any client purchase orders or documentation sent to EcoPowerSupplies must provide a clear goods and/or service description, with itemised details, agreed prices, invoice, delivery and full contact details.
orders are processed subject to stock availability and clients are informed if goods are out of stock or cannot be delivered within a published delivery timescale.
sales order acknowledgements are issued on order placement and it is the responsibility of the client place the order to check the sales order acknowledgement for accuracy and inform EcoPowerSupplies.com of any errors and omissions in writing by email or fax.
Cancellations can be made as per our sales terms and conditions.
Some products and services on www.ecopowersupplies.com can be purchased directly online using a valid UK registered debit or credit card, checked through our secure payment gateway. These products (typically 'plug n play') and services include an 'Add to Basket' red button on their product pages. Once goods or services have been added to your basket you can proceed to our secure checkout, create or login to your EcoPowerSupplies website account.
We can also provide Critical Power as a Service (C-PaaS) using lease finance options that can spread payments over a period of 1-10 years or longer, fully maintained with monthly or quarterly payments.
EcoPowerSupplies maintains a large stock of products available for next day delivery for purchase orders placed and processed by 2:00pm on a normal working day. Goods are despatched for delivery based on the chosen delivery service. If your order is delayed due to a stock-out or your required on-site date cannot be met due to a bank-holiday or high stock demand, we will inform you immediately.
Most 'plug n play' products and off-the-shelf batteries and spares are available for a next day delivery. If an item is out of stock or requires factory build or import, we will advise an estimated delivery date in a sales order acknowledgement.
For goods requiring electrical connection, our sales order processing team will liaise with our Power Projects team to arrange a convenient delivery and installation time. To assist project timescales, it is sometimes necessary to arrange for part shipments, allowing installations to progress. For example, maintenance bypasses and battery sets, shipped ahead of a large UPS system.
EcoPowerSupplies can respond to emergency orders for its goods and services. If you request an immediate despatch and delivery we will advise of any associated extra charges and commit to your project, provided we are provided with an authorised purchase order or official communication – such as a signed fax or email from an authorising authority within your company or organisation.
EcoPowerSupplies is a UK-based company with clients based around the world. All overseas and off-shore orders must be paid for before despatch can be made, normally via BACS, SWIFT or IBAN. Shipment is made using your requested despatch method – road, rail or airfreight and insured at cost. All overseas orders are export packed at cost. Please contact us for a delivery quote of you are not a UK mainland site.
Courier 'boxed services': provide a kerbside delivery to 'goods in' or the front door of your building. The consignment may consist of one or two boxes or more and be subject to a 'one-person-lift' limit under the health & safety manual handling procedures on your site. Please ensure someone is available to receive the goods and sign for them.
Courier 'pallet services': with the consignment secured onto Euro pallets and possibly shrink wrapped. A larger delivery vehicle may be used and the pallets may require off-loading facilities including a pallet truck or fork lift. Please ensure someone is available to receive the goods and sign for them.
Delivery, siting and positioning: this is a full logistics service and includes eco-friendly recycling of the pallets and packaging. The service may be subject to a site survey and can also be used for site relocations, removals and recycling.
If a non-standard delivery service or time is required such as a Saturday, Sunday, Bank Holiday or out of normal working hours delivery is required, please consider a dedicated door-to-door service. Post Office services may be used for small items and documentation.
To be confirmed on checkout.
Please note that we can only ship to a complete postal address with a contact name. We do not deliver to PO Boxes and all deliveries must be signed for.
We normally request 100% prepayment with a first order and only offer credit facilities to clients once they have completed a Credit Application Form and it has been successfully processed by our Finance Team. Credit terms are nett 30 days and can be provided on request to government, public sector and corporate accounts. Please note that late payment charges will be incurred and collections made via the County Courts and/or a third-party specialist debt recovery company. We do not normally offer credit terms to clients based outside the UK.
We accept payments from valid debit or credit cards, bank transfers (BACS, SWIFT, IBAN) or cheques drawn on UK banks. We can provide our bank details on request via a separate form and they are also published on our proforma and sales invoices for ease of reference.
We do not make charges for payment by debit or credit card but may do so for charge cards including American Express to cover their fees.
If you wish to return goods to EcoPowerSupplies this must be done within our sales terms and conditions. Please contact our sales team to arrange for goods to be returned to us within 7 days of receipt and with an EcoPowerSupplies authorised Returns Number.
Our facilities will not accept deliveries of returned goods without a valid Returns Number. To obtain a Returns Number please contact our sales team and inform them of the reason for the return, including your name, address, contact details and website order or order confirmation number. Once received your goods will be inspected and a credit/refund issued if approved by our sales order processing team.
After despatch of your order, a full VAT sales invoice is raised and sent to the invoice address recorded in your website account or on your purchase order documentation. Clients are also sent a customer satisfaction survey form and testimonial opportunity to rate our organisation.
Our goal is always to achieve a first time, on time, clean installation. For this reason we provide a FREE of charge Site Projects Survey service across the UK and EIre. We can also provide this outside the UK in mainland Europe and elsewhere through our eco power partner network, for a set fee which may be waived on order placement.
Site Project Surveys help us to identify every aspect we need to consider for your site including logistics, electrical works, health & safety and environmental practices, power distribution, connectivity and maintenance. We strongly recommend Site Project Surveys for hardwired installations or large-scale 'plug n play' roll out programs. Request a Site Project Survey on this website or contact our Power Projects team.
For more information on our order processes please contact us.


Getting your degree can be the difference between suffering through the daily grind, and working in a career that really inspires you. But who has time for school? You do. Here are some simple ways to fit school into a chaotic schedule.


Online Training Completed Ahead of Time: Students are asked to complete required online training ahead of time.
Case Studies and Interactive Sessions: The Seminar will focus on case studies and interactive sessions that highlight the most important laboratory safety topics to reinforce online training.
Food: Light refreshments will be served at the end of the seminar.
Seminar: 2:00 PM – 4:00 p.m.
Social: 4:00 PM – 6:00 p.m.
If you have questions regarding the seminar, please contact ehstrain@uw.edu or call 206.543.7201.


Great hop flavor, not overpowering. Another good one from Indeed.
Solid session ipa. Day drinker.
Earned the Riding Steady (Level 6) badge! Earned the I Believe in IPA! (Level 26) badge! Earned the Session Life badge!
Tropical fruit with a bitter, very dry finish.
Earned the Cheers to Independent U.S. Craft Breweries (Level 17) badge! Earned the Middle of the Road (Level 36) badge! Earned the Brewery Pioneer (Level 11) badge!
Really digging the rye spice in a NE .
Haze and papaya and peach. Balanced. This is really well done.
Derek W.: The color on this is crazy... looks SO good!
Dessert balanced out with bourbon flavor.
Name says it all. Nothing but mosaic hops.
Earned the Bar Explorer (Level 11) badge! Earned the Photogenic Brew (Level 2) badge! Earned the Find the Source (Level 5) badge!
Lots of coffee with a hint of dark chocolate.
Earned the Middle of the Road (Level 35) badge! Earned the Photogenic Brew badge! Earned the I Believe in IPA! (Level 25) badge! Earned the Land of the Free (Level 45) badge!
Hoppy, spiced rye with a bit of floral on the back end. Good one.
Balanced pine, mango, and papaya flavors all coming through. This is fantastic.
Earned the Hopped Up (Level 11) badge! Earned the Brewery Pioneer (Level 10) badge! Earned the For the Can (Level 17) badge!
Hop forward with pine, citrus, and malt finish. Great west coast ipa.
MANGO flavor with a slightly piney finish. Summer crusher.
Tangerine juice with a lingering bitterness. Solid.
Earned the Cheers to Independent U.S. Craft Breweries (Level 15) badge! Earned the Middle of the Road (Level 34) badge! Earned the I Believe in IPA! (Level 24) badge! Earned the Land of the Free (Level 44) badge!
Slight vanilla and bourbon balance out the smokiness. Flavorful but not overpowering.
Double Sunset (w/ Honduran Pacayal Washed Coffee) Other Half Brewing Co.


If you aren't that much of a football fan, then you are probably looking forward to just the leaves changing, the cooler air, and just being able to go outside and wear your favorite hoodie. I do like all that stuff for sure. Fall is my favorite time of the year for many reasons. But my number one reason for loving the fall season is simply because that also means that college football will be starting.
It's that time of the year. The tailgating, the rowdiness of thousands of crazy screaming fans packed inside of one building. College football is in the air, and I love it so much.
With all that being said, here, are some things I see possibly happening.
We all heard it off and on throughout the offseason. Harbaugh holding satellite camps and the SEC complaining about it. Harbaugh and his Wolverines will be a national powerhouse early on with their powerful rushing attack and physical defense. They will go 7-0 going into their battle with in-state rival Michigan State leaving with an 8-0 record. However, the Iowa Hawkeyes will knock them from the unranked, and then they will go into the horseshoe against Ohio State but will leave with a loss. Ohio State will be the Big-Ten East champs. Leaving Michigan coming up short yet again.
I can't see anything getting better for the Auburn Tigers. Coming off a 7-6 (6-6 regular season) record from last year, I can see them repeating that again, if not worse.
Gus Malzahn will lose his job after the Iron Bowl. This is the same person that helped Cam Newton win a Heisman Trophy and brought Auburn a National Championship.
Houston is coming off a great offseason, but that offseason celebration will be put to a stop with Baker Mayfield and his Oklahoma Sooners crashing their party. There has been much talk the Big-12 will expand with Houston being thrown into the mix. I believe that their loss against Oklahoma will put a halt to those talks along with help of opposition from the other Big-12 schools within the state of Texas. But not to worry, Houston will go on to have a great year finishing 11-2 with a big bowl game appearance.
If history repeats itself, all four teams that make the playoffs this year, will either be undefeated or with a loss to their record. With Ohio State and Michigan State going through a rebuilding year, I can't see them making the playoffs. As I stated earlier, Michigan will have two losses to their record, leaving a spot for a conference to have two schools in the playoffs. That conference will be the SEC, and their two participants will be Alabama and LSU. Bama will go onto win the conference at 12-1 with LSU following behind them. LSU will go on defeating two top 25 teams with eight victories against teams over . 500 with their only loss coming against Bama themselves.
As for the ACC spot to be taken, I'm going to go with the Florida State Seminoles making the playoffs winning the conference outright. Also producing a Heisman Trophy winner in Dalvin Cook.
I have TCU and Oklahoma being the top two dogs of the conference. Both schools will impress throughout the season and I can't really see anyone slowing them down. Oklahoma will be led by Baker Mayfield yet again, while Kenny Hill will take over for TCU. Obviously only one of them will make the playoffs. I'm going to go with the Kenny Hill leading the TCU Horned Frogs to the playoffs. I am buying into Kenny Hill this year. I believe he will be in the hunt for Heisman, but will fall just short to Dalvin Cook.
TCU Horned Frogs will be your 2016-2017 College Football champions.


How are you celebrating Heritage Day today? Have we lost the essence of what this day was really meant to be about?
For the last couple of years, there's been a debate raging over how we as South Africans should celebrate Heritage Day. For many, it's an opportunity to partake of that widespread South African tradition, the braai, ukhosa, or chisa nyama, but for others this seems like a cop out. For these South Africans, honouring this public holiday by slapping some meat on the braai is the equivalent to celebrating Christmas by wrapping some tinsel around a tree. It lacks substance, depth, and meaning.
But how do we as South Africans celebrate a joint 'Heritage Day' when our heritage can look so widely different depending on our cultural upbringing?
Maybe we should start by going back to the roots of this public holiday. Did you know that today, 24 September, was formerly celebrated as Shaka Day in Kwa-Zulu, in memory of the legendary King Shaka Zulu?
Initially, the proposed Public Holidays Bill presented to the new Parliament of South Africa omitted Shaka Day, but it was later decided to make this day National Heritage Day where all South Africans could celebrate the diversity of cultures, beliefs and traditions that make up our country. So even from its inception this public holiday was a topic of contention.
The Heritage Day 'pot' was stirred even further though when in 2007, Jan Scannell (or Jan Braai, as he's come to be known) came up with the idea to create a Heritage Day initiative that would unite all South Africans in a common cultural activity – the act of cooking meat over an open fire. And 'Braai Day' was introduced as a way in which all South Africans could celebrate Heritage Day together.
This idea has grown in popularity to the extent that many people now refer to Heritage Day as Braai Day. Even Archbishop Desmond Tutu has given his endorsement by becoming the National Braai Day patron.
This debate is likely to simmer on for years to come, but perhaps it's not so much about what we do on this day but about how we behave towards our fellow South Africans during the other 364 days of the year. Are we interested in learning about other cultures? Asking questions and listening to the stories of how other South Africans celebrate their heritage? Maybe if we did this, when Heritage Day rolled around we'd have a more diverse group of friends around our braai to celebrate it with.