text:
\section{Introduction}

High-resolution imaging of the cool, rapidly mass-losing hypergiants\footnote{We use the term hypergiant to refer to evolved stars with spectral types from late A to M that lie just below the upper luminosity boundary in the HR Diagram.} VY CMa and IRC+10420 have yielded evidence for multiple, asymmetric mass loss events \citep{1997AJ....114.2778H,2001AJ....121.1111S,2002AJ....124.1026H,2005AJ....129..492H, 2007AJ....133.2716H,2010AJ....140..339T}.
These stars are the most luminous known for their apparent photospheric temperatures, and their mass loss rates rank among the highest for cool stars (i.e., a few $\times 10^{-4}$ M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$).
It has been suggested \citep{2001AJ....121.1111S,2005AJ....129..492H, 2007AJ....133.2716H,2010AJ....140..339T} that the complex loops, arcs and knots in their ejecta are possibly due to strong surface magnetic activity.
Recent ALMA observations of VY CMa, which reveal distinct, asymmetrically distributed clumps of ejecta on scales of tens of stellar radii, further reinforce such a notion  \citep{2014arXiv1410.1622O}.

Indeed, the presence of starspots, as manifest by large surface brightness anisotropies, has been inferred for several cool supergiants.
The best-studied example is  $\alpha$ Ori \citep{1996ApJ...463L..29G}, but stellar hotspots have also been observed on $\alpha$ Sco and $\alpha$ Her with properties consistent with a convective, hence magnetic, origin \citep{1997MNRAS.285..529T}.
Interferometric  imaging of cool hypergiant stars reveals large-scale inhomogeneities attributed to magnetic fields and/or rotation \citep{2004ApJ...605..436M}.
Magnetic fields have now been measured in the ejecta of several cool hypergiant stars \citep{2002A&A...394..589V,2005MmSAI..76..462V}, lending support to the notion that their episodic mass loss may be driven by surface magnetic activity.

For rapidly mass-losing evolved stars, the potential connection between such magnetic activity and coronal X-ray emission remains to be established.
Luminous X-ray emission from coronae associated with luminous red giants and supergiants is rarely observed \citep[][]{2003ApJ...598..610A,2005ApJ...618..493A}.
However, there exists a dearth of meaningful measurements of the most rapidly mass-losing evolved stars; to assess the X-ray activity levels of such stars requires deep observations with adequate hard ($\gtrsim$1 keV) X-ray sensitivity to penetrate their thick circumstellar envelopes.

The mass loss asymmetries that develop during the very late stages in the evolution of massive stars are analogous to those that characterize stars on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB), post-AGB stars, and the very youngest planetary nebulae (PNe).
Only a few such cool, rapidly mass-losing AGB and post-AGB stars have been observed by the two contemporary X-ray observatories that are well-suited to such work (i.e., Chandra and XMM-Newton).
In XMM observations, the single, mass-losing AGB stars TX Cam and T Cas were not detected \citep{2004ApJ...608..978K} whereas Mira AB --- a wide-separation AGB star and white dwarf (WD) binary that drives a large-scale bipolar outflow \citep{2009A&A...500..827M} --- is quite luminous in X-rays \citep{2004ApJ...616.1188K}.
Chandra imaging further revealed that both components of the Mira AB binary system are X-ray-luminous, and that Mira A (the AGB star) evidently undergoes energetic flaring  \citep{2005ApJ...623L.137K}.
The two additional known examples of X-ray-emitting AGB stars are also likely binary systems \citep{2012A&A...543A.147R}.
Meanwhile, Chandra observations are establishing that a significant fraction of the central stars of planetary nebulae are X-ray sources; as for AGB stars, these planetary nebula central star X-ray sources are frequently (though not exclusively) associated with binarity \citep{2010ApJ...721.1820M,2012AJ....144...58K,2014arXiv1407.4141F,ChanPlaNSIII}.

Moving higher on the HR diagram, only a few X-ray observations of supergiants and hypergiants have been obtained with modern X-ray observatories: the iconic red supergiant $\alpha$ Ori  is apparently ``dark'' in X-rays \citep{2006astro.ph..6387P}, and the yellow hypergiant IRC+10420 was not detected by XMM \citep{2014NewA...29...75D}.

Here, we report on a search for X-ray evidence of magnetic activity at VY CMa (HD 58061), via XMM-Newton observations.
VY CMa is a special case even among the cool hypergiants.
A powerful infrared and maser source, it is one of the most luminous and largest evolved cool stars known, and features one of the highest measured mass loss rates among evolved stars \citep[2-3$\times10^{-4} M_{\odot} {\rm ~yr}^{-1}$;][]{1994AJ....107.1469D}.
The star is surrounded by a complex, asymmetric dust reflection nebula $10^{\prime\prime}$ in extent  \citep{1972ApJ...172..375H,1998AJ....115.1592K,2001AJ....121.1111S}; this dusty circumstellar material obscures
the central star across the visible wavelength range \citep{1998AJ....115.1592K}.
Visual imaging, spectroscopy, and polarimetry \citep{2001AJ....121.1111S,2005AJ....129..492H, 2007AJ....133.2716H,2007AJ....133.2730J} reveal that the nebula's expanding arcs, prominence-like loops and knots were ejected at different times and in different directions, apparently by localized processes from different regions on the star.

As argued in \citet{2002A&A...394..589V}, measurements of  polarization from masers in the ejecta of VY CMa appear to trace a magnetic field that increase with strength moving closer to the surface of VY CMa.
At large distances from the star ($\sim 2800$ AU), OH maser polarization suggests a field strength of $\sim 2$ mG  \citep{1987MNRAS.225..491C};  at $\sim 200$ AU, H$_2$O maser polarization suggests 200 mG \citep{2002A&A...394..589V}; and, nearest the star, SiO maser polarization suggests a field strength of 65 G \citep{1987Natur.329..613B}.
This trend in the magnetic field strength from maser polarization is suggestive of a global field strength that drops like r$^{-2}$.
Extrapolating this radial dependence implies that magnetic field strengths on the order of $10^{2}$ to $10^{3}~{\rm G}$ may exist at the surface of VY CMa.

To determine whether such strong magnetic fields might manifest themselves in the form of coronal X-ray activity, we used XMM to search for X-ray emission from VY CMa.
These X-ray observations have the additional benefit that they can be used to assess whether the larger environment around VY CMa --- which includes a large molecular cloud and the young stellar cluster NGC 2362 \citep[Figure~\ref{fig1};][]{1978ApJ...219...95L} --- might be populated by late-type, pre-main sequence stars that formed during the same episode of star formation that  spawned the hypergiant itself.
Such young, lower-mass stars should feature high levels of coronal activity and, hence, relatively large X-ray luminosities \citep[e.g.,][]{2006A&A...460..133D}.

\begin{figure*}
\includegraphics[scale=0.75]{fig1}
\caption{H-$\alpha$ image mosaic of a $2.3\times1.8$ square degree field encompassing VY CMa, NGC 2362, and the semidetached eclipsing binary UW CMa, constructed from images acquired by the SuperCOSMOS H-$\alpha$ Survey \citep{2005MNRAS.362..689P}. The field of the XMM-Newton EPIC-pn observation analyzed in this paper is indicated. \label{fig1}}
\end{figure*}

\section{Data and Analysis}

\subsection{Observations}

VY CMa was observed by the XMM-Newton satellite observatory on 07 May 2012 (ObsID: 0691190101).
X-ray data were obtained with the European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC), which is comprised of three X-ray imaging spectrometers  (pn, MOS1, MOS2), and the X-ray dispersion grating spectrometers (RGS). Optical/UV imaging was performed with the optical monitor (OM) through visible (V; $\lambda_{\rm eff} = 543 {\rm ~nm}$) and ultraviolet filters (UVW1; $\lambda_{\rm eff} = 291 {\rm ~nm}$).
EPIC images were performed with the \verb+THICK+ optical blocking filter to ensure optical photons from VY CMa would not lead to a spurious detection.
The EPIC detectors provide sensitivity in the 0.15 to 12 keV energy range with moderate energy resolution ($E/\Delta E\sim 20\rm{-}50$) at spatial resolution (point spread function core FWHM) of up to $\sim 6$-$12^{\prime\prime}$, albeit with broad half-encircled-energy widths up to $15^{\prime\prime}$.
EPIC detectors pn, MOS1, and MOS2 were exposed for 20.0, 21.6, and 21.6 ks, respectively.
The RGS and the OM data are unusable for our purposes due to lack of source photon detections and artifacts caused by the optical brightness of VY CMa, respectively.
The apparent detection of VY CMa in the observation with the UVW1 filter is spurious and caused by residual charge from the saturated V filter observation.
Hence, we focus our analysis on the EPIC observations and, in particular, on the pn data, as the pn instrument has the highest sensitivity over the energy range of X-ray emission expected from stellar coronal activity (i.e., a thermal plasma at temperatures of a few $10^{6}$~K to a few $10^{7}$~K).

We used the XMM-Newton pipeline products for our analysis.
These Processing Pipeline System (PPS) products include ``cleaned'' event lists for the EPIC instruments; lists of X-ray sources detected in the field (via the PPS automated source detection routine); and X-ray spectra and light curves for sources with at least 500 total-band EPIC counts, PSF-weighted detector coverage better than 50\%, and total-band detection likelihood $\geq15$ \citep{2009A&A...493..339W}.
The PPS processing identified 20 X-ray emitting field sources in the vicinity (within $\sim5^{\prime}$) of VY CMa and 107 in the entire field of view.
The PPS product source lists include count rates determined within soft (S), medium (M), and hard (H) bands defined over the energy ranges 0.5-1.0 keV, 1.0-2.0 keV, and 2.0-4.5 keV, respectively.
Two hardness ratios are calculated from these three bands, HR1 = (M-S)/(M+S), and HR2 = (H-M)/(H+M), and are used in our analysis (\S\ref{fieldsource_section}).

\subsection{Limits on the X-ray flux from VY CMa\label{vycmalimits}}

We constructed images within various energy bands (0.5-8.0 keV, 0.5-1.0 keV, 1.0-2.0 keV, 2.0-4.0 keV) to limit background, but found no evidence for X-ray emission from VY CMa in any of these images.
We also extracted source and background spectra to search for spectroscopic evidence of X-ray emission from VY CMa.
Five source-free circular regions, each with a radius of  $20^{\prime\prime}$  and restricted to the pn CCD containing VY CMa (i.e., \verb+CCD_ID+=7), were selected to define the background.
The background-subtracted spectrum does not reveal any signal above the background.
We conclude that VY CMa is not detected in the EPIC observations.

To quantify the X-ray nondetection of VY CMa, we have estimated the source count rate required to produce a $2\sigma$ detection above the background in the EPIC-pn observation.
The background count rate is determined by extracting the counts in the aforementioned background regions.
Within the energy range 0.5-8.0 keV, we found a total of 197 background counts from these five regions, for a normalized background count rate of $1.57\times10^{-6}~{\rm counts~s}^{-1}~{\rm arcsecond}^{-2}$.
Scaling this background rate to a source region at RA [J2000] = 07:22:58.33, Dec [J2000] = -25:46:03.24 with a radius of $30^{\prime\prime}$, we predict $89\pm9$ background counts at the position of VY CMa, consistent with the measured background of $91\pm9$ counts at this position.
Hence, we confirm the lack of detection of VY CMa in the XMM observation.
The background-subtracted count rate required to produce a  $2\sigma$  detection in the 0.5 to 8 keV energy range is $1.13\times10^{-3}~{\rm counts~s}^{-1}$, after correcting for the encircled energy fraction of 80\% expected for the $30^{\prime\prime}$ extraction region on the EPIC-pn observation.

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{fig2a}\\
\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{fig2b}
\caption{Upper limit calculations on the $N_H-T_X$ plane obtained from our XMM EPIC-pn observation of VY CMa. The contours indicate upper limits on source flux $F_{X,UL}$ (top) and relative X-ray luminosity $L_X/L_{\rm bol}$ (bottom). The vertical dashed lines in each panel indicates the total (interstellar and circumstellar) absorption based on the visual extinction \citep{2007AJ....133.2716H}. \label{figlxlbol}}
\end{figure}

To determine the sensitivity to X-ray flux corresponding to this background-subtracted $2\sigma$ count rate, we must assume an underlying model.
We hence adopt an absorbed, optically-thin thermal plasma \citep[MEKAL;][]{1985A&AS...62..197M, 1986A&AS...65..511M, 1992Kaastra, 1995ApJ...438L.115L} that effectively describes a variety of physical processes, including coronal activity and shocks in a stellar wind.
For generality, we have computed X-ray fluxes for a grid of absorbing columns, $N_H$, and plasma temperatures, $T_{\rm X}$, that covers a wide range of values ($\log N_H [{\rm cm}^{-2}] = 20 {\rm ~to~} 23$ and $\log T_{\rm X} [{\rm K}]$ from 5.75 to 7.25).
Lower temperatures are typical of solar--like coronal activity while the higher temperatures are typical of more energetic flare-like activity associated with coronal mass ejections \citep{2004A&A...424..677O}.
Additionally,  X-ray emission from wind shocks associated with early-type massive stars is typically characterized by plasma temperatures of a few $10^{6}$~K and lower ISM absorbing columns \citep{2011ApJS..194....7N}.
We perform PIMMS simulations over the entire $N_H-T_{\rm X}$ grid to estimate the $2\sigma$ upper limit on X-ray flux, $F_{\rm X, UL}$, from the $2\sigma$ background-subtracted count rate.
Assuming a distance of 1.3 kpc and $L_{\rm bol}\sim 3\times10^{5}~L_{\odot}$, we then calculated upper limits for $L_{\rm X}/L_{\rm bol}$, a quantity often used as a stellar magnetic activity indicator.
The results of these simulations are presented in Figure~\ref{figlxlbol}.

The total interstellar and circumstellar visual extinction, $A_V$, to VY CMa is estimated by \citet{2007AJ....133.2716H} as 5-6 mag. This suggests an intervening absorbing column of $\sim$$10^{22} {\rm ~cm}^{-2}$.
For such a column, at a nominal $T_X$ of $3\times10^{6}$~K, we estimate an unabsorbed $F_{\rm X, UL} = 8 \times 10^{-14} {\rm ~erg~cm}^{-2} {\rm ~s}^{-1}$, $L_{\rm X} <  1.6 \times 10^{31} {\rm ~erg~s}^{-1}$, and $\log L_{\rm X}/L_{\rm bol} < -8$.

\subsection{Classification of the X-ray Sources within the XMM Observation Field of View\label{fieldsource_section}}

We have cross-referenced all 107 X-ray sources detected in our XMM observation of VY CMa with infrared and astrometric catalogs: Two-Micron All Sky Survey Point Source Catalog \citep[2MASS;][]{2006AJ....131.1163S}, Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer source catalog \citep[WISE;][]{2010AJ....140.1868W}, and the United States Naval Observatory CCD Astrograph Catalog \citep[UCAC4;][]{2013AJ....145...44Z}.
The positional uncertainties of most these X-ray sources, according to the PPS output, is less than $\sim3^{\prime\prime}$.
Hence, we have identified potential IR counterparts for the PPS-identified X-ray sources using a correlation radius of 6$^{\prime\prime}$ and selecting the closest match to the position of the X-ray source.
Within this correlation radius, we find 47 X-ray sources have potential IR counterparts.
Ultimately, we dismissed the WISE point source data because VY CMa saturated the field with stray light. This stray light contamination is especially problematic at the longest WISE wavelengths.

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{fig3a}\\
\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{fig3b}
\caption{SuperCOSMOS H-$\alpha$ image (top) and XMM-Newton EPIC pn X-ray 0.5-8.0 keV image (bottom) of the VY CMa field. In each image, we have indicated the position of VY CMa by a cross and X-ray sources from the XMM observations by open symbols. Green circles indicate X-ray sources with IR counterparts, red diamonds are X-ray sources with significant proper motions, and blue squares are X-ray sources without IR counterparts. Contours corresponding to $E_{\rm B-V} = $ 0.5, 0.6, 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 mag from the galactic extinction map of \citet{1998ApJ...500..525S} are represented by grey contours with extinction generally increasing from right to left. \label{fig2}}
\end{figure}

We examined the total band detection likelihood (\verb+PN_DET_ML+) as determined by the  PPS source-detection algorithm to filter the source list to the most significant detections.
We required that \verb+PN_DET_ML+$\geq 20$, resulting in a sample of 43 well-detected X-ray sources, 27 of which have potential IR counterparts.
The subsamples of these 43 X-ray sources with and without IR counterparts are illustrated in Figure~\ref{fig2} and are described in Tables~\ref{tblhra}~\&~\ref{tblhrb}, respectively.

At the distance to VY CMa (1.3 kpc), any source with a reliable measurement of proper motion is unlikely to be associated with the hypergiant.
We identify nine IR counterparts among the 27 X-ray sources with potential IR counterparts that display evidence for significant (measurable) proper motions.
Specifically, for each of these nine sources, the magnitude of proper motion error is less than 68\% of the magnitude of the proper motion measurement itself.
We do not consider these nine objects with significant proper motions further in this paper.

\section{Discussion}

\subsection{Constraints on the magnetic activity of VY CMa}

Circular polarization measurements of masers around mass-losing AGB stars and supergiants provide estimates of magnetic fields at various displacements from the stars that are determined by the formation and survival of the observed molecules \citep{2002A&A...394..589V,2005MmSAI..76..462V}.
In many of these evolved star envelopes, the ensemble of masers at various radii from the star $r$ suggests that the magnetic field strength $B$ drops off as $r^{-2}$ or $r^{-3}$, indicative of a solar-like or dipole-like magnetic field, respectively.
The circular polarization measurements of VY CMa indicate that the magnetic field configuration may follow a solar-like magnetic field topology (see Figure~\ref{figbfield}), which suggests the surface magnetic field strength could be $\sim$200~G.
The total surface magnetic flux, $\Phi_{\rm M}$, is given by $\Phi_M = 4 \pi R^2 f B$, where the filling factor, $f$, parameterizes how $\Phi_{\rm M}$ is diluted by the relative size of the active areas on the surface.
For a stellar radius appropriate for VY CMa and an arbitrary filling factor, the expected surface magnetic flux is then
\begin{equation}
\Phi_{\rm M} = 2\times10^{26} {\rm ~Mx} \left( \frac{f}{10^{-5}} \right) \left( \frac{B}{200 {\rm ~G~}} \right) \left( \frac{R}{1400 R_{\odot}} \right)^{2},
\end{equation}
where Mx is the maxwell unit ($1 {\rm ~Mx} = 1 {\rm ~G~cm}^{2}$).

To compare this estimate to our upper limit on the X-ray luminosity, we use an empirical relationship between stellar X-ray luminosity, $L_X$ and magnetic flux, $\Phi_{\rm M}$, that is found to hold over several orders of magnitude \citep{2003ApJ...598.1387P}. We caution that this relationship describes the behavior of active regions on the Sun and late-type stars and, hence, it  is not clear if the same relationship would apply to magnetically-driven coronal activity on a supergiant.
\citet{2013ApJ...779..183F} provide a recent update of this relationship that  is constrained by the largest number of low-mass stellar luminosity and magnetic field measurements to date; specifically,
\begin{equation}
\log \Phi_{\rm M} = (11.86\pm0.68) + (0.459\pm0.018) \log L_{\rm X}.
\end{equation}
With their formulation, our upper limit on $L_{\rm X}$ of $2\times10^{31} {\rm ~erg~s}^{-1}$ --- which is based on Figure~\ref{figlxlbol} for $\log T_{\rm X} (K) = 6.5$ and $\log N_H ({\rm cm}^{-2}) = 22$ --- suggests $\Phi_{\rm M} \lesssim 2\times10^{26} {\rm ~Mx}$.
We remark that for $\log N_H ({\rm cm}^{-2}) > 22$ and $\log T_X (K) = 6.5$, the upper limit on $L_{\rm X}$ becomes proportional to $N_H^{2.8}$, whereas $\Phi_{\rm M} \propto N_H^{1.4}$; hence, where inferred upper limits are concerned, the value for $\Phi_{\rm M}$ is less sensitive than $L_{\rm X}$ to the value adopted for $N_H$.

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[scale=0.55]{fig4}
\caption{The limits on the surface magnetic field strength of VY CMa as determined from our XMM X-ray non-detection.
The surface magnetic field strength upper limits determined from our non-detection of X-ray emission, $\log L_X/L_{\rm bol} = -8$ found by assuming $\log N_H ({\rm ~cm}^{-2}) = 22$ and $\log T_X (K) = 6.5$ are overlaid for a few filling factors, $f$.
We show magnetic field strengths inferred from maser measurements \citep[see][]{2002A&A...394..589V}, the radial behavior for a solar-like ($r^{-2}$) and dipole-like ($r^{-3}$) magnetic field.  The ranges of magnetic fields from maser measurements of all supergiants are shown by the green boxes. \label{figbfield}}
\end{figure}

Overall, based on these considerations, the upper limit on the X-ray luminosity suggests that $fB \lesssim 2\times10^{-3} {\rm ~G}$ for VY CMa.
In Figure~\ref{figbfield} we illustrate the surface magnetic field strength upper limits for various choices of filling factor $f$.
Note that, adopting the maser-based estimate for the surface magnetic field, our X-ray upper limit indicates that $f\lesssim 10^{-5}$.
Such an active region size is still substantial, given the enormous surface area of VY CMa; indeed, this filling factor upper limit corresponds to an active region comparable in size to the Earth-facing surface of a star with a radius of $4 R_{\odot}$.

In the absence of constraints on the sizes of potential active regions on VY CMa, it is impossible to break the foregoing degeneracy between $f$ and $B$.
We note, however, that the presence of active regions is suggested by interferometric measurements that yield evidence for bright spots on the disks of a few red supergiants \citep{1997MNRAS.285..529T}.
In these objects, the bright spots have likely filling factors of a few tenths, which would suggest a low surface field strength assuming VY CMa is characterized by the same regime of $f$.
On the other hand, the episodic nature of the mass loss events from VY CMa is suggestive of periods of intense magnetic activity that generate eruptions. These eruptive events could be analogous to coronal mass ejections during periods of high solar activity, but with typical active-period timescales of decades rather than years \citep[e.g.,][]{2014arXiv1410.1622O}. Our X-ray nondetection could then indicate that VY CMa is not presently in such a magnetically active state.

\subsection{X-ray Observations of Hypergiants}

The yellow hypergiant IRC+10420 is the only other hypergiant that has been targeted thus far by a modern X-ray observatory.
The non-detection of X-ray emission from IRC+10420 based on XMM-Newton observations was reported in \citet{2014NewA...29...75D}.
However, these authors report upper limits on the {\it observed} X-ray flux ($\lesssim 1-3 \times 10^{-14} {\rm ~erg~cm}^{-2} {\rm ~s}^{-1}$); as a result, their inferred relative source X-ray flux ($f_{\rm X}/f_{\rm bol} \lesssim 1.1-3.5\times10^{-8}$) does not take into account the affects of intevening absorption.
The large distance to IRC+10420 \citep[$D\sim5{\rm ~kpc}$][]{1993ApJ...411..323J} results in large interstellar absorption ($A_V\sim6{\rm ~mag}$), which dominates the total absorption to the star; whereas, for VY CMa, the circumstellar absorption likely dominates \citep{2007AJ....133.2716H}.
The circumstellar absorption toward IRC+10420 provides an additional $\sim 1 {\rm ~mag}$ of absorption ---  this modest extinction likely reflects our nearly pole-on view of the predominantly equatorial circumstellar material \citep{2010AJ....140..339T}.
Accounting for the likely absorbing column toward IRC +10420 (at  least $N_H\sim 10^{22} {\rm ~cm}^{-2}$ of interstellar and circumstellar absorption) and assuming a plasma temperature appropriate for coronal and self-shocking winds ($T_{\rm X} \sim 3\times10^{6} {\rm ~K}$), PIMMS simulations give the upper limit on the unabsorbed intrinsic X-ray flux from IRC+10420 as  $F_{\rm X, UL} \lesssim 10^{-12} {\rm ~erg~cm}^{-2}{\rm ~s}^{-1}$.
The upper limit on the relative X-ray luminosity then becomes $L_{\rm X}/L_{\rm bol} \lesssim 10^{-6}$.
These rather modest constraints, relative to those we have obtained for VY CMa ($F_{\rm X, UL} \lesssim 8\times10^{-14} {\rm ~erg~cm}^{-2}{\rm ~s}^{-1}$ and $L_{\rm X}/L_{\rm bol} \lesssim 10^{-8}$, respectively; \S\ref{vycmalimits}), reflect in large part the low sensitivity of the XMM observations of IRC +10420 \citep[this XMM exposure was only $\sim$10 ks in duration and was compromised by high particle backgrounds;][]{2014NewA...29...75D}.

Next, we compare the relative X-ray luminosities of VY CMa and IRC+10420 with those of the self-shocking winds of OB stars and W-R stars.
Self-shocking winds of OB stars and W-R stars give rise to X-ray emission within the wind and typically feature plasmas of a few MK with $L_{\rm X}/L_{\rm bol} \sim 10^{-7}$ \citep[e.g.,][]{2011ApJS..194....7N}.
These measurements are corrected for absorption by the ISM but not for additional self-absorption by the wind.
Indeed, there is theoretical evidence that thin-shell mixing in O-star radiative wind shocks  can lead to decreased $L_{\rm X}/L_{\rm bol}$ ratios, especially in denser winds of earliest O types and W-R star winds \citep{2013MNRAS.429.3379O}.
Hence, caution is advised when making a comparison between OB stars and the red and yellow hypergiants considered here.
Adopting the standard treatment of $L_{\rm X}$ measurements of OB stars and W-R stars, we consider the upper limit resulting from only interstellar extinction.
For IRC+10420, most of the absorption arises from the ISM and $L_{\rm X}/L_{\rm bol}\lesssim10^{-6}$, whereas for VY CMa, the circumstellar ejecta dominates the absorbing column to the star, so according to Figure~\ref{figlxlbol} and an ISM column of $\log N_H ~({\rm cm}^{-2})\sim21.25$, $L_{\rm X}/L_{\rm bol} \lesssim 10^{-9}$.
Such a low ratio suggests that VY CMa does not exhibit energetic (X-ray emitting) wind shocks in its ejecta.
This result is not particularly surprising, given that its envelope terminal velocity is $\sim$35 km s$^{-1}$ \citep{2005AJ....129..492H}, i.e., more than an order of magnitude lower than the typical wind speeds of hot, massive stars (whose wind speeds of hundreds to thousands of km s$^{-1}$ are compatible with X-ray-producing shocks).
We caution that our observation of VY CMa is not sensitive to lower-speed (hence lower-temperature) shocks, which are more susceptible to absorption by circumstellar material (see Figure~\ref{figlxlbol}).
On the other hand, after accounting for the ISM absorbing column toward IRC+10420, the XMM observations reported by \citet{2014NewA...29...75D} cannot constrain whether energetic shocks are present in the winds from IRC+10420 \citep[whose envelope terminal velocity is $\sim$70 km s$^{-1}$,][]{2009A&A...507..301D}.

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{fig5a}\\
\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{fig5b}
\caption{Hardness ratios of the strongest X-ray sources within $15^{\prime}$ of VY CMa. Symbols are as in Figure~\ref{fig2}. X-ray emitting sources with IR counterparts are shown in the upper panel and those without IR counterparts are shown in the lower panel. A grid of absorbed, optically-thin thermal plasma models are overlaid as gray lines.
The column densities from $10^{20}$ to $3\times10^{23} {\rm ~cm}^{-2}$ (solid lines) increase upwards while the plasma temperatures $10^{6}$ to $10^{8}$~K (dashed lines) increase  from left to right. \label{fighr}}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[scale=.5]{fig6a}\\
\includegraphics[scale=.5]{fig6b}
\caption{Observed 2MASS color-magnitude (top) and color-color (bottom) diagrams of the X-ray sources with IR counterparts. Pre-main sequence isochrones for ages of 5 and 10 Myr (lower), scaled to the distance of VY CMa, are overplotted on the color-magnitude diagram; solid and dashed lines indicate isochrones with and without reddening of $A_V \sim 1.5$~mag (see text), respectively.
The intrinsic main sequence (MS) locus \citep{2011MNRAS.418.2219S}, and the same locus reddened assuming $A_V \sim 1.5$~mag, are overplotted on the color-color diagram.  Symbols for IR counterparts to X-ray sources are as in Figure~\ref{fighr}.\label{figcmd}}
\end{figure}

\begin{deluxetable*}{lccccccccccccccc}
\tabletypesize{\scriptsize}
\tablecaption{X-ray Sources with IR counterparts\label{tblhra}}
\tablewidth{0pt}
\tablehead{
\colhead{ID} & \colhead{RAJ2000} & \colhead{DECJ2000} & \colhead{$\theta_{*}^{a}$} & \colhead{log~$F_{\rm X}$} &
\colhead{HR1} & \colhead{HR2} & \colhead{$\theta_{\rm IR}^{b}$} & \colhead{K} & \colhead{J-H} &  \colhead{H-K} \\
 & \multicolumn{2}{c}{(decimal degrees)} & ($^\prime$) & (${\rm erg~cm}^{-2}{\rm ~s}^{-1}$) & & & ($^{\prime\prime}$) & (mag) & (mag) & (mag)
}
\startdata
1 & 110.695236 & -25.749485 & 2.8 & -13.36 & 0.19 & -0.21 & 4.8 & 14.47 & 0.21 & 0.10 \\
2 & 110.681101 & -25.795293 & 3.7 & -13.58 & -0.26 & -0.32 & 4.6 & 13.32 & 0.64 & 0.20 \\
3 & 110.827017 & -25.832432 & 6.0 & -13.14 & 0.47 & -0.16 & 2.3 & 14.54 & 0.50 & 0.21 \\
4 & 110.633655 & -25.745552 & 6.1 & -13.71 & -0.48 & -0.94 & 1.9 & 10.70 & 0.25 & 0.00 \\
5 & 110.701152 & -25.882938 & 7.3 & -14.32 & 0.01 & -0.93 & 1.7 & 13.87 & 0.66 & 0.16 \\
6 & 110.919803 & -25.802366 & 9.8 & -13.44 & -0.18 & -0.82 & 2.8 & 13.07 & 0.52 & 0.15 \\
7 & 110.576459 & -25.688474 & 10.2 & -13.42 & 0.48 & -0.08 & 5.6 & 14.90 & 0.15 & 1.17 \\
8 & 110.565065 & -25.701433 & 10.4 & -13.58 & 0.57 & -0.23 & 4.9 & 14.67 & 0.75 & 0.06 \\
9 & 110.551432 & -25.726772 & 10.6 & -13.67 & -0.16 & -0.83 & 1.3 & 12.66 & 0.39 & 0.11 \\
10 & 110.546044 & -25.777196 & 10.7 & -13.82 & -0.47 & -0.89 & 0.9 & 10.38 & 0.35 & 0.12 \\
11 & 110.706837 & -25.586718 & 11.0 & -14.14 & -0.31 & -0.68 & 1.2 & 13.46 & 0.65 & 0.11 \\
12 & 110.577615 & -25.657208 & 11.1 & -13.47 & -0.26 & -0.80 & 1.7 & 12.78 & 0.62 & 0.21 \\
13 & 110.561816 & -25.677843 & 11.2 & -12.34 & 0.44 & -0.27 & 0.9 & 14.37 & 0.86 & 0.82 \\
14 & 110.624613 & -25.923327 & 11.3 & -14.07 & -0.29 & -0.81 & 4.3 & 12.97 & 0.44 & 0.03 \\
15 & 110.540498 & -25.711559 & 11.5 & -13.49 & -0.03 & -0.88 & 1.5 & 12.40 & 0.41 & 0.13 \\
16 & 110.929428 & -25.904013 & 13.0 & -13.16 & 0.19 & -0.70 & 3.7 & 11.40 & 0.39 & 0.10 \\
17 & 110.743384 & -25.986525 & 13.1 & -13.74 & -0.30 & -0.26 & 3.0 & 13.75 & 0.65 & 0.22 \\
18 & 111.018006 & -25.802717 & 15.0 & -13.59 & 0.08 & -0.48 & 3.3 & 12.73 & 0.30 & 0.11 \\

\sidehead{Sources with Measurable Proper Motion:}

1 & 110.719126 & -25.785464 & 1.7 & -13.20 & -0.17 & -0.59 & 2.5 & 12.05 & 0.41 & 0.10 \\
2 & 110.708815 & -25.696935 & 4.6 & -13.92 & -0.55 & -1.00 & 2.0 & 12.09 & 0.39 & 0.09 \\
3 & 110.803036 & -25.683911 & 6.0 & -13.98 & -0.50 & -1.00 & 0.6 & 11.28 & 0.43 & 0.10 \\
4 & 110.579420 & -25.757902 & 8.9 & -14.25 & -0.63 & -1.00 & 2.6 & 11.73 & 0.39 & 0.08 \\
5 & 110.763456 & -25.615153 & 9.2 & -13.49 & -0.49 & -0.83 & 1.3 & 11.47 & 0.61 & 0.21 \\
6 & 110.621950 & -25.653632 & 9.5 & -13.38 & -0.53 & -0.85 & 1.3 & 10.72 & 0.63 & 0.18 \\
7 & 110.805101 & -25.596622 & 10.8 & -13.16 & -0.57 & -0.60 & 1.6 & 9.69 & 0.37 & 0.09 \\
8 & 110.533127 & -25.807030 & 11.6 & -13.83 & -0.46 & -0.84 & 1.6 & 9.53 & 0.28 & 0.09 \\
9 & 111.038003 & -25.685400 & 16.7 & -13.26 & -0.59 & -1.00 & 3.0 & 9.50 & 0.22 & 0.04
\enddata
\tablecomments{All measurements are observed and not dereddened.}
\tablenotetext{a}{The offset angle between the X-ray source and the position of VY CMa. }
\tablenotetext{b}{The offset angle between the X-ray source and the 2MASS source.}
\end{deluxetable*}

\begin{deluxetable*}{lccccccccccccccc}
\tabletypesize{\scriptsize}
\tablecaption{X-ray Sources without IR counterparts \label{tblhrb}}
\tablewidth{0pt}
\tablehead{
\colhead{ID} & \colhead{RAJ2000} & \colhead{DECJ2000} & \colhead{$\theta_{*}^{a}$} & \colhead{log~$F_{\rm X}$} &
\colhead{HR1} & \colhead{HR2} & \colhead{$\theta_{\rm IR}^{b}$}  \\
 & \multicolumn{2}{c}{(decimal degrees)} & ($^\prime$) & (${\rm erg~cm}^{-2}{\rm ~s}^{-1}$) & & & ($^{\prime\prime}$)
 }
\startdata
1 & 110.712895 & -25.765103 & 1.6 & -13.17 & 0.43 & -0.16 & 16 \\
2 & 110.730628 & -25.822038 & 3.3 & -13.54 & 0.72 & -0.29 & 14 \\
3 & 110.804773 & -25.807603 & 4.1 & -13.01 & 0.29 & -0.23 & 12 \\
4 & 110.816902 & -25.702447 & 5.6 & -12.69 & 0.88 & -0.04 & 17 \\
5 & 110.703503 & -25.864912 & 6.2 & -13.46 & 0.68 & -0.25 & 8.9 \\
6 & 110.766224 & -25.879853 & 6.9 & -13.27 & 0.03 & -0.31 & 11 \\
7 & 110.615501 & -25.768253 & 6.9 & -13.65 & 0.47 & -0.56 & 19 \\
8 & 110.661126 & -25.674120 & 7.1 & -13.47 & 0.75 & -0.21 & 16 \\
9 & 110.871664 & -25.801926 & 7.2 & -13.36 & 0.62 & -0.24 & 13 \\
10 & 110.814463 & -25.897295 & 8.7 & -13.10 & 0.13 & 0.07 & 12 \\
11 & 110.912240 & -25.742049 & 9.3 & -13.13 & 0.89 & 0.18 & 22 \\
12 & 110.815658 & -25.625267 & 9.4 & -13.67 & 0.15 & -0.19 & 8.7 \\
13 & 110.717331 & -25.591561 & 10.7 & -13.57 & 0.54 & -0.01 & 18 \\
14 & 110.563373 & -25.841295 & 10.7 & -13.27 & 0.53 & 0.13 & 34 \\
15 & 110.768536 & -25.970898 & 12.3 & -12.96 & 0.57 & -0.22 & 18 \\
16 & 110.742678 & -25.973804 & 12.4 & -13.35 & 0.63 & -0.25 & 7.3
\enddata
\tablenotetext{a}{The offset angle between the X-ray source and the position of VY CMa. }
\tablenotetext{b}{The offset angle between the X-ray source and the nearest 2MASS catalog entry.}
\end{deluxetable*}

\subsection{Constraints on a population of young stars associated with VY CMa}

We now consider whether the X-ray sources we have detected in the field surrounding VY CMa might represent an associated group of lower-mass (late-type), pre-main sequence stars.
In Figure~\ref{fighr}, we compare the hardness ratios HR1 (soft \& medium bands) and HR2 (medium \& hard bands) of the 43 strongest X-ray sources to source model predictions.
We considered an absorbed, solar-abundance, optically-thin thermal plasma model \citep[MEKAL;][]{1985A&AS...62..197M, 1986A&AS...65..511M, 1992Kaastra, 1995ApJ...438L.115L} characterized by an intervening absorbing column $N_H$ and plasma temperature $T_{X}$.
Our model grid is comprised of 15 logarithmically-spaced $N_H$ values between $10^{20}$ and $3\times10^{23} {\rm ~cm}^{-2}$ and plasma model temperatures between $10^{6}$ to $10^{8}$~K.
This model lacks the sophistication to classify the sources of X-ray emission, but helps establish approximate emission characteristics.
From Figure~\ref{fighr}, we infer that HR1 is most sensitive to $N_H$, while HR2 is most sensitive to $T_{\rm X}$.

\citet{1978ApJ...219...95L} suggested that VY CMa is associated with the nearby young cluster NGC 2362, based on the photodissociation of molecules in the large molecular cloud complex to the east of VY CMa.
The eastern half of the XMM observation field of view overlaps with the large molecular cloud complex studied by \citet{1978ApJ...219...95L}, and the cloud appears to have important effects on the detection and characteristics of X-ray sources in our observation.
First, we note an overall decrease in the X-ray-detected sources towards the cloud (Figure~\ref{fig2}).
Second, the 16 X-ray sources without IR counterparts (blue squares in Figure~\ref{fig2}) are largely confined to a region where the cloud CO emission is bright \citep[based on comparison with the maps presented in][]{1978ApJ...219...95L} and the extinction is generally higher (Figure~\ref{fig2}).
Third, the X-ray sources that lack IR counterparts are harder than those with IR counterparts (Figure~\ref{fighr}), suggesting that their soft X-ray emission is heavily attenuated by cloud material.
Taken together, the evidence therefore indicates many if not most of these X-ray sources without IR counterparts may be young stars that lie embedded in the molecular cloud studied by \citet{1978ApJ...219...95L}, which would place them at the distance of VY CMa.

The X-ray sources with IR counterparts offer an additional potential constraint on the age of VY CMa.
Recent parallax distance estimates to NGC 2362 \citep[1.2 kpc;][]{2009MNRAS.400..518M} and VY CMa \citep[$1.2\pm0.1$ kpc;][]{2012ApJ...744...23Z} support the suggestion that VY CMa and the cluster NGC 2362 are associated \citep{1978ApJ...219...95L}.
NGC 2362 has an age of 5 Myr \citep{2001ApJ...563L..73M}, such that we might expect similarly-aged stars to lie within the field of view of VY CMa, if the hypergiant is associated with the cluster.
To determine if we have detected such a population of young stars, we generated 2MASS color-magnitude and color-color diagrams for the 27 brightest X-ray sources with IR counterparts (Figure~\ref{figcmd}).
In the color-magnitude diagram (upper panel of Figure~\ref{figcmd}) , we have overlaid isochrones of 5 and 10 Myr scaled to the distance of VY CMa (1.3 kpc) and reddened by $A_V\sim1.5 {\rm ~mag}$, which is the typical reddening inferred from extinction maps towards VY CMa \citep[assuming $R_V = 3.1$ and $E_{\rm B-V}$ map from][as shown in Figure~\ref{fig2}]{1998ApJ...500..525S}.
The placement of the X-ray sources with IR counterparts on these isochrones suggests that a significant fraction of objects that lack measurable proper motions, are brighter than 14 mag in $K_{\rm s}$, and display $J-K_{\rm s}<0.7$ represent a young ($\lesssim 10$ Myr-old) population of late-type stars at the distance of VY CMa.
The color-color diagram (lower panel of Figure~\ref{figcmd}) further indicates that whereas likely foreground stars (i.e., those with measurable proper motions) lie along the unreddened main-sequence star locus, as expected, most of the 2MASS-detected field sources lie along the locus of reddened main-sequence stars.

The foregoing suggests that at a significant fraction of the $\sim$100 field X-ray sources we have detected in our XMM observations may be representative of a recent epoch of star formation in the vicinity of VY CMa -- possibly the same star formation episode that spawned VY CMa itself.
A deeper, wider-field X-ray survey of the environment of VY CMa, in combination with deep infrared imaging and spectroscopy, will be required to confirm whether this apparent population of young, X-ray-emitting stars is indeed associated with VY CMa.
Such a study is warranted, given its potential to place stringent constraints on the age of this enigmatic, mass-losing hypergiant.

\section{Conclusions}

We have obtained XMM-Newton X-ray observations of the red hypergiant VY CMa. We do not detect X-ray emission from the star.
Using a plasma model with interstellar and circumstellar absorption, we have placed the upper limits on the unabsorbed intrinsic X-ray emission from VY CMa of $F_{\rm X,UL}\approx8\times10^{-14} {\rm ~erg~cm}^{-2} {\rm ~s}^{-1}$ (X-ray flux), $L_{\rm X}<2\times10^{31} {\rm ~erg~s}^{-1}$ (X-ray luminosity), and $L_{\rm X}/L_{\rm bol}< 10^{-8}$ (relative X-ray luminosity).
These limits allow us to constrain energetic processes that might be responsible for the episodic mass loss observed from VY CMa.
The limit on (ISM) absorption-corrected $L_{\rm X}/L_{\rm bol}$ ratio of $10^{-9}$ appears to rule out energetic shocks in the wind and ejecta of VY CMa.
From the upper limit on $L_{\rm X}$, we estimate that the surface-averaged magnetic field strength, $fB$, is less than $10^{-3}$~G.
Comparison with maser polarization measurements of magnetic field strengths throughout the ejecta of VY CMa, which imply surface magnetic field strengths as large as $\sim200$~G, suggests the filling factor of magnetically active regions on VY CMa ($f$) was $<10^{-5}$ during the epoch of our observation.
However, we stress that our XMM observations represent only a single-epoch snapshot of potential magnetic activity at VY CMa and hence, given the star's record of episodic high mass loss rate events, we may simply be observing the star during a lull between periods of enhanced surface activity.

We have detected more than 100 X-ray emitting sources within the $\sim30^{\prime}$ diameter field of view of the XMM observation.
The spatial distribution and hardness ratios of these X-ray sources suggest that many are affected by absorption within the molecular cloud associated with VY CMa, thus providing evidence that the sources themselves are at least at the distance of VY CMa.
We have studied the 43 brightest X-ray sources via their hardness ratios and IR emission, and find that a subset may be late-type pre-MS stars potentially associated with VY CMa.
The near-IR magnitudes and colors of roughly half of the 18 X-ray sources with IR counterparts are consistent with these stars being a young ($\lesssim$10 Myr-old) population that is similar in age and distance to the nearby cluster NGC 2362.
Further study of this apparent group of young stars that is potentially associated with VY CMa may help constrain the age of the hypergiant itself.

\acknowledgments

{\it Facilities:} \facility{XMM (EPIC)}.

We acknowledge support from NASA Award Number, NNX13AB55G for our XMM observations of VY CMa.
This research has made use of the NASA/ IPAC Infrared Science Archive, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
This publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
Q: How to get Total Storage Memory of all Spark executors via Custom Listener I'm implementing custom spark listener in Java via:
public class MetricsSparkListener extends SparkListener
and want to capture Executor metrics as displayed in Spark history UI:
Spark UI Executor Tab
Can someone please share some sample code or API documentation how to do this. I can't find any example on the web or any description.
I'm trying onExecutorMetricsUpdate(SparkListenerExecutorMetricsUpdate executorMetricsUpdate) but can't really get to contents of ExecutorMetrics object.
Call to executorMetricsUpdate.executorUpdates().get().getMetricValue(ExecutorMetricType metricType) requires ExecutorMetricType parameter which seems to be some Scala interface. Not sure what how to create metric type value.
Eventually I would like to reach to executor metrics described here Available Executor Metrics
especially peak memory metrics and have them summarized for the whole app.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
The Electron Pencil
"The blog has made Glab into a hip town crier, commenting on everything from local politics and cultural happenings to national and international events, all rendered in a colorful, intelligent, working-class vernacular that owes some of its style to Glab's Chicago-hometown heroes Studs Terkel and Mike Royko." — David Brent Johnson in Bloom Magazine
By glabwrites	Smashing
Hot Air: Slippin' Away
Enjoy it, kiddies, your last four and a half days of national sanity.
Our holy land's bureaucracies as well as our species-threatening weapons of mass destruction will be in the hands of a psychologically- and intellectually-challenged orange-tinged simian come noon Fri.
You asked for it, you got it.
Martin Luther King Day. Trivia: My birth state of Illinois was the first in the nation to declare MLK Day a holiday.
The Day — as in gov't employees get the day off, paid, was signed into law at the fed level in 1983 by none other than Saint Ronald Reagan. Keep in mind, signing a bill into law is a mere formality. St. RR had opposed the idea of a holiday for MLK for a variety of reasons, none of them making a lick of honest sense. He was joined in opposition by the likes of North Carolina Republican Senators Jesse Helms and John Porter East. The three of them, and other troglodytes, bandied about canards like MLK was a commie (false) and he was a horn dog (true but irrelevant). It wasn't until Congressperson Katie Hall of Indiana's 1st Dist. intro'd a bill making King the first private citizen to be honored with a paid day off, with the subsequent okay by the Senate, that the fête became a fait.
On the state level, the last such body to recognize MLK Day was Utah in 2000. Yet, even today, three states (Alabama, Arkansas & Mississippi) observe Lee/King Day, Lee being none other than Confederate States of America General Robert E. Lee and I needn't expand upon the sheer lunacy of that pairing.
To swipe the notoriously unfunny Yakov Smirnoff's signature line, "America, what a country."
Getting Through It
My aversion to winter is well documented. If there is a god (hint, there isn't) winter is one of his 1) dirtiest tricks or 2) dumbest-assed mistakes.
In order to survive the ordeal that is winter, I have identified a number of date and event touchstones to help me pass the dark, lengthy hours, days and weeks of the season. Martin Luther King Day is the first. See, hitting Jan. 15th means all the most sun-starved holidays have passed and, acc'd'g to meteorologists, the absolutely coldest day of winter, on average, is upon us. Ergo, it's all uphill after this, huzzah.
The dates I mark in wait for spring:
Jan. 15th (or the closest Monday): MLK Day
The First Sunday in February or Super Bowl Sunday: I couldn't care less about football; it's just that this is the last day of the gridiron season so, again, huzzah!
February 14th: Three events — 1) "Pitchers and catchers report," code for baseball spring training beginning around this date; 2) Valentine's Day; and 3) the start of Big Mike's Birthday Month
March 4th: The day I arrived in this mad, mad, mad, mad world
The Ides of March (give or take a day or two): The NCAA Men's basketball tournament begins; again, a have zero interest in college basketball but this is as good a marker for the coming of spring as any
March 17th, St. Patrick's Day: I'm neither Irish nor overly fond of drinking to sloppy excess but this date marks the end of Big Mike's Birthday Month
March 21st (give or take a day): The first day of spring — at freaking last!
April 1st (give a take a few days): Baseball's Opening Day
After that, it's all gravy, babies. I've endured decades of such countdowns and survived them all. I fully expect to survive this one — although I hate to speak too hastily.
Just read an article this weekend about the auctioning off of the notes of author Jim Bouton.
I read his first book when I was 14 years old and find it, to this day still, one of the defining and most influential literary works I've ever enjoyed.
Jim Bouton wrote Ball Four, his memoir of the 1969 baseball season when he was a sore-armed has-been trying to stay in the game.
Author and Baseball Pitcher Jim Bouton
Bouton was first and foremost an iconoclast. He loved smashing plaster saints and calling out the hypocrisies of authority figures. At the time he wrote Ball Four, baseball — like all professional sports — was teeming with such phonies and hypocrites. Bouton wrote of the game's biggest stars scrambling around the rooftop of Washington's Shoreham Hotel, trying to peep into windows and catching women in various states of undress. He revealed who showed up for games drunk. He spoke of team officials lying, conning, charming, and extorting their way through contract negotiations with players.
Ball Four was much more than a baseball book — it was a snapshot of the times. Bouton recalled anti-war demonstrations, discussing race relations with black and Southern white players, navigating through changing sexual mores, and supporting his industry's nascent labor union.
Bouton's current wife, Paula Kurman, a PhD in behavioral science, recalls meeting him, getting to know him, and then falling for him:
I couldn't really call it love until I read the book because I realized something that Jim still doesn't quite absorb, which is that he is one of the best social scientists around.
ESPN blogger David Schoenfield writes Ball Four "was culturally important, opening the lens on the behind-the-scenes aspect of major league baseball, such as the widespread use of amphetamines… and players fooling around with women who weren't their wives, which traditional baseball writers had long covered up."
NPR's "Talk of the Nation" staff characterized Ball Four as "The book that changed baseball."
Mark Armour writes on Fox Sports website:
The most incredible thing about Ball Four is that it's not, in the nearly half-century since, been equaled. Or maybe this isn't so incredible at all. There have been very few baseball players like Jim Bouton, and very few baseball writers like Leonard Shecter, Bouton's collaborator…. And maybe the nature of the universe dictates that a happy marriage between two such characters will occur, whether due to Providence or Coincidence or Intentions, just once every half-century or so.
Make no mistake, though: Ball Four is a great book.
Leonard Schecter was Bouton's editor. The story goes that one night Bouton and Schecter found themselves in a Greenwich Village saloon, their manuscript completed but still without a name. They tossed out possible titles to each other until a drunk woman, sitting nearby, having overheard them, said, "Why not call it Ball Four?"
Early in the book, Bouton writes of meeting good old southern boy and new teammate Don Mincher:
I'm not sure I'm going to like Don Mincher. I keep hearing that big southern accent of his. It's prejudice, I know, but every time I hear a southern accent I think: stupid. A picture of George Wallace pops into my mind. It's like Lenny Bruce saying he could never associate a nuclear scientist with a southern accent.
There's more than a touch of self-reflection here, with Bouton acknowledging his prejudice. How else to erase prejudice from one's heart unless one first admits it?
Bouton went on to become a McGovern delegate at the 1972 Democratic National Convention, endearing him all the more to me. Tragedy struck in 1997 when his daughter Laurie was killed in a car wreck. Bouton then built a stone wall on his property, a therapeutic exercise that helped him pass through the grief. Here's what he'd written about her back in 1969:
Unsinkable is what we call Laurie, our youngest. She's only three, but a tough little broad. This spring alone, for example, she's been bitten by a dog, hit in the head by a flying can of peas and had nine stitches sewed into her pretty little head. Nothing puts her down.
Bouton made enemies writing Ball Four. Bowie Kuhn, the stuffy commissioner of baseball at the time of its release, called the book "detrimental to baseball." Kuhn then called Bouton in to his New York office and ordered him to sign an affidavit stating everything in the book was a lie. Bouton, naturally, refused.
At The Commissioner's Office
Pete Rose and his Cincinnati Reds teammates came down particularly hard on Bouton the summer Ball Four was released. Bouton wrote in the book's sequel I'm Glad You Didn't Take It Personally:
I can still remember Pete Rose, on the top step of the dugout screaming, "Fuck you, Shakespeare."
It turns out Bouton, like the rest of us, has succumbed to the years. He suffered a debilitating stroke not long ago. It's hard for me to wrap my brain around that one. He'll always be that 30-something athlete-cum-litterateur who inspired me to become the writer I am today. I'm not much one for celebrity-worship but when I heard, back in 1996, that he'd be making a personal appearance at the Evanston, Illinois, Barnes and Noble in support of the latest of his five books, I dropped everything and made sure I arrived a good hour before the scheduled event. I swooned when he took the podium and read from his new tome. Afterward, I joined the crowd surrounding him, getting autographs and having their pictures taken with him. I asked for neither autograph nor picture; I only wanted to be in his presence.
Then again, maybe I should re-think putting Bouton on a pedestal. He advises it himself, that iconoclast, citing author and psychologist Sheldon Kopp:
"There are no great men. If you have a hero, look again: you have diminished yourself in some way."
One thought on "Hot Air: Slippin' Away"
Joy Shayne Laughter says:
Gawd, I love this line. There are scads of people in this world and throughout history whom I admire. But I think of them as examples of human strength, friends to my spirit. I would rather have a friend than a hero.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


1.1 Who is already teaching this way or has experience in the past?
1.2 Who wants to be involved?
1.3 What resources are available?
1.4 What resources are needed?
This page is meant to be a place to unify efforts to spread the communicative biblical Hebrew (CBH) approach. It's where you can find and share resources with others who are trying to make this method gain more traction in the U.S. and abroad in Bible translation contexts. In order for CBH to become a movement that creates a more significant impact, we want to share freely as many resources as possible, in order to remove friction and minimize the reluctance that so many have because of their traditions of centuries of grammar/textbook-styles of teaching. If you would like to contribute to the free resources on this page, please email them to Andrew Case. If you would like to be listed in one of the categories below, please email Andrew Case and make an introduction.
Who is already teaching this way or has experience in the past?
Dr. Phil King: Course Leader, MA in Field Linguistics, Redcliffe College, Gloucester.
Scott McQuinn: Online Hebrew instructor at Veritas press.
Free, high-quality video resources on YouTube and elsewhere, which include closeups of vocabulary items or verbs being acted out in different contexts, and simplified Bible stories being acted out with Hebrew narration and multiple cameras.
Free resources such as curricula and teacher's manuals in the following languages: French, Hindi, Indonesian, Chinese.
If you think of anything else, or are working currently on anything else, please let us know on the Google Group below.


These exciting stories are take place over the course of several weeks and consist of a dozen or more chapters and, sometimes, other site activities.
With Mystery Plots, Neopets users must search the site for clues that may help solve a certain mystery. There plots are generally very difficult and take a while to solve.
With these activities, the Neopets Team gives you a list of clues and some information about an event, and you must use the clues and information to work out all the details of the event.
Every now and then, the Neopets Hive likes to host a special activity for its visitors. Some are special plots, while others are puzzles or challenges.


December 13 A meteorite fell at Wold Newton, a hamlet in Yorkshire in England. This meteorite fall was subsequently used as a literary premise by the science fiction writer Philip Jose Farmer as the basis for the Wold Newton family stories. See: Wold Newton meteorite.
Constantine Kanaris - Greek freedom fighter, Admiral and politician.(Another possible year of birth is 1793).


Download RegDoctor from Files32: System Utilities : Registry Tools - Get your beta freeware and shareware downloads!
Opera, Portable Edition is a lightweight, customizable browser designed for speed. It's the popular OperaOao web browser packaged as a portable app, so you can take your browser with you.
MarkUp Tools was designed with two fundamental features that we believe qualify it as a productivity tool: easy to use interface, singular functionality (marking documents).
This program is a meta-search engine and Web site monitoring program. It allows you to add your own search engines and favorite Web sites, and you can include the bookmarks in customized categories.
The Diacorder USB series is a full featured analogue line call recorder that supports passive call recording on ground start and loop start analog networks.


The new year is a time to set our intention for the coming seasons — to identify and commit to practices that help us make a greater impact in engaging with our life's purpose and serving others. What's your goal for the coming year?
As a member of our yoga service community, perhaps your vision is to add valuable skills and knowledge to your teaching toolkit in 2016, or to connect with underserved or at-risk populations in your neighborhood to share yoga. If so, Mindful Yoga Therapy program director Suzanne Manafort has an important message for you: there's never been a better time to make a difference.
For many of us, the practices of yoga have changed our lives. That statement may seem dramatic, but it's true. These practices teach us to turn inward, to pay attention, and to notice without judgment. They enable us to find balance in our bodies and minds, as well as develop our overall well-being. Because of those benefits, yoga is an invaluable asset for Veterans who are coping with trauma-related psychological difficulties.
Every day in the United States, an estimated 22 Veterans a day are committing suicide. We want to change that. One way we're making a difference is through the Mindful Yoga Therapy program, developed to help Veterans to find a calm and steady/mind and continue productive and peaceful lives through the support of the mindful practices of yoga and education.
Mindful Yoga Therapy for Veterans is an empirically-informed, clinically tested program comprised of five practices: Pranayama (breathing), Asana (postures connected with breath), Yoga Nidra, Meditation, and Gratitude. Each practice is a tool Veterans can use to cope with Post Traumatic Stress, and together they form a comprehensive system – a toolbox – that will carry Veterans into a life of strength and resilience.
Yoga practices are a powerful complement to professional treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress. A mindful, embodied yoga practice can provide relief from symptoms and develop the supportive skills that Veterans need in their everyday lives. Yoga has proven to aid in a Veteran's healing journey; and we believe that Mindful Yoga Therapy, used in conjunction with psychotherapy, can make a positive impact on the number of veterans we lose each day. Our hopes and aspirations are that we can make a difference.
Losing 22 veterans a day to suicide is unacceptable. Please help us to change that.
Mindful Yoga Therapy's next scheduled 100-hour certification training begins in March 2016 in Newington, CT. A limited number of scholarships are available for teachers who are veterans or active duty service members. For more information on scholarships, email connect@mindfulyogatherapy.org. To register for the 100-hour program or view all upcoming Mindful Yoga Therapy trainings, visit the Give Back Yoga Trainings & Events page.
Give Back Yoga is honored to partner with the Phoenix Patriot Foundation, an organization that provides direct support to post-9/11 wounded and injured veterans enabling them to fully "Recover, Reintegrate and Remain Engaged" in service to their communities and country. Phoenix Patriot Foundation aids veterans by developing and implementing an individually-tailored program to ensure independence and lifelong sustainability.
Through the foundation's Wellness Program, veterans now have access to free Mindful Yoga Therapy and Yoga For Warriors practice guides offered through Give Back Yoga, providing an opportunity to begin experiencing the healing benefits of yoga. Phoenix Patriot Foundation is also co-funding scholarships with Give Back Yoga to help post-9/11 veterans complete a Mindful Yoga Therapy teacher training and share this beneficial practice with their peers.
This partnership was established with the help of PPF's Development Director, Audrey C. Dalton. The daughter of a wounded WWII Purple Heart recipient and the wife of a former Marine who also practices yoga, Audrey shared her thoughts on why wounded warriors can benefit from the tools of yoga.
I see a huge need for the Mindful Yoga Therapy toolkit. The trouble veterans often encounter is that they experience post-traumatic stress, and as a result may become deeply depressed. In many cases, veterans who already feel isolated feel as if there is no answer. Many veterans do not even know that options outside of conventional therapy exist. Often they have never tried Yoga, either as a form of exercise or a form of therapy, thinking it either odd or too Eastern, or viewing it as having only a religious connotation. Whether they have limited motion due to injuries or are missing a limb or limbs, veterans may think of Yoga as outside of their scope, even though they are trained warriors.
In the past when I taught Yoga classes, many of my students had limited movement and I used adaptive techniques so that they could participate. All veterans can practice Yoga, even if the practice is limited to Yogic breathing techniques. In many instances, the mindset of a warrior only enhances their ability to concentrate. The body is joined with the spirit, and I feel all who come to appreciate Yoga see possibilities, not limitations.
Many veterans return from battle without limbs and on drugs prescribed for pain control. When they deployed from the U.S. for combat, some were fresh out of high school with no college or vocational training. When veterans transition back into civilian life, it is as if they have stepped out of a time warp. Technology has advanced light years within the timeframe from when they initially enlisted. Job prospects may exist, but many of the jobs that are available require training or college. Veterans may not have learned how to structure a resumé, and often feel frustration mount as they are faced with few options to pursue as sources of income.
The most poignant aspect of all is that these men and women swear an oath to serve, and when they return from duty, the prospects seem grim. Nothing could be further than the truth. These veterans are heroes and Patriots, and we can all learn from their experiences and from their wounds, as tragic as they may be. There is a great depth to all those who travel the road of the military, and there are many good lessons garnered from military experience. Veterans need to see that civilians deeply appreciate their sacrifices.
I see Yoga as a saving grace available to all people, and a phenomenal opportunity for veterans to find a way out of darkness and despair. The very definition of Yoga is "to yoke" the union of the spirit or Supreme being with the body. That is what makes it so beautiful, and so powerful.
Veterans and servicemembers: request free yoga resources through the Give Back Yoga Foundation.
Abuse and traumas in my life drove me to express myself initially as an actress in college, and then professionally. Although successful, I was drawn to dig deeper. Yoga and iRest meditation put me in the trenches, both in my personal work, and in teaching yoga. In my first iRest training, the class consisted of 70 percent veterans and those working with them. The sense of duty and pain were palpable.
My father is ex-Navy. I was briefly in civil air patrol as a teen, and later denied enlistment in the Air Force for health reasons. I've always been attracted to warriors; yogic texts, like the Bhagavad Gita, flesh out the metaphor of battle. Those stories help us identify personal forms of conflict and resolution. Our nation owes a debt of gratitude to the men and women who have given their time, hearts, minds, and skills to protect our liberties. I am compelled to help them come home, inside and out.
It occurred during an iRest training session: a beautiful female veteran stood up, took the microphone, and began to cry. She said that when pressed to find a symbol for her safety, she couldn't decide between her newborn baby or her weapon. The entire room was quiet. She spoke not only for a soldier's surreal dilemma, but also for a woman's place in modern warfare.
I'm quite familiar with facing life after trauma. I had not, however, heard the details of these exquisitely personal war stories of the veterans I teach. How can anyone experience war and NOT struggle back home? The rules of engagement for war are based on strategy and staying alive. We watch war movies, the news and other media from the comfort of our couches. It's neither right, nor wrong. It is simply our present-day reality. But it is startling that we do not seem to have enough resources for our vets' needs back at home; veterans are very underserved. My experience as a vendor for the VA is that we need smoother, more expeditious systems in place, as well as more providers and diversity of treatments.
In a typical studio group class, my approach is based on theme, requests, Ayurvedic assessment, and often the seasons. The cadence and style are light or contemplative, with breath work geared to philosophical and spiritual growth. In private sessions and veteran groups, I use a structured approach for sense of success and familiarity. iRest has a protocol, but each session shifts its inquiry within the framework. Some deconditioning is the result of this slower-paced journey; that can be uncomfortable. Calming breathing techniques, grounded poses, lifestyle choices and applied yoga psychology are part of the work we do together.
Personal agenda is a sneaky creature. It pops up right when a client is having an insight and finding words to express it. Through the years, the greatest moments of healing come from my listening and presenting the work while I remain somewhat invisible. The challenge is to keep things simple, easy to take home and to duplicate, to not overload too much information. There is such a wealth of text out there with incredible philosophical content that can radically alter outlook. But we can only digest a little at a time; it takes a while to feel the difference. That "felt sense" (iRest vernacular) is the catalyst for change.
Do it! This is an amazing group of people. Enroll in specific training and procure professional mentorship of those who are already doing the work. Seek advice from western and eastern medical fields, and nurture those relationships. Stay optimistic when a group series yields attrition; we can't know what kinds of struggles keep our vets from regularly attending sessions. Keep the pacing slower, the language easily digestible, and intuit when to shift the class or session plan. Cultivate the skill of synthesizing yoga philosophy with other cultural and religious belief systems. Finally, develop strong personal and professional boundaries. This will elicit respect and reverence for all involved.
The wounds of our veterans permeate all realms: physical, psychological, and spiritual. Posted on The Huffington Post, January 10, 2014, "veterans make up nearly 10 percent of the U.S. population, they account for roughly one in five suicides, according to an analysis conducted by News21, an investigative student journalism initiative, CNN reported in September." Their needs are immediate. Yet our nation struggles to allocate resources. Implementing more models in which non-VA care providers network and advertise directly to this population would be advantageous for all involved. Websites that categorize grant-funded, nominally- and competitively-priced services would facilitate greater access to more care. Our imperative is to assist these brave men and women with re-integration into the very culture they have fought hard to protect. Training for war is intensive. Training to return to their home lives is crucial.
Needs are dynamic in the continuum of healing, and iRest and yoga therapy are flexible approaches that can serve anyone on that continuum. This is important, because healing doesn't occur in a linear fashion. Service here is now defined by an explorative quality of being with, rather than "dealing" with, a condition. Classical definitions of yoga practice from my early years had markers of progress. Now, charting those markers has become less concrete. There is a soulful artistry in allowing pain, joy, confusion, loss, and success move through our open hands like water. Nothing here is permanent. This realization has fostered deeper appreciation for me. I am in each soldier's story. My personal practice more deeply honors the chaotic and the mundane for the gifts they bring. My teen children need me to just do nothing with them sometimes, to listen to them talk of friends and new shoes. I am also compelled to listen to the pain a vet shares when remembering unimaginable destruction. Those relationships are the union to which the definition of yoga refers. That is the practice now. I listen, breathe, and feel the sacredness of it all.
Help us to expand awareness about the healing powers of yoga: learn how you can become a Warrior for Healing by participating in our upcoming event and crowdfunding campaign.
Our 100 hour Embodyoga®-based training for yoga teachers provides an in-depth study and certification.
Our next 100-hour certification session begins January 2016 in Newington, CT. To be notified of new training dates, scholarship opportunities and program updates, join the Mindful Yoga Therapy mailing list.
Military Spouses: Studio Bamboo is registered with the MyCAA program, which provides partial or full tuition for Career Advancement programs for military spouses. For more information, contact Studio Bamboo Yoga.
Veterans and Active Duty Servicemembers: Mindful Yoga Therapy has received a grant from The Sampson Foundation to fund scholarships that will help veterans and active duty servicemembers to attend any upcoming Mindful Yoga Therapy training. For more information, email Mindful Yoga Therapy at connect@mindfulyogatherapy.org.


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Home Science & Environment Poison in the Air
The Okhla Timarpur Waste to Energy plant, managed by Jindal Urban Infrastructure Limited. Photo: Anil Shakya
Poison in the Air
NGT's judgment allowing the operation of the Okhla Waste to Energy plant has brought environmental jurisprudence into question and jeopardised the lives of those living close by
~By Karan Kaushik
In a major shock to residents of Sukhdev Vihar in South Delhi, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has ordered that the adjoining Okhla Timarpur Waste to Energy plant should neither be shut down nor shifted to another site. The plant receives close to 2,000 metric tonnes of waste per day which is incinerated, an extremely polluting process.
In the February 2 order, the NGT bench headed by Justice Swatanter Kumar requested the public at large not to propagate the principle of "not in my backyard". It stated that the proponent is liable to pay environmental compensation (EC) of Rs 25 lakh for pollution, resulting from deficient functioning/operation of the plant and its stack emissions being in excess of the prescribed parameters up to December 18, 2014. It also said that if the plant was found to be deficient in its operation or violating the prescribed emission norms, it would be liable to pay EC Rs 5 lakh per incident, in addition to such other order or directions that may be passed by the regulatory authorities and the NGT, including closure of the plant.
The bench dismissed the applicants' claim challenging the environment clearance granted to the project by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on April 21, 2007, saying it was time-barred. It has asked a joint inspection team to conduct monthly inspection of the plant and file a detailed report. The NGT directed the plant owner to improve the green belt by planting trees around the site and asked the centre, Delhi government and other local authorities to ensure establishment of more waste to energy plants. It noted that Delhi was generating 14,100 metric tonnes of mixed waste every day, indicating the magnitude of the garbage generated by the capital.
The plant puts the lives of neighbourhood residents like those in Ghaffar Manzil in danger. Photo: Anil Shakya
It all began in 2003 when the Okhla plant, managed by Jindal Urban Infrastructure Limited, was in the planning stage. Residents like Umesh Chandra Baari who bought a DDA flat in Sukhdev Vihar in the 1980s were lured by the lush green colony. "The place was a paradise," he recalled. He now wants to leave due to toxic emissions emanating nearby, leading to permanent bad throat and frequent fever.
The residents went to court in 2003 anticipating environmental problems. The plant was started in 2009 and, ever since, they have been at loggerheads with the Jindal Group. After 28 inconclusive hearings, the case was transferred to the NGT in February 2013.
With the judgment coming out now, it has the potential to put the lives of more than half-a-million people living around the plant at grave risk.
Unfortunately, the Tribunal seems to have overlooked its own objections in the past where it had made several observations regarding the risk posed by the plant. It had time and again directed various teams to inspect the project site and asked for compliance with respect to environmental pollutants.
The NGT bench had noted that "there is evidence to show on record" that the "industry was polluting and it has operational deficiencies and its emissions were in excess of the prescribed limit" after a report from various authorities, including the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), had confirmed pollution violations. The residents are ready to challenge the NGT's order in the Supreme Court.
SEVERE VIOLATION
Ranjit Devraj, editor of Scidev.net, has been a crusader for the residents of his colony to have a right to pure air. He said: "The compensation of Rs 25 lakh is nothing. At a time when Delhi is suffering from severe air pollution, this is a severe violation." The Jindals have not spoken on the issue, he added.
The NGT's order to permit the plant to continue is based on the report of a joint inspection team which found the plant "consistently non-polluting and compliant". The team included the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, CPCB and Shriram Institute for Industrial Research. Only the CPCB enjoys recognition under the Environmental Protection Act, 1986. The NGT bench seems to have ignored this fact.
The petitioners' concern was the emission of dioxins and furans, which were found 120 times above safe levels in inspections carried out from March 28-31, 2013.
When India Legal spoke to CPCB officials, they said they can't question the NGT's judgment. They also said the Okhla plant needs to install some pre-requisites and carry out segregation of waste. Claiming that the emissions had been controlled over the past few months, they said the plant is now equipped with controlled devices which had reduced the concentration of dioxins and furans. One of the member secretaries of the CPCB said: "There should be more waste management plants in the city which should operate with proper care and environmental safeguards. The DPCC needs to monitor such plants and the CPCB has done numerous tests in the past but we have to follow the NGT directions now." At present, there are three waste management plants in Delhi—in Okhla, Gazipur and Bhalswa.
Baari, who was a former director at FICCI and Dabur Research Labs is aghast at the DPCC and CPCB for doing the sampling only when the plant operates under ideal conditions. He told India Legal: "When the DPCC and CPCB do the sampling, there is no smoke being released, a clear indication that there is some tie-up between these authorities and the plant management."
CUMULATIVE EFFECT
Besides Sukhdev Vihar, there are unauthorised colonies like Haji Colony, Gaffar Manzil and Okhla Vihar where too residents are falling sick due to this pollution, he said. A real estate agent in the area said that people were vacating their properties and prices had gone down significantly.
More than 100 doctors have written to the PMO to say that nearby residents were suffering from noxious fumes emanating from the plant. Two nearby hospitals, Fortis Escorts and Holy Family, have also joined in the written protests.
Dr Sonia Softa, who signed the petition, suffers from sinusitis and her father, from asthma. Softa said: "Ever since the plant came up, asthma, sinusitis and cancer cases have gone up. When it rains, it stinks and fly-ash falls on our cars and clothes. We have to keep our noses and faces covered."
Vimal Monga, another resident, created a Facebook page called "Okhla Anti-Incinerator Committee". "A big challenge for us is to gather funds to mount a strong case in the Supreme Court. Why doesn't the NGT file a case against the Jindal Group just like it did during the Art of Living concert which took place on the banks of the Yamuna?" asked Monga.
Hopes that the Delhi government would help were belied when it said that land is a central government subject and it can't do anything to shut the plant. The plant is operated on land taken on lease from the NDMC.
The plant never got clearance from the Delhi Urban Art Committee. It is close to the Lotus Temple and Humayun's Tomb which are vulnerable to acid rain. It is also close to the Okhla Bird Sanctuary, Jamia Millia Islamia and Fortis, Escorts and Holy Family hospitals, threatening many lives.
LAND TRANSFER ISSUES
A press release by Gopal Krishna of ToxicWatch Alliance on December 13, 2016, explains the basic problem with the land transfer. The press release said: "Official documents reveal how conditions of Land Allotment to New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), the municipal council of the city of New Delhi imposed by Delhi Development Agency (DDA) have been breached to facilitate 'land grab' in the name of Jindal's Waste to Energy plant in Okhla."
It said that a letter dated June 18, 1980 sent from the DDA to NDMC specifically states the conditions for allotment. The letter says: "The land shall be used by N.D.M.C. for the construction of a compost plant and for no other purpose whatsoever." It adds: "The land shall not be transferred to any other Department without prior permission of DDA obtained in writing." Another letter from DDA dated August 4, 1995, sent to NDMC reiterates: "The allotted land shall be used for the purpose of compost plant and no other purpose whatsoever." In a document filed by the DDA counsel (a copy of which is with India Legal), objections were raised by it against the transfer. It said that no tree shall be cut during the expansion of the plant (compost and not incinerator). But not only were trees cut, a massive incinerator came up.
Till 2014, the Okhla plant has not been using either biomethanation or RDF technologies, as vouched for in a CPCB affidavit. The affidavit (a copy of which is with India Legal) said: "The said compliance status reveals that there are alterations with respect to description of the project as outlined in the said Environmental Clearance dated 21/03/2007 and amended thereof; Proposed plant at Timarpur site for processing 650 TPD (650×1) of mixed garbage has not been developed to produce 225 TPD RDF fluff. The power plant has three boilers and single turbine instead of proposed single boiler/single turbine configuration. The proposed 100 TPD green waste bio-methanation plant for generation of methane gas (to be supplied to power plant) has not been installed. Presently, both fly-ash and bottom ash from Waste to Energy plant are being disposed to Okhla Landfill site instead of the proposed disposal at Jaitpur/Bhatti mines. Use of air cooled condenser (instead of proposed water cooling tower) and non-installation of bio-methanation plant have considerably reduced water requirement."
It is obvious that rules were flouted. Yet, succor for the residents seems far.
Justice Swatanter Kumar
NDMC
Okhla plant
Scidev.net
ToxicWatch Alliance
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I've been using an Osprey Atmos as my main Lowland Rescue pack for a couple of years now, and it's been perfect. But Osprey tried to tempt me away with a brand new hiking pack called the Kestrel for a few months, so here's a run-down of how that went.
The Kestrel design comes in 5 different sizes from 28-68L, but I plumped for the 38 so I could fit all my hill kit in with not too much bulk for when I'm forcing my way through hedges and forests.
Now, my experience of Osprey packs is that they're a bit like Swiss Army Knives. They have a huge range of features which are superb to play with when you first get the pack - I do love a good pack-packing session to sort through all my gear - but day-to-day you probably only use a few of those features to good effect. That's not to say that they're unnecessary, but rather that one man's saw is another man's hoof-destoner.
And so once I'd used Osprey's neat back-length adapter I forgot about it, along with the trekking pole loops and ice-axe loops. Not much call for either of those where I've been with this pack.
But pockets are my big thing. Pockets, attachment loops and adaptability. And as usual, Osprey have shoe-horned plenty of them into the daypack! The main section is a drawstring closure with a flip-over lid. It's accessible from the top, or via a bottom zipper - and has a divider so your world doesn't fall out of the base if you undo that zipper. I found this perfect for stashing medical kit in the lower part where I knew it would be immediately accessible without delving. The top of the main compartment I used to house clothing, food and other essentials.
The pack isn't waterproof, but comes with a raincover that is stashed in its base. I must admit that I removed this because I prefer to use internal drybags (I'm just contrary like that) and it saved enough weight to justify popping an emergency Snickers in to the lid. That said, the whole thing only weighs 1.4kg so it's not a fat boy.
The waist strap and support of the Kestrel is great. It's a fairly tall and narrow pack but the padded waist sits comfortably on my hips and is super-easy to tighten - and it stays tight. The pockets on the waist strap are plenty big enough for a compass, knife, notebook, sunscreen and small odds-and-sods. In fact they're probably the bit I used most during our adventures.
External features of the Kestrel don't let it down, with a twin set of hidden daisychain loops (for clipping extra kit on to), a large mesh pocket for stuffing that extra jacket in to, and nice secure rollmat straps at the base - which I used for an emergency throwrope.
Bounding along the trail is comfortable in the Kestrel. The AirScape feature keeps a gap between your spine and the pack, allowing airflow and less sweatiness. And the fantastic shoulderstraps, and pack-compression straps mean that the whole thing can be snugged to you, with your kit battened down so it doesn't bounce around.
All in all, the Kestrel is exactly what you'd expect from an Osprey pack. Great quality, superb finish, full featured and adaptable comfort.
If you like a top-loading pack with a lid that's narrow enough to not snag on gates and will survive months of abuse without an issue, look no further than the Kestrel range.


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2019-20 Manager's Comments
Ancelotti gives squad update ahead of Chelsea trip
The Blues boss talked Coleman, Tosun, Digne, Holgate, Calvert-Lewin and Baines in Friday's pre-match presser
By matthew.chandler@chandler98_ Mar 6, 2020, 2:04pm GMT
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Ancelotti will return to Stamford Bridge with Everton on Sunday
Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images
Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti has said Seamus Coleman will play no part in Sunday's game at Chelsea, but revealed a return for Lucas Digne is a possibility.
Coleman limped off in the first half of the 1-1 home draw with Manchester United, and Ancelotti expects him to miss this weekend's clash and the Merseyside derby on March 16.
But Digne, who has not played since February 8 due to a muscle strain, may feature on Sunday, as Ancelotti faces Chelsea for the first time since being sacked by the club in May 2011.
Ancelotti also gave an update on Cenk Tosun, who returned from his loan spell at Crystal Palace and is set to have knee surgery:
"Seamus Coleman is not available. He had a muscular problem in the game against Manchester United. He will be out for at least two games, and then we'll see. Cenk Tosun, who came back from Crystal Palace, is going to have surgery next week.
"The others are in good condition; Lucas Digne is good."
On Tosun, who could miss up to six months of football including the summer European Championships, Ancelotti sympathised with the striker, but promised that he and the club will offer him as much support as he needs:
"In football, injuries happen. He will have our total support here. He is going to recover here and I hope everything will be OK, and that he can recover soon."
Ancelotti also spoke to his delight that Mason Holgate signed a new five-year deal with the Blues on Tuesday as a reward for his excellent form this season.
And the Italian added that Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Everton's top scorer with 15 goals, is close to agreeing a new contract of his own:
"I'm pleased. As I've said before, Holgate is going to be the future of this club. It's important for him and for us to renew his contract, to have stability here.
"We are close to Dominic Calvert-Lewin also, and I hope he's going to sign soon. They are talking, they are very close, so he's going to sign soon. The idea for the future is really clear."
Another new contract potentially awaits Leighton Baines, 35, who was superb in the draw with United but whose current deal expires in June.
Ancelotti said he hopes Baines extends his 13-year association with his boyhood club further, given how much he values his experience, his ability as a footballer and his personality:
"There is a possibility. We are going to talk with him about what he's going to do. For the club, for me, for his team-mates, it will be important to have him for next season. He has shown a fantastic attitude in training and in games.
"He's really important for us. He's still a good player, he's physically good, but he has the experience and the personality that is important for our squad."


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Boxer Resorts is a nationwide hotel company that offers outstanding growth and industry leading benefits. Scope of Position. We are currently seeking a Sales Professional to help us leap into the future.


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Guest Editorial – AFN Ontario Regional Chief Isadore Day Wiindawtegowinini
Nov 12, 2016 | ISSUE 78 - EC. DEV 2016
Over 300 delegates attended the Ontario First Nation Economic Forum (OFNEF) held in Toronto, Ontario on October 12-13, 2016. Participants included First Nation leaders, economic and employment officers, business, industry and provincial and federal officials.
The three main areas of discussion were on infrastructure, wealth creation, and resource revenue (RRS) sharing. Below are some of the immediate outcomes from OFNEF.
In terms of Resource Revenue Sharing the regions are ready to talk. There are several successful models that could be used as a framework for moving forward with the regions. In terms of infrastructure there is a need for a collaborative long-term plan and sustained investment. Communities need the capacity to be shovel- ready.
It seems as though there is a difference of opinion in terms of accessing capital and financing. The lending agencies and financial institutes believe that there is a lot of opportunity to access capital funding, but communities do not believe that this is the case. There is a need to build business capacity, not in terms of "business education" but more of personal skills like confidence, sales and board governance.
When we as First Nation peoples have more control of our lives and our lands, our relationships with other governments we will see a transformation that our ancestors expected as a result of making treaties. It may seem to be getting closer to reality. But we must re-double our efforts to reach that goal of socio-economic parity and to eradicate the grinding poverty that is killing our people!!
As you know, it's been a year since Prime Minister Trudeau made a number of serious commitments to our Peoples. In fact, every single Cabinet Minister's mandate letter refers to the importance of improving the relationship with Indigenous peoples.
The federal government has committed to major investments in health, child welfare, infrastructure, and ending boil water advisories within five years. Most importantly, there was the commitment to end two decades of a 2 per cent funding cap, which has resulted in an estimated $30 billion in lost funding.
As both Ontario and Canada continue to work to include us as equal partners — and as we seek to secure our rightful place in this country — we are still looking for the immediate investments that will lift our peoples out of poverty.
The federal government must re-profile some of that new $8.4 billion as soon as possible. We must concentrate on basic infrastructure investments – clean water and housing – so we can move forward on wealth creation for all.
About 93 per cent of Ontario's population lives on just 13 per cent of the landmass here in the south. The other 87 per cent of the land – classified as Northern Ontario – has only 730,000 people—which includes an increasingly larger number of First Nations the further north you travel.
From green energy to environmental protection, our Peoples are the best placed to combat the very real threat of climate change. From carbon credits to coffee franchises, there is an almost unlimited potential for our peoples to fully participate in all sectors of the economy.
Both First Nations and northern Ontarians need major investments in order to stimulate and sustain our economies. It's time to stop imagining what can be done to involve First Nations. It's time to include First Nations as equal partners.
By investing in our Peoples, from socio- economic programs to major infrastructure projects, not only will we finally secure our rightful place, we will become major contributors to a revived provincial and Canadian economy.
I look forward to advancing this dialogue further and to keep this marker as the first step toward economic action for all First Nations in Ontario.
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Q: Rest API Limits Except For Paging I have a REST service that I would like to limit the usage of clients.  The API is as follows.
/api/accounts/search/{page}/{page_size}

Since the record can return a large recordset, I use paging as described in the sample above using {page} and {page_size}
I'm going to use a table to track a user's session that will contain the following columns.
* Client IP
* Date Created
* Any Other Table To Use If Required

The rule I want to use is to prevent too many requests from the same IP as follows:
1. New Search Request 1 per minute
2. Except if from part of a paging result set from the result.  Ex page 2, 3, 4, etc. I don't want the rule for #1 to exist here.
4. Disallow making a new request while they are pulling data down from #2  ( I want to avoid someone from scraping the information).

Steps #2 and #3 is were I'm not sure how to logically do or information to track to accomplish this.   Due to the server limitations, I'm trying to avoid my server's resources from being exhausted by someone scraping our data continuously.
I'm looking for tips or ideas on how best to accomplish this and would appreciate some advice?

A: Instead of page numbers, you might consider a next link. This is a common pattern, and used by many different APIs. You can embed it in your JSON responses, the Link HTTP header or adopt a standard hypermedia JSON format such as HAL, Siren or others.
For a user to find the next page, all they have to do is grab that url and do the next fetch. Now you're no longer stuck on page numbers, you can embed any data you want in that next page, including some hard to guess string that can act as a one-time token for the next page.


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Daughter left just £1 in her Mother's £300,000 Will fails in fraud challenge in the High Court
I noticed this interesting Inheritance Dispute case which was heard last week in the High Court. Angela Salmon failed in her claim that her sister Jacqueline had forged their Mother's Will, which had left Angela just £1 from her mother's £300,000 estate. If Angela had been successful, the Will would have been declared invalid, and she would have been entitled to a seventh share of her mother's estate under the rules of intestacy.
Angela's mother had said in the Will that Angela had borrowed money which was never repaid, and that she had had her fair share of her assets to last her a life time. The bulk of the estate was therefore left to her sister. Angela claimed that the Will, made a year before their mother died, was a forgery by Jacqueline and that her mother did not know or approve of its contents.
Deputy Judge Edward Bartley Jones QC said that it was 'most unfortunate' that Angela Salmon had made the allegations against her sister, Jacqueline, who had looked after her mother for the last 17 years of her life. The judge was also critical that Angela had had the benefit of Legal Aid to make the forgery allegation. He said he found Jacqueline a 'careful and reliable' witness but found that Angela was 'unreliable and unconvincing'. Angela and her mother had been estranged for many years and she had been lent money that was not repaid, despite her denials, said the judge.
As a solicitor specialising in this area of law, I think that this case highlights the difficulty and seriousness of making allegations of fraud in any Court case. Such allegations should only be made if there is significant evidence to support it, and as has been seen in this case, the Courts are very critical of unfounded allegations being made. I also think that this case highlights the need to have the advice of a solicitor who specialises in Inheritance Disputes, as we do, here at Stephensons.
If you think that you may have an inheritance dispute claim, and wish us to investigate it and advise you, then contact our specialist team on 01942 777777. If you are of limited financial means, you may even be entitled to Legal Aid, and we can advise you of this quickly over the phone.
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text:
Kahaber Chadadze (grúzul: კახაბერ ცხადაძე; Rusztavi, 1968. szeptember 7. –) grúz válogatott labdarúgó, edző.

Pályafutása

Klubcsapatban
Rusztavi született a Grúz SZSZK-ban. Pályafutását szülővárosa csapatában a  Metalurgi Rusztaviban kezdte 1986-ban. Két évvel később a Dinamo Tbiliszi igazolta le, ahol három évig játszott. 1990-ben és 1991-ben csapatával megnyerte az újonnan megalakult grúz bajnokságot. 1991-ben kis ideig Svédországba szerződött a GIF Sundsvall együtteséhez, majd Oroszországban folytatta pályafutását, ahol először a Szpartak Moszkva, azt követően pedig a Gyinamo Moszkva együttesében. 1992 és 1996 között Németországban az Eintracht Frankfurt játékosa volt. 1997-ben az Alanyija Vlagyikavkaz-ban játszott, 1998 és 2000 között az angol Manchester Cityben szerepelt, de egyetlen mérkőzésen sem lépett pályára. 2000 és 2002 között a Lokomotivi Tbiliszi, 2003 és 2004 között az Anzsi Mahacskala volt a csapata és ott fejezte be a pályafutását.

A válogatottban
Tagja volt az 1990-ben Európa-bajnokságot nyerő szovjet U21-es válogatottnak.
1992-ben 6 mérkőzésen lépett pályára a FÁK válogatottjában és részt vett az 1992-es Európa-bajnokságon. 1992 és 1998 között 25 alkalommal játszott a grúz válogatottban és 1 gólt szerzett.

Edzőként
Aktív pályafutását követően edzősködni kezdett. 2001 és 2002 között a Lokomotivi Tbiliszi játékosedzője volt. 2005-ben kinevezték a Dinamo Tbiliszi élére, mellyel megnyerte a grúz bajnokságot és a szuperkupát. Egy évvel később, 2006-ban a Szioni Bolniszi csapatával is elhódította a bajnoki címet. 2009-ben a grúz U21-es válogatott szövetségi edzője, majd azt követően 2009 és 2015 között az azeri İnter Bakı vezetőedzője volt, mellyel 2010-ben azeri bajnoki címet szerzett.

2015 és 2016 között a grúz válogatott szövetségi kapitánya volt. 2016 és 2017 között a kazah Kajrat Almati, 2018 és 2020 között pedig az Ordabaszi FK csapatánál dolgozott.

Sikerei, díjai

Játékosként
Dinamo Tbiliszi
Grúz bajnok (2): 1990, 1991
Szpartak Moszkva
Orosz bajnok (1): 1992
Szovjet kupa (1): 1991–92
Szovjetunió U21
U21-es Európa-bajnok (1): 1990

Edzőként
Dinamo Tbiliszi
Grúz szuperkupa (1): 2005
Grúz bajnok (1):  2004–05
Szioni Bolniszi
Grúz bajnok (1):  2005–06
İnter Bakı
Azeri bajnok (1): 2009–10
Kajrat Almati
kazah szuperkupa (1): 2017

Jegyzetek

További információk

1968-ban született személyek
Élő személyek
Szovjet labdarúgók
Grúz labdarúgók
Grúz labdarúgóedzők
Labdarúgóhátvédek
A Dinamo Tbiliszi labdarúgói
A GIF Sundsvall labdarúgói
A Szpartak Moszkva labdarúgói
A Gyinamo Moszkva labdarúgói
Az Eintracht Frankfurt labdarúgói
Az Alanyija Vlagyikavkaz labdarúgói
A Manchester City labdarúgói
Az Anzsi Mahacskala labdarúgói
Az 1992-es Európa-bajnokság labdarúgói

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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