With the litany of controllers and orchestrators being created across the SDN and NFV landscape, we are re-creating the very problem for which we were trying to solve. In order to fully orchestrate services from end-to-end, across both the physical and virtual domains, network operators will now have to select vendors for each and then engage in a complex process of stitching this all together in order to create services. A solution lies in the concept of Multi-Domain Service Orchestration, says Joe Cumello, VP of Marketing at Ciena within our new Blue Planet Division.
Joe Cumello (@JCumello) is VP of Marketing at Ciena within our new Blue Planet Division. Joe is responsible for marketing Ciena's SDN, NFV, and network transformation software technology, and joins Ciena from Cyan where he oversaw all aspects of Cyan's global marketing efforts, from product marketing to global brand development.
On Monday, Ciena completed the acquisition of Cyan and formally created the Blue Planet Division, which rolls up all of the software development of both companies into one division. The timing couldn't have been better.
Our new Blue Planet division aims to focus our combined software development horsepower on developing a new category of networking software.
You're probably saying to yourself, "if I had a dime for every vendors who said…" and we hear you. So let's get more specific.
The first is the management of networking hardware and the evolution of the NMS. We most often look to the "WAN SDN Controller" as the software that will finally help us move away from single-vendor operations and swivel chair management to a fully automated, managed, and controlled multi-layer and multi-vendor infrastructure. And so the vendor community is working hard to create SDN controllers, some based on ODL, others based on ONOS. All with their own FCAPS, topology, visualization, path compute, and more.
Then we look to Network Functions Virtualization (NFV). And in the case of NFV, we're trying to leverage low-cost data center space, power, and compute to operate network functions that used to be hardware devices themselves. A NFV orchestrator, multi-vendor VNFs, and the associated infrastructure is all required to make this a reality. The vendor community has reacted by creating orchestrators galore – each vendor touting their own technology for managing the performance, visualization, orchestration, and service chaining of virtual functions.
Finally, we have the data center SDN controller – the piece of software that started it all. Before there was NFV or WAN SDN, there was data center SDN. And today, we have a myriad of vendors who provide DC SDN controllers for managing networking resources within the walls of the data center itself.
And lo' and behold – we re-created the very problem for which we were trying to solve. In order to fully orchestrate services from end-to-end, across both the physical and virtual domains, network operators will now have to select vendors for each and then engage in a complex process of stitching this all together in order to create services.
Or even scarier, engaging with large integrators who will deploy massive amounts of professional services to bind all of this together and integrate it into the BSS/OSS.
There's another way and it's related to the concept of Multi-Domain Service Orchestration. MDSO is a critical component of Blue Planet today. Blue Planet's MDSO sits on top of each domain and orchestrates services from end-to-end. It interfaces with NMSs and/or SDN controllers, the NFV orchestrator, and the DC SDN controller and understands available resources, both physical and virtual, that need to be managed. The end result is the successful orchestration of those resources and the delivery of services across a multi-vendor, multi-domain infrastructure.
Through open interfaces and APIs, Blue Planet serves data up to the BSS/OSS. In addition, TOSCA-based templating technology allows the network operator to program the network themselves (vs. having to utilize large system integrators, their software professional services teams and their massive fees).
So, what does the industry get as a result of the Ciena acquisition of Cyan? Well, how about the resources to fulfill our customers' vision for what they need to orchestrate services from end-to-end – the holy grail for software-based network transformation. This is the unified vision for Blue Planet and, based on the direct feedback from many customers, it's what they really need to change the way they compete.


text:
package com.hazelcast.cache.impl;

import com.hazelcast.cache.impl.event.CacheWanEventPublisher;
import com.hazelcast.cache.impl.journal.CacheEventJournal;
import com.hazelcast.config.CacheConfig;
import com.hazelcast.config.InMemoryFormat;
import com.hazelcast.internal.eviction.ExpirationManager;
import com.hazelcast.internal.metrics.DynamicMetricsProvider;
import com.hazelcast.internal.monitor.LocalCacheStats;
import com.hazelcast.internal.partition.FragmentedMigrationAwareService;
import com.hazelcast.internal.services.ManagedService;
import com.hazelcast.internal.services.RemoteService;
import com.hazelcast.internal.services.StatisticsAwareService;
import com.hazelcast.internal.serialization.Data;
import com.hazelcast.spi.impl.NodeEngine;
import com.hazelcast.spi.impl.eventservice.EventFilter;
import com.hazelcast.spi.impl.eventservice.EventPublishingService;

import java.util.Collection;
import java.util.UUID;
import java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture;

@SuppressWarnings({"checkstyle:methodcount"})
public interface ICacheService
        extends ManagedService, RemoteService, FragmentedMigrationAwareService,
                EventPublishingService<Object, CacheEventListener>,
                StatisticsAwareService<LocalCacheStats>, DynamicMetricsProvider {

    String CACHE_SUPPORT_NOT_AVAILABLE_ERROR_MESSAGE =
            "There is no valid JCache API library at classpath. "
                    + "Please be sure that there is a JCache API library in your classpath "
                    + "and it is newer than `0.x` and `1.0.0-PFD` versions!";

    String SERVICE_NAME = "hz:impl:cacheService";

    /**
     * Maximum retries for adding cache config cluster-wide on stable cluster
     */
    int MAX_ADD_CACHE_CONFIG_RETRIES = 100;

    /**
     * Gets or creates a cache record store with the prefixed {@code cacheNameWithPrefix}
     * and partition ID.
     *
     * @param cacheNameWithPrefix the full name of the {@link com.hazelcast.cache.ICache}, including the manager scope prefix
     * @param partitionId         the record store partition ID
     * @return the cache partition record store
     */
    ICacheRecordStore getOrCreateRecordStore(String cacheNameWithPrefix, int partitionId);

    /**
     * Returns a cache record store with the prefixed {@code cacheNameWithPrefix} and partition ID
     * or {@code null} if one doesn't exist.
     *
     * @param cacheNameWithPrefix the full name of the {@link com.hazelcast.cache.ICache}, including the manager scope prefix
     * @param partitionId         the record store partition ID
     * @return the cache partition record store or {@code null} if it doesn't exist
     */
    ICacheRecordStore getRecordStore(String cacheNameWithPrefix, int partitionId);

    CachePartitionSegment getSegment(int partitionId);

    CacheConfig putCacheConfigIfAbsent(CacheConfig config);

    CacheConfig getCacheConfig(String cacheNameWithPrefix);

    CacheConfig findCacheConfig(String simpleName);

    Collection<CacheConfig> getCacheConfigs();

    CacheConfig deleteCacheConfig(String cacheNameWithPrefix);

    CachePartitionSegment[] getPartitionSegments();

    CacheStatisticsImpl createCacheStatIfAbsent(String cacheNameWithPrefix);

    CacheContext getOrCreateCacheContext(String cacheNameWithPrefix);

    void deleteCache(String cacheNameWithPrefix, UUID callerUuid, boolean destroy);

    void deleteCacheStat(String cacheNameWithPrefix);

    void setStatisticsEnabled(CacheConfig cacheConfig, String cacheNameWithPrefix, boolean enabled);

    void setManagementEnabled(CacheConfig cacheConfig, String cacheNameWithPrefix, boolean enabled);

    void publishEvent(CacheEventContext cacheEventContext);

    void publishEvent(String cacheNameWithPrefix, CacheEventSet eventSet, int orderKey);

    NodeEngine getNodeEngine();

    UUID registerLocalListener(String cacheNameWithPrefix, CacheEventListener listener);

    UUID registerLocalListener(String cacheNameWithPrefix, CacheEventListener listener, EventFilter eventFilter);

    UUID registerListener(String cacheNameWithPrefix, CacheEventListener listener);

    UUID registerListener(String cacheNameWithPrefix, CacheEventListener listener, EventFilter eventFilter);

    CompletableFuture<UUID> registerListenerAsync(String cacheNameWithPrefix, CacheEventListener listener);

    CompletableFuture<UUID> registerListenerAsync(String cacheNameWithPrefix, CacheEventListener listener,
                                                  EventFilter eventFilter);

    boolean deregisterListener(String cacheNameWithPrefix, UUID registrationId);

    CompletableFuture<Boolean> deregisterListenerAsync(String cacheNameWithPrefix, UUID registrationId);

    void deregisterAllListener(String cacheNameWithPrefix);

    ExpirationManager getExpirationManager();

    /**
     * Creates cache operations according to the storage-type of the cache
     */
    CacheOperationProvider getCacheOperationProvider(String cacheNameWithPrefix, InMemoryFormat storageType);

    void sendInvalidationEvent(String cacheNameWithPrefix, Data key, UUID sourceUuid);

    /**
     * Returns {@code true} if WAN replication is enabled for the cache named {@code cacheNameWithPrefix}.
     *
     * @param cacheNameWithPrefix the full name of the {@link com.hazelcast.cache.ICache}, including the manager scope prefix
     */
    boolean isWanReplicationEnabled(String cacheNameWithPrefix);

    /**
     * Returns the WAN event publisher responsible for publishing
     * primary and backup WAN events for caches.
     */
    CacheWanEventPublisher getCacheWanEventPublisher();

    /**
     * @param cacheNameWithPrefix the full name of the {@link
     *                            com.hazelcast.cache.ICache}, including the manager scope prefix
     */
    void doPrepublicationChecks(String cacheNameWithPrefix);

    /**
     * Returns an interface for interacting with the cache event journals.
     */
    CacheEventJournal getEventJournal();

    /**
     * Creates the given CacheConfig on all members of the cluster synchronously. When used with
     * cluster version 3.10 or greater, the cluster-wide invocation ensures that all members of
     * the cluster will receive the cache config even in the face of cluster membership changes.
     *
     * @param cacheConfig the cache config to create on all members of the cluster
     * @param <K>         key type parameter
     * @param <V>         value type parameter
     * @since 3.10
     */
    <K, V> void createCacheConfigOnAllMembers(PreJoinCacheConfig<K, V> cacheConfig);
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


He owns it in a smaller cap fund. They are the largest printer of children's content in the world. They have great real estate in Manhattan. They reported last night and EPS and revenue were down a bit. But a better metric is price to cash flow and he likes it. They have no debt. In a couple of years this company could be taken out by a larger entity.
(A Top Pick April 22/14. Up 7.76%.) This tends to do well from May all the way through to September. The bulk of its earnings and income is generated from September through to November. Continues to be a Hold. The trend is still positive.
Chart showed the stock had formed a base last year and then broke out. However, its breakout looks like it is failing. The stock is doing lower highs and lower lows.
The bulk of their operating income comes in the quarter from September through to November, the start of the school season. The period of seasonal strength will obviously run from now, the end of April, all the way to September 30. The average gain for this company is 14.3%. There have only been 2 times where it has been negative in its 22 year history.
World's oldest publishing/distribution, primarily children's education and media. 1.17% yield but have potential to grow it 30%-50%. Will generate $100 million in free cash flow. Trades at about only 4.8X enterprise to cash flow. Strong balance sheet with virtually no debt.


I took my son to piano lessons recently and left one batch of cookies in the oven and another ready to go in. When I walked out the door I asked my husband to take them out of the oven when the timer went off, which it was going to do five minutes after I left. He agreed and off I went.
I was sitting outside the music studio waiting for Charlie to finish his lesson when my cell phone rang. Guess who? It was my husband telling me that he was listening to his music and didn't hear the timer go off, thus the picture above. When I got home, I smelled the smoke when I got off the elevator. When I got to the apartment, I found the front door propped open and all of the windows open as well. I recall still seeing smoke in the air!
Despite the misleading photo above, these cookies are really delicious. They're called Crispy Salted Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies. I found the recipe on a food blog that I love called Smitten Kitchen. These cookies really are crispy, and they're a little bit salty, and they're incredibly delicious. If you don't burn them as my husband did, they may well become one of your favorite cookies. They certainly are one of mine.
The picture below is what the batter looks like on the parchment-covered cookie sheet once I pressed them down with my fingers. I'm adding a few flakes of sea salt to each one.
Here are a couple of pictures of the final product. You really have to try these! In the end only one tray of my cookies burned. The rest were delicious as expected.
Divide dough into 24 equal portions (or just use an ice cream scoop), each about 2 tablespoons. Roll between palms into balls, then place on lined baking sheets about 2 1/2 inches apart. Using fingertips, gently press down each ball to about ¾-inch thickness.
If you like the look of the burnt cookies, but not the taste, try baking these cooking with black cocoa — the same cocoa used to make Oreo cookies so chocolae-y looking. If they look too black, just add a bit of regular dutch process cocoa, which can improve the appearance and make them dark dark brown, not black.
Thanks for the tip. I love chocolate cookies, so I'll give it a try.


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Excellent aid for colour matching and sorting. Also suitable as markers during gym activities.
20 PIECES - 4 circles, 4 squares, 4 triangles, 4 rectangles, 4 octagons.
The Shape and Colour products all encourage the active involvement of children. The skills covered range from basic shape recognition to more complex tessellation, rotation and symmetry. Made from stiffened rubber backed polyester felt.
Square size 33 x 33cm.


I work both sides of the fence. I'm a freelancer, so I'm familiar with the process of reaching out to prospective clients with email. But I am also involved in a few business ventures, so I'm on the receiving end of prospecting emails from other freelancers.... Until then, here are some take-home tips you can use to write better email subject lines today. Keep it short. Research shows that emails with 6-10 word subject lines have the best open rate.
I work both sides of the fence. I'm a freelancer, so I'm familiar with the process of reaching out to prospective clients with email. But I am also involved in a few business ventures, so I'm on the receiving end of prospecting emails from other freelancers.... General Guidance for Writing to Your Customers and Clients Use the proper greeting with a client, depending on your existing relationship. If you have a friendly, informal relationship, first names are fine.
By writing emails in a particular format, you teach others how you like to read emails – turning your inbox into a bastion of productivity. Follow our tips to teach your clients, colleagues and personal contacts how to contact you without overwhelming you, so that you can take control of your email.
At Buffer, we strive for 100 percent awesomeness in the emails we send to customers, and that pursuit of excellence carries over to the emails we send to teammates, colleagues, friends, and family. We want to send better email , the kind that delivers the intended message plus the desired emotion.


"Our family believes in respect, and we believe in each other's dreams..."
Originally published on Gays With Kids. Written by Anthony Romeo.
As a young California teenager, Scott Dukes knew his purpose in life. "I always knew I'd be a dad, I've always wanted to be a dad, I've always loved kids." Little did Scott know the twists, turns, and life's extraordinary ups and downs that lay waiting for him.
Born in Santa Clara and growing up in the Bay Area, Scott didn't realize he was gay for quite some time. When he transferred to Hawaii to continue the pursuit of a career in secondary education, he started to realize that he might not fit into the typical mold of a straight man. In 1997, when marriage equality was but a speck on a distant horizon, he came out for the first time, and then told his family in January of 1998, the promise of a new year emboldening the conversation.
And so life continued, happily, until January of 2012, when a string of health problems appeared on the radar. Scott was concerned, feeling constant fatigue. After several appointments with doctors, the diagnosis came back.
For Scott, in those moments after the diagnosis, reality seemed to stop. He was in disbelief, terrified. Family and friends who had wanted to keep abreast of his wellbeing prior to his diagnosis Scott kept in the dark; he wanted to insulate himself at all costs, and the judgment of friends and family would have crippled him. Subsequently, Scott has been selective about disclosing his status to friends and family. The story you are reading in this moment is, for many in Scott's life, the first time they'll learn of his HIV status. But in those moments, his only option was silence.
After taking some time to evaluate his situation, Scott returned to his life with a new purpose: to become the father he was meant to be.
With the full support of his friends and family, Scott embarked upon a frenzied journey of researching his options, from sperm washing to adoption to surrogacy. As with so many parents, Scott's choices were informed by cost. With existing relationships in the foster program, Scott decided that he should pursue foster care as a viable option to fatherhood.
Through these connections, Scott became licensed for adoption and foster care. In meetings with social workers, Scott would sort through binders and binders of available children; the agency expressed frustration that he couldn't choose a specific child.
And that's when he was asked a question that would change his life forever.
Scott paused to consider his answer. The answer he'd give now would be "Well sure, but you're not gonna complain about how much your feet hurt when we get home." But instead, he responded appropriately nonetheless, assuaging the agency's concerns about placement of a young boy into his care. He told the agency that he would be completely open to allowing a child to express him or herself in whatever way was most comfortable for the child. That's when Scott found out that this wasn't a hypothetical placement. This was a real life question, with a possible placement attached.
At that time in his region in California, Scott became the only gay single dad to have a child placed in his care, and only the third in California history. Scott agreed to the placement on 12/12/12.
Scott's child, assigned male at birth, moved in on Christmas Eve. The child was the greatest gift Scott said he's ever received. Scott's child was fine to be called by his male name at first, but there appeared to be a fluidity between genders. Scott remembers the moment that changed.
Scott supported his child's transition fully. When the adoption was finalized in April 2014, Scott's child took the name Erica, and it was official; father and daughter inseparably unified, a family born.
Remembering and living all too vividly a world of stigma and rejection, Scott is surprised and overwhelmed by the level of support his daughter receives at school, where being transgender isn't seen as anything out of the ordinary. Kids think Erica is cool, and can't fathom an identity other than Erica's true self, that of a girl making her way through the world. Scott hopes that Erica's story will continue to inspire the acceptance and welcoming of transgender boys and girls everywhere.
But in the same way that Erica is being supported in her growth, her journey through life, by her dad, so too is Scott growing and evolving, spurred on by his daughter. Erica is helping Scott's family realize that Scott is a good father, and can shoulder not just the responsibilities in his own life, but can successfully navigate the world of fatherhood, one day at a time. And while he'd love to expand their family again, Erica is happy not sharing her dad with anyone else for the time being.
And so it's through their family relationship – father and daughter – that not just a child but also a man are made better, more whole, through their union. In talking with Scott about his family, I was left speechless when I heard something that Scott tells Erica about his role as a dad. Not only is it an inspirational line for a father to say to his child, it's also the ultimate reflection of the ways in which fatherhood helps us all realize our own potential, to be our best selves, growing through giving.
Adoption finalization at the Sacramento County Court in April 2014; Erica and Scott are surrounded by Erica's "posse," her incredibly dedicated group of adoption and foster care workers: Adele of Destination Family (DF) ; Sherrie, a Sacramento County CASA worker; Sara of DF; Erica and her dad Scott; Manny of DF; Bonnie of DF; Garrett of Sierra Forever Family; and Sandy of DF.


text:
'The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug' Movie Review
When the "Lord of the Rings" movies dropped, people got crazy pumped for the release of the extended editions. A year from now, when the last of Peter Jackson's three "Hobbit" movies has come and gone, I'm excited for someone to splice them together, hack out all the superfluous crap, and finally reveal the single good movie that I know is hidden in there somewhere. It should be about three hours long. What we've seen thus far, including the latest, "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug," has been nothing but a disappointment. Overlong, bloated, and tedious, Jackson even did something that I'd have thought impossible, he made a giant, fire-breathing dragon voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch boring as shit.
For a movie called "The Hobbit" there is little woefully little seen of the diminutive hero. Bilbo (Martin Freeman) is always around, but only as a background character, a member of the chorus. Only when his travelling company finally meets the dragon does he take center stage, and even then he's only there as long as he has to be. The focus of "The Desolation of Smaug" is the dwarves' mission to retake their lost kingdom. This all sounds, promising, right? Quests, adventure, dragons, wizards, orcs, prophecies, battles, and all manner of fun. It doesn't sound like that even could go wrong, but oh boy does it ever.
The problem with following the dwarves is that they have no personality. Each one has a bunch of wacky facial hair, but most of them barely have names, only there to fill space and provide comic relief. With Bilbo's story pushed to the side, Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) becomes the de facto protagonist, but his blind ambition and singular tunnel vision makes him so goddamned dull that you have no interest in his exploits. Add to this that he's a complete and total asshole, and you're left without anyone to root for. Greedy, hungry for power and glory, and proud to a fault—he'd rather that he and his friends rot in a dungeon than do a mutual favor for Thranduil (Lee Pace) because of a tedious melodramatic blood feud between dwarves and elves—you don't want him to succeed because he's such a dick.
Jackson buries all narrative momentum under mounds of useless asides. The pace is all over, up and down with little or no transition scene to scene. Just when things begin to move along at a steady clip, "Smaug" drives head first into a tree. You don't give a damn about things like the inner political turmoil of Lake Town, especially not when you can see the finish line. There are multiple awkward romantic threads that involve the elf warrior Tauriel (Evangeline Lily)—a character who is made the fuck up as filler, by the way—that leave you making a face like a confused dog. Is she really going to bang a mullet-wearing dwarf? "The Desolation of Smaug" is 161-minutes long, and you slog through every single one, wishing Jackson had paid more attention to the flow of the story than with trying to wow you with his visual prowess. He's far more concerned with what Mirkwood Forrest looks like than with giving you anyone to cheer for.
It's like Jackson stopped caring about story and character. Isn't the point of adapting a book you supposedly love because of the story? Originally, he wasn't supposed to direct these movies, so maybe he really doesn't give a damn. If "Smaug" is an indication, he's more interested in playing with huge CGI set pieces, and staging one of most elaborate, nonsensical, pointless climaxes in cinema, than establishing a coherent narrative or creating actual characters. When the dwarves battle Smaug in the heart of the Lonely Mountain, it's like watching someone play a video game. You maneuver your little avatar to one side of the room to flip that lever, then you start this big wheel spinning, which starts the furnaces heating the gold, and on and on. And when you finally get all the switches flipped the right way, then you can unleash the fancy weapon against the big boss of your level.
Except that it doesn't mean anything. All of this effort, all of these hoops the characters jump through, amount to absolutely nothing. All it does is take up time. "Desolation of Smaug," the middle of the trilogy, aims to be the "Empire Strikes Back" of the trio. The end is dark, the ultimate fate of the heroes is unclear, and everything is just kind of shitty. But their attempts to leave you hanging fail miserably. When the movie concludes, all you can do is throw up your hands, turn to the person next to you, and ask, "what was the point of all that?"
Even the best parts of "The Desolation of Smaug" don't stand out. There are a few nice action scenes, including a running battle between orcs, elves, and dwarves along a river, but they're never more okay. You can't escape the fact that you've seen this all done bigger and, more importantly, better in every chapter of the "Lord of the Rings." One improvement this installment makes over the previous entry is that the action largely avoids the gimmicks of the first film. You get some, like an implausible—and we're talking implausible in a world of wizards and magic—barrel roll, and feats of balance that push even the bounds of what you know Legolas (Orlando Bloom) is capable of.
You could forgive almost all of the problems in "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" if there was a single character to care about, or even know, but there's no one. The film is a series of guys dressed up in elaborate costumes running around, narrowly cheating death, and it's insanely frustrating that the film never amounts to anything more than that.
Labels: Action, Adaptation, Adventure, Epic, Fantasy, Movie Review, Peter Jackson, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Crops List
ANNUAL SUNFLOWER
Helianthus annuus
Daisy Family [Asteraceae]
11th Aug 2009, Clitheroe, Lancs. Photo: © RWD
Before fully opening the innards and bracts (actually phyllaries) may be charcoal coloured.
There are two or more layers of ovate (with long pointed tip) phyllaries enclosing the central florets that you normally do not see when the flower is opened for they will then be behind the flower.
A closer view of the layers of charcoal-coloured phyllaries, longer hairs on the edge; much shorter elsewhere.
18th August 2008, St. Julien d'Eymet, Dordogne. Photo: © Christine Shield
They all face the same direction.
30th July 2009, Kingsley, Staffordshire. Photo: © RWD
Grows up to 3m tall. Leaves sparse up the stem.
Flowers a very large 10 to 30cm across. The leaves broad, large and heart-shaped.
4th Aug 2009, Walkden Railway Station, Greater Manchester. Photo: © RWD
The central brownish florets occupy a third of the diameter.
Phyllaries behind the flowerhead are abruptly pointed. The stem (and leaves) have rough hairs which are actually trichomes.
Central disc florets are brown to black.
The petals (ray florets) deep yellow. Leaves have un-even teeth.
The pollen yellow within 5-starred disc florets.
16th Sept 2009, Silverdale, Lancs. Photo: © RWD
The un-opened inner disc florets, greenish looking. Note the flat 'lips'.
The partially opened inner disc florets.
17th sept 2009, Eagle & Child, Bispham Green, Burscough. Photo: © RWD
The outer 5-starred disc florets.
Some similarities to : Perennial Sunflower but Perennial Sunflower is only half as tall, has much narrower leaves, fewer and wider outer petals, a paler-yellow flower less than half as large and a disproportionately smaller central floret area.
Uniquely identifiable characteristics.
Distinguishing Feature : The tallest yellow-flowered plant in the U.K. Specimens have been known to grow to a height of 8m, but this is very unusual, normal height being about 2m.
Grown mainly in gardens for show or competitions.
Grown commercially to yield sunflower oil (which is obtained from the seeds) and is used in cooking. Sunflower oil has varying proportions of the fatty acids linoleic, oleic, stearic and palmitic acids, depending upon the type of Sunflower from which it is derived, with the most predominant first and the least dominant last. Linoleic (not to be confused with Linolenic Acid) is doubly unsaturated, oleic singly un-saturated. Both stearic and palmitic acids are saturated fats and attempts are made to minimise these when the seeds are to be used for producing healthy cooking oil.
The first three fatty acids have 18 carbon atoms, Palmitic Acid has only 16.
A durable yellow dye used to be extracted from the ray florets once used by the Hopi Indians. A near-black or dull-blue dye can be made from the seeds.
HELIOTROPISM mediated by an AUXIN
Sunflowers are heliotropic (pointing towards the sun and following its progress across the sky) only when in the bud stage but not when in flower. When they set flower they affix themselves to point in one direction only, usually towards the morning Sun (East), thus protected from the seeds from the full blaze of the midday sun. The bees which help pollinate the flowers will only visit those flowers pointing towards the East and not those pointing any other direction. Thus the ripened seeds pollinated by bees will, over time, actively select for those plant genetics which give rise to this plant behaviour.
The heliotropic response is mediated by one of the plant hormones, Indole-3-Acetic Acid (aka 3-Indolylacetic Acid or IAA) which is a heteroauxin or Plant Growth Regulator. Indole-3-Acetic Acid is a light sensitive hormone which causes the cell to grow in an asymmetric fashion, elongating it. It is this aligned elongation which causes the flower to turn, nominally towards the source of the strong light, the sun. It seems that another auxin, Indole-3-acetonitrile (aka 3-Indolylacetonitrile or IAN), which has an inhibitory effect on asymmetrical cell growth may also be involved.
Heliotropism is an example of photonasty , where it is light that activates some movement in the plant. Other flowers accomplish the opening and closing of flowers or other parts of the plant by differing means, such as by either Tropic movements or by Nastic movements. Nastic movements are initiated by various stimuli, thus Chemonasty is initiated by soil chemicals or nutrients, Epinasty (by gravity), Geonasty (by gravity), Hydronasty (by water), Hyponasty (by the growth hormone Ethylene), Nyctonasty (by circadian clock and light), Photonasty (by light), Thermonasty (by heat) and Thigmonasty (by touch). Thigmomorphogenesis is the alteration of parts of a plants genome in order to facilitate the Thigmonastic defence response.
Famous for displaying Fibonacci spirals, where there are typically 34 seeds in the spiral in one direction, and 55 seeds in the other direction, both Fibonacci Numbers. The Fibonacci mathematical sequence begins with the numbers 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89...
Annual Sunflower contains the toxic Sesquiterpene Lactone Niveusin A (as well as seven more toxic Niveusin A derivatives) which are contained in and around the trichomes present on both leaves and stem. These trichomes release the toxins when handled, and can result in dermatitis, which has been known of for centuries regarding Annual Sunflowers.
Annual Sunflower also has the ability to tolerate normally toxic metals in the soil, in fact it not only tolerates them but hyperaccumulates them. It is thus a valuable metallophyte for the phytoremediation of contaminated land, able to mop up a variety of metals from the soil including arsenic and zinc. Annual Sunflower (and Maize (Zea mays)) will also hyperaccumulate radioactive Caesium-137 and radioactive Strontium-90 released in the nuclear fallout from the Chernoble Nuclear Reactor accident. Note that to remove the metals entirely, the plant then has to be harvested and disposed of safely elsewhere. The whole cycle has to be repeated over several seasons to bring heavy metal contamination down to safe levels. This could take many years.
It will accumulate up to 8 times more caesium-137 than do either Foxtail or Timothy grasses. Most of the caesium is contained in the roots of Annual Sunflower, up to 3 times more than in the above ground aerial parts of the plant. Of course, it is not fussy, it will hyperaccumulate caesium or strontium whether or not they are present as radioactive isotopes or as completely stable isotopes, such as from the exhaust ashes of coloured fireworks [which may contain oxides of strontium (for red sparks) or of caesium (for blue-violet) or of barium (for green), etc].
Helianthus annuus ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ Asteraceae
(Sunflowers)


Market Square is a great place to stroll, people watch, and eat outside at a sidewalk cafe. There is a splash fountain in the center, and on summer Saturday mornings, a farmers market. Street performers come out to entertain, and there are plenty of benches. Strung lights make it magical at night.
Go for a walk along Gay Street to see more restaurants or in Krutch Park with its art sculptures across Union Ave from Market Square.
There are some homeless people unfortunately.
Kids hanging out at the stage in Market Square.
Stores and cafes in Market Square.
Sitting outside at a sidewalk cafe.
It's a fun scene at Market Square!
Flowers at the farmers market.
The art in Krutch Park is modern geometric sculptures.
Market Square is located at 1 Market Square, Knoxville TN 37902.
The parking garage on Wall Ave is right at the square and costs $6. Parking is free after 6pm and on weekends.


The wood cutting machine is driven by a three-phase electric engine, and if requested by the customer – single-phase. It could cut the logs into firewood (25, 30, 35 cm) by means of saw chain and bar. The greasing of the cutting instrument is automated.
The machine for cutting logs is designed to help you cut the logs to a size suitable for your fireplace or furnace.
The cutting is effected by the means of a saw chain and bar.
The cut log is shifted to a platform that will tilt until the log falls to ground.


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Soul Mates II: Half Time Analysis
Tags: Soul Mates
One of the advantages sketch comedy has over comedy serials is that producers can re-order them easily. Got lots of funny sketches in episode 2 but less in episode 5? Move some of the strong material from episode 2 to episode 5! Sure, it doesn't make the series funnier overall, but it at least it ensures there's a consistent level of funny.
The makers of Soul Mates have no such luxury. If there's a laugh lull in one of their sketch serials, they're buggered. What's that you say? They could make their serials consistently funnier in the first place? True. But given that we're halfway through the second series of Soul Mates we think it's fair to make the following call: the makers of Soul Mates are happy with the level they're on. They haven't learnt from the mistakes they made in series 1, they've just given us more of the same:
Hipsters are funny because they have beards and stupid clothes, and come up with stupid ideas for shops, and have rich parents who keep funding their bound-to-fail schemes. 1980s secret agents from New Zealand are funny because they have stupid accents and moustaches, and they're going to a ridiculous amount of effort to get back their national pride. And cave people are funny because… oh, you get the idea.
The comic premise behind Soul Mates is that it's funny if you take some pop-culture stereotypes and put them into a hyperreal context. And that's it. You don't need to write funny lines for the characters, you just need to get them to behave as they'd behave and it's automatically funny.
Or, in other words, it's taking the theory of how to write drama – that you create some characters and put them into a situation and the drama comes from the characters interacting with each other in the context of the circumstances they're in – and applying that to comedy. Problem is, you don't get big laughs that way. In comedy, characters don't need to be well-defined – in fact, it helps if they're not. And in comedy, it's acceptable to be a little flexible with your characters if it allows them to deliver a killer line to gets laughs.
The makers of Soul Mates don't even have the dramedy excuse to fall back on (you know the one, it's where half an hour of television comedy with no laughs in it gets away with it because it's not all about the laughs, there's actually a dramatic subtext to this, yeah?), they've just produced something that isn't particularly hilarious.
There are three more episodes of Soul Mates to go. And given there's US money behind it, probably a whole bunch more to come. Great. We really, really hope you enjoy them, coz we sure ain't!
It's not an exaggeration to say that Fisk is the funniest Australian sitcom for years. It also rates incredibly...
Okay, yes, the ABC are going to be showing a Wil Anderson comedy special next Wednesday night, but it's hardly...
Urinal Cake says:
The problem is half of the sketches are above average (NZ Assassins, Hipsters) and the other half are below average (Cavemen, Ancient Egypt).
I think the problem with the later two sketches that they attempt to show the humour in how absurd the mildly absurd situation is instead of saying, 'Fuck it it's not really working lets push the absurdity way out there'


Cabool, MO. Go North on Hwy 63, 1 mile, turn left on PP Hwy, go 4.5 miles, to Freely Give Road, turn left, go 3/4 mile, to Bado RD, Turn left, Go 1/4 mi. Church on left.
Turn West off of Highway 65 in Urbana onto HH. Follow it about 8 miles and turn left onto AC. The church is about 1/2 mile on your left.


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Q: Verifying .NET CLR optimized code paths with Just in Time compile? Apologies for the unhelpful title, I'm not sure I actually understand that what I'm asking is happening. I know embarrassingly little about what the CLR and JIT does or how to check that it's doing what I think it should be doing.
Let's say I have the following method:
void DoSomething(bool log) {
   for (int i=0; i< 1000000; i++) {
      if (log) {
          Console.WriteLine(i);
      }
      Console.WriteLine(i*2);
   }
}

Now, if my method call is DoSomething(false), will the CLR/JIT know to not check if (log) 100,000 times? Basically, will it automatically convert it to:
void DoSomething_noLog() {
    for (int i=0; i< 1000000; i++) {
        Console.WriteLine(i*2);
      }
}

If it does know to do this automatically, how can I verify that it really is doing this?

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