Is Veterinary Care Too Expensive?
I've combed the Internet to see what America thinks about the state of their wallet at the vet. What do I find? Anger and frustration. From both sides.
The majority of veterinarians do what we do because we love it, in the face of major frustrations about the state of veterinary medicine.
Wow, I thought this would be a fairly straightforward post to write. Yikes, was I so wrong.
Is veterinary care too expensive? I've spent the weekend combing the Internet about what America thinks about the state of their wallet at the vet. What do I mostly find? Anger and frustration. From both sides of the exam table.
Many clients think they're getting raked over hot coals, like being tortured in an episode of Game of Dog & Cat Thrones. Meanwhile, veterinarians are exhausted trying to do the best job possible for the pet while continually dealing with owners' financial woes and complaints.
No wonder it's an angry web of frustration and hostility out there. Both sides have validity. And there is no simple answer.
Eek, we're getting bleak out there. Can we lighten up a little?
The majority of us do what we do because we love it, in the face of major frustrations about the state of veterinary medicine.
Our salaries are lower than those of comparable professions (Recruiter.com, AVMA, etc.) and our educational loan debt is often much higher than what is financially sound. (Loan debt should not be more than twice your starting salary; ours is often close to triple.) We really do enter vet school because we want to help animals — yet financially, becoming a veterinarian today is a questionable investment. We do it anyway.
The suicide comment refers to a British study in 2010 and an Australian study, which found the suicide rate to be four times as likely in veterinarians as the general public, and double that of other health care professionals. I lost three people in my veterinary class to suicide.
In all health fields, people who are compassionate, responsible and highly intelligent may also be driven to perfection, depression and burnout. Although the suicide rate in American veterinarians has not been carefully studied, compassion burnout among veterinarians is a big problem. Even when we know what the pet needs, our hands may be tied and we feel frustrated we can't do our job or, worse, we feel we have failed our patients. On some days, being a vet is like being a physician in a third-world country or a war zone.
Median salaries for veterinarians are less than those in similar professions that require advanced training and expensive schooling. Physicians, psychiatrists, dentists, attorneys and even optometrists are all better paid.
If we're practice owners, average profit is 12% compared to 25 to 35% for other professions. Overhead is high. Think about your veterinary practice — the building, the staff, the X-ray, the blood machines, the medical supplies, the dental equipment. This list is just the tip of the iceberg. Think about a psychiatrist. There are two chairs in a room.
Keep in mind, I said median salary. Of course you may know of a Mercedes-driving veterinary surgeon with the biggest house in town, but most of you visit a hard-working vet driving a Subaru, paying off student loans instead of a mortgage.
We can do a lot more for your pets today than in the past, when vets often handed out death sentences without options and cats lived an average of eight years. But these medical advancements come with a price.
You and your vet have to be on the same page and talk turkey about the price of Turkey's bladder stones, or Beeswax's belly and her need for an abdominal ultrasound. Can you afford the surgery and tests? Are there other options? If you don't feel comfortable about the options or the conversation with your vet, get another opinion.
Voice of reason: There are all kinds of vets out there, all kinds of hospitals and all kinds of owners. Believe me. I've been associated with lots of hospitals and have complaints of my own about pricing and excessive treatment. I've seen it all. Find the right fit for you and your pet.
Pet insurance will not solve all veterinary expense problems, but it will help a great deal. The statistics don't lie. Clients with pet insurance bring their pets to the vet more frequently and go further with diagnostics and treatment.
I look at it this way. Our pets are considered part of our family more than ever before. Veterinary medicine has improved dramatically, and we respect quality-of-life issues in our pets. So we care for them more like family members…without health insurance. If you were unfortunate enough to let your children and teenagers run around without health insurance, could you sleep easily at night?
If more pets were insured, owners would be better equipped, both emotionally and financially, to deal with their illnesses and aging years.
O-Paw-Paw-Care for all pets! Seriously, no matter what your political views of our current health care situation, if everyone could get the health care he or she deserved, the world would be a better place. If most pet owners had even catastrophic insurance for their pet, the anger and frustration felt by owner and veterinarian would be greatly reduced in times of pet health crises.
I believe pet insurance will become more widely used and many of the "kinks" worked out. I recommend you research some policies now and ask your vet for input. The integrity of the companies vary, as do the policies. Taking the first step is a great thing to do.
Another prediction? Experts think the profession will turn more corporate in the next decade. It already is. Younger vets can't afford to invest in the current business model, buy existing practices, or put up with the headaches and financial hardship of practice ownership.
Who will lose out? You will — the pet owner. The veterinary corporations are, well, corporations. And in my book, I do not agree with a recent failed presidential candidate who said "corporations are people, my friend." They are not people. Veterinarians are people. Corporations are faceless entities out to make a profit.
The veterinary corporations are trying to lose the "people" in veterinary medicine, working to improve that bottom line by controlling the market and charging you more. When most veterinarians have no choice but to be employed by Vet-o-Mart Animal Hospital, Inc., the money-grubbing comments about the profession may be based in truth.


SSU has the current and a few past releases of jQuery. Below are the versions available and the HTML code used to link to these scripts.
These scripts using jQuery are already on the campus web server and available for use with the SSU templates. Follow links for documentation.
The University uses Google Analytics to track website use. The SSU templates include a link to the University's Google Analytics account for www.sonoma.edu. This script is the last line before the closing </head> tag.
Department web editors must not remove the Google Analytics script from the template pages.
Departments may have access to Google Analytics data, and they may have access to their own dedicated Google Analytics reports. Contact webmaster@sonoma.edu to request this.
Department web editors may add their own scripts to department sites, with the following caveats.
All scripts should either use jQuery, or be compatible with jQuery.
All scripts must meet Section 508 standards for accessibility. and SSU Minimum Requirements for Accessibility.
All scripts must comply with SSU's security policies and standards.
No scripts added may interfere with SSU's Google Analytics reporting.
Contact webmaster@sonoma.edu if you have questions about these requirements.


The news of Grand Hustle rapper Doe B's untimely death has spread throughout the hip-hop community. DJ Frank White, the Alabama rapper's manager, recently released a statement regarding the reported shooting death of his friend and client. "The world has lost a great person and a genius artist way to soon," DJ Frank White said in a statement to HipHopDX. White assured Doe B's name will thrive though a plethora of unreleased tracks. "Doe's work ethic was incredible," he added. "He still has over 200 unreleased hits. His memory will live on."
The Blueprint Group, which also worked with the burgeoning rapper, has also released a statement regarding his passing.
"Doe B was an amazing young man, in every sense of the word," the statement reads. "A truly talented artist, a loving father and a dedicated member of the Hip Hop community at large, he touched the lives of the many people who had the privilege of knowing him. The Blueprint Group offers our condolences to our Doe B label partners Interscope / Hustle Gang, his management DJ Frank White and Brooklyn Knights, and most of all his family, friends and fans at this very difficult time. We ask that you remember him not by his untimely death, but by his love of life and the music he left behind."
As previously reported, Doe B, born, Glenn Thomas, was reportedly shot to death at a performance in his hometown Montgomery, Alabama, early this morning.


text:
Archive for the 'People' Category
How Not To Sit
Posted in Facts, People, Photography, tagged Advice, Looking sloppy, Sitting on March 31, 2015| 4 Comments »
Images found on RealityAsylum
Sophia Takes Up The Ice Bucket Challenge – In 1959
Posted in Actresses, Models & starlets, People, Photography, The fifties, tagged 1959, Sophia Loren, The Ice Bucket Challenge on March 26, 2015| 5 Comments »
Image found on mudwerks
A Winning Smile On The Cover
Posted in People, Photography, Portraits, The sixties, tagged 1964, Cynthia Kowlessar, London Transport Charm Girl, London Transport Magazine on March 26, 2015| 2 Comments »
A winning smile from Cynthia Kowlessar, a 24-year-old clerk at Ealing Common rail depot, who was selected London Transport Charm Girl of 1964 at the annual sports gala at Osterley.
Image and text found on Leftover London
A Picnic with Beer ….
Posted in People, Photography, tagged Beer, Picnics on March 26, 2015| 4 Comments »
…. are there any other kind 😮
Image found on Born in the wrong era
Queen Elizabeth, Buckingham Palace Garden By Cecil Beaton, 1939
Posted in People, Photography, The thirties, tagged 1939, Cecil Beaton, Queen Elizabeth II on March 26, 2015| 4 Comments »
Beaton struck up an instant rapport with the Queen. His diary reveals that she was an active participant in the staging of her romantic portraits, suggesting suitable dresses and accessories. Here, Beaton combined a painterly eye with the elegant style of his Vogue fashion studies. Like those, each royal portrait would be carefully retouched under Beaton's instruction, to define facial features and trim silhouettes.
From the Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton exhibition at Victoria and Albert Museum [ 8 February – 22 April 2012]
Image and text from Oh! so 30s
Edwardian Bathing Suit
Posted in Models & starlets, People, Photography, The twenties, tagged Bathing suits, The Edwardian Era on March 24, 2015| 7 Comments »
Image found in AdventuresOfTheBlackgang
Visit From The Land Army
Posted in People, Photography, The forties, WW II, tagged Llandrillo, Rhosmardy, The Land Army, The National Library of Wales, Wales on March 21, 2015| 3 Comments »
Women from the Land Army collecting the crop at Rhosmardy, Llandrillo sometimes during WWII - And one local at least seem to enjoy the visit – Ted
Image (doctored) found on The National Library of Wales on Flickr
Shocking Proof Indeed
Posted in Humour, People, Tackieness, tagged Flying Saucers, Seduction, UFO on March 16, 2015| 4 Comments »
Wrapping my mind around the idea that some dimwit broad is imagining that she has been seduced by a creature from a flying saucer is one thing, but one imagining that she has been seduced by the flying saucer itself. No, I just can't see it. Sorry.
Image found on Casa de Ricardo
Marilyn Monroe and Marlene Dietrich
Posted in Actresses, Models & starlets, Movies, People, Photography, tagged Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich, Richard Avedon on March 16, 2015| 3 Comments »
In 1958, Life Magazine invited Marilyn Monroe and photographer Richard Avedon to recreate images of five celebrated actresses of different eras, one of these was Marlene Dietrich. Entitled "Fabled Enchantresses," the piece was part of the magazine's December 22 "Christmas" issue and included an article by Marilyn's playwright husband, Arthur Miller, entitled "My Wife, Marilyn."
Avedon found in Marilyn an easy subject to work with, "She gave more to the still camera than every other actress – every other woman – I had the opportunity to photograph…" He added that she was more patient with him and more demanding of herself than others and that she was more comfortable in front of the camera than when not posing.
Marlene Dietrich was born on December 27, 1901 in Berlin Germany. Her real name was Maria Magdalene Dietrich and she took up acting in her late teens. After failing an audition with Max Reinhardt in 1921, she joined the chorus line of a touring music revue. In 1922, she re-auditioned for Reinhardt and this time was accepted in his drama school. She began playing small roles on the stage and in German films, never getting anything more substantial than supporting roles. However, by the late 20's she had risen to playing leads with moderate success.
Her big break came when she was spotted onstage by American director Josef Von Sternberg, who cast her to play a sexy, seductive vamp in The Blue Angel,1930, filmed in Germany.
Von Sternberg became a dominant force in her life, moulding her into a glamorous, sensuous star. She got a Hollywood contract and left her husband and daughter behind, going on to star in six films for Von Sternberg. Their collaboration made her a star equal in magnitude to Garbo.
She became an American citizen in 1939; meanwhile, her films were banned in Germany because she had refused a lucrative offer from the Nazis to return and star in German films. During World War II she entertained U.S. troops, participated in war bond drives, and made anti-Nazi broadcasts in German; she was awarded the Medal of Freedom for "meeting a gruelling schedule of performances under battle conditions… despite risk to her life". She was also named Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour.
In the 50's, as her film career slowed, Dietrich began a second career as a recording star and cabaret performer. Singing to packed houses in major cities all over the world she became famous as an on stage performer. See section devoted to her music.
Late in her life, she was rarely seen in public, but she agreed to provide the voice-over for Maximillian Schell's screen biography of her Marlene(1984). She wrote three volumes of memoirs: Marlene Dietrich's ABC (1961), My Life Story (1979) and Marlene (1987). She lived a long life and was active until 1990; she died two years later on May 6, 1992
I attended a Dietrich concert with my parents at the Tivoli in Copenhagen back in the mid sixties. I can still remember that concert – Ted
Hal Phyfe (1892-1968)–American Photographer
Posted in Article, People, Photography, Portraits, tagged American photographers, Hal Phyfe on March 14, 2015| 4 Comments »
Great-grandson of Duncan Phyfe, the iconic furniture designer of the early republic, Herold Rodney Eaton "Hal" Phyfe was born in Nice, France, to a New York society family. Trained as a sculptor in France and a painter in Italy, Hal Phyfe began pursuing photography an an enlistee in World War I documenting an aviation unit of the U.S. Army in Europe. He made a specialty of aerial photography. After the war he supported himself as an illustrator supplying magazines with covers rendered in pastels. He opened his photography studio in 1926.
During the 1920s he built a reputation for his theatrical portraiture (sketches and photographs) shot on commission for various magazines. He became the principal photographer for Florenz Ziegfeld during 1930-31. He became famous for his dictum that no smiles were allowed during sittings. During the late 1920s he owned a dog who became something of a Broadway celebrity. Legend holds that he turned down a remunerative long-term contract with a magazine in the wake of his dog's death, which disabled him from talking business. During the early 1930s he habitually wore a black tie in mourning. His melancholy was somewhat tempered when bootlegger Owney Madden entrusted his red tabby cat to Phyfe's keeping when he was put away in Sing Sing. Phyfe's notorious eccentricity of dress extended to wearing moccasins instead of shoes and dressing down in denim at debutante balls during that period when he was official photographer to High Society.
He was one of the best amateur cooks in Manhattan, with recipes appearing in papers as far away as Los Angeles. In 1931 he was hired on a three month contract by Fox. He went to Hollywood and was besieged for portrait sittings. He preferred the social life of New York, so he returned to New York and resumed a career as one of the central society and theater photographers in the city. A sociable man, he was invariably on the committees for the beaux arts balls in the 1930s, or serving as judge in various charity photo contests. In June 1950 he leased a penthouse in the Parke-Bernet Galleries at 980-990 Madison Avenue for his studio.
As adept at portraying men as women, Phyfe produced some of the most dynamic male portraits of the late 1920s. He preferred not to portray performers in costume. A master of middle grays, his exhibition and portfolio prints of the late 1920s display exquisitely refined shading. During the late 1920s he indulged in the penchant among New York portraitists to vignette heads. There would be strong graphic intervention at the perimeters of the image, suggesting a drawing. In the 1930s he opted for a straighter style of portraiture, full body, often with the subject seated. His Society portraits of the 1930s are well posed and understated, suggesting refinement rather than ostentation. His popularity among Hollywood performers derives from his disinclination to overstate elegance. He signed original prints in red crayon in distinctive squared letters. His Hollywood portraits are signed on the negative in white.
Periodically Phyfe published advice about how women should prepare for a photo shoot. These are from January 1940.
[1] A clean face, with a dusting of fine Rachel powder.
[2] No foundation cream of grease beneath the powder.
[3] A light lipstick–red photographs black–but an indelible one. Shape the lips in their usual lines, rub in the lip rouge, press the lips against a facial tissue to remove every speck of excessive rouge.
[4] Very little mascara, and what you use concentrated on the tips of the lashes to accent their length. Artificial eyelashes are fine if they are the kind which are applied at the end of each natural lash, and not the fringe strip type which drag the eyelids down out of shape.
[5] Natural eyebrows–of course yours are habitually disciplined to a clean, well groomed line, camera sitting or no!–unless you are a very pale blonde, when a teeny bit of mascara may be used. The lens, however, will catch considerable accent from even blonde eyebrows.
[6] No greasy highlights. Let the photographer add them if he wishes, about the eyelids.
[7] A little dry eye shadow discreetly applied.
[8] Choose a natural, simple and familiar hairdo, certainly one which will not date you. Your dress should be a pastel shade with a neckline which does not chop your head from your body, and it better not be of print fabric. The effect may detract from your face, confuse the issue. Too, print designs tend to date you, as do hats and strange hairdos."Facial construction must be definite, even bold. And the eyes must be the pivot of the expression. For if the eyes have "it" everything else will be forgotten in their vivid, compelling attraction. Eyes create individuality, they are the spokesman for the soul, the character, the mind. For the rest–complexion, hair, features–for he knows that art and the will to achieve a certain amount of beauty can, and does do wonders."
Phyfe on faces: "Facial construction must be definite, even bold. And the eyes must be the pivot of the expression. For if the eyes have "it" everything else will be forgotten in their vivid, compelling attraction. Eyes create individuality, they are the spokesman for the soul, the character, the mind. For the rest–complexion, hair, features–for he knows that art and the will to achieve a certain amount of beauty can, and does do wonders."
Text from BroadwayPhotographers
On This Day In 1964 – Jack Ruby Sentenced To Death
Posted in Article, People, The sixties, tagged Jack Ruby, Lee Harvey Oswald, President John F Kennedy on March 13, 2015| 4 Comments »
Jack Ruby has been sentenced to death after being found guilty of the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F Kennedy. Ruby's defence team is to launch an appeal after the jury in the Dallas court returned the guilty verdict and decided he should die in the electric chair.
The jury of eight men and four women deliberated for two hours and 19 minutes.
Oswald, who was accused of firing the gun that killed the president, was shot two days later by Ruby in the basement of the Dallas police headquarters.
There was uproar in court and Ruby's defence said the verdict was "a victory for bigotry".
"This was a kangaroo court, a railroad court and everyone knew it."
Melvin Belli, chief defence counsel:
At 12:23 local time, Judge Brown read out the verdict: "We the jury find the defendant guilty of murder with malice as charged in the indictment and assess his punishment as death."
When the judge asked if this was a unanimous decision, all the jurors raised their right hand to signal that it was. They were then discharged. Ruby, who pleaded not guilty to the murder charge, was quickly led away to prison, where he will remain as his appeal gets under way.
The district attorney said after the trial that he thought the jury had been persuaded by Dallas police officers who reported that Ruby had planned to kill Oswald for two days and had meant to shoot him three times instead of once.
The jury had been asked to consider its verdict after hearing more than five hours of summing up by prosecuting and defence barristers. Prosecutors argued that Ruby should die in the electric chair "because he mocked American justice while the spotlight was on Dallas".
Defence lawyers had suggested that the prosecution wanted Ruby to go to the electric chair to compensate for their frustrations due to their inability to try Lee Harvey Oswald. They also argued that there was medical evidence to suggest that Ruby suffered from epilepsy and was subject to seizures and mental blackouts.
Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested after John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, in 1963, but he was murdered before facing trial.
Following Jack Ruby's trial for killing Oswald, three psychiatrists recommended that he should have a "sanity hearing" amid reports that he was mentally ill.
In an appeal to the Texas Supreme Court, Ruby's lawyers argued that he could not have received a fair trial in Dallas due to the excessive publicity.
The court agreed and ruled that his motion for a change of venue before the original trial court should have been granted, and so Ruby's conviction and death sentence was overturned.
While awaiting a new trial, Ruby died of a pulmonary embolism in hospital on 3 January, 1967.
Text from BBC's OnThisDay
Irene Dunne – American Film Actress And Singer
Posted in Actresses, Hollywood, Movies, People, The fifties, The forties, The thirties, tagged American film actresses, American singers, Irene Dunne on March 12, 2015| 4 Comments »
Irene Dunne (December 20, 1898 – September 4, 1990) was an Irene Dunne American film actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron (1931), Theodora Goes Wild (1936), The Awful Truth (1937), Love Affair (1939) and I Remember Mama (1948). She was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1958.
Born Irene Marie Dunn in Louisville, Kentucky, to Joseph Dunn, a steamboat inspector for the United States government, and Adelaide Henry, a concert pianist/music teacher from Newport, Kentucky, Irene Dunn would later write, "No triumph of either my stage or screen career has ever rivalled the excitement of trips down the Mississippi on the river boats with my father." She was only eleven when her father died in 1909. She saved all of his letters and often remembered and lived by what he told her the night before he died: "Happiness is never an accident. It is the prize we get when we choose wisely from life's great stores."
After her father's death, Irene, her mother, and her younger brother Charles moved to her mother's hometown of Madison, Indiana. Dunn's mother taught her to play the piano as a very small girl. According to Dunn, "Music was as natural as breathing in our house." Dunne was raised as a devout Roman Catholic. Nicknamed "Dunnie," she took piano and voice lessons, sang in local churches and high school plays before her graduation in 1916.
She earned a diploma to teach art, but took a chance on a contest and won a prestigious scholarship to the Chicago Musical College, where she graduated in 1926. With a soprano voice, she had hopes of becoming an opera singer, but did not pass the audition with the Metropolitan Opera Company.
Irene, after adding an "e" to her surname, turned to musical theatre, making her Broadway debut in 1922 in Zelda Sears's The Clinging Vine. The following year, Dunne played a season of light opera in Atlanta, Georgia. Though in her own words Dunne created "no great furore", by 1929 she had a successful Broadway career playing leading roles, grateful to be at centre stage rather than in the chorus line. In July 1928, Dunne married Francis Griffin, a New York dentist, whom she had met in 1924 at a supper dance in New York. Despite differing opinions and battles that raged furiously, Dunne eventually agreed to marry him and leave the theatre.
Dunne's role as Magnolia Hawks in Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's Show Boat was the result of a chance meeting with showman Florenz Ziegfeld in an elevator the day she returned from her honeymoon. Dunne was discovered by Hollywood while starring with the road company of Show Boat in 1929. Dunne signed a contract with RKO and appeared in her first movie in 1930, Leathernecking, a film version of the musical Present Arms. She moved to Hollywood with her mother and brother and maintained a long-distance marriage with her husband in New York until he joined her in California in 1936. That year, she re-created her role as Magnolia in what is considered the classic film version of the famous musical Show Boat, directed by James Whale. (Edna Ferber's novel, on which the musical is based, had already been filmed as a part-talkie in 1929, and the musical would be remade in Technicolor in 1951, but the 1936 film is considered by most critics and many film buffs to be the definitive motion picture version.)
During the 1930s and 1940s, Dunne blossomed into a popular screen heroine in movies such as the original Back Street (1932) and the original Magnificent Obsession(1935). The first of three films she made opposite Charles Boyer, Love Affair (1939) is perhaps one of her best known. She starred, and sang "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", in the 1935 Fred Astaire–Ginger Rogers film version of the musical Roberta.
She was apprehensive about attempting her first comedy role, as the title character in Theodora Goes Wild (1936), but discovered that she enjoyed it. She turned out to possess an aptitude for comedy, with a flair for combining the elegant and the madcap, a quality she displayed in such films as The Awful Truth (1937) and My Favourite Wife (1940), both co-starring Cary Grant. Other notable roles include Julie Gardiner Adams in Penny Serenade (1941) (once again opposite Grant), Anna Leonowens in Anna and the King of Siam (1946), Lavinia Day in Life with Father (1947), and Marta Hanson in I Remember Mama (1948). In The Mudlark(1950), Dunne was nearly unrecognizable under heavy makeup as Queen Victoria.
She retired from the screen in 1952, after the comedy It Grows on Trees. The following year, she was the opening act on the 1953 March of Dimes showcase in New York City. While in town, she made an appearance as the mystery guest on What's My Line? She also made television performances on Ford Theatre, General Electric Theatre, and the Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, continuing to act until 1962.
In 1952-53, Dunne played newspaper editor Susan Armstrong in the radio program Bright Star. The syndicated 30-minute comedy-drama also starred Fred MacMurray.
Dunne commented in an interview that she had lacked the "terrifying ambition" of some other actresses and said, "I drifted into acting and drifted out. Acting is not everything. Living is.
The Irresistible Allure Of A Garden Train
Posted in Entertainment, Pastime, People, tagged Garden trains, Irresistible, Model trains on March 10, 2015| 4 Comments »
It all started 45 years ago, when Drummond Randall took his three-and-a-half-year-old son for a day out on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, on the South coast.
"I remember very clearly what happened when we got home," recalls Drummond. "My son turned to me and said, 'Dad, are you going to build me a locomotive?'" The answer was yes. And while most fathers might have made do with buying their son a little electric train set and putting it in the loft, Drummond went one further and constructed an entire, working miniature railway, around the garden of the family home in Kent.
There's a little station at which passengers can get on, an engine shed where the trains sleep overnight, and, rather than just chuffing around in a boring circle, the locomotives wind their way through holes in hedges, into long, dark tunnels, around the edges of attractive flower beds and across dramatic bridges that span ponds.
Plus, on each circuit of the garden, the train passes just a couple of feet in front of the spectacular half-timbered, 17th-century home in which the Randalls live. Step out with a cup of tea, and if you didn't look where you were going you could find yourself being struck at kneecap level (it's a miniature railway, remember) by one of Drummond's immaculately polished trains. Maybe the gleamingly caramel-coloured locomotive Crowborough, or perhaps its elegant, powder-blue cousin Dunalistair. Or conceivably Toby the shunting diesel, powered by silent electricity, rather than roaring coal fires and wheezing steam.
In all there are seven trains running on Drummond's network, which he still lovingly maintains, although his son left home some time ago. So is he fulfilling one of his own boyhood fantasies? "No question about it," he says with a laugh. "When I was a teenager, I built my own small version of this railway in my back garden. But my mother wasn't very keen on it, and when I got called up to do National Service, she pulled all the track up."
Article from The Telegraph written by By Christopher Middleton – 21 Jan 2015
Dictionary For Men And Women
Posted in Facts, People, tagged Dictionaries, Men, Men abd women, Women on March 9, 2015| 6 Comments »
Found on barnorama
"Palanquin On Snowing" By Kusakabe Kimbei c.1880
Posted in People, Photography, tagged Japanese photographers, Kusakabe Kimbei on March 9, 2015| 4 Comments »
Kusakabe Kimbei (日下部 金兵衛) (1841–1934) was a Japanese photographer. He usually went by his given name, Kimbei, because his clientele, mostly non-Japanese-speaking foreign residents and visitors, found it easier to pronounce than his family name.
Image found on Turn of the Century – Text from Wikipedia
Prince Bira, The Grand Prix at Brooklands, 1938
Posted in People, Photography, Racing, The thirties, tagged Brooklands, Grand Prix racing, Prince Bira, Prince Birabongse Bhanudej Bhanubandh on March 9, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Prince Birabongse Bhanudej Bhanubandh (born 15 July 1914 in Bangkok, Thailand; died 23 December 1985 in Barons Court Station, London), better known as Prince Bira of Siam (now Thailand) or by his nom de course B. Bira, was the only Thai race car driver to race in Formula One. He raced in Formula One and Grand Prix races for the Maserati, Gordini, and Connaught teams, among others. He also was an Olympic sailor in the Melbourne Olympics, 1956 in the Star, Rome Olympics, 1960 in the Star, Tokyo Olympics, 1964 in the Dragon and the Munich Olympics, 1972 in the Tempest. In the 1960 Games he competed against another former Formula One driver, Roberto Mieres, who finished 17th and ahead of the prince in 19th. Birabongse was the only Southeast Asian driver in Formula One until Malaysia's Alex Yoong joined Minardi in 2001. Prince Bira was not only a racing driver, he was also an excellent pilot of gliders and powered aircraft. In 1952 he flew the remarkable distance from London to Bangkok with his own twin engine Miles Gemini aircraft.
Prince Bira accepting the trophy for winning the London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace in 1937, having driven his ERA.
Showing That Much Cleavage ……..
Posted in People, Photography, tagged Cheating, Cleavage, Dice games on March 6, 2015| 12 Comments »
…… should be considered cheating.
Image found on shorpy.com
A Boring Picnic 1941
Posted in People, Photography, The forties, tagged 1941, Picknics on March 6, 2015| 6 Comments »
Picture found on shorpy.com
Not A Minute Too Late
Posted in Aviation, People, Photography, The sixties, tagged Electric Lightning F1, George Aird, Test pilots on March 5, 2015| 4 Comments »
Test Pilot George Aird, flying an English Electric Lightning F1
ejected from his plane at only about 100 feet in the air in 1962.
An Uncomplicated Gentleman
Posted in Lifestyle, People, Photography, Quotations, tagged Age, Confessions on February 24, 2015| 7 Comments »
Images found on: Ego is a rat on the sinking ship of being

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Speaking on The Costa Report, renowned lawyer and author, Alan Dershowitz, claimed there is a growing parallel between the threat ISIS poses to the United States, and Hamas' ongoing war with Israel. "Every two years there's going to be another war between Israel and Hamas, because Hamas wins every war of public relations," said Dershowitz, whose newest book, Terror Tunnels: The Case For Israel's Just War Against Hamas, exposes the media-savvy tactics Hamas employs which complicate Israel's ability to retaliate.
Among the latest tactics: a sophisticated network of over 40 subterranean tunnels. The tunnels – which were constructed using resources provided to the Palestinians when Israel ended occupation of Gaza in 2005 – are equipped with electricity, plumbing, railroad tracks and cars, ventilation systems, etc. Each tunnel has been carefully designed with multiple exits – exits strategically placed near Israeli schools and neighborhoods.
Complicating Israel's ability to locate and neutralize the tunnels is the fact that tunnel entrances are hidden within civilian Palestinian homes, mosques, etc. According to Dershowitz, no technology presently exists for detecting tunnels which are 100 feet below the Earth's surface. Israel estimates it would cost over 3 billion dollars to invent a detection system. As a result, the only way to combat the new subterranean assault is through the use of military ground personnel.
Dershowitz asserts that Hamas has a long standing tradition of launching attacks, whether subterranean or air, from densely populated civilian neighborhoods, rather than any number of locations in Gaza where few civilians are present. "Hamas uses its civilians to protect its soldiers," said Dershowitz, pointing to the fact that rockets are strategically launched and tunnel entrances are placed in civilian neighborhoods, near schools, shopping areas, etc.
The PR dilemma? According to Dershowitz, when Israel retaliates Hamas seizes the opportunity to produce photographic and video evidence of Israel's vengeful attack on innocent civilians – evidence which the media capitalizes upon. By using civilians as a "human shield" Hamas has devised a highly effective PR campaign, whereas Israel's religious and public policy of concealing the bodies of victims backfires in the court of public opinion. Dershowitz says ISIS is learning from and adopting many of Hamas' successful tactics. He warns that the United States is likely to face the same problems Israel has struggled with: "ISIS is now beginning to hide amongst civilians."


Selecting the capacity of a central air conditioning (AC) system is based on a long list of structural factors within a home, but is normally chosen without considering effects on stakeholders outside of the home. Energy use by residential air conditioners is relevant to consumers as an expense, but also to utilities as a contributor to peak demand and to society by the resultant carbon dioxide and other emissions. In this article, we investigate how size and operational patterns of central residential air conditioners interact with stakeholder benefits and costs. The case study analyzes energy use for systems sized from 3.0-5.5 tons in single family homes in Phoenix, Arizona and quantifies the costs and benefits to homeowners, electric utilities, and society. For homeowners, larger units are preferred due to lower energy consumption, leading to lower net costs, and the ability to cool the house quickly. However, under the same conditions, a smaller AC system can provide double the potential profit to the utility from reduced generation and peak load costs. As a result of lower energy consumption, larger units have lower environmental externality costs from carbon and criteria pollutant emissions. However, a social perspective that considers homeowner, utility and externality costs together results in an overall preference for smaller units with setback schedules, driven by the value of peak demand reduction.


… the charity Mencap for being the first organisation to send me a Christmas card catalogue (on 31 July with five months to go!). Even though I'm a great planner, I refuse to order any Christmas cards before October.
What's it like to be a worker in China?


text:
Mohamed A El-Erian: The Great Policy Divergence
ECB: Frankfurt, Germany
Over the next few weeks, the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are likely to put in place notably different policies. The Fed is set to raise interest rates for the first time in almost ten years. Meanwhile, the ECB is expected to introduce additional unconventional measures to drive rates in the opposite direction, even if that means putting further downward pressure on some government bonds that are already trading at negative nominal yields.
In implementing these policies, both central banks are pursuing domestic objectives mandated by their governing legislation. The problem is that there may be few, if any, orderly mechanisms to manage the international repercussions of this growing divergence.
The Fed is responding to continued indications of robust job creation in the United States and other signs that the country's economy is recovering, albeit moderately so. Also conscious of the risk to financial stability if interest rates remain at artificially low levels, the Fed is expected to increase them. The move marks a turning point in the Fed's approach to the economy. In deciding to raise interest rates, it will be doing more than simply lifting its foot from the financial-stimulus accelerator; it will also be taking a notable step toward the multiyear normalisation of its overall policy stance.
"The problem is that there may be few, if any, orderly mechanisms to manage the international repercussions of this growing divergence."
In the meantime, the ECB is facing a very different set of economic conditions, including generally sluggish growth, the risk of deflation, and worries about the impact of the terrorist attacks in Paris on business and consumer confidence. As a result, the bank's decision-makers are giving serious consideration to pushing the discount rate further into negative territory and extending its large-scale asset-purchase program (otherwise known as quantitative easing). In other words, the ECB is likely to expand and extend experimental measures that will press even harder on the financial-stimulus accelerator.
In a perfect world, policymakers would have assessed the potential for international spill-overs from these divergent policies (including possible spillbacks on both sides of the Atlantic) and put in place a range of instruments to ensure a better alignment of domestic and global objectives. Unfortunately, political polarisation and general policy dysfunction in both the US and the European Union continue to inhibit such an effort. As a result, and lacking a more comprehensive policy response, the harmonisation of their central banks' divergent policies will be left to the markets – in particular, those for fixed-income assets and currencies.
Already, the interest-rate differential between "risk-free" bonds on both sides of the Atlantic – say, US Treasuries and German Bunds – has widened notably. And, at the same time, the dollar has strengthened not only against the euro, but also against most other currencies. Left unchecked, these trends are likely to persist.
If history is any guide, there are three major issues that warrant careful monitoring in the coming months. First, the US is unlikely to stand by for long if its currency appreciates significantly and its international competitiveness deteriorates substantially. Companies are already reporting earning pressures due to the rising dollar, and some are even asking their governments to play a more forceful role in countering a stealth "currency war."
Second, because the dollar is used as a reserve currency, a rapid rise in its value could put pressure on those who have used it imprudently. At particular risk are emerging-country companies that, having borrowed overwhelmingly in dollars but generating only limited dollar earnings, might have large currency mismatches in their assets and liabilities or their incomes and expenditures.
And, finally, sharp movements in interest rates and exchange rates can cause volatility in other markets, most notably for equities. Because regulatory controls and market constraints have made brokers less able to play a countercyclical role by accumulating inventory on their balance sheets, the resulting price instability is likely to be large. There is a risk that some portfolios will be forced into disordered unwinding. Furthermore, the central banks' policy of curtailing so-called "volatile volatility" is likely to be challenged.
Of course, none of these outcomes is preordained. Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic have the ability to lower the risk of instability by implementing structural reforms, ensuring more balanced aggregate demand, removing pockets of excessive indebtedness, and smoothing out the mechanisms of multilateral and regional governance.
The three possible outcomes of all this include a relatively stable multi-speed world, notable disruptions that undermine the US's economic recovery, and a European revival that benefits from US growth. The good news is that the impact of the divergence will depend on how policymakers manage its pressures. The bad news is that they have yet to find the political will to act decisively to minimise the risks.
As the Fed normalises its monetary policy and the ECB doubles down on extraordinary measures, we certainly should hope for the best. But we should also be planning for a substantial rise in financial and economic uncertainty.
Mohamed A El-Erian is chief economic adviser at Allianz, the corporate parent of PIMCO, where he served as CEO and co-CIO (2007-1014). He is also chairman of US President Barack Obama's Global Development Council.
CFI.co Meets the Chairman of Ezentis: Manuel García-Durán
A Corporate Turnaround from Rags to Riches. In Spanish business circles, corporate trouble-shooter Manuel García-Durán is gaining quite the reputation.
Danièle Nouy: Getting Tough with Bankers
It is her job to keep Europe's banks on the straight and narrow and remind their executives that honesty pays.
Nigerian Stock Exchange Becomes a Full Member of World Federation of Exchanges
October, 2014, Seoul, Korea: The Nigerian Stock Exchange ("the NSE"), today, announced that it received a unanimous vote for admission


text:
Publisher - magazine for architects and related professionals
A+Dwire
Design Source Guide
ATTAbotics Headquarters
Modern Office of Design + Architecture
By Canadian Architect On Nov 29, 2019
WINNER OF A 2019 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
The wedge-like form derives from airport district regulations.
Robotics company ATTAbotics had an unusual vision for its new headquarters. The client "referenced the spatial organization and complex circulation of ant colonies," say the architects. These systems had inspired the company's proprietary robotic storage and retrieval system. It was also how they wanted their manufacturing and office space to function.
The site is part of Calgary's airport district, so the architects began by examining Navigation Canada's regulations for the location. To ensure the safety of aircraft, the building had to fit within an envelope that rises along a 7 percent slope to a height of 23 metres. This ordinance produced a wedge-like massing.
The facility combines manufacturing spaces below grade with offices above.
Plazas carved into the slope connect the building to the exterior and frame views to the city and mountains. A ribbon of movement develops between the plazas and interior spaces, stitched together with appropriate programming. Building users can meander through, around and over the building.
Outdoor terraces cascade along the sloped roof.
The building's manufacturing section requires tall ceilings, clear spans and a rectilinear footprint to allow for future flexibility. This facility is located on the lower two floors, which sink into the landscape. Canyon-like voids provide for light, access, parking and loading areas. The office spaces perch above this plinth-like base.
The building's entry passes through the R&D area.
A central atrium acts as a fulcrum for the plan and doubles as an informal, company-wide auditorium. This produces a complex sectional relationship between various elements of the program—similar to the organizational systems inherent in ant colonies. It also transforms the way that building users navigate around the building and socialize.
Exterior and interior spaces are oriented towards views of downtown and the nearby mountains.
The construction looks to current developments in circular design. Instead of the cradle-to-landfill norm, it takes a cradle-to-cradle approach. The architects are pursuing a Design for Disassembly (DfD) model that allows for the reuse of building components. This aligns with the client's desire for a flexible environment. The building can quickly change, responding to needs for future growth or renewal as they arise.
Jury Comments
Rami Bebawi :: I really like the materiality with the veils and transparency. There's a potential for the designers to play with the density of the mesh, which can start to inform the wayfinding of the building. Is it possible to have three dimensions of holes—from smaller for more private areas, to larger for more public areas? If there is a comment to be made, it's the parking—maybe there was a way to work this into the landscape.
Joe Lobko :: This is a powerful structure: the building is both vertically and horizontally shaped to its location adjacent an airport. An iconic building design has emerged from a thoughtful, incredibly creative analysis of context and program. The roofscape will be very special. Ant colonies indeed!
Cindy Wilson :: I appreciate the architects' future-thinking of the building disassembling into components, making the structure adaptable and flexible. The ant metaphor continues through the life cycle of the building.
CLIENT ATTAbotics Inc. | AREA 11,150 M2 | BUDGET $50 M | STATUS Design Development | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION Spring 2022
PROJECTED ENERGY USE INTENSITY (EUI) 200kWh/m2/year
PROJECTED WATER USE INTENSITY (WUI) 3.9m3/m2/year
Honey Bee Research Centre
Editorial: Crafting a Jewel
Academic Wood Tower
West Don Lands Block 8
John Deutsch University Centre Revitalization
Winter Stations Presents Loop
15jan(jan 15)8:00 am08feb(feb 8)11:00 pmWinter Stations Presents LoopToronto, ON
Loop is a cross between a music box, a zoetrope (a 19th-century optical toy) and a railway handcar. The retro-futuristic machine, more than two metres in
Loop is a cross between a music box, a zoetrope (a 19th-century optical toy) and a railway handcar. The retro-futuristic machine, more than two metres in diameter, creates animated fairy tale loops. It activates when a group of people work a hand lever, revealing a lit-up image cylinder that creates the illusion of motion in the drawings. The participants are in total control of the speed of the images, the frequency at which the light flickers and the rhythm of the audio composition. The black and white images recall the earliest movements and are tinted through a strobe effect. They can be viewed both inside and outside the cylinder, so they can be watched up close or far away.
January 15 (Wednesday) 8:00 am - February 8 (Saturday) 11:00 pm
York Street Park (York Street and Harbour Street)
Jeffrey Cook Memorial Lecture: Billie Faircloth, KieranTimberlake
23jan6:30 pm8:00 pmJeffrey Cook Memorial Lecture: Billie Faircloth, KieranTimberlakeToronto, ON
Billie Faircloth is a partner and research director at KieranTimberlake, where she leads a transdisciplinary research team and fosters collaboration in order to define a relevant problem-solving boundary for the built
Billie Faircloth is a partner and research director at KieranTimberlake, where she leads a transdisciplinary research team and fosters collaboration in order to define a relevant problem-solving boundary for the built environment. She lectures internationally to academic and industry audiences. Her book Plastics Now, On Architecture's Relationship to a Continuously Emerging Material, was published by Routledge in June 2015.
Main Hall, 1 Spadina Crescent
Made possible with the support of the Ontario Media Development Corporation
© -2020 . All Rights Reserved | Click here for our Privacy Policy
Canadian Architect and canadianarchitect.com is a production of iQ Business Media Inc. The contents of this Publication and Website are protected by copyright and may be used only for your personal non-commercial purposes. All other rights are reserved and commercial uses including publication, broadcast or redistribution in any medium are prohibited. Permission to copy must be sought from the copyright owner, being either iQ Business Media Inc. or its suppliers. For further information, contact: Canadian Architect at Tel: 416-441-2085 ext. 101 or Email: [email protected]
Publishers of:
Canadian InteriorsBuilding Design Source GuideSupply Professional


Situated in the Boulevard on Business (BOB) district, Four Points by Sheraton Manado stands above the Manado Town Square where multinational corporate offices, traditional markets, retail shops and entertainment centers are within a walking distance. Relax in one of our modern-designed 257 rooms that are equipped with Four Points by Sheraton Four Comfort Bed. MICE and Catering are available for each of your needs that accommodate until 1800 pax. The delightful menus are available in any choices of characterized outlets of The Eatery - All Day Dining Restaurant, Tao Yuan Chinese Restaurant, Wrapped - Patisserie and Scorta Pool Bar.
We are situated on Boulevard on Business (BOB) district.
We are connected to Manado Town Square Shopping Mall.
Enjoy free high-speed internet access.


As we prepare for Advent and Christmas, one obvious theme is the kingship of Jesus. We use royal language about Jesus a lot but we seldom pause to think what exactly that ought to mean both when we talk about Jesus himself and when we think about leadership and government in the world. On both sides of the Atlantic just now we are living with the surprising results of democracy, and this is a great moment to reflect on God's vision for human government, and indeed God's vision for a healthy human society. I find myself returning again and again to Psalm 72. Some theologians in our day have protested against royal psalms like this one, seeing them as exercises in spurious divine legitimation for oppressive regimes. But this Psalm stoutly resists all such deconstruction, for two obvious reasons to start with and then more as we go deeper into its message.
Psalm 72 holds out for us a vision of a world aflame with glory; a world in which justice is done, especially for the poor and for those who have nobody to speak for them. This is a vision of a king to whom the kings of the earth come bearing gifts because he is doing what they know they ought to be doing, namely delivering the needy when they call out, having pity on the weak and poor, rescuing the helpless from the greedy, the oppressive and the violent. How many times in recent years, recent days, have we longed for a society like that? In my country, and I think also in yours, the political elites and the pollsters grossly underestimated the fact that while in London and New York and elsewhere the rich were getting richer and organising the system to their advantage, in many parts of my country, including Durham where I used to work, and in many parts of your lovely country too, there were people whose cries for help seemed to be going unheeded.
The real poverty and hardship faced by many in the waste places of the former industrial heartlands have not been addressed. The job descriptions have not come true. Politicians come and go but they always have as part of their stated aim the radical improvement of the country, of the world, of the lives of ordinary people. Most public servants start out believing in that aim and object, but even if they are not befuddled by the many compromises they have to make on the way up they will be dazzled by the glittering temptations of power and prestige; or they will suppose that the way to put the world right will be a heavy-handed solution imposed from above, whether through a new social structure which might just trickle down to where it's really needed or through bombs and missiles raining down on our perceived enemies. My friends, we've tried all these again and again and the world is in more of a mess, not less, as a result. It is time to glimpse the biblical vision of God's kingdom which we find in this Psalm, as we read it through the lens of the gospel of Jesus in which its theme is intensified, not relativized as so many have imagined….
The obvious Christian reason is that this Psalm is picked up by both Matthew and Luke in announcing the birth of Jesus. Matthew's Magi bringing gifts to the baby Jesus are obviously fulfilling the prophecies of this Psalm about the gifts brought by the kings of Sheba and Seba, and indeed it may be the implicit reference to this Psalm which, in popular imagination, has turned the Magi into actual kings. Luke's Benedictus, celebrating John the Baptist as the royal herald, echoes the final praise of the Psalm: Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel who alone does wondrous things! So the first followers of Jesus were encouraged to go back to this Psalm and make it their own, which they duly did in reporting the claim of the risen Jesus to possess already 'all authority in heaven and on earth'. The foundation of all biblical visions of God's purposes for the world, and how they are to be implemented is that the Creator God wants his world to be full of his glory, which means among other things full of true justice and generous mercy. This is not just a vision for a far-off distant time. We are not expected to sit on our hands and wait for it to happen beyond the sky by and by. Even in Old Testament times, it was perfectly possible for kings to do justice and love mercy; they often failed, but the best of them didn't do too badly. And part of the point of the resurrection narratives in the gospels is that in the risen Jesus God has already launched his new creation.
Jesus himself is both the start of that new creation and the Lord who gives his own Spirit so that his people can continue the project. You see, from Genesis 1 onwards it's clear that the Creator God wants to rule his world through wise, image-bearing human beings. There is a Trinitarian base for all biblical political theology: the Creator wants to work in the world by his image of justice and mercy being reflected through obedient, humble, wise humans. The Davidic king is seen in some texts as the true Adam, and in others (as in Psalm72) as the fulfilment of the Abrahamic promises. The King is therefore the archetypal image-reflecting human. The grandiose language and glorious hope of the Psalm depend on this vision, that the coming king will reflect into the world God's priority and care for the poor, the oppressed, and those who suffer violence and wrong.


First of all, I must apologise for this review if it starts to get really long. This drama was very moving for me and I will to focus of review the series as much as I can, rather than rant about what actually comes to my mind.
Its a story about a guy who is a famous author. But his girlfriend then plagiarizes his novel. He meets a psychiatrist on a TV show and takes a liking to her. Due to problems with the media, he moves into a house share where it just so happens to be the same house where the psychiatrist Ji Hae Su lives. He tries to live a quiet life style but slowly learns about the traumatic past of all his house mates.
Now this drama deals with a lot mental disorders and I think this helped me understand a lot about how even people who think they are strong and are not ill, yet have a traumatic event in their past can be ill without knowing it. I have problems with my mental health in the past and I tried not to watch it all in one goes because I was worried I would start to relate and think back to past events. Which sadly, didn't work out when I almost finished the drama last night. But that is what you get when you have previously dated people with a mental disorder. And later having depression and anxiety a few years later.
I guess that is why I was interested in watching this drama. I really wanted to understand more about the different kinds and how it really does effect their lives.
It really is a great drama and its very interesting to see couples where one has an illness but has a supporting partner who stands by them and helps support them everyday. I guess we are really looking for someone who will accept the flaws and just support them in the way that they need. Its not always easy to find someone like that, but once you do, please don't let go of them. Its rare to find the right person for you.
The actors did very well in portraying their characters. I had watched part of episode 5 while I was on holiday in Korea, and I finally got round to watching it. Its definitely a rare drama that touches on such a subject that is kind of hidden from society and people try to ignore. It was really put together and the cast really did an amazing job. Plus D.O. was cute and I hope he acts more in the future if he can.
I would suggest you watch this drama if you get the chance. Its a great eye opener but be careful. I was expecting to cry because of the last two episodes, but it was very moving for me.


SYKLI Environmental School of Finland is a national specialist vocational college. Our mission is to reinforce environmental knowledge and improve our customers' operations in line with sustainable development objectives.
SYKLI offers adults preparatory training, short training courses, consultation, and other expert services. Our core competence lies in applying the latest knowledge in practice and in bringing the benefits to our customers. We are known as a pioneer in sustainable working life development. We understand the needs of our clients and tailor our training to the needs of individuals and corporate customers.
We are actively involved in development, implementing national and international projects. These projects help us to develop new tools, products, business models, and competences, in cooperation with our partners. We utilize and apply the results of projects in our training courses. We have extensive experience in both national and international project work: we have acted as coordinator or partner in a number of development projects.
We provide training and development services throughout Finland and internationally. We utilize a broad network of partners to implement our training and services.


text:
Q: How to write $1-x-x^3+x^4+x^5+x^6-x^7 \cdots$ as a power series representation How can I write $1-x-x^3+x^4+x^5+x^6-x^7 ....$ as a power series representation (i.e., a neat fraction such as $\frac{1}{1-x}$.
This stems from $\binom{\text{number of partitions of }n}{\text{into an even number of parts}}-\binom{\text{number of partitions of }n}{\text{into an odd number of parts}}$.
I've been pondering this for a while, yet can't seem to think of any ways to solve this. Any hints?
EDIT: The polynominal with a few extra terms i: $1-x-x^3+x^4+x^5+x^6-x^7+2x^8-2x^9+2x^{10}-2x^{11}+3x^{12}-3x^{13}+3x^{14} ...$

A: This appears in the oeis, wherein it is given that the generating function is $$\prod_{k>0}1-x^{2k-1}=\prod_{k>0}\frac{1}{1+x^k}$$
There are also many references there, I highly recommend that link.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Husky Sealed Two-Bulb Incandescent Amber Side Marker/Clearance Light Kit. PC-Rated light functions as both a clearance and side marker light when properly mounted on a 45 degree angle. Two-bulb design for optimized light output. Features sonically sealed, waterproof lens and housing in a single unit. Mounts on industry standard 3" centers. Single wire design grounds through mounting hardware. Two-wire design contains both lead wire and ground wire for mounting to all surfaces. Kit includes MC-65 light and A-65PB bracket and plug assembly. Dim.: 4" L x 1-1/4" W x 7/8" D. Bulk.
"shipping was fast, product was nice will deal again with you if i have the opportunity"
"Perfect faucet, according to my wife. Fast service, delivery was sooner than expected and at a..."
"Customer service was exceptional and the shipping was fast and accurate. "


Cloudflare Business and Enterprise plan customers are able to cache anonymous page views when using WordPress using our Bypass Cache on Cookie functionality. This allows for static HTML to be cached at our edge, with no need for it to be regenerated from request to request. This tutorial will help you set this up with WordPress and WooCommerce.
Enterprise Cloudflare customers can use Custom Cache Keys to take their performance further, contact your Customer Success Manager for more details.
Next, click the Create Page Rule to set-up static HTML caching on our site.
The first step is to actually set the page rule to match your WordPress installation path. If your site is at https://www.example.com, the rule would be https://www.example.com.
In the example here, WordPress is running on https://junade.com, so the Page Rule should match https://junade.com/*.
You can then set up the rules that you want to apply.
Cache Everything will instruct Cloudflare to cache static HTML.
Finally, setting Edge Cache TTL will define the maximum period of time Cloudflare should keep cached files before getting them back from the origin web server. Even after setting a long Edge Cache TTL time, you can still manually clear the cache or use our WordPress plugin to automatically manage cache purging.
Next, click Save and Deploy and you're done!
Additionally, by using the Automatic Cache Management feature of the Cloudflare WordPress plugin, you are able to automatically purge the cache for your site after your site changes (i.e. changing/customizing your theme or editing, deleting or creating a post, attachment or page).


Last week I got a super sweet invitation from my friend Jeanne of Shop Sweet Things (one of my favorite lifestyle blogs) to attend a private dinner at Williams-Sonoma in San Francisco's Union Square to celebrate the latest book by Jennifer Tyler Lee, an award-winning author, game creator (Crunch a Color), and healthy eating advocate. The 52 New Foods Challenge book launch party was so much fun! And even more fun was meeting Jennifer, watching her cook and getting totally inspired by her tips on how to make it fun and playful for kids to eat healthier and try new foods.
Stay tuned for an Instagram giveaway next week!
The Williams-Sonoma team really brought it together with a beautifully simple tablescape that included fresh and pickled jarred vegetables and along with fresh flowers.
Here's the lovely Jeanne introducing Jennifer. That gigantic open kitchen is a total dream!
Another highlight of the night was meeting Amanda Haas, Director of Culinary at Williams-Sonoma, founder of One Family One Meal and author of Cooking Light Real Family Food. We follow each other on Instagram so it was nice to finally meet her in person. She's such an inspiration and a total sweetie with laid back style and humor.
These Quinoa Crumble Cakes were surprisingly one of my favorite dishes of the night. I made quinoa cakes before and they did not taste anything like these! Ha! I had about 9 of these that night.
Also loved the Clay Pot (but not made in a Clay Pot) Chicken Fried Rice. Super easy to make and so good! My kids would love it so it's on my list to make soon (like this week!).
Remember to check in next week as I'll be doing an Instagram giveaway for the book!


During their E3 press conference, EA announced a delightful 2D puzzle platformer called Unravel. Developed by small studio Coldwood Interactive, who previously worked on The Fight: Lights Out, Unravel is coming to Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC, although no date has yet been mentioned.
"In Unravel you play as Yarny, a tiny new character made from a single thread of yarn that slowly unravels as you move.


LOCKPORT – A Niagara Falls man was sentenced to four years in prison Friday for a pair of burglaries in the Falls, but that's not the end of his legal troubles, Assistant District Attorney Claudette S. Caldwell said.
Jermaine V. Lowe Jr., 24, of Niagara Avenue, was arraigned Monday in Falls City Court regarding another burglary he allegedly committed in February, while he was out on bail awaiting sentencing in the other two break-ins. Caldwell told Niagara County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III that Lowe and a co-defendant will be prosecuted in the matter, and Lowe will face a mandatory consecutive sentence if convicted.
Lowe pleaded guilty in January to two counts of attempted second-degree burglary. He left his blood behind after breaking a window at an apartment he entered on 18th Street in the Falls April 13, 2013; the DNA evidence solved that case. Lowe also admitted trying to enter a Monroe Avenue house through the bathroom window Jan. 11, 2014.
"I'm not a bad person. I made some mistakes," Lowe said.
"Well, these are felonies. It's a little more serious than mistakes," Murphy replied.


text:
Q: Determining the Big O time complexity for this program? I am working on analyzing the time complexity for a solution I wrote to the Leetcode question, Vertical Order Traversal of a Binary Tree
The question provides a binary tree and asks for a list of lists back, where each list corresponds to a vertical column within the tree, and each list is sorted from top down, with values in the same row and column being sorted numerically.
My code is shown below, but to summarize it, I perform a breadth first search level-by-level using two queues. I similarly use two maps. One map holds the relationship between columns and values in that column for the entire table, and the other maps serves a similar purpose, but it only holds the values for a single level at a time. This allows us to sort potential ties within each level, and then add its values to the aforementioned map. At the end of the program, the map with information across all levels is converted to a list of lists for the Leetcode grader.
I am having trouble analyzing the time complexity of the sorting logic. The worst case scenario is when there is the most sorting which is in a complete binary tree. Here is what I have been thinking so far:
For this complete binary tree, the nodes have been labeled with their respective columns, and at the top, I show each column's frequency at each level. I have this data on the image as Stack Overflow was not properly rendering the tables after submitting this post.

The magnitude of the values for the column are not particularly important, but the pattern that emerges for frequency is that of Pascal's Triangle / Binomial Coefficient Expansion. This makes sense in hindsight from adding/subtracting 1 from the parent node's column for the right/left children. The frequency of the column number indicates the size of the list at that level that would have to be sorted (the bottleneck).
Given this, I can make the recurrence
L in the recurrence refers to the level in the binary tree. The total work up to each level is the amount of work done for the previous levels, plus the work to sort the lists with variable size at this level (the size is variable with respect to binomial expansion coefficients). From here, I am not sure where to go. L, or logN for N total elements in the tree.
Intuition leads me to believe that this recurrence yields the following expression
but this still is not very clear, and I am also not sure if it is even right (like I said, intuition---not a proof---led me to this). Does this seem right? Is there a way to simplify this that I do not yet see?
I have attached the Java code below that implements this. Thank you, and please let me know if you have any questions.
 * Definition for a binary tree node.
 * public class TreeNode {
 *     int val;
 *     TreeNode left;
 *     TreeNode right;
 *     TreeNode() {}
 *     TreeNode(int val) { this.val = val; }
 *     TreeNode(int val, TreeNode left, TreeNode right) {
 *         this.val = val;
 *         this.left = left;
 *         this.right = right;
 *     }
 * }
 *
 */
class Solution {
    /*
    * Map<TreeNode, Integer> to keep track of column for each treenode
    * Map<Integer, List<Integer>> to keep track of columns and the values in the column
    * Map<Integer, List<Integer>> to keep track of columns and the values in the column
                                  FOR EACH ROW
    * Breadth first search
    * - as adding to queue, add to column map
    * - use a 2 queue approach for each level in breadth first search
    * - when each level of BFS is finished, sort third map, then add all to second map
        and clear it
    */
    public List<List<Integer>> verticalTraversal(TreeNode root) {
      Map<TreeNode, Integer> columns = new HashMap<>();
      final Map<Integer, List<Integer>> table = new HashMap<>();
      Map<Integer, List<Integer>> levelTable;

      Queue<TreeNode> bfsQueue;
      Queue<TreeNode> nextLevel = new ArrayDeque<>();
      int minColOverall = Integer.MAX_VALUE;

      nextLevel.offer(root);
      columns.put(root, 0);
      while(!nextLevel.isEmpty()){
        bfsQueue = nextLevel;
        nextLevel = new ArrayDeque<>();
        levelTable = new HashMap<>();
        int minCol = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
        while(!bfsQueue.isEmpty()){ // Evaluate each level individually
          TreeNode node = bfsQueue.poll();
          int column = columns.remove(node);
          minCol = Math.min(minCol,column);
          if(!levelTable.containsKey(column))
            levelTable.put(column, new ArrayList<Integer>());
          levelTable.get(column).add(node.val);

          if(node.left != null){
            nextLevel.offer(node.left);
            columns.put(node.left, column-1);
          }
          if(node.right != null){
            nextLevel.offer(node.right);
            columns.put(node.right, column+1);
          }
        }
        minColOverall = Math.min(minCol, minColOverall);
        for(int m = minCol; !levelTable.isEmpty(); m+=2){ // After level, add sorted col vals to final table
          if(!levelTable.containsKey(m))
            continue;
          List<Integer> level = levelTable.remove(m);
          Collections.sort(level);
          if(!table.containsKey(m))
            table.put(m, new ArrayList<Integer>());
          table.get(m).addAll(level);
        }
      }

      // Transform map to list
      final List<List<Integer>> answer = new ArrayList<>();
      while(!table.isEmpty())
        answer.add(table.remove(minColOverall++));
      return answer;
    }
}```

A: I believe I have come up with an explanation for an upper bound.
The time complexity is that of the traversal added with the time complexity of the sorting operations. The time complexity of the sorting will dominate that of the traversal, so that is what I will focus on.
The key to this explanation is that although the size of each level's column size is variable with respect to the Binomial Coefficient Expansion, this can be ignored if one uses the average input size instead.
Let the time complexity be bounded by:
O(number of total sorts * average sort complexity)
We sort for each column in each row, so the total amount of sorts is the sum across all rows of the amount of columns in that row. There are O(log N) rows in a binary tree consisting of N nodes. As seen in the above diagram, the amount of unique columns in each row grows linearly by 1. The first row has 1 unique column, the second row 2 unique columns, the third row 3 unique columns ... the final row, the row number logN, will have logN unique columns. This is a simple linear sum of integers from 1 to logN which equals logN(1+logN)/2 which is O((logN)^2)
The total size of inputs to be sorted is equal to N as each node belongs to one and only one column. This means the average sort size is O(N / (logN)^2). Let the value of M be equal to N / (logN)^2.
This means the overall time complexity of
O(number of total sorts * average sort complexity) =
O((logN)^2 * M log M) =
O((logN)^2 * (N / (logN)^2) log [N / (logN)^2]) =
O(N log [N / (logN)^2])
This bound is tighter than O(N log N), but O(N log N) is still technically correct.

A: That's really nice. This is an interesting problem.
I'll just note you can get a tighter coding with sorted data structures. Of course the tree maps are a bit slower.
class Solution {
  private final TreeMap<Integer, TreeMap<Integer, List<Integer>>> accumulator =
      new TreeMap<>();

  private void search(TreeNode node, int i, int j) {
    if (node == null) return;
    accumulator.computeIfAbsent(j, k -> new TreeMap<>())
        .computeIfAbsent(i, k -> new ArrayList<>())
        .add(node.val);
    search(node.left, i + 1, j - 1);
    search(node.right, i + 1, j + 1);
  }

  public List<List<Integer>> verticalTraversal(TreeNode root) {
    search(root, 0, 0);
    return  accumulator.values().stream().map(colMap -> {
      colMap.values().forEach(Collections::sort);
      return colMap.values().stream().flatMap(List::stream).collect(toList());
    }).collect(toList());
  }
}


text:
William Lankham (4 December 1861 – 2 December 1886) was a New Zealand cricketer who played five first-class matches for Auckland before his death at the age of 24.

Life and career
A tall, strongly-built right-arm opening bowler, Lankham had an outstanding season for the Auckland United club in 1880–81, taking 84 wickets at an average of 3.32, helping Auckland United to an undefeated season. He played for the Auckland XXII against the touring English team in 1881–82, taking 3 for 69 off 87 four-ball overs. The English captain, Alfred Shaw, regarded Lankham as the best bowler the tourists faced in New Zealand.

He played his first first-class match in December 1882 for Auckland against Canterbury in Christchurch. He took 7 for 39 in Canterbury's first innings; on the second day, which was also his 21st birthday, he made the second-top score in Auckland's first innings with 27, batting at number ten; then he took 4 for 60. Canterbury nevertheless won by 27 runs. Auckland then travelled to Wellington, where Lankham took 3 for 28 and 4 for 41 in an Auckland victory. The team then crossed Cook Strait again to play Nelson. In a match in which 40 wickets fell for 370 runs, Lankham took 6 for 18 and 4 for 39, and Auckland won by four runs after the Nelson last-wicket pair had put on 50, the highest partnership of the match.

Three months later Taranaki travelled to Auckland to play their initial first-class match, but Lankham was too much for them, bowling unchanged to take 13 for 35 (7 for 13 and 6 for 22) and dismiss Taranaki for 63 and 55 to give Auckland an innings victory. Lankham finished the season as the leading wicket-taker in New Zealand with 41 wickets at an average of 6.34.

In 1883-84 Auckland played only one first-class match, against Canterbury in Auckland. Lankham bowled for most of the first innings and unchanged in the second to take 6 for 60 and 6 for 54, and Auckland won by four wickets. He never played again, and died from tuberculosis two days before his 25th birthday.

See also
 List of Auckland representative cricketers

References

External links
Cricinfo player profile
Cricket Archive profile

1861 births
1886 deaths
New Zealand cricketers
Auckland cricketers
Cricketers from Auckland
19th-century deaths from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis deaths in New Zealand

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia