text:
Classical music: Prize-winning UW-Madison conductor Chad Hutchinson talks about the FREE and unusual all-American, all-20th century concert he will perform with the UW Symphony Orchestra this Friday night
Chad Hutchinson (below) is starting his second season at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Mead Witter School of Music by putting his own stamp on programming with an intriguing, all-American and all-20th-century concert that combines music for the concert hall with music for plays and films.
The FREE concert by the UW Symphony Orchestra is in Mills Hall this Friday night, Oct. 12, and starts at 8 p.m. with an informal pre-concert talk by Hutchinson (below) at 7:30 p.m.
Hutchison recently won one first prize and two second prizes from The American Prize for work he did – in opera conducting, orchestral conducting and orchestral programming — at the University of Minnesota and the University of South Dakota.
For more details, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/uw-madison-symphony-orchestra-3/
The Ear asked Hutchinson how, after his first year, he feels about the UW-Madison.
He answered: "What makes the UW-Madison special is the camaraderie and support of the students, faculty and staff across the numerous disciplines within the Mead Witter School of Music.
"I'm thrilled to be back working with the orchestra (below), opera and conducting students and collaborating with the amazing faculty here. Seeing the "light bulb" moments when students realize and achieve a new level of competency for themselves and the ensemble is the best part of the profession."
Here are his thoughts about the program:
"The UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra opens the 2018-2019 season with a program of three influential American composers. This concert will highlight the juxtaposition of traditional classical music and compositions heavily influenced by folk, jazz and the blues.
"A common thread throughout the concert is the idea of firsts and exploring new ideas as a composer.
"The Overture to "The School for Scandal" (1931) of Samuel Barber (below) was the first piece that he composed for full orchestra and is based on the Restoration comedy by Richard Sheridan.
"This performance will be the debut of one of the Symphony Orchestra's new doctoral conducting students Ji-Hyun Yim (below). Ji-Hyun (Jenny) comes to Madison after completing a Master's Degree in Orchestral Conducting from the University of North Texas.
"The second piece on the program is one that I have wanted to program for quite some time. The "Afro-American" Symphony (1930) of William Grant Still (below, in a photo by Carl Van Vechten), his first symphony, is widely regarded as the first large-scale piece of symphonic repertoire composed by an African-American and performed by a major symphony orchestra.
Each movement's title is influenced by short poems by the 20th-century African-American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar (below, in 1890).
"Since the Barber and Still were composed within one year of each other in 1930-1931, I wanted to show the dichotomy of the straight-ahead classical world and the other side of classical music in the late 1920s and 1930s that was being heavily influenced by the more popular music of the time.
"Lastly, we feature the first and only film music that Bernstein composed. "On the Waterfront" (1954), an Oscar-winning film directed by Elia Kazan that starred Marlon Brando (below) and Eva Marie Saint, shows Bernstein writing simultaneously for the symphonic hall and the big screen.
"This work will feature UW-Madison professor of saxophone and composition Les Thimmig (below) and will showcase many soloists within the orchestra. While not programmed as often as his music from West Side Story or On the Town, I believe that Bernstein's unique use of color, rhythm and melody in this work – heard in the YouTube video at the bottom — speak for themselves."
Tags: #20thCentury, #African-AmericanMusic, #Afro-AmericanSymphony, #All-American, #AmericanComposer, #AudienceMembers, #BigScreen, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BrassMusic, #CarlVanVechten, #ChadHutchinson, #ConcertHall, #CrossoverMusic, #DoctoralDegree, #EliaKazan, #EvaMarieSaint, #FacebookPost, #FilmComposer, #FilmMusic, #FilmScore, #FilmSoundtrack, #FirstPrize, #FolkMusic, #Fridaynight, #JazzMusic, #JennyYim, #Ji-HyunYim, #LeonardBernstein, #LesThimmig, #MarlonBrando, #Master'sDegree, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #OntheTown, #OntheWaterfront, #OperaConductor, #OperaMusic, #OrchestralMusic, #OscarAward, #PaulDunbar, #PercussionSection, #RestorationComedy, #RichardSheridan, #SamuelBarber, #SecondPrize, #SymphonicRepertoire, #TheAmericanPrize, #TheBlues, #TheSchoolforScandal, #UniversityofMInnesota, #UniversityofNorthTexas, #UniversityofSouthDakota, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UniversityOpera, #UWOpera, #UWSymphonyOrchestra, #WestSideStory, #WilliamGrantStill, #WindSection, #WomanConductor, #YouTubevideo, 20th-century, 20th-century music, African American, African-American music, Afro-American Symphony, American Prize, Arts, audience, blog, Blog post, blog posting, blues, camaraderie, Carl Van Vechten, Cello, Chad Hutchinson, Classical music, classicalmusic, collaborating, collaboration, color, comedy, competency, composer, Composition, concert hall, Conducting, conductor, crossover music, discipline, drama, Elia Kazan, Eva Marie Saint, Facebook, faculty, film, first prize, Folk music, free, Friday night, influence, informal, Jacob Stockinger, Jazz, Jenny YIm, Ji-Hyun Yim, Leonard Bernstein, Les Thimmig, like, Madison, Marlon Brando, master's, Mead Witter School of Music, melody, movement, movie, On the Town, On the Waterfront, opera, Orchestra, Oscar, Overture, Paul Dunbar, performer, play, poet, Poetry, profession, professor, programming, repertoire, repertory, Restoration Comedy, rhythm, Richard Sheridan, Samuel Barber, Saxophone, School for Scandal, Season, second prize, share, soloist, staff\, Student, Suite, support, symphony, talk, thought, title, traditional, unique, United States, University of Minnesota, University of South Dakota, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Wisocnsin, University Opera, use, UW Opdra, UW Symphony Orchestra, Viola, Violin, West Side Story, William Grant Still, work, YouTube
Classical music: Tucson celebrates the Leonard Bernstein centennial. Why not Madison?
Editor's note: Larry Wells, better known as The Opera Guy who writes for this blog, recently spent time in Tucson, Arizona, where he attended many events celebrating the Leonard Bernstein centennial.
Tucson isn't alone. This fall has seen many similar celebrations, including those in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Milwaukee. But curiously there has been little in Madison.
Perhaps that will change next season. At least this week will see a FREE concert by the UW-Madison Wind Ensemble this Wednesday night, Feb. 21, in Mills Hall. The mixed program with other composers features "Profanation" from Bernstein's Symphony No. 1.
Here is a link with more information and the program:
https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/wind-ensemble-2/
And here are observations about the Tucson celebration:
I recently spent a few weeks in Tucson. Part of that time happily coincided with the annual Tucson Desert Song Festival which this year commemorated the 100th anniversary of the birth of Leonard Bernstein (below, in a photo by Jack Mitchell).
I was able to attend 13 of the performances and was struck by the consistently intelligent programming, large audiences, and high performance standards.
Many of the events were held at the Fred Fox School of Music at the University of Arizona. Some of these involved talented student and faculty singers performing Bernstein's Broadway songs as well as his more serious vocal works. The venue also hosted outstanding recitals by Metropolitan Opera veterans Jennifer Johnson Cano (below top) and Lisette Oropesa (below bottom).
One of the highlights was a recital by dual pianists Steven Bleier (below top, on right) and Michael Barrett (below top, on left), founders of the New York Festival of Song. Their program included Bernstein's final song cycle "Arias and Barcarolles" featuring the very talented Joshua Jeremiah (below middle) and Rebecca Jo Loeb (below bottom).
The Tucson Symphony Orchestra (below), under the direction of its new conductor José Luis Gomez, filled the cavernous Tucson Music Hall for two performances of Bernstein's underperformed Symphony No. 3 "Kaddish." Joined by the symphony's outstanding chorus, the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus, and soprano Kelley Nassief this monumental work was electrifying. The many percussionists were given a good aerobic workout, and the audience seemed hypnotized.
The only flaw was the narration rewritten and delivered by Bernstein's daughter Jamie. The original narration by the composer is a monologue between a man and his god. Ms. Bernstein's narration changed the tone to that of a daughter speaking about her father.
For someone familiar with the work, I felt somewhat cheated that I was not hearing the work as it had been composed. Still it was a total delight to hear a live performance of a work that should be heard far more often than it is.
The Tucson Symphony Orchestra offered a second program which featured a sparkling performance of Bernstein's opera "Trouble in Tahiti" with the widely-praised, and rightly so, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke (below in a photo by Dario Acosta).
Ballet Tucson offered a somewhat strange program featuring Bernstein songs beautifully performed by Cadie Jordan (below top) and David Margulis (below bottom, in a photo by Kristin Hoebermann). Sometimes they were accompanied by dancers and sometimes not.
Then, after a number of these songs, a recording came on of portions of the suite from Bernstein's score for the film "On the Waterfront" with dancers performing a sort of "Romeo and Juliet" narrative. It didn't seem to make any cohesive sense, but it was fun to watch and the quality of the music never faltered.
Two other large events were the Arizona Opera's "Candide" and Tucson's resident chorus True Concord's MASS.
I attended the premiere of "Candide" (below) which was also performed in the vast Tucson Music Hall. I had only seen it performed once before, and that was the charming, witty, and intimate Harold Prince version. The Tucson version was one of the overlong operatic versions that featured additional musical numbers, which was a good thing, but wordy spoken dialogue that was unfortunately under-amplified. Therefore, unless someone was very familiar with the work, the production was a long string of seemingly unrelated musical numbers linked by incomprehensible spoken dialogue.
The dialogues themselves are very witty, but since they were not accompanied by supertitles as was the singing, the performance was seriously flawed. Still the singing was excellent, with special praise for Katrina Galka's Cunegonde, and the staging was colorful and often amusing. Hopefully the sound issues were rectified for the following four performances. (You can hear the famous Overture to "Candide"– conducted by the composer — in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
MASS (poster with scenes is below) was performed in what is termed as the 'Chamber Version.' I was apprehensive that somehow the musical content would be diminished, but my worries turned out to be unfounded and the performance was uniformly dynamic and engaging. True Concord is an outstanding choral group, and its leader Eric Holtan led a thoroughly engaging and moving performance of this monumental work. I was so taken by the first performance that I attended the second as well. Both performances filled the huge Centennial Hall.
Besides the orchestra and chorus the work features a celebrant, in this case the appropriately named Jubilant Sykes, an ensemble of vocal soloists, a boys chorus and dancers. The choreographers decided to add an additional layer of complexity to an already complex work by having some of the dancers portray Rose, Jacqueline and Caroline Kennedy as well as what I think was supposed to be the spirit of JFK. This was not part of the original work, and I felt it was superfluous to an already multifaceted work. But the audience loved it all, and it turns out that Madison is not the only city that seems to give everything a standing ovation.
The takeaway moment of the festival occurred during a discussion involving composer Dan Asia, the festival director and conductor George Hanson, and Jamie Bernstein. When asked how younger audiences can be lured into concert halls, all three of them immediately concurred that the answer is to program 20th-century music. They claim that any time 20th-century music is programmed, ticket sales increase. My experience at this festival was that large venues were consistently filled with audiences of all ages.
This is something for Madison to think about.
Tags: #FredFoxSchoolOfMusic, #JohnFitzgeraldKennedy, #LeonardBernstein, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MetropolitanOpera, #NewYorkCity, #NewYorkFestivalofSong, #SanFrancisco, #TucsonDesertSongFestival, #UniversityofArizona, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, 20th-century music, aerobic, amusing, aria, Arizona, Arts, audience, ballet, Ballet Tucson, barcarolle, birth, blog, boys chorus, Broadway, Candide, Caroline Kennedy, celebrant, celebration, Cello, centennial, cheat, Chicago, choral music, chorus, city, Classical music, color, colorful, composer, conduct, conductor, cycle, D.C., dance, dancer, daughter, delight, delivered, desert, Desert Song Festival, dialogue, dynamic, engaging, faculty, father, festival, film, Fred Fox School of Music, God, Harold Prince, high, hypnotize, intellgent, Jackie Kennedy, Jacob Stockinger, Jacqueline Kennedy, Jamie Bernstein, JFK, José Luis Gomez, Kaddish, KENNEDY, Larry Wells, left, Leonard Bernstein, Madison, man, mass, Met, Metropolitan Opera, Mezzo-soprano, Milwaukee, monologue, monumental, movie, moving, Music, narration, narrative, New York City, New York Festival of Song, On the Waterfront, opera, Orchestra, original, Overture, percussionist, performance, Piano, program, programming, recital, right, Romeo and Juliet, Rose Kennedy, San Francisco, score, singer, soloist, song, songs, spoken, stage, staging, standard, strange, Student, symphony, Tahiti, tone, trouble, Trouble in Tahiti, True Concord, Tucson, Tucson Arizona Boys Chorusus, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, United States, University of Arizona, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, venue, Veteran, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Washington, winds, workout, write, YouTube
Classical music: Should the Madison Symphony Orchestra program more 20th-century music?
A friend and reviewer for this blog – his specialty is opera but he also is very experienced with the symphonic repertoire — sent in the following opinion piece.
It is being posted in the wake of the announcement by the Madison Symphony Orchestra of its 2017-18 season.
For reference, here is a link to the lineup of the next season's concerts that was posted yesterday:
https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2017/04/13/classical-music-the-madison-symphony-orchestra-announces-its-2017-2018-season-of-nine-concerts-of-favorites-combined-with-firsts/
I received my subscription renewal package for the Madison Symphony Orchestra (below, in a photo by Greg Anderson) a couple of weeks ago, and I was struck then by how conservative and prosaic most of the offerings are.
I've mentioned my feelings to acquaintances, and one of the prevailing arguments is that they have to fill the seats.
The assumption seems to be that the patrons will only tolerate music written before 1850.
I'm 70 and I grew up with Stravinsky. I can recall the world premieres of Shostakovich's final three symphonies. I once eagerly awaited recordings of Britten's latest works. And I heard the first performances of several works by John Adams (below) while living in San Francisco in the 1980s.
If the assumption is that most reliable patrons are in their 70s and 80s, this seems like a dead-end (pardon the pun). There will be no audience in 20 years.
I believe that audiences can tolerate music of the 20th century — look at the glowing reviews of and enthusiastic ovations for last week's performances of Witold Lutoslawski's "Concerto for Orchestra'' — and attracting younger patrons with bolder musical choices seems an economic necessity.
How can the MSO not be commemorating the centenary of Leonard Bernstein (below, in a photo by Jack Mitchell)? The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra is performing several of his pieces in its upcoming season.
Why do we have to endure another Brahms symphony when we could hear Dmitri Shostakovich's 11th or 15th or Jean Sibelius' Fourth or Fifth or even Anton Bruckner's 8th?
On a positive note, I was heartened to see that Benjamin Britten's "Sinfonia da Requiem" is scheduled next season since that has been on my wish list for years. Likewise, Leos Janacek's "Glagolitic Mass" is a nice surprise.
However, when will we hear Britten's "War Requiem," Bernstein's "Mass" or "'Songfest," a symphony by Walter Piston (below top) or William Schuman (below middle) or Alan Hovhannes (below bottom)?
I'm really tired of going to concerts where only one of the works is of interest to me and the others are historic artifacts. I'd like to see a reversal wherein Brahms, Mozart and Beethoven are brought out occasionally, but the bulk of the music performed comes from the rich source of the 20th century.
Leave word in the COMMENT section.
Tags: 20th-century, 20th-century music, Alan Hovhaness, Anton Bruckner, Arts, Beethoven, Benjamin Britten, centenary, century, choral music, Classical music, concerto, Concerto for Orchestra, conservative, Dmitri Shostkovich, Jean Sibelius, Johannes Brahms, John Adams, John DeMain, Leonard Bernstein, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, mass, Milwaukee, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Mozart, Music, opera, Orchestra, premiere, Requiem, San Francisco, Season, Songfest, Stravinsky, symphony, Twentieth Century, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vocal music, Walter Piston, war, War Requiem, William Schuman, Wisconsin, Witold Lutoslawski, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, world premiere
Classical music: This afternoon is your last chance to hear twin-sister pianists Christina and Michelle Naughton play Mozart with the Madison Symphony Orchestra. Here are three reviews. There will also be poetry inspired by the Symphony No. 5 by Shostakovich, which is also on the program. Plus, a FREE concert of choral music takes place tonight at the UW-Madison
ALERT: Tonight at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall is a FREE concert of choral music by the UW-Madison group Chorale under its director Bruce Gladstone. Sorry, no word on the program.
This afternoon at 2:30 p.m. in Overture Hall is your last chance to hear twin-sister, Madison-born pianists Christina and Michelle Naughton (below top) perform a Mozart concerto with the Madison Symphony Orchestra (below bottom). Works by Claude Debussy and Dmitri Shostakovich are also on the program conducted by MSO music director John DeMain.
The program has received fine reviews from the critics:
Here is a review written by John W. Barker for Isthmus:
http://isthmus.com/music/familial-spirit/
Here is the review by Greg Hettmansberger for his blog "What Greg Says":
https://whatgregsays.wordpress.com/2016/11/12/a-perfectly-timed-homecoming/
And here is a review written by Jessica Courtier for The Capital Times:
http://host.madison.com/ct/entertainment/music/concert-review-mso-delivers-heart-wrenching-performance-of-shostakovich-s/article_e3fc410e-3e15-543b-b323-fee9ac6ec552.html
For more information about the concert and program, go to:
https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2016/11/08/classical-music-twin-sister-pianists-the-naughtons-return-to-their-hometown-this-weekend-to-perform-a-mozart-concerto-with-the-madison-symphony-orchestra-the-famous-symphony-no-5-by-shostakovich-i/
NEW MSO POETRY PROGRAM "COUNTERRPOINTS" DEBUTS TODAY
In addition, as a part of its 2016-17 season offerings, the Madison Symphony Orchestra (MSO) will today launch The Counterpoint Readings, a special event series where poets will respond to a selected symphonic piece, culminating in a reading in Overture Center's Promenade Lounge the weekend the piece is performed. It is scheduled to start after the performance, at around 4:30 p.m. today.
NOTE: There is a $10 admission charge to the poetry reading, which includes a wine and cheese reception. But because notice was given late, the original deadline of Nov. 10 for reservations will be overlooked.
The first reading focuses on Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 by Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich (below), performed by the MSO as part of its "Paired to Perfection" concerts this weekend. (You can hear the famous finale of the Shostakovich symphony performed by Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The Counterpoint Readings debut will happen following today's performance, beginning at approximately 4:30 p.m. Eight poets will perform original works— world premieres for each artist.
Coordinated by MSO violist and poet Katrin Talbot (below, writing poetry in a photo by Isabel Karp), the series seeks to expand the audience's musical experience and bring Madison's poetry into a new light. Another such music-based poetry reading, to take place in the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, is scheduled for March, according to Talbot.
Katrin Talbot shares her vision of the how the power of words can respond to this significant historical composition, "Stalin is trumpeting out Soviet dominance. Yet somehow, he (Shostakovich) overcame it to generate art. Deception to get his voice heard."
Among the poets slated to appear include MSO bassist August Jirovec, former Wisconsin Poet Laureate Marilyn Taylor, former Madison Poet Laureate Sarah Busse, Richard Merelman, Eve Robillard, Timothy Walsh, Marilyn Annucci and Rita Mae Reese.
Here is a preview: August Jirovec's inspiration leading up to the reading:
"If there be meaning in this world askew,
let toils and rhyming gripes slide—disappear
your cross of blood drawn in the dirt austere
and lavish canvases of nascent hue
with brilliant visions! Let your whimsy brew
brash, crazen potions inspired by this tier
of music hefted from chests, as time's spear
pierces the heart that must love art—through you."
And here is a link to a long interview with Talbot by Lindsay Christians for The Capital Times:
http://host.madison.com/ct/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/people-turn-to-the-poets-writers-respond-to-a-symphony/article_d6010935-abc3-556c-96db-3a9eea4619d9.html
For more information go to:
The Counterpoint Readings, direct link: http://www.madisonsymphony.org/counterpointreadings
Paired to Perfection concerts: http://www.madisonsymphony.org/naughtons
Tags: 20th-century music, Art, Arts, cheese, choral music, Christina and Michelle Naughton, Classical music, composer, concerto, counterpoint, critic, Debussy, Dmitri Shostakovich, Greg Hettmansberger, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, Jessica Courtier, John W. Barker, Leonard Bernstein, Lindsay Christians, Madison, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mozart, Music, New York City, New York Philharmonic, Orchestra, Overture Center, Piano, poem, Poet laureate, Poetry, reading, reception, review, sister, symphony, The Capital Times, twins, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, What Greg Says, Wine, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube


Tougaloo College is one of four historically black universities that will have post-Katrina debt cleared.
NEW ORLEANS — One historically black university in Mississippi and three others in New Orleans will see about $330 million in post-Katrina debt owed to the federal government cleared under a provision in a congressional budget deal signed by President Donald Trump.
Tougaloo College, and Dillard University, Xavier University and Southern University at New Orleans, borrowed the money in 2007 from the federal Department of Education as they struggled to deal with crippling blows dealt by Hurricane Katrina.
The New Orleans Advocate reports little of the loans had been paid back in the past decade, as most of the universities tried to regain their footing and boost enrollment. Payments were suspended in 2013 under a provision inserted into a 2012 spending bill by former U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu but the five-year loan forbearance period was set to expire in April, putting pressure on the universities. Each potentially faced millions in debt payments to the federal government.
"It would've been crippling," said Walter Kimbrough, the president of Dillard University, which borrowed about $160 million after several feet of water inundated its campus.
Xavier University borrowed $165 million through the program, while SUNO took out $44 million and Tougaloo borrowed about $28.5 million, according to U.S. Department of Education data compiled by the Wall Street Journal.
The Journal reported in 2017 that the four institutions together had paid back about $12.4 million.
The loans' forgiveness brings to a close years of lobbying by the institutions and politicians from Louisiana and Mississippi. The provision wiping away the debt was included in the budget deal's massive $90 billion disaster-relief package primarily geared toward communities devastated in 2017 by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.
"My predecessor, Dr. Victor Ukpolo, and I have been working with the other three universities for some time to make the case for this forgiveness," said SUNO Chancellor Lisa Mims-Devezin. "Attempting to pay off the loan would have caused an additional decrease in available funds and would have required significant budget cuts, termination of programs and employee layoffs."
The chancellor also noted that the vast majority of other Katrina federal loans have already been forgiven.
"This loan forgiveness will allow Xavier University to provide academic excellence to all of our students, today and into the future," said Reynold Verret, president of Xavier University of Louisiana. "We would like to thank the members of the House and Senate from Louisiana and Mississippi who worked diligently to secure this legislation so that our historic institution can continue our work of contributing to a just and humane society."
Louisiana's congressional delegation, including Rep. Cedric Richmond of New Orleans and Sen. Bill Cassidy, worked with the presidents of the universities on the issue, Kimbrough said.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran, a Mississippi Republican whose committee wrote the bill, played a key role in including the provision in the text.


text:
GreekReporter.comAncient GreeceBattle of Plataea: The Decisive Victory Against Persia that Saved Greece
Battle of Plataea: The Decisive Victory Against Persia that Saved Greece
Battle of Plataea: The Decisive Victory Against Persia that Saved Greece. Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
Today, on August 27, 479 BCE the Greek warriors annihilated and put an end to Persian ambitions at the Battle of Plataea.
This ferocious battle was the final clash of the second Persian invasion of Greece with the victory of the allied Greek forces putting a final end to the Persian empire's expansion.
This decisive battle occurred in the city of Plataea in Boeotia and was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, including Sparta, Athens, Corinth, Megara, and others against the Persian army of Xerxes I along with a large number of pro-Persian Greeks, mainly from Thebes. Plataea was an ancient city located in southeastern Boeotia south of Thebes.
The previous year, the invading Persian force, led by the Persian king himself, had scored victories at the Battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium and conquered Thessaly, Boeotia, and Attica.
However, at the ensuing Battle of Salamis, the Allied Greek Navy had won an unlikely yet total victory, therefore preventing the conquest of the Peloponnese.
Xerxes then retreated with most of his army, leaving his general, Mardonius to finish off the Greeks the following year. After all, the Persians controlled a big part of Greece, and their army was essentially intact.
Greeks assemble allied army to kick out Persians
In the summer of 479 BC, the Greeks assembled a huge allied army, marching out of the Peloponnese to push the Persians out once and for all.
According to Herodotus, the Greek hoplite forces for the Battle of Plataea were divided as follows: 8,000 Athenians; 5,000 Corinthians; 5,000 Lacedaemonians; 5,000 Spartans, 3,000 Megarians; and 3,000 Sicyonians.
There were: 1,500 Tegeans; 1,000 Phleiasians; 1,000 Troezenians; 800 Anactorians/Leucadians; 800 Epidaurians; 600 Orchpmenians; 600 Plataeans; 500 Aeginetans; and 500 Ambraciots joining them.
A total of 600 Eretrians/Styrians; 400 Chalcidians; 300 Hermionians; 300 Potidaeans; 200 Lepreans; 200 Paleans, and an unspecified number of Thespians joined these forces, totaling 38,700 hoplites.
The Persian forces at Plataea
Although the historian Herodotus did not provide specifics on the Persian Army for the Battle of Plataea, the numbers are estimated to have come to 110,000.
Τhe Persian forces were divided into units of various nationalities with their estimated numbers showing 40,000 Persians, 20,000 Medes, 20,000 Bactrians, Indians, and Sacae.
There were also 50,000 pro-Persian Greeks, mostly Thebans, accounting for a total of 110,000 troops with a combined cavalry force 5,000 strong.
Upon the approach of the Greeks, the Persian forces retreated to Boeotia and built a fortified camp near Plataea.
The Greeks, who had no cavalry at all, refused to be drawn into the prime cavalry terrain around the Persian camp.
Battle of Plataea strategies
The Persian general, Mardonius, was confident that the outnumbered Greeks were easy prey for his vast army and were potentially divided.
Persian warfare favored long-range assault using archers followed up with a cavalry charge while Greek warfare was based on heavily-armored hoplites fighting in tight formation at least eight men deep, called the phalanx.
Each hoplite carried a heavy round bronze shield and fought at close quarters using spears and swords.
The Persian infantry, on the other hand, carried lightweight wicker shields and were armed with a long dagger or battle ax, a short spear, and composite bow.
In addition, the Persian forces included the Immortals, an elite force better protected with armor and armed with spears.
The Persians also had a cavalry armed with bows and an additional two javelins for throwing and thrusting. The horsemen attacked on the flanks of the main battle, causing the opposing infantry to land into disarray after the repeated salvos from the archers.
The Greeks, knowing that the Persians preferred open terrain for the way they fought—with archers and cavalry—chose the advantages of broken terrain.
In addition, the light arrows of the Persian archers were hardly effective against the heavy armor and shields of the Greek hoplites.
Fighting at close quarters with the heavy armor, longer spears and the rigid discipline of the phalanx formation meant that the Greek hoplites would have an advantage on broken terrain.
"Greek hoplites attack the Persian Army," by John Steeple Davis (published 1900). Wikimedia Commons Public Domain
The Battle of Plataea
The Greek forces moved into position, forming a 7 km (4.3 miles) long front just 3-4 km opposite the Persians below the low hills of Cithaeron.
Mardonius lined up his army with the Persians holding the right flank, and the Medes and the Bactrians, Indians, and Sacae in the center. On the left flank, he lined up the pro-Persian Greeks.
The cavalry forces waited slightly back, one group on each flank.
On the opposite side, the Spartans, Tegeans, and Thespians held the right flank and the Athenians, Megarians, and Plataeans held the left flank, with everyone else in the center.
Once in position, the two armies waited with each side remaining in their preferred terrain: the Persians on the plain and the Greeks in the broken terrain near the hills.
After two days of a stand-off, the Battle of Plataea began with Mardonius sending in his cavalry to attack the side of the Megarians and Athenians. The Athenian archers helped the Greeks to hold their lines.
In the attack, the Greeks managed to kill the Persian commander, Masistius, thus boosting the morale of their forces.
After this slight victory, the Greeks advanced to the northwest just south of the river on the Pyrgos ridge, to obtain a better water supply, but Mardonius did not respond.
Both sides then held position for another week or so with both remaining on their advantageous terrain, as no commander wanted to risk battle on unfavorable terms.
Mardonius then sent his cavalry on a mission around the right flank of the Greek forces where the supply column was situated.
The Persians slaughtered the poorly-armed Greeks and burnt the supplies, dealing a heavy blow to the hoplites by cutting off their food and water.
The Spartan General Pausanias, in order to to reach a water supply under the cover of darkness, moved the Greek center back to the base of the Cithaeron hill just in front of Plataea.
After two days, Mardonius unleashed his cavalry in a full frontal attack on the Greek lines. At the same time, the Persians blocked access to the Gargaphia spring which was the Greeks' main source of water.
The Greek battle-line fragmented and seemed to be in full retreat. Mardonius ordered his forces to pursue them and finish them off.
At this point, the cavalry had withdrawn, probably to rearm themselves with fresh arrows. The Persian foot soldiers tried to chase the retreating Greeks.
Instead, however, the Spartans, Athenians, and Tegeans halted and counter-attacked, routing the lightly-armed Persian infantry and managing to kill Mardonius, after a Spartan hoplite Arimnestus simply hurled a rock at him.
The remnants of the Persians were forced back across the river in disarray. However, the pro-Persian Theban cavalry intervened and allowed them to reoccupy their fortified camp.
The pro-Persian Greek hoplites on the right flank were also forced to retreat under pressure from the Athenians, taking up position behind the walls of Thebes.
The Athenians, Spartans, and Tegeans then stormed the Persian camp, causing more heavy casualties amongst the invaders, slaughtering many, and forcing the rest to flee.
The destruction of the invading army, and the remnants of the Persian navy—apparently on the same day at the Battle of Mycale—put an end to the Persians' ambitions to take over Greece.
The Greeks then turned to Thebes and stormed and sacked the city, punishing the Thebans for siding with the Persian invaders.
Aristodemus redeems himself in Plataea
Among the victorious Greeks, there was one Spartan hoplite, Aristodemus, who had survived the Battle of Thernmopylae. He did not die alongside King Leonidas and his brave 300 Spartans.
His returning to Sparta alive while all his fellow warriors were killed in battle was the ultimate act of treason for Spartans.
The coward was not punished, but he was treated as if he did not exist; he was invisible and no one would touch him.
According to Herodotus, before the heroic battle, Aristodemus and Eurytus had been stricken by an eye disease and became blind. King Leonidas deemed them unfit to fight and ordered them to return home before the battle.
Eurytus, however, turned back to the battlefield, and though literally blind, met his valiant death very early on in the battle.
Aristodemus, who duly returned to his homeland, was regarded as a coward and subjected to humiliation. He was even called "Aristodemus the Coward" from then on.
Herodotus believed that had both Aristodemus and Eurytus returned to Sparta alive, or Aristodemus alone been ill and excused from combat, the Spartans would have ascribed no blame to him.
To redeem himself and shed the stigma of being a coward, Aristodemus chose to seek a glorious death at the Battle of Plataea only just one year after Thermopylae.
There, it was recorded that he fought fiercely and bravely, desperately trying to get rid of his shame and clear his name.
His courage and bravery did not go unnoticed. Unfortunately for him, however, the military leaders also saw a recklessness that was completely incompatible with the discipline required for the success of the Spartan phalanx.
Every move outside the battle plan was viewed as jeopardizing the lives of fellow warriors.
Once again, Aristodemus was in a difficult position and was forced to apologize for his stance. Although very seriously injured in the battle, he was deemed insane.
Fortification remains in the Plataea fields. Credit: George E. Koronaios/Wikimedia Commons CC0
Although the Battle of Plataea was in every sense a decisive victory, it has not been attributed the same significance as the victory at the Battle of Marathon, the victory in Salamis, or even the Allied heroic defeat at Thermopylae.
With the Plataea victory, the Greeks had sent a message to Xerxes that Greece would not allow herself to be subjugated to any foreign invader.
The victories at Marathon, Salamis, and Plataea had ensured the survival of Greece and allowed for Greek civilization to flourish and become the foundation upon which all Western cultures would be based.
Battle of Marathon
Battle of Salamis
Greco-Persian Wars
Plataea
Floods, Stormy Weather Hit Greece
Deadly Radioactive Capsule Lost in Australia
The Platonic Academy of Athens: The World's First University

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Dodgers News: Don Mattingly Against Personal Catcher Situation
by Vincent Samperio 04/07/2015, 11:19 AM
The Los Angeles Dodgers traded Matt Kemp this winter and the return was anchored by a switch-hitting catcher that was supposed to aid the almost non-existent offense received by the team from that position.
While Kemp was the number three hitter for his new team on Opening Day, catcher Yasmani Grandal was nowhere to be found in the Dodgers 6-3 season-opening victory. That was because ace Clayton Kershaw prefers the veteran A.J. Ellis, who has spent the past three seasons as the everyday catcher.
According to Bill Plunkett of the OC Register, Ellis got the nod on Monday, but wasn't promised anything else:
He made it clear in no way was it going to be a 'personal catcher' situation," Ellis said. "It was just a case of wanting to give Clayton something he was comfortable with the first time out this year."
Kershaw had a mediocre performance based on his standards, allowing three runs in six innings and earning a no-decision. Ellis went 0-for-3 at the plate with a pair of strikeouts.
It's clear that Kershaw had a bit of a say in the decision for Ellis to start, but Mattingly hopes that the rapport between the staff and both catchers continues to grow:
We've talked to Clayton a lot about this. Guys have preferences. We'd really like our catching situation to be one where (the starting pitchers) trust both guys and they're all involved in meetings and calling pitches and how they attack – for all our guys, not just Clayton. Every guy, we want him to feel like no matter who is catching him that they're comfortable with, 'This is the way I work. This is what I want to do today.'"
One thing Mattingly wants to avoid is one pitcher only being able to throw to a certain guy:
"I don't want it to be a personal catcher situation," Mattingly said.
Saturday will be the next time Kershaw takes the mound and who catches that night will be monitored closely.
Dodgers 2015 Spring Training – Brandon McCarthy
Written by Vincent Samperio
Vince is currently the Associate Editor and Social Media Manager for Dodgers Nation. Hailing from San Pedro, CA and a student at Cal State Long Beach, Vince has previously written for the Daily 49er and LASF Magazine.


text:
← Outages highlight the need for a fundamental revision of grid planning Part 1: A response to "Rooftop Solar Inequity" →
18 thoughts on "Transmission: the hidden cost of generation"
Pingback: A misguided perspective on California's rooftop solar policy | Economics Outside the Cube
Pingback: The scale economy myth of electric utilities | Economics Outside the Cube
Pingback: Part 2: A response to "Is Rooftop Solar Just Like Energy Efficiency?" | Economics Outside the Cube
Scott Murtishaw July 15, 2021 at 11:21 AM
I see the problem. You were referring to Table 9-2 in the 2021 ERRA, but the link you included in your previous comment was to the 2022 ERRA testimony. IMO, the ERRA testimony is irrelevant — that's just the energy value of the utilities' entire RPS portfolios plus an administratively determined REC adder. If you want to know what RPS contracts have actually cost by the year they were approved, you need to look at the Padilla report. As you can see in Figure 3, wind/solar PPAs haven't cost 5 c/kWh since 2015. As I'm sure you know, the IOUs have signed virtually no contracts for large projects for the past several years because they are so oversupplied with RPS energy. In Table C-1 you can see that the handful of contracts they executed in 2020 were programmatic obligations. Since CCAs were the LSEs executing contracts for large-scale solar and wind, you need to look at Table C-2, which, as I noted above, shows that solar PV contracts executed in 2020 cost 2.7 c/kWh on average. The only solar contracts that cost more than 5 c/kWh were for projects less than 3 MW.
I'm working on transmission numbers, but it's difficult to disaggregate total Tx spend by resource type.
Richard McCann Post author July 15, 2021 at 11:51 AM
Sorry about the link problem.
The REC is determined by taking the value of the RPS PPAs signed by IOUs in the previous year and then the Platts energy forward price is subtracted to arrive at the "green" adder which is interpreted as equivalent to the REC. I haven't seen in anything in the information I have to contradict this value in any significant way.
Unlike the Padilla Report, the ERRA RPS price must meet regulatory evidence requirements and these have been approved by the CPUC in at least three ERRA proceedings. Again, I don't know how the CPUC is seeing CCA transaction data because it doesn't have jurisdiction or access to those entities transactions. There might be anecdotal information, but the low-cost agreements are the ones trumpeted in the headlines. (Until I see the Padilla Report database on PPAs, I won't concede on this point.)
Because transmission is a network, it's not possible to disaggregate the costs by technology. You have to include all of the downstream investment that facilitates the conveyance of power from the first substation interconnection to the rest of the substations. There's no possible way to do that except through an arbitrary allocation method. That's why I calculated the incremental cost on an aggregate basis.
One further point on this: both energy and peak loads have been flat since 2006. In this situation, if the generation fleet had remained static since no additions have been required for load growth, the only remaining factor that can cause transmission investment is a change in the generation fleet. That means regardless of the supposed explanation for transmission costs, it all rolls back to changes in generation. Since 2010, almost all of that has come from grid-scale renewables.
Richard McCann Post author July 15, 2021 at 1:01 PM
An additional point–the "green adder" that I've referenced is being used to calculate the marginal cost of renewables in both the PG&E and SCE GRCs now, not the values from the Padilla Report.
Scott Murtishaw July 15, 2021 at 3:34 PM
"The 2020 RPS procurement cost figures in this report were compiled from all CPUC jurisdictional load serving entities (LSEs): Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), Southern California Edison Company (SCE), and San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E); 3 SMJUs; 23 CCAs; and 13 ESPs." Padilla Report, p. 3.
Well, there's certainly a discrepancy in data at the CPUC… I've seen other evidence that indicates that it's closer to the higher value.
Richard, see also https://emp.lbl.gov/utility-scale-solar/
"Nationwide average levelized power purchase agreement (PPA) prices fell to $24/MWh in 2019, down 17% from 2018 and more than 80% since 2010. Thirty-nine projects (totaling 4.2 GWAC) in our PPA price sample include battery storage (totaling 2.3 GWAC and 9.5 GWh). In the "lower 48" states, a number of these recent PV+battery PPAs have been inked in the mid-$20/MWh range (levelized in 2019 dollars)."
Again, the CPUC data differs as well other information that I've seen for California.
Regardless, we're talking about only a 2 cents / kWh difference on what looks like a total incremental cost of 10 cents/kWh or more in contrast to the claim that it is only 5 cents.
In addition, we are not asking the grid scale generators to pay the non bypassable charges that the NEM 3.0 proposals are demanding of rooftop solar. That's particularly ironic given that solar PPAs are causing 2 to 3 cents /kWh of those charges.
kakatoa July 15, 2021 at 10:46 AM
Later this week our 15th True Up Bill from PG&E will be arriving in our mailbox. . It be interesting to see the details of our cost allocations as our costs for an average kWh have gone up 22% this year.
Back in 2006 PG&E filled our substation from their recently sold small hydro facility on the American River These days our juice comes from the Camino substation and I am unsure if the EID small hydro output flows into our substation or not. In any case over the last 15 years PG&E has invested a lot of money to optimize voltage in my service area.
By chance do you how this value is derived- "Applying the average CAISO load factor of 52%"?
Congestion issues have been going up over the last few years. The location of a new RE project will likely run into different congestion patterns. Does using average load factors vs project specific ones change the outcome of the analysis?
I calculated the CAISO load factor by dividing the load within the CAISO service area (80% of statewide load as reported by the CEC) by the recorded annual peak.
Since developers are executing large-scale solar PPAs at about 2.5 c/kWh, does that mean distributed solar should be compensated no more than 6.2 c/kWh?
First, transmission costs are only one of the avoided cost elements. And as I point out in my testimony, my estimate of the incremental transmission cost is conservative, so it is actually higher. Further, I calculated that incremental transmission cost based on the average load factor of the entire CAISO system. If we instead use the average capacity factor of a grid scale solar project the transmission cost for that technology essentially doubles to $75/MWH. (https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=epmt_6_07_b). Now we're up to 10 c/kWh from just those two elements. And if we add 8% line losses we're approaching 11 c/kWh.
Another is avoided distribution system costs, which isn't addressed here. There are also reliability and resilience benefits from having generation available at the local circuit level. (That the IOUs haven't reconfigured their systems to take advantage of this, and the AMI infrastructure that was supposed to deliver us so many yet unrealized benefits, isn't the fault of the customers who invested in rooftop solar.)
Finally, that some PPAs are signed at 2.5 c/kWh, the average reported by the IOUs in the Energy Division's survey are around 5.5 c/kWh. Using data rather than anecdotes, we're now to 14 c/kWh before we get into other values supplied by DERs. That's pretty close to the average retail rate just before the IOUs went on a crazy spending binge that has driven those rates up. Where was the CPUC when that was happening?
Richard, in order to calculate the marginal cost of transmission due to large-scale solar, we need to examine the data on recent annual additions of solar capacity and the cost of incremental transmission built specifically to deliver the output from large-scale solar. Are there data available that differentiate the network upgrade costs by resource? I have a hard time believing the average incremental transmission cost of large-scale solar is 7.5 c/kWh.
Where are you getting a recent large-scale solar cost of 5.5c/kWh? If you look at Figure 3 in the 2021 Padilla Report, the average prices of wind and solar contracts signed in 2019 and 2020 were about 3 c/kWh or less. If you look at the Table C-2, the CCAs' average solar PV price for contracts signed in 2020 was 2.7 c/kWh.
Click to access 2021-padilla-report_final.pdf
First, Bill Powers made a recent presentation on the incremental cost for transmission projects specifically for renewables. The Sunrise Project cost $90/MWH by his calculation. That's higher than what the amount calculated here. The other important fact is that almost all of the new transmission has been built to serve new renewables, which are mostly solar. The system interconnections to support added renewables can't always be directly attributed to a single project, but is the collective responsibility of all of the projects.
Second, my calculation was conservative. I used the entire state capacity even though the CAISO is only 80% of the state load. That adjustment raises the average cost to $47/MWH. In addition, I included the capacity repowered at the coastal plants which was about 25% of the new capacity. Making that adjustment increases the average incremental cost to $62/MWH. If we adjust for the solar capacity factor, then the incremental transmission cost rises to over $120/MWH. This may be hard to believe because the utilities have never reported the true incremental costs. They have always reported just the overall average system costs by year. This is the first effort to make a true incremental cost calculation. If one looks at how fast the CAISO TAC rate has increased over the last decade, that the marginal cost is so high is much less of a surprise. I will further that the economics of central station power plants have historically been oversold as many of these costs are socialized to other functions or hidden by using average rather than marginal costs.
As for the average cost of RPS contracts as reported by the Energy Division, the most recent public reference value is $51.50/MWH as shown in Table 9-2 of PG&E's November Update for its 2021 ERRA: https://pgera.azurewebsites.net/Regulation/ValidateDocAccess?docID=656742 (The 2022 ERRA value is confidential, but the REC adder doesn't look like it has changed much.) (I have no idea what the PUC report shows a lower value. The CPUC shouldn't have access to the average prices for CCA contracts.)
For the incremental Tx cost, it still doesn't sound to me like your limiting costs to those that are triggered by new solar. Tehachapi alone was $3 billion, and that was built to access wind resources. The CPUC's "Utility Costs…" report shows that much of the Tx cost increase since 2016 has been due to higher O&M expenses and an increase in "self-approved" projects that do not increase capacity.
Table 9-2 in the ERRA does not show the information you're describing. Maybe you meant to refer to a different table? At any rate, the more relevant information is the cost of recent solar contracts, which is found in the Padilla report, besides numerous other articles in the trade press about utilities across WECC signing solar PPA (or even solar + storage PPAs) for less then 3 c/kWh.
As I said earlier, the incremental costs triggered by solar extend beyond just the specific project costs. The O&M capital costs are netted out through the depreciation adjustment. My calculation excludes expensed O&M and focuses solely on net capital investments. And as I said Bill Powers calculated an incremental cost of $90/MWH for Sunrise. If you have an alternative calculation, you're more than welcome to prepare and present it.
Table 9-2 shows the "green" energy market price benchmark. That is calculated by the Energy Division based on the average cost of utilities' new RPS contracts. That includes the cost of new solar contracts which are the dominant technology. This value has been stable over the last several years. There are headline deals that are less than this, and others that are higher which don't make the press. It is the high cost PPAs that rooftop solar will displace, not the low cost ones, so the 3 cent/kWh deals will still be signed.


text:
TRAHAN PITCHES COMPLETE GAME IN EXPLORERS VICTORY
Sioux City-----David Trahan pitched a complete game Tuesday as the Explorers defeated Gary Southshore 7-1 at Lewis and Clark Park.
It was the second complete game for Trahan since he entered pro baseball in 2004. The righthander had a no-hitter through five innings and finished the game allowing just three hits and the one run while striking out six.
Trahan got all the run support he needed in the second inning when the Explorers scored six runs. The rally in the second started with a two-out walk to Brett Flowers and by the time the last out was recorded in the inning, 11 batters had come to the plate and the Explorers had a 6-0 lead. Sioux City had 13 hits led by Kent Sakamoto with three hits and Dustin Jones, Wally Backman, Jr. and Ray Serrano with two hits apiece. Serrano extended his hitting streak to 14 games while Backman has now hit safely in eight straight games.
It was the second straight win for the Explorers in this series against Central Division Gary Southshore as the X's are still in third place, but have moved to within six games of the first place RailCats. It was also the seventh consecutive win for the Explorers over Gary Southshore dating back to July 11th when the RailCats last defeated the Explorers.
The third game of the four-game series between the Explorers and Gary Southshore will be played TONIGHT at Lewis and Clark Park starting at 7:05. Come out and cheer on your X's by calling 712-277-WINS to reserve your seats and its Weiner Wednesday where everyone can buy one hot dog and get one FREE!


When I began teaching my children I never even considered giving them grades. After all, I have a pretty good idea of what they know and don't know. One of the main purposes of grades are to communicate how well a child is doing in school. When the teacher and parent are different people, grades are a very valuable communication device.
In addition, to letting guardians know how their child is doing, grades also serve to rank kids among their peers. One question I have received from people not intimately familiar with homeschooling is "How do you know your children are where they are supposed to be?" This is another way of asking the ranking question.
What's important to me is not so much how my children stack up against their peers, but rather that they are happy and being challenged to their full potential. If my child couldn't read at grade level, it would be ridiculous for me to give him grade level material and a corresponding low grade. Instead of helping my child to read, giving a low grade would effectively serve to take away any possible motivation he could have to improve his reading skills. On the flip side, if my child could read way above grade level, it would be equally ridiculous for me to give him grade level work and an A+ mark. My time would be much better spent finding interesting books at an appropriate level.
To me knowing how to challenge and motivate my students by introducing appropriate materials is much more important than how the student ranks when compared with peers. Reading, writing and math are primary focus core subjects. Each school day, all three of my children are challenged with interesting materials in each of these categories at their own levels. We don't give grades and don't plan to anytime soon.
Here are other thoughts on grades.
I like your reading grade example. Demonstrates your point very well!
I mostly agree - especially in finding skill-level appropriate material. Where I disagree is probably more a factor of my student then a philosophical disagreement. I have found that my slap-dash, get-it-done fast student is very motivated by grades. Getting a bad mark because of sloppy work or ignoring directions is a more powerful tool with him then repeated instructions and pleading from me. I may change my tune when my more emotional daughter gets a bit older.
I agree too. Your reading example very clearly illustrates your point. Ranking children is one of the most ridiculous and cruelest things the school system does to people. I'm very glad that many homeschooling parents understand the invalidity of grading to not impose it upon their own children.
"What's important to me is not so much how my children stack up against their peers, but rather that they are happy and being challenged to their full potential." Love, love, love this sentence!
I think some states require reporting. In Colorado, where I began homeschooling the kids had to be tested in odd grades 3rd, 5th, etc. It's good to know Michigan is lenient as we hope to be moving there again someday.


Giant second-harmonic generation in cantor-like metamaterial photonic superlattices.
REYES GÓMEZ, Faustino; PORRAS-MONTENEGRO, Nelson; OLIVEIRA JUNIOR, Osvaldo Novais de; MEJÍA-SALAZAR, J. Ricardo.
Abstract: We present a nonlinear transfer matrix method for studying the second-harmonic generation (SHG) in nonperiodic metamaterial photonic superlattices. A large enhancement of up to 5 orders of magnitude in SHG efficiency was observed for superlattices made with a Cantor-like quasiperiodic assembly of a nonlinear material and a metamaterial. The enhancement was found to depend much more on the electric field amplitude along the structure because of self-similarity effects than on the amount of nonlinear material, which opens the way to design superlattices for tailored applications in broad-band tunable lasers.


The Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC) is the largest lay Catholic full-time volunteer program in the world and has been a pioneer in the service landscape for 40 years. Over 10,000 men and women have served tens of thousands of individuals and families within hundreds of communities worldwide since its inception. Jesuit Volunteers have worked tirelessly for social justice, while exploring their spirituality and faith through a framework of Catholic, Ignatian values.


text:
Gonçalo Coutinho (c. 1419) fue un noble portugués, II conde de Marialva y condestable de Portugal.

Sus padres fueron Vasco Fernandes Coutinho (c. 1385) y Maria de Sousa (c. 1385).

Gonçalo Coutinho era nieto de Gonçalo Vasques Coutinho (1360) y su primera esposa Leonor Gonçalves de Azevedo (1361).

Matrimonio y descendiencia
Se casó con Brites de Melo y Sousa (c. 1420), hija de Martim Afonso de Melo y Briolanda de Sousa.

Tuvieron varios hijos, entre los cuales se halla Francisco Coutinho (1465-1532) IV conde de Marialva, casado con Brites de Meneses (1450).

Referencias

Nobles de Portugal del siglo XV

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Pointless: The maths of TV gameshows
John Haigh
Submitted by Rachel on May 7, 2014
One thing that makes TV game shows fun to watch is that there's usually an element of luck involved. Even the brainiest of contestants needs to hedge their bets sometimes, and sometimes the result hinges on things that are totally out of their control. But how (un)lucky is (un)lucky? John Haigh looks at the probabilities of two popular examples.
How lucky is lucky?
This show seeks to reward obscure knowledge: we can all name some football club that has won the FA Cup, but what answer might we give if the aim is to name such a club that other people won't think of?
The test used for obscurity of a (correct) answer is to count how many of 100 randomly selected people give that answer. So although teams like Manchester United or Arsenal will be very popular, I would be confident that Old Carthusians, Clapham Rovers or Blackburn Olympic would get very few mentions – probably zero, that much-desired "pointless" answer.
Four couples begin the game, three of them are eliminated over a series of rounds based on a wide variety of subjects. In the final round, the remaining pair select a topic from a list presented to them, and are allowed to offer three possible answers: they will win money if any of their answers are "pointless". Frequently, they will fail to do so, but do give correct answers chosen only by a small number – two or three – of the 100-strong pool. The presenters commiserate with the contestants on their bad luck in giving such good, but not winning, answers. But how unlucky have they really been, in the sense that, had a different set of 100 people been asked that question, an answer they gave would have been "pointless"?
Let be the number among the 100-strong pool that gave a particular answer. Then we will take as our estimate of the probability that a randomly selected person will give that answer, so that the probability a person does not give that answer is taken as It follows that, with a different set of 100 randomly chosen people, the chance that none of them gave that answer is taken as
But a well-known approximation is that, when is small compared to , then
where is the basis if the natural logarithm.
(You can read more in The making of the logarithm.)
so even if just two people in the pool gave that answer, the chance it would have been pointless with another pool is quite small, about 0.135 or 13.5%. For a single attempt, only if just one person had given their answer might the epithet "unlucky" be appropriate.
But contestants do offer three answers, so the most frustrating outcome would be if all of them had attracted just one vote from the pool. With a different pool of 100 people, each answer has a 37% chance of being pointless, so the chance of none of the three answers being pointless is
This puts the chance that at least one of them is pointless at
about 75%. And that is as unlucky as you can get in this game.
The Million Pound Drop
In this game contestants face a series of questions, each of which has up to four possible answers displayed, but only one is correct. They begin with one million pounds and, with each question, must decide how to split their money among the possible answers. They may select one answer only, or spread it among two or more: any money placed on incorrect answers is lost, and they take away however much they have left after the eighth and final question. Two rules: first, all the money must be placed somewhere; second, at least one answer must attract no money. If they are sure of the answer, they do best to place all their funds on it, but what should they do when they are uncertain between two (or more) answers?
The concept of utility can help. Gambling scruples apart, having an extra £10 for certain is generally felt to be just as attractive as having a 50:50 chance of either £20, or zero, to be determined on the toss of a coin. But most people would rather have an extra £100,000 for certain than face a 50:50 chance of either £200,000 or zero. With these larger sums, twice as much money brings rather less than twice the benefits.
The black line is the graph of the function Y = X and the purple curve is the graph of the square root function.
A convenient mathematical function that reflects this is the square root function: we will take the utility of winning £ as This means that the utility of winning increases with which makes sense because we'd all like to win more, but it increases much slower than does. In fact, as increases, the growth of slows down, reflecting our observation above. We will base our decisions on maximising the expected (or mean) utility of the amount we take through.
So suppose our current fortune is £ and we are uncertain as between two answers: our intuitive feeling is that answers A and B have respective probabilities and of being correct, where Placing £ on A, and £ on B leads to an expected utility of
To find the value of that maximises this, recall that in order to find the maximum of a function you set the derivative equal to zero. In our case this gives:
To interpret this, suppose you think that A is twice as likely to be correct as B, so Then
so you should put four times as much on A as B. If you think that A is three times as likely as B, then you should put 9 times as much on A as on B — if you still have one million pounds then split it as £900,000 to £100,000. Generally, the amount you place on any answer should be proportional to the square of the chance it is correct.
The same notion carries through if you wish to spread your money among three answers, say with respective chances 1/2, 1/3 and 1/6: when the dust settles after squaring these values, you should split your funds in the ratios 9 : 4 : 1.
John Haigh teaches the module Mathematics in Everyday Life at Sussex University. With Rob Eastaway, he wrote The hidden mathematics of sport, which has been reviewed on Plus.
utility function
TV game show


Jaguar F-Type Convertible 3.0 Litre V6 340PS Supercharged 8-Speed Automatic/Paddle-shift.
First registered 25th April 2018 finished in metallic Santorini Black with Ebony leather and suedecloth Sports Seats with Ebony stitching and Black power roof.
Just 4670 miles with the remainder of Jaguar warranty and roadside assistance until April 2021.
An excellent opportunity to acquire to all intents and purposes a new F-Type with nominal miles and a £17000 saving on Jaguar's list price.
Please call to enquire or make an appointment to view.
Please note viewing is strictly by appointment only.


Extraordinary service is among the finest attributes to picking a bed mattress from this company. Their beds are commended for supplying fantastic worth of what you pay, and also every little thing includes a lifetime warranty. The benefits of good rest are many. Many sleep professionals and consumers alike believe DreamCloud provides among the very best ways to delight in those advantages to their max. To ensure, this is just one of the most attractive examples of memory foam mattresses you are mosting likely to find. Also, Forbes ranked Dreamcloud as the best memory foam mattress in 2018.
However, compare those costs to some of the top DreamCloud rivals. Shifman as well as Sleep Number 18 are two instances of firms that put out comparable products. Those bed mattress can start in the $3000-dollar variety, with Shifman beds commonly choosing greater than 6 grand. The beds from those companies do not include trials as long as the one you'll get with DreamCloud. Dreamcloud is one of the only crossbreed bed mattress companies to offer a life time service warranty on their items.
In order to value everything these bed mattress have to offer, we need to consider the numerous materials that bring these bed mattress to life. The Dream Cloud bed mattress includes 8 well balanced degrees of memory foam comfort. The bed mattress likewise include a copyrighted coil system. The hand-tufted cashmere covers are one more element to keep in mind. The even more you learn more about this bed, the less complicated it is to understand why they have come to be so preferred with people seeking budget-friendly deluxe mattresses.
These preserve the air conditioning feeling of the mattresses. Latex is also made use of in the production of the DreamCloud. This makes sure a mattress with some of the finest side assistance to be found anywhere.
The Dreamcloud lifetime warranty appears to be as solid as any type of life time warranty you are most likely to discover. These mattresses are kept in mind and also celebrated for being constructed to last. They can be a little costly to tidy and also look after, if you want to do those points appropriately. Your Dream Cloud mattress acquisition will certainly include one free cleaning. This is valued at around $300, and also it starts after you've possessed the bed for at the very least one year. Dreamcloud has been admired by lots of for supplying a legally useful service to their consumers free of cost.
If you keep your Dreamcloud for even more than 5 years, DreamCloud will certainly replace the bed, restoring it to its previous magnificence. Taking advantage of these functions, it appears affordable that you will certainly be able to delight in the mattress for a really lengthy time to come.
When it concerns searching for the most effective mattresses, suppleness is naturally something you are going to maintain in mind. You want something that is versatile in this field, but you absolutely likewise want something that will certainly keep your certain requirements in mind.
Therefore, keep in mind that these beds are only built at the medium-firm level. This gives it a 6.5 out of 10 on the firmness range. This is taken into consideration to be a high-end level of firmness, and it is qualified of satisfying the demands of the majority of people. Thankfully, Dream Cloud supplies an incredible 1-year test of their mattress. To put it simply, if you aren't happy, returning the bed needs to not be a problem whatsoever.
PRO: The cost is quite just great. As we mentioned in the past, this is one of the most inexpensive deluxe crossbreed bed mattress we have actually ever seen.
PRO: The materials are several of the finest ever used to develop a mattress. Inspect the reviews, and also you will discover a bed that just concerning anyone can enjoy. A huge component of that boils down to the materials they use.
PRO: Remember that a crossbreed mattress can indicate getting the very best of all worlds. DreamCloud incorporates coils with memory foam to give you a remarkable experience.
PRO: The 1-year test as well as lifetime guarantee makes the possibility of a minimum of trying this bed much more appealing.
CON: The lack of numerous suppleness levels can be a little frustrating to some. Still, there is a superb chance that you are going to drop in love with everything this item brings to the room.
Merely placed, the DreamCloud mattress is an instance of the crossbreed high-end beds that have ended up being so preferred in current years. Those mattresses can start in the $3000-dollar variety, with Shifman bed mattress commonly going for more than 6 grand. In order to appreciate every little thing these beds have to use, we need to take into consideration the numerous products that bring these beds to life. The more you learn about this mattress, the less complicated it is to understand why they have actually ended up being so preferred with people looking for affordable luxury mattresses.
If you keep your Dreamcloud for more than five years, DreamCloud will refurbish the bed, restoring it to its former glory.


Spinach is a leafy green full of potent nutrients. It has famously appeared in the cartoon Popeye for its energy giving qualities. Whilst it may not actually give instant super muscles, the healthy medley of nutrient it contains will certainly help get you up, active and energized. If you are looking for all-round protection, and boost to your energy levels, then look for our slow juices with spinach in!
Spinach belongs to the chenopodiaceous family of plants, also sometimes referred to as the goosefoot family. It is a family of powerhouse vegetables, which includes beetroots and chard. Spinach tends to grow with large, jade green leaves that can bush out quite a lot if left to its own devices. It has an earthy taste which nicely complements the other vegetables we use in our cold-pressed juices.
It is thought that spinach is of Persian origin, spreading to Europe in the 12th Century, where it quickly developed a reputation for its healthy qualities – a reputation that has stood firm to this day. This is no surprise, you don't need to be a genius to figure out that spinach is a superfood, you can tell just from its consumption! So as you can imagine, we didn't want to leave it out of some of our delicious juices!
A piece of fun spinach trivia: One notable figure of history who could not get enough of the stuff was Catherine de Medici. During the 16th century, she left her home of Florence, Italy to marry the king of France. She brought her own personal chef along with her, so that he could prepare her spinach just the way she liked. Ever since then, serving any food on a bed of spinach is has been referred to as "a la Florentine".


Copyright © 2019 Barah M. Sulaiman and Tahir H. Ismail. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
In this paper, we introduced and studied (1,2,3)-α-open set, (1,2,3)-α-neighborhood system, (1,2,3)-α-derived, (1,2,3)-α-closure, (1,2,3)-α-interior, (1,2,3)-α-exterior, (1,2,3)-α-boundary, (1,2,3)-α-convergence of nets, and (1,2,3)-α-convergence of filters in fuzzifying tritopological spaces.
The fuzzy set is an important concept, which was introduced for the first time in 1965 by Zadeh ; it was then used in many studies in various fields. Here, we are interested in fuzzy with topology. The fuzzy and fuzzifying topologies are two branches of fuzzy mathematics. The basic concepts and properties of fuzzy topologies were subedited and investigated by Chang in 1968  and Wong in 1974 . After that, so many works of literature have appeared for different kinds of fuzzy topological spaces for, e.g., [4–8]. In 1991-1993, Ying introduced a new approach for fuzzy topology with fuzzy logic and established some properties in fuzzifying topology [9–11]. Also, we are interested in the concept of α-open set which was introduced by Njåstad in 1965 , and the tritopological space which was first initiated by Kovar in 2000 . In 2017, Tapi and Sharma introduced α-open sets in tritopological spaces . In 1999, Khedr et al. presented semiopen sets and semicontinuity in fuzzifying topology . In 2016, Allam and et al. studied semiopen sets in fuzzifying bitopological spaces . We will use in this paper Ying's basic fuzzy logic formulas with appropriate set theoretical notations from [9, 10].
The following are some useful definitions and results that will be used in the rest of the present work.
then is a fuzzifying topology and a fuzzifying topological space .
The family of fuzzifying closed sets is denoted by and defined as , where is the complement of .
The neighborhood system of is denoted by and defined as .
The closure set of a set is denoted by and defined as .
The fuzzifying interior set of a set is denoted by and defined as .
The family of all fuzzifying α-open sets is denoted by and defined as , i.e., .
The family of all fuzzifying α-closed sets is denoted by αℱ and defined as .
The fuzzifying α-interior set of a set is denoted by and defined as follows: , where is α–neighborhood system of defined as .
The fuzzifying α-derived set of a set is denoted by and defined as , i.e., .
The α-closure set of a set is denoted by and defined as .
Definition 1. If is a fuzzifying tritopological space (FTTS), then we have the following: (i)The family of all fuzzifying (1,2,3)-α-open sets is denoted by and defined as , i.e., .(ii)The family of all fuzzifying (1,2,3)-α-closed sets is denoted by and defined as .
Lemma 2. Let ( be a FTTS.
Proof. If , then ⇒ then .
Lemma 3. If is a FTTS and . Then (i);(ii).
Proof. From Theorem 2.2-(5) in , we have(i).(ii).
Theorem 4. If is a FTTS, then (i), ;(ii)for any ;(iii), ;(iv)for any .
Proof. (i). (ii)From Lemma 2, we have , then , ≥ (iii)and (iv) are obvious.
Lemma 5. If is a FTTS, then .
Theorem 6. If is a FTTS and , , and are the families of closed sets with respect to , , and , respectively, then (i);(ii).
Proof. (i)From Theorem (2.2)-(3) in  and Theorem (5.2)-(3) in , we have = = ≤ ⊆∧ ≤ (ii)It follows directly from (i).
It may not be true for all FTTS .
Example 8. For and . Let be a fuzzifying tritopological space defined by Now, we have , , , , , , , , , . and , , , , , , , , , . and , , , , , , , , , . and , , , , , , , , , and , , , , , , , , , . . Therefore , , , and .
Lemma 9. If is a FTTS, then .
Proof. From Theorem (2.2)-(3) in , we have = ≤ ≤ = .
Theorem 10. If is a FTTS, then .
Lemma 11. If is a FTTS, then (i);(ii).
Theorem 12. If is a FTTS, then (i);(ii).
Definition 13. If is a FTTS and . Then indicates the "(1,2,3)-α-neighborhood system of " and defined as , i.e., .
Theorem 14. If is a FTTS, then .
Theorem 15. If ( is a FTTS and , then (i),(ii).
Theorem 16. If is a FTTS, the mapping , , where is the set of all normal fuzzy subset of , has the following properties:(i),(ii),(iii).
Definition 17. If is a FTTS, then indicates the "(1,2,3)-α-derived set of " and defined as follows: , i.e., .
Theorem 19. If is a FTTS and , then (i);(ii);(iii);(iv), where is the fuzzifying derived set of with respect to .
Definition 20. If is a FTTS, then indicates the "(1,2,3)-α-closure set of " and defined as , i.e., .
Theorem 21. If is a FTTS, and , then (i);(ii);(iii) ;(iv);(v));(vi);(vii);(viii).


Always carry your glasses in their case to avoid breaking or scratching them.
Try to use both hands to put your glasses on and to take them off. This will help maintain their original shape.
Never place your glasses lens down on a surface as you may scratch the lens by doing this.
If the temples (arms) feel a bit loose on your face or around your ears, please bring them into us at Eye5 and we will tighten them for you, free of charge.
A lot of spectacles are held together by tiny screws. Whilst we try to lock these in as tight as possible, the screws can sometimes loosen (please note, this is not a fault of the frame). If you notice any of the screws are loose, come into Eye5 for a free tighten, clean and adjustment.
Clean your glasses with the provided cloth and cleaning spray. To avoid scratching your lenses, try not to clean them when they are dry).
If your feel your glasses need a stronger clean, run the lenses under warm (not hot) running water. Then dip them in soapy water and rub them gently with your fingers. A gentle dish-washing liquid makes a good cleanser. After that, rinse them to wash away dirt and oil, then dry your lenses with your cleaning cloth. Please do not put your glasses in your dishwasher.
Do not use household cleaners, disinfectants, acetone or soaps with cream to clean your glasses.
Do not expose your glasses to products such as hairspray and perfume, as these products can damage the lens coating.
Do not expose your lenses to hot temperatures as it can damage the lens coating (for example, do not leave your glasses on your car dashboard).
We hope these clean and care tips will help you keep your glasses in tip-top condition! However, if you have any further queries, please come and see us. We will be more than happy to help you!


I read Seth Godin's blog because he inspires me greatly. Here is a brief excerpt from a recent post that fanned my flame of commitment.
GTD (getting things done), 18 minute plans, organized folders… none of them work as well as you'd like.
The reason is simple: you don't want to get more done.
You're afraid. Getting more done would mean exposing yourself to considerable risk, to crossing bridges, to putting things into the world. Which means failure.
The leap the lizard brain takes when confronting the opportunity is a simple formula: GTD=Failure.
Until you quiet the resistance and commit to actually shipping/doing things that matter, all the productivity tips in the world aren't going to make a real difference. And, it turns out, once you do make the commitment, the productivity tips aren't that needed.
Thanks Seth! That was just what I needed to hear.
I commit to being committed and following through in 2012. While many see me as someone who does a lot, the amount that is undone is also huge. I am spending this week sorting, prioritizing, delegating, completing and then planning for 2012.
Building the foundation for Vets Journey Home (manuals, protocols, training programs for instructors, obtain grants), Finishing the house for Taking It Lightly (redesign the website and marketing collateral, tighten up our internal systems, and then market, market, market to attract people to fill the house/do our programs), Landscaping the yard for my corporate work (making it look even better and more attractive so even the casual passer-by will want to visit/buy), and creating a retreat, the house in the country, (Tuning Effect – finishing my training and then working with Mel Bucholtz to take it into the world training others. Doing the work with Mel has helped me to be more in my body, more peaceful, more alive and more joyous – hence it is the retreat. Combined with a very strong commitment to take time for me, massages, movies, dinners with friends, theatre, eat well, sleep well, move well).
I am done waiting. To paraphrase the great Dr Seuss – Most people are playing the waiting game, waiting for a train to come, a plane to go or the snow to snow. This kid is done waiting, I'm going to move mountains – 98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed!! (Oh the Places You'll Go).
How are you preparing yourself for the coming year? Will you focus and choose your future, or simply be reactive to what the rest of the world chooses for you? Are you willing to risk? cross the bridges? fail and then grow from it? or do you plan to stay safe and just get by?
Commitment will fan your flame so it burns bright enough to light the path for many, many others to heal and your heart and your health (on every level) will flourish because of it.
What are you committed to? I'd love to hear your focus for 2012 so I can hold it with you! Let's move mountains together!
Next post: Fired up for Change – Ready to Play Big!


My name is Srikant and I am working as a Not in List in the Private sector. I have completed my Higher Secondary School / High School. I grew up in a Middle Class class, Joint family with Moderate values.
I'm successfully running a business. I belong to the Teli caste and am looking for a match from the same community. I reside in the beautiful city of Nadia. To describe about my family, we are a nuclear family with strong traditional values.


text:
Swallowing The Camel
facts + logic = truth
Best Search Terms
The Scourge of DTV
It kills fish! It causes cancer!
Oh, wait, that's DDT. As you were.
I hoped that the TV digital converter box hysteria would die down after numerous people opened up their boxes on YouTube videos, revealing the conspicuous absence of any cameras, recording devices, or tiny aerosol-spray compartments full of Gay Gas .
I hoped in vain. Today the woman I'll refer to as TrutherBitch, who continuously sends conspiranoid mass emails, sent out this video. It's a 60 Minutes story on the latest brain imaging/"thought identification" technology, but the "explanatory" information provided by "A. True Ott" connects this to digital converter boxes. He thinks they'll be used to influence your thoughts and emotions. Most of Mr. Ott's commentary is too freaking weird to even examine:
"Mengele and others were 'reading' brain waves via magnetic resonance graphing in the early 70's [sic]. Boston-Logan Airport is already using new light-wave beams to scan and read air traveler's [sic] intentions before they board the planes."
Airport brainscans are not with us yet. And Mengele was managing a tiny Brazilian farm throughout the '60s and the first half of the '70s.
I've come across A. True Ott before, but I don't even want to waste time refreshing my memory. All I can recall offhand is that he claimed he had discovered some additional Gemstone Files, another goofy hoax that won't die.
Published by essemee
View all posts by essemee
Conspiracy Theories, Hoaxes, Paranoia
big brother, conspiracy theory, hoax
Wednesday Weirdness Roundup
Chicago Tea Party Rant a Hoax?
6 thoughts on "The Scourge of DTV"
MysticWanderer says:
The funny thing about "Dr." Ott is that he rarely travels outside of the great state of Utah (despite his "hatred" of those damn Satan worshipping, Jewish cabal participating, baby sacrificing Mormons. To my knowledge he hasn't been anywhere near Boston in recent months. His information is based on the smallest sliver of actual fact and then expounded on based on his own personal biases and conjecture. His "research" on DTV doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the absolutely absurd things that he believes are in store for the world.
Mengele did not die on a Brazil beach in 1979. He worked for Dr. Ewen Cameron at the Allen Memorial Institute, McGill University through the 50's and 60's on the CIA's project MKULTRA. Additionally, working for the CIA he set up a network of doctors and institutions throughout N. America. He died in 1999 near his family's home at Greenfield, Mich. and was buried under the name Tolmitt in a small churchyard at Midland, Mich."Dr. A. True Ott PHd." is a true fraud, having only the ND designation as a nutritionist and was the owner of a healthfood store in Utah. Another medical fraud is "Mark Sircus PHd" who amazingly has the identical bogus degree from the very same non-existant university. Both gentlemen operate as CIA assets with the purpose of influencing a lot of medical cult activities – the 'controlled opposition' in the fields of natural medicine with disinformation. (thus ensuring the eventual demise of these necessary bulwarks against the pharmaceutical machine.)
Buy Cialis says:
Excellent very funny but I didn't know that guy was the one of that movie, the maker or something like that on that times was very funny.Thanks6KM3
True Ott is nothing but a stalking , jew hating fraud. He threatens those who do tell the truth and he is bad apple. Your PHD in my opinion is worthless because your a dumb ass. scumbag is a dis info agent and not worth anyones time
seositeden.blogspot.com says:
This can't succeed as a matter of fact, that is exactly what I believe.
the sexual says:
This will not work as a matter of fact, that's what I consider.
Follow Swallowing The Camel on WordPress.com
Our Mascot
Hans, the Not-So-Flying Pig
The Ultimate Takedown of "The Ultimate Evil" Introduction: An Overview of Maury Terry's "The Ultimate Evil" and Why I Hate It So Much June 8, 2021
I Attended an "Anti-Masker" Rally April 25, 2021
Anatomy of a Conspiracy Theory: Adrenochrome and Child Sacrifice July 29, 2020
Archives Select Month June 2021 (1) April 2021 (1) July 2020 (2) June 2020 (3) May 2020 (4) April 2020 (4) February 2020 (1) October 2019 (1) October 2018 (1) June 2018 (2) March 2018 (2) November 2015 (1) July 2015 (1) January 2015 (1) November 2014 (1) August 2014 (2) July 2014 (8) June 2014 (1) March 2014 (1) February 2014 (1) January 2014 (2) November 2013 (1) August 2013 (2) July 2013 (3) June 2013 (1) May 2013 (3) April 2013 (3) March 2013 (5) January 2013 (5) December 2012 (2) November 2012 (2) July 2012 (3) June 2012 (10) March 2012 (1) December 2011 (2) November 2011 (2) September 2011 (2) August 2011 (4) July 2011 (5) June 2011 (4) May 2011 (5) April 2011 (3) March 2011 (11) February 2011 (1) January 2011 (5) December 2010 (2) November 2010 (7) October 2010 (7) September 2010 (5) August 2010 (6) July 2010 (2) June 2010 (2) May 2010 (8) April 2010 (2) March 2010 (2) February 2010 (3) January 2010 (5) December 2009 (6) November 2009 (6) October 2009 (5) September 2009 (3) August 2009 (11) July 2009 (13) June 2009 (7) May 2009 (7) April 2009 (13) March 2009 (14) February 2009 (8) January 2009 (5) December 2008 (6) November 2008 (3) October 2008 (10) September 2008 (5) August 2008 (3) July 2008 (5) June 2008 (4) May 2008 (5) April 2008 (1) March 2008 (7) February 2008 (2) January 2008 (1) December 2007 (2) November 2007 (7) October 2007 (4) September 2007 (1) August 2007 (5) May 2007 (1) April 2007 (2) March 2007 (1) November 2006 (3) August 2006 (1) April 2006 (1) March 2006 (1)
9/11 Bigfoot Bizarre Bogus Products Chemtrails Conspiracy Theories Controversies Cults Fake Teens Fraud Ghosts Health Hoaxes Hoaxes from Space Mind Control Misinformation Missing People Paranoia Politics Prophecies Psychics Religion Satanic Panic Scams Secret Societies The Prodigal Witch Time Travel UFOs Uncategorized Wednesday Weirdness Roundup


Singapore-based Pacific International Lines (PIL), one of the world's top ten shipping companies, has completed a blockchain pilot with IBM for an electronic Bill of Lading (e-BL). Next Tuesday the Lunar New Year will be celebrated in Singapore and mandarins are a traditional gift symbolizing good luck and prosperity for the new year. Hence it was fitting that the transaction involved a shipment of more than a hundred thousand mandarin oranges from China to Singapore.
Bills of lading are provided by the ship when the cargo is loaded. It's both a receipt for the goods and functions as a contract of shipment. Transferring a bill of lading passes the ownership to the recipient, and this exchange of documents usually causes delays of several days because it has to be mailed.
By exchanging documents electronically with an e-BL, the transfer is almost instant, and the goods can be released earlier. Time is money for financing and Bills of Lading are the primary documents for trade finance or Letters of Credit in particular. But a faster process is also critical for perishables and reduces refrigerations costs while the paperwork is resolved.
Furthermore, by using blockchain, fraud can be reduced. Document fraud represents 40% of maritime fraud, and by using the blockchain network, the participants are authenticated, and the documents can't be duplicated.
PIL first announced plans for this project in October last year following a previous IBM track and trace proof of concept (PoC) that completed in February 2018. The current project also involved the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, Singapore Shipping Association, Infocomm Media Development Authority, Singapore Customs (National TradePlatform), and the Bank of China.
"To-date, we have received very positive feedback from the industry and authorities, and we are enthused by the possibilities of how our blockchain developments can transform and inject a much-needed boost in efficiency and innovation into the industry," said Lisa Teo, Executive Director of PIL.
The pilot was built to be compatible with TradeLens, IBM and Maersk's blockchain logistics platform. PIL is also a member of TradeLens.
Inevitably given the size of the industry, there are multiple blockchain-based e-BL projects. Israeli shipping company ZIM completed its first pilot with the Wave e-BL platform in November 2017. Two weeks ago it announced a phased rollout of e-BL across particular shipping routes.


text:
Liverpool have an advantage in title race, says Mourinho
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho holds the ball during the team's English Premier League match against West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns in West Bromwich, England, February 11, 2014. (REUTERS)
Published Friday, February 14, 2014
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho believes Liverpool have an advantage in the Premier League title race because they will not be distracted by the Champions League.
Liverpool are the only side in the top four who are not involved in European competition and Mourinho thinks it could be a crucial factor as he again stated his table toppers are not favourites for league glory in May.
"There are teams with more potential than others, obviously. There is another, like Liverpool, with a big advantage with the fact that they don't play in the Champions League," Mourinho told Britain's Sky Sports News on Thursday.
"Playing in this is going to take concentration and energy from the teams that are involved in it. I think it will be good fun.
"When I say we're not the top candidate everyone thinks 'here he is again, with what you like to call the mind games'. But it's just my feeling. The league is amazing - it is difficult for every one of us."
Chelsea could only draw 1-1 at lowly West Bromwich Albion on Tuesday and lead the table by a point from Arsenal, with Manchester City a further two points back and Liverpool one behind Manuel Pellegrini's men.
"Maybe we lost two points or won one point against West Brom and I think it will be like this until the end of the season," Mourinho said.
"All teams need points for their objectives - some for relegation, some for the Champions League - so the fight for points will be harder."
Mourinho also backed England manager Roy Hodgson's decision not to try to coax Chelsea captain John Terry out of international retirement for the World Cup after a solid season by the centre half.
"I'd never intervene. He (Hodgson) is in charge and has everything in his hand. He has made that decision," the Portuguese remarked.
"For me as a Chelsea manager I'm happy players play with their national teams - but at the same time I'm happy an important player like him is fully focused on his work at Chelsea."