text:
By Jess Bidgood and Victoria McGrane Globe Staff,August 19, 2019, 4:58 p.m.
WASHINGTON — Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III is weighing a primary challenge to Senator Edward J. Markey, according to a person close to Kennedy and a Democratic congressional source, a move that would upend Massachusetts politics and trigger a potentially divisive intraparty fight.
Kennedy will make a decision about whether to run in the coming weeks, the person close to him said, adding that the four-term congressman began weighing the idea recently after he was approached by people urging him to make the bid.
The 38-year-old scion of the nation's most famous political family paid for a poll in recent weeks testing a matchup against the 73-year-old Markey, according to two Democratic operatives familiar with the poll. The survey found voters favored Kennedy by a small margin, according to several people familiar with the results.
Publicly, Kennedy's team has said he plans to run for another term for the Fourth Congressional District, which stretches from Brookline and Newton south to Fall River. His behind-the-scenes consideration of a high-profile primary challenge, however, is another sign of how the state's longstanding tradition of respecting incumbents is ending, a demise hastened by the 2018 midterm elections, which showed voters clamoring for fresh faces.
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Kennedy would hardly be in the mold of insurgent candidates Ayanna Pressley and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who knocked off veteran House Democrats in primary upsets in part by calling for new and younger voices in the party. He is the grandson of former US attorney general and senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968 while campaigning for president. If he runs, Kennedy would be following a familiar family path toward higher office.
Such a challenge would instantly become the most-watched congressional primary in the state, and likely the country, a generational battle between two well-liked members of the Democratic establishment. Markey, a Malden native elected to the Senate in 2013, has been a fixture of Massachusetts politics since he first won a House seat in the suburbs north of Boston in 1976, running as a political rebel unafraid to take on the Democratic establishment.
"If Joe Kennedy got into the race, he would be the front-runner automatically, and Ed Markey would be faced with the most difficult race of his life," said Mary Anne Marsh, a Democratic consultant based in Boston.
Markey has been building his reelection campaign — he had a sizable war chest of $4 million in cash on hand as of June 30.
"Senator Markey is running for reelection no matter who enters the race,'' spokeswoman Giselle Barry said Saturday. "He is crisscrossing the state and will continue campaigning hard."
Markey has collected endorsements from several members of the state's congressional delegation, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has made a video supporting him, according to one person familiar with it. But there are notable holdouts, including Pressley and Representative Katherine Clark, a member of House Democratic leadership who is close with Kennedy. The news that Kennedy was weighing a primary challenge was first reported Saturday by The New York Times.
Markey's hold on the Senate seat has been the subject of talk among Massachusetts political insiders after Pressley's 2018 upset of Michael Capuano, a 10-term incumbent with a well-established liberal record, showed Massachusetts voters were open to primary challengers who make a compelling argument.
That speculation kicked into high-gear after Politico this week reported on telephone poll testing Kennedy against Markey. A citizen group has also launched an effort to draft Kennedy into the race.
But a primary challenge would surprise some Democrats who know Kennedy as a loyal and patient team player during his six years in Congress.
Former representative Barney Frank, a Democrat who was succeeded by Kennedy, said challenging Markey would seem out of character.
"Because he's a very effective, highly regarded member who works well with other members, it would be totally inconsistent with his mode of politics," Frank said.
And Frank did not sound warm to the prospect. "The idea that tens of millions of dollars would be spent on Democrats fighting other Democrats who have virtually no policy differences is crazy," he said.
But Kennedy has been elevating his national profile. Democratic leaders chose him to give the party's rebuttal to President Trump's State of the Union address in 2018. During the midterms later that year, he traveled widely to campaign for other Democrats, and he frequently pens op-eds about his political beliefs on issues including foreign policy, mental health treatment, and legalizing marijuana.
Challenging Markey could be preferable to waiting for a Senate seat to open up — a development which could draw other high-profile contenders. Kennedy had $4.2 million in his campaign account as of June 30 and is known as an effective fund-raiser.
A group of Massachusetts Democrats is actively urging Kennedy to run, launching a website, Facebook group, and, just recently, an online petition that has about 200 signatures so far.
"We launched this effort not because we are anti-Markey, but because we strongly believe in Congressman Kennedy and his vision for America. These are unusual times in our nation and a new era in politics in which incumbency no longer means that someone is entitled to elected office in perpetuity," said the draft movement's organizers in an op-ed published in Commonwealth Magazine.
"In our view, we need passionate, proactive leadership in the US Senate to combat the divisiveness of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party. We need Joe Kennedy."
The Massachusetts delegation's longest-serving member, Markey already faces two primary challengers, though neither is well-known: Shannon Liss-Riordan, a labor attorney, and Steve Pemberton, a former foster child who became an executive and author.
With all the interest in his seat, Markey has been circling the wagons, lining up high-profile endorsements from major interest groups, including NARAL Pro-Choice America, a group that supports abortion rights; raising money; and spending on social media ads. Markey also has teamed with Ocasio-Cortez on legislation for her Green New Deal proposal to fight climate change, an issue he has been active on for years.
Markey's vulnerabilities stem from his decades-long tenure in Congress, plus the fact that he is not as well known as some of his other colleagues, such as Warren, said Peter Ubertaccio, a political science professor at Stonehill College.
"I think he [Kennedy] and a number of other Democrats believe that Senator Markey has some vulnerabilities. And given some of the generational politics that we have seen playing out over the last few years, it doesn't surprise me that there would be a challenge to Markey," Ubertaccio said.
Liz Goodwin and James Pindell of the Globe staff and Globe correspondent John Hilliard contributed to this report. Jess Bidgood can be reached at Jess.Bidgood
@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter@jessbidgood. Victoria McGrane can be reached at victoria.mcgrane@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @vgmac.


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Q: How to only read cells with values with in a specific range in Excel - using VSTO C# I am doing an ExcelAddin in VisualStudio 2010 for Excel 2007. In my Excel Workbook I have a named range that I call MyRange. It goes from cells C10 to M25. How can I read only the cells that have value in them within MyRange. Note I don´t want to read anything from the other cells, only within MyRange? I want to read the cells that have values in them into a Word document. I think I have that figured out.
I have tried to use UsedRange but that selects everything from A1-M25 ( I only want to select the cells with value from C10-M25). Here is what I got so far.
string FileName = @"C:\MyFile.xlsx";
Excel.Application xlApp = xlApp = new Excel.Application();
Excel.Workbook xlWorkBook = null;
Excel.Worksheet xlWorkSheet = null;

xlWorkBook = xlApp.Workbooks.Open(FileName);
xlWorkSheet = (Excel.Worksheet)xlWorkBook.Worksheets.get_Item(1);

object cell1 = "C10", cell2 ="M25";
//Here are some different versions that I tried. I also tried to use the SpecialCell    //method but it didn´t seem to work.
Excel.Range namedRange = (Excel.Range)xlWorkSheet.get_Range("C10", "M25");
Excel.Range last = (Excel.Range)xlWorkSheet.UsedRange;
Excel.Range usedRange = (Excel.Range)xlWorkSheet.get_Range("C10", last);

Any help is highly appreciated. Thank you.

A: To read each cell value from your 'namedRange' you can loop through the range like this:
foreach (Excel.Range cell in namedRange.Cells)
            {
                if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(cell.Value.ToString()))
                {
                    string thisCellHasContent = cell.Value.ToString();
                    string thisCellAddress = cell.Address.ToString();
                }
            }

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
MTA Headquarters
Governor Spitzer and FTA Administrator James Simpson Announce Federal Funding Guarantee For Second Avenue Subway's First Phase
Project is First Major Expansion of New York City Subway System since 1936;
New Segment Projected to Carry 213,000 Riders Daily
Governor Eliot Spitzer today joined James Simpson, Administrator for the
Federal Transit Administration, in announcing an agreement that guarantees
$1.3 billion in federal funding for the construction of the first phase of
the Second Avenue Subway. The first phase of the subway project will run
along Second Avenue north from 63rd Street to 105th Street, creating three
ADA-accessible stations at 72nd, 86th and 96th Streets.
The line will relieve overcrowding on the Lexington Avenue subway line (4,
5 and 6 trains) and is projected to carry 213,000 riders daily. At first,
the line will be served by the Q train, which will continue to Coney
Island, Brooklyn, via the Broadway express and Brighton Beach local lines.
"Today is truly a historic moment for New York," said Governor Spitzer.
"For much of the twentieth century, New York talked about building the
Second Avenue Subway. Today, with the help of our partners in Washington
and Albany, the shovels are already in the ground. This project will
provide much-needed relief for straphangers on the crowded Lexington
Avenue line and will allow us to expand North America's largest public
transportation system to meet anticipated population growth and the
increased demand for transit service."
Lieutenant Governor David Paterson said: "Mass transit is the linchpin of
any economic design for the 21st century. This second avenue subway
project is part of our larger vision of economic infrastructure investment
throughout New York State. This project will be an important source of
jobs, especially for minorities, women, and immigrants who, until Governor
Spitzer's leadership, had not been given a fair shake at the opportunity
to do work for the State."
FTA Administrator James Simpson said: "To the 1.5 million riders who
squeeze onto the Lexington Avenue line every day, I say help is on the
way. The completion of the Second Avenue Subway will relieve much of the
congestion on the Lexington Avenue line, which currently carries more
daily riders than the metro systems of Washington, D.C., Boston, and
Chicago combined."
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said: "In order to meet the transportation
needs of a rapidly-growing population, we must be prepared to invest in
our city's infrastructure. Not only will the construction of the Second
Avenue Subway alleviate significant overcrowding along the Lexington
Avenue lines, but it will also add to the City's economic growth and our
quality of life by getting more people out of their cars and onto public
transportation."
Senator Charles E. Schumer said: "This historic agreement puts this vital
and long overdue project right on track. New Yorkers have had to wait a
long time for the Second Avenue Subway but with this significant federal
investment and commitment, there is now finally light at the end of the
tunnel."
Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney said: "Once a dream deferred, the Second
Avenue Subway is now inevitable. The full-funding grant agreement is a
done deal, construction contracts are being signed, and the spades are
literally in the ground. It took a cast of thousands to get the subway
back on track, but millions in our city and state will benefit from the
effort. New York straphangers should take heart: with a strong federal
commitment, the Second Avenue Subway is coming."
Congressman Jerrold Nadler said: "This project has been a necessity for
decades, and it is a landmark development that the federal government has
finally taken this step. We need to relieve overcrowding on the Lexington
Ave line, provide better connections between residential and business
areas, and reduce travel times. The Second Avenue subway line would do
all that and more. It would also vastly increase subway capacity by
hundreds of thousands riders each rush hour. This line, running south
from 125th Street, mostly under 2nd Avenue, would eventually extend all
the way to my constituents in the financial district. As a senior member
of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee I am proud to have
done my part in Congress to insuring this project takes place, I am
equally as proud to be here at this momentous occasion when the FTA signs
a Full Funding Grant agreement with the MTA to provide billions of dollars
to finally make this project a reality."
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said: "The Second Avenue Subway is one of
the most important and needed transportation projects in the region, which
is why I fought for the initial commitment of state funding to
once-and-for-all get this project moving. I am delighted that the Federal
government has joined us in our commitment to the Second Avenue Subway and
has now guaranteed that funding is in place for the first phase of the
project. In addition to easing overcrowding on the Lexington Avenue line,
the full-build Second Avenue Subway will provide significant benefits to
Lower Manhattan."
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said: "For years, the Second Avenue
Subway line has been a lot like the rumors of alligators living in the
sewers. Today, we move toward making a project that has been more of an
urban legend into a reality. The Second Avenue subway line will ensure
our city's infrastructure keeps pace with both population and economic
growth. It is a project that will benefit nearly every New Yorker."
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said: "It's been a long time
coming, but we're finally on the right track. The Second Avenue Subway is
essential to realizing our 21st Century economic and quality of life
ambitions. I thank my colleagues in government and the many community
leaders and transit advocates who took this plan off of the shelf and
turned it into a reality. This is a great day for mass transit, which
makes it a great day for New York City."
Elliot G. Sander, Executive Director and CEO of the MTA, said: "We are
pleased that our team at MTA Capital Construction is able to undertake the
first major expansion of the subway system in generations, even as we
perform other expansions in the East Side Access project and the 7-train
extension. We are deeply grateful for the Federal commitment and for all
the hard work that New York's congressional delegation has put in to
secure this funding."
Ground was broken for the project in April, and construction is visibly
underway on Second Avenue. Currently, crews are moving utility lines
(sewers, electrical and telephone lines) on the West side of Second Avenue
from 91st to 95th Streets so that a tunnel boring machine can be moved
into place to begin tunneling. During this portion of the project, four
lanes of traffic will remain open for use. As this is completed in the
next three months, traffic will be diverted to the other side of the
avenue to repeat the utility relocation process on the other side.
The line is scheduled to open in 2014. Construction will continue with
three additional phases that will extend the line first up to 125th
Street, where it will connect with the 4, 5 and 6 subway lines and with
MTA Metro-North Railroad, and then down to Hanover Square in the Financial
District. After completion of the third and fourth phases, the line will
carry two trains: the Q and the T, which will run the full length of
Manhattan.
When completed, the full-length Second Avenue Subway is projected to carry
560,000 people per day. According to the latest figures from the American
Public Transportation Association, Los Angeles' subway carries 133,200
riders on an average weekday; Atlanta's MARTA, 239,400, and San
Francisco's BART, 365,300, by comparison. New York City's entire subway
now carries nearly 6.3 million passengers on a typical weekday.
Today's announcement demonstrates the Spitzer administration's continued
commitment to investing in the MTA transit system as well as other
critical New York City infrastructure projects such the redevelopment of
Penn Station, the PATH Hub at the World Trade Center, East Side Access,
South Ferry Subway Terminal and the Fulton Street Transit Center.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: laravel download excel file from s3 is not working I am using laravel 5.1 I need to download excel from amazon s3 storage. I done all process correctly and if it is pdf format file means it downloading correctly but for excel file download it is downloading zip format. Can please anyone help me to fix this issue.
$filePath = "CIS/download/format/upload_format.xlsx";
if ( Storage::disk('s3')->has($filePath)) {
$file = Storage::disk('s3')->get($filePath);
$getMimeType = Storage::disk('s3')->getMimetype($filePath);
return Response::make($file, 200, [
'Content-Type' => $getMimeType,
'Content-Disposition' => 'attachement;
filename:upload_format.xlsx',
]);
}

A: You can give your Content-Type as desired and Content-Disposition as 'attachment' because your files are coming from S3 and you have to download it as an attachment.
$event_data = $this->ticket->where('user_id', $user_id)->first();

$data  = $event_data->pdf;

$get_ticket = 'tickets/'. $data;
$file_name  = "YOUR_DESIRED_NAME.csv";

$headers = [
  'Content-Type'        => 'text/csv',
  'Content-Disposition' => 'attachment; filename="'. $file_name .'"',
];

return \Response::make(Storage::disk('s3')->get($get_ticket), 200, $headers);


These bespoke hand-painted Glitter / Shimmer Daisy design glasses are a great gift for any occasion. Choose your glass type then personalise with a Name or Short Message in your choice of colour. These are great as a Birthday, Christmas Gift or order multiples for all your friends so everyone has their own glass. Fab idea for Hen Nights, Girls Holidays or for your favourite tipple.
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Gull Olli, 2008. Waterborne sediment and pollutant transport into lakes and accumulation in lake sediments. Dissertation No. 9. Fakultetsopponent: Professor Ingmar Renberg.
Linda Ampel, 2008. Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles and Heinrich events in western Europe - A diatom perspective. Dissertation No. 8. Fakultetsopponent: Professor Fritz Sherilyn.
Martina Hättestrand, 2008. Vegetation and climate during Weichselian ice free intervals in northern Sweden: Interpretations from fossil and modern pollen records. Dissertation No. 7. Fakultetsopponent: Associate professor Magri Donatella.
Daniel S. Veres, 2007. Terrestrial response to Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles and Heinrich events: the lacustrine record of Les Echets, south-eastern France. Dissertation No. 6. Fakultetsopponent: Dr. Prof. John J. Lowe.
Jens Heimdahl, 2005. Urbanised nature in the past - site formation and environmental development in two Swedish towns, AD 1200-1800. Dissertation No. 5. Fakultetsopponent: Dr. Jane Sidall.
Anders Borgmak, 2005. The colour of climate: changes in peat decomposition as a proxy for climate change. Dissertation No. 4. Fakultetsopponent: Dr. Bas van Geel.
Angelica Feurdean, 2004. Palaeoenvironment in north-western Romania during the last 15,000 years. Dissertation No. 3. Fakultetsopponent: Prof. Katherine J. Willis.
Rathnasiri Premathilake, 2003. Late Quaternary palaeoecological event stratigraphy in the Horton Plains, central Sri Lanka - with contributions to the recent pollen flora. Dissertation No. 2. Fakultetsopponent: Prof. Francoise Gasse.


text:
Publish Date May 3, 2019
HHS says new rule allows healthcare workers, organizations to honor religious and moral principles in care provision
President Donald Trump discussed the new "conscience rule" and other matters Thursday at the National Day of Prayer Service. (White House YouTube channel; see link below)
Individual healthcare workers as well as healthcare organizations can decline to provide care that conflicts with their religious and moral beliefs or mission under a final rule issued Thursday by the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights.
"This rule ensures that healthcare entities and professionals won't be bullied out of the healthcare field because they decline to participate in actions that violate their conscience, including the taking of human life," OCR Director Roger Severino said in a statement.
Among providers affected are assisted living communities that accept payments from Medicaid. The rule specifies what organizations need to do to comply. It will become effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.
The final rule makes several references to abortion but also refers to advanced directives, "assisted suicide, euthanasia, or mercy killing," "compulsory healthcare or services generally, and under specific programs for hearing screening, occupational illness testing; vaccination and mental health treatment" as well as "certain requirements under Medicare and Medicaid that may burden their exercise of their religious beliefs regarding medical treatment."
HHS announced a proposed version of the "conscience rule" in January 2018 following the launch of its new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division. The proposal was published on Jan. 26, 2018, and HHS said it received more than 242,000 comments by the March 27, 2018, deadline.
Among those submitting comments were LeadingAge and the American Health Care Association / National Center for Assisted Living.
AHCA / NCAL had requested that HHS not apply the rule to long-term and post-acute care providers, saying it would increase the "regulatory burden" on these providers and take away from time for providing care.
"Staff, residents, and residents' families from nursing centers, centers providing care for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities, and assisted living communities that accept Medicaid already have multiple outlets for reporting complaints or concerns," Lilly Hummel, AHCA / NCAL senior director of policy and program integrity, wrote in submitted comments.
HHS did not exempt such facilities in the final rule. It applies to skilled nursing facilities, continuing care retirement communities, residential intellectual and developmental disability facilities and other residential care facilities, such as group homes, among other types of entities, the agency said.
Thursday, a LeadingAge spokeswoman said the organization "supports religious freedom and the rights of all healthcare providers and their staff to live up to their religious beliefs. We do not encourage intolerance and discrimination."
The Human Rights Campaign, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Fenway Health were among the organizations Thursday expressing concern that the rule would lead to discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals.
The Human Rights Campaign had mentioned assisted living specifically in its March comments on the proposed rule.
"Amongst the thousands of stories we received, many members shared stories of outright denial of care," the organization wrote in its comments. "For example, a nurse assigned to care for an elderly gay man in an assisted living facility refused to bath him or provide the necessary day-to-day care that he needed and deserved simply because he was gay."
Photo: President Trump mentioned the rule during his comments at the National Day of Prayer Service (around 1:11).
AHCA/NCAL LeadingAge LGBT Lois A. Bowers Medicaid Medicare
HCP announces $558 million in senior living acquisitions as portfolio repositioning continues
Close more info about HHS says new rule allows healthcare workers, organizations to honor religious and moral principles in care provision


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Home > node > theartsdesk in Reykjavik: A New Musical Landscape for Iceland
theartsdesk in Reykjavik: A New Musical Landscape for Iceland | reviews, news & interviews
theartsdesk in Reykjavik: A New Musical Landscape for Iceland
A festival of contemporary music sending shockwaves through Iceland
by Alexandra CoghlanSunday, 18 March 2012
Harpa: Reykjavik's glittering new concert hall is the home for a new era of Icelandic music-making
It's 11pm on a Thursday night. The kind of weather that makes balloon animals of umbrellas, that raises a tsunami in a bird-bath, is raging outside. Inside the Harpa concert hall some 300 people are gathered in attentive silence while five musicians, each sat at a brightly-coloured piano barely two feet tall, play hairdryers, flippers, and drop small change from boxes onto the floor, in a solemn performance of John Cage's Music for Amplified Toy Pianos. Only in Reykjavik; only under Ilan Volkov; only as part of the Tectonics festival.
When youthful maverick Volkov was appointed Music Director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra in January 2011 it sent out a signal to the world. After the solid tenure of Rumon Gamba, distinguished chiefly by recordings of Vincent d'Indy's complete orchestral works, this was a change of pace – a statement of intent.
It would be impossible to conceive Tectonics without Harpa. The festival flows freely through the building
Announcing his arrival in a scream of avant-garde electronica and the impassive minimalist shruggings of Cage, Volkov's inaugural Tectonics festival – three days of concerts curated by the conductor himself, devoted to contemporary music in all its diverse forms – made it clear that we weren't in Kansas anymore. Between the extraordinary programming and the extraordinary space of Reykjavik's new Harpa concert hall (with even more unexpected angles and sharp edges than the music), flying monkeys would struggle for attention here.
Gamba's time with the ISO may have been the boom years for the Icelandic economy, but little of this wealth was devoted to the orchestra, who were exiled to an ex-cinema with all the ambience of a commuter train and about as much acoustic potential. An ambitious redevelopment project for the city's eastern harbour put plans in motion for a new purpose-built concert hall, sound-designed by the mighty Artec – creators of some of the best classical venues in the world. Then came the crash.
In a decision that has divided Iceland's citizens, the government decided to go ahead with the £90 million project, and the result is a space that shares something of Volkov's unconventionality, as well as his energy. Designed by Danish-Icelandic artist Ólafur Elíasson, Harpa is unquestionably contemporary – a twisting, geometric maze of a space. But most striking is the sense of visual fluidity; the glass walls are made up of cell-like, organic shapes, as though a single architectural cell had spontaneously multiplied and generated the building.
It would be impossible to conceive Tectonics without Harpa. The festival flows freely through the building over its long weekend, inhabiting not only the two recital halls but also the cavernous foyer. Tourists strolling in for coffee and a browse in the gift shop are liable to find themselves suspended in the sonic embrace of Berio's Accordo for four brass bands, or John Cage's Fifty-Eight, its many solo players distributed sentinel-like among Harpa's galleried central hall.
With film-screenings blurring into chamber recitals, and each evening divided into a series of of episodic concerts-in-miniature, Tectonics is a festival at its most free-form, inviting audiences to graze and sample at will. Those who commit to the full experience however (15 concerts, and around 150 performers), find a carefully structured programme that this year developed through days devoted to the music of John Cage and Iceland's own Magnus Blöndal, to culminate in a final day of living composers – bringing the festival completely up to date.
How often have you heard the music of John Cage (pictured left) in concert? This was the question Volkov put to his audience during the festival's opening evening. A fixture of musicology reading lists, a touchstone of contemporary cultural awareness, there's no doubt that Cage's music is more often discussed than performed – a phenomenon that speaks as much to the practical difficulties of his prepared pianos and unconventional "instrumental" ensembles as their aural challenges.
In programming a full day of Cage's work, Volkov offered his audience a rare chance to hear this music not as a novelty concert opener, or a contrasting amuse-bouche in an otherwise conventional line-up, but to really commit to this sound-world on its own terms. He also offered this music the home its composer intended. So much of Cage's music is designed to inhabit a space, to be sonically "staged" in a way that immerses or confronts the audience. The kind of fringe venues that typically mount this work rarely have the acoustic possibilities the music thrives on, and to hear the Concerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra or the uncanny Improvisation III (for cassette players) in a 1,800 seat hall like Harpa's evocatively-named Eldborg ("fire-city") is an experience as strikingly theatrical as it is musical.
There's wit and even aggression here, but both Volkov and Tilbury insisted on Cage's infinite lyricism
After the foyer warm-up of Fifty-Eight, planes of sound shifting and catching the ear just as Harpa's glassy architectural planes catch the shifting lights of the city, we moved to the red lacquered belly of Eldborg. Soloist John Tilbury joined the orchestra for the first of several festival performances, opening Tectonics with classic Cage – a musical whimper with more impact than any bang, the j.
A delicate, calculatedly tentative start from the ISO beckoned us into Cage's textures, preparing the ground for Tilbury's solo voice to creep mossily in – a husk, a ghost of a piano. There's wit and even aggression here among the alarm sounds, sheet metal hiss and voices, but both Volkov and Tilbury insisted on the infinite lyricism that underpins those showier episodes. Wilfully non-developmental, this is music that demands a different kind of listening; if a symphony proposes a dialogue with the listener, Cage's music is a monologue, demanding surrender. Fight it and you're lost, give in and you're transported.
Improvisation III (for cassette players) constructs a joyfully low-fi mesh of sounds around the audience. Five performers distribute themselves around the edges of the hall (as instrumentalists do later for Music for 13), each with a tape-player. Sitting in the stalls, we twitched at the sudden proximity of a child's voice singing as the performer walked past with his "instrument" – an early precursor to the current trend for "found sounds" among electronic and progressive classical composers. Elsewhere, over on the other side of the hall (pictured above right), or out in one of its winged side-sections the textures will have been completely different; as an audience member you find yourself unwittingly contributing to the aleatorics of the performance, even the most sceptical of listeners suddenly complicit.
While Improvisation III is Cage at his most ideogical, interrogating the contentious relationships between noise, music and sound, Experience No. 2 for solo voice dares the audience to complicate its apparent simplicity. Lights extinguished entirely, the singer (an amateur as specified by Cage, in this case distinguished performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson) delivers a strophic, folk-like melody. Without the nuance of technique or the visual distractions of performance the piece is intimate, a point of reference and human contact among the evening's more confronting works.
Cage's self-reflexive humour emerged more clearly as the evening progressed and the toy pianos came out, along with bicycle bells and frankly rather rude trombones. But while the composer's mixture of pared-back lyricism and unpretentious fun is beguiling, it never distracts from the seriousness of the music. There is a musical grammar here – a recognisable language that has its cadences and dramatic arcs, despite its distortions.
The role of the performer, the responsibility taken by players for shaping Cage's abstractions into musical specifics is also crucial, as was elegantly demonstrated in the evening's final concert. Programming Cage's Five twice, once performed by five vocalists with microphones and once by five instrumentalists, allowed us to witness the difference between the point at which Cage's scores finish and the point at which the music itself is complete.
Among so much musical stimulus, so many new sounds and unfamiliar experiences, there is inevitably a retrospective blurring. Yet there is one festival concert that remains unmuddied in the memory. In an evening of John Cage this was the sole major foray into new music, a world premiere and musical experiment led and curated by Volkov (pictured above) and electric guitarist Oren Ambarchi. The ISO returned to stage – a stage clean of all music stands – to follow a conductor stripped of his baton. Eyes on Volkov the musicians raised their instruments for that most inconceivable of things – a full orchestra improvisation.
Sustained over some 40 minutes, the work saw the orchestra respond to Ambarchi's (pictured below) gestures on guitar, which was hooked up to an electronic mixing desk. Using a series of pre-determined and spontaneous gestures, Volkov signalled to his musicians the reactions he wanted, drawing jagged streamers of sound from both solo instruments (some particularly eerie blown effects from the flutes) and whole sections. The result was unlike anything, carried by the energy of its live composition, and further animated by the trust and communicative intensity operating between Volkov and his players. The conductor later admitted that rehearsal time had been severely limited, and I can't help thinking it was the better for it.
Day two saw a change of pace, exploring the bafflingly diverse music of Magnus Blöndal. Born in 1925, the composer may be best known as the figurehead of the Icelandic avant-garde, experimenting with dodecaphony, minimalism, and also with electronica when it was still a matter of physically cutting and pasting sounds together, but Blöndal also enjoyed a mature period of neo-romantic lyricism. This late style offered a gentle introduction to the composer, in the form of his Pourquoi for solo violin and orchestra (soloist Sigrun Eðvaldsdottirr), and his Adagio for strings.
Here, among familiar melodic lines rather than "event clusters" we got a better sense of the ISO as an orchestra. Still finding their feet in their newly resonant hall, the richness of the brass sound occasionally gave way to harshness, but the pay-off is a directness to the quality of sound that works well with Volkov's precision. Here surging brass were matched by generous gestures from the strings in a rare moment of tonal release, that charmed but could do little more.
More interesting were the composer's early chamber and electronic works – his Dimension for solo violin and Solitude for flute – which exposed his progressive approach to minimalism (Solitude, performed expressively here by Ashildur Haraldsdottir, tackles a single note, a musical phrase reduced to its smallest component part, revisiting it in a host of textural ways before collapsing into little arcs of melody). Representing Blöndal's (pictured left) electronica was Samstirni, a painstakingly remastered piece of early electronic collage, rendered here in unsettling stereo sound. I will confess myself defeated by some of the contemporary electronic homages that followed it, disturbed by the deliberate sonic ferocity of much of it, but what it did make clear was that even among the most abstract, most unmoored of music, there are still markers of quality. Blöndal's early work, while pioneering, is perhaps most interesting for the musical intelligence and sense of internal logic that it reveals.
There can be few places more suited to the brave, contemporary gesture of Tectonics than Reykjavik – a city with barely any buildings that pre-date 1900, whose aesthetic tastes are reliably spare and sharp-edged. The future of the festival here is assured for at least another two years, but from 2012 Volkov has plans to extend the seismic reach of his project. A sister festival is already planned for the conductor's old home-town of Glasgow, with new commissions from the likes of Frank Denyer in the works. Each subsequent year however Volkov hopes to find a different city host, making use of their local musicians and national composers to create a festival truly plugged into its community.
It's a bold experiment, and one Volkov is tackling with characteristic energy. No one witnessing his hands-on approach at Harpa could doubt his determination; no one watching him conduct and interact with the ISO could doubt his affinity with the players. The musical tremors of this new appointment have begun, and if Volkov has anything to do with it the ensuing earthquake will top the Richter Scale.
Blöndal's early work, while pioneering, is most interesting for the musical intelligence and sense of internal logic that it reveals
Find the Iceland Syphony Orchestra on AmazonFind Ilan Volkov on Aazon
10 Questions for Director Benedikt Erlingsson
BBC Proms: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ilan Volkov/ Viktoria Mullova, Matthew Barley
Rites: 3D, CBSO, Volkov, Royal Festival Hall
Tilbury, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Volkov, Royal Albert Hall
Cage's 4'33" charts: the BBC refuse to play it


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HomePosts tagged 'Bristol'
The burial of strangers
April 12, 2020 April 12, 2020 John Hodgson Bristol, burial-ground, Clifton, Hotwells, strangers
Walking in the Clifton area of Bristol recently, I came across a small piece of ground almost hidden behind a hedge. It was being tended by the man pictured below, who did not tell me his name but explained that he had decided to restore and maintain a burial-ground that had been used for nearly a century until 1871. The Historic England record confirms that it was an 'overflow graveyard for St Paul's, Clifton (demolished), much used by visitors to the Hotwells. Closed 1871'.
The picture above comes from the 1990s and shows the state of the burial-ground more than a century after it was closed.
I was moved by the restoration, which, the attendant explained, was in remembrance of hundreds of unknown people buried there during the 18th and 19th century who had come to the Bristol Hot Wells for cure. As they were not local to Bristol, they were buried outside the parish in the strangers' burial-ground.
The hot wells were owned by the Merchant Venturers, a Bristol business association which still exists, and were central to the development of Clifton as a genteel resort in the early 18th century. Hotwells' popularity lasted about a century. Sewage from the river seeped into the springs, which became toxic. Pleasure-seekers went elsewhere for their fun and Hotwells gained the reputation as a last resort for the incurable, many of whom are buried in the Strangers' Burial Ground at the bottom of Lower Clifton Hill.
That the number of our Members be unlimited
August 14, 2016 August 14, 2016 John Hodgson Brexit, Bristol, Jeremy Corbyn, Labour Party, London Corresponding Society, Momentum, NEC, Thomas Hardy
"That the number of our Members be unlimited." This was the first rule of the London Corresponding Society, formed in January 1792 to debate the necessity of parliamentary reform. The main test of membership was agreement that "the welfare of these kingdoms requires that every adult person, in possession of his reason, and not incapacitated by crimes, should have a vote for a Member of Parliament". Within six months, the Society claimed more than 2000 members. In 1794, Thomas Hardy, a shoemaker, the founder of the Society, was arrested with 11 other members; he was committed to the Tower and later to Newgate. When he was acquitted on a charge of high treason, the London crowd went wild with delight and dragged him in triumph through the streets. But by the end of the decade the London Corresponding Society had been outlawed. Tom Paine's Rights of Man was banned; meetings were prohibited; and Hardy was running a shoe shop near Covent Garden.
E.P.Thompson, from whom I take the above account, suggests that the London Corresponding Society should be thought of as "popular radical" organisation rather than as "working-class". At one end, it reached out to the coffee houses, taverns and dissenting churches of Piccadilly, Fleet Street and the Strand; at the other, it touched the older working-class communities of Wapping, Spitalfields and Southwark. Its first organiser lived in Piccadilly, but its secretary was a working man, there was a low weekly subscription, and meetings were both a social occasion and a centre of political activity. Most importantly, there was the democratic determination embodied in the leading rule: "That the number of our members be unlimited."
Thompson comments that to throw open the doors to propaganda and agitation in this "unlimited" way implied a new notion of democracy, which cast aside ancient inhibitions and trusted to self-activating and self-organising processes among the common people. The comparison with the currently burgeoning Labour Party membership is striking. It may be, as Tom Watson, the deputy leader of the Labour Party, has recently claimed, that a number of revolutionary socialists have found a home in Momentum, the group that supports a popular movement to sustain Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party. But the sheer number of members makes clear that this is a genuinely radical movement. The meetings of Momentum that I have attended in Bristol have been social as well as political, and characterised by a collaborative enthusiasm for genuine change. The efforts of the National Executive Council of the Parliamentary Labour Party to disenfranchise 130,000 recently joined members will only fuel this afflatus.
The hopes and aims of this popular movement, at the beginning of the 21st century, are not quite the same as those of the London Corresponding Society and other similar societies (such as those in Sheffield, Derby and Manchester) that arose at the beginning of the 19th century. The desire is not for parliamentary reform per se but for attention to structural social inequalities that have been exacerbated by globalisation. Many of those who voted to leave the EU have said that they wanted to "get their country back". They were expressing a natural wish for ownership and control. Unfortunately, Brexit itself will not achieve this. Only last week the death was reported of the sixth Duke of Westminster, whose property holdings spread across the world are worth £13 billion but will not be liable to inheritance tax.
Corbyn is clearly an egalitarian who desires social justice, and the great majority of his supporters share his belief in the possibility of a better world. Thomas Hardy and the London Corresponding Society failed in the short-term, but they initiated a radical social movement that, in a different context, is currently enjoying a renaissance.
Open letter (2) to Thangam Debbonaire
July 23, 2016 July 23, 2016 eatfrogs austerity, authenticity, Bristol, future, Jeremy Corbyn, Labour Party, neoliberal, PLP, Thangam Debbonaire, Tony Blair, Trident, voting record
Terryl Bacon has written to Thangam following her Facebook post explaining her decision to resign from the shadow front bench.
Dear Thangam,
Thank you for your open letter explaining why you resigned and the unhappy circumstance in which you found yourself as regards Corbyn. I regret the unnecessary stress you have undergone. I respect the values you espouse and I sincerely hope your treatment will be fully successful.
I trust that the poor communications which created your stress were not aimed at you personally but were the result of lack of political nous and the almost inevitable crossed wires which happen far too easily in complex organisations. As a former chair of a large union branch, I understand that, with the best will in the world, mistakes are sometimes made which might feel personal to the recipient.
That said, I would like to address some of the comments you made in your letter.
Unless one is happy to say, "my party right or wrong" or "my leader right or wrong", it is important to be critical as you have been. However, when I look at what the Labour Party did Not do during its long term in office which started with a large majority in the Commons: The PLP did Not repeal any of the Thatcherite anti-union legislation. The PLP did Not stop the privatisation of the railways or the selling off of other National assets. Although some good things were done with the NHS and with the schools, during the period to which you referred, the gap between the richest and the poorest in this country grew. Meanwhile, a war was started and continued which brought millions of pounds to Britain's arms manufacturers and made millions of innocent people suffer terribly to this day.
One could characterise the difference between the PLP and the Tories over the last two decades as neo-liberal lite and neo-liberal heavy. This difference has done little to address the real life situation of the most marginalised in our society. Those who blame Corbyn for the disaffection of the working class show a lack of historical understanding. The PLP could have made a huge difference for the good of the people under Blair but instead it largely continued the iniquitous status quo. That is why I have not wanted to be in Labour since Blair.
The PLP which you champion continues to be a figleaf for anti-humanist policies. I, and many other people, were appalled when the majority of the PLP members voted last week to spend £30+ billion on Trident instead of on the NHS. And it is instead. I think austerity is largely a myth in service of the elite but clearly there is a finite budget as we live on a finite planet.
Until Corbyn's voice was heard, I had despaired of politics. He is different. He does have an agenda which inspires hundreds of thousands of people; especially the young. Yes, Corbyn lacks social graces and he has been clumsy but he has remained calm and steadfast and, as his popularity shows, for those of us who do not want more of the same, Corbyn is definitely electable!
I certainly think he owes you an apology for what you experienced under his leadership and I shall write and tell him. As important as that is, his apology for Labour's war mongering meant a lot to several million of us.
I know that you have been too unwell to attend Parliament and I regret that you were not allowed to do so via email. Surely, that should be changed? But I wonder if you would publish what you would have voted during your time in office had you been able to do so. I ask, because I have checked Jeremy Corbyn's voting record over the years and I agree with him; most especially so when he has Not voted the neo-liberal party line.
I am keeping an open mind on the split within the PLP; but I am looking for an honest leader. One who respects people's ability to think for themselves; not a cheer leader for the PLP establishment.
Terryl Bacon
Flying with the NHS
April 7, 2015 April 8, 2015 John Hodgson airport, Bristol, NHS, Southmead Hospital
The new Southmead hospital is an airport.
There's a shuttle bus from the car park
(Though you can walk in five minutes.)
You check in on arrival
And walk through a vast atrium to the designated gate.
There your credentials are checked and they say:
'Oh, sorry, that clinic's not running today.
We shouldn't have made that appointment.
Can you come back tomorrow?'
I think they need better ground control.
Chelsea Pensioners
January 16, 2015 January 16, 2015 John Hodgson Bristol, chelsea, clarinet, January, jazz, time
A band of jazz musicians, some retired, regularly play the Chelsea Inn in Easton, Bristol
Catching the swing, we synco-
pate into the Chelsea. The band
of six take time from years gone when:
brass resonates at front,
piano trips an autonomic rhythm,
banjo strikes arpeggio. Players retune
from lives of slower time,
set glasses dancing. Outside, Bristol
in January plays gusty wind,
debris and detritus; but in
the pub the air is clarinet
as time's lefthanders beat the rhythm strong,
keep ragged time enhancing.
January Swimmers
January 5, 2015 John Hodgson bathing pool, Bristol, Christmas, January, Lido, spring, Swimmers
The sky is dark within the outdoor bathing pool.
Thin wraiths of steam ascend the solitary swimmers.
Swimming in January is serious. Three men, one woman
Propel themselves in lengths scooped out by hands
And arms bent right to gain dramatic traction.
Lights, blue and white, bedeck the changing roofs;
A Christmas tree is pricked with small red torches.
Double glazed diners wear cashmere sweaters
And sharp pressed trousers. Warmer by the blue-grey splash outside,
They sense their privilege. Only the swimmers toil,
Washing themselves clean of the old year,
Buoying their souls to meet the coming spring.
October 25, 2014 John Hodgson Assent, Bristol, Caravan of Death, Chile, computer game, Digital Cultures Research Centre, documentary, father, interactivity, Mandy Rose, Oculus Rift, Oscar Raby, Pervasive Media Studio, virtual reality, VR
Virtual reality is making a comeback, said Mandy Rose, Senior Research Fellow at the Bristol Digital Cultures Research Centre, introducing New Media artist Oscar Raby to a packed audience on 24 October at the Pervasive Media Studio. Heralded in the 1980s by Timothy Leary and others as a new form of experiential connectivity, VR's early manifestations failed to meet expectations and it was sidelined by the rapid development of the World Wide Web. However, technical developments and the enthusiasm of a new generation of media artists have made for a resurgence of immersion in a technologically mediated reality. Oscar Raby's Assent is (in the words of Rose) "one of only a handful of projects that currently sits at the intersection of documentary, interactivity and virtual reality".
After the military took control of Chile in the coup of September 1973, a "Caravan of Death" travelled the country by helicopter, conducting executions of military detainees. According to Oscar Raby, this was a mechanism to instil terror into the community. It was also a way of demonstrating the force of the central authorities to military staff outside the capital, and, by making them complicit in the actions of the junta, to ensure their loyalty. Oscar explains that his autobiographical immersive documentary "puts the user in the footsteps of my father, who in 1973 was a 22-year-old army officer stationed in the north of Chile, on the day when the Caravan of Death came to his regiment. By putting the audience on the scene alongside my father using virtual reality technology, Assent provides the audience an opportunity to engage personally with the events and emotions of that day, through his eyes, and mine".
After attending an introductory talk by Oscar, I had the opportunity to experience Assent. The Oculus Rift viewing equipment was a black box resembling a pair of covered, chunky binoculars that covered my eyes and was held to my head by an elastic strap, augmented by a pair of stereo headphones. It was not very large but was initially slightly uncomfortable. Throughout, I retained my sense of being grounded, sitting in a chair in the Pervasive Media Studio; if I moved my eyes downwards, I could see a chink of daylight. Nonetheless, the virtual reality experience was unique and extraordinary.
After a brief introductory warning text about the experience to come, I found myself in Oscar's studio. I could look all around, at the walls, floor and ceiling, and everything was there. There appeared to be an overhead projector on the floor; several paintings displayed on the walls; chairs and tables; and lights hanging from the ceiling. As my friend Terryl Bacon, who also viewed the presentation, pointed out, this immersion experience was very unlike participation in a computer game: it was contemplative. Suddenly, Oscar appeared, standing in the room. He was flat and immobile, like a cardboard cut-out; this was the appearance of all the characters that appeared in the presentation. He spoke to me as his father: he said that he thought I might have found the equipment hard to manage, and was glad I was there. You can hear this part of the presentation in the first part of the trailer.
Speaking as to his father, the virtual Oscar told me that he was going to take me back to that day in 1973 when I witnessed the execution of a group of prisoners captured by the military regime in Chile. The scene changed to a well-realised three-dimensional representation of a field with low hills in the background. Oscar's recorded voice told me to look intently at two figures in the distance. This action took me rapidly towards the figures, one of whom was Oscar. He continued the story suggesting that this time I could take more time than I was able to do on that fateful day in 1973. I wanted to take time, and enjoyed looking carefully at the features of trees that moved three-dimensionally through space as I turned towards them. But I was disturbed by the fact that I couldn't see my feet. I looked down. I felt as if I was in the scene but I wasn't there. But there was little time to reflect on this, as soon we were carried forward through the leaves and branches of three-dimensional woodland to the scene of execution, represented by a number of figures, two of whom resembled Oscar and his father. A rifle cracked intermittently and the figures became grossly distorted. I am not sure whether the presentation suffered a glitch at this point or whether I failed to pause the programme by looking intently at the figures; Terryl tells me that she was able to look at them for a while and to see sky through their mouths and eye-sockets. The presentation finished and the real-life Oscar removed my headphones and viewing equipment.
I sat, moved by the horror of the execution and by the extraordinary three-dimensional experience in which I had been immersed. I didn't know what to say, and there were people waiting to engage with the experience; so I told Oscar that I would write to him. This blog is my response.
A disturbing and provocative aspect of this virtual reality experience was the conflict between participation and passivity. At the beginning, when I appeared to be inside Oscar's studio and could look wherever I wanted, I felt master of the situation. But, as the story unfolded, I became aware that the scope of my participation was extremely limited. As Oscar said in his introductory presentation, the viewer is on a track. Indeed, I could not change the events at all, beyond spending a longer time looking at the landscape than Oscar's father would have done on that traumatic day. As I say, I may have failed to manage the last part effectively, but I did not see the death squad; I saw only the distorted bodies of a few soldiers and civilians. The last part of the presentation resembled the shocking climax of a movie that I could only watch. The effect was similar to the last part of the trailer.
On reflection, I think that reasons for the experience of the last part of the programme may have to do with the artist's difficulty in rendering the execution, even though he has been in conversation with his father about it for over twenty years. Although the viewer is put in the position of Oscar's father, the actual moment of execution is elided from this immersive virtual reality. The artist's agony over his father's participation may be suggested by the presentation's title, Assent.
The question that arises for me is: can a VR presentation do more than add a further dimension of immersion to the viewing experience? Can the viewer's contemplation change the experience, or bring a new perception to it? Or is even the experience of immersive reality inevitably confined by the artist's conceptualisation?
Bristol Radical Film Festival
March 3, 2013 March 4, 2013 John Hodgson Bristol, Bristol Radical Film Festival, Cube Microplex, Engels, England, Film festival, working class
Today was the last day of the Bristol Radical Film Festival at the Cube Microplex, a wonderfully rundown small theatre converted into a centre for creativity and debate. Mike Wayne and Deirdre O'Neill showed their film The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on Engels' original analysis of the baleful effects of contemporary (1840s) class structure and relationships. The film's subtitle is: "Everything changes, everything stays the same." http://www.conditionoftheworkingclass.info/. Its mixture of film and theatre (working people dramatising their own condition) was inspired by John McGrath's 1970's BBC Play for Today The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black Black Oil: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb3qbFcLYZc


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Artist, writer, actor, dancer, photographer, publisher, and comedian Israel "Izzy" Sanabria aka "Mr. Salsa" is a visionary. An original member and emcee of The Fania All-Stars since 1971, Sanabria helped make Salsa music a global phenomenon, taking it across North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Japan.
Salsa music, which draws from Caribbean, African, and African-American influences, hit its stride in the 1970s, as it embodied the Nuyorican experience. As Puerto Ricans migrated to New York, they brought the spirit of the islands to the North, while absorbing the vibes they discovered here. Sanabria was an alchemist, able to transform the music into a mesmerizing visual experience.
The mastermind behind album covers, posters, and advertisements for Salsa's greatest performers including Celia Cruz, Ray Barretto, and Willie Colon, among others, Sanabria created a look that spoke for the work, one that sung of the vibrant beauty, bold style, and dynamic energy of the music. Like Toulouse-Lautrec, Sanabria crafted a look of the times, one that drew people in with its promise of pleasure and joy.
In 1973, Sanabria created "Salsa," a music-and-dance show on New York's Channel 41, the Latino equivalent of "Soul Train." In a time before music videos, Sanabria understood the value of bringing the music into your living room. That same year, he launched Latin NY, which went on to become the most influential magazine in the Latino community.
Two years later, Sanabria debuted The Latin NY Music Awards, the first time Salsa music was honored and recognized. In doing so, Sanabria forced NARAS to create a Latin Music category in the Grammy Awards, revealing the power of one man's determination to bring about real and lasting change.
In honor of his legacy, Hi-Arts Gallery, New York, presents Izzy Sanabria: The Visual Voice of the Salsa Generation, on view, now through November 22, 2016. Curated by Carlos Mare with additional support provided by Pablo Iglesias | Visual Clave Archive, the exhibition surveys Sanabria's incredible contributions to the culture.
The exhibition features Sanabia's numerous album covers, poster designs, and promotional designs bringing back an era that speaks truth to power and is even more resonant in retrospect. Sanabria's creativity is unsurpassed, matched only by his drive to give Salsa music the honors it deserves. Taken as a whole Izzy Sanabria: The Visual Voice of the Salsa Generation is an inspiration to people from all walks of life, revealing the space where art is a political act, a celebration of the heart, and an homage to the culture from which it comes.
All artwork: Courtesy of Hi-Arts Gallery, New York.


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Q: MySQLi query results: When do I close, free, or both? I have some questions about using MySQLi queries, and related memory management.
Suppose I have something like this:
$db = new mysqli($dbhost, $un, $ps, $dbname);

$query = "SELECT field1, field2  FROM table1 ";
$results = $db->query($query);

while ($result = $results->fetch_object()) {
    // Do something with the results
}

$query = "SELECT field1, field2 FROM table2 ";
// question 1
$results = $db->query($query);

while ($result = $results->fetch_object()) {
    // Do something with the second set of results
}

// Tidy up, question 2
if ($results) {
    $results->free();
}
if ($db) {
    $db->close();
}

// Question 3, a general one

So, based on the comments in the code above, here are my questions:

*

*When I assign the results of the second query to $results, what happens to the memory associated with the previous results? Should I be freeing that result before assigning the new one?

*Related to 1, when I do clean up at the end, is cleaning up just the last results enough?

*When I do try to clean up a result, should I be freeing it as above, should I be closing it, or both?
I ask question 3 because the PHP documentation for mysqli::query has an example that uses close, even though close is not part of mysqli_result (see example 1 in the link above). And in contrast, my normal PHP reference text uses free (PHP and MySQL Web Development, Fourth Edition, Welling and Thomson).

A:
When I assign the results of the
second query to $results, what happens
to the memory associated with the
previous results?

When you execute this:
$results = $db->query($query);

If there was something in $results before, this old content cannot be accessed anymore, as there is no reference left to it.
In such a case, PHP will mark the old content of the variable as "not needed anymore" -- and it will be removed from memory when PHP needs some memory.
This, at least, is true for general PHP variables; in the case of results from an SQL query, though, some data may be kept in memory on the driver-level -- over which PHP doesn't have much control.

Should I be freeing that result before
assigning the new one?

I never do that.

Related to 1, when I do clean up at
the end, is cleaning up just the last
results enough?

When the scripts end:

*

*The connection to the database will be closed -- which means any memory that might be used by the driver should be freed

*All variables used by the PHP script will be destroyed -- which means the memory they were using should be freed.

So, at the end of the script, there is really no need to free the result set.

When I do try to clean up a result,
should I be freeing it as above,
should I be closing it, or both?

If you close the connection to the database (using mysqli::close like you proposed), this will disconnect you from the database.
This means you'll have to re-connect if you want to do another query! Which is not good at all (takes some time, resources, ... )
Generally speaking, I would not close the connection to the database until I am really sure that I won't need it anymore -- which means I would not disconnect before the end of the script.
And as "end of the script" means "the connection will be closed" even if you don't specify it; I almost never close the connection myself.

A: The answers already provided are good, but I wanted to add one point and clarify another.
First, the clarification. Regarding the use of the close() method, it's important to note that the OP was referencing the close() method of the mysqli_result class, not the mysqli class. In the result class, the close() method is simply an alias to the free() method, as shown in the documentation, while in the mysqli class, it closes the connection. Thus, it's okay to use close() on the result in place of free() if desired.
Second, the additional point. As has already been pointed out, PHP's execution pattern means that everything will eventually be cleaned up behind you, and thus, you don't necessarily need to worry about releasing memory. However, if you're allocating a lot of result objects, or if you're allocating particularly big result objects (e.g., fetching a large amount of data), then you should probably free the memory when you're done to prevent problems further down the path of execution. This becomes especially important as your application starts to get more traffic, where the total amount of memory tied up across sessions can quickly become significant.

A: As rare as they are, in my opinion memory leaks are a nightmare to find and correct.  I go out of my way to avoid them.  Below is the pattern I use, based on the code you supplied:
$db = NULL;
try {
    $dbPool = "p:$dbhost"; // question 3: use pooling
    $db = new mysqli($dbPool, $un, $ps, $dbname);
    if ($db->connect_errno) {
        throw new Exception('' . $db->connect_error . ' ' . $db->connect_errno
                . "\n" . $un . '@' . $dbhost . ' ' . $dbname);
        // NOTE: It's commonly considered a security
        // risk to output connection information e.g.
        // host, user and database names.
    }

    $query = "SELECT field1, field2 ".
             "FROM table1 ".
             "WHERE field1={$some_value}";

    $results = NULL;
    try {

        if (!$results = $db->query($query)) {
            throw new Exception($db->error . " " . $db->errno
                    . "\n" . $query);
            // NOTE: It's commonly considered a security
            // risk to output SQL ($query).
        }
        while ($result = $results->fetch_object()) {
            // Do something with the results
        }

    } catch (Exception $ex) {
        // log, report, or otherwise handle the error
    }
    if ($results) {
        $results->free(); // question 1: why risk it?
    }

    $query = "SELECT field1, field2 ".
             "FROM table2 ".
             "WHERE field1={$some_value2}";

    $results = NULL;
    try {

        if (!$results = $db->query($query)) {
            throw new Exception($db->error . " " . $db->errno
                    . "\n" . $query);
            // NOTE: It's commonly considered a security
            // risk to output SQL ($query).
        }
        while ($result = $results->fetch_object()) {
            // Do something with the second set of results
        }

    } catch (Exception $ex) {
        // log, report, or otherwise handle the error
    }
    if ($results) {
        $results->free(); // question 2: again, why risk it?
    }

} catch (Exception $ex) {
    // log, report, or otherwise handle the error
}
if ($db) {
    $db->close();
}

In my opinion, connection pooling increases the chances for a memory leak, but according to the manual, the connection pooling libraries do a lot of cleanup for you automatically:

The persistent connection of the mysqli extension however provides
  built-in cleanup handling code. The cleanup carried out by mysqli
  includes:
Rollback active transactions
Close and drop temporary tables
Unlock tables
Reset session variables
Close prepared statements (always happens with PHP)
Close handler
Release locks acquired with GET_LOCK()
This ensures that persistent connections are in a clean state on
  return from the connection pool, before the client process uses them.

source: http://php.net/manual/en/mysqli.persistconns.php
I also agree with Pascal MARTIN that it's a good idea to open your connection at the beginning of your script and close it at the end.  I think connection pooling makes that less important, but still a good idea.

A: The general PHP way is not to close any opened resource. Everything will be automatically closed at the script end. The only case where you have to take care of manual close is if you have long heavy code to run, which is not very common for PHP.


text:
Joshua P. Cittadino
Cittadino@nullLitchfieldCavo.com
vCard | LinkedIn
Joshua focuses his practice on New York property damage claims as well as construction and labor law. He has extensive experience with a broad range of real estate matters, including real property disputes, landlord-tenant claims and real estate transactions. Additionally, Joshua has experience defending employees' rights against unfair employment practices in both state and federal court.
While attending the State University of New York at Cortland, Joshua was honored as a First Team All-American collegiate athlete. He also is a volunteer coach for the Israel Lacrosse U-13 youth program where he helps train national and international youth athletes.
Construction Liability
First-Party Property
Barry University Dwayne O' Andreas School of Law, JD, 2014
State University of New York College at Cortland, BS, Sports Management, 2009
United States District Courts: Southern District of Florida, District of New Jersey
Columbian Lawyers Association, First Department
Member, Board of Directors
Included among the 2021 Best Lawyers© Ones to Watch inaugural edition in the category of Insurance Law
© 2021 Litchfield Cavo LLP. All rights reserved. | Disclaimer


COLUMBIA - There's a small chance for icy road conditions Friday, and crews have already taken action to make sure morning commutes run smoothly.
The Columbia Public Works Department treated first priority roads with hills Thursday. Since the roads weren't icy yet crews were able to swap the normal salt treatment for beet juice.
Public works information officer Steven Sapp said beet juice works well as an anti-icing agent.
"Tomorrow if this precipitation should materialize it will melt on contact with the pavement," Sapp said.
A crew will be out at three Friday morning to monitor road conditions and evaluate if further treatments are necessary.
"We all know that Mid-Missouri weather is unpredictable," Sapp said, "So we've taken a proactive response by pretreating roads where hills are involved."
To see a full list of those roads click here.


Psy's ubiquitous smash 'Gangnam Style' is perhaps already fading into obscurity, despite his excellent dance skils. [*does horsey dance*] But mash-up artists like Faroff are on hand to breathe new life in to this phenomenon, such as with this 'Ghostbusters' mash-up, which takes on Ray Parker Jr's iconic theme and adds a little Korean magic. Download the audio mash-up and watch the video mash-up below.
Understandably, 'Gangnam Busters' continues Psy's bonkers style of entertainment. Faroff combines the brilliant melodies of the 'Ghostbusters' theme with Psy's Korean-with-a-splash-of-English lyrics. It's not quite in the class of last year's perversely brilliant Justin Bieber vs Slipknot mash-up but Faroff offers a decent twist to the original tracks here, in a Pogo-esque music-meets-film fashion.
For more info on Faroff, head to facebook.com/djfaroff.


text:
/// <reference path="./api.ts"/>
/// <reference path="../scene/sceneView.ts"/>
module pow2 {
  export enum KeyCode {
    UP = 38,
    DOWN = 40,
    LEFT = 37,
    RIGHT = 39,
    BACKSPACE = 8,
    COMMA = 188,
    DELETE = 46,
    END = 35,
    ENTER = 13,
    ESCAPE = 27,
    HOME = 36,
    SPACE = 32,
    TAB = 9
  }

  export interface CanvasMouseCoords {
    point:Point; // Point on the canvas in pixels.
    world:Point; // Point in the world, accounting for camera scale and offset.
  }

  export interface NamedMouseElement extends CanvasMouseCoords {
    name:string;
    view:pow2.scene.SceneView;
  }

  export class Input implements IWorldObject {
    world:pow2.IWorld;
    _keysDown:Object = {};
    _mouseElements:NamedMouseElement[] = [];

    static mouseOnView(ev:MouseEvent, view:pow2.scene.SceneView, coords?:CanvasMouseCoords) {
      var relativeElement:any = ev.srcElement;
      var touches:any = (<any>ev).touches;
      if (touches && touches.length > 0) {
        ev = <any>touches[0];
      }
      var result:CanvasMouseCoords = coords || {
            point: new pow2.Point(),
            world: new pow2.Point()
          };
      var canoffset = (<any>window).$(relativeElement).offset();
      var x = ev.clientX + document.body.scrollLeft + document.documentElement.scrollLeft - Math.floor(canoffset.left);
      var y = ev.clientY + document.body.scrollTop + document.documentElement.scrollTop - Math.floor(canoffset.top);
      result.point.set(x, y);
      // Generate world mouse position
      var worldMouse = view.screenToWorld(result.point, view.cameraScale).add(view.camera.point).round();
      result.world.set(worldMouse.x, worldMouse.y);
      return result;
    }

    constructor() {
      window.addEventListener(<string>"keydown", (ev:KeyboardEvent) => {
        this._keysDown[ev.which] = true;
      });
      window.addEventListener(<string>'keyup', (ev:KeyboardEvent) => {
        this._keysDown[ev.which] = false;
      });
      var hooks = this._mouseElements;
      window.addEventListener(<string>'mousemove touchmove', (ev:MouseEvent) => {
        var l:number = hooks.length;
        for (var i = 0; i < l; i++) {
          var hook:NamedMouseElement = hooks[i];
          if (ev.srcElement === hook.view.canvas) {
            Input.mouseOnView(ev, hook.view, hook);
          }
          else {
            hook.point.set(-1, -1);
            hook.world.set(-1, -1);
          }
        }
      });
    }

    mouseHook(view:pow2.scene.SceneView, name:string):NamedMouseElement {
      var hooks = <NamedMouseElement[]>_.where(this._mouseElements, {name: name});
      if (hooks.length > 0) {
        return hooks[0];
      }
      var result:NamedMouseElement = {
        name: name,
        view: view,
        point: new Point(-1, -1),
        world: new Point(-1, -1)
      };
      this._mouseElements.push(result);
      return result;
    }

    mouseUnhook(name:string);
    mouseUnhook(view:pow2.scene.SceneView);
    mouseUnhook(nameOrView:any) {
      this._mouseElements = _.filter(this._mouseElements, (hook:NamedMouseElement) => {
        return hook.name === nameOrView || hook.view._uid === nameOrView._uid;
      });
    }

    getMouseHook(name:string):NamedMouseElement;
    getMouseHook(view:pow2.scene.SceneView):NamedMouseElement;
    getMouseHook(nameOrView:any):NamedMouseElement {
      return <NamedMouseElement>_.find(this._mouseElements, (hook:NamedMouseElement) => {
        return hook.name === nameOrView || hook.view._uid === nameOrView._uid;
      });
    }

    keyDown(key:number):boolean {
      return !!this._keysDown[key];
    }

  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Home | News | Article
Scottish schools shut until at least August; Wales and Northern Ireland taking similar paths
Written by: Sam Phipps | Published: 13 May 2020
The Scottish government and teachers do not expect schools to re-open before the start of the new academic year in August, while concerns also mount over the way exams will be graded during the coronavirus shutdown.
Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), said Scotland would not be returning to "full-time, in-school learning for the foreseeable future".
The union also said it would oppose any moves to bring forward the summer holiday dates so that schools could re-open earlier in August than normal.
"August seems to us to be the best date to ensure an ordered approach and to secure parent, pupil and staff confidence that schools are safe," an EIS spokesman said.
In a statement made after British prime minister Boris Johnson announced that he wants schools in England to re-open to some year groups from June 1, Mr Flanagan also said that class sizes would have to be cut dramatically to comply with social distancing and other health guidelines.
"The EIS is clear that schools, and indeed colleges and universities, should not be physically re-opening until a comprehensive 'test trace and isolate' capacity is in place to prevent a spike in infection," Mr Flanagan said, adding that strategies had to be in place to ensure schools were safe for staff and pupils.
The EIS is represented on the Scottish government's new Covid-19 Education Recovery Group (CERG) and is "working at pace" over these issues, he said.
"A blended approach, with some continuation of remote learning being in place, is inevitable. How this might work is precisely what is under discussion."
For its part, the Scottish government says it is considering a phased approach to returning pupils to school, "when it is safe to do so" but does not expect this to start soon.
Scotland's education secretary John Swinney said there was a need to build confidence among schools, teachers and parents before any return to the classroom. He gave no indication of when this might be possible.
First minister Nicola Sturgeon, meanwhile, has rejected the June 1 date and said that a phased re-opening before the summer holidays, which in Scotland begins in June, "might not be possible".
A document published by the Scottish government last week (2020) said that the government could develop a chronological list of priority groups who would return to school in an agreed order, while also modelling a new approach whereby most pupils are likely to have a blend of in-school and in-home learning for the "foreseeable future".
The document adds: "This would include attending school part-time in blocks of a few days or even a week at a time, to enable deep cleaning of schools between groups. Learning at home will be supported by consistent, high-quality online materials which will be developed to support the curriculum."
It echoes plans in Northern Ireland and Wales. In Northern Ireland, the partial re-opening of schools has been included as part of step 3 of a five-step plan unveiled on Tuesday (May 12). The Northern Ireland Executive has not set out a timetable, but first minister Arlene Foster said she hoped to reach the final stage by December and progression would depend on health-related criteria.
For schools, it states under step 3: "Schools expand provision for priority groups on a part-time basis, using a combination of in-school and remote learning." And under step 4, it adds: "Schools expand provision to accommodate all pupils on part-time basis with combination of in-school and remote learning."
In Wales, it has been confirmed that schools will not re-open from June 1. Education minister Kirsty Williams said: "The situation for schools in Wales will not change on June 1. You have my guarantee that we will give everyone time to plan ahead of a next phase starting. Any decision to increase the operation of schools will be communicated well in advance. We will continue to be guided by the very latest scientific advice and will only look to have more pupils and staff in schools when it is safe to do so."
Back in Scotland, many teachers have voiced concerns about low attendance of online lessons and a failure by the government or local authorities to require a daily register. Less than half of children were "engaging" with teachers – i.e. logging in and participating – according to one survey by the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association in April. Many young people are reported to be completely "off radar".
Others have pointed to a widening disparity on this front between the independent and state sectors, with private schools said to be experiencing better participation and fewer problems over access to technology in families.
Meanwhile, MSPs have written to the chief executive of the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) voicing "deep unease" among teachers at plans to overhaul exams amid the pandemic.
Holyrood's Education Committee has written to Fiona Robertson about the decision to use a school's past performance to help determine the grades of pupils this year – teachers say the process could negatively affect those from more deprived backgrounds.
As in the rest of the UK, Scotland cancelled this year's exam schedule, with teachers told to submit predicted grades and rankings for pupils instead.
Following an appearance by Ms Robertson, the committee has demanded more clarity on the moderation of the new system, as well as on an equalities impact assessment and the appeals process.
In the letter, committee convener Clare Adamson told Ms Robertson that the confidence of the public was based on transparency.
"Only by being able to understand the detail of the processes to be followed can the public be assured that the system for arriving at grades will be consistent and fair. On that basis the detail of processes being followed need to be published in full as quickly as possible."
The committee also asked for full details on the moderation process, including how much weight would be given to teachers' predictions, past coursework, mapping of estimates on a curve and the school's past performance.
The convener also said there had been "deep unease" among teachers who were part of three focus group sessions held by the committee at the end of April over the need to rank students.
She wrote: "The concerns include that ranking goes against the principles of the Curriculum for Excellence and that assessing students to within a fraction of a percentage point is, as one teacher in our focus groups put it, 'conflating precision with accuracy'.
"This is of particular concern in 'high-stakes' subjects where a large proportion of the final grade is usually exam-based."
As well as asking for clarification, the convener also laid out the committee's position on some of the issues around the new system, recommending that an equalities impact assessment is published, which Ms Robertson told the committee during her evidence was being undertaken.
The committee has also recommended the publication of details around the appeals process and the methodology put forward for the moderation of grades before teachers are expected to submit estimates.
A spokesman for the SQA said it would "respond robustly and in full" to the committee's letter, adding: "SQA made clear its commitment to transparency and fairness in its evidence to the committee."
Scottish Government: Coronavirus (COVID-19): framework for decision making - further information, May 5, 2020: https://bit.ly/2SWLw6k
Cancelled exams: Consultation to probe using ...
Free laptops: DfE rhetoric at odds with reality in ...
Live lessons are not the gold standard: Ofsted busts ...
Lockdown teaching and learning: A quick guide for ...
Crisis management for school leaders
Boost your wellbeing: Five simple steps for school ...
From vaccines to laptops: The pandemic to-do list for ...
Poverty-proof your school uniform
Building back better: The curriculum and assessment


text:
Yuvraj Singh: The Hundred can cause a revolution like T20
Yuvraj, who retired from cricket earlier this year, said that the hundred ball format would be fit for the two-week long Olympic tournament.
Abu Dhabi 16 November, 2019 19:18 IST
Yuvraj Singh speaks during a news conference in Mumbai. (File Photo) - GETTY IMAGES
Former India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh feels that England's new 100-ball cricket format could fashion a revolution in the sport similar to the Twenty20 form.
The success of T20 has led to the introduction of several other formats including T10. Asked about the evolution of cricket, the the two-time World Cup winner said The Hundred seemed like an exciting prospect.
"The new 100 ball format will be an exciting one. That could be close to a revolution like T20," said Yuvraj.
The Hundred, starting in 2020, is a new tournament in England that aims to break away from the traditional county system.
The teams will bat for 100 balls each with overs, normally consisting of six deliveries, lasting for 10 balls with bowlers either bowling five or 10 balls consecutively.
The 37-year-old, who competed at the Global T20 Canada earlier this year, played his first match for the Maratha Arabians in Abu Dhabi T10 league on Friday.
However, Yuvraj had a forgetful first outing as he was dismissed for just six runs.
"It went really fast, I just felt there was no time at all to think about whether to block or go for big hits, but I guess that's the nature of T10," Yuvraj said.
"For me as a number 4 batsman I take 8-10 balls to get going but in T10 you don't have that much liberty. If you play 3-4 dot balls you have to get a run or need to hit a big shot. So batsmen get under pressure really fast so you got to be little smarter. You have to pick bowlers you can hit," he added.
Yuvraj said the T10 format would suit the big hitters and players who can innovate. However, he did express his inhibitions about the evolution of the format.
"As cricket is evolving T10 is a very exciting format but I'm not sure if you have that much time to get in there and be set and play an innings. But in terms of pacing yourself the time isn't there."
The swashbuckling batsman also said that the hundred ball format would be fit for the two-week long Olympic tournament when asked which for would suit the quadrennial event.
"If it's two-week then 100 ball would be perfect but if it's 10 days T10 will be good, depending upon the time frame of Olympics you got to decide that."
Yuvraj, who retired from cricket earlier this year, said he is thoroughly enjoying his life.
"I am really enjoying my cricket, enjoyed playing in Canada, unfortunately I couldn't go to CPL. But playing 2-3 formats a year is great for me. I have my retired life and I get to work on things and when I miss cricket I have these two or three events.
"Also I'm at an age when I don't wish to play throughout the year. It's been a roller coaster 17 years, so I want as much time with my family as possible now."
Abu Dhabi T10 League
Yuvraj Singh


Banshee » Banshee 2.9.1 released!
Banshee 2.9.1 has been released!
Banshee 2.9.1 is the second release in the 2.9 development series leading up to 3.0.
Read the release notes for more info.
Powered by GNOME, GStreamer, Mono, SQlite and more!
Copyright 2014 Banshee contributors. Banshee is a registered trademark of Novell.


A Hippingo, which is a Hippo crossed with a Flamingo, has been spotted bathing in a very pink lake! Scientists think this is a new generation of animals. They are now trying to find other animals common to this species. This probably is the most rarest species we have found in 1,896 years. Oh yeah, 1,896 years ago we had found a Thino, which is a tiger crossed with a rhino, in a fire desert. After that this is the only mind-boggling thing so far in history. Well that's it for today. LIVE! from Fox news. Reported by Emma Monroe!!!


A tech startup incubator typically provides office space, mentorship, and sometimes funding to early-stage startups. Similar in purpose to startup accelerators, startup incubators engage businesses prior to their achieving an initial round of funding. Some incubators help businesses at the idea stage, while others wait until the fledgling company has an initial prototype and business plan.
What's the difference between a startup incubator and an accelerator?
There's some overlap with incubators and accelerators, and you'll find that the terms are sometimes incorrectly used interchangeably. A tech startup incubator accepts companies at a far earlier stage than an accelerator will. Startup accelerators typically want you to have a minimum viable product, or at least a solid business plan. Incubators help you get to that point.
Another marked difference is that tech incubators offer office space, mentorship, business education, and access to networking, but don't, in the majority of cases, provide funding. Accelerators provide an initial round of funding for an equity stake in your company.
How much do tech startup incubators cost?
It varies. Many business incubators are funded by grants or are programs offered by public universities or institutions, and as such are free. The purpose is to build a vibrant business community and job market. Some incubators charge a nominal fee to cover expenses (utility costs, etc.), while others charge a higher fee for participation in their program and access to their services.
Reduced cost or free software & services.
Will a tech incubator accept us if we're only at the idea stage?
Some will. Each tech startup incubator program is different, so you'll need to research to find out which one fits your business and its level of growth. You'll likely find that there's a fair amount of fuzziness in the program designations, with some "incubator" programs actually functioning more like accelerators - providing funding for equity, preparing businesses for the next round of funding, accepting only later-stage startups. Read up on potential programs and reach out with questions if necessary.
What's the role of a business incubator?
A business incubator's role is to give you the tools and support you need to get your startup to the accelerator stage. Startup incubators often provide office space with business-grade internet access and the opportunity to work with other businesses and seasoned mentors in an open environment, so there's a lot of interaction and inspiration.
Business incubators also can serve as learning laboratories where you can immediately apply what you've learned about running a company to your startup. Incubators also may introduce new founders to a network of seasoned business leaders and potential investors.
The role of business incubators in the larger socioeconomic sense is to increase corporate diversity and add more employment opportunities to bolster the economy. The more good business ideas are supported, the more product and service offerings will be available. The more fledgling companies are supported, the better chance they'll grow into profitable businesses that need talented employees.
Bioincubator - bio- or medtech.
Hybrid incubator - virtual & in-person.
Public incubator - startups for public good.
How does a tech incubator make money?
Many tech startup incubators run on public funds and grants, so they're able to provide incubator programs for free. Many of these will have an industry focus based on who funded them, so if a grant comes from an agribusiness collective it could stipulate that the funds are only to be used to support farmtech startups.
Other tech startup incubators charge enough to break even on utilities, tools, and supplies, so they'll charge a nominal fee to cover those expenses. They're not really making money on the incubator, but they're not losing money either. The people running the incubator are paid by the host company, organization, or university.
Finally, some business incubators charge a monthly fee that allows them to profit from the startups that take part in their programs.
Does my team have to move to take part in a startup incubator program?
It depends on the incubator. One of the primary benefits of a business incubator is the opportunity to work in an office alongside other startup teams and mentors, immersing yourself in the business environment and growing your network, which of course would require that you move to the incubator's city. Hybrid incubators, however, allow you to stay in your home location while taking advantage of online business courses and meetings, occasionally traveling to the incubator's headquarters for in-person events.
Virtual incubators conduct all incubator activity online, which allows you to stay at home and build your business in a familiar environment while attending online courses and meetings.
How do I find a business incubator near me?
Check with the nearest university or college, or simply do a search for "[your city name] incubator." You can also contact your local business organizations, such as the Chamber of Commerce, to see if any of them host or have knowledge of nearby incubator programs. SCORE, the volunteer-based business mentorship organization, is a great resource as well. Some of their offices in major cities host their own small business incubators.
Another excellent resource is InBIA, the International Business Innovation Association (formerly the National Business Incubation Association, or NBIA). InBIA offers courses, events, and access to the largest entrepreneurial support network in the world.


text:
21 | 02 | 2013 Ad-Hoc-Announcement
CTS EVENTIM increases revenue and earnings
Group revenue grows 3.5% to EUR 520.3 million / EBITDA improves by 25.7% to EUR 118.9 million and EBIT by 33.4% to EUR 96.1 million / Live Entertainment segment boosts EBITDA by 41.6% to EUR 26.6 million / Ticketing segment achieves 22.2% higher EBITDA of EUR 92.7 million due to expected fourth-quarter strength
Munich, 21.02.2013. CTS EVENTIM AG, listed in the SDAX index (ISIN DE0005470306), achieved significant growth in revenue and earnings in the 2012 financial year and continued to reinforce its leadership in the European ticketing and live events markets. The business model proved yet again to be very robust, even in a tough economic environment. Both segments, Ticketing and Live Entertainment, showed successful growth in both revenue and earnings. The Management Board will announce its dividend proposal for the past financial year when the Annual Report is published at the end of March 2013.
According to preliminary unaudited figures, the CTS Group achieved improvements in all key figures in the 2012 financial year: total revenue rose to EUR 520.3 million (2011: EUR 502.8 million, up 3.5%), EBITDA to EUR 118.9 million (2011: EUR 94.6 million, up 25.7%) and EBIT to EUR 96.1 million (2011: EUR 72.1 million, up 33.4%). Normalised EBITDA was up 13.4% at EUR 118.2 million (2011: EUR 104.2 million), while normalised EBIT before amortisation from purchase price allocation (Ticketcorner Group and See Tickets Germany / Ticket Online Group) was up 14.4% at EUR 105.5 million (2011: EUR 92.2 million).
The Ticketing segment generated EUR 231.5 million in revenue in 2012 before consolidation between segments, which is up 1.2% from EUR 228.7 million in 2011. Despite fewer events in presales over the first nine months of the 2012 financial year, due to major international sporting events, CTS EVENTIM AG still managed to achieve a year-on-year revenue increase following an expectedly strong fourth quarter. Profitability in the Ticketing segment was continuously improved over the 2012 financial year. In the period under review, the CTS Group sold 20.6 million tickets via the Internet – which equates to approx. 7.0% increase on the prior year (19.2 million tickets). EBITDA was 22.2% higher at EUR 92.7 million (2011: EUR 75.8 million), while EBIT increased 30.5% to EUR 72.0 million (2011: EUR 55.2 million). The normalised EBITDA was up 7.7% at EUR 92.0 million (2011: EUR 85.4 million), while normalised EBIT before amortisation from purchase price allocation was up 8.0% at EUR 81.3 million (2011: EUR 75.3 million).
In the 2012 financial year, the Live Entertainment segment achieved a substantial 5.5% year-onyear increase in revenue to EUR 296.4 million, compared to EUR 281.0 million in 2011. The EBITDA figure is EUR 26.6 million (2011: EUR 18.8 million, up 41.6%), the EBIT figure EUR 24.5 million (2011: EUR 16.9 million, up 45.4%). This encouraging growth is partly attributable to the large number of attractive live events in the reporting period.
In view of the growth achieved in the 2012 financial year, the good start to the new financial year in 2013, the successful launch of EVENTIM FanTicket and the unrelenting demand for live events, the Management Board expects the Group to continue its positive development in 2013 as well. These expectations are additionally supported by the continuous growth of Internet ticketing and by further international expansion on the part of CTS EVENTIM AG.


Use: on land, civil, state and war flag.
Note on the 2003 name change to "Serbia and Montenegro"
In the beginning of 2003, the name of the country was changed to Serbia and Montenegro. However, the laws predating this change will remain valid until modified and the information on the flags and arms of Yugoslavia is still valid, too.
Article 4. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia shall have a flag, a national anthem, and a coat-of-arms. The flag of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia shall consist of three horizontal stripes, blue, white and red in that order, from top to bottom. The national anthem of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia shall be Hej Sloveni. The coat of arms of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is to be established by Federal statute.
The change of the flag was shown on Spanish television. The flag with the star was lowered and a similar flag without a star. The shade of blue was also a bit different between both flags. Cloth was shinier in the new flag.
Two-headed eagle (Silver), with quartered shield with national signs of Montenegro (Golden lion of Petrovic Dinasty) and Serbia (four firesteels).
The Yugoslav coat of arms contains the cross with the four Byzantine firesteels, those C-shaped attributes.
The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes that was formed after First World War adopted a coat of arms consisting of three parts changed in details over time, It always included the four firesteels and the cross in one of the partitions, Croat chequy shield in other, while the third part was somewhat changed.
After the Second World War, Socialist Yugoslavia dropped that symbol, as it was not suitable for the conception of five (later six) nations within it, and introduced the socialist style coat of arms with torches. However, the coat of arms with the four firesteel was not dropped alltogether - the People's Republic of Serbia adopted it officially in 1947 in the middle of a socialist style coat of arms, but dropping the cross and retaining only the four firesteels on the shield. When the name was changed to Socialist Republic of Serbia in 1963, the coat of arms was retained, as well as after early 1990's when Socialist attribute was dropped from the name. It is still the only official coat of arms of Serbia and used as such, even if Montenegro and Yugoslavia changed their symbols.
The Yugoslavian civil ensign is similar to the national flag, but in proportions 2:3.
Pravilnik o vijenju zastave trgovacke mornarice Savezne Republike Jugoslavije, "Sluzbeni list SRJ", broj 31 od 26. juna 1998.