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Gubernatorial Races 2010
While many people are focused on the midterm congressional elections already, there are other elections in 2010 that may be even more important: governors races in 37 states in 2010. These 37 races are especially important this cycle because the House will be reapportioned after the 2010 census, which means that the gerrymanders will crawl out from under their logs and bask in the sun, as they always do once in a decade. In nearly all states, congressional districts are set by law, which means the state legislature gets to draw the district boundaries and then the governor gets to sign or veto the law. If the legislature and governor are from the same party, they can do pretty much do whatever they want to and can be expected to draw the boundaries to benefit their party. Of course, if a state has only one representative, like Alaska, there is not much they can do. But in a state like Florida, with 25 representatives now and more expected after 2010, there is enormous potential for mischief.
On the other hand, if the governor's mansion and state legislature are controlled by different parties, all bets are off. If the legislature comes up with a one-sided plan, the governor will veto it. This pretty much forces the legislature to limit its dreams. Typically, the result is a compromise that protects all the incumbents and maintains the status quo, unless the state gains or loses one or more representatives, in which case there is much horse trading about the new boundaries, but the result can't favor the majority party too much or the governor won't bite. With so many governorships up for grabs this cycle, a dozen or more House seats hang in the balance.
The 37 gubernatorial races break down as follows.
7 Incumbent Democrats running for reelection
6 Incumbent Republicans running for reelection
12 open seats currently held by a Democrat
12 open seats currently held by a Republican
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Competitive Gubernatorial Races in Alphabetical Order by State
Incumbent Challenge Notes
(D) Gov. Jan Brewer (R-AZ) got her job when term-limited Gov. Janet Napolitano (D-AZ) took a job in the cabinet. Since she wasn't elected, she may be vulnerable. The Democratic candidate is Attorney General Terry Goddard. Since the most recent person to be elected governor was a Democrat in an otherwise somewhat Republican state, this race has to be considered a tossup at this point. However, Brewer is a big supporter of the controversial Arizona law requiring the police to check the papers of anyone they suspect of being an illegal immigrant, and that position, while probably unconstitutional, is quite popular in Arizona and may pull her over the finish line.
Challenger Challenger Notes
(D) Open seat (R). Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) is term limited so the biggest prize of all in terms of possibilities to gerrymander House districts is up for grabs. The Democrats nominated former governor Jerry Brown (D) while the Republicans nominated former eBay CEO and billionaire Meg Whitman (R), who has already spent over $120 million of her own money on the race. Despite being a very blue state, California has had many Republican governors. Furthermore, Brown is an extremely erratic campaigner. He might even decide to go off to an ashram to meditate instead of campaigning this Fall. Whitman has a real shot at it, especially if she continues to outspend Brown 10 to 1 in this vast state.
(D) Open seat (R). With Gov. Jody Rell's (R-CT) announced retirement, this has become a wide open race with the Democrats having a good chance to pick up the governor's mansion. After hotly contested primaries, the Republicans picked former ambassador to Ireland Tom Foley (R) and the Democrats picked former Stanford mayor Dan Malloy (D). Connecticut is a blue state and Malloy has run for and won public office before, so he is the favorite.
(D) Open seat (R). With Gov. Charlie Crist's decision to run for the seat of retired senator Mel Martinez (R), the governor's race was suddenly thrown wide open. Surprisingly, it settled down on both sides very fast, with Attorney General Bill McCollum (R) and Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink (D) becoming the overwhelming favorites to get their party's respective nominations. Then a funny thing happened on the way to McCollum's expected easy primary and general election victories. Billionaire Rick Scott, who ran a for-profit hospital company that was fined over $100 million for defrauding Medicare jumped in and bought the nomination. All of a sudden, Sink finds herself the favorite. Scott will no doubt outspend her 10 to 1 but he has a lot of baggage and everyone in Florida knows about it already.
(D) Open seat (R). With Gov. Sonny Perdue (R-GA) term limited, former governor Roy Barnes (D) jumped into the race and won the primary. The Republican primary was indecisive, forcing a runoff between tea partier Karen Handel (R) and former representative Nathan Deal (R). Deal won it by a hair. The general election leans toward Deal in this red state.
Incumbent Challenger Notes
(R) Gov. Pat Quinn (D-IL) became governor when his predecessor, Rod Blagojevich (D), was impeached and convicted. So far, Quinn doesn't appear touched by the state's boundless corruption, but when you weren't elected to your current office, you are always vulnerable. The Republicans don't have a stellar candidate here, with Bill Brady (R) eking out the narrowest of victories over his primary challengers. Still, Illinois is a fairly blue state and Quinn is somewhat better known than Brady, so the race leans towards Quinn. However, the Green Party candidate, Rich Whitney, could draw enough votes from from Quinn to have an impact.
Chet
Brandstad
(R) Gov. Chet Culver (D-IA) is a moderate Democrat in a moderately Democratic state. However, his popularity is dropping and he is vulnerable. The Republican is former four-term governor Terry Branstad (R) looking for an encore. Since Branstad is a proven vote getter, albeit a decade ago, he will be a tough competitor.
(R) Open seat (D). Gov. John Baldacci (D-ME) is term limited, giving the Republicans a shot in this once strongly Republican state. The Democrats nominated state senate president Libby Mitchell (D) in a four-way primary. The Republicans chose the mayor of Waterville, Paul LePage (R). In addition to these two, three independents are also running. Initial polling puts LePage ahead of Mitchell, although the three independent candidates are pulling in about 15-20% of the vote. If any of them drop out later, it could shake things up.
O'Malley
Ehrlich
(R) Gov. Martin O'Malley (D-MD) will be running for a second term in this very blue state. Early in his term he raised taxes, which lowered his approval ratings somewhat. Former one-term governor Bob Ehrlich (R) wants to get his old job back, so this will be a rematch of the 2006 election. O'Malley beat Ehrlich in 2006, but the wind is blowing a different way now. Likely to be close.
Bernero
(R) Open seat (D). Term-limited governor Jennifer Granholm (D-MI) is leaving, which is probably a good thing for the Democrats as she was not all that popular. Also, the economy of her state is a complete disaster, although it is not really her fault that General Motors has had little interest over the past 30 years in producing cars that people actually want to buy. Lt. Gov. John Cherry (D-MI) was next in line but decided not to run. The Democratic nominee ended up being Lansing mayor Virg Bernero (D). Rick Snyder (R) won a tough GOP primary. The race probably leans Republican because the voters are so angry about the economy and the Democrats are in charge now.
Challender Challenger Notes
(D) Open seat (R). When some people started talking about Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) as a possible presidential nominee in 2012 he got bitten by the bug and decided not to run for a third term in 2010 to concentrate on his presidential run. Former senator Mark Dayton (D) decided to get back into politics and won the DFL (Democratic) primary. State representative Tom Emmer (R) won the Republican primary. The race is clouded by the presence of a third-party candidate, Tom Horner. It could be close.
Denish
(R) Open seat (D). Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM) is term limited. Lt. Gov Diane Denish (D-NM) is runing for the Democrats. What about the Republicans? Well, Obama carried the state in a landslide, the Democrats control both Senate seats, all three House seats, all statewide offices, and both chambers of the state legislature (by nearly 2 to 1 margins). The Republicans control nothing, so the best they could come up with is the Dona Ana County District Attorney, Susana Martinez. With both candidates female, New Mexico is sure to get its first woman governor. Martinez would be the first Latina, but the current governor is a Latino, so that is less of a breakthrough. It is likely to be a close race.
Strickland
Kasich
(R) Gov. Ted Strickland (D-OH) crushed his Republican opponent, Ken Blackwell, in 2006 and has remained relatively popular since then. But with the Ohio economy in the toilet people need to blame someone and the governor is always on everyone's short list. Former representative John Kasich (R) is his opponent and since he is not in office now, he can claim he's not responsible for the economic mess. That might be enough for him to win.
Kitzhaber
(R) Open seat (D). Term-limited Gov. Ted Kulongoski (D-OR) won't be on the ballot in 2010. The Democrats nominated John Kitzhaber, who already served two terms as governor, from 1995 to 2003. The Republican nominee is Chris Dudley, a former professional basketball player making his first run for public office. It should be an interesting race in an anti-incumbent year: a candidate who is the ultimate insider (although he is not responsible for the current mess) vs. the ultimate outsider. Kitzhaber will harp on the idea that being governor is a tough job and he knows how to do it whereas Dudley will attack Kitzhaber for being just another politician. At this point it is a tossup.
Onorato
(R) Open seat (D). With two-term governor Ed Rendell (D-PA), retiring in 2010, the governor's mansion in a key swing state will be up for grabs. Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-PA) was running but dropped out leaving the nomination to Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett (R). The Democrat is Dan Onorato, the County Executive for the county containing Pittsburgh. Neither candidate is an incumbent and Pennsylvania has many more registered Democrats than registered Republicans on account of Hillary Clinton's refusal to drop out of the presidential race in 2008. It is the gift that keeps on giving. Although Pennsylvania is a blue state, Corbett is much better known than Onorato. Pennsylvania has been hit very hard by the tough economy and people then have a natural tendency to blame the folks currently in power, the Democrats, which gives Corbett the edge.
(D) The fight to unseat Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX), the longest serving governor in Texas history, is going to be a humdinger. Perry first had to beat back a primary challenger, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, which he did handily. Now he has to face off against the popular former mayor of Houston, Bill White (D). White is the first Democrat in years with a decent shot of being elected governor because the state's growing Latino population is highly Democratic and Perry has made a lot of enemies during his tenure.
(R) Open seat (D). Wisconsin law allows Gov. Jim Doyle (D-WI) to run for a third term but he has decided not to. Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett (D) is running to succeed him since the lieutenant governor, Barbara Lawton (D-WI) is not interested in the job. The Republicans had a primary in September between Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker (R) and former congressman Mark Neumann (R) and Walker won. The race leans slightly towards Walker, but should be close.
Dubie
Shumlin
(D) Open seat (R). Vermont was one of the Republicans' few bright spots in New England. If four-term governor Jim Douglas (R-VT) had run for a fifth two-year term, he'd probably have won, but he is not running, so the Democrats have the edge now. There was a highly competitive four-way primary won by Peter Shumlin, who runs a small family-owned business. Only one Republican filed: Lt.Gov. Brian Dubie(R-VT). It could be close.
Likely Democratic States in Alphabetical Order
Keet
(R) Gov. Mike Beebe (D-AR) is highly popular should coast easily to reelection over Jim Keet, a former state senator from Pulaski County (Little Rock) at the same time Blanche Lincoln is being wiped out by John Boozman.
Hickenlooper
(R) Three-way race
Aiona
(D) Open seat (R). While it is hard for Republicans to win anything in Hawaii, term-limited Gov. Linda Lingle (R-HI) managed to pull it off twice. But she will be a tough act for another Republican to follow in this very blue state. Lt. Gov. James Aiona (R-HI) will try, but the odds favor the Democrats. Former Rep. Neil Abercrombie and Honolulu mayor Mufi Hannemann had a nasty primary which Abercrombie won easily. He should cruise to an easy victory in the general election.
Deval
(R) Three-way.
(R) Gov. John Lynch (D-NH) wants a fourth 2-year term and there is nothing the Republicans can do do stop him. He won his last two elections in landslides and the state is bluer than ever. The Republican bench in New Hampshire is extremely thin and the GOP nomination went to a lawyer, John Stephen, who was the state's commissioner of Health and Human services, where he cut the welfare rolls by 20%. Lynch is the clear favorite here.
Cuomo
(R) Politics is a blood sport in New York. This time will be no exception. Gov. David Paterson (D-NY) succeeded to the governor's mansion when Eliot Spitzer resigned after being ensnared in a prostitution sting. Then he got involved in his own scandal and decided not to run for election. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (D) is running for his Dad's old job. He is immensely popular in the state and will win easily. There was a Republican primary and a relatively unknown tea party candidate, Carl Paladino, came out of nowhere to beat establishment favorite, Rep. Rick Lazio (R-NY). Paladino has a history of coontroversial, anti-semitic, and generally stupid remarks and wants to put welfare recipients in prison to learn hygiene. Emails he forwarded contained hard-core pornography although he claims he didn't originate them. Cuomo could win by 20, maybe 30 points.
Likely Republican States in Alphabetical Order
(D) Open seat (R). Gov. Bob Riley (R-AL) is term limited but Alabama is fairly blue at the state level, with the Democrats controlling both houses of the state legislature. However, at the federal level, the Republicans dominate, so the gubernational race is likely to be very competitive. Rep. Artur Davis (D) and Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks (D) ran for the nomination and Sparks (who is white) beat Davis (who is black) by a huge margin. The Republican candidate, a state legislator and something of an outsider, beat the establishment candidate, Bradley Byrne, in a runoff.
Berkowitz
(D) When former governor Sarah Palin quit her job, Sean Parnell (R-AK) became governor of Alaska. He won the Republican nomination quite easily and will face Alaska house minority leader Ethan Berkowitz (D) in the general election. Alaska is a fairly red state, so Parnell, who also has the advantage of incumbency, is favored.
Allred
(D) Gov. Butch Otter (R-ID)is running for re-election and will win. There is nothing the Democratic candidate, activist Keith Allred (D), can do to prevent it. End of story.
Brownback
(R) Open seat (D). Term-limited Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS) accepted a job in the Cabinet rather than run for the open Kansas Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), who is running for governor. The new governor is Mark Parkinson, currently a Democrat, but formerly a Republican. He is up for election in 2010, but has decided to retire. State senator Tom Holland is the Democratic nominee but this will be a very difficult race against Brownback, who is expected to win in a landslide.
Heineman
(D) Then Lt. Gov. Dave Heineman (R-NE) inherited his job when Gov. Mike Johanns became Secretary of Agriculture but Heineman ran on his own in 2006 and won convincingly. He is running in 2010 and will win convincingly again. The Democrats nominated Army veteran and lawyer Mike Meister but he has no chance at all.
(D) Open seat (R). Gov. Jim Gibbons (R-NV) has been up to his ears in scandals since day 1, including a messy divorce in which the state's first lady refused to move out of the governor's mansion. Then there were shady land deals, a bribery investigation, illegal campaign donations, and more. Not surprisingly, he lost his primary. The Republican nominees is Brian Sandoval, a former federal judge. The Democrat is Rory Reid, son of the Senate majority leader Harry Reid. Anything goes in Nevada--except possibly dynasties. Sandoval is the favorite here.
Jari
Askins
(R) Open seat (D). Gov. Brad Henry (D-OK) is term limited so this will be an open seat in the reddest state in the country (McCain got 66% of the vote here, vs. a 65% in Wyoming and a mere 63% in Utah). In fact, Oklahoma is the only state in which McCain carried every county. Lt. Gov. Jari Askins (D-OK) won the Democratic primary and Rep. Mary Fallin (R-OK) won the Republican primary. Fallin is currently leading but, the situation is not entirely hopeless for the Democrats as they currently control every single statewide office.
Sheheen
(D) Open seat (R). Appalachian Trail hiking aficionado Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) is term limited and couldn't be elected dog catcher at this point anyway. South Carolina is where the South starts now that Virginia is trending blue and North Carolina has become a swing state (Obama carried both). As a consequence, the Republican nominee is practically a shoo in, so a vigorously contested primary occurred. The winner, in a runoff, was Nikki Haley, an Indian-American, who if she wins would be the nation's first female Indian-American politician to be elected governor. The Democrat is Vincent Sheheen, but he has little chance.
Heidepriem
(D) Open seat (R). Were he not term limited, the popular governor, Mike Rounds, could easily win a third term, then a fourth one, and then a fifth one. Despite the Republican tilt of the state in presidential elections, one of the senators (Tim Johnson) and the only representative (Stephanie Herseth Sandlin) are Democrats. In fact, Herseth Sandlin may be interested in becoming governor some day, a job her grandfather once held. The Republican nominee is Lt. Gov. Dennis Daugaard (R-SD). The Democrat is state senator Scott Heidepriem (D). Daugaard is the clear favorite.
McWherter
Haslam
(R) Open seat (D). Tennessee is a bit of an anomaly: while dependably Republican in both federal and state elections, the departing two-term governor is Democrat Phil Bredesen. The Democratic nominee is the son of former governor Ned McWherter. The Republican is Bill Haslam (R), mayor of Knoxville. Despite McWherter's pedigree, Haslam is the favorite in this red state.
Corroon
(D) When Barack Obama appointed former Utah governor Jon Huntsman (R) as ambassador to China, he got rid of a potential 2012 opponent but created a special gubernatorial election in Utah in 2010. The man who became governor in his place, Gary Herbert, is running and is the favorite. The Democrats enticed the mayor of Salt Lake County, Peter Corroon (D) to run, but he is longest of longshots.
(R) Open seat (D) . Wyoming is the Republican's #1 pickup opportunity as Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D-WY) is term limited and the Democrats had nobody to replace him. Eventually former state party chairwoman Leslie Petersen jumped in and got the nomination. Lots of Republicans were chomping at the bit, which led to a bitter and contentious primary, won by former U.S. Attorney Matt Mead by 714 votes. Mead is the overwhelming favorite in thie red state.
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Q: Why isn't this roblox dialog script working so I want the game to take a specific action when a dialog option is selected.
script.Parent.DialogChoiceSelected:connect(function(player,choice)
    if choice.Name == "No" then
        player.Character.Humanoid.Health = 0
    elseif choice.Name == "Yes" then
        player.Character.Humanoid.Health = 1000
    end
end)

The script is enabled, it's placed in the same dialog event as the choices, and I know the dialog names are correct, but when the dialog choice is selected absolutely nothing happens. So someone please explain to me how the ****

A: Taking a look at the docs for Dialog.DialogChoiceSelected there's this line :

This event is client-side only and will not fire on the server. It should be connected to in either a LocalScript or a ModuleScript required by a LocalScript.

So you'll need a LocalScript in one of the appropriate locations to connect to this Dialog object and then your code should work properly.

A: If you put a script in your dialog, it wouldn't work because it is client-side so it has to be a LocalScript and it has to be a descendant of either:
A Player's Backpack, such as a child of a Tool
A Player's character model
A Player's PlayerGui
A Player's PlayerScripts
The ReplicatedFirst service.
And then change the local script's code to be workspace:WaitForChild("TheDialogName").
https://developer.roblox.com/en-us/api-reference/class/LocalScript
https://developer.roblox.com/en-us/api-reference/class/Dialog

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


University of Benin, UNIBEN Matriculation Ceremony Date for 2016/2017 Session.
The University of Benin invites the general public to the 2016/2017 academic session matriculation ceremony of newly admitted students scheduled to hold on Friday, 3rd February, 2017 at the Akin Deko Auditorium by 10:00am.
Please be reminded, that matriculation ceremony is the most integral part of your studentship and as such attendance is mandatory.


I clean all of my jewelry in the same simple manner, using Bon Ami Kitchen Cleanser and Joy dish liquid. I make a mixture using about 2 parts Bon Ami to 1 part Joy, making a slurry. Scrub the piece with a soft toothbrush and warm water until clean. This cleans the stones and silver without scratching. I never use any dips and cannot guarantee that the piece within the bezel would not be negatively affected by the chemicals within the dip. Do not substitute any other powder cleanser for the Bon Ami as it may scratch the metal.


HARD taskmaster though he is, Wrexham manager Dean Saunders had nothing but praise for his players after seeing his 100% Blue Square Premier record come to an end at Aggborough on Saturday.
But on an afternoon when opponents Kidderminster Harriers rode more than their fair share of good fortune to claim the spoils from what was an excellent contest, it was a shame that a small minority of visiting fans proved themselves incapable of taking disappointment on the chin or acknowledging that the Dragons were second best on the day.
The focus for their aggression was home goalkeeper Adam Bartlett, who reacted angrily in the latter stages after several objects were thrown at him from the terraces behind his goal, although referee Simon Beck seemed to ignore the keeper's complaints.
And when a handful of morons forced their way onto the pitch at the conclusion of the match it was only the swift reaction of the stadium stewards that nipped a potentially ugly confrontation in the bud.
The incident, for it was no more than that given the sizeable Wrexham following that made up more than one-third of the crowd, nevertheless took the gloss off what had been an entertaining match that could have gone either way.
And Bartlett was probably more satisfied than most with his contribution, one that succeeded in not only winding up a mindless few, but also denying the Dragons the point their performance merited.
His string of saves were hailed by Harriers manager Mark Yates, who admitted that when the keeper had been found wanting the woodwork had come to his side's rescue on no fewer than three occasions.
"We weren't at our best today and they had one or two too many chances than we would have liked," he said afterwards. "But I'm not going to take anything away from my boys today – they dug in.
The similar sentiments echoed by a frustrated Saunders, who judged Wrexham's second-half display the best since he came into the Racecourse last month, underlined the quality on show as both teams slugged it out from the first minute to the last.
And the first indication that fans would be getting their money's worth came in the seventh minute when defender Mike Williams arrowed a 40-yard cross-field pass into the path of Wes Baynes. The midfielder took one touch to control the ball before hitting it from 30 yards, but his fierce shot came back off the post, much to Bartlett's relief.
Harriers then proceeded to demonstrate just why they have been beaten only once on home soil since February, keeping the ball well, playing the flanks and delivering plenty of crosses to test the Dragons' defensive qualities.
Both Williams and skipper Ashley Westwood proved equal to the task, despite finding themselves stretched at times by the pace and agility of strikers Justin Richards and Matt Barnes-Horner who were receiving good service from a midfield where Wrexham appeared a little overwhelmed.
Opportunities to relieve the pressure were few and far between as Jefferson Louis and Marc Williams, not for the first time, were penalised frequently for straying offside and the home side were rewarded for their endeavour with the opening goal in the 25th minute.
Barnes-Horner drove a cross into the penalty area where energetic midfielder Brian Smikle found enough space to meet the ball with a fine volley.
The lead should have been short-lived as Wrexham restarted with pressure of their own, but when Louis helped the ball on to Nathan Woolfe, the Bolton Wanderers loan signing saw his effort rebound off the same upright that had denied Baynes.
The home side's dominance in the centre of the pitch continued to pay dividends as Russell Penn burst through to drive over from 20 yards and Wrexham were indebted to defender Ritchie De Laet when the same player drove into the penalty area again on 35 minutes.
The defender's last-ditch challenge almost certainly prevented a second goal, but resulted in an ankle injury that ended the Dutchman's participation and forced a major reshuffle. Substitute Neil Taylor took up a wide-left midfield role with Woolfe switching to the opposite side and Baynes taking up the defensive duties behind him.
And if Wrexham needed further evidence that fortune was not on their side it came in the final minute of the opening period when Marc Williams did well on the right and pulled the ball back into the path of Louis, whose shot wrong-footed the Harriers keeper, but again struck the foot of a post.
Any suggestion that the Dragons would feel sorry for themselves was dispelled in the second half when the home side were forced to prove the mettle that had seen them concede only four goals at home all season.
Angelos Tsiaklis, who had struggled to make his presence felt for the visitors, presaged a much-improved performance when he picked out Louis in the 52nd minute, but the striker's big chance was snuffed out by Martin Riley.
And as Wrexham began to turn the screw, Saunders introduced Patrick Suffo for his debut at the expense of full-back Carl Tremarco. And the former Cameroon international's first touch was a shot from inside the penalty area that Bartlett somehow managed to turn away at the expense of a corner.
Although the Dragons lived close to the edge at times when the home side countered, they continued to lay siege.
Woolfe beat two men to deliver an inviting cross that deserved a more alert reaction from Louis and minutes later took it upon himself after a one-two with Suffo, but slid his shot into the side netting. Baynes then deserted defensive territory to force a fine save from Bartlett before steering an effort high.
In a final throw of the dice, Marc Williams met a near-post cross from Woolfe that was somehow scrambled away to give Harriers their hard-earned but no less well-deserved victory.


text:
In Riga +1 °C, NNW wind, 2m/s
NNW wind, 2m/s
Record foreign trade figures in August for Latvia
Photo: Edijs Pālens/LETA
Provisional data published by the Central Statistical Bureau on October 11 show that in August 2022 the foreign trade turnover of Latvia amounted to EUR 4.4 billion, which at current prices was 29.2 % larger than a year ago.
The export value of goods was 32.7 % higher, while the import value of goods was 26.7 % higher. In August Latvia exported goods worth EUR 1.92 billion, but imported goods worth EUR 2.48 billion. These are the highest export and import values recorded so far.
Compared to August 2021, the foreign trade balance has improved slightly as exports in total foreign trade amount increased from 42.4 % to 43.6 %. It should be taken into account that the data on foreign trade in goods are reflected in actual prices and are calculated on the basis of the value of goods in euros and not their physical quantity.
During the eight months of this year foreign trade turnover of Latvia at current prices reached EUR 30.15 billion – EUR 7.62 billion or 33.8 % more than in the corresponding period of 2021. The exports value constituted EUR 13.22 billion (a growth of EUR 3.15 billion or 31.2 %), whereas the imports value comprised EUR 16.93 billion (a rise of EUR 4.47 billion or 35.9 %).
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Calendar and seasonally adjusted data show that, compared to August 2021, in August 2022 the exports value at current prices went up by 30.3 %, but the imports value – by 23.9 %, whereas, compared to the previous month, the exports value went up by 9.1 %, but the imports value – by 3.7 %.
The main exports partners in August were Lithuania (20.9 % of total exports), Estonia (11 %), Germany (6.8 %) and Finland (6.3 %), whereas the main imports partners were Lithuania (25.4 % of total imports), Estonia (13.4 %), Russian Federation (9 %) and Poland and Germany (8.8 %).
The main exports partners in August were Lithuania (20.9 % of total exports), Estonia (11 %), Germany (6.8 %) and Finland (6.3 %), whereas the main imports partners were Lithuania (25.4 % of total imports), Estonia (13.4 %), Russian Federation (9 %) and Poland and Germany (8.8%). pic.twitter.com/R0nXFcFfn8
— Statistics Latvia (@CSB_Latvia) October 11, 2022
In August 2022, compared to July 2022, exports to Ukraine decreased by EUR 3.9 million or 10.2 %. It was mainly affected by the drop of EUR 6.1 million or 27.5 % in exports of mineral products. Exports to Russian Federation reduced by EUR 5.5 million or 5.4 %, which was mainly affected by the fall in exports of products of the chemical and allied industries by EUR 7 million or 35.6 %. Exports to Belarus went up by EUR 2.5 million or 23.7 %.
In August 2022, compared to the previous month, imports from Ukraine increased by EUR 8.1 million or 37.2 %. It was affected by the rise in imports of vegetable products by EUR 5.6 million or 7.5 times. Imports from the Russian Federation rose by EUR 68.5 million or 44.4 %, which was mainly affected by growth of mineral products by EUR 68.2 million or 58.9 %. Imports from Belarus increased by EUR 2.6 million or 28 %.
Forest industry hit export record last year
Latvia's foreign trade balance worsened in November
3,000 attempts to smuggle sanctioned goods into Latvia caught
Businesses invited to explore new markets at Foreign Ministry
november 14, 2022, 9:40
Record exports in latest Latvian foreign trade figures
Latvian GDP growth estimated at 1.8% for 2022
Tax service's head back in office after suspension
Retail figures in November down on month, up on year
Construction costs in December up 19%
Latvia's electricity production fell by 14.5% in 2022
Minimum income threshold set to rise regularly in Latvia
Rīga bus stops changing their names
'Spice' shopping mall reports signs of post-Covid recovery
Ukrainian starts entrepreneurship club in Rīga
First 'average speed' cameras set up in Latvia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


We often talk about the technological advancements, Internet boom, modern engineering marvels, architectural masterpieces, etc., just because all of them are a testimony to the fact that science is turning impossible things into reality. But often seem to forget one constant that is beyond human imagination, nature. Nature is truly astounding and never seizes itself to amaze us. Hence, our writers at Assignment Prime brings you examples of such geographical gems that will leave you in awe.
Iguazu Falls perfectly resemble the grandeur of nature. It is located at the juncture of Brazil and Argentina border. Iguazu Falls is also known as 'Devil's Mouth' because of its round-shaped orifice. It is 700 meter long and falls from a height of approximately 270 feet. Indeed a mesmerizing site that attracts a lot of tourists worldwide.
Dead sea is popular for its geographical attributes. It is considered to be the lowest point on Earth's surface and has an immense amount of salinity. It is named 'Dead' because it doesn't allow any of the marine and aquatic life to grow.
It is a geographical wonder that will leave you wonderstruck.The doorway to hell was discovered by a team of Russian geologists at Turkmenistan. The site had a natural gas reserve that was venting out of a depression but due to long scientific experiments, a crater opened itself in order to inhale all the atmospheric gases, leaving the site with a massive pit. Authorities decided to burn the hole so that all the gasses would get exhausted, but it didn't happen. The pit is still burning despite many failed attempts to put out the fire.
The Blue Hole is an enormous swallet created on the coasts of Belize. This depression is said to be an after effect of over-salination of sediments present in the water body. The length of the hole measures 900 meter and it is half a kilometer deep. The satellite view of this geographical beauty looks like a giant Blue dot. UNESCO has declared it as a world heritage sight.
Aurora is one of the most magnificent geographical beauties in the world. It is covered by a beautiful trail of glowing light waves that look similar to a laser show. The lights are so distinct that you can easily identify various strings that culminate into one another.
No list of natural wonders is complete without the Grand Canyon. It is one of the most visited and photographed geographical sites in the world. It is known for its mile deep gorges that extend up to an astonishing length of 16 kilometers. The Grand Canyon is believed to be created almost 5 million years ago by the Colorado river and other natural disasters like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Hope you liked reading this amazing blog!
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Not everybody is opposed to President Donald Trump's tariff moves against $34 billion in Chinese goods.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in an interview Sunday on a New York radio program, agreed with Trump that China doesn't treat the U.S. fairly.
"It's going to take a little bit of toughness at the beginning. China will bark back. But they need us more than we need them, President Trump is right about that, and we should be strong. So I thought what he did on China is right," Schumer said, according to The Hill.
Schumer talked in the interview about intellectual property and cybertheft.
The U.S. announced its initial traunch of $34 billion intariffs against China on Friday. China followed suit by announcing comparable tariffs against several U.S. exports, including soybeans, the largest ag commodity exported to China by the U.S.
Members of the Coalition for a Prosperous America also support the U.S. tariffs against Chinese products, citing the need to defend high-tech industries in the U.S.
"This is a long overdue step. The bottom line is that China steals American technology by any possible means, then sells it back to the US at a profit," said Michael Stumo, CEO of CPA. "In doing so, Beijing is not only directing the erosion of America's competitiveness in high-tech industries, but ensuring that domestic US companies go out of business at the same time. This is an open-and-shut case of predatory behavior and outright theft, and it will be interesting to hear how critics of the president's trade strategy can possibly excuse criminal behavior on the part of China. Anyone supporting open trade and the free market should appreciate the president's carefully considered enforcement of existing US trade law."
Most of the leaders in other groups quoted by CPA in a statement about the tariffs were from companies involved in metals, tool or electronic industries, but among them was also Bill Bullard, CEO of R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Funds United Stockgrowers of America).
"My organization represents cattle producers across the country. Our industry has been harmed by trade cheating and trade deficits due in part to subsidized imports and lack of country of origin labeling," Bullard said. "We support the president's actions on China technology theft as well as a future comprehensive strategy to increase domestic producers' market share of the US market."
At a congressional hearing in March, U.S. Trade Ambassador Robert Lighthizer told senators the Trump Administration's approach against China is to target high-tech industries China is developing with a strategy to dominate these markets globally by 2025. Lighthizer pointed to advanced robotics, information technology automated equipment, aerospace technology, as well as agricultural machinery, biopharma and advanced medical products. China has engaged in unfair practices to steal technology in these industries, the ambassador said. Lighthizer also cautioned lawmakers that it was not possible to avoid taking action just because it could negatively impact agriculture in the short-term.
"Every time we take a trade action agriculture is in the cross hairs and it is something we are very sympathetic to," Lighthizer said at the time.
Better rewrite this Farm Bill for the market conditions today. Anyone rubber stamping the same ole trash should be voted out. I heard that we were going to be protected in this trade war and the politicians are patting themselves on the back for this Farm Bill they are promoting. We must all be fools! How about updating the loan rates, that way people know where they are at and where the bottom is, not more of this lottery schemed ARC and PLC. Interest rates rising, dollar strengthening and a trade war at the same time; farmers need updated loan rates, not fairy dust programs! Get ready for the 80s Ag! The only thing there is bipartisan support for is failed policy. They have a lot to be proud of!


This year's Honors Institute was in conjunction with the Office of the President and addressed "Democracy, Politics and You".
Dan Rather was the keynote speaker for the 2017 Honors Institute. It was held on Tuesday, January 31, at 7:00 p.m. in the Wright State University Nutter Center. The annual keynote address, in collaboration with the Wright State University Presidential Lecture Series, is free and open to the public, and tickets are not required.
The 2017 Honors Institute Luncheon was held on Wednesday, February 1, 2017 in the Wright State University Student Union Apollo Room and featured John Herrman, David Carr Fellow from The New York Times.


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The BusinessMakers
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Lee Rhodes – Founder of GlassyBaby
Seattle, The BusinessMakers USA | Episode: 29 | Guests: Lee Rhodes | 4
More than $7 million in donations is nothing to sneeze at. From the land of famed glass sculptor Dale Chihuly comes GlassBaby, a votive candleholder available in 400 colors. Each color has a name and a story, many with giving partners. Ten percent of all sales are donated to the White Light Fund, founder Lee Rhodes' way of giving back. A beautiful story of healing and love.
Amber: Hi I'm Amber Ambrose and this is BusinessMakers USA, brought to you by Insperity, inspiring business performance. Today we're coming to you from Seattle, Washington at ATLAS Workbase and my guest is Lee Rhodes of GlassyBaby. So welcome to the show Lee.
Lee: Thank you, thanks for having me.
Amber: What is GlassyBaby?
Lee: GlassyBaby is a 3 ¾ inch tall votive candle that you put tea lights generally. Some people use it for all kinds of different things but that's how we sell it.
Amber: its intended purposes from your standpoint.
Lee: Yeah, and we have over 400 different colors and each color has a name and a love story. And some of them have giving partners that we give directly to the affiliate of the color itself, 10% back, otherwise 10% of the revue goes to the White Light Fund and it's distributed from there.
Amber: Okay, getting to that model of you have a product – and I know it's specific to Seattle, let's talk about hat in particular – how it's made and why it's so very much a Seattle product.
Lee: Well it started here; we've been here for 17 years and we make them in the Madrona neighborhood, which is a small neighborhood above Leschi near Lake Washington. We made them in Green Lake before that but originally I sold them out of my garage, so we are that story that started then.
Amber: Yes, the startup out of the garage.
Lee: There are a lot of glass blowers here in Seattle, mostly because of Dale Chihuly and the whole group of glass blowing at Pilchuck, which is up north. And so luckily for us we have a lot of people to help us with the production of. And we make between 700 and 800 here in the Madrona studio and then we have a big studio in Berkeley where we make the same number.
Amber: So 700 to 800 a day?
Lee: Yeah, a day.
Amber: How many glass blowers does that take?
Lee: 16 per shift. It takes 4 people between 6 and 9 minutes to make each GlassyBaby and they each move around doing different jobs.
Amber: Is it around the clock?
Lee: No, it goes from 7:00 in the morning to 9:30 at night.
Amber: And I noticed – my husband is a brewery person.
Lee: Lucky him.
Amber: So we're definitely in the you walk into where the product is made but you guys have an element of that at GlassyBaby.
Lee: Yeah, in our Madrona and Berkley stores. We have stores elsewhere, but in both those places those are our manufacturing sites as well. It's beautiful; there are very few things that are made by hand anymore, certainly in Downtown Seattle, so it's really exciting to be part of that and be supporting artists and giving them not just living wages but benefits and making sure that we take care of them as much as they take care of us because they make what we sell. And we're thrilled that we're not doing overseas, it means a lot to be made in America here.
Amber: How many actual votives have you made yourself?
Lee: Oh I'm terrible, like 4 or 5. We used to have one in each store but I guess we can't because we don't have that many anymore.
Amber: Sure, that makes sense. So obviously you sell product and it has a very big giving aspect that you addressed shortly just before this; I would love to know more about the 10% that you guys give.
Lee: We do something very uniquely at GlassyBaby, we give 10% of revenue away off every single GlassyBaby that leaves the front door. We have 450 partners; I think right now we're trying to cut them back just a little bit to just a few less, but we have wonderful partners. At our airport store we give to the inflight services that take cancer patients around the country for treatments and then we support animals, we support the environment; anything the makes the world a better place or helps people heal is really our sweet spot.
Amber: And that is because – I would love for you to tell our audience about the story of how you unintentionally came up with the idea and founded GlassyBaby.
Lee: I'm not sure if it was an idea really but I was in the middle of chemo rooms – I had lung cancer – and I had 3 young children at the time and someone made a little hand-blown vessel and it was sitting on the kitchen counter with all the stuff you have on your kitchen counter. Oftentimes we have candles out there, so I was dropping tea lights into votives and I dropped one into this little colored cup and it lit up. It lit up the way GlassyBaby light up. And it was beautiful and it was definitely something that had an impact immediately on me. It kind of just made me stop and take a deep breath and recognize that in order to do anything well, or to get well, you need to just take a moment and breathe deeply and center. and that was the impact it had on me immediately.
And so at that point I was in chemo rooms a lot, a lot of the people I had chemo with didn't return – that was kind of the name of the game in those rooms – and at the same time I had everything I needed. I had help and I had family and friends and food and oftentimes people have to choose between getting well and staying functioning; paying bills and taking care of the children and making sure there's food on the table, basic survival and I had never really had that inkling.
And so it was important to me when I discovered that to try to figure how to make that difference in peoples' lives. Not cancer research but really just that healing place; how do people get a hot meal? How do people get money for parking, it's $16.00 an hour? These are not small; these are insurmountable obstacles for a lot of people going through cancer. So at the same time I dropped the candle in the little tea light thing and then I was going through chemo rooms, it just came together that maybe some people would feel the same way about the little experience I had and maybe I could just sell it and try to figure out how to help people along the way. And so the very first GlassyBaby unit we sold we gave 10% away.
Amber: The very first one?
Lee: The very first ones right out of my garage. So it's always been our motto, we didn't come up with it afterwards. We're mission-based because of the authenticity of the beginnings of the story of GlassyBaby, but keeping it going is really challenging and it's getting harder as we give more money away, and it's also getting more exciting. We're getting a really professional team into GlassyBaby, which is really great for me because I am absolutely not a great business person, I'm all heart.
Amber: That's why we surround ourselves with people that can help us with our weaknesses.
Lee: That's right. So finally I think we're at that stage where we're going to be able to really grow and make the difference that we want to make in people's lives that truly are choosing between a hot meal and a bus ticket.
Amber: That sounds great. What would your advice be to someone that may be going through the rough spot right now that, you know, a lot of uncertainty; what would you tell them?
Lee: I think that people just need to remember that that's real and that you can't ever understand cancer unless it's you. Just remember that everyone that loves you loves you so much but you need to also surround yourself with people who also are in battle because no one knows what it's like to go through cancer unless you're going through it, I think it's just one of those things.
So one of the big things to do is really just make sure you have a support system that includes people who have been through or are going through at the same time so that you're not constantly having to explain or feel the pressure of the process. Because it's hard mentally when you're faced with things that not everyone is face with and it's not fair to them. It's not fair to you; it's not fair to them and so that one of my messages always is to surround yourself a little bit of the time with people who truly understand the language you're speaking because it really helps you.
Amber: I know you started in Seattle and then you also have some manufacturing in Berkeley, California – did I get that right?
Lee: Yeah you did.
Amber: Awesome. But what is your distribution like as far as is it just local, is it store fronts, is it online? What are the methods that you get it to the people?
Lee: We do service our customers nationally because we have 7 stores in the Washington and Northern California area, but we also bring roadshows around the country. We also do an enormous kind of corporate gift, you can get whatever you want kind of engraved on the side or you can just choose a color by the name. A lot of people – a lot of corporate gifts are around the name and the story and they start collections for their employees and friends and we've huge success with that and that's been great. And then we also are in 4 different cities with Prime Now, which is the 1 to 2 hour delivery part of the Amazon Prime delivery, which is just fantastic for us.
Amber: Oh I know it well.
Lee: Well it's pretty great. It's really fantastic and we're selling tea lights really well off of it and GlassyBaby, but it's interesting to see what's happening with that partnership. We hope to be national soon.
Amber: So you've got a lot of new marketing efforts going on; what are some of the things that you're doing now?
Lee: Well we started to share a lot more on Facebook and Instagram. We share people's stories, we share how our products are made which is actually really interesting, a lot of people don't know anything about glass blowing.
Amber: It's super visual.
Lee: It's really hard. Unlike painting you can go back, once you've made something in glass it's in glass and so it's a very difficult art form. But we're growing a lot in both of those storytelling, social media channels because I think people really like the hear where our money is going; how effective it's being. This year we'll give over $2 million away. So it's really a story, it's a big story now because a lot of foundations don't give that kind of money away. So for us it's really phenomenal to watch our audience grow around what we're actually giving and it helps reinforce the authenticity of our story and of the fact that we do give 10% of revenue back.
Amber: You have one product that you sell, how have you been successful for 17 years with literally one single product?
Lee: People say that to me all the time and what I say is we have 400 different colors of one thing and we offer between 150 and 175 at a time. Every single time you mix two together it's a different product; you mix three of them is a different product. And when you line up 11 of the same color and put a tea light in them, because of the way they're handmade by a lot of different people at a lot of different times, they all light differently. So we actually make millions of very unique and very individual products that all look the same as they present but they're actually very different and very individual.
And I also think that 99% of what GlassyBaby is is a community around kindness and around kind of trying to do something different and I think that people love that. There's nothing like walking into a beautiful, clean, white GlassyBaby store full of colors and all you have to do is choose one. You can never be wrong; you can't ever give anyone a wrong color, there's no such thing. They all satisfy, they all stand up to all kinds of abuse, dishwasher included and I think that in our world of crazy communication and crazy intense processes and store experiences, certainly shopping experiences, we are uniquely situated for someone who just wants to do it differently. And wants to participate in the community and also have the experience of going in and choosing a color rather than having to choose an actual product.
Amber: Not being overloaded.
Lee: And it's addicting. Even now, 17 years later for me, it's the most incredible experience to go in and choose a GlassyBaby for someone that I know and love.
Amber: If you go to the store and watch them being made you'll see the birth of a GlassyBaby.
Lee: Exactly. Thank you.
Amber: On that note.
Lee: Thank you.
Amber: You're welcome.
Lee: It's a pleasure.
Amber: Once again this is BusinessMakers USA, I'm Amber Ambrose, and thank you once again for joining us Lee Rhodes of GlassyBaby.
Lee: Thank you for having me.
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Check free & live Nepalese Rupee (NPR) exchange rate. You can convert any amount of Nepali Rupee with simple currency converter. Exchange rates for Nepalese Rupee is calculated from average buy and sale price, and updates every day. This page provides information about currency exchange rates for world currencies. Its great idea to check NPR exchange rate before travel to Nepal or during trip to other countries.
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Beautiful Bath… heralded as the finest Georgian city in Britain, Bath is (without sounding too cliché) is a sight to see. Attracting the likes of Lady Emma Hamilton, Jane Austen (albeit reluctantly at first), William Wordsworth and King Louis XVIII of France, Bath is so much more than just a convalescent stopover.
Bath is the next stop on our British Heritage Tour. Our first stop was Oxford and now we're heading west. Whether you're travelling from London or elsewhere in Britain, the easiest way to reach Bath is with a UK car hire. People have been travelling to Bath for more than 2,000 years at first for a taste of it's curing waters and then to enjoy the splendour of this great city. The Roman Baths and grand Pump Room are essential stops, as is the 15th century Abbey and the elegant Royal Crescent.
There's no hiding that Jane Austen is a huge draw for Bath. The Jane Austen Centre is the first-stop on the Austen trail. It offers fans of the period a chance to see inside what Jane Austen's Bath might have been like. A spot of tea at the Jane Austen Regency Tea Rooms is a must. You may as well go to whole mile if you're here, right?
The Assembly Rooms of Bath hosted the prettiest balls and were where social circles collided. Jane herself adored dancing and attended many gatherings here to drink tea, dance, play cards and listen to music. Today the Assembly Rooms also house the Fashion Museum, complete with a collection of dresses worn during Jane Austen's time.
Life in Bath during the 18th century was luxurious, you just need to take a look at Number 1 Royal Crescent to know that. London's aristocrats would flock to Bath to "take the waters", from Bath's restorative and healing springs. Want to taste it for yourself? Head to the Pump Room or the Spa Visitor Centre.
Austen would have spent much time in the city and the parks, especially Pulteney Bridge, Great Pulteney Street and Sydney Gardens, a popular spot for afternoon picnics.
In summer the weather is always fine but for something a little more cultural, check out Bath during the Jane Austen Festival, taking place this year from September 16th to 24th, 2012.
Have you been to Bath? What were the highlights of your trip?
Imgs: jacqueline_poggi, neiljs, le portillon, boliston / Flickr cc.
Places like Bath are wonderful to visit and they are always throwing up surprises, like the 50,000 Roman coins just found very close to the Roman baths.


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The rule of three
All-flash, all-Ethernet hyper-converged data centers will help operators improve performance, achieve sustainability targets and simplify operations and maintenance
DatacenterDynamics
In recent years, many organizations, including data center operators, have made some very ambitious sustainability promises. By 2030, or thereabouts, a wide diversity of businesses have claimed that they will be 'carbon neutral'.
That might be quite straightforward for the kind of organization whose only carbon emissions come from heating, lighting and keeping employees' PCs running. But for an energy intensive sector like data centers – which account for between two and three percent of world power consumption, accounting for two-fifths of all ICT power consumption by 2025 – even getting close to keeping such a promise will be a daunting challenge. With data pegged as the key driver of the fourth industrial revolution, global digital transformation is only expected to exacerbate carbon emissions.
Take, for example, self-driving vehicles. The training data behind the development of just one model is generated at a rate of 64TB every day. "The amount of data to be stored will increase from 32 zettabytes (ZB) to 180ZB by 2025, among which unstructured data will account for more than eighty percent," says Amy Liang, director of enterprise data storage technical sales at Huawei.
In addition to keeping on top of that, data center operators will need to tackle their increasingly complex operations and management issues. Not to mention maintaining or improving current service level agreements.
The classic response to such a plethora of challenges is to automate as much as possible and to simplify processes by consolidating on proven platforms that work. And one of the first places that data center operators can make a big difference is in storage and storage-area networks (SANs); first, with a shift to all-flash storage; then, by standardising on all-Ethernet networking, even across the SAN. Such an end-to-end IP-based network enables intelligent operations and management (O&M).
The amount of data to be stored will increase from 32 zettabytes (ZB) to 180ZB by 2025 Amy Liang, Huawei
In the process, organizations can take big steps towards their sustainability promises, cutting not just power consumption, but 'carbon emission anxiety'.
All-scenario flash storage will help to reduce storage-related cooling requirements by 70 percent and, therefore, power demands and costs, while providing the same capacity of storage on half the footprint – a triple win. Over the next five years, this benefit will only get bigger in favour of flash.
But it also provides the extra performance that organizations undergoing digital transformations are demanding. "Digital transformation has driven huge numbers of offline services to go online; and innovative services are emerging, one after another," says Liang.
She cites the requirements of ecommerce and mobile payments as just one example. These require not just high performance, but the ability to scale up to achieve the same performance over busy Christmas shopping, Black Friday or other festivals featuring shopping frenzies, as at 3.30am on a wet Tuesday morning in March.
According to Liang, an all-flash data center encompasses "flash-based servers, non volatile memory express (NVMe) native all-IP data center networks, all-scenario all-flash storage, and full-lifecycle intelligent O&M for multiple data workloads. For the storage layer, the upgrade has three key characteristics: all-scenario flash, full-series high-end quality, and all-scenario data protection."
All-scenario flash, adds Liang, means that diverse types of data are stored on flash media – not just the mission-critical data for enterprise apps, but also data stored on edge data centers, high-performance computing systems, big data analytics and other systems. In addition, it also means that from primary storage to secondary storage, data centers are shifting to flash – albeit, perhaps, using devices based on slower but cheaper flash technology, such as QLC NAND, for applications not deemed mission critical, such as back-up and 'cold' storage.
By shifting to all-flash storage and then standardising on all-Ethernet networking, data centers can take big steps towards their sustainability promises
The future of the SAN – NVMe over RoCE
But all-flash storage is only one half of the equation. Currently, storage networks face two key issues: One is the use of multiple types of networks, causing complex deployment and management issues. The other is Fibre Channel.
The Fibre Channel data transfer protocol started to go mainstream around two decades ago, coinciding with the first dot-com boom. It went mainstream as network-attached storage architectures gave way to storage area networks (SANs) – the efficiency of SANS that could run over kilometres outweighing the cost of Fibre Channel storage.
However, the relatively slow development of the protocol in terms of performance has led to the development of storage systems and networks based on NVMe over RoCE [NVMe over remote direct memory access over converged Ethernet].
NVMe over RoCE embodies three core technologies capable of delivering microsecond access times over storage infrastructure anywhere within the data center, with Huawei's OceanStor Dorado hardware boasting latency down to just 0.05ms. The NVMe protocol, of course, has become the standard for accessing storage on the PCIe bus on both PCs and servers because it provides multiple high-speed lanes that can be used in parallel. NVMe provides triple the IOPS [input/output per second] of conventional SCSI SSD interfaces.
RDMA, meanwhile, enables server-to-server and server-to-storage data transmission directly between application memory, bypassing CPU and operating system – effectively transmitting data from memory to Ethernet port in both server and storage. Originally developed for high-performance computing (HPC) environments, it provides higher performance, lower latency and lower CPU utilization.
Packet loss has been the Achilles' heel of Ethernet since its inception
The third part is Converged Ethernet (CE), an enhanced version of Ethernet that provides Priority Flow Control to ensure zero packet-loss – a perennial disadvantage of standard Ethernet. Why is this important? Packet loss has been the Achilles' heel of Ethernet since its inception. It causes unstable performance under load, with a packet loss rate of just 0.1 percent capable of halving overall networking performance. CE can solve this problem, while Huawei's proprietary iLossless-DCI algorithm adds artificial intelligence, trained on millions of random network samples, to automatically optimize network traffic and boost performance by a factor of ten.
However, CE requires the support of network interface cards (NICs), networking switches and all-flash arrays, while the NICs need to support RoCE.
Hence, in order to keep up, data center operators will need to prepare themselves for another round of storage hardware and SAN upgrades. For organizations running wide-area SANs based on Fibre Channel, this won't be an insignificant shift, but it is one that, sooner or later, will need to be broached, given the incentive of total cost of ownership cuts of more than 80 percent, according to Huawei.
At the heart of Huawei's solution is NoF+, which embodies an award-winning iteration of NVMe over RoCE. This was behind one of Huawei's multiple successes at Interop 21 in Tokyo earlier this year, with the Commendation for Huawei's CloudEngine+Dorado V6+DC908 Next-Generation High Performance Inter-DC Storage Network.
The solution has already seen real-world roll-outs where clients have shifted to all-IP networks. Huawei cites the example of a major banking sector client that rolled out Huawei's CloudEngine storage hardware in an initiative that saw it move from a Fibre Channel SAN to Huawei's NoF+. In the process, it received an 86 percent boost to storage performance, slashed latency in half and improved the reliability of its SAN, as well as making operations and maintenance easier.
NoF+ forms part of Huawei's CloudFabric Hyper-Converged Data Center Network Solution suite, which can help organizations build-out centralized storage networks based on Ethernet and the RoCE protocol, with SANs capable of lossless data transmission over Ethernet of up to 70km in distance.
NoF+ provides a number of other key high-end features, such as failover within seconds thanks to proactive fault detection and notification, absent from standard Ethernet. In the event of a node failure, services will be switched automatically within seconds.
Furthermore, NoF+ is also able to proactively predict network performance and, hence, service requirements can be optimized on the network in advance by taking samples and applying algorithms to predict network traffic flows in advance.
This is just a few of the ways in which NoF+, alongside an all-flash storage infrastructure, can both help improve performance and reliability, on the one hand, while reducing data center operations and maintenance demands, on the other. With the continuous development of all-flash and NoF+ technologies, green and intelligent all-flash data centers are on their way now, helping mankind to build a greener planet.
Please visit here for more information about Huawei's next-gen storage network NoF+.
All-Flash Data Center
NoF+
all IP
Amy Liang


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Child tests positive to coronavirus at Royal Children's Hospital
By Melissa Cunningham and Simone Fox Koob
October 19, 2020 — 9.37am
A child receiving treatment in the oncology ward of the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne has tested positive for coronavirus, with health authorities now probing whether the test result was a false positive.
Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley confirmed on Monday morning that the child had been treated at the hospital for some time and said it was still unclear how they were infected with COVID-19.
Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital. Credit:Getty Images
A small number of staff at the hospital have been sidelined and remain in 14-day self-quarantine after potential exposure to the virus. The child tested positive to the virus on October 15.
"Without wanting to breach the confidence of the family involved, it doesn't appear to have come from the family, nor does it appear to have come from the rest of the unit there," Mr Foley told radio station 3AW. "I understand the child has been in hospital for quite some time."
A laboratory technician who works at the hospital also tested positive to the virus on October 7. The two cases are not believed to be linked.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton, who first confirmed there was a case at the Royal Children's Hospital on Saturday, said it was unclear how the child contracted the virus and they had been deemed a "mystery case" where the source of infection remained unknown.
"It will go into a pool of mystery cases, if you like, that we have a very, very detailed look at including the possibility of a false positive result," Professor Sutton said.
Authorities are also investigating whether it may have been a false positive.
"When you have got a very, very low number of genuine cases in the state and you are doing 10,000 plus tests a day, a one in 10,000 false positive rate for a test will turn up a positive result that is not necessarily a true one," Professor Sutton said.
"We have public-health actions that always assume that they are positive, but all of those pathology results go through a panel, expert review to really see if that is a genuine positive."
He said there had been no more positive cases recorded at the hospital following extensive testing of staff and patients.
"There has already been testing of close contacts including staff and nothing has turned up, so I am not concerned that there will be significant spread," Professor Sutton said.
Mr Foley added that staff and patients were being tested for COVID-19 and the hospital had not been able to "identify particulars of where the young child seemingly picked up the virus."
The condition of the child is not yet known.
In a statement, the hospital confirmed it was currently caring for one patient who tested positive to COVID-19 in the Kookaburra oncology ward.
Since the pandemic began earlier this year, the hospital has treated 20 COVID-19 positive children who have been inpatients at the hospital.
The hospital said it was supporting the family during this "unsettling" time.
"As is our usual practice in these situations, all staff working on the ward have been notified, along with current inpatient families and any who may have been discharged since September 30."
The statement said contact tracing was underway with staff already identified as close contacts of the patient tested for the virus and self-quarantining as a precaution.
Asymptomatic testing of other staff who have spent time on the ward, along with inpatients and their families, is also underway, the hospital said.
"Just as COVID-19 is impacting our state, it is to be expected that the RCH will also be impacted," the statement said. "Our staff are trained and prepared for such an outcome, and remain committed to protecting our patients, their families and our team.
The hospital has not allowed visitors on site since March.
All parents, guardians and staff entering the hospital must undergo health screening and temperature checking before being allowed access.
The outbreak at the Royal Children's Hospital follows reports a small number of Australian children being infected with the COVID-19 developing a rare, life-threatening inflammatory condition.
Last month, a Victorian child with a rare inflammatory illness linked to coronavirus was admitted to the intensive care unit at Monash Children's Hospital with a severe immune response condition known as paediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome, or PIMS-TS.
The boy was one of the first Australian children to present with the condition. Doctors say there have been a tiny number of confirmed PIMS-TS cases nationwide, with a small number still under investigation. The nine-year-old boy made a full recovery.
PIMS-TS is an extremely rare illness that involves swelling of blood vessels in the body. It can trigger a temperature, rash, or swollen glands in the neck.
While children have largely been spared from the worst health outcomes of coronavirus, in April this year a cluster of cases of PIMS-TS among children in Britain prompted an urgent alert to doctors across the world.
The condition is similar to Kawasaki disease, a rare paediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome that has similar symptoms of fever and peeling skin.
At least three children globally have died after developing the disease.
Melissa Cunningham
Melissa Cunningham is The Age's health reporter.
Simone Fox Koob
Simone is a crime reporter for The Age. Most recently she covered breaking news for The Age, and before that for The Australian in Melbourne.


text:
Nick Eatman
Mailbag: Money Saved If Jaylon Signs Elsewhere?
by Dallas Cowboys Mailbag, David Helman & Nick Eatman
Jeremiah Jhass/Dallas Cowboys
I personally love Jaylon Smith as a person and what he's contributed for this team. I was really hoping a new scheme would bring him back into his element. My question is why release him now, we still take a big hit this year so is it more about next year? Will we get any money back if he gets picked up by another team? — MICHAEL DITORE / LAS VEGAS, NV
David: At the end of the day, it's just a combination of feeling confident that the young depth behind him can offset the loss, as well as not wanting to get stuck paying his $9 million salary next season. It looks like Green Bay will be signing him. Theoretically, some of that money will come off the Cowboys' books, but I promise you the Packers won't be giving him a big-money deal. I think the savings are going to be negligible by NFL standards.
Nick: The Cowboys obviously felt like this was the best move for them long-term, especially if there was a chance next year's salary could be guaranteed if he were to be injured. I think they did the right thing. Play a month into the season and evaluate everything from his play to Parsons' development to Cox, Neal and Kearse. It just seemed like the right time to do it, although I must admit I was surprised at the timing. If he signs with Green Bay as reported, I'm sure it will be for as cheap as possible considering the Cowboys will pick up the rest.
There was a time when Jaylon Smith was considered an elite pass rusher. When did that change? With the injuries and other factors causing defensive linemen to go down, instead of Micah, couldn't the Cowboys have used Jaylon as a DE? — FRED KING / FRANKLIN, TN
David: There was a time when Jaylon Smith brought value as a blitzer and occasionally as a rusher, but I think it's a huge exaggeration to say he was ever "elite." To be blunt, Jaylon's biggest problem was his lack of speed and explosiveness. Pass rushers don't move in space as often as linebackers, but you still need to be explosive to beat an offensive tackle off the line and get to the quarterback. It's a different position, but I think the results would have looked similar.
Nick: I think it changed at the Fiesta Bowl when he got hurt. I don't recall him being an elite rusher here. He had a really good season in 2018 and then somewhat in 2019, but not as rusher. He's not the same as Parsons although I thought he could rush up the field but apparently they never wanted to try him there. If you're not explosive, there's not a lot of places to play other than the middle of the line.
Mailbag: Reason For The Slump? Dak As A Runner?
I don't think that fans want Dak running 8-10 times a game, but at least two or three critical times. Your thoughts?
Mailbag: Kellen's Resumé? Sweeping The East?
Kellen Moore had a prolific offense on the highest-profile NFL team, tons of head coach openings this past year with offensive minded GMs, What do you think GM's see in him that worries them - and should it worry the Cowboys?
Garibay Offers First Look At Kicker Situation
Tuesday marked the first time the rookie kicker worked in front of reporters, and the results were encouraging.
Mailbag: Too Much Down Time? Pollard & Kamara?
Could the Dallas Cowboys utilize Tony Pollard in a similar way that the New Orleans Saints have utilized Alvin Kamara?
Mailbag: What's The NFC East Pecking Order?
Dallas just seems like they lost the most and did the least to replace, I guess. What's your thoughts on where we are going to be in the division?
Role Call: How Much Can Tolbert Do In Year 1?
Jalen Tolbert is back from a minor hamstring injury and set to work through Cowboys' minicamp. How high are the expectations for his rookie season?
Mailbag: Schultz's Future? Hot Seats?
How hot is Coach McCarthy's seat? Barring major injuries, if the Cowboys go 11-6, make the playoffs, but lose in the first round, is he safe?
Mailbag: Could Will Grier Land Backup QB Job?
I followed Will Grier at West Virginia and thought he was a really good quarterback. What are his strengths and weaknesses and what do you think about his potential as the backup to Dak?
McCarthy Playing Smart As OTAs Draw To A Close
As the heat cranks up, literally, at OTAs, the Cowboys are focused on finishing off the rest of their installation with one week left in the offseason program.
Trevon Diggs Says There's Plenty To Work On
Even after an All-Pro season, Trevon Diggs says he's working on plenty of ways to improve his all-around game at cornerback.
Mailbag: Diggs' INT Total? Schultz Contract Status?
How would you view Diggs' season this year if his numbers ended up similar to Anthony Brown's from a season ago: maybe a couple more interceptions, but a solid season?
Role Call: Waletzko's Odds To Play Right Away?
The Cowboys used a fifth-round pick on a mammoth offensive tackle in 6'7, 305-pound Matt Waletzko. How likely is the rookie to contribute quickly?


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By refashioning itself as a world-class sports capital, the city of Kazan in Russia has shed its youth criminal gang and poor public health problems, improved its residents' life expectancy significantly and persuaded its youth and families to stay and invest in its future. Here's a look at how Kazan combined comprehensive infrastructural and social programmes to achieve the impressive turnaround in about one decade – and what other cities can learn from Kazan.
What do the World Cup, World Fencing Championships, FINA World Aquatics Championship and World University Summer Games have in common? Over the past five years, the city of Kazan in Russia has hosted all of these elite international sporting events.
In the span of a decade, the city has built hundreds of sports facilities and created social programmes to improve its residents' health and life expectancy, turning itself into a world-class sports hub in the process. Allied to this push has been investments in schools and child nutrition to give future generations a better start and build on the improvements.
Since Mayor of Kazan Ilsur Metshin took office in 2006 and implemented these and other initiatives, they have produced remarkable results. Citizens' average life expectancy has increased by 9 years to 73.8 years, while the mortality rate has fallen by 19 percent. In a sign of residents' newfound confidence in the city's future, the number of registered marriages has also increased by 1.5 times, and the number of births has risen by more than 2 times.
For many other cities across the world, Kazan's experience shows a way out of the vicious circle of poor public health and crime, exodus of young people and families, and deteriorating infrastructure that once mired it. Here's a look at how Kazan remade itself.
The Kazan government's investments in sports have focused on two objectives: making exercise as convenient and affordable as possible to all residents. To this end, it built not only dozens of new sports centres, but also hundreds of free sports grounds, with easy-to-use equipment such as pull-up bars and parallel bars, in the yards of residential developments.
"These sports grounds have proven to be an effective alternative for people who cannot afford to go to the gym. The number of Kazan citizens who practice outdoor exercises on the pull-up and parallel bars is well into the thousands and growing," said Ms Sannikova.
The government has also sought to host international sports meets and use them as opportunities to construct more sporting infrastructure. For its successful bid for the 2013 Summer Universiade, also known as the World University Summer Games, it erected 30 sports venues that are still used by about 30,000 citizens regularly.
Still, providing the hardware alone would not have been enough. To motivate all residents to use them frequently, hundreds of competitions have been organised in the city at different expertise and age levels. More than 7,000 children and youth take part in annual hockey and football tournaments, and more than 35,000 people participate in a national event, called the "Spartiakiad", which involves eight sports: volleyball, badminton, cycling, mini-football, track and field athletic, swimming, skiing and table tennis.
The government has also implemented social initiatives to target two age groups: children, to inculcate a lifelong love of sports, and the elderly, who may need encouragement to keep fit and stay healthy. "As early as kindergarten, children start to attend sports sessions and participate in competitions. The elderly are granted free visits to swimming pools in sports centres," said Ms Sannikova.
To build on the momentum, Kazan has invested heavily in nutrition programmes and "teenage clubs" to give new generations a better start in life and guide them on their journey to adulthood. The government's Department of Food and Social Catering provides hot meals to children in school, and part of the municipal budget is used to pay for lunch for schoolchildren from low-income families.
Children, teenagers and young adults under 35 years old can also choose from nearly 60 teenage clubs that offer a range of free activities. The government periodically repairs and upgrades the facilities to incorporate new options to keep the youth's interest.
In late 2017, for example, the government overhauled one of the clubs, called "Arena", that previously offered karate, choreography and breakdancing classes. The club now also has the equipment, trainers and space for fencing, taekwondo, rhythmic gymnastics, modern dance, 3D modelling, robotics and intellectual games such as speed-cubing, which involves solving puzzles such as Rubik's Cubes as quickly as possible.
Looking ahead, the Kazan government has several priorities, including improving and expanding the city's healthcare infrastructure. It has completed works on 90 percent of the facilities designated for repairs, including hospitals, clinics, polyclinics, counselling centres and first-aid stations, and is opening more primary care and paediatrician offices in suburbs and new residential areas.
Since 2010, the government has also planted 200,000 trees, hundreds of thousands of bushes and millions of flowers to green the city, and it intends to do more. "With the support of the Republic of Tatarstan, the federal centre and businesses, we have repaired more than half of the yards in Kazan, and are continuing with this work," said Ms Sannikova.
Still, amidst the city's remarkable transformation, one thing has stayed the same: the peaceful co-existence of its diverse population. Kazan now has 115 nationalities, 36 cultural organisations, 80 religious communities and 9,000 foreign students, and its population comprises approximately 50 percent Orthodox Christians and 50 percent Muslims.
While the city has always been diverse, successive governments have put in place policies to preserve the peace and promote dialogue among different groups. With immigration and racial tensions on the rise in many parts of the world, Kazan's noteworthy religious, cultural and social harmony serves as a model of respect for diversity in societies.
The city has displayed sensitivity to different faiths, restoring or rebuilding three key religious landmarks in the past few decades: the Qolşärif Mosque, Annunciation Cathedral and Great Synagogue. More recently, a new funeral complex is divided almost equally into two cemeteries for Orthodox Christians and Muslims respectively, with a church and a mosque erected in the allocated spaces.
Mayor Metshin's administration is also overhauling the city's "houses of culture", partly to spur greater interaction and cooperation among cultural organisations. In April 2018, one of the centres was reopened with a new information centre, waiting areas and a co-working zone for organisations to implement joint projects.
"Kazan is often called the place where East meets West, and the union of the two civilisations finds manifestation in the architecture of the buildings and in everyday life. There is a constant dialogue of cultures and religions. People visit one another's traditional festivities, and their appreciation does not stop at their own cultures, but extends to those of their neighbours," said Ms Sannikova.
This article was first published in September 2018. All images contained within this page are used with license and shall not be copied, modified, or reproduced.
Ilsur Metshin was elected as Mayor of Kazan in 2006. Ilsur Metshin serves on the board of the Union of Russian cities and is the chairman of the Association of the cities of Volga region, was elected to the supreme governing body of the party management - the General Council of the party "United Russia".
Ilsur Metshin was among Russian representatives in the Chamber of Local Authorities in the Congress of Local and Regional authorities of the Council of Europe's in 2016-2020 years by the order of the President of the Russian Federation. International experts speak highly of the professionalism of the mayor of Kazan. Year in, year out, he has been re-elected to leading positions of major international organisations: the World Organization "United Cities and Local Governments" and the Organisation of World Heritage Cities.
Daria Sannikova has been working in the field of hospitality since 2006. Between 2010 and 2014, she worked as executive director of the Association of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of Kazan and the Republic of Tatarstan.
While Daria Sannikova remained in her position in with the Association of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of Kazan, the number of participants in the Association went up by 50 enterprises. In 2013, she contributed greatly to the organisation of catering during the Universiade in Kazan.


text:
package org.apache.drill.common.expression;

import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Set;

import org.apache.drill.common.expression.visitors.ExprVisitor;
import org.apache.drill.common.types.TypeProtos.DataMode;
import org.apache.drill.common.types.TypeProtos.MajorType;
import org.apache.drill.common.types.TypeProtos.MinorType;
import org.apache.drill.common.types.Types;
import org.apache.drill.shaded.guava.com.google.common.base.Preconditions;
import org.apache.drill.shaded.guava.com.google.common.collect.Lists;
import org.apache.drill.shaded.guava.com.google.common.collect.Sets;

public class IfExpression extends LogicalExpressionBase {

  public final IfCondition ifCondition;
  public final LogicalExpression elseExpression;
  public final MajorType outputType;

  private IfExpression(ExpressionPosition pos, IfCondition conditions, LogicalExpression elseExpression, MajorType outputType) {
    super(pos);
    this.ifCondition = conditions;
    this.elseExpression = elseExpression;
    this.outputType = outputType;
  }

  public static class IfCondition{
    public final LogicalExpression condition;
    public final LogicalExpression expression;

    public IfCondition(LogicalExpression condition, LogicalExpression expression) {
      //logger.debug("Generating IfCondition {}, {}", condition, expression);

      this.condition = condition;
      this.expression = expression;
    }
  }

  @Override
  public <T, V, E extends Exception> T accept(ExprVisitor<T, V, E> visitor, V value) throws E {
    return visitor.visitIfExpression(this, value);
  }

  public static class Builder {
    IfCondition conditions;
    private LogicalExpression elseExpression;
    private ExpressionPosition pos = ExpressionPosition.UNKNOWN;
    private MajorType outputType;

    public Builder setPosition(ExpressionPosition pos) {
      this.pos = pos;
      return this;
    }

    public Builder setElse(LogicalExpression elseExpression) {
      this.elseExpression = elseExpression;
      return this;
    }

    public Builder setIfCondition(IfCondition conditions) {
      this.conditions = conditions;
      return this;
    }

    public Builder setOutputType(MajorType outputType) {
      this.outputType = outputType;
      return this;
    }

    public IfExpression build(){
      Preconditions.checkNotNull(pos);
      Preconditions.checkNotNull(conditions);
      return new IfExpression(pos, conditions, elseExpression, outputType);
    }
  }

  @Override
  public MajorType getMajorType() {
    if (outputType != null) {
      return outputType;
    }

    MajorType elseType = elseExpression.getMajorType();
    MajorType ifType = ifCondition.expression.getMajorType();
    if (elseType.getMinorType() == MinorType.UNION) {
      Set<MinorType> subtypes = Sets.newHashSet();
      for (MinorType subtype : elseType.getSubTypeList()) {
        subtypes.add(subtype);
      }
      for (MinorType subtype : ifType.getSubTypeList()) {
        subtypes.add(subtype);
      }
      MajorType.Builder builder = MajorType.newBuilder().setMinorType(MinorType.UNION).setMode(DataMode.OPTIONAL);
      for (MinorType subtype : subtypes) {
        builder.addSubType(subtype);
      }
      return builder.build();
    }

    MajorType.Builder builder = MajorType.newBuilder().setMinorType(ifType.getMinorType());
    builder.setMode(elseType.getMode() == DataMode.OPTIONAL || ifType.getMode() == DataMode.OPTIONAL ? DataMode.OPTIONAL : elseType.getMode());
    builder = Types.calculateTypePrecisionAndScale(ifType, elseType, builder);
    return builder.build();
  }

  public static Builder newBuilder() {
    return new Builder();
  }

  @Override
  public Iterator<LogicalExpression> iterator() {
    List<LogicalExpression> children = Lists.newLinkedList();

    children.add(ifCondition.condition);
    children.add(ifCondition.expression);
    children.add(this.elseExpression);
    return children.iterator();
  }

  @Override
  public int getCumulativeCost() {
    // return the average cost of operands for a boolean "and" | "or"
    int cost = this.getSelfCost();

    int i = 0;
    for (LogicalExpression e : this) {
      cost += e.getCumulativeCost();
      i++;
    }

    return cost / i;
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub