Although I couldn't find many people to play with, I'm still enjoying the flawed but flashy Dissidia Final Fantasy NT on PS4. Square Enix has been struggling to get people to notice the console version despite the arcade edition's success, however, which led to a free edition of the game that's live now on the Japanese PSN.
Basically it follows the League of Legends model with four rotating weekly free characters (outside of DLC fighters). Story mode is not playable in the free build and you need PlayStation Plus to play online, but if you decide to pull the trigger on the retail build your data will carry over.
You might not be able to read the official description (it region-locks you if you're logged into another location), so I placed the full listing in the gallery below. You can also watch a quick overview of the free version in the same spot. If you're on the fence just create a Japanese PSN account (it takes a few minutes) go get the demo and give it a chance.


Learn more about our ProStaff Program Benefits.
Southern Racks is actively looking for dedicated men and women with a passion for hunting and their outdoor lifestyle. Our ProStaff must represent Southern Racks, the hunting community, and the outdoor industry in a professional and respectful manner.
Individuals accepted into the Southern Racks ProStaff Program must have a reasonable understanding of our all-natural products, and must be a consumer of our hunting related products. Our ProStaff is expected to help promote our company and our outdoor products, including our Scent-Free 3-in-1 Shampoo for men, Scent-Free Volumizing Shampoo, Scent-Free Moisturizing Conditioner, Scent-Free Moisturizing Body Wash, and our Scent-Free Hand & Body Lotion.
Promotional opportunities for Southern Racks ProStaff include attending expos, producing content for informational and/or promotional use such as blog articles, gallery photos, or video testimonials, and posting or sharing Southern Racks related content on social media platforms. In exchange for your promotions, our ProStaff is rewarded with deep discounts on all of our outdoor products and apparel items.
Get in on the Action & Fun!
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All women work at their own level without judgement or embarrassment from anyone. We work on both the beach and in a fully equipped gym and both provide the perfect, friendly setting for you to come and have fun with exercise, with like minded women, but achieving the results you dream of. We meet at the bottom of Beachside Close.


text:
Carol M
slider-cruises-01-960x180
Mark is a fine-art painter and creative who also loves cooking, great food, and entertaining.
He recalls, as a child, wanting to be an artist. As far back as first grade he was the kid the teacher called on to create seasonal illustrations on the chalk board. In tenth grade he met AnnaMarie Boles, the high school art teacher, and he remembers her changing his life.
"She saw me, believed in me, and gave me permission to be who I was and to create."
In his senior year, he participated in a multi-state high school art competition that went through a judging process state by state with the finalists having their work displayed at the Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon. Mark was one of the finalists, and his painting was hung in the museum.
He went on to study art in college, and over the years has taken many workshops, studying with contemporaries in both abstract and realist styles. His influences have ranged from classic to modern masters, and he was strongly influence by the Northwest Mystic painters: Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Kenneth Callahan and Guy Anderson.
Mark started his first business, "The Perfect Host" while in his late twenties as a private chef, creating wonderful multi-coursed dinners in people's homes. He brought everything from the dishes, to crystal, flatware, and flowers. When his crew left in the end the host's home was spotless and only wonderful memories remained. Hence, "The Perfect Host."
That business eventually turned into a destination restaurant, "The John Horan House," and for ten years it was considered one of Washington State's finest. It was during this time that he met his wife, Dr. Carol Radlo. They sold the Horan House in 1990 and moved to Sammamish, just outside of Seattle, where they currently live. Mark stepped back into his art and built a beautiful studio in his home, but after a number of years he started feeling isolated and decided to start a new business. Surrounded with water, and in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, he decided to buy a classic boat and offer fine dining while cruising the waters around Seattle; Enchantress Cruises was born.
Reflecting on how things often go full circle, what Mark is doing now is very much like his first business, "The Perfect Host." In fact, the wooden handled flatware he uses on the boat was his flatware used then, and the model of cooking for small private groups is exactly the same.
Now he divides his time. During boating season he entertains his guests with wonderful food and experiences on the Carol M, and time permitting, he is most likely working in his studio creating art.
Please visit and follow Mark's Instagram pages: @marklanfearart and @enchantresscruises
He plans to launch a new interactive website this fall for his art; stay tuned.
Please feel free to contact Mark for sales or questions regarding his art.
Enchantress Cruises – Mark Lanfear
Phone: 425-891-0510 – Email: mark@enchantresscruises.com
We accept credit cards.
© 2023 Enchantress Cruises • site by imagineDS

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Are you looking for the next adventure in your life? Apply now for a fresh new challenge. Are you passionate about great food and excellent service? Are you looking for a challenge and to be part of the start-up team of a fabulous and exciting new venture. Peri Peri offers a great place to work, with a lively environment, flexible hours and potential opportunity to move up within an exciting growing company. We offer various positions depending on experience.
Simply email your resume to info@myperiperi.com and a member of our team will be in contact with you shortly.


text:
\section{Introduction}
\label{intro}
The purpose of this note is to show a set of properties of a  one-parameter family of sequences $\mathcal{T}_n( z)$, $z$ is a complex variable, which are apparently not known in the literature. Among these sequences we have factorials and subfactorials and they are seen to be related to the incomplete Gamma function. This family was introduced in a recent paper about generalized binomial distribution \cite{bergeronetal2013}.
\section{The function $T_n(x,y)$}
\label{subfctnbs}

Let us consider the following two-variable polynomial:
\begin{equation}
\label{polTxy}
T_n(x,y) := \sum_{m=0}^n \binom{n}{m} (m+x)^m\,(n-m+y)^{n-m}\, ,
\end{equation}
which is clearly symmetrical in $x$, $y$. Actually, we have the stronger result:
\begin{prop}
\label{nodepx}
The polynomial $T_n(x,y)$ depends on the sum $z=x+y$ only:
\begin{equation}
\label{polTnTn}
T_n(x,z-x)= \sum_{m=0}^n \binom{n}{m} (m+x)^m\,(n-m+z-x)^{n-m}\equiv \mathcal{T}_n( z)\, ,
\end{equation}
where $x$ can be arbitrarily chosen with the convention that $0^0\equiv 1$ in the cases $x=0$ or $x=z$.
\end{prop}

\noindent {\bf Proof. }
Let us prove by recurrence on $n$ that $T_n(x,z-x)$ does not depend explicitly on $x$ for all $z$. For that, we take the partial derivative of $T_n(x,z-x)$ with respect to $x$. We have successively, by appropriately shift the summation variable,
\begin{align*}
\frac{\partial}{\partial x} T_n(x,z-x)=& \sum_{m=0}^n \binom{n}{m}
\left\lbrack m (m+x)^{m-1}\,(n-m+z-x)^{n-m} \right.\\&\left. - (n-m) (m+x)^{m}\,(n-m+z-x)^{n-m-1}\right\rbrack\\
=& n\, \sum_{m=0}^{n-1} \binom{n-1}{m} (m +1 +x)^{m}\,(n-1-m+z-x)^{n-1-m} \\
& - n\, \sum_{m=0}^{n-1} \binom{n-1}{m} (m + x)^{m}\,(n -1-m+z+1-x)^{n-1 -m } \\
=& n \left\lbrack T_{n-1}(1+x,z -x) - T_{n-1}(x,z+1-x)\right\rbrack\,.
\end{align*}
Now, we note that $T_0(x, z-x)=1$ and so does not depend explicitly on $x$. Suppose that the property ``$T_k(x,z-x)$ does not depend explicitly on $x$ for all $z$'' holds true  for all integer $1\leq k\leq n-1$. Then $T_{n-1}(1+x,z -x) = T_{n-1}(x,z+1-x)$ and this implies  that $\partial/\partial x T_n(x,z-x) = 0$, i.e., $T_n(x,z-x)$ does not depend explicitly on $x$ for all $z$.
\hfill $\Box$

\section{The function $\mathcal{T}_n(z)$}
\label{tnz}

Thanks to Proposition \ref{nodepx}, it is now possible to find a convenient  alternate expression of $T_n(x,z-x)\equiv \mathcal{T}_n(z)$. First, let us establish a recurrence formula.

\begin{prop}
\label{recTn}
The polynomial $\mathcal{T}_n(z)$ satisfies the following recurrence formula:
\begin{equation}
\label{recTnz}
\mathcal{T}_n(z) = (z+n)^n + n\, \mathcal{T}_{n-1}(z+1) \, , \quad \mathcal{T}_0(z)=1\,.
\end{equation}
\end{prop}

\noindent {\bf Proof. }
Taking $x=0$ in  \eqref{polTnTn},  let us write that expression as
\begin{align*}
\mathcal{T}_n( z) &= \sum_{m=0}^n \binom{n}{m} (m)^m\,(n-m+z)^{n-m}\\
&= (n+z)^n + n\sum_{m=1}^{n}\binom{n-1}{m-1}\times\\
&\times(m-1+1)^{m-1}(n-1-(m-1)+z +1 -1)^{n-1-(m-1)}\\
&= (n+z)^n + n T_{n-1}(1,z+1-1) = (n+z)^n +n \mathcal{T} _{n-1}(z+1)\,  ,
\end{align*}
where we have applied Proposition \ref{nodepx} with $x=1$.
\hfill $\Box$

It is then straightforward to  deduce from this formula the following result.

\begin{prop}
\label{alterTn1}
The polynomial $\mathcal{T}_n(z)$ admits the following expansion in powers of $ (z+ n)$:
\begin{equation}
\label{z+n}
\mathcal{T}_n(z) = \sum_{k=0}^n \frac{n!}{k!} (z+ n)^k\, .
\end{equation}
\end{prop}
We note in particular the interesting corollary proving that the family $\left(\mathcal{T}_n(z)\right)_{z\in \mathbb{Z}}$ of integer sequences includes the factorial:
\begin{equation}
\label{z=-n}
\mathcal{T}_n(-n) = n!\, ,
\end{equation}
\label{gamma}
and consequently also the Gamma function as
\begin{equation}
\label{gamma1}
\mathcal{T}_n(-n) = \Gamma(n+1)\,  .
\end{equation}

The expression \eqref{z+n} allows to easily derive two asymptotic behaviors of $\mathcal{T}_n(z)$:
\begin{align}
\label{larzTn}
\mbox{At large}\ z    & \quad \mathcal{T}_n(z) \sim z^n \, ,\\
\label{larzTn} \mbox{At large}\ n  &\quad   \mathcal{T}_n(z) \sim n^n\,.
\end{align}
Indeed, in the latter the dominant term of the sum is for $k=n$ (the term $k=0$ is not dominant
due to the decreasing exponential factor in the Stirling's formula
$n!\sim n^n \sqrt{2\pi n} \, e^{-n}$).
This indicates that the dominant term of the sum  in \eqref{z+n} is $(z+n)^n$.

A second expression of $\mathcal{T}_n(z)$ is also of interest.
\begin{prop}
\label{alterTn2}
The polynomial $\mathcal{T}_n(z)$ admits the following expansion in powers of $ (z+ n +1)$:
\begin{equation}
\label{z+n+1}
\mathcal{T}_n(z) = \sum_{k=0}^n a_k (z+ n +1)^k\, ,
\end{equation}
where the coefficients $a_k$ are given by
 \begin{equation}
\label{akTn}
a_k = \binom{n}{k}\,\mathcal{T}_{n-k}(k-n-1)\equiv\binom{n}{k}d_{n-k}\, .
\end{equation}
\end{prop}

\noindent {\bf Proof. }
Applying formula $$a_k= \frac{1}{k!}\frac{d^k}{dz^k} \left.\mathcal{T}_n(z) \right\vert_{z=-n-1}$$ to the original expression \eqref{polTnTn} where we put $x=0$, we  easily derive
\begin{align*}
\frac{1}{k!}\frac{d^k}{dz^k} \left.\mathcal{T}_n(z) \right\vert_{z=-n-1}& = \sum_{m=0}^{n-k}(-1)^{n-m-k}\binom{n}{m}\binom{n-m}{k}m^m(1+m)^{n-m-k}\\
&= \binom{n}{k}\sum_{m=0}^{n-k}(-1)^{n-m-k}\binom{n-k}{m}m^m(1+m)^{n-m-k}\\
&= \binom{n}{k}\,\mathcal{T}_{n-k}(k-n-1)\, .
\end{align*}
\hfill $\Box$

The sequence of numbers $\left(d_n \equiv \mathcal{T}_{n}(-n-1)\right)_{n\in \mathbb{N}}$, for which \eqref{z+n} gives
\begin{equation}
\label{ }
d_n =  \sum_{k=0}^n \frac{n!}{k!} (-1)^k\, ,
\end{equation}
and whose first terms are 1, 0, 1, 2, 9, 44, ..., is well known for more than 3 centuries \cite{montmort1713,euler1809,comtet74,desarmenien82,oeis}. Its OEIS name is A000166. Its numbers are named   \textit{subfactorial} (and then denoted as $!n$) or \textit{rencontres numbers}, or \textit{derangements}, since $d_n$ is the number of permutations of $n$ elements with no fixed points. They obey the recurrence relations (Euler) $d_n= (n-1)d_{n-1} + (-1)^n$ and $d_n= n(d_{n-1} + d_{n-2})$. Their generating function is
\begin{equation*}
D(x) = \sum_{n=0}^{\infty}d_n\,\frac{x^n}{n!}= \frac{e^{-x}}{1-x}\,,
\end{equation*}
and their asymptotic behavior at large $n$ is
\begin{equation*}
\underset{n\to \infty}{\lim} \frac{d_n}{n!}= \frac{1}{e}\,.
\end{equation*}

\section{The relation to the incomplete Gamma function}
\label{incgam}

Let us finally establish the relation between the polynomial $\mathcal{T}_n(z) $ and the incomplete Gamma function \cite{abramovitz}.

\begin{prop}
\label{Tn2incGfct}
The polynomial $\mathcal{T}_n(z)$ is related to the incomplete Gamma function
\begin{equation}
\label{incgamfct}
\Gamma(a,x) = \int_{x}^{\infty}t^{a-1}\,e^{-t}\,dt\, , \quad \mathrm{Re}(a) >0\, ,
\end{equation}
as follows:
\begin{equation}
\label{igamnz}
\mathcal{T}_n(z) = e^{z+n}\, \Gamma(n+1,z+n) \,.
\end{equation}
\end{prop}
Note that in the particular case that $z = -n$, from (\ref{igamnz}) we reobtain (\ref{gamma1}).
\proof
It is straightforward to prove, by integration by part, the recurrence formula obeyed by the incomplete Gamma function:
\begin{equation*}
\label{recincgamfct}
\Gamma(a,x)= e^{-x}\,x^{a-1} + (a-1) \Gamma(a-1,x)\Leftrightarrow e^{x}\Gamma(a,x)= \,x^{a-1} + (a-1) e^x\Gamma(a-1,x)\, .
\end{equation*}
Applied to polynomial $\mathcal{T}_n(z)$ this formula gives
\begin{align*}
\mathcal{T}_n(z) &= e^{z+n}\, \Gamma(n+1,z+n)=  (z+n)^n + n e^{z+n}\, \Gamma(n,z+1+n-1) \\
&= (z+n)^n + n  \mathcal{T}_{n-1}(z+1)\, ,
\end{align*}
and this is precisely \eqref{recTnz} with the same initial condition $\mathcal{T}_0(z)= e^{z}\, \Gamma(1,z)=1$.
\hfill $\Box$

\section{Comment}
\label{comment}
It is probable that $\mathcal{T}_n(z) $ has a combinatorial interpretation (and alternate simpler expression) for each $z\in \mathbb{Z}$. For instance the elements of the sequence $\left(\mathcal{T}_{n}(1)\right)_{n\in \mathbb{N}}$, whose first terms are 1, 3, 17, 142, 1569,... are the numbers of connected functions on $n$ labeled nodes, and we also have (OEIS number: A001865, see \cite{oeis} for references)
\begin{equation*}
\mathcal{T}_{n}(1) = \sum_{k=0}^n \frac{n!}{k!}(n+1)^k =
e^{n+1}\int_{n+1}^{\infty} x^n e^{-x} \, dx\, .
\end{equation*}

We can present other examples. For $z=2$: the elements of the sequence $\left(\mathcal{T}_{n}(2)\right)_{n\in \mathbb{N}}$, whose first terms are 1, 4, 26, 236, 2760,..., are the numbers of normalized total height of rooted trees with $n$ nodes (OEIS number: A001863, see \cite{sloane69}). The sequence $(\mathcal{T}_{n}(3))$, whose first terms are 1, 5, 37, 366, 4553,..., is   A129137: $\mathcal{T}_{n}(3)$ is the number of trees on $1,2,3, \dotsc, n \equiv [n]$, rooted at 1, in which 2 is a descendant of 3.  And so on.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


We all know we should clean our bike drive chains and sprockets regularly, but I'll bet most of us don't, owing to the simple fact that it's a dirty job that's surprisingly hard to do really well on the bike. A simple brush works OK, but really only to clean the side plates. And while there are chain-cleaning tools out there, few work as advertised.
Enter the 360° Chain Brush from Tirox. Incredibly simple, the Chain Brush is a spiral-shaped brush with a flexible, high-strength aluminum spine gripping very stiff nylon brushes. Using it is a snap. First, coat the chain with a suitable cleaning agent (most chain manufacturers suggest kerosene), then expand the Chain Brush a bit before rolling it onto the chain.
It takes a little effort, as it is a tight fit. Next, expand the brush even farther to tighten its contact to the chain. Holding the brush, spin the wheel to pull the chain through the brush making at least three passes, then reverse direction and spin again. Pull the Chain Brush off, rinse and dry the chain, lube it, and that's it. It's still a dirty job, but this tool really works. Price: $12.95.


text:
search result for "Jacinda Ardern"
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New Zealand to tighten curbs if there's an Omicron outbreak, rules out lockdowns
New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Thursday that restrictions will be tightened across the country if there is a community transmission of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, ...
Significant tsunami damage feared in Tonga, communications still cut
Tsunami-hit Tonga remained largely uncontactable on Sunday with telephone and internet links severed, leaving relatives in faraway New Zealand praying for their families on the Pacific islands as casu...
Military flights sent to assess damage from Pacific volcano
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand and Australia were able to send military surveillance flights to Tonga on Monday to assess the damage a huge undersea volcanic eruption left in the Pacific i...
Australia, New Zealand step up efforts to aid tsunami-hit Tonga
SYDNEY/WELLINGTON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Australia and New Zealand dispatched surveillance flights on Monday to assess the damage in Tonga, isolated from the rest of the world due to the eruption of an u...
Concerns mount for Tonga after tsunami triggered by underwater volcano
Pacific nations and humanitarian groups struggled to establish communications with Tonga on Sunday after a tsunami triggered by a massive volcanic eruption cut telephone and internet connections, rais...
Two awarded top bravery honor in New Zealand mosque attack
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Two Muslim worshippers who at different times charged toward a gunman to try and stop his massacre were each awarded New Zealand's highest honor for civilian bravery on ...
New US ambassador to New Zealand seeks to work with China
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Tom Udall, the new U.S. ambassador to New Zealand, says he wants to find areas of common ground with China in a region where tensions often run high. U...
New Zealand to send military, police to Solomon Islands
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand will send up to 65 military and police personnel to the Solomon Islands in the coming days after rioting and looting broke out there last week over several i...
New Zealand's opposition party chooses Chris Luxon as leader
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand's conservative opposition party chose former businessman and political novice Christopher Luxon as its new leader on Tuesday, as it tries to rebuild from a h...
Wary, weary world slams doors shut, fearing omicron variant
BRUSSELS (AP) — Taking an act-now-ask-questions-later approach, countries around the world slammed their doors shut again to try to keep the new omicron variant at bay Monday as more cases of the muta...
New variant not stopping New Zealand's reopening plans
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The emergence of the omicron variant hasn't changed New Zealand's plans to ease restrictions in Auckland and move the nation into a new, more open phase of its pandemic ...
Auckland lockdown to end as New Zealand tries new virus tack
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Bars, restaurants and gyms can reopen in Auckland from early December but customers will be required to show proof they've been fully vaccinated, New Zealand Prime Minis...
APEC leaders vow to tackle economic recovery, COVID-19, climate
WELLINGTON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum vowed on Friday to address economic recovery in the region by shoring up supply chains, tackling labour iss...
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Originally published on Code Red on August 17, 2018.
Recently, we added the ability to upload photos of your home renovations to Redfin. To get there, we faced the immediate problem of needing to maintain the integrity of our public-facing content — filtering out adult images and the like. Let's look at how we used Kafka, Samza, and Google Safe Search to put it all together.
User testing showed that owners want a way to show off their homes and the hard work they'd put into recent updates. They also want a more accurate Redfin Estimate. A limiting issue we face is that we can't see inside their homes, preventing us from fully understanding the home's true value. With enough training data, photos may help us give a more accurate Estimate.
Accurate: the photo filter should be accurate enough to catch nearly all inappropriate content.
Affordable: we should be able to validate a large volume of photos without breaking the bank.
Non-blocking: homeowners should be able to upload renovation photos without waiting for them to be validated first.
Handles bursts: because we're likely to see big batches of photos from a single homeowner spread apart by long stretches of inactivity, the system should be able to handle bursts without backing up.
Testable: we should be able to test the system in its entirety with photos that are accessible only from within our VPN.
Originally published on Code Red on May 25, 2016.
On a typical Saturday afternoon in the height of the summer home-buying season, Redfin will send millions of listing update emails and push notifications to our users.
One of our biggest advantages is our ability to send these notifications within moments of an event appearing in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) feed, the data source real estate agents use to put new homes on the market. In hot markets like San Francisco or Seattle, this timing can be critical: putting in a strong offer within hours of the initial listing can make the difference between securing a dream home and losing it in a bidding war.
Many of our customers (hundreds of thousands in fact) opt to receive daily digests rather than instant notifications throughout the day. And when these daily emails — unique to each user — are generated in the morning, our machines can be kept busy for hours trying to fetch all the required data to send them out.
Other jobs (listing importers, search indexers, etc.) can get backed up while the daily email job hogs resources.
Users' emails can get delayed, potentially hours after they would normally expect them.
I've never been a huge Mac fan (sorry, guys). But I've long been obsessed with vintage computers, and I keep a collection of 4 old (1980-1997) Apple computers in storage—hopefully some day on display.
So that's why when I was given my first Macbook Pro at my new job, I couldn't wait to make it feel a little more familiar. Fortunately, I found a great start with Ben Vessey's "Mac OS (Old School)" icon pack.
Unfortunately, most of Ben's work just covers some basic Mac app icons, so I extended the look by adding 15 more "engineery" icons—Eclipse, Android Studio, Emacs, etc.—and by building my own window and menu theme to yield a (nearly) complete Macintosh immersion.
Navigate to the icon pack you downloaded earlier, and drag and drop the desired icons over their respective applications in LiteIcon. Apply changes when done.
Click the + icon to add the folder you extracted from the zip file.
Click on the only image that appears in the main window, and select Tile as the display mode.
Search for "macintosh classic" (without the quotes); double click on the Macintosh Classic B&W theme; and click Apply.
Uncheck Menu Image and Desktop, and click Apply.
You will be prompted to log out to apply your changes. Do as it says.
How do I undo my changes (revert to defaults)?
To restore the default windows theme, simply open Flavours and click the on/off toggle at the top right of the window.
Chrome, and potentially some other strange programs, use their own custom window borders, and thus their windows look...funky with the theme. I've kind of learned to deal with it, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't annoy me.
The classic stripe look you see in the screenshots is achieved in part by placing a white rectangle in the middle of the window. Unfortunately, there's no way to resize this rectangle to fit the window text, so I picked a size of roughly half of the window width to try to work for about 99% of the use cases. Occasionally though, you may have a window with a really long title that simply can't fit in that white box. To accommodate this, I've set the opacity of the title bar stripes to 50% so that you can still read the whole title. But yes, it will be annoying if/when you come across a long title (hopefully rarely).
There are some inconsistencies between the icons (e.g. some circles are drawn slightly different than others). I wasn't as careful as I should've been, but if anyone has any serious interest in using the icons, I'd be more than happy to clean them up for you. Again, I'd be lying if I said this didn't bother me.
As developers, programmers, engineers—whatever you want to call us—we spend a lot of time programming. And seeing as we spend more waking hours with our editors than we do with our families, it's important that we take a close look at that experience and make sure that we're getting the most out of it that we can.
DISCLAIMER: This post is targeted at the Emacs crowd. If you're not an Emacs user, I hope that you can at least still learn a thing or two from this list and maybe find a way of achieving the same functionality in your own editor. If this list happens to provoke an interest in switching over, great. But this post is not intended to persuade readers one way or the other—simply to share some heavily used features that can make those hours away from home a little bit happier.
In Emacs, the customization comes from your ~/.emacs configuration file. Emacs users spend years building up these config files, and a senior developer's .emacs file can be a highly sought-after resource. (One of my last correspondences with a departing engineer consisted of "Good luck," and "Can I get the path to your .emacs?") With that in mind, I've listed some useful key bindings to pass on where applicable.
Figure 1: Evidence of generational learning through .emacs configuration files.
Even the superhuman developer likely spends at least half of his time debugging code. And although some IDEs will highlight the failing line, it's not always a compiler that's flagging a problem. Whether it's grepping through a list of files or simply looking for a problematic section of code that someone brought to your attention, the "goto-line" operation is all too frequent.
Ever re-run a program after making a bug fix? How about 20 times a day? Having a quick way to reload a run-time log (or any frequently changing file) can be a huge time-saver.
Do whatever you want to repeat, using regular expressions and generic operations wherever possible.
this name at the end of your .emacs"
This one is my personal favorite. Couple the macro with a terminal embedded in your editor, and you're poised to be the most powerful developer in the office. Once your terminal is contained within your editor (and once you've spawned several simultaneous terminals in there too), you'll realize you no longer have reason to live outside the editor (though your spouse may disagree).
My typical development environment is a split window with code on one side and a terminal on the other (all within a single Emacs instance). Using the "C-x o" key binding I can then quickly switch between editing and performing the usual command line operations in Linux.
In the terminal buffer grep for "Error:"
Use a regex to search for the variable name, and copy it.
Switch over to the code buffer with C-x o.
Declare the variable, and make a new line.
Switch back to the terminal.
Note that in Emacs, there are a variety of terminal types you can use. I prefer the ansi-term mode due to its smooth support of telnet, but I'm sure there are ways of customizing the other terminals (e.g. shell-mode) to behave in the same way as my beloved ansi-term.
Note also that if you don't provide the name of the buffer, you can simply press RETURN to view a searchable list of open buffers, which helps if you can't remember what a file was called. This is also useful if you want to, say, have a macro quickly close all buffers matching a given regex.
One can also imagine how useful this would be if you wanted to convert an entire file from underscore-based variable names to CamelCase or vice versa. Combining this case-conversion functionality with macros would make the task a trivial operation.
Rarely does a file of code fit on a single page. So it should come as no surprise that a reasonable amount of the average developer's time is spent navigating back and forth between pages in a file. Often this operation consists of either paging up or down or grepping for a phrase near the line of interest (not to mention the dreaded journey from keyboard to mouse!).
If you're still browsing for files in your terminal—or worse, a GUI—you're missing out. Because Emacs serves as an interactive file explorer too. Simply "C-x-f" to open a file, but press RETURN without supplying a name, and Emacs will open a buffer with a listing of the current directory. From there, you can navigate through the directory with cursor keys, regular expressions, or even (horrified gulp) the mouse to find what you're looking for.
Finally, no list would be complete without mention of regular expressions. Although it may go without saying, the regex search within your editor is such a commonplace necessity that most of us may take it as second nature—almost a cyborgial extension of the developer's motoneural system. I would imagine that very few real editors out there lack regex searching, but for the record, it's achieved in Emacs via "C-M-s" for forward/downward search and "C-M-r" for reverse/upward search.
Well, I hope that helped. These were just the few Emacs features that I use on a regular enough basis that I couldn't go without them. Please leave comments with suggestions on items I might have forgotten. As is often the case with these sorts of things, it's the actions we take for granted that, by definition, we are most likely to overlook.
While at work today I thought to myself, "How marvelous is it that if we as logic designers want more processing power out of a chip, we can simply add more logic?" It seems simple, but it's really quite remarkable when you think about it. (Imagine choosing to giving your child more neurons as needed.) Sure there is an area and power trade-off to consider, but if we need to do more work in parallel, there's nothing stopping us from building a few extra gates to get what we want.
Note that this approach is fundamentally different than software: extra code means extra time. On the other hand, transistors are a dime a dozen these days, and on chips with more than a billion of them, the added cost—for no added processing time—is truly quite trivial.
So then I thought, "What if we could do this with our brains? What if like hardware, we could think in parallel? What if I could pipeline my brain so that while one block of my consciousness were busy processing Problem A, another block could be working on Problem B? What would that look like?"
But then it occurred to me: we already do this every day. Yes, we know that our brains are busy processing thousands of patterns in parallel far beneath our consciousness, but that's not what interests me here. I'm interested in the collective brain.
Complex "intelligent" behaviors have long been observed in relatively simple species like ants via their larger actions as a community. And in humans, it has been shown that while no one of us may be an expert in a particular field, through the power of numbers, we can together achieve highly accurate results. So it really shouldn't be any great leap to think of our brains as individual workers contributing to massive results on a supercomputer scale.
I use that word intentionally—supercomputer—because that's what we are, all 7 billion of us combined. What else could be capable of achievements as miraculous as flying three people to the moon and back with less than a decade of preparation, while simultaneously managing the concerns of everyday life here on Earth?
In fact, from a computer architect's perspective, there is tremendous insight to be gleaned from the ways in which we work together to achieve results beyond the power of any one brain. Perhaps no company better exemplifies the spirit of pipelined processing than Taiwanese news animators Next Media Animations, who now go from "story conception to a finished product in less than 2 1/2 hours." This remarkable pace is achieved only by treating each worker as a distinct, specialized unit capable of solving a problem in isolation from, and in parallel to, the other members of their team, much in the same way that we design microprocessors.
The success of Next Media Animations is a glimpse at what can be accomplished when a production process is constructed to remove as much serialization and dependencies as possible. With advanced tools at our disposal, such as 3D rendering software, which dramatically reduce the pipeline latency of product development, we are poised more and more every day to function like a high speed computer, moving with microprocessors along Moore's curve rather than watching them pass from the sidelines.
It's now up to the entrepreneurs, the managers, and the creative thinkers of tomorrow to match the evolution of computers with equivalent developments in our workflow, growing in tandem with the technology to ensure that we are as efficient and as productive as we can be.
Since purchasing my function generator, I've been doing a lot of thinking about what kinds of creative projects I can accomplish with this seemingly simple device.
One concept that struck me almost immediately was using the Voltage Controlled Frequency (VCF) input of the function generator to vary the sound via some external source, and since I'm a guitar player, naturally I looked to my guitar as the ideal controller.
Clearly something of that caliber is out of my ballpark, but I might be able to achieve something simpler.
My idea (again, nothing incredibly novel) is to use a simple Frequency Controlled Voltage (FCV) chip to convert my guitar signal to a specific voltage and then provide that to the function generator's VCF input. The ideal result would be a clean synth sound coming straight from my guitar.
The reality of course is much more complicated.
Ouch. Take a look at that. The fundamental frequency of our D3 note, approximately 147 Hz, isn't even the peak frequency in the spectrum! To be fair, we have to pay attention to the fact that of all of the partial frequencies, the group of tones around the D3 clearly have the largest area; therefore, that collection of closely aligned frequencies will together cut through the mess to create what we perceive as a single D.
Top: original complete guitar D note. Bottom: Extracted frequencies in the range of 144-150 Hz.
What?? Things certainly aren't looking good here. The extracted range (D3) is of such a low volume, it's hard to believe that we could even categorize the original signal as a D at all. And if we were to expand the band any wider, we'd start to pick up the surrounding notes (C# and D#) and in turn detract from the cleanliness of our signal.
To put it simply, reducing a raw analog guitar signal—even just one note—to a single frequency that can be cleanly converted by an FCV chip may require some more advanced circuitry.
However, there is a bit of hope: if you look carefully at the figure above, you'll notice that the smaller signal at the bottom representing the D3 note has a period that directly aligns with that of the big spikes in the top signal. This could be very good news: if the FCV chip can trigger on peaks, it will accurately detect the fundamental frequency and provide the single voltage we need.
Unfortunately I'll need to do more investigation into the problem before I have a complete answer (for another blog post). But in the meantime, while we're in the business of deconstructing guitar signals, I thought it would be a fun wrap-up to work our way back up to that original dirty signal from scratch.
Artificial guitar D3 note: 10 simple sine waves and a single additive composite.
The primary sources of difference between the two waves is merely the magnitude of each of the partial frequencies, which for the sake of simplicity, I kept nearly the same across the entire spectrum. This shortcut results in "fuller" bands (louder notes), such as the D3, being underrepresented and "narrower" bands (softer notes) being overrepresented.
Forget oscilloscopes. Ever wondered what it sounds like to play a function generator through a guitar amp?
In my undergrad, while working on the Purdue Solar Racing team back in 2011, I borrowed the team's function generator when it wasn't in use and carried out some "musical experiments" back at home.
I have a Fender Cyber Champ amp, which has a whole host of effects built in: phaser, flange, chorus, various kinds of reverb, and a lot more. So the thought was that if I could combine a box of essentially unlimited sounds with these spacey guitar effects, I could cook up some pretty cool live music, or at the very least, synthesized effects to lay over whatever other music I was working on at the time.
Of course I eventually had to give back it back, but I never stopped thinking about all of the unique sounds I could make with that function generator. I'd once seen a documentary on the making of The Dark Side of the Moon, and the idea of crafting an entire composition from little hand-made sonic components truly lit a fire in my engineer's brain.
Last week, I finally ordered my own function generator for $25 on eBay and started right where I left off three years ago.
Clockwise from top left: (1) GW GFG-8015G function generator, (2) Boss RC-2 Loop Station, (3) Fender Cyber Champ amp, (4) Presonus AudioBox USB interface, (5) headphones, (6) PC.
The diagram above shows the final setup with all of the required pieces for recording the music. The loop station (top center) is the key: it lets me loop back what I've previously recorded without the help of a computer so I can compose everything live in one shot. The computer in the diagram, and in fact the entire bottom row, is only present for recording purposes.
Also note that technically, you would want any effects—including the amp—placed before the looper so that different effects could be saved with each track rather than the same effects being applied to the entire composition, but I just wanted a quick and simple setup here. The only effects I actually used were very small amounts of reverb, delay, and chorus.
I start with a 2 Hz square wave with a non-50% duty cycle to create a heart-beat-like bass drum. (Listen to this beginning section of Dark Side for comparison.) Typically, this wouldn't be audible due to its being below the 20 Hz human hearing cutoff, but the quick changes in the line level create some residual precussive frequencies that we can hear quite well.
With the basic notes down, I start overlaying more of the notes that comprise the A major and E minor chords, with the pleasant surprise of some phaser effect as I double-record the same, but phase-shifted, notes.
Add on top of that a couple "slides" into notes and some (admittedly atonal) quickly changing frequencies, and we're pretty much done.
Ultimately, I have much bigger plans for this function generator, but this is a nice kick-off to what will hopefully become a seriously fun audio engineering project.
When I was in my undergrad, I had the pleasure of reading, and to be honest, writing, countless lines of confusing code written in a variety of languages. To be fair, I had inherited some pretty bad habits from when I taught myself BASIC as a kid, but it seems like college courses never did a really great job of pushing clean coding style. Sure, heavy emphasis was always placed on designing scalable, efficient programs, but algorithmic complexity is quite distinct from code complexity, and generally a quality coding style was almost always left as an exercise to the student.
That is until my senior year—Introduction to Artificial Intelligence. Building on a foundation in Discrete Math, where students are educated in the laws and techniques of formal logic, this course sought to remove from our minds the baggage of sequential programming (C, FORTRAN, Python, etc.) and instead see the computer as an executor of logic—returning a decision from a single logical function.
Efficient? Sure. Straightforward? Eh. Honestly, with an algorithm so simple, it would be hard to get lost in this code. But the point here is to think about the result we're trying to achieve and to question whether the structure of the code is representative of that goal. Is it?
Base case: Does the list have any elements?
Inductive step: What is the length of the list if we remove an element?
While this is a pretty simple function, thinking about our code this way—as a set of "propositions," if you will—can deeply shape the way we plan and organize our code.
"But wait!" says the code-savvy reader. "That's not fair! You're comparing an iterative algorithm in one language to a recursive (and less efficient) algorithm in another!"
Guilty. The truth is that while recursion can result in some truly beautiful programs, it seldom results in the most space- or time-efficient program. And the truth is that Lisp is designed to work with lists, so I've intentionally chosen an unfair example.
But the point here is not to start a language war or, as I said earlier, discuss algorithmic complexity; the point is to demonstrate what we can learn from a (less-than-popular) language that tends to enforce good behavior.
Alright, so again (as I often ask myself at the end of these posts), what's the point? All I see are two versions of the same function, and the one style that I'm supposedly pushing is actually the least efficient of the two.
Well, the key here is to break out of the algorithm design box and instead think of our code like an expository essay. We've got a lot to say; we can choose a thousand different ways to say it; and we want to find the most effective way to make our point.
So when I begin writing a function, like writing an essay, I develop a plan. I ask myself, "What are we trying to achieve here? What are the possible cases? What are the possible results?" What I've found is that thinking of my programs at this higher organizational level yields a body of code that is easier to follow and perhaps more importantly, easier to update.
Give it a shot sometime; I think you'll like what you see.
I'm a software engineering manager at Redfin working on retention features that keep homeowners coming back to use our services. I have a background in computer engineering and a strong interest in microprocessors, artificial intelligence, and computer history.


It's understandable why U.S. Rep. Val Demings, D-Orlando, is pissed off – she's pissed off because Orange County Sheriff candidate Darryl Sheppard is using a photo of the two of them together in his campaign fliers.
And apparently Demings has twice asked Sheppard to stop using the photo – which implies Demings' endorsement – and Sheppard refused.
"I would not endorse Darryl Sheppard for 'Dog Catcher' of Orange County for fear the canines would lodge complaints," Demings wrote in a Facebook post. "He is TOTALLY unfit for the position he seeks, without even mentioning his criminal record. Perhaps he should learn how to OBEY the law [before] he TRIES to enforce the law. For the record, I am not supporting a candidate in this race. #NOTTODAY"
However, the untrustworthy selfie gallery of Sheppard's campaign doesn't end with the photo of him and Demings. On his campaign's Facebook page, he also includes photos of him and other prominent Democrats, including him and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, and another of him and lieutenant governor candidate Chris King. From what Orlando Weekly can tell, neither of the aforementioned candidates have endorsed Sheppard. (We reached out to representatives for Nelson and King and haven't heard back yet.) As Orlando Weekly previously reported, Nelson endorsed Orlando Police Chief John Mina for county sheriff in August.
"The picture is a great picture of me, she just happens to be in it, and might I add she looks better because of me," Sheppard tells Orlando Weekly.
Last week, Sheppard was a no-show at a community policing forum for county sheriff candidates. Fellow candidates Mina and retired Florida Highway Patrol Chief Jose Lopez were present.
In early August, reports surfaced that Sheppard has been arrested in Florida at least 13 times, on charges ranging from driving with a suspended license to battery and vehicle theft. Many of the charges were reportedly dropped or dismissed by prosecutors.
Worth noting: Although he's the only candidate on the three-man ballot with an arrest history, Sheppard hasn't been convicted of a crime.


As we're nearing the end of our stay on the Texas Gulf Coast, I realized that I hadn't spent any time photographing anything! Maybe some HDR photos on our iPhones of the sunset in the channel, and a little video of a dolphin that came up to play.
So I finally took out the camera and spent an afternoon looking for birds as subjects for watercolor and acrylic. I didn't really need them to turn out well. I just needed to capture the colors and the rough shapes. That's not what I got...they were better than expected.
Anyway, I took some pictures that didn't turn out all that bad...I'm sure the critters were annoyed with me chasing them around, but I love the expressions on their faces. Birds do have expressions, don't they?
This was also an experiment with Adobe Lightroom. I'll write more about that later.


You could win big again!
Win a jackpot from April 26 – May 29, and you will be automatically invited to our Jackpot Party! Bring your invitation as your ticket to the party, and you could be in for another big win.


WFNS at Word on the Street!
WFNS will be hosting the Wonderful Words (mainstage) tent at this year's Word on the Street! The winners of the Atlantic Writing Competition will be reading at 11 AM on Sunday. We will also be hosting a panel called Writers & Influence, featuring Shandi Mitchell, Carol Moreira and Peter Sanger. In addition, we will have a booth. Stop by and say hello! Many of our East Coast Literary Award shortlist writers will be signing their books at various times throughout the day.


A floral design inspired from the Damask motif from Damascus.
All our comforters are completely handmade by village artisans, mostly women. They have been made with 2 layers Cotton cambric fabric and poly filling which is lightweight and easy to maintain.
Have a specific size? - please email me on customer.support@unfactory.in , for a quotation.
Delivery lead time - 1 month for customisatio"


text:
package org.apache.camel.processor.idempotent.cassandra;

import org.apache.camel.component.cassandra.integration.BaseCassandra;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.AfterEach;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.extension.ExtensionContext;

import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertFalse;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertTrue;

/**
 * Unit test for {@link CassandraIdempotentRepository}
 */
public class NamedCassandraIdempotentRepositoryIT extends BaseCassandra {

    private CassandraIdempotentRepository idempotentRepository;

    @Override
    protected void doPreSetup() throws Exception {
        idempotentRepository = new NamedCassandraIdempotentRepository(getSession(), "ID");
        idempotentRepository.setTable("NAMED_CAMEL_IDEMPOTENT");
        idempotentRepository.start();

        super.doPreSetup();
    }

    @Override
    public void beforeEach(ExtensionContext context) throws Exception {
        super.beforeEach(context);

        executeScript("NamedIdempotentDataSet.cql");
    }

    @Override
    @AfterEach
    public void tearDown() throws Exception {
        idempotentRepository.stop();
        super.tearDown();
    }

    private boolean exists(String key) {
        return getSession().execute(String.format("select KEY from NAMED_CAMEL_IDEMPOTENT where NAME='ID' and KEY='%s'", key))
                .one()
               != null;
    }

    @Test
    public void testAddNotExists() {
        // Given
        String key = "Add_NotExists";
        assertFalse(exists(key));
        // When
        boolean result = idempotentRepository.add(key);
        // Then
        assertTrue(result);
        assertTrue(exists(key));
    }

    @Test
    public void testAddExists() {
        // Given
        String key = "Add_Exists";
        assertTrue(exists(key));
        // When
        boolean result = idempotentRepository.add(key);
        // Then
        assertFalse(result);
        assertTrue(exists(key));
    }

    @Test
    public void testContainsNotExists() {
        // Given
        String key = "Contains_NotExists";
        assertFalse(exists(key));
        // When
        boolean result = idempotentRepository.contains(key);
        // Then
        assertFalse(result);
    }

    @Test
    public void testContainsExists() {
        // Given
        String key = "Contains_Exists";
        assertTrue(exists(key));
        // When
        boolean result = idempotentRepository.contains(key);
        // Then
        assertTrue(result);
    }

    @Test
    public void testRemoveNotExists() {
        // Given
        String key = "Remove_NotExists";
        assertFalse(exists(key));
        // When
        boolean result = idempotentRepository.contains(key);
        // Then
        assertFalse(result);
    }

    @Test
    public void testRemoveExists() {
        // Given
        String key = "Remove_Exists";
        assertTrue(exists(key));
        // When
        boolean result = idempotentRepository.remove(key);
        // Then
        assertTrue(result);
    }

    @Test
    public void testClear() {
        // Given
        String key = "Remove_Exists";
        assertTrue(exists(key));
        // When
        idempotentRepository.clear();
        // Then
        assertFalse(idempotentRepository.contains(key));
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Following up on what are typically good observations from Tenney I looked at the Radarsat-2 and Sentinel-1 imagery posted by the Danish Meteorological Institute. Weather records from automatic weather stations in the region from PROMICE and the surface mass balance model results for the week from Polar Portal.
It is evident from the PROMICE weather records on the ice sheet just south of the Disko Bay region that temperatures have been exceptionally high since January 5th and atmospheric pressures have been high since January 9th. The Polar Portal mass balance model indicates some actual declines/ablation in the last week. This is more likely sublimation from föehn conditions than actual melt. The real changes are in the sea ice fronts and ice in the coastal inlets illustrated by MODIS. Below are images from January 9, 11, 13 and 16 for Disko Bay and January 9, 13 and 16 from Uummannaq Bay.
The arrow at location 1# is an area of sea ice across the fjord in front of Jakobshavn Glacier on January 9, that disappears by January 13. Location #2 is at the fjord mouth and location #3 is at the sea front south of Disko Island on January 9. There is no real cloud cover evident in any of images. Maybe low level fog in places. By January 11th a plume is sweeping from Point 2 towards Point 3. Notice the sea ice in the fjord disappears by January 13th and the ice front is pushed back in a concave fashion at Point #3. This indicates a clear push of water driving sea ice offshore. The Ilulissat Fjord mouth lack of ice is also evident in Webcam images from 1-16-16 and 1-17-16 at the Hotel Arctic, last images below with two boats plying the open water. on the 16th and icebergs clogging the fjord mouth on the 17th. The Sentinel-1 image from January 16th shows a significant flushing of icebergs from Ilulissat Fjord, pointed out by black arrows. This image has better clarity and with the icebergs scattered through the plume, indicate more clearly the plume is a water source change event, even if wind driven. The iceberg plume in the fjord has a brighter aspect due to the varied surface aspect-reflectance and has expanded down fjord. The event must be due to or enhanced by strong offshore winds and Ruth Mottram (@ruth_mottram) indicates there was at least one föehn event this week. The plume includes bergs from the ice melange in front of Jakobshavn has been largely removed, which can have implications for calving and frontal velocity. Moon et al, (2015). indicate the role that a rigid ice melange has on the calving and frontal velocity of tidewater outlet glaciers in Greenland.
In Uummannaq Bay a very similar sequence plays out, note on January 9 the sea ice connecting islands near #4. By January 13th the ice at location #4 is gone. The ice front is now at location #3, which on January 9th was well into the ice pack. Again we have a clear push of water leading to a concave sea ice front that is pushed well offshore. Icebergs can be seen amidst plume on January 16th, the plume opacity and size has diminished since January 13th.
In both of the January 13th images there is a plume leading to the concave sea ice front, the question being is this sediment laden water, with the resultant higher reflectivity or is it a combination of a surface water change from wind or a combination. We had questioned if the plume had any sediment origin initially. Its widespread nature and persistence suggested not. Aeration was another suggestion. Jason Box suggests that the opaque water plume leading to the developing polyna is driven by the strong offshore winds and the opaque whitening is capillary waves on the sea surface. Examples of identification of observed high backscatter from offshore winds are from Monaldo and Beal (1998) and Li et al, (2007) The ice must in part be driven back by a surface water push. You can see icebergs in sections of the plumes closer to shore suggesting this is a surface near surface phenomenon. This is a short term event. However, it could have broader implications, in this case the ice melange in front of Jakobshavn has been removed, and probably from in front of other glaciers, which will impact near term calving rates. I have incorporated many insights from the community and welcome more.
Sentinel-1 imagery from 1-16-16 of Disko Bay-notice expanded brightness area in the fjord by #1.
Sentinel 1 imagery of Uummannaq Bay 1/13/2016 plume size and opacity diminishing.
Ilulissat Fjord mouth webcam view 1-16-16.
Ilulissat Fjord mouth webcam view 1-17-16.


The 7th iteration of Defense Strategies Institute's Joint Civil & DoD CBRN Symposium will take place on March 6 & 7, 2019 in Alexandria, Virginia. Attendees at this two-day senior level event will discuss the latest updates in advancing a government wide approach to improving CBRN defense, readiness and response strategies and capabilities. Discussions at this event will focus on this year's theme of "Advancing a Government Wide Approach to CBRN Defense, Readiness, and Response."
Hoboken, NJ, January 11, 2019 --(PR.com)-- This DSI educational Symposium will convene senior level speakers from the DoD, Federal Government, State and Local Government, Private Industry, and Academia for discussions and debates on advancing a wholistic strategy for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) defense.
The main objective of this Symposium is to provide the unique opportunity to engage in open and honest conversation with key decision makers from across the DoD, DHS, FBI, EPA, and HHS about countering CBRN WMD effects. Presentations at this event will focus on this year's theme of "Advancing a Government Wide Approach to CBRN Defense, Readiness, and Response."


What if the Believer's life is not so much about me working hard to do spiritual things but about Him flowing through me to do what I can't? And if one is wondering how to access that... then maybe that is where religion stops and relationship starts!
Some may call a behavior legalism. But for another it may actually be safeguarding their heart to avoid distraction so they may keep the main thing the main thing!


Texas Roadhouse store or outlet store located in Dubuque, Iowa - Kennedy Mall location, address: 555 J.F. KENNEDY ROAD, DUBUQUE, Iowa - IA 52002. Find information about hours, locations, online information and users ratings and reviews. Save money on Texas Roadhouse and find store or outlet near me.
Driving directions and locations to store: Texas Roadhouse located in Kennedy Mall: 555 J.F. KENNEDY ROAD, DUBUQUE, Iowa - IA 52002.


2. The appellant is an accused in Case No.680/2015 corresponding to G.R. NO.4839/2015 under Sections 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the I.P.C. We are informed that the investigation has already been completed. We also found from the records that the appellant is a senior citizen, having crossed the age of 65 years. We are also informed that he was never in Government service. We fail to understand as to why the appellant prayed for anticipatory bail in a case where final report has been filed.
3. In the above circumstances, we dispose of this appeal as follows: The appellant shall surrender before the Court of competent jurisdiction where the final report has been filed, within two weeks from today. On such surrender, the appellant shall be released on bail on his executing a bond to the tune of Rs.50,000/- (Rupees Fifty Thousand) with two solvent sureties to the equal amount.
4. The appeal is, accordingly, disposed of.
5. Pending applications, if any, shall stand disposed of.
6. There shall be no orders as to costs.


text:
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Leadership one-on-oneHeather McCaw
Vice-President, Development and Alumni Engagement
Heather McCaw is UBC's Vice-President, Development and Alumni Engagement (DAE). She rejoined her alma mater in 2018, having served previously as the Vice-President of Advancement at the University of Alberta. As Vice-President, DAE, Heather leads the development and alumni engagement activities across the university's two campuses. Over the course of her career, she has been involved in several major campaigns and co-directed UBC's historic start an evolution fundraising and alumni engagement campaign which raised over $1.6 billion from 2008 through 2015 and actively engaged more than 130,000 alumni in the life of the university.
In addition to 25 years of experience in the post-secondary sector, Heather was vice-president of two associated consulting companies, Give Canada Fundraising Corporation and Spectrum Marketing Corporation. These organizations specialize in securing strategic business partnerships and multimillion-dollar donations on behalf of non-profit clients that have included the United Way of the Lower Mainland, the Rick Hansen Foundation, the universities of Calgary and Victoria, and the Toronto Rehab Foundation.
Q1. What quality do you most admire in a leader?
HM: The quality I admire the most is inclusiveness. For me, that began early in my career. I started my fundraising journey at UBC more than 20 years ago, as one of the first development coordinators. I recall at that time, seeing certain leaders treat people differently depending on their role. It can be easy to only recognize those on the frontline of fundraising, but it takes a whole team, many of whom are behind the scenes. Having done both frontline and support roles, it became important to me to make sure everyone feels valued and appreciated for their contributions, regardless of role. As my career progressed, I developed a deeper understanding of inclusiveness and what it means to ensure a culture that is welcoming and respectful of individual differences where everyone has equal opportunities to learn and grow in their career. That matters a lot to me.
Q2. What makes you laugh?
HM: I laugh at life. I feel grateful to have colleagues and friends with a good sense of humour. I also laugh at myself, especially when I put my foot in it. My family takes great delight at hearing those types of stories at the end of the day. But if there's one thing guaranteed to make me laugh it's the unfiltered things that toddlers say. They are so genuine!
Q3. Who inspires you, and why?
HM: I am inspired by the courage of those who are willing to forge ahead, to carve a road for others to follow despite great adversity and personal risk. People like Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Ghandi, Malala Yousafzai and so many others throughout history who were able to accomplish such extraordinary things through incredible fortitude, conviction, and bravery.
Q4. For you, what makes UBC different?
HM: I have to acknowledge the beauty of our campuses, which makes UBC such a special place. But the thing that really makes it different is the people. I feel that UBC is at an exciting point, where momentum is building and many people across the institution are taking personal ownership of common goals. An example is UBC's commitment to sustainability, where we are operationalizing our commitments as well as helping address them within broader society. The Indigenous Strategic Plan and the Inclusion Action Plan are also examples of the university putting resources and focus into these areas so we can see real change.
Q5. What is the most important lesson you've learned, in your career to date?
HM: Most important to me (and I am grateful to have learned it early on) is that relationships are key to success, especially within a university environment. We rely on other people around us to help make our best work happen. Relationships are also at the core of fundraising and alumni engagement. We need to be able to have conversations based on trust and this means authentic relationship building.
Q6. How do you like to recharge?
HM: I like to watch a good movie, read a good book or go on a bike ride. But nothing recharges me more than sitting quietly with a sleeping, newborn baby in my arms. The sense of peace is magical – I wish I could bottle it! I am also a new grandma so I am loving those opportunities to cuddle my grandson and then hand him back when he wakes.
Q7. What is the best advice you were ever given?
HM: When I was finishing my business degree, I wasn't sure where my career would take me and would probably have gone down the road of HR/labour relations. I was chatting with one of my professors one day and he said I should consider a career in fundraising. Looking back, I can't imagine doing anything else and I feel incredibly lucky for the experiences it has given me. In fundraising, you get to meet some wonderfully generous, accomplished people who want to give back through philanthropy, and you get to work with so many amazing charities and institutions. It is both humbling and inspiring at the same time.
Q8. What do you value in your colleagues?
HM: Reliability, trust, and forthrightness. I always want people to be honest, and tell me what they are thinking. I also value having a close circle of colleagues who I can trust and talk through problems with. I believe any leader needs to have trusted colleagues that they can open up to, test ideas with and get advice from.
Q9. What do you hope will be your lasting impact at UBC?
HM: I hope to make DAE an even more integral part of the university enterprise by launching the most ambitious fundraising and alumni campaign in the university's history. We are still finalizing the goals but we know they will be bold. For example, not only are we planning to increase our annual fundraising by 50%, we will also be involving twice as many alumni in the life of the university and pursuing innovative ways of opening new possibilities for UBC. We feel this is the time to be ambitious and I am excited to see our campaign unfold.
Q10. If you could have a super power, what would it be?
HM: The ability to fly. There are so many places I would love to travel to, and air travel (as we currently know it) is a big contributor to the climate crisis. So, the ability to fly would be wonderful.
Q11. This year UBC is embarking on a new significant fundraising and alumni engagement campaign, why does this matter?
HM: Fundraising can help UBC generate the resources to do things it wouldn't otherwise be able to do. With regard to our new campaign, we have spent time talking with academic leaders about their fundraising priorities and how they are tackling some of society's biggest challenges. We now have a collective campaign focus on advancing healthy lives, a healthy planet and healthy societies.
And across all these areas, we have an opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to innovation, inclusion and Indigenous reconciliation. The intention is to generate funds to support students, create new faculty positions and fund new and existing research. What also makes this campaign different is that we are using it as a platform to not only raise an ambitious amount of funding but also demonstrate UBC's leadership in helping tackle these complex societal issues. UBC consistently ranks in the top 20 public universities in the world – we are ready for this.
Q12. What role do alumni play in the university and its vision for the future?
HM: Many find it is easy to relate to the fundraising side of our work, but we really couldn't do what we do without our alumni community. They play such an important role as partners to the university, and champions of UBC. Many of them volunteer their time to support UBC, they act as student mentors, come into our classrooms and even volunteer to read admission applications. They are a part of UBC and UBC is a part of them. The vision of alumni UBC is 'A global alumni community for an exceptional UBC and a better world' which is so closely aligned to UBC's vision of 'Inspiring people, ideas and actions for a better world'. UBC is incredibly fortunate to have an engaged alumni community, many of whom can be found within our faculty and staff. We are excited to see that grow even more in our forthcoming campaign.
Interviewed by: Kate Hunter, UBC Internal Communications
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1 November, 2021 | Leadership one-on-one | Faculty & Staff
Moura Quayle
Moura Quayle is UBC's Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President, Academic Affairs. She is also a professor and the founding director of UBC's School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, the former director of the Liu Institute for Global Issues and currently teaches in the Master of Public Policy and Global Affairs program: Leadership for Policy Professionals. In addition to her academic career at UBC Vancouver, Moura acted as Deputy Minister of the B.C. Ministry of Advanced Education, B.C. Commissioner of Pacific Coast Collaborative, Dean of UBC's Faculty of Land and Food Systems, and Associate VP, Academic Programs at UBC Okanagan. Her book, Designed Leadership, was published in 2017, and more recently, she co-edited a book written by her late husband, David Fushtey, entitled Principled Governance when Everything Matters (2021). Her interests include learning Mandarin, Chinese calligraphy (shufa) and painting in various media.
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7 September, 2021 | Leadership one-on-one | Faculty & Staff
Dale Mullings
Dale Mullings is the Associate Vice-President, Students, for UBC's Okanagan campus. In this role, Dale supports services and programs that facilitate student learning, development, and engagement providing students with a strong foundation for success. With a focus on student access, equity, and wellbeing, he is committed to creating a sense of belonging and connection between students and their peers, across the institution, and in the community. Prior to joining UBC, Dale worked at the University of Toronto Mississauga, where he held the role of Assistant Dean, Students and International Initiatives, and taught Education Studies. Before that, he served in student-facing roles supporting student life and housing. Dale holds a Master of Education from the University of Toronto, and is a PhD candidate in Leadership, Higher and Adult Education at the Ontario's Institute for Studies in Education. While most people know that Dale is an enthusiast for higher education and the great outdoors, few people know that back in the '90s when Dale was a child, he modeled for, and acted in TV commercials – you may have even seen him in ads for SEGA video games.
12 July, 2021 | Leadership one-on-one | Faculty & Staff
Michael Coughtrie
Michael Coughtrie is Dean of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, he began his professional teaching and research career in the School of Medicine at the University of Dundee. After 25 years of working in the medical field, he joined UBC in August 2013, and is currently serving his second term in this role. Dean Coughtrie has extensive teaching experience, has received more than 70 competitive research grants and contracts, and is an accomplished scientist with over 200 publications. In September 2017, he was elected a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. Through his time as Dean, he has been a strong advocate for pharmacists and the profession of pharmacy. He fervently believes in the mutual respect between faculty and staff, and continues to work with provincial health authorities and the Ministry of Health to expand the Faculty's reach and impact across the region.
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NIHR Clinical Research Facility (CRF) at Guy's and St Thomas'
The NIHR CRF for experimental medicine, hosted by the Trust, provides state of the art facilities and expertise to support the NHS, universities and industry in conducting ground breaking experimental medicine studies. The management and infrastructure of the CRF is embedded within the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at Guy's and St Thomas' and King's College London.
Our CRF consists of four units; an adult MHRA Phase 1 CRF unit at Guy's Hospital, and adult, children's and imaging units at St Thomas' Hospital. Being located across two sites in the heart of London provides us with access to one of the most diverse populations in the UK.
We are uniquely placed to deliver Phase 1 commercial and non-commercial studies. Our CRF is the only one in the UK with embedded Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) cell manufacturing and immune monitoring platforms.
Our other research platforms include: a stem cell facility, flow and mass cytometry facility, an infectious diseases biobank and an NIHR BioResource.
Industry led trials
Want to know more about carrying out an industry led commercial clinical trial? Visit the King's Health Partners research web page.
If you want to register an industry led commercial trial, email stuart.p.hatcher@kcl.ac.uk or call 07515 189 527.
Industry funded (but not led)
If you want information about carrying out an industry funded or non-commercial trial, email karen.ignatian@gstt.nhs.uk or call 020 7188 5736
To register an industry funded or non-commercial trial, visit the registering research at Guy's and St Thomas' page.
Why do research at Guy's and St Thomas'?
We have excellent research facilities as we are home to the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre, which is run in partnership with King's College London, and the NIHR Clinical Research Facility.
The NIHR BRC at Guy's and St Thomas' and King's College London works to develop and deliver new medicines and diagnostics to patients, drive research and innovation into the NHS, and provide national systems leadership for maximum impact to patients. In 2016, the NIHR awarded Guy's and St Thomas' and King's College London £64.4 million over five years so our Biomedical Research Centre can continue its ground-breaking research into innovative new treatments for patients.
We recognise that engaging with industry is key to driving the translational research agenda and biomedical innovations for patient benefit.
Guy's and St Thomas' trial participants help to confirm flexible COVID-19 vaccine options


Zhang Yimou is one of China's most famous film directors and on Friday he probably became the country's most well known international figure to cough up a hefty fine for breaking the Communist country's single-child policy.
Zhang paid $1.2 million (7.48 million Yuan) for fathering three children — two sons and a daughter — with his wife Chen Ting when the law allows only one.
Zhang, director of movies like Red Sorghum, House of Flying Daggers and the recent Flowers of War, admitted only in December to have violated the country's strict rule. His confession followed months of rumours that he had fathered as many as seven children. The case took more than six months to investigate. Couple's unwillingness to cooperate have hampered the probes.


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The Denison Library Friends will host their annual White Elephant Book and Bake Sale on April 6th from 9am-1pm. Come out and browse the variety of items available for sale. All proceeds benefit the library, the programming, and our community in the coming year. Please contact the library for more information at 263-9355.


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Energy harnessed by wind turbines is intermittent, and is not a "dispatchable" source of power; its availability is based on whether the wind is blowing, not whether electricity is needed. Turbines can be placed on ridges or bluffs to maximize the access of wind they have, but this also limits the locations where they can be placed.[72] In this way, wind energy is not a particularly reliable source of energy. However, it can form part of the energy mix, which also includes power from other sources. Notably, the relative available output from wind and solar sources is often inversely proportional (balancing)[citation needed]. Technology is also being developed to store excess energy, which can then make up for any deficits in supplies.
The energy number that is left over should be a good approximation of what you can expect from that VAWT. Compare the resulting numbers with those mentioned in just about all sales brochures of VAWT type turbines and it should be immediately clear that their marketing people are smoking The Good Stuff. There is no relation to physical reality in their numbers, they are consistently much too high. Keep in mind that the energy production numbers calculated here are 'best case'; for a turbine in nice, smooth air. Most VAWTs are placed very close to the ground, or on buildings, where there is little wind and lots of turbulence. Under those conditions they will do much, much worse than predicted.
My system has been installed for about a year now. When I first contracted with Envismart, the sales rep was very available and eager to help with my questions but after the installation, he was very hard to make contact with, seldom returned my calls, and when he did seemed to tell me what he thought I wanted hear and very seldom followed through. The system had a shaky start, it died after one day and after two new inverters and several optimizers over several months of on again, off again operation it seems to be running smoothly, at least for the last few months. Customer support was not very good, to be kind, but the service personnel that came out were prompt and there when they said they would be and very open about what the problems were and quickly fixed them. I was told my recurring system problems were a little unusual and I have to take their word on that but they gave me their personnel cell numbers and told me to call them when I couldn't get Customer Support to call - and when I called them, they came through and got me serviced a lot more quickly. They are the main reason I rated the company a 3.I have to say, the last month or so, it seems like the company is starting to work on changing its image. I have been called on several occasions by the "Quality Assurance" group at their initiation and asked if everything was OK with my system and I usually had an issue about something (admittedly, sometimes very minor). They always followed through with answers and corrected my concerns which was a big change from my previous experiences. I want to encourage them to continue improving their Customer Support after the sale in this manner as that is the real reputation for their company. I am still reserving my opinion but I am very much encouraged by their recent efforts - Keep it up!... read more
Current Texas solar incentives include generous rebates for solar electric and solar hot water systems. When combined with Federal solar rebates your solar panel installation will be approximately 50% less because of the incentives! Our solar installers will be happy to answer your questions and explain the benefits of solar power. Simply click the image below, fill in the form, and a certified solar installer will contact you by phone at your convenience.
Wind-to-rotor efficiency (including rotor blade friction and drag) are among the factors impacting the final price of wind power.[16] Further inefficiencies, such as gearbox losses, generator and converter losses, reduce the power delivered by a wind turbine. To protect components from undue wear, extracted power is held constant above the rated operating speed as theoretical power increases at the cube of wind speed, further reducing theoretical efficiency. In 2001, commercial utility-connected turbines deliver 75% to 80% of the Betz limit of power extractable from the wind, at rated operating speed.[17][18][needs update]
The most common type of residential solar is called solar PV. The PV stands for "photovoltaic," and a solar PV system is a electrical system that consists of solar panels, an inverter, a meter, and a few other components (mounting, cabling, etc.). A solar PV system requires little to no maintenance for years, and if you're in a place with the right amount of sunlight, you can end up saving money, while also going green.
Solar thermal power stations have been successfully operating in California commercially since the late 1980s, including the largest solar power plant of any kind, the 350 MW Solar Energy Generating Systems. Nevada Solar One is another 64MW plant which has recently opened.[34] Other parabolic trough power plants being proposed are two 50MW plants in Spain, and a 100MW plant in Israel.[35]
Wind is a form of solar energy and is a result of the uneven heating of the atmosphere by the sun, the irregularities of the earth's surface, and the rotation of the earth. Wind flow patterns and speeds vary greatly across the United States and are modified by bodies of water, vegetation, and differences in terrain. Humans use this wind flow, or motion energy, for many purposes: sailing, flying a kite, and even generating electricity.
"Trump's Keystone XL Tar Sands Oil Pipeline Promise, Unkept and Undone" • The federal judge for the District of Montana who overturned permit for the Keystone XL pipeline issued an order that all but guarantees the project will die another death by a thousand cuts. He ordered a complete do-over on economic and environmental impacts. [CleanTechnica]
Heat pumps and Thermal energy storage are classes of technologies that can enable the utilization of renewable energy sources that would otherwise be inaccessible due to a temperature that is too low for utilization or a time lag between when the energy is available and when it is needed. While enhancing the temperature of available renewable thermal energy, heat pumps have the additional property of leveraging electrical power (or in some cases mechanical or thermal power) by using it to extract additional energy from a low quality source (such as seawater, lake water, the ground, the air, or waste heat from a process).
Green-e is a voluntary certification program for renewable electricity products. The Green-e program establishes consumer protection and environmental standards for electricity products, and verifies that these products meet the standards. The Green-e logo certifies that at least half the power supplied is from renewable sources. Many products will carry the Green-e logo, and the best way to find the most environmentally sensitive providers is by doing some comparison research. To find out which Green-e certified products are available in your state, visit Green-e's electric choices page. Questions about particular providers can be directed to the Center for Resources Solutions, which administers the Green-e program, at (415) 561-2100.
Renewable energy and energy efficiency are sometimes said to be the "twin pillars" of sustainable energy policy. Both resources must be developed in order to stabilize and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Efficiency slows down energy demand growth so that rising clean energy supplies can make deep cuts in fossil fuel use. If energy use grows too fast, renewable energy development will chase a receding target. A recent historical analysis has demonstrated that the rate of energy efficiency improvements has generally been outpaced by the rate of growth in energy demand, which is due to continuing economic and population growth. As a result, despite energy efficiency gains, total energy use and related carbon emissions have continued to increase. Thus, given the thermodynamic and practical limits of energy efficiency improvements, slowing the growth in energy demand is essential.[61] However, unless clean energy supplies come online rapidly, slowing demand growth will only begin to reduce total emissions; reducing the carbon content of energy sources is also needed. Any serious vision of a sustainable energy economy thus requires commitments to both renewables and efficiency.[62]
Wind turbines need wind. Not just any wind, but the nicely flowing, smooth, laminar kind. That cannot be found at 30 feet height. It can usually not be found at 60 feet. Sometimes you find it at 80 feet. More often than not it takes 100 feet of tower to get there. Those towers cost as much or more, installed, as the turbine itself. How much tower you need for a wind turbine to live up to its potential depends on your particular site; on the trees and structures around it etc. Close to the ground the wind is turbulent, and makes a poor fuel for a small wind turbine.
At MOTHER EARTH NEWS, we are dedicated to conserving our planet's natural resources while helping you conserve your financial resources. You'll find tips for slashing heating bills, growing fresh, natural produce at home, and more. That's why we want you to save money and trees by subscribing through our earth-friendly automatic renewal savings plan. By paying with a credit card, you save an additional $5 and get 6 issues of MOTHER EARTH NEWS for only $12.95 (USA only).
Above this rated speed, the wind loads on the rotor blades will be approaching the maximum strength of the electrical machine, and the generator will be producing its maximum or rated power output as the rated wind speed window will have been reached. If the wind speed continues to increase, the wind turbine generator would stop at its cut-out point to prevent mechanical and electrical damage, resulting in zero electrical generation. The application of a brake to stop the generator for damaging itself can be either a mechanical governor or electrical speed sensor.
Materials that are typically used for the rotor blades in wind turbines are composites, as they tend to have a high stiffness, high strength, high fatigue resistance, and low weight.[46] Typical resins used for these composites include polyester and epoxy, while glass and carbon fibers have been used for the reinforcing material.[47] Construction may use manual layup techniques or composite resin injection molding. As the price of glass fibers is only about one tenth the price of carbon fiber, glass fiber is still dominant.
The first three are active solar systems, which use mechanical or electrical devices that convert the sun's heat or light to another form of usable energy. Passive solar buildings are designed and oriented to collect, store, and distribute the heat energy from sunlight to maintain the comfort of the occupants without the use of moving parts or electronics.
With that in mind it makes a great deal of sense to use a tilt-up tower for your turbine. It makes maintenance and repairs much safer (on the ground) and cheaper. Crane fees, or having turbine installers hang off the top of a tower for long periods of time, tend to get very expensive. You should also budget for repairs, they will happen. Parts may be free under warranty, your installer's time is not.
The advantage of this approach in the United States is that many states offer incentives to offset the cost of installation of a renewable energy system. In California, Massachusetts and several other U.S. states, a new approach to community energy supply called Community Choice Aggregation has provided communities with the means to solicit a competitive electricity supplier and use municipal revenue bonds to finance development of local green energy resources. Individuals are usually assured that the electricity they are using is actually produced from a green energy source that they control. Once the system is paid for, the owner of a renewable energy system will be producing their own renewable electricity for essentially no cost and can sell the excess to the local utility at a profit.
Many of the largest operational onshore wind farms are located in the USA and China. The Gansu Wind Farm in China has over 5,000 MW installed with a goal of 20,000 MW by 2020. China has several other "wind power bases" of similar size. The Alta Wind Energy Center in California is the largest onshore wind farm outside of China, with a capacity of 1020 MW of power.[141] Europe leads in the use of wind power with almost 66 GW, about 66 percent of the total globally, with Denmark in the lead according to the countries installed per-capita capacity.[142] As of February 2012, the Walney Wind Farm in United Kingdom is the largest offshore wind farm in the world at 367 MW, followed by Thanet Wind Farm (300 MW), also in the UK.
Ross, something of a libertarian at heart, entered politics because he was ticked off that the municipal code prohibited him from paving the driveway to his historic home entirely in period-appropriate brick. (The code required some concrete.) He joined the city council in 2008 and was elected to his first term as mayor in 2014. He often likens the city to "Mayberry R.F.D.," and it does have a town square with a courthouse, a coffee shop where you're bound to run into people you know and a swimming hole. But it also has Southwestern University, and in 2010 university officials, following a student initiative, told the city council they wanted their electricity to come from renewable sources. The city had already set a goal of getting 30 percent of its power that way, but now, Ross and his colleagues saw their opportunity.
Based on REN21's 2017 report, renewables contributed 19.3% to humans' global energy consumption and 24.5% to their generation of electricity in 2015 and 2016, respectively. This energy consumption is divided as 8.9% coming from traditional biomass, 4.2% as heat energy (modern biomass, geothermal and solar heat), 3.9% hydro electricity and 2.2% is electricity from wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass. Worldwide investments in renewable technologies amounted to more than US$286 billion in 2015, with countries such as China and the United States heavily investing in wind, hydro, solar and biofuels.[5] Globally, there are an estimated 7.7 million jobs associated with the renewable energy industries, with solar photovoltaics being the largest renewable employer.[6] As of 2015 worldwide, more than half of all new electricity capacity installed was renewable.[7]
Through collaboration, smaller buyers can benefit from economies of scale, while larger buyers can continue to see cost benefits while achieving their renewable energy goals. Aggregation allows companies to procure in a mutually beneficial way with relatively little give and take. For that reason, RMI believes this marks "the beginning of a trend," Haley said.
Wave power, which captures the energy of ocean surface waves, and tidal power, converting the energy of tides, are two forms of hydropower with future potential; however, they are not yet widely employed commercially. A demonstration project operated by the Ocean Renewable Power Company on the coast of Maine, and connected to the grid, harnesses tidal power from the Bay of Fundy, location of world's highest tidal flow. Ocean thermal energy conversion, which uses the temperature difference between cooler deep and warmer surface waters, has currently no economic feasibility.
There are two types of crystalline silicon, but it's likely you'll more often encounter monocrystalline silicon: it has a square-ish structure, and its high silicon content makes it more effective (and more expensive) than other panel materials. The other type of crystalline silicon, polycrystalline, is cheaper but less effective, so it's used when there's plenty of space (e.g., on a solar farm)—typically not on residential installs.
The first electricity-generating wind turbine was a battery charging machine installed in July 1887 by Scottish academic James Blyth to light his holiday home in Marykirk, Scotland.[7] Some months later American inventor Charles F. Brush was able to build the first automatically operated wind turbine after consulting local University professors and colleagues Jacob S. Gibbs and Brinsley Coleberd and successfully getting the blueprints peer-reviewed for electricity production in Cleveland, Ohio.[7] Although Blyth's turbine was considered uneconomical in the United Kingdom,[7] electricity generation by wind turbines was more cost effective in countries with widely scattered populations.[6]
Floatovoltaics are an emerging form of PV systems that float on the surface of irrigation canals, water reservoirs, quarry lakes, and tailing ponds. Several systems exist in France, India, Japan, Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States.[149][150][151][152] These systems reduce the need of valuable land area, save drinking water that would otherwise be lost through evaporation, and show a higher efficiency of solar energy conversion, as the panels are kept at a cooler temperature than they would be on land.[153] Although not floating, other dual-use facilities with solar power include fisheries.[154]
Solar contractors face many decisions when it comes to finding the best solar design. One important consideration is determining whether to use module-level power electronics (microinverters or DC optimizers). Once costly specialty products, module-level power electronics have made great strides in the last decade and are rapidly growing in popularity. And there's good reason for…
The typical cost factors for solar power include the costs of the modules, the frame to hold them, wiring, inverters, labour cost, any land that might be required, the grid connection, maintenance and the solar insolation that location will receive. Adjusting for inflation, it cost $96 per watt for a solar module in the mid-1970s. Process improvements and a very large boost in production have brought that figure down to 68 cents per watt in February 2016, according to data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.[69] Palo Alto California signed a wholesale purchase agreement in 2016 that secured solar power for 3.7 cents per kilowatt-hour. And in sunny Dubai large-scale solar generated electricity sold in 2016 for just 2.99 cents per kilowatt-hour – "competitive with any form of fossil-based electricity — and cheaper than most."[70]


At Around the Town, Inc., we want to do more than just offer you a place to live. Anyone can do that. What we want to do is find the best fit for you in the area you want to live in.
We offer a wide range of different properties located all across the Treasure Valley area including single family homes, duplexes, 4-plexes, small historic apartment complexes and much, much more. We even have a limited amount of commercial space available for you to rent as well. In the end, our goal is to offer properties that are exceptionally clean and painstakingly cared for at both the affordable end of the range all the way up to the professional level of housing.
But even going beyond the physical location, what we really offer you is a level of service that is second to none. Many of our locations are pet-friendly, for example. We know that your pet is a part of your family and now that you're a part of ours, we wouldn't dream of making you choose between your furry little friend and the place you've always dreamed of living in.
We answer our phones personally. We respond to requests in a professional manner and take care of any and all issues even faster. In a lot of ways, your relationship with the staff at Around the Town, Inc. won't end the moment you sign your lease agreement and move in. Instead, it's only just beginning in the best possible way.


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The real-life Minority Report computer interface
By Kyle Sherer
The real-life Minority Report ...
The g-speak system in action.
December 1, 2008 The second best thing about the film Minority Report has to be the glove-controlled, wall-sized computer display (first place goes to the jetpacks). Oblong Industries is working on a computer interface that operates in a similar way – and rather than a case of tech imitating art, the Minority Report computer was actually based off early Oblong designs. The company offers their system as a software platform suitable for licensing and embedding.
An incredible amount of the human brain is devoted to making spatial calculations about the body and the environment – but current computer interfaces leave this brainpower untapped. Oblong's developers want to create a platform that takes advantage of our neural hard-wiring. Like the display in Minority Report, Oblong's g-speak spatial operating environment uses gesture-based navigation. The platform can track finger and hand motion to 0.1mm at 100 hz, providing pixel-accurate pointing and allowing for a wide range of hand motions. It can support multiple users, and additional input devices like keyboards and mice. The platform is designed for collaborative use, with new display mediums and users added into the system when necessary.
While the g-speak platform seems futuristic, the ultimate vision of the creators extends far beyond what we saw in the film. They envision a world where lightbulbs incorporate high-resolution projectors, turning every surface into a computer interface. Designing computers that compliment our mental architecture is simply the first step – eventually Oblong hopes to see computers that compliment our housing and office architecture.
The platform, which runs on Linux and OS X, is currently in use at Fortune 50 companies, government agencies and universities.
ComputersInput DeviceComputersProjectorsBrain
Kyle Sherer
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