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German "Phoenix contact" begins to build a development center in Skolkovo /
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German "Phoenix contact" begins to build a development center in Skolkovo
Vitaly Shustikov
Representatives of the German group of companies "Phoenix contact" and the Skolkovo Foundation laid the first stone of the partner center on the territory of the innovation center. By 2021, a regional center for development and industry competencies will be opened in the new building to serve the entire Eurasian region. As was noted more than once at the ceremony, this step by the company from Germany is symbolic: it testifies that, despite political difficulties, German business is still interested in investing in the Russian economy
'Phoenix contact' is a family-owned company that dates back to 1923 and is one of the world leaders in the production and development of components, systems and solutions in the field of electrical engineering, electronics and automation. Phoenix Contact equipment is used in various industries: energy, oil and gas, engineering, instrumentation and many others. The group includes more than 100 subsidiaries worldwide.
The participants of the ceremony. Photo: Sk.ru.
Despite the fact that the turnover of 'Phoenix Contact' last year amounted to 2.4 billion euros, according to German standards, the group of companies belongs to the category of medium-sized businesses. It is this size of company that account for a significant share of German investments in the Russian economy, stated the Chairman of the Board of the Russian-German Chamber of Commerce Matthias Schepp: "Despite the rather difficult political situation, things are going well in the economy. We owe this mainly to medium-sized enterprises and family-owned companies. They are resistant to crises; they have a reserve of courage." A similar thought was voiced in the speech of Thomas Graf, Director of the Department of Economics and Science of the German Embassy in Russia: "Phoenix Contact is a symbol of all that is good in the German economy. It is an innovative and global company.
Alexey Belyakov: we are proud that we have a partner with such ambitious plans. Photo: Sk.ru.
The opening of its center in Skolkovo strengthens the activity of 'Phoenix Contact', that has been associated with Russia for many years. This shows that German businesses are still interested in doing business with Russia". In 2002, a subsidiary in Russia, 'Phoenix Contact RUS', was established with its head office and warehouse in Moscow, as well as 17 branches in the regions of the Russian Federation. "Seventeen years ago, when we came to Russia, we started small. We now have 17 representative offices that are scattered throughout the country. We have a production facility in Stupino. And shortly, in 2021, our new partner center for industry competencies will open its doors. This means that it is here that new products will be developed both for Russia and for the whole world," said Frank Stürenberg, President and Chairman of the Executive Council of 'Phoenix Contact' in Germany.
According to him, after Germany, the USA and China, Russia becomes the fourth country where the company relies on a combination of production, logistics and the development of new technologies. "In the near future, the project in Skolkovo will occupy a leading position among our projects where our concern will be invested," he added.
Photo: Sk.ru.
The project in Skolkovo will be on a plot of 13,500sq.m where a "Phoenix Contact RUS" regional center for development and industry competencies will be built, as well as an office-administrative building and a warehouse complex "We are proud that we have a partner with such ambitious plans," said Alexei Belyakov, vice president and executive director of the Skolkovo Foundation's advanced manufacturing technology cluster. "Today we are laying the first stone in the foundation of the Phoenix Contact research center, I hope that the interaction will be not only infra-structural, but rather ecosystem. We hope that Phoenix Contact will interact with our start-ups, Skoltech, and become a very active participant in the Skolkovo ecosystem, since Skolkovo is not just a place on the map, but an ideology. "
Elena Semenova: Skolkovo is a unique project not only for Russia, but also for Europe. Photo: Sk.ru.
With the advent of Skolkovo, the possibility of where to place the development center was not even in question for Phoenix Contact, recalled Elena Semenova, CEO of Phoenix Contact RUS. According to her, Skolkovo is a unique project not only for Russia, but also for Europe. "Within the framework of Skolkovo, industry, scientific and technological developments, a technology park, the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, as well as infrastructure to improve the quality of life of people working here are connected. For example, this is a residential complex and a school, - said Elena Semenova. "Being an integral part of this unique project is a great honour for us."
наука Космос инноград сотрудничество mainpost исследования en ядертех статья разработка строительство руководство Фонда партнеры Алексей Беляков германия


You've probably seen motorized versions of this sugar cane vending machine on street corners but now it is time to witness its ancestor in live action ladies and gentlemen!
Behold the beauty showing off her skills, the popular 9gag juggler makes a re-appearance with new tricks. She will take your breath away for sure my dudes!
Man gets tricked with false magic when another friend of the magic initiator makes it successful by putting a straw into the dumbo's juice glass.
Adults use horses to pull their carriages, but kids do them better by choosing dogs to pull theirs, instead.
Panda moves his body following the beats and the rhythm of the music. Wish I could be there to add the extra spice in the scene!
This guy is making popcorn in probably the weirdest way ever... wait for the cannon shot! I bet you haven't seen popcorn made this way before.
Watch out the smart mechanism of producing wedding rings. See how wealthy wedding rings get it's real and accurate shape to get fit in your finger!


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Q: Hamel in Banach Space A Hamel basis is a subset B of a vector space V such that every element v ∈ V can uniquely be written as
${\displaystyle v=\sum _{b\in B}\alpha _{b}b}$
with $α_b ∈ F$, with the extra condition that the set
${\displaystyle \{b\in B\mid \alpha _{b}\neq 0\}}$
is finite.
This property makes the Hamel basis unwieldy for infinite-dimensional Banach spaces.
Is this sufficient for the question. Thanks

A: Almost always, when using a Banach space, we are interested in the topological properties related to the norm.  A Hamel basis is not useful in such situations.
In Banach space, there is a more useful notion of a Schauder basis, where we
allow infinite linear combinations
$$
x = \sum_{k=1}^\infty \alpha_k x_k
$$
but we require of course convergence in the norm.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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How To Draw House With Garden Finally label the rough openings for all doorways and home windows. Label the height of the home windows, either from the ground or ceiling.... How To Draw House With Garden Finally label the rough openings for all doorways and home windows. Label the height of the home windows, either from the ground or ceiling.
Learn how to create your own secret garden with these secret garden design ideas that will turn your backyard into a relaxing retreat you won't want to leave. how to avoid endocrine disruptors How To Draw A Realistic House In this fast tutorial you may discover ways to draw a House Spider in 5 easy steps - great for teenagers and novice artists.
If you are using the RoomSketcher App, see Draw a Yard, Garden, or Outdoor Area (App). You can add impressive outdoor areas to your floor plans. Make a lawn, path, driveway or garden bed by drawing … how to draw the letter h After drawing buildings, stairs with railings, trees, planting boxes, walkways, courtyards, decorative garden items and people, the artist then adds color. By using a few colors, texture and detail is added to this complex drawing. This video makes drawing look simple and systematic and would be a good way to learn to draw.
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text:
using namespace std;
using namespace CompressionCore;

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
	if (argc != 2)
	{
		cout << "\nUsage testalphabet <string size>";
		return -1;
	}
	size_t stringSize = atoi(argv[1]);
	PBYTE string = new BYTE[stringSize];
	if (!string)
	{
		cout << "\nCould not allocate memory for string";
		return -1;
	}
	srand(time(NULL));
	cout << "\nGenerating a string: ";
	for (size_t i = 0;i < stringSize;i++)
	{
		string[i] = rand();
		cout << string[i];
	}
	cout << "\nIsolating an alphabet out of the string";
	vector<BYTE> alphabet;
	alphabet = Alphabet(string, stringSize);
	cout << "\nGenerated alphabet: ";
	for (vector<BYTE>::iterator it = alphabet.begin();it != alphabet.end();*it++)
		cout << *it << " ";
	cout << "\nAlphabet size : " << alphabet.size();
	return 0;
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Now that U.S. stocks have fallen for a third-straight day amid rising volatility, investors are genuinely concerned about whether the bull market is sputtering.
But while some investors fret, others see opportunity in falling prices.
In a piece he wrote for Fortune, Pimco's co-chief investment officer Mohamed El-Erian sees particular value in emerging markets, which have fallen more sharply than domestic markets.
In particular, he points to "local bonds in the highest quality emerging countries and, external credit—sovereign, quasi sovereign, and some corporates—in economies with massive reserve cushions and virtually no debt, parts of the yield curve in government bond markets in advanced economies (including the intermediate part of yield curves), and certain short dated volatility trades."
Unfortunately for investors who hang on the words of a guy like El-Erian, that's as detailed as he gets in an article that is long on the macroeconomic windup and short on the pitch.
The drop in stock prices is tied in with concerns about the Federal Reserve slowing down its easy-money policy, a major driver of stock prices in the past year. Stocks, particularly those that pay out a big dividend yield, have also been hurt by a rising yield on the 10-year Treasury in recent weeks.
In an article for StreetAuthority, veteran writer David Sterman sees rising long-term rates as a sign that the economy is getting healthier. As he puts it, "the longer-term bonds, which are influenced by economic trends, have begun to anticipate a broader upturn."
To benefit from rising rates, Sterman argues that investors should focus on stocks that have suffered from low returns on their cash.
" Charles Schwab (ticker: SCHW) for example, has made few profits on its money market funds or on the cash balances it holds for clients. Rising rates would help boost Schwab's core earnings power," he writes. "In a similar vein, insurance companies will also soon start earning more money on their hefty cash balances. I looked at this group a few weeks ago and noted that what had been a big headwind, pushing their shares below book value, could soon become a tailwind."
To his credit, Sterman points out that the 10-year yield has spiked before retreating "so you may want to see yields pushing above 2.5%—a level not seen in nearly two years—before making major portfolio moves." Even at that level, the 10-year Treasury yield would still be quite low on a historical basis so Sterman's caution seems sensible.
Meanwhile, a second Fortune piece caught our attention Wednesday. Written by veteran writer Alex Taylor III, it poses a set of nine questions for Elon Musk, the brilliant entrepreneur who created PayPal, before selling it to eBay in 2002, and now runs Tesla (TSLA), the electric-car maker.
Shares of Tesla have been on a tear in recent months following all the favorable press the car has received from the likes of Motor Trend and Consumer Reports.
Alpert wrote that Musk, who has a contentious relationship with the press, hung up on him when the questioned centered on the car's battery costs. Fortune's Taylor takes up where Alpert left off, posing many critical questions that shareholders should have answers to when considering Tesla.
Among Taylor's questions: Can you continue to roll out your distribution model nationwide, given the opposition of local dealers and the barriers of state franchise laws? Can you bring down the price of batteries far enough to build a $40,000 car?
I close with an interesting piece on the Daily Beast about a stock that nobody reading this article thought much of until this week: Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH).
On Monday, investors in Booz Allen had their first opportunity to react to the bombshell news that broke over the weekend that one of its young technical consultants, Edward Snowden, blew the whistle on a massive and secretive U.S. anti-terrorism surveillance program that Booz helps the government conduct.
One might expect that news like this would be devastating for the firm and its credibility.
"But the market reaction was something close to a shrug. The stock closed at $17.54, down about 2.55% from Friday's closing price of $18," writes the Daily Beast's Daniel Gross.
Apparently, investors were telling us something interesting about the relationship between contractors like Booz Allen and its biggest client—Uncle Sam.
"Imagine you were a law firm and a paralegal disclosed sensitive information from a major client," writes Gross. "Or if an investment bank blew a high-profile public offering. Or if a seafood restaurant routinely served spoiled fish. The market would exact a swift punishment. But government contracting is a different ballgame. When a company screws up, the government delivers a slap on the wrist—and then awards the company with new contracts."
The markets know enough about the cozy relationships in the national security-industrial complex not to get too bent out of shape.


text:
Publication Restoring Trust: Investment in the twenty-first century
by Luke Robinson _______4th June 2004
The findings of this inquiry represent a vision of a better investment system, developed by those who work in it. It is based on interviews and workshops conducted with over 500 people drawn from every aspect of the investment 'chain'.
The principle conclusion of the inquiry is that while the whole system is relatively robust – and a number of reforms are still working their way through to strengthen it further – there has been a significant and continuing erosion of trust. This is not just in the financial services industry, but also in big companies as stewards of people's savings and pensions.
To read the full inquiry which include the context of the inquiry and the inquiry team's vision in changing the investment system by addressing five key area of change, please download the link below.
Our main proposals in the inquiry are that:
The teaching of basic finance should be made compulsory in the school curriculum.
The success of projects such as Young Enterprise, in which school pupils get to run their own 'businesses', should be built on.
More complex financial concepts and how to plan for retirement should be made available in higher and adult education.
Suppliers of financial products should take action to enable individual investors to develop a better understanding of risk.
The industry should aim to develop a classification matrix describing types of product and the associated risks.
As a way of building on current regulatory requirements investors should be kept regularly informed of all the underlying costs incurred in managing their assets.
'The statement of principles' proposed in this inquiry, combined with the industry-wide forum, is the chief means by which the industry becomes proactive and committed to protecting the individual investor.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Super Bowl XLIV – Indianapolis Colts vs. New Orleans Saints
By Kevin Kelley - January 25, 2010
Super Bowl XLIV will feature the Indianapolis Colts of the AFC against the New Orleans Saints of the NFC.
The game will be played on Sunday, February 7, 2010 at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. CBS will broadcast the game beginning at 6:00 p.m. ET.
In the NFC Championship game, the New Orleans Saints beat the Minnesota Vikings 31-28 in overtime. In the AFC Championship game, the Indianapolis Colts beat the New York Jets 30-17.


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text:
Toy Korner, Toy Reviews
NECA Delivers More Kaiju Craziness with Pacific Rim Scunner
By bill - August 5, 2014
Another rampaging monster from Guillermo Del Toro's modern classic gets the toy treatment.
NECA's Pacific Rim collection has done gangbusters at retail, and they're making the most of it, with lots of cool new figures planned over a year after the movie smashed into theaters. The latest release is Scunner, another deluxe Kaiju figure, and he's fantastic.
One of the Triple Event creatures sent to guard The Breach, Scunner was one of the biggest and nastiest monsters in the film, and while this figure shares many base parts with the previously-released Knifehead and Trespasser, NECA's shrewd design choices to put some new overlays on this figure really add to his overall bulk and size.
Let's start at the top– Scunner's all new head is incredibly well sculpted. The creature was meant to evoke a bull, and his massive horn/ fins certainly do the look justice. Combined with his articulated jaw, Scunner looks just as mean and hostile as he should, a beast to give the Jaegers a run for their money, if ever there was one. Like I said, while Scunner shares a body with the previous (relatively) smaller Kaiju, his new back plate and chest/ shoulder overlay gives the appearance that this guy is even bigger and burlier than his fellow monsters. It's a great effect, and the shoulder pieces in particular are quite well designed, made of soft rubber which does not impede the arm articulation while still adding a sense of heft that Scunner needs.
The paint on this figure is remarkable– there's a weathering laid subtly into every facet of Scunner's leathery hide and plate-like armor, which adds a striking sense of realism while also spotlighting the intricacies of the wonderful sculpt. The dark greys and browns of the monster's body offset brilliantly with the bright teal markings that run over Scunner's body, giving him a unique look among the Kaiju while still maintaining their overall design pattern.
Using the same base body does mean we see the same limitations on this figure. While Scunner features quite a few points or articulation, the body design and sculpt limit the range, especially in his massive arms. Scunner's elbows can only bend to about 45 degrees, which limits his upper body mobility in a way that even the good shoulder and torso articulation cannot fully account for. Despite his bulk, though, the figure has a great sense of balance (again, the clever overlay keeps Scunner's upper weight light enough to manage), and the well place lower body articulation serves to keep the beast upright more than offer a wide range of posing options.
For about $25, Scunner is a great deal. Even ignoring the intricately detailed, screen accurate sculpt and stellar paint work, the sheer mass and size of this guy would make him feel like a bargain– he's HUGE! But factoring in the excellent workmanship on display in this figure brings him to a whole other level. Since Scunner was only seen underwater, I would have loved to see a clear plastic stand included to give him a floating effect, but even without this, Scunner is a Kaiju worth every penny.
I'm very glad to see NECA not slowing down with the Pacific Rim license, and each toy they release feels like a true step beyond the quality, fun and overall cool factor of the one before it. With the recent news that Del Toro will be back for not only a sequel but an animated series based in this amazing universe, here's to hoping NECA stays in the Pacific Rim business for the long haul. It would be a big win for everyone if they do.
LEGO Batman Movie Summer Sets Revealed
The first wave of sets have been a hit with fans, and now even more brick building goodness is one the way this summer. The next wave of The LEGO Batman Movie sets are here.
SDCC 2016- LEGO Brings The Batman To Comic Con
At Comic Con LEGO debuted not only two new building sets but introduced Robin from the new LEGO Batman Movie.


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text:
A 19th century painting of the Brooklyn, which embarked on perhaps the longest religious sea pilgrimage in recorded history.Duncan McFarlane
When San Francisco was a Mormon town
by Mike McPhate Dec 10, 2019
For a brief period before the Gold Rush, San Francisco was largely a Mormon town.
It was on this week in 1846 that the ship Brooklyn landed at San Francisco, then Yerba Buena. It carried 238 weary Mormons who had completed an epic journey from New York, five times farther than that of the Plymouth Pilgrims, in search of freedom from religious persecution.
Samuel Brannan, upper right, and other early San Francisco pioneers in an undated image.
Bancroft Library/U.C. Berkeley
They doubled the population of San Francisco, and took a central role in many of California's early historical developments. Within a year, they built 100 permanent structures in San Francisco, including the first bank, library, and English-speaking school. The group's leader, Sam Brannan, started the city's first newspaper, the California Star, and became its first millionaire. Other Mormons founded towns, pioneered farming, and became among the first gold miners.
For a time, San Francisco seemed like it could become the headquarters of the Mormon church. In 1847, Brannan traveled to meet the church's president, Brigham Young, who was himself journeying west via land, to plead with him to continue on to the paradise he had found in California. Young refused, preferring the isolation of Utah's Salt Lake Valley.
Mormon population by county, according to 2000 Census figures.
Still, California became firmly established within the so-called Mormon Corridor, adding another major Mormon foothold in the San Bernardino Valley that rivaled Los Angeles in size. Over the generations, the church's membership in California has grown steadily. Today, more Mormons live in California than any state but Utah.
This article is from the California Sun, a newsletter that delivers must-read stories to your inbox each morning — for free. Sign up here.


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Trevor's wonderful wife Marvel (the fronting force of the fabulous Southside Desire) consoled me a couple times this week. Both times I told her I was supposed to be the one consoling her.
Trevor and I went to school together, worked together, even lived together for awhile. I always loved hanging out with him. It's nice to see how many people felt the same.
Minnesota music fixture Willie Murphy passed away last weekend at 75.
A long-time fixture on the Minnesota scene, Lonnie Knight died on Sunday.
While doing a little research on this, I also found out that Jack Pearson, another Minnesota musician, passed away in April. I bet you a googleplex that some around here are familiar with him.
I have the opinion that this song should have been a massive hit, its so darned catchy.
And here you were probably expecting Courtney Barnett.
I decided it would be nice to feature something that's not been played at the basement before. After AMR referenced Bad Bad Hats (I keep wanting to add a comma after the first "Bad"), this song caught my attention and compelled me to check out the rest of their new album.
You can download the entire Psychic Reader album here for free (or purchase it in vinyl) if you're so inclined.
89.3 The CurrentBad Bad HatsBest of 2015free downloadindie?minnesota musicphilo might actually like itpop?
I don't recall a big de-briefing around here, but this was a pretty awesome show.
Yup, I still miss these guys.


NEWS: The Age of Stupid – Inspiring and Shocking Climate Film Premiers in the U.S. September 21st.
The Age of Stupid will launch in America on September 21st 2009 from a solar-powered cinema tent in New York live to over 400 movie theatres across the country. Tickets are on sale now.
The Age of Stupid is a 90-minute film about climate change, set in the future, where a man living alone in the destroyed world of 2055, looks back at an archived footage from 2007 and wonders: why didn't we do something when we had the chance?
The motion picture was filmed in numerous locations, among them America, UK, India, Nigeria, Iraq, Jordan, and The Alps. It was produced with a budget of £450,000 raised by "crowd-funding" - selling shares to individuals and groups and is therefore completely independent.


James Somers, on his blog, has a subtle and convincing literary analysis of the mildly dishonest use of a rhetorical device I have often reflected on: the embedding of an assertion in the context "It turns out that _______."
Skilled readers are trained, Somers suggests, to be disarmed by the phrase: over time they learn to trust writers who use it, "in large part because they come to associate it with that feeling of the author's own dispassionate surprise." So an unscrupulous theorist who tells you his theories by revealing how "it turns out" that they are true is being subtly dishonest, but with very considerable deniability. After all, if P is true, you can hardly deny that "It turns out that P" is also a true assertion, can you?
Somers is spot on, I think. In fact he has helped me to identify me what has always struck me as very subtly annoying about a very famous linguist I know, at a university in California, who uses the device constantly in those conversations where he reveals what his own theories and opinions are (and that characterization covers essentially all of his conversations). "It turns out," he says slowly, every minute or two, and I recognize that he is softening me up to accept another of his claimed theoretical explanations, which I always find unconvincing yet somehow not specific enough to challenge.


text:
Amol Utrankar, M.D.
The narratives of a doctor-in-training.
"Free Tuition" Isn't a Primary Care Pipeline
August 18, 2018 August 18, 2018 ~ Amol Utrankar, M.D.	~ Leave a comment
This week, there were two types of discussions on my social media feeds: non-medical friends fascinated by New York University's announcement of free tuition for all its medical students, and medical friends frustrated that their own schools weren't so generous (gee, thanks, Vanderbilt!)
To be clear, it's an impressive and laudable feat to cover tuition—at present, around $55,000 per year—for about 450 students in perpetuity. By the Association of American Medical Colleges' numbers, 75% of the Class of 2017 graduated with education debt; on average, over $190,000 per student, between eight years of undergraduate and medical studies. NYU raised $600 million in donations to ensure that its graduates don't have such financial considerations hanging over their early-career decisions.
NYU's stated rationale here is twofold: to reduce the cost barriers that would prevent some students from pursuing careers in medicine, and to encourage students to choose less-lucrative specialties like primary care. "I don't want people moving away from what they're passionate about because of their fear of the money," said Rafael Rivera, NYU's Associate Dean for Admissions and Financial Aid.
I think those are pressing problems for medical education, and I applaud NYU for putting forth a bold, ambitious solution. I just don't think it's the best fix for either issue.
Free tuition is a definite game-changer for students from less-affluent backgrounds that otherwise might not have been able to afford medical education. As a society, we need these people to become doctors. They're more likely to return to the communities and populations they're from to practice. Moreover, seeing as there's a wealth of literature on the implicit biases that shape our care of women, minorities, and socioeconomically disadvantaged patients, medicine could certainly benefit from the added diversity of represented backgrounds and viewpoints among its ranks.
That being said, NYU students will still have to take on $27-29,000 per year in costs of living and other expenses, which may continue to deter some of those cost-prohibited prospective physicians.
It's also not clear how this improves access over less costly initiatives, like Columbia's $250 million plan to eliminate medical student loans. From my own medical school experiences, many of my classmates (though certainly not all) came from well-off backgrounds. I'd estimate at least 30% were themselves children of doctors, myself included. Can't a university like NYU find a better use for the extra $350 million its plan will take over Columbia's than to give aid to some students like me who, ultimately, would likely be able to become doctors and attain well-off lifestyles without it? Its education or social work students, for whom a six-figure income at their ten-year reunion is less assured, probably have some ideas.
Free tuition is a start to medical education's access problem. A real solution, though, needs to consider the myriad ways low-income students are shut out from medicine—like limited early exposure, fewer test-prep resources, and less resume-building opportunities, to name a few—and act broadly to make a substantial impact.
If free tuition is a suboptimal solution for improving access, it's even worse for solving the shortage of primary care physicians.
A $220,000 four-year tuition relief makes primary care specialties more feasible for altruistic students who are deterred from lower-paying fields by the prospect of loan repayments. It doesn't, by any measure, make such careers more financially attractive in the U.S.' current payment structure, in which doctors are paid for doing things, and paid even more for invasive or interventional things than for time spent talking to people or thinking through complex diagnoses.
According to Doximity, the average Manhattan general pediatrician makes $181,000; for family physicians and internists, it's $205,000 and $207,000, respectively. When an NYU medical student chooses primary care, they choose to forgo the salary of an orthopedic surgeon ($458,000), radiologist ($384,000), or cardiologist ($391,000) out of an intellectual interest or sense of social duty in preventive care or population health management. Against a lifetime of thirty to forty years' worth of accumulated earnings, the cost of a medical degree—even considering the interest on loans a student might otherwise take—is a drop in the bucket.
Don't get me wrong: primary care is much, much more important than the salary comparison suggests. It's just not any better a financial decision with a free medical education than without it.
To add an even more cynical perspective, as NYU's application pool undoubtedly draws even more competitive, talented applicants, it wouldn't be surprising to see its match list tip even more toward selective specialties like derm., IR, ortho., or ENT.
So, if medical schools really want to cultivate primary care doctors, they can introduce tracks for primary care-specific training and exposure, like the ones at Duke and Johns Hopkins. They can offer accelerated training programs for primary care, as Mercer and Texas Tech do. If they go the scholarship route, like NYU, they can borrow from UC Riverside's playbook: it covers tuition, but only if the students stay and practice in underserved Inland Southern California.
What NYU and its donors have done is an incredible gift for its future graduates, one which will surely have an impact on its students' bank accounts—not to mention, its upcoming years' U.S. News rankings. It's every bit as generous and impressive as it seems. It's not, though, the moonshot strategy for improving access to medical education or promoting careers in primary care that some, like The Atlantic, NPR, or Fox News, suggest.
P.S.: If you're from NYU Med and reading this, I'm totally not related to any other Utrankars you might see an application from in the next few years.
What matters in a medical school?
January 16, 2018 ~ Amol Utrankar, M.D.	~ Leave a comment
As a fourth-year medical student, I'm no stranger to admissions processes; I've been through two, am currently in one, and have at least one more ahead. At each stage, one of the most challenging elements of finding and selecting a 'best fit' institution is knowing, in advance, what really matters in a training program. You have an important decision before you—a four-year investment, which will provide the foundations upon which you'll care for tens of thousands of patients—but, if you're like me, an unclear sense of the essential factors that ought to shape that decision. What am I really looking for in a prospective institution?
I write about this now because, going through residency interviews, it's currently all I think about. Every 15 minutes, I'm asked, "So, what questions do you have for me?" I dine with residents, interview with faculty, and tour hospitals, all to address the nebulous question of which program is optimally suitable to launch my career. My co-interviewees and I ask all sorts of queries, with widely varying degrees of significance to the training experience.
What is the didactics curriculum like?
How is your call schedule structured?
Where do residents live in relation to the hospital?
How many livers do you do each year?
Are there moonlighting opportunities?
What's the free food situation?
It feels clumsy, murky, and at times even silly; am I really going to weigh the 'food situation' in my residency decision? How 'mission-critical' are strong didactics, case volumes, or moonlighting opportunities, really? While I can't speak to any of those questions at present, I'll offer my perspectives on the process on which I now do feel somewhat better equipped to advise: what matters when selecting a medical school.
Does the institution's mission statement match yours?
A mission statement is more than boilerplate text. It outlines what the institution values and aspires to—and by extension, the role they envision for you as a future physician. My medical school, for instance, defines itself as a regional referral center for complex cases, as well as a hub for leadership, innovation, and scholarship in subspecialty care. The faculty it recruits, the programs it invests in, and the curriculum it instills all reflect those objectives. For the aspiring physician-scientist or sub-subspecialist, it's a strong fit. For those with professional interests in 'country doc' or 'safety net' medicine, perhaps less so.
Does the curriculum align with your learning habits?
By now, you likely have a sense of how you learn and study best, so find a school where the educational activities mirror those preferences. If you like to study in groups, favor discussion-based courses, or retain content better when you can situate it in an experiential framework, look for schools that emphasize active learning over traditional lecture. If you're unable to self-structure your time productively, maybe a school that requires attendance is best for you. The more honest you can be with yourself here, the better your chances of selecting a setting where you'll succeed academically.
How flexible or adaptable is the curriculum to meet your goals?
Academic interests evolve, almost inevitably. Therefore, even if you're certain a future in pediatric cardiothoracic surgery awaits, pick a curriculum that affords you the flexibility to pivot if you discover a late latent passion for, say, family medicine or geriatrics. At my medical school, for instance, the third and fourth years are almost entirely elective-driven, which gives students the flexibility to choose their own adventure and adapt as their goals shift.
Even if you're set on your path, flexibility matters a lot. Medicine offers infinite opportunities to customize your career. In addition to the myriad specialty and subspecialty routes available, physicians can be scientists, entrepreneurs, technologists, administrators, policymakers, activists, educators, ethicists, creatives, and much more. While there are some competencies which are foundational for all physicians, your classmates paths may look profoundly different from yours, and the best curriculum is one that provides the time and resources to train you for the particular career you want.
Is there a formal, student-engaged process to elicit and implement learner feedback?
No medical school is perfect, but the best ones are committed to the idea of rapid-cycle, feedback-driven improvement. When considering a school, ask students and faculty for examples of changes in response to student-voiced needs or interests. Ask how often students have face time with educators and administrators, and what mechanisms exist for students to relay feedback—or even better, to shape administrative decisions in collaboration with deans and leaders. Of course, every school will think it achieves this objective exceptionally well, so seek input from multiple perspectives and ask for particular examples.
Is it an environment where, when you're not in the classroom, at the library, or on the wards, you'll be happy?
There's a lot of down-time in medical school. While it might not feel that way the week before a block exam or during a surgery rotation, medical school (usually) won't be your life. You will have time to pursue hobbies, hang out with loved ones, explore your surroundings, and have fun .. so make sure your environment is conducive to it. If you're someone who draws heavily upon support from family, going somewhere distant might not be worth it. If you're 'single and searching,' a small town may not be your scene. Academics matter, but four years is a long time to "grin and bear it." Pick a place where you'll find happiness as you define it, and where you can be the person you want to be.
But wait! What about the U.S. News and World Report rankings?
Frequently—looking at you, Indian dinner parties and Student Doctor Network forums—pre-meds wonder how much weight to ascribe to rankings when selecting a school. The unpleasant answer is: they sort of matter, but they sort of don't.
Reputation, in itself, isn't terribly important. But those 'name-brand' schools are also the tertiary or quaternary care centers where you'll see the most complex cases, where you'll build connections with mentors that are leaders in their respective fields, where you'll reap the educational and scholarly resources that come with a major research institution and a generous endowment. Those opportunities aren't necessarily exclusive to "elite" institutions, but they might come easier at some places than others. Therefore, my standard advice is this: don't focus on the rank number, but look for the benefits and advantages that come with it.
That's a lot to think about, so I'll close with some words of comfort: I've worked under many incredibly bright and gifted residents at Vanderbilt, enough to know that it's nearly impossible to distinguish from observing someone's clinical skills whether he/she went to Harvard Med or State U. If you're smart enough to get accepted to medical school and build upon that inherent intelligence with diligent effort, you can go anywhere from anywhere. When the process feels daunting, think back on that, and you'll get through just fine.
Medical students and physicians: what do you now feel is important in a medical school that you would advise prospective students to consider?
"Wow, you don't have an accent at all!"
September 28, 2017 September 28, 2017 ~ Amol Utrankar, M.D.	~ Leave a comment
From Charlottesville to NFL stadiums, conversations and controversies surrounding race relations have seldom felt more heated. These events challenge each of us to consider how racial issues intersect with our daily lives, as OHSU emergency physician Esther Choo notably did in a now-viral tweetstorm about patients refusing care from providers of color.
The reverberations of these seismic disruptions in our social consciousness have, naturally, stirred discussions in our medical school's classrooms and clinics: how we've felt impacted, how our patients have been affected, and how we can root out structurally-ingrained racism in our local environments. And while I can't claim to understand or have experienced the unique challenges my black or Latino colleagues encounter, these conversations have raised common threads of reflection among my Asian-American peers about the micro-aggressions we navigate while learning medicine in the 'buckle of the Bible Belt.'
Thankfully, the experience of being verbally confronted or having my services refused on the basis of race isn't something I've had to handle—for such overt hostility, the New England Journal of Medicine has an excellent primer on "Dealing with Racist Patients." Instead, my brushes with "lowercase-r" racism have been much more subtle, and often unintentional.
"I know a Dr. Patel; he lives in North Carolina? Do you know him?"
Funny; I know a Joe Smith in Edison, New Jersey. Do you know him?
"No, where are you really from?"
I promise, I am really really from New Jersey.
"Where are your parents or grandparents from?"
[Groan.]
"Wow, you don't have an accent at all, and your English is great!"
Well, I scored 5's on my AP English exams and an 800 on my SAT verbal, so I'd say I'm pretty decent at English, yes.
"You moved here when you were two months old? That means you're almost one of us!"
Thank you for letting me know that, though I've spent 99.3% of my life here, completed 20 years of schooling here, renounced my Indian citizenship for a U.S. one, and consider myself as deeply immersed in your sports, music, and pop culture as anyone else, that you still think of me as less entitled to the privilege of being "American" than you are.
If you're not convinced, Buzzfeed has some delightful examples, too.
I came to Tennessee (which is 1.8% Asian) from a university ranked #1 for race-class interaction, and before that, a minority-majority hometown where our high school cafeteria resembled the United Nations. It felt entirely foreign, then, to transition to a setting where most of my patients not only didn't look like me, but had often lived for decades in rural communities where everyone looked the same, sounded the same, prayed the same, and voted the same. It was a rare experience to feel hyper-aware that I was different, which was only heightened by my patients' comments and curiosity questions. These bigots, these ignorant rednecks, these deplorables, I fumed internally.
With time, though, as I grew to better understand my patients, my exasperation softened to empathy. Through brief interactions at the bedside, I came to see my patients' "political incorrectness" not as ill-intent, but inexperience. If you live in McMinnville, Tennessee, you might believe that most towns, like yours, have only one South Asian family, and intuit that these dispersed Desis find and know each other. You might only know of South Asian culture through the pop culture vignettes of Simpsons or Slumdog, so that when you encounter an Indian American medical student, your conversational instinct is to ask about accents, bindis ("dots"), the caste system, or arranged marriages. Maybe that is bias or racism, but it's a curious naivete that's infinitely harder to hate or look down upon than a tiki-torch mob.
Acknowledging that naivete, I no longer get frustrated or angry. Instead, I teach.
"No, I don't. There are 4 million Indian Americans across the U.S., so it's hard for all of us to keep in touch! "Patel" is also as common a last name among Indians as "Smith," "Jones," or "Johnson" are here. It's like asking if you know my neighbor back in New Jersey just because he has the same last name; I'm guessing you probably haven't met!"
"I'm originally from New Jersey, where my family still lives."
"Well, I was born in India, but moved here when I was two months old. I've completed all my schooling here, gone to college here, and consider myself culturally American with Indian roots. Most people tend not to remember much from the first two months of their life, so practically, my life here is all I've lived and known!"
Likewise, acknowledging my limited insight into the lived experiences of the South, I learn. I ask my patients what it's like to live in rural Tennessee or the 'urban underserved' areas of Nashville. I ask about the factors that promote or impair physical and mental wellbeing in their communities. I ask about their beliefs, values, and goals, realizing that their social contexts might frame these perceptions to be drastically different than my own precepts or presumptions. As I realize that I understand their lives and backgrounds as little as they do mine, it becomes harder to cast judgments or throw stones.
Of course, not everyone's experiences might be as benign as I've been fortunate to have, or as amenable to resolution with casual conversation and cross-teaching. Medicine has much self-reflection and work to do regarding racial disparities—certainly, among others—in our physicians' demographic composition, in our patients' health outcomes, and in our interpersonal interactions in clinical practice. That's a much larger matter, and I'll table it for a more seasoned expert's commentary.
But, for immigrant medical students and physicians, I offer this advice: the next time you encounter an off-putting or politically-incorrect remark, consider where it's coming from, and the contexts and experiences which frame that person's viewpoint. Consider the positive impact you might offer by deferring confrontation for education. And most critically, consider your own biases or presuppositions before judging or critiquing someone for theirs. Shared understanding isn't always the solution, but it's often a worthwhile start. Give it a try; I promise your patient interactions (and cortisol levels) will be all the more better for it.
Why professional societies are worth it
March 13, 2017 January 16, 2018 ~ Amol Utrankar, M.D.	~ Leave a comment
As someone who's all too familiar with the 'student loan life,' there are few things I'd recommend as essential buys besides UWorld, ramen noodles, and Keurig cups. One that's often overlooked by medical students, though, is membership in the professional society for your future specialty.
Cue the collective groan. I know, and I get it: why pay an annual subscription fee to join a club, add a line on your CV, and pay your respects to "the guild?" At first, I felt similarly skeptical. As a digital native, I was confident that I didn't need my professional society. I had a blog. I had a Twitter account and LinkedIn profile. I could advocate for myself, and network for myself.
Since then, as I've furthered my interest in anesthesiology and advanced my involvement in the specialty, I've come to see the value that a $10 American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) student membership provides. Here, I've outlined a few of the high-yield benefits of the ASA Medical Student Component—and, I should add, even if you're not a gas-passer in the making, these same benefits likely extend to the society for whichever specialty's caught your heart.
Know what's happening in the field, and where it's headed. Through the ASA, I receive a complimentary print subscription to Anesthesiology, its peer-reviewed journal; the ASA Monitor, its monthly magazine; and ASAP, the weekly email newsletter. As an outsider looking in, these publications provide an introduction the 'hot topics' in anesthesia research and practice and an overview of educational content that's likely to be useful on your anesthesia rotation (and not to mention, future training). Not all of it applies to learners, so feel free to gloss over the articles on practice management or billing code jargonology, but you'll pick up enough to show attendings that you've done your homework, and to show interviewers that you know what you're getting into.
Learn, do, and network at the Annual Meeting—for free. The ASA and other specialty societies know that their students are their future, and they invest in our growth (and theirs!) by waiving students' registration fees for the ANESTHESIOLOGY Annual Meeting. This conference is a 'must-do' for the future anesthesiologist, without question. It's an opportunity to learn what's new in anesthesia through presentations and panel discussions, practice procedures in hands-on skills workshops, and network with residency programs (and future employers!) And again, it's all for free—which, right behind "go home" and "do you want to do this procedure?" are a medical student's favorite words.
Support the people who are fighting for your future. In medical school, it's sometimes easy to be complacent about advocacy, policy, and the landscape of physician practice; after all, life after residency seems so far away that we're rarely looking beyond the next shelf exam. Even if you're not looking ahead to the future, your professional society is. That's why, in the last year, the ASA has been looking out for anesthesiologists and their patients and advocating for physician-led anesthesia care—and for evidence of that, look no further than the Safe VA Care initiative. And these are challenges facing every specialty: family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, radiology, you name it. Even if you view your membership as solely an investment in the safety of patients and the relevance of your future profession, it's well worth it. And of course, if you want to go the extra mile, there are advocacy opportunities and leadership positions available.
When you think about what it costs to become a physician today—medical school tuition, supplies for clinical rotations, test prep resources, residency application and interview travel fees, and much more—a $10 annual membership to the American Society of Anesthesiologists (or your specialty's professional society), with all it affords, is easily the right decision. If it does present a financial challenge for you, don't worry; your medical school's student affairs office, your school's anesthesiology department, or your state's anesthesiology society can likely lend a hand. Whatever the case, don't overlook the chance to tap into this valuable resource and the education, professional development, and advocacy advantages that come with it.
Bottom line: prospective members, join the ASA, or your professional society, ASAp (#badpuns, I'll admit). For current members: what additional benefits or perks have you gotten from your involvement in your professional societies? Leave a comment to weigh in!
Disclaimer: I am a medical student member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists and a member of the ASA Medical Student Component Governing Council. This blog post is not on behalf of the ASA, nor has it been authorized or supported by the ASA (or any other organization) in any capacity; it represents my views, and my own advice for my fellow future anesthesiologists, alone. [In short, I speak for myself, because I'm fairly certain nobody wants me to speak for them anyway!]
November 9, 2016 November 9, 2016 ~ Amol Utrankar, M.D.	~ 1 Comment
It's the morning after Election Day, and the world still has a sort of surreal quality to it.
I awoke this morning with a sense of fear. Fear for my own safety, and the safety of my loved ones who fall beyond 'standard' templates of race, faith, nationality, gender, or sexuality. Fear for the stability of public discourse and debate in the coming days and weeks. Fear for the legacy of the last 8 years—and the last 240 years, really—which today seems more vulnerable than ever.
Somehow, I got out of bed, took a shower, got dressed for school, packed a lunch, and drove to school, all the while feeling anxious to discover what a "Great Again" America would look and feel like.
And then I reached the hospital. Here, it doesn't feel like the morning after Election Day; it's Wednesday, November 9th, and just that. Doctors are taking care of patients. Residents are scurrying about, completing their usual errands. Patients are being seen, heard, and cared for, just like any other day.
One of medicine's most beautiful qualities is that, whatever the turbulence beyond the hospital, the essence of the patient-provider interaction and the bedside encounter remains a familiar constant. Today, my fellow healthcare providers will head to work carrying the weights of their emotions and thoughts, but once we walk into that exam room, nothing else will seem relevant but the needs of the patient before us. Even if that patient is wearing a "Make America Great Again" cap, and even if he holds an ideology that considers my kind an outsider or a threat, we'll look beyond that. We'll resist the temptation to see a 'deplorable,' and challenge ourselves to see someone who needs our guidance, compassion, and care. A patient—nothing less, nothing more.
That's not to suggest at all that medicine occurs in a vacuum. As physicians and physicians-in-training, we now face an uncertain future that could well profoundly affect the way we practice. Our patients will face renewed challenges to receiving accessible, affordable, equitable health services. The health and wellbeing of marginalized populations, such as women and LGBT individuals, will be more vulnerable to the whims of partisan policy than ever before. Gun violence will, once again, fail to receive its due recognition as a public health emergency.
These are important matters, and as educated experts who navigate these issues in the trenches each day, our voices will be critically important to these conversations. We cannot let our commitments to advancing the health of populations waver in the face of adversity. The path forward will be harder, and so our convictions must be even stronger. That conversation begins tomorrow.
But today, when it seems like the rest of the world is standing still, and when it feels like a future with a President Trump is too painful to even imagine, I take comfort in the assurance that ours is a profession that, despite our emotions and adversities, keeps chugging along, changing the world one patient at a time.
When Breath Becomes Air
February 28, 2016 February 28, 2016 ~ Amol Utrankar, M.D.	~ 4 Comments
As I write this, I'm wiping away the tears in my eyes stirred by Dr. Paul Kalanithi's When Breath Becomes Air. Richly reflective and powerfully evocative, it's the touching narrative of a doctor's attempts to confront death—as a student of literature, as a neurosurgeon, and as a patient—and, through the lens of terminal illness, examine how dying gives meaning to living.
With When Breath Becomes Air, Dr. Kalanithi allows us to, in his words, "Get into these shoes, walk a bit, and say, 'So that's what it looks like from here … sooner or later I'll be back here in my own shoes.'" It's a walk that resonates particularly strongly for me as a fledgling physician.
As he reflects on his medical training, Dr. Kalanithi looks back with the perspectives of both patient and provider to offer valuable insights on what it means to be a physician: someone who translates statistics and survival curves into a patient-oriented language of values, identities, and capabilities; someone who is relentless in the pursuit of operative excellence, but understands that a surgeon is more than an expert technician; someone who aspires to perfection, but ultimately accepts his fallibility.
For any avid reader of medical non-fiction, these reflections will sound familiar, the stuff of Better and Being Mortal. And yet, When Breath Becomes Air feels different, because it explores medicine's virtues, values, and flaws from the perspective of a patient, someone who is both an insider and outsider to medicine. As Dr. Kalanithi writes, "As a doctor, you have a sense of what it's like to be sick, but until you've gone through it yourself, you don't really know." His perspectives on what makes a good doctor are informed by an intimate understanding of what patients feel, what patients think, and what patients want that most of us, as providers, can only infer and intuit from our interactions with illness in the third person.
At its heart, When Breath Becomes Air is about more than how we ought to provide care; it's a contemplation of how we ought to live. The life of a physician-in-training often feels like a life of anticipation, of potential, of surviving the present to reach the rewards of the future. We spend a third of our lives studying, sacrificing sleep, accumulating loans, and watching our friends build lives that are less exhaustive and more lucrative, all of which we accept for the eventual promise of a career that offers an unparalleled balance of intellectual engagement, moral fulfillment, and socioeconomic comfort.
I ask myself, then: if faced with a terminal illness tomorrow, would I feel that I'd achieved anything more in 23 years besides a pursuit of a life still yet to come? For Dr. Kalanithi, the prospect of dying gives the present an immensely deeper significance, a more imminent urgency. As I read his detailed recollection of his last day as a physician, a heartfelt recall of each interaction, each sensation, each incision, I felt uncomfortably reminded of what I've seen and done over the last week, and how it felt so unremarkably routine. I'd been present, but I hadn't been truly present.
Reading When Breath Becomes Air, I felt called to attention, awoken from autopilot to embrace the quiet miracles and subtle wonders that transpire around us each day in the hospital. If we practiced medicine each day as if it were our last, what might that look like? What could it do for our connections with patients, for our interactions with our colleagues, for our thirst for meaning and fulfillment in our daily lives? This, I think, is Dr. Kalanithi's strongest parting advice for us. And as cliche as "live as each day is the last" sounds, that we so rarely do it makes it advice worth hearing.
When Breath Becomes Air is an easy read that raises difficult questions, a short book that invites lengthy pauses for thought. Whether you're in medicine or not, you'll invariably someday find yourself pondering the matter of mortality and the meaning it imparts to the closing days of life—and therefore, you'll invariably find this book to be both moving and meaningful.
Thanks, Dr. Kalanithi.
This Just In: Patients Can Use the Internet Now.
October 9, 2015 October 9, 2015 ~ Amol Utrankar, M.D.	~ 3 Comments
Sometimes, the future arrives so swiftly that we don't even notice the subtle revolutions unfolding before our eyes.
For years, the notion of patients searching for health information online was anathema to physicians. The slightest mention of patients as engaged consumers of health information would cue a noxious reflex from most providers, fueled, no doubt, by stereotypes of patients like these:
As recently as 2013, when I interviewed for medical school, stated interests and curiosities in healthcare social media, e-health, and participatory medicine were best, bold propositions, and at worst, toxic taboos.
"Do me a favor," one dean of admissions quipped, "When you're a third-year on clerkships, you'll meet the man who's been convinced by a WebMD search that his toe pain is diagnostic for brain cancer. Spend 15 minutes with that guy, then come find me and let me know if you're still an optimist about online resources as tools for patient empowerment and engagement."
Fast forward to 2015, where I'm now a clinical-phase student on an outpatient pediatrics rotation, and I finally have an answer for that dean–though it's probably not the one he expected. I'm still an optimist in the power of online communities and digital content to equip patients with the information they need to engage in their clinical-decision making, as equals, with their providers.
Actually, after the conversations and clinical interactions I've witnessed these past weeks on pediatrics, that optimism has never held more firm.
Figure 1. An adolescent seen one week earlier for an acute infection and prescribed antibiotics returns with unresolved infection. The physician makes a diagnosis of antibiotic treatment failure. As she studies the literature for an appropriate second-line treatment, the patient's mother does a Google search on her phone–and suggests a finding of her own. The physician reviews it, confirms it, prescribes it. Snap.
Figure 2. A child who is seen frequently for recurrent febrile illnesses presents for a well-child visit. The child's parent mentions having searched online and identified a periodic fever syndrome consistent with the child's clinical history. The parent shares printouts of relevant patient education materials, academic review articles, and diagnostic manuals with the physician. The physician agrees with the parent's impression, and makes the diagnosis. Snap, crackle.
Figure 3. A neonate with a congenital condition arrives for a new-patient evaluation. The patient's mother admits she selected this physician based upon reviews and recommendations from a local online patient community for disease-specific support. At the visit's conclusion, the mother impresses the physician when she suggests a prescription for ondansetron–a tip she found through, yes, an online patient community. Snap, crackle, and pop.
As a health technologies optimist and medical futurist, it's evident I've been so focused looking ahead to the future that I've missed the simple reality: in subtle ways, it's already arrived.
We used to see e-health as synonymous with WebMD, the digital quack doc where all differential diagnoses lead to cancer. We used to think too much information would break the patient, break the doctor-patient relationship, or worst of all, break the monopoly on expertise that gave our profession relevance. We were, clearly, misguided.
The patient's access to communities and open-access platforms for online health information is breaking healthcare–but not as doctors once thought it would. Instead, it's breaking hierarchies, allowing patients to contribute to differentials and suggest treatments as engaged participants on their care team. It's breaking barriers, connecting patients to insights and innovations previously sealed beyond paywalls and subscriptions. And it's breaking the metaphorical walls of isolation, bringing patients in touch with others who understand the experience of living with illness and navigating a complex health system.
And every evening, as I drive home from another day in medical school, I'm inspired by the resilience of children, the resourcefulness of their caregivers, and the realization that I'm blessed to be entering medicine at a time of profound transformation, revolution, and creative destruction.
Amol Utrankar
Resident physician at Columbia/NYPH Anesthesiology. Future anesthesiologist and informatician. Blogging at the intersection of medicine, technology, and education.
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a new painting and cordage. I am working on stuff for the show at the Maple Ridge Art Gallery, Mar-Apr 2015.
This is the first time I have made cordage and I love it. I picked the plants from my garden and made long ropes, not sure what I will use them in but they have a lovely look. I found out how to do this on http://www.jonsbushcraft.com . It is easy to do. I also made raffia cordage.
A free spirit that loves working with natural materials to create beautiful art.
1 Response to when it rains…..
I love the cordage! good that you're blogging.


On June 30, 2008 Wal-Mart introduced a new logo featuring a fresh typeface in upper & lowercase letters. The new logo speaks to the company's transformation of it's brand. Here is a timeline that shows the history of Wal-Mart Logos.


text:
Q: How To I make Cache File In PHP of Json Request I'm Try To Make Cache File For Quick JSON Response But I have Some Problems I got This Code in a PHP File But I can't Understand How I can Make This For $url JSON File for any JSON Response I have No Many Skills Please anyone can help me for This Problem
Here is Code What i'm Try
function data_get_curl($url){
    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
    $uaa = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'];
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, "User-Agent: $uaa");
    return curl_exec($ch);
}

$cache_option = true;
$id = 'DU6IdS2gVog';
$url = 'https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videos?key={Youtube_Api}&fields=items(snippet(title%2Cdescription%2Ctags))&part=snippet&id=DU6IdS2gVog';
$data = data_get_curl($url);
header('Content-Type: application/json');
echo $data;

function cache_set($id,$data,$time = 84600){
    if(!$cache_option) return NULL;
    $name = ROOT."/cache/".md5($id).".json";
    $fh = fopen($name, "w");
    fwrite($fh, serialize($data));
    fclose($fh);
}

function cache_get($id){
    if(!$cache_option) return NULL;
    $file = ROOT."/cache/".md5($id).".json";
    if(file_exists($file)){
        if(time() - 84600 < filemtime($file)){
            return unserialize(data_get_curl($file));
        }else{
            unlink($file);
        }
    }
    return NULL;
}

Thanks In Advance

A: There are multiple errors with your code. You can simple use file_put_contents to add content to cache file.
Try the following example
$id = 'DU6IdS2gVog';
$cache_path = 'cache/';
$filename = $cache_path.md5($id);

if( file_exists($filename) && ( time() - 84600 < filemtime($filename) ) )
{
    $data = json_decode(file_get_contents($filename), true);
}
else
{
    $data = data_get_curl('https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videos?key={API_KEY}&fields=items(snippet(title%2Cdescription%2Ctags))&part=snippet&id='.$id);
    file_put_contents($filename, $data);
    $data = json_decode($data, true);
}


Maps! Get Your Google Maps!
Google made a formal announcement yesterday announcing that it now allows websites to add maps by copying and pasting an HTML snippet. These maps, as I mentioned last week, have the same functionality (clickable, draggable, zoomable) as does the original Google Maps.
To get a Google Map on your site simply go to Google Maps and find the location or the business (you can even use this for specific directions, for example from the airport to your office). Then simply click "link to this page" in the right hand corner of the page, copy the code (either a link for email or IM or the HTML) and paste it. Google us using an iframe which means it should appear correctly on most blogging platforms. Unfortunately, our own blog does not allow for posting iframe code. Hrmph.
The image below is not interactive, just an image.