text:
Q: Convert ODE to first-order form I am struggling to understand reducing higher order DE to first-order form. Say I have an equation of motion,
$$m \frac{d^2}{dt^2}
\left(
\begin{array}{c}
x \\
y
\end{array}
\right) =
-\frac{GmM}{{(x^2+y^2)}^\frac{3}{2}}
\left(
\begin{array}{c}
x \\
y
\end{array}
\right),$$
how to reduce to the first-order form? I want to use Euler or Runge-Kutta on the result.
I think I understand that I should create some variable, $r$, which do something along the lines of
$$\mathbf{r} =
\left(
\begin{array}{c}
x \\
y
\end{array}
\right),
\frac{d}{dt}\left(\frac{d\mathbf{r}}{dt}\right) = f(x, x', t) =
\left(
\begin{array}{c}
f_x \\
f_y
\end{array}
\right),$$ and then
$$\mathbf{v} = \frac{d\mathbf{r}}{dt} = \frac{d}{dt}\left(\begin{array}{c}x\\y\end{array}\right)
=
\left(
\begin{array}{c}
v_x \\
v_y
\end{array}
\right)
,$$
and ultimately
$$
\frac{d}{dt}
\left(
\begin{array}{c}
x \\
y \\
v_x \\
v_y
\end{array}
\right)
=
\left(
\begin{array}{c}
v_x \\
v_y \\
f_x \\
f_y
\end{array}
\right)
$$
This is from some lectures I've found in various corners of the internet; I am truly lost. I realize I've not yet made any changes to the original equation, but I just don't know what to do! Can any of you please give me some pointers to where I'm going or what I'm doing? Much appreciated. It does feel like I am wandering about not knowing which direction I'm supposed to go.

A: You have the first-order form as
$$
\frac{d}{dt}
\left(
\begin{array}{c}
x \\
y \\
v_x \\
v_y
\end{array}
\right)
=
\left(
\begin{array}{c}
v_x \\
v_y \\
f_x \\
f_y
\end{array}
\right).
$$
So you have $\frac{d}{dt}{v_x} = f_x$ and $\frac{d}{dt}{v_y} = f_y$, where $f_x$ and $f_y$ are given in terms of $x$ and $y$ with some constants like masses and the gravitational constant. Similarly, you have first-order differential equations $\frac{dx}{dt} = v_x$ and $\frac{dy}{dt} = v_y$. You should have the time interval and initial conditions $x(t_0)$ and $y(t_0)$, and $v_x(t_0)$ and $v_y(t_0)$.
These are now ready for numerical integrations. But first, try to understand what's going on.
Imagine you are starting on some initial time, for instance, $t_0 = 0$. At that point, you know positions and velocities (you have your initial conditions). Since you know the initial velocity, you can predict where your $x$ and $y$ will be at the next time step $t_1$, approximately (fairly accurate if your $dt$ is small enough). You then basically have your $x_1$ and $y_1$ (you can draw a line from $x_0$ to $x_1$, for instance.
With the same logic as above, you have your original equation of motion, where you can plug in your initial conditions and predict where your $v_x$ and $v_y$ will be at $t_1$ (since you have a "slope" equation for them).
With your new data points (positions and velocities) at the next $t_1$, you just iterate over and over and you will be able to graph trajectories for both positions and velocities.
Numerical integration methods (Euler or R-K) more ore less carry out the above calculations for you.


Dario Vettori II, the eldest son of Paolo and the grandson of Dario, known as "il liutaio della montagna", was born in Fiesole in 1979. He began to take interest in the world of music at a very early age, studying the violoncello first privately and then at the Cherubini Conservatory in Florence. He is still an active concert musician, playing in various chamber groups including the Anonimo Fiorentino Orchestra, the Desiderio da Settignano Orchestra, and the Giovanile del Veneto Orchestra, with which he has also performed on tours abroad. He also attended the Faculty of Literature, devoting himself to the study of the History of Art. He has spent a considerable amount of time in the United States, working in violin-making workshops in New York, Washington DC, and Texas, thus having the opportunity to learn restoration techniques and to admire and touch with his own hands the numerous old instruments still in existence. However, he soon decided to dedicate himself to violin-making on a full-time basis, entering his father's workshop at the age of eighteen, putting his name down on the artisan register and then enrolling with the Associazione Liutaria Italiana Professionisti in 2001. For the construction of his instruments, he uses the molds and models of his father's workshop. Like his father, Paolo, and his brother, Lapo, he uses Bosnian and local maple as well as the last supplies left by his grandfather. In addition to the traditional spruce from the Val di Fiemme, he occasionally succeeds in finding old wood which, according to analyses carried out at the University of Tuscia in Viterbo, comes from trees dating back to the 17th century.


text:
Standalone server development update
September has begun, and we start getting natural questions like: "When will the open-source server go live that was promised in August?" So in this post we'd like to explain the situation that's going on now.
Currently we have actually three parallel development pipelines for Screeps:
Features of the game itself and its gameplay
Optimizing the official server
Development of the standalone hosted server
When our second Indiegogo campaign was launched, the plan was roughly this: make a market system as a major feature, and then delve completely into the development of the standalone server and a Steam client for it. That's why we set August as an approximate milestone date. However, after the campaign's end and some consideration we realized that the Steam launch proper and the standalone server release are two vastly different things that should be better done one at a time rather than simultaneously. A higher traffic from Steam may require some adjustments in the scalability of the game servers, so we'd be having hard time watching this process and at the same time taking care of the open-source project that would appear along with it. We decided to first launch the Steam client to attract users to the main official world, debug it, and then move to the standalone server without any hassles.
Our experience has shown it was a right decision. When Steam gave us hundreds and hundreds of new players, it revealed a number of issues in our server architecture that prevented capacity scaling for running your scripts, and we put a lot of time and efforts to debug and optimize those bottlenecks. You might remember how the tick duration soared from 2.5 to 5 seconds, then fell back, then grew again, and then stabilized at 2.7-3 seconds. We are content with the current rate, but achieving it required a lot of work within the past two months.
Due to this reason, unfortunately, the standalone server won't be launched within the coming weeks. We are sorry to realize that we missed some deadline, but please be assured this was not due to our laziness, but we decided to rearrange the work, and the history proved it was a right decision.
And there is another reason for delaying too. After the Indiegogo campaign was over, we spent some time on designing the concept of a standalone server, and we realized we couldn't just take the current server code, open-source it, and rest on our laurels. For the project to gain traction as standalone as we see it, the following design concepts need to be implemented:
Zero dependencies. The official world works on a traditional server stack of many applications: nginx + nodejs + mongodb + redis. And it won't work for the standalone server. The user should be able to just download an executable file via Steam, launch it, and get a working server at his IP address without any extra programs to install. We use Electron packaging to achieve this, but it also requires a separate database layer based on the in-memory database inside the application itself.
NPM-based application. Though many users will opt for the easy downloading and running the server as a simple desktop application, we have to support a more advanced installation as an NPM module as well. Being a JavaScript application, the Screeps server organically fits into the npm packets ecosystem, but the current game server architecture (which was initially developed as a set of layers with loose coupling) should be divided into multiple modules to publish them in the npm separately. This will allow, for example, replacing the database layer module with your own one to use the desired server-side stack.
Fully moddable architecture. To change the majority of server behavior aspects should require simple redefining of needed fragments through a system of external hooks and extensions rather than modifying the server code. We also need a possibility to add custom game entities even with their own visuals.
Single-player bot players. The single-player mode (which makes some people long for the standalone server) will be pretty boring unless there is somebody else but the player in the game world. But the development of a full-fledged AI that can start from scratch in the game world and seriously challenge the human player is a very interesting and complicated task. We want the players themselves to find the solution to it, since that's exactly the main fun of Screeps. Any player could write a script for his or her standalone AI and submit it into the common repository where other players of the single-player mode can install it. When provided with its own room in the worls, such a standalone AI has to be able to analyze the situation, develop its colony, and bring some life to the game world where it exists. The repository will introduce a ranking system for AI performance, user comments to them, new version updates, etc.
Steam Workshop support. The two aforementioned options are perfect in terms of excellent mechanics of Steam Workshop. The system of downloading and installing any custom files provided by the Workshop can be utilized to automatically install and update custom mods, game object types, bot players, and entire complete worlds. This is a huge task, but it's vital for the Screeps ecosystem.
Implementing some of these things requires the overhauling of the current server code of Screeps since they were not accounted for 2 years ago when the game was first designed. But we are convinced that short of these, the standalone server won't be the type of product we really want to share with you.
In terms of deadlines, we don't want to be overly optimistic at this point making promises we won't be able to meet. Let's keep October in mind. If we get a working version earlier, we'll definitely show it. As was promised, our Indiegogo campaign backers will be the first to get their hands on it, while the public availability will begin a month later.
Dissi September 02, 2016 07:41
Good write-up for the standalone server.
Clear communication is one of the features what makes this game so amazing.
I'm glad you analyzed and prevented a major catastrophe first by addressing scalability first.
I think we can wait a bit more for the standalone server :)
TooAngel September 02, 2016 08:15
Agree with Dissi, I like the open and transparent communication and good analysis. This improved a lot of the last year. Also the prioritization make IMHO sense.
Regarding the standalone server, I already had the concerns on the last post about it, I'm not so sure if a complete package brings so much value compared to the prolonged time it takes to be open source. I don't fear setting up the nginx + nodejs + mongodb + redis stack / have it anyway running. I guess this fits for many others. I saw the first approaches setting up screeps as standalone from the simulator code, which shows me: 'We want to get our hands dirty' and hopefully we are able to help you to improve the game.
TL;DR: Having something which I'm able to start and good documented dependencies: `git clone`, provide the credentials for these services, route the http traffic to this port and start this script, is more than enough.
Don't fear if it is not perfect, it will never be. Anyway, just my 3 cents. Good work.
akuukis September 02, 2016 10:12
+1 Dissi for clear communication.
+1 TooAngel, neither do I fear nginx+nodejs+mongodb+redis stack. IMHO those who like to "get our hands dirty" don't fear the stack or will set up some stack in the end anyway. And so you can get feedback from community on it before releasing truly standalone server.
Would you also split your own features into a set of mods so they can be independently turned on/off? (i.e. if supercreeps is not very compatible with my own mod or if I just don't like it, then I just edit config file to disable it)
Atavus September 02, 2016 10:53
Thank you for taking the time to put this together.
I do not believe anyone is doubting the dedication and efforts of the dev team.
Take your time to do things right. Just maintain active communication with the users to keep them informed.
DibiZibi September 02, 2016 11:40
There is one thing that I'm curious about...
How powerful the server has to be to run the game on a very small scale?
Let's say I want to setup a small world, maybe 25 rooms, to play against 1 or 2 people, and host it on my own personal PC (core i5 and 8GB or ram for example)
How many ticks per second would I be able to achieve?
Edited by DibiZibi September 02, 2016 11:41
coteyr September 03, 2016 14:48
While I'm not really happy with the current tick rate, I am glad that you decided to spend time on stability rather then a standalone server. The standalone server will be a nice feature, and I am really looking forward to it, but I'd am much happier with a 3 sec tick then a 20 or 30 second tick. Now if you could just get that tick down to 1 second :P
ags131 September 06, 2016 21:33
As TooAngel and akuukis stated, I too wouldn't mind having to setup a full stack.
I've successfully rewritten /core and gotten simulator code mostly functional on my local server, although very buggy and missing a couple things it is functional with a local node + mongo + redis stack. even running it all from a single process its fairly quick and can handle 100 rooms smoothly.
I would love to be able to poke at the full normal non-minified source and see what i could do with it, after digging through the minified code, even undocumented, the full normal source would be a goldmine. :D
Artem from Screeps September 07, 2016 09:41
We are not going to release the existing database layer source code due to security reasons, not because it is complicated to set up. Revealing technical details of official server implementation might introduce a way to exploit it in some way.
That's just bad.
Security through obscurity is not security. You should be able to maintain your security even with the source code released.
You should also stop saying your going to open source the server. It's misleading, if you can't opensource all of it, then either stop staying you will, or be very specific about what you are going to opensource.
Don't get me wrong, screeps is a fun game, and I'm not going to quite because of this decision, but as a big fan of opensource software, I don't like "Were going to opensource, well except this one important part". It takes away from the community.
tedivm September 08, 2016 20:35
> We are not going to release the existing database layer source code due to security reasons, not because it is complicated to set up. Revealing technical details of official server implementation might introduce a way to exploit it in some way.
This is the first time I've every really been upset at you or this game. You should have been clear before you took our money in the campaign that you were not actually going to open source the game like expected, but were instead going to open source an inferior version and force us to rewrite the database layer ourselves.
We never told that we are going to release exactly this existing server-side codebase to open source. It just doesn't make any sense, it's optimized for very specific setup, we cannot guarantee its security and reliability in different environments, and thus cannot maintain it as an open source project. What we have promised (and what we needed funding for) is to develop a new server based on the same game engine which will be fully open sourced and designed in an easily maintainable way. Here is a quotation from the Indiegogo campaign:
"To achieve this, we need to rework the existing engine in such a way that it can be launched outside of our server environment."
It will be the same game with the same game client and persistent world. The engine itself will even use the same github repo along with the official server. And this is 95% of the current codebase. The database layer is really thin actually, I suppose it can be rewritten in a few days using any desired technologies. Moreover, one user already has done it, using only the obfuscated client-side code, so I doesn't see any real difficulties here.
Edited by Artem from Screeps September 08, 2016 22:10
Will you be replacing the custom version you have here with the open source version you are building?
> Will you be replacing the custom version you have here with the open source version you are building?
That's the important question to me too.
To be clear, I don't care if we get today's whatever as an opensource project only that we get, and get to keep, the same software that actually runs the live, production, servers.
Edited by coteyr September 09, 2016 05:38
Well, I'm sorry if I was unclear, but you still don't seem to get the point.
Look, we have layered loosely coupled architecture. There will be two (at least) open source codebases, two github repos, two npm modules. One (game engine) is about how the game works, its scripting API, how world objects are processed, how player code is executed using the node VM. The second (database layer) is literally a small set of methods which are responsible to make strictly defined database requests and also contains some specific optimizations and caching. The first codebase is shared between the official server, the official simulaton and the local server. The second one is different in every case. The game itself will be exactly the same in all cases, but how it connects to our server cluster will obviously differ a lot from how it connects to an in-memory JS database (this one for example) on your usual laptop, or even to a desktop-grade MongoDB installed as a Windows service. Database layer modules are easily pluggable as long as they follow the interface, and many unofficial modules may appear in the future. But the game engine is what the game really is, it will be officially maintained, and you can be sure that exactly the same game engine is used on the official server.
Base on what I've seen from the sim code and what Artem has told us, effectively the part not being opensources is purely the /core part of the engine, which is almost entirely DB layer, which means, once released, my server should easily be ported over just by pointing the OSS engine code at my core implementation and not using the minified sim code. At that point I should even be able to simplify my code as I would no longer have to redirect all core requires to my code.
And If I get what Artem is saying correctly, they will be releasing a core implementation, its just going to be a much more local version and not a distributed mongo/redis setup.
@artem: I'm definitely still looking forward to it, and thanks for linking that db, I've never heard of it before, I may have to give it a try. :)
That's correct. It will make use of LokiJS most likely, though we're exploring the alternatives as well.
DoctorZuber September 26, 2016 15:39
Are you planning on keeping both servers current to the same features as you develop?
It seems like you might be committing yourself to a dangerous amount of additional work if this is the case. As much as possible, you really do want them both to be as same as possible to lighten your own work load.
I like that you are contemplating making a single player AI, that feature alone excites me quite a lot. But do yourself a huge favor, and don't.
I don't mean don't include an AI. I mean don't write it. Use our AI instead. Instead of trying to make a challenging AI for players to face in the game world, make a Turing test that can identify our own code which is already a usable AI, and then just use that.
Just take care with privacy, since leaking our own code to other players could be quite disruptive to the game itself.
Gameplay engine will be in one single codebase shared by both projects.
I don't mean don't include an AI. I mean don't write it. Use our AI instead.
Apparently you have misunderstood something. This is our plan exactly. It is explained in the "Single-player bot players" paragraph:
We want the players themselves to find the solution to it, since that's exactly the main fun of Screeps. Any player could write a script for his or her standalone AI and submit it into the common repository where other players of the single-player mode can install it.
New main loop architecture
Important change: NPC invaders
Important change: Memory parsing
New spawn extension system

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


If one person or thing puts another in the shade, they are so impressive that they make the other person or thing seem unimportant or less good by comparison. Such was her beauty that even in her sixties, she managed to put younger women in the shade. The celebrations are so fantastic they would put Mardi Gras in the shade. Note: Shade here means the shadow or darkness produced by blocking the light.


text:
Acid-Base Indicator
An acid-base indicator is not always a synthetic chemical. It is often a complex organic dye that undergoes a change in color when the pH of a solution changes over a specific pH range. Many plant pigments and other natural products are good indicators, and synthetic ones like phenolphthalein and methyl red are also available and widely used. Paper dipped in a mixture of several indicators and then dried is called pH paper, useful for obtaining the approximate pH of a solution. Blue litmus paper turns red in acidic solution, and red litmus paper turns blue in basic solution.
The pH at which the color of an indicator changes is called the transition interval. Chemists use appropriate indicators to signal the end of an acid-base neutralization reaction. Such a reaction is usually accomplished by titration—slowly adding a measured quantity of the base to a measured quantity of the acid (or vice versa) from a buret. (A buret is a long tube with volume markings for precise measurement and a stopcock at the bottom to control the flow of liquid.) When the reaction is complete, that is, when there is no excess of acid or base but only the reaction products, that is called the endpoint of the titration. The indicator must change color at the pH which corresponds to that endpoint.
The indicator changes color because of its own neutralization in the solution. Different indicators have different transition intervals, so the choice of indicator depends on matching the transition interval to the expected pH of the solution just as the reaction reaches the point of complete neutralization. Phenolphthalein changes from colorless to pink across a range of pH 8.2 to pH 10. Methyl red changes from red to yellow across a range of pH 4.4 to pH 6.2. Those are the two most common indicators, but others are available for much higher and lower pH values. Methyl violet, for example, changes from yellow to blue at a transition interval of pH 0.0 to pH 1.6. Alizarin yellow R changes from yellow to red at a transition interval of pH 10.0 to pH 12.1. Other indicators are available through most of the pH range, and can be used in the titration of a wide range of weak acids and bases.
Science EncyclopediaScience & Philosophy: Incomplete dominance to Intuitionism


1975 Columbia-Minerva Leaflet 2621, Pillow and Cover Collection by Viola Sylbert. There are 6 pillow patterns in knit and crochet. The triangle cover is a little different than the normal afghan. It measures 48" through the center.
Condition: The covers are a little yellowed. No writing or tears.


text:
Transforming later lives: Taking a localities approach
This paper sets out our 10-year localities strategy and our place-based approach to improving later lives. It looks at why we work in localities and how we aim to achieve and measure success.
By 2040, over 40% of the UK population will be aged 50 or over. However, we are not ageing evenly everywhere. Already, one in three local authorities – mostly rural and coastal – have populations with this age profile.
With each locality having its own distinct assets and challenges, we believe that these factors must be taken into account in order to generate solutions that are more likely to be appropriate, locally owned and sustainable.
With this strategy, we will deepen our impact with Strategic Locality Partnerships, grow the UK Network of Age-friendly Communities and build wider motivation and capability for change around the country.
Our ambitions
Strategic Locality Partnerships
These are long-term, collaborative agreements for a minimum of five years, where we employ locally hosted staff, make ageing a top strategic priority, test new approaches and share what works. Partners act as exemplars nationally and regionally and cover a range of geographic settings and political contexts. Currently, these are with:
We're building a network of places to share and spread good practice through the UK Network of Age-friendly Communities. Members are committed to making their locality a place where everyone can enjoy a good later life. Having adopted the Age-friendly Communities Framework of the World Health Organisation (WHO), they take steps to ensure the views of older residents are at the heart of their plans. We provide the secretariat and support to the network and have so far helped it to grow from 14 to over 45 towns, districts, boroughs, counties, cities and city regions, covering close to 23 million people.
Build wider motivation & capability for change
The actions and decisions of local policy makers and practitioners are critical to enable us to achieve our vision. With the right leadership, there is potential for every place to adopt and scale solutions that we have first tested either with our Strategic Locality Partnerships or identified through the Age-friendly Communities network. We will continue to ensure our evidence, insights and action are relevant to both local and national policy makers.
Over the next 10 years, we aim to deepen our impact with Strategic Locality Partnerships, grow the UK Network of Age-friendly Communities and build wider motivation and capability for change around the country. We have set ourselves clear goals to measure success along the path to our vision of a society where everyone enjoys later life.
Ageing in a rural place
The State of Ageing in Leeds: What life is like for people aged 50 and over in Leeds


text:
Copestylum chaetogaster är en tvåvingeart som först beskrevs av Hull 1943.  Copestylum chaetogaster ingår i släktet Copestylum och familjen blomflugor. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Blomflugor
chaetogaster

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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It's not easy persuading kids to eat the right things, particularly if you're dealing with very fussy eaters, or children who consider sweets, crisps and ice-cream to be the three basic food groups. But it is so important to ensure that your little ones enjoy a balanced, nutritious diet, because this is what will keep them well, help them grow strong and fit, boost their immune systems and rocket them into a long-lasting, healthy adulthood.
But how? You'll need to be smart in the kitchen, and find creative, imaginative ways of preparing and presenting food.
There are two things that children really adore: the first is any sort of novelty, and the second is playing. If you can combine these two in the kitchen, you're off to a winning start!
You might end up with strange-looking fishcakes and wonky meatballs, but there's no better way of instilling an appreciation of good food in kids than cooking with them as often as you can. If you involve them in preparing family food, they're more likely to eat what they've made – and at the same time you'll be passing on valuable cooking skills!
Choose easy dishes that have spectacular results and involve a lot of interactive kneading, cutting, mixing, grating and whisking. Good examples of such foods are cheese scones, dumplings, bread, meatballs, burgers, flapjacks, biscuits and all sorts of puddings, ice creams and lollies.
This is also a good opportunity to reinforce rules about food safety and kitchen hygiene: be careful with knives and hot pans, wash your hands often, and clean up as you go!
Foods that involve lots of hands-on peeling, scooping and rolling are so interesting to kids. For example, it's great fun peeling litchis and boiled eggs, or hollowing out a whole watermelon, or popping raw peas out of their pods, or scooping the seeds out of gem squash.
Introduce dinners that kids can 'build' themselves. How about Mexican-style wraps and tacos? Most supermarkets sell corn-based taco shells and flour tortillas or rotis, which can be warmed quickly in your oven or microwave. If you can't find these, use pancakes instead. Provide bowls of savoury mince, grated cheese, mashed avocado, shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes and NutriDay plain yoghurt for topping – and then invite your child to go wild!
Alternatively, buy pita breads, warm them in the oven and encourage your kids to experiment with build-a-shwarma ideas. Try our recipe for yummy Beef Shwarmas with Tzatziki!
Scale down! 'Mini' foods are often much more appealing to children than huge, intimidating platefuls. Try tiny meatballs or fishcakes, kebabs on toothpicks (see below for kebab ideas), baby pancakes wrapped around assorted fillings, fried quail's eggs, cocktail sausages and baby marrow balls.
Turn family meals into special occasions. For example, you could could spread blankets and pillows on the living-room floor and throw a Middle Eastern picnic, or make a cheese fondue, or create a burger bar in your own kitchen!
How about making a help-yourself yoghurt bar for your child's next birthday party? Click here to find out how.
Most children love 'dunking' food because it's so messy, interactive and delicious!
Choose foods that are cut or formed into slim rectangles, such as fish fingers, crumbed chicken strips, crunchy vegetable sticks, cheese slices and oblongs of fruit.
Lay out small bowls, ramekins or egg cups, and fill them with a choice of dips and sauces. The bottom half of a polystyrene egg box makes a great disposable container for sauces.
For savoury dishes, provide yoghurt-based dips (click here for recipes), tomato sauce, mayonnaise, olive oil, cheese sauce, soy sauce, and so on.
For sweet dishes, offer smooth NutriDay yoghurt in several flavours, plus interesting garnishes for sprinkling, such as chopped nuts, toasted seeds, hundreds and thousands, edible cake glitter, and so on.
A smart idea is to fill a large plastic syringe (available from chemists) with yoghurt, tomato sauce, mayonnaise or gravy, and invite your child to 'scribble' it all over her food in an interesting pattern.
It's such fun skewering chunks of food onto kebab sticks or threading them on to string! However, if your children are young, this is an activity that requires close adult supervision – kebab sticks are sharp, and toddlers should not be left alone with a food 'necklace'.
Make chicken or fish kebabs by threading cubes of deboned chicken breast or firm white linefish onto wooden skewers. Add other fresh ingredients of your choice such as cherry tomatoes, baby marrow slices, squares of green pepper, dried apricots, and so on. Grill or braai the kebabs, then serve with dipping sauces (see above). Try our delicious Chicken Skewers with a Peri Peri Sauce!
Make jazzy kebabs with colourful chunks of fresh fruit such as banana, mango, melon, pineapple, strawberries and kiwi. Serve with yoghurt or – for a special treat – with a dipping sauce of melted chocolate.
Make food necklaces! Give your child a shoe lace and a bowl of breakfast cereal rings. Show her how to thread the cereal onto the lace and then tie the ends together to make a long necklace which can be nibbled on. An older child will enjoy threading popcorn onto a length of cotton using a large blunt needle – a darning needle (available from sewing shops) is ideal. Other foods that can be threaded to make 'necklaces' are macaroni or penne, dried apple rings, pretzels and strips of biltong.
Kids are endlessly amused by food cut up into cool shapes or formed into quirky pictures – and this is something they can do themselves when they're old enough!
Invest in a set of good cookie cutters (apart from being useful for shaping food, they're also such fun for playdough activities). Try to find a set that includes novelty shapes such as a gingerbread man, a star, a heart, a flower, a moon and a tree.
Here are foods great for cutting into shapes: cheese slices, bread, pancakes, tortillas, pineapple, melons, polony, ham and omelettes.
Hair: chopped lettuce, shredded cabbage, grated cheese, spaghetti, diced boiled egg, baked beans, mashed potatoes, sweetcorn, grated apple, mashed banana, granadilla pulp and yoghurt.
Eyes and ears: raisins, carrot discs, sausage rings, gherkin slices, cherry tomatoes, dried apricots, slices of boiled egg, half-apple slices and dried pears.
Smiles: slices of banana, mango, avocado, pawpaw, melon, or any other curved fruit, sausages, strips of cooked meat, cheese… anything that can be shaped into a generous upward curve.
Construction shapes: boats, houses, kites, cars and trains are easy to make: triangles or rectangles of bread, cheese and ham all make good basic shapes. Use slices of carrot, orange or cucumber for wheels.
Click here for some wonderfully creative ideas for making food 'pictures' for your children.
Now that you've read our ideas for making food fun, please share your creations on our NutriDay Facebook page! We'd love to see how you've made food amazing fun for your little ones.


As of 8:00 am, Tuesday September 19, the Town of East Hampton is under a tropical storm watch as Hurricane Jose passes about 200 miles east of Long Island, which is likely to continue through Wednesday.
The National Weather Service indicates we are expecting winds between 30mph and 40mph, heavy surf conditions, a possible 2-3 foot tidal surge and 2-3 inches of rainfall over the next two days. The storm surge can be expected to peak around the 9:00 am high tide Wednesday morning.
Low lying coastal areas throughout the town may experience street flooding. Strong winds and wet ground conditions may result in tree damage and power outages. Significant erosion is expected along the shoreline, especially the ocean front.
Residents should continue to monitor the track of the storm, secure loose outdoor items that may become airborne in high winds, and be sure to have adequate water and food supplies should there be a loss of electric service. Residents should regard all downed power lines as energized and potentially dangerous. Residents should maintain a safe distance at all times.
Residents should contact PSEGLI regarding any outages at: 1-800-490-0075. Outages may also be reported via text message by texting "OUT" to 773454. For storm related non-emergency incidents, residents should contact the East Hampton Town Police Department at 631-537-7575.


Published on August 31, 2015.
We recently stumbled across a cool website which is documenting people's stories about Punt Road.
It's a wonderful example of how to draw out social histories and engage people through storytelling.
It has an active facebook page as well.
Photo credit: "Hoddle Street, Collingwood, Victoria, Australia" by Mat Connolley (Matnkat) – Own work. Licensed under CC BY 2.5 via Commons.


Have you ever wondered why tuning Oracle improves performance? There are of course obvious answers, but then there are the deeper answers. More profound answers. It's like answering the question, "Why is the sky blue?" Sure you can say, it because the sun's light rays are scattered when they hit the Earth's atmosphere. But then why does scattering the light rays turn the sky blue? And it goes on and on. It can be just like that with Oracle performance.
Last month I blogged about CBC latches, CPU consumption, and wait time. In that posting I demonstrated that by adding cache buffer chain (CBC) latches to a CBC latch constrained system the CPU consumption per logical IO decreased.
In this posting I want to demonstrate how a change in CPU consumed per logical IO causes a corresponding change in the time it takes to process a logical IO...just as Operations Research queuing theory states.
Note: When I write, "tuning Oracle" I am referring to altering instance parameters that do not influence the optimizer to change a SQL statement's execution path. For this posting, I'm typically referring to instance parameters that alter the number of cache buffer chains and latches.
For many of you, this posting will be immensely satisfying because we will have quantified and modeled the Oracle system, taken a tuning solution and quantitatively observed and understood why it altered the system, and then we observed the result closely matched our quantitative model. If this still seems overly theoretical, in the next blog entry you will see how we can use this understanding to anticipate the impact on a SQL statement's elapsed time!
In my previous CBC latches, CPU consumption, and wait time posting I defined and used a few terms that must be understood before this blog posting will make any sense. The terms are unit of work, service time, queue time, response time, arrival rate, and elapsed time. Response time is the time to complete a single unit of work and elapsed time is the time to process multiple units of work. If this is somewhat confusing, please refer to that previous blog entry.
To meet my objectives I created an experiment that is easily repeatable. I created a massive CPU bottleneck by having a number of Oracle sessions run SQL where all their blocks reside in the buffer cache, that is SQL is logical IO (v$sysstat: session logical reads) dependent. I gathered 30 ten minute samples with the CBC latches set to 256 and then to 32768. During these ten minute collection periods, I sampled the elapsed time of a specific LIO dependent SQL statement. With 256 CBC latches, around 23 elapsed times where collected. With 32768 CBC latches, around 71 elapsed times where collected. The difference in the number of elapsed time samples was the result of the SQL completing sooner when there was 32768 CBC latches.
If you look closely at my data collection script, you can easily see how I captured, stored, and retrieved the performance data. You can download the data collection script here. The SQL elapsed times where gathered using the OraPub SQL Elapsed Time Sampler.
You can download the raw data text files (256 latches, 32768 latches) and the Mathematica analysis notebook (PDF, notebook).
Current Oracle performance analysis focuses much on the time involved (CPU plus non-idle wait time) related to SQL statement completion, process completion, or an Oracle instance over an specified interval (think: Statspack/AWR). That's great and is a fantastic analysis leap forward from ratio analysis and wait event analysis because it better reflects what a user is experiencing and it includes both wait time and CPU consumption. But to unite Oracle time based analysis with Operations Research queuing theory, we need the time related to a specific piece (or unit) of work. When we do this, we gain the advantages of our Oracle analysis plus all the years of proven Operations Research! Yeah... it's a big deal.
There are many ways to describe the work being processed in an Oracle system. When we say, "The LIO workload is unusually high today" we are relating performance to the LIO workload. Or how about, "Parsing is hammering performance!" or "Disk reads are intense and really slow today and it's affecting some very key SQL statements." Each of these statements is speaking and relating system performance to a type of work; namely logical IO (session logical reads), parsing (parse count (hard)), and disk reads (physical reads).
We can use this natural way of relating work and performance in very profound ways. What I'm going to show you is how to quantify these performance statements and then demonstrate how tuning Oracle changed the underlying Operations Research queuing theory parameters and then in my next posting how this affects SQL elapsed times.
Think of it like this: Acquiring a latch or mutex consists of repeatedly checking a memory address (which consumes CPU) and possibly sleeping (which can be implemented in a number of ways). If there are 100 sessions requesting a latch and there is only one latch, you can see there will be a lot more spinning and sleeping compared to if there was 100 latches. By increasing the number of latches, we are effectively reducing the number of spins involved to process a LIO, which translates into reducing the CPU involved to process a LIO (on average).
Let's get quantitative. For example, if over a one hour period Oracle processes consumed 1,000 seconds of CPU time while processing 5,0000,000 logical IOs, then the average CPU time to process a logical IO is 0.20 ms/lio.
Response Time (Rt or R) is the time it takes to process a single unit of work. Queuing theory states that response time is service time (defined below) plus queue time (defined below).
Service Time (St or S) is the CPU consumed to process a single unit of work. We get this data from v$sys_time_model, summing the DB CPU and background cpu time columns. For those of you who are familiar with service time, while I don't detail this in this blog entry, Oracle service time, that is the CPU it takes to process a unit of work, is nearly constant regardless of the arrival rate... just as the theory indicates.
Queue time (Qt or Q) is the non-idle wait time related to processing a single unit of work. We get this data from v$system_event. For those of you familiar with queue time, when response time increases, it is because the queue time increases, not because service time increases... and Oracle systems behave like the theory indicates.
Arrival Rate (L) is the number of units of work that arrive into the Oracle system per unit of time. For example, 120 physical IOs per second or 120 pio/sec. In a stable system, the arrival rate will equal the workload, which is why I commonly use the word workload. This is avoid introducing yet another term and confusing people. The symbol L is used because the arrival rate is always depicted using the greek symbol lambda.
Now that I've covered the experimental setup and the key terms and concepts, let's take a look at the actual experimental results.
Reduces response time as Operations Research queueing theory states.
The Drop in CPU Consumed per Logical IO.
As I demonstrated in my CBC latches, CPU consumption, and wait time posting, in a system that is CPU constrained experiencing massive CBC latch contention, one of the possible solutions is to increase the number of CBC latches. This causes a decrease in the CPU consumed while processing a LIO, that is the service time (CPU ms/lio or simply ms/lio). (This solution will only work if CBC latch access is not specific to a few CBC latches. Why?) This blog posting's experiment also easily demonstrates this phenomenon.
Figure 1 above shows the Operations Research queuing theory parameter results. Notice the 72% decrease in average service time when the number of latches was increased from 256 to 32768. Numerically, it looks like a very real decrease in service time!
Figure 2 above is a histogram of the service times. The red-like color bars are the sample service times when there was 32768 CBC latches and the blue-like bars are the sample times when there was 256 latches. Visually, it looks like when adding CBC latches the service time decrease is very significant!
Just to make sure that statistically the service times are significantly different, I performed a significance test. Since the sample distributions where not normally distributed (obvious with the blue-like bars), a location significant test was performed. Mathematica choose the Kruskal-Wallis test and the resulting P-value was 44.3x10-19, which is far below my chosen alpha of 0.05. Therefore, statistically there is a significant difference (and in this case a decrease) in the service times. You can view all these details in the Mathematica notepad and it's PDF. The link is provided in the Experimental Setup section above.
That's all good, but this section is really focused on asking the question, "Is this decrease in response time consistent with queuing theory?" Read on!
Referring to Figure 1 above, notice we have values for all variables except M, the number of effective servers. In a CPU subsystem, M is the number of CPU cores or perhaps threads. Since we have real data, we can derive the number of effective servers. If the system is CPU bound, the number of effective servers is typically pretty close the number of actual servers (i.e., CPU cores). Let's check it out!
You cannot solve for M using standard Algebra... it won't work. Even Mathematica's WolframAlpha will tell you this! What is needed is some cyclical process that converges on M. In 2010 I created a simple web application, that anyone can access on-line, to solve for M. I call it the OraPub M-Solver and here is the URL: http://filezone.orapub.com/cgi-bin/msolve.cgi If you search Google for "msolver" and especially "orapub msolver" it will be the top result.
Placing the values from our system into OraPub's M-Solver, you will see what is shown in Figure 3.
Press the submit button to solve for M and in a few seconds you will receive what is shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4 shows M at 4.598. There are four physical CPU cores in this system... not bad and very typical difference. (While I'm not going to go down this path, notice at the bottom of the Figure 4 there is a link to plot the resulting response time curve.) As Figure 4 shows, we now have all the variable values for the response time formula; M, L, S, Q, and R.
The question before us is, does the change in the service time (S) produce a corresponding change in the response time (R) as queuing theory states? Let's check!
Our model anticipates the response time to be 0.008733 ms/lio. The experimentally observed response time was 0.0093257 ms/lio. That's really close! As Figure 5 shows, the difference is only 6.4%.
Figure 5 shows that when additional CBC latches were added and only incorporating the service time change into our response time model, the predicted response time differed only 6.4%. Considering the simplicity of our model, this is outstanding!
You may have noticed that in Figure 1 when the additional latches where added and the system stabilized, the arrival rate increased by 175%. To be correct (and fair) to our response time model, we need to account for this change in the arrival rate. As most of you know, when we increase the arrival rate the resulting response time can also increase. So be fair, we need to incorporate the arrival rate increase into our model.
Figure 6 shows the results when incorporating both the change in service time (S) and arrival rate (L) into the response time model. In this case, our prediction was off by 10%. Again, considering the simplicity of our model (which can be greatly enhanced as I discuss in my Oracle Forecasting & Predictive Analysis course), this is outstanding!
Very cool, eh? What we have seen is that by tuning Oracle we have reduced the time it takes to process a logical IO (response time) and this reduction is as our classic CPU queuing theory based model indicates.
The main point of this posting is to demonstrate that when we tuned Oracle by adding additional CBC latches, we effectively altered the Oracle kernel code path making it more efficient AND the resulting LIO response time changed as Operation Research queuing theory states!
There was an intense CPU bottleneck along with raging CBC latch contention.
We observed the CPU time to process a single LIO (S) was 0.0313 ms and the total time to process a LIO (R) was 0.0633 ms.
We increased the number of CBC latches from 256 to 32768.
We restarted the system and let it stabilize.
We observed the CPU time to process a single LIO (S) decreased by 72%, the arrival rate (L) increased by 175%, and the total time to process a LIO (R) decreased by 85%.
Our response time model predicted, with the decrease in CPU time to process a LIO (S) and also the increase in the arrival rate (L), a response time (R) that was 10% greater than what actually occurred.
For many of you, this will be immensely satisfying because we have quantified and modeled an Oracle system, taken a tuning solution and quantitatively observed the resulting change and understood why it altered the system, and then we demonstrated the observed result closely matched our quantitate model.
If this seems overly theoretical, in the next blog entry you'll see how we can use this information to anticipate the impact on a SQL statement's elapsed time!
Here's the situation: You run a Statspack or AWR report, determine the key SQL statements, and based on the total elapsed time and the number of executions you determine their average elapsed times. You then tell your user's you can see for their key SQL statement the average elapsed time is X. Then you notice they are kind of snickering because while it does sometimes take this long, it usually doesn't. And in their minds, your reputation and their trust in your skills sinks a little lower. If this situation makes you feel uncomfortable, then read on!
Average elapsed times do not tell us much.
If you have been following my blogs, you may recall that last February (2011) I blogged about SQL Statement Elapsed Times. One of the key take aways was SQL statement elapsed times are not normally distributed. That is, for a given statement, if you gather a bunch of elapsed time samples, there will not be an equal number of samples below and above the average. Said another way, that nice bell curve histogram most people envision when we say, "The statement takes an average of X seconds to run" is not close to the truth. Not even close.
Since SQL statement elapsed times are not normally distributed, knowing the average elapsed time is not all that useful and can easily mislead people.
To demonstrate this, in the February blog posting I created a procedure to gather elapsed times for a given sql_id and plan_hash_value. The problem was (and still is) the procedure can consume an entire CPU core while collecting data! Perhaps this is OK when gathering experimental data (sometimes), but obviously it's not going to be acceptable when you're performance firefighting on a CPU bottlenecked system and need to get a truer understanding of the elapsed times without hammering your system in the process. But if you'd like, you can download this free tool here.
For months now, I have been planning on creating better SQL elapsed time collector. A tool that ever-so-lightly collects elapsed times for a given statement's sql_id. At the time of this blog entry, a number of DBAs are beta testing and I have some preliminary data from some of them already.
But you may be thinking: What about other methods of gathering elapsed times? There are other methods and below I'll discuss both instrumentation and tracing. And then, I'll compare them with the new tool that's in beta as I type.
What about instrumentation and tracing?
I also wrote a bourne shell script trace file processor, which given the sql_id will produce all the sql_id elapsed times contained with the trace file. It was written for Linux based on an Oracle 11.2 trace file, but I suspect can be easily modified if necessary. Click here to view the shell script.
To really prove to myself that these methods worked, I performed an experiment. You can download the master experiment script here. I created a CPU bottleneck (top wait event was latch: cache buffer chain), instrumented the SQL and ran it as I just mentioned above (i.e., get time t0, etc.) while also tracing just that statement. I did the entire experiment twice; each time with a different average sleep time between the executions for the SQL statement I was gathering elapsed times for. The sleep times were log normal distributed, which is much more realistic than a contestant (i.e., uniform) or normally distributed sleep times. Each of the two sample times were around 5 minutes. The experimental setup worked wonderfully.
Figure 1 shows a summary of data collected when the sleep time averaged around 2 seconds and Figure 2 data was collected when the sleep times averaged around 1.8 seconds. The load was also a little more intense during the Figure 2 collection, hence the elapsed times are slightly longer. Within Figure 1 and Figure 2, notice how similar the captured elapsed times are! Statistically speaking, there is no difference between them (alpha=0.05, p-value 0.980) This means both methods will yield the same test results... you pick which one works the best for you!
Figure 3 really shows the story! Figure 3 above contains two smoothed histograms based on the data in Figure 2 above. Notice the lines are difficult to distinguish. This means both the instrumentation and SQL tracing elapsed time strategies resulted in nearly the exact same results. And that is what the statistics also told us.
The point of Figure 1, Figure 2, and Figure 3 is both instrumentation and SQL tracing produce good and the same elapsed time data.
If you need good SQL statement elapsed times and the SQL of interest is not instrumented and tracing is not a viable option, then consider the OraPub Elapsed Time Sampler. The sampling overhead is minuscule, it is simple to use, it is customizable, and it is amazingly accurate. Here is the link to the tool's web-page. As the web-site states (at this time), if you would like to beta test the tool, please email me at orapub.general@gmail.com. Once the beta testing is completed, the tool will be available on my web-site, but for a few dollars.
All performance tools place some overhead on the systems they are monitoring. I decided to actually observe and honeslty report the overhead. The product incorporates several strategies to reduce the overhead. In the initial beta version there are also three precision options, which impacts the gathering overhead. The precision options are low, normal, and high.
When the product is looking for the specific SQL to complete, the CPU impact is around 1.2%, 1.2% (not a typo) and 20% on a single core for the low, normal, and high precision options respectively. This means if you have a 4 core server and gathering at the low precision the collection server process would be consuming 0.3% of the CPU resources. When the tool is looking for the SQL to monitor, the CPU overhead is 12%, 56%, and 100% on a single CPU core for the low, normal and high precision options respectively. This means if you have a 4 core server and gathering at the low precision, the collection server process would be consuming 3% of the CPU resources (3% of a core = 12% / 4 cores).
I typically use the low precision setting because, as you'll see below, even at this level the results are stunningly accurate. Keep in mind, these numbers are for the initial beta version (3c) and I'm still working to reduce the overhead. I also planning on creating a super-low precision/impact setting.
You create the sample data table and create a single package. Installation done!
This is the really cool part! My core objectives where low overhead and to be accurate "enough." As I mentioned above, the overhead is virtually zero. It's easy to collect accurate data when the elapsed times are long, perhaps greater than 20 seconds. But for statements just a second or two long...it becomes very difficult to maintain the balance of low overhead and accuracy.
You can download all the experimental data, some of what I show in this blog entry: NORMAL precision data and analysis (PDF, Mathematica notebook) and LOW precision data and analysis (PDF, Mathematica notebook). You can also view/download the my master experiment text file, which is what I copy and paste from when I ran the experiment.
The tool's collected elapsed times are extremely accurate. While I didn't mention this above (would have been a distraction), while gathering the sample data summarized in Figure 1, Figure 2, and Figure 3, I was also gathering elapsed time samples using this tool... I just didn't show that data in those figures. (sneaky, I know) Here is data in both table and histogram format.
Figure 4. Normal precision and overhead.
Figure 5. Normal precision and overhead.
Figure 4 and Figure 5 contains all the data from a 5 minute sample interval at the normal precision level. The sleep time between the SQL statement I was looking for was around 2 seconds (log normal distributed). As you probably inferred by looking at Figure 4 and Figure 5, statistically there is no difference between the elapsed time gathering methods. The smoothed historgram (Figure 5) clearly shows there is virtually no difference in the collection methods.
But what about the low precision setting? After all, the lowest precision setting places a near undectable load on the system. Figure 6 and Figure 7 show the results.
Figure 6. Low precision and overhead.
Figure 7. Low precision and overhead.
By looking at Figure 4, Figure 5, Figure 6 and Figure 7 you probably inferred that any of the collection methods will work fine and produce the same results (statistically speaking, alpha 0.05). Yes, this is correct!
To summarize the OraPub SQL Elapsed Time Sampler option: If your SQL is not instrumented and SQL tracing is not a production option and you have the spending authority of around a box of candy, then this product should satisfy your requirements. In fact, any of the precision settings will produce accurate results along with a shockingly (or perhaps refreshingly) low sampling overhead.
Again, here's the link to the tool's web page.
If you would like, you can email me your elapsed time data and I'll run it through a Mathematica notebook, which will crank out a number of graphs and tables. Usually the results are very informative and immensely satisfying.
My objective in this blog entry was not to push my new tool (really). I was just as interested in understanding the accuracy and similarity of all three collection methods (instrumentation, tracing, and OraPub's sampling tool). As I mentioned at the top, its easy to get the SQL statement average elapsed time...but that can be very misleading and not all that helpful. What is needed are good elapsed time samples. This blog entry presents three ways to get really, really good elapsed times with relatively low overhead and at virtually no cost.


text:
Material Handling Trends in the Kentuckiana Region
In May 24, 2011
"When the recession of 2008 began, none of us had any idea what we were in store for," begins Mike Brumleve, President, Cardinal Carryor. He went on to tell a tale similar to those of thousands of Kentuckiana-area businesses. "It was by far our hardest economic time in the life of Cardinal Carryor," he adds, noting that it will celebrate 65 years of service in 2011. Nevertheless, his company survived by tightening its financial belt, running leaner than ever, and continuing to provide the best service to its customers. Now, 2011 shows signs of a greatly improving economy, and many companies are now hiring. So what's next for Cardinal Carryor and its clientele? Further, what are the trends that are emerging from this period of financial trial? I sat down with a couple of the company's leaders to find out.
"There are four major industries we serve," Mr. Brumleve explained. They are:
Manufacturing (primarily automotive)
Each responded in its own way to the recession. All companies are making plans relative to:
With the current balance of power in Washington, Mr. Brumleve says that he is "cautiously optimistic" about future expansion of business for 2011. He's not alone. The Memphis Business Journal reported that manufacturing revenues for 2011 are expected to rise approximately 7.5% and capital investments are expected to tick upwards 18% in 2011. In addition, operating capacities are running at 85% — the highest level since 2006.
"So why is anyone worried?" I asked. Mr. Brumleve went on to explain that even though employment rates are increasing, there are still many unanswered questions about the costs of operating a business in the U.S. and many of those questions stem from Washington.
"We don't know the full impact of the health care law changes," explained Mr. Brumleve. He continues: "The real costs of a new hire have increased 15 to 20 percent, and uncertainty of costs stifles employment growth for me and for my customers." He cited the financial industry as another cog in the wheel of growth that needs to get some grease as well. "Credit is easing a bit, and customers are able to get some financing", he says. "But it's nothing like it was in 2008, when a customer looked for the equipment they needed and then obtained financing. It's the other way around these days. Now customers have to determine how much credit they can procure, then find the equipment configuration that best meets that amount."
This has led to another trend: an uptick in the practice of renting equipment to own it. By renting the equipment, no financing or borrowing takes place, and a percent of the monthly rental payment applies to the eventual ownership. This allows a company to grow as needed right now, without the burden of credit looming over it. It improves cash flow and retains a greater portion of credit available for other growth activities.
Some of Mr. Brumleve's customers are foregoing their own warehousing and distribution and relying on Third Party Logistics companies like UPS Logistics, APL and Excel Logistics. "This allows smaller companies to distribute their products efficiently and effectively, without the great capital expenditures required for a full-fledged distribution operation," he says. "It allows smaller firms to compete with much larger companies that distribute their products themselves, without adding debt—which is key in any economic time," He believes this trend will continue, even after the economy fully recovers, as it is simply a more prudent business model for small to mid-sized companies.
Cardinal Integrated is Cardinal Carryor's warehouse design and engineering arm. This division is led by Keith Heustis, President. Mr. Heustis says: "The recession gave companies something they had not had in years—time to re-think their material handling process…what they did with this time is try to find a way to maximize the Return on Investment (R.O.I) on their material handling operation." Earlier in this decade, business was booming; shutting down or slowing down to add on was not something easily undertaken. And the easiest route was to knock out a wall and expand outward. Now, companies are using Cardinal Integrated's engineering and design team to completely re-think, re-tool and re-design their warehouses. They're giving a lot more thought to expanding upwards, how they handle their materials, and what is the best mix of equipment and space to maximize R.O.I.
With regards to employment, Mr. Heustis has found that companies are looking for ways to increase productivity while avoiding payroll expenses pre-dating the 2008 recession. "Most companies are doing more, with fewer employees, and this trend will continue throughout the recovery" Mr. Huestis added. He sees more companies inquiring for true assistance in streamlining than ever before to accommodate their business growth. Prior to the recession people would inquire about options, now they are leaning towards solutions to improve profits.
In terms of business climate, Mr. Heustis observes that a lot of projects quoted in the past are being brought back up for implementation—but with scaled back designs or other means to reduce costs of implementation. Nevertheless, he concurred with Mike Brumleve in that his customers are "cautiously optimistic." His customers have told him that tight fiscal policy requires more critical examinations of their own business models and renewed need for ideas on how to increase productivity, improve through-put, and reduce costs.
Both Mr. Heustis and Mr. Brumleve share a positive outlook for the Louisville economy in general. They agree that if there are no more economic hurdles, and if credit continues to improve, then all the other economic indicators point to a slow but steady rebound. They're confident that their customers are ready to expand and, that as soon as nerves settle, we will see more companies investing in "intelligent expansion" of their materials handling operations.
Learn about our selection of Conveyor Systems
Great Turnout For Cardinal Integrated Customer Appreciation Event…
The Cardinal Rule
Tips & Guidance


The award winning Black Bird series was designed by custom designer and sheath-maker Paul Sheiter for maximum performance with an elegant simplicity and the signature elements of a center point blade, straight back profile and a flat heel for maximum utility. Featuring high quality 154 CM stainless steel and black G-10 handle, the Black Bird variants come in either a silver finish or with a special operations capable (SOC) powder coating for added durability. All Black Bird models include a MOLLE compatible sheath.
Whether it is the RAT or our TAK Series knives, you can rest assured these knives will stand the test of durability. TAK knife features include 1095 carbon blades, canvas micarta handles, and sheath. RAT-3 knife features include 1095 carbon steel blades, canvas micarta handles and molded sheath. RAT-5 knife features include 5" flat ground 1095 carbon steel blades, canvas micarta handles with skull crusher.


– Metal structure of 500cm long, 200cm high and 100cm wide.
– 5 security rotating crystal windows 4+4mm of 180x90cm.
Interactive art installation created during the Ozora Festival 2017 in Budapest (Hungary). The festival take place during the solar eclipse of august.
Made on 5 rotating crystals, this art installation was painted live during the festival just with 3 fluor sprays and UV light where people can interact each other moving mirrors.
The artwork itself is a crystal structure consisting in mirrors and a metal construction. It represents the equality between man and woman and balance between moon and sun where "knowledge is power".


Manila the fast-paced Capital of the Philippines, flush with modern skyscrapers and the amazing old Manila and home to the baroque 16th-century San Agustin Church as well as Fort Santiago. This vast metropolis that everyone calls Manila is made up of many different cities.
This part of the city is Manila, based on the western part of Metro Manila and contains many different areas, including; Paco, Santa Mesa, Tondo and Ermita. Intramuros with its name taken from two Spanish words, intra & muros, which literally translates as "within the walls", it is known as the History Town of the Philippines. During the colonization for over three centuries by the Spanish, this area was considered as Old Manila and the district still contains numerous Spanish colonial attractions. However, unfortunately, the ravages of the 2nd world war have taken its toll on most of the beautiful architecture of that period. There are still some amazing examples.
Makati is said to be outside of Manila, yet considered the business district of the city. Home to the city's skyscrapers and financial district. And is where most of the western expat community work and reside. With plenty of Bars, clubs, restaurants and high-class hotels, it certainly won't be a dull place to live and enjoy the expat lifestyle.
Executive Apartments and Condos and Serviced Suites within Makati are available and can be found within FlatMonthly's Search function. Even two Bed apartments are ready to be taken on a short-term monthly rental agreement without having to sign a full 12 monthly lease.
With approximately 500,000 people that live in Makati and another 500,000 that travel to work in the city every day due to the numerous major banks, financial firms and international companies that are set up there. If that is where your work will be during your stay, then it is a good idea to live in the area too. This will save you the daily struggle of commuting in the difficult conditions of Manila's traffic. However, Makati is only one of 16 urban districts in Metro Manila.
Some expats do choose to venture out further afield from the hustle and bustle of Makati and opt instead for the more relaxed residential areas such as Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City, an affluent, urbanized lifestyle hub with short-term monthly rental condominiums, offices, malls, and retail parks, dining, and entertainment. Ayala Alabang Village and Filinvest Corporate City in the Muntinlupa City district is another similar area and has easy access to Makati City.
If you are looking for that special place, FlatMonthly's range of Executive Monthly Rent Apartments should be at the top of your call list. Contact Us at the FlatMonthly Headoffice, or just browse through our Manila property listings.


Removing public-html from Cc list.
> further debate on a legitimate subject.
are seen to be associated with is also an attack tactic.
> The most inflamatory response of the 2 so far, is yours.
> if they desire to understand more fully the context.
yet the framing of your email appears to hold us somehow responsible.
> list in the future.
salutation named us directly: "Hi anne and mjs". Such "open letters"
making alt mandatory, what is the value in attacking me?
> being abusive? provocative maybe.
you continue to do it I will call you on it.
if you are just trying to stir up trouble.
Reply: Maciej Stachowiak: "Re: testing versus expert opinion"


Practice the Single Stroke-n-Flam Frenzy.
This is a fun exercise to practice that will improve your chops. I originally wrote this one as a challenge for a contest win a Drumometer, in conjunction with the WFD at NAMM.
Learn Tiger Bill's Tension Free Drumming Concepts!


E ngā mana, e aku rangatira, e te whānau whānui o MIL, nei rā te mihi kau ana kia koutou i tae ā-tinana ki to mātou pō whakahirahira.
Thank you to all who attended the celebrations to commemorate the 50th anniversary of MIL. Photos taken on the evening can be found in the gallery section of our website - 50th Anniversary. We have also included photos taken at the AGM last month - 2018 AGM.
Understorey crops are potentially valuable plant species that can tolerate the shade in planted forests. Careful planning and good research will help to minimise risks and promote efficient land use. Click on the resouces below for more detailed information.
Copyright © 2015 Maori Investments Ltd.


Periodontium refers to specialized tissues that surround the tooth, i.e. the gum, tissue protecting tooth from outside, i.e. periodontal ligament, tooth socket membrane, i.e. periosteum and the bone supporting the tooth around.
Many people don't suffer from toothaches, but from inflammations of periodontal tissues.
Gingivitis is the most frequent morbidity of periodontal disease.
If untreated, it may spread to other tooth-surrounding tissues and consequently lead to the loss of the tooth. Inflammation of the gums is caused by bacterial plaque – colourless film that constantly forms on your teeth. If plaque is not removed by brushing and flossing, over time it may accumulate and bacteria damage not only the teeth, but gum tissues and bones, being teeth support. It may cause loosening or falling out of teeth or the need to extract the teeth by the dentist.
Gingivitis: The earliest stage is the inflammation of the gums caused by the build up of plaque at the gum line. If daily brushing and flossing do not remove the plaque, bacteria in the plaque produce toxins, that can irritate the gum tissue, causing gingivitis. You may notice some bleeding during brushing and flossing. At this early stage in gum disease, damage can be reversed, as the bone and connective tissue that hold teeth in place are not yet affected by the disease.
the gum line and edge of the bone supporting the tooth. It may come to complications due to additional infection, resulting in discharge of pus from the pocket and considerable painfulness.
Advanced Periodontitis: At this stage of disease, the fibres and bone supporting your teeth are destroyed, which can cause your teeth to shift and loosen and may consequently lead to the need for their removal.


text:
No Other Foundation
Reflections from Fr. Lawrence Farley
Another Fundamental Fact
May 16, 2022 · Fr. Lawrence Farley
In our last blog piece we examined the fundamental fact about the Church's essential nature—viz. that the Church was the actual Body of Christ, the manifestation of His presence in this age. Here I would like to examine another fundamental fact about the Church—viz. that in this age it is destined to suffer.
The suffering of the Christians in this age is not simply a sociological fact, something which given a different set of social circumstances could have been otherwise. It is inevitable, given the Church being the Body of Christ. That is, because Christ suffered and has no place in the world, His Body the Church must suffer also and for the same reason. (Fr. Alexander Schmemann spoke of this with his usual brilliant insight.) The world rejected Christ and continues to reject Him whenever it begins to understand Him and the claims that He makes upon it.
Given this, it is inconceivable that the Church could ever have found a happy home in this age, an open-armed and permanent acceptance from everyone forever. The Lord Himself warned us of this: "If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you" (John 15:20). His chosen vessel Paul said the same: "All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Timothy 3:12). That is why here we have no continuing city, no true home, and why we pass through this age as strangers and sojourners (Hebrews 13:14, 1 Peter 2:11). The persecuted condition of the Church is almost one of the "notes", the defining characteristics of the Church in this age, along with its unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity.
It is sometimes easy for the Orthodox to forget this, rooted as we sometimes are in Byzantium and with the Imperial stars still in our eyes. We still refer to Istanbul as Constantinople, dress our bishops in the garments once reserved for the Byzantine emperor (i.e. the mitre and sakkos), and makes images of the two-headed eagle, though that bird has long ceased to soar. Such concern for a Byzantine past can sometimes blind us to the realities of the present, and jeopardize us sensibly meeting the challenges of the future. But hard as it may be to accept, Byzantium was a blip.
A long blip, admittedly. And a blip that fulfilled much Biblical prophecy. The prophets looked forward to a time when the kings of the earth would bow the knee before Israel's God (e.g. Isaiah 60:1-3). When the time came for some of those kings (such as Constantine and his successors) to bow the knee and worship the Trinity, writers like Eusebius of Caesarea were not slow to connect the Biblical dots and declare that a Christian Caesar was the fulfillment of Hebrew prophecy. And so it was. But even with the Cross triumphant in Rome the Kingdom of God was still not of this world.
And the triumphs of the Cross, though happily lasting a long time, were never universal, nor were they eternal. The panic of the Christians in Britain at the approach of the Vikings and their liturgical supplication, "From the fury of the northmen, good Lord deliver us!" testify to this. And the Roman empire, though at one time so vast that the Great Sea, the Mediterranean, was called by them mare nostrum (i.e. "our lake"), it never did cover the earth. The Parthians with their own empire lay outside it, as later did the Islamic empire. The lands of China never fell to the Roman eagle—nor, of course, did the lands of the then-undiscovered New World. Christian missionaries entering those lands often became martyrs—as shown by the experience of Jean de Brébeuf, massacred by the Iroquois.
He was but one of a multitude of those martyred in non-Roman lands. And even now persecution is occurring: Christians continue to suffer under Islam and in China—and invisibly, with the world refusing to notice or report it. Suffering is the Church's lot, its destiny in this age. If they persecuted Christ, they will persecute His Christians, for they follow a Master and proclaim a message which the world hates.
There is, of course, a way to avoid such suffering—viz, to cease to truly follow the Master and to proclaim a different message from His, a message which the world will find more congenial. This is the path of secularization, and many Christians throughout history have embraced it. But we must be clear what we mean by "secularization".
Secularization does not mean the rejection of religion, but its transformation so that it no longer threatens the established world order, the spiritual status quo. Churches (now often referred to as "liberal churches") have sometimes chosen this path. They regard as their task to affirm what the world defines as good, and to denounce what the world rejects as harmful. As a result they find their place within the present order, a safe niche from which they can pursue their own agendas and do no harm to the present order. Their task is to uphold the present regime, to bless the weapons of war, to sprinkle Holy Water on the abortion clinics, to resist the patriarchy, and work with the world toward its goal of a more just society for everyone. Such secularization is not the monopoly of either the Left or the Right, for such compromise with the world is found everywhere, since the temptation to such compromise is found in every human heart.
It is the refusal to change and tamper with the message of Christ that brings down persecution upon our heads. Yet faithfulness to the Master demands that we stand beside Him and refuse to alter His message. Long ago St. Paul spoke of Christians as called to carry in their bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:10), reproducing in their lives the rejection that He Himself suffered. This saving reproduction happens whenever Christians are faithful to Him.
Christ was abundantly clear: we are to follow in His footsteps, suffering as He did (1 Peter 2:21). In this age, the Church must always be on the cross. At time of writing, the Church in the West lives within the fast-fading vestiges of Christendom, and enjoys comparative freedom from persecution. Though the Orthodox deacon still cries out to the (now non-existent) doorkeeper, "The doors! The doors!", we do not really fear that the police will burst through those doors to arrest us. But such freedom may be slipping away. Here in Canada when the media was filled with stories of atrocities against First Nations people at the hands of those running the residential schools, Catholic churches were vandalized and burned down—including (absurdly) Catholic churches owned and attended by First Nations people themselves. The immunity from persecution that the churches once enjoyed is fast slipping away. It is as if Diocletian and Nero stir in their long sleep. Another fundamental fact, the perennial hostility of the world, is now asserting itself.
The last word may perhaps be given by G. K. Chesterton, who wrote so movingly about these things, and about the first persecution that the Church suffered: "There shone on [the Church] in that dark hour a light that has never been darkened; a white fire clinging to that group like an unearthly phosphorescence, blazing its track through the twilights of history; that shaft of light or lightning by which the world itself has struck and isolated and crowned it; by which its own enemies have made it more illustrious and its own critics have made it more inexplicable—the halo of hatred around the Church of God". That halo is still shining.
About Fr. Lawrence Farley
Fr. Lawrence serves as pastor of St. Herman's Orthodox Church in Langley, BC. He is also author of the Orthodox Bible Companion Series along with a number of other publications.
The Fundamental Fact
Part One: Not Like Religion - the Christian Clergy
Biblical Rebellion?
Overturning Everything
One comment:
Sinnika says:
How wonderful and brave to speak the Truth in this time of great confusion, thank you , the silence of so many to do so, is very depressing.
The Way of Suffering, is the Way by which Christ and all who are His have travelled, and still do.
It is a Narrow Way, which we must follow if we belong to Him.
The Church suffers, as you say, because it is an obstacle to self-indulgence and pleasure.
I used to think that suffering was a bad thing, but I am beginning to realise that it is actually a medicine, a bitter medicine, but necessary for our healing, if one accepts it.
Pride has no place in the Presence of God, I can only pray "A pure heart create in me O Lord, and put a steadfast spirit within me".
Ancient Faith Publications
Orthodox Bible Study Companion Series
The Christian Old Testament
Let Us Attend
Feminism and Tradition
The Christian Old Testament: Looking at the Hebrew Scriptures through Christian Eyes
One Flesh: Salvation through Marriage in the Orthodox Church
Following Egeria: a Visit to the Holy Land through Time and Space
The Empty Throne: Reflection on the History and Future of the Orthodox Episcopate
© 2014-2023 Fr. Lawrence Farley · All Rights Reserved


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text:
Q: CSS glow(shadow?) with transition doesn't completely work This is kind of specific, so it is very difficult to choose a correct title or try to find an already existing fix, but here it is, anyway:
I found this code snippet on the web when I was searching for something similar and decided to use it on the project I am working on:
.text-glow:hover, .text-glow:focus, .text-glow:active {
   -webkit-stroke-width: 5.3px;
   -webkit-stroke-color: #FFFFFF;
   -webkit-fill-color: #FFFFFF;
   text-shadow: 1px 0px 20px yellow;
   -webkit-transition: width 0.3s; /*Safari & Chrome*/
   transition: width 0.3s;
   -moz-transition: width 0.3s; /* Firefox 4 */
   -o-transition: width 0.3s; /* Opera */
   }
.text-glow a {
   -webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease-in; /*Safari & Chrome*/
   transition: all 0.3s ease-in;
   -moz-transition: all 0.3s ease-in; /* Firefox 4 */
   -o-transition: all 0.3s ease-in; /* Opera */
   text-decoration:none;
   color:white;
   }

It adds a "glow" to the text using pure CSS.
The problem is, I'm not very fluent in the newer things in CSS3, thus, although I use this snippet(is that what it's even called?), I only really vaguely understand how it works.
So, it works fine as long as I add an empty link to the text—Text—while surrounding it with , but if I use this on a link that actually redirects somewhere(home page), the slow transition of the glow spreading/fading in while I hover my mouse over it doesn't work. It's simply there, although it does fade out normally.
Here is the JSFiddle. Hover over the text that says "Doesn't Work" and you'll see what I mean.
It would be great if you guys can help me fix this—preferably using nothing but CSS, if not possible then Javascript's okay, but please not jQuery, don't know much of that yet—and if possible, explain how this works in a bit of a "quasi-newbie" language.

A: It's because you're using the class "umn" on both the link and it's parent.
Change it from
Doesn't Work

to
Doesn't Work

and it will work. See my updated fiddle: https://jsfiddle.net/yd8tpkw5/

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
package com.github.ghostpassword.android;

import android.content.Intent;
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.TextView;

import com.github.ghostpassword.ghostpasswordbackend.PasswordService;
import com.github.ghostpassword.ghostpasswordbackend.PasswordServiceHolder;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException;

public class UnlockActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    private TextView password;
    private TextView errorField;

    public void onUnlockAttempt(View view) throws NoSuchAlgorithmException, IOException{
        System.out.println("Trying to unlock...");
        if(PasswordService.checkPassword(password.getText().toString())){
            System.out.println("Unlocking...");
            PasswordService pwService = new PasswordService(password.getText().toString());
            PasswordServiceHolder.setPasswordService(pwService);
            Intent intent = new Intent(this, SavedPasswordMainActivity.class);
            startActivity(intent);

        } else {
            System.out.println("Password is incorrect");
            errorField.setText("The password is incorrect. Try again.");
            password.setText("");
        }
    }

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.unlock_screen);
        password = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.masterpass);
        errorField =(TextView)findViewById(R.id.errorLabel);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.menu_display_saved_pass_screen, menu);
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
        // Handle action bar item clicks here. The action bar will
        // automatically handle clicks on the Home/Up button, so long
        // as you specify a parent activity in AndroidManifest.xml.
        int id = item.getItemId();

        //noinspection SimplifiableIfStatement
        if (id == R.id.action_settings) {
            return true;
        }

        return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Abstract. Buffer analysis is a common tool of spatial analysis, which deals with the problem of proximity in GIS. Buffer analysis researches the relationship between the center object and other objects around a certain distance. Buffer analysis can make the complicated problem be more scientifically and visually, and provide valuable information for users. Over the past decades, people have done a lot of researches on buffer analysis. Along with the constantly improvement of spatial analysis accuracy needed by people, people hope that the results of spatial analysis can be more exactly express the actual situation. Due to the influence of some certain factors, the impact scope and contact range of a geographic elements on the surrounding objects are uncertain. As all we know, each object has its own characteristics and changing rules in the nature. They are both independent and relative to each other. However, almost all the generational algorithms of existing buffer analysis are based on fixed buffer distance, which do not consider the co-location relationship among instances. Consequently, it is a waste of resource to retrieve the useless information, and useful information is ignored.
How to cite: Zhou, G., Huang, S., Wang, H., Zhang, R., Wang, Q., Sha, H., Liu, X., and Pan, Q.: A BUFFER ANALYSIS BASED ON CO-LOCATION ALGORITHM, Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLII-3, 2487-2490, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-3-2487-2018, 2018.


text:
Chris Pratt Was Once Nearly Killed (Definitely Emasculated) by a Horse
By Max Cea
Filming The Magnificent 7, which comes out today, was an especially hard acting gig for Chris Pratt, who plays gambler Josh Faraday in the film. It wasn't the role, per se, that was tough; rather, it was the horseback riding. Chris Pratt has long had a contentious relationship with horses. A previous relationship ended, for instance, when, during a romantic horseback ride on the beach, Pratt had to be saved from his bucking steed by his then-girlfriend.
last night on late night
early am late night clips
Chris Pratt Wasn't Meant to Ride Horses
muppetational news 2 mins ago
All of The Muppet Show is Heading to Disney+ The curtains rise on February 19.
two friends 12 mins ago


text:
Fall books 2021: 15 to read in the months ahead – The Washington Post
After a disappointing summer, a new season brings new hopes — and new books. This fall offers a particularly rich bounty of big-name releases and debuts by future favorites. Here are some selections, across a variety of genres, to add to your list.
Fans of Moriarty will almost certainly fall for "Apples Never Fall," a new thriller that centers on the Delaneys, two married aging tennis stars. When Mrs. Delaney goes missing, her four children have to decide whether to tell the police — tricky, given that their father is the most likely culprit. Heyday Television has snapped up the TV rights.
Liane Moriarty's 'Nine Perfect Strangers' is another page-turner
This is Doerr's first novel since 2014's "All the Light We Cannot See," and it's ambitious and complex. "Cloud Cuckoo Land" transports readers to 15th-century Constantinople, present-day Idaho, the Korean War and the future, as experienced in outer space. He weaves it all together beautifully.
10 books to read in September
Ruhl is a MacArthur genius and playwright known for such works as "The Clean House" and "In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)," both Pulitzer finalists. In this intimate memoir, she describes living with Bell's palsy — a sudden weakening of facial muscles that occurred after her high-risk pregnancy, causing an asymmetrical smile.
Chancy — whose novels include "The Loneliness of Angels" — has crafted a fictional account of the 2010 Haitian earthquake. It's told by 10 people affected by the disaster, including a drug trafficker, an emigrant musician and an old woman selling produce in a market. It's a stunning commentary on racism, sexual violence, capitalism and the resilience required to rebuild a life.
It's just the time of year to crave a return to the world of "Wicked." Maguire's new trilogy, a spinoff of his Wicked Years series, centers on Elphaba's green-skinned granddaughter, Rain, who is marooned on an island of women — or "brides." Accompanied by her broom and a talking goose, she learns about the island's culture, and gets caught up in its political tensions.
Talk about a sweet romance: In Tieu's debut novel, a young woman returns home to work at her immigrant parents' doughnut shop. As she struggles with post-college malaise — and the weight of her family's expectations — an old crush reappears.
We could all use a laugh. These comedic romance novels deliver.
Wu's debut novel is about Willa Chen, a half-Chinese, half-White young woman. When she begins nannying for a wealthy family in New York, she feels unmoored — neither a participant in this unfamiliar glamorous new world, nor fully an outsider. It's a lovely coming-of-age story that will resonate with anyone who's felt separate, or questioned where they belong.
Moore, a marine scientist and veterinarian, makes a compelling argument that whales' survival depends on each of us — not just on those who venture out on ships, hunting whales for meat and blubber. It's sobering to grapple with the ways we might unwittingly contribute to the mammals' demise, like by eating commercially caught seafood. But Moore also offers reason to be hopeful, including new technologies for ropeless fishing.
King's "Writers & Lovers" was a balm during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. She returns with a collection of 10 short stories — half of which have not been previously published. All feature relatable protagonists, like the single father afraid to confess his feelings for his daughter's Spanish tutor and the teenage boy who bonds with a pair of college students.
Lily King's 'Writers & Lovers' delivers pure joy
The New York Times Magazine's "1619 Project" fueled a debate about the legacy of slavery — and snagged creator Hannah-Jones a Pulitzer Prize. This expansion is a combination of essays, poems and fiction featuring such thinkers as Ibram X. Kendi, Matthew Desmond and Jesmyn Ward. "Born on the Water," an illustrated edition for children, will be released the same day.
How the 1619 Project took over 2020
This new collection is named for an essay Patchett published in Harper's Magazine in late 2020 about her friendship with Tom Hanks's assistant, Sooki Raphael, who died of cancer. It includes more than 20 additional essays packed with insight and emotion. One is about the lightness Patchett felt as she parted ways with old belongings; another examines what she's learned from Snoopy.
If you're ready for pandemic-inspired fiction, perhaps you'll enjoy Picoult's new novel. It's about a young surgical resident in New York, Finn, and his soon-to-be fiancee, Diana, who are preparing for an island vacation. When a dangerous virus engulfs the city and Finn is called in to work, he urges her to take the trip without him. Diana's sea turtles are juxtaposed with Finn's ventilators, as the world — and maybe their future — changes rapidly.
In 'The Book of Two Ways,' Jodi Picoult delivers another powerful story about heart-wrenching moral choices
After being diagnosed with brain cancer, Dava — one of the world's richest women — decides to take her legacy into her own hands. She leaks the news of her "death" so that she can sit back, relax and enjoy the glowing obituaries. Presumably, anyone could have told her that this was a poor idea: Her scheme ends up revealing major secrets Dava thought she had buried long ago.
Warzel and Petersen — who write the must-read Substack newsletters Galaxy Brain and Culture Study, respectively — tease apart the big lessons from this past year-plus spent working from home. If you believe there's a better way to live than refreshing your work email until you close your eyes at night, you'll appreciate this deep dive into how workers relate to the office.
We hate the office. We love the office. Do we want to go back?
Gorman's new collection includes "The Hill We Climb," the poem she read at President Biden's inauguration — hypnotizing audiences and turning skeptics into poetry lovers. Expect similarly stirring works that reckon with hope and healing, and explore timely themes such as identity and grief.
Angela Haupt is a freelance writer and health editor.
book news, Uncategorized
Five Books For Readers Who Are New To Sci-Fi – The Nerd Daily
Respect for others at the core of Poway author's latest book – The San Diego Union-Tribune


Now you have a range of bar code numbers allocated to your company, you can enter the details of your products into your Product Vault manually, or if you have lots of items you can put them in a spreadsheet and we can do it for you. Charges will apply based on the number of products to upload, the amount of data to load, and how much rework the data needs.
An outline of fees is shown on the first tab.
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