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Driving blind: Cummings comes full circle
The architect of Brexit has become an unelected bureaucrat who refuses to give up control.
Chief Advisor to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Dominic Cummings | Pool photo by Jonathan Brady via Getty Images
By Otto English
May 25, 2020 8:06 pm CET
Otto English is the pen name used by Andrew Scott, a writer and playwright based in London.
LONDON — It was an unprecedented press conference in every way, not least because the government's own code of conduct for special advisers states that they "must not take part in public political controversy, through any form of statement."
But it was long ago obvious, that the ordinary rules do not apply where Dominic Cummings is concerned.
As 4 p.m. came and went, it became increasingly clear that Prime Minister Boris Johnson's chief adviser has as much respect for time as he has for the lockdown rules.
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By Olga Stefanishyna
Pro-war Russia enraged over military failings
Enforcing sanctions against Russian kleptocrats just got harder
By Maíra Martini
More than 30 minutes passed before Britain's best known SpAd — short for special adviser — deigned to gift the waiting world with an explanation of why he seems to have violated the government's strict lockdown rules by driving more than 400 kilometers to his parents' farm in Durham, after his wife said she felt ill with COVID-19 symptoms.
"None of our usual childcare options were available," so the Cummings had headed north.
When Cummings finally did stroll out into the Downing Street rose garden in his trademark untucked shirt, it quickly became clear that the strategy — hammered out behind closed doors over the last 24 hours — was for him to appear, if not contrite then at least eminently reasonable. And if that failed, he would drone everyone into submission.
Over the next 20 minutes, the prime minister's most trusted adviser — and the man widely credited with bringing Britain Brexit — delivered a detailed justification for his movements.
In April, his wife had rung him to say she was feeling ill and he had decided that they would therefore drive to a safe space, where help would be available if needed.
Everyone else in the country might have got the message about staying at home and saving lives but uniquely: "None of our usual child care options were available," so the Cummings had headed north.
In his version of events, Cummings was both victim and hero of the piece — a family man who had acted reasonably and who had subsequently been unfairly set upon by the press for doing the right thing.
This was an "exceptional situation" and "numerous false stories in the media" had sought to discredit him and make him look as if he had done something wrong. Cummings claimed he had a "full tank of petrol" and knew that he could safely drive to Durham and would be able to self-isolate in an empty estate cottage.
Having reached his parents' farm, he and his wife had both displayed COVID-19 symptoms and self-isolated with their 4-year-old son. But then after a 14-day period, having recovered sufficiently, decided that it might be time to go back to work.
Cummings had suffered eyesight problems during the illness and his partner was worried so they "agreed to go for a short drive to see if I could drive safely."
That last admission already seems likely to be a phrase that will launch a 1,000 memes.
It was during that brief car journey to Barnard Castle and during some subsequent toilet breaks and exercise that he was spotted by members of the public, who were wished a hearty "Happy Easter" by Mrs. Cummings as they stared on from a distance.
It was all very reasonable, he said, and "I don't regret what I did."
In ensuing question and answers with the journalists present, he doubled down. He hadn't bothered the prime minister with the details of his journey because Johnson "had a million things on his plate" and was ill in bed.
N. 10 Downing Street special adviser Dominic Cummings returns to his home in London on May 24 | Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images
Cummings blamed the media, the public, the wilful misinterpretation of his words — but he refused to accept that he himself had acted wrongly.
Whatever he might say, however much he might refute it — Cummings did break the rules. While millions of other Britons forewent freedom of movement, while hundreds of thousands struggled with child care and the effects of the virus, Johnson's top adviser decided that he was above the fray.
What was on show in Cummings' performance was the underlying superciliousness of the new elite running Britain — and most of all that of the Svengali who sits behind its throne whispering instructions.
How dare mere hacks and police constables question the judgment of the man who gave the world Brexit. It all made perfect sense to him so why couldn't they grasp it?
Cummings has always been a whole set of paradoxes. For 20 years he carved a niche for himself in the shadows, cementing the agenda of Euroskeptic conservatism and serving the biggest elite in the land, while claiming all the while that he was some kind of anti-establishment outlier.
The growing antipathy of millions of Britons for an administration that thinks it's "one rule for them and another for us" might yet frame the government's future.
He isn't. He sits at the heart of an overconfident inherently arrogant establishment that thinks it can ride this one out.
Cummings has a lot of enemies both within and without the inner corridors of power, and this performance won't have won him many fans. Genuine contrition was thin on the ground and he seemed more preoccupied that "media reports" about him were false than anything else.
Perhaps he and Johnson have calculated it correctly. Perhaps he will weather this storm and cling on to power.
But if that happens, the damage it has wrought will linger. The growing antipathy of millions of Britons for an administration that thinks it's "one rule for them and another for us" might yet frame the government's future.
Whatever eventually happens, Cummings can add another paradox to his curriculum vitae.
The architect of Britain's effort to "take back control" from the unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats is now an unelected, unaccountable bureaucrat refusing to cede control.
For the latest information and analysis on COVID-19 and its global implications sign up for POLITICO's Daily Coronavirus Update or update your preferences.
Dominic Cummings is sorry (not sorry)
By Emilio Casalicchio
Boris Johnson bets big on top aide Cummings
By Charlie Cooper and Cristina Gallardo
More from ... Otto English
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Opinion The return of the F-word, and the laziness of labeling Russia fascist
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Belarusian opposition leader: Exiled media needs our help now, more than ever
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By Paul Anderson
Brexit Coronavirus Euroskeptics Infectious diseases Media
Boris Johnson Dominic Cummings


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Home » Super Hi-Vision
NHK Starts Broadcasting the World's First 8K Service
Nov 27,2018 0	ant
Starting from December 12st, Japanese NHK will start broadcasting in Japan the world's first 8K channel (NHK BS8K) along with the NHK BS4K channel (4K)....
CEATEC: NHK To Showcase Compact Cable TV Receiver System For 4K and 8K Content
NHK, jointly with KDDI Corporation, Jupiter Telecommunications, and Japan Digital Serve Corporation, has developed a prototype compact receiver system for 4K and 8K broadcasts on...
NHK STRL Open House 2016 Kicks Off
The NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories (STRL) will hold its anual Open House 2016 event (May26 to 29) to introduce the latest R&D efforts...
NHK Showcases Advanced 8K Content and Production Equipment
NHK is presenting the progress it has made towards the satellite broadcasting of Super Hi-Vision content (8K) at 2016 NAB Show, the world's largest annual...
NHK Showcases Latest 8K Super Hi-Vision Technologies
Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) will be holding its anual Open House 2015 exhibition this week, where the latest developments related to the 8K Super Hi-Vision...
NHK To Demonstrate 8K Super Hi-Vision Sattelite Broadcasting
Japan's public broadcaster NHK will offer the world?s first public presentation of the 8K satellite broadcasting during this year's NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories...
NHK Develops 133 Mpixel CMOS Image Sensor For 8K Video Cameras
Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) has developed a large 133Mpixel CMOS image sensor capable of processing the millions of pixels required for each of the red...
NHK To Demo 8K Video Transmission Over a Single TV Channel at 2014 NAB Show
Japanese public broadcaster NHK will present the latest iteration of its Super Hi-Vision system at the 2014 NAB Show, including a closed-circuit demonstration of over-the-air...
NHK to Showcase Super Hi-Vision (8K) and NHK Hybridcast at CEATEC
NHK and Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) is welcoming Japanese consumers at their CEATEC booth to "Experience of TV evolution!" The companies...
NHK On Track To Start SHV Broadcasts in 2016
Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) will be showacasing its latest developments related to the Super Hi-Vision video format (8K), including video shooting equipment and tranmission technologies,...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Dragonfall
Blueprint gaming presents a slot that is pure fire! Dragonfall is the first grid slot released by the online gaming giants, and fans of mystical beasts will love it. Play on an 8x8 grid which uses a brand new megadrop mechanic, and let's hope those dragons have some luck in store for you!
Indeed, instead of spinning, the symbols on the grid drop from top to bottom on each spin to fill the grid. There's also a cluster pays mechanic which removes winning combos from the grid and leaves room for new symbols to fall in. Aside from this, look out for Multipliers, Wilds and Free Spins and keep your fingers crossed for some fiery wins.
Use the up and down arrows to set your bet, then click SPIN on the right-hand side of the screen to get going. There's also an AUTOPLAY button at the bottom-right corner of the screen if you'd rather let the reels spin automatically for a set number of game rounds. Good luck!
The Dragon's Eye Wild substitutes for all symbols and helps to form win clusters. When it is part of a winning combo, it moves a position and can continue to help create more clusters on one spin. Each Wild also comes with a Multiplier which increases by 1 with each win it's a part of. More than one Wild in a cluster means that the Multipliers will be combined.
The Wild symbol also acts as a Scatter. If 3 Wilds appear on one spin, they activate 6 Free Spins. Wilds remain on screen during the bonus.
This game has a theoretical RTP of 96.46% which means for every £100 wagered
it will pay out £96.46.


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eMAG carries out investments of over EUR 120 M in 2018
Iulian Stanciu, CEO eMAG
BUSINESSCOMPANIESINVESTMENTS
By Alina Grigoras	 Last updated Jun 19, 2018
Emag has invested EUR 63 million last year to support the fast growing development as regional eCommerce hub: EUR 2 M have been invested in employees, EUR 10 M in logistics, EUR 27 M in technology and EUR 24 M in international development.
This year, eMAG is carrying out investments of over EUR 120 M, including the investment in the new logistics center, a warehouse comprising not only storage areas, but also offices and facilities for employees. The center is located on A1 highway to Pitesti, to km 19.
The warehouse involves a EUR 65 investment in phase one, while pledging to provide 4,000 new jobs overall. Stretching on a plot of land of 600,000 square meters, the warehouse will have 121,000 sqm in phase one. The logistics center is estimated to be completed in December this year.
The turnover posted in Romania in 2017 has increased by 28% as against the previous year, up to RON 2.58 billion, while the turnover of the entire eMAG Group mounted to RON 4.06 billion last year.
According to the Emag CEO, Iulian Stanciu, the turnover forecast for 2018 shows a 20% growth both for Romania and for the entire group.
eMAG currently serves 7.57 million customers in those four countries where it operates, with the most of them being registered in Romania (4.26 million). Hungary ranks second in terms of clients (1.41 million), Poland comes third (1.01 million) and Bulgaria fourth (0.89 million). 2017 brought 1,692,400 new clients to eMAG.
At the same time, the traffic and the volumes have constantly increased, both for desktop and mobile (the eMAG applications reached a record of over 1.1 million downloads. In March this year, the overall traffic pointed to 38 million views, which means a 40% rise compared to 2017, when the figure was 27 million.
The traffic on the mobile app also posted a record percentage- 68%, compared to 50% last year and only 2% in 2012.
"The number of customers and the turnover are the result of the long-term investments that we have made in technology. We are at a moment when eCommerce is increasing at an accelerated rate worldwide, but also countrywide. We are counting on technology, on our team and we'll continue to invest in the Romanian innovation: we have the people here, we created the intellectual property here, as well as the services that are a model for the other countries," stated Iulian Stanciu, CEO eMAG in a press conference on Tuesday.
Photo credit: The Romania Journal
3.2 M marketplace products and over 10,000 sellers
Boasting a pace of 800 new sellers integrated on a monthly basis, eMAG Marketplace has experienced a fast growing jump reaching 3.2 million products (201% more in May 2018 than in January 2017) and over 10,000 sellers in Romania. Currently, 50% of the products sold on eMAG come from the supply of the Marketplace sellers.
There are 139 Romanian companies selling 167,000 products in Bulgaria and 226 Romanian sellers providing 150,000 products in Hungary.
Over 1,000 sellers posted annual sales of over RON 100,000 through the platform.
In order to help sellers post better results, two new services will be launched by the end of 2018: eMAG Ads (providing advertising space on eMAG platform) and eMAG Academy (webinars, training sessions and conferences that will help sellers improve their sales strategy and performance).
3.4 million products in stock. What was sold the most in 2017 and what's hot this year?
There are over 3.4 million items in stock in the eMAG offer. The categories that posted the highest increases last year were mobile phones, large and small household appliances, TVs, gadgets, toys and automotive products, while this year there is a growing potential for fashion, sports, beauty&care and cosmetics products, as well as for furniture, decorations and gardening items.
New more services in sight
eMAG will launch new services for the second half of this year, meant to improve the online shopping experience.
Starting June 25, the customers in Bucharest and Ilfov will be able to order until midnight (24:00hr) and have their products delivered the next day, including Saturday and Sunday.
eMAG will also have a fast delivery service for the seaside starting July 2 (the product will be delivered on the same day if the order is placed by 12:00hr or the next day if the order is launched up to midnight).
eMAG plans to extend the delivery service in Bucharest and Ilfov county on the same day, offering six time frames of two hours each, compared to 3 time frames of 3 hours each at present. The service is available as of August.
Last, the eMAG customers will be able to buy prepaid cards starting October.
CEOecommerceeMAGhubINVESTMENTSiulian stanciulogistics centermarketplace
Alina Grigoras
Alina Grigoras, Editor-in-Chief
I have been editor-in-chief at the Romanian Journal for 5 years and in the Romanian and English-based news editing for 20 years, mostly reporting for the Politics and Society columns.
I graduated in journalism in 2000, having worked as a print editor since then. Print and radio correspondent during college days. BA degree in journalism and MA in advertising.
The expertise in both print and online has allowed me to learn both sides of content and I am still learning and improving myself...
I am a keen observer of reality, favoring strong interpersonal communication, I define myself more like a colleague rather than a chief and a fan of brainstorming and team work.
Passionate about reading, writing, storytelling, psychology and traveling. Published author
("Scufia cu Vise" book for children, published in 2014).
Euronews: The Romanian village without thieves
Iohannis: Relocation of embassy to Jerusalem would prevent Romania from becoming non-permanent member of the UN Security Council


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Another 7th Heaven Tragedy—Actress Sarah Goldberg Dies of Natural Causes at 40
By Destiny Dukes	 On Oct 8, 2014
Most haven't heard about the former television series 7th Heaven in quite some time, other than possibly catching a rerun every now and then. Today, however, 7th Heaven can't seem to stay out of the news. HH reported earlier that actor Stephen Collins, who played a reverend and father on the hit show, was secretly recorded confessing to molesting three underage girls.
Sadly, we must now report that beautiful actress Sarah Goldberg, who used the name Sarah Madison professionally, has died at only 40 years old of natural causes, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Goldberg played Sarah Glass Camden on the show, the wife of Camden son, Matt. Barry Watson, who played Matt, tweeted an oddly-jovial comment after learning of her death, "#RIP Sarah. I will miss you always. Love Ya! B."
Her cause of death is still unknown at this time, but it was reported that her mother told the Chicago Sun-Times that her daughter fell asleep with her computer on her lap, and just never woke up. There was no mention of any prior health issues or concerns, so many are anxious to find out what could have caused the vibrant 40-year-old to have died in her sleep. Goldberg was single, but is survived by her parents, brother, niece, and nephew. Her parents have adopted her dog, Bucket.
HHers…any idea what could have caused her death? Share your thoughts with us!
Destiny Dukes
My name is Destiny Dukes, and I first got into soaps in 2013. I started watching General Hospital and The Bold and the Beautiful. I felt a connection with the characters and loved the stories as well. I even became interested in older storylines from before I started watching. I eventually picked up The Young and the Restless in 2016. I love writing as well and have been writing since I was in elementary school.
Fashion Icon Oscar de la Renta Dies at 82 Years Old
Simone Battle of U.S. X-Factor Dead at 25, Death Ruled a Suicide
Legendary Actress Lauren Bacall Dies from Massive Stroke at Age 89
Robin Williams Suicide Death by Hanging: Tragic End For Man Loved Worldwide


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There's more than one microbiome in your body
By Vivienne O'Keeffe, CIBTAC, AAD, PEA
The human microbiome (bacteria, fungi, viruses and other microorganisms that our bodies play host to) was a hot topic even before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, but discussions of it almost always centre on the microbiome in the gut.
There's no denying the huge importance of a healthy gut microbiome. Nurtured by factors ranging from a high-fibre diet to such intangibles as high levels of wisdom and compassion, it promises less illness, longer lives, and recently, according to the Chinese University in Hong Kong, less serious Covid symptoms.
But did you know that other body parts and organs including the mouth, vagina and skin have their own microbiomes? Yep. The skin's microbiome is affected by its own particular set of predators, including pollution, harsh skincare products, poor nutrition, high stress and inadequate sleep.
Observes reporter Fiorella Valdesolo in the Wall Street Journal Magazine, "A properly functioning skin microbiome, composed of bacteria known also as skin flora, is critical to skin's health: it fortifies the skin's barrier, trapping moisture, shielding against infection and environmental aggressors and reducing inflammation. When the microbiome is lacking in good bacteria, the skin's barrier function is compromised."
The result is what one dermatologist calls "leaky skin" – a spin-off on the term "leaky gut," and refers to the skin becoming dehydrated and allowing irritants, allergens and pollutants and other pathogens to penetrate and trigger inflammation.
People using too many or incorrect products for their skin type and condition can strip their skin of its innate protective mechanisms and upset the delicate balance of its microbiome.
For its part, The Global Wellness Trends Report says "The next big trend in beauty is optimizing the skin's microbiome. Our skin's microbiota strengthens its barrier, traps moisture, and prevents infection and inflammation. Bad diets, stress and pollution affect it, as does our manic beauty culture of over-cleansing and over-exfoliating."
Social distancing and hyper-sterilization during the pandemic have weakened our immune systems and exacerbated the threats. Alternate style and culture magazine Dazed and Confused goes so far as to argue that we need to create a future where we collaborate with bacteria and viruses rather than annihilating them.
We agree with all of the above, and believe the best medicine is sometimes no medicine at all. We have also known about the importance of the skin's microbiome for years, and make its health one of our first considerations when formulating our products. The prebiotic in our ēcōMD Nourish line, for example, helps directly promote the skin's microbiome health. Our AHA/BHA contains chicory root (inulin and fructose), a prebiotic to help improve skin microbiota and help to prevent infection and inflammation. Our Restoring Antioxidant Cream is made with orobanche rapum, a chlorophyll-free plant that helps protect skin microflora.
We're excited about what modern science is continuing to discover about our all-important skin microbiome. And even more excited about using these findings to create more great products for our customers.


This paper (full citation below) caught my eye not just because of who tweeted it, but because the study performed was done at Kaiser Permanente.
It's been receiving quite a bit of attention on social media in just the past few weeks, even though it was published in The Permanente Journal (@PermanenteJ) in 2015. So of course I took a look 🙂 .
When I read the Just Read: Triglycerides and Cardiovascular Disease – American Heart Association Scientific Statement, I hedged in my post saying that I personally had a poor understanding of the role of triglycerides in predicting heart disease. That's because I was trained on the central role of LDL (so-called "bad cholesterol"), actually to the point where I could do the Framingham equations in my head (which do not include triglycerides).
those with an indirect measure of insulin resistance (triglyceride/HDL radio) were much more likely to be diagnosed or die from heart disease whether or not their LDL levels were high.
I'm taking a very good educated guess by saying that the implication is that the pathway to reducing insulin resistance is … a low carb (and by extension high fat) diet. This is not discussed in the paper, and I don't know if the authors endorse this connection or not. However, there's good data to show that the SAD (standard american diet) which is high carbohydrate and lower fat, causes changes that create insulin resistance.
It's time for me to read ATPIV, 83 pages of the latest cholesterol recommendations, published in 2013. Just as I read the statement on Triglycerides, it's important to get information from the source, in addition to the smart people behind the tweets.
As I see it, the problem with high TGs is that they inhibit reverse cholesterol transport, as described here.
This depresses HDL levels, which is why TG/HDL in the paper is calculated from both high TG and low HDL.
All atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk can be seen as inhibition of RCT.
Smoking inhibits multiple RCT pathways; in familial hypercholesterolaemia, LDL cannot play its important role in RCT due to deficient ; inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis reversibly impair HDL function; and of course hyperinsulinaemia, by loading excess TGs onto HDL, inhibits efflux capacity. Hyperinsulinaemia also contributes to inflammatory milieus in the other states.
The elderly populations with high LDL can be explained by survivor bias; what allows survival is a freely functioning RCT system. (Note however that most CVD is diagnosed in the elderly age group, so survival with high LDL is a very common event – the norm – helping to explain why LDL is a weak predictor, a generator of false positives and negatives, while TG/HDL and low HDL are more specific ones.).


Kris Gunnars presents 8 Symptoms of Food Addiction (With Survey Results) posted at Authority Nutrition, saying, "Food addiction is a very common problem. There are 8 key symptoms that are outlined in this article, along with data from a survey on food addiction."
Max presents Top 5 Movements for your Workouts posted at CavemanCollege, saying, "Great ideas for college students to spice up there workouts!"
Nell Stephenson presents Thank You, HU posted at Paleoista, by Nell Stephenson, saying, "Paleo expert Nell Stephenson gives a wonderful review of NYC eatery HU Ktichen- a Paleo place that's a must-try."
Neely Quinn presents Is It Paleo: Canola Oil, Goat Yogurt, Popcorn, Condiments, and Green Beans posted at Paleo Plan.
Meghan Little and Angel Ayala Torres presents Paleo Tomato-Basil Bruschetta, An Italian Appetizer on Crostinis posted at Paleo Effect, saying, "Want something awesome to serve at your next party? This Paleo Bruschetta is so good, they won't know its grain free!"
kellie presents Your Guide to "what is Paleo?" posted at Yoga and Bacon, saying, "how many times hav you googled 'is this paleo?" or "is that paleo?" ...here is how I came to truly understand paleo and never question what I should or shouldn't do or eat again. namaste."
Tony Federico presents PMR Episode 4 posted at Paleo Magazine Radio, saying, "In the fourth episode of PMR, Tony chats with PaleoFX organizers, Keith and Michelle Norris. They discuss last year's event and we get a sneak peek into what they have planned for PaleoFX13, which will be held at the end of March in Austin, Texas. We round out this episode with a conversation with Brenda and Chad Walding, two physical therapists who found some ancestral momentum of their own by attending PaleoFX12."
Wendy Schwartz presents Review: Rich Food Poor Food - The Truth is Out! posted at Go Paleo!, saying, "If I hadn't already gone Paleo, this excellent resource, which is sure to be a bestseller, would lead me to go Paleo for good. Shame on the majority of the food manufacturers for feeding us such garbage and praise to Rich Food Poor Food for uncovering the truth."
Diana Hsieh presents Slow-Roasted Grapes posted at NoodleFood, saying, "Slow-roasted grapes are an easy and very tasty treat! NOM NOM NOM!"
Paul Jaminet presents Paleolithic Cuisine: How Gourmet Was It? posted at Perfect Health Diet, saying, "We investigate whether Paleolithic chefs had the wherewithal to make delicious gourmet cuisine. It appears they did, from perhaps 200,000 years ago."
Diane Sanfilippo presents Podcast Episode #75: Mira and Jayson Calton talk "Rich Food Poor Food" posted at Balanced Bites, saying, "In this episode I talked with Rich Food Poor Food authors Mira and Jayson Calton about their new book. We covered some great topics including how they got started researching and learning so much about nutrition in the first place, who this book is intended for and how it will help, what we all need to look out for in our beloved dark chocolate, why assuming anything about foods we eat is a bad idea, some of the most awful items they found in the grocery store while researching for their book, and where to find amazing savings for "Rich Foods" easily on the internet."
Charissa Talbot presents Sometimes a Little Change Can Make a BIG Difference posted at The 21-Day Sugar Detox, saying, "Today we have a guest blog post from our good friend Sarah Ballantyne from www.ThePaleoMom.com and author of the upcoming book The Paleo Approach. Sarah did the 21-Day Sugar Detox with us in January and we are thrilled that she wanted to share her first experience with the 21DSD!"
Adam Farrah presents It's Up to You - Are You Ready? posted at Practical Paleolithic, saying, "A blog post about stepping into your power, doing what you say you're going to do and making your life what you want."
Chris presents The Truth About Counting Calories to Lose Weight posted at PrimalPal, saying, "Have you ever wondered if you should be counting calories to lose weight? Most 'experts" will tell you that fat loss is all about calories in versus calories out. Is it really that simple? Let's investigate."
Julie Campbell presents coconut milk kheer posted at the crankin' kitchen!, saying, "Well, it's not my most 'paleo" dish... but if you're an occasional rice-eater, then give this a shot. It's glorious."
Primal Kitchen's Family Grokumentarian presents Dairy Free Paleo Cream Cheese, and Raspberry Cheesecake Truffles posted at Primal Kitchen: A Family Grokumentary, saying, "I've valued our family's dairy-free experience for the fact that it has forced me to become much more inventive - and to have a solid understanding of how the dairy-free alternatives I craft taste. This post features a whole-foods-based cream cheese substitute, and a gorgeous raspberry cheesecake truffle dessert that is surprisingly easy to make!"
Alison Pierce presents Paleo Pantry Staples posted at Counterculture Cooking, saying, "With these superstar supplies on hand, your thrown-together suppers will be flavorful and satisfying. You might even stumble into culinary bliss!"


Designer with diploma and more than 12 years of professional experience.
"Excellent designer; attentive to detail, incorporates feedback, creative, and a good communicator!"
"Amazing designer and super responsive "
"Very nice person. Excellent work. I can only recommend."
"Multipraktik is the best. I would highly recommend working with her."
"Creative Designer , Excellent communication , Exquisite Results "
"Multipraktik is incredible creative, pro-active and detail oriented. She is a joy to work with - she is very responsive and professional. The works she prepared for us are beyond high expectations and we continue working with her."
"Multipraktik will certainly be on the top of our minds the next time we need design work done! From the beginning of the contest she was able to capture what we wanted, even if we had not been able to articulate it that well on the brief. We asked..."
"Multipraktik Did a Great Job for us. We wanted an elegant and sophisticated look and the designs created are just beautiful ! Very talented and a delight to work with-I would Highly recommend Multipraktik"
"The Olive Oil designs Multipraktik designed for our line are really fantastic. They are unique and elegant and we are very excited about the design-They were exactly what we were looking for. Great Job Multipraktik"
"The labels that Mutlipraktik created are Spot On with the design. They are elegant, high end and very unique for our market. These will look Fantastic and compliment the Olive Oil labels done for our line-Great Job, Highly Recommend Multipraktik."
"Multipraktik has been a pleasure to work with. Her designs have great, and she is very communicative and cooperative. We look forward to working with her again."


text:
<?php
namespace resque\test\job;

use resque\BaseJob;

class JobWithSetUp extends BaseJob
{
    public static $called = false;
    public $args = false;

    public function setUp()
    {
        self::$called = true;
    }

    public function perform()
    {

    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Japanese Girls at the Harbor (Minato no nihon musume, 1933) is a striking and atmospheric silent movie from director Hiroshi Shimizu, who had a long and successful career in Japan, but is relatively unknown in the West. Based on a story by Itsuma Kitabayashi, the film may at first appear to be a rather conventional romantic tale, but it manages to evoke nuanced considerations of love, jealousy, the challenges of modernism to traditional values, and also what I might call, "truth and revelation".
The story of this film revolves around three girls in the port city of Yokohama who are all romantically attracted to a handsome young man in the area. The focus is on two best friends, Dora and Sunako, who are students at a Catholic girls school. The plot passes through three basic stages.
Sunako and Henry. After opening with some atmospheric but impersonal and distancing shots of Yokohama harbor, the scene shifts to Dora and Sunako, who walk home together across a hilltop every day. On this occasion the courtly young man Henry drives up to the hilltop on his motorcycle, to the evident delight of both girls. Henry is charming and chivalrous towards each of them, but Sunako is more assertive and s ucceeds in winning his attentions. Dora is crushed but swears fealty to her eternal friendship with Sunako. Soon, however, we learn that Henry likes to hang around the company of punk gangsters and is also seeing an older, more worldly girl, Yoko Sheridan, who seems to be experienced in the affairs of seducing and manipulating men. Dora reports this situation to Sunako, who is overcome with jealousy and, in a dramatic scene, confronts Yoko in the school chapel and shoots her with a gun.
Sunako's Fall. The scene now shifts to new circumstances after some time has passed. Through a process of slow disclosure, the viewer gradually learns that in the smoky world of prostitutes and gin joints, one of these girls, now wearing the striking garments of a geisha, is Sunako. She has become a different person from the respectable schoolgirl seen in the first act. Meanwhile Henry and Dora are now married, revealing that Dora's shy, conservative manner was ultimately successful in the game of love. By chance, Henry runs into Sunako in the city and is shocked by what has happened to her. Dora, still loyal to her old friend, seeks to help Sunako and urges her to come to their dwelling for visits. Both Henry and Dora feel called upon to get Sunako to return to a more respectable and virtuous life, but Sunako, presumably aware of the likely unforgiving nature of traditional Japanese society, feels trapped in her situation.
Sunako's Redemption. Henry, trying to turn Sunako around, goes to visit her, but he also finds himself tempted by old feelings and is attracted to her again. Perhaps due to his conflicting emotions, Henry turns to drink and starts hanging out in bars until late at night. Although Sunako is also still attracted to Henry, she reawakens to her authentic self and insists on Henry returning to his wife, Dora. At the end of the film, Sunako departs from Yokohama on a ship, having done the right thing but unsure of what life has further in store for her.
There are several interesting aspects of the story of Japanese Girls at the Harbor that make it more interesting than might first appear, The focus of attention here is on women, not men. What we see is a sensitive portrayal of women and how they see and act from their particular perspective, and this portrayal is enhanced by generally subtle acting (despite the sometimes stylized gestures mentioned below) that reveals their depth. As with many of Kenji Mizoguchi's films, the men in this story are generally shallow and weak. Henry is nice, but seems to have little spine or character. In addition, another personage in the story, the painter Miura, who is Sunako's later companion in her fallen state, is a friendly but servile camp follower who follows Sunako around like a puppy dog. So the men here are relatively useless, and it is the women who drive the story. Of course, Sunako is an assertive women who takes actions throughout. But even Dora and Yoko Sheridan (who reappears as a chastened and doomed character in Act 3) are attention-drawing and rather complex characters who undergo change in the story. Sunako is the most interesting character and the action-taker. In Act 1 she asserts herself by claiming Henry. Later when Yoko comes to take Henry away from her, Sunako shoots her. In Act 2, Sunako has descended into prostitution, but she is still very much her own woman, making her own living and energetically dominating her hangdog companion, Miura. Finally in Act 3, Sunako is still the decisive character – she reunites Henry with Dora and then chooses to leave Yokohama for new territory. She is the agent that makes things happen in this story.
Getting back to that theme of truth and revelation that I mentioned earlier, there is this curious compulsion on the part of characters in the film to intervene by telling the "truth" as they know it. In Act 1 Dora goes to Sonako and tells her what she knows about Henry and Yoko. Yoko also reveals to Henry that she knows about his dallying with Sunako. In Act 2 both Dora and Henry attempt to intervene in Sonako's life and get her back to a virtuous life. In Act 3 Miura intervenes and reveals what he knows to Henry. Also in Act 3 Yoko Sheridan, having reappeared as a quite different person, also attempts to straighten out Sunako. The sense of respect for the privacy of the individual was evidently less significant in this realm. All of these characters felt the need to establish a common objective knowledge in the society around them, even though new modernist tendencies were making such commonality even less achievable and also revealing that the depth of individual feelings were richer than can be known in the public space and that increased considerations for privacy were more desirable for individuals and public alike.
What makes Japanese Girls at the Harbor such a special experience and a must-see film, however, is not the basic story, but the telling. The moody, black-and-white compositions and long tracking shots are consistently evocative of the general feelings of longing and loneliness. In addition there is considerable visual symbolism throughout, often in terms of images that represent the challenges of modernism. A further visual attribute, and one that strikes me as more unique to this film, is the sometimes dramatically stylized gestures of the actors – I am not sure whether these derive from silent movie or perhaps Japanese dramatic traditions. Incidentally, although sound movies came early to Japan, with the first one appearing in 1926, it took some time for talking pictures to take hold – even in the year of this film, 1933, more than 80% of the Japanese productions were silent films. On e curious aspect to the visual presentation was the many intertitles in the film. These numerous textual interruptions might be thought to interfere with the visual presentation – I was always taught that the best silent films were those that didn't need any intertitles. And yet the brief intertitles in this film don't seem to get in the way, and seem almost to provide a form of visual punctuation.
Overall, Japanese Girls at the Harbor is worth tracking down. In many ways I had the feeling as I watched it that I was seeing a Japanese version of a Josef von Sternberg film, where a simple narrative arc is graced by a leisurely, expressionistic cinematography that entrances the viewer.


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Home » Homes & Property » Suru Group unveils Nollywood actress, Foluke Daramola-Salako as brand Ambassador
Suru Group unveils Nollywood actress, Foluke Daramola-Salako as brand Ambassador
On September 4, 2018 2:07 amIn Homes & Propertyby Nwafor
By Etop Ekanem
A real estate and property company, Suru Group Limited, has signed up a Nollywood actress, writer and producer,Foluke Daramola-Salako, as its official brand ambassador.
With this, the Nollywood star,Foluke, will represent the Suru Group brand and feature heavily in the property marketing campaigns and client-focused strategies of the group.
Foluke, who was accompanied by her husband, Kayode Salako, to the unveiling ceremony, would use her large followership and popularity that cuts across socio-economic classes and age groups to further deepen the brand's growing impression in the real estate market.
Speaking at the event, which took place at Suru Express Hotel, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos, Managing Director/CEO of Suru Group, Mr. Edward Akinlade, said: "The company will explore every good platform to deepen its strength in every sphere of its conglomerate: Suru Homes & Properties, Suru Express Hotel, and Prolific Microfinance.
"We are extremely pleased to partner with a hardworking entrepreneur like Foluke Daramola-Salako who is also a role model to a wide spectrum of youths and people from all walks of life. This partnership aligns with our corporate objective of supporting SMEs and empowering enterprising women." On her part,Foluke revealed her excitement at being Suru's choice, which according to her, is a great institution that is fast making its mark in the sector.
She said: "I am delighted to be signed on as a brand ambassador for Suru Group. The Group Managing Director has been more like a father to me ever before now and has played vital role in my life and marriage.
"It is a privilege to be associated with one of the fastest growing property companies in the country today, We will certainly put Suru Group on the World map together."
Foluke is a graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University. In 1998, she made her film debut in a series entitled Palace. She also starred in Durodola and Above Law.
Nwafor
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DNKI promises rehabilitation of ex-convicts
Rotary Club Palmgrove Estate focuses on health services


text:
Nick Burt
Targeted for revealing the truth
Nick Burt explains what's at stake in the witch-hunt of students in the Northwestern University Medill Innocence Project by the Cook County State's Attorney office.
STUDENT JOURNALISTS in Northwestern University's Medill Innocence Project are undoubtedly familiar with the machinations of the criminal justice system: sleazy prosecutors, character assassinations, unfounded charges.
Over the past two decades, their work re-investigating criminal cases has helped exonerate 11 men wrongfully convicted of murder, including five who had been death row prisoners in Illinois.
But since announcing that they have uncovered yet another false murder conviction, the students, their university and Medill School of Journalism professor David Protess have had to wage their own battle against ongoing efforts by Cook County prosecutors to hamper the project's research, intimidate the students and deny a new trial to the prisoner.
At a time when the death penalty has never appeared more discredited--a widely read exposé in The New Yorker last September concluded that the state of Texas had executed an innocent man in 2004--some of capital punishment's proponents have decided that maintaining public support will require them to also kill the media messenger.
Professor David Protess and other members of the Innocence Project celebrating with Anthony Porter after he was exonerated in 1999
Since 1999, Protess has overseen the Innocence Project as part of an investigative journalism course at Northwestern's Medill School in the Chicago suburb of Evanston. The program has taken up re-researching the cases of about 50 prisoners over the past decade.
Not all of these cases have panned out, but the ones that did have de-legitimated the death penalty in big ways. The Ford Heights Four case gained the group acclaim--four prisoners were exonerated of the murder of a suburban couple, and the men won $36 million in damages. Students' research into the case of Anthony Porter exonerated him and won his release from death row after he came within two days of being executed.
The Innocence Project's findings, which exposed that the courts were sentencing innocent people to death, led to the 2001 moratorium on executions in Illinois. Protess reportedly seeks out cases with suspicious factors, such as convictions with no physical evidence. One of these was Anthony McKinney, who has been in prison now for more than 30 years.
PROSECUTORS CHARGED McKinney with the September 1978 murder of Donald Lundahl, a security guard who was shot at close range while sitting in his car in the southern suburb of Harvey. Police had apprehended McKinney, then 18 years old, near the site of the murder. McKinney claimed he was running from gang members when police stopped him, and officers found no weapon, blood or other direct evidence that would suggest his involvement in the crime.
During a later investigation, another teenage suspect told police that he had seen McKinney, from 50 yards away, threaten Lundahl with a shotgun. McKinney says that when he was re-arrested, interrogators beat him with a pipe until he signed a confession that they had typed. He was convicted of the crime in 1981, despite a lack of physical evidence, and was sentenced to life in prison. He has maintained his innocence since.
In 2003, Protess' class re-opened the case, and nine groups of students spent three years poring over the evidence and re-interviewing witnesses. Over the course of the investigation, students located the two key eyewitnesses, who admitted in videotaped interviews that they had falsely fingered McKinney as the murderer after they were beaten by police detective Coleman McCarthy, who had battled brutality charges while on the force.
Students also tracked down two of the people McKinney had claimed were chasing him when he was arrested, and both corroborated his story. The students were also able to identify the likely perpetrators, a group that included a convicted killer whom seven witnesses told them had admitted to participating in the murder.
Protess wrapped up his case and forwarded copies of affidavits, tapes and interview transcripts to the Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez and the Center for Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern's Law School, so that they could petition for a new trial or to have his sentence vacated.
But Alvarez, a newly elected Democrat, didn't appreciate the student journalists fact-checking her office's work. Last May, she subpoenaed the school, demanding that the Innocence Project surrender e-mails, student grades, grading criteria, the class syllabus and records of expenses incurred during the reporting--things that Alvarez claimed in court documents would show "bias, interest and motive...on the part of all or some of the students."
Alvarez contends that the stories were invented by the interview subjects, and that police interrogators sent to re-question some of the subjects were able to get new, contradictory affidavits, these being the definitive ones.
The state's attorney's office initially rejected the request for a new trial for McKinney, arguing that the material presented wasn't "new." Meanwhile, prosecutors went about trying to cast doubt on the material--which in reality was not only new but soundly damaging to their case for keeping McKinney imprisoned.
ALVAREZ AND her office coupled their court order with an attack against Protess and the Innocence Project in the local media.
Officials have publicly accused the students of bribing witnesses with money for drugs and "flirting" with interview subjects to get information. Alvarez's spokesperson offered media outlets a 1996 memo containing discredited innuendo about the Innocence Project's research ethics that the office had drawn up after the group helped free the Ford Heights Four.
Protess says the school has been subpoenaed in the past, but only for relevant information, not as a means to judge the motivations of the project. Protess has refused to hand over any of the information, and has remained defiant, telling PoliticsDaily that he'd be willing to accept jail time: "I would rather go to jail honoring the long tradition of journalists who have refused to turn over unpublished information than comply with an illegal subpoena. That's intolerable."
He's also tried keeping defenders of the death penalty on the defensive, reportedly asking in a November court hearing whether Alvarez feels embarrassment that her office tried to execute a potentially innocent man.
Students say the charges of distorting their research is baseless. "I think I speak for my fellow alums when I say this class was never about grades," writes one former student, who has since taken a job for CNN. "It has always been about searching for truth and justice for people whose cases didn't get due diligence from a bogged-down system. This was about journalism in its purest and most passionate form."
Charges of loose ethics seem especially ill-targeted. Protess himself has turned down requests to speak at anti-death penalty functions out of concern that doing so would amount to him advocating a position on the question. He says he just wants to find out what really happened, as any good journalist should do.
Lawyers representing the university have argued that the students are protected by the Illinois Reporter's Privilege Act, which shields journalists from disclosing information gained from sources under the promise of confidentiality. Prosecutors contend that the students are not really journalists, and thus deserve no such protection.
A ruling in Alvarez's favor would seriously damage the ability of the Innocence Project to talk to sources in future investigations; witnesses and others with information will be reluctant to go on-the-record for fear of implicating themselves in those or other crimes.
At this point, the university and dean of the Medill School appear to be supporting Protess and the Innocence Project on the case, and supporters such as Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn have kept the story alive by advocating their cause in print.
On January 11, a group of 18 major media organizations, including the New York Times, Washington Post and both Chicago dailies, filed an amicus curiae brief in Cook County Circuit Court supporting the students' legal protections. Judge Diane Cannon had scheduled the next status call in the case for February 10.
Protess has other cases that are close to completion, according to media reports, and bringing to light additional false convictions would be not just a service to those wrongly incarcerated; it would further discredit a sordid system and aid those seeking not just a moratorium but full abolition. The fight for Protess and his class is a fight for all those who look forward to that outcome.
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text:
Q: The request entity body has an incorrect value in the 'Content-Disposition' header. The expected format for this value is 'Content-Disposition: I have tried multiple HTTP APIs to post a file to OneDrive using the POST method, and I am getting always the same error.
I went to the extreme case of creating my own SSL TCP socket and send the following bytes:
POST /v5.0/folder.a4fb14adbccd1917.A4FB14ADBCCD1917!32089/files HTTP/1.1
Accept-Encoding:
Authorization: Bearer eWciaQ1DBAAUGCCXc8wU/zFu9QnLdZXy%2bYnElFkAAXA4AJqTmiPoOUADOkV98mAdpBZp8SeF0zjYzU4%2bVa0fVR/aWr4X0cHWAzEF7s7HBEABBptxlWcKHEyrgKfbH2YbADpxEjU0gRrOz37WInvPSgFVD8BZ9GtCQwdHh3GUXunbM/Nlqh1TIzELMJYuPEgaEBBWT25f8SoKziZi2kPVlZDPokjJBq2bxrYcAWydDK74ivuiuDGkX4hMpmWZmWtergEybpN2EgObHQa8O3GT2a9ta2hps0ElCv0GkhWG/u1t19/xjokW2dNbbsJ01A9iJkMYXhaMTYg71sGjqzHdXjAJf0hXNg8NiIOTy82MlHqEwCwEyzfXOSGddt0cLkIDZgAACEDf3skftS5%2bWAHGkGlcwFj4DRlrn3/F2DvOZWgyeITjkWfzdx%2b4B8m5olyO5oYKWf77zjVxnUkJ50cIOVCJq/OgnV1kMGB45EExY3%2b3T9JjN0rm91doGnuFGj1m/vuzVN3eP5f3Jr0hMvXbMpzFBImV/c/5SU5esBzA1zas9xt%2bKEi0rriVSqHS4QI4Bps3RN5KpQd4yrNxcTDi%2b9b9AkUVQB%2bxeW5lWGuR5YvaAOHhcePRqNqT2MY7c1zQMoa/C7E63FuOoSdr0KPJbsDKl8aXEt9vT/6A8BK0MnY%2b7MJ1cZaFL%2bhvK0lfI4Z6LJa/3Ayy%2bPt8%2bOc8gNP1Mu/1RCdOT8K1PxwhnvUIE8cnRyI28LUm%2bWUCnurRCNMNBorhZu64JxqOC1EGOja6wNcyI%2bw3TQ1dorDJWN91qENQAxxBMpl1LWdp548kDJcEPwxI4SkXQKnvWcxW1vCZY90SHzruvNmb
Content-Length: 197
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=8381f8b9-b470-43ce-b23b-f13cf5840014
Host: apis.live.net
Connection: Keep-Alive
Cache-Control: no-cache

--8381f8b9-b470-43ce-b23b-f13cf5840014
Content-Length: 9
Content-Type: application/octet-stream; charset=UTF-8
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="file"; filename="hello.txt"

xxxxxxxxx
--8381f8b9-b470-43ce-b23b-f13cf5840014--

And I always get the following bytes back:
HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
Cache-Control: private, no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate
Content-Length: 276
Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
Server: Live-API/18.105.8117.3007 Microsoft-HTTPAPI/2.0
P3P: CP="BUS CUR CONo FIN IVDo ONL OUR PHY SAMo TELo"
X-MSNSERVER: BY3301____PAP073
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-HTTP-Live-Request-Id: API.f06af310-9b49-4cbf-bf71-8c9d79570ec9
X-AsmVersion: UNKNOWN; 18.105.0.0
Date: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 21:37:15 GMT

{
   "error": {
      "code": "request_body_invalid",
      "message": "The request entity body has an incorrect value in the 'Content-Disposition' header. The expected format for this value is 'Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"file\"; filename=\"[FileName]\"'."
   }
}

All of this happened after I tried to answer this SO question.
Any idea?
UPDATE: I used the onedrive-api tag as recommended in the MSDN forums.

A: Try putting the Content-Disposition header as the first header after the boundary, followed by the Content-Type:
--8381f8b9-b470-43ce-b23b-f13cf5840014
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="file"; filename="hello.txt"
Content-Type: application/octet-stream; charset=UTF-8

You may need to omit the Content-Length as well to make it work. Pretty fragile really.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Part of the 6 Jewish Thinkers All Christians Should Know series
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel Still Brings Jews and Christians Together
By Amanda Achtman on May 5, 2021
For almost two years, a group of Jewish and Christian young professionals gathered together every two weeks to explore the works of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel in the context of a book club.
Carefully selecting meeting dates around Jewish holidays and Christian feasts, and taking turns bringing kosher snacks to a Catholic student residence, the group—of which I was a member—delved into three books and a couple essays by one of the twentieth century's greatest Jewish figures.
Why did we choose to devote our book club to reading Heschel? What is it that made Rabbi Heschel, who died in 1972, relevant and inviting to us today? And why is Heschel a rabbi every Christian should know?
Why Abraham Joshua Heschel Matters
The initiator of our book club, Daniel, is an Indian Catholic who grew up in Brunei. As a minority in both countries, where his neighbors were predominantly Hindu and Muslim, respectively, Daniel was raised in environments in which he got to know people of other faiths. However, a turning point for him came at age 16 when he watched Schindler's List for the first time and realized that he had next to no context for what it was about. He had never had the opportunity to learn about Jewish history or to meet Jews in real life, and so, when Daniel immigrated to Canada, he resolved to get to know Jews and to explore Jewish history and literature.
Interests converged when Daniel was also educating himself about the Civil Rights Movement and discovered that Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel had played an important role. Daniel had seen the striking photo of Rabbi Heschel marching with Martin Luther King, Jr., and he discovered in Heschel, and in Heschel's reading of Judaism, that a sense of a prophetic witness and a non-violent demand for justice had influenced that movement.
In a 1963 address, Rabbi Heschel declared that "racism is satanism, unmitigated evil" and asked, "Who shall prevent the epidemic of injustice?" In the same speech he said:
The prophet is a person who suffers the harms done to others. Wherever a crime is committed, it is as if the prophet were the victim and the prey. The prophet's angry words cry. The wrath of God is a lamentation. All prophecy is one great exclamation: God is not indifferent to evil! He is always concerned, He is personally affected by what man does to man. He is a God of pathos.
In everything, Heschel brought to bear not only the history of the Holocaust but also his personal and existential experience of it. He was born in Warsaw in 1907 and made it to New York in 1940. His mother and sisters were murdered in the Holocaust and he never returned to the country of his birth.
In addition to the moral clarity he derived from his study of the Bible, and in particular from his doctoral work that was eventually published as The Prophets, Heschel was also a pioneer in Jewish–Christian relations. Catholic theologian Dr. Eva Fleischner summed up Rabbi Heschel's contributions to the Catholic Church's Second Vatican Council, saying, "We have here the extraordinary phenomenon of a religious Jewish thinker, utterly, profoundly Jewish, from a long Hasidic line, who not only reached out to and touched the lives of Christian theologians and two popes, but who influenced the outcome of the Roman Church's relationship to the Jews through Vatican II's declaration Nostra Aetate."
Rabbi Heschel also cultivated a strong friendship with Cardinal Bea, the German Jesuit who is considered the principal architect of the groundbreaking declaration promulgated by Pope Paul VI that formally repudiates antisemitism and insists on the greatness of "the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews."
It is not an exaggeration to say that the friendships made possible through our Heschel book club are in part the result of these constructive dialogues between the Jewish and Christian thinkers who preceded us. In fact, not only are we ourselves discussing with each other as Jewish and Christian millennials, but we also put our traditions in conversation throughout the book club. It became natural for us, therefore, to weave Rabbi Jonathan Sacks with C.S. Lewis, and Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik with Pope John Paul II. Where we might have been initially reticent to share from our respective traditions, Heschel gave all of us the confidence to do so.
What Makes Heschel Inviting?
For our first book club meeting, we discussed Heschel's essay "No Religion is an Island" and invited each participant to say what had motivated him or her to join the group.
A Jewish participant memorably replied, "I'm here because I have a master's in Jewish Studies and I've never read anything by Heschel because he's outside of my [denominational] tradition."
Our group convened observant Jews and practicing Christians who take their faith seriously. Skeptics of our book club wondered why we would not prefer to spend our time steeping in our own tradition. But the value was borne out for each of us insofar as we found the discussions to be clarifying and refining of our own traditions in ways that were surprising and edifying.
A Jewish participant named Elisa considers Heschel's writings timeless. She reflected,
He really contemplates those everyday questions that many of us maybe ask ourselves or think about sometimes but don't really delve into very much. That creates a really great opportunity for us to go back to the basics because sometimes you need that to remember who you are or where you come from and what you care about. Being able to have these important discussions about what you care about, how you maintain awe in your everyday life or how you keep God in mind when you're doing mundane things . . . really coming back to that has been strengthening and important for us in our own faiths.
A Ukranian Catholic deacon in the group shared how Rabbi Heschel's book The Sabbath had transformed his understanding of Sunday. He resolved to experiment with not shopping on Sundays after reading Heschel in an effort to recover the sanctity of Sunday. Meanwhile, a Russian-Israeli-Canadian Jew who has observed Shabbat her whole life expressed surprise that others could have and live a sacred day of rest in a different yet related way to the Jewish sabbath.
The young adults—Jews and Christians—were all unanimous in finding that Heschel's poetic and illustrative language makes him an inviting and accessible thinker.
As a group, we would have profound, sincere conversations about moments of awe at God's providence, at God's grandeur. I found it extraordinary that we young professionals would convene after an ordinary day to discuss: Where do we see the grandeur of God? What has been a moment of awe in the past week? What is it to have reverence for others? What is it to take responsibility as an animating principle into all our spheres of action in the world? These were the kinds of conversations we had through which we would raise very personal and specific examples from our travel, work, and community service.
Rabbi Heschel's manner of raising questions is imaginative and provocative. For example, he writes, "It is the free man who asks: Why should I be interested in my interests? What are the values I ought to feel in need of serving?"
A single line could capture our imaginations for months—for example: "How should I live the life that I am?" In Who Is Man?, Heschel teaches us that our life is not so much something we have as someone we are. Our lives are a task and, as he says in another place in the same book, "The content of this task we must acquire."
When Jewish participant Elisa told her friends about the book club and that her favorite book by Heschel is God in Search of Man, one friend queried, "Don't you mean, 'Man in Search of God'?" Even Heschel's titles are provocative and led each of us into meaningful conversations in our day-to-day.
My friends and I found Heschel concrete and practical, significant on both existential and social levels. Though he was ever addressing the issues of his day, Heschel speaks to us because these issues remain very much in our lives now. We have the sense that what he says concerns us.
A Rabbi for Christians
The first word spoken by the first one to recognize the risen Christ is an affectionate greeting of Jesus as rabbi. And while Jesus remains the preeminent rabbi for Christians, more and more Christians are beginning to open their hearts to the wisdom of modern rabbis in our own time. There are a few reasons why Heschel deserves to be among these.
First, this magazine is called "The Biblical Mind" and Heschel's life and works are permeated with biblical imagination. For Heschel, the task of education is to explain what it means to live as a likeness of God. And for this, he thought, it is not enough to rely on texts alone. He said, "What we need more than anything else is not textbooks but textpeople. It is the personality of the teacher which is the text the pupils read; the text that they will not forget."
Indeed we are in need of ethical exemplars—of "textpeople" who lived and who live with gratitude, responsibility, and reverence. Is this not the same exhortation we find in the book of James, which says, "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only"?
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel is still bringing Jews and Christians together to cooperate in the practical tasks of humanizing the culture, animated by the pathos of the prophets with an eye to restoring the sacred image of the human person in the world.
Achieving this demands that Christians see any form of antisemitism as completely antithetical to Christianity and take responsibility to do something about it. And since knowledge is a prerequisite for love, it is important for Christians to become acquainted with Jews, past and present, to discern, as Heschel put it, "what we might do together."
Getting into Heschel
Heschel wrote widely, and so if you are looking for a place to begin, I would recommend The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man, the collection of essays published under the title Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, or his short and luminous book Who is Man? If you would like Heschel to accompany your reading of Scripture, be sure to check out The Prophets. In This Hour contains Heschel's writings in Nazi Germany and in exile in London.
As we concluded our Heschel book club, we returned to the words with which we started. This, Heschel says, is the purpose of interreligious cooperation:
It is neither to flatter nor to refute one another, but to help one another; to share insight and learning, to cooperate in academic ventures on the highest scholarly level, and what is even more important to search in the wilderness for well-springs of devotion, for treasures of stillness, for the power of love and care for man. What is urgently needed are ways of helping one another in the terrible predicament of here and now by the courage to believe that the word of the Lord endures for ever as well as here and now; to cooperate in trying to bring about a resurrection of sensitivity, a revival of conscience; to keep alive the divine sparks in our souls, to nurture openness to the spirit of the Psalms, reverence for the words of the prophets, and faithfulness to the Living God.
Modern Jews and Christians have much to learn from Heschel's enduring legacy.
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biblical justice | biblical philosophy | meaning of life
Amanda Achtman studied Liberal Arts and Political Science in her hometown of Calgary, Alberta. She completed a master's degree in John Paul II Philosophical Studies at the Catholic University of Lublin in Poland. Amanda is an alumna of the March of Remembrance and Hope Holocaust study trip, The Philos Project's Leadership Institute, and the Israel Policy Forum Atid Convener Program.


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Pack Potential LARPs
Run by Natasha Mcapple
Behavioural policies.
Past games
The first LARP
Ghosts like Sushi too
Of gods and ghosts
Archived games
Of course it's a necromancer.
The Old Gods
The old gods consist of the Old God, otherwise known as the Green Man, and the Goddess, also known as the Green Lady or the Triple Goddess, who preside over the council of gods, best known as the Norse gods, who have taken nordic names over their old ones. (E.g. Woden is now referred to as Odin)
During the winter solstice he takes the form of The Oak King, and then during the summer solstice he appears as The Holly King. He can also appear at any time of year as the Horned Man, or Horned King. He represents all elements, and great power.
The Green Lady/Triple Goddess
She takes the form of the mother, the crone, and the maiden. She represents any triad of elements, in any combination, and people who believe her to be their guiding goddess, and who follow her above all else, have been known to only use three elements, discarding their ability to use the fourth element.
Father of the Norse gods, god of war and death, god of poetry and wisdom. His messengers take the form of two ravens, and his elements are Fire and Earth. People tied to him often use the raven as an indicator, feeling themselves proud of such fiery passion and earthly wisdom, and as such are unwilling to hide themselves.
She is the patron of marriage and motherhood, favoured by the Green Lady, and her messenger is an owl. Air and water are her elements, and if you are favoured by her you are also favoured by the Green Lady. Some people see worshipping her as dividing yourself between the Green Lady and a lesser god, but Frigg and the Green Lady are intricately connected as both of their purviews encompass motherhood and femininity.
He is the god of Thunder, and his worshippers are renowned to have no fear; they have been known to celebrate during even the worst of storms in the hope of catching sight of him in the sky. His messengers are two shaggy goats, their fleece prickled with static and electricity, and his main element is Fire.
She is the goddess of love and fertility; her messengers are two cats, and her core element is water. Frigg and Freya worshippers often end up fighting, as they have very similar views, but differ just enough to fight over it. Where Frigg is marriage and devotion and loyalty to one person, Freya spreads her love to all, and is endeared to many. Where Frigg is motherhood, and tradition, and care, Freya is fertility, production, and life itself. The goddesses are a conflicting pair, more so amongst their worshippers than themselves.
He is the god of light, joy, purity, beauty, innocence, and reconciliation; his messenger is a golden eagle, and his element is air. He is Frigg's favourite, and is said to fill his true followers with so much joy and innocence that they are loved by all and, like him, cannot be harmed by (almost) anything. Like Balder though, holly can still harm them. However, it is rare, as most people contain darkness somewhere in their heart, and Balder only chooses the pure of heart.
He is the god of justice, and his messenger is a wolf, whilst his element is earth. He is Odin's favoured son, though not actually born of him. The gods are not sure where Tyr came from, but he is trusted by the Green Man and Odin, so has retained his position. Tyr worshippers are often dismissed as being a fad, or unconventional, but he's pretty much as old as the rest of the gods.
She is the goddess of the underworld and dislikes necromancy as she believes the dead should stay dead. She will tolerate mindless zombies, though she would prefer that their bodies decay and return to the earth and nature, but she finds bringing souls back from the underworld to be unacceptable. Many falsely believe that she is the daughter of Frigg or Odin. Her messenger is a black hound, and her elements are earth and air.
Unlike the other gods, Loki has no set gender. They are the trickster god, and they will shapeshift into whoever, or whatever they want. Their messenger is a snake, and their elements are fire and water. Like Tyr, they are not a child of Frigg or Odin, and are simultaneously favoured and disliked by most gods.
LARP LARP LARP
LARP UNDER NAME CHANGEJuly 21, 2018
Current LARP location
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Date - 21st July
Time - 15:00-midnight
Pack Potential
This is run by Natasha Mcapple, who is nonbinary, and likes dogs, has a cat, makes a tonne of props, requires assistance making costume (thank you helpers), and adores having minions or assistant. Pls volunteer to crew if you are uncertain, and as long as there is space, which there usually is, you will be rewarded with cake. Unless there is no cake. In which case we will get cake.
Company created as a non profit LARP group.


This second tutorial guides you through the construction of the following simple kitchen layout. If you need to draw building plans regularly you may want to look at Draft it Architectural which contains additional features ideal for this type of drawing.
The tutorial is broken down into small topics listed below the drawing and in the table of contents.
The method used to construct this drawing is designed to demonstrate a range of Draft it commands.


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A lack of thorough editing makes the strengths of this historical tale difficult to appreciate.
THE MOONSHINE WARS
OR MY LIFE IN KINCAID, GEORGIA BY TERRY LEE KINCAID III
by Daniel Micko ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 14, 2016
Micko's debut novel addresses issues of racism in America by following a Southern family from the end of the Civil War to the early 20th century.
The narrator, Terry Lee Kincaid III, begins this complicated family saga by introducing readers to his paternal great-grandfather, Billy Ray, a member of the Ku Klux Klan who worked as a slave hunter before the Civil War. Billy Ray gets involved with a woman from an upper-class family, but their relationship falls apart because of his connections to the Klan. They have a son together, Terry Lee, but Billy Ray refuses to acknowledge him. Terry Lee grows up and starts a lucrative moonshine business with his best friend, an African-American man named Jim Spicer. Together, they scout out the land that becomes Kincaid, Georgia—a place where a white family and a black family can live peacefully alongside each other as equals. But the Klan disapproves of this, and they use their influence to have Jim and Terry Lee sent to jail. Their sons—Sonny Spicer and Terry Lee Jr.—are raised as brothers by Jim's wife, Alberta. The two boys have a hard time staying out of trouble; they later end up in jail several times, and they eventually join the moonshine business. All sorts of danger and excitement ensue, leading to triumphs and tragedies that the young Terry Lee III describes with wide-eyed enthusiasm. The book does have its strong points: the characters live richly imagined, exciting, and unusual lives; the plot's conflicts involving race are pertinent to social and political issues of today; and the folksy Southern style ("For all ya'll who ain't heard of Kincaid, I'll tell you about it") can be charming. But the story is also undermined by errors in punctuation and spelling ("verifyable"; "ultimatim") from beginning to end, making the book seem more like a rough draft than a finished novel. As a result, many readers may lose patience with the book long before they reach its conclusion.
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: GENERAL GRAPHIC NOVELS & COMICS
More by Daniel Micko
PREDATOR/NOMAD
by Daniel Micko
Chwast and Twain are a match made in heaven.
by Mark Twain ; adapted by Seymour Chwast ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 18, 2014
Design veteran Chwast delivers another streamlined, graphic adaptation of classic literature, this time Mark Twain's caustic, inventive satire of feudal England.
Chwast (Tall City, Wide Country, 2013, etc.) has made hay anachronistically adapting classic texts, whether adding motorcycles to The Canterbury Tales (2011) or rocket ships to The Odyssey (2012), so Twain's tale of a modern-day (well, 19th-century) engineer dominating medieval times via technology—besting Merlin with blasting powder—is a fastball down the center. (The source material already had knights riding bicycles!) In Chwast's rendering, bespectacled hero Hank Morgan looks irresistible, plated in armor everywhere except from his bow tie to the top of his bowler hat, sword cocked behind head and pipe clenched in square jaw. Inexplicably sent to sixth-century England by a crowbar to the head, Morgan quickly ascends nothing less than the court of Camelot, initially by drawing on an uncanny knowledge of historical eclipses to present himself as a powerful magician. Knowing the exact date of a celestial event from more than a millennium ago is a stretch, but the charm of Chwast's minimalistic adaption is that there are soon much better things to dwell on, such as the going views on the church, politics and society, expressed as a chart of literal back-stabbing and including a note that while the upper class may murder without consequence, it's kill and be killed for commoners and slaves. Morgan uses his new station as "The Boss" to better the primitive populous via telegraph lines, newspapers and steamboats, but it's the deplorably savage civility of the status quo that he can't overcome, even with land mines, Gatling guns and an electric fence. The subject of class manipulation—and the power of passion over reason—is achingly relevant, and Chwast's simple, expressive illustrations resonate with a childlike earnestness, while his brief, pointed annotations add a sly acerbity. His playful mixing of perspectives within single panels gives the work an aesthetic somewhere between medieval tapestry and Colorforms.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
More by Mark Twain
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARK TWAIN, VOLUME 3
by Mark Twain ; edited by Benjamin Griffin Harriet E. Smith
A FAMILY SKETCH AND OTHER PRIVATE WRITINGS
by Mark Twain ; Livy Clemens ; Susy Clemens edited by Benjamin Griffin
by Mark Twain edited by Benjamin Griffin Elinor Smith
An original project worth watching as it shapes up to something that may be quite magnificent.
by Jason Lutes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2001
This black-and-white historical narrative, written and illustrated by Lutes, collects eight volumes of his ongoing comic book set in Berlin during the late '20s. It's a multilayered tale of love and politics at the beginning of the Nazi era, as Lutes follows the stories of three characters: a 20ish art student from the provinces, a textile worker, and a young Jewish radical. Their lives intersect in only the subtlest way—Lutes depicts them crossing paths at some great public events, such as the Mayday march that closes this part of his book. And Lutes plays with perspective in a visual sense as well, jumping from point-of-view frames to overhead angles, including one from a dirigible flying above in honor of the Kaiser. At street level, Lutes integrates his historical research smoothly, and cleverly evokes the sounds and smells of a city alive with public debate and private turmoil. The competing political factions include communists, socialists, democrats, nationalists, and fascists, and all of Lutes's characters get swept up by events. Marthe, the beautiful art student, settles in with Kurt, the cynical and detached journalist; Gudrun, the factory worker, loses her job, and her nasty husband (to the Nazi party), then joins a communist cooperative with her young daughters; Schwartz, a teenager enamored with the memory of Rosa Luxembourg, balances his incipient politics with his religion at home and his passion for Houdini. The lesser figures seem fully realized as well, from the despotic art instructor to the reluctant street policeman. Cosmopolitan Berlin on the brink of disaster: Lutes captures the time and place with a historian's precision and a cinematographer's skill. His shifts from close-ups to fades work perfectly in his thin-line style, a crossbreed of dense-scene European comics and more simple comics styles on this side of the Atlantic.
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2001
More by Jason Lutes
by Jason Lutes & illustrated by Nick Bertozzi


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Home > Auto, Security & Pervasive Computing > Rethinking SSDs In Data Centers
Rethinking SSDs In Data Centers
A frenzy of activity aims to make solid-state drives faster and more efficient.
August 3rd, 2017 - By: Gale Morrison
Semiconductors that control how data gets on and off solid-state drives (SSDs) inside of data centers are having a moment in the sun.
This surge in interest involves much more than just the SSD device. It leverages an entire ecosystem, starting with system architects and design engineers, who must figure out the best paths for data flow on- and off-chip and through a system. It also includes the I/O IP, the physical distance of the storage device from the server racks. And it includes the interconnect fabric, which in the case of the cloud and large enterprises increasingly relies on silicon photonics.
There are four main issues that come into play around SSDs—latency, power, cost, and bandwidth to, from and between different SSDs. There is some overlap between these various elements, because power and performance may be traded off, depending upon the application, or simply accepted as the cost of doing business for some jobs. In every case, though, this is a balancing act between whatever is important to the users of that data. So a cloud communicating safety-critical information will have much higher performance requirements than a static records search or an online shopping transaction.
The SSD itself is one component in that decision. And while there has been a flurry of activity around improving the performance of SSDs, including how many layers of NAND can be piled on top of each other to increase the density and how data can be retrieved and stored on various layers, it's only one piece of the performance puzzle.
For example, one of the key discussion points at next week's Flash Memory Summit in Santa Clara, Calif., will center around what NVMe brings to the table over older-generation storage interfaces SATA (serial advanced technology attachment) and SAS (serial-attached small computer system interface), as well as what NVMe over fabrics can do going forward from here.
SATA is the dominant interface today in terms of units shipped for data center and enterprise SSDs, according to Cameron Crandall, senior technology manager in memory giant Kingston Technology's SSD product engineering department. But that is changing.
Fig. 1: NVMe growth drivers. Source: eInfochips
"SATA and SAS have always been limiting factors for (SSD) performance and the industry has known this for 10 years," said Crandall, who has been with Kingston for 20 years and brings expertise from years spent engineering SCSI and Fibre Channel storage arrays. "In the beginning, SSDs basically mimicked a hard drive. The standards bodies have been trying to figure out how to get away from SATA and SAS ever since."
Then, SandForce (which LSI Logic bought in 2012 and sold to Seagate in 2014) developed and brought to market the NVMe driver so that NAND flash SSDs could attach via the ubiquitous PCI Express interface.
"PCI Express prevailed with the NVMe driver," said Crandall. "That gave us the right physical connection on the system board. It gave a big performance jump over serial ATA and SAS. PCI Express was the right interface for SSDs to get that next big performance jump."
Seagate today has internal standard PCI Express NVMe controller and custom ASIC controller teams, as well as a dedicated sales force and engineering resource team for the large public cloud companies. The cloud companies typically specify and integrate their own data center hardware including storage.
"We are big on NVMe," said Tony Afshary, director of product marketing and ecosystem solutions for flash products at Seagate. "We are on our fifth generation of PCIe SSD storage to date. Storage over PCIe interface is extremely important to us. For any hyperscale or cloud-like, Web-like infrastructure build out, those are all NVMe. It has absolutely taken over SATA as the interface in this market. There are innovative ways that you can create storage in the data center that NVMe has really opened up."
What's new here is more predictable performance, along with the ability to create fabrics and pool groups of NVMe drives to share across servers.
"That is pretty exciting in the NVMe world, both in the hyperscale and traditional array enterprise market," said Afshary. Seagate will show new innovations around the smaller 'gum stick' M.2 form factor at the August flash memory summit. That could be significant, because to date U.2 has stuck around because that form factor is easier to service.
One of Kingston's core partners is Marvell Semiconductor, the merchant market leader in storage controllers for SSDs and HDDs. As Nick Ilyadis, Marvell's vice president of portfolio and technology strategy, put it at the recent GSA Silicon Summit, "The era of SSDs in data centers is now."
Marvell is supporting EMC's XtremeIO data center SSD arrays, and Facebook's "Lightning" custom storage array, which was shown at this spring's Open Compute Project conference. Marvell has a multi-year strategy investing in new chipset architectures that add RAID and virtualization to SSDs in the data center, which will complement its core engineering efforts to get to 100Gbps SerDes.
"We have multiple developments going on in that area. That is a real area of focus for us," said Nigel Alvares, vice president of marketing for SSD and enterprise storage.
Right now, one data center industry camp of integrators and engineers is excited about the prospect of bringing the critical flash translation layer (FTL) off of the semiconductor controller and on to the server side in data center storage arrays. This change in controller/SSD technology approach is dubbed "Light NVM," or "open-channel SSDs."
Fig. 2: EMC's X-Brick, a building block of its XtremeIO array. Source: EMC
Performance limits
But others argue this only brings advantages with known workloads and control of the entire software stack. As a result, this is only relevant for a particular slice of the data center SSD market.
Jeroen Dorgelo, director of SSD marketing at Marvell's Dutch engineering center, explained the engineering mindset behind this. "For enterprise SSDs, because it's flash memory, you write your data on multiple devices at the same time. It's all about redundancy. But some people in the industry said, 'Hey, this is a lot of duplication. What if l take the overhead inside the SSD, what that FTL does, and put that on the server side?' This is because of the basic difference between SSDs and HDDs. In HDDs, you overwrite the data. In SSDs, this is impossible. You have to write the complete file new. That means you have to translate your logical address to a physical address."
The controllers with an off-loaded FTL are almost as complicated. This is really about the software being simplified, he said. The key is what the data center integrator intends to do, compute-wise.
"In a big, big data center, where a certain application is going to be performed and needs to be optimized, you can do (the translation) at the host level," said Dorgelo. "But if you don't know how the work will look, it's better to do this at the controller. There are a lot of dynamics here with this 'Light NVM' for data centers that know their workloads. They can really optimize their total cost of ownership. But in the big mainstream data center, you are going to see them do the work close to the NAND. For certain workloads and big data center guys who really know what their workload is going to be, they will do this for a percentage of their SSDs, but not all of their SSDs."
There are other efforts afoot to improve the performance of the SSDs, as well. "On one level this is an operating system problem," said , CEO of Kilopass. "There is work underway on that, but so far it hasn't been fixed. The problem there is the file system, which accesses the files, not the memory address space."
In effect, this amounts to extra layers to retrieve data. So SSDs are slower than DRAM in a side-by-side comparison in a lab, but they're even slower in the real world as more layers are added.
"PCIe has its own level of encapsulation, so you can't access data directly," said Cheng. "This is one of the reasons there has been a lot of interest in DRAM SSDs. With a DRAM buffer you can learn the application and prefetch some data, which can be stored in cache."
A different kind of light
Even with existing SSDs, figuring out the best architecture and approach for a specific use is a complicated exercise. It involves a detailed cost analysis as well as an understanding of where bottlenecks can arise within a data center. Within a cloud-based data center, those bottlenecks can shift, as well.
In many cases, just moving data back and forth between the servers and storage can take too long, which is why photonics has become so popular. As a point of reference, the optical transceiver market is expected to hit $6.9 billion by 2022, based on 13.5% compound annual growth starting in 2016, according to MarketsandMarkets.
Photonics has its own set of challenges, though, which is why most of the photonics chips so far have been multi-chip solutions rather than everything on one chip. Typically, the chips are connected with a silicon interposer, or they can be assembled using a package-on-package configuration.
"There are some unique challenges," said Michael White, director of product marketing for Calibre Physical Verification products at Mentor, a Siemens business. "Simulation is difficult. There also are parasitics with line-edge roughness on the waveguides. Maintaining uniformity and staying at a certain temperature is a challenge. A photonic IC also uses non-Manhattan (irregular) shapes."
And that's just the beginning. "Everything has to be tuned precisely to the wavelength of the signal," said Juan Rey, senior director of engineering for Calibre at Mentor. "If you shift the temperature, that has an impact on the wavelength. There is a well-defined pitch on how it responds. A few degrees makes a big difference. On top of that, everyone is using III-V materials."
III-V compounds such as gallium arsenide, indium arsenide, and indium gallium arsenide are used as the light sources for photonics, but they are difficult to work with using conventional silicon processes. As a result, the economics that have made semiconductor device scaling possible don't exist yet on the photonics side. This has made them prohibitive to use for many applications, but the data center is one of the more forgiving environments when it comes to pricing.
Rey noted that the battles underway for communication in the data center are from 3 centimeters to 1 meter, within a rack, and at 400 meters-plus. Photonics works well in both settings due to low power and high speed.
Fig. 3: Silicon photonics chips. Source: IBM
New options
Beyond the data transport medium, some companies are looking to rearchitect the entire data center.
"People are creating so much data at such a heavy clip, in the near term, which means the SSD market is growing," said Marvell's Alvares. "The HDD market is growing significantly, too. Data storage in general is growing gangbusters."
The problem is that there is so much data being generated, particularly from images, that moving that data to one or more processors isn't necessarily the best option. This is well understood with DRAM, and utilizing new memory architectures such as HBM2 for 2.5D and fan-out wafer-level packaging greatly speeds up data throughput between the processor elements and off-chip memory. Moving processing closer to storage—which in effect creates yet another level of memory—is still at the PowerPoint stage, but it is beginning to get some notice.
This is particularly key for edge server architectures, which are still being defined, as well as for cloud operations, which are constantly being refined and redefined. One of the more ambitious schemes comes from ConnectX, which has proposed putting entire data centers in outer space. While the company talks about the cost and security advantages, there are other advantages, as well, that can be duplicated closer to home.
"There are two ways to improve performance," said Craig Hampel, chief scientist at Rambus. "One is power scaling through Moore's Law. What's clear, though, is that we need an alternative to traditional scaling. The second is quantum machines, and those need to operate at extremely low temperatures to limit thermal noise. But if you lower the temperature enough, you get multiple orders of efficiency improvement in the movement of electrons. You burn 1/10th of the power at 77 degrees Kelvin. You also get a second effect, which is thermal density. You can pack things closer together, which means the the wires can be shorter. So if a quantum machine can be built that is commercially acceptable, it will be 9 orders of magnitude more efficient, and memory will be 10 times more efficient."
This applies to all types of data storage, but it is unlikely to be used outside the enterprise because the economics of cooling a device to those kinds of sub-zero temperatures don't work except on a mass scale—or in outer space.
Data centers historically have been one of the most conservative markets for technology. They are slow to adopt technology and slow to change it out because the impact of those decisions gone awry can be enormous. But as the cost of cooling higher-density racks of servers increases, and as the amount of data being stored in data centers continues to skyrocket, they are much more open to looking at new approaches than in the past.
This bodes well for solid-state storage, photonics, and any architectural changes that can save significant amounts of money. And it indicates that companies investing in this area are at least on the right track, even if all the pieces aren't entirely clear.
—Ed Sperling contributed to this report.
Sorting Out Next-Gen Memory
A long list of new memory types is hitting the market, but which ones will be successful isn't clear yet.
Cloud Computing Chips Changing
As cloud services adoption soars, datacenter chip requirements are evolving.
Chip Advances Play Big Role In Cloud
Semiconductor improvements add up to big savings in power and performance.
Tags: cloud ConnectX data centers DRAM eInfochips enterprise flash memory IBM Kilopass Kingston Technology LSI Logic Marvell NVMe Rambus SandForce SAS SATA Seagate solid state drives storage
Gale Morrison
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Gale Morrison is a technology editor at Semiconductor Engineering.
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Knowledge Centers Blogs
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One-Time-Programmable Memory (OTP)
Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs)
Learning properties of ordered and disordered materials from multi-fidelity data January 14, 2021 by Technical Paper Link
Improving the Performance Of Deep Neural Networks January 11, 2021 by Technical Paper Link
Versatile Thin‐Film Transistor with Independent Control of Charge Injection and Transport for Mixed Signal and Analog Computation January 11, 2021 by Technical Paper Link
Solution-processable integrated CMOS circuits based on colloidal CuInSe2 quantum dots January 11, 2021 by Technical Paper Link
IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2020 January 9, 2021 by Technical Paper Link
Manufacturing Bits: Jan. 19 Mark LaPedus
Power/Performance Bits: Jan. 19 Jesse Allen


Lake Como Colico Luxury Brand New Villa with Pool.. at about 2 km from all the amenities, beach and centre… Detached villa built on flat land of 1,800 square meters completed only three months ago. available: 3 independent apartments with separate entrances from the outside and still connected by a staircase inside.
Ground floor apartment 90 sqm with kitchen and living room, 1 double bedroom, 2 singles bedrooms, bathroom, porch 130sqm; as well as room with separate entrance used as a studio of about 30 sqm, heating room, ventilation and air shaft.
Raised floor Main apartment of 180sqm consists of living room, separate dining area, kitchen, covered terrace with panoramic lake view 40 sqm, master bedroom of 55 sqm with private bathroom (bath tub and shower), 2 double bedrooms, full bathroom with shower.
Attic apartment of 100sqm with living room with kitchen, master bedroom with private bathroom with shower, 2 single bedrooms, bathroom with shower, large covered terrace with beautiful lake view 40sqm.
Outdoor area of about 1,450 square meters consisting of pool 10x6mt height 1.50 m, shallow pool 6x3mt height 60 cm with overflow cascade effect, large sunbathing area with night lighting and a solar shower, bathroom on the floor of the pool with shower, laundry room, multipurpose room with connections for eventual fitness facilities (sauna, turkish bathes), motorized sliding gate, covered entrance with videophone and digital keyboard for opening, predisposition anti intrusion system, separate irrigation system for different garden area, planted with olive trees, mulberry trees, camellia and green surrounding with skirt in laurel and cypress highlander.
3 covered parking places (with possibility to realize also a large garage) and 4 uncovered parking places.
The property is considered environmentally friendly, not connected to the gas network (zero emissions) and meets all the futuristic requirements for the energy aspect.
If required you can evaluate the installation of a lift and the creation of a large garage, and make any internal and external changes to be accounted for extras and therefore in addition to the asking price. Possibility furniture.
The Asking price is Euro 1.350.000,00.