It took some time, but I finally converted. I'm now officially one of those freaky barefoot runners.
I began running in zero-drop shoes close to two years ago. Doing so has cured my plantar fasciitis and strengthened muscled I never knew I had. It's been a great change and I love it. But as I've mentioned before, healthy minimalist running form goes well beyond simply landing on your forefoot. I had to learn this lesson the hard way with an ankle injury diagnosed as posterior tibial tendonitis. Most likely, this resulted from extreme forefoot running, meaning that I stayed on the balls of my feet too much and rarely let my heels touch the ground. Add to that the fact that I increased my distance well beyond the recommended 10% per week, and I was more or less begging for an injury on an overused muscle.
All things considered, I was lucky. A short break, two inexpensive adjustments from a miracle-working chiropractor (thanks Dr. Bilby!) and a few massaging and stretching exercises were all I needed to recover. I'm really good at taking hints, though, and I had to ask myself, "Am I heading toward other injuries with my running habits?" That's when I began researching minimalist injury-free running in depth, and that's when I came to the conclusion that even if I wanted to run well in shoes, I should learn to run without shoes.
"Frankly, if all you did was take off your shoes, go for a run, stop when it hurts, and experiment to find ways of running that don't hurt, you would learn more than I, or anyone else, could tell you."
The same advice was repeated in interviews, articles and books I came across by Barefoot Ted, Michael Sandler and the many other minimalist gurus and professors out there. All of this was persuasive, but the final stroke came from reading Barefoot Ken Bob Saxton's book Barefoot Running Step By Step.
There was really nothing revolutionary in Ken Bob's book that I hadn't heard before, but it was all laid out so simply. Instead of hundreds of pages of specifications for positioning every muscle in your body just right while you run, he had a handful of easy tips for proper running form and a simple schedule for adapting to bare feet (I don't mean to say those detailed books aren't useful, just that Ken Bob's simpler ideas are easier to start with). For those who do want to run in shoes, he presented a strong argument that running barefoot will help you develop proper running form that you can then maintain in footwear. As a Soft Star shoe elf who prefers having some covering on my feet, his words really hit home with me and I began running barefoot the next day.
The idea is easy to grasp: when you're barefoot, your body makes quick adjustments to anything that causes pain. It doesn't matter how thin or minimal your shoes are, nothing is the same as skin on ground. For example, when I wear shoes, I consciously try to avoid shuffling and scraping my feet against the ground before I lift off, and it takes attention and work. When I go barefoot, I fix that automatically in about 5 seconds. If I didn't, I'd be wallowing in pain and leaving a bloody trail of footprints on the pavement behind me. And yes, I did start running barefoot on rough pavement and gravel. This may seem contradictory to the common sense of starting on soft surfaces, like grass, but the point is to learn to step lightly and quickly with a high cadence. Shoes and grass don't motivate you to do this. Bare feet on gravel does, and you learn it fast or your body screams at you.
I'm taking it slow and following Ken Bob's schedule, which means running for five minutes every other day for four running days, then upping it to ten minutes every other day for four running days, then fifteen minutes, etc. It's been about a month now and I'm up to 25 minutes running barefoot, which covers a little more than two miles. My feet are sore at the end of these runs, and sometimes I've had to wait an extra day before running again, but they've never started bleeding and my tolerance for rough ground has significantly increased. And if you never tried it, running barefoot does feel incredible and liberating.
I'm now ready to start running in zero-drop shoes again and seeing how well I maintain the new form (I have two new pairs of RunAmocs I'm anxious to try out), although I plan to incorporate some barefoot time into my regular training. And yes, I'm still continuing my Minimalist Monday running workshops in Portland. I'm curious to hear how their teachings compare to Ken Bob's, and I do think there is great value in learning the more complex ideas behind running injury-free.
My feet and body feel great and I'm still working to repress the urge to just take off and run as far and as fast as I can. Ken Bob calls that BRES: Barefoot Running Exuberance Syndrome. It's tempting, but I don't need any more injuries. The days that I can just let go and run like a mad will come in time, and I'll stay healthy when they do.


text:
Upgrading your PHP version
Sept 2019 Oct 2018 Dec 2016 Older Announcements... View RSS Feed
WordPress has recently moved towards making the minimum version of their supported PHP 7.x — updating PHP on Fused couldn't prove easier. In addition to the performance benefits (upwards of 250%), there's the advantage of being on a supported PHP version from a security standpoint.
If you haven't taken the time to upgrade yet, there's no greater time than now.
Here's a document on upgrading PHP to 7.2 (or, at the very minimum, 7.1). 7.3 will be available shortly, and we'll send out an email blast when it's ready.
Upgrading PHP for WordPress
Copyright © 2021 Fused. All Rights Reserved.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
End to End Encryption SIG - 2022-05-20
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Geoff Ward is from Los Angeles, CA and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California, Irvine. He studied sociology at Hampton University (BA, 1994) and the University of Michigan (PhD, 2001), and has been on the faculty of Northeastern University, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Vera Institute of Justice, and a visiting scholar in African-American Studies at Columbia University. His research and teaching focus on the racialization of criminal social control. In 2006, he received a W.E.B. DuBois Fellowship from the National Institute of Justice to study federal court workforce racial diversity and its relevance to racial disparity in federal sentencing. His research appears in various journals and anthologies, and he has recently completed a book on the rise and fall of Jim Crow juvenile justice entitled The Black Child-Savers: Racial Democracy in American Juvenile Justice (University of Chicago Press). His juvenile justice research stems in part from long-standing interests in hip-hop culture, politics and community. He has helped organize numerous hip-hop initiatives, including "hiphop studies collectives" at the University of Michigan and Northeastern University, the National Hiphop Political Convention, and an experimental literacy workshop using hiphop cultural artifacts, at McClymonds High School in Oakland, California. He remains passionate about preserving the material culture of hiphop, and using these resources in the development and empowerment of youth and their communities.
The Hiphop Archive is proud to present our extensive "Geoff Ward Collection." Comprised of a large donation of hiphop-related periodicals and VHS cassette tapes, the collection provides a valuable historical account of hiphop culture from a popular perspective. Additionally, they give any student or researcher a glimpse of the issues and concerns surrounding the hiphop community throughout various periods of its development.
The collection features an extensive range of magazine titles, ranging from mainstream publications like Vibe and Source to lesser-known magazines such as 4080, F.E.D.S, and The Rap Pages. The Source magazine is the most comprehensive title in the collection with copies ranging from 1993 to 2003. A decade packed with fascinating and immensely important landmarks in the history of Hiphop, articles about the contentious "East Coast/West Coast" discussion (interviews with Ice Cube and Suge Knight), the first appearance and subsequent rise of contemporary artists (Nas, Mos Def, and Eminem), the contributions of hiphop's fallen stars (Notorious B.I.G, Tupac, and Big Pun), and many more can be found.
In addition to these periodicals there are thirty VHS tapes that feature popular music video programming, BET and CNN news clips, and educational programs that aired between 1993 and 2001.
The collection also contains numerous Rap City (BET) episodes from 1995 through 1996. Each Rap City tape features one episode from a particular month. These 2-6 hour videos are filled with hit songs from an era that now often referred to as "old school." These Rap City episodes are not just music videos; they feature guest appearances, newsbreaks, and hiphop-related feature segments throughout the show that all allow a glimpse into exactly what point of hiphop history you are watching. The guests appearing on Rap City were usually there to promote a newly released album or an upcoming tour. If you are lucky you might even catch a freestyle.
Twenty-five VHS tapes from the Geoff Ward Collection have been converted to DVD for public viewing. The remaining tapes are available in their original VHS format.
The Eric Arnold Collection is comprised of "4080 Magazine" issues, ranging from 1994 to 1996. Besides exclusive interviews with artists of such renown as Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Nas, the articles also highlight less commercial performers, for example: Erick Sermon, Mac Dre, and Khayree. 4080 also addresses those aspects of hiphop culture that are often neglected by mainstream print media; providing commentary on hiphop fashion, and contemporary "conscious" rappers.
Another hallmark of 4080's writing is to recognize and pay tribute to the pioneers of hiphop music. The magazine regularly prepares "special reports" on important events in the genre's development: the legacy of Tupac Shakur, and the tragedy of Young Lay. The contributions of "old school" rappers are also acknowledged: Master P, Pharcyde, and The GZA.
DeAnna Dodds Cummings was born in the 1970s and came of age as Hip Hop made its way across middle America. The political and cultural movements of the 70s and 80s undergird Cummings' work as an entrepneur, scholar, activist and mother. In 1995 DeAnna, her husband Rogerand their childhood friend Peyton founded Juxtaposition Arts. Juxtaposition is a North Minneapolis cultural organization that nurtures urban youth in their chosen forms of visual art expression, including Hip-Hop inspired aerosol art. It provides them with mentoring, equipment, audiences, business skills, connections to new networks, and a neighborhood place to convene. Juxtaposition offers free year-round visual art and design workshops for youth, creative entrepreneurship mentoring for young people, and arts-based opportunities for residents and stakeholders in neighborhoods that have been politically and economically disinvested from, to participate in community planning and development. Juxtaposition engages local, regional and international audiences through public festivals, symposiums, and exhibitions. As its Executive Director, DeAnna has guided the growth of Juxtaposition from serving 15 youth in 1995, to more than 3,000 young people, 30 adult emerging artists, and 50 collaborative partners in 2008 and has raised $1.8 million in operating and capital funding over the organization's lifetime.
Cummings was the curator of the Art of T&A: Truth and Activisim, and one of six women who founded B-Girl Be: A Celebration of Women in Hip Hop. Launched in 2005, B-Girl Be is housed at Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is an -annual visual art show, performance showcase, lecture and workshop series. B-Girl Be founders saw the need to tell the stories of women's contributions to Hip Hop. In today's pop culture, women in Hip Hop are too often spotlighted for their appearance rather than their skills and messages. When women have space to explore, create and perform, a diverse resource of female role models and mentors is unearthed for the next Hip Hop generation of both girls and boys. Hip Hop icons Rokafella, Pam the Funkstress, Medusa, DJ Kuttin Kandi, Asia One, Lady Pink and Martha Cooper are some of the legends who have been featured artists, mentors, and supporters of B-Girl Be.
In 2005 the Jaycee's named DeAnna one of Ten Outstanding Young Minnesota's. In 2008 she received an Archibald A. Bush Leadership Fellowship to pursue graduate studies at Harvard University. DeAnna graduated with a Masters degree in Public Administration from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in 2009.
The B-Girl Be Collection is a donation from DeAnna Dodds Cummings who is the co-founder of B-Girl Be and executive director and co-founder of Juxtaposition Arts. This collection features a video documentary produced by Emetrece Productions, event flyers, posters, and workshop materials with artwork by Toofly and Faith47. These materials are vital to preserving the role of women in Hip Hop.
B-Girl Be: A Celebration of Women in Hip-Hop is a multimedia festival encompassing the four elements of Hip Hop: MCing, DJing, break dancing and aerosol writing. Between 2003-2005, DeAnna Cummings, Desdamona, Leah Nelson, Rachel Raimist, Melisa Riviere, and Theresa Sweetland met weekly at Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis, to develop the idea and concept for B-Girl Be. In 2005, with money raised through fundraisers, sponsors and foundations, Intermedia Arts and the B-Girl Be co-founding directorsproduced the first-of-its-kind international women focused Hip Hop summit in history. Women of all ages, colors and nationalities convened to celebrate Hip Hop and share their knowledge, skills and experiences with the world. For the first time ever Intermedia Arts' exterior was painted by an all-female crew representing Japan, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Phoenix, Puerto Rico, and Minneapolis. B-Girl Be came at a crucial time in Hip Hop, where images of women are often stereotypical and one-sided. It is the intention of B-Girl Beto dispel these myths and provide tools, connections, creative space and role models so that females can continue to be creators and innovators in Hip Hop culture.
Since its inception, this annual four-day summit has brought over 200 international, national and local girls and women in Hip Hoptogether in Minneapolis for dialogues, art-making, screenings, visual art exhibits, performances, educational workshops and networking opportunities.
The mission of B-Girl Be is to influence and inspire leadership to change the perceptions and roles of women in Hip Hopfor current and future generations.
Dawn-Elissa Fischer (a.k.a. the "D.E.F." Professor) is one of the Associate Directors assisting Professor Morgan at the Hiphop Archive. The DEF Prof currently works with the Hiphop University, Youth Education, Gender and Sexuality as well as Japanese Hiphop projects at the Hiphop Archive. She is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Africana Studies at San Francisco State University, where she teaches courses on black popular culture, digital research design and visual ethnography. DEF has worked on a number of different community-based campaigns using Hiphop to address issues of voter disenfranchisement, gender based violence, literacy and the digital divide. For over 15 years, she has been traveling within and outside of the United States, committing herself to academic and political work. She has studied and worked with Hiphop social movement organizations internationally in Japan, South Africa, Tanzania, Senegal, Sweden, China, Norway, Cuba, Jamaica and Russia. She has received various awards and grants for her research, including support from the Japan Foundation, the Mellon Mays Fellowship Program and the Social Science Research Council. DEF is currently working on a manuscript concerning Hiphop, race and blackness in Japan.
The Dawn-Elissa Fischer Collection contains books, CDs, DVDs, periodicals, event programs, and flyers from Japan. Professor Fischer began collecting material in Japan in the late 1990s while she was a student at the University of Florida, Gainesville. This collection features a "Dictionary of African American Slang" by Nami Makoto written for Japanese youth. It also includes a number of promotional materials for the breakdance events and concerts from Bboy Park, Japan's annual Hiphop festival that takes place in Yoyogi Park, and periodicals like Woofin' Magazine which offer insight into how American artists are received by Japan's hiphop community.
The audio and video component of this collection features a 2002 documentary co-produced by the collections donor, Prof. Dawn-Elissa Fischer, entitled "Nihon Style." Along with this DVD there are various mixes by DJ Kaori and records from Zeebra to name a few.


Gilly Temple, of Washington Court House, made Kent State University's President's List upon completing her sophomore year. To be eligible, Temple maintained a GPA of 4.0 and completed 15 or more credit hours. Only a small group of students achieve this high honor.
Temple is majoring in fashion merchandising/media. She will be participating in the International Studies Abroad program in Florence, Italy, for the fall semester. There she will study in Florence, Milan, Paris and London.
In the spring, Temple will study at Kent's New York Studio located in the Garment District within the heart of the fashion industry.
Kent State University was founded in 1910 with a current enrollment of 40,000 students.
Temple is the daughter of Kendra Temple and the late Lawrence Temple III, and granddaughter of Sally Petitt.


Kelcia Mazana has 16 years of experience concentrated in environmental engineering and studies. Kelcia is currently serving as Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion/Director and has served as Treasurer and Board of Trustee representative.
I have served as VP of Diversity and Inclusion for Central Florida SWE. I am a committed member and if elected, I plan to continue organizing event related to Diversity and Inclusion.


text:
nomx CEO Will Donaldson to Speak at the Annual 'Internet of Things World' 2016
Mr. Donaldson will be unveiling the impact TRACES has on electronic communications and how companies can mitigate those occurrences.
nomx
ARLINGTON, Va., April 28, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- nomx®, the only secure email communications device compatible with legacy email systems, is pleased to announce that CEO and cybersecurity expert Will Donaldson will be speaking at the Internet of Things World conference in Santa Clara, CA from May 10-12 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Silicon Valley. Mr. Donaldson will present his research and speech, entitled Mitigating TRACES Vulnerabilities in Electronic Communications, on Wednesday, May 11 at 11:20 a.m. PST.
"As the Internet of Things continues to evolve and expand, an increasing amount of hardware, including email servers, will become more prone to cybersecurity attacks. Once companies and government entities have a better understanding of TRACES, they will be better prepared for the unprecedented cybersecurity landscape ahead," says Donaldson, who began his career in security and networking as the first webmaster for the United States Marine Corps at the Pentagon.
The brilliance of the nomx device is that it bypasses the vulnerabilities of an aging digital protocol and puts the power into the hands of the user. Traditional digital communications are built on a nearly fifty-year-old architecture with several inherent vulnerabilities. These flaws are known as TRACES, which stand for transmission, routing, acceptance, communication header data, encryption, and storage of users' data. Unlike other email security applications which claim to be secure, the patent-pending nomx protocol and devices alleviate TRACES vulnerabilities from third parties by providing all the necessary technical components and requirements within the device itself, eliminating hackers' ability to exploit traditional vulnerabilities. Additionally, nomx is the only secure protocol that is reverse-compatible with legacy email systems, such as AOL and Gmail.
"The recent high-profile email hacks on government officials and large organizations underscore the absolute need for the nomx protocol device to provide privacy and security. Our mission is to provide consumers and companies with an easy way to secure their private online communications," continues Donaldson. "I look forward to sharing these important details with some of the world's top minds regarding TRACES and steps they can take to ensure the privacy of their data."
nomx debuted its first generation hardware in April 2016 during the International Security Conference West trade show, to many accolades from top security officials throughout the United States. Interested parties can visit nomx.com to learn how they can order the product starting May 1. The nomx protocol device will also be available for demo and ordering at Booth #1710.
For private demonstration requests of the nomx protocol during the IoT World Expo, please contact Krysten Copeland, Communications Manager at [email protected].
Photo(s):
http://www.prlog.org/12554018
Press release distributed by PRLog
SOURCE nomx
https://www.nomx.com


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LUM Series Ultrafine Vertical Roller Mill adopts SYM abundant experience in producing vertical grinding mill and the latest technology from Taiwan Germany. It sets grinding, drying, classifying and transportation as a whole and has beene the Mainstream equipment in ultrafine grinding industry.


text:
// Copyright 2018 Google LLC
//
// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
// You may obtain a copy of the License at
//
// http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
//
// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
// limitations under the License.

package com.google.api.ads.adwords.jaxws.v201809.cm;

import java.util.List;
import javax.jws.WebMethod;
import javax.jws.WebParam;
import javax.jws.WebResult;
import javax.jws.WebService;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlSeeAlso;
import javax.xml.ws.RequestWrapper;
import javax.xml.ws.ResponseWrapper;

/**
 *
 *       Service for getting and mutating FeedItemTargets.
 *
 *
 * This class was generated by the JAX-WS RI.
 * JAX-WS RI 2.2.9-b130926.1035
 * Generated source version: 2.1
 *
 */
@WebService(name = "FeedItemTargetServiceInterface", targetNamespace = "https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/cm/v201809")
@XmlSeeAlso({
    ObjectFactory.class
})
public interface FeedItemTargetServiceInterface {

    /**
     *
     *         Returns a list of FeedItemTargets that meet the selector criteria.
     *
     *         @param selector Determines which FeedItemTargets to return. If empty all FeedItemTargets are
     *         returned.
     *         @return The list of FeedItemTargets.
     *         @throws ApiException Indicates a problem with the request.
     *
     *
     * @param selector
     * @return
     *     returns com.google.api.ads.adwords.jaxws.v201809.cm.FeedItemTargetPage
     * @throws ApiException_Exception
     */
    @WebMethod
    @WebResult(name = "rval", targetNamespace = "https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/cm/v201809")
    @RequestWrapper(localName = "get", targetNamespace = "https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/cm/v201809", className = "com.google.api.ads.adwords.jaxws.v201809.cm.FeedItemTargetServiceInterfaceget")
    @ResponseWrapper(localName = "getResponse", targetNamespace = "https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/cm/v201809", className = "com.google.api.ads.adwords.jaxws.v201809.cm.FeedItemTargetServiceInterfacegetResponse")
    public FeedItemTargetPage get(
        @WebParam(name = "selector", targetNamespace = "https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/cm/v201809")
        Selector selector)
        throws ApiException_Exception
    ;

    /**
     *
     *         Add and remove FeedItemTargets.
     *
     *         @param operations The operations to apply.
     *         @return The resulting FeedItemTargets.
     *         @throws ApiException Indicates a problem with the request.
     *
     *
     * @param operations
     * @return
     *     returns com.google.api.ads.adwords.jaxws.v201809.cm.FeedItemTargetReturnValue
     * @throws ApiException_Exception
     */
    @WebMethod
    @WebResult(name = "rval", targetNamespace = "https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/cm/v201809")
    @RequestWrapper(localName = "mutate", targetNamespace = "https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/cm/v201809", className = "com.google.api.ads.adwords.jaxws.v201809.cm.FeedItemTargetServiceInterfacemutate")
    @ResponseWrapper(localName = "mutateResponse", targetNamespace = "https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/cm/v201809", className = "com.google.api.ads.adwords.jaxws.v201809.cm.FeedItemTargetServiceInterfacemutateResponse")
    public FeedItemTargetReturnValue mutate(
        @WebParam(name = "operations", targetNamespace = "https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/cm/v201809")
        List<FeedItemTargetOperation> operations)
        throws ApiException_Exception
    ;

    /**
     *
     *         Returns the list of FeedItemTargets that match the query.
     *
     *         @param query The SQL-like AWQL query string
     *         @return A list of FeedItemTargets
     *         @throws ApiException when the query is invalid or there are errors processing the request.
     *
     *
     * @param query
     * @return
     *     returns com.google.api.ads.adwords.jaxws.v201809.cm.FeedItemTargetPage
     * @throws ApiException_Exception
     */
    @WebMethod
    @WebResult(name = "rval", targetNamespace = "https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/cm/v201809")
    @RequestWrapper(localName = "query", targetNamespace = "https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/cm/v201809", className = "com.google.api.ads.adwords.jaxws.v201809.cm.FeedItemTargetServiceInterfacequery")
    @ResponseWrapper(localName = "queryResponse", targetNamespace = "https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/cm/v201809", className = "com.google.api.ads.adwords.jaxws.v201809.cm.FeedItemTargetServiceInterfacequeryResponse")
    public FeedItemTargetPage query(
        @WebParam(name = "query", targetNamespace = "https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/cm/v201809")
        String query)
        throws ApiException_Exception
    ;

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Home » PB Ex-CEO George Pierson To Head Engineer Kleinfelder
C-Suite News
PB Ex-CEO George Pierson To Head Engineer Kleinfelder
Morgan State U. Engineering School Gets New Dean
KEYWORDS Executive News / George Pierson / Kleinfelder / New CEO
San Diego professional services firm Kleinfelder tapped George J. Pierson, former CEO of engineering giant Parsons Brinckerhoff, as president and CEO, effective on Sept. 6, the firm said on Aug. 3. Pierson has headed his own management consulting firm since 2014, after leaving the PB chief role when the 14,000-employee company was acquired by Montreal-based engineer WSP Global. That firm announced on Aug. 3 Pierson's resignation from its board, on which he served since Oct. 31, 2014.
Pierson replaces interim president and CEO Kevin Pottmeyer, in that role since the end of 2015 when William C. "Bill" Siegel "resigned to pursue other interests," the firm said at the time. He had been with Kleinfelder since 1989 and CEO since 2009. Pottmeyer resumes the role of chief strategy officer.
According to Kleinfelder, Pierson "added nearly $1.4 billion of shareholder value" during his five years as PB's CEO.
Kleinfelder ranks at No. 48 on ENR's Top 500 Design Firms list with $318 million in 2015 revenue. Kleinfelder says Pierson will "accelerate" the firm's "strategic initiatives."
Consultant Environmental Resources Management (ERM), has hired Charles "Chuck" Leichner as regional CEO for North America, based in Minneapolis. He was chief strategy and sales officer for ARCADIS North America and global director of corporate development.
Morgan State University, Baltimore, has named Michael G. Spencer, a Cornell University electrical-computer engineering professor, as dean of the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. School of Engineering, effective in January. He is only the second educator to head the school, one of the largest producers of black engineers in the U.S., since its founding in 1984 by Eugene Deloatch, who is retiring. The school offers degree programs in civil; electrical-computer; and industrial-systems engineering; and one in transportation-urban infrastructure studies.
PB Names New CEO
Engineer Kleinfelder Set For Private Equity Purchase
Trump Names Ex-Labor Secretary Chao as His Choice to Head US DOT


For over two decades educators have hailed the possibility of harnessing the capabilities of portable computing to transform Australian schools into places where students experience powerful learning environments, relevant to the 21st Century. For some schools in Australia this journey is well into its second decade with the use of networkable portable computing devices to provide anywhere-anytime learning opportunities. While some of the potential has been realised invariably the finding has been that using the technology to create powerful learning environments in real school setting is not a trivial matter and needs to consider a range of factors. So when in 2003 the Department of Education and Training (DET) in Western Australia decided to improve a regional state school and include portable computing as part of an approach to transform the school careful planning and implementation ensued. This paper discusses a range of issues around 1:1 student to computing devices in schools and reports on some of the factors that contributed to the success of the DET initiative and the direction it provides for public schooling.


The name Yitzchak is an interesting name. It comes from the Hebrew word for laughter, tz'chok. When Yitzchak was born, Sarah said (chapter 21 verse 6), tz'chok asa li Elokim, kol hashome'a yitzchak li, "G-d has made laughter of me; whoever hears [about the birth] will laugh." Rashi interprets this to mean not that people will laugh but that people will rejoice. Avraham and Sarah had waited so long, and so Yitzchak's birth brought great joy to them and to others as well, since everyone had seen them struggling for years. Rashi adds from the Midrash that many people who had been suffering from ill health or who had also been unable to have children had their prayers answered on the day that Yitzchak was born. Thus his name represents the tz'chok, the joy that his birth brought to the world.
However, the name Yitzchak has much more significance than merely the joy at the time of his birth. As one of the founding fathers of the Jewish people, his name obviously has much greater significance. This is evident in the fact that G-d himself chose his name, even before Yitzchak was born, as we read in parshat Lech Lecha, (chapter 17 verse 19): G-d said to Abraham "surely your wife Sarah will give birth to a son and you will call his name Yitzchak." What is the significance behind this name?
Rashi offers two explanations: the first is that it is for the joy that his birth brought, as mentioned above, and the second is that the name Yitzchak is composed of four Hebrew letters – a yud, a tzadi, a chet and a kuf, each of which has numerical significance: the yud is numerically ten, referring to the ten tests with which Abraham was tested; the tzadi is numerically ninety, referring to Sarah's age at Yitzchak's birth; the chet is numerically eight, referring to the eighth day on which Yitzchak was circumcised; and the kuf is numerically a hundred, Abraham's age at Yitzchak's birth. These four letters comprising the name Yitzchak contain a reference to all of these major events: the ten tests, the ninety years of Sarah, the eighth day of the circumcision and the hundred years of Abraham.
In his commentary on Rashi, the Maharal of Prague explains that these four milestones – the ten tests, Abraham and Sarah's age, and the eighth day on which Yitzchak was brissed – are all interconnected, and this actually answers the question of why G-d made Abraham wait for so long to have a child. G-d wanted Yitzchak to be born after the commandment of circumcision had been given, so that he would be brissed on the eighth day in accordance with the exact specifications of the mitzvah (unlike Yishmael, who had been brissed at thirteen because that is how old he was at the time Abraham received the commandment). And G-d specifically delayed the commandment of circumcision till Abraham was old, because circumcising himself at such an old age was one of G-d's ten tests of Abraham's faith. Abraham's life was full of tests – leaving his home country to an unknown place, having to leave the Land of Israel once he arrived because there was a famine, circumcising himself at an old age, etc. Hashem arranged the events in Abraham's life to revolve around these tests and therefore He delayed the commandment of circumcision, so that Avraham would be tested in his old age, and hence Yitzchak's birth was delayed.
G-d often tests our faith. We were put in this world to pass these tests, to grow, to develop, to become bigger and better people. In the world of the souls there are no tests. We are close to G-d, everything is clear; there are no challenges and no evil inclination to lead us astray. We then come into a physical body which tries to take us away from Hashem. All of the challenges that we face in this world – such as developing good character, being people of integrity, coping with financial and all other kinds of pressures – test our faith and train us to pass these tests. Our mission in this world is to rise to the occasion and overcome all of the obstacles we encounter. All of this is encapsulated in the four letters comprising the name Yitzchak.
There is another aspect to this name, which is very important in terms of understanding the concept of laughter. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch says that if you look at the way the root TzaChaK is used throughout the Bible, you will find that it is used not in the sense of the pure, simple joy of laughter but rather with an ironic overtone, with a sense of mocking. Sarah says at the birth of Isaac Tz'chok asa li Elokim, which Rabbi Hirsch interprets as "G-d has made me a laughing stock," i.e., a mockery. Rabbi Hirsch gives an interesting analysis of the concept of humour and explains that the Hebrew root TzaChaK is very closely related to another Hebrew root, Tza'AK. The chet and the ayin are two letters which are closely related, and are often interchangeable, and so Tza'AK and TzaChaK are closely related, though it would seem they are poles apart in meaning because tzachak means laughter and tza'ak means to call out in pain. How do we understand this relationship?
Rabbi Hirsch explains that the essence of humour – or, in other words, what makes a good joke – is an unexpected outcome. Test this and you will find that any good joke will match up with this structure: when you expect a story to end in a certain way, and then just before it ends, it changes, there is a contrast set up between your expectation and the way the story actually ends. This contrast causes us to laugh, because it is incongruent. We see two things together which don't belong and that incongruity actually causes us to laugh. Rabbi Hirsch says this is the same with Tza'AK, to call out in pain; pain and grief are similar to laughter in that we are expecting the story to end a certain way, and it doesn't. For example, if a person loses a loved one, G-d forbid, there is the grief of unmet expectations; we thought this person would be there forever. Even though we know that we are all mortal and that one day we are going to die, we don't expect it and this is grief: the unexpected, the contrast, the incongruity, and that causes one to cry out in pain. So TzaChaK is the laughter, on the positive side, Tza'AK is the crying out in pain on the negative side, but the common denominator of these two words is the incongruence of the outcome. When we expect one thing and something else happens, this incongruity causes us to laugh or cry out in pain.
This really is the essence of Isaac's birth. Here is a couple who were unable to have children for decades, and at the age of one-hundred and ninety, respectively, they have their first child together. That's incongruent. Even people who are able to have children when they are young are not able to have them at a hundred and at ninety. Here they were unable to have children when they were younger, how possible is it that they have a child now? And on top of that, we have another incongruity: a man who is a hundred years old and a woman who is ninety looking after a new baby – it's a joke. This is what Sarah means when she says Tz'chok asa li Elokim, "G-d has made me a laughing stock," because look at us – we are so odd. This is not the way things are supposed to be, this is not the way the natural world works.
But this is precisely the point; this is the essence of the name Yitzchak and indeed of the Jewish people. To understand this, we must first understand why G-d set it up in such an unusual fashion, that Abraham and Sarah would struggle for so many years to have children and would only have a child in their old age.
Rabbi Hirsch explains that Abraham and Sarah were the building blocks of the Jewish people, who were going to carry the name of Hashem in the world, and one of the main messages of the Jewish people is that the physical world that we see is not everything; there is another whole reality. G-d created this world and is therefore not bound by its physical laws. There is a much higher calling for every human being – to have a relationship with G-d and to do the right thing.
This is one of the main messages of the Jewish people's eternal existence. We are a people who defy all the normal laws of nature, who are able to see that there is something supernatural going on. This is not normal, this is not the way that it should be – it is something which is incongruent with the normal, physical reality. Says Rabbi Hirsch, the foundation of the Jewish people had to be with such a frail, rickety start – two old people with an only son – to convey the message that yes, this is incongruent and should never have been, and yet it defies the laws of nature and we are here. Looking at this family of Abraham and Sarah, we would say they have almost no chance of establishing a great nation. And yet, they did. And this very fact defies the laws of nature.
Cold logic would dictate that this shouldn't work; Abraham and Sarah's family should have no continuity. This is why G-d chose this very name for the second of the Forefathers, because it captures the essence of Jewish destiny and the mission of the Jewish people in the world. People will laugh: look at this tiny, insignificant nation, a drop in the ocean relative to the nations of the world. You would think that we're unheard of, that we would not make any impact, that we should not even survive. By all the normal laws of nature, the Jewish people should not be in existence today, and yet we are here.
Some 250 years ago Rav Yaakov Emdin wrote in his introduction to the Siddur that the miracle of the Jewish people's survival in exile is a greater miracle than the miracles of the Exodus – the ten plagues of Egypt, the splitting of the sea, the manna falling from heaven. Rav Emdin penned these words long before all the modern-day miracles we have witnessed, with the establishment of the State of Israel and the rebirth of Torah learning throughout the world. These incredible miracles of our survival defy the normal laws of history. This is why, says Rabbi Hirsch, the name Yitzchak has the yud in the front of it, which conjugates the verb to the future tense. "Yitzchak" means he will laugh, in the future. There are many who are laughing now – as Sarah said, Tz'chok asa li Elokim, "G-d has made me a laughing stock"; the whole world is laughing at us, mocking us. Yet Hashem says, don't worry; they may laugh now but in the end you, Bnei Yisrael, are going to be the ones laughing. You are going to survive and defy the laws of history. You will be reborn and demonstrate how a people can exist on a completely different, miraculous plane, above the physical laws of this world.
Every Shabbat just before the bentching, we say a paragraph from Tehillim -the Shir HaMa'alot. One of the verses we say is Az yimaleh s'chok pinu, "then our mouths will be filled with laughter," referring to the time of the Final Redemption. This is the message that Yitzchak's name carries, and it is the ultimate message of the Jewish people: that the world is not just what we see; there is so much more to it. The hand of G-d guides each and every one of us. Our mission in this world is to see G-d's guiding hand in everything, and to know that there is so much more than what meets the eye. G-d created this world and He has a mission for each one of us. It is this personal and national destiny which takes precedence and has the capacity to defy the physical laws of nature.


While there are a lot of talented woodturners, few perhaps, are as well known as Richard Raffan. He's been a fixture on the turning scene for almost 30 years, and is highly sought after as an instructor. He's also written several classic books on woodturning, including this updated and revised edition of 'Turning Wood with Richard Raffan'. To accompany the 3rd edition of this book he's also released a DVD, 'The New Turning Wood with Richard Raffan'.
Principles and practice; two keys that form the foundation for learning how to do just about anything. As Raffan says "No matter what you want to turn on a lathe, you need to have a good set of technical skills if the work is to be enjoyable and fluent." You can begin to acquire those technical skills through courses, books, or videos. You'll save yourself lots of grief, time and money by learning what to do, and what not to do, from someone who's been through the learning process before you. And once you understand what to do, then it's just a matter of practice; a few thousand bowls or spindles and you'll be turning just like a pro.
Raffan's book is quite comprehensive, and covers everything that a novice or intermediate skilled turner will need to know. Depending on your skill level, you can delve into the book at various sections. Obviously, if you're new to the craft, start at the very beginning, where Raffan describes how a lathe works, and provides a lot of good advice on what to look for when choosing a lathe. He follows this with a section on what you need to mount stock to a lathe - drives, faceplates and chucks - and then, how to mount the stock. While most lathes do come with a few basic mounting devices, as you gain experience you'll likely end up purchasing additional mounting devices.
Chisels are to turning what blades are to table saws. You can't operate one without the other. Raffan covers basic tools in all four categories of turning chisels, along with how to sharpen them. I would have liked to see a 'here's what I recommend' chart after each discussion. Nonetheless, his overall advice is to buy a few basic top quality tools for the type of turning you'll be doing (bowl or spindle) and then add to your tool collection as the need arises. Unlike bench chisels, which you might sharpen every week or two, turning chisels dull quickly, and need to be kept constantly sharp. This is one area that I find a lot of novice turners neglect. If you don't have a good sharpening system take a look at the Tormek system, which will sharpen just about any tool know to man.
The rest of this book covers the topics of lathe and tool safety, measuring techniques, spindle and bowl turning (or what Raffan calls centerwork and facework), along with a new section on hollow turning, which is more suited to turners with intermediate or advanced skills. You'll also find interesting information on wood finishing, which is a bit different than finishing other kinds of wood projects. The section on choosing and storing wood is too sparse to be of much use. There is also a rather slim, one page treatment on how to resolve some of the more common turning problems.
There are lots of helpful illustrations in the book, along with numerous photos of Raffan's work. All in all, this is an excellent book that I highly recommend to anyone who is contemplating woodturning, as well as for novice turners.
The 'The New Turning Wood with Richard Raffan' DVD was both satisfying, and disappointing. The content is superb. Raffan is quite comfortable in front of a camera, likely a benefit of all the courses he's given over the past few decades. In the DVD he covers most of the techniques he talks about in the book. For this reason I think it's best to view the DVD in tandem with reading the book. Read a section, then watch Raffan show the technique. Works for me. What I found disappointing is the camera work; I felt seasick after the first five minutes. When the camera is focused on something, and not moving about, all is well, but the minute the camera begins to pan about, things become a bit unsettled. I attribute this to the skill of the camera person, as other DVDs that I have viewed from the Taunton Press are considerably better. Still, the DVD is the next best thing to being in a workshop with Raffan.


text:
Flywheels Take Off: Energy Storage Projects Address Changing Power Demands
Karla Harby
Green Science & Environmental Systems Discussion Group
MeetingReport
The need for energy storage systems is growing, as utility companies need less expensive, less polluting, and more efficient systems for responding to rapid changes in load—both peaks and sags. This need will grow because many renewable energy sources (solar, wind, tidal) are intermittent in nature. In addition, mass transit systems require well-regulated energy supplementation during times of peak demand.
So far, however, popular energy storage systems, such as electrochemical batteries, have limitations that impair their usefulness for many applications. Batteries have relatively few charge-recharge cycles; they recharge slowly; they are temperature sensitive; and they often rely on chemicals that are not environmentally friendly. Flywheel technologies have been proposed as one alternative solution to the problem.
A November 6, 2007, meeting presented by the Academy's Green Science and Environmental Systems program provided a behind-the-scenes look at the energy storage problems facing the electrical supply infrastructure, and how flywheel technologies could help. Speakers also discussed preparations for installing a flywheel energy storage system as a demonstration project on the Long Island Rail Road.
Use the tabs to find a meeting report and multimedia from this event.
Composite Flywheel Energy Storage
A summary of ongoing research at Penn State University.
Low Cost Flywheel Energy Storage for a Fuel Cell Powered Transit Bus
November 2007 press release from the University of Texas at Austin Center for Electromechanics.
Mechanical Engineering Vol. 118, No. 11: Designing Safer Flywheels
Reprint of an article on containing flywheel energy.
NASA Space Research: From Child's Toy to ISS: Flywheels Hold the Power
A summary of flywheel investigations and use at NASA, with emphasis on the International Space Station.
Processor Editorial: UPS Flywheel Technology
An article explaining how flywheels can help maintain uninterruptible power supplies.
Research Institute for Sustainable Energy
This basic discussion of flywheels includes photographs.
Robert Compton Pottery
Photographs of foot-driven potter's wheels.
Books and Journal Articles
Bolund B, Bernhoff H, Leijon M. 2007. Flywheel energy and power storage systems. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 11: 238-258.
Denholm P, Margolis RM. Evaluating the limits of solar photovoltaics (PV) in electric power systems utilizing energy storage and other enabling technologies. Energy Policy 35: 4424-4433.
Liu H, Jiang J. 2007. Flywheel energy storage: an upswing technology for energy sustainability. Energy and Buildings 39: 599-604.
Schaber C, Mazza P, Hammerschlag R. 2004. Utility-scale storage of renewable energy. The Electricity Journal 17: 21-29.
van der Linden S. 2006. Bulk energy storage potential in the USA, current developments and future prospects. Energy 31: 3446-3457
Joseph H. Sayer
New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA)
Joseph H. Sayer is a graduate of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York City, and Syracuse (NY) University, where he studied materials science. He worked as a research engineer for Exxon Corporation for about 10 years developing synthetic fuel production processes. He joined NYSERDA in 1984. Currently he is in the Transportation and Power Systems group, where he is manager of the Energy Storage Program for NYSERDA.
Matt Lazarewicz, PE, MBA
Beacon Power Corporation
Matt Lazarewicz is vice president and chief technical officer at Beacon Power Corporation, Wilmington, Massachusetts, and is a professional engineer. He earned his bachelor's, masters, and masters of business administration degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He serves on the board of directors of the Electricity Storage Association and a member of the IEEE Power Engineering Society, where he serves as vice chair of the Distributed Generation and Energy Storage Working Group.
Edvina Uzunovic, PhD
New York Power Authority (NYPA)
Edvina Uzunovic is senior engineer for Research and Technology Development at the New York Power Authority, White Plains, New York. She is an electrical engineering graduate of the University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and continued her education at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, where she received her master's degree and doctorate. She joined NYPA in 1999.
As a journalist living near New York City, Karla Harby has written for Scientific American, Discover and the Reuters news agency. In her other career, she is a professional flutist.


It looks flat on the sides. Try using the stock circle with this as a colour overlay on the semi-transparent parts.
You're right, they're a little flat because they're right up against the edges. I'll work on it some more.
I run into this issue often when cropping in tightly on large circles. Usually, it's improved by simply not cropping in quite so close; however, that seems to produce less detail overall or skewed proportions.
To get better circularity when resizing, it often helps to first blow up, then shrink down. E.g. resize a 70x70 image to 512x512, then to 16x16.
Interesting. I assume that you're adjusting the image while it's at the larger size? Or does just increasing the size without further adjustments somehow affect the image?
I'll be sure to give it a try.
Any improvement? Unfortunately, I didn't understand the specific technique that you recommended earlier, so I just manually reduced the transparency of the edges to more closely match the stock circle. I'll be happy to work on it some more, but unfortunately, it just won't be today. Thanks again for your help.
Any improvement? Unfortunately, I didn't understand the specific technique that you recommended earlier, so I just manually reduced the transparency of the edges to more closely match the stock circle.
Basically I meant splitting your working image into two layers: one part which goes over the opaque parts of the stock circle and can be copied over directly, and one part which goes over the semi-transparent edge pixels. With the second part, in GIMP you'd probably paint the stock circle white, set a colour blending mode for your layer, then merge. This would preserve the alpha channel of the stock circle.
I don't know about Photoshop, but in GIMP there are limited tools to edit the alpha channel directly, so you either eyeball it with the eraser tool or cheat with layers and stuff.
Thanks for the tips! I'm getting a lot more comfortable with layering; although, I've never quite tried the technique you're describing. Unfortunately, I can't work on it any longer today, but I'll be sure to give it a try soon.
I hope to eventually transition over to GIMP since it's so much more popular among microbadgers.
You can create a mask in GIMP from a layer's alpha channel and edit it, but it's cumbersome in some ways. As far as I know you can't view both the mask and the image simultaneously, so you're kind of working in the dark unless you just want to copy some part over to some other part and it's obvious what's where.
Not sure if anything helped, but here's my process: I split the color wheel into 2 layers; reducing the outer layer's overall size and transparency. Then placed the border of the stock circle in its own top layer and dropped its overall opacity down quite a bit.
I also slightly increased the overall saturation of the color wheel, and the overall brightness of the white-ish center circle.
V3 and v4 both look pretty good. It may be that it's mostly the different colours making it look like they're not super round everywhere.
After messing about with overlays for a bit it turns out I may not know what I'm talking about when I'm talking about colour blend options. I got the best results when I simply extended your colours outwards with no transparency, then added a layer mask and copied the stock circle to that for transparency. This got rid of the "dark aura" from the original that's still present to some degree in your latest versions (the outermost transparent pixels are black, as if they were inherited from a black stock circle rather than your design). You could try locking transparency on v3 and painting the outer limits with the appropriate colours just to see what difference it makes.
I may have found a different between GIMP and PSP: if you lock layer transparency in GIMP, this isn't respected if you paste something into that layer. PSP however preserves the original transparency exactly.
Thank you for your continued feedback and support. I am committed to putting out the best MB that I can; however, I also recognize the undue burden this is probably putting onto you and others. Hopefully, I'll be able to learn from these lessons and not continue to make the same mistakes.
I got the best results when I simply extended your colours outwards with no transparency, then added a layer mask and copied the stock circle to that for transparency.
Unfortunately, these are the kind of instructions that I need to do more research into in order to understand what you mean.
This got rid of the "dark aura" from the original that's still present to some degree in your latest versions (the outermost transparent pixels are black, as if they were inherited from a black stock circle rather than your design). You could try locking transparency on v3 and painting the outer limits with the appropriate colours just to see what difference it makes.
You're right about the "dark aura" (or outline); it's been present to some extent from the beginning. I'm intentionally included the darker outline to help give the overall image more structure. Without the outline, it felt like the color wheel awkwardly faded away (as opposed to popping out, which is what I want).
Initially, for the outline, I just added a subtle drop shadow around the color wheel. Unfortunately, the wheel was already cropped to the edges of the frame, so the DS just added to the image looking pressed up against the edges. Through subsequent versions, I kept remove more and more DS until it was hardly present any more.
For v4/v5, I decreased the overall image size and then, instead of adding DS, I overlay-ed a subtle (40%-opacity) "dark aura" (outline).
Above is a version without any outline added; I only resized the border from the source image and increased saturation and lightness to match the inner color from v5.
Just extract the bird itself. Skip the background.
The background is meant to resemble the app icon.
This is just to give a rough visual comparison. If people prefer it without background, then I can clean it up a bit better.
I had to steal a pixel column from the right side, so it's not an exact transcription.
After you're satisfied with the circle, we can move on to the internal detail. Will the face read better if you drop the smile one pixel? Would it be better with dinosaurs?
I really appreciate the offer, Kaffedrake, but I think you've done more than enough. I just need to sit down and research some of the more advanced techniques that keep getting referenced. Then hopefully, I'll be able to follow instructions better.
Also, I agree about switching soon. I need to just dive right in.
My reason for keeping the mouth awkwardly high is because that's how it is in the source material. As for the dino, well, I have no excuse for not including a dinosaur earlier. My apologizes.
The mouseover is an iconic phrase "transmitted" by the game antagonist to the main character early on in the game.
More yellow glow around the central image?
I suggest slightly exaggerating a few of the features (such as the person) to help the viewer recognize what they're seeing.
In addition to making the person a little larger: maybe distinguish the yellow portion inside the green a bit more, and brighten the subtle red line around the outside. Just a thought.
Thanks for the feedback guys! I find it difficult to accommodate you both. The red border gets lost if I increase the glow.
2. I prefer no outline; the outline serves to make the whole badge a little darker and less vibrant.
I think you could subtly curve the smile away from the eyes so it connects less strongly to the eye pixels and still be true to the source.
I know the feeling, but PLEASE don't stare yourself blind on account of my silly suggestions. I do appreciate you trying out a bunch of stuff though.
are my preferred choices. That said, I don't know the reference well enough to know which ones that fans of the game would prefer.
Ok, different approach based on the developer's merch for the game and general inconography with the triangles.
Better? Or shall I stick with the first idea of using the cover?
Hmmm... I think it would depend on the fans of the game: would fans be more familiar with or fond of the abstracted version?
The cover art version seems like it would be most recognizable to the typical viewer, but the typical owner of the MB may prefer the more obscure reference found in the abstracted version. I don't know.
I THINK fans would recognize both. I'm a big fan of the game, but I can't say for certain which one I would prefer.
The 2nd approach was the one I thought of first, but didn't think it would be so recognizable. Especially the red corners. That's why I started with the box cover.