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Texas Undergraduate Research Day – Madeleine Morris
Home » App » Texas Undergraduate Research Day – Madeleine Morris
COMMERCE, TX—Madeleine Morris Represents A&M-Commerce at Undergraduate Research Day
Senior biology major Madeleine Morris represented A&M-Commerce in Austin on April 1 at the Texas Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol. The biennial event allows Texas' top student researchers to showcase their projects for Texas legislators and the public. Morris' presentation was one of approximately 75 research projects displayed at the capitol from more than 50 colleges and universities in Texas. This year's event was themed "Transforming Texas Through Undergraduate Research."
Madeleine Morris
Morris' research project involves understanding how a specific form of aggressive blood cancer called erythroleukemia develops and progresses. According to Morris, current treatment options are unsuccessful, so patients with erythroleukemic blood cancer have median survival rates of only three months. Through her research, Morris is taking steps toward a better understanding of this type of blood cancer which could be used to develop effective treatment options.
Reflecting on her experience at Undergraduate Research Day, Morris said, "I greatly enjoyed being exposed to many different fields of research and witnessing the positive impact of undergraduate research. Overall, discussing research on a wide range of subjects with peers and presenting my research in representation of TAMUC was a fulfilling experience that reinforced my passion for research."
Dr. Venu Cheriyath, A&M-Commerce biological and environmental sciences professor and Morris' research advisor, explained that Undergraduate Research Day is important because it allows students to defend and discuss their research with peers which increases confidence and aids in students' overall development.
Dr. Cheriyath emphasized that the event is also beneficial to A&M-Commerce. He said, "This is an opportunity for A&M-Commerce to exhibit and publicize the opportunities and training that we provide to our undergraduate students. I believe this will allow us to recruit top quality students to our academic programs and increase our footprint in research."
After her May graduation, Morris plans to complete her research project for publication with Dr. Cheriyath while obtaining a master's degree in biology at TAMUC.
About Texas A&M University-Commerce: A&M-COMMERCE serves rural and metropolitan Northeast Texas with distinction, consistently delivering on a promise that our founder, Professor William Leonidas Mayo, made more than a century ago: "No industrious, ambitious youth shall be denied an education if I can prevent it." Since our university's humble beginnings, the mission to provide a high-quality, personal, accessible and affordable educational experience for a diverse community of learners remains unchanged.
Programs are delivered on-site at the Commerce campus as well as in Corsicana, Dallas, McKinney, Frisco and Mesquite. Many courses are also available online. Students may choose from more than 135 degree programs at the bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels. A vibrant student life experience includes 14 NCAA Division II athletic teams, a thriving Greek system and more than 120 student organizations.
About the A&M System: The Texas A&M University System is one of the largest systems of higher education in the nation, with a budget of $4.69 billion. Through a statewide network of 11 universities and seven state agencies, the Texas A&M System educates more than 150,000 students and makes more than 22 million additional educational contacts through service and outreach programs each year. System-wide, research and development expenditures exceeded $996 million in FY 2017 and helped drive the state's economy.
If you prefer not to receive future press releases from Texas A&M University-Commerce, please email [email protected] to remove this address from our list.
Author: KSST Webmaster


SUNDAY, Jan. 18, 2004 (HealthDayNews) -- Providing cancer screening information in public brochures and on Web sites may help people make appropriate decisions about whether they get the screening, says a report in the January issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
The report, by the Task Force on Community Preventive Services, says there is an increasing need for this kind of publicly accessible information. That's because it can be difficult for doctors to effectively communicate the science of cancer screening to patients during office visits.
In addition, many people at high risk for cancer don't have regular health care and are forced to make health-care decisions on their own.
The report says brochures and Internet information may help people make informed decisions about whether and when to have cancer screening and what is the most appropriate form of screening for them.
"We know that making decisions about cancer screening can be difficult for individuals and their families. These findings from the Task Force provide important insight about how public health can communicate effectively about the risks, benefits and other outcomes associated with screening," Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says in a prepared statement.


Aaron Doty holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He is currently pursuing his Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting at Ohio University where he studies with Dr. Andrew George. Mr. Doty's previous teachers include Nobuyoshi Yasuda, John DeMain and Kenneth Kiesler. He has directed ensembles at UW-Eau Claire, UW-Stout, Edgewood College, Madison, WI and Ann Arbor, MI school districts. He is currently on the faculty at the UW-Eau Claire Indianhead Arts Center. In addition to his role as conductor, Mr. Doty maintains an active performance schedule as a Double-Bassist. He has performed with the Madison Symphony, River Cities Symphony Orchestra, Chippewa Valley Symphony Orchestra, and the Edgewood Chamber Orchestra. He has performed as a jazz musician/clinician throughout the Midwest. He is a member of the American Symphony Orchestra League and the International Society of Bassists.


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Jacobs Well
Relics in Grosvenor Park including Jacobs Well (in the center-distance).
Jacob's well is another, possibly ancient drinking fountain, now appearing to be dried up. It can be found in Grosvenor Park Chester. Beside the fountain is the inscription "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again" (John IV, 13) a reference to the original Jacob's Well in Samaria (Palestine). The same theme is employed in the "Water of LIfe" sculpture in the cloister of the Cathedral.
"St John's Church, Chester" by George Angelo Bell. This shows the original location of the well.
That the well has dried up is unsurprising as the well is not on it's original site. Previously it was sited where the public toilets are located on The Groves, by the path heading down from St Johns Church to the Hermitage. It was at that time a working well and a noted "landmark" on the Groves. It was moved to its current location in 1923.
Some other ancient relics of old Chester were also re-erected in this part of Grosvenor Park:
the Old Shipgate Arch – this medieval arch formerly stood at the west of the Bridgegate and was taken down in 1831. It was moved about quite a bit before it ended up here.
St. Mary's Arch – the archway and wing walls were removed from St Mary's Benedictine Nunnery (adjacent to the Roodee). The Nunnery had lain in ruins since Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century. The arch and walls date from around the 13th century. They also have a mystery of their own.
a doorway from old St Michael Church - at least that is what the label on it says. However, it actually looks virtually identical to the gate which used to be at "The Bars".
A watercolour of "St John's Church, Chester" by George Angelo Bell (1817-1886), now in the Grosvenor Museum, shows the well in its original location (the tower of St Johns has since collapsed), as does, possibly, the 1874 ordinance survey map. The Braun and Hogenberg map (from around 1581) of Chester does not show the well. However the John Speed Map of Chester (1605) appears to show something on the site.
Borings in 1989 about 60m south of the Amphitheatre revealed a very substantial strucure built from Roman concrete beneath the ground. It has been proposed that this was the remains of a Roman bath associated with the Amphitheater, although it is not known whether there is, or was, any association between the well and these proposed baths.
1 Ghost
2 A Gallery of the Well
2.2 sources and links
The local "ghost register" states that the alley next to the original location is haunted by "a monk in a dark habit who occasionally accosts witnesses in 'Haunted Alley' beside St Johns Church, speaking a guttural Saxon-like language." See the Hermitage article for more on this mysterious monk.
A Gallery of the Well
Jacobs Well in Grosvenor Park, 2014
Detail from Jacobs Well, 2014
Doorway from old St Michael Church, 2014
The Shipgate arch
Jacobs Well and St. Mary's Arch, 2014
The Hermitage (2013) - local legend says that one hermit was....
The Public Toilets on the original site of Jacobs Well
The curving wall shown in Bell's watercolour in 2019
The steps shown in Bell's watercolour, and the Hermitage in 2019
The area as shown in the Lavaux Map (1745);
The area as shown in the 1873 OS Map;
St Johns: for legends involving deer and wells involved in the founding of Churches;
George Angelo Bell: for the artist and his life;
Water Supply: for more on wells and springs in Chester;
Grosvenor Park: for the present location of the well;
English Heritage entry;
Ancient wells of Chester's Grovesnor Park;
Parry's Railway Companion of 1849, mentions the well, it is original position "at the Groves";
Retrieved from "http://chester.shoutwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Jacobs_Well&oldid=43129"

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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By: Jon Stuart 0
Alcohol and Cancer: What's the Connection?
Drinking is associated with a laundry list of health risks—more than 200 if you're keeping track. The more you drink, the greater your risk for one or more of these issues, which range from digestive problems and infection to liver or heart disease. Your DNA, medical history, weight and lifestyle will also make you more or less likely than someone else to develop an alcohol-related disease or condition.
Overall, health experts recommend that limiting alcohol intake to moderate levels (no more than two drinks per day for men or no more than one for women) can help keep these health risks to a minimum. But there is at least one exception: cancer.
When it comes to cancer prevention, avoiding alcohol entirely is best, advises Keith Roach, MD, Sharecare's Chief Medical Officer and Associate Professor in Clinical Medicine in the division of general medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and New York Presbyterian Hospital.
Even light drinkers are at slightly increased risk of some cancers, Dr. Roach explains. "The damage from less than one drink a day is small, but it's not zero," he says. "The risk goes up exponentially once you pass that threshold."
In August 2018, a team of scientists reviewed more than 1,000 existing studies to estimate the effects of alcohol on the risk for 23 different related health issues, including seven types of cancer. The comprehensive review, which was published in The Lancet, showed that even one alcoholic drink per day could increase the risk breast, colorectal, esophageal, pharynx, and oral cancers. The researchers also found that the risk for these diseases increases along with alcohol consumption.
For the purpose of cancer prevention, the World Cancer Research Fund asserts that it's "best not to drink alcohol." The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also includes "alcoholic beverage consumption" on its list of known human carcinogens.
A 2013 study published in the American Journal of Public Health, which was based on data from 2009, found that alcohol consumption resulted in an estimated 18,200 to 21,300 cancer deaths, or up to 3.7 percent of all cancer deaths in the United States. The researchers concluded that there is "no safe threshold" when it comes to drinking and the risk for cancer.
Red wine is no exception
All types of alcoholic drinks are associated with cancer—no exceptions. Here's why.
Most evidence supporting the link between cancer and alcohol points to one culprit that's found in every single alcoholic beverage from fine wine to whiskey: ethanol. So, how much you drink and how often matters regardless of what's in your glass.
If you're sipping a pinot noir or cabernet while perusing these worrisome statistics, all the while assuming that the potential harms of the alcohol may be outweighed by possibly beneficial phytochemicals found in red wine, like resveratrol, think again.
Researchers have searched but have yet to find a clear association between moderate red wine consumption and a lower risk for cancer. Drinking for slight or unproven health benefits isn't a wise decision, considering that the very clear risks associated with drinking escalate with every sip you take, Roach cautions.
"The data on resveratrol has been very disappointing," he says. "But, by all means, you can get all the resveratrol you'd like with a glass of grape juice a day."
How ethanol is harmful
Understanding what happens to alcohol once it's in your system could help put these stark findings and statistics into perspective.
Once you start drinking, your body begins metabolizing the alcohol almost immediately. As the ethanol in your drink is broken down, a toxic byproduct called acetaldehyde is formed. Acetaldehyde could not only damage cells but also cause changes in your DNA, which can lead to cancer. DNA controls how your cells grow and function. When this genetic information is damaged, cell growth could spiral out of control and cause tumors to form.
The harmful effects of acetaldehyde are particularly noticeable in the liver, where most alcohol metabolism occurs. But it's also evident in other parts of the body, including the pancreas, brain and along the digestive tract.
There are some other ways that drinking alcohol and cancer risk may be connected:
It could trigger oxidation in the body, which can also damage DNA, proteins and fats in the body.
It might prevent the body from absorbing essential nutrients, such as vitamins A, C, D and E as well as folate and carotenoids.
It could increase blood levels of estrogen, a hormone linked to breast cancer risk.
Some cancer-causing contaminants, such as nitrosamines, asbestos fibers, phenols and hydrocarbons could also result from the fermentation and production processes used to make certain alcoholic drinks.
Meanwhile, all the extra calories in wine, beer and mixed drinks can lead to weight gain. And obesity is a known risk factor for several forms of cancer.
Risks can add up
Alcohol—even a single drink—can also impair your decision-making, Roach cautions. "The second drink is an awful lot easier than the first, and then you can have much poorer judgment," he says. "Not only might you have more alcohol, but you might choose less healthy foods. You might be more likely to engage in other risky behaviors."
You may, for example, be more tempted to smoke—a double whammy when it comes to cancer.
"A family or personal history of cancer is going to put you at risk. If you have other risk factors, particularly smoking, then you're going to have additional risk," Roach says.
Alcohol is an irritant that can damage cells in the mouth and throat, in particular. "It's direct damage to the lining of the esophagus by the alcohol," Roach explains.
This could allow harmful chemicals found in tobacco smoke to enter cells more easily. Alcohol could also make it harder for your body to get rid of the toxic chemicals in smoke and for your cells to repair the DNA damage they cause.
The stronger the alcohol, the worse the damage, Roach notes.
In the United States, a single drink contains roughly 0.6 fluid ounces of pure alcohol, which is the equivalent of 5 ounces of wine, 12 ounces of beer or 1.5 ounces (a shot) of liquor, such as gin or vodka. But the alcohol content of even similar drinks may vary. For example, beer can range from about 5 to 9 percent alcohol; wines range from about 12 to 17 percent alcohol and liquors can range from about 40 to 60 percent alcohol.
Your size and sex also matter. Alcohol will likely affect a 110-pound woman much differently than it will affect a 170-pound man, according to Roach. "Women tend to have lower body size and, consequently, a higher level of alcohol in the blood per amount that's been drunk," he says.
Compared to men, women's livers have less alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), an enzyme that breaks down alcohol, Roach adds. Research suggests the ADH in men's livers is also more active. Men's stomachs also have more ADH than women's, enabling them to clear more alcohol before it enters the bloodstream.
Rethinking your drinking
Even if you never took another sip of alcohol, your risk for cancer may not immediately drop to the level it was before you started drinking.
Studies investigating the effects of abstinence on cancer risk—which have primarily focused on cancers of the head, neck and esophagus—have found that it takes time for your risk to return to pre-drinking levels.
"It happens over time. That's the case with anything that happens in the body," Roach notes. In many cases, however, the body is able to reverse much of the damage that's done by alcohol, he points out.
So, if you're a moderate drinker, is it time to go "cold turkey"? Unfortunately, this question doesn't have a one-size-fits-all answer.
If you don't already drink, it's probably best not to start. No level of drinking is completely risk-free. And the more you drink, the higher the risks. You can track your alcohol intake with the Sharecare app (available for iOS and Android).
But whether or not it's okay for you to drink moderately (no more than two drinks for men, or one for women), on occasion or never really depends on you—your age, medical history, genetics, weight, lifestyle, and other individual risk factors for cancer or other health issues.
It's tough to make the case for even moderate drinking, given the health risks involved. But within these limits, the absolute risk for cancer is small, and some people may simply enjoy life a bit more if they have an occasional glass of wine, Roach admits. It's important to weigh your personal preferences against the risks involved. Talk to your doctor about what's right for your personal situation.
Sourcing: American Institute for Cancer Research, American Cancer Society, National Institutes of Health, CDC, National Cancer Institute
Back to Colorectal Cancer
Tobacco Cessation (5)


Google Home has the Google Home Mini. Amazon's Echo has the Echo Dot. And when Samsung's Bixby-driven smart speaker — the Galaxy Home — debuts sometime in 2019, it might have its own entry-level counterpart.
That's according to SamMobile, which in a report today claimed that Samsung will release at least one other speaker next year in addition to the Galaxy Home. It will reportedly bear the model number "SM-V310" — not too far off from the Galaxy Home's SM-V510 — and come in black.
Where features are concerned, Samsung's second smart speaker will presumably be on par with its big brother. And it's almost a guarantee that it'll run Bixby 2.0, the next-gen version of Bixby that Samsung previewed at Mobile World Congress 2018 in March.
Bixby 2.0 boasts better natural language processing and faster response times than its predecessor, along with built-in noise reduction tech. It's also more conversational — if you ask it about upcoming concerts around New Year's, for example, it'll remember the date range when looking for tickets in the future. And it can make recommendations based on your previous searches.
At a press event in August, Samsung revealed that the Galaxy Home has functionality now considered standard issue for smart speakers, such as the ability to play music and control smart home devices without the need to lift a finger. It boasts AKG-tuned omnidirectional speakers and a subwoofer for deep bass, plus an array of eight microphones for far-field voice recognition.
Market momentum for smart speakers shows no sign of slowing — quite the opposite, in fact. A report published by research firm Canalys indicates that worldwide smart speaker shipments grew 137 percent year over year in the third quarter of 2018 to reach 19.7 million units, up from 8.3 million in Q3 2017.
According to a survey commissioned by Adobe, almost half of all consumers in the United States will own a smart speaker by the end of the year. And a Global Market Insights report forecasts that the global smart speaker market could be worth as much as $ 30 billion by 2024.


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package org.apache.hadoop.yarn.server.resourcemanager.scheduler;

import java.util.List;

import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
import org.apache.hadoop.classification.InterfaceAudience.Private;
import org.apache.hadoop.classification.InterfaceStability.Unstable;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.ContainerExitStatus;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.ResourceBlacklistRequest;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.ContainerId;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.ContainerState;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.ContainerStatus;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.Resource;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.api.records.ResourceRequest;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.exceptions.InvalidResourceBlacklistRequestException;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.exceptions.InvalidResourceRequestException;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.factories.RecordFactory;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.factory.providers.RecordFactoryProvider;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.util.resource.ResourceCalculator;
import org.apache.hadoop.yarn.util.resource.Resources;

/**
 * Utilities shared by schedulers.
 */
@Private
@Unstable
public class SchedulerUtils {
    private static final Log LOG = LogFactory.getLog(SchedulerUtils.class);
  private static final RecordFactory recordFactory =
      RecordFactoryProvider.getRecordFactory(null);

  public static final String RELEASED_CONTAINER =
      "Container released by application";

  public static final String LOST_CONTAINER =
      "Container released on a *lost* node";

  public static final String PREEMPTED_CONTAINER =
      "Container preempted by scheduler";

  public static final String COMPLETED_APPLICATION =
      "Container of a completed application";

  public static final String EXPIRED_CONTAINER =
      "Container expired since it was unused";

  public static final String UNRESERVED_CONTAINER =
      "Container reservation no longer required.";

  /**
   * Utility to create a {@link ContainerStatus} during exceptional
   * circumstances.
   *
   * @param containerId {@link ContainerId} of returned/released/lost container.
   * @param diagnostics diagnostic message
   * @return ContainerStatus for an returned/released/lost
   *         container
   */
  public static ContainerStatus createAbnormalContainerStatus(
      ContainerId containerId, String diagnostics) {
    ContainerStatus containerStatus =
        recordFactory.newRecordInstance(ContainerStatus.class);
    containerStatus.setContainerId(containerId);
    containerStatus.setDiagnostics(diagnostics);
    containerStatus.setExitStatus(
        ContainerExitStatus.ABORTED);
    containerStatus.setState(ContainerState.COMPLETE);
    return containerStatus;
  }

  /**
   * Utility method to normalize a list of resource requests, by insuring that
   * the memory for each request is a multiple of minMemory and is not zero.
   */
  public static void normalizeRequests(
    List<ResourceRequest> asks,
    ResourceCalculator resourceCalculator,
    Resource clusterResource,
    Resource minimumResource,
    Resource maximumResource) {
//      LOG.info("calculator.class: " + resourceCalculator.getClass().toString());
//      resourceCalculator.compare(clusterResource, minimumResource, maximumResource);
    for (ResourceRequest ask : asks) {
//        LOG.info("resource before normalized: " + ask.getCapability());
      normalizeRequest(
        ask, resourceCalculator, clusterResource, minimumResource,
        maximumResource, minimumResource);
    }
  }

  /**
   * Utility method to normalize a resource request, by insuring that the
   * requested memory is a multiple of minMemory and is not zero.
   */
  public static void normalizeRequest(
    ResourceRequest ask,
    ResourceCalculator resourceCalculator,
    Resource clusterResource,
    Resource minimumResource,
    Resource maximumResource) {
    Resource normalized =
      Resources.normalize(
        resourceCalculator, ask.getCapability(), minimumResource,
        maximumResource, minimumResource);
    ask.setCapability(normalized);
  }

  /**
   * Utility method to normalize a list of resource requests, by insuring that
   * the memory for each request is a multiple of minMemory and is not zero.
   */
  public static void normalizeRequests(
      List<ResourceRequest> asks,
      ResourceCalculator resourceCalculator,
      Resource clusterResource,
      Resource minimumResource,
      Resource maximumResource,
      Resource incrementResource) {
      //correct!
//      LOG.info("calculator.class: " + resourceCalculator.getClass().toString());
    for (ResourceRequest ask : asks) {
        //correct!
//        LOG.info("resource before normalized: " + ask.getCapability());
      normalizeRequest(
          ask, resourceCalculator, clusterResource, minimumResource,
          maximumResource, incrementResource);
    }
  }

  /**
   * Utility method to normalize a resource request, by insuring that the
   * requested memory is a multiple of minMemory and is not zero.
   */
  public static void normalizeRequest(
      ResourceRequest ask,
      ResourceCalculator resourceCalculator,
      Resource clusterResource,
      Resource minimumResource,
      Resource maximumResource,
      Resource incrementResource) {
      LOG.info("calculator.class: " + resourceCalculator.getClass().toString());
      LOG.info("resource before normalized: " + ask.getCapability());

    Resource normalized =
        Resources.normalize(
            resourceCalculator, ask.getCapability(), minimumResource,
            maximumResource, incrementResource);
    ask.setCapability(normalized);

      LOG.info("resource after normalized: " + ask.getCapability());
  }

  /**
   * Utility method to validate a resource request, by insuring that the
   * requested memory/vcore is non-negative and not greater than max
   *
   * @throws InvalidResourceRequestException when there is invalid
   *         request
   */
  public static void validateResourceRequest(ResourceRequest resReq,
      Resource maximumResource) throws InvalidResourceRequestException {
    if (resReq.getCapability().getMemory() < 0 ||
        resReq.getCapability().getMemory() > maximumResource.getMemory()) {
      throw new InvalidResourceRequestException("Invalid resource request"
          + ", requested memory < 0"
          + ", or requested memory > max configured"
          + ", requestedMemory=" + resReq.getCapability().getMemory()
          + ", maxMemory=" + maximumResource.getMemory());
    }
    if (resReq.getCapability().getVirtualCores() < 0 ||
        resReq.getCapability().getVirtualCores() >
        maximumResource.getVirtualCores()) {
      throw new InvalidResourceRequestException("Invalid resource request"
          + ", requested virtual cores < 0"
          + ", or requested virtual cores > max configured"
          + ", requestedVirtualCores="
          + resReq.getCapability().getVirtualCores()
          + ", maxVirtualCores=" + maximumResource.getVirtualCores());
    }
  }

  /**
   * Utility method to validate a list resource requests, by insuring that the
   * requested memory/vcore is non-negative and not greater than max
   */
  public static void validateResourceRequests(List<ResourceRequest> ask,
      Resource maximumResource) throws InvalidResourceRequestException {
    for (ResourceRequest resReq : ask) {
      validateResourceRequest(resReq, maximumResource);
    }
  }

  /*
   * @throw InvalidResourceBlacklistRequestException  if the
   * resource is not able to be added to the blacklist.
   */
  public static void validateBlacklistRequest(ResourceBlacklistRequest blacklistRequest)
  throws InvalidResourceBlacklistRequestException {
    if (blacklistRequest != null) {
      List<String> plus = blacklistRequest.getBlacklistAdditions();
      if (plus != null && plus.contains(ResourceRequest.ANY)) {
        throw new InvalidResourceBlacklistRequestException(
            "Cannot add " + ResourceRequest.ANY + " to the blacklist!");
      }
    }
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Your math homework could be rather complicated depending on your subject. Geometry often entails complex measurements while calculus involves dense formulas that are easy to mix up. It is very easy for you to lose track of everything you are trying to work with in your class. But you can get math homework help if you look around the right spots to see what is available for your use and how you can make your studies work well.
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Look around to see what tutors might be experienced in and how they can help you out. Various tutors might be available for you depending on the certain subjects you need assistance with and what is available for your use.
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Each of these solutions for managing your calculus, statistics, geometry or algebra homework are all valuable points you can follow. Make sure you work with these ideas to help you get the most out of your work. You can use these points to give yourself a better time with managing your content the right way while understanding how the subject is laid out.


text:
History Literature Philosophy Opinion Law & Justice All Topics
Vladimir Nabokov Lolita Gender Power Russian Literature
Gender and Power in Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita
By Tristan Gans
2011, Vol. 3 No. 05 | pg. 1/1
Keywords:Vladimir Nabokov Lolita Gender Power Russian Literature
In Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, the overriding force of the narrator, Humbert Humbert, is his need to prove himself master of everything: other people, his own desires, fate, and language itself. Time and time again through Lolita we see Humbert's most extreme actions and emotions not as a result of his physical desires but rather his psychological need to win, to possess, and to control. Gender relations are quite simple for him: women are to be possessed, and men should compete for the possession of women. At times Humbert competes to prove his superiority in other ways, for instance tricking psychologists into thinking he is gay. And he even refers to his own 'exotic' sexuality as evidence of extremely refined taste, a palate superior to the average man's. By the end of the book we see that Humbert's hunger for domination overpowers the peculiar particularities of his desires and is the real cause of his woes.
Humbert wastes no time letting us know of his potency: "I was, and still am, despite mes malheurs, an exceptionally handsome male… I could attain any adult female I chose" (25). He reminds us of this fact numerous times. He uses it to explain how he is able to beat the competition by seducing any woman he wants, though he may want them for unconventional reasons. He marries Valeria for unconventional reasons: "It occurred to me that…all the conventions of marriage…might help me, if not to purge myself of my degrading and dangerous desires, at least to keep them under pacific control" (24). He chooses her in particular because of "the imitation she gave of a little girl" (25). And he shortly admits that she grew older, fatter, hairier, and he stopped having sex with her—there is no doubting his lack of respect. Two pages are spent mocking Valeria and their attempt at marriage before he explodes in fury at the fact that she is having an affair and wants a divorce. He even addresses the peculiar reasoning of his anger:
"A mounting fury was suffocating me—not because I had any particular fondness for that figure of fun, Mme Humbert, but because matters of legal and illegal conjunction were for me alone to decide, and here she was, Valeria, the comedy wife, brazenly preparing to dispose in her own way of my comfort and fate. I demanded her lover's name." p.28
From this passage we may discern two reasons for Humbert's anger: first, that a woman, whom he believed to be in his possession and control, could by her own independent actions so tremendously impact his "comfort and fate," and second, that another man should so easily intrude on his territory. In essence, he is furious because he has been beaten by both of them and made to look ridiculous through his ignorance. It does not sit well with his self image, and he cannot let this state of affairs last: "But no matter. I had my revenge in due time" (30). And then we hear this bizarre, wonderful story about how the desperately destitute pair were forced to live in a science experiment on "human and racial reactions to a diet of bananas and dates in a constant position on all fours" (30) and how Valeria died in childbirth. Regardless of whether you believe this story (the results of the experiment have conveniently remained unpublished and I am skeptical as to Humbert's ability to randomly find this out from "a man from Pasadena"), it settles the affair for Humbert—what better revenge can there be than the most bizarre, hilarious, degrading four years of torture one can possibly imagine?1 Humbert is able to move on (segueing quickly into the first reference to Quilty and the move to America) only because he knows he has beaten the competition to a bloody pulp.
Charlotte Haze enters the scene after Valeria. Rather, several years, several mental institutions, a trip to the North Pole and one coincidental house fire after Valeria, but Humbert by no means dwells on these events. Anyhow, Charlotte is clearly used by Humbert as a means of getting to Lolita: "I imagined…all the casual caresses her mother's husband would be able to lavish on his Lolita…all my troubles would be expelled, I would be a healthy man" (70). And when he realizes this would be impossible because of her plans to send the girl to boarding school, he begins somewhat passively planning her murder. He can't pull it off, but he realizes that controlling Charlotte would bring him one step closer to Lolita. And it is the mere fact that he cannot control Charlotte that he finds almost as damaging as her plans to export the girl. He notes that with Valeria, "I could make her change her mind instantly; but anything of the sort in regard to Charlotte was unthinkable. Bland American Charlotte frightened me. My lighthearted dream of controlling her through her passion for me was all wrong" (83). The fact that she is out of his control frightens him! When he does bring her to her knees in submission,2 he says the "little incident filled me with considerable elation" (91). Clearly his ability to manipulate Charlotte is an absolute requisite of the relationship.
The other noteworthy episode before he leaves Ramsdale is with John and Jean Farlow. The Farlows are the closest to friends that Humbert makes in the novel, and they are the only Americans described in detail without much ridicule. John Farlow is a capable, intelligent man who is quiet by definition: "quiet, quietly athletic, quietly successful" (78). His wife Jean is clearly quite attractive (though not to Humbert, of course), and she is the only character, out of many in the novel who produce art of various kinds, whose work Humbert praises.3 But even though he seems to respect the Farlows, he declares his sexual superiority. The most comically notable example of this occurs shortly after Charlotte's death, when he associates their earnest and empathetic concern with sexual weakness:
"'Look', he continued, 'why don't I drive there right now, and you may sleep with Jean'—(he did not really add that but Jean supported his offer so passionately that it might be implied)." p. 100
This little aside has almost nothing to do with the plot of the novel. It is merely Humbert asserting that for one thing, his virile persuasions are felt by even the most respectable women with stable marriages and healthy sex lives,4 and for another, that John Farlow's quiet and generous nature is a sign of his submission to the more sexually powerful Humbert. Humbert wants us to know both of these because it is important to him to be the alpha male, to know that he can possess the woman and defeat the man. Whether or not this is the case (though it seems to be, given Jean's attempt at a passionate kiss), we have heard it before, so this episode strikes of Humbert gloating.
The problem with the Farlows which necessitates Humbert's escape from Ramsdale is that they cannot be controlled:
"But as I stood wide-eyed and flushed before the mirror, John Farlow tenderly tapped to inquire if I was okay—and I immediately realized it would be madness on my part to have her in the house with all those busybodies milling around and scheming to take her away from me. Indeed, unpredictable Lo herself might—who knows?—show some foolish distrust of me, a sudden repugnance, vague fear and the like, and gone would be the magic prize at the very instant of triumph." p. 102
Humbert knows that the Farlows are genuinely interested in people's well-being, unlike almost all the other characters with their selfish desires. Therefore he cannot control them, and just as with "Bland American Charlotte," this frightens him. He knows that given independent support system, Lolita cannot be controlled, so he has to leave.
In the simplest terms, Lolita can be described as the two-part story of Humbert Humbert's relationship with the girl. In Part I he takes her, and in Part II he loses her. Notice that this has nothing to do with Humbert's sins, his physical needs, his personal history, or his reflection upon his life. Those are all just necessary components to the story of how he happens to desire and obtain a nymphet and subsequently how she escapes his grasp. Part I ends with a chilling exposition of Lolita's situation: "In the middle of the night she came sobbing into [my room], and we made it up very gently. You see, she had absolutely nowhere else to go" (142). This is the climax of Humbert's possession of Lolita: she has no other option but him, and has not begun to realize the power (slavery, he himself calls it) that she holds over him. But of course she quickly grows to hate Humbert even while he revels in his possession of the nymphet.
The defining factor of Humbert's sexual relations with Lolita is not the sex. He makes no attempt to deny enjoying the sex and having certain techniques, positions, and habits he enjoys especially, but each sexual encounter is foremost described in terms of the power dynamic. One scene that sticks out as the most 'friendly' is of the pair having sex while Lolita reads the comics, and Humbert admits to casually appreciating them as well. But then there is this horrific episode:
"[Dr. Tristramson] dignosed bronchitis, patted Lo on the back (all its bloom erect because of the fever) and put her to bed for a week or longer. At first she "ran a temperature" in American parlance, and I could not resist the exquisite caloricity of unexpected delights—Venus febriculosa—though it was a very languid Lolita that moaned and coughed and shivered in my embrace." p. 198
And who could forget:
"Sometimes…while Lolita would be haphazardly preparing her homework, sucking a pencil, lolling sideways in an easy chair with both legs over its arm, I would shed all my masculine pride—and literally crawl on my knees to your chair, my Lolita! You would give me one look—a gray furry question mark of a look: 'Oh no, not again' (incredulity, exasperation); for you never deigned to believe that I could, without any specific designs, ever crave to bury my face in your plaid skirt." p.192
The most striking, import, and focused aspects of these scenes are the descriptions of how much and what kind of power each character has. Lolita has some kind of sexual power that holds Humbert in thrall, and he seems to have some kind of need to subjugate himself to her. Perhaps he is just terribly lonely and misses his mother. Perhaps this is his way expressing true love. Regardless, the paradise that he has chosen for himself is defined by a very delicate balance of power—the only power struggle in the book that he is willing to lose.5
The time he does not spend worrying about Lolita's possible escape (either to another boy or man or with the eventual onset of puberty) or having sex with her, a very small amount of time, is spent mocking the people, places, and culture he sees. In one brilliant segment we see all three:
"Indian ceremonial dances, strictly commercial. ART: American Refrigerator Transit Company. Obvious Arizona, pueblo dwellings, aboriginal pictographs, a dinosaur track in a desert canyon, printed there thirty million years ago, when I was a child. A lanky, six-foot, pale boy with an active Adam's apple, ogling Lo and her orange-brown bare midriff, which I kissed five minutes later, Jack…Reno, a dreary town in Nevada, with a nightlife said to be 'cosmopolitan and mature.'" p.157
Humbert is oh-so-above all of it. But most notable is the fact that he has to point it out—isn't the fact that he sees himself as competing with a gawky teenager for 12-year-old Lolita's love just as creepy, or even more creepy, than wanting her love in the first place? There is no doubt that he enjoys Lolita sexually, but comparable to his sexual pleasure, and far more expounded upon in this section of the novel, is the pleasure Humbert derives from 'beating' society. He has to ridicule every other male he comes across, he has to ridicule society for its taste in art and entertainment, and he has to ridicule Americans for letting him so easily get away with a crime so disgusting. He has to have us know that with his great intellect he has penetrated every subject to the core, understood it completely, and found it wanting.
This is precisely what drives him nuts about the loss of Lolita and what drives him to murder Clare Quilty. Quilty goes to every effort to show Humbert that they are alike, but that he is just a bit better. Humbert remembers that when he came to terms with the loss of Lolita, "To myself I whispered that I still had my gun, and was still a free man—free to trace the fugitive, free to destroy my brother" (247). This point is hammered home when Humbert interrogates the nurse-accomplice, attempting to bribe her: "'He is your brother,' she whispered at last. I plucked the bill out of her moon-cold hand, and spitting out a French curse turned and ran away" (249). Humbert is furious here because Quilty has understood the predicament so well as to mock Humbert with his own terms.
After this episode he backtracks across the country hunting for Quilty, only to find that the playwright has deliberately left him clues. Literary clues. Quilty is clearly telling Humbert that they are the same type of man playing the same type of game, and Quilty gloats in his victory. This hits Humbert very hard: In a single paragraph on page 251 he notes that Quilty's literary taunts "caused me especially painful palpitations" and describes them as "horribly cruel." And Quilty's coup de grace, "Ted Hunter, Cane, NH," is simply called "the most penetrating bodkin." The several names that Humbert finds that indicate Lolita's betrayal of him do not bother him nearly as much as Quilty's mockery.
Humbert reasons the murder of Quilty very succinctly: "because of all you did/ because of all I did not/ you have to die" (300). There is no other option. Every other adult in the book whom he cannot control he has escaped. However, he cannot escape the shame of being beaten by Quilty. Even though he knows that he can never get Lolita back, and even though Quilty is an aging, drug-addicted pervert who can no longer even enjoy his perversions due to total impotency, Humbert still has to kill him. The irony is that Quilty offers him everything that Humbert could rationally want: exotic sexual favors, money, a house, a future, even a friend—Quilty begs him, saying "we are men of the world, in everything—sex, free verse, marksmanship." Essentially Quilty bargains with an opportunity to end the frustration, loneliness, and obsession that defines Humberts pedaphiliac life. In a way he offers his own identity as a man nearly identical yet superior to Humbert, but nothing can assuage the fact that Quilty's existence is evidence of Humbert's failure as a lover, father, captor, and competitor.
It is quite notable that Humbert's obsessive desire for control ends with his murder of Quilty. For he knows that he has essentially killed himself: Quilty is not only his brother, he is a mirror image of Humbert. The difference is that Quilty allows us to see Humbert without the benefit of the pathos generated in the autobiography. By seeing Quilty so clearly in the third person, Humbert understands how pathetic and hopeless a man he is. This coupled with the fact that he has killed possibly the only man with whom he could truly share himself brings Humbert down. By all the standards he himself has set during the book, Humbert is no longer a man by the end6—he has lost all means to control, and thus lost his will to live.
Humbert only ever has one totally satisfying sexually experience: secretly masturbating with Lolita in his lap. And what an orgasm it is!
"I entered a plane of being where nothing mattered, save the infusion of joy brewed within my body. What had begun as a delicious distension of my innermost roots became a glowing tingle which now had reached that state of absolute security, confidence and reliance not found elsewhere in conscious life." p. 60
And he is right, there is in that moment a state of security and confidence not found elsewhere in his life. His relationship with Valeria is plagued my numerous issues. His later relationship with Lolita is constantly endangered by fear of discovery, her unwillingness to cooperate, and his insecurities. One would think that in this instant he gets to have his cake and eat it too: he gets tremendous sexual pleasure out of an act of playful, mutual affection that does his object no harm. So the obvious question is, if this is sexual fulfillment, why does Humbert continue his sexual relationship with Lolita (or anyone else before or after) even when he knows it cannot be that satisfying; moreover, why does he continue pursuing these women when he knows that his mental state and sexual passions are being broken down by progressively more destructive relationships?7 The answer is control. He has to possess what he wants, and he has to win everything: he must defeat the sexual prowess of other men, of course. He has to win the heart of any woman he wants. He has to win (with literary prowess) the prejudiced minds of the jury. But all of these are extensions of Humbert's unconquerable desire to win over his own fate. Seeing a world of sudden, meaningless violence,8 he fights desperately to control the world around him, and if he is able to do so, it is worth it:
"Despite our tiffs, despite her nastiness, despite all the fuss and faces she made, and the vulgarity, and the danger, and the horrible hopelessness of it all, I still dwelled deep in my elected paradise—a paradise whose skies were the color of hell flames—but still a paradise." p. 166
Like John Milton's Satan,9 Humbert believes his self-inflicted torment to be justified if it is a manifestation of his own will. Clearly the particular physical sins are incidental to his need to be master of his domain.
Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich. Lolita. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1958. Print.
1.) I remind the reader that the Humbert and Valeria's marriage lasted four years as well, 1935-39. In another parallel, the forward notes that 'Dolly Schiller' also died in childbirth, also after four years of hard living subsequent to her leaving Humbert. Given Humbert's ignorance of Dolly's death, this is likely a little treat from Nabokov himself.
2.) In fact calls him "her ruler and her god" (91). This is an odd episode in light of her previous mentioning of the necessity of his being Christian. Charlotte's theatricality in light of Humbert's continual disdain for her 'Bland American' ways is an amusing idiosyncrasy; I suspect some of her language is exaggerated by Humbert to ridicule her as a way of hiding his guilt. This also is a strike at religion: Charlotte has previously told Humbert that they can only be married if he accepts Christianity. Perhaps Humbert's disdain for religion is in part because he views it as a competitor for control of those around him, in addition to his general dislike of ceremony and theatricality.
3.) Valeria paints 'cubistic trash,' Charlotte is mocked for her turgid love letter and hackneyed attempts at theatrical displays and French endearments, and even Quilty's work is easily dismissed despite his fame. Furthermore, Humbert has little respect for his own work. This case is interesting in that he does not actively praise Jean's work but instead recalls it: "vividly do I remember praising, over cocktails, the picture she had made" (79). Given his other interactions with Jean and his lack of hesitance in mocking and dismissing creative attempts, this recollection betrays some genuine respect for the woman.
4.) Humbert hints on page 98 that the Farlows may have had sex in his bedroom; Jean makes several somewhat sexual remarks. If there is anything abnormal in her sex life, Humbert seems to think it would be the fault of John's indifference.
5.) This adds a certain gravity to Humbert's assertion that he loves Lolita. However, that is neither here nor there, as by the time he gives her money and leaves (or allows her to leave), his focus is on Quilty.
6.) By which I mean he is over the hill. He has no interest in being so intensely masculine, no reason to seduce women, and his murder of Quilty (and the accompanying poem) has shown him the futility of his work. He knows himself to be more ridiculous than the people he has spent the book ridiculing.
7.) By which I mean that in the case of Lolita and Rita, he knows himself to be growing increasingly neurotic and obsessive. In the former case he is aware of his own sadism to some extent and becomes disgustingly paranoid, and in the latter though he may be helping Rita, he admits his life is hollow, worthless, and confused.
8.) I am referring to the numerous comically sudden deaths in the novel as well as the general role of coincidences and violence. He has clearly not led a stable life (picnic, lightning, world wars, north pole), and needs to compensate for the randomness of fate with his own will.
9.) I think this passage is an indirect reference to Paradise Lost, but even if it is not the parallel with Christian theology it has similar implications.
Gans, T. (2011). "Gender and Power in Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita." Inquiries Journal/Student Pulse, 3(05). Retrieved from http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=529
Gans, Tristan. "Gender and Power in Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita." Inquiries Journal/Student Pulse 3.05 (2011). <http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=529>
Gans, Tristan. 2011. Gender and Power in Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. Inquiries Journal/Student Pulse 3 (05), http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=529
GANS, T. 2011. Gender and Power in Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. Inquiries Journal/Student Pulse [Online], 3. Available: http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=529
Tristan Gans graduated in 2014 with a JD from Middlebury College in Middlebury, VT.
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Jason: Greg thanks for coming out on this blustery morning.
Greg: It is … Cold would be a generous word for it. It's a little chilly outside.
Jason: Yes. Well, I appreciate you dodging the snowflakes and joining us for another episode.
Greg: Oh my pleasure, but why don't we talk about the weather outside. It's really cold, winter's coming, we're expecting several inches. We've already had some snow, we're going to get more snow. As a home builder what are the things you need to think about to make sure you're building a house as winter proof as possible?
Jason: Yes. I thought today maybe we'll tackle the top ten ways to winterize your house or to prepare your home for the colder weather.
Jason: Yeah. One of the first things that is often overlooked is actually attic insulation. I've been in many homes where the builder has either forgotten to insulate the attic or sometimes the insulation has just settled over the years.
Greg: That doesn't sound like a great development. Probably not something you want.
Jason: That's right. Unfortunately it happens. That's why you want a quality home builder like Artisan to tackle your home building needs.
Jason: You can always check the insulation and actually … Probably 30% of your air infiltration or air loss is actually through the attic. Even if you do have insulation it may not be a bad idea to have an expert come in and check out your insulation and maybe blow a little bit more insulation in there. I have a gentleman who is going to be joining us here in a couple of weeks on a podcast. His name is Eric George and he has a company called Building Performance that actually will come in and test the efficiency of your house. If you don't want to climb up in the attic, bring Eric or somebody like him in and we can check out the house for you.
Greg: Is there such a thing as too much insulation? Can you over do it?
Jason: I don't think so. Obviously you come to a point of diminishing returns. Finding that right R40 or range in the attic is going to be a good bang for your buck.
Jason: What I like to do is create an air tight lid. Actually, I don't want any air infiltration into the house. We will do some air infiltration to vent the attic so it doesn't get moisture in there but the goal is to seal up the envelop of the house as tight as possible.
Greg: I need to quit asking questions. If I let my curiosity get the best of me, this is going to be a thirty minute podcast.
Jason: All right. We'll move on to number two. This one is a pretty basic one but a lot of times people overlook it and I do get calls for busted hoses and water lines. One thing you want to do is shut off all your water spigots and water lines to the outside and properly drain them. Not only do you have to turn off the outside spigot, you need to unhook the hose and then most houses come with actually a water shut off that will be located either in the basement ceiling, maybe in the first floor powder room or a basement powser room. Simply shut that off, make sure the water run has been drained out to get that water out there and just eliminate any possible chance of that water freezing in those pipes.
Greg: I'm trying to control myself. It's difficult but go ahead.
Jason: Okay. Number three, we're going to touch on is, again, it's pretty basic but I'm amazed at the times I go in to even the new houses I've built and … This one is make sure all your windows are properly locked down and doors are properly shut. Sometimes new construction with windows we put everything in pretty tight. You may have to shove those double hung windows down a little bit and snug that latch just to make sure you don't have any air infiltration coming in underneath the sash. Simply by doing that can really increase the comfort level of your house.
Greg: Are you finding that some people are just hesitant to push down hard enough on the windows to actually latch it? Is that what you're saying?
Jason: Yeah. Sometimes they may just close them and assume they're shut but to get that seal you really need to lock it in and it throws those double hungs up and down and really creates that tightness against the weather stripping that's going to create that seal that you're looking for.
Greg: All right. Number four.
Jason: Okay. Programmable thermostats. You don't even have to have a programmable thermostat but if you're going to be gone at work all day or going to bed at nights simply turn that thermostat down just a little bit as you leave the house. If you're going to be gone for eight to ten hours a day and just a couple of degrees will make a difference over the year on your utility bill.
Greg: I've read some of the studies on this. It's really amazing, like you said. Just three, four degrees while you're gone during the day not so much that it's difficult to get back up the temperature but the difference to your bill is incredible and of course it depends how well your house is sealed, but it's really something that's pretty easy to do and no real downside.
Jason: No, no. Not at all. With the increase in modern technology, we're doing a lot more systems where you can actually control your thermostat from your phones or your computers. If you're working and like, "Oh, gosh. Looks like I'm gong to be working late tonight, kids aren't going to be home. Let me just dial that thermostat down just a little bit more." Then when you head home you can just knock it up a couple of degrees so it's nice and toasty waiting for you when you get home.
Greg: Then a little bit off topic, but studies have show that people sleep better if the house is a little cooler so you could dial it down overnight while you're sleeping and then at whatever time you get up, 6:00, have it come back up to temperature so it's nice and cozy when you get out of bed. Lots of benefits.
Jason: No doubt. You can throw an extra blanket or two. I've got three boys at home and my middle one likes to have it about sixty degrees when he's sleeping at night. He definitely is helping the utility bills.
Jason: Okay. This is again basic home maintenance on number five but again one of my biggest call backs I get on my new construction homes is, "My furnace isn't working." Well, what it boils down to is you got to change the furnace filter once a month. Some filters, you may get into a media filter that's five or six inches thick that you don't have to change but every two or three months but most systems have a nice one inch filter, three quarter inch and it does need to be changed monthly. What happens if you don't change that filter, it gets clogged with dust, the system does not operate efficiently. Even though you may have a tight house and everything, you're doing all the right things, you may not be getting the efficiency out of that unit that you should.
Greg: A six pack of filters. Right?
Jason: … can help you change the filter if you struggle in that area. Okay. Moving on, on a more serious note. Number six, we're going to go with changing the direction of your ceiling fans. A lot of people think that ceiling fans are just meant to cool you in the summer time but in actuality most fans come with a mode where you can reverse the direction of the fan and simply in the winter time change that blade … As you think about it, heat rises, so all that heat gets caught up in the upper part of the room. Reverse that fan, push that heat where it comes back down, circulates the air a little bit more. Again one of those little steps that can add to the efficiency of your utility system and how it operates.
Jason: The simplest way is to actually turn your fan on, you turn on high and stand underneath of it. If you feel the air coming directly on you, you've got it set for your cool setting or for a summer setting. There's usually a toggle switch on the fan above the blade or either on the remote. Change that, turn the fan off and then turn it back on. Then if you stand under the fan and do not feel that air coming down that means you got it right. It's shoving that air back up towards the ceiling and it will start dropping around the fan.
Greg: Okay. If I can't feel the fan that's a winter time setting. If it's blasting on my head that's a summer time setting.
Jason: Greg, you're set to be a home builder.
Greg: Sweet. I'm just going to be a home liver. You can be the home builder and I'll just live in the home.
Jason: Got you. Got you. We'll move on to number seven. This comes down to fire place. This is a safety feature as well as well as energy efficient feature. A lot of people still prefer a wood burning fire places these days but if you use it a lot you do need to have that flue pipe cleaned by a professional probably once a year just to keep it clean and again operating at maximum efficiency. You don't want to burn the house down so simply spend a few bucks, clean that chimney sweep out and you'll be good to go.
Greg: That's where the bulk of chimney fires occur. Right? It's not stuff pouring out of the hearth or onto the floor, it's people haven't taken care of their flue and their chimney and something that's caught in it and caught on fire and then falls into the house or lands on the roof. That's the issue. Right?
Jason: That's right. You could shut your fire off or think you've burned it out for the night yet it could still be burning in the flue or some debris could be caught on fire up in the pipe and actually land on the roof. The temperature of those fires is extremely hot so it doesn't take much once it comes in contact with that combustible material and fire spread pretty quickly.
Greg: Right so be safe. I have lost track of numbers, where are we?
Jason: We are on number eight. With the change in energy code a lot of the things we're going to talk about today is going to be standard operating procedure for new houses but a lot of these things were not standard on houses even built just a few years ago. With number eight is sealing your duct work on your furnace. All those trunk lines and silver pipes that run through your basement, a lot of guys in the past, including myself, I've learned over the years, but we used to install that stuff and not seal the joints. You're thinking the duct works' inside the house, no big deal, what's it matter if it's leaking. Well, if you seal those duct works, and what I'm talking about is all the seams, all the joints, any penetration, nail holes, screws and that metal, if that's not sealed you're going to get a ton of leakage through the duct works system which is going to make your furnace work harder and not as efficient.
Greg: Is it just a little leakage? It's not something I'd walk by and I feel it blow my hair, it's just a little bit here, a little bit there and throughout the house it adds up to make your system have to work that much harder.
Jason: For the most part yes but you would be amazed at … I've talked to Eric George, who I mentioned with Building Performance, he's shown videos and I follow him on Facebook, of guys that have not sealed where the furnace filter is. You can have huge holes in your furnace system and just… you can have a 95% efficient furnace just not operating at, just not near performance just because the duct work hasn't been properly sealed.
Greg: You're talking about sealing with some of the silver tape that I've seen around or is it more of the insulating, white, foamy, plastic wrapping on?
Jason: Yes. Mastic, there's a lot of times… with duct butter, is another term that's used. It's actually painted on and seals.
Greg: I just like that term.
Jason: Yeah, we like the duct butter.
Jason: Again you get a professional can come in, he can actually test your duct system after it's been installed to tell you how efficient it is and how much duct leakage you actually have.
Greg: Then would they be able to track that down so if they do a test and say your system's operating at 70% capacity, they help you find where that leakage would be so that you can actually seal it up?
Jason: That was number eight so that's a great tip for especially, again, somebody who's built a home in the last few years. Again, we do that standard in all our newer homes but even just a few years ago we did not.
Greg: When you have this gentleman come in on one of your future podcasts, are you only going to talk about new homes only? Are you going to talk about existing homes or some of both?
Jason: Well, I've got a lot of feedback from our readers and a lot of them are existing home owners that live in older homes so we will talk about the older homes and how to increase the efficiency of that. Then we'll also talk about what he does in our new homes.
Greg: I'm looking forward to it.
Jason: Yeah, we have a couple of steps. He'll come in before you even drywall the house and test the efficiency of the house before we cover up all those mechanicals and then he comes back once the house is complete and does another analysis on the project.
Jason: Okay, so number nine. Let's take advantage of tax credits that Uncle Sam gives us. There's certain tax credit out there and I'm not a tax expert by any means, but if you've done all these things to your systems over the years and it's just still not where you want it, it may be time to upgrade your system to a more efficient system. One option you could do is go to a geothermal, I know we hit that a couple of episodes ago about the efficiencies of geothermal. There is a tax credit in place that for the new install of the geothermal system you can get a 30% tax credit back, so that's a pretty impressive credit when it comes back to putting a new system in.
Jason: We've talked about, again, Norton Commons, we've got a whole village of geothermal homes. We got a Homearama homes that we're doing, we have two of them this year both are going to have those geothermal systems in. It'll give the listeners a chance to actually come out and feel in touch what a geothermal system may be. Again, it doesn't have to be just a geothermal system, you can replace it with a 95, 96% efficient furnace and that's going to help your efficiency of your system as well and really cut those utility bills down, sometimes as much as half if you have a non-efficient system in place right now. Good stuff there. I think that was number nine.
Greg: Yeah, let's wrap this up with a big one. What do you got?
Jason: All right, drum roll please. Another exciting one is actually to properly insulate your basement concrete walls. A lot of people sometimes overlook the basements and think, "You know what, it's underground, it can't be that cold, I've got a ten, nine, eight inch thick concrete wall, that's going to protect my basement." What people don't realize is if you have a nine inch thick concrete wall, the R-value on that structure is only going to be about a one.
Greg: Oh my gosh! That's really depressing.
Jason: People don't realize how much air loss or temperature that slides through those concrete walls and basement is always colder. Well, that's why.
Greg: R-1's basically the temperature outside is the temperature inside. If it's 55 degrees ground in your basement, your basement is going to be starting off at basically that. Right? Is that what you're saying?
Jason: That's absolutely correct. A lot of guys may insulate the top two or three feet of the basement that sticks out of the ground, some may not. It's hard to even know once you're in the basement what part of the wall sticks above the ground and what part sticks below the ground. A lot of basements have two, three, four foot of concrete sticking up above the ground. You can have, again, that R-1, it could be below freezing outside and that basically it's like having an open window, not exactly, but a similar comparison, having all that cold and hot air come straight through that wall.
What we'd like to do is actually insulate the basement wall and there's a couple of ways that we can do it. We can put form board on the exterior or the inside of the basement wall. I like to insulate them on the inside of the wall, we get a tighter seal. You can spray foam the entire basement structure, most of the times you can finish the basement, go ahead and have that nice three and a half inch cavity and fill it with insulation.
Greg: I was going to ask. You talked about finished lower levels before in an earlier episode, so would you attach the frame of the basement, if you're going to finish it out, to the wall and then come in and then out this foam down or how do you go ahead and finish out to the level you're talking about? We're talking about nice finishes here. How do you that level of finish?
Jason: I would go ahead and finish out your basement, I'd put a full stud wall which is a two by four up against or close to against the concrete wall and that way you can get that full two by four cavity full of insulation from top to bottom. Sometimes you can put a foam board straight up against the wall but it's not going to give you an R-13, R-15. Might as well maximize the efficiency of that basement while we're there. Again, it is now code to insulate a good portion of the basement wall. It wasn't just a few years ago, so it's one thing to check out. Again, if you have a third party come in and do an energy efficient analysis of your home, that's one thing they may look out for you.
Greg: That was awesome, that was a great list and we ran a little long but I appreciate you giving us a Top Ten List. That was awesome!
Jason: In conclusion this is a great way to retrofit a lot of these things in your house but the simplest way to solve all of these issues is just call me, Jason Black with Artisan Signature Homes, let's build your new home with all these great energy efficient features and have you comfortable year around.


It will be a crack for the record books this Saturday, February 27th, at Whole Foods throughout the country. At 3:00pm Eastern Standard Time, over 300 cheesemongers will simultaneously crack into 85lbs wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano in an attempt to break their 2008 Guinness world record. Spectators will be treated with cheese samples, cooking demonstrations, wine pairing suggestions, and even some wine tasting (where allowed).
So, what's so special about this so-called "King of Cheese"? First is the exclusivity of the naming rights. Only cheese produced in the regions of Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Bologna, and Mantova can be called Parmigiano Reggiano. Second is the distinct taste. Sharp and nutty with undertones of fruit and a slightly gritty or crystal texture, this cheese is perfect for cooking and table service. The Italian treasure is made from raw cow's milk from grass and hay fed cattle, giving it a fresh umami (savory) flavor. The average Parmigiano-Reggiano wheel is about 7.1–9.4 in high, 16–18 inches in diameter, and weighs 84 lbs. Third is the various uses of the cheese which include being grated with a grater over pasta, stirred into soup and risotto, and eaten in chunks with balsamic vinegar. It is also a key ingredient in alfredo sauce and pesto.
Head out to your local Whole Foods this weekend and grab a taste of this amazing cheese and be sure to bring your cameras to capture this Guinness World Record-breaking event.


text:
The 2017 European Judo Championships were held in Warsaw, Poland from 20–23 April 2017.

Medal overview

Men

Women

Medal table

Participating nations
There was a total of 369 participants from 41 nations.

References

External links
 Official website

 Results
 Team results

European Judo Championships
Judo, European Championships
European Championships
Judo, 2017 European Championships
Judo, 2017 European Championships
Judo competitions in Poland
Judo, European Championships

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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text:
Q: what's the performance difference between int and varchar for primary keys I need to create a primary key scheme for a system that will need peer to peer replication. So I'm planning to combine a unique system ID and a sequential number in some way to come up with unique ID's. I want to make sure I'll never run out of ID's, so I'm thinking about using a varchar field, since I could always add another character if I start running out. But I've read that integers are better optimized for this. So I have some questions...
1) Are integers really better optimized? And if they are, how much of a performance difference is there between varchars and integers? I'm going to use firebird for now. But I may switch later. Or possibly support multiple db's. So I'm looking for generalizations, if that's possible.
2) If integers are significantly better optimized, why is that? And is it likely that varchars will catch up in the future, so eventually it won't matter anyway?
My varchar keys won't have any meaning, except for the unique system ID part. But I may want to obscure that somehow. Also, I plan to efficiently use all the bits of each character. I don't, for example, plan to code the integer 123 as the character string "123". So I don't think varchars will require more space than integers.

A: For MySQL, according to Alexey here, the answer is surprisingly "not much".  He concludes:

So, if you have an application and you need to have some table field with a small set of possible values, I'd still suggest you to use ENUM, but now we can see that performance hit may not be as large as you expect. Though again a lot depends on your data and queries.

A: You will likely not run out of integers.
For example in MySQL, max value for BigInt is 18,446,744,073,709,551,615. So if you insert 100 million rows per second, it will take you 5849 years before you run out of numbers.

A: *

*varchar requires extra storage for length information

*comparison and sorting requires collation processing

*varchar may not match across systems because of collation

*int gives 4 billion rows, bigint (8 bytes) gives 18 trillion rows

*pre-bigint, I've seen decimal (19, 0) which also gives 18 trillion rows

Using varchar will end in tears...
To be clear: you're developing a system that may have more then 4 billion rows (you don't know), has replication, you don't know what RDBMS you'll use, and you don't understand how varchar differs from an integer?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Once a transaction has been processed through your account and passed through to the 3rd Man for review the details of the transaction are then validated and checked by the 3rd Man.
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Multiple addresses used by the same person or card.
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Please remember that the more transactional information you provide to us, the more accurate the risk score will be.


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text:
Q: After upgrading to .NET 6 my calls to MySQL RDS are...timing out? I have a solution that was running on .NET 5, and recently I updated it to .NET 6. I also updated all my Nuget packages to the latest versions. Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore and related packages are version 6.0.9.
When I run the updated project locally against a local MySQL database (version 5.7.12), it works just fine. Hooray!
But in non-dev environments we connect to a MySQL RDS database (same version) at AWS. And when I try to connect to RDS, things get weird. In any of the projects, before doing any real work, we log a some things. And what I'm seeing is that the first message will get logged as expected. But the second call just hangs when SaveChanges() is called. The call never completes.
Well, almost never. One time it did get through and I saw this error on the next database call:
 Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Infrastructure[10404]
  A transient exception occurred during execution. The operation will be retried after 0ms.
  MySqlConnector.MySqlException (0x80004005): Connect Timeout expired.

The reconnect attempt did not work, by the way. I think it just hung like the others.
I am creating the database context like this:
services.AddDbContext<LoggingDbContextAdapter>(optionsBuilder =>
        {
            optionsBuilder.UseLazyLoadingProxies(false)
                .UseMySql(connStr, ServerVersion.AutoDetect(connStr), mysqlOptions =>
                {
                });
        });

We use dependency injection and all the repositories are Transient. I don't think the issue is with RDS settings here as we have been connecting to this instance for years. The issue seems to be related to the assembly upgrades, because if I change .NET 5 to .NET 6 but leave all the assemblies as they are, I don't have this problem (but I do have other problems that require me to upgrade the database-related assemblies). I know there is not a lot to go on, but does anyone have any notion of why this is happening? As far as I can tell this is not a widespread issue for people using .NET 6 and connecting to RDS.

A: I also recently upgraded a project to .NET 6 which targets an Amazon Aurora 2.10.2 RDS cluster running MySql 5.7.12, with EntityFramework Core 6.
In my case, I am calling DbContext.Database.Migrate() in my start-up code to apply any migrations which have not yet been applied and, similar to your experience, I encountered issues whereby it would hang/freeze indefinitely.
Solution
I found this post on mysqlconnector.net which details the cause of the issue as following:

When using Amazon Aurora RDS, you may experience a hang when calling MySqlConnection.Open()...
The cause of this problem is Amazon Aurora not correctly supporting pipelining in the MySQL protocol. This is known to be a problem with 2.x versions of Aurora (that implement MySQL 5.7), but not with 3.x versions (that implement MySQL 8.0).

It then says:

To work around it, add Pipelining = False; to your connection string to disable the pipelining feature.

So, all you need to do is modify your connection string to look like the following:
"Server=<server>;Database=<database>;User Id=<user_id>;Password=<password>;Pipelining=False;"
Notes
EF Core 6 uses the MySqlConnector library internally when communicating with a MySql database, so in case you're thinking (like me at the time) that you're not using it... well you are, just transitively.
There's actually some code in this library which checks the server version of your database and the host name to try to identify if it's a MySql 5.7 running in Amazon RDS and, if so, it will disable pipelining automatically for you:
if (!cs.Pipelining.HasValue && ServerVersion.Version.Major == 5 && ServerVersion.Version.Minor == 7 && HostName.EndsWith(".rds.amazonaws.com", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
{
    m_logArguments[1] = HostName;
    Log.Debug("Session{0} auto-detected Aurora 5.7 at '{1}'; disabling pipelining", m_logArguments);
    m_supportsPipelining = false;
}

This wasn't working for me as my connection string points to an alias which proxies the request to Amazon RDS (i.e. my hostname doesn't end in ".rds.amazonaws.com", so it fails the check above and doesn't disable pipelining). I presume this is the same for you, hence why it hangs/freezes.

A: I never did figure out exactly what was going on. But I did solve the issue by replacing the Pomelo Entity Framework Provider with MySql.Data.EntityFrameworkCore. I discovered this would work when I created a simple test project and saw I had the same issue when using Pomelo, but not the Oracle provider.
I had to update a lot of code to get the Oracle provider to work properly everywhere in my application so it was fairly painful. But it was the only way forward I could find.


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Rocket French has been my regular companion for a couple of years now. Though I have not been consistent with the program but I have always been able to get back to it at any time. The motivation I receive is mainly form the regular Emails and pep talks sent to my inbox by the Rocket French Team. It is wonderfully interactive and I enjoy working through each lesson. Bravo!!


text:
Bruins Bid Farewell To L.A. Sports Arena
Over the years UCLA basketball teams have amassed 105 victories while playing at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. UCLA also won two of their NCAA basketball championships at the venue.
But when the Bruins face the Trojans on Sunday for the 133rd time at the Sports Arena, they will be bidding farewell to the historic L.A. landmark.
After 47 years at the Sports Arena, the USC basketball team will be moving to a brand new state of the art arena, the Galen Center, in the Fall of 2006.
There was once a time when the Sports Arena was held in similar esteem; it was considered by many to be the most modern arena in the country at the time of its construction.
On April 29, 1955 California Governor Goodwin T. Knight signed legislation authorizing the sale of $8,200,000 in revenue bonds to finance the building of the Sports Arena in the burgeoning city of Los Angeles.
Three years later $7,800,000 in revenue bonds were sold, and plans for constuction began in earnest.
The L.E. Dixon Company of San Gabriel, the original contractor for the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, was awarded the building contract for the Sports Arena. Official ground-breaking ceremonies commenced on April 7, 1958.
A little over a year later, the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena was officially dedicated on July 4th, 1959.
Vice President Richard M. Nixon represented President Dwight D. Eisenhower at the festivities. Nixon dedicated the Sports Arena in "recognition of all who served their country in all wars."
The 1960 Democratic Convention was held at the Sports Arena due to its state of the art facilities at the time. It was at this convention that John F. Kennedy secured his party's nomination for president.
The Rev. Martin Luther King orated here; and the Dalai Lama addressed his followers from a stage at the Sports Arena.
The Rolling Stones rocked here; so did Pink Floyd, the Who, and of course, the Boss – Bruce Springsteen played at the Sports Arena 25 times over a 12 year span.
The first basketball game ever played at the Sports Arena was on December 1, 1959 when UCLA played USC before a crowd of 6,880. The Bruins won the game 47-45.
From 1959 to 1965 the Bruins played home games at the Sports Arena (they also played home games at the Men's Gym, Venice High School and Civic Auditorium during this period).
The Sports Arena was the site of the 1968 and 1972 NCAA men's basketball Final Four.
In the 1968 Final Four, UCLA played the Houston Cougars in a semifinal game. Earlier in the season, the No. 2 Cougars had upset the No. 1 Bruins at the Astrodome, 71-69. Houston's Elvin Hayes had outplayed UCLA's Lew Alcindor who had played in the game despite suffering blurred vision from a scratched eye.
In this game at the Sports Arena, the Bruins got their revenge. UCLA's Lynn Shackelford shadowed Hayes the entire game limiting him to only 10 points. Meanwhile, Alcindor, Mike Lynn, and Lucius Allen each scored 19 points as the Bruins routed the Cougars, 101-69.
In the anti-climactic championship game, UCLA crushed North Carolina, 78-55, with Alcindor pouring in 34 points.
In the 1972 Final Four, UCLA faced Denny Crum's Louisville team in the semifinal game and defeated them, 96-77. Bruin sophomore center Bill Walton scored 33 points to lead the team.
In the championship finale, sophomore forward Keith Wilkes scored 23 and Walton added 24 to help the Bruins to an 81-76 victory over Florida State for UCLA's eighth NCAA championship banner.
However as time passes, even buildings age. In comparison to modern sport venues, the Sports Arena is vastly outdated and has not aged gracefully.
Important speakers no longer visit the Sports Arena, nor do rockers – not even the Boss, he goes to the Staples Center for his concerts now.
When asked for his opinion of the Sports Arena, former NBA player Charles Barkley responded, "This place? Nothing positive. Ok, I want to say something positive – it's positively a dump!"
The circus still sets up at the Sports Arena when it comes to town, and Disney holds a few ice skating shows there each year. But with the Trojans leaving for their new arena in the fall, the Sports Arena's future is uncertain.
But there is still a rivalry game to be played on Sunday.
The Bruins will face the Trojans one last time, in one last game, at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.
UCLA will try to record win No. 106 for the history books.
(photo credit: usc.edu)


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