In this article I would like to present you very interesting and useful Groovy-based tool, delighting with its simplicity and versatility in tests, and, which is most important, allowing you to write tests in accordance with the concept of behaviour-driven development(BDD).
Prior to introducing easyb it's worth to say a few words about behaviour-driven development itself, which is gaining popularity. On what assumptions does it work ? How does it differ from test-driven development? What Java tools allows you to write tests in keeping with BDD? After reading this article not only will you have expanded your IT-jargon dictionary with a new trendy acronym, but also you'll be able to answer all above questions.
You don't need a lot of test writing experience to notice, that above code is far from perfect. Firstly, it's imprecise. The method's name isn't meaningful at all. If we encountered a bug, in order to find the details about the conditions of applying a discount, we would have to read whole the body of this test method. In that particular example it isn't such a challenge, but for sure most of you not once have encountered much more "extended" tests, which you had to analyse. What's more, writing tests, especially when you start with test-driven development, very often you're asking yourself: "What exactly should I test?". Not rarely do we focus mostly on implementation details of classes, whose behaviour we want to verify, than on actual requirements they should satisfy. Such and similar problems is behaviour-driven development concept trying to fight with.
then we should get expected results.
Unquestionably, this template improves readability of test and makes it easier to be understood. I saw it first time during Szczepan Faber's talk on GeeCON conference. But, it's just a convention and without a discipline within a team can be forgotten really fast. Fortunately, there are libraries supporting behaviour-driven development technique and allowing us to think about tests as of real requirements of the system. One of them is easyb.
Users being JUG members should receive 20% discount while registering.
then he should get 20% discount.
given "participant is a JUG member"
when "he registers for the conference"
then "he should receive 20% discount"
As easyb is a Groovy, so it's possible to use any Java classes, which also means – to test them. The second very important feature of that language are closures, which make our code more concise and let above scenario to be an executable documentation. The final version of our scenario could then look like presented below.
What's more, test in unimplemented form is also executable. In the report generated by easyb it'll be standing as "pending".
with the one offered by easyb it's quite obvious which one is more understandable, and everybody would be convinced about that.
there are also convenient methods for checking collections equality.
It would be a huge injustice and abuse if we didn't mention about such Java libraries like Hamcrest or FEST-Assert, both of which give means of verification similar to natural language.
As mentioned before, tests written with easyb have a form of executable but simplified documentation. Thus, while executing scenarios we can generate reports based on them. Those reports can act as parts of system documentation. We are given two possibilities in here: either we can choose a simple text format or a HTML page. It can contain informations as depicted on pictures 1 and 2, but also detail information about errors that appeared while executing.
Scenarios created with easyb have simple and easy to understand structure. So it's tempting to get to making them those team members who are not necessary working everyday with code. But, in the era of such tools like FitNesse or Concordion it seems that non-technical people rather wouldn't be eager to write requirements in easyb. Nevertheless, recently can be heared rumours about development of application called Easiness, which is supposed to please expectations of such users.
Without such tools like IDEs or continuous integration servers we can't fully use the advantages that reliable tests can offer us. In moment of writing this article there is an IntelliJ IDEA plugin available and, for some time, for Eclipse too. Besides, we can run easyb scenarios with Apache Ant, Maven or from command line.
In this article I've presented very interesting alternative used to writing tests, which is a behaviour-driven development and also easyb. It allows you to concentrate on requirements and write tests in such a way so they could be easy to understand even for people without IT experience. Of course, possibilities of scenario implementation provided by easyb are much wider than described. In this article only most important features and functions have been introduced. I keenly recommend to visit sites linked in the section Sources, but, what's more important, to experiment oneself. Very good use, which emphasize advantages of easyb, are user interface functional tests. Thanks to scenarios the description of interaction between user and application looks very natural. In pair with some convenient library emulating actions of user with web browser, easyb is really an interesting solution, but this is a subject for another article.


Sobre o tour "PORTO CITY TOUR WITH DINNER AND FADO SHOW"
We would highly recommend this tour provided by CoolTours Porto. Luis spelling? was a phenomenal guide. He was friendly, fun and genuine, yet professional and informative. He picked us up directly in front of our accommodation right on time and toured us around the city to places we would never have seen on our own. It felt like having a local friend in Porto who told us stories of the city, provided context and history, and made recommendations for attractions and restaurants, all of which was really a priceless improvement to our holiday. The lunch, provided in the price, included 3 courses, wine and coffee, and was amongst the best meals we had in the city. We did the optional boat tour which was also worthwhile as it offered a different view of the city plus it has a covered area if it is raining. We visited Croft as our Port House which we also enjoyed, and appreciated Luis patience as we perused the shop and sampled the wares. We did everything that was promised when we booked the tour, and Luis even went above-and-beyond to show us some impressive views of the city. Perhaps most importantly, we never felt rushed, yet were always on time, demonstrating the excellent organisation of the tour and guide.


text:
package prefs

import (
	"bytes"
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"os"

	"github.com/manifoldco/go-base64"

	"github.com/manifoldco/torus-cli/data"
	"github.com/manifoldco/torus-cli/errs"
)

const requiredPermissions = 0700

// PublicKey is en ed25519 public key.
type PublicKey struct {
	PublicKey base64.Value `json:"public_key"`
}

// LoadPublicKey reads the publickey file from disk and parses the json
func LoadPublicKey(prefs *Preferences) (*PublicKey, error) {
	filePath := prefs.Core.PublicKeyFile

	var fd io.Reader
	var err error

	if filePath == "" {
		var b []byte
		b, err = data.Asset("data/public_key.json")

		if err == nil {
			fd = bytes.NewReader(b)
		}
	} else {
		fd, err = readPublicKeyFile(filePath)
	}

	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	key, err := parsePublicKeyFile(fd)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	return key, nil
}

func readPublicKeyFile(filePath string) (*os.File, error) {
	fd, err := os.Open(filePath)
	if os.IsNotExist(err) {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("error: could not locate public key file: %s", filePath)
	}
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	return fd, nil
}

func parsePublicKeyFile(fd io.Reader) (*PublicKey, error) {
	key := &PublicKey{}
	dec := json.NewDecoder(fd)

	err := dec.Decode(key)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	return key, nil
}

// ValidatePublicKey checks the publickey path for valid file
func ValidatePublicKey(filePath string) error {
	var text string

	src, err := os.Stat(filePath)
	if err != nil {
		return errs.NewExitError("Publick key file must exist")
	}

	fMode := src.Mode()
	if fMode.Perm() != requiredPermissions {
		text = fmt.Sprintf("File specified has permissions %d, must have permissions %d", fMode.Perm(), requiredPermissions)
		return errs.NewExitError(text)
	}

	fd, err := readPublicKeyFile(filePath)
	if err != nil {
		return errs.NewExitError("Could not read file, permissions ok")
	}

	_, err = parsePublicKeyFile(fd)
	if err != nil {
		return errs.NewExitError("Could not parse JSON")
	}

	return nil
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
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Grammy-winning rock star and actor Meat Loaf dies at 74 January 21, 2022
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Jan 22, 2022 - Sat
Ottawa, United States
15 mph, SW
771.07 mmHg
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_0) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/81.0.4044.138 Safari/537.36
efaecce085d63180d5f4a8eb31eb2824047cf4fe

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Joe Wikert's Digital Content Strategies
Blinkist And The "Read Less, Learn More" Movement
By Joe Wikert
Remember the "info snacking" phrase that was somewhat buzzworthy several years ago? The thinking was that everyone was too focused on reading short bursts of content and soon no one would have the attention span to read an entire book. In fact, info snacking was one of the terms Jeff Bezos mentioned when the Kindle launched; he suggested that the Kindle would encourage more deeply engaging, long-form reading.
And now we have Blinkist. Think of Blinkist as info snacking for books. Blinkist summaries are so short they make Cliffs Notes seem like long and boring tomes.
Let's leave fiction off the table for a moment and talk about books on business strategy, investing, management, marketing, etc. How may of those 300-page books have you finished and immediately realized the author could have conveyed the critical points in about 5 pages?
You can almost see the editor telling the author, "this is great stuff, but we need you to double/triple/quadruple the length." That (sort of) made sense in the brick-and-mortar days when a shelf presence drove discovery but now these books feel like they're artificially inflated.
I've only read a few book summaries on Blinkist but I think they're onto something. Yes, I remember (and once subscribed to) other summary services including getAbstract and Executive Book Summaries. I always found those to be nothing more than glorified tipsheets. If you really wanted to learn the key elements of the book you still had to read the whole thing. Blinkist's summaries are definitely superior to others that I've read before.
10-15 minutes is all it takes to read one of the many well-written Blinkist summaries. Have you always wanted to read The Lean Startup? Why spend hours reading 300+ pages when you can get the gist in about 10 minutes? How about Business Adventures, that classic book Bill Gates recommends every business leader read? You can knock out that summary in less than 15 minutes.
I think we can all agree that every book doesn't lend itself to a good summary format experience. Some authors, even non-fiction authors, are wonderful storytellers. Bill Bryson is a great example. I read his A Short History of Nearly Everything several years ago and found it to be an amazing journey from start to finish. When I saw Blinkist offers a summary of that one I have to admit I cringed. That's a book you should read in its entirety and there are, of course, countless others that should never be read only in summary format. So while there are exceptions to the summaries formula I tend to believe most non-fiction books are excellent candidates for an abbreviated alternative.
The big question I have is why aren't publishers taking control of this model? Why rely on a third-party to write and distribute these summaries? Who is better qualified to do the job than the original author or editor? I could see publishers selling these summaries, standalone or as a subscription, direct on their websites.
We all know why publishers won't do this though. Most publishers view this as cannibalization and replacing a higher-priced sale with a lower-priced one. That's unfortunate but far from surprising. Smarter publishers will consider bundling the summary with the full ebook at a slightly higher price than the ebook alone. Others might find opportunities to actually charge more for the summary figuring it's a time-saver and some readers will be willing to pay a premium for a faster read. Still others will use the summary as an upsell to the full ebook: When consumers buy the summary they also get a special, limited-time discounted offer for the full ebook.
Most will just sit and watch though. It's a textbook example of The Innovator's Dilemma, which, I might add, is also available as a summary on Blinkist.
E-Books and Interactive Publishing
E T Joe Wikert Author's page
Joe Wikert is Publishing President at Our Sunday Visitor (www.osv.com). Before joining OSV Joe was Director of Strategy and Business Development at Olive Software. Prior to Olive Software he was General Manager, Publisher, & Chair of the Tools of Change (TOC) conference at O'Reilly Media, Inc., where he managed each of the editorial groups at O'Reilly as well as the Microsoft Press team and the retail sales organization. Before joining O'Reilly Joe was Vice President and Executive Publisher at John Wiley & Sons, Inc., in their P/T division.
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Capitalizing on Book Publishing Trends in 2019
PR: Human Kinetics to Build Video eLibrary


text:
Home > 5 amazing carnivals in Catalonia, Spain
5 amazing carnivals in Catalonia, Spain
By Jackie de Burca on Jan 28, 2014 in Europe, Events, Leisure Travel, Regions, Spain, Speciality Travel, Travel Miscellany, Western Europe
There's no need to travel to Rio to have a fantastic time at a carnival, you can join in on some serious festivities during carnival time in Catalonia, Spain. In the country where fiestas and carnivals are integral to the culture; Catalonia, which is considered by many to be the gastronomic capital, is also the top destination for carnivals. Outside Catalonia the best known carnivals are Tenerife and Cadiz, but in Catalonia there's a lot of great carnivals concentrated in this one autonomic community. Although it's difficult to narrow down my choice of Catalonia's best carnivals, here are 5 amazing carnivals where you will have a great time, however there are plenty more.
The Catalans have been running carnivals since the 15th Century, with the exception of when they were banned by Franco – so by now they really know what they're doing. Carnival time in Catalonia means an abundance of food and drink, dressing up and wearing masks, taking pleasure in being outrageous, leaving the cares of your everyday life behind and dancing until you drop. Carnival kicks off this year on the 27th February and lasts for a week, or sometimes even longer.
Vilanova i la Geltrú Carnival – Community of Barcelona
How therapeutic is it to toss meringues at your friends, family and other people around you? Believe me, it really is. Vilanova i la Geltrú Carnival is for those who like satire. Carnival gets underway there on Maundy (Fat) Thursday with the eating of a ritual meal of codfish called Xatonada, which is served with a tasty sauce of almonds, garlic and red peppers. After the meal is when the meringue throwing begins. It's a rather odd, but very fun custom!
Friday sees the arrival of the Carnival King (Carnestoltes), who comes through the town leading a masked procession of different cultural groups. Then on Saturday watch out for the Blazing Bird (Moixó Foiguer) who is a kind of human bird that is slathered in honey, covered with feathers, and jumps in and out of a box. The mascarots also appear on Saturday. These are masked celebrants who prowl the streets trying to figure out the identities of their fellow revellers without revealing their own identities.
Sunday is considered the most symbolic and important day, when the traditional parades take place. Men wear a barretina, the traditional Catalan hat, with a sash and a dinner jacket, and the women wear carnations in their hair, a skirt and a Manila shawl. The processions are made up of some 3,000 dancing couples, of all ages, that line up according to the association they belong to, and march to the beat of the Turuta, a military march. The couples throw sweets to the crowds that line the parade route and then it culminates in the town square where the famous sweet wars take place – let the craziness commence.
On Carnival Monday, the Carnival King's Troop performs comical, ironic songs in front of the crowd, and on Tuesday, there is the Viladot parade, the final parade of the mascarots before Ash Wednesday, when a sardine is buried to mark the end of the festivities.
Sitges Carnival – Community of Barcelona
Unique, eccentric and rather loud, the Sitges Carnival is so picturesque and one of the best known in the country. It's the most flamoyant, Brazilian style carnival – and so hot that it makes July and August seem cold!
Like the carnival in Vilanova i la Geltrú, this traditional carnival begins on Fat Thursday with the arrival of the King of the Carnival. The ritual fish meal is eaten and parades follow. Two of the biggest and most popular parades are the Rues de la Dibauxa (Debauchery Parade) and the Extermini (Parade of Extermination) with more than 2,000 participants and more than 50 floats. Each float represents a different theme, and as they move slowly around the streets, a crowd of some 300,000 people gathers to watch them.
After the parades, tourists and villagers migrate to the boardwalk to drink and eat. The music doesn't stop until the wee hours of the morning, when the die-hard party animals go home. As in Vilanova i la Geltrú, the Sitges Carnival ends on Ash Wednesday, with a finale of a sardine being buried. In 2013 one of the events mixed in with the carnival, by the gay community, was a Widows Night on the final night of the carnival, and the concept was that by that stage you've most likely murdered your boyfriend for being naughty.
Palamós Carnival – Community of Girona
In Palamos, one of the highlights, on Saturday afternoon, is the Grandiosa Rua del Carnaval, which is a big street parade. Also on Saturday, if you want to get into the spirit of things, then it's time to dress up for the costume party, which tends to go on until almost dawn. The carnival is attended by hundreds of costumed residents of all ages, who dance in the streets and attend a variety of events and performances. It's been going on for more than 30 years and attracts hundreds of visitors to this picturesque town.
Platja d'Aro Carnival – Community of Girona
The Platja d'Aro Carnival is the most famous of the Costa Brava carnivals. In fact it's popularity has got it onto the official list of carnival cities in the world. In this small town, a huge amount of people gather to sing, dance, dress up and party at this once-a-year free-for-all. The biggest event is the Gran Pasacalle de Carrozas y Comparsas and more than 70 different groups march and create floats, with more than 4,000 artists, musicians and performers participating.
The 12-day festival includes parades, theatre performances and music concerts. There are parades on two consecutive Saturdays here, making the Carnival Platja d' Aro one of the biggest celebrations on the Costa Brava. It regularly attracts almost half a million visitors.
Solsona Carnival – Community of Lleida
This 9 day carnival has been recognised as a Festival of National Tourist Interest, and because of the town's long tradition of giant making and giants, it's only natural that they are the stars of the Solsona Carnival, along with the Carnival King and the donkey. Tall statues (carried on the shoulders of volunteers) dance to the sound of the El Bufi, the Carnival hymn. Since it was revived in 1971, this carnival has delighted the people of this peaceful town and of course, visitors.
Loud music trumpets the beginning of the Carnival on Shrove Tuesday with the entrance of the Carnestolte, the Carnival King, and continues for nine days. There are more than 40 different events scheduled during this time, from a delicious meal of pork to a kid's dress-up competition attended by more than 300 children. There are also contests like Miss Forastera de Fora (Miss Outsider from Abroad), which pokes fun at traditional beauty pageants, and, most surprisingly, the hanging of a fake donkey from the town's bell tower.
Jackie de Burca is Co-owner of Catalonia Valencia.
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anita hendrieka says:
I would love to go to a carnival in Spain…they look so stunning!! I have been to Barceloma and had the moat amazing time. Seeing a carnival there would be fantastic!
Jackie de Burca says:
Thanks for your comment. Yes they are super stunning and heaps of fun, right up your street by the looks of your great trip to Barcelona on your blog. As you'll have noticed in the post, they kick off on the 27th February this year, so I highly recommend you to get yourself on that computer of yours looking for a another cheap flight. You can fly into Reus as well as Barcelona, depending on where you want to end up!
Keep having fun!
Angela Luke says:
I spent a year in Vilanova y la Geltrù some years ago, and recently returned during Carnaval – their set up, organisation and program is a winning formula. The sweet battle is quite unique and, as Sitges is only a few kilometres away, you can see both; the traditional and the flamboyant :)
Very true, a great idea for travellers to get to both Sitges and Vilanova i la Geltru. The same is true for other parts of Spain where I have lived, when it comes to carnivals and fiestas, it's amazing how organised they are.
Joshua Smalling says:
Thanks for great article of yours. After reading the story will do my best to attend carnival in Catalonia)
I am really happy to hear that the article has inspired you to come to a carnival or two in Catalonia. You'll have a great time for sure!
Xavier Pol says:
This is the Vilanova carnival !!!
https://youtube.com/watch?v=1ELU1PVti_Q
And this is "Les comparses" https://youtube.com/watch?v=lvyr9KuaOpg
Buenas dias Xavier,
Gracias por poner los links interesantes.
Ahora estamos siguiendo en Twitter via @CataloniaValenc
Y en Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CataloniaValencia
Que tengais un buenisima dia


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text:
GoGeomatics Meetups
Robert Maher
2013, 2016, adventure, api, atlas, Book, books, CCA, City, comment, contribute, Earth, Ecology, engagement, EURO, Europe, explorer, explorers, Geographer, geographers, Geography, ICT, invest, land, Language, LIS, London, map, maps, media, Memory Maps, nature, network, news, NGO, Nova Scotia, opinions, Paradise, Place, power, president, press, professor, RAC, Richard Holmes, RIS, sar, science, search, Son, sue, The Age of Wonder, University, Wine, world, write, writers, York, youth
Literary Peregrinations: Geographers as Explorers
While I was reading Andrea Wulf's "The Invention of Nature. Alexander von Humboldt's New World". I noted a comment on the back cover by Richard Holmes. Holmes was Professor of Biographical Studies at the University of East Anglia. Through the services of Inter-library loan, I was able to track down a number of biographies by Holmes. Of particular relevance here, was 'The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science'.
Reviews include the following comment by Oliver Sacks.
"He (Holmes) becomes the biographer, not of a single figure, but an entire period, when artist and scientist could share common aims and ambitions and a common language – and together create a 'romantic' humanist science. We are once again on the brink of such an age, when science and art will come together in new and powerful ways.'
The book includes inter-twined mini-biographies of Joseph Banks, William Hershel, Mungo Park and Humphrey Davy and covers the period 1769-1840.
What immediately caught my attention was Chapter 1: Joseph Banks in Paradise. Banks was the official botanist onboard the Endeavour, under the command of James Cook. Banks was twenty-six years old. He later became President, The Royal Society in London.
What interested me, besides the reference to Paradise (in this case Tahiti, and not rural Nova Scotia) was the youthfulness of these early explorers. And, following on from Sack's comment about the relationship between science and the arts. What is the status between science and the arts today ? And where does Geography (aka. the Exploration of the Earth) play a part ?
My next step was the book by Alexandra Harris 'Romantic Moderns. English Writers, Artists and the Imagination from Virginia Woolf to John Piper". 'Romantic Modern investigates one of the richest periods in the arts of the country, and it traces the extraordinary network of personal and cultural encounters from which a modern English renaissance grew'.p.10.
The time frame is 1930's to 1940's. Harris says:
'Above all, this book is about art and place. Its protagonists are always out looking at England, and they invite us to follow in their tracks'. p.14.
'Many of today's literary geographers have contributed to 'Memory Maps' http://www.vam.ac.uk, an evolving project devised by Marina Warner in collaboration with the University of Essex and the Victoria and Albert Museum'. p.293
As Warner says ' there is a political purpose here, in a project which promotes active public engagement with issues of identity, ecology and stewardship'.
It is necessary to search for Marina Warner on the Victoria and Albert Museum site.
My third step comes from Brain Pickings http://www.brainpickings.org, is a remarkable web site maintained and published by Maria Popova . In the current weekly e-newsletter, she references the work of Rebecca Solnit and her new New York atlas. Check it out.
Richard Holmes. 2008. The Age of Wonder. How the Romantic Generation discovered the Beauty and terror of Science. Harper Press.
Alexandra Harris. 2010. Romantic Moderns. English Writers, Artists and the Imagination from Virginia Woolf to John Piper. Thames and Hudson.
Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro 2016.Nonstop Metropolis; A New York City Atlas
Rebecca Solnit. 2010. Infinite City:A San Francisco Atlas
Rebecca Solnit and Rebecca Snedeker. 2013. Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas
Brain Pickings.www.brainpickings.org
Memory Maps. www.vam.ac.uk
Holmes has also written two studies of European Biography.
Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer. 1985
Sidetracks: Explorations of a Romantic Biographer. 2000.
Connect with Robert Maher
Bob Maher obtained his Ph.D in Geography from the University of Western Ontario. He subsequently went to teach at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Department of Geography – Quantitative Methods, Computer Mapping and Biogeography. In 1980, he joined the faculty at the Nova Scotia Land Survey Institute and was instrumental in its transformation into the College of Geographic Sciences (COGS). Between 1988 – 1999, he was a GIS consultant in Indonesia, and worked for ESRI in the United States, and across Canada with universities and government agencies. He returned to COGS in 2000 taking up the position of Senior Research Scientist in the Applied Geomatics Research Group (AGRG). He retired from AGRG in 2011.
View articles by Bob
One comment on "Literary Peregrinations: Geographers as Explorers"
Bob Maher says:
Remarkable ! I just noticed that RCGS announced a new Centre for Geography and Exploration in Ottawa. Very prescient.
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While parents & school are the primary sources of values education and character building, camp offers a great opportunity to reinforce, practice and test these values over the summer.
The STARFISH Program not only supports our camp's Mission of teaching children the skills of making and keeping friends while building self-esteem; it creates a safe environment that makes accomplishing that mission possible.
Our STARFISH Program assists in teaching, promoting, recognizing and rewarding these values and has become standard in the camping industry.
At Southampton Camp & Club, we recognize, celebrate, and reinforce both campers and staff that exhibit, demonstrate and promote our STARFISH Values. On a daily basis, Division Leaders and Leadership Staff make note of campers and staff who have and continue to demonstrate one or more of our values. Recognition is given at the end of each activity period with our SCC 'Shout Outs' and 'High Fives', and reinforces the positive behavior.
Our weekly 'STARFISH Line Up' on Friday mornings is an opportunity for Division Leaders and Leadership Staff to present STARFISH awards to campers and staff. In addition to being recognized before the entire camp, the recipients are presented with a STARFISH certificate detailing why they received the reward, as well as a prized STARFISH carabiner and value charm.


-	An international conference was held with high ranking officials of South Korea, USA and Japan attending.
On May 25, 2016, the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) CHOI held a 2016 IP international conference in the Ritz-Carlton, Seoul, where about 300 important people related to South Korea, US and Japanese Intellectual Properties (IP) including WON Hyeyoung (Chairman of Korea Joint Board of Global IP Huv in Countries), LEE Daekyoung (Chief Judge of Patent Court of Korea), CHOI Donggyou (Commissioner of KIPO), SHITARA Ryuichi (Chief Judge of Japanese IP High Court), Michael KIM (Administrative Patent Judge at USPTO).
On the subject of 'harmonization and cooperation of the patent trial·lawsuit', this conference was prepared to seek a plan of a reasonable system improvement, by sharing Korean, US and Japanese trends and operation cases related to the patent invalidation trial·lawsuit which has been regarded as a procedure problem in Korea.
The point that even new invalidation evidence which is not submitted in a trial stage can be freely submitted in a court stage is indicated as an issue in South Korea unlike the USA and Japan. According to the indication from RYU Donghyun, Chief of Trial Policy Division of KIPO and a speaker in Session 1 of this conference, due to this structural feature, a dispute of 'patent invalidation' is not settled at a trial but continues to a lawsuit, prolonging the dispute. Also, since predictability on a dispute settlement is low, the rate of bringing an appeal suit is high.
Now, the Korean automobile industry acutely needs to strengthen IP competition by securing the cutting-edge technologies and patents and establishing anticipative counterstrategies of patent disputes in the future automobile field.
Under this realization, KIPO had a meeting on May 27, 2016 in the convention room of the KIPO Seoul Office, to strengthen the patent competition in the Korean automobile industry. In the meeting, about 50 experts in complete automobiles and major components companies, academic and research companies and relevant companies attended to start an 'automobile industrial IP council' to prepare a place for communication for private-public IP cooperation.
This meeting consisted of private experts of Hyundai Motor Co., Ltd, major component companies, academic and research areas, related organizations and patent attorneys and the KIPO examiners specializing in automobiles. The subject of this meeting will be gradually expanded to other complement automobile companies and small and medium component companies.
With the start of the council, a seminar was held on ▲ future automobile safety standards and the related standardization strategies and ▲ recent Chinese automobile related lawsuits and IP trends. Further, a direction toward public examination was discussed by using the knowledge of the experts attending the council during the examination process of the relevant patent applications.
-	Work days·working hours are self-directly adjustable like 3.5 work days per week.
KIPO has operated a new flexible work system from May, under which an individual autonomously plans and use a work day(s) and work time out of the traditional working type of an 8 hour work day.
In 2005, as the first central office group, KIPO operated home working (118 people as of the end of April, 2016). Since that, a time commuting system (425 people as of the end of April, 2016) autonomously using commuting time has been positively introduced. KIPO is evaluated as an exemplary organization leading the change of the working system according to the working features.
Through the employee demand survey, an individual-customized working system will be positively operated to all the employees (138) wanting flexible work. This system includes 'time selectively conversion working' (the working time is shortened from the full time work for the reasons of childcare, study, care for the sick, etc.) and 'intensive working and time selective working' (from 40 hours per week to 4~12 hours per day for 3.5 days or more or for 5 days).
The High Dynamic Range (HDR) TV which has recently been released is a next-generation TV which is brighter by 10 times or more and expresses many colors by 50% or more in comparison with the conventional TV, thereby displaying an image to be closer to the world as seen by human' eyes.
Based on Korean patent application trends analyzed by KIPO, an increase rate of the HDR-related patent applications for the last 16 years (2000~2015) was 18.4% per year.
The percentages of the relevant patent applications by applicant main agents are 47% by foreign companies, 33% by Korean big companies, 9%, 8% and 2% by Korean small and medium companies, universities and public research institutes, respectively. By applicants, 73 applications were filed by Samsung Electronics, 65 by Dolby, 22 by LG Electronics, 21 by Thomson, 18 by Sony. So, Korean big companies and foreign companies are considered as leading the Korean patent applications related to HDR.
To watch the HDR image of high-definition on TV, it requires ▲HDR image generating technology of obtaining a HDR image by taking a picture of an image close to nature with a camera, ▲HDR image storing and transmitting technology by storing the obtained HDR image and then efficiently transmitting mass HDR content, and ▲HDR image regenerating technology by processing the image to be expressed in brighter and more natural colors and displaying the image.


text:
Conservation for Whom?
An exhibition of barkcloth art suggests the difficulty of helping the rainforest—without hurting the people who live there
By Jan-Lodewijk Grootaers
Although they cover only a small fraction of the earth's surface, rainforests host more than half of all the world's animals and plants. They have been given many poetic names, including "the jewels of the earth" on account of their value and beauty, "the lungs of the earth" due to their crucial role in oxygen turnover, and "the world's largest pharmacy," because so many natural medicines have been discovered in them. And all of them are disappearing due to deforestation and climate change.
But there is more to this familiar story. On the second floor of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, in gallery 255, an exhibition of barkcloth paintings illuminates an often overlooked aspect of rainforests and their conservation: There are people living in rainforests, and there have been for thousands of years.
"In Dialogue with the Forest: Barkcloth Paintings from Congo" showcases the work of the Mbuti people, commonly known as Pygmies, a term based on stature and considered by some as both colonial and derogatory. About 30,000 to 40,000 Mbuti people live in the Ituri rainforest, roughly the size of West Virginia and located in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo. They are primarily hunter-gatherers. Over the course of a year, families move their camps in the forest to be near the places where they hunt game, or gather such foods as nuts, fruits, berries, mushrooms, snails, termites, larvae, and honey.
Mbuti men prepare barkcloth by pounding the inner bark of several species of trees, producing a subtly textured surface. Women make dyes from a variety of roots, fruits, and leaves, and apply the paint on the barkcloth with twigs or fingers. The Mbuti identify closely with the forest, which they view as sacred. Not surprisingly, seemingly abstract designs in their paintings refer to their forested environment. Graphic elements may be interpreted as insects, birds, animals and animal tracks, as well as trees, leaves, and maybe even light seeping through the branches or sounds produced by animals, plants, and the natural elements.
The Ituri rainforest harbors large populations of forest elephants and is home to one of Africa's most elusive mammals, the okapi. Both the forest elephant and okapi are endangered. Conservation groups, including the World Wildlife Fund, work hard to combat threats to Congo's bio-diversity by pushing for national legislation and establishing protected areas.
While these conservation efforts are necessary and laudable, it is critical to ask, "Conservation, for whom?" As the rainforest provides the Mbuti with the basis for their material, cultural, and spiritual life, its destruction threatens their very existence. Yet the creation of parks and reserves often leads to restricted access for the Mbuti people to their traditional lands and essential resources. On this Earth Day, let's remember the Ituri rainforest's inhabitants while enjoying their artistic genius.
Jan-Lodwijk Grootaers is a curator of African Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and head of the Department of Arts of Africa and the Americas.
Top image: A detail of a barkcloth painting from the exhibition "In Dialogue with the Forest: Barkcloth Paintings from Congo."
From Monet to Matisse, Asian to African, ancient to contemporary, Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is a world-renowned art museum that welcomes everyone.
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