Underground Time is a difficult book to read. I found myself setting it down, time and time again, telling myself I wouldn't pick it back up because there was enough depression in life without needing to read about it in a book too. When I did, inevitably, pick it up, I found myself reciting, "It's just a book, it's just a book, it's not real life, don't let it get to you, their story isn't your own," over and over again. Delphine de Vigan, however, makes her character's stories my own; makes their pain so palpable and sharp that it aches my heart. And, after finishing this book, it is all I can do to not bury myself under the covers and lay there, warm and satisfied, unwilling to face the harsh realities of life. I owe it to this book and these characters, which have become so real to me, to persevere on, at least for a little while more.
What makes de Vigan such a brilliant author is her prose. Even in the first novel I read of hers, No and Me, I was blown away by the subtle beauty of her writing, the manner in which her phrases were thought-provoking and contemplative, all while retaining an ethereal loveliness about them. Thus, when I heard that de Vigan had written just one other adult book that had been translated into English, I rushed to my library to make them order it, just for me. Underground Time, though, is far different than No and Me was. Where her young adult story is a coming of age story full of silver linings despite the fact that it acknowledges that certain aspects of life simply cannot be changed, Underground Time is a story of two depressed adults for whom life has simply pressed down upon, much like the sky pressed down upon Atlas, the Titan.
Underground Time charts the story of Mathilde, a single mother of three children who is the victim of corporate bullying. After gently disagreeing with a minor point her boss made, Mathilde has found herself slowly spiraling away from all she loved about her job. Over the past eight months, her boss finds every reason to criticize her and turn her co-workers against her, all while lying about receiving important documents until, finally, on May 20th, Mathilde is replaced. Thibault, who shares the dual third-person narration in this story, is a doctor who is caught in a relationship of unrequited love. Finally, he finds it within himself to end his relationship for giving love and receiving none in return is every bit as painful as it sounds. Underground Time is a story that takes place over one day, filled with contemplation, longing, and flashbacks, detailing the joint story of Thibault and Mathilde, strangers who don't know each other, but whose lives contain similar threads of depression and loneliness.
Underground Time takes place over the span of just one day, which is why it tends to drag a little after the half-way point, Mathilde and Thibault having the same depressing thoughts, only expressing them in a slightly different manner. Yet, despite this, the novel is surprisingly readable. Mathilde and Thibault both have their own individual voices which only complement each other. Although both our main characters do not know one another, it is evident from their narration that they should know each other for both of them want similar things from life. For me, the story of Mathilde and her heart-wrenching corporate discrimination seemed to be the overarching story arc that the tale of Thibault only enhanced. As a doctor, Thibault travels the city of Paris, meeting dozens of people with their own problems and depressions.
In many ways, Underground Time is equally a story of the city as it is of Mathilde and Thibault. It seems as if everyone in the city, despite being so occupied with their own lives, are eventually going to reach that point of exhaustion in their life, in some way or the other. With Thibault, we can see so clearly the multi-faceted side to this city, one teeming with life and death in equal parts. Furthermore, an advantage of having the narration of Thibault told side-by-side with that of Mathilde is that we can see so clearly the cruel game that fate plays with them both.
As with any dual narration, one always expects the characters to meet and while that standard is no different with this novel, it is a patient process. It seems as if, many times, Thibault and Mathilde are just about to meet one another, purely by coincidence, when, at the last instant, they just miss one another. Underground Time, unlike what I expected when I cracked open the spine of this novel, is not a romance. Instead, it is a story of two people who are forced to make tough decisions in their life, whether it is ending a relationship that isn't working out or coming to the end of an unhappy time in an office building. Yet, what I love about this is that these actions are neither good nor bad decisions. Instead, they are inevitable. At times, life backs us into a corner where we have no choice but one left before us. Furthermore, this is a story not of the hope of a new and better life, but rather of the forlorn and hopeless period in-between; before one feels that life can better, they must first feel as if it cannot.
All in all, Underground Time is a novel that I know many of my friends will enjoy but it is, in equal parts, a novel I know many of my friends will despise. It is achingly real, to the point where one is compelled only to read stories of happiness afterwards, but it's worth it. Delphine de Vigan has, yet again, managed to write a novel that is unique, thought-provoking, and shockingly realistic. While I do believe the ending is conclusive enough, I know many readers who have felt otherwise for, truly, it is open and ambiguous like few things in this world are. Yet, I found it was the perfect ending, both for this novel and its characters. It was fitting, in a way only life, which continues to go on despite everything it throws at is, manages to be.
A Face Like Glass tells the tale of Caverna, an underground city, much like Alice's Wonderland. In Caverna, babies are born with the inability to show their emotions on their face and, as such, are taught how to mold their faces into expressions by wearing masks. If that wasn't strange enough, Caverna is a land of magic - although it is never seen as magical - for the wines can erase your memories, cheeses can help you see the future, and perfumes can command your thoughts. Into this world is thrown Neverfell, a girl whose every thought is shown visibly on her face. As such, she is a threat to those in Caverna who fear the honesty of her gaze but also seek to exploit her innocence. Neverfell is first apprenticed to Master Grandible, a renowned cheese-maker who hides away in tunnels to escape the ruthless politics of the Court. When Neverfell chases a white rabbit, with the original intent of bringing it back to her master, she stumbles into the world of Cavera and from there, her journey is every bit as crazy as can be imagined.
I hardly know where to start when it comes to Hardinge's spectacular novel. For one, let me assure you that it blew me away and, despite being a Middle Grade Fantasy novel, I found that it was every bit as thought-provoking and intelligent as YA and Adult reads, if not better because of its subtleties, cleverness, and surprising plot twists. Caverna is a city with secrets, a cavernous tunnel that changes ever-so-slowly and calmly watches over the people in her kingdom, all of whom are pawns in a giant game of politics. Whether it be the powerful families who make the delicacies of Caverna and battle amongst each other in a quest for power or the Grand Steward, the ruler himself who has transformed himself in such a way that one eye is always open, always watching for betrayal, Caverna is a land where no one is safe.
Into this world is thrown Neverfell, a naive and innocent child after having been sheltered by Master Grandible, away from the deceitful society of Caverna, all her life. At first, the people of Caverna are unsure whether to be terrified of the raw honesty in Neverfell's face or simply use her to exploit their own malicious intent. As such, as she passed around in this game of Court from powerful families to powerful leaders to powerful enemies. Although Neverfell is initially very trusting of everyone, including strangers she meets, her resolve, good will, and resilient nature make her an engaging heroine, not an irritating one. Furthermore, as the novel wears on, her growth is gradual, both as a person and as a player in the game she has been unwillingly thrown into.
While Neverfell remains the most fleshed-out of all the characters in this novel, nearly every character in this tale becomes well-developed with the progression of this tale and, best of all, the villains aren't all black-and-white, but rather multiple entities of grey. In fact, seeing this world through the eyes of Neverfell, it is difficult to be sure, at times, if friends are truly enemies and enemies are truly friends. In the midst of this political intrigue, Neverfell slowly comes to realize who she is. It is evident that she is not a citizen of Caverna but rather of the outside world where, rumor has it, the sun burns off your skin. As Neverfell has no memory of her childhood, of how she came to be in Caverna, this intriguing tale of political mystery is in equal parts a gentle story of growing up, of becoming the person you can be when circumstance forces you into dark corners. It seems like a very dark tale at times, but rest assured that Hardinge always keeps the silver lining just within reach.
Now, how else can I possibly express my love for this story? It does lag a bit in the middle as the climax of the story approaches, but either than that small flaw, it is very nearly perfect in every way. Once immersed into the world Hardinge has created, you won't want to come out and, when you do, you'll most likely realize that you've gone just a little mad while in Caverna yourself. A Face Like Glass is such a multi-faceted tale, forcing you, as the reader, to not only join in on a world full of lies, but also to question the lies in our own every-day lives. Even more than that, though, it is a tale of revolution and of flying free from control and power, whether it be in terms of social class or just escaping from the tight web of lies that this underground city runs on. Either way, you can read A Face Like Glass with one surefire thought - you will emerge from it changed, reflective, and itching for more of Hardinge's writing, even if it means walking into the children's section of your library.
Reviewer's Note: It should be known that I am absolutely terrible at writing reviews for books I love. I hardly know if what I've written here makes sense, so allow me to direct you to the review of one who constantly humbles me with her prose. Catie, at the Readventurer, convinced me to pick this up with her review and, without a doubt, she will convince the rest of you as well. I cannot recommend her review enough.
I suppose, in many ways, I didn't give The Cadet of Tildor much of a chance. I painstakingly read through the first quarter of this book before giving into my desire to skim the pages until I was nearly half-way through the novel and began to realize I was well and truly wasting my time. The Cadet of Tildor is not a bad novel, but it just wasn't one for me. As a high fantasy junkie who has grown up reading Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Tamora Pierce, Kristin Cashore, and Megan Whalen Turner, Alex Lidell falls seriously short of other fantasy writers of this age.
The Cadet of Tildor starts out strongly enough, introducing us to a fierce and strong-willed protagonist, Renee. While I instantly admired her for standing up to her father and willing to follow her dreams of completing her training as a Cadet, despite the fact that she was up against stronger men, I was unable to feel much of a connection with her as the novel wore on. From the onset, her friends were flat and two-dimensional and the revered trainer seemed to lack personality as well. Or, perhaps, they didn't lack personality and it was just the fact that they were so like every other fantasy character out there that I was unimpressed. The Cadet of Tildor is excruciatingly unoriginal and, upon skipping to the end, I can already inform you that its last line is the exact same last line from Turner's King of Attolia, only without a complex situation and three novels to back it up.
In addition to my lack of feeling for the characters, I simply felt very underwhelmed. Nothing much happens during the beginning and neither are the characters or world set up in a manner I found to be interesting. In fact, I virtually have no grasp of this world or its politics whatsoever. Ultimately, Lidell's debut is a disappointment for me simply because I go into fantasy expecting more from it and this one just didn't live up. Unlike the contemporary genre, which often lets me down and I've come to accept as a hit-or-miss genre for me, fantasy usually never fails to amaze me, but the recent revival of YA Fantasy certainly has.
For newcomers into fantasy or those of you who are unfamiliar with the works of Megan Whalen Turner or Tamora Pierce, The Cadet of Tildor is likely to take your breath away. It is extremely well-written and the words flow smoothly from the page, proving that Lidell can, indeed, write. Yet, when compared to other fantasy works, it falls short of a masterpiece by far. Of course, the novel may drastically improve, but as I already feel nothing for the characters, I sincerely doubt I'll enjoy this one too much more.
Legend is one of those books that simply demands to be read, not so much because of its original premises, intriguing characters, or fast-paced plot, but rather because everyone seems to have such a varied opinion about it. I always make it a point to read the reviews of my most trusted reviewers - those whose opinions are similar to my own - but when it came to this book, the ratings ranged from amazement, to indifference, to like, to hate. Thus, I knew I had to read this and give it a shot for myself to see what the hype really is all about. Well, if you're anything like me and if you've read your fair share of dystopians, I can tell you now thatLegend offers nothing new to this over-wrought genre and, frankly speaking, you aren't missing much if you skip it. If, however, you're nothing like me (or you're just wondering why I couldn't finish one of your favorite books), you might as well stick around. I doubt it'll be a long haul anyway.
See, the thing about Legend is that it is exactly like every other post-apocalyptic novel out there. We have our utopian-like society, we have two vastly different characters, we have the slow uncovering of betrayal, that all is not as perfect as it seems. Very, very typical. Now, it isn't that I have an aversion to typical plots - because everyone knows I read more than just a few dystopian series - but the qualities that I needed to make this novel interesting, engaging, and something worth reading were simply lacking. Well, that and I suspect I'm growing tired of this genre...is there really anything new left to explore?
In addition to the utter lack of characterization, the world-building in this novel was nothing new and I was unable to form much of a connection with the characters. Day, to some extent, is an easier person to get to know, merely because he has feeling. June, however, is distant from everyone but her older brother, who, once dead, makes her just plain unfeeling. So, really, can you blame me for not wanting to continue this? Unoriginal plot lines, characters that lacked distinct personalities, and an attachment that failed to occur. By the time I passed the half-way point of this story, I was done. I can't even say that Marie Lu is a good writer because, really, her writing was nothing special either.Legend is a tiny bit better than Article 5, but not a whole lot much. In fact, Enclave, another DNF for me, is far better, so maybe check that out instead? Or, you know, just give this a shot, because even if it's not for you, it's a quick read and you won't feel as if you wasted your time. At least, not too much.
Looking back, I think I can acknowledge that The Mad Scientist's Daughter is more of a tragic love story than anything else. Although it's been marketed as sci-fi, focusing on robots and a dystopian future that seems eerily similar to something our own children may experience, at the core, it is all romance and not much else. Let me clarify - all dramatic and angst-riddenromance. Unfortunately, I didn't even feel much for this main romance since I was too preoccupied coming up with ways to murder the main character, Cat. I feel like an anomaly, simply because everyone seems to have at least liked this story, if not loved it, but I was literally crying tears of happiness as I neared the end. I suppose, though, that at the end of the day, some books aren't for everyone and this one just wasn't for me.
I will say, however, that Clarke has some of the worst synopsis writers ever. Seriously, the synopsis for The Assassin's Curse gave away the entire plot and the synopsis for this one gives away too little. Ultimately, however, the novel is about, as its title suggests, Cat, the daughter of famed scientist Daniel Novak. When Dr. Novak brings Finn, a robot who looks and seems human in every way, to their home when Cat is only five, her entire life is changed. At first, their relationship is one of tender friendship. Cat is tutored by Finn, but as she grows, so do her feelings for him. Nevertheless, the fact remains that Finn isn't human, he's only a robot, so he can't possibly feel anything for her too...can he?
I found the premises of this novel to be fascinating and was quickly drawn into the story of Cat as her life unfolds, from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. Yet, as I finished the first part of this novel, for it is split into three parts, I couldn't help but lose my former enthusiasm for the story. For one, the novel justdrags. It covers nearly half of the total lifespan that Cat lives and as such, it is a long book, one with lots of extraneous details and under-developed secondary characters that it is impossible to feel much for because of their fleeting presence, giving way to more than a little skipping.
More important, however, Cat is an unlikable character like no other; unlikable to the point where she's quite literally a badperson, not someone who is good and has their flaws. As Cat grows and continues to deny her feelings for Finn, treating him as a robot while seeing him as a man, she uses him in more ways than one; uses him as an object, never bothering to care for his feelings and exploiting him for her own gain, despite her care for him. Later, in an effort to escape her attachment to him, she uses other men in her life, for instance her rich husband whose love she never returns. It's all just one disaster after another; death followed by a loveless marriage followed by more sorrow.
If all that desolation wasn't enough to turn me away, I never felt as if Cat was truly redeemed by the end - I still hated her with a passion. Now, books, as John Green would say, are not in the business of creating likable characters, which I totally understand, but I do believe that they are in the business of creating bonds with a reader and that was sadly missing. Of all the characters in this tale, the only one I came to feel for was Finn; sweet, kind Finn who seemed to be utterly manipulated by everyone in his life, from Cat's kind father to Cat, who loved him, herself. Furthermore, more than a lack of emotion or feeling when it came to this book, there were so many aspects of Cat's life that we found out about, but that played no larger role overall; I guess that the plot outline was generally very sloppy for this, introducing elements that were completely unnecessary and leaving me detached even from the story itself.
Yet, even more than the characters and my dislike of the romance, this book sorely disappointed me with all its wasted potential. At times, the novel would veer towards political debates on the humanity of these robots, whether or not they should have been granted rights, etc., but none of this was further explored. Furthermore, Cat never undergoes any doubt or lingering qualms before entering into a relationship - or whatever you want to call it - with Finn. Of course, she realizes that it isn't normal or evenright to be in love with a computer, but she doesn't seem to care or worry. In fact, the only character who ever calls out Cat on her relationship with Finn is her mother, who is conveniently killed off in the first third of the novel.
While The Mad Scientist's Daughter was not a book for me, I'm sure it will move many other readers. I'm not one for angsty romances that remind me of the majority of adult romances that I so painstakingly avoid and especially not with hints of politics and sci-fi thrown in thrown in for the sake of it; I'm especially not one to condone heroines who use men in a twisted love triangle fashion, giving the type of love that is seen as practically obsessive for they are a mere shell of themselves without their loved one. I cannot deny that Clarke is a phenomenal writer and her versatility has definitely shown through in her quick - and successful - venture into adult novels. Still, I think I'll just stick with her YA books - God knows I can't wait for The Pirate's Wish to release!
Thank you to NetGalley and Angry Robot/Strange Chemistry for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Stolen isn't a romance and for 90% of the novel, Gemma is constantly trying to run away from Ty, to escape her predicament. Yet, somewhere, she realizes that some of what Ty says is true; society is terrible and cruel and parents really don'tunderstand their children and sometimes even friends don't and terrible things do happen. But, that gene that tells you in your brain that you have to accept the bad things and move on, that you can't save everyone, that maybe even you can't save yourself...it wasn't in Ty. Yes, Ty steals Gemma, but he steals her because he thinks he's doing the right thing. Unknowingly, Gemma saves him as a child and he wants to return the favor. It's so mind-boggling because Ty isn't a bad person; he's nice to Gemma, he never harms her or takes advantage of her in any way, he clothes her and feeds her and shows her the beauty of the desert; but he's wrong in his own right, too.
If the breathtaking cover of Hold Still hasn't already captured your attention, the beautiful writing inside certainly will. LaCour's debut is an ambitious piece, taking on grief, confusion, and the swirling unknown of despair that leads to teenage suicide. While I can't say that this is an easy read, because the sadness in it is practically overwhelming, it is a very well-written and powerful novel, one that every lover of moving prose, three-dimensional characters, and realistic approaches should invest their time in.
When our novel begins, Ingrid, Caitlin's best friend, has just committed suicide. Needless to say, the entirety of this novel is Caitlin's journey as she learns to move on and continue living, despite the gaping hole in her heart. Now, I've read my fair share of grief novels and, from my experience, they usually involve road trips, hot guys, or just escaping. As much as I enjoy and simply love those books, Hold Still is a far more real experience because, admit it, as a teen, what are the chances of you taking off in a truck across the country with a ridiculously hot guy, too? Zero. Thus, I found Caitlin's journey, although far more depressing than I originally anticipated, being a much more realistic portrayal of teen grief.
In my eyes, the strength of this novel lies in Caitlin. LaCour gives Caitlin many tools; she allows her to find Ingrid's journal, full of her deepest thoughts; she allows her to make a new friend in school, one who has also experienced loss; she gives her understanding parents who only want to see their daughter emerge from her numb stasis; and she even gives her a concerned classmate, one who wants the best for her. Yet, despite all these people willing to help Caitlin and the objects of Ingrid's that she finds to help her understand her friend, they all somehow play a very minimal role in the novel. Instead, this book is all Caitlin, all her interpretations of Ingrid's short journal entries, all her confused feelings and bad moods, all her slowly coping with this unexplainable grief.
Caitlin isn't an easy character to like. For one, she's closed off from others, her narration is deeply saddening, and she pushes away others. Yet, her growth throughout the novel is gradual and evident, which I loved. Perhaps best of all, for the reader at least, is that the grief that Caitlin feels, the same grief that seems to be pressing down upon us as we flip the pages, choking our words and enveloping us in darkness, recedes. LaCour is such a brilliant author that, truly, I was so very numb while reading the first half of this, but, like Caitlin herself, I slowly began to thaw. Even more than her prose, LaCour's depiction of teens, the conversations Caitlin carries with her parents and her photography teacher, her blooming romance with the school's most popular guy…it's all so very believable.
Ultimately, I cannot recommend this novel enough. I am still blown away by the depth of some of the relationships in this story, the truly individual arc of growth, and just Caitlin herself. I feel like I've crawled into her skin since I know her so well, her passion for photography and to make a tree house, her parents, her friends, her worries, her aspirations, her heart… Hold Still is a contemporary that just cannot be missed. It is deep, lovely, and moving in all the right ways and will undoubtedly change your expectations about teenage contemporary novels for sure.
Nearly a decade ago, someone once told me that books are like memories; within their pages, they store your emotions and thoughts, a document of sorts of your experience. I still don't know how true that statement is, but I dearly hope it is – at least when it comes to Just One Day. Nothing better than this book itself can summon up the whirlwind of emotion I felt when I read it. Although I cracked open its spine with trepidation – there are, after all, a plethora of mixed reviews out there – my feelings quickly changed from that of anxiety to excitement as I was swept up alongside Allyson on her breathtaking journey. At one point, I wasn't sure if I was laughing or crying for I was so full of giddy happiness and bittersweet longing - those are the types of feelings a Gayle Forman novel inspires in you. I finished Just One Day with a smile on my face, my heart swelling with pride for Allyson, who felt as close to me as my own best friend, and although the pang I feel when I think of this novel is only an echo of what I feel for Forman's If I Stay and Where She Went duo, I still love it, albeit in an entirely different way.
Just One Day is a novel that will very easily either captivate or disappoint readers. It's a New Adult novel that almost demands that you be a teenager to truly understand it, for Allyson's journey is such a personal and nostalgic experience, one that everyone can definitely relate to. One of the best ways I can find to summarize it is a realistic rendition of Kristen Hubbard's Wanderlove. Although Wanderlove is one of my favorite books of all time, I can't deny that the chances of traveling to a new country and finding a hitchhiker to explore with are rather low. Thus, Allyson's summer experience in Europe, a disappointing one full of touristy stops and not enough life is easier to relate to. When Willem, an enigmatic Dutch actor who Allyson sees performing Shakespeare in London, offers to take her around Paris – for just one day – she agrees, despite her goody-two-shoes attitude.
What follows is a day of whirlwind journey; it isn't perfect, but it's real and it's far more rewarding than any other trip on Allyson's summer vacation. Perhaps best of all, to Allyson at least, is that she is no longer Allyson, the girl who listens to her parents, studies hard, and never lives life the way so many other teens do; now, she's "Lulu", a nickname Willem gives her, and as "Lulu," Allyson is finally free to let loose the person she truly is inside. Nevertheless, her exhilarating journey is abruptly halted when, the next morning, Willem is gone. Now, Allyson is distraught, both at thinking that Willem may have just used her and at contemplating her life in college as a pre-med student – a path that her mother, not her, wants to follow. As Allyson will learn, however, her day in Paris wasn't about Willem at all – it was about her and finding out that she was more than she – or anyone else – ever quite imagined.
Just One Day, as I'm sure countless reviews have stated, is a journey of self-discovery. Although I will admit that it isn't wholly original, it is certainly memorable. Allyson has a certain vulnerability about her that makes her impossible not to love. In Paris, she may have been pretending to be "Lulu", but that was who she really was and she struggles to find a way to be that person again, all while continuing to please her parents and hold onto her childhood best friend, Melanie, who constantly reinvents herself. One of my favorite aspects of this tale was the subtle heartbreak that came not only with seeing Allyson and Melanie grow apart, but also Allyson and her parents. In their place, however, Allyson makes new friends, never replacing those from her past, but simply realizing that growing up also means leaving room for new people to join her life, such as Dee, the African American boy she meets in her "Shakespeare Out Loud" class; the person who shows her that although she has many personas – "Lulu", pre-med student Allyson, reliable Allyson – who she really is is a mixture of all the roles she plays, and still so much more.
In my eyes, what makes Just One Day such a hit-or-miss novel is the mere fact that Allyson is a character trying to find her place in the world. After her trip to Paris, she comes to the stark realization that no one really sees her – not her parents, not her best friends, no one – except for Willem. Willem, who took a bargain in spending a day with her, unknowingly changed her entire life, not just because of who he was, but in what he brought out inside her. What I loved about this story was that Allyson found herself again - finds herself again – and this time, without Willem. It is this journey, this third journey almost; the first being her wake-up call, the second being her slow emergence from the typical life she leads that isn't really hers, to this now final journey of finding who she is all through her own experience, her own friends, her own interests, and her own initiatives. It's beautiful.
Nevertheless, I will admit that Just One Day is not a perfect story. For one, some secondary characters, such as Allyson's father, are astonishingly underdeveloped, lacking personality when surrounded by such well-fleshed out characters. Furthermore, this novel failed to impact me on an emotional level equal to that of If I Stay or Where She Went. I can't really pinpoint what it is that made this novel fall for me, but a certain aura or fully nuanced aspect of Allyson, perhaps, was missing. Unlike other readers, however, I was never bothered by the mysterious figure that Willem remained throughout the novel. If anything, I loved the way he was portrayed in this book – a traveler, a lonely young man, a player…or someone who we've all just judged too quickly, because, perhaps, there's more to him and his story than what we see before our eyes. Yet, what I liked best was that he didn't reappear in this story – once he left, he was gone and then it was all Allyson and the manner in which she came to terms with who he was and what he did for her, changing her life, was remarkable.
Just One Day is a novel that just must be read. It is beautifully written and to see Forman take on something different – the idea of living truly and happily instead of the idea of choosing between life and death – was refreshing. Of course, there are many authors who have written self-discovery novels in the past, and I have liked some of them more than this one, but Forman's tales just never leave my head. I was thinking about this the whole day, ever since I finished it last night (at 11:54, which means I actually read Just One Day in exactly a day!), and I am still convinced that I have not extracted the full depth and meaning that this story has to offer. It's a universal tale, one that will transport you to other countries, make you feel emotions you thought you could never feel, and ultimately, just as it changed Allyson, it will change a small particle of you too.
Plain Kate is, quite honestly, just not the book for me. I know a countless number of my friends and most trusted reviewers have absolutely adored this tale, but despite being an ardent fantasy lover, I somehow could not get into it. Bow's debut follows the tale of Plain Kate, a tale of woe for every time something bad happens to her, something worse is waiting just around the corner. Kate is orphaned at a young age and after her father's age, she struggles to survive in their town where everyone believes she is a witch. When Linay, an evil albino wizard, comes to town, he offers her a wish and whatever provisions she may want in exchange for her shadow. Kate, not knowing the seriousness of this bargain, agrees, only to have her life take a turn for the worse - yet again.
While many readers found this story to be vastly intriguing, I thought it was rather boring. In fact, the first hundred or so pages can probably be skimmed entirely since nothing much happens. Furthermore, the writing that so captivated others rendered me unable to connect with any of the characters. It made me feel aloof and distant from the story itself and while beautiful to be sure, I didn't enjoy it and felt it didn't work well with the novel. Perhaps my biggest qualm, however, is Kate herself. Throughout the novel, Kate only becomes tougher and stronger, but her experiences never truly change her or make her orient herself and her life in different directions. In addition, as I mentioned before, I was unable to connect with her and feel much but sympathy for her life.
Overall, Plain Kate isn't a novel I can recommend, but it is one I advise any fantasy reader to give a chance. I am in the minority when it comes to this piece and can only hope that other readers love it unlike I have. Nevertheless, I will admit that if Erin Bow decides to write a young adult fantasy novel next, one that is a little more sophisticated and with older characters, I'll be itching to get my hands on it for sure. Bow is an author whose works I am bound to love - I can just feel it.


text:
Fitchburg State gets first W
By Nick Mallard | nmallard@sentinelandenterprise.com | Sentinel & Enterprise
PUBLISHED: September 28, 2011 at 12:00 am | UPDATED: July 12, 2019 at 12:00 am
FITCHBURG — Looking for its first win of the season, the Fitchburg State University men's soccer team hoped to avoid a slow start during Tuesday's tilt against Becker College.
The Falcons did just that, but still had plenty of work to do, fighting off a pair of Becker rallies en route to a 4-3 victory at Elliot Field on Youth Soccer Night.
Senior Lionso Ventura netted a pair of goals for FSU, including the game-winner with 10 minutes remaining.
"It feels good to get a win," Ventura said. "It's been a tough start to the season and we finally got a win. I haven't felt this good in a while."
Ventura corralled a through ball from Kevin Mascary just eight yards from the Becker net and fired a low shot past keeper Tim McDonald for the go-ahead goal with 10:31 on the clock.
"I didn't think that ball was getting through. There were a lot of people out front, but I looked down and I had trapped the ball," the Oakmont Regional grad said. "I took a turn and just shot."
The Falcons (1-8, 0-2 MASCAC) managed to fight off a series of surges by the Hawks in the final five minutes to secure the win.
But the FSU defense wasn't nearly as stout all game, twice allowing the Hawks (1-6-2, 0-0 NECC) to come back from deficits to tie the game. The guests came back from 2-0 down and later a 3-2 hole.
"I think that was inexperience on our part," FSU head coach Werner Thissen said. "We're not used to playing with a lead and we made a few mistakes. But we came out with a win and we'll work on making less mistakes in the future."
Mascary and Ventura each scored goals in the opening 2:30 of the contest and things looked to be heading in the right direction for the hosts.
But the Hawks responded three minutes later, cutting the lead in half courtesy of a beautiful volley off the foot of Aldo Karkanjozi. And in the 15th minute, Timothy Howard's strike beat FSU keeper Aidan Hanratty (six saves).
FSU had a golden opportunity to regain the lead in the first half after being awarded a penalty kick on a McDonald foul in the box. Mascary stepped to the spot, but was denied by the keeper on his attempt. A Kenneth Kelly shot, which resulted in a Mascary second chance and goal was called back after review as the sideline official had raised his flag for an offsides call.
"We had some chances to get more goals and didn't put them in," Thissen said.
But FSU reclaimed the lead shortly after halftime as Chris Kleindl scored his first collegiate goal. Masrcary's long pass at the 50-minute mark found the sophomore, who cleanly beat McDonald to put the Falcons up 3-2.
Twenty minutes later, the Hawks tied the game on a Howard penalty kick, setting up Ventura's heroics in the final minutes.
The game had a chippy atmosphere throughout, with six yellow cards issued.
Nick Mallard
Nick Mallard has been with the Sentinel & Enterprise since 2008, contributing sports, news and lifestyle content. He began his career in journalism after graduating from Murdock High School in 1999, joining the staff of the Winchendon Courier in 2000.
Follow Nick Mallard	@n_mallard

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Should We Practice Yoga Asana Through Pain and Injury?
Some teachers and yogis follow what they're taught: to continue their yoga asana practice even when there's pain and injury. What's YOUR take on it?
Do you sometimes feel that you expect too much? Katherine Smith gives her tips on how to drop attachment and embrace expectations.
The weather's hot, but you're trying to stay cool. Try these Pranayama breathing techniques to keep yourself cool from the inside out!
We are distracted thousands of times a day and technology has made it harder for us to focus. Here are just a few ways meditation lessens distraction.


Lara Trump, wife of President Trump's son Eric, discussed her brother-in-law Jared Kushner's remarks on Monday.
Trump said that Kushner "never sought the limelight" despite having a large role behind-the-scenes in the president's campaign.
"He wanted to clarify... to be as transparent as possible," Trump said.
Trump said everything Kushner has done in regards to the federal investigation have been on-the-level, comparing him to Hillary Clinton's actions during her email scandal.
"Nobody used BleachBit... Nobody destroyed cell phones with hammers," she said.
Clinton, previously under investigation for mishandling of classified information, reportedly used an intensive email server cleaner called BleachBit to erase messages.
"It does feel like the world is against us right now, but we're standing strong," she said of Robert Mueller's special investigation into the president.
Regarding former Press Secretary Sean Spicer's departure, Trump said the former RNC spokesman is "incredible" but that the president thought someone else could handle his messaging better.


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A Diamond Anniversary
November 2, 2021 | Bethany Baratta
Long before the Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) moved its center of operations to Ankeny, ISA District 8 Director Warren Bachman farmed the piece of ground that was transformed into the state's soy headquarters.
That was 60 harvests and several pieces of machinery ago.
Bachman got his start farming through FFA.
"As a freshman in high school, I planted and harvested my first crop, "he says.
Bachman was raised on an acreage near Ankeny. His father was a rural mail carrier, and his mother worked at a local Farm Service Agency office.
He valued helping his FFA chapter grow and harvest crops, eventually doing custom work and farming 50 acres when he graduated from Ankeny High School.
He knew then he wanted to make farming his life's work.
"If it weren't for my FFA advisor— Mr. Jim Meyer — I wouldn't be farming," he says.
He and his former advisor, who farms near Odebolt, still connect, sharing farming stories and information about Roof Maxx, a soy-based product Meyer's homeowner association board now uses to extend the life of its roofs.
Sitting around the family's kitchen table at their home in Osceola, Bachman reflected on the differences in farming today versus 60 years ago.
In 1961, the average Iowa soybean field averaged 28.5 bushels per acre. Prices averaged $2.28 per bushel. In 2020, Iowa soybean farmers harvested an average 54 bushels per acre. Prices averaged $11 per bushel.
However, the costs of inputs to grow the higher-yielding crops have also increased.
Diversification matters
Diversification of income streams, Bachman says, has enabled he and his wife Linda to continue farming for several decades.
Bachman's owned tandem trucks since 1969, allowing him to haul the soybeans and corn off the farm and to the elevator or off-site storage in hopes of fetching better prices.
In 1980, he started hauling seed corn, milo and bromegrass to and from Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota, Colorado and Texas.
For three months out of the year, Bachman was hired to cut wheat from the Oklahoma/Texas line all the way up to the North Dakota/Canada border. Linda was an elementary and high school music and journalism teacher and joined Warren for several wheat harvests.
Bachman did this for 27 years and estimates he's owned more than 50 combines in doing so.
"You might spend 200 hours on a combine in Iowa, but during wheat harvest it was more like 1,000 hours per season," Bachman says. "Time was of the essence, and you were 700 miles from home, so it was critical to have larger, reliable combines to get the job done."
His fleet of combines used for harvesting soybeans and corn on his farm hasn't been as extensive, he says. However, he is a collector of antique tractors and owns more than 90 of them.
Harvesting equipment has also changed in the past six decades, he notes. The first combine he used in high school was a John Deere, 2-row PTO pull type. He harvested corn with a Minneapolis-Moline one row corn picker. The first self-propelled combine he bought was a 1969 Massey 410 with a 4-row corn head. The most recent purchase: a Case IH with a luxury cab. This year, he harvested with a 6-row corn head and 25-foot bean head.
Farming practices have also changed, better reflecting Bachman's care of the soil and water quality. He utilizes no-till, cover crops, contour farming, terraces and waterways to promote soil health and water quality.
"Our ground is pretty hilly here. So in 1984, we started putting terraces in, and we've built some almost every year since," Bachman says. "With cover crops, we're building soil health and organic matter."
The connection to the farm that became the site of ISA came full circle six years ago when Bachman was elected as a district director of the farmer-led, farmer-focused organization.
The experience has grown his understanding of how his checkoff dollars are spent and the many ways ISA is involved in programs that expand the marketing opportunities for the soybeans he raises on his farm near Osceola.
Being involved in the Soy Transportation Coalition, for example, brings awareness and understanding of the importance of infrastructure in marketing soybeans globally.
The use of soybean oil in biodiesel and renewable diesel expands opportunities in selling soybean oil, once a glut on the market.
"I can remember the noon farm report saying that nobody was taking soybean oil because there wasn't a use for it," Bachman says. "Now, that market has changed about 180 degrees."
Soybean oil makes up nearly 90% of the feedstocks used to produce biodiesel; biodiesel demand accounts for 13% of the net market value of soybeans, or $1.69 per bushel, when cash prices hit $13.
Grateful heart
Bachman has taken steps toward retirement, giving up the wheat harvest and seed hauling business to focus on his farm. He isn't sure how many harvests are in his future, but he's grateful for the 60 he's been blessed with.
"I'm thankful that we've been able to grow, that I've never had to go to work," Bachman says. "It's work farming, but it's what I wanted to do, so in a sense, I've never had to go to work.
"Farming is the only thing I ever really wanted to do, and I was lucky enough to get to do it."
Wiebbecke Selected as Senior Director of Research for ISA Research Center for Farming Innovation
January 26, 2023 | Press Releases
Leading the charge on conservation in Iowa
January 25, 2023 | Video Stories


Quantity conception is among the oldest and such a lot attractive parts of arithmetic. Computation has continuously performed a job in quantity conception, a job which has elevated dramatically within the final 20 or 30 years, either as a result introduction of contemporary pcs, and thanks to the invention of unusual and robust algorithms. therefore, algorithmic quantity concept has progressively emerged as a massive and precise box with connections to computing device technological know-how and cryptography in addition to different components of arithmetic. this article offers a complete advent to algorithmic quantity concept for starting graduate scholars, written by means of the prime specialists within the box. It comprises numerous articles that conceal the basic issues during this zone, resembling the elemental algorithms of straightforward quantity thought, lattice foundation aid, elliptic curves, algebraic quantity fields, and strategies for factoring and primality proving. additionally, there are contributions pointing in broader instructions, together with cryptography, computational classification box concept, zeta capabilities and L-series, discrete logarithm algorithms, and quantum computing.
During this educational for VisualBasic. web programmers, facts buildings and algorithms are awarded as problem-solving instruments that don't require translations from C++ or Java. McMillan (computer details structures, Pulaski Technical university) explains arrays, ArrayLists, associated lists, hash tables, dictionaries, bushes, graphs, and sorting and looking out with object-oriented representations.
The mystique of biologically encouraged (or bioinspired) paradigms is their skill to explain and clear up advanced relationships from intrinsically extremely simple preliminary stipulations and with very little wisdom of the quest house. Edited by means of renowned, well-respected researchers, the instruction manual of Bioinspired Algorithms and purposes unearths the connections among bioinspired strategies and the advance of ideas to difficulties that come up in different challenge domain names.
The 'Fuzzy good judgment' study workforce of the Microelectronics Institute of Seville consists of researchers who've been doing learn on fuzzy common sense because the starting of the Nineteen Nineties. in most cases, this study has been inquisitive about the microelectronic layout of fuzzy logic-based platforms utilizing implementation strategies which variety from ASICs to FPGAs and DSPs.
Complicated issues in Database study beneficial properties the most recent, state of the art learn findings facing all elements of database administration, platforms research and layout and software program engineering. This ebook offers info that's instrumental within the development and improvement of thought and perform relating to info expertise and administration of data assets.
D. thesis, Technische Univ. Darmstadt, Fachbereich Informatik, 2003. de/diss/000494/. [Weil 1984] A. Weil, Number theory: an approach through history, Birkh¨auser, Boston, 1984. [Whitford 1912] E. E. Whitford, The Pell equation, self-published, New York, 1912. [Williams 2002] H. C. Williams, "Solving the Pell equation", pp. 397–435 in Number theory for the millennium (Urbana, IL, 2000), vol. 3, edited by M. A. , A K Peters, Natick, MA, 2002. SOLVING THE PELL EQUATION H ENDRIK W. L ENSTRA , J R .
N2 / digit operations to multiply two input integers of size n. More precisely, if x and y have size n, then approximately n2 digit-sized multiplications and n additions of ndigit intermediate products are required. n2 / is independent of the base b, the precise details of measuring the size of an integer, the definition of size of two inputs (as the maximum of the two integer inputs, or the total of their sizes), and so on. nk / for some integer k. Although this is a flexible definition, with unclear relevance to computational practice, it has proved to be remarkably robust.
We will assume that x is an element of a set that has a well-defined operation (associative with an identity element) that is written multiplicatively; moreover, we will measure cost as the number of such operations required to compute x n on input x and n. The size of the input will be taken to be the size of the integer n. Although x 16 can be computed with 15 multiplications in an obvious way, it is P faster to compute it by 4 squarings. x 4 /a2 (2-1) which suggests a clever way to interleave multiplications and squarings: R IGHT- TO - LEFT E XPONENTIATION Input: x as above, and a nonnegative integer n Output: x n 1.


Occupational Preparation--Inspection and Quality Control. Instructor's Guide. The Manufacturing Cluster.
Fairleigh Dickinson Univ., Rutherford, NJ.; New Jersey State Dept. of Education, Trenton. Div. of Vocational Education.
Authoring Institution: Fairleigh Dickinson Univ., Rutherford, NJ.; New Jersey State Dept. of Education, Trenton. Div. of Vocational Education.


Rick continues to weaken but still a major hurricane. A Hurricane Watch remains in effect for southern Baja California from Santa Fe southward on the West Coast and from San Evaristo southward on the East Coast including Cabo San Lucas. A Hurricane Watch means that hurricane conditions are possible within the watch area generally within 36 hours. At 8:00 am PDT/1500 UTC the center of Hurricane Rick was located near latitude 17.8 north/longitude 111.6 west or about 370 miles/595 km south-southwest of Cabo San Lucas Mexico and about 80 miles/130 km south-southwest of Socorro island.
Rick is moving toward the northwest near 9 mph/15 km/hr. A turn toward the north with a decrease in forward speed is expected in the next 24 hours. Rick is then forecast to accelerate toward the north-northeast and northeast by late Tuesday and early Wednesday. On the forecast track the center of the hurricane will be nearing Baja California Sur by late Tuesday or early Wednesday. Maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 115 mph/185 km/hr with higher gusts. Rick is a category three hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
Although additional weakening is forecast during the next couple of days Rick is still expected to be a hurricane as it approaches the southern Baja Peninsula. An Air Force Reserve hurricane hunter aircraft will be investigating Rick later today.
Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 40 miles/65 km from the center and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 150 miles/240 km. An Air Force Reserve reconnaissance aircraft is currently en Route to investigate Rick later today at arrival of the area and will provide valuable data to help determine the intensity and structure of the hurricane.


text:
Isa Martinez Moore, Editor
Isa Martinez-Moore, a 17-year-old student at Ashland High School, has an exceptional passion for art. Aside from making art for pure enjoyment, Martinez-Moore often brings her art into Rogue News publications, where her natural talent and remarkable art pieces are an incredible asset to the Rogue News classroom. Both in school and outside class, art is for Martinez-Moore as air is for most other people.
"I would say it's probably my biggest interest and hobby," she said, when asked about her art career. Traditional pen and ink drawing is her favorite medium, and she also enjoys semi-realism. Combining a realistic method with a cartoon style, Martinez-Moore uses her art to "push the boundaries of what is real."
It seems that Martinez-Moore's fervency for art runs in the family. Her papa is also an artist, and lives in San Francisco as a sommelier. To add a splash of color to her otherwise routine Covid summer, Martinez-Moore took a trip down to the Bay Area to visit her dad.
There amidst the honking cars and salty, sea-sprayed air, Martinez-Moore enjoyed a welcomed vacation away from home. Despite the global pandemic, she was still able to appreciate the pleasures of bustling city life. Martinez-Moore revealed that closed-off streets allowed restaurants more room for serving customers outside as well as saying, "The thing that I thought was really cool was in parks with big fields, they had spray painted circles six feet apart for people to sit inside."
Aside from giving sound advice on wine, Martinez-Moore's father was a traditional artist and photographer in the height of his ardor for art. Her papa has been a major influence in her life as an artist. Although he has since then lost his interest and confidence in his art, this creates his drive to push Martinez-Moore to be the best artist she can possibly be and continue her own art career, which she has been perusing from the very beginning. Rare is it that one finds a lifelong passion at such a young age, however Martinez-Moore is an exception, clearly proven as she said, "The age that everyone was starting to write with a pencil, I was drawing."
All content by Isa Martinez-Moore
Flora-Scopes
Weirdest Thanksgiving Desserts
Punny Halloween Costumes
[PHOTO] The Almeda Fire's Impact
What Halloween Candies do Ashland High School Students like?
[PHOTO] Decorating Your Room for Fall
Isa Martinez-Moore


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text:
Q: Node js file upload to s3 or local I want to create a file upload service for node backend
The files can be uploaded to amazon s3 bucket or local server depending on the configuration.
As far as I understood
I can use s3-upload stream to upload to s3 bucket. I have the following question

*

*In the example on npm mpdule page
var read = fs.createReadStream('./path/to/file.ext');
The stream is created using local file. How can I read input stream from client and pipe it to s3. Can I use formidable for this ?
The file size can be very large. The upload service should be production ready serving multiple requests.
Point to any documentation or guide for my use case will be very helpful

A: If want to stick with s3-upload-stream, I suggest you to use Busboy:
https://www.npmjs.com/package/busboy
busboy.on('file', function(fieldname, file, filename, encoding, mimetype) {
  // Instead of the events 'data' and 'end' as the show in the documentation
  // you can just pipe the file to the upload from s3-upload-stream

  file.pipe(upload);
});

I grab these piece of code from the link above. The file you get from busboy is your readable stream.
Hope it help.

A: You can use AWS JavaScript SDK for S3. There are some examples of using Node.js.

A: There is node.js SDK for AWS available out there that already has methods to upload to S3.
http://aws.amazon.com/sdk-for-node-js/

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Awesome workout at a phenomenal venue! Spend the morning at the barre together through a fun warm-up, serious GLUTE, THIGH & AB burners, upper-body work and (finally) a serendipitous savasana. Relax and hang-out afterward with a complementary drink of your choice while you visit with friends.
$25 admission covers your ticket for class and a refreshing pint of in-house craft beer, hard cider, wine, kombucha, or cold-brew coffee to celebrate all your hard work in a post-class toast!
What is Barre? The amazing popularity and growth in Barre fitness is a testament in its effectiveness for toning, core strength, and an invigorating whole body workout. Inspired by ballet and other disciplines like yoga and Pilates, the workout is an ideal mix for toning, flexibility, and fitness, choreographed to motivating music. The signature is a prop to balance and allow focus on targeted isometric strength training (holding your body still while you contract a specific set of muscles) combined with high reps of small range-of-motion movements. All exercises are body weight and low impact to maintain low pressure on your joints, tendons, ligaments and spine. Enhancements for a whole body work-out use resistance bands, balls, and low-impact cardio. The Barre class will work your whole body and you'll feel stretched, strengthened and invigorated. And don't worry, if your muscles are shaking a bit afterward, that is normal and comes from the effectiveness of an awesome workout.
Lauren's class is always popular and if you haven't taken one of her classes, this will be one of those great work-out memories!


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AI responsibility: Taming the algorithm
RogervanDaalen
We've reached a point where human (cognitive) task performance is being leveraged or even replaced by AI. So who or what is responsible for what this AI does?
While the question seems simple enough, legal answers from the field are apparently opaque and embroiled. This is caused by the fact that AI is performing human-like tasks without having the clear legal accountability of one, and the question is whether it should have any. Fortunately, now that machine learning and artificial intelligence are protruding on an ever-increasing amount of practical domains, real-world legal interpretations and guiding principles are forming around the topic.
One legal white paper rounds up relevant arguments, and in this article I'm working with these principles to portray algorithmic accountability. This is based on Dutch law and jurisprudence, yet regulators habitually borrow ideas and principles from each other on bleeding edge topics, so concepts and rationale should translate reasonably well to other jurisdictions.
Whodunit suspects
The first suspect on AI responsibility is the AI itself! This follows from discussions in European Parliament where civil law rules on robotics were discussed, the idea being to ascribe rights and responsibilities depending on the extent of its learning and autonomy capacity.
This idea seems absurd to me, as AI has no sense of morality: It can not instinctively distinguish between right and wrong, as it has no instinct. Pushing it through court proceedings would not act as supervised learning towards morality or desired behaviour and therefore not impart justice. At best AI could be given biases and weights towards particular outcomes. Moreover, considering how intransparent and unpredictable for example neural networks are, could we ever really predict how a moral code would actually perpetually "behave" in real-world, ever-changing circumstances? Quoting a computer game assassin droid, when queried about his morality:
HK-47: "I am a droid, master, with programming. Even if I did not enjoy killing, I would have no choice. Thankfully, I enjoy it very much."
AI can be unpredictable through their autonomy, and they are so by design. This is how we make them cope with a changing and unpredictable world. Exactly what happens under those new circumstances can be guessed, but will only ever be a guesstimate. On capital markets, future unknown events that have not been experienced before and might lead to catastrophe are referred to as so-called "black swan" events. Some highly unlikely sequence of events may lead to algorithms behaving in an undesired way. Black swan scenarios also point us at another weakness of behaviour-based auditing of algorithms. These scenarios are dependent on an ecosystem of human and AI-based algorithms interacting, which means that to understand behaviour for one algorithm, the behaviour of all other algorithms that it can (!) interact with needs to be taken into account. And that would still only tell us something about functionality at one single point in time. Legally cordoning off such behaviour means that we declare that AI operates outside our control and we can't always be held responsible for it, sort of like a legal "act of god".
Ascribing legal personality to a collection of code and data ingestors, no matter how well-designed the learning loops, seems to me like a way to pass the buck. For me this idea ranks no less than "I'm a criminal, but I'm not guilty because my bad genes made me do it" and having to complain to the crop farmer when you don't like the bread you purchased at the supermarket – who in turn might refer you to mother Nature and the bad weather she produced. Let's not Docker-sandbox legal responsibility in new containers. This does not create the proper incentives for careful and responsible AI design and management, and feels like a way to blackhole the blackbox. AI responsibility is not turtles all the way down.
Moving on, could the AI developer or vendor be to blame (Per Dutch civil code 6:185)? This is a line of argumentation that centres around diligence and due diligence – knowing what AI does and the circumstances under which it will perform according to plan. Blame and responsibility here arises when knowledge of potential damage exists, and no action is taken by that party whilst this damage could have been prevented. A comparable situation beyond the confines of AI would be when car manufacturers issue a recall on a model due to some critical defect having been discovered since production. Or when supermarkets recalls some product as the supplier found out about a production defect in particular batches – better safe than sorry right?
While this approach might be valid in some specific situations, blanket developer scapegoating after AI issues might not be appropriate. Legally, it is not always possible to pinpoint a specific cause after an event. This is not just because the code is complex and unpredictable so that it might be difficult to find a specific AI error, but also because there might be an interplay of variables at hand so that no element individually is at fault. When a ferry sunk in 1987 off the port of Zeebrugge, the owner of the ship quickly blamed some of its personnel that had to monitor a particular area of the ship where the disaster seemingly started. Following an investigation however, the cause was determined to be an unlikely series of events and interactions that demonstrated a more systemic cause, ultimately leading to the board of directors (who were charged with corporate manslaughter) being told by the UK government that they had no understanding of their duties. Quite the firm statement in Britain.
Applied to AI, Knight Capital's crash and burn comes to mind: When a trading algorithm programmer inadvertently set in motion the near-immediate bankruptcy of what had until that instant been the market leader… by toggling one boolean variable in a decrepit piece of code. Or did he?
In the week before go-live, a Knight engineer manually deployed the new RLP code in SMARS to its eight servers. However, the engineer made a mistake and did not copy the new code to one of the servers. Knight did not have a second engineer review the deployment, and neither was there an automated system to alert anyone to the discrepancy. Knight also had no written procedures requiring a supervisory review.
What is apparent here is that there were systemic conditions, some of which were encouraged by the firm, to aim for speed in getting to market and market activity. Pointing a finger at the developer is easy, but not just. Sure, he made a mistake (and I'd hate to be that guy), but if one mistake can cause major inadvertent damage, responsibility needs to be carried around the board. In this case, all kinds of checks and balances were even purposefully removed (FPGA), to make sure that the algorithms respond as fast as possible to external changes. Moving beyond systemic causes, any AI modeler understands the importance of having training, test, and validation datasets. Not taking this approach means that an algorithm is overfitting for a known set of circumstances, whereas it also needs to demonstrate its preparedness for unknown inputs. At the same time, this unpredictability creates issues in creating hard proof of "knowing" about avertable damage. All in all, legal causality can be hard to determine through this principle.
The third suspect is the owner of the AI (as per Dutch civil code 6:173), the legal (natural) entity that holds the legal title towards, exerts control over, bears the fruits of and is responsible for damages caused by its possesions. This is the suspect that makes the most sense to me. Yet based on just ownership one would not be able to make a case for fault – in order to do so, one would be legally required to demonstrate how the AI is faulty. This is as mentioned before a difficult enterprise; it is not possible to know how adaptive code will behave in real-world, changing circumstances. Some people might argue that this uncertainty is the perfect argument for straitjacketing algorithms – after all, risk is "bad", right? One might counter this point by pointing out that humans are far less predictable than algorithms.
An avenue for making ownership the leading suspect is by assuming that AI is a phenomenon that behaves similarly to a domestic animal. Per Dutch civil code 6:179 the owners of animals are responsible for their animals' behaviour by proxy. This is the suspect for AI responsibility that makes the most sense to me, as owners then both benefit from their AI and carry risk. AI would be acting on behalf of the owner, and there is no need to demonstrate neither coding faults nor causality – one need only demonstrate that damage was caused by the AI.
This means that when you walk your AI chihuaha and it injures an AI labradoodle, you, the owner, are responsible for its behaviour. You can then argue to no avail that "it has never done that before", "it would normally never do that", or that there must be some unknown poorly coded mongrel in the family tree DNA github that created this behavioural anomaly. None of that matters, because you, the owner, have a duty to raise your AI well so that it behaves in a civil manner. By equating animal and algorithmic ownership responsibility is carried by owners, which is the type of incentive that would make organizations think twice about the control systems they put in place for their AI, so that they instruct data scientists to train carefully.
An example based on my own experience of what this might mean for you, could be the following: With my own teams on capital markets, we consciously decided to make less money. By reining in the control on our AI, we deprived ourselves from large unpredictable swings on our revenues and costs, ultimately constraining short-term gains. After Knight Capital's collapse, we designed around predictable, controlled risk-taking and smooth revenue curves, to make sure that we would still be in business if any of our AI would go wild.
AI responsibility on the front lines
So what do the AI police and politicians do in practice? In the case of capital markets, most rules now appear to have been written with ubiquitous algorithmic activity in mind, so that the few purely human operators now sometimes need to explain why they did not follow rules designed for AI! This is a marked difference with early stages in the development of understanding of algorithmic accountability on capital markets the regulators were stumped, and as I recall were effectively fobbed off with "not sure why it does what it does, it's self-evolving" when querying nefarious stock market trades performed by AI.
Times have changed of course: Whereas until around 2008 regulators had such a largely laissez-faire and collaborative approach to compliance, changing government attitudes and behaviors have led to rapidly increasing and cumulative strict regulatory demands on market activity. The path that regulators in the financial industry have chosen is one that focuses on transparency: Every action that is performed by a human or algorithm needs to have a clear reasoning behind it, and it is up to participants to demonstrate that conditions were appropriate for the activity. The regulators' idea appears to be that forced transparency, in combination with heavy-handed fines, will preclude algorithmic activities that can't stand the daylight. In other words, this is a control modus where algorithmic behaviours are checked and audited. What I think would be even better if the onus of attention would not be the algorithm's functioning, but the firm's.
Regardless of whether the rules make sense under all conditions, it is very important to follow these rules, as non-compliance is no longer a slap on the proverbial wrist, but instead a heavy blow that can put smaller firms out of business – not to mention the marked consequences of reputation damage when regulators send out press reports about your firm. Who really wants to "neither admit nor deny" wrong-doing, yet agree to some type of heavy penalty?
Do algorithms dream of organic sheep?
In the Netherlands a political party has suggested to create an authority that oversees algorithmic functioning. The idea is to force transparency so that there is a guise of understanding of how decisions are made by algorithms. In doing so, they claim, the reasoning for decisions will be fair and clear. I am critical of this idea, for the same reason that we can't slice off a piece of human brain and understand what it does by shining a spotlight on the neurons, nor better control it for that matter. As I have argued above, what is important is what an algorithm does, and not how it does it nor how it behaves under laboratory conditions.
In trying to prevent blackboxing decision-making by creating transparency, the real boogeyman is left unquestioned: The owner. We should be questioning the effects that algorithms exert on our world on legal or natural entities' behalf, and praise or punish those who control them – not the poor algorithms who only do our bidding. Also, instead of aiming for transparency, regulators should aim for control: Legal owners of an algorithm need to be in control of what their algorithmic animal does, so that when problems occur they can take responsibility over their agent and limit the damage.
In summary, I believe we should view AI as our agents, like animals that we train to work and act on our behalf. As such, we're herding algorithms. We're algorithm whisperers. Riding the algorithmic horse, selectively breeding for desirable labelling accuracy. They learn from us, either supervised or unsupervised, extending and replicating human behaviours, as to enact our desires. Responsibility lies with its management, and it's time that it takes responsibility.
Dr Roger van Daalen is an energetic, entrepreneurial, and highly driven strategic executive with extensive international management experience. He is an expert on industry digital transformations through over a decade of experience with data and artificial intelligence on capital markets and is currently working on transitions to cloud data architectures and applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence more broadly, to pioneer innovative products and services in finance and other industries as to aggressively capture market share and drive revenue growth. Feel free to reach out to him for executive opportunities in the Benelux
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text:
Q: Probability of $ 7$ white chessboard squares without neighbours If we start with a $2\times 30$ chessboard and we remove $15$ black squares, how can I find the probability that we get $7$ white squares which don't have any neighbours? (A white square will have no neighbours if all of the black squares adjoining it are removed).

A: If we label the columns where we delete the black square with an x and the ones where we don't with a . then we get a 30-character string containing 15 x and 15 .
Prepend and postpend x to handle the boundary cases (so that the end white squares are isolated respectively by a leading and trailing xxx)
Then each maximal non-overlapping substring of the form x$^{2+n}$ corresponds to $n$ isolated white squares.
Possible continuations:

*

*Partitions of 7. There are 15 partitions of 7, of which 4 would require more than 15 deleted squares (e.g. $7 = 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 2$ requires three runs of three and two runs of four, for a total of 17 deleted squares), so that leaves 11 cases to handle. They might be grouped with some thought.

*Create a recurrence in terms of the length of the board, the number of squares to delete, and the number of white squares to isolate.


text:
/* -*- Mode: C++; tab-width: 4; c-basic-offset: 4; indent-tabs-mode: nil -*- */

/*!
 * \file dynqueue.hpp
 * \ingroup aux_classes
 *
 * \brief Implementation of a dynamic queue. Not currently used.
 *
 * Dynamic (list-based) Single-Writer Single-Reader
 * (or Single-Producer Single-Consumer) unbounded queue.
 *
 * No lock is needed around pop and push methods.
 * See also ubuffer.hpp for a more efficient SPSC unbounded queue.
 *
 * M. Aldinucci, M. Danelutto, P. Kilpatrick, M. Meneghin, and M. Torquati,
 * "An Efficient Unbounded Lock-Free Queue for Multi-core Systems,"
 * in Proc. of 18th Intl. Euro-Par 2012 Parallel Processing, Rhodes Island,
 * Greece, 2012, pp. 662-673. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-32820-6_65
 *
 * \note Not currently used in the FastFlow implementation.
 */

#ifndef FF_DYNQUEUE_HPP
#define FF_DYNQUEUE_HPP

/* ***************************************************************************
 *
 *  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
 *  under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License version 3 as
 *  published by the Free Software Foundation.
 *
 *  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
 *  ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
 *  FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU Lesser General Public
 *  License for more details.
 *
 *  You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
 *  along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
 *  Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
 *
 ****************************************************************************
 */

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <ff/buffer.hpp>
#include <ff/spin-lock.hpp> // used only for mp_push and mp_pop
#include <ff/sysdep.h>

namespace ff {

#if !defined(_FF_DYNQUEUE_OPTIMIZATION)

class dynqueue {
private:
    struct Node {
        void        * data;
        struct Node * next;
    };

    union {
        Node * volatile   head;
        char padding1[CACHE_LINE_SIZE];
        //long padding1[longxCacheLine-(sizeof(Node *)/sizeof(long))];
    };
    union {
        Node * volatile   tail;
        char padding2[CACHE_LINE_SIZE];
        //long padding2[longxCacheLine-(sizeof(Node*)/sizeof(long))];
    };

    /* ----- two-lock used only in the mp_push and mp_pop methods ------- */
    /*                                                                    */
    /*  By using the mp_push and mp_pop methods as standard push and pop, */
    /*  the dynqueue algorithm basically implements the well-known        */
    /*  Michael and Scott 2-locks MPMC queue.                             */
    /*                                                                    */
    /*                                                                    */
	/*
	union {
        lock_t P_lock;
        char padding3[CACHE_LINE_SIZE];
    };
    union {
        lock_t C_lock;
        char padding4[CACHE_LINE_SIZE];
    };
    */
	ALIGN_TO_PRE(CACHE_LINE_SIZE)
	lock_t P_lock;
	ALIGN_TO_POST(CACHE_LINE_SIZE)

	ALIGN_TO_PRE(CACHE_LINE_SIZE)
		lock_t C_lock;
	ALIGN_TO_POST(CACHE_LINE_SIZE)

    /* -------------------------------------------------------------- */

    // internal cache
    // if mp_push and mp_pop methods are used the cache access is lock protected
#if defined(STRONG_WAIT_FREE)
    Lamport_Buffer     cache;
#else
    SWSR_Ptr_Buffer    cache;
#endif

private:
    inline Node * allocnode() {
        union { Node * n; void * n2; } p;
#if !defined(NO_CACHE)
        if (cache.pop(&p.n2)) return p.n;
#endif
        p.n = (Node *)::malloc(sizeof(Node));
        return p.n;
    }

    inline Node * mp_allocnode() {
        union { Node * n; void * n2; } p;
#if !defined(NO_CACHE)
        spin_lock(P_lock);
        if (cache.pop(&p.n2)) {
            spin_unlock(P_lock);
            return p.n;
        }
        spin_unlock(P_lock);
#endif
        p.n = (Node *)::malloc(sizeof(Node));
        return p.n;
    }

public:
    enum {DEFAULT_CACHE_SIZE=1024};

    dynqueue(int cachesize=DEFAULT_CACHE_SIZE, bool fillcache=false):cache(cachesize) {
        Node * n = (Node *)::malloc(sizeof(Node));
        n->data = NULL; n->next = NULL;
        head=tail=n;
        cache.init();
        if (fillcache) {
            for(int i=0;i<cachesize;++i) {
                n = (Node *)::malloc(sizeof(Node));
                if (n) cache.push(n);
            }
        }
        init_unlocked(P_lock);
        init_unlocked(C_lock);
        // Avoid unused private field warning on padding vars
        //(void) padding1; (void) padding2 ; (void) padding3; (void) padding4;
    }

    bool init() { return true;}

    ~dynqueue() {
        union { Node * n; void * n2; } p;
        if (cache.buffersize()>0) while(cache.pop(&p.n2)) free(p.n);
        while(head != tail) {
            p.n = (Node*)head;
            head = head->next;
            free(p.n);
        }
        if (head) free((void*)head);
    }

    inline bool push(void * const data) {
        assert(data != NULL);
        Node * n = allocnode();
        n->data = data; n->next = NULL;
        WMB();
        tail->next = n;
        tail       = n;

        return true;
    }

    inline bool  pop(void ** data) {
        assert(data != NULL);
#if defined(STRONG_WAIT_FREE)
        if (head == tail) return false;
#else
        if (head->next)
#endif
        {
            Node * n = (Node *)head;
            *data    = (head->next)->data;
            head     = head->next;
#if !defined(NO_CACHE)
            if (!cache.push(n)) ::free(n);
#else
            ::free(n);
#endif
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }

    inline unsigned long length() const { return 0;}

    /*
     * MS 2-lock MPMC algorithm PUSH method
     */
    inline bool mp_push(void * const data) {
        assert(data != NULL);
        Node* n = mp_allocnode();
        n->data = data; n->next = NULL;
        ff::spin_lock(P_lock);
        tail->next = n;
        tail       = n;
        spin_unlock(P_lock);
        return true;
    }

    /*
     * MS 2-lock MPMC algorithm POP method
     */
    inline bool  mp_pop(void ** data) {
        assert(data != NULL);
        spin_lock(C_lock);
        if (head->next) {
            Node * n = (Node *)head;
            *data    = (head->next)->data;
            head     = head->next;
            bool f   = cache.push(n);
            spin_unlock(C_lock);
            if (!f) ::free(n);
            return true;
        }
        spin_unlock(C_lock);
        return false;
    }
};

#else // _FF_DYNQUEUE_OPTIMIZATION
/*
 * Experimental code
 */

class dynqueue {
private:
    struct Node {
        void        * data;
        struct Node * next;
    };

    Node * volatile         head;
    volatile unsigned long  pwrite;
    long padding1[longxCacheLine-((sizeof(Node *)+sizeof(unsigned long))/sizeof(long))];
    Node * volatile        tail;
    volatile unsigned long pread;
    long padding2[longxCacheLine-((sizeof(Node*)+sizeof(unsigned long))/sizeof(long))];

    const   size_t cachesize;
    void ** cache;

private:

    inline bool cachepush(void * const data) {

        if (!cache[pwrite]) {
            /* Write Memory Barrier: ensure all previous memory write
             * are visible to the other processors before any later
             * writes are executed.  This is an "expensive" memory fence
             * operation needed in all the architectures with a weak-ordering
             * memory model where stores can be executed out-or-order
             * (e.g. Powerpc). This is a no-op on Intel x86/x86-64 CPUs.
             */
            WMB();
            cache[pwrite] = data;
            pwrite += (pwrite+1 >= cachesize) ? (1-cachesize): 1;
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }

    inline bool  cachepop(void ** data) {
        if (!cache[pread]) return false;

        *data = cache[pread];
        cache[pread]=NULL;
        pread += (pread+1 >= cachesize) ? (1-cachesize): 1;
        return true;
    }

public:
    enum {DEFAULT_CACHE_SIZE=1024};

    dynqueue(int cachesize=DEFAULT_CACHE_SIZE, bool fillcache=false):cachesize(cachesize) {
        Node * n = (Node *)::malloc(sizeof(Node));
        n->data = NULL; n->next = NULL;
        head=tail=n;

        cache=(void**)getAlignedMemory(longxCacheLine*sizeof(long),cachesize*sizeof(void*));
        if (!cache) {
            error("FATAL ERROR: dynqueue no memory available!\n");
            abort();
        }

        if (fillcache) {
            for(int i=0;i<cachesize;++i) {
                n = (Node *)::malloc(sizeof(Node));
                if (n) cachepush(n);
            }
        }
    }

    ~dynqueue() {
        union { Node * n; void * n2; } p;
        while(cachepop(&p.n2)) free(p.n);
        while(head != tail) {
            p.n = (Node*)head;
            head = head->next;
            free(p.n);
        }
        if (head) free((void*)head);
        if (cache) freeAlignedMemory(cache);
    }

    inline bool push(void * const data) {
        assert(data != NULL);

        union { Node * n; void * n2; } p;
        if (!cachepop(&p.n2))
            p.n = (Node *)::malloc(sizeof(Node));

        p.n->data = data; p.n->next = NULL;
        WMB();
        tail->next = p.n;
        tail       = p.n;

        return true;
    }

    inline bool  pop(void ** data) {
        assert(data != NULL);
        if (head->next) {
            Node * n = (Node *)head;
            *data    = (head->next)->data;
            head     = head->next;

            if (!cachepush(n)) free(n);
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }
};

#endif // _FF_DYNQUEUE_OPTIMIZATION

} // namespace

#endif /* FF_DYNQUEUE_HPP */

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The ideal location! Centrally located in desirable Cedar Ridge neighborhood. Immaculate 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath with main floor master and spacious great room plus separate rec room. Quality finishes throughout including granite counters, oak floors, 9 ft' ceilings, quiet cul-de-sac location plus much more. Lives better than new!


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For more information, please use the form below to request complimentary information packs for your centre.


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International Research Project: How can breastfeeding be promoted in Germany?
The National Breastfeeding Committee at the BfR is participating in the research project "Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly"
The current situation regarding the promotion of breastfeeding in Germany is being evaluated in a two-year project. The goal is to develop evidence-based packages of measures in order to support the development and implementation of national breastfeeding programmes. The project "Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly" is being conducted at the initiative of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) by the Gesund ins Leben network at the Federal Centre for Nutrition (BZfE) and National Breastfeeding Committee at the German German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), in cooperation with Yale University.
Breastfeeding is the most natural thing in the world and breast milk is the ideal nutrition for infants: easily digestible, hygienically perfect and always at the right temperature. Despite this, many women do not breastfeed at all or stop doing so after only a few months. The promotion and support of breastfeeding is necessary due to the comparatively low breastfeeding rates in Germany, but there is currently no comprehensive overview of the structures, actors and measures involved in the promotion of breastfeeding in Germany. Therefore the present project aimed to investigate where effective, efficient and sustainable measures to promote breastfeeding should be applied. To this end, the current situation regarding the promotion of breastfeeding in Germany has to be ascertained. The findings made will then be used for the planning, initiation and accompaniment of measures and campaigns to promote and protect breastfeeding.
The eight-gear cogwheel model, the so-called Breastfeeding Gear Model, developed at Yale University serves as the foundation for systematic appraisal in this project. The model comprises the eight cogwheels: Advocacy (social approval), Political Will, Legislation & Policies, Funding & Resources, Training & Programme Delivery, Promotion, Research & Evaluation, as well as Coordination, Goals & Monitoring, which reflect all of the fields of action and actors in the context of breastfeeding. With the help of defined criteria, all of the activities relevant to the promotion of breastfeeding are collected and evaluated for each area by a panel of experts. The result will be a country-specific index value which will also enable an international comparison of a country's breastfeeding promotion.


text:
Diedrich Wattenberg (* 13. Juni 1909 in Burgdamm (heute Bremen); † 26. November 1996 in Berlin-Mahlsdorf) war ein deutscher Astronom, der zirka 2500 Schriften und 1600 Vorträge veröffentlicht hat.

Leben und Wirken
Wattenberg war seit Juli 1927 Mitglied der Olbers-Gesellschaft Bremen und seit 1948 deren Vorsitzender; auch der Berliner astronomischen Vereinigung (BAV) gehörte er an. Seine Beiträge wurden u. a. in den Zeitschriften Die Sterne, Die Himmelswelt, Natur und Kultur, Stimmen der Zeit und Das Weltall veröffentlicht. Am 23. August 1951 wurde ihm der Goethepreis der Stadt Berlin verliehen. Von 1948 bis zum 1. November 1976 war er Direktor der Archenhold-Sternwarte, einer Volkssternwarte in Berlin-Alt-Treptow. Er leitete 1945 deren Wiederaufbau nach der Zerstörung im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Sein Hauptbetätigungsfeld war die Geschichte der Astronomie. Durch seine Initiative wurde der Astronomieunterricht in den 9. und 10. Klassen der Polytechnischen Oberschulen der DDR eingeführt. 1964 erhielt er den Vaterländischen Verdienstorden in Silber, 1974 den Titel Held der Arbeit, 1980 die Leibniz-Medaille der Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR.

Seine Memoiren erschienen 1984 im Union Verlag unter dem Titel Gestirnter Himmel über mir – Unverlierbares aus meinem Leben.

Sein Grab befindet sich auf dem Friedhof an der Alten Pfarrkirche Berlin-Mahlsdorf, Hönower Straße 17/19.

Literatur

Weblinks

 J. Hamel: Diedrich Wattenberg † Mitteilungen der Astronomischen Gesellschaft, Bd. 80 (1997), S. 19, Jahresberichte 1996. (Nachruf)

Einzelnachweise

Astronom (20. Jahrhundert)
Träger des Goethepreises der Stadt Berlin
Träger des Vaterländischen Verdienstordens in Silber
Person (Berlin)
DDR-Bürger
Deutscher
Geboren 1909
Gestorben 1996
Mann
Träger der Leibniz-Medaille
Held der Arbeit

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
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text:
"Get Off Our Backs"
By Kieran Foley. Published on Wednesday, June 19th, 2019 at 3:26 pm
Ross grants €5m funding for runway extension
•	Accusations of 'parish pump politics'
•	'Dublin centric' critics and naysayers urged to 'get off our backs'
Shane Ross and John Halligan have defended funding for Waterford Airport.
WATERFORD politicians have urged "Dublin centric" critics and naysayers to "get off our backs" in relation to the controversial funding announcement for Waterford Airport.
Since news of a €5m investment for a new runway at the airport was announced by Transport Minister Shane Ross last week, Waterford Airport and its level of activity have come under intense national scrutiny.
A series of national media reports have suggested that the airport is a 'white elephant' and the subject of 'parish pump politics'. However, Waterford politicians and relevant stakeholders have highlighted the airport's importance to the wider South-East economy and have also pointed out that the airport is a base for the Irish coastguard helicopter along with a number of private planes.
Last week, the Irish Independent, in an article entitled 'Shane Ross's €5m grant for airport with no flights', pointed out that the airport is within the constituency of Mr Ross'sIndependent Alliance colleague Minister of State John Halligan.The paper went on to point out that the funding allocation went against the advice of senior officials in a number of Government departments, including the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.
The paper subsequently pointed out that taxpayers were routinely subsidising passengers' flights by upwards of €60 per journey before flights were grounded in 2016 and has received almost €20m in funding from the State in the decade leading up to the suspension of commercial flights.However, Waterford politicians have reacted angrily to criticism from Dublin.
Other articles in 'All Front Page News'
Kenneally commission to begin hearings this week
Comeragh Amenity Area officially opened
Investment secured for 'Guardian of the Déise'
Housing adaptation funding cut by a third
Fine Gael bullying investigation underway
Tramore remembers crew of Rescue 111
Stradbally concrete plant refused planning permission
'Glad it's over'
Tramore scores well nationally on household income
Changes to driving licence rules


text:
Moth species in decline warn Harpenden researchers
Rothamsted Research. Aphids project. Entomologist Richard Harrington with the insect gatherer machine. - Credit: Archant
Two-thirds of Britain's common larger moth species have declined significantly over the past five decades, researchers in Harpenden have warned.
Rothamsted Research is celebrating half a century of surveying insects with a variety of activities, including an open meeting tomorrow (Tuesday).
Clocking up 50 years of looking at insects, including why they migrate, has been achieved through collecting data via a nationwide network of suction and light-traps.
Researchers have focused on aphids and moths in particular.
Rothamsted's dataset on such insects is the longest-running for any terrestrial invertebrate group anywhere in the world.
Dr Richard Harrington, head of Rothamsted's insect survey, said: "We have shown that two-thirds of our common larger moth species have declined significantly over the past 50 years, especially in southern Britain.
"This is worrying as moths are good indicators of the health of the environment and are important components of the food chain."
Rothamsted has 84 light-traps in a wide range of habitats, with each trap using a 200-watt tungsten bulb.
Information gathered from nationwide traps is presented in web and email bulletins, which are used to guide aphid control programmes.
Richard said: "We have found strong relationships between winter temperature and the time that aphids are first found in our traps, and their abundance.
"We use these relationships to forecast when movement into crops is likely to start. Compared to 50 years ago, many aphids are flying a month or more earlier."
• The centre's insect survey celebrates its 50th anniversary tomorrow, Tuesday April 29, with a free talk by Richard from 7.30-9.30pm.