text:
Lister Hill Center for Health Policy
Department Quicklinks
Pilot Grants
Health Policy Ambassadors
Global Health Case Competitions
Policy Surveillance Internship
Policy Briefs & Reports
Featured UAB Research
PolicyMap
AHA Data
LHC Publications
Black & Blue: What's Causing America's Bruise?
June 19, 2020 by Stacy Moak, UAB Professor of Social Work
Discussions of police in everyday life have triggered strong reactions from citizens as long as we have had the concept of police. Arguments over whether they should wear uniforms, whether they should be paid, and whether they should carry weapons have all persisted throughout time and across multiple countries. The concept of the police in America was borrowed from the British system of having "beat cops" or officers who patrolled at the local level. In England, still today, these community officers do not carry weapons. The British police force was established in 1829 and employs the concept of police by consent, not by force. As a result, the general opinion is that arming the police sends the wrong message to citizens and creates more problems than it solves. Yet, in the US, officers cannot envision a police force that is not armed with firearms. Policing in America has evolved over time and developed into a punitive system of "enforcement" that has pushed the entire system away from community problem solvers and toward a militaristic mind set of reactions to certain situations, often without rational analysis of what is actually occurring. Thus, policing has evolved more toward fighting a war-- the war on drugs, the war on poverty – in which police are the soldiers and citizens are the subjects. However, the evidence is clear that overuse of police as a form of social control has devastating consequences for the health of communities (Public Health Behind Bars, Robert Greifinger, 2007). Such over-policing leads directly and indirectly to destabilized communities and overall social injustice. Further, it creates a system in which activities of the poor and minorities are more highly policed and punished than activities of the wealthy or white majority. Communities that suffer the most from over-policing generally suffer from a host of other deprivations and become tangled in a web of instability. Once that occurs, perceptions of destabilized communities begin to shape the ways that people outside the community view persons who live in those communities. Persons from those communities are often portrayed as more violent, more aggressive, and less likely to respond to reason. These labels apply to everyone from that particular community, including children, and often follow those children as they enter school. Children from these communities are labeled trouble makers at very young ages (as young as 3 or 4) and are often pushed out of mainstream educational facilities. Because of interaction with the criminal justice systems, adults have trouble finding jobs and/or stable housing, and family dynamics are disrupted. A cycle of negative police/citizen interaction begins to occur because of overuse of punitive approaches to address social problems, and police officers are tasked with providing interventions across a wide array of social services more appropriate to social workers, school and marriage counselors, substance abuse counselors, soup kitchens and homeless shelters, and general mechanic and car maintenance.
When police are the first responders to social problems, punishment is the response most often handed down. Punishment, enforcement, and restraint are the skills for which police receive most of their training. Examples of this problem can be noted across the life span, but are perhaps most easily demonstrated in adolescents. For example, white youth and minority youth participate in delinquency such as recreational drug use, underage drinking, skipping school, fighting, and other types of delinquency at similar rates. Self-report studies indicate that delinquency is almost universal as a part of adolescent development. However, black and brown youth are held in juvenile detention centers at 3 to 4 times the rate of their white counterparts. Their numbers continue to increase even when juvenile crime statistics drop. Part of the reason for the disproportionate numbers of youth in juvenile detention stems from the presence of police officers in schools. Because these youth are identified as more dangerous and less amenable to treatment, school-based police officers respond with punitive practices that work to remove them from school. Once removed from school, the only real intervention at the community level is the juvenile court. Most black and brown youth live in urban areas with larger public schools. More police officers are assigned to these schools; therefore, more poor children and children of color are victims of overusing police and courts for behaviors more appropriately handled by schools and parents. Overuse of punitive practices creates a school to prison pipeline that suspends and expels more minority youth from school than their white counterparts. Even when youth are "caught" for the same activity, the minority youth is more likely to be arrested, petitioned to juvenile court, and detained in a detention center which sets off an array of negative interactions and social stigma that is almost impossible to overcome. The school to prison pipeline creates generational disenfranchisement, poverty, and systematic oppression of entire communities.
Source: The Hamilton Project
But problems in school are not the only contributor to the overuse of police in society. Lack of adequate health care also works to ensure that poor people and people of color will go to prison instead of to mental health clinics or rehabilitation centers for substance abuse and mental health issues. Instead of having diagnoses that are recognized and treated, even at very young ages, people without adequate health insurance or preventative health care are labeled by the symptoms of their illnesses. As services shrink in the community, law enforcement is used as the social service delivery system for this group. Instead of citizens receiving counseling and accurate mental health diagnosis that could treat their health issues, they are arrested, incarcerated, and offered very few if any services. For a drug charge, a person with insurance will likely go to a rehab facility. A person without insurance will likely go to prison. Studies indicate that 20% of jail inmates and 15% of prison inmates suffer from major depression or psychosis and as many as 87% of those have comorbid substance abuse issues. Citizens without insurance in our society are more likely to have unresolved trauma, which is often exacerbated by interaction with poorly trained police officers. Those same individuals are more likely to be perceived as dangerous, more aggressive, and not amenable to treatment. As a result, they are more likely to be arrested, more likely to be detained prior to trial, and more likely to be incarcerated. When they are eventually released (95% will return to communities) they are sent back to communities with little to no continuity care plan which almost insures that they will encounter the criminal justice system again.
So, what alternative police practices and systematic strategies could we envision that would work to dismantle this perpetual cycle of violence, trauma, and overall injustice that is levied disproportionately on poor and minority communities? First, I would propose that police agencies examine the role of police in everyday life and create policies that actually reflect those defined roles. The role of the police is "to protect and serve." Let's unpack that statement – to protect and serve – not to arrest, apprehend, serve as judge and juror, intimidate, harass, incarcerate, shoot, bully, or kill – protect and serve. Yet most of our emphasis in police departments across the US revolves around tactical weaponry, restraint techniques, defensive driving, and legal procedures of arrest that will lead to convictions. Perhaps refocusing training on de-escalation strategies, trauma informed care, and implicit bias could provide better understanding and more opportunities for officers to assist in resolving conflicts peacefully. Do police officers really need full armored SWAT gear? And military grade weaponry? When police posture defensively as if their role is to protect themselves against dangerous citizens (again as if they are soldiers and citizens are the subjects) the response from citizens is likely also to be defensive and reactionary. Beyond new recruits at the police academy, officers who have been on the force for long periods of time and serve as field training officers need the same training as new recruits on the above-mentioned issues. Many times, they work to undermine positive training received in police academies. If these more seasoned officers resist training, or refuse to comply with new protocols, they should be reassigned to departmental activities that do not require citizen interaction. We can no longer afford to have business as usual and rely on statements like, "that's the way it has always been." Agencies must be proactive in removing old ways of thinking and performing and replace them with more educated and better-informed practices that work to restore police-community relations. A merit system could be implemented that rewards positive behavior with pay incentives or merit toward promotions. Police should be treated as professionals, paid as professionals, and held accountable as professionals.
Source: Justice Policy Institute
Secondly, I would propose that we examine the services for which police are being used in place of other, more appropriate social service delivery specialists. For example, commissioned law enforcement officers are not the proper authority to handle adolescents in schools – especially when dollars spent to employ the police could be redirected to employ social workers and counselors to address the underlying causes of much adolescent behavior. The experiment with School Resource Officers (SROs) was intended to create trust among students and police where police would function in a counselor/educator role. However, the reality has been that schools have turned over general disciplinary actions as well as drug/alcohol enforcement provisions to SROs. They do not work as much in an education/counselor capacity as they do as the enforcer for a host of school-based rule infractions that lead to more kids being suspended, expelled, or processed in juvenile court. Instead of fostering healthy relationships with police and students, students do not trust them and try to avoid them. A better alternative seems to be to employ a school based social worker at each school instead of an SRO. One argument for SROs has been the prevalence of school shootings and the need for student safety. However, school shootings were not the original intent of SROs, and school shootings remain very rare occurrences. When these tragedies do occur, it is rarely an SRO who protects students or who intervenes during these instances, which makes school safety concerns an inadequate argument for placing police officers in schools. Their presence adds to the school to prison pipeline and works to create hostility between youth and police very early in life. Zero tolerance policies should be replaced with restorative community policies within schools to teach negotiation strategies that students could actually use in future interactions. Dialogue about complex issues should be encouraged among students and opportunities should be seized to provide education around community health, community harm, and community restoration.
This conversation would not be complete without recognizing that the work of policing a community is stressful. Rarely do police officers receive adequate training for the job. Even more rarely do they receive counseling and support for their own trauma that they experience on the job. For example, one of the most stressful parts of law enforcement jobs is not the hostage negotiation that ends in a shoot-out; instead, it is responding to traffic accidents. Officers might retire from the police force without ever using their firearm, but the chances of them viewing a dead child in an overturned car after a crash are high. When officers' trauma is not addressed, that trauma becomes the lens through which everything else is viewed. A normal response is to have a heightened sense of self-preservation – and every possible encounter with a citizen presents the possibility of a negative outcome. Some of the resources within police departments should be reinvested in the officers to provide training, support, and counseling that they need to be healthy community members both on and off the job. To complement these resources, the culture within the department must also change to promote positive mental health among officers. Currently the stigma of mental health issues as signs of weakness permeate police culture. Changing those views will take time, but the culture of health that is discussed in communities must also apply to police agencies throughout the US.
Source: University of Phoenix
Finally, and probably the most inflammatory part of this post, we must have honest conversations about the systematic racial oppression in the US and the role that all systems of government have played in developing and keeping it in place. Minority groups are presented as more dangerous, more violent, more in need of police, and only responsive to force. Such portrayals are not accidental, but work specifically to detract from empathy that might otherwise be shown to them as fellow human beings. The scourge of racism is so deeply engrained in our justice systems in the US that even minority officers do not know how to discuss it, react to it, or work to dismantle it. The militarized hierarchy within police agencies causes a veil of silence among officers who fear reprimand if they are perceived as trouble makers, liberals, or sympathizers. Citizens have so little trust in the police, or the system of justice, that they are often victims without a voice. These are not characteristics of a free society, and they must be replaced with conversation, understanding, and a shared vision for what citizens want the police to do in their communities and how that will be accomplished. In the end, police officers are public servants, and their role is to protect and serve the community and every member of the community. For anyone who reads this and has an interest in taking a deeper dive into racism in the US, I would recommend three books to read: The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein; Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria by Beverly Daniel Tatum; and So you want to talk about race by Ijeoma Oluo.
Reviewing Alabama's Policy Efforts to Improve Mental Health	12/13
Local Initiatives to Reduce Food Insecurity in Birmingham Communities 11/22
Policy Review: Medicaid Expansion's Impact on Mental Health 11/15
Policy Watch: Parental Consent for COVID-19 Vaccinations 11/08
Incorporating Mindfulness in Schools	10/28
Policy Review: Should the current prison healthcare co-pay system be overturned? 10/19
Student Mental Health at UAB	10/12
Policy Watch: Alabama Prison Sentencing Reform - How does long-term incarceration impact health outcomes? 10/11
Policy Watch: Alabama Prison Expansion and the Subsequent Impact on Public Health	10/04
Policy Surveillance and Public Health	09/21
Reflections on SB 10	09/03
An Introduction to Redistricting and its Effects on Healthcare	08/13
A New Surge (Outbreak) in COVID-19 in Alabama	08/04
Herd Immunity in Alabama	04/30
COVID and Prisons	04/19
Spring 2021 Events!	01/14
Fall 2020 Schedule	08/31
Black & Blue: What's Causing America's Bruise?	06/19
Holes in the safety net of healthcare	06/08
The State of Menstruation	05/20
Unintended Consequences: COVID-19 Policy	05/08
The role of private sector in public health	04/23
Checking the Facts (or Fiction)	04/09
Census 2020: How and Why	03/26
Birmingham Policy Surveillance Initiative	02/28
A Big Week for the LHC	02/17
Why Are You Yelling? - The Significance of Protests	01/31
LHC Agenda - Spring 2020	01/15
AL Public Service Commission Hearing for Solar Reform	12/04
Built Environment Symposium Re-Cap: Four Perspectives	11/21
Are there Dental Access Issues in Alabama?	11/04
Environmental Justice: Lois Gibbs	10/24
Ag-Gag: Big Agriculture fighting back	10/11
Reflections on Jury Duty and Civic Obligations	09/26
Suicide Prevention	09/11
Spend Your Fall Semester with the Lister Hill Center!	08/27


text:
Is the NCAA doing enough to protect college football players from concussion?
The Power Five conferences have new guidelines on how to assess concussion, but without the power to hand down penalties, should schools be doing more?
Thu 19 Nov 2015 06.00 EST Last modified on Mon 4 Apr 2016 07.45 EDT
Indiana Hoosiers take on the Michigan Wolverines at Memorial Stadium. Photograph: Marc Lebryk/USA Today Sports
2015 marks the first college football season under the supervision of the Power Five conferences' Concussion Safety Protocol Committee, a body created to review and approve each member school's concussion protocol. After an incident last season in which Michigan quarterback Shane Morris remained on the field despite appearing visibly woozy, it was clear the NCAA had to put down some guidelines. But is this effort, an oversight committee without the power to hand down penalties, enough? Is the NCAA protecting players, or just its own image?
In the first week of the season, Alabama and Wisconsin played in a top-25 matchup at AT&T Stadium in Dallas. On Alabama's first drive, Wisconsin linebacker Michael Caputo took a hit to the helmet in attempting to tackle Alabama running back Derrick Henry. Caputo was so disoriented he lined up in the Alabama backfield for the next play.
Caputo was removed from the game, but he would return to action the next week against Miami of Ohio. Even though ABC's broadcast reported Caputo had suffered a concussion, Caputo said the medical staff did not diagnose him with one later that week. "They don't even know what to call this one. Because the symptoms that I experienced were not of the standard of what let's just say our medical [staff] would call a concussion," Caputo told ESPN.com. "I'm going through the concussion protocol just to make sure." Caputo has played in every Badgers game this season.
Just over a month later, Kansas State quarterback Joe Hubener took a hit to the head on the opening possession of the Wildcats' game against Oklahoma State, a hit that left him prone. The Wildcats, already missing multiple quarterbacks due to injury, turned to wide receiver Kody Cook at quarterback only for him to suffer a shoulder injury in the fourth quarter. To the shock of many, it was Hubener who finished the game under center for Kansas State. Hubener said he had passed the concussion protocol on the sidelines, successfully repeating sequences of numbers and the months of the year backwards to doctors on the sidelines.
"It looked bad, but I was fine once I got back to reality and realized where I was," Hubener told the Wichita Eagle. The Topeka Capital-Journal also reported Hubener as saying, "I was spinning for sure," after the hit.
The NCAA did not respond to a request for comment on these players' injuries or concussion protocols in general.
Chris Nowinski, former Harvard lineman who now works for the Concussion Legacy Foundation, wasn't buying it. He asked on Twitter if there would be an investigation into how Hubener was allowed to return to the game. When pressed about Hubener's passing of concussion protocol, Nowinski pointed to Hubener's own statements and added: "I can literally diagnose him from here."
"The 'I can diagnose him from here' is a comment on his self-report of having a concussion. The gold standard is really an athlete's self-report," Nowinski said on Wednesday. "If he tells you he has amnesia – or he was saying he doesn't know where he was, a period of confusion after a head hit – that's a concussion. There's just no way around that."
Players who are sent back into a game after a concussion are exposed to extremely high risks. Second impact syndrome can result when a second concussion is suffered shortly after a first concussion that has yet to heal. Second impact syndrome can occur days or even weeks after the first injury is sustained. Hubener was kept out for all of three quarters of football. Second impact syndrome can result in severe injury, permanent brain damage, paralysis, or even death.
"I think this is just another example of really bad decision making," Nowinski said of the decision to bring Hubener back after Cook left with the shoulder injury. "It sounds like the medical staff was being conservative, doing the right thing. They held him out of the game even though he quote-unquote 'passed' the concussion test. He passed it, but they said, 'y'know what, he showed signs on the field of a concussion, we should keep him out,' which is again the right decision."
But when Cook went down for Kansas State, the fifth quarterback the Wildcats have lost to injury this season, that sound decision making went out the window. Kansas State needed a quarterback, and there was Hubener standing on the sideline. "For him to go back in an emergency situation flies in the face of every other decision they had made, and it put him at risk," Nowinski said. "That's the kind of stuff players should be fighting for themselves on. That's a clear case of a violation of all the ethical principles that are protecting the players, if not the letter of the law on their sideline test."
The invisible nature of concussions makes the injury difficult to diagnose and easy to hide. A study released last October by Harvard University revealed college football players report having "six suspected concussions and 21 so-called 'dings'" for every diagnosed concussion." Players may fail to report a concussion for multiple reasons, ranging from poor education to a desire to show toughness to wanting to keep an injury record clean for professional scouts and executives. According to the Harvard study, older players were less likely to report their concussions, suggesting this may be a learned behavior based on cues picked up from coaches and fellow players.
"It is a different situation because these are players who might be trying to finally make some money off the brain damage they're suffering," Nowinski warns. "they don't want to have people tracking concussions on their record. That's a separate issue from putting players back in at risk. These are adults. If they really show no symptoms and choose not to report, that's just going to be the nature of sports forever until you have a perfect test."
And the tests are far from perfect. As FiveThirtyEight detailed in October, popular tests like the market-dominating ImPACT test offer the appearance of objectivity, but can be subject to environmental vagaries and aren't indicative of when a player is no longer at increased risk of an injury. "There basically are no data that would suggest that once someone has recovered from objective symptoms that you can detect anything with these tests," Christopher Randolph, former Chicago Bears neuropsychologist and current professor at Loyola University Medical Center, told FiveThirtyEight. "They provide nothing more than a false sense of security."
The increased awareness of concussions and their long-term impacts has put more eyes on situations like Caputo's and Hubener's. But the way Wisconsin and Kansas State have handled these injuries shows that awareness is far from enough to protect college football players. There is such a wide range of things preventing proper concussion reporting and handling, from the myriad incentives players have not to report to the absurd amount of money at stake for coaches and the doctors and trainers who work for them, to the negative public relations implications reported concussions may have for the team and university.
So if concussion protocols aren't enough, what's next? "I think that we need to follow the guidelines set by the NFL Players Association. When the players have a union, they fought for more changes, including an independent doctor on the sidelines," Nowinski said. "Because of the money involved in big-time college football and the fact that coaches are making millions of dollars off a couple of wins and losses. Because, still, there are doctors who report to the coach rather than the school, players also need protections on the sideline. We have to accept even the most ethical doctor can be pressured. The pressure is clearly too much for some people."
As for the NCAA, which continues to rake in money hand over first from the labor of the bodies and brains of college football players? "It's tough to know what to say with the NCAA," Nowinski said. "It's good that there are structures through which to review protocols and best practices, but the fact that there is no power to punish, no real enforcement, still to this day? It's tragic."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Not a major re-design at first glance (and nothing that affects this blog) but making the menu fixed to the bottom of the browser window on the main site involved making a lot of changes. The page will disappear under the menu if the page is long enough to scroll under a background PNG with graduated transparency.
In order for this not to be broken in IE6 I've got a conditional stylesheet that takes away the PNG and stops the menu being fixed. I tried all of the various PNG fixes, but having a combination of a fixed element and a PNG background image stopped the links working. Yet another of IE6's bizarre little ways. Won't it be good when it finally goes the way of all old browsers.
While I was doing this I took the opportunity to update the folder structure which had grown a bit unwieldy over the years. Checking all the links on the site – nearly 40,000 – and then working out the best way to do 301 redirects in the .htaccess file was fun. Thanks go to Michael Fesser for advice on the use of RedirectMatch and regular expressions.
This entry was posted on Thursday, October 7th, 2010 at 4:45 pm and is filed under Web Design.	You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.


100%-OSI стиль,полная поддержка Kingdom Reborn, реализация всех последних аддонов,реализация последних паблишей с офф серверов!!
- Bug Report System for KR clients: any player can easily sends bug report via menu option. All logs are classified and stored in LogsBug Reports.
- All starting profession templates will have 4 skills that start at 30 skill points.
- When a weapon is exceptionally crafted, the damage increase modifier will increase by 1% per 20 points of Arms Lore.
- Changed skill and mana requirements for the following ninja skills: - Focus Attack: Min Skill now 30. Mana Cost now 10.
- Backstab: Min Skill now 40.
- Mirror Image: Min Skill now 20.
- Soulstones cannot be used by a player who is currently undergoing one or more New Player skill quests.
- Broken Haven Level 0 Treasure Map locations have been fixed.
maneuvers: Infecting Strike and Serpent Arrow. Higher skill levels will require the use of higher level poisons in order to have a chance to gain.
- Infecting Strike and Serpent Arrow will now cause a slight karma loss when successfully poisoning a victim with these special maneuvers.
- Changes to support new "Target by Resource Type" macro - this macro will mine/chop the selected resource type from any node within range.
- (Both) Craft menu now will show current amount of resources in your backpack.
- The Dark Knight Challenge is now active! Cast "recall" on the rune the Dark Knight gave you to be teleported to his lair where he will challenge all comers one at a time. You will be teleported into the arena within 30 seconds or when your turn arrives, whichever is soonest. Be sure to prepare, because you can only answer his challenge once every three days!
- Weapon special moves now require Weapon Skill and Tactics of appropriate skill levels. (i.e., 70 in each skill for primary weapon special moves, 90 in each skill for secondary weapon special moves).
- Shadowstrike since it already requires 80 Stealth to perform.
- Infecting Strike since it already requires Poisoning skill to be effective.
- Can no longer stack using a weapon special move and casting a spell or activating a skill ability.
- Nerve Strike paralysis is now breakable on hit.
- Nerve Strike paralysis is now scaled based on Bushido skill, from 50% chance at 50 skill to 90% chance at 120 skill.
- Nerve Strike damage is now a little more variable. May be 0 to 10 damage less.
- The Mana Regeneration item property is now subject to the principle of diminishing returns.
- The hard cap on MR has been removed.
- As the total MR from items increases, each successive point of MR will give less overall mana regeneration.
- This means that adding more MR will always give more mana regeneration.
- This also means that as you put more MR items on, you get less of a bonus from each additional MR item.
- Hit Point Increase from items is now capped at 25.
- Enhance Potion from items is now capped at 50. Player characters with Alchemy skill receive an inherent bonus to Enhance Potion that can exceed this cap. The bonus to Enhance Potion equates to +10% for every 33 points of Alchemy (i.e., 80% at GM Alchemy).
- For controlling Lesser Hiryus, a player character will now need at least 90 Bushido (the same required to ride it) or an appropriately high skill level in Animal Taming and Animal Lore.
- Success chance for control is determined by whichever skill set is higher (i.e., Bushido or the combination of Animal Taming and Animal Lore).
- When a Lesser Hiryu chooses to perform the Dismount special maneuver, it will now have a 20% chance to succeed in performing the dismount. This chance use to be 100%.
- Evasion can now only be activated once every 20 seconds.
- Cancel targeting cursor when using Animal Form. This is to prevent abuses such as using a bola, changing into Animal Form, running up your opponent with mount speed, changing out of Animal Form, and then instantly targeting your opponent.
- Anything that can dismount a player character will now force an opponent out of Animal Form. This includes weapon special moves such as Dismount and Riding Swipe, items such as bolas, and any creatures with Dismount, Raging Stomp, or Bola Throwing AI. The same timer will come into play for returning to animal form after being bola'd as currently exists towards remounting after being bola'd.
- Added remount delay for Animal Form when using bolas or the Dismount weapon special maneuver.
- A pet that performs a Dismount special maneuver will now add a remount delay for its owner.
- Death Strike will now cause 50% less damage when using a ranged weapon.
- Death Strike damage now scales based on the average of Hiding/Stealth from 30% to 100% of normal damage.
- Cancel targeting cursor when using the Hiding skill. This is to prevent abuses such as commanding your pet to kill, pressing a macro to hide, and then targeting the pet's victim.
- Ecru Rings have been changed to possess 50% Enhance Potions.
- Rune Beetle Corruption pet ability will now reduce each resist by one half of its value for the duration of the corruption. The Rune Beetle Corruption pet ability use to reduce all resists to 0.
- Enchanted Apples will now only be edible once every 120 seconds.
- Tinker poison trapped boxes will no longer poison the user if the user already has been inflicted with a stronger poison.
- A lot of ML bosses and champions were updated: stats, skills, etc.


An old Scotsman operated a little rowboat for transporting passengers. One day a passenger noticed that the good old man had carved on one oar the word "Faith" and on the other oar the word "Works." Curiosity led him to ask the meaning of these oars. The old man, being a well-balanced Christian and glad for the opportunity to testify said, "I will show you."
Then he dropped one oar and plied the other called Works, and they just went around in circles. Then he dropped that oar and began to ply the oar called Faith, and the little boat just went around in circles again - this time the other way around, but still in a circle.


The luxurious Argentario Golf Resort & Spa, located in the Maremma region of Tuscany, is an ideal destination for those looking for relaxing holiday that combines golf, wellness and gastronomy.
The luxurious Argentario Golf Resort & Spa, located in the Maremma region of Tuscany, is an ideal destination for those looking for relaxing holiday that combines golf, wellness and gastronomy. Set in an area of outstanding natural beauty on the Monte Argentario promontory, the resort is home to an eco-friendly golf course that meanders through cork-oak woods and olive groves, a comprehensive spa and wellness centre and the Dama Dama Restaurant which offers delicious, healthy local cuisine prepared from locally-sourced produce.
The five-star hotel is a triumph of design and comfort throughout; a majestic entrance, a dramatic central stairway and huge windows are in stunning contrast to the intense blue Tuscan sky and Mediterranean landscapes whilst the 73 rooms and suites offer sleek, modern interiors that are beautifully appointed, all with private decked terraces.
For families or small groups, Locker Cottage is an independent hideaway sleeping six that is located on the hillside 200m from the main building, with guests benefitting from the use of all the facilities at the resort.
Nearby Argentario Golf Residences is an exclusive collection of bespoke luxury villas boasting ground-breaking design and views of the lagoon, sea and golf course that blend seamlessly into the landscape. Owners benefit from a range of amenities and services offered by Argentario Golf Resort & Spa, including 24-hour security, property management and a rental programme.
Argentario is easily accessed from Rome Fiumicino Airport by car in just an hour and a half while Rome Ciampino and Pisa are just over two hours away.
The modern Espace wellness centre offers a variety of services such as aromatic Turkish bath, thalassotherapy, indoor and outdoor swimming pools. Aesthetic and naturopathy treatments are also available, as are fitness courses like yoga, aerobics and pilates. Guests can also enjoy outdoor sport activities: the resort includes 3 tennis courts and jogging trails.
Master conference room (up to 200 people) Executive conference room (up to 100 people) Junior conference room (up to 24 people) Board room (up to 12 people) Business center with 5 computer stations, fax, telephone and internet access. Services: personal assistants for events, multilingual secretarial services, projectors, flip charts, technical assistance, sound system, microphone, LCD TV, DVD player and laptops.
The Argentario Golf Resort & Spa enjoys a strategic position for visiting a number of attractions in Tuscany. Just to name a few: Giglio and Giannutri Islands, Siena, Florence, the picturesque villages of Pitigliano, Magliano, Sovana and Manciano, the Natural Park of Maremma, Capalbio.


We focus on occupational health, prevention, and meaning-oriented behaviour in everyday relations with colleagues and management. Therefore we provide seminars, workshops and trainings as well as blended learning tools, which are individually adapted to the respective corporate culture, besides our EAP classic services.
Why am I working? – Enjoy your work!
in accordance with Austrian Labour Law, amended in 2013. We provide evaluations of mental stress levels for our clients in collaboration with Bardia Monshi – as prescribed by Austrian Law since January 1st, 2013. Contact us for more information!
We will gladly send you publications or studies upon request by e-mail. Contact us!
Take a look at our blog (in German) for more in-depth information and inspiration about EAP.
We will gladly send you an offer that meets your individual requirements.
Our newsletter brings you all the latest information.


Los Angeles Lakers power forward Larry Nance Jr. is a dunking machine. The 6-foot-9, 230-pounder shook the rim multiple times during his rookie year. It didn't matter who was in the lane, Nance Jr. was going to jam on them. Watching action at the Lakers training camp makes us believe not much will change in his second season.
During an intra-squad scrimmage, Nance Jr. got the ball at the top of the key, gave his defender a pump fake, went under the defender, tossed the ball off the backboard and finished  with a nasty alley-oop dunk. The high-flying Nance made the play look easy, but the off-the-backboard move is not as simple as he made it look.
Los Angeles Lakers power forward Larry Nance Jr. is a dunking machine. The 6-foot-9, 230-pounder shook the rim multiple times during his rookie year. It didn't matter who was in the lane, Nance Jr. was going to jam on them. Watching action at the Lakers training camp makes us believe not much will change in his second season.
During an intra-squad scrimmage, Nance Jr. got the ball at the top of the key, gave his defender a pump fake, went under the defender, tossed the ball off the backboard and finished with a nasty alley-oop dunk. The high-flying Nance made the play look easy, but the off-the-backboard move is not as simple as he made it look.
Nance Jr. took the dunk from his dad, who won the NBA's first Slam Dunk Contest in 1984. Larry Sr. definitely passed down his jamming abilities to Larry Jr., who could clearly qualify for the 2017 NBA Slam Dunk Contest.


text:
Q: Open a binary file in c I am trying to save some binary data in a file (5 vectors of 8 bits) in c. This is the code I have made for that:
  FILE* flatencies;
  flatencies=fopen("savelatencies.bin", "wb+");
  if(flatencies == NULL){
      perror("\n Error!: ");
  }
  while(1){
  *p_gpio_capture = 0x0 ;
      for(i=0;i<5;i++){
          fwrite(*(latency+i), 8, 1, flatencies);
      }
  }
  fclose(flatencies);

I am executing this script in an embedded system. But I get this message from perror in the serial terminal: "Error!: : I/O error". I don't understand very well the error and I don't know how to solve it. If anyone could help me, I would be grateful.

A: There are some issues in your code:

*

*You are continuing to write to the file even if opening it fails.

if(flatencies == NULL) {
    perror("\n Error!: ");
    // You should return here
}
...

*You don't seem to break from the while loop. This will cause your program to loop forever. You should consider breaking from it at some point. (Actually, it seems useless to me so I don't see why you wrote it in the first place).

As for the error, you should print the value of errno and see your platform-specific documentation to know what it actually means.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Capital One's 'The Match 7': Explaining Rules for Woods, McIlroy vs. Thomas, Spieth
Kristopher Knox@@kris_knoxTwitter LogoCorrespondent IDecember 8, 2022
AP Photo/Chris Carlson
Capital One's The Match is back for its seventh iteration. While casual fans may not be as excited about this edition as past ones—it doesn't feature non-PGA athletes like Peyton Manning or Stephen Curry—golf purists should be thrilled.
PGA legend Tiger Woods is back for his third appearance in The Match, and he'll be paired with the No. 1-ranked golfer in the world, Rory McIlroy. They'll face off against the team of Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas.
While The Match VII doesn't carry the novelty of an NFL quarterback duel—the last edition pitted Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers against Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen—it should still be a ton of fun.
Woods is notorious for being one of the top competitors in the sport, and he's very familiar with McIlroy. The two co-founded TMRW Sports. Thomas and Spieth, meanwhile, are longtime friends.
All four participants have faced off on the PGA tour.
Fans can expect a lot of quality golf, some tight competition and, likely, a fair bit of trash talk. Here's what you need to know.
Capital One's The Match VII
Who: Woods/McIlroy vs. Spieth/Thomas
Where: Pelican Golf Course in Belleair, Florida
When: Saturday, 10 December
TV: TNT, TBS, truTV and HLN
Odds (from FanDuel):
Spieth/Thomas -125 (bet $125 to win $100)
Woods/McIlroy +100 (bet $100 to win $100)
Format and Rules
One interesting aspect of The Match VII is that it will be played at night. Pelican Golf Course features an open environment, which is perfect for temporary lighting and a prime-time event.
"The way the golf course is laid out, I would call it a parkland, especially the back nine," said Justin Sheehan, Pelican's director of golf, per Jeff Eisenband of PGATour.com. "It's pretty open. We have minimal rough, so it's got a really nice big open feel, which is why it's so good for a tournament. It's easier than most golf courses would be to put light trucks in place. We're not going through woods and marshes and tons of water."
The Match will also feature custom golf carts, which should help Woods, who withdrew from last month's Hero World Challenge with plantar fasciitis.
Golf Digest @GolfDigest
The Match carts are 🔥

See them in more detail: https://t.co/YUKo8XOakA pic.twitter.com/6WC1UAph5X
As for, you know, the match itself, it will be a 12-hole competition of match play. Each team will receive a point when it wins a hole, with the most points after 12 deciding the winner.
Theoretically, though, the event could end well before all 12 holes are played.
If, for example, one team has a 4-1 lead and five holes have been tied, the other team cannot draw even over the final two holes.
The Match will also feature a best-ball format, which means that only the lowest score from each team will count on a given hole. This means that, hypothetically, Wood could triple-bogey a hole and still win if McIlroy's score beats those of Thomas and Spieth.
This is perhaps one reason why the odds are fairly close to even. Spieth and Thomas may be the more complete team—Woods is banged up and no longer in his prime—but one of them still has to outplay McIlroy.
And as with all iterations of The Match, this is first and foremost a charity event. The Match VII will serve as a platform to benefit Hurricane Ian relief efforts.
It's going to be an entertaining experience and for a good cause, so fans should be sure to tune in this Saturday.
21+ and present in AZ, CO, CT, IA, IL, IN, LA, MI, NJ, NY, PA, TN, VA, or WV. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, IN, IL, NJ, PA, VA), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-800-270-7117 for confidential help (MI), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY(467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), or visit www.1800gambler.net (WV).


text:
Georgian villa delays student housing development
The discovery of historic architectural remains has halted construction on a student housing project, writes Ada Lee.
The remains of an 1859 Georgian villa have been discovered inside St Michael's College, bringing student housing construction plans to a halt.
Owned by the Roman Catholic Church, St Michael's College is an 80 year-old abandoned building on City Rd, with broken windows and graffiti on the greying walls.
Plans were underway by private contractor, Urbanest, to transform the decaying site into an 11-story accommodation building with 80 percent of beds promised to students.
Heritage architect, Otto Cserhalmi, discovered an 1859 Georgian-style villa known as Cyprus Hall encased within the college. His discoveries included an Archimedean spiral balustrade, a Georgian revival fireplace and mantelpiece, and a French door.
"Within 20 minutes we realised we had a building within a building," Cserhalmi told the Sydney Morning Herald. "[The Georgian building] would be considered of heritage significance."
Project managers indicated that construction plans will be pushed back by almost a year with completion date predicted to be May 2015 instead of July this year.
Lack of affordable student housing has been an ongoing concern for students and the University of Sydney. Under its Student Accommodation Strategy, the University is aiming to deliver 4,000 affordable beds to students within the next three to five years. Difficulties with St Michael's College construction apparently should not affect this target. A University spokesperson told Honi the college is a "separate project".
Projects that are incorporated in the University's strategy for affordable student housing include the Queen Mary Building and Abercrombie Precinct.
Published in Honi Soit, p. 6, 3 June 2014.
Filed under Honi Soit, News
Tagged as archiecture, Cyprus Hall, georgian villa, St Michael's College, student housing, urbanest, USYD


text:
TAXATION ABROAD
Treat Employees Like Business Owners, do it basic, simple and straightforward.
Posted by alberto balatti on December 9, 2015
The rest is boredom and noise, keep it far away
Employee loyalty and engagement are hot topics, and for good reason. Companies want to attract and retain talented people who really dig into their work. But most employers ignore two of the most powerful tools for making that happen.
MALTAWAY Board Governance and Business Advisory, a different WAY from Malta
Tool #1 is enabling employees to build real ownership in the business.
Of course, many public corporations offer stock-purchase plans or the like as part of their retirement benefit. And everyone knows about the options collected by a select few in Silicon Valley and other tech centers. But meaningful ownership — sizable grants of stock to rank-and-file employees year after year, to help them acquire a significant stake in the company — is all too rare.
It doesn't have to be. Many large corporations manage to find big bundles of shares (and huge amounts of cash) for executive compensation, even though there's little relationship between senior-management pay and financial results. A portion of those assets can be redirected to regular stock grants for employees. And companies — except for the very smallest — can implement an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), often funded through borrowing. So long as it's sufficiently generous, either approach gives employees the kind of stake that makes them feel like true owners.
Just look at the supermarket industry to see such ownership in action. H-E-B, the big Texas-based chain, recently announced that it would give up to 15% of company shares over time to 55,000 of its employees, distributed according to a formula based on salary and seniority. That's a chunk of stock estimated at more than $1 billion. Publix, a large chain headquartered in Florida, is majority owned by its employees and regularly makes the annual "best companies to work for" lists. And there's WinCo, a grocery retailer based in Boise, Idaho, with 14,000 employees and 86 stores spread across eight western states. Every WinCo employee is an owner. Cathy Burch, who has worked there for 20-some years as an hourly employee, now has close to $1 million in her retirement account.
You don't think that kind of generosity builds commitment and passion? "We work our tails off," an employee with 28 years at WinCo told Forbes. "We're more of a team than just working for a typical company. There's a carrot out there you're working for, for the rest of your life."
Tool #2 goes by different names: open-book management, economic transparency, ownership culture. Whatever you call it, it means encouraging employees to think and act like businesspeople rather than like hired hands.
If you work for a conventional organization, your job is to show up at the appointed time and perform certain tasks. At open-book companies, it's part of everyone's job to contribute to the success of the business. Managers help employees understand, track, and forecast key numbers. They welcome ideas for improvement. They reinforce the ownership mindset by sharing profit increases with everyone, usually through bonuses funded by the increase itself. Many of these businesses also have a stock plan in place.
The approach is easiest to understand in a small company. The Paris Creperie, a Boston-area restaurant that's about the size of a McDonald's outlet, recently adopted open-book management. Creperie employees learned the basics of the restaurant business, including determinants of profit such as cost of goods sold (COGS). Then, last summer, they launched an initiative to reduce COGS, cutting food waste, reconfiguring some dishes, and coming up with ways to operate more efficiently. COGS dropped from roughly 30% of revenue to 26.5% over a four-week period, and continued to hold in the mid-20s. Operating profit rose by more than 10 percentage points in just four months and has stayed in the 18% to 20% range, compared with a restaurant-industry average of less than 4%.
This year, employees there are on track to get bonuses averaging $6,000. "Any other restaurant, I would just be scraping by," shift supervisor Amanda Norton told theBoston Globe. "Seeing those bonuses really helps me breathe easier, knowing that it's not the end of the world when I have to pay bills."
You can imagine what all this does for employee loyalty and commitment. "Actually," says Harvard Business School professor Leonard A. Schlesinger, "when employees know more about the business and have an economic stake in the outcome, there's a high probability that turnover rates would go down exponentially."
These tools also address two fundamental challenges of today's free-enterprise system. An ownership nest egg helps mitigate inequality by putting more money in the hands of rank-and-file employees. And open-book management teaches people the basics of business, so they can thrive when they have to change jobs, as most inevitably will in our fast-changing economy. "People are learning what it means to run a business," says Joe Grafton, a consultant who works with the Creperie. "That's something they can take with them as they move forward with their careers."
Both measures give people a stake in the system and the wherewithal to live a more secure life. A company that puts these tools to work helps its community while helping itself.
https://hbr.org/2015/12/treat-employees-like-business-owners
boardbusinesscapitalgovernancelabormalta wayNEDopen bookownershipshares
Previous Post Treat Employees Like Business Owners, do it basic, simple and straightforward. The rest is boredom and noise, keep it far away
Next Post EURO Money invest in MALTA way and Technology: Melita being sold to Apax France and Fortino Capital


Began working in the fashion and beauty industry at the age of 17. Operating as a freelancer based in Milan, his work for publications such as Lei and Per Lui then under the creative directorship of Franca Sozzani provided him with an opportunity to collaborate with Koto Bolofo that gave him his first assignment.
Born in Italy In 1966, Laera's interest in photography began when working alongside Helmut Newton, becoming the youngest memberof his team at 20 years old.
Upon moving to New York City in 1989 Laera collaborated on projects with Albert Watson, Irving Penn, Brigitte Lacombe , Bert Stern,Deborah Tubervillle and Annie Leibovitz.When he returned to Europe, in 2006 he started working as a Photographer concentrating on portrait, theater and documentary.
Today his sense of composition and light gives his work a certain elegance that shows the influence of the photographers he has collaborated with.
Laera has worked on numerous editorials and has participated in a number of group and solo exhibitions. Vincenzo lives in Berlin.


Skanska has launched the construction works of the Nowy Rynek office project. The investment will help to redefine an important part of Poznan. A new city quarter, together with a market located in a complex of multi-functional buildings, will be developed on an area of 3.8 ha on the crossroads of Matyi and Wierzbięcice Streets. Furthermore, it will constitute one of the biggest urban enterprises in the history of Poznan as well as being Skanska's most complex developer project to date in Poland. During the first phase of construction works, the company will develop an office building offering 25,000 sqm of modern space.
Poznan is one of the fastest developing markets for the business services sector and the fourth strongest metropolitan economy in Poland. Furthermore, it is one of the highest-ranking regional cities for the standard of living.
A favorable investment climate combined with Skanska's previously positive experiences in Poznan has encouraged the company to launch its most complex developer project to date.
- This is an extraordinary project and its construction will significantly change this part of Poznan. Nowy Rynek will fill the void, currently located in the center of the city, with multifunctional buildings that will give the area a completely new look and purpose. This project is a response to the different needs of a modern city – it combines business and housing with communal functionality. Judging from Skanska's past projects, the investment will be characterized by a uniquely high standard of architecture. We have, and intend to take, the opportunity to breathe new life into some areas of our city. I am happy that such a project, which understands and appreciates Poznan's potential, is being undertaken by such a well-known and reputable developer as Skanska – says Jacek Jaśkowiak, Mayor of Poznan.
Nowy Rynek will, apart from office space, provide an urban space ideal for informal business meetings as well as providing entertainment for residents and tourists alike.
– Nowy Rynek is a truly remarkable project. Several thousand people will be either visiting or passing through on a daily basis. Residents of Poznan will work here during the day and meet at the cafés located in this completely new urban market after working hours. Thanks to our co-operation with city officials, we are developing a new area for the city of Poznan and wish to provide its residents with an opportunity to use it in a range of different ways – comments Arkadiusz Rudzki, Managing Director at Skanska's office unit.
– As a construction and developer company, we have been a part of Poznan and Wielkopolska region for many years. Nowy Rynek will be our third developer project developed on this market and one of our most interesting projects in Poland – adds Łukasz Kaleciński, Regional Director at Skanska's office unit.
This urban project, a comprehensive concept of land management, was designed by JEMS Architekci architectural studio. The concept reflects the history of Poznan at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries when the city underwent a rapid expansion.
The development space will amount to over 100,000 sqm in total. The area will include five buildings that will provide different functions and will ultimately contribute to the creation of a new urban market. Skanska has invited the best architectural studios in Poland to design the next phases of the development. The project's first building was designed by the Wroclaw-based Maćków Pracownia Projektowa architectural studio.
Nowy Rynek will be developed in compliance with the highest standards of sustainable building. The first phase of the project will apply for an "Object without Barriers" certificate. This means that it will be adjusted to the needs of people with disabilities, parents with children, seniors and people who cannot speak Polish.
General contractor for the building: Skanska S.A.
Author of the architectural design of the first phase of the investment: Maćków Pracownia Projektowa.


text:
Storm forward changes nations overnight
Melbourne forward Tino Faasuamaleaui went to sleep on Saturday a Samoa representative and woke up a Junior Kangaroos player as part of the busiest fortnight of the teenager's rugby league career.
A key part of Samoa's World Cup nines squad that lost to Australia in Saturday's semi-final at Bankwest Stadium, Faasuamaleaui proudly represented his father's heritage in the tournament.
He then made the dash to Wollongong to join the Junior Kangaroos camp on Sunday morning, in preparation for Friday's fixture against France.
It also came just a week after he played his first senior game in Australian colours - for the Prime Minister's XIII against Fiji last Friday.
"It's been pretty interesting being in both jerseys," Faasuamaleaui told AAP.
"I'm really happy I've been able to represent both cultures and both nations, both my mum (with Australia) and dad's (with Samoa).
"It's been a big honour to do that.
"(Kangaroos coach) Mal (Meninga) and (Samoa coach) Matt (Parish) both supported it, they were happy for me to do both as long as I was happy with it."
Born in central-western NSW, Faasuamaleaui moved to the rural Queensland town of Widgee as a youngster and grew up playing his football in Gympee.
His father Fereti was a Sydney Roosters reserve grader in the mid 1990s with proud Samoan heritage.
"I actually grew up in a town where it was just my family who were Samoan," the 19-year-old second-rower said.
"But I was always around it, whenever we had Samoan independence day down in Brisbane me and my family would always drive down and get around the culture.
"I have so much family everywhere, down in Brisbane, New Zealand and in America and everywhere. They all support me."
After playing five games for Melbourne this year, the teenager will line up alongside the likes of Kalyn Ponga, Angus Crichton and Victor Radley against France in Wollongong on Friday.
"It's going to be amazing, have you seen this team? Far out," he said.
"Before I debuted and even now I still look up to these fellas.
"The likes of Kalyn Ponga, there are a fair few players in there.
"It's going to be a pretty amazing week and game on the weekend. Especially in the green-and-gold jersey."
Sydney Roosters looking to add Sonny Bill Williams to coaching staff: report
NRL stars under injury cloud at Rugby League World Cup 9s


text:
.PHONY: all functest \
install_tlc \
install_test_infra \
tempest_11.5.4_overcloud tempest_11.5.4_undercloud \
tempest_11.5.4_undercloud_gre tempest_11.5.4_undercloud_vlan \
tempest_11.6.0_overcloud tempest_11.6.0_undercloud \
tempest_11.6.0_undercloud_gre tempest_11.6.0_undercloud_vlan \
tempest_11.6.1_overcloud tempest_11.6.1_undercloud \
tempest_11.6.1_undercloud_gre tempest_11.6.1_undercloud_vlan \
tempest_12.1.1_overcloud tempest_12.1.1_undercloud \
tempest_12.1.1_undercloud_gre tempest_12.1.1_undercloud_vlan

# - <nearest reachable tag>-<num commits since>-g<abbreviated commit id>
export BRANCH := $(shell git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)
SUBJECTCODE_ID := $(shell git log -n 1 --format=%h)
TIMESTAMP ?= $(shell date +"%Y%m%d-%H%M%S")
export TIMESTAMP   # Only eval TIMESTAMP in the top make.
CHANGESOURCE := f5-openstack-lbaasv2-driver
MAKEFILE_PATH := $(abspath $(lastword $(MAKEFILE_LIST)))
export MAKEFILE_DIR := $(dir $(MAKEFILE_PATH))
export TEST_DIR := $(abspath $(MAKEFILE_DIR))/../test

# Repos that are used for the tests and environment
# TLC
export TLC_DIR := /home/buildbot/tlc
export TLC_REPO := https://bldr-git.int.lineratesystems.com/openstack/tlc.git
export TLC_BRANCH := buildbot

# toolsbase (replicate internal directory structure for TLC install)
export TOOLSBASE_DIR := /toolsbase
export TOOLSBASE_REPO := https://bldr-git.int.lineratesystems.com/openstack/tlc-toolsbase.git

# dev-test (contains all of our TLC files for configuration)
export DEVTEST_DIR := /home/buildbot/dev-test
export DEVTEST_REPO := git@bldr-git.int.lineratesystems.com:openstack/dev-test.git

# tempest (OpenStack tempest test library)
export TEMPEST_DIR := /home/buildbot/tempest
export TEMPEST_REPO := http://git.openstack.org/openstack/tempest

# neutron-lbaas (OpenStack Neutron LBaaS repo for the test cases to run)
export NEUTRON_LBAAS_DIR := /home/buildbot/neutron-lbaas
export NEUTRON_LBAAS_REPO := https://github.com/F5Networks/neutron-lbaas.git
export NEUTRON_LBAAS_BRANCH := stable/mitaka

# TLC path and python path requirements
export PATH := /tools/bin:$(PATH)
export PYTHONPATH := /tools/lib:/tools/bin:$(PYTHONPATH)
export USER := buildbot
export TEST_OPENSTACK_DISTRO := $(BRANCH)
export TEST_CIRROS_IMAGE := cirros-0.3.4-x86_64-disk.qcow2
export TEST_OPENSTACK_NODE_COUNT := 3
export TEST_OPENSTACK_DEPLOY := multinode
export TEST_COMMON_LIB := $(DEVTEST_DIR)/common
export GLANCE_COMPUTE_STORAGE := NFS
export TLC_FILE_DIR := $(DEVTEST_DIR)/traffic

# Virtualenv & tempest requirements
export VENVDIR := /home/buildbot/virtualenvs
export TEMPEST_VENV_DIR := $(VENVDIR)/tempest
export TEMPEST_CONFIG_DIR := $(TEMPEST_VENV_DIR)/etc/tempest
export TEMPEST_VENV_ACTIVATE := $(TEMPEST_VENV_DIR)/bin/activate

# Results Directories
export API_SESSION := api_$(SUBJECTCODE_ID)_$(TIMESTAMP)
export SCENARIO_SESSION := scenario_$(SUBJECTCODE_ID)_$(TIMESTAMP)
export DRIVER_TEMPEST_SESSION := driver.tempest_$(SUBJECTCODE_ID)_$(TIMESTAMP)
export FROM_AGENT_SESSION := from.agent_$(SUBJECTCODE_ID)_$(TIMESTAMP)

# LEAF MAKE TARGETS:
#
# This section contains "leaf" make targets.  These targets do not call other
# targets.  Most of the core logic of each of these targets can be found in
# the scripts directory under the same name as the target, i.e.:
# ./scripts/TARGET_NAME.sh
# e.g:  ./scripts/install_test_infra.sh
# We intend to adhere to this convention as long as it's convenient.
# Our reasoning is that this makes it easier to read this file and understand
# how it relates to the rest of the test infrastructure.
# Notice that these "leaves" are generally the exit points from this file, and
# without exception, invoke the aforementioned scripts.
#

install_tlc:
	@echo "installing the tlc client on the worker..."
	cd scripts && ./disallow_dangerous_vars.sh && sudo -EH ./$@.sh

install_test_infra:
	@echo "installing tempest openstack interfaces and neutron_lbaas tests..."
	cd scripts && ./disallow_dangerous_vars.sh && ./$@.sh

setup_tlc_session:
	@echo "setting up TLC session..."
	cd scripts && ./disallow_dangerous_vars.sh && ./$@.sh || $(MAKE) -C ../ cleanup_failed_tlc

configure_test_infra:
	@echo "injecting TLC symbol and openstack IDs into 'tempest' conf files..."
	cd scripts && ./disallow_dangerous_vars.sh && ./$@.sh || $(MAKE) -C ../ cleanup_failed_tlc

run_neutron_lbaas:
	@echo "running tests extracted from 'neutron_lbaas' project..."
	cd scripts && ./disallow_dangerous_vars.sh && ./$@.sh || $(MAKE) -C ../ cleanup_tlc_session

run_agent_transfers:
	@echo "running tests extracted from 'f5-openstack-agent' project..."
	cd scripts && ./disallow_dangerous_vars.sh && ./$@.sh

cleanup_tlc_session:
	@echo "running tlc --session TEST_SESSION --debug cleanup..."
	cd scripts && ./disallow_dangerous_vars.sh && ./$@.sh

cleanup_failed_tlc:
	@echo "running tlc --session TEST_SESSION --debug cleanup && exit 1..."
	cd scripts && ./disallow_dangerous_vars.sh && ./$@.sh

# BRANCH MAKE TARGETS:
#
# These make targets invoke OTHER targets defined in this file.  They are not
# used to invoke particular tests, rather they manage test infrastructure, and
# conform to the standard interface expected by buildbot.
#
# Run all tests, this is what buildbot calls: make functest
# These are all of the functests that we want to run as part of bbot job
# We ignore the return value so that we run all of the tests
functest: install_tlc install_test_infra
	-$(MAKE) -C . tempest_11.5.4_overcloud
	-$(MAKE) -C . tempest_11.6.0_overcloud
	-$(MAKE) -C . tempest_11.6.1_overcloud
	-$(MAKE) -C . tempest_12.1.1_overcloud
	-$(MAKE) -C . tempest_11.5.4_undercloud
	-$(MAKE) -C . tempest_11.5.4_undercloud_gre
	-$(MAKE) -C . tempest_11.5.4_undercloud_vlan
	-$(MAKE) -C . tempest_11.6.0_undercloud
	-$(MAKE) -C . tempest_11.6.0_undercloud_gre
	-$(MAKE) -C . tempest_11.6.0_undercloud_vlan
	-$(MAKE) -C . tempest_11.6.1_undercloud
	-$(MAKE) -C . tempest_11.6.1_undercloud_gre
	-$(MAKE) -C . tempest_11.6.1_undercloud_vlan
	-$(MAKE) -C . tempest_12.1.1_undercloud
	-$(MAKE) -C . tempest_12.1.1_undercloud_gre
	-$(MAKE) -C . tempest_12.1.1_undercloud_vlan

# Not using the tempest TLC files for liberty because they install barbican
# which causes the tests to lockup/hang

# Tempest Tests for 11.5.x overcloud VE deployment
tempest_11.5.4_overcloud:
	export TEST_VE_IMAGE=os_ready-BIGIP-11.5.4.2.0.291.qcow2 ;\
	export TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD=overcloud ;\
	export TLC_FILE=$(TLC_FILE_DIR)/$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}/tempest_ve_$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}.tlc ;\
	export GUMBALLS_PROJECT=$(CHANGESOURCE)_$(BRANCH)-$@ ;\
	export RESULTS_DIR=$(MAKEFILE_DIR)/test_results/$(CHANGESOURCE)/$${GUMBALLS_PROJECT} ;\
	export TEST_SESSION=$@_$(BRANCH)_$(SUBJECTCODE_ID)_$(TIMESTAMP) ;\
	$(MAKE) -C . run_tests

# Tempest Tests for 11.6.x overcloud VE deployment
tempest_11.6.0_overcloud:
	export TEST_VE_IMAGE=os_ready-BIGIP-11.6.0.0.0.401.qcow2 ;\
	export TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD=overcloud ;\
	export TLC_FILE=$(TLC_FILE_DIR)/$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}/tempest_ve_$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}.tlc ;\
	export GUMBALLS_PROJECT=$(CHANGESOURCE)_$(BRANCH)-$@ ;\
	export RESULTS_DIR=$(MAKEFILE_DIR)/test_results/$(CHANGESOURCE)/$${GUMBALLS_PROJECT} ;\
	export TEST_SESSION=$@_$(BRANCH)_$(SUBJECTCODE_ID)_$(TIMESTAMP) ;\
	$(MAKE) -C . run_tests

tempest_11.6.1_overcloud:
	export TEST_VE_IMAGE=os_ready-BIGIP-11.6.1.1.0.326.qcow2 ;\
	export TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD=overcloud ;\
	export TLC_FILE=$(TLC_FILE_DIR)/$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}/tempest_ve_$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}.tlc ;\
	export GUMBALLS_PROJECT=$(CHANGESOURCE)_$(BRANCH)-$@ ;\
	export RESULTS_DIR=$(MAKEFILE_DIR)/test_results/$(CHANGESOURCE)/$${GUMBALLS_PROJECT} ;\
	export TEST_SESSION=$@_$(BRANCH)_$(SUBJECTCODE_ID)_$(TIMESTAMP) ;\
	$(MAKE) -C . run_tests

# Tempest Tests for 12.1.x overcloud VE deployment
tempest_12.1.1_overcloud:
	export TEST_VE_IMAGE=os_ready-BIGIP-12.1.1.2.0.204.qcow2 ;\
	export TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD=overcloud ;\
	export TLC_FILE=$(TLC_FILE_DIR)/$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}/tempest_ve_$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}.tlc ;\
	export GUMBALLS_PROJECT=$(CHANGESOURCE)_$(BRANCH)-$@ ;\
	export RESULTS_DIR=$(MAKEFILE_DIR)/test_results/$(CHANGESOURCE)/$${GUMBALLS_PROJECT} ;\
	export TEST_SESSION=$@_$(BRANCH)_$(SUBJECTCODE_ID)_$(TIMESTAMP) ;\
	$(MAKE) -C . run_tests

# Tempest Tests for 11.5.x undercloud VE deployment
tempest_11.5.4_undercloud:
	export TEST_VE_IMAGE=os_ready-BIGIP-11.5.4.2.0.291.qcow2 ;\
	export TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD=undercloud ;\
	export TLC_FILE=$(TLC_FILE_DIR)/$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}/tempest_ve_$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}.tlc ;\
	export GUMBALLS_PROJECT=$(CHANGESOURCE)_$(BRANCH)-$@ ;\
	export RESULTS_DIR=$(MAKEFILE_DIR)/test_results/$(CHANGESOURCE)/$${GUMBALLS_PROJECT} ;\
	export TEST_SESSION=$@_$(BRANCH)_$(SUBJECTCODE_ID)_$(TIMESTAMP) ;\
	export TEST_TENANT_NETWORK_TYPE=vxlan ;\
	$(MAKE) -C . run_tests

tempest_11.5.4_undercloud_gre:
	export TEST_VE_IMAGE=os_ready-BIGIP-11.5.4.2.0.291.qcow2 ;\
	export TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD=undercloud ;\
	export TLC_FILE=$(TLC_FILE_DIR)/$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}/tempest_ve_$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}.tlc ;\
	export GUMBALLS_PROJECT=$(CHANGESOURCE)_$(BRANCH)-$@ ;\
	export RESULTS_DIR=$(MAKEFILE_DIR)/test_results/$(CHANGESOURCE)/$${GUMBALLS_PROJECT} ;\
	export TEST_SESSION=$@_$(BRANCH)_$(SUBJECTCODE_ID)_$(TIMESTAMP) ;\
	export TEST_TENANT_NETWORK_TYPE=gre ;\
	$(MAKE) -C . run_tests

tempest_11.5.4_undercloud_vlan:
	export TEST_VE_IMAGE=os_ready-BIGIP-11.5.4.2.0.291.qcow2 ;\
	export TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD=undercloud ;\
	export TLC_FILE=$(TLC_FILE_DIR)/$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}/tempest_ve_$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}.tlc ;\
	export GUMBALLS_PROJECT=$(CHANGESOURCE)_$(BRANCH)-$@ ;\
	export RESULTS_DIR=$(MAKEFILE_DIR)/test_results/$(CHANGESOURCE)/$${GUMBALLS_PROJECT} ;\
	export TEST_SESSION=$@_$(BRANCH)_$(SUBJECTCODE_ID)_$(TIMESTAMP) ;\
	export TEST_TENANT_NETWORK_TYPE=vlan ;\
	$(MAKE) -C . run_tests

# Tempest Tests for 11.6.x undercloud VE deployment
tempest_11.6.0_undercloud:
	export TEST_VE_IMAGE=os_ready-BIGIP-11.6.0.0.0.401.qcow2 ;\
	export TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD=undercloud ;\
	export TLC_FILE=$(TLC_FILE_DIR)/$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}/tempest_ve_$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}.tlc ;\
	export GUMBALLS_PROJECT=$(CHANGESOURCE)_$(BRANCH)-$@ ;\
	export RESULTS_DIR=$(MAKEFILE_DIR)/test_results/$(CHANGESOURCE)/$${GUMBALLS_PROJECT} ;\
	export TEST_SESSION=$@_$(BRANCH)_$(SUBJECTCODE_ID)_$(TIMESTAMP) ;\
	export TEST_TENANT_NETWORK_TYPE=vxlan ;\
	$(MAKE) -C . run_tests

tempest_11.6.0_undercloud_gre:
	export TEST_VE_IMAGE=os_ready-BIGIP-11.6.0.0.0.401.qcow2 ;\
	export TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD=undercloud ;\
	export TLC_FILE=$(TLC_FILE_DIR)/$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}/tempest_ve_$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}.tlc ;\
	export GUMBALLS_PROJECT=$(CHANGESOURCE)_$(BRANCH)-$@ ;\
	export RESULTS_DIR=$(MAKEFILE_DIR)/test_results/$(CHANGESOURCE)/$${GUMBALLS_PROJECT} ;\
	export TEST_SESSION=$@_$(BRANCH)_$(SUBJECTCODE_ID)_$(TIMESTAMP) ;\
	export TEST_TENANT_NETWORK_TYPE=gre ;\
	$(MAKE) -C . run_tests

tempest_11.6.0_undercloud_vlan:
	export TEST_VE_IMAGE=os_ready-BIGIP-11.6.0.0.0.401.qcow2 ;\
	export TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD=undercloud ;\
	export TLC_FILE=$(TLC_FILE_DIR)/$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}/tempest_ve_$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}.tlc ;\
	export GUMBALLS_PROJECT=$(CHANGESOURCE)_$(BRANCH)-$@ ;\
	export RESULTS_DIR=$(MAKEFILE_DIR)/test_results/$(CHANGESOURCE)/$${GUMBALLS_PROJECT} ;\
	export TEST_SESSION=$@_$(BRANCH)_$(SUBJECTCODE_ID)_$(TIMESTAMP) ;\
	export TEST_TENANT_NETWORK_TYPE=vlan ;\
	$(MAKE) -C . run_tests

tempest_11.6.1_undercloud:
	export TEST_VE_IMAGE=os_ready-BIGIP-11.6.1.1.0.326.qcow2 ;\
	export TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD=undercloud ;\
	export TLC_FILE=$(TLC_FILE_DIR)/$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}/tempest_ve_$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}.tlc ;\
	export GUMBALLS_PROJECT=$(CHANGESOURCE)_$(BRANCH)-$@ ;\
	export RESULTS_DIR=$(MAKEFILE_DIR)/test_results/$(CHANGESOURCE)/$${GUMBALLS_PROJECT} ;\
	export TEST_SESSION=$@_$(BRANCH)_$(SUBJECTCODE_ID)_$(TIMESTAMP) ;\
	export TEST_TENANT_NETWORK_TYPE=vxlan ;\
	$(MAKE) -C . run_tests

tempest_11.6.1_undercloud_gre:
	export TEST_VE_IMAGE=os_ready-BIGIP-11.6.1.1.0.326.qcow2 ;\
	export TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD=undercloud ;\
	export TLC_FILE=$(TLC_FILE_DIR)/$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}/tempest_ve_$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}.tlc ;\
	export GUMBALLS_PROJECT=$(CHANGESOURCE)_$(BRANCH)-$@ ;\
	export RESULTS_DIR=$(MAKEFILE_DIR)/test_results/$(CHANGESOURCE)/$${GUMBALLS_PROJECT} ;\
	export TEST_SESSION=$@_$(BRANCH)_$(SUBJECTCODE_ID)_$(TIMESTAMP) ;\
	export TEST_TENANT_NETWORK_TYPE=gre ;\
	$(MAKE) -C . run_tests

tempest_11.6.1_undercloud_vlan:
	export TEST_VE_IMAGE=os_ready-BIGIP-11.6.1.1.0.326.qcow2 ;\
	export TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD=undercloud ;\
	export TLC_FILE=$(TLC_FILE_DIR)/$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}/tempest_ve_$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}.tlc ;\
	export GUMBALLS_PROJECT=$(CHANGESOURCE)_$(BRANCH)-$@ ;\
	export RESULTS_DIR=$(MAKEFILE_DIR)/test_results/$(CHANGESOURCE)/$${GUMBALLS_PROJECT} ;\
	export TEST_SESSION=$@_$(BRANCH)_$(SUBJECTCODE_ID)_$(TIMESTAMP) ;\
	export TEST_TENANT_NETWORK_TYPE=vlan ;\
	$(MAKE) -C . run_tests

# Tempest Tests for 12.1.x undercloud VE deployment
tempest_12.1.1_undercloud:
	export TEST_VE_IMAGE=os_ready-BIGIP-12.1.1.2.0.204.qcow2 ;\
	export TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD=undercloud ;\
	export TLC_FILE=$(TLC_FILE_DIR)/$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}/tempest_ve_$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}.tlc ;\
	export GUMBALLS_PROJECT=$(CHANGESOURCE)_$(BRANCH)-$@ ;\
	export RESULTS_DIR=$(MAKEFILE_DIR)/test_results/$(CHANGESOURCE)/$${GUMBALLS_PROJECT} ;\
	export TEST_SESSION=$@_$(BRANCH)_$(SUBJECTCODE_ID)_$(TIMESTAMP) ;\
	export TEST_TENANT_NETWORK_TYPE=vxlan ;\
	$(MAKE) -C . run_tests

tempest_12.1.1_undercloud_gre:
	export TEST_VE_IMAGE=os_ready-BIGIP-12.1.1.2.0.204.qcow2 ;\
	export TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD=undercloud ;\
	export TLC_FILE=$(TLC_FILE_DIR)/$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}/tempest_ve_$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}.tlc ;\
	export GUMBALLS_PROJECT=$(CHANGESOURCE)_$(BRANCH)-$@ ;\
	export RESULTS_DIR=$(MAKEFILE_DIR)/test_results/$(CHANGESOURCE)/$${GUMBALLS_PROJECT} ;\
	export TEST_SESSION=$@_$(BRANCH)_$(SUBJECTCODE_ID)_$(TIMESTAMP) ;\
	export TEST_TENANT_NETWORK_TYPE=gre ;\
	$(MAKE) -C . run_tests

tempest_12.1.1_undercloud_vlan:
	export TEST_VE_IMAGE=os_ready-BIGIP-12.1.1.2.0.204.qcow2 ;\
	export TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD=undercloud ;\
	export TLC_FILE=$(TLC_FILE_DIR)/$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}/tempest_ve_$${TEST_OPENSTACK_CLOUD}.tlc ;\
	export GUMBALLS_PROJECT=$(CHANGESOURCE)_$(BRANCH)-$@ ;\
	export RESULTS_DIR=$(MAKEFILE_DIR)/test_results/$(CHANGESOURCE)/$${GUMBALLS_PROJECT} ;\
	export TEST_SESSION=$@_$(BRANCH)_$(SUBJECTCODE_ID)_$(TIMESTAMP) ;\
	export TEST_TENANT_NETWORK_TYPE=vlan ;\
	$(MAKE) -C . run_tests

run_tests:
	$(MAKE) -C . setup_tlc_session
	$(MAKE) -C . configure_test_infra
	$(MAKE) -C . run_neutron_lbaas
	$(MAKE) -C . run_agent_transfers
	$(MAKE) -C . cleanup_tlc_session

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Semi Final 1: Opening act rehearses for Eurovision Song Contest 2017
Michael Outerson / 8th May 2017 at 15:23 / Eurovision Song Contest / Ukraine
Monatik
Monatik is opening act for the first semi-final of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest. Today, at the first dress rehearsal, we got to see his act for the first time.
Before the opening act there is a video montage of many Ukrainian women in traditional costume.
Following that, the opening act is Monatik, a famous Ukrainian singer songwriter and dancer. He was a coach on the third series of the Voice, Ukraine.The opening song is called Spinning. Monatik is joined by eight dancers, as he sings and raps his latest dance style number.
He is dressed in a long blue and white traditional coat, with a dark blue beeny.
For those of you who do not know of him, below is a sample video of his work, where lots of couples can be seen dancing in a variety of locations.
8th May 2017 in Eurovision Song Contest. Tags: Monatik Countries: Ukraine
Monatik is opening act for the first semi-final of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest. Today, at the first dress rehearsal, we got to see his act for the first time. Before the opening act there is a video montage of many Ukrainian women in traditional costume. Following that, the opening act is Monatik, a famous Ukrainian… Read more
Poll – Eurovision 2010s: The favourite Ukrainian entry this decade is…
Eurovision 2010 – 2019: The best scoring countries this decade
Summer Fest in Moldova: Three Eurovision participants and Maruv
5 years ago – what has become of Eurovision's Top 10 from 2014?
Eurovision stars beat Madonna in download charts
21st May 2019 at 14:55 Ashleigh Kobevko
Ukraine withdraws from the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest
27th February 2019 at 17:35 Charlotte Jensen
Ukraine 2019: Maruv will NOT go to Tel Aviv
25th February 2019 at 18:33 Ashleigh Kobevko


The features of the Bradley House would come to characterize Wright's mature Prairie-style buildings. It has a cruciform plan, with the living room and kitchen on the main axis, the dining room and reception room on the cross axis, and a large central fireplace at the intersection. The ends of the low-pitched cross-gable roofs cant slightly upward, adding a subtle Japanese element—the only design feature taken from a foreign influence. Instead of heavy masonry Wright used lighter wood-stud construction sheathed in stucco. In the mid-1950s, the 6,000-square-foot house was converted to a restaurant and in 2005 it was purchased by a local couple who undertook a five-year restoration. It is now owned by the nonprofit Wright in Kankakee.


Reservations are suggested. Please contact us at 541-265-8921.
Our last day of business is October 20, 2018.
Saffron Salmon closes for the month of November.
Please visit our Map and Directions page for directions from your current location.
Keep in touch with Saffron Salmon on Facebook or Instagram.


text:
Q: How do you permit PHP to write to a file without compromising server security I am often confronted with negative comments whenever I want to have a PHP script write output to a file on the server.
I use the fopen(), fwrite() and fclose() functions.
The only way I know how to make this happen is to either set the permissions for the output file to 0666 or have it owned by "nobody" (which is the user that PHP runs under on our Apache web server).
So, if "0666" or "owned by nobody" are security risks, how do you successfully and securely allow a PHP script to write to a file?
Thanks for sharing guidance on this topic.

A: If you need to access the files from PHP after they are uploaded then they need to be stored with permissions that let the web server (apache in this case) access them.  The risk that people speak of is that some script on your site could be fooled into serving up the file.  It is a hypothetical risk, but one that has occurred with many Content Management Systems.  To mitigate this risk:

*

*Make the file name and path not easily guessable.  If a user has a path to getfile.php?file=1.txt they can readily infer that there is a 2.txt as well.  Crypt the name or make it unsequenced.

*Make any script that serves up files affirm things such as the logged in user, authorization to the resource and strip anything from the file name containing a path to avoid rogue references to /etc/passwd and the like.

If you just need to drop the file off and never serve it or access it via PHP again, you have some more options.  Either use the chmod or chown commands to make it unreadable to the apache user.  If you want to be extra paranoid, have a cron script move the file (and rename it) to a location unknown within the PHP source.  At least then if your server is hacked the intruder can't walk right into the directory, but we are getting toward the point where the discussion veers into operating system security.

A: The risk is if that writable directory resides in an area accessible to the outside world. Then those with the right tools and know how can write anything they want to that directory... or file. They can then place malware in it or create a phishing scheme on your site.
Really they can do all kinds of things to compromise you.  I have seen this on my own servers and haven't really found the right solution to this.


text:
The unexpected thing that happens inside Waymo's self-driving minivans
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles USA recently announced an agreement to supply thousands of Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans to Waymo to support the launch of the world's first driverless ride-hailing service. (PRNewsfoto/FCA US)
By Peter Holley
It's funny how quickly innovative technology becomes commonplace.
One minute you're anxiously awaiting your chance to become one of the first humans on Earth to ride inside a driverless car. The next minute, you're yawning (literally) and falling asleep.
Waymo — formerly Google's self-driving car project — has released a video documenting exactly that. The video shows early riders in the company's pilot program in Phoenix as they adapt to their first self-driving car experience, moving from anxious excitement to giddiness to anti-climactic sleepiness in the space of a single ride.
Consider it the three stages of autonomous vehicle acceptance.
Here's what it's like to ride in Waymo's self-driving van
Some passengers in the video marvel at the car's steering wheel turning on its own and laugh when other drivers notice they're sharing the road with an autonomous vehicle. But then something else happens: Passengers begin texting on their phones, calmly staring out the windows and eventually becoming drowsy.
The Internet has a word for this: carcolepsy.
Waymo's self-driving trucks will arrive on Georgia roads next week
Waymo's latest video arrives after the release of an American Automobile Association study that found that 63 percent of U.S. drivers report feeling afraid to ride in a fully self-driving vehicle, down from 78 percent a year earlier.
Male drivers and millennials are most trusting of autonomous technology, with only half reporting fear of riding inside a fully autonomous car, according to AAA, which has begun urging automakers to educate consumers about autonomous transportation. Despite the fact that more than 90 percent of crashes are the result of human error, most drivers consider their driving skills better than average and are leery of handing over control of their vehicle to a machine, the study noted.
"Americans are starting to feel more comfortable with the idea of self-driving vehicles," said Greg Brannon, AAA's automotive engineering and industry relations director. "Compared to just a year ago, AAA found that 20 million more U.S. drivers would trust a self-driving vehicle to take them for a ride."
Waymo said riders tend to relax inside the company's self-driving vehicles once they realize they can follow the vehicle's live field of view on passenger screens in the back seat.
For Waymo, sleepy passengers are a good thing. They're the ultimate example of relaxation, a sign that as soon as people realize driverless cars approach the road with adequate caution, there's no reason for them to remain on edge.
Waymo has been testing its fleet of autonomous Chrysler Pacifica minivans in Phoenix for years, but the vehicles have been ferrying the public around portions of town without a backup driver since November. The company, which has a 600-vehicle fleet in Phoenix, says its testing is "picking up speed" and recently announced plans to order thousands more Pacificas as it expands into other cities.
'Flippy,' the fast-food robot, temporarily decommissioned for being too slow
Elon Musk: Dealing with China's trade policy is 'like competing in an Olympic race wearing lead shoes'
Uber's self-driving big rigs are already traveling across Arizona


text:
ArtsNewsEntertainment
David Vann on Life and landscape
BRON SIBREEThe West Australian
Tue, 14 January 2014 1:10PM
Camera IconAuthor David Vann Credit: The West Australian
It's no secret that David Vann's recent novel, Goat Mountain, returns to the territory of his semi- autobiographical debut novella and short story collection Legend of a Suicide. But if that book, published when Vann was 42, exorcised the demons unleashed by the suicide of his father when Vann was a 13-year-old, Goat Mountain is, as he declares at its end, "the novel that burns away the last of what first made me write, the stories of my violent family". It is true, Vann declares down the phone from New Zealand, where he now lives for part of each year: "I do actually feel finished with the family stories."
Indeed, for a man who's written six highly acclaimed books dealing with the legacy of family suicide and violence, Vann is remarkably upbeat. In fact, the 47-year-old American writer and professor of creative writing at England's University of Warwick exudes wholesome sunniness and good cheer. And for an author who's notched up some 15 of the world's most prestigious literary awards as well as some of the most glowing reviews in 20 languages, he's refreshingly unpretentious.
He laughs away the many comparisons to Hemingway and Cormac McCarthy and instead speaks of his fascination with Greek tragedy. "It's when life falls apart that you see what the Greeks knew, which is that we hurt the people closest to us, that our lives are lived out of control. We have no idea what we're doing. And that to me is what Greek tragedy is all about."
But there's no denying that Vann's luminous sentences put him in a class all his own. Landscape is an ever- present force in his novels and takes on an inferno-like resonance in Goat Mountain, which explores the atavistic nature of violence. Revolving around three generations of men hunting for deer on Goat Mountain, the book was inspired by his family who were "just crazy for hunting. But my next two novels have nothing to do with my family. So I really have finally moved on. But in terms of the ones that are already published, they do all fit into a kind of boxed set," he laughs. "I've been very lucky. Five suicides and a murder and growing up in beautiful places. You couldn't have hoped for anything better for writing. And especially because I write everything through landscape. So to be able to grow up in places like Alaska then rural northern California while having all the drama in the foreground of the suicides and the murder, plus all the divorces and bankruptcies, was incredible, actually."
Not to forget all his own aborted ocean voyages, boat building and sinkings, the subject of A Mile Down, a non-fiction that releases in Australia this March, and which again harks back to his father's suicide. Interestingly, it was the first book he had published, initially solely in the US, but was written after Legend of a Suicide which he'd tried to get published, unsuccessfully, for 12 years until he finally was successful in 2008. A Mile Down tells the story of the interim years when he was failing to get his writing published and took to the oceans, to realise his dream of running a "university on water", by holding writing classes on a sailboat out of Turkey. "Because I couldn't get published for 12 years, and I couldn't get a tenure-track job, I had this completely other career."
A Mile Down is such an engaging account of his adventures as a captain and boat builder that it became an instant bestseller when it was finally published in the US in 2005. "From that point, I didn't really look back. I was able to get a tenure-track job and I haven't tried to do boats for business since."
He is still an avid sailor and spends part of each year with his wife, Nancy, sailing in Turkey, despite his travails as boat builder there. "It's true I lost my shirt there but I really love it." For Vann too, those disaster-packed years were critical in finally escaping the legacy of his father's suicide.
For as he reveals in A Mile Down: "I think I went to sea to repeat my father's life and get close to his suicide and test it really. I had always felt doomed, that things would get bad and that suicide would be waiting for me, that it would be inescapable and I would repeat what he had done." But in a terrible moment on the ocean, when everything went awry and he was forced to abandon the ship he'd spent months and all his funds building, he explains: "I realised my brain just didn't think of suicide. I realised that it's just not in my nature."
Since walking away from the "kind of awful immersion in boats where they just take over my life", he says: "I was able to write six books in six years." He's actually written 10 books in total and has four more releasing soon, first in Spain and in France, where his work is particularly popular.
"A writer needs luck and generosity from other people and everyone has been very generous in a lot of different places," Vann says. "I've been wonderfully lucky."
David Vann will be a guest of the 2014 Perth Writers Festival.
COVID casualtyCommentsPremiumPerth Festival opening event cancelled due to Omicron threat


Recordings from Doc Chad's monthlong Chad Fest at The Stone, NYC in 2007, improvising with Barry Mitterhof, Jessica pavone, Evan Gallagher & Stephanie Rearick.
Recorded by Bob O'Haire, August 2007 at Chadfest.
"Jessica Pavone (composer, viola, violin, el.bass) has performed in countless improvisation, avant jazz, experimental, folk, soul, and chamber ensembles since moving to NYC in 2000. She currently plays with Normal Love, in a duo with guitarist Mary Halvorson, with Anthony Braxton's ensembles and as a solo violist. As a composer, The Wire magazine praised her "ability to transform a naked tonal gesture into something special," and The New York Times described her music as "distinct and beguiling...its core is steely, and its execution clear."
Pavone's recent works for solo viola and voice stem from years of concentrated long tone practice and an interest in repetition, song form, and sympathetic vibration. She combines her long tone rituals with delay, understated melodies and sparse lyrical content while continuously experimenting with new forms. She is interested in the physicality of performing her somewhat larger-than-comfortable instrument and believes that cultivating physical bodies as a strong container for her thoughts is part of the creative process.
As an instrumentalist, she has personally worked with and interpreted new music by; Aaron Seigel, Andrew Raffo Dewar, Elliott Sharp, Glenn Branca, Henry Threadgill, Leo Smith, Jason Ajemian, Jason Cady, Jeremiah Cymerman, John King, Matana Roberts, Matthew Welch, Tristan Perich, Tyondai Braxton and William Parker; and, has played strings in bands such as Christy and Emily, Pure Horsehair, White Blue Yellow and Clouds, Joy Mega, and The Artificials.
Pavone has toured extensively throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe, performing in venues ranging from international music festivals, universities, and art galleries, to community centers and basements. Her music has premiered in venues in New York City such as, Roulette, Issue Project Room, and The Kitchen, and at the Klangbad Festival in Sheer, Germany. In 2011 she was featured in NPR's "The Mix: 100 Composers Under 40." She has received grants and commissions from the Aaron Copland Recording Fund, the American Music Center, New Music USA for her collaboration with choreographer, Anna Sperber, The Kitchen, MATA, The Jerome Foundation, The Tri-Centric Foundation, Experiments in Opera, and the chamber music collective, Till By Turning."
Recordings from Doc Chad's monthlong Chad Fest at The Stone, NYC in 2007 with Barry Mitterhof, Jessica pavone, Evan Gallagher and Stephanie Rearick. An authorized release from the Insect and Western 8 CD boxset.


text:
Public meeting over park row
Published: 09:25 Thursday 23 August 2018
Campaigners opposed to Mid Ulster Council's plans for a business park in Maghera, are holding a public meeting tonight in the town's The Link Community Centre, St Lurach Road, at 8pm.
The council is proposing to redevelop the grounds of the former High School off Tobermore Road for industrial units and is currently seeking expressions of interest from local business owners interested in re-location.
But Support Maghera Park,who describe themselves as a group of worried residents, say they will oppose the plan.
They have taken up a petition which has been signed by more than 1,300 people concerned about the development. "We believe this beautiful site represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to develop a 20 acre public park, maintaining the environmental quality and character of this important area within the town, ensuring it stays in public ownership and continues to be protected for future generations," said a spokesperson for the group.
"This Council's proposal would result in the loss of vital open space within a town where provision already falls far short of the Council's own minimum standard for 'free at the point of use' public open space and we believe Maghera deserves better.
"We welcome investment and economic development in Maghera, but believe there are other options which do not require the loss of a mature, green site of such huge value."
The spokesperson stressed that if this opportunity is lost for the town, the parkland will be gone forever.
"We are asking the Council to be brave, listen to the people, and make this a project that everyone can get behind and be proud of, for us, our children and our children's children."
Mid Ulster Council is currently consulting with local people regarding their plans for the site.
Chair of the Council, Councillor Sean McPeake, recently said there was a demand for a mixed use site of this kind in Maghera among local businesses.
He said it was time to begin to capture the specific needs of businesses, not just in the immediate area of Maghera, but further afield.
Call for moratorium on precious mineral mining in Sperrins


This section provides expectant parents and families with information about labour and birth.
Giving Birth in BC is an interactive exploration of perinatal data in BC and different areas within perinatal health. Topics include how birth is changing, the age of mothers, home births, and different types of health care providers.
Facility-Level Indicators includes labour and birth information from hospitals in BC. The information can help women have informed conversations with their doctors, midwives, or nurse practitioners about their labour and delivery options. If you have any questions, please contact your health care provider directly.


Today I turn 47. 😐 , fifty is right around the corner. So I thought I would have some fun with it. I of course researched my birth date as well as the number 47, here is what I found.
351,000 babies were born on that day.
I found a website for The 47 Society. It is a society that is dedicated to exploring the phenomenon that is 47. It is the quintessential random number, meaning when a number is picked at random, more often than not the number will be 47.
• The length of a pit stop service area in the Indianapolis Speedway is 47 feet long.
• Americans eat an average of 47 pounds of chicken a year.
• In Monsters, Inc., the factory floor went 47 days without incident before a monster came back with a kid's sock on his fur.
• Babe Ruth's career home run record of 714 home runs stood for 47 years until Hank Aaron broke it; the last day Ruth's record stood was 4/7/74.
I have also found that I am a Quadragenarian. Here are how a few things have evolved in my lifetime so far.
I might be getting a little old, since this made me LOL.
I do have that wall rotary phone in gold/yellow on my kitchen wall. It was fun messing with my sons high school friends several years ago. If you don't know how to use it, directions on YouTube. LOL I have ditched the rest of those things though. I have gone back to peasant blouses. AND…at 47 I learned how to SURF. I could pop into your background pic!
I don't know how I missed this post – but I hope you had the bestest birthday ever!! May this year bring you every good thing dear Lady.
I love reading all your fun 47 facts!! I TOTALLY AGREE with 40 is new 20 & 50 is new 30! 😉 I think the years bless us with much wisdom & experience which is never a bad thing. I'm just a few years behind ya but also looking forward to all that is to come.
Blessings & happy wishes to you!!
GREAT post! Loved it….and, yes, the last quote made me laugh too!!
🙂 Thanks Candice. I know what you mean about the cell phones. Me…gotta have my skinny jeans, never liked bell bottoms.
47 seems to be a lucky number in military aviation. The Bell 47 was the first practical helicopter (remember MASH?), and the CH-47 Chinook has been going strong for nigh on fifty years (it's the thing that looks like a bus with a great whacking rotor at each end.
The C-47 is the immortal DC-3, or Gooney Bird.
The P-47 was the "Thunderbolt" fighter of WW2, which provided the first long-range escorts to the 8th Air Force in the bombing campaign against nazi Germany.
The B-47 was the first jet bomber that the US deployed, and the direct ancestor to the B-52 which is still in service today…past the age of 50.
47 is, apparently, an age at which to take flight.
But you sure don't look it.
Thanks for the extra facts!!
Love that last quote. 😀 I love Pong, though I don't remember the original, but my how things change….