The text only version may be available from RNIB in large print, Braille or audio CD. For further information call RNIB Medicine Leaflet Line on 0800 198 5000. The product code(s) for this leaflet is: PL 04425/0264.
Is this leafet hard to see or read?
The name of your medicine is Sectral 400mg Tablets, Sectral 100mg Capsules or Sectral 200mg Capsules (called Sectral throughout this leaflet). This belongs to a group of medicines called beta-blockers. It works by slowing your heart rate or lowering your blood pressure.
Do not take if any of the above apply to you.
If you are not sure, talk to your doctor or pharmacist before taking Sectral.
If you are not sure if any of the above apply to you, talk to your doctor or pharmacist before taking Sectral.
Tell your doctor or dentist you are taking Sectral if you are going to have an anaesthetic or an operation (including dental surgery).
Please tell your doctor or pharmacist if you are taking or have recently taken any other medicines. This includes medicines you buy without a prescription, including herbal medicines. This is because Sectral can affect the way some other medicines work. Also some medicines can affect the way Sectral works.
Diltiazem as it may lead to increased risk of depression.
You are pregnant, might become pregnant, or think you may be pregnant. Sectral should not normally be given during pregnancy as it may cause problems with the foetus or newly born baby.
You are breast-feeding or planning to breast-feed. You should not breast-feed if you are taking Sectral. This is because small amounts may pass into mothers' milk.
You may feel tired or dizzy while taking this medicine. If this happens, do not drive or use any tools or machines.
Lactose. This medicine contains lactose, a type of sugar. If you have been told by your doctor that you can not tolerate some sugars, talk to your doctor before taking Sectral Tablets.
Always take Sectral exactly as your doctor has told you. You should check with your doctor or pharmacist if you are not sure.
The usual dose of Sectral depends on your needs and the illness being treated. Your doctor will advise you.
Your doctor may decide to lower your dose of Sectral if necessary.
Tell a doctor or go to a hospital casualty department straight away.
Take the medicine pack with you. This is so the doctors know what you have taken.
Feeling dizzy or weak, difficulty in breathing or wheezing, low blood sugar or serious heart problems.
Keep taking Sectral until your doctor tells you to stop. If you stop treatment suddenly your illness may get worse. When your doctor says that you can stop taking Sectral, you need to do this gradually. Your doctor will help you do this.
If you have any further questions about this medicine, ask your doctor or pharmacist.
Like all medicines, Sectral can cause side effects, although not everybody gets them.
You have an allergic reaction. The signs may include: rash, swallowing or breathing problems, swelling of your lips, face, throat or tongue.
Blood tests may show changes to your immune system. Signs may include joint aches and pains, swollen joints, increased sensitivity to sunlight, mouth ulcers, hair loss, anxiety, fevers, night sweats and stomach pain.
Pain in your chest and feeling weak or dizzy. These could be signs of heart problems or low blood pressure.
Shortness of breath or difficulty in breathing, cough, tiredness, fainting. These could be signs of inflammation in your lungs.
Fingers and toes changing colour when cold and tingling or painful on warming up. This could be Raynaud's phenomenon.
Sectral can increase the levels of liver enzymes shown up in blood tests. This can mean that your liver is not working properly.
Do not use Sectral after the expiry date which is stated on the carton after 'EXP'.
Store below 25ºC. Keep the blister strip in the outer carton in order to protect from light and moisture.
The other ingredients are starch maize, silica colloidal anhydrous (E551), magnesium stearate (E572), talc (E553b), Povidone K30, titanium dioxide (E171), lactose monohydrate, hypromellose (E464) and Macrogol.
Sectral 400mg tablets are white to off-white circular tablets, marked 'Sectral 400' on one side.
They are supplied in blister packs of 28 tablets or securitainers of 100 tablets.
Sectral 100mg capsules are yellow and white, marked 'Sectral 100'.
They are supplied in blister packs of 84 capsules and securitainers of 100 or 500 capsules.
Sectral 200mg capsules are yellow and pink, marked 'Sectral 200'.
They are supplied in blister packs of 56 capsules and securitainers of 100 capsules.


text:
10 Islamic Landmarks To Visit in 2023
History & Heritage Travel
With Islam being one of the most misunderstood religions in the world, visiting the world's best Islamic landmarks might just be the best way to explore the faith. From learning about Islam's history and heritage to immersing yourself in architectural masterpieces, visiting Islamic landmarks give you the chance to get a taste of the reality of the religion.
This year, take the time to explore what the world has to offer by travelling to one (or all) of the masterpieces of Islamic architecture. With diverse influences and breathtaking landscapes, these landmarks might be some of the best you have ever visited.
Hassan II Mosque Morocco
This magnificent mosque stands majestically in the largest city of Morocco and has been a point of interest for many visitors. Did you know that the Hassan II Mosque is the largest mosque in Morocco and the third-largest in the world? Sitting on the shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean, the mosque overlooks the sea majestically. The mosque is known to be home to the tallest minaret in the world which has a laser that shines a light toward the sacred city of Makkah every night.
Image Credit: Hans-Jürgen Weinhardt (Unsplash)
The Alhambra Spain
Considered by some as the eighth wonder of the world, the Alhambra Palace is a representation of one of the finest pieces of Islamic art and architecture. As well as being Spain's most visited historical attraction, the Alhambra Palace has stood the test of time by retaining its structure since the 13th century. Whilst many come here to marvel at the architecture, this is truly a place to reflect thanks to the overall beauty, care and details found throughout the palace.
Image Credit: Callum Parker (Unsplash)
Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia
Within walking distance of the National Mosque and the KL Bird Park, this is usually at the top of the list of places to visit for tourists. The Islamic Arts Museum is regarded as Southeast Asia's largest museum of Islamic art and gives visitors an insight into Islam through its global collection of Islamic Art. Showcasing early copies of the Qur'an and Hadith books such as Saheeh Bukhari, the museum is a popular place for history buffs as well as those interested in Islamic History.
Image Credit: Discover Islamic Art
Topkapi Palace Turkey
If you're in Istanbul, there's no doubt you'll be planning to visit the world-renowned Topkapi Palace. Once known as the political centre of the Ottoman Empire, it soon became the largest palace in the world. However, in 1924, the Palace was converted into a Museum. Be sure to visit the Sacred Trust section in which you will be taken through an exhibition to see historical religious relics belonging to the prophets. Relics include the staff of Moses, the cooking bowl of Prophet Abraham, the mantle of the Prophet Muhammad PBUH, strands of his hair, and much more. However, for many, the stand-out feature of the sacred trust section is the small room dedicated to 24-hour Qur'anic recitation. Qaris (reciters of the Quran) work in shifts to continuously recite the Qur'an, with the hope that the sound will preserve the relics within the building.
Topkapi Palace Interior
Jama Masjid India
Known as the largest mosque in India, the imposing Jama Masjid boasts a courtyard that can accommodate up to 25,000 people. The mosque's construction began in 1644 by Shah Jahan, who just so happened to be the same person that had the Taj Mahal built for his wife. All four towers, two minarets and three gates were meticulously constructed of strips of red sandstone and white marble, with the size of the courtyard surprising visitors with its immense size. Historically, the mosque held much significance, as it was the primary mosque for the city's sizeable Muslim population as well as the Mughal emperors until the mid-19th century.
Image Credit: Mayur Sable (Unsplash)
Tombs of Prophets and Companions Jordan
Jordan is replete with tombs and shrines belonging to prophets, which is one of the main reasons why many visit the country. After a 45-minute drive west of Amman city, you'll reach the tomb of the Prophet Shu'ayb AS. Also referred to as Jethro, the Prophet Shu'ayb AS was a descendant of Prophet Ibrahim AS. Located in the Karak province of Jordan, we find one of the country's most popular spots for those searching for religious landmarks: the shrine of Prophet Nuh AS. One of the best locations to visit in Jordan is Mazar near Mu'tah and Karak. Here you will find the tombs of legendary companions such as Abdullah Ibn Rawahah RA, Ja'far Ibn Abi Talib RA and Zaid Ibn Harithah. As the tombs are located within proximity to one another, visitors can pay their respects to all three in one visit.
Lodi Gardens India
Located within New Delhi, we find Lodi Gardens which is a recreational park visited by locals and tourists. Rich with history, nature, picnic lovers and artists, the park is a great place to escape to if you're looking to catch a break from all the city's traffic. But the more interesting part of this park is what lies at the farther end of the grounds. Once you're inside, you'll find some intricate architectural structures standing from the time of the Sayyid Dynasty. Filled with inscriptions from verses of the Quran, the Bara Gumbad mosque built in 1494 was one of the first of its kind. What's more, only metres away from the mosque, you'll also find the resting places of former rulers of the Sayyid Dynasty, such as Muhammad Shah.
Lodi Gardens
Camlica Mosque Turkey
This is not your regular Mosque. The Camlica Mosque – which is the largest in Turkey – has stepped up its game in transforming the mosque's complex into a holistic one. This mosque not only consists of a prayer room, washing facilities, toilets and a courtyard but also has a separate garden, kid's play area, an open-air rooftop with amazing views, a museum, a library, a separate study area, an art gallery and many lounge areas. One of the best parts of the Mosque – which comes as no surprise – is the main prayer hall. Located at a distance from the entrance, it is an entirely different world once inside. Some of the most magnificent chandeliers hang from the ceiling, while the prayer hall is surrounded by perfectly designed stained glass windows.
Camlica Mosque
Alpujarras Spain
Whilst many visitors to Andalucia get carried away with Cordoba and Granada, the region of Alpujarras often gets neglected. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, the region is home to peaks, gorges, farmlands and above all, the breathtaking Berber-influenced white villages. History tells us that the Muslims who were expelled from Granada in the late 15th century ended up in this exact region. After finding refuge here, they chose to remain and still do to this day. The history of Muslims may be small here, yet it played an important role in the future of the region. Until this day, many Muslims in Spain prefer to move and settle here due to its history, heritage and sizeable Muslim community.
Kampong Gelam Singapore
Kampong Gelam is one of Singapore's oldest districts and was once dedicated to the Bugis, Arab and Malay communities. Back then, it was known as the Muslim quarter as it was also home to the Sultan of Johore and was thriving with a huge community of Muslim traders. Whilst tourists often get carried away by the multi-coloured buildings here, the imposing Sultan Mosque is a constant reminder of the district's history. Known as Singapore's biggest mosque, it was built in 1824 by Sultan Hussein Shah. With daily tours in a variety of languages, it's a popular choice for many to start or end their trip to the neighbourhood with a visit to Sultan Mosque.
Image Credit: Tamal Mukhopadhyay (Unsplash)
Main Image Credit: Setu Chhaya (Unsplash)
Tags: Alhambra, british muslim, british muslim magazine, halal, halal travel, heritage, history, india, islam, Jordan, malaysia, morocco, mosque, muslim, spain, travel, turkey, visit
Juber Ahmed 1 day ago
Juber Ahmed 1 week ago
Books for the little one's
Connected Histories: Muslims in the First World War
In conversation with children's author Fawzia Gilani Williams
Internet Sensation Andrew Tate Becomes Muslim
UK Parliament to mark 'London History Day' on 31 May

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Marriage is a formal union, marriage is a social, and legal contract between two individuals that unites their lives legally, economically, and emotionally. And there are some facts that marriage is and isn't. Here are details.
1.Marriage is knowing someone has your back. Always. You have theirs. It's about interdependence.
2.Marriage is realizing that you have been seen in your worst times, and that you are still loved. There's an overriding sense of gratitude and security.
3.Marriage is sharing old jokes. Or some story that may be told over and over but it still makes you laugh 'til you are left gasping for breath.
4.Marriage is thinking about the other one not being there anymore. And not being able to think about it.
5.Marriage is not being able to wait to get home to share some little something.
6.Marriage is sometimes fighting. Trying to slowly learn to fight more fairly. To apologize. To listen. To learn. To find resolution.
7.Marriage is about vulnerability. Giving someone the right to hurt or disappoint you. While simultaneously giving that someone the opportunity to bring you tremendous joy and laughter.
8.Marriage is a promise. A vow. To try the hardest you have ever tried in your life. Marriage is a place for the achievement of a personal integrity like no other.
1.Marriage is not about getting what you want all the time. It's not a dictatorship. It's not wanting to win all the time because that would mean the other person would lose all the time. May be OK for you. Not good for the marriage.
2.Marriage is not in and of itself stimulating. Since you are with the same person over a long time, the two of you can get in a rut. You have to keep things fresh.
3.Marriage is not about collecting things. The joys of marriage aren't tangible. You live them. That's what makes them so very special.
4.Marriage is not for the impatient. Some of the best stuff takes a while to develop. You have to stick around to find that out.
5.Marriage is not the place for criticism. For abuse. If it is found there, it will ruin any chance of true intimacy or trust and dissolve the hope that once might have existed.
6.Marriage is not a 24-hour repair shop. Your marital partner is not supposed to meet your every need. Some of those needs you may have to take care of yourself. Through your friendships or other activities.
7.Marriage is not self-sustaining. It does not thrive on its own. If all you focus on is the kids, you are making a mistake.
8.Marriage is not boring. Two lives woven together can be quite exciting! There's just something about watching someone very different from you, living their life in an extremely different way. Up close and personal. You learn from that.
Life is short but it also can be preserved, why not memorize it in a meaningful way? Only your photo is needed, and we can present you an amazing gift! Freeze the beautiful moment, only at Preamic!


text:
Victoria Supports Dominance in Manufacturing Labour Force - Sitecraft
Victoria Supports Dominance in Manufacturing Labour Force
True to its former motto, Victoria is the place to be for manufacturing jobs, adding over 10,000 in March according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS.)
The total number of jobs added around Australia rose by 20,700 or 2.4% nationally. The lion's share went to Victorian manufacturing.
Over the past four years, over 461,000 people have found work in Victoria, with 70% of them being full time positions.
Speaking to Manufacturer's Monthly, Acting Minister for Jobs, Innovation, and Trade Martin Foley MP said Victoria supports over 271,000 manufacturing positions.
"In Victoria we employ more people in manufacturing than any other state and we have provided over $170 million to support the state's manufacturing industry since December 2014 – creating more than 7,000 jobs and generating over $1.8 billion in private investment."
Victoria is bucking the steady trend in unemployment, which stays at a favourable 5% in March. The workforce participation rate also remained the same at 65.6%.
Contrasted to the AiGroup's Performance Manufacturing Index (PMI), the employment rate in manufacturing has eased by 1.1% to 56 points (with 50 being the break-even point between expansion and contraction.) The Wage Price Index also improved by a 1.7% margin in real terms according to the PMI.
The PMI fell from 54 in February to 51 in March. The blame for the slump hangs on a downturn in the housing market, uncertainty around the upcoming Federal Election, and the ongoing impact of the Eastern seaboard drought.
Despite some weak numbers, It would seem manufacturing jobs are up for grabs, as the ABS estimates over 12,200 jobs were vacant in February. The flow-on from the Victorian jobs numbers won't be known until the next ABS release on jobs numbers in July.
According to the Labour Market Information Portal, Australia supports over 918,200 manufacturing jobs.
Adding to jobs growth is recycling manufacturer Visy, opening its new $100 million corrugated packaging facility in Truganina, Victoria earlier this month.
20% of Visy's manufacturing labour force is employed in Victoria.
According to Victoria's Live In Melbourne portal, 17,085 people are employed as metal fabricators; 18,752 as metal machinists; 1,976 as sheet metal trades; and approximately 17,000 as first-class welders.


Giro's ethereal new Prolight helmet is 60-120g lighter than most top-end lids, with an actual weight of just 181g for our medium-sized CPSC-certified US sample (European versions are even lighter).
While that may not sound like much of a difference on paper, it's very noticeable after a few hours on the road, and Giro make few sacrifices in getting there.
To help save weight, the Prolight does without an internal reinforcement skeleton, so the vents are downsized to maintain structural integrity.
Ventilation is far better than expected, though, thanks to extra-deep interior channeling that makes the most of whatever air is coming in by funneling it straight over the top of your head.
Total airflow admittedly feels a half step behind Giro's Ionos and Atmos models (and some top pros notably reverted back to the Ionos during the Prolight's introduction at this year's Tour de France) but that still puts the new helmet on par with – or even better than – flagship models from some other brands.
General comfort is beyond reproach. The pared-down Roc Loc SL retention system is shockingly minimal with just a pair of spindly supports on the sides and an elastic band joining the straps at the rear. But the end result is remarkably effective as it both holds the helmet on securely and practically disappears on your head. If anything, the softer materials are even more comfortable than usual for those with close-cropped hair.
While there's no conventional ratchet or dial out back, Giro do at least include a three-position anchor up front to help tweak the circumference if needed. Save for the tightness around the chin, the lightweight webbing is fixed but Giro have obviously done their homework here as we never felt the need to adjust the fore-aft position during testing. If strap fit around the ears has caused you issues in the past, it'll be best to try one on beforehand to make sure the fixed position will work.
The aesthetics are a bit more polarising. Some folks we polled liked the look but most said the smaller vents aren't what they're used to seeing on a high-end helmet and somehow the red, white and black graphics scheme on our particular tester doesn't quite look the part, either. Giro will offer the Prolight in four colour options so one might suit you better than the others.
Comfortable? Yes. Airy? Surprisingly so. Light? Undoubtedly. Good looking? Best for you to decide for yourself.


iPhone app where a used car buyer receives detailed information and price data on the specific car by scanning the VIN barcode on the car.
We give retail customers access to information previously only available to car dealers.
Any of the 35million used cars buyers in the USA who is smart enough not to believe what the used car salesman is telling them.
Accurate and professional information from a trusted source.
The logo will be displayed on a website, but also a part of the logo will be used on the iPhone.


Developed by Hill and Smith plc, and fully tested in association with TRL (Transport Research laboratory).
Available in four PAS 68 tested levels, the Bristorm fence can provide protection up to a 7,500kg truck travelling at 50mph (80km/h). By tailoring fence levels to the specific threats faced by a site, a highly economical perimeter can be developed without compromising on protection.
The Bristorm system consists of an arrangement of plastic coated, high tensile steel wire ropes, which are heavily galvanized/greased and sheathed with a high density polyethylene coating.
With a modulus of elasticity of 195KN/mm2 +/- 10KN/mm2, it means that the system does not require any re-tensioning during normal wear and tear.
The strands are supported on steel posts and anchored at each end on substantial termination points.
The Bristorm fence can be installed in any colour with the posts to match so that it will fit in with any environment.
Applications for the Bristorm anti-terrorist fence include: airports, banks, cash collection centres, oil and gas terminals, MOD property and large shopping centres.
• Easy and cost effective to maintain or repair.
• Weatherproof, due to the ropes being galvanized/greased and having been sheathed in a high density polyethylene coating.
• The ability to have an anti tamper electrical cable incorporated into the design.
• Fence can be provided in any colour to match the environment.
• Environmentally friendly with an open structure that cannot be hidden behind.
• For further information contact Graham Sharpe on: 07876 440748.


You can subscribe to our Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Anghami, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or anywhere else you listen to podcasts. Just search for True Story Tent in your favorite podcast app. Or just listen to the episodes below if you'd like.


Grumpy invites you to join him each week on a musical adventure at his place. He'll be your docent, guiding you through his eclectic collection of music – from Black Sabbath to Perry Como, Glen Campbell to Satchmo. He'll sometimes open up "Grumpy's Box of 45's" or visit the "Kultcha Kawna" for more refined musical tastes. Grumpy also examines song lyrics, relates personal stores, and offers information from musical to gastronomical. He puts his heart and soul into this show and invites all good people to listen.


Wish - Sold FAKE SD Cards and refuse to refund. AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!
They were completely fake. I did a flash memory test on them using a program called F3 which verifies capacity byte for byte. NONE of them were even close to 512gb, instead what resulted was mostly corrupted files! These crooks even refused to refund me. NEVER BUY FROM THEM. I cannot believe they are supporting criminal activity and refuse to take action against such sellers. I suspect the feedback that is posted is mostly fake as well, they don't say anything much. A friend of mine was also cheated by the same seller. BUYER BEWARE!
Product or Service Mentioned: Memory Card.
I didn't like: Stolen the money both from seller and buyers.
Review #1208553 is a subjective opinion of user63604822.


These dark blue Charlie Sheen t-shirts display a giant image of the actors smiling face. The quote 'I'm not Bipolar, I'm Bi-Winning!' is superimposed on top of the pic in blue and white text.
Charlie Sheen is a loveable guy who enjoys having fun and living his life to the fullest. Sometimes his good nature gets him into a little trouble, but it's nothing his tiger blood and clever responses can't clear up.


3 "Global Atlas of Palliative Care at the End of Life," World Health Organization, January 2014, p.5.
6 Joanne Lynn, David M. Adamson, "Living Well at the End of Life: Adapting Health Care to Serious Chronic illness in Old Age," RAND Health, https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/white_papers/2005/WP137.pdf, accessed August 31, 2017, pp.6-8.
13 "Funeral planning," Dignity Memorial, http://www.dignitymemorial.com/en-us/plan-now/index.page, accessed August 31, 2017.
15 "Sample Plans," Dignity Memorial, https://www.thedignityplanner.com/sample-plan/index, accessed August 31, 2017.
18 "Views and Experiences with End-of-Life Medical Care in Japan, Italy, the United States, and Brazil: A cross-country survey," Kaiser Family Foundation, April 2017, p.11.


The choice of metal mesh panels to embellish the environments is quite common, but the result obtained in this Korean restaurant in Paris is absolutely amazing.
Brilliance and brightness are just two of the effects obtained with Liner, a light metal mesh, composed of groups of wires with different spacing and intensity, intertwined with a regular weave.
The steel wires struck by light create a unique play of transparency and the reflections that are created give shine and elegance to the entire restaurant.


text:
Q: Bijection between $\mathbb{P}^{1}(\mathbb{C})$ and the unit sphere I have the following complex analysis problem that I am completely lost on.

Let $(z_{1},z_{2})$ be a non-zero vector in $\mathbb{C}^{2}$ and define $F:\mathbb{C}^{2}\to\mathbb{R}^{3}$ by $$F(z_{1},z_{2})=\left(\frac{z_{1}\bar{z}_{2}+\bar{z}_{1}z_{2}}{z_{1}\bar{z}_{1}+\bar{z}_{2}z_{2}},\frac{z_{1}\bar{z}_{2}-\bar{z}_{1}z_{2}}{i(z_{1}\bar{z}_{1}+\bar{z}_{2}z_{2})},\frac{z_{1}\bar{z}_{1}-\bar{z}_{2}z_{2}}{z_{1}\bar{z}_{1}+\bar{z}_{2}z_{2}}\right).$$ Show that:
(1) $F$ defines a bijection between $\mathbb{P}^{1}(\mathbb{C})$ and the unit sphere in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$;
(2) if $S$ denotes stereographic projection from $\mathbb{C}_{\infty}-\{(0,0,1)\}$ to $\mathbb{C}$ and $[z_{1}:z_{2}]\neq[1:0]$, then $S(F([z_{1}:z_{2}]))=\frac{z_{1}}{z_{2}}$.

As mentioned above, I really have no idea of where to begin. Any suggestions and comments are appreciated!

A: As for (1), you first need to show that the domain and range are correct. The function $F$, as defined, has domain $\mathbb C^2$, not $\mathbb{PC}$. But it suffices to show that $F(z_1,z_2) = F(kz_1,kz_2)$ for any $k\neq0$ . Then $F$ applied to an element of $\mathbb{PC}$ can be defined as $F$ applied to any representative in $\mathbb C^2$, because all representatives have the same value of $F$. (Remember the definition of a function: any input must have exactly one output.)
The codomain (a superset of the range) given is $\mathbb R^3$. (Check that all components of $F$ are actually Real numbers.) You need to show that the function maps to the unit sphere; $\lVert F(z_1,z_2)\rVert = 1$ .
A bijection is an injection and a surjection. $F$ being an injection means that it's one-to-one, that different inputs cannot give the same output. $F$ being a surjection, also called "onto", means that the range is the entire unit sphere, not just a part of it. Another way to think of bijectivity is that $F^{-1}$ is uniquely defined everywhere on the unit sphere.

(2) is slightly confusing. I haven't seen a definition of $\mathbb C_\infty$ , but the fact that $S$ is applied to the output of $F$ implies that $\mathbb C_\infty$ is simply the unit sphere in $\mathbb R^3$. (I think this is bad notation, similar to saying that $\mathbb R^2 = \mathbb C$.)
Stereographic projection is invertible, so (2) is equivalent to $F(z_1,z_2) = S^{-1}(\frac{z_1}{z_2})$. I'm familiar with the Real version of stereographic projection as
$$(x,y,z) = S^{-1}(X,Y) = \left(\frac{2X}{X^2+Y^2+1}, \frac{2Y}{X^2+Y^2+1}, \frac{X^2+Y^2-1}{X^2+Y^2+1}\right)$$
(Is there a specific definition that you have to work with?)
Compare this with the given components of $F$, which can be rewritten as
$$F(z_1,z_2) = \left(\frac{2\,\text{Re}(z_1\overline z_2)}{|z_1|^2+|z_2|^2}, \frac{2\,\text{Im}(z_1\overline z_2)}{|z_1|^2+|z_2|^2}, \frac{|z_1|^2-|z_2|^2}{|z_1|^2+|z_2|^2}\right)$$
or, noting that $\frac{z_1}{z_2} = \frac{z_1\overline z_2}{|z_2|^2}$ if $z_2 \neq 0$ ,
$$F(z_1,z_2) = \left(\frac{2\,\text{Re}(z_1/z_2)}{|z_1/z_2|^2+1}, \frac{2\,\text{Im}(z_1/z_2)}{|z_1/z_2|^2+1}, \frac{|z_1/z_2|^2-1}{|z_1/z_2|^2+1}\right)$$
I think you can see the connection, if $z_1/z_2 = X+iY$.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
M.T. Karthik
~ works from 1977 – 2017
Tag Archives: first
Plug/Unplug and The First Contact Project
Posted by mtk in art, audio, beliefs, clips, Commentary, elections, essay, features, history, journalism, nostalgia, radio, social media, talks, thoughts
audio, birth, book, computers, contact, copyright, dawn, electronic, essay, first, games, gaming, internet, interviews, Karthik, longform, m.t., media, mtk, nascent, plug, Project, technology, television, unplug, web
Between 2005 and 2011, I collected interviews with people about their first experiences with a computer (The First Contact Project) and
wrote a book about our intersection with technology and how I grew up with it and how it became a part of policy and society (Plug/Unplug)
Here I mix them together for a final expression.
Loggerhead Shrike, Lanius ludovicianus
Posted by mtk in birds, fauna
antonio, bird, first, Karthik, lanius, loggerhead, ludovicianus, m.t., mtk, passerine, point, recharge, rocky, RPRZ, San, shrike, spring, texas, zone
The first bird of the spring has arrived and it's one I haven't seen before: the loggerhead shrike, Lanius ludovicianus
Inaugural Post [Soft-Launch Date]
Posted by mtk in Letter From MTK
antone, antonio, blog, first, home, in, inaugural, letter, post, San, start
Greetings and welcome to Home in San Antone!
The site is named from the Bob Wills classic and we can be found on twitter @HomeInSanAntone
The headers are rotating panoramic shots by OMM, and this gem, our twitter header:
The others can be found in the flora tab
Welcome to the birth of Home in San Antone!
Timmy Goes Six, Fans Seven, Giants Beat Padres 4-3
Posted by mtk in Commentary
4-3, 4-6-3, 420, 7, bday, beat, belt, Brandon, double, DP, first, George, giants, gift, happy, Hicks, high, homer, k's, Kelly, Lincecum, padres, play, pockets, Posey, qs, quality, Romo, spirit, start, strikeouts, struggles, Tim, win
As I Stepped Into the Pub, Buster Hit a 2-Run Homer …
It was incredible. The sun was shining into the doorway and as my foot hit the bright rectangle of light on the floor in the doorway, I heard the crack of the bat! I turned to the screen and saw Posey put Tim Lincecum ahead early. 2-0 Giants.
Timmy stayed in 'til the 7th giving up three runs, the last a solo shot in the 7th to bring the Padres within a run, 4-3. Then the bullpen handled the business, though Romo was shaky in closing and that made it interesting. Lots of crisp defense, double plays. Great game.
It was very much like last year today against the Pads: A Timmy Quality Start (@SD4/21/13) in which he struck out 8 and got the shutout. Except there was more action on the basepaths. Buster made a tag at the plate that was called "safe" then reversed when challenged. He also gunned down a runner trying to steal second with a fluid rise and extremely accurate throw. MVP-type day for Gerald.
I started up this blog again with a mic check because of the torture of this past week.
Matt Cain remains my favorite Giant for seven years now and I feel terrible that we struggle to provide even two runs when necessary to get him these wins. #CainedAgain has become a thing. (sigh) Once again this week Cain was great. Bumgarner, too. Huddy – near perfect. and then the bats? (cricket sounds).
In that piece last year, I came up with what I see as Bruce Bochy's basic formula for victory for the pitching/batting mix of our team, our budget and our pitcher's ballpark. Thought I'd apply it to today's game just for kicks.
1. Pitching
a. quality start – Timmy, with a 2-run lead hung in there for a quality start ("one pitch too many" Marty said, and I like it). 7 Ks. Marty called it "acceptable, but I'd say not only consistent – look at the performance one year earlier (link above) – but he looked like he was in control and doing what he wanted to be doing. He kept the ball down. They swung at balls in the dirt because they assumed it was going to rise. Tim looked stable. Should NOT have sent him out there for the 7th. Should have left Matt Cain in the other day, should NOT have left Timmy in today.
b. stable relief pitching – Pen was good. Machi did his job. It was Affeldt's first start and Jeremy was good. Looked solid, comfortable and handled it: 3 up 3 down.
2. sharp defense – must make mention of Hicks-to-Crawford-to-Belt 4-6-3 DP! beautiful! Hicks was textbook. Way too good to make a "Brandons" joke.
3. situational hits for "just enough" runs – Timmy's bunt was perfect. That is the baseball we've been missing: bunts, sacrifices, moving guys over and driving 'em in. Once Pagan did drive him in, however … back to (cricket sounds) not another hit!
4. take advantage of opponents mistakes – not many of these today.
I think this year "just enough runs" is NOT going to cut it. We desperately need more: more situational hits to move people along, more hits with RISP, more early leads and more runs, in general.
GM Brian Sabean should be commended for doing what we all hoped: namely going after and locking up bats we can afford, including a true platoon in left with the addition of Morse. Torres/Blanco wasn't a platoon since they're so similar, so Mr. Sabean got a power guy, a hitter to pair with Blanco. He signed everybody. So that even without Marco Scutaro:
WE HAVE SIX GUYS WHO COULD POTENTIALLY HIT .300!
POSEY, PENCE, MORSE, SANDOVAL, PAGAN AND BELT
and Crawford, Blanco and Sanchez should be able to hit at least .230
An important point is that our pitchers are decent hitters, arguably good hitters. This is going to mean a whole lot against the American League in our pursuit of wins.
Recently I've read articles LA is using millions to go after "pitchers who rake." We don't need to.
Our defense shows brilliance one day and then utter idiocy the next, but it's early and they seem like a crisp, capable group. Scutaro was struggling to make plays at the end of the year. To his credit, Hicks is a sharp addition. Love Brandon Hicks.
Happy Birthday Brandon Belt. My wish for you is that you are graced by the spirit of my second favorite Giants 1B, Long George High Pockets Kelly. A HoFer who led the league in RBIs twice – once driving in 136 runs – and led the league in homers with 21 in 1921, thereby keeping Rogers Hornsby from the Triple Crown.
Brandon, High Pockets won two World Series, just like you. The Giants need to use the trip to Colorado to get the bats going again. Looking forward to altitude homers.
Buster Posey's First Walkoff Home Run Smacks the Nemesis
Posted by mtk in Post Game Blasts
angeles, AT&T, baseball, belisario, Buster, corner, dodgers, ever, first, Francisco, giants, home, hr, LA, los, mlb, MVP, Posey, ronald, run, San, sf, walkoff
There were a lot of people calling for it on twitter, asking Buster to hit the walkoff homer like it's just that easy. The trend is to do it so you can retweet later that you "called it" … which is idiotic. I think maybe we called for 'em just as often in the past – I begged Renteria to hit 'em – but now our boys are coming through when it counts way more often.
Clutch-Fu Panda, Beltdemption and Hustle Pence were joined in the season's late-inning heroics last night by Buster Posey, who hit a solo home run to win the game 2-1 over the Dodgers. Though its only May, that may have been Buster's signature Dodger moment thus far in his early career.
It was a classic outing for Clayton Kershaw, pitching for the first time since the passing of his father. The Dodgers' lefty ace held serve for 7 innings until Buster doubled in Marco Scutaro to tie the game 1-1, but it was Ronald Belisario, the Dodger reliever, who lost it to Buster on a 3-2 pitch, the sixth pitch of the bottom of the ninth.
Posey connected for his first career game-winning RBI of any kind off of Belisario (2-3), who hadn't allowed a run in his previous four appearances over six innings.
great win.
Cespedes Slides Home 1080HD
Posted by mtk in baseball, Oakland
A's, Athletics, cespedes, face, first, flies, home, Karthik, m.t., mlb, mtk, oakland, plate, run, score, slides, takes, yoenis
Oakland Athletics outfielder Yoenis Cespedes de Cuba
1Q84: Mid-Career Murakami and the New York Publishing Biz
Posted by mtk in Book Review, essay, reviews, social media
1Q84, Asia, books, Borzoi, chip, fiction, first, Gabriel, Haruki, Japan, jay, Karthik, kidd, knopf, literature, m.t., mid-career, mtk, Murakami, new, novel, NYC, person, philip, publishing, review, rubin, tork, usa
In San Francisco, in the Mission District, between 1993 and '95, I read Haruki Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase, Hard-Boiled Wonderland at the End of the World, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Norwegian Wood. He was then only recently translated into English and popular in San Francisco.
Those early novels were unpredictable, well crafted and defied genre. Murakami's talking cats, imploding houses, slight shifts in perception of reality – and his cool characters' natural acceptance of deep, scalar trips through levels of that reality – became a genre of their own.
His characters and prose paralleled in literature the malaise, disaffection, vapidity and bored waiting game of the end of the 20th century and then transcended it with fantastic departures from the world. The ride was like manga without the images or a purely textual Miyazaki Hayao animation epic just for single, young adults.
I first read A Wild Sheep Chase, Murakami's third novel, written in 1982, in San Francisco when I was 25. It remains my favorite. I remember feeling incredibly small in the face of the universe as his characters were pushed around.
I have a reverent fascination with Japan and a profound respect for her people. In my lifetime Japan was the most Americanized among all Asian countries, so growing up in the US, I was allowed slightly greater exposure to her writers.
Among Japanese novelists, I'd read Kawabata since I was a teenager, and in university covered Mishima and Akutagawa. I hadn't yet read the post-war existentialists, when I picked up Murakami. Banana Yamamoto's Kitchen was the hot new wave hitting California from the land of the rising sun.
Murakami was immediately different: pop synthesis of West and East through a contemporary urban Japanese socio-cultural lens.
Haruki Murakami began writing novels at the age of 29, in 1978, and has told Bomb Magazine, "Before that, I didn't write anything. I was just one of those ordinary people. I was running a jazz club, and I didn't create anything at all."
Wiki states he had a sudden epiphany during a baseball game:
In 1978, Murakami was in Jingu Stadium watching a game between the Yakult Swallows and the Hiroshima Carp when Dave Hilton, an American, came to bat.
… in the instant that Hilton hit a double, Murakami suddenly realized that he could write a novel. He went home and began writing that night. Murakami worked on Hear the Wind Sing for several months in very brief stretches after working days at the bar. He completed the novel and sent it to the only literary contest that would accept a work of that length, winning first prize.
Now I'm 45 and Murakami's 65, so we both remember 1984, the year in which his newest novel, 1Q84, is partially set. We have also both lived through an era that has seen the realization of some of the socio-cultural horrors described in George Orwell's prophetic novel, 1984, which 1Q84 uses as a sort of launching point.
My loudest use of Orwell's work was on the first anniversary of the September 11th attacks, in 2002, as a performance element of the art installation US=THEM, in Los Angeles, I read Orwell's 1984 aloud in its entirety in a book store gallery, beginning at 5:35am (the time the first plane struck WTC2) and ending just as the sun set on the corner of Sunset and Alvarado. I printed slap tags that read 2002=1984 and stuck them everyplace.
I was excited to hear Murakami was using Orwell as a point of reference, and assumed the work would have socio-political overtones. I hoped 1Q84 would be more openly political and less personally intimate than the love stories he'd been writing. I consider Orwell to have been ahead of his time, so I was biased by the title's obvious reference.
The particularly Asian coolness and practicality of Murakami's characters in every day life is inspiring. But from the first, I felt his work was limited by the use of first-person narrative, usually with a narrator who seemed very much like himself: a middle-aged Japanese man living in Tokyo and underwhelmed by normal existence.
Murakami's male narrators, all roughly his age, made the work light-weight. His contemporaries in late-20th century fiction writing in and translated into English: Garcia-Marquez, Eco, Kundera, Bowles, Ondaatje, Atwood, Boyle, Kureishi, DeLillo, Roth, Rushdie, Oates, Bolaño didn't succumb to this basic approach.
As a writer, I'd come to the conclusion that my fiction suffered from my inability to write effectively in third person. I was biased by instructors and Modernism away from the trend toward first-person narratives written for the Me Generation. Murakami had no such bias, and neither, it turns out, did the publishing industry.
Murakami was young when he began and was thrust into the international limelight very quickly because of the accessibility of his work and his remarkable imagination. He was rewarded for making it easy to read. He was rewarded immense audiences for his references to Western pop, to "classical music" and to the boozy freedom of post-modern urbanity.
Haruki Murakami's narrators' exceptional breaks from the normative were what thrilled – these crazy trips into the unreal experienced coolly by his characters.
As a straight, booze-drinking, single, urbanite in my twenties (pre-metrosexuals) Murakami's meals, drinks and one-night stands were a blast, in some cases a relief from the moralizing of political correctness.
I have sometimes felt targeted by novelists. Some just succeed in getting it. I wouldn't discover Pepe Carvalho until a decade later, but Spanish readers will appreciate the comparison to Montalban. We used to joke about a drinking game in which you take a drink every time a Murakami character does. It gets harder to finish the book.
I only begrudgingly got into Murakami's use of Western cultural tropes as described within an East Asian urban society, which Murakami was "first-to" in terms of crossover, and which he uses abundantly like a signature.
As an Indian living in the U.S. and Asia, who studied Ronald Takaki then, this was unappealing, I hated what post-post-modernism was becoming. But by the late '90's crosshatching Asia and the West had flooded the field. Murakami and Jim Jarmusch and Quentin Tarantino and Miyazaki Hayao made it cool. Sensible. At last, Asians outside London and New York were exhibiting what Hanif Kureishi knew, was called insouciant for writing.
It was inevitable at the dawn of the Internet and the globalizing 21st century. Haruki Murakami, the runner, from the longest US-occupied part of Asia, Japan; the novice writing in Japanese, first-person about being single, urban and sexually liberated was the first high-reaching Asian to just go ahead and run with it. Straight into the 21st Century.
I'm generalizing, but proposing Murakami was the best-seller who embodied the literary trend toward first-person narrative form and made it cool for Asian writing to love the West. Rushdie's Ground Beneath Her Feet, must've been influenced in some small part by what Murakami was carving out.
Initially turned off by the brazen professing involved in it, I began to embrace Murakami's careful choices of European orchestral music and western movies, TV shows and pop songs appropriated to both metaphorize, translate and drive narrative on multiple tiers. But creatively it always struck me as an easy way to force structure.
I was least impressed by Norwegian Wood. It struck me as a soap opera written for a specific audience of romantics. So after finishing it, I passed on a few of Murakami's books and embarked on other, pretty heavy, post-war Japanese novels: Dazai Osamu, The Setting Sun and No Longer Human; Kobo Abe, The Woman in the Dunes; and Saiichi Maruya's contemporary classic, A Mature Woman.
I returned to Murakami in 2005 with the publication of Kafka on the Shore, which was my summer read while living on a Japanese shore, in Kamakura.
Again impressed by the proficiency with language, I liked the poetics and the magical, even spiritual, feel, but I remained disappointed by what struck me as basically a first-person, relationship story. Murakami was still pushing western tropes through to the title page and writing less political, getting more pop.
That's my experience with Murakami's work. I am not qualified to review 1Q84 as anything other than a reader of novels for 30 years. I do not pretend to understand him as a man, nor have I read much about him or his method, barring what's been published in the New Yorker here and there.
In some small part this will also be a discussion of the state of the publishing industry in 2012 which has carefully produced 'Murakami, the technically proficient, edgy yet non-threatening Asian romantic fantasist' into an internationally best-selling novelist.
Though I've lived in Japan, I cannot read Japanese and so have experienced all the Japanese novelists only in translation to English.
1Q84 – translated by Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel – was published by Knopf as a massive, 944-page, case-bound Borzoi, with a vellum slip cover designed by Chip Kidd that lightly masks close-ups of two Japanese faces, a female on the front and a male on the back, on October 25th of last year (2011) and sold for $30.
I found one in great condition for $18 earlier this summer at one of the used book stores I help stay in existence. I finished it last week.
The paperback and e-versions have been available for some time now and I began to wonder whether this form of publication is ever really being read, cover-to-cover. The thing is a doorstop, a bookcase brace, a coffee table weight, but reading it's awkward, heavy and very hard to conceal.
Lugging this anvil around the past few weeks, I was stopped and asked about it many times in the street. One guy stopped pedaling his bike, going up a hill to stop me and ask, "Is that the new Murakami?' Is it good?" Waiters, bartenders and waitresses at all my local coffeeshops, bars and restaurants asked and showed anticipatory excitement about this big, pretty thing.
I was sure the novel was being read … but figured the vast majority of that reading was happening in multiple parts as separate books in paperback, or in a digital format. I've never wanted an e-reader more than in these past few weeks lugging around 1Q84, with its slippery vellum cover.
Which brings us to the design by Chip Kidd and to why it was sitting pretty, marked down 30% at the used bookstore within eight months of publication.
On November 11th of last year, two weeks after its publication, Rachel Deahl raved in Publisher's Weekly Knopf's High-End Print Package for '1Q84' Pays Off:
"But Knopf, which published the title late last month, has not only turned the book into a bestseller, it's also managed to reverse another trend: it has made the book more popular in print than in digital.
"According to numbers released by the publisher, the novel, which was at #2 on the Times bestseller list on November 13, has sold 75,000 copies in hardcover, and 25,000 in digital. Those impressive print sales are thanks, in large part, to an extravagant package that Knopf put together that has made the book the kind of object–beautiful and collectible–that readers want. And, more than likely, non-readers also want."
The design is horrible.
The lettering of the title is put on two lines so that the 1Q is above the 84, rather than written like a year: 1Q84. The result is that everyone who knows nothing about the book thinks its title is I.Q. 84 – which is hilarious and sad.
The vellum cover and the bold, sans-serif font make it worse. It's so done-already. The design completely fails to help make Murakami's connection between 1984 and 1Q84. (oddly, so does Murakami within, so perhaps it's a case of too-good design)
The faces on the cover aren't the author but face-models, and the vellum Kidd asked for that's received so much praise, serves to mask their Japanese-ness, while retaining the sexy – fashion! haute couture!
The endsheets and chapter title pages continue the idiocy of separating the numbers of the title out, making it more disassociated than ever from Orwell. These pages are all black and white photographic backdrops of twilight and of the moon, which plays a significant role in the book, but though highly-stylized, they're cheaply produced and the graphic elements aren't even like the descriptions by the author within, which are specific about the appearance of the moon. Design sensibility invades literature again.
ugh. It's whorish and stupid and has received nothing but praise and exaltation for Knopf and Chip Kidd for 8 months.
"the kind of object–beautiful and collectible–that readers want. And, more than likely, non-readers also want."
In the late-'90's when I was working as a low-wage proofreader, fact-checker, jacket-designer and researcher in the New York publishing industry while trying to get published myself, at nights and on the weekends I also worked to help found a non-profit artists book organization in Brooklyn.
It was bizarre: by day, I'd be using new digital tools to make mass-produced work flashier, more-designed, more image-oriented, less text-heavy, while at night and on the weekends I helped produce fine art books with traditional materials in limited edition.
The turn of the millennium in New York City brought the consolidation of publishing and birthed the end of the book as we know it. What happened with 1Q84 last year was that it was sold as a sculptural object to great success. They made it into something you could market at Xmas whether anyone read it or not.
But appreciating the work within is made more difficult by the immense distraction of these new marketing methods, which crowd the work with the gushing sycophancy of non-readers buying sculpture.
END PART ONE
and now,
a poll:
PART TWO: 1Q84, Murakami Tries Third Person
1Q84 is Murakami's first novel in third person. It succeeds in reaching for high ground, but weaknesses are revealed by the more difficult form. Some of these may be solely a result of translation issues, but whatever made it happen, at points it's unbearable.
1Q84 is overwritten. It could easily be two-thirds the length. There may be perhaps no single person or department to blame for this.
It could be issues of translation. Having two different translators may have contributed to the repetition of ideas as each attempted to infuse their read. Throughout the work slipshod word choices are not just used but repeated awkwardly.
I hated the choice of the word "jacket" rather than "sleeve" for record covers. It isn't wrong but it just sounds clunky in repetition – and the term is repeated within a paragraph without replacement when "sleeve" or "cover" would work so much better. The translation seemed rushed and simple. I presume this added pages.
It could have been a bad editor at Knopf, unwilling or unable to realize that when you publish three books in the same series from another language into one book sometimes there will be an absurd number of repetitions of basic points because when the work was originally published, these points were repeated to bring in new readers at each stage of publication.
I haven't read any other reviews of this book, but I gather from the PW clip that this was the NYT's problem.
It could be the fault of Knopf, itself, which seems to have rushed to shove the book out the door fast for Xmas season of last year, using cheap, flashy design to create a book to be sold as a sculptural object. They didn't care what was in it as much as what was on it, what it looked and felt like. It could easily have been rushed for sales and cheated of the requisite time and effort required for editing and translation.
These possibilities notwithstanding, the responsibility for quality of the work lies with the author and Murakami's attempt at third person results in common problems for anyone embarking on the daunting task of writing a proper novel: you must get inside the characters to let them live, but you mustn't show you are inside the characters for them to live.
One sophomoric method used to achieve this for several decades is italics to represent the thoughts and inner monologues of a character. If it absolutely has to be done, then this is the accepted practice. Oh, I'm getting pedantic! I hope they'll understand what I mean, that you should be able to write your characters into what you're trying to convey and not have to rely on italicized font to tell the reader something important, oh, maybe I'm just nitpicking. M.T., you're such an oppressive rationalist.
But just like the flashback has become nauseatingly common to drive narrative in movies since Pulp Fiction, usage of italicized thoughts has become standard in novels in third-person in this, the era of the first-person narrrative. It's a failure on the writer's part, or at least a CYA move. If you have to do it as a writer, you make it count.
Not so in IQ84.
Murakami's discomfort with form leads to an unending parade of italicized thoughts. No character goes mentally uninvaded. Like the first-person narrative before, Murakami is shaking off rules again in this attempt at third-person narrative. This could be considered bold, I suppose, but not by me.
What was bold was the whole new dimension added when Murakami decided to have these characters thinking in italics about quotes. These sections are actually italicized and bolded. I don't mean once or twice at climactic moments, but throughout the entire novel; nearly every character.
Murakami has characters read a number of different texts aloud to each other. This is in and of itself bizarre because references to existing texts, like Chekov could have been made "off-the-page" rather than being read aloud between two characters.
The point of using the Chekov could have been made in action, or through literary tactics, leaving the text itself as a support floating in literary space. In some cases these non-fiction texts are literally the full repetition of historical data as bedtime stories, simply so they can be referred to in future chapters – clunky. It's also demeaning to readers.
In the case of notes read aloud between and within the minds of characters, Murakami doesn't even let the note exist as the exchange. The note is quoted by a character within his or her own thoughts! Murakami and the translators use bold text within the italicized thoughts to display the character working out the meaning in their own thoughts. It's either genius beyond me or annoying filler because you can't convey what you mean.
The repetitions continue, almost as though when 'occupying' one character or another, Murakami has forgotten that another character has made a point … and so he repeats that point. At first, I thought this was because the book, like works of Murakami's in the past, was going to get fantastically multi-layered and these would echo. But that never happens. It's just repetitive.
1Q84 is also a little predictable, despite it's imaginative elements. I saw the intersection of the lead characters Tengo and Aomame coming long before it was clear they were intertwined. I wondered if Tengo was authoring Aomame into existence, so I could see clearly through to Murakami himself.
I lay all of this at the feet of the shift to the third-person narrative. It's hard to do. That is why I think Murakami is at mid-career despite having written so many novels and achieving such success. Murakami strikes me as a hard-working perfectionist who will likely tackle third-person narrative form again rather than shy away from it after a first-rate attempt. I look forward to his progress, and as usual, will be among the millions reading his flights of fancy.
I enjoy Murakami's precise, technical prose, like describing a meal or a piece of music. I admire what Murakami does well: creating translucent, shimmering waves of realities that both define and filter how his characters perceive of reality.
I enjoy his detailed descriptions of events of the past – like war and post-war conditions, laden with contemporary attitudes about those events. Certain simplicities like descriptions of the natural world, Murakami just nails – his cicadas take me to Japan in summer:
Haruki Murakami continues to display a brilliant imagination and wild ideas. He weaves his plot streams together beautifully. Though some of the unpredictability has gone as a result of our familiarity with his tactics, Murakami has invaded our consciousness with his genre.
Unfortunately 1Q84 as it stands is too long, in parts very repetitious, somewhat clunky, and as a result, boring. I give it a 3 out of 5.
In Conclusion: The NY Publishing Industry's Horrible Now
As I write these words from my home in California, the Nobel Committee prepares to announce its highly political and socially-influenced choices and the New York publishing industry is preparing to launch any number of new 1Q84s to push forward their bottom lines in this year's Xmas season – some new sculptural objects whose contents are mostly recycled scraps and cardboard, rather than goose down and gold. Orwellian indeed.
For people living in California and Asia and with concerns about the works from these places, these two events in Scandinavia and on the East Coast of the US have little bearing. They have proven themselves wholly out of touch. While here and in Japan we fight to author a new world.
We must bring ourselves up out of what post-post-modernism and its failed capitalist globalism has wrought.
Read, read, read. Think, think, think. Enough with the gushing sycophancy – the world is headed down a dark road by our ignorance and selfishness.
As readers, we must demand better product; better editors, translators and deciders of what gets put into our hands.
Seek out authors from independent publishers, read blogs, comment.
Be critical.
September 29, 2012, Oakland, California
The Major League Baseball All Star Game
Posted by mtk in baseball, S.F.
#asg, all, bases, best, cabrera, cain, first, game, home, Karthik, League, loaded, major, matt, melky, mlb, mtk, MVP, pablo, run, Sandoval, star, triple
The San Francisco Giants OWNed major league baseball's All-Star Game.
Our pitcher started, was best and got the win (Matt Cain),
our big bat (Pablo Sandoval) got the only triple with bases loaded ever scored in the history of the All Star Game, scoring three,
the first of whom was our best hitter for average (Melky Cabrera) who won the MVP going 2 for 3, with 2 runs and 2 RBI, had the game's only HR, and was the first and last man across home plate.
Together We're Giant
In First Place Out West
AT&T, diamondbacks, division, dodgers, first, flags, giants, mlb, padres, place, rockies, san francisco, sfg, west
Stephen Curry NBA Debut
Posted by mtk in journalism, nba, Oakland, SF Bay
Conference, Curry, debut, Don, Dubs, first, golden, guard, Houston, Karthik, last season, mtk, Nelson, point, Rockets, start, starting, State, Steph, Stephen, Warriors, western
non-profit (arts), archival, fair-use context
Steph Curry's First NBA Game
Posted by mtk in basketball, North Oakland, Oakland, sport, sports, Uncategorized
2009, 28, Arena, Association, basketball, cam, Curry, first, footage, game, Houston, mtk, National, nba, October, Oracle, Rockets, Steph, Stephen, Warriors
The Election of Barack Obama
Posted by mtk in elections, press clips, S.F.
barack, black, Brown, country, dangle, election, first, Francisco, Karthik, lloyd, Mayor, mtk, obama, Palin, president, proud, San, Sarah, sfsu, State, Stevens, Ted, university, Willie
I began Election day having a cocktail with former SF Mayor Willie Brown at the St. Regis hotel in downtown SF. We discussed in detail then-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's plans concerning the vacating of Alaska's Senior Senator's seat due to the trial of Senator Ted Stevens.
Mayor Brown agreed with me that Palin seemed to be attempting to leverage herself into the Senate with her pull as Governor. (Thanks, Mayor Brown for the kind attention over the years).
Lloyd Dangle hosted an Election Night/20th Anniversary party for his Troubletown comic strip at the Riptide in San Francisco the night Obama beat McCain for the Presidency.
Some students from SFSU were there and produced this video:
Proud of Their Country with Lloyd Dangle
It was an interesting night and I am glad I was with Lloyd Dangle – an outspoken critic of Republicans and Democrats alike for more than twenty years.
Prologue to my first novel, Mood
Posted by mtk in fiction, S.F.
first, Karthik, m.t., Mood, mtk, novel, prologue, san francisco
(A Fortnight of Lies & a Truth for the Profoundly Sad)
Our dreams and longings cover deeper dreams
and longings in the silence far away
All things on earth, sweet winds and shining clouds,
waters and stars and the lone moods of men,
are cool green echoes of the voice that sings
beyond the verge of Time
–Harindranath Chattopadhyaya
Once, upon a time before numbers, many things occured in harmony …
… a man sits upon a hill unaware. He is conversating with the moon. Get comfortable it says. This will take as long as it takes. Timing is everything. And nothing at once.
Just a moment –
The sun kisses me that I should be incapable of this murmurs the moon. Smothers me in his bright ker-shmack-a-dahs that I should be unable to share with you these whispers regarding the question you are. (Who are you?) My airless breath is caught in his kisses but my cold, cratered soul sings on the sly. So take measure and begin:
Temporarily I shall have to suspend the thunderous rhythm of the train of my fates though it has built steadily in momentum toward a point at which its power nearly supersedes my own strength to arrest its churning wheels. I am full-on the brakeman (of my own invention) and have barked at the conductor to fasten loose baggage and the hatches in every compartment. Fortunately the only remaining passengers are fast asleep or dead or deserve whatever violent surges and upheavals which this accounting and recounting and inventorying may produce. They can handle it. They climbed aboard of their own volition (not free will but theirs all the same – unique will) and have had clearly pre-ordained opportunities to dismount, to unboard from this passage at station after station over the terrain of life. The stops have been regular and timely. Scheduling complaints have been few. Until now.
Those who are left must have some taste for the ocean and for change or they would not be here at all.
Change is here. Tempo rarely.
This whistle-stop panegyric will end geographically in the lap of our mother Pacific, although temporally (not rarely, temporarily) it will have begun and ended over and over in times too many to number. Holding on tightly to its corners, edges and pages is not recommended. They are paper thin and likely incapable of supporting even the slight weight of soulless fingers much less the blood-filled, knuckled meats of a mortal variety.
(But fast, already I am skidding. Hold, I halt more aggressively or it will all be as it will be without the benefit of observation, without the curse of remembrance.)
Forever this will have been the American century. A has-been falsely named for a wandering Italian whose public relations skills far surpassed those of his peers. Whose marketing skills predecessed the creation of this capitalized time.
And forever stories such as mine will be contrarian. Infinitely untold they will remain guerrilla legends of a history unknown. So listen to the invisible voice, hear the reason of the pulsing millions who live in the shadow of a great white hope perpetuating existence solely (soully) for the sake of each moment, each split-second of time; those for whom being is (and history is not) …
just a moment-
Some once-sleeping passengers have risen to the change in velocity. They have acknowledged the alteration of tempo and have felt the impending nature of the hard-driving tone of this ride. They must be resettled.
Sleep, sleep dear souls. Lie down and sleep. The time to awaken has been predetermined, but that time is not now. This rattling about has been caused by my own unctuous wriggling. Me? Why of course, I too shall shall set to sleep. Let me coax you into your own places first. Let me tuck you in. Would you like a story? I am filled with stories Scheherezade herself would rub heavy-lidded eyes to hear.
Once, upon a time before numbers, many things occurred in harmony, among the first of which were the alternating cries, chortles and deep-sucking breaths of a newborn child. Prior to the child's emersion from it mothers womb many days and nights of worry and consternation had been experienced. The child's mother had suffered from a terrible, feverish anomaly in recent weeks due to the repositioning deep within her of an ever-hardening clot of cell activity which was fast becoming a cyst. The cyst grew to a point at which the lives of both mother and child were jeopardized by the presence of the willful collection of necrotic cells.
Many prayers were whispered and sung. Healers came from far and wide to the bedside of the mother who was to bear the child and- with support of neither husband, family nor friends – whose will flickered and faded like a soft-glimmering candle, whose wax has become a mere pool of melted oil, whose wick has burned out.
It was therefore with great joy that the healthy birth of the woman's daughter was received only to be followed by the deep sadness of its subsequent orphanage. The child was named after her mother and for the world from which she had come. The child was forever marked with foreignness. Her name was Soleta.
Soleta entered into an orphanage from the time she was strong enough and able enough to leave the hospital where she had been born. Years later, her earliest memories of the traversing which then occurred – for the hospital was quite a fine one and the orphanage rather not – were of a terrible trip by rough roads from a place of austere and sterile beauty – a place of solitude, to a place teeming with little lives; viruses, insects, rodents, a few adults and dozens of homeless, parentless children.
Soleta had been born and upon entering the world was thrust promptly thus into societal life. Into a society which was not even her own.
Now we must take pause to remember that many other things occurred in harmony with these events which we have chosen to follow in such a fashion. They are merely events which occurred – nay, are occurring – while time proceeds down its umpteen paths. Many other children were born, many other women died. And men, too. There were great upheavals in households throughout the world. Arguments and love affairs took root, blossomed and bore vengeful fruit in these few subtle years.
To her credit, Soleta came during the years of this period of spiking change and flux to realize how temporary these years were. She was cognizant of the futility of an attempt – even at such a young age – to grasp for firmament which would not be forever altered within weeks, days, or hours. She did not waste her time with names for she knew names are temporary. She was a loner. In her patient way, she grew observant and quiet and waitful.
Soleta's sense of awareness had been so finely attuned that on the occasion of her 16th birthday she was possessed with a powerful assurance that the period of change had ended and it was time for her to begin. Of this she had no understanding save that a beginning was to take place which seemed to her by a process of elimination more sound than an ending and less confusing than a middling. (Though in truth her beginning was postdated, as this middling and soon an ending, too.)
Now, it must be said that the child faced a monumental task to the point of her sweet teens. Indeed a stranger born in a foreign land with neither parent nor guide to a culture which was not her own and under the pressure of such an intense period of flux in the course of herstory might be quick, nay would know no better than, to adopt local customs, traditions and morays if for no other reason than for the comfort and solace of companionship.
Soleta however was led by the truths of her own blood and by the ghost of an ancestor of whom she would never hear one word spoken in her lifetime and from whom the power to resist perpetually swam through her veins striking down insistent, itinerant foreign agents like a one-man army of antigens.
(yes, it was a man. And a powerful man indeed who could traverse both time and space despite the will of the child's mother – Soleta the elder – to assert such control)
And so it came to pass that Soleta the younger learned the language of her adopted culture reluctantly. Learned their words for things right and wrong, would establish an understanding of the names they had for things good and evil but would never for herself feel an indebtedness to any of these names. Her linguistic skills far surpassed those of any of her cohorted orphan's for she was unencumbered by the need to divine truth from the words she was taught. She sailed along untethered to the concerns that other children had. She never asked, "But … why?"
And so empowered with a language which was not her own and knowing no truth save that truth was elsewhere (and feeling somehow an insistent pull and protection from within her spirit-filled veins) she packed a small valise and on the eve of the 16th anniversary of her birth departed from the only place she ever remembered. And set sail for her fate.
And now she is on this train fast asleep. Forever 16. But we shall here more from her. Be patient. You see now, this is the freedom express. This is the train of what was and it barrels toward the land of what may be.
Or perhaps not.
The shaken passengers sleep now. Night has fallen and we make our way at a more regular rhythm. We are slowing and it will be only a matter of time now. Temporal matter scatters itself throughout this trip. The chalky dust from the crumbled remains of bones kicks up in the light of every switch flipped or matchlit spark.
I must speak of life in a colder light. For now it is night and the dead rise from within the train. Soleta the elder (once dead, now once here risen) has come to the dining car where she pulls with full, red lips at chartreuse and absinthe in alternating sips. She sits alone and hopes for no company though she knows it futile. She wishes death were more solitary. Less crowded. "Living had its benefits," she murmurs thinking of quiet Sunday mornings before … before …
With a click and a slide of the car door which allows in the rushing air, the doppler-shifting downward pitches of our slow-grinding halt … halt … who goes there?
'Tis the East for whom Soleta the elder is not the sun.
"Oh. Sorry. I didn't think there was anyone else here," the East begins. Soleta the elder smiles wanly and waves at an empty barstool, at empty tables and chairs. She knows soon they will be full. At least until the dawn.
The East is weary. Etched in its moonish face (since death the sun no longer rises in it) are pockmarks of an eternity of experience. Histories cratered and unimaginable.
The arms of the East are weak and thin. (Some years ago its hands atrophied from lack of use; withered until they became like six stumps dangling from six, thin, unmuscled arms. It appears tentacular now, another victim of the arms race, as it takes a seat at one of the crimson, velvet booths which align walls of the dining car. It looks out at the night and sighs. El Ultimo Suspiro del Este.)
Yama the Death God rides his horse through the car. Clattering hooves cacophonize against the slow-braking train and send plates and glasses into tinkling showers of shard. The car is crowded with the stench of rotting bodies. The long-ripening redolence of stale, dead aspirations fills the air.
My parents are here. My grandparents and greats. But none of them disturb me. They do not even acknowledge me. They are unsure of my blood. They do not believe from my actions that I am of them. Some are convinced I am an impostor put here to satirize, to libel the family name. Would they had fingers they would write the train themselves.
It brakes hard. Momentum is fading.
Soon comes the dawn and a brief respite before my lecture. My final oration. And eventually, with a last toot of the blasted horn, the end of the line – la mer. The death train ends its trip.
It is time to break fast.
Good morning gentle ladies and men, esteemed colleagues, family, friends and enemies mine.
Finish your coffee and dough knots, bagels and fruit. I will allow for your digestion but I must finish before we come to a complete halt which by my own calculations will be within the hour. Our mother Pacific awaits our return.
I would like to take a moment of silence first for our dearly departed conductor, who passed of old age sometime in the night, and to the brakeman who – his arms having been rent from his body – has locked the brake into position with his legs but has subsequently bled to death. Their sacrifices have been immeasurable and I look forward to seeing them on the return trip by night.
(beat)
Champagne. Everyone. Please. The long, dark night has ended. The dead are behind us and we arrive at the beginning. Soon.
The title of my lecture today as printed upon your programmes is, "Linear Models of Time and Space in Dilated-Locomotive Physics," and for those of you who thought you could make out or wondered over the subtitle, a confirmation: yes, it does read, "(narrative form)". (laughter)
I take as my fundamental assumption the fact that we speak the same language at least insomuchas everything I say – have said, will say – is comprehensible.
We are all murderers and prostitutes.
Soon this train will come to a halt and we shall face our mother with newborn eyes. She will see within you. She will know you for your true self. Then, on high the sun will shine down upon the waters of the Pacific and standing here on the tall sea cliffs at the last train stop of the freedom train you shall know peace. It shall be alit within you by the triangulated silvery sparkles of the sun on the deep blue sea. The finger of the sun points directly at you alone in sprinkles of silvereen.
Our train comes to a halt now. I shall sound the horn for your release. Hear it friends, hear it blow and know that you are free at last, at last you are free. And with this trip ended, love. Love. Your debts are paid. Life awaits you.
California lays beneath the sound of the great whistle hoooooooooooooooooooooot.
Run, run, run, into the ocean. Run to your mother Pacific and feel her cold fingers (running) in your hair.
Epilogue, poem
Posted by mtk in Coastal Cali, poetry, S.F.
after, entry, epilogue, finishing, first, journal, Karthik, mtk, novel, poem
January 17th, 1997ce 3:45 pm
Ocean Beach, San Francisco, California
At two o'clock p.m. on 17th January, 1997ce, I ended an experiment in documentation, exactly two years and two days from the experiment's beginning.
I put an end to two years of work during which I spent the vast majority of my time – averaging five to seven hours a day – doing nothing but writing. The conclusion of the experiment occurred as a result of the act of putting the only existing copy of the novel I had written over the two year period into a black cardboard box and delivering it to Chronicle Books, a publisher of some size in San Francisco, at exactly two o'clock on that sunny Friday.
Then I went to the beach.
I consider the experiment in chronicling and documentation to have ended at that time. I do not intend to revisit or change one word of the texts of the resulting documents which include the novel, many stories, poetry and a number of other notations and entries.
The following is the first entry in my journal which I wrote on Ocean Beach after ending the experiment:
You are a novelist and you have just ended your first novel. The process in which you participate has borne a fruit. And now, it is time to take the fruits of your labor to market.
What will the market bear?
How does your fruit compare.
to other fruits available.
Is it sweet? Is it bitter?
Does it slake the thirst?
Does it feel cold and delicious
going down like a plum?
Is it dry and grounding, requiring
delicate effort like a banana?
or more delicate still
unseeding a pomegranate
What is the going rate for
fresh, ripe, delicious fruits
on the market which compare
to yours
Shall you ask more or less?
This is your position and
you feel you may be definitive
and yet you are afraid because
you have never sown & harvested
these seeds (brought them
to ripen) before.
Your fruit sits next to you
like a prize tomato and
just picked, plucked, fallen
and all you can think of is
how to better farm the seeds next time.
How to hoe the rows.
How to plant the seeds.
And you realize there is no time. You are beat. The last harvest cost you everything and you are tired and hopeful for success @ the marketplace and you do not know what to do except to try to maybe relax … and take a break.
But even resting is duro … hard … difficult
This is an alone time. And you notice your surroundings. Sounds are amplified. The women talking at the table next to yours, the ocean, birds, music, poetry, … ART
ALL MADE
BIG!
Marconi's First Words
Posted by mtk in poetry, S.F.
1996, first, Guglielmo, Karthik, m.t., Marconi, mtk, poem, words
doesn't matter what Marconi's first words were.
He was only the first one to put them into another wave, another packet.
There are millions of ways unheard everyday.
So why celebrate one?
mtk, SF, 1996
Posted by mtk in poetry
1982, first, Karthik, m.t., poem
Life's a joke and I don't get it.
Everybody else is laughing at its punchline.
But I'm just standing here
and I'm not feeling so fine.
So I nod my head and I smile and laugh,
like I've done before with jokes in the past.
I laugh and give a knowing wink just so no one else will think,
that I don't get it.
Life's a joke that I don't get.
But that's OK, because I fake my way like I've done before
and everything's great and I'm quite safe
until someone comes along and asks, "what's so funny?"
and so I laugh even harder to stall for time
and as I laugh I think
and then I stop my pointless laughter,
with a sigh winding down and answer:
This blog archives early work of M.T. Karthik, who took every photograph and shot all the video here unless otherwise credited.
Performances and installations are posted by date of execution.
Writing appears in whatever form it was originally or, as in the case of poems or journal entries, retyped faithfully from print.
all of it is © M.T. Karthik
a minute of rain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYLHNRS8ik4
Asia audio baseball birds Coastal Cali collage elections essay fauna fiction flora GBC Readers journalism landscape Los Angeles music video North Oakland NYC Oakland performance photography poetry politics protest reviews S.F. short film social media thoughts travel
MTK on Twitter
other mtk projects
an SF Giants Fan
current Youtube
first Youtube site 2007
MTK on Vimeo
Rocky Pt Recharge Zone
SF Mayoral Campaign 2011
Yesterday's Hoops 2010


To identify the Best Colleges in Colorado for 2019 we averaged the results from the most respected college ranking systems (Niche.com + US News & World Report) from around the web to produce an entirely unique CollegeReviews Score for each school. And then ordered the schools based on that ranking. You won't find a more exhaustive ranking of the best colleges and universities in Colorado anywhere.
The state boasts the highest summits of the Rocky Mountains and the highest average elevations in the US. Along with four national parks, 11 national forests, 41 national wilderness areas and two national conservation areas.
Colorado is home to over 150 colleges and universities. The majority of Colorado colleges are located in the Mile High City Denver, which is both the largest city and the state's capital. There you'll find the University of Denver, The Art Institute of Colorado and Metropolitan State College of Denver along with a multitude of community colleges and career colleges.
One of the most well known schools in the state, the University of Colorado, Boulder. Other 4-year choices include Colorado State University, Colorado Mesa University and Colorado Technical University, Colorado Springs.
Popular Schools: Colorado State University, University of Denver.University of Colorado Boulder.
Our methodology for determining the best colleges in Colorado takes both editorial rankings from US News & World Report, Times Higher Education and combines it with student rankings from Niche.com. We weight student rankings higher giving them about a 80% weighted score vs editorial rankings. Thus creating a more accurate viewpoint of the best colleges in any given state.


text:
package azkaban.jobtype;

import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Collection;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.HashSet;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Properties;
import java.util.Set;

import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileSystem;
import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path;
import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.Counters;
import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.Counters.Counter;
import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.Counters.Group;
import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.RunningJob;
import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
import org.apache.pig.impl.util.ObjectSerializer;

public class StatsUtils {

  private static Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(StatsUtils.class);

  private static final Set<String> JOB_CONF_KEYS = new HashSet<String>(
      Arrays.asList(new String[] {
          "mapred.job.map.memory.mb",
          "mapred.job.reduce.memory.mb",
          "mapred.child.java.opts",
          "mapred.cache.files",
          "mapred.cache.archives",
          "mapred.cache.files.filesizes",
          "mapred.min.split.size",
          "mapred.max.split.size",
          "mapred.output.compress",
          "mapred.output.compression.type",
          "mapred.output.compression.codec",
          "mapred.compress.map.output",
          "mapred.map.output.compression.codec",
          "mapred.queue.names",
          "mapred.job.queue.name",
          "io.sort.mb"
      }));

  public static Properties getJobConf(RunningJob runningJob) {
    try {
      Path path = new Path(runningJob.getJobFile());
      Configuration conf = new Configuration(false);
      FileSystem fs = FileSystem.get(new Configuration());
      InputStream in = fs.open(path);
      conf.addResource(in);
      return getJobConf(conf);
    } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
      logger.warn("Job conf not found.");
    } catch (IOException e) {
      logger.warn("Error while retrieving job conf: " + e.getMessage());
    }
    return null;
  }

  public static Properties getJobConf(Configuration conf) {
    if (conf == null) {
      return null;
    }

    Properties jobConfProperties = null;
    try {
      jobConfProperties = new Properties();
      for (Map.Entry<String, String> entry : conf) {
        if (entry.getKey().equals("pig.mapPlan")
            || entry.getKey().equals("pig.reducePlan")) {
          jobConfProperties.setProperty(entry.getKey(), ObjectSerializer
              .deserialize(entry.getValue()).toString());
        } else if (JOB_CONF_KEYS.contains(entry.getKey())) {
          jobConfProperties.setProperty(entry.getKey(), entry.getValue());
        }
      }
    } catch (IOException e) {
      logger.warn("Error while reading job conf: " + e.getMessage());
    }
    return jobConfProperties;
  }

  public static Object propertiesToJson(Properties properties) {
    Map<String, String> jsonObj = new HashMap<String, String>();
    if (properties != null) {
      Set<String> keys = properties.stringPropertyNames();
      for (String key : keys) {
        jsonObj.put(key, properties.getProperty(key));
      }
    }
    return jsonObj;
  }

  public static Properties propertiesFromJson(Object obj) {
    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    Map<String, String> jsonObj = (HashMap<String, String>) obj;

    Properties properties = new Properties();
    for (Map.Entry<String, String> entry : jsonObj.entrySet()) {
      properties.setProperty(entry.getKey(), entry.getValue());
    }
    return properties;
  }

  public static Object countersToJson(Counters counters) {
    Map<String, Object> jsonObj = new HashMap<String, Object>();

    if (counters == null) {
      return jsonObj;
    }

    Collection<String> counterGroups = counters.getGroupNames();
    for (String groupName : counterGroups) {
      Map<String, String> counterStats = new HashMap<String, String>();
      Group group = counters.getGroup(groupName);
      Iterator<Counters.Counter> it = group.iterator();
      while (it.hasNext()) {
        Counter counter = it.next();
        counterStats.put(counter.getDisplayName(),
            String.valueOf(counter.getCounter()));
      }
      jsonObj.put(groupName, counterStats);
    }
    return jsonObj;
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
assignees:
- bgrant0607
- janetkuo

---

* TOC
{:toc}

## Using `kubectl` in Reusable Scripts

If you need stable output in a script, you should:

* Request one of the machine-oriented output forms, such as `-o name`, `-o json`, `-o yaml`, `-o go-template`, or `-o jsonpath`
* Specify `--output-version`, since those output forms (other than `-o name`) output the resource using a particular API version
* Specify `--generator` to pin to a specific behavior forever, if using generator-based commands (such as `kubectl run` or `kubectl expose`)
* Don't rely on context, preferences, or other implicit state

## Best Practices

### `kubectl run`

In order for `kubectl run` to satisfy infrastructure as code:

* Always tag your image with a version-specific tag and don't move that tag to a new version. For example, use `:v1234`, `v1.2.3`, `r03062016-1-4`, rather than `:latest` (see [Best Practices for Configuration](/docs/user-guide/config-best-practices/#container-images) for more information.)
* If the image is lightly parameterized, capture the parameters in a checked-in script, or at least use `--record`, to annotate the created objects with the command line.
* If the image is heavily parameterized, definitely check in the script.
* If features are needed that are not expressible via `kubectl run` flags, switch to configuration files checked into source control.
* Pin to a specific generator version, such as `kubectl run --generator=deployment/v1beta1`

### `kubectl apply`

* To use `kubectl apply` to update resources, always create resources initially with `kubectl apply` or with `--save-config`. See [managing resources with kubectl apply](/docs/user-guide/managing-deployments/#kubectl-apply) for the reason behind it.


text:
Our client Yanmar will sponsor New York Red Bulls as Jersey Patch Sponsor for MLS is Back Tournament
In advance of the New York Red Bulls return to action with the MLS is Back Tournament in Orlando, Florida, the Club announced today that Yanmar will have enhanced presence by being featured on the First-Team kit. As the official sleeve-patch partner, Yanmar's logo will be displayed on both sleeves of the team's uniform for the duration of the nationally-televised tournament.
Yanmar has been the New York Red Bulls official Agricultural Machinery Partner, Marine Partner, and Diesel Engine Partner since 2015. Yanmar was the first partner to have permanent branding inside of Red Bull Arena and has also featured on the sleeve of the club's training gear since 2015.
The Red Bulls and Yanmar's partnership extends beyond traditional partnership assets. Yanmar's Agricultural Machinery equipment plays an integral role in the maintenance of Red Bull Arena's world-class playing surface. In 2018, Yanmar put its Marine division to work in support of the Red Bull Foiling Generation World Finals held in Miami, Florida.
The MLS is Back Tournament kicks off on July 8, with the Red Bulls first match coming on July 11 against Atlanta United FC. Kickoff is set for 8 p.m., with coverage on FOX and TUDN. The tournament will be held entirely on the properties of Disney's Wide World of Sports complex. Extensive health and safety protocols have been put in place for the well-being of players and staff, including regular Covid-19 testing.
About Yanmar
Founded in Osaka, Japan in 1912, Yanmar was the first ever to succeed in making a compact diesel engine of a practical size in 1933. A pioneer in diesel engine technology, Yanmar is a global innovator in a wide range of industrial equipment, from small and large engines, agricultural machinery and facilities, construction equipment, energy systems, marine, to machine tools, and components — Yanmar's global business operations span seven domains. On land, at sea, and in the city, Yanmar provides advanced solutions to the challenges customers face, towards realizing A Sustainable Future. For more details, please visit the official website of Yanmar Holdings Co., Ltd.
https://www.yanmar.com/global/
About the New York Red Bulls
The New York Red Bulls are one of 26 teams in Major League Soccer (MLS). RBNY, one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, has competed in the league since its founding in 1996. The Red Bulls play home matches at Red Bull Arena (RBA) in Harrison, New Jersey. The three-time MLS Supporters' Shield Winners are owned by the Austrian beverage company Red Bull for which the team is named. The New York Red Bulls offer one of the nation's premier youth soccer development programs, from local soccer partnerships across New York and New Jersey to Regional Development Schools and the Red Bulls Academy teams.


Why Alpacas? A very valid question.
Why should I buy alpacas? What are they? What do they do? Why should I want to own alpacas? Why are they so expensive?
All valid questions that I have been asked numerous times over the last twelve years that we have been breeding these wonderful creatures. Hopefully at the bottom of this page I will have explained why and maybe will have convinced you to seriously think about buying your first alpacas.
Alpacas are native to South America in particular Peru, Chile and Bolivia. Alpacas are members of the South American Camelid family. The 'cousin' that you will most likely recognise is the Llama, but also included in this group are the Vicuna and the Guanaco. It is believed that the Alpaca is a cross between the Vicuna and the Guanaco. Alpacas are quite considerably smaller than Llamas and as a result they are very easy to handle.
There are no wild alpacas in the world and they have been domesticated for over 5000 years. They were highly prized by the ancient Inca civilisation for their incredibly luxurious, hard wearing and versatile fleeces. There are still millions of alpacas being farmed in South America for their fibre, known as 'The Fibre of the Gods'. It is widely acknowledged that alpaca fibre is the finest natural fibre in the world.
Alpacas come in a variety of colours and are sheared once a year to 'harvest' the fleece. A good quality alpaca will produce between 2 and 5 kilos of usable fibre. This doesn't sound a huge amount but when you consider that alpaca fibre is very light it may give you an idea that 5 kilos is quite a lot! Alpaca fibre is not like sheep wool in that alpaca has no lanolin in it and it is much finer and much, much softer. As a result alpaca fibre is virtually hypo-allergenic and can be worn by people who normally are allergic to other sorts of natural fibres. It is a natural fibre that you can wear directly next to the skin. Alpaca fibre has incredible insulating properties, at 9,000ft on the Altiplano temperature plunge to over 10 degrees Centigrade below freezing so it has to keep the alpacas warm.
Alpacas have been in the UK for around 25 years and there are now approximately 50,000 alpacas registered with the British Alpaca Society. Each year, thanks to investment in genetics and breeding programmes the fibre on the backs of alpacas is increasing in quality and therefore value.
Alpacas have a very strong herd instinct and the minimum number of alpacas for a herd is three. The larger the herd the more secure the alpacas feel.
It is not advisable to keep entire males with breeding females. Males will mate with the females and will continue to do so which causes the females stress and the possibility of infection or injury. It is possible to keep castrated males with females provided they have been castrated early enough. It is recommended that males not used for breeding are castrated at 18 months of age.
Alpacas do not challenge fences and can be contained easily with sheep stock fencing. They will walk through a gate if it is left open but generally are content, provided they have access to food and water.
Alpacas are grazing animals but will also browse hedgerows and trees. They will need good quality hay during the winter months and access to a shelter of some sort to get out of the severe weather.
They have adapted to the UK climate and do very well here.
Alpacas are lovely, gentle and at times wonderfully silly animals.
So why would you or should you own alpacas?
There are various reasons why people own alpacas.
Alpacas make excellent guards against foxes and other small predators. They will bond quickly and firmly with chickens or sheep and act as guardians chasing away foxes and cats.
Alpacas look absolutely fabulous in a paddock grazing. As pets they are very popular for their look, their inquisitive nature and of course the gloriously soft fleece that they grow for us. This can be made into a wide variety of clothing, it is a very versatile natural fibre.
Alpacas offer the ultimate in lifestyle farming opportunities - whether you're a serious investor, keen enthusiast, or simply after a fantastic pet, alpacas offer a rewarding experience on a small acreage. Alpacas are very economical to manage and easy to handle. They are gentle, intelligent animals that are genuinely enjoyable to work with - you'll want to get out in the paddocks with them.
Becoming an alpaca owner and breeder means joining the development of a new fibre industry. Luxurious alpaca fleece, shorn once a year, is highly prized as one of the world's finest natural fibres. Superbly soft, silky and incredibly light with a high tensile strength, it is ideal for quality fashion garments, blankets and knitwear. There is a growing niche market for this luxurious fibre both at the local level and on the international scene.
Those who direct their efforts into breeding will receive top prices for quality animals and in the longer term, increasingly generous returns for alpaca fleece from a proven luxury fibre market.
Alpacas are a viable alternative to traditional farming. There is a growing market for quality breeding alpacas both here in the UK and on mainland Europe.
There is a vibrant alpaca community here in the UK, we lead the rest of Europe both in numbers and in quality following 20 years of careful breeding. There are alpaca gentics here in the UK from all over the world. The alpaca shows held here in the UK attract visitors globally because of this quality and the show circuit here is the envy of Europe and beyond.
When we started in 2005 we researched the alpaca industry as much as we could. We scoured the web, read everything available and visited places where we knew alpacas would be. We eventually decided on visiting a breeder who was local, enthusiastic and above all proved to be trustworthy. He gave us the benefit of his experience in the alpaca world and gave us advice with no obligation. We were so impressed with his integrity that we bought our first pregnant females from him.
We hope to give all our customers the same level of advice and support that we received and still do receive from that breeder, who has become a very good friend of ours.
Our integrity as alpaca breeders is paramount to our continuing business and we pride ourselves on our honesty and determination to ensure that owners of our alpacas enjoy owning them and have as much success as we do.
If you need further convincing please give us a call, we will happily welcome you to the farm and show you a herd of alpacas that we are very proud of.