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Home » Versatile
Mike North, PLS
When Topcon (Livermore, Calif.) introduced the GR-3 GNSS receiver in 2006, the company touted innovative design features and the use of cutting-edge technology as the reasons to take the GR-3 out for a test drive. Among these features are G3 satellite tracking, enhanced durability, expanded memory, several communications options and greater convenience of use.
G3 tracking gives the GR-3 access to 72 channels, tracking both GPS and GLONASS constellations, as well as the foundation to receive signals from the satellites of the Galileo system that is still in testing.
According to Sitts and Hill Engineers Inc.'s Rob Erb, a licensed land surveyor since 1979 and past president of the South Puget Sound Chapter of the Land Surveyors Association of Washington, the GR-3 has been a boon to his business. The director of surveying for the Tacoma, Wash.-based firm uses the unit with the Washington State Reference Network (WARN). The density of the state's High Accuracy Reference Network (HARN) has enabled Erb and his team to use the GR-3 as a rover without relying on the base/rover configuration the firm initially purchased.
In fact, the use of the rover with the state's HARN has convinced Erb to convert his base into a rover. "At the approximate additional cost of $6,000 I can turn the base station unit into a rover and have two complete setups that allow me to field another complete RTK GPS system," he explains.
According to Erb, "[WARN] works so well in our operating area and for the types of surveys we do that we have had no uses for the base/rover configuration as of yet." He says he expects the proposed addition of GLONASS and Galileo signals to WARN to optimize coverage. "At this time, GLONASS can only be used in the base/rover configuration," Erb explains, "[but] there are plans to incorporate GLONASS into the WARN network. I also anticipate Galileo to expand the coverage to new levels when it comes online."
The range of the GR-3 was put to the test recently when Sitts and Hill was contracted by a large farming operation to survey the farm's boundaries. Erb's preliminary research suggested that he would need to do a sectional breakdown in order to find the boundary lines of the client's property. "What a great opportunity to use our new GR-3 [system]," Erb says. "I was congratulating myself on a brilliant stroke of genius and a little luck." But, according to Erb, luck wasn't on his side. "Not only was the key section corner missing, but several others in adjoining sections were missing as well that would have allowed us to re-establish the position of the obliterated corner."
Using the Topcon GR-3, Erb was able to do the additional work necessary to complete the project. In order to re-establish the corners needed to properly retrace the farm property lines, Erb had to survey portions of seven sections. The end result, he said, was a happy client and a profit for his firm.
Surveyors with Compass Point set up a GR-3 as a base and rover.
It's All About Communication
The versatility of the GR-3 communications options is a feature Topcon's Jason Killpack mentions when asked about the ability of the GR-3 to function in different environments. "The GR-3 has both radio communications as well as a GSM modem onboard," says Killpack, Topcon's senior product marketing manager. "The radio options for the user are either spread spectrum or our new DSP digital UHF radio." Spread spectrum radio technology is a radio signal that resists interference and jamming. Digital UHF radios operate on a line-of-sight basis and have wide bandwidth. Killpack adds that the receiver's various methods of communication allow the GR-3 to function in the base and rover configuration from three to almost 25 miles.
"Typical operation between base and rover with spread spectrum [radio] is three to five miles, and an optional RE-S1 repeater can increase this range," he explains. "The new DSP digital UHF radio can go from four to seven miles, base to rover."
The GR-3's internal modem utilizes SIM card technology. By simply switching SIM cards, the user has a choice of cellular carriers. "With the GSM modems as the form of communication from the base to the rover, the range is not limited to communication of the differential correction, but that of the view of the same common satellites," Killpack says. "We have tested up to 40 kilometers utilizing this operation."
For users with specialized needs, the GR-3 offers other communications configurations. According to Killpack, "The user can access a web-enabled Bluetooth cell phone, or utilize the serial port on the unit to cable to a third-party external modem." If needed, the internal modem can be set up with a static IP address, though Killpack says that will likely incur additional charges from the user's wireless carrier.
Mike McEvilly of Sitts and Hill preps a Topcon GR-3 GNSS receiver.
Fit for Any Job
Compass Point Surveyors located in Clearwater, Fla., has experience with the GR-3 in the base and rover configuration. Benjamin Wiser, project manager and principal of the firm, says that his company has "extensive experience" in the utilization of GPS technology in all aspects of surveying applications.
Among some of the projects Wiser and Compass Point have tackled recently are waterline projects in the western Nokomis community and in Seminole County. Wiser is also performing control surveys and construction staking for the Florida Department of Transportation to facilitate construction of new weigh stations along Interstate 4.
Wiser's crews use both the GR-3's radio and modem for communication, depending upon the specific needs of a given project. When asked what practical range his firm was realizing in the base/rover configuration, Wiser said, "Depending on site conditions, anywhere from a half mile to a mile in one direction."
Compass Point also uses the unit's internal modem. "It cost us about $40 to set up the [modem] cards, and they cost about $60 a month for service for each of the units." As far as accuracy using the modem, Wiser says they are using the modems on the L-Net GPS network, Topcon dealer Lengemann's Florida network (merging into Georgia).
Sitts and Hill's Erb chose a cell phone to meet his communication needs. "We elected to go with a cell phone for our data link," he says. "The cost of an internal modem was prohibitive when compared to a cell phone and we only had a choice of one provider. By using a cell phone, we simply added a data line to our existing phone provider and did not have to set up a separate account with another provider."
One of the many convenient features of the GR-3 is the Bluetooth capability for communication with the data collector. While the initial setup and pairing of controller with receiver may take a little effort, the ability to work without cables can be well worth it.
The flexibility of communications options available with the GR-3 allows both Erb and Wiser to exploit the specific strengths and overcome the limitations of their regions, and satisfy the requirements of their projects.
Rock-solid Design
Another important feature of the GR-3 is the unit's durability. The GR-3 is housed in a magnesium shell and built around an "I-Beam" frame. These features combine to give the GR-3 a 2-meter drop rating onto a concrete surface. The unit is designed to withstand inclement weather (-20° to +50° C) and has sealed external ports.
Some of the design features of the GR-3 won the unit an International Forum (iF) Product Design Award 2007, a prestigious design award in Germany. San Jose-based design consulting firm Whipsaw Inc. worked with Topcon on the GR-3's innovative design. According to Whipsaw's Dan Harden, some of the features recognized by the iF are the unit's ergonomic design, weatherproofing measures and balance.
The battery packs for the GR-3 are designed to serve as a handle, making the unit easy to hold. The batteries are oriented vertically, keeping the center of gravity closer to the rod and improving the balance of the system.
With weatherproofing in mind, Topcon built the GR-3 with an antenna housed under a plastic and rubber dome. The dome overlaps the base and battery handle, acting as an umbrella in the rain. The SIM and SD media card slots are located under the batteries, affording them protection from the elements.
Little Room for Improvement
As with all field surveying equipment, battery life is an important factor to consider when purchasing equipment. Killpack says that the GR-3 should get nine to 12 hours of life from the battery packs, depending upon whether the unit is functioning as a base or a rover. Wiser and Erb say their typical battery life ranges from five to 10 hours. But they cite the "hot-swappable" battery feature as a plus, and say that battery power has not been a problem for them. If battery power becomes an issue on a long day for any user, the GR-3 also has a standard alkaline battery adapter.
Wiser says the features of the GR-3 he found most helpful and productive were the "Quick-Snap" mounting system, which makes affixing and removing the receiver from the pole faster and more secure. He also appreciates the "hot-swappable" batteries and the Bluetooth connection status light. He would like to see an upgrade that allows for longer range with the radios and would like Topcon to "come up with a way to switch back from modem to radio communication without having to use separate software on a laptop or data collector to change the internal setting."
Erb says, "The unit's software and data collector are very friendly, but I would like to see it even more user-friendly--to default to the coordinate system that we were last using instead of defaulting to lat-long every time the unit is shut off."
Professional surveyors from Washington to Florida face drastically different conditions, weather and terrain, and the GR-3 offers an array of options and features to help them overcome those challenges. Though the GR-3's ability to receive Galileo signals may not yet be useful, Topcon has made another step in the right direction with this durable, flexible GPS receiver. As Wiser reminds us, no tool is perfect for every project. But the GR-3 is a versatile tool to add to many surveyors' toolboxes.
Recent Articles by Mike North, PLS
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Mike North, PLS, is a licensed professional land surveyor in Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia, and survey projects manager at Earthworx LLC in Chattanooga, Tenn. Chris Spear, GPS specialist at Earthworx LLC assisted with this article.


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Q: Using a class that is not implemented in the java interface I am making a double ended queue(deque) and now i am trying call my list and adding data to it. But i have a struggle with the fact that i cannot get non-static variables from static context.
In this case i am trying to access my variables from the Node class that i made.
My question is: How can i access my variables in the Node class without changing my java interface?
Here is my code:
import java.util.Iterator;
import org.w3c.dom.Node;

public abstract class Deque implements DoubleEndedQueue<Object> {

private Node<Object> first;
private Node<Object> last;
private Node<Object> newNode;
private int size = 0;

public Deque() {
    size = 0;
    first = null;
    last = null;
}

private class Node<Object> {

    Object item;
    Node<Object> prec;
    Node<Object> next;
}

public Iterator<Object> iterator() {
    return new Iterator<Object>() {

        private Node<Object> node = first;

        @Override
        public boolean hasNext() {
            return node != null;
        }

        @Override
        public Object next() {
            Object item = node.item;
            node = node.next;

            return item;
        }

        @Override
        public void remove() {
            throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
        }
    };
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
    DoubleEndedQueue<Object> doubleEndedQueue = new DoubleEndedQueue<Object>() {

        @Override
        public boolean isEmpty() {
            return size == 0;
        }

        @Override
        public int size() {
            return size;
        }

        @Override
        public void pushLeft(Object item) {
            newNode.item = item;
            if (size == 0) {
                first = last = newNode;
            } else {
                newNode.next = first;
                first.prec = newNode;
            }
            first = newNode;
            if (last == null) {
                last = first;
            }
            size++;
        }

        @Override
        public void pushRight(Object item) {
            newNode.item = item;

            if (size == 0) {
                last = first = newNode;
            } else {
                newNode.prec = last;
                last.next = newNode;
            }
            last = newNode;
            if (first == null) {
                first = last;
            }
            ++size;
        }

        @Override
        public Object popLeft() {
            newNode = first;
            first = first.next;

            if (first == null) {
                last = null;
            } else {
                first.prec = null;
            }

            size--;

            return newNode.item;
        }

        @Override
        public Object popRight() {
            newNode = last;
            last = newNode.prec;

            if (last == null) {
                first = null;
            } else {
                last.next = null;
            }

            size--;

            return newNode.item;
        }

        @Override
        public Object changeLeft(int n, Object newItem) {
            newNode = first;
            for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
                newNode = newNode.next;
            }
            return newNode.item = newItem;
        }

        @Override
        public Object changeRight(int n, Object newItem) {
            newNode = last;
            for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
                newNode = newNode.prec;
            }
            return newNode.item = newItem;
        }

    };
    d.pushLeft("im first");
    d.pushLeft("im second");
    d.pushRight("im third");
    d.pushRight("im fourth");
    d.pushLeft("im fifth");
    d.pushRight("im sixth");
    d.changeLeft(1, "well");
    d.changeRight(2, "this");
    d.changeLeft(1, "was");
    d.changeRight(3, "fun");
    d.popRight();
    d.popLeft();
    for (String i : d) {
        System.out.print(i + " ");
    }

}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
The One Percent: Asexual and aromantic representation in literature
Emily Broughton
Image Description: a row of books seen from above
The prominence and popularity of LGBTQ+ fiction has been steadily rising for a number of years, with best-selling books such as Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda spreading across the globe and even being adapted for the big screen. These novels tell important stories and give people in the LGBTQ+ community the chance to see themselves reflected in the pages of a book. And yet, there are still many underrepresented identities being overlooked.
This appears to be true for the 1% of people who identify as asexual and/or aromantic. In my experience, there are very few books which mention the ace spectrum and few characters which accurately show what it means to be aro/ace. Especially in modern literature and media, storylines tend to fixate on the importance of romantic and sexual relationships.
It is usually the romance plot which takes precedence over everything else.
Whilst tales of friendship and family are explored, these narratives tend to be side-lined when a protagonist finds a romantic partner. Whether they enter into a casual relationship or bump into their one true love, it is usually the romance plot which takes precedence over everything else.
Indeed, romance is relatively universal in the sense that it permeates almost all forms of fiction; showing up in fantasy novels, crime dramas and even in horror. It is so popular for a reason – not only do people enjoy reading about connections and relationships, but literature throughout the ages has also trained us to look for romance narratives.
Historically, one of the main ways to differentiate between a happy comedy and a depressing tragedy was through the romance plot. If a novel or play ended in marriage rather than death, it was generally categorised as a comedy. Famous authors throughout the centuries such as Shakespeare and Jane Austen have capitalised on this narrative, using the reader's desire for a happy romantic ending to sell literature just as modern film makers do with 'chick flicks'.
It would be nice if, for once, the media provided us with some positive Asexual and Aromantic representation.
Perhaps the biggest difference in modern romances though are the increasingly graphic portrayals of sexual relationships. Novels such as the Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy are readily available to the public. Posters for the 18+ movie adaptation were displayed on buses, billboards and digital signs in Trafalgar Square. Sex sells and fiction around the world makes the most of it. But this can sometimes be overwhelming and off-putting for those of us who may not see the appeal of sex. It would be nice if, for once, the media provided us with some positive asexual and aromantic representation.
Of course, many books have characters who experience a lack of sexual attraction or even sex repulsion, but authors continually link these feelings to circumstances outside of the character's sexual identity. Common tropes include having an emotionless and (sometimes literally) robotic character, linking sex repulsion to past sexual abuse and even creating characters opposed to sex and romance only to later change them when the right person comes along. Whilst these are all valid experiences, they do not relate to all of people on the ace spectrum. Such portrayals can do more harm than good.
The struggle to find an author who can accurately portray what it means to be ace has haunted me for years, at least until one friend told me to read Loveless by Alice Oseman.
The struggle to find an author who can accurately portray what it means to be ace has haunted me for years, at least until one friend told me to read Loveless by Alice Oseman. A contemporary YA novel, the book follows a girl named Georgia as she moves away from home for the first time, becomes an undergraduate at Durham University and tries to understand her lack of sexual and romantic attraction.
At first the title made me sceptical. The word loveless makes it sound as if aro/ace characters can never find love, even in the platonic sense. But as I began reading, I discovered that the novel set out to prove the exact opposite.
This story of self-discovery and acceptance doesn't end in a 'loveless' way but follows the characters as they discover that true love isn't limited to romance. This is captured perfectly at the end of the novel when Oseman puts a new spin on the conventions of a traditional romantic declaration.
Let me set the scene. It is a beautiful sunny day and Georgia is trying to win back her best friend. After a huge fight (in which she unwittingly accepts her new-found identity as aro/ace) they end up going their separate ways. All hope seems lost until Georgia decides to serenade her friend whilst punting along the river, a move seemingly plucked out of a cheesy 'chick flick'. With the rest of her friends playing musical instruments behind her, she sings her heart out and professes her undying (platonic) love to her dear friend.
Friendships can also create powerful bonds that have the power to bestow great joy or break your heart.
This fresh take on romantic gestures shows that love is about more than dating and marriage. Friendships can also create powerful bonds that have the power to bestow great joy or break your heart. Reading this scene and knowing that the two characters involved weren't romantic soulmates destined to marry does not lessen the importance of this moment in the character's lives. They can still grow old together and have their own happy endings.
Oseman does a tremendous job at accurately portraying such an underrepresented identity. As someone who identifies as aro/ace herself, Alice Oseman claims that many of the character's struggles with identity were inspired by her own experiences. Indeed, I frequently saw myself in the narrative and couldn't help but cringe every time Georgia tried to force sexual attraction and ended up awkwardly kissing other characters. Even those who do experience attraction will find themselves uncomfortable during these scenes which is another vital part of this novel. Not only does it allow aro/ace people to see themselves represented, but it also helps others to understand and sympathise with them.
Hopefully, this trend of increasing LGBTQ+ representation in literature in the media will continue and other underrepresented identities will be explored in fiction. Their stories deserve to be heard.
Image credit: Photo by Tom Hermans on Unsplash

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Allow widget to be placed in different locations on desktop vs mobile. User should be allow to set the widget in 1 location on desktop ie. right bottom corner and a different location on mobile ie. top left corner. This is a big problem because the widget is conflict with other widgets on the mobile.


text:
from hoops.status import library as status
from hoops.response import APIResponse
from tests.api_tests import APITestBase

class TestResponse(APITestBase):

    def test_basic(self):
        response = APIResponse('mine')
        assert response().keys() == ['response_data', 'status_code', 'status_message', 'api_version']
        assert response.response['response_data'] is 'mine'
        assert response()['response_data'] is 'mine'
        assert response.to_json() is response()
        assert response()["status_message"] == 'Ok'
        assert response()["status_code"] == 1000

    def test_extra(self):
        response = APIResponse({}, extra={"fanciful": "items"})
        assert 'fanciful' in response()

    def test_status(self):
        response = APIResponse('mine', status=status.API_FORBIDDEN)
        assert response()["status_message"] == 'The API request is not allowed.'
        assert response()["status_code"] == 4003

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


This week, we are broadcasting live from Roboticon Tampa Bay 2014 at the University of Tampa!
Laird Popkin and Toni Moore, representatives of E-nabling The Future, talk with the team about the organization and its interesting mission. Pairing up people with 3D printers with those who are in need of inexpensive artificial hands, the organization is able to help give more natural mobility to those with the need.
Providing schematics, sizing and plans, all a provider need do is print and assemble a 3D printed hand and arrange delivery. The printed parts in total cost only between $30 and $50, depending on the size and style, meaning someone could enhance their lives for very little money.
Scott and Nick host a two-hour broadcast live from Roboticon Tampa Bay, an off-season FIRST Robotics competition at the University of Tampa, hosted by Eureka! Factory.
Paul Stonebridge from the Pasco County Library System talks about the team they sponsor, FRC Team 5276, Edgar Allan Ohms, and why it is important to the library. The team, now in their second year, is the first ever library-sponsored FIRST Robotics Competition team in the country, hopefully showing other libraries that they can and should host a team.
Hernando Torrealba from FRC Team 5276, Edgar Allan Ohms, talks about the team and their host, the Pasco County Library System. He also talks about his experiences in creating the team, how they market membership and how the team has grown for the second season.
The team, now in their second year, is the first ever library-sponsored FIRST Robotics Competition team in the country, hopefully showing other libraries that they can and should host a team.
Daniel Fischman, Captain of FRC Team 180, S.P.A.M. talks about his team, their past season, their interactions with Roboticon and how they have done in the past. He also discusses his personal experiences in FIRST, his favorite game and what he plans to do after graduation.
FRC Team 2383, The Ninjineers, Drive Team Coach Mayuri Viswanathan and Driver Andrey Gubanov talk about their team and this past season. Both members, who are seniors, also discuss their experiences with FIRST and their plans after graduation.
DJ Jake Dela Cruz, a 13-year-old local Tampa, Florida DJ talks about his year since we last spoke with him and some of the incredible things he has been working on. From his own show on a local radio station to DJing events all over Florida, he is doing it all.
Dan Swando, from The RoboShow and alumni, talks about his participation in the FIRST Robotics program and why he continues to participate in the program. Through the show, Dan and team hope to bring more attention to the program and educate people on the benefits, all through sports-style coverage.
Terri Willingham is always our favorite interview at these events, because she represents so many sides of the tech and educational world, and she does it with a passion that is difficult to match. As a creative partner for Eureka! Factory, she was instrumental in creating Roboticon Tampa Bay. As the Regional Director of FIRST in Central Florida, she helps new and existing teams start and maintain their programs. She is also part of the FRC Orlando Regional planning committee.
Terri is also responsible for our participation in Robocon Tampa Bay 2013, the FRC Orlando Regional 2014 and Gulf Coast MakerCon 2014, and of course Roboticon Tampa Bay 2014. We look forward to seeing where she takes us next.


TECNA - What are low force squeeze and forge?
What are low force squeeze and forge?
Usually resistance welders are equipped with a simple pneumatic circuit providing a single force on electrodes.
Some welders are equipped with pneumatic circuit allowing the electrodes to approach the piece to be welded with a lower force. This avoid damages on the piece. It is useful in projection welding.
Other welders are equipped with a more complex pneumatic circuit allowing also to increase the electrode force during or after the welding. This function is called FORGE. It is used mainly in projection welding and high quality alluminium spot welding.


text:
Q: Difference between wildcare generic vs no generic parameter In Java, what is the difference between:
public void foo(List lst);

and
public void foo(List<?> lst);

A: The first version is a 'List of any type'. This is not generic, not safe and not recommended.
The second version is a 'List of unknown type'. This means you will get objects of the most general type Object, and won't be able to add anything else than null. Since these are the only type safe operations when nothing is known about the type.
You might think the version version is more succinct, and it is. However duck typed languages tend to be more succinct, but that doesn't make them the right choice. Using the raw List is only possible due to backwards compatibility, and you will get a compiler warning.
For more fun, consider the following types, and how they differ from your two:

*

*foo(List<Object> list)

*foo(List<? extends Object> list)

*foo(List<? super Object> list)

*foo(List<? super Iterable<? extends Object>> list)

A: AFAIK:
Just using List lst is a raw type, therefore not typesafe. It will only generate a runtime error when the casting is bad. We want a compile time error when the cast is bad. Not recommended to use. Additional information on raw types : What is a raw type and why shouldn't we use it?
In the case of List: is an unbounded wildcard.


text:
900 runners take on Park2Park races in Holland
Holland's Matt Smith came out on top in the Park2Park Half Marathon Saturday, finishing in 1 hour, 13 minutes and 44 seconds to win the men's overall race.
Wayland's Cathy Fenton finished in 1:29:40 to claim the women's overall title.
Exactly 900 runners participated between the half marathon and 5K events.
For the 5K, Grand Rapids' Nathan Fujioka won the men's race in 16:37, while Japan's Alicia Sherwood took the women's title in 19:03 — setting a new course record.
Other men's half marathon winners include Holland's Craig Spoelhof (Master division, 1:22:42), Holland's Jose Santos (Grand Master division, 1:29:10), Harrison Clark (15-19 age group, 1:22:18), Tim Spaman (30-34, 1:30:53), Randy VanLoo (45-49, course-record 1:22:52) and Mike Branigan (65-69, 1:55:55).
Other women's half marathon winners were Grandville's Nancy Kocsis (Master, 1:35:51), Muskegon's Laurel Dawson (Grand Master, 1:41:30), Sarah Rugg (25-29, 1:39:38), Amelia Herman (30-34, 1:29:56) and Sue Hulst (65-69, 2:23:36).


text:
IT'S POURING | Torrential rain in Ventura County in pic...
Ventura names interim Community Development Director | ...
ARTS BRIEFS | A roundup of happenings in the local arts...
BROOKS INSTITUTE CLOSES | Fall classes cancelled, quest...
Gun violence epidemic and the Second Amendment
VEXXED BY VAXXED | Controversy surrounds upcoming scree...
Eye on the Environment
Planet Ventura
Gamers Notebook
MURAL PROJECT
Power to Speak
Right Persuasion
The Critical Line
Sharper Focus
Ventura County Dining Guide
VC Uncorked
Best Of Ventura County
Fitness Health and Beauty
San Buenaventura Sesquicentennial
Out of luck
Mar 1, 2007 | Imported | 0 |
The following story is true. However, names have been changed to protect the anonymity of the people involved. This is the first in an occasional series on addiction in Ventura County.
Greg Walton struggled to keep his eyes open as he drove out of Orange County, back toward his home in Thousand Oaks. It was the day after Christmas 2002, and Walton was $43,000 in debt, under threat of criminal prosecution and, in all likelihood, facing another divorce. For a few weeks, he thought he was off the hook, as if he had been granted a divine reprieve. Then his phone rang, and it all came rushing back.
One month earlier, Walton had been in Las Vegas. He went there often. So often, in fact, that he got comped rooms at the Stardust and even had his own casino host, a sort of personal concierge to take care of him whenever he was in town. For this trip, the host scored him tickets to see the Rolling Stones. It was a perfect opportunity for Walton to show his family how much of a big shot he was out there.
Not that he needed any extra incentive to go to Vegas. Over the last two decades, during his three or four visits per year, Walton had gambled away about $1 million, almost all at the roulette tables. Normally, it didn't matter how much he lost on a given stay. As an independent contractor making close to six figures, he could usually out-earn his losses, at least enough to justify another weekend on the Strip.
This time, the circumstances were different. He had just lost his job and had no prospects for getting another one. Still, when he arrived at the Golden Nugget the Friday after Thanksgiving, with his wife and his mother and his sister and her boyfriend along with him, Walton went straight for the wheel. By Saturday, he was down $36,000. And by the time they returned to California on Sunday, he was bankrupt.
He couldn't tell his wife what he had done. He never could tell her, or anyone, how much of a hold gambling had on him. Up to that point, he never really had to. He always managed to pull himself out of the financial hole before anybody noticed. Now he was in too deep. He kept writing checks while in Vegas, believing, half-heartedly, that he could win his money back and deposit it into his bank account before the checks cleared so everything would be ok. But when he pulled into his driveway that Sunday, all Walton had was the debilitating pressure of 20 years of denial finally catching up to him.
Nothing happened for almost a month. In the back of his mind, Walton thought God was giving him a second chance. On Christmas Eve, however, the bank called. If he couldn't pay off his debts immediately after the holiday, they told him, they would take him to court, and he would almost certainly go to jail.
Two days later, Walton woke up early. He wrote a note to his wife, then got in his car and left for Anaheim, hoping to convince a friend to loan him some money. When he got there, though, his friend wasn't home. He sat outside the house for four hours trying to reach him. Eventually he got him on the phone: He was at Disneyland with his kids. Walton acted as if he just wanted to say hello. He got back into his car, mentally and physically exhausted, and headed back to Ventura County.
As he fought to stay awake, Walton knew he should pull over and rest. Then a thought flashed in his mind: Why don't I just fall asleep right here on the freeway? he asked himself. I'm worth more dead right now than I am alive. I've made such a mess, how terrible would it be to just end it all now?
Walton was never sure what drew him to the roulette table that first time, but he thought it may have been the suit. He never had a chance to wear one growing up. Now he was in Las Vegas, 24 years old and dressed like a high roller. He, his wife and their two friends had gone to a comedy show, so Walton put on the nicest outfit he could pull together: multicolored tweed sport coat, black slacks and shoes, white dress shirt and no tie.
It was Walton's third time in Vegas. Before, he only played the slots, and without much enthusiasm. Drop a coin in, pull the lever, win a little, lose a little, go to dinner. But as a young man looking the part of an adult for the first time in his life, Walton figured he should finally play an adult game. Cards intimidated him. Craps wasn't his thing. That left roulette. It made sense: He had always felt it was a setup to bet against the house in blackjack or poker. They would never allow a player to come out ahead. With roulette, the outcome is left entirely to chance. The odds would still not be in his favor, but in a strange way, Walton felt he could control where that ball landed on that wheel.
He seated himself at the table, surrounded by anonymous faces, all older than he. The dealer explained the betting options: you could place an outside bet on either black or red and win as much as you wager, or you could go directly to the numbers, where the odds of winning are less but the payout is much more.
Why do I need to waste my time on these even-money bets? Walton thought. The real money is in playing those numbers.
He pulled a dollar chip from his jacket pocket. A number jumped out at him: 32. He had no idea why. He put the chip down, not knowing exactly what he was doing. The dealer spun the wheel. The ball bounced around for a few seconds, then settled into a slot: 32. A $36 win.
When Walton left the table two hours later, he came away with a couple of hundred more dollars than he sat down with. There was a buzz in the car the next day as he and his wife and their friends drove home, that maybe next time he would win even more.
Walton did not become a gambling addict at that instant. But the door had been kicked open. It was ironic: Given his genes, he seemed predisposed to becoming an alcoholic. His father was, and so were all his aunts and uncles and one of his grandfathers. Walton was never a big drinker; he could count the number of times he had been drunk in his life on one hand. But he still inherited his relatives' compulsive behavior — it just manifested itself in different ways.
Walton was born in Wisconsin, but he didn't spend much time there. During his childhood, he didn't spend much time anywhere. His dad was a journeyman laborer, changing jobs at the rate most people change the oil in their car, forcing his family to live a nomadic existence. Walton went to 11 elementary schools in five different states, usually entering in the middle of the year. As a result, he developed a near-crippling shyness that lasted into his teens. Even after his family settled in West Los Angeles, Walton was a loner.
Walton moved out and got married at 18. At 21, his son was born. And at 22, he went to Las Vegas for the first time since reaching legal gambling age.
Back then, the shows interested Walton far more than the casinos. His saw his wife as the one who exhibited the traits of a compulsive gambler: refusing to leave the slot machine to go to dinner, borrowing money to keep playing, always thinking it was on the verge of giving up a jackpot. On that third trip, however, Walton felt she was strangely subdued. It was almost as if he had absorbed his wife's obsession.
After a few years, Walton's excursions to Vegas grew more and more frequent. He met a guy who would go there and meet up with his old college buddies every four months, and Walton soon started tagging along. In the back of his mind, Walton thought that if he just played intelligently, parlayed his bets and made the right moves, he could get rich, buy a summer home for his mom and never have to work again. It was a delusion that kept him throwing down chips all night. Sometimes he'd come away from the trips in the black, sometimes in the red, but no matter what, as they sped northward on Interstate 15, Walton would always be planning the next trip in his head.
Walton and his first wife divorced in 1984. A year later, he remarried. His second wife knew he enjoyed gambling when they met, but she never regarded it as a problem, even when he snuck off to play $25-a-hand blackjack on their wedding night. On vacations Walton would be the last person in the cruise ship casino and when they went to Vegas together, they would barely see each other. She saw it as his hobby, a reward for his hard work. At least, that's what she told him.
Of course, Walton didn't think he had problem, either. One time in Las Vegas, a man who was clearly down and out, stumbled into the Stardust at two in the morning. Walton watched him as he entered. He sat down next to Walton at the roulette table.
"Hey, man," he said, "can you lend me $50? I'm waiting on a comp check." In the pre-ATM days, a comp check was a way for gamblers to receive more cash against their credit cards.
Walton shook his head. He saw the guy come in. He knew he hadn't gone to the comp check machine. The guy was trying to con him, just to be able to gamble more. What a degenerate, Walton thought.
Years later, Walton found himself in Vegas again, in a hotel room, out of money and staring at a barstool. He was between contracts and had a limited amount of funds. He had already maxed out his markers, which is essentially an IOU to the casino allowing gamblers to continue playing on credit. He needed more cash. How can I hurt myself such that the casino would pay me off not to file a lawsuit against them? he thought.
He looked more closely at the barstool. He noticed there were a series of screws connecting the legs to the seat. He could go to a local K-Mart, buy a screwdriver and loosen the screws. He was 40 pounds overweight at time; all he'd have to do then was sit on the stool and allow it to collapse underneath him. The hotel would have to give him money to keep him from suing. Then he could go to another casino and continue gambling.
In that moment of contemplation, Walton came to a realization: He was just like that guy at the Stardust. He was the degenerate now, willing to cheat and lie just to keep gambling. He was addicted. And he couldn't stop.
The thought of falling asleep at the wheel continued to ring in Walton's head as he drove closer to Thousand Oaks. The life insurance would pay off his debts and provide for his wife. He'd never have to worry about money again. It certainly sounded better than the second option: go home; get divorced; go to prison. His eyes shut a little bit more.
But he couldn't do it. He pulled off into a residential area, slept for 30 minutes, then started driving again.
When he arrived at his house, he wife talked to him about what they were going to do about the money he owed, not divorce or his gambling problem. As it turned out, Walton had a good enough relationship with his bank from his years as an independent contractor to dissuade them from prosecuting him. The case was moved to the corporate office, which put him on a payment plan. He picked up a new job and gradually chipped away at the debt.
But Walton was still a compulsive gambler. And that was a problem he wasn't quite sure how to solve. He knew his father had gone to Alcoholics Anonymous, so he assumed there must be something similar for his affliction. He looked up Gamblers Anonymous online and found a meeting in Ventura.
On Dec. 29, 2002, Walton and his wife walked into a small room with nine other people. When they sat down, a man turned to him.
"I probably know you better than she knows you," he said.
Walton found the comment a bit odd. He had always thought of himself as someone who figured out things on his own and who never let anyone know who he really was. How could this complete stranger say that he knew him at all, let alone better than his wife?
It proved to be true. Walton's wife left him two months later. But he stayed with the program. He learned to open up, to look people in the eye and talk about emotions and experiences he would otherwise have kept vaulted inside. He is now a trustee for Gamblers Anonymous, answering phones and sponsoring new members who walk through the door. He has a girlfriend, whom he has lived with in Thousand Oaks for two years. And he hasn't placed a bet in four years.
Walton hasn't been back to Las Vegas since entering the program. He has no plans ever to ever go back. He does, however, go on cruises with his girlfriend, whom he has lived with in Thousand Oaks for two years. He'll check to see if there's a casino on the ship, so he'll know where to avoid. Once, they stepped off an elevator and found themselves standing right in front of one. For Walton, the scene was all too familiar: the flashing lights, the sound of quarters spilling from a slot machine, the spinning roulette wheel, the dealer, the chips. He paused momentarily. Then he turned around and walked in the other direction.
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Q: Multi-threading to speed up an email-sending application I have built an application to send email mailers for a website through Amazon SES. It is coded in C#.
Each email takes .3 seconds to send via the Amazon SES API.
That means, using a single-threaded application, I can only send 3 emails per second.
I have implemented a producer/consumer, multi-threaded application with 1 producer to query customize the emails for each customer, and 25 consumers to pull from the queue and send the emails.
My multi-threaded application sends 12 emails per second (a quadruple speed increase). I would have expected a greater speed increase from a 25-thread application.
My question is:
How much can I really speed up the sending of a mailer on a single-processor machine? Do my gains seem reasonable, or is my speed problem more likely due to coding than to the computer's inability to process the emails mroe quickly?
Thanks in advance!
UPDATE: In case others are facing the same issue.... connecting to AWS in order to send the email takes up a lot of time. The following thread on AWS Developer forums gives some insight (You may need to scroll down to get to the more useful posts).
https://forums.aws.amazon.com/thread.jspa?threadID=78737

A: You can speed up very much even though it's single-processor machine.
Sending an Email does not consume a lot of CPU, it's an IO bound operation.
Therefore you will increase your performance very much by doing the work in parallel.

A: I blogged about my solution. Basically you use a Parallel.ForEach loop with a MaxDegreeOfParallelism, don't forget to increase the maxconnection count in app.config.
Below is the app.config sample:
<system.net>
    <connectionManagement>
        <add address="*" maxconnection="392" />
    </connectionManagement>
    <mailSettings>
        <smtp from="form@company.com" deliveryMethod="Network">
            <network host="email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com" userName="SmtpUsername" password="SmtpPassword" enableSsl="true" port="587" />
        </smtp>
    </mailSettings>
</system.net>

And here is the Parallel.ForEach loop sample:
class Program
{
    static readonly object syncRoot = new object();
    private readonly static int maxParallelEmails  = 196;

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {

        IList<Model.SendEmailTo> recipients = _emailerService.GetEmailsToSend();
        int cnt = 0;
        int totalCnt = recipients.Count;

        Parallel.ForEach(recipients.AsParallel(), new ParallelOptions { MaxDegreeOfParallelism = maxParallelEmails }, recipient =>
        {
            // Do any other logic

            // Build the email HTML

            // Send the email, make sure to log exceptions

            // Track email, etc

            lock (syncRoot) cnt++;
            Console.WriteLine(String.Format("{0}/{1} - Sent newsletter email to: {2}", cnt, totalCnt, recipient.Email));
        });
    }
}

My blog explains it in more detail: http://michaeldimoudis.com/blog/2013/5/25/reliably-and-speedily-send-mass-emails-via-amazon-ses-in-c

A:
My question is: How much can I really speed up the sending of a mailer
  on a single-processor machine? Do my gains seem reasonable, or is my
  speed problem more likely due to coding than to the computer's
  inability to process the emails more quickly?

Broadly speaking, a 4x speedup for a 25x increase in thread counts isn't outrageous, but it's not great, either.
A single CPU will only become a bottleneck when your CPU usage is high. You can tell whether that's an issue for you by looking at total CPU use when your app is running. In theory, sending bulk emails should be an I/O limited operation; if that's not the case for you, then your code may have issues.
Although I haven't used Amazon SES, I know that other Amazon products definitely use various forms of bandwidth / request throttling. It's possible (likely) that your throughput is being limited more by Amazon than by your app.
I wrote a high-performance bulk mail app a while back, and what I did was:

*

*Used async I/O as much as possible, in addition to multiple threads. That way, if one request is slow, it doesn't consume an entire thread.

*Sent the email directly to the end servers, rather than through an intermediate gateway. That required using P/Invoke to call DNS to retrieve the requisite MX or A records. After that, I used the standard SmtpClient class (which has a SendAsync method) to actually send the mail.

This approach also lets me see and record errors when sending the mail, which in turn provides better feedback to the users. The alternative is to rely on receiving and parsing error mail from the gateway server, which is error-prone, to say the least.

A: In a multithreaded application running on a multi-core (or multiprocessor) system the golden rule is that (generally) you cannot achieve a better speedup than N times the sequential execution time, where N is the number of cores. So if you have an activity taking 12 seconds and you run it in parallel on 4 cores, you cannot do better than 3 seconds in total.
Conversely, if previously you could execute one activity in a single unit of time, with 4 cores you cannot do better then 4 activities in the same unit of time.
Furthermore, this upper bound is not always achieved due to several factors that generally impact the performance of parallel programs: disk I/O bottlenecks, memory saturation, lock contention, etc.

A: producer consumer with only one queue doesnt scale well. The queue becomes the bottleneck as you add more consumers or producers.
if you have multiprocessor architecture, you can use multiple processes to send emails. You can still use your producer consumer multithreaded version, but now it will be one foreach process; this will speed things up a bit (as Tudor explained) but the problem remains.
however, you might have, for the entire system, only one network manager or similar entity which sends the messages (say htttp messages) and one network card. Now the bottleneck could be this network manager. Id like to know more about the architecture of the system :)

A: I was in similar situation few months ago. Although there are many factors that we need in order to tell you which is causing the lower performance, you can try with a mirco instance of EC2 instance to try sending e-mails.
That turned out to be working well in my case, and it was a suitable solution as I was working on the web application.

A: The task is neither CPU bound, nor IO bound.
The task makes request to SES to send an email (with limited data or IO) and then waits. So, use the largest number of threads you can use for the available RAM.

A: How commented, this a I/o problem, because, you need find a good number of jobs with infra / bandwidth size
Use a Queue Pattern,
Example:
1 - Enqueue a deliver email
2 - "N" Jobs dispatch the email


By creating a Pier Plaque you are helping preserve Clevedon Pier for generations.
Our famous 'Sponsor a Plank' fundraiser has seen over 13,000 plaques placed on the Pier since 1989. Be part of Clevedon Pier's legacy.
Plaques can be for any occasion – an engagement, a marriage, a birthday, "in remembrance", or indeed any special event that you want to acknowledge.
Pier Plaques come in four sizes, and are engraved with wording of your choice.
You can now sponsor a plaque online!
Please make your choice from the options below. You can design and check your plaque before payment.
The plaque will take between 4 to 6 weeks to be engraved and placed on the pier. We will contact you by email when your plaque has been installed.
Brass plaque (101mm x 12.5mm). One line only, maximum 17 characters including spaces and will be placed on the decking of the pier's promenade.
Brass plaque (100mm x 30mm). Up to 3 lines, maximum 24 characters per line including spaces and will be placed on the decking of the pier head.
Brass plaque (125mm x 55mm). Up to 5 lines, maximum 27 characters per line including spaces to be set on the back of the benches running along the side of the pier.
Brass plaque (220mm x 55mm). Up to 5 lines, maximum 41 characters per line including spaces) to be set on the back of the benches running along the side of the pier.
In addition to your plaque you can also purchase a Pier Plaque Certificate. The certificate provides a lovely keep-sake and commemorates your plaque inscription. Your certificate will be mailed to you once your plaque order has been installed. Please allow 4 to 6 weeks.
Please note: Your certificate will be posted to the address on your order, and franked with our logo. If you wish to collect it or for it to be sent to a different address, please add this in the special instructions box before check out.
A Hi-Resolution image of your plaque placed on Clevedon Pier. Your digital image will be emailed to you once the plaque is in situ. Please allow 4 to 6 weeks.
Please note: If you would like to buy your plaque in person, then please contact the Toll House during our opening hours.
Over 10,000 plaques have been issued since the start of the scheme. We keep records of all the plaques laid, including their location on the pier. Try searching our new plaques database.


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This website includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements" under applicable law. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, Rathdowney Resources Ltd.'s continued advancement of its mineral exploration and development programs. When used in this website, the words "potential," "anticipate," "forecast," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "may," "project," "plan" and similar expressions are intended to be among the statements that identify forward-looking statements. All statements on this website, other than statements of historical facts, are forward-looking statements, including statements that relate to exploration drilling, exploitation activities, and events or developments that Rathdowney Resources Ltd. expects to occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Although Rathdowney Resources Ltd. believes that its expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties and no assurance can be given that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. Assumptions used by the Company to develop forward-looking statements include the following: the Olza project will obtain all required environmental and other permits and all land use and other licenses, studies and development of the Olza project will continue to be positive, and no geological or technical problems will occur. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include fluctuations in market prices, the conclusions of feasibility and technical analyses, lower than expected grades and quantities of mineralization and resources, continuity of mineralization, technological or mechanical problems relating to exploration or development, mining rates and recovery rates, potential liabilities associated with exploration, development and mining activities, uncertainties related to the ability to obtain necessary environmental, land use and other permits, approvals and licenses on a timely basis and delays due to third party opposition or litigation, changes in laws or government policies regarding natural resource exploration and exploitation, availability of financing on terms acceptable to Rathdowney Resources Ltd., and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on Rathdowney Resources Ltd. and potential factors that could affect financial results, investors should review Rathdowney Resources Ltd.'s continuous disclosure filings that are available at www.sedar.com.
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text:
Q: How to adjust microphone volume in Android programmatically Is there a way to increase/decrease the input volume of the Android microphone. I did some research on Google as well as StackOverflow but didn't find a suitable answer.
Here are some links:
How to adjust microphone volume in android?
Adjust Microphone Recording Volume
Is Android capable of managing microphone/input volume?.
Please provide any help/reference.

A: I had a certain problem where I had to increase the volume (gain) of the sound and also filter out some frequencies I used TarsosDSP library for android it has a particular class called GainProcessor where you can adjust the sound accordingly. Hope it helps.


Both Acute and Hyper acute inpatient services are provided at Royal Derby Hospital and Queen's Hospital Burton. The clinical teams work closely with the emergency departments to ensure all stroke and potential stroke patients are assessed by a stroke specialist as soon as they arrive in hospital. Each site has dedicated stroke wards.
Stroke Rehabilitation is offered on both sites, and Royal Derby Hospital has a dedicated ward (312) to offer inpatient rehabilitation for patients.
Each site has designated Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA) clinics to diagnose and assess patients.
You will spend most of the day at the hospital and will be seen by a specialist nurse and doctor. You will have a number of tests and will know the results of most of these tests before you go home.
It can be a long day so we recommend you bring something to read, drink and eat. You are welcome to bring someone with you.
You are not allowed to drive for one month following a TIA.


An award-winning professor, researcher and arts and humanities advocate has been named the next dean of the University of Guelph's College of Arts (COA).
Samantha Brennan begins a five-year term Jan. 1, 2018. The announcement was made today by Charlotte Yates, provost and vice-president (academic).
The decision follows an extensive international search by a hiring committee composed of faculty, students and staff, and chaired by Yates.
"Professor Brennan is an exceptional leader and strong researcher who understands and promotes the value of a liberal education," Yates said.
Brennan is a professor of women's studies and feminist research at Western University. She served as chair of Western's Department of Philosophy for eight years and was a founding member of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy.
She researches moral and political philosophy, especially contemporary normative ethics and feminist ethics.
Brennan said she's "honoured and humbled" to join the College of Arts, with its "warm collegial environment" and talented and creative students, faculty, staff and researchers.
"It's an exciting opportunity to build new relationships, explore new possibilities, and provide strategic leadership," she said.
Brennan joined Western in 1993 as an assistant professor of philosophy. She has been teaching in the women's studies program since 2015, and has taught in the digital humanities program and School for Advanced Studies in the Arts and Humanities.
The author of dozens of journal articles, book chapters and book reviews and co-editor of numerous scholarly volumes, Brennan has been a visiting scholar at the University of Toronto, New Zealand's University of Otago and the Australian National University.
A prolific blogger on feminist issues and an advocate for the public humanities, she is president of the Canadian Philosophical Association and co-founder and a co-editor of Feminist Philosophy Quarterly.
She holds a bachelor of arts degree from Dalhousie University and a PhD in philosophy from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
In making today's announcement, Yates thanked the search committee and the University community for input during the search, and thanked Sophie Lachapelle, acting associate vice-president (academic), for agreeing to serve as acting dean until Jan. 1, 2018.
"I also want to express my appreciation to Don Bruce for his dedication and contributions as COA dean for the past 11 years," Yates said. Bruce finished his term June 30, 2017.


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text:
Lloyds Posts Decent Results, But Warns on Inflation
Lloyds Banking Group's [LLOY] update this morning pointed to a resilient performance in the first quarter. Investors reacted favourably, pushing the shares up 2% in early trading to a three-week high. However, the shares are struggling to overcome the 200-day moving average which has so far capped the rebound from the March lows.
Q1 results highlight resilience
The group's statutory profit after tax came in at £1.2bn in Q1, a modest fall from the year-ago period, partly because of a £177m impairment in relation to the impact of rising inflation.
Operating costs also rose slightly from a year ago but were down compared to Q4, coming in just shy of £2.1bn. Banking net interest margin also continued to improve, rising to 2.68%, up from 2.49% a year ago.
Across the business, loans and advances to customers rose £3.2bn to £451.8bn, while customer deposits rose £4.8bn.
Cautious outlook
Looking ahead, Lloyds said it was boosting its guidance on net interest margin to 2.7%, and raising the return on tangible equity to above 11%.
However, the bank warned of the risks posed by rising inflation, with higher prices set to hit its customers hard. Management added that they are proactively engaging with customers who may be particularly vulnerable.
Stuttering shares confound investors
The performance of the Lloyds share price since Covid-19 sent the UK into its first lockdown in March 2020 has been one of the financial world's big mysteries. The shares remain well below pre-pandemic levels, yet the bank continues to return much better numbers than before the arrival of coronavirus.
When the bank reported its full-year 2021 results in February, profits came in at £6.9bn – slightly below expectations of £7.2bn, but still a big increase on the 2020 figure of £1.2bn.
The miss on annual profits in 2021 was partly due to to a surprise increase in operating costs, which rose above £2bn in Q4, up from £1.87bn in Q3. The investor reaction sent the shares down to a 12-month low, though concerns over Russia's invasion of Ukraine also played a role.
After rebounding in March, the shares slipped back again in April on concerns over UK banks' readiness for a tougher economic outlook and the risk of loan defaults as customers face financial hardship brought on by the cost of living squeeze.
Will JPMorgan report a drop in Q4 earnings?
Analysts expect JPMorgan to report a decline in Q4 earnings when the bank announces its latest results on Friday.
CMC Markets -
Chart of the Week – The surge in gold may face a pause
In a weekly view, the strong upside momentum may take gold to test a further pivot resistance of 1,900 again. However, an imminent pullback may occur from a technical perspective.
Tina Teng -
Upcoming indices dividend drop points
View the estimated indices dividend drop points* for the week commencing 9 January 2023


Today, 12 March is No Smoking Day. There are many reasons why people give up smoking and many of these are related to health issues or the effect it has on those around them.
According to a recent review published online in the BMJ (13 Feb 2014, http://www.bmj.com/content/348/bmj.g1151), giving up smoking is associated with an improvement in mental health. People who have quit are more positive and experience less symptoms of depression, stress and anxiety.
Smoking also increases the production of adrenaline in the body, the stress hormone that promotes the 'flight or fight' response, not good if you are already feeling stressed! But don't be tempted to replace that cigarette with a cup of coffee as that is another culprit for the production of adrenaline.
The good news is that exercise reduces adrenaline, so dump the cigarettes and pound the streets for that instant feel good factor!
Here at Pharmacist Support we are challenging people to be mindful of their smoking for one day. Notice how you feel when you don't smoke, does your mood change? Are your senses heightened? Does food taste different? Is your appetite altered? What has happened to your energy levels?
How about getting your colleagues to sponsor you 50p for every cigarette you don't smoke on No Smoking Day and pledge to donate the money you would normally spend on cigarettes to Pharmacist Support?


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« Liberals see things we don't | Main | "All tactics and no strategy" »
"The stature and credibility of the president must be maintained"
"Brewster Jennings & Associates was the cover organization to which CIA spy Valerie Plame Wilson was assigned . . . Its mission was deadly serious: tracking human intelligence on black market transfers of weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear materials," according to Pensio Review, which asserts that "One likely scenario is that the revelation tipped black marketers in nuclear materials that they were being monitored, thus helping them to escape scrutiny." WMDs? What WMDs? How about imminence, your eminence? We thought it was all about oil.
"Whenever something like this happened, and [Anthony] Lake was not able to convince the president to accept his counsel, his only recourse was to appeal to Hillary Clinton," wrote Athanasios K. Strigas in an online article that popped up at the end of a convoluted google search that started with a Drudge reference to Brewster Jennings as a front-company name for Plame and ended up with results from "hillary clinton aramco" via a suggestive Plame-related comment on Bush Lied, People Died™ Daily Kos from last July that asserted "Almost the entire Bush administration has an interest in ARAMCO." It's not just the entire Bush administration, but every American administration in recent history. Take the two-for-the-price-of-one Clinton administration:
It was Saturday afternoon on 4 January 1996. Clinton was scheduled to meet the next day with Lake and Lake's assistant Sandy Berger. The topic for discussion was to be the action taken regarding the memo he had issued to Lake concerning operation "Omega" . . . "Provoking" Greece was already U.S. policy, but had not yielded the desired results in the decade of the 80s. Ever since then these "provocations" had continued through the use of Turkey with better results.
The next day, aside from Lake and Berger, those present at the meeting were foreign undersecretary Richard Holbrooke, high-ranking State Department official Strobe Talbot, presidential advisor George Stephanopoulos, David Gergen, Thomas Maclarity (chief of staff), James Carville, Paul Begala and Susan Thomases . . .
You remember Paul "stroke of the pen, law of the land, kinda cool" Begala. Scary to think of such a light-weight, moral-equivalency fellow close to the switch in the control room. Fortunately, Mr. Begala has been gelded and farmed out to the MSM for the next period of time.
Last to speak was Susan Thomases: "It's obvious that you are all in agreement that there must be an armed conflict between these two countries, although not in the immediate future. But at the same time, the stature and credibility of the president must be maintained. Let's not forget that we have elections in November." Finally, the president said: "Then let's do it, but strictly in accordance with operation 'Omega.'" It was obvious to all present that he'd been influenced most by . . . Richard Holbrooke.
. . . Of course the danger for Lake in such situations was that Hillary might misinterpret Lake's concerns as a sign of emotional instability. In this case, however, Lake felt that she would accurately transmit his thoughts to the president, even if she did not agree with them or considered them to be overly exaggerated.
He therefore told Hillary that the president had not concentrated his attention upon the real problem. The real problem was that should there be only the one planned "incident" between Greece and Turkey at the end of January, Clinton would then be able to easily neutralize any criticism against him for not doing something to help Greece by simply imposing a "moratorium." If, however, the planned "incident" escalated into a series of armed clashes in the Aegean that lasted into the autumn of the coming year -- in other words into the campaign and election season -- how could America's inaction in preventing this war between two allies be explained? And all of this because the president was being pushed into this action by the Rockefeller (ARAMCO-N.Y.) petroleum interests who were trying to gain the advantage over their fierce competitors, the "Texans."
Our colleagues on the left side of the aisle are forever bashing us folk on the right with "It's all about oil." 'Could be, but it really depends upon what your definition of "all" is. Who is this fellow Athanasios K. Strigas, you ask? A precis from a now deleted Free Republic article posted 11/08/98:
Athanasios Strigas, interviewed here, studied Political and Economic Science at the University of Heidelberg. He then took Foreign Relations and International Strategy in the University of Georgetown in Washington D.C. and Propaganda in Patris Lumumba of Moscow. You might be surprised how it relates to the recent events that are baffling many. Unfortunately his books are only available in Greek, but in them he reveals a great deal about the US National Security Agency and the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg Club, sometimes far more than anything you can find on the world-wide web.
It's Greek to us. No idea of the credibility, but vast right-wing conspiracies are in the air, and frankly, my dear, we don't trust anyone on either side of the aisle out there.
Posted by Sissy Willis on October 29, 2005 at 07:15 AM in What does a Democrat want? | Permalink
It is a dangerous world out there with many who want the power to tell us what to do and what to think. There are some who wish to help us keep our freedom. I hope we can chose wisely whom to trust. I know it is not the ones who wish to direct my life.


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Home » ABC National » Video captures man returning stolen deck chairs
Video captures man returning stolen deck chairs
iStock/jimkruger
(COVINGTON, Ky.) — A man alarmed a homeowner in Covington, Kentucky, when he was caught on camera scoping out her porch and then returning two days later to steal her deck chairs in the middle of the night.
When videos of the incident were shown on local news stations, someone recognized the man and alerted him that police were looking for him, according to the homeowner's Facebook post. The man returned to the house for a third time. But this time it was to apologize.
After the homeowner refused to come outside to talk to the man, he said, "Ma'am, I feel so stupid for doing it and I am so sorry," speaking to her through the door.
"I apologize to the fullest. I have four daughters and I'm just embarrassed as hell," he said.
The man insisted that the stunt was part of a dare, which the homeowner did not believe. She called the police while he continued to apologize and return the chairs, but fled before officers arrived, the video shows.
Man seen holding Confederate flag among latest Capitol siege arrests, authorities say
Electric smoker stolen from outside home in Jefferson County
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's lectern, stolen in Capitol riot, returned
'The Conners' Sara Gilbert on safely returning to set, "It's been a lot of testing"
'The Connors' star Sara Gilbert on safely returning to set, "It's been a lot of testing"


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Thursday, February 02 2023
US: Court rules in favour of elderly Sikh targetted in hate crime
Bagalakote: 'BJP tries to create communal tension between Hindus, Muslims'
Home » India » Rajasthan: 11 dead, 15 injured as bus collides with truck
Rajasthan: 11 dead, 15 injured as bus collides with truck
Monday, November 18th, 2019 at 12:43 PM
Jaipur: Eleven people were killed while over 15 others were injured when a bus collided with a truck on Monday morning in Bikaner near Lakhasar village in Rajasthan, police officials said.
The collision was so intense that both vehicles caught fire. The police and fire brigade rushed to the site after being informed by locals, said SHO Ghulam Nabi, Sheruna station.
He told IANS that the bus was on its way from Bikaner to Jaipur when it collided with the truck. The bus and truck both were gutted in the fire which broke out soon after the crash.
Of the 15 injured, three are critical and have been rushed to Bikaner district hospital.
Prime facie reports said that fog diminished the visibility and hence the accident occurred, however, a detailed investigation will be done once the injured recover, he said.
The deceased are yet to be identified he added.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot expressed his condolences.
"Extremely pained to know of the terrible accident on NH 11, Bikaner-Jaipur highway in which eleven people have lost lives. It is heart-wrenching and my thoughts go out to all family members of the deceased. May God give them strength. Prayers for the injured," he tweeted.
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Using Modern Synthetic Techniques to Conduct Difficult Transformations Relating to the Agrochemical Industry
MALLIA, CARL,JAMES (2016) Using Modern Synthetic Techniques to Conduct Difficult Transformations Relating to the Agrochemical Industry. Doctoral thesis, Durham University.
Author-imposed embargo until 22 August 2021.
The work described in this dissertation is divided into three chapters each discussing independent projects where either gas-liquid flow technology or microwave reactor technology was applied to organic synthesis.
The first chapter describes the flow hydroxy-carbonylation of ortho-substituted iodo arenes. It was found that through the use of a "tube-in-tube" reactor to introduce the carbon monoxide gas to the reaction mixture, a number of ortho-substituted carboxylic acids could be prepared. The second part of this chapter deals with the synthesis of a herbicidal intermediate which was prepared through the carboxylation reaction with carbon dioxide (dry ice). A parallel flow process for the preparation of this herbicidal intermediate was also developed. This work was reported in one publication.
In the second chapter another gas; oxygen, was used in continuous flow as an oxidant in the Chan-Lam reaction. The first part of this chapter demonstrates how a continuous process for the synthesis of a herbicidal intermediate was developed through an optimised catalytic Chan-Lam reaction which was also shown to consistently work at different scales. In the second part a more generalised catalytic Chan-Lam reaction was optimised and this lead to a small collection of C-N coupled products. This work was published in one publication.
The use of 1,4-dithain-2,5-diol as a precursor for 2-mercaptoacetaldehyde was used as a building block for the synthesis of thiazoles in the third chapter. Using microwave reactor technology the optimised reaction conditions for this novel transformation was quickly achieved. A bifurcation pathway was discovered where either 2-aminothiophens or 2-substiuted thiazoles were prepared, which was demonstrated through the synthesis of a small library of compounds. This work was disclosed in two separate publications.
Flow chemistry, Gases in Flow, Carbon monoxide, Oxygen


Everyone loves a little sparkle; you'll surely shine like a Prom Queen in this beaded mermaid dress!
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Stara Wieś – część wsi Modliborzyce w Polsce, położona w województwie świętokrzyskim, w powiecie opatowskim, w gminie Baćkowice.

W latach 1975–1998 Stara Wieś administracyjnie należała do województwa tarnobrzeskiego.

Przypisy

Modliborzyce (województwo świętokrzyskie)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


VPI Vertical Print Inspectors - GTI Graphic Technology Inc. VPI Vertical Print Inspectors - GTI Graphic Technology Inc.
The VPI Vertical Print Inspector is a D50 viewing station that is designed for the visual inspection of large format prints in a convenient vertical format.
When using the VPI the observer can stand at a comfortable distance and visually compare the entire image with a color monitor, transparency, or reference print.
The ISO 3664:2009 compliant light quality of the VPI is a combination of the Graphiclite 100 Color Viewing Lamp output, aluminized high efficiency reflectors, and spectrally neutral, non-yellowing diffusers.
The VPI comes in three standard sizes with a range of options. Options include variable Intensity for soft proof comparisons, height-adjustable artwork holder to support three dimensional artwork, lower luminaire for better light evenness, and side walls for stricter control of ambient light.


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Q: Mercurial "hg clone" on Windows via ssh with plink issue I have a Windows Server 2008 machine (iis7) that has CopSSH set up on it. To connect to it, I have a Windows 7 machine with Mercurial 1.5.1 (and TortoiseHg) installed.
I can connect to the server using PuTTY with a non-standard ssh port and a .ppk file just fine. So I know the server can be SSH'd into.
Next, I wanted to use the CLI to connect via hg clone to get a private repo. I've seen elsewhere that you need to have ssh configured in your mercurial.ini file, so my mercurial.ini has a line: ssh = plink.exe -ssh -C -l username -P #### -i "C:/Program Files/PuTTY/Key Files/KyleKey.ppk"
Note:
username is filled in with the username I set up via copSSH.
#### is filled in with the non-standard ssh port I've defined for copSSH.
I try to do the command hg clone ssh://inthom.com but I get this error:
remote: bash: inthom.com: command not found
abort: no suitable response from remote hg!
It looks like hg or plink parses the hostname such that it thinks that inthom.com is a command instead of the server to ssh to. That's really odd.
Next, I tried to just use plink to connect by plink -P #### ssh://inthom.com, and I am then prompted for my username, and next password. I enter them both and then I get this error:
bash: ssh://inthom.com: No such file or directory
So now it looks like plink doesn't parse the hostname correctly.
I fiddled around for a while trying to figure out how to do call hg clone with an empty ssh:// field and eventually figured out that this command allows me to reach the server and clone a test repo on the inthom.com server:
hg clone ssh://!/Repos/test
! is the character I've found that let's me leave the hostname blank, but specify the repo folder to clone.
What I really don't understand is how plink knows what server to ssh to at all. neither my mercurial.ini nor the command specify a server. None of the hg clone examples I've seen have a ! character. They all use an address, which makes sense, so you can connect to any repo via ssh that you want to clone.
My only guess is that it somehow defaults to the last server I used PuTTY to SSH to, but I SSH'd into another server, and then tried to use plink to get to it, but plink still defaults to inthom.com (verified with the -v arg to plink). So I am at a loss as to how plink gets this server value at all.
For "fun", I tried using TortoiseHg and can only clone a repo when I use ssh://!/Repos/test as the Source.
Now, you can see that, since plink doesn't parse the hostname correctly, I had to specify the port number and username in the mercurial.ini file, instead of in the hostname like username@inthom.com:#### like you'd expect to. Trying to figure this out at first drove me insane, because I would get errors that the host couldn't be reached, which I knew shouldn't be the case.
My question is how can I configure my setup so that ssh://username@inthom.com:####/Repos/test is parsed correctly as the username, hostname, port number, and repo to copy? Is it something wrong with the version of plink that I'm using, or is there some setting I may have messed up? If it is plink's fault, is there an alternative tool I can use?
I'm going to try to get my friend set up to connect to this same repo, so I'd like to have a clean solution instead of this ! business. Especially when I have no idea how plink gets this default server, so I'm not sure if he'd even be able to get to inthom.com correctly.
PS. I've had to use a ton of different tutorials to even get to this stage. Therefore, I haven't tried pushing any changes to the server yet. Hopefully I'll get this figured out and then I can try pushing changes to the repo.

A: I know I am late but better now then never.
OK, so... Command for connecting to Mercurial SSH

ssh = plink.exe -ssh -C -l username -P #### -i "C:/Program Files/PuTTY/Key Files/KyleKey.ppk"

is perfectly OK, but the problem is with Plink.
Plink have problems with folders that have spaces in their names. So, the problem is in

"C:/Program Files/PuTTY/Key Files/KyleKey.ppk"

You have two options:

*

*You can move this "KyleKey.ppk" file into a path with no spaces in name. For example, you can move this file in "C:\" or "D:\Path\Without\Space\In\Name".

*You can use Windows short path names. For example, I have

ssh = "C:\Progra~2\Plink\Plink.exe" -ssh -i "C:\Progra~2\PuTTYgen\hrle.ppk"

in my "Mercurial.ini".
"C:\Progra~2" is "C:\Program Files (x86)".
Plink will hang if SSH private key is protected with a password.
And also, you must add this server to know server list before you even use Plink in conjunction with TortoiseHg or some other GUI tool like MercurialEclipse. If you fail to do that Plink will hang waiting for you response which you can not give because you work with TortoiseHg and not on the command line. More on this subjet in AccessingSshRepositoriesFromWindows.

A: With plink you do not need to use the ssh:// protocol identifier.  You can simply use {user}@{host}:{path} format and it will work fine.
Example:

plink -ssh -C -l {username} -pw {pass} -P 22 -i "C:/Program Files/PuTTY/Key Files/KyleKey.ppk" inthom.com:/Repos/test

replace {username} with the user and {pass} with the password as well.

A: yo, i had the same problem. What was wrong with my setup is that plink was using the default server set in putty instead of the one I was providing. I had to open putty and remove the default server and then save. Try to use plink without a server.. if your command passes, you have a default server..


Man City welcome Everton to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, looking to bounce back from their first Premier League defeat this season. Will the Citizens extend their 100% winning record at Etihad? This post contains our Manchester City vs Everton betting preview with betting tips, predictions, probable line-ups, team news, best odds, bookie offers and no deposit free bets!
Chelsea last weekend. They now trail league leaders Liverpool by a single point. The Citizens have won all eight of their league home matches so far and have scored 30 goals and conceded just five in that time. They returned to winning ways on Wednesday by overcoming Hoffenheim 2-1 in the Champions League. Defense remain a little concern as Pep Guardiola's men has now conceded at least once in each of their last five matches.
The home side will hope to have Sergio Aguero available but the Argentine is likely to miss out, leaving Raheem Sterling, Leroy Sanè and Riyad Mahrez leading the line. John Stones was forced off with a knee injury in midweek and will be replaced by Vincent Kompany or Nicholas Otamendi. The England international joins David Silva, Benjamin Mendy, Kevin De Bruyne, Eliaquim Mangala and Claudio Bravo. In midfield, Fernandinho will be the pivot, flanked by Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva.
Morgan Schneiderlin is Everton's only injury concern ahead of this clash. Manager Marco Silva is expected to play with a three man defense formed by Kurt Zouma, Yerry Mina and Michael Keane. The likes of Lucas Digne and Seamus Coleman will start as wing backs with Andre Gomes and Idrissa Gueye anchoring the midfield. Up front, The Walcott should be initially benched, meaning that Gilfy Sigurdsson and Bernard will support the lone striker Richarlison. The likes of Ademola Lookman, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Cenk Tosun are the other offensive options.
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I finished this book in a day – definitely not a heavy read despite the description of disease and impending heartbreak. Madeline is allergic to basically everything. Thankfully her mother is a pediatrician and has the money to keep her house as safe as possible. So her home is a haven for her, but still a prison of sorts. I thought Madeline was a great character. She's happy, she's smart and feisty even though she's trapped in her house to stay alive. It was great reading about a biracial heroine as well. Every book nerd loves more book references – I loved how much she reads and how Madeline applied The Little Prince to her life! I would have liked Olly to have been more developed, but I did like him for what he was.
This was a sweet romance (though steamier than I expected for YA!) and I was totally shocked in the end. I loved how Madeline and Olly fell for each over through the window and IM. I won't say more because the ending should not be spoiled for readers! The less you know going in the better.
This book was made all the richer by the illustrations – and knowing that Nicola Yoon's husband was the artist made them even cuter I thought! I am 100% in love with the cover – I would punch someone for a tote bag like Katie's at Bookish Illuminations!
I thought this was a really sweet read – but from another perspective Disability in Kidlit has a really interesting post about whether Madeline's story is a realistic portrayal of disability (spoiler warning!). This gave me a lot to think about in terms of how disability is written about in YA – this definitely put the ending in a different light for me. I still thought this was a pretty happy book, but that post made me think about how it could have been different or even more inclusive.
Thank you Delacorte Books for Young Readers for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review!
This is pretty far outside my usual reading, but I'm pretty curious about it, both because of the subject and because so many people have been raving about it.
Definitely outside your usual! I did really enjoy it while reading but I am still working out my thoughts on the larger issues of disability.
I also thought it was a sweet book, until I started thinking more about it. I still think it's good, and most teens will just breeze right through it and like it. But, that review at Disability in Kidlit is very thought-provoking, and really nails the things about it that were bothering me, but just hovering around the edges of my mind.
I guess we can only hope after the breezing through the story people give more thought to the issue of disability. I think because it wraps up so quickly it seems like some readers are questioning how easily everything is "solved".
I'm guessing, though, that a lot of teens will just take it at face value and move on to their next read. That's what my daughter did when she read it (except that I asked her a few questions about it first – I tried not to be too leading). She's only 14, though, so she's still on the young side of the target age group.
I'm glad to here that you liked it! I haven't read it yet but I got an ARC at BEA. I hope to get to it soon! Especially since so many people seem to like it 🙂 I'm intrigued that it has illustrations in it!
The illustrations are really adorable.
I usually don't read YA and have been burned a couple times by it this year, but I keep hearing about this one. Might have to give it a shot at some point!


An illegal immigrant who was smuggled into the UK after his father and brother were murdered by militants in his native Afghanistan has lost his fight to remain in the UK.
Najibullah Hashimi, 19, has been living in England ever since fleeing his war-torn homeland as a youngster.
He has since settled well in the UK, and has the full backing of his foster family, his girlfriend, and his teammates at Rodmersham Cricket Club in Kent.
Mr Hashimi and crowds of supporters, including his foster father's two young sons, who refer to the Afghan national as "brother'' put forward a case for a right to remain in the UK last month.
However, a letter from the Home Office has since confirmed Mr Hashimi has failed in his appeal, and will be sent to Kabul despite hearing his concerns that his life will be in danger.
Steve Griffiths, his foster father, today described Mr Hashimi as "a broken man'', but said his solicitor may yet contest the decision.
He said: "We are all devastated. My family, my two boys they cannot believe this.
"We are all very worried for Najib. He is part of our family, he is part of our lives you couldn't meet a nicer fellow.
He said Mr Hashimi and his solicitor have until the end of the week to consider what course of action they will take next.
Mr Griffiths said: "Najib's absolutely beside himself. He is worried for his life, and he doesn't want to leave here.