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http://www.discovernikkei.org/es/journal/2016/1/18/goliath-vs-david-obaachan/
Goliath vs. David's Angry Obaachan
Por Ellen Endo / 18 Ene 2016
Japanese Village Plaza and the Japanese American National Museum were jam-packed on Saturday and Sunday. It was a sign that business was good in Little Tokyo, but to the merchants, restaurateurs, and other J-town regulars, it represented much more.
It meant that Little Tokyo merchants asserted themselves for the first time in quite a while, and the whole thing had a unifying effect.
Metro construction on Central and First in Little Tokyo. Mikey Hirano Culross/The Rafu Shimpo.
As previously reported in The Rafu Shimpo, Metro announced plans to close the Little Tokyo/Arts District Gold Line station December 4 through mid-February. In addition, there would be periodic closures of First Street between Alameda and Vignes streets. All of this was destined to wreak havoc with holiday shopping and tourism on which merchants have come to rely.
When business owners raised their voices in protest, Metro executives responded with earnest apologies. However, after carefully weighing the options, Metro came back with the news that they couldn't possibly postpone the closures.
That's when the furikake hit the fan. Within a few hours, business owners, working in conjunction with the Little Tokyo Business Association, responded with the ferocity of an angry Issei grandmother—you know, the sweet old lady who loses it when you break the porcelain platter she lovingly carried all the way from Osaka before the war.
First of all, let's not kid ourselves. The best we can do as a community is to try to keep the frustration to a minimum until the $1.4 billion Regional Connector fulfills its destiny and brings the world (or at least a big chunk of Southern California) to Little Tokyo's doorstep.
In the biblical parable, David was the smallest and youngest of eight sons. He tended the sheep for his father, an Israelite. David was destined to be king, but no one really believed it because of his size. Goliath was nine feet tall and an enemy of the Israelites. He scoffed when he saw the diminutive David.
What Goliath didn't realize was that David had fought lions and bears to protect his father's sheep. He had the heart of a king and wasn't afraid of the giant. On the way to confront Goliath, David picked up five smooth stones. As Goliath advanced toward him, David pulled out a stone from his pouch, hurled it at the giant, and hit him between the eyes. Goliath fell to the ground.
As a transportation agency, Metro serves one of America's largest, most populous counties—9.6 million people, nearly one-third of California's residents, in a 1,433-square mile service area.
To better understand why protecting and preserving our community is so important, it helps to know where we have been. Beginning in the fall of 1945, Japanese Americans returned to their former communities to rebuild and resettle. Religious institutions became the nucleus of these post-war districts, and these reconstituted communities began to grow.
Consequently, Little Tokyo was once much larger than it is today. George Takahashi, stalwart member of the St. Francis Xavier Japanese Catholic Center (formerly "Maryknoll") dubbed it the "Greater Historic Little Tokyo."
Little Tokyo once reached all the way to Sixth Street and west to Main Street. It also encompassed the northeast block at First and Los Angeles streets, where eminent domain was exercised to make way for Parker Center.
Greater Historic Little Tokyo is a distinct brotherhood of shops, restaurants, religious and nonprofit institutions, theaters, two world-class museums, professional offices, newspaper publishers, and residents that was founded and built by the Issei pioneers, rebuilt by Nisei, and if we're lucky, carried on by the Sansei, Yonsei, and beyond. We are the custodians of the J-Town legacy.
For motivation, I often invoke the spirit of my grandmother, Hisayo (Nezu) Endo, a feisty, no-nonsense teacher who in the early 1900s traveled from Shizuoka to Utah, where she taught the children of the arriving Japanese immigrants.
The intrepid men and women who run businesses in this community today draw their resolve, at least in part, from their own parents and grandparents, an intelligent, hard-working, honorable, principled lot. Today's Little Tokyo merchant is armed with the same determination to survive.
Obaachan would be proud.
*This article was originally published by The Rafu Shimpo on December 14, 2015.
© 2015 Ellen Endo
community gentrification grandmother japanese village plaza japantown little tokyo Los Angeles merchants metro obaachan redevelopment
Ellen Endo
Ellen Endo is a journalist whose professional experience includes a 20-year association with The Rafu Shimpo as well as senior level positions in the television and motion picture industry. She currently serves President of the Little Tokyo Business Association and provides communications, writing, and media relations through her own business, Hapa Consulting Services. Born in Livorno, Italy, Ms. Endo is bicultural. Her mother is from Milan, Italy, and her father's family is from Shizuoka, Japan.
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Anderson Memorial Weekend 7/7 ~ 7/8
Three couples headed to Anderson to compete in the annual rallies that are part of the Anderson Memorial Weekend. Butch & Tammy DeWitt, David & Kim Pritchett, and Bill & Erika Lapham met at the Shell station then headed up to Bakers Corner and through Cicero and over to the new starting location in Anderson. They were joined by 16 more Corvettes and 2 metal cars for a nice group supporting ACA rallies. This year there were no Hare & Hound clues, but the answer sheet was separate from driving instructions with no correlation between the two. This of course made the 'fun' rally a lot harder, but the same for everyone. The rallies started at the Highland Middle School and ended at a new location of the Anderson Fraternal Order of Police lodge, which unfortunately was hidden from the street. This led to a number of the participants getting off route at the very end of the rallies. Most everyone finally made it to the lodge and enjoyed a great meal and a number won door prizes to make it a great afternoon.
On Sunday Anderson held their autocross events at the new middle school location. We had several workers there as David, Kim and Tammy returned, while Mark Hilligoss, along with Gary & Marian Cole also came in for the day. Also for sure Butch was there enjoying the competition in his black C4.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


MORECAMBE went down 2-1 to Accrington Stanley on derby day.
Stanley took the spoils and moved up to third in the table in a game that saw a number of controversial moments including a sending off for Vadaine Oliver and two excellent Morecambe penalty appeals turned down by referee Peter Bankes.
Stanley created the better chances and took the points thanks to goals in either half from Billy Kee and Jordan Clark. But to their credit Morecambe always looked to push forward despite being reduced to 10 men and they fully deserved their late consolation when Kevin Ellison scored a 94th minute header to cause the Stanley defence a few nervous moments.
Morecambe boss Jim Bentley made five changes to the side that drew with Cambridge last week with deaadline day signing Adam McGurk given his first start and Max Muller playing in a holding midfield role in place of the injured Alex Kenyon.
And it was Stanley who made the better start with Kayden Jackson almost capitalising on a mix-up in the Morecambe defence but saw his effort thwarted by Barry Roche.
The visitors went close again through skipper Seamus Conneely after Sean McConville's clever ball, but Conneely couldn't keep his volley underneath the bar and Kee should also have done better when presented with a great chance 12 yards out.
After squandering those chances Stanley took the lead in fine fashion just after the half-hour when Kee picked up the ball in space, advanced, before drilling a low effort beyond Roche from 25-yards out.
The lead was almost doubled from a McConville corner, debutant Farrend Rawson rose above all but clipped his header against the base of the post.
After an explosive first half the game burst back into life in the 56th minute when Oliver was shown a straight red card for a tackle on Kee to give the Shrimps a mountain to climb.
The red card actually gave Morecambe a lift and they looked more threatening going forward with a clear penalty waved away when Aaron McGowan was brought down after a superb piece of skill.
At the other end Roche saved well from Jackson and Mallik Wilks and Jordan Clark missed a golden chance when he could only find the side netting from close range.from Sean McConville's excellent cross.
Clark made no mistake a minute from time however when he bundled home Jackson';s cross from close range.
But to their credit Morecambe came back again and they scored their first goal in four games when Ellison headed home Elliott Osborne's far post cross.
Morecambe: Roche, McGowan, Winnard, Muller, Old, Brough (rep Ellison 73), Rose, Campbell (rep Osborne 62), McGurk (rep Lang 63), Thompson 6, Oliver 6.
Subs not used: Nizic, Lund, Turner, Fleming.
Accrington: Stryjek (rep Chapman 8), Thorniley, Hughes, Rawson (rep Ogle 72), Donacien, Clark, Nolan, Conneely, McConville, Kee (rep Wilks 65), Jackson.
Subs not used: Brown, Sykes, Sousa, Dallison.


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Special Issue 1 - COVID-19: Unprecedented Challenges and Chances
Conversations with Authors
Published onJun 07, 2021
An Interview with Bin Yu
by Bin Yu and Xiao-Li Meng
key-enterThis Pub is a Supplement to
Curating a COVID-19 Data Repository and Forecasting County-Level Death Counts in the United States
by Nick Altieri, Rebecca L Barter, James Duncan, Raaz Dwivedi, Karl Kumbier, Xiao Li, Robert Netzorg, Briton Park, Chandan Singh, Yan Shuo Tan, Tiffany Tang, Yu Wang, Chao Zhang, and Bin Yu
hdsr.mitpress.mit.edu
Listen to the interview and read the transcript below.
Xiao-Li Meng (XLM): Thank you, Bin, for joining us today for this great conversation. I want to thank you again for contributing a 50-page article on COVID-19 to the Harvard Data Science Review. It's really an incredible and important project. I want to first ask you, what motivated you to put together a team to work on this really big and timely project?
Bin Yu (BY): Thank you, Xiao-Li, for having me. It's really my pleasure to tell the stories behind the paper. So, in late March, I saw a call for data science expertise by a very new nonprofit organization called Responsible Life. Immediately, I responded. I remember it was a Saturday, like March 21st or 22nd [2020], because I always have been advocating for making a positive impact with our work—statistics, data science, or machine learning. I thought that was an opportunity to actually walk the talk. I reached out to some of my students, and they all jumped in with no hesitation. I tried to protect some people. I didn't reach out to everyone, just because I thought they had other things to do. But in the end, they jumped in, too, and we had 12 people, including a former student.
XLM: That's actually a lot of people to work with, particularly with such an important topic.
BY: In the end, it turned out like that, but I didn't really have time to think, I just felt that it was the right thing to do. I had the expertise, my group had the expertise, and what we did to help was really when we had this crisis of PPEs [personal protective equipment]. I hope we don't see that in this third or second surge of the COVID right now. The number is actually higher right now than in March.
XLM: You have done many projects in your life and in your career. What made this one particularly stand out?
BY: Well, in the sense that there was not much planning. Usually I plan, but I didn't have time for this one. We had to do something, as other people's lives were on the line. So, it's a very condensed timescale, the whole organization and us. The organization was only one week old. It was just volunteers getting together. It was like a data science ER project, an emergency room project. We needed so many skills that are usually not needed for a traditional research project.
XLM: That's actually a really important point. Let me pick up on that. COVID-19 has generated this awareness that the data science itself, including statistics, does not really have a kind of a rapid response team like it is in an ER environment. So, for you, it sounds like you have to do everything from scratch. I remember you mentioned it's warlike. Is the environment really like that?
BY: Yes, because we had to do something—that was clear in everyone's mind—but what hadn't been thought out. So, the first thing I asked, responsibly, was, 'Where's the data? We're data scientists.' And they said, 'We have no data. You have to find the data yourself.' It was like I had to take a step back. And then I started asking, 'Suppose we distribute the PPEs'—I was just using my usual research-planning mind, thinking of all the steps—and then I would ask, 'Who will be receiving the PPEs at the hospitals?' They said, 'Oh, that's a good question. Maybe you could look into that.' Everything I asked was usually answered with 'Maybe you could look into that,' because I was just volunteering and I ended up on the leadership team very quickly.
Every day we had an 8:30 a.m. call to plan for the next day. And the personnel was also shifting because people come and go. Some people could only take two weeks off from work. They had to go back to their jobs. There are two people we work very closely, the founder, Rick Brennan, and also the logistics lead, Don Landwirth. Other people would just come and go, very dynamic. My team, my students, all stayed and they were really amazing. We work well together. And I had a deputy, one of my students in CS, Chandan Singh, who was really, really a super organizer. I interfaced with a lot of other connections, getting the background information, and he would be organizing. I would engage, but he would also do a lot of detail organization of my team and also interfacing with the logistics team and with the Salesforce database system. So, really, without him, it would have been very difficult, even with the team I had, to really make it work.
XLM: I want to follow up on something you said, which I think is really a part of the key of how we will build this kind of fast response team in data science. As you said, you asked a lot of questions, then end up with people coming back to you, saying 'You're the one who should think about that.' Now, as researchers, we are always thinking broadly, deeply, but we usually take time to do those thinking. But that's in academic research where we have time to do those things. Now you're pretty much put on the spot to make a decision, even maybe need to prioritize things. I want to ask you, though, what were your guiding principles? How did you make these fast decisions? I know you work on principles like stabilities, all of these issues. Would that thinking help you in this kind of environment?
BY: Not the first few weeks, because we didn't even have data and the pipeline was not ready. Later, I think, it was useful. In the beginning, it was really not traditional data science or statistics work. Most of the things—which, as a person, I didn't mind doing or like doing, all the other things—but it was not part of our training, for me or for the people in our program. There was a lot of human connections. I always like people and all my connections helped. So, everybody I reached out to was super helpful. I always rely a lot on my personal social network, and everybody was just amazing. It was just a lot of people I was reaching out to, and everybody just responded in such a timely manner. We basically didn't have any break for two months. Just sleep and get up and do this and organize the teams into, like, data team, modeling team, and also an interfacing PR team, volunteer organization team. And later we had the writing. I brought more people in to do the writing of the paper. So, it's very much divide and conquer. But one thing I have to say that I think we had already a very good collaborative and coherent group culture where nobody felt like they were not treated fairly. Everyone just doing the right thing and we work very seamlessly together without any planning. So, I was very pleased with how everybody worked together. It was a positive experience for all of us.
XLM: As I'm listening to you, I started thinking that you actually laid out a few guiding principles of building this rapid response team. One is, obviously, this kind of coordination. The other, as you said, is to divide and conquer. Each team has its responsibility. The other thing I thought was very interesting when you said you just reached out to all kinds of people. I think a technical term for that is that you're literally collecting data in real time and even without any particular protocol. But you are trying to find data, whatever you can, right? That sounds like what you were doing at that time.
BY: Yes, it's also expertise. First, I thought I had to understand how the logistic supply chain works, so I lined up an OR team from our IOR exchange team. In the end, we didn't work with them, but they were ready to work with us, if I have to do some optimization supply chain with all this cost. In the end, we did an holistic approach because there were donors engaged and they wanted to ship to certain places. So, it's not really completely left to us.
But the data team was Tiffany Tang and Hugh (Yu) Wong. Amazing students, because, usually for statisticians, we don't do that; we get hand-over data. But they didn't hesitate. Just jumped in. I was reading news all the time. My team was too. And we're all sending them links to scrape data. Tiffany said that she actually fell in love with data cleaning and curation. I thought that was wonderful, because that's the spirit I think we need to have if we want to cover everything instead of waiting somebody to clean the data for us before we can do anything.
XLM: Right, that definitely has been a problem for us as a profession. As much as we emphasize data collection, experiment design, sample samples—we know all this stuff—but in terms of who actually cleans the data, usually that's not done by statisticians. This kind of 'dirty work' to us, done by someone else, right? But anyone who has done real data science knows that 70–80% of time is spent on trying to preprocess, get the data clean, and make them useful.
BY: I think we should have some award or some competition on this front to encourage to make it positive to do this good, important work.
XLM: That's a good point.
BY: And for me, it was not clear to us what we signed up for, or what turned out to be doable, because the hospital didn't want to receive the PPEs and we couldn't find the makers to make them. Whatever we do, without the positive impact, we can still say we tried. But one thing was clear in my mind was that the database we curated would be very useful. So I said very early on, that the minimum contribution we can make is to curate this data repository. That's why, if you look at the title, data repository was in the title of the paper. And I felt like that's a contribution already. With all the previous work I have done, data is always a problem and I feel a lot of people might be doing similar things. So if we could help all the other teams to do their job, even if we couldn't push very far—in the end, that we did too—I felt that there was enough contribution.
XLM: Yes, well, thank you again for sending the paper. I want to follow up on that, as well. You may remember that initially I reached out to you about potentially writing a paper. At the time, you were way too busy. You were not really thinking about putting together an article. So, what really helped you to actually put together this article? Writing an article is another task, and for this kind of a project it's not easy at all, with so many moving pieces and so many people involved. How did you organize this article itself? That's a useful lesson for the data science community as well.
BY: So what happened was that, after we had data, we had a discussion of what to try to predict. We went for the death count instead of the case number, because the case number especially in the beginning really relied on how many tests were done. It was very rare. Now it may be more stabilized, and we can kind of adjust, whatever. For the death count, the highest granularity we can get is at the county level, and we had to impute to the hospital level with the number of employees. So that's what we felt the best we can do for the goal we had in mind.
Then the modeling team—Nick Altieri and Xiao Li—would just try out so many different ways to do the prediction and develop multiple methods. So, this is—if you talk about stability—not just try to find one generative model. We were very engineering, machine learning, and signals processing, and build on some earlier work I did 10 years ago at Bell Labs trying to combine different audio signal predictors. So, that was handy. We know how to combine. I would say I know how to combine bunch of predictors. And then Chandan, my deputy, just started on his own to build a website. He's really, really handy. Old friends of CS. He could just build a website.
And then we started putting our predictions on the website. Now I felt compelled that we had to explain what we did. Even with shared codes, it's not that accessible. You cannot ask everyone to read the code to know. And there were a lot of other teams putting out predictions that frustrated us because we didn't know how they did their predictions. I thought, we have to make our algorithm transparent and reproducible and a paper has to go with the code, because code itself is not enough. And then I remembered your invitation. So I went back to you saying that "Now I'm actually writing a paper. Would you be interested?"
XLM: Well, of course, I was extremely happy to hear that, but you also know that the reviewers did give you guys quite a bit of work, asking this and that and quite a bit, which is obviously expected. That's what the reviewers do. And I have to say that editing this special issue itself gave me a lot of respect to both the authors and the reviewers. Everybody was working so hard and under very stringent time constraints, and putting in a lot of effort. I want to you talk a little bit about that, because, as I said, the reviewers asked a lot of questions and we actually went through multiple rounds. How did your students, your co-authors, react to this kind of criticisms, because some of them were pretty strong? I won't say there were harsh, but they were pretty demanding. How did you organize a team to respond to all those things, making this process of revising the article also a learning experience for your students?
BY: So basically, the project had kind of two phases. The first was to get the data, get something done, put up the website, write something to document it, so we submitted the paper. Before that, I'd already brought in my book co-author, Rebecca Barber, who is not engaged very much in the modeling data stage, but I brought her in as the lead writer. Many people contributed, but she was the one who helped organize things and people contributed different parts, and that was very crucial.
We continued to work from May to June. Five of my students, who were the driving forces on the team, started their summer internships, so I basically lost all the people who were really in the trenches doing the most work. Raaz stepped up for the revision. Then the revision came back, and I organized a smaller summer team to continue extending it for hospitalization predictions. In early June, when I came back from medical leave, the reviews came back. For me, they were just fair comments. If we didn't have this time constraint, we probably would have addressed some of the comments before they were asked. So I thought they were just fair comments. My students, I think everyone, felt that way. They were good comments and we had to address them.
XLM: It sounds like your approach to organizing the article is very similar to organizing the work itself: divide and conquer, but have someone to coordinate it and, in the end, put everything together for coherence.
BY: Yes, I mean, I'm kind of in the background. I usually work with the organizer very closely and the organizer works with the students and then I jump in if I feel like I'm needed there. So, I tried to do the last round of checking, and usually I find things. I read all the things, but I let Raaz do the correspondence because it saves me time. I'm not really needed. The last round of comments was on visualization.
XLM: Yes, that was my fault. Delayed it and imposed it on you at the very last minute, and I knew the dataviz editor was very critical as well.
BY: It did improve the visualization a lot more. As a good consequence, I ended up running a group meeting to compare the not so-good visualization with the final visualization. I used that opportunity to really get other people engaged, too, to learn something from our own experience, and I plan to use it for my own class.
XLM: That's good.
BY: Usually I critique other people's visualization, but now I have my own paper's visualization to critique. And I also know my onw project much more inside out, right, instead of other people's projects: "Oh, they tried to do this, maybe it's not good, but I don't really know why they did what they did." So I turned this into a lot of positives.
XLM: For people who are not used to writing these articles, the great lesson here is that when you really try to produce a high-quality article itself, you really know the project much better yourself, because you have to dig out all the details, have to put things on the paper, communicate, tie up all the loose ends. There are just a lot more work than most people realize. So, I hope that this is also a very, very educational experience for your students. Did you get any feedback from them? Which part they liked most? Which are they didn't like, and which part they feel they could have done differently?
BY: I haven't had the chance to talk to them in that detail, but we did, two weeks ago, on the visualization. So, my group, we are making a Google Doc, documenting a lot of good culture, in a more transparent manner. So, we have now a mission statement, code of collaboration, how to write a paper, how to do visualization, how to work with each other, and how to share credit. So that is all documented. And we just keep adding to it. I find myself repeating the same thing to different students because they are going through different stages, and the group is also getting pretty big, so I felt like I need some formality. Actually, the idea of making a manual for the new group members came from a visiting professor last year, Yanjun, who came from the University of Virginia. She asked me right before she came whether I have such a thing for her to know what my group is like. And I said, 'I don't have anything like that.' So that's the first time I thought maybe engineering groups actually have such documents. She is from CS. So, I learned a lot actually from the engineering professors who are just much better at organizing teams. This was really triggered by the Yanjun's question. After she left, I started working out a document.
XLM: But this naturally comes to my next question. It sounds like this project itself is continuing. What's the next big step in terms of this project? Are you working on similar ones? Expanding this one's scope? Where are you going from here?
BY: We decide to do a hospitalization prediction. We had UC hospital data, but we still have not been able to access other hospitals' data, but we do have county-level hospitalization data. We were improving the prediction scheme in the earlier paper, and we also added a lot more to the website. So a lot of work was done by Danqing and Maya, adding to the website that Chandan and James, another student in the first team, worked on. We also have our map with Professor Kolak from the University of Chicago. She heads a center called Spatial Data Science, and they have a different atlas. And they have a layer coming from us. So we have been working together, and it was introduced by my old colleague, Yandell, from Wisconsin. We connected. We're still supplying our prediction to one layer of their layers of atlas on COVID. That organization really tries to help rural areas about rural health. We actually ended up writing—we felt like our website would put a lot of effort into it. We didn't really get enough traffic. So, we recently wrote a five-page release to a medical journal just to advertise the website.
XLM: PR is very important.
BY: We started moving a little towards causal inference. We have some clustering work on the website, and Danqing also cleaned up some data. For each county, policy changes at the county level. So, we have the raw data available. We just haven't had the human resource to really have a concrete plan, but it's really motivating. I have always the interesting dynamic system, dynamic data. And this COVID really got me into it. I've been thinking a lot, and I'm joining a group of people from Berkeley and MIT for some kind of dynamic AI institute. It's really helped push me to get into dynamic modeling.
XLM: If you had to do all this all over again, which I hope you don't need to, since the situation will be improving, what would be the things that you would have done differently?
BY: I have been thinking about that myself. I mean, for this type of situation, in most real problems, almost all the real problems I worked on, the philosophy is really not optimality. It's really "Do the best you can, with the resources you have, with the time you have." If I use that to measure our effort, I'd say that we wouldn't have done anything differently. We really felt like we put all in for two months, all of us, including my friends and people who supported us. That's why in the end, with such a rewarding experience, the data team got into something statisticians don't usually go into. I would not have put them on that, to be honest, if the project came our way in a peaceful time.
XLM: Yes, you would not take that.
BY: We didn't have that luxury. That was good, actually, that we didn't. And the modeling team also had to be just—my team usually doesn't work with time-series prediction—starting from very much basic principles. I think all the culture we put in about applied statistics, do the best you can with the skills you have, really worked out. Instead of being afraid, take the risk and we also take the opportunity.
XLM: Well, thank you Bin. It sounds like you actually have achieved optimality. It's just a constrained one, constrained given the time, given the resources, given the demand, given that we all did not know what to do. I think that's exactly what rapid response teams should do. Do the best you can, save as many lives as you can. But along the way, sounds like a you're not only just helping the situation, but you actually provide a huge pedagogical training opportunity to all your students. And I think that that impact itself can last much longer because they will be learning so much from this experience and lead as they move on. So, thank you for this conversation with authors.
And you're listening to the Conversation with Authors from HDSR, where we publish everything data science and data science for everyone.
BY: Thank you, Xiao-Li. It has been a pleasure.
This interview is © 2021 by the author(s). The editorial is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode), except where otherwise indicated with respect to particular material included in the article. The article should be attributed to the authors identified above.


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Kelowna's Kennedy Dickie and Semiahmoo's Izzy Forsyth battle for a rebound during Friday's AAA Finla Four clash at the LEC. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2019. All Rights Reserved)
No. 1 Semi, No. 2 Grove in a battle royal for all the marbles! What did Friday's Final Four tell us about today's AAA Super Saturday clash?
March 2, 2019 Howard TsumuraComment(0)
LANGLEY — All week long, it's the question that has been begging for an answer.
Is this the potential start of a new three-year dynasty for ultra-young Semiahmoo Totems of Surrey?
Or is there still one more final chapter to be written, that of a championship finale, for the battle-tested, senior led Walnut Grove Gators of Langley?
It's been a campaign which has played those very polar-opposites against each other since the season's opening tip in November, and now the verdict is set to be delivered.
At 5 p.m. at the Langley Events Centre, it's No. 1 Semiahmoo vs. No. 2 Walnut Grove.
It's a 'Welcome to the spotlight' moment for the Totems' blue-chip quartet of Deja Lee, Tara Wallack, Izzy Forsyth and Raushan Bindra.
It's a farewell finale for the Gators' three university-bound stars in Tavia Rowell (Grand Canyon), Jessica Wisotzki (Simon Fraser) and Rolande Taylor (Trinity Western).
On Final Four Friday, Semiahmoo punched its ticket with an 82-64 win over the defending B.C. champion Kelowna Owls, while Walnut Grove returned to the title game with a 73-63 win over the crosstown Brookswood Bobcats.
Here's our look at both games.
Semiahmoo's Raushan Bindra (3) lets fly with one of the Totems' game-changing second-half treys. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2019. All Rights Reserved)
No.1 SEMIAMOO 82 No. 5 KELOWNA 64
LANGLEY — Raushan Bindra from one baseline corner. Bingo. Three-ball.
Deja Lee from other baseline corner. Bingo. Three-ball.
One of the scariest things about the Semiahmoo Totems is that they never rely on any one element of their game to beat you.
Take Friday's Final Four clash with the defending champion Kelowna Owls.
The Totems hit in 11-of-32 three-point attempts. These days, that's pretty standard fare.
Yet it's the context of when those threes begin to fall. Are they a reaction to what is happening on the floor? Or are they tone-setting in nature, intended to set the table for yet another facet of their game plan?
"We had them on the ropes for the first half," said Owls head coach Darren Semeniuk of the way his team's zone defence performed. "It kind of played out the way we wanted it to. We packed the paint on them, we tried to take away Izzy and Faith (Dut's) flashes in the middle, because once the ball gets deep like that, even if they miss they are getting their own rebounds.
"So we forced them to shoot from the outside and it worked," he continued of an opening 20 minutes in which the Totems led 34-33. "But then (Semiahmoo head coach) Allison (McNeill) went a little smaller (in the second half). She put more shooters around the outside, and then as soon as a couple of them got hot, they extended their lead. But that was our plan, to give those (jump shots) up. We had to pick something."
And if you decided to change things up, and play man defence in reaction, like the Owls eventually did, the initial reasons you started in a zone immediately were brought back to light.
"Even when we went back to man (-to-man defence), it's a really hard match-up to guard Izzy and Faith in there, especially now that they are shooting the ball and we're extending our defence," Semeniuk summed "We leave a lot of gaps when we go man-to-man."
Ask the Totems, and they just kept it simple.
"The score was almost tied at the half," Forsyth said. "We knew we had to bring it in the second half because they were never going to give up. Our team has a saying that the first five minutes of the third quarter are the most important minutes of the game."
A 26-16 Semiahmoo run over the 10-minute frame of the third quarter illustrated how effectively they took the mantra to heart.
And then veteran coach McNeill added: "We just said we were going to stick with what we were doing, and that we didn't get here by being a bad team. I just think in the second half, we made some shots that we didn't make in the first half. I thought Raushan and DJ (Deja Lee) really stepped up. I thought the whole team did."
Forsyth led the Totems with 23 points and 14 rebounds, while Tara Wallack added 18 points and 11 rebounds. Lee had 15 points and Bindra 12.
Kennedy Dickie of the Owls got into early foul trouble and was never able to get into a full flow en route to 11 points and 11 rebounds. Meanwhile, Jaeli Ibbetson continued on a most impressive tourney run with 30 points and 14 rebounds. Rylee Semeniuk had 10 points and Jordan Kemper 10 rebounds.
A tempered pace and better ball movement in the second half helped open the court for Jessica Wisotzki and the Walnut Grove Gators in their win over Jenna Dick and the Brookswood Bobcats. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2019. All Rights Reserved)
No. 2 WALNUT GROVE 73 No. 6 BROOKSWOOD 63
LANGLEY — There is no telling just when all of the figurative lights will come on, signalling that phase of team development which prompts a head coach to proudly pronounce that his players finally 'get it.'
That is precisely what has happened with the Brookswood Bobcats over the final weeks of their 2018-19 campaign.
And while none of that was of any consolation to 'Cats head coach Chris Veale and company who probably wish the season could start from scratch right now minus all the fatigue, their efforts in a Final Four clash with Walnut Grove very likely serves the Gators well going forward into tonight's title clash with the Semiahmoo Totems.
"They were grinding the whole game, that was a good semifinal game," reported Gators' star Tavia Rowell after the 'Cats contested every bounce, pass and cut on the LEC South Court floor. "But it's better than having an easy win because now we are ready to work. Now we know what level we have to play to beat Semi."
The 'Cats have easily the deepest big-game rotation at the tournament, and it's scary to think how much better they are going to be next season with such a youthful base of players who love to play defence.
All of that said, in Friday's first half, they forced the Gators to prove they had scorers other than Rowell and Jessica Wisotzki, and with the emergence of Grade 10 Sophia Wisotzki, and the Taylor sisters, Rolande and Fania, there was just enough to allow the Gators to build for their second-half breakthrough.
Tavia Rowell knows it will take her team's best game of the season to beat Semiahmoo in tonight's B.C. AAA final. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2019. All Rights Reserved)
But nothing about it was easy, or easy on the eyes of basketball fans who might have watched the up-and-down entertainment factor provided in a game from earlier in the evening, G.W. Graham's dramatic overtime victory over Langley Christian.
"That was hard work," said Grove head coach Darren Rowell of a game which did not resemble an oil painting. "They are a tough team, they made us work for everything, and they really made it difficult for us to do what we want to do on offence."
Yet Walnut Grove took a deep breath, slowed it down in the half court, and by the fourth quarter, there was more of a semblance of ball movement. That allowed Tavia Rowell (25 points, six rebounds) and Jessica Wisotzki (14 points) to help their team gain the separation they needed to push the lead to as many as 16 points with 2:26 remaining.
Brookswood's standout senior guard Jenna Dick did her best to battle through a tough shooting night. Sophia Wisotzki, last season named the tournament's top defender, was a constant presence, as Dick was held to 14 points.
Jenessa Knapp added 12 and Karsen Look 12 points and 11 rebounds.
For the Gators, Sophia Wisotzki had 14 points, Fania Taylor 10 points and Ro Taylor 15 rebounds, eight points and four steals.
What are the Rowells thinking about today's matchup with the Totems?
"They were two different teams," Darren Rowell said of watching their win over Kelowna. "In the first half, everything was inside. In the second half, everything was outside. That makes it really tough, when a team can be tough inside and out. It's going to be a tough battle, but we're ready to take it on."
Added Tavia Rowell: "We've got to work hard in post, we've got to get rebounds. That is one of our big weaknesses, and we've to stop their best players. We have to play our best to win."
Deanna delivers a dandy! "…she's done all of her work for that shot" says coach after GWG star leads her Grizzlies back to B.C. Double-A final
Poised… and perfect! Terry Fox completes a dream 35-0 season, Ravens hot off the press in decisive B.C. title win over Kelowna


1.1 1. What is a lawn?
1.2 2. Why do we make mixed lawns?
1.3 3. Why are the compositions so different?
1.4 4. Does a universal, all-purpose lawn exist?
1.5 5. How to define a "good quality" lawn and what criteria should we use?
1. What is a lawn?
It is a mixture of grass seeds (or Poaceae in botanical language) from various species (ryegrass, meadowgrass, bentgrass, fescue, etc..) each of which has different qualities and characteristics and none of which can individually offer the advantages of the mixture of these seeds.
After sowing, grass produces a regular, homogenous and decorative green area which we call a "lawn". A lawn follows the principle of biodiversity, which means that a given environment should be occupied by different species, the mixture of which makes the individual species stronger.
When foraging plants like white clover, or alfalfa, even flowers like cornflowers or poppies, are mixed with the lawn, the result is not a lawn, it is a prairie.
2. Why do we make mixed lawns?
The composition (choice of species and varieties, and also the proportions of the mixture) varies according to the final use of the lawn : sport or games, decoration, ornamentation, etc.. The growing conditions also influence the mixture: dry ground, shady areas, seaside, Mediterranean climate, etc.. We also have mixtures created especially for new lawns and those which are used for renovation. The speed of installation of the different species is also taken into account, as is the weight of the seeds in the percentage of each grass from which the lawn is composed.
3. Why are the compositions so different?
When we read the composition of the lawn on the box or sack of seeds, we notice that different grasses are present in varying proportions. The variation is due to the final use of the lawn, but especially due to the sophistication of the seed.
For example, for the same volume, we count a third less of ryegrass seeds or raised fescue (700 seeds/g.) than red fescue (1,000 seeds/g.), which is in turn twice as big as the Sheep's fescue (2,000 seeds/g.). As for bentgrass, it is by far the thinnest with 15,000 seeds/g. A lawn composed of 5% bentgrass and 50% ryegrass contains three times fewer seeds than simple ryegrass!
4. Does a universal, all-purpose lawn exist?
No, because the soil conditions, the climate, and the use are often totally different in France. Each use corresponds to a type of lawn: rustic, decoration, sport, sun, shade, seaside, renovation, etc.. It is important to choose the right grass for the appropriate use because if it isn't adapted, it will grow badly and will allow weeds to develop.
5. How to define a "good quality" lawn and what criteria should we use?
Next articleHow Create a Pond In Your Garden?


text:
Agastya Maharshi
Telugu Bharath May 13, 2018 GURUS Edit this post
Year of birth: 6th or 7th Century Occupation : Worked in the field of Medicine and Astrology Spouse : Lopamudra Agastya is one of t...
Year of birth: 6th or 7th Century
Occupation : Worked in the field of Medicine and Astrology
Spouse : Lopamudra
Agastya is one of the saptarishis who are extolled at many places in the Vedas and a revered Vedic sage and earliest Siddhar. He is also believed to be the author of Agastya Samhita. Siddhar were spiritual adepts who possessed the ashta siddhis, or the eight supernatural powers. Sage Agathiyar is considered the guru of all Siddhars, and the Siddha medicine system is believed to have been handed over to him by Lord Muruga, son of the Hindu God Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi. Siddhars are the followers of Lord Shiva. Agathiyar is the first Siddhar. His disciples and other siddhars contributed thousands of texts on Siddhar litratures, including medicine and form the propounders of the system in this world. He is considered as the Father of Tamil literature and compiled the first Tamil grammar called Agathiyam. It is believed that he has lived in the 6th or 7th century B.C and specialized in language, alchemy, medicine and spirituality (yogam and gnanam). There are 96 books in the name of Agathiyar.
Sage Agastya is often considered the father of traditional Indian Medicine among many other streams of knowledge. In his book, he is believed to have given the description of, and instructions for the creation of medicines for many types of fevers, cancer, treatments for impotence, abdominal problems, brain and eye problems, bone problems, etc.
Among the various legends associated with him is that of the Vindhya Mountains. According to a story in the Shri Rama-Charitra-Manasa, at one time, Mount Vindhyachal was continually growing in size due to taunting comments by the Sage Narada. So as to temper the vanity of the mountains, Sage Agastya and his family traveled to South India, via the Mount Vindhyachal. On their way, when the Vindhyas saw Sage Agastya, he bowed with respect and reverence, upon which Sage Agastya, jokingly asked if he would stay bowed and subdued with respect till the sage returned. The Vindhyas was truly benevolent and promised to not grow until the seer's return from the South. After passing through the mountain, sage Agastya told his wife, that they would never again cross over to the North side of mount Vindhyas.
Agastya is regarded as the founder and patron saint of silambam and southern kalaripayat. Shiva's son Murugan is said to have taught the art to Agastya who then wrote treatises on it and passed it on to other siddhar. Dravidian siddha medicine (siddha vaidyam) taught to kalaripayat marmas, chonndu varmam and nokuvarmam practitioners is also attributed to the sage Agastya.
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Who wants to be a millionaire? The more intriguing question would be, "Who doesn't?" For most people, a million smackers conjures up images of vacations on the Riviera, Arabian racehorses and mattresses stuffed with freshly ironed $20 bills.
But being a millionaire today isn't all it's cracked up to be. Low interest rates and high living costs mean a million bucks in the bank doesn't necessarily allow you to retire at 35, 45, 55 or even 65. What's worse, today's million dollars comes with all the burdens of wealth: greedy relatives, rapacious lawyers and grasping investment advisers.
What's so bad about feeling flush? Read on.
Financial advisers say a sustainable annual withdrawal from retirement savings is 4%. With a million-dollar nest egg, a 4% draw-down means annual income of $40,000. And that's before taxes. If you stick with the 4% withdrawal rate and earn an average 8% on your money annually, you'll be in good shape for the long run.
That being the case, let's say you pull $100,000 a year from your savings, you earn 8% a year, and you don't adjust upward for inflation. Here's how your account would fare: at the end of Year 1, you'd have $972,000 left; Year 5, $835,735; Year 10, $594,376; Year 15, $239,741; and Year 18, $0. Yup — broke in retirement.
When most of us have an auto accident, we simply curse our luck, exchange insurance numbers and pay the deductible. When you're a millionaire, however, lawyers are going to look to you to alleviate their clients' "pain and suffering." If your insurance doesn't pay, those lawyers will be eyeing your million-dollar stash.
The best solution: Make sure all your insurance policies are up to date, particularly the liability portion of your auto and homeowner's insurance. And consider a personal liability umbrella policy to cover what your other insurance won't. Many umbrella policies will even pay for a lawyer if you need one. A million dollars of umbrella coverage costs about $150 to $300 a year, according to the Insurance Information Institute. The next million will cost $75, and every million after that will add $50 to your annual premium.
From those to whom much is given, much is expected – especially from needy relatives and friends. It's nice to be able to help out, but it's not so nice to be viewed as a walking ATM. And gratitude is often lacking. Adam Scott, a financial planner in Santa Monica, Calif., recalls one woeful client saying of a sponging sister, "I wouldn't care if she just invited us over for McDonald's if just once she would invite us over."
There's no hard and fast rule about lending to friends and relatives. "As financial advisers, we can help our clients prepare for retirement, but the cash-flow item that we can never fully prepare for is assistance to family members," says Tom Balcolm, of 1650 Wealth Management in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "It's happened to a number of our clients, and that is why we now build in a buffer to their retirement plans to account for this expense." If your friends or family members ask for a loan, have your financial adviser draw up a loan contract. If they default, at least you can write off the loan as a bad debt on your income taxes.
It's unseemly to complain about taxes when you're sitting on a million bat hides, but that's human nature. If you were to get your million all in one year as income, a couple filing jointly would be in the 37% tax bracket – meaning they would pay that much on income $600,000 and above. Under the new tax laws, you still might be subject to the alternative minimum tax, and your deductions for charity and other items would be reduced.
If you're living on your income from a million you've already booked, consider investing in dividend-paying stocks (see 53 Best Dividend Stocks for 2018 and Beyond for picks). Qualified dividends are taxed at 15% for most taxpayers (20% once joint income exceeds $479,000).
Don't overlook state taxes, as well. Living in a state with no income tax (or low income tax rates, at least) can save you a pretty penny.
If you continue to make big bucks, either earned income or investment income, you'll face a variety of Medicare taxes and surcharges reserved for high earners like you. There's the additional 0.9% tax on income above $200,000 for individual filers and $250,000 for joint filers. And the 3.8% tax on investment income of more than $200,000/individual and $250,000/joint.
Plus, four tiers of Medicare surcharges kick in as income rises above $85,000 for singles and $170,000 for joint filers. For example, the standard 2018 monthly Medicare Part B premium of $134 per beneficiary jumps to $187.50, plus a $13 surcharge for Part D, for singles with modified adjusted gross income between $85,001 and $107,000. The income range for joint filers is $170,001 to $214,000. At the highest tier, which kicks in for millionaires once income tops $160,000 for singles and $320,000 for joint filers, the monthly Medicare Part B premium runs $428.60 per beneficiary with a $74.80 surcharge for Part D.
And the state estate taxes can kick in at levels far lower than the federal threshold. If you live in Connecticut, for example, an estate worth $2.6 million can be taxed by the state. In total, there are 17 states plus D.C. that levy estate taxes or inheritance taxes (or both).
Back when you were a lowly thousandaire, most commission-based financial planners probably weren't very interested in your business. After all, a 1% annual commission on $100,000 is just $1,000. Folks with smaller portfolios can sit down instead for a couple of hours once a year with a fee-only planner for a few hundred bucks.
Now that you have a million dollars, you need more help, and commission-based planners are probably way more interested in working for you. And why not? Your $1 million means a $10,000 annual fee, which will grow as your money does. Similarly, if you're also invested in mutual funds that charge an average 1.25% a year in management fees, you'll pay $22,500 a year in fees. If you were paying that to a contractor, you'd at least get a new bathroom out of the deal.
If you're comfortable managing your own investment decisions, think about using a low-cost online broker instead. Here are some of the best online brokers to consider. Or, try a so-called robo-adviser such as Betterment or SigFig. These automated online portfolio-management systems charge far less than a human adviser would.
When F. Scott Fitzgerald observed in The Great Gatsby that the rich are different than you and I, he meant that having wealth strips away basic necessities, such as figuring out where your next meal is coming from. Instead, it leaves you free to ponder other things, such as your own personality, your relationships with others, and the inevitability of death. These are questions many people would prefer not to ponder, and having a million dollars in the bank won't change the answers.
While you're working on making your fortune last, you may also want to volunteer in your community or join a nonprofit addressing social needs, such as education, health care, human services or the environment. Such work makes many older professionals and the newly retired continue to feel worthwhile, useful and productive.


A century of urban planning decisions has resulted in lifestyles where we spend too much time commuting alone in cars and too little time being active, too little time outdoors, and too little time interacting with people face-to-face, in our homes or just serendipitously on the sidewalk.
But the choices made as we design and build urban environments have a profound impact not only on how we live, but on how well we live.
We know good health is a prerequisite for a high quality of life, and our daily environments and lifestyles, including the extent to which we can easily connect with our friends and neighbors, are a major contributor to our health. Having access to excellent health care when ill is critical, but staying well and preventing illness is what most of us do day to day. Planning for health and well-being should be a core part of any neighborhood development.
Understanding this link, governments and health care providers are taking a more active interest in the topic of well-being and pursuing more proactive, preventative approaches to keeping people healthy. Sidewalk Labs — as part of our work re-imagining the future of urban communities — is researching ways to meaningfully embed health and well-being into the urban fabric itself. Exploring care is such a foundational aspect of our work that we have already launched a spinoff company, Cityblock Health, focused on community-based care in underserved urban communities.
Sidewalk Labs recently partnered with a Toronto-based firm, Idea Couture, to learn more about how neighborhoods can truly be drivers of community well-being and, by extension, individual health. You can read the full report here. Idea Couture specializes in human-centric and future-focused strategic design, and they know Toronto — one the most diverse cities in the world — very well.
To begin the project, Idea Couture analyzed current trends that could signal where the future of care is headed. This scan was followed by "ethnographic immersions," where researchers sat down with Toronto residents, health and human service providers, and representatives from community organizations for in-depth interviews. These conversations, with people who came from a mix of age groups and cultural, professional, and political backgrounds, were held across a wide variety of neighborhoods and living, work, and recreation spaces. The organizations visited included a branch library, a community health center, a youth center, an affordable housing provider, and a social service organization supporting the homeless.
Experience design firm Idea Couture compiled a report on the future of community health for Sidewalk Labs.	Read the full report.
What was uncovered was a complex picture of a city that recognizes the vital role community cohesion and social connection play in health and wellness.
1. Home Is Health: Individuals wanted the boundaries between traditional care and service settings, community spaces, and their homes to be very fluid—in other words, that care be available in the home and the community and that clinical settings feel more like home or community settings.
2. Preparing for the Inevitable and Unpredictable: Service providers stressed the importance of proactively planning and designing for people suffering from homelessness, substance abuse and mental health issues. Some will have vulnerabilities that are not always easy to see or predict, so working closely with community partners who have earned their trust is paramount.
3. Living Well Across Generations: We heard a strong desire for truly intergenerational spaces and services where young and old can come together.
4. Navigating Diversity: Residents expressed a deep pride in the city's diversity, but desired more opportunities for connection for people across demographics, incomes, and backgrounds.
5. Low-Fidelity Care: Although technology is necessary and often useful, it should never be allowed to get in the way of bringing people together. Residents expressed the need to accommodate low-fidelity options alongside digital service delivery. A community's well-being is often a result of spontaneous connections and grass-root initiatives. These informal, face-to-face connections are just as important and should exist alongside technological solutions.
6. Balancing Purpose and Spontaneity: Formal health services and infrastructure will always be required, but caring relationships often emerge spontaneously. Residents felt that we should design neighborhoods to create those opportunities of spontaneity.
To further build upon the insights gleaned from the immersions, Idea Couture and Sidewalk Labs convened a co-design charrette — a day-long gathering of people from the public, non-profit, and private sectors, many focused on health and community services, civic engagement, and urban planning. We asked participants to imagine what a community-based space focused on human connection and care would look like in 2028.
Through the course of the day, more than 90 ideas emerged. People frequently returned to the idea of using technology to give them more control over their own well-being and greater say in their care. Many identified the opportunity to better connect people and community programs — such as informal mentorships, volunteering, or peer-to-peer support — via digital tools. Participants imagined a future where care of the mind, body, and spirit happened under one roof and where "third places" facilitated community members to relax or casually interact with each other.
Finally, the group stressed the importance of giving the community a voice in how their services are delivered, and they wanted a governance model that would be nimble and responsive to their input.
Synthesizing this feedback, and drawing inspiration from existing community care hubs around the globe, Idea Couture created a concept to pull many of these ideas together: a Care Collective. This new kind of community space would bring together a range of programming and services and be dedicated to health, wellbeing, proactive care, and community connection. It could leverage digital tools to expand the reach of the physical space, allowing people to connect with one another digitally as well as in-person.
Idea Couture imagines the Care Collective could include a health resource center dedicated to enhancing digital health literacy, where people could borrow digital health resources, learn from one another and from health experts, or just come to hang out. Areas dedicated to prototyping new community health solutions were proposed, as were mobile health pop-ups that bring care solutions across a city. Clinic spaces that feel more like home, quiet sanctuary spaces, and a pharmacy in the form of a cafe or lounge, offering access to expertise in a relaxed, informal setting were seen as critical resources.
We worked with architectural firm KPMB to mock up these spaces to help us imagine this future. Check out the full report to see more.
This research and public engagement work has provided Sidewalk Labs with community-driven insight that will shape our thinking as we plan neighborhoods that improve well-being and foster local connection. We'll share more about our planning work soon as it relates to our Sidewalk Toronto project — in the meantime, we hope cities find the insights derived from this research valuable as they plan for their own healthy neighborhoods of the future.
Alexis Wise is the Director of Health and Human Services at Sidewalk Labs.
The more connected a city, physically and digitally, the more inventive it becomes.


text:
LA Lakers Lose To Toronto Raptors; Alex Caruso Still Winning The Internet
Mon Carlo Basister | Nov 11 2019, 10:55PM EST
The Los Angeles Lakers' winning streak ended at seven games as they bowed to the defending champions Toronto Raptors via 113-104 victory at home. Both teams had five different players scoring in double figures but it was Toronto's run in the second half that changed the complexion of the game.
Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet converge as the two protagonists of last year's championship run ended the game with a double-double each. "Spicy P" finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds, together with four assists, three blocks and a steal while VanVleet took care of playmaking chores, dishing 10 assists together with his 23 points, seven rebounds and two steals.
Anthony Davis had numbers all around his stat line, scoring 27 points, eight rebounds, four blocks, three assists and two steals. The loss also spoiled LeBron James triple-double game as he tallied 15 assists, 13 points, 13 rebounds and a block but shot only 5-of-15 from the field.
Both teams played without their starting point guards as Kyle Lowry is listed as out due to a broken left thumb while Lakers' Rajon Rondo is suffering a right calf strain but is already doing 5-on-5 workouts.
Despite the loss, the Lakers are still trending on all over the web, thanks to Alex Caruso. The 25-year old guard has been making the headlines as of late, thanks to his highlight-reel dunks that sends both the bench and Twitter in frenzy.
An absolute fan favorite, the undrafted guard out of Texas A&M has been proving that he's not in the line-up as a Lakers coach Frank Vogel's victory cigar – but he's out on the court dunking on people.
Just like his dunks making waves on social media, the fans are still in jubilation despite losing to Toronto and they are looking at the bright side brought by Caruso.
Before the season started, Lakers' Mike Trudell made a case for Caruso to be in the starting line-up instead of Rajon Rondo as he appears to be playing better alongside LeBron.
Now, that's the Caru-Show that the Laker fans are anticipating.
LeBron James #23 is congratulated by Anthony Davis #3 of the Los Angeles Lakers after scoring a basket against Memphis Grizzlies during the second half at Staples Center on October 29, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
Tags: News, Alex Caruso, Los Angeles Lakers, Lakers News, LeBron James, NBA Updates, Lakers Update
Mon Carlo Basister
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Is this forum really obsolete?
I don't see a Feedback tab anywhere, and the feedback site the tab used to point to (http://jpsoft.uservoice.com/) seems to have less traffic than this forum.
So, which is the "official" suggestion forum? This one or the uservoice one?
There's considerably more traffic on the uservoice.com forum (most of the messages here are old).
You should see the Uservoice "feedback" button on the left side of the page.
Have something like "Ghostery" operating in your browser?


text:
Home Around The Block Alt-Pop Rocker DYLYN Releases Gritty Freedom Anthem In New Single 'Liberate Me'
Alt-Pop Rocker DYLYN Releases Gritty Freedom Anthem In New Single 'Liberate Me'
Throughout her musical journey, Toronto-based singer-songwriter DYLYN has dabbled in many styles of the indie-pop spectrum, from poetic ballads with warm synth-laced instrumentation to fiery alt-rock anthems. Her lyrics tend to tell stories about how she navigates through the peaks and valleys of life, and how she comes out on the other side.
The emerging artist has made a name for herself as a multi-genre artist who integrates her early love of rock and roll with her take on modern pop production, blending organic electric guitar with synth-pop instruments to create her own unique style.
Her latest single, "Liberate Me", which dropped earlier this August, reflects her ability to tap into the more distressing themes of her life and desire for liberation.
She emulates these feelings through impassioned lyricism, a heavy in-your-face rock delivery, and fervid musical production. Working alongside producer and lead vocalist/guitarist Ryan Guldemond from indie-rock band Mother Mother, the two incorporate sultry vocals, intrinsic grungy guitar, and a dynamic drumline in their homage to modern rock.
DYLYN has worked with Guldemond on projects previously like her single "Skin and Bone," which came out earlier this year, highlighting the synergy they've established in their songwriting and production styles.
"Liberate Me" comes after a trio of successful singles and the debut of her April EP, Bring on the Blues. Currently, DYLYN is joining indie-alt band Rare Americans for a couple of stops on their 2022 North American tour.
If you're on the hunt for a hard-driving alt-pop/rock sound with fierce vocals, look no further than DYLYN and "Liberate Me."
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text:
\section{Introduction and Statement of Main Results}

Let $\Omega$ be a pseudoconvex domain in $\mathbb C^n$. The following
lower bound for the Bergman kernel in terms of the pluricomplex
Green function was recently proved in \cite{B5} using
methods of the $\bar\partial$-equation: for any $t\leq 0$
and $w\in\Omega$ one has
\begin{equation}\label{est1}
K_\Omega(w)\geq\frac 1{e^{-2nt}\lambda(\{G_{\Omega,w}<t\})}.
\end{equation}
Here
  $$K_\Omega(w)=\sup\{|f(w)|^2:f\in\mathcal O(\Omega),\
       \int_\Omega|f|^2d\lambda\leq 1\}$$
and
  $$G_{\Omega,w}=\sup\{u\in PSH^-(\Omega):u\leq\log|\cdot-w|+C
      \text{ near }w\}.$$
The constant in \eqref{est1} is optimal for every $t$, for
example we have the equality if $\Omega$ is a ball centered at $w$.
The behaviour of the right-hand side of \eqref{est1} as
$t\to-\infty$ seems of particular interest. For example for
$n=1$ we easily have
\begin{equation}\label{lim}
\lim_{t\to-\infty}e^{-2t}\lambda(\{G_{\Omega,w}<t\})
     =\frac\pi{(c_\Omega(w))^2},
\end{equation}
where
  $$c_\Omega(w)=\exp\lim_{z\to w}\big(G_{\Omega,w}(z)
     -\log|z-w|\big)$$
is the logarithmic capacity of the complement of $\Omega$
with respect to $w$. This gave another proof in \cite{B5}
of the Suita conjecture \cite{S}
\begin{equation}\label{suita}
c_\Omega^2\leq\pi K_\Omega,
\end{equation}
originally shown in \cite{B4}.

Our first result is a counterpart of \eqref{lim} in higher
dimensions:

\begin{thm} \label{thm1}
Assume that $\Omega$ is a bounded hyperconvex
domain in $\mathbb C^n$. Then
  $$\lim_{t\to-\infty}e^{-2nt}\lambda(\{G_{\Omega,w}<t\})
     =\lambda(I^A_\Omega(w)),$$
where
  $$I^A_\Omega(w)=\{X\in\mathbb C^n:
     \varlimsup_{\zeta\to 0}\big(G_{\Omega,w}(w+\zeta X)
       -\log|\zeta|\big)<0\}$$
is the Azukawa indicatrix of $\Omega$ at $w$.
\end{thm}

It would be interesting to generalize this to a bigger class
of domains. Combining \eqref{est1} with Theorem \ref{thm1}
and approximating pseudoconvex domains by hyperconvex ones
from inside we obtain the following
multidimensional version of the Suita conjecture:

\begin{thm}\label{thm2}
For a pseudoconvex domain $\Omega$ in
$\mathbb C^n$ and $w\in\Omega$ we have
\begin{equation} \label{msuita}
K_\Omega(w)\geq\frac 1{\lambda(I^A_\Omega(w))}.
\end{equation}
\end{thm}

Possible monotonicity of convergence in Theorem \ref{thm1}
is an interesting problem. We state the following:

\begin{conj}\label{conj1}
If $\Omega$ is pseudoconvex in $\mathbb C^n$ then
the function
  $$t\longmapsto e^{-2nt}\lambda(\{G_{\Omega,w}<t\})$$
is non-decreasing on $(-\infty,0]$.
\end{conj}

We will show the following result:

\begin{thm} \label{tn1}
Conjecture \ref{conj1} is true for $n=1$.
\end{thm}

The main tool will be the isoperimetric inequality. In fact,
the proof of Theorem \ref{tn1} will show that Conjecture
\ref{conj1} in arbitrary dimension is equivalent to the following
{\it pluricomplex isoperimetric inequality}:
  $$\int_{\partial\Omega}\frac{d\sigma}{|\nabla G_{\Omega,w}|}
    \geq 4n\pi\lambda(\Omega)$$
for bounded strongly pseudoconvex $\Omega$ with smooth
boundary (by \cite{B1} the left-hand side is then well defined).

The following conjecture would easily give an affirmative
answer to Conjecture \ref{conj1}:

\begin{conj}\label{conj2}
If $\Omega$ is pseudoconvex in $\mathbb C^n$ then
the function
  $$t\longmapsto\log\lambda(\{G_{\Omega,w}<t\})$$
is convex on $(-\infty,0]$.
\end{conj}

Unfortunately, we do not know if it is true even for $n=1$.

In \cite{B2} the question was raised whether for $n=1$ a reverse
inequality to \eqref{suita}
  $$K_\Omega\leq Cc_\Omega^2$$
holds for some constant $C$. We answer it here in the negative:

\begin{prop}\label{ann}
Assume that $0<r<1$ and let $P_r=\{z\in\mathbb C:r<|z|<1\}$.
Then
\begin{equation}\label{ann1}
\frac{K_\Omega(\sqrt r)}{(c_\Omega(\sqrt r))^2}
      \geq\frac{-2\log r}{\pi^3}.
\end{equation}
\end{prop}

It is nevertheless still plausible that there is an
upper bound for the Bergman kernel in terms of logarithmic
capacity which would give a quantitative version
of the well known fact that for domains in $\mathbb C$
whose complement is a polar set the Bergman kernel vanishes.
The opposite implication is also well known and the
quantitative version of this is given by \eqref{suita}.

There is however a class of domains for which the upper
bound does hold:

\begin{thm}\label{ub} For a $\mathbb C$-convex domain $\Omega$
in $\mathbb C^n$ and $w\in\Omega$ one has
  $$K_\Omega(w)\leq\frac{C^n}{\lambda(I^A_\Omega(w))}$$
with $C=16$. If $\Omega$ is convex then the estimate holds with
$C=4$ and if it is in addition symmetric with respect to $w$
then we can take $C=16/\pi^2$.
\end{thm}

By Theorems \ref{thm2} and \ref{ub} for $\mathbb C$-convex
domains the function
  $$F_\Omega(w):=\big(K_\Omega(w)\lambda(I^A_\Omega(w))\big)^{1/n}$$
defined for $w\in\Omega$ with $K_\Omega(w)>0$, satisfies
\begin{equation}\label{i4}
1\leq F_\Omega\leq 16.
\end{equation}
One can easily check that $F_\Omega$ is biholomorphically invariant.
If $\Omega$ is pseudoconvex and balanced with respect to $w$
(that is $w+z\in\Omega$ implies $w+\zeta z\in\Omega$ for
$\zeta\in\bar\Delta$, where $\Delta$ is the unit disk)
then $F_\Omega(w)=1$. In fact a symmetrized bidisk
  $$\mathbb G_2=\{(\zeta_1+\zeta_2,\zeta_1\zeta_2):
     \zeta_1,\zeta_2\in\Delta\},$$
is an example of a $\mathbb C$-convex domain (see \cite
{NPZ1}) with $F_\Omega\not\equiv 1$. By \cite{EZ} we have
$K_{\mathbb G_2}(0)=2/\pi^2$ and by \cite{AY}
  $$I_{\mathbb G_2}^A(0)=\{X\in\mathbb C^2:
     |X_1|+2|X_2|<2\}.$$
Therefore $\lambda(I_{\mathbb G_2}^A(0))=2\pi^2/3$
and $F_{\mathbb G_2}(0)=2/\sqrt 3=1.15470\dots$

Especially interesting is the class of convex domains. It is well
known that then the closure of the Azukawa indicatrix is equal to the
Kobayashi indicatrix
  $$I^K_\Omega(w)=\{\varphi'(0):\varphi\in
      \mathcal O(\Delta,\Omega),\ \varphi(0)=w\}.$$
This follows from
Lempert's results \cite{L}, see \cite{JP}. For such domains
the inequality $F_\Omega\geq 1$ was proved in \cite{B5} and
seems very accurate. It is in fact much more difficult than for
$\mathbb C$-convex domains to compute an example where one does
not have equality. This can be done for some convex complex
ellipsoids:

\begin{thm} \label{ell}
For $n\geq 2$ and $m\geq 1/2$ define
\begin{equation}\label{ell1}
\Omega=\{z\in\mathbb C^n:|z_1|+|z_2|^{2m}+\dots+|z_n|^{2m}<1\}.
\end{equation}
Then for $w=(b,0,\dots,0)$, where $0<b<1$, one has
\begin{equation}\label{form}
  K_\Omega(w)\lambda(I^K_\Omega(w))
     =1+(1-b)^a\frac{(1+b)^a-(1-b)^a-2ab}
     {2ab(1+b)^a},
\end{equation}
where $a=(n-1)/m+2$.
\end{thm}

For example, Theorem \ref{ell} gives the following graphs of
$F_\Omega(b,0,\dots,0)$ for $m=1/2$ and $2\leq n\leq 6$
\footnote{Figures were done using {\it Mathematica}.}:

\vskip 10pt

\centerline{\includegraphics[scale=1.1]{rys1.pdf}}

\noindent
One can check numerically that the highest value
of $F_\Omega(b,0,\dots,0)$ is attained for
$m=1/2$, $n=3$ at $b=0.163501\dots$, and is equal to
$1.004178\dots$

Using \cite{6a} one can compute numerically
$F_\Omega(b,0)$ for the ellipsoid
  $$\Omega=\{z\in\mathbb C^2:|z_1|^{2m}+|z_2|^2<1\},$$
where $m\geq 1/2$. This has an advantage compared to
the ellipsoid given by \eqref{ell1} because using
holomorphic automorphisms we can easily show that
all values of $F_\Omega$ are attained at $(b,0)$,
where $0<b<1$.
Here is the graph of $F_\Omega(b,0)$ for $m$ equal
to 1/2, 2, 8, 32, and 128:

\vskip 10pt

\centerline{\includegraphics[scale=1.1]{rys2.pdf}}

\noindent
One can compute that the maximum converges to
$1.010182\dots$ as $m\to\infty$. This is the highest
value of $F_\Omega$ for convex $\Omega$ we have been able
to obtain so far. It would be interesting to find
an optimal upper bound for $F_\Omega$ when $\Omega$ is
convex, how close to 1 it really is. We suspect that it
is attained  for the ellipsoid
  $$\{z\in\mathbb C^n:|z_1|+\dots+|z_n|<1\}$$
at a point of the form $w=(b,\dots,b)$.

\begin{conj} Let $\Omega$ be convex and $w\in\Omega$
be such that $K_\Omega(w)>0$. Then $F_\Omega(w)=1$ if and only if
there exists a balanced domain $\Omega'$ (not necessarily
convex) and a biholomorphic mapping
$H:\Omega\rightarrow\Omega'$ such that $H(w)=0$.
\end{conj}

It was recently shown in \cite{GZ} that the equality
holds in \eqref{suita} if and only if $\Omega$
is biholomorphic to $\Delta\setminus K$ for some
closed polar subset $K$, this was also conjectured
by Suita in \cite{S}.

The paper is organized as follows: in Section \ref{s1} we
show Theorems \ref{thm1} and \ref{tn1}. Upper bounds for the
Bergman kernel are discussed in Section \ref{s2}, we prove
Proposition \ref{ann} and Theorem \ref{ub} there. Finally, in Section
\ref{s3} the case of convex complex ellipsoids is treated.

\section{Sublevel Sets of the Green Function \label{s1}}

\begin{proof}[Proof of Theorem \ref{thm1}]
Without loss of generality we may assume that $w=0$. Write
$G:=G_{\Omega,0}$ and for $t\leq 0$ set
  $$I_t:=e^{-t}\{G<t\}.$$
We can find $R>0$ such that $\Omega\subset B(0,R)$. Then
$\log(|z|/R)\leq G$ and $I_t\subset B(0,R)$.
In our case by \cite{Z1} the function
  $$A(X)=\varlimsup_{\zeta\to 0}\big(G(\zeta X)
         -\log|\zeta|\big)$$
is continuous on $\mathbb C^n$ and $\varlimsup$
is equal to $\lim$. Therefore
  $$A(X)=\lim_{t\to-\infty}\big(G(e^tX)-t\big)$$
and by the Lebesgue bounded convergence theorem
  $$\lim_{t\to-\infty}\lambda(I_t)=\lambda(\{A<0\}).$$
\phantom{a}\vskip -37pt
\end{proof}

\begin{proof}[Proof of Theorem \ref{tn1}]
Set
  $$f(t):=\log\lambda(\{G<t\})-2t,$$
where  $G=G_{\Omega,w}$. It is enough to show that if
$t$ is a regular value of $G$ then $f'(t)\geq 0$. We have
  $$f'(t)=\frac{\displaystyle\frac d{dt}\lambda(\{G<t\})}
      {\lambda(\{G<t\})}-2.$$
The co-area formula gives
  $$\lambda(\{G<t\})=\int_{-\infty}^t\int_{\{G=s\}}
     \frac{d\sigma}{|\nabla G|}ds$$
and therefore
  $$\frac d{dt}\lambda(\{G<t\})=
     \int_{\{G=t\}}\frac{d\sigma}{|\nabla G|}.$$
By the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality
  $$\frac d{dt}\lambda(\{G<t\})\geq
    \frac{(\sigma(\{G=t\}))^2}{\displaystyle
      \int_{\{G=t\}}|\nabla G|d\sigma}
    =\frac{(\sigma(\{G=t\}))^2}{2\pi}.$$
The isoperimetric inequality gives
  $$(\sigma(\{G=t\}))^2\geq 4\pi\lambda(\{G<t\})$$
and we obtain $f'(t)\geq 0$.
\end{proof}

\section{Upper Bound for the Bergman kernel\label{s2}}

We first show that the reverse estimate to \eqref{msuita}
is not true in general.

\begin{proof}[Proof of Proposition \ref{ann}]
Since $z^j$, $j\in\mathbb Z$, is an orthogonal system
in $H^2(P_r)$ and
  $$||z^j||^2=\begin{cases}\displaystyle\frac\pi{j+1}\big(1-r^{2j+2}\big)\
     &j\neq -1,\\ -2\pi\log r&j=-1,\end{cases}$$
we have
  $$K_{P_r}(w)=\frac 1{\pi|w|^2}\left(\frac 1{-2\log r}
      +\sum_{j\in\mathbb Z}\frac{j|w|^{2j}}{1-r^{2j}}\right)$$
and
\begin{equation}\label{kann}
K_{P_r}(\sqrt r)\geq\frac 1{-2\pi r\log r}.
\end{equation}
To estimate $c_{P_r}$ from above consider the mapping
  $$p(\zeta)=\exp\left(\frac{\log r}{\pi i}\text{\rm Log\,}
     \left(i\frac{1+\zeta}{1-\zeta}\right)\right),\ \ \
     \zeta\in\Delta,$$
where $\text{\rm Log\,}$ is the principal branch of the logarithm defined
on $\mathbb C\setminus(-\infty,0]$. We have $p(0)=\sqrt r$
and $p'(0)=-2i\sqrt r\log r/\pi$. Also
  $$G_{P_r}(p(\zeta),\sqrt r)\leq\log|\zeta|$$
and therefore
  $$c_{P_r}(\sqrt r)\leq\frac 1{|p'(0)|}
      =\frac\pi{-2\sqrt r\log r}.$$
Combining this with \eqref{kann} we get \eqref{ann1}.
\end{proof}

Next, we show the reverse inequality to \eqref{msuita} for
$\mathbb C$-convex domains.

\begin{proof}[Proof of Theorem \ref{ub}]
Write $I=I^A_\Omega(w)$. We may assume that
$w=0$. We claim that it is enough to show that
\begin{equation}\label{cont}
I\subset\sqrt C\,\Omega.
\end{equation}
Indeed, since $I$ is balanced we would then have
  $$K_\Omega(0)\leq K_{I/\sqrt C}(0)
      =\frac 1{\lambda(I/\sqrt C)}=\frac{C^n}{\lambda(I)}.$$
The proof of \eqref{cont} will be similar to the proof of
Proposition 1 in \cite{NPZ}. Choose $X\in I$ and by $L$ denote
the complex line generated by $X$. Let
$a$ be a point from $L\cap\partial\Omega$ with the smallest
distance to the origin. We can find a hyperplane $H$ in
$\mathbb C^n$ such that $H\cap\Omega=\emptyset$ (cf. \cite{H},
Theorem 4.6.8). Let $D$ be the set of those $\zeta\in\mathbb C$
such that $\zeta X$ belongs to the projection of $\Omega$ on $L$
along $H$. Then $D$ is a simply connected domain (cf.
\cite{H}, Proposition 4.6.7). Let $\varphi$ be a biholomorphic
mapping $\Delta\rightarrow D$ such that $\varphi(0)=0$.
We then have
  $$0>\varlimsup\big(G_{\Omega,0}(\zeta X)-\log|\zeta|\big)
     \geq\varlimsup\big(G_{D,0}(\zeta)-\log|\zeta|\big)
     =-\log|\varphi'(0)|.$$
By the Koebe quarter theorem $|\varphi'(0)|\leq 4r$,
where $r$ is the distance from the origin to $\partial D$.
Since $r=|a|/|X|$, we obtain $|X|<4|a|$. This gives \eqref{cont}
for $\mathbb C$-convex domains with $C=16$. If $\Omega$ is convex
then so is $D$ and we may assume that it is a half-plane.
Then $|\varphi'(0)|\leq 2r$ and we get \eqref{cont} with $C=4$.
Finally, if $\Omega$ is symmetric then we may assume that $D$
is a strip centered at the origin and we get
$|\varphi'(0)|\leq 4r/\pi$.
\end{proof}

\section{Complex Ellipsoids \label{s3}}

We first recall a general formula from \cite{JPZ} (it is
in fact a consequence of Lempert's theory \cite{L}) for geodesics
in convex complex ellipsoids
  $$\mathcal E(p)
     =\{z\in\mathbb C^n: |z_1|^{2p_1}+\dots+|z_n|^{2p_n}<1\},$$
where $p=(p_1,\dots,p_n)$, $p_j\geq 1/2$. For $A\subset\{1,\dots,n\}$
holomorphic mappings $\varphi:\Delta\rightarrow\mathcal E(p)$ of the
form
\begin{equation}\label{geod}
  \varphi_j(\zeta)
     =\begin{cases}\displaystyle a_j\frac{\zeta-\alpha_j}{1-\bar\alpha_j\zeta}
       \left(\frac{1-\bar\alpha_j\zeta}
           {1-\bar\alpha_0\zeta}\right)^{1/p_j},\ &j\in A\\ \\
      \displaystyle a_j\left(\frac{1-\bar\alpha_j\zeta}
         {1-\bar\alpha_0\zeta}\right)^{1/p_j},
              &j\notin A\end{cases},
\end{equation}
where $a_j\in\mathbb C_\ast$, $\alpha_j\in\Delta$ for $j\in A$,
$\alpha_j\in\bar\Delta$ for $j\notin A$,
  $$\alpha_0=|a_1|^{2p_1}\alpha_1+\dots+|a_n|^{2p_n}\alpha_n,$$
and
  $$1+|\alpha_0|^2=|a_1|^{2p_1}(1+|\alpha_1|^2)+\dots
     +|a_n|^{2p_n}(1+|\alpha_n|^2),$$
form the set of almost all geodesics in $\Omega$ (possible
exceptions form a lower-dimensional set). A component $\varphi_j$
has a zero in $\Delta$ if and only if $j\in A$. We have
\begin{equation*}
  \varphi_j(0)
     =\begin{cases}\displaystyle -a_j\alpha_j,\ &j\in A\\
      \displaystyle a_j, &j\notin A\end{cases},
\end{equation*}
and
\begin{equation*}
  \varphi_j'(0)
     =\begin{cases}\displaystyle a_j\left(1+\big(\frac 1{p_j}-1\big)|
        \alpha_j|^2-\frac{\alpha_j\bar\alpha_0}{p_j}\right),\
            &j\in A\\ \\
      \displaystyle a_j\frac{\bar\alpha_0-\bar\alpha_j}{p_j},
              &j\notin A\end{cases}.
\end{equation*}
For $w\in\mathcal E(p)$ the set of vectors $\varphi'(0)$ where
$\varphi(0)=w$ forms a subset of
$\partial I^K_{\mathcal E(p)}(w)$ of a full measure.

Now assume that $w=(b,0,\dots,0)$. There are two possibilities: either
$A=\{1,\dots,n\}$ or $A=\{2,\dots,n\}$.
Since $\varphi(0)=w$, it follows that $\alpha_2=\dots=\alpha_n=0$,
hence $\alpha_0=|a_1|^{2p_1}\alpha_1$ and
\begin{equation}\label{aal}
  1+|a_1|^{4p_1}|\alpha_1|^2=|a_1|^{2p_1}(1+|\alpha_1|^2)+|a_2|^{2p_2}
      +\dots+|a_n|^{2p_n}.
\end{equation}
Moreover,
  $$\begin{cases} a_1\alpha_1=-b,\
       &1\in A\\ a_1=b,&1\notin A\end{cases}.$$
We will get vectors $X=\varphi'(0)$ from $\partial I^K_{\mathcal E(p)}(w)$,
where
\begin{equation}\label{x1}
X_1=\begin{cases}\displaystyle-\frac b{\alpha_1}\left(1+\big(\frac 1{p_1}
      -1\big)|\alpha_1|^2-\frac{b^{2p_1}|\alpha_1|^{2-2p_1}}{p_1}\right),\
             &1\in A\\ \\
   \displaystyle -\bar\alpha_1\frac{b(1-b)}{p_1},&1\notin A\end{cases}
\end{equation}
and $X_j=a_j$, $j=2,\dots,n$. By \eqref{aal} the parameters are related by
  $$|a_2|^{2p_2}+\dots+|a_n|^{2p_n}
       =\begin{cases}\displaystyle (1-b^{2p_1}|\alpha_1|^{-2p_1})
         (1-b^{2p_1}|\alpha_1|^{2-2p_1}),\
            &1\in A\\
     (1-b^{2p_1})(1-b^{2p_1}|\alpha_1|^2),&1\notin A\end{cases}.$$
If now $p_1=1/2$ as in Theorem \ref{ell} then by \eqref{x1}
  $$|\alpha_1|=\begin{cases}\displaystyle\frac{2b^2+|X_1|-
      \sqrt{(2b^2+|X_1|)^2-4b^2}}{2b},\ &1\in A\\ \\
   \displaystyle \frac{|X_1|}{2b(1-b)},&1\notin A\end{cases}.$$
After simple transformation we will obtain the following result:

\begin{thm}\label{ell8}
Assume that $p_1=1/2$, $p_j\geq 1/2$ for $j\geq 2$, and $0<b<1$.
Then
  $$I_{\mathcal E(p)}^K((b,0,\dots,0))=\{X\in\mathbb C^n:
     |X_2|^{2p_2}+\dots+|X_n|^{2p_n}\leq\gamma(|X_1|)\},$$
where
  $$\gamma(r)=\begin{cases}\displaystyle 1-b-\frac{r^2}{4b(1-b)},\
     &\displaystyle r\leq 2b(1-b)\\ \\
      \displaystyle 1-b^2-r,\
           &\displaystyle r>2b(1-b)\end{cases}.$$
\phantom{a}\vskip -31.5pt\qed
\end{thm}

\begin{proof}[Proof of Theorem \ref{ell}]
Denoting
  $$\omega=\lambda(\{z\in\mathbb C^{n-1}:|z_1|^{2m}+\dots+
      |z_{n-1}|^{2m}<1\}$$
we will get from Theorem \ref{ell8}
\begin{equation}\label{vol}
\begin{aligned}
\lambda(I_\Omega^K((b,0,\dots,0)))
  &=2\pi\omega\int_0^{1-b^2}r(\gamma(r))^{(n-1)/m}dr\\
  &=2\pi\omega(1-b)^a\frac{(1-b)^a+2ab}{a(a-1)}.
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
It remains to compute the Bergman kernel. By the deflation
method from \cite{BFS} we obtain
  $$K_\Omega((b,0,\dots,0))=\frac{\lambda(\mathcal E(1/2,m/(n-1)))}
      {\lambda(\Omega)}K_{\mathcal E(1/2,m/(n-1))}((b,0)).$$
By Example 12.1.13 in \cite{JP} (see also formula (9) in
\cite{BFS})
  $$K_{\mathcal E(1/2,1/p)}((b,0))=\frac{p+1}{4\pi^2b}
      \big((1-b)^{-p-2}-(1+b)^{-p-2}\big).$$
We also have $\lambda(\mathcal E(1/2,1/p)=2\pi^2/((p+1)(p+2))$
and $\lambda(\Omega)=2\pi\omega/(a(a-1))$. It follows that
  $$K_\Omega((b,0,\dots,0))=\frac{a-1}{4\pi\omega b}
    \big((1-b)^{-a}-(1+b)^{-a}\big)$$
and combining this with \eqref{vol} gives \eqref{form}.
\end{proof}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


This is the October 10, 2017 broadcast of The OUtlet from WOUB News. On this week's show, a reporter will take you to the Athens Area Stand Down event. A healthcare resource in the community is no more due to budget cuts. And an international student will share her perspective on clubs in college.


Born and raised in Brooklyn, Thomas J. Campanella is a historian of city planning and the urban built environment. He teaches and writes about the culture-space nexus in a variety of contexts, seeking to explain the manifold agents, actors, and forces that have shaped urban landscapes around the world. Though primarily an Americanist, he has also studied and written about the extraordinary growth of Chinese cities in the post-Mao era. Campanella has received Guggenheim and Fulbright fellowships and is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and the James Marston Fitch Foundation. His books include The Concrete Dragon: China's Urban Revolution and What It Means for the World (2008), and Republic of Shade: New England and the American Elm (2003), winner of the Spiro Kostof Award from the Society of Architectural Historians. He has held visiting appointments at Columbia, Harvard GSD, Nanjing University, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Campanella holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1999), an M.L.A. from Cornell (1991), and a B.S. from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (1986).
CRP 5190 History and Theory of Urban Spatial DevelopmentThis course explores the rich legacy of urban physical planning and design, examining both the reification of human values in the built environment and the shaping of society and culture by the places we have envisioned, planned and built. A spectrum of forces and agents—economic, political, religious, technological—will be analyzed to understand their impact on the spatial form of cities and regions. Themes include the origins of urban settlements; humanism, utopianism and the quest for the "ideal city"; the dialectics of modernity and tradition; power and the grassroots; the role of transportation technology; the spatial dynamics of race and class; and the urban crisis, "white flight" and suburbanization. The course concludes with an analysis of contemporary urbanism and an assessment of the renewal of city life in an age of unprecedented global urbanization, peak oil and light speed flows of ideas and information.
Campanella, Thomas J. The Concrete Dragon: China's Urban Revolution and What It Means for the World. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2012.
Campanella, Thomas J. Republic of Shade: New England and the American Elm. Yale University Press, 2003.
Campanella, Thomas J. Cities from the Sky: An Aerial Portrait of America. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2001.


The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has jumped the gun by asking contractors to submit plans for developing a national customer service center before securing funding for the center, lawmakers said Thursday.
On March 8, the EEOC published a notice on FedBizOpps, the official register of all government procurements, requesting proposals from private companies interested in establishing and running a pilot "contact center." The center would serve as a clearinghouse for public inquiries currently handled at the agency's field offices, providing "timely and consistent information about EEOC programs, products and services," the announcement explained.
But lawmakers have yet to approve any money for the project, Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., warned EEOC Chairwoman Cari Dominguez at a House Justice Appropriations Subcommittee hearing. The agency's decision to solicit contractor proposals for the center seems premature, he said.
Dominguez defended the solicitation, describing the request for proposals as a way of "exploring the feasibility" and "considering the concept" of a privately operated contact center. Agency officials "informed bidders that this is all contingency planning," she told lawmakers. Dominguez requested a $3 million increase in the EEOC's fiscal 2005 budget to help support the national service center and other facets of an agency "repositioning."
By asking for proposals the EEOC is doing more than simply considering the establishment of a contact center, said Wolf, the subcommittee chairman, and Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., the subcommittee's ranking member. "You're going ahead," Serrano said.
In reports accompanying fiscal 2004 budget legislation, lawmakers specifically warned the EEOC not to move forward on any reform efforts without consulting Congress. Agency officials decided to try out a national information center as part of a broader plan to restructure and streamline the EEOC, and, consequently, must keep lawmakers informed of any developments, he said.
The EEOC sent the appropriations subcommittee a letter describing the status of various reform proposals, including the contact center, in November 2003, Dominguez said. But agency officials also should have informed members of Congress about the decision to outsource the center because lawmakers might have wanted to hold a hearing to discuss the matter, Wolf said.
"To me, the sight and the sound of a contractor means major change," Serrano said. He said he is worried that the EEOC's latest move will alienate the agency's supporters, while simultaneously providing fuel for critics. "You can't afford any mistakes because there are too many people who would like to see you fall," he cautioned Dominguez.
The EEOC's proposal to establish a contact center has attracted controversy from the outset. The National Academy of Public Administration, a congressionally chartered nonprofit organization, recommended the central customer service center, along with various other reforms, in a February 2003 report. But talk of establishing such a center predated the NAPA report, according to an agency spokesman.
Proponents argue that a national contact center would alleviate strain on local EEOC offices. Some offices are not equipped to handle the volume of inquiries they receive, according to the NAPA report. In addition, simple inquiries bog down investigators and attorneys in field offices. By sending the inquiries to a national clearinghouse, the agency would free up time for field office employees to concentrate on working cases, analyzing trends and taking proactive steps to combat workplace discrimination, contact center advocates say.
But opponents argue that the information center will not improve the EEOC's efficiency or help the agency provide better customer service. Many of the questions forwarded to the center will end up back at the field offices, said Gabrielle Martin, president of the National Council of EEOC Locals No. 216, part of the American Federation of Government Employees.
EEOC commissioners in early November 2003 approved a plan to let a private company help design a contact center. The company would then operate the center for a two-year trial period. This decision to "competitively outsource" the center has deepened controversy over the project.
The EEOC considered a number of options before choosing to outsource work at the center, said Cynthia Pierre, director of field management programs at the EEOC. Pierre headed a work group responsible for advising agency officials on the feasibility and benefits of setting up a contact center.
After surveying field offices and conducting market research, the work group concluded that a contact center could help handle the EEOC's high volume of routine public inquiries. The survey demonstrated that 61 percent of calls received by EEOC offices do not relate to potential charges of discrimination, Pierre said.
For example, 22 percent of unsolicited callers request general information, and these calls could be answered with an automated response, Pierre explained. EEOC employees are preparing replies to commonly asked questions and training manuals for contact center staff, she said. Should the agency decide to halt the project, these materials would still come in handy, she said.
The EEOC does not have many of the in-house resources needed to set up an effective customer service center, Pierre said. For instance, the agency lacks the technology for the center, she said. To set up the customer information service using only in-house resources, the EEOC would have to spend $12 million, she said. This would not include the price of staffing the center. In contrast, a contract-operated center would cost less than $3 million to get off the ground.
But Martin and other AFGE officials said they are not sure where these cost estimates are coming from. They said the EEOC lacks the authority to outsource the contact center without first holding a public-private competition.
The decision to outsource the work amounts to a "direct conversion," where agencies hand over commercial work to a contractor without allowing in-house employees a chance to keep the jobs, AFGE argued in a letter to a Bush administration official. The Office of Management and Budget's May 2003 revisions to Circular A-76, the competitive sourcing rule book, prohibit direct conversions unless agencies ask the administration for a waiver.
According to EEOC officials, the contact center involves new work, and no federal employees will lose their jobs as a result of outsourcing the project. The EEOC staff has "more than enough to do" without worrying about working at the contact center, Pierre said.
In a March 24 letter to OMB's deputy director for management, Clay Johnson, AFGE President John Gage and Vice President Andrea Brooks argued that the EEOC has the capacity to build the center internally and, therefore, must let federal employees bid on the work or request an exemption from the A-76 rules.
"The decision by the EEOC's management to establish a privatized call center seems driven entirely by a self-imposed in-house personnel ceiling," the letter stated. "The use of such a questionable management practice poorly serves both taxpayers and the agency's stakeholders."
OMB has received AFGE's letter, an administration official said, and has contacted the EEOC in an attempt to "get a better understanding of what result [the agency is] trying to reach" by establishing a call center. "After receiving a full briefing we will consider our options," the official added.


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Q: Google Apps Script: `Those rows are out of bounds.` error I have this issue: I download a excell file, upload it (converting it to google spreadsheet format) and I have to adapt it to a structure with which I can use it with my scripts.
To do that, I have to delete several rows and columns of the excell file (there are some pictures and extra lines in the excell header). So, I'm writing a script to automate this tasks. But when I run this script, to delete the first 22 rows:
function onOpen() {
  var menuEntries = [{name: "Format this sheet", functionName: "format"}];
  var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
  ss.addMenu("My scripts", menuEntries);

}

function format() {
  var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet();
  sheet.deleteRows(0, 22);
//  sheet.deleteColumns(columnPosition, howMany)
}

I get this error:
Those rows are out of bounds. (the spreadsheet has more than 400 rows)
How can I fix that?

A: I find my mistake: row counting starts with 1 and not 0, so I should be written: sheet.deleteRows(1, 22);

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