text:
\section{Introduction}

History is a mirror to the future. If we do not learn from the mistakes of history,
we are doomed to repeat them.\footnote{George Santayana (1863-1952).}
The physics of the last century had devoted to the study of two pillars: general relativity and
quantum field theory. Although the revolutionary theories of relativity and quantum mechanics
have utterly changed the way we think about Nature and the Universe, new open problems have emerged
which have not yet been resolved within the paradigm of the 20th century physics.
In particular, recent developments in cosmology, particle physics and string theory have led to
a radical proposal that there could be an ensemble of universes that might be completely disconnected
from ours \cite{carr-book}. Of course, it would be perverse to claim that nothing exists beyond the horizon of
our observable universe. However, a painful direction is to use the string landscape or multiverse to explain
some notorious problems in theoretical physics based on the anthropic argument \cite{carr-ellis}.
``And it's pretty unsatisfactory to use the multiverse hypothesis to explain only things
we don't understand."\footnote{Graham Ross in {\it Quanta magazine} ``At multiverse impasse, a new theory
of scale" (August 18, 2014) and {\it Wired.com} ``Radical new theory could kill the multiverse hypothesis."}
Taking history as a mirror, this situation is very reminiscent of the hypothetical luminiferous
ether in the late 19th century. Looking forward to the future,
we may need another turn of the spacetime picture to defend the integrity of physics.

Recent developments in string theory have revealed a remarkable and radical new
picture about gravity. In particular, the AdS/CFT duality
illustrates a typical example of emergent gravity and emergent space because gravity in higher
dimensions is defined by a gravityless field theory in lower dimensions \cite{ads-cft}.
Now we have many examples from string theory in which spacetime is not fundamental but
only emerges as a large distance, classical approximation \cite{hopo-rev}. Therefore,
the rule of the game in quantum gravity is that space and time are an emergent concept.
Since the emergent spacetime is a new fundamental paradigm for quantum gravity and
it is exclusive and irreconcilable with the conventional spacetime picture in general relativity,
it is necessary to reexamine all the rationales to introduce the multiverse hypothesis
from the standpoint of emergent spacetime.
The emergent spacetime will certainly open a new prospect \cite{hsy2015} that may cripple all
the rationales to introduce the multiverse picture.

Since the concept of the multiverse raises deep conceptual issues even to require to change
our view of science itself \cite{carr-book,carr-ellis},
it should be important to ponder on the real status of the multiverse
whether it is simply a mirage developed from an incomplete physics like the ether
in the late 19th century or it is of vital importance even in more complete theories.
We think that the multiverse debate in physics circles has to seriously take the emergent
spacetime into account.

For this purpose, let us assume that {\bf spacetime is an emergent entity from some fundamental objects
in quantum gravity} \cite{q-emg}. This means that we do not assume
the prior existence of spacetime but define a spacetime structure as a solution of an underlying
background-independent theory such as matrix models. We will highlight that
a background-independent theory such as matrix models provides a concrete realization
of the idea of emergent spacetime which has a sufficiently elegant and explanatory power
to defend the integrity of physics against the multiverse hypothesis \cite{hsy2015}.

The multiverse hypothesis has been motivated by an attempt to explain the anthropic fine-tuning
such as the cosmological constant problem \cite{weinberg-87} and boosted by the chaotic and
eternal inflation scenarios \cite{inflation} and the string landscape derived from
the Kaluza-Klein compactification of string theory \cite{slands}.
In summary, we list the main (not exhausting) sources of the multiverse idea \cite{carr-book}:
\begin{enumerate}
\item[A.] Cosmological constant problem.
\item[B.] Chaotic and eternal inflation scenarios.
\item[C.] String landscape.
\end{enumerate}
First of all, we have to point out that these are all based on the traditional spacetime picture.
The cosmological constant problem (A) is the problem in all traditional gravity theories such as
Einstein gravity and modified gravities. So far any such a theory has not succeeded to resolve
the problem A. The inflation scenarios (B) are also based on the traditional gravity theory coupled
to an effective field theory for inflaton(s). Thus, in these scenarios, the prior existence
of spacetime is simply assumed. The string landscape (C) also arises from the conventional
Kaluza-Klein compactification of string theory. The string landscape (C) means that the huge variety
of compactified internal geometries exist, typically, in the range of $10^{500}$ and
almost the same number of four-dimensional worlds with different low-energy phenomenologies
accordingly survive \cite{slands}.

In string theory, there are two exclusive spacetime pictures based on the Kaluza-Klein theory
vs. emergent gravity although they are conceptually in deep discord with each other.
On the one hand, the Kaluza-Klein gravity is defined in higher dimensions as a more superordinate theory
and gauge theories in lower dimensions are derived from the Kaluza-Klein theory via compactification.
Since the Kaluza-Klein theory is just the Einstein gravity in higher dimensions, the prior existence of
spacetime is {\it a priori} assumed. On the other hand, in emergent gravity picture,
gravity in higher dimensions is not a fundamental force but a collective phenomenon
emergent from more fundamental ingredients defined in lower dimensions.
In emergent gravity approach, the existence of spacetime is not {\it a priori} assumed but
the spacetime structure is defined by the theory.
This picture leads to the concept of emergent spacetime.
In some sense, emergent gravity is the inverse of Kaluza-Klein paradigm, schematically summarized by
\begin{equation}\label{kk-em}
    (1 \otimes 1)_S \rightleftarrows 2 \oplus 0
\end{equation}
where $\rightarrow$ means the emergent gravity picture while $\leftarrow$ indicates the Kaluza-Klein picture.

Our leitmotif is that a consistent theory of quantum gravity should be background-independent,
so that it should not presuppose any spacetime background on which fundamental processes develop.
Hence the background-independent theory must provide a mechanism of spacetime generation such that
every spacetime structure including the flat spacetime arises as a solution of the theory itself.
A profound feature in emergent gravity is that even the flat spacetime must
have a dynamical origin, which is absent in general relativity.
It turns out \cite{q-emg} that the flat Minkowski spacetime
is originated from a noncommutative (NC) spacetime which is a vacuum solution in the Coulomb branch of
a large $N$ matrix model. General solutions are generated by considering generic
deformations of the primitive vacuum. A striking fact is that the vacuum responsible for the generation
of flat spacetime is not empty and admits a separable Hilbert space as quantum mechanics.
Amusingly the perverse vacuum energy $\rho_{\mathrm{vac}} \sim  M_P^4$ known as the cosmological constant
in general relativity was actually the origin of flat spacetime.
This is a tangible difference from Einstein gravity, in which $T_{\mu\nu} = 0$ in flat spacetime.
In the end, the emergent gravity reveals a remarkable picture
that the cosmological constant does not gravitate.
To emphasize clearly, the emergent gravity does not contain the coupling of
cosmological constant like $\int d^{4} x \sqrt{-g} \Lambda$, so it presents a surprising
contrast to general relativity. In consequence, the emergent gravity definitely dismisses
the problem A \cite{hsy-jpcs12}. Therefore, there is no demanding reason
to rely on the anthropic fine-tuning to explain the tiny value of current dark energy.

The multiverse picture arises in inflationary cosmology (B) since,
in most inflationary models, once inflation happens, it produces not just one universe,
but an infinite number of universes \cite{inflation}. Thus an important question is whether
the emergent spacetime picture can also lead to the eternal inflation.
The answer is certainly no. The reason is the following \cite{hsy2015}.
The inflationary vacuum in emergent gravity describes the creation of spacetime unlike
the traditional inflationary models that simply describe the exponential expansion of a preexisting spacetime.
Moreover, the inflation corresponds to a dynamical process of the Planck energy condensate
into vacuum responsible for the emergence of spacetime.
An important point is that the Planck energy condensate results in a highly coherent
vacuum called the NC space. As the NC phase space in quantum mechanics
necessarily brings about the Heisenberg's uncertainty relation, $\Delta x \Delta p \geq
\frac{\hbar}{2}$, the NC space also leads to the spacetime uncertainty relation.
Therefore any further accumulation of energy over the vacuum must be subject to
the exclusion principle known as the UV/IR mixing \cite{uv-ir}.
Consequently, it is not possible to further accumulate the Planck energy density $\delta \rho \sim M_P^{4}$
over the inflating spacetime. This means that it is impossible to superpose
a new inflating subregion over the inflationary universe. In other words,
the cosmic inflation triggered by the Planck energy condensate into vacuum must be
a single event \cite{hsy2015}. In the end, we have a beautiful picture: The NC spacetime is necessary
for the emergence of spacetime and the exclusion principle of NC spacetime guarantees the stability
of spacetime.\footnote{This situation is similar to quantum mechanics rescued us from
the catastrophic collapse of classical atoms. Similarly the emergent spacetime may rescue us from
the doomsday of metastable multiverse as warned in another essay \cite{asen}.}

The above argument suggests an intriguing picture for the dark energy too.
Since the flat spacetime arises from the vacuum obeying the Heisenberg algebra,
any local fluctuations over the NC spacetime must also be subject to the spacetime
uncertainty relation or UV/IR mixing. This implies that any UV fluctuations are paired with
corresponding IR fluctuations. For example, the most typical UV fluctuations are characterized
by the Planck mass $M_P$ and these will be paired with the most typical IR fluctuations with
the largest possible wavelength denoted by $L_H = M_H^{-1}$. This means that these UV/IR fluctuations
are extended up to the scale $L_H$ which may be identified with the size of
our observable universe, $L_H \sim 1.3 \times 10^{26}$ m.
A simple dimensional analysis shows that the energy density of these fluctuations
is roughly equal to the current dark energy, i.e.,
\begin{equation}\label{dark-energy}
\delta \rho \sim  M_{DE}^4 = \frac{1}{L_P^2 L_H^2} \sim (10^{-3} \mathrm{eV})^4.
\end{equation}
Thus the emergent gravity predicts the existence of dark energy whose scale is characterized
by the size of our visible universe \cite{hsy-jpcs12}.

An important point is that the emergence of gravity requires the emergence of spacetime too.
If spacetime is emergent, everything supported on the spacetime should also be emergent.
In particular, matters cannot exist without spacetime and thus must be emergent together with the spacetime.
Eventually, the background-independent theory has to make no distinction between
geometry and matter \cite{q-emg}. This is the reason why the emergent spacetime
cannot coexist peacefully with the Kaluza-Klein picture.
As we pointed out before, the string landscape was derived from the Kaluza-Klein compactification
of string theory. However, if the emergent spacetime picture is correct,
the string landscape may be endowed with a completely new interpretation
since reversing the arrow in \eq{kk-em} accompanies a radical change of physics.
For example, a geometry is now derived from a gauge theory while previously the gauge theory
was derived from the geometry.

The Kaluza-Klein compactification of string theory advocates that the Standard Model in four dimensions
is determined by a six-dimensional internal geometry, e.g., a Calabi-Yau manifold.
Thus different internal geometries mean different physical laws in four dimensions,
so different universes governed by different Standard Models. However,
the emergent gravity reverses the arrow in \eq{kk-em}. Rather internal geometries are determined
by microscopic configurations of gauge fields and matter fields in four dimensions.
As a consequence, different internal geometries mean different microscopic configurations of
four-dimensional particles and nonperturbative objects such as solitons and instantons.
In this picture, the huge variety of internal geometries may correspond to the ensemble of microscopic
configurations in four dimensions and $10^{500}$ would be the Avogadro number for the microscopic ensemble.
Recall that NC geometry begins from the correspondence between the category of topological spaces
and the category of commutative algebras over $\mathbb{C}$ and
then changes the commutative algebras by NC algebras to define corresponding NC spaces.
In this correspondence, different internal geometries correspond to choosing different
NC algebras. A crucial point is that the latter allows a background-independent formulation
which does not require a background geometry.
Hence a background-independent quantum gravity seems to bring a new perspective that
cripples all the rationales to introduce the multiverse hypothesis.

\section*{Acknowledgments}

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant
funded by the Korea government (MOE) (No. 2011-0010597).

\newpage

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
It's not easy being 3 people! But Brendon Moeller does it effortlessly! For this South African-born native (with 3 producing entities) who now makes upstate New York is home - producing is all about 'just doing it". And Brendon has been just doing that! With a slew of releases on major labels including Speedy J's Electric Deluxe and a brand new all live show premiering in NYC Feb 23 at the Erratic party - he shares some of his stories with us about being a Beat Pharmacist extraordinaire!
CGNY: Hi Brendon – thanks for the chat. Let's start with a little about your background. You grew up in South Africa correct?
BM: Yes. I lived there until I was 25 and then I moved to New York at then of 1993. I came over predominantly to pursue music making and production and managed to get myself a job as a waiter! I was amazed that I was making as much money doing that in a week as I was in South Africa as a teacher. So it made gathering funds to buy some synthesizers and drum machines a little easier and within 6 months I managed to get some money together and then start the learning process (on the machines) and it was quite a process!
CGNY: And had you been dabbling in music in South Africa before you came here?
BM: Yes as a drummer primarily in a couple of bands there. I started taking music lessons when I was 9 years old. My parents picked up on this love I had of music and wanted to try to facilitate it in their own way so they sent me for piano lessons which I was open to at first. Then within 2 years it kind of soured because what I was learning…well basically there was an elderly lady teaching me to play classical music…
CGNY: Sounds like my piano lessons growing up!
BM: Yes and that's the typical thing! Unfortunately she never was like "Well Brendon what songs are you hearing on the radio that you might like?" So instead of inspiring me it sort of made my interest wane in the whole thing pretty much because I just go so bored with it. I opted out after 2 years. I just lost interest in learning or wanting to learn music because what I had been listening to on the radio was so far removed from the lessons I was getting that it ended up alienating me.
CGNY: And when you were listening to the radio – what sort of music were you listening to?
BM: It was all the early stuff. Elton John Billy Joel, Hall and Oates, Frankie goes to Hollywood! Stuff of the day – Top 40. I used to sit in religiously on Saturday evening and have my cassette recorder ready and in position for when they played my favorite song.
CGNY: Ah yes – memories! Often the only way to get the top new tunes.
BM: Exactly. Then playing the song over and over even if there was a commercial in the beginning or some disc jockey from the radio station announcing the chart position! Once I got to high school, the desire to want to know who's making the music and figuring out "the behind the scenes" began to come to the fore. I started reading NME, Melody Maker, Cue magazine, Rolling Stone and whatever I could get my hands on to get more information. Once I left high school that really kicked into gear. I had to make a decision at that time whether I had to serve in the South African Army which at that time was compulsory service for all whites in order to maintain the despicable apartheid regime. I opted out of that and decided to become a school teacher because that was the only way they would let me get out of doing army service. I got my college grant and before you know it I'm two years into studying to be a teacher. My heart wasn't in it but I made the most of it because the alternative (compulsory army service) was so bleak. During that period I also got a set of drums and started doing music with a band, learning quite a bit about writing music and working with musicians. It was kind of cool to have that much time in college so I could do that of course try to get laid and all that other stuff!
CGNY: Of course, the important things! So it was I suppose preparing the ground for your work today. I suppose any musical training is doing the same because it gives you the basic knowledge of how melodies and rhythms work and bass and synths are all put together?
BM: Absolutely. I think the more you can bring to the table; the more you know about the music side, the business side, every angle, the better you are. It was all valuable. As much as I wish I could've gotten an early start when I was 15 or 16 and not spent so many years traipsing around wasting my time.. I mean I have a teaching degree, I did teach for 3 years but it was just because I had to.
CGNY: So then you're in New York you decide to move here on spec or you had a job?
BM: There were two reasons why I decided to move here. I had a friend who said I could come over and I could stay with him 'til I get my feet on the ground. The other one was at the time I was playing with a pretty cool band and hooking up with some cool musicians in Johannesburg. I was in my third year of teaching. I had to work as a teacher upon leaving college was because I had to pay back my government grant. That would avoid me having to pay them cash. Into the third year I was becoming incredibly frustrated and I made a move to quit teaching so I could pay back what I owed them and find another job. It was a real fascist government. The setting was complete control over your life, every angle, and they were well aware of what was going on and the second they heard I resigned from teaching, they called up my parents wanting to know where I was. The pressure was on then to go serve and at that time South Africa was at its most violent where there was complete upheaval, literally a few years before apartheid came to an end. So I knew I had to get away. I sold my car, put all my records and books into storage and bought a plane ticket. I accumulated just enough cash from selling my car that I could come to the States and have a little money to start with because the exchange rate was so bad. Literally a week before I left, the SA government who gave me the study grant took what I owed them out of my bank account! So I arrived here with very little. I hit the pavement, started off living on the Upper East side, walking up and down asking for a job and on the second day and managed to get a position from someone who was quite happy to ignore my work visa status! Back pre 9/11 immigrants could come and go more easily.
CGNY: Yes employers were a bit more willing to look away on that score.
BM: Exactly. So that's how my NY experience began. Started off waiting tables and the rest of the time was spent going down town and buying music, going to music stores and looking at synthesizers. It was all completely new to me. If I had available to me now all the wealth of information that is out there about what this or that synthesizer does or that drum machine is capable of instead of going in and buying stuff and then figuring it out later!
CGNY: So your waitering, buying music and tinkering with your machines at home. When did you make a piece of music and go "hmm this has potential"? Or did it coincide with djing? How did you get into djing from just being a music aficionado?
BM: Actually my first proper djing job was in 1987. A friend and I were doing a night at an industrial nightclub that featured industrial, punk, etc. and we were thrilled about it.
CGNY: And you were playing vinyl then?
BM: Yes I had been collecting vinyl since the age of 16. So yes the djing began there. That gig lasted about a year and came to an abrupt halt when we were threatened by some body at the club!
CGNY: Oh dear!
BM: That's when it began and I was looking to get dj gigs here and there. But when I came to NYC I didn't really pursue that. The first gig I got djing in New York was in a friends bar in Astoria, a rock bar. It was musically very open, eclectic. I played there for a year, an amazing place called Tupelo. I was also working down town at a music store as a buyer so I was acquiring music and at the same time putting together tunes and working with a few people here and there. I began to work with a music distributor that became the biggest dance music distributor in the US for a while called Studio Distribution. They handled all the bigger labels of the 90s, Global Underground, k7 all the Thievery Corporation, Kruder and Dorfmeister. That proved to be a very great learning experience for me seeing how that side of the business worked. I then got involved in a record deal with a label called Smile. That was A&R 'd by a guy named DJ DB an English guy who had built his name in the US doing drum and bass parties. So I released a couple of singles on Smile. It was early days for me and I really had no clue what I was doing.
CGNY: And what genre would these releases have been in – techno?
BM: Well yes techno - it was raw and aggressive sort of. At that time I was going out to lots of raves and techno parties. But yes it was very unrefined. In retrospect I'm amazed that someone wanted to put that shit out!
CGNY: Really? That's funny!
BM: In our industry to an extent everyone is flying by the seat of their pants! Basically I don't know what I'm doing!
CGNY: Well that's about as honest as anyone has ever been with me!
BM: I think it can be great for an artist to really not know what we're doing because when you think of the big picture it's really difficult to be certain that you're going the right thing. I go blindly ahead and for me what's more important than thinking about what I'm doing – is doing it. Just being in the studio. If I'm not in my studio making music, playing and jamming with my machines, then there is no chance of magic happening or music coming together, of something coming alive. A lot of the stuff I do is just a result of happy accidents.
CGNY: We welcome your happy accidents! It's the same process for writers I think –the discipline of writing every day for a period. Maybe not everything is useable but one day something will come out of it. You can't always wait for inspiration to hit you I suppose.
BM: Exactly yes – you experiment, you try out things almost like a chef – putting ingredients into a bowl and then stirring them up. There are so many approaches. For me again it just comes down to doing it – that's the key to anything; just doing it.
CGNY: You've released on a whole bunch of different labels. But you've been releasing a lot lately on Electric Deluxe (Speedy J's label). How did you relationship with Jochem come about?
BM: I was aware of Speedy J as I bought his album when I first came to New York. I always followed what he was doing. I had released an Echologist EP on Rekids, the Radioslave label. I had uploaded those tracks to Soundcloud and Speedy had commented on them. And I was like "Holy shit Speedy J likes one of my tracks!" And he and I began talking. He was doing his Collabs project at the time and collecting random music from musicians and he would put them together. So I was giving him some bits and pieces, odds and ends that I had not gotten anywhere with. Our relationship developed from there. The email frequency increased and I started sending him more music. And he would send me stuff and we would talk a little about music. And then finally I sent him something and he was like "Look man let's do something together". Yes so it's still going well.
CGNY: It is still going well. It seems like a very good fit – your style seems to work very well for the kind of music he makes and the kind of tracks he releases on EDX. But you have a very broad spectrum because you've released as Beat Pharmacist and Echologist. What do you think is the difference between the three monikers – are you mostly sticking with just Brendon Moeller these days?
BM: Actually there is an Echologist EP coming up with Prologue and another one later in the year coming out on Max's M_Rec label. Then there are two Beat Pharmacy EPs coming out this year. One on Fred P's Soul People music and one on Throne of Blood. And just today in fact confirmed that I will be doing a Brendon Moeller EP for Third Ear at the end of the year. The whole moniker thing began as a means to an end. When I signed with Francois K to do Beat Pharmacy on Deep Space, it was prior to the industry collapsing due to file sharing and illegal downloading. Things were still going alright and Francois K offered me really good advance money for the BP albums I did and one of the requirements which was an industry standard at that point, was if you got a significant chunk of change from a label you would have to be exclusive to that label. He wanted Beat Pharmacy to be an exclusive Deep Space thing and I was fine with that. Then I realized later that I'm someone who is always in the studio, always making stuff, sending out things, looking for feedback and I realized that I'm going to have to come up with other monikers if I want to try to get more of my work out there. So the monikers became more about the economics of my situation. I then went and signed a Brendon Moeller deal with Third Ear and they at that time also said can we do this exclusively. But in terms of being a specific vision for each moniker, I never spend too much time thinking about it. Consciously or subconsciously things seem to happen in a certain way. Beat Pharmacy became more or an organic, free form electronic project that involved real musicians, vocalists. Echologist became the deeper more techno side of things and Brendon Moeller is on the clubbier side of things. I can't say that I set about, even now differentiating the music for each one. I do remixes for people. I've been doing a ton of remixes of late. And I give people my remix and they say well can we do this as Echologist or BP or BM and I say sure – take your pick!
CGNY: Pick a card any card!
BM: Yes there is no real big mystery to all of that. I keep all three because it allows me to release all the music I do. I guess it makes more sense to have a few different names without just my one name pop up as one thing all the time. The reason I release a lot of music is because people want to release my music.
CGNY: Well isn't that a great thing?
BM: Yes and I'm absolutely grateful and as long as people want to release it I will keep making music as best as I can to facilitate that. Obviously some of the stuff I release I'm not going to like, you know a month after I've done it and some I will love forever. You can never tell. Let me tell you a funny story. In the last 6 months, these various labels I've been mentioning, Prologue etc, on 3 occasions, I've had a label come to me after I'd sent them something, a few weeks or possibly a few months back. And they say "Look we love this we want to release it" and it's something I've already deleted.
" for me what's more important than thinking about what I'm doing – is doing it. Just being in the studio. If I'm not in my studio making music, playing and jamming with my machines, then there is no chance of magic happening or music coming together, of something coming alive. A lot of the stuff I do is just a result of happy accidents."
CGNY: Do you think you're extremely critical of your own work then?
BM: I go as far with things as I can. And sometimes you take things so far that you kill 'em! And an artist is clearly not always the best judge (of their own work). Thank God for Time Machine back up on my computer. I'm able to grab things that are a year old! In fact it happened again today with Tom from Prologue. "Look I've changed my mind again about this track, I've been playing it out and it's so fucking good" and I said please send me the version because I don't think I have it anymore!
So yes not the best judge of my own work, some of the stuff I'll like, some I won't like. Some I will be proud of and proud of 10 years from now. Some I won't be proud of. Not everyone is thrilled with the job they do every day of their life you know?
CGNY: No it's impossible. You've been playing a good few gigs in NYC over the past year or so. I felt like maybe I only saw or heard you were playing maybe once or twice a year in the city. We're very pleased about that. You have a gig on Feb 10 with Peter Munch at Cielo and the Echochord party with Erratic on Feb 23. And you're traveling overseas for gigs too. I know you're married with children. How do you balance home life with the professional iife of a dj?
BM: I guess you do what you can. I'm fortunate enough to be a stay at home father so I get to spend a lot of time with my kids and family. And it's tough to be away. I still end up spending a lot more time with my kids than say my mother and father got to spend with me back in the day. And I'm so grateful.
CGNY: And your studio is in your home?
Yes in fact my wife cringed when I set it up but it's in my bedroom! I took over and it's the greatest space in the house for me to set up shop. The house is 2 floors and the bedroom is on the second floor so while everyone is downstairs I'm upstairs during the day and it's just easy for me to get stuff done.
CGNY: What are you using to produce?
BM: Ableton and Reason primarily on the software side of things and in the last year I've gone back to a combination of hardware and software. The Echochord showcase will be my first live set where I'm going to be without a laptop and I will be just using machines.
CGNY: That sounds exciting!
BM: Yes I've been working on this now for about a year to figure out the best way to do it and its finally coming together and I'm super excited about it. The potential of it and the sense of adventure that comes from doing a live show is part of my evolution as a musician. Being able to improvise on the spot. And nothing against people who use laptops; I think as a musician you have to choose what keeps you inspired and what keeps that sense of adventure about the whole thing. If you're not having fun up there, there is a fucking good chance nobody else is!
CGNY: Yes will it definitely translates across the decks..
BM: I still feel like I have a shit load to learn about djing and playing live and that's what keeps me going. Every day I wake up and realize 'Man I've got so far to go!'
CGNY: Hmm not too far! You're not doing too shabby a job there!
BM: Thank you for saying that. I guess that is pressure that I put on myself.
CGNY: What do you do in your down time – I saw that you liked Louis CK – what do you do for fun?
BM: Well my kids are now 3 and 6 years old.
CGNY: So I imagine they take up quite a bit of your time then?
BM: Yes. You know the fun part for me is doing my job; playing out. Maybe we get a babysitter and my wife and I have a night out or something. We do a lot of exploring and traveling. My kids have been all over the world and we have lived a little in Europe and traveled to SA and stayed there. So we try and make sure that we explore and have adventure in our lives. My daughter just started first grade and once that starts you realize you're going to get locked into the school term. They can't miss a day and you can't just up and take off whenever you feel like it anymore – it doesn't accommodate traveling on a whim or getting away. We're making plans now to make sure we're taking advantage of school holidays. And there's always something to do when you own a house! We've a lot of parks and ski slopes around here (Patterson NY). I try to keep it mixed and I really cherish the time when I get to go out and play because those nights are not only my job but also the times I get to enjoy myself.
CGNY: Do you have any overseas gigs planned in the next few months?
BM: I have a gig booked at Berghain with an Electric Deluxe night. April 6. However I left the booking agent I was with at the end of last year so I'm feeling out other options because I realized it's not something I can do myself. So while that's all falling into place, I'm getting as much music done as I can. When I do get it into place I want to tour nonstop and I think with the live show that I have now that is laptop free and very free form, energetic and raw, I'm hoping it resonates with people and strikes a chord and that's what I really want to get behind. Obviously I'm happy to dj but I'm compelled to get out there and do live techno because these machines are built for that. They are made for people to jam on and improvise on. That's what was so great about 70s kraut rock and electronic culture was the jamming: you would have musicians coming all over Germany in a big church somewhere and they'd set up their synthesizers and just go for it you know? I'm hoping some of that experimentation, that jamming and improvising comes back to electronic music. It's sad to see that side of electronic music not being there because synthesizers are instruments designed for that purpose. It doesn't all have to be Ableton and loops. With the fact that these machines are becoming readily available and cheaper and more portable so you can travel with them, we're going to see more people taking that on.
CGNY: I think it can do wonders for the dj culture because there is a little bit of 'sameyness' going on I feel sometimes in the music scene..
BM: Absolutely you couldn't have said it better. That's one of my big motivations.
CGNY: To hear/see something different.
BM: Yes because people want to be shaken up. The element of surprise is so underrated in clubs and you don't see it. I know I'm as guilty as many of my peers for not embracing that and taking that risk. The fact that you've just verbalized that sense of 'sameyness'; there are many people having these conversations. I've talked to them. So I think this is going to be a turning point in the next year. People are going to be looking for a little more, something that's going to get the ears pricked up and foot tapping in a different direction
CGNY: There is a resurgence of interest in techno I feel over the past few years. The amount of techno parties happening in NYC is fantastic – I think it's great for the scene.
BM: It is great for the scene and it's also going to be a challenge for the scene where people now have to step up their game a bit. You want to stand out from the crowd, you have to step up otherwise don't expect to be recognized outside of the sameyness. So yes it's a good thing and I'm hoping to be playing around America a bit more as a result of this resurgence of interest in techno and club culture. I've actually been invited to play at Movement Festival this year.
CGNY: Oh fantastic!! That's great news!
BM: Yes so I'm excited about the state of things. The most exciting thing for me is to be able to bring this new live show which I've spent the whole of a year putting together finally figuring out what the best tools are for me to do what I do. I'm fucking excited about it. It's uniquely going to be me.
CGNY: Can't wait to hear that!
BM: I can't wait to bring it!
For more information go to www.brendonmoeller.com
http;//electricdeluxe.net
http://www.erraticnyc.com
Also check out our review of Brendon's latest release with Speedy J on his own Steadfast label here!
Last Updated on Wednesday, 13 February 2013 19:15

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


We at Colorlib know a thing or two about creating unique and successful WordPress themes, our own custom-built theme library consists of 8 themes already, and we're working around the clock to increase this amount, while juggling things like customer support, and feedback management in the middle of it all. Colorlib themes have been highlighted by WordPress numerous times, and leading world's brands like Adobe are using Colorlib themes to style their blogs.
We take great pride in these achievements. However, with our hands full of work, instead of writing our own tutorial on how to create a WordPress theme, we want to share some of the tutorials that we have found inspiring from a range of WordPress developers, some of whom you will surely have heard of before. We do however offer a thorough tutorial on how to create your own WordPress website.
The WordPress theme landscape, as far as developers are concerned, has changed immensely over the last few years. Although a PHP platform by itself, WordPress styling involves heavy use of HTML5 and CSS3 elements that you will find in modern web design, with the exception that WordPress styling requires specific understanding of how WordPress interprets styles, you will find more info on that, amongst other important elements on the Theme Development page at WordPress Codex.
It's no longer about just the container, but the kind of features that this container can support: responsive design, social media widgets, content optimization, and so on. Creating a WordPress theme for scratch is doable, and best results will be possible for those who have concise understanding of web design, everyone else — there is plenty of fun to be had in creating your own WP theme regardless, enjoy the process and you might develop a skill for yourself that could potentially become the 2nd job you've been looking for.
As WordPress developers and users, we are aware of what's essentially known as WordPress Skeleton and WordPress Boilerplate themes, these are pre-built raw versions of templates that you can further style with your own code, we will be also listing a few of these as soon as we are done with the tutorials. If you are a developer yourself, we'd be pleased to include any of your own tutorials that are related to crafting WordPress themes, either leave a comment, or get in touch using email.
Visual Composer is the most widely utilized page builder for WordPress, so much so that it has 135,000 sales already, and god knows how many more custom themes are integrating Visual Composer into their codebase. The landscape of creating your own web designs has really changed in the last decade, and more beginner-level users are able to play with page builders to create their own unique website designs.
But, can page builders outperform the art of creating a custom WordPress theme from scratch, using programming languages? You still need to have a theme to work with if you want to use Visual Composer; though it does support ALL WordPress themes. Looking at the sites that are using Visual Composer, it's clear that competition is high between developers who can provide custom work, and simply giving WP users an easy alternative to create as they like.
The upside of creating your own WordPress theme isn't hard to notice. You get to experience real programming environment within a platform that you use to power your website, and WordPress syntax isn't really all that bad to learn anyway. A theme from scratch means that you can build it with performance and usability in mind, right from the start of your grid layout. The demand for custom-built WP themes isn't going to die off any time soon, so suit yourself, and if programming is something you enjoy doing or want to practice, there's no better alternative than getting right into the mud, and beginning to play with the following tutorials.
How to make a wordpress theme from scratch?
Fast tutorials can be helpful in understanding the structure of what you are building, which also gives you knowledge about the current themes that you are working with. The more time is spent learning the basics, the easier it becomes to notice how particular functions of a theme works. You will learn in this tutorial how to create a basic WordPress theme structure that consists of a header, footer, content area, and a sidebar. As recommended by the author, it's best to practice this on a server that you have enabled locally. The end-result is a basic WordPress theme outline that you can start building on top of by immersing in additional tutorials, either from our list, or from the web.
You will find more video tutorials from YouTube at the last part of this tutorials collecion, right now though, we want to mention SitePoint's quick 5 minute tutorial on how to create your own foundation for a WordPress theme. You will end up with a very plain skeleton of a theme and have a better understanding of how to begin to style individual elements using CSS.
Shahid Siddique has gotten a lot of prior experience in creating themes. Therefore, his tutorial will focus on the basics. Although you will be doing a little deeper into the process as well. The snippets of code he shares are more advanced and allow to create a more grid-oriented theme foundation that will be easier to build upon. All WordPress themes consist of the same files, with the exception if you are building additional plugins and widgets that need to be integrated within individual files.
Creating the theme layout isn't so difficult as we have learned already, what's more intriguing is the part where you begin to style your theme in accordance to your own requirements, and this part is usually the most difficult one as you have to start working with design patterns, and general user experience aspects. At the end of this guidance tutorial, you will have a boxed WP theme layout that has background color specified in the stylesheet, giving you the hint as to where to look if you want to change up colors yourself.
We're still at the early stages of these tutorials, so keep doing as many of them as you can in order to grasp the very basics. If you have been planning to enroll in a WP theme course, completing these tutorials will make it easier to understand how courses are structured, and what else you need to learn to create a modern theme yourself. You also have the option to download any of the free WordPress themes from the web, and explore their code to see how a certain feature has been achieved.
Deon Dazy is working on a series of posts for creating a WordPress theme from nothing, and although he's still working hard on Part 2, you can begin to explore what he talks about in Part 1, and apply that to any of your existing demo themes that you are building. And if it takes too long for the Part 2 to come out, just reach out to the author through email and let him know that you'd be interested in hearing more. I'm sure he will be more than happy to cooperate with you. Upon completing this one, you will have the basic WP theme layout narrowed down.
Any project that involves creating something of your own is always going to be exhilirating. You're embarking on a journey to understand WordPress and programming more, and you will end up with the capability of being able to fully maintain your own theme. That's something that a page builder cannot give to you.
Soumil Roy is working on a definitive guide for understanding WordPress themes and how to build them from absolute scratch. So far, he has two tutorials already published, and he is working on more as we speak. Two factors already stand out: the theme is going to be built using Bootstrap framework, and the tutorial will include guidance on how to setup your own web server locally. If you look at the finalized version of what you are going to be building, this might very well end up being the only tutorial series you will need. Eagerly waiting for next parts.
Underscores come from the actual developers of the WordPress Core platform itself, so you are definitely in good hands. This skeleton theme has already found use in thousands of unique WordPress designs, and if you want to join the gang, follow-up with the tutorial from Sigit Prasetya Nugroho, his code samples and insights enable a broader understanding of Underscores and how it can be used to craft literally any WP theme experience. Helpful advice is also available in his comment box, take a look.
We love when WordPress developers and tutorial makers put in the extra effort to really showcase what it takes to create something authentic. Saha Avijit wasn't shy when it came to explaing how to create a fully functional WordPress theme that uses Blue text on White background scheme. You will have a nicely organized WP blogging theme ready to publish once you're done with the tutorial. A navigation menu is integrated, the sidebar will feature all your favorite widgets, and you'll have a great stylesheet to experiment with. At the beginning of the tutorial, a video is promoted that shows how to create your own localhost server. All the basics that you'll need to become a theme developer, eventually.
A concise recap tutorial of much of what we have already learned so far. Shows how to structure a basic WP foundation for a theme that will be fully ready for styling and customization.
Corporate themes are some of the most downloaded/purchased themes in the WordPress ecosphere. Why you might ask? Well, it seems that businesses are finding great success with using WordPress as their front-end and back-end platforms to publish their business websites, but also to manage them with communiities and content. The tutorial series here come from Baris Unver, who is focusing on teaching new WP developers what it takes to create a flexible yet stunning WordPress theme for corporate purpose. First tutorial focuses on the homepage and the about page, while his second tutorial goes in-depth about page types. We're looking forward to more additions in the series, keep an eye out for them.
A WordPress theme framework is really all about enabling to create custom WordPress themes from a single location. The framework provides all the functionality, and a child theme can be used to utilize that functionality to full capacity. You will most likely have heard of frameworks like Genesis, Canvas, and WordSmith before. These are all very famous WP frameworks in use by hundreds of thousands of users, but how do WP frameworks really work? That's the mission that Rachel McCollin from Tutsplus+ is trying to embark on. You will be learning from an in-depth series (already 11 posts) that show you how to create your own WordPress framework for themes, and what kind of aspects you will need to cover to create a unique framework, capable of building additional themes straight from the admin dashboard.
Code repetition isn't going to have any good outcome on the performance of what you are building, needless to say it can be overwhelming for a developer to open your theme and try to understand it when all of the code repeats itself constantly. Rachel McCollin is a WordPress dev expert who is sharing her knowledge on the DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) approach and how you can master this approach to create code that will work universally. With such an approach, editing code and adding new features will only need to be done once, and it will allow fellow developers to build on top what you have already built, without unnecessary frustration. Great article full of "aha" moments to savor.
With just a little bit of programming language, you can already change so much with your existing template. You can also start to build your own templates as you go. Child themes are the backups of your original themes. You can make any amount of changes to a child theme without having to worry about pushing out broken changes on a live production WordPress installation. Child themes though, aren't necessarily easier to work with that a custom hard theme, but do offer a few unique twists in the way a WP theme can be built to better support your ideas for the perfect design. An advanced tutorial covering the full spectrum of WordPress child themes.
Child Themes are themes which inherit and override the styles and templates of their parents. Just as in life, without parents, there are no children. In WordPress, Child Themes cannot exist without parent themes. A parent theme is any theme that is created as a stand alone theme. Every single default theme that WordPress is shipped with (Twenty Fifteen, Twenty Fourteen, etc) are parent themes. They do not depend on any other theme in order to work and function. So if you are looking for a more narrow approach to child themes, take a look at Matt Cromwell's introductory guide for WP Child Themes.
Learning about the Bootstrap frameworks helps even if you aren't planning on building any WordPress themes. Bootstrap enables for a smooth front-end development experience, and gives you a through introduction of how design works inside the browser, and on the web. Worth mentioning that the use of Bootstrap means that you can use any of the Bootstrap components in your design, essentially reducing the development time to a matter of hours, rather than days. If you are fond of Bootstrap and making themes has been on your mind for a long time, you will be pleased to go through this tutorial that shows how to create a new WP theme that's supported by Bootstrap.
REST API and Vue.js; sounds complicated! And it likely will be for those who haven't had prior experience with development. So, we left the most complex tutorial as last, which is going to come in handy for WP developers who have already built themes previously, and need a new way to challenge themselves. Learning how to craft a theme using nothing but REST and Vue is going to be challenging enough, we believe.
Boilerplates are understood differently in many different contexts, particularly in web development and business. As far as WordPress themes are concerned, a boilerplate is a pre-built WordPress theme foundation upon which you can keep building on, using the predefined functions of the boilerplate that you are using. This is more commonly known as rapid-development.It will require a much less of an effort to achieve beautiful results quickly. We know of the following few WordPress boilerplates. But, we encourage you to share with us any others that might have been missed during our research process. Thanks!
FYI: You can apply your newly learned skills from all those tutorials. Use them when working with the following boilerplate templates. It is a great way to exercise what you have learned. Combine it with a codebase that follows certain development style rules.
WordPress will often be regarded as the simple blogging platform. It is the content platform for beginners. However, how many people really talk about all the mix ups that happen during the process of adding new themes, plugins, widgets, and on top of that having to maintain new WP updates. Additionally, it makes all of this functionality separate from each other, letting you focus on what's truly important.
The HTML5 Boilerplate for WordPress is based on the actual HTML5 Boilerplate template. The template features modern HTML5 syntax to allow crafting mobile responsive and generall browser optimized websites right from the start. The layout has a lot of room for improvement, but as far as a boilerplate goes, this is something to explore more.
Wonderful and lightweight Boilerplate for WordPress using the back-end of HTML5 boilerplate. It has additional functionality from reputable members in the WordPress community. A generator is available to kickstart your Bones theme so you can get to coding quickly.
works in tandem with Gulp and Bower package managers.
This kind of an installation will best be suited for startups or businesses that are serious about their WordPress platform and want to scale it gracefully through the use of a package manager.
Yet another great boilerplate from the Roots devs. Bedrock uses Composer to manage dependencies, has an easy to configure configuration files, has WordPress Multisite support, and also some unique security features to keep your blog away from the hands of hackers.
Learn the potential of React for WordPress for yourself with this WP React Boilerplate from Gregory Cornelius.
Skeleton is a fully responsive WordPress theme. It is built for the purpose of allowing developers and designers to build new features on top of an existing core.
Learning programming from textbooks (including blog posts and articles) can be quite overwhelming. You are "forced" to check back with the tutorial details almost every minute. It is why there is a huge market for video tutorials as well. We found out that there are quite a few video tutorials out there that are related to creating WordPress themes from scratch. Therefore, we will try and mention the ones we thought were the most unique, or as commonly noted the best. We'd love to extend in this particular section with more video tutorials, send them our way if you got some hiding up that sleeve of yours.
Please click on the video images to open the video in a new window.
First video tutorial comes from Alessandro Castellani. He is creating helpful getting started with WordPress videos. It helps newcomers to WordPress be more flexible with the content management system that they use. The first video tutorial is roughly 20 minutes long. It explains the many aspects of a WordPress theme. As well as introduces you to tools and necessary file systems that you will have to understand to begin creating your own WordPress themes. Hundreds of comments have already been left on this video, suggesting that this is a reliable tutorial to begin with.
The second video comes from JREAM, a course resource for everything related to digital management. This tutorial is slightly longer. It is 30 minutes in total and explains how to achieve the result of a minimal WordPress theme that is going to be ready for content publication once you've created it. Once again, an easy to follow video that you can pause or skip at any time. Check comments for further references, or additional learning material.
Katrinah has many video tutorials related to webmaster stuff. She is a lovely soul that has put in a lot of effort in producing videos that inexperienced users will be able to understand. This is only one of her many videos about WordPress and WordPress themes. In particular this one she focuses on WordPress Child Themes, how to create them, and to help you understand how they work. Aimed at the conscious yoga community, since not all yogis have the funds to start investing in their own custom WordPress styles, so why not build one of your own.
This is another tutorial from Alessandro Castellani. It is the full playlist of a rich tutorial on creating your very own WordPress premium theme. You could potentially sell this themes to someone. At the time of writing this, there are 39 tutorials in the playlist. This will be a very dedicated project that you will need to respect with patience and determination. Very rare to see someone do such extensive tutorials. Take advantage of this because it's free and because you can.
We hope that we were able to go all out on this one. Also, give you a one-stop resource for anything that's related to creating WordPress themes. Additionally, the kind of tools that you would need to get started. From blog tutorials, to boilerplates, to video tutorials that have more than 15+ hours of accumulated content. You will never again need to refer to another resource in order to build your first WordPress theme. Recommendations for extra content to add to this post are welcome.
I recommend Alecaddd (Alessandro Castellani) tutorial. WordPress 101 and Creating premium wordpress theme tutorial are great. After watching his tutorial, i can make my own theme.
NIce post, Thanks for sharing with us Alex. Really helped to improve my WordPress dev skills.


text:
News in pictures: Monday December 7, 2020
The 4th Battalion, Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, capped its final battle exercise of the year with a Christmas lunch complete with crackers. The battalion is part of the Army Reserves
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE
Monday December 07 2020, 12.01am, The Times
Snow fell on Kinder Scout in the Peak District, Derbyshire, while in Bournemouth people enjoyed sun
JOHN FINNEY/WENN/CAROLYN JENKINS/ALAMY
A silver coin honouring David Bowie has been sent far above the world on a helium balloon to promote its release this week. Part of the Royal Mint's "music legends" series, which has previously celebrated Queen and Sir Elton John, the coin includes his Aladdin Sane lightning motif
THE ROYAL MINT/PA
A protester against Indian agricultural reforms outside the country's high commission on Aldwych, central London
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILL
Posing for pictures amid winter daisies at a botanical garden on the Red River in Hanoi, Vietnam. Visitors are attracted to the banks of flowers
MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
The winter swimming season is under way on the Irtysh River in Omsk, Siberia, after the lanes were opened up
ALEXEY MALGAVKO/REUTERS
For more pictures from the Times, follow us on Instagram


How to Celebrate Father's Day 2016 in D.C.
Father's Day is around the corner, and there are plenty of options to celebrate your dad. From cooking classes to cigar samplings to hearty brunch specials, here's our list of best bets. Spoiler alert: there's a lot of whiskey involved.


As Chris mentions, he and I are the shiny new test team for Admin & Ops in Team Foundation. First let me reiterate- we'd love you to join us.
We've spent the past month or so wrapping up tests to make them (1) more robust to all manner of crazy configurations and (2) easily transferable to whoever takes them over. Let me tell you, the Spring cleaning that's been going on throughout our test code and infrastructure has been something to see.
So, here's the story for what's going to happen to this blog. So far, I've generally posted tips or tricks related to Version Control and related areas. I'll still post those every now and then as I run across them, but that won't be the main focus. Instead, as I learn more about the collection of tools that make up the Admin & Ops suite, I'll start posting tidbits of wisdom about how to get them to make your lives easier.
One thing I've picked up recently, for example, is that you cannot remove all users from the Team Foundation Administrators group; there must be at least one member remaining. Pretty nifty- prevents you from completely locking yourself out of your own server. But lets say the one user remaining leaves the company or forgets their password or gets abducted by Thermians and flown off to the far side of the galaxy to captain a starship in war against General Sarris. Fear not, for the tool I'll discuss next time will save the day.
Will do! I've heard several discussions about what we'd like to add here, but don't know anything concrete yet.
Rob Caron blogs about a Team System TestRun Report Viewer and Ensuring Team Foundation Server Availability….


Anna Schwan has been working with Hamburg@work for the long haul: as an editor with the publishing house Gruner+Jahr, she worked on Hamburg@work's first website in 1999 while she was still a student. After working for the German foreign office in the US – and founding a company herself – she returned to support Hamburg@work in its shift from a new media network to Northern Germany's leading digital cluster.
Hamburg's startup scene is a vibrant mix of new energy and established expertise. There's a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem, helping connect new businesses to their customers, their supply chain and potential investors. The Port of Hamburg has become a center for new digital technologies, and the city's established industries provide a ready market in the commerce, service and fintech sectors, as well as renewable energy and life sciences.
Hamburg is working to become one of the startup hubs in Germany, if not all of Europe. But while Berlin may be Germany's B2C startup capital, Hamburg is focusing on the B2B market, matching new companies with a robust existing industrial infrastructure.
Get out there and meet people: Hamburg@work is only one of the organizations hosting events throughout the city. Attend as many events in your field as possible to make sure your company is visible and you're meeting the partners you want to work with.
Figure out your niche: Hamburg is trying to turn itself into Germany's B2B capital, and there are tons of bigger companies eager to work with young startups. See where you can fit into the picture.


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Old Dudley Police Station
The foundation stone of Dudley's 'new' police station, to replace the original 100 year old one in Priory Street, was laid on 19 May 1939 by Viscount Cobham, John Lyttelton of Hagley. The architects were Webb & Gray of High Street, Dudley and the Borough Engineer was FH Gibbons.
The building, along with the attached new fire station, was formally opened on 22 October 1941 by Viscount Cobham. The buildings cost £50,000 (equivalent to £2.5m today).
According to The Herald newspaper article on the formal opening "The buildings comprise the only local public scheme on which work was permitted to proceed during war-time…". In the vote of thanks to Lord Cobham the long delays to the start, and the inevitable difficulties of completing such a project during war-time, were acknowledged. Officers in the Home Office were thanked for "their constant and willing assistance at all times."
A handsome building, its corner location facilitates a stylish concave quarter-circle entrance area frontage. The overall design follows the typical police station architecture of the time, being built of brick and stone and decorated with police-related statues, a coat of arms and carved wooden doors.
The large oak doors are carved with 20 scenes representing police activities including: mounted police; on a bicycle and on the beat; helping the injured; chasing suspects; directing traffic; taking statements from witnesses; and fingerprinting. The carvings were designed by architect GF Webb and executed by Charles Upton.
POLICEMEN AND LION STATUES
The two stone statues above the entrance represent the origin of the police and their continuity. On the left is a 17th century nightwatchman holding a lantern and on the right is a 1940s policeman holding a truncheon and a pair of handcuffs. On plinths on either side of the entrance are stone crouching lions with cubs, representing the protective power of the police. The statues were designed by architect GF Webb and executed by Alan Bridgwater (policemen) and Charles Upton (lions).
Above the stone statues is a large Dudley coat of arms which includes the castle keep, a 'Dudley Bug' fossil plus an anchor and Davy Lamp representing some of the borough's past industries.
Further information can be found in the Dudley Borough Police Centenary Booklet at via https://www.wmpeelers.com/product-page/dudley-centenary-booklet
Old Police Station - Heritage Open Day Guide
Read Herald article of opening October 1941 (Dudley Archives)
Click on the image left to view


Synaptic Package Manager will be no longer shipped as default application as an update today removed it from CD. However, it will be easily installable from repositories.
Ubuntu Software Center does not yet match same level of advanced functionality as Synaptic but more features will be introduced as there was a discussion during UDS to bring better package management features to USC.
Also, Deja Dup will be now installed by default as the backup utility in Oneiric. Few days back, Deja Dup got integration with Ubuntu One so that you can easily backup your files in cloud.


text:
Dr. Peter Gruss
President/CEO of OIST
On November 1, 2011, a new university was born — the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, or OIST for short. With just one central building and one laboratory on the main campus, it had 44 faculty, about 350 research staff, 120 administrative staff, and no students. Now, ten years later, we have more than 80 faculty and more than 250 students, with four operating laboratories and a fifth under construction. More importantly, we have a growing reputation for high-quality research, education, and innovation.
We have much to celebrate. We inhabit a beautiful campus overlooking sub-tropical rainforests and pristine blue waters, located on an island with a rich cultural and natural heritage. We have, together, created an outstanding university that is delivering the vision of our founders to produce "best in the world" research and to achieve true internationality. We attract exceptional scientists, students, researchers, and administrators from around the globe who share this vision.
But we cannot rest. As we approach our second decade, we must continue to grow, both in size and in reputation, to become a world-renowned center of excellence in science and technology. We must continue to deepen our roots on the island and contribute to the sustainable development of the Okinawan economy by catalyzing an innovation ecosystem of high-tech industries, centered around the OIST Innovation Park.
After ten years, we are building on strong foundations and making bold step towards our mission of becoming a global leader in cross-disciplinary research. So, as one united OIST family, let us welcome colleagues, friends, neighbors, and visitors to help celebrate our first successful decade, and look forward to even greater things to come.
@gruss_peter
OIST was initiated with an act of the Japanese legislature in 2009. The goal for OIST was to provide internationally distinguished research and education and contribute to the promotion of Okinawa. The guiding principles and strategic goals detailed in the OIST Strategic Plan 2020–2030 are true to that original vision.
The OIST Strategic Plan 2020–2030, available for download in summary and full versions below, was developed between August 2018 and May 2019 by open consultation within OIST, through task forces and working groups that involved directly more than 100 OIST members.
Summary of the OIST Strategic Plan
OIST Strategic Plan


text:
Q: Using Azure API Management Service, how do I parse a request property before sending to backend API? I have a request that comes from a client app, and I need to conditionally parse 1 of the request fields that is sent.
Ex.
Assume I POST with a request body with two fields
{"ID":"123","IPAddress":"127.0.0.1"}
or
{"ID":"123","IPAddress":"127.0.0.1, 127.0.0.2"}

I need to check if the IP address has a comma separated set, and if so parse the left-most IPAddress
How can I achieve this exactly using Azure API Management Gateway API? Policy?

A: I haven't tested but you should be able to use set-body policy for it:
<policies>
    <inbound>
        <base />
        <set-body>
        @{
            var body = context.Request.Body.As<JObject>();
            if (body.Property("IPAddress").Contains(","))
            {
                var ips = body.Property("IPAddress").Split(",");

                body.Property("IPAddress").Value = ips[0].Trim();
            }
        }
        </set-body>
    </inbound>
</policies>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


We have just opened the server for SyntComp 2014. It is based on the EDACC-framework, which is also used for the SAT competitions.
Most importantly at this point, we are looking for more benchmarks. These can directly be uploaded to the EDACC-system, which will also be used to run the competition itself. Upon registration, you are able to upload benchmarks, and also download all the benchmarks that have already been converted to the competition format. See the Call for Benchmarks for details.
Furthermore, the same account allows you to upload synthesis tools. If they compile on our competition cluster, they can enter SyntComp 2014. Official submission of tools will be in May 2014. See the rules and the submission page for details.
This entry was posted in News on November 22, 2013 by Swen Jacobs.


DANCING, watching Hi-5, exploring and swimming are some of three-year-old Beni Impiccini's favourite activities.
Just like any kid his age, really. And while Beni's disability does make him different, his family says the peppy youngster is just perfect.
Just two hours after Beni was born, his parents Ross and Julianne Impiccini were told their son had Down syndrome.
"I was offered the pre-natal testing but I said no. I suppose it's a very personal decision. The way I see it, these children are people, too," Mrs Impiccini said.
Beni's three brothers, Marcus, 18, Luca, 9 and Giorgio, 7 are all devoted to their youngest brother.
"They are very affectionate; they do look out for him," Mrs Impiccini said.
Luca has a straightforward take on the situation.
"People with extra chromosomes are just like normal people," he said.
Mrs Impiccini said while the family teaches Beni skills every day, he also teaches them things too.
"It's not all doom and gloom; they have really bright personalities," she said.
While the family was initially overwhelmed by the challenges that go with Down syndrome, Mrs Impiccini said they were coping much better now.
Many Gladstone services have supported Beni's physical, intellectual and social development.
More support will come in 2018, when the Federal Government officially launches the National Disability Insurance Scheme in Queensland.
IN BENI'S short life, he has met many helpful people who have and will continue to assist him and his family.
While the Federal Government's NDIS aims to set a certain path for Queenslanders with disabilities, Beni's family is confident he's got the support he'll need.
Queensland will not receive the NDIS until 2018.
But Mrs Impiccini is comfortable with the services Gladstone offers.
She said NDIS was built on the idea that every person with a disability should have an individual program.
"We already have that happening in Gladstone. It's good to know the reality that we really don't have to wait till 2018," she said.
Beni has benefited from a personal case officer to assist in setting development goals. From therapists and support workers to paediatrician and Skype chats to Brisbane specialists, the family has welcomed assistance in Beni's development.


As the market leader in fastening technology Bossard maintained a global network of more than 1,800 employees in 50 countries from its headquarters in Zug, Switzerland. The company focused on the supply of fasteners, a process that included sales, technical and engineering support and inventory management. Its business model also spanned three strategic areas: product solutions, application engineering and logistics.
Bossard enjoyed a very strong value proposition if its account managers could only access engineers, quality managers, heads of operations, research and development (R&D) departments and business owners who understood the total cost of ownership (TCO) concept. If it had to submit a quote in response to an RFP (request for proposal) and bid for a given list of parts, the customer's procurement department might simply compare prices, and Bossard typically was not the cheapest provider. Competitors also had copied Bossard's logistic system and claimed that they could offer similar solutions for lower prices. Anecdotal evidence suggested that most competitors' solutions were less reliable and accurate than SmartBins and that their data integration workflows did not work as well.
In a manufacturing world where global competition, commoditization and strategic procurement puts suppliers under constant margin pressure, how was it possible that a Swiss-based fastening supplier could grow profitably with an EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) margin of 12.3%, significantly above industry benchmarks?
How to build a competitive advantage in a tough B2B market through differentiation.
How to craft different value propositions to different clients.
How to design a strategy that addresses the main obstacle in the market, i.e. commoditization.
How to create new "to-to-market" strategies to avoid a price war by not focusing on requests-for-proposals (RFP) and competitive submissions.


Jason Lewis thinks we could have done that whole Civil War thing a different way.
Being our semi-regular weekly survey of what's goin' down in the several states where, as we know, the real work of governmentin' gets done, and where two men die 'neath the Mississippi moon and somebody better investigate soon.
We start this week in Connecticut, where Governor Dannel Malloy, who became something of a favorite around the shebeen for the towering humanity he showed after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, has got himself all tangled up in what appears to be some serious shenanigans involving the proposed merger of Cigna and Anthem, two healthcare behemoths.
David Sirota, who should be hired by someone immediately, has been dogging this story for a while. Read all the clips, and then read this editorial in the The Hartford Courant, which tees Malloy up pretty solidly.
The last administration to go after the funding of the State Elections Enforcement Commission, the Office of State Ethics and the Freedom of Information Commission with such vigor was Gov. John G. Rowland's, while he was under investigation. So the legislature passed the law to insulate the agencies that keep government honest from gubernatorial cuts. The law says the governor "shall not reduce [their] allotment requisitions or allotments in force."
The Malloy administration is withholding $183,000 from those agencies as part of the $69 million that the legislature asked it to cut from the state budget. No one in state government is immune from sacrifice, given the state's dire financial straits. But the watchdogs have given a lot already, and they're at the point now of becoming crippled. The Connecticut Mirror said that the State Elections Enforcement Commission "would be left with just $6,000 for the rest of the year for expenses other than personnel." The budget and staff for the Office of State Ethics have been cut by nearly half since 2007…The withholding comes as the Office of State Ethics is about to weigh in on whether the governor's insurance commissioner should recuse herself on the Anthem-Cigna mega-merger and just a few months after the State Elections Enforcement Commission reached a record settlement with the Democratic Party over a complaint about fundraising on behalf of Gov. Malloy's re-election.
The newspaper is absolutely right. Leaving aside the monopolistic implications of the merger monster for a moment, the idea that the Malloy administration would cut funding for ethics agencies at the same time the administration is all enmeshed in controversy over who should recuse themselves from what is spectacularly wrong-headed politics and godawful public policy. And the merger itself is a monstrosity.
We move along now to Wisconsin where, last week, the people fighting that state's voter-suppression regime won a big victory in federal court. However, ni shagu nazad, baby. That victory has proven very short-lived, as Ian Millhiser reports in ThinkProgress.
Wednesday's order in Frank v. Walker is the Wisconsin voter ID law's second trip before a conservative panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Although a federal trial court struck the law down prior to the 2014 election, a panel of three Republican judges reinstated the law just hours after hearing oral arguments. After some additional proceedings in the Seventh Circuit, the case returned to the trial court. Last month, Judge Lynn Adelman handed down another decision that significantly weakened the law's ability to disenfranchise voters. Under Adelman's decision, voters who lack ID may fill out an affidavit at the polls and then exercise their right to the franchise. Wednesday's order stays this decision by Judge Adelman. In an unsigned order, a Seventh Circuit panel similar to the one that originally reinstated the law criticized Adelman for failing to "identify" the specific voters who will be unable to obtain "a qualifying photo ID with reasonable effort" and tailor his remedy so that it only benefits those voters.
Lemieux is right, though. If this decision sets up an en banc hearing in which Richard Posner gets another chance to make up for his mistake in Crawford, and another crack at beating the Wisconsin law to death, this may turn out all right after all.
Skipping across the St. Croix River, we discover that some nice folks in Minnesota have nominated themselves quite a character for Congress in that state's Second District. It is always a very bad sign when you see a major-party candidate described as a "former talk-show host" because you just know that the person is the Comstock Lode of oppo research. And, boy howdy, ooh yah, Jason Lewis is a deep rich vein of pure conservative ka-ray-zee. The folks at Mother Jones have staked the first claim.
Lewis' past comments have been a gold mine for critics. In his 2011 book, Power Divided Is Power Checked: The Argument for States' Rights, he questioned the wisdom of the Civil War, arguing that it had been fought over states rights, not slavery, and changed the nation's constitutional framework for the worse. In his book, he proposed a constitutional amendment that would help restore what he believed had been lost, by allowing any state to peaceably leave the Union. And in a 2011 interview, Lewis declined to say whether the Civil War should have been fought, suggesting, as he had in the book, that there were better alternatives to ending slavery that President Abraham Lincoln could have considered.
Here, with an opposing view, is the late Colonel William Colvill, formerly of Red Wing.
There is even more to Lewis than his Calhounite view of constitutional theory. Oh, yes, there is plenty more.
Many of the old episodes have been taken down from his website (Ed. Note: I'll bet they are), but in a segment after the 2012 election that was unearthed by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Lewis went off on "ignorant" voters who he believed had sold their votes for free birth control. "You've got a vast majority of young single women who couldn't explain to you what GDP means," he said on his radio show in 2012. "You know what they care about? They care about abortion. They care about abortion and gay marriage. They care about The View. They are non-thinking." He added, "I never thought in my lifetime where you'd have so many single, or I should say, yeah, single women who would vote on the issue of somebody else buying their diaphragm. This is a country in crisis. Those women are ignorant in, I mean, the most generic way. I don't mean that to be a pejorative. They are simply ignorant of the important issues in life. Somebody's got to educate them."
Luckily, though, Lewis has his own private country to which he can retreat after (please god) the voters of the Minnesota Second retire him from political life.
Two years ago, he launched a new online community called Galt.io, which describes itself as "a members-only network of makers inspired by 'Galt's Gulch' from Ayn Rand's classic novel 'Atlas Shrugged.'" Galt.io members earn "Galtcoins" for participating in the community and can "invest" them in different causes on the site, in order to promote various political agendas. According to the site, "Galt.io is part stock exchange, part social network and truly a society of people committed to changing the direction of our country."
"Galtcoins" sounds nothing at all like a scam.
Let us take a long, leisurely drift down America's primary waterways until we get to Tennessee, where the Tennessee Valley Authority has a really bad idea about what to do with coal ash pits. The Chattanooga Times-Leader coughs out the details.
After more than a year of study and hearings, TVA said the best, fastest and least-cost method of disposing and cleaning up its coal ash ponds is to dewater those facilities, close the ponds and put a cap on the wastes to prevent any leakage. "Based on our analyses and decades of available monitoring data, we believe that TVA's coal combustion residuals' management activities are not harming human health or the environment," John McCormick, TVA vice president of safety, river management and environment, said in a statement Friday. "We also found that digging up the coal ash and moving it someplace else has more potential environmental and safety impacts than closure-in-place and adds significantly more time and costs for our ratepayers."
In 2008, you may recall, a TVA-monitored coal-ash reservoir near Kingston, Tennessee, broke loose and sent a billion gallons of coal slurry down through a residential valley and into the Clinch and Emory Rivers. ("I woke up and looked out my window," a local resident once told me, "and I saw trees walking down my street.") Local environmentalists, it need not be said, are not satisfied with much of anything the TVA does regarding coal ash any more.
Environmental groups denounced TVA's decision Friday, warning that it keeps toxic materials stored at riverfront plants near drinking water supplies and is less comprehensive than ash cleanups being done by many other Southern utilities. "We are deeply disappointed in TVA's decision to take the cheap way out, instead of living up to its promise to protect our communities after the disastrous Kingston coal ash spill in 2008," said Scott Banbury, conservation program coordinator for the Sierra Club's Tennessee Chapter. "TVA should clean up—not just cover up—the toxic coal ash pits that have been polluting our groundwater and threatening our drinking supplies for decades. The only way to adequately protect our public health and environment is to move coal ash to dry lined storage away from waterways."
"One of the things that has intrigued the public about Donald Trump is that he speaks his mind and says what a lot of people think," Fallin said after speaking to the Republican Women's Club of Tulsa County. "It's important he continues speaking truth to power yet understand that as the nominee opponents will twist what he says," Fallin said.
Excellent timing, Your Worship. Somebody wants a Cabinet post.


text:
Le musée de l'Hospice Comtesse est un musée municipal d'ethnographie et de folklore situé rue de la Monnaie à Lille, dans la région Hauts-de-France. Il est logé dans un ancien hôpital lillois, l'Hospice Comtesse, fondé en 1237 par Jeanne de Constantinople, comtesse de Flandre. Les œuvres, qui évoquent l'histoire de Lille et les arts décoratifs lillois, sont présentées dans le bâtiment de la communauté des sœurs augustines qui a géré l'hospice pendant plus de 500 ans.

Histoire du musée
En 1942, Georges-Henri Rivière, conservateur du Musée national des arts et traditions populaires de Paris, cherche un bâtiment à Lille pour y installer un musée d'histoire et d'ethnographie répondant sur le plan régional au musée parisien. L'Hospice Comtesse, dont les bâtiments ont été classés Monuments Historiques le , est proposé. Les 9 et , une convention, passée avec la commission administrative du Centre Hospitalier Régional de Lille, met l'Hospice Comtesse à la disposition de la ville, avec un bail emphytéotique de 99 ans, pour y installer un musée de folklore. En , après plusieurs années de restauration, la ville prend possession des locaux et, en , une première présentation de meubles et d'objets d'art mis en dépôt par les Hospices de Lille complétée par une sélection d'œuvres des collections du Palais des beaux-arts de Lille est réalisée au rez-de-chaussée du bâtiment de la communauté. Le , le conseil municipal décide l'ouverture d'un musée sous la forme d'annexe du Palais des beaux-arts, sous la dénomination Musée de l'Hospice Comtesse.

Le , un poste de conservateur est créé pour mettre en œuvre un projet de musée d'ethnographie et de folklore, autour de l'histoire de la région du Nord-Pas-de-Calais. Le projet, placé sous l'autorité du directeur du Palais des beaux-arts de Lille, a évolué depuis, pour se centrer sur l'histoire de Lille et les arts décoratifs lillois.

En 1972, le musée reçoit près de  constituées de positifs, de négatifs, de daguerréotypes et du fonds Jean Pasquero, légué par son fils René, qui illustrent l'histoire de Lille et de la région Nord-Pas-de-Calais.

Au rez-de-chaussée, les meubles, les objets d'art, les tableaux, présentés dans la cuisine carrelée de faïence, le réfectoire, le parloir, les appartements de la prieure, la pharmacie et la lingerie, permettent de retrouver l'atmosphère des intérieurs flamands des  et  tels que les religieuses ont pu les connaître. A l'étage, dans l'ancien dortoir, une sélection d'œuvres, bois sculptés, peintures, céramiques, objets et documents, illustre l'histoire de la cité du  à la Révolution française. Cette seconde partie du musée est organisée en six sections :
 L'architecture lilloise et son décor sculpté. Les témoins de la ville ancienne (section I),
 Arnould de Vuez et la salle du Conclave. Les figures du pouvoir (section II),
 Poids et mesures. Le pouvoir administratif (section III),
 Corporations et confréries. Le dynamisme marchand (section IV),
 Les Watteau de Lille. Des grands événements aux réjouissances populaires (section V)
 La vie scientifique. Objets d'exploration : les nouveaux mondes (section VI).

Des expositions sont régulièrement organisées dans l'ancienne salle des malades.

Œuvres présentées

Peinture
 Fermière hollandaise de Pieter Aertsen, huile sur bois ()
 Fête traditionnelle à Anvers, huile sur toile (1697)
 Poissons d'Abraham van Beyeren, huile sur toile ()
 Joseph Hel dans son atelier d'Alphonse Jules Debaene, huile sur toile ()
 Le Printemps d'Abel Grimmer, huile sur bois ()
 Portrait de Paul François Joseph Crespin de Johan Ernst Heinsius (1740-1812), huile sur toile ()
 La Communion d'une sainte d'Erasme Quellin le Jeune, grisaille sur bois ()
 Le Goûter de famille de Gillis van Tilborch, huile sur toile ()
 Allégorie du Temps d'Otto van Veen, huile sur bois (1607)
 Baudoin IV de Hainaut et Marguerite d'Alsace d'Arnould de Vuez, huile sur toile ()
 Charles le Téméraire d'Arnould de Vuez, huile sur toile ()
 Marie de Bourgogne, femme de Maximilien d'Autriche d'Arnould de Vuez, huile sur toile ()
 Baudouin VI Le Paisible et Richilde de Hainaut, huile sur panneau de bois d'Arnould de Vuez, ()
 Portrait de Thomas-Joseph Gombert d'Arnould de Vuez, huile sur toile ()
 La Fête du Broquelet de François Watteau, huile sur toile (vers 1803)
 La Procession de Lille en 1789 de François Watteau, huile sur toile ()
 La  aérostatique de M. Blanchard de Louis-Joseph Watteau, huile sur toile ()
 Le Bombardement de Lille de Louis-Joseph Watteau, huile sur toile ()
 Le retour des Aéronautes Blanchard et Lépinard de Louis-Joseph Watteau, huile sur toile ()
 Portrait de Philippe le Bon, duc de Bourgogne de Rogier van der Weyden, huile sur bois ()
 Le Siège de Lille de John Wootton, huile sur toile (vers 1740)
 Famille De Noyelles, anonyme, huile sur bois ()
 Grand'Place, anonyme, huile sur bois ()
 Jean de le Cambe dit Gantois, anonyme, diptyque, huile sur bois ()
 Jeanne Maillotte repoussant les Hurlus, anonyme, huile sur bois ()
 Le Géographe, anonyme, huile sur toile ()
 Portrait de Charles-Frédéric Kuhlmann, anonyme, huile sur toile ()
 Portrait de Denis du Péage, anonyme, huile sur toile ()
 Portrait d'un garçonnet au cierge, anonyme, huile sur toile ()
 Portrait d'une fillette à l'éventail, anonyme, huile sur toile (vers 1650)
 Portrait d'une fillette de deux ans au pendentif, anonyme, huile sur toile ()
 Portrait d'une fillette de trois ans au panier, anonyme, huile sur toile ()
 Portrait d'une fillette de six ans au bouquet, anonyme, huile sur toile
 Sainte Anne et la Vierge, anonyme, bois peint ()
 Vue de Lille, anonyme, huile sur toile tendue sur du bois ()
 Vue du château de Courtrai au , anonyme, huile sur bois ()
 Vue d'une boutique de tissus, anonyme, huile sur toile ()

Tapisserie
 Les Marchands chassés du Temple de Guillaume Werniers d'après un carton de Wamps, tenture ()
 Le repas des bergers de Guillaume Werniers, tenture ()
 Baudouin de Flandres et sa famille de Guillaume Werniers d'après un carton d'Arnould de Vuez, tenture ()
 Jeanne de Flandre et ses époux de Guillaume Werniers d'après un carton d'Arnould de Vuez, tenture ()

Expositions temporaires
 D'après les Maîtres: Léonard de Vinci, Raphaël, Watteau, Goya, Courbet..., du  au

Fréquentation
Le musée a reçu  visiteurs en 2016.

Notes et références

Voir aussi

Bibliographie
 Aude Cordonnier, Musée de l'Hospice Comtesse : miroir de Lille et des Pays-Bas (13ème-), Editions Castermans, Tournai, 1994, 176 p.

Lien externe

 Musée de l'Hospice Comtesse, sur le site de la ville.
 Musée de l'Hospice Comtesse, sur le site du Palais des beaux-arts de Lille.
 Musée de l'Hospice Comtesse, sur le site de l'association des conservateurs des musées du Nord Pas-de-Calais.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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This document lists particular runs of the DC3a Alert Production pipelines that marked worthy of wider review.
"Please provide at least one Image for me to analyze"
"unable to insert element into full FIFO"
"Deadline for visit XXXXXX expired"
"Src list should contain at least 20 objects"
in stage 7 (preprocess): "new object from DIASource 1494332968468498 ra,dec=(214.235, 52.7706) x,y=(9, 4577) not in any chunk overlapping FOV with center (214.867, 52.6781), radius=0.75: new object would go to chunk 9830769; distance to FOV center is 0.393728 deg"
rlp1188-perf.txt (10.4 KB) - added by RayPlante 10 years ago.
rlp1229-perf.txt (9.9 KB) - added by RayPlante 10 years ago.
rlp1231-perf.txt (9.8 KB) - added by RayPlante 10 years ago.
rlp1232-perf.txt (9.8 KB) - added by RayPlante 10 years ago.
rlp1247-perf.txt (12.2 KB) - added by RayPlante 10 years ago.


text:
Q: Writing to text file in swift 3 I am trying to write data that is inputted by a user via UITextField to a text file. I am successfully able to do this by the code I have written below. However, when I tried to save more data it will replace the existing data in the textfile with the new data that is being saved. for example, if I save the string 'hello world' and then save another string saying 'bye'. I will only see the string 'bye' in the textfile. Is there a way I can modify my code so I can see 'hello world' on one line of the textile and 'bye' on another.
@IBAction func btnclicked(_ sender: Any) {
   self.savedata(value: answer.text!)
}

func savedata (value: String){
   let fileName = "Test"
   let DocumentDirURL = try! FileManager.default.url(for: .documentDirectory, in: .userDomainMask, appropriateFor: nil, create: true)

   let fileURL = DocumentDirURL.appendingPathComponent(fileName).appendingPathExtension("txt")
   print("FilePath: \(fileURL.path)")

   let writeString = NSString(string: answer.text!)
   do {
      // Write to the file
      try writeString.write(to: fileURL, atomically: true, encoding: String.Encoding.utf8.rawValue)
   } catch let error as NSError {
         print("Failed writing to URL: \(fileURL), Error: " + error.localizedDescription)
   }
}

A: Here is an example using FIleHandler, adapted to Swift 3, from here (of course you should add all the error handling code that's missing in my example) :
let dir = FileManager.default.urls(for: FileManager.SearchPathDirectory.cachesDirectory, in: FileManager.SearchPathDomainMask.userDomainMask).first!
let fileurl =  dir.appendingPathComponent("log.txt")

let string = "\(NSDate())\n"
let data = string.data(using: .utf8, allowLossyConversion: false)!

if FileManager.default.fileExists(atPath: fileurl.path) {
    if let fileHandle = try? FileHandle(forUpdating: fileurl) {
        fileHandle.seekToEndOfFile()
        fileHandle.write(data)
        fileHandle.closeFile()
    }
} else {
    try! data.write(to: fileurl, options: Data.WritingOptions.atomic)
}

A:  do {
       let fileHandle = try FileHandle(forWritingTo:pathWithFileName)
        fileHandle.seekToEndOfFile()
        let oldData = try String(contentsOf: pathWithFileName,encoding: .utf8).data(using: .utf8)!
         var data = periodValue.data(using: .utf8)!
         fileHandle.write(data)
         fileHandle.closeFile()
         } catch {
            print("Error writing to file \(error)")
         }

A: Here is a Swift 4 version as an extension to String.
extension String {

func writeToFile(fileName: String) {
    guard let dir = FileManager.default.urls(for: .cachesDirectory, in: .userDomainMask).first else {
        return
    }

    let fileUrl = dir.appendingPathComponent(fileName)
    guard let data = self.data(using: .utf8) else {
        return
    }

    guard FileManager.default.fileExists(atPath: fileUrl.path) else {
        try? data.write(to: fileUrl, options: .atomic)
        return
    }

    if let fileHandle = try? FileHandle(forUpdating: fileUrl) {
        fileHandle.seekToEndOfFile()
        fileHandle.write(data)
        fileHandle.closeFile()
    }
}

}


text:
The Nexus 5X might be the smaller, pure Android phone we've been waiting for
Two years is a long time to wait
By Dieter Bohn@backlon Sep 29, 2015, 1:44pm EDT
Share All sharing options for: The Nexus 5X might be the smaller, pure Android phone we've been waiting for
There's probably no other Android phone in recent memory that elicits as much affection as 2013's Nexus 5. The wide phone found a place in many people's hearts thanks to a rock-bottom price paired with good performance and a plastic design that grew on you. Of course, the fact that it ran an unadulterated version of Android that was true to Google's own vision for the OS didn't hurt.
Read next: The Google Nexus 5X review.
Now, after a year where the only Nexus option was the Shamu-sized Nexus 6, Google has gone back to LG to make another bargain Nexus, the 5X. Thanks to the leaks, we already knew most of the key details about the specs of the device: a 5.2-inch display with 1080p resolution, a reasonably fast Snapdragon 808 processor, USB Type-C, a 13-megapixel camera, and finally that fingerprint reader on the back.
But specs are specs and actually using the device is something else entirely. Now that I've had a few minutes with the device, I can tell you that I like the little guy despite the fact that the curvy plastic build doesn't exactly make it feel like a top-tier device.
The best praise I can give to the 5X is that it feels like the original Nexus 5, only with softer lines. The blue color is probably my favorite. I was concerned going in that the camera bump on the back would be super annoying, but it's actually relatively subtle and not too large.
I didn't get a chance to test the fingerprint sensor nor ask a Google representative why they felt it was necessary to call it "Nexus Imprint." But swiping around Android 6.0 on the device felt, well, fast. That's to be expected: it's clean Android on a device that hasn't been loaded up with too much cruft yet. But I'm hopeful it'll stay that way.
I'm also hopeful for the camera. It had better pull through in real world, non-demo-room use. I caught a lot of flak for saying the original Nexus 5's camera wasn't up to snuff two years ago. But I was right: Google needs to prove it can ship a Nexus phone with a great camera. This year, it has to prove it twice. Google didn't shy away from comparing the Nexus camera (mostly the 6P, but still) to the iPhone. And after taking just a couple of shots in the demo room, I found it to be fast, at least, even if I didn't have time to really test it out.
The Nexus 5X also feel super light — much lighter than I expected despite having a decently-sized 2400mAh battery inside it. It's a little tall where the original Nexus 5 was a little wide. It's actually a little taller than I'd like. The screen is ...a screen. It looks good, it's 5.2-inches with 1080p resolution, but the whole package doesn't have the "how the heck did they make a big screen fit in this phone" effect that you get with the Nexus 6P.
If you're trying to decide between the 5X and the 6P, here's what I'll say. Can you afford the 6P? Then get that one. It's way better, as you'd expect by the price difference.
I expect that the 5X will be great for a lot of people, and in this $400-ish price range I suspect it'll be among the best available — if not the very best. But that's a weird price category these days: not as cheap as the Moto G, not able to quite compete head-to-head with the flagships.
See all of the Google news right here!
Verge Video: Google's Nexus event in 7 minutes
Google Nexus event: live updates and news from the Nexus 5X and 6P announcement
The nine most important things from Google's Nexus event
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