Tulips are colourful flowers that are a beautiful part of spring. The lovely crocus flowers have already appeared and gone where I live, but the tulips are a worthy successor. They belong to the lily family and the genus Tulipa. I don't have tulips in my garden, but I see and admire the flowers in landscaped areas near my home.
I took the photos of the flowers below (except for the ones in the tulip field) during a walk in downtown Vancouver. The area has many flower containers and beds that have attractive displays. Though most people are familiar with cultivated tulips, the plants still exist in the wild in parts of Asia and Europe. They are believed to have originated in Central Asia.
Several stories describing the origin of the name "tulip" exist. Most say that the name is derived from the Turkish word for turban. The link between turbans and tulips may have developed because the shape of the turban was thought to resemble the shape of a tulip or because of the once-common habit of wearing tulips on the turban.
Tulips are perennial and herbaceous plants. It may seem that they die before winter arrives, but their bulbs survive underground and produce new shoots in the spring. Some of the many varieties that exist may not do well in their second year, however. In these cases, people prefer to grow the plants as annuals.
Though tulips are commonly said to have six petals, technically these are tepals, not petals. Most flowers have a ring of coloured petals and a ring of green sepals underneath. In some flowers the petals and sepals look the same and are the same colour. In this case they are referred to as tepals.
Tulip flowers have some beautiful colours and patterns. As the Missouri Botanical Garden says, though, the one colour that's missing is "true blue". Some major colours are shown in the last photo below, but yellow and purple flowers are missing. In addition, different shades of the colours, variegated flowers, and ones with white areas on the tepals exist. The edges of the tepals may be smooth or ruffled.
The leaves are wrapped around the base of the flower stem. They are long and narrow and have a pointed tip. They are sometimes strap shaped. The leaves generally have a dull green or a blue-green colour.
The plants grow best in full sunlight and well-drained soil. They bloom in April and May. The bulbs should be planted in the fall at a depth of three times the length of the bulb and two to five inches apart. Gardening sites say that they do well in USDA hardiness zones 3 to 8. They certainly grow well here in southwestern British Columbia.
Pink and white tulips, white hyacinths, white daffodils, and dusky red hellebores make a lovely flower arrangement.
Tulip bulbs are poisonous and should be kept out of the reach of children and pets. Eating the bulbs can cause gastrointestinal problems such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and increased salivation. Some people have also experienced weakness and heart palpitations.
People apparently recover a few days after exposure to the toxins, but the condition is not one to take lightly. Some people may be more sensitive to the effects of the bulbs than others and some bulbs may contain more of the harmful chemicals than other ones. The bulbs are sometimes mistaken for onions due to their layered appearance when they are cut open.
During the second world war, people in the Netherlands were starving and dying. Tulip bulbs and sugar beets were almost the only thing to eat. The bulbs were peeled, their centre was removed, and they were boiled. People alive today survived the experience, although they report that the bulbs caused indigestion if too many were eaten.
The story is interesting, and of course it's good that the bulbs helped people to survive, but it doesn't mean that we should feel free to experiment with eating tulip bulbs today. The local varieties that we have access to may be very different from the ones available in the Netherlands in the 1940s and may contain more dangerous toxins or a higher concentration of the chemicals. As the National Capital Poison Center says, "Tulips should not be considered food".
The 6-tuliposide A breaks down into tulipan A, which is also irritating to the skin. This compound helps to protect the plant from a fungal attack. Wearing gloves when handling the plants can offer protection from the dermatitis.
The Netherlands has a strong association with tulips. The country has an ideal climate and soil for tulip cultivation and grows a huge number of the plants. Scenes of masses of colourful flower growing together in fields are impressive. In 2017, the country produced over two billion tulips.
People travel to the country in the spring to see and photograph the tulip fields. Cycling is said to be an ideal way to explore the countryside in the area. Buses travel to the fields, too. The flowers are so important in the local culture (and with travellers) that a tulip museum is located in Amsterdam.
The terms "the Netherlands" and "Holland" are often used interchangeably. Officially, the word "Holland" refers to only two provinces in the country.
In the seventeenth century, an interesting event linked to tulips occurred in the Netherlands. The event is referred to as "tulip mania". Bulbs of unusual and desirable tulips became very valuable and were traded for huge sums of money. The demand for certain bulbs exceeded the supply and speculation was common. Eventually the bubble burst and the price of the bulbs fell dramatically. Sadly, many people were financially ruined by the crash.
The sight of new flowers in bloom is a lovely part of Spring. I intend to take more photographs of tulips as the season progresses. I enjoy finding and photographing different varieties as well as looking at familiar ones. I'd love to visit the Netherlands to look at the tulip fields, but that's unlikely to happen. Fortunately, there's a wide selection of tulips to observe in my part of the world.


Police officers are expected to take care of society; however, a recent study has shown that they may not be as physically and mentally prepared for their jobs as we'd like.
Posted in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the study found that, in the U.S. and Canada, 40 percent of the surveyed police officers reported having symptoms of common sleep disorders, most notably sleep apnea and insomnia. According to the survey, out of all the sleep disorder diagnoses, the most common was sleep apnea, which affected a third of cops, followed by moderate or severe insomnia and shift work disorder.
disorder, each was found to be at a higher risk of having anxiety, depression, fatigue, burn-out and a lack of energy and concentration. At the same time, these men and women were also more likely to commit administrative errors and safety violations. Even worse, these officers were also more likely to fall asleep behind the wheel.
Obviously, the diagnosis of a sleep disorder in a police officer or some other type of law enforcement position is highly dangerous and threatening for not only the officer but society. When policemen and policewomen are tirelessly completing their jobs with a lack of focus and energy, mistakes are bound to happen; and these mistakes could be fatal.
That said, diagnosis and treatment are crucial for – not only police officers – but anyone. Sleep apnea can lead to all sorts of health problems, and all sufferers require and deserve an effective sleep apnea treatment. Contact Dr. Berry online or call (303) 691-0267 today to learn more about sleep apnea, as well as the treatments that are offered.


text:
namespace GafferImage
{

enum TypeId
{
	ImagePlugTypeId = 110750,
	ImageNodeTypeId = 110751,
	ImageReaderTypeId = 110752,
	ImagePrimitiveNodeTypeId = 110753, // Obsolete - available for reuse
	DisplayTypeId = 110754,
	GafferDisplayDriverTypeId = 110755,
	ImageProcessorTypeId = 110756,
	ChannelDataProcessorTypeId = 110757,
	ColorSpaceTypeId = 110758,
	ObjectToImageTypeId = 110759, // Obsolete - available for reuse
	FormatDataTypeId = 110760,
	AtomicFormatPlugTypeId = 110761,
	MergeTypeId = 110762,
	GradeTypeId = 110763,
	ShuffleTypeId = 110764,
	ConstantTypeId = 110765,
	ShuffleChannelPlugTypeId = 110766,
	ChannelMaskPlugTypeId = 110767,
	WarpTypeId = 110768,
	VectorWarpTypeId = 110769,
	ImageWriterTypeId = 110770,
	ImageTransformTypeId = 110771,
	CatalogueTypeId = 110772,
	CatalogueImageTypeId = 110773,
	CheckerboardTypeId = 110774,
	FlatImageSourceTypeId = 110775,
	BSplineFilterTypeId = 110776, // Obsolete - available for reuse
	HermiteFilterTypeId = 110777, // Obsolete - available for reuse
	CubicFilterTypeId = 110778, // Obsolete - available for reuse
	MitchellFilterTypeId = 110779, // Obsolete - available for reuse
	CatmullRomFilterTypeId = 110780, // Obsolete - available for reuse
	SincFilterTypeId = 110781, // Obsolete - available for reuse
	LanczosFilterTypeId = 110782, // Obsolete - available for reuse
	ImageStatsTypeId = 110783,
	ImageTransformImplementationTypeId = 110784, // Obsolete - available for reuse
	DeleteChannelsTypeId = 110785,
	ColorProcessorTypeId = 110786,
	ClampTypeId = 110787,
	UnpremultiplyTypeId = 110788,
	ImageContextProcessorTypeId = 110789,
	ImageTimeWarpTypeId = 110790,
	ImageContextVariablesTypeId = 110791,
	ImageSwitchTypeId = 110792, // Obsolete - available for reuse
	ImageSamplerTypeId = 110793,
	MetadataProcessorTypeId = 110794,
	ImageMetadataTypeId = 110795,
	DeleteImageMetadataTypeId = 110796,
	CopyImageMetadataTypeId = 110797,
	ImageLoopTypeId = 110798, // Obsolete - available for reuse
	PremultiplyTypeId = 110799,
	CropTypeId = 110800,
	ResampleTypeId = 110801,
	ResizeTypeId = 110802,
	OpenColorIOTransformTypeId = 110803,
	LUTTypeId = 110804,
	CDLTypeId = 110805,
	DisplayTransformTypeId = 110806,
	FormatPlugTypeId = 110807,
	OffsetTypeId = 110808,
	ImagePrimitiveProcessorTypeId = 110809, // Obsolete - available for reuse
	BlurTypeId = 110810,
	ShapeTypeId = 110811,
	TextTypeId = 110812,
	OpenImageIOReaderTypeId = 110813,
	MirrorTypeId = 110814,
	CopyChannelsTypeId = 110815,
	MedianTypeId = 110816,
	MixTypeId = 110817,
	CollectImagesTypeId = 110818,
	DeleteImageContextVariablesTypeId = 110819,
	RankFilterTypeId = 110820,
	ErodeTypeId = 110821,
	DilateTypeId = 110822,
	RampTypeId = 110823,
	RectangleTypeId = 110824,
	FlatToDeepTypeId = 110825,
	DeepMergeTypeId = 110826,
	DeepStateTypeId = 110827,
	EmptyTypeId = 110828,
	FlatImageProcessorTypeId = 110829,
	DeepSampleCountsTypeId = 110830,
	DeepSamplerTypeId = 110831,
	DeepToFlatTypeId = 110832,
	DeepHoldoutTypeId = 110833,
	DeepRecolorTypeId = 110834,
	SaturationTypeId = 110835,

	LastTypeId = 110849
};

} // namespace GafferImage

#endif // GAFFERIMAGE_TYPEIDS_H

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
package cli

import (
	"github.com/opentable/sous/graph"
	"github.com/opentable/sous/util/cmdr"
)

// SousConfig is the sous config command.
type SousConfig struct {
	User   graph.LocalUser
	Config graph.LocalSousConfig
}

func init() { TopLevelCommands["config"] = &SousConfig{} }

const sousConfigHelp = `
view and edit sous configuration

usage: sous config [<key> [value]]

Invoking sous config with no arguments lists all configuration key/value pairs.
If you pass just a single argument (a key) sous config will output just the
value of that key. You can set a key by providing both a key and a value.
`

// Help returns help for 'sous config'.
func (sc *SousConfig) Help() string { return sousConfigHelp }

// Execute displays or sets config properties.
func (sc *SousConfig) Execute(args []string) cmdr.Result {
	switch len(args) {
	default:
		return UsageErrorf("expected 0-2 arguments, received %d", len(args))
	case 0:
		return Successf(sc.Config.String())
	case 1:
		name := args[0]
		v, err := sc.Config.GetValue(name)
		if err != nil {
			return UsageErrorf("%s", err)
		}
		return Successf(v)
	case 2:
		name, value := args[0], args[1]
		if err := sc.Config.SetValue(sc.User.ConfigFile(), name, value); err != nil {
			return EnsureErrorResult(err)
		}
		return Successf("set %s to %q", name, value)
	}
}


text:
Платформа 1473 км — железнодорожная платформа в Крыму, на западной окраине села Чистенькое, расположенная между станциями Чистенькая и платформой 1479 км в Симферопольском районе Крыма. Остановочный пункт электричек Севастопольского направления.

История
Впервые в исторических документах железнодорожный объект (на месте современной платформы) встречается в Списке населённых пунктов Крымской АССР по Всесоюзной переписи 17 декабря 1926 года, согласно которому на разъезде Булганак (или 707 км), Базарчикского сельсовета Симферопольского района, числилось 2 двора, все некрестьянские, население составляло 4 человека, все русские. Значится разъезд Булганак и на последней довоенной карте — двухкилометровке РККА 1942 года. Видимо, разъезд был разрушен во время войны, поскольку никаких упоминаний в послевоенной истории пока не обнаружено. Возобновлён, как пассажирская железнодорожная платформа, в конце XX века.

Примечания

Остановочные пункты Крыма

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Metroid: Zero Mission is rated 4.5 out of 5 by 17.
Metroid: Zero Mission tells the story of Samus Aran's very first mission on planet Zebes as she explores a labyrinth of tunnels, caverns and caves crawling with fierce enemies bent on her destruction. Her mission? To exterminate all Metroid organisms on Planet Zebes, and defeat the mechanical life-form Mother Brain. To accomplish this task, Samus must power-up her suit with a wide variety of hi-tech upgrades and advanced weaponry.


text:
Oklee é uma cidade localizada no estado americano de Minnesota, no Condado de Red Lake.

Demografia
Segundo o censo americano de 2000, a sua população era de 396 habitantes.
Em 2006, foi estimada uma população de 368, um decréscimo de 28 (-7.1%).

Geografia
De acordo com o United States Census Bureau tem uma área de
1,7 km², dos quais 1,7 km² cobertos por terra e 0,0 km² cobertos por água. Oklee localiza-se a aproximadamente 351 m acima do nível do mar.

Localidades na vizinhança
O diagrama seguinte representa as localidades num raio de 24 km ao redor de Oklee.

Ligações externas

Cidades do Minnesota


When you pick up the microphone to make your wedding toast, you will have butterflies in your stomach. But there's no reason to get all worked up. Whether you're an experienced public speaker or someone who's never even made a toast at a dinner party, a wedding speech is one of the easiest audiences you'll ever have.
These people just ate and drank well. They are generally in a good mood. At this moment, they are inclined to like what they hear. Relax and enjoy the experience.
Afterwards, everyone will say you did a great job. Even if you sucked.
Let's be honest: the only tension that a wedding speech can offer is the possibility that the speaker will say something embarrassing. If you start with "it's wonderful to be here," throw in a few mildly amusing anecdotes and manage to keep your two minutes family-friendly, you will win simply by not being horrendous.
Nobody is expecting you to re-invent the wheel. They just want to get to the champagne and cake. Your words are the equivalent of a TV commercial before their favorite show comes back on. The bar is low. And it's an open bar. Which leads to our next point.
According to most wedding planners, you should provide 4 drinks per guest. But given that some guests will be children, or adults who stick to sparkling water, the reality is more like two thirds of your audience will have had 7 drinks. They are probably happy to sit there and feel the room spin while you charmingly hold forth about how Dan never used to shave until he met Amy. (Don't mention that he also didn't shower either.) Chances are everyone will be dozing, grinning, laughing and weeping, regardless of what you say.
Often, when you sit down to write a speech, you'll struggle to come up with a fresh idea. It's a struggle because there are no fresh ideas left. But that has pretty much always been true. You think Shakespeare came up with any new stories? No, he just told the old ones better.
Anyway, you don't want new ideas for a wedding speech. You want to to reassert the old ones: the bride and groom were meant for each other; this wedding marks the beginning of new, exciting adventure; everyone loves the couple and wishes them a long, happy life together. The only thing you have to do is tell those old ideas in a way that is charming, that seems heartfelt, and that doesn't insult anyone at the wedding.
You want to do a good job, but unless you do something titanically boneheaded, unless you perform a wedding speech fail for the ages, no one will remember it after a month or two. Even the people most concerned with how the wedding goes–the bride and the groom and their parents–have about 100 things that are higher up on their list of worries.
Let's put this in perspective: at some point the Earth will experience another impact event comparable to that which caused the Cretaceous extinction 65 million years ago.
Or maybe a gamma-ray burst will strip away the ozone layer, causing the oceans to dry up, leaving only deserts of burning soil.
Whether we're consumed by the cold jaws of a black hole or by the fiery embrace of our exploding sun, the echoes of your wedding toast will drift silent and alone in the cold depths of space. We will all soon be dead and will remain dead for a very long time. L'Chaim!
When it come to public speaking challenges, wedding speeches are generally low on the pain scale. Everyone is there to have a good time, and they will forgive pretty much everything except the most spectacular screwups. So relax, have fun, and write something from the heart.
Your wedding speech has to be funny, but it shouldn't be a standup routine. Here's how to strike the right balance between humorous and heartfelt.


The WHO on Thursday said the Philippines is requesting "international help to fight a deadly outbreak of an infectious disease following two devastating tropical storms," Agence France-Presse reports. Parts of Manila, which are still flooded almost four weeks after Tropical Storm Ketsana hit, are experiencing an outbreak of the bacterial infection, leptospirosis (10/22).
The infection, which is "spread by water contaminated with the urine of rats, dogs and other animals," has added to "the problems faced by the Philippines after back-to-back storms since late last month killed more than 900 people and devastated northern regions," according to the Associated Press/GMANews.TV (10/22). So far, 1,963 cases of leptospirosis have been reported and 148 people have died, said Francisco Duque, the Philippines health secretary, Sky News reports (10/22).
"A three-member team was flying into Manila 'in the next day or so' after the government sought help from the 140-nation Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network to fight the outbreak, Adam Craig, an official of the WHO Western Pacific regional office in Manila," said, AFP reports (10/22).
To prevent the infection from further spreading, government health workers have given antibiotics to 1.3 million people, the AP/GMANews.TV writes. Leptospirosis is spread "through exposed cuts and bruises. The disease can cause high fever, headache, sore muscles and vomiting. In extreme cases, it can lead to kidney failure and internal bleeding that can cause death."
"Peter Cordingley, WHO spokesman for the Western Pacific region, said many communities remain flooded and the number of infections could continue to grow, though number of fresh cases reported in government hospitals has begun to drop as waters recede in some communities," the news service reports (10/22).
According to Sky News, "The country is now bracing itself for more bad weather as forecasters predict Typhoon Lupit is set to bring winds gusting at more than 120 miles. Soldiers and paramedics have been deployed with rescue boats, trucks and emergency supplies and over 100 government buildings are on standby as possible evacuation camps" (10/22).
ABS-CBN News examines the government's response to the outbreak. "Health authorities earlier advised the public not to wade in flood waters and to use protective clothing in order to prevent flood-borne diseases like leptospirosis, typhoid fever, cholera, and hepatitis" (10/22).
In related news, Reuters AlertNet examines relief efforts in response to natural disasters. "When a disaster strikes, international relief agencies receive the bulk of media attention and donor funding but experts say it is actually the people living in the damaged areas who save the most lives and help survivors long after foreign aid workers leave," according to the news service. The article includes interviews with people who provide aid during disasters. It also discusses findings from a Britain Overseas Development Institute report (Dmitracova, 10/23).


text:
Die Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, kurz MBTA, ist der Betreiber des öffentlichen Personennahverkehrs (ÖPNV) in Boston und Umgebung. Die MBTA betreibt in der Region Massachusetts Bay elf Eisenbahn-, drei U-Bahn-, vier Straßenbahn-, sechs Oberleitungsbus- und 150 Omnibus-Linien. Umgangssprachlich wird das Verkehrsunternehmen meist T genannt. Die MBTA ist zudem das größte Unternehmen im Bereich des ÖPNV in der gesamten Metropolregion Greater Boston.

Geschichte

Der Bostoner ÖPNV wurde bis zur Schaffung der Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) im Jahr 1947 von privaten Unternehmen organisiert, denen vom Bundesstaat häufig besondere Befugnisse einschließlich der Ermächtigung zu Enteignungen zur Schaffung begrenzter Monopole sowie zur Erlangung eines Wegerechts erteilt wurden. Die Entwicklung des Massentransports folgte dabei sowohl ökonomischen als auch auf die Bevölkerung bezogenen Kriterien und gestaltete dabei die Ausprägung dieser Kriterien zugleich mit.

Eisenbahn
Kurz nachdem die Dampflokomotive für den Massentransport von Gütern und Menschen praktisch nutzbar wurde, gründete sich im Jahr 1830 die private Bahngesellschaft Boston and Lowell Railroad. Sie verband insbesondere die Städte Boston und Lowell über eine der ältesten Eisenbahnstrecken in Nordamerika miteinander. Dieser Zeitpunkt markiert den Beginn der Entwicklung des US-amerikanischen Schienenpersonennahverkehrs, die in Massachusetts in der Etablierung des Commuter-Rail-Systems der MBTA und der Einrichtung der Linie Green Line D mündete.

Straßenbahn

Am 26. März 1856 nahm mit der Cambridge Railroad die erste Bostoner Straßenbahnlinie ihren Betrieb auf, und eine Vielzahl weiterer Gründungen folgte. Später gab es mehrere Phasen der Konsolidierung, und die zunächst als Pferdewagen konzipierten Fahrzeuge wurden durch elektrische Straßenbahnwagen ersetzt.

U-Bahnen und aufgeständerte Schienenwege

Die beständig zunehmende Verkehrsbelastung und die Vielzahl an Straßenbahnen im Stadtzentrum von Boston führte ab 1897 zum Bau von U-Bahnen und ab 1901 auch zur Errichtung von Hochbahnen. Der Bostoner Tremont Street Subway war der erste U-Bahn-Tunnel in den Vereinigten Staaten. Die neuen Bahnstrecken boten zum einen zusätzliche Transportkapazitäten und zum anderen waren die darauf verkehrenden Züge regelmäßig pünktlich, da sie kreuzungsfrei fahren konnten.

Die erste Hochbahn und die erste Rapid-Transit-Linie in Boston wurden zwar drei Jahre vor der New York City Subway errichtet, jedoch 34 Jahre nach den ersten Linien der London Underground. Im Laufe der Zeit wurde der erste U-Bahn-Tunnel verlängert und es entstanden neue Abzweigungen. Auch die Hochbahnen wurden beständig ausgebaut. Parallel dazu wurden häufig Straßenbahnlinien verkürzt oder eingestellt.

Busse

Im Jahr 1922 begann die Boston Elevated Railway damit, Straßenbahnlinien durch Busse zu ersetzen. Im Jahr 1930 fuhr zum letzten Mal ein Straßenbahnwagen der Middlesex and Boston Street Railway, und 1936 wurden erstmals Oberleitungsbusse eingesetzt.

Entwicklung der MTA zur MBTA
Die alten aufgeständerten Schienenwege waren mit der Zeit sehr unansehnlich geworden und erforderten aufgrund der verworrenen Bostoner Straßen an verschiedenen Stellen sehr scharfe Kurven, was das Ansehen der Hochbahnen insgesamt sinken ließ. 1938 musste die Atlantic Avenue Elevated aufgrund sinkender Passagierzahlen den Betrieb einstellen und wurde 1942 schließlich abgerissen. Mit der Zeit wurde der Passagiertransport über Schienenwege vor allem durch die aufkommende Verbreitung von Automobilen zunehmend unprofitabel, und so übernahmen lokale Behörden die noch bestehenden Strecken, um weiterem Verfall und Abriss vorzubeugen. Die MTA übernahm in diesem Zuge im Jahr 1947 alle U-Bahnen, Hochbahnen, Straßenbahnen und Buslinien der Boston Elevated Railway. In den 1950er Jahren baute die MTA die U-Bahn-Strecken weiter aus und ersetzte die letzten beiden über das Pleasant Street Portal in den Tremont Street Subway führenden Straßenbahnlinien in den Jahren 1953 und 1962 durch Busse.

Am 3. August 1964 wurde die MBTA als offizieller Rechtsnachfolger der MTA gegründet und war seitdem auch für ein größeres Gebiet zuständig – der ursprüngliche Zuständigkeitsbereich der MTA von 14 Städten und Gemeinden wurde in diesem Zuge auf 78 ausgedehnt. Die MBTA wurde teilweise auch deshalb gegründet, um bereits bestehende Strecken des Schienenpersonennahverkehrs zu subventionieren. Sie erwarb von 1973 bis 1976 in mehreren Schritten weitere Strecken und bewahrte sie vor der endgültigen Schließung. Bis 1999 wurde die Zuständigkeit der MBTA auf insgesamt 175 Städte und Gemeinden ausgeweitet.

Im Jahr 1965 wies die MBTA ihren vier Straßen- und U-Bahn-Linien Farben zu und fügte den Zweigen der Green Line von Nord nach Süd aufsteigende Buchstaben zu. Neben anderen Faktoren führte ein Mangel an Fahrzeugen dazu, dass bei der Green Line Einschnitte erforderlich wurden. Die Green Line A stellte ihren Betrieb 1969 ein und wurde durch die Buslinie 57 ersetzt, während das ehemalige Teilstück der Green Line E von der Station Heath Street bis zum Arborway seit dem Jahr 1985 durch einen Schienenersatzverkehr bedient wird.

Die MBTA kaufte darüber hinaus im Jahr 1968 Buslinien der Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway in den nördlichen und südlichen Vororten hinzu, von denen die meisten der Routen an den äußeren Rändern des Streckennetzes jedoch aufgrund geringer Passagierzahlen und hoher Betriebskosten kurz vor bzw. kurz nach der Übernahme eingestellt werden mussten.

In den 1970er Jahren erhielt die MBTA eine große Unterstützung durch das Programm Boston Transportation Planning Review, mit dem im gesamten Einzugsgebiet die Rolle des Massentransports im Vergleich zu den Highways neu bewertet wurde. Aufgrund der Ergebnisse des Programms wurden ein Moratorium zum Bau neuer Highway-Abschnitte auf der Massachusetts Route 128 eingesetzt und die Erweiterung mehrerer ÖPNV-Linien geplant. Zugleich wurde der Abriss der Hochbahnstrecken fortgesetzt, wobei die Schließung der Washington Street Elevated zugleich das Ende der ÖPNV-Anbindung zum Stadtteil Roxbury bedeutete. Von 1971 bis 1985 wurde die Red Line sowohl in nördlicher als auch in südlicher Richtung ausgebaut, was neben einer Ausdehnung des U-Bahn-Netzes auch die Errichtung von großen Parkhäusern an den größeren Haltestellen und Bahnhöfen zur Folge hatte. Somit wurde zugleich die prekäre Parkplatzsituation etwas entschärft.

Schmiergeldaffäre
Am 30. April 1981 fand der damalige Generaldirektor der MBTA James O'Leary auf seinem Schreibtisch einen Briefumschlag mit der Beschriftung . Da er nur einen kurzen Blick auf den Adressaten geworfen hatte, war er der Meinung, dort stehe  und öffnete den Umschlag, der jedoch eigentlich für den Staatssekretär für Verkehrswesen Barry Myles Locke gedacht war, der zugleich Vorsitzender der MBTA war. Im Inneren des Umschlags befanden sich vier weitere, immer kleiner werdende Umschläge. Der kleinste von ihnen enthielt zehn Einhundert-Dollar-Scheine und eine anonym verfasste Nachricht an Locke, die ihn anwies, bei der Bestimmung des Preises, den ein Anwohner aus Belmont für ein ehemaliges MBTA-Grundstück zahlen muss, einen geringeren Wert als üblich anzusetzen. Noch am selben Abend ging O'Leary zum Haus des Generalstaatsanwalts von Massachusetts Francis Bellotti und übergab ihm die Umschläge und das Geld.

Am darauf folgenden Tag wurde Locke mit sofortiger Wirkung unbezahlt von seinem Amt suspendiert, nachdem der damalige Gouverneur Edward J. King erfahren hatte, dass Bellotti Untersuchungen im Hinblick auf den Verdacht der Korruption im Zusammenhang mit Vermietungen in der Boston South Station sowie mit der Vertragsgestaltung für Werbeflächen auf Fahrzeugen der MBTA durchführte. Die Ermittlungen führten zur Anklage von insgesamt 17 Personen – unter ihnen Locke – und einem Unternehmen aufgrund ihrer Verwicklungen in die systematischen Schmiergeldzahlungen.

Am 2. Februar 1982 wurde Locke in fünf Fällen der Konspiration zur Durchführung von Bestechung und Diebstahl schuldig gesprochen. Damit war er seit der Einführung des Kabinettsystems im Jahr 1970 der erste und ist bis heute der einzige Staatssekretär in Massachusetts, der während seiner Amtszeit wegen einer Straftat verurteilt wurde. Der Richter Rudolph Pierce beschrieb Locke als jemanden mit einem  auf monetären Profit und verurteilte ihn zu 7 bis 10 Jahren Haft im Hochsicherheitsgefängnis Massachusetts Correctional Institution – Cedar Junction.

Entwicklung im 21. Jahrhundert

Im Jahr 2000 gab es in der Finanzierung der MBTA einen Wendepunkt. Bis zum 1. Juli 2000 wurden alle Verluste, die der MBTA nach Abzug aller Einnahmen entstanden, vollständig und automatisch durch den Staat Massachusetts ausgeglichen. Ab diesem Datum jedoch wurde der MBTA im Voraus ein gewisser Finanzrahmen zugestanden, der sich insbesondere an den erzielbaren Einnahmen in den bedienten Städten und Gemeinden orientierte. Hinzu kamen 20 % der vom Bundesstaat vereinnahmten Umsatzsteuer in Höhe von 5 %. Seitdem muss die MBTA mit diesem Budget haushalten.

Im Zuge des Big Dig wies der Staat Massachusetts die MBTA an, ihre Beförderungskapazitäten zu erhöhen, um die durch erhöhtes Straßenverkehrsaufkommen angestiegene Verschmutzung zu kompensieren. Die MBTA nutzte daraufhin die Bauarbeiten, um einen Teil der Green Line unterirdisch zu verlegen sowie die Stationen Haymarket und Boston North Station neu zu bauen. Allerdings musste sie dies aus den eigenen Mitteln finanzieren, da der Big Dig dafür keine Gelder vorsah, und geriet dadurch an die Grenze ihrer finanziellen Belastbarkeit. Seit 1988 ist die MBTA das am schnellsten wachsende Nahverkehrssystem, was auch zutraf, als die Metropolregion Greater Boston zu den am langsamsten wachsenden Metropolregionen der Vereinigten Staaten zählte, und geriet so an den Rand des Ruins. Als das Budget der MBTA im Jahr 2000 limitiert wurde, musste die Gesellschaft Schulden aufnehmen, um geplante Projekte sowie die obligatorischen Beteiligungen am Big Dig zu finanzieren. Dies führte dazu, dass die MBTA mit einem Betrag von geschätzten 9 Mrd. US-Dollar heute das ÖPNV-Unternehmen mit dem höchsten Schuldenstand in den USA ist.

Seit dem Ersatz der Causeway Street Elevated durch eine U-Bahn-Strecke im Jahr 2004 bilden einige Abschnitte der Red Line sowie ein kurzes Teilstück der Green Line die letzten noch existierenden Hochbahnstrecken in Boston.

Am 31. Oktober 2007 nahm die MBTA mit dem dritten Zweig der Old Colony Lines den Verkehr nach Scituate wieder auf.

Im Jahr 2008 gab der damalige Generaldirektor der MBTA Daniel Grabauskas bekannt, dass die bis dahin bereits seit Jahren übliche Praxis, in den Fahrplänen bereits veröffentlichte Fahrten ohne Information der Fahrgäste aus Kostengründen nicht durchzuführen, ab sofort beendet werde.

Unfälle
Am 28. Mai 2008 fuhr kurz nach 18 Uhr eine in westlicher Fahrtrichtung fahrende Straßenbahn der Green Line D zwischen den Stationen Waban und Woddland auf ein stehendes Fahrzeug auf. Mindestens sieben Personen wurden verletzt und der 24-jährige Fahrer getötet. Am 8. Mai 2009 stießen zwei Wagen der Green Line zwischen den Stationen Park Street und Government Center zusammen. Als Ursache stellte sich heraus, dass einer der beiden Fahrer zum Zeitpunkt des Unfalls eine SMS an seine Freundin in sein Mobiltelefon tippte. Als Konsequenz daraus wurde wenige Tage darauf die Benutzung von Mobiltelefonen während der Fahrt für die Fahrer von Bussen, Zügen und Straßenbahnwagen verboten.

Eingliederung in das MassDOT
Am 26. Juni 2009 unterzeichnete der damalige Gouverneur Deval Patrick ein Gesetz, das die MBTA gemeinsam mit anderen ÖPNV-Organisationen unter die Zuständigkeit des Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) stellte. Seitdem gehört die MBTA zur dortigen Abteilung Mass Transit (MassTrans). Das Gesetz führte die Unternehmensstruktur der MBTA fort, änderte jedoch die Führungsebene so, dass diese seitdem aus den fünf vom Gouverneur ernannten Mitgliedern des MassDOT-Vorstands besteht.

Erweiterungen
Der Bundesstaat Rhode Island finanziert seit 1988 die Nahverkehrsanbindung nach Providence. In den Jahren 2010 und 2012 wurden zusätzliche Finanzmittel bereitgestellt, um Ausbaustrecken nach T. F. Green Airport und Wickford Junction zu finanzieren. Seit 2002 finden Modernisierungs- und Verbesserungsarbeiten an der Bahnstrecke Boston–Fairmount statt, wobei die erste neue Station Talbot Ave im November 2012 eröffnet werden konnte.

Von der MBTA betriebene Verkehrsmittel

U-Bahn
Die U-Bahn in Boston ist die älteste in den USA. Sie wurde kurz vor derjenigen in Chicago am 1. September 1897 als Tremont Street Subway eröffnet. Der damalige Streckenabschnitt ist heute Teil der Straßenbahn Green Line. Die U-Bahn umfasst heute insgesamt drei Linien, die Red, Orange und Blue Line. Die drei Linien haben keine Gleisverbindung zueinander.

Red Line

Die Red Line verkehrt zwischen "Alewife" und "Ashmont" bzw. "Braintree" und besteht aus einer Stammstrecke mit zwei Ästen (Gesamtlänge 37,7 km). Die Äste sind 28,3 und 18,8 Kilometer lang und werden in 48 bzw. 37 Minuten durchfahren. Der erste Abschnitt dieser Linie wurde am 23. März 1912 zwischen "Harvard Square" und "Park Street" eröffnet. Bemerkenswert ist die Überführung des Charles River in der Mitte der gleichzeitig errichten "Longfellow Bridge". Bis 1918 erfolgte in mehreren Abschnitten eine Verlängerung bis "Andrew". Der weitere Ausbau wurde in den 1920er Jahren durchgeführt:
 am 5. November 1927 von "Andrew" nach "Fields Corner"
 am 1. November 1928 weiter nach "Ashmont", wo Anschluss an eine Schnellstraßenbahn nach Mattapan besteht (eröffnet am 26. August 1929).
Zwischen den 1960er und 1980er Jahren wurde diese Linie weiter ausgebaut. Im Süden wurde mit der Linie nach "Braintree" eine Zweigstrecke geschaffen:
 am 1. September 1970 Eröffnung der Strecke JFK/UMass – Quincy Center (3 Stationen)
 am 22. März 1980 Eröffnung der Strecke Quincy Center – Braintree (die Zwischenstation "Quincy Adams" kam 1983 hinzu)
Im Norden erfolgte eine vollständig unterirdische Verlängerung von "Harvard Square" nach "Alewife".
 am 8. Dezember 1984 von "Harvard Square" nach "Porter"
 am 30. März 1985 von "Porter" nach "Alewife"

Für diese Linie stehen 290 Wagen der Baujahre 1969 bis 1993 zur Verfügung. Ab 2019 sollen die ältesten Fahrzeuge der Flotte durch 132 neue Fahrzeuge des chinesischen Herstellers CNR ersetzt werden.

Orange Line

Die Orange Line (eröffnet 1901) von "Oak Grove" nach Forest Hills ist 18,0 Kilometer lang und wird in 33 Minuten durchfahren. Sie ist die älteste "echte" U-Bahn-Linie in den USA.

Das erste Teilstück wurde am 10. Juni 1901 in einem drei Kilometer langen Stadttunnel parallel zum bestehenden Tremont Street Subway (heute Teil der Green Line) eröffnet. Am 1. September 1908 wurde die Trasse dann in einen neu errichten Tunnel in der Washington Street verlegt. Die übrige Strecke wurde als Hochbahn errichtet und führte von "Everett" nach "Forest Hills". Außerdem gab es in der Innenstadt von Boston eine weitere Hochbahnstrecke, die in der Atlantic Avenue verlief (daher der Name Atlantic Avenue Elevated) und 1938 stillgelegt wurde. Ein Teil der Trasse wurde später für die Hochautobahn (Central Artery) genutzt.

Die nördliche Hochbahnstrecke zwischen der Boston North Station und "Everett" wurde 1975 stillgelegt und abgerissen und durch eine neue Strecke nach "Oak Grove", die teilweise im Tunnel verläuft, ersetzt. Dabei entstand in Wellington auch eine neue Betriebswerkstatt.

Die südliche Hochbahnstrecke in der Washington Street wurde 1987 durch eine ebenerdig geführte Strecke entlang des Nordostkorridors ersetzt, welche vom "New England Medical Center" nach "Forest Hills" führt (8 Stationen). Der neue Endbahnhof liegt nur wenige Meter neben dem alten, der aber, wie die gesamte Hochbahn, abgerissen wurde.

Auf der Orange Line kommen insgesamt 120 Wagen zum Einsatz, die 1981 vom Unternehmen Hawker Siddeley gebaut wurden. Ab 2018 soll die bestehende Flotte durch 152 neue Fahrzeuge des chinesischen Herstellers CNR ersetzt werden.

Blue Line

Die Blue Line hat eine Streckenlänge von 9,6 Kilometern und wird in 23 Minuten durchfahren. Sie ist die kürzeste U-Bahn-Linie Bostons.

Der erste Abschnitt dieser auch als "East Boston Line" bezeichneten Strecke zwischen Government Center und "Maverick" wurde am 30. Dezember 1905 für den Straßenbahnbetrieb eröffnet. Die circa 0,8 Kilometer lange Unterquerung des Hafens war einer der ersten Unterwassertunnel in den Vereinigten Staaten. Am 16. März 1916 wurde die Verlängerung nach "Bowdoin" dem Verkehr übergeben. Die Adaptierung zur Voll-U-Bahn erfolgte 1924. Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg wurde die Linie auf der Trasse einer ehemaligen Schmalspurbahn (der Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad) in den Jahren 1952 (bis Orient Heights) beziehungsweise 1954 (bis Wonderland) verlängert und die heutige Streckenführung hergestellt. Dabei entstand in Orient Heights auch eine Betriebswerkstatt.

Die Blue Line weist heute aus historischen Gründen einige Besonderheiten auf:
 die Station "Bowdoin" bildet eine Wendeschleife, der Bahnsteig befindet sich zwischen beiden Gleisen und weitet sich zur Schleife hin auf
 die Strecke wird mit zwei Stromzuführungssystemen betrieben: zwischen "Bowdoin" und "Airport" fahren die Züge mit einer seitlichen Stromschiene, zwischen "Airport" und "Wonderland" entnehmen sie dem Strom einer Oberleitung.
 der enge Radius innerhalb der Schleife in "Bowdoin" erlaubt nur den Einsatz von Fahrzeugen mit einer maximalen Länge von 14,63 Metern (48 ft), die Fahrzeuge der Orange und Red Line sind im Gegensatz dazu 21,34 Metern (70 ft) lang.

Der Fahrzeugpark wurde von 2007 bis 2009 vollständig erneuert und besteht aus 96 Wagen (Einheiten aus je zwei festgekuppelten Wagen) von Siemens.

Straßenbahn

Die erste Straßenbahnlinie in Boston wurde am 26. März 1856 eröffnet. Heute existiert in der Innenstadt nur noch eine Straßenbahnlinie, die Green Line. Durch Aufzweigungen in den westlichen Vororten in die vier Äste B, C, D und E ist die Green Line allerdings faktisch ein Straßenbahnnetz mit vier Linien. Im Stadtzentrum fährt sie seit 1901 unterirdisch. Damit war sie weltweit die erste unterirdische Straßenbahn.

Eine weitere Straßenbahnlinie verkehrt als Zubringer zur Red Line im Stadtteil Mattapan.

Eisenbahn

Elf Eisenbahnlinien verbinden die Vororte von Boston mit den beiden Bahnhöfen der Innenstadt. Das ausgedehnte Eisenbahnnetz rund um Boston wurde früher von drei Bahnunternehmen mit Vorortverkehr versorgt: New York Central Railroad und New Haven operierten vom Südbahnhof aus, beide Gesellschaften vereinigten sich 1969 zu Penn Central. Vom Nordbahnhof verkehrte die Boston and Maine Railroad.

1964 wurden durch die die MBTA nicht nur die U-Bahn-, Straßenbahn-, Oberleitungsbus- und Omnibuslinien finanziert, sondern auch anteilig der privat betriebene Vorortverkehr der Eisenbahn. In den 1970er Jahren wurden einige Strecken der Penn Central und B&M von der MBTA gekauft. Die B&M übernahm 1977 auch den Vorortverkehr der inzwischen bankrotten Penn Central, die inzwischen mit anderen Konkurs gegangenen Eisenbahngesellschaften im Nordosten der Vereinigten Staaten zur Conrail zusammengefasst wurde. Conrail betrieb außer im Raum Boston bis 1982 Vorortverkehre im Bereich des Nord-Ost-Korridors. 1987 gab die B&M den Vorortverkehr an die MBTA ab, die die amerikanische Fernverkehrsgesellschaft Amtrak mit dem Betrieb des Vorortverkehrs beauftragte.

Nach einer von der MBTA erfolgten Ausschreibung wurde von 2003 bis 2014 der Vorortverkehr von der Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company erbracht. Diese Firma war eine Kooperation aus dem amerikanischen Tochterunternehmen Veolia der Veolia Transportation, dem Fahrzeughersteller Bombardier Transportation und dem Betriebsdienstleister Alternate Concepts. Eingesetzt wurden Dieselzüge mit einstöckigen und doppelstöckigen Wagen auch auf der elektrifizierten Korridorstrecke Richtung New York, die MBTA bis Providence befährt. Das Zugpersonal wurde von der Frachtgesellschaft CSX Transportation gestellt.

Seit 2014 besteht ein, im Jahr 2020 bis mindestens 2025 verlängerter, Verkehrsvertrag mit Keolis Commuter Services.

Oberleitungsbus

Nachdem in Boston bereits zwischen vom 17. September 1933 bis zum 31. März 1963 ein Oberleitungsbusnetz bestand, führte die MBTA am 17. September 2004 ein neues – teilweise unterirdisch geführtes – System ein. Es besteht aus den Linien SL1 und SL2 (bis 2009 auch SL3) die ausschließlich mit Duo-Bussen betrieben und als Silver Line vermarktet werden. Zum Silver-Line-Linienverbund gehören auch die Bus-Rapid-Transit-Linien SL4 und SL5.

Der Oberleitungsbus Cambridge wurde am 11. April 1936 eröffnet und besteht heute aus den vier Linien 71, 72, 73 und 77A. Erstere bedient dabei auch die Nachbarstadt Watertown.

Fähre

Die MBTA unterhält diverse Fährrouten mit zentraler Anlegestelle im Boston Harbor. Neben Linienverkehren innerhalb des Hafenbeckens (beispielsweise zur Anbindung der Innenstadt an die Boston Navy Yard in Charlestown) bietet das Unternehmen Verbindungen nach Hingham, Hull, Salem und Quincy. Auch der Logan International Airport wird angebunden.

Einzelnachweise

Weblinks

 Website der Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

Busunternehmen (Vereinigte Staaten)
Historic Civil Engineering Landmark
Boston
U-Bahn-Gesellschaft
Boston
Unternehmen (Boston)
Technisches Denkmal in den Vereinigten Staaten


Active participation during the lessons, fulfilling the assigned tasks.
The instruction focuses on further enriching the terminology necessary both for the communication in everyday situations and at work. The activities leading to meeting the set goal include speaking, reading, listening and comprehension and writing. The instruction covers topics like communication within a company, media, professional plans for the future, leisure time activities.
	EnTecNet - Deutsch für die Umwelttechnik: http://projects.ael.uni-tuebingen.de/entecnet/index.htm. 	Deuma – Deutsch im Maschinenbau: http://www.kj.fme.vutbr.cz/deuma/online/overview.htm 	HALL, K.: Übungsgrammatik Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Ismaning: Hueber, 2001. 	HELBIG, G., BUSCHA, J.: Übungsgrammatik Deutsch. 7. Aufl.. Leipzig/ Berlin/ München: Langenscheidt, 1991.


text:
A year in the life of Ivan Chistyakov, Gulag guard
There was no redemption for this reluctant functionary of Stalin's vast machine of terror, which he himself fell victim to
Owen Matthews
'Soviet power does not punish, it corrects' (Photo: Getty)
The Diary of a Gulag Prison Guard Ivan Chistyakov. Translated by Arch Tait
Granta, pp.288, £14.99
Spare a thought for the poor Gulag guard: the rifleman standing in the freezing wind on the outside of the wire, almost as much a captive of the Stalinist prison machine as the inmates he's guarding. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Evgeniya Ginzburg and Varlaam Shalamov have left the world a rich, searing portrait of the Gulag from the point of view of the prisoner. But the diary of Ivan Chistyakov is unique — a narrative of the brutal conditions in Stalin's Gulag, told from the point of view of one of the captors.
Chistyakov was a senior guard at the Baikal-Amur Corrective Labour Camp or BAMLag, and he wrote his personal diary in 1935–6, just as Stalin's henchman Naftaliy Frenkel was putting his scheme for mobilising convict labour into high gear. Told with a telling eye for detail, the diary is a crushingly bleak portrait of casual violence, unfulfillable quotas, endless fights and escape attempts, inefficiency and injustice — all played out against the deadly dark and cold of a Siberian winter. On 10 December Chistyakov writes:
Minus 45 degrees. The trains run slowly. Only the moon, with a superior air, glides serenely through the sky. I stay indoors all day, wearing outer clothing… the stove warms you on one side while you freeze on the other.
His surviving diaries — which fill two neatly written exercise books — were donated by a relative to the Memorial Human Rights Centre in Moscow and published in Moscow in 2014. The timing of this translation could not be more apposite. Last November, Memorial — which is dedicated to chronicling the history of Stalin's repressions, as well as later human rights abuses — published a list of over 40,000 members of the NKVD, the Stalin-era secret police, painstakingly compiled from the few open sources available to historians. The list proved extremely controversial; in a society where Stalin has been officially rehabilitated to the status of national hero, remembering his millions of victims has become deeply politically incorrect.
'Until now, if anyone mentions the victims, it's as though they were killed by a natural disaster, like an earthquake or a tidal wave,' Yan Rachinsky of Memorial told the Washington Post. 'They were victims of crimes and those crimes were committed by people.'
Chistyakov, a cultured ex-city dweller who finds himself in command of a detachment of armed Interior Ministry troops deep in the Siberian tundra, is both perpetrator and victim. We know of the author's later fate only from a blurred snapshot pasted into the back of the second volume of the diary, recording that 'Chistyakov, Ivan Petrovich, arrested in 1937–38' was 'killed at the front in Tula Province in 1941'. In other words, like thousands of Gulag guards and officers of the NKVD, Chistyakov was himself consumed in the purge that saw 700,000 Party officials and prosperous peasants liquidated between 1934 and 1939 and millions more sent to labour camps.
But what Chistyakov's memoir doesn't answer is the key moral and human question posed by Stalinism: who is responsible? Who are the guilty men? And more importantly, what motivated them? 'Where did this wolf-tribe appear from among our own people?' Alexander Solzhenitsyn asked in The Gulag Archipelago. 'Does it really stem from our own roots? Our own blood? It is ours.'
The men drawn to serve in the NKVD, in the famous phrase of its founder Felix Dzerzhinsky, could be either saints or scoundrels. Clearly the service attracted more than its fair share of sadists and psychopaths, as we can see from Chistyakov's descriptions of 'the bunch of misfits' who are his drunken subordinates. But Chistyakov is an unwilling cog in the apparatus. He has been assigned to the BAM involuntarily, spends much of his time scheming to get away at the earliest opportunity, and shares at least some of the material deprivations of the prisoners. He plans, frequently, to denounce the 'madhouse shambles' he finds among his fellow BAM officers and expose their 'illiteracy' and 'misdeeds'.
Perhaps the most chilling psychological insight offered by the diary is the portrait of a humane man conforming to an inhuman system. 'I'm beginning to have that mark on my face, the stamp of stupidity, narrowness, a kind of moronic expression,' he writes. 'My heart is desolate, it alarms me.' And the diary is also a chronicle of the essential selfishness of human suffering: Chistyakov often laments for himself but rarely for the inmates, whom he describes as lazy and dishonest:
Today… I had to imprison one woman; there's some muddle about an escape, a conflict with a phalanx leader, a knife fight. To hell with the lot of them!
But it is they, not he, who are being starved and worked to death.
'To do evil, a human being must first of all believe that what he's doing is good,' wrote Solzhenitsyn. 'Or else that it's a well-considered act in conformity with natural law.' Chistyakov offers no justification for the slave system that he is helping to run, or insight into the minds of the men who designed it. He is just a man struggling to survive a terrible hand dealt him by fate. He is only following orders, and the inhuman system of which he is a part seems to him as inexorable and invincible as the crushing frosts and the buzzing summer flies.
The prison literature of the Gulag, though grim, is often bleakly uplifting. There is the steady triumph of one man's will to live, as portrayed in Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, and the survival of the human spirit in Ginzburg's Into the Whirlwind. But there is no redemption in The Diary of a Gulag Prison Guard — only a portrait of the banality of evil, and the part that the daily compromises made by a single broken man, play in a vast machine of terror.
Book review - diary
Soviet history
Siberia: always a byword for despotism
The hopeless wasteland of modern Russia
Boyd Tonkin
The true story of Dr Zhivago's Lara
The gripping story of the failed NKVD officer who fooled the FBI and the CIA
The tortured genius of Shostakovich
One Night in Winter, by Simon Sebag Montefiore - review
William Ryan

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Tools / Tips for refactoring Visual Studio projects Similar to the way Resharper makes copying or moving a type to another file and adjust all of your using statements, I'd love to be able to refactor a VS project, and know all of my references, assembly names, and file locations will be properly adjusted.
Does Resharper or any other tools make project level refactoring easy?
Thanks,
Berryl

A: I'm not sure you'll get everything you want, but there is a lot there.  You can do three things with Resharper that help with this:
1) On a project or solution level, you can right click on it in Visual Studio and select "Cleanup Code..." which will reformat all your files in that project and change using statements, etc.
2) You can right click on each dependency within a project and select "Find Usages..." to make sure a dependency is needed.
3) There are some new features with Resharper recently where you can right click on the project and say "Find Dependent Code" for code in other projects and assemblies that the selected project uses, and "Find Referenced Code" for code that references the code in the selected project.

A: Version 4.5 of ReSharper can now point out even public members that are not accessed by any code in the solution. It does not remove them for you, but can highlight them so that you can do so yourself. This does assume that you have all the code that matters within the solution. I believe it can also tell you that a particular public member can be made internal, but I haven't actually seen it do so yet (I've only just upgraded).

A: About file locations - next version of ReSharper will track file moving and renaming and adjust all it's references. It's useful for ASP.NET projects - Masterpage, User Controls, JS, CSS, Images references.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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While traveling on the Judy Collins Wildflowers Festival Tour, I had a few days off and decided to spend it in Bucks County PA with friends, John and Mary Ann Davis. It was there that I recorded Lead Belly's 'Bring Me Little Water Sylvie.' John accompainied me on bass and the old blues singer Rusty James (AKA Leon Redbone) stopped by to add a low vocal soul.
Don't you hear me calling Sylvie?
Don't you hear me calling now?
Can't you hear me Sylvie?
Can't you hear me now?
Can't you hear me calling Sylvie?
Can't you hear me calling now?


text:
package com.github.zkclient;

/**
 * An {@link IZkDataListener} can be registered at a {@link ZkClient} for listening on zk data changes for a given path.
 * <p>
 * Node: Also this listener re-subscribes it watch for the path on each zk event (zk watches are one-timers) is is not
 * guaranteed that events on the path are missing (see http://zookeeper.apache.org/doc/current/zookeeperProgrammers.html#ch_zkWatches). An
 * implementation of this class should take that into account.
 */
public interface IZkDataListener {

    public void handleDataChange(String dataPath, byte[] data) throws Exception;

    public void handleDataDeleted(String dataPath) throws Exception;
}


text:
A Mortal Pilgrimage and other incidents from a stressed memory
By Jay Bolotin
From the Fall 1983 Issue
By Rod Jellema
Why You Climbed Up
By Robert Penn Warren
Making Poetry a Continuum: Selected Correspondence
By Richard Eberhart William Carlos Williams Stephen Corey
Stephen Corey joined the staff of The Georgia Review in 1983 as assistant editor and subsequently served as associate editor, acting editor, and, from 2008 to his retirement in 2019, editor. His most recent book is Startled at the Big Sound: Essays Personal, Literary, and Cultural (Mercer University Press, 2017); he has also published nine collections of poems, among them There Is No Finished World (White Pine Press) and Synchronized Swimming (Livingston Press); his individual poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in dozens of periodicals; and he has coedited three books in as many genres, including (with Warren Slesinger) Spreading the Word: Editors on Poetry (The Bench Press). In the spring of 2022, White Pine Press will bring out his As My Age Then Was, So I Understood Them: New and Selected Poems.
By Philip Booth
By Judson Mitcham
Judson Mitcham's most recent collection is A Little Salvation: Poems Old and New (University of Georgia Press, 2007). He is the current poet laureate of Georgia.
Personal Mythos and the New Journalism: Gay Talese's Fathers and Sons
By Barbara Lounsberry
I Arrive in a Small Boat, Alone
By Susan Ludvigson
Susan Ludvigson, Professor Emerita at Winthrop University, was the 2014 winner of the James Dickey Prize for Poetry from Five Points magazine. She has published eight collections of poems with LSU Press, including Escaping the House of Certainty (2006). The first line of "Dead," appearing here, is the title of her next collection. Most recently, her poems can be found in the Yale Review and the Southern Review.
Waiting for the Storyteller
By Julie Suk
Julie Suk is the author of five volumes of poetry and is co-editor of Bear Crossings, an anthology of North American poets. Her most recent book, Lie Down With Me: New and Selected Poems, was published in 2011 by Autumn House Press, and her work is forthcoming in the Cimarron Review, Great River Review, and Southern Poetry Review.


text:
SC and Bursa Malaysia Invite Comments on New Listing Guidelines and Requirements
6 February 2009 | Kuala Lumpur
The Securities Commission (SC) and Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad (Bursa Malaysia) today published consultation papers seeking public feedback on the proposed guidelines and requirements for listings and equity fund-raising.
The proposed guidelines and requirements form part of the changes to the regulatory framework undertaken by the SC and Bursa Malaysia to enhance the competitiveness and to strengthen the positioning of the Malaysian equity market. The changes include the creation of a unified board for established corporations and the repositioning of the existing MESDAQ Market to a sponsor-driven alternative market for corporations from all business sectors (new MESDAQ). Under the new framework, existing corporations listed on the Main Board and Second Board are proposed to be transferred to the unified board while those listed on the existing MESDAQ Market, to the new MESDAQ.
On the whole, the proposed regulatory framework for the unified board and new MESDAQ is envisaged to provide issuers with greater access to the capital market, while at the same time, continue to protect investors' interest through enhanced standards of disclosure and corporate governance.
As part of the effort to inject both breadth and depth to the Malaysian capital market, the SC and Bursa Malaysia are also taking this opportunity to seek comments on the proposed framework for the listing of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPAC). Such listing will serve as a vehicle for fund-raising which in turn can spur corporate activities such as mergers and acquisitions.
The SC and Bursa Malaysia have undertaken benchmarking studies and engagements with various focus groups prior to finalising these consultation papers. An industry working group, comprising subject matter experts, was also established to assist the SC and Bursa Malaysia in formulating the new regulatory framework.
Market participants are encouraged to refer to the consultation papers for details on the key proposed amendments that are specific to the SC's Guidelines on the Offering of Equity and Equity-Linked Securities (Equity Guidelines) and Bursa Malaysia's Listing Requirements.
The consultation paper in relation to the SC's Equity Guidelines and SPAC are available here on the website of the SC while the consultation papers in relation to the Listing Requirements are available on Bursa Malaysia's website at www.bursamalaysia.com. The SC and Bursa Malaysia invite comments on the issues set out in the consultation papers by 27 February 2009.
ISSUED JOINTLY ON BEHALF OF
SECURITIES COMMISSION MALAYSIA & BURSA MALAYSIA SECURITIES BERHAD
SC-World Bank-IOSCO Asia Pacific Hub Conference 2019: Enhancing Financial Inclusion through Islamic Finance and FinTech
(From left to right):
Abayomi A. Alawode, Head of Islamic Finance, Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation, The World Bank Group
Datuk Syed Zaid Albar, Chairman of the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC)
Dr. Firas Raad, Country Manager for Malaysia, East Asia and Pacific, The World Bank Group
Datuk Zainal Izlan Zainal Abidin, Deputy Chief Executive of SC


 Best Price on Hotel Montreal in Panama City + Reviews!
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SMEs are not directly partners in this project but they are most important and will be invited to our events whenever suitable. SMEs need to be included in the space ecosystem as the development of highly specialized SMEs creates a network of suppliers which in turn leads to increased competition for companies in the space sector.
There are several other actors which are relevant for collaboration, both regional, national and international. The project RIT 2021 is counting on inviting several of these actors to participate and enrich the project in various ways, for example: the Graduate School of Space Technology, Aerospace Cluster Sweden, Big Science Sweden, European Enterprise Network and ESA Broker.
The project will also be open to collaboration with other interested parties that emerge over the course of the project. Therefor we warmly welcome external actors who are interested in collaborationg with us, to contact the project team.


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Haiti Reconstruction Needs New Way of Thinking
The international community has quickly risen to the rescue and reconstruction of Haiti, which was hit by a devastating earthquake.
Major donor countries and the United Nations are meeting Monday in Montreal of Canada to discuss how to better rescue and reconstruct the Caribbean island country.
The meeting will be held amid calls for aid with no strings attached, an operable mechanism of assistance and the sense of ownership by Haitians.
Reconstruction needs selfless aid
The Haitian government on Friday declared an end to search and rescue of life while the United Nations published the next day that as of Friday the quake had claimed the lives of upwards of 110,000 Haitians.
At a preparatory meeting held on Tuesday for the Montreal conference, Haitian President Rene Preval promised that neither the Haitian state nor the Haitian nation would die of the earthquake. He expressed gratitude to the international community for its generous aid and assistance.
During the rescue operation, the United States dispatched an aircraft carrier and some 10,000 troops to Haiti. But the American moves to take over controls of the Port-au-Prince airport and seaport have caused grumbles among some Latin American and European countries. Venezuela, Bolivia and Uruguay have stated that Washington was taking the opportunity to turn Haiti into another military base of its own in the Caribbean Sea.
Spain, which is serving the rotating presidency of the European Union, has proposed that the Haitians should lead off the reconstruction of their own country and that it should be the Haitians who are to decide the fate of their own country. In the meantime, the international community should cooperate without reservation and should disperse unease and suspicion in joint efforts to assist the Haitians in building a future with prospects.
Coordination for donations
What is needed most in Haiti at the moment is coordination for donations from all over the world, which would make the quake relief and reconstruction efforts more effective, according to Preval.
At Tuesday's preparatory meeting for the Montreal conference, participants have agreed in principle to set up a UN-led coordination committee in neighboring Dominican Republic to oversee reconstruction in Haiti. The committee would be tasked to collect donations and make good use of them. It would also be responsible for developing strategies to ensure the sustainability of reconstruction work and food security in the country.
Ownership by Haitians
The inclusion of Haitians in the reconstruction of their country is of utmost importance.
The Haitian Interior Ministry said Friday that about 610,000 people have been left homeless.
With the search and rescue work coming to an end, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is already in charge of early recovery efforts.
"The most important part is the early recovery, that is what we are concentrating now," said Rebecca Grynspan, UNDP assistant administrator and director of its regional bureau of Latin America and the Caribbean.
She said the UNDP, working with other international relief agencies, has started a cash-for-work program, which offers each worker an equivalent of US$5 per day to help clear up rubble and get the infrastructure running again.
Under this program, about 50,000 Haitians would get jobs in the coming three months.
The program was a priority of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and a central component of the UNDP's early recovery mandate.
It would serve to relieve humanitarian pressures and at the same time contribute to social stability by ensuring the population's participation in reconstruction activities, said Grynspan.
(Xinhua News Agency January 25, 2010)


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Probability 87 Sites
No sub-categories 5 Sites Benford's Law
No sub-categories 5 Sites Events
Past Events 12 Sites Journals
Biographies, Personal Pages 32 Sites Research
No sub-categories 4 Sites Teaching Resources
No sub-categories 14 Sites
The Collector's Problem and the Two-Dimensional Factorial - In finding a new solution to a classic probability problem concerning the collection of items in a set, a new and useful recursive function has been found, the "two-dimensional factorial." Probabilistic Thinking - By Richard Jeffrey. HTML. ArXiv Front: PR Probability Theory - Probability section of the mathematics e-print arXiv The Probability Web - A collection of pages maintained by Bob Dobrow to serve people with interests in probability theory and its applications. Probabilistic Learning Activities Network - Probability activities and simulations in the form of applets and spreadsheets. This site advocates a Question/Hypothesis/Experiment approach to learning probability. Theory of Probability - The introduction, formulas, software, algorithms, equations, problems, and calculations. Applied Probability Society - A subdivision of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) concerned with the application of probability theory to systems that involve random phenomena. The Laymans Guide to Probability - An in-depth but easily readable guide on probability theory, covering various aspects of theory with a bias to gambling games. Probability Guide for Non-mathematicians - Probability theory basics, applications (including to gambling), interpretations, books, free texts. Math Surprises: An Example - Buffon's Needle simulation and a surprising demonstration of Barbier's theorem about shapes of constant width Parrondo Paradox - Parrondo Paradox simulation and a demonstration of the ratchet effect. The Applied Probability Trust - A non-profit foundation for study and research. Publications feature research journals, a student magazine and occasional special volumes.


Position Description: This recruitment is being conducted to fill two vacancies in the Women, Infant, and Children's (WIC) and Health Promotion programs of Public Health Services and to establish an eligible list which may be used to fill future vacancies. Resumes will not be accepted in lieu of an application. A completed application must be postmarked or received online by the final filing deadline. Applications are currently being accepted on a continuous basis until the positon is filled.
The Public Health Nutritionist in Health Promotion will support program efforts to increase fruit and vegetable consumption, physical activity, and food security in low- income families, with the goal of preventing obesity and other diet-related chronic diseases. This position will also oversee the administration of the nutrition education component of the Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention (NEOP) program, which includes the selection of approved education curricula and materials.
TYPICAL DUTIES -Assesses nutritional needs of clients in an assigned program; monitors and evaluates nutritional services; counsels clients with specific food and nutritional needs. -Develops, implements, and promotes nutritional programs and services; interprets and implements federal and state food and nutrition program guidelines; reviews policies -and procedures and makes recommendations. -Develops and implements nutrition education programs for individuals, families and groups; presents classes to clients; prepares and evaluates nutritional education materials and interprets its use in local health programs; may provide assistance in vendor education. -Serves as resource person to agency staff on nutritional problems and issues; coordinates with and assists staff in understanding client needs and carrying out program services. -Assists in assessing agency needs; may assist in the development of nutrition plans; plans and conducts studies and surveys relating to nutritional status, dietary patterns and food needs of target population groups; gathers and analyzes data and makes program recommendations. -Within a specified program, may provide breastfeeding support, education and counseling to clients. -Prepares and maintains a variety of records and reports; prepares correspondence. -Attends meetings and conferences; makes public presentations; serves as program liaison to community organizations and programs in the area of nutrition and health promotion.
Qualifications: MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: Licenses/Certifications: 1) Current registration as a Registered Dietitian with the American Dietetic Association; and 2) possession of a valid California driver's license.
KNOWLEDGE: The principles and practices of nutrition and its relationship to health and disease; principles and methods of research and statistics; public health education and training methods and practices; community resources, including social and health agencies and other related support systems; social and cultural aspects of public health nutrition; data gathering and report preparation methods and principles; principles and practices of public relations; basic computer and modern office automation technology relevant to department operations.
ABILITY: Identify, counsel and provide public health nutrition needs and services; evaluate programs; interpret nutrition program requirements and guidelines; analyze data; prepare reports and documents; communicate effectively, both orally and in writing; make presentations to groups; instruct support staff in specific program needs; establish and maintain effective work relationships with a wide variety of persons with nutritional problems and needs, and with the general public and staff; operate basic computer and modern office automation technology, including pertinent software.
PHYSICAL/MENTAL REQUIREMENTS: Mobility- Operate a data entry device; frequent sitting for long periods; walking; occasional standing; pushing/pulling, bending/squatting; driving; Lifting- Frequently 5 pounds or less; occasionally 5 to 30 pounds; Visual Requirements- Frequent overall vision, eye/hand coordination, reading/close-up work; occasional color perception; Dexterity- Frequent holding, reaching, grasping, writing; occasional repetitive motion; Hearing/Talking-Frequent hearing normal speech, hearing on the telephone, talking in person and on the telephone; Emotional/Psychological-Frequent concentration; working alone; occasional emergency situations; exposure to trauma, grief, death; Special Requirements-May require working weekends, nights, overtime; occasional travel; Environmental Conditions-Occasional exposure to varied weather conditions.
Organization Description: San Joaquin County Public Health Services is a division of the Health Care Services Department. The mission of the department is to promote a healthy future for a culturally diverse population of nearly 700,000. Public Health Services offers innovative, quality health services to the residents of San Joaquin County. The staff of over 200 professionals serve members of the community with respect by acknowledging and supporting diversity, and have a strong tradition of community partnership and leadership in health promotion.
San Joaquin County is an extraordinary place to work and live. A land of beauty, recreation and natural riches – from the waters of the Delta to a vibrant wine region, San Joaquin County has it all. San Joaquin County boasts seven cities and some of the finest opportunities in the state for boating, fishing, camping, history-gathering, or just plain fun in the sun. Each city, as well as the unincorporated county areas, offers a unique opportunity to enjoy natural California beauty nature, music, arts and culture. With affordable home prices, competitive salary and benefits and abundant recreational activities, what- ever your interest, it can most likely be found in San Joaquin County, making this a desirable place to live, work and play.
Job Line: For current employment opportunities please call our 24-hour job line at (209) 468-3377.
Pre-employment Drug Screening: Potential new hires into this classification are required to successfully pass a pre- employment drug screen as a condition of employment. Final appointment cannot be made unless the eligible has passed the drug screen. The County pays for the initial drug screen.
Additional Information: BENEFITS Employees hired into this classification are members of a bargaining unit which is represented by SEIU Local 1021.
125 Flexible Benefits Plan: This is a voluntary program that allows employees to use pre-tax dollars to pay for health- related expenses that are not paid by a medical, dental or vision plan (Health Flexible Spending Account $2550 annual limit with a $500 carry over); and dependent care costs (Dependent Care Assistance Plan $5000 annual limit).
Holidays: Effective July 1, 2017, all civil service status employees earn 14 paid holidays each year. Please see the appropriate MOU for details regarding holidays, accruals, use, and cashability of accrued time.
Job Sharing: Employees may agree to job- share a position, subject to approval by a Department Head and the Director of Human Resources.
Rate-out: A rate-out is an examination that involves a paper rating of the candidate's application using the following criteria: education, training, and experience. Candidates will not be scheduled for the rate-out process. Note: The rating of 70 referred to may be the same or other than an arithmetic 70% of the total possible points.
Rule of the Rank: The top three ranks will be referred for hiring interviews. If there are less than 5 names in the top three ranks the next rank is referred. This applies only to open competitive recruitments. Rule of Five: The top five names will be referred for hiring interviews. This applies only to department or countywide promotional examination. Physical Exam: Some classifications require physical examinations. Final appointment cannot be made until the eligible has passed the physical examination. The County pays for physical examinations administered in its medical facilities.


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Hardball-hardbat: A call for change from aluminum to wooden baseball bats in the NCAA
Submitted by: Matt Kelly, M.A. and Paul Pedersen, Ph.D.
Ever since hits and home runs increased significantly after a leading aluminum bat manufacturer introduced the ABlack Magic bat in 1985, a controversy has raged in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) concerning the use of aluminum baseball bats. The first Abat summit with members of the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee and executives of aluminum-bat manufacturers was held in the summer of 1994. From this point on it was evident that the ability of manufacturers to manipulate the size and weight of baseball bats created an injury hazard and a player-development problem for collegiate-level baseball players. Although small steps have taken place to limit the hazardous equipment, a final solution would be found in a mandate by the NCAA for its member institutions to make a permanent and exclusive switch from aluminum bats to wooden bats. Specifically, this mandate should be directed to those programs at the Division I level where the baseball players are strong enough, fast enough, and skilled enough to injure one another by their use of aluminum bats.
Call for Change: Player Safety
Baseball bat manufacturers, through advances in modern technology, have been able to create aluminum bats that are lighter in weight than wooden bats yet still meet the required measurement and size standards. These lighter bats allow for faster bat speeds during swings that result in a greater hit-ball velocity. Because the ball exits the aluminum bat with a higher velocity than would a ball from a wooden bat, there is naturally a greater danger of injury to defensive players. "Any idiot can see that the ball jumps off an aluminum bat faster than off of a wooden bat," said Jim Morris, head baseball coach at the University of Miami. This favors hitters but is obviously dangerous to pitchers and infielders (Heavy Metal, p. 27, 1997).
Although the NCAA is aware of the danger involved with aluminum baseball bats, the organization has refused to make a permanent switch to wooden bats. The rationale postulated by the NCAA for its stance is that there are risks in all sports and that pitchers and infielders are aware of those risks (Bloomberg, 1998). While the NCAA is steadfast in opposing a switch, its Baseball Rules Committee did agree in 1998 to stricter guidelines on performance standards for aluminum bats in order to provide a safer player environment. The committee had received research that illustrated the recent rising rate of serious injury to pitchers from batted infield line drives. The new standards prohibit the development and use of an aluminum bat that produces a batted ball speed of over 93 miles per hour. The interesting fact here is that this was the established standard for wooden batted ball speeds. The obvious question here is, instead of creating wooden bat standards for aluminum bats, why not just use wooden bats?
Easton Sports, Inc., one of the industry's leading aluminum bat manufacturers, filed a restraint-of-trade lawsuit against the NCAA and is seeking $267 million in damages and injunctive relief. The suit was filed in the United States District Court in Kansas City, Kansas.
Ultimately, the adoption of revised aluminum-bat regulations brought lawsuits from aluminum and wooden bat manufacturers who sued under the premise that the NCAA had conspired to lock the other out of the bat market (Hawes, 2000). The Baum Company, a manufacturer of wood composite baseball bats, claimed the NCAA aluminum standards were lax and that in addition to being unsafe, aluminum bats were also preventing the Baum Company from selling wooden bats to NCAA schools (Kan, 1999). The Baum Company also accused the NCAA of conspiring with aluminum bat manufacturers in order to eliminate competition from wooden bat makers. In this case, the court ruled that the NCAA's refusal to change rules further or to ban aluminum bats is lawful (Kan, 1999). As a result of the Baum Company ruling, Hillerich and Bradsby and Easton Sports, Inc., the industry's leading manufacturers of both aluminum and wooden bats, dropped their restraint-of-trade lawsuits against the NCAA. Within the ruling against the Baum Company the court illustrated how the NCAA had the lawful right of refusal and the lawful right to adopt bat standards for the protection of players (Kan, 2000). Therefore, the NCAA has the right to modify its aluminum-bat requirements or make the switch to wooden bats.
In July of 2000, the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee ruled that there would be no immediate changes in the specifications for manufacturing baseball bats. This rule was based on the recommendations of the NCAA Baseball Research Panel, which reviewed results from laboratory testing and performance during the 2000 intercollegiate season. Don Kessinger, associate athletics director for internal affairs at the University of Mississippi and chair of the rules committee, stated that the recommendations of 1999 restored balance to the game and made the aluminum bats perform more like wooden bats.
While higher standards are better than no standards, because the standards can be circumvented there is a need for the outright elimination of the use of aluminum bats at the college level. A recent study by the University of Massachusetts found that a loophole exists in the new aluminum bat standards (Hawes, 2000). This research shows that it is possible to physically change the center of swing gravity with an aluminum bat. This is done using a technological weight-shifting technique in manufacturing the aluminum bat. This center of gravity change allows the aluminum bat to still meet bat standards but when used in the field, the batted ball speed may greatly exceed the standard ball exit speed. With wooden bats, however, it is not possible to shift the center of gravity in order to achieve this advantage. This loophole in the aluminum-bat rules will allow manufacturers to create an aluminum Ahot bat capable of harder hits which will again lead to a greater safety hazard for infielders and pitchers (Hawes, 2000).
Call for Change: Player Development
Although potential injuries are the most important factor, there are other reasons that call for a switch to wooden bats. Studies show that with an aluminum bat, a hitter can make contact with the ball at almost any point on the bat and achieve the same effect as a hit on the Asweet spot of a wooden bat (Forbes, 1998). This fact is evident by an examination of offensive production. Over the last five years (1995-1999), batting averages, scoring, and home runs have all increased in NCAA baseball. Batting averages increased to .301 (from an average of .296 over the previous 15 years), scoring jumped from 6.49 to 6.81 per game, and home runs from .80 to .91 per game. Therefore, not only are aluminum bats lethal against defensive baseball players, they are also distorting the development of college pitchers who have to use drastically different strategies when pitching against players using aluminum bats than they would if they were pitching against players using wooden bats. This is creating development problems for pitchers who are trying to make the transition from collegiate-level pitching to professional-level pitching where the only bats allowed are wooden.
There are also batter-development issues at stake. Many young baseball players use their college baseball careers to refine their skills in attempts to prepare for professional baseball. Fortunately, the extensive farm system of Major League Baseball allows many Division I players opportunities to play at the professional level. Wooden bats, which are used exclusively by professionals, are much more challenging to hit successfully with than are aluminum bats. The banning of aluminum bats and the use of wooden bats in the NCAA at the Division I level would help college baseball players become better prepared for either possible failure or a possible future in professional baseball (Killer Bats, 2000).
A prime example of this case is that of Marshal McDougall, a second baseman at Florida State University from 1998 through 2000. In May of 1999, McDougall hit six home runs and collected 16 RBI and 25 total bases in a game against the University of Maryland. All three of these feats, which are all NCAA records, were accomplished through the use of an aluminum bat (Bechtel, 2000). For the year, McDougall used his aluminum bat to secure a .419 batting average and record 28 homeruns. Despite the outstanding game and season, baseball teams passed on McDougall until the 26th round of the 1999 draft. Pro baseball scouts feared that he might not make the immediate impact they needed from a higher-round draftee. They also feared he would have a difficult adjustment to the use of wooden bats. In McDougall's first summer of minor-league baseball, their skepticism was affirmed as his wooden bat produced only a .248 batting average and one home run. Most likely, an NCAA wooden-bat mandate would have never allowed for McDougall's six home run game. However, if he had been allowed to play and practice with a wooden bat over his college career, he would have been much better prepared for the wooden-bat demand of professional baseball.
Call for Change: Cost
Lastly, when a mandate such as this is suggested, the question of cost also becomes an integral issue. It can argued that aluminum bats last longer than wooden bats and can be used in games for several years. In fact, a $1200 investment in aluminum bats can be enough for an entire team and will last three to five seasons. Conversely, a $1200 investment into wooden bats might not last one whole season. Because of the obvious differences in cost, the proposed mandate for change from aluminum bats to wooden bats is directed only at the elite level Division I teams. The Division II and Division III levels of non-elite athletes do not pose the same high risk of injury as do the players in the Division I programs. Furthermore, Division I programs that are top-25 caliber would have the added benefit of receiving sponsorships from wooden bat manufacturers.
Unfortunately, the Anon-elite Division I teams would have to adjust and absorb the cost of wooden bat use. For the safety and development of their players, however, this would have to be accepted. Division I hockey programs do not try to save money by wearing hockey helmets without face shields. That would be unsafe. Universities do not complain about the cost of football helmets. Swimming programs do not stop using chlorine in the pools to save money. It is then very justifiable to ban aluminum bats and spend the extra money to use wooden ones. The health and safety of the student athlete, in addition to the development of his skills, should be the primary concern.
Call for Change
The solution to this baseball conundrum is for the NCAA to institute a ban on the use of aluminum baseball bats at the Division I level of competition. There are several reasons for this suggested mandate for change. Because the exit speed of a baseball hit off of an aluminum bat is much faster than the exit speed of a ball hit off of a wooden bat, the safety of players (infielder and pitchers) should be reason enough for a change. There is also a need for a switch from aluminum bats because the use of wooden bats would contribute to the development of college baseball players, both the hitters and pitchers. Furthermore, if the NCAA wants to move in the direction of an aluminum-bat mandate, it has the legal authority to do such. The Association can lawfully institute such a ban under legal product selection. Finally, although the change might increase equipment costs for some institutions of higher learning, the cost is a minor price to pay for the safety and development advantages that would be obtained through the use of wooden bats.
Bechtel, M. (2000). Heavy metal rap: Ruthian feats by Florida States Marshall McDougall went largely unrewarded. Sports Illustrated, 92, 11.
Bloomberg, S. (1998). NCAA approves new rules for bats. The Legal Intelligencer, 13, 4.
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U.S. Sports Academy2015-10-02T23:26:27-05:00February 14th, 2008|Contemporary Sports Issues, Sports Management|Comments Off on Hardball-hardbat: A call for change from aluminum to wooden baseball bats in the NCAA