text:
Marsh US hires David Fuhrman as Western region lead
03 June 2016 Consultancy.uk
Marsh has hired Willis Towers Watson veteran David Fuhrman as Western Zone Leader. In his new role at Marsh's Los Angeles office, Fuhrman is responsible for leading the insurance broker's operations across the Western region of the US.
David Fuhrman has built up decades of management experience and client relationships across the insurance and risk management landscape. Prior to joining Marsh, Fuhrman was a Partner at Willis Towers Watson. He worked eleven years for the firm, most recently as the head of the California Region. Previously, he worked at Marsh for more than 18 years. Furhrman holds a Bachelor of Arts in Government and Economics from Dartmouth College.
Marsh has tempted Fuhrman to return to the firm, in the role of lead to its West Zone, where he will succeed Peter Chandler. In his new role, Fuhrman is responsible for growing the firm's presence in the Western region of the US, and ensuring the quality of its service to clients. Fuhrman will report to Rob Bentley, President of Marsh's US and Canada Division, and will work from the firm's Los Angeles office.
"Deep industry knowledge and expertise are among Marsh's greatest assets and play a key role in our ability to deliver differentiated value to our clients," says John Doyle, President, Marsh. "Dave's client advocacy, deep relationships in the Western region and significant operational experience make him ideal to lead the Western Zone for Marsh."
Marsh, an insurance broking and risk management firm founded in 1871, operates in more than 130 countries with a staff of over 30,000. Marsh is a wholly owned subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies, a professional services giant that also is the parent of among others Mercer and Oliver Wyman.
Latest news | Marsh
Businesses remain wary of instability amid divided political landscape
The consulting firms that can call themselves a World Economic Forum Partner
Sastry Durvasula joins Marsh as Chief Digital Officer


This video was taken before my week of test flights. Before the 5/21/09 flight that saw this in action, I had made several 1km test flights.
The failsafe used is a Rc-Cam.com special project, RCFSv1. Here: http://rc-cam.com/rcfs.htm . Many thanks to Mr. RC-CAM for making his projects available.
A herd of orcas and one humpback whale.
Do you really think it´s better to add the round cover to the main chute instead of pulling it free by the pilot chute?


World's most stylish bookstores | New York Journal | We Got You Covered!
Once upon a time the opulent El Ateneo Grand Splendid in downtown Buenos Aires served as a theater and a cinema. Can you imagine the theater faced demolition in 2000! By now the Grand Splendid has grown as the city's most spectacular bookstore. The transformation into a bookstore has done nothing to diminish the Grand Splendid's opulence or impressive stature. The amazing 21,000 square foot showroom is framed by the century old fresco ceilings and gilded carvings. The private boxes serve as intimate reading rooms! Wouldn't you love to sit there and just read? Better leave your tablet and phone on the side for a bit. Don't miss seeing this most spectacular book store if you ever happen to be in Buenos Aires.
Founded in 1990 by William Daunt, there are now branches of the shop across London Hampstead and Holland Park. It's the original Marylebone High Street location, however, that holds a special place in our hearts. The Edwardian building, originally designed for antiquarian booksellers in 1910 has a bygone elegance that encourages to visit again and again. They also host regular author talks and book signing.s.
Housed in a former church, it was consecrated in 1294 but had not served a religious function since the turn of the 19th century, the space was being used as an anonymous bicycle storage facility when in 2005 it was taken over by the bookstore. A sleek, bordering on austere, two-storey black steel structure – essentially a giant bookshelf – holds the majority of the publications.
Luigi Frizzo describes his wonderful book store as the "most beautiful bookshop in the world". Du to the flooding happening often in Venice the shop solve the issue by piling the books into into buckets, bathtubs and, in one room, a gondola, so that when the water does creep into the store. Looks great? Doesn't it.
Founded in 1964 by Richard Bartinsdale, Bart's is one of the largest outdoor bookshops in the world and is open almost every day. Some shelves face the streets, others to a courtyard where the sun shines and customers can pay by putting money into a coin box after hours.
There are many more wonderful bookstores around the world. Do you have a favorite one? Let us know.


text:
HealthMiddle East
Civil Defence rescuing team saves life of Arab man who slipped into rugged mountain area
The Civil Defence team rescued the Arab man who slipped into a rugged area in the mountains of Shamal area in Ras Al Khaimah. According to the rescuers, the 28-year-old was on a trip with his friends of camping.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Trekking and campaigning, indeed, are the far most loveable activities of people, which can also prove to be harmful sometimes; in such an incident, a 28-year-old sustained injury on his shoulder after he fell from the mountain.
As per the statement of the Brigadier General Muhammad Abdullah Al Zaabi – the Director of the Civil Defence Department in Ras Al Khaimah, the team was reported about the incident in the evening via a phone call at around 6:43 pm.
Soon after being informed about the incident, the team of Civil Defence left for the site where the incident took place, underscored Brigadier Abdullah Al Zaabi. Reaching the incident site, the team came to know that the man had slipped down in the mountains of the Shamal area, where it is pretty challenging to reach.
Further informing and highlighting the difficulties faced by the rescuing team, Abdullah Al Zaabi noted that the team putting their lives at risk walked on foot on the dangerous way to save the life of the man.
It was then figured out that the man had broken his shoulder and was immediately given required medical aid by the rescuing team and was taken to the hospital at around 9:30 pm.
He then requested the people visiting the mountainous regions for trekking or campaigning to "to stay away from rugged, steep and hard to reach locations for their own safety, and to avoid getting into any trouble or such accidents".
Apart from this, while concluding his statement, he stressed the significance of taking all the precautionary measures while planning such trips to avoid any incidents.
Most of Gulf stock exchanges fell, tracking decline in oil prices & Asian stocks
Dubai Tariq Saeed - August 16, 2022 0
Dubai: Most of the major stock markets in the Gulf declined in early trading today, tracking the decline in Asian stocks and oil prices, with the Abu Dhabi index heading down for the third session.
UAE to witness cloudy, dusty weather in eastern region
The United Arab Emirates is set to witness some cloudy and dusty weather during the next few days, with a slight chance of rain in the eastern region along with slightly cooler temperatures.
Instagram vlogger, Rifa Mehnu found dead in Dubai
Kerala vlogger Rifa Mehnu who was discovered dead in Dubai is to be exhumed by the police following several complaints from her parents, who say she was murdered.
Bahrain: Human Resources and Finance at Ministry of Industry and Trade organizes charity market in 'Pink October event'
Middle East Tariq Saeed - November 22, 2022 0
The Department of Human Resources and Finance at the Ministry of Industry and Trade organized a diverse charity market in the Pink October event, where the proceeds of this market were donated and handed over by the Director of Management, Mr Nabil Rabia Muhammad, for the benefit of the Bahraini Cancer Association.
Facebook owner Meta announces its support towards UAE's 1 Billion Meals campaign
Meta, the owner of Facebook, has announced its support for the 1 Billion Meals initiative, which is the largest food donation campaign in the country.
'Sheikh Khalifa was heart of our family and guardian of our nation', states Sheikh Mohammed
Dubai Tariq Saeed - May 18, 2022 0
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the new President of UAE (United Arab Emirates), expressed his love and grief for his late brother Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed who died recently at the age of 73 due to prolonged illness.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
The Fosters (8 p.m., ABC Family) – Season 2 opens with the family dealing with the aftermath of last season's accident.
Major Crimes (9 p.m., TNT) – Season 4 begins with the squad investigating a double homicide that is related to a string of home invasions.
Murder in the First (10 p.m., TNT) – In the second season premiere, San Francisco's finest must work quickly after two students open fire on a school bus.
The Whispers (10 p.m., ABC) – As John continues his mission, Claire looks more closely into his identity. Meanwhile, Drill keeps playing dangerous games with unsuspecting children.
TURN: Washington's Spies (10 p.m., AMC) – The second season ends with Abe plotting Major Hewlett's assassination and Ben fighting at the Battle of Monmouth.
Reidsville police pull over "Superman"
Photos from Justin Timberlake's Super Bowl halftime show
What to Watch on Thursday: Vivica A. Fox in a new 'Wrong' movie on Lifetime
By Brooke Cain
"The Wrong Boy Next Door," the latest in Lifetime's "Wrong" series, stars Vivica A. Fox. Also tonight, new true crime on Investigation Discovery, new SharkFest shows and a Jermaine Dupri documentary on WeTV.


The inspiring alumnus in the second meeting, in September 2015, was Zvika Hadar – actor, comedian and leading TV host, who talked about the passage from the university to the University of Life. His story was followed by the enlightening lecture: 'It's not what you know, but who you know'.
The third meeting was held in December 2015 at Zappa Herzliya, in interview format. Revital Hendler, Faculty of the Arts alumna, Founder of AllJobs and Founding Partner in BreezoMeter, interviewed Meir Brand, Faculty of Social Sciences alumnus, CEO of Google Israel, Russia, the Middle East and Africa, and VP of Google. Brand shared his vision with the audience: follow your heart, curiosity and passion, work hard and don't look for shortcuts. His advice to entrepreneurs in the audience was: don't be afraid of failure, get used to the feeling, and learn to overcome it on your way to success. After the interview the audience enjoyed an exciting performance by guitar legend Avi Singolda and his band.
The next meeting, in March 2016, was held in the spirit of International Women's Day. Theater, TV and movie actress Limor Goldstein, Faculty of the Arts alumna, told her personal story, speaking of key sentences from her parental home, which had guided her and shaped her personality, such as: 'Don't place all your eggs in one basket'. She went on to describe how her love for acting got the better of this golden rule, and how, despite everything, she ended up placing all her eggs in the basket of her beloved profession. The event ended with a performance of the feminine trio 'Shlosharot' - Aya Korem, Raz Shmueli and Michal Geva – with a tribute to Israeli singing trios through the years.
On 2 January 2017, the 5th meeting with Inspiring Alumni event was held in conclusion of a fruitful year of activities with and for TAU Alumni, and in celebration of the beginning of 2017. In the center of this meeting will be the inspiring story of Yuval Tal, Faculty of Engineering alumnus, founder and president of Payoneer. Then the alumni enjoyed a special performance by the Singer, Musician and Composer David Broza.


text:
Abstract in der master thesis
Net realizable value
Home child homework help The philosophy of thomas hardy
The philosophy of thomas hardy
Yet a novel such as Far from the Madding Crowd, which raises many questions about society, religion, morals, and the contrast between a good life and its rewards, is bound to make the reader curious about the author who brings them up. Hardy lived in an age of transition. The industrial revolution was in the process of destroying the agricultural life, and the subsequent shifting of population caused a disintegration of rural customs and traditions that had meant security, stability, and dignity for the people. It was a period when fundamental beliefs — religious, social, scientific, and political — were shaken to their core and brought in their stead the "ache of modernism.
Hardy's Philosophy and Ideas
In Tess of the d'Urbervilles the lowland vale of the river is described as the Vale of the Great Dairies, in comparison to Tess's home, the fertile Vale of Blackmorewhich is the Vale of Little Dairies.
Hardy's first novel, The Poor Man and the Ladyfinished byfailed to find a publisher. He then showed it to his mentor and friend, the Victorian poet and novelist, George Meredithwho felt that The Poor Man and the Lady would be too politically controversial and might damage Hardy's ability to publish in the future.
So Hardy followed his advice and he did not try further to publish it.
He subsequently destroyed the manuscript, but used some of the ideas in his later work. The term " cliffhanger " is considered to have originated with the serialised version of this story which was published in Tinsley's Magazine between September and July in which Henry Knight, one of the protagonists, is left literally hanging off a cliff.
Wessex had been the name of an early Saxon kingdom, in approximately the same part of England. Far from the Madding Crowd was successful enough for Hardy to give up architectural work and pursue a literary career.
Over the next twenty-five years Hardy produced ten more novels. Then inthey moved for the last time, to Max Gatea house outside Dorchester designed by Hardy and built by his brother.
There he wrote The Mayor of CasterbridgeThe Woodlandersand Tess of the d'Urbervillesthe last of which attracted criticism for its sympathetic portrayal of a "fallen woman" and was initially refused publication. Its subtitle, A Pure Woman: Faithfully Presented, was intended to raise the eyebrows of the Victorian middle classes.
Jude the Obscurepublished inmet with an even stronger negative response from the Victorian public because of its controversial treatment of sex, religion and marriage. Furthermore, its apparent attack on the institution of marriage caused further strain on Hardy's already difficult marriage because Emma Hardy was concerned that Jude the Obscure would be read as autobiographical.
Some booksellers sold the novel in brown paper bags, and the Bishop of WakefieldWalsham Howis reputed to have burnt his copy. Literary themes[ edit ] Considered a Victorian realist, Hardy examines the social constraints on the lives of those living in Victorian Englandand criticises those beliefs, especially those relating to marriage, education and religion, that limited people's lives and caused unhappiness.
Such unhappiness, and the suffering it brings, is seen by poet Philip Larkin as central in Hardy's works: In my view it is suffering, or sadness, and extended consideration of the centrality of suffering in Hardy's work should be the first duty of the true critic for which the work is still waiting [.
The reader is forced to reconsider the conventions set up by society for the relationships between women and men. Nineteenth-century society had conventions, which were enforced. In this novel Swithin St Cleeve's idealism pits him against such contemporary social constraints.
In a novel structured around contrasts, the main opposition is between Swithin St Cleeve and Lady Viviette Constantine, who are presented as binary figures in a series of ways: Hardy's characters often encounter crossroads on a journey, a junction that offers alternative physical destinations but which is also symbolic of a point of opportunity and transition, further suggesting that fate is at work.
Far From the Madding Crowd is an example of a novel in which chance has a major role:Hardy is primarily a storyteller and should be viewed more as a chronicler of moods and deeds than as a philosopher. Yet a novel such as Far from the Madding Cr Hardy's Philosophy and Ideas.
Hardy's philosophy in Return of the Native, therefore, is presented in a two dimensional way. On one hand there is Hardy's conception of fate and on the other hand there is nature, which too has been portrayed in this novel as a governing force.
Results for 'Thomas Hardy Leahey' (try it on Scholar) + found. Order: Thomas Hardy 's "A Mere Interlude". This story describes the maturation of its heroine by narrating a series of events that transform her understanding of what it means to lead a human life.
In the first systematic study of the philosophy of Thomas Nagel.
the Philosophy of Thomas Hardy Hardy: An Artist and Not a Philosopher Hardy was an artist and not a philosopher. He repeatedly affirmed that the 'Views' expressed in his novels were not his convictions or beliefs; they were simply "impressions" of the moment.
Introduction. Hardy's conception of human life was shaped in part by his extensive critical reading of the Bible, study of ancient tragedy, contemporary philosophical and scientific works, and in .
Essay on Thomas Hardy's Philosophy on Life. Words 7 Pages. Thomas Hardy's Treatment of Women in His Short Stories Thomas Hardy was born in in Dorchester and he became a famous writer after his mother was keen to let him have a better education than her.
Most of .
Good research questions dissertations
The positive role of religion in
Thesis builder for analytic paper
Research paper on renewable energy essay
An analysis of the little red book written by one of chinas most influential characters of the 20th
Acct 561 snap fitness opportunity
Anh van
Honesty is the best policy
Poverty a natural inevitable phenomenon
An introduction to the analysis of the revolution and the constitution in the united states
Critical essays on alice walker edited by ikenna dieke
A literary analysis of the book about the cruelty of the holocaust night by elie wiesel
Search results for `Thomas Hardy Leahey` - PhilPapers


text:
These 5 shows will cure your post-'Far from Home' feels
Spider-man: Far from Home is showing everywhere this week. For many Marvel fans, this marks the end of an era. This isn't exactly common knowledge. But this is the last release from Marvel Cinematic Universe's Phase 3. How about Phase 4? We have to wait for a while before it begins.
To those out of the loop, Marvel films are divided into phases: Phase 1 (2008-2012) starts with the first Iron Man to the first instalment of The Avengers, while Phase 2 (2012-2015) begins with Iron Man 3 and continues until Ant-Man, Phase 3 (2016-2019) on the other hand, all began with Captain America: Civil War.
Read more: The best Spider-man film so far is now on Netflix
We're all waiting for what is yet to come in Phase 4. For now, we're looking forward to the TV series of our Marvel faves (what up, Loki?) and upcoming films to fawn over. Before a new film hits the silver screen, here are some shows we can watch in the meantime.
Familial ties are said to be one of the most powerful things in this world. In this case, it's proven to be stronger than a hostile government group or any super-powered mutant.
The Gifted is a story of a typical suburban family whose lives take a drastic turn after discovering that their children have developed powers of their own. In its entirety, the show gives us a family adventure that incorporates action, sci-fi, and drama in a way that keeps its viewers hooked.
We've all had that teenage angst phase where we think our parents are evil. In the case of Runaways, these six teenagers find out that they are absolutely correct.
Read more: "Captain Marvel" brings back the '90s aesthetic for promotional website
Based on the comic book series of the same name, this is a story of six teenagers who find out that their parents are part of an evil crime group, which brings the ragtag group of kids to band together to stop them. It's a breath of fresh air in the typical, somewhat drawn out, superhero genre.
Following your typical cliché of two strangers in a serendipitous meetup, Cloak and Dagger utilizes the trope. Here are two protagonists, who by fate, are bound together and develop powers after a freak oil rig explosion accident. Having excellent writing, a set of lovable and relatable protagonists, and the shows overall ability to fluidly mix action, suspense and drama, what's not to love about Cloak and Dagger?
Read more: We're freaking out, "TEOTFW" Season 2 is happening
This show, for lack of a better term, is mind-blowing. Believing at first he is just simply suffering from a variety of mental illnesses, David Haller a.k.a Legion turns out to be the world's most powerful psychic mutant.
The series uses a number of psychological twists and turns to reel us in, combined with its stunning yet psychedelic visuals. Legion simply is a masterpiece.
Read more: The 6 not-so-usual films to watch this Independence Day
Similar to Phase 3, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. brings its audience deeper into the Marvel universe. The story focuses on a small, highly trained group of ordinary human S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as they tackle cases which are anything but ordinary.
by Charles Gan
Still from Spider-man: Far From Home
The 5 Scoutmag.ph Stories You Should Read This Week (11/12/16)
SHAREIf you weren't all up on our social media accounts (which you should,...
Deng Garcia Of Flying Ipis Is Saving The Sharks
SHAREBy Danice Abril If you've listened to "Lundagin Mo, Beybi" or "This Song...
Y2K kids, the OG 'Yu-Gi-Oh' series is coming to your screens
SHAREStay alive, Y2K anime kids. Your friends might be in for the coolest...
BuwanBuwan Collective's post-Fete playlist brings the beats to your bedroom
5 shows to watch when you want to feel soft


text:
Genres / Choral / Willowhayne Records
MATTHEW COLERIDGE: REQUIEM
RSVP VOICES, GUY JOHNSTON (CELLO), GEORGE BARTON (PERCUSSION), STEPHEN FARR (ORGAN), ROB JOHNSTON (CONDUCTOR)
Matthew Coleridge's beautiful and moving Requiem was written in 2016. Choosing to omit certain sections such as the Dies Irae and In Paradisum, the Requiem shows an affinity towards the music of Ockeghem, de La Rue and Richafort. The work is a tribute to a departed soul, the solo cello part can perhaps be seen as an embodiment of that soul.
"A valuable addition to the 21st century choral repertoire" - Sir Neville Marriner. More >>
...AND THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE: CHORAL MUSIC BY MICHAEL WALSH
Antiphon, Antiphon Players, Matthew Cann (director)
In their second album for Willowhayne Records, Antiphon presents world premiere recordings of three choral works by Michael Walsh. Two are sacred and one secular: an unaccompanied Mass of the Holy Trinity, a full-scale Requiem Mass, and The Way of Love: a setting of five love poems by the First World War poet Rupert Brooke, scored for choir and strings.
These works reflect the gentle character of the composer's style, steeped through nearly thirty years of singing in English Cathedrals. More >>
A BABE IS BORN: MUSIC FOR ADVENT, CHRISTMAS & EPIPHANY
Côr Cadeirlan Bangor Cathedral Choir
This is the début recording of the mixed choir of Bangor Cathedral, under the direction of J. Paul Booth. A Babe is Born: Music for Advent, Christmas & Epiphany brings together some popular carols (some sung in Welsh) with some lesser known items, including the world première recording of Ian Higginson's exquisite Balulalow, written for the choir in 2014. With sensitive organ playing from Martin J. Brown, this album is the perfect accompaniment to your Christmas celebrations. More >>
O MY PEOPLE
ANTIPHON, MATTHEW CANN (DIRECTOR)
A collection of sublime 20th and 21st century a capella choral music, including several world premiere recordings. Recorded in the magnificent acoustic of the Lady Chapel in Exeter Cathedral, UK, works include Elgar's Lux aeterna, Sanders' The Reproaches and Whitacre's A Boy and a Girl. More >>


Chatterbox: We talk to DUX about 'Lady Of The Night', living in Los Angeles and his influences.
Chatterbox: Call Me Karizma talks to us about his new EP, working with local youth and being blunt.
Chatterbox: We chat to L.A. based producer Bohkeh about his new single 'Hold You', streaming and his husky.


Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr has revealed the 24th player to be part of Nigeria's squad at the 2018 World Cup, but as an unregistered twenty-fourth player.
Rohr revealed that he had included goalkeeper Carl Ikeme as an extra player which is in line with the FIFA rules. In USA 1994, Clemens Westerhof included Tijani Babangida while in Korea/Japan 1994, Festus Onigbinde included Peter Odemwingie as an extra player.
Ikeme, who is recovering from illness, played in the second round of the African World Cup qualifiers against Swaziland and started Nigeria's World Cup campaign when Nigeria beat Zambia away in their first game of the third round.
Meanwhile, Moses Simon has been the sidelined for four weeks which will see him miss the World Cup after he failed to recover from an injury.
The Super Eagles players and officials are already in Port Harcourt ahead of their pre-world cup friendly against the Democratic Republic of Congo.


SINGAPORE - Singapore's maritime sector will be getting fresh funds and programmes that will build up a local talent pool, improve productivity levels and spur more research and development activity.
Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said the government will set aside $25 million to support productivity initiatives among maritime companies.
Singapore has 5,000 maritime companies that employ 170,000 people. The sector contributes 7 per cent to Singapore's GDP.
The Maritime Cluster Fund-Productivity Programme will co-fund business initiatives, such as business process re-engineering, automation and adoption of other productivity tools or practices.
"Productivity improvements are indeed critical not only for Singapore's maritime sector but also across the global maritime industry, given the universal challenges of cost pressures and shortage of skilled manpower," said Mr Tharman in his opening remarks at the Sea Asia Conference and Exhibition on Tuesday.
Singapore's harbour craft sector was singled out as a potential beneficiary of the MCF-Productivity Programme. Operators that manually assign their vessels to work could use IT systems to do the job in real time.
In coming months, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore will be working with harbour craft operators to review the sector's highly fragmented market structure and identify opportunities for productivity improvements.
"These may include re-defining business models, developing new harbour craft designs, re-designing jobs and upskilling harbour craft workers," Mr Tharman said.
The government will also continue a maritime research and development kitty for another five years with a $50 million injection.


text:
Tissa Rahim, the Persian Powerhouse, is an established West Coast musician with a 40-city North American tour under her belt. She has performed at House of Blues in New Orleans, the Gramercy Theatre in New York, and Vancouver's quintessential jazz and soul club, Guilt and Co. Named one of 24 Magazine's "Top 24 under 24", her collaborators include producers such as 100 Monkeys' Jackson Rathbone. As a solo artist, Tissa is able to freely explore her effortless Soul/RnB sound, infusing it with the traditional Persian music her family has made for generations. Beyond performing as a solo act up to a 6-piece band, she has led workshops on how her Middle Eastern roots have influenced her contemporary songwriting. Tissa's signature vocal style combines the depth of Amy Winehouse with the melodic playfulness of Googoosh.
Since 2019, Rahim has built up an enticing catalogue as a solo artist, consisting of digital releases, videos and a number of collaborations with artists in Vancouver and beyond. Tissa's upcoming single "Sunrise To Sunset" was written as part of Music BC's Canadian Songwriter Challenge, where she placed in the Top 15. It will be released on all platforms on October 1st, 2021.
Tagged as: soul
Previous: Paul Caldwell | Next: Emily Molloy Music


text:
ct scramble.
we have the best pizza.
CT on Spotify
Hot GIgs
Experimental Interview New Haven
Voice, Earth, and Ground: An Interview with Derek Piotr
By ctscramble September 19, 2018 October 27, 2018
Grunt (noun): a word typically defined as "a low, short guttural sound made by an animal or a person." The sound is defined by its primitive connections, and like many of the endless verbalizations that the human voice can create, it exists within the space outside of our modern semantics.
Despite this evolution of human vocal sophistication, there is still a primordial otherness found in those ineffable intonations that is simultaneously mysterious and appealing. Strangely enough, humans have often explored this verbal otherness in the creation of music. After all, the human voice does not need words to sing. The voice of an instrument does not either. This space between words, it seems, contains both our primitive grunts and our capacity to love music.
On his upcoming album Grunt (officially out September 28th), the New England experimental musician Derek Piotr explores those spaces between the semantics and narratives that are created with traditional music, employing both his own voice and the voices of others and sonically manipulating them into something entirely different.
Earlier this month, we spoke with the experimental musician about his new album, the tenacity of the human voice, and the New Haven noise scene.
Derek Piotr – Grunt (2018)
CTS: First off, really awesome album art. It's you right? Who created it? How did it come about? Does it have a specific connection with your art?
DP: Thank you so much. I collaborated with a visual-video artist Baron Lanteigne on that image. We actually found it as a still from a video we worked on for the title track to Grunt. I wanted some continuity with how I appeared on my last sleeve, Forest People Pop, with just my eye showing and the rest of my face hidden by digital-ness. I also felt it was time to be represented as glitchy as the music maybe sounds. I feel a little funny appearing on my album sleeves but I think it has been a natural evolution up to this point. My first 6 record sleeves did not have my face on, but it is time now somehow.
CTS: Some people on this earth decide to pick up a guitar and write country music. In contrast, you went a very different direction: noise. What originally drew you to this style of art?
Well, I think if I had started on guitar I'd still be on guitar, or organ, piano, harp, whatever… But the journey I was on when I was about 15 was definitely very informed by techno-pop music. One friend of mine at that time recommended Audacity to me, so my first real experience making my "own" music was editing on the computer. Voice is still my first instrument–I was always singing even younger as a child.
But being born in 1991, I am one of the first generations who grew up totally online, and I definitely think it was due to some of the records i was listening to at the time and also just how we were raised. I remember going to a computer lab when I was 6. I never really sought after the guitar. It has no place in my work. I am very excited by digital edits so I am glad I am in a position in my life where I can constantly make them to my voice.
CTS: I know there are some people who are used to more traditional musical approaches who may witness a noise performance and either not "get it" or actually have a strong negative reaction to it. What are your thoughts on the contrast of "noise" vs. "music"? Are they one and the same to you? Do you think noise conjures the same emotional and physical appeal as someone listening to a singer-songwriter?
DP: Once I played a show where I was, as always, behind my laptop. One observer suggested I could come out from behind it and sing more. Did Joni Mitchell come out from behind her dulcimer? Or Stevie Wonder his piano? This is the music I make. I fully believe in the idea of music as music, not as art, or shocking noise or some kind of concept piece. Ultimately I want this to be a healing and invigorating experience for people. One blog described me once as a "pure at heart folk singer". I think it is all a matter of perspective. The work I make is extremely emotional to me. Musicality and emotion are numbers one and two in the equation. Mostly I hope to conjure positive experiences around my work and not be challenging.
CTS: Did you have a specific goal in creating Grunt? Why the title? Where do you see its place in your body of work? Is there a narrative hidden in its sequence or is it purely anti-narrative?
DP: Grunt = either a kind of unfiltered human low guttural utterance or, in Polish, "earth" or "ground". I feel we as a civilization have gotten so slicked down by web 2.0 and where technology is now, that I tried to technologically subvert that in very rough, direct edits. Also in a lot of voice recordings, not all of which are pretty. I spent a ton of thought and sweat over how the track sequencing should be, but yeah I wouldn't say anti-narrative …it is definitely more non-narrative, More of a sonic journey so I tried to make the transitions as seamless and complete as I could.
CTS: Where do you find your sounds? What helps you determine what is the kind of sound you like versus something that doesn't "fit" what you are working on?
DP: All of this record was recorded by me. I don't sample things. There is one violinist on this record, there is Kevin Drumm, who remixed and edited one track, and the mastering engineer. I generally know the sonic landscape I'm after at the beginning of a project, and make recordings and edits focused on my goal. 90 percent of this record is recordings of my own voice.
CTS: I think there is an actual human voice singing on one of the tracks… it stands out to a strange effect… did you just think "this is where the one voice goes"? Haha. What do you think the role of human singing serves between all of the static?
DP: I think that I try ten million approaches with the voice, and I am first and foremost a singer (as I said earlier), but I think I only sing on two tracks:"DZ", and later, more recognizably on "Pure". Those are the most intact vocal recordings. I sing all over the record, it just gets edited to smithereens.
I wanted one song that had recognizable structure melody and lyrics that I could sing live, though. Some of my earliest ideas about making music came from the way the human voice is recognizable even through, say, radio static. even faint flickerings of voice can be heard through the wall of white noise of between radio stations. that is a precious human gift. to recognize other humans. I have not forgotten that idea on this album.
CTS: To my knowledge, there is a pretty solid noise scene around the New Haven area, are you familiar with the scene at all? I personally am not, so I am curious on your take. I saw one experimental show at a place called Neverending Books a few months ago, and it was really wild. It seems like the performance is aiming for a distinctly different goal than someone just trying to perform their song as intended. In your opinion, what makes a noise performance so uniquely its own?
Derek Piotr at Neverending Books in New Haven
I actually have played Neverending books (The audio is here). The New Haven scene surprised me. It's amazingly vibrant. I mostly focused outside of my home state for years when I was touring, but this past year has been really Connecticut-heavy. It's been so nice to have that community at this stage in my work. I am very grateful and enthusiastic about the New Haven scene. Really a nice surprise.
Grunt by Derek Piotr comes out on September 28th. Listen to "Pure" off Grunt below:
Tags: #newhaven derekpiotr Experimental featured Hartford Interview Noise
Published by ctscramble
CT Indie Digital Zine	View all posts by ctscramble
CT Trending
Review: The Planet You - I Too (Me Also) (2017)
Laundry Day's "Seven Seas" Music Video Is The Most New Haven Music Video
Now Streaming: Ice Cream Orphan - I Have Athletes In My Closet (2018)
S.G. Carlson Announces New Album Sing The Hits, Shares New Song 'Holy Motors'
We Are The Losers: An Interview with Intercourse
Eel People Announce New Album, Drop Single "We Don't Have to Die": Stream
Hear This: Eager Sails - The Palisades (2019)
Fleurs Drops New Single 'Sophomores', Album Two Imminent
Interview: The Synergy of Similar Kind
On Repeat: Fleurs - Shut Up (2019)
Previous Entry On Repeat: Eddie Jowels' Debut Record Terraforms and Transforms
Next Entry Now Streaming: Will Grayson – Yet What Else After All (2018)
CT Scramble 2019 Spotify Playlist
Recent Posts: ct scramble.
Song Premiere: Two Headed Girl – Get Slow (2019)
UHart based Two Headed Girl is the indie rock project of twin sisters Angelica and Celeste Padua and Cam Pulaski. Last year, the trio released their debut EP, With Sadness, a solid collection of queer, emotive indie rock with a touch of mathy guitar work. Today, we are happy to share a new song from the Two […]
Interview: Mandala Find Their Groove on Damsel in Defense
By Sabrina Cofer – Contact Writer At a split-level home snug in UConn Territory, Waterbury-based Mandala sit with me outside on the strangest makeshift porch I've ever seen. There's a sagging brown couch with green-tinted pillows, a couple of wooden dining room chairs, a faux-leather seated kitchen stool, and an old coffee table in the […]
Early November Recap: 20(!) New CT Indie Releases Now Streaming
Sup fam. Happy beginning of November! Just another quick list of new CT indie music delivered to your front door to keep you informed and entertained. Today's collection features a wide range of genres and styles, including angular post-punk, experimental pop, and lo-fi folk punk. And emo, of course. There's always emo. Listen via Spotify […]
On Repeat: Fleurs – Shut Up (2019)
New Haven indie rock band Fleurs is the gothic garage rock project of Alexander Falconer. Today, Fleurs has released their new album, Shut Up. It is their first since 2018's Life of The Appetite. Building on the styles Fleurs has been embracing since their inception, Shut Up takes everything that Fleurs did well on their first album and amplifies it. The […]
Kidz Bop Made Woozles Take Down Vol.666, So We're Listening to Woozles Today
Remember Kidz Bop? The compilation series from the 90s-2000s that featured children with questionable singing ability doing covers of mainstream pop hits? Yeah, we know you do. Well, apparently Kidz Bop parent company Concord Music had taken issue with Torrington indie rock artist Woozles, particularly the titling of Woozles' 2018 album kidz bopz vol.666. We couldn't […]


TOKYO (December 24, 2015) – THine Electronics, Inc. (JASDAQ:6769), the global leader in high-speed serial interface and provider of mixed-signal LSI today announced its exhibition of its high-speed interface technology, V-by-One®HS for Japan Display Inc.("JDI")'s automotive 3K LCD panel at International CES2016, held at Las Vegas, USA from January 6th to 9th, 2016. This will be exhibited at Hirose Electric Co., Ltd.'s Booth 73563 (Wearables Marketplace) at Hall A-C, Sands Expo (Tech West).
THine has automotive product line-ups, including V-by-One®HS and timing controllers (TCONs), for full-HD in-vehicle infotainment and its dedicated solution for Japanese automakers' infotainment systems and electric rear-view mirrors. Automotive display systems are requiring higher-resolution. Automotive makers are developing their products toward such trend. THine, in order to offer smarter solution for higher-resolution panels, will exhibit its V-by-One®HS technology for the internal interface of JDI's automotive 3K (2880x1080) panel with Hirose Electric's connector technology for higher-speed and high-quality.
V-by-One®HS allows reducing internal interface cables up to only 2-pairs, or one-tenth of usually required 20-pairs, between graphic engines and TCONs. V-by-One®HS is recognized as de facto standard for high-definition televisions such as 4K TV. THine also exhibits its TCON technology for automotive 3K panels. THine plans to develop TCONs with V-by-One®HS and to support the market trend for higher resolution through THine's value added by its new technology.
The International CES (Consumer Electronics Show) is the world's gathering place for all who thrive on the business of consumer technologies. Held in Las Vegas every year, it has served as the proving ground for innovators and breakthrough technologies for more than 40 years - the global stage where next-generation innovations are introduced to the marketplace.
TRADEMARKS All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.


... web page) to find out more about the thesis project undertaken during your junior and senior year. There are a number of important documents linked on this page, including the syllabus for HON 4V87, Guidelines for Formatting an Honors Thesis, and Guidelines for the Oral Defense & Submission of the Honors Thesis.
Higher Education Controversies Bob baylor honors thesis syllabus Jensen at Trinity University . SEO and SEM professionals use SEMrush to find the best keywords and online marketing ideas. robert frost fire and ice research paper i.


text:
UK:LONDON
Switzerland:Zurich
Denmark:Lyngby
France:Paris
USA:Cambridge
USA:Short Hills
Germany:Frankfurt
Switzerland:Basel
Germany:Berlin
USA:Los Angeles
USA:Pittsburgh
Australia:Sydney
Belgium:Brussels
Coulter:Partners
Levels & Functions
London to Paris 24 Hour Cycle
For Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support
Melanie Craven
Senior Project Co-ordinator/Executive Assistant
170 miles. Over night. Almost No Experience.
OVER £25K RAISED BY WHOLE TEAM FOR CANCER RESEARCH UK AND MACMILLAN CANCER SUPPORT
Melanie's Account:
"A year ago I would never have imagined that I could now say that I have cycled from London to Paris in under 24 hours. I am not a cyclist and did not have a bike until just before Christmas. But this was for such a good cause (Cancer Research UK and Macmillan) that I could not back out.
On Friday 28th April, along with 12 friends, I set off on the biggest challenge of my life and began the first leg of the cycle to Newhaven. I have to say this was the best long cycle I have ever done – probably the adrenaline helped me along, but a successful cycle saw us arrive at the ferry an hour earlier than expected. We then opened the many containers of pasta we had with us and started to refuel before a much-needed sleep on the ferry (sadly the ferry took only 4 hours). We arrived at Dieppe at 4.30am French time on Saturday morning, a little bleary eyed, but luckily not too sore.
Freezing Fog
What we did not expect for the first leg of our journey in France, was to have to cycle in – 2 ˚C and fog. Despite the first 30 miles being on a cycle trail, the weather made it far from enjoyable and there were more than a few occasions that I was wishing I was in the support car rather than on my bike, but I powered through. We finally stopped for a warming hot chocolate and pastry before setting off again. I enjoyed seeing the fantastic sights along the way, but anyone who thinks there are no hills in France is completely mistaken. Still… every hill we climbed, was one closer to the finish line.
Paris – so near yet so far!
As we were approaching Paris, I had a slight mishap with Google Maps which set us back a few minutes, but we got back on track and headed for the Eiffel Tower. At this point, I decided I wanted to be at the front and miraculously found some energy to do a sprint finish. The feeling of relief when we saw the Eiffel Tower and our family and friends was overwhelming. We were welcomed by cheers, banners, whistles, berets and champagne. It was the best feeling to know we had made it there in 23 hours and 10 minutes and therefore succeeding in our task to make it in under 24 hours whilst managing to raise over £25,000 for our charities.
I feel so proud to have been part of the team and can't quite believe we all made it in one piece and without a single puncture!"
CONGRATULATIONS TO MEL AND TEAM!!
©Coulter Partners 2016
Stay on the pulse with our newsletter


A new commercial freight deal has been signed by a Kent port, increasing direct services to Poland.
Hutchison Ports London Thamesport, on the Isle of Grain, says the deal with Helsinki-based Containerships plc will help grow its reputation as a short-sea container hub.
It will see the Finnish firm introduce a second weekly service from Gdynia, Poland.
Transit times to Gdynia will take three to four days and four to six for the return journey.
Mark Taylor, on behalf of London Thamesport, said: "Containerships' port of choice reflects the growing interest we are seeing for short sea container services into London Thamesport.
"This additional direct service from Gdynia provides a reliable, cost effective short sea alternative to road transport from Poland. This will provide a welcome option for UK importers struggling with driver shortages and higher haulage rates on the continent.
Containerships is a leading short sea, end-to-end operator. It is present in 21 countries and operates a fleet of 14 ships across the North and Baltic Seas as well as the Mediterranean.


text:
First Latin American Festival held in Ridgeland
Shellie Murdaugh
kmurdaugh@jaspercountysun.com
The inaugural Latin American Festival, sponsored by the Jasper County Sheriff's Office, was held Sunday at the Jasper County Farmers Market in Ridgeland.
Hundreds of people attended the free event, which featured food, music, vendors and entertainment.
Jasper County Sheriff Chris Malphrus presented Nadia Paez with the Citizen of the Quarter Award as Paez partnered with the sheriff's office to organize the festival. Malphrus also received an award for helping organize the event.
"I am honored to be named the Citizen of the Quarter and I appreciate the sheriff's office for helping us make the first Latin American Festival a success," Paez said.
"We appreciate all of those who participated as vendors or entertainment and all of those who attended. This was a great way to showcase the Latin American community in Jasper County and the surrounding areas."
Malphrus thanked those who attended the festival.
"We were pleased to have been a part of the event," Malphrus said. "It is always wonderful to be able to bring together the entire community and have an afternoon of food and fellowship with our neighbors."


text:
Yellow Dragon Sports Centre Stadium
Address: 1 Huanglong Road, Hangzhou
Main use: Football
Tenants: Zhejiang FC (football)
Extra stadium info – Yellow Dragon Sports Centre Stadium
The Yellow Dragon Sports Centre Stadium is also used for athletics and concerts. It hosted eight games for the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup. The stadium's first match of the tournament was won by Australia after beating Ghana. 30,000 spectators attended the game. Norway won the second match against Canada 2-1. The third game was won by Canada after defeating Ghana and the fourth game ended in a 1-1 draw between Australia and Norway. Germany defeated Japan 2-0 in the fifth match and Norway won the sixth game against Ghana 7-2. The women's national football team of Denmark lost the seventh game against Brazil.
The last games of the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup
The last game of the women's football tournament at the Yellow Dragon Sports Centre Stadium was a semi-final. Brazil won the game against the United States in front of 47,000 spectators. The women's national football team of Germany won the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup in Shanghai. They reached the final of the tournament after winning 3-0 from Norway.
Zhejiang FC
Zhejiang FC use the Yellow Dragon Sports Centre Stadium for home games. The football club was founded in 1998. They are among the first Chinese sports clubs with 1 million followers on their main social media page. In 2007, Zhejiang FC drew an average home attendance of 19,000 in their inaugural Chinese top-flight football league season. That year, Zhejiang FC finished 11th place in the top division of China after gathering 28 points in 28 games. They won six of those 28 games. 10 matches ended in a draw and 12 matches ended in a loss.
© sports.sohu.com


This fine relic was metal-detected on private property near the battle of Stephenson's Depot, Va. It is in outstanding and unrepaired condition. There is a tiny crack that isn't even half a millimeter in length (you may or may not be able to see it on the photos) but the pin is quite stable. The attachment loops are missing, as is the case 99% of the time. Your satisfaction with this relic and with any item I sell is ironclad. If you're unhappy for any reason, send it back for a full refund. Never a restocking fee!


text:
The Difference Between a Pillow Top and an Euro Top Mattress
December 9, 2022 December 5, 2022 by Charlene Farwell
Like all things, mattresses must receive a regular update from time to time. But the pillow top and euro top mattresses have been here for a long time, and thank goodness they're here to stay. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that about a third of the population of the United States don't get proper sleep, and it mostly has to do with the sleeping environment.
You see, everything needs a good mood. When you're sleeping on a saggy mattress or a bed made of rock hard foam, things can get pretty frustrating. Most people do not get enough sleep due to their mattresses lacking the correct firmness rating or the required features.
So when we do set out to choose a good mattress, we are faced with a question: Euro Top or Pillow Top? And if you're like most people, you don't know what that means. Luckily, we do. And we have compared the two side by side and in-depth.
How to Make Ends Meet if You're Unemployed: Budgeting Tips
Construction The air gap between the Comfort and Pillow layer.
Foam, fiberfill No air gap between the Comfort and Pillow layer.
Foam, fiberfill
Firmness Rating Soft; between 4.5 and 6 Firmness, between 6.5 and 7
Thickness 3 inches (gap included) 3 inches (no gap)
Uniformity Appearance: Not uniform
Firmness: Uniform Appearance: Uniform
Firmness: Not uniform
Durability May sag and lose cushioning ability. Does not sag easily.
You maybe interested in How to Choose a Mattress Fit for You?
The major difference between the Euro Top and the Pillow Top mattresses is that they all have different compositions. The construction and interior architecture are what changes the sleep environment entirely.
The Pillow Top has a soft cushiony pillow stitched right over the outer padding. However, there is a very minor gap between the two layers, which is what makes the Pillow Top extra squishy and soft. This tiny gap might just be the difference between sleepless nights and sweet dreams. The gap does not allow microbial growth or mold spores to breed, but some cheaper mattresses may allow this.
The Euro Top is just like the Pillow Top, except the minor gap is not present. The entire thing is stitched into the last layer with no gap, making the mattress rather firm and supportive. We highly recommend the Euro Top for users who require some extra support while sleeping. Since there is no gap there is a lesser chance of microbial growth and mold spores.
Internally, both the Euro Top and the Pillow Top mattresses are filled with foam and fiberfill. The type of foam varies from product to product, but we've rarely seen any with memory foam in it.
Firmness is an important factor. A softer mattress used by someone who needs back and neck support may cause insomnia, back pain, and even unwanted sagging. As per a study conducted in the National Institute of Health, choosing a wrong firmness may add to insomnia and even amplify the pain and discomfort.
The Pillow Top
The Pillow Top has a softer feel and more bounce. This is highly due to the gap between the two layers. This gap facilitates not only a soft cushiony effect but also increases buoyancy. These beds can be found in various firmness ratings but must lie between 4.5 and 6. The soft feeling is highly recommended for users who want to reduce back pain and need more body contouring. This is perfect for you if you just want to sink in.
The Euro Top
The Euro Top lacks the extra air gap between the outer layers and hence has a higher firmness rating than the Pillow Top. This does not mean that a firm mattress is a bed mattress. Many users require support and structure, and many resorts to firmer mattresses for added comfort. Most Euro Tops have a firmness rating of 6.5 and above.
The Pillow Top and the Euro Top both have the same thickness, but some portion of the thickness is contributed by the air gap.
The Pillow Top measures 3 inches thick with the air-gap included. Without the gap, the actual thickness of the foam will be lesser.
The Euro Top has a true thickness of 3 inches, and it has no air gap. This means that the actual foam is thicker than the Pillow Top, and this is obviously firmer and less cushiony.
Mattresses are better when they're uniform, but for many users, the mattress needs to have a different firmness rating on different sides.
The Pillow Top is for the most part uniform in terms of firmness. The cushiony feeling is perfect and does not change, save due to environmental damage and degradation. In terms of appearance, most Pillow Tops have the top layer showing very prominently, which means that the mattress itself doesn't appear uniform. The stitching and the sides are different. But rest assured, the firmness is evenly distributed.
However, with Euro Top mattresses, the firmness does not remain uniform. The bed is usually softer in the middle and firmer around the edges. This is why some may feel that the Euro Top is sagging, but really that's just the construction. In terms of appearance, the top layer is uniformly stitched into the masterpiece, which is more pleasing to the eye.
The Pillow Top is not as durable as the Euro Top. You see, the cushioning effect is usually temporary. Most mattresses end up losing the effect do become worn down and saggy. Some newer mattresses may hold the pillow top for lengthy periods of time but at the end they all sag.
Read a more detailed Pillow Top mattress review.
The Euro Top, though, does not exhibit anything like this. It does not sag, save for the natural sag that comes from non-uniform firmness. The entire mattress can remain firm and taught for almost a lifetime. These too can be pretty short-lived, but this usually depends on the environment and the type of product itself. A good Euro Top will last an entire lifetime.
You maybe like to know more about Top Rated Mattress Brands.
The most major difference between the Pillow Top and the Euro Top is the air gap present in the Pillow Top, which provides added cushioning and buoyancy. Euro Top is a bit more durable and firm, but we owe all the softness in our mattresses to Pillow Tops.
But as always, the right choice is in your hands. Sleep tight, and don't buy the wrong mattress!


text:
War veteran's emotional return to Singapore by The National Lottery Community Fund
February 5, 2010, 11:39 am
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Big Lottery Fund, Death Railway, Heroes Return 2, Keelung Harbour, Lottery Funding, POW, Second World War. WW2, Singapore
Jack Fowler served in the Far East during the Second World War before his was captured by the Japanese and taken to a POW camp. This film follows his emotional return to Singapore.
Robert Day returns to the battlefields of Egypt by The National Lottery Community Fund
Filed under: memorial | Tags: Big Lottery Fund, Death Railway, Heroes Return 2, Keelung Harbour, Lottery Funding, POW, Second World War. WW2, Singapore
Robert Day served in World War 2 in Northern Africa as a tank engineer, getting them back to the front line. This film follows his return to El Alamein, Egypt where he visits the battlefields he fought on, military cemeterys and museums.
Last hurrah for WW2 veterans by The National Lottery Community Fund
Filed under: Far East, Singapore | Tags: BIG, Big Lottery Fund, British Pacific and East Indies Fleets Association, egypt. world war 2, Heroes Return, Heroes Return 2, HMS Victorious, HR2, Lottery Funding, Malaysia, Penang, Singapore, veterans, WW2, WWII
Second World War Royal Navy veterans from across the UK are flying out to Singapore and Malaysia next week (28thJanuary) to pay their respects for the final time to the comrades that lost their lives in the Pacific. The veterans are part of a 127 strong party from the British Pacific and East Indies Fleets Association
It is the final time the veterans, most now in their 80s and 90s, are travelling as a group to pay their respects in Singapore and on the Malaysian island of Penang.
One member of the association making the trip is Mr Victor Gray who lives in Plymouth and first joined the Royal Navy in September 1943 just after his 18th birthday. Victor, who is now 85, was chosen to be trained as a specialist radio operator, intercepting the enemy radio transmissions and in 1944 travelled to the Far East on the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious via the Mediterranean and North Africa.
Victor explains: "We went to India and became part of the East Indies Fleet. We then set sail for Palembang and in a battle with the Japanese over two or three days we managed to destroy a third of the Japanese oil supplies. After that we travelled down to Sydney where we joined what then became the British Pacific Fleet. It was so hot, you could fry an egg on the flight deck and I actually saw that done more than once.
To find out more about Victor's story and the Heroes Return 2 programme visit our programme page
http://www2.biglotteryfund.org.uk/pr_220110_uk_hr_last_hurrah_for_wwii_veterans
Jack Fowler Returns to the Far East with his wife Pearl Fowler by The National Lottery Community Fund
Filed under: Far East | Tags: BIG, Big Lottery Fund, Death Railway, Far East, Heroes Return, Heroes Return 2, Hong Kong, Jack Fowler, Japanese, Keelung Harbour, Kinhaseki, Kinkasekid, Lottery Funding, National Lottery, Pearl Fowler, POW, Prisoner of War, Second World War. WW2, Singapore, Stanley Market, WWII
Pearl Fowler went back to the Far East with her husband who served there during the Second World and was the taken as a Prisoner of War. Pearl has recorded some of the most memorable parts of their trip.
Arrived with time to spare despite traffic. In duty free, do I treat myself?
Arrived in Hong Kong. Lost camera and spectacles, not to worry. Lovely meal in hotel and so to bed as very exhausted
Selling poppies at Great Pacific Mall in Central Hong Kong with fellow travellers
Remembrance Service in Central Hong Kong. Talking with Captain Alex Butterfield about being released by the Americans. Laying poppy wreaths at cenotaph. Went to Sai Wan Cemetery finding gravestones of several Suffolks, which was very emotional. Visited and left poppy cross at Jack Edwards grave, a very emotional day.
A day of shopping at Stanley Market. An experience travelling 1 hr by local bus and trying to barter with stall holders. It was very hot and clammy
Had a meal at the revolving restaurant, then onto the peak. Wonderful views, an exceptional day
Short flight and long car journey to reach hotel, settled in and got an early night as busy day tomorrow.
Visit the campsite of the copper mine Kinkasekid and the mining museum which has now become a tourist destination. Followed by visit to Keelung Harbour where all the prisoners landed after their long sea trips on the hell ships. From here they were taken by train so far and then a 10 mile march up a very steep track to the campsite carrying whatever kit they still had in their possession.
Historical & cultural tour
Jungle campsite for memorial service, all the locals were there to greet the P.O.W.'s with a band playing, drums beating and bugles playing. Met 90 yr old farmer who remembered the P.O.W's time
Memorial services at Kinhaseki. Laying of wreaths. Last post played by trumpeter Andrew Tsao. Bagpipers played by Mal Turner whilst wreaths were laid. Prayers by Rev Diane Womg. Very emotional time when P.O.W's paid tributes.


text:
Rabbi Pruzansky's Blog
The views expressed here are solely my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of family, friends, shul, organizations or any other affiliations.
← Betrayal and Salvation
Freedom of Irreligion →
PM Binyamin Netanyahu was roundly criticized by the usual suspects for absenting himself from the memorial service for South Africa's late leader Nelson Mandela. To be sure, the lamest of reasons was offered: the expense of traveling and the inability to arrange for adequate security in such a short period of time. The former is bogus – a delegation led by Israel's Knesset Speaker attended anyway – and the latter is equally specious, unless the security needed was to protect the Prime Minister from some of the other world "leaders" in attendance. And therein lies the paradox of Nelson Mandela.
The coverage of his life, death and prolonged funeral has effectively characterized Mandela's remarkable career and life story, even as it has downplayed some of the more sordid aspects. That is usually understandable after someone's death, but is especially reserved for iconic figures whose lives transcended their personal stories and thereby transmit a deeper message. Considering that South Africa is not a major world power and geographically isolated from much of the civilized world, and even conceding the ignominy of the apartheid system that kept blacks enslaved and second-class residents in their own country, what is it about Mandela – a national hero to be sure – that transformed him into an international symbol? And what are the limits of the adulation?
One simple comparison illustrates Mandela's uniqueness, and alone justifies much of the lionization. Look at Zimbabwe's thuggish dictator Robert Mugabe – who also prevailed over the apartheid system extant in Rhodesia – and the distinctions become clear. Mugabe has driven his country into dire poverty amid his own brand of persecution, ruling with a brutal, iron fist, preventing free elections, filling his prisons with his opponents and lining his own pockets and those of his supporters. It is inarguable that whites – and even blacks – were better off under the prior system, even with its racism, that they are today.
By contrast, Mandela emerged from prison humble, human, and dignified. He ushered in an era of reconciliation, which, if imperfectly implemented, was at least an effort at something positive. He was elected president, and then stepped down after one term, enshrining the façade of democracy and providing an example to his successors (not to mention other African strongmen). There was no reign of terror. For simply choosing a different path than Mugabe, Mandela deserves praise.
Nonetheless, as one looks at his history, and without justifying either the apartheid system or certainly not its excesses, one wonders, given the context of the era, if another narrative could have been written. The African National Congress, created almost 90 years ago to fight discrimination, became a terrorist group with strong Communist ties. It was almost reflexively anti-American, and attempting to overthrow a naturally pro-American government. Even discounting the racial dimension, that was not an approach that could have garnered much Western support at the time, and Mandela – arrested, tried and convicted of sabotage and conspiracy to commit other violent acts – and himself drawn to Communism, paid a very heavy personal price for his beliefs –nearly three decades of imprisonment under inhuman conditions. And yet he emerged from prison with moderated, not hardened, views, and astonishingly, not embittered by his experiences and the loss of so many years of his life.
Further analysis reveals his thorny relations with Jews and Israel. South African Jews themselves had a comlicated relationship with the apartheid regime, not enamored by it and yet mostly benefiting from the system. Certainly, South African Jews – primarily emigrants from Lithuania and their offspring – experienced persecution in their native land, escaped it, and undoubtedly were not eager supporters of the regime. Indeed, many South African Jews were prominent opponents of apartheid, including the Communist ANC leader Joe Slovo (born into a frum family in Lithuania) and Helen Suzman, longtime Member of Parliament and a crusader against the white government. By the same token, Mandela's prosecutor – Percy Yutar (originally Yuter) – was also Jewish, indeed, South Africa's first Jewish Attorney-General and a staunch defender of apartheid. (Interestingly, Yutar later claimed to have saved Mandela's life by purposely asking for a sentence of life imprisonment rather than the death penalty, which, he says, the judge would have imposed had it been requested. When the two met again in 1995, at Mandela's invitation, Yutar was served a kosher lunch and Mandela expressed no hard feelings.)
Regarding his attitude to Israel, Mandela followed lockstep the trendy, Third-World demonization of Israel that taints most countries until today. Whatever one maintains about the ANC, not every terrorist group in the world fights for a legitimate cause, and not every terrorist is a freedom fighter. Some (most?) are just bloodthirsty savages, and in Israel's case, motivated more by passionate, Islamic-inspired Jew-hatred than by politics, statehood, territory, refugees or freedom. Here, Mandela had a blind spot. His closeness with Arafat (and Castro, Qaddafi, et al) demonstrated a lack of discernment as to the nature of people and their causes. Consequently, among the world leaders at Mandela's funeral was a veritable rogues' gallery of unsavory people, including a healthy assortment of murderers, oppressors, thieves, blackmailers and Jew-haters.
The Israeli press, anxious not to be left of the international love fest, scoured the record of the last two decades for Mandela statements that were positive about Israel. They did find some – he had a streak of graciousness and magnanimity that was admirable – but his negative rhetoric was more pronounced and perceptible. He was, and the South African government remains today, harshly critical of Israel, trapped in the vocabulary of the 1960s and 1970s that denounced colonialism regardless of whether or not the slur fit the situation. Mandela's Third World ties, and world view, remained too firmly ensconced in the idiom of the oppressed to appreciate the nuances of the Israeli dilemma, and certainly not the drama of the Jewish people's return to its homeland in fulfillment of the biblical prophecy.
As such, it was wise for PM Netanyahu not to attend, and thereby not be subjected to the unpleasantness of rubbing shoulders with some of the scoundrels who did come – villains who mean Israel and the Jewish people only harm. On balance, which is how we are all judged, Nelson Mandela lived an inspirational but flawed life and should rightfully be a hero to his people. But just like one cannot dance at every wedding, one also cannot mourn at every funeral. Sometimes, grief and appreciation of the indomitability of the human spirit, best takes place at a distance.
This entry was posted in Contemporary Life, Current Events, Israel. Bookmark the permalink.
4 responses to "Mandela"
Mr. Cohen | December 15, 2013 at 1:04 am |
"This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades."
SOURCE: Arab League Secretary General Azzam Pasha, May 15, 1948, the day five Arab armies invaded the new state of Israel, one day after Israel declared its independence
"The Arab nations should sacrifice up to 10 million of their 50 million people, if necessary, to wipe out Israel … Israel to the Arab world is like a cancer to the human body, and the only way of remedy is to uproot it, just like a cancer."
SOURCE: Saud ibn Abdul Aziz, King of Saudi Arabia, Associated Press, January 9, 1954
"I announce from here, on behalf of the United Arab Republic people, that this time we will exterminate Israel."
SOURCE: President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, speech in Alexandria, July 26, 1959
"We shall never call for nor accept peace.
We shall only accept war.
We have resolved to drench this land with your (Israel's) blood, to oust you as aggressor, to throw you into the sea."
SOURCE: Hafez Assad, then-Syrian Defense Minister, May 24, 1966, who later became Syria's president.
"Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel."
SOURCE: President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, May 27, 1967,
nine days before the start of the Six-Day War.
"The existence of Israel is an error which must be rectified. This is our opportunity to wipe out the ignominy which has been with us since 1948. Our goal is clear — to wipe Israel off the map."
SOURCE: President Abdel Rahman Aref of Iraq, May 31, 1967
"All countries should wage war against the Zionists, who are there to destroy all human organizations and to destroy civilization and the work which good people are trying to do."
SOURCE: King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, in a speech in Uganda, Beirut Daily Star, Nov. 17, 1972
"The battle with Israel must be such that, after it, Israel will cease to exist."
SOURCE: Libyan President Mohammar Qadaffi, al-Usbu al-Arrabi (Beirut) quoted by
Algiers Radio, Nov. 12, 1973
"After we perform our duty in liberating the West Bank and Jerusalem, our national duty is to liberate all the Arab-occupied territories."
SOURCE: Jordan's King Hussein, Radio Amman, December 1, 1973
"Yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity is there only for tactical reasons.
The establishment of a Palestinian state is a new expedient to continue the fight against Zionism and for Arab unity."
SOURCE: Zoheir Muhsin, head of the PLO Military Operations
Department and member of the PLO Executive Council, 1977
"I have never met an Arab leader that in private professed a desire for an independent Palestinian state. Publicly, they all espouse an independent Palestinian state — almost all of them – because that is what they committed themselves to do at Rabat (the 1974 Arab League summit conference)."
SOURCE: President Jimmy Carter, at a 1979 press conference
"There has been no change whatsoever in the fundamental strategy of the PLO, which is based on the total liberation of Palestine and the destruction of the occupying country. … On no accounts will the Palestinians accept part of Palestine and call it the Palestinian state, while forfeiting the remaining areas which are called the State of Israel."
SOURCE: Rafiq Najshah, PLO representative in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabian News Agency, June 9, 1980
"The struggle with the Zionist enemy is not a struggle about Israel's borders, but about Israel's existence. We will never agree to anything less than the return of all our land and the establishment of the independent state."
SOURCE: Bassam Abu Sharif, a top Arafat aide and PLO spokesman, quoted by the Kuwait News Agency, May 31, 1986
"There are two different approaches in the Arab world: that Israel can be overwhelmed militarily, or that a military victory is impossible. The power struggle between Israel and the Arabs is a long-term historical trial. Victory or defeat are for us questions of existence or annihilation, the outcome of an irreconcilable hatred."
SOURCE: Al-Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, July 11, 1986
"The establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip does not contradict our ultimate strategic aim, which is the establishment of a democratic state in the entire territory of Palestine, but rather is a step in that direction."
SOURCE: Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad) interview with Al-Safir, Lebanon, Jan. 25, 1988
"This is the ideology of the PLO and of Yasser Arafat: To destroy the state of Israel and to establish a Palestinian state instead. They will accept the territories — but only as a beginning, as a base for further attacks to conquer all of Israel.
Why give them this opportunity to strengthen their efforts to attack us?"
SOURCE: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, U.S. News & World Report, March 21, 1988
"The armed struggle must continue, everywhere, against the Zionist enemy and his allies. … We have no alternative but to carry out armed activity in order to vanquish the enemy and establish our state."
SOURCE: Salim Zaanoun, Deputy PNC speaker and member of the Fatah Central Committee, in Al-Anba, Kuwait, December 23, 1988
"The Middle East peace efforts have reached a stalemate. … The PLO now has no alternative but to escalate armed struggle outside the occupied territories in support of the uprising." –Arafat's # 2 man, Salah Khalaf, January 22, 1990, Associated Press
"We will enter Jerusalem victoriously and raise our flag on its walls. … We will fight you (the Israelis) with stones, rifles, and 'El-Abed' (the Iraqi missile)…"
SOURCE: Yasser Arafat, reported by the Associated Press, March 29, 1990, at the start of the Gulf War.
"In the name of Allah, we shall cause fire to devour half of Israel. …"
SOURCE: Iraqi News Agency, April 2, 1990
"We say to the brother and leader Saddam Hussein –
go forward with God's blessing."
SOURCE: Yasser Arafat, the next day, Iraqi News Agency, April 3, 1990
"The resurrection of the dead will not occur until you battle with the Jews and kill them." SOURCE: Excerpt from a July 28, 2000 sermon by Palestinian religious leader
Dr. Ahmad Yusuf Abu Halbiah on Palestinian television, Palestine Media Watch, August 22, 2000.
"There is no alternative other than to destroy Israel."
SOURCE: A sixth grade test book, newly reprinted by
the Palestinian Authority, Arutz-7, September 26, 2000.
"Kill Jews everywhere."
SOURCE: Convicted imprisoned terrorist and Egyptian cleric, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, The New York Times, Quoting Reuters, October 22, 2000.
"All weapons must be aimed at the Jews … whom the Koran describes as monkeys and pigs … We will enter Jerusalem as conquerors … Blessings to he who shot a bullet into the head of a Jew."
SOURCE: a spokesman for Yasser Arafat's "Palestinian Authority" August 2001
M. | December 27, 2013 at 2:50 pm |
"inability to arrange for adequate security in such a short period of time. …is equally specious"
I am not certain that is correct. An editorial in Yated Ne'eman claimed it was vindicated as some people entering the stadium were not screened. Also, the fact that the phony 'sign language interpreter', who was involved in murder in the past was so close to world leaders shows that security was not the greatest, at the least. Israeli security standards are higher than others. Maybe they felt that there was inadequate appreciation for and coordination with their special needs.
Rabbi | December 31, 2013 at 4:35 am |
Would Israel's PM be a greater target than any other world leader in such a setting? We think, maybe, but is that so? And would the Speaker of the Knesset be any less a target, if evildoers wanted to harm a symbol of the State of Israel? But he did attend.
-RSP
D E Casarotto | December 29, 2013 at 11:14 pm |
About Mandela. The last 7 years of his incarceration were actually quite comfortable. He had a cottage with swimming pool, TV etc at the Victor Verster Prison in the Western Cape -on the mainland and not on Robben Island. True he was a prisoner, but one with more priviliges in the line of comfort that the average white South African. Quite a few S.Africans voiced their objection that he had these privileges, paid out of the taxes levied by the Fiscal authorities. Mandela was offered freedom 3 times in exchange for
renouncing violence if he was liberated – which he refused.
I lived in S Africa between 1952 and 1986… for me Mandela scores about the same as Obama …see your article One Year Later.
Your blog is great.. keep it up.
Caleb Zerla
Purchase or Learn More about My Books
The Jewish Ethic of Personal Responsibility Vol. 2
The Jewish Ethic of Personal Responsibility
Recent Audio Shiurim
Sheva's Rebellion [audio]
Gadol Ha'metzuveh v'Oseh... [unknown]
Great Jewish Challenges, Part 3: False Messiahs [audio]
Shim'i ben Gera - or David and Purim [audio]
A Light onto the Nations [audio]
Achitofel- and Avshalom's Demise [audio]
Great Jewish Challenges, Part 2: The Renaissance [audio]
Avshalom's Rebellion [audio]
Emunat Chachamim - Faith in the Sages [audio]
The Rise of Avshalom [audio]
Audio Lectures and Shiurim
Contemporary Life
Machshava/Jewish Thought
Minhagim
1 Audio Lectures and Shiurim Chumash Contemporary Life Current Events Halacha Holidays Israel Jewish History Machshava/Jewish Thought Minhagim Mishna Navi Philosophy Tefillah


We discussed concurrency and concurrency control in 15-213, and beat the topics to death in 15-410. So, right now, I'm just going to give the "Nickel tour".
Life is simple if we all have our own kingdom. Everything is ours. There's never a reason to share. No compromises ever need to be made. We get what we want, whenever we want it.
But, in the real world, this isn't always the case. Often time -- like it or not -- we have to share. And, how we share is particularly important. If we don't do it well, feelings get hurt and things get broken.
The situation is more-or-less the same for software. In many cases, different things are going on and these things need to share certain resources. We call these different, independent, things threads of control, which includes traditional threads, traditional processes, and other models for work-in-progress. A resource is an abstraction for anything that we might have to share. Another way of viewing a resource is an abstraction for any reason to wait. Some resources might be associated with physical things, such as printers, terminals, the user, or the network. Other reasons to wait are more abstract resources -- pieces of software that model objects not present in the physical world.
When we've got the potential for more than one thread of control to be chasing the same resource, we need to have some way of resolving contention. In other words, we need some way to figure out who gets the resource and when. Not only do we need such a policy, but we also need some mechanism to enforce it.
The policy that is used to divy up a recource among its contenders depends largely on the resource and the application. From the perspective of the resource, it might onyl be possible for one user to use it at a time. Or, it might be possible for a certain fixed number of users to access it at a time. Or, the number of users might depend on the character of the users.
From the perspective of prioritizing the users, there might be all sorts of different scenarios. Perhaps certain users are more important than others and, as a consequence, should be given priority. Or, perhaps it is more efficient for users to be scheduled in a certain order. Or perhaps fairness is our goal and users should be scheduled in exactly the same order as the request is made. Or, perhaps it doesn't matter, and any order will do.
Although the potential policies are endless, we are going to focus on only one of them -- the most important in practice. We are going to focus on finding a mechanism to implement mutual exclusion without priority. Mutually exclusive access to a resource implies that all of the users agree (hence mutual) that the use of the resource by one exludes the concurrenct use by another (hence exclusion). Given a mechanism to implement mutual exclusion, we can actually construct much more complex systems.
We often like to say that, for a policy and corresponding mechanism, to ensure mutual exclusion in a meaningful and useful way, it must ensure three things: mutual exclusion, progress, and bounded wait.
The first of these three is meaningful on its face: If more than one user can access the resource at the same time, we are clearly not ensuring correct concurrency control.
The second, progress, though it takes a bit of explaining, is very common sense. A good solution to concurrency control allows the resource to be used, if available. It is not meaningful to declare, "We're implementing mutual exclusion -- no one can use the resource." Satisfying the progress requirement means that, if the resource is available, and if there is at least one user, someone should get the resource.
The third characteristic also makes sense: If someone wants a resource, they should eventually get it. Again, its not quite fair to declare, "Sure, we're implementing mutual exclusion -- only process 0 can use the resource. This condition means that, among other things, deadlocks and live locks should not occur.
Okay, great, so we're building distributed systems. Why re-invent the wheel? In 15-213 (and 15-410), we discuss many techniques. The least common denominator of which includes simple mutexes and semaphores.
The problems with these tools in the context of distributed systems is that they included shared state. In the case of a simple mutex, a boolean variable. In the case of a semaphore, a shared queue. These, in turn imply some type of shared memory.
The problem with this is that shared memory requires synchronization, a type of concurrency control. The problem is that each of the multiple parties must see the same queue and value before any decisions can be made. This type of synchronization is exactly what we are trying to construct.
As a result, we are going to construct a new set of tools. By comparison, they'll seem a bit crude. But, in practice -- they work. And, we can build more convenient tools from them (at some expense), if we so desire.
A Central Coordinator is needed.
It ensures that only one thread is in the critical section at a time.
Ask the coordinator & wait for permission.
Done with the critical section?
The coordinator will then let the next thread in, if any.
When possible, especially in distributed environments, which are inherently failure-prone, we don't want to give a user a permanant right to a resource. The user might die or become inaccessible, in which case the whole system stops.
Instead, we prefer to grant renewable leases with liberal terms. The basic idea is that we give the resource to the user only for a limited amount of time. Once this time has passed, the user needs to renew the lease in order to maintain access to the shared resource. Within the last ten years or so, almost all mutual exclusion and resource allocation systems have taken this approach, which is expecially well suited for centralized approaches.
The amount of time for the lease should be long enough that it isn't affected by reasonable drift among synchronized physical clocks. But, it should be short enough that the time wasted after the end of the task and before the lease expires is minimal. It is also possible to allow the user to relinquish a lease early.
The other problem is enforcement -- the user must be unable to access the resource after the credential expires. There are basically two ways of doing this. The leasing agent can tell the resource of the leasee and the term, or the leasor can give the leasee a copy of the lease to present to the resource.
In either case, cryptography is needed to ensure that the parties are who they claim to be and that the lease's content is not altered. We'll discuss how this can be accomplished in more detail later. But, for now, let me just offer that it is often done using public key cryptography.
This can be used to authenticate the parties, such as the leasor the leasee, or the resource, and it can also be used to make the lease unalterable by the leasee.
Another approach to mutual exclusion involves sending messages to all nodes, and ordering requests using Lamport logical time. The first such approach was described by Lamport. It requires that ties be broken using host id (or similar value) to esnure that there is a total ordering among events.
This approach is based on the notion of a global priority queue of requests for the critical section. This queue is ordered by the logical time of the request. Unlike the central algorithm we discussed as the "base case", this approach calls for each node to maintain a copy of this queue. The copies are maintained in a consistent way using a request-reply protocol.
When a node wants access to the critical section, it sends a REQUEST message to every other node. This message can be sent via a multicast or a collection of unicasts. This message contains the logical time of the request. When a participant receives this request, it adds it to its priority queue and sends a REPLY message to the requesting node.
The requesting node takes no action until it receives all of the replies. This ensures that the request has been entered into all of the queues, and that, at least with respect to this request, the queues are consistent. Once it receives all of the replies, the request is free to go -- once its turn arrives.
If the critical section is available (the queue was previosuly empty), the request can go as soon as the last REPLY is received. If the critical section is in use, the request must wait.
When a node exits the critical section, it removes itself from its own queue and sends a RELEASE message to every other participant, perhaps by multicast. This message directs these nodes to remove the now-completed request for the critical section from their queues. It also directs them to "peek" at their queue.
If the first request in a hosts queue is itself, it enters the critical section. Otherwise, it does nothing. A host can enter the critical section if it is at the head of its own queue, because the REPLY ensures that it will be at the head of every other node's queue.
The RELEASE message does not need an ACK or a REPLY, because it does not matter if its arrival is delayed. Since we are assuming a reliable unicast or multicast, the RELEASE will eventually reach each participant. We don't care if it arrives late -- this doesn't break the correctness of the algorithm. In the worst case, it is delayed in its arrival to the next requestor to enter the critical section. In this case, the critical section will go unused until the RELEASE arrives and is processed by the host. In the other cases, it delays the host in "peeking" at the queue, but this is without consequence -- the delayed host wasn't going to enter the critical section, anyway.
But wait! Why do we need the REPLY to the REQUEST, then? Can't we just get rid of that. Well, not exactly. The problem is that a reliable protocol guarantees that a message will eventually arrive at its destination, but makes no guarantees about when. The protocol may retransmit the information many, many times, over many, many timeout periods, before successfully delivering the message.
In the case of the RELEASE message, timing is not critical. But this is not the case for the REQUEST message. The REQUEST message must be received, before the requesting node can enter the critical section. This is the only way of ensuring that all nodes will see the same head node, should a RELEASE message arrive. Otherwise, two different hosts could look at their queues, determine that they are at the head, and enter the critical section -- disaster. This disaster could be detected after-the-fact when the belated REQUEST arrives -- but this too late since mutual exclusion has already been violated.
This approach requires 3(N - 1) messages per request: REQUEST, REPLY, and RELEASE must be sent to every other node. It isn't very fault-tolerant. Even a single failed host can disable the system -- it can't REPLY.
The Lamport approach described above was improved by Ricarti and Agrawala. Ricarti and Agrawala observed that the REPLY and RELEASE messages could be combined. This is achieved by having the process that is currently within the critical section delay its REPLY until it exists the critical section. In order to do this, each process must queue REQUESTs while within the critical section.
In many respect, this change converts this approach from a "global queue" approach to a "voting" approach. A node requests entry to the critical section and enters the critical section as soon as it has received an OK (REPLY) vote from every other node.
This approach requires 2*(n - 1) messages, that is one message to and from everyone except self. This is an (n - 1) improvement over Lamport's approach.
But it fails to address the more serious limitation -- fault tolerance. Even a single failure can disable the entire system. Both timestamp approaches require more messages than a centralized approach -- and have lower fault tolerance. The centralized approach provides one single point of failure (SPF). These timestamp approaches have N SPFs.
In truth, it is doubful that we would every want to use either approach. In practice, centralized coordinators and ring approaches are the workhorses. Centralized coordinators can be made more fault tolerant using coordinator election (comming soon).
But these timestamp approaches are the most distributed -- they involve every host in every decision. They also illustrate some important examples of global state, logical time, &c -- and so they are a valuable part of this (and any) distributed systems course.
Last class we discussed the Ricarti and Agrawala approach to ensuring mutual exclusion. It was much like asking hosts to vote about who can enter the critical section and allowing access only upon unanimous consent. But is unanimous consent necessary? Can't we get away with a simple majority since two hosts can't concurrently win a majority of the votes.
Wait until more than 50% respond "OK"
If you haven't already voted, vote "OK."
It sends RELEASE to those participants that voted for it.
It dequeues the next request (if any) and votes for it with an "OK."
So far, this approach is looking nice, but it does have a problem: ties. Imagine the case such that no processor gets a majority of the votes. Consider, for example, what would happen if each of three processors got 1/3 of the votes. Ouch!
Ties can, in fact, be broken at a somewhat high cost. If we use Lamport time with total ordering via hostid, no two messages will have concurrent time stamps. Messages that would otherwise be concurrent are ordered by hostid.
Recall that a host votes for a candidate as long as it has no outstanding votes. This becomes problematic if its vote turns out to be premature. This occurs if it votes for one candidate to later receive a request, bearing an earlier timestamp, from another candidate.
At this point, one of two things might be occuring. The system might be making progress -- the "wrong" host might have gotten more than 50% of the votes. If this is the case, we don't care. It might not be fair, but it is an edge case.
Another possibility is that no host has yet received a majority of the votes. If this is the case, it could be because of deadlock. It might be that each candidate got the same number of votes. This is the case that requires mitigation.
So, upon discovering that it voted for the "wrong" candidate, a host needs to determine which of these two situations is the case. It sends an INQUIRE message to the candidate for who it voted. If this candidate won the election, it can just ignore the INQUIRE and RELEASE normally when done. But, if it hasn't yet entered the critical section, it gives back the vote and signals this by sending back a RELINQUISH. Upon receipt of the RELINQUISH, the voter is free to vote for the preceding request.
This approach certain has some nice attributes. It does, in fact, guarantee mutual exclusion. And, it can allow a host to enter the critical section even if 1/2 of the hosts are down or unreachable.
But it has non-trivial costs. Nominally, it takes 3 messages per entry to the critical section (request, vote, release), about the same as a timestamp approach. And, in the event that votes arrive in exactly the wrong order, an INQUIRE-RELINQUISH pair of messages can occur for each host.
What we need is a way to reduce the number of hosts involved in making decisions. This way, fewer hosts need to vote, and fewer hosts need to reorganize thier votes in the event of a misvote.
In order to address to reduce the number of messages required to win an election we are going to organize the participating systems into voting districts called coteries (pronounced, "koh-tarz" or "koh-tErz"), such that winning an election within a single district implies winning the election across all districts.
Coteries is a political term that suggests a closed, somewhat intimate, and conspiring collection of actors (persons, states, trade organizations, unions, &c), e.g. a "Boy's Club".
This can be accomplished by requiring that elections within any district be won by unanimous vote and then Gerrymandering each processor's district to ensure that all districts intersect. Since the subset of processors that are members of more than one district can't vote twice, they ensure that only one of the districts can gain a unanimous vote.
Gerrymandering is a term that was coined by Federalists in the Massachusetts election of 1812. Governor Elbridge Gerry, a Republican, won a very narrow victory over his Federalist rival in the election of 1810. In order to improve their party's chances in the election of 1812, he and his Republican conspirators in the legislator redrew the electoral districts in an attempt to concentrate much of the Federalist vote into very few districts, while creating narrow, but majority, Republican support in the others.
The resulting districts were very irregular in shape. One Federalist commented that one among the new districts looked like a salamander. Another among his cohorts corrected him and declared that it was, in fact, a "Gerrymander." The term Gerrymandering, used to describe the process of contriving political districts to affect the outcome of an election, was born.
Incidentally, it didn't work and the Republicans lost the election. He was subsequently appointed as Vice-President of the U.S. He served in that role for two years. Since that time both federal law and judge-made law have made Gerrymandering illegal.
The method of Gerrymandering disticts that we'll study was developed by Maekawa and published in 1985. Using this method, processor's are organized into a grid. Each processor's voting district contains all processors on the same row as the processor and all processors on the same column. That is to say that the voting district of a particular processor are all of those systems that form a perpendicular cross through the processor within the grid. Given N nodes, 2*SQRT(n) - 1 nodes will compose each voting district.
Using this approach, any pair of voting districts will intersect via at least one node, so two disticts cannot be one unanimously at the same time.
Upon exit from the CS, send RELEASE to each member of its district.
If it has already voted in an outstanding election (it voted, but hasn't received a corresponding RELEASE), enqueue the request.
Dequeue oldest request from its queue, if any. Send a YES vote to this node, if any.
As we saw with simple majority voting last class, this approach can deadlock if requests arrive in a different order at different voters. This can allow different voters within overlapping districts to vote for different candidates. In particular, it can allow for a "split" between the two voters that are the overlap between two districts.
A node records Lamport time w/total ordering before it sends a request. It sends this time with the request to all members of its district (the same time).
Each voter uses a priority queue based on the time of the request.
If a node receives a request with a time-stamp more older than the timestamp of a request for which it already voted, but for which it has not received a RELEASE, it attempts to cancel its vote. It does this by sending the candidate an INQUIRE.
If this node hasn't won the election, it forgets about our vote and sends us a RELINQUISH. Once we receive the RELINQUISEH, we vote for the older request and enqueue the candidate for which we originally voted.
If the candidate was already in the CS, no harm was done -- deadlock did not actually occur. When it goes out, we can vote for the other candidate. In this case, the processors may not have entered the CS in FIFO order, but that's okay -- deadlock didn't happen.
This approach requires about 3*(2*SQRT(N)-1) messages -- much nicer than 3*N messages. But it is not very fault tolerant, since a unanimous victory is required within a district. (Some failure can be tolerated, since failures outside of a district don't affect a node).
At this point, we've considered several different ways of approaching mutual exclusion: a centralized approach, a couple of timestamp approaches, a voting approach, and voting districts. Another approach is to create a special message, known as a token, which represents the right to access the critical section, and to pass this around among the hosts. The host which is in possesion can access the shared resource -- the others cannot. Think of it as the key to the gas station's bathroom. Since there is only on key, mutual exclusion is ensured.
The first among these techniques is perhaps the simplest -- and certainly among the most frequently used in practice: token ring.
With this approach, every system knows its successor. The token moves from system to system through the list. Each system holds the token until it is done with the CS, and then passes it to its successor.
We can add fault tolerance to this approach if every host knows the mapping for all systems in the ring. If a successor dies, then the successor's successor, and successor's successor's successor, and so on can be tried. A host assumes that a system has failed if it cannot accept the token.
What happens if a system dies with the token? If there is a known time-out period, the origin machine can regenerate the token and start circulating it again. Depending on the nature of the CS, this could be dangerous, because multiple tokens could exist. If only one has access to the resource, this might be a problem.
The number of messages required per request is very interesting. Under high contention, the number is very, very low -- as low as one. If every system wants entry to the CS, each message will yield another entry. But if no one wants access to the CS, messages will occur for no reason.
But in general, we are more concerned about traffic when congestion is high. That makes this algorithm particularly interesting. It is especially interesting in real-time systems, because the worst-case behavior is well-bound and easily computed.