text:
12 Brands Designing with a Conscience
In partnership with our friends at
It may have taken a few years, if not decades, but ideas like sustainability, transparency, and fair trade are finally part of the national conversation. And it's not stopping there. "Low-waste-water denim" and "responsibly-harvested cotton" are terms that companies are now brandishing with great pride. And for good reason: Your closet and your kitchen can have a truly clean conscience.
We've rounded up a few of the brands that are doing good—some big and powerful, others small and mighty, and a few that are new to the scene. These lines are thoughtful, stylish, and most beautiful of all, made with integrity.
Founder Sarah Kauss launched S'well in 2010 with a singular mission: Rid the world of plastic bottles. The good news is that S'well's assortment of bottles has quite literally swelled—from the standard seventeen-ounce version to include tumblers (good for on-the-go morning coffee or a smoothie), and roamers (sized right for the park or for passing around the campfire). The bottles are made using Therma-S'well technology, so drinks are kept hot for twelve hours and cold for up to twenty-four. There are hundreds of colors, ombré patterns, a special collaboration with Liberty London, metallic camos—you name it. Best yet, an ongoing partnership with UNICEF allows S'well to focus efforts on supporting water programs in Madagascar, where 50 percent of the population lacks access to clean drinking water.
S'WELL BOTTLES, S'well, starting at $30
BIRDS & BEANS
It's hard not to take coffee for granted—that is, until you learn about some of the effects of its harvesting. A large population of migrant songbirds that head to central and South America during the winter has been in decline due to a loss of habitat caused by deforestation by commercial coffee farms. In an effort to fight this, the founders of Bird & Beans Coffee dedicates its resources to nurturing natural, shade-grown coffee farms, which are a thriving habitat for the birds. By using environmentally sound and sustainably-grown beans, Birds & Beans helps to preserve more than 100,000 acres for the birds to live in. And the coffee—light, dark, and medium roasts—is robust and delicious.
BIRDS & BEANS FRENCH ROAST DECAF, Birds & Beans, $14.25
BIRDS & BEANS FRENCH ROAST DECAF
Birds & Beans, $14.25
BOLÉ ROAD TEXTILES
Interior designer Hana Getachew launched Bolé Road Textiles with the intention of getting back to her roots. Combining the two things that mattered to her most—her Ethiopian heritage and love for design—her beautiful, minimalist textiles are not only ethically sourced but handspun in Ethiopia using ancient weaving techniques. The result is authentically crafted pillows and textured throw blankets in abstract patterns that are as soft as they are pretty.
BOLÉ ROAD MAMOOSH BLANKET, goop, $125
BOLÉ ROAD MAMOOSH BLANKET
goop, $125
LA-based designer Clare Vivier is adored for wear-everywhere leather bags, clutches, and wallets, but she's also known for using her voice to support important causes, like Every Mother Counts and Planned Parenthood. In response to last spring's school shooting in Parkland, Florida, Clare V. released a T-shirt and sweatshirt with the phrase "Ça Suffit!" a French expression meaning "that's enough" that can be used to express anger or exasperation. The company also supports Everytown for Gun Safety, to further the organization's mission of ending gun violence in the US.
CLARE V. ÇA SUFFIT SWEATSHIRT, Clare V., $125
Documentary filmmaker Frédéric Laffont gets an all-access pass to the storied French
house—spending time in a leather-goods workshop in Montbron, France, or witnessing the tradition of silk marbling in Kyoto. Through Footsteps across the World, a series of short films, it's clear that the what sets Hermès apart is truly the commitment to craftsmanship and the artisans whose precise attention to detail keep the brand moving forward. Particularly charming is the story of the Prudhomme brothers, who oversee a leather workshop in Pantin, France, where they serve as equal parts gatekeepers and mentors.
The most classic of classic American brands has been pushing boundaries when it comes to large-scale production, implementing techniques that use far less water than traditional methods and working to source 100 percent of its cotton sustainably by 2020. With the midterm elections approaching, Levi's has teamed up with Rock the Vote to create a limited-edition T-shirt encouraging everyone to exercise their right to vote; select Levi's storefronts across the US will also have voter-registration stations.
LEVI'S VOTE T-SHIRT, Levi's, $25
"We're surfers who grew up with surf brands, but we grew out of logos. We want to make clothing that's made better and looks better," says John Moore, who started Outerknown with surfing champ Kelly Slater. As part of their Social Environmental Accountability program, they launched S.E.A. Jeans, using 100 percent organic cotton from Candiani and Isko—two of the most respected mills in the world. Their denim is produced in Saitex in Vietnam, a solar-powered factory that recycles 98 percent of the water used in development; they also air-dry the jeans to save energy. The collection is also backed by a lifetime guarantee, meaning they'll repair or replace damaged pairs, too.
OUTERKNOWN S.E.A. SHIRT, Outerknown, $78; OUTERKNOWN S.E.A. AMBASSADOR SLIM FIT JEANS, Outerknown, $168
OUTERKNOWN S.E.A. SHIRT
Outerknown, $78
OUTERKNOWN S.E.A. AMBASSADOR SLIM FIT JEANS
Outerknown, $168
Ian and Brittany Bentley were living in Ethiopia, where they'd adopted two young girls, when they had their lightbulb moment. Ian was shopping for a birthday gift for Brittany when he came across a beautifully made leather bag at a local market. After learning that high-quality, ethically sourced leather was being produced by tanneries in Addis Ababa, the Bentleys decided to launch a business that would allow them to employ local women, many of whom who previously had been involved in sex trafficking. The idea was to give the women an opportunity to sustain ethical work opportunities—and become financially independent.
The women Parker Clay works with often become the breadwinners in their homes and are able to send their children to school, prepare balanced meals for their families, and ultimately break the cycle. The line includes plenty of carryalls, leather envelopes, and Dopp kits, but we're partial to the overnight weekend bag, which is made from the kind of super soft grain leather that only gets better with use.
PARKER CLAY OMO OVERNIGHT BAG, Parker Clay, $268
PARKER CLAY OMO OVERNIGHT BAG
Parker Clay, $268
RAVEN + LILY
We first fell for Raven + Lily's buttery-soft leather bags; chunky, rustic brass jewelry; and silky jumpsuits. Then we learned how the brand has been empowering women since its inception in 2008 (it was first founded as a nonprofit and evolved into a for-profit business in 2011). Raven + Lily employs female artisans—currently more than 1,500—in impoverished countries across the globe. The company provides them the chance to make a fair living by creating their handmade items for the brand, all of which are made of sustainable materials. Even more heartening, Raven + Lily gives back a portion of its earnings to help fund loans and skills training to women living with HIV.
RAVEN + LILY ANYA BRASS HOOPS, Raven + Lily, $32
RAVEN + LILY ANYA BRASS HOOPS
Raven + Lily, $32
ROTHYS
Two guys from San Francisco spent four years figuring out how to turn plastic water bottles from recycling centers into comfortable, machine-washable flats that women would actually want to wear. The result is Rothys—line of loafers, ballet flats, and slip-on sneakers made of a sustainable, stretchy, lightweight woven fabric in bright colors such as lemon drop and persimmon, plus classic shades like navy and sand. The manufacturing process is pretty fascinating, too: Water bottles are chipped into flakes and converted into pellets. The pellets are then heated and turned into soft filaments of plastic before they're knitted using a 3D machine, a precise process that minimizes waste. And the ethics behind the business go beyond fair labor and a state-of-the art facility in Dongguan, China—they also counteract the fossil fuels used for shipping by purchasing carbon credits to fund Project Envira, which converts carbon emissions back into oxygen.
ROTHYS THE POINT, Rothys, $145
ROTHY'S THE POINT
Rothy's, $145
SIEN + CO
Working closely with independent Peruvian and Argentinian artisans to find the best textiles (organic Pima cotton, sheep and alpaca wool handwoven on looms in their own backyards), Alexandra Gibson launched Sien + Co in 2016 with a range of ethically sourced, handcrafted knits and sustainable home décor. We particularly love the giant, handwoven decorative pillows, chunky throws, and natural rugs made with earthy pigments derived from local plants and other natural resources.
GRANA HANDWOVEN PILLOW, goop, $280
GRANA HANDWOVEN PILLOW
Jessica Hendricks Yee is no stranger to leveraging fashion to make an impact. In 2012, she launched the Brave Collection, a line of jewelry handmade by fair-trade artisans in Cambodia, and donated 10 percent of the profits to help fight human trafficking. "The drive to create brands with a positive social mission has become a part of me and the way I think about business," explains the serial entrepreneur. In fact, her passion for combining fashion and philanthropy is what jump-started Zahava, a thoughtfully sourced line—she works with master metalsmiths in Tel Aviv and all the diamonds are conflict-free—that explores the notion of cross-cultural heirlooms. Hendricks Yee, who recently had her own Jewish-Chinese wedding, wanted to design pieces that celebrate all cultures—and are meant to be passed down. There are pendant necklaces engraved with protea flowers to celebrate renewal, pomegranates to honor inner beauty, plus rings with engraved sayings like "The light within" and "I am here."
ZAHAVA MINI GOLD ATLAS NECKLACE, Zahava, $430
ZAHAVA MINI GOLD ATLAS NECKLACE
Zahava, $430
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Operation Ivy was een invloedrijke ska-punkband uit San Francisco. De band bestond uit Jesse Michaels (zang), Tim Armstrong (zang, gitaar), Matt Freeman (basgitaar, achtergrondzang) en Dave Mello (drums, achtergrondzang). De naam is afkomstig van Operation Ivy, een serie van nucleaire testen. De band was actief van 1987 tot 1989.

Geschiedenis

Achtergrond
In de tweede helft van de jaren 1980 ontstond er een punkscene in de Bay Area. Er waren meerdere bands die alle optraden in het poppodium Alternative Music Foundation (AMF) dat roemrucht was in die scene. Overigens zou Operation Ivy later het sterkst met AMF, ook bekend als "924 Gilman Street" of "Gilman", geassocieerd worden. In 1985 werd Basic Radio opgericht, met onder andere Tim Armstrong en Matt Freeman. De band speelde een mix van verschillende punk- en skagenres. Toen Basic Radio werd opgeheven, wilde Amstrong zich puur op punk concentreren. In mei 1987 richtte hij samen met Freeman, Jesse Michaels en Dave Mello Operation Ivy op. De naam is afkomstig van een reeks van kernproeven in 1952. Hun thuisbasis was in Berkeley.

Eerste shows en opnames
Het eerste optreden van de band was op 16 mei 1987 in Mello's garage. Een dag later openden ze voor Gang Green en MDC in Gilman. De band tekende al snel na de oprichting, in januari 1988, bij het plaatselijke label Lookout!. Nog dat jaar werd de ep Hectic uitgebracht, het eerste ska-core-werk ooit. Het werd een van de beste werken die Lookout! uitbracht. Operation Ivy groeide uit tot een van de populairste bands uit de Gilman-scene. Er volgde een tournee door het land waarbij ze eerst kleine punkpodia aandeden, maar vanaf half 1988 raakten ook shows in steeds grotere podia uitverkocht. In december verscheen de band op twee verzamelalbums; de Lookout!-sampler The thing that ate Floyd en Turn it around!, een sampler van het punktijdschrift Maximumrocknroll.

Studioalbum
Tijdens hun tournee merkten de bandleden dat het publiek positief reageerde op meer op ska georiënteerde nummers. Ze schreven nieuwe nummers en bij thuiskomst hadden ze genoeg materiaal voor een volwaardig album. Radley Hirsch, een geluidstechnicus van Gilman, nam de nummers in eerste instantie op maar het uitgebreide en tijdrovende proces leverde niet het resultaat op waar de bandleden achter stonden. Ze weken uit naar Kevin Army met wie de band eerder had samengewerkt voor de opnames van Turn it around! en Hectic. In januari 1989, bijna vier maanden nadat de opnames met Hirsch startten, werd het album in acht uur opgenomen. Twee maanden later werd Energy uitgebracht.

Opheffing
Operation Ivy had een reputatie opgebouwd als een uitstekende liveband. Ze kregen een platencontract aangeboden door EMI, maar vanwege hun DIY-houding en focus op lokale scenes kozen ze ervoor de handdoek in de ring te gooien in plaats van voor het grote geld te gaan. Op 28 mei 1989 gaven ze hun laatste optreden, wat tevens het eerste optreden was van Green Day onder die naam in Gilman. De show was oorspronkelijk bedoeld als releaseparty voor het album. Energy werd een symbool in de derde ska-revivalgolf. Na het uiteenvallen van de band gingen de leden elk hun eigen pad bewandelen. Michaels werd kortstondig zanger bij Big Rig waarna hij de muziekindustrie verliet. Mello voegde zich bij Schlong. Armstrong en Freeman richtten Rancid op in 1991, een band die later zelf groot zou worden in de punk. In 1992 werd de ep Plea for peace uitgebracht, op intiatief van een fan. De ep werd geproduceerd door Armstrong en Army. Plea for peace bevat nog niet eerder uitgebracht werk en werd uitgebracht op het kleine label M&E. Michaels, Mello en Freeman gaven samen met Pat Mello en Jason Hammon als Downfall in 1995 een album uit op Lookout!.

Belang en invloed
Hoewel de band slechts kort bestond, was Operation Ivy van grote invloed in de punkscene. In 1991, twee jaar na het uiteenvallen van de band, bracht Lookout! het verzamelalbum Operation Ivy uit. Het album bevat alle nummers van Energy en Hectic plus de nummers Officer en I got no van de sampler Turn it around!. Het album wordt ook wel aangeduid als een heruitgave van Energy. In 1997 werd er een tribuutalbum uitgebracht, Take warning: The songs of Operation Ivy, met covers van de muziek van Op Ivy door andere punkbands. In 2007 kwam een geremasterde heruitgave van het verzamelalbum Operation Ivy op de markt, nu op het label Hellcat Records. In 2012 volgden heruitgaves van Hectic en Energy op gekleurd en transparant vinyl. In 2017 kwam de band voor in de documentaire Turn it around: The story of East Bay punk.

Discografie

Ep's
 Hectic, 1988
 Plea for peace , 1992

Albums
 Energy, 1989
 Operation Ivy, 1991 (heruitgave van Energy met nummers van Hectic en Turn it around!)
 Operation Ivy, 2007 (geremasterde heruitgave)

Externe link

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the impact of declining defense budgets on the JMSDF. Because of the huge debt of the Government of Japan (GOJ) and financial structural reform, the GOJ is trying to reduce all expenditures, including defense expenditures. Conversely, Japan and countries in its vicinity face the threat of uncertainty. China is increasing its defense budget to build a modern oceanic navy. North Korea recently conducted a nuclear test despite the overwhelming opposition of the international community. Therefore, it is a big challenge for the JMSDF to sustain and develop its capabilities under the pressure of the budget and the national security environment.


text:
Q: Using a function to return a series of colors for stroke I need help fine-tuning a function to return a series of colors to go with a series of x,y pairs to create a multicolored line.  Here is a MWE:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<meta charset="utf-8">

<body>
<script src = "http://d3js.org/d3.v3.min.js"> </script>
</body>

<script>

var margin = {top: 100, right: 20, bottom: 20, left: 20},
    width = 600 - margin.left - margin.right,
    height = 270 - margin.top - margin.bottom;

var xdata = d3.range(0, 10);
var ydata = [1, 12, 5, 9, 10, 14, 6, 15, 11, 10];
var colorvec = ["#00FFB3", "#80FF00", "#00E0FF", "#0075FF", "#00FFB3", "#00FFB3", "#80FF00", "#00E0FF", "#00FFB3", "#80FF00"]

var xyc = [];
for(var i = 0; i < xdata.length; i++ ) {
   xyc.push({x: xdata[i], y: ydata[i], col: colorvec[i]});
}

var xscl = d3.scale.linear()
    .domain(d3.extent(xyc, function(d) {return d.x;}))
    .range([margin.left, width + margin.left])

var yscl = d3.scale.linear()
    .domain(d3.extent(xyc, function(d) {return d.y;}))
    .range([height + margin.top, margin.top])

var myline = d3.svg.line()
  .x(function(d) { return xscl(d.x);})
  .y(function(d) { return yscl(d.y);})

var svg = d3.select("body")
    .append("svg")
    .attr("width",window.innerWidth)
    .attr("height",window.innerHeight)

svg.append('rect') // outline for reference
    .attr({x: margin.left, y: margin.top,
           width: width,
           height: height,
           stroke: "black",
           'stroke-width': 0.5,
           fill:'white'});

svg.append("path")
    .attr("class", "line")
    .attr("d", myline(xyc))
    .style("fill", "none")
    // .style("stroke",  function() { return "red"; }) // works fine but trivial
    // .style("stroke",  function(d) { return xyc[0].col; }) // returns 1 col
    .style("stroke", function(d) {
      for (var i = 0; i < d.length; i++) {return d[i].col;}}) // help here!
    .style("stroke-width", 2);

</script>

How can I modify the function near the end which controls the stroke so that each color in myc is used sequentially for the segments, creating a multicolored line?  I believe that myc is an array of objects and I want to get access to just the colors stored in "col".  As is, the return value is undefined.

A: The obvious solution here would be to create 9 different lines each with their own color.  That's no fun, though, (and doesn't take advantage of the d3 line generator) so let's see what we can do with gradients.  d3ifying the double stop coolness in this question:
// create a def
var grade = svg.append("defs")
  .append("linearGradient")
  .attr("id", "myGrade");

// add the gradient for each segment
colorvec.forEach(function(d, i) {
  grade.append("stop")
    .style("stop-color", d)
    .style("stop-opacity", 1)
    .attr("offset", i / (colorvec.length));
  grade.append("stop")
    .style("stop-color", d)
    .style("stop-opacity", 1)
    .attr("offset", (i + 1) / (colorvec.length));
});

...

// apply the gradient
svg.append("path")
  .attr("class", "line")
  .attr("d", myline(xyc))
  .style("fill", "none")
  .style("stroke", "url(#myGrade)")
  .style("stroke-width", 2);

Example here.
Note, I removed one of your colors, for 10 points we have 9 segments.
Also note, that this only works if the x values are equally spaced.

Here's the alternative, a path for each line segment:
  var abc = [];
  for (var i = 0; i < xdata.length-1; i++) {
    abc.push({
      p: [{x:xdata[i],y:ydata[i]}, {x:xdata[i+1],y: ydata[i+1]}],
      col: colorvec[i]
    });
  }

  svg2.selectAll('.segment')
   .data(abc)
   .enter().append('path')
   .attr('class','segment')
   .attr('d', function(d) { return myline(d.p); })
   .attr('stroke-width', 2)
   .attr('stroke', function(d) { return d.col; });

Example updated here.
The limitation of this, though, is you won't be able to use interpolation since it's now 9 separate paths.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Seems the lake has begun receding for now, which is a good sign for those living on the shoreline. Last year the water level didn't peak until November, so perhaps this is a sign that the water will begin receding next year, and our beaches will begin their return? We shall see.
The image below is of the same section of jetties, and the bottom one I shot tonight.
Learn more about the seawall project, aka: "sands of time" by clicking here.


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Zalando addresses "complexity" of sustainable shopping with new features
Zalando wants to make shopping sustainably easier for consumers and said research it conducted has shown that finding sustainable products is too complex at present.
It has published a report sharing consumer insights and recommendations on how to close the sustainability attitude-behaviour gap in fashion and launched a "values-based browsing experience".
Zalando said "every second consumer doesn't understand what sustainability means in a fashion context". So via a new experience in its fashion store, customers "are now able to browse based on the values they care about, such as water conservation, worker wellbeing, reusing materials, animal welfare, reducing emissions, and extending the life of fashion".
It sustainable assortment consists of over 80,000 articles from more than 500 brands and the new browsing experience, should help consumers find them more easily.
It's also further investing in its Pre-owned offer by expanding it to Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, and Sweden.
The new report, called It Takes Two: How the Industry and Consumers Can Close the Sustainability Attitude-Behavior Gap in Fashion, investigates the gap between attitudes and what consumers actually do. It shows that many of them "struggle to turn their sustainability priorities into fashion purchasing decisions".
Based on consumer research carried out in France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and the UK, the report said the industry needs "to make sustainable choices more attractive, realistic, and accessible".
The company wants 25% of its general merchandise value (GMV) to come from more sustainable products by 2023. During the coronavirus crisis, customers told it that shopping sustainably became more important to them than ever before. But when it asked them how they felt about sustainable fashion, the strongest association was 'guilt' and the weakest was 'fun', which suggests that there are considerable barriers to shopping sustainably.
The report said the fashion industry "must earn trust through simple and convincing communication, it must motivate changes in behaviour, and it must scale circularity and offer solutions to close the loop".
The report also found that consumers are going to focus more on circularity in fashion over the next decade, including multiple topics such as recycling, reuse, resale, repair, and rentals.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Anil K. Jain
homepage: http://www.cse.msu.edu/~jain/
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Anil Jain is a University Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Computer Science & Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering and Statistics & Probability at Michigan State University. He served as the Department Chair during 1995-99. He received his B.Tech. degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 1969 and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Ohio State University in 1970 and 1973, respectively. His research interests include statistical pattern recognition, data clustering, texture analysis, document image understanding and biometric authentication. He received awards for best papers in 1987 and 1991, and for outstanding contributions in 1976, 1979, 1992, 1997 and 1998 from the Pattern Recognition Society. He also received the 1996 IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks Outstanding Paper Award. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (1991-1994). He is a fellow of the AAAS, ACM, IEEE, International Association of Pattern Recognition (IAPR) and SPIE. He has received a Fulbright Research Award, a Guggenheim fellowship and the Alexander von HumboldtResearch Award. He delivered the 2002 Pierre Devijver lecture sponsored by IAPR and received the 2003 IEEE Computer Society Technical Achievement Award. Holder of six patents in the area of fingerprint matching, he is the author of a number of books: Handbook of Biometrics, Springer 2007, Handbook of Multibiometrics, Springer 2006, Biometric Systems, Technology, Design and Performance Evaluation, Springer 2005, Handbook of Face Recognition, Springer 2005, Handbook of Fingerprint Recognition, Springer 2003 (received the PSP award from the Association of American Publishers), BIOMETRICS: Personal Identification in Networked Society, Kluwer 1999, 3D Object Recognition Systems, Elsevier 1993, Markov Random Fields: Theory and Applications, Academic Press 1993, Neural Networks and Statistical Pattern Recognition, North-Holland 1991, Analysis and Interpretation of Range Images, Springer-Verlag 1990, Algorithms For Clustering Data, Prentice-Hall 1988, and Real-Time Object Measurement and Classification, Springer-Verlag 1988.
[syn] 15087 views, 55:42
Big Data Clustering
as author at VideoLectures.NET - Single Lectures Series,
[syn] 22189 views, 42:42 Invited talk
Data Clustering: 50 Years Beyond K-means
as author at European Conference on Machine Learning and Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in Databases (ECML PKDD), Antwerp 2008,
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Parametric Autentication. How I know who you are?


They all live in their own world. Thanks for your kind comment. Your works on 'Intricate' are so stunning, I like your way of 'painting' the thought.
And thank you for that, Ming.
Nice shot. I like how each person seems in their own private space.
Thanks Chris. Each person was busy with their smartphones.
I like the emotion evoked from this image. To me, it's frightening. "Together, but not together …" from Lynne Ayers said it true!
That is why city is become very cold, even neighbors are not talking to each other. Thanks for your kind comment.
Cheers, Ming! Love your work.
My new favorite of your series. Well done.


The slides are not for the purpose of literal interpretation more to provide a feeling of this practice that I refer to that integrates aesthetics, nutrition, pleasure and results in vitality.
I come from a family where cooking and eating was central. Memories are centered around family meals and entertaining.
My father worked in international nutrition. I was lucky to have the opportunity to travel with him to many countries. Looking back I realize that this exposure influenced my perspective about the importance of food and the privilege of plenty. My mother was a teacher. She returned to work after my brother and I were older and became involved in early stages of SOS, a national organization whose mission is to try to let no child in America be hungry.
After brief careers as an attorney and a documentary filmmaker I opened a restaurant in DC with my husband and brother called Rupperts. Looking back Rupperts became a physical space to explore and develop a variety of practices that had always been essential to me. Since we closed the restaurant about 6 years ago I have been fortunate to be involved in a variety of projects that have allowed me to continue to discuss and develop these practices. Today I have a cut flower business, I design and plant small urban and potted gardens that incorporate edible elements and I continue to do a variety of work with food. I recently wrote a cookbook for Bob Greene, Oprah's trainer called the Best Life Cookbook, I also work with him on his Best Life Website, write for a few different publications, do some restaurant and other food related consulting and of course cooking and eating for myself, family and friends…. I am also a mom of an amazing 9 year old daughter who is an integral part of all these projects.
As an aside the choosing of the bolded words on the hand out which are also incorporated into the slides was somewhat of a random process. It is difficult to concisely express a practice that is incorporated into all aspects of daily living. The words seemed to be good points of entry.
My favorite way of speaking is having a discussion so my idea today is to give an overview of thoughts and ideas and then hopefully have a lively conversation fueled by your questions which I believe will be much more lively…and vital.
This is my same concept I use in flower arranging, gardening and pretty much everything else I do.
None of this is possible without excellent ingredients. I cook exclusively with seasonal ingredients. In DC the options are descent…in the last several years there have been many new farmers markets introduced throughout the city and metropolitan area. The availability of local ingredients is very different today than it was in 1994 when we opened Rupperts. Today there is a vibrant year round farmers market and mid growing season there are markets that you can visit every day….which I often do. In addition there are lots of options for CSA's including the one that we belong to called Clagett Farm which is part of the Capital Area Community Food Bank. And there is a nice long growing season in this area that allows for each of us to try our hand at a little farming even if it is just a couple of pots squeezed out on a sunny window ledge or fire escape…..
Pretty much everything that I talk about comes back to planting something that you can eat since it is the most direct way that I know of to nourish, feel part of community, experience pleasure and feel vitality!
My restaurant Rupperts …helped me refine my current definition of community. Pleasure continues to come from the wide variety of farmers, neighbors, thinkers and friends is endless…not to mention the worms that live in my worm composting system!
There are the many relationships started in our kitchen, my assistant, who initially came in to work as a dishwasher and who works with me daily with flowers, gardens and food… that I could not do anything that I do without. A 15 year old kid started working in the kitchen looking for somewhere to go after school and came to the restaurant every afternoon and weekend. Today he collaborates with me on nearly every project that I do. There is also a "kid" whose parents were regulars at our restaurant who helped me plant my first truly productive kitchen garden when he was 13 years old. The day before inauguration we spent the day with him picking up trash as part of a viral litter free inauguration media campaign he initiated.... There is the cooperative of Amish farmers whose produce I have been enjoying for years. Just this past summer I had the amazing opportunity to meet and see their farms. I have always appreciated their support. The outstanding produce they have supplied over the years has been ultimately valuable and it was exciting to learn that in return they felt supported by the long term relationship as well.
Recently I have been fortunate to get involved in the Best Life community. Most of my professional cooking career has been making and serving precious food…the type I consume regularly. Up to now I have primarily fed a well-fed, nutritionally savvy, well-exercised, affluent community.
I became involved in Best Life because an old friend of mine who is a nutritionist was working for Bob Greene and contacted me ….she expressed her frustration with "diet food". She suggested that my food would work well with her nutritional agenda because it was, "healthy, delicious, conscious in respect to origin and environment etc….". She asked me if I would like to work on some recipes with her. Initially I assumed that I was totally unqualified…knowing about the various truffle seasons and where to purchase them and which expensive variety of salt I thought was ideal for which specific application…. Despite these initial reservations I decided to give it a go.
I had to take into account time people were willing to devote to cooking a meal, money, availability of ingredients in non costal urban centers, fears of the unfamiliar, severe salt restrictions and needed to incorporate products that endorsed the diet. Ultimately I found it was not too difficult to adhere to these restrictions and incredibly gratifying. All of a sudden I was able to communicate with a huge "Oprah audience" about practices that are essential to me! Not only through recipes throughout the book and website, I was also able to insert ideas about seasonality, farm markets, sustainable fish….Not to mention hopefully sharing the pleasure that I get from food. Totally exciting!
The ancient philosopher Epicurus defines pleasure as the absence of pain …this definition pretty much excludes the idea that an overindulgence in foie gras or anything else is pleasure…many things that we think of as pleasure give a moment of elation but ultimately result in pain….
For most humans sustained pleasure is quite different that indulgences that are often labeled pleasure.
Can a rose that is grown with pesticides and harvested by abused laborers bring you pleasure? For me the comfort or pleasure associated with knowledge of source of my food and other products that I consume and enjoy brings pleasure.
Flowers that you arrange cut from your own garden will always be the most beautiful but there are other conscious sources for flowers. In addition to growing some of the flowers and herbs that I use for flower arrangements during the growing season I work with several local farmers. At other times of the year I buy flowers directly from the Dutch auction where all products are grown with conscious environmental and labor practices. I also buy from a South American broker that gets roses and other flowers from farms that are partially or completely worker owned.
Comfort which to me intersects with true pleasure can be found in nourishing ourselves and the ecosystem rather than through a cycle of consumption and waste…..
We are not talking about deprivation but conscious alternatives which include considering portions and making decisions about what we really need and want. Just by being aware the question can become, "what do I want?"......Although this seems so basic I find it often gets confusing in a busy environment saturated by media.
Modern conveniences have done away with the need for us to actually do many things. These conveniences are often welcome but sometimes there is nothing more satisfying than making your own bread…particularly with the knowledge that you have the option to buy bread. Making bread is just something that works for me…but I guess that for everyone there is a similar pleasure giving act.
As an aside this leads me to a problem with the word sustainability which inherently suggests inertia. In my mind a better solution is to utilize everything available including conveniences and technology while incorporating the most basic of practices. For example planting a seed that you research and buy on the electronically, watching a plant grow, nurturing and harvesting. Or meeting a farmer who has grown your food…instead of always choosing to purchase the exotic imported vegetable.
Defined as germinating power or life force of animals and plants. In my mind the essence of what each of our daily practices should supports, no?
Vitality through composting, growing something edible even more so with a child helping you, meeting a farmer who grew your food, planting a flower that attracts butterflies, eating less meat or choosing to eat no meat, walking somewhere habitually instead of driving somewhere habitually.
These are just a few examples that nourish vitality…that in my everyday practice is the ultimate goal.
"...reasons to plant that garden, to bother. At least in this one corner of your yard and life, you will have begun to heal the split between what you do, to commingle your identities as consumer and producer and citizen."


Foraging Texas: Making Sauerkraut and Other Fermented Foods.
Making Sauerkraut and Other Fermented Foods.
Fermentation is one of the oldest forms of food preservation. While the word fermentation usually brings to mind the conversion of grains or fruit into beer and wine, it also covers microbial actions such as the conversion of starches and sugars into lactic acid. This lactic acid is what gives the tangy sour flavor to sauerkraut, kimchee, salami, sourdough, and yogurt. Vinegar is created by similar manner by bacteria which convert the alcohol into acetic acid. The lactic and acetic acids prevent other microbes from growing and spoiling the food.
These beneficial, acid-producing bacteria are found all around us naturally and under the right conditions they can easily be harvested. "Wild-type" bacteria don't always give great results so most people purchase bacteria which has already proven to be a good performer. The easiest way to buy them is in the form of yogurt with live culture. Strain the yogurt through cheesecloth and the resulting liquid is loaded with live lactic acid-producing bacteria. Lactic acid bacteria can also be bought in pill form in the vitamin section of most stores. Look for pills labeled Probiotic Acidophilus. To use, simply crush 1-2 of the pills and add the resultant power to your fermentation crock. These bacteria will reproduce and feed on some of the plant material to produce the lactic acid.
Probiotic Acidophilus containing 1 billion active cultures per tablet.
Acetic acid producing bacteria can be found in certain unpasteurized vinegars such as Bragg's Apple Vinegar and some English malt vinegar. You can also purchase acetic acid bacteria "mother" from various places online.
The acid will attack most metal containers so ceramic, glass, or plastic vessels are used to hold the fermenting food. Traditionally large, straight-sided, wide-mouthed ceramic crocks were used and these still can be purchased from assorted online vendors. They are expensive though and usually outside the budget of most people just getting in to fermented foods. Luckily, circular ceramic crockpots and slow-cookers work just as well and are usually available from second-hand stores for under $10. Since the fermentation takes place at room temperature, the crockpot is left unplugged the whole time. The crockpots need to be circular in shape so a plate can be placed inside the crockpot to weigh down and completely submerge to food being fermented under the fermentation liquid. The acid-producing bacteria are "anaerobic" which means oxygen will prevent them from reproducing and must be excluded. Keeping the food submerged keeps the oxygen away, allowing the bacteria to do it's thing. Usually a weight is placed on the plate to keep everything submerged. I use a pitcher of water as the weight.
Sauerkraut: An Easy Fermented Food.
Sauerkraut (fermented cabbage) is one of the easiest fermented foods to make but it is also extremely nutritious. Sauerkraut is simply sliced cabbage with a little salt. More complex sauerkraut recipes call for additional things like apples, onions or spices such as dill and fennel. For your first time just stick with the basics.
3.5 tablespoons of sea salt (optional).
The salt isn't really necessary but adding it will help prevent "bad" bacteria from taking over while you are waiting for the acidophilus bacteria, which is unharmed by high salt concentrations, to grow. The acidophilus pills aren't need either as this sort of bacteria is already all around us and even on the cabbage leaves. I normally don't use these pills except when the weather is exceptionally cold resulting in slow-reproduction of the wild-type bacteria.
Step 1: Gather your stuff.
Here we have the cabbage, crockpots, bowls, and sea salt. I use sea salt as it contains extra minerals that assist the bacteria in the fermentation process. Only one crockpot will be need to hold the cabbage.
Step 2: Slice the cabbage.
Peel off some of the outer cabbage leaves to get to the cleaner interior leaves. Also "core" the cabbage to remove the stem base. The stem base doesn't ferment well as it is large and solid which prevents the bacteria from getting into it. Some people puree the stem base and add it into the crock, but that just makes extra dishes. I'm lazy so I just feed the core to my worms.
Step 3: Salt the cabbage.
Sprinkle some of the sea salt in the bottom of a large bowl, followed by some of the sliced cabbage. Continue to alternate layers of salt and cabbage. If you are adding crushed acidophilus pills do it at this same time, also in layers with the cabbage. Once the bowl is filled mix the salt and cabbage together with your hands while also crushing the cabbage to make it release its juices.
Step 4: Packing the cabbage in the crock.
Tightly pack the sliced cabbage into the crock. You want to press hard on it to drive out any air and also to squeeze more juice out. You need enough juice to completely cover all the cabbage. The salt will help draw out some of the water from the cabbage so don't worry if it at first is seems like there isn't enough juice. After a few hours a lot more juice will be freed from the cabbage so its rare that extra water needs to be added.
Step 5: Submerge the cabbage, part 1.
Place a plate on top of the cabbage to press it down under the water. I usually place a cup or an upside down bowl on top of the plate, followed by a cloth covering and then a pitcher filled with water on top of the cup or bowl. The pitcher increase the weight on the cabbge insuring it will stay submerged.
Step 5: Submerge the cabbage, part 2.
Here you can see the cloth covering and the pitcher of water. The cloth keeps out any dust, spores, or flies that might want to contaminate the sauerkraut. The pitcher adds weight to keep stuff submerged. At this point depending on the room temperature it will take anywhere from four days to four weeks for the cabbage to reach the proper level of spicy, yummy fermentation. Check it every two to three days during this time to remove any "blooms". Blooms are simply white fuzzy/spiderwebby stuffy. It is non-toxic but kind of icky looking and can impart odd flavors to the fermented veggies if not removed.
A spider-webby bloom. Just remove it, the sauerkraut will be fine.
Deciding when sauerkraut is "finished" is very subjective and only depends on your particular tastes. Visually it'll have a slightly translucent appearance but what really matters is the taste. If you like the way it tastes then it is finished. Pack the sauerkraut into covered glass or plastic jars and stick it in your fridge, making sure you included enough of the juice to keep the sauerkraut submerged. The batch shown being made for this article filled two quart jars.
The cold temperature of the fridge will cause bacteria growth/fermentation to slow almost to a standstill, no more lactic acid will be produced. The sauerkraut will then stay in this edible state for years.
In Mexico slices of carrots and peppers are treated this way. Kimchee is just Asian cabbages and other Asian vegetables mixed with spicy peppers and assorted seasonings and allowed to ferment into a fiery, tangy dish. Any plant can be fermented, whether it tastes good or not is up to you. I plan on making a kimchee-style dish using smartweed, dollarweed, spiderwort, chili pequins, and assorted other wild edibles. Hopefully it'll turn out fantastic...or at least edible.
Next up, a bunch of stuff mixed together.
Update on the cauliflower/daikon radish/ginger/carrot/hot pepper mix: it's fantastic!!


On the 10th of August 2012, the kick off project team meeting about the project "Efficient usage of solar energy for better future – SP-Future", took place in the premises of hotel "Sirius", Strumitza, Republic of Macedonia.
Appoint responsibilities and tasks among the project team members and the means of communication.
7 members of the project team took part in the meeting – project manager, coordinator, accountant, engineer, administrative assistant, and other municipal experts. These included, three representatives of the project partner - Centre for development of South-East Region, two representatives from Petrich municipality, and one representative of the other two partners – Association of South-Western Municipalities and Strumitza municipality.
As a result of this meeting, the project team delivered: an Action plan; a Project Procurement Plan; clearly appointed tasks and responsibilities; communication plan between the project team and the partners.


Manuel Pellegrini has urged West Ham's disgruntled fans to lay off Marko Arnautovic.
The Austrian forward's form has slumped since he tried to engineer a move to China in January.
Arnautovic was handed a new contract to keep him happy, but his relationship with the Hammers supporters has turned sour.
The 29-year-old, who has not scored in eight appearances, was booed off as he was substituted during West Ham's last two matches.
Frustrated Arnautovic even appeared to swear at a fan behind the dug-out after he was replaced during the 2-0 defeat against Everton last weekend.
Arnautovic is still tipped to leave the club in the summer, but Pellegrini insists he remains committed to the cause.
"I don't think anybody can be happy," said the Hammers boss.
"The fans are not happy, me, Marko is not happy, but this happens to some players in a moment of the season when they are not in their best moment. Maybe they need the support more than to punish them.
"Talking with Marko, he wants to do things better. He is absolutely involved with our team, what happened with China is now over and finished.
"If anyone thinks that Marko doesn't want to be here at West Ham, they are wrong. Marko is absolutely involved mentally and physically.
"I repeat, he is not in a good moment but, supporting him, he will return to what he demonstrated some months ago.
"A lot of players at parts of the season have bad performances. It is not easy maybe to know that you don't have the support of the fans that he had six months ago. But with his work and a positive mentality he will return."
Pellegrini branded the Everton defeat West Ham's worst performance of the season, dealing their hopes of finishing seventh, and a potential Europa League place, a major blow.
Pellegrini is looking for a reaction when they head to Chelsea on Monday night.
"Nobody was happy after the game," he added. "But we will try to finish this season as high as we can in the table. We are trying to involve all the players in that mentality."


text:
Cruising Stories for Sailing Near and Far
Chesapeake Bay Cruising At Its Best
Sitting in the lounge of the Charthouse, overlooking Annapolis Harbor in Spa Creek, we were admiring yet another dreamy sunset descending upon this lovely historic town. Glimpse for yourself on the webcam. Spring has finally arrived in the northeast after a long, cold winter. A light breeze gently sways the few sailboats in the harbor back and forth on their anchors, inviting yet another sailing season in on the Chesapeake Bay. The local sailors are restless, busily de-winterizing and preparing their craft to get out on the bay at the first opportunity. This scene conjures up memories of the incredible summer we spent cruising on the Chesapeake Bay last year.
Team Zuri Discovers the Chesapeake Bay
In early summer, Zuri, one of a growing number of catamarans in the bay, had pride of place on a bulkhead in Port Annapolis Marina. Situated on Back Creek, the marina is conveniently close to downtown Annapolis. Scott and his team are hospitality personified and we loved being moored in this tranquil and picturesque haven, but we were determined to get out on the water as often as we could and really get to know the bay. After all, Annapolis is touted as the sailing capital of America. Yes, as the home of the majestic Naval Academy and of famous people like Bruce Farr, the yacht designer, and Gary Jobson, author, world-class sailor, and television commentator, the Chesapeake has a rich maritime history and sailing is what they do here. Year-round, the harbor is filled with vessels of all shapes and sizes. Whether there's a regatta or not, you always see boats on the water here.
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary with the most coastline of any other bay and in fact, its 11,600 miles of shoreline is longer than the entire coastline of the US. With more than 150 rivers feeding the estuary, the shoreline offers a varied landscape from the urbanized cities of Baltimore and Washington DC to the quaint colonial coastal towns of St Michael's and Cambridge. Its farming and fishing communities on the historic Eastern Shore are tranquil and seem rather untouched by time. There's an element of timelessness here. These areas are quant and a little insular, however these people know how to enjoy the watermen's way of life, including sailing, crabbing or just chillin' in a boat with a cooler stocked with worms and beer.
Raft-Ups: Bay Cruising at its Best
During our stay we befriended some locals and were graciously invited along for their weekend "raft-ups" or floating parties in picturesque coves and anchorages on the bay. Raft-up's in the Chesapeake are social gatherings on water of two or more boats of all shapes and sizes, somewhat haphazardly but expertly tethered together. We saw as many as 14 boats rafted together at one time and what a good time this communal type living at anchor is! Cooking, fishing, children, dogs and the general well being of the rafters are community responsibilities, reminiscent of the hippies of the Sixties. It's sometimes loud, bursting with the energy of people having fun and other times the tranquil atmosphere has the lazy romantic ambience that only being at anchor on a boat can bring.
Our "raft-up" get-togethers started in early May in Spa Creek, Annapolis. With the regal Naval Academy as the backdrop, the beloved "Blue Angels" wowed the crowds with a spectacular air show, officially marking the opening of the summer season on the Bay. The entire harbor was filled to capacity with anything that floats, from homemade rafts to mega yachts. Estimates are anything from 500 to 1000 vessels, further cementing Annapolis' reputation as the sailing capital of the US. Next up was our 4th of July fireworks raft-up and it was as spectacular and the crowd was as dense. These Marylanders know how to celebrate! Annapolis is infamously known as a "drinking town with a sailing problem" and as Dick Franyo of the Boatyard Bar and Grill in Eastport says, "We know how to throw a party!"
Our local "ringleader" and raft-up organizer was Chris on his Rambunctious, a Post 38 Sportfish. Chris is a local boy who grew up on the bay and he knows every crevice and nook in the bay. He led the way to St. Michaels for another round of 4th fireworks the next day where several of our boat owners and Dream Yacht charter guests joined us. Pretty soon we had a raft of about 10 to 12 boats of different sizes, shapes, and propulsion, with Zuri, our Prout 45 catamaran, acting as the anchor boat. More fireworks followed that night, lighting up the sky amid very excited ooh's and aah's from the packed anchorage. The daytime heat forced us into the lukewarm water, drifting leisurely around on floats, cocktails in hand, only coming out for some mega indulgences on local fare. Briny oysters on the half shell, rockfish, spicy Maryland blue crab dip and some juicy steaks to top it off. Yes, we enjoyed every juicy, fresh and succulent bit of seafood straight from the bay.
The raft-up commune
Sunsets and Pickin' Crabs
Sun-soaked weekends were the norm throughout the summer. Each weekend was as colorful and interesting as the sunsets on the bay and the lighthouses that dot the Chesapeake. New friends and raft-up buddies joined us at Gibson Island, Dobbins Island, West River, St. Helena Island, South River, Herrington Harbor, and eventually, Rock Hall for the annual "Pirates and Wenches" Party, an epic event! Rum tastings, local seafood, pirate boats and outfits were the order of the day in Rock Hall during the weekend. Known as the "Pearl of the Chesapeake", Rock Hall is a picturesque fishing town with a rich history dated as far back as 1707.
The lighthouses of the Chesapeake
The fish is served fresh off the decks of the local fisherman and, here outsiders are called "chicken-neckers" but more precisely, it refers to people from the western shore. Their comical attempts at catching crabs with a chicken neck tied to a long piece of string, is looked upon by the locals with amused disdain but to be sure, it provided hours of entertainment for the kids on our raft-ups!
Zuri and sistership Persistence in Annapolis Harbor
During the summer, we indulged several times in one of the most famous "events" in the Chesapeake: "Pickin'" crabs. Blue crabs are as synonymous with Maryland as lobster is to Maine and serving a crab feast is a matter of local pride in the Chesapeake region. But make no mistake, "pickin' crabs" is not a meal, it's a social event. It's a messy, loud affair and a proper feast takes several hours when done properly. Nowhere is the crab experience more completely local than it is at an old school crab house like "Cantler's" in Whitehall Bay. This was where we anchored on one of the raft-up weekends and one sultry evening 15 of us dinghied into Cantler's, excited to attack this local delicacy. We were promptly put on a waiting list. Apparently, this, too, is part of the experience. These crab houses are always chockfull and no amount of complaining will speed things up. Like I said, this is an event and people take their time pickin' these crabs.
We were finally seated, at least an hour or more later at long picnic-style tables and benches. Sitting elbow to elbow with strangers and friends alike, waitresses rushed along, covering the tables with brown butcher paper, placing pitchers of water, rolls of paper rowels, lemon wedges, wooden mallets and small forks around the table, while quickly taking orders for dozens of crabs and beer, and that's it. The steamed blue crabs, now reddish in color, are unceremoniously dumped on your table, covered in the very spicy, zesty local Baltimorean seasoning called Old Bay. The crabs come by the dozen, and these male-only crabs are steamed, never boiled, in sizes medium, large, jumbo or colossal. Little bowls of vinegar and melted butter for dipping rounds off the meal. We opted for large but by the end of the evening, I wished that we had gone with colossal size, no matter the price. It seemed like a lot of work for very little food even on the large crabs!
Carb pickin': It starts out fairly civilized but ends up in a heap of messy crab carcasses
There's a special learning curve in finding that sweet tender meat and the locals are quick to teach the rookies. It takes a loooong time to learn how to dissect the crab just right to get but one mouthful of crabmeat and I realized that I probably should have had an appetizer before the "meal". This affair gets very messy and noisy as the hammers crack away, the shells and crab juice fly and everyone's fingers get covered in the very hot red seasoning. Pitchers of Budweiser or Yeungling are served with the crabs, not wine as is usual with seafood, but trust me, you need the beer to put out the flames of the Old Bay seasoning. The menu usually is extensive, but few locals ever eat anything but steamed crabs, corn on the cob and sweet fluffy cornbread or hush puppies. It is an event to behold! Check out this great article: 10 Photos Show Maryland's Blue Crab Industry Like You've Never Seen It Before.
Crab boats in Tangier Island
Remote Chesapeake Bay Cruising Destinations
Two of the highlights further down the bay are Solomon's Island on the Patuxent River and Tangier Island in the middle of the bay, closer to the Virginian border. Solomon's Island is a safe and friendly haven, where cruisers and submarines coexist. This tiny settlement was historically significant as a center for shipbuilding, oyster harvesting and canning and three navy bases. Today this is more of a tourist destination with several marinas, seafood restaurants, including a heralded spot, Stoney's Seafood House and the famous Tiki Bar where, on opening day in the spring, literally thousand of tourists show up to toss back several of their famous Mai Tai's. The waterfront is charming and the surrounding cliffs are are spectacular. There is a lot to do and see including one of the last remaining screwpile lighthouses, the Drum Point lighthouse.
Tangier Island is a delightfully unique little community which is slowly disappearing due to erosion and along with it, the Elizabethan English speaking locals. But for right now, it's one of the friendliest places on earth. The island, with a population of about 700 consisting mainly of the Crocket family or their descendants, is a step back in time. It's rich in history, blessed with abundant oyster and crab and known as the soft-shell crab capital of the nation. The island can only be reached by boat or plane, which helped preserve this piece of living history.
Summers End, But Annapolis Sailing Cruises On
We discovered to our delight that cruising is hard to beat on the Chesapeake. We spent endlessly long summer days sailing in this unique and magical water world. The sunsets over the Annapolis skyline are breathtaking and their golden glow was best enjoyed at anchor while sipping a cocktail and grilling our catch of the day.
We declare without a doubt, this body of water one of our favorite cruising grounds in the world. Captain John Smith once said of the Chesapeake Bay, that "Heaven and Earth never agreed to frame a better place for man's habitation."
Chesapeake Bay Cruising Guides: baydreaming.com
Cruising Guides: waterwayguide.com
Tourist Information: visitannapolis.org
Chesapeake Bay Magazine: chesapeakeboating.net
Port Annapolis Marina: portannapolis.com
St Michael's: stmichaelsmd.org
Solomons island: solomonsmaryland.com
Tangier Island: tangierisland-va.com/island/ AND this article from Cruising World Magazine cruisingworld.com/discovering-tangier-island
Favorite Restauarants
There are so many good and fun restaurants in downtown Annapolis. Be sure to check out several bars and restaurants while you are in town.
Pusser's Landing for the "painkillers"
Dock Street Bar & Grill for the best crab cakes
Mc Garveys Saloon & Raw Bar to meet local sailors
Middleton's Tavern & Raw Bar is a great late night piano bar
Chick & Ruth's Delly for some patriotism and a fun dining experience
Rambunctious serving as committee boat for Wednesday night races


text:
Wehrlia is een uitgestorven geslacht van kreeftachtigen uit de klasse van de Ostracoda (mosselkreeftjes).

Soort
 Wehrlia olbertzae Schallreuter, 1965 †

Uitgestorven kreeftachtigen


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text:
Q: Convergence of sequence of functions in a the sense of distribution. Consider the sequence of functions on $\Bbb R$ defined by
$$
  f_n(x)=\frac{n}{\pi(1+n^2x^2)},\quad n=1,2,\ldots
$$
  Show that $\{f_n\}$ converges to $\delta$ in the sense of distribution.

A: We have
$$\lim_{n\to\infty}<f_n,\phi>=\lim_{n\to\infty}\int_{-\infty}^\infty\frac{n\phi(x)}{\pi(1+n^2x^2)}dx=\lim_{n\to\infty}\int_{-M}^M\frac{n\phi(x)}{\pi(1+n^2x^2)}dx,$$ since $\phi$ is test function (and therefore $\phi(x)=0$ for $x\notin [-M,M]$).
By substituting $t=nx$, we have
$$\lim_{n\to\infty}<f_n,\phi>=\lim_{n\to\infty}\int_{-nM}^{nM}\frac{\phi(\frac{t}{n})}{\pi(1+t^2)}dt=\lim_{n\to\infty}\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{\chi_{[-nM,nM]}(t)\phi(\frac{t}{n})}{\pi(1+t^2)}dt,$$
from where we get (by Lebesgue dominated theorem),
$$\lim_{n\to\infty}<f_n,\phi>=\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\lim_{n\to\infty}\frac{\chi_{[-nM,nM]}(t)\phi(\frac{t}{n})}{\pi(1+t^2)}dt=\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{\phi(0)}{\pi(1+t^2)}dt=\frac{\phi(0)}{\pi}\arctan{t}|_{-\infty}^{\infty},$$
$$\lim_{n\to\infty}<f_n,\phi>=\phi(0)=<\delta,\phi>$$

A: Another simpler idea (depending on what information you are allowed to use) is to show that $f_n(x)$ is a delta sequence (all of which converge to $\delta$ in terms of distributions). As all the terms are nonnegative, it suffices to show that

*

*$\int_\mathbb{R} f_n(x)dx = 1$ for all $n$.

*For $\eta >0$, $\int_{|x|> \eta} f_n(x)dx \to 0$ as $n \to \infty$.

Both are routine if you use the same $t=nx$ substitution and evaluate the integrals directly.


text:
Q: Why does sending via a UdpClient cause subsequent receiving to fail? I'm trying to create a UDP server which can send messages to all the clients that send messages to it. The real situation is a little more complex, but it's simplest to imagine it as a chat server: everyone who has sent a message before receives all the messages that are sent by other clients.
All of this is done via UdpClient, in separate processes. (All network connections are within the same system though, so I don't think the unreliability of UDP is an issue here.)
The server code is a loop like this (full code later):
var udpClient = new UdpClient(9001);
while (true)
{
    var packet = await udpClient.ReceiveAsync();
    // Send to clients who've previously sent messages here
}

The client code is simple too - again, this is slightly abbreviated, but full code later:
var client = new UdpClient();
client.Connect("127.0.0.1", 9001);
await client.SendAsync(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("Hello"));
await Task.Delay(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(15));
await client.SendAsync(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("Goodbye"));
client.Close();

This all works fine until one of the clients closes its UdpClient (or the process exits).
The next time another client sends a message, the server tries to propagate that to the now-closed original client. The SendAsync call for that doesn't fail - but then when the server loops back to ReceiveAsync, that fails with an exception, and I haven't found a way to recover.
If I never send a message to the client that's disconnected, I never see the problem. Based on that I've also created a "fails immediately" repro which just sends to an endpoint assumed not to be listening, and then tries to receive. This fails with the same exception.
Exception:
System.Net.Sockets.SocketException (10054): An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host.
   at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.AwaitableSocketAsyncEventArgs.CreateException(SocketError error, Boolean forAsyncThrow)
   at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.AwaitableSocketAsyncEventArgs.ReceiveFromAsync(Socket socket, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
   at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.ReceiveFromAsync(Memory`1 buffer, SocketFlags socketFlags, EndPoint remoteEndPoint, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
   at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.ReceiveFromAsync(ArraySegment`1 buffer, SocketFlags socketFlags, EndPoint remoteEndPoint)
   at System.Net.Sockets.UdpClient.ReceiveAsync()
   at Program.<Main>$(String[] args) in [...]

Environment:

*

*Windows 11, x64

*.NET 6

Is this expected behaviour? Am I using UdpClient incorrectly on the server side? I'm fine with clients not receiving messages after they've closed their UdpClient (that's to be expected), and in the "full" application I'll tidy up my internal state to keep track of "active" clients (who have sent packets recently) but I don't want one client closing a UdpClient to bring down the whole server. Run the server in one console, and the client in another. Once the client has finished once, run it again (so that it tries to send to the now-defunct original client).
The default .NET 6 console app project template is fine for all projects.
Repro code
The simplest example comes first - but if you want to run a server and client, they're shown afterwards.
Deliberately broken server (fails immediately)
Based on the assumption that it really is the sending that's causing the problem, this is easy to reproduce in just a few lines:
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;

var badEndpoint = new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Parse("127.0.0.1"), 12346);
var udpClient = new UdpClient(12345);
await udpClient.SendAsync(new byte[10], badEndpoint);
await udpClient.ReceiveAsync();

Server
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.Text;

var udpClient = new UdpClient(9001);
var endpoints = new HashSet<IPEndPoint>();
try
{
    while (true)
    {
        Log($"{DateTime.UtcNow:HH:mm:ss.fff}: Waiting to receive packet");
        var packet = await udpClient.ReceiveAsync();
        var buffer = packet.Buffer;
        var clientEndpoint = packet.RemoteEndPoint;
        endpoints.Add(clientEndpoint);
        Log($"Received {buffer.Length} bytes from {clientEndpoint}: {Encoding.UTF8.GetString(buffer)}");
        foreach (var otherEndpoint in endpoints)
        {
            if (!otherEndpoint.Equals(clientEndpoint))
            {
                await udpClient.SendAsync(buffer, otherEndpoint);
            }
        }
    }
}
catch (Exception e)
{
    Log($"Failed: {e}");
}

void Log(string message) =>
    Console.WriteLine($"{DateTime.UtcNow:HH:mm:ss.fff}: {message}");

Client
(I previously had a loop actually receiving the packets sent by the server, but that doesn't seem to make any difference, so I've removed it for simplicity.)
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.Text;

Guid clientId = Guid.NewGuid();
var client = new UdpClient();
Log("Connecting UdpClient");
client.Connect("127.0.0.1", 9001);
await client.SendAsync(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes($"Hello from {clientId}"));
await Task.Delay(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(15));
await client.SendAsync(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes($"Goodbye from {clientId}"));
client.Close();
Log("UdpClient closed");

void Log(string message) =>
    Console.WriteLine($"{DateTime.UtcNow:HH:mm:ss.fff}: {message}");

A: As a result of other peoples work inhere, I made a little udpSocket creation code, that will handle the if windows/if not logic incapsulated:
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

public static class UdpSocketUtils
{
    public static Socket CreateUdpSocket(IPEndPoint localEndpoint)
    {
        var socket = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Dgram, ProtocolType.Udp);
        socket.SetSocketOption(SocketOptionLevel.IP, SocketOptionName.ReuseAddress, true);
        socket.Bind(localEndpoint);

        if (RuntimeInformation.IsOSPlatform(OSPlatform.Windows))
        {
            // Due to this issue: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/74327225/why-does-sending-via-a-udpclient-cause-subsequent-receiving-to-fail
            // .. the following needs to be done on windows
            const uint IOC_IN = 0x80000000U;
            const uint IOC_VENDOR = 0x18000000U;
            const int SIO_UDP_CONNRESET = unchecked((int)(IOC_IN | IOC_VENDOR | 12));
            socket.IOControl(SIO_UDP_CONNRESET, new byte[] { 0x00 }, null);
        }
        return socket;
    }
}

A: As you may be aware, if a host receives a packet for a UDP port that is not currently bound, it may send back an ICMP "Port Unreachable" message.  Whether or not it does this is dependent on the firewall, private/public settings, etc. On localhost, however, it will pretty much always send this packet back.
In your server code, you are calling SendAsync to old clients, which prompts these "port unreachable" messages.

Now, on Windows (and only on Windows), by default, a received ICMP Port Unreachable message will close the UDP socket that sent it; hence, the next time you try to receive on the socket, it will throw an exception because the socket has been closed by the OS.
Obviously, this causes a headache in the multi-client, single-server socket set-up you have here, but luckily there is a fix:
You need to utilise the not-often-required SIO_UDP_CONNRESET Winsock control code, which turns off this built-in behaviour of automatically closing the socket.
I don't believe this ioctl code is available in the dotnet IoControlCodes type, but you can define it yourself. If you put the following code at the top of your server repro, the error no longer gets raised.
const uint IOC_IN = 0x80000000U;
const uint IOC_VENDOR = 0x18000000U;

/// <summary>
/// Controls whether UDP PORT_UNREACHABLE messages are reported.
/// </summary>
const int SIO_UDP_CONNRESET = unchecked((int)(IOC_IN | IOC_VENDOR | 12));

var udpClient = new UdpClient(9001);
udpClient.Client.IOControl(SIO_UDP_CONNRESET, new byte[] { 0x00 }, null);

Note that this ioctl code is only supported on Windows (XP and later), not on Linux, since it is provided by the Winsock extensions. Of course, since the described behavior is only the default behavior on Windows, this omission is not a major loss. If you are attempting to create a cross-platform library, you should cordon this off as Windows-specific code.


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text:
Pressure mounts on Wray as FBI behavior in Russia case comes into clearer focus
'Director Wray owes the American people an explanation about the FBI's misconduct,' Rep. Jim Jordan declares.
By John Solomon
Updated: May 3, 2020 - 10:56pm
IG Horowitz report on FISA abuses
DOJ IG report on Russia FISAs
Redacted footnotes
RedactedHorowitzFootnotes.pdf
FBI 2018 statement in response to Nunes memo
Back in early 2018, the FBI under newly minted Director Chris Wray issued an extraordinarily rare public rebuke of a sitting House committee chairman.
Then-House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes had just issued a memo concluding that the FBI under Wray's predecessor, James Comey, abused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act process to improperly spy on President Trump's campaign.
Wray fired back, even though the issues didn't happen on his watch, suggesting Nunes had given an inaccurate picture to the American public.
"We have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy," the bureau said in a statement that reverberated across America, especially with mainstream media that had pushed the faulty Russia collusion narrative for months.
Now two years later, Nunes' memo has been vindicated by the belated release of classified information and a Justice Department inspector general's report that confirmed systematic FISA abuses and much wider problems inside the FBI.
Lawmakers, particularly Republicans, have expressed grave concerns about Wray's leadership, his reluctance to recognize the magnitude of problems inside the bureau exposed by the Russia case fallout, and his slow release of information, which some see as foot-dragging.
"There is so much underneath the surface of the ocean, this iceberg that we haven't even seen yet," Rep. Andy Biggs, a House Judiciary Committee member and chairman of the influential Freedom Caucus, told Just the News. "And when you get back to Christopher Wray, that is part of my frustration. … More has to be declassified."
"I have had access to 302s [FBI interview reports] that I have asked, for gosh a good year or so -- and I know others have too-- that they would declassify those. And they keep telling us, 'yeah they are in the process,' and they never declassify them," Biggs said in a wide-ranging interview with the John Solomon Reports podcast. "They've got to be declassified.
The IG report in December and subsequent declassified information showed the FBI engaged in 17 major mistakes and acts of misconduct in seeking a FISA warrant to spy on the Trump campaign starting in October 2016, including the falsification of a document, the submission of false information to a court, and the submission of unsubstantiated evidence in a warrant application marked as "verified."
In addition, newly declassified footnotes from the report showed the FBI had strong reasons to distrust the information in Christopher Steele's dossier — including denials from his main source and warnings he was being fed Russian disinformation — but nonetheless proceeded to use the dossier as the key evidence in seeking a year's worth of surveillance warrants.
The problems exposed during the Russia case started with the Comey regime, but have stretched into Wray's watch. An IG report last fall flagged widespread failures in the FBI's handling of confidential human sources like Steele.
And a new IG report a few weeks ago found that 29 of 29 FISA applications — many filed during Wray's tenure — contained significant flaws that violated the bureau's own rules designed to ensure the accuracy of evidence submitted to the courts.
The concerns about Wray were exacerbated by the revelations last week — from documents long withheld from a federal court — that FBI agents had recommended in January 2017 closing down a Russia-related probe of Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn for lack of evidence, only to be overruled by the bureau's leadership.
The extraordinary intervention of FBI leaders — then under the command of Comey and his deputy Andrew McCabe — led one official to write handwritten notes questioning whether the bureau was "playing games" and trying to get Flynn to lie "so we could prosecute him, or get him fired."
The double-barreled revelations about FISA and Flynn have left Republican lawmakers with grave concerns about Wray's leadership and his willingness to recognize the magnitude of problems inside the bureau exposed by the Russia case fallout.
"Director Wray owes the American people an explanation about the FBI's misconduct with General Flynn," said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee. "It's becoming more and more apparent that the FBI ruined the life of a respected general in its goal to take down President Trump."
Jordan added: "The FBI's actions were part of a larger pattern of wrongdoing, which were all directed against the president and his advisers. If they can do it to a president, they can do it to any of us."
Flynn's lawyer, Sidney Powell, was even more harsh in her assessment, accusing Wray's FBI of hiding the truth.
"Wray knew about the evidence we were requesting for General Flynn," Powell told Just the News. "My request was even discussed in the Director's meeting. Most of what has been produced so far and what will be produced has been in FBI files all along--now more than three years. If the Prosecutors refused to produce it, he should have taken it to the AG or filed a whistle blower complaint himself. Instead, it would appear he was part of a conspiracy to obstruct justice and Congress, and we don't know what else."
FBI officials have declined comment on the Flynn evidence. But his defenders are quick to note he has referred all FBI employees involved in the Russia FISAs for disciplinary investigation and implemented more than 40 reforms to the FISA process to address concerns uncovered in the Russia case.
Still, some inside and outside the bureau are concerned that Wray has not been vocal enough in acknowledging clear failures on his predecessor's watch and has instead created the perception of coverup with the slow, uneven release of information demanded by the courts and Congress.
Biggs said lawmakers like himself are losing patience with Wray's failure to declassify more evidence. They want the information released so that the antiseptic of disclosure deters the future temptation to repeat what happened in the Russia case fiasco, he said.
"More has got to be declassified for the American people to understand why big government, why closed secret courts and processes are dangerous to the republic," Biggs said.
Former CIA Moscow station chief calls out Biden for failing to explain Ukraine strategy
Russian oligarch keeps showing up in the most inconvenient places for FBI, Washington elites
Foreign policy expert says US should support Ukraine, but not get dragged into a war


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text:
How a 5-Decade Old Education Company Reinvented Itself
By Tina Nazerian Oct 17, 2018
mcherevan/Shutterstock
Curriculum Associates has been around for about five decades, and has reinvented itself throughout the years. Like many other education companies that started with print instructional K-12 materials, Curriculum Associates has had to make the transition to digital.
Today, the North Billerica, Mass.-based company boasts six million active users on i-Ready, its flagship digital instructional and assessment offering. Even more: Curriculum Associates says it is making over $250 million.
Keys to making that shift, says Curriculum Associates' CEO Rob Waldron, include listening closely to educators to continually refine its offerings, and sticking to a long-term vision that focuses more on what works for his users—and not simply hitting quarterly growth targets.
EdSurge recently spoke with Rob Waldron, the CEO of the North Billerica, Mass.-based company, to learn more about that reinvention and the lessons he's learned in the process. Here's an excerpt of the interview, which has been edited and condensed for grammar and clarity.
EdSurge: Curriculum Associates was founded in 1969 and you joined in 2008. How did CA transition from a traditional company focused on providing workbooks to an edtech company?
Waldron: When I came in 2008, the world was in a very difficult place. Companies like our's were struggling mightily, some going out of business, others shedding lots of people. [In schools], if you were faced with a choice to fire a teacher or get rid of any curriculum or a new curriculum, you would get rid of the curriculum.
The first thing we did was to create materials aligned to the Common Core standards which were coming out. We thought about the fact that there were more English learners and people with diverse cultural backgrounds in this new world. Also, the new academic standards were much, much harder.
I had previously run an after-school tutoring company that became second to Sylvan in the tutoring space, and which used a lot of adaptive technology. And I wanted to bring some of those ideas to CA. So we went about building a product that at the time was inexpensive. But like all disruptive technologies, it was still emerging. And then we just kept listening to what educators needed and continued to make it better. It wasn't clear until maybe 2012 or so that we were onto something.
Curriculum Associates CEO Rob Waldron. Photo Credit: Keith Bedford
Would you describe this change as a pivot or just the next evolution of what was going on?
Before we were in the business of trying to solve the problem of: "What am I going to do when I have students at three or four or five different grade levels in a classroom, and I need to support all those students?" And so, we use technology to address that problem in better ways. So, everyone else would say it was a pivot, but we felt we were trying to solve the same problem—but using technology to solve it better.
What were some of the things you learned as Curriculum Associates was undergoing this change?
In the old world, a large publishing company would make something, say a textbook, and every kid would write their name in pencil inside of the book. When you sold that book, you would run to the sales meeting and have a martini. But [neither schools or publishers] could see whether the textbook was actually used, or if it just sat on the shelf.
In the new [digital] world, schools get to see how materials are used. Now, all the administrators and everyone gets to see whether kids are logged in and engaged, whether parents look at the stuff, whether the teachers are using it and so forth. Everybody gets to see everything so there's nowhere to hide.
That was one big change. And I think we recognized that change and implemented high levels of support and service, because [using new products] can be very complicated in schools. Most people think about us as an edtech company and a product company. But we're also very much a service company—and that includes having a professional development staff that helps teachers in the classroom and account managers who are looking at usage and providing support.
The second thing is the speed of product development. We're continually using the data about how the kids are doing.
For instance, let's say I deployed a lesson on proportional relationships to 10,000 kids but only a thousand achieve mastery. Perhaps they weren't engaged. I would know that the lesson isn't any good. And then I can ask: Well, why did that lesson have so many [students] quit? I can go back and look at the data, the efficacy of the lesson—these little micro-moments—to make the lesson better and better. In the old days, you would only do [product updates] once in a decade.
Can you describe the unique company structure that Curriculum Associates operates?
I took over from a man who turned 92 a couple of weeks ago. His name is Frank Ferguson. He was the president of Curriculum Associates from the 1970s through 2008. I was the company's second president—now CEO—from 2008 till today. So we've only had two leaders since the '70s.
Frank didn't want to make money from CA, and decided to give all of his shares away. He gave those shares away to [the foundation that supports] Iowa State University and the Boston Foundation. We did that together. I suggested the Boston Foundation, to give back to the city of Boston.
But Iowa State can't [fund] a new building or provide scholarships simply with shares, right? They need to sell them. So, I led a process to sell those shares to Berkshire Partners and a minority investor who's a philanthropist who believes in the importance of our work. The sale of those shares led to a $200 million dollar gift.
That donation was the eighth-largest gift given in the United States last year. But, nothing changed about Curriculum Associates. I stayed in charge. The teams stayed together.
Do you think there's any other company in education or otherwise that has a structure similar to your old one?
If I ran a public company, my job would be to maximize short-term shareholder return. I think it was a huge competitive advantage for CA to know that the company had a very long-term view—that we were reinvesting all the time and that we didn't have short-term pressures.
Over these 10 years, my job was to make classes better places for teachers and children. I knew I had to do that in a way that created a [profit] margin that would let us be successful and allow us to reinvest. But long-term thinking was the key.
The company continues to grow. It will have well over $250 million this year, probably $260 [million]. When I started, it was $26 million. So we've gone up by a factor of 10 in my 10 years.
Taking a long-term view led to this growth because we weren't worried about [hitting goals] this quarter, or this year. I think that having a long-term view is so important in the K-12 sector to making the highest quality products. If you do this thing where you improve the product a little bit, try to sell the heck out of it, and then try to flip the company—well, I've seen again and again how that approach has led to bad results for both children and investors.
We're seeing private equity firms buy a lot of education companies. What does that mean for the quality of the products, the stability of companies and the value created for educators?
I don't worry about private-equity investors or investors. Everybody has investors. I think the thing that we do need to worry about is the debt load on companies.
I have a competitor who's got a similarly sized company, which has a billion dollars of debt. In other words, they have a billion-dollar loan. When they sell their product, that $70 million is leaving the company, never to be deployed again. By contrast, we can use that money to improve our products.
Tina Nazerian (@journoinred) is a reporter at EdSurge covering education technology. Reach her at tina [at] edsurge [dot] com.


I can remember feeling nervous about breastfeeding Cherry in public for the first time. We were going for a meal with Mr C's family and I knew at some point I would need to feed her. I was worried because it was still new to me and I hadn't built up the confidence to answer back should anyone say anything and knew I would probably cry instead.
Luckily it was totally fine, well better than fine as the waiter actually came over and told me he would heat my dinner up when I had finished. Then like anything, once you have done it the first time it becomes far less scary so I continued to feed Cherry as and when she needed me to, no matter where we were.
I am now breastfeeding for the second time and have never come across any negativity for doing so in public.
I know not everyone can say the same thing and had I received a negative comment from someone the first time I breastfed in public then although it wouldn't have made me stop, it would have made me a lot more nervous and uncomfortable.
The thing is though that people making negative comments is rare and we can't let it put us off breastfeeding in public because otherwise these people will win. I always thought that I would give anyone who said anything to me a piece of my mind but I just don't think I would now because they are so ignorant that I don't think anything you say to them will change their minds on how they view it.
I accept now that some people will never understand breastfeeding, they will never think it's necessary in public or even in private. That can't be changed but what can be is giving women who want to do it the support and confidence to not care what these people think.
This is why we NEED to breastfeed our babies in public. If the people who don't like seeing it don't like it then they should stay home or go and drink their drinks in a toilet. They need to feel like they don't have the right to say anything. They need to be the minority.
One of my friends has a little girl four weeks younger than Tiger and yesterday we were both in a busy park breastfeeding our babies. It would have been perfect timing for someone to say something to us because we had power in numbers.
Last year I attended a breastfeeding protest in Bristol, a mum had been asked to move when breastfeeding her baby, she was then followed by someone who hurled abuse at her. She put word out about it on Facebook and before you know it, there were dozens of women all showing their support and agreeing to turn up at the protest. It was a brilliant, positive day and although the cafe might prefer women not to breastfeed in their cafe, they now have a sticker saying breastfeeding mums are welcome.
The law covers us to breastfeed anywhere we like and that is all that matters.