BOCA RATON, Fla.—ADT announced it has teamed up with Arrow Electronics to further expand its distribution arm for its ADT Cybersecurity solutions.
SCHAUMBURG, Ill.—Convergint Technologies recently announced its new financial partnership with a fund managed by the Private Equity Group of Ares Management, L.P., a global alternative asset manager with approximately $106 billion of assets under management. Convergint had been with Denver-based firm KRG Capital Partners since 2012, experiencing tremendous growth during that time.
FALLS CHURCH, Va.—Kastle Systems International, an integration company that specializes in managed security solutions and services, recently announced the acquisition of Urban Alarm, a local D.C.-based security provider.
SCHAUMBURG, Ill.—Convergint Technologies announced this week the acquisition of Maryland-based Genesis Security Systems, making it 14 acquisitions in 24 months for the global systems integration company based here.


Forget about traditional apple crumble with our Water Apple Crumble e-juice. We've captured the delicate flavour of water apple, grown only in tropical conditions, and elevated it in this dessert-inspired e-liquid — complete with cinnamon-sugar topping. Each inhale is a tasty pleasure, and each exhale produces lush, white clouds.


Here I present my designs - timeless and unique, each piece lovingly and carefully hand crafted. Born and raised in Belgrade, now living in Toronto, I've been sewing, crafting, and making jewelry for as long as I can remember.
Daughter of two creative individuals, I guess it was my destiny... I'm easily inspired and am constantly toying with new design ideas and craft techniques - just wish there were more hours in the day!
Jewelry need not be expensive to be a great expression of my personality. Whether bold, colourful and gutsy or sweet, delicate and pretty, it gives it a little extra signature style to pull an outfit together. Browse my collection of handmade jewelry and see what pieces you like.
All my designs are one of a kind and handmade with love. Only the smoothest merino wool, finest silk and best fibres are employed. Most of my silk is hand dyed. I never repeat my creations in an identical way - always change some elements; details, colour, embellishment, etc. So my customers can be assured they purchased a one-of-a-kind garment or accessory!
The two artist that have inspired my work are Terry Pike, who I have learned this great technique from, and Susanne Morgan, who has the best material selection I have ever seen.


text:
One of the most difficult challenges that manufacturers face in today's economic climate is the ability to hire and retain qualified talent. Site Selection Group researched the top 20 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) that produced graduates in welding, CNC machining and maintenance technology in the last academic year. St. Louis had the 3rd largest concentration with 544 graduates in welding and 116 in industrial maintenanc.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Tag Archives: Sighişoara
Fang Tales of Tran Sylvania (Football In Heaven 3)
Posted on March 30, 2019 by peterrmiles
After two highly successful organised "Football In Heaven" trips to his home province of Bucovina, Romanian journalist Emanuel Roșu decided to branch out a little further into central Romania for his third expedition. The destination captured the imagination of even more attendees this time, as a total of 37 people from serious photographers, to serious groundhoppers to serious beer drinkers all descended on Sibiu for the first ever organised groundhop in Transylvania!
To access the impact the previous trips have had you only have to take a look at the different nationalities turning up for this tour. As well as the usual healthy contingent of Brits, there were seven Norwegians, two Frenchmen, a Dane, a Belgian and a Pole, a united nations of enthusiasts in search of a healthy balance of football, culture and Dracula!
After arriving late the previous night what immediately strikes you about Sibiu, as dawn escapes through shutters and blinds, is that it really is an extremely pleasant city. Straddling the River Cibin, it has an obvious Germanic influence and is still referred to as Hermannstadt on occasion. Originally a Roman settlement, it was refounded in the 13th Century by Saxon settlers. Subsequently Sibiu fell into the hands of the Ottoman and Habsburg Empires. A tempestuous history has given way to a peaceful, clean and architecturally important cultural city.
Normally there would be no games on a Thursday but with Emi's negotiating skills the Sibiu County FA president, Traian Marcu, had a game moved to an early evening slot just for us.
AS Bradu play at the named Stadionul Central, a pretty basic venue in a glorious location surrounded by rolling pastures and bounded to the south by the Olt River and the glorious Făgăraș Mountains of the Southern Carpathians with their peaks still sporting their white winter caps. This evenings opponents are Interstar Sibiu primarily an under 21 team but with a veteran utility player, Vasile Armenean, who plays the full 90 minutes in a variety of positions at the incredible age of 59! It's the younger team who beat the hosts comfortably by four unanswered goals.
Thursday March 21st 2019 – Romania IV Liga (Sibiu County)
AS Bradu 0
FC Interstar Sibiu 4 (Oprișor 33, Standima 65, Dancu 76,90)
Attendance: 48 (at Stadionul Central)
The schedule for Friday was looking particularly memorable and was to conclude with another early evening game this time in neighbouring Braşov county, again moved for our convenience by the local FA man, Octavian Goga. Emi had already teased the group with pictures of a wonderfully decrepit looking old wooden stand so anticipation for the visit to ASC Olimpic Zărneşti was palpable.
But first we had a morning to fill and when you are in Transylvania it is almost unthinkable not to visit Bran Castle, legendary "home" of Vlad III Dracula, better known as Vlad the Impaler, who was the ruler of Wallachia, and said to be the inspiration behind Bram Stoker's world famous novel Dracula. It is a stunning castle in its own right, overlooking the Bran Gorge. For a few additional Lei you can gain access to Vlad's torture chamber including replicas of his favoured method of sending a message to invading Ottoman forces, the impaling pole.
Bran Castle
We headed to Zărneşti which was primarily an industrial town with the Celuloza paper manufacturing plant opening in the mid 1850's and a weapons plant "6 Martie" in 1936. In 1939 the paper factory had a leak of chlorine gas which killed 60 inhabitants. The heavy industry closed down after the downfall of Nicolae Ceaușescu and left mass unemployment until tourism kicked in. However, Celuloza left the town a really magnificent football ground, photogenic from all parts. A bright red dressing room building, the crumbling 80 odd year old wooden stand and rickety bleacher style seating on the opposite side make for a classic ground in a stunning mountain setting. There is a very decent gathering of locals for this game against ACSM Codlea, and there is even merchandise for sale in the form of scarves and pennants. Our Norwegian contingent clear the local bar of bottled beer as we watch the game in early evening sunshine. The home side rise to the occasion and win 4-0, and we all feel a sense of immense privilege of being able to have seen a match in this quite breathtaking place.
Friday March 22nd 2019 – Romanian IV Liga (Braşov County)
ASC Olimpic Zărneşti 4 (Berloiu 26, Dascâlu 39, Mielusolu 51, Simon 56)
ACSM Codlea 0
Attendance: 256 (at Stadionul Celuloza Zărneşti)
Saturday morning arrived and we have a trip south west of Sibiu to FC Cisnădie. I was aware the stadium in Cisnădie was a lot bigger than the little village grounds we had been to so far but was taken aback by the sheer beauty of their Stadionul Textila. Sited next to a carpet factory, the ground has a large concrete stand with a wooden pitched roof. On the opposite side there is a raised bank of uncovered seating with approximately 2,500 seats. Throw in the obligatory mountain back drop, church spires and a cemetery and we have another photographic bobby dazzler on our hands. Today's opponents are the army reservists of AS Armata Sibiu. They lack fitness and skill and hold out for barely four minutes before they concede the first of 13 goals to a rampant host team. To their credit Armata score two cracking goals themselves before the referee puts them out of their misery by not playing any additional time at all. Cisnădie are wonderful hosts and supply us all with free half time beer, most welcome on a warm day.
Saturday March 23rd 2019 – Romanian IV Liga (Sibiu County)
FC Cisnădie 13 (Cotofan 4,72, Dragomir 23, Cocos 33, Coman 36,42, Bratima pen 48,87, Andrei 66, Rodean 76,86,89, Anghel 80)
AS Armata Sibiu 2 (Trasca 12, Raulea 45)
Attendance: 84 (at Stadionul Textila)
We then travelled north west to the incredible mountain ground of AS Cindrelul Gura Râului who were hosting a Romanian Cup third round game against the team from the neighbouring village, AS Silvatex Orlat. Once again the ground itself is nothing special, a caged 3G pitch with one stand of wooden bleacher style seating. Behind the stand was an almost vertical cliff face, which of course didn't some some scallywags (and Norwegians) climbing up for a loftier vantage point. The rest of the ground is surrounded by a lunar looking mountain landscape. I have never been to a place quite like Gura Râului. On the field the two fifth level sides bludgeon each other and all three goals came in a crazy three minute spell early in the first half. The winner for the hosts coming from a comical own goal, a Silvertex defender completing an fantastic goal line clearance only for the ball to hit a team mate on the backside and cannon into the corner of the net.
Saturday March 23rd 2019 – Cupa Romaniei (Faza 3)
AS Cindrelul Gura Râului 2 (Ruse 16, Damaschin og 19)
AS Silvatex Orlat 1 (Topîrcean 17)
Attendance: 198 (at Stadionul Comunal)
We had the option of basketball at the Sala Transylvania on Saturday night as local side CSM Sibiu had a game against CSM Oradea, a team from near the Hungarian border. Some of the party are keen to go especially as its only 15 lei (£3) to get in. It turned out to be a really thrilling game with the home side come from a sizeable deficit to almost snatching victory with one second on the clock remaining.
For the Sunday we had two games planned and the first was at Unirea Miercurea-Sibiului with attractive opposition in the shape of LSS Voința Sibiu. This is a fan owned club arisen from the ashes of the bankrupt Liga I side CSU Voința Sibiu. Unirea have decent ground just off the main square, with a stand with uncovered seating and around 30 away fans who sung, waved flags and let off firecrackers throughout the 90 minutes. Unfortunately for Voința, the home side didn't read the script and eased to a 3-0 win. The away fans were exceedingly friendly and explained that want to perpetuate the legend of Sibiu's historic club, Șoimii Sibiu, who folded in 2001.
Sunday March 24th 2019 – Romanian IV Liga (Sibiu County)
ACS Unirea Miercurea-Sibiului 3 (Roman 36,71, Albean 62)
AS LSS Voința Sibiu 0
Attendance: 155 (at Stadionul Orăşenesc-Miercurea)
Our sixth and final game of the tour promised to be really interesting and a total antithesis of the scenic mountain and sleepy village grounds we had visited so far. We were heading to the tragic town of Copșa Mică. Before Chernobyl this town was the most polluted town in all of Europe, thanks to years of unregulated industrial emissions. Most guilty of polluting Copșa Mică were Carbosin, who produced a black powder dye used in the rubber industry and Sometra who processed non-ferrous metals in huge smelters. To this day a nasty black sludge can be seen on the terracotta roof tiles of the towns' houses. Lead emissions were 1,000 times over agreed international limits, and the factories belched 10 tons of carbon soot into the air on a daily basis.
The ground is surrounded by old industrial chimneys and the pitch is more like straw than grass. The visitors are ACS Păltiniş Raşinari who are riding high in the table but it's the hosts that take a shock second minute lead. It doesn't last though and the visitors score four times leaving this sorry, dirty old town with all three points.
AS Copșa Mică 1 (Getner 2)
ACS Paltinis Răşinari 4 (Nasta 37,45, Chirila 40, Ganea 73)
Att:Attendance: 116 (at Stadionul Orăşenesc)
We had left our base in Sibiu on Sunday morning with our bags ready to spend the night in the UNESCO World Heritage city of Sighişoara. En route we have a pit stop at the delightful town of Biertan and its famous Lutherian fortified church. It's dark when we get to the superb Mercure Hotel in Sighişoara but you can see this is a really special place.
We have the morning to mooch about the cobbled streets. The 13th century clock tower is just stunning and the old citadel is dominated by the Church on the Hill. It's a fitting end to a superb tour and we are whisked off on the fifty mile trip back to Sibiu airport for our flights back to normality. I have said it before and I will say it again, Romania is a vast untouched beauty. Do yourself a favour and visit Romania at least once in your lifetime.
Sighişoara
A greatly expanded version of this review can be found in the June 2019 edition of Football Weekends magazine
Posted in Travel, Matches & Stadiums	| Tagged ACS, Armata, AS, Bradu, Bran, Carbosin, Castle, Celuloza, Central, Cindrelul, Cisnădie, Comunal, Copșa, Cupa, Europe, FC, Football, groundhopping, Gura, Heaven, Hermannstadt, Impaler, In, Mică, Miercurea, Most, Olimpic, Orăşenesc, Polluted, Râului, Romania, Romaniei, Rumania, Sibiu, Sighişoara, Stadionul, Textila, Town, Unirea, Vlad, Vointa, Zărneşti	| Leave a reply


28 Mar - 10 min - Uploaded by NPR Music Pianist Jeremy Denk walks us through Variations No. 18 & 25 of Bach's 'Goldberg. 15 Aug - 4 min - Uploaded by Nonesuch Records Jeremy Denk discusses the "streams and eddies" of Bach's Goldberg Variations in this. Nonesuch presents pianist Jeremy Denk's recording of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations. A companion DVD accompanies the album and contains video liner.
7 Nov Jeremy Denk's recording of JS Bach's Goldberg Variations is out now on Nonesuch. Read our review. Denk performs the Goldberg Variations. 19 Mar (Jeremy Denk joins us all week to explore the Goldberg Variations. Read his posts on Tuesday and Thursday.) The best reason to hate Bach's. For his second Nonesuch project, Jeremy Denk follows in the footsteps of hundreds of pianists before him who have essayed Bach's Goldberg Variations on disc.
15 Aug - 4 min Pianist Jeremy Denk discusses the "streams and eddies" of Bach's Goldberg. Denk was just awarded a fellowship by the MacArthur Foundation, and he's on tour now to promote his latest album, "J. S. Bach: Goldberg Variations." He spoke . Jeremy Denk's "Mesmerizing" Take on Bach's "Goldberg Variations" Will Be Released – with Accompanying Video "Liner Notes" – by Nonesuch on Sep 14 Jan The Goldberg Variations are (intake of breath, flip of hair, reluctant uprise of gesturing arm) is there any way out of this? the Goldberg. 19 Jan JEREMY DENK PERFORMS BACH'S GOLDBERG VARIATIONS. A Chamber Music Series Concert at. The Jacobs Music Center The Chamber.


All female grunge band hailing from Eugene, OR. These songs are dark and scary and amazing, with just enough of a pop sensibility in there to make them endearing and classic. Singer/guitarist Kaia Wilson went on to ignite queercore legends Team Dresch.
Adickdid was a riot grrrl band from Eugene, Oregon that featured Kaia Wilson (later of Team Dresch and The Butchies). They were only active from around 1990 to 1994ish, but managed to open for influential bands such as Hole, Bikini Kill, and Fugazi during that short time. Fun fact: In 1992, Beck opened for them at the Jabberjaw in Los Angeles.


Harvey Sheldon s History of Jewish Comedy reveals the Jewish contributions to American comedy. What made the Jewish comedians so popular with American audiences? Comedy has always been a distinguishing characteristic of the Jewish people. It is the Jewish experience in America which breeds comedy. For generations, American audiences have sought to escape the struggles of day to day life by turning to laughter as a main source of relief and to Jewish comedians. What made the Jewish comedians so popular with American audiences? Why do so many Jews go into Comedy? (85 % have been Jewish) What is funny about the Jewish experience in America? What are the roots of comedy in Jewish culture? What has made the Jewish contribution to American comedy so extensive? Why have American audiences, for more than a century, responded to the Jewish gift of laughter? A one stop reference source answering those questions with biographies of Jewish comedians and a comprehensive history of Jewish comedy.


text:
\section{Introduction}
\label{intro}
Particle physics experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) need a
great quantity of computing resources for data processing, simulation, and analysis.
This demand will be growing with the upcoming High-Luminosity upgrade of the LHC~\cite{HLLHCcompneeds}.
To help fulfill this requirement, High Performance Computing (HPC) resources provided by research institutions
can be useful supplements to the existing World-wide LHC Computing
Grid (WLCG)~\cite{wlcg} resources
allocated by the collaborations.

This paper presents the concepts and implementation of providing a HPC resource, the
shared research cluster NEMO\xspace~\cite{nemo} at the University of Freiburg, to ATLAS and CMS users accessing external clusters connected to the WLCG with the purpose of accommodating data production as well as
data analysis on the HPC host system. The HPC cluster NEMO\xspace at
the University of Freiburg is deploying an \texttt{Open\-Stack}\xspace~\cite{Openstack} instance to handle the
virtual machines. The challenge is in provisioning, setup, scheduling, and decommissioning the virtual research environments (VRE) dynamically and according to demand. For this purpose, the schedulers on NEMO\xspace and on the external resources are
connected through the {ROCED}\xspace service~\cite{ROCED}.

A VRE in the context of this paper is a complete software stack
as it would be installed on a compute cluster fitted to the demands of ATLAS or CMS workloads.

\section{Virtualization infrastructure}
\label{sec:openstack}

Hardware virtualization has become mainstream technology over the last decade as it allows
to host more than one operating system on a single server and to strictly
separate users of software environments.
Hardware and software stacks are decoupled, such that complete software
environments can be migrated across hardware boundaries.
While widespread in computer center
operation this technique is rarely applied in HPC.

\subsection{Computing at the University of Freiburg}

The computer center at the University of Freiburg provides
medium scaled research
infrastructures like cloud, storage, and especially HPC services adapted to the
needs of various scientific communities. Significant standardization
in hardware and software is necessary for the operation of compute systems comprised of
more than 1000 individual nodes combined with a small group of administrators.

The level of granularity of the software stack provided is not fine enough to
directly support the requirements of world-wide efforts like the
ATLAS or CMS experiments.
Therefore, novel approaches are necessary to ensure optimal use of the system and to open the cluster to as many different use-cases as
possible without increasing the operational effort.
Transferring expertise from the operation of the established local
private cloud,
the use of \texttt{Open\-Stack}\xspace as a cloud platform has been identified
as a
suitable solution for NEMO\xspace. This approach provides a user defined software
deployment in addition to the existing software module system.
The resulting challenges range from the automated creation of suitable
virtual machines to their on-demand deployment and scheduling.

\subsection{Research Cluster NEMO\xspace}

The research cluster NEMO\xspace is a cluster for
research in the federal state of Baden-W\"urttemberg in the scientific fields of Elementary Particle Physics, Neuroscience and
Microsystems Engineering. Operation started on  August 1, 2016.
It currently consists of 900 nodes with 20 physical cores and 128\,GiB of RAM each.
Omni-Path~\cite{Omnipath} spans a high-speed, low-latency network of 100\,Gbit/s between nodes.
The parallel storage has
768\,TB of usable capacity and is based on \textsc{BeeGFS}\xspace~\cite{BeeGFS}.

A pre-requirement to execute a VRE is the efficient
provisioning of data which has to cross institutional boundaries in the CMS use-case.
A signficant bandwidth is needed to transfer the input data into the VRE from the storage system at
the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and to store back the results. The
NEMO cluster is connected with two 40\,Gbit/s links to the main router of the
University of Freiburg which itself is linked to the network of
scientific institutions in Baden-W\"urttemberg, BelW\"u, at
100\,Gbit/s.

\subsection{Separation of software environments}

The file system of a VRE is a
disk image presented as a single file. From the computer center's perspective
this image is a ``black box'' requiring no involvement or efforts like
updates of the operating system or the provisioning of software packages of a
certain version. From the researcher's perspective the VRE is an individual
virtual node whose operating system, applications and configurations
as well as certain hardware-level parameters, e.g. CPU and RAM, can be
configured fully autonomously by the researcher within agreed upon limits.

To increase the flexibility in hosted software environments, the standard bare metal
operation of NEMO\xspace is extended with an installation of \texttt{Open\-Stack}\xspace
components~\cite{hpc-symp:2016}.
The NEMO\xspace cluster uses Adaptive's Workload Manager \texttt{Moab}\xspace~\cite{Moab} as a
scheduler of compute jobs.
\texttt{Open\-Stack}\xspace as well can schedule virtual machines on the same nodes and
resources.
To avoid conflicts, it is necessary to define the master scheduler
which decides the job assignment to the worker nodes.
Both \texttt{Moab}\xspace and \texttt{Open\-Stack}\xspace are
unaware that another scheduler exists within the cluster and there is
no API which enables them to  communicate with each other. Since the majority of users still use the
bare metal HPC cluster, \texttt{Moab}\xspace is deployed as the primary scheduler. It allows for
detailed job description and offers sophisticated scheduling features like
fair-share, priority-based scheduling, detailed time limits,
etc. \texttt{Open\-Stack}\xspace 's task is to deploy the virtual machines, but \texttt{Moab}\xspace will initially start the VRE
jobs and the VRE job will instruct \texttt{Open\-Stack}\xspace to start the virtual machine on the
reserved resources with the required flavor, i.e. the resource definition in \texttt{Open\-Stack}\xspace.

When a VRE job is submitted to the NEMO\xspace cluster, \texttt{Moab}\xspace  first calculates the
priority and the needed resources of the job and then inserts it into its queue.
When the job is in line for execution and the requested resources are available,
the job  runs a script which then starts the VRE on the selected node
within the resource boundaries. During the run-time of the VRE a monitoring
script regularly checks if the VRE is still running and terminates the job when
the VRE has ended.
When the job ends, \texttt{Open\-Stack}\xspace gets a signal to terminate the virtual machine and
the VRE job ends as well.  Neither \texttt{Moab}\xspace nor \texttt{Open\-Stack}\xspace have access
inside the VRE, so they cannot assess if the VRE is actually busy or
idle.
The software package {ROCED}\xspace (described in
further detail in Section~\ref{section:roced}) has been introduced to
solve this issue.
It is used as a broker between
different HPC schedulers,  translating resources and monitoring usage inside the
virtual machine, as well as starting and stopping VRE images on demand.

\section{Generation of the VRE image}
The VREs for ATLAS and CMS software environments consist in \texttt{Open\-Stack}\xspace containers
in the format of compatible VM images.
These images are provided in an automatized
way allowing versioning and archiving of the environments captured in
the images.

\subsection{\texttt{Packer}\xspace combined with \texttt{Puppet}\xspace}

One approach to generate the image is the open-source tool
\texttt{Packer}\xspace~\cite{packer}, interfaced to the system configuration framework \texttt{Puppet}\xspace~\cite{puppet}.
\texttt{Packer}\xspace allows to configure an image based on an ISO image file using a \texttt{kickstart}\xspace~\cite{kickstart} file and flexible script-based configuration.
It also provides an interface to \texttt{Puppet}\xspace making it particularly convenient if an existing \texttt{Puppet}\xspace role is to be used for the images. If the roles are defined according to the hostname of the machine as is conventional in \texttt{Puppet}\xspace with \texttt{Hieradata}\xspace, the hostname needs to be set in the scripts supplied to \texttt{Packer}\xspace. Propagation of certificates requires an initial manual start of a machine with the same hostname to allow handshake signing of the certificate from the \texttt{Puppet}\xspace server.

\texttt{Packer}\xspace's interface to \texttt{Puppet}\xspace allows a fully automated image generation with up-to-date and version-controlled configuration. At the end of the generation run, the image is  transferred to the \texttt{Open\-Stack}\xspace image server.

\subsection{Image generation using the \texttt{Oz}\xspace toolkit}

Another option to employ a fully-automated procedure is to use the \texttt{Oz}\xspace toolkit~\cite{OZ}. All requirements and configuration options of an image can be specified through a XML template file. The partitioning and installation process of the operating system is fully automated, as \texttt{Oz}\xspace will use the remote-control capabilities of the local hypervisor. After the installation of the operating system, additional libraries and configuration files can be installed. Once the image has been created, it is automatically compressed and uploaded to a remote cloud site.
This technique allows to build images in a reproducible fashion, as all templated files are version controlled using \texttt{git}. Furthermore, existing template files are easy to adapt to new sites and experiment configurations.

\section{Interfacing batch systems and virtual resources using {ROCED}\xspace}
\label{section:roced}
While HPC systems with support for virtualized research environments and commercial cloud providers offer the
necessities to acquire computing and storage capacity by dynamic
resource booking, the computing needs of high energy physics
re\-search groups ad\-di\-tion\-al\-ly require work\-flow
ma\-na\-ge\-ment sys\-tems capable of maintaining thousands of batch
jobs. Some cloud providers, for example Amazon with AWS
Batch~\cite{awsbatch}, provide a service for workflow management,
however these offers are often limited to one specific cloud instance. To dynamically distribute batch jobs to multiple sites and manage machine life-time on specific sites, a combination of a highly-scalable batch system and a virtual machine scheduler is desirable.

\subsection{{ROCED}\xspace}
\begin{figure*}
\begin{center}
  \includegraphics[width=0.9\linewidth]{roced_design_flat.pdf}
  \caption{Overview of the {ROCED}\xspace modular design. The  {ROCED}\xspace Core contains the Broker which decides when and on which sites new virtual machines are booted. The Requirement Adapters report about the utilization and resource requirements of the attached batch systems. The Site Adapter is responsible to manage the lifetime of virtual machines on a cloud site and the Integration Adapters ensure that newly booted machines are integrated into the batch system.}
  \label{fig-roced}
\end{center}
\end{figure*}

Many capable batch systems exist today and they can be interfaced to virtualization providers using the cloud meta-scheduler {ROCED}\xspace (Responsive On-demand Cloud Enabled Deployment) which has been developed at the KIT since 2010~\cite{ROCED}. {ROCED}\xspace is written in a modular
fashion in python and the interfaces to batch systems and cloud sites
are implemented as so-called \textit{Adapters}. This makes {ROCED}\xspace
independent of specific user groups or workflows. It provides a
scheduling core which collects the current requirement of computing
resources and decides if virtual machines need to be started or can be
stopped. One or more Requirement Adapters report the current queue
status of batch systems to the central scheduling core. Currently,
Requirement Adapters are implemented for the Slurm, Torque/Moab, HTCondor
and GridEngine batch systems. The Site Adapters allow {ROCED}\xspace to start,
stop, and monitor virtual machines on multiple cloud
sites. Implementations exist for Amazon EC2, OpenStack, OpenNebula and
Moab-based virtualization at HPC centers. Special care has been put
into the resilience of {ROCED}\xspace: it can automatically terminate
non-responsive machines and restart virtual machines in case some
machines have dropped out. This allows VM setups orchestrated by {ROCED}\xspace with thousands of virtual machines and many tens of thousands of jobs to run in production environments.
The modular design of {ROCED}\xspace is shown in Fig.~\ref{fig-roced}.

\subsection{Using \texttt{HTCondor}\xspace as front-end scheduler}\label{sec:ROCED:HTCondor}
The open-source project \texttt{HTCondor}\xspace provides a workload management system which is highly configurable and modular~\cite{HTCondor}. Batch processing workflows can be submitted and are then forwarded by \texttt{HTCondor}\xspace to idle resources. \texttt{HTCondor}\xspace maintains a resource pool, which worker nodes in a local or remote cluster can join. Once \texttt{HTCondor}\xspace has verified the authenticity and features of the newly joined machines, computing jobs are automatically transferred. Special features are available to connect from within isolated network zones, e.g. via a Network Address Translation Portal, to the central \texttt{HTCondor}\xspace pool. The Connection Brokering (CCB) service~\cite{HTCondorCCB} is especially valuable to connect virtual machines to the central pool. These features and the well-known ability of \texttt{HTCondor}\xspace to scale to O(100k) of parallel batch jobs makes \texttt{HTCondor}\xspace well suited as a workload management system for the use cases described in this paper.

The CMS group at the KIT is using \texttt{HTCondor}\xspace for scheduling the jobs to be submitted to NEMO\xspace. The VRE for CMS contains the \texttt{HTCondor}\xspace client \texttt{startd}.
This client is started after the machine has fully booted and connects to the central \texttt{HTCondor}\xspace pool at KIT via a shared secret. Due to \texttt{HTCondor}\xspace's dynamic design, new machines in the pool will automatically receive jobs and the transfer of the job configuration and meta-data files is handled via \texttt{HTCondor}\xspace's internal file transfer systems.

\subsection{Using \texttt{Slurm}\xspace as front-end scheduler}

Alternatively to the approach described above, the
open-source workload managing system \texttt{Slurm}\xspace~\cite{Slurm} has been interfaced into {ROCED}\xspace by
the ATLAS group at University of Freiburg.
\texttt{Slurm}\xspace provides a built-in functionality for the dynamic
startup of resources in the \textit{Slurm Elastic Computing}
module~\cite{SlurmElastic}.
However, this module is based on the assumption of a fixed maximum
startup time of the machines.
In the considered case, due to the queue in the host system, the start of a
resource can be delayed by a significant, varying time period.
In addition the transfer of information, such as error states, from one scheduler to the
other, and therefore to the user, is  limited.
Therefore, {ROCED}\xspace has been chosen as the interface between the
\texttt{Moab}\xspace scheduler on the host system and the \texttt{Slurm}\xspace
scheduler on the submission side.

\begin{figure}

\includegraphics[width=0.95\linewidth]{virtualisierung_ROCED.png}
\caption{Implementation of {ROCED}\xspace with \texttt{Slurm}\xspace on the Tier-3 cluster of
  the WLCG used by ATLAS researchers in Freiburg.}
\label{fig:slurmRocedBFG}
\end{figure}

The scheduling system is illustrated in Fig.~\ref{fig:slurmRocedBFG}.
For \texttt{Slurm}\xspace, it is necessary that each potential virtual
machine is registered in the configuration at the time of start of the
\texttt{Slurm}\xspace server as well as the client. \texttt{Slurm}\xspace configurations also
need to be in agreement between server and client.
Therefore, a range of hostnames is registered in the configuration in
a way that is mapped to potential IP addresses of virtual machines.
These virtual machines have a fixed number of CPUs and memory assigned and are
registered under a certain \texttt{Slurm}\xspace partition.
When a job is submitted to this partition and no other resource is
available, information from the \texttt{Slurm}\xspace \texttt{squeue} and
\texttt{sinfo} commands is requested and parsed for the required information.

Since the ATLAS Freiburg group comprises three sub-groups, each mapped
to a different production account on NEMO\xspace, special care is taken to
avoid interference of resources used by another account to ensure fair share on NEMO\xspace, while
nevertheless allowing jobs from one group to occupy otherwise idle resources of another group.

{ROCED}\xspace determines the amount of virtual machines to be started and sends the
corresponding VRE job submission commands to \texttt{Moab}\xspace.
After the virtual machine has booted, the hostname is set to the IP
dependent name which is known to the \texttt{Slurm}\xspace configuration.
A \texttt{cron} job executes several sanity
checks on the system.
Upon successful execution of these tests, the \texttt{Slurm}\xspace client
running in the VM starts accepting the queued jobs.
After completion of the jobs and a certain period of receiving no new jobs from the queue, the
\texttt{Slurm}\xspace client in the machine drains itself and the machine
shuts itself down.
The IP address as well as the corresponding hostname in \texttt{Slurm}\xspace
are released and can be reused by future VREs.

\section{Analysis of performance and usage}

The ROCED-based solution described above has been implemented and put into production by the research groups at the University of Freiburg (Institute of Physics) and the KIT (Institute of Experimental
Particle Physics). To prove the usefulness of this approach
statistical analyses of the performance of the virtualized setup both
in terms of CPU benchmarks and usage statistics have been conducted.

\subsection{Benchmarks}
Benchmark tests are performed with the primary goal to measure the performance of the CPU for High Energy Physics applications.
Alongside the legacy HEP-SPEC06 (HS06) benchmark \cite{Hepspec}, the performance of the compute resources is furthermore evaluated with the ATLAS Kit Validation
KV \cite{DeSalvo:2010zza}, a fast benchmark developed to provide real-time information of the WLCG performance and available in the CERN benchmark suite \cite{Alef:2017jyx}.
The primary target is to measure the performance of the CPU for High Energy Physics applications.
The KV benchmark is making use of the simulation toolkit GEANT4 \cite{Agostinelli:2002hh} to simulate the interactions of single muon events in the detector of the ATLAS experiment
and provides as ouput the number of events produced per second. It constitutes a realistic workload for High Energy Physics jobs. \\

To assess the impact of the virtualization, the performance of the identical hardware configuration (20 cores Intel Xeon E5-2630 CPUs) has been determined either deployed via
the standard bare metal operation on the NEMO\xspace cluster (NEMO\xspace bare metal) and on the ATLAS Tier-3 center in Freiburg (ATLAS Tier-3 bare metal), or as virtual machines on the
NEMO\xspace cluster (NEMO\xspace VM). On the ATLAS Tier-3 bare metal and on the virtual machines running on the NEMO\xspace cluster, hyper-threading (HT) technology is activated. Both are using Scientific
Linux 6 \cite{SL6} as the operating system.
On the cluster NEMO\xspace bare metal jobs are restricted to 20 cores by cgroups, since the application mix is broader than on HEP clusters. The operating system is CentOS7 \cite{CentOS7}.
The scores of the HEP-SPEC06 and KV benchmarks have been determined for these three configurations as a function of the number of cores actually used by the benchmarking processes.
This number ranges from 2 to 40 for the ATLAS Tier-3 bare metal and for the NEMO\xspace VM, for which HT is enabled, and from 2 to 20 for the NEMO\xspace bare metal, for which HT is not implemented.
The benchmarks have been run 20 times for each core multiplicity value, and the means and standard deviations of the corresponding distributions have been extracted. \\

\begin{figure}[htbp]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.44\textwidth]{benchmark-hepspec06-total.pdf}
\includegraphics[width=0.44\textwidth]{kv-BFG-BM-NEMO-VM-NEMO-BM-total.pdf}
\caption{Total score as a function of the core multiplicity for the HEP-SPEC06 (top) and KV (bottom) benchmarks for the ATLAS Tier-3 bare metal (blue open circles),
the NEMO\xspace VMs (red full circles) and the NEMO\xspace bare metal (black open squares). The data points represent the average values of the benchmarks for each core multiplicity,
and the vertical bars show the associated standard deviations.}
\label{bmk-total}
\end{figure}

The HEP-SPEC06 and KV results are presented in Figure \ref{bmk-total} for the three configurations considered.
The total scores of the two benchmarks are increasing until the maximum number of physical cores has been reached, and are characterized by a flattening increase afterwards.
The scores of the virtual machines running on the NEMO\xspace cluster are only slightly lower than those obtained for the NEMO\xspace bare metal, and the loss of performance
due to the virtualization does not exceed 10$\%$.
For the VMs running on the NEMO\xspace cluster and the ATLAS Tier-3 bare metal, the interplay between the virtualization and the different operating systems leads to very similar scores
for the two configurations, particularly for the KV benchmark, and the loss of performance is smaller than 10$\%$ as well.

\subsection{Usage statistics}
Fig. \ref{fig-frplots} shows the utilization of virtual machines which were orchestrated by {ROCED}\xspace depending on the resource demands of the users of the KIT group.
At peak times, up to 9000 virtual cores were filled with user jobs, consuming more than a half of the initial 16000 NEMO\xspace cores.

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
  \includegraphics[width=1.0\linewidth]{NEMO_KIT_utiliztion.pdf}
  \caption{Utilization of the shared HPC system by booted virtual machines. Up to 9000 virtual cores were in use at peak times. The fluctuations in the utilization reflects the patterns of the submission of jobs by the CMS users at the physics institute in Karlsruhe. The number of draining slots displays the amount of job slots still processing jobs while the rest of the node's slot are already empty.}
  \label{fig-frplots}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

The usage of the hybrid cluster model is presented in Fig.~\ref{fig-nodeusage}.
The diagram shows the shared usage of NEMO\xspace's cluster nodes running either
bare-metal or virtualized jobs. The part of the cluster which runs virtualized
jobs changes dynamically from job to job, since the VREs are started by
a standard bare-metal job.

At the beginning the cluster was only containing the operating system and some
basic development tools. Scientific software was added after the cluster was
already in production mode. Since the VRE for the CMS project was already
available when the NEMO\xspace cluster started, it could already use the whole cluster
while other groups still had to migrate from other ressources. This explains the high usage by VREs in the first months of
operation. With more and more software being available for bare-metal usage the
fraction of VRE jobs decreased.

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
  \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{NodeUsage_2016-09_2018-09.pdf}
  \caption{Estimated usage of the NEMO\xspace cluster in the time from September 2016
    to September 2018. The orange bars indicate the usage by jobs
    running directly in the hosts' operating system, while the blue bars are jobs
    running in virtual machines. The decrease of VRE jobs is partially explained
    by an increasing number of bare metal jobs submitted.}
  \label{fig-nodeusage}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

\section{Conclusions and Outlook}

A novel system for the dynamic, on-demand provisioning of virtual machines to run jobs
in a high energy physics context on an external, not dedicated resource as
realized at the HPC cluster NEMO\xspace at the University of Freiburg has been
implemented. An interface between the schedulers of the
host system and the external systems from which requests are sent is needed to
monitor and steer jobs in a scalable way. For this workflow the cloud meta-scheduler {ROCED}\xspace
has been implemented and deployed for the described use-cases.
The approach can be adapted to work with other platforms and could be extended to
container technologies like Singularity~\cite{VRE2017}.

The CPU performance and usage of the setup have been analyzed for the job execution environment.
The expected performance loss due to the virtualization has been found to be
sufficiently small to be compensated by the added flexibility and other benefits
of this setup.

A possible extension of such a virtualized setup is the provisioning of functionalities
for snapshots and migration of jobs. This would facilitate the efficient integration of
long-running monolithic jobs into HPC clusters.

The provided solution extends the available compute ressources for HEP calculations
and could be one possibilitly to cope with new data from the upcoming High-Luminosity
upgrade of the LHC. Since HEP VREs are perfect for backfilling this could be used on various
cluster ressources.

\begin{acknowledgements}
This research is supported by the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-W\"urttemberg through the bwHPC grant
and by the German Research Foundation (DFG) through grant no INST
39/963-1 FUGG for the bwForCluster NEMO.
The work of F.B. and T.H. was supported by the Virtual Open Science
Collaboration Environment (ViCE) project MWK 34-7547.221 funded by the
Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-W\"urttemberg.
The work of U.S. was supported by  the Federal Ministry of Education
and Research within the project 05H15VFCA1
``Higgs-Physik mit dem und Grid-Computing f\"ur das ATLAS-Experiment
am LHC''.
The work of T.H. was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education
and Research within the project 05H15VKCCA ``Physik bei h\"ochsten Energien mit dem CMS-Experiment
    am LHC''.
\end{acknowledgements}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


Savers is one of my FAVORITE places to shop these days. I found these adorable navy blue high waisted bell bottoms there a while back. They were probably donated out of the estate of some 90 year old woman who kept all of her clothes from the 60's but HEY! I am going to rock them!
Click Here if you don't know what DPWF is!


text:
Philip Alexander Hunt, Baron Hunt of Kings Heath, OBE, PC (born 19 May 1949) is a former health administrator and a Labour member of the House of Lords.
Philip Hunt was educated at the City of Oxford High School and Oxford School and left Leeds University in 1970 with a BA in political studies. He became a works study officer in 1972 for the Oxford Regional Hospital Board, moving to Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre as hospital administrator in 1974. He was the first Secretary of Edgware and Hendon Community Health Council. He was the first Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation, and previously Director of the National Association of Health Authorities and Trusts (NAHAT) from its formation in 1990. Before that he was Director of its predecessor organisation, the National Association of Health Authorities (NAHA) from 1984 to 1990. He became President of the Royal Society for Public Health in 2010.
In 1997, Hunt was created a life peer with the title Baron Hunt of Kings Heath, of Birmingham in the County of West Midlands. He served as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department of Health from 1999 until his resignation in 2003 over the Invasion of Iraq. He was re-appointed to government in May 2005 as a PUSS at the Department for Work and Pensions. He returned to the Department of Health as Minister of State in January 2007 and then moved to the Ministry of Justice as a PUSS in July of that year. In the October 2008 government reshuffle, Lord Hunt became Minister of State in both the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the newly created Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), as well as acting as the Deputy Leader of the House of Lords. In the June 2009 reshuffle he left DEFRA to focus solely on his roles in the Lords and at the DECC. He was sworn of the Privy Council the same month. In May 2010, he left the DECC when Labour lost the general election.
Following the election of Ed Miliband as Labour Party leader, Lord Hunt was appointed Labour's spokesman on Home Affairs in the House of Lords. He also serves as Labour's Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords.
In April 2011 he was appointed Chair of Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust.
In September 2011 he contributed to the book What next for Labour? Ideas for a new generation, his piece was entitled Our NHS: The Labour Party Challenge.


Q-Vio offers a wide range of both custom and commercial-off-the shelf (COTS) LCD display products for government, defense and military applications. We design and build our displays to meet the rugged, high demands of 24/7 military usage. They are available in a wide variety of sizes from 4.1″ to 24″ LCD displays, numerous configurations and options, easily customized to meet specific application needs.
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text:
Q: Android Как объединить одинаковые ресурсы для разных разрешений экрана У меня есть реальная задача - есть два макета 800 на 480 (телефон - портретный вид) и 1280 на 800 (планшет - планшетный вид). Вообще все картинки одинаковые - но как объединить ресурсы в одну папку не знаю
Я сейчас делаю так есть две папки drawable-800x480 и drawable-1280x800 из первой копирую во втрорую а как сделать наподобие  drawable-800x480-or-1280x800?
A: http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html
res/layout/my_layout.xml             // layout for normal screen size ("default")
res/layout-small/my_layout.xml       // layout for small screen size
res/layout-large/my_layout.xml       // layout for large screen size
res/layout-xlarge/my_layout.xml      // layout for extra large screen size
res/layout-xlarge-land/my_layout.xml // layout for extra large in landscape orientation

res/drawable-mdpi/my_icon.png        // bitmap for medium density
res/drawable-hdpi/my_icon.png        // bitmap for high density
res/drawable-xhdpi/my_icon.png       // bitmap for extra high density

картинки должны быть в разных папках. они уже налету будут подбиратся и оптимизироватся для конкретного экрана
A: Если хотите положить все картинки в 1 каталог пихайте их все в /res/drawable, вы получите экономию места, но пожертвуете качеством картинок и скоростью работы, поскольку для разных разрешений ось вынуждена будет сама масштабировать и не факт, что качество и скорость масштабирования понравится юзеру.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
The FDA's Safer Technologies Program
With its Safer Technologies Program (STeP), the FDA hopes to open up a new approval pathway for manufacturers of innovative medical devices. The FDA wants patients to benefit more quickly from these innovations.
In this article, you can read about the simplifications and help the FDA intends to provide for you as a manufacturer and what requirements you must meet to market your device more quickly and easily on the American market through the "Safer Technologies Program".
1. What is STeP »
2. Process »
3. Advantages of the STeP »
4. Requirements »
5. Conclusion »
1. What is the Safer Technologies Program for Medical Devices?
a) Alternatives
With the Safer Technologies Program (STeP), the FDA is aiming to provide an additional approval procedure for medical devices. Under certain conditions, it will provide an alternative to the classic approval procedures, in particular:
Premarket Approval (PMA)
De Novo Classification
Premarket Notification (PMN), better known as the 510(k) process
Breakthrough Devices Program
b) Objective
The FDA wants to give patients faster access to new technologies and devices. With the "Breakthrough Devices Program", it has already launched one expedited approval procedure. Now it wants to create something comparable with the "Safer Technologies Program".
However, unlike the Breakthrough Program, the Safer Technologies Program is intended for devices that diagnose or treat less serious diseases and injuries, for example, non-life-threatening or reversible diseases.
Fig. 1: Through the Safer Technologies Program (STeP), the FDA wants to help innovative devices reach the market faster, just as it did with the Breakthrough Program. However, the STeP is aimed at less critical devices. (Click to enlarge)
c) Principles of the Safer Technologies Program
The Safer Technologies Program is characterized by the following principles:
Interactive and timely communication.
The FDA involving teams of experts, including senior management.
Applications being processed with high priority.
The FDA again making its decisions based on the benefit-risk profile. These are decisions such as whether the device can be included in the STeP or which clinical data has to be collected before and after the device is marketed.
It should be possible to efficiently and flexibly plan, redesign and conduct clinical studies.
This procedure reminds of us agile plans. THE FDA even talks of "sprint discussions". More on that later.
2. Safer Technology Program (STeP) process
a) Application
The manufacturer should request inclusion in the Safer Technologies Program via a Q-submission. This application should contain the following information:
Description of the device, incl. functionality, pictures, drawings
Expected safety improvement
Intended purpose
History of previous interactions with the FDA, e.g. other applications
Reason why the device can be included in the STeP. This includes, in particular, the procedure that would otherwise have to be followed, and a reason why the device cannot be included in the Breakthrough Program.
A precise description of how the device improves the benefit-risk profile. This should be one of the factors listed in the "Improvements" section.
b) Communication and interaction with the FDA
If approved, the FDA offers several options for interaction:
Sprint Discussions
These discussions aim to respond to a specific issue within a set time period. It wants to offer more frequent and timely meetings and responses to a manufacturer's questions.
Data Development Plan
The manufacturer submits this plan, in which it explains which clinical and non-clinical data it wants to collect, as well as when and how it wants to collect this data. The FDA offers to evaluate this plan in a similar way to the sprint discussions.
Other "Pre-Submissions"
If the manufacturer wants to discuss a broader scope of topics than would be possible with the options listed above, the FDA will consider other pre-submissions. However, this depends on the availability of the FDA's staff.
The FDA may also agree to give the manufacturer regular status updates (it gives the example of bimonthly) outside of the above options. However, these cannot be used to for official feedback.
3. What does the FDA's Safer Technologies Program offer you?
The STeP appears attractive for several reasons:
Faster approval
The approval can be issued quicker. The FDA gives high priority to the application. It wants to make a decision within 60 days.
Lower costs through targeted management
The manufacturer finds out more quickly and during the procedure the views and concerns of the FDA and can respond to them in the course of the procedure.
The FDA intends to respond to questions within 30 days.
Both these things will speed the process up and help avoid unnecessary costs.
4. What is the program for? What requirements have to be met?
Manufacturers can consider participating in the Safer Technologies Program if they meet the following conditions:
a) Formal and organizational requirements
The application can be submitted no earlier than 60 days after September 19, 2019
The device is not intended for patients with severe, particularly life-threatening or potentially irreversible, diseases and injuries.
The device would normally have to undergo a PMA, a de novo or 510(k) process, but not a breakthrough process.
The manufacturer must be willing to respond to FDA requests quickly and to work closely with the agency.
It must inform the FDA of its plans at a very early stage, i.e., during development.
b) Device requirements
The device must be innovative in that it improves the risk-benefit profile compared to its alternatives by
Reducing serious side effects
Reducing (device) errors
Reducing use errors of use that can lead to hazards or
Increasing the safety of another device or procedure. By this the FDA means accessories.
Although the FDA talks about an improvement to the benefit-risk profile, most of the improvements it lists are improvements resulting from the reduction of risks and not the improvement of benefits. This also explains the name of the program: Safer Technologies Program.
The STeP is aimed less at modified devices.
The FDA continues to provide patients with quicker access to novel medical devices through more agile and "risk-based" approval procedures. The Breakthrough Medical Devices Program and the Precert Program are further evidence of these efforts.
The name Safer Technologies Program describes the objective of the program perfectly: It is about safer technologies and, therefore, about improving the benefit-risk profile by reducing risks.
The FDA is, therefore, also likely to strengthen the alternatives, such as the STeP and Breakthrough Program, in order to increasingly replace the 510(k) program, which is criticized by the FDA itself. John Oliver has very pointedly detailed why this program is open to criticism.
Video: John Oliver points out the weaknesses of the US approval system - including the 510(k) procedure.
Do you need support with getting your device authorized in the USA? Our FDA specialists will be happy to help you promptly so that you can market your device in the USA quickly and without unnecessary costs or delays. Simply get in touch with us.


text:
BHC Announces 2018 "Birding the Blackstone" Program
Volunteers to lead specialized workshops, bird walks and more
throughout the National Heritage Corridor
Whitinsville, MA (February 26, 2018) – Blackstone Heritage Corridor, Inc. (BHC) announces the return of its volunteer-led spring birding program which this year will include some new additions to take the program to exciting new heights.
Two "Birding by Ear" workshops will be led by Beth and Paul Milke, highly experienced interpretive volunteers with the Volunteers-In-Parks (VIP) program which is operated by BHC in coordination with the National Park Service. "Experienced birdwatchers often hear and can identify birds before seeing them by listening to their songs and calls," Beth Milke explained. The workshop will teach participants what makes these calls unique and offer tips on developing their skills. The "Birding by Ear" workshops will be at BHC's office in Whitinsville, MA, on March 13 and April 10.
The 2018 "Birding the Blackstone" program also includes the return of the "Sky Dance of the Woodcock" event at River Bend Farm visitor center in MA Department of Conservation and Recreation (MA DCR)'s Blackstone River and Canal Heritage State Park, in Uxbridge, MA, on Saturday, March 24. "The field at River Bend Farm is prime habitat for the American Woodcock, a shorebird with large eyes and a long bill," Milke explained. "At dusk, participants will listen for the male Woodcocks' unusual call, and track the flight by the sound of their wings."
There will also be four weekend bird walks in April and May at locations including US Army Corps of Engineers' West Hill Park in Uxbridge, MA; MA DCR's River Bend Farm in Uxbridge, MA; RI Department of Environmental Management (RI DEM) Blackstone River State Park in Lincoln, RI; and RI DEM's Lincoln Woods State Park, also in Lincoln, RI.
And new this year, BHC is offering a "Birding by Boat" event on June 9. By partnering with Blackstone River Watershed Council/Friends of the Blackstone (BRWC/FOB) and departing from BRWC/FOB's Environmental Education Center in Lincoln, RI, there will be a terrific opportunity to enjoy a brief workshop on identifying birds followed by a paddle on the Blackstone River where those skills will be immediately put to use.
For complete event details, visit BlackstoneHeritageCorrridor.org or call the office at (508) 234-4242. Program brochures are also available.
The Birding the Blackstone program is presented by Blackstone Heritage Corridor, Inc. (BHC) in partnership with Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (MA DCR), Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RI DEM), and Blackstone River Watershed Council/Friends of the Blackstone.
About Blackstone Heritage Corridor, Inc.:
An energetic nonprofit, the Blackstone Heritage Corridor, Inc. partners with organizations, local communities, businesses and residents to ensure the long term vitality of the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor. Learn more at BlackstoneHeritageCorridor.org.
New Skills Workshops Enhance the Volunteer Experience in National Heritage Corridor
Whitinsville, MA (February 5, 2018) – A series of workshops designed to enhance the volunteer experience with Blackstone Heritage Corridor, Inc. (BHC), and the Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park (BRVNHP) is bolstering the Volunteers-In-Parks (VIP) program which the two entities co-manage. The VIP Skills Workshop Series launched last fall, and already nearly a dozen workshops have provided unique education and skills training for nearly 200 volunteers, with some of the workshops being made available to the general public.
"Our volunteer program continues to grow and is attracting a wide-range of different interests," explains Megan DiPrete, Executive Director at BHC. "By offering these Skills Workshops, we're able to give volunteers education and training which will enhance their skill sets and their ability to share their knowledge and passion with others when they lead program activities throughout the year."
The workshop series launched in October with an Enviroscape™ training, which is a table-top model designed to educate people of all ages about how pollutants affect a watershed. The Enviroscape™ can be used in school settings, libraries, community events, and more. VIPs who attended the workshop are now eligible to sign out the Enviroscape™ model and take it to events to continue to foster stewardship for the environment. America Recycles Day on November 15 was celebrated with a public-offered Skills Workshop at Casella Waste Systems in Auburn, MA. People from all over the National Heritage Corridor were provided a behind-the-scenes experience and now have additional tools to teach others to be better recyclers.
In December, VIPs received a behind-the-scenes tour at the Ladd Observatory in Providence, RI, to learn how to read the night sky and learn the history of the telescopes housed at the centuries-old observatory managed by Brown University. Also in December, BHC offered a free sewing workshop, giving instruction on how to make a repurposed tote bag made from plastic seed and feed bags. The latter skills workshop was open to the public and was held at the new Blackstone Valley Education Hub at the Linwood Mill in Whitinsville, MA.
In January, BRVNHP Ranger Joshua Boles offered an open-to-the-public oral history skills workshop at the Little Red Shop Museum in Hopedale, MA, so participants could learn new skills on how to best interview people to capture important history.
CPR and First Aid training was offered to volunteers of BHC's Bikeway and Trail Ambassadors, as well as the Blackstone Valley Paddle Club in February, followed by open-to-the-public training on Maple Sugaring at Blackstone River & Canal Heritage State Park in Uxbridge, MA. These volunteers will put their skills training to immediate use by providing assistance to MA DCR staff at the upcoming Maple Sugar Days event at the Park March 3 and 4.
In March, a Visitor Services Skills Workshop is being provided by BRVNHP Ranger Joshua Boles, and later in the month VIPs will have an opportunity to learn about Cemetery Conservation Skills. This training opportunity is being offered by VIPs Betty and Carlo Mencucci at the Burrillville Historical and Preservation Society. The Mencucci's are professional gravestone conservators and members of the Association of Gravestone Studies and the Burrillville Historical Society. The workshop will be open-to-the-public and will provide training on the proper method of conserving gravestones. Participants will learn about various stone types as well as different techniques and materials used in the conservation process. The training precedes Cemetery Awareness/Preservation Day in Rhode Island on April 14th and the Mencucci's and other historical groups will be hosting volunteer cemetery restoration events at which these skills and knowledge can be put to use.
Additional upcoming skills training opportunities include a workshop on accessible cycling. Training will include information on disability etiquette, the types of cycles that are available, adjusting the cycles to individual participants, and learning to ride the variety of adaptive cycles. BHC partnered with All Out Adventures (AOA) in October, 2017, to present an assisted bicycle ride for VIP Margaret Carroll of Millville, MA, and this skills workshop will prepare the Bikeway Ambassadors for future events in the National Heritage Corridor.
To learn more about the Skills Workshop Series and the Volunteers-In-Parks program, contact Suzanne Buchanan at volunteer@BlackstoneHeritageCorridor.org or call (508) 234-4242. In addition, a Volunteer Open House is scheduled for Tuesday, March 6 at BHC's office at 670 Linwood Ave., Whitinsville, MA.


text:
Etherea è un'installazione site-specific di Edoardo Tresoldi realizzata in occasione del Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival a Indio, in California, nel 2018. L'opera è stata in seguito esposta in Cina nel 2018 e a Roma nel 2020. Per quest'ultima occasione Etherea è stata riadattata ai giardini di Villa Borghese.

Storia
Tresoldi partecipa alla 19ª edizione del Coachella, come uno dei 7 artisti invitati al festival, realizzando Etherea, l'opera di maggiori dimensioni del festival e della carriera dell'artista. L'opera è stata aperta al pubblico dal 13 al 15 e dal 20 al 22 aprile 2018.

Dopo essere stata esposta in Cina, Etherea viene riadattata per essere portata a Roma dal 15 settembre al 13 dicembre 2020, in occasione della mostra Back to Nature. Arte Contemporanea a Villa Borghese, curata dal critico d'arte Costantino D'Orazio.

Descrizione
L'opera si compone di tre strutture realizzate in reti elettrosaldate zincate, il materiale preferito da Tresoldi per i suoi lavori. Le strutture hanno la forma di tre basiliche influenzate dagli stili barocco e neoclassico: ogni struttura include elementi quali colonne, frontoni e cupole.

Le tre strutture sono disposte assialmente in ordine di dimensione, con un'altezza rispettivamente di 11, 16.5 e 22 metri.

A Roma nel 2020 è stata esposta solo la più piccola delle tre.

Significato
Tresoldi ha spiegato lo scopo e la composizione di Etherea citando il celebre architetto e critico norvegese Norberg-Schulz: l'intento è quello di creare uno spazio che si renda filtro per comprendere il paesaggio, spazio illimitato, che circonda l'uomo. Le tre basiliche, con dimensioni diverse, costituiscono un percorso dove lo spettatore si fa mezzo di comprensione dell'opera, adattandosi allo spazio delimitato dall'artista.

Inoltre, grazie all'effetto creato dalla trasparenza della rete metallica e dai volumi delle sculture, varia la distanza tra il fruitore dell'opera e il cielo.

Note

Voci correlate

 Opera (scultura)

 Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore di Siponto

Collegamenti esterni
 Etherea - Edoardo Tresoldi

Sculture in Italia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Rows of headphones on display along "the Avenue" during the 2017 opening of the new Apple Store UTC in San Diego. Apple is going to add 1,000 workers in San Diego over the next three years and may rent an office building in the University Town Center area, according to reports.
Thursday's announcement that Apple plans to add 1,000 workers in San Diego over the next three years is welcome news for the region. Combined with Google leasing a 60,000-square-foot office here in 2016 and Amazon launching a 107,000-square-foot campus in 2017, this amounts to further confirmation from the tech giants of the world that San Diego is deeply attractive to employers, thanks to its outstanding work force and great quality of life.
Analysts saw the move as part of Apple's larger strategy of seeking to design more of the components used in its iPhones and other electronics. The company is sure to get plenty of résumés from the 1,500 local employees that Qualcomm has had to lay off this year, partly because Apple no longer buys cellular modems from the local tech giant. Here's hoping the two companies' contentious relationship — reflected in legal wars over patents and more — doesn't divide the local tech community. For example, UC San Diego's Department of Computer Science and Engineering has a close relationship with Qualcomm. That shouldn't get in the way of the department also working closely with Apple.
While the moves that Apple announced included expansions much bigger than what's planned for San Diego, there's an interesting intrastate angle to the Cupertino-based company's maneuvering. That's the chance that it may foreshadow a brain drain of talent from extremely expensive Silicon Valley to merely super expensive San Diego County.
In June, the Bay Area News Group reported on a stunning poll showing that 46 percent of the region's residents were likely to move from the region in coming years, primarily because of concerns that housing costs were hurting their quality of life. That's up from 34 percent in 2016. The article featured Berkeley software engineer Travis Dobbs, who said he and his also well-paid wife had no hopes of being able to afford a home.
Hey, Dobbs family, come on down! You'll find that your family's income goes at lot further in Poway than Palo Alto. When more Silicon Valley tech workers figure this out, San Diego's work force could get stronger — and its economic outlook even brighter.


The body of the stein is a smooth, blue glazed, high quality stoneware decorated with a gold wrap around design. This stein has been crafted to highlight the progression of the manufacture and career of the C17 Globemaster III. A detailed pewter figurine of the from half of a C17 Globemaster III, including wings is situated at the center of the wrap around decoration, such that it looks like the plane is flying out of the stein. To left and right of the figurine are a number images of the plane flying and a timeline of the history of the C17 Globemaster III. An ornamental pewter lid with raised pewter globe complete with compass rose and a pewter figurine of the tail of the plane completes the piece. Limited Edition of 5,000 individually numbered pieces.


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There's a brand new trailer for the sequel to adorable animated movie Wreck-It Ralph, Ralph Breaks The Internet.
This time, Ralph and his friend Vanellope discover a wi-fi router in their arcade, and soon find themselves on a new adventure. John C Reilly returns as the voice of Ralph, alongside Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch and Ana Ortiz. And as a bonus for Disney Princess fans, many of our favourite princesses appear all together on screen for the first time, including Elsa from Frozen, Snow White, Belle from Beauty And The Beast, Moana, The Little Mermaid's Ariel, Aladdin's Jasmine, Pocahontas and Tiana from The Princess And The Frog (see who you can recognise in the photo below).
Ralph Breaks The Internet: Wreck-It Ralph opens in the UK on November 30 and in the US on November 21.
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text:
PCMag Australia Opinions John C. Dvorak
Where Is the Disruptive Software?
Where is the truly disruptive software? Are we stuck with Microsoft Word until the end of eternity? For now, promising companies are usually just gobbled up by their bigger rivals.
By John C. Dvorak
27 Jul 2018, 2:23 a.m.
In the early days of the personal computer revolution, everything was disruptive. Relatively affordable microcomputers appeared, and everyone knew they'd eventually supplant the minicomputer, which itself had largely supplanted the mainframe. And I suppose you could argue that someday smartphones will supplant the desktop computer of today.
But what about the software realm? Are we stuck with Microsoft Word until the end of eternity? Modern word-processing software did disrupt the scene dominated by dedicated word processors like the Wang 1200 WPS and other devices. The word-processing wars went on for a while, but they have died down and we have been stuck with Microsoft Word for a while.
Yes, there's Google Drive, but it's actually worse, as is Google Sheets, its answer to Microsoft Excel. Though neither is as bad as PowerPoint at clogging up progress. Where is the product that disrupts this old clunker?
Curiously, some nifty high-end presentation software is indeed better, but a key element of disruption is the cost. Disruptive technology is always based on the cost. But it should always be so cheap that only an idiot would not commit to it. This process continues until the product is free.
If we are to subscribe to the entire disruption idea, then nothing in the field of technology existing today should still be around in a decade, but lack of innovation in traditional computer tech is lagging. Or is it?
An examination of projects on GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and Source Forge shows us all kinds of nearly finished programs and utilities, many of which could be useful if not disruptive. You can compound this with the numerous companies bought by Yahoo and others that were never marketed and simply shelved after a few years. Google is another company that unceremoniously kills promising projects.
The more I look over the scene the more I'm reminded of Xerox PARC. This operation was notorious for developing things that should have evolved into something disruptive and needed by the market. In the case of PARC, many of its inventions—from the laser printer to the GUI to Ethernet—were exploited by others, so not all was lost.
But with the majority of software inventions (and this is where my complaint centers) exercising their way through these semi-public repositories led by GitHub, the commercial exploitation seems to be managed by already established companies that swoop in to grab the project and eventually kill it, like Yahoo has done with so many good ideas. As a result, genuinely disruptive tech rarely emerges.
Maybe there are disruptive packages out there and I just don't know about them. Some would say blockchain and cryptocurrency fall into the category. I suppose. Nothing could be more disruptive to the world than a new monetary system that circumvents everything ever. Yes, that is disruptive. But which companies does it affect? What does it mean to me? What does it mean to you?
So let's look at my original complaint: when do Microsoft Word and PowerPoint get disrupted and disappear? I see nothing on the horizon that can seriously wipe out Word, nothing. A product called PowToon looks interesting as an alternative to PowerPoint. But I see someone buying it any minute, and that will be the end of it.
In other words, we are at a technology impasse. I'd like to blame someone or something: a person, a trend, JavaScript, millennials, something. But have you considered that we are at the end of the line? Word and PowerPoint are like automobile tires. Noting ever disrupted tire technology. It just evolved. They were not wiped out like the Wang word processor was.
So my advice is to get proficient at Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. You won't regret it. Maybe this advice will change in a decade, but from the looks of things, I doubt it.
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About John C. Dvorak
John Dvorak is a columnist for PCMag.com and the host of the weekly TV video podcast CrankyGeeks. His work is licensed around the world. Previously a columnist for Forbes, Forbes Digital, PC World, Barrons, MacUser, PC/Computing, Smart Business and other magazines and newspapers. Former editor and consulting editor for Infoworld. Has appeared in the New York Times, LA Times, Philadelphia Enquirer, SF Examiner, Vancouver Sun. Was on the start-up team for CNet TV as well as ZDTV. At ZDTV (and TechTV) was host of Silicon Spin for four years doing 1000 live and live-to-tape TV shows. Also was on public radio for 8 years. Written over 4000 articles and columns …
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The word 'intestate' is interesting because it is both an adjective and a noun. It can be used a number of ways, all of which relate to dying without leaving a valid Will. A person who passes away without a Will is known as an 'intestate'. Having died intestate, they leave behind an intestate estate. Without a Will directing how the estate is to be distributed, the laws of the State come into play.
The estate does not automatically go to the State, as is often wrongly assumed. Instead, it will be distributed to the deceased's relatives according to the predetermined rules set out in the Succession Act 2006. A remaining spouse will be entitled to the estate first, followed by any children if the spouse has also passed away. If there are no children, the deceased's parents, siblings, grandparents, and aunts and uncles will then be eligible in that order to receive the estate.
The way the law of intestacy works means that if you don't leave a Will, your estate may be distributed in a way that you did not intend. It may not reflect your wishes to provide for the people you care about, nor reflect family dynamics and the realities of your life as it is. That's why everyone needs to make a Will – to give peace of mind to yourself and your loved ones, knowing that they will be provided for.
No one knows the day or the hour, so don't leave writing your Will until it's too late!
The post Intestacy – Not leaving a will appeared first on Wills & Probate.


text:
Xinhua New Media
Ecuadorian president orders curfew, militarization in Quito as anti-government protests intensify
Source: Xinhua| 2019-10-13 14:59:02|Editor: Yurou
QUITO, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno declared curfew and militarization of the Metropolitan District of Quito on Saturday after 10 days of anti-government protests.
"I have ordered the curfew and the militarization of the Metropolitan District of Quito. It will take effect from 3:00 p.m. (2000 GMT)," Moreno tweeted. "This will facilitate the police action against the intolerable excesses of violence."
Shortly after he tweeted, Moreno reaffirmed his decision in a televised address. "I've order the Joint Command of the Armed Forces to take necessary measures and operations immediately."
Moreno said that those behind the acts of violence and vandalism in the protests "are drug traffickers, the criminals, the Latin Kings (the largest gang group in Ecuador), and the correistas (supporters of Ecuador's former President Rafael Correa)."
Moreno thanked indigenous leaders for agreeing to talks.
Ecuador's Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (Conaie) earlier said that it would take part in the "direct dialogue" after rejecting Moreno's invitation at first.
"We insist on the need for a direct and public dialogue on Decree 883 for its repeal or revision," Conaie said in a statement.
The government announced the elimination of fuel subsidies on Oct. 1, as part of an austerity package designed to reduce the public deficit in keeping with a 4.2-billion-U.S.-dollar loan deal with the International Monetary Fund.
Following the government's action, gasoline and diesel prices shot up and transport fares rose, prompting indigenous groups, union workers and students to launch a nationwide strike, which sparked violent protests.
Moreno declared a nationwide 60-day state of emergency on Oct. 3 to try to quell the protests with a stepped-up police and military presence, but demonstrations continued to intensify.
According to local media, protesters damaged Ecuador's congressional building and broke into the Comptroller General Pablo Celi's office on Tuesday.
Conaie denied any responsibility for the acts of vandalism, saying "those actions have nothing to do with our base."
The unrest led Moreno to relocate his government to the costal city of Guayaquil.
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