text:
Could LockTrip Disrupt Airbnb And Booking.com?
Posted on November 18, 2018 November 18, 2018 by Nicholas Peart
We are living in a world where things are changing very fast. Not that long ago, Airbnb was a little known peer to peer booking platform for accommodation. Today it is used by millions and has revolutionised the accommodation industry.
As convenient a service as it is, it is a middleman service business, which takes a commission on each booking from both the host's and customer's end. It is an internet business yet it's model is centralised.
This is where Locktrip comes into play. Locktrip is a little known decentralised booking ecosystem platform for renting hotel rooms, property and all kinds of accommodation. The entire accommodation industry is a huge $500billion industry. Already Airbnb has had a huge effect on this industry in the process becoming a business valued in excess of $30billion and not owning a single property. It is a very clever business model making all its money via all the commissions it earns from all its bookings.
The reason why Locktrip has such disruptive potential is, because it offers all the services the likes of Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia.com etc offer without taking any fees from both parties. It is a decentralised platform with no middleman. It is a pure peer to peer platform between both the host and the customer with no centralised middle entity in the mix.
The technology it employs to make this work is blockchain technology, which is what the likes of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin are built on. Bitcoin is the world's first digital currency created almost ten years ago and has had a very big impact on the world of money by enabling people to bypass global financial institutions to make payments.
LockTrip is also a cryptocurrency with its own supply of tokens. Yet whereas Bitcoin is just for payment transactions, LockTrip offers a ground-breaking service platform in the world of accommodation as well as other kinds of travel and cultural experiences. Once more hotels, guesthouses and other hosts register their services on LockTrip and more people also register themselves on LockTrip, the other current centralised commission-charging internet accommodation services will find their users diminishing. It is still early days and this is a very new concept. It will take time. Furthermore, a better decentralised version of LockTrip could also come on the scene even though LockTrip is an early mover in this field.
It is all very exciting and I will continue to monitor its progress
(c)All Rights Reserved
LockTrip website
LockTrip whitepaper
Tagged Airbnb, article, Blockchain, business, Cryptocurrencies, Locktrip, Peer To Peer, tech, TravelLeave a comment
Wonderings In The Northwest Bulgarian Town Of Vidin
The Bulgarian town of Vidin is located in the northwest corner of the country on the border with Romania. Separating the two countries is the river Danube and a modern bridge. Vidin is an overlooked town, which not many people visit. In fact, during my stay I didn't encounter a single tourist. Entering the town from the train station one is not immediately taken by the town. But spend a day on foot exploring what this town has to offer and one starts to view it in a whole new light. It's jewels don't immediately reveal themselves and require a dose of curiosity.
Arriving in Vidin was my first taste of Bulgaria. Unlike Romanian, Bulgarian is not a roman language, but a Slavic one using the Cyrillic alphabet. Fortunately I can decode most of the alphabet even if I can't speak a word of Bulgarian. I also learn that the Cyrillic alphabet is a derivative of the Glagolitic alphabet founded in the AD 850s by the Saints Cyril and Methodius and then later introduced in AD 886 by the Bulgarian Empire. Today the Cyrillic alphabet is used in many Slavic countries including Russia, Serbia, the Ukraine, Macedonia and even in Mongolia, which is a non Slavic country.
After locating a place in the town to change my remaining Romanian Lei into Bulgarian Lev, I focus on finding the address of my accommodation with the help of the Google Maps app on my phone. I am glad I didn't take a taxi. Not only is my accommodation located not so far away, through walking the distance to it, I develop a feel for where I am.
My accommodation is situated in an old grey Communist-era low rise building. Inside the building, it's less austere. On the level where the flat is located there are several plants on the balcony. Plants never fail to lift one's spirits. The hosts, a middle age Bulgarian couple, are very warm with big hearts. Their flat is homely and aesthetically tasteful. Its light and warm. My bedroom I discover is very spacious and I have a double bed. It is perfect. I am offered Bulgarian tea. Ten minutes later Krasi one of my hosts returns carrying a vintage traditional blue tray containing a cup of tea, a pot of sugar and a separate plate with a generous wedge of homemade milk cake. It is awfully good and I feel very touched to be at the receiving end of such generous hospitality.
Bulgarian hospitality
I've been up since 5.45am this morning and the temptation is very strong to go back to bed. But I want to seize the remainder of the day. After an interval of time spent in my room having my tea and trying too warm myself up, I leave my room to hit the streets of Vidin. Most of my neighbourhood is full of brutal boxy communist era flats. One could maybe be in a non descript middle Russia suburb. Yet with a smattering of more vintage architecture with an Ottoman tinge. Some of those older buildings look neglected. Vidin is not a wealthy town and is one of the poorer parts of the country yet it also has one of the richest and oldest histories.
Residential housing block on the outskirts of town
Crumbling Ottoman style architecture
Back in the centre of town close to the train station, I aimlessly wonder the streets not venturing further than and find a place to have some late lunch. I spot a canteen type diner with several different trays of local savoury and sweet dishes. I opt for the moussaka with a side of fried potatoes and another milk based cake for desert. After eating my food, I leave the restaurant and wonder some more before calling it a day and returning to my accommodation.
St. Dimitar monastery in the centre of town
In the centre of town with the Vidin Radio tower in the background
The next day is when things start to get cooking for me in this town. I walk back to the town centre and head for the old town district of Kaleto where the medieval Baba Vida fortress is located. Its the best preserved medieval fortress in Bulgaria. I approach the old town from an old walled entrance dating back to the times of the Ottoman Empire.
The entrance to the old town
One of the most distinct and unusual landmarks in the old town is a derelict and abandoned synagogue. The synagogue was built in 1894 and for a time was Bulgaria's second largest synagogue. Vidin had a thriving Jewish community for five decades since the 15th century with the arrival of the first Jews from Spain. Most of the town's Jewish population emigrated to Israel after the Second World War. There were plans to restore the synagogue back to its former glory during the 1970s and a decade later work was in fact carried out, but it was abruptly cut short with the fall of the Communist regime at the end of that decade.
The abandoned Vidin synagogue
Nearby the synagogue is a tall monument overlooking the river Danube. The so called 'Monument of Freedom' was built during the Communist regime. It is a structure in the Brutalist architecture genre and a relic from the Communist era of Bulgaria's history.
'Monument Of Freedom'
What is amazing though is the view of the river Danube, the second longest river in Europe after the river Volga in Russia. The river covers most of the border between Bulgaria and Romania, before discharging itself into the Black Sea in northern Romania close to the Ukrainian border. On a clearer day one can fully see the bridge in the distance connecting Bulgaria and Romania.
The river Danube separating Bulgaria and Romania
Only a short walk away is the town's main landmark, the Baba Vida fortress, which literally translates to 'Grandmother Vida'. The fortress dates back to the 10th century and was contracted on top of the site of an old Roman landmark called Bononia. The origins of the castle is based on a legend focused on a Bulgarian King and ruler of Vidin who had three daughters; Vida, Kula and Gamza. Before he died he divided his kingdom between his three daughters. His eldest daughter, Vida, was given the town of Vidin of whom the town is named after. And it is in this town that she built this fortress, where she lived unmarried and insolation. The fortress, Grandmother Vida, is named after her.
Baba Vida fortress
Throughout the town's history the fortress has served as an important strategic base. During the 500 year long Ottoman rule of Bulgaria, the fortress was used as a prison and a base to store weapons. It is an impressive structure and little changed since its foundation. I spend some time walking around the complex and climbing one of the narrow stone staircases to reach the top level. At one point I almost lost my balance on the steps. There are not many protection railings as it isn't designed for mass tourism. As a result one needs to be on their guard when inside.
At the top of the fortress
Other sites in the old town include the Krastata Kazarma museum, built in the classic Ottoman style. It was a military barrack during the Ottoman rule. Today it is the town's ethnographic museum.
Krastata Kazarma museum
Else where in the old town is a mosque named after Osman Pazvantoğlu. Osman was an Ottoman soldier who was the governor of Vidin in the late 18th century. There is also a library in town named after him. Very near the mosque is an orthodox church named after St Panteleymon.
The Osman Pazvantoğlu Mosque
St Panteleymon orthodox church
On the edge of the old town by the Danube, is the Nikola Petrov art gallery. Petrov was a Bulgarian painter born in Vidin in 1881. Sadly his life was cut short by tuberculosis and he died at the age of just 35. The gallery has many of his works in its collection. However when I visited only a few paintings in one room were on display. One small painting by Petrov on display is his painting of the Baba Vida fortress.
Nikola Petrov painting of Baba Vida fortress
Two other paintings on display that catch my eye are a painting by Ivan Ivanov of the mosque in the old town of Vidin from 1938 and another painting by Stoyan Venev from 1960 featuring a mother and her child at the shore of the Danube by the entrance to the Baba Vida fortress
Ivan Ivanov's painting of the Osman Pazvantoğlu Mosque from 1938
Painting from 1960 by Stoyan Venev located by the entrance to the Baba Vida fortress
After visiting the art gallery, I take a walk along the banks of the river Danube. During my walk I cross paths with two young men. One of them is very drunk and proceeds to give me a slurred a rambled discourse of the history of Vidin in broken English. His friends asks me, 'What the fuck are you doing in Vidin, man?'. He then adds that he spent three years living in Derby. He looks at his friend already halfway through his drunken impromptu history lesson and says, 'Just ignore my friend. He's crazy. He doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about'. I wish them both goodbye and good luck and I head back to my accommodation on the outskirts of Vidin.
Tagged article, Baba Vida, bulgaria, culture, photography, Travel, Vidin, Writing2 Comments
On The Brancusi Trail In The Romanian Towns Of Targu Jiu and Craiova
Posted on November 9, 2018 by Nicholas Peart
The Romanian born Constantin Brancusi was a leading sculptor of the 20th century and a pioneer of modern art. My first encounter with the great man was in Paris, the city where he lived for many years and where he met and became friends with many of the great artists, writers and poets of the 20th century such as Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, Marcel Duchamp, Guillaume Apollinaire and Ezra Pound. His Parisian studio still stands today on the same site where the Pompidou Centre of Modern and Contemporary Art is located and he is buried in Montparnasse Cemetery along with other greats like Charles Baudelaire, Serge Gainsbourg and Jean Paul Satre.
From the city of Timisoara, located in the west of Romania, I embarked on a bus ride lasting nearly six hours to reach the country town of Targu Jiu. I was the only tourist on the bus and most of the journey comprised of driving through rural and provincial Romania. The Romanian countryside is wild, raw and authentic. I notice this especially on the road approaching Targu Jiu. Watching all this scenery from the bus window I already develop a mental picture of the land Brancusi grew up in as a young boy. Brancusi came from very humble beginnings. He was born in 1876 in a small village called Hobita about 20 kilometres outside of Targu Jiu. Both his parents were poor traditional hard working mountain people. His development as an artist began in this rural part of the country where he would frequently carve objects from pieces of wood. Today one can visit the wooden house in Hobita where he grew up although it's a replica of the original construction.
Targu Jiu is a town with several points of interest. Yet my principle reason for visiting was to see the large outdoor sculptures created by Brancusi in the 1930s as a homage to the Romanian soldiers who fought during the First World War. Beginning at the Constantin Brancusi Memorial Park by the Targu Jiu river is his work, The Table Of Silence. The work comprises of a circular table and twelve hour glass objects made of stone positioned in such a way to resemble a clock with each of the hour glass objects representing the numbers on a clock.
The Table Of Silence
Directly facing this work is a path leading towards another work by Brancusi entitled The Gate Of Kiss made of travertine marble. One each side of the two columns of the work is a circular emblem representing lips. This work is of the socialist realism style, which was the main genre of sculptures made during the time of the Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991.
The Gate Of Kiss
From the park, I walk along Calea Eroilor or Heroes Street – named after the Romanians who fought during WW1 and to whom the sculptures are dedicated to, until I reach another park where the final and arguably most epic work of Brancusi's Targu Jiu works is located. The Endless Column is an almost 30 metre tall sculpture consisting of 17 rhomboidal modules. It is an iconic work of outdoor sculpture and is occasionally cited as one of the greatest works of modern outdoor sculpture. The work is a symbol of 'the infinite' and in the context of the Romanian soldiers who lost their lives in World War One, a tribute to their 'infinite' sacrifice. For me it is a very spiritual work. It goes beyond the concepts of time and space. It is timeless and eternal, defying any representations or labels of any specific period in time. The sculptor, art writer and Brancusi historian Sydnei Geist called the work the high point of modern art.
The Endless Column
By The Endless Column
During the 1950s there were plans by the Communist government of Romania to destroy the column but thankfully those plans were never realised. In fact, after the fall of communism in the country, there was a lot of renewed interest in the column and plans were carried out to restore it after years of neglect.
Other sites that are worthy of attention in Targu Jiu include the city's small art museum located at the top of the Brancusi Memorial park. When I visited I encountered several paintings and sculptures by local and well known Romanian artists. Some of the sculptures were created by lesser known contemporaries of Brancusi and there is one work in the museum created in collaboration with the great man himself. I particularly recommend the room containing a collection of beautiful religious icon paintings some dating back all the way to the 17th century.
Targu Jiu art museum
A lesser known site in the town is the Iosif Keber Memorial House located in an architectural masterpiece of an old house featuring a collection of his paintings and an art library.
Iosif Keber Memorial House
About 100km south of Targu Jiu is the town of Craiova. It was in this town where Brancusi attended the Craiova School of Arts and Crafts from 1894 until 1898 and produced some of his earliest sculptures here. The Craiova Art Museum is located in the Constantin Mihail Palace. It is an opulent building with an almost Versailles like interior, which was built between 1898 and 1907 by the French architect Paul Gottereau. The palace was named after Michael Constantine, who was a member of one Romania's richest families.
Craiova Art Museum
The Craiova art museum contains a wealth of paintings by Romanian artists yet it is the room containing a collection of Brancusi works, which is my reason for visiting. One of the most important of these works is his sculpture from his series of sculptures entitled The Kiss, his take on Rodin's work of the same name. After Brancusi first arrived in Paris in 1903, he spent some time in Rodin's studio but left after two months stating, 'Nothing can grow under big trees'. Brancusi held the great master Rodin in high regard yet at the same time he didn't want to be stuck in the past and in his shadow. One can be too enfolded and trapped in the realms of a great artist. Brancusi though was an innovator and a visionary, and in order to grow, challenge and change the face of something one cannot be for too long in the presence of a master. This was the same with the Venetian painter Tintoretto who only spent a very short amount of time in the studio of the master painter Titian. As brilliant as Titian was, Tintoretto was also, like Brancusi, a visionary artist, and found being in the shadow of a master artist for too long stifling. He wanted to break free and develop his own style.
The original Kiss sculpture at the Craiova Art Museum
The Kiss is a ground breaking work of modern art. What makes the sculpture in the Craiova art museum so special and unique is that it is the original sculpture Brancusi created, which would later manifest into a full series of sculptures of the same name. When you look at Rodin's Kiss sculpture and then at Brancusi's sculpture of the same name it is clear what Brancusi wanted to do. Rodin's sculpture is a masterpiece of classical art, in the style of the greatest sculptures from the Classical Greek period. But Brancusi's objective was to create something new. In his sculpture he breaks down Rodin's sculpture to its most basic and essential essence. It's almost like he's on a mission to chisel something and remove all its components leaving behind just its most essential and primordial core – that which is eternal and exists beyond the straightjacket of physical structures. And this is the reason why it is of such importance in the history of modern art.
The rest of the Brancusi collection in this part of the museum is made up of miscellaneous works by him created from as early as 1894 at the age of 18 when he was studying at the Craiova Art School until 1913 when he was already an established artist living in Paris. The earliest of these works is a wooden chair he made whilst a student at the local Craiova Art School. He was clearly a precociously talented artist judging by the skill and details of the chair and the age he was when he made it. Furthermore, just before he enrolled at the school he created from scratch a violin. His technical skill could never be faulted yet what makes The Kiss such a ground-breaking work was in its re-definition of sculpture as an art form itself.
Other Brancusi works in the Craiova Art Museum
The sculpture he made of the Roman emperor Vitellius from 1898 during the first months of his time at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest is a perfectly fine work in the classical tradition. His sculpture of a young boy he made in Paris in 1906 is an emotive, sensitive and skilful work with the influence of Rodin being rather strong. Both these works demonstrate tremendous skill and talent yet Brancusi was still finding his way. Where The Kiss stands out is in its originality and as a work of art with no connections to any great sculptors or art movements of the past. With this work Brancusi developed an art form that was not only entirely his own, but also a work which changed the face of sculpture during its time.
Tagged article, Brancusi, Craiova, modern art, Romania, Sculpture, Targu Jiu, TravelLeave a comment
The Romanian city of Timisoara located in the western part of the country close to the Hungarian and Serbian borders is a pleasant place to spend a few days. The centre of town is filled with a wealth of beautiful ornate architecture dating back to its Habsburg past. Some of those buildings are semi-dilapidated yet a lot of this beautiful architecture and much of the city is undergoing a large regeneration project in time for 2021; the year when Timisoara will be the official European City Of Culture.
Piata Victoriei is one of the highlights of the city. Its a beautiful long rectangular square with a wealth of ornate, diverse and unusual multi-coloured buildings and rows of pleasant restaurants, cafes and shops. It's an ideal place to watch the world go by as they say. The most unmissable feature of this part of town is the prominent Metropolitan Cathedral; an imposing Byzantine-influenced orthodox cathedral constructed between 1936 and 1946.
The prominent orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral
Directly facing the monastery on the other side of the road, back on the Piata Victoriei is a memorial to the revolution of December 1989 against the repressive Communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu. It is this event in the country's history that gives the plaza its name. This revolution, which began here in Timisoara, is a very important event in Romania's history since it eventually led to the crumbling of this regime and the end of Communism in the country.
Memorial on Piata Victoriei to the 1989 Revolution
The initial protests in the city took place on December 15th 1989 with a few hundred people protesting against the harassment of the Romanian born Hungarian pastor Laszlo Tokes by the Communist regime. Laszlo was a notable and outspoken figure representing Romania's Hungarian community. For many years he was a target of the communist regime for his exposing of human rights abuses by the regime towards the Hungarian minority population of Romania.
In March 1989, Tokes was forced by the religious authorities of the time to move from Timisoara to another parish in a remote part of the country. Tokes didn't budge. The authorities issued him with an eviction notice from his home in Timisoara stating that he had until December 15th 1989 to leave. It was on this date that members of his congregation protested his eviction on the streets of Timisoara. Eventually passers-by joined in and what originally began as a protest against the eviction of Tokes manifested into an even bigger protest against the repressive communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu. Very quickly similar protests spread like wildfire across other Romanian cities including the capital, Bucharest. Despite Ceausescu's efforts to supress the protests by ordering the military to fire bullets into the crowds, his efforts were in vain as he was up against the vast majority of the population of his country who wanted change and an end to his oppressive regime.
By the 1989 Revolution Museum
The 1989 Revolution Museum is a permanent exhibition dedicated to these events. When I first entered the museum located in an old and crumbling building, I was escorted by an elderly man from the museum to a room with a TV screen. On the screen he played a 20 minute documentary featuring visual recordings of the events between the beginning of the revolution until the fall of the Ceausescu regime. It is a dazzling sight to see what looks like almost the entire population of Timisoara out in the city protesting.
The city of Timisoara at the apex of the December 1989 revolution
Pictures of the Communist ruler Nicolae Ceausescu in the museum
A pre Revolution Ceausescu parade in Timisoara's main square (today named Piata Victoriei)
Ceausescu had initially misjudged the potential magnitude of the protests in Timisoara. On 18th December he left Romania for a state visit to Iran putting his wife and subordinates in charge of trying to diffuse the protests in Timisoara. When he returned to Romania just a couple of days later the protests had become larger and more intense. During a speech he gave in today's Revolution Square in Bucharest on December 21st, some people in the crowd began to chant 'Timisoara!'. Slowly more people joined in. Ceausescu, unable to suppress the chants, pledged to raise the national minimum wage but the crowd wasn't having any of it. For the remainder of his speech he was constantly heckled until realising that he was powerless to engage the crowd, he left the stage and ran for cover. On December 22nd the protests had spread to all the major cities in Romania. Ceausescu and his wife embarked on an epic escape from the braying mob until they were captured by the army and tried on Christmas Day. After their capture they were duly executed by a firing squad.
The museum is full of ephemera related to the Revolution including photographs and newspaper articles as well as art works by contemporary Romanian artists related to this time period. After watching the video I spend some time visiting all the rooms inside the museum and learning more about this period in Romania's history.
Photographs from the museum
Visiting the museum is most definitely worth the visit if you ever happen to be in Timisoara. It is a raw and authentic experience regarding a very important time period in Romania's history.
http://20years.tol.org/2009/10/26/laszlo-tokes/
Tagged article, Blog, Ceaucescu, Eastern Europe, Romania, Romanian Revolution, Timisoara, Travel, WritingLeave a comment
A Day Trip To Felcsút
Posted on November 1, 2018 November 1, 2018 by Nicholas Peart
The Hungarian village of Felcsút is located 50km outside of Budapest and a 1 hour bus ride from the capital. It isn't featured in any guide books and besides, with the abundance of things that Hungary's seductive capital has to offer, why would anyone want to sacrifice a day in some one horse village in the middle of nowhere? But Felcsút isn't just any other village. It is where the current Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán grew up. Since he became prime minister in 2010, a lot of money has been pumped into this sleepy settlement, mainly in the shape of a football stadium and a 6km long railway line.
Orbán is a controversial figure both at home and abroad. Opinion in Hungary on him is intensely polarized where people either love him or hate him. The latter accuse him of being a dangerous demagogue and a threat to the country's democracy and free speech. Even though Hungary is a member of the European Union he has been very critical of it and has often come to blows with Brussels for not abiding by the rules as a member country. One example is his refusal to take in more migrants during the 2015 Refugee Crisis. Instead he constructed a razor fence around parts of the country's borders much to the ire of Brussels. His supporters though see Orbán as a no-nonsense leader who isn't afraid to speak his mind regardless of the consequences and also as someone who isn't a pushover and is willing to put their country first. He is viewed by some as Europe's answer to Donald Trump.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán
From Nepligot bus station in Budapest, I board a knackered white bus destined for this village. As the bus leaves behind the final surrounding districts of the city we are in rural Hungary proper. Lots of open fields and not much else. Nobody on the bus or even at the ticket desk of the bus station in the capital spoke any English. Without the internet data on my phone and the Google Maps app, I would have most likely missed my destination and probably would have resorted to scrambling for a way to desperately return back to Budapest. Once out of Hungary's cosmopolitan capital or any of the country's major towns, the chances of finding someone who speaks English drops dramatically. For the record I don't know a word of Hungarian. Its an impenetrable language which doesn't stick easily to my poor little brain. I even find it a challenge to remember the word for 'thank you'. This is not a country you would want to get arrested in.
I know we are approaching Felcsut the minute I see the blue dot on Google Maps edge closer to the name of the village on the digital map. We stop at a small roadside bus stop, but in my ignorance I assume this is not THE bus stop for my destination. The bus carries on and turns onto a road moving away from the location of the village on my map. Its going now at some speed and the blue dot on the map is moving away from Felcsut at an alarming rate. I have no choice but to interrupt the driver. I walk down the bus ailse and as I approach the driver I blurt out the name of my destination. He slams the brakes and the bus screeches to a halt. Thankfully I latch myself to a nearby railing to avoid being catapulted towards the driver's window. With haste I grab my bag and jump out of the bus.
Arriving in Felcsút
As I walk closer to the village I see a sign indicating the infamous Pancho Arena football stadium being only a kilometre away. The stadium is big with a seating capacity of 3,500. That is more than double the population of the village itself which has a population of just 1,200. For this reason it is seen by many Hungarians as a sensitive subject often dismissing the stadium as an Orbán vanity project. Many argue that the money should have been allocated instead towards the healthcare or education system of the country and not a football stadium. Orbán is a football fanatic and often tries to watch as many important matches as he can in between his busy schedule. In fact it is not an uncommon sight to see him at some games at the local stadium during weekend matches.
When I approach the stadium it is empty with the next game scheduled until the weekend. Yet the entrance to the stadium is open and so I enter. In the enclosure of the stadium there are photographs, trophies and other assorted bits of football related memorabilia. As I walk into the seating area the most striking feature of the stadium is not the football pitch but the wooden beams around the stadium. They are truly a work of art and give the arena the air of a religious place of worship and not solely a place to watch football. The beams and general design of the stadium were taken from designs by the noted local Hungarian architect Imre Makovecz.
Pancho Arena football stadium
The unique wooden beams of the stadium
A long path by the stadium leads all the way to small railway station, Puskas Akademia, named after the local football team. This station is part of the 6km long Val-Valley railway line. This project is more controversial than the football stadium since it has been stated that 80% of the investment towards it came from EU funds. I am the only person on the platform. There is no ticket office at this station just a small wooden hut with a time table of the daily train times on the side of the hut. All the information is in Hungarian yet I soon make out via a combination of Google Translate and raw guesswork that the next train should arrive in half an hour.
Puskas Akademia station stop as part of the Val-Valley 6km long light railway line
Twenty minutes later I am joined by two elderly ladies. I timidly ask them whether they speak English? To my amazement one of the ladies, Zsuzsi, speaks perfect English. She lived in London for one year in 1976 and reminisces fondly about her time in the city. A vintage style train soon approaches. When we board the train we are the only people in the carriage. I do wonder sometimes, unlike the football stadium, what really is the point of this railway line especially if so few people on average use it? Yet the hot potato aspect of this project aside, I am reminded of the countryside tourist railway train I once took last year in the breath-taking region of Mokra Gora in the neighbouring country of Serbia. That was a truly unforgettable memory.
One of the trains
Once inside the deserted carriage we all pose for photos. There is also a stove-like heater inside. A lady conductor enters our carriage to issue our tickets. I soon learn that there are about four stops in total on this line. However since my time is limited I buy a ticket for just until the next stop. I stay on the train for 25 minutes as it slowly chugs until the next stop. During this time we pass through the wild autumnal fields of the surrounding countryside. It is a beautiful sight with a rich kaleidoscope of colours. These are the kind of fields Vincent Van Gogh would have painted in all their glory.
Inside the train carriage with its own stove heater
Yours truly inside the train
The surrounding countryside
At the next stop, Felscut station, I disembark and say goodbye to the ladies. I have 40 minutes until the next bus to Budapest leaves from the northern end of the village. I briskly walk the few kilometres on the side of the main village road. Most of the places I pass along the way, save for the football stadium, are private residences and the odd church, school and grocery shop. Thankfully I make it to the bus stop on time. The bus arrives five minutes later to take me back to Nepligot bus station.
Tagged article, Blog, Felcsut, Hungary, Pancho Arena, Travel, Viktor Orban, WritingLeave a comment
Contemporary Art From The Uralic World At The Ludwig Museum In Budapest
Posted on October 30, 2018 December 27, 2019 by Nicholas Peart
The Ludwig Museum is one of Budapest's primary cultural institutions. When I visited the museum during my time in Budapest, there were three different art exhibitions on display. Two of those were purely focused on contemporary art from the Uralic world. The language, Hungarian, is part of the Uralic family of languages. The three primary languages from that family are Hungarian, Finnish and Estonian.
SALLA TYKKA : Short Titles
The first exhibition was a display of short films by the Finnish video artist Salla Tykka. Her films focus on the inner core of existence. The first of her short films I encounter, Giant, is set in the gym of a Romanian all girls school. Here the girls undergo strict, stultifying and repressed exercise routines with faultless precision; as if they are robots or algorithms and not human beings. Watching the film makes me nauseous. The gym is also like one great soulless and sterile modern day concentration camp. Its an intensely depressing video and I only watch a few minutes of it before moving on yet out of all Tykka's short films, it is also one of her most memorable.
Still from the short film Giant by the Finnish artist Salla Tykka
Another film by Tykka, Lasso, is set in suburban Finland. It features a young man in his home gyrating in a dynamic and primal way with a lasso. During this moment, a young girl outside watches him transfixed through the slits of the closed blinds. She develops strong feelings towards him, difficult to articulate in words. But when the ritual with the lasso ends, so do those feelings and she is brought back down to earth. The film beautifully encapsulates this moment so many of us experience yet struggle to verbally convey.
Still from the short film Lasso by the Finnish artist Salla Tykka
My Hate Is Useless is an early short film by Salla Tykka from 1996 documenting her struggle with anorexia. It is a raw and visceral film further documenting the pain and suffering she experiences. At one intervals she violently screams in Finnish 'I hate myself'. Elsewhere in the film we see various bits of paraphernalia such as the medication she is taking.
Still from the short film My Hate Is Useless by the Finnish artist Salla Tykka
RELATED BY SISTER LANGUAGES : Estonian-Hungarian Contemporary Art Exhibition
The second exhibition in another part of the museum is an exhibition of Estonian and Hungarian contemporary art curated by Krisztina Szipocs, the chief curator of the museum.
The first works are encounter are a small series of canvases by the Estonian artist Kaido Ole. Yet close by the canvases are two large painted mural like installations by the same artist depicting both the beginning and end of Estonia. The installation showing the beginning theme contains a sepia image of a coastline and the sea encased within a square sequence of different hues of blue. The end theme of the installation is more abstract featuring fading brown hues and the letters 'Eeeeehhhh' in the middle. It is difficult enough to envisage when the beginning may have been even if one where to use such primordial elements such as the sea and the colour blue. The end however is unwritten.
Kaido Ole : The Beginning Of Estonia (2016/18)
Kaido Ole : The End Of Estonia (2016)
Close by, a video by the Estonian artist Tanja Muravskaja, Three Sisters, featuring two girls who are both cousins reflecting on the war in Ukraine from their own personal experiences. One of the girls in the video lives in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev and the other in the small Russian town of Belgorad, located 40kms from the Ukrainian border. The two videos play simultaneously as the girls talk at the same time. What is immediately clear is that both have very different views and experiences. From what I can decipher the girl from Belgorad comes across as if she got the rougher end of the deal. You can just see it in her stern facial expressions never mind what she is saying. The brief blurb states she is 27. In body maybe, but spiritually she has the heaviness of someone more than twice her age who has already been through every rough mill of life. The girl from Kiev, on the other hand, appears more open and lighter in spirit without any of the baggage of her cousin from Belgorad. The third sister is the artist herself who acts as the mediator; the sister who attempts to heal the rift. Her invisible role is the trickiest.
Tanja Muravskaja : Three Sisters (2015)
The Hungarian artist Hajnal Nemeth has a video work entitled Crash – Passive Interview (2011) an experimental operatic video in 12 acts. I witness two acts of this video. The first features a clip in a BMW factory featuring two men in workers clothes in a kind of comic operatic dialogue, whilst the second shows one of the two men again this time dressed like some playboy from Milan in an open top white BMW in another operatic dialogue with a woman. The dialogues are police reports made after a series of non fatal car crashes. How something so ordinarily prosaic, anxiety ridden and traumatic is turned into some kind of absurd Eurotrash Aldi like visual opera has me in fits of laughter. Its a tragic-comedy masterpiece and one of the highlights of the show.
Hajnal Nemeth : Crash – Passive Interview (2011) – still one
Hajnal Nemeth : Crash – Passive Interview (2011) – still two
The Estonian art duo Johnson and Johnson, who's name is taken from the global big pharma behemoth of the same name, has a work in the form of an illustrative chart on display entitled Top 5 State Employees. I can't read a word of any Uralic language but visually the chart metaphorically echoes how this world at large defines 'progress' or 'success'. What today's measure of success of progress may be won't be the same 100 years from now. What does it matter? What does it mean? Employees work for someone else and do what they are told and do their best to please to be rewarded. They have no skin in the game despite their best and most conscientious efforts. On the other hand, the Steve Jobs and Elon Musks of this world would make the Bottom 5 State Employees. They are too disruptive and visionary.
Johnson and Johnson : Top 5 State Employees (2009/18)
A Selection From The Museum's Permanent Collection Of Hungarian Contemporary Art
The final exhibition in the museum featured a selection from the museum's permanent collection. The work on display was global with works by big names such as Picasso, Andy Warhol, Chuck Close and Georg Basalitz. However, with the limited time I had left in the museum before the departure of my train to the Hungarian town of Szeged later in the day, I purposefully decided to focus on works by Hungarian artists in the collection. Below I am featuring some these…
Emese Benczur : Not All Is Gold That Glitters (2016)
Laszlo Lakner : Danae (1968)
Laszlo Haris: Confrontation-Action: Double Portrait (1973-2012)
Gabor Koos : Budapest Diary XIII (2015)
Peter Turk: Treadmill I-II (1975-81)
Peter Gemes : Hourglass (1995)
Zsuzsi Ujj : With Ocsi (1988)
Tagged article, Budapest, contemporary art, Contemporary Artists, Hajnal Nemeth, Hungary, Ludwig Museum, Salla Tykka, TravelLeave a comment
The Pimped Up Bar Mleczny
Posted on October 27, 2018 by Nicholas Peart
Pizza King Express is maybe the best place to eat in Budapest. I will probably get shot down in flames for saying this. At the 'traditional' restaurants serving Hungarian cuisine you will likely hear more English than Hungarian and will pay more money. You may also encounter surely staff if the place is popular. But not here. The staff here are a bunch of jokers and the food is ridiculously cheap even with a lousy pound sterling. A slice of pizza is 200 Forints (less than 60p). A tiramisu (enough for two) – yes, you better believe it – is 300 Forints (a little north of 80p).
During Communist times in many Eastern European countries you had these places called bar mlecznys, which in Polish literally translates to 'milk bars' – dirt cheap restaurants serving pretty basic food, but perfectly good. They used to be very popular with students or anyone without much money. Most of these places are a thing of the past now. There are a few still kicking around. For me Pizza King Express represents a new kind of 'pimped up' bar mleczny. That is, it may not be as threadbare as a traditional bar mleczny. Maybe I am stretching it using the words 'pimped up'. But you get my drift. It has the same prices as the traditional bar mlecznys of yore filled by the same type of people who used to visit the originals. The only difference is that the menu is more global. Dare I say more 'Westernised'. You can get pizza, kebabs, baklava (delicious sweat cake), tiramisu and rice pudding and all for just a few coins. Its a fraction of the price of Pizza Hut, which is next door, and a better and more delicious experience.
Hungary is not a rich country and wages are feeble. Budapest can be an expensive city if you are a local in menial employment. For that reason places like Pizza King Express are a godsend for locals. Its funny that most congregate here for a slice of cheap pizza and less at the 'traditional' Hungarian establishments no matter how good or tasty the food may be at those places.
The original bar mzlecznys were not only a product of Communism. They were a feature of when that part of the world was a much less connected place and people had limited access to information. In today's post-communist globalised world with this tool called the internet, that has all changed. Younger generations from former communist countries are more aware, savvy and knowledgeable about the world, other cultures and how other people around the world live and their tastes. Pizza King Express caters for this younger generation as well as others who don't want to spend too much money. In a paradoxical way, it is more 'authentic' to eat here than at the traditional restaurants, which promote themselves as 'authentic'. It may be a pedantic and trivial observation, but there is a kernel of truth to it.
Tagged article, Bar Mleczny, Blog, Budapest, food, Hungary, Pizza King Express, Travel, Writing1 Comment


text:
Referrals & Local Counsel
Referrals And Local Counsel
Answers. Results. Justice.
$17 million Jury Verdict - Surgical/hospital negligence
$3.650 million Jury Verdict - Surgical/hospital negligence
$3.650 million Jury Verdict -Surgical/hospital negligence
$6.275 million Settlement - Sexual Assaults by Hospital Employee
$2.5 million Jury Verdict - Surgical/hospital negligence
$1.2 million Settlement - Surgical error; medication error
$1.9 million Settlement - Birth Trauma
More Fungal Meningitis Cases Possible
On behalf of Goethel Engelhardt, PLLC | Nov 11, 2012 | Fungal Meningitis
The 42-day risk period for contracting fungal meningitis from tainted steroid injections ended on Wednesday, since the drugs were recalled on Sept. 26, but new case reports will probably continue to trickle in.
Cases could continue to show up for at least a few months, said Dr. Tom Chiller, a fungal disease expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told ABC.
With 18 new cases reported last Friday, and abscesses causing even fungal meningitis survivors to go back to the hospital with new symptoms, sighs of relief could be premature.
"Forty-two days is not a magic number by any sense of the word," said Chiller, who is the deputy chief of the CDC's Mycotic Diseases Branch. "This is a moving target. The outbreak is evolving."
The CDC publicized the 42-day period as a way for individual physicians to determine whether putting all at-risk patients on anti-fungal medications was a good idea, Chiller said. Since anti-fungal medicine can cause liver and kidney damage, there was a risk it could do more harm than good. The long risk period would mean a long anti-fungal regimen.
A CDC analysis revealed that while preemptive anti-fungal prescriptions reduced patients' risk of death or stroke from meningitis by .1 percent, they increased the risk of other adverse health problems by up to 14 percent, Chiller said.
Chiller said this kind of fungus, exserohilum rostratum, can have a very long incubation period. Although the median incubation period so far has been 20 days, the longest incubation period went beyond 100 days, he said.
"One of the important things to add is that we do feel pretty confident that the further out you are from injection, the lower the risk," Chiller said. "When that risk becomes zero, we don't know."
So far, 409 fungal meningitis cases, including 30 deaths, have been reported to the CDC this fall. In addition, 10 people who received the shots to other parts of their bodies came down with fungal joint infections. Fungal meningitis, a deadly disease that causes inflammation of the membrane surrounding the brain and spinal column, is not spread from person to person.
Up to 14,000 people received the tainted injections produced at New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass, which recalled all products and shut down on Oct. 6. It is now being investigated by the Food and Drug Administration, even though its oversight usually falls under its state's pharmacy board's jurisdiction.
It's not clear how the fungus got in the steroid vials, but an FDA investigation revealed that a quarter of the steroid vials in an NECC bin contained "greenish black foreign matter," according to an FDA form released Oct. 26. The form went on to identify several clean rooms — where sterile products are produced — that had either mold or bacterial overgrowths.
Signs that the CDC believes new cases will taper off include the CDC's new, more relaxed online case reporting schedule. Instead of updating case counts by state every day at 2 p.m., as it had for the last month, the CDC will update Monday, Wednesday and Friday only. This Monday's steep new case count of 15 was actually only five new cases per day.
However, 18 new cases were reported between Thursday and Friday of last week, according to CDC reports. Case counts only reached 18 or higher on four days of the whole outbreak.
Source: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/lifestyle/health/fungal-meningitis-risk-period-over-but-more-cases-possible
Birth Injuries (9)
Fungal Meningitis (120)
In The Courts/Legislation (37)
Medical News You Can Use (212)
Medical/Health Care Errors (129)
Our Work/About Us (5)
Patient Stories (4)
Losing a limb in a vehicle crash will change your life
The infant death rate in the United States is far too high
When headaches become cluster headaches
What do medication mishaps have in common with car crashes?
Survey shows drivers' widespread concerns about distraction
Local Affiliation/Case Referrals
Our partners are available as local counsel to out-of-state law firms in Michigan medical malpractice and personal injury litigation.
Inquiries and referrals welcome.
Stephen B. Goethel
Chad D. Engelhardt
Jennifer A. Engelhardt
Goethel Engelhardt, PLLC
3049 Miller Road
Ann Arbor Law Office Map
At Goethel Engelhardt, PLLC, we value
your feedback. Write us a Review.
© 2021 Goethel Engelhardt, PLLC. All Rights Reserved.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Harsh and loud, industrial's promising new band, The Damage Manual, create sonic textures of noise and volume along side intoxicating drum beats and loops, creating a dynamic mixture of fierce, non-stop action and countless reckless rhythms that crash up against you and force you to react. Highly explosive and still danceable, the self-titled debut full-length from one of Invisible's finest artists is a stellar follow-up to the band's debut EP released months ago. If you like industrial, The Damage Manual will make you like it even more. I'll give it an A.


We Harry Lonnkvist and Marcus Mulot do hereby give notice that we have applied to the licensing authority of the Vale of Glamorgan for the variation of a premises licence at 114 Glebe Street, Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, CF64 1EB known as The St Fagans Castle. The application is to allow the sale of alcohol and playing of recorded music until; Midnight Sunday to Thursday 01:00 Friday and Saturday 01:30 Bank Holiday Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and Christmas Eve. With the premises to close 30 minutes after the end of licensable activities. Provision of recorded music until 03:00 New Years Eve/Day. All other hours are to remain unchanged.


Home Healing Hues | Creating spaces for those recovering from cancer.
Creating a Healing Space to Enhance Mind, Body and Spiritual Health.
We offer customized services Brush up, Do Over, and Reno Overhaul. Each service is created to fit the budget and time for each client. Ranging from colour consultations, re-decorating, re-design and renovations for interior and exterior spaces. Click the icons below to learn more.
Organize and declutter the space, reuse existing furniture and refresh with colour and accessories.
Introduce colour, new furniture, accessories, flooring, lighting and artwork to create an enhanced living space.
Complete design and renovation with new floor plans, colours, and furniture for an entire transformation.
When I was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness my soul intuitively knew that things needed to change in my life. One of the things I realized was that I would need a healing space in my home if I wanted to continue to exist on this planet. Luckily I knew Ann, whom I call my home decorator extraordinaire! With her expert knowledge and intuitive sense she assisted me in selecting healing colours that comforted and inspired me throughout my cancer treatments and healing journey. We transformed my family room, bedroom and even created a personal healing room just for me where I could meditate, practice yoga and learn to be at ease. She has been an inspiration, knowing just what was needed to support me, to boost my spirits and to empower me. I count my blessing every day that she was there as my guide and I am reminded of the beauty of life each time I step into one of my sanctuaries of healing in my home. She helped me discover the importance of beauty and colour in our lives and the need for self-nurturance. Ann won't just transform your space; she will touch your soul, which is her gift.
When I first met Ann, I had finished months of cancer treatments in April and had a relationship breakup in July. I decided that I wanted my condo to have a complete makeover to help me move on from the two events. I started with redecorating the living room, dining room, kitchen, and main bathroom. She helped me pick new furniture, paint colours, accessories etc. and came up with a solution for my challenging living room window. She also had great contractor who did the work. Her help was invaluable. In 2015, I completed my changes with a total renovation of the master bedroom and ensuite bathroom. Ann was there to help again with her expertise in colours and style. I now have a beautiful, calm, peaceful home. No matter where I am, I always look forward to coming home. Thank you Ann for all your help, style and expertise, I couldn't have done it without you.
My daughter finally moved out and I took over her bedroom. I needed a quiet space of my own because of the severe migraines I get regularly. I asked Ann to assist me in decorating my bedroom. I wanted to do an all grey room but Ann encouraged me to add an accent colour. She found a knitted throw that had multi colours of teals, turquoise and greys which inspired the colour of the cushions with different textures and the teal and grey pictures. With a few various accessories my bedroom has been transformed into my own oasis. Thanks Ann for creating the perfect space.
Read about Home Healing Hues in the September issue of The Costco Connection!


text:
Q: Django: capture authorization token from another service I'm trying to capture an authentication token from another service authenticator. In summary, I have a form login that serve client with two options to sign in, throw the normal login, or a link to a second authenticator service which will redirect to a particular form page. Once the user is signed, this second authenticator service will redirect back to my application, with a token as param.
I would like to include a kind of listener in my application (small script), in a way that when this redirect happen, I could capture and validate the token, finally, authenticate the user in the local django application.

A: I just came out with a simple solution since I was searching for an automatic capturing of a request. So, considering that the external authentication server redirect to a preinformed URL right after to authenticate, this URL could be capture in my localhost application by editing /etc/hosts AND nginx.conf (as suggest here), not just one or another. So, the first:
127.0.0.1 url-redirect-by-external-server.com

and nginx.conf, I have added a new server properties to the file:
...

server {
    listen 80;
    listen 443;
    server_name url-redirect-by-external-server.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000/myapp/exact-name-of-the-method-in-view-to-handle-the-request/;
    }
}
...

The point is, when the request is made by the external server, the app still does not capture. When I press Enter to the URL, then, everything runs fine. Still did not figure what should be set.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


This private blood test for Varicella zoster Antibodies (IgM) in London has a guaranteed turnaround time of 1 working day and tests for Varicella zoster Antibodies (IgM) only.
To receive your test results on or before Wednesday 24th of April 2019, order this test and attend by Tuesday 23rd of April 2019.
Varicella-Zoster Virus (VZV) causes chicken pox and when reactivated, potentially decades later, causes shingles. Twenty percent of adults will develop shingles, a rash or blister of the skin that may cause severe pain.


Get big savings by running your heating and cooling system less often. In the winter, keep the thermostat set at 68° F, or two to four degrees below what you're used to. Wear heavier clothing to keep warm. Homes with older adults, small children or under physician's care should use caution when setting their thermostat.
Install a programmable thermostat to save energy while you're away from home, and bring the home temperature to a comfortable level by the time you return. Programming options vary depending on your thermostat, so be sure to read and save the manufacturer's instructions.
Schedule your audit today to discover new ways to make your home more energy efficient. You could even get replaces if you plan to replace your existing heating equipment.
Replace old, outdated equipment with new energy-efficient models. Find out if you're eligible for rebates on home heating equipment.


text:
Nvidia: An unintended exascale-super innovator
CEO just wanted to play 3D video games
By Timothy Prickett Morgan 15 Nov 2011 at 20:33
SC11 Jen-Hsun Huang, one of the cofounders of graphics-chip maker Nvidia, never intended to be a player in the supercomputing racket. But his company is now at the forefront of the CPU-GPU hybrid computing revolution that is taking the HPC arena by storm as supercomputing centers try to cram as much math into as small a power budget as possible.
Back when Nvidia was founded in 1993, there were a staggering 80 companies making graphics chips, Huang explained in his keynote at the SC11 supercomputing conference in Seattle on Tuesday. "Our idea was: 'Wouldn't it be fun to build graphics chips so we could play video games in 3D?'," he said. "That was it. The entire business plan."
In fact, Huang admitted, he never did get around to finishing writing-up the business plan. And worse still, there were no 3D games.
But five years later, along came Quake, the first OpenGL application – and suddenly millions of kids were out there buying graphics cards for $200 to $300 to play it. Then other game makers were doing 3D, and suddenly they were in business.
While Huang was proud of those early graphics cards, they underserved the corporate workstation market dominated by the Unix vendors of the time, and Nvidia didn't have much success breaking into the visualization field.
Still, the company continued improving its graphics chips, and eventually started adding more cores and support for more algorithms for the special effects that game writers wanted. And then the company did a funny thing: It added support for 32-bit IEEE floating-point math to its chips, which had evolved into a much more sophisticated graphics coprocessors.
"As we made these GPUs more programmable, we semi-tripped into the next market," said Huang, stressing the "semi." The problem was that it was still too hard to move the code running on parallel supercomputers to these GPUs. "If I could just express all of my problems as a triangle," Huang said to big laughs to the assembled boffinry.
It wasn't long before Tsuyoshi Hamada of Nagasaki University in Japan built a homemade cluster with 256 GeForce GPUs that cost only $230,000 and proved that this could be done, however inelegantly the machine might look.
It was, however, a fire hazard – and as Huang pointed out, if it ever caught fire, all you could do was run.
But it proved that the concept could work. And here we are, only two years later, and the Cray XK6 that is at the heart of the "Titan" 20 petaflops supercomputer that will be installed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory next year is really just a grownup version of Hamada-san's firetrap.
And guess what? It is still not quite good enough. The challenge to get to exascale performance levels in supercomputing – and therefore teraflops levels on our smartphones and tablets and tens to hundreds of teraflops on our desktops – is going to require some innovative leaps. Perhaps like the unintended kind that Nvidia itself did to become the world's largest graphics chip company and a player in ARM processors. And perhaps not by Nvidia itself – but not if Huang can help it.
The problem is that Dennard scaling, named after Robert Dennard, the IBM researcher who invented the DRAM chip and the ability to scale performance of semiconductors that actually explains why Moore's Law works, has run out of gas. And right about now, in fact.
If you plot a line from the Cray Y-MP8, an eight-processor vector machine from 1988, through an Alpha-based Cray T3E-1200 in 1998, to the Cray XT5 "Jaguar" machine at Oak Ridge in 2008, you get this beautiful straight line that goes from gigaflops to teraflops to petaflops, and you would hit exaflops somewhere around 2019 and zettaflops around 2031. But the current curve shows that getting to exaflops in a 20-megawatt thermal envelope, which is the practical upper limit for a system, is only attainable by 2035 with current CPU technology.
"The beautiful thing about a project that we won't get to until 2035 is that we don't have to start building it until 2030," Huang said, and got some more laughs. But the governments of the world want exascale computers by 2018 to 2020.
The problem, of course, is that a CPU is designed to run single threads as fast as possible and they are not particularly good at running things in parallel. There is 20 times the energy used to actually perform a calculation used in moving data into and out of an x86 chip than to do the calculation itself, and it takes 50 times the energy to schedule the instruction as it does to process it. This is great for low-threaded PC applications, but a disaster for CPU-based supercomputer clusters.
The problem with GPU coprocessors is that they are not as easy to program, and that is why Nvidia has started an effort called OpenACC, which seeks to set a standard for parallel programming for CPUs and GPUs.
Portland Group, a popular HPC compiler maker, and CAPS, which has created compilers specifically for GPUs, are backing the standard, which provides a means of putting "directive" hints into Fortran, C, and C++ code so the compilers have an easier time expressing the parallelism to the CPUs and GPUs. Neither Intel nor Advanced Micro Devices have been invited to the OpenACC party as of its launch, but Ian Buck, general manager for the CUDA compiler stack at Nvidia, tells El Reg that they can both adopt the OpenACC. Cray has signed up to to support the standard, too, which makes sense because it is selling Opteron-Fermi hybrids.
Even with all this, with current estimates, it is going to take three years longer to get to exascale than anyone thinks is possible with current technology, says Huang. He didn't elaborate on how this problem would be solved, but seemed optimistic that the industry would figure it out.
What Huang did not talk about was the status of the impending "Kepler" and future "Maxwell" GPUs, the latter expected in 2013, or the Project Denver ARMv8 processors that the company announced it was working on early this year. ®
SPARCs fly as Oracle recharges Arm server processor designer Ampere with $40m
Ohm my God
Packet's 'big boy' servers given a shot in the Arm with 32-core, 3.3GHz Ampere CPUs
Big win for Renée James' crew
SoftBank sells off more than half of Arm China for a bargain $775.2m
Chinese investors welcome chip designs with open Arms
Industry whispers: Qualcomm mulls Arm server processor exit
Analysis Arm-for-web-boxes is a good idea that keeps going nowhere
ARM Holdings gives the thumbs-up, reports revenue and licensing uptick
Shares up despite FTSE 100's moody Wednesday
Brit chip biz ARM legs it to Softbank for $32bn
Updated Japanese telco giant gets into the mobile microprocessor biz
ARM's top brass land £54m Softbank windfall
Plus British honesty checker
Open wide, very wide: Xerox considers buying HP. Yes, the HP that is more than three times its market cap
Updated Reports indicate faded ink tech heavyweights mull arm linkage


text:
Thurgood joins the Daggers
By Mike Jones on May 23, 2009 No Comment
Dagenham and Redbridge have signed Grays Athletic Midfielder Stuart Thurgood.
Stuart who has had spells with Gillingham as well ,had a good season this year with the Blues and was popular with the fans
The 27-year-old former Southend player, who started his career with Tottenham, has agreed a two-year contract.
Daggers manager John Still said: "Stuart is a player I've been interested in for two or three years.
"He's hungry to prove himself back in the League again and his drive and ambition is something which has really impressed me."
Some Fans on the Grays unofficial forum fear that the next few weeks will see many more players leave before the new season starts. Fans are also waiting to see who is the new chairman but the AGM has been put back to June
Thurgood joins the Daggers added by Mike Jones on May 23, 2009
View all posts by Mike Jones →


The main atelier upstairs is surrounded with windows, giving us much glorious daylight. In the afternoons especially, light and warmth floods in from the south-west facing windows. This Spring and its remarkable sunlight is much appreciated! By contrast, when it's raining or blowing a gale you feel it. But having spent the last couple of years working within the Great Western Arcade in town, I am thoroughly enjoying a renewed sense of connection to the weather.
This image shows the main atelier (where pressing, cutting, and hand-sewing take place), before and after. Parts of the premises still require refurbishment/finishing, but for now I am clicking on with orders and will return to the last bits of refurb presently.


2. transfer of heat through the movement of a fluid material.
3. chain of volcanic island formed along an ocean trench.
6. undersea mountain range with a steep narrow valley along the center.
9. thin outer shell of the earth consisting of the crust and the rigid upper mantle.
11. border formed by the direct collision of two lithosphere plate.
15. system of undersea mountain ranges that wind around the earth.
16. single landmass thought to have been the orgin of all continents.
17. theory that the lithosphere a make up of plates that float on the asthenosphere.
18. giant ocean surrounding pangaea.
1. hypothesis stating that the continent once formed a single landmass broke up and drifted to their present location.
4. zone of mantle beneath the lithosphere that consists of slowly moving rocks.
5. movement of the ocean floor away from either side of a mid ocean ridge.
7. boundary formed by two lithospheric plates that are moving apart.
8. movement in a fluid caused by uneven heating.
10. material that makes up landmasses.
12. material that makes up the ocean floor.
13. deep valley in the ocean floor that form along a subduction zone.
14. steep narrow valley formed as lithosphere plates separation.


So you're filling your Hadoop cluster with reams of raw data, and your data analysts and scientists are champing at the bit to get started. German−English Dictionary Vol.I éditions eBooksFrance entmystifiziert: demystifies entmystifizierte: demystified Filetyp: filetype. Filialen: branches. Computer viruses demystified particularly common in Germany, where it was .. It is unlikely that you need to receive these file types from outside, so block.
I agree whole-heartedly with Herr Hartmann.
Which file format you germna all depends on the specific use case. It is well written and easy to follow. It covers all those little things that you might not otherwise notice or work out for yourself like the "e" that goes on the end of an adjective when it comes before the noun der neue Wagen as distinct from when you don't add the "e" when saying something like der Wagen ist gernan.
AmazonGlobal Ship Orders Internationally. Amazon Advertising Find, attract, and engage customers. Organized into twenty chapters that cover key grammar topics, this book contains the building blocks for the storehouse of your new German language skills.
Top Reviews Most recent Top Grman. However, Avro offers superior schema evolution thanks to its innovative use of JSON to describe the data, while using binary format to optimize storage size.
Write a customer review. German Pronouns and Prepositions. Amazon Renewed Refurbished products with a warranty.
Amazon Rapids Fun stories for kids on the go. I have just started using this book, but so far so good. Parquet and ORC both store data in columns, while Avro stores data in a row-based format. It was amazing how much I could understand in general conversation, at the store, and on TV.
Pages with related products. One person found this helpful. Visit our Help Pages. I don't know why they don't just give a download code or something. I'm going to be very boring now, and agree with everything the other 2 reviewers have said. What other items do customers buy after viewing this item? German All-in-One For Dummies: Product details Format Mixed media product pages Dimensions Its one thing to be able to decipher the written word and another thing altogether to know enough grammar to construct your own sentences.
One must also bare in mind, that Deutsch is a very complex language to learn, so you will need a lot of patience.
I appreciate books like this that don't limit themselves to the usual classroom vocabulary like "desk" and "pen". A must for anyone who is serious about learning German!!!!!!!!!
I remain a long way from fluent, but having worked through this book I now have enough German to make myself understood, and even managed to read a couple of short German works.
Covering common verb tenses, essential vocabulary, useful adjectives and adverbs, and even the correct way to ask questions, this guide makes learning what can be a difficult language both simple and entertaining.
The Germans speak so rapidly in person that's it's hard to pick up those similarities but once you learn the key similarities, it's much easier.
Please try again later. Read more Read less.
I like the way it doesn't assume a perfect memory of all the vocabulary progressively covered. See all 43 reviews. You can store all types of structured, semi-structure, and unstructured data within the Hadoop Distributed File System, and process it in a variety of ways using Hive, HBase, Spark, and many other engines.


Water is a universal solvent and a basis for life. However, there is a fine balance of water that needs to be maintained for the cell to survive. BiologyWise helps you to understand why isotonic solutions are so important for the maintenance of life, and also talks about its uses in our lives.
The "Gift-Brunnen" is a spring that has pure water; drinking this water swells and bursts the epithelial cells lining the digestive tract, and it is, therefore, called the poison spring.
A solution is simply a homogeneous mixture of a minor component (solute) and a major component (solvent), like sugar dissolved in water. Now, concentration of a solution can be the amount of sugar that is added to water to make a solution. Every system in nature tends to maintain a state in which the molecules are equally distributed in the space surrounding them. This may take place through the process of either diffusion or osmosis.
Osmosis occurs basically when two solutions are separated from each other through a selectively permeable membrane. There is movement of solvent molecules (and other small molecules) through the selectively permeable membrane from a region of its higher concentration to a region of its lower concentration till the concentration of the solvent molecule (and other small molecules) is equal on both sides of the selectively permeable membrane.
❖ The state in which the concentration of the solvent molecules is equal on both sides of the selectively permeable membrane is isotonicity, and the two solutions are said to be isotonic solutions.
❖ The net movement of solvent molecules across the semipermeable membrane is zero, which means equal number of solvent molecules move from one solution to the other.
❖ In biological systems, the cytoplasm of the cell is a solution made of water and other components like sugars, amino acids, certain proteins, vitamins etc., and it is separated from the surrounding interstitial fluid by a semipermeable cell membrane.
If the cell is in a hypertonic (solution outside the cell is more concentrated) environment, solvent molecules will move out of the cell, and the cell will shrink.
If the cell is in a hypotonic (solution inside the cell is more dilute) environment, the solvent molecules will move into the cell, and the cell will swell and might even burst.
If the cell is an isotonic environment, there is no net flow of the solvent molecules across the cell membrane, and the cell maintains its integrity.
❖ When two different isotonic solutions, let's say a sugar solution and a salt solution, are separated by a semipermeable membrane, there will be no net flow of solvent molecules. However, the solute molecules (sugar and salt) will lower their concentration gradient such that there is an equal concentration of the solute molecules across the semipermeable membrane.
❖ Isotonic solutions are used in Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT), which is a treatment for dehydration associated with gastroenteritis. ORT replenishes the body's lost electrolytes and promotes the uptake of glucose and fluid by the intestinal epithelial cells.
❖ 0.9% NaCl solution (isotonic with blood) is sometimes given intravenously in case of severe dehydration and is used in the treatment of hypernatremia (a condition in which serum concentration of sodium is high) in individuals who have impaired water excretion. It can also be used as a medium for intravenous administration of drugs like propofol, which are not absorbed well by the intestinal lining.
❖ Lactated Ringer's solution and Hartmann's solution are special formulations that closely resemble blood plasma and are isotonic solutions. They are used in the treatment of conditions like hypovolemia (a condition in which blood volume is lowered either due to injury or other reasons) and acidosis (a condition in which the acidity of the blood increases).
❖ When 0.9% NaCl solution is used for flushing the nasal cavity in addition to the routine medication used for rhinosinusitis, it is shown to have a beneficial effect.
❖ 0.9% NaCl or 0.14% H2CO3 solutions are used as mediums for dissolving drugs that are used for nebulization (administration of drugs in the form of aerosol), such as ipratropium or salbutamol.
❖ It can be used as an aqueous medium for making many medicines that are administered through the ocular routes such as rinse, eye drops, steroids, antihistamines, antibiotics, etc.
❖ Some sports drinks are isotonic solutions that hydrate the body, replenish the electrolytes that the body loses by sweating, and provide instant energy.
❖ Phosphate buffered saline (PBS) is isotonic to the body fluids and is used routinely as a medium for suspending live cells in biological research.
Thus, isotonicity is the basis of maintenance of life by maintaining the water balance that occurs spontaneously, and without any expenditure of energy from the cell.


text:
By laceylowdown College Hoops, Tall Blacks
Cameron brothers go head to head – one posts career high
The Cameron brothers Flynn and Tobias were in opposition for the first time in their long NCAA careers as Abilene Christian University took on the University of California Riverside UCR) at the Vegas 4 Tournament in Las Vegas on Thursday (NZT). Younger brother Flynn, the Riverside combo-guard, took the opportunity to pour in a career high 26 points to carry UCR to a 76-65 victory.
Tobias tallied 4 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist and a steal in response but it was a game when Flynn grabbed the plaudits. He made 7 from 12 threes, all three freebies and also grabbed a team high 8 rebounds to go with 2 assists, 2 steals and a block. Nailing seven triples he became the first Highlander to achieve that feat for four seasons.
Both Cameron's are fifth year seniors having first played their freshman years back in 2018-19. Tobias has played all five years at Abilene Christian while Flynn played two years at De Paul University before transferring to Riverside.
The game in Vegas was the 118th career game for Tobias while for Flynn, capped by the Tall Blacks for the first time earlier this year at the FIBA Asia Cup, it was game number 96.
When game number 100 ticks over for Flynn he will become the 16th kiwi to play a century of Men's NCAA Division I games – the duo the first New Zealand brothers to reach the notable milestone and also the first to play against each other at Division I level. Tall Blacks head coach Pero Cameron you imagine has been watching the careers of his sons unfold with immense pride.
Callum McRae played on the same Junior Tall Blacks team as the Cameron's at the 2017 FIBA U19 World Cup. In his latest outing he was within a point of a double-double grabbing 10 boards to go with 9 points as Sacramento State went down 82-71 to UC Davis. Those 9 points took McRae past 900 career points and up to 4th on the all-time list of New Zealand scorers in Men' NCAA Division I basketball.
Hartford University Hawks had a comfortable 82-45 win against FDU Florham with Tom Webley claiming 8 points (4/6FG) and 4 rebounds.
Akiva McBirney-Griffin scored a season best 6 points as UC Irvine pounded Life Pacific 116-54.
In women's NCAA Division I play Helen Matthews helped Wofford to the narrowest of wins, a 67-66 triumph against UNC Wilmington. The Cantabrian combo guard tallied 14 points, one shy of her season best 15, and added 4 rebounds, 5 assists and a steal.
Amiee Book is on the verge of the double of 100 games and 1,000 points in NCAA Division I basketball. In her 99thappearance she scored 9 points as Fresno State won a one sided contest against UC Merced 71-28. Book has now scored 990 career points.
Barring injury that 100th game will be on Saturday (NZT) when Fresno play Delaware at the Daytona Beach Invitational.
BYU had little problem overcoming Carroll College recording a 71-47 win. Kaylee Smiler made 3 from 5 threes to equal her season high of 12 points with Arielle Mackey-Williams scored sored 7 points on 2 from 4 from the field.
Mckenna Dale took just the one shot, that missed, but she did pull down a team high 8 rebounds and garnered a couple of steals as Virginia defeated Campbell 62-41.
Tara Manumaleuga scored 3 points and had a brace each of rebounds, assists and steals as Texas Christian slipped to a 62-54 loss to Sam Houston.
2 thoughts on "Cameron brothers go head to head – one posts career high"
Colin says:
Continue to enjoy your articles Mike, helps an old boy like me keep adrift of some of the comings and goings of our county's progress. I made an observation with Aik years ago when we were flying to Christchurch when we were responsible for tagging trialists for NZ age groups – "Seems to me that we need to find a few more second generation players, there IQ s and skill level were generally far superior to the rest" in your article above I count 7 of them that I know. Now we have the next second generation of coaches coming through, who are starting to have an impact (I include your son in that group), super excited to see where they take us
laceylowdown says:
Thanks Colin, I also see the next wave of coaches doing great things. It's also fun to watch the next wave of sons and daughters coming through – the kids of Phill Jones, Judd Flavell, Mika V, BJ Anthony, Ed Book and Brad Riley to name but a few. Cheers


The purpose of the music ministry of First Baptist to use the gifts God has given us to make His Name great in our hearts, our community, and the world.
The Adult Choir sings twice a month for our Sunday services. Rehearsals are Wednesday evenings 7–8pm. The choir also prepares seasonal presentations during Christmas, Easter, and other occasions for Harvest Sunday, Lord's Supper, and various worship themes throughout the year. Anyone 18 and older are welcome to join us. No audition is required.
The Vocal Ensemble is a smaller group of adults who sing twice a month for our Sunday services. Rehearsals are Sundays 8:45-9:45am. This group generally sings more contemporary styles, a cappella, gospel, and spirituals. The Vocal Ensemble also assists in the seasonal presentations throughout the year. Persons who are 18 and older are welcome to join. If you're interested in this group, there will be a short interview with the Minister of Music.
The Children and Preschool Choirs are made up of children, Preschool (ages 3 and up, through Kindergarten) in one class and Children (grades 1 through 5) in another. They rehearse on Wednesday evenings from 5:30 pm – 6:15 pm. They meet to learn more about God through fun worship songs, hymns and anthems. This choir performs 2 or 3 times a year usually at Christmas, Easter, and one other time. They do not meet during the summer months.
Pre-Service Music Ministry allows several pianists and other instrumentalists to play before our Sunday 11:00 am service begins. They usually begin at 10:45 am. Let our Minister of Music know if you have an interest in playing.
Solo and Instrumental Specials. These individuals play or sing specials during our Sunday services. If you have an interest in doing a solo, please contact our Minister of Music.


text:
Where days are numbered
Posted byprotocolmagazine1 November 1, 2014 Posted inEuropeTags:Amnesty International, Hungary, Roma
I had the unique opportunity to take part in a field visit for Amnesty International Hungary when they visited the 'Numbered Streets', a so-called slum in Miskolc. Miskolc is a large city in northeastern Hungary housing approximately 170,000 residents. The city was particularly influential in the Soviet era, when many factories and mines were located in its vicinity. Tens of thousands of industrial workers once lived there, many of Roma origin. Since then, however, the place appears to have been forgotten, abandoned during the great restructuring of Eastern European political economies 25 years ago. As economic crisis and the collapse of the Soviet regime struck Hungary, the majority of workplaces disappeared, leaving thousands of people unemployed and in poverty.
The 'Numbered Streets' was a typical working-class neighborhood. The social housing provided in the area was bounded by factories, cooperatives and a stadium. Now the boundaries remain, but only the stadium functions. The current Hungarian government is planning to modernize the stadium as a part of an ambitious, country-wide building programme. Moreover, the stadium is set to expand with plans for the construction of a spacious parking lot – just where the 'Numbered Streets' are located.
Now, here comes the riddle. How do you clear a neighborhood that continues to house more than 1000 people?
The municipality has a very detailed plan which includes the elimination of all legal obligations for the city and a marketing campaign intended to convince the residents of Miskolc to outlaw the 'Numbered Streets'.
In May, the municipality introduced an amendment to a decree, allowing for the forced eviction of people in certain circumstances. They developed a plan to pay insignificant compensation (up to a maximum of £3,800) to residents of the 'Numbered Streets' who have valid tenancy agreements if, and only if, they move outside the boundaries of Miskolc.
So far it only seems illegal, but not entirely scandalous. However, there is another condition of the neighborhood that the municipality is aware of and exploits. There are three types of tenants in the 'Numbered Streets'. Out of approximately 200 families, 60-70 do not have any legal documents for their tenancy, despite paying rent every month; the tenancy agreements of 60-70 families will terminate in the near future; and only 60-70 families have indefinite or longer-term tenancy agreements, which the municipality is now trying to end. The long-term contracts of some families can be terminated due to debt problems, so only a few families remain out of 200 who are eligible for compensation in the event of eviction.
The municipality has also started a campaign to discredit the residents of the 'Numbered Streets'. Presenting the slum as a hub of criminal activity and unhygienic living, they have collected signatures in the form of a petition that asks the weighted question "do you want to deconstruct the slums or not?". 35,000 people, around one fifth of the residents of the city, have signed the petition, a figure which is used by the municipality to demonstrate widespread support for clearing of the 'Numbered Streets'.
I do think that there were people who signed the petition because they believed in the destruction of the "Gypsy slum". In the 'Numbered Streets' the majority of the families are of Roma origin. In general in Hungary, and especially in Miskolc, where work opportunities are limited, and unemployment and extreme poverty are high, there exists visible tension between Roma and non-Roma Hungarians. Discrimination is a proven reality; it is much harder to find a job or enjoy the opportunities provided in the country if one has the dark complexion of a Roma.
Fear is normal. Everyone is afraid of the "Other", especially if the media and cruel rumors propagate unrealistic and false images. I myself was a little scared to go to the so-called "gypsy slum". I considered whether or not to bring my expensive camera. I was not sure if I was ready to experience the "kind of poverty" that exists in the environment. I was training myself for days to remain open and accept everything I would see, convinced that I should not lose my tolerance.
I could not have been more wrong. The "slum" is really just a modest, and at times, poor neighborhood. The houses are often old, but they are colorful. Running water is available for some families; others bring it from water pumps at the end of their streets. The sewage system is not fully developed, but there are modern parts of the capital city in which this remains an issue. There is no garbage on the streets, and there are satellite dishes on nearly every house. The gardens are somewhat modest in size, but many of them are properly cultivated.
There are kids, teenagers and women chatting, walking, playing and riding bicycles. Together, as friends and family, in a big community. Roma and non-Roma people together. I did not perceive the slightest bit of violence or filth. The pictures speak for themselves.
Is this the "slum" which must be destroyed?
Forced evictions have already begun. Among the first was a mother with small children and a disabled woman. The next one was an unemployed man and his family. He could not pay the rent because he had to pay for the funeral of his wife.
Evictions are most likely to stop now for some time, since municipal elections are held in October, and there is a moratorium on evictions during the colder months. But as lawyers of the residents have suggested, the full force of mass evictions is likely to continue in spring.
Of course many people and organizations continue to fight the evictions. Locals, opposition parties, leading Hungarian NGOs such as Amnesty International Hungary or the HCLU (Human Civil Liberties Union) have raised their voices against this form of social injustice, however so far their efforts have not proven fruitful.
Social housing does not only mean that the landlord is the municipality. Social housing is provided for people who are underprivileged and need help in providing acceptable accommodation for themselves and their families.
People have the fundamental human right to adequate housing. The municipality should think about integration rather than discrimination. This is not just a law, but a moral obligation.
Also featured on the Amnesty International Hungary website (Hungarian only)
Statelessness: The Forgotten Story
Changes and Challenges in Humanitarian Intervention


Actor LeVar Burton's goal is to make literacy accessible to every child everywhere through the use of technology and storytelling.
Burton was the keynote speaker at UVU's first National Summit on Dual-Mission Institutions, which brought together educators, policy makers and government officials to brainstorm ideas on how to meet the unique challenges that higher education faces.
He said that he wants to find new, innovative ways to help solve literacy problems by reaching children through technology.
"I believe that literacy has the power to change lives," Burton said.
He is well-known for his role as host of the wildly popular children's television show Reading Rainbow and as Kunta Kinte from the 1970s miniseries Roots.
Burton said that stories have the ability to impact and change the world; he used an example from Roots saying that the way slavery was viewed before the show changed after its airing because of the ability that visual and audio storytelling influences people's perceptions.
He is continuing his life-long commitment to literacy and social justice through LeVar Burton Kids' Skybrary, an interactive library of digital books and video explorations designed to engage young readers and foster a love of learning.
Burton has won several awards for his work including multiple Emmys and a Peabody.
Students and university community members gave Burton three standing ovations for his passionate speech. He spoke highly of his mother whom he said instilled in him a passion for reading and learning.
The university invited Burton to speak because of his mission to make education accessible for all children by reaching them on their level, which is what the university aims to do by offering trade certificates alongside four year degrees.
"The dual-mission model is the intentional merging of community-technical colleges and four-year universities under one roof, or where community colleges offer four-year degrees," said university spokesperson Scott Trotter.
Governor Gary Herbert and the Utah State Board of Regents partnered with UVU to bring the summit to life.


"Tabula Rasa" is a new very old song. I originally wrote it in 2001 or 2002, back when I decided I couldn't play well with others and started a project called The Jeta Grove. Very naïve stuff, but this one was a great pop song.
Flash forward to 2016, when I performed it on one of my Facebook live shows. I had forgotten it, to be honest. When I scribbled down the lyrics, I felt like I could greatly improve on them. It seemed to make sense to try it again.
I demoed it for the band and we did something cool with it, but time and availability sort of evaporated and I started working on the album myself. My friend J.D. Reager was keen to help me with the album, so we met over at his house some to mess around with it (he is also working on another album and I assisted in a small capacity).
I programmed the basic track at home, and we cut a really good guitar track at his place. It's buzzy and fuzzy on its own, but his guitar part has an almost Keith Richards-esque swagger to it. I cut vocals with him but, in tweaking some lines for the end of the chorus, I ended up taking a pass at it at home. On the single version, if you're listening closely, you can tell.
I used the Arturia Microbrute for the synth lead lines (and that great noise at the beginning) and the Korg MS2000 for some other synth parts – it's kind of buried in there, but it's there.
Listen to "Tabula Rasa (Single Mix)" on Bandcamp!


text:
Gary S. May
Gary S. May is the seventh chancellor of UC Davis, one of the nation's most academically and socially diverse universities. His vision is to lead the university to new heights in academic excellence, inclusion, public service, and upward mobility for students of all backgrounds.
He leads the most comprehensive campus in the University of California system, with four colleges and six professional schools. UC Davis enrolls more than 39,000 students, brings in nearly $850 million annually in sponsored research and contributes at least $8 billion annually to California's economy. In 2019, UC Davis reached the Top 10 in four national rankings of universities, including fifth among public universities in the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Rankings.
Chancellor May came to UC Davis in 2017 after serving as dean of Georgia Tech's College of Engineering, the nation's largest and most diverse school of its kind. In 2015, President Obama honored him with the Presidential Award for Excellence in STEM Mentoring.
He also believes in the positive impact academia and industry have when they partner for the common good. He launched Aggie Square in April 2018 to spur economic growth in Sacramento and help create jobs at a variety of education levels. In November 2019, May and Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg were recognized with a Leadership Award from the Association of University Research Parks for creating a unique partnership for Aggie Square.
May earned his master's and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering and computer science at UC Berkeley. He has won numerous awards for his research in computer-aided manufacturing of integrated circuits. He authored more than 200 technical publications, contributed to 15 books and holds a patent related to this work.
In September 2018, May was inducted to the National Academy of Engineering for his success in attracting and retaining engineering students from underrepresented backgrounds and his innovations in semiconductor manufacturing.


text:
Outreach Teams Help Miami's Communities Of Color Find COVID-19 Testing
WLRN 91.3 FM | By Verónica Zaragovia
So this pandemic continues to disproportionately impact communities of color. In South Florida, a nonprofit is helping Latino and Black residents get access to COVID testing. They're also trying to build trust in the vaccine. From member station WLRN, Veronica Zaragovia reports.
VERONICA ZARAGOVIA, BYLINE: A group called Healthy Little Havana received an assignment this summer, convince residents of this neighborhood in Miami to get a COVID-19 test. The nonprofit has lots of outreach experience. It helped with the census counting. And because of the pandemic, it did that by phone. But this new challenge needs a face-to-face approach.
(SOUNDBITE OF HAND KNOCKING)
ZARAGOVIA: At this apartment complex, three workers are knocking on every door. It's late in the afternoon. And most people aren't home. Many have jobs in the service industry and also retail and construction. Elvis Mendes with Healthy Little Havana says some of them can't afford to stay home when they're sick.
ELVIS MENDES: People usually rather go to work than actually treat themself because they have to pay rent. They have to pay school expenses, food.
ZARAGOVIA: This part of Miami is home to many Cuban exiles and immigrants from all over Latin America. Some people don't have insurance. Others are undocumented. So Mendes and his team tell residents here about Ready Responders, paramedics who give free COVID-19 tests at home. One's immigration status doesn't matter.
MENDES: Our mission is for all these people to get tested regardless if they have a symptom or not, so we can diminish the level of people getting COVID-19.
ZARAGOVIA: One of the challenges of controlling the spread of COVID-19 is people who are infected don't always show symptoms.
(SOUNDBITE OF BABY CRYING)
ZARAGOVIA: When the team knocked on Lisette Mejia's door, she had a baby in her arms.
LISETTE MEJIA: (Speaking Spanish).
ZARAGOVIA: She says not everybody has easy access to the Internet to make an appointment for a test. They tell her about testing that weekend at a nearby school and give her cotton masks and say bye.
ZARAGOVIA: Another neighbor, Gloria Carvajal, has anxiety about the deep nasal swab used in some tests.
GLORIA CARVAJAL: (Speaking Spanish).
MARIA ELENA GONZALEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
ZARAGOVIA: Outreach worker Maria Elena Gonzalez tells her it's really not bad. She's gotten lots of tests. The Health Foundation of South Florida has donated $1.5 million for this effort. Another part of the outreach happens here in Liberty City, a historically Black neighborhood.
RICHARD DUNN II: Thousands upon thousands have died. So, Lord, we're saying today that we're not going to let their deaths be in vain.
ZARAGOVIA: Pastor Richard Dunn spoke at a memorial prayer service to honor Black residents who have died from COVID. Hundreds of white, plastic tombstones filled a field behind him at a park. He's part of a new effort to build trust in the COVID-19 vaccines by holding online meetings with Black churches to hear directly from Black medical experts. The focus - vaccines are vital.
DUNN: Because of the fact that it's taken over 300,000 lives in the United States of America. And I believe to do nothing would be more of a tragedy than to at least try to do something to prevent it and to stop the spreading of the coronavirus.
ZARAGOVIA: Churches will play a big role. And that's why Dunn is so committed to doing his part. He knows it's a terrible disease. He caught it this past summer.
For NPR News, I'm Veronica Zaragovia in Miami.
(SOUNDBITE OF JUAN RIOS' "I WISH (INSTRUMENTAL VERSION)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
Verónica Zaragovia
Verónica Zaragovia was born in Cali, Colombia, and grew up in South Florida. She's been a lifelong WLRN listener and is proud to cover health care for the station. Verónica has a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's degree in journalism. For many years, Veronica lived out of a suitcase (or two) in New York City, Tel Aviv, Hong Kong, Las Vegas, D.C., San Antonio and Austin, where she worked as the statehouse and health care reporter with NPR member station KUT.
See stories by Verónica Zaragovia


Some existing studies have argued that the City Planning Orders of Japanese colonies were more advanced than the City Planning Act of Japan. The grounds are the integration of building control and city planning, the open-space district and their continued use by the Republic of Korea and the Republic of China after World War II. However, urban planning and building control were included in one system only to simplify the procedure for formulating orders. Furthermore, the Republics of both Korea and China continued using them for a comprehensive policy and an emergency evacuation, not because of order evaluation. Korea Urban Area Planning Order of 1934 and Taiwan City Planning Order of 1936 were created from the City Planning Act of 1919 and the Urban Area Building Act of 1919, reflecting the operational experience of Japan. These acts and orders have been improved as a group. Case studies of modern city planning in Japan, Korea and Taiwan are valuable references to each other.
YASUSHI, Goto. Comparative Study about the City Planning Systems in Taiwan (for the Years 1895–1945) and Korea (for the Years 1912–1945) under Japanese Rule. International Planning History Society Proceedings, [S.l.], v. 18, n. 1, p. 109-120, oct. 2018. ISSN 2468-6956. Available at: <https://journals.open.tudelft.nl/index.php/iphs/article/view/2674>. Date accessed: 21 apr. 2019. doi: https://doi.org/10.7480/iphs.2018.1.2674.