text:
There are more than 600 letters from Vincent to Theo and around 40 from Theo to Vincent. There are 22 to his sister Wil, 58 to the painter Anthon van Rappard, 22 to Émile Bernard as well as individual letters to Paul Signac, Paul Gauguin and the critic Albert Aurier. Some are illustrated with sketches.[8] Many are undated, but art historians have been able to place most in chronological order. Problems in transcription and dating remain, mainly with those posted from Arles. While there Vincent wrote around 200 letters in Dutch, French and English.[14] There is a gap in the record when he lived in Paris as the brothers lived together and had no need to correspond.[15]
Categories: 1925 birthsLiving people20th-century American male actors20th-century American singers21st-century American male actors21st-century American singers21st-century American non-fiction writers21st-century PresbyteriansAmerican baritonesAmerican male comedians20th-century American comediansAmerican male dancersAmerican male film actorsAmerican male musical theatre actorsAmerican male television actorsAmerican male voice actorsAmerican male non-fiction writersAmerican memoiristsAmerican army personnel of World War IIAmerican people of Dutch descentAmerican people of English descentAmerican people of Irish descentAmerican people of Scottish descentAmerican PresbyteriansAmerican tap dancersAmerican animatorsCalifornia DemocratsDaytime Emmy Award winnersDick Van DykeGrammy Award winnersHanna-Barbera peopleJamie Records artistsMale actors from IllinoisMale actors from Los Angeles County, CaliforniaMale actors from MissouriMilitary personnel from IllinoisMusicians from Los Angeles County, CaliforniaSingers from MissouriOutstanding Performance by a Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Primetime Emmy Award winnersPeople from Danville, IllinoisPeople from West Plains, MissouriScreen Actors Guild Life Achievement AwardSingers from CaliforniaSingers from IllinoisTelevision producers from CaliforniaTony Award winnersUnited States Army Air Forces soldiersVan Dyke familyWriters from CaliforniaWriters from IllinoisWriters from MissouriTelevision producers from New York CityTelevision producers from Illinois21st-century American comedians
Van Dyke received a Grammy Award in 1964, along with Julie Andrews, for his performance on the soundtrack to Mary Poppins.[41] In 1970, he published Faith, Hope and Hilarity: A Child's Eye View of Religion a book of humorous anecdotes based largely on his experiences as a Sunday School teacher.[42] Van Dyke was principal in "KXIV Inc." and owned 1400 AM KXIV in Phoenix (later KSUN) from 1965 to 1985.[citation needed]
Van Gogh's mother came from a prosperous family in The Hague,[19] and his father was the youngest son of a minister.[20] The two met when Anna's younger sister, Cornelia, married Theodorus's older brother Vincent (Cent). Van Gogh's parents married in May 1851 and moved to Zundert.[21] His brother Theo was born on 1 May 1857. There was another brother, Cor, and three sisters: Elisabeth, Anna, and Willemina (known as "Wil"). In later life Van Gogh remained in touch only with Willemina and Theo.[22] Van Gogh's mother was a rigid and religious woman who emphasised the importance of family to the point of claustrophobia for those around her.[23] Theodorus's salary was modest, but the Church supplied the family with a house, a maid, two cooks, a gardener, a carriage and horse, and Anna instilled in the children a duty to uphold the family's high social position.[24]
What particularly struck me when I saw the old Dutch paintings again is that they were usually painted quickly. That these great masters like Hals, Rembrandt, Ruisdael – so many others – as far as possible just put it straight down – and didn't come back to it so very much. And – this, too, please – that if it worked, they left it alone. Above all I admired hands by Rembrandt and Hals – hands that lived, but were not finished in the sense that people want to enforce nowadays ... In the winter I'm going to explore various things regarding manner that I noticed in the old paintings. I saw a great deal that I needed. But this above all things – what they call – dashing off – you see that's what the old Dutch painters did famously. That – dashing off – with a few brushstrokes, they won't hear of it now – but how true the results are.
The adult Broadway cast (Dick, Paul Lynde, Maureen Stapleton) who recreated their roles for the film version of Bye Bye Birdie (1963) were generally disappointed in the film. It was felt that director George Sidney placed far too much focus on Ann-Margret's teen role, a role that was secondary in the stage hit. Ann-Margret was at the time experiencing a meteoric rise in films.
After the altercation with Gauguin, Van Gogh returned to his room, where he was assaulted by voices and severed his left ear with a razor (either wholly or in part; accounts differ),[note 9] causing severe bleeding.[142] He bandaged the wound, wrapped the ear in paper, and delivered the package to a woman at a brothel Van Gogh and Gauguin both frequented.[142] Van Gogh was found unconscious the next morning by a policeman and taken to hospital,[145][146] where Félix Rey, a young doctor still in training, treated him. The ear was delivered to the hospital, but Rey did not attempt to reattach it as too much time had passed.[140]
Well, they just lost a sale for an entire living room suite because they couldn't get their stories straight about their 'President's Day Sale.' There were signs on everything in the store about an additional 20% off for cash or 0% for 50 months financing. Well, when I asked about the cash price, I was told that the price on the tag wasn't the price they took the 20% off of. It was the price listed just above that that the 20% off would apply to. Oh, and only the ones that ended in .99 rather that .00 were on sale. Okay...that makes it sooooo easy to figure it all out. Not! After speaking to the 3rd person just to get some clarification, she at least had the decency to admit she didn't know which price on the tag the 20% came off of. Luckily, there was a manager she could ask and she left us to stew for a couple of minutes. When she came back, she said that there was a tagging error and that only items with the .99 were 20% off. Well, we walked out, and spent our hard-earned cash just down the road at Slumberlands, where we did the same thing 2 years ago with our bedroom suite after the same strange sales dance happened at the old Rothmann's (the same site as the Art Van store today) and we left there disgusted and embarrassed for the furniture sales profession, as a whole. Read less
In preparation for Gauguin's visit, Van Gogh bought two beds on advice from the station's postal supervisor Joseph Roulin, whose portrait he painted. On 17 September he spent his first night in the still sparsely furnished Yellow House.[129] When Gauguin consented to work and live in Arles with him, Van Gogh started to work on the Décoration for the Yellow House, probably the most ambitious effort he ever undertook.[130] He completed two chair paintings: Van Gogh's Chair and Gauguin's Chair.[131]
During the last six or seven months of the year 1889, he has also created at least fifteen paintings of olive trees, a subject which he considered as demanding and compelling.[251] Among these works are Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background (1889), about which in a letter to his brother Van Gogh wrote, "At last I have a landscape with olives".[250]While in Saint-Rémy, Van Gogh spent time outside the asylum, where he painted trees in the olive groves. In these works natural life is rendered as gnarled and arthritic as if a personification of the natural world, which are, according to Hughes, filled with "a continuous field of energy of which nature is a manifestation".[214]
Categories: Vincent van Gogh1853 births1890 deathsDutch male paintersDutch landscape paintersDutch still life paintersFlower artistsPost-impressionist paintersDutch people with disabilitiesDutch ProtestantsPainters who committed suicidePeople from ZundertPeople with borderline personality disorderDutch ChristiansDutch expatriates in BelgiumDutch expatriates in FranceDutch expatriates in the United KingdomRoyal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp) alumniSuicides by firearm in FrancePeople of MontmartreMale suicidesAcadémie Royale des Beaux-Arts alumni


text:
namespace PlusPad
{
    using System;
    using System.Collections.Generic;
    using System.ComponentModel;
    using System.Threading;
    using System.Windows.Forms;
    using Microsoft.Xna.Framework;
    using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input;

    public partial class Main : Form
    {
        private readonly List<KeyCode> allKeyCodes = new List<KeyCode>();

        private PadSettings padSettings;

        private BackgroundWorker worker;

        private GamePadState previousGamePadState;

        private bool isOn;

        public Main()
        {
            this.InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void Main_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            this.Text = this.Text + " (" + Application.ProductVersion + ")";

            this.InitializeAllKeyCodes();

            this.padSettings = new PadSettings(this.allKeyCodes);
            this.padSettings.ResetKeys();

            this.worker = new BackgroundWorker();
            this.worker.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(this.Worker_DoWork);
            this.worker.RunWorkerAsync();

            this.isOn = true;
        }

        private void Worker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
        {
            while (true)
            {
                GamePadState gamePadState = GamePad.GetState(PlayerIndex.One);

                // Switch on/off
                if ((gamePadState.Buttons.Start == Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input.ButtonState.Pressed
                    && gamePadState.Buttons.Back == Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input.ButtonState.Pressed
                    && this.previousGamePadState.Buttons.Back == Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input.ButtonState.Released)
                    || (gamePadState.Buttons.Back == Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input.ButtonState.Pressed
                    && gamePadState.Buttons.Start == Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input.ButtonState.Pressed
                    && this.previousGamePadState.Buttons.Start == Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input.ButtonState.Released))
                {
                    this.isOn = !this.isOn;

                    this.lblStatus.Invoke((Action)delegate { this.lblStatus.Text = this.isOn ? "Enabled" : "Disabled"; });
                    this.lblStatus.Invoke((Action)delegate { this.lblStatus.ForeColor = this.isOn ? System.Drawing.Color.LimeGreen : System.Drawing.Color.Red; });
                }

                if (this.isOn)
                {
                    // ESCAPE by Start Button
                    if (gamePadState.Buttons.Start == Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input.ButtonState.Pressed
                        && this.previousGamePadState.Buttons.Start == Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input.ButtonState.Released)
                    {
                        padSettings.PressKey(Win32.ScanCodeShort.ESCAPE, Win32.VirtualKeyShort.ESCAPE);
                        padSettings.ReleaseKey(Win32.ScanCodeShort.ESCAPE, Win32.VirtualKeyShort.ESCAPE);
                    }

                    // F3 by Back Button
                    if (gamePadState.Buttons.Back == Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input.ButtonState.Pressed
                        && this.previousGamePadState.Buttons.Back == Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input.ButtonState.Released)
                    {
                        padSettings.PressKey(Win32.ScanCodeShort.F3, Win32.VirtualKeyShort.F3);
                        padSettings.ReleaseKey(Win32.ScanCodeShort.F3, Win32.VirtualKeyShort.F3);
                    }

                    // F5 by X Button
                    if (gamePadState.Buttons.X == Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input.ButtonState.Pressed
                        && this.previousGamePadState.Buttons.X == Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input.ButtonState.Released)
                    {
                        padSettings.PressKey(Win32.ScanCodeShort.F5, Win32.VirtualKeyShort.F5);
                        padSettings.ReleaseKey(Win32.ScanCodeShort.F5, Win32.VirtualKeyShort.F5);
                    }

                    this.padSettings.PerformMove(gamePadState, this.previousGamePadState);

                    this.padSettings.PerformAction(gamePadState, this.previousGamePadState);

                    this.padSettings.PerformLook(gamePadState);

                    this.padSettings.PerformMouseAction(gamePadState, this.previousGamePadState);
                }

                this.previousGamePadState = gamePadState;

                Thread.Sleep(1);
            }
        }

        private void InitializeAllKeyCodes()
        {
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KA, "A", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KB, "B", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KC, "C", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KD, "D", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KE, "E", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KF, "F", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KG, "G", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KH, "H", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KI, "I", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KJ, "J", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KK, "K", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KL, "L", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KM, "M", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KN, "N", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KO, "O", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KP, "P", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KQ, "Q", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KR, "R", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KS, "S", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KT, "T", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KU, "U", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KV, "V", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KW, "W", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KX, "X", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KY, "Y", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.KZ, "Z", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.K0, "0", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.K1, "1", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.K2, "2", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.K3, "3", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.K4, "4", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.K5, "5", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.K6, "6", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.K7, "7", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.K8, "8", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.K9, "9", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.VKOEMCOMMA, ",", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.VKOEMPERIOD, ".", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.VKSPACE, "SPACE", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.VKLCONTROL, "LCTRL", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.VKLSHIFT, "LSHIFT", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.VKF5, "F5", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.MouseEventfWheel, "Mouse Wheel Down", -1));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.MouseEventfWheel, "Mouse Wheel Up", 1));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.MouseEventfRightDown, "Mouse 2", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.MouseEventfLeftDown, "Mouse 1", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.VKF3, "F3", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.VKESCAPE, "ESC", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(0, string.Empty, 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(Win32.VKBACK, "BACKSPACE", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(0, "Mouse +X", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(0, "Mouse -X", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(0, "Mouse -Y", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(0, "Mouse +Y", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(0, "Text - Next Char", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(0, "Text - Prev Char", 0));
            this.allKeyCodes.Add(new KeyCode(0, "Text - Accept Char", 0));
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


I am getting this error on export whether on single or multiple artboards.
Please check out your request headers/params/body.
Several plugins got problems on Win 10 with newest version of XD.
Several of the "Icons" plugins do not work as supposed.
1. I installed the fonts required.
2. Plugin only works with one of the 5 installed font files.
It just creates boxes when trying to import icons.
Video to illustrate the problem.
Several other fonts require purchases from 3rd party (Font awesome plugin) that info is not presented before installing.
I need to know what happen on your computer. I tested Ikono on both Mac and Win: all works fine, so I can't replicate your issue.
Not sure if it is Adobe XD bug or the Extension itself.
But I was working offline on a file and wanted to export to HTML 5 for exploration purposes, using 'Lightning Storm CC plugin' (v18.10.11) and i got a API ERROR modal which i can't remove and can't do anything with the window, can't even quit or save the file.
It sounds like you were able to remove the plug-in? If so, are you able to work in XD now?


text:
<navbar></navbar>

Home

Vehicles

Groups

Vendors

Create new group

        <form ng-submit="addGroup()" name="form" novalidate>

                <fieldset>
                    <legend>
                        Group Information
                    </legend>

                            Enter name for group
                            <input  type="text" class="form-control custom-margin" name="Name" placeholder="Name of group" ng-model="group.name" required>

                            Enter address for group
                            <input type="text" class="form-control custom-margin" name="address" placeholder="address" ng-model="group.location_attributes.address" required>

                        <fieldset>
                            Enter description for a group

                                    <textarea rows="5" type="text" class="form-control custom-margin" placeholder="Description" ng-model="group.description"></textarea>

                        </fieldset>

                    <button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary" ng-disabled="form.$invalid">Create</button>
                </fieldset>

        </form>

To create a group, type group's name and address

Example of address Street/House Number, Street Name, Town/City, County


text:
Q: How to combine JPEG / webp / jpg2000 / JPEG XR with responsive images using srcset and sizes? I'm getting really confused about how to best implement different next-gen (JPEG / webp / jpg2000 / JPEG XR) image formats with responsive srcset images?
I would like to have different sizes of images for different screen widths, but also different resolution from different next-gen image format. And a fallback. How to write this down, when I have let's say:
1 image in 4 sizes and with jpeg, webp, jpg2000, jpg xr format and have 3 different breakpoints.
I thought I can use < picture > element and in that one I will use < srcset >, but I just read on one site:
"The < picture > element's child < img > element is required, and that child should not have its own srcset and sizes attributes because that functionality will be shifted to the < source > element."

A: IMG element inside PICTURE is needed as a fallback for browsers that don't support PICTURE.

A: I figured out the answer on how to use the srcset+sizes inside of  tag:
<picture class="my-first-class">
                <source
                type="image/webp"
                    sizes="(min-width: 701px) 22vw,
                            (min-width: 1000px) 19vw,
                            35vw"
                    srcset="
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_190.webp 190w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_321.webp 321w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_420.webp 420w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_507.webp 507w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_584.webp 584w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_653.webp 653w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_718.webp 718w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_781.webp 781w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_842.webp 842w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_900.webp 900w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_955.webp 955w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_1006.webp 1006w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_1060.webp 1060w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_1111.webp 1111w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_1160.webp 1160w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_1210.webp 1210w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_1260.webp 1260w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_1309.webp 1309w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_1353.webp 1353w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_1380.webp 1380w">
                <source
                    type="image/jpeg"
                    sizes="(min-width: 701px) 22vw,
                            (min-width: 1000px) 19vw,
                            35vw"
                    srcset="
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_190.jpg 190w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_321.jpg 321w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_420.jpg 420w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_507.jpg 507w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_584.jpg 584w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_653.jpg 653w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_718.jpg 718w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_781.jpg 781w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_842.jpg 842w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_900.jpg 900w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_955.jpg 955w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_1006.jpg 1006w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_1060.jpg 1060w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_1111.jpg 1111w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_1160.jpg 1160w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_1210.jpg 1210w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_1260.jpg 1260w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_1309.jpg 1309w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_1353.jpg 1353w,
                            img/hilti-png/hilti-png_1380.jpg 1380w">
                <img src="img/hilti-png/hilti-png_781.jpg"
                    alt="hilti"
                    class="my class">
            </picture>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Elite 8 Round Betting Preview & Free Pick: Kentucky vs. North Carolina
best sports picks, betting preview, college basketball betting preview, college basketball picks, college basketball preview, college basketball sports picks, March Madness, NCAA Tournament, sports betting, sports handicapping
North Carolina enters the Elite 8 Round of the NCAA Tournament seeking revenge for a 103-100 loss to the Wildcats on December 17 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. That defeat is significant in that teams in the Elite 8 looking to avenge a same-season loss are a profitable 17-6-1 ATS.
North Carolina is also bolstered by the fact that the ACC is 4-1 ATS in the Elite 8 Round of the NCAA Tournament, while the Tar Heels are 22-7 ATS overall as a No. 1 seed in the Big Dance. Head coach Roy Williams is a respectable 8-4 SU and 7-5 ATS in the Elite 8 Round.
The Tar Heels possess a potent attack that is 13.5 points per game better than average (85.2 points per game against teams that would combine to allow 71.7 points per game), ranking 9th nationally in scoring offense. North Carolina pounds the offensive glass like no other team in the land, ranking #1 in offensive rebounds per game (15.81).
North Carolina also leads the nation in both total rebounds per game (43.68) and rebound margin (13.1). The Tar heels averaged 83.5 points per game on 47.3% shooting from the field on the road this season, while also averaging 85.6 points on 46.9% shooting from the floor over the last five games.
The Tar Heels take excellent care of the basketball and rebound an inordinate amount of their missed shots, both of which lead to an extremely high shot volume. In fact, North Carolina's shot volume is higher than any other team in major-conference play this season.
However, prior to the Butler game in the Sweet 16, North Carolina had found itself in a shooting slump in its previous four postseason games. The Tar Heels had made half of their 2-pointers and just 32% of their three-pointers, which would be below-average in ACC play.
The Tar Heels survived that mini-slump due to the extraordinary play of Kennedy Meeks, who pulled down 18% of the team's missed shots in the four games leading up to the Sweet 16. Justin Jackson also stepped up during the mini-shooting slump, dishing out more assists than any other Tar Heel (also recorded 5 steals against the Razorbacks in the Round of 32).
Jackson, however, also contributed to the shooting slump, making just 39% of his 2-point shots in the four games prior to the Butler game. Senior Isaiah Hicks also rescued the Tar Heels in postseason play, making 66% of his attempts inside the arc and shooting 88% from the charity stripe.
Kentucky arrives in the Elite 8 following an impressive 86-75 win over UCLA as 1.5-point underdogs. The Wildcats are 13.8 points per game better than average offensively (85.2 point per game against teams that would combine to allow 71.4 points per game) and 4.1 points per game better than average defensively (71.4 points per game to teams that would combine to average 75.5 points per game).
In its 103-100 win over the Tar Heels back in December, Kentucky freshman Malik Monk compiled 47 points on 28 shots, including draining eight 3-pointers. Meanwhile, De'Aaron Fox is coming off a terrific performance against UCLA wherein he had a career-high 39 points on just 20 shots.
The Wildcats demonstrated an ability to win games at the defensive end of the floor with their dominating win over UCLA in the Sweet 16. Kentucky held the Bruins to 15 points below their season average and forced 13 turnovers from a team that had only nine in their first two NCAA Tournament games.
Over its last five games, Kentucky is limiting opponents to just 69.2 points per game on 28.8% shooting from beyond the arc. The Wildcats do an excellent job defending the three-point arc, limiting foes to just 30.8% on the season and 29.6% on the road.
From a technical standpoint, Kentucky is a perfect 4-0 SU and ATS under head coach John Calipari as an underdog in the NCAA Tournament. Interestingly, both teams are averaging more than 85 points per game this season, and squads that average 85+ points per game are 30-7 SU and 27-8-2 ATS in the NCAA Tournament.
North Carolina is 18-7-1 ATS versus SEC foes, 14-5-1 ATS in its last 20 neutral site games and 21-7-2 ATS in its last 30 neutral site games as favorites, while the Wildcats are 10-4-1 ATS in their last 15 neutral site affairs, 5-2 ATS in their last seven games versus ACC opposition and 4-1-1 ATS in their last six games versus .601 or greater opposition.
Finally, the favorite is 4-1 ATS in the last five meetings in this series, while the Wildcats are 3-9-1 ATS in their last 13 clashes with North Carolina. I recommend passing on this Elite 8 Round game from an investment standpoint, but I would give a slight lean to North Carolina at -2 or better.
NIT Championship Betting Preview & Pick: Georgia Tech vs. TCU

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Have a new design concept but lack engineering staff or sufficient man hours to complete it? How about a special project in mind but need CAD drawings, Bill of Materials completed, parts specifications and safety factors checked for conformity, and maybe even some new innovative ideas from our design team to further the concepts design or save costs in manufacture? From large commercial projects to one man with an idea and minimal resources ..... and anywhere in between.... we CAN help.


text:
CHapter Two: "How It Began"
A search has begun in blindness. A brick-wall towers overhead. Always a brick-wall. It towers over me, hiding everything to see from view and refusing to share what will soon occur. It is by such I search for purpose, no hints toward what will transpire down the road. I am offered no assurance and no comfort with whichever route I take. Uncertainty.
But there's more to it than that, there is more than not knowing what will soon happen, but slowly, what has once happened feels blurry. I don't know what I want to accomplish nor do I know if it is acquirable but a desperate desire exists. I can't rest until it's fulfilled. I do not know what it is or where it came from, but it is there, and it eats away at me. It has left much to be pondered upon, with a constant question ringing, what happens now?
There appears to be no way to illuminate myself, nor does there appear to be a reason to continue down this path, but it is my move. A question forever asked that must be answered. It's there. I can feel it. But the blindfold has started to slip away, pulling the censors off the once undisclosed and clearing the fog from my road. What I want is starting to become clearer.
I don't know where my feelings are directed but I know what those feelings are, and I know I want revenge against someone or something. This sickly feeling, this feeling of withdrawal won't go away without something filling the void, something feeding the unseen addiction. How solace is be captured from this discovery might be tough to understand, but I've sat on a canoe without a paddle for far too long. I have grown exhausted from having to endure every wave and splash, but I have taken sight of land.
The realization is overwhelming and even a little scary, but also good. The obstacle that remains is that I have absolutely no idea what to make of it.
What happens now?
Something rests within me that feels wronged in some way, creating anger and bringing hunger for revenge to the surface, but I am at a loss as to what it is that I am angry about and what it is I have to do to dispatch this anger. I may have gotten a peek at where the feelings were headed but they are still well-equipped hiders. I have recollections on some of my past, but they're imprecise on the happenings that occurred within them. The deeper I try to dig into my days, the fainter the details become. I grew up in an orphanage. I can't answer what happened to my parents that led to our separation. (origin story 101)
If I were to go to a therapist, they may tack that on and assign it as the reason behind my frustrations, but I don't think that's true. That it left repressed memories I haven't dealt with. A reasonable and logical diagnosis, but I find for my feelings toward the situation to be apathetic. Similar to that of a scar from a cut left years ago, I look at with only a glance.
But a scar can be seen also as a lasting aftereffect of trouble. Am I dismissing the possibility too hastily?
Franklin and Hillary Jones eventually brought me home from the pound; thinking this aging dog still had the ability to learn tricks. In those first few years, I actually started to believe I would stay at the orphanage until I could live on my own or until I was put-down. I was happy to say I finally had a home. I kept telling myself I was adopted because they had a nine year old daughter and that they wanted a son. The evidence didn't prove the theory. Instead, it contradicted it.
Franklin Jones was a well-acclaimed psychiatrist.
He wanted to fix me.
I found that life grew more and more tiresome as the days went by in the Jones family. I quickly developed the perspective that because I wasn't biologically their child, I had to earn the luxuries given. It wasn't long until I realized they didn't see me as an addition to their family but as an experiment. I won't say that didn't bother me and I won't apologize for it if I come off as complaining. After they decided I wasn't worth their time, they tossed me to the side.
They couldn't fix me.
Still, for a little while, I found contentment with disguising what I was a part of as being part of a family. I'm all but content now. I may not care for them, but I can't forget about them either, and I want to care. It was weeks after my eighteenth birthday I cut all ties with the Jones family.
The first year of my wondrous new life was spent washing dishes and making sandwiches at a local Deli. I did eventually depart from Italina, Maharris and wound up in Acera. Not a drastic move, but an effective one. It was there that I began to truly ponder upon how I wanted to spend my days, knowing minimum wage wouldn't cut it forever.
I was fortunate enough to have a friend to ride the coattails of, his name was James Schultz.
James was one of the few friends I actually made in high school and is certainly the only friend I still converse with on a regular basis. Some people would say he's the closest I've had to a family. I think that's just about right.
Now, more than ever, I've grown colder and more isolated but I still have a spot in my heart for him. These feelings aren't acquired without a sprinkling of selfishness though. James and I had some things in common. For example, we both had a troublesome childhood, but at the same time, we contrast. He had ambitions and something to prove, like me. He also knew what that something was, unlike me. James had recently found interests in being an actor, once an illogical fantasy, now seeming inevitable.
His mother recently decided not to allow for her ex-husband to continue ruining their child's life, and instead decided to feed James some of the money she had built up since kicking him to the curb. I occasionally ponder to myself whether or not acting is the passion of James or his mother, who left her family to pursue said dreams.
She must have found some type of success though, or she wouldn't be throwing money to her son, but I never matched her name with anything other than being the mother of my friend.
James moved to Acera because he believed it'd be better for his career. Either that, or he just wanted a gap between him and his mother. I came along because I was eager to continue and foresee what the peek beneath the blindfold meant. James covers the bills and in exchange, I offer minimal financial assistance, but more than that, I'd like to think I am good company.
This is not to say I stand around all day sporting an exhausted stare and accomplishing nothing of worth. I am still at a constant search trying to find whatever my frustration is reserved for, whatever this weasel hiding in the crevices of my heart, waiting to pop out, desires. In the mean time, I have found somewhere to redirect my anger, and I like to think it has relaxed my scrambling thoughts.
The only downside is I have to spend hours at a time, crossing my fingers, hoping a single crime is committed. This allows for me to rip somebody into smithereens with slight justification. The littlest justification is all I am looking for; it's all I need.
Does it make me a hero?
I remove those not deserving of living on this Earth. Many exist, and several of the many won't see it that way. I don't care either way, because it is this salvation I have sought after, this thirst-quenching treatment to the disease that protects the innocent. It's the only alternative, and it's all I have. If they'd rather have their corpses resting on top of a bloody pavement then I'll happily arrange it. I have come to realize I can't stop myself from reaching my destiny, but I can take refuge in the fact that I also help others achieve their own in the process.
There are criminals unwilling to illuminate themselves from the pitch-black absence of light that swallows them. They're not allowing themselves to see the wrongness in their actions. If I have to play the role of the blinding flashlight shining in their eyes and awaken them from their slumber then so be it. The city garners a form of unseen justice, a protection that can't be offered by the police. I acquire the closest thing I can to genuine happiness.
I, Orion Corvus, offer them the poison, and they offer me the antidote.


text:
Benny Scheinmann
Senior Reflections on Their Time at Barrack
Many Barrack students look forward to the end of the second trimester as it is the longest and hardest of the three. Trimester three is the beginning of "the home stretch," with only one trimester to go before summer. However, some students feel differently. For the class of 2022, this marks the beginning of their last semester. And as their time at Barrack nears an end, the seniors prepare to say goodbye. As Max Hirsh prepares for this bittersweet goodbye, he says that his "experience at Barrack has been amazing" and that Barrack is different from other schools because of the "tight-knit community we have," which is "something [he] wouldn't trade for anything." As a high schooler at Barrack myself, this message about the community really hit home and made me sad for when I will have to leave this amazing family that we have here.
Another senior this year, Nina Berkowitz, commented on her departure from Barrack, saying that "Barrack has been a very welcoming environment" and how she "loved the opportunities [she's] been given to make positive changes to the school." Due to Barrack's size, the administration can take a lot of input from the students. Nina has felt that she has been able to voice her opinions, and she is proud of the changes she's made during her 7 year Barrack journey.
Unfortunately, sometimes the fun that Barrack has to offer can be overshadowed by the stressful workload. With the right guidance, however, this can be managed. Senior Rebecca Scheinamnn says that "being a successful Barrack student is all about time management and balance. Make sure you are on top of your assignments, so you have time to relax and time to enjoy the fun parts of high school." This may seem self-explanatory, but simply making a schedule and not doing long-term assignments the night before they are due can help students enjoy their time more fully.
Lastly, although cliche, being yourself is important to being successful at Barrack. Roni Cohen, a fantastic student-athlete at Barrack, said to "take risks" and to "never be afraid to fail in a class or a sport" along with that, he gave important advice to young students to "not worry about what others think or say."
As we say goodbye to these seniors, I am confident that they will do amazing things wherever they go next year. I offer a sincere thank you for everything you all have done for the Barrack community. You will be missed.


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Ladies Who
Legspin
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Surreal but familiar: Aoife Coughlan's Tokyo experience
This article was first written for and published by Siren Sport. When Aoife Coughlan's parents Paul and Jean met decades ago doing judo at university, little did they know that they were starting a connection to the sport which would continue through their children. Coughlan first set foot on a judo mat at age five.
AJ Jennings is going for gold
Published on: 12/08/2021 13/08/2021 by Mary
This article was first written for and published by Siren Sport. CW: This article includes mention of suicide and drug addiction After living with chronic pain, depression and an addiction to prescription medication for two decades, AJ Jennings made a brave decision to amputate her right leg through the knee. It wasn't too long after […]
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This article was first written for and published by the Roar. Five years ago, after the Rio Olympic Games, Australian BMX athlete Lauren Reynolds was at her lowest. "After Rio I felt completely unaccomplished," says Reynolds. "Even though I had been to two Olympic Games, I felt like I was going nowhere and nothing made […]
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At Houlton, Ryan Dee pitched two-hit ball while striking out 15 batters to shut out Lee Academy.
Nick Perfitt led the offense with two hits and two runs scored. For the Pandas, Nathan Gilman gave up three hits and struck out eight.


Last issue of Yii development notes this year. Do not miss it.
Read tips about PHP frameworks and Yii from Yii 2 co-author Alexander Makarov.
Another issue of Yii development notes with some 3.0 details.
A wiki article about getting various information from current locale.
Latest video in Yii 2.0 series by Luke Briner is about rapidly building REST APIs.
Yii team tagged new version of Yii 1.1 that accumulates security and PHP 7 compatibiltiy fixes made for a year.


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Q: iphone SDK:Can write data to plist on Simulator but can't do same thing at Device? Why I can write information to plist on simulator
But can't do this on real iphone/ipod device ????
Is there exist an absolute path to put a .plist file in xcode project ???
Thanks for all reply and answers ~
code : this how I write text to plist from textfield
NSString *plistPath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"Password" ofType:@"plist"];
NSMutableDictionary *propertyList = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:plistPath];
[propertyList setValue:serialNumber.text forKey:@"serial_number"];

A: You can only write to your application's sandbox directory. Below is a function that will return the path to the Documents folder for you app.
- (NSString *)applicationDocumentsDirectory
{
    return [NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES) lastObject];
}


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Home / Insights / 2018 / Q1 / Sector Pulse: Solid Near-Term Fundamentals Creating Pockets of Opportunity in Investment-Grade Corporates
Global Fixed Income
Sector Pulse
Solid Near-Term Fundamentals Creating Pockets of Opportunity in Investment-Grade Corporates
Steven C. Huber, Portfolio Manager
Steven Boothe, Portfolio Manager
While we believe that the U.S. economic expansion is in its later stages, we think that corporate earnings should grow for at least two more quarters, supporting investment-grade corporate debt.
We are still finding some opportunities in European banks and energy-related credits despite the broadly elevated valuations in the investment-grade corporate sector.
We are also mindful that the wave of new supply as well as mergers and acquisitions in the investment-grade corporate sector are likely to continue in 2018, which could weigh on the broad sector.
However, we see the sustainability of the earnings cycle beyond the next two quarters as the main threat to the investment-grade corporate market.
Demand for investment-grade corporate debt remains strong, and investors have been willing to add risk to generate higher returns in a yield-hungry world. While we believe that the U.S. economic expansion is in its later stages, we think that corporate earnings should grow for at least two more quarters. We expect that this near-term profitability and revenue growth, combined with a positive global growth outlook, will support investment-grade corporate debt. However, credit spreads in the sector steadily narrowed through most of 2017, lifting valuations in the broad sector to elevated levels. In this environment, we are still finding some opportunities in European banks and energy-related credits.
We are also mindful that the wave of new supply in the investment-grade corporate sector is likely to continue in 2018, which could weigh on the broad sector. Global corporate investment-grade issuance topped US$2.2 trillion in 2017, the second consecutive year of record annual new supply. We anticipate that the passage of tax reform will create a rush of corporate mergers and acquisitions in 2018, likely pushing new issuance to even higher levels. While low interest rates have encouraged companies to issue more debt, we do not expect that rising rates will deter new issuance. However, if accelerating inflation triggers faster-than-expected normalization of global monetary policy, that could dampen issuance.
Increasing Non-U.S. Bias
In recognition that the U.S. cycle is in its later stages, we favor the prospects for non-U.S. investment-grade corporate debt. In particular, we are finding good value in European banks. We have been developing this theme over the past six months because of our belief that Europe is earlier in its credit cycle than the U.S. and as political risks—the French and Italian elections in particular—across Europe have subsided to some extent. Banks, especially in Spain and Italy, have been a bit behind their U.S. counterparts in terms of recapitalizing in the wake of the financial crisis. However, they are beginning to make substantial progress in cleaning up their balance sheets and eliminating nonperforming loans.
Refocusing on Energy Opportunities
We find energy-related names increasingly attractive, especially midstream and exploration and production companies. These are areas of the energy industry that have experienced significant volatility and where we feel our fundamental research gives us an advantage in terms of long-term security selection. In midstream, our ability to anticipate changes to corporate structure and financial policy has been crucial, especially over the past year. We do not take outsized risks, but we have found that this area still offers some value relative to other sectors.
Mergers Could Generate Oversupply
We expect to see an increase in merger activity over the next 12 to 18 months by companies that had postponed action until the passage of tax reform. While we are unsure if volumes will be comparable to what they were in 2016 and 2017, we believe that tax reform, strong global growth, and low volatility create a positive environment for merger activity. As a whole, merger activity is a negative for the investment-grade corporate sector as it means that companies are more leveraged and there is more debt in circulation, although some corporations are wary about adding too much debt to their balance sheets.
However, the government regulation of announced deals has not been as friendly as we would have expected it to be under a Republican administration. For example, the Department of Justice surprised many investors by challenging AT&T's US$85 billion purchase of Time Warner, arguing that the combination of one of the country's largest telecommunications companies with one of the largest media firms would limit competition. While the uncertainty of this regulatory environment can obviously cause price disruptions and volatility, we are treading lightly in industries where deals have become common, including pharmaceuticals and technology, media, and telecommunications.
Earnings Outlook Key Risk for Investment-Grade Corporates
While we are cautious about the potential for a flood of new supply in some industries, we see the sustainability of the earnings cycle as the main threat to the investment-grade corporate market. While the next two quarters look healthy, the medium- and long-term outlook is more uncertain. While we expect earnings to keep growing, they are likely to grow at a slower pace.
Macroeconomic factors could also threaten the sector's performance. An unexpected acceleration or deceleration in inflation could pose a risk as it would create uncertainty about the Federal Reserve and monetary policy and could, in turn, trigger a widening in credit spreads. The synchronized global growth story could also fall apart if Chinese or European growth falters or trade wars develop as a result of protectionist U.S. policies. While political tensions can cause bouts of risk aversion, we think that the sector would largely shrug off geopolitical issues, as we saw in the aftermath of Brexit and the Catalan independence vote in Spain—assuming that the global economic backdrop remains strong.
Yield Spreads Over Treasuries (basis points)
Yield Spreads Over Treasuries January 31, 2008 - January 31, 2018
Sources: High Yield Corporate—J.P. Morgan Global High Yield Index, EM Debt Dollar—J.P. Morgan Emerging Markets Bond Index Global, U.S. Corporate Investment Grade—Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Corporate Investment Grade Bond Index.*
Source for Bloomberg Barclays index data: Bloomberg Index Services Ltd. Copyright 2018, Bloomberg Index Services Ltd. Used with permission.
Yield spreads over Treasuries are the calculated spreads between a computed option-adjusted spread index of all bonds in a given rating category and a spot Treasury curve.
* Option-adjusted spread for the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Corporate Investment Grade Bond Index as of January 31, 2018. Spread-to-worst for the J.P. Morgan Global High Yield Index as of January 31, 2018.
Relative Value Short-Term Outlook Sector Returns
(As of January 31, 2018)**
One-Mo. Return
YTD Return
One-Yr. Return
U.S. Treasuries Decent strength to the economy and the Fed continuing on a path of gradual rate hikes suggest higher yields; however, the Treasury market has largely priced in these risks. Inflation expectations and growth momentum will determine the path of interest rates going forward. -1.36% -1.36% 0.69%
U.S. Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) Despite recent softness in inflation data, we expect to see higher breakevens as inflation data appear to have bottomed and oil prices remain supportive. -0.86 -0.86 1.27
Global Sovereign ex-U.S.† We expect developed market yields to increase through time as global growth momentum continues. The improving European economy and gradually rising inflation are convincing the European Central Bank (ECB) to slowly normalize monetary policy. Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan remains highly accommodative despite positive economic data, and the UK will need to raise interest rates, albeit gradually, as long as political uncertainty associated with Brexit remains under control. 3.03 3.03 11.77
U.S. Municipals Municipal yield ratios versus Treasuries remain rich in the short and intermediate section of the curve. Favorable supply/demand dynamics in the sector are expected to continue, and the impact of tax reform is yet to be determined. -1.18 -1.18 3.52
Mortgage-Back Securities (MBS) The outlook for agency MBS has become less favorable, as tight nominal and volatility-adjusted valuations to Treasuries provide fewer opportunities for additional tightening, particularly if volatility picks up. Also, portfolio runoff from the Fed and a stronger seasonal housing environment could increase net supply in 2018. -1.17 -1.17 1.31
Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS) Credit fundamentals in the CMBS sector are largely benign, and from a technical perspective, recent robust issuance has been well received. -1.09 -1.09 1.61
Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) The ABS sector continues to benefit from strong consumer fundamentals and should continue to provide a relative safe haven if interest rate volatility increases. -0.29 -0.29 1.04
Global Investment-Grade Corporate Supportive fundamentals outweigh tight valuations in the sector. ECB tapering could put some pressure on European corporates as support for the sector is gradually reduced. -0.96 -0.96 5.08
Global High Yield Corporate Despite rich valuations in the sector, high yield continues to be supported by continued investor demand for yield, a solid macro backdrop, rising oil prices, and strong company earnings. Potential risks include volatile commodity prices, outflows, weakness in equities, and corporate credit being late in the cycle. 0.67 0.67 7.40
Bank Loans Bank loans, with their floating rate feature, appeal to investors seeking shelter from rising interest rates. Solid fundamentals, low commodity exposure, low default rate expectations, and continued strong demand lead us to be constructive on the sector, but a reversal in technicals is a key risk. 1.01 1.01 4.76
Emerging Markets (EM) Dollar Sovereigns Despite inflows into the sector, we are cautious on emerging markets as the Fed may need to tighten further, with three to four hikes expected in 2018 amid higher inflation and tight labor markets. In addition, we are selective in the sector due to rising idiosyncratic political risks (e.g., Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, and Russia). -0.20 -0.20 7.56
EM Corporates Despite a supportive technical backdrop and rising oil prices, we are cautious in the near term given the extent of the sector's rally, weaker liquidity profile, and little buffer for idiosyncratic shocks. 0.07 0.07 6.71
EM Local Although we continue to favor countries in interest rate-cutting cycles or that offer high real yields, idiosyncratic risks in the sector and the potential for additional Fed tightening lead us to be cautious. Strong inflows, stability in China, and rising oil prices have also supported the sector but provide uncertainty should these factors reverse. 4.48 4.48 17.72
Sources: T. Rowe Price, Bloomberg Barclays, J.P. Morgan, and S&P/LSTA.
** U.S. Treasuries—Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Treasury Index, U.S. TIPS—Bloomberg Barclays U.S. TIPS Index, Global Sovereign ex-U.S.—Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate ex-U.S. Index, U.S. Municipals—Bloomberg Barclays Municipal Bond Index, MBS—Bloomberg Barclays U.S. MBS Index, CMBS—Bloomberg Barclays U.S. CMBS Index: ERISA Eligible, ABS—Bloomberg Barclays Asset Backed Index, Global Investment-Grade Corporate—Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Corporate Investment Grade Bond Index, Global High Yield Corporate—J.P. Morgan Global High Yield Index, Bank Loans—S&P/LSTA Performing Loans Index, EM Debt Sovereigns—J.P. Morgan Emerging Markets Bond Index Global, EM Corporates—J.P. Morgan CEMBI Broad Diversified, EM Local—J.P. Morgan Global Bond Index—Emerging Market Global Diversified.
†European corporates are included in this sector.
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.
Key Risks—The following risks are materially relevant to the strategies highlighted in this material: Transactions in securities denominated in foreign currencies are subject to fluctuations in exchange rates, which may affect the value of an investment. Returns can be more volatile than other, more developed markets due to changes in market, political, and economic conditions. Debt securities could suffer an adverse change in financial condition due to a ratings downgrade or default, which may affect the value of an investment. Investments in high yield securities involve a higher element of risk.
The material is not intended for use by persons in jurisdictions which prohibit or restrict the distribution of the material and in certain countries the material is provided upon specific request.
It is not intended for distribution to retail investors in any jurisdiction.
USA—Issued in the USA by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., 100 East Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD, 21202, which is regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. For Institutional Investors only.
U.S. EQUITIES
Industry in Focus—Payment Networks
Pension Curve Insider: LDI Solutions February Monthly Recap
Steven C. Huber
Steve Huber is a portfolio manager in the Fixed Income Division at T. Rowe Price. Mr. Huber has lead portfolio management responsibilities for the Global and Institutional Global Multi-Sector Bond Strategies. He is a vice president of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc., and T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc.
See all article(s) by Steven C. Huber...
Steven Boothe
Steve Boothe is a portfolio manager in the Fixed Income Division at T. Rowe Price. Mr. Boothe has lead portfolio management responsibilities for the Global Investment Grade and U.S. Investment Grade Corporate Bond Strategies. He is a member of the Global Multi-Sector and U.S. Taxable Bond teams, with a focus on global and U.S. investment-grade corporate bond portfolios. Mr. Boothe is an executive vice president and cochairman of the Investment Advisory Committee of the Corporate Bond Strategy. He is also a vice president of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc., and T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc.
See all article(s) by Steven Boothe...


The poultry manual; a complete guide for the breeder and exhibitor.
The poultry manual. A complete guide for the breeder and exhibitor.
Improved milk goats, a guide for breeders, dairymen and exhibitors.
The complete poultry book. A manual for the American poultry yard.
By: Thorne, Charles Embree, 1846-1936.
Bantam standard for the breeder, exhibitor, and judge.
By: American Bantam Association. Standard Committee.
The poultry manual. A complete guide for the breeder and exhibitor, by Rev. T.W. Sturges.
London, Macdonald and Evans, 1911.
Pages i-xviii includes advertising matter.
597 p. incl. plates, col. front., illus., 9 col. pl. 23 cm.


If you like to write your own questions, then you will love Problem-Attic's graphics library. It's a source of more than 60,000 images for all grades and core subjects: math, science, social studies and ELA.
Briefly, in addition to building a database of questions, we've pulled out all of their images, organized them by topic, and made them easy to select and re-use. You'll find everything from science diagrams and geometry figures to maps, newspaper headlines, and political cartoons—excellent stimulus for new questions.
The following screenshots will give you an idea of how the graphics are organized and what's available. They show just six out of nearly 60 topics for social studies.
Note: The graphics library is a subscriber option. You can try it in the Play Area, which has a small subset of the graphics. To learn more about a school-wide subscription to Problem-Attic, click here.
To make use of the graphics library, you first need to launch the Problem Editor. You can do this for an existing problem on the Select or Arrange pages, or for a new problem that you write. Here are the steps for a new problem.
Click the Write New Problem button.
You can start by writing the problem stem, or by inserting an image, whatever you prefer. If you do write something, put the cursor where you'd like the image to appear.
Drill down through the topics until you see images on the right. Select an image that you like, then click OK.
The image will get inserted into your problem. You can resize it by right-clicking and choosing Image Properties from the pop-up menu.
Repeat steps 4–7 if you want to insert any other images, say for a multiple-choice problem. When you are done, click the Save button in the Editor.
The XFigure tab gives you a alternative way of associating an image with a problem. Unlike the method above, where you insert an image exactly where you want it to go, what we call an "xfigure" is allowed to float around a problem, to help make page layout more efficient. For example, if the image fits to the right of a multiple choice block, Problem-Attic will put it there; otherwise, it will go between the stem and the choices.
If a series of problems all have the same xfigure, it will show up only once in a PDF, for the first problem in the series. This allows you to write multiple problems with the same xfigure and not be concerned about which of the problems will be selected or in what order.
You can include conditional text with an xfigure. This allows you to subtly change the wording of a problem depending on whether the xfigure is shown (in the first problem in a series) or hidden. For example, for the text which is labeled "if shown", you could say "Look at the figure below." For the text labeled "if hidden", you could say "Refer to the figure in the previous problem." The conditional text appears in a separate paragraph above the stem.
For problem stimulus, the XFigure tab is especially handy. You can take advantage of the non-repeating behavior and conditional text even if you don't want the xfigure to float around the problem. If you want the xfigure always to be at the beginning of a problem, or to the right or below, use the option labeled "Position".
To use the Graphics Library with the XFigure tab, simply click the Browse button and select one of the stock images.


Over the years, I've seen coaches create a reaction in their athlete by saying inflammatory things. They often do this to try to evoke an emotion. For some athletes, it works. For most athletes, it has a negative outcome. It may initially give coaches the reaction they are after, however, any enhancement in performance is short-lived.
It has a lot to do with the mental and emotional resilience of an athlete.
I was recently working with an athlete and their coach. The coach is very knowledgeable about their sport, they've got some great results out of their sport, and they've been around a long time; so they know how to coach.
While I was working with the athlete, I asked the coach to do what they'd normally do, to coach the athlete so I could observe the interaction, and work out what I could do to make it more effective and efficient. When the coach was watching the athlete doing some specific skills, the coach was imparting some great technical knowledge to the athlete. You could see this athlete actually adored this coach and hung off every word they were saying. Every time they gave an opinion, thought, or directive, this athlete was keen to apply what they'd just learned.
As the coach turned around to walk back to observe this athlete doing what he just told him to do, the coach made a flippant remark.
The athlete was down, no longer processing information and was focusing on this flippant remark.
I could see the emotional weight they were carrying with them.
I asked the coach if they knew what they had just done. They had no idea. They'd given information, made sure the athlete was aware of what to achieve and how to achieve it, and then in their mind, the job was done.
I asked them to be more specific and the coach was silent.
This coach has a long history of success in the sport; a great technical knowledge of the sport; knows how to coach, and how to get a result for athletes.
What he didn't understand was the key role he played.
Their role is to give information and make sure an athlete takes it on in a way they can use, see relevance to, and have a tangible application of.
This coach didn't see it in that way.
The throwaway comment and the reaction from the athlete undoes all the great information just given.
Where does that leave a coach? Does it mean we have to be conscious of every single word we have to say?
Does it mean we can't joke and have that human interaction with athletes?
Of course not. It's part of the responsibility of the coach, and part of the athlete, to make sure they understand what they're getting and what they're giving.
From a coach's perspective, being aware that once the information is given, the comments also given will be associated to an emotion. If you give information that makes the athlete feel really good about that, they're more likely to apply it. If you give information and they feel great, then you give a parting comment that changes the associated emotion, you no longer have a clear and concise application of that information.
That all sounds technical, what it means is if you want an athlete to do their best, leave them with a positive emotion. Make sure you've left them feeling comfortable when trying to apply something new – let them use that information in the most efficient format.
From an athlete's perspective, it comes down to having emotional and mental resilience. There are couple ways to do this.
For older athletes, it's more about recognition of the relevance of the information. Take a logical approach of "This is what I need for this skill, let me sort that from my coach". The relationship from the coach to the athlete has to be equal in communication. The information needs to sit well and they have to have an open relationship of good communication.
With younger athletes – teens and lower – building emotional resilience is asking them to see things through a 'protective layer'. We all have filtering systems that have developed over our life spans and are formed by things we've experienced in life. Young athletes are influenced by themselves, parents, social groups, peers, etc. These are inbuilt, cultivated filtering systems.
By tweaking these filters to become more relevant for the younger set is to teach them to create an image in their brain. That is, when anyone is trying to give them information, having a set of filters to put that information through, in order to keep the relevance of that information – is key.
I explain the process of how to build resilience in athletes in detail on my Brain in the Game podcast.
The resilience process gives the athlete wider control over the information they receive, to apply the bits they need, or put it away for later. It also allows athletes to unemotionally bounce the negativity away.
As a coach, how do you give your information? Are you undoing all that great work with your throwaway comment, or not making information relevant?
If you're an athlete saying "That's me! My coach has made me feel really negative even after giving me great information…", then be proactive about managing that information, more aware of what you need to use, to keep, to store and to bounce off.
Also being conscious about how you ask the questions will help this process. Asking in a certain way is more likely to get the response in the same way. If you ask very emotionally-charged questions, you're more likely to get emotionally-charged responses. How you ask questions will often dictate how you receive the answer.
This process of emotional resilience is about being specific with what we get, how we get it, and how we used it; and letting all the other stuff that comes with it, go.


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Q: GroupBy query for billion records - Vertica I am working on an application where records are in billions and I need to make a query where GroupBy clause is needed.
Table Schema:
  CREATE TABLE event (
  eventId INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
  eventTime INTEGER NOT NULL,
  sourceId INTEGER NOT NULL,
  plateNumber VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL,
  plateCodeId INTEGER NOT NULL,
  plateCountryId INTEGER NOT NULL,
  plateStateId INTEGER NOT NULL
);

    CREATE TABLE source (
  sourceId INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
  sourceName VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL
);

Scenario:

*

*User will select sources, suppose source ID (1,2,3)

*We need to get all events which occurred more than once for those source for event time range

*Same event criteria (same platenumber, platecodeId, platestateId, plateCountryId)
I have prepared a query to perform above mentioned operation but its taking long time to execute.
    select plateNumber, plateCodeId, plateStateId,
    plateCountryId, sourceId,count(1) from event
    where sourceId in (1,2,3)
    group by sourceId, plateCodeId, plateStateId,
    plateCountryId, plateNumber
   having  count(1) > 1 limit 10 offset 0

Can you recommend optimized query for it?

A: Since you didn't supply the projection DDL, I'll assume the projection is default and created by the CREATE TABLE statement
Your goal is to achieve the use of the GROUPBY PIPELINED algorithm instead of GROUPBY HASH which is usually slower and consumes more memory.
To do so, you need the table('s projection) to be sorted by the columns in the group by clause.
More info here: GROUP BY Implementation Options
CREATE TABLE event (
  eventId INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
  eventTime INTEGER NOT NULL,
  sourceId INTEGER NOT NULL,
  plateNumber VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL,
  plateCodeId INTEGER NOT NULL,
  plateCountryId INTEGER NOT NULL,
  plateStateId INTEGER NOT NULL
)
ORDER BY sourceId,
         plateCodeId,
         plateStateId,
         plateCountryId,
         plateNumber;

You can see which algorithm is being used by adding EXPLAIN before your query.


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Home Tech News US Pirate IPTV Industry is Worth $1 Billion, So Who's Making Big...
US Pirate IPTV Industry is Worth $1 Billion, So Who's Making Big Bucks? * TorrentFreak
In June, TorrentFreak published an article which gave a very brief outline of the pirate IPTV business, in particular how those services are sold and how customers are serviced.
The report scratched only the service of what is a highly organized industry, one that over the past several years has developed into a global phenomenon – not to mention a thorn in the side of major entertainment industry groups.
A new report from content protection company NAGRA takes a much deeper dive, outlining not only the structure of pirate IPTV supply but also providing estimates on the size of the market in the United States and who's making money from it.
Right off the bat, it's worth noting that the report is co-presented by the Digital Citizens Alliance, a Hollywood-funded group that has produced highly-critical studies in the past, focusing variously on the so-called 'cyberlocker' market and alleged connections between pirate content and malware.
US Pirate IPTV Market Estimated to Be Worth a Cool Billion Dollars
Titled "Money for Nothing", the headline figure in the report is that the pirate IPTV market in the United States generates a billion dollars every year. This is the revenue from subscriptions alone and excludes the costs associated with buying hardware (set-top boxes etc) to play the content.
NAGRA says that subscription costs vary quite wildly ($2pm to $25pm) but most average between $10pm to $15pm. For the purposes of the study, NAGRA presumes $10pm ($120 per year) for a typical sunscriber.
The researchers believe that nine million households in the US currently have a pirate subscription, meaning that when other household residents are accounted for, around 30 million individuals are watching content from these sources, which is roughly nine percent of the population.
The stated aim of the report is to determine whether this poses a major threat to legitimate providers, one that "should draw the immediate and sustained attention of policymakers and law enforcement."
How the Pirate IPTV Market is Structured
"The consumer's point of contact with the piracy ecosystem is the PS IPTV [Pirate Subscription IPTV] Retailer. The Retailer advertises to the public, often through social media, driving users to a storefront website where they can download the app, buy a device with the app pre-installed, or otherwise receive instructions on how to access and pay for the services," the report reads.
"Typically, the Retailer purchases its service from a PS IPTV Wholesaler. Often, the Retailer buys 'credits' from a Wholesaler to sell a certain number of subscriptions to consumers. The Retailer relies on the Wholesaler's technical infrastructure and access to stolen content to deliver the service to subscribers. The Retailer spends little in upfront costs, and can purchase additional credits from the Wholesaler whenever its customer base expands."
The report shies away from providing lists of retailers and wholesalers but one well-known service, Rocketstreams, gets a particularly clear and prominent mention, as the image below shows.
"In some instances, a Wholesaler may be a fully integrated operation, gathering the feeds of the stolen channels, developing its own proprietary technology, and using its own servers and software to scrape internet sources for stored movies and television shows for Video on Demand (VOD) services. More commonly, a Wholesaler will outsource or barter for one or more of these functions," the NAGRA report adds.
It's common knowledge that most 'wholesalers' don't have direct source access to all of the channels they provide to their customers, since the logistics are both complex and expensive. Instead, as the report notes, it's common for them to work with other 'wholesalers' to either share channel packages to fill gaps in their respective offerings or buy the rights to restream them outright.
Pirate IPTV Retailers: Costs and Profits
Beginning with the customer-facing retailers, NAGRA estimates that in the US alone, they operate via 3,500 storefront websites, social media pages, and stores within online marketplaces. A large retailer could have as many as 100,000 subscribers, NAGRA says, while highlighting YouTube star and former IPTV seller Bill Omar Carrasquillo, a.k.a. OMI IN A HELLCAT, as one of the most high-profile.
Categorizing Carrasquillo as a 'retailer' could be up for debate, however, since he's on record as stating that he captured his own content, meaning that he could also be considered a wholesaler under the report's definition. However, it's likely that at times he did both and anyway, the main point being highlighted is that he sold to the public and reportedly made millions doing so.
Of course, not everyone operates on the scale that Carrasquillo did, a point acknowledged by NAGRA.
Due to the low barriers to entry, retailers/resellers may have only a few thousand customers or less and for the study, the company analyzed a retailer with around 5,000 subscribers buying subscriptions at $10pm/$120 pa, generating around $600,000 per year.
NAGRA looked at the investment and costs involved (including web development and buying 'credits' from wholesalers and arrived at profits of $265,000 per year.
"In this example, a PS IPTV Retailer with just 5,000 subscribers can expect to make a yearly profit of over $335,000 on an estimated $600,000 in annual revenues. That's a robust 56 percent profit margin. Moreover, because this is an illegal business, it is highly unlikely that the PS IPTV Retailer is reporting this income to the Internal Revenue Service, so that profit may be tax-free," NAGRA notes.
Pirate IPTV Wholesalers: Costs and Profits
"NAGRA estimates that a large Wholesaler may serve streams — through multiple retailers — to millions of subscribers worldwide. This research is rooted in close scrutiny of these operators. For example, NAGRA assisted the investigation that led to the June 2020 Spanish National Police raid that took down dozens of related PS IPTV brands, serving over 2 million subscribers worldwide.
"NAGRA discovered 566 domain names pointing to the raided servers, many of which included terms that suggest that they are used to sell or deliver PS IPTV services," the report reads.
For the purposes of the report, NAGRA looked at what it believes to be a typically-sized wholesaler serving around 30,000 subscribers through retailers, meaning that it had no associated retail costs.
NAGRA estimates that a typical wholesaler sells restreaming connections for $6 per subscriber per month, with one connection servicing as many consumers as needed. If the wholesaler sells restreaming connections to 10 other wholesalers, it can generate revenues of $144,000 per year.
In respect of retail sales, when offered to retailers/resellers at $4 per credit (1 credit = 1 month subscription), the cost is $48.00 to the retailer.
"Assuming the 30,000 subscribers are all acquired through its Retailers, the Wholesaler's revenue would be ($48 x 30,000) = $1,440,000 per year, bringing the Wholesaler's total revenue to $1,584,000 per year."
Of course, no business exists without costs and NAGRA provides a fairly detailed overview of its estimates, available as images here and here. The bottom line, however, is that wholesalers are more profitable than retailers/resellers, at least when their setup costs are gradually removed as their business gets into full swing.
"Once the service has ramped up and capital expenditures have been amortized, this typical Wholesaler would make a yearly profit of over $1,345,200, with a profit margin of 85 percent, also likely tax-free," the company adds.
Legitimate Companies Are Supporting Illegal Business
Over the past several years there have been growing demands for legitimate companies to stop doing business with pirate sites and services. At least in part, the report – which will no doubt be used as a lobbying tool in the months and years to come – aims to put those entities under pressure.
Payment processors, credit card companies, hosting providers, CDN companies, website services and social media companies all get a general mention for playing a role, from directly processing subscription payments through to tolerating marketing campaigns that drive traffic to pirate services.
Alleged Harms to the Consumer
While there doesn't appear to be any major or fundamental issues with NAGRA's industry overview, no Digital Citizens Alliance report would be complete without claims of piracy hurting the consumer. Indeed, the report speaks loosely of malware issues in respect of pirate apps being unsafe and some pirates collaborating with "hackers and other bad actors" to steal or hijack data, mine cryptocurrency, and other nefarious activities.
However, the section is worth reading closely since most references do not relate to premium pirate IPTV subscriptions, with NAGRA only noting that "PS IPTV operators may, either currently or in the future, engage in the same behavior."
Another observation appears to be targeted at government and lawmakers. It has little to do with piracy but has the potential to throw fuel on the fire in the corridors of power since it links terrorism with IPTV providers.
"[O]ut of the hundreds of PS IPTV services monitored in NAGRA labs over recent years, nearly 50 percent included Al-Manar in their channel list. The Al-Manar channel was labeled in 2004 by the U.S. government as a 'Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity.' It is banned in the United States and in a number of European countries," the report reads.
Al-Manar, of course, is a Lebanese-based TV station owned and operated by political party/militant group Hezbollah which is not only considered a terrorist group by many countries around the world, but also receives backing from Iran. It's a small point in the report but is almost guaranteed to make headlines in the future.
The full report can be downloaded here (pdf)
Previous articleCIPPIC and CIRA Warn Federal Court of Pirate Site Blocking Dangers * TorrentFreak
Next articleISP Cox Asks Court to Reduce Piracy Damages By $243 Million * TorrentFreak
Watch McGregor on Saturday and "See What Happens" * TorrentFreak


text:
Please find below our current and recent projects on improving experience and equity in healthcare:
Improving healthcare commissioning for probation: mapping the landscape
Quality and Costs of Primary Care in Europe (QUALICOPC)
Clinical Trials for Elderly Patients with Multiple Diseases (CHROMED)
Proactive Assessment of Obesity Risk during Infancy (ProAsk)
Carers of Alzheimer's Disease Sufferers: Empowerment and Efficacy via Education (CADS:E3)
Exploring factors increasing Paramedics' likelihood of administering Analgesia in pre-hospital pain (ExPLAIN)
Prehospital Differences In Care by eThnicity (PreDICT)
Improving healthcare commissioning for probation: mapping the landscape 2011-14
Funded by the NIHR Research for Patient Benefit Porgramme, awarding £150,000. Key contact: Dr Coral Sirdifield.
This study, funded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Research for Patient Benefit Programme aims to produce a toolkit which will help commissioners and staff delivering health services to effectively measure and improve the quality of probationers' healthcare.
Quality and Costs of Primary Care in Europe (QUALICOPC) 2011-14
Funded by the European Commission, awarding €62,000. Key contact: Dr Coral Sirdifield.
This study, which involved over 30 countries in Europe, North America and Australasia, investigated which aspects of the structure and organisation of primary care are the most important in promoting service quality and equity while minimising costs. A team from CaHRU, led by Professor Niro Siriwardena, ran the UK section of this study, which involved recruiting GP practices from across the East Midlands and South Yorkshire region. Each practice was asked to complete a fieldworker questionnaire, a GP questionnaire, and questionnaires on patient values and experiences. Through this we increased understanding of the variety of ways in which primary care is structured and organised in these regions, and patients' experiences of accessing primary care services and which aspects of care they particularly value.
Clinical Trials for Elderly Patients with Multiple Diseases (CHROMED) 2013-15
Funded by the European Commission, awarding €2,563,530.75. Key contact: Dr Jo Middlemass.
This three year study involved eight academic and third sector partners in five European countries. The hypothesis of the study was that integrated home care electronic monitoring will improve the quality of life for the patient and reduce healthcare management and service use costs for co-morbidities such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and Congestive Heart Failure (CHF). CaHRU worked with Lincolnshire Community Health Services to develop and evaluate clinical protocols and organisational models based on the new technologies. The programme consisted of an initial feasibility study (April-May 2013), with a full randomised trial running from September 2013–April 2015.
Proactive Assessment of Obesity Risk during Infancy 2014-15
Funded by the Medical Research Council, awarding £149,995. Key contact: Professor Niro Siriwardena
This project aims to develop a and test the feasibility of a complex intervention comprising an interactive, educational programme (ProAsk) for health practitioners to guide and enhance communication with parents of infants about obesity risk identification and prevention strategies.
Carers of Alzheimer's Disease Sufferers: Empowerment and Efficacy via Education (CAD: E3) 2014-15
Funded by the University of Lincoln Research Investment Fund, awarding £36,545. Key contact: Dr Jo Middlemass.
This a one year study which aimed to develop develop a complex psychoeducational intervention for carers of people with dementia to improve carer and patient outcomes.
Exploring factors increasing Paramedics' likelihood of administering Analgesia in pre-hospital pain (ExPLAIN) 2016-17
Funded by the Falck Foundation, awarding €33,000. Key contact: Dr Zahid Asghar
The aim of this study is to investigate patient and practitioner factors affecting paramedic pain management practice in adult patients attended by ambulance services and to explore whether paramedic initiated analgesia differs according to factors such as the age, sex, ethnicity or type of pain of the adult patient and paramedic factors such as sex or role seniority.
Prehospital Differences In Care by eThnicity' (PreDICT) 2015-18
Unfunded study. Key contacts: Dr Zahid Asghar and Viet-Hai Phung
This study aimed to investigate how processes and outcomes of prehospital care for common emergencies attended by ambulance staff vary by ethnicity and to conduct a systematic review of the barriers and facilitators for ethnic minority groups in accessing urgent and pre-hospital care.


text:
Urban Utopias
Posted on May 1, 2019 May 27, 2019 by Tommy O'Donnell
Hiatus: Comparing 3 Smart Cities
Author's Note: With my finals week closing in, I've had to once again push off my next major post. Once summer starts, I'll start building up a backlog again, and have new posts for the rest of the year. Until then, here's another piece I wrote for my Smart Cities class.
New Songdo City
New Songdo City, AKA Songdo International Business District (IBD), is a South Korean planned city begun in 2008. The city was designed by an international partnership, led by two New York companies. The plan covers many distinct and occasionally contradictory goals. First, Songdo aims to be the first "ubiquitous city," with technology in every aspect of residents' lives (Kshetri, Alcantara, & Park, 2014). It was also built near the Incheon International Airport as an aerotropolis, claiming to be "a 3 ½ hour flight to 1/3 of the world's population" (Songdo IBD, 2015). Songdo's developers also claim it is a sustainable green city, but it is clear the main goal is to be a hub for international business.
Projects and Advancements
Figure 1: A master panel in New Songdo City (Ilhan, 2015).
The master panel in every apartment in Songdo represents the ubiquitous services that define the city. These panels provide access to security cameras for the building and control lights, temperature, and air quality in the apartments. They also act as telephones, memo pads, and smart meters that provide access to the apartment's power usage information (Foth, Brynskov, & Ojala, 2015). One of the more impressive functions of the city is its waste management system. All trash is collected through pneumatic tubes, which move it to a centralized plant, where it is processed, returning energy and heating water to the city (Anthopoulos, 2017). This is a highlight for many Songdo residents (Foth et al., 2015). Various other citywide smart systems are in various stages of prototyping. Songdo's environmental programs include more than 20 million square feet of LEED certified space, the highest concentration in the world (Songdo IBD, 2015). The design aims to minimize car use, by making all neighborhoods pedestrian friendly and within 15 minutes of a source of public transit (Pollock, 2010).
King Abdullah Economic City
Figure 2: The King Abdullah Port in KAEC (HUTA Group photographer, 2015).
A massive undertaking begun in 2005, the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) is just the first of four "Economic Cities" in Saudi Arabia. The $100 billion project hopes to move the economy of the country away from oil. KAEC's industry is built on shipping, logistics, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and food processing (Moser, Swain, & Alkhabbaz, 2015). The city is broken into six areas: an Industrial Valley, an educational zone, a central business district, seaside resorts, a series of residential zones, and the King Abdullah Port. The port is the crowning jewel of the city, linking Asia, Africa, and Europe through the largest port in the region, built to serve the largest ships in the world.
KAEC features a custom high-speed broadband system throughout the city, and all city functions run through central Integrated Operation Centers (Angelidou, 2017). The port uses state-of-the-art cranes and features berths for the largest ships in the world (figure 2). A high-speed rail system connects KAEC to Jeddah and Mecca. Finally, although a large-scale canal project was cancelled, the city incorporates a series of natural wadis, channels that help prevent floods and slow rainwater so it is absorbed into groundwater and doesn't rush into the Red Sea, damaging coral (Moser et al., 2015).
Masdar City
Figure 3: Masdar City's PRT lobby (Masdar Official, 2010).
Masdar City is a masterplanned community near Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is a response to the UAE's reliance on dwindling oil supplies, terrible carbon footprint, and vulnerability to climate change. The city broke ground in 2008, and is often described as the "first sustainable city in the world" (Crot, 2013). The city is intended as a sort of urban laboratory, built to test smart city technology on an urban scale, with a focus on economic and environmental sustainability (Cugurullo, 2016).
Figure 4: The windtower at the center of Masdar City (Masdar Official, 2010).
Masdar has implemented a number of very interesting projects, although many of them have stalled as pilot projects. The Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) System, for example, has been the subject of much press about the city, despite it only consisting of 13 cars on a single 800 meter track (Hill, 2011, see figure 2). Other projects have seen more success. Although the planned solar panels on every building were scrapped, a 10-megawatt solar farm powers a large portion of the city, as does partial roof coverage. The narrow shaded streets promote pedestrian travel, and the combination of traditional Arabic building techniques with new materials cools buildings and streets naturally. The windtower in the center of the city helps funnel air through the central plaza (figure 3).
All three of these cities seem similar at first blush: masterplanned greenfield developments, built to boost economies. However, these smart cities really come alive when they are compared and contrasted. To do so, I'll compare the cities qualitatively across the three dimensions of sustainable development (Environmental, Social, and Economic), since all of them claim to be sustainable communities for the future. I'll also include what quantitative data is available, although it is sparse and inconsistent for these brand-new cities.
All three of these cities were built from scratch, already troubling for their environmental impact. Songdo is perhaps the worst of these, being built on reclaimed wetland, immediately at risk from climate change. Masdar's claim of carbon neutrality is belied by the constant oil-fueled construction projects, limited success of solar power, and need for offsite desalination, equally oil-fueled (Crot, 2013).
Both Songdo and KAEC feature canal systems with differing purposes and effects. Songdo's water taxi canals use saltwater to prevent freezing and avoid wasting potable water. KAEC, on the other hand, only has pre-existing natural wadis, which only fill during the rainy season, act as drainage, and protect the offshore coral reefs (Moser et al., 2015).
On a higher level, KAEC has demonstrated little intent to move away from oil. The city shows no evidence of renewable energy activity. Masdar is doing somewhat better, though its success has been limited, as mentioned above. All buildings in the Emirati city are targeted to reduce internal water use by 30 percent and energy demand by 40, as well as rating 3 Pearls in the Estidama system, comparable to LEED Gold (Masdar, 2016).
However, Songdo may be the best of these cities environmentally: by accepted LEED as its design standard and limiting automobiles, the city purports to produce 70 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than developments of comparable size (Kohn Pederson Fox, n.d.).
Building brand new cities is always a gamble, and any city will fail if no one chooses to live there. Songdo is somewhat notorious for being a ghost town, with only a handful of companies and one-third of the residents it is meant to host (Poon, 2018). This has resulted in complaints about the lack of social life and neighborhood interaction, even forcing people to drive to Seoul on weekends to spend time with friends and family.
The other two cities have done somewhat better for themselves, attracting some industry, as well as students to their universities–King Abdullah University of Science and Technology near KAEC and the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Masdar–but both have had trouble with privacy and security concerns (Angelidou, 2017). KAEC's residential areas cover all income brackets, but they are homogenous, gated communities with a lack of interaction and diversity (Moser et al., 2015).
None of the cities perform well socially, possibly because none of their smart city programs feature any sort of resident input (Angelidou, 2017).
Songdo, KAEC, and Masdar were all built to boost their countries' respective economies and draw foreign investment. All three are Free Economic Zones, with special tax, regulation, and legal benefits for companies moving to them. Masdar and KAEC both specifically aim to shift their countries' economies from oil to more sustainable industries. Masdar perhaps does this better, as it works toward a specific industry, energy, while KAEC has much broader goals, including many oil-reliant industries such as plastics and shipping, as well as a much-celebrated Mars Bar factory (Moser et al., 2015). This does promote a certain amount of economic sustainability, by moving energy-intensive industry closer to the source of oil, but doesn't do much to reduce reliance. Neither city, though, has much influence on the broader economy of their nations.
Songdo's focus recently narrowed, hoping to build on its success attracting biotechnology companies (Poon, 2018). Ultimately though, Songdo's struggle drawing people feeds back into a struggle drawing corporations and investment.
All three of the cities are also massive drains for their creators, well over budget and schedule. In fact, none of them are even complete yet, as their construction deadlines are perpetually pushed back. The hope is that, once they are complete, the cities will finally be able to pay these debts back in spades.
Angelidou, M. (2017). The Role of Smart City Characteristics in the Plans of Fifteen Cities. Journal of Urban Technology, 24(4), 3–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/10630732.2017.1348880
Anthopoulos, L. (2017). Smart utopia VS smart reality: Learning by experience from 10 smart city cases. Cities, 63, 128–148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2016.10.005
Crot, L. (2013). Planning for Sustainability in Non-democratic Polities: The Case of Masdar City. Urban Studies, 50(13), 2809–2825. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098012474697
Cugurullo, F. (2016). Urban eco-modernisation and the policy context of new eco-city projects: Where Masdar City fails and why. Urban Studies, 53(11), 2417–2433. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098015588727
Foth, M., Brynskov, M., & Ojala, T. (2015). Citizen's right to the digital city urban interfaces, activism, and placemaking. Citizen's Right to the Digital City: Urban Interfaces, Activism, and Placemaking, 1–259. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-919-6
Hill, D. J. (2011). Masdar City Abandons Transportation System of the Future. Retrieved March 3, 2019, from https://singularityhub.com/2011/03/01/masdar-city-abandons-public-transportation-system-of-the-future/#sm.0000mesr28l1gdgauz22iqwblaqbc
HUTA Group photographer. (2015). King Abdullah Port, King Abdullah Economic City. [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:King_Abdullah_Port,_King_Abdullah_Economic_City.jpg
Ilhan, A. (2015). Evaluation ubiquitärer Informationsdienste in New Songdo City. LIBREAS. Library Ideas, (27). Retrieved from http://libreas.eu/ausgabe27/06ilhan/
Kohn Pederson Fox. (n.d.). New Songdo City. Retrieved March 3, 2019, from https://www.kpf.com/projects/new-songdo-city
Kshetri, N., Alcantara, L. L., & Park, Y. (2014). Development of a Smart City and its Adoption and Acceptance: the Case of New Songdo (*). Digiworld Economic Journal, (96), 113–128. Retrieved from http://www.comstrat.org
Masdar. (2016). SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2016. Masdar City. Retrieved from http://www.masdar.ae/assets/downloads/content/669/sustainability_report_2016.pdf
Masdar Official. (2010). Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) driverless vehicles in Masdar City. [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/94219060@N03/8576433809/in/album-72157634017125975/
Masdar Official. (2010). Center Courtyard and the Windtower at the Masdar Institute Campus, Masdar City. [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/94219060@N03/8577531966/in/album-72157634017125975/
Moser, S., Swain, M., & Alkhabbaz, M. H. (2015). King abdullah economic city: Engineering Saudi Arabia's post-oil future. Cities, 45, 71–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2015.03.001
Pollock, N. R. (2010). A Green City Rises. Architectural Record, 198(10), 60–66. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251741211266697.
Poon, L. (2018). Songdo, South Korea's Smartest City, Is Lonely – CityLab. Retrieved March 5, 2019, from https://www.citylab.com/life/2018/06/sleepy-in-songdo-koreas-smartest-city/561374/
Songdo IBD. (2015). [online] Available at http://songdoibd.com [Accessed 3 Mar 2019].
Posted in Hiatus, Present Day, Short Pieces, Smart CitiesTagged KAEC, Masdar, Smart Cities, Songdo, Urban Design, Urban Planning
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