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Statistical Inference via Convex Optimization
Anatoli Juditsky
Hardcover ISBN: 9780691197296 $95.00/£80.00 ebook ISBN: 9780691200316 Available as EPUB or PDF $66.50/£56.00 $95.00/£80.00
Anatoli Juditsky and Arkadi Nemirovski
Princeton Series in Applied Mathematics
7 x 10 in.
40 b/w illus.
This authoritative book draws on the latest research to explore the interplay of high-dimensional statistics with optimization. Through an accessible analysis of fundamental problems of hypothesis testing and signal recovery, Anatoli Juditsky and Arkadi Nemirovski show how convex optimization theory can be used to devise and analyze near-optimal statistical inferences.
Statistical Inference via Convex Optimization is an essential resource for optimization specialists who are new to statistics and its applications, and for data scientists who want to improve their optimization methods. Juditsky and Nemirovski provide the first systematic treatment of the statistical techniques that have arisen from advances in the theory of optimization. They focus on four well-known statistical problems—sparse recovery, hypothesis testing, and recovery from indirect observations of both signals and functions of signals—demonstrating how they can be solved more efficiently as convex optimization problems. The emphasis throughout is on achieving the best possible statistical performance. The construction of inference routines and the quantification of their statistical performance are given by efficient computation rather than by analytical derivation typical of more conventional statistical approaches. In addition to being computation-friendly, the methods described in this book enable practitioners to handle numerous situations too difficult for closed analytical form analysis, such as composite hypothesis testing and signal recovery in inverse problems.
Statistical Inference via Convex Optimization features exercises with solutions along with extensive appendixes, making it ideal for use as a graduate text.
Anatoli Juditsky is professor of applied mathematics and chair of statistics and optimization at the Multidisciplinary Institute in Artificial Intelligence at the Université Grenoble Alpes in France. Arkadi Nemirovski is the John Hunter Chair and professor of industrial and systems engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His books include Robust Optimization (Princeton).
"For graduate students and researchers who are interested in high-dimensional statistics and its interplay with convex optimization, this book will serve as an invaluable resource."—Debashis Ghosh, International Statistical Review
"Comprehensive and highly significant. In recent years, optimization and statistics have moved closer together, with top researchers becoming versatile in both. This monumental work proposes much deeper connections between the two fields, and its approach will be taught in PhD courses for years to come."—Alexander Rakhlin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"Juditsky and Nemirovski's use of tools and concepts from convex optimization to solve statistical problems is very promising and will have a lasting impact in both statistics and data science more broadly. The book's format consists of extended lecture notes with examples, numerical experiments, and exercises, which is particularly suitable for presenting this material."—Arnak Dalalyan, ENSAE ParisTech
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Net Worth Barbara Billingsley
Barbara Billingsley's source of wealth comes from being a tv actress. How much money is Barbara Billingsley worth at the age of 107 and what's her real net worth now?
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Barbara Billingsley (born December 22, 1915) is famous for being tv actress. She currently resides in Los Angeles. She played mother June Cleaver on the classic comedy series Leave It to Beaver from 1957 to 1963.
Barbara Lillian Combes
December 22, 1915 (age 107)
Barbara Billingsley is a Capricorn and was born in The Year of the Rabbit
Barbara Billingsley was born in Los Angeles on Wednesday, December 22, 1915 (G.I. Generation generation). She is 107 years old and is a Capricorn. Barbara Billingsley was an American film, television, voice, and stage actress. In the 1950s, she starred in the film The Careless Years.
She fell in love with acting in second grade and proceeded to participate in every one of her school's plays. Barbara Lillian Combes attended George Washington High School in Los Angeles, California, in 1934. and Los Angeles Junior College. Barbara Billingsley is a member of Richest Celebrities and TV Actresss.
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In honor of Labor Day, I've been reflecting on my career in Cybersecurity and how I got here. I wasn't always interested in security or even computers. When I graduated from college, I thought I wanted to be a stockbroker. I don't know why. Looking back, I can't say what it was that interested me about it, other than maybe the excitement related to being so close to the core of our financial system. During my senior year, I went to New York and interviewed with some companies, but I realized I couldn't survive in NYC on what they were offering, so I went with my backup plan. I moved back home with my parents.
I got this temp job working at a telecommunications company. It wasn't bad, and learning about technology came pretty easily for me. But in my spare time in the evenings, I was studying to get my license to be a financial advisor. I still knew nothing about investing, didn't have a 401k, had never bought a home (remember I'm living with my parents at this point), and barely had a checking account. But I learned a lot about sales through a training program with a firm that wanted to hire me after I was licensed. After I got my license, I'll admit I had started to get cold feet when I looked at all of the cold calls I was going to have to do everyday.
I was just a temp at my day job, and the director of the facility called me in. I had a 6-month contract and it was coming to the end of that time. There were lots of other contractors who had been there much longer, so I wasn't worried. This was my cushion, my safety net, my backup plan. The director didn't know I was thinking of giving up on being a financial advisor and thought I needed a kick in the pants to get out the door. So he let me know he thought I was a great employee, an asset to the company, but I needed to go pursue my dreams. So he fired me.
By that point, I had also worked my way up towards being a network engineer, so I shifted gears, buckled down, and got a new job where I could really focus on growing my skills. Did I mention I was still living at home?
I went on to do a lot of things. I worked for some startup tech companies. When those didn't work out I went to law school to focus on my interest in open source software. I had done a lot of really interesting things, but I was still just dabbling here and there.
Have you ever felt like you had a lot of potential, if only you could find a way to unleash it? That was me. I was a hard worker. I spent most nights after work reading about technology or preparing for certification exams. I was building a foundation for a career, for a safe career, but I knew I could do something special.
A funny thing happened along the way. I started this job and instead of asking me to build a network (it had already been built) they asked me to break something. Technically speaking, they wanted me to set up a system to do ARP poisoning in order to allow users to register on the network. This was an open source product which would eventually turn into a NAC system. But I was blown away that after so much effort to understand how things worked, I realized how interesting it was to break them.
I was talking to a cybersecurity expert recently and they said something weird. They said aside from maybe being a rock star or an astronaut, there isn't another job in the world that they would want to be doing instead of cybersecurity. My brain started processing this, and it took about a week before I realized I agreed with him. I can't imagine doing any other job in the world.
I did eventually move out of my parent's house. I went to law school. I wrote books. I started doing public speaking. What is so special about my career in cybersecurity is that, looking back on it, it's been an adventure. I get to help protect people. And when things don't go right, I get to help them through it. There've been twists and turns and surprises. Perhaps the most surprising thing of all, it's been the best job I ever had.


Hariharan Balasubramanian has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Abstract: Certain embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to allocating a sub-area of Fiber Channel addresses (FCIDs) to a device. A range of addresses may be assigned to the device using a mask address, where the most significant bits represent a mask and the least significant bits represent a sub-range of FCIDs available to be assigned to the device. Therefore, routing information may be stored efficiently in a Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM) by storing a single entry in the TCAM for each sub-area of FCIDs allocated to a device, instead of storing an entry for each FCID. The single entry may indicate the mask address and the width of the mask.
Abstract: An example method is provided and can include initiating a probe session at a source network element; identifying multiple paths from the source network element to a destination network element in a network; transmitting packets from the source network element along the multiple paths; compiling a list of network characteristics associated with the multiple paths; and selecting a particular one of the multiple paths for packet routing based on the network characteristics.
Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes identifying a current topology associated with a virtual local area network (VLAN) and determining whether the current topology of the VLAN is to be moved to a base topology associated with a Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) protocol. The method also includes moving the current topology of the VLAN to the base topology if it is determined that the current topology of the VLAN is to be moved to the base topology.
Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes assigning at a switch in a layer 2 multipath network, costs to a link in the network, each of the link costs associated with a different graph for forwarding traffic in the network, transmitting the link costs to other switches in the layer 2 multipath network, and receiving and forwarding traffic according to one of the graphs. An apparatus is also disclosed.
Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a packet at an input port of a network device, the input port having a plurality of queues with at least one queue for each output port at the network device, identifying a port group for transmitting the packet from the network device, the port group having a plurality of members each associated with one of the output ports, and selecting one of the queues based on utilization of the members. An apparatus for load balancing is also disclosed.
Abstract: Methods and apparatus for providing in-order delivery in Fibre Channel (FC) fabric are disclosed. A topological change between a first switch and a second switch is evaluated to determine whether the topological change may result in out-of-order delivery. If it is determined that the topological change may result in out-of-order delivery, a flush frame is sent to the second switch and stop-on-mark is performed on all interfaces of affected links. Upon receiving the flush frame, the second switch drains all virtual output queues (VOQs) and sends an acknowledgement frame to the first switch. The first switch resumes in-order-delivery in an affected link after receiving the acknowledgement frame or expiration of a lifetime time of a frame.
Abstract: Certain embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to allocating a sub-area of Fibre Channel addresses (FCIDs) to a device. A range of addresses may be assigned to the device using a mask address, where the most significant bits represent a mask and the least significant bits represent a sub-range of FCIDs available to be assigned to the device. Therefore, routing information may be stored efficiently in a Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM) by storing a single entry in the TCAM for each sub-area of FCIDs allocated to a device, instead of storing an entry for each FCID. The single entry may indicate the mask address and the width of the mask.


Now There's Something You Don't See…Ever.
I was sitting in the media seats courtside at the Purcell Pavilion, editing my photos from the Women's Basketball game Thursday Feb. 27, when suddenly the lights went out. For all of maybe 3 seconds it was pitch black in the arena. Then emergency exit lighting came on. Luckily most people had already left by this point.
A few minutes after that, most of the rest of the normal arena lighting came back on. Nothing more than a momentary circuit breaker pop, I thought. But then the murmurings began filtering in and the Twitter-verse began a-buzzing: Power outage across campus.
So off I went to investigate.
First thing I noticed was that it didn't seem like a power outage at all…most of the Joyce Center lights were on, the Stadium lights were on, Touchdown Jesus was lit…maybe it was a false alarm? But then a few other things caught my attention: 1. Police directing traffic 2. The sound of generators running, and 3. The odd lack of a familiar golden background object.
As I made my way to ND Avenue to investigate, I noticed more generators, and that about half the normal lighting I was used to was working–some street lights on, some off, some parking lot lights on, some off, some building windows lit, some not. Overall I was quite impressed at the quickness of the batteries, generators and other backup systems on campus in turning an unexpected event into mostly a non-event.


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Syracuse University students showing no signs of SARS virus
Friday, May 2, 2003, By News Staff
Syracuse University students showing no signs of SARS virusMay 02, 2003Kevin Morrowkdmorrow@syr.edu
A Syracuse University student considered a suspect Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) case under Centers for Disease Control (CDC) protocols completed his 10-day monitoring period with no virus symptoms and returned to campus this week to complete the spring semester.
SU Health Services has closely monitored the student's health and that of his SU roommates and girlfriend after the CDC designated him as a suspect SARS case April 21. None of the students have displayed SARS symptoms.
The student had traveled to Toronto on a fraternity outing April 11-13. Upon his return, he went to the University's health center, complaining of a fever and respiratory distress. He was evaluated and transported to Crouse Hospital for treatment. Once his condition had improved, he was discharged April 18.
On April 21, the CDC officially classified Toronto as a SARS affected area and the student entered a 10-day monitoring period, which was extended to a small handful of individuals considered to have the most direct contact with him. The student returned to his home out of state during this time.
As of May 1, SU Health Services had screened 49 students who came to the health center with respiratory symptoms. None of the students met the criteria for SARS.
On March 28, SU's Division of International Programs Abroad (DIPA) informed the 31 students in the University's spring semester program in Hong Kong that the program would be shortened due to SARS concerns. Hong Kong, mainland China, Hanoi (Vietnam), Singapore and Toronto are all classified as areas with documented or suspected community transmission of SARS. The students (15 from SU; 16 from other U.S. institutions) returned to the United States from March 30 to April 7. None have shown signs of the SARS virus.
In cooperation with the Onondaga County Health Department, SU Health Services is closely monitoring CDC and World Health Organization (WHO) updates and bulletins in reference to the changing epidemiology, advances in testing, and other aspects of this emerging infectious disease.
In addition, a University committee is examining the implications of the outbreak on University travel policies and is exploring additional screening protocols and SARS education efforts.
The latest information on SARS is available on the CDC and the WHO Web sites: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/sars and http://www.who.int/csr/sars/en. Information is also available from SU Health Services at 443-2666.
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While I was in Montreal, I took the metro a couple of times. I couldn't resist taking a shot of this sign inside the car: Please note the second type of emergency. Who knew Montreal was such a violent place?


The following commentary was originally published in the "Los Angeles Times" on February 5, 2000, and is reprinted here with permission of the author, Laura Lake.
Recently, I discovered a "Communicable Disease Certificate" allowing me back into society after being a victim of the final polio epidemic in America. It's dated Sept. 12, 1955.
I don't ever remember seeing this document before. It was tucked into my baby vaccination booklet. It was just a 3-by-5 card, but it brought back the full horror of polio, the lack of vaccine, the tragedies that ensued and why I consider myself lucky to be alive and able to walk. Granted, no vaccine is without risk, but polio is rare today because of the vaccine program. Perhaps my experience will prompt hesitant parents to immunize their children against all the childhood diseases, as the organized medical community recommends.
The Salk polio vaccine program began in the spring of 1955. I was in the third grade, 8 years old. Unfortunately, the supply of vaccine ran out with the second grade. They told us they'd finish the job in the fall. That summer, I became ill.
My parents were extremely concerned as my illness worsened. The pain was unbelievable. Headaches, neck aches; cold compresses didn't help. Next, I couldn't feel the floor when I needed to get up to go to the bathroom. I was scared. I needed my parents to lift me out of bed and hold me up under my arms.
After my pediatrician came to our Flatbush home and examined me, he left my room to speak privately to my parents. But I could hear him. He said that I had polio. No doubt about it.
At 8, I knew perfectly well what polio was. I had visions of being confined to a wheelchair, of never walking again, or even dying. When the ambulance came, I insisted that I could really walk, that there was no need to take me away. But I was put on a gurney and away I went to the Kingston Avenue Hospital for Communicable Diseases, where most people who checked in never checked out.
At the hospital I was given a spinal tap in the emergency room, pinned down by orderlies and told that if I moved, I'd surely be a cripple. I didn't move. The test was positive.
Next I was wheeled past rooms filled with patients' heads sticking out of iron lung machines. It was a scary place for adults, no less for children. And my parents could not be with me. The rules were clear: no visitors, not even my parents. I was never allowed to leave my bed. After a few days I learned that nothing that came into my room could ever leave. When my parents stood in the doorway with my favorite doll, I shouted "No! They'll incinerate her! Keep her safe." So my parents kept my doll. I still have her, tucked away in a box in the attic--a silent reminder of survival, of reclaiming my life.
My first roommate was a 6-month-old infant. There was an acute nursing shortage and the nurses told me to watch her, and if she turned blue, to call for help. I'd lay there in my bed staring at the poor baby. Her parents would sneak into the room, despite the risk. They'd just cry. One day, the nurses took the baby away. No one spoke to me about her.
Next came a girl of about 5. She could no longer walk. She explained that she was going to be a baby all over again. I felt so lucky because my ability to walk was returning on its own. After 10 days, I was released. It had seemed like an eternity in hell.
I was quarantined at home for the rest of the summer and not allowed to start school with my friends. Eventually I was allowed back to school, once that little card was signed. When I finally returned to school, I felt like a pariah.
When the new shipment of vaccines arrived, the fourth grade was sent to the auditorium. I, of course, protested, explaining that since I had already had polio, there was no need for me to have a shot. I was told that there were several strains and that I had to have the shot. I gave in.
To those parents who wonder about vaccines, please say yes and protect your children. You have a choice. My parents didn't.
Laura Lake, a former UCLA faculty member, is president of the National Council of Jewish Women in Los Angeles.


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Elephant Insurance looking to hire 100 locally
This post was filed under: Finance + Insurance Finance + Insurance
Elephant Insurance Services LLC said Monday that it is planning to hire more than 100 people in the Richmond area over the next six months.
It would be the fastest clip of hiring yet for the Henrico County-based company, which sells auto insurance direct to consumers in four states.
Elephant has been in growth mode, and in January the company moved from a 32,000-square-foot office on Eastshore Drive in the Innsbrook Corporate Center to a 54,000-square-foot site in the Deep Run I office building at 9950 Mayland Drive.
"We have got enough room here for about 600 people," said Kevin Chidwick, Elephant's chief executive officer. "That was why we moved here — with the intention it would support our business growth needs for the next couple of years."
The company said it expects to hire for positions in information technology, claims, pricing and marketing, and sales and service.
Chidwick said Elephant has about 365 staff members locally now.
"The most important thing is that we are growing very fast, so we need a lot more people," he said, adding that the company has seen growth in its customer base and revenue of about 50 percent per year for several years.
The company had about 31 openings listed on its website Monday. Chidwick said the company wants to fill those as soon as possible, with the other jobs being posted during the next six months.
"You don't have to have a career in insurance to come and work for us," Chidwick said, adding that the company is looking for people with a variety of backgrounds and skills.
Elephant is a division of Admiral Group, which is one of the United Kingdom's leading insurance companies. Admiral opened Elephant Insurance in Henrico as a U.S. division in 2009. The company sells insurance in Virginia, Maryland, Illinois and Texas.
Copyright Richmond Times-Dispatch. Used by Permission.
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The day after Putin
Attempts to interpret the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and especially the consequences of this action on the world, often begin and end with the statement that "nothing will ever be the same anymore". We do not learn from these visionaries what "will not be the same", but we appreciate their effort to describe in dramatic words the crisis caused by the Russian aggression on Ukraine. Because things are really dramatic and have consequences in the long run.
For the Balkans, and especially for Serbia, things will not really be the same as before, but it is good to start by establishing the point to which the "old" ones function, and from which the "new" circumstances begin. It is time to include "the day after Putin" parameter in the projections of future relations in which the Balkans will be included. We will insert this determinant into the equation as certainty, as a constant, and not as a variable, that is, an assumption that can but does not have to be realized.
It is inconceivable that the Ukrainian crisis will end, in any way, with the return of Vladimir Putin to the international arena as an acceptable partner and equal interlocutor. Maybe one day Russia will return to the international stage and its institutions, but then its leader will not be Putin, but someone else. In both cases, it is a long period, years, maybe decades, which no partner close to Russia so far can wait.
As for the Balkans, this is especially true of Serbia, which is considered a close ally of Russia, a country that wants EU membership and is making progress on that path, but is explicitly against NATO membership. By aggression against Ukraine, Russia opened a seemingly worst-case scenario to Serbia, forcing it to reconsider its long-standing policy of simultaneous closeness with both the West and Moscow. Belgrade has been successfully passing through these scissors for years, but since February 24, they have been closing and forcing Serbia to find a new foreign policy strategy.
That strategy can be successful only if it is based on the assumption that "the day after Putin" has begun, and that Russia should be excluded from the calculations on the protection of state interests. Serbia no longer has any reason to link its foreign policy and internal interests to Russia's support. Support may still exist, but it will simply be invisible and without any influence at the international level. Therefore, it will be completely useless for Serbia and its interests.
The main point of the Serbian-Russian political alliance is in protecting Serbia's interests in relation to Kosovo. Russia, as a permanent member of the Security Council, but also an influential member of other important international forums, has so far had the power to block the intentions of Kosovo, as well as Western countries, to fully include Kosovo in international institutions. However, this power disappears with the Russian aggression on Ukraine, since Moscow has become an isolated and rebellious state.
Russia's influence in the UN Security Council, as its permanent member with the right of veto, has so far been the most important point of contact between Serbian and Russian policies of opposition to Kosovo's independence. However, it turned out that with extremely important decisions, decision-making in the Security Council can be overcome by delegating decisions to the UN General Assembly, as was the case with the condemnation of Russian aggression, which Serbia also joined. This very convincing vote (141 to 5) showed that there is almost a consensus in the World Organization against Russian action, and therefore from the diplomatic side, and not only the formal-bureaucratic one, Russia becomes a factor that must and can be bypassed overnight when making important decisions.
Things are even "cleaner" when it comes to the Council of Europe, where Russia's membership was first suspended, and a few days later Russia announced that it was leaving the organization. This is happening at the moment of Pristina's intensive campaign to become a member of the Council of Europe, which Serbia explicitly opposes, and of course Russia, which, however, no longer participates in the work of the forum in Strasbourg. Kosovo does not meet one of the conditions for membership in the Council of Europe, it is not a member of the UN, but it has the support of more than two thirds of the members of this organization to join it, which is another important precondition for membership. In this sense, Serbia's opposition without Russia's support has far less power.
Russia's membership is still being reconsidered in a number of important international organizations, such as the IMF and the OSCE, so Serbia is losing one important ally in these important forums as well. This is especially true of organizations such as Interpol or UNESCO, in which Belgrade has long and successfully blocked Kosovo's membership. In these organizations, the influence of Russia, under Putin, as a tightly isolated country, will be minor, and therefore unusable for Serbia.
When it comes to the Balkans, the Russian invasion of Ukraine only confirmed that the Balkans is traditionally of lower importance for Russia's foreign policy interests. It is in their function, but only as a proxy space in which it is possible to divert the diplomatic and security attention of competitors (the West) from those regions in which Russia is primarily interested. And that is, first of all, Ukraine.
Russia's conscious "withdrawal" from the Balkans in order to shift the focus completely to Ukraine has been very visible in the past few months. It was visible first, through very mild, almost non-existent, Moscow's resistance to the appointment of Christian Schmidt as High Representative in BiH, and then through Russia's silence on the collapse of the pro-Russian government in Montenegro in early February. The one-year term of this government was one of the most important Russian projects for destabilizing the entire region, in which Moscow invested significant resources, but accepted its demise without saying a word, because attention was largely focused on top priority, Ukraine.
On "the day after Putin" in Serbia and in the Balkans in general, there will not be many traces of close political cooperation so far. One of such "monuments", the Serbian-Russian Humanitarian Center in Niš, completely lost its meaning and purpose overnight, if that was really its purpose, to be a hub for action in case of natural disasters in the region. This center is made senseless by the complete political and security isolation of Russia and especially its physical cut-off from the rest of Europe, by the abolition of air traffic. Serbia has reason to breathe a sigh of relief because of such fate of the center in Niš, because for years it has been exposed to suspicions that this is not about any firefighting and rescue, but intelligence activities, led by Russia. At the same time, there is a chance that the center in Niš, with all its resources, will grow overnight into a regional hub for missions in natural or traffic disasters, whose beneficiaries could be Albania and North Macedonia, which are, with Serbia, the creators of the initiative for free economic zone, the Open Balkan.
The political level of the Balkan situation before and after the Ukrainian crisis is quite clear, and it is even clearer if viewed through the prism of "the day after Putin", which is especially true for Serbia and its interests. When we add to that the severe economic consequences that Russia will suffer due to international isolation, it is clear that there is no reason to maintain a partnership of any kind with this country for years and decades, and especially to rely on its international support.
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"I haven't spoken much about trying to take my life, but at the age of 14 it seemed like the only option I had to stop the hurt and sadness I felt every single day. I was actually stopped from going through with it by the person who had made me want to do it in the first place, I felt defeated and like I would never get away. But something changed and I felt like maybe it was meant to be. I was meant to be. Somehow I would fight to get out of the situation.
"I became pretty determined and worked hard to create a different life but I was plagued by constantly not feeling good enough, worthy enough of happiness and success. I began drinking a lot, looking for affection and validation from other people but because of my lack of self esteem I would always end up in abusive relationships with partners and friends. It has been a long and painful journey forgiving myself and others but it was the best thing I could have ever done. I started talking openly about the things I had done that I wasn't proud of and the things that had happened to me so that they weren't a burden or hidden secret anymore. I could feel the weight lifting, I could feel the light coming in and taking the place of all the darkness. I had always felt like nobody had ever really seen the real me but it was time and by being open about who I was and what I'd been through it had led me to helping others.
"I am so glad that I did not succeed in taking my life, I would never have known how great life could be. I would never have known happiness and this is why I am proud to have been asked to be an ambassador for Hector's House."
Bex Walker, founder of Bexfast
@bexfast_
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To minimize the potential for confusion or disruption of care in individuals taking Zinbryta, the FDA worked closely with the medication's manufacturers to ensure the medication's withdrawal from the market.
The withdrawal of Zinbryta underscores the fact that clinical trials, no matter how large and rigorously performed, cannot identify all of the safety issues that may emerge when a medication moves to widespread use following approval by the FDA or regulatory agencies in other countries. At the same time, clinical trials did reveal other safety considerations that prompted the medication's FDA-approved indication to note that it generally should be used only when patients had not had a satisfactory response to at least two other medications. Similarly, it would appear that the post-approval surveillance system worked well in flagging rare but serious conditions that may be associated with the use of Zinbryta.


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Tag: launch
Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Announces Launch of Lupus Nephritis Disease-State Awareness Initiative for Healthcare Professionals, TimeIsNephrons.com
Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:AUPH / TSX:AUP) ("Aurinia" or the "Company") today announced Time Is Nephrons, the first-ever lupus nephritis (LN) disease-state awareness campaign for healthcare professionals (HCPs). The initiative aims to highlight the importance of active screening for early diagnosis to potentially minimize the impact on kidney function and improve long-term outcomes for every patient with LN.
"Unfortunately, for many patients, the signs of lupus nephritis are subtle, yet a single flare of LN can potentially shorten the life span of the kidney by decades. Our ongoing engagement with the lupus nephritis community revealed a key role for Aurinia to help change the course of the patient journey by creating a comprehensive resource for healthcare professionals with the latest disease monitoring and management methods," said Neil Solomons, M.D., Chief Medical Officer at Aurinia Pharmaceuticals. "We are excited to launch the Time Is Nephrons initiative which, along with our patient-focused disease awareness campaigns, aims to enhance awareness and the outlook for patients in need."
Lupus nephritis is one of the most serious complications of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and is caused by an inflammation of the kidney leading to proteinuria. If left untreated, LN can lead to irreversible kidney damage, kidney failure, or even death. In patients with LN, renal damage may start prior to the first clinically detected episode; therefore, patients should be actively and routinely screened for signs of the disease. Patients with LN who achieve a complete response as measured by decreases in proteinuria and a urine protein-to-creatinine ratio (UPCR) of less than 0.5 gm/gm can achieve better long term kidney outcomes such as avoidance of kidney failure, dialysis, or need for transplantation.
About Aurinia
Aurinia Pharmaceuticals is a late-stage
Ocreative Marks the Launch of Their New Website with Ten More International Creative & Marketing Awards | News
HARTLAND, Wis., Oct. 13, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — To earmark the launch of their new website, Ocreative, an integrated marketing agency, also announced they've been generously recognized by the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts (AIVA) for their outstanding work in traditional and digital marketing. With over 6,000 entries from companies and agencies spanning the globe, the Communicator Awards are one of largest awards of its kind in the world.
"We have the opportunity to work with some really incredible, innovative clients," says Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Andrea Koeppel. "They trust us with their business, and we work hard to honor their vision, goals, and messaging with top-tier work."
Working closely with clients and creating an environment of transparency and open communication are paramount to Ocreative's success, she explained. So much so, that they chose to center their new website around their client relationship philosophy. "We really wanted to let businesses and organizations of all sizes know that cutting-edge web design and development and inventive marketing are accessible," Koeppel continued. "We want to educate and guide and we're thrilled that organizations like AIVA choose to highlight our work. It lets us know we're always moving in the right direction and gives our clients confidence and peace of mind."
Ocreative's new website boasts a detailed series of case studies in their portfolio to help potential and existing clients get a better handle on the agency's marketing experience and capabilities. "We want to show people how marketing strategies can work and provide real outcomes," Koeppel said "But we really wanted our creative team to run with it, no holds barred. Let's really show them what's possible." The new website balances vibrant colors, graphics, and animation with real photos of their team and office, located in Hartland, WI.
Alongside their portfolio,
London Business School and LocalGlobe launch new VC course aimed at women, Black and Asian candidates
With the UK's Black Tech Fest on this week it's timely that a new executive education course aimed at those wanting to enter the venture capital industry has been launched to serve previously under-represented groups, especially women, Black, Asian and other minorities.
London Business School and LocalGlobe, one of Europe's leading seed investors, worked together to created two new programs to provide formal business education for roles across the VC world. The Newton Venture Program courses will cover the full spectrum of investment roles in the venture ecosystem, from VC investors to Limited Partners, angel investors, accelerators, and tech transfer officers. The aim of the programs is to upskill the venture capital sector while broadening the routes through which people can join the industry.
The courses will aim for a gender split of 50/50, with at least 50% coming from Black, Asian or other minorities. backgrounds, and will be available to anyone just starting out or mid-career professionals.
There will be two cohorts a year, of up to 60 students, with the first online program set to start in April 2021. The first on-campus cohort will start in October 2021. Applicants are welcome to apply from anywhere around the world; the majority are expected to be from the UK, the EU, Africa and Israel.
An online-only program will cost £2,050 or £16,000 for the in-person, on-campus program at London Business School, which is aimed at mid-career professionals. Scholarships of up to 100% will be available for both programs.
The initiative is backed by a grant from Research England, a part of UKRI, and the Newton program will be looking for other institutions or VC firms to under-write the course. LocalGlobe and Phoenix Court Works are committed to sponsoring 20 digital scholarships.
The program will give cohorts direct access to experts
Ocreative Marks the Launch of Their New Website with Ten More International Creative & Marketing Awards
Daimler, Swiss Re Launch Mobility Insurance Venture | Investing News
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Swiss Re
and carmaker Daimler
announced a joint automotive and mobility insurance venture on Monday, seeking to tap into a wealth of new data generated by highly automated vehicles to help insurers to calculate risk.
The reinsurer and Daimler, parent of the Mercedes-Benz passenger car brand, set up Movinx, a Berlin-based intermediary they will co-own equally, the companies said in a statement.
As connected and autonomous cars generate live data about traffic flows, vehicle reflexes and driver behaviour, the companies expect new opportunities will arise to customise automotive and mobility insurance products.
"Even before cars come off the manufacturing line, we know the specific features and how that car would react in an emergency situation and we can provide a score to insurance partners to better underwrite the risk," said Pravina Ladva, Swiss Re's digital transformation officer.
Swiss Re already offers to price risk by looking at the number of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) fitted to a car, calculating a car's capability under various traffic conditions considering safety as well as the cost of repairs.
Daimler, which has spent decades refining advanced driver assistance systems, sees an opportunity for monetizing its know-how about vehicle safety.
Ingo Telschow, chief executive of Daimler Insurance Services, said his company was "going deeper into the value chain of insurance business, having more influence on product development and pricing."
Aside from technological advances in the area of automated and connected vehicles, customer behaviour is also shifting from long-term ownership to short-term usage, creating new insurance challenges in the area of pricing and claims handling.
Movinx will position itself as a so-called Managing General Agent (MGA) to help insurers introduce new products across a range of currently fragmented markets, using a new jointly owned risk technology platform.
The first insurance products and


Welcome to Poop Troops, where we can send a Live Oak pooper scooper out to your property as soon as you need. That's right — we are ready to deploy and take aim at public enemy number one: mounds of pet waste.
Dog feces is a huge problem for both residential lawns and commercial properties. Not only do they make your property look unappealing and unsanitary, but dog poop can kill grass and expose both humans and pets to germs and bacteria. Our pooper scooper company in Live Oak TX keeps waste off of your lawn for an affordable rate.
A pooper scooper in Live Oak from our staff can visit your property however often, or seldom, that you need. Our service packages include up to three visits per week. For clients that don't have a really urgent need for pet waste removal, they might find our bi-weekly service more appealing.
When our Live Oak pooper scooper visits your lawn, they will thoroughly walk every inch of your property to make sure that no mound is left behind. Each pile of pet waste is removed and the area is sanitized to treat your lawn for the residual germs and bacteria.
Our pooper scooper company in Live Oak TX wants to make sure that you know your money is being invested wisely. Not only do we over deliver on value, but we protect all of our services with a money-back guarantee. There are no strings attached — if we don't follow through on our promise of thorough and effective service, you don't have to pay.
It's that simple to have a Live Oak pooper scooper fighting your battle out on your property. Call our office staff right now to schedule your service, or to ask us any questions you might have.


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Q: Autoload lines in leaflet I am trying to develop a map with openstreetmap and leaflet.js.
I have a database that contains more than 150,000 data. I can not display them all simultaneously.
So I developed a php script that will query the database and returns a GeoJSON code. It will be called by the JavaScript script.
I am using this project I found on github: https://github.com/chillly/plaques
Here are my current scripts (they work):
SQL code:
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `donnees` (
`data_id` int(11) NOT NULL,
  `data_latitude` double NOT NULL,
  `data_longitude` double NOT NULL,
  `data_portee` float NOT NULL,
) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=1 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

PHP code:

/*
 * ajxplaque.php
 * returns plaque points as geojson
 */

// get the server credentials from a shared import file
$idb= "../include/db.php";
include $idb;

if (isset($_GET['bbox'])) {
    $bbox=$_GET['bbox'];
} else {
    // invalid request
    $ajxres=array();
    $ajxres['resp']=4;
    $ajxres['dberror']=0;
    $ajxres['msg']='missing bounding box';
    sendajax($ajxres);
}
// split the bbox into it's parts
list($left,$bottom,$right,$top)=explode(",",$bbox);

$sql="SELECT data_id,data_latitude,data_longitude,data_portee FROM porteerdi.donnees WHERE data_longitude>=".$left." AND data_longitude<=".$right." AND data_latitude>=".$bottom." AND data_latitude<=".$top;
$data = array(); //setting up an empty PHP array for the data to go into
if($result = db_query($bdd, $sql)) {
  while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)){
    $data[] = $row;
  }
}
$ajxres=array(); // place to store the geojson result
$features=array(); // array to build up the feature collection
$ajxres['type']='FeatureCollection';

for($i=0;$i<count($data)-1;$i++){
    $lat=$data[$i]['data_latitude'];
    $lon=$data[$i]['data_longitude'];
    $prop=array();
    $prop['plaqueid']=$data[$i]['data_id'];
    $prop['plaquedesc']=$data[$i]['data_portee'];
    $prop['colour']="blue";
    $prop['imageid']="op6298.jpg";
    $f=array();
    $geom=array();
    $coords=array();

    $geom['type']='Point';
    $coords[0]=floatval($lon);
    $coords[1]=floatval($lat);

    $geom['coordinates']=$coords;
    $f['type']='Feature';
    $f['geometry']=$geom;
    $f['properties']=$prop;

    $features[]=$f;

}

// add the features array to the end of the ajxres array
$ajxres['features']=$features;
// tidy up the DB
$db = null;
sendajax($ajxres); // no return from there

function sendajax($ajx) {
    // encode the ajx array as json and return it.
    $encoded = json_encode($ajx);
    exit($encoded);
}
?>

JAVASCRIPT code :
/*
 * global variables
 */
var map;            // global map object
var lyrOsm;         // the Mapnik base layer of the map
var lyrPlq;         // the geoJson layer to display plaques with
var blueicon;       // a blue icon for blue plaques
var greenicon;      // a green icon for green plaques
var whiteicon;      // a white icon for white plaques

// when the whole document has loaded call the init function
$(document).ready(init);

function init() {
    // map stuff
    // create the icons
    blueicon=L.icon({
        iconUrl: 'images/blueplaque.png',
        iconSize:     [24, 24], // size of the icon
        iconAnchor:   [12, 23], // point of the icon which will correspond to marker's location
        popupAnchor:  [0, -12]  // point from which the popup should open relative to the iconAnchor
    });
    greenicon=L.icon({
        iconUrl: 'images/greenplaque.png',
        iconSize:     [24, 24], // size of the icon
        iconAnchor:   [12, 23], // point of the icon which will correspond to marker's location
        popupAnchor:  [0, -12]  // point from which the popup should open relative to the iconAnchor

    });
    whiteicon=L.icon({
        iconUrl: 'images/whiteplaque.png',
        iconSize:     [24, 24], // size of the icon
        iconAnchor:   [12, 23], // point of the icon which will correspond to marker's location
        popupAnchor:  [0, -12]  // point from which the popup should open relative to the iconAnchor

    });

    // base layer
    var osmUrl='http://{s}.tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png';
    var osmAttrib='Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors';

    lyrOsm = new L.TileLayer(osmUrl, {
        minZoom: 9,
        maxZoom: 19,
        attribution: osmAttrib
    });

    // a geojson layer
    lyrPlq = L.geoJson(null, {
        pointToLayer: setIcon
        }
    );

    // set the starting location for the centre of the map
    var start = new L.LatLng(53.7610,-0.3529);

    // create the map
    map = new L.Map('mapdiv', {     // use the div called mapdiv
        center: start,              // centre the map as above
        zoom: 12,                   // start up zoom level
        layers: [lyrOsm,lyrPlq]     // layers to add
    });

    // create a layer control
    // add the base layers
    var baseLayers = {
        "OpenStreetMap": lyrOsm
    };

    // add the overlays
    var overlays = {
        "Plaques": lyrPlq
    };

    // add the layers to a layer control
    L.control.layers(baseLayers, overlays).addTo(map);

    // create the hash url on the browser address line
    var hash = new L.Hash(map);

    map.on('moveend', whenMapMoves);

    askForPlaques();
}

function whenMapMoves(e) {
    askForPlaques();
}

function setIcon(feature,ll) {
    var plq;
    plq=L.marker(ll, {icon: greenicon});
    plq.bindPopup(feature.properties.plaquedesc);
    return plq;
}

function askForPlaques() {
    var data='bbox=' + map.getBounds().toBBoxString();
    $.ajax({
        url: 'ajax/ajxplaques.php',
        dataType: 'json',
        data: data,
        success: showPlaques
    });
}

function showPlaques(ajxresponse) {
    lyrPlq.clearLayers();
    lyrPlq.addData(ajxresponse);
}

I now want to display lines between points and do not show these points. I modified my PHP code successfully:
<?php
include "../../../php/database.php";
$bdd = db_connect(); // Connexion à la base de donnée
// uncomment below to turn error reporting on
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
error_reporting(E_ALL);

if (isset($_GET['bbox'])) {
    $bbox=$_GET['bbox'];
} else {
    // invalid request
    $ajxres=array();
    $ajxres['resp']=4;
    $ajxres['dberror']=0;
    $ajxres['msg']='missing bounding box';
    sendajax($ajxres);
}
// split the bbox into it's parts
list($left,$bottom,$right,$top)=explode(",",$bbox);

// open the database
$sql="SELECT data_id,data_latitude,data_longitude,data_portee FROM porteerdi.donnees WHERE data_longitude>=".$left." AND data_longitude<=".$right." AND data_latitude>=".$bottom." AND data_latitude<=".$top;
$data = array(); //setting up an empty PHP array for the data to go into
if($result = db_query($bdd, $sql)) {
  while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result))
  {
    $data[] = $row;
  }
}

$ajxres=array(); // place to store the geojson result
$features=array(); // array to build up the feature collection
$ajxres['type']='FeatureCollection';

for($i=0;$i<count($data)-1;$i++){
    $lat1=$data[$i]['data_latitude'];
    $lon1=$data[$i]['data_longitude'];
    $lat2=$data[$i+1]['data_latitude'];
    $lon2=$data[$i+1]['data_longitude'];
    $prop=array();
    $prop['plaqueid']=$data[$i]['data_id'];
    $prop['plaquedesc']=$data[$i]['data_portee'];
    $prop['colour']="blue";
    $prop['imageid']="op6298.jpg";
    $f=array();
    $geom=array();
    $coords=array();
    $geom['type']='Point';
    $coords[]=array(floatval($lon1),floatval($lat1));
    $coords[]=array(floatval($lon2),floatval($lat2));
    $geom['coordinates']=$coords;
    $f['type']='Feature';
    $f['geometry']=$geom;
    $f['properties']=$prop;
    $features[]=$f;
}

// add the features array to the end of the ajxres array
$ajxres['features']=$features;
// tidy up the DB
$db = null;
sendajax($ajxres); // no return from there

function sendajax($ajx) {
    // encode the ajx array as json and return it.
    $encoded = json_encode($ajx);
    exit($encoded);
}
?>

Now I have problems on the implementation of javascript code. I don't know how to replace points by lines.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The project consists in a comprehensive reform of a seafood restaurant with a long tradition in Madrid. The space, together with the aesthetic, has changed completely. Two materials set up the whole place: one is ceramic, for areas with more traffic and the other is wood, warmer, which depending on its situation becomes in what we need: bar, acoustic socket on the walls, circulations. ... a space of our time with sailors nods to what it was and it is.
The restaurant, which was highly fragmented, has becomed a continuous space where uses occur (lounge, bar, dining room, reserved ...) , and where not cutting visual elements articulate the space.
The local is volumetrically set up by two main elements: a large clean volume, the bar, and a repetition of vertical metal elements that are fit in the shape of shelf.
Chromatically we use two colors, two textures, two materials, wood (oak flooring) and concrete (hexagonal ceramic), which are different but complementary, giving to each space the necessary features for their use.
The furniture (chairs and wooden stools, metal bar stools) also belongs to that chromatic game of grey and wood.
The façade has also been totally changed. The existing small barred windows have become ragged holes to the ground, giving depth and communitation with the outside.
This facade reveals the activity of the restaurant from the outside, being an attractive point for pedestrians, and it just set up by one linear elements of wood and a hexagonal mosaic which let out what we are going to found inside.
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Our Chief Article Writer Brittany Sutcliffe visits 'A Painting Exhibition'.
In Bournemouth Gardens on Friday 13th, we had 'A Painting Exhibition' curated by our very own artist in residence, Sian Hutchins. The exhibition consisted of twenty-one artists tasked with challenging the medium of paint. Historically, paint has been a palette, a brush and a canvas. Sian's exhibition didn't disprove that but highlighted that even a process with such a history as painting can also adapt in the modern world. Back a few hundred years and the most people had on the subject of the arts was composing music, drawing and painting, universally something reserved for the upper class to indulge into as a hobby. Even then, we could say that sound and image have grown up alongside each other and only now, in a time where art is more widely accessible, can we fully explore that.
Aptly located in The Band Stand, the works were required to incorporate sound in some way. Some considered it in the process, others found a direct way to involve it in their outcome. Impressive turnout for such chilly weather, fantastic support for events like this are crucial to holding more of them! There were interactive installations and performance pieces for people to get their teeth into. Boundaries were pushed as one set of works were made using different concentrations of carbon, which when used in conjunction with the accompanying interactive installation, provided different sounds. A minimalist catalogue of the works included contributions from John Baldessari and Alison Carlier. The pioneering conception of this exhibition and the thoughtfulness of each artist's work was overwhelmingly evident, as each person could walk away rethinking what it means to take something and make it their own, as well as considering how other familiar mediums might transform in the near future.


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Easy ordering, fast shipping and quick set-up, ATOMIC Rental Solutions' award-winning arsenal of modular backdrops, columns, arches and walls are a "packs small, plays big" solution for any budget with flexibility for customization and branding.
Copyright © 2019 Showcat - All Rights Reserved.


To determinate MTD, DLT and safe doses for phase II study, a dose finding study with Mitomicyn and Adriamycin Stop-Flow administration was carried out. A phase II study focused on resectability of pelvic colorectal relapses is in progress. From November 1995, 84 pts, 52 male and 32 female (94 treatments), with advanced not resectable abdominal (14 pts) or pelvic (70 pts) relapses, and resistant to previous systemic chemotherapy, were enrolled in the study. 46 pts entered the phase I-early phase II study, while subsequently 38 pts were recruited in ongoing phase II study. Safe dose were: MMC 20 mg/mq and ADM 75 mg/mq. The phase II study focused on colorectal relapses registered very promising responses: 90% pain control, 1 pCR and 26 PR / 63 (OR 43%), 8 NC (13%) 9/27 responder patients (33%) obtained a complete resectability of colorectal relapses. Stop-Flow is a safe and feasible technique very useful as a palliation treatment.


Does Homeowner's Insurance Cover Earthquake Damage?
Homeowner's insurance can be confusing and difficult, but being able to understand it can make a difference in saving your home and personal belongings. Being insured is an essential precaution that provides financial protection against disasters that affect the living situation of your home. It is important to be proactive and look over your policy annually to ensure that the coverage is the same and doesn't need to be updated. Making sure you're keeping up with your home inventory and home maintenance can ensure that your home is constantly being protected and covered.
Homeowners insurance is sold as a package policy, which means it covers the damage made to your property as well as the liability or legal responsibility of any injuries caused by you, your family members, or pets to other people. The average policy covers damage from explosions, fire, windstorms, hail, riots, vandalism, theft, and water damage (excluding floods). Any damage caused by earthquakes will only be covered if you purchase an additional earthquake insurance policy that will cover such natural disaster. Maintenance-related issues will not be covered and is therefore the homeowner's responsibility.
Dwelling Coverage - This helps you pay for the repair and rebuilding of the physical structure and attached structures of your home, such as a damaged garage, cracks in the walls, ceilings, foundation, etc. Similar to your homeowner's insurance, there is a deductible that limits the portion of this coverage.
Personal Property Coverage - This covers the reimbursement of some of your personal belongings that were damaged during the impact. Personal property claims can include protection of your furniture, electronics, sporting goods, etc. Although most personal belongings are covered, there is a deductible and limit separate from the dwelling coverage.
Additional Living Expense - This covers temporary and additional costs for having to vacate your home and live somewhere else while your home is being repaired. They will either reimburse you or pay for a temporary rental of a home, apartment, or hotel room. It can also cover a temporary phone line, moving and storage, furniture rental, and laundry — all depending on the policies of your insurance company.
Be sure to review your insurance policies to ensure your home is being properly protected!
Ensuring the safety and protection of your home and personal belongings is important to every homeowner. HomeID is a tool that was designed to help protect your investments in the most efficient manner imaginable. Our home inventory management feature allows you to track and record important information regarding your assets. With this information, you will be able to accurately recall what you owned and therefore will have the ability to file both detailed and accurate insurance claims in the case of a loss or emergency.
HomeID also provides an advanced home maintenance solution that will help you schedule necessary maintenance tasks in an effort to protect your home from wear and tear and even future hazards. It can also be used as a reminder to review your insurance policy at least once a year to ensure you're covered and your home remains healthy.
Don't let your largest investments go to waste because of a disaster or accident! Take control and track your personal belongings throughout your entire house with HomeID's inventory management system. Save yourself the headache of filling out insurance claims by logging in your home assets and warranties for each space of your home to ensure everything is properly accounted for. Create your free HomeID account today and secure your home with the best home management platform available for homeowners!


text:
Biografia
La madre, Lyons Albertine Mendes-Monsanto, era di origini francesi, ebree sefardite e portoghesi. Il padre, Carlo Ferlinghetti, era nato a Brescia nel 1872, da famiglia anticamente proveniente da Bovegno ed era emigrato negli Stati Uniti d'America nel 1894, dove fu naturalizzato nel 1896: morì sei mesi prima della nascita di Lawrence. Poco dopo la madre fu ricoverata in manicomio. Lawrence venne affidato alla zia Emily, con la quale visse i suoi primi cinque anni a Strasburgo, acquisendo quindi il francese come lingua madre. Quando la zia fu assunta come governante a New York, i suoi datori di lavoro, la famiglia Bislands, adottarono Lawrence consentendogli di studiare giornalismo.

Ferlinghetti studiò alla Mount Hermon School e all'Università della Carolina del Nord a Chapel Hill, quindi si arruolò nella marina militare statunitense durante la seconda guerra mondiale. Fu al momento dell'arruolamento, quando fu necessario esibire il certificato di nascita, che scoprì che il padre aveva cambiato l'originale cognome italiano in Ferling; avrebbe usato l'originale cognome Ferlinghetti a partire dalla pubblicazione della sua prima raccolta di poesia, Pictures of the Gone World, nel 1955.

Dopo la guerra ottenne un diploma postlaurea alla Columbia University e un dottorato alla Sorbona.
Quando studiava a Parigi, incontrò Kenneth Rexroth, che in seguito lo persuase a recarsi a San Francisco per sperimentare la nascente scena letteraria della città.
Dopo aver sposato Selden Kirby-Smith nel 1951 nella contea di Duval in Florida, fra il 1951 e il 1953 insegnò francese, fu critico letterario, dipinse e infine, nel 1953, si stabilì a San Francisco, dove fondò la libreria e casa editrice City Lights.

Finì in prigione per aver pubblicato Urlo, di Ginsberg, del 1956, con l'accusa d'oscenità.

Ferlinghetti, con la propria casa editrice, pubblicò i primi lavori letterari della Beat Generation, tra cui Jack Kerouac e Allen Ginsberg.

Nel 2006 fu inserito, con una piccola parte, nel film di Finn Taylor The Darwin Awards, dove interpretò sé stesso.

Oltre a scrivere e pubblicare poesie e a gestire la libreria, Ferlinghetti fu anche pittore, esposto in gallerie e musei.

Nel 2011 collaborò alle celebrazioni del 150º anniversario dell'Unità Italiana con l'invio di due poesie che sono state la fonte d'ispirazione per numerosi artisti nella grande mostra Lawrence Ferlinghetti e i 150 anni dell'Unità d'Italia (Torino, maggio-giugno 2011).

Morte
Ferlinghetti è morto la mattina del 22 febbraio 2021 all'età di 101 anni a causa di una malattia ai polmoni.

La casa editrice
Nel 1953, Ferlinghetti e Peter D. Martin aprirono una libreria, che chiamarono City Lights, dal nome della rivista cinematografica che Martin stava pubblicando; due anni più tardi, dopo che Martin si trasferì a New York City, Ferlinghetti aprì l'omonima casa editrice, specializzata in poesia. La più famosa pubblicazione della City Lights fu Urlo (Howl), il poema di Allen Ginsberg, inizialmente confiscato dalle autorità.

Pensiero religioso e politico

La più famosa raccolta poetica di Ferlinghetti è A Coney Island of the Mind, che è stata tradotta in numerosissime lingue gia subito dopo la pubblicazione, quando vendette oltre un milione di copie. La sua poetica spesso riflette le sue opinioni riguardo ai temi sociali e politici contemporanei, e sfida i pensieri correnti rispetto al ruolo dell'artista nel mondo. Aveva un luogo di ritiro in una zona piuttosto selvaggia della costa della California, Big Sur: amante della natura, era caratterizzato da una spiritualità liberale permeata di dolcezza. Questi aspetti del suo carattere lo portarono all'amicizia con buddhisti praticanti americani, fra cui Ginsberg e Gary Snyder.

Per l'aspetto politico, si descrisse a lungo come un anarchico nel cuore (un anarchico etico e orientato alla comunità) che era giunto ad accettare che l'uomo comune non era ancora pronto a vivere nell'anarchismo; in seguito supportò il modello socialdemocratico dei paesi scandinavi.

Riconoscimenti
 Nel 1998 è stato nominato poeta laureato di San Francisco.
 Il 28 ottobre 2017, alla cerimonia conclusiva del Premio di Arti Letterarie Metropoli di Torino, giunto alla sua quattordicesima edizione, è stato conferito il Premio alla Carriera a Lawrence Ferlinghetti per la sua attività letteraria, artistica e l'impegno per la pace nel mondo.
 Nel 2017 a Brescia ricevette dal comune la cittadinanza onoraria e gli fu dedicata la mostra A life: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Beat Generation, ribellione e poesia.
 In occasione del 100º compleanno di Lawrence Ferlinghetti, a San Francisco sono stati organizzati convegni, mostre e conferenze che celebrano il poeta, artista e pacifista vate della controcultura americana; il sindaco della città ha proclamato il 24 marzo Lawrence Ferlinghetti Day.

Citazioni
 Il gruppo italiano Timoria ha dedicato al poeta la canzone Ferlinghetti Blues (dall'album El Topo Grand Hotel), in cui lo stesso Ferlinghetti legge un suo componimento.
 Il cantautore Massimiliano D'Ambrosio si è ispirato a una sua poesia per la canzone La via sul porticciolo.
 Compare come personaggio in vari film, tra cui Urlo e Big Sur.
 È citato nel brano Sinister Exagerator dell'album Duck Stub del gruppo musicale The Residents.

Opere
 Pictures of the Gone World (City Lights Books, 1955)
 A Coney Island of the Mind (City Lights Books, (New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1958)
 Her (New Directions, 1960)
 Unfair Arguments with Existence (WW Norton, 1963)
 Starting from San Francisco (New Directions, 1967)
 Routines (New Directions, 1968)
 The Secret Meaning of Things (New Directions, 1968)
 Tyrannus Nix? (WW Norton, 1969)
 The Mexican Night (New Directions, 1970)
 Back Roads to Far Places (WW Norton, 1971)
 Open Eye, Open Heart (New Directions, 1972)
 Who Are We Now? (New Directions, 1976)
 Northwest Ecolog (City Lights, 1978)
 Landscapes of Living and Dying (WW Norton, 1980)
 Literary San Francisco: A Pictorial History from its Beginnings to the Present Day (HarperCollins, 1971)(con Nancy J. Peters)
 A Trip to Italy and France (New Directions, 1981)
 Endless Life: Selected Poems (WW Norton, 1981)
 Seven Days in Nicaragua Libre (City Lights, 1984)
 Over All the Obscene Boundaries: European Poems and Transitions (New Directions, 1988)
 When I Look at Pictures (Gibbs Smith, 1990)
 These Are My Rivers: New & Selected Poems 1955-1993 (New Directions, 1993)
 Poesie. Questi sono i miei fiumi. Antologia personale 1955/1993 (Newton Compton, 1996)
 A Far Rockaway of the Heart (New Directions, 1998)
 Un luna park del cuore (Mondadori, 2000)
 Blind Poet (Giunti Citylights, 2003)
 Americus: Book One (New Directions, 2004)
 Il lume non spento (Interlinea, 2006)
 Poesia come arte che insorge (Giunti, 2009)
 Pietà per la nazione (alla maniera di Khalil Gibran) [Pity the Nation (After Khalil Gibran)], in K. Gibran, Il profeta e il bambino, inediti e testimonianze raccolti e tradotti da F. Medici, Editrice La Scuola, Brescia 2013, pp. 192–193.
Americus, a cura di Massimo Bacigalupo (Interlinea, 2009)

Note

Bibliografia
  Kathy Freeperson, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, in Italian Americans of the Twentieth Century, a cura di George Carpetto e Diane M. Evanac, Tampa (FL), Loggia Press, 1999, pp. 142-143.
 Andrea Galgano, Le luci di Lawrence Ferlinghetti, in Mosaico, Ed. Aracne, Roma, 2014, pp. 327-333.

Altri progetti

Collegamenti esterni

Ferlinghetti, Lawrence
Scrittori della Beat Generation
Studenti dell'Università della Carolina del Nord a Chapel Hill
Studenti della Columbia University
Studenti dell'Università di Parigi
Francoamericani
Centenari statunitensi
Librai

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Archive: 16/12/2021
UMass Amherst Fall 2021 Open Scholarship Highlights
The UMass Amherst Libraries present the highlights of open scholarship activity during the fall 2021 semester at the university.
Faculty Incorporate OER Commitment in Their Syllabi. "There is no required textbook to purchase for this course" are welcome words to students, many of whom struggle to purchase expensive textbooks. Faculty using open education resources (OER) are adding a version of this sample statement to their syllabi under the "Textbooks and Materials" section, demonstrating their commitment to equitable access and education affordability through their use of OER.
Writing Program Anthology Saves Students Money. Elkie Burnside, assistant director of the Writing Program, engaged students and faculty in a meaningful collaborative process of OER creation. Burnside created a digital open access textbook for the roughly 5,000 students in College Writing courses. Starting this fall, the Student Writing Anthology replaced a text that cost students between $40-70. Burnside is also creating a digital repository of the annual best text contest the Program holds every year. This will be a journal with the work of each year's winners being shared and circulated publicly.
Two Professors Eliminated Student Textbook Costs and Made a Curriculum More Inclusive at the Same Time. Stacy Giufre, director of the Italian Language Program and the Italian Graduate Program, and instructor Melina Masterson developed Tutt* a tavola!, an OER for Elementary Italian. "In writing this book, our goals were to reduce costs for students in the hopes of making Italian a more inclusive language learning experience, as well as to offer the opportunity to learn about Italian language and culture to a more diverse group of learners." Even the title of the book, Tutt* a tavola!, represents inclusivity. It translates to "Everyone at the table," or, as an invitation, "Everyone to the table!" It's the result of the 2020 grant cycle (link) and has received national exposure at the Language OER Conference.
"Expand Open Access Education for College Students." UMass student Samantha Le wrote in the Daily Hampshire Gazette that OER "are easy to adapt to specific courses, no matter how niche the topic may be, and allow for collaboration between educators all around the world to help improve these resources… at UMass Amherst, OER has saved students over $2.5 million, and by having more professors switch from paid textbooks to open access education, this number can increase immensely. What we must do to win the game, then, is to advocate for larger OER grant funding and convince more professors to adopt OER. The goal is for all students to be able to study without worry, regardless of the major."
Our Tools and Our Values. Open Access Week 2021 was marked by a keynote address by Ethan Zuckerman, associate professor of public policy, communication, and information, and director of the UMass Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure. Martha Fuentes-Bautista, senior lecturer, director of Engaged Research and Learning with the Department of Communication, gave a response. The discussion explored how the digitization of all aspects of our lives presents an ongoing challenge for values-led organizations like public broadcasters, advocacy organizations, and libraries. We can take a first step towards resolving the conflicts between technology and values in auditing our technological environments and moving towards values aligned alternatives. But a deep shift requires creating an alternative technological infrastructure that's driven by public values rather than profits.
Posted in Announcements; Posted 37 days ago by Lauren Weiss
UMass Amherst Libraries Appoint Maria Rios as Humanities Research Services Librarian
The UMass Amherst Libraries are pleased to announce that Maria Rios has been appointed to the Humanities Research Services Librarian position in Research Services.
Rios joined the UMass Amherst Libraries in 2018 as the first resident in the newly-created Diversity Residency program, funded as a cost share by the Provost's Pathways Program. The Pathways Program is intended to recruit and retain faculty and librarians "who will contribute to the campus goals of greater equity and inclusion."  Departments are encouraged to hire program participants following a residency of up to three years, based on organization need and the resident's skills and professional trajectory. During her three-year residency, Rios has proven to be an excellent and well-qualified successor for the Humanities Research Services Librarian position in Research Services, previously held by Jim Kelly. She will serve as the liaison to the English, comparative literature, and philosophy departments and their affiliated centers, programs, and certificates.
Rios earned her MLIS from the University of South Carolina in 2017; prior to that, she received her Bachelors of Arts, Magna cum laude, honors, in English Professional Communications from Armstrong State University (now the Armstrong campus at Georgia Southern University). Before joining UMass Amherst, Rios gained experience working in the libraries of Midlands Technical College, University of South Carolina, and Georgia Southern University, Armstrong Campus.
As the Libraries' first Diversity Resident, Rios has provided critical perspective and enthusiastic, knowledgeable partnership in program development. The majority of her residency has been in the Research Services department, where she served as the liaison to the Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies department and as the liaison to the History of Art and Architecture Department while Annie Sollinger was on sabbatical. Rios also worked with the Libraries' Information Resource Management Department between liaison appointments, filling out her understanding of the Libraries integrated systems and services as a broader ecosystem of support.
Rios has been an outstanding member of the Research Services team. She is an active member of many committees in the Libraries as well as the American Library Association's New Member Roundtable and Rainbow Roundtable. She recently co-authored two book chapters: "Vision, voices, and self-care in academic residencies" with co-author Melina Zavala in Residencies Revisited: Reflections on Library Residency Programs from the Past and Present and "Dewhitening Librarianship: A Policy Proposal for Libraries" with Isabel Espinal, and April M. Hathcock in Knowledge Justice: Disrupting Library and Information Studies through Critical Race Theory. Most recently, she completed the Library Freedom Institute, a highly selective and competitive privacy-focused collaborative program between New York University and IMLS funded Library Freedom.


You can make a one-off or recurring donation through our secure form to the left. The form is securely powered by PayPal's PayFloPro. Check out our privacy and web security policy for more security information. If you want to make a change, cancel, or update your donation, please notify remy@aycc.org.au. All amounts are in AUD unless otherwise specified.


To help you find the Best Air Purifiers, TopConsumerReviews.com provides you with an in-depth comparison of Allergy Buyers Club and Atlas.
For nearly 20 years, Allergy Buyers Club has served as an authorized online retailer of a wide range of manufacturers in the "healthy home" industry. When it comes to air purifiers, they carry many of the brand names in our review - such as Alen and IQAir - along with many of the popular names like Honeywell and GermGuardian. We really like how Allergy Buyers Club has taken the time to provide customers with an overview of each of the brands they carry, along with a more detailed analysis on each of their brand pages. For example, shoppers can see at a glance that Airfree is the only manufacturer that doesn't use a HEPA-style filter, while Winix is a newer brand in the marketplace that offers Energy Star compliance at a budget-friendly price.
So, why would you buy your air purifier from Allergy Buyers Club instead of directly from the manufacturer site? ABC offers several perks that may put them closer to the top of your list. First, they offer free shipping on all orders over $75 - but even more compelling are their sales. At the time of our review, they were offering 10-20% off on all orders, depending on the total cost. Just be aware that certain brands are excluded from those discounts; look for the fine print at the bottom of the page to know which ones aren't included. (Dyson and IQAir are the two that most air purifier customers will want to know).
Finally, ABC's price match guarantee gives customers the assurance of getting the lowest possible cost on the air purifier they purchase: you will need to place your order first, and then submit the request for a price match within 30 days of your order. Allergy Buyers Club will refund you the difference.
The return policy at ABC is also more generous than many retailers we reviewed. If you want to exchange or return your air purifier within 30 days of purchase, you can do so with any product that is in like-new, undamaged condition. Just make sure to reach out to their customer service department to get a Return Authorization first.
Another aspect of Allergy Buyers Club that we really like is their customer support. Their experts test, review, and rate all of the products that they sell, so that they can help their shoppers know what to expect from their purchase. This commitment is reflected in their A- rating as an accredited Better Business Bureau retailer.
However, we did find some reviews from customers that prevented us from giving Allergy Buyers Club our highest rating. Complaints included issues with tracking shipments, slow responses from the customer service department, and difficulties in getting warranty repairs/replacements.
Overall, though, Allergy Buyers Club does most things right and are a smart pick for your air purifier purchase.


text:
The Lives a Background Check Could Save
Updated 04.21.17 10:46AM ET / Published 04.29.13 10:00AM ET
Why do we need stricter background checks? A story from Oregon shows how the present rules invite terrible tragedies:
The woman at the counter of Keith's Sporting Goods wanted a handgun. She wasn't interested in price, quality or how to use it safely. She spoke slowly that day in June as she made one request: Would the clerk load it?
Maria Ward doesn't judge her customers. Americans have a right to buy firearms, after all. But this woman seemed traumatized. Ward worried she planned to hurt someone.
"I'm sorry," Ward told her. "I'm not going to sell you a firearm."
Ward, who owns the Gresham gun store with her husband, then did something she'd never done before. She warned the Oregon State Police not to allow anyone else to sell Brenda Nyhof Dunn a gun. But the agency, which performs background checks for most gun sales in Oregon, told Ward there was nothing it could do under the law.
The next day, Nyhof Dunn drove to Dick's Sporting Goods in Gresham. She bought a rifle and ammunition, according to the police report, which included a receipt from the transaction. She paid $10 to have the Oregon State Police perform a background check, which she easily passed. Hours later, she fatally shot herself. She was 36.
Oh well, so sad, but how could anybody have known, right? Wrong.
No restrictions apply to people like Nyhof Dunn, whose battles with bipolar disorder and major depression drove her to voluntarily enter residential psychiatric care 13 times in the final year of her life. The month she died, Multnomah County sheriff's deputies visited her home after she told a 9-1-1 operator she planned to hang herself in her parents' barn.
Thirteen hospitalizations for bipolar disorder and depression in a 12-month span - and still allowed to buy a gun. That's the law as it stands now. Does it make any sense?


text:
Q: Not able to view CartoDB layer remotely I was able to login as
http://<domain_name>:3000

Done some import jobs, publish the map, copied the API link to a sample HTML page. Able to view the whole base map and CartoDB layer from local. But I tried from other network, the CartoDB layer seems to be not seen. Checked the console, but no errors where logged. Edited the development.js from the Windshaft directory and changed the localhost instances to domain name, and also the app_config.yml files.

A: The local system browser knows about your domain just because you've added an /etc/hosts entry pointing domain to your localhost.
I see two ways for you to see your cartodb from a remote network:
a) accessing your computer using it's public IP, like this: http://public_ip:3000
b) having access to your DNS server and inserting Address records for your domain and for your subdomain, like this:
NAME                    TYPE   VALUE
--------------------------------------------------
domain.com              A      public_ip
subdomain.domain.com.   A      public_ip

This way, you'll be able to access your machine from remote using http://domain.com:3000
See also, this link.


Japan ordered its military on Friday to destroy a North Korean missile or its debris, if the launch fails and falling pieces of the rocket seem to imperil Japanese territory. Japan ordered two destroyers equipped with Aegis anti-missile systems into the Sea of Japan, and said it would soon move Patriot land-to-air missiles to the country's northern coast.
Japan explained that it was preparing for a possible accident, not for an attack. North Korea has notified groups around the world of its plans and has released details of its expected flight trajectory. Japanese officials said Friday that the likelihood of rocket debris falling on Japan is remote and urged people to remain calm.
North Korean missile tests in 2006 alarmed Japan, which has invested heavily in American-made ballistic-missile defense systems. North Korea has 200 Nodong medium-range missiles that could hit anywhere in Japan, according to the Japanese Defense Ministry.
As North Korea stacks a long-range missile on the launch pad, Japan is sending out two warships equipped with the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system. The US Navy has 18 ships equipped with Aegis BMD and Japan currently has two.
By the Missile Defense Agency's count, the operationally configured Aegis SM-3 interceptor has scored 7 hits in 9 intercept tests. In 2008 an SM-3 successfully shot down an errant US spy satellite.
The Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (ABMD) system uses the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) manufactured by Raytheon. This is how it works.
As the ship's radar acquires and tracks a ballistic missile threat, the ABMD system begins calculating the engagement solution. Upon command from the ship's weapon system, the SM-3 boosts out of the launcher and establishes radio communication with the ship.
After MK 72 booster burnout, the MK 104 Dual Thrust Rocket Motor (DTRM) ignites. In-flight communications from the ship guide the missile toward the predicted intercept point.
After MK 104 burnout and separation, the MK 136 Third Stage Rocket Motor (TSRM) ignites, propelling the third stage out of the atmosphere. Throughout its flight, the missile continues to receive in-flight target updates from the ship to refine the intercept guidance solution. The TSRM contains two separate pulses that can be initiated to optimize the engagement timeline. During flyout, the third stage pitches over and ejects the nosecone, exposing the SM-3 Kinetic Warhead (KW).
After MK 136 burnout roughly 30 seconds before intercept, the SM-3 KW separates from the third stage and immediately searches for the target based on pointing data received from the ship. The KW acquires the ballistic missile warhead with its long-wavelength imaging infrared seeker. The KW's Solid Divert and Attitude Control System maneuvers the KW to enable a hit-to-kill intercept.
As the KW closes on the target, it shifts its guidance aimpoint to ensure a lethal hit and destroys the target with more than 130 megajoules of kinetic energy.
The Patriot missile system was originally designed to counter the air-breathing threat of the 1990s and beyond. The key features of the Patriot system are the multifunctional phased-array radar, track-via-missile guidance, and extensive modern software and automated operations, with the capability for human override. Patriot is the most advanced medium/long-range surface-to-air missile in the operational US Army inventory.
The MIM-104 Patriot missile is launched from canisters, four of which make up the M901 launching station transported on an M860 semi-trailer. The missile is inertially guided with command updates, using TVM for high terminal accuracy. At the interception point, the missile's warhead is detonated by a radar-proximity fuze.
The MIM-104A was powered by a single Thiokol TX-486-1 solid-fueled rocket motor, and armed with a high-explosive blast-fragmentation warhead. The MIM-104B featured modified guidance and navigation hardware and added a surface-to-surface capability against ground-based radar jamming sources.
The most important changes to the system were made by the Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC) program. The PAC-1 modification was first fielded in July 1988. The PAC-2 upgrade included software changes and an improved MIM-104C missile. During Operation Desert Storm in 1991, PAC-1 and PAC-2 systems were used against Iraqi "Al-Hussein" (modified SS-1 Scud) SRBMs.
The MIM-104D, also known as PAC-2/GEM (Guidance Enhanced Missile), featured a low-noise front end to increase seeker sensitivity and a modernized fuzing system to improve performance against ballistic missile targets. The MIM-104E was first delivered in 2002 and upgraded PAC-2 rounds by replacing the missile forebody.
The PAC-3 system incorporated many changes to the ground equipment and the missile, and was fielded in three incremental steps. Configuration 1 incorporated changes to the ECS, a new pulse-doppler radar processor, and the MIM-104D missile. Configuration 2 included Link 16 JTIDS (Joint Tactical Information Distribution System) compatibility and radar improvements. Configuration 3 included upgrades to the radar to increase detection in high-clutter environments and to improve discrimination of closely spaced objects.
The most important feature of the latest Patriot system is a completely new missile, a variant of the Lockheed Martin ERINT (Extended Range Interceptor).
More than 12,000 Patriot missiles have been built so far.
Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) is the prime contractor for Patriot and is the Mission Systems Integrator (MSI) for the PAC-3 system.
Iron Dome worked very well, better than expected. The system was designed to defend relatively small populated areas against quite primitive short-range rockets that travel 15 to 25 kilometers.
The speed of the Hamas rockets is in the range of 500 meters per second. Scuds that can travel 600 kilometers are traveling at 2,200 meters per second. An ICBM is traveling at 7,000 meters per second.
Two rockets launched by Hamas had a range of about 65 kilometers. That gets you to the outskirts of Tel Aviv. I understand that one of these rockets was shot down. The other one they didn't try to shoot down because it was going to fall in a place that was not populated.
Iron Dome has a short-range radar that measures the locations of rockets as they are fired and some advanced methods for estimating their trajectory. They have to be fast, because it could be 90 seconds from launch to impact.
Then they fire an interceptor toward the rocket. The radar guides the interceptor until it acquires the target with its infrared sensor. Then the infrared homes in. The interceptor has to be very rapidly maneuverable. It has to detect wobbles and make final adjustments.
Iron Dome is optimized to be efficient and not fire at rockets that pose no threats. But if an interceptor looks like it's going to miss, the system will launch a second interceptor.
Iron Dome is part of a huge infrastructure of missile defense systems operating over Israel, costing billions of dollars. The Americans set aside more than $200m to help Israel pay for the system. It uses radar to track incoming rockets, and then fires two interceptor missiles to knock them out.
Each Iron Dome battery costs about $50m to install. There are five batteries in operation, with eight more planned by next year. Each interceptor missile costs roughly $60,000. The makers say it is cost-effective because the radar technology distinguishes between missiles likely to hit built-up areas and those missing their target. Only those heading towards cities are targeted and shot down.
Israel says it has successfully tested an anti-rocket system developed to protect the country from short-range rocket and artillery attack from Lebanon and Gaza.
Rockets of the type fired in recent years at Israel were launched to test the system. The Iron Dome system responded "successfully and in accordance with the objectives of the experiment," stated the Defense Ministry.
According to the manufacturer, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, the system uses an interceptor with a warhead that detonates any target in the air within seconds.
The Iron Dome defense system, which was approved in 2007 and was supposed to protect Israel's citizens against Qassam rockets, is not capable of alleviating the distress of Sderot inhabitants. Tests found the system to be effective against rockets fired from more than four kilometers away, but not against those fired from closer range.
The fact that Iron Dome is not effective against short-range rockets was long known to the system's developers and to the Defense Ministry officials who chose to focus on it. For some reason, they decided not to go public with their information.
Iron Dome is not the solution to the Qassam rockets. The Qassam's speed in the air is 200 meters per second. The distance from the edge of Beit Hanun to the outskirts of Sderot is 1800 meters. So a rocket launched from Beit Hanun takes about nine seconds to hit Sderot. The developers of Iron Dome at Rafael Advance Defense Systems know that the preparations to launch the intercept missiles take up to about 15 seconds.
But Iron Dome will also not be able to cope with rockets that are launched much farther away. According to data available from Rafael, the average flight time of the intercept missile to the point of encounter is another 15 seconds. In other words, to intercept a rocket using Iron Dome requires at least 30 seconds. This is the time it takes a Qassam to cover six kilometers.
An examination of the economic aspect also casts grave doubts on the decision to choose Iron Dome. The cost of each intercept missile will probably be about $100,000. In contrast, the cost of making a Qassam rocket is well under $100,000. So, if the Palestinians produce thousands of Qassams, the Israel will have to respond with thousands of Iron Dome missiles, at a prohibitive cost.
The decision was made, seemingly, via a proper procedure. However, it turns out that the senior staff at the Defense Ministry strongly rejected the proposal to bring into Israel the laser-based Nautilus defense system, whose development is nearly complete and whose effectiveness was proved in a series of tests.
Nautilus was developed in the United States in conjunction with Israel, but the Israeli defense establishment ended its participation in the project in 2001. The Americans went on with it, improved the system and changed its name to Skyguard. Northrop Grumman, the company that is developing the missile, promises that it can be delivered within 18 months at a relatively low cost. The Skyguard system itself, devised to protect Kiryat Shmona against Katyusha rockets, can be installed in Sderot within six months. By comparison, the development of Iron Dome will take another three years.
The major advantage of Skyguard is its use of a laser beam for interceptions. The beam travels at the speed of light, allowing the system to intercept short-range rockets like the ones aimed at Sderot. The cost of implementing the laser system is also far lower than Iron Dome. The cost of launching one laser beam is between $1,000 and $2,000.
MK Isaac Ben-Israel (Kadima), a professor and retired major general, who was formerly head of the Defense Ministry R&D directorate, was an advocate of the laser-based system. He continues to advocate a laser-based defense, but believes that the technology in Skyguard is obsolete.
Northrop Grumman has developed the Skyguard laser-based air defense system for US government agencies and allies that require near-term defense against short-range ballistic missiles, short- and long-range rockets, artillery shells, mortars, unmanned aerial vehicles, and cruise missiles. Skyguard is derived from the successful Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL) test bed and its predecessors developed by Northrop Grumman for the US Army and the Israel Ministry of Defense.
AR North Korea and the Palestinians can never win against Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Rafael, and the rest of the globalized military-industrial complex.